Browsing articles tagged with " U S Conference Of Catholic Bishops"
“As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we
address an urgent summons to our fellow Catholics and fellow
Americans to be on guard, for religious liberty is under attack,
both at home and abroad.” -U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
Irondale, AL, June 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EWTN was the first to file a lawsuit after the
government issued a mandate forcing religious employers to provide
coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and more. Now, look to EWTN
for coverage of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a call by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops for a 14-day period of prayer,
education and action in support of religious freedom, which begins
June 21.
EWTN’s coverage on both television and radio begins with
the Opening Mass celebrated by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori
at 7 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 21, from the Basilica of the National
Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.
The date was chosen because it is the vigil of St. John Fisher and
St. Thomas More, two great martyrs of the Faith. This will be
followed by a 10 a.m. ET Mass on June 22 celebrated by New York
Cardinal Timothy Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City,
which will again be broadcast on both EWTN television and radio.
The Closing Mass – to be celebrated by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the
Archdiocese of Washington and with a homily by Philadelphia
Archbishop Charles Chaput – will be televised at 12:10 p.m. ET,
July 4, the day that Americans traditionally celebrate their most
cherished freedoms.
(Note: Dates and times of all programs subject to
change. Please check our website to confirm.)
Other programming during the Fortnight
includes:
· “World
Over Specials:” At 8:30 p.m. ET, June 21, immediately following the
Opening Mass, EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo will host a live
one-hour national town hall meeting. (Check our website
for encores.) Also, look for three special editions of “The
World Over,” which will air at 8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, June 26; 8 p.m.
ET, Thursday, June 28; and 1:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday, July 4. These
special editions will explore the threats to religious liberty with
exclusive interviews with those directly affected, bishops,
historians and policy makers.
· “Women
of Grace:” Host Johnnette Benkovic will host a week of specials
focusing on attacks on our religious freedom. Airs 11 a.m. ET, July
2 to July 6.
· “The
History of the Catholic Church in the U.S.:” In this 13-part
series, Historian Father Charles Connor looks at the origins of
Roman Catholicism in the U.S. and how the Church managed to grow
despite periods of persecution and discrimination. Airs 6:30 p.m.
ET, Monday, June 18 through Thursday, July 5.
·
“Bookmark:” Host Doug Keck will interview authors of books
celebrating the importance of religious freedom. Airs Sunday at
9:30 a.m. ET and 11:30 p.m. ET from July 1 through August 19 with
encores at 5 a.m. ET, Mondays, and 5:30 p.m. ET, Wednesdays. Guests
will include Archbishop Chaput (“Render Unto Caesar”), James
Hitchcock (“The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life
(Volumes 1 II),” Janice Connell (“Spiritual Journey of George
Washington”), Scott McDermott (“Charles Carroll of Carrollton”),
Carl Anderson (“A Civilization of Love”), Robert Royal (“The God
That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West”),
Thomas Woods (“How the Catholic Church Built Western
Civilization”), and Michael Novak (“On Two Wings: Humble Faith and
Common Sense at the American Founding”).
·
“Crossing the Goal:” In a special episode of this
continuing series, Danny Abramowicz and his team urge Godly men to
stand up for religious freedom. Airs 11 p.m. ET, Thursday, June
21.
· “Life
is Worth Living: The Glory of Being an American:” Archbishop Sheen
discusses the origin of our rights and liberties, the great value
Americans put upon the human person and the good America has done
for the world. Airs 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, June 23.
· “Life
is Worth Living: Quo Vadis America:” Archbishop Sheen tells the
story of patriotism, takes a look at the U.S. yesterday and today,
and explains why every day in America should be Thanksgiving Day.
Airs 5:30 a.m. ET, Sunday, June 24, and 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, June
30.
· “St.
Thomas More: Faithful Statesman:” In this 13-part series, the
career of this saint is examined for the numerous instances in
which he displayed the virtues that distinguished him as a model
for others in public and political life. All episodes air at 6 a.m.
ET. Episode 1 airs Friday, June 15. Episodes 2 through 7 air Monday
through Saturday, June 18 through June 23. Episodes 8 through 11
air Monday through Thursday, June 25 through June 28. Episode 12
airs Saturday, June 30, and Episode 13 airs Monday, July
2.
· “St.
Thomas More: A Hero for Our Times:” A discussion of the life and
heroic virtues of the man who gave his life to defend the Faith
during the reign of Henry VIII. Airs 6 p.m. ET, Friday, June
22.
Also, please check our new web page, www.religiousliberties.com,
for continuous updates as well as dates and times of newly added
programs; to see or hear EWTN programs, news links, documentaries
and films on the subject of religious liberty, the fortnight for
Freedom, the HHS mandate and more; to get the latest news on EWTN’s
lawsuit against the HHS mandate and related activities; to learn
how the USCCB, Catholic dioceses and other Catholic organizations
are promoting religious liberty; to view photo galleries with
pictures from religious liberty rallies and related activities -
and lots more!
Watch or listen to EWTN television by cable or satellite
(
www.ewtn.com/channelfinder
),
by streaming audio or video on the Intranet (
http://origin.ewtn.com/audiovideo/index.asp
),
by shortwave (
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm
),
via EWTN mobile (
http://www.ewtn.com/mobi/
),
on the EWTN Radio Network via our affiliates (
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/amfm.htm
),
and on satellite radio (
http://www.sirius.com/ewtn
).
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 30th
year, is available in over 200 million television
households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its
direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM
FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet
website www.ewtn.com, electronic and
print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest
religious media network in the world.
###
CONTACT: For more information, please contact:
Michelle Johnson
Director of Communications
EWTN Global Catholic Network
5817 Old Leeds Road
Irondale, Alabama 35210-2198 USA
(205) 795-5769 - Office
(205) 441-6248 !- Cell
(205) 795-5781 - Fax
mjohnson@ewtn.com
Irondale, AL, Jun 13, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) –
“As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we address an urgent summons to our fellow Catholics and fellow Americans to be on guard, for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.” -U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
EWTN was the first to file a lawsuit after the government issued a mandate forcing religious employers to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and more. Now, look to EWTN for coverage of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a call by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a 14-day period of prayer, education and action in support of religious freedom, which begins June 21.
EWTN’s coverage on both television and radio begins with the Opening Mass celebrated by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori at 7 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 21, from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. The date was chosen because it is the vigil of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, two great martyrs of the Faith. This will be followed by a 10 a.m. ET Mass on June 22 celebrated by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which will again be broadcast on both EWTN television and radio. The Closing Mass – to be celebrated by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington and with a homily by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput – will be televised at 12:10 p.m. ET, July 4, the day that Americans traditionally celebrate their most cherished freedoms.
(note:Dates and times of all programs subject to change. Please check our website to confirm.)
Other programming during the Fortnight includes:
. “World Over Specials:” At 8:30 p.m. ET, June 21, immediately following the Opening Mass, EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo will host a live one-hour national town hall meeting. (Check our website for encores.) Also, look for three special editions of “The World Over,” which will air at 8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, June 26; 8 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 28; and 1:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday, July 4. These special editions will explore the threats to religious liberty with exclusive interviews with those directly affected, bishops, historians and policy makers.
. “Women of Grace:” Host Johnnette Benkovic will host a week of specials focusing on attacks on our religious freedom. Airs 11 a.m. ET, July 2 to July 6.
. “The History of the Catholic Church in the U.S.:” In this 13-part series, Historian Father Charles Connor looks at the origins of Roman Catholicism in the U.S. and how the Church managed to grow despite periods of persecution and discrimination. Airs 6:30 p.m. ET, Monday, June 18 through Thursday, July 5.
. “Bookmark:” Host Doug Keck will interview authors of books celebrating the importance of religious freedom. Airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET and 11:30 p.m. ET from July 1 through August 19 with encores at 5 a.m. ET, Mondays, and 5:30 p.m. ET, Wednesdays. Guests will include Archbishop Chaput (“Render Unto Caesar”), James Hitchcock (“The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Volumes 1 II),” Janice Connell (“Spiritual Journey of George Washington”), Scott McDermott (“Charles Carroll of Carrollton”), Carl Anderson (“A Civilization of Love”), Robert Royal (“the god that did not fail:How Religion Built and Sustains the West”), Thomas Woods (“How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”), and Michael Novak (“on two wings:Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding”).
. “Crossing the Goal:” In a special episode of this continuing series, Danny Abramowicz and his team urge Godly men to stand up for religious freedom. Airs 11 p.m. ET, Thursday, June 21.
. “Life is Worth Living: The Glory of Being an American:” Archbishop Sheen discusses the origin of our rights and liberties, the great value Americans put upon the human person and the good America has done for the world. Airs 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, June 23.
. “Life is Worth Living: Quo Vadis America:” Archbishop Sheen tells the story of patriotism, takes a look at the U.S. yesterday and today, and explains why every day in America should be Thanksgiving Day. Airs 5:30 a.m. ET, Sunday, June 24, and 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, June 30.
. “St. Thomas More: Faithful Statesman:” In this 13-part series, the career of this saint is examined for the numerous instances in which he displayed the virtues that distinguished him as a model for others in public and political life. All episodes air at 6 a.m. ET. Episode 1 airs Friday, June 15. Episodes 2 through 7 air Monday through Saturday, June 18 through June 23. Episodes 8 through 11 air Monday through Thursday, June 25 through June 28. Episode 12 airs Saturday, June 30, and Episode 13 airs Monday, July 2.
. “St. Thomas More: A Hero for Our Times:” A discussion of the life and heroic virtues of the man who gave his life to defend the Faith during the reign of Henry VIII. Airs 6 p.m. ET, Friday, June 22.
Also, please check our new web page,
www.religiousliberties.com , for continuous updates as well as dates and times of newly added programs; to see or hear EWTN programs, news links, documentaries and films on the subject of religious liberty, the fortnight for Freedom, the HHS mandate and more; to get the latest news on EWTN’s lawsuit against the HHS mandate and related activities; to learn how the USCCB, Catholic dioceses and other Catholic organizations are promoting religious liberty; to view photo galleries with pictures from religious liberty rallies and related activities – and lots more!
Watch or listen to EWTN television by cable or satellite (
www.ewtn.com/channelfinder ), by streaming audio or video on the Intranet (
http://origin.ewtn.com/audiovideo/index.asp ), by shortwave (
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/freq.htm ), via EWTN mobile (
http://www.ewtn.com/mobi/ ), on the EWTN Radio Network via our affiliates (
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/amfm.htm ), and on satellite radio (
http://www.sirius.com/ewtn ).
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 30th year, is available in over 200 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website
www.ewtn.com , electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.
###
This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire,
www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: EWTN Global Catholic Network
CONTACT: For more information, please contact:
Michelle Johnson
Director of Communications
EWTN Global Catholic Network
5817 Old Leeds Road
Irondale, Alabama 35210-2198 USA
(205) 795-5769 - Office
(205) 441-6248 !- Cell
(205) 795-5781 - Fax
mjohnson@ewtn.com
(C) Copyright 2010 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All rights reserved.
ATLANTA (AP) — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday promised steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama’s mandate that birth control be covered by health insurance, saying it is one of many threats to religious freedom in government.
Bishops insisted repeatedly that they had no partisan agenda. They said they were forced into action by state and federal policies that they say would require them to violate their beliefs in order to maintain the vast public-service network the church has built over a century or longer.
“It is not about parties, candidates or elections as others have suggested,” said Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the bishops’ religious-liberty committee. “The government chose to pick a fight with us.”
The meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Atlanta is its first since dioceses, universities and Catholic charities filed a dozen federal lawsuits over Obama’s rule that employers provide health insurance covering birth control.
The provision, part of the White House health care overhaul, generally exempts houses of worship, but faith-affiliated employers would have to comply.
Federal officials have said the rule is critical to preserving women’s health by helping them space out their pregnancies.
Still, Obama has offered to soften the rule for religious employers by requiring insurance companies to cover the cost instead of faith groups. The administration is taking public comment through next week while working out the details, but bishops have said that the changes proposed so far do not put enough moral distance between the church and artificial contraception.
The bishops are organizing a “Fortnight for Freedom,” two weeks of rallies and prayer services on religious freedom leading up to July Fourth. Archbishop Carlo Vigano, the pope’s ambassador to the United States, told the bishops that the advocacy effort “has my full support.”
Vigano noted that the religious-freedom push required a “delicate” approach in the context of a presidential election. But, quoting from a previous talk by Pope Benedict XVI about Catholics speaking out on public policy, the ambassador said the concerns were so worrisome that bishops had to act. Church leaders gave Vigano a standing ovation.
“It goes without saying that the Catholic Church in the United States is living in a particularly challenging period of its history,” Vigano told the conference.
Many Catholics across the political spectrum have said they agree a broader religious exemption is needed for the mandate, but have still raised questions about the church’s strategy of lawsuits and rallies.
“Most bishops don’t want to be the Republican party at prayer, but their alarmist rhetoric and consistent antagonism toward the Obama administration often convey that impression,” said John Gehring, of the liberal advocacy group Faith in Public Life.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., a member of the bishops’ religious-liberty committee, said he had suggested the “Fortnight for Freedom” in November to coincide with liturgical feasts of martyred defenders of the faith including Thomas More.
“My intention was thinking of liturgy events, and that it was a time of prayer and education, not that it’s a time for a political rally,” Paprocki said.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George said the bishops had “every reason to hope and pray” that the Obama administration would respond to their concerns on the birth control mandate. But he said they needed to consider whether they should close their charities or take other action if no such accommodation is made. The bishops planned more discussion of the issue in private sessions throughout the week.
The bishops repeatedly emphasized that they were united in their agenda. Recently, Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., expressed concern in an interview with America, the national Jesuit magazine, that the timing of the lawsuits could be seen as overly political.
Critics of the lawsuits seized on the remarks as evidence the bishops were divided. In Atlanta, however, Blaire spoke out forcefully against the birth control mandate.
“We have to get the government out of defining the church,” he said. “We have an enormous battle ahead of us.”
In addition to the religious-freedom issue, the Vatican is engaged in a public dispute with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns.
In April, the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the nuns’ organization had strayed far from Catholic doctrine and gave three American bishops the authority to overhaul the group.
A few dozen people protested in support of the nuns outside the meeting and delivered petitions signed by more than 57,000 people — one signature for each religious sister in the United States —condemning the Vatican inquiry.
Separately, the bishops marked the 10th anniversary of the child-safety policy they adopted in response to the clergy sex-abuse crisis.
The bishops have spent tens of millions of dollars on background checks for workers, assistance programs for victims, and training for children and teachers on identifying abuse. As part of their reforms, the bishops also pledged to remove all accused priests from any public church work.
Advocates for abuse victims, however, contend that dioceses have kept some accused clergy on assignment. A Philadelphia jury is currently deliberating in the child-endangerment trial of a monsignor who had supervised abusive priests.
In Missouri, Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is set to be tried on misdemeanor failure to report suspected child abuse.
Bishops contend any violations are isolated and the vast majority of dioceses are complying with the discipline plan.
By Shelia M. Poole
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless you’re Catholic, you’ve probably never heard of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — until recently.
The Washington, D.C.-based organization, though, is perhaps the most vocal critic of a divisive federal policy that would require health care insurers to provide free contraceptive and preventive coverage, claiming that it violates religious liberty and is against the moral conscience.
The USCCB, which makes decisions on issues that affect U.S. Catholics, will bring that argument to Atlanta this week when it holds its Spring General Assembly Wednesday through Friday at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel downtown. Churches and houses of worship are exempt under the Obama plan. And, although, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says religious- affiliated institutions such as schools and hospitals do not have to pay for or refer employees for any contraceptive coverage, the Catholic Church argues that since most affiliates are self-insured, they would still bear that responsibility, which goes v. against their beliefs.
“Frankly, as a Catholic, this is the first time in my life that I’ve felt this [religious] freedom is in jeopardy. “said Lorraine V. Murray. a parishioner at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Decatur and a religion columnist, whose free lance clients include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. .
Other issues to be discussed include additional threats to domestic and international religious freedom, an update on the church’s efforts to prevent clergy sexual abuse, a presentation on the upcoming Year of Faith and the economy.
Part of the meeting will be available by live streaming and social media on the USCCB’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Viewers can also go to the organization’s website at www.usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/index.cfm.
The meeting will not be without controversy.
A group of Atlantans plan to gather outside the hotel to protest the Vatican criticism of many members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents many of the nation’s nuns, for having ” radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
The organization is ” very influential in certain ways,” said Phillip Thompson, executive director of the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University. “They’re the teaching and administrative authority for the bishops, so they respond to a whole range of issues in the United States.”
The USCCB and Atlanta church officials, estimate there are roughly 70 million Catholics in the United States and more than a million in the Atlanta Archdiocese.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In April, a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops highlighted its criticism of budget proposals from House Republicans and Congressman Paul
Ryan as failing to protect the poor and vulnerable.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan
(Chip Somodevilla – Getty Images)
The next day, the Vatican announced disciplinary action against a group of American nuns for offenses including sponsoring conferences that featured “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
So, asks Sister Simone Campbell, who heads the censured social justice group NETWORK, which got the most attention? The way she sees it, her “Nuns on the Bus” tour to spotlight issues of social justice — across nine states, including Ryan’s Wisconsin — is perfectly in line with Catholic teaching. “We’re sticking with the bishops on this one.’’
The tour just happens to coincide with the “Fortnight for Freedom,” the bishop’s pushback against the Obama administration’s contraceptive health-care plan.
The more-than-capacity crowd of 200-plus at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Charlotte gathered Saturday to hear Campbell, executive
The office for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Silver Spring.
(Jim Watson – AFP/Getty Images)
director of NETWORK, a Washington-based social-justice lobby.
Her group made the Vatican’s list for allegedly placing too much emphasis on issues of economic inequality and not enough on abortion and same-sex marriage. During a break in the three-hour discussion at St. Peter’s, she told me that while “shocking and painful,” she looks on the publicity as “a gift.”
How’s that? “Our mission is known in a way that was never noted before,” she said. “I’ve had a public platform to speak of the needs of all people and to lift up the work of sisters.” She calls it “missionary work.” She said she’s next scheduled to take her message to fellow Catholic Stephen Colbert on “The Colbert Report.”
Though she supported the Affordable Care Act, Campbell, like the bishops, disagreed with the original rule on contraception coverage as proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. “And the way they announced it was really problematic, because they made it feel like you just had to have a brain transplant in a year” before the changes took effect.
But the administration’s accommodation is “elegant,” she said. “It’s not a compromise — that’s really important to know — a compromise indicates that we would meet our values halfway. The elegance of the accommodation is that everybody’s conscience is respected, employers as well as the employees.”
“It just tears at my heart, when you look at the broad spectrum of issues, how the Obama administration has strived in really adverse circumstances to promote the common good and define compromise and a middle ground. And to continuously have that common ground eroded is extremely painful.”
Campbell said it’s “a small cadre of bishops who are determined or feel called to politicizing our faith in a way that’s extremely partisan and narrow.”
She quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical on ethics and the economy, “Charity in Truth” – a reminder of the Catholic commitment to justice — and said that finding that common ground means reclaiming the full spectrum of life issues to include hunger, homelessness, racism, immigration, capital punishment, war and more. “I am pro-life, all of life.”
Campbell could be assured of a warm welcome at St. Peter’s, which she first visited in 2006. Its pastor, the Rev. Pat Earl, said he hoped the Jesuit church is “a good spiritual home” for all. Community outreach efforts include a Respect Life ministry, an El Salvador interest group, a gay/lesbian ministry and work with the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network.
The church has become a destination for what a former parishioner at a more conservative Charlotte parish called “roamin’ Catholics,” in a diocese whose bishop strongly supported the recently passed North Carolina amendment banning same-sex marriage with statements, mailings and videos.
Ann Bourgeois, a member since 1984, said, “St. Peter’s represents the kind of Catholic that I am, open-minded and community-centered.” She said she admired Campbell’s path of service. Bob Cook, at St. Peter’s for 12 years, said, “We have to learn not to self-divide, to engage the folks we disagree with.”
Nicolette Shoop, 37, said she came because “I’m interested in having Catholic conversations about issues, not just listening to directives” from a church hierarchy that often seems “out of touch.”
Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning multimedia journalist in Charlotte, N.C., has worked at the New York Times, Charlotte Observer and as national correspondent for Politics Daily. Follow her on Twitter: @mcurtisnc3.
FREMONT — A couple months ago, Raul Gonzalez and his wife were planning his funeral.
After days of feeling terrible with no improvement, he went to the doctor for what he hoped would be a routine visit. He was worried, however, because a fellow churchgoer and friend had recently told him she had a premonition he was sick, possibly with something serious.
Tests showed he had spots on one of his lungs, which the doctor told him meant he likely had cancer. Gonzalez figured the years of smoking — and his past as an alcoholic — had caught up with his health.
“I started smoking when I was 9,” he said. “I used to steal my grandfather’s cigarettes.”
So he began preparing for his death. He asked a friend and local deacon to preside over his funeral and tried to ready himself to say tearful and difficult good-byes to his wife, family and friends.
Then he had another round of tests, and they showed something miraculous. The spots were gone, and Gonzalez didn’t have cancer.
“The Lord cured me,” he said.
Gonzalez shared his story at a recent meeting of the Grupo de Oración Carismatico, a prayer group he leads that has its services in Spanish each Saturday evening at St. Joseph Catholic Church.
He started attending the group 33 years ago when he was still drinking, and it was there he found the strength to become sober. There, he also met his wife, Alicia, who started the group in 1978.
For the Gonzalezes, the prayer group is an integral part of life. They aren’t alone.
Faith is a huge part of the Hispanic culture, said Lilia Fernandez, Ohio State University assistant professor of history.
Historically, the majority of Mexico and Latin America has been Catholic because Spaniards brought the Catholic faith there when they colonized those areas, she said. More than two-thirds of Hispanics in the United States — 68 percent — consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“For centuries really, religion has structured social life for religious people,” she said. “I think it’s just embedded in a lot of people’s social practices.”
In the Hispanic culture, birthdays, baptisms, weddings and quinceañeras — the celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday — are very important social events related to religion, Fernandez said.
“Where Hispanics are joiners is normally the church,” said Deacon Alfredo Diaz of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Although Catholicism has a large Hispanic base, other denominations and religions have growing numbers of Hispanics, she said. Hispanics also are Methodists and Pentecostals, and their numbers have increased with Jehovah’s Witnesses, she said.
Locally, Catholic and Protestant churches and the Fremont Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses are reaching out to the Hispanic community with services and programs, some of which are in Spanish.
The prayer group at St. Joseph Catholic Church works to bring in locals who do not speak English or do not speak it as a first language. It offers them a chance to pray and worship in their native tongue.
Spanish, for example, is Raul Gonzalez’s native language, but he also speaks English.
“We have it in Spanish because not all of us speak English that well,” he said.
Spanish-language opportunities
Amelia Reyna, a former migrant worker from Texas, has lived in Ohio for more than a decade.
She speaks some English, but sometimes correctly forming sentences and understanding others who speak English is difficult for her. She tries very hard to speak English and has taken an English for speakers of other languages class.
So she can empathize with locals who speak little or no English. She is the president of the Sociedad Guadalupana, a women’s service organization that celebrates the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe — in which the Virgin Mary appeared in 1531 to a man in Mexico — at St. Joseph Catholic Church and has meetings in Spanish.
Reyna also helps migrant workers with their confirmation and Catechism classes.
“For those who don’t speak English — you’d be surprised how many there are — it’s really helpful,” said Sister Mary Roseria, who coordinates Hispanic ministry through Fremont Catholic churches. “We need to reach out to whoever we can.”
In Sandusky County, 4.3 percent of the population speaks Spanish at home, and 1.3 percent said they speak English “less than very well,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2006-10.
In addition to the prayer group, St. Joseph Catholic Church has a Spanish-language mass each Sunday and a Spanish-language Bible study. The local Catholic churches also have a ministry to the sick, where someone who speaks Spanish will meet with an ailing person, and offer baptism instructions and Catechism classes.
“We want to see what we can do to bring this community to the parish,” said Deacon Jose Garcia, director of Hispanic outreach for the Toledo Catholic Diocese. “Even though there are many people in Fremont who probably speak both languages, there are also people who just speak Spanish. I think we need to give a special pull for these people to get them to services and to serve these people.”
The Saturday night prayer group — which includes a worship team playing guitars, keyboard, drums and other instruments — drew about 25 people on a recent evening. The group spanned several generations, from infants to senior citizens.
“The praise and song kind of livens up the little ones, and they join in,” said Maria Herrera of Bettsville, who has been a regular at the services for years.
Dina and Cesar Romero also regularly attend the service, and Cesar plays in the band.
“I feel like it’s my home,” Cesar said. “We were going through real hard times when we first came here. We found a way to understand each other.
“It’s been our guide.”
The couple said they feel like people who participate in the service open up and receive help with their problems. Herrera said those who attend appreciate knowing what they share won’t be turned into gossip around the community.
For Silvia Garza’s family, missing a service leaves them feeling like their week just wasn’t complete. She enjoys listening to others talk about how God has worked in their lives, which those who participate in the service call giving a testimony.
“We have a lot of testimonies,” she said. “This is a place where we can give our testimony, and we pray for each other. It bonds everyone together.”
Cesar Romero’s brother, Gabriel Romero, plays keyboard in the band and is planning to be a future leader of the service.
“I see this town might need spiritual outreach,” he said. “God has been so good in my life. Any gifts he has given me, I use for the people of the town.”
The Kingdom Hall has a Spanish congregation that meets Sundays and Wednesdays for study and services in Spanish, said Jesus V. Garza, a congregation elder. Jehovah’s Witnesses also go door to door to minister to people in Spanish.
The hall in Fremont started in 1967, he said.
“We picked Fremont because it is the center of the whole area — Woodville, Clyde, Genoa and Port Clinton,” he said.
Migrant ministry
Although the number of migrant workers in the area has been decreasing in recent years, there is still a large population of workers that local churches hope to reach.
In 2010, the latest year for which numbers were available, there were 1,915 migrant workers in Sandusky County who were U.S. citizens, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services migrant census. The migrant censuses do not include workers who are citizens of other countries.
The nature of migrant work can make it tough for workers to take advantage of religious opportunities, Roseria said.
“Often, their work hours just don’t match up (with mass time),” she said. “They’re on the road so much that it’s difficult.”
To solve that problem, Harvest Baptist Temple in Clyde gives migrant worker families free bus rides to church services on Sundays. If workers can’t go, they can send their children.
Harvest Baptist also goes into camps on weekdays and conducts services in the evenings, so the parents have an opportunity to worship when they’re done with work, the Rev. James Lewis said.
His wife, Rebeccah, spends Saturday afternoons at local migrant camps, talking with the children in English and to their parents through an interpreter who speaks Spanish. The next morning, the bus stops at the camps and picks up anyone who wants to come to church.
“A lot of the parents can’t speak English, but the kids do,” James Lewis said. “All the kids know Mrs. Lewis. I get out of the car with my wife, and here come 15 kids saying ‘Hi, Mrs. Lewis.’
“They love her.”
The bus normally has 20 to 40 people, and they spend the ride singing Christian songs with Rebeccah Lewis.
On some Sundays, the church projects its worship service on a screen in the cafeteria while someone translates what the pastor is saying into Spanish, in order to help those who don’t speak English understand the service, he said.
“It’s a tremendous ministry,” he said. “Every Saturday, my wife spends four or five hours at the camps. It’s a lot of work.”
The Fremont Catholic churches also visit at least 25 migrant camps in Sandusky and Ottawa counties each year, Roseria said. Sacred Heart Catholic Church also has an annual blanket and shoe drive to help migrants.
Eight Catholic churches in Sandusky and Ottawa counties offer money to help the migrants in emergency situations, Roseria said.
“There is a big (Hispanic) community in Fremont,” Garcia said. “Whatever we can do to bring the people to God, we try to do.”
(CNN) — The showdown between the Vatican and America’s largest group of Catholic nuns is expected to peak this week when group leaders will meet to determine a response to the Vatican’s reprimand for the group’s “radical feminist themes.”
The church also demands major reforms from the nuns’ group.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, initially surprised by the Vatican’s report last month, “plans to move slowly, not rushing to judgment” when the group’s 21-member board meets for three days in Washington, D.C., beginning Tuesday.
“The board will conduct its meeting in an atmosphere of prayer, contemplation and dialogue and will develop a plan to involve LCWR membership in similar processes,” the group said in a statement. “We will engage in dialogue where possible and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We ask your prayer for us and for the Church in this critical time.”
Last month, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Catholic church’s doctrinal watchdog, did a years-long “doctrinal assessment” investigation of the group — which represents 80% of the Catholic nuns in United States — and found “serious doctrinal problems.”
The Vatican accused the LCWR of sponsoring “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations.”
The Vatican report, made public by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the doctrinal assessment began in part because of the group’s dissent on the Holy See’s teaching on the ordination of women and human sexuality. The Catholic Church ordains only men to be priests and says sex is to be between a man and woman who are married in the eyes of the church.
While the assessment praised the social justice work of the group and other organizations such as Network and the Resources Center for Religious Life, it said the groups were “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”
Simone Campbell, a nun who’s executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, said her “hunch” is that the LCWR will put together an outline response this week to be presented to the group’s full assembly during its August meeting.
“I think the results for the media will be very anticlimactic because we as Catholic sisters do things with a lot of prayer and very slowly,” Campbell about this week’s meeting.
“It’s going to be like watching paint dry,” she added in a CNN interview.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle to institute the reforms. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is providing support to Sartain, and the LCWR isn’t expected to publicly address the Vatican report until after this week’s meeting, said Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops’ conference.
Nuns in various orders around the United States have been conversing about the Vatican report, and their reactions have been “surprised, stunned, shocked,” Campbell said. She said the report left her feeling “as being suspect.”
“For myself, the shock made me numb at first, and then I was profoundly sad that my life as a woman religious and my commitment to serving the poor would be so denigrated by the leadership of our church,” Campbell said. “All we do is work for love.”
For the report to say “you don’t do everything,” Campbell said, is “ridiculous.”
“They’re saying we’re silent on some issues. It’s not our issue. Other people do those works,” Campbell said.
The report took note of public statements from the nuns that opposed the Catholic Bishops. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Network vocally disagreed with the Bishops’ conference’s position on the Affordable Care Act, which they supported and the Bishops did not.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith called the current doctrinal and pastoral positions of the groups “grave and a matter of serious concern,” because of the global influence of the groups.
Some observers of the church say the Leadership Conference may take a low-key position in its response and seek to defuse a confrontation.
Others such as CNN’s senior Vatican analyst John Allen said the Vatican report has basically decreed that the LCWR “needs an overhaul in which it will have a tighter relationship with the bishops.”
“Basically, it needs to be more obedient,” said Allen, who’s also a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
The American nuns’ group could do one of three options this week: it could go along with everything the Vatican is saying; it could offer to work and negotiate with the Vatican but say “let’s talk”; or it could say “we’re not going to play ball and we’re going to walk away,” Allen said.
The last option would essentially mean “we’ll disband the LCWR and let it die on the vine and go off and do our own thing,” Allen said.
“That’s what on the table here: How do the nuns want to respond to the crackdown that they received from the Vatican,” Allen added.
He also noted how many of the group leaders are in their 60s and 70s.
“Some of them don’t want to spend the last 10 years of their life engaged in negotiations with the Vatican,” Allen said. “Some of them just don’t want to deal with this. This will be the first opportunity where we’ll be able to take the temperature of the group on where the nuns stand on this.
“One way or another, it’s an important crossroads moment,” he added.
For Campbell, the Vatican report doesn’t pose a crisis of conscience.
“It’s not affecting my conscience. It affects my sadness and heart. This life is profound and deep,” Campbell said. “When politics interferes, it doesn’t change the depth of the spiritual. It’s annoyance. It’s not an issue of conscience. We’re faithful.”
Campbell belongs to the Sisters of Social Service, an order based in Encino, California, and the community is meeting for the feast of the Pentecost from Sunday to Tuesday. The congregation might put together a position statement for the LCWR’s assembly meeting in August, Campbell said.
“We’re open to the Holy Spirit and to let the group wisdom lead us, so I have no idea” on whether on a position will be taken by the order, Campbell said. “Stay tuned.”
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On April 15, at a Roman Catholic Mass, 11-year-old Alyssa Walton, a Girl Scout Cadette from Lancaster County, was presented with an “I Live My Faith” medal by the bishop of Harrisburg.
Her mother, Kerri Walton, had been part of a Girl Scout troop at Sacred Heart of Jesus parish when she was a child, and is now co-leader of her daughter’s troop. For Kerri Walton, that April Mass — which marked the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the United States of America — was a melding of two positive influences on her daughter’s life: scouting and the church.
According to The Catholic Witness, the Diocese of Harrisburg’s newspaper, more than 200 Girl Scouts and their families attended the Mass. The lector, cantor and altar-servers were Girl Scouts. Bishop Joseph P. McFadden was the celebrant.
“It was lovely,” said Carolyn Pfeifer, chair of the diocese’s Catholic Committee for Girl Scouts and Camp Fire, in an interview with the Sunday News. “We haven’t had a [diocese-wide] recognition Mass for the Girl Scouts in 25 or 30 years.”
All appeared to be well, locally at least, between the Catholic Church and the Girl Scouts. Which made what came next, on the national level, all the more perplexing to those who are involved in both scouting and the church.
On May 10, The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth had launched an inquiry into the Girl Scouts.
The committee is chaired by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., who was McFadden’s predecessor in Harrisburg.
As Rhoades explained in a letter to his fellow bishops, his committee was examining the Girl Scouts’ “possible problematic relationships with other organizations, the issue of problematic programmatic materials and resources, and other matters of concern.”
The reaction to this news was scathing, particularly as it came on the heels of a Vatican crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of the leaders of most of the nation’s 57,000 Catholic nuns. The Vatican charged the nuns with “radical feminism” and accused them of focusing too much on social justice issues while remaining silent on issues such as abortion.
The Vatican also rebuked the nuns’ leadership conference for making public statements that challenged the positions of the bishops, “who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”
The crackdown on the nuns has sparked protests among Catholics in Philadelphia and across the nation, and the Girl Scouts’ inquiry only has added to the angst — and, from some quarters, the ridicule.
“First Nuns and Girl Scouts, Next Dora the Explorer,” quipped a headline on one New York Times column.
“What’s next, kittens and puppy dogs?” asked Sister Maureen Fiedler, a progressive Catholic nun quoted by Reuters.
Kerri Bogda, of Manheim Township, is the Catholic mother of a Daisy Scout, and the great-niece of a Carmelite nun. She said the nuns “probably do a better job of emulating Christ than anybody else” and described them as “the water cutting new canyons.”
She said she wasn’t surprised that the church hierarchy would push back against outspoken nuns, but was “a little surprised” by the Girl Scout inquiry. She views these controversies as separate from her faith and said they wouldn’t have “an impact on how I worship.”
“I almost find it laughable,” said Angel Benfer, of Manheim Township, who is Catholic and the mother of a Brownie Scout. “No female in the Catholic faith right now is thrilled that they actually went after the nuns.”
And, as for the church looking into the Girl Scouts, “I truly don’t understand it,” she said.
Joseph Aponick, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, maintained that the Girl Scouts inquiry and the investigation of the nuns’ leadership conference “have no connection at all. They are isolated actions.”
But to some Catholic women, including Benfer, the two matters seem to be part of a single narrative.
After sweeping the priest sexual abuse scandals “under the rug for what seemed like a century,” the church now is scrutinizing the nuns and Girl Scouts with a zeal that seems “misogynistic,” Benfer said.
It’s almost as if, she said, the church were saying, ” ‘We had a lot of issues with our priests, so let’s go after the women.’ “
Seizing on whisper-down-the-lane allegations about the Girl Scouts, the church is treating hearsay as if it were heresy, Benfer said.
She said she loves her Catholic faith and the many paths it gives her to God. “I just wish more for the Catholic Church,” Benfer said, ruefully.
Kerri Walton said “it’s a little heartbreaking, almost,” to learn that the church has doubts about what she and other Girl Scout leaders are teaching girls.
Both the Girl Scouts and the Catholic Church emphasize service to others. “The values that we follow are just like the values of the Catholic Church,” Walton said.
Walton said she’s hopeful that by being in Girl Scouts, her daughter will have the self-confidence and integrity to make the right choices as she goes through her teenage years.
And she said she’s never encountered any Girl Scout materials that were inconsistent with her Catholic values.
Aponick, of the Diocese of Harrisburg, said in an email that for several years, “pro-life Catholics around the country have raised concerns that Girl Scouts USA, or local Girl Scout councils, may be allied with Planned Parenthood.”
“The questions keep coming up, so they have to be answered, because so many Catholic parishes have Girl Scout units,” Aponick explained. “It is precisely because so many parishes support Girl Scouts that this question is important.
“By asking the question, we’re not attacking Girl Scouts or women. One committee of the U.S. bishops is asking what messages are being given to the many, many young Catholics who are Girl Scouts across the country. They’re asking a question for clarification, not attacking.”
Aponick said that the Harrisburg diocese has had a “positive working relationship” with the local Girl Scout council for decades.
Jane Ransom, president and CEO of Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania, said her concerns about the bishops’ inquiry have been tempered by this “good relationship.”
She said the April 15 Mass celebrated by Bishop McFadden was “just a beautiful day and, I think, symbolic of the relationship we have here with the Harrisburg diocese.”
She also said that Anna Maria Chavez, CEO of GSUSA, who is Catholic, “has been having good talks with the church hierarchy.”
Ransom expressed the hope that the bishops’ inquiry was “something pro forma,” but added, “I guess a part of me says, ‘If they want to investigate campfires and camping and arts and crafts, that’s fine.’ Girl Scouts do nothing, really, but extremely wholesome activities that serve the community.
“I am very, very certain that no one is going to turn up anything other than girls gaining their self-confidence, learning to be leaders and having tons and tons of fun.”
She said the allegation that GSUSA has a relationship with Planned Parenthood — an allegation circulated on the Internet and raised by an Indiana state legislator in February — is false.
And, Ransom said, “we specifically don’t take positions on reproductive health issues.”
The Girl Scouts long have been a target for social conservatives, in part because of their inclusiveness, a principle espoused by their founder, Juliette Gordon Low. Unlike the Boy Scouts of America, they have no policy prohibiting homosexual Scouts. (One Colorado Girl Scout troop made headlines when it accepted a transgender child.)
That inclusiveness, Ransom said, extends to girls of every faith, including Catholicism. “We value every girl.”
She said that GSUSA did a national review of all of the Girl Scouts’ curriculum to “make sure that there was nothing there that was blatantly in contradiction to Catholic teachings.”
And some revisions were made. References to playwright Josefina Lopez, for instance, have been deleted because one of her plays was seen as anti-Catholic.
GSUSA is really “bending over backwards” to be as transparent as possible, to make sure Catholics feel comfortable with the Girl Scouts, Ransom said.
The reason for this is simple: An estimated half-million Catholic girls and women are Girl Scouts.
Robert J. McCarty, executive director of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, has been reviewing Girl Scouts’ practices for the past two years, and said he’s been impressed by the “really serious commitment” GSUSA has made to addressing the concerns of Catholics.
“They have been exceptional in their willingness to respond to the critiques,” he said.
McCarty said the federation has looked carefully at the Girl Scouts’ materials, and found a “very few” to be “age-inappropriate” or objectionable. In some cases, he said, they “quoted an author, and if you followed the author’s bio, the author might have views that are contrary to Catholic leadership.”
But “how many degrees of separation do you have to go to be fair?” McCarty asked, rhetorically.
The Girl Scouts “could have been more careful in their development of materials. But I would maintain that none of this was intentionally mean-spirited or anti-Catholic,” McCarty said. “These are well-intentioned people who want the best for our kids.”
He said that because there are so many Catholics involved in Girl Scouts, the church has a role as watchdog.
But, McCarty added, “There’s a difference between being a watchdog and engaging in a witch hunt.”
He said he does not know “how many different ways” GSUSA can say it has no relationship with Planned Parenthood for critics to accept this as reality.
He said concerns also have been raised about GSUSA’s membership in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. At issue is WAGGGS’ embrace of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, one of which is to ensure that adolescents receive information about sexual health and reproduction.
But McCarty pointed out that the Vatican also has supported some of the U.N. goals — on poverty, for instance — while saying, “very clearly, ‘This doesn’t mean we agree with every stance.’ “
“That’s not good enough for the critics,” said McCarty, asking, “Does every organization have to be in full compliance with Catholic doctrine?”
For engaging in talks with GSUSA, McCarty has been accused by Catholic hard-liners of “whitewashing” the Girl Scouts’ record. He is unfazed by the criticism.
He said the federation — a separately incorporated organization with which most dioceses, including Harrisburg, are affiliated — has chosen to advocate for the Catholic Church, while engaging in “honest, respectful” discussions with the Girl Scouts.
“You can’t win the game if you walk off the field,” he said, urging Catholic Girl Scout leaders to write to him, and to their bishops, to tell of their experiences with scouting.
He and another federation official have met with Bishop Rhoades’ committee. And McCarty said he’s hopeful that the committee will resolve its concerns with the Girl Scouts and that processes and relationships will be established that ensure “communication and accountability at both the local and national levels.”
If not, McCarty said, “what an incredible loss to 500,000 [Catholic] girls and women.”
Contact Sunday News staff writer Suzanne Cassidy at scassidy@lnpnews.com.
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(CNN) — The showdown between the Vatican and America’s largest group of Catholic nuns is expected to peak this week when group leaders will meet to determine a response to the Vatican’s reprimand for the group’s “radical feminist themes.”
The church also demands major reforms from the nuns’ group.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, initially surprised by the Vatican’s report last month, “plans to move slowly, not rushing to judgment” when the group’s 21-member board meets for three days in Washington, D.C., beginning Tuesday.
“The board will conduct its meeting in an atmosphere of prayer, contemplation and dialogue and will develop a plan to involve LCWR membership in similar processes,” the group said in a statement. “We will engage in dialogue where possible and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We ask your prayer for us and for the Church in this critical time.”
Last month, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Catholic church’s doctrinal watchdog, did a years-long “doctrinal assessment” investigation of the group — which represents 80% of the Catholic nuns in United States — and found “serious doctrinal problems.”
The Vatican accused the LCWR of sponsoring “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations.”
The Vatican report, made public by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the doctrinal assessment began in part because of the group’s dissent on the Holy See’s teaching on the ordination of women and human sexuality. The Catholic Church ordains only men to be priests and says sex is to be between a man and woman who are married in the eyes of the church.
While the assessment praised the social justice work of the group and other organizations such as Network and the Resources Center for Religious Life, it said the groups were “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”
Simone Campbell, a nun who’s executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, said her “hunch” is that the LCWR will put together an outline response this week to be presented to the group’s full assembly during its August meeting.
“I think the results for the media will be very anticlimactic because we as Catholic sisters do things with a lot of prayer and very slowly,” Campbell about this week’s meeting.
“It’s going to be like watching paint dry,” she added in a CNN interview.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle to institute the reforms. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is providing support to Sartain, and the LCWR isn’t expected to publicly address the Vatican report until after this week’s meeting, said Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops’ conference.
Nuns in various orders around the United States have been conversing about the Vatican report, and their reactions have been “surprised, stunned, shocked,” Campbell said. She said the report left her feeling “as being suspect.”
“For myself, the shock made me numb at first, and then I was profoundly sad that my life as a woman religious and my commitment to serving the poor would be so denigrated by the leadership of our church,” Campbell said. “All we do is work for love.”
For the report to say “you don’t do everything,” Campbell said, is “ridiculous.”
“They’re saying we’re silent on some issues. It’s not our issue. Other people do those works,” Campbell said.
The report took note of public statements from the nuns that opposed the Catholic Bishops. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Network vocally disagreed with the Bishops’ conference’s position on the Affordable Care Act, which they supported and the Bishops did not.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith called the current doctrinal and pastoral positions of the groups “grave and a matter of serious concern,” because of the global influence of the groups.
Some observers of the church say the Leadership Conference may take a low-key position in its response and seek to defuse a confrontation.
Others such as CNN’s senior Vatican analyst John Allen said the Vatican report has basically decreed that the LCWR “needs an overhaul in which it will have a tighter relationship with the bishops.”
“Basically, it needs to be more obedient,” said Allen, who’s also a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
The American nuns’ group could do one of three options this week: it could go along with everything the Vatican is saying; it could offer to work and negotiate with the Vatican but say “let’s talk”; or it could say “we’re not going to play ball and we’re going to walk away,” Allen said.
The last option would essentially mean “we’ll disband the LCWR and let it die on the vine and go off and do our own thing,” Allen said.
“That’s what on the table here: How do the nuns want to respond to the crackdown that they received from the Vatican,” Allen added.
He also noted how many of the group leaders are in their 60s and 70s.
“Some of them don’t want to spend the last 10 years of their life engaged in negotiations with the Vatican,” Allen said. “Some of them just don’t want to deal with this. This will be the first opportunity where we’ll be able to take the temperature of the group on where the nuns stand on this.
“One way or another, it’s an important crossroads moment,” he added.
For Campbell, the Vatican report doesn’t pose a crisis of conscience.
“It’s not affecting my conscience. It affects my sadness and heart. This life is profound and deep,” Campbell said. “When politics interferes, it doesn’t change the depth of the spiritual. It’s annoyance. It’s not an issue of conscience. We’re faithful.”
Campbell belongs to the Sisters of Social Service, an order based in Encino, California, and the community is meeting for the feast of the Pentecost from Sunday to Tuesday. The congregation might put together a position statement for the LCWR’s assembly meeting in August, Campbell said.
“We’re open to the Holy Spirit and to let the group wisdom lead us, so I have no idea” on whether on a position will be taken by the order, Campbell said. “Stay tuned.”
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Republicans were quick to cozy up with Catholic bishops in opposition to the Obama Administration’s requirement that contraception be covered at no cost under health insurance plans. These days the GOP has its own prickly Catholic problem.
Catholic bishops have sized up the GOP budget proposal – praised by presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney – and found it morally bankrupt. In a series of stinging letters to the House of Representatives, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the budget for slashing anti-hunger programs and asking the most vulnerable to bear a disproportionate burden while the richest Americans are given more tax breaks. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a conservative wunderkind and architect of the budget, has claimed these proposals are inspired by the values of his Catholic faith. Bishops and other Catholic leaders are not letting him get away with that fiction.
Prominent Catholic theologians across the country recently took Ryan to Sunday school by explaining how his budget is “morally indefensible and betrays Catholic principles of solidarity, just taxation and a commitment to the common good.” Before a recent lecture at Georgetown University, Ryan received a letter signed by nearly 90 professors and priests at the Catholic university who took offense at his distortion of Catholic teaching. It noted that Ryan’s budget seems more indebted to Ayn Rand than to the message of Jesus. Ryan has praised Rand – a libertarian icon who mocked all religion and rejected the Gospel’s ethic of justice and compassion – with inspiring him to enter politics and for explaining “the morality of individualism.”
This fundamental challenge to Republican economic orthodoxy has rankled conservative politicians whose opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage usually gets them a free pass from many Catholic leaders. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), a Catholic, accused the bishops of missing the “big picture.” Rep. Ryan desperately tried a divide and conquer strategy, telling Fox News that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ stark objection to his budget does not represent the views of all church leaders. He has yet to tell us which Tea Party bishops support his efforts to portray social Darwinism as social justice. The backlash from the right also included some righteous indignation from pundits. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, a conservative Catholic and former speechwriter for George W. Bush, called one prominent bishop’s criticism of Ryan’s budget cuts an “attack on a good Catholic layman” and even accused him of parroting “a reelection slogan for the Democratic Party.”
Republicans used to thinking they have a lock on “values voters” are now facing moral scrutiny that has been lacking in the past. In recent years, Catholic bishops have pounced on pro-choice Catholic Democrats, scolded the University of Notre Dame for inviting President Obama to give a commencement address, opposed health care reform legislation and recently launched a national religious liberty campaign. Last month, the Catholic bishop in Peoria, Ill., compared President Obama’s policies to those of Stalin and Hitler, and not so subtly urged Catholics to “vote their conscience.” This broadside is reminiscent of the 2004 presidential election, when several Catholic bishops repeatedly blasted John Kerry over abortion, a critical factor in helping George W. Bush win the Catholic vote and with it the election.
It’s time for a better conversation about the role of faith in politics. A one-sided values debate preoccupied with a few divisive issues lets conservative politicians off the hook. When it comes to immigration, poverty, climate change and the use of torture on detainees, many Republicans’ policy views fundamentally clash with bedrock Christian principles and centuries of moral wisdom. But too often this inconsistency goes unchallenged. This does a profound disservice to voters and diminishes the credibility of religious leaders in public life.
Conservatives who talk a big game about family values should be held accountable when their economic policies undermine human dignity. They should be forced to explain how gutting programs that protect vulnerable families, demonizing immigrants and putting corporate profits and tax breaks for millionaires before workers’ rights reflect Christian values. If they can’t explain those glaring inconsistencies, they should drop the religious rhetoric.
Gehring is Catholic program director and senior writer at Faith in Public Life in Washington.
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