Tag: catholic

Bishop Tobin has politically positioned himself as a Republican and a Catholic, and his recent criticisms of Pope Francis, though mild to my ears, continue to provoke discussion among the faithful across the nation. Most of the discussion seems to revolve around Tobin’s politicization of his position as the Bishop of Providence Diocese.  I originally covered the National Catholic Reporter’s take on the issue here, along with Tobin’s comments.

Todd Flowerday, writing on the blog Catholic Sensibility, thinks that Tobin might be thinking locally while the Pope thinks globally:

Perhaps Bishop Tobin, recent Republican convert, is thinking too much in terms of American politics. US Catholics make up a single-digit percentage of the flock Francis now pastors. Is it realistic to expect that the man will conform to the American values of the political pro-life movement: confrontation, contention, fundraising, deception, and the striving to yell louder than the other side?

Supporting Tobin, Fr. Z’s Blog goes after the National Catholic Reporter writer Michael Sean Winters saying that “you don’t have to protect Popes from criticism” and “were the Michael Sean Winters types in charge, the college of bishops around Pope Francis would look like a meeting of North Korea’s Communist Party.”

David Cruz-Uribe, writing for Vox Nova, runs down some of this and also notes that some conservative Catholic blogs are seeing Tobin’s statements as a sort of conservative backlash against the current Pope.  However, the main point of the Vox Nova piece is that Tobin has essentially opened the floodgates for sending criticism up the Catholic hierarchy. Cruz-Uribe thinks this is an unintentional and positive development of Tobin’s comments, noting that not inviting open, constructive and respectful criticism smacks of obsequiousness, saying “we can criticize someone even if we love and respect him/her.”

The Vox Nova piece ends with “Let us pray that all bishops have both the courage to speak openly and respectfully, and that they have the humility and openness to listen and reflect when they are on the receiving end of similar critiques.”

Will Tobin be open to such criticism from the priests under his leadership? Tobin, in some way, seems to consider himself a prophet, and prophets historically are good at giving criticism, not taking it. Responding to a question about the heat he took in the aftermath of the passage of marriage equality on the opening episode of Dan Yorke’s State of Mind Tobin said,

Yeah, I did take a lot of heat but that’s part of the challenge of being a prophet. In some ways that is the prophetic role of the church to challenge evil where we find it, where we see it, to challenge those in positions of political leadership. The church has a long history even going back to the Old testament where prophets challenge the kings of Israel, and John the Baptist and Thomas More and many of the great apostles and prophets and saints throughout history have played that role of challenging evil where we think it exists.

I’m reminded of Second Kings, 2:23-24, when the Prophet Elisha was insulted by some children for being bald.

And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

The lesson? Watch what you say about prophets or you might be targeted by wild bears.

The National Catholic Register has a new interview with Bishop Thomas Tobin regarding his recent change of party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. In the interview Tobin downplays the importance of his political affiliation pointing out “I made a point of saying that, as a Catholic, my baptismal certificate was more important than party affiliation” while conceding that “the state Republican Party caucus also unanimously approved same-sex ‘marriage.'”

On the apparent softening of the Roman Catholic Church’s message regarding LGBTQ issues due to recent statements by Pope Francis, Tobin said, “The message hasn’t changed, but the messenger has.” In other words, according to Tobin it’s the same old church with a shiny new boss.

There’s nothing explosive or game changing in the interview, but it does manage to provide a peek into the carefully worded worldview of one of Rhode Island’s most powerful and outspoken religious leaders.

On Saturday evening Bishop Tobin delivered an address at the Portsmouth Institute’s Catholicism and the American Experience seminar entitled, “Evangelization in a Secular Age.” The piece is an interesting look at the evangelization strategies of a church facing declining membership, but I want to concentrate on part three of Tobin’s talk, “The Context of Evangelization.” Tobin here attempts to answer the question of “What is the context in which we evangelize today?”

It is interesting that Tobin uses the word “context,” which he seems to define as “culture,” that is, American culture in general, which Tobin sees as rather uniform and undifferentiated. I think America is better understood as many different cultures unified and balanced by a series of ideas, laws and mores. Catholics represent just one of many, specifically religious cultures, and a single individual could conceivably be a member of several different cultures at the same time. For instance, a person might be a Catholic, a veteran, a banker and a member of the PTA, and each of these affiliations carries cultural pressures and significance.

Tobin eschews this understanding for something more universal and much less accurate, saying, “I don’t think there’s any doubt that our culture… is becoming more obviously and proudly more secular and atheistic than in the past.”

I would counter that the trouble is that less and less people are identifying themselves as members of Tobin’s preferred culture, just as there are less and less people identifying themselves as members of any religious group, but to say American culture is more or less secular is wrong.

America is just as secular as it has always been.

You see, all the different cultures I talked about above, and hundreds if not thousands more besides, interact in our country without too much violence or mayhem because they are all contained within a larger secular framework. To call this framework “culture” is like calling a large building empty of people and equipment a “hospital.” Tobin sees the secular framework that binds our cultures together and establishes the rules for peaceful coexistence as our culture, but this is inaccurate. Tobin mistakes the cardboard box for the cereal.

I would posit that Tobin intuitively understands this and uses the word “context” precisely because the word “culture” is ill-suited to label the larger secular framework when he says things such as, “…there’s little doubt that the context in which we seek to proclaim the Gospel and share the faith of the Church is as secular and atheistic, and therefore as apathetic, as ever.” (Emphasis mine)

Tobin’s use of the word atheistic is accurate, strictly speaking. The secular framework of American society takes no position on supernatural claims and is “a-” or “without” a position on “-theos,” or gods. It is silent on the issue, because room needs to be made for all sorts of different cultural interpretations regarding supernatural beliefs. The alternative is to construct a non-secular framework, a container for our various cultures that preferences one set of cultures and beliefs over another. The Bishop makes no secret over the fact that he would prefer a framework that favors his beliefs and culture, but surely he must realize that such a system would be deeply unfair to anyone of a different culture, with different beliefs.

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Tobin routinely slips between the words “secular” and “atheistic” in describing the present state of what he defines as American culture. The two terms are in some ways related but are not synonymous. Many deeply religious people, including Catholics, consider secularism to be an important guarantor of our individual rights of conscience. The Rhode Island Council of Churches, representing a broad collation of Christian and non-Christian beliefs, overwhelmingly voted to support marriage equality.  I know for a fact that many who voted to support the legislation personally believe that acting upon sexual attraction between same-sex persons is sinful and wrong. But these individuals understand the importance of secularism, even if they reject atheism. For Tobin to routinely equate the two terms is disingenuous.

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In the third section of Tobin’s talk the bishop also fall prey to his habit of insulting atheists. Tobin’s relates the following parable:

A number of years ago, while still in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, I was invited to attend a picnic, a surprise 30th birthday party for one of our former seminarians. When I arrived at the picnic site I got out of my car, and was greeted by a beautiful little girl, about 7 years old I’d say, with blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. When I stepped out of the car she ran to me, looked at me straight in the eye and said, “I don’t know you… I don’t like you… and who invited you anyway?”

Obviously those words have scarred me; have left a permanent mark on my psyche.

But if you think about it, isn’t that what the secular world, the culture says to us whenever we, as people have faith, try to engage in the popular discussion and share our faith and values with others. They say to us: “I don’t know you… I don’t like you… and who invited you to this discussion anyway?”

Note what Tobin does here. Those who oppose the teachings of the Catholic Church and insist on a secular framework do not do so for any kind of valid reasons or with any kind of deep reflection or thought. These secularists and atheists, Tobin says, are like ignorant and selfish seven year olds, lacking in wisdom, maturity, courtesy, and knowledge. They jump to instant conclusions based on instinct and first impressions, and immaturely believe that they have the right to vocalize their narcissistic opinions to their cultural, privileged superiors.

Earlier in his piece, Tobin wondered if the growing irreligiosity of our culture might be due to “the failure of the leaders of the Church to adequately preach and teach.” Tobin should understand that if the preaching and the teaching is couched in disingenuous wordplay, misapplications of facts and insults towards your target audience, then failure is assured.