A pledgepin??? You're all worthless and weak!
Posted on 12/15/2005 7:32:37 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
- Appointed Bishop George Hugh Niederauer, bishop of Salt Lake City, as metropolitan archbishop of San Francisco (area 2,620, population 1,744,050, Catholics 425,210, priests 425, permanent deacons 62, religious 1,004), U.S.A. The archbishop-elect was born in Los Angeles, U.S.A. in 1936, he was ordained a priest in 1962 and consecrated a bishop in 1995.
Also: Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of San Antonio, U.S.A., presented by Bishop Thomas J. Flanagan, upon having reached the age limit.
His diocesan biography:
Eighth Bishop, Diocese of Salt Lake City, Bishop George H. Niederauer was ordained the eighth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City January 25, 1995. He came from Los Angeles, California where he was born on June 14, 1936.
After attending St. Catherine’s Military Academy in Anaheim, he studied at St. Anthony’s High School in Long Beach and graduated in 1954. During his freshman year at Stanford University, he decided to enter St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, from which in 1959 he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree.
In 1962, he completed work both on a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola University, Los Angeles. On April 30 of that year, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Father Niederauer’s first priestly assignment was as assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Claremont. In 1966, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in English Literature from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
From 1972-1994, he served as spiritual director at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. During those years he was also an instructor in Spiritual Theology. From 1987-1992, he served as rector of the seminary. From 1992-1994, he co-directed the Cardinal Manning House of Prayer for priests in Los Angeles.
Named a Chaplain to His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, in 1984, with the title Monsignor, and a Prelate of Honor in 1988, Monsignor Niederauer was appointed eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City on November 3, 1994.
Bishop Niederauer has supported many local causes in his ten years as Bishop, including interfaith efforts through the Alliance for Unity, urging civic responsibility, the needs of migrant workers, youth and young adults, in addition to serving as the chair of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography since 2000. In 2004 he received the Gandhi Peace Award from the Gandhi Alliance for Peace.
Bishop's response to the document on homosexuality in the clergy (which demonstrates what I mean about him working to find a midpoint path)
Bishop Niederauer responds to document
by Barbara Stinson Lee
Intermountain Catholic
Q. Questions about this issue have been addressed to this Vatican department from around the world. How is it that the Vatican chose to address the issue of homosexuality in the priesthood at this time?
A. If you read the newspapers or watch television, sexual orientation in general, and gay culture issues in particular, are much on people’s minds these days. Also, some who are seriously mistaken have named sexual orientation as the cause of the recent scandal regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests.
Q. If a person is seeking to become a priest is answering a call from God, how do bishops determine if they are suited for the job?
A. A vocation to priesthood is a call from God to a unique identification with Christ the Priest through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Priesthood is a vocation, not a job. It is meant to be life-long, and meant to engage and fulfill the whole human person.
This truth has many implications. One implication is the need for what this document calls “affective maturity,” meaning that all the loving and relating that a priest does must be centered in Christ and consistent with the priest’s commitment to Christ and the Church. This kind of single-heartedness does not allow for a relationship in any priest’s life that would weaken his commitment to Christ and his Church.
Another implication of this affective maturity is that every celibate priest needs to be free to relate in a warm, human way to the men, women, and children to whom he ministers, in a manner that is genuine and still consistent with his commitment to Christ the Priest.
Q. That’s all fine and good, but can a man who is homosexual be an effective priest?
A. If any priest has the affective maturity described above, and in the document, then with God’s grace, he can effectively minister as a priest.
What the Church, the bishop, and the seminary must determine in the course of a priestly candidate’s formation is whether the candidate has the gifts of affective maturity, has made them his own, and is living them out faithfully.
Q. Why does the document express concern about someone who supports the “gay culture?”
A. Any Catholic priest’s identity must be centered in Christ the Priest. Thus, a priest cannot think of himself or present himself as mainly something else: a Democrat, a Republican, an American, a Frenchman, or as someone who has a particular sexual orientation. As important as sexual orientation may be in the structure of human personality, the priest must be principally “of Christ.” In addition, it would be inconsistent for the priest and confusing for the Catholic faithful if a priest differs from the Church in any of its moral teachings.
Q. What are other concerns for which a bishop or a seminary might deem a man inappropriate for the priesthood?
A. Affective maturity is just one of many elements of which bishops, seminaries, and spiritual advisors are cognizant when they consider a man as a candidate for the priesthood. Others include: Does he possess the ability to provide spiritual leadership and example? Can he develop the pastoral skills needed to work with and serve people? Is he able to master the studies? Does he possess sufficient relational skills to communicate effectively with a variety of people? Does he exhibit patterns of addictive behavior?
He does seem to be a good administrator, and does have his job cut out for him!
Oh, brother...
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An English major who served as a spiritual director for the diocese of Los Angeles' notorious seminary.
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His main ministry seems to be facilitating the illegal import of laborers, something which the infallible magisterium of the Church, through Vatican I, decries as "a grave offense... which cries out to the Heavens for vengence."
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He received a peace prize from a kooky group which usurped its name from Gandhi, despite the fact that the actual government formed by Gandhi distributes its own prize with the same name. Of other recipients of the American kook's peace prize, some are liberal but hardly surprising (Cesar Chavez, Eleanor Roosevelt)... I would be surprised if any peace group didn't honor prominent liberals. But how about this merry band of kooky recent recipients:
Ramsey Clark.
George McGovern
Dennis Kucinich
Benjamin Spock
Marian Wright Edelman
Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of School of the Assassins Watch, which destroys US military property.
Rev. Lucius Walker, Gen. Sec. of the National Council of Churches (founded with seed money from Josef Stalin)
And no, I'm not cherry-picking the most outrageous. the only other winner whom I know, I know from science, not politics: Dr. Linus Pauling, who might have beat Watson and Crick to discovering the chemical structure of DNA, had his travel not been restricted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
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What a winner...
What's this prejudice about English majors?
The reality of him as a bishop is not as dark as it could be or as bright as it ought to be...he is for sure no Archbishop Chaput. His homilies are good. He doesn't step on the GIRM like some bishops do. He allows conservative priests, and most churches have weekly adoration. There's a monthly Tridentine mass in Salt Lake. All these are factors on the plus side.
There are 13 seminarians, which is a lot for such a small diocese, less than 150,000 catholics.
In other words, he has not been a disaster here. It's not Rochester or Albany.
>> What's this prejudice about English majors? <<
LOL! I wasn't meaning to slam on English majors. (Well, not in this instance. :^P :^D) It's just I'm not sure being an English major is excellent academic preparations for leading a seminary or a major archdiocese. Heck, I didn't know you could become a *priest* without a graduate degree, such as MST, MDiv, or something like that...
[Evil Dan says: English major?! Aw, great just what we need! Maybe he can read some poetry to all the seminarians in La-La-Land! Or write his own Eucharistic Prayers! HHOK!)
(I'm focusing on saying things directly, rather than through humor... since my humor is fairly obtuse. So here goes: My reason for letting Evil Dan speak is to acknowledge, "OK, maybe there is soommmme tiny party of me which does make a bad association with English majors. I DID go to a state university, after all. Maybe if he had been an engineering major I would've expressed my puzzlement differently. [Science is harder to politicize, and I've been more impressed with the intellect of Engineers than English majors.] But I acknowledge such thoughts through "Evil Dan" because they are indefensible.)
http://www.utahcatholicdiocese.org/
Diocesan website.
Is this guy a Mormon?
English majors come in all flavors, from my conservative bent to wacko koolaid drinkers. And a lot in between. Ah. Life is interesting.
?
I should also acknowledge that it's possible that Pope Benedict didn't have many options...
He did NOT take one of Mahoney's minions (good sign).
Of the nine Suffragan bishops, Hawaii's and Oakland's are just new to the job; Reno's is vacant, and Sacramento's is well, let's just say there would be more outrage around here if he got the nod.
I am impressed if Niederauer has succeeded in recruiting priests.
And if he's "not bad, just not great," it's not the worst thing: He's almost 70... Benedict might be buying time to find a truly outstanding archbishop.
A pledgepin??? You're all worthless and weak!
Joke.
That explains it!
There are some very Mormon jokes to tell, but I'd have to explain why they're funny....
I do trust Benedict's judgement on these things, because I know how much he CARES about the church.
And pray that we get a good shepherd here in Utah.
>>>>>>>>>>NEW ARCHBISHOP OF SAN FRANCISCO PING!<<<<<<<<<<<<<
A classmate of Archbishop Levada, I believe.
I visited the Cathedral of La Madeleine there last year and found some good things and some question marks. Good was that by and large the traditionl type decoration was still there; also that vespers was sung each night in a little chapel behind the high altar, of all places, but OK. Question mark was why Msgr Manion no longer seemed to be there at the Cathedral. I always thought he was a conservative "reform of the reform" person, so his disappearance just raised a question in my mind.
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