What now for the Catholic Church? Obama’s reelection and schools among questions that need to be answered

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

When the Academy Award nominations are announced on January 10, Mea Maxima Culpa may or may not be one of the five films up for Best Documentary.

The film, about the sexual abuse horrors Wisconsin’s Reverend Lawrence Murphy is accused of, was on a shortlist of 15 top documentaries back in December.

Either way, the film directed by Alex Gibney has already made a troubling case not only against Murphy, but the Vatican as well.

With the New Year upon us, and a grueling election which grappled with tough religious questions behind us, it is probably time to ask -- what is the future of the Catholic Church in America?

Given the revelations in Mea Maxima Culpa, given the election results and the ongoing restructuring of Catholic schools across the U.S., it is surprising fewer people have not raised this question.

After President Obama’s reelection, for example, most commentators argued that it was time for the Republican Party to take a long look in the mirror.

But what about the church and the election? New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was on the offensive much of the electoral season, denouncing the Obama administration on several fronts.

Read more: New York Times surprised over Cardinal Dolan's support for beatification of Dorothy Day

Irish Catholic pundits such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, meanwhile, suggested the election was nothing short of a referendum on religious freedom.  A vote for Obama, many argued, was a vote against the Catholic Church.

Yet according to most polling data, Catholics supported Obama by a slim majority. (Though it appears that Irish and other white Catholics supported Mitt Romney.)

Either way, given the lengths vocal church leaders went to steer Catholics away from Obama -- Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria likened the Obama administration to those who mocked Jesus -- these numbers do not bode well.

And while it is tempting to say the church is engaged in spiritual rather than political matters, to pretend the church is an apolitical institution is to simply ignore reality.

But politics is only part of what church leaders need to be thinking about.

The true cost of the damage inflicted by the sex abuse scandal.  The purpose -- and  price -- of Catholic education. The dwindling number of priests.

The future of the church hinges on these and other messy, weighty questions.

Irish American scholar Patrick J. McCloskey offered some interesting thoughts this Monday in The New York Times. “Catholic parochial education is in crisis,” McCloskey, and his co-author Joseph Claude Harris, declared in an op-ed piece entitled “Catholic Education, In Need of Salvation.”

They note that Catholic schools have long played a key role for the Irish and other immigrants in America, but are no longer playing that role.

One reason?  Tuition has risen sharply, though not because church revenues have fallen off.

“Despite the sex-abuse scandals and two recessions, church revenue...grew to $11.9 billion in 2010, an inflation-adjusted increase of $2.2 billion from a  decade earlier,” they write.

“Yet educational subsidies have fallen; the church now pays at least 12.6 percent of parochial elementary school costs, down from  63 percent in 1965.”

One possible solution?  Given the falling numbers of priests, McCloskey suggests deacons be given more power.  This, however, would in all likelihood eventually  lead to a “married priesthood.”

“Celibacy should be a sacrifice offered freely, not an excuse for institutional  suicide,” McCloskey writes.

Good luck convincing Pope Benedict -- or, for that matter, Sean Hannity -- of that. But it’s pretty clear something has got to give.

Read more: Cardinal Dolan congratulates Bishop Dennis Sullivan on appointment as bishop of Camden

Something spiritual, yes, but also financial, educational and cultural.  It’s tempting to say it’s time for another Vatican Council, like those meetings held between 1962 and 1965, to take up these profound questions.

Rather than sit and wait for that, perhaps the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops need to confront this moment head on and hold some sort of council of their own. 

If for no other reason, then to shed light on the many good things the church still does. For all of its flaws, we would be a poorer nation without a vibrant, relevant Catholic Church. 

Right now, that does not seem to be what the future holds.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)

Prediction for the New Year - what the world can expect from the Republicans, Catholic Church and more in 2013

Rick Santorum

It's that time of year again.  Assuming all those folks were actually wrong about that Mayan end-of-the-world thing, a new year is upon us.

Let’s gaze into our crystal ball and see what 2013 might have in store for the Irish in America.

First off, we can expect the Republican Party to make some changes. We’ve already seen them make some overtures towards immigrants, in the hopes that their party won’t soon become - you know - extinct. So why not expect more in that direction? 

Next year, the Republican Party will move to banish the constitutional requirement that the president actually be born in the U.S.  (In their minds that was already broken by Barack Obama, right?)  The GOP will then look to nominate an undocumented immigrant for the White House in 2016.

If that seems far-fetched, keep in mind that some people right now actually believe that Republicans will give in when it comes to the gun nuts in this country.

Speaking of institutions facing extinction, what’s in store for the American Catholic Church in 2013? 

First, we can expect the hierarchy to get it over with and excommunicate every pesky nun currently serving in the U.S.  Those ladies have already caused far too much trouble with their yapping about following the example set by Jesus when it comes to love and tolerance. 

Odd how the nuns have also managed to avoid becoming embroiled in, like, even one single sex abuse case.

Rick Santorum, meanwhile, having failed to ride his impeccable Catholic cred to the White House, will announce his candidacy for Pope.  When Santorum hears papal policy regarding the impoverished and oppressed of the world, however, he will announce he is instead running for Pope of America.

No one opposes - or cares.

Finally, the church will stop announcing which Catholic schools are closing.  For simplicity’s sake, they will simply announce which schools will actually remain open.

In the world of showbiz, expect big things from legendary Boston Irish criminal Whitey Bulger in 2013.  Sure he’s disgraced and imprisoned now. 

But with movie stars like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck angling to make a movie about Bulger’s rise and fall, expect authorities to give the old guy a break so that he can serve as a “consultant” on the upcoming film.  (“What’s the guy ever done to prove we can’t trust him?” one FBI official will ask.)
Shockingly, after one day on the set, Bulger will disappear.  In the months that follow there will be
Whitey Bulger sightings from Denver to Dublin.

Ben Affleck, feeling guilty, will then attempt to shoot a fake movie, in the hopes of luring Bulger out of hiding.  It will be called Where Did Whitey Argo?

We couldn’t possibly go a whole column without mentioning Irish boy toy Niall Horan and the rest of the boys in One Direction.  Horan will shock the world in 2013 by calling a press conference and declaring: “Having just spent the last three months counting all of my money, I have decided to retire.  I don’t know what world these British twits are looking at, but in the world I come from these boy bands don’t last very long."

“Boyzone anybody?  Exactly!  I’m getting out of this now, before I start looking like a real weirdo.  I’ll be back when my fans all have children of their own and they have some real money to spend.”

Ex boy-bander Mark Wahlberg will then call up Horan to see if he is interested in playing a child role in the latest installment of the “Irish” Mickey Ward series of boxing films. The title? The Fighter 4: The Son Also Rises.

Also in 2013, Liam Neeson may actually pass on a movie role.  And Daniel Day-Lewis, having wowed audiences as Lincoln, grows pork-chop sideburns to play seventh President Andrew Jackson, whose parents were born Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.

The expletive-laden script (written by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh) explores Jackson’s bloody rise to power. However, violence breaks out on the set when the notoriously-intense Day-Lewis refuses to break character.  McDonagh becomes frustrated when Day-Lewis requests a particularly ornate horse and buggy carriage to carry him to and from the set.

“It’s f***ing 2013 you weirdo!” McDonagh howls before socking Day-Lewis.

Happy New Year!

Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net.

The yuk of the Irish - Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to party with Al Smith and Cardinal Dolan in New York

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will once again meet 
at the Al Smith dinner in New York next week.

Next Thursday, October 18, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will call a brief cease-fire in their war for the White House.  They will make their way to New York for the annual Al Smith dinner and yuk it up with Timothy Cardinal Dolan.

The dinner is technically a fundraiser for Catholic Charities, and the 2008 dinner raised nearly $4 million.

Or, as Romney refers to $4 million, “Tip money.”

That’s right, you can expect all sorts of jokes aimed at Romney and Obama that night.

Traditionally, the candidates for president have appeared at the dinner right before the election.  This is a fine opportunity to remind people what a trailblazer Al Smith was, and the obstacles he faced as the first Irish American and Roman Catholic from a major party to run for the White House in 1928.

It’s also a convenient reminder that the Archbishop of New York is one of the few people in America who can invite the two presidential candidates to dinner and expect them to show up.

But mainly, this is an opportunity for the candidates to flex their funny bones.

Given the state of America, however, one can imagine nervous speechwriters chewing on pencils, trying to strike the right balance between funny and wildly inappropriate.

For example, imagine Romney standing up and at the podium, offering a standard greeting, before adding, “And if anyone in the room needs an abortion, please speak to the president before you leave tonight.”

Yes, it’s going to be hard to avoid tensions between the Democratic Party and the Catholic Church.  For example, Dolan made it clear he was willing to go to both the Republican and Democratic conventions back in the summer, but only the Republicans took Dolan up on the offer.

Which might lead Dolan to quip, “Nice to see you, Mr. President.  Would you like me to leave now?”

Or,“Mr. President, tonight I kind of wish I was speaking to an empty chair.”

Or, “If anyone needs a gay marriage ceremony, please speak to the president.”

In 1996 and 2004 the candidates were not invited to the dinner, and most people believe these non-invites were spurred largely by Democratic support for abortion and other social issues.

And you can bet this year’s dinner will have an awkward moment or two.  The New York Archdiocese, after all, is one of many organizations currently suing the Obama administration in a fight over whether or not contraception should be made available to employees through health plans.

Obama, of course, could ease this awkward moment.  With sight gags, for example.

Blow up a condom like a balloon.  Or toss birth control pills at the crowd.

But even then some people probably wouldn’t laugh.  As it is, over 2,000 people have signed a petition at alsmithscandal.org to voice their opposition to Obama’s presence.

Catholics, according to the protest organizer, “felt betrayed” by the invitation to Obama. “They felt like the cardinal placed a knife in their back. They felt let down and disappointed over this apparent show of weak leadership.”

Not that Romney is going to be let off easy. Dolan may introduce the Republican candidate by saying, “Now let’s make sure we make Mitt Romney feel welcome.  After all, he is a member of a strange religious cult.  And I don’t mean go-into-a-box-and-whisper-to-a-priest-to-forgive-all-your-sins crazy.  Or look-the-other-way-when-priests-sexually-abuse-boys crazy.  I mean real crazy!”

Then there’s the uncomfortable fact that the whole point of fundraising for charity might be a little lost on Romney.

“Why in God’s name are we raising money for poor people?” Romney may ask.  “I thought that fine Irish writer Jonathan Swift solved the whole poor people problem two centuries ago when he wrote A Modest Proposal.  You can be sure that in a Romney administration I will take that proposal and it will be a whole lot more than modest!”

Yes, given the state of the world, it will be good to laugh for an evening.  It might make us feel better when we break down in tears and realize the joke’s on us.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Religion and politics go perfectly together, but is the church closing their doors to possible parishioners?

Archbishop John J. Myers (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Tom Moran was “born into a devout Catholic family, the fifth of nine children,” as the Irish American columnist wrote in a column this past Sunday for the Star Ledger newspaper in New Jersey.

Moran, however, now declares himself “a spiritual refugee,” who has “fled a million miles from the church.”

He, of course, is not the only one.

“One in three American adults was raised in a Catholic family, but fewer than one in four identify as Catholic today. No other church has shed so many followers, according to surveys by the Pew Charitable Trusts,” Moran writes.

This bit of soul-searching was prompted by a controversial letter written by Archbishop John J. Myers, the spiritual leader of the Newark Archdiocese.

Myers lengthy pastoral letter on marriage and family encouraged Catholics to vote a certain way in the upcoming presidential election. 

“Catholic citizens must exercise their right to be heard in the public square by defending marriage,” Myers writes. 

In short, Myers is placing gay marriage, as well as abortion, at the center of the 2012 election.  He adds that Catholics who don’t share his views should probably not receive Holy Communion.

Moran and many like him are wondering why such a prominent religious figure would release such a highly-charged document on the eve of the closely-watched presidential debates, and just a month before this hard-fought election, in which religious values have played a central, often contentious, role.

It’s easy to say religion and politics don’t mix, and that Myers shouldn’t go about endorsing candidates, even though Myers never technically mentioned that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (who is Catholic) are members of a political party whose views match the Catholic Church’s.  Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden (also Catholic) support abortion and gay marriage.

Trouble is, religion and politics have always mixed, like it or not. 

“Dagger” John Hughes, the Irish immigrant who more or less built the New York Archdiocese, openly supported political candidates who joined him in his fight to rid New York’s schools of their deeply Protestant influences. 

John Drina of Massachusetts was a Catholic priest who joined the anti-war movement and actually won a seat in congress in 1970.  He was followed a few years later by Robert John Cornell of Wisconsin, a priest who served in Congress until 1978.

So, if you don’t like mixing religion and politics, that is your right, but it’s been happening for about as long as people have been mixing scotch and soda.

Perhaps the real interesting place to get some thoughts on the archbishop’s priorities is St. Anne’s school in Jersey City.  Or Queen of Angels in Newark itself. 

Those are two of eight schools in the Newark Archdiocese that were slated for closure in an announcement earlier this year.  Yes, Catholic school closures are generally about budgets and finances. 

But across the country, budgets and finances are in bad shape because so many Catholics are indeed
voting.  But not at the ballot box. 

Catholics, instead, are voting with their feet, by attending church fewer and fewer times.  They are voting with their pocketbook, simply unable to pay the high cost of (an admittedly very fine)
Catholic education.

Are people fleeing the church solely because of abortion and gay rights?  No, but most polls show the vast majority of American Catholics disagree with their leaders on these issues. 

And while it is easy to say an institution such as the Catholic Church has little use for polls, it’s going way too far to suggest that the church is some timeless institution that never changes or responds to the political tone of the day.

Myers, for example, is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a body which would probably not exist but for pressure created by victims.

Ultimately, it is perplexing why so many church leaders choose to make abortion and gay marriage the most pressing issue of the day, going so far as to suggest support for these issues precludes Catholics from participating in the sacraments.

Is this an institution that really wants to be closing its doors to anyone at this point?

Doing so may go over well with some on Election Day. But it only creates more and more spiritual refugees.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

Tell it to the Irish Catholic nuns, Mitt Romney - Government funds vital to helping American people

Sister Mary Rose McGeady

Earlier this month, Sister Mary Rose McGeady died at the age of 84. 

Back in 1990, Sister Mary Rose bravely stepped into what had been a media firestorm. 

Sister Mary Rose was selected to run Covenant House, a highly respected charity which offered shelter to homeless youth.  Covenant House’s original founder,

Father Bruce Ritter, had been hailed as a visionary.  He started Covenant House in the late 1960s, offering little more than two cold-water apartments to those who needed a roof over their heads. 

By 1990, however, Covenant House was serving as many as 30,000 youths in 11 cities across America, as well as in Latin America.  Annual donations were estimated at $80 million.

Then came the sex abuse allegations against Ritter.

It may seem hard to imagine now, but there was a time when such allegations still had the ability to shock.  That, of course, has changed thanks to the avalanche of sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland, America and elsewhere since the late 1990s and 2000s.

No charges were ever filed against Ritter, who adamantly denied the allegations. But, as The New York Times noted, an independent investigation commissioned by Covenant House “found that although none of the sexual allegations could be proved, enough evidence existed, including evidence of financial irregularities, to warrant Father Ritter’s dismissal.”

Enter Sister Mary Rose, who picked the organization up off of the floor and made it into a miracle once again. 

She retired in 2003, and Covenant House is now said to be serving 50,000 people in over 20 cities, with annual donations of well over $100 million.

This Irish American Catholic nun’s heroic effort was worth thinking about in the wake of Mitt Romney’s now infamous comments that roughly half of the American population (47 percent) expects handouts from the government. 

It’s not even worth distorting the comments.  Romney did not call people “moochers” or  “freeloaders.” 

His own words need not be twisted.  For they are damning enough. 

We should actually give Romney credit.  We want our politicians to be honest? 

Well, it seems to me Romney was simply being honest. 

Many Republicans are not merely opposed to handing out welfare checks so that drug addicts can get their fix.  Many of them are also opposed to financial aid for college students.  And unemployment insurance. And aid for the elderly. And so on and so forth.

This even as they want to boost military spending, not to get soldiers the kind of medical assistance they deserve, but to purchase a lot of high-tech gizmos which just so happen to be manufactured by corporations that make hefty donations.

Again, give Romney credit.  He simply explained where the Republican Party stands. 

Now voters have to ask themselves – do I know anyone who benefits from financial aid? Unemployment? Medicaid or Medicare?

Where does Sister Mary Rose fit into all this? 

Well, don’t forget, the Republicans were happy a few weeks back when Timothy Cardinal Dolan made an appearance at the Republican convention.  It reinforced the notion that the GOP is the party of God, while the Democrats are Godless. 

As usual, the Democrats did themselves no favors by not welcoming Dolan, and then by leaving God out of their platform.

But if the Republicans are so happy to tout themselves as the party of God, they should have some long conversations with the likes of Sister Mary Rose McGeady, and the thousands of religious people like her toiling to make the lives of the miserable and wretched slightly more bearable. 

In the Republican universe, Covenant House is an exemplary organization.  It is a religious charity that raises its own money, meaning tax money is not required. (Irish American Kevin M. Ryan now runs the organization.)

But Romney, and all the other Christian GOPers, should actually talk to some nuns.  Don’t just prop them up and say, “Look, we actually like Catholics now.” 

For if you actually talk to those toiling with the impoverished and needy, they will tell you government funds remain vital to helping out not just the poor, but working and middle class Americans.

That might even add up to more than 47 percent, Mitt.

(Contact Sidewalks at tdeignan.blogspot.com or tomdeignan@earthlink.net)

The Catholic Civil Warrior - Patrick J Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society

Kathleen Sebelius (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/GettyImages)

He's the most influential, confrontational, controversial Irish Catholic you’ve never heard of.

He makes Maureen Dowd of The New York Times angry.  He makes Bill Donohue of the Catholic League stand up and cheer.  And each and every May he reignites what some have come to call the “civil war” in the American Catholic Church.

His name is Patrick J. Reilly.

Reilly is the founder and president of a Washington group called the Cardinal Newman Society.  For better or worse, Reilly is widely credited for pressuring Catholic colleges that invite speakers who may be Catholic but do not strictly adhere to church teaching.

The lighting rod this year is Kathleen Sebelius, who was invited to take part in Georgetown University’s commencement ceremonies.  The Irish American Sebelius (born Kathleen Gilligan in Cincinnati, the daughter of former Ohio governor John Gilligan) is currently Health and Human Services secretary and was the public face of the Obama administration’s efforts to compel employers – including those who work for the Catholic Church – to pay for medical coverage which might include contraception. 

The conflict outraged conservative Catholics, who slammed the Obama administration for assaulting religious liberty.  The controversy catapulted New York’s Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan to the
national stage. 

Just this week, Dolan led a coalition of Catholic dioceses and colleges in a court challenge to the Obama administration.

The same sides of that debate were up in arms again this week, either defending or blasting Sebelius’s selection as a speaker at Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit institution in the U.S. 

As David Gibson noted, writing for Religion News Service, “The Washington archdiocese issued a statement (calling) the Sebelius invitation a ‘shocking’ action that undermines the Catholic Church and supports the administration in what the hierarchy says is an unprecedented attack on religious freedom ... ‘It's practically a civil war,’ Michael Brendan Dougherty, politics editor at Business Insider and a Catholic, wrote on Wednesday.”

That would make Patrick J. Reilly a civil warrior. 

Those seeking change in the church, or hoping at least for debate on controversial issues, target the
Cardinal Newman Society as a defender of an excessively rigid theology that has alienated many Irish American Catholics.

“The latest kooky kerfuffle was sparked by the invitation to Kathleen Sebelius,” Dowd wrote in the Times this week. “The silver-haired former Kansas governor is a practicing Catholic with a husband and son who graduated from Georgetown.

“But because she fought to get a federal mandate for health insurance coverage of contraceptives and morning-after pills, including at Catholic schools and hospitals, Sebelius is on the hit list of a conservative Catholic group in Virginia, the Cardinal Newman Society, which militates to bar speakers at Catholic schools who support gay rights or abortion rights.”

As leader of the Newman Society, Reilly is surely glad to count Dowd as an enemy.  And it is understandable that conservatives want to draw a line, lest Catholicism become so watered down we might as well all become Protestants.

So of course they shudder when they hear someone like Mario Cuomo say, “Christ is my religion, the church is not.” 

Reilly and others argue that the church and its teachings are timeless, and thus should not bend. 

The problem is, the church has always bent and wavered and changed.  And to say the Catholic Church is devoid of political debate and maneuvering is just silly. 

There are many debates within the Vatican before the Pope speaks for all of the world’s Catholics.
The pope himself is selected via a political process.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., liberals and conservatives have to decide what kind of church will remain vibrant and relevant in the 21st Century. 

The only way to do that is to engage in debate and discussion, and that includes inviting a diverse range of speakers to Catholic institutions.

Otherwise, there will barely be enough Catholics left to have a debate.

(Contact “Sidewalks” at tomdeignan@earthlink.net or facebook.com/tomdeignan)