Excerpts from an article written by non-Catholic Sam Miller -- a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman:
Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?
Do you know -- the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%.
The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.
The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people -- not just Catholics -- in the United States today.
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.
Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church; 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed.
Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic problem.
A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
Walk with your shoulders high and you head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States. Then remember what Jeremiah said: "Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.
Be proud that you're a Catholic.
Showing posts with label Roman Catholic Church in America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roman Catholic Church in America. Show all posts
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
You're Still Catholic?
by
J.C. Sullivan
If I needed a reminder of why I don’t go to Mass every Sunday, a recent Christmas provided it. I must qualify what follows however.
Because of my previous writings critical of some practices of the Roman Catholic Church, some have thought I had abandoned the Roman Catholic faith into which I was born. I have abandoned the American Democratic Party, I confess. And, individuals within the Roman Catholic faith have certainly given me reasons to think, “Hey, why the H… have I remained Catholic?” Certainly some priests and other individuals have given me reason to become agnostic. However, my personal spirituality holds that faith and religion are two different things; faith being spiritually given while religion is man-made. But, back to Christmas Mass.
In anticipation of the 10:00 a.m. Christmas Day Mass at St. Barnabas, I showered, shaved and donned a class “A” uniform, i.e., dress clothes. Our church building is what might be called modernistic – we have no kneelers, which isn't a bad thing. However, except for a few of the faithful, I don’t believe American Catholics have any sense of reverence.
I observed men, women and families beginning to fill the pews. In they came – men in jeans, their sons in numbered sports jerseys with football players names on the back. Most wandered into their chosen pew, many with their hands in their pockets. No sense of reverence, no acknowledgement of the tabernacle and the presence of God. No bowing of the head, no genuflection, as if they were entering a movie theater. In came oversized women who ought to be wearing clothing that flatter their figure but instead are squeezed into undersized pants. Don’t they know how they look?
Inside the church, in front, hangs a painting of what, I suppose, is somebody’s depiction of what the historical Jesus looked like. I don’t know how they know that – maybe a painting of Jesus has survived and they have painted a newer, larger version. It’s a distraction to me.
Yet, despite all these personal misgivings, I see the innocent child peering back over the pew in whose family is seated. The brass is heard clearly, enhancing the music from the cantor. The bell choir is novel and appreciated. Most important, however, is the presence of the faithful. My presence there carries on the tradition of my family. I’m aware of the history of the Irish and the persecution of those of the Catholic faith. I’m there because I want to be – an outward sign of my faith.
I’ve been given a good Catholic education in grade and high school. As one of nine children of a Cleveland Detective, my parents sacrificed to pay tuition to insure I had a Catholic education. It’s been a good base for the development of my spiritual growth, which wasn’t an easy task for my parents and teachers, and has given me an inquisitive mind.
I thank the Sisters and Priests of my boyhood who gave me an education in faith and morality. I thank the Benedictine Brothers and Priests of my high school for being the models of manhood that I remember. I thank my parents for loving me inspite of having given them reasons for not doing so.
It’s for these reasons that I don’t go to church every Sunday. It’s for these reasons I have remained Roman Catholic.
Monday, May 18, 2009
CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND THEIR WIVES
Even though there’s a picture of a very sexy model on the cover, my bride refuses to believe that I snitched the magazine for an article inside. I wouldn’t have taken it from Cleveland Attorney Michael Smith’s office but, after all, it was dated October, 2005. Who would miss it? I never imagined it would raise such a huge anger inside me.
“Catholic Priests and Their Wives” was printed on the cover of Esquire magazine. That’s why I stuffed it into my briefcase. Seeing as I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and personally know a few married priests and know of many others, I had a natural interest in reading it. Back home in the comfort of my family room easy chair, I turned on the reading light and opened the magazine, thinking I was about to read about American Catholic priests who have left the priesthood for married life. Omigod...the article is about Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and priests of other faith expressions who have “converted” to Roman Catholicism, and are now embraced as priests of the Roman Catholic Church.
The article focuses on five men and their families. Yes, I said their families. All have slipped in as priests of the Roman Catholic Church because of the 1980 papal decision to dispense Episcopal priests, and others, from the laws of celibacy. According to Esquire, at the time there were seventy-nine such priests in America.
Cleveland’s Father Don Cozzens is visiting associate professor of religious studies at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. He is an in-demand speaker worldwide regarding celibacy in the Catholic Church. His newest work is titled “Freeing Celibacy.” He wants an end to mandatory celibacy, calling its impact on the priesthood “an unhealthy burden that has shrunk their souls and drained the last drops of passion from their lives.” It’s not Father Don’s first publication addressing the subject. An earlier work, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood, A Reflection on the Priest’s Crisis of Soul, is a book that reflects both concern and hope for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church.
Since I snitched the Esquire magazine, another related development has occurred. During the month of October, 2006, the Vatican confirmed its position on mandatory celibacy. While my spiritual faith is not jolted by decisions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, I am developing a growing belief that it truly is a “good ole boy” network.
I’m not foolish enough to think that ALL Catholic priests fit into Father Don’s view of the current spiritual state of the Catholic priesthood. Nor am I about to question the spirituality of those men of other faiths who have become Catholic priests. However, there are enough of them to prompt a new thinking. But without input by our own faithful, both laity and clerical, we’ll not see any new realities in the Catholic Church.
If the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is to keep the faithful in our ranks, we must fill them, something that’s not being done. I don’t call ordaining married men of other faith expressions the proper way to do it while, at the same time, the Vatican confirms mandatory celibacy as a policy. American Indians would call this “speaking with a forked tongue.”
We’re way past the time for a policy of optional celibacy for our own priesthood. For some it may not be important, and that’s OK. But for many it obviously is.
Sullivan (http://www.geocities.com/osuileabhain2000/Index.htm) is an Irish-American writer residing in northeast Ohio. His worldwide publishing credits are numerous, including Irish Echo Newspaper, Mayo News, Western People, Irish-America Magazine and Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine.
“Catholic Priests and Their Wives” was printed on the cover of Esquire magazine. That’s why I stuffed it into my briefcase. Seeing as I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and personally know a few married priests and know of many others, I had a natural interest in reading it. Back home in the comfort of my family room easy chair, I turned on the reading light and opened the magazine, thinking I was about to read about American Catholic priests who have left the priesthood for married life. Omigod...the article is about Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and priests of other faith expressions who have “converted” to Roman Catholicism, and are now embraced as priests of the Roman Catholic Church.
The article focuses on five men and their families. Yes, I said their families. All have slipped in as priests of the Roman Catholic Church because of the 1980 papal decision to dispense Episcopal priests, and others, from the laws of celibacy. According to Esquire, at the time there were seventy-nine such priests in America.
Cleveland’s Father Don Cozzens is visiting associate professor of religious studies at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. He is an in-demand speaker worldwide regarding celibacy in the Catholic Church. His newest work is titled “Freeing Celibacy.” He wants an end to mandatory celibacy, calling its impact on the priesthood “an unhealthy burden that has shrunk their souls and drained the last drops of passion from their lives.” It’s not Father Don’s first publication addressing the subject. An earlier work, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood, A Reflection on the Priest’s Crisis of Soul, is a book that reflects both concern and hope for the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church.
Since I snitched the Esquire magazine, another related development has occurred. During the month of October, 2006, the Vatican confirmed its position on mandatory celibacy. While my spiritual faith is not jolted by decisions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, I am developing a growing belief that it truly is a “good ole boy” network.
I’m not foolish enough to think that ALL Catholic priests fit into Father Don’s view of the current spiritual state of the Catholic priesthood. Nor am I about to question the spirituality of those men of other faiths who have become Catholic priests. However, there are enough of them to prompt a new thinking. But without input by our own faithful, both laity and clerical, we’ll not see any new realities in the Catholic Church.
If the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is to keep the faithful in our ranks, we must fill them, something that’s not being done. I don’t call ordaining married men of other faith expressions the proper way to do it while, at the same time, the Vatican confirms mandatory celibacy as a policy. American Indians would call this “speaking with a forked tongue.”
We’re way past the time for a policy of optional celibacy for our own priesthood. For some it may not be important, and that’s OK. But for many it obviously is.
Sullivan (http://www.geocities.com/osuileabhain2000/Index.htm) is an Irish-American writer residing in northeast Ohio. His worldwide publishing credits are numerous, including Irish Echo Newspaper, Mayo News, Western People, Irish-America Magazine and Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine.
LAY TRUSTEEISM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
With the announcement by Bishop Richard Lennon of the proposed closing of a number of Catholic churches in the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, has come a grieving chorus of the faithful. They don’t understand why some churches are on the “Lennon’s List” and others have escaped. It brings to mind a period of Catholic history when laity and clergy went head to head over control of church finances and property.
In “Catholics in the Old South”, Randall M. Miller wrote of the early 1800s, “Church leaders fixed their gaze on the institutional concerns of building churches and an ecclesiastical framework to support them, of recruiting and training priests and nuns , and of invigorating Catholic faith.” Faced with internal problems of their own in that regard, and being unable to do it all, Lay Trusteeism emerged in the developing Southern church. Even the first American Bishop, John Carroll, endorsed the concept, apparently not realizing, or ignoring, the inherent problems it would bring in the area of episcopal authority. Lay trustees, or Wardens as they were also called, held title to church property and had complete control over finances. When the hierarchy attempted to exert more effort to control, they ran into stiff resistance.
Besides holding church purse strings, Trustees assumed other powers, i.e., the appointing and dismissing of pastors and demanding Bishops follow their example. As can be imagined, Bishops fought back, reminding the faithful that Canon law vested that authority with them. Tensions developed and increased and ugly incidents erupted between them.
Trustees took to the streets, staging public rallies that denounced Episcopal and papal “usurpations”. Representatives of the Bishops were denied entry into churches. Schism was threatened and legal manifestations began. In New Orleans, the wardens of St. Louis Cathedral went to court and the state legislature in an attempt to draw civil authorities and the law into their corner.
In New Iberia, Louisiana, sermons were interrupted and the pastors were literally threatened. A priest was set upon with whips and sticks. In Monroe, Louisiana, young boys hurled rocks at a priest that was not very popular. At St. John’s, Lafayette, a priest was beat up by a “ruffian” while the chairman of the board of trustees reportedly looked on with amusement. His sin, amongst other complaints, was proposing catechisms for blacks.
Today, the faithful have empathy for those Catholics of another era. Those affected by today’s church closings have believed, perhaps rightly so, the church building belonged to the parishioners. After all, First Communions, Confirmations, weddings and funerals have all taken place there, events that are a major part of Catholic life. Many friendships from grade school last a lifetime.
Like the southern faithful of the 1800s, bitterness is strong among Catholics in northeast Ohio, and probably elsewhere. Further complicating their hurt feelings has been the ordination of gay men. It bothers many as the church doles out millions to those, actually and allegedly, sexually abused. When discovered, these same priests were simply transferred to other parishes where they continued their behavior, confident their actions would be again “swept under the rug.” Feelings are strong and the attitude has become “And now you want to close our church?”
Where we’ve abandoned the neighborhood, we have no argument. In our affluence, and in some cases concerned for our safety, we’ve moved away to other neighborhoods or cities, away from the churches previous generations built. Yet there are churches reportedly filled each Sunday. What’s the reason for closing them? The first answer that comes to many Catholic minds is the obvious – saving and/or raising cash.
In the business world, local management personally knows their co-workers. It’s a hard, emotional decision to cut people from the payroll or move company operations elsewhere. Many simply cannot make the necessary decisions that allow a company to survive and stay afloat. Someone usually has to be brought in from outside the company or locale to do it. Like that new corporate person brought in to do the job, Bishop Lennon is the Catholic charged with the responsibility.
It almost makes one think that perhaps it’s time to adopt the earlier attitude and separate church responsibilities between Catholic laity and Episcopal. And/or ordain married men. Or women.
In “Catholics in the Old South”, Randall M. Miller wrote of the early 1800s, “Church leaders fixed their gaze on the institutional concerns of building churches and an ecclesiastical framework to support them, of recruiting and training priests and nuns , and of invigorating Catholic faith.” Faced with internal problems of their own in that regard, and being unable to do it all, Lay Trusteeism emerged in the developing Southern church. Even the first American Bishop, John Carroll, endorsed the concept, apparently not realizing, or ignoring, the inherent problems it would bring in the area of episcopal authority. Lay trustees, or Wardens as they were also called, held title to church property and had complete control over finances. When the hierarchy attempted to exert more effort to control, they ran into stiff resistance.
Besides holding church purse strings, Trustees assumed other powers, i.e., the appointing and dismissing of pastors and demanding Bishops follow their example. As can be imagined, Bishops fought back, reminding the faithful that Canon law vested that authority with them. Tensions developed and increased and ugly incidents erupted between them.
Trustees took to the streets, staging public rallies that denounced Episcopal and papal “usurpations”. Representatives of the Bishops were denied entry into churches. Schism was threatened and legal manifestations began. In New Orleans, the wardens of St. Louis Cathedral went to court and the state legislature in an attempt to draw civil authorities and the law into their corner.
In New Iberia, Louisiana, sermons were interrupted and the pastors were literally threatened. A priest was set upon with whips and sticks. In Monroe, Louisiana, young boys hurled rocks at a priest that was not very popular. At St. John’s, Lafayette, a priest was beat up by a “ruffian” while the chairman of the board of trustees reportedly looked on with amusement. His sin, amongst other complaints, was proposing catechisms for blacks.
Today, the faithful have empathy for those Catholics of another era. Those affected by today’s church closings have believed, perhaps rightly so, the church building belonged to the parishioners. After all, First Communions, Confirmations, weddings and funerals have all taken place there, events that are a major part of Catholic life. Many friendships from grade school last a lifetime.
Like the southern faithful of the 1800s, bitterness is strong among Catholics in northeast Ohio, and probably elsewhere. Further complicating their hurt feelings has been the ordination of gay men. It bothers many as the church doles out millions to those, actually and allegedly, sexually abused. When discovered, these same priests were simply transferred to other parishes where they continued their behavior, confident their actions would be again “swept under the rug.” Feelings are strong and the attitude has become “And now you want to close our church?”
Where we’ve abandoned the neighborhood, we have no argument. In our affluence, and in some cases concerned for our safety, we’ve moved away to other neighborhoods or cities, away from the churches previous generations built. Yet there are churches reportedly filled each Sunday. What’s the reason for closing them? The first answer that comes to many Catholic minds is the obvious – saving and/or raising cash.
In the business world, local management personally knows their co-workers. It’s a hard, emotional decision to cut people from the payroll or move company operations elsewhere. Many simply cannot make the necessary decisions that allow a company to survive and stay afloat. Someone usually has to be brought in from outside the company or locale to do it. Like that new corporate person brought in to do the job, Bishop Lennon is the Catholic charged with the responsibility.
It almost makes one think that perhaps it’s time to adopt the earlier attitude and separate church responsibilities between Catholic laity and Episcopal. And/or ordain married men. Or women.
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