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PDF versionThe nature of human error
by Richard McBrien on Mar. 30, 2009
Everyone is familiar with the expression, "To err is human; to forgive is divine.” People make mistakes all the time.
Some errors, however, are products of simple carelessness. They cannot be excused on the basis of human frailty alone. There is an element of personal responsibility that has to be addressed and remedied.
A recent op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, "Why the John Paul Generation Will Welcome New York’s Next Archbishop” (3/5/09), offers a case in point.
The column opens with a reference to Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s visit to St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., as a dramatic expression of his commitment to increasing the number of vocations to the priesthood.
The Journal writer acknowledges what is evident to anyone who takes a look, namely, that "Vocations are way down.” But then he adds: "To make matters worse, influential dissenters within the church are heavily invested in the archbishop’s failure.”
Who are these Catholic Rush Limbaughs? The writer provides no names. President Richard Nixon used to refer to the "some who say” crowd, but without ever identifying any of them. They served instead as rhetorical foils whose only function was to sharpen the point that the President wanted to make.
I, for one, do not know of a single "dissenter” (again, unnamed and undefined) who is "heavily invested in the [next] archbishop’s failure.” And I, for one, hope just the opposite happens, namely, that Archbishop Dolan has an extraordinarily successful tenure as the pastoral leader of the most prominent archdiocese in all of the United States.
The Journal column identifies me as having been quoted twice in The New York Times as "criticizing church efforts to revive the sacramental confession of sins.”
But here again carelessness, not simple human frailty, is at work. The Times articles in which I was quoted were not about "church efforts” in general, but about specific initiatives undertaken in one instance by the bishop of Brooklyn to grant a plenary indulgence to Catholics during this Year of Paul, and in another by a pastor in Stamford, Conn., to revive the pre-Vatican II practice of auricular confession in the old-fashioned confessional stalls.
My criticism was not of an effort to "revive the sacramental confession of sins,” but to revive a particular form of the sacrament -- a form that sets aside the new venue for celebrating the sacrament in a reconciliation room, in a face-to-face encounter with the priest-confessor, in favor of a return to the anonymous transaction between penitent and priest in a darkened confessional.
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The Journal column notes that Archbishop Dolan had spent seven years as rector of the North American College in Rome. Indeed, it was there, in Rome, that I first met him. I came away from that initial encounter with a very positive impression of him as a warm and friendly person with a gift for hospitality and a robust sense of humor. Why would any Catholic, "dissenter” or not, want him to fail in New York?
Furthermore, what does the "viability of a celibate male priesthood” have to do with restoring the "teaching authority (magisterium) of the pope, [providing] doctrinal clarity and unity, and [putting] an end to the deviations and diversions that sprang up in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council”?
The Catholic church had a married clergy for more than half of its history, without compromise of its teaching authority or doctrinal clarity and unity, and there are today thousands of married Catholic priests in the so-called Eastern-rite churches -- again without the dire consequences attributed in the Journal column to a married clergy.
And what specifically are the "deviations and diversions” that sprang up after Vatican II? Is the "writer in Ridgefield, Conn.” perhaps referring to the only schism to divide the post-conciliar church -- a schism on the right, not the left, led by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, whose four bishops recently had their excommunications lifted by Pope Benedict XVI?
The author of the Journal piece observes that the previous and current popes had been "scrupulous in appointing bishops with orthodox views.” Does he mean to imply that the popes before John Paul II -- Paul VI, John XXIII, and Pius XII, for example -- did not appoint "orthodox” bishops?
The writer also celebrates the "apparent orthodoxy of the young priests who are being ordained these days.” At least he qualifies the noun this time with the adjective "apparent,” but the same question applies: were the bishops of past years ordaining unorthodox priests?
In the end, are we dealing here with errors that are attributable to simple human frailty, or errors born of carelessness, for which a writer must bear some personal responsibility?
© 2009 Richard P. McBrien. All rights reserved. Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
Or errors due to a personal
Or errors due to a personal vision of what the church is or is not doing? Our personal visions lead us to see things in a different light than another person and we tend to push things towards that view.
Excellent points. It seems to
Excellent points. It seems to me (maybe because they make the most noise)the far right in both the church and politics seek to unite against someone or something rather than for something. The paranoia is present for both extremes, but it's much louder and more strategic on the right.
I admire your work very much,
I admire your work very much, Fr. McBrien. You speak with the clarity and expertise and compassion -- and passion --needed to heal our deeply dented church. Thank your for your scholarship and energy. You and I are of the same generation. We know that Roman Catholicism is much more than the hierarchy, than the definitions, prescription and proscriptions of the Baltimore Catechism, than Canon "Law"; and that most of us do not know the true history of Christianity, much less the church we call "catholic." Please help us to continue to learn and appreciate the true depth and breadth of the Christian Way.
Jerry (Aldus)
Very illuminating. I hope
Very illuminating. I hope you shared these reactions with the author of the WSJ op-ed piece.
Thank you! You are a
Thank you! You are a blessing indeed!
The church of the 1940s seems
The church of the 1940s seems to be the standard of the writer of the op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal. "Orthodoxy" seems to mean mindless obedience to church authority - with no room for conscientious dissent.
I'll put my lot in with Cardinal John Hnery Newman. Paul VI said Vatican II was Newman's Council. Cardinal Newman in his "Letter to the Duke of Norfolk" wrote that conscience is the "aboriginal Vicar of Christ."
Thank you Cardinal Newman.
I wish Archbishop Dolan well in his appointment as so many of us do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for this article. I
Thank you for this article. I always enjoy the writings of Fr. Mc Brien.
I'm confused. I did not know
I'm confused. I did not know that confession behind the screen went out after Vatican II. I though that everyone had a choice. They could go behind the screen OR face to face. Their own choice: not the preference of the priest.
I'm with you. I think of my
I'm with you. I think of my confession, whether face-to-face in a reconciliation room or as an anonymous transaction in an old-fashioned confessional stall, as an encounter with Jesus, who loves me and forgives my sins. Given the choice, I'll take the darkened confessional, and I appreciate the option. There's a terrible granduer about the sacrament these trappings help to emphasize. I'm grateful to God that His Church accommodates that poetry.
Thank you Fr O'Brien. Please
Thank you Fr O'Brien. Please do keep your wonderful prophetic work. Thank God, you have such a stunning and polite way of explaining things and enlightening the presente events, which are threatening the continuation of Vatican Two. Please keep writing. Otherwise you will be sadly missed by many.
We who were born and have grown at the same time with the Vatican Council in our ministry and toiled tirelessly with the poorest of the poor with much dedication and hope in South America, are utterly frustrated and disgusted for the lack of will to put its decrees in practice, and trying to turn the clock back to pre-vatican ecclesiology.
Thank your for your prophetic voice. We need you.
Thank you Fr O'Brien. Please
Thank you Fr O'Brien. Please do keep your wonderful prophetic work. Thank God, you have such a stunning and polite way of explaining things and enlightening the presente events, which are threatening the continuation of Vatican Two. Please keep writing. Otherwise you will be sadly missed by many.
We who were born and have grown at the same time with the Vatican Council in our ministry and toiled tirelessly with the poorest of the poor with much dedication and hope in South America, are utterly frustrated and disgusted for the lack of will to put its decrees in practice, and trying to turn the clock back to pre-vatican ecclesiology.
Thank your for your prophetic voice. We need you.
Fr.McBrien, I admire your
Fr.McBrien,
I admire your defense of ArchBishop Dolan, but may I refer you to a Press Release put out by SNAP on 2/18/09 discussing the Archbishop's abysmal track record
on Sex Abuses in his diocese of Milwaukee. Among other things one glaring
statement stands out: In 2002 Archbishop Dolan permitted a letter to be
published in the Caholic newspaperdescribing lergy child sex abuse victims
as "prostitutes". Http://reform-network.net/?p=1459. His record in St. Louis
also leaves a lot to be desired. Wrote a letter to the judge to keep Fr. Gary
Woken, a priest sex offender, who was arrested for raping and sodomizing a
boy from ages 7-10 who living with Dolan at Our Lady of Sorrows rectory,to keep him from prison, praising Wolken. This is the other side of the new
Archbishop we will have in New York.
in St. Louis
abused
SNAP
With all due respect,
With all due respect, Fr.O'Brien, there is no right wing or left wing of the Catholic Church. Our only reference point is Christ, The Word of God Made Flesh, Who Has Revealed Himself to His Church.
Perhaps the concept of Christ's desire, "That all be One, as you, Father, and I are One, would be easier for you to understand if you did not consider the Filioque to be divisive. The Creative Love of God, who proceeds from The Love between the Father and The Son, The Lord, The Giver of Life from the beginning, is Unitive, not divisive.
Oops, such is the nature of
Oops, such is the nature of human error. I meant to say, with all due respect, Father McBrien...
I think Anne Danielson makes
I think Anne Danielson makes a very good point. I find that the content of many of the articles in the NCR have some important value but the presentations are most often headed toward divisiveness.
If you want the Catholic Church to get rid of its hierarchy then maybe you should join a Congregationalist Church
I think Anne Danielson makes
I think Anne Danielson makes a very important point. I think most of NCR's articles make some valid and important points but the most often its authors' presentations are headed in the direction of divisiveness.
There is a constant focus on rejection of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. If this is really your interest or the interest of your readers then you might consider joining a Congregationalist Church.
We need to work to heal divisions within the Body of Christ - all Christians AND within the Roman Catholic Church as well.
The "deviations and
The "deviations and diversions" following Vatican II are not just on the right, Father. There are liturgical abuses throughout the United States and the Church as a whole. Many people now doubt the Real Presence, the Virgin Birth, and Papal Infallibility -- all of which are defined teachings of the Church. The greatest example that comes to mind is the feud between Mother Angelica and Cardinal Mahony, whose pastoral letter on the Eucharist a while back focused more on the community gathering and not on the essential Sacrificial element of the Mass.
Fr. McBrien, you are right
Fr. McBrien, you are right on, sir. Thank you for your vigilance.
tajm - Gather Faithfully Together has never been declared unorthodox. In fact, it's still in use in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. If there were any "deviations or diversions" made during the feud between Mother Angelica and Cardinal Mahoney, it was by those who interpreted the intent of the pastoral letter incorrectly.
Will this "orthodox" author
Will this "orthodox" author in the Wall Street Journal also write about the profound sinfulness of lust and of greed, of deceit, of lies, and of usury by the wealthy thieves of Wall Street who think nothing of bankrupting Americans while collecting immeasurable bail-outs and felonious bonuses? How is his retirement fund? Or does counting angels upon the head of a pin while Rome burns more interest his lofty and purely spiritual concerns?
Wall Street must clean its own stolen house before casting stones at such a holy and learned priest as the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien.
Hey, WSJ! Read " . . .and Economic Justice For All!"
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