Silence is a Choice
SILENCE IS A CHOICE—the original draft of a letter to the Editor of The Compass, Diocesan Weekly of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin
It was a beautiful morning and the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, August 6, 2019. I dashed over early to the Tuesday market in Oshkosh to revisit my friend, a local farmer, a son of European immigrants like me, to buy a bit of the few available vegetables. We discussed the politics of the moment—a terribly tragic moment—not only for Texas, Ohio, and California, because it has also hit home, so I learned. He tells me that a Mexican couple while grocery shopping at an Oshkosh supermarket, were discussing the products they needed for the table. Overhearing their Spanish language, another shopper confronted them: “This is America. Speak American!”
Two days earlier, in my Sunday homily, I could not avoid mentioning the unspeakable tragedies of our American weekend. Pope Francis had done the same at high noon in Rome. I used an expression coined by the journalist, Jamelle Bouie, to describe the poisonous rhetoric of the times: “The Joy of Hatred” (The New York Times, Sunday July, 21, 2019). And, the killings and maiming are not the sum total of recent catastrophes; we must include the mushrooming vulgarity of hate. Another very dark element of the current scene is profoundly disturbing. We are “treated to” despicable harangues with the thrill of public spectacles—and how very much participants are enjoying it! Hence: The Joy of Hatred. After hearing what I said, a listener asked afterward: “Father, where do you get you news?” Answer: “I get all the news!”
On that Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, “Vanity of vanities…” from Ecclesiastes was read, and in the Gospel, Jesus warned us about the danger of covetousness. It all brought to mind the sensational 1980s novel by Tom Wolf: The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) describing the greed, racism, covetousness, social-classism, and mutual hatred among Wall Street’s “big players” in the early 1980s.
Surely, many priests of the Diocese had addressed these blistering topics that Sunday. In fact, the good farmer went on to tell me that his friend, a priest, who had done just that, was confronted by one of the parishioners he greeted after Mass, thusly: “You’re an f—-g socialist.” We are well aware that some self-styled “heavy-weight Catholics,” including members of the Sacred Purple and the mitered clergy; some of the laity who govern Catholic power centers and institutes; who publish journals, bitter blogs, and screeds are not uncomfortable calling the Bishop of Rome an Argentinian-style socialist—lumping him with the cruelest past and present totalitarians and dictators. Their “prudential judgment.”
That same Sunday, and the two days following, during the well-known Catholic Mass televised in these United States and rebroadcast around the world three times a day, not one small prayer, not one word was uttered regarding the victims and survivors of the horrendous events of the weekend; no word or phrase was spoken about the racist, white supremacist, nativist, fear-mongering rhetoric that is thrown daily to the four winds. It is hopeful that Cardinal Di Nardo, president of the U.S.C.C.B. did his part to denounce the hateful rhetoric; the Archbishop Gregory of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Lori of Baltimore, and the bishops’ committee chaired by Bishop Frank De Wane of Venice, Florida (originally a priest of the Green Bay Diocese), expressed sadness over the denigration of Baltimore. Moreover, Bishop Seitz of El Paso called on our Chief Executive to examine his own rhetoric. In particular, Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio could not have made plainer his stark denunciation of the same on August 5th. Strong statements have also come from other Christian, and Jewish, Sikh, and Muslim leaders. Should we remain silent, “the very stones would cry out.” Silence is a choice. -- Fr. Augustine H. Serafini
It was a beautiful morning and the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, August 6, 2019. I dashed over early to the Tuesday market in Oshkosh to revisit my friend, a local farmer, a son of European immigrants like me, to buy a bit of the few available vegetables. We discussed the politics of the moment—a terribly tragic moment—not only for Texas, Ohio, and California, because it has also hit home, so I learned. He tells me that a Mexican couple while grocery shopping at an Oshkosh supermarket, were discussing the products they needed for the table. Overhearing their Spanish language, another shopper confronted them: “This is America. Speak American!”
Two days earlier, in my Sunday homily, I could not avoid mentioning the unspeakable tragedies of our American weekend. Pope Francis had done the same at high noon in Rome. I used an expression coined by the journalist, Jamelle Bouie, to describe the poisonous rhetoric of the times: “The Joy of Hatred” (The New York Times, Sunday July, 21, 2019). And, the killings and maiming are not the sum total of recent catastrophes; we must include the mushrooming vulgarity of hate. Another very dark element of the current scene is profoundly disturbing. We are “treated to” despicable harangues with the thrill of public spectacles—and how very much participants are enjoying it! Hence: The Joy of Hatred. After hearing what I said, a listener asked afterward: “Father, where do you get you news?” Answer: “I get all the news!”
On that Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, “Vanity of vanities…” from Ecclesiastes was read, and in the Gospel, Jesus warned us about the danger of covetousness. It all brought to mind the sensational 1980s novel by Tom Wolf: The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) describing the greed, racism, covetousness, social-classism, and mutual hatred among Wall Street’s “big players” in the early 1980s.
Surely, many priests of the Diocese had addressed these blistering topics that Sunday. In fact, the good farmer went on to tell me that his friend, a priest, who had done just that, was confronted by one of the parishioners he greeted after Mass, thusly: “You’re an f—-g socialist.” We are well aware that some self-styled “heavy-weight Catholics,” including members of the Sacred Purple and the mitered clergy; some of the laity who govern Catholic power centers and institutes; who publish journals, bitter blogs, and screeds are not uncomfortable calling the Bishop of Rome an Argentinian-style socialist—lumping him with the cruelest past and present totalitarians and dictators. Their “prudential judgment.”
That same Sunday, and the two days following, during the well-known Catholic Mass televised in these United States and rebroadcast around the world three times a day, not one small prayer, not one word was uttered regarding the victims and survivors of the horrendous events of the weekend; no word or phrase was spoken about the racist, white supremacist, nativist, fear-mongering rhetoric that is thrown daily to the four winds. It is hopeful that Cardinal Di Nardo, president of the U.S.C.C.B. did his part to denounce the hateful rhetoric; the Archbishop Gregory of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Lori of Baltimore, and the bishops’ committee chaired by Bishop Frank De Wane of Venice, Florida (originally a priest of the Green Bay Diocese), expressed sadness over the denigration of Baltimore. Moreover, Bishop Seitz of El Paso called on our Chief Executive to examine his own rhetoric. In particular, Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio could not have made plainer his stark denunciation of the same on August 5th. Strong statements have also come from other Christian, and Jewish, Sikh, and Muslim leaders. Should we remain silent, “the very stones would cry out.” Silence is a choice. -- Fr. Augustine H. Serafini