Catholic Chronicle

Bishop’s homily from Prayer Service for Healing and Reconciliation

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:45:09 +0000

Editor’s note: The following is the complete text of Bishop Leonard P. Blair’s homily on the occasion of the Prayer Service for Healing and Reconciliation, celebrated Feb. 28 at Findlay St. Michael during the centenary of the Diocese of Toledo.

This prayer service of penance and healing for our diocesan centenary is meant to respond to a need at the very heart of our humanity, and at the very heart of the Christian life; namely, our frailty, our need to forgive and to ask forgiveness, not just in the wider world but also, and even especially, in the Church.

The Church can be publicly represented in many ways, by friend and foe alike. In the modern world individuals and communities have experienced unprecedented change, and feel anxious. In a world that is increasingly impersonal and bureaucratic, whatever is institutional and authoritative can be perceived as threatening, rightly or wrongly in a given situation.

The need for a healing of experiences and memories is not, however, because the Church is an institution. Much more deeply, it is because the Church is a family, a family of faith, a family of weak and sinful human beings from top to bottom and bottom to top.

In his recently published book “The Difference God Makes,” Cardinal George of Chicago points out that our American culture emphasizes voluntary relationships, but downplays relationships that are “given” rather than chosen.

The most “un-choosable” and closest relationship, of course, is to our family. The Scriptures — Old Testament and New — make it clear that you can’t just walk away from your parents, or your spouse or your children, even when things are trying, painful and broken. In any family, there has to come a day of maturity too, when we realize that our parents are not perfect, and that even if our children disappoint or wound us, they are our children still. It is our duty to uphold and cherish the relationships that faith tells us we have no right to “un-choose.”

Faith also tells us that membership in the Church is membership in God’s family, a communion in the life-giving unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” And we cannot belong to Christ without his Body. We cannot be a Christian without one another in the Church. And we cannot be “whole” as the Church without the fullness of communion instituted by Christ on the rock of St. Peter’s faith and on the Apostles, of whom the Pope and bishops are the successors.

Ultimately the Church is not a voluntary association, as our culture defines it. If we are convinced of the Christian faith, then the Church is not something we chose to join or not, to take or leave. No, if by faith we know that the Church is God’s family, then you and I can’t walk away from it, even if our spiritual fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, children and cousins are not perfect, even when they are trying, hurtful, unjust and downright sinful.

We are all a great grace to one another, and sometimes we are also each other’s great cross. There has never been a Church in this world free of human weakness and sin, as anyone who reads the New Testament and Church history can see. In the inscrutable providence of God, the traitor Judas was one of the 12, and came to a bad end because he despaired of repentance.

Every saint is a converted sinner, as they would be the first to tell you. Remember, St. Peter betrayed Jesus too, but what a difference repentance makes! Saints are often difficult personalities, as they would also be the first to tell you. The great majority of them suffered, sometimes terribly, at the hands of their own. So let’s get rid of a sugarcoated and false view of holiness in the Church.

As the Second Vatican Council taught: “The Church, embracing sinners in her bosom, is at the same time holy and always in need of being purified, and incessantly pursues the path of penance and renewal” (“Lumen Gentium,” 8). It says “incessantly pursues” because the need is always painfully obvious among her members, and it is always a struggle.

Jesus says, “When your brother or sister sins against you, do everything you can with that person within the household of the Church to bring about peace in the family of faith. Peter asked, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” And what did Jesus answer? “I say to you, not seven times but 77 times.”

When the Church’s membership — whether clergy, religious or laity, among themselves or in relation to each other — is alienating or alienated, offending or offended, then we have to be like our heavenly Father in the Gospel. We have to “Go in search of the stray.” In a family we are not permitted to say good riddance, or to write other members off.

In the 100 years of the Diocese of Toledo that we celebrate in 2010 we have had our share of saints and sinners, that is to say, the repentant and the unrepentant. Both holiness and sin are never private, as the sacrament of penance makes abundantly clear. We are united in the body of Christ. Our virtues and vices have an impact on all others. And as we celebrate this prayer service we have to heed what our Lord says: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

This “prayer service for healing of experiences and memories” takes its inspiration from what Pope John Paul the great did on the eve of the third Christian millennium. He acknowledged that certain words and actions of Church leaders and Church members over the centuries had been hurtful and wrong. He expressed sorrow and asked humanity for forgiveness. “The Church,” he said, “asks forgiveness for the historical sins of all of her children. … Recalling all those times in history … when … instead of offering to the world the witness of a life inspired by the values of faith, indulged in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter-witness and scandal.”

As the Holy Father is to the universal level, so is the bishop locally. As the spiritual father of the Catholic community of our diocese I ask forgiveness of the wider community of northwest and north central Ohio for anything that the Catholic Church here “has done or failed to do” contrary to discipleship in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important, too, that we Catholics forgive the sins committed against us by others over the past century.

As the spiritual father of the Catholic household of faith, I also ask forgiveness, and ask that there be forgiveness, within our Church: among us clergy, religious and laity, among ourselves and toward each other. At the same time, we clergy who teach, sanctify and govern as shepherds bear a special accountability, as do those religious and laity who exercise a public ministry and responsibility in the Church.

And so to anyone who has ever been treated harshly, rudely or has been otherwise offended by us clergy in the exercise of our ministry, or treated poorly or unjustly by anyone acting in the name of the Church — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To those who have looked for authentic teaching and good example in faith and morals, and ever found instead defective teaching or bad example — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To anyone who has ever had an experience of the Sacred Liturgy, especially the most Holy Eucharist, that was not celebrated faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To those who look to the Church to be a voice against prejudice, social injustice and other sins against the life and dignity of the human person, and ever were disappointed by silence or indifference — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To those who have in any way been the victims of any abuse, sexual or otherwise, whether as a child or as an adult, and to the parents, or siblings or friends of those who were abused — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To those who needed the Church to be with them in sickness, in grief, in trauma, in turmoil and ever found her representatives lacking in presence or compassion — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

To those who have offered their talents for the mission of the Church, but experienced an injustice in the Church’s workplace — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

For whatever ways any representative of the Church, beginning with myself, has hurt, offended, dismissed, ignored anyone — I ask, the Church asks, for forgiveness.

My dear brothers and sisters, sin and sorrow for sin is not the end of the Christian Gospel. Jesus says, “Repent and believe, because the kingdom of God is near.” During Lent mercy is near; forgiveness is near; resurrection is near to those who know their need for God and for one another in Christ.

May all of us appreciate ever more deeply what it means to be members of a family that faith does not permit us to “unchoose” — the new family of God created by the precious blood of a spotless Lamb, who for us sinners was lead to the slaughterhouse and opened not His mouth. May the purification of Lent lead us and our diocese to Easter joy.

There's an 'app' for that: iPhone applications devised for Catholics

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a world that boasts continual technological change, the iPhone by Apple has gained near-iconic status. Even Apple boasts there are more than 140,000 applications — or "apps," in Apple-speak — that users can obtain for their phones.

It only follows that there would be some clever Catholics who have devised apps to bolster people's faith.

Dave Brown of Bend, Ore., invented a virtual rosary-beads app as a sign of thanksgiving after doctors found a successful bone-marrow match for his kindergarten-age daughter in 2008, curing her of her leukemia.

Brown and his wife, Jackie, prayed the rosary frequently through their daughter's treatment, even though one parent was in Bend keeping the home fires burning while the other stayed with the desperately ill girl in Portland, Ore. How? With iPhones that Dave Brown bought so they could talk and send photos and video.

As an information technology manager at a window and door company, Dave Brown used his know-how to design an iPhone app that allows the user to pray the rosary. The small screen has animated beads that can be moved with a touch. Corresponding prayers pop up on the screen, along with devotional images. The application knows which mystery to pray on which day. It even knows where the user left off if the rosary is interrupted. The app also has Spanish and French capability.

Brown told the Catholic Sentinel, Portland's archdiocesan newspaper, that within a year of its introduction, more than 20,000 sales of the app had been recorded. The Browns decided to keep the price low — 99 cents — to get as many people as possible praying.

A similar rosary app, known as the Prayer Beads App, was designed by Premier Christian media in England in advance of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Great Britain later this year and made available in March through Apple's online store.

Richard Smart, the firm's marketing director, told the Telegraph, a daily newspaper in England, he got papal encouragement to develop the app. "He has been encouraging young Catholics to use social media to share the message of Christ," Smart said. "We want to support that. In a way, you could say that we made this app for the pope."

The rosary beads for this app appear to sit on a lush bed of velvet. "The Prayer Beads App is intended for anyone who meditates or prays. Using the app is a tactile experience," Smart told the Telegraph.

In California, the Riverside Press-Enterprise daily newspaper reported that a San Bernardino priest will use an iPhone app to deliver daily inspirational video messages.

Divine Word Father Michael Manning, who hosts a show on cable television's Trinity Broadcasting Network, will make his iPhone debut in April.

According to the Press-Enterprise, Father Manning will record his daily messages at the San Bernardino studios of Wordnet Productions, a Catholic television ministry the priest founded.

The app is sponsored by the Vatican Observatory Foundation. The organization supports the work of the Vatican Observatory, which has telescopes near Rome and in the Arizona desert. Proceeds from the app's sales will help fund the observatory's research and education efforts.

The foundation chose Father Manning for his ability to effectively convey the church's message, according to Robert Thorne, CEO of a Beverly Hills firm that co-manages global licensing and media for the foundation.

And, just in time for Lent, Ave Maria Press has developed its own app: a Stations of the Cross app. While already available free at Apple's online iTunes app store, it was to be unveiled during the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference, to be held March 19-21.

An announcement by Ave Maria said the app works on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch, another Apple product.

The app features artwork by Michael O'Brien. It is based on a biblical-based Way of the Cross conceived by Pope John Paul II in 1991.

"We are delighted to explore creative digital ways of keeping our readers connected to God through prayer. It's our hope that many will take advantage of this free prayer resource," said Ave Maria Press publisher Tom Grady. The Ave Maria Press announcement called its app a "perfect pocket devotional."

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Contributing to this story was Ed Langlois in Portland.

St. John’s director’s music to debut in March

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

TOLEDO—Luke Rosen, director of choral music at Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School, also is a composer and a piece he wrote is to premiere March 13 and 14.

His music is being performed by the Toledo Masterworks Chorale at 8 p.m. March 13 at First Presbyterian Church in Maumee and at 7 p.m. March 14 at the Defiance Arts & Media Center. The piece, “Hallelujah,” was originally written in 2007 for the St. John’s Jesuit men’s chorus.

Mr. Rosen is having another original composition presented that he wrote for the Ohio University Singing Men of Ohio (SMO). Brook Jarosz, a St. John’s Jesuit alumnus and member of the Ohio University troupe “had been urging me to write a piece for the group,” Mr. Rosen says. “Over this past fall, I started formulating ideas.”

Jesuit Father Joaquin Martinez, president of the high school, mentioned the poem “Invictus” as a possible base to his creation.

“I liked the idea, but was looking for something a little more expansive,” Mr. Rosen says. “I wrote the lyrics for the piece, based on ideas from ‘Invictus’ during the fall. I began setting the text to music soon after.” He finished the text, “I Have Seen,” just before Christmas.

Dr. Peter Jarjisian, director of SMO, agreed to perform “I Have Seen” during this spring season. The piece is to premiere March 13 at OU. The group also is to perform it at a Men’s Chorus Conference at Miami University the following week.

As a part of its spring tour, SMO is to stop in Toledo March 24. A free concert is to be given at St. John’s at 8 p.m. with Mr. Rosen’s piece being presented.

“The level of musicianship this group possesses is truly remarkable, and their concert should be spectacular,” he said.

“I know they have spent a huge amount of time and effort on ‘I Have Seen.’ Last Friday, they invited me to attend a rehearsal and work with the group,” Mr. Rosen says. “They have done a great job bringing my music to life. I am excited to have the SJJ community hear the work of this fine ensemble.”

God renews, does not reinvent church, pope says

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Second Vatican Council's renewal of the Catholic Church was a sign of progress, not a sign of repudiating the past, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"We know that after the Second Vatican Council some people were convinced that everything was new, that there was a new church, that the pre-conciliar church was finished and that we would have a completely different church," the pope said during his general audience March 10.

Their vision would have led to "a utopian anarchy," he said, but the wise guidance of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II "defended the new things brought by the council, while affirming the oneness and continuity of the church."

The pope's made his remarks about reactions to the Second Vatican Council during an audience talk focused on St. Bonaventure's attempts in the mid-1200s to balance enthusiasm for the new form of religious life introduced by St. Francis of Assisi with continued fidelity to the hierarchal church.

St. Bonaventure taught the early Franciscans and continues to teach Catholics today that living the faith requires "discernment, sober realism and openness to new gifts" given to the church by the Holy Spirit, the pope said.

St. Bonaventure was superior of the Franciscans at a time when a large group of friars embraced the teaching of Joachim of Fiore, who taught that history followed a "Trinitarian rhythm," in which the Old Testament age was the time of God the father, a time of severity; the New Testament and the first millennium of the church was the time of Jesus Christ and the "relative freedom" that came from no longer being bound to many of the Jewish laws; and the age of the Holy Spirit was to be a time "of complete freedom," the pope said.

The group of Franciscans who saw St. Francis as initiating the age of the Holy Spirit believed it would be a time when "the hierarchical church was left behind in order to give birth to the new church of the Holy Spirit, no longer tied to the old structures," the pope said.

"There was, therefore, a risk of a very serious misunderstanding of St. Francis' message and of his humble fidelity to the Gospel and to the church," the pope said.

After studying Joachim of Fiore in depth, St. Bonaventure presented his own theology of history, affirming that history is a progressive movement, but that it is directed by God, who is one and who has fully revealed himself to humanity in Jesus Christ, the pope said.

The Gospel is God's final revelation to humanity and the church is where God wants people to live their faith, the pope said.

"This does not mean that the church is immobile, fixed in the past and that there can never be anything new in it," the pope said, because as St. Bonaventure taught, "the works of Christ do not go backward, but progress."

Greeting English speakers at the audience, Pope Benedict spoke of the "promising sign of hope" coming from the Northern Ireland Assembly's vote March 9 to move oversight of the police and of the courts from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, furthering the process toward full local governance.

The pope said he prayed the move would "help consolidate the future of peace desired by all."

And, at the end of the audience, the pope also expressed his condolences to the people of eastern Turkey where an earthquake March 8 left more than 50 people dead and left thousands homeless.

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Editor's Note: The text of the pope's audience remarks in English will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100310_en.html.

The text of the pope's audience remarks in Spanish will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100310_sp.html.

Students, faculty blog about spring break service activities

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

SYLVANIA—As they spend their spring break serving others in New Orleans, North Carolina and Peru, Lourdes College students and faculty are also documenting and sharing their experiences online.

One group of 18 students, alumni and staff departed March 7 on the 14th annual Habitat for Humanity alternative spring break trip. The group traveled to High Point, N.C., to work for the Habitat for Humanity Highpoint, Archdale and Trinity affiliate. They return March 13.

The students are keeping an online blog of their experiences at http://www.lourdes.edu/AboutLourdes/MissionMinistry/CampusMinistry/MissionandMinistryBlog.aspx.

Another group of faculty and students from Lourdes College traveled to New Orleans to conduct professional development activities with teachers and students in the Archdiocese of New Orleans school system.

Notre Dame Sister Marya Czech, assistant professor of biology and health sciences; Jennifer Fong, director of the center for professional studies; Notre Dame Sister Jaculin Manders, instructor of mathematics; Kerri Riggs, instructor of psychology and several Lourdes students are to give presentations and workshops focusing on subjects including curriculum mapping, digital literacy, genetics and evolution and kinesthetic learning of science processes.

“This is our second year working with these schools,” says Sr. Czech. “After Hurricane Katrina hit, the schools received a number of new technologies during the rebuilding process. Our professional development activities focus on helping the teachers learn how best to utilize these technologies and apply them in their classrooms.”

The group is keeping an online blog during the trip at http://www.lourdes.edu/professionalstudies.

A third team of students led by Dr. Martha Gallagher, an instructor of nursing at Lourdes College, set out on a mission trip to Lima, Peru, to provide health care to area residents. Dr. Gallagher is keeping an online blog documenting the trip at http://www.lourdes.edu/peru.

100 traditionalist Anglican parishes seek to join Catholic Church

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) — About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes in the United States have decided to join the Catholic Church as a group.

Meeting in Orlando, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America voted to seek entry into the Catholic Church under the guidelines established in Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus" ("Groups of Anglicans"), said a March 3 statement.

The Anglican Church in America is part of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group of churches which separated from the worldwide Anglican Communion in 1991. The Traditional Anglican Communion claims 400,000 members worldwide.

The request means the 100 Anglican Church in America parishes will ask for group reception into the Catholic Church in a "personal ordinariate," a structure similar to dioceses for former Anglicans who become Catholic.

Churches under the personal ordinariate can retain their Anglican character and much of their liturgy and practices — including married priests — while being in communion with the Catholic Church.

Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia, primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and Father Christopher Phillips of Our Lady of the Atonement Parish, an Anglican-use Catholic church in San Antonio, attended the meeting, according to the statement.

The Anglican Church in America is the third group of Anglican churches to respond positively to the Vatican's invitation.

The first was the United Kingdom branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, which comprises about 20 small parishes and which in October began the process of joining the Catholic Church under the apostolic constitution.

The second was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group which is in communion with mainstream Anglican churches. In February Forward in Faith directed its governing council to take the steps needed for 16 parishes to join the Catholic Church.

The United Kingdom branch of Forward in Faith also is considering making a request for an ordinariate. A final decision is not expected before July.

Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst estimated that about 200 Anglican parishes will seek to join the Catholic Church if Forward in Faith decides to ask for an ordinariate.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have established a commission to prepare for the group reception of Anglican parishes. Headed by four bishops working with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the commission is examining issues such as church ownership, the advantages and disadvantages of church sharing and long-term leases of some Anglican parishes.

Call to conversion isn't about making people feel bad, pope says

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Lenten call to conversion is not an attempt to make people feel bad about themselves, but to promote their true good, which is eternal life, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Celebrating Mass March 7 at the Rome parish of St. John of the Cross and reciting the Angelus at the Vatican afterward, the pope focused on the day's Gospel story in which Jesus tells his followers they must convert or they will perish.

At the parish, which was founded in 1989, the pope said Lent is "an invitation to the conversion of our lives and to doing appropriate acts of penitence."

The crowd Jesus was addressing in the day's Gospel story thought that people who met a sudden and violent death were sinners, while the fact that members of Jesus' audience were still alive meant they had nothing to worry about, the pope said.

But Jesus warned them that by not recognizing their own sins and not setting out on the path to conversion, they would not be saved, he said.

"During Lent, each one of us is called by God to make a change, thinking and living according to the Gospel, correcting things in our way of praying, acting, working and relating to others," he said.

"Jesus makes this appeal to us not with an aim of severity, but because he is concerned for our welfare, our happiness and our salvation," the pope said.

Reciting the Angelus later with visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said the Gospel story teaches Christians not to look for fault among the victims of disasters, but to recognize how much they need God in their own lives and to ask for the strength to convert.

"In the face of sin, God reveals himself to be full of mercy and does not hesitate to call sinners to avoid evil, to grow in his love and to concretely help their neighbors in need so they can live in the joy of grace and not face eternal death," the pope said.

Mercy College students head to Baltimore, Guatemala for spring break

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

TOLEDO—Spring break is a time when many college students look forward to tossing the books aside and heading to the beach. But some Mercy College students are forgoing the sun and sand and are looking forward to the opportunity to serve.

From March 8-13, Notre Dame Sister Sally Marie Bohnett, Mercy’s campus minister, is leading a group of nine students to Baltimore as part of Mercy’s alternative spring break trip program. There they are to join Mercy Sister Kitty Neuslein, who has worked with poor and underserved residents of southwest Baltimore for more than 30 years. The trip and the program give students the opportunity to be actively engaged in community service and experiential learning over the course of the week.

The college selected Baltimore this year because of the work being done by the Sisters of Mercy, who continue to help others improve their lives in the poorest area of Baltimore.

“We are going to be working in an area beset with drugs, crime and dysfunction," says Sr. Bohnett. “This trip will challenge us out of our comfort zones and broaden the world view of our students as future healthcare providers.”

Those participating in the alternative spring break have been asked to be flexible and ready for anything, as they may be working with senior citizens, developmentally disabled adults and those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Along with Sr. Neuslein, the group is to connect with the Mercy Volunteer Corps. Members of the corps give a year of service in Mercy ministries and will be instrumental in providing training and education for the various assigned tasks.

Another student group from Mercy College is heading to Guatemala, led by Precious Blood Sister Karen Elliott and Susan Bernheisel. The eight students attending the trip are enrolled in an Interdisciplinary Healthcare Ministry and Enculturation course and will be working at an orphanage where all of the children are physically handicapped. The students are to assist with the children’s hygiene activities, getting them ready each day and providing them with individual attention and special enrichment activities.

Drs. Bernheisel and Elliott have been working with the students since January to prepare them for a trip that is to provide the opportunity to learn about the essential role of the Mercy mission and core values, as well as how to integrate them into their lives and clinical practices.

Both trips are partially underwritten by Fifth Third Bank, and additional funding for the Baltimore trip is provided by the Diocese of Toledo. Students pay for the remainder of the expenses.

John Hayward, Mercy College president, praises the students, faculty and staff involved in the service activities.

“We are very proud of all of our students who have opted to participate in these trips,” he says. “Our institution has a long history of service learning, which benefits not only our students, but the communities they will be serving.”

Ottoville Precious Blood Sister, others safe after Chile earthquake

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:29:18 +0000

DAYTON—The Sisters of the Precious Blood in Dayton report that their sisters in Chile managed to phone and e-mail the congregation’s leadership that they are safe following the 8.8-magnitude quake that rocked the South American country Feb. 27.

Among the sisters serving in Chile is Sister Maria Luisa Miller, a native of Ottoville. She has been serving there for more than 40 years and was able to make a brief cell phone call to the Dayton headquarters of the Precious Blood Sisters to give the news that the sisters were all unharmed.

The five sisters — two native Chileans and three Americans — live and work in two communities near Santiago, Cerro Navia and Colombia. The sisters reported some toppled bookcases and broken items, but no major damage. The area is still experiencing aftershocks, as is usual after a quake. At Cerro Navia the outside walls surrounding the parish compound collapsed.

The three American sisters are all Ohio natives and longtime missioners in Chile, which is a vicariate, or geographic grouping, that is part of the Dayton-based congregation. Sister Carmelita Monnin is from Russia, Ohio, Sister Dorothy Schmitmeyer is from Minster, Ohio, and Sister Maria Luisa Miller hails from Ottoville in Putnam County, in the Toledo Diocese.

Sister Florence Seifert, president of the Dayton congregation, said that after they got word from the sisters in Chile, the leadership team notified the families of the U.S. sisters that they were all safe, since direct communication from Chile by phone or e-mail was erratic due to damage to the country’s infrastructure.

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood (priests and brothers), whose Cincinnati province is also based in Dayton, have 14 members serving in Chile. Father Angelo Anthony, the Missionaries’ provincial, reported Feb. 28 that he received a message from Father Donald Theiman at their central house in Santiago, saying that their members also were unharmed. There was no word yet about property damage at their various parishes and institutions.

A native Chilean congregation of Precious Blood sisters reported damage to their Precious Blood church, but all of those sisters are safe also.

Different laws on same-sex marriage bring different church responses

Laurie Stevens Bertke — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:54:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When San Francisco passed an ordinance more than 13 years ago requiring agencies that contract with the city to provide spousal benefits to employees' domestic partners, then-Archbishop William J. Levada asked for a religious exemption, arguing that it imposed "an unconstitutional condition" on religiously affiliated organizations like Catholic Charities.

Within a few days, however, the city and the archdiocese worked out a compromise that allowed employees to designate "legally domiciled" members of their households — a dependent parent, child or sibling, for example, or an unmarried heterosexual or homosexual partner — for spousal equivalent benefits, without requiring the church to recognize the "partners" as married.

Nine years later, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston was forced to drop out of the adoption business when it could not get an exemption from Massachusetts regulations requiring agencies contracting with the state not to discriminate against same-sex couples who seek to adopt children.

Although then-Gov. Mitt Romney called it "a mistake for our laws to put the rights of adults over the needs of children" and vowed to seek legislation allowing religious agencies to provide adoption services without violating their religious tenets, no such law ever materialized.

Now the issue of same-sex marriage has hit the nation's capital, where in recent days Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington has had to hand off its adoption and foster care services to another agency and announce that spousal benefits will no longer be provided to new employees or to current employees who want to add a spouse to their coverage after March 1.

Problems with same-sex marriage also threaten to spill over into neighboring Maryland, where the law states that "only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in the state" but Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler issued an opinion Feb. 24 that same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions could be recognized as legal.

The archbishops of Baltimore and Washington and the bishop of Wilmington, Del., whose dioceses each include parts of Maryland, immediately took exception to the opinion, which is not legally binding.

"The attorney general's opinion demonstrates a fundamental disregard for the nature and purpose of marriage and its impact on society, as well as for the expressed will of the legislature and previous attorney general opinions," they said.

So why have there been different church responses to similar dilemmas posed by same-sex marriage? It's all in the wording of the laws and in "shifting the debate," as Archbishop Levada put it in a 1997 article for First Things magazine on "The San Francisco Solution."

The church teaches that marriage is the union of a man and a woman and supports traditional marriage as the building block of society and the best way to nurture and protect children.

The new law in the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples began receiving marriage licenses March 3 and would be eligible to marry the following week, says no religious leader will be compelled to participate in a same-sex marriage ceremony and religious organizations "shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities or goods" for such a ceremony if it violates their religious beliefs.

But officials in the Archdiocese of Washington had sought a wider religious exemption, similar to the one contained in Vermont's same-sex marriage law.

Vermont's "Act to Protect Religious Freedom and Recognize Equality in Civil Marriage" adds "advantages" and "privileges" to the list of things that religious organizations cannot be required to extend.

It also adds: "This subsection shall not be construed to limit a religious organization, association or society, or any nonprofit institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious organization from selectively providing services, accommodations, facilities, goods or privileges to some individuals with respect to the solemnization or celebration of a marriage but not to others."

"That's three times in one subsection" that the Vermont law specifically excludes religious organizations, noted Helen Alvare, an associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.

The District of Columbia law provides little protection for religious organizations beyond what is already guaranteed in the First Amendment, said Alvare, who formerly worked as a law professor at The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law and as pro-life spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

But a religious exemption, like that in the Vermont law, "says you're going to get a break from a law of general applicability because you are a religious organization," she added.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco, where the battle was fought first, got a lot of criticism from both sides for its compromise solution.

But Archbishop Levada, now a cardinal and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, said in First Things that the solution "changes the focus from domestic partners and thus removes the primary purpose of the original legislation for many of those who promoted it."

In its place, the archbishop substituted a focus on an issue that remains in the public eye today.

"I am in favor of increasing benefits, especially health coverage, for anyone," he wrote. "I would welcome the opportunity to work with city officials to find ways to overcome what I believe is a national shame, the fact that many Americans have no health coverage at all."

Under what was then the new plan, "we would know no more or no less about the employee's relationship" with the person covered by his or his health insurance "than we typically know about a designated life insurance beneficiary," Archbishop Levada wrote.

"What we have done is to prohibit local government from forcing our Catholic agencies to create internal policies that recognize domestic partnerships as a category equivalent to marriage," he added. "I agree with moral theologians like William May who see no compromise of Catholic moral principle in this practice."