Quick Hits: mayor judges prelate, the real Archbishop Cupich, confusion in Brazil

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 08, 2016 | In Quick Hits

• Philadelphia’s Mayor Jim Kenney, who identifies himself as a Catholic, has scolded Archbishop Charles Chaput for confirming the Church’s age-old teaching that Catholics who divorce and remarry cannot receive the Eucharist unless they agree to abstain from sexual intercourse. Prodded by a reporter to comment on the archbishop’s policy, Mayor Kenney tweeted : “Chaput’s actions are not Christian.” Here we have an interesting reversal of roles, which would be comical if it were not taken seriously by some many observers. Archbishop Chaput has the authority to decide who is, and who is not, in good standing as a Catholic in Philadelphia. The mayor has no such authority—and as a Catholic, he should accept the authority of his archbishop. But instead the mayor sets himself up as a competing authority on how Christians should act, and the media treat his pronouncements seriously—in fact, sympathetically. Can you imagine the uproar that would occur if Archbishop Chaput issued a public statement accusing Kenney of un-Christian behavior? This story will play itself out soon, but there is a serious question lurking behind it. Are the mass media prepared to accept the right of political figures to rebuke religious leaders? Watch the dust-up in Philadelphia in the context of a nationwide battle over religious freedom, and notice how that much-touted “wall of separation” seems always to protect the state from (unlikely) interference by the Church, and never the Church from (far more threatening) interference by the state.


• The news that Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Blase Cupich to the Congregation for Bishops confirms the impression that the Chicago prelate stands at-- or at lest near-- the top of the list of the Pontiff's favorite American prelates. But is he the sort of "shepherd with the smell of his sheep" that the Pope has described as his ideal? Writing in Catholic World Report, Carl Olson has some potentially surprising news for you. Archbishop Cupich was not terribly accessible, even to his pastors, during his previous assignment in Spokane. “Those familiar with Cupich’s schedule and activities say that he was often out of the diocese for long periods of time,” Olson reports. Couldn’t he be described, then, the sort of “airport bishop” the Pope has criticized? And while he is characterized now as a peacemaker, his most remarkable move during his tenure in Spokane was the filing of a scorched-earth lawsuit against the legal firm that had handled the diocesan bankruptcy case. That suit was settled—on terms favorable to the law firm—shortly before the newly appointed archbishop arrived in Chicago. The Cupich case highlights the disparity between what Pope Francis says he wants to see in bishops and the sort of bishops he chooses and promotes. That’s an unsettling reality, in light of the fact that Archbishop Cupich will now have considerable influence over the appointment of new bishops in the US.


• The Brazilian bishops’ conference has issued a thoroughly confusing statement of “heartfelt gratitude” toward Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto, who has stepped down from his post at the Paraíba archdiocese amid serious allegations that he was guilty of both molesting young men and “connivance” in abuse by others. If he is innocent of these charges, he should not have been removed; if he is guilty, he should not be praised; if the facts are uncertain, the episcopal conference should remain silent until the investigation is complete. We should pray for Archbishop Pagotto, certainly. But under the circumstances, the bishops’ public prayer to “make fruitful the good seeds sown by him” is jarring.