catholic church

I’m Warming to the Pope

March 21, 2013 By Tony Jones 34 Comments

Pope Francis after his inauguration mass (Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press)

Ultimately, I am a pragmatist.

People occasionally say to me, “I don’t believe in divorce.” I respond, “Then I must not exist.”

In other words, you may not like divorce, but not believing in it is not one of the options. Divorce exists. Deal with it.

I’m not a fan of the papacy. I think that bureaucracies and hierarchies are bad for the gospel. I think they’re anti-gospel.

Nevertheless, I’m a realist. The Catholic Church is one-half of the world’s Christians, and that church has a pope. So, whether I like it or not, that one celibate dude has a lot of cultural cachet — how people see him will affect how they understand the religion that I practice.

Yes, I was cynical last week. Why is it huge news that a Christian leader paid his hotel bill? Shouldn’t that be the standard?

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Filed Under: christianity in america, church Tagged With: catholic church 34 Comments

Pope Francis: Much Ado about Nothing

March 14, 2013 By Tony Jones 150 Comments

I admit, my antipathy for Catholicism runs deep. That has to do with its all-male, celibate priesthood, its veneration of Mary to — for all intents and purposes — divine status, its homophobia, and my first marriage. I’m copping to my own bigotries right off the bat here.

Nevertheless, I was taken aback by the over-the-top ebullience that many of my fellow Protestants were expressing on Twitter and Facebook yesterday. People were gushing, people were admitting to crying. And, most astoundingly, people were using the first person plural: “We have a new pope!”

Far be it from me to burst your bubble, but he’s not your pope, and he’s not my pope. If you or I, non-communicants in the Roman Catholic Church, were to approach the altar when Pope Francis was presiding at mass, he would not serve us the Eucharist. He wouldn’t recognize your non-Catholic marriage as sacramental in the eyes of God. And, if he agrees with his immediate predecessor, he does not think you attend a church. You attend an “ecclesial community.”

Like many, I have hoped that the Catholic Church would continue its progression, which began at Vatican II. But it hasn’t. The last two popes have rolled back those reforms, and there’s much evidence that this pope will continue in that vein.

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Filed Under: christianity in america Tagged With: catholic church 150 Comments

Why Stay Catholic?

February 18, 2013 By Tony Jones 39 Comments

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Gary Wills appeared on The Colbert Report last week, promoting his book, Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition. I agreed with everything he said, and it made me wonder, Why is he still Catholic?

In fact, I wonder that a lot. I met someone recently who said she wept when Ratzinger was elected pope — wept tears of sorrow. She now hopes the next pope will be more progressive. And all I wanted to say was, “You know, you can switch denominations.”

I get that there’s more to being Catholic than the doctrine and the hierarchy — for a lot of people there’s family and even ethnic ties involved. So I’m wondering if some of you readers can enlighten me: If you disagree with just about everything the Vatican does and says, why stay Catholic?

Filed Under: christianity in america Tagged With: catholic church 39 Comments

The Last Pope Who Quit

February 11, 2013 By Tony Jones 3 Comments

The current pope who’s quitting (Benedict XVI) visits the tomb of the last pope who quit (Celestine V) in April, 2009.

Pope Celestine V, aka Peter Morrone, quit in 1294. He was the only pope, prior to Benedict XVI, to outright quit. (Gregory XII resigned in 1415 to end a schism, amid a debate about popes and anti-popes.

Well, Celestine V was immortalized in an excellent book by Jon Sweeney a couple years ago, The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation:

At the close of the tumultuous Middle Ages, there lived a man who seemed destined from birth to save the world. His name was Peter Morrone, a hermit, a founder of a religious order, and, depending on whom you talk to, a reformer, an instigator, a prophet, a coward, a saint, and possibly the victim of murder. A stroke of fate would, practically overnight, transform this humble servant of God into the most powerful man in the Catholic Church. Half a year later, he would be the only pope in history to abdicate the chair of St. Peter, an act that nearly brought the papacy to its knees. What led him to make that decision and what happened afterward would be shrouded in mystery for centuries. The Pope Who Quit pulls back the veil of secrecy on this dramatic time in history and showcases a story that involves deadly dealings, apocalyptic maneuverings, and papal intrigue.

If you’re a church history nerd like me, pick it up.

Filed Under: books Tagged With: catholic church 3 Comments

Every Catholic You Know Is “Intrinsically and Gravely Disordered”

June 5, 2012 By Tony Jones 13 Comments

Sister Margaret Farley, however, does not think you're disordered.

Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the Vatican, which, in its condemnation of Margaret Farley’s book, Just Love, reminded its flock that masturbation is an “intrinsically and gravely disordered action.” Which means that about 95% of the Catholics in the pews this Sunday will be guilty of the heinous sin of self abuse.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Monday sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, saying it contradicted church teaching on issues like masturbation, homosexuality and marriage and that its author had a “defective understanding” of Catholic theology.

The Vatican’s orthodoxy office said the book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Sister Margaret Farley, a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, posed “grave harm” to the faithful.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that in the 2006 book, Farley either ignored church teaching on core issues of human sexuality or treated it as merely one opinion among many.

Farley said Monday she never intended the book to reflect current official Catholic teaching. Rather, she said, she wrote it to explore sexuality via various religious traditions, theological resources and human experience.

The Farley critique, signed by the American head of the congregation, Cardinal William Levada, comes amid the Vatican’s recent crackdown on the largest umbrella group of American sisters. The Vatican last month essentially imposed martial law on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, accusing it of undermining church teaching and imposing certain “radical feminist themes” that were incompatible with Catholicism.

It ordered a full-scale overhaul of the group and appointed three bishops to carry it out.

The crackdown on Farley, a top American theologian, will likely fuel greater resentment at Rome among more liberal-minded American sisters.

The Vatican examination of the book began in 2010 and involved seeking Farley’s responses to its concerns. After her replies failed to satisfy the Congregation, it moved to a full-fledged “examination in cases of urgency” that concluded Dec. 14.

Pope Benedict XVI approved the decision last March and ordered the decision published.

In its statement, the Vatican singled out specific problems in Farley’s book which it said “affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.”

Farley, for example, writes that masturbation doesn’t raise any moral problems and can actually help relationships rather than hinder them. The Vatican asserted that according to church teaching “masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.”

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Filed Under: books, christianity in america Tagged With: catholic church 13 Comments

Catholic Bishops Insist on Waging a Culture War

May 11, 2012 By Tony Jones 14 Comments

It seems that every week, Catholic bishops in the U.S. are speaking out against something. Their target now: the Girl Scouts. That’s right, it seems that the organizations whose mission statement reads, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place,” is a threat to Catholics. From the AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — Long a lightning rod for conservative criticism, the Girl Scouts of the USA are now facing their highest-level challenge yet: An official inquiry by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

At issue are concerns about program materials that some Catholics find offensive, as well as assertions that the Scouts associate with other groups espousing stances that conflict with church teaching. The Scouts, who have numerous parish-sponsored troops, deny many of the claims and defend their alliances.

The inquiry coincides with the Scouts’ 100th anniversary celebrations and follows a chain of other controversies.

Why? Because there are rumors that the Girl Scouts partner with Planned Parenthood. They don’t, says spokesperson Gladys Padro-Soler. She adds, ”It’s been hard to get the message out there as to what is true when distortions get repeated over and over.”

Already this year, Catholic bishops have been bashing gays, claiming religious persecution, Sandra Fluke, and now attacking the Girl Scouts. Seems an odd strategy in the face of ongoing pedophilia problems.

In fact, it seems that humility and a few ~~years~~ decades of quiet service to humanity might be a better strategy.

Filed Under: christianity in america Tagged With: catholic church, girl scouts 14 Comments

“Shut Up, Old Man”

March 8, 2012 By Tony Jones 43 Comments

That’s what Scott Paeth wants to say to Catholic bishops who think that female contraceptives shouldn’t be covered by health insurance:

In all honesty, my first reaction to any attempt by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to make any kind of moral argument, least of all one involving sexuality, is to want to say “Shut up, old man.” And no Bishop who is honest about the negligence and criminal malfesence of the Catholic Church around the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of allegations of child molestation and rape around the world over the last half century should expect any other response.

How can any Bishop expect to excercise moral authority, particularly in the authoritarian “do it because I say so” manner that they use, given their record? Every single solitary Bishop should be on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness from both those they’ve directly harmed, and from every Christian, Catholic and non-Catholic, for the damage that they have done to the church. The Bishops, through their choices, erased 2,000 years of authority over the period of a few decades. And why? To protect their own institutional position while shielding absolute moral monsters from being held accountable for acts that were both criminal and detestable. There is no excuse. And it will probably take another 2,000 years for them to regain that authority. In the mean time, the only thing I want to hear from a Bishop is the phrase “I’m sorry.”

Scott also has some thought’s on Romney’s Mormonism and Santorum’s gag reflex here: Against the Stream: Back to Religion and the Public Square.

Filed Under: christianity in america, politics Tagged With: catholic church, mitt romney, rick santorum, scott paeth 43 Comments

“Beneath Christianism is a deep fear of the human mind”

February 28, 2012 By Tony Jones 11 Comments

Andrew Sullivan money quote:

For Santorum, as for Ratzinger, if your conscience says one thing, and the Pope says another, you obey the Pope, not your conscience. And for the Christianists, if your conscience or intelligence says one thing, and the Bible says another, you obey the Bible, not your conscience, and certainly not your intelligence. Because beneath Christianism is a deep fear of the human mind – as if they actually believe that reason is stronger than religion and therefore must be restrained. As if the human mind can will God out of existence.

via Santorum Exposes The Real Republican Party – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

Filed Under: christianity in america, politics Tagged With: catholic church, rick santorum 11 Comments

The Official Catholic Marriage Prayer

December 17, 2011 By Tony Jones 27 Comments

The Catholic archbishop of Minnesota has released a prayer that he wants recited at mass for the next year, as our state approaches a vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage. Here’s the prayer:

Heavenly Father,

Through the powerful intercession of the Holy Family, grant to this local Church the many graces we need to foster, strengthen, and support faith-filled, holy marriages and holy families.

May the vocation of married life, a true calling to share in your own divine and creative life, be recognized by all believers as a source of blessing and joy, and a revelation of your own divine goodness.

Grant to us all the gift of courage to proclaim and defend your plan for marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity, open to the conception of children.

We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Too bad for those heterosexual quadripalegics who want to get married but aren’t “open to the conception of children.” They’re obviously not part of God’s “plan for marriage.” In fact, I can think of some other examples of couples who are in a “lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity,” but can’t conceive children.

To read my thoughts on this issue, see my $.99 ebook, There Are Two Marriages.

Filed Under: same sex marriage Tagged With: catholic church 27 Comments