St. Andrew Parish

PENTECOST REFLECTIONS

Mary Ann Dickey
June 12, 2011

GOOD MORNING CHURCH!

On this celebration day of Pentecost, we say: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.” But why is the Holy Spirit not more evident in our world today rife with poverty, war, and ignorance? Where is the Spirit in our troubled church? Sounds a bit like Jesus on the cross saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

As a cradle Catholic, and a person who spent nineteen years of my life in a religious order, the answer to this question is more urgent than ever. In his article “Don’t let church leaders drive you away,” Brian Cahill states, “The history of the official church has been one of conflict, corruption, violence and scandal, [with periods of reform in between], but if we are believers, we know that as much as we would like to, we cannot separate the institution from the community of the faithful.”[1] And it is this community of the faithful, listening to the Holy Spirit, speaking out, and doing good that keeps my faith alive.    

We see the Spirit of God in the saints, canonized and un-canonized, those who have gone before and those present. Bert Griffin and Mary Anderson come to mind, as well as others in this Parish who had the courage to act as the Spirit led them. This often meant going against the grain, speaking against the establishment, and forging new directions. The Holy Spirit, I believe, comes to us in silence, in prayer, and in our neighbor.

Last summer when the Vatican issued its statement putting the ordination of women in the same moral basket as pedophilia, people of our parish reacted to this thoughtless and abhorrent affront to women. The Holy Spirit inspired us with a jolt to do something about it, and One Spirit ~One Call was born. We believe that to remain silent in the face of injustice is to be complicit. We are no longer silent. Injustice to one group, whether because of gender, color, sexual orientation, or ethnic differences, is an affront to the whole community. The Vatican’s position equating women’s ordination with pedophilia awakened us to avow that women are equal to men by reason of creation and Baptism. One Spirit ~One Call has energized me like nothing else since I helped start the Health Clinic at St. Andrew in the 1970s.  The testimony of women who have been hurt or overlooked by the church and their resolve to work for equality has become for me a powerful source of feminine spirituality. One Spirit ~One Call is not about women’s ordination per se, but about the full gamut of equality for women to serve in all capacities in the church—to have equal representation at the table where policy is discussed and decisions are made. Many people today are facing a choice of whether to leave the Church, be a minimal Catholic, or become active in renewing the Church.

When I was a student nurse back in the ‘60s all doctors were men. Women finally cracked this barrier showing they were just as smart and qualified and could hold their own as physicians. And men decided they could maintain their male egos while becoming nurses. How much better we all are for this equalization, as women and men share their healing gifts.

The church teaches there are seven sacraments. But for the majority of Catholics, namely women, there are only six. They are barred from Holy Orders, not on the basis of qualifications or calling, but just because they are women. The Vatican’s answer to the priest shortage is to import foreign-born priests. Bishop Ruiz Garcia, a newly retired bishop from Mexico, grieves over priests passing through the process of reverse acculturation we call seminaries.[2] This robs men of their culture, and deprives their people of indigenous priests in their own countries. The church here is being deprived of the gifts and energies of people in our own communities.

In the early church, women served as deacons until the bureaucracy of the Church put a stop to it. In the 1990s, the International Theological Commission studied the feasibility of reinstating women deacons. Many years later there is still no action.[3] In his first Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (2005), Pope Benedict XVI gives a long historical perspective to the importance of the permanent diaconate in carrying out the ministries of the Church. Holy Father, it is time to restore the permanent diaconate to women.[4]

Despite the problems in the world and church today, I see the Holy Spirit at work in people like Hans Kung, Sr. Joan Chittister, Anthony Padovano, Bishop William Morris and Fr. Roy Bourgeois. They are speaking out against a hierarchical church that is secretive, exclusive, discriminatory, and heavy handed. And they are paying the price—many by being silenced, some even excommunicated. The official church has closed off any meaningful dialogue about the real challenges in the church today. This is the hierarchy that turned a blind eye to the horrendous child sex abuse scandal, with new cases of cover-up still coming to light. The late Fr. Joseph Comblin of Brazil saw the direction of the Catholic Church as very troubling, noting that when the bishops with strong personalities retire or die, they are replaced by Vatican loyalists.[5]

We’ve heard that the Church is not a democracy, but The American Catholic Council refutes this notion. Ecumenical councils, papal elections and the election of religious superiors occur regularly. In the early church, popes and bishops were chosen by the people at large. Vatican II taught that the Church is the people of God together with the hierarchy. “Fundamentally, Catholic doctrine maintains that the Spirit is given to all and that baptism makes every Catholic equal.”[6]

So let us celebrate this special feast of Pentecost. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to be more visible in our world. Let us be the voice, the action. Renewal in the church has not come from the top, but has boiled up from within.

Come Holy Spirit! Renew the hearts of the faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love!

[1] Brian Cahill, “Don’t let church leaders drive you away,” National Catholic Reporter, May 27, 2011.

[2] Gary McEoin, “The Gospel has to be incarnated in every culture,” interview with Bishop Ruiz Garcia, NCR, February 4, 2011.

[3] Phyllis Zagano, “Your Holiness, it’s time for women deacons,” NCR, May 27, 2011.

[4] Pope Benedict XVI, “Deus Caritas Est,” Part II, #22-23.

[5] Phillip Berryman, “Renowned theologian, advocate of poor, dies in Brazil: Joseph Comblin envisioned a new Catholic priesthood,” NCR, April 15, 2011.

[6] Jerry Filteau, “American Catholic Council to convene in Detroit in June,” NCR, April 29, 2011.