June 27, 2006
(Rev.) Paul J.
Rennick csb Ph.D.
Vice President Academic
Assumption
University
Windsor,
Ontario, Canada
Dear Father Rennick:
Thank you for your letter of May 30, 2006, updating the progress being
made
concerning the future of the Assumption University Saginaw
Program.
Along
with my fellow students, I am grateful for your efforts and I can
assure you
that my prayers go with you as you seek to secure the future of
advanced
theological education within the Diocese of Saginaw. In your letter,
you
requested input via email concerning the viability of a "two-a-day"
class schedule on Saturdays. In my opinion, any class schedule
that
allows for the highest level of instruction by potential faculty, along
with
the highest level of participation by the student body, is the
direction that
should be taken. If this can be accomplished by scheduling one morning
and one
afternoon class on Saturdays, then this is the course that should be
pursued.
I realize that the paragraph above fulfills your request.
However, I
have
a number of concerns pertaining to the role and direction of Catholic
education
within the Diocese of Saginaw, and so I am taking this opportunity to
share my
thoughts and observations as well as some of my “Assumption Experience”
with you. During the meeting at the Saginaw Center
for Ministry on April 5, 2006 and in your letter, what has gone unsaid
has
created a void in my understanding of this situation that must be
filled so
that I might determine whether or not Assumption University
is in God’s plan for me. Certainly, it would be helpful if we got to
know each
other better.
Perhaps the
best way
to get to
know me better is through Radio New Jerusalem, which can be seen online
at radionewjerusalem.com.
Radio New
Jerusalem is a web site that I publish for the purpose of promoting
Catholic
communications via radio and the internet. It is my intention to
use
this
medium as a means of fostering not only the evangelization of the
Catholic Faith,
but as a means of fostering greater communication and understanding
between the
various factions that comprise the Catholic Church. Over the past two
thousand
years, Jesus' Great Commandment to his church -- that we love one
another --
has also proven to be the most difficult to accomplish. Today, we
are
living in a world that demands that we overcome our differences and
accomplish
precisely this or witness the further decline of Christian civilization
and
culture.
Ostensibly, it is this commandment that we love one another that is the
impetus
for providing a theological education experience geared towards the
Catholic
laity. It is the purpose of Assumption University.
Paul
left us no greater legacy and our own Catholic history, in spite of the
mistakes
that have been made, bears no greater witness than the truth that there
are,
indeed, three things that last: faith, hope and love. And while
love
is
the greatest, it cannot survive without faith, and without faith there
is no
hope. Today, Father, I am reaching out to you with the hope that
this
great Catholic Faith that we share, a faith based upon the love of
Jesus Christ
himself as shown to us in no uncertain terms in the act of Calvary,
will
transcend the differences that separate us and unite us in common
cause:
The common cause of teaching this eternal truth that God has manifested
Himself
among us and continues to do so, that we might rise above what we are
and
become the eternal beings that he has created us to be. His
posterity
and
ours will be satisfied with nothing less. And so we pray for one
another
as you suggest.
It would seem that this proclaiming of God's truth to the world would
be a
straightforward matter. Christians of all stripe, be it Catholic,
Orthodox or Protestant, confess and share in Christ's Great Commission
to
proclaim the Gospel to the most far-flung corners of the earth. Indeed,
in this
age of modern, global communications it is difficult to conceive of any
location on the planet that has not heard the good news that Christ has
died,
Christ is risen and Christ will come again. Radio
New Jerusalem stands in witness to the
fact that through the power of modern media the Great Commission is
being
fulfilled within our hearing. Listen to
what the Spirit is saying to the churches, for these media carry the
message
that a voice cries once more in the wilderness: "Make straight the way
of
the Lord." When we hold in perspective the reality of this
exciting
time in history in which we find ourselves -- a time in which we
witness the
fulfillment of the conditions for our Lord's return -- then it is easy
to see
why this proclamation of God's truth which has been entrusted to us is
anything
but a straightforward matter. With the end of the course in view,
the
powers of evil that are manifest within our world have mounted one last
great
offensive in the face of certain defeat. And so we find ourselves
engaged in a
spiritual "Battle
of the Bulge" that manifests itself in the form of sexual abuse
scandals,
financial misappropriations, rebellion within our religious orders, and
misuses
of authority and power within the hierarchy of the church itself.
The
ferocity of this attack is such that we cling to the promise of Christ
that the
gates of hell will not prevail against us, even as the walls of Rome are
breached.
If we are to seal this breach and heal these ills that plague our
church, then
we must draw upon the resources and talents that God has given us --
all of us
-- in order to do so. Too often we succumb to the temptation to
categorize
and label each other according to pejorative terms such as "liberal"
or "conservative," "progressive" or
"traditionalist," "radical" or "fundamentalist,"
"convert" or "cradle Catholic." This quickly
degenerates into a form of insult mongering and name calling that is at
once
childish and pedantic; ignorant and derogatory. It is anything
but
Christian. If we are to carry the Great Commission to its final
completion and bring the Gospel of Christ to full bloom in the form of
political liberty, economic justice, and religious and spiritual
freedom for
all, we will do so only by embracing his Great Commandment --
and, in
turn, each other. Since we know not the day and hour in which our
Master
returns, we would do well to tend this human garden he has left us by
sating
the hungry, slaking the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the
stranger and
visiting the sick and imprisoned. I know of no Christian,
Catholic or
otherwise, categorized by these or other labels, that disagrees with
this.
It is here we stand on common ground. And should we stand this
ground
together, we will not only accomplish this work and heal our ills, we
will also
answer in the affirmative Christ's Great Question: "When the Son of Man
comes will he find any faith on earth?"
On the surface, this all seems very simple. But there is a major
complicating factor. And that is sin. The Bible tells us
that sin
has been our constant companion since the third chapter of Genesis and
will
remain so until we walk the golden streets of New Jerusalem in
Revelation
22. Sin is the cause of humanity's downfall and ensuing
degradation,
and
the overcoming of sin is the key to our restoration and eternal
salvation. As
Catholic Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ died upon the
cross
as a propitiation for our sins. At every Mass we
celebrate "the
death of the Lord until he comes," as we reenact the sacrifice of
Christ
and become one with him through his Real Presence in the miraculous
transformation of the elements of the Eucharist. And so we sing "O Lamb
of
God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us..."
The
core belief of the Catholic Faith is eternal salvation through the
remission of
sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the Gospel
of
God's kingdom, for it is through this act that we are able to gain
entrance.
In my experience at Assumption University Saginaw, we were taught a
Gospel far
different from that found in the New Testament and proclaimed for
nearly two
thousand years by the Catholic Church. When I began my studies in the
fall of
2005, I was told that feminist and liberation theology were
"unassailable." And this proved to be so, though the very cross
of Christ and the central tenets of our faith would not be extended
this same
courtesy.
The quote that follows is from a hand-out we were given in "Jesus
Christ
and His Ministry." It is included here because it is indicative of the
feminist underpinnings of the theological education offered at
Assumption
Saginaw:
This
Paschal
Mystery
of dying and
rising is a part of the message of the Redemption. Redemption is
not a
sado-masochistic dogma in which a vengeful father requires the death of
his
only son to satisfy his anger for the transgressions of sinful
humans.
Feminist theologians have rightly criticized the foolishness of such a
doctrine
of atonement or ransom, derived from Anselm of Canterbury and
popularized by
Luther and Calvin, because such a theory unwittingly would sanction
child
abuse. It was not Jesus' death, but his virtue unto death, which
redeemed
or reconciled us to God. Earth Spirituality and the claims of
Jesus
show
us that redemption is a gracious attitude of letting go.
1
While it is not my purpose to provide an in depth critique of this
passage, it
is so rife with error that a cursory examination will prove beneficial
to the
point I will make below. Please indulge me:
The Paschal Mystery is most certainly the key component of the message
of
Redemption. However, nowhere in Scripture or in the Tradition of
the
Church is this act ever presented in any way that can be construed as a
"sado-masochistic dogma." This is the a priori
assumption of the author. To the contrary, John 3:16 tells us that "God
loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life." This
is
hardly the act of a "vengeful father" seeking to "satisfy his
anger." It is, instead, the ultimate act of love propagated by a
Triune God willing to give the most precious part of Himself for the
purpose of
winning our salvation. And, it may be added, the Son, who is an
adult,
submits to this act willingly. The idea that this
constitutes
or
sanctions some cosmic form of child abuse would be laughable if it was
not at
the same time so mean spirited and tragic. Even more absurd is
the
idea
that the doctrine of atonement, a major theme that runs throughout the
Old
Testament as well as the New, derives from St. Anslem and was
"popularized
by Luther and Calvin." I am sure that any of the three would
quickly
point to Matthew 20:28, where we read "...the Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many." This is hardly some chauvinistic theological fad left over
from the 16th century. That it is not Christ's death but his "virtue
unto
death" that is, in some unexplained way, that which reconciles us to
God
is, again, an a priori assumption that cannot be in any way
supported by
Scripture or Tradition. The term "Earth Spirituality" is a
reference to the neo-paganism that spawns this kind of backward
thinking that
claims "that redemption is a gracious attitude of letting go."
The "claims of Jesus" that supposedly support this go unquoted.
However, the actions of Jesus show us that redemption is not a
"gracious
attitude of letting go," but, rather, a fervent embrace of the
cross. It is to precisely this that the resurrection is
witness. If
Jesus' death is not the salvific act of human history, then his
resurrection
becomes moot, and, as Paul instructs us, our faith is in vain.
In like manner, liberation theology was also presented to us not as a
school of
thought but as an incontrovertible truth. Totally ignored were
its
heritage as an outgrowth of the so called "Christian Marxist"
movement of the mid 20th century, and its misuse as a tool of open
rebellion
within the Catholic Church, culminating within the Society of Jesus
during the
early years of Pope John Paul II. Also ignored was the fact that this
pope
addressed, in a most direct manner, the legitimate concerns raised by
liberation theology in the form of a papal instruction from the pen of
Joseph
Cardinal Ratzinger in 1984 entitled Instruction on Certain Aspects
of
"Theology of Liberation." The excerpt below was cited in my
paper for "Jesus Christ and His Ministry" entitled The
Gospel According to Albert Nolan:
The
Gospel of
Jesus
Christ is a
message of freedom and a force for liberation. In recent years, this
essential
truth has become the object of reflection for theologians, with a new
kind of
attention which is itself full of promise. Liberation is first and
foremost
liberation from the radical slavery of sin. Its end and its goal is the
freedom
of the children of God, which is the gift of grace. As a logical
consequence,
it calls for freedom from many different kinds of slavery in the
cultural,
economic, social, and political spheres, all of which derive ultimately
from sin,
and so often prevent people from living in a manner befitting their
dignity. To
discern clearly what is fundamental to this issue and what is a
by-product of
it, is an indispensable condition for any theological reflection on
liberation.
It is only when one begins with the task of evangelization understood
in its
entirety that the authentic requirements of human progress and
liberation are
appreciated. This liberation has as its indispensable pillars: the
truth about
Jesus the Savior; the truth about the Church; and it is in light of the
Beatitudes, and especially the Beatitude of the poor of heart, that the
Church,
which wants to be the Church of the poor throughout the world, intends
to come
to the aid of the noble struggle for truth and justice. She addresses
each
person, and for that reason, every person. She is the "universal
Church: The
Church of the Incarnation. She is not the Church of one class or
another. And
she speaks of the name of truth itself. This truth is realistic". It
leads
to a recognition "of every human reality, every injustice, every
tension
and every struggle." 2
The thesis of my paper was that Nolan's inept use of historical method
resulted
in a theological perspective that replaced eternal salvation through
the
remission of sin with a concept of temporal liberation. This is the
"tragic flaw" that plagues liberation theology in general and it is
the Achilles' heel of Nolan's argument in particular. I argued
that
the
correct perspective was that of liberation as an aspect of Christ's
Gospel of
salvation, not its ultimate goal. Because of this, Nolan's concept of orthopraxis
is only valid when understood within the larger context of orthodoxy,
as
witnessed in the above quote from then Cardinal Ratzinger. This
paper
was
returned to me ungraded as a personal attack on Father Nolan.
When I
refused to capitulate to this on the grounds that this paper was a well
documented and argued academic critique, was in no way an attack on the
person
of Father Nolan, and that I would stand by its veracity even if it
resulted in
my expulsion from the Assumption Program, I was grudgingly granted a
grade of
"B."
Now don't get me wrong, Father. This has nothing to do with grades
on
papers or academic standing. I'm not a whiner and I have reached
an
age
and a place in life where I am secure in my faith and aware of my
scholastic
talents and academic abilities. However, I did find it curious to
be
involved in a Catholic educational program that decried the church's
supposed
"marginalization" of women, gays and lesbians while being
marginalized myself for supporting the intentions of my bishop, the magisterium
and our Holy Father. In the Assumption classroom I have been
taught
that
there is no such thing as the Immaculate Conception and that Jesus was,
indeed,
born under the stain of original sin. In fact, when I questioned
this,
one of my fellow students informed me that to take issue with this
assertion
was tantamount to heresy in the tradition of the Arians. This went
unchallenged. I was taught that the time of Bishop Untener was a golden
age for
the Diocese of Saginaw and that the reign of Bishop Carlson marked "a
return to the 15th century." Anything that smacked of orthodox or
traditional Catholicism was denigrated, while at the same time the
ideas of the
far left fringe of the church were taught as if gospel truth. EWTN was
referred
to derisively as "that Mother Angelica station," and we were taught
that Catholic devotions like the Holy Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine
Mercy
were not only useless, but served to focus the individual so much on
heaven
that it resulted in isolation from and apathy towards the plight of
humanity. I could go on, but you certainly must have the picture
by
now.
Understandably enough, there was an air of mounting tension throughout
the fall
term that culminated in the resignation of Sister Mary Ann Flanagan as
Program
Director for the Saginaw Campus in December. And let me take this
opportunity
to make it perfectly clear that I regard Sister Mary Ann with a great
deal of
affection and I have the utmost respect for her personal
integrity.
I will gladly stand in her defense against anyone that questions her
sincerity,
and it is as obvious to me as it is to everyone else that her act of
resignation required a great deal of courage and is a reflection of her
strong
personal convictions. However, it is also abundantly clear that when we
take
our vows as Catholic Christians, be it laity, religious or clergy, we
are
assuming a commitment to the orthodox teachings of the church and a
sincere and
abiding respect for the position and authority of those within the
hierarchy
that Divine Providence has chosen as our leaders. Therefore, it
should
be
equally obvious that when this commitment to orthodoxy and respect of
authority
is violated this will, ultimately, result in the situation that we are
currently experiencing at Assumption
University
and
within the
Diocese of Saginaw. Those of us that come into the church as
converts
seem to have a ready grasp of this reality, while, for some reason, it
often
seems to escape the cradle Catholics. My most sincere prayers are
with
my
fellow Assumption Saginaw classmates, especially those that believe
that this
is all somehow a personal vendetta against Sister Mary Ann on the part
of Bishop
Carlson. It is not. The process that is underway, the
process that
you have the unenviable task of dealing with for Assumption University,
is the
result of
our
bishop's larger efforts to bring a diocese that had swung way to the
left back
into line with Rome
and the central, orthodox heart of Catholicism. Our prayers should not
be
merely for each other but for our bishop as well.
Overall, this centering of the Diocese of Saginaw will be a positive
achievement that will work to the benefit of all. It is high
time
this diocese stop being held up as the poster child for all that is
wrong with
the far left-wing agenda within the Catholic Church and assumes its
proper role
of promoting the Great Commission to take the true Gospel of Jesus
Christ to
the middle of Michigan
and the world. Assumption
University
finds
itself
in the unique position of being able to take a vital leadership role in
this
process by providing a quality Catholic education to the lay leaders
that the
church will need to grow into the bright future that lay before us.
Perhaps
even more important is the opportunity that presents itself to heal the
student
body, both past and present, of the spiritual and intellectual wounds
that have
been inflicted through the errors of the past, and to, in turn, spread
this
healing into the parishes. The unique opportunity that challenges us
today is
to join our bishop in his vision of making this diocese a beacon to the
world
by uniting the best of all that is Catholic in such a way that we
remove the bushel
that has covered our light for so long and allow it to shine for all to
see. If Jesus is to find faith on earth, then let the truth be
that he
needs
look no further than the Diocese of Saginaw and Assumption University.
In realizing this vision by no means
should it by
implied that disciplines such
as feminism and liberation theology should be eliminated from study.
However,
these and other schools of thought that comprise a well rounded
theological
education should be taught as part of a larger curriculum that reflects
the magisterium
of the church, and not as unassailable truth in the form of an
anti-orthodox
agenda. To the contrary, a liberal education is the goal, but it should
be
liberal enough to include sound doctrine and the orthodox history and
teaching
of the church as well as the works of rebels and malcontents. By all
means, let
us read Schillebeeckx and Kung, but give us Wojtyla and Ratzinger as
well.
Allow the full story to be told and the truth that is our Catholic
Faith will
emerge victorious. It has always been and will be thus. If there are
those in
our midst that can't deal with the reality of what it means to be
Catholic,
then perhaps they would be happier in another church. I am not
being
facetious.
Father, I appreciate your intention to be as "transparent as
possible," and I have responded by sharing my observations and feelings
as
candidly and honestly as I can. These are issues that are begging to be
dealt
with openly and fully. If this can be done in an air of mutual respect
and
Christian affection then we gain the potential to accomplish something
truly
special here that will extend far beyond our own parochial interests. Certainly, we are not the only Catholics
struggling to find unity in the midst of our diversity. You are right
when you
say that we all want this settled. However, it is in the best
interest
of
all of us to make sure that this matter is treated fully and correctly. True healing is accomplished only through
opening and thoroughly cleansing the wound. Merely applying a band-aid
now will
almost certainly result in amputation later.
God bless you and God speed.
Phil Ropp
Cc: Bishop Robert J.
Carlson
Notes:
1. Jeannine Gramick SL.
Jesus in an
Evolutionary
Framework. LENN, Autumn, 2005 p.5.
2. Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Excerpted from Instruction on
Certain
Aspects of "Theology of
Liberation" Given at Rome,
at the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on August 6,
1984,
the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord.