'ARCHBISHOP' DOLAN'S CHEESEHEAD HOMILY

"Archbishop Timothy Dolan offered a Mass outdoors on September 8, 2002, which also happened to be the opening day of the NFL season. The Packers were playing the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field in Green Bay at the same time. Dolan had just been installed as Archbishop of Milwaukee a week and a half earlier. At the start of his homily, he pulled out a cheesehead and briefly wore it while stating that although he had been living in St. Louis, he is originally from Milwaukee and he knows how important the Packers are to the people of Wisconsin. He made a comment about still being a Cardinals fan in baseball but wanted to assure everyone when it came to football he is a Packers fan. The people got a laugh out of it."

NOW Comments: This comes from a defense of his actions on the Catholic Answers Forums site and was meant to deflect criticism, such as found on Traditio, where it is included in a photo gallery as "'Cheesehead' Mess in which the performer of the Mess wears a mitre of cheddar cheese." (See Novus Ordo Service Photo Gallery and scroll down). The point of Dolan's defender is that he wasn't doing anything so bad as offering Mass in such ridiculous garb, merely giving a homily and even, then, only at the beginning. And guess what? No one was scandalized, in fact, those in attendance "got a laugh out of it." And if they get a laugh, how can it be so bad. Never mind that the man is supposed to be representing Christ and that he makes a mockery of what is supposed to be something holy. Let's not forget that while he may not have been wearing the ludicrous headgear in the midst of celebrating the "Mass," still the homily is something that is given during the service, so for all intents and purposes the sacrilege is the largely the same, either way. Do we think that Dolan deliberately is making a mockery? Not necessarily, because the now middle aged generation of clerics have largely been schooled in post-Vatican II seminaries where one must speak not of the formation of a vocation, but its deformation. His yuck-yuck moment is consistent with the casual, informal, even irreverent liturgical style that points not to worship, but "fellowship." For a true bishop to engage in such buffoonery would always be considered beneath the dignity of his station as a shepherd of souls, as a successor to the Apostles, but nowhere more so than in the sanctuary while a Mass was being offered. That the Catholic Answers people, who are supposed to uphold the orthodox Catholic position on issues, would defend this shows to what a level the notion of the episcopacy has sunk within the ranks of the Novus Ordo church.