This Has Happened: What to Make of Recent Chain of Events from Opus Dei-McCloskey to Cardinal Burke to Peter Steinfels to Archbishop Viganò?

So this has happened:

1. Jan. 7: Washington Post breaks Opus Dei-McCloskey story.

2. Jan. 8: Cardinal Burke mounts an attack on Pope Francis on German t.v., saying his response to the abuse crisis is "confusing." /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) January 14, 2019

Mark Shea on What Viganò, Burke, and Bannon's Anti-Francis Gay-Bashing Is About: "This is About the Rich Seizing Control of the Church, not About the Protection of Victims"

Kavanaugh Has Exposed the Savage Amorality of America's Ruling Class https://t.co/PgdtZykKrw

— Mary Aktay (@maryaktay) October 6, 2018

Mark Shea, "1 Percenters attempt to buy control of the Church," hits the nail right on the head:

Google Top Stories Featuring Catholic Homophobic Bile in "Top Stories" re: World Meeting of Families

Look at the Catholic homophobic bile Google is billing right now as its set of "top stories" if you google Fr. James Martin and his presentation at World Meeting of Families (I'm obviously not referring to the NCR article or the America one when I speak of "homophobic bile").

Kevin Ahern on the Failure of American Catholic Theologians to Defend Father James Martin: "A Crisis or Perhaps Even a Failure in Our Public Theology"

A Failure in Public Theology: The Non-Defense of James Martin, SJ by @kevin_ahern https://t.co/XX7Z9kmdRr via @wordpressdotcom

— Katie Grimes (@KatieMGrimes) February 4, 2018

Earlier today, I wrote about the hate being directed against Father James Martin online, and the astonishing silence of most of the intellectual leaders of the U.S. Catholic church — its journalists and academics — about this hate. I pointed you to an article by Frank Bruni in today's New York Times outlining how Father Martin is being relentlessly attacked, and I linked Bruni's account to the discussion of Father Martin that has been underway for several days now at Religion News Service following Jacob Lupfer's report of a lecture of Father Martin's that he attended recently. As I told you yesterday, the discussion of Lupfer's report at RNS has turned into a hate fest that is now all too predictable at religion news sites and religion blogs when LGBTQ lives are being examined.

Frank Bruni's Column on How Father James Martin Is Being Attacked Reads Like Commentary on RNS Discussion Thread About Martin

Pat Bagley on Twitter

As I said earlier today in the RNS discussion thread following Jacob Lupfer's account of Father James Martin's recent lecture at Georgetown, Frank Bruni's column in NY Times today about those hating on Father Martin and obsessed with attacking LGBTQ human beings: it's almost as if he read this thread at RNS before he wrote it. Bruni states,

For Religion News Service, Jacob Lupfer Reports on Georgetown Lecture by Father James Martin: Queer-Bashing Trolls Go Wild

Most of you readers are no doubt smarter learners than I am. So you will have figured this out long before I did: it's an absolute waste of time to wade into the filthy fecal waters of discussions about Christianity and LGBTQ human beings at religion-themed websites. The discussions of these matters in comboxes at religion-themed websites are not about gaining clarity or promoting understanding of how the churches have failed and keep failing LGBTQ folks.

When "Pro-Life" Christianity Becomes Death-Dealing: An Intra-Catholic Twitter Discussion on the Day of March for Life (2)

This week I spoke to a gay man who lost his job at his parish. Spoke to an *autistic* (and celibate) gay man whose pastor said he could only receive Communion "privately." And received a letter from the mother of a gay man forbidden to sing at his grandmother's funeral. One week.

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 18, 2018

And there's more: in response to Father James Martin's statement on Twitter yesterday about what it means to be pro-life, a statement I featured in a previous posting to which this one is linked, there's a string of tweets venting bile against LGBTQ people in the name of a "pro-life" ethic. Father Martin's tweet starting this discussion states, 

When "Pro-Life" Christianity Becomes Death-Dealing: An Intra-Catholic Twitter Discussion on the Day of March for Life

Being "pro life" means defending the lives of
the unborn
and
the sick
the poor
the homeless
the aged
the mentally challenged
the inmate
the refugee
and the person or people you hate.
Being pro life means reverencing
all human life.
Because it's all from God.#9DaysforLife

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2018

The discussion that this tweet by Father James Martin has spawned is interesting — and revelatory, as a glimpse of some major fault lines in U.S. Catholic culture today, which are contributing to serious dysfunction in the culture at large. In response to Father Martin, a Catholic doctor in Pennsylvania, Tom Iarocci, tweets, 

"Bishops Like Curlin and Cardinal Law, What They Have Done Is Criminal": A Church That Wants to Be Pastoral Must Listen to Testimony of Abuse Survivors

In a 27 April 2002 letter to the Charlotte Observer entitled "In Eyes of Abuse Victims, Bishop Curlin Is No Hero,"* Neal Evans of Asheville, North Carolina, reports that after an initial 1995 meeting with Bishop William G. Curlin to discuss his abuse at the hands of a diocesan priest and after Curlin came to Asheville to issue a public apology to victims of clerical sexual abuse, Evans heard nothing — not a single word — from Curlin in the ensuing seven years. According to Evans, when Evans met with Curlin, Curlin made promises that he failed to keep, including a promise to form a lay advisory committee to advise him about clerical abuse of minors, a committee on which he would place Evans.

Remembering Bishop William G. Curlin of Charlotte As Eminently Pastoral (There's Still No Room in the Inn for You Queer Catholics) (2)

On 22 January and 3 February 2003, Cardinal Bernard Law was deposed in Boston by attorneys representing abuse survivors. In that deposition, the attorneys deposing Law asked him about Rev. George Berthold and how and why Belmont Abbey College ended up hiring Berthold with the approval of the bishop of Charlotte, William G. Curlin. 

Here are some highlights from that deposition:

Remembering Bishop William G. Curlin of Charlotte As Eminently Pastoral (There's Still No Room in the Inn for You Queer Catholics)

RIP Bishop William Curlin, Emeritus Bishop of Charlotte, NC: a holy man, a gifted pastor, a gentle priest and a dear friend. He was a friend of Mother Teresa's, devoted son of Our Lady of Lourdes and, most of all, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. May he rest in peace.

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) December 25, 2017

Tim Funk, the Charlotte Observer religion commentator, remembers Charlotte Catholic bishop William G. Curlin, who died on Christmas eve, as someone known as "a pastoral bishop" who followed Mother Teresa in reaching out to people considered untouchable lepers. As Funk notes, Curlin's tenure as bishop of Charlotte was, however, "not without controversy." Speaking as if the abuse crisis in the Catholic church in Charlotte is over and done with, Funk says that Charlotte never had the volume of abuse cases found in places like Boston:

The Message of the Church to LGBTQ Catholics: Merry Christmas — Oh, and There's (Still) No Room in the Inn for the Likes of You

Until we do right by immigrants & refugees, we forfeit the right to claim we know what Christmas is about. https://t.co/vJ3nl3B7a2

— Rev. Dr. Barber (@RevDrBarber) December 24, 2017

One of the definitive messages of the Christmas story — perhaps more definitive for many of us who are LGBTQ and Christian — is the message of no room: there was no room anywhere for Joseph and Mary as they came to Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth.

A Reader Asks: "If You Could Sit Down with Fr. Martin for a One on One," What Would You Say? My Response

In response to what I posted yesterday as I recommended to you the podcast discussion featuring Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson, Sarasi asked me a very good question:

Bill, if you were to be invited to one of these "both-sides" discussions, if such a thing existed, where would you begin? (even if this might not be a realistic scenario) If you could sit down with Fr. Martin for a one on one, would you say anything different?

An Apology from New Ways Ministry Official for His Comment About Me on Facebook

I do want to acknowledge that I have received an emailed apology from the New Ways Ministry official who left the comment on Facebook yesterday that I have discussed in the past two postings. He generously tells me that I may share the apology, and I appreciate that. I'm doing so now.

"When Wolf Meets Sheep": On the Possibility of Safe Dialogue Spaces to Discuss Same-Sex Lives and Love in the U.S. Catholic Church

At New Ways Ministry's Bondings 2.0 blog today, Robert Shine cites Damian Torres-Botello, an out gay Jesuit who writes the following in The Jesuit Post about the possibility of open, respectful dialogue about same-sex love in the Catholic church after anti-LGBT right-wing Catholics succeeded in having a talk by Father James Martin cancelled recently:

Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson Propose Reframing Catholic Conversation re: Same-Sex Love; Francis DeBernardo Responds — My Reflections

Recently, at National Catholic Reporter, Mary Hunt, Marianne Duddy-Burke, and Jamie Manson published an essay calling for kick-starring a new Catholic conversation about same-sex love. Several days ago, at New Ways Ministry's Bondings 2.0 blog, Francis DeBernardo posted a response to this essay. 

Las Vegas Story: Google Finds Itself Gamed Again by Organized Hate Groups (Back to the Case of Father Martin and Church Militant)

On 21 September, I presented you with a series of screenshots showing you that on that day at about 2 P.M. CST (in the U.S.), the three "top news" stories that Google was returning to those who googled the name "James Martin" were all personal attacks on Father Martin from the Church Militant website, which is not a bona fide news site at all.

Google's "Top Stories" re: Fr. James Martin Right Now? All Vile, Hateful, Lie-Filled Personal Attacks by Church Militant — Google's Continuing Irresponsibility with "Top Stories"

Google James Martin now, & the top 3 stories Google recommends are vile, hate-filled, lie-filled attacks on him from Church Militant. 1) pic.twitter.com/ho8PPzRtqb

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) September 21, 2017

Bridge-Building with the Catholic and LGBTQ Communities, and the "Both Sides" Argument: More Critical Responses

54 years ago today, four black girls were killed by white supremacist terrorists in a bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. pic.twitter.com/uQ8hHx1jPo

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) September 15, 2017

I'm sure there are many sides to this story. Many, many sides. Good people on both sides. https://t.co/8zLqVITt0u

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) September 15, 2017

I very much like Robert Shine's response to Bishop Robert McElroy's wake-up call. Robert Shine applauds Bishop McElroy's wake-up call regarding the "cancer of vilification" seeping into American Catholicism as a response to people like Father James Martin who discuss building bridges with the LGBTQ community. As Shine notes, as welcome as Bishop McElroy's call is, it ends on a disappointing note of false equivalency, which claims that "both sides" are at fault in this situation. Robert Shine writes writes,

On the (Hateful Homophobic) Vitriol Eating Away at the Communion of the Church: "If Good Religion Slumbers and Stagnates, Bad Religion Is the Alternative"

I see connections galore between these good articles I've read in the past few days. Do you, too, I wonder?

Laura Donlon, "Fr James Martin says Cafod 'not entirely accurate' in its account of why his London lecture was 'cancelled'":