Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Why I Am Catholic

Home
BREAKING: The Cathedral Of St. Maytag Is Stuck On Rinse Cycle UPDATED

BREAKING: The Cathedral Of St. Maytag Is Stuck On Rinse Cycle UPDATED

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 6:55 pm by Frank Weathers

BREAKING: The Cathedral Of St. Maytag Is Stuck On Rinse Cycle UPDATED 2017-01-24T18:55:41-05:00 Frank Weathers

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You know, the roof does look like an agitator from a washing machine…

Finally. We have a scandal that we can literally call “Watergate” without blinking an eye. Except it appears to be over about that quickly.

What? You missed the news that the Cathedral in San Francisco installed exterior sprinklers for the sole purpose of wrecking the nights of homeless folks trying to catch some zzz’s in the corners of the building? Good thing the Fourth Estate was on the ball, and floated the ballon on this travesty.

I first caught wind of the situation when Deacon Greg Kandra posted on it this morning.

Sure, you could argue that sinister forces were gunning for the Archbishop because of his unpopular stance regarding same sex marriage, and that the media were merely manipulating folks to an agitprop inspired outrage. But you’d have to ignore the chicken and egg problem to make that argument, don’tchathink?

No Sprinklers = No Story

Elizabeth Scalia picked up on that obvious point in her post titled, Hosing the Homeless: Important Lesson Still Unlearned from the Scandals. Here’s a snip,

It’s not a nice story, and it is also a rather “neat” bit of timing that it has broken while Cordileone is being pressured to resist clarifying church teaching and developing morality clauses for the purposes of both instruction and hiring. Without a doubt, the story has surfaced in order to diminish the moral authority of the bishop, paint him with a brush of cold arrogance, and further excite the citizenry.

Here’s the thing, though. The story would not exist to be used against the diocese, if the sprinkler system didn’t exist, either. The sprinklers were a bad idea, no matter how you slice it.

Read it all. Her observations on “have we learned anything from the scandals?” is spot-on, though I would add one thing. “Have the laity learned anything from these scandals?”

Elizabeth is right that calling the city, and learning what the Financial District was doing about the homeless (that were bothering their facilities) was probably not the best place to learn “best practices.”

As statements go, that’s not bad, but there is still a huge problem. Can you see what it is?
It’s here, in this line:

“This sprinkler system…was installed approximately two years ago, after learning from city resources that this kind of system was being commonly used in the Financial District…”

No, no, no, NO! Have our bishops and leadership learned nothing at all from the sex abuse scandals that have done so much damage to the faith, to the faithful and to the moral authority of the church?

The bishops? What about the laity who advise the bishops on matters like this? In this case, did anyone have the chutzbah to say,

“Wait a minute. Let’s be clear about this. What we propose to do is to install a system that will harass the poorest of the poor, and make it difficult for them in a way that, at the same time, will make it easy for us not to have to deal with them personally? Seriously? That’s our plan?”

“Keep in mind we’re in the middle of a big fight, what with our true (and highly unpopular) position defending marriage. I mean, how would this look if those who oppose our fidelity to the truth get wind of this? More importantly, keep in mind that this idea flies in the face of the admonitions of Our Lord Jesus Christ regarding “whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me.” You know, like the good work we’re already doing for the poor.

Hmmmm. I don’t know. Let’s think this through real carefully, Skipper, I mean Your Excellency.”

And what about the parishioners, the daily Mass goers, the folks who noticed the sprinklers being installed, the committee who approved it, etc. Did we just think that the problem was so bad that this measure was justified?

I know my friend and colleague Tom McDonald means well when he counsels folks not to get played by the media, but hell, we need to not get played by Satan himself and adopt practices that are based on a mindset that embraces punishing the poor.

See, I take Elizabeth’s point about have we learned anything from the sexual abuse scandal, and I point the “we” right back at me. What would I have done had I seen this being done? Would I have had the gumption to make it known that I think this is the wrong way to handle this situation? I certainly hope so. Would I have had a solution at my fingertips? Probably not. But I hope that I am familiar enough with the words, and the actions, of Jesus to know that it would have been a sin of omission (speaking for myself) to not have gone against the grain here, cried foul, and suggested we come up with something better. Because now that the sprinklers are getting yanked out (by close of business TODAY), it’s time for more brain-storming sessions.

Thankfully, the Fourth Estate did their duty and so is the Archdiocese. If KCBS Radio hadn’t broken this story when they did, and in the heat of an important battle in the culture war, we still would be soaking down the homeless on the cathedral’s steps.

Watergate scandal, indeed. I’m just glad the lonely Maytag repairman got a call today.

Image from Wikipedia Commons

Living

Working

Archdiocese of San Francisco

Previous Post

March 17, 2015

G.K. Chesterton Splashes Into The Pages Of "The Atlantic"

Next Post

March 19, 2015 Because Joseph Was Really, Really, צדיק

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog News Conversion Story Culture Learning Living Nature Prayer Uncategorized Working

Select a Month June 2016 May 2016 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What New Testament book is known for its chapter on charity?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1 Corinthians Romans Hebrews Philippians