Bishop Shannon

SHANNON, JAMES PATRICK Reluctant Dissenter Crossroads 1998
The bishop's account of his life (b.1921 in Minnesota), his resignation from his office,and subsequent marriage. The crux came when he, having participated (though young) in Vatican II, expected a change in the teachings of the Church about contraception. He was flattened by the Holy Father's reiteration of the teachings in Humana Vita. And brought to face the problem when a young wife came to him looking to be told that she could use the pill, or whatever. He could not find it in himself to tell her that it was wrong. As an honest man, he resigned. As a honest man, he does not criticize the Church, nor give weapons to those who would attack it. The core of the book is the great loneliness which is at the heart of us all (Gen. 2:18). And the perplexities to which that gives rise. (The church might advise the flock that a priest is a man and not reluctant to accept invitations apart his priestly activities; and in need of someone to check his socks and be sure he eats regularly. Men bishops & popes incline not to think of these things).
5: F.J.Turner's thesis has a defensible kernel of truth, even if he spent a lifetime overstating it.
: his widowed mother with three (or four) kids, beginning as a waitress and ending as the owner. [Typical strong minded Irishwoman]
9: "With a little encouragement, I would be hard to handle" [said one of his nun teachers]
10: He got a 100, just to show his 8th grade teacher. {Maybe that was her point]. His mother was sceptical.
11: "got my clock cleaned"
: "the low keyed, polysyllabic, non stop, two paragraphed gentlemanly dressing down" [gift of the gab. Can be dangerous. v.JFK]
12: his father waiting up to see that "I was home, and safe, and sober" [in descending order of importance. The exchange between them is typical of men]
15: learning the gimmicks from his brother: the left jab, making a replacement pin for a motor, and such. [I suppose it's been going on since Creation]
18: tuition (not board) at St. Thomas' Military Academy in 1936 $150
23/4: debating skills. Years later, in a seminary class in metaphysics, a professor icily informed me not to confuse the study of philosophy with the glib of sophistry
29: listening to the radio in "a crowded smoke filled rec room" [Ah, the days when our minor bad habits were not taken to be vices]
36: to serve needs larger than your own [to serve the needs of others by including them among your own?]
37: young Oscar at his ordination was sent out by his mother to get some things needed for the party ["Priest you may be, but you're still the youngest"]
38: the priest hunting in Ireland in the 17th & 18th [&19th] Centuries
41: the gestation period of an elephant is 22 months, but when it comes out it's still an elephant
43: kindergarten is the most difficult age to teach [It's why it is best left to women. Men have neither the brains nor the stamina]
44: the bigotry of the camp director who complained of the presence of negro children [Was he a bigot? His complaint was of its effect on his business. How did he treat the kids? If he was a bigot, should the kids have been left at the camp?]
47: "welfare chiselers" I hold no brief for them [Why not? Are they hopelessly beyond the pale?]

48: that peculiarly Catholic fascination with sex [No Jews in St. Paul? It's where the "fascination" began]
49: authority of service and authority of position. Ideally they exist together [Actually, probably not. Consider the Cure d'Ars, and Andre Trocme. It's rougher being a parish priest]
52: the humor of it. Never make deals with God.
53: the density of specification [H.James] [but, as distinct from accumulated details]
56: the fire chief forbidding his men to enter a building about to collapse but: "Come on, padres. You're wanted inside"
: thereafter, freezing & cold, he eats a hot dog. "Should you have?" asks his Abp. "It's Lent". [Women will never understand how men give each other pats on the back to loosen the tension]
69: Father Flynn, the liberal arts purist, rejecting business courses [It's the great failing of the liberal arts colleges. "What am I going to do with my Degree in Philosophy? Open a shop and sell concepts?". The liberal arts without application become sophistry: survey courses. I read today (5/3/99) in the Jewish Sentinel one fellow praising the superiority of "religiosity" over religion. But how can you have "religiosity without religion? Perfume without a flower?]
69/70: on lay teachers [the advantage is to leave priests free to be priests]
81: Abp. Bing's letter allowing him to accept the Ford Fdtn. challenge grant, without committing the Adiocese [and keeping it free from foreign entanglements]
84: on Vietnam [But no discussion of how we were tricked into it by the college boys in DC. Nor of the constitutional illegality. Nor of the spinelessness of the representatives. Poor LBJ's great work in domestic affairs was ruined by the sweet talkers with their word games. So much for the liberal arts without content]
93: Catholic traditionalists [makes them a species]
94/5: on the naming of bishops. [Does the Holy Father name bishops? Or Himself? Do candidates present themselves? What does nolo episcopari mean?
98: Msgr. Higgins was at Henry Luce's party at the Flora in Rome! Hobnobbing!
101: 'Any use of matrimony whatsoever in the exercise of which the act is deprived, by human interference, of its natural power to procreate life ...' [That's a clear enough statement. It accords with the deeper doctrine that God makes each human creature; and with the Jewish teaching that there are certain arbitrary (consider the etymology) rules which we are required to follow, having free will and self consciousness. God says don't stick your finger into the electrical outlet. The serpent says "you will learn about good & evil". And so we do: stick the finger in and learn the difference between good & evil. And so later do those who used the pill learn that they could have copulated and let God worry about supporting the results]
: the Council Fathers had reached a consensus about contraception [earlier he is against consensus]
102: [that the purpose of marriage is procreation. Is this so? Or is the purpose companionship, in the course of which we may copulate; but if we do, we should not attempt to block the other Actor in "pro" creation. It's not easy]
104: Paul VI's Humana Vita. [Paul VI's? Or the Church's?]
108: a mutual friend told me that [my resignation] broke his pastor's heart [some friend!]

116: an exchange with Cardinal Spellman and a fine tribute. [THE cardinal would battle, privately; he knew who was at work, whispering in the ear. He might holler but he would never denigrate. He also had an Irish mother]
119: Cardinal O'Boyle of DC. [Was it he who confirmed me? 1944 it would be]
121: Father Marvin O'Connell calling bishops "amateurs". [Amateur whats? Who he?]
126: the bishop who referred to priests who drifted away as "derelicts" [Guess he never heard of the Lost Sheep. It's easy to be a bishop of sheepish sheep]
130/1: [a bit rough on Cardinal McIntyre, whose behavior illustrates the wisdom of the Holy Father's call for automatic resignation at 75. We must be careful not to criticize our elders. If what JP says is the case, the cardinal violated several rules of Church procedure, including discretion]
134: "Some prince!" [of Card. McI. Could be deleted. It's a crack, not an analysis. Judging from JP's autobio, he did not have much experience with difficult cases among the sheep]
137/8: on the bishops' meeting and the carryings on [shows the danger of these National Councils. Is error less erroneous because it has a majority vote?]
141: His mother: "I've read about the old man in Calfornia". [I suppose even John Paul's mother had her moments of scepticism about his behavior. V. Oscar, supra]
143: "to control conception rather than leave it wholely to chance" [chance? this is where the fuzziness begins. Substitute "God" for chance and the matter becomes clear]
146: on the burden of a bishop [It was summed up by Dennis Malvasi: "The cardinal says stop bombing the abortuaries. I stop. I don't know whether he's right or wrong; that's his problem. I got problems enough without God getting mad at me".
182: the process of making it to that age "when we find no longer all things possible" (TSE)
192: Brown vs. Board of Ed. [Curious that lawyers do not see the flaw in the second part. The first is correct: the law is color blind. How then can the law know whether the "colored" have been adequately helped. That flaw that iota of difference has created as many problems as it attempted to solve. It is condescending to the blacks. And led to the nonsense of no difference between male and female. Tell it to your mother]
193: the fire that melts the butter hardens the iron
195: on treating students in law school as mean judges might treat them so that they will get the experience [It rather makes them cowards. Cf. Thaddeus Stevens when threatened by a judge for showing contempt of court: "I apologize, your honor. I was doing my best to conceal it"]
198: the process of learning the law consists of watching skillful practitioners "move the pieces on the board" [But not allowing them to determine what the pieces are, nor the size and formation of the board. They practice, they do not make, the law]
203: Greenleaf noted that all churches tend to become narcissistic, defending the bureaucracy ... [relying on the tried & true. Is that wrong if you don't have a replacement in place? Who wants the traffic laws changed every two months? All bureaucracies become hide bound, not "narcissistic". It's a psychoanalyst's word. And "Catholics" are fascinated by sex? Who isn’t?]
204: [too many "very's" used as adverbs; "Pro active": a sophist's word, trying to mean something more than it does. "Active" does all the necessary work.
212: Elmer Andersen [RIP]. Owned a Grolier binding, he did.