KARL KEATING'S E-LETTER
TOPICS:
A BISHOP CAUGHT IN AMBER
THE WORLD'S WORST INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
To the left-wing Catholic intelligentsia, Kenneth Untener was a model
bishop. "Bishop Ken," as he liked to be called, favored all the trendy
causes and appeared in all the trendy protests. His name was found
frequently in the pages of the "National Catholic Reporter," where he was
mentioned in hagiographic terms.
That was never more evident than in that paper's April 9 remembrance of
him. Untener, not long retired as bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, died March
27 at the age of 63. He had led the diocese since 1980.
A VISIONARY BISHOP LOCKED IN TIME
The April 23 issue of the "Reporter" ran a surprising letter about the
paper's eulogy of Untener--surprising in that it took the paper to task for
its fawning description of the bishop. The letter was written by Bette
Woods of Brighton, Michigan.
As Dr. Johnson noted, "In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath."
When eulogizing the dead we highlight their virtues and omit their
failings, giving necessarily a skewed--but, for the moment,
forgivable--impression. That is permissible at the funeral service and at
the graveyard, but we expect a more considered treatment when the deceased
is reflected upon in print.
Let me quote from Woods' letter:
"I am sadly amused, though not surprised, at the sappy over-eulogizing of
the former bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, Kenneth Untener. May he rest in
peace, but at least when speaking about him, we should be honest. And
honestly, what is so humble about a man who refused to submit himself to
the teaching and discipline of the church he promised to serve ... and what
is so visionary about a man whose ideology and vision has [sic] not been
replicated anywhere and will die with his generation because it is not
being widely replicated with my generation?
"I understand that he is very popular with you older folks at NCR and Call
to Action and the like, but the future of the Church is in us 'young
fogeys,' as Fr. Andrew Greeley recently referred to our next generation of
priests and Church professionals. You may not like that, but at least you
should be honest about it.
"Every person I have every met, particularly in the field of Church work,
who admires anything even close to Bishop Ken's vision is over 50. Young
people, particularly young Catholic women--I am 24--are embracing a much
more dynamic John Paul II-esque interpretation of Vatican II, which
includes liturgical fidelity, attraction to Christ-centered (and
habit-wearing) religious life, and not only an acceptance of but a love for
the Church's teachings on the all-male priesthood and the immorality of
contraception. And we are the ones graduating from theology schools to
minister to youth, teach religion, and write textbooks.
"Bishop Ken may have been a well-meaning, nice man. I hope that God is as
merciful to him as he will be to me when all the mistakes I have made in my
ministry are before him. But to call him a 'visionary' seems both dishonest
and blind when his vision did not capture the next generation!"
Woods makes several telling comments, but let me highlight two:
1. The Church in this country suffers from a "generation gap." When we hear
that phrase, normally we think of the elders being conservative and the
youth being liberal. Here it is the reverse. Young Catholics, if active in
the Church, are almost universally orthodox, even if not yet well formed in
their faith.
The most radicalized segment of the Church in America is populated by folks
near or past retirement age. Sure, there are twentysomethings who admire
what Kenneth Untener stood for, but they are so few that at meetings of
Call to Action they are trotted before the audience to prove the
organization is not yet moribund.
2. Dissident Catholics justify themselves by saying that their heroes are
"visionaries," a visionary being someone who is leading you where you were
going anyway. Throughout his long episcopal career Untener was described by
his fans as a visionary. He stood up to Rome. He "did" theology and liturgy
his own way. He represented the wave of the future.
The problem is that his wave turned out to be the wave of the past, the
ecclesiastical equivalent of the leisure suit. Young Catholics such as
Bette Woods see this. For some reason, the editors at the "Reporter" do
not--or, if they do, they are not admitting it in print.
I wonder what the "Reporter" staffers do after an issue is put to bed. Do
they gather at Clancy's Bar for a beer and marvel at how their brand of
Catholicism is taking the country by storm? I doubt it, since they can't be
subject to that much self-deception.
No, I see them huddled at a side table, cupping their drinks in their
hands, eyes downcast, faces drawn, wishing for a return of the exuberance
they felt in the 1970s, when things seemed to be going their way. Back
then, they could not have imagined that the infants they saw in church
would grow up to turn their backs on the "vision" they offered.
Last month it was a eulogy for Kenneth Untener. Soon enough it will be a
eulogy for the kind of Catholicism he stood for.
EVEN YOUR PARISH DOESN'T HAVE IT THIS BAD
Perhaps you hear ill-formed or banal intercessory prayers during Mass at
your parish. Many Catholics do. But cheer up--it could be far worse. Your
priest could be selecting the prayers from "Prayers of the Faithful,"
edited by Fr. Henry Fehren and published by Liturgical Press.
Fehren is the author of seven books, has appeared in fifteen movies, and
has written a regular column for "U.S. Catholic." Perhaps his best known
book is "Good News for Alienated Catholics."
Here are samples of what you have been spared:
1. "For employers whose primary interest is in efficiency, self-confidence,
and good appearance, that they will also hire the ugly ..."
2. "For a frost that will tarnish the value of gold and put sparkle into
the dullness of life ..."
3. "For a society where we don't have to make a million dollars, run the
100 in ten seconds, invent a laser, or die in order to be believed ..."
4. "For soldiers who don't get mail, children who flunk, showgirls who grow
old ..."
5. For put-down, stepped on, squelched children exiled to live in dark
caverns ..."
6. "For the smell of new rain, for pumpkins and Snoopy, for the aroma of
homemade bread, for cotton candy, for funny looking animals like giraffes
and koalas and human beings ..."
7. "For dissenters and the right to dissent ..."
And my contribution:
"From all such silliness, good Lord deliver us!"
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