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The first article examines the quality of Catholic Church leadership. Do Good Leaders Abound in the Catholic Church? by Fr. Thomas Worcester, S.J. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-worcester/catholic-church-leadership_b_937801.html ____________________ Tony Equale invites your comments on his recent post, "The Humanization of Christian Doctrine (II)," which is available at http://tonyequale.wordpress.com ____________________
A Clergy Rebellion in Austria's Catholic Church by Michael Frank / Süddeutsche Zeitung / Worldcrunch
VIENNA — There is open rebellion among the clergy of Austria's Catholic Church. One highly placed man of the cloth has even warned about the risk of a coming schism as significant numbers of priests are refusing obedience to the Pope and bishops for the first time in memory.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090629,00.html ____________________
The highly influential Austrian abbots said this week that talk of schism in the Austrian Church could not be damped down, nor the current conflict resolved, by a meeting between the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and representatives of dissident priests. http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/161674
____________________ A Te Deum for William Morris By Michael Furtado. Appeared in Catholica (AU) Sep. 1, 2011
Despite the efforts of the small protesting remnant who believe they alone are God's chosen ones, and despite the Australian Cardinal's continuing criticism of the man in Ireland recently, the wider faithful, of the Diocese of Toowoomba in Western Queensland, supported by priests and bishops from further afield, traveled from afar to vote with their feet last Sunday to exhibit their support for their greatly loved pastor and colleague, Bishop William Morris. Dr Michael Furtado was there to witness the event and provided us with this report.
http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/occ2/073_occ2_010911.php ____________________ A Fundamental Challenge: Three ways to combat biblical literalismby Brian B. Pinter, September 12, 2011 … While Catholic scholarship has moved beyond literalism in its interpretation of the Bible, many of the faithful have not. Familiarizing Catholics with the Bible and its interpretation is a contining challenge. According to many studies, Catholics are among the most biblically illiterate Americans. While teaching Bible basics remains a major task, a more pressing and troublesome concern is the growth among Catholics of biblical literalism, also known as biblical fundamentalism. Fundamentalists assert that the Bible is without historical or scientific error and should be read literally in all its details. … While we Catholics believe that God is speaking to us through the words of Scripture, we recognize that we must use our powers of reason to discern the meaning of those words. Contemporary methods of Catholic biblical interpretation, for example, are informed by the findings of archaeology, historical and cultural studies of the biblical periods and the analysis of the texts in their original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic languages. Complementing this scientific approach are the spiritual insights into the Bible given us by the patristic writers as well as the saints and mystics. This tradition of scholarship and spirituality serves as a rich resource in our quest to unlock the meaning of Scripture. Unfortunately, many Catholics remain unaware of it.
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13002 ____________________ A poison and its antidote.Atlas Mugged: The Ayn Rand Six StepSeptember 2, 2011 on CommonDreams.org by John Atcheson … precisely the game the Republicans have been playing for years. Call it the Ayan Rand six step. Step one: discredit government. Step two, starve it. Step three, when the underfunded government can’t perform, stand back and say “I told you so.” Step four, create the myth of the individual uber-alles – the Marlboro man on steroids; Step five, if anyone gets wise, find a scapegoat and blame it on them – gays, immigrants, government workers; government working gay immigrants. Step six, when things get bad, divide and conquer – “if it wasn’t’ for them…
our freedom and welfare are indeed in danger – but not from government; rather from those who point fingers at government in hopes that you won’t notice they’re robbing you blind, in the name of a mutant form of free-market economics that’s really only existed on the pages of a second rate polemic masquerading as a novel. ____________________
"Contemplation," or “meditation” in some groups, was rediscovered in contemporary times beginning with the writings of Thomas Merton in the 1950s and 1960s. The word most Christians are more familiar with is simply "prayer."
Unfortunately, in the West, prayer had become something functional; something you did to achieve a desired effect—which too often puts the ego back in charge. As soon as you make prayer a way to get what you want, you’re not moving into any kind of new state of consciousness. It's the same old consciousness, but now well disguised: "How can I get God to do what I want God to do?" It's the egocentric self deciding what it needs, but now, instead of just manipulating everybody else, it tries to manipulate God.
This is one reason religion is so dangerous and often so delusional. If religion does not transform people at the level of both mind and heart, it ends up giving self-centered people a very pious and untouchable way to be on top and in control. Now God becomes their defense system for their small self! Even Jesus found this to be true of the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law.
Adapted from
CAC Foundation Set: Gospel Call to
Compassionate Action |