Advent is a time of year where we await and recommit to working for the coming of Good News in human history. Such news as this from Luke’s Gospel:
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives,
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor. (Luke 4:18f)
Good News is special, it is hard to find. We are all hungry for it. Bad News is so often déjà vu, utterly familiar.
In this time of Advent, it is fitting to pose some examination of conscience questions to the USCCB*:
Jesus never talked once in the gospels about abortion. Why are you so intent on pushing it as problem # 1 in American politics?
Why do you distrust women so much that you feel anointed to tell them what decisions they can and cannot make about their bodies? Wouldn’t that be better left to their conscience and their doctors?
Who taught you such distrust of women?
Where do you stand on ten-year-olds being raped and forced by our government to carry the fetus to term?
Why do you not instead make a priority of saving Mother Earth as we know it, such as Pope Francis proposes in two encyclicals?
Why is it that not a single diocese in the U.S. has divested itself of fossil fuel investments? (Three hundred fifteen dioceses in other countries around the world have done so, urged on by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si encyclical.)
Does your failing to prioritize saving Mother Earth have anything to do with your eagerness for cash from fossil fuel titans and their kept politicians because dioceses are going bankrupt from covering up priestly pedophile scandals?
Why not prioritize taking a stand on getting dark money out of politics–i.e., repealing Citizens United? to be continued.
*United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can be Saved, pp. 106-144.
See Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
Banner image: The logo of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Wikipedia. Public Domain.
Queries for Contemplation
Which of these questions for the USCCB seem most important to you? What others would you add?
Recommended Reading

The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The final section in the book focuses on birthing a truly catholic Christianity.
“This book should be read by everybody, not only for its ferocious courage, but also for its vision for what needs to be saved from the destructive forces that threaten authentic Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope.
“In the gripping The Pope’s War, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering look at the layers of corruption in the Catholic Church, holding moral truth against power.” — Jason Berry, author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
9 thoughts on “More Good News alongside Questions for the USCCB”
Let The Wheels Turn
Let the Wheels turn, Spirit, let them turn. Wheels of Truth, wheels of Justice, let them turn.
Even if it pains us to see what they show. Even if it deepens our sorrow or shame. Let them turn, for we know that we will never move beyond this point, unless they take us there.
We cannot ignore our past or avoid our present. We must confront them both, as clearly and as honestly as we can. We must see the depth and breadth of the challenges before us. We must turn to face what is real, whether we like the look of it or not.
So, let the Wheels turn, Wheels of Truth and Wheels of Justice. Let them do their work openly, carefully, until they begin to create transparency.
For in the Light of Truth and in the Integrity of Justice, we will find that which we need to restore.
From: Spirit Wheel: Meditations of an Indigenious Elder
By: Steven Charleston
Dear Matthew, I always love your daily meditations, but today you expressed exactly how I am feeling and thinking. You nailed it. Seems politics has infiltrated the hearts and minds of the Catholic bishops. It is terrifying and very sad. Keep speaking out. You give me hope.
Blessings.
I would simply add when will the Catholic Church of America honor the separation of church and state that a pluralistic country must have to avoid theocratic dominance and interference in government?
The Catholic bishops in power today have aligned with right wing extremists bent on political influence and power to obtain much needed money through direct government programs for their own interests. Much else is a smoke screen.
It is a sad time to be a Catholic, though many priests and lay people are spiritual and trying to teach Jesus Christ, hypocrites at the top undermine it all.
I am very uncomfortable going to church or attending mass.
Well said Matthew, you are accurate in all the points raised here.
All of these questions, Matthew, are important! However, my expectations are not very high of this patriarchal religious institution in our mainly toxic, destructive, spiritually unbalanced, patriarchal Western civilization…
On a deeper spiritual level, we All have to pray and act Lovingly and Justly for the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine Energies and Spirit within Us to heal and transform our hearts and Souls to help bring about a more Loving and Just human society and healthy beautiful Sacred Earth within God’s Spirit of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
The Catholic Church in America is aligned with the political right. I find no love, compassion, or justice for creation expressed from the bishops. At one time I loved the church and thought about becoming a monk, but today I can no longer attend Mass or any services. The Church like so much of our world is coming apart. This is so sad. Thank you Matthew for a great meditation today , and for your inspirations on my spiritual journey.
It is not just the bishops and others in the Roman Catholic Church who have gone astray. Many Protestant “Christians” have turned to the dark side, as have other religious zealots from Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Not one of these authoritarian religions is true to its core beliefs. I think the basic question for them all is why are they not living out the tenets of love and justice? They are serving Mammon, not God, and they need to be constantly reminded of this, as Matthew and other prophets are doing.
Thank you Matthew, for being a strong and faithful prophet and mystic who is so needed today. I turn to your daily meditations to give me hope to continue on my sometimes lonely path to believe that Spirit in love,light and life will guide this world to peace and justice. I left the Catholic Church years ago precisely because of the fact that women had no equality with men and their gifts were underrated and underused.
The pope just gave a speech to the International Theological Commission of Theologians at the Vatican. “There is something I don’t like about you,” he told the overwhelmingly male membership. “Please, de-masculinize the church.”
But the all-male Catholic clergy holds the power of the church. They won’t voluntarily re-write THEIR theology, openly admitting that they won’t budge because they don’t want women –ever– to become priests.
You can’t truly “demasculinize” the religion if it assigns an “inferior” soul to women. That negates Jesus’s clear message of equality and respect for women, and contradicts the Bible’s Mystical-theological references to the One/I AM and the Logos/Word. Human body gender does NOT change the Soul’s Mystical Revelation, nor does God restrict Her/His Mystical Revelation/union only to males. All human souls are EQUAL in The One, flowing through the Logos/Son, and STILL equal once embodied. This is the theology coded into all human souls, revealed to Moses, taught by Jesus, proclaimed in the triumphant opening shout of John’s Gospel, and shared in direct Mystical Awareness.
So my question is, when writing its core Christian expression about God (i.e., official theology), by what authority does the Church contradict Moses, Jesus, and John of the Gospel?
This is a portion of the poem I wrote after seeing Donald Trump shaking hands with Kim Jong Un in North Korea while they viewed NK’s military might parade by….
RANT OF A BLEEDING HEART PACIFIST
‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’
Gestated and birthed in
Bunkered dark hearts
Having forgotten His warning
“Live by the sword, die by the sword”
Marching full forward to
Live by the gun [— — — —]
With grave consistency to
Live by The Bomb [— — — —-]
Seeding Mother Earth with landmines
Bathing Her in Agent Orange
Finishing her off
Gang Bang
In reel/real time while
The world holds its breath……..