| “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.” |
| by Steve Skojec |
| 10/23/08 |
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Those words are long overdue from those of our bishops who recognize that their God-given teaching authority has long been usurped by a collective body with no authority of its own. They are the words of Bishop Martino of Scranton Pennsylvania, who took matters into his own hands when he visited a parish forum on the upcoming elections, where documents like "Faithful Citizenship" were used by some to justify voting for Barack Obama.
When one reads the history of the Church, it becomes evident that the individual Bishops were often the bulwark against error, heresy and persecution: St. Ignatius of Antioch. St. Polycarp of Smyrna. St.Ireneus of Lyon. Hosius of Cordova. St. Athanasius of Alexandria. St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Ambrose of Milan. You could form a list that would run off the page of bishops who stood for the truth, even at the cost of their lives. They confronted emperors and heretics - not through letters, but in person. Hosius did his best to keep Constantine on the straight path, and was a formative influence at the Council of Nicaea. Ambrose famously made the emperor Theodosius do public penance for the massacre of the Thessalonicans. Polycarp, when asked by the heretic Marcion if he recognized him, responded, "I do. You are the first-born of Satan." Our bishops have a history of being defenders of the faith, even if it means confrontation or a bit of social awkwardness. (Barbaric, I know.) But I can only imagine the disdain we will soon read about for Bishop Martino's actions, despite being entirely within his legitimate authority as a successor to the apostles. In his pastoral letter on Respect Life Sunday, the bishop said:
He is being a man of his word. He is living the gospel. He is fulfilling his obligation before God and the people of his diocese. As Bishop Martino himself wrote:
I have a lot of respect for Bishop Martino for taking a personal interest in his teaching authority. To the contrary of those who will no doubt scornfully dismiss his actions, and the enthusiasm of those of us who see them as heroic, I have little to say. Our faith has a history of courage in the face of evil, and I'm proud to see that courage resurgent in a time of great darkness. Readers have left 16 comments. In your list of courageous bishops, Steve, don't leave off my favorite: Cyril of Alexandria. Funny thing about the rise of the bishops' conference. For all the agitating over "collegiality" and ultramontanism -- about the need for bishops to stand up to Rome and stake out their own sphere of authority -- we haven't really seen many Western bishops take that ball and run with it, have we? Instead they've been largely content to hide themselves in a national bureaucracy on the top end, and in a cloud of "collaborative ministers," lay and clerical, on the bottom end. (And recently, it shouldn't be omitted, in a team of lawyers on the gutter end.) Bishop Martino is right: historically, canonically, and theologically, the power (and the duty) to teach, administrate, and discipline lies with the bishops as successors of the apostles to whom the charge and the authority were initially given by Christ. That it strikes us as fantastic or even scandalous when a bishop actually cites and stands on this authority -- like a prosecutor dusting off some anachronistic law that everyone ignores but no one bothered to take off the books -- is a telling commentary about something. Written by Todd M. Aglialoro dotCommonweal reported on this two days ago. I wondered when I'd see it here on IC. I wouldn't be scornful of Bishop Martino's actions -- I've advocated bishops "crashing" events and making their voice heard. In a way, I'm glad to see the bishop adopting the advice. I do think his behavior is a little off-putting: arriving late, leaving early, and creating uproar in between. There's a spiritual value to discernment, and even if other Catholics are unwilling to listen to his letter or consider it, were I in his shoes, I'd be interested to know why I wasn't a good communicator. That said, I have to comment, Steve, on yours and his unorthodox approach to the nature of cooperation between bishops. Bishops in this country conducted synods regularly for decades. The Baltimore Catechism was one of the many fruits of this. It is a form of modernism that some self-styled orthodox Catholics and the Roman Curia have hammered hard on national conferences. Lone ranger types were not the model of Jesus, nor the apostles, nor the witness of many saints. Why they should be so today is a mystery to me. It strikes me as more like Americanism than Catholicism. And in Pennsylvania, what do we have on the presidential scene? A Republican candidate who is not without his own pro-life tarnish polling six to twelve points behind, and who seemingly has little to no chance to win the state. We have a bishop resorting to behavior we can charitably call desperate, who allows his passion for secular politics to color a questionable unorthodoxy about his office. You and he should read my web site's recent examination of the ordination rites to see what the Church really teaches about bishops and their collegiality. The Vatican II document Christus Dominus should be required reading as well.  Written by Todd In your list of courageous bishops, Steve, don't leave off my favorite: Cyril of Alexandria. — Todd AglialoroAnd Athanasius, who almost single-handedly held off the Arian heresy in the East. Written by Brian Saint-Paul Todd, having Synods on occasion is not the same as having a permanent conference with an extensive staff charged with putting out documents AND with numerous committees that occupy bishops' time, taking them away from their dioceses. Written by Ellen St. Ambrose is an excellent example of a bishop excercising his teaching authority. Too many bishops were raised as Democrats and are quite uncomfortable with the issue of abortion since abortion is almost a sacrament with the Democratic party. These bishops need to understand that they are Catholics first before anything else. I applaud Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton for upholding the Truth and standing up for the most defenseless among us. Long live Bishop Martino! Written by Tito Edwards Something must be done about these huge bureaucracies centered around Washington DC such as the USCCB and Catholic Charities USA. The closer they are to secular power megaliths, the more they begin acting like them and the more arrogant they become. My antidote: move these organizations to places like New Mexico - or better still Alaska. Suddenly their influence will be to wane. (My apologies to our friends in New Mexico and Alaska if I offended). Written by Deacon Ed If people were using Church property, and some members of the discussion were attempting to justify voting for supporters of abortion based on USCCB documents like "faithful citizenship," then bravo to Bishop Martino for breaking up the party. Isn't the behavior of some of the conference participants just as scandalous as the money changers in the temple? Let's all wake up and be shocked once again by the holocaust of abortion in our midst, and thank God for bishops who chastise those in their dioceses who support it. In response to Todd, I'd say that the commandment is "thou shalt not kill," not "thou shalt not create a stir." Written by Bill It is encouraging to see Bishops like Bishop Martino and other Bishops speaking with courage about abortion. Cardinal Egan doesn't appear to be cut from the same cloth. However, abortion is merely a symptom of a deeper evil and unless steps are taken to address it from this perspective abortion will continue unabated. The single minded focus on Roe vs. Wade blinds us to the real cause of abortion, which is the breakdown of families and the resulting moral decadence. The Church needs to be in the business of converting society from the modern paganism which has become all too pervasive. The Church ought to avoid the distraction of politics. Written by RK Bishop Martino communicates very well. Too well, perhaps, for those who are perennially at odds with what Holy Church teaches. In his diocese, the Bishop alone holds the post of supreme teacher of morals and arbiter of Christian rectitude. When he, or any other bishop, deviates from the Deposit of Faith (Depositum Fidei) guarded, taught, and defined by the Pope and the Supreme Teaching Magisterium of Christ's most Holy Church, then he and they place themselves quite at odds with Christ, the Church's One Foundation. Bishops who reject Peter, reject Christ! This good, courageous Bishop Martino complies 100% to the Church's Supreme Teahing Magisterium -- let us support him, let us pray for him. Written by William It is a form of modernism that some self-styled orthodox Catholics and the Roman Curia have hammered hard on national conferences. — ToddConferences are administrative bodies, not open-ended synods. (Or you can use Archbishop Pilarczkyk's analogy; he once called the USCCB a "league of independent grocers.") Surely, you know this. Written by Rich Leonardi If.... every diocese in America had courageous, brave and faithful Bishops like Bishop Martino....this election would be about over now. Furthermore, all of the "so called" Catholic Pro-choice/Pro-abortion politicians would be either repenting by sitting in the back of the Church at Mass on Sunday's or looking for another denomination somewhere else that has no problem with the killing of unborn children. The problem in the Church is that we don't! Written by serreno It is encouraging to see Bishops like Bishop Martino and other Bishops speaking with courage about abortion. Cardinal Egan doesn't appear to be cut from the same cloth. — RKHowever, abortion is merely a symptom of a deeper evil and unless steps are taken to address it from this perspective abortion will continue unabated. The single minded focus on Roe vs. Wade blinds us to the real cause of abortion, which is the breakdown of families and the resulting moral decadence. The Church needs to be in the business of converting society from the modern paganism which has become all too pervasive. The Church ought to avoid the distraction of politics. I think you're right and you're wrong. You're right that the cause of abortion isn't its legality. But You're wrong that we (the Church) ought to {"avoid the distraction of politics" because what we can accomplish through political means is limit abortion's effect and hopefully keep more children alive. This is to be done, IMO, while we address the causes, which are systemic and can never be fully addressed. For many of us, it's hard enough keeping our own families strong, stable and holy. We do what we can for others' families, especially those within our circle, but those at greatest risk tend to be those we don't much come in contact with anyway. You can only do so much to save others bent on self-destruction. And I see no reason we should ignore political tactics while we try to address the rest. Good for Bishop Martino! May others follow his example. Written by Jason One of the issues that may have prompted his visit to the forum is that this IHM nun name o' Gannon from Marywood College in Scranton is trotting around the diocese fomenting dissent. She was on the 'panel' at that forum. She's out telling everyone she can that "Faithful Citizenship..." clears Catholics to vote for Obama. She's preaching it to the students on her campus. She had Doug Kmiec brought in to speak at Marywood to share the same message. She's mad as hell that Bp Martino had his letter read at all Masses on Respect Life Sunday. She's a liberal nun scorned! And she's not gonna take it anymore. Written by Walt Bishop Martino quotes the Declaration of Independence in his letter. Our parish priest, Father Edward Yew, just recently did the same thing in a homily, only he took it a step farther when quoting the rights enumerated: "It's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - in that order." Without the first one, the rest are meaningless. Written by Larry Schneider This is my first post here, so if I have violated the customs, I apologise. I notice that the list of bishop-martyrs, as augmented by the posters to this thread has somehow omitted the name of Abp Oscar Romero. Hmmmm. I applaud Bishop Martino's courage, but I suspect that he was either misquoted or misspoke when he said: "While the Church assists the State in the promotion of a just society, its primary concern is to assist men and women in achieving salvation." We do not "achieve" salvation. Salvation is a free gift. In the Catholic understanding and context, the process of accepting our gift of salvation begins with our baptism, and continues throughout our life, with moments of failure (sin) and moments of profound joy. Per then Cardinal Ratzinger, all ministry is (supposed to be) relational. The church exists to be the presence of Christ in the world. Through this reality, Jesus is able to save. It is not about us. It is about the Lord. I appreciate Bishop Martino's desire to be faithful to the charge laid upon him at his episcopal ordination - to teach those entrusted to his care. However: For me, hit and run tactics make me wonder. I was not there, so I only have the description of the interchange that is in this conversation. According to the conversation the good bishop seems to be saying "pay attention to me" rather than "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...I have come to proclaim His good news" Written by Tom This is my first post here, so if I have violated the customs, I apologise. — TomHi Tom, You haven't violated any customs. We appreciate your contribution. I notice that the list of bishop-martyrs, as augmented by the posters to this thread has somehow omitted the name of Abp Oscar Romero. Hmmmm. — TomActually, they weren't bishop-martyrs, just heroic bishops of the early Church. But you're right that there are examples of heroic leadership throughout Catholic history. Written by Brian Saint-Paul |
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