Remembering the Responsibilities of Political and Religious Independence

Sometimes it is unique to see how dates on the calandar compliment one another.

This weekend our national family celebrates the anniversary of our July 4th Independence. For the family of the Evangelical Catholic Church, we celebrate the Memorial of the Vocation of Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa on July 2nd.

In both celebrations we remember the meaning of embracing the responsibility that comes with independence - independence that his sought and also independence that comes for rejection and ejection.

American history books have detailed all of the dynamics which culminated with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on Juy 4th, 1776. The ongoing responsibilities which comes from our political independence continues to challenge us on a daily basis. Every generation since 1776 has had to contribute to the cause of making this country a "more perfect union." In order to accomplish this, it remains necessary for us to reflect and to question issues pertaining to the collective welfare of our national family.

What has remained unknown to the general public has been the vocational journey of Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa (1888 - 1961). Bishop Costa was the Bishop Ordinary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Botucatu and later as titular Bishop of Maura. Bishop Costa was the social and religious reformer of Brazil in his day.

Bishop Costa was one of the first catholic bishops to espouse that which was later to be called "Liberation Theology." Bishop Costa was devoted to the social and pastoral needs of those neglected by both Church and State. Bishop Costa's compassion for their needs won him no friends from the secular government nor from within the Vatican.

In the 1930's Bishop Costa became deeply involved in the social ad political changes taking place in Brazil. Brazil's ecomony had collapsed in 1929 as a result of the Great Depression and a military regime had taken over the government in 1930. In 1932 Bishop Costa became a leading spokesperson for the Catholic Electoral League, which as organizaed by the Roman Catholic Church to lobby for Christian principles in the laws and acts of the Government. In 1932 Bishop Costa played an active role in the Constitutional Revolution, a failed attempt to restore constitutional government to Brazil. He formed a "Battalion of the Bishop" to fight on the side of the Constitutionalist troops, and helped finance the rebellion by selling off most of the diocese's assets, along with his own possessions. Bishop Costa's support for the Constitutionalist Revolution earned him the animosity of President Vargas.

In 1936 Bishop Costa made his second ad limina visit to Rome, meeting with PiusXI. He presented to Pius XI with a list a requests for the clergy and people of his diocese, including:

1. Celebration of the Mass and administration of the sacraments in the vernacular.

2. Permission for the Clergy to marry.

3. Replacing auricular confession with general or communal absolution.

4. Distribution of the Communion under both kinds.

5. A permanent diaconate for married persons.

6. Celebration of the Mass facing the people.

7. Creation of a Council of Advice.

8. Lay in the administration of the Word, Eucharist and Evangelization.

These suggestions were denied, although many were implemented by the Second Vatican Council twenty-five years later.

In 1937 President Vargas, fed up with Bishop Costa's denunciation of the government, petitioned the Holy See for Costa's removal from Botucatu. The Vatican was unwilling to do so directly, so the Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil entered into an agreement with the Secretary of the Diocese of Botucatu to obtain the resignation of Bishop Costa. In a act of deception, a resignation letter was placed into a stack of documents which Bishop Costa had to sign in short order. He signed the letter, but upon realizing what had happened, he informed the Holy See that he had signed the document without reading it, but the resignation was accepted by Piux XI on October 6, 1937. After acceptace of his resignation, Bishop Costa was appointed titular bishop of Maura, an extinct diocese in Africa.

After is "forced resignation," Bishop Costa resumed his vocal criticism of the government and the national church administration, which he saw as an accessory to the mistreatment of the poor in Brazil. He openly criticized certain papal periodicals and encyclicals, including Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo and Divini Redemptoris.

In 1944 Bishop Costa was accused by the Brazilian government of being a communist sympathizer. He was arrested on June 6th, 1944 and imprisoned in Belo Horizone. The following month the Ecclesiastical Chamber forbade him from preaching or hearing confessions. He remained imprisioned until September 6th, 1944, when we was released in response to pressure from Mexico and the United States.

After continuing years of tensions, the Vatican finally laid against him the penalty of excommunication on July 2nd, 1945. Upon being informed of this act, Bishop Costa responded by saying, "I consider today one of the happiest days of my life." Despite having "independence" forced upon him, Bishop Costa remained true to his committment to his vocation to the priesthood and continued to celebrate the sacraments and to remain with the people. In time, others came to him and Bishop Costa began to ordain priests and created the Independent Catholic Church of Brazil.

The roots of the Evangelical Catholic Church are anchored to Bishop Costa by what is known as Apostolic Succession, thus providing the sacramental validity for our Orders and to celebrate the sacraments for the People of God. Rather than being crushed by independence, Bishop Costa recognized this gift and embraced it. This was his example and it is now our chosen obligation to continue forward with it.

This weekend, we pause as a national family and give thanks to the Founding Fathers of our country for what have today. As a family united within the Evangelical Catholic Church, we give thanks to Bishop Costa for his example of faith and dedication.

Makes for a great weekend.

Sincerely Yours,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest

Chicago, Illinois

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm

Three Years and A Day

Three years ago yesterday, I experienced the unexpected: Quintuple Heart By-Pass Surgery. Not one, not two but five by-passes or as we in the club refer to as "full re-wiring."

Up until five weeks before the surgery, I had no idea how close to the cardio edge I was walking. I knew that I wasn't feeling good, but I had dismissed it to everything that had been on the front burners in my life.

When a angioplasty procedure failed, I was told by my doctors that I needed "just one" by-pass. Thus I was whisked off to Christ Hospital in Chicago for surgery the next morning. I was not told how serious my condition was, but the hospital contacted my cousin Rocky, who was in Texas hearing a arbitration case and got him on the first flight back to Chicago - about 15 minutes before I was taken into surgery.

After waiting for four hours, my doctors came out to inform Rocky that I had to have five by-passes. I am told that his response was, "Well, Jim never does anything in moderation." How well he knows me.

Surgeries such as mine does not cure a person of cardiac disease. It gifts us with time - time for life and the opportunity to re embrace it. But the important thing is that we have to find every opportunity to embrace it and in doing so we have to make some radical changes in our lives.

The physical part of the recovery process takes between 10 to 12 months. This is only for the physical part of the healing such massive surgery. The emotional, psychological and spiritual part of the healing processes takes longer. A lot longer.

There are four things that are guaranteed to undermine the well-being of cardiac patients: stress, bad-diet/no exercise, depression and stress. (you noticed that I said the word stress twice.)

If cardiac patients are not able to avoid unnecessary stress in their lives, we simply will kill ourselves before our cardiac disease will do it for us.

I must now willingly admit and take responsibility for permitting so much unnecessary stress to drown so much of these first three years of my post-opt journey.

Ironically, most of the dysfunctional stress of these past three years was came from the least expected avenue within my life - my faith community.

Having my life saved has changed my perspective of life on so many levels. I now welcome the gift of each new day and the opportunity to make the most of each day.

I am a cleric within the Evangelical Catholic Church. My priesthood and my episcopal ministry is the totality of my life. I did not become a priest for the title, social standing or for any of the other perks that so often become attached to clerics, religious and bishops. I became a priest because I accepted God's invitation to serve and to be part of something that is greater than myself.

The purpose of this particular blog is not to go into the sad dynamics I permitted myself to struggle with during these past three years. Rather, the purpose is to encourage everyone to do whatever it takes to spare themselves from the unnecessary and avoidable stress that does such harm to our physical, emotional and spiritual health.

It took three years of various forms of hell to finally start dealing with the various forms of stress undermining my life. For non-confrontation wimps like myself, confronting those who were wearing me down did not come easy. But I finally found the courage to stop being a coward and to start protecting my health and well-being.

And if I can do it, anyone else can.

So on this third anniversary of receiving the gift of life, I find my physical, emotional and spiritual life happy and peaceful.

I still find myself wondering how and why this all happened. Considering how critical I was, I often wonder why I survived my operation and returned to my life when so many others did not.

But I do know one thing. I have today to make the best of and God-willing, I will have tomorrow also.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest

Chicago, Illinois

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm

The Hate Mongers Take Aim at Elena Kagan

Though I have been a student and teacher of American History for some years, I have to confess that I am not a political junkie. nor do I following the daily reports about the workings of our Supreme Court. Like all citizens, I am interested in those men and women who are nominated by the President to a lifetime position on the Court.

Prior to her nomination, I had no idea who Elena Kagan is or of her history of work within the academic field of law.

We all knew that the retirement of Justice Stevens would be taking place relatively soon. I believe that Justice Stevens has served the Court with honor and dignity. His retirement is well-earned and it has been my sincere hope that his seat would be filled by another honorable person.

When President Obama announced Dr. Kagan's nomination to the Court, I knew that the political pundits would start to their pro and con posturing regarding Dr. Kagan's qualification.

What has surprised me the most about the various responses about Dr. Kagan's nomination has been the campaign to label her as a lesbian. Some of our homophobic bloggers have incorporated in their own blogging rants, cartoons of Dr. Kagan with "lesbian overtones" as vile as how the Nazi's once did cartoons and drawings of the Jewish people.

These behaviors are simple examples of the ever growing social and moral illness that encourages hate and rage against someone when there is nothing of worth to critique and review.

I am interested in learning about Dr. Kagan's professional qualifications to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Anything else is a waste of our collective time - no matter how many thousands of words are spewed with hate and ignorance.

Sincerely Yours,

+James Alan Wilkowski
Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest
Chicago, Illinois

http://www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm

Jesus v. Bloggers

While I don't wish to become preoccupied with the matter of anonymous trash bloggers soiling the Internet, I was thinking - during my drive from my residence to the 3:00 PM Mass at Holy Family - about the endless grief Jesus would have had to endure had anonymous bloggers been around to trash him on the Internet.

I can imagine the Blog Headlines:

Illegitimate Son of Carpenter's Wife Son of Satan

Road Bums Grift for Food and Lodging

Jesus Gets Hot Oil Rub-down From Whore

You all get the idea? I bet you can picture some loon sitting at their computer to shrieking their hatred onto the net - just for the sake of doing so and knowing that they can hide their true identity and avoid moral responsibility.

I have been saddened to watch a colleague-in-ministry undergo a hideous series of vulgar attacks by an anonymous blogger. He and I have spoken about this exercise in sickness and I have been impressed with his attitude - "the truth will always break through the darkness of evil."

We both agree that if Jesus begun his public ministry in this time in history - the sickness of some bloggers would make the passion of Jesus pale by comparison.

It at time that I believe the best course of action to take is to deeply take into heart the words of Jesus himself: "Father, they do not know what they do."

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest
Chicago, Illinois

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm

A Reminder to British Petroleum: Clean Up Your Mess

I realize that I am speaking to the choir when I say that the disaster created by British Petroleum has caused great harm to the safety of our planet.

I am not an expert in the field of oil drilling. I would hope that the experts in their field can come up with a solution to cap off this well and stop the oil for flowing into our ocean.

BP has been very quick to say that they wish to take responsibility for the disaster - but only to a certain limit.

I am sorry to point out that BP cannot hide behind "limits."

They are the cause of this mess and it is their mess to clean up. No matter how much it takes.

Sincerely Yours in Chirst,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest
Chicago, Illinois

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm

....Some Additional Thoughts: Ending Anonymous Blogs and Bloggers

My previous article spoke to the tragic case of Phoebe Prince. I chose to limit my observations only to her particular case and no to meander off with countless side points.

After publishing the last article, I spent some additional time visiting several "blogs," which represents the lowest levels of human and social ignorance I have seen to date. Because I agree with those psychologists who believe that what these anonymous bloggers crave the feedback of outrage they receive from those who are functioning at a higher emotional and psychological level.

It would be interesting to research the question of the number of anonymous trash blogs v. those which strives for serious conversation and education. Just from my casual stroll through blog land, I found the numbers of trash blogs outnumbering the rest.

Since the majority of the anonymous trash blogs seems to have been created solely for the purposes of racism, character assassination and vicious gossip and lies - the question thus being begged is how our laws regarding slander and libel are not being applied to internet bloggers?

As a teacher of American History, I will defend the right of any person to express their political and social beliefs. But I cannot - nor do I believe that most psychologically healthy people - can accept the anonymous trash being posted on blogs.

I realize that my frustrations are mostly in vain because of the emotional illnesses of our anonymous trash bloggers. But I do believe that my frustrations about these anonymous bloggers escaping accountability for their actions are justified.

I wish there was a legal way to end to option of anonymous blogging. If none exists today, maybe we can work towards ending the option.

How much more enjoyable the internet could be without the trash.


Sincerely Yours in Chirst,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest
and
Presiding Bishop for the Evangelical Catholic Church

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org

How Many More Phoebe Prince's Must Die Before We Reign in Cyber Bullying?

I sometimes fear that I am becoming jaded as I seem to read endless stories of cruelty and injustice being done upon people. It seems that hardly a day goes by when one does not come across some story an individual falling victim to some form of outlandish and inhumane treatment. I find myself more and more just shaking my head in resignation before moving on to the next item in the papers.

The story of the suicide of Massachusetts high school student Phoebe Prince - a victim of one of the intense campaigns of Cyber Bullying to date - has stunned me to attention.

When I was in high school there were two ways of bullying another student: gossip and writings on bathroom or locker room walls. And back in the day, the prevailing attitude was such acts were those of "kids being kids." As you know, nine of Ms. Prince's classmates have been charged in the Snow case and two of the parents have dismissed the acts of cyber bullying against Ms. Prince as "kids being kids."

There is something very, very wrong here.

As I prepared to post this blog, I spoke with several friends who are also psychologists to ask them to help me to understand the psychological reasons for a person to engage in cyber bullying. These are the points they all asked me to keep in mind.

Most important is the fact that acts of bullying are acts of emotional and psychological abuse. Abusers are individuals who crave control and dominance in order to fulfill something that is lacking with their lives. Abusers profile others whom they believe they can abuse without fear of their victims attempting to defend themselves. The results of psychological testing to be done of those responsible for bullying Ms. Snow will prove educational.

What makes cyber abuse unique is the fact of anonymity. This option provides cowardly abusers with a blank check for their activities without fear of being held accountable.

Within the last year, the reality of cyber bullying has become a reality in my pastoral life. I have found myself included on at least two anonymous "blogs." Both of these blogs provides indictments of the psychological health of the authors rather than towards their intended prey. Unlike Phoebe Prince, I'm a bit older and have grown thicker skin to better dismiss the blogs attempting to bully me.

But what about all of the other Phoebe Prince's in the world who still continue to be tortured by annonymous predators? Most of these young people do have have the coping skills to deal with such matters. Who and what is truly being done to protect these young people? The time has come for our national family to step up and demand action.

It is sad that the potentials for the Internet have been so soiled by those who have used the net for such unsavory purposes. I sincerely doubt that the owners of Facebook, MySpace others would impliment serious policies and a zero tolerance policy regarding cyber bullying. Hopefully our government can create new policies to regulate and potect people of cyber bullying.

Several years ago a move began to encourage parents to monitor which sites their children could access and also to monitor all that which was being address to their children. Maybe we need to also encourage parents to monitor what their children are publishing on their Facebook, My Space and Blogs.

Most anonymous blogger bullies love the attention from the feedback they generate. It is part of their illness.

Until such time when regulations are enacted to protect us from the sickness of cyber bullies, the best we can do is to ignore the bullies. Once bullies realize that their sites are being ignored - we take back control in our lives.

I pray that we won't have to bury any more of our children until such needed regulations are enacted.

I remain,

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

+James Alan Wilkowski

Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest
and
Presiding Bishop for the Evangelical Catholic Church
Chicago, Illinois

www.evangelicalcatholicchurch.org/northwest.htm