Denver Catholic

4 I OPINION July 3, 2013 I Denver Catholic Register C. It comes from the Father through the Son 2. When is the beginning of the "final age of the world"? Let me begin by paying Father Andrew Greeley, who died this past May 29, a compliment he'd never have paid me, or indeed anyone of my "location" in the Church: Catholicism was duller after Father Greeley was felled by an accident in 2008 and the Church feels emptier since his death. In the first decades of his remarkably busy career, Father Greeley did serious academic work in sociology, taking down a number of shibboleths about Catholic culture and Catholic schools and demonstrating empirically the educational, professional and financial upward mobility of white Catholic ethnics in the United States. At the same time, Father Greeley ground out several useful books of popular apologetics that "translated" post-Vatican II theology into a language accessible to non-specialists. He also pioneered the "conclave book" with "The Making of the Popes 1978," establishing a model I hope I improved in 2005 with "God's Choice." For decades, Father Greeley was the beau ideal of many in the Catholic columnizing business, and when he finally downed tools on that front, my own column the following week was a lament for a feisty writer's departure from the lists. (He sent a letter of thanks, the bulk of which consisted of complaints that no one else had bothered to thank him for grinding out so many columns over the years. Later, it struck me that this was one key to Father Greeley's complex personality: for all of his self-conscious brashness, he very much wanted to be accepted, especially by bishops, a class he excoriated regularly.) We only met twice, during the 2005 papal interregnum. I warmly welcomed him to our makeshift NBC "newsroom" when he came up to the Janiculum Hill to do the "Today Show"; we talked about my daughter Monica's affection for Chicago, which Father Greeley described winsomely as "an easy city to love." A few nights later, I found Andy and his secretary in the glory that was "Armando's," a trattoria near the Vatican that was the nocturnal GHQ for Father Richard John Neuhaus, Father Raymond de Souza, Raymond Arroyo and others of our gang. Andy and I exchanged a few pleasantries about how things had changed since 1978; I'd rather hold onto that recollection of him than the memory of my surprise a year later when, in his own book on the 2005 papal transition, he went out of his way to put down my friends and me as "the Scary Guys" (i.e., supporters of John Paul II who didn't fit the liberal stereotype of grumpy, troglodyte conservatives). That snarkiness was of a piece with Father Greeley's failure to "get" John Paul II, which I think had something to do with Andy's consistent, indeed obsessive, deprecation of "Humanae Vitae," Paul VI's encyclical on regulating fertility. For Father Greeley, "Humanae Vitae" was the great disaster of post-conciliar Catholicism; that conviction was like a set of blinders, obscuring Andy's view of other realities in the Church. Thus, insofar as I'm aware, Father Greeley never took the measure of John Paul II's Theology of the Body, although the Polish pope's creative wrestling with the theological and moral meaning of our being made male and female would seem to be of a piece with Father Greeley's insistence on the sacramental goodness of sex within the bond of marriage. But John Paul didn't throw "Humanae Vitae" over the side of the Barque of Peter, so John Paul II had to be a bad guy, if of the "great missed opportunity" sort of bad guy, in the Greeley taxonomy. Wandering through Mundelein Seminary outside Chicago one night, I came across the picture of the ordination class of 1954, and there was Andy: airbrushed, according to the photographic custom of the day, and looking for all the world like Bing Crosby in "Going My Way" and "The Bells of St. Mary's." Which seems about right: for Father Andrew Moran Greeley embodied in a singular way the last rowdy moment of urban, ethnic, Counter-Reformation Catholicism in America. He didn't get the Evangelical Catholicism of John Paul II, but his work gave the liberal wing of Counter-Reformation Catholicism a boisterous ninth inning. George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Weigel's column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Denver Archdiocese. Phone: 303-715-3215. C. a religious deception that leads to an apostasy from the truth C. Its beginning is when the new heaven and the new earth are established. By Peter Westhoff The kingdom of God and end times A quiz on Catholic things under the patronage of the "Doctor of Prayer," St. Teresa of Avila. For each question there is one right answer, but that answer may be the unwritten choice of "D," which stands for "None of the Above." The following quiz covers catechism Nos. 664-682. 1. What does the Nicene Creed tell us of the kingdom of God? A. It is holy and apostolic B. It is without end 3. In what way is the reign of Christ not yet fulfilled? A. He has not entered into his glory. B. It is still under attack by the evil powers. Year of Faith Scripture 6. What form will God's triumph over the revolt of evil take? "…the revelation of the mysA. the Last tery kept secret for long ages Judgment but now manifested through the B. the Church's prophetic writings and … made historic, known to all nations to bring progressive about the obedience ascendancy of faith."—Rom C. the witness of 16:25-26 many heroic martyrs C. The kingdom still lacks a concise and clear mission statement to be released for publication in parish bulletins worldwide 4. Our Lord said that the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time marked by these two things: A. ignorance and apathy 7. What will disclose our acceptance or refusal of God's grace when we are judged? A. our response to our successes and our failures B. our knowledge C. the development of our personality B. waiting and pondering 1. B, 2. A, 3. B, 4. C, 5. C, 6. A, 7. D - Our attitude about our neighbor. Remembering Andrew Greeley B. technological breakdowns and a return to agrarian ways B. It will begin when Christ returns in glory. gEORGE wEIGEL A. physical trials of not yet experienced proportions A. We are in it now. It began with the Ascension. tHE cATHOLIC dIFFERENCE 5. The final test of man before the Second Coming will involve: C. distress and trial Next quiz: Nos. 683-701 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A rhetorical question Has the Supreme Court, by its decisions on Proposition 8 and DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), created vast new powers for a chief executive, be he a president or a governor, to veto legislation that was on the books before he took office, by publicly declaring that he refuses to defend it? Russell W. Haas Golden Liberty From Page 2 April Dryburgh, 36, of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, said it was her first religious freedom rally. She had a sign that read, "I stand with the U.S. bishops." "After the election, I thought that I should have done more. I feel like religious liberties are being threatened more and more," she said, including private schools pressured to compromise their religious integrity. She said she wants her Letters to the Editor Letters should be no more than 250 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. We rely on our readers to recognize that the opinions expressed in letters to the editor are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Archdiocese of Denver. Letters containing plainly misstated facts, misinformation or libelous statements will not be printed. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Letters may be edited. Send letters to: Editor, Denver Catholic Register, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or fax to 303-715-2045. E-mail us at: editor@archden.org. daughter to grow up in a faithfilled and loving environment. Joe and Bernadette Feiten, also of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, changed their plans to attend the rally. "We believe the Catholic Church provides the greatest benefit to the world," Joe said. "People need God and their Christian faith." Msgr. Jorge De los Santos, vicar for the Denver Archdiocese's Hispanic ministry, state Rep. Kevin Priola and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish pastor Msgr. Peter Nguyen also spoke during the rally. Archbishop Aquila ended with a prayer and exhorted faithful to "never tire of prayer" for the conversion of their hearts and the country. "With God, all things are possible," he said. Hattenbach asked the crowd to not grow weary. She said, "I'm an ordinary wife, mother and citizen but I serve, we serve, an extraordinary God and together with God's strength and guidance we ordinary citizens can do extraordinary things." Nissa LaPoint: 303-715-3138; nissa.lapoint@archden.org; www. twitter.com/DCRegisterNissa Official Appointments The following assignment by Father José Noriega Bastos, superior general, Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, is confirmed by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, archbishop of Denver: Rev. Juan Espino de la Riva, D.C.J.M., ordained to the priesthood, effective June 22, 2013, at St. Mary Parish, Littleton, Colo., and hereby, granted presbyteral faculties of the Archdiocese of Denver and appointed parochial vicar, St. Mary Parish, Littleton, Colo., effective June 22, 2013, until his ministry in the archdiocese is completed. Correction Due to incomplete information given to the Denver Catholic Register, the surname of a priest in the Official Appointments list in the May 1 issue was incomplete. The pastor of St. Thérèse Parish in Aurora is Father Hector Chiapa-Villarreal. The Register regrets any confusion that the error may have caused.

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