In response to a portion of your title, "where we might be going" i would like to add the chinese proverb, "If we don't change the direction in which we are headed, we will end up where we are going."
I'd also like to drill down on one of your points. You mentioned Sr. Carol Keehan who has justly become the poster child for "faithful dissent" within the church. But she is not alone. I've witnessed considerable dissent, here is one example. On March 22, 2010 I received a six paragraph communication from Vincent Caponi CEO of St. Vincent Health head quartered in Indianapolis. Here is part of paragraph 3. "St. Vincent Health, Ascension Health, the Catholic Health Association, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops agree that no federal funding should be used for abortions. The Catholic Health Association has meticulously analyzed the content of the newly enacted healthcare reform legislation, including direct discussions with the authors. CHA concluded that the bill's language fully and adequately ensures that no federal funds would be used for abortions. In addition, to provide support to Representatives concerned about this issue, the Ascension Health Board of Trustees unanimously enacted a resolution in support of the CHA position on March 18, 2010." Upon receipt I immediately responded to several issues in the letter. My first response, by including The US Conference of Catholic Bishops in the first sentence, that may mislead people to believe the the Bishops concurred with the rest of the paragraph. In actuality the Bishops did their own meticulous analysis and found that the bill should be defeated. end part one
part two Even more offensively SVH, CHA and AH all supported the bill even without an Executive Order, they also supported the senate version of the bill that was even more pro-abortion. Look at the date of the unanimous resolution, it reached Bart Stupak and our own Brad Ellsworth during the crucial hours leading up to the final vote. It would not of passed had the blue dogs stood, but when they got this "get out of jail card", produced by Ascension Health and similar ones from the LCWR, they felt they could cave to the enormous pressure from the President. The man at the head of Ascension Health is Anthony Tersigni. Do you wonder if Mr. Tersigni was aware of the US Bishops opposition. Catholic University of America has a prestigous board. Among its members are at least 5 Cardinals and 17 Bishops who have spoken regularly against this pro-abortion legislation. The Board also includes Mr. Tersigni who heads the largest non profit health provider in the nation, he obviously knows these Bishops positions. Mr. Tersigni, Mr. Caponi and their organizations powerful lobbying efforts were in full force supporting of all the bills thus undermining the Bishops teaching authority on faith and morals. Shortly after the bill passed, AH trotted out some fringe theologians to justify their positions of dissent. In a nutshell the theologians said the farther an issue on faith and morals got away from a church doctrine the more room for dissent. I say, its the exact opposite, that is exactly when we should follow the men who have "apostolic succession". The apostles had no doctrine to follow at the council of jerusalem, but their teaching held despite continued dissent. George Weigel wrote an article,"The End of the Bernardin Era". In it he claims "faithful dissent" really took hold in 1968 in the wake of "Humanae Vitae", when the Vatican became convinced several US Bishops were ready to leave the church, possibly causing a huge schism. So they called an un- easy truce which spawned a period of silence allowing many evils to grow. In an attempt to correct our direction as the proverb says ,to keep us from ending up where we are going, we need to take back our hospitals and universities. One big step have Bishops appoint the members of the Boards. For example, St.Vincent Clay Hospital doesn't have a single catholic member who isn't employed by the hospital, who are financially independent to strenuously disagree with its "faithfully dissadent" leadership.
In response to a portion of your title, "where we might be going" i would like to add the chinese proverb, "If we don't change the direction in which we are headed, we will end up where we are going."
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to drill down on one of your points. You mentioned Sr. Carol Keehan who has justly become the poster child for "faithful dissent" within the church. But she is not alone. I've witnessed considerable dissent, here is one example.
On March 22, 2010 I received a six paragraph communication from Vincent Caponi CEO of St. Vincent Health head quartered in Indianapolis.
Here is part of paragraph 3. "St. Vincent Health, Ascension Health, the Catholic Health Association, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops agree that no federal funding should be used for abortions. The Catholic Health Association has meticulously analyzed the content of the newly enacted healthcare reform legislation, including direct discussions with the authors. CHA concluded that the bill's language fully and adequately ensures that no federal funds would be used for abortions. In addition, to provide support to Representatives concerned about this issue, the Ascension Health Board of Trustees unanimously enacted a resolution in support of the CHA position on March 18, 2010."
Upon receipt I immediately responded to several issues in the letter. My first response, by including The US Conference of Catholic Bishops in the first sentence, that may mislead people to believe the the Bishops concurred with the rest of the paragraph. In actuality the Bishops did their own meticulous analysis and found that the bill should be defeated.
end part one
part two
ReplyDeleteEven more offensively SVH, CHA and AH all supported the bill even without an Executive Order, they also supported the senate version of the bill that was even more pro-abortion.
Look at the date of the unanimous resolution,
it reached Bart Stupak and our own Brad Ellsworth during the crucial hours leading up to the final vote. It would not of passed had the blue dogs stood, but when they got this "get out of jail card", produced by Ascension Health and similar ones from the LCWR, they felt they could cave to the enormous pressure from the President.
The man at the head of Ascension Health is Anthony Tersigni. Do you wonder if Mr. Tersigni was aware of the US Bishops opposition. Catholic University of America has a prestigous board. Among its members are at least 5 Cardinals and 17 Bishops who have spoken regularly against this pro-abortion legislation. The Board also includes Mr. Tersigni who heads the largest non profit health provider in the nation, he obviously knows these Bishops positions.
Mr. Tersigni, Mr. Caponi and their organizations powerful lobbying efforts were in full force supporting of all the bills thus undermining the Bishops teaching authority on faith and morals.
Shortly after the bill passed, AH trotted out some fringe theologians to justify their positions of dissent. In a nutshell the theologians said the farther an issue on faith and morals got away from a church doctrine the more room for dissent. I say, its the exact opposite, that is exactly when we should follow the men who have "apostolic succession". The apostles had no doctrine to follow at the council of jerusalem, but their teaching held despite continued dissent.
George Weigel wrote an article,"The End of the Bernardin Era". In it he claims "faithful dissent" really took hold in 1968 in the wake of "Humanae Vitae", when the Vatican became convinced several US Bishops were ready to leave the church, possibly causing a huge schism. So they called an un- easy truce which spawned a period of silence allowing many evils to grow.
In an attempt to correct our direction as the proverb says ,to keep us from ending up where we are going, we need to take back our hospitals and universities. One big step have Bishops appoint the members of the Boards. For example, St.Vincent Clay Hospital doesn't have a single catholic member who isn't employed by the hospital, who are financially independent to strenuously disagree with its "faithfully dissadent" leadership.