Eunice Kennedy Shriver
(1921-2009)
“The Queen of Humanity”

August 30, 2009, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

Second reading from James

Vs 17-18: Dearest brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. It was a happy day for Him when He gave us our new lives through the truth of his word, and we became, as it were, the first children in his new family.

Vs 21-22: Therefore, rid yourselves of all moral filth and wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that He has planted in your hearts, which can save you. Do not fool yourselves by just listening to his word. Instead, put it into practice.
Vs 27: Religion that is pure and stainless before God our Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself uncorrupted by the world.

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, Lord.

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unwashed hands -- that is, they had not washed them in the manner the Pharisees said people should. For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper manner, nor do they eat anything from the market unless they wash it first. And there are many other rules they traditionally observe, such as, the purification of cups, jugs, kettles and beds. So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” Jesus replied, “You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, `These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, as they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.’ How right Isaiah was!”

Then Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. It’s not what comes from without that makes a person unclean but what comes from within. -From within -- from people’s hearts -- come evil thoughts, impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within a person and make him unclean.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction
A long list

Some Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ day had a long list of what makes a person unclean in God’s eyes. One became unclean by contracting leprosy or by touching lepers.(Lv. chap. 13; Mk 1:41). One became unclean by speaking to a Samaritan (a heretic) and to a woman in public. (Jn 4:9) One became unclean by dining with tax collectors and sinners in their homes.(Mk 2:16) One became unclean by visiting the marketplace, and then sitting down to eat without first diligently washing one’s hands. (Mk 7:3)

Jesus put the people straight: “Hear me, all of you, and understand. It’s not what comes from without that makes a person unclean but what comes from within. From within -- from people’s hearts -- come evil thoughts, impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.” (Mk 7:21-23)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009)

But this, too, is true: it’s also what comes from within that makes a person clean. For within a person the “Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22) All these were found in a remarkable degree in Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the daughter of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Elizabeth Kennedy.

Joe and Rose Kennedy had nine children. Their second child John Fitzgerald Kennedy, born May 29, 1917, became 35th U.S. president and was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Their third child was Rose Marie Kennedy (1918 –2005). She was a mentally challenged child and underwent a lobotomy procedure at the age of 23 to cure her condition. The procedure was a failure and left her fundamentally incapacitated for the rest of her life. Rose Marie was institutionalized at the St. Coletta School in Jefferson, Wis., 1949. There she remained until her death in 2005.

Their fifth child was Eunice Mary Kennedy, born July 10, 1921. She married Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. on May 23, 1953. Among their five children (four of them boys) is TV journalist Maria Shriver. Eunice died Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at the age of 88.Never forgetting she was the sister of a mentally challenged human being Eunice became the founder of the Special Olympics. In four decades it grew to encompass 3 million athletes in 181 countries. But her work to advance social and living conditions for people with disabilities was more multifaceted than mere athletics.

Her wake and funeral Mass

At her public wake held at Our Lady of Victory church on Thursday, August 13, in Centerville, Massachusetts, throngs of mourners paid their respect to Eunice for dedicating her life to dispelling misconceptions about the mentally challenged and elevating them, in Eunice’s words, “into the sunlight of useful living.’’ The crowd at the six-hour wake surpassed 1,000 admirers.
The Mass of Christian burial was held the next day in St. Francis Xavier Church –a 100-year-old white-columned church on Cape Cod -- the place where the Kennedy family has come to worship, celebrate, and grieve over the years. Eunice’s children (including Maria Shriver and her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), carried the casket into the family church. The sidewalks of South Street were lined with media and those seeking to get a glimpse of a piece of Kennedy history. Mourners in the wooden pews at the invitation-only funeral included Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, and scores of other luminaries. Eunice’s brother Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who is battling brain cancer did not attend.

Before the Mass, a lone bagpiper led a slow procession of police and “special Olympians.” At the beginning of the Mass, Loretta Clairborne, a “special Olympian” and a close friend of Eunice said,

“The weakest of the weak, the castaways, the throwaways of society -- at the time, they would say `the mentally retarded.’ And I am one of those people. They say the king of pop is gone. I say the queen of humanity is gone.”

After Clairborne's moving introduction, a recording of Eunice’s voice filled the sanctuary with the famous words she spoke in that familiar Kennedy accent at the 1987 Special Olympics at the University of Notre Dame,

The right to play on any playing field? You have earned it.
The right to study in any school? You have earned it.
The right to hold a job? You have earned it.
The right to be anyone's neighbor? You have earned it.

A daughter’s eulogy

In his homily Fr. Richard Fragomeni said, “She walked with God until this last Tuesday, Aug. 11. Eunice and God took a very long walk that night and God said to Eunice, ‘You are closer to my house now than to your house by the sea. Well done, good and faithful servant.’” In her eulogy, Maria Shriver recalled that “my mother would come to pick us all up at school in her blue Lincoln convertible, her hair would be flying in the wind, there usually would be some pencils or pens in it. The car would be filled with all these boys and their friends and their animals, she’d have on a cashmere sweater with little notes pinned to it to remind her of what she needed to do when she got home. And more often than not, the sweater would be covering a bathing suit, so she could lose no time jumping into the pool to beat us all in a water polo game." Shriver even said her mother Eunice “wore men's pants, smoked Cuban cigars, played tackle football and was a maternal feminist who refused to be anything but herself. " Her mother’s heroes, she said, were the Virgin Mary, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, her own mother and her sister Rose Marie. Shriver ended her eulogy by reading a poem she wrote in a Boston hospital.

The clouds are gone.
The sky is clear and you are the star of my sky.
You are the music of my heart.
You are the trumpet of my life.

That was met with a standing ovation and a rousing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

A son’s tribute

One of Eunice’s sons, Timothy (born in 1959), a B.A., M.A., Ph.D., wrote in 2008 when his mother was already ailing,

When I was a child, May was Mary’s month. My mother demanded that we children convene after dinner and say the rosary every night. We complained, cut corners, giggled, and misbehaved. But for the most part, we did it. How could I have known that 40 years later, I would be saying the same rosary with my mother as she lays in bed at 86, struggling for health. Some days, speech is difficult for her and walking impossible. Some days, it’s all she can do to raise her head. But even on those days, the words of the rosary come easily. “Do you want to lead Mom?” “Yes. Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee…”

But I can hardly begin to capture how much meaning and purpose my mother’s devotion to Mary has given me. The rosary was my first exposure to the power of repetitive prayer and led me to study the meditative practices of all religions where mantra and repetition form a pathway to silence and peace. Those beads in my fingers still create an almost biological reaction: “Calm down!” they seem to call out no matter the moment. “Move to your center! Be still!”
Mary was everywhere in my house as a child and also set the tone for a resolute belief in the importance of women. My mother pushed and pushed for women in politics, in science, in religion, in advocacy. I find myself over and over again asking if there is a female perspective on a problem that I’m missing, a women’s role that is being overlooked.

Conclusion
The queen of humanity

In the second reading today St. James writes, “Religion that is pure and stainless according to God our Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself uncorrupted by the world.” (James 1:27) Eunice’s religion was pure and stainless. Though she was a member of a very influential and wealthy family, her religion inspired her to keep herself uncorrupted by this world. Jesus says, “Blessed are [the rich who are] poor in spirit, the kingdom of God is theirs.” Her religion also inspired Eunice to take care of orphans – especially the mentally challenged who were often orphaned by society. And that’s what inspired a “special Olympian” to declare, “They say the king of pop is gone. I say the queen of humanity is gone.”

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

Hebrews 12:1
A Great Cloud of Witnesses

August 23, 2009, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18 Ephesians 5:21-23 John 6:51-61, 66-69

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Joshua

Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”At this the crowds began to argue fiercely among themselves, “How can He give us his flesh to eat?” Thereupon Jesus said to them: “Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate bread from heaven and died nevertheless, the one who feeds on this bread shall live forever.”Jesus said this as He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum.

After hearing his words many of Jesus’ disciples remarked among themselves, “This sort of talk is hard to take. How can anyone take it seriously?” Jesus well aware of his disciples’ grumbling asked them, ”Does this scandalize you? From that time on, many of his disciples parted company with Him and returned to their former way of life. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Master, if we leave you to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Introduction
No better place to go

My dog is a typical canine; when he hears the car keys clanging, he’s up and at it and ready to go. I always take him with me because it’s so much easier than having to get down on my knees and try to explain to his sad drooping face why he can’t come along. He simply doesn’t understand.

If I’m going grocery shopping on a hot summer day, I park in a shady place and leave the car windows wide open. One day a lady passing asked, “Aren’t you afraid he’s going to jump out of the window and take off?” The words of Simon Peter to Jesus came reverently to mind, and I said to her, “If my dog leaves me, to whom shall he go?” My dog, you see, has it made; he has no better place to go. I prepare three square meals a day for him, even though he never lifts a finger to help me cut the lawn in the summer or shovel the snow in the winter.

Jesus & the church: a scandal

Jesus makes the incredible claim that He is bread from heaven and that whoever eats his flesh and drink his blood will live forever. That stirs great unbelief among the crowds. Hearing their grumbling He asks, “Does this scandalize you?” It’s a literal translation of the Greek scandalidsei. Less literal translations read, “Does this shake your faith” or “Does this shock you?” or “Does this cause you to stumble?”(Jn 6:61).

In Corinthians Paul writes, “Jews demand signs and Gentiles look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified who is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (I Cor. 1:23) In the Greek text the word for stumbling block is scandalum. Jesus at times was a scandal, i.e., a stumbling block. At times He made it hard for people to believe in Him and easy for them to turn their backs and walk with Him no longer. At the end of the day, Jesus’ mortal humanity, which could be nailed to a cross and die, was a scandal – a stumbling block - to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

Like Jesus in his humanity the church, too, in her humanity is often a scandal -- a stumbling block. The scandal of clergy sex abuse (which came to light in recent years) shocked the faithful. For a few that scandal became a last straw--the excuse they were looking for and finally found--to turn their backs on the church and walk with her no longer.

Morris West: why he didn’t leave the church

Australian writer Morris L. West (1916-1999) found the church to be a scandal – a stumbling block. West who had been a Christian Brother but left without taking final vows is famous among Catholics especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. The latter book envisioned the election and career of a Slavic Pope, 15 years before Karol Wojtyła, a Pole, became Pope John Paul II. West died while working at his desk on the final chapters of his novel The Last Confession. It’s about the trials and imprisonment of Giodano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy, February 17, 1600, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome. West had long sympathized and even identified with Bruno. In A View from the Ridge, West tells us why he didn’t leave the church.

I believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church even when the Church itself excluded me,[3] and I remain there still, principally because of the presence of John XXIII, the Good Pastor, whom I never met, though I did meet his predecessor and his successor. Goodness went out from this man to me. I acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again.

The Romans named him un Papa simpatico. And everyone wished he were younger, so that the imprint of his personality might be deeper on the corporate life of the Church and the common life of the world. We had had a surfeit of princes and politicians and theologians – even of conventional saints. We needed a man who spoke the language of the heart, who understood that the dialogue of God with man is carried on in terms far different from the semantics of professional philosophers. We had John too briefly.

Sr. Joan Chittister: why she doesn’t leave the church

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB (b. 1936- ), an internationally known theologian, also sees the church as a scandal – a stumbling block. She is highly critical of the church. She maintains it is riddled with inconsistencies, closed to discussion about those inconsistencies, and is sympathetic only to invisible women. One day a woman asked her out-rightly, “Why doesn’t such an unhappy woman like you leave the church?” In response Chittister used the imagery of an oyster to explain. The oyster defends itself against the irritation of sand within itself by secreting a substance. The more sand in the oyster, the more chemical the oyster produces until finally, after layer upon layer of gel, the sand turns into a pearl of great price (Mt 13: 44-45).
If she would rid herself of the irritation by leaving the church, she said, the process would be over, and at the end of the day there would be no pearl of great price, neither in her nor in her church. “Over the years,” she writes, “I have come to realize that the church is not a place; it is a process. And if you leave the church you leave part of the process that cultivates a pearl in you and in your church. So I stay in the church as a restless pilgrim.”

Chittister reminds us that Thomas Aquinas said we might have to leave the church if that became necessary to save our souls. Aquinas warns us, however, not to leave quietly if we leave, or not to stay quietly if we stay. By speaking, she says we perform a needed ministry of irritation, like the sand that irritates the oyster but causes a pearl of great price.

Fr. Hans Küng: why he doesn’t leave the church

Swiss- German theologian Fr. Hans Küng (b. 1928) also finds the church to be a scandal -- a stumbling block -- for a litany of reasons which are more theologically profound than sexual misconduct. In a little volume entitled Why I am still a Christian he writes that he cannot believe:

- that Jesus who warned the Pharisees against laying intolerable burdens on people’s shoulders would today declare all artificial contraception to be mortal sin;
- that He who particularly invited failures to his table would forbid all remarried divorced people ever to approach that table;
- that He who was constantly accompanied by women (who provided for his keep), and whose apostles, except for Paul, were all married and remained so, would today forbid marriage to all ordained men, and ordination to all women;
- that He who said “I have compassion on the crowd,” would have increasingly deprived congregations of their pastors and allowed a system of pastoral care built up over a period of a thousand years to collapse;
- that He who defended the adulteress and sinners would pass such harsh verdicts in delicate questions requiring discriminating and critical judgment, like pre-marital sex, homosexuality and abortion.

In that same little volume Fr. Küng tells why he doesn’t leave the church despite his long litany of complaints. “First of all,” he says, “despite all my criticisms and concerns, I can nevertheless feel fundamentally positive about a tradition in which I live side by side with so many others, past and present.” Furthermore, Küng writes, “I would not dream of confusing the great Christian tradition with the present structures of the church, nor [would I dream of] leaving the definition of true Christian values to its present administrators[4].” In that great Christian tradition, Küng says, he finds “a spiritual home on which I do not want to turn my back.”

Conclusion
A great cloud of witnesses

Despite the clergy sex abuse, despite the refusal of the church to deal meaningfully with the shortage of priests; despite her macho approach to the ordination of women, despite the church’s great pretense that gays do not exist or that the faithful don’t practice birth control--despite all that, we still find in the church “a spiritual home on which we don’t want to turn our backs.”

Despite everything, we “feel fundamentally positive” about a church suffused with a great cloud of witnesses[5] living and dead. In that great cloud are St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Pope John XXIII, former Archbishop of Seattle Raymond Hunthausen, former Auxiliary bishop of Detroit Thomas Gumbleton, Capuchin friar Sean Patrick O’Malley, the present Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, Eunice Kennedy Shriver[6] and many other witnesses big and small. If we leave the church we leave that great cloud of witnesses nurtured by a church which is a strange mixture of the human and the divine. Despite everything, we remain in the church as West, Chittister, Küng and many others remain in the church because, like my dog who won’t jump out of the open windows of my car on a hot summer day, we have no better place to go.

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] Though West was and always remained a Catholic, his writings contain a good deal of criticism about the church, and the institution was not always pleased with him.

[4] Why I am still a Christian was written back in 1986 when John Paul II was pope.

[5] Hebrews 12:1

[6] Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President JF Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy,[6] died Tuesday, August 11, 2009. She was a saint.

A Holy Conversation instead of Grumbling

Raymond Hunthausen, Archbishop of Seattle
from 1975 to 1991

A Holy Conversation instead of Grumbling

August 2, 2009, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 Ephesians 4:17, 20-24 John 6:24-35

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Exodus

There in the desert the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “We wish that the LORD had killed us in Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I can test them to find out if they will follow my instructions. “

The LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them that at twilight they will have meat to eat, and in the morning they will have all the bread they want. Then they will know that I, the LORD, am their God.” In the evening a large flock of quail flew in and covered the camp, and in the morning there was dew all around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there was something thin and flaky on the surface of the desert. It was as delicate as frost. When the Israelites saw it, they did not know what it was and asked each other, “What is it?” Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Glory to you, Lord.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and fishes and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God that you believe in the one He sent.” So they said to Him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in You? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written, ` He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst….”

Then the Jewish authorities began to grumble against Jesus because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” So they said, “This man is Jesus the son of Joseph, isn’t He? We know his father and mother. How, then, does He now say He came down from heaven?”Jesus responded, “Stop your grumbling!”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction
The eighth month of the year

Here it is the first Sunday of the eighth month of the year. Noticeably the days are shortening and nights are lengthening. The pages are falling off the calendar like autumn leaves falling from trees. In northern climes crickets will soon be singing of summer spent, and kids will soon be back to school. Labor Day will be here before we know it, and those of us who are fortunate enough to be employed in these hard times will be very grateful to go back to work. This time of the rolling year puts some of us in a pensive and, at times, a melancholic mood.

Grumbling at Jesus

In the scripture readings for this Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (cycle b), the Israelites are grumbling against Moses, and the Jewish authorities are grumbling against Jesus. The Jewish authorities were good at grumbling. When Jesus attended a banquet in the house of Levi, a tax collector, “some Pharisees and teachers of the Law began to grumble and say to Jesus’ disciples, `Why do you people eat with tax collectors and outcasts.’’’ (Lk 5:29-30) That wasn’t a question; it was a statement. On another occasion when many tax collectors and outcasts came to listen to Jesus, “The Pharisees and teacher of the Law began to grumble and say, `This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them.’”(Luke 15:1-2)

Not only the Jewish authorities but also the crowds at times were good at grumbling. When Zacchaeus, a tax collector, climbed a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus passing by, Jesus looked up and told Zacchaeus to come down, for He intended to stay at his house. “The crowds seeing it started to grumble and say, `This man has gone to the home of a sinner.’” (Lk 19:1-6)

Grumbling at Bishop Untener

Jesus’ day had no monopoly on grumbling. 1993 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae vitae (1968) reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control. When Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, MI (1937- 2004), took the occasion to invite the church to a new and open discussion (or as one theologian put it: “to a holy conversation”) on birth control, people in Rome grumbled greatly at his audacious suggestion. And Untener died a simple bishop and not an archbishop or a cardinal of the church.

Grumbling at Bishop Gumbleton

When retired Bishop Thomas John Gumbleton (b. 1930) of the Archdiocese of Detroit openly claimed that many bishops don’t believe that every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil but aren’t willing to say it publicly,[3] Rome grumbled greatly at his audacious claim. And when Gumbleton, despite Pope John Paul II’s definitive stand against the ordination of women, predicted that “Priestesses will inevitably come,” and pointed out that “Already, female parochial administrators are proving their competency and laying the groundwork for the ordination of women,” Rome again grumbled greatly. Then when Gumbleton (still in good health) petitioned Rome for permission to stay on as bishop beyond his 75th year, (the canonical age for retirement) his petition was refused with e-mail speed.

Grumbling at Archbishop Weakland

Former Archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland (b. 1927- ) unequivocally upholds Catholic teaching that abortion is immoral. Nevertheless, he was willing to sit down with pro-choice people to hear them out. In his report after a number of sessions with pro-choice people, Weakland warned us that “the anti-abortion movement is counterproductive when its focus is narrow, its tactics aggressive, and its rhetoric ugly and demeaning.” Then when the University of Fribourg wanted to confer upon the Archbishop an honorary degree in recognition of his work on the US Bishops' pastoral letter of 1986 entitled Economic Justice for All, Rome cancelled the conferral because, “He has confused the faithful on the issue of abortion.” On another occasion Weakland had “confused the faithful” when he told his Archdiocese that he was ready to ask the Pope for permission to ordain married men (!) to the priesthood, if the problem of priestly vocations became unbearably acute. Vigilant people first in Milwaukee and then in Rome grumbled greatly at such stances of the Archbishop.

Grumbling at Archbishop Hunthausen

The former Archbishop of Seattle, Raymond Hunthausen (b.1921) was and is a great advocate for the poor and the marginalized. He spoke out courageously about controversial issues in the church, like artificial contraception and homosexuality. In a letter on July 1, 1977 (way back then already), he courageously and publicly defended the rights of gays and lesbians. One of Hunthausen's very controversial acts was to permit a homosexual group called Dignity to hold its own Mass in his cathedral. “They're Catholics too,” he explained. "They need a place to pray.” Some people in Seattle grumbled greatly at his views and managed to have Rome strip him of some of his episcopal authority, because “his lack of clarity about homosexuality had confused the faithful.”

About Hunthausen a friend writes,

I lived in Seattle, as you know, from 1971 through 1999. I witnessed Hunthausen in action. He was incredible. I was very involved at the time with Dignity, the Gay and Lesbian Catholic group. We didn't ask for anything. We didn't want to get married. We didn't ask the Church to change its rules. All we wanted was to be left alone, to retain some human dignity, and to pray in our Church, with our Church. And because of Archbishop Hunthausen, I was so proud, so very proud to be a Catholic, in Seattle, at that time.

I love my Church. I love it deeply. I even have established the habit here in Tucson of going to the Mariachi Mass on Sunday morning at the Cathedral. The biggest blessing, by the way, aside from the deep devotion of the parishioners, and the incredible beauty of the music, is the fact that since the Mass is in Spanish, I cannot understand one word of the sermon! What a blessing!

Conclusion
Not a grumble but a holy conversation

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, Richard Gailardetz, a husband, father and theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, expressed the hope that the new pope would invite the church to hold to a “holy conversation” about all the great issues that exercise the church: divorce and remarriage, birth control, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, the priest-shortage and the ordination of women.

A holy conversation, Gailardetz said, is one which “renounces the temptation to control or direct the discussion toward predetermined conclusions.” A holy conversation is one that’s free from fear, and it allows another to speak and gives him an honest hearing. A holy conversation is the kind that Untener, Gumbleton, Weakland, Hunthausen and many others invite the church to hold. These men are, indeed, “a great cloud of witnesses,” and because of them “we run with patient endurance the race that lies before us.” (Hebrew 12:1)

What Jesus commands the Jewish authorities, Jesus commands us: “Stop your grumbling!” (Jn 6:43) Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, stop your grumbling. It often has the ring of self-righteousness, as when the Pharisee’s grumbled that Jesus ate with sinners.

What Richard Gailardetz asks of Pope Benedict, he asks also of us: Instead of grumbling (especially at someone close to you), hold a holy conversation with him. Holy conversing might be difficult, but it’s far more productive and far more rewarding.

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] America magazine (Nov. 20, 1963)