Catholicism, authority and desire

In "Mad virgins and Don Juans" Rupert Shortt reviews In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, homosexuality, hypocrisy, by Frédéric Martel, translated by Shaun Whiteside, at The Times Literary Supplement.

"Over the past century the Catholic Church has done more than any other institution to demonstrate the abiding relevance of biblical and classical principles of justice and charity: its records on debt remission, conscientious consumption habits, the environment, and socially responsible uses of technology speak for themselves. There is therefore much to lament about the retreat of Christianity across Europe."

Milwaukee priest comes out as gay in NCReporter, Listecki aptly sidesteps in statement

The Rev. Gregory Greiten told his congregation Sunday, "I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!"  [Why do I suspect everyone that knew him just said aloud, "No Kidding"]

The priest in the Milwaukee Archdiocese serves as the pastor of St. Bernadette Parish. On Monday, he came out to the rest of the world with an article in the National Catholic Reporter. He received a standing ovation from his parishioners when he made his announcement before the article's publication.  [Gasp, liturgical clapping!!]

...

In announcing his identity as a gay man, Greiten chastised the Catholic Church for its stance on homosexuality.  ["No Kidding"]

...

In a statement on Monday, Listecki backed Greiten's decision to share his sexuality with his parish.

"We support Father Greiten in his own, personal journey and telling his story of coming to understand and live with his sexual orientation. As the Church teaches, those with same-sex attraction must be treated with understanding and compassion. As priests who have made a promise to celibacy, we know that every week there are people in our pews who struggle with the question of homosexuality," Listecki said in the statement.

article at JS 

Meh.  In further news without even checking Twitter, Fr. Jazzy Martin fully endorses, everybody says Church needs to change teaching, yada yada, parishioners buy rainbow vestments for when he performs same sex marriage ceremonies, etc. etc., Father immediately named President of Marquette University after realizing current president isn't gay bladi blah some years later Father leads Buddhist retreats for LCWR.  Did I miss anything?

I think Abp. Listecki's reply is pretty good.  JS says he "backed" the decision which he obviously doesn't but whatever.

The most appalling thing here is the [sinister music plays] liturgical clapping.  Really folks, it's the sacrifice on calvary, can't we find a more liturgically appropriate way for priests to come out of the closet??  One that involves the locally grown Giant Liturgical Puppets?

Update: Just to be clear, I'm being a bit facetious about the whole liturgical clapping.  Clearly, there should not be a Rite of Dedication to Fabulous-ity introduced, however it is striking that in a very Lord of the World way, they are already trying this stuff.

Cardinal Cupich remains silent on ‘LGBT Catholics’ event in his own diocese

Next week in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Catholic bishop of Lexington, Kentucky will speak to a symposium organized by a dissident group condemned by the Vatican and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Chicago's Cardinal Blase Cupich hasn't commented on the event taking place within his archdiocese, nor acted to prevent his fellow bishop from speaking there.

Bishop John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington is scheduled to speak at New Ways Ministry's 2017 conference, titled "Justice and Mercy Shall Kiss: LGBT Catholics in the Age of Pope Francis." He's defended his decision to do so, saying "Pope Francis has signaled that we need to take another look at those things."

Defending his scheduled talk for the gay advocacy group, Stowe said Church teaching on homosexuality "was not Jesus’ approach." Catholic doctrine on the issue isn't "immune from ever changing," he said.

Stowe will offer the conference's opening prayer on Friday, April 28 and morning prayer on Saturday, April 29. The conference includes sessions such as "Lesbian Nuns: Gift to the Church," "Gay Men in Priesthood and Religious Life," and "Transgender & Intersex Identities and the Family."

continue at LifeSite

Everyone is talking about Marquette, and nobody's buying what they are selling

Wall Street Journal: Punished for Blogging at Marquette
Chicago Tribune: The Marquette professor who dared to speak out
FoxNews
National Catholic Register: Tenured Professor’s Free Speech Lawsuit Looms Over Marquette as Deadline Approaches

Marquette’s ongoing suspension of McAdams has landed it on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s “[HuffPo:]10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech” list for two consecutive years.

And then it starts getting weirder.

Marquette University “Likes” Tweet That Calls for Shutting Down Opposition to Gay Marriage

And then they came out (18 months later?) with a FAQ page regarding the McAdams case.

Marquette today came out with an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about our case. It’s an amazing collection of evasion, dissembling, and outright falsehood.

Let’s analyze it piece by piece:

Dr. McAdams disagreed with the way one of our graduate students led a classroom discussion.

We “disagreed” with a teacher who told a student that he could not express opposition to gay marriage because doing so would be “homophobic,” and would “offend” any gay student in class. But Marquette implies this was merely some disagreement about pedagogical philosophy.

Instead of expressing those concerns through established internal channels, he chose to blog about our graduate student . . .

In the first place, the undergraduate student had attempted to “raise the concern” (note the euphemistic way mistreatment of a student is described) with the Arts & Sciences office, and then was referred to the Philosophy Department. There he was met with hostility, and received no redress at all.

Of course, bureaucrats would like all cases of misconduct to be quietly dealt with through “internal channels.”  This is the way the Catholic Church handled the priestly sex abuse crisis.

continue at Marquette Warrior

If I were a betting man, Lovell does fire McAdams, McAdams takes Marquette to court and wins big, Lovell "resignation" soon after for inability to maintain liberal secular order.

Regardless of which side of the political spectrum folks find themselves, this whole fiasco is a total failure by the Marquette administration to maintain law and order.  And to date, no corrective action has been taken to update a clearly antiquated and ineffective university policy, neither to protect freedom of speech of either students or faculty, nor to protect students and faculty from harassment.  It's a deer in headlights death stare and Marquette is hoping the headlights veer off their current trajectory instead of simply stepping five feet to the left or to the right.

RNS denies LGBT funding of agency influences religion coverage

The editor of Religion News Service has denied that a grant from a wealthy gay-rights advocacy funder has biased its coverage of traditional religion, which includes a recent controversial story on Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The Arcus Foundation dispenses millions of dollars in grants every year to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism. Its 2014 grants included $120,000 to the Religion Newswriters Foundation, the owner of the widely syndicated Religion News Service (RNS).

The Arcus Foundation’s grant listing said the one year of support was intended “to recruit and equip LGBT supportive leaders and advocates to counter rejection and antagonism within traditionally conservative Christian churches.”

The foundation’s Sept. 23, 2014 announcement said the grant aimed at “fostering a culture of LGBT understanding through the media” by funding the production of feature stories and blog posts “about religion and LGBT peoples of color.”

Kevin Eckstrom, RNS editor-in-chief, told CNA that receiving money from the advocacy group did not influence editorial choices.

continue at Catholic News Agency

Haha!

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An instructor-student conversation at a Catholic University in good standing

Apparently this conversation is in alignment with "Catholic, Jesuit education," otherwise I'm sure the Marquette administration would be as quick to address a situation where a student's rights have been abducted.  $35,000 a year seems like a hefty price to pay to be treated like a ghetto Catholic.  There's plenty of lower cost options.

Abbate: Ok, well, actually you don’t have a right in this class, as –especially as an ethics professor to make homophobic comments, racist comments, sexist comments …

Student: Homophobic comments? They’re not. I’m not saying that gays, that one guy can’t like another girl or something like that. Or, one guy can’t like another guy.

Abbate: This is about restricting rights and liberties of individuals. Um and just as I would take offense if women can’t serve in XYZ positions because that is a sexist comment.

Student: I don’t have any problem with women saying that. I don’t have any problem with women joining anything like that.

Abbate: No, I’m saying that if you are going to make a comment like that, it would be similar to making a ….

Student: Absolutely.

Abbate: How I would experience would be similar to how someone who is in this room and who is homosexual who would experience someone criticizing this.

Student: Ok, so because they are homosexual I can’t have my opinions? And it’s not being offensive towards them because I am just having my opinions on a very broad subject.

Abbate: You can have whatever opinions you want but I can tell you right now, in this class homophobic comments, racist comments, and sexist comments will not be tolerated. If you don’t like that you are more than free to drop this class.

Student: So, are you saying that not agreeing with gay marriage is homophobic?

Abbate: To argue about that individuals should not have rights is going to be offensive to someone in this class.

Student: I’m not saying rights, I’m saying one single right. Ok? So is that what you’re saying? Are you saying that if I don’t agree with gays not being allowed to get married, that I am homophobic?

Abbate: I’m saying that it would come off as a homophobic comment in this class.

Read the whole post at The American Conservative

I find it fascinating that liberals have almost universally written in support of McAdams (I can barely keep up with all the articles); that is in support of tenure and academic freedom.

John McAdams(Marquette Warrior) SUSPENDED by Marquette University while under "Investigation"

Hmmmm

It created more controversy than any blog other post we have done: an account of a Philosophy instructor at Marquette who told a student that gay marriage could not be discussed in her class since any opposition would be “homophobic” and would “offend” any gay students in the class. Not only did the story echo among Catholic outlets and sites dedicated to free speech on campus, but it created considerable blow back among leftist academics, who pretty much demanded our head on a pike.

Today we got an e-mail from Dean Richard Holz:

Dear John:

The university is continuing to review your conduct and during this period--and until further notice--you are relieved of all teaching duties and all other faculty activities, [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] including, but not limited to, advising, committee work, faculty meetings and any activity that would involve your interaction with Marquette students, faculty and staff. 

continue at Marquette Warrior

I encourage you to send Dr. McAdams your support for his thankless effort to at least make Marquette University open to discuss the possibility that Catholic teaching may in fact be true.

Should we assume the graduate student who was teaching a credited Philosophy course at Marquette University and contradicting basic tenants of natural law, teaching embraced by many faith traditions, is also under investigation?  After all, the foundation of natural law certainly falls under the realm of philosophy.

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Update: JS: Marquette's John McAdams suspended after criticizing TA on gay marriage discussion
Update2: Marquette’s Suspension of Marquette Warrior Violated Marquette’s Own Rules

NCReg: Marquette University: Opposition to Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ a Form of Harassment

MILWAUKEE — An anti-harassment training presentation at a Catholic college encourages employees to report critics of same-sex “marriage” and could reflect recent federal decisions that the belief in marriage as a union of a man and a woman is discriminatory.

Part of the employee anti-harassment training at Marquette University includes a presentation with a comic strip-style story about a fictional employee named “Harassed Hans,” a man in a wheelchair. The training encourages Hans to report to the university human resources department his co-workers Becky and Maria, who “have been talking about their opposition to same-sex marriage” all week.

“Their co-worker Hans is offended, but he struggles with whether to report the situation,” the comic says.

“Hans is right to report Maria and Becky’s conversation,” the presentation later adds.

The presentation shares the federal government’s new understanding that beliefs about marriage as a union only of one man and one woman can be a source of discrimination and illegal harassment.

continue at NC Register

also CNA: Catholic profs told to report opposition to 'gay marriage' as harassment

Of course, just complying with the law.  Can't take a stand on the issue.  Nothing more to see here, move along.

There is an essential difference between "harassment" and "opposition to same-sex marriage."  For those with short term memory, President Obama opposed same-sex marriage until 2012!  And even then said that it should be handled on the local level.  Are we supposed to take seriously the charge that President Obama had participated in harassment?

This is sort of like those phantom IRS threats against "political speech" in churches.  Regardless of standing policy, they cannot withstand the scrutiny of law.

See also: G. K. Chesterton: It’s Not Gay, and It’s Not Marriage

Marquette Philosophy Instructor: “Gay Rights” Can’t Be Discussed in Class Since Any Disagreement Would Offend Gay Students

A student we know was in a philosophy class (“Theory of Ethics”), and the instructor (one Cheryl Abbate) was attempting to apply a philosophical text to modern political controversies. So far so good.

She listed some issues on the board, and came to “gay rights.” She then airily said that “everybody agrees on this, and there is no need to discuss it.”

The student, a conservative who disagrees with some of the gay lobby’s notions of “gay rights” (such as gay marriage) approached her after class and told her he thought the issue deserved to be discussed. Indeed, he told Abbate that if she dismisses an entire argument because of her personal views, that sets a terrible precedent for the class.

The student argued against gay marriage and gay adoption, and for a while, Abbate made some plausible arguments to the student — pointing out that single people can adopt a child, so why not a gay couple? She even asked the student for research showing that children of gay parents do worse than children of straight, married parents. The student said he would provide it.

So far, this is the sort of argument that ought to happen in academia.  [Exactly!]

But then things deteriorated.

continue at Marquette Warrior

Yes, continue to read this train wreck.  Catholic colleges like Marquette claim they can teach whatever they want in the name of "academic freedom."  Ironically, it turns out the actual intention of "academic freedom" is to simply redefine the dogmas and decree them without consideration.  Don't think.  All your brains are belong to us.

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Minnesota Public Radio’s ‘Betrayed By Silence’: A New Low In Vengeance Journalism

For over a decade now, we at TheMediaReport.com have likely reviewed several thousand news articles, television episodes, radio interviews, and documentary films in our mission to encourage accuracy in the media's coverage of the Catholic Church abuse story line.

However, we don't believe we have seen a piece of media as grossly inaccurate and irresponsible as a recent multimedia special presentation produced by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), "Betrayed by Silence," which purports to chronicle the history of the Catholic Church abuse scandal as it relates to Minnesota.

MPR's not-so-hidden agenda

MPR's multimedia program is so loaded with flat-out falsehoods and misrepresentations that one hardly knows where to begin.

Part I: MPR Smears Archbishop Harry Flynn, We Uncover the Facts

Part II: Madeleine Baran's Struggle With the Facts

Part III: Guilty Until Proven Innocent: No Accusation Against a Priest Too Old or Wacky

We have already cited reporter Madeleine Baran a number of times before for her biased and inaccurate reporting (1, 2). But with "Betrayed by Silence," it now becomes clear that Baran and her friends at MPR have absolutely no interest in honest journalism but rather wish to damage the Catholic Church for its refusal to march to the step of the "progressives" at MPR.

continue at The Media Report

Worth mentioning....

Each and every week, MPR proudly broadcasts the weekly radio quiz show, Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me, which features comic Paula Poundstone.

As the folks at MPR should certainly know, California police arrested and charged Poundstone in June of 2001 after a lengthy investigation on three shocking counts of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a girl under the age of 14 and one count of child endangerment.