Replies

[Gregory Popcak]
9/9/2003
I was planning a leisurely report on the day, walking you through step by step as if you were there. I will still do that, but it seems to me I have to lead with the overview since people seem concerned that "nothing happened."

Here's my take.

I didn't expect that the Bishops would say, "AHA! Now I get how the Church is supposed to be! THANK YOU for explaining it so clearly. I will now go fix everything that is wrong."

If I had thought that, I would have been off my meds.

I had much more sober goals for the day, and those goals were achieved. For too long, the Bishops have associated themselves with the loud voices of dissent, not because they necessarily agree with those voices but more because, 1) they are loud (Bishops hate conflict) 2) they are influential (read: "Moneyed and politically connected) and 3) They threaten to tear the Church apart (Threats of schism get attention.)

For the most part, observant Catholics have been content to sit in the pew, serve the church, take care of their families and trust that, in the end, the bishops, guided by the Holy Spirit, will do what's right by the Church.

The scandal was the wake-up call for all observant Catholics.

Now, we are galvanizing. The real point of this meeting was not anything that was said at the meeting (although many good things were said--more later) but that we had the meeting at all. Too often, observant Catholics are not even invited to the table to discuss anything (anybody see Robbie George at the Dallas meeting? Peggy Noonan? Elizabeth Fox-Genovese? No? I didn't think so. How about that meeting in July? Ditto.)

What this meeting accomplished was to say to the bishops that observant Catholics have an organized voice, that we are not afraid to use it, that we are not cranks, that we are university presidents, publishers, academics, business leaders, lay ministers, that we demand our say, and that we demand that our concerns be heard and responded to.

Well, yesterday, not many of our concerns were responded to. But they were heard, loud and clear. And it will not be the last time.

Here is what I learned.

1. Bishops are terrified of conflict. So, if you want fidelity, you have to agitate for it. Alot.

2. Bishops confuse "charity" with "making nice" I did my bit to disabuse them of that notion yesterday. Interestingly, they stopped abusing the word "charity: after I made my comments (of course, they then went to "prudence" but that's another story) more later.

3. The Bishops seem to genuinely believe that when they oppose pro-death Catholic politicians, the public backlash automatically ensures the election of those officials. We attempted to convince them otherswise, but their experience says different. My conclusions? 1) Shame on us for voting for these bastards in the first place (the most Catholic states have the most pro-death politicians. That's the laity's fault. Period). 2) Shame on the bishops for not eschewing wimpy attempts at political solutions formulating an effective pastoral response (good examples of this pastoral approach would be Bishop Weigand's intervention with Gray Davis or the Pa Bishops who barred Former Gov.Tom Ridge from speaking on any Church property or being honored by Catholic orgs in that state.)

4. The bishops seem to think themselves held hostage by the secular press ("We do say things, THEY won't report it.") We reminded them that they have the largest grass roots organzation in the world. If they want to get the word out, they should have priests read their letter (or at least preach on a selected topic) on a particular Sunday. 63 million people (give or take) could be reached in one day with this method, and we wouldn't have to kiss the NY Times anti-Catholic butt to get it done. The bishops seemed unimpressed with any idea that involved getting their own house in order, however. Better to complain about what can't be done than do something within their power I suppose.

5, Bishops are totally insulated from how bad it really is.

For example; every single person in that room knew about the testimony given by Fr. Robert Keenan, SJ of the Weston Theological Seminary to the Mass State Congress stating that there was nothing in Church teaching that opposed Gay marriage. Everyone, that is, except any of the Bishops and the USCCB staff.

(They were visibly shocked when we told them. But they literally had no idea.)

They genuinely, honestly, don't have a clue how bad it is on the front lines of the culture of death. Now, that's a damn shame, but you know what? You know what that means, folks? It just means that we aren't yelling loudly enough. That's what.

Now, throughout the day, I am going to take you through this one step at a time. Then I will make some suggestions. But I want to say this right now. If you ever felt guilty making noise about anything that is wrong in the Church. Don't. Yell loud. LOUDER! Keep yelling until they hear you. Apparently, Bishop's offices are very well insulated for sound.