Tag: religious education
Was I Never In Cincinnati?
Was I Never In Cincinnati?
By W.H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
June 12, 1975
EDITOR’S NOTE: We publish herein a commentary by contributing editor W.H. Marshner in which he reviews the recent series published in THE WANDERER (2-20, 2-27, and 3-6, 1975, issues) about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati with respect to the state of religious education and catechetics in that See. Mr. Marshner also responds to the criticism made of the articles by Most Reverend Joseph L. Bernardin, Archbishop of Cincinnati, who asserted the reports were “unfair” and constituted unjust criticism and ridicule of “innocent people.” We discussed our intention to publish Mr. Marshner’s response with Archbishop Bernardin and invited his Excellency to submit whatever commentary he might wish to make for concurrent publication. Elsewhere on this page we publish Archbishop Bernardin’s reply.
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Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink (Part II)
Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink
By W. H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
February 27, 1975
Part II
Despite its extraordinary advantages, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is on the brink of a peculiar kind of trouble. I called it a “crisis of confidence” in the first installment of this report, because it compromises the trust which Cincinnati’s most zealous Catholics have in their Church leadership (which means in the last analysis, their hierarchy).
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Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink
Cincinnati: Archdiocese On The Brink
By W.H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
February 20, 1975
PART I
A pastor nearing sixty, with a history of heart trouble, is transferred; the bishop assigns a younger man to take his place. An ordinary sort of event, which happens every year in every Catholic diocese, uncontroverted and unnoticed. Thus, too, in early October, 1974, Fr. Francis Flanagan is transferred from St. Bartholomew’s Parish in suburban Cincinnati to a smaller, less taxing place in the rural town of Russia, Ohio.
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An Interview With Archbishop Joseph Bernardin (Part II)
The New President Of The NCCB … An Interview With Archbishop Joseph Bernardin
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
December 12, 1974
(Conclusion)
In the lengthy interview which Archbishop Bernardin granted to this reporter on Nov. 14th, a number of his answers threw important light on his approach to issues of national importance for the Catholic people: issues such as school aid, abortion, textbooks, the authority of pastors, and parental rights. The interview itself was not pitched to these issues, nor was it intended for publication; largely, it was an exploration of problems local to Cincinnati, a major archdiocese on which I am preparing an in-depth report. However, since Archbishop Bernardin has recently replaced Cardinal Krol as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, it seemed timely to place some excerpts from this before a national readership.
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Reaction From Saginaw
Reaction From Saginaw
J. MATT JR.
THE WANDER
September 26, 1974
The recently concluded series by W.H. Marshner on The Church in the Diocese of Saginaw has provoked a storm of reaction. Many priests and laymen have written to thank us for publishing the truth about conditions in Saginaw and express the hope that the publicity may result in some corrective action. As might be expected the reactions from “establishment” sources were not very complimentary.
Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Diocese (Part III)
Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Diocese
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
September 19, 1974
PART III
Saginaw, Mich., is a place where pastors, parents, children, even teachers (and maybe even the bishop) have to be “managed” to make them accept an utterly unnatural idea, namely, that the diocesan school system does not exist to teach the Catholic Faith but to inculcate “human values.” This amounts to saying that the diocese’s largest bloc of personnel (429 full-time, salaried teachers — almost four times the number of diocesan priests) is paid every year a giant share of the laity’s total contributions in order to do something at best — at best — tangentially related to the Catholic religion. So outlandish, in fact, is this idea that various disguises have had to be invented for it. Such as:
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Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Diocese (Part II)
Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Diocese
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
September 12, 1974
PART II
On Aug. 21st, 1968, the Saginaw News, a secular paper, carried a lengthy attack on the encyclical Humanae Vitae. That fact in itself was not remarkable, since newspapers all over America that Summer were pouring out a torrent of contempt for the Roman Catholic Church. What made the Saginaw publication special, rather, was the fact that the attack was endorsed and signed by eighteen priests active in the diocese. Perhaps on account of this treachery, their bishop, Stephen S. Woznicki, suffered a heart attack.
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Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Dioscese
Saginaw: Portrait Of A Collapsing Diocese
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
September 5, 1974
PART I
In the rich farm country of central and eastern Michigan, graced with a vacationer’s paradise on the shores of Lake Huron, the Holy See erected the Diocese of Saginaw in 1938. Under two bishops — William F. Murphy (1938-50) and Stephen S. Woznicki (1950-68) — the young diocese grew and prospered. Then came a third bishop, Francis F. Reh, followed by ruin.
Catholic laypeople bombarded this reporter with invitations to come to Saginaw, to their living rooms and club basements, to hear the tales of
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Jesuit “Recommendations” Would Mar National Catechetical Directory
Jesuit “Recommendations” Would Mar National Catechetical Directory
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
March 14, 1974
PART I
Msgr. Wilfrid Paradis, director of the National Catechetical Directory project, has received 23 pages of highly dubious recommendations from an outfit called the Commission on Religious Education (CORE) of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association (JSEA). The recommendations touch on such sensitive areas as the nature of sin, freedom of conscience, the act of faith, the obligation to attend Mass, the Sacrament of Penance, and youth ministry.
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Some Priorities For the National Catechetical Directory (Part III)
Some Priorities For
The National Catechetical Directory
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
February 21, 1974
Part (III)
The shopping list of things that ought to go into, or be kept out of, the National Catechetical Directory is too long to be contemplated in our short lifetime here below. In happier days, we had religion teachers who could figure out what to do and what not to do, once they had absorbed a few rules. Docility to the tradition of the Church kept them on a sensible path. Today, however, the religion teachers have been convinced that they should “rethink” everything and, while they’re at it, come up with radically new ways of “presenting” what they have “rethought.” The result is a complete chaos in which the teachers cannot be relied upon to respect any tradition, to un- derstand any dogma. or to avoid any idiocy. Hence, you have to tell them everything, like chimpanzees who cannot natively understand that, having put on one shoe, it is wise to put on the other as well.
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Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right”
Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right”
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
February 14, 1974
We Americans live in a country where new and unheard-of things are being discovered all the time. This is nowhere more true than in the field of human rights. Thomas Jefferson discovered more rights than most people can remember. In our own century, F. D. Roosevelt discovered the right to be “free from fear.” Then came the Supreme Court, which only a year ago discovered that women have a right, a Constitutional right, to procure abortions. Continue reading “Albany Diocese Proclaims A New “Right””
Some Priorities For the National Catechetical Directory (Part II)
Some Priorities For The National Catechetical Directory
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
February 7, 1974
(PART II)
Every Catholic priest, parent, and teacher has a special stake in seeing to it that there is a “next generation” of Catholics, by which I mean to suggest that, today, such a generation cannot be taken for granted. Already the decline in Mass attendance (which, admittedly, is only one yardstick, but an informative one) is “catastrophic” by all accounts. Nowhere is it more catastrophic than among young people. You don’t have to be a prophet of doom to see that instead of a “next generation,” we could easily end up with a “remnant.”
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Some Priorities For The National Catechetical Directory (Part I)
Some Priorities For The
National Catechetical Directory
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
January 31, 1974
(PART I)
The catechetical battle, which has involved more Catholic laypeople in bruising controversy since Vatican II than any other single issue, save the liturgy, is coming to a head. During the next three months, ordinary Catholics across America will have an opportunity such as never existed before to influence the content of a crucial document which will determine the nature of Catholic religious education in this Country for years to come.
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Cardinal Cody Declares Wanderer Report “Misleading”
Cardinal Cody Declares Wanderer Report “Misleading”
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
The WANDERER
128 East Tenth Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
January 19, 1973
A report published in the January 18th, 1973 issue of THE WANDERER headlined “Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution” asserted that a plan for the reorganization of the Chicago Archdiocesan school system would result, if implemented, in the “wholesale secularization” and “de-Catholicization” of Chicago’s Catholic schools. In a letter to THE WANDERER dated January 19th, 1973, the Archbishop of Chicago, John Cardinal Cody, charged that that report was “utterly irresponsible” and “misleading.”
Following is the complete text of Cardinal Cody’s letter with a response by William H. Marshner of THE WANDERER’S staff who authored the original report published on January 18th. The text of Cardinal Cody’s letter to THE WANDERER having appeared on the front page of THE NEW WORLD, official paper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, it is to be expected that Mr. Marshner’s, response, as well as the controverted article, will also be published in that paper to enable its readers to grasp the vital issues involved in this matter.
Editors, THE WANDERER
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Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution
Cardinal Cody Ponders School Revolution
W. H. Marshner
THE WANDERER
(Special to the Wanderer)
JANUARY 18, 1973
WASHINGTON — The most radical plan ever proposed for the wholesale secularization of Roman Catholic schools is now on the desk of His Eminence John Cardinal Cody of Chicago. Although rejected by the Cardinal once before, the plan has been slightly amended and re-submitted. The amendments do not affect the heart of the proposal, which would have the effect of depriving pastors (including, ultimately, the Cardinal himself) of all real authority over their parish schools. This time, however, the plan is expected to be approved.
Cardinal O’Boyle Attacks Georgetown Sex Manual
Cardinal O’Boyle Attacks Georgetown Sex Manual
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
THE WANDERER
December 7, 1972
(Special to the Wanderer)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six medical students at Georgetown University wrote a 46-page booklet called Human Sexual Response- Ability for the benefit of their fellow students. They were guided by a faculty advisor named Fr. Robert C. Baumiller, S.J., who is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Fr. Baumiller has already made the pages of the Wanderer (12-2-71) on this little book on sex. They claimed that the booklet was “purely informational” but that line did not wash with their Bishop, Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle. He read the thing and called it “potentially dangerous to spiritual welfare.” He got on the back of the Georgetown administration to have the booklet withdrawn as incompatible with the Catholic character of the University. The only response, however, was from school president, Fr. Robert J. Henle, who said the administration was not responsible. It was a student project and hence, not “official” he said. Nobody here but us chickens.
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Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting
Criticism Abounds At Bishops’ Meeting
By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
November 23, 1972
THE WANDERER
(Special to The Wanderer)
ARLINGTON. Va. – The general meeting of the American Bishops, the second one they have held this year, convened at 9:30 a.m., November 13th, in the Marriott “Twin Bridges” Motor Inn, located in Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. The choice of site was dictated by the desire to escape the affluent image conveyed by meeting in luxurious downtown hotels, according to Mr. Russell Shaw, the chief information officer for the Bishops. At last Spring’s meeting, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton created some notice by staying in the local YMCA for the same motive. This year, Bishop Gumbleton is once again staying elsewhere, perhaps because the Marriott, though surely less grand than the Statler Hilton, is a poshy enough place in its own way.