LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Correct your opponents with gentleness

Posted

TO THE EDITOR:

I am disappointed that after all these years Father Kiley has not mellowed in his treatment of what he calls Catholic “liberals.”

In his treatment of Cardinal Carlo Martini’s remarks from his death-bed, he spews forth falsehoods and half truths that make this learned and esteemed archbishop seem to be an obstacle to church renewal. In his patronizing treatment of this “aging Milanese archbishop” he reduces his call for reformation in the church to what has been heard from liberal Protestantism for decades, a theology that has emptied out the cathedrals of London, Berlin, Stockholm, Geneva and Milan.

I have visited the Milan Cathedral ten years ago and found it not empty but full of penitent and worshiping Catholics from morning till night. I found the archbishop there a model pastor, where the wisdom of the bible was shared with his people, where the sacraments were “for the people,” not for discipline. The bible’s wisdom there was lived by the sheep of this Good Shepherd: they know his voice and he know theirs.

Never did this Cardinal ever suggest that “the bible might be valid enough by itself apart from church interpretation!” To say that this biblical scholar cardinal “sheepishly concluded” that “faith is the foundation of the church” is pure insult. And it is even more an insult to say that the Cardinal was very bold to say that our treatment of divorced Catholics needs further discussion. Of course it does! Would not Father Kiley agree that there are many ways of reconciling divorced Catholics to the church, pastoral methods that are often neglected?

Cardinal Martini did suggest that the church establishment in its pomposity needs reformation. Would anyone disagree after what has dramatically happened in the pope’s office recently? Yes, Cardinal Martini is a Jesuit, and the Jesuit voice here has been quite critical of priestly and Episcopal behavior as evidenced from weekly articles in America magazine. But these Jesuits are not your wild “liberals” out for the destruction of your church! They are our brothers who remind us as St Paul did to Timothy that we “have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies that breed quarrels. For the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, correcting his opponents with gentleness.”

And so my aged bow to Father Kiley.

Rev. Robert J. Randall

Wakefield