A US CATHOLIC BISHOP SURVIVOR OF CHILDHOOD PRIESTLY SEXUAL
ASSAULT
A Member of SPAN and former president of Pax Christi
April 12, 2013
Today on
Democracy Now!, the entire hour is devoted to Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez’s
interview of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, at http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/12/bishop_thomas_gumbleton_speaks_out_for
. Fr. Gumbleton resigned his
administrative duties at the age of 76, and remains a very active member of the
US Conference of Bishops. As Jesus was a
dissenting Jew, so Fr. Gumbleton has been a dissenting, politically active,
peacemaking Catholic since the late sixties.
In his words, I have just heard peacemaking expressed in the language
and texts of Catholic teaching.
As the hour
of the interview drew to a close, Fr. Gumbleton left his hosts with his version
of a Zen koan or riddle:
He had just told Amy that when his
mother, in her 80s, had surprised him by asking whether her youngest son was
going to hell because he is gay, he had plainly told her that he was made in
God’s image too, including the part of him that was gay.
When Juan asked about providing
contraception, Fr. Gumbleton answered simply that it was evil to kill a living
fetus (which of course makes it unconscionable to him), though granting that
when life begins remained disputatious and unclear. He added that anyone contemplating killing a
fetus should pray hard on it.
…a pause…he
added that speaking of judging anyone else’s conscience, he as a man was in no
position to judge women’s decisions...another pause…and Amy ended the show.
Fr. Gumbleton: Let me apply your principles to issues of
aiding people in providing information about artificial contraception, let
alone providing abortions, as a faithful Catholic. I believe Carol Gilligan applied it to women’s
moral development. Gilligan noted the
prevalence among women of seeing their own abortion decisions as matters of the
future both of the child and of the lives of those who would provide for the
child. Life did not begin or end in the
individual, but in life collectively. It
included empathy for the living prospects of a child who would survive only
barely, if at all. I agree with you, Fr.
Gumbleton, that the question of when life begins and ends is unresolved, as you
find it to be in the Church. Who among
us can answer for another where s/he decides life begins or ends? I certainly haven’t pinned down when the
loving soul I most care about in myself was born or died?
The question remains: If I figure that I am committing a deadly sin
by helping someone kill a viable fetus, do I have the right to refuse? My legal answer: Sure, the state doesn’t force you to take
taxpayer money that is granted for express public health purposes by state
decree. You don’t have to let someone of
the “wrong” color sleep in your bed either; you just can’t collect money for
providing the bed, even if mixing races is about as close to going to hell as
your faith decrees. Health care
providers don’t have to accept any state or federal government payments, let
alone tax exemptions as existing for exclusively apolitical religious purposes. That applies to personal decisions we make
all the time about what kinds of government money we do or don’t accept, just
as you yourself decide, given that you comfortably can, to avoid making enough
money to pay any taxes for any federal purpose because most of that money would
go to war. The Secretary of Health and
Human Services isn’t telling anyone whether s/he has to accept Medicaid
money. I see no reason for those whose
conscience leads them to accept or refuse government healthcare payments to
pass judgment on which way each other’s consciences dictate, do you? Love and peace--hal
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