2012 articles by David Timbs 2011 articles
Dec
30: The
Sacrament of the Neighbour - A Reflection for 2013.
The 'non-person'
in Liberation Theology
Gutierrez
intensifies the shock effect of the Jesus story by proposing that the
wounded man, left for dead on the side of the road, should be seen as none
other than God! Gutierrez
invites us to recognise that it is Christ himself standing in the sandals
of the poor, outcast, the de-humanised. It is then possible to acknowledge
him/her as not only our ‘neighbour’ but as our nearest relation.
Dec
23: Reclaiming
It
The
Druids, Romans and others celebrated the winter solstice with its celebration of
the return of the Sun – Sol Invictus. Christians
subsumed this observance into Christmas. Coca Cola and big business have now
identified a weak spot in the Christian facade and struck back on behalf of the
pagans. Christmas has now been successfully retrieved and rebranded with the
face of that jolly great identity thief, Santa Claus.
December
16: Promotion
or Provocation?
It
is entirely possible that Olmsted had become so provocative and
aggressively confrontational that he is seen as a liability in the
US. Equally, it might be deduced that he has been rewarded by Rome precisely
for those reasons
(c.f.
Power behind papal
throne - Team Vatican is becoming ...?? jw)
Dec
13: When
bishops lose their moral authority
The
Church has all too often placed
institutional honour ahead of its Gospel obligation to its children and other vulnerable
ones. No wonder that when it moralises on other issues no one wants to
listen
Dec
9: Did
not our hearts burn within us...?
Some rather disturbing anecdotal evidence indicates
that in the US
especially but probably elsewhere, increasing numbers of
preachers are becoming extremely lazy, are down-loading homilies and delivering
them as if they were their own work. A commenter, for example, in Cathnewsusa
has reported just recently that he and his wife heard the exact same ‘homily’
at two Masses on the same day in two different cities,
Dec
2: The
Worldly Logic of Power
The self-interested Roman Curia must be demystified and dismantled as a matter
of urgent priority. It has survived as a sterile pretend church within the Church for too long. It needs to be curated in a
museum as a constant reminder of what happens when people
confuse institutional power and privilege with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nov
25: Miscalculations
The
Catholic Church may well have compromised itself very badly by being far
too closely aligned with the interests of groups morally marginal to its
own.
Nov
18: Straining
out a gnat
and swallowing a camel
The
disproportional nature of authoritarian coercion is now increasingly
obvious to both insiders and outsiders and is being assessed accordingly -
yet another example of an often reactive paranoia. The Vatican doctrinal
bureaucracy, in the public eye, has elevated gnat straining to an exotic
new art form.
While
the Irish and American episode amounts in reality to little more than a
series of local spot fires, best left to local churches to deal with, the
Vatican has mistakenly treated them as uncontrolled forest fires endangering the
whole Church.
Nov
11: Fear and Power
in an Age of Anxiety
It
may well take decades before the Bishops ever regain anything resembling
trust, confidence and credibility. What is happening in one local Church
might well pale into relative insignificance compared with the collapse of
credible leadership in the wider Church as Catholics continue to make the
critical distinction between blindly submitting to coercive
authoritarianism
and abiding faith in Jesus Christ.
Nov 4: An assessment of recent Synod:
All dressed up
but did they go anywhere?
It
was little more than an exercise in
ecclesiastical correctness which was contrived, pre-scripted and came with
predetermined outcomes. "A
legitimate
criticism of the preparation for the Synod is that the
local episcopal conferences were not sufficiently involved beforehand".
So
much energy and time of this Synod was taken up by western bishops who
launched endless invective against secularism
Oct
28: The
Alienation of the Boomers
If
the leadership of the Church is to succeed in winning back the trust
and confidence of the Boomer generation, it will need to learn quickly
the lost art of listening to and conversing with an adult laity which is no
longer prepared to bleat like sheep and mutely follow the shepherd. The Church
at Vatican II called for a mature and educated laity and now it has got what it
wished for. The big challenge now is, can the institutional Church catch up and
keep pace with them?
Oct
21: Spiritual
Desert - some thoughts
on a Synod theme
What must be alarming for
leaders more interested in facts rather than spin is that people have made a
distinction between God and God’s representatives, between Jesus Christ and
the hierarchical structure of the Church. Many millions have decided that they
can live, not without God and Jesus, but without the organisation in its present
form.
The
Pope with the European and North American bishops are convinced that the most
serious malaise in the Church is a drought
of doctrine. They are turning the Synod into a self-absorbed European affair
and I think they are letting the rest of the Church down very
badly
Oct
14: Some
thoughts for the Men in Red
With
a post Vatican II re-emergence of a monarchical and absolutist papacy, there has
been a commensurate resurgence of clericalism. This
ossified subculture which feeds off its own inherent narcissism is one of the
most enduring obstacles to reform of any kind. It is now time for the whole
Church to pause, reflect and re-embrace the express will and teaching and vision
of the Council for all not just the few
Oct
7: Another
Disaster in the making?
Commenting
on the introduction of the new English-language translation of the
Roman Missal, Fr Thomas Reece sj described it as a ‘train wreck in slow motion.’ Signs are that
it may well have collided with an immovable force long ago. That force is the
re-emerging mass confusion, disquiet, criticism, protest and resistance to the
translation.
Sep
30: The
Gospel and Opportunity Cost
The
story of the uneasy relationship between money and the religious establishment
goes back a long way in Judeo-Christian history and that history offers
valuable lessons.
The Church must choose between being the servant of Christ or a
public servant of the Federal Republic of Germany
Sep
26: The
coded language
of the New Evangelisation
Chaput
stressed that the New Evangelisation would be best promoted “through humility and spiritual discipline” – code for
‘toeing the party line by uncritically submitting to
re-indoctrination.’
Sep
23: The
Disciples
Mark’s narrative
is largely a blue
print for how not to be
a disciple!
Sep
16: A Good Pagan Samaritan
Would it not have been
better
to have a wounded Samaritan with a Jew stopping to aid
him?
It
would have been beyond the lawyer's imagination and utterly illogical to
think that this idea of ‘neighbour’
could extend to anyone outside his
own clan and community
Sep
12: Cardinal Martini's radical hopefulness (CathBlog)
Martini’s final challenge was for the entire Church to re-examine itself
on the extent to which it has actually received and embraced the call of
the Holy Spirit through Vatican II
Sep
9: Burke's
Law
Paul VI counselled Suenens to relax a little and
play them at their own game. Pope reminded him of how a flexible and
humanised attitude to law will always subvert Curial legalism,
Sep
2: Taking
the local Church seriously
It is a given that the Catholic Church, particularly in the West, is
facing an unprecedented crisis in Sacramental and pastoral ministry. It is
a problem largely self-generated as a result of a theological system which
is locked into fundamentalist premises
Aug
26: Where
Jesus Christ is ....
Some
reflections on early Church sources and Vatican II
Aug
19: The
Anatomy of a Peruvian Catastrophe
16 out of 31
bishops are Opus Dei.
Opus
Dei has become an institution at odds with the People of God. It has
morphed into a church within the Church and has employed pretence,
fabrication, self-interest and sheer power to wage ideological warfare
against its fellow Catholics
August 6: John
6:1-15 The feeding
of the five thousand
The timing of this story is very
important for John. The Passover was the annual Jewish memorial feast of
national liberation. Perhaps many in the crowd here were on their way to
Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and share the ancestral memories. They would
remember two things in particular: freedom and bread
August
5: The
Golden Rule
When
Jesus was confronted with the question about what in essence the Law of
God intended for the establishment and preservation of sound
right-relationship in the human community, his immediate response was to
cut through the quarantine lines of the Divine Law and go to the very
heart of the matter. It all eventually reduced to wishing and doing to
another what one would wish for oneself.
August
2: Getting
brand Vatican
'on message'(CathBlog)
Lately the Vatican Press Office has been
working overtime
attempting to negotiate the rapids of a power struggle
between the Roman Curia and the Secretariat of State.
The ongoing tabloid drama of Curial internecine, corruption, power-games, intrigue and deception
graphically indicate advanced institutional decay and decline. There is an
unholy war raging in the Vatican.
It is doing good neither for product
identity nor the tainted Catholic brand
July
29: Bertone
Since he took
up the reins as chief administrator of the Roman Curia,
the pontificate has ricocheted from one PR or policy gaffe to another
July
22: Weasels
The Roman
Curia = a sheltered
workshop for challenged clerics
on "work experience"
July
15: Mutual
Enrichment of the two Rites
Msgr
Wadsworth's supporting act
& Cardinal Burke's foot in mouth
July
8: Paul
of Tarsus - a thorn in the flesh
"There may be important lessons for
us today as we see the Gospel and Christ’s people
being dangerously compromised by leaders who should know better"
July
1: Jesus
is too much for us
June
29: Looking
forward, not backwards,
in the Year of Grace (CathBlog)
"The leadership of the Church might well
consider putting in place a permanent,
ongoing program of Synods in order
to listen,
hear and consult with
the entire People of God"
June 24: The
Reinvention of the Fisherman (part two)
The
rise of the monarchical papacy;
Newman re infallibility;
Ratzinger's redefinition of the papacy
For more info re the above
issues, David recommends:
Ambrose
Mong Ih-Ren OP,
“The Liberal Spirit of John Henry Newman”, Ecumenical
Trends, especially pp
5-15
June 17: The Reinvention of the Fisherman (part one)
June
10: Lunch
in Ducal Hall
Really excellent update
of present Vatican situation.
For more information re Vat
situation
David recommends reading
Vat
crackdown on renegade nuns
Christopher Brauchli (CounterPunch)
May
27: Did
God will
that Jesus should be sacrificed?
To explore this topic more deeply,
David recommends reading
Redemption
by Fr
Kevin O'Shea CSsR
A vision of redemption has emerged from studies of the past 50 years that
has not been heard of by most people
May 26: Year of Grace can save Pentecost from church acrimony (CathBlog)
May 20: Some, many, most, all?
May 6: Who's talking to whom and about what?
April 29: Open season on US religious women
April 22: Freedom and the compulsive mind
April 8: The empty tomb, the Resurrection: the beginning of a dangerous faith
April 5: Jesus ends guilt and self-loathing (CathBlog)
April 1: The Week of the Failure
March 25: 50 years on: Renewal or Retreat?
March 11:
Culture Wars, Apologetics
and The Story
(c.f. Peter Johnstone's
comment
re Fr R. Barron)
March 8: Comment on CathNews article "Women in roles great and small" (comment no. 5)
Yes
indeed, Carmel, the Catholic Church certainly in this country would be nothing
without women.
Unfortunately, history has almost enshrined importance and worth in terms of
certain functions, mainly service ones.
The purists of the Restorationist persuasion would have them nowhere in
governance positions in the Church and certainly nowhere remotely close to the
sanctuary, let alone extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist.
Lay women in particular are at the very bottom of the list in these regards.
We must hope that one day the leadership of the Catholic Church will start all
over again to take the directions and reforms of Vat II seriously instead of
reversing them.
'Ordination Sacerdotalis' is not infallible, de fide, Core Catholic dogma at
all.
Currently it bears the authority of the Ordinary Magisterium. It has not been
received as essential dogma in the same way the overwhelming number of Catholics
have not received 'Humanae Vitae' as essential to authentic belief and or
practice.
Those who persist in arguing that these two Church policies are of central
importance to 'eternal salvation' trivialize the real pillars of Faith and
contribute to that modern phenomenon as examples of 'infallibility creep' - a
control mechanism promoted by the Roman Curia to keep the faithful in a state of
passivity.
Sadly, it does not contribute to faith but erodes it.
March
7: Comment on CathNews article "What the Church offers women"
(comment no. 12)
Peter
G: I think Conor is right in suggesting that there already is a
long-established ecclesiastical office for the Participation of Men.
You yourself have long worked hard to place Catholic women in a proper
perspective.
A notable example was a recent comment you made about Sr Hermengild
Maroko's appoitment as secretary-general of a Southern African episcopal
assembly as a kind of stenographer - secretarial duties (CN 14/12/11).
Furthermore, I don't think you should be concerned about the absence of
the men you can physically see. The males who really count are all around
you, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient namely God: The Father is a
bloke, so's the Son and you recently taught Charles that even the Holy
Spirit is male, 'By the way (you instructed Charles), the Holy Spirit is a
He, that is also the teaching of the Church' (CN 15/07/11).
You might now care to offer the reader some catechesis on where HE will
find this infallible Dogma
March
7: Comment in CathNews article re women's ordination
(comment
no. 14) (see also comment no. 21)
Late
last year, the Patriarch of Lisbon, Card Policarpo is on record as saying that
women will probably be ordained to the priesthood in the future.
Bishop emeritus Ray Benjamin noted in a November 2011 letter to The Swag that
50% of the world's bishops actually believe in the priestly ordination of women.
The apostolic letter of JP II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, is not an infallible
statement. It belongs to the ordinary magisterium.
It was not, is not, and never will be, infallible.
It is not a matter of core faith but a teaching that has its historical roots in
that particularly distorted Aristotelian and then Thomistic notion that females
are defectively created males.
But it's not really a gender issue. It's got more to do with cutting out one
half of humanity from this sacramental function.
Gender is a side issue but it is used nonetheless as a validation for the status
quo.
This was compounded by an aggressively fundamentalist reading of NT on
discipleship and ministry.
The crowning achievement of this view is that Jesus, the great High Priest,
formally and intentionally ordained twelve men to the episcopate at the Last
Supper.
Some purists even suggest the text (Latin, of course), rubrics, vestments etc.
used at this 'consecration' of these apostolic hierarchs.
March 4: Talking to Trent This has to be the best scholarly update on SSPX
Feb 26: Benedict in the Twilight Zone?
Feb 19: Lent: from Dust a New Creation
Feb 16: Benedict's reform of the reform (updated)
Feb 12: George Weigel – his hubris and relativism
Feb 5: Vatican II - Better if it never happened?
Jan 25: Comments on "Benedict 16's retreat from Vatican 2"
Jan 24: Benedicts 16's retreat from Vatican 2
Jan 24: Thinking about Bishop Bill