www.ismaili.net

ROME: Pope Benedict XVI warned on Sunday that modern culture is pushing God out of people's lives, causing nations once rich in religious faith to lose their identities.

Benedict celebrated a Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to open a worldwide meeting of bishops on the relevance of the Bible for contemporary Catholics.

``Today, nations once rich in faith and vocations are losing their own identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture,'' said Benedict, who has been pushing for religion to be given more room in society.

The meeting of 253 bishops, known as a synod of bishops, will run from Monday through Oct. 26. The Vatican said that despite Benedict's efforts to improve relations with Communist China, no bishops have come from the mainland, although there are prelates from Macau and Hong Kong.

``Surely they tried, I mean the Holy See tried but obviously they could not make agreement,'' Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen said as he entered the basilica.

``Maybe the Holy See welcomes someone that they (the Chinese) would not allow,'' he said, adding that China might try to send a bishop who is not acceptable to the Holy See.

Chinese bishops have not been allowed to travel to similar meetings in the past.

Ties between the Vatican and China's communist government have long been strained. Beijing objects to the Vatican's tradition of having the pope name his own bishops, calling it interference in China.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. In recent years, some of those bishops have received the Vatican's tacit approval.

Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church with bishops loyal to the pope.

A document prepared for the meeting rejects a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge was to clarify for the faithful the relationship of scripture to science. A rabbi will address the conference on Monday in what is believed to be the first time a Jew has participated in such a meeting.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Worl ... .cms#write

Vatican urges psych tests for priests

Philip Pullella
Reuters

Friday, October 31, 2008

Candidates for the Catholic priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out heterosexuals unable to control their sexual urges and men with strong homosexual tendencies, the Vatican said on Thursday.

In a new document -- the second in three years to deal with the effects of a sexual abuse scandal that rocked the church six years ago -- the Vatican said the early detection of "sometimes pathological" psychological defects in men before they become priests would help avoid tragic consequences.

"The church . . . has a duty of discerning a vocation and the suitability of candidates for the priestly ministry," said the document from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education.

"The priestly ministry . . . requires certain abilities as well as moral and theological virtues, which are supported by a human and psychic -- and particularly affective -- equilibrium, so as to allow the subject to be adequately predisposed for giving of himself in the celibate life," it said.

Vatican officials told a news conference the tests would not be obligatory, but decided on a case-by-case basis when seminary rectors wanted to be sure a man was qualified for the priesthood. The testing by a psychologist or psychotherapist should aim to detect "grave immaturity" and imbalances in the candidates' personality.

"Such areas of immaturity would include strong affective dependencies, notable lack of freedom in relations, excessive rigidity of character, lack of loyalty, uncertain sexual identity, and deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc. If this should be the case, the path of formation will have to be interrupted," the document said.

The Vatican said it was "not enough to be sure that (a candidate) is capable of abstaining from sexual activity," but seminary rectors also need to "evaluate his sexual orientation."

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, head of the Vatican department that prepared the report, was asked why a man with deep-seated homosexual tendencies could not become a priest while one with deep-seated heterosexual tendencies could? He said homosexuality was "a deviation, an irregularity and a wound" that did not allow priests to carry out their mission properly.

A sexual abuse scandal first uncovered in the U.S. in 2002, then spread throughout the world, involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests.
SNAP, a U.S.-based group of victims of sexual abuse, said the document did not go far enough. "Catholic officials continue to fixate on the offenders and ignore the larger problem: the church's virtually unchanged culture of secrecy and unchecked power in the hierarchy. These broader factors are deeply rooted in the church and contribute heavily to extensive and ongoing clergy sex abuse and coverup," it said.

Gay groups have accused the church of using homosexuals as scapegoats for the abuse scandals.

Author draws wisdom from hermit lifestyle
Bourgeault to lead workshops, lecture in Calgary

Graeme Morton
Calgary Herald


Sunday, November 02, 2008


Cynthia Bourgeault wears many hats while she acts as a thoughtful, challenging voice on the state of Christianity and spirituality today.

Bourgeault is an author, lecturer, workshop leader, Episcopal (Anglican) priest, grandmother . . . and a hermit.

Yes, there are still hermits in this sophisticated, noisy, urban society -- people who intentionally seek out solitude and silence to allow that quiet, inner voice of the divine to be heard.

"The point is when you're in actual physical reclusion to make it count for something," says Bourgeault, who'll be in Calgary in mid-November for a series of workshops and public lectures based on her new book, The Wisdom Jesus.

"Being constantly busy in the outside world lets us wear all sorts of clothes of our own desiring, which can hide what's underneath. Being in reclusion allows you to take a look at deeper issues," she adds.

Bourgeault divides her year between teaching -- this fall she's at the Vancouver School of Theology -- and pursuing a hermit's lifestyle on Eagle Island, a green dot of land off the coast of Maine.

There, she has built a modest, 900-square-foot home heated by wood and powered by a solar panel, and she proudly notes is mortgage-free.

In summer, Eagle Island can be home for up to 35 people.

During the long off-seasons? "The population can range from zero to three," says Bourgeault with an easy laugh. "There's me and a lobsterman and his wife who are seventh-generation lighthouse keepers." Bourgeault says her Eagle Island solitude and meditation helped her crystallize the intriguing concepts of her latest book.

"In that silence, I came to a realization of a new take on Jesus and seeing where some of the old traditions had gotten stuck," says Bourgeault.

She encourages readers to take a more activist, intensely personal role in revitalizing spirituality and, potentially, a collective western church that is struggling mightily.

"My question is where do you find a frame of reference that connects you to eternal truth," says Bourgeault.

"The western church talks about the eye of the heart which allows you to grasp things fresh from deep within your own inner knowing." Bourgeault says through the centuries, Christians have been conditioned not to trust their own inner voice.

"We've been taught to be sheep and to divest ourselves 0f something we really do know," she adds.

Bourgeault maintains that her concept of Jesus as first and foremost a wisdom teacher in no way "demotes" Him from long-standing veneration as a saviour of a flawed creation. But she says individuals should take responsibility for, and put in the effort through contemplation, of nurturing their own understanding of God and the profound, outside-the-box wisdom of Christ.

The final chapters of The Wisdom Jesus offer instruction on a number of core practices, including meditation, centring prayer, chanting and lectio divina, a four-step sacred reading process designed to open practitioners to Christ's wisdom.

Bourgeault shakes her head at the state of organized Christianity in the western world.

"Some days, I don't know if I'm a midwife or a hospice worker," she says, sighing.

"It looks like traditional Christianity is in a booster rocket stage -- where it's going to cast off something from in its midst that's really new and the rest will tumble back to earth in smouldering ashes." Bourgeault says she's eagerly anticipating heading into a prolonged period of solitude on Eagle Island in April.

"There's a project I want to work on that's going to take some very delicate listening, writing and being present in the moment without much interruption," she adds.

"I have no plans to leave in any big way. Conditions have been moving in a way that I can actually financially sustain more time on the island." Bourgeault will lead a Wisdom Jesus weekend from Nov. 14 to 16 at Christ Church Anglican, 3602 8th St. S.W.

She will be giving a reading and lecture on Nov. 14, a full-day "wisdom school" on Nov. 15 and preaching on Nov. 16 at 10:30 a.m.

Registration and information for the weekend is available online at wisdomcentre.ca or by calling Christ Church at 403-243-4680, ext. 22.

Bourgeault will also give the Swanson Lecture in Christian Spirituality, sponsored by the University of Calgary's Chair of Christian Thought, on Nov. 17 (7:30 p.m.) at Hope Lutheran Church, 3527 Boulton Rd. N.W.

gmorton@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2008

December 13, 2008
Vatican Issues Instruction on Bioethics
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

The Vatican issued its most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research.

The Vatican says these techniques violate the principles that every human life — even an embryo — is sacred, and that babies should be conceived only through intercourse by a married couple.

The 32-page instruction, titled “Dignitas Personae,” or “The Dignity of the Person,” was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and carries the approval and the authority of Pope Benedict XVI.

Under discussion for six years, it is a moral response to bioethical questions raised in the 21 years since the congregation last issued instructions.

It bans the morning-after pill, the intrauterine device and the pill RU-486, saying these can result in what amount to abortions.

The Vatican document reiterates that the church is opposed to research on stem cells derived from embryos. But it does not oppose research on stem cells derived from adults; blood from umbilical cords; or fetuses “who have died of natural causes.”

The document does not prohibit the use of vaccines developed using “cell lines of illicit origin” if children’s health is at stake. But it says that “everyone has the duty” to inform health care providers of personal objections to such vaccines.

The church also objects to freezing embryos, arguing that doing so exposes them to potential damage and manipulation, and that it raises the problem of what to do with frozen embryos that are not implanted. There are at least 400,000 of these in the United States alone.

“Our advice is that freezing should not take place,” said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life. “Because once it is done, you’re in a situation where to correct the error implies a further offense. Once you have them, what do you do with them?”

The Vatican’s intended audience is not only individual Roman Catholics, but also non-Catholic doctors, scientists, medical researchers and legislators who might consider regulating stem cell research and other recent developments in biomedical technology.

In the United States, President-elect Barack Obama has said he will end the restrictions on federal financing of embryonic stem cell research that were instituted by President Bush.

Among the new developments discussed in the document are the attempts by scientists to find alternative techniques of producing embryonic-like stem cells that could ultimately be used in medical treatments, without involving human embryos, said the Rev. Thomas Berg, executive director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, a Catholic ethics institute in New York. He said such techniques could “allow us to get past this cultural divide on stem cell research.”

Father Berg said he was pleased to see that the Vatican document did not prohibit such techniques, although it cautioned that there must be absolute assurance that human embryos were not destroyed in the process.

The document does little to clarify the Vatican’s position on whether couples can “adopt” surplus embryos that have been frozen and abandoned. Such “prenatal adoption,” although rare, has been promoted by some Catholics and evangelical Christians. The document says that while “prenatal adoption” is “praiseworthy,” it presents ethical problems similar to certain types of in vitro fertilization — in particular, surrogate motherhood, which the church prohibits.

Experts said that there was little new in this document, but that it might still come as a surprise to many Catholics who were unaware of the church’s ban on in vitro fertilization.

Kathleen M. Raviele, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Georgia who is president of the Catholic Medical Association, said she tells her patients: “God creates through an act of love, and that’s not what’s happening in the laboratory. It’s the technician who’s creating. What in vitro does, is it separates the creation of a child from the marital act.”

But the Vatican’s opposition to in vitro fertilization seemed neither moral nor intuitive to Josephine Johnston, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute in Garrison, N.Y.

“For a married couple who go to get in vitro fertilization, the Vatican’s idea that it’s not done with a serious amount of love and commitment is very bizarre to me, because it’s such a deliberate act, done in the cold light of day, with enormous amounts of thought and intention attached to it,” she said. “The idea that it’s not done within the spirit of marital love, I find very strange.”

Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, a Jesuit who is secretary of the doctrinal office, said at a news conference in Rome that the document would probably “be accused of containing too many bans.” Nonetheless, he said that the church felt a duty “to give voice to those who have no voice.”

Laurie Goodstein reported from New York, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.

It's Christmas, bring out the babe in the manger

By Nigel HannafordDecember 23, 2008 9:01 AM

I don't ride a donkey, and I haven't wrapped a towel around my head since I did the nativity play myself in fifth grade. How does this actually affect me? Should it, even?
Photograph by : Getty Images

Every year, the gold-painted figurines come out of the box. Joseph, Mary, the infant Jesus, the ox, the ass and three wise men. Briefly, the Middle East of 2,000 years ago is acknowledged if not actually recreated on our mantelpiece. There they will stay until Twelfth Night, at which point it's back in the box for another 50 weeks.

The nativity scene displayed on Christmas cards, posters, in churches, here and there in the window of a believing shopkeeper and brought to life in countless pageants across the country, is the one bit of the religious side of Christmas that you can't dodge at this time of the year--the reason for the season, as it were, right before your eyes.

For that alone, and contra grinch-gonzo Christopher Hitchens whose recent hit-piece on Christmas opened some windows into a soul that appears to desperately need some lovin', I'm all for it. In what Hitchens calls the annual "restatement" of his "core objection" to Christmas, he complains that Christmas paraphernalia is inescapable for a month, rather in the manner of North Korea's "Dear Leader" propaganda for those who live there. No doubt for the atheist Hitchens, and thousands of carol-addled retail clerks, it is a pain in the ear, although one wonders if Hitchens would actually decline a decent bottle of scotch from somebody who wished him a merry Christmas. (Not until he had personally made sure it was decent scotch, I imagine. Were I of his opinions, I would still do no less.)

For myself however, not being an atheist, anything gets my vote that at least keeps the person of Jesus in front of a generation that seldom sees the inside of a church to hear His message of life.

The only problem with the old nativity scene is this: It tends to reinforce the subliminal impression that God entered a different world from the one we live in today. That is, the trappings of life have changed so much in 2,000 years that there's a relevance hurdle to jump: I don't ride a donkey, and I haven't wrapped a towel around my head since I did the nativity play myself in fifth grade. How does this actually affect me? Should it, even?

Now, sometimes a progressive church will attempt a Shakespeare-in-modern dress approach to the nativity play, and have Joseph wheeling Mary down the road on a bicycle with flat tires, only to get refused entry at the Holiday Inn. Jesus is then born in a Dumpster, the star becomes a bright street light, and instead of shepherds keeping their watch by night, He is visited by homeless people. The irony is that these are often the churches that deny the virgin birth, and for the rest of the year advocate a gospel the Saviour never preached.

But, such appeals to contemporary understanding are unnecessary, whoever is putting them on, and with whatever purpose in mind. The fact is that in the things that matter, this old world hasn't changed a bit since Christ was born.

To be precise, culture has evolved, empires rise and fall and technology has advanced beyond ancient imaginings, but one thing has never changed --the nature of mankind.

If people are greedy today, they were so then. Were people angry and full of hate then? Same today. Promiscuity and hypocrisy span the ages, likewise dishonesty, cheating and the bearing of false witness, as the Old Testament describes what we call lying under oath. And, I would wager, today's generation is no more likely to elect Christ prime minister than the one into which he was born: Crucifixion is out of style, happily, but assassination is not, and would remain the likely outcome of a three-year course in miracles and repentance if God's intervention in the world had been deferred to the 21st century.

But, to the enormous gain of the world, it wasn't. Not everybody hears the words of Jesus, and not all who hear, obey. But, how enduringly instructive are His words: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

However imperfectly, Christ's followers have tried to flesh that out over the centuries. It is the source-text for great acts of charity, of learning, and care for others. It is what made ordinary people give up what they had so that they could give their lives to bringing a message of hope to other people weighed down by the burden of their regrets, and their fears. It is what has led millions to lay down their lives, sometimes figuratively but all too often literally, to see a parallel and hidden kingdom take shape and bring blessing wherever it reaches--from the tops of office towers, to the lowliest homes, to prisons, dictatorships, even in the incarnate evil of concentration camps.

You want to know what the world would be like without the spirit of God abroad in it? Ask yourself the same question one of Hitchens' critics asked: If you were starving, who would be more likely to give you a bowl of soup: Mother Teresa, or somebody who thought Chris Hitchens had nailed it?

Same message, same audience, same Saviour, same desperate humanity. If nativity scenes and Christmas carols are the entry points in 21st century Canada, I guess we'll just have to work with them.


© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Pope becomes one of world's oldest YouTube stars


By Philip Pullella, ReutersJanuary 24, 2009 8:01 AM

Pope Benedict on Friday became one of the oldest people to have his own You-Tube channel. He cautioned the young to use new media wisely and avoid online obsessions that can isolate them from real life.

The Vatican channel, www.you-tube.com/vatican, will broadcast short video news clips about the 81-year-old Pope's activities and Vatican and Church events, with audio and text initially in English, Spanish, German and Italian.

The daily video clips will be about two minutes long.They will be produced by the Vatican's television centre and Vatican Radio journalists and web managers.

The channel's launch was combined with the release of the Pope's message for the Church's World Day of Communications, whose theme is"New Technologies, New Relationships:Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship."

Henrique de Castro, managing director of European sales and media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube, told a news conference the YouTube channel will have no advertising and that Google would not make any money from the venture.

"Our strategy is to get people to come to our sites," he said.

The channel marks the Vatican's deepest plunge into new media.

The Vatican's website, www. vatican. va, began in 1995.

In his welcome message to YouTube users, the Pope said he hoped the initiative would be put to "the service of the truth".

In his separate, written message for the church's communications, he cautioned young people to seek quality and not quantity in their online relationships and not to forget human contact.

"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation," the pope wrote.

"If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Praying to the wrong saint?


Calgary HeraldFebruary 14, 2009

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Valentine, the patron saint of happy unions. And for those who are not part of a happy couple, you're out of luck. The Catholic Church has just issued one more reason for lovelorn singletons to boycott St. Valentine's Day: Val, it seems, only blesses those who have already found true love.

But don't despair.The Catholic Church has a patron saint for everything, and within its canon, the angel Raphael is tasked with the job of playing Cupid.

Contrary to popular belief, St. Raphael is the universe's divine matchmaker, helping forge happy partnerships the world over.

"He's the person you should dedicate your day or pray to if you are looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right," says Claire Ward, the spokeswoman for the Catholic Enquiry Office.

According to the Book of Tobit (considered canonical by the Roman Catholic church, but not by Protestants), St. Raphael helped get Tobias to the church on time to marry the virtuous Sarah, after seven of her previous bridegrooms died on the eve of their weddings.

The Catholic office, concerned by a drop in Catholic weddings in England and Wales, even has a website offering a prayer to St. Raphael. He will help singles choose "a good and virtuous spouse," promises the prayer, describing Raphael as a "heavenly helper famed for his matchmaking prowess."

The prayer should be said for nine consecutive days, starting today( http://www.life4seekers.co.uk/lifestyle ... St.Raphael. html).Way to go, Ralphie. Here's hoping the greeting card companies don't find out about ya. In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

This is an interesting article about the notion of sin and institutionalized forgiveness. Has some parallels in our tradition...

February 13, 2009, 8:37 pm
Sin, and Its Indulgences
By The Editors

(Photo: Nicole Bengiveno/New York Times)

Catholic churches have recently revived indulgences, a spiritual tradition that faded away in the 1960’s after the Second Vatican Council. The indulgence, as Paul Vitello of The New York Times explained in a recent article, is “a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife.” Some liberal Catholics see the return of indulgences as a setback to modernization of the church. But church leaders say they deepen the spiritual experience of seeking penance.

What are the historical roots of indulgences and the implications of their revival?

John L. Allen Jr., correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter Robert W. Staffern, professor of medieval history Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of a study on young Catholics Leonard Swidler, professor of Catholic thought

Interesting and related links at;

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... 8ty&emc=ty

Pope out of touch with real world: Vatican insider


Herald News ServicesMarch 20, 2009

Pope Benedict's repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his messages in the Internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders said Thursday.

The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger over the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that AIDS "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

His remarks--and a recent furor over his lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who questioned the Holocaust --has left him looking isolated and out of touch.

One Vatican insider described the Pope's four-year-old papacy as "a disaster," recalling his previous inflammatory remarks on Islam and homosexuality.

"He's out of touch with the real world," the insider said. "There are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against AIDS, and yet the Pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity."

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Facebook users urged to send condoms to Pope

Canwest News ServiceMarch 28, 2009

Pope Benedict was accused on Friday of "distorting" scientific evidence --following his claim that distributing condoms in Africa was exacerbating the HIV-AIDS crisis.

The British publication The Lancet, one of the world's most respected medical journals, demanded a retraction of his comments, which it claimed manipulated science to promote the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear," the journal said in an editorial, which demanded a retraction of the remarks.

The Pope was criticized after saying during his African tour that condoms not only did not help stem the spread of HIV, but they in fact "aggravated" the problem by encouraging promiscuity.

The Vatican faces the prospect of being bombarded with condoms in a protest organized through Facebook, a social networking website. Up to 60,000 people have pledged to send condoms to him in the next few days.

Campaigners described it as "peaceful provocation" by young people.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

****
Harvard Expert Agrees With the Pope - No Proof Condoms Help Slow Infection Rate
Saturday March 28, 2009

A few weeks ago, Pope Benedict XVI was criticized for downplaying the importance of condoms in the fight to slow HIV infection rates. Now a Harvard expert on HIV prevention supports the Pope's position. Edward C. Green director of the AIDS Prevention Center at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies says there is no consistent association between condom availability and HIV infection rates. He claims that if condom distribution was working, after 25 years we should have seen a difference in the infection rate. More conflicting messages about condoms will only make it more difficult to change people's high risk behaviors. While condoms are the only answer they are a very important part of our fight to slow the HIV infection rate.

http://aids.about.com/b/2009/03/28/harv ... tion-2.htm

Christ's cross leads to purpose-filled life for many


By Warren Harbeck, For The Calgary HeraldApril 10, 2009

The cross is inseparable from the message of Easter. For Christianity, it is both a cross of suffering and a cross of victory, a cross of death and a cross of new life.

The 19th century hymn writer John Bowring declares:

In the Cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

And just what is this "sacred story" that has elevated this instrument of unbearable torture into a symbol of unfathomable hope?

No mere trinket dangling from a charm bracelet, the cross in the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago was anything but charming. You could hang from it as a means of execution --capital punishment for all kinds of offences, from murder and insurrection, to theft, and yes, even to accepting the title, "the Messiah, the Son of God,"which, according to the Gospel of Matthew, was Jesus' "offence."

"Offence?" What possible offence could there be in a long-awaited Messiah proclaiming, "Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the pure in heart," "Blessed are the peacemakers,"

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness"?

What possible offence could there be in proclaiming "release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind"?

What possible offence could there be in staring death in the face and praying, "Not what I want but what you want?"

Here was what the invisible, compassionate presence of God looked like in flesh and blood. And in His self-awareness, Jesus dared even to say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

Yet hadn't Jesus taught His followers, that "unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain?"

In enduring the cross and scorning its shame, and anticipating His resurrection from the dead and the outpouring of His Spirit upon many, had He not become that grain that brought forth a field of wheat across the centuries and in all its varieties? Wheat filled with one and the same Spirit that was in Him? Wheat that was to become bread for a spiritually-starved world?

So, was this His ultimate offence? As the Son of God, being that grain of wheat?

And were His accusers and executioners unwitting accomplices in the germination of that grain of wheat?

Jesus' cross, far from being a scandal, became the catalyst for something better. In the cross, the sun had gone down on one day and risen on another.

Exclusivity yielded to inclusivity. Not just a few, but all people of godly longing would find their life's purpose in bearing fruit just as Jesus did, for the same scripture that declares "God is love" goes on to say that, like Him, "so are we in this world."

This linkage of lifestyle with wheat and the cross is brought into sharp focus for Christians in Holy Communion.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life, the wheat that nourishes others through His brokenness. He called on His followers, likewise, to take up the cross and become bread broken for others.

I'll conclude this Good Friday column with the refrain from Rory Cooney's popular hymn, "Bread of Life," often sung during Communion:

I myself am the bread of life,

You and I are the bread of life,

Taken and blessed, broken and shared by Christ,

That the world might live.

Warren Harbeck Is A Scripture scHolar and Writer living in cocHrane.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

April 11, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Finding Our Way Back to Lent
By JAMES CARROLL
Boston

MOST American Catholics were well acquainted with poverty even before the stock market crash of 1929. My mother quit school after eighth grade to add a wage to the family income. Later, she supported my father as he went to night school. Like millions of Catholics, their faith was a source of meaning and dignity at a time when both were in short supply.

The Depression stamped them for life. Born into the aftermath, I was shaped by those years as well. During these past weeks, I’ve worried that we might be facing an unexpected replay of our parents’ and grandparents’ economic distress. But I’ve also been remembering more vividly the Lenten seasons of my midcentury childhood, when I most sharply felt the pull of Catholicism.

By requiring fasting and abstinence, the observance of Lent somehow helped us cope with the multitude of other deprivations we could not choose or escape. My brothers and I gave up candy, but what really impressed us was Mom forgoing Chesterfields and Dad going “on the wagon,” which meant, he laughed, drinking from only the water cart.

From February on, I counted the turning pages of the calendar. The main point was to get through those 40 days. It was the same number of days a famished Jesus spent in the desert and the number of years the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness. “God’s will” was the name we gave to suffering, and God’s grace was the promise that it would end ... eventually.

There was always doom in the air of the penitential season, and Lenten fervor was fueled by dread, as the oft-recited Act of Contrition put it, “of the loss of heaven and the fires of hell.” A damning God demanded penance, sacrifice and constant vigilance. My first wallet, a gift when I received the sacrament of confirmation, came with a card that defined my initiation: “I am a Catholic. In case of an accident, please call a priest.”

The Catholic theology of damnation was mitigated, if not eliminated, by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The dread of Hell evaporated as Catholics embraced a far more positive, all-merciful God. Those wallet cards disappeared overnight, and we started eating meat on Fridays. The sadomasochist in the sky, divine zapper, was gone, along with the gatekeeping role of the clergy.

Lent remains an important part of the Catholic calendar, but self-denial now, more suggested than required, aims less at penitence than at compassionate identification with, as Pope Benedict wrote at the beginning of this year’s Lent, the impoverished “situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live.” Like Lent, today’s economic crisis can help stir that overdue empathy.

Still, as for self-denial, one could be forgiven this year, perhaps, for wanting to give it up. There are plenty of difficulties in everyday life without choosing to increase them. Job loss is hell enough. In affluent America, seemingly out of nowhere, material insecurity has undermined assurance, and familiar structures of order have tumbled with the indexes.

Lent offers one answer to today’s new reality. The season begins with the word “Remember,” uttered as a blot of ashes is smudged on the forehead. Remembering the transience of life — ashes to ashes, dust to dust — remains the essence of the observance. This year, I received my ashes at the Catholic church across the street from Harvard University, where the basilica was surprisingly overflowing with hundreds of undergraduates — a privileged elite attending to what every person has in common, and wants ordinarily to deny.

All things are passing; this is the unsettling fact from which, during normal times, we’ve tried to escape by acquiring money and spending it. A consciousness of our own mortality — made more acute by material worries — reminds us of what matters most in life, including intimations, however they come, of what lies beyond, whatever it is.

Lent concludes today, but this probably isn’t the end of our troubles. There is nothing wrong with job security, and there is nothing right with suffering, but insecurity is normal again. Lent tells us we may as well get used to it — and remember that it always was.

James Carroll, a columnist on leave from the Boston Globe and a scholar in residence at Suffolk University, is the author, most recently, of “Practicing Catholic.”

Easter brings promise of life, hope and redemption

For the Calgary Herald

April 12, 2009

The Cross alone could not explain the Christian faith, indeed, it would remain a tragedy, an indication of the absurdity of being. "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain . . . and you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15: 14-17). Without the fact of the Resurrection, the Christian life would be simply in vain.

The enemies of the Christian faith have attempted to debunk or to deny the Resurrection in many different ways.

For instance, Jesus didn't really die but merely swooned or fainted on the cross; the women went to the wrong tomb; the disciples stole the body; early Christians, either consciously or unconsciously, conformed the story of Jesus to pagan legends and mystery cults surrounding the dying and rising gods; the appearances are apocalyptic creations; the appearances are the result of mass suggestion; the family tomb of Jesus had recently been found in Talpiot (shades of the silly Da Vinci Code all over again). And so on.

It is easy to respond to each of these challenges, but the primary importance is to be accorded to the theme of the appearances, which constitute a fundamental condition for belief in the Risen One who left the tomb empty.

Jesus' resurrection was not a return to a body again subject to death.

It is not to be considered as on the same level as the resuscitation of Lazarus or that of the widow's son of Nairn.

It is essentially the entry of Christ into a new mode of existence, his exaltation in glory.

Certain elements do, however, tend to come up again and again in the various accounts: the fact that the apostles at first doubted; the reality of the body of the Risen Lord; the implicit assertion of Jesus' Lordship in the mission appearances; the link between seeing the Risen Lord and having an official mission.

As a result of these appearances, the disciples are radically transformed.

The disciples, who have not distinguished themselves for their brilliance, and having proved themselves cowardly, suddenly become fearless, and make converts in the very city of Jesus' humiliation and death--even though be-coming a Christian meant a break with the former community, and some were eventually martyred for their preaching.

The Lord's Day is changed from the Sabbath to Sunday and the latter is now perceived as the true Day of the Lord, the day of the new creation.

The novelty of the Resurrection consists in the fact that Jesus, raised from the lowliness of his earthly existence, is constituted Son of God "in power." Jesus, humiliated up to the moment of his death on the cross, can now say to the eleven, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," (Mat-thew 28: 18).

With the Resurrection begins the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to all peoples--the Kingdom of Christ begins--this new Kingdom that knows no power other than that of truth and love. The Resurrection thus reveals definitively the real identity and the extraordinary stature of the Crucified One. An incomparable and towering dignity: Jesus is God!

To live in the belief in Jesus Christ, to live in truth and love implies daily sacrifice, implies suffering. Christianity is not the easy road; it is, rather, a difficult climb, but one illuminated by the light of Christ and by the great hope that is born of him.

The meaning of the Resurrection can't be exhausted but it at least means that history has a goal towards which it moves.

A new age of fulfilment has begun, and it rules out any understanding of human history which appeals to futility. - The right meaning of history's goal is to be seen in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Suffering is not an accidental fluke in an otherwise sensible history but part of its sense,

- History has surprises; there are novelties in the course of history; that the course of history, like the course of our lives, can be changed,
- God not only will act, but He is already acting; constant pressure on the kingdoms of this world,
- The destiny of each one of us is bound up with the destiny of all, and with the whole created reality,
- Judgment and mercy outlast even death,
- Jesus' resurrection proclaims that death, whatever else it negates, does not negate the power of God,
- Jesus's resurrection is a representation of our resurrection, what God has raised was not Jesus's memory or his message, but his person,
- Death does not negate the individual person. Our bodies will be transformed but there will be essential continuity.

The believer, however, finds himself between two poles.

On the one hand, the Resurrection, which in a certain sense is already present and operating within us, and on the other, the urgency to enter into the process which leads everyone and everything towards that fullness described in the Letter to the Romans with a bold image: As the whole of Creation groans and suffers almost as with the pangs of childbirth, so we groan in the expectation of the redemption of our bodies, of our redemption and resurrection (cf. Rom. 8: 18-23).

Fred Henry is the catholic bishop of Calgary

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

What will religion look like in the future?

Movement asks 'what was Jesus really trying to tell us?'

By Graeme Morton, Calgary HeraldApril 26, 2009

To Borrow that old Bob Dylan line, for Christianity in 2009, the times they are a changin'. Almost 700 Calgarians packed the St. Francis High School gym last week to hear Father Richard Rohr, an eloquent voice in the Emerging Church movement, offer one vision of what spirituality and religion might look like in the years to come.

Rohr, a Franciscan priest, popular author and speaker, says the grassroots changes starting to stir in Christianity represent a new style of reformation on a global scale.

"The emerging church is still at the movement level," Rohr told the Calgary audience. "Thankfully, there are no neon signs announcing an 'Emerging Church head office.' But there is this amazing consensus developing among Christians around the world about perhaps what Jesus was really saying to us."

Rohr is optimistic this new, evolving church will develop without the violence that marked the birth of past spiritual turning points in history.

"Religious movements often begin when people think they are leaving something corrupt or wrong, that mindset that other people or faiths must be inferior to us," says Rohr. "Christians are starting to say there's got to be a better way to do things."

Rohr says the emerging church doesn't want to sweep away the existing Christian world, but merely to deepen the spiritual experience of believers in an ecumenical setting.

"Our individual churches and denominations mothered us and we honour that," says Rohr. "But we have to accept that there has been a negative side to every faith. In this emerging church movement, we are rejoicing that the cup is half full, but that there's still a lot of work to be done."

Rohr described four pillars that characterize the emerging church, including what he terms "honest Jesus scholarship," an emphasis on practising personal contemplation, social justice initiatives and the formation of cross-denominational groups to translate this vision into reality.

Rohr says the last pillar, the creation of ecumenical groups for study, prayer and action, is the one still in its relative infancy.

"Belief systems by themselves don't ask much for conversion of us. But if you're down there on the streets, working shoulder to shoulder with society's poor and marginalized, that's when we profoundly change. And we don't need to leave our existing churches to make this happen."

Until recently, the scholarship and interpretation of the scriptures has been a domain dominated by "white, over-educated males," Rohr says. That created a limited view of Christ's message to the world, a scenario Rohr symbolized as, "sometimes you can't see what you haven't been told to look for."

The advent of feminist perspectives on faith and the liberation theology movement from developing nations has been a breath of fresh air for modern Christianity, Rohr reasons.

"Too often in the past, scripture has been used to try to change other people, instead of being used to change ourselves," Rohr says. He lauded liberation theology's imperative to look at what scriptures ask of individuals and communities to change practically and locally, instead of operating on a lofty, theoretical plane. Rohr says the increased interest in, and swelling numbers of Christians exploring and embracing contemplative prayer is pivotal to the vitality of an emerging church. He founded the Center for Contemplation and Action, based in Albuquerque, N. M., in 1987.

"Contemplation changes people at the deepest level; it gives you the tools to live a much richer life," says Rohr. "You understand that prayer can be practised at any time, in any place. I've suggested we as a church should close down all our programs for a couple of years and simply teach people how to pray."

Rohr says the emerging church is developing a strong consensus on the importance of reclaiming a passionate social justice advocacy.

"Too often, Christianity has been a 'prosperity faith' in the past. But we are seeing the importance of a simplicity of lifestyle and a lack of emphasis on material possessions and power. Jesus gloried with being with the 'little people' of his time, not the power brokers," says Rohr.

Rohr is unabashedly liberal in much of his world view, spawning a backlash on some conservative religious websites and blogs where he has been called everything from "new age" to "a filthy theologian" for his stance on faith and homosexuality. He was quick to poke some gentle fun at himself and his Catholic faith, noting he's increasingly being asked by evangelical Christian groups in the U. S. to speak on contemplative prayer.

"They usually want me to wear my (long, brown) Franciscan robes. They think I'm something from the 13th century, so I can tell them almost anything," Rohr says, with a chuckle.

gmorton@theherald.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Gay rights? Female clergy? Not in Africa. An ex-archbishop from B.C. explains why

'If they want to be Biblical literalists, then who are we to tell them they can't be?'
By Douglas Todd, Vancouver SunSeptember 19, 2009

Douglas Hambidge has worked in Africa for the past decade for free. 'You don't have to take the Bible literally to take it seriously. You teach the meaning of the text, not the factuality,' he says.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun

Given his 82 dynamic years in Britain, Canada and, more recently, Africa, the "retired" Anglican archbishop for the Lower Mainland area has developed a strong perspective from which to understand the grim battle tearing through the global Anglican communion.

The day after he ended his 25 years of service as the archbishop for the Lower Mainland region in 1993, Douglas Hambidge jumped on a plane to lend a hand to the growing church in Africa, which is now home to more than half of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

Since then, he has been keeping one foot in the well-off, educated Anglican Church of Canada and the other foot in the poor, often-illiterate Anglican church in Africa.

With his dual outlook, Hambidge may have developed a better overview of his denomination's conflict over same-sex blessings than almost any of us.

His perspective is sobering, although with glimmers of hope.

Before we get to the hopeful part, however, we first need to look at the reality of modern-day Africa, where Hambidge says Western concepts like blessing homosexual relationships and allowing female clergy are in most places simply non-starters.

The rights of homosexuals, and in some cases women, are not even issues wafting in the African wind in many countries, regardless of whether the African is Muslim, Roman Catholic, Anglican or anything else.

To sense just how different a typical African churchgoer is from one in Canada, Hambidge says he once attended a gathering in England where a prominent African Anglican bishop said of homosexuality: "There is no such thing in Africa."

If you are wondering, as I was, which side the retired B.C. archbishop thinks is right and wrong regarding the explosive same-sex blessing issue that is disrupting the Canadian church, Hambidge declines to show his full colours.

That's probably smart, since the current Vancouver-area bishop, Michael Ingham, is judged a liberal lightening rod on the issue, which many African Anglican bishops, and some in North America, are seizing on to campaign for the creation of an entire new arm of Anglicanism, one decidedly more conservative.

Hambidge -- who lives with his wife, Denise, in Tsawwassen, attends the "middle-of-the-road" All Saints Anglican Church in Ladner and regularly travels to preach and talk about his new book on Christian stewardship, titled The Word -- thinks Africans should decide the issue of same-sex blessings on their own.

Africans, he said, don't need a bunch of white Christians from outside the continent to tell them, yet again, what is best for them. The colonial days should be over.

Hambidge's experience of Africa centres on relatively stable Tanzania, where he was invited in the 1990s to be president of the Anglican seminary in Dar Es Salaam.

However, in the past decade, he has also taught African bishops about administrative issues in Malawi and Uganda. All for no salary, while Denise helped out as a much-appreciated nurse.

Hambidge's description of mass poverty throughout most of Africa reveals much about why the viewpoints of highly educated Westerners, including Anglicans, often just don't pick up any traction there.

It is hard for a Westerner such as myself to imagine that most African Christians worship in mud-brick buildings while standing or sitting on a dirt floor.

It's also difficult to envision that the cinder-block Anglican seminary Hambidge led in Dar Es Salaam had virtually no books, particularly good ones, in its library.

When Hambidge suggested to the regional bishop the title of a book he thought each one of the seminary's roughly 50 students should have, he was told it was impossible.

"Each copy would cost a minimum of two months' wages."

With such a dire lack of resources and many Africans' fear of challenging those they see as authorities, Hambidge said African Christians are highly vulnerable to the "junk" theology with which many Western Christian missionaries are flooding the continent.

The kind of Christian titles that find their way even into Anglican seminaries in Africa, he said, are by fundamentalist American televangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart, who was disgraced, among other things, on sexual grounds.

Partly as a result of such limited education, Hambidge said, Biblical literacy is rampant in Africa.

It first took hold, in large part, with British and other European missionaries in the 1900s.

Hambidge constantly meets African Anglican clergy who take every word of the Bible as literal fact. They won't address a variety of issues, including homosexuality or female priests, because they believe the Bible explicitly forbids them for all time.

Literal-minded Western Christian missionaries also have brought to Africa what Hambidge sees as an unhealthy emphasis on attaining individual salvation in heaven rather than building a communitarian "kingdom of God" on earth.

The missionary viewpoint, in addition, stresses total rejection of indigenous African spiritual customs, which Hambidge said most African Muslim, Catholic and Anglican clergy continue to dismiss as evil "heathenism."

Hambidge, instead, likes to teach that "you don't have to take the Bible literally to take it seriously.

"You teach the meaning of the text, not the factuality."

What should educated white Anglicans, or anyone else from the West, do about the African church situation?

The short answer to Hambidge is: Next to nothing.

"If they want to be Biblical literalists, then who are we to tell them they can't be?"

In other words, whites can't continue to tell Africans what's best for them. Non-Africans have to live with Africans' choices -- while being available to help if called upon by Africans themselves.

What if a hands-off approach means that Anglican African bishops continue their concerted efforts to start their own arm of Anglicanism?

"If people want to do that, they can try," he said. "We are not a monolithic church. That's our boast."

Even though Hambidge doesn't think the same-sex blessing controversy needs to be a "communion-breaking issue," he could tolerate an official split.

"The kingdom of God is eternal, not the Anglican communion," he said.

It wouldn't be the first time in history that a new branch of Christendom has formed.

"I don't think God will lose any sleep over it," he said with a smile.

What, ideally, does Hambidge hope will happen some day for African Christians, and Africans in general?

He imagines a time when more Africans follow the lead of Canada's aboriginals, many of whom in recent decades, with Anglican and other Christians' support, adapted the most positive aspects of their traditional spirituality to fit the best of Christianity.

While embracing such things as totem poles and sacred blankets, Hambidge said, many Canadian aboriginals have recognized their ancient traditions often overlap with Christianity.

"They're realizing in many ways they say the same thing."

In the end, Hambidge says the way forward for African Christians, and all Africans, is to start to take more pride in themselves and the positive aspects of their own traditions.

For a white archbishop from the West, it seems like a fair-enough dream.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/rights ... story.html

October 21, 2009
Vatican Bidding to Get Anglicans to Join Its Fold
By RACHEL DONADIO and LAURIE GOODSTEIN

VATICAN CITY — In an extraordinary bid to lure traditionalist Anglicans en masse, the Vatican said Tuesday that it would make it easier for Anglicans uncomfortable with their church’s acceptance of female priests and openly gay bishops to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining many of their traditions.

Anglicans would be able “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said at a news conference here.

It was unclear why the Vatican made the announcement now. But it seemed a rare opportunity, audaciously executed, to capitalize on deep divisions within the Anglican Church to attract new members at a time when the Catholic Church has been trying to reinvigorate itself in Europe.

The issue has long been close to the heart of Pope Benedict XVI, who for years has worked to build ties to those Anglicans who, like conservative Catholics, spurn the idea of female and gay priests.

Catholic and Anglican leaders sought on Tuesday to present the move as a joint effort to aid those seeking conversion. But it appeared that the Vatican had engineered it on its own, presenting it as a fait accompli to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, only in recent weeks. Some Anglican and Catholic leaders expressed surprise, even shock, at the news.

The move could have the deepest impact in England, where large numbers of traditionalist Anglicans have protested the Church of England’s embrace of liberal theological reforms like consecrating female bishops. Experts say these Anglicans, and others in places like Australia, might be attracted to the Roman Catholic fold because they have had nowhere else to go.

If entire parishes or even dioceses leave the Church of England for the Catholic Church, experts and church officials speculated, it could set off battles over ownership of church buildings and land.

Pope Benedict has said that he will travel to Britain in 2010.

In the United States, traditionalist leaders said they would be less inclined than their British counterparts to join the Catholic Church, because they have already broken away from the Episcopal Church and formed their own conservative Anglican structures (though some do allow women to be priests).

The Vatican’s announcement signals a significant moment in relations between two churches that first parted in the Reformation of the 16th century over theological issues and the primacy of the pope.

In recent decades, the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church have sought to heal the centuries of division. Some feared that the Vatican’s move might jeopardize decades of dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans by implying that the aim was conversion.

The Very Rev. David Richardson, the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Vatican, said he was taken aback.

“I don’t see it as an affront to the Anglican Church, but I’m puzzled by what it means and by the timing of it,” he said. “I think some Anglicans will feel affronted.”

The decision creates a formal universal structure to streamline conversions that had previously been evaluated case by case. The Vatican said that it would release details in the coming weeks, but that generally, former Anglican prelates chosen by the Catholic Church would oversee Anglicans, including entire parishes or even dioceses, seeking to convert.

Under the new arrangement, the Catholic practice that has allowed married Anglican priests to convert and become Catholic priests would continue. (There have been very few such priests.) But only unmarried Anglican bishops or priests could become Catholic bishops.

Cardinal Levada acknowledged that accepting large numbers of married Anglican priests while forbidding Catholic priests to marry could pose problems for some Catholics. But he argued that the circumstances differed.

Under the new structure, former Anglicans who become Catholic could preserve some elements of Anglican worship, including hymns and other “intangible” elements, Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, the Vatican’s deputy chief liturgical officer, said at the news conference.

Cardinal Levada said that the Vatican had acted in response to many requests from Anglicans since the Church of England ordained women in the 1990s, and, more recently, when it faced what he called “a very difficult question” — the ordination of openly gay clergy and the celebration of homosexual unions.

He said that 20 to 30 bishops and hundreds of other people had petitioned the Vatican on the matter in recent years.

In the United States, disaffected conservatives in the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism, announced in 2008 that they were reorganizing as the Anglican Church in North America.

Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader of that group, welcomed the pope’s decision. “It demonstrates his conviction that the divisions in the Anglican Communion are very serious and these are not things that are going to get papered over,” he said.

However, both Bishop Minns and Archbishop Robert Duncan, primate of the Anglican Church in North America, said that they did not expect many conservative Anglicans to accept the offer because the theological differences were too great.

“I don’t want to be a Roman Catholic,” said Bishop Minns. “There was a Reformation, you remember.”

In Britain, the Rev. Rod Thomas, the chairman of Reform, a traditionalist Anglican group, said, “I think it will be a trickle of people, not a flood.”

But he said that a flood could in fact develop if the Church of England did not allow traditionalists to opt out of a recent church decision that women could be consecrated as bishops.

Some said the move would probably not win over traditionalist Anglicans in Africa.

“Why should any conservative break away from a church where the moral conservatives represent the overwhelming mass of opinion, such as in Nigeria?” said Philip Jenkins, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and an expert in the Catholic Church’s history in Africa and Asia.

The plan was announced at simultaneous news conferences at the Vatican and in London.

The Vatican’s archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, and Archbishop Williams of the Anglican Church issued a joint statement in which they said that the new structure “brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church.”

In London, Archbishop Williams minimized the impact of the announcement on relations between the two churches. “It would not occur to me to see this as an act of aggression or a statement of no confidence, precisely because the routine relationships that we enjoy as churches will continue,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world ... nted=print

October 25, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Rock of Ages, Cleft by the Pope
By A. N. WILSON
London

THE images and clichés came spluttering out of the laptops of church people and religious affairs correspondents on Tuesday: The pope has parked his tanks on the Church of England’s lawn; Rome has made a hostile takeover bid for Canterbury. It is understandable if people are at a loss for words, since the move has been made so decisively and so without warning. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, knew nothing of the plan until a few days ago.

What has happened? Basically, it seems that Pope Benedict XVI has offered disgruntled Anglicans the opportunity to come over to Roman Catholicism en masse. Such an arrangement already exists in America. Anglicans who dislike the way they see things going in their own church (female bishops, gay bishops, gay female bishops — take your pick) are allowed to regroup within the Church of Rome. Although their priests will need to be retrained and re-ordained, they will be able to continue to use their traditional rites and Prayer Books, and to stay together as congregations.

There is talk in England of as many as 1,000 clergy members taking this offer. Even allowing for the numerical exaggeration, which always occurs when enemies of liberalism congregate, this is a huge potential figure. Let us say 500 Anglican priests and perhaps 10 bishops joined the new arrangement. Let us suppose they took with them plausible congregations. This would deliver a body blow not just to the Church of England, but to that whole intricately constructed and only semi-definable phenomenon, the British Establishment.

The numbers of practicing Catholics in England is greater than the number of practicing Anglicans. Within a generation, there will probably be more Muslims than practicing Anglicans in the British Isles. Britain will no longer be able to endure the absurdity of the laws relating to the religion of the monarch, the Act of Settlement and Royal Marriages Act, which among other things forbid the sovereign to marry a Catholic. Or the Coronation Oath, which promises to uphold the Protestant religion.

Britain has gone through a truly prodigious change in the last 30 years. It has moved from being a largely white culture with Christianity as its background religion to being a completely secular, multicultural society. The ease and good humor with which this revolution has occurred has made Britain — and especially London — an amazingly interesting place to be right now. A genial secularized liberalism is the new norm. It might be difficult to define it, but you feel when its codes are infringed, as with the controversies over “faith schools” that teach creationism, or with the misgivings felt by many secular politicians about such issues as the wearing of the burqa.

The moderate right at present in power in France talks freely of dissuading women from wearing a body covering like the burqa because to do so is un-French. In Britain, there is a much more tolerant attitude toward all faiths and none, with a great deal of rather likable muddle about where a decent liberal person should stand on such a matter. Maybe it’s just as British to wear a black bag over your head as to wear one of the bizarre outfits you still see in the enclosure at Royal Ascot.

In such a climate, the Church of England had no chance at all of surviving. It was bound to go, and it was just waiting, historically, for some catalyst to bring it to an end. That catalyst has been provided by the somewhat unlikely controversy over female bishops.

It is a strange breaking point, since there have been female priests for years. But conservative Anglicans object that other episcopal churches in the world — the Copts, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics — do not accept female bishops. Anglicans have believed since the Reformation that although the Church of England had separated itself from Rome, it retained the historic episcopate, descended from Christ’s apostles. As a result, there are now Anglican bishops who, because they are women, are not recognized as bishops by all Anglicans, let alone the other apostolic churches.

As a result, England’s church has managed an “Alice in Wonderland” situation in which those who do not like female bishops (or the bishops who ordained them) can owe obedience to so-called Flying Bishops, upholders of the traditional faith who “fly” from parish to parish, regardless of the boundaries of diocese. These bishops, and others who think as they do, have been prime movers in shaping the Vatican’s new offer.

How will it all work? Will the English Catholics, always hard pressed for cash, be in a position to take over the running of our medieval churches? What will happen to the cathedrals? As fewer and fewer real Christians exist in England, will the church buildings be taken over by some secular conservation group like the National Trust? Probably. And for the 55 million or so Britons who don’t regularly attend services — some 90 percent of the population — it is all rather unimportant.

But it is nevertheless a landmark. The Church of England has been the religious expression of that independent national identity which signaled the rise of Britain as a significant world power. Hatched by Henry VIII and nurtured by his daughter Elizabeth I, the Church of England was an expression of that combination of tolerance and arrogance that marked the English governing class. It sat light to doctrine, and tried to accommodate many. But while that seemed a gentle thing to do, it did so because it actually laid claim to governing and controlling all.

Now, as the pope looks to put an end to this facet of Britain’s character, there are ghosts smiling a little ruefully. For one, the Duchess of Windsor (a k a Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore), denied the opportunity of being queen because the Church of England disapproved of divorce. The Catholic recusants, who huddled in priest-holes rather than acknowledge the monarch as supreme governor of the church, will be smiling a little grimly, too. In time to come, I confidently predict, there will be others smiling ruefully, too — such as the “liberal” Anglicans left behind, who will watch a pope (I guess 20 years from now) ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood.

Although it will be a sad day for those Anglicans who have reached a parting of the ways, for Britain itself, the pope’s maneuver is actually good news. It will formally bring to an end the idea of the Established Church, and of the monarch as that Establishment’s symbol and head. Whatever our private religious allegiances, we Britons no longer want to force our royal heads of state to jump through those impossible hoops. The paradox is that a move by a conservative pope to ease the tender consciences of conservative-minded Anglicans will actually be a move toward the complete secularization of Britain, and an acceptance of its new multicultural identity.

A. N. Wilson is the author, most recently, of the novel “Winnie and Wolf.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/opini ... nted=print

Better get blogging, Pope urges priests
From Herald News Services
January 24, 2010

For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the Gospel.

In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, the Pope, who is 82 and known not to love computers or the Internet, acknowledged priests must make the most of the "rich menu of options" offered by new technology.

"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources -- images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites -- which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis," he said.

Priests, he said, had to respond to the challenge of "today's cultural shifts" if they wanted to reach young people. But he warned priests not to strive to become stars of new media.

After decades of being wary of new media, the Vatican has decided to dive in head first. Last year, a new Vatican website, www.pope2you. net, went live, offering one application called "The Pope meets you on Facebook," and another allowing the faithful to read the Pope's speeches on their iPhones.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_prin ... 8&sponsor=

Keeping the faith in a turbulent sea of scandal


By Paula Arab, Calgary HeraldApril 8, 2010

The year 2010 will go down in history as an uncomfortable time to be a Catholic. I imagine others, like me, are questioning their consciences, and wondering whether or not to continue supporting a Church that for decades has allowed itself to become a sanctuary for pedophiles; an enabler in the abuse of children.

Catholics today share the collective guilt over the greater sin -- the coverup by bishops and cardinals, and their failure to adequately address the welfare of victims.

But leaving is not the answer. This is a golden opportunity to demand the cleansing of the filth, and participate in the revival of a better, stronger organization, an organization that meets the spiritual needs of its followers.

I am one Catholic who is glad the scandal has risen to the top of the hierarchy. The stench has filled up St. Peter's Square. The Vatican has nowhere to run, and top leaders have no choice but to smell the rot and do something about it.

This is a chance, finally in my lifetime, for a rebirth of the outdated structure of the Roman Catholic Church. It needs to return to its roots to find its future; to focus and reorganize itself so it better reflects the values upon which Jesus founded the world's largest Christian religion.

Once a Catholic can get past the seemingly sacrilegious act of questioning the infallibility of the Pope, one realizes the true leader of the Church is Christ, not a human being.

The foibles of man may have brought down the basilica, but the teachings of Jesus and a return to the love and compassion he preached, might be enough to rebuild a healthier, stronger cathedral that serves its people.

Ironically, the sex abuse scandal shaking the Church has unfolded over the Easter season, the holiest time of the religious calendar. Like spring, this holy season symbolizes the purging of the old, a death and ultimate new life.

It's my favourite time of year, reminding me why I will always believe in my religion.

Several years ago, away from my family, I spent Easter with one of my oldest and dearest friends. He is a homosexual who left the Catholic Church years earlier because he felt he was no longer welcome. I desperately wanted him to come to mass with me that evening, and tried to persuade him he was wrong. I told him the message I have always received was that Jesus loved us all, and that I believed in my heart the Church had a place for my friend. We agreed to disagree, but in the end he surprised me. He came to the service, explaining he did so only because he knew how much it meant to me to attend Easter mass. And that evening, the priest surprised us both. He gave a sermon that almost seemed to speak directly to us. It still brings tears to my eyes to remember how clearly and eloquently the priest described the isolation my friend was feeling. Then he stressed that everyone was welcome in his church, but most especially those who felt uncomfortable to be there, like they didn't belong.

Religion is a highly personal subject, open to interpretation and sometimes wrongful assumptions. Unfortunately, priests who are able to stay focused on their role as spiritual leaders aren't always easy to find.

A good priest offers his congregation spiritual renewal every Sunday, with an inspiring sermon that makes them contemplate how to be a better person that week. He offers direction, and a message that's relevant. If it isn't, it will eventually echo off the walls of an empty church.

The Vatican, with its refusal to recognize birth control, ordain women priests, or allow married men to enter the priesthood, is exceedingly distancing itself from the daily lives of ordinary people. And its ongoing defence of leaders who did nothing to stop criminals from wearing the collar or redress the abuse, is driving good Catholics away.

With all due respect to Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, he's too concerned with controversial politics. Average Catholics don't need Henry to dictate whether or not it's moral to use funds from charity casinos and bingos to raise badly needed revenue for schools. Neither do they want him to weigh in on women's health, equating a cervical cancer vaccination program for 10-year-old girls to the sins of premarital sex.

Give it a rest.

There are far greater spiritual holes in our lives to be filled, that provide an excellent opportunity for Church leaders to make themselves relevant. We live in a time of much anxiety, suffering and loneliness.

Jesus taught us to be concerned with today only, and let God take care of the rest. He taught us how to live in the moment, to be kind and loving to others, and to be peacemakers. Jesus loved children most of all.

Pedophilia might always be with our society, but it doesn't have to be synonymous with the Catholic Church.

parab@theherald.canwest.com

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