Inside NCR
With knights, cash is a proxy for
character
Just a few months ago we proudly announced that Patrick Marrin had
joined the NCR staff. On Jan. 5, however, publisher Tom Fox announced
that Marrin would be taking over as editor, and Carolyn Hoff as managing
editor, of Celebration, a sister publication of NCR.
Marrin succeeds Bill Freburger, who served as Celebration editor
from 1978 until his death in July 1997. Marrin came to NCR from
Benedictine College, Atchison, Kan., where he had been chair of the
journalism/mass communications department since 1991. Prior to that, he was on
the staff of the Topeka-Capital Journal. Marrin holds masters
degrees in philosophy, theology and journalism and was a member of the
Dominican order from 1965 to 1983.
Hoff has served as Celebrations production editor
since 1983 and brings experience in Catholic education and parish liturgical
ministry to her new role.
They have the skills, vision and love for the church needed
to guide us in the spirit of Vatican II into the 21st century, Fox said
in announcing the new team. Our goal is to provide tools and ideas to
help create worship experiences for a church that is inclusive, collaborative,
ecumenical, faithful to tradition but focused on contemporary needs and deeply
committed to connecting liturgy to social justice.
We are happy to report that Marrin will continue to write for
NCR as circumstances allow; and that he will likewise contribute his
distinctive art, both frivolous and profound.
Everyone loves cathedrals. At least in theory. In practice they
may be too flashy or too boring -- or too expensive. We regard with awe the
great cathedrals of the past, expressions of the faith and tenacity of people
who sometimes took a whole century to build one.
There is a dilemma, of course: whether the money and energy should
be put into stone, steel and stained glass or, as someone said in the Bible,
given to the poor.
These reflections were stirred by the announcement that the pope
had conferred a papal knighthood on media mogul Rupert Murdoch, comedian Bob
Hope and Roy Disney (that Disney) (story, page 9). The connection may
not be obvious at once. The Vatican keeps saying that such a knighthood is
conferred on people of unblemished character. Now, theres a
lot of unblemished character out there, as well as plenty of blemish.
One problem with unblemished character is that much of it is
invisible. The best a pope can do, therefore, when the knighthood season
arrives, is look for outward signs. One sign our three new knights have in
common is that they are not only wealthy but give globs of that wealth to the
church.
According to an article in the faraway Sydney (Australia)
Morning Herald, Murdoch (who, incidentally, many critics regard as a
sleazy purveyor of low-class sensationalism via various media) gave generously
to the Los Angeles diocese; Hope donated to Washingtons Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception; and Disney gave to the new cathedral to be built in Los
Angeles.
One reason poor people are seldom involved in the knighthood
sweepstakes is probably the fact that knights regalia are very expensive.
But more to the point: If youre head of a diocese that needs a cathedral
that will give glory to God and be admired by generations yet unborn, you have
limited options for enticing tycoons to fork out the big bucks without which a
cathedral will never get built. This, no doubt, is not a new dilemma: From
Byzantium to Rome to your own diocese, building Gods house entailed some
give-and-take with the world.
This can get awkward when the benefactor cashes in his chits.
I give generously to the church, when said to a bishop or even a
priest, can be a veiled threat that the piper wont be paid unless the
appropriate tune is played. Woe to the poor bishop who must rely on money like
that. It was easy for Jesus, who could order Peter to catch a fish with money
in its mouth. Perhaps the papal knighthood is todays version of Jesus and
the fish: It doesnt cost much and it pays the bills.
Knighthood lacks one profound Christian characteristic, though: It
lets the cat out of the bag so that the right hand knows only too well what the
left is doing, which some think shouldnt happen in high quality
charity.
Famed film director Ingmar Bergman wrote: There is an old
story of how the cathedral of Chartres was struck by lightning and burned to
the ground. Then thousands of people came from all points of the compass, like
a giant procession of ants, and together they began to rebuild the cathedral.
They worked until the building was completed -- master builders, artists,
laborers, clowns, noblemen, priests, burghers. But they all remained anonymous,
and no one knows to this day who built the cathedral of Chartres.
National Catholic Reporter, January 16,
1998
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