Stochastic violence is a term which has been in the news lately.
Dictionary.com has this to say about stochastic violence:
Stochastic terrorism is “the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.”
I remember hearing this when I was a Catholic school kid, probably in the late 1960s, possibly early 1970s. This is by the Medical Mission Sisters. I assume this was written by Sr. Miriam Therese Winter, whom Katherine has turned us on to before.
The song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_bMXh9dyRo
Katherine's previous post on Miriam Therese Winter:
https://newgathering.blogspot.com/2022/05/song-for-visitation.html
I wrote this for our parish bulletin for this weekend. The weekend's readings are here.
In the wake of an investigation by the Illinois State's Attorney's office, pressure from victims, and - we'd like to think - a desire to do the right thing, the Chicago Archdiocese has produced a fuller list of abusive clergy who have served in the archdiocese.
I have been concerned for some time about the push to impose christian teaching on all Americans. The push by the white, christian nationalists has been aided by the Supreme Court, and the SC will apparently no longer protect the separation of church and state. Sadly the Catholic bishops have joined with the right-wing evangelicals to do this - saying that non-religious, for-profit businesses can discriminate against gays (so that means they can discriminate on anyone else, based on their religious beliefs), that prayer can be imposed on football players at a Washington state public school (the coercion is not out loud - not a spoken order - , but implied and the players felt pressured to join in or sit on the bench), including pushing at the state/local level for tax money to fund Catholic schools.
I read two articles this week about the push for "integralism" in the Catholic church. Basically it's a push to officially impose christian beliefs on ALL Americans. A conference at Steubenville was quite open about this intention. Yes - Steubenville is known for its exstremism both in secular and RCC matters, but even I am shocked that they now feel that they can be this open about their intentions.
Well enjoy these last few weeks of autumn. Get outdoors. Do any shopping that you need to do now while Omicron levels are still low. Get ready to isolate this winter. The new Omicron variants are coming. Not good news!
Our recent discussions about Vatican II have triggered a good deal of reflection on my part. I'd like to briefly share one strand of thought here. I mentioned, in a recent post, that my parents, both products of the pre-Vatican II church, loved the church of that era, from the Latin Mass to Marian devotions to Notre Dame football to the Legion of Decency to, eventually, John F Kennedy and, for all I know, Fulton Sheen. I hope that list didn't include Fr. Coughlin and Senator McCarthy, but I see those latter two as rather extreme examples of spirituality which I take as having been widespread.
If I had to characterize my parents' spirituality, it would be quite different than my own. To describe theirs, I'd choose words like "loyalty" and "suffering".
My parents both lived, not just their spiritual lives but the entirety of their lives, according to a code that would have done credit to Notre Dame offensive linemen lining up across from Army in the 1940s and 1950s: they believed in being tougher and more disciplined and working harder than anyone else, and that was the secret to getting ahead.
It wasn't just my parents. Many of the priests and some of the religious sisters I knew in my youth were cut from the same cloth. And many of my older relatives on both sides of my family.
Charles Morris, in his history of the American Catholic church, American Catholic: the Saints and Sinners who Built America's Most Powerful Church, wrote that Catholics from my parents' era were well-suited for work in large command-and-control institutions such as large, urban police forces and fire departments, the armed services, and even the telephone company. As a matter of fact, one of my dad's sisters spent her career working for Michigan Bell, first as a telephone operator, and eventually as a sales rep for corporate long distance service. The idea was that the Catholic Church formed these worker bees and instilled in them a sense that the institution's mission was more important than the happiness of the individual; and it was honorable and virtuous to spend one's entire career with a single employer, pursuing that mission.
When I was a student at Loyola in the early 1980s, it was said that the FBI and CIA recruited on campus, presumably for some of the same reasons that Charles Morris described in his book. To be sure, no spy agencies ever asked to interview me; I was emphatically not their material. I was a bearded free spirit who partied too much and placed academics 4th or 5th on my priority list.
In my parish, there still are some parishioners, of my parents' age, who are cut from my parents' cloth. In some ways, they are a square-jawed and grim lot, although they are capable of geniality and even joy. But most of the Catholics I know, of my generation and younger generation, are different. Perhaps those of you who take the time to plow through my homily texts would agree that "loyalty" and "suffering" are not the cardinal virtues I am likely to preach.
What do you think? Have Catholics changed over the course of your lifetimes?
This is my homily for this past weekend, the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C. The readings for that Sunday are here.
If you get a chance, check out America Media's documentary, "People of God: how Catholic parish life is changing in the United States"
People of God: A Portrait of Catholic Parish Life in the United States | America Magazine
It's very well done, and outlines the challenges and opportunities facing parishes in the present time.
Hopefully it's not behind a paywall. But in case it is, I am going to briefly summarize it.
On the 60th anniversary of Vatican II, at the memorial Mass for John XXIII, Francis plants himself and the Church in the centrality of Vatican II. Francis has said that the best preparation for the 2025 Holy Year will be to study the four central documents of Vatican II. This is also his strongest statement against the polarization within the Church.
I've been mostly absent for more than a week as an illness featuring "flu-like symptoms" has been running its course. But now, thanks mostly to a Z Pack, which is the closest thing to a miracle drug I've ever taken, I'd like to offer this modest addition to the feast of synodal news and analysis which Jack has been sharing with us.
What follows is based on this news story, reported by Gerard O'Connell a couple of days ago at the America site. The article is an exclusive interview with Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., the archbishop of Huancayo, Peru. The subject of the interview is the birth of a new type of church governing entity, an Ecclesial Conference. The new organization is called the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon. Its Spanish acronym is CEAMA, but throughout this post, I'll use the full words, because they help convey what distinguishes this new entity from older forms of church governing bodies. And while this new conference doesn't flow directly from the Synod on Synodality toward which the church has been journeying, it has its own synodal roots: the Synod on the Amazon.
This birth of an Ecclesial Conference strikes me as innovative and potentially momentous.
Pope Francis did not offer his customary commentary on the day's Gospel reading before praying the Angelus on Oct. 3. Instead he focused on the war in the Ukraine.
From this article on the NCR site: Pope tells Putin: Stop the war | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)
"...he focused on the war and the "terrible and inconceivable wound" it is inflicting on humanity.
UPDATES:
Chris Shenk expressed an optimistic view of the National Syntheses and the possibilities of the Synod on Synodality.
Tom Reese also has an optimistic view of the National Synthesis.
The Vatican Synod Website has the following four-page pdf: (Bolded text by myself)
This NYT Magazine article may be behind a paywall. The "battle" is two-fold.
There is an external cultural/political battle between advocates for gender transition for youth and those who oppose the availability of this type of therapy for those under age 25, the age at which brain development is completed.
