Popes: Images that Signify

Driven to despair by one,

invited to hope by the other. 

Guess which.

#CatholicSpring

Habemus Papam: Pope Francis

For the first time in years I find myself feeling authentically hopeful about the possibility of a Roman Catholic Church that acts justly, loves tenderly, and walks humbly with and for God. Still taking in this news, so don't know that I can write much more at this juncture.

Basically I'm wandering around in optimistic wonder, especially after reading, "The Horror! A Buenos Aires journalist describe Bergoglio." In it, Marcelo Gonzalez excoriates Pope Francis for lending "his Cathedral to Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and even to partisan groups" as well as being a "sworn enemy of the Traditional Mass."

And what's this? Our new pope has allowed himself to be blessed by Protestant ministers? Oh the delightful, welcomed, and much needed One Body in Christ-ness of it all!

Quote du Jour (Religion Department) | As the Vatican Conclave Begins

As the Vatican Conclave looms near (on Tuesday, March 12) I find myself pondering the holy synchronicity of this happening during Lent during the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council during the Year of Faith, proclaimed as such by the first pope who has resigned in 600 years.

If you read my stuff you already know I'm keen on the Holy Spirit, so-called "lost person" of the Trinity. Not lost to me. For well over a decade, veni sancte spiritus has been my primary prayer -- and not because the priest at my very first Confession assigned it as my penance. 

I perk right up whenever I get to this in the Creed, "We believe in the Holy Spirit..." Even more so at, "who has spoken through the prophets."  Hans Kung, reviled by some Shiite Catholics as a heretic, has long-been a prophetic voice in the Roman church. Here's a paragraph I've pulled from a New York Times Op-Ed piece, "A Vatican Spring?" *  Veni Sance Spiritus!

. . .the church needs a pope who’s not living intellectually in the Middle Ages, who doesn't champion any kind of medieval theology, liturgy or church constitution. It needs a pope who is open to the concerns of the Reformation, to modernity. A pope who stands up for the freedom of the church in the world not just by giving sermons but by fighting with words and deeds for freedom and human rights within the church, for theologians, for women, for all Catholics who want to speak the truth openly. A pope who no longer forces the bishops to toe a reactionary party line, who puts into practice an appropriate democracy in the church, one shaped on the model of primitive Christianity. A pope who doesn't let himself be influenced by a Vatican-based “shadow pope” like Benedict and his loyal followers.

─  Hans Kung

* Of course I was thrilled to see the title for this piece because I've been trying for at least year (unsuccessfully)  to get some momentum for the hashtag #CatholicSpring on Twitter.

The Pope Leaving Office . . .

looks like this on Twitter . . .

More evidence that the Vatican 

has never understood

the "social" in social media.

Quote du Jour (Religion Department) | Ecce Catholicism Inc.

Other than my post on the day of the pope's announced resignation, I've been remarkably silent (for me) about what I'm calling the Switch Lobsters and Dance* situation at the Vatican.

Nor have I treated anyone to my thoughts about the possible correlation between @pontifex's appearance on Twitter and Pope Benedict XVI's retirement from public life. To some extent I agree with what Elizabeth Scalia has written in her post titled, Prayer and Penance: Did Twitter Hasten Benedict's Retirement. Still pondering.

Meanwhile, I keep reading what everyone else has to say. Today I stumbled across this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Bill Keller titled, Catholicism Inc. In it he writes about what the Roman Catholic church might learn from leaders in the secular business world. Some great suggestions and the kicker sentence is fabulous. Here's the lede:


Behold a global business in distress — incoherently managed, resistant to the modernizing forces of the Internet age, tainted by scandal and corruption. It needs to tweak its marketing, straighten out its finances, up its recruiting game and repair its battered brand. Ecce Catholicism Inc.

─  Bill Keller



* Abiding admiration for whomever gets that literary reference.

Pope Benedict XVI Resigns. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

I remember the day Ratzinger was elected pope. Although I was still on a parish staff, I was not in the office -- not at first. I zipped back there when I heard on NPR that white smoke was blowing and a new pope would soon appear before the crowd gathered in St. Peter's square.

When he did and it turned out to be Ratzinger, our entire parish staff groaned. My priest-boss dropped his head in his hands. Franciscans were visiting at the time to lead our Lenten mission. "Get ready to wear a full habit again," quipped the brother to the sister.

Pizza arrived and we stuffed the rest of our feelings down with that. Double fudge brownies for dessert. With a brownie in his mouth and one in each hand my priest-boss mumbled to no one in particular, "Chocolate is good for stress, right?"

I would leave that parish job, that parish; serve as a lay liturgical minister in another; move from Princeton to Baltimore; join the parish rolls of Jesuit-led church and then stop going to Roman Catholic Mass shortly after the "new" Roman Missal appeared on the scene.

After several failed attempts to generate traction on Twitter for the hashtag #CatholicSpring, I basically gave up. Dumping the Roman Catholic Church in all its messy glory at the foot of the Cross seemed the prudently prayerful way to go.

This morning, my Episcopal Canon husband woke me up with these words, "I am not kidding and this is not a joke: Pope Benedict has resigned. There will be a new pope by Easter."

No (more) words for now. This prayer: Veni Sance Spiritus.

Quote du Jour (Hallelujah Department) | NCR Endorses Ordination of Catholic Women

Today's social media streams are buzzing with the Vatican's latest announcement about the Pope's new Twitter account, something I wrote about after last year's Vatican announcement about the Pope's new Twitter account (The Pope tweets sort of...)

Escaping notice thus far, but not by me, this editorial from the ever-fearless National Catholic Reporter titled, Ordination of women would correct an injustice.

In it, NCR editors review the history of Rome's response to the faithful's ongoing call to ordain women, including a description of the usual internecine kerfuffles about language that might indicate something like movement.

The piece continues with a plea for Catholics to speak up even more "in every forum available to us." The comments include the usual spew from self-appointed "real Catholics" who call for the excommunication of, I guess, unreal Catholics who speak truth to power in this and other hot topics.

The kicker paragraph is today's Quote du Jour:

Our message is that we believe the sensus fidelium is that the exclusion of women from the priesthood has no strong basis in Scripture or any other compelling rationale; therefore, women should be ordained.

We have heard the faithful assent to this in countless conversations in parish halls, lecture halls and family gatherings. It has been studied and prayed over individually and in groups. The brave witness of the Women's Ordination Conference, as one example, gives us assurance that the faithful have come to this conclusion after prayerful consideration and study -- yes, even study of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

─  NCR Editorial Staff, December 3, 2012

Can't Make This Up: The Vatican Promotes Latin Studies. Not *that* Latin.

Somehow I missed the big Vatican announcement last Saturday about B16 instituting the Pontifical Academy for Latin Studies.

That would be "Latin" as in the language no one reads, understands or uses, not "Latin" as in appreciating the culture of those Roman Catholics from Central and South America who have not yet fled the church.

Some of the headlines for this latest bit of je ne sais quoi (that's French) from the Vatican: "Vatican promoting Latin studies to put Catholics in touch with their roots."  Had they asked, I would have recommended adding Hebrew to First Holy Communion prep.

As a (clearly too slowly) recovering masochist, I couldn't stop myself from re-reading this kicker from a Reuters release: 

"The new academy's statutes, written of course in Latin, say its goal is to promote both written and spoken Latin through publications, conferences, seminars and performances."  

Performances. Carmina Burana, perhaps?

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

Found on Twitter, where it was RT'd (retweeted) by Loyola Press from the Jesuits' National Jesuit News article, "Jesuit Cardinal's Last Interview Calls for Renewal in the Church." Click here to read the entire transcript of the interview with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. Keep reading for the quote that spoke to me:


The Word of God is simple and seeks as its companion a heart that is listening. ... Neither the clergy nor Church law can substitute for a person’s inwardness. All the external rules, the laws, the dogmas were given to us in order to clarify the inner voice and to discern spirits. 

─  Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini

Yet Another Sunday of Not Going to Church

It's Sunday and I'm not going to church. Opting out has nothing to do with this afternoon's walk-through of our new house, tomorrow morning's closing, or our move in three days. I haven't been to church in a very long time. 

That's not entirely true. 

A few weeks ago, I visited a Presbyterian church as a "secret shopper" for a clergy friend under consideration for a call. Many months earlier, I left an Episcopal worship service before Communion. I walked out backwards, a technique perfected while working as a pastoral associate and then as a lay liturgical minister. It would be more accurate to note that I haven't attended Mass at my parish in a very long time. 

Why not? 

I love my parish. Being run by Jesuits practically guarantees smart sermons and competent liturgy. It also guarantees a community that takes seriously the Ignatian meme, "people for others" by actively serving those in need. As for the building, the beautiful sanctuary does indeed evoke feelings of sanctuary. Gorgeous music. 

So what's my problem? 

For one thing, the new, which is to say throwback to old, language of the Mass. We're almost a year into this linguistic carnage but other, more pressing issues like censoring religious sisters and getting involved with U.S. partisan politics currently have Roman Catholics in an uproar. And while I'm also steamed about that stuff, at least I can stop reading all about it. If I attend Mass, I have to hear a liturgy that reminds me of . . . nothing good.

For another, there's the gluten-free Host hassle, too long to get into here and now. Stay tuned. 

Do I miss Mass? 

The last time I allowed myself to go deeply into my feelings about not going to Mass and not receiving Communion, I ended up sobbing myself into near-hyperventilation. 

Well over a decade ago, when asked why the h-e-double hockey sticks I was becoming Roman Catholic, I lobbed the shot back with, "Can't become a lapsed Catholic until I become a Catholic." 

Big laughs all around. At the time. Now? Not so much. Lord, have mercy.

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

If I had energy and time, I'd do a comprehensive review of the Catholic blogosphere (Right, Left, and Center) to see who posted which quote(s) from Sr. Pat Farrell's presidential address to the 2012 LCWR Assembly. I have neither the energy nor the time, but I'd love to know how many highlighted this magnificent example of rueful ironic understatement:


There is an inherent existential tension between the complementary roles of hierarchy and religious which is not likely to change.

In an ideal ecclesial world, the different roles are held in creative tension, with mutual respect and appreciation, in an environment of open dialogue, for the building up for the whole Church. The doctrinal assessment [of the CDF) suggests that we are not currently living in an ideal ecclesial world.

─  Pat Farrell, OSF

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

I was first alerted to this piece, "What the Nuns' Story is Really About" by my dear friend, Deacon Jim Knipper. I've reread Fr. Doug Koesel's piece a half dozen times and may have to print multiple copies to post on my refrigerator door, bathroom mirror, and cork board above my desk. Here's an excerpt from the kicker paragraphs. Veni Sancte Spiritus!


Nuns have always tried to work within the system. This time their prophetic voices may take them out of the system. They may take a lot of Catholics and a lot of their hospitals, schools, colleges, orphanages, prison ministries, convents, women’s shelters, food pantries and, of course, the good will they have earned over the centuries with them.

This investigation is not about wayward US nuns. It is the last gasp for control by a dying breed, wrapped in its own self-importance. It is a struggle for the very nature of the church; who we are, how we pray, where we live, who belongs, why we believe. The early church endured a similar struggle. The old order died. The Holy Spirit won.

─  Doug Koesel

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

I'm back from Seattle -- still with the head cold. I thought my first post would be about at least one or two of the realizations I had during my time with wonderful people from these churches: Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church, USA. Those plans changed as I read Sunday's op-ed piece by Maureen Dowd, Here Comes Nobody.

Well worth reading in its entirety, not only for what Ms. Dowd has to say, but for her quotes from other disenfranchised Catholics. Here, meanwhile, are passages that resonate with me:

I was a Catholic and I wanted to be catholic, someone engaged in a wide variety of things. As James Joyce wrote in “Finnegans Wake:” “Catholic means ‘Here comes everybody.’ So it makes me sad to see the Catholic Church grow so uncatholic, intent on loyalty testing, mind control and heresy hunting. Rather than all-embracing, the church hierarchy has become all-constricting . . . .

Absolute intolerance is always a sign of uncertainty and panic. Why do you have to hunt down everyone unless you’re weak? The church doesn’t seem to care if its members’ beliefs are based on faith or fear, conviction or coercion.

─  Maureen Dowd

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

Can I get through a week without being in the presence of Curia craziness? Apparently not. Today's quote is selected from the opening paragraph of Gary Wills' piece, "Bullying the Nuns" on today's NYRBlog.

I'm keeping up with this latest WTF event by subscribing to SistersNews.net, which is curating news and commentary from all perspectives. It's balanced. I, currently, am not.


The Vatican has issued a harsh statement claiming that American nuns do not follow their bishops’ thinking. That statement is profoundly true. Thank God, they don’t. Nuns have always had a different set of priorities from that of bishops. The bishops are interested in power. The nuns are interested in the powerless. Nuns have preserved Gospel values while bishops have been perverting them. 
─  Garry Wills

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

God bless my friend, Fran Rossi Szpylczyn, an eternal source of inspired commiseration. She posted a shorter excerpt from the quote on Facebook. I read it and then went to the original blog post by Jen Owen, "Make the Road by Walking It: Why I am (Still) Catholic."


Committing to Catholicism feels more like an ongoing negotiation than a once-in-a-lifetime choice. Sure, I took the name Cecilia that Saturday morning when the bishop smeared what felt like too much oil of chrism across my forehead, together affirming my parents’ decision to baptize me.  But that didn’t prevent me from continuing to question the tradition I claim as my own.  And that questioning isn’t a matter merely of voicing doubts, either; it’s not a lack of faith.  On my best days, it’s part of an earnest and hopefully lifelong journey of sincere faith honestly seeking genuine understanding.


─  Jen Owen

I [Heart] My Parish

Here's yet another shocker from me: not only do I read my church's weekly bulletin, but I do not read it during Mass. Usually.

Yesterday, however, I arrived too late to put my pyx with (almost completely) gluten-free Jesus on the altar and so had to stay in my pew during Communion. Yes, I could have gone up for a blessing but I didn't, in part because I became enthralled by what I read on the front page of the bulletin. And re-read several times.

For whatever reason -- which I'm choosing to peg as the Holy Spirit -- I finally noticed this and, once again, felt a rush of gratitude for the privilege of worshiping at the Catholic Community of Saint Ignatius, the Jesuit Church in Baltimore:

Whether you are...

...an active or inactive Catholic

...struggling with church teachings

or at peace with her doctrines

...firmly grounded in your spiritual life

or seeking new paths

...secure in your sense of self-esteem

or struggling with the labels

others have put on you,

You are welcome at St. Ignatius.

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

I'm pulling a quote from an article posted on a National Catholic Register blog. I found Matthew Warner's post,"The Catholic Church Is out of Control..." remarkable for several reasons, beginning with the first word: "They."

Now I readily admit that I, too, have a lot of trouble with pronouns, but that's because I still consider myself a Jew by identity. Depending on conversational content, I can't always muster a "we" when talking about Catholics. But that's not the most remarkable aspect of Warner's post. I'm surprised by the fervor with which he makes a case for 21st century conversation, transparency, and authenticity.

Should come as no surprise to any of my readers that I am passionate about the importance and value of using social media to communicate church and faith. I view social media as an unexpected and democratizing phenomenon in the form of technology, which is why I'm pulling this quote:




Yet, we [the Roman Catholic church] still have a lot of leadership who think that PR stands for Press Release and that “opting out” of the social web is the “safe thing to do.” It’s not safe at all. It’s perilous.

They worry that if they open up comments on their website or start a Facebook page or open up online communities where people can express themselves within a church forum, that somebody might say something mean. Or theologically incorrect. Or hateful. Or *gasp* something about how there are sinners in the Church.

Guess what? They are already saying those things. Every day. Every where. The problem right now is that the Church is largely not a part of the conversation—because it chooses not to be. So whatever control it could have, it foregoes.

Those challenging conversations are going to happen, just as they always have. The question for the Church is do we want to be a part of the conversation? And the answer is that we have a moral obligation to be.

─ Matthew Warner

Quote du Jour (Religion Department)

Hard to choose a single quote from a two part series by Eugene Cullen Kennedy about clericalism in the Roman Catholic church. Kennedy, an emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago pulls no punches about the havoc being wrought by what he aptly characterizes as "set-decorator" clerics. 

May the Holy Spirit continue to guide him in wisdom and faith. May God protect him and his courageous editors from the vitriol being spewed forth in their direction.

Part I: "Set-decorator Catholicism: clericalism thrives in a new phase of the sex abuse crisis" appeared in the National Catholic Reporter on June 30, 2011.  Part II: Set-decorator Catholicism: The common traits of set-decorators" appeared in the July 7 issue of NCR.

Hard pressed to choose, I've pulled this lengthy excerpt from Part II:



Most of the bishops now anxious to restore their credibility would be surprised, not to say amazed, to learn that they are ordaining and placing their hopes in some men who are more subtle than but nonetheless psychological twins to the priests whose incomplete personal growth lay coiled at the heart of the sex abuse scandal. . . .

The healthy, theologically sophisticated Catholics who belong to such movements as the Voice of the Faithful or Future Church, love the Church, want to support good priests, and are not leading a revolution against their bishops whose authority they respect and with whom they seek to collaborate in building the 21st century Church. 

The bishops and many priests, however, are hesitant to meet with members of such groups and in various ways, such as denying them meeting room on Catholic property, indicate their apparent fear that its members are heretics or worse. The leadership of the official Church appears to be less comfortable relating to adult lay Catholics than they are to immature members of the clergy. . . .

We might sum up the problem and its cure in this way: Church officials might well listen more to the Catholics they currently don’t trust and trust less the clergy to whom they currently listen. 

─Eugene Cullen Kennedy

This is my brain...on Catholicism?

Want to guess who first alerted me to the research report about faster brain shrinkage among Catholics, born-again Protestants, and atheists? The email included this observation, "Now this explains why you became Roman Catholic." Very funny.

Really, I did laugh. But after reviewing the methodology, I know this research couldn't possibly apply to my aging hippocampus.

Participants, all 268 of 'em, were primarily "Southeastern Protestant Christians" aged 58 and older. I, on the other hand am a Jew who was born in NYC to parents from Brooklyn; Jesus didn't show up on my radar as Christ until I was in my 40s; cavorting with Jesuits has helped my thinking expand; and being Roman Catholic does, at times, make my brain explode. Dayenu.

An Author's Life: Anne Rice Quits "Being a Christian" (XIX)

Too late to comment on author Anne Rice's recent announcement about ix-naying "being a Christian"? Even if it is, I cannot resist.

This tempest-tossed teacup event happened on Facebook while I was offline this past weekend. When I finally logged on, my emailbox was filled with notes from friends and posts delivered via RSS feeds. Today's Twitter stream has, bobbing through it, links to commentaries about Rice's declaration.

My favorite has been written by Evangelical Lutheran Church of America pastor Joelle Colville-Hanson whose trenchant observations about Christian community are well worth reading and re-reading. I especially love the Bonhoeffer quote, which I'm considering translating into gender-neutral language and rendering in needlepoint.

In the fight for primacy among multiple identities (mine) ─ sociologist, author, editor, blogger, 1st century Jew, abbess, Roman Catholic Christian, gadfly ─ editor is winning. As such, I'd like to suggest that in her haste to boost clicks (or book sales?), Anne Rice screwed up her categories.

Had I been her editor, I would've kicked the text back to Anne with this note, "Check your terminology. Given the narrative, I believe you wish to announce you're quitting the 'Roman Catholic church' rather than quitting 'being a Christian.' May I have your famous collection of crucifixes if you're finished with them?"

And it looks like I'm not the only one to zoom in on that denominational detail.

Our enterprising sisters and brothers in the Episcopal Church, more specifically the wags at Episcopal Cafe, have set up a page, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes Anne Rice" on Facebook. Love this great market-share-grabbing description: "We broke up with the Catholic Church, too--in 1536 or so. In fact, many Episcopalians are former Catholics."

Meanwhile, I'm amusing myself by humming this hymn: