Mikie M. Doesn't Like Abp. Listecki

Awww. Poor Mike Mathias. He doesn't like Abp. Listecki.

Mathias does not hint at his religious affiliation on his blog, so it may or may not be any of Mathias' business, but let's fisk Mikie's post anyway.

I was home for much of Monday waiting for a tow truck, and so was able to behold the long parade of mostly white and elderly men preceding Jerome Listecki into the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The Milwaukee Archdiocese’s new shepherd is a lawyer, real estate speculator, and the kind of in your face Catholic conservatives love when the subject is abortion, but not so much when the subject is the morally questionable aspects of capitalism

(My sympathy on the tow truck; usually that means more than $300.00 in total bills. Oh, well.)

Yah. The consequences of ordaining only men means that only men will be Bishops. But by all means, Mikie, make it sound conspiratorial and sexist. After all, that won't tax your imagination.

And by the way, when did buying a 'getaway' home in Lake Geneva become "speculation"? Does buying a stock-fund in your 401(k) make you a "stock speculator"? Purchasing a house might make you, too, a "real estate speculator," especially if you intended to sell it at a profit in 10 or 30 years, Mikie.

Finally, how, exactly, do you conclude that "conservatives" don't like Listecki's message on the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil of capitalism? Did you conduct any research? Studies? Have you actually spoken with a "conservative" on the topic?

The Catholic Church has changed considerably since the late 1960s and early 1970s when Milwaukee Jesuits were leading voices in the national anti-war movement and in efforts to improve the lives of poor people.

Jebbies? The ones who snuggle up to the eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil capitalists and take their money for the Humphrey Marquette High? Or the Johnston (Cookies) Marquette High? Or the Johnston Marquette University? Or the eeeeeeeeeeeevil Sensenbrenner Law library?

And by the way, are you so ignorant of history that you forget the Franciscans of St. Anthony parish, or of St. Elizabeth's Parish, or Fr. Groppi of St. Boniface? Or are you selectively ignorant? Just askin', Mikie.

Listecki understands who pays the bills: a small but vocal group of right-wingers who see the institution of the church as inviolable, its past progressive voices as embarrassing, and its future tied to the public shaming of elected officials not sufficiently cowed by its waning hegemony.

Wrong again, Mikie. The remnant of the Miller Brewing family (John) is very, very comfortable with Lefty causes--and with Rembert Weakland, by the way. There are other notable left-leaning Catholics in this Archdiocese whose names are on a lot of parish halls. Try "Burke" if you don't believe me. Yah. The upper-East-Side Burkes, whose daughter worked for James Early Doyle. Or try the lefty ex-Milwaukee County DA, whose wife works at Pius XI high.

And if your idea of "progressive voices" includes Rembert Weakland, well......

...He has so far refused to meet with a group representing abuse victims. He has an unfortunate history of meddling in electoral politics,...

Any Catholic Bishop has a moral obligation (munus, in Latin) to teach, rule, and sanctify. So happens that Abp. Listecki takes that seriously, unlike some of his predecessors. Teaching that abortion is an intrinsic evil which CANNOT be supported by people who call themselves "Catholic" is a duty. You don't like that? Too bad. The First Amendment sanctions it--and I think you like the First Amendment, don't you?

...Listecki may well ask the mayor to choose between a conservative view of Catholic theology and Wisconsin law and the US Constitution...

Wrong. Listecki may ask Barrett to choose between communion with the Church and support of wrong-headed "laws". It is not "conservative-Catholic" to condemn abortion, by the way. It's mainstream Catholic teaching, and has been since the Didache. (Yes, there are differences in detail as to what constitutes 'abortion,' but never any question about the intrinsic evil of the act.)

...it will be a signal that Listecki plans to continue marching towards a smaller Catholic Church by thumbing his nose at women, denigrating gay and lesbian families, and abandoning the central city—except when tax dollars can be collected for running Choice schools...

Umnnhhhh...lots of people have left the Church in the last 2,000 years. The Church is not a market-driven organization. If you want marketing, try non-denominationals. The Church's position on marriage, by the way, is exactly the same one as Buddhism's, Confucianism's, Mohammedanism's, and Judaism's. No co-incidence. Nature is universal. But go ahead; you could try to repeal the law of gravity while you're at it.

(By the way, have you ever personally witnessed Listecki "thumbing his nose at women"? Or is that another tired and shopworn canard from your fertile imagination?)

Of course, the failure of the Church to deal honestly and transparently with the numerous sex abuse scandals that plague it is the chief fact hovering around the Church today and another reason for empty pews.

History counts. Let's recall that it was the "progressive" Bishops that YOU like who did the most to bury these problems. Locally, that would be Weakland and Sklba. You might also note that Benedict XVI has been extremely forceful in dealing with the problem. He recently FIRED at least one Irish Bishop for that crap and made it VERY clear that complicit US Bishops were guilty, guilty, guilty.

While we're at it, how are those pews in Episcopalian churches, Mikie? Full-to-overflowing?

You haven't identified the real reason for "empty pews." It is materialism--practical atheism--not homosexual-predator priests.

You, too, Mike, may leave the Church, if you are a member. We will regret it for the sake of your soul, but you can do it.

As for me, I'll be happy with a Bishop who is actually Catholic. He has a lot to overcome in Milwaukee--his inheritance from Abps. Cousins and Weakland. May God help him.