Archbishop Dolan's Love Letter ... [cross-post]

Archbishop Dolan's Love Letter to Rep Ryan Betrays Catholic Teaching

• Post by DANIEL C. MAGUIRE
• 
  
  When bishops really disagree with someone, they are not tepid. Their language glows hot and they follow it up with strong action.
  
  
  I know this from personal experience.
  But Archbishop Dolan’s letter to Representative Paul Ryan blessing the Republican’s budget proposal was an epic of fawning tepidity and outrage deficit. Suppose a Catholic thief in the act of robbing the homes of the poor were to proclaim his fervid commitment to “Catholic teaching” against theft... while busily robbing. Would Archbishop Dolan praise the robber for his knowing about and proclaiming Catholic teaching?
  If Archbishop Dolan were serious, he would blast that thief.
  In 2006, I also received a letter form Archbishop Dolan (then Archbishop of Milwaukee where my Marquette University is located). My oh my, how different was the letter Dolan sent me from his mellifluous effusion to Ryan, criticizing my support for pregnant women making their own decisions about problem pregnancies and my defense of marriage for those whom God has made gay. He was rabid! My teaching, he said, was “preposterous and disingenuous,” “totally at odds with clear Church teaching, Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, and Natural Law,” and “contrary to the faith and morals of the Catholic Church.” He then followed up by banning me from ever speaking in any parish of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on any topic whatsoever. 
  That’s Dolan when he’s serious.
  But conservative Catholic Ryan is a different case. In the terms of the bishops’ pelvic-zone orthodoxy, Ryan is pure. He scorns same-sex marriage and wants the government, not pregnant women, to have control of pregnancies. That marks Ryan out for tepid handling and adulatory congratulations for even knowing about Catholic social teaching and Jesus’ mission to be “good news to the poor.” Dolan’s letter to the man who wants to kill Medicare and starve the poor while glutting the rich was dripping with praise, using words like “kind” and noble to describe Ryan’s work. The Archbishop “appreciates” (three times,) “commends,” is “grateful” (twice) and prays for Ryan’s continued good work.
  No wonder Ryan and Boehner, who was, a week earlier, criticized roundly by Catholic scholars, welcomed Dolan’s sweet nothings.
  Come now, Archbishop Dolan, where is that fire you can unleash when you are serious!        
  Could you not be as tough as Jesus was when he rebuked those in power who were mouthing pieties, while stripping the poor and favoring the pillaging rich? “Whitened sepulchers,” Jesus called them, covered with platitudinous posturing on the outside but inside filled with the stench of moral decay. “Hypocrites,” Jesus called them repeatedly, “blind guides” who are “fit for hell.” “Outside you look like honest men, but inside you are brimful of hypocrisy and crime.” (Matthew 23)               
  Nothing tepid about Jesus when poor workers and children were being trampled.
  The seventy Catholic scholars who rebuked Boehner when the bishops welcomed him to Catholic University were in the Jesus mode. “Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress... you gutted long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society... particularly pregnant women and children,” while lavishing trillions on corporations, military kill-power, and the super-rich.         
  And to all of that Jesus and the other prophets of Israel would say “Amen!”

Navy Honors and Discredits César Chávez [cross-post]

Navy Honors and Discredits César Chávez

by Bryan Farrell 05-25-2011

No one delivers sad irony quite like the United States Military. Yesterday the U.S. Navy announced that its next new ship will be named after nonviolent civil rights and labor leader César Chávez. The  Chávez family and the president of the United Farm Workers Union, along with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus were on hand to make the announcement at a San Diego, California shipyard where the USNS César Chávez is being built.

According to the Las Vegas Desert Sun, Mabus highlighted Chavez’s nonviolent leadership as a reason for naming the ship after him.

His nonviolent movement helped to end discriminatory practices against Latinos beyond California’s fields, Mabus said.

“His example will live through this ship,” he told the crowd gathered in front of the beginnings of the ship, which will be completed next May. “It will continue to inspire Americans to do what’s right.”

He added that the ship will sail around the world assisting people “acting a lot like its U.S. namesake.”

“Everywhere it goes the story of César Chávez will spread and the words ‘si se puede’ (yes you can!) will echo around the world,” Mabus said.

While such praise for nonviolent leadership coming from military leadership is no doubt encouraging, there is a dangerous level of hypocrisy that should not be overlooked. It’s the kind of hypocrisy that has a way of whitewashing history and turning noble dissidents into symbols of the state — thereby extinguishing the true power of their work.

Thankfully, the USNS César Chávez is a cargo ship and not a battle ship. Nevertheless, boats of its class — which are part of the T-AKE Program – have served as prisons and fired upon Somali pirates. Neither practice are exactly in keeping with the life and work of César Chávez.

As a César Chávez biographer noted in a CNN article:

“We’re talking about a person who believed in nonviolence — the absolute core belief was nonviolence,” said Randy Shaw in San Francisco, where he is the executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Shaw also is the author of “Beyond the Fields: César Chávez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century,” published in 2008.

“Do you think he would want a military ship named after him?” Shaw asked. “It seems pretty unlikely.”

Perhaps the saddest aspect of this development, however, is that Chávez’s family fully endorses it. In a press release on the César E. Chávez Foundation website, César’s son Paul speaks as though he’s speaking for the military, not his father.

Like his hero, Mahatma Gandhi, “César Chávez was an apostle of nonviolence,” Paul Chávez said. “No one yearns for peace more than those who get sent in harms way during times of war. So it is our hope that this ship will fill out its service during a time when it can help promote peace and democracy in the world.”

Paul Chávez said his father’s “example of nonviolently struggling to fulfill the promise of America for farm workers carried over into other arenas where Latinos battled to realize the promise of equally — in housing, in business, in law, in politics, in government, in the military and in the promise of a quality education for their kids. That is why we must now enact the DREAM Act, so the sons and daughters of immigrants who contribute to America by achieving a college education or serving their country in the armed forces can also earn the right to legal status and citizenship — because among them there are many César Chávez.”

It seems unlikely that Chávez would have supported the version of the DREAM Act that basically makes poor Latinos prey for military recruiters by being able to offer a path to citizenship through military service. Although he was a Navy veteran, having served in World War II, Chavez had mixed feelings about the experience. According to his official biography on the United Farm Workers website, “He served two years and in addition to discrimination, he experienced strict regimentation.”

All of this reminds me of a phrase I heard recently. It goes something like this: We let our heroes die twice. The second time is when we whitewash their legacies. In a sense, that is far more tragic.

[This article appears courtesy of a partnership with Waging Nonviolence.]

Bryan Farrell is a New York-based writer, covering topics that range from the environment and climate change to foreign policy and militarism. His work has appeared in The Nation, In These Times, Plenty, Earth Island Journal, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy In Focus. Visit his website atBryanFarrell.com.

From the UCC Network: 05/25/2011 "The Third Mile"

The Third Mile

Excerpt from Matthew 5: 38-42

" . . . and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

"Yes," said a friend, "it's true Jesus asked us to go the second mile, but he didn't say nothing about no third, fourth or fifth mile."

Is there a limit to extra chances, to second miles? If there are times when we all need a second chance, are there also times when it is wise and right to draw a line and set a limit? Are there times when it's best to say, "We've gone the second mile with you, but we're not going to go no third, fourth or tenth mile." I think there are.

I notice in congregations that some people ask for more attention than others, sometimes a lot more. They want others to listen to them and accommodate them, but don't return the favor. They seem to have to get their way. And they never, it seems, stop asking. You may think that saying "yes" this one time will satisfy them. But with some people, giving in only whets their appetite and keeps them coming back for more. They don't seem to notice that there are other people in the church, too.

So we go the second mile, and we should, giving others an extra measure of patience, time and effort. That's okay. For sure, someone has given that to you and to me. But there's also a time to say, "This far, no further." There's a time to say to the person who's asking everyone to adjust to them but who isn't making any adjustments to others, "No."

There's a time to say that misbehavior, being demanding, popping off at others, being mean or unfair is not okay here and won't be tolerated. We went the second mile, but we aren't going no third mile. We say that not because we don't care, but because we do.

Prayer

Teach us, Lord, when to say "yes" and when to say "no." Help our "no's" to be because we've said a deep and abiding "Yes" to you. Amen.

About the Author Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His newest book is Stewardship for Vital Congregations, published by The Pilgrim Press. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts atwww.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking on Weekly Reading.