My Kitchen Table

The Catholic Church will never be at home in a secular democracy

The controversy surrounding Notre Dame University's invitation to President Obama shows why the Catholic Church will never be at home or comfortable in a secular democracy or in a tradition of academic freedom. That doesn't mean, of course, that Catholic universities will kowtow to the Vatican. They've shown many times that they won't, to their everlasting credit. But the negative reaction of US bishops to the idea of honoring President Obama is illustrative of how small-minded and conservative the church has become.

The president of the United States represents all Americans. I think it's fine if students want to protest his appearance on campus - that's absolutely in the American tradition. And if you look at the overall score sheet, there is little doubt that the church would agree with most of Obama's policies. (Not to mention that Obama is not a Catholic, so is not restricted by any church teachings on the matter.)

But where you stand on abortion has become the only way to determine if you are a "real" Catholic. As a former Catholic who left the church for a wide range of reasons, it saddens me to see the church increasingly retreat into conservative, insular positions. The many bone-headed statements of Benedict XVI, which result in him spending as much time apologizing and backtracking as shepherding the flock, are the best example of a church bureaucracy trying to pull the church back to a time in which the world no longer exists, or wants to exist.

There are many good people in the Catholic Church. It's unfortunate that they are lead by such a close-minded group of aging males.

Merkel: Pope must clarify Holocaust stance

It seems that Pope Benedict's veer towards the support of individuals and organizations that are anti-Semitic has provoked the wrath of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Association Press reports that Merkel says the Pope must "make 'a very clear statement' rejection of Holocaust denials after a former bishop was rehabilitated by the Vatican."

Her rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson, who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed during the Nazi Holocaust.

Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the firestorm of controversy that broke out after Williamson's rehabilitation by the German-born pope.

The Vatican, not one to book demands from a mere woman, said the Pope had already clarified his stance. "The pope's thinking on the subject of the Holocaust has been expressed very clearly," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

This is beginning to spin out of Benedict's control. Even the Catholic Cardinal from Mainz, Germany has called for called for an apology from "a high level." Cardinal Karl Lehmann said ""There must also be consequences for those who are responsible for this."

Christopher Hitchens: Pope's decisions affect us, even if we're not Catholic

This is a very interesting, absolutely controversial article from writer Christopher Hitchens which argues that Pope Benedict's recent decisions that allowed a Holocaust dening bishop back into the church, along with his embrace of those with far-right, anti-Semitic pre-Vatican II beliefs is something that all people, not just more liberal Catholics should ne concerned about.

Hitchens is a well-known atheist, so he says in one way, what the Pope does or doesn't do matters not to him. But his argument is that by endorsing people and measures (like the Latinate mass that include a prayer on Good Friday for the conversion of the Jews') who are so openly against Jews, he is undermining the fight against anti-Semitism everywhere. Here is how he ends his article:

As a nonbeliever, this is not my problem. But the indulgence of prejudice and paranoia under the cloak of faith is my problem as a citizen. As with Cardinal Bernard Law, the enabler of child-molestation, who is now sheltered by Rome and who was able to vote in the election of Ratzinger as pope, so with those who slander the Jews with innuendo and worse, and who spread the vile libels that blame the democratic United States for the theocratic terrorist attacks upon it. One might think a responsible church would be indignantly arraigning and expelling such people rather than piously seeking reconciliation with them. Apparently, one would be wrong.

British nurse suspended for offering to pray for patient

This is an interesting example of how religion is handled differently in the US and Europe. The BBC reports on a community nurse who changed a leg dressing for a 70-year old woman and then asked if she wanted her to pray for her. The woman, who had not asked for any kind of pray, said no. The next day the elderly woman mentioned the incident to her sister. She said she was not offended, but was worried that someone might be. The sister contacted the community trust that the nurse works for and she has been suspended pending an investigation.

In the US, offending someone by offering to pray for them would probably not generate even a warning. Heck, in this country doctors can violate their Hippocratic Oaths and nurses and pharmacists can refuse to serve people if they feel it "violates" their religious beliefs. As this case shows, if they did that in Britain they would probably get canned.

It's my guess that the nurse in question won't lose her job, but she'll be warned not to offer to pray for people again unless they ask her to do so.

Pope appoints Harry Potter hater to Bishop

Benedict is on a roll.

After restoring a British holocaust denier to the status of bishop in the Catholic Church recently, the BBC reports that Saturday the Pope "promoted ultra-conservative cleric Fr Gerhard Maria Wagner to assistant bishop of the Austrian city of Linz."

Fr Wagner is also notorious for his extreme views - he has accused the popular Harry Potter novels of spreading Satanism, and described Hurricane Katrina as God's punishment for the sinners of New Orleans.

He wrote in a parish newsletter that the death and destruction caused by the hurricane in New Orleans was divine retribution for the city's tolerance of homosexuals and permissive sexual attitudes.

Well, the Pope is certainly putting his stamp on the church with these decisions. Soon, Vatican II is just going to be a note in the history books.

PS: Here is a defense of the Pope's decisions by "The Catholic Online." I just love the logical twists in this piece. For instance, it notes that the Holocaust denying Bishop has apologized. But what piece doesn't note is that he has only apologized for "shaming the church." He has not apologized for his views at all.

Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church's malcontents

The decision this week by the conservative Pope Benedict to reinstate four excommunicated ultraconservative bishops -- including a well-known Holocaust denier -- is as clear a sign as possible to the Catholic Church's more liberal members that you are not welcome in the fold any more.

I completely agree with a piece I read earlier this week that Benedict's decisions show a clear plan - he has decided that he would rather have a smaller church of hard-core fundamentalist believers, rather than a "big tent" Catholic Church that welcomes a variety of believers. Under Benedict's rule, there will be a continuing erosion of relations with other religions because in his heart he believes they are all "doomed" because they are not Catholic. It's like that old joke about St. Peter showing a new arrival around and whispering as they walk by a particular section of heaven "Shhh. Those are the Catholics. They think they're the only ones up here."

But you can see trouble coming down the road. As the church moves more and more in a conservative direction, which will continue long past Benedict because guess who gets to pick the Cardinals who gets to pick his successor, tension with the Western democracies, the US in particular, will continue to grow. Fewer and fewer women will belong to a church that basically sees them as second-class citizens. More open-mined Catholics will start to leave in larger numbers. (This is what Benedict wants, of course).

But don't be surprised if, within the next 10 to 20 years, a new schism appears in the Catholic Church. I can easily see the day when the "American Catholic Church" will break away from Rome. Unwilling to accept the authority of a Rome-based hierarchy they see as morally bankrupt and bigoted, American Catholics will look to start a church that will more accurately mirror their beliefs.

I dont see anything that can stop this from happening in some form. It's like a train barreling down the tracks. You can hear the whistle in the distance and you know nothing is doing to slow it down.

A twisted religious view of Obama

This video piece by the Guardian, which is reporting on the election in American, hits on the problem that I have with religion in general. An otherwise intelligent person in Iowa whose view of the world has been so twisted by religion that he actually believes that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. It's even more scary that he's not alone. These are the people who make me fear the most for the future of my country.

The "rank stench" of repressive religion

It's Banned Book Week in the US. and Philip Pullman, the author of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy (three of the best books I've ever read) has an interesting reflection on the role that religion plays in censorship

... when it comes to banning books, religion is the worst reason of the lot. Religion, uncontaminated by power, can be the source of a great deal of private solace, artistic inspiration, and moral wisdom. But when it gets its hands on the levers of political or social authority, it goes rotten very quickly indeed.

The rank stench of oppression wafts from every authoritarian church, chapel, temple, mosque, or synagogue – from every place of worship where the priests have the power to meddle in the social and intellectual lives of their flocks, from every presidential palace or prime ministerial office where civil leaders have to pander to religious ones.

My basic objection to religion is not that it isn't true; I like plenty of things that aren't true. It's that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good.

I love Pullman's lead paragraph in the Guardian article about book banning.

When I heard that my novel The Golden Compass (the name in the USA of Northern Lights) appeared in the top five of the American Library Association's list of 2007's most challenged books, my immediate and ignoble response was glee. Firstly, I had obviously annoyed a lot of censorious people, and secondly, any ban would provoke interested readers to move from the library, where they couldn't get hold of my novel, to the bookshops, where they could. That, after all, was exactly what happened when a group called the Catholic League decided to object to the film of The Golden Compass when it was released at the end of last year. The box office suffered, but the book sales went up – a long way up, to my gratification.

As Pullman notes, censorship never works. It just drives people to read, view or listen to, the banned material. You would think that after 2000 years, the Catholic Church would have realized this by now.