Surrender to the Mother

Truly wonderful video talk from Father Bede Griffiths O.S.B., one of the great teachers of the Catholic mystical tradition, given in the last years of his life. Would such a teacher be able to survive public scrutiny from the Vatican in these days of restoration? One wonders. This interview was conducted at his ashram, Shantivanam, in southern India where he lived for years as a sannyasis.

l

A Good Day

From Brother David Steindl-Rast
Another great teacher of the Catholic mystical tradition with very close ties to Buddhism.

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Talking Treason in Church

Many thanks again to Contemplative Catholic for a great link to an exciting new book. It feels like a stick of dynamite, explosive in it's proposals and perhaps a bit too iconoclastic and simplistic for some people's tastes, but I  connected immediately with his quite simple, but radical solution. Not enough priests to celebrate Mass? You think there is a priest shortage? There is no priest shortage. Simply do what the early Christians did and celebrate the Eucharist in your homes - women, men, it doesn't matter. Problem solved. I'm already oversimplifying a radically simple argument, that made me laugh on occasions at its breathtaking audacity. But here are his five basic points:

It’s time to take the Catholic Church back from the hierarchy and return it to the laity. Here are some key ways to do this:

1. Understand that Jesus gave the Mass to lay Christians before the clergy existed: Celebrate it at home.
2. Form a base community in your parish and say Mass with them once a month.
3. Support your parish, but eliminate what goes to the hierarchy.
4. Tell your bishop he is invalid because not elected in the Holy Spirit by us, the Church. All bishops should be recalled and re-certified by consensus-decision making elections in their own dioceses.
5. Tithe for Lay Catholic Renewal—into your own account—minus what goes to the parish.   

Here is Amazon.com's blurb on the author:

About the Author

Joe Marren is a Chicago Catholic and a late bloomer as an author. He has an A.B. from Loyola University Chicago (1957; major in Latin, minor in history) and an M.A. from the University of Kentucky (1958; major in ancient languages-Latin and Ancient Greek-minor in linguistics). He has a nodding acquaintance with several European languages and has been a student of Church history for more that 50 years. His working life has been divided among editing, public relations, and sales and administrative support. For his first job out of college, he edited a four-volume Catholic missal, one of whose contributors was the then-unknown Father Andrew Greeley, who wrote introductions to the four volumes. Greeley needed a lot of editing, Joe recalls. Otherwise, his life has been unexceptional. He did spend a year in Panama as a boy on the eve of WWII. His father worked in the Canal Zone and Joe was sent to what turned out to be an all Spanish-speaking Catholic school for first grade; he knew no Spanish, and his father, a widower, was unaware of the language situation. Joe finally learned to read English in Panamanian summer school. Shortly after Pearl Harbor he and his younger brother flew back to the U.S. on a DC-3, a life-long memory. Joe is married to Mary Hereley Marren, whom he met when she was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Loyola University News and he a reporter. They raised nine children, all now college graduates and married. Besides their children, they dote on their 17 grandchildren. Joe wrote the first chapter of this book in 1998 to explain to his family why he remained a Catholic. The rest of the book, calling for a revival of lay leadership of the Catholic church and an unseating of the current clerical leaders, was written in reaction to the predator-priest scandal that made news in Boston in 2002. Since writing Talking Treason, Joe believes that all bishops should be recalled and re-certified by consensus-decision-making elections in their own dioceses and that they should run against opposing candidates from the laity, both women and men.

Click on the photo above and read the full preface and first chapter at Amazon. com and go to the author's website for more commentary:

Talking Treason in Church

Here are a few selections from the Preface:

       This is a lay person’s handbook for renewing the Catholic church. Your renewal of the church can begin immediately. It needs no ones’ approval. It depends totally on you and your fellow Catholics. It is certainly not beyond your abilities. All it takes is courage – courage to stand up to the hierarchy, the current leadership of our church, courage not to be satisfied with their lies, their underhanded practices, and their centuries-long arrogance. This reform will be effective beyond your wildest hopes, because it copies a great model, the one depicted in the New Testament, the one begun by Jesus.

       There is one difference between Talking Treason in Church and anything else written by Catholics on the current state of the church. Catholics today have written brilliant analyses of what’s wrong with the church, but when they come to the end of their book or their article – where you would expect to see proposed solutions – what you read is all wishful thinking: the church should listen more to the lay people, the hierarchy has to be more open to structural change.

       Or their book or article demands intensive lobbying of the hierarchy by the laity, thousands and thousands of hours spent by lay people forming groups, getting up petitions, trying by every possible means of persuasion and political pressure to move the hierarchy from their position of intransigence and inattention.

       It’s all pie in the sky! Why should the laity make super-human efforts while nothing can be required of the hierarchy?

       We’re dealing with the same narrow, self-interested, ignorant, arrogant, hard-nosed hierarch that flouted, persecuted, and killed every reformer it could lay its hands on five centuries ago. Some hierarchs at least would do the same today if the judgment of the entire world were not against them. They are creatures of power in a structure of power that deserves to be uprooted. And thanks basically to the progress of learning, that project is now doable.....

       Talking Treason in Church was prompted by several insights.

        First , Jesus Christ was a lay person, not a priest, and the movement of reform that he began in Judaism was a lay movement. The chief priests, the hierarchy of his time considered him a threat and had him put to death by the Romans.

        Second, neither the Catholic priesthood nor the Catholic hierarchy existed during the first century of our era. There is no scriptural nor historical basis for either one at that time. In fact, the Mass, the center of Catholic sacramental life was, during the first century, celebrated by lay people and, notably in the earliest days of the church, by women in their own homes.

        Third, the hierarchical priesthood, when it began to emerge during the second through the fourth centuries, was strongly influenced by the model of the Roman imperial administration. It also drew on examples of priesthoods throughout the ancient world including that of Israel. It was a movement toward the kind of religious specialization that was familiar in the ancient world. But it owed nothing to the teaching of Jesus Christ. 

        Fourth, the foundation myth of the Roman Catholic church as propounded by the hierarchy makes St. Peter the first bishop of Rome. That myth is made up of so many historical fallacies that any member of the hierarchy with even a smattering of historical education should be embarrassed to cite it. But by some of the hierarchy this myth is used knowingly as a political construct to support their will to power. These members of the hierarchy are conscious liars and deserve no place in the Catholic church.

        Fifth, the Catholic hierarchy, the pope and the bishops, down through the centuries have been sometimes more and sometimes considerably less successful at asserting their exclusive right to rule the church. In Fact, there are enough instances in the early church of the popular election of bishops to provide a controlling precedent for our time.

        Sixth, today, the Catholic laity are totally excluded by the hierarchy from choosing their religious leaders or having any discourse whatsoever with the leadership of the church. The effect has been to erect a wall of separation between the hierarchy and the laity. This is a serious sin on the part of the bishops, a sin against the Holy Spirit who dwells in lay people at least as much as in the hierarchy. It is called schism. It has created a paralysis in the church which gives the hierarchy-and the rest of us by extension- the appearance of being braid-dead.

…

       The hierarchy have poured concrete over the fertile fields of the church, but after centuries the concrete is old and broken, and flowers of faith are springing up everywhere. Our job is to clear the fields, cart away the concrete, and return to the land to productive life. The Lord has supplied us with the tools. Now it’s up to us.

        The reform proposed here is a lay person’s reform like the reform that Jesus started. It supplies the answers to some of the most long-felt and troubling questions asked by the laity over the last several decades.

        The priest shortage decried by the laity and clergy alike has us focusing on the wrong goal. There is no priest shortage. In fact, we have too many priests. What we don’t have enough of is people to celebrate Mass. But then, actually, we do have enough people. They simply don’t know that it is part of their birthright as Catholics to have the Mass when and where they want it.

        Women’s ordination asks the question, Why can’t we have women priests? It’s the wrong question. Why not ask why women can’t be leaders in the church? The answer to both questions is, Clearly women can be leaders in the church, and women can say Mass. Priesthood has nothing to do with it.

        For years we have prayed for vocations. Well, our prayers have all been answered long since. We simply have to be alive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Just as he promised, Jesus has not left us orphans.

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The Sacred Spring of Litmanova

(Update: I'm not sure why the original photos included with this post are no longer visible, especially since they were my original photos. But I have 'deleted' the remnants of them, to remove the distracting exclamation points!)

(In gratitude to Our Blessed Mother for the overturning of Proposition 8. Mary watch over us as the long battle continues for full equality in the US. )

It is past midnight here in Prague now and the calendar day has become August 5th. Twenty years ago,  at six o'clock in the evening, Our Blessed Mother 'appeared' to two young peasant girls on a hill in northern Slovakia outside the village of Litmanova. 

 Litmanova remains a simple farming village in Northern Slovakia, barely touched or changed by these sacred events. The peace pervading the valley is extraordinary. This is a sacred land touched by grace, and the villagers know it and understand their responsibility to protect it. If you are here for the Virgin, they welcome you. If not,  they turn away. Horses still pull wooden carts slowly through the village, laden with hay, sheep still graze on the hillsides in flocks with bells tinkling, women still go out into the fields with their rakes and hoes to tend the vegetables for market. Daily mass in the parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel is celebrated every weekday at 6pm and the church is filled with devout worshipers, many of them the older women of the village who recite the rosary before Mass with a heartfelt devotion, and in between the decades, sing hymns in polyphonic chant of breathtaking beauty and complexity. The parish is under the auspices of the Greek Catholic Church and celebrates Mass in the Eastern Rite, with the stunning  golden iconostasis separating the nave from the sanctuary.  When first entering the church, men and women and children kiss the picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and touch the hand of the Blessed Virgin. These gestures are performed slowly, reverently, lovingly, tenderly. Prayers are sung not in petition but in praise and honor of living spiritual beings, Jesu and Panne Marie, cherished members of the family. Children play at random in the aisles, altar boys fidget and giggle at one another, and even smile and wave at friends in the congregation. The children have their own little chairs placed in front of the iconostasis. They are children free to play in their Father's House. And through it all, the women pray and chant and sing with a fervor and devotion I have never ever witnessed before in my life. When the service concludes, the older grandmothers, wearing traditional skirts with aprons, heavy woolen socks with plaid designs and colorful scarfs,  congregate together by the crucifix outside the church door. They face the cemetery on the hill behind the church, and slowly, reverently, respectfully chant and sing prayers to the dead, asking for their protection and for their guidance as these old women themselves prepare to take their final journey. 

There are no souvenir shops in all of Litmanova, not in the village and not at the shrine on the sacred mountain. Two small folding tables in a side niche at the shrine contain several simple plastic bowls filled with medals, some holy cards and postcards, a few rosaries and the one book so far written on Litmanova, published only in Slovakian. A simple dish collects the coins. There are no restaurants anywhere in the valley of Litmanova. There are only four pensiones for pilgrims and even these four are hard to find. There are two simple grocery stores and two pubs, one for the old folks near the church which opens when mass concludes at 7:30 and a second pub outside the village for the younger crowd. Young bucks drive their fast cars and motorbikes through the village,  the peace of Litmanova must drive then wild. "Take me to the nearest disco," must be their fervent prayer. Only the nearest disco is not at Stara Lubovna, twenty minutes down the hill, nor even in Poprad one hour away, but a full two and a half hours away in Liptovsky Milukas. 

Litmanova, quite simply, is the Marian shrine we have all been looking for in our hearts, a remote mountain village of peace and harmony, touched by Mary's grace and completely unspoiled by any taint of commercialism. High in the mountains of northern Slovakia, hidden away from the world and known to very few pilgrims outside the Slovak and Polish Christian communities, it is pure gift and pure grace. 

Our Lady of Litmanov brought with her a simple message of 'purity of intention' and called herself The Immaculate Purity, a phrase less ambiguous perhaps than "I am the Immaculate Conception," uttered to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, but no less pregnant with meaning. When Bernadette was questioned about the faulty grammar of this sentence, she insisted that the Lady had said, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Catholic philosopher  Beatrice Bruteau, in her deeply insightful book, What We Can Learn From the East, offers these comments on the mysterious expression.

The Lady who presented herself as the archetype of the Immaculate Conception also gave another image. She instructed Bernadette to "wash in the spring and drink of it." There was no spring visible, but following the Lady's indication Bernadette scratched the earth, and a trickle of water appeared....(there is also a 'miraculous spring,' blessed by Our Lady, on the sacred mountain Zvir of Litmanova).

Is the free-flowing stream of healing and life, springing up from the earth in which it had hidden and unsuspected, also an archetype? Why not? Perhaps the Lady and the Spring together reveal the secret meaning of the Immaculate Conception 

The Spring shows that an archetype, though its power comes from its transhistorical significance, need not be unhistorical. There is real water at Lourdes, and real cures take place there (as at Litmanova). The Blessed Virgin Mary is a historical woman, but as the Immaculate Conception she means so much more. The Lady and the Spring are a double icon of the purity and unity of the life hidden at the center of things, for us hitherto an unknown life, but one which when liberated and raised to consciousness is healing. 

We have a number of icons, sacred images, and archetypes in our traditions that we can use or refer to in order to develop our own insights. Sometimes they may lend themselves to our use in ways that go beyond what their official custodians anticipated. But these figures function to provoke vision in us; so we should give ourselves permission to relate to them in creative ways.

The tradition that protects the sacred history of the Blessed Virgin Mary holds that she and her son, Jesus, are special persons, set apart. They have qualities, virtues, powers that none of the rest of us could possibly have. Mary, for instance, is said to be our fallen race's solitary boast, for she alone of all her sex is sinless.

It is my contention that setting these figures apart in this way and denying that the rest of us can have the same qualities that they have makes them religiously useless. If their most important features cannot be shared by us, we may admire them, even worship them, but we are not thereby enabled to attain the goal of our spiritual life. To attain this goal, we must find that we ourselves are free, complete, unified - that is, that we ourselves possess the adorable qualities of the great archetypes.

It is only when the great icons, the sacred persons who image the supreme values, are viewed as paradigms and revelations of what is actually true of all of us that they can exercise their spiritual power. They release that power precisely by revealing to us the secret of what we truly are, so that we may find that truth in ourselves.

I hold that the archetype of the Immaculate Conception is not a privilege reserved to one human being (or to four, in this tradition, counting Adam, Eve, and Jesus), but is a revelation of the truth about all of us. Our spiritual task is to discover that point in ourselves where we are the Immaculate Conception.

 ...

Perhaps it is in order to avoid this misunderstanding (of limiting the power of the archetype to one single person in one single historical moment of the past) that the mythic figures occasionally interrupt the historical-time sequence of their story to declare that they represent or embody some eternal truth. When the archetype announces that it is the Way, or the Resurrection, or the Immaculate Conception, it is identifying  itself clearly, fairly, and unambiguously, lest we mistake it for something more limited and individual and less universal than it really is...

What I am saying, then, is that this mystery emblem, the Immaculate Conception, is about us. As an archetype it is about our true selfhood, our consciousness, our reality. Our "Mary" aspect is that part of us represented by the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To say that it alone has the privilege of the Immaculate Conception is to say that only this central Mary principle in us is free from Original Sin. ..That there should be at least one point in us that is free is a great discovery, something to be carefully taught in the sacred mysteries by emphasizing its singularity and uniqueness. I hold that this mysterious grace-filled aspect is to be found in everyone, no matter how deeply buried, obscured, and overladen with "sin," and that we have each had it from the beginning of our lives. ...When enlightenement comes, we find that this ground of purity, this Immaculate Conception, in us has become "The Woman Clothed with the Sun," clothed in radiance and generosity. This is another title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and therefore another image of our reality. To be clothed with the sun is to express oneself in unremitting giving, to be a constant output of energy that passes away.  

Perhaps there is some strange significance in the fact that the marvelous event of the Buddha's  Enlightenment is supposed to have occurred on December 8th, the date chosen for the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Perhaps the secret meaning of the Immaculate Conception is that there is a point in each of us that is free from sin from the beginning, endowed with wisdom and virtue, but - like the underground spring of healing at Lourdes (and Litmanova) - it has been hidden from us by delusive thinking. If so, then the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the archetype of this secret sinless self, may be understood as revealing our true nature to us and thus guiding us to its discovery.

The sacred mountain of Litmanova

to be continued with a more realistic, less poetical view of the village of Litmanova and Slovakia in general, which had two fascist Catholic priests as presidents during WWII, when it was an ally of the Nazi's, and during which time most of the country's Jews were shipped off to the concentration camps of Germany for extermination. However, families in villages just like Litmanova did harbor many Jewish children during the war, only to encounter intense hostility from fellow villagers after the war for threatening the security of the entire village by their acts of generosity. In the next posting, I need to ask the question, Why are there no Romany families in Litmanova, whereas there seem to be many Roms in the small village down the hill on the way to Stara Lubovna.

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VOICES FROM THE HINTERLAND: COMMENTS OF GAY BISHOP AND PRIESTS

Since the email comments of Bishop Cawcutt - referred to in yesterday's posting - are in the public record, thanks to website Roman Catholic Faithful (which is closing its doors because it is broke), I've decided to offer an edited selection of the Bishop's comments, together with some very moving statements of other gay priests in communication with the Bishop. This is old news from 2001 and I vaguely remember hearing about it, but nine years later, it still has the force of a revelation. The following discussion is from 1999, at the time of Cardinal Raztinger's letter banning openly gay men from entrance into seminaries. The reactions of these gay bishops and priests  makes for very interesting reading. However, if you tire of reading through all of these selections, please read the last one - the most inspiring.

 (REG  refers to comments made by Bishop Reginald Cawcutt. In some cases he is responding to comments on the chat. If REG is in black, the priests are referring to him, frequently with a question. There are clearly a number of bishops taking part in these conversations,  besides Bishop Cawcutt, so all references to insider ecclesiastical stuff are not necessarily from him.  He resigned from his post as  auxiliary bishop of Cape Town in 2002, saying he no longer wished to be the cause of divisions within the church. A shame.)

REG: You told us ages ago about the possibility of a letter from him (then Cardinal Ratzinger) - can YOU give us any update? Certainly bishops of the world have not yet received anything like this - certainly not anything to do with gay students or whatever. I do not see how he can possibly do this - but... If he does, lemme repeat my statement earlier - that I will cause lotsa shit for him and the Vatican. And that is a promise. MY intention would be simply to ask the question what he intends doing with those priests, bishops (possibly "like me") and cardinals (and I might as well put in popes) who are gay? That should cause shit enough. Be assured, dear reverend gentleman, I shall let you know the day any such outrageous letter reaches the desks of the ordinaries of the world.

 

Hey thanks guys for all the confidence in proposing me to be the guy with the tiara -wonder if they would allow one in pink? 

......

I have heard likewise that there are more gay men in the Vatican than all of San Francisco but the way they survive is that they are involved in the old political machine. In one diocese of a prince of the church that will remain nameless, the "inquisitor" sniffed out and booted men who were involved with women and men. This same man was caught with his pants down with young girls and boys. I feel to protect the ass of the 75% there will be the likes of the great witch hunts where one accused the other. This does not look good. With the shortages that are this will decrease the numbers of clergy even more and may blow up in there face. Reg, what do you know of this, and is there anything to be done? I heard that the rat was called in recently by JPII for putting out things that were not approved by him. Can anything be done to stop this man? He has enough enemies that can bring him down. It saddens me to think this way, but I can help it.

....

Now for some bad news - Reg - do you have any inside on the next "important document" due from Der Füher's Oberst Ratzinger? I was reliably informed that SCDF and the Congregation for Religious and the thingy for priestly formation are working together on a declaration due in October - and surprise, surprise, it bans homosexuals from entry into religious life or the taking of Orders - what other horrors they contemplate against about 75% of the clergy I shudder to contemplate. I just hope that things become much more toned down than they appear to be at the moment. I am reliably informed that [a prominent Vatican cardinal's] secretary is as flaming as they come (silence on the good [cardinal] though), if this idiocy gets through then the queens on the Vatican hill are piercing their own insteps with their stilettos. Unfortunately I don't have much more information than this.

On this rather miserable note... greetings and courage.

......

It bans homosexuals from entry into religious life or the taking of Orders.

 

Well, if it is going to happen, I say GOOD! Then these despots will have unwittingly signed the execution warrant for the present anachronistic, medieval expression of "presbyter" and force it to reform in ways that are consistent with the Gospel.

The straights are CERTAINLY not going to come forward under present conditions .... and with "gay rights" being so "out there", I would imagine that it is more and more difficult for youth to remain in denial about whether they are gay or not.

(Oh wait! But the straights ARE coming forward! In their 60's and 70's. After they have led a decently human life ..... and have reached the age where wisdom is possible - that is, the "hormones" have died down! Nice, safe, sexually-tame, old men. Eunuchs, by virtue of age!)

Once, when asked to list my occupation on a form, I wrote "Medieval Lord" - and *I* don't even wear French Cuffs!!! (Ever notice that the guys who are DYING to wear the purple usually wear French Cuffs?)

Unfortunately, in the coming sexuality pogrom, I fear many of us will be casualties in one way or another - if we insist on saying "We are here!" I've noticed that the idea of "activism" among the older gay clergy is a rather foreign idea. They feel no urge to slit their own throats in the name of Truth, Justice, bla, bla, bla. They simply go to plush old-gay-men piano bars in Boston and sit around the piano singing show-tunes and wishing their dicks still worked the way they did when they were young.

Was talking to an Episcopalian Minister who was marveling at how we "underling" Catholics roll over and play dead in the face of hierarchy authority abuse. I guess with their "protesting" history, it is easier for them to stand up and say FUCK OFF, ASSHOLES.

I was thinking - and this might be just an American, thinking in the "ghetto" way we Americans think - that the U.S. has a terrific leverage tool with the Vatican called Peter's Pence. Withhold those millions for a few years and see how much power a country's clergy can have over the Vatican! Of course, our OWN hierarchy would have to adapt to the outrageous idea of LEADING in ways of LIFE instead of being led around by the NOSE by the "Restorationists" who want to close those windows John XXIII opened.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for THOSE sinners...." ;-)

....

You echoed my feelings here very well. If our prelates ever stood together and stood up to the Vatican, the Roman Curia would change very quickly. Unfortunately many of the American prelates lack the sufficient backbone to carry this through. Or (worse considering they're Americans) they don't realize the power of the purse strings.

......

Hey guys, I hope all of you are well? Yes thank, Reg,  for you weekly TOMES which are somewhat hopeful to me that there is a light in the church for those of us struggling to be good and faithful shepherds. I remember when I first said to my therapist that I was gay. I had gone through two intense years of struggle. I begged my bishop not to put me in a parish alone, yet i was given an assignment in the middle of no where with two churches and little support from brother priest/diocese. I need spiritual guidance but many of the brothers i knew where somewhat homophobic and i was in denial. During my time of struggle I was given a seminarian who was bi polar, paroid, manic, etc and who loveddddddddddddddddd jesus. I had gotten an advertisement in the mail and put it in the side of my nightstand. while i was gone my mom who cleaned my house once a week ordered [DELETED] to paint my room. He did and it fell out of the nightstand. Next thing I knew when I got back was that I was called in and my bishop wanted me evaluated to see if i needed to go to treatment. SAD dioceses are more concerned about being sued. I went to a counselor who after I told him my life journey I asked if I needed to go to treatment. He said i was a normal male. that I had issues but don't we all. I started counseling with him, and then went to [DELETED] where I had a great time. I since have struggled three relationships which didn't work out, but were great learning experiences. I returned home. Still the support is lacking and the back stabbing is there but my attitude about myself is better. I still make stupid mistakes when it comes to handling my sexuality, but I am ok with it. I am grateful to god that I had the aol gay christian room with ministers who helped me through all this. I had very good resources to help me deal with myself. I am on the way to recovery. I know 100 % that I want to be a priest. It is sad that we have to live this way, but maybe someday something will change. I love the church but I have come to hate the bureaucracy. Maybe we are in need of another reformation!....LOL...well that is a part of my journey. In time I will write more..[DELETED] P>S if you guys know gay friendly priest who would make good spritiual directors in the [DELETED] area please let me know

--------------------------------------------

 

 Bishops....it seems that rome is consecrating men who are either looking for higher postions, wealthy dioceses, soley adminstrators, or control freaks. I WILL GIVE YOU SHEPHERD'S seems to be a contradiction of terms with my experience of bishops lately. It is good to find a bishop who is a human being! I wish we would know of more, and I am sure there are. There were some guys whose lives remind me of the THORNBIRDS who when they get to the top they forget what they once were and become the perscutors and powermongers they dispised. ie ratizinger is a good example..

.......

Hi everyone: I look forward to reading the emails from this group and as usual, I am inspired.  Reg, thanks for the insight, honesty and the hope you instill in each of us. Frankly, I think that you are a rare kind, not that many of the members in drag are few either. I doubt very much if there will ever be the kind of support gay priests need in the church. We have done a good job in creating hangups with sex, rules etc. How about preaching Christianity? Who cares what I do with my membrane? Obviously, the Holy Church cares or is it mostly those in positions of authority care? As I look back on my life (do that more now that I have reached 50+), I had to come in touch with my pain. About 9 years ago, I was turned in to the bishop because I was acting out with a deacon entrusted to my supervision. poor choice on my part. I was treated as someone who needed help, though compassion at the time was visible from the auxiliary bishop. He didn't give up on me, rather he guided me after he treated me harshly. Before leaving for my program, he apologized for the way he treated me. He gained a little more respect from me. I went to a program where I regained my dignity as a human being, found out how many priests, brothers are gay. It is not wrong to be gay as much of our society looks down on gays. In fact I always muse at a man and woman at a restaurant and notice how often they have very little to talk about. On the contrary, two gay men have a good time together sharing a meal. and in other places too. I had to come to terms with the relationships I have had over the years. Most of them were good ones, good for me especially the one with "[DELETED]". Still find him very appealing to me, though he is now committed to a loving man ( hope he is good for him). I resent the fact that instead of helping me to be monogamous, I was given a choice to either be a celibate or forget it. I guess this is a crude way of putting it. How have I been behaving since the treatment? Surprisingly well. I keep to myself, get very horny and sometimes "fall". more to come later. but thanks everyone for giving me the opportunity to share part of my story. It's been a hell of a journey as far as sexuality is concerned. I love sex, but most of all, I would love to love and be loved above all else. [DELETED]

......

REG

Indeed, Bloody Ratz - [DELETED] gives us this bad news. I am a bit reluctant to believe it - have not heard anything of it from other sources - and it surprising that the news guys have not got onto it yet. I was amused to hear JPII's supposed comment that Ratz does thing without asking him. I was reminded of JP's comment when we had lunch with him during our ad limina- We asked him if he was going to watch the soccer game between Germany and Poland on TV that night (he is not supposed to be gay, so he should have been watching) and his reply was that he could not "because Ratzinger is coming to check up on me tonight" .

When I was having my fight with Ratz re my stand re our bishops not opposing gay relationships when it cums up in parliament - one of the documents he sent me to "read for my requested conversion" was a thing that said gay people should not be appointed as school teachers, PT instructors and army personnel. I wondered why seminarians were excluded from this prohibition list. Now it seems they are catching up. As to my query whether this was not discrimination, I was told that all other instances would be discrimination except these.. why? because we say so!!! 

I am wondering what is to happen with those who have sneaked through and got themselves ordained??? Greeley I think says 60% of priests are gay. I would be tempted to out myself and ask what I and other gay bishops (cardinals), priests and religious (male and female) are supposed to do. I say tempted since I shall certainly think about it before October comes our way. However it will be a nice bomb to drop at the Chicago conference next month... Gary watch out for it! As I feel now - I could not continue - but we shall see.

So guys - see - don't think I am such a smart guy at all! I am not, I am just very human like u guys are - and look forward to my night with [DELETED]! 

.....

Interesting idea to ban all gay clergy. Who in the hell is going to serve the people? In our place alone, they can't manage now, and it would be interesting to see what the people would do. People ask me, "Father, what can be done?" I always answer, "You just have to get mad enough and say you're not going to take it anymore. Tell the damn bishops you don't care of the gender or marital status of the priest who serves you!" Interesting how many of them seem to think this is a good idea. Now we can add sexual orientation too, I suppose.

So now what will the Holy Office of the Inquisition come up with next?

.....

Greetings to one and all,

I read with great interest  [DELETED]'s note about rumors of another letter coming from the Vatican.

Actually, this is not the first time I have heard of such. When the Los Angeles bishops, et al. went to Rome for their official visit late last fall, they came back talking about that very letter. Apparently Ratz's office was very proud of it, and was telling all those who were visiting that the next official letter would in fact ban gays from religious orders and priesthood. When the LA crew mentioned the letter to the more sympathetic Pio Laghi, he told them not to worry, that the rest of the Congregations would never allow such a letter to get through. So, in spite of Pio Laghi's best intentions, it appears as though the letter might have made it through.

I do find such a letter disturbing, as it will give strength to those ordinaries throughout this country who are already conducting witch hunts. Sadly, men, this gives rise to my worst fears that when all is said and done, each and every one of us is expendable in the eyes of the institutional, hierarchical Church unless we are willing to remain in the closet and play the game by THEIR rules. I know that for a long time, certain "titles" (monsignor, bishop, etc.), have been reserved as much as possible to reward the "good little boys" who have kept their noses clean and have done what "Daddy" told them to do.

A friend of mine who works at a Chancery in a large Archdiocese in the Midwest has suggested that each and every one of us take out our resumes, dust them off, update them, and work with someone who might be able to help some of us transition into the secular world, if the need arises.

In the meantime...let us, as best as possible, live, love, laugh, and be happy. No, I am NOT in denial. I just think that if they come after us, we should try to be in good places so that we can make our own decisions, our own choices, and in our own best interests. If we are expendable to them, we must not be expendable to ourselves. Let us be on guard...and prepare!

 [DELETED]

.....

(Finally, to end this sampling, I've chosen the most moving testimony of all from an evidently spiritual gay priest of deep commitment, dedication and integrity.) 

Hello, gentlemen!

My heart goes out to all those whose lives and priesthoods have been painful. I have friends whose stories echo those of the men who have shared in here.

I feel I would like to present another side, however. I feel blessed to admit that both my life and my priesthood have been glorious. I have had no real painful challenges, I have been surrounded by good friends, an occasional lover, have done everything I wanted to do, and have been neither stopped nor stifled in anything whatsoever. After 21 years of priesthood, I am more in love with it than ever. Do I have a problem with the Church? Hmm..at times, certainly, but I feel that I have created a healthy enough distance between myself and its pettiness and small-mindedness so that I am personally immune from its attacks. I just go my own way, fighting injustice, of course, but choosing to do so from within. I shall not surrender the Church to the infidels.

I am fortunate too in that I have very specific training and professional degrees--all of them paid for by the "Church"-- that have freed me from depending upon Church sources for a living. I am marketable apart from the Church and its whims. I make a tremendous amount of money in my ministry, and have a tremendous amount of freedom. I do what I want, go where I want, cavort (safely) with whom I want, and should the occasion ever present itself, am capable of telling whomever to go fuck themselves, that I don't need them. Because in many respects, I don't.

Do I play the game? Of course, but only because I believe in the Gospel, and I feel that some of us MUST work from within. This does not mean, however, that I would ever compromise who I am or what I am in order to preserve my current status. I am currently working on a relationship that looks oh-so-promising, and has energized me greatly. Our lovemaking--our entire relationship-- makes me a better person, and a better priest.

So, my friends, I certainly hope that I don't come across as bragging. But I do think it important for all of us to hear/know that our company is made up of ALL kinds. And of course, in my prayers, I thank God for all that I have, and all that I am, and ask His inspiration and grace to continue to use the gifts He has given me wisely, in His name, and for the Kingdom.

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OUR LADY OF MEDUGORJE AND POSITIVE AFFIRMATION OF SAME SEX MARRIAGES?

Wandering through the tropical rain forest that is the internet today, I came across a startling reference linking Medugorje and the isse of same sex marriages. But before I get to that point, I need to meander a bit.

I've been trying with the best of intentions to complete my reflections of the Marian shrine of Litmanova, but keep getting detoured, either by whimsy, an overactive imagination or grace. Today I posted two very interesting articles on Marian devotion in Czech-o-Slovakia and on the Marian apparitions to a middle aged peasant man on the mountain of Okruhla outside the Northern Slovakian village of Turzovka in 1958. I highly recommend this article because the story of the peasant of Turzovka, who endured months of torture and imprisonment under the communists because of his visions of the Blessed  Mother,  is  so moving and inspiring. Turzovka has now become a major pilgrimage site and bears striking similarities to the shrine of Litmanova. Both shrines, like Lourdes,  contain sacred springs that have been the occasions of healings. Both apparitions are also linked with Garabandal and Medugorje in that they contain calls to prayer and sacrifice, a return to the sacraments with purity of heart and intention. a renewed call to prayer, a request for fasting on bread and water on Wednesday and Thursday,  warnings of 'future chastisements' if the world does not repent from it's sins, and the explanation that prayer, penance, sacrifice and fasting when undertaken with purity of heart, are capable of healing a sinful world. 

This is just the simplest of summaries. Litmanova, however, contains the very striking and unusual condemnation of the first Gulf War in 1991, with the Lady of the visions saying, "This was not God's will. Nations have simply come under the sway of sin." At first I was tempted to believe this might be an embellishment on the part of the visionary, tempted to insert her own commentary on the times, until I read her disclaimer that (at the age of 12) she hardly understood the conflict at all or what Our Lady was referring to. When one considers what we now know to be fact, that contrary to US assertions, diplomatic solutions to the crisis of the invasion of Kuwait had not even been attempted, let alone exhausted, that Sadam Hussein was desperate for a diplomatic solution to get himself out of the mess he had stumbled into through his own folly,  but that "Bush needed to bomb," it casts  a special light on this Marian statement. We should add to this the figures from UNESCO that over half a million Iraqi children died as a direct result of the first Gulf War, largely from having drunk the poisoned water supplies because the  US air force bombed all of the water treatment and sewage disposal plants of all of Iraq's major cities, a major war crime under the Geneva conventions, which the US brazenly denied in 1994, and then just as brazenly admitted in 1999.  In light of that now established fact, the condemnation of the Lady of Litmanova does not seem all that startling. And in light of the revelations of sexual abuse within the clergy, all the way to the top, not to mention the financial corruption at the heart of the Vatican, one need not be surprised by this statement from Conchita Gonzales, the lead visionary of Garabandal. "Our Lady says that many cardinals, bishops and priests are on the way to perdition." Conchita found this statement so shocking that when she first transmitted it, she edited it to say, "Many priests are on the way to perdition," rationalizing to herself that Cardinals and bishops were also priests. She then felt reprimanded interiorly and told to relay the statement exactly as she had heard it. Indeed. 

And yet...and it is a big 'and yet'...when one goes on line and accesses some of these Marian sites devoted to the apparitions of Garabandal and Medugorje, statements like the latter from Conchita Gonzales are almost immediately tied to the wicked Cardinals, Bishops and priests who engineered Vatican II, who are soft on abortion and approving of homosexual relations and same-sex marriage. I came across one spirited discussion that went something like this.

Referring to the 'warnings' of future chastisements if the world does not repent, one woman said,

"Well, Our Lady did say the chastisements could be mitigated if the world repented. Has the world repented (in 2009, the date of this discussion)?

Her chat companion: Not at all. It's worse than ever.

1st Woman: You're right there and the two biggest evils in the world are abortion and homosexuality. 

This is only a small example of what's out there, and I don't recommend wading through this stuff, because much of it is very toxic. But it does explain why so many 'progressives' are so turned off of these Marian apparitions. They seem to be 'owned' by the radical right wing of the Church, who make the loudest noises, and use the apparitions as a big club to beat over the head anyone who disagrees with their limited vision of the church. I suppose this is why it is so important that 'outsiders' such as myself witness to the many graces we have received through these Marian sites, graces that include unconditional and loving acceptance of our gay natures and our gay vocations to love others of the same sex.

And that brings me to the point of the title of this post. Wandering around on line, I came across a number of sites asserting that Medugorje is an evil invention of the devil and that the proof of this is that many known pedophiles, convicted molester priests, defrocked priests and fake priests have gone to Medugorje and in some cases led pilgrimages of young boys to Medugorje. The level of toxic hate displayed on some of these sites is beyond shocking.

But then, I came across this very interesting statement - highlighted in shocking red (which I tried to remove, but which remain stuck there like a virus!):

BISHOP CAWCUTT'S PORNO WEB SITE FOR PRIESTS

AND MEDJUGORJE

                South African Bishop Has Ties to Medjugorje And Pornographic Website

Bishop Reginald Michael Cawcutt is listed in Denis Nolan's book as a Medjugorje supporter. Cawcutt is Auxiliary Bishop of Cape Town, South Africa. According to news articles, "Bishop Cawcutt betrays no qualms about having an openly supportive stand for Dignity, an organization of active homosexuals which has been banned by the church". But that didn't stop the "Gospa" of Medjugorje from appearing in his church, just prior to mass, in January of 1997.

 
Fr. Slavko Barbaric states in his commentary, "Vicka and I took a long trip to South Africa." Slavko goes on to say, "All the while, Vicka had her daily meetings with Our Lady at the regular time, before the mass, and Mary always gave some advice, such as our needing to pray for the youth, for the church, for the Pope, for families." Slavko continues, "I can say that in these countries in Africa the message of Medjugorje is really being lived and passed on."


According to Slavko, "Many people there have accepted the message and we also met Bishop Reginald Cawcutt (who) celebrated the mass with us." The mass, according to Slavko, would have been said right after Vicka's visit with the "Gospa". What Slavko didn't comment on was whether or not Our Lady could have advised Vicka that, "The Archdiocese of Cape Town has a ministry to gay Catholics founded and headed by Cawcutt." Some people will say, "So what?" Well, here is so what!

Bishop Cawcutt has openly stated that he is in favor of same sex marriages. If we know that, wouldn't it be obvious that our Blessed Mother would know that? Why didn't she warn Vicka?

Back to me again:

Why indeed? I suppose it's simply too unthinkable for this commentator to consider the possibility that the "Gospa" of Medugorje is actually in favor of the Bishop's supportive stand both for Dignity and for same sex marriages. But as a believer in the apparitions of Medugorje and the core integrity of both the visionary Vicka and the exemplary Father Slavko, I glean a very different message from the fact that the Gospa graced his church with an apparition for Vicka. This is good news indeed, but it is yet another example of why Medugorje is so hated by so many virulent, right wing Catholics out there. It's just too open minded and tolerant.

Finally...what about the 'pornographic website?" I was going to post the link to it, but have decided not to. If anyone feels they absolutely have to view it and read the comments, they can email me and I will send them the link (though it is really old news from 2001). It is a support network for gay priests trying to come to terms with their sexuality, and many of the comments are quite open and frank. A few of them are salacious, most are deeply moving and heartrending, many of them are deeply spiritual ( a fact which sailed over the head of this outraged commentator), and a number of them testify to the fact that some of the priests are sexually active. It is, in fact, quite an extraordinary source of information about the tragic lives of many closeted gay priests in the church today. Some of the comments are a bit shocking, even crude, but most are not. The bishop's comments are clearly meant to offer support and encouragement and spiritual guidance, but because it is inter-familia - they are not the comments you would want the bishop to make at the local altar society tea. I have sat through many a pre dinner drinking session with parish priests, when I was a Jesuit, to immediately recognize the flavor of the comments. No better, no worse, but on the whole deeply moving and sad. 

What about....shock, horror...the pornographic images. Well, our exposer of this horrendous site warns the viewers with throbbing giant capital red letters of "EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES: CLICK HERE." So of course, I clicked, and this is what I found. 

The customary iconic image of St. Sebastian, hanging naked from the tree, body pierced with arrows - but a side view, nothing full frontal.

Three saucy men wagging their behinds in front of the camera.

Three beafy men wearing nothing but cowboy boots and silly grins, holding their cowboy hats over their groins.

One fit young man wading into the sea, presenting us with a view of his gistening buttocks.

And last but not least - shock, horror - a shot up a Scottish kilt, obviously censored by the sender of the photo, not our outraged commentator, who was so beside himself with rage  that he spewed spittle all over the page (my little embellishment there).

However, to try and be balanced and fair, there is a link to another site, RCF, which acts as a watchdog on offending priests, especially high ranking prelates suspected of engaging in sexual activities. The site is clearly hostile to gays, but I can't say it's efforts are entirely reprehensible. There is a lot of 'stuff' out there that needs to come out into the open. The latest appeal on the site is for any information related to Archbishop Levada. Very interesting.

But to end on a positive note, I found the simple 'fact' of an apparition having taken place in the  church of openly supportive Bishop Cawcutt, to be...well, not insignificant. Not a direct, positive affirmation, but an affirmation nonetheless. Here is a negative review from the Seattle Catholic, 2001, which one may interpret as one sees fit. Seems like a very sensible, wise pastor to me. But then, of course, I'm prejudiced.

SEATTLE CATHOLIC

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SLOVAKIA AND MARY

 

TAKEN WITH GRATITUDE AND RESPECT FROM SANCTUS CHRISTOPHER BLOGSPOT)

Slovakia: A Distinctly Marian Nation

Most people tend to get confused when speaking of the numerous nations that make up Central Europe. Lithuania, Hungary, and Slovenia - I confidently bet that 98% of Americans couldn’t identify them on a blank map any better than they could the now-extinct territories of Brandenburg-Prussia, the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, or Farther-Pomerania. Who can blame them? It seems that borders and names change every generation. It’s so much work keeping up with them. The Peace of Westphalia, which set in motion a new political order of sovereignty, has hardly proven to be a peace. Empires still come and go with wars and treaties. Revolutions, invasions, and civil wars tear countries apart. The Russians and the Germans were especially adept at grabbing new lands and adding it to their rosters of conquest. And if you include the people a little further to the southeast, of the former Yugoslavia, it gets even muddier every day.

But nations are made up of people; people who share a common culture that grows within a common but vaguely defined piece of earth that has been sanctified by a common history. The further you get from that center of commonality, the more blurred it becomes until eventually you have a different people, a different culture, and a different nation. The border is where cultures mix. Try as one might to define where a nation begins, it’s ultimately up to the people who live there to decide it.

The brokers behind the ill-conceived Treaty of Versailles made little of this truth and in 1918 overnight created a country called Czechoslovakia. Most people I meet today still use this name to describe that place below Poland and east of Germany. It doesn’t exist though and it never did, it was always two nations. The Czechs and the Slovaks. Two different languages. Two different histories. Two different cultures. Friendly with each other but definitely two different peoples. Their amicable separation in 1993 is proof of that.

Devotion to the Mother of God

What the Czechs and the Slovaks have had in common since their introduction to the Gospel is the love of the Holy Virgin Mary. Because in that borderland between the Czechs and the Slovaks was the site of the great miracle where the Mother of God raised up her Son and turned back the rampaging Mongols. This was an event that these two distinct peoples shared (as I wrote about in Our Lady of Hostyn), where the Madonna became Queen of the Marian Gardens that are Bohemia and Moravia and Silesia and Slovakia (Those of Sub-Carpathian-Rus ancestry, I’m not forgetting you, but yours belongs to the Slovak/Hungarian/Russian mix of culture that shares so much more with the Ukraine).

Despite more than 1,000 churches, chapels, and shrines dedicated to her honor in the Czech Republic, it’s interesting to note that the Blessed Virgin has never been given patronage of the peoples there. St. Wenceslaus, St. Adalbert, St. Ludmila, St. Prokop and St. Agnes of Bohemia among others have all been officially recognized at one time or another as the caretakers of the Czechs. Slovakia on the other hand, acknowledges only two, both of whom delivered Christ to them: St. Cyril and St. Mary.

Evidence of Slovakia’s devotion to Mary is shown in the shrines that stretch back in time nearly a thousand years, in the old Marian hymns and songs so lovingly composed in the Slovak language, in every home where the sanctity of the family and the purity of youth has been so jealously preserved. Along mountain passes, dangerous curves, river crossings, and just about anywhere that protection or help is needed, you’d always find a picture or statue of the Virgin Mary.

Our Lady of Sorrows of Šaštín

In 1564, part of Slovakia was under control of Lord Imrich Czobor, Vice-Palatine of Hungary, who was known for his cruelty to his pious wife, Angelica. One day while riding in a carriage through the town of Šaštín, near the edges of Moravia, Imrich became so enraged during an argument with Angelica that he stopped the carriage, kicked her out onto the side of the road, and left her there.

Humiliated before the simple townspeople, she fell to her knees and with tears in her eyes began praying aloud to Our Lady of Sorrow (103 years before the title was officially approved by the Vatican). She promised to erect a statue of the Virgin Mary if she would only change her husband’s cold heart and bring love to her dead marriage. When she looked up, the carriage was turning around. From that day onward, Imrich never again raised his voice or his hand to Angelica and their love became famous.

Angelica kept her promise to the Virgin and commissioned a wooden statue of Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows with Christ spread across her lap. It was placed in a small shrine in the town and all of the residents flocked to see it. Word of miraculous cures and granted favors began to spread and soon people flocked from all around the countryside to visit it. For over one hundred and fifty years it grew in its magnetism as a place of pilgrimage. Finally in 1732, before a crush of 20,000 pilgrims, the archbishop of Estergom proclaimed the statue to be responsible for 726 miracles. A large church with an adjoining monastery was built to house it. In 1927, Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of Seven Sorrows to be the patroness of Slovakia.

The second half of the twentieth century brought new character to Marian devotion in Slovakia. In 1964 Pope Paul VI bestowed the title of Basilica Minor on the church at Šaštín. Meanwhile, the Slovakian bishops, still under the Communist yoke, named Our Lady of Sorrows of Šaštín the Protector of Slovakia. And in Washington DC, before there was a “Czech shrine” dedicated at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, there was already a “Slovak shrine,” dedicated in 1965 to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows.

These recent events had all been given supporting momentum by an apparition that took place in 1958 which the visionary Theresa Neumann predicted was destined to become “the second Lourdes, of Slovakia.” See below for posting on "Our Lady of Turzovka," also borrowed from Sanctus Christopher blogspot!

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