Drunk With Power

The Master of Novices gave us a conference several mornings a week, teaching us the Constitution and the Rules for the Society of Jesus, introducing the customs of the novitiate known as Shadowbrook, guiding us along on our early steps toward Vow Day, when we would drop N.S.J. -- Novice, Society of Jesus -- after our names, and know we were authentic Jesuits the first time we wrote the coveted S.J. We were proceeding along "Our Way of Proceeding." Carefully. Piously. Slowly. Reverently. Obediently.

One morning he told us the story of a second year novice who had been appointed Shoe Beadle, the one in charge of collecting, repairing and returning shoes. Brother X, never before selected for any post of authority and power, prepared a set of instructions in Latin and posted them on the bulletin board.

They were difficult to read, more difficult to translate, most difficult to comprehend and obey. For example, we were to:

• Scrape away and dispose of all encrustations of refuse and waste.
  
• Wash and brush dry each shoe.
  
• Designate precisely the area to be repaired, i.e. sole, heel, upper, tongue.
  
• Tie the left shoelace of the right shoe to the right shoelace of the left shoe with a knot slippable.
  
• Write name and date of entrance to the novitiate on two tags one each to be tied through the eyelets of the right and left shoes, with a knot non-slippable .
  
• Place cleaned, brushed, tied and labeled shoes in the grey wooden box, third one down on the left, outside the Common Stock Room in the cellar.
  
• Select a pair from Common Stock on loan while repairs are being made.
  

Et cetera, et cetera for two full pages, handwritten, with a Glossary of Latin terms for footwear.

Father Master then read the entire Regulae Bidelli Calceamentorum -- Rules of the Shoe Beadle -- aloud, in their original Latin, sonorously and with full liturgical reverence. When finished, he put the pages down, looked out the window down the hill rolling towards the lake of Stockbridge Bowl, placed both hands flat on the desk, looked at each novice before him and quietly said, "That man is drunk with power."

+++

And so is Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin.

On March 18, 2009, The National Catholic Reporter - NCR - published "Madison's Morlino noted for orthodoxy, controversy," by Thomas C. Fox, who wrote:

"Morlino, 62, is the fourth bishop of the Madison diocese. Previously he served as the bishop of the Helena, Mont., diocese, was a priest in the Kalamazoo, Mich., diocese and was once a member of the Jesuit order."

I'll bet he made Shoe Beadle as a novice.

He may have been drunk with power as a Beadle. As a Bishop he's besotted.

Shoe Beadle Morlino

Ruth Kolpack

On March 18, 2009, NCR reported:

" Ruth Kolpack was let go from her post at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, one that she held since 1995, after meeting with Morlino for 10 minutes earlier this month. During that meeting he asked her for an oath of loyalty and to denounce a scholarly thesis, supportive of women's rights in the church, that she had written in 2003.

She agreed to the former, refused the latter -- and she was out of a job."

On March 20, 2009, NCR reported:

"In the same way that God acted to save the Israelites from captivity, God is "acting now to free women from their captivity" and to free "God language from the captivity of patriarchy," wrote Ruth M. Kolpack, the pastoral associate recently fired by Madison, Wis., Bishop Robert Morlino, in an academic paper six years ago.

Central to the firing earlier this month was Morlino's claim that her views of Jesus were "off base," according to Kolpack's account of their 10-minute meeting, as well as his concern about the thesis that she had written. According to Kolpack, the bishop said he had read "bits and pieces" of the paper."

Kolpack receives blessings
from parishioners
(Photos by James Andrews)

Catholics protesting outside St. Thomas

NCR has four articles on this humiliation of a dedicated woman of the Church. They are set out below, with dates and website addresses. Go there for details of the Shoe Beadle of the Diocese of Madison, WI, and pray for the Church.

With men like this Beadle / Bishop in power, we might suggest that the Holy Spirit arrange for a tornado to pick him up and dump him in the Australian Outback, without shoes. He embarrasses our Church, shames our Religion.

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, is drunk with power. Poor fellow. It is neither his custom, nor his delight. He is not unique. Nor is he an anomaly.

Absolute power is a disease, the alcoholism of the hierarchy.

+++

Articles in NCR

1. Kolpack letter to her parishioners explaining her dismissal

Mar. 13, 2009

By Ruth Kolpack

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/kolpack-letter-her-parishioners-explaining-her-dismissal

2. Wisconsin parish worker fired for feminist views

Allowed no opportunity for defense nor to face accusers

Mar. 17, 2009

By Mike Sweitzer-Beckman

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/wisconsin-parish-worker-fired-feminist-views

3. Madison's Morlino noted for orthodoxy, controversy

Mar. 18, 2009

By THOMAS C. FOX, NCR staff

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/madisons-morlino-noted-othodoxy-controversy

4. 'Free God language': fired parish worker's thesis

"Let's not make idols of certain limited metaphors of God'

Mar. 20, 2009

By TOM ROBERTS

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/free-god-language-fired-parish-workers-thesis

Their Diocese and Parish are

++++++++