Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy announced a major shakeup of religious education yesterday that reconfigures the program that produced a generation of lay Catholic leaders, as well as many members of Voice of the Faithful, an activist group that has demanded the bishop’s resignation.
Murphy said the restructuring would "not mean a major change in the content of what we offer, which is the teaching of the Church," in a column in this week’s diocesan newspaper.
But critics said they feared the changes – coming two weeks after he named a new seminary rector known for strict orthodoxy – signal a retreat from what they describe as the progressive, post-Vatican II model that had flourished under the late Bishop John McGann, to a more top-down setup.
Funny thing is I think that Christ actually intended the Church to be a top-down setup with. Jesus as head of the Church. Maybe this exactly describes so much of the progressive model which is a down-top setup. Whatever you want theology to be is suppose to be passed up through the hierarch and accepted by Christ himself.
Yesterday’s announcement offered few details on how programs for adults, as well as those for children, may change. But sources said the bishop had been critical of the Pastoral Formation Institute, a two-year adult program that taught Catholic theology with an emphasis on spiritual and personal development. Although the institute produced almost 1,600 graduates, many of whom are present-day parish leaders, it also incubated many of the members of Voice of the Faithful, a group formed in response to the sex abuse scandals which has been highly critical of the bishop.
"He wants everyone to be on the same page theologically," said one educator who was briefed on the changes and asked not to be named. "So if you’re doing marriage preparation, for instance, everyone will focus on the church’s teachings on natural family planning. Accountability is a big piece of this." [Source]
This is a novel concept – the universal Church teaching a universal theology. To get an idea just what kind of VOTF leaders this program produced take a look at this inside look at the VOTF chapter in Long Island.
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Bishop Murphy has been an awful lot of good pushing orthodoxy in this Diocese. He has been slowed by the mistrust many feel due to his previous job in Boston, but progress has been noticeable. An orthodox rector in the seminary, doubling of the number of seminarians, orthodoxy being pushed for religous ed, expanding the traditional Mass from once a month to every Sunday, these are things Bishop Murphy has done that were impossible in the McGann years. These past few years have been a joy for us!
Very, very sad article. Paul Lakeland of Fairfield University was mentioned – a man I know personally. When Pope Benedict was elected, he was reported in the press (USA Today, I believe) as saying that the election was a disaster and that the Pope would bring us “back to the 13th century.”
This was disingenuous, and I believe deliberately. His “either/or” view of Vatican II (EITHER we adopt modernist, Liberation theology and have women priests, etc. etc. OR you want to freeze the Church in a previous century) is just plain wrong. He will not admit out loud – but surely knows – that there are ALTERNATIVE views of modernity, as George Weigel put it, and FAR from pushing us back to the 13th century, Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI did, and do, cutting edge theology. It’s just not Lakeland’s theology.
It was especially sad to see that a number of genuinely good Catholic people have been duped by this group, which is apparently the front for that organization which thinks it can write a “Catholic Constitution” (and in fact has) modeled after the American constitution. There are some faithful Catholics who are unaware of the undercurrents of what is going on who have legitimate concerns. Sad, sad, sad. Throwing out not only the baby, but the mother with the bathwater.
Woe to those who lead these little ones astray,. It would be better if a millstone…well, you know the rest of the verse.
“Accountability is a big piece of this.” Is that supposed to be new? Haven’t we always been accountable, ultimately, to God Himself?
A couple of decades ago, I was working with (and for) a very liberal (aka progressive)Catholic group of of men and women religious. They prided themselves on management by the “consenual” model (not what we might think, blush!). The point being that we would all dialogue (usually replete with post-its, black and white boards, dry-erase markers, etc) until a group decision was reached…rather like Jesus must have done with Matthew appointed to write in the dust and everyone chiming in, right?
Anyways, what usually happened is that those who were “gifted” with being more consensual than others ran the show. And should stubborn disagreements exist, certain liberated and pacifist sisters would bare their teeth, which often looked quiet sharp and pointed…kind of like orcs. And so the Orwellian maxim held true…all pigs are equal except that some are more equal than others.
Fortunately, this generation of Church experimenters and soft tyrannies is vanishing like the Marxist swine in “Animal Farm.” Unfortunately, not vanishing quickly enough.
Just read the “inside look at VOTF” article. Of note: “We do believe that we represent, through our mission and goals, what many Catholics would like to see happen in our Church.” Underlying that statement is this premise: “So that I can do whatever I please and still get to heaven because, when you get right down to it, I know more than God.” Sheesh. Is that not the essence of man’s fallen nature? These arrogant, sad fools, so caught up in their own egos, simply cannot see that they are falling for the same old (and apparently quite useful) temptation that Satan presented to Adam and Eve.
Organizations such as “Voices of the Faithful” (alarm siren right there) are nothing unique to the USA. In Austria and Germany they had (maybe still have) this group called “Die Kirche sind wir” (We are the church) that had petition drives demanding more, em, democracy in the Church, along with every other liberal talking point known to man.
http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com
Nominate me at the Catholic Blog Awards, or my kittens will be sad. You don’t want that, do you? You do? Why, you’re one of THOSE people! 😉
A few weeks ago we visited a parish we considered attending.
The Big Turn-Off for me came when the people at the “new parishioners meeting” kept mentioning how “Father does whatever the people want.”
That’s a GOOD thing?
While I think the Roman Church ought to do as it wishes within its’ congregations, I would remind the brothers and sisters that they are not the only ones who belong to Christ. Many of us read multiple divergent writings and views of our common faith so that we might eventually descern the things we all share and hold common in the faith, to wit; “Mar 9:38-40 And John answered Him, saying, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, who does not follow us. And we forbade him, because he does not follow us. But Jesus said, Do not forbid him. For there is no one who shall do a work of power in My name, yet be able to speak evil of Me quickly. For who is not against us is for us.”, and Luke 9:49,50.
What we all hold in common is that Christ is a King. As such I would think he is both liberal and conservative, progressive and reactive. I doubt the Lord can be constrained, or contained in or by the words of mere man. Labels are senseless dividing offs of Christians from Christians, and so are repugnant to the commandment that we love one another.
The point is not to dispute with you, or any other Christians, but I hope will be taken within the light that it is given, how will the Roman church reconcile itself and the rest of Christianity into the whole body of Christ if it cannot do so amongst its’ ownself?
Given the general hostility of the world at large, and the the anti-Christian hostility of both the atheistic, agnostic west and other faiths toward our own in any guise, it would behoove us to be more loving in our thoughts, and discrete in our words toward one another. WQe cannot suppose that our words, our blogs, and our comments in those blogs are occurring in a vacume. They most assuredly are not.
May the peace of God be upon all of you, just as you show it.
There’s got to be a middle road. Pastors should have a strongly, um, pastoral side. But that shouldn’t interfere with truth and soundness of all kinds: liturgical, moral, etc. It would be pretty sad if the faithful have to choose between door a) kind priests (and lay leaders) or door b)orthodox.
As a member of Bishop Murphy’s diocese, he is anything but conservative, having come from Boston under the tutalege of Cardinal Law. One viewing of “Telecare” which supercedes EWTN on cable here in the diocese viewing area of Long Island and Queens, and one gets to see such wonderful shows as “God Squad”, Orthodox Jews talking about Israel, “Our Moslem Neighbors”, rock singers, and a new director of programing in Father Jim who if I had to bet 99-1 is homosexual, taking over for Father Tom Hartman, whose brother died of AIDS and himself is a closet AIDS activist
MY close family and friends and myself have tried to counter the VOTF outside St Agnes, with Traditional literature, and the people are basically ignorant to really what is going on. I have wrote to the Bishop, as have my family to reinstitute more Traditional Masses, as there is only 1 in the entire diocese out of 130 church’s!) and he refuses. I have met him and he is a nice fellow, but he was caught in a huge flap when he pushed out a bunch of elderly nuns to build his mansion (hence the name Mansion Murphy) and was written up in Newsday as he tried at mass to say some words in Latin and flubbed it, quite funny. Watching mass on Telecare is quite an adventure, as it looks like a baren church with a table in the middle and one cant even find the crucifix as it has some odd shape hanging from the rafters and the “table” has nothing on it when the consecration takes place
He also got in big trouble as it was written all over the Catholic journals how his formation group teaching laypersons and deacons were feminuns saying they dont believe in transubstantiation, etc and the lid got blown off it as someone wrote to Newsday and was published in Spirit Daily as well “Rocking the Faith in Rockville Centre”
Vatican II? It is alive and well in Rockville Centre unfortunatly
I grew up in the Rockville Center diocese. I don’t remember much about how the Mass was done – although I remember I didn’t like it – but the schooling was pretty bad. Thank Heaven I knew how to read and write before I got to first grade, because I’m not altogether sure they were still using phonics in the parochial schools by that time. We got a lot of rubbishing nonsense about the wonderful new things going on in the Church, and the only time I ever got into trouble was when the sixth grade were being introduced to situation ethics by means of the lifeboat question. I answered that the person I’d throw out of the overburdened boat was the first one who set a hand on the old lady or the handicapped baby, which prompted the teacher to tell me sourly that I wasn’t taking a proper attitude.
Not long after V2 my dad was “elected” to our first parish council. Among the members was a “progressive” nun who got up and gave the speech about how the church should be from the bottom up, not the top down and how everything should be democratic.
Dad got up and said, “I absolutely agree with you, Sister. Why don’t we begin by taking a vote on the doctrine of the Trinity?”
You have kittens?
Good for your dad, Robert! I’d love to know how the nun responded…
According to my Dad, Lynn, the nun just sorta sputtered and then it was somebody else’s turn to talk. So far as I know, the doctrine of the Trinity remains intact in Amsterdam, NY.
John, by “closet aids activist,” do you mean that Fr Tom Hartman tries to help aids victims? Or that he supports a homosexual lifestyle?
I never thought of him as an extremist.
Lynn-what I mean by “closet activist” is that he has raised over $6M for terminal AIDS patients after his brother died in 1995. He established a hospice for AIDS patients as well. He is a Jesuit, I know you cant have guilt by association as well.
In order to raise that kind of money, he must administer to those that are either liberal or gay.
I know when I get my donation mailers I first write the check out for St Judes, Breast Cancer research (NBCC and Susan Komen), as well as anything else for cancer or children. If I received anything in the mail for AIDS I would most likely tear it up, not that I dont have sympathy, but it is a PREVENTABLE disease for the most part
If Father Tom was a true Priest, he would have spoken out against his brothers immoral lifestyle, instead he basically condoned it. Unfortunatly, it is the Father Tom’s and Greely’s and for a while Reese until B16 pulled the plug on him that get the air time and are the “Face of the Catholic Church”.
Thanks for the clarification, John. Let’s hope he confronted his brother with his immoral lifestyle. AIDS is not my main charity either, but I do know that innocent suffer from it. A family I visited with a ministry last week had a woman who had unwittingly caught HIV from her husband. Tragic. Some nuns in Washington DC minister to women and their children who are suffering from AIDS. Sin touches everyone.
I do understand what you’re saying: that changing behavior would prevent this terrible disease. And I pray that will happen.