The Working Catholic: Baseball Ethics by Bill Droel

A woman in a friendly poker game is dealt a lousy hand. Nonetheless, she leans in with a sparkle in her eye. She bets with confidence. On her turn to draw cards, she requests zero. Her bluff or gamesmanship is part of poker. It’s normal, expected and ethical.

Her roommate, who is not playing, circles the table, replenishing drinks. Her roommate gives the woman a small cue about the prospects for the other players. This is cheating. Anyone who plays poker, even casually, knows what is acceptable bluffing and knows that hiding an extra card or getting outside information is cheating.

As the batter is rounding first, the second baseman pretends to get a throw from the right fielder, who is still fumbling in the corner. The batter/base runner halts and returns to first. This is bluffing. It’s normal, expected and ethical. The next batter uses a drug that supposedly enhances performance. This is cheating. Anyone who plays baseball, even on a sandlot, knows what is acceptable bluffing and knows that corking a bat or taking PEDs is cheating.

The Houston Astros know that a base runner can acceptably steal signs; that’s part of the game. They also know that hiding a camera or a buzzer or a telescope in the scoreboard or the outfield stands is cheating. Children know the difference. High-paid baseball executives know the difference.

If the rules of a game change, the boundary difference between bluffing and cheating can move. Some suggest that teams be allowed to have sign-recognition technology in the outfield stands. Presumably both teams will have this allowance. If such becomes the rule, sign-stealing by way of outfield devices is no longer stealing; it is technology-enhanced gamesmanship. It is also, by the way, no longer an advantage.

Any change along those lines, in my opinion, takes baseball further away from its natural setting and further into video-dimension and cyber-reality. Who needs umpires if the rules establish K-Zone as the arbiter? Who needs human players if a video game is no longer a simulation but is taken for the real thing? That’s one fan’s opinion.

Mike Fiers was on the Houston Astros through 2017, though he did not play in their World Series championship. He then went to Detroit and in August 2018 was traded to the Oakland A’s. There have been rumors about Astros’ cheating for some time, but in recent weeks Fiers told a journalist what he knew about hidden cameras and electronic devices in Houston.

Jessica Mendoza is an announcer with ESPN, mostly on TV. She is also a paid advisor to the New York Mets. On an ESPN radio show, Golic and Wingo, she expressed disappointment with Fiers for tattling. She thinks Fiers could perhaps have talked to the baseball commissioner, but should not have talked to the press.

A high school student knows that a classmate steals a Pepsi each day in the lunchroom. There is probably no need for tattling, for breaking the bonds of student solidarity. A parish priest knows that a fellow priest has improper contact with children. He does not immediately call the police. Instead, he presumes others know the situation and, despite many examples to the contrary, assumes the church bureaucracy knows best. A code of silence and a culture of secrecy soon bankrupt the entire church—financially and morally. Four police detectives know that a colleague has brutalized a suspect. They do not immediately notify the states attorney, presuming that the police bureaucracy will catch up if warranted. A code of silence soon enough erodes trust on the streets and endangers the safety of police and citizens.

Maybe the Astros are like high school students. The manager and general manager look like adults and are paid like adults. But maybe their code of silence is akin to high school shenanigans and, though it blemishes a cherished sport, maybe their behavior is not sufficiently grave.

Mendoza, to be clear, was not applauding Astros’ behavior. But she should know that cheating is different from bluffing; that cheating spoils a good game and it erodes trust in our aching society. Her radio comment about Fiers was inappropriate, particularly coming from a journalist.

Droel edits a newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS FOR A CHURCH IN CRISIS

SOURCES FOR THE FOLLOWING REFLECTIONS:


Leonardo Boff, Sacraments of Life-Life of the Sacraments,  Pastoral Press, Washington D.C. 1975

John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, Harper San Francisco, 1999

William Droel, Patty Crowley–Lay Pioneer, Loyola, Chicago, 2016

Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1983 & A Spirituality Named Compassion, 1979

Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, Orbis Books, New York, 1973 &  The Power of the Poor in History, Orbis Books, New York, 1983

Roger Haight, Christian Community in History, Vols. I&2, Continuum, New York, 2004

Hans Kung, The Church, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1967

Frederic Martel, In the Closet of the Vatican, Bloomberg Continuum, London etc. 2019

Matthew’s Gospel

J.M. O’Conner, O.P. Paul – A Critical Life, Oxford, 1997

T.F. O’Meara, O.P. & Paul Philibert, O.P.  Scanning the Signs of the Times, ATF Theology, 2013

Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians and the Hebrews

E. Schillebeeckx, O.P. The Eucharist, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1968

                                    The Church with a Human Face, Crossroad, N.Y. 1985

                                    Understanding of Faith, Seabury Press, New York, 1974



INTRODUCTION


In his Commonweal article, “When Bishops Meet,” by J. O’Malley, S.J., O’Malley notes that Vatican II “Proponents of change defended their position by making use of ‘ressourcement,’” back to the sources.

Vatican II brought about changes, but defended the priestly hierarchical structure of the Church.  Some Council bishops and theologians saw a problem, and looked to the Jesus community in Galilee and the early Church as a ‘ressourcement’ guide for the future.  Such a guide is important in the wake of current events.  It is so needed because of the pedophile crisis and the recognition by many of the faithful that the hierarchical structure is a catalyst and a cause of this crisis. James Carroll wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, “A power structure that is accountable only to itself will always end up abusing the powerless.” Changes that reaffirm the clerical structure assure the destruction of the Church as we know it.  Perhaps this would be for the best.

Please consider the following post-Vatican II reflections from the books listed above and a pre-Vatican II reflection by Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P. who understood the historical nature of dogma in the early twentieth century and was part of the run-up to Vatican II:

Leonardo Boff, O.F.M.

“The sacraments are not the private property of the sacred hierarchy.” Boff, p. 7

John Dominic Crossan

 “Across twenty-five years of publications Koestler has emphasized, concerning such texts as the Q Gospel and the Gospel of Thomas, that, for example, faith is understood as belief in Jesus words, a belief which makes what Jesus proclaimed present and real for the believer”… Faith is not just in words but in the God who through words demands deeds. Crossan, p. 406 

John Dominic Crossan, in a chapter on Gender and Communal Equality quotes theologian Deborah Rose-Gaier from her paper on the Didache an early Church document: “there are no prohibitions recorded against women as trainers, baptizers, eucharistizers, apostles, prophets, or teachers so it must be assumed that those functioning roles within the community were open to women.” Crossan, p. 371

Crossan summarizes his section on Meal and Community: “…it is in food and drink offered equally to everyone that the presence of God and Jesus is found.  But food and drink are the material bases of life, so the Lord’s Supper is a political and economic challenge as well as a sacred rite and liturgical worship.” Crossan, p. 444 

Acts and Pastoral letters etc. used to support hierarchical vs. Charismatic structure of church.  Kung, p. 180, Crossan, Life Death Split

William Droel 

Patty Crowley Lay Pioneer, Loyola University, Chicago, 2016

Chicago St. Mary of the Lake Seminary Professor and CFM advisor Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand repeatedly insisted that, “the basic theology of CFM and similar movements was centered in the correct understanding of the Mass as a corporate act.” Droel, p. 31

Matthew Fox

“The key  to understanding compassion is to enter into a consciousness of interdependence which is a consciousness of equality of being.”  Original Blessing, p. 279  “Compassion is about feelings of togetherness suspended egos or the feeling of  kinship with all fellow creatures.   This kinship in turn urges us to celebrate our kinship.”  Spirituality Named Compassion, p. 14

 Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P.

“…theology of liberation offers not so much a new theme for reflection but an new way to do theology.  Theology as a critical reflection on historical praxis is a liberating theology, a theology of liberating transformation of the history of mankind…” A Theology of Liberation, p. 15

“He (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) had moved toward a theological outlook whose point of departure is in a faith lived by exploited classes, condemned ethnic groups and marginalized cultures.” The Power of the Poor in History p. 233

Roger Haight, S.J.

 Christian Community in History, Vols. I & 2, Continuum, New York, 2004

“On becoming the religion of the empire (Roman) the church began to be conceived in legal political terms; it was the legitimate religion of the empire.  Its political privileges urged it toward institutional totality and regimentation.  Increasingly church life became more passive and centered in liturgical cult and devotional practices. p. 247, Vol. 1                                                       

Reference to Schillebeeckx,  The Church with a Human Face, p. 142-43 

“When the formulations of the central doctrines of Christianity are recognized as examples of inculturation, they no longer appear as absolute or a-historical propositions, but as classic and paradigmatic examples of the principle of inculturation which cannot be bypassed because of the role they play in defining the church’s beliefs.”  p. 258, Vol. 1

“He (theologian Cameron, European Reformation, p. 148) describes the terminus a quo in terms of the priesthood that emerged out of the Gregorian reform (Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085):  the priesthood was set apart from and above other Christians, by the indelible character or sacramental ordination, its legal privileges, ritual celibacy, clerical dress and tonsure, and above all by the sacrificial and miraculous ritual of the mass.” p. 75, Vol. 2

“Liberation theology, of course, is theology, that is an understanding of faith and of reality in the light of faith.” p. 411, Vol. 2 

“The discipline of theology attempts to mediate the understanding of the object of the Christian communities faith. As such it engages reflecting and thinking people.  p. viii, Vol. 1

Hans Kung

The Church, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1967

(Forward gives thanks to Tubingen colleague Joseph Ratzinger. Joe is referenced 5 times.  As Pope he took the name Benedict XVl.  The book is stamped, ‘Nihil Obstat” – no doctrinal error- Patrick Casey, Vicar General, Westminster, 1967)

“…the later Church cannot simply and totally exclude the Pauline constitution.  While it is unlikely to become a norm for the Church, this view might, even today, be of importance for certain missionary situations.  We cannot suppose that the Church of the present time would wish or would be able to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Corinth and other Pauline communities – the sudden outpouring of a charism of leadership through the freedom of the Spirit of God-given  particular and possible situations, for instance: a concentration camp, a remote prison from which there is no possibility of escape, or an extreme missionary situation, say communist China – Japanese Christians after all lived for centuries without any ordained pastors.  … What happens, for example, if a Christian finds himself in an extreme missionary situation, and then, under inspiration of the Spirit and on the basis of his priesthood as a believer, gathers together a small group, a little community, through the impact of his Christian witness,  baptizes them and celebrates with them the Lord’s Supper?  Can such a man, even though he has received no special commission from men, not be a charismatic pastor after the Pauline communities?”    Kung, p. 443      

“Faith in an ultimate and radical sense cannot properly be distinguished from love.  It is a personal activity directed towards a personal recipient.  Faith is never, in the final analysis, a matter of adherence to objects, rules or dogmas, but is the sacrifice and self giving of one person to another.  ‘What seems to be decisive in any act of faith is the the person to whose words approval is given.’ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, q. 11, a. 1. 


“But radical personal self-giving, something in each and every case will be unconditional and irrevocable, can only be made to God; only God can be believed, in the fullest and most radical sense of the word.  To believe in a man in this absolute and completely unconditional sense would be to make him into an idol, only God can be believed, in the fullest and radical sense of the word.”  Kung, p. 31

“There appears to be no monarchical episcopate in the Pauline communities… There appears to be no ordination in the Pauline communities…” Kung, p. 402

“…the later Church cannot simply and totally exclude the Pauline constitution.  While it is unlikely to become a norm for the Church, this view might, even today, be of importance for certain missionary situations.  We cannot suppose that the Church of the present time would wish or would be able to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Corinth and other Pauline communities – the sudden outpouring of a charism of leadership through the freedom of the Spirit of God-given  particular and possible situations, for instance: a concentration camp, a remote prison from which there is no possibility of escape, or an extreme missionary situation, say communist China – Japanese Christians after all lived for centuries without any ordained pastors.  … What happens, for example, if a Christian finds himself in an extreme missionary situation, and then, under inspiration of the Spirit and on the basis of his priesthood as a believer, gathers together a small group, a little community, through the impact of his Christian witness,  baptizes them and celebrates with them the Lord’s Supper?  Can such a man, even though he has received no special commission from men, not be a charismatic pastor after the Pauline communities?”  Kung, p. 443       

“According to Acts, Chapter 2, the spirit has been poured out ‘on all flesh.”

“In a Church or community where only ecclesiastical officials rather than all the members of the community are active, ether is grave reason to wonder whether the Spirit has not been sacrificed along with spiritual gifts.”  Kung, 187 

“The fundamental error of ecclesiologies … was that they failed to realize that all who hold office are primarily not dignitaries but believers, members of the fellowship of believers; and that compared with this fundamental Christian fact any office they may hold is of secondary if not tertiary importance. … Does this mean that community precedes ecclesiastical office, or that the community rather than the office is the higher authority?  There is no question of having to make a choice in the new testament, where we find both community and office represented as equal authorities … “ Kung, p. 363   

“The charisms of leadership in the Pauline Churches did not at all events produce a ‘ruling class’, an aristocracy of those endowed with the Spirit who separated themselves from the community and rose above it in order to rule over it.” Kung, p. 187

“In more precise terms: on the one hand, faith as man’s act of radical self-offering and trusting acceptance of grace, is a condition of baptism.” Kung, p. 207                                                           

“According to Acts, chapter 2, the spirit has been poured out ‘on all flesh,.”  “In a Church or community where only ecclesiastical officials rather than all the members of the community are active, ether is grave reason to wonder whether the Spirit has not been sacrificed along with spiritual gifts.”  Kung, p. 187

“All the faithful belong to the people of God; there must be no clericalization of the Church.”  Kung, p. 125

“The charisms of leadership in the Pauline Churches did not at all events produce a ‘ruling class’, an aristocracy of those endowed with the Spirit who separated themselves from the community and rose above it in order to rule over it.”  Kung, p. 187


“Acts and Pastoral letters etc. used to support hierarchical vs. Charismatic structure of church.”  Kung, p. 180 


“In more precise terms: on the one hand, faith as man’s act of radical self-offering and trusting acceptance of grace, is a condition of baptism.” Kung, p. 207


Frederic Martel                                                                                                                                 In the Closet of the Vatican, Bloomberg Continuum, London, 2019

“The Pope is a monarch.  He can protect the people he likes in all circumstances, without anyone being able to stop him.” Martel, p. 58

Pope Francis – “We are not a tyrant, but a Christian King, and our anger is subject to leniency.”  Martel, p. 97

Matthew’s Gospel

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your father, which is in heaven. Mt. 23:9

Jesus speaks about ‘Hypocrites’ – see vs. 13,14,15.

Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, O.P.  

“I Corinthians 11: 11-12 is the first and only explicit defence of the complete equality of women in the New Testament.”  “Paul overturned the traditional argument from the chronological priority of the male in the creation narrative by pointing out that the chronological priority of women in the birth of a male is just as much a part of God’s plan for creation.” J.M.O., p. 29             

 E. Schillebeeckx, O.P.

 The Eucharist, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1968.

“The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) used the term transubstantiation.”  p. 50 

“Both Bonaventure and Thomas, for example, presented it in the same way.  “…because a presence of this kind cannot come about unless it does so by means of a change of the reality of the  bread into Christ’s body, we must accept transubstantiation.” pp. 48, 49

The Church with a Human Face, Crossroad, New York, 1985.

“Furthermore, in the ancient church the whole of the community of believers concelebrated, albeit under the leadership of one who presided over the community; the Eucharist is a celebration by the community.” p. 145

Synod of Bishops on the Priesthood 1971

“…Bishops (aware) that their priests were caught up in a crisis of identity.” 

 “It is against this background of two powerful extremes, supernaturalism (and fideism) on the one hand and ‘horizontalism’ on the other, that we need to see the second ordinary synod.” p. 212

“This synod did not propose any kind of solution, because it still thought ecclesiologically in a dualistic way and therefore could not provide any meaningful correction on the one hand to supernaturalist conceptions and on the other to conceptions which saw ministry simply as a profession and which did not express its real religious depth, or passed it over.” p.212 

“The general result of this was a return to the one sided approach of the Council of Trent, understandable at that time, which ultimately associates the distinctive character of the official priesthood almost exclusively with the Eucharist and the hearing of confession.”     p. 219 

The Understanding of Faith, Seabury Press, New York, 1974

“Today faith insists that the believer pass through the ordeal of a new interpretation of his faith if he wishes to be faithful to the message of the of the gospel.” p. 3

“…the Christian message or kerygma can only be geared to what is common to all – an increasing resistance to the inhumane and a permanent search for the humane, a search that man himself tries to solve in the praxis of his life (even t

“As soon as we realize that the truth of revelation has not simply come to us out of the blue but that it is expressed as man’s interpretation of faith, with the result that revelation is fundamentally God’s word in human words;”  p. 36

“The significance of the acceptance of a new interpretation of faith by a local church should not be underestimated. Lumen Gentium 28, Ad Gentes 20.” p.71

“Theology is the critical theory of the critical praxis which has this intention (transcendence must be won again and again in the face of historical alienation) and therefore does not hesitate to use meaning and nonsense that have been discovered in man and society by the human analytical and hermeneutic sciences.”  pp. 154-5

Paul’s Epistles

“Ahora bien: es la fe la garantía (hypostasis) de lo que espera, la prueba de cosas que no se ven, pues por ella adquirieron gran nombre los antiguos.” Heb. 11:1

(Faith is the guarantee (unification) of that which is hoped for, the proof of things not seen.  It was for Faith that our fathers were praised.)

If the charisms of individual Christians were discovered and furthered and developed, what dynamic power, what life and movement there would be in such a community, such a Church.  ‘Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying.’ I Thes. 5:19 

Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.

“The action of the Holy Spirit is not exclusively to be found in our chiefs, although in this case they are promised a special assistance … (It) is diffused through the whole church, giving life to the faithful and breathing truth into them affording them grace and useful impulses, listening as well as speaking.”  (The church is not a solitary monarchy influenced by no one.)  “Is it an autocracy in the full and exclusive sense of the word?  Such a being would be a monster or a maniac.  Every regime of persons is modified by various collaborations without which it would become the most unsupportable tyranny.” Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.  The Church, 1917.  Scanning Signs of the Times. p. 14   

“The fundamental idea in Sertillanges is that all knowledge and every activity are permeated with religion.” Scanning Signs of the Times, p. 16