Interdependence of Us All

This piece, published in Mirabile Dictu, December 17, 2008, is the finest article yet written about the relationship between the People of God and their Bishops.

+++++

ARCC spot LIGHT

 Interdependence of Us All

(analysis of Church issues offered
by the ARCC Publications Committee)

J. Bokel and R. Schutzius,ed.

YES, you are our bishops. And,YES, we do listen.  But, NO, in following our carefully formed conscience, we do not always accept what you preach.  This past election certainly demonstrates that.  Do not harbor the idea that we did not understand the issues or your position on them.  We did.  So it troubles us that a few bishops unilaterally declared that voting against their opinion thereby renders one unfit to receive the Eucharist.  To these our response is, "we think you are wrong, and we will act accordingly".  In conscience, we do not accept as sinful what these bishops ascribe to voting against their advice in a democratic society.  
 
This is not easy for us to say, nor easy for you to hear, but it is the truth.  At issue here is your credibility, prudence, and judgment in the exercise of your office.  You must know that your status has suffered immeasurably because of your response to clergy sexual abuse by failing to acknowledge responsibility or do anything substantial to change the environment that brought it about.  

We protest  your closing of parishes because you have failed to provide enough priests for us.  Your prayers for vocations seem hypocritical to us because you refuse to admit that God may be calling others to serve us, celibates, married, male and female, explaining "I am only following orders."  

We deeply resent it when you grasp and hold power over all Church property and resources, and refuse to recognize the rights of those who through their tithes have paid for it all.  Sometimes you remind us of the scriptural characters who lay on burdens, but do nothing to lift them.  You seem fearful to defend our spiritual needs to Rome, and, in deference thereto, are quick to penalize those who dissent with little honest,  open dialogue or discussion.   
 
Thinking is a responsible, though risky, business, but we are empowered to do so on the basis that we  are Church too.  To be heard, you must demonstrate the validity and worth of your preaching with full awareness that being "bishop" no longer renders you above question.   

We are not children, but intelligent and mature adult sons and daughters of God.  The more you acknowledge and respect this fact the more we can work together to resolved the moral and spiritual issues of our time.  This, you must believe.  
 
We are on a new spiritual journey and we need all the help we can get.  Join us if you will, but do not  be the biblical spiritual "stumbling block" for us.    
 
 
Remembering the Women Sunday Readings  <UrlBlockedError.aspx>    Sun. 12/7 - Joshua 12:1-21,  &   Sun. 12/14 - Joshua 6:17-25, Luke 1:46-55
(Remembering the Women - J.Frank Henderson <http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1568541740/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link> )
 
A Thought for Advent:  
"What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, if I do not also give birth to the son of God in my time and in my culture?" (Meister Eckhart)