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ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part 15  In this second part of his commentary on Confirmation Tom McMahon relates a series of personal experiences from his time in parish ministry that led to disillusion. We invite readers with experience preparing young people for confirmation today, and parents and grandparents, to share your perspectives on the continuing relevance of this Sacrament today. Do you agree with Tom or do you have a different perspective to offer? Part Two on Confirmation and its ramifications… If the People of God, as spoken of in Vatican Two, are to survive and be an identifiable voice in society we will need new leadership. I have no doubt as to survival as my faith is that the SPIRIT of the Creator will always be found in creation and people will assemble around this goodness; I wonder how strong or weak will be the voice that calls the world to a just conscience and plants the seeds of goodness and truth in the young as a basis of life. The present Roman system of hierarchical governance is bankrupt. Rome and the Roman episcopal system simply can not do the job in modern society; even JP2 was onto this. The Edict of Milan (313 ce) offered freedom of religion to all yet the power of Constantine (Milvian Bridge Victory 315 ce) refashioned Christianity to the political and military model of the Roman Empire and its oppressive authoritarianism. That "tomb of Jesus" had the heavy stone of oppressive power rolled away by Vatican Two. A PEOPLE OF GOD has resurrected and Jesus again comes to life. While using the decadent sacrament of Confirmation and its impotency, I shall journey through my clerical life and how I arrived at my conclusion that the hierarchical system must go for Jesus to live in the modern world. Having already offered my disappointment with the cardinal's confirmation ceremony in 1979 (Catholica Commentary #14) I will work backwards, parish by parish from 1972 to 1954. My appreciation of Confirmation and where the bishops and candidates stood played a vital role in my evaluation of my childhood faith and my spiritual stands in life. I take seriously the Edict of Milan and the Vatican Two Statement on Religious Freedom. I believe Vatican Two is Catholic and Christian. When in 1967 I arrived at Holy Spirit Parish in San Jose I was a psychological basket case. Pastor Tom Murray had rescued me from the junk pile prepared by senior clergy for those who espoused Vatican Two; the old boy system was a modern day Salem Witch Hunt with the older clergy finding evil in those who taught Vatican Two. I had been expelled from two parishes within six months, one for protecting little Mexican-American kids from a bitter racially prejudice pastor and the other for a homily in defense of womanhood. In both parishes I had received standing ovations at Sunday Mass. Archbishop McGucken stood by "the pastor is always right" and I found myself seriously questioning the core faith of party-line priests and bishops. Tom Murray advocated Vatican Two and offered me asylum; at his 50th anniversary celebration in 1992 with bishops and priests present Tom was gracious to single me out (I was married and had been gone from active roman ministry for 12 years) saying publicly "that man taught me more religion in seven years that I learned in seminary and in my 50 years as a priest". Tom helped me financially to pay for my psychological education and my personal therapy. With Tom I spent seven happy years as a Vatican Two educator and pastoral figure. We had many successes; we had one major disappointment and disagreement, this around Confirmation.
The bishop was coming for confirmation; a lay group and myself fashioned a Vatican Two preparation course, we were amateurs yet worked well with 60 cooperative students. One night we ran theologically afoul; 20 students with parents gathered for a home Mass. Without any notification the adults suddenly disappeared as I opened up the liturgy; at a meeting on another day the leaders said that this was a Mass strictly for the young and they held stubbornly to this theology. In WHY PRIESTS? Hans Kung says that there may come a time when the ordained priest will clash will parish members, leaving the Gospel as the decisive criterion; there was no dialogue, I being removed from the program and the older pastor taking my place. The laity was rich with new found power. The next time I entered the program was to help at the final preparation Mass; the liturgy turned chaotic with the young milling around the altar talking, totally out of control by the communion time. A young hostile faction was in chaos control. I refused to stay and nothing was ever said about the riot. The night of confirmation Bishop Norman McFarland in a discussion at dinner said "McMahon, you are becoming more every day like Karl Rahner". I thanked him, knowing full well he had never read a Rahner book. I had been in seminary with the bishop and had seen him rise to power via the canon law route, never having been a parish priest. I always said, Nor believed that Jesus gave the world canon law and Nor knew little of the Gospel. The meal over, the priests vested and prepared for the ceremony. I did not go over to the church. The bishop re-entered the rectory to take care of nature, finding me sitting in front of the TV. "what are you doing?", as he glared at me, and my response "Nor, obviously watching TV". He: "We are having confirmation!" And I: "I know". And he: "why are you not coming?" And I: "because I don't believe in what you are doing". On the drive home that night an angry bishop questioned Fr. John Sandersfeld (salt-of-the-earth priest who trained in justice in New York slums) about the impudence of McMahon's answers. John replied that if Nor asked a question he should be ready for an honest answer. Nor's visit to Holy Spirit outwardly seemed to have gone smoothly, the classic "get ready for the bishop" camouflage. I cannot report on what the candidates of that confirmation got. For Murray, McFarland's visit was much better than the first confirmation I attended at Holy Spirit. Three years before the choir director Eileen invited the community to sing "Spirit of God in the clear running water…" in place of the traditional "Come Holy Ghost" and old-school Bishop Guilfoyle, not realizing he had on a live microphone said "oh shit". Pastor Murray, always protective of his people, was in the Archbishop's office on Monday, getting a clear promise from AB Joe McGucken that the Poet Laureate bishop would never again enter his parish. We had in the Archdiocese of San Francisco a trio of bishops with unique nicknames, Hugh Donahue "wit without humor", Merlin Guilfoyle "rhyme without reason", and Joe McGucken "yes without consent". 1600 bishops had ratified the documents of Vatican Two in 1965. I wondered if our bishops had ever read what they signed. I have pain and pleasure as I recall those glorious days when newness leapt from the old European Roman Religion; I hope you readers can see the humanness of the bishops who at one time I believed were direct descendants of the original 12 Apostles. I looked to the bishop for leadership … "the people sought bread and were handed stones" … in loneliness I turned more to the people for my salvation (here and now, not "up there"). My faith was effected and there were times during my 26 years as institutional priest that I thought I was traveling with a Barnum and Bailey circus troupe. The clowns wore the pointy hats. There was not always humor and human mistakes, often pain and misunderstanding that was difficult for the older clergy to handle. I thought of Fr Wendall (Speed) Hoffman, good pastor who allowed Vatican Two but stayed a bit outside letting the younger priests do the work. Speed had a German mind for order and took part in the confirmation in his parish only at preparation's end; he insisted he be in charge of the line up — the procession in, each candidate having an orderly number and each had to be present for the final rehearsal. Seems "little miss muffet" showed up at the actual ceremony, getting in line (out of order) with some friends. This was not to be for Hoffman and he challenged her to leave the line-up. The teen stared him in the face and said "no way man, I don't have a place to stay tonight if I don't take part in this god damn thing". Every Saturday night we had a dinner at one of the rectories where a dozen local clergy gathered; I was never able to get Speed to talk about the incident, a stunning blow to his pride and to his faith. Tom Murray and Speed Hoffman were close buddies, seminary classmates who vacationed together and built new parishes in the 1960's. They were good priests devoted to their people and God yet unable to appreciate the massive sexual and intellectual revolution of the 1960's. Yes, they did confirm their young, allowing the bishop to seal them innocently into ignorance and nothingness. In my 30-year study of clerical sexual abuse at times I read that a victim has abandoned his faith because of a cleric committing an horrendous crime; one of my questions is "what faith did the child have?" In 1967 I lasted six months in a parish where fear and hatred of the feminine reigned; the only assignment I was given was to take over the preparation of the Confirmation class when it became too much for the pastor. I had three weeks to prepare 120 kids who couldn't have cared less. The girls had been taught it was a mortal sin to wear a bikini and the public school girls warned not to wear sinful sweaters to the CCD classes. A blackboard jungle existed but when the bishop came it all went peachy; the parish books were up to snuff and the rectory and church neat and clean and we had the finest wines and liquors for the visiting prelate … "God in his heaven and all's right with the world". The young wondered what the clerical pageantry was all about. In 1966, then ordained 12 years, I was in complete charge of confirmation at St. Leo's; we had a fine staff of nuns teaching in the Catholic school and 150 adults taking classes in Vatican Two. Little attention had been paid to the public school young; I appealed from the pulpit for tutors to help me train 8th graders; my only response was a car dealer wanting to sell me new vans so as to pick up the kids as I did in my old bus. I broke the 110 candidates down into small groups, myself individually schooling them in Vatican Two; they were tabala raza, many with old time Latino grandma's version of religion. I interviewed 110 families individually, parents and candidate-child. A week before confirmation the pastor took off on vacation; he took no part in parish activities, having recently retired from 30 years military service.
I wrote a letter to Bishop Guilfoyle that the kids were trained in Vatican Two and would not be able to answer any of the pat (silly) questions he was famous for asking. The Head of the Knights of Columbus called, asking where they would fit into the ceremony and I simply responded "there is no place" particularly after no knight had responded to my call for help in the preparation. (My relationship with Knights had been shaky since 1954 when a foolish knight had challenged this newly ordained outside of Assumption Church, San Leandro that if I did not join their recruitment drive he would see to it that I had no influence in the parish.) Not one kid offered an answer to Bishop Guilfoyle's stupid questions; I was so proud of them. Guilfoyle gave a sermon at his confirmations, some 500 repetitions of the same poem … "when I was two I hardly knew … etc. etc." a rambling of supposed understanding of child development that amused only the poet. The bishop went along automatically as if Vatican Two never had taken place. His secretary would rise at a given word and proceed to assemble the holy oils; 30 years later I would muse on the reality that in the 1990's this priest would be in jail charged with 120 counts of child abuse. For me the automated cleric with the automatic grace was running out of steam. Confronting my own conscience… It was during this period that I confronted my own conscience; the killing of Kent State college students by our own military stunning me at a time I was a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve. I met with Bishop Guilfoyle, who then held the post of Military Ordinariate for the West Coast to discuss the Church's stand and other pertinent issues; his advice to me was "Tom, you have to grow up" and I saw clearly the impotency of the Roman hierarchy. My reply that day was "Bishop, I think I am growing up" — 30 years after I had been ceremonially confirmed. In a reverse way one might say he confirmed me in my opposition to their indifference. Some say I left the institution to marry; this is only a partial truth as I was married while being a Roman pastor. I knew I was not the only priest in the archdiocese who was married; I just did not want to keep my relationship with Elaine secret. I wanted it to be an outward sacred sign and part of the Church in the Modern World. I did realize after twenty years of observing the games played within the clerical state I saw no future in a non-Vatican Two institution; for me, like the sea snail, the shell had become too outmoded and I needed to pass on to a new free spiritual dwelling. John the 23rd's fresh air had filled my spiritual lungs; perhaps it was the grace of my confirmation that I had received when I was 13. In my class preparation for understanding World War Two at our Senior Center I saw pictures of six German Catholic bishops raising their right hands in the Nazi salute … SIEG HEIL! I wondered if in 1935 they thought of themselves as having a mark on their souls as followers of the Man from Nazareth? In those days the bishop slapped the candidate for confirmation on the cheek as a reminder of the courage needed to stand by Jesus in adversity. Scott Herhold, editor of the San Jose Mercury offered on 23rs September just gone an excellent column SIRITUAL RENEWAL AT SCU (Santa Clara University) while Lisa M. Krieger takes on the issue of Helicopter Parents and "Lessons on Letting Go". I wrote congratulating the Mercury's appreciation and understanding of the young generation. Scott approaches the university student as a mature thinker; the present leadership of the roman church could learn well from these fine articles. After 20 experiential years one factor was clear to me; the episcopal leadership of the Roman Church was bankrupt, aimlessly babbling to the roaring surf as they stood lonely at the shore of humanity. I would not hesitate one moment when a delegation came from our former parish asking me to lead them in their quest for understanding Jesus. Like the lieutenant in DANCING WITH THE WOLVES I was free to explore with THE PEOPLE OF GOD and with Augustine to enjoy the privilege of being a member of a Christian community. Today we have no ceremony of confirmation in our home gatherings of THE COMMUNITY OF JESUS OUR BROTHER — each member confirms the presence of the other by mere presence. Tom in San Jose, Ca, swearing my allegiance to Jesus my Christ and Savior. 23/09/2008  ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part 15 Image Credits: Clicking on the images in the body of the article will take you to the original source.
©2009 Tom McMahon |
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Tom McMahon, ordained in 1954 and now married, lives a very fulfilled life in San Jose and continues to contribute voraciously to several Catholic discussion lists in the States. He has been an enthusiastic supporter and encourager of the Catholica initiative from the very beginning.
How economic inequality harms societies... We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust. Richard Wilkinson, is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, and cofounder of The Equality Trust, a nonprofit that aims to reduce income inequality by educating and engaging the public while supporting political commitment to address the problem. 16m55s [String on the Catholica Forum where the general issue of wealth inequality and this documentary was first discussed 25Jan12] | [WATCH THE VIDEO]
Doco 035: 25Jan12
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