A Time to Heed the Prophets - Part One of a Series on the Present Crisis

I

Over the last month or so the daily readings at Mass have been dominated by selections from the prophets, (beginning this week we've switched to selections from St. Paul) which has also been true of the Office of Readings (a part of the prayers known as the Divine Office priests and most religious are required to pray daily). For a good part of August we heard specifically from Ezekiel. He was prophet during the time of the Babylonian exile. He had a hard message for the Israelites separated from their homeland. They were told that they were in this particular situation because of their collective sins, and in spite of the dire situation that they found themselves in, they still hadn't learned their lesson.

Ezekiel was a prophet who taught by symbolic actions as well as word. In one instance he was told by God that his beloved wife would die, but that he was not to go through the normal mourning rituals. He was to act as if everything was normal. When pressed by the people about why he wasn't following the regular routine for when a loved one died, he answered it was because the remnant left in Jerusalem would be slain and the Temple destroyed by foreign enemies. They were not to mourn, though. They were to abandon the idea of a speedy return home. They were to establish themselves in Babylon - start families and be good examples for the native population. Their time of trial and purification was to go on longer than they had anticipated. 

Ezekiel also wrote extensively of evil shepherds who did not follow the Lord's ways. They didn't shepherd the sheep, but were instead looking after themselves and their own needs first. They had grown comfortable, allowing the weak and struggling to go astray without helping them. He predicted destruction for those negligent shepherds.

II

In early 2002 the Catholic Church, mainly in the United States, suffered a first wave of the sex abuse crisis. It really wasn't a new issue, but because of a series of investigative articles in The Boston Globe, what had been sporadically reported incidence of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy came together into one narrative of abuse and cover up. After The Globe ran its stories, The Dallas Morning News began it's own investigation. From there the story ran like wildfire through the media. 

The first five or six years after the scandals broke were particularly hard. A new normal settled in, at least as far as the Church in the US was concerned. We grew accustomed to background checks, yearly audits of records, safe environment training, getting fingerprinted. Many were afraid to wear clerical clothing in public because of confrontations that some priests suffered for just dressing like a priest. I never had that happen to me, but I did feel self conscious when out on the street or in an airport. I always wondered if passers by were looking at me out of devotion or scorn. I felt like people would see me and walk the other way, especially if they had children with them. While I'm sure there was some psychological projection going on on my part, I'm also sure my suspicions of bad feelings were true, at least some of the time. 

The pressure has never gone way (and I'm not sure it should), but I would say that over the last few years I've felt it lightening at bit. People are more likely to approach me in public than before, and almost universally the interaction is positive. I never abandoned the wearing of the collar in public, but for a while I made the conscious choice to travel in "civvies" more times than not. I've since reversed that practice. It seemed like finally we had reached a point where the new normal of greater accountability felt, well, normal, with the public's trust being regained little by little. 

Then June 20, 2018 happened. That was the day it was revealed that then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had been credibly accused to child sex abuse, offenses that happened many decades ago. Along with that there were reports of payments made related to the more recent sexual harassment of adult men - mainly seminarians. This part of the scandal was handled as more of an inside Church matter. The secular press reported on it, but didn't pursue it too much. It isn't my desire to go into the details of the affair - there's plenty out there in the Catholic press and blogosphere. Just to say it the first stirrings that a return to the bad old days of 2002 were making themselves known.

Then came August 14, and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report. I was on retreat, but in this age of smart phones it has hard for me to resist following what was going on. I only read the introduction of the 800 plus page report, but those first 24 pages were enough to make me want to vomit. Now the spirit of the Long Lent of 2002 was officially back with us.

We usually speak of two shoes falling, but this week a third boot hit the floor in the form of a self described testimony by former Papal Nuncio to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. In the 11 page document he accuses the Pope of knowing about McCarrick's misdeeds and covering them up. He also claims that McCarrick had undue influence over who was named bishops or which bishops got promoted to larger sees or the College of Cardinals. The testimony exposed fissures that have existed in the Catholic Church in the US for a long time, but were often covered over. We have bishops and cardinals openly taking sides either for or against the veracity of Viganò's account. No prelate I've seen has joined the former nuncio in calling for Pope Francis to step down, but some Catholic media figures have.

The scandals here in the States are part of a larger crisis that has unfolded in the past months in Latin America. At one time the Church overseas saw this an "America" problem, but now the scandal is clearly understood to be international in scope, which it should have always been. 

III

So what is the link between the readings we have been pondering these weeks from the Old Testament prophets and the current scandals we are suffering through right now? I'll offer two possibilities.

First, the shepherds of the Church have been too busy shepherding themselves and their agendas instead of shepherding the flock. There are too many clerics who see the priesthood as a career choice instead of as a vocation. I believe most begin their vocational journey listening to the voice of the Lord calling them to serve in the spirit of the Apostles, but something goes off the rails along the way. Most priests don't get rich, by any means. But there can be such a preoccupation with days off, vacations, retirement planning and the like, it makes me wonder where the fire to evangelize went. I'm heart broken, for instance, when I hear that a parish has canceled daily Mass because it's the priest's day off. 

Are there priests who routinely skip days off or don't use all the vacation time due them because of their dedication to the mission? Sure. I knew a dedicated pastor from the Bronx who spent most of his vacation time running a summer camp for boys and otherwise lived more simply than a Franciscan. And there is nothing wrong with taking time to recharge the batteries, both physically and spiritually. I'm not condemning days off or vacations. But as a priest is anything more important than celebrating the Eucharist for the people? I mean, you'll have the rest of the day to unwind and engage in whatever legitimate diversion you wish. 

There can also be a careerist mentality involved with priests vying for particular parishes based on the Sunday collection or judging the assignment based on the living quarters more than on the mission possibilities. The goal is too often personal promotion instead of mission advancement.

I've hesitated to "go after" the bishops here, because I'm not one. I have no idea of the pressures that they face, and pray to God I never will. But bishops are chosen from among priests, so it's not a stretch to say that this careerist mentality is promoted with some of them into the episcopate. Most bishops I've known are sincere men who are trying to fulfill their duty the best they can. There is a temptation for them though to adopt the ways of the chief executive or politician. The preoccupation is more with protecting the brand than leading the flock into all truth. There is a creeping political correctness that keeps them from proclaiming the entire Gospel for fear of offending people. Maybe one sees himself as a progressive, so he'll down play the Church's teaching on human sexuality, so as not to fall out with his "party." Maybe he's a self styled traditionalist or conservative, so he'll proclaim the truth about abortion and the nature of marriage, but will neglect the social doctrine. We are called to proclaim the whole truth, not just the part of it that makes us comfortable, or wins us the "right" friends.

My second point may be a bit more controversial. Ezekiel reserved his harshest words for the shepherds, but he had a strong message for the flock as well. They were exiled because corporately they had strayed from following the commandments of God. It is in this spirit I offer this part of the reflection.

Both clergy and laity are guilty, to one degree or the other, of building a wall around the Sixth Commandment in order to find all sorts of excuses for why it doesn't really mean what it means. No one would try to find ways of excusing theft, murder, slander or lying the way we do sins against chastity. In this present PC culture that places so much emphasis on what people say or think, it's as if coveting is a graver offense than the actual committing of adultery, fornication or sodomy. Catholics have accepted the contraceptive and divorce culture along with the rest of society. Instead of standing apart, we have gone with the flow. Much of the clergy has enabled this drift into a secularized mentality when it comes to sex and marriage, but the laity by and large were happy to go along for the ride. 

We should have been at the vanguard of the Counter Sexual Revolution, but instead we gave token resistance and have just gone along to get along. Is it any wonder that there are priests and bishops, who are chosen from among the faithful, who grew up in this culture, who are quite frankly soft on this issue. And there are even those who see the Sexual Revolution as a positive good. So in formation programs too often proclivities are over looked, red flags are ignored, and candidates are promoted who should been sent home. 

Let me be clear though - it's not just the clergy who have softened on this issue, it's the entire Church. God is calling us back to the purity He intends for us. This isn't about witch hunts, but its about honesty. It's about recognizing that we have strayed as a people and need to once again follow the entire Gospel - the Gospel of peace and justice, and the Gospel of purity and self control, because they are one Gospel, not two political platforms. 

It's the whole community that has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but it is the shepherds who bear the greater burden. Reform starts with us. We need to be renewed in our hearts, rededicated to the chastity that sets us free. We are celibate (meaning unmarried in the antique definition) continent (not sexually active) and chaste (faithful to our calling in life) in imitation of Christ and as a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven where there will be no marriage or giving in marriage. If we really don't live this call faithfully, in mind as well as action, the faithful will see it and act accordingly. They will either feel justified in their own sins, scandalized to the point of leaving the Church, or stay but not respect us all that much. 

It is now that we heed the call of the prophets to rend our hearts, not our garments. For bishops and priests it's the time to reignite that early love in our hearts that led us to follow our vocation to begin with - to be renewed in the spirit. To not be conformed to the fads and trends of now, but be transformed by the eternal truth of God. To not be afraid to let go of status and influence as the world understands it, but live the truth of the entire Gospel with pure hearts.

We are still suffering as a Church because we haven't learned the lessons of 2002. We have changed or strengthened procedures, but he haven't really changed our hearts. We still believe we can make peace with the spirit of the world and live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Because of this failure the spiritual exile continues, and may be extended for longer than we imagined. 

I have admittedly side stepped a discussion on the thornier issues at work here (the veracity of Vignò's letter, the response of the Holy Father and the role that homosexuality plays in this scandal). As the title indicates, this is intended to be the first of a series. But this is the foundation from which I will begin. I will have more in the future. 

An Ode to Ace Pitchers in their Twilight

I must confess up from that I was helped out a great deal by Baseball Reference, which keeps detailed stats and descriptions of thousands of MLB games from years past. I have a pretty good memory, but not THAT good.

I have rarely seen stud pitchers in the prime of their careers. In my trips to the ball park I've more often witnessed lions in the winter of their playing days. 

I was in attendance when Tom Seaver, a legend with the Mets, made a late career appearance at Yankee Stadium in a White Sox uniform. He got beat up that August night in 1984, only lasting for 3 and two thirds. When he left the game the Yankee faithful gave him a standing ovation. He tipped his hat in recognition. It was a parish sponsored trip, and the girl sitting next to me, not a baseball fan, asked why we were cheering a player on the other team. "Because he's Tom Seaver, that's why!" I derisively barked back. I had a crush on the girl, but crush or no crush I couldn't tolerate the ignorant impiety of the question. It didn't matter that he was the Franchise for the disrespected Metropolitans. In our arrogance Yankee fans hate the Red Sox, but don't think much about the Mets at all, except to heap scorn on them for trading the best pitcher of his generation for a bag of balls and a couple of bats (all apologies  to Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn and Dan Norman). Reggie Jackson once said that blind people go to ball games to hear Tom Seaver pitch. Those days of greatness were long gone, but no matter. He was and is a New York legend, as well as a baseball immortal, which meant that night we stood and we cheered, because we knew that his likes don't come around very often. I wasn't in attendance a year later when he came back to the Bronx, still playing for Chicago. This time he went all nine innings, defeating a superior Yankee squad to the one he had faced the previous season, for his 300th win. The packed house stood and cheered as if he was one of their own, which in the big picture he still was. 

A few years later I was at the old River Front Stadium in Cincinnati. It was Tom Browning, a promising young hurler who had won 20 games a few years before, and would pitch a perfect game later that same season, against Nolan Ryan. Ryan was in his 22nd season in the big leagues, playing for Houston. Like Seaver he made his start in Queens in 1966, later pitching for the same 1969 Miracle Mets. He was traded away before his legend was solidified (he was still mainly a reliever transitioning to the starter role when he was exchanged, along with a few other less notable players, in 1971 for Jim Fregosi - arguably an even worse trade for the Mets than the Seaver debacle). He didn't have the deep New York roots of Tom Terrific, but he was no doubt Hall of Fame candidate. His seven no-hitters and 12 one hitters put the lie to the often made accusation that he was just a flashy .500 pitcher. His winning percentage was hurt by years pitching for mediocre California Angels and intermittently competitive Astros teams. He had broken Walter "Big Train" Johnson's career strike out record five years before, and by 1988, in his early 40's was still routinely leading the league in Ks. Browning would end up with a solid, but otherwise unremarkable twelve year career in the bigs, his early potential undermined by injuries. That season he was the ace of the Cincinnati staff, so it didn't take much for one of my college roommates to talk me into braving a frigid April night to take in this march-up between two marquee pitchers. 

The Ryan Express was rolling along this night. Both men were pitching well, actually, with Browning taking a 2-0 lead into the ninth. Even though he was on the losing end when he exited after the 7th, Ryan had struck out 11 and given up only four hits. 

I was feeling good. It was cold, and wanted to get out of there. Both pitchers had been efficient, with the game on pace to end before 9:30pm, which would give us plenty of time to get a bus before public transportation shut down at 10:00pm. Otherwise we'd have to pay for a taxi: we were at the end of the semester and my funds were low enough already. Then, with two outs and a runner on, the partisan Reds crowd on their feet screaming, anticipating the complete game shutout, disaster struck. On an 0-1 pitch first baseman Glenn Davis drilled a home run into the lower deck in left. The stadium went from being a house party to a mausoleum with one swing. Browning finished the inning, but had to settle for a no decision, a fate his counter part was more than happy to share in. 

For me this wasn't about winning or losing. I'm a Yankee fan, so I had no dog in this fight. It as about the pitching match up, which I had seen, so could we please go home now? Greg Daugherty, my pal who had talked me into this game, insisting we had to see Nolan Ryan before he retired, was and is a diehard Reds fan, so there was no way we were leaving. Enduring the winds whipping around the upper deck, the game dragged on for 16 innings. Houston broke through for five runs in the top of what would be the last frame. The Reds went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half, as we were then stuck paying for a cab. 

In the initial aftermath of the contest the story was about the heartbreak of letting a win slip away, and freezing in the early spring night as extra innings piled up. In the last thirty years since its about seeing Nolan Ryan, an ageless wonder defy the calendar, pitching like a player half his age.

Last night I was at White Sox Park, aka Guaranteed Rate Field - possibly the worst naming rights deal since Enron sponsored the Astros' ballpark before they went belly up amid scandal a decade ago. Their logo is a down arrow, which unfortunately denotes the direction the South Siders have been heading in the last few seasons more than the interest rates the stadium's sponsor offers on mortgages. The sad part is that this successor to the old Comiskey Park is a good place to see a game. Wrigley has the charm but Comiskey II has spacious and conveniently located lavatories. It may seem like a small point, but we're baseball fans, not angels, and when the beer is flowing no one wants to turn finding the restrooms into a scavenger hunt. The food selection is great (I recommend the Cuban Sandwich). I've never been, but they tell me the restaurant is first class. The staff is friendly (which is not to say Wrigley's isn't, by any means). If I were to put it in a nut shell, the North Side has the outside the stadium street experience down. The neighborhood has great atmosphere, with plenty of cool bars and restaurants for pre and post game noshing. But the Sox have the inside game down pat.

Unfortunately, that game in 2018 isn't baseball. While I just spent a paragraph talking about the pros and cons of the "fan experience," as the kids call it, of the two Chicago baseball teams, the only experience I go to a ball game for is the game. Right now there is no denying the Cubs are putting the better product on the field. This didn't stop me from availing myself of a friend's generosity and going down to see my beloved Yankees face off against the Sox at the ball yard on 35th and Shields. 

The Yankees are coming off a brutal four game sweep at the hands of those other Sox from Boston, punctuating a five game losing streak. New York won on Monday, pounding the White Sox 7-0. Tuesday night they put up C.C. Sabathia to face Chicago's Reynaldo Lopez. 

Sabathia isn't in the same category as either Seaver or Ryan, both first ballot Hall of Famers (Seaver was elected with highest percentage of votes in history). But by the time its all over C.C.'s plaque very well may end up in Cooperstown, even if it takes him a few tries to get there. He was a big flame throwing lefty when he was young, who has learned how to pitch now that he's entered the twilight of his playing days. It looked like he was done a few years back when injury and alcohol sent his career into a tailspin. He stopped, removing himself from the MLB merry-go-round just before the post season in 2015 to enter rehab. Realizing not just what the game meant to him, but more importantly his wife and children, and got the help he needed to put the bottle away and get himself back into shape: as a player but also as a husband and father. Other players bow out before the play-offs and you hear whispers about lack of guts or wimping out. Not with C.C. He had already proven himself to be a tough competitor, a team player, who knew what it meant to pitch through adversity. So, with the blessing of his teammates Sabathia made the tough call, but also the right one. He did comeback, and was key to the Yankees unexpected playoff run 2017. This year he's been a steady presence in an otherwise questionable starting rotation.

As I wrote, C.C. doesn't mow them down as he once did. He is now the image of the cagey southpaw using guile and finesse to induce ground outs and swings and misses out of the zone. He struck out 12 in 5 and two thirds innings last night. He got in and out of trouble a few times, with the Sox managing to scrape across a run on a sac fly in the third. His landing knee is shot, and he needs to pitch with a brace. At one point they bunted against him, and C.C. didn't get off the mound cover first: not because of indifference, but because he simply couldn't. I though the they could do this all night against him, but they didn't. He struck out the side in the 4th and pitched out of a jam in the fifth, including that devious bunt. He got two outs in the sixth, but after giving up a ground rule double to Ryan LeMarre, manager Aaron Boone made the long walk to the mound to pull his starter. 

There were plenty of Yankee fans in the crowd, and as he walked to the dugout Sabathia received a standing ovation. But there were Sox fans cheering too. Because they understand that this might be the last time he pitches in Chicago, they showed their appreciation. 

Lopez, who's not having a particularly good season for Chicago, pitched the game of his life. He took a no hitter into the sixth, before Aaron Hicks hit a ground rule double to start the frame. He was helped by his fielders, highlighted by center fielder Adam Engel who, for the second night in a row, robbed a Yankee of a home run with a leaping catch over the left centerfield wall. A long fly by Miguel Andujar in the 7th went a bit farther so that Engel's acrobatics didn't come into play. Lopez left with a tied game, but was replace in the top of the eight, so he was denied the ovation he richly deserved. 

The Yankees took the lead in the top of the 10th, then the Sox tied it up again in the bottom of the inning - both teams exchanging two run homers. The Yankees won in the 13th on an Andujar RBI single. 

Like that game in Cincinnati in 1988 and the Tom Seaver appearance in 1984 (which the Yankees eventually won, staving off a Chisox comeback attempt) what I'll remember about August 7, 2018 are the pitchers. In this case, the old, battle tested veteran using all the tricks he's learned over the years, against the young hot shot still trying to find himself. It's seeing a player who's glory days are behind him, but who's guts and will drive him to give every last ounce he has, in spite of the pain. Sabathia is loved in New York, a place he came to reluctantly, because he's always given his all. What's more, he quickly grew to love playing in the Bronx and it showed. For that, as well as for his personal courage, we stand and cheer one more lion in winter.