October 21, 2005 - Issue #21
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Rural deacon program helps keep the faith in Bush Alaska
When the diaconate was established in Alaska 35 years ago, one of the first decisions the Fairbanks Diocese’s original deacon candidates made concerned the design of their vestments. Together the group of Central Yup’ik men chose a traditional kuspuk and simple cross worn around the neck, a blend of their Alaska Native culture and Catholic faith.
On Wednesday, at the Alaska Federation of Natives gathering in Fairbanks, Yup’ik deacons donned those special vestments and assisted Alaska’s bishops as they celebrated the convention’s opening Mass.
Today, 19 active rural deacons of the Fairbanks Diocese serve in Alakanuk, Bethel, Chefornak, Chevak, Emmonak, Mountain Village, Newtok, Nightmute, Scammon Bay and Toksook Bay. All of them are Yup’ik except one, a Caucasian who has lived in Bethel for 19 years. An additional seven "urban" deacons serve Fairbanks and North Pole.
The Fairbanks Diocese’s deacon program stemmed from church leaders’ growing awareness in the 1960s of inadequate supplies of priests and religious to serve the vast and sparsely populated diocese, which encompasses all of Northern and Western Alaska and to this day remains extremely underdeveloped in places. Church leaders saw hope in forming local deacons who could teach, lead liturgy and perform some of the sacraments in their own language and their own villages.
By 1975, the "Eskimo Deacon Training Program," as it was originally called, had produced 11 ordained deacons. Since then an additional 40 or 50 men have completed training in the rural deacon program.
Jesuit Father Mark Hoelsken, who directs the program out of the Yukon River village of St. Marys, said the deacons are the "primary spiritual leaders" in their villages, many of which lack a resident priest.
In the Fairbanks Diocese, 40 of the 48 parishes are in the Bush, and of those, 22 are located in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta where mainly Yup’ik people live, Father Hoelsken said.
"It’s a huge portion of the diocese," and Native deacons have made "great strides in making the faith credible to the people," mainly by leading liturgies and prayers in their Native language, Father Hoelsken said.
The Fairbanks program traces its roots to 1970, three years after the Second Vatican Council reinstated the ancient role of permanent deacon in the church.
Permanent deacons were part of the early church, but in the fifth century, the deacon position became a transitional steppingstone on the way to priesthood. Since 1967, both types, transitional and permanent, have existed within the church.
A permanent deacon may be married, and his spouse plays a role in his training and commitment to the ministry.
In the early days of the Fairbanks Diocese program, many of the candidates did not know how to read or write and few spoke English. They were men who provided for their families by hunting and fishing and working seasonally. They weren’t able to travel frequently to Spokane, Wash., where a Jesuit-led training program had initially been proposed, so various villages hosted workshops and candidates gathered by flying, boating or sledding in.
Deacon Nick Therchik of Toksook Bay was among the original group of Yup’ik deacons who were ordained in 1974.
Talking by phone from his village on Nelson Island, Deacon Therchik told the Anchor that when his parish council first suggested he become a deacon, he declined. He was struggling with substance abuse in those days and his wife was mad at the thought of him becoming a church representative, he said.
"He used to drink lots of alcohol and I was so embarrassed," said Laura Therchik, his wife of 41 years. "I didn’t think he would make it to deacon."
But something changed in her husband, she said. He told her God had chosen him to be a deacon and he stopped drinking. She was soon "so glad" that he decided to commit to the deacon program.
Now, she said, people call the house after he leads services at St. Peter the Fisherman Parish to thank him for his homilies.
Therchik said he also makes sure people in Toksook Bay share enough "Eskimo food" with one another — seal oil, dried fish, salmon, herring, halibut and whitefish — to last the winter.
"Love your neighbors, love yourself, love your God, and sharing with other people" are the messages he embodies as a deacon in the village of 561 people, he said.
Deacon Denis Shelden of Alakanuk had a similar experience, initially resisting his parish council’s invitation because, he said, he didn’t think he was "good enough."
For three years he thought more about their request and eventually decided that the diaconate was a "call by my church to help serve," he said.
Deacon Shelden, who speaks English and Yup’ik, said that a language gap exists between generations in the region today, with many elders who speak only Yup’ik. He and Alakanuk’s other two active deacons lead Eucharistic services in both Yup’ik and English.
Deacon Shelden was ordained almost ten years ago on a day he described as the "beginning of a new life."
Now people call him when they’re sick and he and his wife, Winifred Shelden, sing Yup’ik songs in their homes. He marries a few couples each summer in the church after preparing them for the sacrament, gets parents ready for the responsibilities that come with baptizing their children, and opens the church up for local meetings of support groups that deal with suicide and alcoholism.
It wasn’t hard to dovetail his deacon role with his responsibilities as a provider for his family and a member of the village, Deacon Shelden said.
"Our Yup’ik traditions and culture and teachings are no different from the teachings of the church that you read in the Bible," he said. "The principle law of our people is respect — respect for everything, for ourselves, for other people, animals, fish and the land."
It’s not a stretch for Yup’ik people, who rely on strong couples and family units and whose men have been the traditional teachers in the village, to accept the deacon’s role, he said.
Deacon Shelden explained how, for generations, men gathered people in the central qasgiq, or community house, to teach village members about "Yup’ik values of life as human beings, what is right, what is wrong and the need to take care of each other," as well as about how to hunt, trap, fish and make a living off the land.
"The work of the community house and the work of the church is the same," the deacon explained. "The Yup’ik way of life — we’re not too much different than what the early priests taught when they came here. Conversion to our faith was not very hard for the old people."
Father Hoelsken, the rural deacon program director, said home-grown lay ministers and deacons are essential for sustaining a "truly Yup’ik Catholic Church."
"Until a people experience a church that is self-sustaining for themselves and owned by them, it’s not really their church," Father Hoelsken said. "The church needs to be able to theologize in a Yup’ik context, to think about the primary questions of God and God’s relationship with people. It needs to be able to do that from a Yup’ik perspective. The rural deacon program is a very critical piece … for that becoming realized in a deeper way."
As for Yup’ik men becoming priests, Father Hoelsken said he’s learned from directing the rural deacon program that the family base is essential to Yup’ik culture and that celibacy, which is required for becoming a Catholic priest, is a "non-value" in the Yup’ik way of life.
"The experience of family and the role that family plays in society in Yup’ik villages is essential to their life, to their survival and to the continued expression of their culture and their cultural values," Father Hoelsken said.
There are no Yup’ik priests in Alaska. One man, Robert Corrigal, born to a Yup’ik mother and Irish father in Bethel, became a Jesuit priest and served throughout the Fairbanks Diocese and died in Anchorage in 1998.
Father Hoelsken said that the rural deacon program and the Yup’ik deacons themselves have provided an essential service to Catholic people and that the program still has a "long way to go."
He said rural deacons are ministering in increasingly complex cultures and that the program needs to train men accordingly so that they have more tools to be effective pastoral leaders.
The priest said ongoing efforts to enculturate the faith in Western Alaska constitute a "hopeful" dialogue that the rural deacon program and the universal Catholic Church stand to gain from.
Archdiocese, others sued in abuse case
The lawyer representing a man who filed a lawsuit last week accusing an Anchorage priest of molesting him many years ago says that his client first tried to get financial help from Archbishop Roger Schwietz but was ignored.
But the archbishop said early this week that although he doesn’t know who the man is — he is identified only as Joseph Doe in the lawsuit — he has not ignored anyone who has come to him with a sexual abuse accusation against a priest.
"What I can tell you is I have not refused since I’ve been here … to talk to any victim who has wanted to come and talk to me," the archbishop told the Anchor on Monday morning, his first day back in the office after a week in New York taking part in a Vatican-directed "apostolic visitation" of U.S. seminaries.
The lawsuit accuses Msgr. Francis Murphy of sexually abusing Doe in numerous ways when Doe, now in his 30s, was a minor. It names as defendants Msgr. Murphy, the Anchorage Archdiocese in which he is incardinated and in which he served for almost 20 years, the Boston Archdiocese, where he was ordained, and a group called the Missionary Society of St. James that recruits priests for missionary assignments.
The lawsuit says Doe believes the defendants knew Msgr. Murphy "was a child molester" and "knowingly failed to report, hid, and concealed … the true facts and relevant information necessary to bring (him) to justice, as well as to protect their parishioners, and their families."
The defendants transferred Msgr. Murphy from parish to parish "so as to make detection harder and less likely and/or to communicate the false impression that corrective action had been taken … ," according to the suit.
It lists nine claims — including "sexual abuse of a minor," "negligent supervision," "breach of fiduciary duty" and "hindering prosecution" — and requests compensatory damages "greater than $100,000" on each claim.
Msgr. Murphy served in several parishes in Southcentral Alaska from 1961 — five years before the Anchorage Archdiocese was carved from the Juneau Diocese — until 1985, the year now-retired Archbishop Francis Hurley ordered him to an out-of-state treatment center.
The police had come to Archbishop Hurley with concerns about the priest, including questions about pornography and financial questions, the archbishop told the Anchor in 2003. Archbishop Hurley was convinced that "whatever else was being said, Msgr. Murphy was hooked on alcohol," he said.
Msgr. Murphy now lives on a small remote ranch in New Mexico; he is still a priest but is not allowed to publicly present himself as one.
Archbishop Schwietz said he recently checked with officials of the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., and was told Msgr. Murphy appears to be abiding by the restrictions placed on him.
This is the second lawsuit against Msgr. Murphy. In 1996 a different man accused the priest of having fondled him years earlier, but the case was eventually thrown out because the statute of limitations had run.
Also, in January of this year, the Anchorage Archdiocese announced it had reached an agreement with the Podvin family, two members of which Msgr. Murphy sexually abused 20 or more years ago. The agreement as announced in the Catholic Anchor included a "commitment to financial assistance, plus individual counseling" for members of their families. Pat Podvin, one of Msgr. Murphy’s victims, spoke publicly about the abuse in 2003. He committed suicide in 2004.
In the current case, Doe contacted Archbishop Schwietz about a year ago and asked for "help with some expenses," according to Ken Roosa, Doe’s lawyer.
Roosa told the Anchor he didn’t know "the details" of Doe’s requests, such as what precisely he wanted or how he had made his request.
"Well, I’m certain that he contacted the archbishop and that if the archbishop would have given him the time of day, he wouldn’t have called me," Roosa said.
Archbishop Schwietz said that six or seven men in all have told him that Msgr. Murphy sexually abused them, including the two Podvins and the man who filed the failed lawsuit in 1996.
Archbishop Schwietz said he has responded to each request he has received from the alleged victims of Msgr. Murphy and "offered assistance as we can."
"So far as I know we have never refused to pay for counseling to anybody," he said.
Churches in Girdwood, West Anchorage getting relics
Relics of three saints have arrived in Anchorage and await their permanent home in the altars of two new churches being built in the archdiocese.
The relics are destined for the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in West Anchorage and Our Lady of the Snows Mission Church in Girdwood. The churches will hold relics of both St. Therese of Lisieux, the French nun who serves as the patron saint of Alaska and is sometimes called "The Little Flower," and St. Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the order to which Archbishop Roger Schwietz belongs.
A third relic will be installed at Our Lady of Guadalupe; it is from St. Louise de Marillac, who co-founded the Daughters of Charity, a religious order that has served for several years in the archdiocese. The choice of this relic also honors Mary Louise Rasmuson, a major donor to the church construction project.
According to John Conway, building committee chairman at Our Lady of Guadalupe, the relics there will be placed in the wood of the altar, just below the stone top. They will be facing forward, toward the Risen Christ, and will be inset into the altar so that they are visible.
The altar at Our Lady of Guadalupe is a gift of Holy Cross Father Leroy Clementich, who donated the $10,000 prize he received as the 2005 recipient of the Lumen Christi award, the top honor bestowed annually by the Catholic Church Extension Society.
The committee planning the altar at Our Lady of the Snows has not yet decided on the placement of its relics.
So what exactly are relics, and how does one go about obtaining them?
Relics are the material remains of a deceased saint or martyr, as well as objects closely associated with those remains.
First-class relics are the physical remains of a saint. Second-class relics might be items that a saint has worn or used, such as a rosary or breviary. Third-class relics are items that have come in contact with a first- or second-class relic.
Before Vatican II, all churches were required to have relics under the altar stone, according to Deacon Ted Greene, who serves on the archdiocesan liturgical commission and on staff at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Now the tradition is encouraged but not required, according to Deacon Greene.
If relics are placed in an altar, they should be "of a size sufficient for them to be recognizable as parts of a human body," according to "Built of Living Stone: Art, Architecture and Worship," by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
It could be argued that the relics for the two local churches are smaller than the bishops suggest. But regardless of their size, the relics, nestled in circular gold frames about the diameter of a quarter, are impressive. They are, after all, first-class relics — physical remains of three well-known saints.
Catholics are much more likely to see physical remains displayed in the churches of Europe than in the United States. The tongue and vocal cords of St. Anthony are on display in a church in Padua, Italy, and one of St. Catherine’s fingers can be seen in Siena.
The idea behind preserving a relic in the altar dates to the time of the catacombs, when Mass would be celebrated in the underground chambers "literally over the tombs of martyrs," according to Deacon Greene.
During the Middle Ages, the miraculous powers sometimes ascribed to relics made them so popular and sought after that the body of anyone suspected of sainthood had to be guarded from relic hunters. Unscrupulous vendors created a market in stolen or fake relics.
The abuse of relics was part of the criticism leveled at the church during the Protestant Reformation.
In response, the Council of Trent in 1563 defended the practice of invoking the prayers of saints and venerating their relics. But strict new measures were taken to prevent abuse.
Canon law now forbids the selling of first- or second-class relics, which cannot be transferred without permission of the Holy See.
So how did the archdiocese obtain these relics? Archbishop Schwietz submitted a request through the papal nuncio to the United States. The relics themselves come from a monastery of Augustinian nuns in Rome whose ministry is preparing and transferring relics.
Somewhat surprisingly, the relics were entrusted to the Italian post office and sent airmail from Italy to the pastoral center in Anchorage.
The history of Catholicism in Alaska
Jesuit priest’s new book details the rich past of the church in the Last Frontier and the people who helped build it
If you want to visit an Alaska where solitary missionaries drove dog teams through silent frozen wilderness to places with names such as Paimiut and Ohagamiut, the book to take you there comes out in November.
"Alaskana Catholica: A History of the Catholic Church in Alaska," by Jesuit Father Louis Renner, will be a must-have for rectories, chanceries and Catholic schools throughout the state.
But the highly readable style of "Alaskana Catholica" and its blend of what the author calls "interesting, informative and inspiring" writing will no doubt make it, despite a $75 price tag, a sought-after volume on many Alaskan Christmas wish lists this year.
The book is in the final stages of publication now in Spokane, Wash. The Anchor was fortunate to receive a sneak peek.
Father Renner’s book is "a reference work in the format of an encyclopedia," with alphabetical listings of priests, religious, parishes and places that have made an impact on the faith in Alaska.
Add to that a smattering of lay people — Alaska’s Catholic history is, after all, largely lived before Vatican II introduced lay leadership — and some excellent photographs, and you have a fascinating look at a history that stretches back to the day in 1779 when a Spanish Franciscan celebrated the first Mass in Alaska near present-day Craig.
Don’t let the term "encyclopedia" scare you away. Father Renner spent more than 40 years working in the Diocese of Fairbanks. For many of those years he served as editor of the Alaskan Shepherd newsletter, in which he chronicled the lives and deeds of many who appear in his new book. He writes objectively but with a lively sense of compassion and admiration for his subjects, some of whom he knew personally or whose stories he may have heard from pioneers.
One can envision Sister Scholastica Lohagen, a sturdy German-born Ursuline, walking down the halls of boarding schools and orphanages in her sneakers, first at Akulurak and then St. Mary’s. She came to Alaska in 1934 and remained until her death in 1985, having skinned moose, processed salmon, and done laundry in missions on the tundra for over 50 years.
Here’s Dominican Father Urban Bates, still a young Francis Patrick Bates, registering as a conscientious objector in the draft in October 1941. Here’s Presentation Sister Mary Clare Ciulla, the director of Catholic Charities in the Anchorage Archdiocese in 1967, "at the time, the only woman in the United States to hold that office."
Some of the pictures of pioneers and their stories of survival in the North can make you feel cold even in a warm room, people such as Jesuit Fathers Paschal Tosi and Aloysius Robaut, who ventured into Alaska in 1887.
Bringing not just the faith but a willingness to build missions from scratch, spend countless hours engaged in the rudiments of survival, and learn Native tongues that today are on the verge of extinction, these were men and women of uncommon courage.
Here’s Jesuit Brother John Huck, who helped build the church in Emmonak, helped dry out the Catholic school in Fairbanks after the flood of 1967, and helped build the facilities for KNOM, Nome’s Catholic radio station. At the age of 33, Brother Huck drowned in rough waters on the Andreafsky River.
There’s a long entry about Little Diomede Island, first visited by Jesuit Father Bellarmine Lafortune in 1913, and a loving history of Pilgrim Hot Springs, near Nome, where a thriving mission center and boarding school were described by Jesuit Father Segundo Llorente as "an oasis in the heart of the unfriendly Arctic."
Here’s a history of Cordova with a photo of the old St. Joseph Church, and a story about Talkeetna, the staging area for climbers on Mt. McKinley, where the church was named St. Bernard in honor of St. Bernard of Menthon, trainer of St. Bernard alpine rescue dogs.
Father Renner handles controversy gingerly in his book. For example, in the biographies of Jesuit Fathers Jules Convert and James Poole, he describes the admirable work of each man, while adding at the end a brief statement about the accusations of child molestation that have been leveled against both of them.
In the section on Copper Valley School, Father Renner attributes the school’s closing as a case of "mutual distrust" between Anchorage Archbishop Joseph Ryan and the Jesuits. The pain of its closing is summed up in the words of Jesuit Father James Spils, the school’s builder, to St. Ann Sister George Edmund, who had served as superior there: "George, God decides the duration of a work. Copper Valley School is finished. We will not talk about it anymore."
So you might ask, what’s missing from this book? Not surprisingly, for a subject that could fill several volumes, there are many omissions. The Anchor asked about some of the most glaring.
Father Renner acknowledged that the book has a decidedly Northern Alaskan bent, due to the way the book project expanded from Northern Alaska southward.
"First, I began to think only of Jesuits and then Northern Jesuits and then early day Jesuits," the author said. But he began to realize that he needed to be more inclusive because the Alaskan church had no written history.
Still, he said, much of the early church in Alaska was dominated by Jesuit influence.
Another omission is the absence of Msgr. Francis Murphy.
If there is a priestly tripod for the Archdiocese of Anchorage’s foundation, that trio is Msgr. John Lunney, Msgr. Francis Cowgill and Msgr. Francis Murphy. Msgr. Lunney and Msgr. Cowgill have individual biographies but not Msgr. Murphy.
Is this because of the well-chronicled sexual abuse charges against the priest?
No, said Renner. He had a simple rule for biographies of people still living. If they did not respond to a request for biographical input, their bios were not included, and Monsignor Murphy did not respond.
This is perhaps the book’s major, if only, historical flaw. Because of this rule, you may find your favorite priest chronicled, or you may not.
For example, Father Dan Hebert, pastor of Holy Cross in Anchorage, has a biography, but Father Steve Moore, the archdiocese’s former vicar-general who is now studying canon law at Catholic University, has no entry.
Minor stuff, however, in a not-to-be missed work of history, with a sweeping breadth and scope, written lovingly by a man who had the opportunity to live several years of it himself.
"Alaskana Catholica" may be ordered from the Alaska Shepherd, 1312 Peger Rd, Fairbanks 99709.
News & Notes
Knights of Columbus get GCI to add channel
Local Knights of Columbus gathered nearly 2,000 signatures in a successful bid to persuade GCI Cable Network to begin airing EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Previously, the program founded by cloistered nun Mother Angelica had to share air time with several other religious programs on CREDO Channel 16. That amounted to about five hours per day of EWTN, according to John Tobia of Eagle River, one of the Knights who led the signature campaign for more EWTN.
Tobia said he became so frustrated about EWTN being cut off in the middle of something he was watching that he ordered satellite TV.
Now anyone in the Anchorage Bowl and Matanuska Valley can access the network whenever they want by purchasing GCI’s "basic plus digital variety" package, which costs $38.95 per month. Since Sept. 28, EWTN’s new home is Channel 122.
EWTN is most well known for its founder, Mother Angelica, a member of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration religious order who was born Rita Rizzo. Mother Angelica turned a garage at the monastery into her first studio; today the network she founded 25 years ago claims more than 100 million television viewers worldwide and has spun off radio and Web podcasting versions.
The outspoken nun had a widely publicized run-in with Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1997 in which she criticized a document he wrote to his people on the centrality of liturgy. She urged her viewers not to obey the cardinal, sparking a huge debate in the church about media outlets that declare themselves Catholic but are not subject to the legitimate authority of the church.
Mother Angelica eventually apologized for her remarks. The 82-year-old nun has since suffered at least two strokes that left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak clearly.
Tobia said the network she founded covers "anything of significance in the church," from news to catechetical instruction to drama with positive Christian themes. Of immense value, especially to shut-ins, he said, are the Sunday Masses the program airs.
"I’ve watched it enough to realize that this is such a powerful thing in my life, it’s educated me so much, that I want other people to experience it too," Tobia said.
Knights Council 9830 at St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River, to which Tobia belongs, spearheaded the signature campaign, but the effort eventually included councils throughout Southcentral and Southeast Alaska, he said.
"Getting those petitions really helped me in my case to get the funding," said Bob Ormberg, vice president of cable marketing and programming for GCI. Ormberg, himself a Knight of Columbus, said that EWTN was one of nine "faith and inspiration" programs to receive its own channel on Sept. 28.
— Reported by John Roscoe, Anchor editor
Editorials
An opportunity and duty in Sudan
Genocide is still occurring in Sudan, and Americans of faith have a special responsibility and a powerful, proven means to confront it.
These are difficult days, with a slew of catastrophes — in Kashmir, Central America, the Gulf Coast and many other places — that demand the generosity of Christian disciples.
But the enormity of the tragedy in Sudan, and the opportunity to end it, require special attention. The genocide can be stopped if there is a rising-up of the American people, and of the religious community especially.
In a meticulously researched article in the October issue of First Things, the interreligious American journal, Allen Hertzke details the key role that American evangelical Christians played in securing the peace deal that this spring ended Sudan’s north-south, Muslim-Christian, Arab-African civil war, and asserts that they should be playing a similar role in Darfur, in the western part of the country, where a minority group of African Muslims is being terrorized by the Arab Muslim Khartoum government.
Tragically, the genocide campaign in Darfur came on just as the north-south civil war, which had raged for 20 years and claimed an estimated 2 million lives, was drawing to an end.
Evangelical Christians in America and elsewhere deserve much of the credit for the north-south peace treaty, according to Hertzke. They mobilized grassroots campaigns, delivered aid even when it meant violating Sudanese air space and led campaigns to punish Sudan with sanctions. They put tremendous pressure on President Bush — one of their own and a willing partner with them — to act.
But many powerful evangelicals who campaigned valiantly to end the civil war are now silent or soft spoken about Darfur, where millions of African Muslim Sudanese have been chased from their farming villages and hundreds of thousands have died.
President Bush is so far the only major world leader to call the atrocities in Darfur "genocide," but that significant characterization has not been followed with the diplomatic action and leadership that helped end the civil war.
That’s where people of faith come in. Evangelicals have the president’s ear, but Bush has shown refreshing attentiveness to people of other faiths as well.
"The religious community must do its part by keeping the tragedy (of Darfur) foremost on the political agenda, as it did for the southern war," Hertzke writes.
Call or write President Bush and Alaska’s congressional delegation and let them know how important it is to act.
Don’t punish the poor with budget cuts
We have noted with dismay over the years that too many politicians look first to welfare programs when budget cuts are needed. So now we praise the bipartisan effort in Congress that appears to have preserved the federal food stamp program from efforts to reduce the budget by $35 billion.
"Budget constraints do not release us from our obligation to care for poor and vulnerable people," said 40 religious leaders in a letter urging senators not to cut the program. Hear, hear.
In times like these the country should ask for sacrifice from its most well-off citizens and corporations, not those who struggle with such basic necessities as food.
A blog gone (shame?)
In this space two weeks ago we criticized an anonymous Anchorage blogger who sought damaging information about a dead priest. The witch hunt was provoked by a photo of the priest with his arm around another adult — which, to the blogger, revealed an "obviously warped relationship."
We are happy to report that the offensive post has been removed from the blog. As church types are fond of saying, "conversion happens."
Shame gets a bad rap these days but healthy shame is merely the voice of one’s conscience. It can help people do the right thing.
Modern Morals
We know from the agreement of Holy Scripture, tradition and the current discernment of the magisterium that the homosexual lifestyle is harmful (sinful). But, like any other sinful inclination, a person has the free will to participate or not. We are clearly taught that temptation is not sin.
If a person has an inclination to homosexuality, whether in the past he has given in to it or not, he can come to accept that it is not a good thing and willingly turn from acting on his urges. Just as in the case of any other sin (or even illness), once a decision is made that a condition is not good, support systems can be put in place to help the person seek healing.
If we are not able to obtain healing on earth — or while we are waiting for that healing — it can be used as redemptive suffering offered to the Lord for the good of the world. While this may not be easy, neither is living with alcoholism, drug addiction, anger disorders and many other afflictions passed on either through genetics, life experiences or poor choices.
All of us are subject to conditions beyond our control that cause us to be susceptible to sinful actions in one form or another. Homosexuality is no exception.
If a man chooses to accept the authority of Holy Scripture and the magisterium and comes to believe that homosexuality is a harmful thing which he does not want in his life any more than he would want alcoholism or a violent mental disorder, what is there to keep him from entering the priesthood? In my opinion, there is nothing.
The challenge here is to see the hearts of the candidates for priesthood. Do they really believe the Gospel? Are they really called (and ready to answer the call) to holy orders and to celibacy? Are they ready to trust the authority of the church so that they can pledge obedience with their hearts as well as their actions? Do we have support systems in place where they can work out the challenges of their particular addictive tendencies?
If the answers are yes, then they, like any other sinful men, are qualified for the priesthood.
Anchorage
I definitely feel they should not become priests. Thirty, forty years of the appeasement to homosexuals in the priesthood speaks for itself. Catholic teaching calls it a disorder. Apparently, left on their own as priests, they’re not remaining celibate. How much more money and heartache can the Catholic lay person expect to hear about before something constructive is done? Homosexuals do prey upon young people who come from broken families, are confused about their sexuality and are lonely and needy. Our church needs to learn to deal with this issue by calling it a sin and stopping the behavior at its first onset. The secular community offers you all the psycho babble that assures you these people are cured and suitable for the care of young people.
Big Lake
Letters to the Editor
Lecturer was incomplete
I didn’t challenge Dr. Mary Jo Iozzio’s statement (at the Discipleship Days end-of-life lecture) that popes speak at various levels of authority and that John Paul II’s allocution to the 2004 International Congress is "not a new doctrine." That’s true, as is her further point that circumstances and purpose can determine the morality of a neutral action. I did challenge the incompleteness of her answer; reminding the audience that circumstances and purpose can never justify intrinsically evil actions. The pope’s allocution says: "The evaluation of probabilities, founded on waning hopes for recovery when the vegetative state is prolonged beyond a year, cannot ethically justify the cessation or interruption of minimal care for the patient, including nutrition and hydration. Death by starvation or dehydration is, in fact, the only possible outcome as a result of their withdrawal. In this sense it ends up becoming, if done knowingly and willingly, true and proper euthanasia by omission." The pope dogmatically asserts in "Gospel of Life" (no. 65) that euthanasia is "a grave violation of the law of God." It is not neutral.
Anchorage
Coverage was disappointing
You failed to report salient details from the end-of-life workshop (News, Sept. 23). The controversy was ignited by Dr. Iozzio’s statement that Schiavo was not killed, but died. Schiavo wasn’t dying until her nutrition and water were removed, which Iozzio endorsed. Challenged by Ms. Syren’s quote from a clearly cited 2004 John Paul II message that spoke to the issue of nutrition and hydration for similar patients, Iozzio’s stunning reply was that it wasn’t official teaching and needn’t be observed. How could you have missed that, the resultant indignant groans heard around the packed room, or the other participants echoing Syren’s question? How could you have missed the Catholic bioethicist’s chilling suggestion that "meaningful relationship" is related to the value of a person’s existence? Have we no memory, even, of recent modern history? Her statements sent shivers down my spine. Is hers Catholic teaching?
Anchorage
Editor’s Note: Our coverage of this and other Discipleship Days workshops can be found in the archives section at www.catholic-anchor.org. Scroll to the Sept. 23 issue.