Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Archbishop Chaput- Catholicism Kaput
They (Americans) equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop. --The Letters of Junius (1769)
It could have been a teaching experience for Chuck, or Archbishop Charles Chaput, as he prefers to be called. It probably wasn't. His teachers would have been Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington D.C. and Pope Benedict XVI of Rome.
During the 2004 presidential election, Chuck, the highest ranking Roman Catholic prelate in Colorado, let it be known that anyone who voted for John Kerry, had committed a sin that had to be confessed, before the voter/supplicant would be permitted to receive communion. It is not altogether clear how that was to be enforced. Hundreds of thousands of people in Colorado voted for John Kerry and among them, it is almost certain, more than a handful were Roman Catholic. Had they all decided to confess, hundreds of priests would have had to be ordained in order to receive their confessions. Absent that, however, the church would have had to put up with thousands of sinners receiving communion, something that would certainly offend Chuck, if not God. According to Chuck, the reason for this ecclesiastical pronouncement, was that John Kerry supported a woman's right to choose. (Voting for someone who supports the death penalty, a procedure that, like abortion, involves human life, is not a sin and does not require a pre-communion confession.)
Creating an hostile environment for those who voted for John Kerry is not the only group for which Chuck has created an hostile environment. Another is the 46 million Americans who lack health insurance and the estimated 22,000 adults among them who, studies estimate, die as a result. Unlike the Senator, Chuck's compassion for the weak is carefully measured if they also lack health insurance. He has recently joined a group of primates in the same line of work as he, who are willing to sacrifice the health and lives of the uninsured unless the legislation protects the lives of those not yet born. They are led by Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. They believe if part of the reform of health insurance includes any plans that would permit some insurance companies to pay for abortions, the legislation should be opposed. It was most explicitly stated by one of Chuck's ecclesiastical colleagues, Bishop R. Walker Nickless, of Sioux City, Iowa. Demonstrating a lack of compassion for the already-born uninsured (who will be the main losers if health care reform does not take place) Walker sent out a pastoral letter telling his followers that: "No health reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform." Chuck enthusiastically supported the Nickless approach. In a diocesan newspaper column he said: "The whole meaning of ‘health care' would be subverted by any plan that involves mandated abortion access or abortion funding. Killing or funding the killing of unborn children has nothing to do with promoting human health and including these things in any ‘health care' proposal, no matter how shrewdly hidden, would simply be a form of lying." The 46 million uninsured will almost certainly take comfort in the fact that by remaining uninsured and occasionally dying as a result, they are helping to protect the unborn. That will comfort all but those with family members who died for want of medical treatment. But I digress.
Senator Kennedy's funeral mass was in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Not only was the Senator a long time supporter of Roe vs. Wade, but he was divorced and remarried in a civil ceremony to his present wife. Had he died in Chuck's jurisdiction it is unlikely Chuck would have attended. Not so in Boston. Senator Kennedy's funeral mass was attended by the highest Prelate in Massachusetts, Cardinal Sean O'Malley who spoke with feeling and compassion of the Senator's life. At graveside Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington read a letter sent by the Pope which said in part: "His Holiness prays that in the days ahead, you may be sustained in faith and hope, and granted the precious grace of joyful surrender to the will of God, our merciful Father. He invokes upon you the consolation and peace promised by the Risen Savior to all who share in His sufferings, and trust in His promise of eternal life." The Pontiff forgot to mention, as Chuck almost certainly would have, that without acknowledging the error of his ways in supporting Roe v. Wade, there was no way the Senator would enjoy eternal life.
By their presence and their words, the prelates made it plain that they held Senator Kennedy in great esteem. It is unlikely that they would sacrifice on the alter of ideology the health care reform he so ardently supported because of perceived imperfections in the proposed plans. Colorado Catholics should be so fortunate as to have such enlightened leaders.
33 Comments so far
Show AllThe Catholic Bishops need to shut up and sit down. While there is no reason to reject our religious heritage, there is no room for religious leaders of any stripe to butt in to political life.
Farewell Ted, you and your brothers tried to do quite a bit for this country. We need more to carry on the good fight for those with no voice in the USA. Bless you!
AD
"Cartesians may imagine that animals have no feelings, Thomists that they have no souls (whereas even imbeciles [and human fetuses] DO), but both positions are too obviously inane to convince most of us . . . . "
Sioux Rose
In the last paragraph was it a typo on the part of the paper that carries his column, or did Mr. Brauchli intentionally write alter instead of altar? (He can currently plead the Mercury retrograde defense.)
Rodent, that's a pretty interesting claim that human fetuses have souls. Proof please? Haha! For the longest time in years prior men were wont to argue about whether women had souls, but there's no dispute at all about whether the bits of tissue in their bellies do? Sweet!
For many years, the Church's teaching was that male foetuses received their souls after 40 days, females after 80; thus leaving a bit of wiggle room for the local wise woman to do the odd abortion. (If you think I'm making this up, check out Ute-Ranke Heinemann, "Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven". Read it anyway for its devastating critique of the Church's historical attitude to women.)
Considering Colorado is a hotbed of conservative evangelical Protestantism (Ted Haggard is from there), perhaps Archbishop Chaput felt the need to compete with these churches by going fully loco. After all, a parishioner lost to them is a hit to the bottom line, dollars.
All hail Sweet Hypocrisy, the one constant in U.S. culture!
Of course, since hypocrisy is now so widespread throughout our society in every area, it is scarcely noticed anymore, poor thing.
Again I ask the question; where in the Bible is there so much as a mention of abortion?
who cares about the child molesting agency called the catholic church
not only are they selling this bullshit story about the wise old bastard who lives upstairs and knows everything - except as george carlin points out: he's bad with money - you have to keep giving him money. if he knows all that is and all that is going to be why can't he get his finances straight
the church, besides being snake oil salesmen provide a whole mechanism to support and unleash child rapists and molesters upon one unsuspecting town after another
john d rockefeller's mom was a devout christian and his dad was literally a snake oil salesman who traveled around in a wagon selling his shit. at the time of his death he was wanted on 9 rape charges and two murder charges
hate speak and child molesters for an old man who lives upstairs somewhere and who can't get a grip on his finances sounds like we got ripped off in the demagogue department
Even Zarathustra said that God was dead.
Thank you Christopher Brauchli for exposing the religious hypocrisy of Bishop Chaput who represents too many similar thinking U.S. Bishops.
As a practicing Catholic, I try to be as radical and liberal as Christ. Still within the church, but pushed to the outer edge, I feel it is my Catholic duty to critique the church.
As Dorothy Day would have said, Christ critiqued "the dirty rotten system" of money changers in the Temple, the oppression of the poor by the rich, the brutality of the wars of Empire, and religious hypocrisy. Today, it is now up to the faithful to critique a remarkably similar "dirty rotten system" that Christ critiqued in his time. Christ would also have critiqued the church today because it is an institution, and like all institutions of power and money, it seeks only its' own perpetuation and becomes incapable of self critique.
Bishop Chaput represents a very divided church, hanging on to religious absolutes that have no place in the practice of democracy. Bishop Chaput represents the "clueless" (my favorite term) Catholic Fundamentalist Right, authoritarians who think with small minds. And I am beginning to think that they are the great protectors of capitalism and the supporters of religious nationalism.
These people love religious absolutes and love the authority of the Pope. Sadly, Rome does not speak from a spiritual mind, it speaks from the egoic mind. As Franciscan Fr. Richard Roher would say, Christianity has become more of a belonging system, "us against them", than a faith system for personal transformation. As Christ was the "greatest scapegoat ever" for the sins of humankind, these people make the same error and look for scapegoats for the sins of the world, unable to see the timber in their own eyes. They are control freaks, but how do you control the power of the Holy Spirit? You can't. This is why the Roman Catholic Church is at a crossroad, much in the same way the U.S.A. is at a crossroad.
These Catholic fundamentalists love the "new found" sins of abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research and birth control. It gives them a sense of control. Yet at the same time they look away from the sins of waging preemptive war, economic oppression, usury on Wall Street, a "me me" selfish materialistic culture, increasing dire poverty, increasing disparity of wealth, and the evil emanating from the institutions of corporate capitalism.
As Christ stated, "This is like straining out gnats and swallowing camels".
When I was a child, Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council "to throw open the windows and let in some fresh air!"
Thank you, Christopher, for exposing in the light of day these knuckleheaded ecclesiastics whose numbers and authority are far too imposing. You've provided a good commentary, also I like Stephen Riley's post.
The Church would be well served with some women prelates; alas, "She" doesn't ordain women.
While I didn't view the public ceremony of Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral and burial, I understand Church prelates, including the Pope, as you note, came across in a fairly reasonable light. That's all we can expect.
The Catholic Church has defended human rights and human life since Christ instituted his Church with St. Peter as it's head 2,000 years ago. Nothing has changed. Archbishop Chaput, as shepherd of his flock in Colorado, speaks out boldly against the taking of ALL human life as he has a right and moral obligation to do so. We as Americans may think religion has no place in politics, however,in matters of murdering innocent life, destruction of the sanctity of marriage, unjust wars and related social injustice the Church will take a position of eternal truth as given to her by the Gospels. Our voice in the wilderness cries out like the pure tone of the Liberty Bell, it is the sound of....
Peace
rick: you need to get hooked up with a serious de-programming support agency
Rick Nelson, I'll have to pray over that!
Yeah, GOTTA love that life affirming Catholic Church. They sure protected those they considered heretics back during the Spanish Inquisition, didn't they? And let's not forget those life affirming crusades, either. And who could possibly find fault with the church for supporting Hitler during WWII?
You are in serious need of deprogramming, sir. You see only what you want, and completely ignore the reality of the situation. The reality is that the church has gotten too big for it's own salvation. It's turned into the very thing that Christ spoke out against, as is so often the case when things get institutionalized. And that applies to ALL churches, not just the Catholic one.
The Catholic church has more art, more statues (can you say graven images?), more land holdings, and more power than most countries. To think that they would NOT act in a selfish, self centered way is just foolishness. They have their power and they intend to keep it, just like EVERY human who has ever been in power does with a very few exceptions. And it's been well known for centuries that religion is one of the easiest ways to talk people out of their belongings and to get them to thank you for it. Mao wasn't wrong when he said that religion is the opiate of the masses. It sure has done a number on YOUR ability to separate fantasy from reality.
Rick:
You mean like the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Burning Times, the Malleus Malificarum, etc.? And "Quo Vadis"?
Rick, you are one of the true Catholics on this website. I wonder what religion the other psuedo-Catholics, like Brauchi, really are. The government says the Constitution is a living document and can be interpreted as the Congress and President see fit. Some Catholics say the Church teaching is moving on and the religion has changed. Both are wrong. The Constitution is the foundation of this country's government, and the Church founded by St. Peter has not changed.
There is nothing like a mushroom than a toadstool.
ddg716- Who are you to judge who the "true" catholics are on this website. You sound like many of the judgemental U.S. Catholic Bishops who have the conceit to think they can determine who is worthy or not.
I was replying to Brauchli's judgment of Chaput. Who are you to judge me?
"...the Church founded by St. Peter has not changed."
It indeed remains true to its authoritarian, totalitarian origin.
Its head purports to be the Creator of the Universe's designated representative on Earth, and sole keeper of divine truth preserved by apostolic succession.
This Rock may crumble around the edges, but there will always be a pious cadre of faithful lizards sunning themselves on what remains.
"There is nothing like a mushroom than a toadstool." To my agnostic, freethinker's eye, this is gibberish. But if I only could believe, it would reveal itself as the wisdom of the ages!
· Yr Obd't Servant
ddg716,
May the peace of Christ be with you always.
Thank you, and also with you.
Yeah, yeah, Peace, Peace, Peace be with you! A bunch of talk during mass. With few exceptions (Catholic Workers) does it carry over to the real world when the US military is on a murder binge overseas. Then its all: Onward christian soldiers, let our bombs make Pieces of brown people.
It might be useful to recall a part of the archbishop's heritage, i.e., the "breaking with the wheel" of those judged by his predecessors to be guilty of theological error.
The victim, naked, was stretched out supine on the ground or on the execution dock, with his or her limbs spread, and tied to stakes or iron rings. Stout wooden crosspieces were placed under the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and hips. The executioner then smashed limb after limb and joint after joint, including the shoulders and hips, with the iron-tyred edge of the wheel, but avoiding fatal blows. The victim was transformed, according to the observations of a seventeenth-century German chronicler, "into a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones." Thereafter the shattered limbs were "braided" into the spokes of the large wheel, and the victim hoisted up horizontally to the top of a pole, where the crows ripped away bits of flesh and pecked out eyes. Death -- and 'peace' no doubt -- came after what was probably the longest and most atrocious agony which the ingenuity of Christ's vicars could inflict.
No need to go back centuries. Just go back one to the 20th:
Croatian Holocaust
Vietnam
Rwanda
John Paul II didn't have much to say about Hutu priests and nuns hacking and firing up that genocide, except, "pray for the victims". Saintly, you say???
The Vatican is ultimately a culture of money, land, power, control, deceit, greed and anything it takes to keep it that way! Please, don't take my word for it, just study the history that they won't teach you in school.
God save us from organized religion of ANY kind.
Having been raised within the Roman Catholic Church, I can say with certainty that there is no shortage of misogyny and hypocrisy in that imperialist boys club (this is also true of all the major religions).
To them, real souls have penises.
Archbishop Charles Chaput is, despite his own special arrogance, no more hypocritical than the Prada wearing pope. If you can't see the $$ signs in the pope's gesture, don't blame the jerk from Colorado.
The Vatican II Liberation theology has been hijacked by the old theology of suffering. John Paul II had a restoration backward. Read Penny Lernoux's The struggle for world Catholicism "People Of God". It is depresing to realize that people cannot understand that abortion is a health care issue for millions of pregnant women who suffer with complications. The Catholic church has taught that the woman has had a chance at eternal life and she must risk her life for the fetuse so it can have a soul that is baptized and has a chance for eternal life. Remember Limbo where the mean, cruel, Catholic God sent unbaptized babies to suffer from never seeing the beautific vision.Although conceptions are frequently the result of evil acts God imparts a soul immediately but the soul is black with original sin from the act of evil sex that resulted in the conception. Crazy Augustines theory of fall redemption. Catholics cannot claim to be pro life when they do not care about the woman's life.
brought up catholic myself..but the older i grow - after having been exposed quite closely to several different christian denominations - baptists of different stripes, methodists, lutherans, "church of christ" gospel, presbyterian, "charismatics", mormons, even the different degrees of "conservatism" INSIDE the lutheran denomination, seen the differentiations within the SAME denomination (catholic, lutheran, etc) of CLASSES and racism,
i'm convinced this christianity business and :"saving souls" is pure nonsense. it is baloney. it has become more an instrument of oppression than "salvation" except to "save" people FROM what little money they have.
no one needs a "saviour" in order to do good, to try and be in good conscience, or see one's reflection in others when suffering is present and have a sense of justice.
Dafoe
Junius obviously couldn't predict what the people would be like in the 20th century where they were enamored with "Kings" and all the pomp and ceremony and celebrity status of presdents who could do no wrong including the dumbest and most illiterate of them. At least the Bishop is not a Bishop Inc. like the TV tub thumpers that amercans are enamored with, besides who listens to RC Bishops or Popes anymore or takes them seriously?
Junius obviously didn't know if he was bored, punched or if he grew around it, much like the Bishop of Colorado!
I think that the point was that people of the same religion can differ greatly.
According to Zarqa Nawaz's Me and the Mosque, there used to be female Imams - not any more, though there are some who want to reintroduce that practice.
Every once in a while at Straight goods, you read an article written by an nun about letting there be female priests (though giving a sister the same status as a brother and a mother superior the same status as a father would do the trick).
There are even Roman Catholic bishops calling for equal marriage (ie being allowed to perform gay marriage).
There are debates within churches.