EVERYONE’S OPINIONS WANTED (except for your own, of course)

In recalling some personal experiences from a half century ago, I am reminded that not everyone who says they want your opinion/input really does.  Ironically, input/opinions sometimes get rejected for being too different (or challenging?).

Background

In my Catholic high school in the mid-1970s, I was on the “Religious Activities Committee.”  We were “responsible” for liturgy planning (though bereft of training) and social service concerns.  To the credit of our moderator/religious brother, social service “concerns” included activism against abortion.

For a time, I seemed to have had a good reputation on that committee for creative ideas.  On one occasion, there was to be a school wide event (I believe that it was a celebration of Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation).  As a meditative reflection, I suggested Do You Know Where You’re Going To, made famous by Diana Ross.

Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to?
Do you know?

Do you get what you’re hoping for?
When you look behind you, there’s no open doors
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?

Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies that filled our minds
You knew how I loved you, but my spirit was free
Laughing at the questions that you once asked of me….

Now looking back at all we planned
We let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long before we see
How sad the answers to those questions can be?

Everyone enthusiastically embraced my opinion, leapfrogging over consideration of ecclesiastical music.

“Now looking back at all we planned,” I cringe!

“Why must we wait so long before we see” the need for appropriate liturgical music!

A Template for Handling Undesired Feedback and Opinions?

When I was in early grade school (c, 1968 or earlier), I recall a conversation with an older kid from the block about incorruptible saints and an Italian priest with the stigmata.  Heady stuff for little boys!

Incorruptibility is the preservation of the body from normal decay after death.  According to Catholic tradition, incorruptible saints give witness to the truth of the resurrection of the body and the life that is to come….Incorruptibility, when proven, is considered a sign, because it cannot be explained by intentional preservation, such as embalming, or by unintentional preservation through natural causes, such as mummification (Catholic News Agency, 5/25/23).

The stigmata is the spontaneous appearance of the wound marks of our crucified Lord on a person’s body….The first “certified” stigmatic was St. Francis of Assisi (Catholic Education Resource Center, 2003)

The Church later canonized the aforementioned priest with the stigmata, Padre Pio, who died in 1968.  I recall my mom telling me how American soldiers in the Second World War would venture to see him.  I also recall an intimidating fear, as Padre Pio was reported to know of at least some penitents’ sins before they confessed them!  For a child, that fear was undoubtedly exacerbated by never seeing photos of Padre Pio (or Pope Pius XII for that matter) smiling.  Did people deliberately want to scare us away from these holy men of the twentieth century?

Fast forward to about 1975 and another meeting with my high school Religious Activities Committee.  When the moderator/religious brother asked us to brainstorm ideas for another school wide event, I suggested we do something to honor Padre Pio.  The suggestion met with immediate and derisive laughter and a description as “stupid.”  The moderator/religious brother did not come to my defense.

Conclusion

I do not consider myself to be a naïve and unquestioning follower of Bishop Strickland, Cardinal Burke, and/or Cardinal Mueller.  “Punishments” for his excellency and his eminences pale in comparison to what lay people might experience for speaking truth to power.  Celibacy allowed these men the luxury of speaking up with their opinions, without needing to be concerned about repercussions to wives or children.  I admire them for providing undesired feedback:

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, says the Synod on Synodality is not an episcopal assembly but more like an Anglican synodal meeting, and is being used by some participants as a means to prepare the Catholic Church to accept ideologies that run contrary to Scripture and Tradition…. Cardinal Müller said the synodal meeting was “very controlled” and quite manipulated, with most of the interventions coming from only a few keynote speakers who spoke to them as if they knew no theology (Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register, 10/27/23)

Cardinal Mueller’s “punishment” was to be relieved of his duties at what was then the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at an earlier date than anticipated.

All of us need to gird ourselves for whatever comes our way in defending the Catholic faith, so clearly revealed to us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its Compendium.