My World of Religion, Politics, Entertainment and Social Issues

Dear Blog Visitors: Many Catholics who live in New York State are anxiously awaiting word from the Vatican, concerning whether or not Pope Benedict XVI will accept the resignation of Cardinal Egan. I, for one, hope the resignation is accepted. What follows are two items: 1.) feature article from the New York Sun on Cardinal Egan's future; 2.) my follow-up commentary, which was also published in the New York Sun. Cardinal Egan's Future Rests in Pope's Hands BY GABRIELLE BIRKNER - Staff Reporter of the Sun March 28, 2007 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/51360 Catholic scholars are divided over whether Pope Benedict XVI will accept the letter of resignation that Cardinal Egan is required to submit on Monday, his 75th birthday. Some predict the cardinal would be permitted to stay on, while others expect the pope to accept the resignation. Canon Law asserts that Catholic bishops, upon turning 75, must offer up their resignation, which the pope can accept or reject. Pope Jo...

Dear Blog Visitors: One of my favorite hangouts on weekends is the Wegman’s Superstore in Pittsford, New York (suburb of Rochester). It is a great place to shop and have breakfast, lunch or dinner. I find it is also a place that I can count on running into acquaintances from the past and present. In recent weeks, usually while enjoying breakfast, I have been approached by former classmates and friends, who wanted to discuss my recent ordination to married priesthood. I have yet to get one complaint about my ordination, whether it be in Wegman’s, a parish or a variety of social settings. I bring up these recent encounters, because I have come to realize that I am not the only person amongst my former classmates from St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry who have ventured into alternative forms of ministry within a Catholic context. What has become apparent to me, especially in the case of some of my former female classmates, is that the more educated in theology and church h...

Dear Blog Visitors: It is part of my daily routine to scan national newspapers for stories related to the Roman Catholic priesthood. One particular article captured my attention this morning, for it focused on a married Episcopalian priest who converted to Roman Catholicism, and then was allowed, under a special provision, to become a married Roman Catholic priest in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. I want to be welcoming when married Episcoplian priests are allowed to become married Roman Catholic priests under the special provision enacted by the late pontiff, John Paul II. These priests can give witness to the fact that it is entirely possible to be married, raise children and be a Roman Catholic priest at the same time. However, at the same time, I am angry over the hypocrisy that exists over this issue. It seems to me that the Vatican is operating with a double-standard that is causing anguish for thousands of Roman Catholic priests who eventually entered into marriage. Unlike mar...

Dear Blog Visitors: I continue to be grateful every day for the fact that Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo ordained me to the presbyterate on December 10, 2006. I can only hope to honor him by continuing to articulate the plight of married priests around the world who want nothing more than a place at the table. Just as I continue to be an advocate for optional celibacy, my work toward the ordination of women will continue as well. After all, a table is never complete, unless women are present. I am encouraged by the scholarly work that continues to be done on the role women played in the early church. During the first century, we are certain that leaders of early communities consisted of bishops, deacons and deaconesses. The priesthood was a later development, when it became evident that communities had become too large for bishops to manage on their own. So, the priesthood evolved, in order to ensure that the Eucharist would be available for all the faithful. Recent evidence has con...

Dear Friends: I wanted to wait until this article was published, before sharing it with you. In the article, I answered the three primary questions I continue to be asked: MY ROAD TO ORDINATION By Ray Grosswirth, CORPUS Media Liaison March/April, 2007 Edition of ‘CORPUS REPORTS’ Having been part of the CORPUS community for several years, this is my very first article written as a married priest. The road to ordination was indeed long, with a few bumps along the way. However, in the end, my faith has been enriched as a result of my finally saying YES when the Holy Spirit beckoned. Much has been written and said already in the mainstream media about my ordination. So, rather than restating all the particulars, what follows will be what can perhaps be described as a reflection on what my ordination means in terms of my future with CORPUS and how I intend to carry out my ministries in the diaspora. I wish to begin by thanking the CORPUS community for...

Dear Blog Visitors: I was deeply moved by a feature story that appeared in our local newspaper this morning. It focused on a group of volunteers who donate their time to the Spiritus Christi Mental Health Center. The Mental Health Center is just one of many outreach ministries offered by Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester, New York. This is a parish that truly walks the talk, in that it takes the Gospel message of Jesus Christ very seriously. Jesus instructed us to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, take care of the disenfranchised, and welcome the stranger. Spiritus Christi continues to be a model for those of us who wish to be true disciples of Jesus. For those of you not familiar with the story, Spiritus Christi began several years ago, as an offshoot of Corpus Christi Church (diocesan parish). Through its independent status, the parish has two ordained female priests (Mary Ramerman and Denise Donato), in addition to having the services of Fr. James Callan, who moved from his...

Dear Blog Visitors: People continue to ask me what I intend to do, now that I am a married priest. The short answer is that I continue to be a Roman Catholic, and my primary ministries will be via certification from the Federation of Christian Ministries (baptisms, weddings, funerals). A question that continues to surface from time to time is what the relationship between CORPUS and 'The Married Priests Now! Prelature' will be. After some careful dialogue/negotiation, both organizations have released statements that are respectful of each other's goals and initiatives. Since both CORPUS and 'Married Priests Now!' have posted these statements to their respective websites, I thought it would be appropriate to post the statements here as well. At the heart of all organizations that work toward inclusivity in the priesthood is the reality that while the Roman Catholic Church is growing in terms of numbers, the celibate priesthood is shrinking, which places the availabil...

Dear Friends: I just thanked Marketta Gregory of the Democrat & Chronicle for the wonderful article she wrote on Mike Krupiarz. I am posting this to my blog and to the CORPUS ( www.corpus.org ) forum, because several of Mike's seminary classmates from St. Bernard's are members of CORPUS. Mike Krupiarz was a great guy and was very instrumental in my faith formation and choices I eventually made. Back in 1990, when I was discerning the priesthood as part of a group for older men, Mike was my initial spiritual advisor. (He prepared for the priesthood himself, but had left the seminary without getting ordained, due to the celibacy issue. He became a married deacon instead.) Mike was very helpful in my discernment over celibacy and other issues facing persons who are discerning the seminary process. Some of my memories of Mike have an element of humor. When he was a pastoral associate at St. Mary's Church downtown, he asked me to attend a peaceful rally outside the Senec...

Dear Blog Visitors: I am happy to report that I will be participating in the following seminar: The National Catholic Ministrial Alliance presents a day-long seminar before the Call to Action conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin November 3: “Bridging the Gap: Gender Equality, Sex and Ordination” The National Catholic Ministerial Alliance is planning a day-long pre-CTA Conference seminar with keynote speakers Anthony Padovano, Andrea Johnson and more to discuss and promote the movement for an inclusive and renewing Catholic priesthood. A panel will feature Carmen Lane, Ray Grosswirth, Tom Honoré, and Kathy Vandenberg, talking about their individual journeys as women and married men living out their call to ordination. For more information, visit the Call to Action Website at www.cta-usa.org

PRESS RELEASE August 4, 2006 8 WOMEN ORDAINED AS CATHOLIC PRIESTS HAVE NOT BEEN EXCOMMUNICATED On July 31, 2006, eight Roman Catholic women were ordained as priests in Pittsburgh. They were validly ordained by three consecrated female bishops. Whether or not U.S. bishops recognize these priests as validly ordained is not the point. What is very much to the point is the fact that bishops have incorrectly stated that the women who were ordained have excommunicated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church. Under the carefully crafted guidelines for excommunication, there needs to be a process for such action. There is no such thing as "self-excommunication,” although one could make an argument that if a person announces that he or she is leaving the Roman Catholic Church, an interpretation of self-excommunication is possible. However, in the case of the eight women ordained as priests on July 31, there were no announcements from these women that they were leaving Roman Catholici...

I put the following press release out on the wire service today, and thought I would post it to my blog as well. CORPUS MEDIA LIAISON AVAILABLE FOR TV & RADIO INTERVIEWS TO DISCUSS MARY MAGDALENECORPUS www.corpus.org Contact: Ray Grosswirth, CORPUS Media Liaison, rgrosswirth@corpus.org With the release of the movie version of 'The Da Vinci Code' on May 19, it is reasonable to assume there will be general interest in the relationship that existed between Mary Magdalene and Jesus. While very little historical data exists that supports events depicted in Dan Brown's book, he does correctly draw upon recent scholarship that clears the bad reputation Mary Magdalene was stuck with for over one-thousand years. Whether or not Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene is a matter of conjecture, since this theory cannot be proven one way or another historically. Yet, a valid argument for Jesus being married is his Biblical title of 'rabbi.' (During the first century, this title...

I want to thank Bishop Clark for the courageous stand he has taken on behalf of gay priests in the Rochester Diocese. I share in the outrage of the Catholic community concerning sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests. However, scapegoating gay priests is the wrong approach, and I applaud Bishop Clark's fairness in dealing with this issue. Some bishops, in their eagerness to sweep the abuse crisis under the carpet, have issued harsh statements concerning gay priests and seminarians. If bishops truly believe that as many as 50% of priests may be gay, it is correspondingly reasonable to assume that as many as 50% of bishops are gay as well. I personally don't care if bishops or priests are gay or heterosexual, as long as they are not abusing children. Rather than focusing on sexual orientation, our bishops should instead be focusing on sexual maturity. Sexual immaturity can be present in either a homosexual or heterosexual. To single out one in favor of the other is not ...

PROBLEMATIC PROPOSITIONS FROM THE EUCHARISTIC SYNOD by Ray Grosswirth, M.A., M.Div October 25, 2005 The Vatican Information Service (VIS) has released what it considers to be the most important propositions from the Eucharistic Synod. I have concerns with a few of them, and have highlighted these concerns in CAPITAL LETTERS following the actual propositions: EUCHARIST AND THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE (Proposition no. 7) "It is of vital pastoral importance that bishops in their dioceses promote a decisive revival in teaching the conversion that arises from the Eucharist, and that to this end they favor frequent individual Confession." "The Synod strongly recommends bishops not to allow the practice of collective absolution in their dioceses, save in the objectively exceptional circumstances laid down in John Paul II's Motu Proprio, 'Misericordia Dei'." A LOGICAL QUESTION TO ASK IS: CONSIDERING THE SEVERE CLERGY SHORTAGE IN THE UNITED STATES AND ELSEWHERE, ...

A MISGUIDED APPOINTMENT FOR ARCHBISHOP MYERS by Ray Grosswirth, CORPUS Media Liaison During the same week that our esteemed bishops in Rome voted down a proposal to allow for the ordaining of married men to the priesthood, the Vatican nevertheless appointed Newark's Archbishop Myers to the task of overseeing the process of bringing married Episcopalian priests into the Roman Catholic priesthood. (This sounds like a double-standard to me.) While I certainly want to welcome our Episcopalian brothers to the Roman Catholic Church when they convert for the right reasons, I am also alarmed when we bring some of these men into the RC priesthood for the WRONG reasons. Two of the WRONG reasons are when Episcopalian priests state they are converting because a.) they were opposed to the ordination of Gene Robinson, because of his being openly gay; b.) they are opposed to the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. I will be the first to welcome a married Episcopalian priest, when he st...

MY FANTASY DEBATE WITH CARDINAL PELL by RAY GROSSWIRTH, CORPUS NATIONAL SECRETARY October 13, 2005 Dear Friends: While I am encouraged over the fact that a few courageous bishops brought the topic of married priests to the synod table, we should not be surprised that Cardinal Pell is trying (in a very forceful way) to keep the policy of mandatory celibacy intact. I often wonder what it would be like to debate someone like Cardinal Pell. Since the opportunity will probably never present itself, I interjected my own thoughts in the following article that contains quotes from the cardinal. (My comments are in capital letters.) Cardinal calls for keeping celibacy rule NICOLE WINFIELD Associated PressOctober 13, 2005 VATICAN CITY - A senior cardinal warned Wednesday that relaxing the Roman Catholic Church's rule on celibacy for priests would be a "serious error," countering calls by reformers that allowing them to marry would help resolve a shortage of clergymen. WHAT IS THE ...

It has been a while since I posted anything to my blog. This is due in part to the fact that I have been busy preparing for my new venture. My three-year elected term as national secretary of CORPUS ( www.corpus.org ) is coming to an end. Beginning in November, I will be the 'media liaison' for CORPUS. In this capacity, my writing will continue and I hope to have some interesting material to add to this blog. Before giving you the final article I wrote as CORPUS Secretary, I thought I would share with you the unfortunate censhorship that currently exisits in the Rochester Diocese. Sadly, I am no longer able to send e-mails to employees of the diocese, because new restrictions block out any messages dealing with reform initiatives. I don't blame Bishop Matthew Clark for the censorship policy, because he has been consistently friendly toward me and fair-minded in his response to my work in the church reform movement. I therefore blame certain administrators. The followin...

The big news over the past several days was the forced resignation of Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of 'America' magazine. My e-mail in-box was flooded with a vast array of articles on this sad development, which was actually in the works for the past five years under the supervision of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. My personal belief is that this is just the beginning of crackdowns by our new pontiff. If I had to guess, the Vatican will be going after the National Catholic Reporter and John Allen next. The only saving grace for NCR is that it is operated by the laity. (There is not much our pontiff can do, except threaten NCR editors with excommunication.) My reaction is simply that we should not be fooled by the smiling face of Benedict XVI. There is perhaps wisdom in the old saying: "Beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing." Underneath the shining white robes of Benedict XVI is none other than Joseph Ratzinger the inquisitor. Sadly, we will probably b...

There are many days that I contemplate leaving Rochester in favor of a warmer climate. This may indeed a possibility for me as I move closer to my retirement years. Yet, I must say, from a Roman Catholic perspective, that I am fortunate to be in the Rochester Diocese, due in large part to the 'pastoral' leadership of Bishop Matthew Clark. Being in another diocese with an ultra-conservative bishop would be problematic at best. (One only has to read daily newspapers to gain a sense of how much turmoil and discontent there are in many dioceses throughout the United States and beyond.) If you have read some of my web articles, you are aware of the fact that I am an advocate for inclusivity in the Roman Catholic priesthood. In many dioceses, priests who have entered into marriage are allowed to do no more than sit in pews on any given Sunday. They are not allowed to be eucharistic ministers, lectors, serve on committees or teach. Furthermore, many were forced to move out of their or...

I watched the funeral of John Paul II this morning and was admittedly very moved. It served as a reminder that as much as I loved the man for the world peace he worked tirelessy for, it is simply a shame that he wasn't more open to the roles of women, married men and gays in the church. As the pontiff's casket was brought before the throngs of people gathered for this morning's Mass, there was thunderous applause (applause well-deserved). When the funeral was over, commentators puzzled over a daunting question: who could possibly step into his shoes? If the election had been yesterday, the likely successor would have been Cardinal Ratzinger or Cardinal Arinze (both ultra-conservative). However, the momentum for an italian pope continues to build, which means that it could be entirely possible that the conclave will be inspired to elect Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan. Christoph Schoenborn of Austria is being mentioned with increased frequency as well. (My hope still re...