\u201cI wish to make clear that it is not my intention to impoverish the former bishop,\u201d<\/em> he wrote in his letter.<\/p>\nAnd again, that\u2019s a problem. I agree that as Christians, we shouldn\u2019t wish for anyone to be made a beggar. That kind of suffering is something we should alleviate and not cause.\u00a0But think about the question in the abstract. What would be so terrible about impoverishing bishops?<\/p>\n
We think bishops are supposed to be rich. But what is a bishop?\u00a0 A bishop is meant to be a shepherd. Do shepherds live in palaces?\u00a0 No, shepherds live among sheep.<\/p>\n
Have you ever seen a bishop living among his sheep, sharing in their poverty and suffering, humbly caring for their needs?<\/p>\n
I must say that I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen bishops who think they\u2019re princes, and I imagine you have too.\u00a0 Princes live it up like this.\u00a0Princes don\u2019t care about sheep unless they get hungry for lamb chops, and then they get angry if the sheep object. Princes are properly horrified at the notion of consequences when they act up. Princes confer among each other to make sure they don\u2019t receive appropriate justice for their misdeeds, and princes occasionally sacrifice one of their own for a slap on the wrist, in order to make it look like they care.<\/p>\n
Why must bishops be princes?<\/p>\n
What would go wrong if they lived the life of the average monastic instead? Or even the average parish priest?<\/p>\n
What would happen if they WERE impoverished\u2013 if they were compelled to be shepherds instead of princes?<\/p>\n
All I can guess is, it would lead to far fewer Bransfield-level catastrophes.<\/p>\n
And\u00a0 that would be a good thing.<\/p>\n
(image via Pixabay)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As my regular readers know, I\u2019ve been following the news on the situation in the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston, a stone\u2019s throw away from me in West Virginia. I\u2019ve been commenting with my usual bluster about the retired Bishop Bransfield, whose abusive and decadent behavior are so horrific as to almost defy description\u2013 though the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":9198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[865,1738,22,485,5192,1652,2146,2039,1746,59,2790,882],"tags":[24,10428,9663,8853,2425,8859,216,179,6189,1747,3361,2750,1040,465],"class_list":["post-11217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuse","category-america","category-appalachia","category-conscience","category-culture","category-horror","category-human-dignity","category-public-face-of-catholicism","category-scandal","category-spiritual-abuse","category-usccb","category-virtue-and-vice","tag-appalachia","tag-bishop-brennan","tag-bransfield","tag-diocese-of-wheeling-charleston","tag-hospital","tag-michael-j-bransfield","tag-money","tag-poverty","tag-punishment","tag-scandal","tag-shopping","tag-usccb","tag-washington-post","tag-west-virginia"],"yoast_head":"\n
Bransfield's Proposed Punishment is a Slap on the Wrist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Of course, in reality, the situation is even more ludicrous than what I described. Because the current bishop of West Virginia isn't compelling Bransfield to do any of those things. He's just asking him to.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/11\/11217\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bransfield's Proposed Punishment is a Slap on the Wrist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of course, in reality, the situation is even more ludicrous than what I described. Because the current bishop of West Virginia isn't compelling Bransfield to do any of those things. 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