{"id":5324,"date":"2012-02-28T22:31:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T06:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/?p=5324"},"modified":"2012-03-08T22:54:31","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T06:54:31","slug":"holy-wisdom-monastery-provides-church-services-for-disaffected-local-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/holy-wisdom-monastery-provides-church-services-for-disaffected-local-catholics\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Wisdom Monastery provides church services for disaffected local Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the sisters disassociated from Rome, Bishop Morlino asked them to no longer celebrate Mass at the site so as not to cause confusion, said Brent King, a diocesan spokesman.<\/em><\/p>\n[Webmaster’s Note: According to a recent article [ View<\/a> ] Br. Paul Richards and Fr. Robert Koopman have spent sabbaticals at Holy Wisdom Monastery.<\/p>\n

Holy Wisdom Monastery provides church services for disaffected local Catholics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alice Jenson\u2019s faith took an irreversible turn six years ago.<\/p>\n

It was Nov. 5, 2006, and she was contributing to Mass at St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic Church in Madison as a lay person, reading Bible passages from the lectern.<\/p>\n

The same day, Madison Bishop Robert Morlino required all priests to play a recorded message from him explaining his position on three issues state residents would vote on that week, including a ban on same-sex marriage, which he supported.<\/p>\n

When the priest hit \u201cplay,\u201d Jenson walked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I\u2019d ever outwardly gone against what I was raised to follow,\u201d said Jenson, 67.<\/p>\n

She found a new religious home at Holy Wisdom Monastery, a former Roman Catholic monastery in the town of Westport, just outside Madison. Its Sunday service, offered by the sisters who live there, retains many elements of a traditional Catholic Mass but diverges in sometimes startling ways.<\/p>\n

Women can lead the service and preach the sermon. Gay relationships are warmly embraced. All parishioners, not just Catholics, can consume the communion wine and bread because the service is ecumenical, meaning welcoming of all Christian traditions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an alternate universe of sorts \u2014 what some think a Catholic Mass might look like today if the liberal spirit of Vatican II in the 1960s had taken root and flowered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing what the hierarchical church was afraid to complete,\u201d said Jim Green, a longtime Holy Wisdom parishioner who is gay and describes himself as \u201ca Catholic in exile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The service, called Sunday Assembly, is attended by people from many denominational backgrounds but has become especially popular with Catholics displeased with Morlino or church doctrine in general. Membership doubled in five years to 335, and parishioners estimate a majority are Catholics who left their regular parishes.<\/p>\n

Detractors say the parishioners strayed too far from Catholicism to warrant the label.<\/p>\n

Approach evolves<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though many self-described Catholics attend Holy Wisdom, it\u2019s no longer an official Catholic Mass.<\/p>\n

A little history: In the 1950s, a group of Benedictine nuns opened a high school at the site for girls in the Madison Catholic Diocese. Benedictines belong to a monastic religious order regulated by the canon law of the Catholic Church. Masses at the site were led by Catholic priests, often provided by the diocese.<\/p>\n

In 1966, the nuns closed the school and turned the buildings into a Christian retreat center. The sisters, spurred by the Benedictine tradition of hospitality, gradually made the service more inclusive to all Christians. Lay people, especially women, took on greater roles.<\/p>\n

In 2000, the Benedictine sisters went a step further, welcoming a Protestant woman to live with them. \u201cWhen we chose to open our community to Protestant women, it meant other doors closed,\u201d said Sister Mary David Walgenbach, the monastery\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

The sisters sought independence from the Catholic Church, and the Vatican granted it in 2006. Consequently, they no longer are tied to the local diocese. They remain affiliated with a Benedictine federation, but they have a special status, not a full membership, because of their ecumenism.<\/p>\n

Bishop\u2019s request<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the sisters disassociated from Rome, Bishop Morlino asked them to no longer celebrate Mass at the site so as not to cause confusion, said Brent King, a diocesan spokesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people had visited (the monastery) over the years, and the bishop felt it would take time for people to understand that it was no longer a Roman Catholic institution,\u201d King said, adding the bishop \u201cwas in no way unfriendly toward their desire to start a non-Catholic ecumenical community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sisters understood the bishop\u2019s position and stopped calling the service a Catholic Mass in 2006, Walgenbach said. Priests ceased to lead the service.<\/p>\n

Today, the sisters describe the Sunday Assembly as being \u201cfor the celebration of Eucharist,\u201d a term most commonly used to refer to Catholic communion. However, Walgenbach said some Protestant churches also use it. To many people, the service still has the essence of a Catholic Mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t know it wasn\u2019t a Catholic church, except for the person officiating,\u201d said parishioner Pat Hobbins-Kemps, 64. A lifelong Catholic, she said she left her regular parish partly out of a lack of opportunities for women to lead.<\/p>\n

Finding a home<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trisha Day, 66, said she came to Holy Wisdom after growing tired of sermons that focused on politically charged issues such as abortion and homosexuality while saying little about social justice and the poor.<\/p>\n

Jeanne Marquis, 68, found Holy Wisdom after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. \u201cI needed someone to talk about forgiveness instead of retaliation,\u201d she said. \u201cI needed a place where I was encouraged to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ann Baltes, 44, a lifelong Catholic, said she sought a place where she and her husband, Bill Rosholt, a Lutheran, could participate in communion together.<\/p>\n

Are these parishioners still Catholic? The answers vary.<\/p>\n

Jenson says she\u2019s not. \u201cToo much divides us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day calls herself \u201ca transitional Catholic,\u201d unsure where she\u2019ll end up. Green said his Catholic identity can\u2019t be taken from him. \u201cThe church is the people of God, not the institution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joanne Kollasch, one of the three Benedictine sisters who live at the monastery, said she \u201cis a Catholic and will remain a Catholic,\u201d adding, \u201cI don\u2019t like to be thought of as less Catholic because I\u2019m ecumenical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Walgenbach: \u201cThe Catholic spirituality is bigger than the Roman Catholic Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both sisters said they respect the Catholic Church and Morlino and don\u2019t seek controversy.<\/p>\n

Detractors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Syte Reitz, a member of Madison\u2019s Cathedral Parish who blogs about Catholic issues, said disaffected Catholics are free to start their own churches, but they shouldn\u2019t confuse people by suggesting they still are faithful Catholics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it matter whether they are errant Catholics or not Catholics?\u201d asks Reitz. \u201cNo matter what we label them, the laws of right and wrong and of morality still stand, and they and others will suffer from the mistakes that they make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reitz said because a male priest is not presiding over the Eucharist, the bread is not being turned into the body of Christ, thus depriving attendees of the Catholic Church\u2019s central sacrament.<\/p>\n

King, the diocesan spokesman, said for Catholics to fulfill their obligation to attend Mass on Sundays, they must attend a Catholic Mass validly offered by an ordained Catholic priest.<\/p>\n

Does the Holy Wisdom service qualify?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn charity, we must respond that it does not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Holy Wisdom Monastery provides church services for disaffected local Catholics
\n<\/strong>Wisconsin State Journal
\nFebruary 28, 2012<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0http:\/\/host.madison.com\/…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the sisters disassociated from Rome, Bishop Morlino asked them to no longer celebrate Mass at the site so as not to cause confusion, said Brent King, a diocesan spokesman. [Webmaster’s Note: According to a recent article [ View ] … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paul-richards","wp-image-borders"],"views":780,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5324"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5327,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions\/5327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.behindthepinecurtain.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}