Bishop Gumbleton Came To Town Last Night

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Last evening I popped on down to the Basilica of St Mary in downtown Minneapolis, my parish, to listen to a talk by retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit. Bishop Gumbleton is the longest serving Bishop in the American Church, serving since 1968, and has a long track record of speaking out against the Church’s positions on war and the military and on homosexual issues. And maybe others. As is the case with a prominent local priest here in the Twin Cities, the Bishop’s brother is a homosexual.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Nationally, the Catholic blogs have used this event as just one more proof as to how liberal the Church is here in Minnesota. I know that not to be the case and was there to get evidence for myself and to be prepared to defend the Church if the opportunity should arise.

The 45 minute talk on the theme “Is there room in the Church for me?” was mostly about homosexuality and the Church and how the Church has not issued a position paper that the Bishop had drafted. I sensed he was “preaching to the choir” giving such a talk in a parish with a strong ministry to the local gay community, many of whose members are active volunteers in the parish’s various ministries.

The draft paper had seven points, none of which I could really gather because of the atrocious sound in the Basilica when a congregation smaller than its capacity of 1,500 or so causes echoes to reverberate and muffle the speaker.

But several themes he developed were along the lines of (a) homosexuality isn’t really condemned in the New Testament; (b) slavery was not forbidden and even enforced in the New Testament and not forbidden til Vatican II; so the Church can change its mind; (c) and he went on at length that when it finally comes down to it, your salvation is a matter between God and your conscience.

Some of those things I found interesting and would like to research further. The “conscience” excuse is a big red relativistic flag that identifies the method I had formerly used and occasionally still try to use to justify my personal sinful ways

It became a little easier to understand him during the short question and answer period. And his answers to some of the good questions, no soft balls, may surprise you.

I. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman.

II. Pederasty (love between a man and a boy). In response to the question, Bishop Gumbleton apologized that he hadn’t made the point more clear and went back to his point on “Conscience” and stressed several times that when using Conscience as your guide, “not everything goes.”

Evading the issue as to whether pederasty is acceptable, he at some length stressed that following ones conscience doesn’t just mean “does it seem to be OK?” He strongly stressed four points that need to be followed in the formation of one’s conscience and it would be interesting to see if the listeners agreed with him

1. Listen to the Word of God, or, Read the Scriptures
2. Pay attention to the teachings of the Church
3. Pray
4. Get yourself a qualified Spiritual Guide, somebody with whom you can discuss issues that are important to you.

III. I have scant evidence, but the audience in the Basilica last night didn’t appear to be members of the rather large Twin Cities gay community. Rather, it looked like the Steering Committee of the Twin Cities anti-war community, all of whose membership cards date back to the days of the Vietnam War or before. Aside from gray (or no) hair and wrinkles, my only positive evidence was the applause that erupted when the next question dealt with whether it was OK for the U.S. to use weapons of mass destruction, especially against civilians in Iraq. (Prior to the start, some ladies seated in front of me who seemed to be regulars at anti-war events, had expressed outrage that people distributing fliers for a scheduled “National Day of Local Actions” for later this month had been stopped by Basilica security people).

I would guess that Bishop Gumbleton knocked his anti-war fans for a loop by responding that when dealing with this question, one must consider the entire spectrum of moral issues, beginning with — are you sitting down when you read this — abortion! Pastor Michael O’Connell, a good priest and a great administrator, sitting near me in the front row, probably hadn’t heard that word uttered in his church for a very long time. And the large number of females in the audience may very well have prided themselves on the low numbers on the their DFL Feminist Caucus membership cards and didn’t expect to hear it either.

I know very little about Bishop Gumbleton other than what a quick Google search told me and the negative reports that I have read on the internet. But apparently, the man has been a pacifist all of his life. He speaks eloquently on the evil of war and its weapons. I would love to be a pacifist, too. But there are not a few leaders and factions in the world that I don’t trust at all with the fate of my friends and my country.

IV. The last question “Is there hope for the Church?” raised spontaneous laughter from those who may think the answer is “No.” He paused, “I see the hope out there in all of you who have come this evening.” Of course, this was a 77 year old bishop, speaking to an audience of maybe 300 rapt and attentive white listeners, very few of whom were more than 25 years younger than him.

I wish that I could have understood more of what the Bishop said last night. There is more to his message than what blog one-liners might say. The Basilica owes him an apology. Granted, the event was scheduled for their considerably smaller undercroft and the crowd was probably double what they expected. But I doubt that very many were pleased with what they (didn’t) hear last night.

The Bishop has been preaching as bishop for 38 years. I’m sure that there are many issues that I probably don’t agree with him on. But what I heard (partially) last night didn’t seem particularly against Church teachings. It is not a sin to be a pacifist.

I did get a chance to talk to Father O’Connell who sat in the audience near me and no doubt could not hear any better. I pointed this out to him and inquired if he had recently been in the St Paul Cathedral. I had been there last Spring and experienced their new sound system. They also had a terrible problem and the new system pretty much fixed it. Father said that he had heard about it and contacted the contractor and is now in the process of raising some money, probably considerable, to do a like treatment for the Basilica. So that is great news.