A Fool For Us: Archbishop George Niederauer

Marjorie Campbell, marjorie@marjoriecampbell.com

On Sunday, October 7, 2007, my Archbishop, Archbishop George Niederauer, made his pastoral visit to Most Holy Redeemer parish here in San Francisco.   In a statement appearing this week in our weekly archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic San Francisco, my Archbishop issues an "apology" for his "mistake" of giving Holy Communion at the 10:00 a.m. Mass to two "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc." - a "leading edge Order of queer nuns".  For his mistake, my Archbishop is receiving an unprecedented Internet bashing by . . .  fellow Catholics.  The Curt Jester called him "Mr. Magoo", Phil Lawler at Catholic World News suggested that my Archbishop was  "spectacularly obtuse"; and The Roman Catholic Blog has posted a hit piece decrying the Archbishop as "progressive, "gay-friendly", Catholic bishop" while objecting that Bill O'Reilly "gave Archbishop Niederauer a complete pass" in his coverage of the incident. 

Who will strike Archbishop Niederauer next? 

Understand that the "Sisters" use Roman Catholicism as a vehicle for mockery - like the kingly crown of thorns and images used by the guards who escorted Jesus to his death.  They host events such as  the "Hunky Jesus" competition and they canonize their own "saints".  It is their very purpose to embarrass and humiliate all things Catholic.  Originally all gay white males, they take "vows to promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt and serve the community."  Their protocol focuses upon grotesque mockery of the Roman Catholic religious tradition of women, both in their costuming, claim to spirituality ("Many of our ceremonies . . . trace back to the Roman Catholic Church. Our ritual is also heavily tainted with goddess worship, transcendental meditation, radical fairy-ism and self-empowerment") and interactions with the public ("Sisters are outgoing and gregarious.  However . . . it's always a good idea to ask Sister before you start feeling her up") and ministry ( "informing the cute boy at the bar about the risks of unsafe sex").

Their "Motherhouse" sits in the heart of San Francisco's flamboyantly gay Castro district, two blocks from the Most Holy Redeemer parish - a Roman Catholic parish that has served the neighborhood - through its radical secularization - since 1900.  I lived within the geographical embrace of this parish but attended it only once, enough to witness the special needs of the homosexual community it valiantly serves and welcomes.   For the sheltered, traditional Catholic, it's akin to "missionary" territory - where prevailing culture and Christian religious values clash so radically, so dramatically, it takes a fool to publicly pronounce and defend the message of Jesus and the Roman Catholic Church.

It takes a fool - a fool like Jesus who, in his mission among sinners, suffered grave and repeat humilitations, not unlike the humiliation suffered by my Archbishop - as the mustached "sisters" approached for Holy Communion, as an entire Church of believers - including clerics - silently watched the plan to humiliate unfold; as someone (who?)  plottingly videotaped the mockery orchestrated by the "Sisters" (compare the photos of the Mass and reception posted by the parish itself); as my Archbishop penned an apology accepting complete and total responsibility for his own humiliation.    It takes fool, a fool like Jesus, to save souls.

My Archbishop has issued a simple, humble apology.  "After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular organization and that giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake."  He did so without condemning or blaming anyone - perhaps he recalled the words he used in his homily during that very Mass - words which, I pray, my fellow Internet Catholics might also take to heart before they strike Archbishop Niederauer yet again.

"If we have a deep faith in Jesus, as he tells us today, our world can be much better, because we will be able to uproot from our lives the trees of selfishness, injustice and evil.  If we believe in him, Jesus says, we can face the world with courage.  The Savior reminds us that this courage comes from him, not from ourselves: he is the shepherd of the flock, and the flock is his, not ours. Our service to him is to be centered in him, not in ourselves. We should not put on airs and boast to ourselves what wonderful disciples we are, what faithful Catholics. . . we belong to Christ in life now, as we hope to belong to him for all eternity.  This belonging is rooted . . . in Jesus Christ’s bottomless, redeeming love for us."

Comments

[Leon Suprenant]

Marjorie,

Thank you for your edifying take on Archbishop Niederauer's apology. (I'm also grateful for Abbot Joseph's fine article, though it was not quite on point with respect to this discussion.)

I have known Archbishop Niederauer for 20 years and know him to be an honest man. And even if I didn't know him from Adam, the text of his "apology" is an eminently plausible explanation of what transpired and it also accurately reflected the Church's teaching.

It's clear that all the venom in response to the Archbishop has to do "other stuff." In other words, people have already "figured out" that Archbishop Niederauer "must go," and the current episode is an excuse to vent these feelings and opinions.

Hey, we might disagree with particular decisions he might make, which is our prerogative so long as any such disagreements are expressed, if at all, in an appropriate, godly way. But it crosses the line to question the sincerity of an apology when on the face of it he is clearly doing the right thing.

Over the years working for Catholics United for the Faith, I have seen firsthand the importance of avoiding detraction and rash judgment. It's so tempting and easy to think we have some "dissenter" or "weak bishop" or "schismatic" all figured out, only later to learn that there was more to the story.

I really recommend--for myself and others--frequent reading of Catechism, no. 2478 on the importance of interpreting our neighbor's (even our bishop's!) thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way.

And no. 2477 also reminds us that even if our inferences and suspicions are true, it still might not be morally right to tell the whole blogosphere about it.

I encourage readers to visit CUF's blog at http://blog.cuf.org for more information and detailed guidance on addressing grievances within the Church in a way that actually builds Catholic faith and unity.

[Carol McKinley]

Marjorie, I can't even begin to tell you how offensive your logic is to somebody in the grassroots who has tried to work the internal system for the last 20 years and coming to the realization that the internal "system" labels the victim of the treachery and spiritual abuse a nuisance. The dissenting homosexual priests and Bishops serve all the way to the top at the Vatican. We get nowhere with this system, even when children are at risk for being raped.

When Cardinal O'Malley got here and started setting up leading local safe sex advocates, one of whom runs a program with HIV infected men that essentially recruits older homosexually inclined teens and young men to have sex with these HIV infected men, this same man got his paraphernalia as low as a local junior high and high school - and I recruited Mary Ann Glendon and George Weigel to go to the very top at the Vatican and they both assured me that everyone knows the sexual safety of children is at risk, the Pope was told we were very naughty people and were lying -and O'Malley to subsequently elevated to a Cardinal.

People who have been fighting the culture in hand to hand battles cannot tolerate the arrogance and blindness that leaves our children and our Lord in the hands of abusers.

[Carol McKinley]

Are You Compassionate?
By Abbot Joseph

I have nothing but compassion for people who misuse the term "compassion." This does not mean that I tolerate such misuse in the least, as you will see. One of the most beautiful divine qualities, in which we are invited to share -- "Be compassionate as my Father is compassionate" (Lk. 6:36) -- is all too often twisted into something that is tantamount to offering people a license to sin. "Compassion," in modern parlance, means something like universal tolerance with a dose of sentimentality, which turns a blind eye to evil. In the Byzantine tradition, Christ is often called "The Lover of Mankind" and "The Compassionate One." But He is never referred to as "The Tolerant One," and with good reason.

There are different ways to express compassion, based on the need of those to whom we show mercy. To show compassion to the hungry is to give them food; to show compassion to the homeless and unemployed is to help them find housing and work. If you wish to be compassionate to the sick or elderly, comfort and assist them. But if you want to be like Jesus in showing compassion to sinners, invite them to repent.

Christ came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come to make sinners feel good about themselves or to instruct us on how to blur the distinction between good and evil, based on current trends or personal preference. Some people attempt to justify their (or society's) wrongdoing by saying, for example, that Jesus refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery and that He spent much of His time eating and drinking with sinners. They don't seem to be willing or able to understand why He did that.

Jesus' words to the adulterous woman, "Neither do I condemn you" (Jn. 8:11), are filled with forgiveness, not tolerance. She knew her own sin, and He knew that she did, whereas the would-be stone-throwers weren't reflecting upon theirs. So Jesus had to deal with them first. But after He forgave the woman, notice that Jesus did not say, "Go, follow your feelings, celebrate diversity, and try not to hurt anyone." He said, "Go, and sin no more." To the paralytic, He added a further warning: "Sin no more, lest something worse befall you" (Jn. 5:14). Compassion does not equal tolerance, especially where sin is concerned. If compassion, like genuine love, is not rooted in truth, it is at best misguided emotion, and at worst a refusal to enlighten a soul in danger of damnation.

As for being found in the company of sinners, Jesus also gave His reason for that: Sick people need a physician. He ate with sinners, not to approve their lifestyle, but to call them to repentance (Lk. 5:29-32). Jesus knew, and the Church has always known -- until relatively recently, it seems -- that the salvation of souls is the most urgent and essential task that can be undertaken on earth. Therefore, compassion is expressed most perfectly by whatever one does for the eternal benefit of others. The most genuine love is concern for their salvation. Does it occur to anyone that Jesus was being compassionate to the money-changers by casting them out of the temple, or to the Pharisees by His fiery denunciations of their hypocrisy? Everything He said or did was an expression of divine love and compassion, with the goal of leading people to everlasting life in Heaven. If people are unaware that their behavior is sinful, we must make them aware of it -- not to hurt, but to heal; not to condemn, but to save.

Sometimes compassion is equated with a sort of nebulous, ineffectual "kindness," one that ends up refusing to let someone know that his soul is in danger. God's kindness is different: "Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Rom. 2:4). We are not being compassionate if we allow friends or loved ones to walk the broad path to perdition simply because we are too "kind" to upset them by attempting to awaken their consciences. Today's "kind and compassionate" people say that God loves us as we are, but I once heard a wise and necessary addition to that statement: "but He loves us too much to let us stay the way we are."

A number of years ago, a man who was a caregiver for AIDS patients (he was affiliated with a religious order) visited our monastery. In the course of our conversation I innocently asked him -- not realizing at the time how inflammatory a question this was -- if he encouraged the patients to reconcile with God before they died. His face acquired a horrified expression and he exclaimed: "Oh, no! We believe in a nonjudgmental God!" Is it compassionate to deny a sinner a last chance to repent? Is it compassionate thereby to consign him to Hell, with the kindly look on your face the last thing he sees? That is the devil's "compassion," not the Lord's.

The Lord's compassion, however, goes beyond calling sinners to repentance. We have to be careful not to fall into pharisaical self-righteousness by limiting our relationship with public sinners to a perfunctory, even haughty: "You need to repent!" To be compassionate is to be at the service of others' repentance. Jesus went to the Cross to prove the genuineness of His love for sinners and desire for our salvation. "By this we know love, that He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn. 3:16). This does not mean that we literally have to die for sinners -- the only One who could effectively do that has done it -- but it does mean that we have to pray fervently and make sacrifices for others, to speak the truth in love, making whatever practical efforts we can to contribute to the Church's work of saving souls, that is, of leading souls to the Savior. To paraphrase the Apostle John, let us not be compassionate only in word, but in deed and in truth.

In clerical circles, there's another similarly abused word: "pastoral." It seems that almost any manifest disregard for Church teachings is practiced for "pastoral" reasons. This usually includes tolerance of abortion, homosexual behavior, artificial contraception, or invalid marriages. How is it pastoral for a shepherd to encourage his sheep to walk into the mouth of the wolf? How are we being sensitive and caring by numbing consciences that will be rudely awakened -- all too late -- on Judgment Day? What kind of physician of souls will offer a temporary palliative when the cure is available? Come on, doc, don't spare us the pain of the needle if the medicine is going to save our lives!

To speak the truth and to call sinners to repentance does not mean, however, to be hard-hearted, unfeeling, or unmoved by the real suffering and struggles of those who are in some kind of moral dilemma or state of sin. To be compassionate is also to listen, to "suffer with," and to carry them in loving prayer to God. But it is not compassionate merely to leave it at that, especially if simply being with others gives them the impression that they need not repent. Repentance requires an inner awakening, an understanding of the state of one's soul, and a desire to do something about it. It is neither regret without amendment nor a ritual sterilized by routine. One must be willing to hear the word of the Lord and respond to it. Repentance is a redirection of our intentions, a change of heart, expressed by a change of behavior. But this will never happen with an "I'm OK, you're OK" approach.

Nothing is impossible with God -- not even fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church! But it will cost much. Eternal salvation is not a minor issue, and Christ warned us that the way is narrow and difficult. Ultimately, however, nothing else really matters. If you lose your soul, you lose everything. Salvation is worth the price of faithfulness to the word of God. True compassion is encouragement to pay it.

It matters what we believe and how we behave. The stakes are high in this adventure called human life. Truth is not relative and Hell is not merely a myth or a useful scare tactic for Christian schoolteachers. Aberrant behavior must not be elevated to an unalienable right, and personal opinions must not be put on a par with divine revelation. Don't be so "kind" as to keep silent while others enshrine sin as an acceptable alternative to righteousness.

So you see why I have compassion for those who abuse the term "compassion," especially if they do so for "pastoral" reasons. I'm calling them to repentance. I'm concerned not only for their souls, but also -- and especially -- for those whom they mislead, whom they lull into spiritual somnolence. If any souls are lost, let it be only because they remained hardened in willful rejection of God until death -- not because some "compassionate" person convinced them that they had no need to repent

September 2005
Abbot Joseph, a monk for 22 years, has for the past five years been the Abbot of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, a Byzantine-rite monastery in the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

[Rita]

HUH? what is this lady talking about? So our Church history is tainted as she says? Yeah, with unfaithful clergy who have attemted to lead the faithful astray since Judas Iscariot. There's nothing new here, Marjorie. It's just being exposed, so that the Church can emerge, once again purified. Future generations will view these videos and some will proclaim that the Church actually welcomed homosexuality. But they will be wrong. Disobedient clergy welcome homosexuality.

[Eric G.]

Majorie:

Puhhleeeeze.

Your archbishop has a LONG track record for being sodomy-friendly. Some resources to refresh your memory:

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07101204.html

Oh, and his continued, scandalous facilitation of gay adoptions in San Francisco:

http://www.ignatius.com/Magazines/CWR/charities.htm

Niederauer is a gross dissenter from Catholic orthodoxy; he has to go.

The only thing more scandalous than your Archbishop is the fact that Pope Benedict XVI PROMOTED this nitwit and allows him to stay in office.