San Francisco priest Fr. Malloy reports.
Not 48 hours ago we mentioned the relationship between Most Holy Redeemer Church and the University of San Francisco, specifically the appointment of Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ, (who wrote an approving book about MHR: see here and here) to the position of Executive Director of Campus Ministry at USF.
As if on cue, the Jesuits chime in on the scandal of Archbishop Niederauer’s giving communion to two members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. From this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle:
“The general sacramental principle is that you don’t deny the sacrament to someone who requests it,” said the Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology at University of San Francisco, a Jesuit Catholic university…..”Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense.”
Fr. Bretzke is the co-chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at USF. He’s also on the Advisory Board of the Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought, who sponsored the “Queer Perspectives” seminar last February at Most Holy Redeemer.
Of course withholding Communion is not excommunication anyway so the point is rather mute. I wonder if some skinhead dressed in a Nazi uniform would receive Communion from Fr. Bretzke?
In other MHR news Archbishop Niederauer ordered that a thank you from a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence that appeared in this Sunday’s bulletin be removed. The parish complies and did remove it from the PDF version of their bulletin from their site.
9 comments
You need to fix your first link.
The Commonweal blog is covering this situation extensively–and with the usual spin. Typical comment: “The scandal St Blog’s would prefer not to address is the namecalling, calumny, and anger directed at the archbishop and the SPI.”
Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense.
A good example of some people’s unlimited capacity for playing the game of What-am-I-Pretending-Not-to-Know.
“The scandal St Blog’s would prefer not to address is the namecalling, calumny, and anger directed at the archbishop and the SPI.”
Y’know, if they’d left out “and the SPI,” I’d say that they’d have a point. But really: they do neither themselves nor the archbishop any service by taking the SPI’s side too.
The problem is what the tasteless makeup and attire represented: a flaunting of Church teaching on homosexuality.
Is anyone proposing the “misters” should not have received communion because we don’t care for their make up and would have chosen different accesories?
Have any of the outraged parties been heard to say “No, darling, that rainbow feather boa simply will NOT do… No communion for you!”
Hardly.
Oh to have lived during times the Jebbies were on our side. Back in the day, they must have been a force to be reckoned with!
Even homosexuals are outraged at this. Making one wonder when the coyness of certain Catholics will stop.
“There are lots of excellent gay priests and seminarians, and we have a priest shortage. We’re not exactly in a buyer’s market here. If you’re not going to ordain gay men, and not going to ordain married men, and not going to ordain women, well then who’s left? It’s not exactly a big pool.” -Jim Bretzke SJ ,NY Times 11/24/2005.
How about heterosexual men?
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