Orthodoxy Enforced, to a Degree

Fox News reports on a story of a Catholic university that's enforcing orthodoxy, of a sort:

The private Chicago Catholic university recently informed professor Norman Finkelstein that his three courses were canceled after a dispute over tenure that drew charges of anti-Semitism against him.

Critics find issue with Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, who believes that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust. Finkelstein is the author of five books, including "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering."

I wish that DePaul University was so zealous in defending the Catholic Faith as it is defending Jewish victimhood. Not too long ago, De Paul started turning heads with it's avant garde Gay Studies program.

"I understand that there's a tension there," says Assistant Prof. Gary Cestaro, the program's director. "Institutions of higher learning, even if they are Catholic, aren't spokespeople for the Vatican," he says. "Like any university, there should be room for free inquiry."

I guess that some inquiry should be more free than others? Or is it that the only kind of free inquiry desired is that inquiry free of Catholic doctrine. What ever happened to Ex Corde Ecclesiae?

Looking over the course offerings and course descriptions for the LGBTQ Studies, I don't see anything that points to a discussion on Catholic doctrine on human sexuality. Maybe the topic will be touched upon at the upcoming "Out There Conference" at DePaul in October. There's a session in the program called “Roman Catholicism and its Teaching on Homosexuality: Past, Present, Future” with James Halstead and Tom Judge from DePaul University, and Patricia Jung, Loyola University Chicago. The rest of the sessions seem to be the usual rah-rah for gay causes.

Halstead's not the most solid bulwark against the prevailing culture, as evidenced by his comment on CNN in regard to pro-abortion politicians and the Eucharist:

"It's precisely the people that are sick or in error that need to be going to communion. It's not a reward. It's a help on the journey."

There are few better ways to tell someone that they are sick or in error by declaring that they are not in communion with the Church, but you won't hear that from Halstead. Patricia Jung, inline skating gold medalist at the 1994 Gay Games, is not a notorious stalwart for true Catholic doctrine either. In her paper, "The Call to Wed: Why Catholics Should Celebrate Same Sex Marriage," Ms. Jung displays her ignorance/disregard for catholic teaching:

"When the church’s long-standing emphasis on the significance of procreativity to marriage is
critically analyzed, it becomes clear that both the church and society should encourage all those so called – whether queer or straight – to wed."

"Critical analysis", in Academe-speak, is code for rationalized dismissal. With Halstead's and Jung's records, it looks like the deck is stacked against any straight, pardon the pun, discussion of Church teaching on human sexuality at this conference.

Evangelism, à la McBrien

Fr. Richard McBrien is at it again. In the latest issue of the Tidings, Fr. McBrien critiques conversion motivations in the post-Vatican II Church. Evangelism in the Catholic church has suffered:

"With the Second Vatican Council, however, and with the ecumenical movement which the council and the popes had endorsed, it became practically impossible to present the Catholic Church any longer as "the one, true Church" and all other denominations as awash in error and falsehoods."

Of course, you cannot present the Catholic Church as the one, true Church if you don't really believe it. Can you? That's also a large and unspoken variable in the calculus; the scores of clergy and theologians, in the Church, that cannot acknowlege the Church and thus cannot proclaim it. Skeptics make lousy salesmen, and cynics are even worse.

McBrien goes on to examine recent conservative converts to the Church, noting:

"Conservative Protestants and Jews who convert to Catholicism, especially of the Opus Dei kind, rarely shed the religious, social and political biases they had in their pre-Catholic life."

I didn't realise that there is a Opus Dei Catholic Church. Or, is this a backhanded slap at conservatives who come to the Church expecting some orthodoxy? Some converts have no interest in Cafeteria Catholicism, especially of the Most Holy Redeemer (San Francisco) kind, or else they would have joined the Episcopalians.


At least converts to the Church have the good grace and intellectual honesty to leave a church (or 'faith community') that they do not agree with. Right, Fr. McBrien?

h/t to Curt Jester and da Cafeteria.

Ejumicashun

Well, I got accepted to the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, which begs the question: Just who were they turning away? Now I need to get registered for classes, and figure out how to get anyone else to pay for the tuition, books, et cetera. Maybe I'll be getting some money from you, American Taxpayer, for which I will now thank you profusely.

Balancing the job, family, and adding classes is going to be tough. My parents, having three kids and one full-time job, tag-teamed their way through college in the late 70's. I remember them working on term papers and the piles of text books, I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when they graduated together. It would have been impossibly expensive, but the G.I. Bill benefits (both were USAF vets) kept the costs under control. I used my G.I. Bill bennies on getting my AA in Audio Engineering, so I'll be financing this new venture on my own.

So, if you'd all be so kind, give word to Sts. Gregory the Great and Jerome to pray for me, that my brain will actually function for this project.

I've been working fiendish hours lately, FYI, hence the general blog quiet.

Theologians, or Lupi Rapaces, pt 1

Dad29 has been detailing some of Marqette University theology prof Daniel Maguire's, counter-catholic activities and propagandizing, so I thought I'd do a little digging.

Pope John Paull II, in August of 1990, promulgated a document called Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and was approved for application in the US by the USCCB in November of 1999. This apostolic constitution asserts the authority of the Church in relation to Catholic universities, and much to their ire, catholic theologians. Many catholic theologians have resented and loudly resisted this concept.

Daniel Maguire, much like his peer at Notre Dame, Fr. Richard McBrien, has publicly disparaged Ex Corde Ecclesiae and refused to humbly request a mandate from the local Bishop. Here's Maguire's explanation of his resistance to submitting to the bishop:

"The mandatum would anomalously subject professional theologians to the judgment of those who are outside academe and are not professional theologians. In my judgment, no theologian could accept this without violating the integrity of his or her discipline. It also puts the bishops into the embarrassing and impossible position of judging scholars without the benefit of the appropriate expertise."

He's somehow thinking that being a theologian trumps being catholic, and that his utterances about the Catholic Church should have no accountability.

" Published theologians are always subject to corrective criticism from their peers, that is, from those who are professionally qualified to judge their work."

Hence, the bishop, being a successor to the Apostles, has no business criticising a "catholic" theologian's work.

"However, the focus of Ex Corde is not on the epistemological subtlety of the effect of changed personal commitments on cognitive objectivity. Its mission, as I see it, is thought control and a denial of the legitimacy of the theological magisterium."

That precious "theological magisterium" is only authoritative if it is in harmony with the Magisterium of the Church, not in constant defiance of it. Maguire's activities with Planned Parenthood would incur a latae sententiae excommunication in Lincoln, Nebraska, but I imagine that his own bishop is not so ready to do something so bold. Here's a stumper: Do catholic theologians have to be Catholic?

Matt 7:15-20
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Fr. McBrien is STILL Demoralized..

. and shows no sign of stopping. More Unhappy tidings to come.

Fr. McBrien parses Catholics into four camps: Ultra Conservatives, Moderate Conservatives, Moderate Liberals, Radical Liberal. He then illustrates a bit on the Ultracons:

Centrist Catholics do not view their moderate counterparts on the left or the right as an "ultimate threat" (Father Radcliffe's words) to their own place in the Church. Only Catholics of the far right view fellow Catholics that way --- in this case, moderately liberal Catholics and probably some moderate conservatives as well.

I beg to differ wih the good father, as his last column illustrates his terror at the conservative actions of conservative bishops. Fr. McBrien then shows some of the roots of his demoralization:

Father Andrew Greeley, a distinguished author and sociologist, has frequently pointed out that it was not the Council but Pope Paul VI's 1968 birth-control encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that opened the breach within the post-conciliar Church. If the pope had sided with the 2-1 majority of his Birth Control Commission and modified the official teaching on contraception, the post-Vatican II history of the Church might look entirely different.

And if his successor, John Paul I, had not died after only 33 days in office, the Church's hierarchy around the world might look entirely different as well.

He's absolutely right, it does go all the way back to Humanae Vitae, and the clergy's and laity's responses to it: Who can submit to the Church, and who will demand that the Church submit to the World. " If only the pope had sided with the 2-1 majority" is a crock, the Pope always has to side with the Magisterium, and guided by the Holy Spirit, he did just that. If, as Fr. McBrien fervently wishes, the Pope had sided with the majority opinion, we'd be in the same dire straits as the Anglican Communion and the divided United Methodist Church. Public opinion is the shifting sands on which no church can last.

Catholics of the far right, and bishops who share and enforce their ecclesiology, insist that obedience is one of Catholicism's primary virtues and that the teaching of the hierarchy, and especially the pope's, is the only sure guide to saving truth.

Obedience was one of Jesus' primary virtues as well, an obedience unto death, as with his mother Mary, by whose obedience unto life gave us our Savior. It's such an alien thought to the hippies, this concept of obedience. The article devolves from there into another gripe about Bishop Finn and his iron-fisted gardening style. Suffice to say, Fr. McBrien is still demoralized, and I'll bet that he'll continue to sulk in the future.

Fr. McBrien is Demoralized..

In an article called Demoralization in the Church, Fr. Richard McBrien lays some smack down on Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, over a speech Fr. Radcliffe gave at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress:

He had spoken, for example, of the gap between church teaching and the views of many ordinary Catholics without acknowledging the possibility that the gap exists, not simply because of a lack of understanding on the laity's part or a failure on the hierarchy's part to communicate its teachings effectively, but because many ordinary Catholics regard certain teachings as wrong.

Fr. McBrien is not "acknowledging the possibility" that the Church's teaching is right, and that he and many other catholics are wrong. Yes, ordinary Catholics may think some teachings are wrong, because they don't understand neither the teachings themselves nor the Magisterium of the Church. Apparently, Fr. McBrien also has trouble with those topics as well. It's a good thing that the Magisterium, and truth of Catholic doctrine, do not hinge on Catholics understanding or support of those teachings.

Conservative bishops (or what he would now refer to as Communion Catholics) hold a disproportionate amount of power that makes real brotherly and sisterly conversation impossible, for all practical purposes.

Yes, dialog with those pesky conservative bishops is difficult, with them always bringing Scripture and the Catechism into the conversation. It's hard to sway someone if they're always holding onto a firm position. Fr. McBrien insists on overstating the number of conservative bishops, but I imagine that he's just projecting his phobias a wee bit.

Only in those dioceses where a bishop who operates --- mentally, emotionally and pastorally --- outside of the broad center of Catholicism do we find any "strangulation" of missionary and evangelizing activities. One such diocese, Kansas City-St. Joseph, was featured in the May 12 issue of NCR.

Fr. McBrien is still sulking over that affair? Missionary and evangelizing activities abound in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, home of every liberal's arch-nemesis, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. I think it's time for the embittered catholics, lay and clergy, to get a grip that the Church is NOT a democracy and that the Truth is not negotiable.

Canadian Sniper Identified, Still At large

Rev. Ronald Trojcak is a Roman Catholic priest in London, Ontario, but was compelled to publicly condemn the actions of a fellow Catholic, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska. April 25th, In a comment on the online version of the Lincoln Journal Star's coverage of Bruskewitz, Trojcak left this remark:

"I suggest that this bishop's stance, not only on this matter, but on several, provides plausible justification for abandoning the Roman church, in which I have been an active priest in the 43 years since my ordination."

A request for a clarification from Rev. Trojcak has so far been unanswered. So, the next best thing would be to take other public musings from Rev. Trojcak to find the source of his discontent. Maybe he's a Rad Trad, and is unhappy with Bruskewitz' latae sententiae excommunication of SSPXers.

On his personal website, Rev Trojcak has links to several National Catholic Reporter stories, The Tablet's online edition, and (drum roll, please)
"Voice of the Faithful (VOTF). Indicate Your Support by Sharing your Email".

Under his "Great Books" banner, Rev. Trojcak has these gems:

Sacred Silence: Denial and Crisis in the Church by Donald B. Cozzens
The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflections on the Priest's Crisis of Soul by Donald B. Cozzens
She Who Is:The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. by Elizabeth A. Johnson

Okay, I guess that since the 1964 Missal is not on his list, he's not an SSPX booster. From the pages of the Purple Pew (just guess), Rev. Trojcak can be found commenting on this article:

“By virtue of being intrinsically disordered, homosexuality is not a human act, but is a depravity and an abomination as Sacred Scripture, the Church and the Catechism all state so clearly,” Rev. Jeffrey T. Robideau of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing, Mich.

Trojcak's respose to the article:

"I am a Roman Catholic priest, engaged in university teaching for 35 years, and in university chaplaincy for 28 years. I am appalled by the inept, uninformed, and anything but Christian remarks of this priest. I have been teaching the Jewish-Christian scriptures, and unhappily, it seems that the priest has not read recent scholarship on the Bible and homosexuality. Unhappily, he seems also to have missed the all-inclusive ministry of Jesus.
Comment by Rev. Ronald Trojcak, Ph.D. — November 2, 2005 @ 9:34 pm"

I'm sensing a pattern here, and am perceiving Rev. Trojcak's objections to Bruskewitz's strident orthodoxy. But what gives a priest permission to snipe at a bishop in another country?

In a review on Amazon.com for Cozzen's Sacred Silence: Denial and the Crisis in the Church, Trojcak goes on so:

I am a Roman Catholic priest, ordained 40 years, and I am more grateful than I can say, for Donald Cozzen's latest book. It is the most plain-spoken, insightful, exhaustive, profound, and above all, honest book on the Church and its current parlous state, than any of the many I've read. I hesitate to call it courageous, though it surely is that. For this book followed his earlier book on the priesthood, and he was pilloried by many for that. But, fatuously, I'm afraid, I would like to think that anyone, cleric or lay, would have been, if not able, at least willing to say what Cozzens has said here. Unhappily, this is far from the truth. Now, if a bishop would be willing.......

So, Rev. Ron find Cozzens inspirational and Bruskewitz abhorrent. Let's see what Trojcak thinks about the late pope, JP II. In a Google cached page of PressEtc, a post was written called "Pope to saint: Seven sins of John Paul II" and listed these accusations (mostly pertaining to upholding Catholic Doctrine):
Sin 1: HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa
Sin 2: Genocide in Rwanda
Sin 3: Beatification of Mother Teresa
Sin 4: Over population and poverty
(And continued onto a non-cached page)
To which this reply is appended:

rev. ronald trojcak, ph.d. (a roman cat
Written by Guest on 2005-06-05 21:06:55
I appreciate this statement about the late pope.

Ahh, things are coming into a sharper focus...let's see what else we can find. In a review of John Cornwell's book A Pontiff in Winter, Trojcak concurs with his subject:

I say all this in order to provide the basis for Cornwell's central assessment of John Paul's papacy: namely its intolerance for pluralism. Here, pluralism extends to almost every element of the church: the authority of local bishops; the integrity of episcopal synods; the liturgy and liturgical texts, and perhaps most consequentially, theological diversity. Recall John Paul's treatment of a number of prominent theologians: Charles Curran, Leonardo Boff, Jacques Dupuis, and Hans Kung, among many others.

But strictures on diversity ignore the massive historical developments in the church's life and thought which have constituted the church. Such developments have been the hallmark of the history of the church from its very beginning. Moreover, much intolerance enforces a stultifying uniformity in a world whose cultural diversity we know now more clearly than ever before.

I believe that the greatest merit of Cornwell's book is its implicit demystification of the papacy.

By this time, it's clear to see why Rev. Trojcak felt compelled to assail Bruskewitz as he did: Bruskewitz is against those practices that really get people to leave the Catholic Church. And make no mistake, Rev. Trojcak, just because they may warm a pew on Sunday doesn't mean they're Catholic, and physically taking the Eucharist isn't a guarantee of Communion with the Church.

Bishop Bruskewitz, and his orthodox example, has given "plausible justification" for men and women to take Holy Orders, not "abandoning the Roman Church", as Trojcak suggests.