The Eastern Christians have it right --- celibacy is dangerous and difficult outside of religious community. And in the sex (and money and power) obsessed society in which we live, it is even more difficult.

Before we start talking about changing the celibacy discipline, before we condemn our priests for their inperfections, we have to be certain that in our Church we have the support systems necessary for our celibate secular clergy to live that commitment in a faithful and healthy way. In these days when parishes have only one priest, or even share a priest with a couple of other parishes, overwork and aloneness are a way of life for our priests. Being alone, lonely, and exhausted are not conducive to successful chaste singleness. As any 12-stepper can tell us, if we get too Hungry, or Angry, or Lonely, or Tired, HALT, our besetting problems will rise up to haunt us. And when our priests are not successful, there are not only sexual sins, but particular friendships, alcohol or drug abuse, swamp adder attitudes, and the rest of the litany of problems.

So, how do we nurture our priests? Here's a few suggestions (Feel free to add to the list):

In the cities where the parishes are close enough together, the priests could live together, like the old rectories were when parishes had more than one priest. They then can support each other in their commitments and catch the very earliest signs of trouble coming, and prevent it. Out in the rural and exurban areas, make sure the old deanery systems really work, so every week or every other week all of the priests within a reasonable drive can come together for prayer, support, and frank talk. Celibate is not a synonym for lonely.

Be sure your priest gets time off ---real time off. Not planning meetings or mowing the churchyard, but _OFF_. Maybe a day or a half-day every week, and a week or two vacation and a week or two time off for a retreat every year. Don't let your priest get exhausted, no matter how much you need him. And do not keep him so busy that his spiritual life gets neglected for all of the chores. If necessary, do the chores yourself. Give your priest time every day for a solid prayer life.

And, of course, we have to pray ourselves. The priests cannot provide the holiness of the whole Church all by themselves. Some of it is our job.
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At Annunciations, Michael posted a quotation from Carlo Carretto which is _absolutely_necessary_. Go there!

He reminds me of my mother, who used to say:

The Church is my Mother, and I love her. Occasionally, she behaves like a whore, but she is still my mother.

and:

The proof that the Holy Spirit protects the Church is how the Holy Spirit inspired some of our more foul popes to keep their mouths shut. They may have been evil people and horrendous examples, but they never even tried to use their office to proclaim their evils good.
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An apology to Bubbles (and other things)

I corresponded with Bubbles Sirman this morning, and it turns out I did misinterpret his target last night, confusing him with the idiots who think the local crisis is an excuse to have their prurient curiosities catered to. I should have known better, knowing Bubbles from REBORN and all, that he wouldn't be into that. Please accept my contrition.

His real target was our passive-voiced, hiding behind the pr flacks and lawyers bishops up to their miters in the Situation. And, though I express myself very differently, about that we actually agree.

Dallas will be extremely difficult, if our bishops are strong for us and serious at all, and I know at least some of them are. And, in the upcoming months after Dallas, there will have to be a lot more public truth-telling. Not "mistakes were made," but "I allowed x to happen and x was wrong." Not "there were indiscretions" but "I did y. I ordered z. I beg your forgiveness."

I have become utterly convinced (any of my friends can let me know if they think I'm wrong---Mark S, Bubbles, Gerard, anybody?) that in the next months, there will be some, maybe many, of our bishops, including some of the cardinals, facing a full diocesan chapel and a bank of international media for their own public Chapter of Faults. And not over decades-forgiven personal sin and ordinary lack of courage either. This will not be easy. It will be no fun for any of us. But it needs to happen.

We need to pray and do penance. That is what will help the bishops to do it, and help us to endure it. That, and my knowledge that I have sinned and I have done spectacularly dumb things myself. So there is no right to ridicule.

Today's wise words come from Bill W:

How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection, that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth.
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Tomorrow is June 9th, but it's a Sunday, so we do not get to celebrate Ephrem the Syrian, deacon and doctor, this year. But I'm not willing to wait a full year to post his prayer, to which I have been clinging in both the "Situation" and the "crisis." It may be a life preserver to others as well.

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust of power, and idle talk; but give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins, and not to judge my brother, for thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.
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Sirman on the Mount's "indiscretion"

Bubbles over on Sirman on the Mount posted a definition for "indiscretion" that equated it to "buggery." I don't know, but it seemed a commentary on the "inappropriate nature of my relationship with Paul M------." So whether or not, here goes. Forgive me, Bubbles, if I'm wrong about that.

Whether or not that relationship ever got physical, and how much, we will never know, and it is really none of our business. Our only evidence is Paul M's interview with GMA, and everyone with two functioning gray cells has figured out by now that was as phony as a three dollar bill.

BUT, it also does not matter. The kind of relationship that Rembert W had with Paul M (as evidenced by the Dear Paul Letter) would be seriously sinful, at least for Rembert W, even if they never touched.

Rembert W, like all of us who are pledged to live the evangelical counsels, has made a promise to God to live in chaste singleness. (usually abbreviated "celibacy"). To become involved in any relationship that makes one excessively entangled with any one other individual, or that makes one's own conscience secondary to someone else's conscience, is a violation of that singleness to God, and is sin. And, that is the sin that Rembert W is confessing to, and renouncing, in the Dear Paul Letter, clearly. Rembert W can have only one Love, God alone. There can be no other loves. Paul M must go.

This is such a recognised pattern of temptation and sinning in the Tradition, even from earliest times, that there is shorthand jargon for it in the Catholic vocabulary. That phrase is "a particular friendship." After the emotions of the crisis calm down, take a look at the commentaries on the dangers of the particular friendship, and you'll find the initial sin of Rembert W. Even if, perchance, they never touched, or even if they did. Dear Bubbles, prurience is unnecessary.
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While we've been distracted by the "Situation" and by the "crisis"
there have been other prayer needs. A small sampling:

----The rulers of India and of Pakistan wave nuclear weapons over their people's heads in their current disagreements. For peace, or at least truce.

---- Same in the land called Holy. Even a Korea-style armed truce or a Berlin-style wall would be a massive improvement on the current situation.

---- Mallcom, a 10-year-old run over by a car while helping a wheelchair-using lady cross the street at 34th and National Ave on the 29th, is still in the hospital though not on the critical list anymore. A man named Curtis, who is 39, was arrested Thursday for doing the running over. He has problems of his own.

---- Alexis Patterson, aged 7, of the Hi-Mount neighborhood, is still missing. It has been 5 weeks now.

---- The state of the county workers' pensions is still in doubt; the recalls of elected county officials continue.

---- A Jesuit named Greg was ordained priest last night at my parish church. He will be teaching in the Law School at Marquette University.

---- My parish also has a new pastor, he starts work in July. His name is Fr Peter Etzel, SJ.

---- Chronic wasting disease of deer. Geese that have forgotten how to migrate. Garlic mustard, purple loosestrife, Lyme disease. Seagulls lounging in the Convention Center air vents. And, of course, it is tornado season.

---- My nephew, Chad, was born on May 31st. I'll get to meet him when I go to the Knapp reunion in July. My sisters tell me that Chad's big sister Elise is charmed by him.

---- Call to Action is coming to plague us again later in the year (I saw their ad). Wanderer Forum will probably show up also, they always have before. Lord deliver us from the Wandering Actionites. There is only The Church, it has no adjectives!

The "crisis" is mostly passed, but we now return you to the "Situation," already in progress.
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The Liturgy of the Hours is always reliable! From today's; psalm 131:

O Lord, my heart is not proud
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great
nor marvels beyond me.

Truly I have set my soul
in silence and peace.
As a child has rest in its mother's arms,
even so my soul.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
both now and forever.
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From today's Liturgy of Hours:

at morning prayer: Jeremiah 31

This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

and at the office of readings: Romans 8

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or a sword? As Scripture says: "For your sake we are being slain all the day long; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered." Yet in all this we are more than conquerers because of him who has loved us. For I am certain that neither life nor death, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Come, Lord Jesus, whose covenant fidelity is forever!
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An interesting, and gentle, letter

From the Letters to the Editor of yesterday's Catholic Herald and also various places on the Internet:

We appreciate Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland's public apology last Friday and hope that it helps many of us Catholics in Milwaukee to move beyond our shock and dismay to find the voice of the Spirit in this time of crisis.

We were particularly saddened to hear the archbishop say that he considers it his obligation to repay the archdiocese the remainder of money that he has not already contributed toward the $450,000 settlement amount in his case. Not all of us agree that he owes the archdiocese this money and most of us are uncomfortable with the fact that money was paid. However, we wish to help our church and the archbishop as best we can.

We are setting in motion a large group of God's people who will let the archbishop know that we value the 50 years of service he has given to the church by helping to erase the debt of the settlement money.

Therefore, we have resolved to contact as many people as we can on the internet and other lists to ask them to send contributions to the archdiocese, with the notation that the contribution is to reimburse the archdiocese for the $450,000 paid as a settlement in the Weakland case.

June 29th is the feast of SS Peter and Paul. Perhaps we could be free of this burden by then so that the archbishop and the people of this archdiocese could move forward in the spirit of these great apostles.

Nancy Hennessey Cooney
Chuck Cooney
Tom Landers
Marjorie Reiley Maguire
School Sister of St Francis Angela Ireland
Mary Lux
Richard Lux

I wish that I had money so that I could contribute to this worthy gesture of care and love. However, all I have is my prayers, and the archbishop has had them ever since the day 25 years ago that we all wondered "Dom Rembert Who?" even before he was ordained bishop, and he will have them for the rest of my days.
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About Jochebed

It was the summer of 1975. I was back in Ohio for the summer from university, and I had no employment. So I divided up my days, a third of them in the library, a third of them helping at a place called the Charles de Foucauld House, and a third with my maternal grandmother, who was doubling at the time as my spiritual director.

To Grandma, absolutely everything was purposeful, every human activity had its blessing and its proper way, and almost every prayer began, "Blessed be the Lord, king of the universe, who...." Between cleaning and baking and sewing and handwork, we were praying about and discerning my future path. A few months before, I had discovered the hard way that for advanced calculus and organic chemistry I was not fit, so medicine was out of the question at last; but it had been obvious since very early childhood that making things whole, imposing order on various forms of chaos, was my primary talent. Yet,how to use it? And how to make a living, or accept not doing so?

By August, it had become obvious that I would study theology and philosophy even if I had to bus tables and babysit for a livelihood all my life. It was also equally obvious that I would not be marrying and raising up great-grandchildren; my way would be the way of the Counsels. So I was renamed: in my mother's family, every major change in life comes with a new name. Grandma called me Jochebed.

Who was Jochebed? Jochebed (the name means "the LORD is glorious") was the valiant Israelite woman who was the mother of Aaron and Miriam and Moses. She committed her beloved baby Moses to the river in a floating cradle, on the slimmest of chances that he might survive, and he not only survived but was brought back to her side by his royal rescuer. She bore and raised three prophets and servants of the Lord, and then she was forgotten but for a few lines at the beginning of the book of Exodus.

That is our way as humans. We do what we must, and life goes on. One person plants, another hoes and weeds, still another harvests, and all are necessary. Yet there is only One who receives glory.
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The Reason for Our Hope (1 Peter 3:15)

Thank you, Bishop Sklba! Your column is on the spot.

Also for your calendar published in the Catholic Herald: Tuesday, Jesus Caritas fraternity meeting; Wednesday through Saturday, bishops' conference. Be strong for us.
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A day of calm. I spent my web time reading the various corners of Maureen's Religion of Sanity site. Wonderful.

Please continue to pray, especially for your own bishop. Also, join me in special prayer for our Bishop Sklba, tossed so unexpectedly and suddenly into the spotlight here in Milwaukee, that he'll be ready and strong for the meetings in Dallas, and for keeping our archdiocese in good order for the new archbishop, whoever he might be.

We have been blessed beyond our deserving for the last quarter-century; the new archbishop is likely to find us quite spoiled.....

Some Disjointed Day's Wanderings

Rock of Ages, let our song
praise your saving power.
You, amid the raging throng,
were our sheltering tower,
Furious they assailed us,
but your arm availed us,
and your word broke their swords
when our own strength failed us.
And your word broke their swords
when our own strength failed us.

Assailed indeed is the name of the game recently. I need to arrange a ride to the Cathedral to pray in that special place. When it was rededicated after the renovation it was so beautiful, and so very Catholic, and I could go inside again also, like I did when I was more able.

If we returned to public Confession, so that we all knew all of each others' secrets, would we live in less fear? Or would we only abuse each other? Would we be more free, knowing everybody knows everything anyhow, or would we drive the shy and the timid away from Reconciliation altogether? And what does the Seal of Confession mean when the entire congregation hears?

Up until May 23rd, the presumption was that the details of one's long-ago confessed and long-ago forgiven sins were nobody's business but God's. But we have discovered to our pain that they are also the business of any who can use that knowledge as a club.

Unconscionably but providentially (and it's one of those paradoxes how one action can be both!), along with knowing much that we have no right to know, we have documentation of the glories of the love for Christ and his Church, of true contrition, and of the depths inside the human heart. Thanks but no thanks to my ex-classmate, who, I hope, is receiving whatever he was seeking in his noteriety.
(And who I also hope returns the $450,000 he fraudulently received from the archdiocese. If the claim was not a fraud, the Dear Paul Letter would never now be public.)

For myself, and for the other believers here, and for both our bishops, the retired and the administrating, there is only the one thing to hold and remember, and St Teresa said it in her Nada te turbe:

Let nothing disturb you,
nothing frighten you.
All things are passing,
God never changes.
Patient endurance
attains to all things.
The one who has God
finds nothing wanting.
God alone suffices.
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Howard Eisenberg, dean of the Marquette University Law School and the head of the commission reviewing sexual abuse allegations in our archdiocese, died this afternoon at age 55, of cardiac problems. He had a heart attack on May 23.

Please pray for his repose, for his family, for the remaining members of the commission, and for our archdiocese and university.

karen marie
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A quickie before bed:

Which bishop's turn is next at the public Chapter of Faults? and who are we laity and lowly not-canonically-correct religious to hold ourselves exempt?

Why not bring back public Confession, then none of us would have any secrets from the world.

karen marie

Resisting the Temptations of Donatism

When St. Francis was asked what his brothers were to do about the immoral and corrupt priests and bishops of the 13th century (who make the worst of our current crop look like rank amateurs!), whether they should be avoided or preached against, his answer was to bow and kiss their hands and ask their blessing, for they offer the holy Eucharist for us, giving to us Christ himself.

In the current trials, the deceptive face of Donatism is coming back in fashion. There are groups out there, believing themselves to be Catholic, that are proposing that the Lord does not come in the Eucharist if the celebrant is in some way or other unworthy, and that Absolution by such priests does not absolve. Even reading or listening to the secular news sources, that ugly face pops up. Every bishop who ever mishandled any priestly discipline case by modern standards, no matter how long ago or how corrected since, must go. The teaching of the bishop doesn't need to be listened to if all of the bishop's prudential judgements have not been correct. And even reports of people leaving the Church because, they say, of their bishop's imperfections. Donatism's ugly face peeks out again and again, encouraging doubt and promoting division and schism

If we insist on having only perfect bishops who have only perfect priests, then we will have neither bishops nor priests. For none of us are perfect, all of us have sinned, every single one of us has done spectacularly dumb things, and even the strongest and most faithful of us come equipped with two clay feet. We've had a recent lesson:

"I apologize to all the faithful of this archdiocese which I love so much, to all its people and clergy, for the scandal that has occurred because of my sinfulness. Long ago, I placed that sinfulness in God's loving and forgiving heart, but now and into the future I worry about those whose faith may be shaken by my acts.

The early Church was wise to declare that God can use imperfect instruments to build the kingdom and that the effectiveness of the sacraments does not depend on the holiness of the minister. For me that thought brings some, though meager, consolation. It does not in any way diminish my need to beg forgiveness of all of you."

a lesson both in the importance of resisting Donatism and the need not to use resisting Donatism as an excuse. Our bishops and pastors cannot hide behind any of this to avoid standing straight and speaking their embarrassing truths aloud. And the faithful cannot use any of this as an excuse to go away from The Church, where the bishop is, which Christ has promised to protect, to go out to the howling wilderness where the bishop is not.
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Special thanks to Doug Sirman and Zach Frey of the REBORN listserv for sending me my first html lessons. I have edited last night's posting about the media to make the urls really work: I hope they really do. I've also attenpted to make a working email link in my site description, we'll see if it works as well. I intend to abide by the Welborn protocol for blogging email.
karen marie
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Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi

From today's Office of Readings: from St. Augustine

Since it was the will of God's only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us forever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful that this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

The Journal Sentinel is Finally Getting It (will the rest of the media? will the rest of our bishops?)
Two Thursdays ago, when a former classmate of mine spun a shocking tale on _Good_Morning_America_, and another gentleman gave to his journalist friend a certain 22-year-old letter, the reporters of the Journal Sentinel sought interviews with the Archbishop. All they got was a short statement. Four basic clauses: I did not sexually assault anybody. There was a settlement agreement, but I respect its confidentiality and can say no more. The settlement payment, like all settlements, did not use funds designated for charitable or for pastoral purposes. I have asked the Holy Father to please expedite the acceptance of my resignation.

And that was all.

The reporters were at their wit's end. The Media columnist even wrote a column expressing his amazement that the Archbishop was not defending himself at all ---"there are 100 better ways the archbishop could handle this."

www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/may02/46480.asp

We know as Catholics, that of course there was not. We cannot defend ourselves at the cost of accusing anybody else of anything; we can only accuse ourselves. That is an integral part of living a submitted life. But, how can this be explained to a mob of reporters more used to the ways of secular politicians than Catholic monastics? It cannot be done.

However, after last night, it looks like the Journal Sentinel gang, at least, are getting it. This is not Mayor Norquist, or some county supervisor or even sport star. This is Archbishop Rembert, who has been very open with them for the past almost 25 years, but not at the cost of anyone else but himself. And he wasn't going to change _that_ now.

www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/may02/47631.asp and www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may02/47705.asp

Can the rest of the media come to understand and respect this, though?

And will those of our Bishops and Pastors who will need to speak embarrassing truths in the upcoming months remember that this is how it is supposed to be?

karen marie email to: kmknapp@execpc.com

The gospel reading from last night: St John 21: 15-19

After the meal Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Look after my sheep." Then he said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" and said, "Lord, you know everything; you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go." In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, "Follow me."