April 25, 2004

Reader: bishops must be held accountable

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated after the release of two studies on the sexual-abuse scandal, “I assure you that known offenders are not in ministry. . . . The terrible history recorded here today is history.”

This is demonstrably not true. Archbishops Rembert Weakland and Robert Sanchez confessed to being offenders and resigned their archdiocesan assignments yet continue functioning as bishops receiving the full dignity of the office they disgraced. Other less prominent bishops remain “in ministry” after resigning in the face of sex-abuse accusations. There can be no “history” until the bishops are held accountable.

The bishop of San Jose, Patrick J. McGrath, wrote a column for the Mercury News concerning the movie The Passion of the Christ entitled “Whatever ‘The Passion’ Message, the Church Renounces Anti-Semitism,” stating “While the primary source material of the film is attributed to the four Gospels, these sacred books are not historical accounts of the historical events that they narrate. They are theological reflections upon the events that form the core of Christian faith and belief.”

This bishop stated that the Gospel accounts are not historical accounts, yet the document Dei Verbum from the Second Vatican Council states:

“Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day he was taken up into heaven” (No. 19; see Acts 1:1).

LifeSiteNews states this bishop has been criticized by Catholic groups for support of pro-homosexual organizations and exclusion of the Christian group Courage, a support group for homosexuals who try to live according to Christian morality. We must ask where the condemnation of this bishop from his peers is. Pray bishops have the conviction to stand for the church Christ founded and root out dissent at all levels. We must carry our own crosses as well, facing those casting the sacrifice of Christ in the ditch and trampling it.

—Rodney Beason Knoxville

Note: A bit of background for readers who may not be familiar with the cases of Archbishops Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee and Robert F. Sanchez of Santa Fe: Retired Archbishop Weakland acknowledged in 2002 that he had had an improper relationship with an adult man but denied the claim that he had assaulted the man. Archbishop Sanchez resigned in 1993 amid allegations that he had engaged in improper conduct with several women in their 20s.

Reader clarifies Mel Gibson’s beliefs

Please allow me the opportunity to clear up several misunderstandings in Ed Wright’s letter, “Mel Gibson’s ‘statements border on heresy’” (March 21 ETC).

First, Mel Gibson’s concern over transubstantiation is not based on the fact that the new Mass is celebrated in English but that it substitutes the word all for the more correct word many in the consecration of the wine. This puts him in rather good company, St. Jerome and St. Thomas Aquinas, to name just two. There are several examples in the New Testament when Jesus used the word many and several others when he used the word all. I believe St. Jerome knew for sure what Christ said and meant at the Last Supper.

His second misunderstanding is the claim that the so-called Tridentine Mass is a mere 400 years old. In fact it is much older than that, with much evidence suggesting it already essentially existed in the days of Pope St. Gregory the Great. It was not “composed” at the Council of Trent; the council declared that the typical missal used in Rome at the time would become the universal missal of the Roman Rite. The council merely recognized its excellence and gave it to the universal church.

Finally, Mr. Gibson does not “pick and choose” his councils. It should be well known that Vatican II was a pastoral council; unlike Trent, Vatican II defined no dogma. Furthermore, the Catholic Church defines only one kind of truth: eternal truth. Holy Mother Church does not declare anything to be true unless she can be absolutely sure that it has always been true and will always be true. Therefore, it would be foolish to believe that any one council would deny or change the truths declared by another council.

— Lawrence G. Martin Chattanooga