Maureen Fiedler's blog

I just interviewed the noted theologian, Harvey Cox, on his new and provocative book, The Future of Faith. I strongly recommend the book.

Cox divides the history of Christianity into three "ages": the Age of Faith (the early Church up to Constantine), the Age of Belief (Constantine to about the mid-20the century), and the new Age of the Spirit (still emerging in the last 50-60 years). At the risk of oversimplifying, he says that the second age, the “Age of Belief,” emphasized subscribing to proper and orthodox teachings. It was pre-occupied with creeds, and statements of belief. Thus, it discovered heresies, inquisitions and other ways to exclude people from the community of “belief.”

The third age, which he says is still in formation, is the Age of the Spirit, which emphasizes – not what people believe – but how they live, how they treat one another, how they experience the divine through spiritual practices or ritual. It is global, and in many ways, interfaith, with practices being borrowed across faith traditions. His examples include a wide range, from the Community of Sant ‘Egidio to liberation theology to global Pentecostalism.

Does anyone else feel like the U.S. Bishops are living in the 13th century? They are actually spending time together – precious time – trying to decide whether or not to accept grammatically inaccurate and awkward translations of the prayer of the Mass. It’s time they simply told the Vatican that such culturally specific and pastoral issues are their province. English translations need to be done by English speakers who use the American idiom. (And the American idiom these days, by the way, is gender inclusive – although the U.S. Bishops themselves still have a way to go on that point).

Instead of arguing over nouns and verbs, the Bishops could be spending time on really pressing issues like climate change, hunger in the world, nuclear disarmament, or building an interfaith movement.

I’ve been watching President Obama’s actions in recent days, as they touch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the military generally. Some have accused him of “dithering” over a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan. And recent news reports make clear that he is getting conflicting advice from his national security team.

I am glad that he is taking his time. The image I see in Obama is that of a thoughtful, intelligent man weighing the options. He is also demanding an exit strategy, an “off ramp” for Afghanistan.

I also see someone willing to face the costs that will be incurred by his decision, whatever it is. He visited Dover Air Force Base in the middle of the night to meet the caskets of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. On Veteran’s Day, he took an unscheduled walk through Arlington Cemetery amid the tombstones of veterans of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He visited grieving military families in Ft. Hood, TX.

According to the Washington Post on Nov. 12, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to end all social service contracts with the government of the District of Columbia if the City Council passes legislation that would legalize same sex marriage in DC. That legislation is expected to pass next month.

Reports today indicate that members of the City Council are not intimidated by this. The sponsor of the bill, David Catania, a big supporter of Catholic Charities, said he is “baffled.” Others said they will not legislate based on threats, and one other Council member called the move by the Archdiocese “somewhat childish.”

Assuming this bill passes (and it is likely to pass), this move by the Archdiocese could do real harm to people in desperate need. And all this is being threatened to preserve the “right” to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Whatever the hierarchy thinks about same sex marriage, it is solid Catholic teaching NOT to discriminate against gays and lesbians. What are they thinking?

We were all shocked by the horrific killings at Ft. Hood, Texas, yesterday. But again and again, the media keep mentioning the suspect's religion. He's a Muslim. I must admit: I wonder if someone would say "the suspect is a Presbyterian, or a Reform Jew or a Catholic." His religion may or may not have had anything to do with these killings.

After all, Major Hasan, the suspect, is also a psychiatrist with a specialization in post-traumatic stress disorder. He must have listened to horrible war stories from patients for many weeks or months. He had orders for a deployment he did not want. There is nothing especially religious about these identities, and either one might be a factor in the shootings he allegedly committed. Indeed, he might have simply "snapped."

But in some quarters, the religious hate, the "Islamophobia," has already begun, with threats against mosques and Muslims. It's part of the "blame the entire group for what a small group, or in this case - one person, may have done."

It’s not very often that a Vatican official confirms my underlying suspicions so directly. But Cardinal Rode actually admitted that a “certain feminist spirit” among American nuns is part of the reason for his investigation.

If that’s what he’s after, we nuns could save him more than a million dollars. Of course, lots of us nuns are feminists – because the gospel calls us to that!

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is visiting the United States. This Greek Orthodox prelate is often called the “Green” Patriarch. And his visit resurrects pleasant memories for me.

Last year, I met him when I visited Turkey on an interfaith tour. Now, being a feminist, I am not usually impressed by patriarchs of any stripe. But I must confess, I was pleasantly surprised by Bartholomew.

I was pleased to be part of the Peace and Dialogue Awards Ceremony of the Rumi Forum Oct. 27. It took place in the Cannon House Caucus Room on Capitol Hill.

Most of the recipients (four out of six) were Catholic. Dr. John Borelli of Georgetown University received an award for his lifelong commitment to interfaith dialogue. Dr. Sidney H. Griffith of Catholic University received the Rumi Peace Award. Congressperson Gerald E. Connolly, a Catholic representing Virginia’s 11th district (Fairfax County), was given the Congressional Service Award. And I was honored to receive the Media Excellence Award for our work on Interfaith Voices.

Many of these awardees sat at my dinner table, and it was obvious that all of are “Vatican II Catholics,” people whose ideals were forged and developed in that era when ecumenical and interfaith awareness opened up the horizons of religious faith and practice in our lives.

The Rumi Forum represents a vision of Islam that values and fosters interfaith and intercultural dialogue. It is named for the world famous 13th century poet, Rumi.

Imagine for a minute that it’s 1954, as segregationists faced Brown vs. the Board of Education, the Supreme Court case which mandated school de-segregation. And imagine that the Vatican, or the Catholic bishops, said to Protestant segregationists in the South, “You can come to our schools, to Catholic schools, and we’ll provide you with a home.” Most Catholics would have been outraged, I daresay. (And of course, precisely the opposite actually happened, as many Catholic bishops were outspoken against racial segregation, and integrated Catholic schools -- thank God).

But it’s a different story with gender segregation or sexual orientation. This is not a perfect analogy, granted. But the Vatican’s overtures to dissident Anglicans sound like those “imagined” 1950’s with a different twist. The Vatican is opening Catholic doors wide to Anglicans who believe in “segregation at the altar,” for women, and for openly gay/lesbian clergy.

The renowned scripture scholars, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, have just published a great new book on St. Paul. It's called The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon.

These writers say what New Testament scholars have known for some time: that Paul wrote only seven of the Epistles ascribed to him in the New Testament. Among the other six, they say three (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are definitely not written by Paul, and three others (Ephesians, Colossians and 1 Thessalonians) are disputed, although the majority of scholars believe that Paul did not write these either.

I have contact with a wide interfaith swath of the population, and just about everyone: Muslim, Jew, Episcopalian, Methodist, Buddhist… you name it… wants to know what I think of the Vatican investigation of American nuns.

People, I find, are scratching their heads trying to figure out what in the world the Vatican is looking for in a group of women whose labor literally built the American church as we know it, and who continue to serve that church, especially the poor, with visible selflessness.

Well, the Quixote Center is offering everyone an opportunity to voice their views about American nuns in an ad that will appear in the National Catholic Reporter when it is complete. It chronicles the legacy and work of American nuns from the days of the frontier to the urban immigrant slums to the extensive work for justice and peace today.

If you want to read it and sign it, here is the link: Support our Sisters campaign

My fellow NCR Today blogger Michael Sean Winters argues that faith-based institutions should be able to show preference for people of their own faith in hiring. But he omitted one very crucial phrase: "with public money."

What The New York Times editorial (with which he disagrees) was discussing was not hiring in general, but hiring people for social service programs funded by public tax dollars under the Faith-based and Community Partnerships Program. These dollars cannot be used for anything that proselytizes, or promotes a religion anyway, or the whole program would run afoul of the First Amendment.

So, if one is hiring a drug counselor, or someone to run a soup kitchen or a job-training office, it’s a neutral job -- religiously speaking -- and there is no reason to discriminate on the basis of religion. In fact, since such salaries are paid with tax dollars, there is every reason not to discriminate.

Need a quick refresher on God? Andrew Pessin, author of a new book called The God Question, manages something few philosophers can pull off: he speaks in lucid, plain English! On this week’s Interfaith Voices, he describes the evolution of Western ideas about God from Plato and Aristotle to Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to Maimonides and Marx… all the way up to atheist Richard Dawkins. It includes a discussion of female images of God in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Then, we host a debate on the Supreme Court case of the Mojave Cross with Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Luke Goodrich, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. If you wonder about the arguments on both sides of this case (a cross as a national memorial), it’s a great review.

Finally, you can hear about a blessing of the animals that St. Francis of Assisi would love, and a chant from Soka Gakkai Buddhism. Here’s the link to the show:

www.interfaithradio.org/

As the case of the so-called “Mojave Cross” reached the Supreme Court, I was struck that the plaintiff in the case, Frank Buono, is not the usual atheist-agnostic-humanist who challenges religious symbols on public property. He is a Roman Catholic with crosses in his own home, and -- from my point of view -- the principles of the U.S. Constitution in his mind and heart.

He discovered that a Buddhist group wanted to erect a shrine near the place of the cross, and was refused a number of years ago. He was deeply offended that government would favor one religion over another. And thus the lawsuit.

But you know… that’s the finest of our heritage as Americans, and American Catholics. We were among the first immigrant groups to run up against religious discrimination… this is fitting…

This week on Interfaith Voices, my lead interview is with Jonathan Karp, the publisher and editor who worked with Senator Ted Kennedy for more than two years to write and publish his memoir, True Compass. It has just hit the bookstores in the last couple weeks, and it’s a wonderful read!

Karp talks about how Matthew 25 (feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. ...) was at the heart of Kennedy’s Catholic faith, and how it nourished his legislative agenda. He also talks about how he assessed his personal moral failings, and how he viewed the issue of abortion.

To hear the entire interview, go to: http://www.interfaithradio.org/

I've been thinking lately about the decision of Bishop Edward Slattery of Oklahoma City to begin facing the altar, rather than the people, at Mass.

Bishop Slattery says he is celebrating ad orientem, (facing East) as part of his urging Catholics "to draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship."

Authentic tradition of Catholic worship? From what age of the church, I wonder. Surely not the Last Supper. And surely not the "house churches" in the early centuries of Christianity where people sat around a table.

But mostly, I cannot image a faster way to alienate people in parishes than to do this. After decades of being taught that the Eucharist is a communal celebration, this feels like shunning the People of God. I want to ask Bishop Slattery: Are you afraid of the people? If not, then why… as my mother would say… are you being so impolite?

You may have heard: Dan Brown is at it again! The author of the DaVinci Code has a new novel called The Lost Symbol that focuses on the Freemasons. It sold 2 million copies the first week!

When I heard about the Freemason focus, it resurrected memories of my Catholic relatives telling me about this super-secret society that Catholics were forbidden to join. I recalled the rumors: Masons really rule the world, and they are really a substitute “religion.”

The timing could not be better. On Sept. 22, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously (how’s that for bi-partisanship?) for a resolution (H Res. #441) praising American nuns for the work they have done in this country over centuries. The lead sponsor of the resolution was Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

This should be sent to the Vatican forthwith. The men who ordered the current inquisition need to know how Sisters are regarded in the United States:

I was mesmerized by our lead interview on Interfaith Voices this week. My guest was Pico Iyer, a friend of the Dalai Lama for more than 30 years, and the author of a new biography of him called The Open Road: The Global Journal of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

He provides an intimate portrait of this highly learned man, who calls himself a “simple Buddhist monk.” But the Dalai Lama is a philosopher, a lover of science, a leader of the Tibetan community in exile, and a globe-trotting political leader. Yet he finds time to spend at least eight (count ‘em – eight!) hours a day in meditation. And he’d like more.

Not long ago, the Cincinnati archdiocese banned Sr. Louise Akers from teaching because she supports the ordination of women.

That was bad enough. Then, Dr. Carol Egner, a laywoman and a gynecologist who was incensed by this injustice, wrote a letter supporting Akers to the Cincinnati Inquirer. Her pastor read the letter, and had the gall to demand that she write another letter retracting her position. When she rightly refused, he banished her from her volunteer teaching position with a 6th grade religion class at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.

What is it that these men fear? Exposing children to the gospel ideal of gender equality? Open discussion of an issue of great importance in our church? The thought of actually sharing ministry equally with women?

Jean Stokan, Director of the Justice Team for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, provides a graphic description of gross human rights abuses in Honduras in her appearance on "Interfaith Voices" this week. She describes government forces trying to snuff out the protests of those who oppose the recent coup. Teachers, lawyers and campesinos were attacked in multiple and bloody ways as they demonstrated to restore the elected leader of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, and the constitutional order of the country.

Jean was part of a delegation of religious people who visited Honduras in August on a trip sponsored by both the Quixote Center and the Sisters of Mercy.

To hear the interview, go to: www.interfaithradio.org

Before this interview, you can hear the tale of Kevin Roose, a student who went undercover at Liberty University (founded by Jerry Falwell) to investigate evangelical culture. And after Jean’s interview, you can hear about the great sounds of an interfaith choir called Mosaic/Harmony.

It was the conclusion of President Obama's address on health care that truly moved me. I heard strong echoes of Catholic social justice teaching, in both the words of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and in Obama's own embrace of the philosophy of the "common good."

Obama quoted a letter written in May by Sen. Kennedy reminding him that health care "concerns more than material things." "What we face," he wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."

That headline may surprise you, but according to Kevin Eckstrom, editor of Religion News Service, the basic position of the U.S. bishops' conference on health care, if you leave out the question of abortion -- a big asterisk -- is "to the left."

What Eckstrom means is this: They favor universal coverage as a human right and other basic reforms. He is quick to point out that some individual bishops have articulated views that sound more like standard Republican Party fare than the social justice teachings of the church. (I can’t help wondering, does that make them “Cafeteria Bishops?”)

Want to know more? Kevin was the lead guest on my radio program "Interfaith Voices" this week, discussing the religious dimensions of our health care debate overall. Included were the views of mainline Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, conservative Evangelicals and Christian Scientists.

Eckstrom also talks about the reasons he believes President Obama is reaching out to religious leaders on this question.

To hear the full interview, go to: http://www.interfaithradio.org/

Francis deBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry, a national Catholic ministry of justice and reconciliation for lesbian/gay Catholics and the wider church, has taken on Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC, for his opposition to the legalization of sex marriage in the District of Columbia.

Archbishop Wuerl has joined forces with some Baptist African-American clergy in calling for a referendum in the District that would define marriage as “one man, one woman.”

Earlier this year, the City Council of Washington, DC voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, and the council is planning to vote in the fall on legalizing same-sex unions in the District itself.

According to The Washington Post, Archbishop Wuerl sent a letter to all 300 priests of the archdiocese, and has launched his own personal campaign in the media.

In an interview, DeBernardo said, “Archbishop Wuerl is wrong in claiming that same sex unions weaken marriage. Same sex marriage will not weaken marriage; it will strengthen it because it provides protection for committed relationships across the board.”

The lead segment on the radio program, Interfaith Voices, this week looks at the Vatican investigations of American nuns, both the “apostolic visitation” and the “doctrinal assessment” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

Guests include Kevin Eckstrom, editor of Religion News Service, who acknowledges that we don’t know the deep reasons behind the probes, but lays out what we do know, and offers his conjectures about the future. He is followed by an exchange between conservative Ann Carey, author of Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities, and Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, former president of LCWR, prolific author of 40 plus books on spirituality, and regular columnist with NCR. It’s a polite conversation, with lots of feeling!

Here’s the link to listen on line.

I don’t often cry when a public figure dies. This morning, I cried when I heard the news that Senator Ted Kennedy had passed away.

I "grew up" with the Kennedy Clan. I remember how John Kennedy broke the "Catholic barrier" with his election in 1960. I remember Robert Kennedy’s prophetic words as he ran for President in 1968… his fearless embrace of the “least of these” and his opposition to the War in Vietnam. And I remember the wrenching agony of the two Kennedy assassinations.

But today feels a bit like the end of an era. Ted Kennedy, like his brothers, was a champion of civil rights, women’s rights, and the welfare of the “least of these.” He strongly and eloquently opposed the war in Iraq. Because his life (and the lives of others in his family) embraced the great Catholic social justice tradition, they have made me proud to be a Catholic.

So I guess now… the torch has been passed… to us.

A new delegation of North Americans concerned about human rights arrived in Honduras Aug. 18 for a week-long mission of solidarity and accompaniment. It’s needed. Grassroots organizations opposing the coup continue to demonstrate daily, and meet with government repression.

This new delegation includes Jean Stokan, director of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas’ Justice Team, Diane Guerin, RSM, justice coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Sisters of Mercy; Edia Lopez, RSM, of the Caribbean, Central America and South America Mercy Community; and Marie Dennis, of the Maryknoll Washington office and co-president of Pax Christi International.

Amnesty International’s recent report on Honduras echoed the findings of the Quixote Center delegation in the past couple weeks, reporting serious violations of civil and human rights, particularly directed at those voicing opposition to the coup and calling for constitutional order to be restored. The new delegation, like previous ones, will document any violations and lend protection against further human rights abuses by providing an international presence and witness to events.

Watch the NCR Today blog for updates.

Some of you may be following the ongoing scandal about Blackwater, the private contactor that has made billions providing "security services" during the war in Iraq. Among other allegations, Blackwater operatives were accused of the reckless killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad, and The New York Times reports that they were hired by the CIA under the Bush/Cheney regime to run an assassination program against Al Qaeda for the CIA. This was the program that Leon Panetta, CIA Director in the Obama Administration, cancelled immediately when he heard about it.

The official Quixote Center delegation in Honduras continues to send firsthand reports of the events in that country, as tens of thousands of its citizens clamor for the return of their elected President, Manuel Zelaya.

The stories of the repression are documenting an escalating violence. This report refers to August 12th protests:

Reports of repression in San Pedro Sula are similar in violence and intensity.

For more detail, go to: http://www.quixote.org/node/949

Honduras: The coup continues and repression escalates

The Quixote Center delegation in Honduras reports that Aug. 11 -- a day on which the popular movements had called for large urban rallies -- did indeed produce very large protests against the coup government in both Tegucigalpa and in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras. But it also produced increased repression.

Here is part of their firsthand report: