Wampum

In 1610 the Concordat Wampum Belt with the Vatican was woven, affirming the Mi'kmaw (Wabenaki) right to choose Catholicism, Mi'kmaw (Wabanaki) tradition, or both. The image of the church in the wampum belt contains a window, a window connecting those inside the church with those outside the church.

In 1990 Donald Edmond Pelotte, Abenaki and member of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, became the third Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, and the first Indian to elevated to Bishop.

In April 2004 Francis Cardinal Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments said that public figures who are "unambiguously pro-abortion" must be refused Communion.

In June 2004 Bishop Pelotte of Gallup went to Rome and asked Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, if Arinze's refutation of the position of the US Bishops' Task Force on Catholics in politics on the question of Communion and dissenting politicians, was the position of the the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the position of the Pope.

Donald Pelotte's doctoral thesis at Fordham University was entitled "John Courtney Murray, Theologian in Conflict: Roman Catholicism and the American Experience", and was a historical and theological analysis of the relationship of the Church and State in the United States and the American experience of religious freedom. The dissertation was published by Paulist Press in 1976 for the American Bicentennial and was granted the Catholic Book of the Month Award by the Catholic Book Club in October, 1976.

Cardinal Ratzinger gave no direct answer and only advised caution and stated that to refuse Communion was a very serious thing.

In 1984 Donald Pelotte gave the closing liturgy for the Tekakwitha Conference, followed by Powwow and Chicken Scratch Dancing, and preceded by a session on the four lessons from Vatican II. In 1986 he gave the closing liturgy. In 1989 he gave the opening prayers, followed by group prayers in Mohawk and Hupa. In 1990, now a Bishop, the first Amerind Bishop of the Roman Church in 497 years since Inter caetera, he gave the Eucharistic Liturgy.

Any American Bishop could have gone to Rome to task Cardinal Ratzinger with the obvious question, but it was an Abenaki who actually did, and that is why pro-choice Catholics, dissenters, may receive communion.

As I listened to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. do four YouTube reels plus another reel of Q&A at the Press Club last Monday, I was aware of the similarities of the modern Puritan Church, the Church MB and I married in, the United Church of Christ, Rev. Wright Jr.'s church, and the Wabenaki Catholicism of MB's mom, Pat, and its shared tradition of Social Justice.

Both are as distant as the breath of the eastern sea from the cult of privilege, the Word of Faith cult that has hallowed out the pillars of the "values voters."

Here is something worth reading. Sara Robinson's What (Else) Is Going On. If you have an opinion on Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and you don't read it, you've lost a quarter hour of your life you can't get back, and quite possibly are stuck with an opinion that isn't really yours.