Evergreene Digest A Journal of Progress for the Rest of Us

Are we witnessing the ecclesial equivalent of one of those slow-motion depictions of implosion, the kind where a seemingly invulnerable structure falls in upon itself, laid waste by some well-placed explosives? Perhaps.

National Catholic Reporter

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the pallium Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican June 29. The pope bestowed the pallium on 38 archbishops from around the world. (CNS/Paul Haring)

The first half of 2010 has been a particularly bumpy patch for the papacy of Benedict XVI. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This pope had as goals to sharpen the teaching of the world’s largest Christian denomination, to do battle with secularism and relativism, and to convince the world, Catholic and otherwise, that Christianity authentically lived is more about possibilities and new freedom than about “thou shalt nots” and other restrictions.

His program has been seriously sidelined by the lingering effects of the sex abuse scandal in the United States; the explosion of the scandal in Ireland, Germany, Italy and now Belgium; and the diminishment of the episcopal office, particularly in those countries most affected by the scandal.

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The Captain of the All-American Clerics is, by acclamation, Frank Dewane, formerly in the soft drink business, but now making a hard sell of fascist Catholicism as if he were the Doge of medieval Venice in Italy rather than just the bishop of Venice in Florida.

Eugene Cullen Kennedy, Bulletins from the Human Side, in National Catholic Reporter<>

Once bestowed on the clergyman who best exemplified the worst of clerical behavior, the Monsignor Moron Award has been retired out of sensitivity to morons.

A single prize also ignored the Thanksgiving Day parade of over-inflated nominees who, were it not for the guy lines of ambition that tie them to chancery offices and to any place mail might come from the Vatican, would be lost in the smoke over Iceland by now.

Here, then, is the All-American Clerical Culture Team. Its members do not really constitute a team because each one exhibits the hallmark of the classic cleric, the autocratic demand to call all the plays and get credit for all the scoring.

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• A pervasive Christian supremacist milieu exists inside the U.S. military that's a danger not only to constitutional order, but to the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Practicing Peace in Times of War

Matt Harwood, TruthOut.org

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell

Photo Credit: Jasmic

In his fight against British imperialism, Mahatma Gandhi described the life cycle of successful civil disobedience: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mikey Weinstein, the 55-year-old founder of the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), likes to quote it, knowing full well he's crossed the line into a bloody-knuckle brawl. Over the past year, Weinstein and his organization have recorded a tremendous string of victories in the fight against Christian supremacists inside the armed forces.

• It isn’t just Gibson who has been discredited. Even as he self-immolated, so did many of the moral paragons who had rallied around him as a culture-war martyr.
• Hate can wear a famous face

Frank Rich, New York Times | NY

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski

For Fourth of July weekend fireworks, even Macy’s couldn’t top the spittle-spangled eruptions of Mel Gibson. The clandestine recordings of his serial audio assaults on his gal pal were instant Web and cable-TV sensations — at once a worthy rival to Hollywood’s official holiday releases and a compelling sequel to his fabled anti- Semitic rant of 2006. A true showman, Gibson offered vitriol for nearly all tastes, aiming his profane fusillade at women, blacks and Latinos alike. The invective was tied together by a domestic violence subplot worthy of “Lethal Weapon.” There was even a surprise comic coda, courtesy of Whoopi Goldberg, who, alone among Gibson’s showbiz peers, used her television platform on “The View” to defend her buddy’s good character.

"It's not knowing the extent of the continuing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico that is ratcheting up anxiety in southern Louisiana," said Rob Gorman of Catholic Charities

Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service

Dead fish in the Gulf of Mexico near Port Sulpher, La. (CNS/Reuters)

The ultimate tally of the devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April could be "worse than hurricanes," said the director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, La.

"The level of anxiety is incredibly high," said Rob Gorman, who has been with Catholic Charities since 1982 and married the daughter of a French-speaking bayou fisherman. "If you're a trawler, you don't know if you're going to be able to trawl this year, or if you're going to be able to trawl next year, or the year after that, or the year after that."

The same, Gorman said, applies to fishermen, crabbers and shrimpers.

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