A Letter to Russ Ditzel and My Corpus Friends:
Russ concludes (September /October, 2004,
Corpus Reports) “As a people trained in philosophy, theology, spirituality, and pastoral ministry, where is our exhibition of the empowerment of Spirit? We speak of seeking justice outside the church, but do we lobby for justice inside the church” Allow me to respond– my own response.
I decided in the 1980s after several initiatives here, that enlisting Catholics to discuss the crisis in priestly vocations– ultimately failed intiatives because of lay apathy and episcopal passive resistance, that energies toward renewal and reform were wasted effort. I also realized that even reading the NCR, which had kept my spirit alive for years with hope, was still too “churchy” for me, keeping me focused on structures and politics.
We are not summoned to “lobby” for justice when hearts and minds are closed. There must be a readiness which is the reason Jesus used thirty some parables. Jesus told us so and taught this. We all know the metaphors: he used: seeds, kinds of soil, pearls, dust on feet. By the close of the 1980s the intransigence and blindness was perfectly clear. My energies must be spent elsewhere.
Nevertheless, I remained in regular contact with our local ordinary with letters and visits. During 1993, I wrote him four letters, several long letters, warning him of “sexual time bombs simply waiting to explode,” challenging him to take responsibility for the lack of training of his priests in understanding and coping with their sexuality, matters of power, transference and counter-transference. I warned him repeatedly that unless he initiated such training, he and the diocese would face great scandals. No response whatever. Of course it happened. Huge scandals here, like elsewhere.
Once I even showed him (one of my letter writing phases) letters received from other Bishops, Sullivan, Cardinal Bernadin, etc, to shame him into more dialogue with me, and he promised to “do better.” Excuse me? He simply can't and they are simply unable to dialogue with married priests, those who are doing what they cannot even think about without sin, and who are strangely still thinking of being priestly, of pastoral work. It is simply too much of a psychological barrier for those who must protect the status quo. Remember they had to make promises to the Holy Father to receive their episcopal orders and he has forbidden any dialogue on these issues, while also demanding reaffirmation of the traditional discipline, as would a feudal lord, at Episcopal conferences.
Corpus friends: Roman Catholic bishops simply cannot dialogue with us. They CANNOT because their own control over their own sexuality is so marginal and tenuous. They know they have no scriptural, theological or psychological justification for believing that celibacy is a preferred path for canonical ministry. They are enormously threatened by even the thought of what they might learn. They are sitting on a mountain of denial, frustration, tension, busyness and other possible addictive distractions. Evidence? Look how badly they have handled the pedophile scandals for many years. Ask Thomas Doyle whether they can listen.
There is not only resistance and blindness, there is paranoia, which I have also written about. (See “What Good Can Come from Nazareth?” online at www.lexpages.com/sgn). The bishop here once wanted to know if rumors that Corpus would protest an upcoming ordination were true. Rumors.
Jesus said take your energies elsewhere to more fruitful fields. I discovered that nursing homes and retirement villages seldom saw a Catholic priest. I discovered that the jail, the county detention center, capacity here 1200, usually full, rarely saw a Catholic priest. Do I need permission to exercise my priestliness?
Ah, that is the issue most renewal and reform Catholics are stuck on, waiting for permission, waiting for the PTB to tell them it is okay. How many CTA meetings have you been to? Mostly they are Call to Talk, not action. No, I do not need permission. I have the gospel mandate, “Go, and Do ” So I have done and do.
The question is where do we find “church,” if not in ALL the People of God everywhere? The next question is why do we need permission when the gospel mandates are there, already speaking to our hearts? I do not need permission. But I do need protection, and managed to acquire this. I had decided late 90s, that if I were to become active as a Catholic priest, really active in the community I would want more than my FCM certifications. Maybe it is the old German genes in me.
When word somehow got around a few years ago, that Father Paschal Baute was exercising priestly ministry, guess what? You are right. Without any dialogue, even tho I had always kept channels open with the previous ordinary and I am sure my personnel file in the chancery had all that, I received a “cease and desist” letter from the Chancellor. Cease from calling yourself a Roman Catholic priest. (Never did, I stopped being “Roman” years ago.). Stop your ministry.
Well, all I had to say, was, thank you Father, most reverend, but I am not under your jurisdiction. (Now being a fairly good letter writer, I had to say more than that--really a lot more-- but that is not to the point here.)
I had my priestly affiliation, after study, with an Old Catholic jurisdiction, now administered by a former Roman Catholic priest and canonist. The current structure of the RC church is an historical anachronism, and it is a cult of a leader, which cult is not following the gospels. This is increasingly clear to anyone who looks. But allow me to tell you of the empowerment of the Spirit in this piece of clay--now freed from asking permission.
My energies are to the larger world, the larger church where the needs are great and the soil is fertile. In 1989, a group of us established the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky. We have weekly meetings, monthly days of recollection, quarterly retreats and have sponsored six community interfaith conferences, the last joining with the Notre Dame Club of Central Kentucky offering four dialogues on Christian- Muslim issues by Muslim scholars. We do not reach large numbers, but we have be able to hold some 60 retreats and over one hundred Days of Recollection. In fifteen plus years we have missed one weekly meeting on Sunday afternoons.
At the county jail, we have developed a program that is both intensely spiritual and psychological, “The Fierce Landscape for the Spiritual Warrior.” Via volunteers recruited, we have daily programs for a selected residential unit teaching them to embrace jail as a “boot camp” full of opportunity to change their life style. We have developed a workbook of some 30 pages of inventories and checklists as tools for the journey. My previous 17 years of consulting in correctional settings has some payoff. We are planning to make this available to other prison ministries and it has been offered already on the FCM listserve. We are in process of replicating it locally already after some 24 months of development.
Wedding ministry? Most of us, maybe all, have been asked to witness a wedding by friends or family. I am now witnessing about 50 weddings per year, with a beautiful ceremony highlighting the awesome Mystery of Love this couple is stepping into. I am also writing, which ministry I have detailed elsewhere, and working on sentencing reform in Kentucky whose penal code has become one of the harshest in the county. I have a number of other ministries that my work as a psychologist, and particularly as an organizational psychologist has opened doors. I teach leadership, team building, Human Resource Management and Social Ethics courses at nearby Midway College, and have published several books.
I know that many of my old Corpus friends will not agree with me or the path I have taken. But there are instances when, I suggest, it is a shame and a waste to keep knocking on the door, hoping for an answer. That choice is no longer a viable option for some of us. I discover spirit speaking to me in many other places. And I praise God for these energies at three score and fifteen and counting.
Some of these ministries are described further at www.paschalbaute.com/writing.
Oremus pro invicem
Namaste, all you brothers and sisters.
Paschal Baute
February 3, 2005
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