ARTICLES
July/August 2002 ARTICLES
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
It's Not Just Flap Flap,You Know
"Sister Oprah" at St. Edward's
By F. Michael Forrester
The whiff of Oprah pervaded St. Edward the Confessor parish, Dana Point, on Friday, May 10, at 7 pm. As much as Sister Kathleen Schinhofen laughed off the comparison to the day-time talk show host (more than one member in the "audience" called her "Sister O"), the format of the evening's session was identical to that used by America's queen of bleeding hearts -- complete with breathy tones, roving microphone, and plenty of audience participation.
"She is a wonderful, wonderful sister," opened Father Steve Sallot, pastor of St. Edward the Confessor. "She has the greatest expertise in terms of paschal ministry, in terms of facilitation, in terms of facilitating groups and, especially, in terms of being a facilitator in difficult situations. She has done tremendous work, not only in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in the Baptist Church; and, as some people have said about her, she has 'helped save the Methodist Church.'" Dropping his voice, Father Steve continued, "Tonight, however, she's here for us. She's here for you, and she's here to help us to take another step towards that healing."
St. Edward's parishioners have been "working to heal" on account of two of their pastors having been recently dismissed for admitted sexual affairs. Shortly after having made the news for performing the wedding ceremony of Los Angeles Lakers player, Kobe Bryant, St. Brendan's pastor, Father John Lenihan, was again in the newspapers for resigning from the parish. Lenihan had been accused of child molestation in the 1970s (for which the diocese of Orange paid $25,000 to settle a lawsuit.) More recently, as another molestation case alleges, Lenihan had impregnated a teenager and paid for her abortion (for which the diocese of Orange and the Los Angeles archdiocese jointly settled for $1.2 million). Lenihan was ousted as pastor of St. Edward in September of last year after confessing to the Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, to having had "numerous" sexual relationships.
The parishioners of St. Edward, already stunned by the allegations against their former pastor, swiftly received another shock when a second priest was removed from the Dana Point parish several months later -- again, over accusations of sex abuse. Father Denis Lyons, who was two months shy of retirement, was placed on paid administrative leave after he had been accused of having molested several teenage boys in the 70s. Diocesan officials also disclosed that Lyons had admitted in 1993 to "inappropriate behavior" with two adult men while serving as pastor of St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa. Lyons had been with St. Edward's since 1996, and his forced resignation made him the fifth priest in the diocese of Orange to be removed from parishes in recent months. Each of the five priests had at one time been assigned to St. Edward the Confessor.
Aware that they could no longer dismiss priests on the sly, the diocese announced the removal of Father Denis Lyons to every registered parishioner in the form of two letters: one from the bishop of Orange, Tod Brown, and one from the pastor, Father Steve Sallot. The letter from Bishop Brown offered some history of Father Lyons, revealing his admittance to inappropriate behavior with "two adults" in 1993, and also the allegations from two brothers of inappropriate behavior that had occurred "approximately in 1979, when the boys were aged 14 and 16." Father Lyons had denied the allegations of the brothers, but, wrote the bishop, "because of the prior situation with adults, the diocese sent Father Lyons to an eight-month residential treatment program for psychological evaluation and counseling." According to the bishop, the treating therapists had concluded that Father Lyons was "not a pedophile and did not pose a risk to minors," which was the reason why the diocese felt safe in assigning Father Lyons to St. Edward the Confessor in January 1996 as a senior priest in residence.
Bishop Brown concluded his letter: "Father Steve Sallot has enclosed a separate letter detailing an upcoming 'Heart to Heart' visit by Sister Kathleen Schinhofen on May 10, 2002. I encourage you to attend that session and I hope to visit your parish soon thereafter to discuss these and other issues." In announcing the upcoming "Heart to Heart" session, Father Sallot's letter noted that Sister Kathleen is "a well respected and extremely experienced facilitator with a Doctorate in Ministry in Pastoral Counseling, who has already spent several hours consulting parish staff." Father Sallot concluded his letter stating that he hoped the evening would "continue the healing process of our parish community."
This invitation, for several families at St. Edward's, exacerbated the outrage felt by the community over the revelations of Father Lyons and Father Lenihan. One such family, (who requested anonymity) knew of Sister Kathy through a November 2001 report in the San Diego News Notes of a talk she had given at Saint James Church in Solana Beach. Her talk, "The Once and Future Church," described what she hoped would be a "new church" emerging in the wake of Vatican II, which would be composed of "small church communities," without the "artificial barriers" of the priesthood and hierarchy, and with all people performing priestly and sacramental duties. At the same talk, Sister Kathy compared changes in the Church to the pruning of a tree, with outdated practices being removed and "green shoots" emerging. As an example of a "green shoot," she had cited the recent founding of a "gay Franciscan order." Sister Kathleen has also given talks at events such as the West Coast conference for Call To Action -- an organization that promotes reform at almost all levels of Catholicism, including abortion, women priests, optional celibacy and inclusiveness for homosexual life styles.
"I'm sorry," said one of the parishioners had told me over the telephone, "but it's attitudes and agendas like that, that have opened the way for the tragedies we are now witnessing. I mean, sending Sister Kathleen here isn't 'healing our wounds,' it's rubbing salt in them."
Several families complained to Father Sallot about his invitation to Sister Kathy, drawing his attention to her philosophy and known agendas for the Church. The complaints went without response, and the evening went ahead as planned. But, as would become evident when Sister Kathy opened her talk, Father Sallot did pass on these parishioners' concerns to Sister Kathy.
Seated on blue plastic chairs linked in a soft curve that faced a makeshift set, a handful of attendees waited patiently, watching late arrivals haphazardly trickle in. So many arrived late to the "Heart to Heart" session, principally due to the unexpected change of venue from Knight Hall to "Multi Purpose." Knight Hall, for which it had been scheduled, had been booked months in advance for bingo.
Despite a good number of empty chairs (which suggested we had lost a number of attendees to the temptations across the way), the evening began with a little over 100 parishioners present. After an introduction from Father Sallot, Sister Kathy took the microphone. Cradling it in both hands, in troubled tones she said: "I know this has been very difficult -- on you all, on the priests. It's difficult on the whole church, and it's difficult on me." Introducing herself, she said, "right now, I live in San Diego County, and I'm part of the diocese of San Diego, although I don't really work with them. No one knows who I work for." In efforts to put people at ease, she explained that she was a "neutral person," having grown up in another diocese, and, on account of that, she could "stand in front of [the parishioners] and hear things and say things, done freely."
It was then that she addressed the concerns the parishioners had voiced about her to their pastor. Shifting her feet, she uncomfortably denied any allegations that she was pro-choice. "I have to say that I regret that I have to say, but I will say it anyway," said Sister Kathy, "because that way anyone here that can't hear me tonight, because you've been hearing some rumors, can unplug your ears. There is a rumor stipulating that I am a person who believes in abortion. Once in a while people get the message that I'm no rep. [sic], so its hands off for me and so what I want to tell you is that it is absolutely false -- that rumor." She then cited as the possible source for the rumor the talk she gave at the regional San Diego conference of Call To Action. Pointing out that "not every person who does anything for Call To Action buys the whole agenda," Sister Kathy stated that she was not an official member of CTA, that the talk she gave ["Left, Right, or Other: How history has helped to heal the Church" ] had nothing to do with abortion and that she was speaking as "candidly to Call to Action as [she] would to the Legionnaires of Christ or anybody else." She ended her disclaimer by saying, "I'm sorry about having to start this way. I wanted to start out with something fun, as I have a sense of humor. So I hope you can hear me now."
Sister Kathy then gave the audience what she termed "one tiny theological thing," to help the parishioners understand what is happening to the Church in this time of scandal. The "one tiny theological thing" is quoted here in full, as I was at a complete loss to paraphrase it.
"I love to read the Scriptures, and the very first sentence in Scripture, Genesis 1:1, you know, 'The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters' -- The word 'hover' is not just flap flap, you know. 'Hover' doesn't mean this little dove flapping over the open water. The word 'hover' is Hebrew, it is a word filled with chaos, and boiling, and it's filled with creation and life and, well, the word 'boiling' is the right word. It's a powerful, chaotic, creational word and out of that hovering over the water came creation, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Chaos and grace are the normal ways that God works and chaos and grace are from God. For people of faith, it's about that chaotic, creating powerful movement of God as something new."
Noticing the somewhat confused expression on nearly everyone's face, Sister Kathy took a step back and drew in an exasperated breath. "If that doesn't help you any, that's OK, because I'm not going to talk you out of any feelings that you have," said Sister Kathy. "You don't need to see it or believe anything now, but later on, maybe you'll start to see it. Out of all this chaos, God is hovering in the powerful creational chaos."
After a short pause, Sister Kathy mercifully dropped her tiny theological thing. "I hope we'll have a really good conversation tonight, about, really, the pain that you've experienced," said Sister Kathy.
Behind Sister Kathy was a marker board, on which she had outlined the format for the evening. After the word "Introduction" was written "Facilitated process" along with three questions: "What do I still need to know?" "Where am I now?" and "Where do we go from here?" Sister Kathy then explained the format, encouraging everyone to speak, and to answer those questions as best they could. She would "take notes," and later pass on what she'd "gleaned" to the bishop, Tod Brown.
In talk-show host style, Sister Kathy then escorted the cordless microphone among the parishioners as each one got up to speak, and occasionally made comments herself along the way.
The first person to speak, an elderly gentleman, began, "I want to tell everyone here just exactly how I feel." Interrupting, Sister Kathy asked, "are you answering the first or the second question?" To which the speaker replied, "I don't want to get involved with any of your questions, Sister, I just want to get everything off my chest." What had been on his chest was, as it turned out, what was on everyone else's chest, with only two or three parishioners answering the specified questions displayed on the board.
The majority of those that spoke questioned the authority of the hierarchy, the value of celibacy, and whether only men can be priests. Among the comments were: "celibacy is a real problem, when you deny a man his basics instincts they reveal themselves in undesirable ways;" "we just wouldn't have this problem if our priests could marry"; "the Catholic Church is the best church, but we're so narrow minded, there is so much we could learn from other churches"; "we have given the priests, the bishops and the pope too much power"; "we've surrendered our power and now we've been betrayed"; "we live, in the United States, under a democratic constitution"; "we exposed Nixon, and because of that, the Republican Party is now the strongest party"; "if we don't do the same for the Church, if we don't make them make changes, then this is going to be one of the biggest tragedies in western civilization"; "women protect children, women nurture children, women care for children -- men, of course, use children"; "I'm a businessman, and I know what the inclusion of women in leading roles can do for an organization"; "unfortunately the Catholic hierarchy is like a college fraternity, a bunch of little boys, who will somehow just sweat this out."
"I believe the Holy Spirit is working in each one of you," interjected Sister Kathy along the way. "When a person gets up to speak about their own faith, their own truth, it's very helpful for everyone else. Thank you. Thank you."
Some of those that spoke commented on how the scandals had effected them personally. "I am so confused, I am so mad," said one such parishioner at the mic. "My partner and I are going through annulments. We want to get married in the Church. The priest we met with, who wouldn't let us, is now gone -- for reasons we all know. Now I ask, we're not married because these men are telling us we can't get married? It doesn't make sense anymore."
Not everyone, however, questioned the validity of doctrine in light of the scandals. Several questioned the value of the evening, and whether the time wouldn't have been better spent praying. "The most important thing that we can do is be holy, to get on our knees, and be better Catholics," said one parishioner. "Priests really need our help. Doing things like this may not be as beneficial as getting on our knees and praying for them."
The following day, I telephoned one of the parishioners to see what they thought of the evening. "Oh boy, were you there? What an emotional mess around. We should have been playing bingo," he said. The parishioner did, however, have hope for the parish. "It's not all desperate though. The new priest, Father Munoz, he's absolutely solid."
Father Matthew Munoz, who was transferred to St. Edward in January after the resignation of Father Lenihan, had sat through the "Heart to Heart" session noticeably silent and with a somewhat bemused expression on his face. Father Munoz, like his priest predecessors at St. Edward, has also appeared in the papers, but not on account of any scandal -- Munoz is John Wayne's grandson. In a recent interview with a local paper, he was true to his lineage, blowing off the idea that the recent scandals were a "threat" to the Church. "The Church has always had crises," he said. "God is working with human people who make mistakes and some who are evil. But the Church is still here after 2000 years." Asked about celibacy, he responded, "We think sex is the answer to everything because we've been raised on it. There is a dignity far greater than your sexuality, which is your spirituality. We were taught in the seminary that if you don't have the gift of celibacy, don't be a priest. It's a choice. You're making a sacrifice. But the reward of sacrifice is so fulfilling."