Posted on 04/24/2005 6:19:48 PM PDT by ninenot
The new pope looks down on Daniel Maguire from a photo on the wall at his east side home.
People often display images of their heroes. That's not what's happening here.
Standing next to Joseph Ratzinger, then a cardinal, is Maguire's son, Tom. He's wearing a Milwaukee Brewers shirt and holding chocolate he happened to be eating at the moment of the encounter in St. Peter's Square in 1986.
You may already know that Daniel Maguire is a former Catholic priest and a longtime professor of moral theology at Marquette University.
He's made news with his pro-choice views on abortion and assisted suicide, support for same-sex marriage and ordination of women, encouragement of free thinking, and disdain for the religious right.
 Papal Memento |
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Photo/Contributed Tom Maguire, son of theologian Daniel Maguire, with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in St. Peter's Square.Tom Maguire, son of theologian Daniel Maguire, with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in St. Peter's Square. |
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Thanks to tenure, he has survived attempts over the years to oust him from Marquette.
So you can imagine this 74-year-old unabashed liberal is not thrilled with last week's selection of Ratzinger to be Pope Benedict XVI, any more than he was a fan of John Paul II.
It's hard to pick one point of contention because there are so many. It bothers Maguire that Cardinal Ratzinger has written about other world religions being inferior. So when he says now that he will reach out to them as pope, it comes off more as imperialism than ecumenism.
He's trying to look on the bright side, though. In a letter published in The New York Times last week, Maguire wrote: "The elevation of the ultraconservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papal chair should signal Catholics that it is time to stop looking for a savior shepherd and instead start thinking for themselves."
Maguire loves telling the story about meeting Ratzinger. He and Tom - who is now 29 and a Muslim who is raising a family and studying in Cairo - had just seen the pope in the square. Suddenly there was Ratzinger.
Maguire asked if he could snap a photo of him with Tom. "But of course," Ratzinger replied in English. Then he asked Maguire if he was enjoying his pilgrimage to Rome.
"Oh, yes," Maguire responded, "especially because I'm a Catholic theologian."
The smile ran from Ratzinger's face. Considering this layperson in front of him, he asked, "A theologian?"
"Yes, my name is Daniel Maguire."
"What?!" Ratzinger sputtered. "You are Daniel Maguire?" He glared at Maguire, possibly recalling the name from the high-profile effort Maguire led with another priest to get Catholics to ignore the 1968 encyclical from Pope Paul VI condemning the use of birth control.
"This is my son, Tom, who is named for Thomas Aquinas," Maguire said.
Ratzinger said, "Maybe someday he will be as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas."
"Could be," Maguire shot back. "He's already beginning to ask some great questions."
Maguire later sent a copy of the photo to Cardinal Ratzinger, which he figures has been in "his file" in Rome for years now. He enclosed a note thanking Ratzinger for helping to hammer out the reforms of the Second Vatican Council before taking such a sharp right turn in his views. And he offered to get together some time to kick around some ideas on theology.
No reply ever came.
We sat in Maguire's living room as he told this story. I noticed a wilted Easter lily but not a single religious image or crucifix. Maguire said he doesn't believe Jesus died for our sins and called it heresy that makes God look like a sadistic monster. Jesus died for standing up to the unjust and exploitative Roman Empire, he said.
"That's drama enough for me," he said.
You get the idea how far apart his theology is from the new guy running his church.
That's OK, he said. Faith is not about rigidity or forcing everyone at every point in history into the same set of beliefs. If it were, we'd still be skipping meat every Friday and getting behind the church's historic support of slavery.
Rock-solid truth as professed by religious conservatives is overrated, he believes. It's grounded in fear, especially the fear that liberalism will lead to society's disintegration.
"The truth is always something we're working toward. Our grasp on it can be improved," Maguire said.
Try telling that to the holy man in the photo.
Good grief!
Some people advertise that they are jackasses by getting into the newspaper.
Small wonder that his kid became a Muslim. The kid, being a normal human, wants a religion that actually has rules--clearly different from what his father told him about "Catholicism."
For those of you who are young'uns, Maguire WAS a Jesuit priest until around 1970, when he attempted marriage to a nun. Later, he dumped the nun, and attempted marriage again, to a student of his, Marjorie.
He dumped her, too--and she didn't take it too well. IIRC, she was hauled in for disorderly conduct because she spent the better part of a day hammering away on Maguire's door.
He's about as good a husband as he is a priest.
I don't know what to say. So ping.
That is what I thought when I saw his son is a muslim living in Cairo. What a wonderful father. (with a voice dripping in sarcasm)
It has nothing to do with the new guy. The writer's sentence should go: You get the idea how far apart his theology is from that of the Church. Seems to me that orthodoxy should have some kind of priority over tenure. Here's hoping Mr. McGuire hears back from the man he bumped into those many years ago....soon.
It has nothing to do with the new guy. The writer's sentence should go: You get the idea how far apart his theology is from that of the Church. Seems to me that orthodoxy should have some kind of priority over tenure. Here's hoping Mr. McGuire hears back from the man he bumped into those many years ago....soon.
Daniel Maguire is no Catholic theologian, nor was he Catholic.
Daniel Maguire is just some nut who took lied to become a priest, not taking his vows seriously, and then throwing his opinion to the ignorant, satanists and other pagans who want to validate their stupidity.
The fact his son went on to become a Muslim says a lot.
>>You get the idea how far apart his theology is from the new guy running his church.<<
His church?
Sounds like this guy is not nor has ever been part of the Catholic church. Just the "Church of Me".
Assume for the sake of argument that the Cardinal actually wrote that other world religions are inferrior (something I would have to read for myself to believe it). Is that really so surprising? He would not be much of a Cardinal if he did not believe in the superiority of his Catholic beliefs.
I write this as someone who is not a Catholic. (I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the "LDS" or "Mormon" Church.) I admire godly men and women, regardless of their theology.
Maguire said he doesn't believe Jesus died for our sins and called it heresy that makes God look like a sadistic monster.
And he calls himself a "Catholic theologian"?
Thanks Narses.
What is really sad is that this guy teaches "moral theology" at a Catholic university!? What is wrong with this picture???
Ugh.
Can we get a barf alert on this?
Is this a trad thing that some argue about in the Catholic church ?
That was my thought too. The kid was raised by flakes calling themselves "Catholic" and "Christian," so he turned to Islam for stability and direction.
However, the University wanted to prove how open minded they were by having a nut case anti-Catholic on their staff teaching theology of all things. I'm glad I was in engineering and avoided him.
This is the first I heard about Maguire's son becoming a Muslim. It figures.
That said, I came to know the daughter of a Protestant theologian teaching at Marquette. She was an atheist! Must be something about the offspring of liberal theologians.
He misses the beauty of the faith.
And not seeing that Jesus dies for our sins?! Dying for the sins of the Roman Empire? The Roman Empire is dead, so that would make Christ's sacrifice meaningless.
What a poor lost soul!
Heard this nut claim on a radio program that a womans' right to contracept and abort can be found in Scripture. His particular judgment will be messy.
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