"Congregation Ordains Catholic Female Pastor"

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/01/congregation-ordains-catholic-female-pastor/

I'm going to let that headline go, no matter how much it begs to be fisked.

No, here's what caught my eye -- the explanation of how Ms. Corran, apparently a Presbyterian, came to discern her vocation to the Catholic priesthood.

"After returning to San Diego to care for her ailing father, she became 'certified and ready for call' to ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  But intrigued by Mary Magdalene, she attended its first liturgy and noticed the shift in the locus of power."


Boy, that brings back the memories. I'll never forget the first time I went into a Catholic church, noticed the locus of power, and said, "Hey, this is for me."

Double Lives

The Catholic Church apparently sees itself in the midst of a public relations crisis. From Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech, to the flood of priestly sex abuse scandals, to the release of new canonical norms pertaining to those scandals, to the news this week that some number of Catholic priests in Rome are leading double lives as active homosexuals, the Church seems intent on disproving that old saw about there being no such thing as bad publicity.

Since "public relations" is more or less the art of lying about oneself to large numbers of people, I've never been much troubled by assertions that the Church is not very good at it. An organization whose mission statement includes the certitude that "men will revile [it] and persecute [it] and utter all kinds of evil against [it]" should not waste too much time with media consultants cultivating a glossy corporate image. The real problem, I think, would be if the Church started trying to get really good at PR -- imitating celebrities and politicians and oil companies in a concerted effort to "spin" whatever bad news comes their way.

I fear something like that may be going on in Italy right now. The reaction of the Diocese of Rome to reports of "gay priests' wild nights" has been to issue a statement calling on any such priests to come forward publicly and renounce their priesthood. To those who long to see the Church adopt a get-tough policy (verbally, at least) against miscreant priests, the Rome Vicariate's statement probably looks like a welcome step in the right direction -- a strategic response, PR-wise.

I find it a little disturbing.

The pastoral care of sinners, and the discernment of what is and is not a genuine priestly vocation, are matters to be handled in chanceries and rectories and confessionals -- not in the headlines of Italian newspapers. Some of the priests involved in this story probably should never have entered the priesthood, and should leave it under the guidance of competent spiritual direction. But there may be others with real vocations who have gotten themselves caught up in a destructive, habitual, and seemingly hopeless pattern of sin. Does the Church have no pastoral obligation to priests in both of those categories? And is a face-saving blanket pronouncement that calls on all the priests involved to come out of the closet and get out of the priesthood an honorable way of meeting that pastoral obligation?

The message of Jesus Christ has always been:

"Hey, sinners! Stop it! I'll help you."

The Diocese of Rome has decided instead to shout:

"Hey, sinners! Go away and quit embarrassing us!"

"La Caballeria de Cristo"

During a recent visit to San Antonio, I took some time (on the recommendation of my parish priest) to visit the retreat center and Lourdes shrine operated there by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The Oblates are a heroic missionary order, with priests and brothers in every corner of the world -- especially the remote and dangerous corners. (Pope Pius XI once referred to the Oblates as "specialists in difficult missions.") Their work in Spanish-speaking countries in the nineteenth century won them the nickname "Christ's Cavalry," and a large bronze relief sculpture on the grounds of the center commemorates that particular aspect of their apostolate. It offers an image of the priesthood that is, to say the least, arresting...

...and, in these difficult times, a much-needed reminder that the vast majority of Catholic priests are still what Catholic priests have always been -- good men (often heroically good) with a deep commitment to bringing the Gospel to a suffering world. Seeing them depicted as the cavalry "riding to the rescue" adds a nice touch of romance.

By the way, the sculpture is obviously based on this photograph of a group of Oblates somewhere in south Texas in the early decades of the last century.

See -- they really were cowboys.