Catholic Theologians, Educators, and Lay Leaders Call for All U.S. Bishops to Resign

A group of 1,300 Catholic theologians, educators, parishioners, and lay leaders has released a statement on Clergy Sexual Abuse in the United States and are urging others to join in signing a petition (the petition can be signed here) demanding that ALL of the Catholic bishops in the United States resign.  Why the much stronger reaction than in the wake of the sex abuse bombshell in Boston in 2002?  Most likely because (i) most of the world now knows that the rampant sexual abuse of children and minors by Catholic clergy is a global problem, and (ii) the recently released grand jury report contains detailed information on the cover ups engaged in bishops - cover ups that involve abuse much more recent that what the Church would pretend only happened in the 1950's and 1960's. I have long maintained that only a thorough and complete house cleaning of bishops involved in cover ups would begin to scratch the surface of ending the toxic misrule of self-styled "princes of the Church." In addition, a jettisoning of the Church's 12th century dogma on human sexuality is needed.  (Well over a decade ago, the Dallas Morning News documented that roughly 2/3 of U.S. Bishops had been involved in cover ups, including Walter Sullivan, the former bishop of Richmond.) Will bishops listen to the demands of the petitioners?  I will not be holding my breath since most, I suspect, care more about power, position and perks of office far more than they care about the Gospel of Christ.  Here are highlights from the statement:

In Tuesday, August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a comprehensive grand jury report documenting the sexual abuse of over 1,000 children by 301 priests across six Pennsylvania dioceses. The document chronicles, with nauseating clarity, seven decades of clergy sexual abuse and systematic cover-ups by bishops and others in positions of power. The report comes in the wake of last months’ revelations of decades of sexual predation by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and in the long shadow of the sexual abuse crisis in Boston and beyond.

The crimes detailed in the grand jury report evince a horror beyond expression. The report summarizes the situation thus: “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”

Today, we call on the Catholic Bishops of the United States to prayerfully and genuinely consider submitting to Pope Francis their collective resignation as a public act of repentance and lamentation before God and God’s People.

We urge them to follow the example of Chile’s thirty-four bishops, who resigned collectively in May of this year after revelations of widespread sexual abuse and corruption were brought to light. Through prudent discernment, Pope Francis ultimately accepted three of these thirty-four resignations. It should be noted that the active bishop-to-Catholic ratio is almost the same in Chile and the United States, and that the geographical scope of the crisis in this country appears to surpass that of Chile.

The catastrophic scale and historical magnitude of the abuse makes clear that this is not a case of “a few bad apples” but rather a radical systemic injustice manifested at every level of the Church. Systemic sin cannot be ended through individual goodwill. Its wounds are not healed through statements, internal investigations, or public relations campaigns but rather through collective accountability, transparency, and truth-telling. We are responsible for the house we live in, even if we did not build it ourselves. This is why we call on the U.S. Bishops to offer their resignations collectively, in recognition of the systemic nature of this evil.

If we are to say “never again” to this catastrophic epidemic of sexual violence within the Church, then structural change on a scale previously unimaginable is required. . . . . As a collective body, the bishops have given the faithful little indication that they recognize and take accountability for the breathtaking magnitude of the violence and deceit that has continued unabated under their leadership. Thus, we call on them to follow Christ’s example in offering to the people a willing abdication of earthly status. This is a public act of penance and sorrow, absent of which no genuine process of healing and reform can begin.

We, the undersigned, teach in Catholic schools, colleges, universities, and graduate programs. We work in parishes, retreat centers, and diocesan offices. We are parishioners, lay ecclesial ministers, liturgical musicians, catechists, pastoral care workers, youth and young adult ministers, chaplains, parish workers, community advocates, students, teachers, professors, librarians, and researchers. We are mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, sons and daughters, vowed religious. We are the baptized.

We stand in solidarity with the thousands of victims, named and unnamed, whom predatory priests, protected by the willing silence of many bishops, have raped, abused, brainwashed, traumatized, and dehumanized. We stand with those driven to alcoholism and drug addiction, to mental illness and suicide. We grieve with their families and communities.

We grieve in a different but no less profound way for our students, children, families, parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, and all of those we love who have left or will leave the Church because they have found its leaders unworthy of trust.

Thus, we call on you, Bishops of the United States, to consider this humble and public act of penance on behalf of us all. Let it be the first of many steps toward justice, transparency, and conversion. Only then might the wrenching work of healing begin.

For those who are still Catholic I urge you to sign the petition.  The Church hierarchy will only act if confronted with overwhelming pressure. Beside signing the petition, consider (i) refraining from further financial support of the Church until real change and a house cleaning occurs - and tell you parish why you are doing so or (ii) simply walking away.  The Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America provide wonderful alternatives with liturgical masses and without the utterly corrupt Church hierarchy.

U.S. Bishops: Masturbation Larger Concern than Climate Change or the Poor

While Pope Francis seems to be trying to drag the Roman Catholic Church at least somewhat out the dark ages and end the Church's obsession with all things sexual,  the U.S. Catholic Bishops are having none of it.   At their fall plenary session, they made it clear that pornography are larger concerns than climate change, wealth disparities or the need to assist the poor and less fortunate.  These bitter old men are truly psychologically disturbed and are obviously unfit to give moral guidance to anyone.  A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the continuing bizarre obsession of the same group that has fought tooth and claw to avoid just compensation to victims of predatory priest.  Here are highlights:

In another sign of just how far the agendas of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis have diverged, it’s worth noting that at their recently concluded fall plenary, the bishops signaled strongly about what’s on their radar when the only formal pastoral statement they issued was about what they consider a pressing pastoral crisis—pornography.

The bishops couldn’t be bothered to add either the environment or the plight of distressed peoples—whether they be refugees and immigrants or the poor—to their list of key priorities, despite the fact that they are a clear priority for Francis . . . . there was virtually no mention of growing economic inequality or the corrosive effects of unfettered capitalism. But pornography got a 22-page official pastoral statement.

Chief among the sins that pornography can lead to, according to the bishops, is masturbation, in a warning that appears to come from a 1950s anti-masturbation PSA:

While popular culture largely sees it as acceptable, masturbation is always gravely contrary to chastity and the dignity of one’s body. Like other sins against chastity, it seeks sexual pleasure outside of the mutual self-giving and fruitful intimacy of spouses in marriage, in this case, even outside of any relationship at all. In addition, engaging in masturbation has powerful neurological effects that can make it into a highly addictive behavior.

And in case that isn’t enough to scare you off porn, other potential consequences include “adultery, domestic violence, the abuse of children in child pornography, and sex trafficking,” as well as abortion and contraception, since pornography “promotes and even celebrates promiscuity and a view of sexuality devoid of love or openness to new life.”

It’s a little rich for an institution that’s still struggling to come to terms with sexual predators in its midst to warn about child pornography, which is obviously a heinous crime completely apart from the adult viewing of consensually made pornography.

These warped and bitter old men are unbelievable.  And people wonder why the younger generations are walking away from religion.

US Catholic Bishops Are Ignoring Pope Francis' Message

The Republican Party is not the only group that is denying reality and changing attitudes towards LGBT individuals.  In lock step you will find U.S. Catholic bishops continuing to double down on anti-gay bigotry - as well as discrimination against divorced Catholics in the case of the despicable Bishop of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia.  This despite the message that Pope Francis has seemingly tried to send that business as usual is not going to cut it, especially as the Catholic Church suffers membership loses across the globe except in backward, uneducated regions of Africa (ignorance and lack of education being a prerequisite to embracing the Christian narrative).   A piece in the National Catholic Reporter looks at the U.S. Bishops' subversion of Pope Francis' message.  Here are excerpts:

There have been a number of recent firings of gay or lesbian employees within the Catholic church in the United States. Principals, teachers and a variety of parish ministers are among those who have been fired. Gay priests and women religious have been dismissed from significant positions of influence. Fr. Warren Hall, a gay priest and chaplain at Seton Hall University, was removed from his position by the archbishop of Newark, N.J.

Hall has written a letter to Pope Francis requesting a meeting with the LGBT community within the church when Pope Francis visits the United States in September. In his letter, Hall writes, "Good teachers are being fired, pastoral and compassionate priests and religious women are being silenced ... and good, faith-filled people are leaving the Church as they witness all of this happening."

It is clear that bishops have the power to make these decisions and to hire and fire for any reason or for no reason. Having the power to do something, however, is not the same thing as it being the right thing to do. It is interesting to note that the bishop, not the school, made the decision regarding Hall.
Schools, hospitals, universities, etc. have often been pleased or satisfied with their own employees, yet bishops have seen fit to intervene. There is also the issue of firing people who are doing a good job, as Hall himself notes.

[T]he bishops appear to be ignoring the words of Pope Francis. Pope Francis has made no attempt to change any church doctrine, and there is no indication he has any plans to. Conservatives should be happy about this. However, Pope Francis has also made clear that there does need to be a dramatic change in the way the church does business. Gone are the days of wholesale condemnation. Instead, we need to live in the world and embrace God's creatures and creation as good. A new openness is needed . . .

Why are the bishops not hearing or responding to this message? Do they simply not get it? Do they just not agree with the pope and are choosing to defy or ignore the Francis message? Do they believe that Francis won't be around that long and they will just wait it out until a pope more to their liking comes along?

What they need to understand is that this is not just about Francis. This is about coming to grips with the world around them. Bishops need to recognize that today's culture has moved to a different place on a number of issues. They can choose to stand on the sidelines and become more and more irrelevant. In doing so, they will find that fewer and fewer members even of the faithful will bother to listen to what they have to say.

The alternative is to be more welcoming to the world around them. Bishops need to stop the knee-jerk reaction of forcefully condemning every statement that they don't understand or disagree with. . . . How refreshing it would be if the bishops were to choose to be a part of the world rather than isolating themselves and ensuring that their utterances are not seen as constructive or helpful to the wider world around them. Ultimately, the bishops need to shed their attachment to power and learn to serve as did the Lord Jesus.

Will the bishops get the message?  Probably not.  The majority are likely self-loathing closet cases who cannot stand the fact that some gays have come to terms with their sexuality.  They are bitter, nasty men who have no concept of the real world and who surround themselves with sycophants  and pandering ass kissers. It is they, along with other Christofascists who are slowly but surely killing Christianity.

The Insidious Threat of the Catholic Church Owning Your Doctor

With science deniers and Christofascists pushing for "religious liberty laws" that apply to businesses, not just individuals, the argument takes on a whole new dimension when you realize that eight of the largest health care systems in America are owned by the Catholic Church.. As I have argued before, business entities do not merit conscience clauses or religious belief exemptions that allow them to flout general laws and, worse yet, discriminate against citizens.  The rule ought to be that they either comply with all applicable laws or lose their tax-exempt status.  A piece in Salon looks at the threat posed by the Catholic Church's control of major health care systems.  Here are highlights:

Angela Valavanis had already had one bad encounter with the Catholic health care system when St. Francis Hospital, the hospital in Evanston, Ill., where she delivered her second baby, refused to allow her OB/GYN to tie her tubes because of Catholic restrictions on the procedure. When she went to her doctor’s office for a check-up after the birth and asked about going back on the Pill, since she hadn’t gotten the sterilization she wanted, she got another shock: “My doctor told me that she couldn’t prescribe birth control because she had sold her practice to a Catholic health system,” said Angela. “My mouth dropped open. I was so confused to hear those words coming out of the mouth of an OB/GYN.”

An OB/GYN who can’t prescribe birth control? It’s not some bad joke. It could be a reality if your doctor’s practice is purchased by a Catholic health system that then imposes the Ethical & Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a set of rules created by the U.S. Bishop’s Conference that prohibits doctors from doing everything from prescribing the Pill to performing sterilizations or abortions.

And Angela’s experience may be just the tip of the iceberg. Driven by health-care economics and incentives in the Affordable Care Act, health systems, which are a collection of hospitals and ancillary services, are acquiring physician practices at an unprecedented rate. The percentage of doctors who were employees of health systems increased from 20 percent to 26 percent between 2012 and 2013 alone; more than 40 percent of primary care doctors like OB/GYNs are now employed by health systems directly, and experts don’t see the trend slowing.

And with Catholic hospital systems accounting for eight of the 10 of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S., these hospitals are poised to become major owners of doctors’ offices, which could severely impede access to contraceptives if doctors are forced to follow the Directives. “The more we see these Catholic systems buying up these practices, the more we are going to see what Angela saw,” predicted Lorie Chaiten, director of the Illinois ACLU’s Reproductive Rights Project, who notes that such refusals are legal under Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

[F]or some women, changing doctors may not be an option. Health insurers are becoming increasingly restrictive about which hospitals and doctors a patient is allowed to use and may charge a steep penalty for going out of the network of preferred providers. Smaller towns and rural areas may not have a large selection of OB/GYNs. The ACLU is backing a measure in the Illinois Legislature that would require health systems to tell patients beforehand what services they don’t provide and where they can get them. Chaiten also encourages women who have been denied reproductive health services for religious reason to report it to the ACLU, which is tracking this trend.

Ironically, Angela’s experience with her OB/GYN wasn’t her last run-in with Catholic health care. After she was refused a tubal ligation and a prescription for birth control, Angela’s husband decided to get a vasectomy. His doctor, who was also part of the Catholic system, said his practice couldn’t do the procedure or make a referral. “The whole situation is so unbelievable to me. I had no idea these limitations occurred,” she says. “When I tell my friends about it, they say it’s medieval. We have to worry that if they keep buying up all these practices, it will get harder and harder to find someone who can prescribe birth control.”

And lest we forget, the Roman Catholic Church is exceedingly anti-gay and one has to wonder who married days and the families will fare under the Medieval world view of the U.S. Catholic Bishops.

Why Republicans Are Losing the Virginia Governor's Race

I've continued to argue that the main reason Ken Cuccinelli seems to be headed towards defeat in the Virginia gubernatorial elections in a week and a half is because - besides being clinically mentally ill in my opinion - Cuccinelli is far to extreme on so-called social issues and has no real plan to fix Virginia's broken transportation system or create new jobs other than perhaps low paying call center jobs.  Unknown apparently to Cuccinelli is the fact that unlike the folks at The Family Foundation and within the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, Virginians are not obsessed with re-criminalizing homosexuality, banning contraception, restricting sex to the "missionary position, and diverting taxpayer dollars to support religious schools.  A piece in Rolling Stone echo's my sentiments and slams Cuccinelli for bringing the equally insane Rick Santorum to Virginia for his last ditch effort to energize voters.  Here are story highlights:

For many Republican politicians, the chaos and bad blood that resulted from the recent Tea Party government shutdown will be a long-forgotten memory by the next time their constituents go to the ballot box. But for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, judgment day is just two weeks away. To overcome the public relations disaster of his party's recent hostile takeover of the federal branch – as well as his own lagging polling – the state's attorney general and wannabe-governor is going to have to bring out some big guns in the final days of the campaign. His secret weapon? Santorum.

Yes, with a nearly double-digit deficit and a 25-point gender gap, Team Cuccinelli has decided the best way to close in on Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe is to have former Pennsylvania senator, failed presidential candidate and rabid "traditional family values" stalwart Rick Santorum ride into town for a get-out-the-vote crusade. Santorum is joining Christian conservative luminaries like the Duggars – the famous Quiverfull family and reality television stars, who also enjoy discussing the evils of birth control and comparing abortion to the Nazi Holocaust.

The addition of Santorum's supporters as a door-knocking "strikeforce" for Cuccinelli makes a great deal of sense. After all, Santorum believes gay marriage would lead to "man on dog" sex, and Cuccinelli keeps urging the courts to make consensual oral and anal sex illegal. It's a totally platonic same-sex match made in heaven.  

It's also completely the wrong way to play the last weeks of an already faltering campaign, especially after the GOP disaster that was the recent government shutdown and attempt to defund Obamacare.

Instead of following the example of Christie or learning from the upset in Florida, Cuccinelli appears determined to double down on the same far right, Christian conservative extremism that put the country into financial jeopardy just a week ago.  He stomped with Tea Party superstar Sen. Ted Cruz while Congress was still in a deadlock, and appeared with Fox News commentator and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who commended Cuccinelli for his leadership in suing to have Obamacare declared unconstitutional.

In fact, the Cuccinelli campaign has moved so far to the right at this point that the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a mostly reliable Republican endorsement machine prior to election day, threw up its hands and refused to endorse any candidate in the race at all.  Their reason? Cucinelli's extreme stance on social issues makes him unelectable.

While the newest additions to the campaign trail are unlikely to win over any moderate Virginia voters – and they definitely won't eliminate Cuccinelli's massive deficit among women – the GOP candidate is likely hoping that bringing in the best and brightest of the Tea Party will convince his party's most extreme fringe to show up at the polls in droves.  It's a risky gamble, even more so after the massive disaster that was the government shutdown.

If Cuccinelli's strategy does work, however, expect this to be the first battle of the 2014 culture wars. And be sure to stock up on birth control while you can still get it.

I continue to stand by my view that Cuccinelli - and Santorum too, for that matter - is a self-loathing closet case who is obsessed with regulating everyone else's sex lives because he is so twisted when it comes to dealing with his own sexual orientation.   No one in good mental health and comfortable with who they are is this obsessed with other people's sex lives and homosexuality. Message to Ken: fathering lots of children doesn't make you straight.