Catholics salvaging their church submitted by Paul Anthony Melanson ,
Paul Melanson is a member of FaithfulVoice , Keene , NH.
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Once
again The Keene Sentinel, Keene New Hampshire, has done its share to promote
the anti-Catholic dissent group "Voice of the Faithful."
In
the April 21st edition of this publication, readers are exposed to Mary Ann Sorrentino, a "syndicated
columnist." In an article entitled, "Catholics salvaging
their church," she writes: "Christians have just celebrated the
highest holy day of their calendar - Easter, the feast marking Christ's
resurrection through which the faithful believe they are redeemed...For
America's Catholics (of which I was proud to call myself one before I was declared excommunicated in 1985 because of my work at Planned Parenthood of Rhode
Island) [ executive director of a Planned Parenthood
office ] this Easter's joy was overshadowed by the
widening scandal within the church. Three weeks before this Easter, in
fact, the battle-weary Roman Catholics of Boston's archdiocese were dealt
another blow as their interim Bishop, Richard G. Lennon, refused to accept any
money raised by the Bay State's lay group Voice of the Faithful."
For Ms. Sorrentino, there is
no valid reason for Bishop Lennon's decision to refuse to accept monies
collected from VOTF.
She
writes,
"Voice of the Faithful is not a radical Catholic group. To the contrary,
it prides itself on its centrist Roman Catholic beliefs and stands only on the
issue of Catholic unity in the face of the growing numbers of victims and
survivors of hierarchical abuse.....This is not a group marching loudly and
defiantly to change the church's position on celibacy, women's ordination,
birth control and abortion, or any number of historically noisy issues within
the Catholic Church that inspire brutal emotional and philosophical
battles. The people of the Voice of the Faithful just want the truth to
be told and justice to be done so that survivors can get on with their lives
and Catholic children and their parents can participate in their faith more
serenely."
Nine Bishops have banned the organization, some of them
referring to it as "anti-Catholic."
Ms.
Sorrentino, the excommunicated pro-abortionist, continues:
"The Roman Catholic laity seems
determined to salvage its church even when leaders such as Bishop Lennon try to
stand in the way of peacemaking and reform. In the end, we can only hope
that the voices of all the faithful, and their sensus fidelium will win out over the
fading death rattle of feudal power-hungriness. Men like Bishop Lennon
need to grasp that in today's church - and today's world - Catholics need to
hold on to the beatitudes and let go of the Crusades and the Inquisition."
In
His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us, "Blessed are the poor in
spirit.." But to accuse Bishop Lennon of fostering an atmosphere
which is akin to the Crusades or the Inquistion hardly seems consistent with
being "poor in spirit."
Jesus told us in His Sermon
that, "Blessed are the peacemakers.." Peacemaking does not
include slandering a Bishop of Christ's Church - a successor to the Apostles.
And
what of the "sensus fidelium" Ms. Sorrentino speaks of? Her
understanding of this point (also referred to as the universitas fidelium) is
deeply flawed. For an understanding of this concept, we need look no
further than to my good friend Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. In The Catholic
Catechism - A Contemporary Catechism of the Teachings of the Catholic Church,
Fr.
Hardon explains that, "Those who believe, and insofar as they believe, are
one community not only or mainly because they subjectively believe but because
what they believe is objectively true, indeed is the Truth that became man and
dwelled among us. Against this background, it is easier to see what
universal agreement among the faithful must mean. They are faithful
insofar as they are agreed on the truth, where the source of their agreement is
not a semantic use of the name 'Christian' or 'Catholic,' but the deeply
interior adherence to what God has revealed.
Consequently,
whether they realize it or not, all who agree on the revealed truth, under the
guidance of the sacred magisterium, belong to the faithful. Their
agreement on the truth and allegiance to the magisterium gives them
universality, i.e., spiritual unity. The truth interiorly possessed gives
them consensus, and not the other way around, as though their consensus on some
doctrine made it true." (pp. 226-227).
One
last comment regarding Ms. Sorrentino's confused article. "Voice of
the Faithful" represents some 25,000 members (although I'm convinced that
the vast majority simply signed the organization's internet membership form and
are hardly committed members). Mother Angelica draws more viewers every
week to her various programs. 25,000 members (I can't help but think of
Louis Farrakhan and his "million man march") hardly represents any
sort of consensus within a Church of over a billion Catholics.
Sorry Ms. Sorrentino. Try again.
Paul
Anthony Melanson@FaithfulVoice.com
Some Background material re: Mary Ann Sorrentino,
"My Church Threw Me Out"
"Many
choose to alter, modify or abandon religion, since it is difficult to advocate
something which condemns our existence." - Mary Ann Sorrentino, "My
Church Threw Me Out"
There
is a vastness of oppression that traditional Western religions (Christianity,
Judaism and Muslim) bestow upon women. I was raised in a United Methodist
family, but, at an early age, realized the contradictions, the lack of a female
presence, and the general air of misogyny throughout the Bible and church
services. Confirmation classes were enough to confirm my belief that the
Protestant religion was nothing of value to me, and would not affirm my life
but scar it. Despite familial resistance-like my mother calling me a Satan
worshipper merely because I no longer was a Christian refused to associate with
Christianity at the age of 14. I was nevertheless thirsty for "soul
food" and searched everywhere for an appropriate belief system where I
could worship with others who felt the same. I sought out others who believed
that the earth was sacred, womanhood was sacred, and the female way of knowing
and experiencing was sacred. I ventured into traditional Native American
beliefs, Eastern "religions", such as Jainism, Zoastroism, Buddhism,
Taoism, Spiritualism, Theosophy and Wicca.
The
atrocities that the Catholic religion continues to heap on its women
practitioners today are obvious and ridiculous. I feel for Mary Ann Sorrentino,
who was excommunicated by the Catholic Church for her job as executive director
of a Planned Parenthood office. But why are all these women trying to vie for
power in a structure that is so inherently male, that has so much history of
oppression of all peoples, that continues to oppress? Why would they want to be
remotely associated with the Catholic Church? One can answer: tradition. So, it
is in their tradition that men are able to rise up in a hierarchy while women
cannot, that men can take certain sacraments that women can't. That, a few
hundred years ago, men sat around a table discussing whether women had souls or
not!
The
roots of misogyny and dualistic thought in Christianity pre-dates to the Hebrew
language. Unlike the English language, there is no neuter pronoun. In other
words, the English language has an "it"; the Hebrew language does
not. The Hebrew language can only address things as "he" or
"she" - therefore, the Hebrews could only address the concept of God
as "he" or "she." There are a few texts, found in the last
50 years in the Dead Sea Scrolls (see Elaine Pagels and the new Apocrypha)
wherein God was female or addressed herself as "she." But those
documents were lost, burned, destroyed or hidden deep in the caverns of the
Vatican. That was heretical stuff. Heretical, only, because if people had been
armed with that knowledge, men would no longer be able to wield religion as a
stick. Likewise, Rosemary Ruether believed "the oppression of women
stemmed from the dualistic thinking - placing, for example, the soul in
opposition to the body, and spirit in opposition to nature - that has come to
be a central aspect of Christian thought. This dualism resulted in a
hierarchical structure wherein men are placed above nature and believe that it
is their right to dominate it." May I add men in opposition to women? The
unwritten rule that men are good and innocent - like Adam - and women are evil
and conniving - like Eve? Binary thinking? It is little wonder so many men are
computer programmers, and how Christianity upholds traditional male thinking
and paradigms.
I
agree with Mary Daly, the feminist writer, who, "left Christianity behind,
positing that it was beyond hope of feminist reform. Unlike feminist
theologians who work to separate what they see as Christianityís
original, egalitarian message from subsequent patriarchal interpretations, Daly
felt that such a task was impossible and unnecessary; to be a truly radical
feminist, she asserted, one must part with Christianity altogether."
The structure and very foundation of traditional Western religions subvert the feminine and reinforce masculine ways and beliefs. What could a woman possibly gain from participation in it? It is like these Western religions are commercial farmsóthere is no vitality, no nutrients left in the soil, yet farmers are still trying to draw something wholesome. Throw out the whole batch and begin anew, where roots haven’t festered or grown dry and brittle, where half of the population still normalizes their own oppression.
May 1986, Mary Ann Sorrentino, executive director of Rhode Island Planned Parenthood, excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
When Sorrentino, 42, questioned the action, she was reminded that two Planned Parenthood clinics performed abortions in the state and that canon law decrees automatic excommunication for receiving an abortion or helping another to receive one.
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