Cardinal Mahony tells anti-priestly-celibacy Aussie bishop to stay away
The L.A. Times reported Saturday (click on this post's title) that Cardinal Mahony, San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer and other bishops have, at the urging of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, told Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney they are forbidding him to speak in their dioceses.
Bishop Robinson, 70, is going to speak in those places anyway. That is what you would expect from a stubborn advocate of ending mandatory priestly celibacy. You know what the saints have said about pride and obstinacy.
As you also might expect, Voice of the Faithful is in on Bishop Robinson's speaking tour.
Now that Cardinal Mahony has written Bishop Robinson, he needs to write a similar missive to himself:
"Note to Self: Stop inviting advocates and near-advocates of ending priestly celibacy to speak at my Religious Education Conference every year."
In fact, we should all write "Bishop Robinson" letters to the Cardinal, asking him to clean up the wREC.
What if Bishop Robinson holds a news conference outside the Cathedral and says, "I'm not advocating anything that some REC speakers haven't advocated at some point during their careers. Nyahhh."
Bishop Robinson, 70, is going to speak in those places anyway. That is what you would expect from a stubborn advocate of ending mandatory priestly celibacy. You know what the saints have said about pride and obstinacy.
As you also might expect, Voice of the Faithful is in on Bishop Robinson's speaking tour.
Now that Cardinal Mahony has written Bishop Robinson, he needs to write a similar missive to himself:
"Note to Self: Stop inviting advocates and near-advocates of ending priestly celibacy to speak at my Religious Education Conference every year."
In fact, we should all write "Bishop Robinson" letters to the Cardinal, asking him to clean up the wREC.
What if Bishop Robinson holds a news conference outside the Cathedral and says, "I'm not advocating anything that some REC speakers haven't advocated at some point during their careers. Nyahhh."
posted by Quintero at 10:03 PM
6 Comments:
Hi, Q.
Even though Archbishop Niederauer requested that Bishop Robinson not speak in the Archdiocese of San Fancisco, it looks like USF(surprise, surprise) will host him this Friday. Here's the link:
http://www.votf-sf.org/
Dear Gibbons,
Thank you for the update! The U. of San Francisco has had problems for at least the past 40 years, as you know, and this is another one.
Thanks for being an eagle-eye defender of the Faith!
Quintero, celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine; therefore, it can be changed.
Of course, optional celibacy is no panacea for the problems that the clerical sex-abuse crisis brought on (and reflects). Yet I'll bet you that if the Church had a cadre of married priests w/children, you might not see the Lavender Mafia crop up.
Anybody want to talk about that/
Dear Joseph,,
The Anglican Communion has married clergy, but that hasn't stopped them from having a Lavender Mafia.
Quite true, Quintero; the Eastern Orthodox have the same problem regarding child abuse. Even so, I can't believe that all married Catholic priests would condescend so quickly to "tolerating" open homosexual activity. Maybe I'm just looking at my own male Catholic friends and projecting.
If a celibate priesthood doesn't contribute to the problem, then what does? Homosexuality? OK but who or what allows homosexual clergy to form a "lavender mafia"? Ultimately, the issue comes back to accountability, regardless of the priests' sexual behavior.
Dear Joseph,
The Vatican document of 1961 that said not to admit homosexuals to the seminary has been disobeyed for 47 years, with the result that many homosexuals were ordained and some were consecrated bishops.
Some unprecedented course of action by the Church is needed to unravel this awful knot. But even at this late date, not everyone sees that need or wants it.
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