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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

CONFESSIONS
February 2003

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CHEERS FOR BISHOP BROM

About a year ago, my dad gave me a subscription to the Wanderer. To him -- or is to me? -- it seemed a perfect antithesis to the National Catholic Register, a paper my friend the diocesan news reporter calls The National Catholic Cheerleader, full of good news and all is well. (Case in point: while the Wanderer was ringing forth its cries of No Surprise during the priest scandals of the past year, the Register was busy scolding the secular media for its handling of the issue.) There is merit to both publications -- certainly, there is good news as well as bad to report. But the Wanderer is, naturally, more fun; where else can you read a headline like, "Bishops in Usual Disarray: Liberals Advance Usual Agenda"?

Another friend of mine is not so sanguine, though he is not exactly ruffled, either. He likens the Wanderer to the National Enquirer for what he sees as its tendency toward exaggeration. He imagines a headline like "American Bishops Deny Apostolic Succession" following the failure of some sub-council to send the right letter to the proper authorities in Rome before releasing a statement. But even if that charge didn't stick, I'm not sure he would have much use for it, or for any paper's attempt to ring the alarm bells "Finally," he once asked me, "isn't it just gossip?"

I think I see his point. I don't imagine I have some sort of civic duty to be informed about dastardly goings-on in Rome, or in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, or even San Diego. It's not as if I'll be voting when it comes time to elect the next pope or to appoint the next local bishop or even to approve an incoming pastor. I think he sees it as a kind of balm to people who are offended by the state of things -- "Ah, see? I was right. Things are terrible; evil is having its day. It's right here in the paper."

On the other hand, I was raised with the notion that it is good to be informed about the world around you; that knowing when things are rotten is better than not knowing. I didn't think this lesson took hold; I didn't develop a taste for keeping abreast of the news. Or at least, I thought I didn't. Turns out, I enjoy following the Church's intranecine stuff just fine; it's only things like U.S. economic policy I can't get worked up about. If there are practical benefits -- not sending my boy to a Catholic Scouts camp run by predators -- all the better. But I admit it: I pay attention, first and foremost, simply for the sake of knowing.

I don't think my interest is salacious, but it still carries risks. The danger in such a predilection -- besides the countless opportunities for uncharitable judgement -- is that one can mistake time given to following Church affairs with the practice of one's faith. In this way, it's like talking -- or arguing -- about theology. One is full of God-talk, but while it is true that the more you know God, the more you are able to love God, talking theology is not loving God -- or your neighbor. Sometimes, it can be an outright barrier to charity. Convictions about God and the faith run deep, and who wants to be corrected? Similarly, Church-talk can sound pious while actually serving as a big fat detraction party. It's a fine line between sharing one's woes and attacking one's enemies, and what's more, it can dull religious impulses.

That's been my failing of late; most of my "religious" thoughts have been about religious-political matters; very few have been about my own spiritual life. So it is perhaps fitting that I got a rebuke from one of the subjects (targets?) of my discussions -- a bishop. On January 12, Bishop Brom requested that his Holy Year Proclamation be read in every parish in the diocese. After opening with a forthright statement of fact -- "Left to ourselves, we are helpless before the powers of darkness and death, sin and evil" -- he went on to claim union with Jesus as the answer to this problem, and to hold up "the traditional pillars of spirituality" -- prayer, penance, and works of charity -- as "the way to encounter Christ ... and to live in communion with him." He suggested that families pray the Rosary and perform acts of charity weekly during 2003, that people go to confession, and that Fridays involve some kind of fasting. I was thrilled and chastened, happy to be led by my bishop and sorry for my neglect.

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