Believe it or not, Terry Mattingly is on a working vacation and took the\u00a0week off \u2014 at least when it came time to write a Scripps Howard News\u00a0Service column.<\/p>\n
Sue me. I have missed four in 20 years and, two of those times, I was just\u00a0in or just out of the hospital.<\/p>\n
So here is something to read, anyway. It is a recent post from my weblog \u2013GetReligion.org.<\/p>\n
If you want to read the interactive version, with the links to the stories\u00a0that I mention, then just go to this URL: http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/?p=3796<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Who gets to \u2018reform\u2019 what?<\/p>\n
Posted by tmatt<\/p>\n
As any regular GetReligion.org reader would know, we go out of our way to\u00a0note the exceptionally good work that many religion reporters do on this\u00a0very complex and difficult beat. A quick glance in the archives will also\u00a0tell you that, more often than not, we are fans of the work of Tim\u00a0Townsend of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.<\/p>\n
This brings me to Townsend\u2019s latest piece on one of the most complex\u00a0ongoing stories in American religion right now \u2014 the battle for control\u00a0of the historic St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in St. Louis. Normally you\u00a0would add the word ?Catholic? to that title, but, you see, the status of\u00a0that term is what the battle is all about.<\/p>\n
The battle for control of this parish is unfolding on several levels and\u00a0Townsend does a great job of explaining the background.<\/p>\n
Basically, this is a showdown between St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke\u00a0and the powers that be in this massive Polish parish. The archbishop tried\u00a0to establish control by refusing to send another priest to the parish,\u00a0thus denying the people the sacraments. But the parish, toward the end of\u00a02005, found a priest who was willing to serve at their altar without\u00a0permission and, thus, thumb his nose \u2014 that\u2019s what Townsend writes \u2014 at\u00a0the Catholic hierarchy.<\/p>\n
Now, that priest \u2014 Father Marek Bozek \u2014 is in the middle of a new round\u00a0of controversy that has divided the parish itself. The bottom line: It\u00a0turns out that a priest who is willing to monkey with Catholic doctrines\u00a0about episcopal authority may, in the end, be willing to be more than\u00a0flexible about other doctrines, too (which is bad news for many Polish\u00a0Catholics, who tend to be rather traditional at heart). Here is the key\u00a0section of Townsend\u2019s long and detailed report:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 Bozek has reshaped the church into a community that would be\u00a0unrecognizable to those 19th-century founders. His vision for a\u00a0reformed Roman Catholic faith calls for supporting female ordination,\u00a0allowing priests to get married and accepting gay relationships.<\/p>\n
Bozek\u2019s stands have attracted hundreds of new St. Stanislaus\u00a0parishioners who share the priest\u2019s reform-minded vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they have also divided the church, pitting newer members against\u00a0traditional parishioners unhappy with how far the priest has gone in\u00a0condemning the Roman Catholic church. There have also been questions\u00a0about the priest\u2019s trappings. He has negotiated a 143 percent salary\u00a0hike, moved into a $157,000 Washington Avenue loft and leased a 2008\u00a0BMW for $450 per month.<\/p>\n
Some parishioners point to another sign that alarmed them: Bozek,\u00a0while in Poland last year, bought a silver ring custom-made for a\u00a0bishop there. When he returned, he showed the ring to his parish at a\u00a0Sunday Mass and spoke about it from the pulpit. Because it\u2019s a\u00a0bishop\u2019s ring and he is only a priest, Bozek says, he has not worn it.<\/p>\n
But he won\u2019t say he never will, he does not rule out the possibility\u00a0of becoming the leader of what he calls \u201can \u2018underground Roman\u00a0Catholic\u2019 movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
All kinds of people are involved in this story, literally from the Rev.Sun Myung Moon to the Womenpriests network that causes earthquakes in the\u00a0GetReligion comments pages whenever its name is mentioned.<\/p>\n
Like I said, this is a very complicated story. Read it all.<\/p>\n
But here is my question. Let\u2019s back up to that crucial paragraph in which\u00a0Townsend has to describe what Bozek is up to at the parish.<\/p>\n
The story, you\u00a0see, is about the priest\u2019s vision for a reformed Roman Catholic faith and his reform-minded vision.<\/p>\n
You see, \u2018reform\u2019 is one of those loaded religion beat words. If you look\u00a0that term up online you see a number of definitions, but you\u2019ll get the\u00a0drift. To \u2018reform\u2019 something means to:<\/p>\n
* make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and\u00a0injustices; \u2018reform a political system\u2019<\/p>\n
* bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life,\u00a0conduct, and adopt a right one; \u2018The Church reformed me\u2019; \u2018reform your\u00a0conduct\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n
* a change for the better as a result of correcting abuses; \u201cjustice\u00a0was for sale before the reform of the law courts\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n
* improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put\u00a0into a better condition; \u2018reform the health system in this country\u2019<\/p>\n
* a campaign aimed to correct abuses or malpractices.<\/p>\n
I think you get the point. When traditional Catholics read that kind of\u00a0language, this is what they see. They see a newspaper saying that the\u00a0liberal priest is trying to reform the abuses and injustices of the\u00a0Catholic Church. So there.<\/p>\n
Why doesn\u2019t the story say that the archbishop is trying to reform the\u00a0priest and the parish? Who is reforming what? In other words, who is\u00a0guilty of corruption and abuses?<\/p>\n
However, please note that Townsend has tried to attach the word \u2018reform\u2019\u00a0directly to the views of the priest. This is his vision of reform. It is\u00a0what he considers reform.<\/p>\n
My question is simple: Does this work? Is there a wording that would be\u00a0fair to both the priest and to the archbishop? Is it any better to say\u00a0that the parish is attracting Catholics who share Bozek\u2019s \u2018progressive\u2019\u00a0vision? That share his desire to \u2018innovate\u2019, when it comes to crucial\u00a0doctrines in Catholic moral theology? Is there a better way to say this,\u00a0one that is both accurate and fair to partisans on both sides?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Believe it or not, Terry Mattingly is on a working vacation and took the\u00a0week off \u2014 at least when it came time to write a Scripps Howard News\u00a0Service column. Sue me. I have missed four in 20 years and, two of those times, I was just\u00a0in or just out of the hospital. So here is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,540,599,715,720],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-media-bias","tag-newspapers","tag-reformers","tag-religion-news"],"yoast_head":"\n