Since the brouhaha broke open at our parish, I’ve been scanning the paper daily to see any further articles have come out on it.
Fortunately, there have been far more interesting and high-profile bits of religion news here in the state, as the local Catholics deal with Archbishop Chaput getting in an argument with the sex abuse oversight committee, and, on a bigger national scale, his (and Colorado Springs Bishop Sheridan) stances on the whole “denying communion to folks who don’t toe the orthodox line” bit.
(About the latter of which my only opinions are (a) it’s perfectly legitimate for a church organization to say, “These are our beliefs, so agree with them or don’t consider yourself a full member of our faith,” and (b) it’s perfectly legitimate for folks who disagree to vote with their feet. One man’s divisiveness is another man’s adherence to principle, and if the Catholic Church really officially believes that issues like abortion and gay rights and stem cell research and euthanasia are profound societal and personal evils, turning a blind eye to those who publicly disagree and, in fact, act counter to those beliefs is hypocritical at best and being an accomplice in those evils at worst. But I digress. A bit.)
Anyway, that’s basically been the focus of the Rocky‘s religion news of late (the Post doesn’t seem to think religion news is all that big a deal), which has left our parish and the Episcopal diocese to stew in a bit of an information vacuum.
Not totally, of course, since there are plenty of folks out there who have an interest in stirring up trouble and spreading rumors, it seems. But there’s been minimal formal communication from either the principles at the parish or from the diocese (and the silence from the former was at the request of the latter).
That’s beginning to break. Bishop O’Neill sent a letter to the parish over the weekend, explaining that his priority has been on fact-finding and determining the truth of what’s happened (rather than simply relying on the Rocky), and he plans on making a formal report to the Standing Committee (his advisory council) this week. His letter was supportive of the parish, but not partisan or pre-judging, and if it was a week or two slow in coming, better late than never.
(I’d actually sent him an e-mail late last week urging him to issue some sort of a statement, even if it was of the “I can’t say anything now, but I will soon, and you’re in my prayers” kind of thing. He responded back with a nice note, agreeing with me, and the letter which was issued was pretty much just that. I do not take any credit, as it only makes sense.)
Our rector and assistant rector will be sending out letters to the parish this week, too, going on the record. Whether that will calm folks down or stir things back up again (or both, depending on predispositions) remains to be seen. It’s unfortunate that it’s take this long for “official” word to go out, since conspiracy theories, like nature, abhor a vacuum, and lack of information only lets weeds grow. That’s good advice for anyone doing crisis management: communicate early and communicate often, even if you don’t have anything you can say, since not communicating can send a message (rightly or wrongly) of its own.
On the brighter side, the interior and exterior work on the building expansion is pretty much done — doorknob and shrubbery are mostly what’s left. The expansion is great, a real improvement in the facility in many ways. Hopefully the vast majority of our parishioners will stick around to enjoy it. I think they will.
So I’m Catholic. So I keep getting told that “we” (the parishoners, the laity) “are the Church”.
So a lot of us are in favor of various gay rights, as well as other controversial subjects (if you haven’t heard, various “bans” on receiving Communion are taking place in New Jersey as well).
We, “the Church” are pretty darned annoyed that the Bishops–who mishandled the whole sex scandal about as poorly as one can imagine–are trying to foist their old-fashioned, half-baked, idiotic ideas on us.
How about opening UP the Church? How about including gay couples, many of whom secretly attend mass in the Catholic Church and who would like nothing better than to attend openly? Opening opening up the church so that we get more members, and grow, instead of decline (a continual complaint by said Bishops)?
Sigh. If the ban in NJ gets extended from politicians to the laity in general, I may be voting with my feet. That will cause a fair bit of contention in the family, as my wife will probably find it very difficult to leave our Parish, it being the one she has attended since she was very young.
Speaking as a former Catholic (and a current member of Catholic Lite — “All the ritual with only half the guilt (and cute English accents, too)!”), I understand the conflict. The Church hierarchy’s role in defining orthodoxy and theological truths — and, by extension, their application in the real world — is an increasing source of conflict, it seems, particularly in a pluralistic and democratic society like the US (or, as some would have it, a hedonistic and do-whatever-feels-good society). But it’s even more difficult to reconcile with the idea of The Laity Are The Church (which sounds positively Protestant in implication).
If I sounded glib about that conflict above, I apologize — neither voting with one’s feet nor knuckling under to a received judgment one doesn’t share is trivial or painless. And, of course, there are parallels between that and the difficulties that conservatives have in the Episcopal Church at present, even if the hierarchical imposition is a tad squishier in most areas than in the Catholic Church.