Most thoughtful observers are conscious of the fact that the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is a very large organization. It is a large organization with a lot of problems but it also has tremendous resources to do good within the confines of its own organization and in the larger society as well. The Catholic Church in this country also has an extraordinarily interesting history going back to the time that it was a tiny entity located in small communities in half a dozen towns in New England. Today, it numbers probably 70 million members served by tens of thousands of priests and religious working through 20,000 parishes and countless charitable and educational institutions.
It wasn’t always this way. There was a time in the Church’s story when not only was it small, but it was struggling to exist in a hostile environment filled with prejudice, hatred and occasionally violent persecution. Confronting such unpleasant realities can help develop strength, willpower and determination. It was in that environment that some extraordinary bishops appeared throughout much of the 19th century. Today, I would like to mention just one of them.
John Joseph Keane was born in Donegal, Ireland in 1839. His family immigrated to the United States and young John entered the seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. Over the next 80 years, he would accomplish many good works in the face of conflict and misunderstanding. As a young priest, he got to know and work with the famous Father Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulists. He was appointed the fifth bishop of Richmond in 1878 which covered all of Virginia and, at the same time, was administrator of the Vicariate of North Carolina.
In 1884, the bishops met for the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore. A decision was made to establish a Catholic university. The American bishops chose Keane as founding rector and he did an extraordinary job in getting the school up and moving.
The Catholic Church was growing rapidly with millions of immigrants from Ireland, Germany and other countries. Controversies abounded and Keane was a leader in the so-called “American wing” in the hierarchy, associating himself with friends, such as Bishops John Ireland and Dennis O’Connell on such issues as the defense of the Knights of Labor and a rapid assimilation of Catholic immigrants. He angered some of his brother bishops in arguing forcefully for compulsory education as a legitimate exercise of state authority.
At that time, there was frequent tension between German bishops and the Irish bishops. Later he would sharply criticize James Cardinal Gibbons for not being strong enough in the middle of that controversy. His openness to dealing with Protestant churches generated additional suspicion on the part of many of his brother bishops. In 1896, he was fired as rector of the Catholic University of America by Pope Leo XIII. After being fired from the university, Keane spent three years in Rome and then returned to the United States in 1900 to become Archbishop Dubuque.
This was a very difficult time in American Catholic history because the Holy See launched a forceful attack on a non-existing heresy called “Americanism.” As a side bar, let me mention that Archbishop Keane fought throughout his life on behalf of the temperance movement. One of his proudest moments occurred on Sunday, June 16, 1907 when all the saloons of Dubuque were closed for the first time in 50 years. Thank God for the heroism of Archbishop John J. Keane and may his memory be held in veneration, especially those whose families were disrupted or destroyed by the curse of alcoholism.
I enjoyed going back and reviewing this great bishop’s turbulent life and I think I will do a little more of it in the future. The story of the Catholic Church in the United States is truly a great one and it must not be forgotten.

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Last month, a Catholic hospital in Colorado, got in serious moral and ethical trouble because of legal advice. Attorneys for St. Thomas More Hospital in Canyon City tried to defend the hospital in a wrongful death lawsuit by claiming that twin fetuses who died in the hospital in 2006 should not be considered persons. Thankfully, the Catholic bishops intervened and immediately declared that the legal advice that the hospital had received to be in error, clearly stating in their response that “recourse to an unjust law was morally wrong.”
Naturally, lawyers want to protect their clients but sometimes they end up doing very real damage. I remember clearly that in the early days of sex abuse scandals in the United States most bishops turning to confer with their lawyers received very bad advice. Lawyers discouraged bishops from even meeting with the families involved and made it extremely difficult and expensive for those who were victimized to secure justice. Happily, this failed policy is behind us and the Church is doing everything it can to respond positively and honestly in the future.
Onward through the fog.

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It has been 50 years, a half century, since Pope John XXIII called the bishops of the world to convene in the Vatican “in order to open the windows of the Church and let in some fresh air.” It was a momentous gathering, only the 20th such meeting in the whole 2,000 year history of the Church. The meeting went on for almost five years and while the bishops were only in session about three months out of the year, they had many committees that continued to work in-between the general sessions. Under the Council, it produced 16 documents on an extraordinarily wide-range of issues. There were four Constitutions promulgated and they are the most important. They include the Church, Revelation, Liturgy and The Church Today (Gaudium et Spes). Then followed nine Decrees on important subjects but not carrying the weight of the Constitutions. Finally, they produced three Declarations and these were on education, ecumenism and religious freedom.
It fell to Pope Paul VI to guide the implementation of all of these documents that had been spelled out in 103,000 words. No small task! The Council was endeavoring to update the Church after a 400 year period during which the Church had circled the wagons. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century had made the Church very fearful of any type of change and it wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council that real updating began to take place. But that updating came with shock and a period of implementation was not completely smooth.
From my perspective, things began to settle down fairly well in the 1980’s but then the rollback began. Many of the progressive changes called for by the Council began to be quietly dismantled. The Council called for every country to have a national conference of its bishops. They came into existence but gradually their prerogatives and responsibilities were dramatically limited. The document on the Sacred Liturgy had produced wonderful results allowing the Church to use the language of the people where it was functioning and the role of the laity or more accurately, the whole community was much more involved in divine worship. Since many of the translations immediately after the Council were somewhat rushed, there gradually began to be an awareness that sacred texts should be improved. The bishops of the 17 English speaking countries worked hard at producing new and improved translations, but ultimately they would be rejected by the Vatican and the Vatican would impose its own translations to be used in all English speaking countries. Etc., etc., etc.
A year ago when the 50th anniversary of the Council arrived very little was done to mark it or to refresh the memory of the Church across the world. I think that it is very important that dioceses everywhere begin renewed efforts to refreshen our memories of the importance of this event. The 2,500 bishops, working for more than four years in front of TV cameras, made great strides in accomplishing what Pope John XXIII called them to do but, regretfully, much of it has been undone and continues to be undone by a very small group of Vatican officials working behind closed doors.

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Last week, I was perusing through some old files (that is what old people tend to do) and I came across some old correspondence and was both delighted and thrilled. It was correspondence between Pope Innocent III and Thorer, Archbishop-elect of Drontheim.
During much of the 1990’s while I was still an active bishop, I chaired the committee of the National Bishops Conference that was responsible for developing within the United States adequate financial support for the Holy See (the Vatican). The main component of that effort was an annual collection poetically named “Peter’s Pence” and the name carried the collection back to the Middle Ages. Evidently, a pence was real money in those days.
Quite frankly, it was not the easiest task in the world. There was a lot of anger in the Church in the United States directed at the Vatican. Archbishop Hunthausen had been unceremoniously removed from office. Father Charles Curran had been denied the right to teach as a Catholic theologian. Other actions deemed offensive by more liberal ranks of the clergy were having negative effects. Nevertheless, I took the job and gave it my best effort. The collection rose from $4 million a year to
$16 million a year during my time as chair.
While serving in that office, I had a delightful experience. I was going through some old files on the Peter’s Pence Collection and found a fascinating article from the Catholic Historical Review, Volume 3, April 1917 and January 1918. First there was a letter, written in 835 A.D., by Pope Gregory IV to St. Anschar, the first Bishop of Hamburg in Germany. Anschar was given directions on how to organize the Church to the north in Scandinavia. Then follows about a dozen letters written over many decades that depicts the extraordinary development of the Church in that cold and difficult region. On February 13, 1206, the powerful pope, Innocent III, wrote Thorer, Archbishop-elect of Drontheim, Norway and gave him detailed instructions on the establishment of new dioceses in the north. Archbishop Thorer was given the authority to establish these dioceses and appoint their bishops but Pope Innocent insisted that only he, the pope, or his successor in office, could appoint the next bishop of Hamburg.
Among the surprising news was a letter in 1276 from John XXI again going to the Archbishop of Drontheim raising questions about the Diocese of Gardar, which is in Greenland. The diocese was not paying the taxes which were necessary to operate the Universal Church. The pope asked the archbishop to please take care of that matter with the archbishop replying two years later that it was not an easy assignment. The pope replied that the archbishop should send someone else and make sure that they are honest! The pope suggested that the archbishop, “…visit in person such of the aforesaid dioceses as may be possible without great inconvenience.” The archbishop replied, “The difficulties of navigation are so great that five years is scarcely sufficient for the whole journey.” Going from Norway to Greenland in the 13th century would certainly have been a modest inconvenience!
I was amused by the fact that here we are looking at a bishop having responsibility for the collecting of necessary funds for the maintenance of the Vatican in the 12th century and there I was in Texas with the same responsibilities 700 years later. Some things never change.

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On January 26th, the Church across the world celebrated the feast day of two young bishops who were very important in the life of the early Church. Long ago, I myself was a young bishop. I have always had great fondness for these two and this particular feast day. Timothy and Titus were most likely converted and baptized by St. Paul himself. They are famous in history because Paul had them assist him in establishing new churches and three times he wrote letters to them, twice to Timothy and once to Titus, giving them detailed instructions that they were in charge of the Church. They had his authority and they were to use it effectively to build up this community of faith.
Leadership in the Church is filled with challenges and pitfalls. One should endeavor to carry out one’s responsibilities with humility. I was ordained a priest at 26 and a bishop at 48. My first assignment was to assist an elderly pastor in a large parish of 1,200 families. My second was to assist a diocesan bishop in a diocese of about six to seven hundred thousand. I am happy to say that there was plenty of moral support both from my brother priests and later my brother bishops. I even got three letters from
St. Paul myself. I say that because these three little letters provide first-rate advice to young clergy or young bishops and Paul was writing to all clergy, not just Timothy and Titus.
We are called to do the work of the Lord, to build up the Kingdom, to be examples of faith. If the clergy want to know how best to do that, just go and re-read St. Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus.
 

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Two weeks ago, I wrote with shock in this space about my disbelief that the German bishops had issued a decree refusing the sacraments to Catholics who stopped paying a Church membership tax. I was not the only one who was incredulous. That reaction has spread across the world. Global media coverage has brought into clear focus the unique situation in Germany that most people knew nothing about until this issue arose.
Since the middle of the 19th century, the German central government has collected a small tax on both the Lutherans and the Catholics in Germany, transferred the funds to the churches for use in providing schools, hospitals, youth centers and other excellent programs. Today in Germany many Catholics are angry with the Church and don’t like the tax and they have signed documents taking themselves out of the Church. So much for that but now the bishops say that such persons can be denied the sacraments!
I have no doubt that this situation creates a real financial problem. In a short period of time, the Church has to do a better job of raising its own money but it is hard to imagine the Catholic Church denying someone baptism, the Eucharist or a funeral because of a failure to pay a government tax. Something is wrong and I hope that it will be corrected very quickly. Until then, I pray with all my heart for the German Church which is truly a great Church but faced with organizational difficulties.
Luther, there is still tension on the Rhine!

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I have known Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza since September of 1949. I always admired him and have been very proud to call him friend for these many years, but my pride reached its high point this week at the bishops’ meeting in Baltimore. For some strange and tragic reason, the American bishops have been giving indications that they are trying to back away from their magnificent 200 year tradition of caring for the poor and the vulnerable. They don’t verbally challenge Rerum Novarum and they haven’t contradicted the magnificent pastoral letter of 1986, entitled Economic Justice for All. They certainly have not challenged the fact that the Second Vatican Council moved concern for justice high up on the Church’s agenda. What they do is that collectively they are very silent, and silent especially about the Church’s 200 year old commitment of the right of workers to join unions.

Last year when a number of Midwestern governors were moving cruelly to crush unions and cancel retirement programs by an administrative fiat, Church leaders were sadly quiet. One letter came out of the USCCB bemoaning the scene but nothing more than that. In the spring of this year, the bishops met almost on the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council but virtually no mention was made of its social implications. One thoughtful bishop stood and called his brothers attention to the fact that the country was in an agonizing recession, and governmental equipment was log jammed and virtually nothing was being done to alleviate the situation. Bishops voted to issue a pastoral message (message mind you) on work, poverty and the economy. Well, this powerful document surfaced recently at the bishops’ meeting in Baltimore and it was a shocking disappointment for anyone who is concerned about the Church’s traditional commitment to social justice.

One such person was Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, retired Archbishop of Galveston-Houston. Archbishop Fiorenza eloquently reminded his brother bishops that the “message” was grossly inadequate, failed to utilize the powerful tradition of the Church’s commitment to the poor, especially workers, and verbally gave an outline of what the document should really be like.

This blog is far too long so tomorrow I will give you a summary of Archbishop Fiorenza’s remarks. I have always been proud of him as a brother and as a bishop, but I have never been more proud than his challenge to his brother bishops to confront the issues that are before us.

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In the early days of this nation, the Catholic bishops were very much distrusted. They were constantly accused of intending to bring the pope over to run this country. A rather absurd idea, isn’t it? But it was widespread throughout the 19th century. In reaction, the American bishops developed a very fine policy of leaning over backwards to avoid electoral politics. They never, ever endorsed individual political candidates. This has been a very good policy and was maintained so strictly over the years that the suspicions of a papal takeover fell into the absurd rubbish heap from whence it has sprung.

Now, however, that long and wise tradition seems to be somewhat threatened, at least by some individual bishops. There are 300 bishops in the country and most of them remain quiet during the election but a number of them, including at least five of them, very aggressively pushed their parishioners to vote against President Obama. At least one of these bishops compared Obama to Hitler and others warned that a vote for Obama puts one soul in jeopardy. It is interesting that all five of these bishops were in blue states which Obama carried handily.

The bishops are currently having their annual November meeting in Baltimore. I am hopeful that there will be a great deal of discussion as to the wisdom of this new and dangerous trend. The traditional policy of avoiding direct involvement in electoral politics has served the Church well. I feel very strongly that we should hold to it. Failure to do so can have very negative repercussions that I think most of the bishops want to avoid.

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Once the bishops of the world had swept aside the unacceptable working documents from the Vatican staff, they set about reorganizing themselves. Since there wasn’t a man there who had ever been present at a worldwide Council of Bishops, it was challenging, exciting and filled with hope and Christian joy. Small working groups hammered out a series of major issues that they felt ought to be studied and adopted during the working months of the Council and hopefully implemented in the life of the Church across the world.

When the Council had adjourned in 1965, they had finished their work on 16 documents of various lengths and titles. Some were called “constitutions.” They were the ones considered more important by the Council fathers. Documents on revelation, liturgy, the nature of the Church were constitutions. Others were “decrees” such as the one on communications, ecumenism and priestly formation or simply entitled “declarations” such as the ones on education and religious freedom. All in all, it was an extraordinary amount of work. The bishops returned to their dioceses leaving Pope Paul VI with the awesome task of implementation. His heroic efforts would continue for many years into the future.

Simply to refresh my own memory and possibly my readers, I am going to do at least one blog on each of these 16 documents, but that will spread over the next month or so. I will go back to a variety of issues as we move forward.

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The bishops of the Universal Church provided the Church with an extraordinary spiritual and intellectual shock during their years of prayer and deliberation. To understand the nature of that shock, you have to try and put yourself in the position of an intelligent, active Roman Catholic in 1950 or a seminary professor at that same time. Remember, I am speaking very generically and there would be countless exceptions to the description I am about to make.

The dominant theme in the Roman Catholic Church as how it saw itself could be described by the word triumphal. In dogmatic theology books, the Church would describe itself as a perfect society. Don’t be shocked by that. They did not imply that there were no problems in the Church but they used the word “perfect” because in a very limited sense it had within itself everything necessary to accomplish the goals that had been set for it by Jesus of Nazareth. They really meant “complete.”

It had as its origins the redemptive life of Jesus of Nazareth. In its day to day functioning, it had the Christian community established by Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit. To guide it on its way, it had the important power of Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church that would keep the Church from any major doctrinal errors as it continues its course through history.

Catholics on the street, of course, very frequently have that sense of triumphalism in their day-to-day lives and in dealing with people outside the Church. The Catholic Church was the oldest Church. The Catholic Church was the biggest Church. The Catholic Church was the most worldwide Church. Most importantly, the Catholic Church was the true Church. People who are Methodist, Baptist, Muslim were simply non-Catholic, were not identified in terms of their religion. We lumped them all together under the genus “non-Catholics.” This created a mentality that if we looked at religion across the world, we could see ourselves and “them.” I always call this “circling the wagons” and it begins with the Reformation in the 1600’s and, to a certain extent, continues until today but certainly far less than it was the case prior to 1965.

On September 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII stood up in the lead wagon and called out with a strong and prophetic voice, “Wagons west!”

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