Defending Ganley

Catholic New Times, April 9, 2006 by Finn Gallagher

As a Johnny-come-lately to CNT, I can hardly question Eileen McCarthy's recollection of CArTs original impulse or her account of the preoccupations of those who celebrated its 20th anniversary (CNT, March 19). My own, limited, experience of the publication, under the aegis of Ted Schmidt and Rosemary Ganley, has been uniformly positive. One of many Vatican II enthusiasts enduring the heart-scalding revisionism of John Paul II's lengthy, regressive reign, I found in CNT a significant catharsis and some glimmer of hope.

Ted Schmidt and I have never met, but I value his constant analysis of our church ever in need of reform. I do know Rosemary Ganley, not only through her lectures and writings, but also for her exemplary record in social-justice activism. Though I might occasionally differ with her, I would never fault her, as McCarthy does, for the sheer vehemence of her well-founded onslaught on "official Roman Catholicism."

McCarthy has "closely collaborated" with some remarkable bishops in her own diocese. Good for her, and for them! A few of my friends have been bishops, and I served on a couple of Emmet Carter's post-Vatican II diocesan commissions, but that experience doesn't blind me to the sad deterioration of the hierarchy, especially under John Paul II, to the point that Ganley's forthright condemnation seems less hyperbole than honest commentary.

When even the Canadian Religious Conference, representing 22,000 nuns, priests and religious brothers, feels obliged to confront the Canadian bishops about their, and the Vatican's, intransigence on several contemporary issues, including the marginalization of women, let us not be dismayed to encounter among feminists such as Ganley a healthy measure of chagrin.

Finn Gallagher

Peterborough, Ont.