Lenny Bruce principle
O'Gara, James
Report from Collegeville LENNY BRUCE PRINCIPLE CHANGE IN THE CHURCH(ES) YOU PROBABLY don't know what the Lenny Bruce principle is in interreligious dialogue. It is something I discovered in...
...Another Sister here turned out to be a friend from the days of Chicago InterStudent Catholic Action years ago, a person totally committed to nonviolence and working on a peace Christology...
...As this year of intellectual exchange and common prayer 0 ' ' N MAY 26, St.John's university in collegeville, minnesota, awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humae Letters to lames O'Gara...
...Since Vatican II that Catholic claim has been placed pretty much in the discard file, but the old image showed up in our religious conversations...
...JAMES O'GARA (James O'Gara, former Editor of Commonweal, will serve as Visiting W. Harold and Martha Welch Professor in American Studies at the Univeristy of Notre Dame for 1985-86...
...Other projects, including my own study of the development of Catholic social thought and its ecumenical dimensions, covered a wide range, from a reexamination of Darwin to an investigation of the religious conscience and the Holocaust...
...Quite obviously, in a unified Christianity some diversity in worship will have to be the rule...
...When the Fellows were not discussing their projects, they talked about everything from the policies of the Reagan administration (highly critical) to those of Pope John Paul (dubious to negative...
...Worship, of course, was a positive element...
...I don't think he missed one morning, noon, or evening prayer or the Eucharist the whole time he was here...
...friend had me backed into a corner too often for comfort...
...and taken against the background of starvation in Africa, her development of the duty of people and nations with superfluous wealth was anything but abstract and medieval...
...He kept the faith, finished the course and now runs the race anew as a scholar-philosopher with equal vigor,and clarity of thought and expression...
...Paul's Epistle to the Romans than I ever knew before, thanks to a Presbyterian scripture scholar...
...Perhaps not much of a conclusion to come to after a year of ecumenical discussion, but it does seem to me no small thing to be able to proclaim together that Christ is Lord...
...In discussions we usually ended up doing exactly that...
...Thus the Roman Catholic church needs greater constitutional protection against the arbitrary abuse of power on every level, from the pope and Cardinal Ratzinger on down...
...James O'Gara steadily sought out and stressed the Catholic tradition of social thought...
...Which is where the Lenny Bruce principle comes in...
...As our work progressed, we consulted each other on a regular basis...
...Pope John Paul is obviously an expert on Catholic social thought, but I wish he would give as much attention to the principle of subsidiarity within the church as he does in society at large...
...John's Benedictine University...
...I realized in a way I never had before how incidents like the crusade against liberation theology or the silencing of Franciscan Leonardo Boff look to other Christians — or just how many such affairs we Catholics manage to produce in a year to be dissected and deplored...
...Churches which rely almost entirely on preaching might want to take a look at their sacramental system...
...Comedian Lenny Bruce used to talk about the Roman Catholic church as being the only the church...
...As a consequence, we Fellows did not have as many sessions on changes that might be necessary in Protestant churches, and I was sorry about that...
...drew to a close and I reflected on it, I could not get much beyond these two apparently contradictory facts: how very many historical, cultural, and theological differences there are between us Christians, and at the same time, very strikingly, how much we hold in common...
...The following is excerpted from the citation...
...I learned far more, for instance, about St...
...However, I discovered that everybody is curious about what Bruce called the the church and that people love nothing better than to discuss its foibles and peculiarities, once they learn they can do so without giving offense...
...Nevertheless, for every Fellow who thought Protestants could learn from Roman Catholic worship practices, there were others who much preferred Protestant ways...
...I learned much about the concept of need in Thomas Aquinas, thanks to a Roman Catholic Sister who was a Fellow...
...One Episcopal Fellow put us Roman Catholics to shame...
...All were struck with the beauty of the liturgy as carried out by the Benedictines at St...
...It is something I discovered in the year I have just spent as a Fellow at the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Collegeville, Minnesota, located on the campus of St...
...I did not end up changing my mind on the basic issue of pacifism, but must admit that my dear B.V.M...
...By far the biggest part of our time was spent on religious subjects...
...John's...
...Political, cultural social, and religious questions were a weekly concern that he surveyed with dignity and grace...
...So I don't think there was any formal disagreement among us on the need for change inside each Christian church...
...Jim O'Gara...
...Each Fellow comes here with a formal project that has been staked out and approved in advance...
...In these discussions it became quite clear that if we are ever to have a unified church of Christ, we need to make structural changes in the churches, changes which would preserve essentials while removing unnecessary sources of friction and division...
...As managing editor and then editor...
...To be in any position for thirty-two years is an accomplishment...
...12 July 1985: 391 On the other hand, churches which lack anything like the teaching office of bishop might need to rethink their authority structure...
...directed the Commonweal through the tumultuous times, of pre-conciliar, and postVatican Council II discourse...
Vol. 112 • July 1985 • No. 13
