The Madison Capital Times confuses what I think are three very different issues in the same news story on the Catholic Diocese of Madison’s involvement in the public arena.
On one tact is Madison Bishop Morlino’s recent stress on natural law as justification for voting Yes on marriage amendment and No on the death penalty advisory referendum.
Madison Bishop Robert Morlino today defended his preaching on ballot issues, saying in an open letter to the people of Wisconsin that the Catholic Church is “intensely pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-family and always will be.”
But those positions are not “Catholic” positions, Morlino said in a letter distributed to area media today. “These are not tenets of our ‘faith’ we are defending. They are universal truths, based on reason alone.”
This is a very crucial distinction. Citing the Bible as your source of truth will only get you so far with so many people. Here, Bishop Morlino is making an appeal to natural law – that human practical reason can discover what is right and moral simply by looking at an issue thoughtfully. (In this case, observing how male and female body parts fit together to make babies is a good start on literally natural law).
The second major part of recent developments is Bishop Morlino’s exercise of his teaching authority in communicating to parishioners:
Release of the letter followed the revelation, in today’s Wisconsin State Journal, that Morlino is requiring all the pastors in the diocese to play a 14-minute recording of his sermon on the marriage referendum, the death penalty referendum and the issue of embryonic stem-cell research at worship services this weekend. That’s just days before voters will got to the polls on Nov. 7 to vote on referendums to change the state constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage and reinstitute the death penalty.
Requiring the showing of a video of the Bishop is hardly unprecedented. According to a 2004 report from The Michigan Daily:
Cardinal Adam Maida, archbishop of Detroit and chairman of the Michigan Catholic Conference, produced a video earlier this month encouraging Catholics to vote for the [marriage amendment] proposal. Maida distributed the video to all of the archdiocese’s churches to be shown during mass.
Although pastors at many churches discuss issues such as abortion in their sermons, it is unusual for Catholic churches to show videos advocating a specific vote during mass. Dave Maluchnik, a spokesman for the MCC, said the last time such a video was distributed to Michigan churches was in 1988, when a referendum was on the ballot to stop the state from funding abortions through Medicare.
Bishop Morlino has also led the Madison Diocese in distributing 110,000 “Marriage Matters” pamphlets that specifically encourage voters to vote Yes on Marriage. Again, hardly unprecedented – in 2004 the Michigan Bishops pumped an estimated $500,000 of collection plate money into Citizens for the Protection of Marriage. (Wisconsin’s Catholic Bishops have registered a committee with the State Elections Board to support the Amendment but have not utilized it to my knowledge).
The third and final issue in the Cap Times story is Bishop Morlino’s authoritative exercise of his teaching office:
Morlino’s “personal and confidential” letter of Oct. 25, released to The Capital Times this morning, warns diocesan pastors that disagreeing with his positions is not allowed. “I must make it very clear that any verbal or non-verbal expression of disagreement with this teaching on the part of the priest will have to be considered by myself as an act of disobedience, which could have serious consequences.”
The Wisconsin State Journal gives more details on the letter:
The reason he did so, he said, is “my office has received reports that in isolated cases, priests have refused to cooperate with my requests in terms of preaching in defense of marriage and have even expressed disagreement with my clear wishes in this matter.”
This is entirely appropriate, as the priest in the Cap Times story acknowledges. Bishop Morlino is the authoritative voice of church teaching in the Madison Diocese. Imagine if the same standard applied in the Milwaukee Archdiocese – no printing of Fr. Massingale’s op-ed in the official church newspaper or subsequent reprinting in various parish bullitens. No Priests Alliance statement blatantly and publicly disagreeing with the bishops.
On the whole, allow me to commend His Excellency Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison. His actions are courageous in the exercise of his teaching office to defend life and family.
Last 5 posts by Daniel- Tom Barrett's Savings Plan - June 8th, 2010
- C.J. Abrahamson on J. Stevens - April 11th, 2010
- Why always Bill Bablitch? - March 24th, 2010
- Suhr on Nixon on Health Care - February 23rd, 2010
- Did the USCCB Foresee Dead People? - February 8th, 2010
A) How did a “Personal and Confidential” letter from the bishop to his priests end up in the Press?
B) How many mysterious video projector failures will magically coincide with the bishop’s mandatory presentation?
Your guesses are as good, or better, than mine. May God bless the bishop and his efforts to preach the Truth to both willing, and unwilling, ears.