Friday, February 26, 2016
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Fr. Zuhlsdorf: An Open Letter to Most Rev. Michael Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth
(Fr. Z's Blog) I propose a possible way to diffuse some of the tension surrounding Fort Worth’s Bp. Olson and his banning of Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Missale Romanum at Fisher More College.
Years ago, when I worked at the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei“, we had an especially tense and even bitter round of correspondence with an American bishop who steadfastly denied to the faithful any use of the Traditional Latin Mass. Hundreds of people signed petitions. He wouldn’t budge. Finally, my boss, Card. Mayer told me that, at some point, we had to stop arguing and try to open hearts. I round-filed the draft of a conclusive letter I had brought to him and wrote a new one. He signed it and I sent it. A few weeks later we received news that, not only had His Excellency the Bishop granted regular celebrations of the TLM, he celebrated the first one himself.
It was a gesture of rare healing and true grace for many people.
I am reasonably sure that someone in Fort Worth is monitoring this blog for Bp. Olson.
Therefore, I ask:
Your Excellency,
Would you not go to celebrate a Traditional Latin Mass for the student body yourself? If you object to some aspects of Fisher More College, could you not offer this Mass at the parish nearby, which Your Excellency mentioned in your letter to Mr. King, St. Mary of the Assumption?
This gesture would heal wounds that are opening up, allay fears, and give great solace to many people near and far, not the least the students of the College. They are caught in the crossfire.
I humbly ask Your Excellency to consider this petition with an open, fatherly heart.
As a token of my best wishes, I promise during Lent a daily prayer, a Memorare, for you in the heavy mandate that has been entrusted to you as Bishop of Fort Worth.
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
Link:
Related:
- Fr. Z’s first reaction to Bp. Olson banning Extraordinary Form at Fort Worth’s Fisher More College
- More notes on Fisher-More and comments back on
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Texas Bishops Face Protests from Pro-Abortion Catholics
10/16/2008
Inside Catholic (www.insidecatholic.com)
Some Catholics who support the "right" to abort children now openly disagree with the clarity of the Bishops teaching as revealed in this summary:"there are no 'truly grave moral' or 'proportionate' reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year."
The protests began on Sunday when the statement was read from the pulpit by Rev. Tony Ruiz, pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in downtown Dallas. Some two-dozen parishioners walked out and went to the local media to lodge their complaints about "political endorsements." The next day, the Dallas Morning News carried the story on the front page of its Metro section. "The silver lining was that the article contained a link to the bishops' statement," said Karen Garnett, executive director of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee, Respect Life Ministry of the Diocese of Dallas.
Garnett told me that the subsequent protest on Wednesday afternoon in front of the diocesan chancery attracted the same number of people who had walked out of the Mass at Holy Trinity. Bishop Farrell, who was out of town on Wednesday, has offered to meet with the protesters.
"Too many parishes do seminars on 'Faithful Citizenship' that don't put the life issues first. We've been dealing with that problem for 35 years," added Garnett.Olivia Franklin, a member of Holy Trinity for 15 years, heard Father Ruiz read the statement. "I'm thrilled that he read it, and I hurried out the door to tell him thank you. This is the truth, and we need to hear the truth."
Franklin had recently attended four seminars at Holy Trinity on "Faithful Citizenship." At these sessions she was told "one could in fact vote for a pro-abortion candidate if one was not voting for them for that reason." She raised objections to what was being taught, only to be told it was just her opinion.
There have been over 40 statements to date issued by bishops this election season. Some responded to comments made by Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, about the beginning of human life. Others responded to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's appearance on Meet the Press when she, too, misrepresented the Church's teaching on abortion.
But the biggest problem of this election for Catholics has been the bishops' own document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." In an otherwise admirable document, there is one section (Sec. 34-37) that has provided an open door for pro-abortion Catholics to drive through and proclaim their support for Obama, a proponent of abortion-on-demand. (I have already written about the effort to use "Faithful Citizenship" to help Obama.)
One of the problematic passages in "Faithful Citizenship" presently being spun by Obama's Catholic supporters is the following:"35. There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate's unacceptableposition may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons.Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamentalmoral evil."
Bishops Vann and Farrell demolish the arguments of leading Obama Catholic surrogate Doug Kmiec and others, that "Faithful Citizenship" can be interpreted to support Obama in the present election.Bishops Vann and Farrell explain that voting for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil like abortion is possible only if 1) "both candidates running for office support abortion or 'abortion rights,'" or if 2) "another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion."
Obama's Catholic apologists argue such a situation exists with Sen. John McCain, citing his support for the Iraq War. Bishops Vann and Farrell reject this line of reasoning in advance, saying "there are no 'truly grave moral' or 'proportionate' reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year."
Olivia Franklin believes God is using the bishops' statement and the controversy at Holy Trinity. "For too long authentic Catholic social teaching has been co-opted by the 'social justice' crowd, who rail about the death penalty while conveniently ignoring the real death penalty presently being carried out -- the 4,000 babies executed daily by abortionists."
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Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster).
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Catholic bishops' letter on voting causes a stir, with critics likening it to an endorsement of McCain
12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Some North Texas Catholics are upset with a letter written to them by their local bishops, saying it amounts to an endorsement of John McCain for president.
"I was personally offended," said Phillip Archer of Dallas. "My bishop basically told me that if I vote for Barack Obama, I will go to hell."
The letter by Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Fort Worth says in part: "To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or 'abortion rights' when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible."
Mr. Obama, the Democratic candidate, supports abortion rights. The Republicans' nominee, Mr. McCain, favors overturning Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that protects abortion rights.
The bishops' letter was distributed or read at parishes across the Diocese of Dallas this weekend. The Fort Worth Diocese is distributing the letter through its newspaper, which is being mailed to all registered Catholic families in the diocese.
Nicole LeBlanc said several people at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas walked out during the 11 a.m. Sunday Mass when the letter was read at the time usually reserved for a homily.
Ms. LeBlanc, an Obama supporter, said she, too, was upset.
"As a Catholic, we're taught about being independent moral agents with free will," she said. "That letter from the bishops is basically telling us that if we vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, we are basically immoral and our souls are imperiled."
Ms. LeBlanc also said she felt the letter "has gone too far towards bringing political endorsements in the church, which is obviously not legal."
She and Mr. Archer, who also attends Holy Trinity, said a protest of the letter is likely to occur outside the headquarters of the Dallas Diocese on Wednesday afternoon.
The bishops declined to comment Monday. By Monday afternoon, the Diocese of Dallas had received 30 comments on the letter, 80 percent of them supportive, said communications director Annette Gonzales Taylor.
"I don't think it's an endorsement or a condemnation of a specific candidate," said Rick Nyman, a Frisco Catholic who applauded the letter. "I think it's a reminder of what church dogma is. If you like it, fine. If you don't like it, that's not so fine, but we love you anyhow."
Ms. Taylor said the letter was not an endorsement of any political candidate but sought to clarify Catholic teachings, particularly a document issued by U.S. bishops called "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." She said the bishops felt the document was being misunderstood by some in their dioceses.
Ms. LeBlanc said she has studied the document and believes the bishops have drawn from it selectively, emphasizing one approach to combating abortion and leaving out other key issues.
" 'Faithful Citizenship,' to me and a lot of other Catholics, allows us to form our consciences, weighing all those issues, even though we may vote for a candidate that does not favor outlawing abortion," she said.
The bishops' letter evoked criticism from the nonprofit group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
"This is clearly an attempt on the part of these bishops to do an end-run around the federal tax law ban on electioneering by churches," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group's executive director.
But Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University and a Catholic, said the bishops are "completely in the clear from a legal standpoint" with the letter and accurately reflect the church's teaching.
"They are choosing to be more proactive about giving political guidance than most bishops so far have been, but there is nothing radical about the theology underlying their message," Dr. Wilson said.
The bishops' letter quotes from "Faithful Citizenship" as it identifies other "intrinsic evils," including same-sex unions, euthanasia and "destructive" human embryonic stem cell research. The letter notes the church's concern with poverty, health care and immigration reform.
But abortion gets the heaviest stress.
"As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the pre-eminent intrinsic evil of our day," the letter says.
Both bishops are fairly new on the job, with Bishop Vann having been leader of the Fort Worth Diocese since July 2005 and Bishop Farrell of the Dallas Diocese since May 2007.
A Gallup poll in late June found slightly more support among Catholics for Mr. Obama than for Mr. McCain.