Opus Dei Bishop Declares War on Religious Freedom

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

Speaking recently to pro-lifers at an event billed as the 2009 Gospel of Life Convention held in Overland Park, Kansas, Bishop Robert Finn, head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese - and a member of Opus Dei, the authoritarian-minded Catholic lay group - described Catholicism as "the Church militant" and told the audience, "We are at war."

And with whom, according to to Bishop Finn, are we at war? Well, none other than Notre Dame University President, Father Jenkins - and, of course, his guest of honor, President Obama!

Prior to Bishop Finn leading us into war, we last discussed Bishop Finn upon his arrival at the Diocese of Kansas City-St, Joseph. At the time he was making his authoritarianism known.  He sees his diocesan flock -- as well as non-Catholics -- not as much as living as citizens in America democracy, but as part of  "a kingdom." Biological issues such as opposition to LGBT rights, abortion and embryonic stem cell research now take precedence over long-standing concerns such as distributive justice or universal health care.

His idea of leading a kingdom at war, (however metaphorical such notions may be)  is not only against those with whom he disagrees but against pluralism and its adherents - Catholic and non-Catholic alike - but there is nothing metaphorical about that.

Bishop Finn's most recent remarks were published on April 28, 2009 by The National Catholic Reporter. Among his more incendiary statements:

The more dangerous "human enemies" in our battle are those who in this age of pluralism and political propriety seek ways to convince us of their sincerity and good will. With malice or with ignorance, or perhaps with an intention of advancing some other personal goal, they are willing to undermine and push aside the values and the institutions that stand in their way.

They may propose "tolerance" and seem to have a "live and let live" approach to all human choices - even if the choice is not to "let live," but actually to "let die," or "let life be destroyed." These more subtle enemies are of all backgrounds. They may be atheists or agnostics, or of any religion, including Christian or Catholic.

And then he turned his rhetorical guns on both President Obama and Notre Dame University's Father John I. Jenkins:

This dissension in our own ranks should not surprise us because we all experience some dissension against God's law of love within our own heart. But the "battle between believers," who claim a certain "common ground" with us, while at the same time, they attack the most fundamental tenets of the Church's teachings, or disavow the natural law - this opposition is one of the most discouraging, confusing, and dangerous.

In my first U.S. Bishops' Conference meeting - June of 2004 - the bishops passed what seemed to me to be a compromise statement as a result of our lengthy debate on politicians and Communion. There we stated that pro-choice leaders (and specifically, Catholic leaders were mentioned) should not be given public platforms or honors. As we all know, the eminent American Catholic University Notre Dame is poised to bestow such an opportunity and honor on President Obama, who is, of course, not Catholic. But it doesn't take another Bishops' Conference statement to know this is wrong: scandalous, discouraging and confusing to many Catholics.

God knows what all motivates such a decision. I suspect that, since Notre Dame will need a scapegoat for this debacle, and Fr. Jenkins will probably lose his job, at this point perhaps he ought to determine to lose it for doing something right instead of something wrong. He ought to disinvite the President, who I believe would graciously accept the decision. Notre Dame, instead, ought to give the honorary degree to Bishop John D'Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who has supported and tried to guide the University, despite their too frequent waywardness, faithfully for 25 years.

It is not surprising that an Opus Dei bishop such as Robert Finn would attack Father Jenkins and Notre Dame. The Catholic university at South Bend has a long history of open-mindedness towards those who disagree with Church dogma. During the 1980s then president Father Theodore Hesburgh gave the pro-choice Catholic governor of New York Mario Cuomo the opportunity to make his case.  Jenkins invitation to President Obama to give this year's commencement address places  Jenkins squarely in that tradition.

Where Hesburgh and Jenkins have no fear of different points of view, Finn is compelled to acts of censorship. As I previously noted:

He [Bishop Finn] is not tolerant of dissent and personally censors articles that appear in diocesan publications. To that end, he has ordered the editor of the diocesan newspaper to immediately cease publishing columns by the progressive Notre Dame theologian Fr. Richard McBrien. He also announced that he would review all page one stories, opinion pieces, columns and editorials before publication. This behavior is consistent with Opus Dei's own internal practice of discouraging free thought through censorship. The lay group maintains a list of "forbidden" books, it does not want its members to read. It is a list that includes Enlightenment writers such as Locke, Rousseau and Voltaire.

Such a fear of knowledge and different ideas epitomizes Opus Dei, the highly secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic, personal prelature of the Pope to which Bishop Finn belongs. Although Catholicism no longer maintains a list of banned books, Opus Dei still does. In El Salvador, for example Opus Dei has used its heavy hand to erase any vestige of liberation theology.

While Bishop Finn may see himself as a pro-life warrior, he is acutally a modern-day Inquisitor. In a zeal of religious supremacy he has little or no toleration for the idea that other Americans follow different paths to salvation. Such a concept is simply unacceptable to the bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph.