Tuesday, November 23, 2004
LES FEMMES' MARY ANN KREITZER
Comments on the Bishops Meeting:
The U. S. bishops' November meeting ended Thursday, November 18. In line with the unbroken tradition of the Vice President rising to the post, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington was elected to succeed Wilton Gregory as head of the USCCB. An unprecedented election did take place, however, when Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, PA was nominated from the floor and won chairmanship of the Liturgy Committee, a post he also held from 1992-95. The return of Trautman, a champion of inclusive language and liturgical "reform" in the spirit of Vatican II, sends a bad signal to those hoping to see reverence restored to the liturgy. The bishops' embarrassing opening Mass will likely be repeated often in the future. Participants watched it degenerate to a silly spectacle with "Gimme that Old Time Religion" and some shepherds clapping and swaying to the closing hymn before processing down the aisle. Do our bishops have any dignity left?
How should the sheep in the pew regard this meeting? Unhappily, it mirrored the simultaneous secular battle in the Republican party over the nomination of Arlen Specter to head the Judiciary Committee. As the Republicans circled the wagons to defend protocol over principle and elect a radically pro-abortion senator to screen Supreme Court and federal judgeship nominees, it was also business as usual for the club of Church politicians which the USCCB has become. By electing Skylstad the bishops signaled they have no intention of true reform. They will protect their man-made protocols including the automatic election of a bishop whose diocese is bankrupt and who shared his rectory as pastor with a notorious abuser. "Without a vision, the people perish," [Proverbs 29: 18] but it seems unlikely the vision will be restored any time soon by the Bishops' Conference.
