Bishop Robinson from Australia is daring to speak out about needed reforms in the Catholic Church. With all due respect to Paul Simon, I have written a theme song to the tune of “Mrs. Robinson” for Bishop Robinson’s speaking tour.

And here’s to you, Bishop Robinson,
The Risen Christ loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please Bishop Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who speak the truth,
Hey, hey, hey

The Vatican would like to know more about your talks
They’d like to help you control your thoughts.
Look around you and see the angry bishops
Stroll gently on their “sacred” turf.

And here’s to you, Bishop Robinson,
The Risen Christ loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please, Bishop Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who speak the truth,
Hey, hey, hey

Take your theology to places where no bishop ever goes.
Do not hide your light under the bushel basket.
It’s about the handling of  abuse scandal
Most of all you’ve got to hide it from the people.

Koo-koo-ka-choo, Bishop Robinson,
The Risen Christ loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please, Bishop Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who speak the truth,
Hey, hey, hey

Standing behind a podium on a Wednesday afternoon.
Getting into the episcopal power fray.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.

Where have you gone, John XXIII,
Our church turns it’s lonely eyes to you.
What’s that you say, Bishop Robinson.
Good Pope John has left and gone away,
Hey hey hey.

Light of Hope Crowns a Dreary Rainy Mountain Day

Today’s readings speak about plots. The leaders plot against Jeremiah because he was challenging the fact that the leaders and people, ignoring signs of catastrophe, held fast to the belief that God would abide with them no matter what they did or failed to do. Eugene Peterson in The Message introduces what Jeremiah is doing. He likens Jeremiah to an officer on the Titanic who sees the sonar readings. He keeps warning the captain ab0ut icebergs but the captain ignores him. Nice analogy! Continue reading →

Spring Afternoon Grazing

As sure as dawn breaks,
so sure is daily arrival of the Living One.
The Living One comes as rain comes,
as spring rain refreshing the ground.” (Hosea 6:3)

The Living One comes to us. The Living One is present to us and among us. The Living One comes to us in many ways. Mother Theresa says that the Living One comes to us in the disguise of the dying beggar lying in a ditch. Richard Rohr, quoting Joanna Macy (I think), says that the Living One comes to us disguised as our lives. Continue reading →

Spring in the Mountains

In today’s reading from Deuteronomy Moses exhorts the Israelites to obey the Law which YHWH has just given them. In our weekly Lenten study with Walter Bruggemann on the prophets, Walter begins with a discussion of the Israelites’ deliverance from the fleshpots and cruel servitude in Pharaoh’s production economy—you will make more and more bricks and, if you balk, you will make them without straw! Continue reading →

John Dear cites Jeff Dietrich of the LA Catholic Worker whose new book, Broken and Shared, is a must read:

I believe the Gospels are the best story [myth] we have. They are the singular counter-narrative to our consumerist, war-mongering, media-saturated, technologized, dehumanized, death-oriented culture. The story of the gospels — the triumph of goodness and mercy over the powers of death and domination — cannot be proven; and we cannot accept the story on faith alone; but we love the story so much that we want it to be true. To will the story into existence by our own living testimony to its veracity, thus giving witness to our deepest hopes for humanity — that is what attracted me as a young person to the Catholic Worker. Continue reading →