Homiletic Material

As a baby priest, age 58 and three-and-a-half years ordained, I am constantly on the lookout for homiletic material. Frequently a Faith in Focus or Of Many Things column fits the bill. As a case in point, the neighborly exchange of keys related by James Martin, S.J., in the latter on Jan. 17 struck a familiar chord. Last summer, after locking myself out of the old family house, I was rescued by such a key, which my mother, deceased over six years, had entrusted many, many years ago to a neighbor. After Mom’s death, I had thought about retrieving the key but never followed through. Good thing I didn’t! Of course, much more than keys are involved. I sense a future Christmas homily in the works here. Perhaps theosis in the exchange of house keys between neighbors?

(Rev.) Edward Kolla

Continue to Inspire

On behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference, I want to congratulate and to thank you for the positive portrayal of women religious you have featured in recent issues of America (e.g., 11/15/04, 1/3/05, 1/17/05). The American church owes tremendous gratitude to our religious sisters, who with profound faith, hard work, little money and great ingenuity substantially contributed to the Catholic institutions and ministries we proudly celebrate today.

Although they are now fewer in number, they continue to inspire us with their stories of love, fidelity and sacrifice in the service of God’s people. In a culture that promotes a distorted value system of sex, greed and power, may the stories of these generous, faith-filled women encourage others to consider religious life as an alternative life option that, when lived with joy and integrity, can be both exciting and fulfilling.

Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C.

Government and Religion

Edward F. Harrington, in The Metaphorical Wall (1/17), effectively debunks the prevailing mythology about government and religion. The framers of the Constitution quite clearly sought to insulate religion from the reach of government; they did not seek to inoculate society from religious expression. But as Terry Golway points out in the same issue, Matters of Which We Dare Not Speak, the invocation of separation of church and state may be the preferred legal strategy, but it is fear and outright loathing of public expressions of religion and faith that is really at work. In short, there is more than flawed jurisprudential reasoning that is driving this issue.

William Donohue

Adopted Sons

Adoption: A Life-Giving Choice, by Thomas P. Muldoon (11/29), recalled to me a poignant personal experience. Several weeks ago I attended by accident (I had wandered into the wrong room) a session on adoption at the Lesbian and Gay Center in lower Manhattan. The principal speakers were a gay couple who had arranged to adopt a baby from the woman who was carrying it. The couple would pay all the mother’s expenses, and considerably more to the adoption agency, but there was no guarantee that the mother would give the baby up for adoption in the end. As I listened to the partners speak, I was struck more and more by how much over the period of the pregnancy they had bonded with the mother in ways that probably transformed their lives as well as hers. The men are relatively well-off urban professionals; she is poor, rural, and something of a substance-abuser.

One incident in their relationship remains in my mind. She already had a 2-year-old boy, whom she feared officials might take from her. One day she called the men in desperation. The 2-year-old was sick and had been crying for four days. She was afraid to take him to an emergency room lest her own noncompliance with drug rules be discovered, but she was even more afraid that she might hit the child in desperation. She had no one else to turn to. One of the men immediately got on a plane and flew across the country to stay with the woman and care for the child until the crisis was over.

Of course it was in his self-interest to do so, but what came through so strongly during the hourlong presentation and discussion was how two gay men and a straight, single mother of totally dissimilar social, economic and cultural backgrounds broke barriers to work together in the best interests of a child. Their now-adopted son is 2 years old and looks exactly like his 4-year-old brother had looked two years previously. Undoubtedly, some gay couples should not adopt children, but on the whole, can one think of an act that is more generous, loving and, in the end, Christ-like?

Frank Oveis

Memory Comes Back

Many thanks to Patricia Kossmann for calling attention to the 25th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on Dec. 9 of this year.

During the seasons of his Life Is Worth Living television series, the bishop would periodically decamp across the Hudson for a few days. His objective? The so-called bishop’s suite in St. Michael’s Monastery of the Passionists in Union City, N.J.

As seminarians, we took turns bringing Bishop Sheen a mid-morning snack of coffee, or mid-afternoon tea with a Danish or cookies. We all noticed the small piles of lined yellow foolscap on the floor along the walls. One classmate finally asked: Bishop, are those the drafts of your future talks? The answer: No, Confrater, each pile has drafts of separate paragraphs for the one talk I’m working on at the time.

As I begin to write a new homily, that memory comes back and gives me the courage to keep trying. Maybe it’s the same for my good classmates.

(Most Rev.) Norbert M. Dorsey, C.P.

Culpability

The articles by Archbishop Harry Flynn and Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., (10/18), and Archbishop Francis Hurley’s letter (11/8), dealing with the one strike and you’re out approach to pedophile priests, clearly state many important considerations.

One not addressed is the culpability of any bishop or religious superior who, despite understanding that there is a significant degree of recidivism among pedophiles, regardless of the quality of treatment, returns a pedophile priest to active ministry.

If that reinstated priest commits another act of pedophilia, then the bishop or superior is the proximate cause of a grave sin and is also guilty of a grave sin. Sanctions similar to those proposed by some for proximate cause pro-choice politicians might be an appropriate response.

Likewise, an act of pedophilia is statutory rape in criminal law. The bishop or superior should be considered an accomplice before the fact, subject to civil action for that felony.

Eugene Bova