Anyways, I wrote about some of that in this week’s Substack post.
I cannot think of evangelization without thinking of conquest and violence and death and homes burned to the ground and people grieving and lost.
Jesuits brought oppression in their wake, and at times participated in it. But they also opposed injustices, and they brought much of this into the historical record. My ability to look with a critical eye comes because of them. And that is a powerful, even if complicated, thing.
I have to process all these things from two sides: as a Catholic with a cultural lineage tied to the oppressors and as a Chamorro with a cultural lineage tied to those who suffered. But I can see all this partly because of the Catholics who recorded it all.
This was really driven home as I explored the abuses suffered by the people of Guam as a result of the Spanish missions there in the 17th century. Time and again, “good” priests seeking to evangelize brought cruel conquerors in their wake who raped, pillaged, stole, and killed.
Catholic leaders and institutions can be as bad as the worst when it comes to these issues. And many “good” Catholics ignore or avoid them. But there are Catholics who cast stark light on them, a light that comes from and with their faith.
This is one of the ways she can speak to us across time, offering us a model of love and an image of resilience. With the loss of her career to Nazism, she made space to focus on autobiography. She declined to leave the place that was her home. She was killed, and she was remembered.
Though different in important ways, what Edith Stein wrote of Jewish people in 1933 Germany could be written of LGBTQ people in 2023 US. With right-wing politicians and Christian leaders serving up today’s caricatures and hatred removed from the experience of loving us.
So, far from threatening, Archbishop Chaput’s recent remarks on Fiducia Supplicans were actually really affirming. God works in mysterious ways.
Sometimes the Church’s movement resembles that of a boomerang or an accordion.
I wrote about this earlier in the year, about how coming to see the illogical logic put forward by many Catholics was actually a source of freedom. In many ways, it’s become a grace. I choose to believe them, which allows me to believe something else.
That happiness you never really wanted for me... I can want it for myself.
The priest at my parents’ (right-leaning) Texas parish gave balanced pastoral remarks. To paraphrase a key point: “I don’t interview people, including couples of any kind, about whether they follow Church teaching before I give them a blessing. God’s blessing is for everyone.”