Bishop Choby makes a scene by standing up for truth

Paul, a reader from Nashville, sends along a link to a recent article about

how Bishop David Choby, of the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, is prohibiting pro-abortion and pro-same-sex-"marriage" groups from speaking or holding events on church property.  The article takes a very negative view of Bishop Choby's actions, but since it comes from the very liberal and very secular "Nashville Scene" newspaper, that's a good sign that Bishop Choby is probably doing something right.

The October 19th article in the Nashville Scene newspaper reports:

Father Patrick Kibby invited a group hosting a four-week discussion about the intersection of religion and politics, jointly sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance of Middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Alliance for Progress, to use facilities at the Cathedral of the Incarnation for this week’s meeting. Instead, the group—whose series is titled “Doing Justly: Integrating Our Deepest Spiritual Beliefs Into Our Professional Lives”—received word late last week that Diocesan Bishop David Choby objected to the positions of the Interfaith Alliance on abortion and same-sex marriage and that, therefore, the group would not be allowed to gather on church grounds. It will meet instead at Belmont United Methodist Church.

Earlier this year the Nashville Scene had thrown a tantrum when Bishop Choby had the audacity to claim that he, as bishop, had the right to disallow certain individuals from speaking in Catholic parishes in his diocese. Specifically, Bishop Choby refused to let Daniel Maguire, professor of theology and ethics at Marquette University, speak at a local parish. Maguire, the Nashville Scene huffed, is "a widely published and well-respected theologian," just like, I presume, great "Catholic" theologians such as Hans Kung, Matthew Fox, and Co.

Maguire, in fact, has a long history of openly advocating heretical views about, well, nearly everything, but especially (surprise!) sexuality. Recently he edited a volume titled Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions (Oxford, 2003). He is apparently one of those sad and twisted individuals who obsesses about promoting abortion and homosexuality (see, for example, his website), and then, when confronted by bishops such as Bishop Choby about his obvious opposition to magisterial teaching, whines, "They are locked into what I call the pelvic orthodoxy." Maguire also makes balanced and thoughtful remarks such as: "To prevent and deny contraceptives is a bit crazy." Goodness, why wouldn't a Catholic bishop be delighted to have this "Catholic theologian" propogating pelvic heterodoxy among the faithful?

This past summer, Maguire sent a letter and two pamphlets — "one about abortion and one about same-sex marriage" (who is locked into what? See news article) — to all 270 Catholics bishops in the U.S., declaring, in part:

When Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae in 1968, over 600 American theologians issued a public dissent to that assault on Catholic consciences, in the spirit of Jesus in Luke 19:40: "I tell you if my disciples keep silence, the stones will shout aloud." Groups like Call To Action and Voice of the Faithful do speak out but mostly "my disciples keep silence." Not wonder in the next verse, Jesus "wept."

Archbishop Timothy Dolan wasted little time or space in his response to Maguire's warped and arrogant missive:

The opinions expressed in the two pamphlets enclosed in that correspondence are totally at odds with clear Church teaching. Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, and Natural Law are consistent in opposition to abortion and so-called same-sex marriage.

You speak of your duty to dissent. Well, at least call it such. To claim that support for abortion and same-sex "marriage" is consonant with Catholic moral teaching is preposterous and disingenuous.

I, too, have a duty: to teach what the Church clearly believes. Your opinion on these two matters is contrary to the faith and morals of the Church.

Meanwhile, Nashville Scene "reporter" Liz Garrigan whines and frets about the "narrow orthodoxy" of Bishop Choby, sniffing: "What’s disturbing here is that, once again, the Catholic Diocese is on the record as being unsupportive and unwelcoming of those who may hold different views." Unlike, say, the Nashville Scene, which I assume happily welcomes, supports, and publishes the viewpoints of orthodox Catholics.

Comments

[Les]

I've heard various unsatisfactory explanations but never a good reason why Catholics who have such deep dissension from clear, unambiguous and dogmatic teaching of the Church, persist in the fiction that they are Catholic in any real sense of the word, and hold themselves out as such in public.
Yes they were baptized, perhaps confirmed and some even ordained in the Catholic Church but they forget that Dignitatus Humanae is a two edged sword.
In #3 we see this,
"Moreover, as the truth is discovered, it is by a personal assent that men are to adhere to it."
And then in #4,
"Provided the just demands of public order are observed, religious communities rightfully claim freedom in order that they may govern themselves according to their own norms, ..."
That says to me that you have to accept Catholic teaching of your own free will to be Catholic and that the Church claims the right to decide what that teaching is. If your conscience tells you that you cannot accept Catholic teaching, shouldn't your conscience also dictate honesty? That is to say, there are a myriad of religious denominations out there within the umbrella we call Christianity. Surely some group conforms to your conscience.
Or is this simply mischief? Or wanting to have the proverbial cake and eat it too?
If you want freedom of conscience, you must accept the full ramifications of what that means.

[Jeff Miller]

One of my readers let me know that Liz Garrigan is a parishioner of the Cathedral parish there. When I have read her articles I figured her for a bitter progressive Catholic who is none to happy with her new bishop.

[Ed Peters]

I would mention that Choby is a canon lawyer, but people might say I was gloating.

[Tom Harmon]

"Propagating pelvic heterodoxy" sounds a bit dirty for Insight Scoop. You have no idea how many jokes popped into my head...

[Carl Olson]

"Propagating pelvic heterodoxy" sounds a bit dirty for Insight Scoop.

You should have seen what I was going to write originally... ;-)

[Carl Olson]

If your conscience tells you that you cannot accept Catholic teaching, shouldn't your conscience also dictate honesty?

If you are truly honest. But people such as Maguire don't seem to have much regard for honesty, only their passions and proclivities.

[Paul H]

Carl,

Thanks again for blogging about this. I wasn't familiar with some of the information that you mentioned about Dan Maguire, such as his letter to all of the U.S. bishops -- very interesting stuff.

[Larry Foulke]

I love that we still have Bishops of the Church who will stand up and teach the truth. If we had more Bishops willing to do this, we would all be better off. Thank God for Bishop Choby. Thank God for all those who hold, defend, and teach the faith. Stay strong.

[Elizabeth Anne Reeser]

Bishop Choby is doing what he feels is best for the Church. I wish we had more like him who were so willing to stand up for truth and what the Bible teaches.