Brilliant. We are in sync. This is a letter to the editor I wrote to the National Catholic Reporter in response to JD Vance’s horrible comment to the USCCB, which as you know, I combat with all the time.
………
As a practicing Catholic, I was delighted to see the USCCB speak "truth to power," against Donald Trump's plan to rid our nation of illegal immigrants (NCR, Jan. 26, 2025).
In defending his boss's plan, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, said, "I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?"
Luke writes in his Gospel that Jesus was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus spoke these words to fellow Galileans in the synagogue where he was raised. I believe this was Jesus's inaugural address to his pending ministry.
Perhaps our Catholic vice-president missed the meaning of this Gospel that was read at the same time he echoed the above words to Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan.
I wonder how many Catholics know how alone their religion is, how it is the only major religion with the component of intersession. That somehow that friendly slightly befuddled old Irishman can actualize unbelievably important things by saying certain words. I wonder if any of the doctors of the church had what it takes to say to grieving parents, sorry too late your baby died before a priest could baptize it, it will be separated from from god forever.
Ah, I see that in 2007 some smart lawyers downgraded it to a a possible theological hypothesis. Good Lord, couldn't let the grieving parents all the way off the hook. I was shocked to see Pope Francis offer time off from Purgatory if you signed up on his twitter account. Power over unseen realms, of course.
Those were the words, but again someone fudged them, saying some legalese about temporal punishment, which sounds like the time you would spend 'purifying' yourself after your sins are forgiven...Huh? It's a good bet most Catholics think it means time off once you are in Purgatory.
When it was time to find a middle school for my daughter we went to the local parochial school in Berkeley, freaked out when we spied a 'borrowed' Charlie Brown nailed to a cross with a hapless smile on his face and went to talk to the Priest about getting $1200 dollars off for joining th congregation. He asked when was the last time either of us had been to mass. We said ages ago. "Well, there have been some changes. Mortal sin no longer means that you burn in hell for eternity, now it means that you just weren't doing your best and you should pick yourself up and dust yourself off and try to do better."
Part of me wanted to grab him by the lapel and say DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA...the nights I lay awake as a child trying to understand why God would burn you for eating a hot dog on Friday and not any of the other days of the week but if your parents did that they would be put in jail. And all this is spoken of as if it were. normal.
Speaking of changes, how many Catholics know that the current teaching about abortion only dates back 145 years. In 1869 document Apostolicae Sedis, Pope Pius IX declared the penalty of excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Up to then Catholic teaching was that no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as “ensoulment”, the quickening. I think Pius IX was sore because the Papal States were taken away from him. He retreated to the Vatican and refused to come out. This was so jarring it didn't make it into the Catholic Encyclopedia until 1907. It's exhausting.
My favorite in recent times was Justice Scalia upbraiding a reporter with "You don't believe in the Devi?. The Devil is a person, why 78% of Americans believe in the Devil!" I don't know what happened to the Fallen Angel in the story, but it's almost cute to turn him into the more everyday figure of a person. As my dear friend Amy Wallace said about Carlos Castaneda, "If absurdity could kill, I'd be dead right now."
Having said all that, like many Catholics with a neatly split mind, I love apparition stories, incorrupt saints and other indications that to the powers that be, the foolish things we do they dismiss the way you would tell a five year old, We don't put lipstick on the dog and continue to shine through none the less.
I had a course correction in 1989 when I saw on television that there was an apparitio visibilis of beautiful colors that appeared on the wall of a little church up past Sacramento in Colfax. Every morning at ten past eight in the middle of the rosary an image straight out of Catholic iconography of the Virgin with head bowed to the side and child, nearly like size appeared on the wall of the side altar.
The details were liminal but afterwards everyone agreed on what they saw. After a few minutes the image made its way down the wall several feet to the left and on some mornings changed. Then again after a few minutes it went back up.
This went on for over two weeks in December. I thought you had to be shepherd children for it to happen not at a church surrounded by satellite trucks in a crowd of three thousand. The only image that departed from Catholic iconography was one where she was full term pregnant all in red, standing apart from the globe with something black dripping down. I didn't know what to make of it. In 1989 the Berlin Wall had come down, Bosnia Herzegovina was around the corner, there was no immediate threat. I remembered it later when Saddam lit the oils fields though.
great article Pia! I'm ex-Catholic but still an ardent admirer of liberation theology, Dorothy Day, the Christian sympathy for the poor - and I'm currently partnered with Catholic Charities. Have you read the recent Atlantic article on Christianity in high tech? Very interesting. I look forward to your book
Pia, thank you for this thoughtful essay. I am looking forward to reading your memoir, which sounds fascinating! Love from France
Thanks Jennifer. Xo from California.
Brilliant. We are in sync. This is a letter to the editor I wrote to the National Catholic Reporter in response to JD Vance’s horrible comment to the USCCB, which as you know, I combat with all the time.
………
As a practicing Catholic, I was delighted to see the USCCB speak "truth to power," against Donald Trump's plan to rid our nation of illegal immigrants (NCR, Jan. 26, 2025).
In defending his boss's plan, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, said, "I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?"
Luke writes in his Gospel that Jesus was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus spoke these words to fellow Galileans in the synagogue where he was raised. I believe this was Jesus's inaugural address to his pending ministry.
Perhaps our Catholic vice-president missed the meaning of this Gospel that was read at the same time he echoed the above words to Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan.
I wonder how many Catholics know how alone their religion is, how it is the only major religion with the component of intersession. That somehow that friendly slightly befuddled old Irishman can actualize unbelievably important things by saying certain words. I wonder if any of the doctors of the church had what it takes to say to grieving parents, sorry too late your baby died before a priest could baptize it, it will be separated from from god forever.
Ah, I see that in 2007 some smart lawyers downgraded it to a a possible theological hypothesis. Good Lord, couldn't let the grieving parents all the way off the hook. I was shocked to see Pope Francis offer time off from Purgatory if you signed up on his twitter account. Power over unseen realms, of course.
Those were the words, but again someone fudged them, saying some legalese about temporal punishment, which sounds like the time you would spend 'purifying' yourself after your sins are forgiven...Huh? It's a good bet most Catholics think it means time off once you are in Purgatory.
When it was time to find a middle school for my daughter we went to the local parochial school in Berkeley, freaked out when we spied a 'borrowed' Charlie Brown nailed to a cross with a hapless smile on his face and went to talk to the Priest about getting $1200 dollars off for joining th congregation. He asked when was the last time either of us had been to mass. We said ages ago. "Well, there have been some changes. Mortal sin no longer means that you burn in hell for eternity, now it means that you just weren't doing your best and you should pick yourself up and dust yourself off and try to do better."
Part of me wanted to grab him by the lapel and say DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA...the nights I lay awake as a child trying to understand why God would burn you for eating a hot dog on Friday and not any of the other days of the week but if your parents did that they would be put in jail. And all this is spoken of as if it were. normal.
Speaking of changes, how many Catholics know that the current teaching about abortion only dates back 145 years. In 1869 document Apostolicae Sedis, Pope Pius IX declared the penalty of excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Up to then Catholic teaching was that no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as “ensoulment”, the quickening. I think Pius IX was sore because the Papal States were taken away from him. He retreated to the Vatican and refused to come out. This was so jarring it didn't make it into the Catholic Encyclopedia until 1907. It's exhausting.
My favorite in recent times was Justice Scalia upbraiding a reporter with "You don't believe in the Devi?. The Devil is a person, why 78% of Americans believe in the Devil!" I don't know what happened to the Fallen Angel in the story, but it's almost cute to turn him into the more everyday figure of a person. As my dear friend Amy Wallace said about Carlos Castaneda, "If absurdity could kill, I'd be dead right now."
Having said all that, like many Catholics with a neatly split mind, I love apparition stories, incorrupt saints and other indications that to the powers that be, the foolish things we do they dismiss the way you would tell a five year old, We don't put lipstick on the dog and continue to shine through none the less.
I had a course correction in 1989 when I saw on television that there was an apparitio visibilis of beautiful colors that appeared on the wall of a little church up past Sacramento in Colfax. Every morning at ten past eight in the middle of the rosary an image straight out of Catholic iconography of the Virgin with head bowed to the side and child, nearly like size appeared on the wall of the side altar.
The details were liminal but afterwards everyone agreed on what they saw. After a few minutes the image made its way down the wall several feet to the left and on some mornings changed. Then again after a few minutes it went back up.
This went on for over two weeks in December. I thought you had to be shepherd children for it to happen not at a church surrounded by satellite trucks in a crowd of three thousand. The only image that departed from Catholic iconography was one where she was full term pregnant all in red, standing apart from the globe with something black dripping down. I didn't know what to make of it. In 1989 the Berlin Wall had come down, Bosnia Herzegovina was around the corner, there was no immediate threat. I remembered it later when Saddam lit the oils fields though.
What a piece. I know how long you worked on it and it is so well written.
Wow Pia! I know how long you worked on this and it is quite the read. So impressive and enlightening, (especially to a jewish girl like me.) Bravo!
Thanks Ali. Glad it was enlightening. ❤️
Thank You Pia 🌄
Thanks for reading Jim ❤️
great article Pia! I'm ex-Catholic but still an ardent admirer of liberation theology, Dorothy Day, the Christian sympathy for the poor - and I'm currently partnered with Catholic Charities. Have you read the recent Atlantic article on Christianity in high tech? Very interesting. I look forward to your book
Thanks Hank, will definitely look up the Atlantic piece.