Sidebar Comments

Thursday August 18, 2005

Kindly Advice to Levada, Successor to Benedict XVI at the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Levada’s cousin lays down CDF challenge [Published by Capuchin Communications, Province of St Joseph, 2470 Locust St Milwaukee WI 53206 – www.capcomm.org

IN A POTENTIALLY embarrassing development, a first cousin of Archbishop William Levada has called upon the man who will soon take up his role as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal watchdog to tone down the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s reputation for being “heavy-handed and unilateral”. Fr Richard Mangini’s open letter, “Advice to the faithful”, urges Levada to walk “a more gentle, moderate and conciliatory path”. The letter was published in the weekly parish bulletin of St Bonaventure’s, in the Bay Area city of Oakland, California, where Fr Mangini is a parish priest, soon after was appointed. It argues: “While the Congregation is popularly called the ‘Watch Dog’ by reporters, I believe its purpose is much larger and more positive: to promote a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith throughout the world.”

Fr Mangini, 65, said he would be seeing the archbishop at a gala farewell dinner in San Francisco, and added that he would deliver the letter to his cousin before he departs his San Francisco archdiocese.

In the letter, he cites the dismissal of the Jesuit priest, Thomas Reese, from his job as editor of America, the US weekly Catholic magazine, as an example of the Vatican’s “stop-discussion mentality from the top” policy that he claims “does not stop discussion”. Referring to the issues of married clergy, women priests and gay marriage, Fr Mangini writes: “While each issue is different, a heavy-handed document is not going to stop discussion.”

While he acknowledged that Archbishop Levada – whose father was Fr Mangini’s mother’s brother – may not pay any attention to his advice, Fr Mangini said he was personally close to the archbishop and in his letter writes: “I hope that my cousin walks a more gentle, moderate and conciliatory path, inviting friendly dialogue in contentious areas of Catholic Christian thought, not always operating from authority and power, but rather from pastoral care.”

Arguing that the Catholic Church “faces far more serious issues than doctrinal clarity”, Fr Mangini calls for “pastoralists”, rather than theologians, to write church documents, in what he calls a “simple, imaginative and life-giving manner”. The priest concludes: “If I were the prefect, I would go out into the field and encourage the local Churches of every continent to get off their laurels and to create a pastoral plan that creates a new kind of priest and a new kind of ministry with a new way to be a Catholic Christian.”

In line with the Congregation’s policy, CDF officials in Rome refused to comment on Fr Mangini’s letter.

And here’s a timely piece from Mike Connolly which I thought you all might appreciate:

I was reading about the Pope’s visit to Islamic audience in Germany inyesterday’s Washington Post and relating that story (and his message) to the speech you provided by the Chaplain about the atomic bombs and to something that Cox said about Jesus’ message shaking up people – not giving the punch line that one logically expects. The Washington Post also had an advertisement that I’ll try to find and share with you from a Jewish group that also seemed to tie into this thought which was:

The terrorists want us to hate them and they want us to hate those who merely look like them. Because when we do hate them, our hatred can be used as further justification and support for the battle in which they want to engage.

The more difficult course is not to hate them, (at least not an entire people who merely looks as the terrorists look).

The more difficult course is to appreciate the sacrifice that we may need to make in order to show that we do not hate the people and that with God’s strength we can even not hate the terrorists themselves (as opposed to what they do).

The more difficult course is to put trust in the “shake-your-world-view” Gospel message and to find ways to practice that message which calls into question most of our tactics and responses up to now (and run the risk of being seen as “weak”).

The more difficult course is to question the path we are on, which is where the Washington Post advertisement comes into play – - a group of Talmudic Jews reminding the Jewish people and the world that part of God’s covenant with the Jews involves them as a wandering people who perhaps were not really intended to have a home land and that the actions taken to preserve an artificial homeland have actually been counter-productive to the safety of Jews around the world and to the
cause of world peace. Boy if that isn’t a difficult message to swallow—but it appears to be in the Rabbinical tradition that Cox writes about and it certainly causes one to pause and wonder – are we missing the real answers because of the obvious answers?

Now, the hardest part – what to do about it and how.

Is Jesus’ message always the “more difficult course”?

Mike Connolly,
St Joseph Parish
Mendham

Recent Articles

Seventh Sunday of Easter 'B'

Living the Mystery at the town square As I walked recently to the Green in the center of Morristown after my…continue reading...

Sixth Sunday of Easter 'C'

In all things, charity It continues to astound me how the Scriptures come to life over and over again under different…continue reading...

Sixth Sunday of Easter 'C'

In all things, charity It continues to astound me how the Scriptures come to life over and over again under different…continue reading...

Fifth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Let’s stay connected. It’s not unusual to hear family members or close friends at the departure gates of life say to…continue reading...

Fourth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Watch out for the leopards! When my sister and I were kids, my father would whistle for us when it was…continue reading...