Good opinion piece but misses Catholic point

I really enjoyed this opinion piece by Carol Marin in the Chicago Sun Times.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/980609,CST-EDT-carol01.article

However, she misses the point of why such social agenda oriented priests are of a concern to Cardinal George and others. So as part of continual correction of the Catholic perspective I wrote the following e-mail to her.


Dear Ms. Marin,

I think you wrote a fine opinion piece and commend you on it. Your sense of priority, the tone sent, and the absence of charity are spot on.

There is just one more perspective I would like to give you that you should find helpful. While the social agenda of the Catholic Church is of the highest importance, it must be secondary to the responsibilities of a Catholic priest. A Catholic priest is not a minister or a preacher. So I do whole heartedly understand your emphasis on the social and the unique presentation and involvement of black parishes.

But if you want the reader to understand that, you must also understand the unique construct of the sacraments in the Catholic Church, which is a priest's primary responsibility. One of these is the hearing of Confession (now called the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation). In hearing Confession the priest is the stand in, the representative of Jesus Christ himself, empowered to hear sins and forgive them. If you are not a Catholic and don't believe in this, that's fine. But Cardinal George must ensure that Catholic priests adhere to Catholic tenets. A priest who finds nothing wrong with mocking a person (any person) in a public place cannot hear the confession of sins of other people. By this extraordinary lack of charity and inability to set ones own boundaries, he cannot listen to sins and absolve them (or not) because he is bringing a bias that is incorrect for Catholic priests into the confessional. Someone who thinks the cruel clown show that he put on to embarrass and mock another person (regardless of social status or faith) means that he will hear confessions with the same bias and filter, and this is unacceptable in the Catholic priesthood. Being a "good social and ecumenical" guy does not cancel out performing the sacraments in the Catholic Church in a flawed way. This is why I support Cardinal George's frustration and actually, he's much more tolerant than I would have been. I would have kicked him to the curb because he was failing at his first job, Catholic priest, just as I would have kicked the abusers to the curb too.

Non-Catholics need to understand, and Catholics themselves must set a better example, that while "works" and the "social agenda" are very important to the faith, and indeed of Christians in general, that specifically the Catholics, whether you agree with them or not, must self manage their own pious and as pure as possible administration of the sacraments. At the very least this priest should be sent into a retreat to have serious reformation of his priestly vocation. Social workers we have in abundance, as we also have an abundance of political clowns. We do not, however, have enough Catholic priests who are Catholic priests.

Again, I enjoy your opinion piece and hope that my conversation with you here helps you to better understand Cardinal George and not demonize him, which is entirely unfair. As I said above, I would not have been as patient as he has been in allowing priests to continue to minister to their parishes who are not meeting their priestly sacramental responsibilities first and foremost. Jesus did not listen to people's confession of their sins after first putting on a vaudeville act mocking individuals or segments of the population about whom he was going to forgive.

By the way, notice that his address today was much about his own self pity and his need for "security" goons to stand around him. That, as you can see by observing Jesus in the Gospel, is very un-priestly too. Catholic priest homilies are supposed to be 100 percent about the Gospel and the emulation of Christ. That is another difference between Catholics with their mass and more socially oriented praise and worship services and experiences.

Very truly yours,
Yours in Christ.