Path to the holy isn’t found in cannon law
In Colleen Carroll Campbell’s column on Aug. 14 she speaks in glowing terms of the moral high road Archbishop Burke walked as a true pastor. I did witness his moral high road but I see no pastor like behaviors in the community, only selected places. He only visited with those who rubber stamped his authority to think for us. He never visited St. Cronan’s parish or spoke personally to Sr. Louise Lears. My expectation of a pastor would be to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus did not stay comfy and cozy in a mansion, surrounded by those bowing and scraping to him. He walked with the downtrodden, dined with sinners and listened to the needs of all. He left us few rules and challenged the rigid, unjust structures of the religious institutions of his day. From my pew, my pastors at St. Cronan, Fr. Gerry Kleba, Sr. Louise Lears and Sean Collins were true pastors. Archbishop Burke was not and I would expect he never will be. The path to the Holy is not found solely in the Cannon Law of the Catholic Church nor is pasturing equivalent with beating people into submission with it.
Ann Reis Quigley
St. Louis
reference…See; churches ability called into question…
I hate it when some Catholics prance around like the most educated, enlightened people on the planet, and then they can’t even spell “canon law” correctly…..
Ann Reis Quigley wrote: “…From my pew, my pastors at St. Cronan, Fr. Gerry Kleba, Sr. Louise Lears and Sean Collins were true pastors. …”
Hmm. Your pastors were a priest, a sister and a layperson? Interesting and most illuminating since that is something that the Catholic Church does not support or teach. With things like that going on, along with the support of women priests and gay unions too, perhaps St. Cronan’s will go the same way as St. Stanislaus and also end up no longer being a Catholic Church. I hope not, but if it continues to support non-Catholic practices like that, it is possible. My hope is that St. Cronan’s returns to something that can once again be recognized as a Catholic parish, but they certainly have wandered off, so who knows what might happen.
Steve, I don’t think the letter writer supplies the thread title. I think the P-D editorial staff does that. If I am correct, the “canon” spelling error is theirs and not Ms. Quigley’s. If so, then it’s anybody’s guess as to whether they are educated, enlightened, prancing Catholics or not.
Swizz,
With all due respect, the letter writer misspelled it in the last sentence of her letter.
Point taken on the headline, though… but I’ll bet the Post spelled it wrong only because this Catholic did….
Mea Culpa, Steve. You are likely correct, sir. My apologies for missing the second “cannon” error.
Well -
I thought the use of “cannon” rather than “canon” was a sly jab at the power and authority and rigidity of the law…
Mr. Maher,
Really?
And I imagine the “pasturing” typo — rather than “pastoring,” which would make more sense — really was instead a sly reference to putting Sr. Louise “out to pasture”?
Mr. Steve -
It’s (”cannon”) called, maybe - “making lemonade from lemons.”
Or -
it’s called an attempt at humor - (on my part).
Or -
it’s called a Freudian slip on the part of Ms. Quigley.
Or -
“Cannon” in the context as a descriptive adjective for “law” would denote a sort of blustering, forceful, law, whereas “pasturing” in the context as used does not relate to or describe the “beating… phrase.” I did not mention this use of the “u” rather than the “o,” because it was obviously a typo and bore no relationship to the following phrase.
Had it been used as a verb describing the action taken towards Sr. Louise - then, Yes, it could be a sly jab and as clever as the use of “cannon.”
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Maybe one day people will realize that religion is a man made entity. Then maybe we won’t have the problems in the world that we do today. I wonder if Peter Rabbit had been written thousands of years ago would people be worshiping rabbits?