Hans Kung

The Tablet (Catholic weekly in the UK) reports today that renowned theologian Hans Kung is in no mood to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council:

"Theologian Hans Küng has turned down an invitation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council at the German Katholikentag at Mannheim, held from tomorrow until Sunday.

"The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Germany's largest Catholic lay organisation which is organising the Congress and has more than 12 million members, invited Fr Küng and the former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to participate in their 'Council Gala'. But four days before the congress was due to begin, Fr Küng declined.

"'I was honoured to receive the invitation but is one really in the mood to celebrate at a time when the Church is in such sore distress?' Fr Küng asked in his four-page reply. 'In my opinion there is no reason for a festive Council Gala but rather for an honest service of penance or a funeral service,' he said."

And I say AMEN!

Undeniable change of attitude

Since President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage on Wednesday, the airwaves and internet have been awash with everything from exuberant celebration to sheer rage.

When I heard the news, my first thoughts were of my gay and lesbian friends who have been in loving, monogamous relationships for years or decades. They are among the most caring and compassionate people I have known -- living lives of generosity in medicine and education and ministry and the arts.

Because this is an election year, my friends' jubilation will be tempered by a new level of damning cacophony.

At worst, the fiercest of biblical fundamentalists will once again pull out their bible and quote from chapter 20 of the Book of Leviticus, which calls for the execution of active homosexuals and says that "their blood is upon them." Others, in the tradition of the late Jerry Falwell, will again blame LGBT people for past, present or imminent national catastrophes.

Everyone knows that the national attitude toward gay folks is changing. It is even changing in the world of evangelical Christians. Yesterday I was quite amazed to read in the Washington Post that 44 percent of young white evangelicals favor allowing gay and lesbian people to marry. (Compare that with 12 percent of evangelical seniors and 19 percent of evangelicals overall.) On the other hand, North Carolina has just become the 30th state to add a banning clause to its constitution.

No doubt that the volume of anti-Obama (and Biden) condemnation will go even higher now. That's already happening. But the steady pace of changing attitudes throughout the country is undeniable.

Standing with our sisters

Some Catholic writers are claiming that the Vatican's attack on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is no big deal.

But it is. It is an outrageous very big deal. It comes out of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, originally known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition.

The LCWR represents 40,000 nuns in the US. They are being accused of focusing too much on the poor. (What in God's name is that supposed to mean?)

Our sisters are being called on the carpet (and being subjected to censorship) for what Vatican officials call "corporate dissent" over the ordination of women and homosexuality.They are considered contaminated by "radical feminism."

Here is a part of what National Catholic Reporter publisher Tom Fox has just written about the situation:

"For decades now, our sisters have been agents of their own destinies, living and working faithfully, attending to the needs of the neediest among us. They have done it with the scarcest of resources, living out the charisms of the orders, charisms renewed at the wishes of the bishops following the Second Vatican Council a half-century ago. They have labored largely without the financial assistance of their bishops, but in concert with them.

"These sisters are today’s objects of ecclesiastical abuse, but they will not in the end become its latest victims. This is because they will refuse to perpetuate the abuse. Products of years of prayerful discernment of purpose and mission, they know who they are and who they cannot become. They are at peace with themselves, a peace that draws from prayer, self awareness, community and the gospels to which they have given their lives."

Fox is right. Our sisters will refuse to perpetuate the abuse. They will stand firm. I am sure of that. And in the light of the gospels, we had better stand with them.