Bishop Zurek Should’ve Understood

Chapter 5

A BETTER KIND OF POLITICS

THE EXCERCISE OF POLITICAL LOVE

186. There is a kind of love that is “elicited”: its acts proceed directly from the virtue of charity and are directed to individuals and peoples. There is also a “commanded” love, expressed in those acts of charity that spur people to create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures.[181] It follows that “it is an equally indispensable act of love to strive to organize and structure society so that one’s neighbour will not find himself in poverty”.[182] It is an act of charity to assist someone suffering, but it is also an act of charity, even if we do not know that person, to work to change the social conditions that caused his or her suffering. If someone helps an elderly person cross a river, that is a fine act of charity. The politician, on the other hand, builds a bridge, and that too is an act of charity. While one person can help another by providing something to eat, the politician creates a job for that other person, and thus practices a lofty form of charity that ennobles his or her political activity.

Bishop Zurek should’ve understood how to handle the crisis at his own Cathedral…

He should’ve understood that writing a letter that states priests are the ones that, “satiate your hunger”, is giving into “the idea of ordained ministry as belonging to ‘ecclesiastical power,'” and leads to,  “Whatever Father asks you to do, you have to do it.” 

He should understand that to remove his letter to St. Mary’s Cathedral from the diocesan website would be, “a kind of love that is “elicited”: its acts proceed directly from the virtue of charity and are directed to individuals and peoples.“

But he doesn’t understand!

Thanks be to God I belong to a Church that understands that , “There is also a ‘commanded’ love, expressed in those acts of charity that spur people to create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures.”, and calls for a conference that has the goals of, “improving the way laypeople and priests work together and ensuring that service, not power, motivates the request for ordination”.