The Churches: Braxton beef continued

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Braxton beef continued

Chi Trib has an excellent rundown by Manya A. Brachear, who should have been named in my Chicago Newspapers blog as exception to Trib’s giving short shrift to religion reporting. The reporting on this story seems quite thorough, and the piece reads well, that is, easily. She sets the scene:

Braxton's appointment--three times faster than most--was announced just weeks after priests and laity had been granted a request to share what they thought were important qualities in a new bishop. Chicago's Cardinal Francis George had encouraged them to ask parishioners what traits they would like to see.
Braxton, a skilled theologian with little pastoral experience and a reputation as a stickler, was not what they had in mind.
The bishop's first order of business also appalled them--a request for funds to renovate the bishop's residence, a three-story home on nearly 2 acres at the edge of town. In addition to spending the $25,000 allotted in the diocese's budget, Braxton raised donations to help pay for a new heating and cooling system, interior and exterior paint job and new floors.

And offers the other side:

Supporters from Braxton's former diocese of Lake Charles, La., said he will use the home as the center of his ministry. They speculated that Vatican officials wanted to fill the vacancy quickly because Gregory's term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the height of the sexual abuse crisis drew significant time and attention away from the diocese.
Former seminary classmates and acquaintances also said Braxton's prickly personality has been shaped by a struggle against racism in the church that threatened to stymie his rise in the hierarchy.
"I prefer to think there was deliberation and some good pastoral reason for the appointment being quicker than usual," said Rev. John Myler, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Belleville. "The house is a sign of his commitment to us. It made me think that he plans to stay here."

And captures some excellent quotes:

Rev. Clyde Grogan, who oversees ministries in East St. Louis, counts on his right hand what he calls the "Killer B's," or those politicians and clergy who do not have the community's best interests at heart: "Benedict, Bush, Blagojevich, Blunt and Braxton"--a list including the pope, the president and the governors of Illinois and Missouri. [Rev. Clyde may some day, may even now regret that statement.]

and

"He has a sense of formality about him that can be off-putting to some people, that might leave one with the impression that he is distant or aloof," said Rev. Stephen Gira, a religious order priest in Belleville who worked in St. Louis when Braxton was an auxiliary bishop there. "It makes people feel he might be cold and not able to get down to the common person and understand the common person in the pew."

and one that lends credibility to possibility of race-based prickliness:

At St. Mary of the Lake seminary in Mundelein, classmates saw firsthand the obstacles faced by the Chicago native as he entered into his career. One classmate said that when the seminarians were asked to provide their draft board numbers, Braxton was told he was reading his incorrectly: "No, son, you're wrong. Your type don't live in that area."
For the fellow seminarian, who asked not to be identified, the moment illustrated the attitudes Braxton would have to overcome to rise in the church hierarchy.

Former St. Catherine & St. Lucy parishioner Jake Buettner is quoted to good effect, capturing the resentment Braxton engendered there. The “firing” of the “beloved nun,” however, might better be put this way, as I remember it as a parishioner:

He offered her a contract she would not sign, including in its provisions a stop to her preaching at masses, which she had been doing as part of the rotation. She had become a parish fixture. Her preaching was ex-lex (illegal). Braxton acted boldly, angering many while removing a bur from under the saddle of others, for whom her preaching was like chalk scraped on blackboard. If it hadn’t been for Braxton, however, she might still be there, since she also is black, and racism would have been added to sexism and conservatism as arguments against a white pastor’s requiring her to abide by the rules.