I sympathize with him, though I realize he was careless and made a lot of errors in the things he said. But still, I sympathize with his frustration about Obama being honored at Notre Dame. The reason why is because I realize how hard it is for the average Catholic to understand how the Church, while solidly pro-life and anti-abortion, can at the same time have so many Catholics, Catholic politicians, and Catholic institutions in good standing (neither censured nor excommunicated) working against the goal of protecting the unborn in our country and throughout the world. If Catholics can’t understand it, how can you expect non-Catholics to understand it? Yes, there’s a hierarchy, and the Pope doesn’t get involved in something that the local bishop can deal with. But, in the end, dissenting Catholics and Catholic institutions go ahead and do what they want and teach what they want, no one says anything, they continue carrying the label “Catholic”, and people who try to live by the Church’s teachings are labeled as right-wing nut cases. I’m glad 70 bishops stated their objection to Fr Jenkins, but in the end, the event went on and Notre Dame came out looking great, still “Catholic” as ever, probably getting loads of donations from all sorts of pro-choicers. For myself, I’m just fed up with things like this where no one seems to have any authority to actually put a stop to something so unjust that brings so much scandal to the Church. No doubt Pastor Manning has less understanding of the inner workings of the Catholic Church than I do, so I sympathize with his disappointment, anger, and frustration, since he probably expected something more. Let’s face it, the whole world looks to the Church as a moral authority. When they let us down, there is no where left to go.
Notre Dame’s administration is not the Catholic Church. Therefore, the Catholic Church did not let anyone down. The hierarchy disapproved of their choice in speaker and the honorary degree. The hierarchy did not let us down. The Superior General of the Holy Cross Brothers wrote to President Obama and probably to Fr. Jenkins, why write to one and not the other. Therefore, the Holy Cross Brothers did not let us down.
Everyone did what they could to call the Notre Dame administration, especially Fr. Jenkins, to task and to a greater awareness that what they were doing was wrong. There is nothing more that anyone could have done. The Church has rules and she has to follow them.
If Notre Dame is a private institution, the bishops cannot go in there like the Marines invading a foreign nation. For those who love the Church, the other side of this argument is also vexing. There is only so much that the Church can do without violating individuals’, institutions’ and religious congregations’ rights when not all the people who form these organizations and religious communities are guilty.
To hear people complaining and charging the leadershiip of the Church with not being pro-active and demanding things that the leadership cannot deliver, because it does not have the authority to deliver, is equally tiring in the end.
We have to accept that people make dumb choices, such as the one that was made at Notre Dame and that often there is nothing that we can do to help them or stop them. Anyone who is a parent should be able to relate to this concept. You raise your children well and they make dumb choices as adults. How much power do you really have?
The Church is also a mother and she has a limited resource of power over certain situations. This happens to be one of them.
Everyone wants the Church to excommunicate every one who is a dissenter. The fact is that there is already legislation in Canon Law under which people excommunicate themselves. If the dissenter crosses that line, the Church does not have to perform any public ritual of excommunication.
In addition, we must remember that the role of the Church is to heal and bring back those who stray. The Holy Father and the Holy See do not want to engage in punitive actions. It is the wish of the Holy Father to engage in unitive activity.
There are too many Catholics out there who want the Church to make an example of these individuals, as if excommunicating them and attacking their character in public would achieve something. The only thing that it would achieve is to make a martyr out of someone whose actions are clearly wrong. These are not the Middle Ages when the Church had economic, military and political power. Sanctions, excommunications and interdicts not only had a spiritual effect, but they had a financial one too. People feared them because of the material effect.
As the Holy Father said when he lifted the excommunication of the SSPX bishops. Excommunication is a disciplinary act. It did not have the desired effect; therefore, it was lifted. The hard-headed or hard-hearted, whichever the case, do not respond to these consequences as desired. This is not always a solution to a problem.
We have to find solutions, not penalties that are often ineffective.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
