A Room of One’s Own for Ruth Kolpack, and Me

Check out my post, “A Room of One’s Own for Ruth Kolpack, and Me” concerning the firing of Pastoral Associate Ruth Kolpack at CTA’s Young Adult Catholic Blog. 

Criticism "for the sake of the whole"

I have been thinking a lot about my recent post at From the Pews in the Back concerning my experience at LA Congress, especially my dissatisfaction with the Cardinal’s treatment of vocation during a major liturgy there.  

It has left me with a few worries and questions:

1) I worry that readers will perceive my concern for the oversight of lay vocations as an abasement of or disregard for priestly and vowed religious vocations. This is not my intention nor my position.

2) I am concerned that people will interpret my dissatisfaction with the Cardinal’s presentation of vocation as a personal attack against him, when in reality I am grateful for many of the decisions he makes as a leader in the Archdiocese. While there are many other incredibly significant issues that I believe he mismanages, I do not take for granted the good work that he does. 

The worries that surround this single blog entry are a part of a larger set of concerns and questions that I ask myself as a writer, and as a Catholic, really: How do I speak out against wrong-doings and injustices without feeding into a dialogue of mischaracterizations? How do I counter divisive, hateful speech and action without generating divisiveness myself?  What is the most helpful, productive way to engage Church dialogue, especially surrounding issues connected to a great deal of personal pain and anger–for me and my “opponents”?  How can I say difficult and necessary things in a loving, pastoral way? 

These are questions of integrity.  And they are difficult for a writer, especially one in the blog world where readers enter and exit at any given point. When someone encounters any or all of my online writing, I want them to encounter a message that is for something, for radical Christian love, for others. I don’t want people to perceive a message of despair, that is, a message simply against something or someone. I want my criticisms to be constructive. I don’t want people to leave my blog thinking that there is no hope for the Catholic Church, even when I flounder in my hope. I want to be helpful. Life-giving. Productive. 

So many people are hating on other people in the name of righteous Catholicism–it turns people away from Jesus and Church.  I don’t even want to give the impression that I am just another one of those people. That’s not who I want to be. 

Since studying Greek in college, I have been fascinated by the origins of the word “Catholic.” My favorite translation of the word’s original roots is “for the sake of the whole.” In this sense, I want to write in a Catholic way–”for the sake of the whole” Church. 

So how can I criticize constructively? What does unifying Catholic activism look like? 

Because it is a lot easier to write about (not) writing than it is to write

Okay.  Some of you loyal readers out there have heard about the book project that I have been working on for a little over a year now.  It started as a solitary venture, with encouragement from my pal Mags who was working on her own project.  It morphed into a collaborative project, shifted approaches, and now Mags and I are back at it again. 

I have writer’s block, though. And it’s not that I don’t have anything to say. (I always have something to say.)  The truth is–I am overwhelmed by how much there is to say, and how desperately it all needs to be said. 

We want to write about the population of young adult Catholics who are often missing from the headlines, the studies, the young adult ministry programs–those who feel marginalized and forgotten by the Church.  Many of us get so fed up with being invisible in the Church’s public image, in the Vatican decrees, that we leave Catholicism all together.  Many of us are trying very hard to speak up about our positive experiences in the Church and our vision for its future, but we are tired, disheartened, and so often quieted by louder, more official voices. 

My last few blog entries have indicated that I am a bit overwhelmed by the simultaneous inspiration and disenchantment that surrounds me in my ministry work and in the news.  I work with the most amazing young people and the most incredible ministers, and for them, I want to writing meaningful stuff about being a hopeful young person in the Church.  Yet I continue to read about the silencing of creative, thoughtful theologians and other frightening,  reactionary moves of the Catholic hierarchy and I think to myself time and time again, “What can I possibly write? Where do I even start?” 

Amid an overwhelming moment with these desperate questions, I decided to ask you: What can I possibly write? Where do I even start?