26 January Conan d. 648

Thom and Jack,
Good morning, I love you
101221, 1543

This has turned out to be a better day than expected. I’m still working on not expecting anything so every day can be that way.

The Christmas season is a time for friends to appear out of nowhere – on the net, by phone, a chance encounter, a visit. Today has been a little of all of that.

Plus, someone actually asked my ‘expert opinion.’ It’s hard to remember, sometimes, that I am an expert on a thing or two. Mental health advocacy is today’s topic. See how ancient the roots of my expertise? “Mental Health,” although still a term widely used in the public and notforprofit sectors is ancient nomenclature - pre 1960's. The question had to do with advocacy.

Beyond being a proud gadfly in every arena, being an advocate for the mentally ill is a vocation for me. Gadflies don’t care how things turn out. Advocates are vested in the results. As an advisor with no dog in the hunt, I can pretty much say what’s right and what’s wrong and let the involved parties sort it out. This is an arena where black and white are the best colors.

Then I read the pope’s speech to the cardinals in Rome. It was mostly about his admonition to us, to the Church leaders in particular, about rectifying as well as preventing the horrors of our sexual abuse sins. “We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again.”

Yes we must. All of us. This is not about programs but about penance. This is not about to whom we report offenses but that we must prevent them, must stop them before they happen. Sure, part of this is training. Part is selection. Part of this is sifting through our current clergy and excising from clerical duties those who have tolerated, abetted, hidden these sins – public penance.

The pope went on to say we must also assess the context, the culture, in which these sins occurred. Unfortunately, he spoke of the world’s culture not the milieu of the Church from the curia to the parish rectory (where many of these sins took place). We must not only straighten out our priests but also those of us who depend on them. We must listen to our children. We must look at our priests with the same human wariness we observe all the people we turn our children over to.

I suggest we each make part of our piety a penance for these sins. Not unlike our responsibility for Life. Unless we imbue our routine, daily prayer with our personal focus on penance and petition for protection, our “Church” will not make this change. Ora pro nobis.

And then there was the news out of Phoenix. Bishop Olmstead erasing the Catholic marquee from St. Joseph’s Hospital. What an ass. Excuse my French and my humble opinion. As the CEO of the hospital said: "If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case. Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."

"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."

How could people of good faith and informed conscience differ so broadly? The Bishop, I believe, let his ego get ahead of his heart and his soul. The hospital's ethics team concluded the pregnancy could be ended under the church's ethical directives because "the goal was not to end the pregnancy but save the mother's life," the hospital said.

I’m guessing that the viewpoints I wrote for the News Herald won’t make it to print. If the bishop wishes to educate, be still, be quiet, be docile is the Church’s modus vivandi for educating. Read the recent America about ‘magesterium’ and the difference between educating and governing. As Bp Olmstead demonstrates, governing is what our bishops lead with.

And then there’s the saint of today’s musings – Conan, Irish, January 26. I’m skipping past Francis DeSales for now. Too big a saint for my minichews left at this time of year. I’ve also read my material on Thomas Aquinas again and again. I should be writing as I read but the encyclopedia version of his writings and contributions are too hard for me to chew then respond to cogently. I’ll get there though. Aquinas is a Thomas – about whom we should know a lot.


January 26

Conan aka Mochonna d. 648

He is said to have been a model of piety from his infancy. This is both a grace-filled inclination and a habit developed and shaped and reinforced by holy parenting. Unfortunately, you did not get the consistency of parenting that supported your pieties. Unfortunately, your mother is not a believer – in general but in this specific – in discipline. The discipline necessary for freedom. The discipline necessary for respect. The discipline necessary to show outwardly your conformity with the one true church. Alas, you are now of an age where you are more responsible for your own piety. You will soon be responsible for your children’s pieties [if you have that vocation and are so blessed]. So get with it, become a model of piety – for yourself, your family, your children, ….

Conan may have taught Saint Fiacre during the latter's childhood. Who will someday record in their biography that you taught them? As important as it is that you select and cling to the best and holiest teachers, it is more important for you to teach others in a way that you will be recalled in their martyrology. Teach with the sainthood of your pupils in mind.

Conan apparently lived and worked in the Hebrides, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, where he finished the evangelization of the people begun by Saint Patrick. Now that must have been one heckuva act to follow. I’ve been luckier in most of my jobs. As a fixer upper, I’ve come in after someone else has not been as successful as they had hoped. By contrast, initially anyway, I’ve looked pretty good. The results speak for themselves. I am sure that everyone who followed me did much better. In part because I left my own crap behind that needed cleaning up. And because of the good work we did left a strong springboard to leap into the future. Pick your positions wisely. It does matter who proceeded you and what they left behind. It’s better to follow a Patrick who left lots of graces scattered about.

Conan was probably consecrated bishop of the Isle of Man, where he is venerated as the first bishop of Sodor, the ‘southern islands’ of that area. Conan is also described as "Bishop of Inis-Patrick" which describes his zeal for souls on the Isle of Mann. Bishop, Abbot, Evangelist – that’s what our Irish saints did in those days. Be a little of each yourself. Remember the Graces of your baptism and the Gifts of your confirmation. Get them out. Shake the dust off of them. Put them to use.

Troparion of St Conan tone 1
We celebrate thy radiant memory,/ all honourable Hierarch Conan,/ consolation of the afflicted, teacher of the true faith/ and shepherd of souls on the Isle of Man./ Pray for our efforts, feeble as they are,/ and save our souls.

I love you,
Dad
1628