CMR encourages pastors making their bulletins more interesting but this is ridiculous. Fr. Doug Koesel of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Cleveland writes his scathing (unhinged?) thoughts under the simple headline “From the Desk of Fr. Doug.”
I would actually love this for its unintentional humor but I do fear that it will serve to confuse many people. You really have to read this to understand how looney this priest has gone over defending the nuns from the Vatican. Check it out:
Many of you have asked me to comment on the recent investigation into the US nuns. Here goes. In short, the Vatican has asked for an investigation into the life of religious women in the United States. There is a concern about orthodoxy,
feminism and pastoral practice. The problem with the Vatican approach is that it places the nuns squarely on the side of Jesus and the Vatican on the side of tired old men, making a last gasp to save a crumbling kingdom lost long ago for a variety of reasons.One might say that this investigation is the direct result of the John Paul II papacy. He was suspicious of the power given to the laity after the Second Vatican Council. He disliked the American Catholic Church. Throughout his papacy he strove to wrest collegial power from episcopal conferences and return it to Rome.
One of the results of the council was that the nuns became more educated, more integrated in the life of the people and more justice-oriented than the bishops and pope. They are doctors, lawyers, university professors, lobbyists, social workers, authors, theologians, etc. Their appeal was that they always went back to what Jesus said and did. Their value lay in the fact that their theology and their practice
were integrated into the real world.The Vatican sounded like the Pharisees of the New Testament;— legalistic, paternalistic and orthodox— while “the good sisters” were the ones who were feeding the hungry,clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, educating
the immigrant, and so on. Nuns also learned that Catholics are intuitively smart about their faith. They prefer dialogue over diatribe, freedom of thought over mind control, biblical study over fundamentalism, development of doctrine over isolated mandates.Far from being radical feminists or supporters of far-out ideas, religious women realized that the philosophical underpinnings of Catholic teaching are no longer valid. Women are not subservient to men, the natural law is much broader than once thought, the OT is not as important as the NT, love is more powerful than fear. They realized that you can have a conversation with someone on your campus who
thinks differently than the church without compromising what the church teaches. (For example, I could invite Newt Gingrich here to speak. You’d all still know what the church teaches about divorce in spite of him) Women religious have learned to live without fear (Srs. Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clark, Ita Ford) and with love (Mother Teresa). And the number of popes and bishops and cardinals following in
their footsteps, Jesus’ footsteps, is_____?This is what annoys American Catholics. The Vatican is hypocritical and duplicitous. Their belief is always that someone else needs to clean up their act; the divorced, the gays, the media, the US nuns, the Americans who wereusing the wrong words to pray, the seminaries, etc. It never occurs to the powers that be that the source of the problem is the structure itself. We can say that now with certainty as regards the sex abuse crisis. It was largely the structure of the church itself, the way men were trained and isolated, made loyal to the system at all costs and not to the person, that gave us the scandalous cover-up.
US nuns work side by side with the person on the street. They are involved in their everyday lives. Most cardinals spent less than five years in a parish, were never pastors, are frequently career diplomats.
Religious women in the US refuse to be controlled by abusive authority that seeks to control out of fear. They realize that Jesus taught no doctrines, but that the church, over time, developed what Jesus taught in a systematic way. Nuns have always tried to work within the system.
This time their prophetic voices may take them out of the system. They may take a lot of Catholics and a lot of their hospitals, schools, colleges, orphanages, prison ministries, convents, women’s shelters, food pantries and, of course, the good will they have earned over the centuries with them.
This investigation is not about wayward US nuns. It is the last gasp for control by a dying breed, wrapped in its own self-importance. It is a struggle for the very nature of the church; who we are, how we pray, where we live, who belongs, why we believe. The early church endured a similar struggle. The old order died. The Holy Spirit won. Happy Pentecost Sunday!
P.S. On Wednesday, May 30, there will be a prayer rally
for US nuns at St. Colman on W 65th St. All are invited and
encouraged to attend. The nuns were there for us. Let us be
there for them.
June 7, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Here we go again. Another dissenting priest who is not corrected in ANY way by the bishop. Why is he a pastor of a parish? Why does he have faculties? Why is the bishop not correcting him and upholding the truths of the faith? What arrogance this priest has. He publicly spews hate against the Church that he choose to serve of his own free will. This Church that he hates clothes him, provides a roof over his head and financial security for the rest of his life. What other organization in the world would tolorate this silly nonsense. And why do the faithful Catholics have to sit back yet again and watch the faith we love and believe in be undermined by arrogant liberals, all the time knowing that NOTHING will be done to this man. Would the bishop tolerate for one moment a lay person in his employ acting like this? No. The lay person would be thrown out into the street in the blink of an eye. THIS is exactly why the Church is in ruins. Everybody knows the majority of nuns have left the faith decades ago and have spread their errors to the faithful and nothing has been done about it. It's time to invite all priests, bishops and nuns who hate the Church to leave, it is not fair to the faithful to be subjected to this. This bishop who refuses to correct error will have a lot to answer for when he stands before Christ on jusgement day.
June 7, 2012 at 2:56 pm
This actually was published in the National Catholic Reporter on May 29th: http://ncronline.org/blogs/sisters-under-scrutiny/cleveland-priest-what-nuns%E2%80%99-story-really-about
June 7, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Very sad. I wonder if with obedience and forgivenss he could find his way back again.
June 7, 2012 at 8:43 pm
The parish website says……"Blessed Trinity, where charity and love prevail!" The irony, it is so delicious. Not only that, but the oxymoron, as well – love, being the "popular" name for the virtue of…….charity.
What is sad, is that this priest was probably so badly formed, and misformed, in his youth by others who should have known better, he never had a chance. Very sad.
Another point – I am tired of the shibboleth that the sisters – they would not allow themselves to be called nuns until they wanted to appear vulnerable and call on an obsolete memory – are "in the streets helping the poor." Some are, but the leadership is more likely to be a PhD theologian (and a bad one, at that), or a high placed executive of an Alinskyite foundation somewhere, rather than a grass-roots worker. In fact, many of these sisters have made it known they feel jobs like caring for the eldery, changing bedpans, cleaning hospital rooms, etc., are very, very beneath them. But now that the Vatican might instill some discipline, they're dusting off the habits and returning to "sweet little nun" role.
June 8, 2012 at 7:42 pm
I know this priest…. He left the priesthood for a few years to go to Vegas
No doubt to try his hand in choreography or at least as roadie for the Chippendales review. So sad when certain individuals use the priesthood as a "fall-back".
June 8, 2012 at 7:47 pm
@Tantumblogo – re "dusting off the habits", no one is being fooled, not even the liberal machine coming to their rescue. The habit represents everything the liberals hate (and make fun of). So, it's definitely still pant-suits or jeans…especially when being presented with a pen from the president.
June 8, 2012 at 7:51 pm
The Church has been very charitable to these mean spirited old women. If the tables were turned and these herectical women were in charge they would excommunicate, in the blink of an eye, anyone who disagreed with them. The truth is that the official Church will have to get much smaller because the majority of religious orders (male and female) hate the Church and everything she stands for. It's time to get rid of them. Take your money and your property and don't let the door hit you on the way out "sisters".
June 8, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I thought once you left the priesthood you were NEVER allowed to practice as one again (even though one remains ontologically a priest forever. No?
June 9, 2012 at 2:14 am
Once again a bishop drops the ball and the Faithful are scandalised and led astray by this priest.
June 9, 2012 at 3:40 am
Isn't liberal progressive theology what Martin Luther espoused? Is this Fr. Koesel the 21st Century Luther attempting to create a theology to his own liking and in his own image?
June 11, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Above a contributor wrote: "In fact, many of these sisters have made it known they feel jobs like caring for the eldery, changing bedpans, cleaning hospital rooms, etc., are very, very beneath them." If true, those Sisters have somehow lost the faith that brought them to service. The "jobs" are vital acts of caring and love typical of those Jesus showed to everyone.
June 24, 2012 at 2:43 am
You people need to study more…….you are part of the reason the church is in the trouble it is….we are the church, not just the pope, bishops etc……in case you forgot….and go back and study early church history 1st, 2nd, 3rd Century and so on….the Popes and Bishops were crazy people then….and they made up things as they went along, not inspiration from the Holy Spirit……they borrowed it from Aristotle, Socrates…oh and Augustine gave us the evilness of babies….check out how many Popes had wives and all the evil things they did…and all the times we didn't have popes….the Catholic Church survives not because of the hierarchy but in spite of it…I live my faith the way Jesus said: Love God, and love others…..I also pray that the Patriarchal force of the Church is brought down in my lifetime……all the coverups and pedophilia in the priesthood……then diocese go bankrupt and get the people to pay for their sins….and don't try to tell me I have lost my faith, I was raised Catholic, I teach in Catholic Schools, and I like being Catholic….do your studying first……before you throw the first rock!!!!