CATHOLICS, CHURCH AND COMMUNICATION
“WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE”

The undersigned have been attempting, since March 2006, to engage in a dialogue with the Laity and the Clergy by means of our articles entitled Point and Counterpoint, of which we have published thirty-five before this one.  All of these are available on the following website: www.asthma-drsprecace.com.  The most recent of these articles concerns “Plan B”, the abortifacient “birth control” agent.  This followed a period of eight months during which time we tried to stimulate reconsideration of an unfortunate action taken in September 2007 by the Catholic Bishops of Connecticut regarding the use of “Plan B” pills in the four Catholic hospitals of Connecticut.  In the last four months, our multiple efforts at communication have gone unanswered, both by the Diocese of Norwich and by the Archdiocese of Hartford.  We have thus communicated our concerns to the Papal Nuncio in Washington, D.C. which letter has been acknowledged.  Perhaps this situation should not seem unusual considering some contemporary history to wit:

• Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol.13, p21A: “The most important initiative of Pope John’s pontificate was the summoning of a general council, the first in nearly 100 years…. The pope allowed the fathers of the council great, perhaps unprecedented freedom of discussion and urged them to find new means of making the faith live in the hearts and lives of the faithful of the church”.  Two of his encyclicals are Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris.
• “Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit”, by Garry Wills, Doubleday, 2000, pp82-85, et al.  “Pope John XXIII upset conservatives in the church with his two social encyclicals, “Mater et Magistra” (1961) and “Pacem in Terris” (1963) – the latter issued during the first session of the Council itself.  Those letters’ openness toward the world, their call for cooperation with it, were considered naïve by the Pope’s own staff (Curia), as was his calling of the Council”.  As documented by the author, the substantial majority of the Council members were constantly subverted by the conservatives who wanted no change – and indeed no Council.
• “A Concise History of the Catholic Church”, by Thomas Bokenkotter, Doubleday, 2004 is a great source of information and insight on the church, historically and in the shadow of Vatican II.  Another description of the pitched battle that occurred within the church during the 1970’s is the work by Msgr. Kelly entitled “The Battle for the American Church”, 1979.  As articulated by Bokenkotter: “The root of the current problem of authority in the church…was a conflict between two theologies: one sees the church as above all a fellowship of spiritual communities held together in essentials by their recognition of papal primacy; the other, the traditional one, still sees the Church on the Hildebrandine model – a superstate governed by an absolute monarch whose aim is to impose the maximum amount of conformity.” (pp. 412, 413).
• Zenit – The World Seen from Rome (www.zenit.org) is an ongoing source of church sponsored information about the Vatican today.  The many articles and reports posted on that site cover analyses of current Church teaching, activities of the Church throughout the world, efforts to engage in dialogue with other Religions, but rarely, if ever, invitations to the Church’s own Laity – The Body of the Church – to engage in meaningful dialogue on the many pressing issues facing both the Laity and the Magisterium.
• A relatively recent initiative to that end, a group called “Voice of the Faithful”, was ignored and obstructed.
• For other non-Church sources of investigative information about the Church and specifically about the Vatican see: “Pontiff”, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, Doubleday, 1983; and “The Vatican Empire”, by Nino Lo Bello, Trident Press, 1968.

Above all we seek honest and engaged dialogue with our Clergy…and with our fellow Catholics.  “Let us reason together, in faith”.  We do not accept the alternative of being ignored…or walking away like so many thousands of our disillusioned brethren.  And our commentaries will continue.