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Dear Tom:
I am not familiar with all the details of Catholic college life and the faith issue referenced in your recent article “Survival Guide for the Catholic College Student”, but a book entitled “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy“, seems to tell another side of the story. In fact, the article (National Catholic Register, Sept. 8-14, 2002, page 16) goes on to say “…But at many schools, particularly many Catholic ones, orthodoxy is flourishing in spite of the official campus ministry! It has become common knowledge … that campus ministry is often the greatest impediment to the spread of orthodox Catholicism on campus!” You might want to get a copy of the book and see what all the fuss is about.
In Him,
JmWorsham
Vocations Placement Service
Dear Mr. Worsham,
Thanks for pointing out the piece in NCR. I just read it with interest and found it to be a nice compliment to Mr. Harmon's piece in our Vocations channel. I would guess that the 10-12% of Catholic college seniors reporting stronger religious beliefs and convictions than when they entered college would be comprised largely of members of this “New Faithful” group who overcame the impediments placed in their path by the official campus ministries.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
An Ethical Dilemma on Campus
Dear Catholic Exchange,
I am writing in hopes of some advice desperately needed. I am presently taking an ethics course at DeSales University in PA, and have to participate in a debate on the moral-ness of sexual reassignment surgery. The problem is, we had to pick random numbers and were not able to choose our position. I ended up having to argue for the “moral-ness” of this type of surgery. I personally think that it is a mutilation of the body in most cases, and another manifestation of gross misunderstanding of God's gift of gender, as well as other things. Can you recommend any articles or links where I could learn what the Church teaches on this matter? Also, I am not sure I can go ahead with the debate unless I can take the position that the operations involved only take place in extreme, rare, circumstances (for example, being born with a debilitating genetic/gender-related disorder, where the surgery may actually serve to help the person). I'm not sure what to do. Any assistance you may be able to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Theresa
Here's a good article on the subject, Theresa, by Fr. William Saunders.
Seems to me the only legitimate route you can take is to argue for a compassionate approach to individuals suffering from gender dysphoria syndrome. If you are forced to argue for the morality of the actual surgery, I would suggest you refuse in as genial a manner as possible. It's tough to be a faithful Catholic sometimes, even at a Catholic university. Good luck.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
“Disturbing” Article by George Weigel
Dear Marianne:
You write:
I found the opinions expressed by George Weigel as portrayed in your interview with him to be disturbing. He writes, “If people are living lives out of full communion with the Church in their hearts and souls and minds, why are we surprised if they're behaving badly?” Who is he referring to here?
He is referring to the dissenting clergy whose dissent led them to speak and act as though rejection of the Church's teaching was just fine. Clergy like Paul Shanley, for instance, who was lionized by the dissenting press for his “courageous” defiance of the Church and who is now in jail for sodomizing numerous children.
…He seems to be going after any who express dissent about the Church? Does he really think those people are the CAUSE of priests being perverts?
You seem to be conflating dissent (i.e. rejection of the Church's teaching) with anger over abuse. That's not what Weigel means. Rejection of the Church's teaching (and the consequent choice by our bishops to look the other way as that rejection got more and more outrageous by creatures like Paul Shanley) is indeed at the heart of the problem. But anger over the abuse and the failure of our bishops to uphold the Church's teaching is not “dissent.” It's legitimate.
I know of two sweet innocent boys who were molested because they DID NOT dissent. The people who were deeply hurt by the malevolent priests were the true-blue, follow-the-rules, Catholic parents who found their trust in their local priest shattered.
It is not dissent to speak out against evil. Weigel himself speaks out against this evil. But the evil is, make no mistake, a rejection of what the Church actually teaches and the failure of bishops to enforce what the Church actually teaches on the priest for whom they have responsibility.
Weigel goes on to write, “I don't know that much about VOTF, but from what I see it's the culture of dissent coming back for a last hurrah. It's not a proposal that holds out the prospect of genuinely Catholic reform.” Where does he get THAT deduction from?
From the fact that VOTF is a well-meaning, but ultimately confused attempt to reform the Church without having any clear idea what the “form” is. VOTF has many nice and decent people in it. But judging from their actions and public statements so far, they do not grasp what the problem really is. And so, they wind up parroting exactly the same sort of rhetoric of dissent that Paul Shanley did, thinking that the solution is even more rejection of apostolic tradition when it is, in fact, just this rejection of apostolic teaching that led priests to think they could do whatever they want and it be OK. The failure of the bishops is not their embrace of the Tradition, but their cowardice in refusing to hold their priests to the Tradition and give the boot to those priests who despised it.
I was at a VOTF meeting last night and it was a very prayerful group of committed, very conservative Catholics who choose a speaker who emphasized respect and Church theology and supporting priests. It is not going to be enough to say to just follow the Church without question anymore.
Weigel is not saying this. He is very trenchant in his criticism of the bishops. Did you read the whole interview?
When your faith has been so deeply violated by the offending priests and the bishops who looked the other way and supported their priests at the expense of innocent children, you need some framework to affect change so that it will NEVER happen again.
Weigel's book, The Courage to Be Catholic, provides the best framework for doing just that, that I am aware of anywhere.
If he thinks finances have not been seriously affected by this, let him talk to some people who know about how much the Cardinal's Appeal in Boston is down this year!
He's quite aware.
We do have a crisis in the Church and the answer is only in God's grace, but keep in mind that dissenters are sometimes God's prophets.
Again, it depends on what you mean by “dissent”. If you mean that people who stand up and complain loudly about the egregious sins of our bishops are God's prophets, I agree. And chief among them is George Weigel, who has made crystal clear that our bishops have sinned seriously. What he does not do is locate the solution to this sin in the tired proposal of the “Catholic Lite” crowd, who say that the way out is to get rid of inconvenient apostolic teachings offensive to suburban Americans and hedonists who do not like their sex lives interfered with. It was precisely the adoption of this mindset by men like Paul Shanley (a public advocate for and practitioner of “Man Boy Love” who was a hero to the culture of dissent until it became clear that he was living to the full the rejection of the Church's teaching) that has led to this disaster. It was the spineless refusal of our bishops to say “No” to the dissent of Shanley and his ilk that made this a crisis. Urging our bishops to go on being spineless in the face of rejection of the Tradition is a prescription for catastrophe.
Chastising all dissent will not make the problem go away. Pretending that it has not affected the attendance and finances of the Church will not make it go away. The bishops have lost their moral authority for a time and the healing will have to come from the laity working with the hierarchy of the Church to rebuild a very-damaged trust.
I think you and Weigel are actually rather close. The main confusion is that you have mistake “dissent” for “legitimate protest against evil.”
Weigel has no problem with legitimate protest against evil. His book is itself a protest against the sins of our bishops. But their sin does not consist of teaching the Tradition Jesus and the apostles handed down to us. Their sin is the chicken-hearted refusal to do so. Both you and Weigel agree on this, I think. My recommendation: get his book, The Courage to be Catholic. I've read it, and it's the clearest analysis of What Went Wrong and How We Get Out of This I have seen anywhere.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange