Posted on 09/04/2003 9:45:49 AM PDT by NYer
PEORIA, Ill. (CNS) -- In a passionate call to defend the faith that drew sustained applause at an outdoor Mass on Peoria's riverfront Aug. 24, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky declared contemporary culture is "at war with Jesus Christ" and asked Catholics, "What will it take to finally get us mad?"
"Will you tolerate the holiest things of our religion on a daily basis being mocked and ridiculed on TV, in the press and in the movies?" he asked the crowd of 800 worshipping under a tent on the grounds of the city's annual Irish festival.
Noting that "even the most blessed and glorious mother of God becomes a joke for comedians and sports writers," Bishop Jenky challenged Catholics to "rise up and become more militant about what you say you believe."
"Jesus asks each and every one of us today, 'Are you with me or against me?'" he said. "'Are you in my company a confessing member of my holy church, or would you prefer to sell me out to a world that is going straight to hell?'"
Bishop Jenky concluded his homily by paraphrasing a Scripture reading of the day: "Speaking as the bishop of Peoria," he said, "as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." The assembly answered with lengthy applause.
The annual Mass is planned by the Peoria area division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and featured music by the Irish Heritage Singers from Chicago. This was the second consecutive year that Bishop Jenky was celebrant and homilist.
"He didn't mince any words," said Mike Duncan, local Hibernians' president. "It was a most passionate homily, very clearly stating everything he thought and believed was important."
Bishop Jenky's message had a challenge for Irish and Irish-American Catholics.
"Will the Irish of the 21st century in their daily practice abandon that true faith and that true church their ancestors died for?" he asked. "Will American materialism and gross pagan immorality, disguised as personal autonomy and moral neutrality, finally succeed and win the hearts of the Irish, where Oliver Cromwell and Great Britain failed?"
Influenced by a secularist world view, American culture today is "living in direct opposition to the truth of Christ's Gospel and is aggressively hostile to the church," said Bishop Jenky.
Secularists, he explained, believe human choice should be determined only according to personal preference. While "convinced secularists" are in the minority, they have used culture's "command posts" of the national media, entertainment industry and university campuses to successfully win acceptance for such "freedoms" as easy divorce, premarital sex, cohabitation, out-of-wedlock birth, abortion and euthanasia.
The Catholic view of what constitutes human freedom is much different, said Bishop Jenky.
"Catholic Christianity strongly asserts that true human freedom doesn't reside in doing anything we want, any time we want to do it," he said. "Catholicism is convinced that there can be no absolute autonomous self apart from our essential connection with a community, no personal freedom without obligation to other people -- especially children and the elderly, the weak and the defenseless."
In the face of "vicious attacks" against the church in the cultural war, the bishop asked, "Why do we as Catholics not stand up and fight and defend our faith? What will it take to finally get us mad?"
Four days earlier, Bishop Jenky had expressed "profound horror and enormous dismay" at plans to name a local bar "Hail Mary's Last Chance Sports and Spirits." Area Catholics also protested the plan, with 2,600 people signing letters delivered to the Rock Island City Council Aug. 25. Developers of the bar said the name refers to a sports play.
In a letter published by the Rock Island Argus newspaper, Bishop Jenky said he loves sports and noted his long affiliation with the University of Notre Dame, where he served for two decades as rector of Sacred Heart Basilica on campus. He is a former chaplain to the Notre Dame football team.
"But the mother of my Savior is not a mascot," he wrote. "Her name is holy and does not belong on a bar."
Would that every bishop in America gave a similar speech to each function that they speak at.
Most certainly! :^)
If you liked that one, my pastor gave this homily one week later, this past Sunday. HERE
And if you grow up there, and your Dad works at the Arsenal, somehow you never get around to it. At least that was my experience. :-)
ROFL ... (tears streaming down face!!) !!!
Dan Jenky and I were in the seminary together many years ago, and I was happy to learn that he became a bishop. But he always was the kind of guy who would honestly have been "horrified" and "dismayed" by a sports bar called Hail Mary's. Putting that sort of thing on the same level as the real cultural horrors he named in his sermon--like family breakdown and abortion--makes him seem like a silly Old Maid . . . and, more importantly, makes his cause seem marginal and extremist.
Perhaps ... but the bigger message here is that the audience, a/k/a catholics, rallied to the cry. In other words, catholics are starved for sermons of this nature, corny or otherwise. At least Bishop Jenky had the courage to speak out, which is more that we can say for most of our bishops in the US.
I agree. I think American Catholics are starved enough for leadership on ANY issue that they would even jump at the chance to shut down "Hail Mary's" because it would at least provide a focus for their frustration at a culture that is--as Jenky rightly says--at war against Christ.
Update. Church +1, barowners 0. Plans to name the bar as above have been scrapped and the public is being asked for suggestions for a new name. It was too offensive to catholics in the area.
Afterwards, I spoke with His Excellency, and let him know that if he were to persist in preaching homilies of similar quality in the future, then he better expect that sooner or later a convert like me is bound to eventually yell something along the lines of, "Amen, you preach it brother."
Peoria has truly been blessed with some excellent bishops -recently, Archbishop Myers(now in Newark) and now, Bishop Jenky. You don't suppose His excellency, Archbishop Sheen, is up there watching out for his old stomping grounds, do you? -)
Bishop Jenky is a sorry hypocrite. He beats up on a tavern owner that wanted to name a bar after a football pass, but is utterly silent when the most pro abortion man on the planet wears Our Lady’s name and is given an honorary degree from Our Lady’s University, where Jenky is a board member. No word, no protest, no resignation from this alleged Catholic University. What say you Jenky?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.