Father Baumann praised
I was pleased to see mention in the "Street" column for July 11 of Father Anthony Baumann, OFM, who died in January of this year. However, I was surprised that nothing was written about his many years as a healthcare chaplain at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco.
During the period 1985 - 1993, I worked with Father Baumann in the Chaplaincy Services at St. Mary's. He served before I arrived and long after I departed. Not only was he a wonderful healthcare chaplain, he also acted as both a mentor and inspiration to me, the first lay Catholic chaplain at St. Mary's. He encouraged me as a healthcare chaplain and urged me to stretch beyond the hospital to assume regional and national responsibilities for the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. This was yet another role in his truly marvelous life.
Patricia Jane Murphy
San Francisco
Heartfelt, gripping
As an ambassador of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul San Mateo's SVdP's Catherine's Center program ( for women recently released from incarceration ) that works in close collaboration with the Sisters of Mercy, Burlingame, I wish to thank Jane Sears for her meaningful "Potpourri" column of June 27. The message was heartfelt and gripping.
I have become an integral part in supporting the women of SVdP's Catherine's Center and feel so fortunate that I am able to walk with them on their journey. This ministry has swept me into an experience filled with love, compassion, joy and thanksgiving.
Ms. Sears definitely encompassed the true essence of SVdP's Catherine's Center in her unique and descriptive style of writing. Please continue her exceptional column.
Donna Wright
SVdP's Catherine's Center
Burlingame
( Ed. note: Online information on Catherine's Center may be accessed at www.svdp - sanmateoco.org/catherines. )
'On the table'
Father Jerry Coleman's July 11 column on Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book and U.S. talks rightly quotes the bishop as saying that "celibacy was not the sole cause of sexual abuse by priests." But there is no doubt, as the bishop states, that the abuse crisis "has put obligatory celibacy on the table."
The abuse crisis, the drastic priest shortage, the closing/merging of churches, all these have caused parishioners to ask whether it would serve the mission of the Church to allow married men to be ordained.Most Catholics would agree celibacy is a charism but many would also say that a charism cannot be mandated.
Father Coleman did not take on these other arguments that mandatory celibacy has other effects on the overall priesthood and therefore the entire faithful.
More on the table: there are new reports that three Church of England bishops are meeting in Rome trying to effect a wholesale Anglican acceptance into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This would involve hundreds of Anglican married priests, with their families, being accepted as functioning Catholic priests.
The mandatory celibacy discipline has emptied our seminaries of native priests. This year only foreign born priests were ordained in Idaho. With 17,000 married deacons we have no real shortage of vocations.
This year across the U.S., 40 dioceses are closing 800 churches. By not putting mandatory celibacy "on the table" are we allowing mandatory celibacy to trump the availability of the Eucharist and the other sacraments?
Ed Gleason
San Francisco
Celibacy review due
Father Gerald Coleman ( July 11 ) is correct that priests and other adults who sexually abuse children do so because of deviate or incomplete psychosexual development.
Indeed, most abusers are family members or close family friends of their victims and not celibate. It is also true that the charism of celibacy is a gift to the Church that needs to be honored and esteemed and those relatively few who receive this "gift of the Spirit" deserve respect and support.
Church documents dating back to the fourth century indicate that priests, like other humans, can be pedophiles. How then can Bishop Geoffrey Robinson implicate celibacy as a causal factor in priests abusing children and in the even more egregious response of so many Church leaders who protected predators and displayed an incredible lack of empathy for victims? Mandated celibacy is a hallmark of the clerical class that fosters status, privilege and secrecy in the view of Cleveland's Father Donald Cozzens - author, teacher, former seminary rector and vicar for clergy. It is a theological statement that asserts being sexually inactive is preferable to being sexually active, and it places the discipline of celibacy on a higher level than marriage, a sacrament of the Church.
In the opinion of Mary Gail Frawley - O'Dea, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who addressed the bishops at their 2002 Dallas meeting, imposed celibacy is one of the factors contributing to "clerical narcissism," a sense of moral superiority, and arrogance so frequently seen in abusers and their protectors.
Clearly it is time for the Holy See to review the practice of mandatory celibacy for diocesan priests in the Latin rite, which is no longer serving the best interests of the Church.
Robert M. Rowden, M.D.
San Rafael
'Profoundly grateful'
Many thanks for allowing me to share the physical and spiritual journey to heart transplant ( Catholic San Francisco, June 27 ) .
The anointing from Bishop John Wester and the prayer of the Church community are what carried me and my family through. I am profoundly grateful.
Father Joe Bradley
San Mateo
Ballot box thoughts
The July 11 letter by Rosemary K. Ring made me shake my head. She seems to think the holy Eucharist is being used as a political tool because bishops withhold it from Catholics "whose political opinions vary from their own." She finds it "objectionable and unconscionable" to withhold Communion from those who overtly contradict the teachings of the Church, does "not see any theological or moral justification for it ."
She does not see the moral justification for a bishop discouraging Catholics from voting for candidates who support partial birth abortion up to the day of birth? This is not espousing one party or another, though, it seems that most, not all, of those candidates are from one party. As a Catholic Democrat, I am continually disappointed by my party choosing candidates who are strong in social issues but who support the denial of life.
How can devout Catholics vote for someone who champions the denial of our most basic right? How many Catholics believe this to be political opinion rather than the moral issue it actually is? If you do not defend the basic right to life, all other issues are moot: no life, no liberty, no pursuit of happiness, etc.
So, go ahead, use your right to vote "with your minds free of the burden of threats of excommunication," but while in that ballot box, please bear in mind and pray for the millions to date who have been denied the very right to be.
Jeanne Asdourian
Corte Madera
Meeting of minds
The uproar about the Olympic torch protests; the boycotting of the opening ceremony of the games and the hue and cry by the human right activists, while arousing attention, all will be a distant memory once the Olympics are over and the dust settles.
All the protests have done was to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and to have them strongly unite behind their government and their policies.
Tibet for the Chinese is more important than the Olympic games. Anyone who thinks protests will change China's attitude toward Tibet is sadly mistaken.
Foreign governments have viewed China's human rights violations with indifference and will never openly support Tibet's independence, because they have not only exported many of industries to China, but also depend on China's trade, and value the stability in China above everything else.
China also cites the double standards of the West, where they view the human right violations in some of the Arab monarchies with a "Nelson's eye" for fear of endangering oil supplies. China has a monopolistic hold on power through economic development and the Chinese people feel the West is having difficulty accepting China as an emerging super power.
With China's breathtaking economic growth, millions of Chinese now feel they have more freedom and through their own efforts have the opportunity to make choices and improve their lives.
As long as people have a comfortable life, food and shelter for their family, they are willing to accept fewer political rights. What America and Europe have achieved today, China can achieve tomorrow. The West, America and China have to learn and accommodate each other. There must be a meeting of the minds on human rights in China and on the Tibet issue. A pragmatic approval will lead to changes by China, rather than by boycotts and protests.
Lenny Barretto
Daly City
