By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — An Illinois bishop reminded the annual Red Mass for public officials here that honoring conscience truly can require that a price be paid, even though “conscience” also is invoked by those who want to exempt themselves from following God’s law expressed in Church teaching.
Thomas Paprocki, bishop of Springfield, told listeners at St. Mary’s Basilica here on January 20 that his diocese’s Catholic Charities lost a $6 million contract with the state of Illinois because, honoring orthodox moral teaching, the diocesan adoption services wouldn’t place children with homosexual or cohabiting couples.
Paprocki, an accomplished prelate who also is an attorney and a hockey player, told his audience at the evening service that he would reflect on the implications when the civil law and tenets of the Catholic faith diverge or even disagree with each other.
The Red Mass has been celebrated in Phoenix since 1970 to mark the beginning of the year’s work at the state legislature. The service is attended by legislators, judges, attorneys, and other officials.
Seated in the front row was the recently inaugurated new governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, a pro-life, Catholic Republican who went to the pulpit to offer the first reading.
A little to Ducey’s left was State Sen. Catherine Miranda, a Catholic Democrat who broke with her party in the 2014 election by citing the abortion issue and endorsing Ducey over the pro-abortion extremist that the Democrats ran for governor, Fred DuVal.
That could be a good example of honoring conscience.
Miranda offered one of the intercessions from the pulpit during this Mass, which lasted nearly an hour and a half.
In the second row was the Phoenix area’s chief prosecutor, Bill Montgomery, also a Catholic.
Paprocki’s scheduled appearance generated a brief media flurry earlier in January when some state legislators, citing the alleged views of Pope Francis, objected because of the bishop’s reputation defending traditional marriage.
Reporter Howard Fischer, of Capitol Media Services, wrote in a story posted January 11 that Paprocki “gained headlines slightly more than a year ago when he conducted ‘Prayers of supplication and exorcism in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage.’ It was conducted the same day [Illinois Gov.] Pat Quinn signed into law the redefinition of marriage, an act Paprocki said during the service amounted to ‘institutionalizing an objectively sinful reality’.”
Fischer quoted a homosexual Democrat member of the Arizona House, Robert Meza, saying that Paprocki’s stand is “out of character with what the pope has been saying.”
The reporter also quoted a liberal Republican in the Arizona House, Kate Brophy McGee, as saying, “I’m going to go with the pope on this one” because the Pope’s message is “to grow our Church and grow our understanding of God and not let anybody feel that they’re not worthy to be in front of God.”
This was another reminder of how the Pope’s casual comments can be misused by others.
The Diocese of Phoenix didn’t apologize for or rescind the invitation to Paprocki, with Arizona Catholic Conference executive director Ron Johnson being quoted by Capitol Media Services that Paprocki is “a legal scholar in both canon law and civil law as well.”
Paprocki, who spoke in clear, conversational tones during his 17-minute homily, said a person may have knowledge of the law but not the intellect to interpret it, or he may have the intellect but not the will to follow it. Lack of will can be corrected “by practicing the virtue of fortitude,” he said.
The bishop recalled that St. Peter and the apostles told the authorities, “We must obey God rather than men.”
“Conscience . . . means to share knowledge with someone else about what is right or wrong,” Paprocki said, noting that some invoke conscience when they reject following God’s law in Church teaching, although St. Thomas More, the lord chancellor in 16th-century England, stood firmly on the side of Church law and God.
A portrait of More was positioned across from the pulpit in the basilica here.
More was executed as a traitor for opposing King Henry VIII’s break with Rome and unauthorized second marriage.
Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1978, Paprocki served as chancellor under Chicago’s Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.
Paprocki recalled that the cardinal was known for his theory of the “consistent ethic of life,” which unfortunately sometimes was used by others to “water down” fundamental Church teaching — such as viewing opposing abortion as only one of various ethical elements to observe.
“I know this misapplication of the consistent ethic of life deeply troubled Cardinal Bernardin,” Paprocki said, quoting the cardinal as saying, “That is a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it.”
It’s insufficient to help the poor but “ignore the right to life,” or to defend traditional marriage but not help the needy, the Springfield bishop said, having noted that “working for justice is essential to preaching the Gospel.”
As a new priest, he said, he hadn’t just wanted to talk about the poor but to help them, and in 1981 he established a Catholic legal services clinic.
In a lighter spirit, the sports-minded Paprocki noted that Phoenix and Chicago professional hockey teams were playing each other the same evening as his homily, and he could have had a “double-header” by following up the Phoenix Mass by attending that game, except the sporting event was held back in Chicago.
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