Kingfishers, Dragonflies, and Stones

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme; / As tumbled over rim in roundy wells / Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's / Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; / Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: / Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; / Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, / Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.// Í say móre: the just man justices/ [Gerard Manley Hopkins]

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In "Four Cultures of the West," John O'Malley, SJ, showed us how to read the open book of our own personal experience and look at what we find there. This is what I find about family and friends, academics and humanism, religion and the rule of law.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Power, Possessions and Money

Headline and opening paragraph from MSNBC, Sunday, September 14, 2008, at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26677884/'>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26677884/

Pope condemns 'pagan' love of money, power
Benedict leads more than 250,000 Catholics in outdoor Mass in Paris

PARIS - Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled "pagan" passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague Saturday as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris.
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There is a Saying:

When one points the finger at others,
one must acknowledge that
three fingers are pointing back at him.

This Pope, as most of his predecessors, not only manifests, but also claims as his divine right, a passion he calls "holy" rather than "pagan," for:

Absolute power -- over Roman Catholicism, its buildings, wealth, clergy and people on the planet earth.
Unlimited possessions -- in every country on earth, manifest in resplendent cathedrals, monuments, real estate holdings, collections of art and jewelry and silver and gold.
Accumulation of money -- Neither the Pope, nor the minions associated with him in ruling the Roman Catholic Church, produce any earned income of their own. Every penny and dollar accumulated by that institution, all over the entire world, is obtained through tiny donations from the people and large gifts from powerful sponsors in business, education and industry
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A SERIES OF THINKS THE POPE COULD HAVE THOUGHT AND THEN SHARED WITH HIS PEOPLE
 

  1. Think -- there is no other institution on the face of the earth with as much "pagan" lust for power, possessions and money as the Roman Catholic Church. Its history and its present conduct speak louder than papal words.
  2. Think -- of the enormous legal fees paid by the Church to its lawyers in order to prevent persons injured by that Church from receiving just compensation.
  3. Think -- of the unthinkable value of the Vatican Museum itself, let alone cathedrals like Notre Dame and Chartres in France, St. Patrick in New York, Cardinal Mahony's Taj Mahal in Los Angeles.
  4. Think -- of instant and public denunciations of persons who stand to speak truth to that power and are immediately branded as "dissident," "disobedient," "hostile to the official teachings of the Church."
  5. Think -- of the public excoriation of and the refusal to give the Eucharist to worshippers who have made public statements that irk a hierarch, or worse, are associated somehow with a political figure who has so irked.
  6. Think -- of the censorship of scholars for thinking and writing down their thoughts.
  7. Think -- of the way in which a tiny little city-state, The Vatican, amassed possessions, and money and held it tight.
  8. Think -- of the children sexually abused by some deviant Roman Catholic priests and employees.
  9. Think -- of the absolute corruption flowing from such absolute power.
  10. Think -- of the simple fact that no hierarch –Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, -- has as yet come forth to be accountable for his conduct in office.
  11. Think – of the baffling fact that no hierarch has as yet been found accountable for criminal conduct, misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance while in control of his benefice with absolute power over each body and each thing within it.
  12. Think – of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.
  13. Think – of his Apostles and Disciples who went out to spread the Good Ness and gave us this Catholic Church.
  14. Think – of the women priests who were there in the 1st century and are still willing and competent to so minister as priests in our times.
  15. Think -- of the married priests during the first one thousand years of our Church's existence, still willing and competent to so minister as priests in our times.
  16. Think – of the good and the bad times in the two thousand year history of that Church, which we call, with a tinge of pride, "Our Church."
  17. Think – of its present condition, tattered, shrunken, condemning all who stand to speak truth to its power, possessions and money.
  18. Think – What you are thunders so loud, we cannot hear what you say.
  19. Think – Enough!
  20. Think – Take Back Our Church. Go to: http://www.takebackourchurch.org/

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From one 80 year old to another, sell what you have, Holy Father, give it to the poor, come follow him. Then, Bishop of Rome, take your own inventory. And be accountable.
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