Saturday, May 15, 2010

Cardinal O'Malley of Boston

NCR has a good interview with the Capuchin Cardinal Archbishop of Boston.
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John Allen:  On the way to Portugal, the pope made some striking comments on the papal plane about the sexual abuse crisis. In effect, he said the problem isn’t so much outside attacks but rather the reality of sin inside the church. What did you think of that?
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The Cardinal:  I think it’s very helpful that the Holy Father wants us to focus on the cause of the crisis, which is not anti-Catholicism. That’s always there, and people will always find things to criticize. Fundamentally, however, this is a problem that is of our own making. In great part, it’s due to our sinfulness, our human frailty, cowardice, many different failings that contributed to the crisis. It was helpful for him to articulate that, particularly because while we were getting beat up constantly in the Times, you did kind of want to strike back. But it begs the question as to why this happened in the first place. - Entire interview here.
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I like this guy.  His blog here.
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Photo:  Cardinal serving the homeless at Pine Street Inn of Boston.  This is really what I was talking about in my Chancery Stuff post:  So why does it seem like many bishops only preach prepared homilies from the pulpit or write exortations in diocesan newspapers - why are they not amongst their people - rather than sending spies to find out what they are up to?
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Even the Pope seems to be saying the same thing:
"We must overcome the temptation to restrict ourselves to what we already have, or think we have, safely in our possession: it would be sure death in terms of the Church’s presence in the world; the Church, for that matter, can only be missionary, in the outward movement of the Spirit. From its origins, the Christian people has clearly recognized the importance of communicating the Good News of Jesus to those who did not yet know him. In recent years the anthropological, cultural, social and religious framework of humanity has changed; today the Church is called to face new challenges and is ready to dialogue with different cultures and religions, in the search for ways of building, along with all people of good will, the peaceful coexistence of peoples. The field of the mission ad gentes appears much broader today, and no longer to be defined on the basis of geographic considerations alone; in effect, not only non-Christian peoples and those who are far distant await us, but so do social and cultural milieux, and above all human hearts, which are the real goal of the missionary activity of the People of God." - Source

4 comments:

  1. Terry: Check out a bloh written by Carol McKinely in Boston. She provides frequnet commentary on O'Malley. He has been involved in the funding of abortion. I know. I could not believe it. I still think I must be missing something. I would be interested in your thoughts...

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  2. Thanks Maria - I'll look for it. I'm sure there is some mistake.

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  3. I did a quick overview of her blog. I knew people like her when I lived in Boston. That's all. ;)

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  4. O'Malley is one of the best and the brightest.

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