Who is Catholic?

A few weeks ago the health care bill was passed by both Houses of the U S Congress and signed by President Obama.  During the days running up to the crucial votes, Sr. Carol Keehan, President of the Catholic Health Association, called for the passage of the bill.  Network, a Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, published a letter in support of Keehan's position with 60 signatures on it.  Those 60 were from individual religious women, some congregational leaders, some leadership teams, social justice committees, etc.  That action by CHA and the signers of the Network letter ignited reactions, both pro and con, about the position.

One reaction came through loud and clear from Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, formerly the Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of Rome's Apostolic Signatura.  During remarks at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois earlier this month, the Archbishop said that Catholic consecrated religious who openly dissent from the authority of Rome and the Church's teachings on life are "an absurdity of the most tragic kind" and should cease from identifying themselves as Catholic.  "Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly and in defiance of the bishops as successors of the apostles, publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which violated the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets - the safeguarding and promoting of innocent and defenseless life...? questioned Burke.

A second reaction came from Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, who, through the Vicar General, instructed the priests of his diocese that no diocesan office, the diocesan newspaper, nor any parish "would promote a vocation awareness program of any religious community that has taken a stance against the US bishops by being a signatory of the Network document" without having the promotion vetted through the Diocesan Office for Clergy Vocations.  This announcement was aimed at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden (PA), a congregation with a long history of dedicated service in Bishop Brandt's diocese.

Both of these members of the hierarchy seem to equate the total acknowledgement of the primacy of the Vatican and the bishops as the litmus test for being a Catholic.  The obvious divergence in understanding what is catholic centers around the interpretation of the focus of Jesus' life and teachings.  Did Jesus intend to create what has evolved into a monolithic institution whose leader claims to speak infallibly for God or did he instruct his followers to side with those who are marginalized, not bind up heavy loads for others to carry, work for the common good, and to love one another as he loved them?  There are voices crying in the wilderness and focused on the mission even in the face of being labeled "absurdities."  Archbishop Burke may be correct in calling the situation tragic.