In Defense of a Theologian Who Keeps His Promises

by the Most Rev. Fabian W. Bruskewitz

This Op/Ed article, first published in the Oct. 13-19, 2002 issue of the National Catholic Register is reprinted here by permission.

Sixteen years ago, when I was a pastor in Milwaukee, a graduate student in theology at Marquette University, a Protestant, began showing up at my Masses and later for meetings in my office.

We struck up a friendship, and I was delighted to be the one to receive Scott Hahn into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in 1986.

In the years since, I have come to consider him a spiritual son, and I know that he considers me to be his spiritual father. I have enjoyed, as every father does, watching this son "grow up" and do great things with his life.

In his theological and exegetical research, in his lectures and writings, Scott has found a way of conveying the deepest mysteries of our Father's saving plan to hundreds of thousands of people, and he has inspired a generation of young Catholics who are faithful to the magisterium and passionate about the spread of the Gospel.

I was astonished to pick up the latest issue of the New Oxford Review (September 2002) and read an editorial that seemed to heap accusations of an irresponsible kind upon Scott Hahn and his latest book, First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Church and the Trinity (Doubleday).

What the editorialist attacks is Scott's exploration of ancient Catholic (and Jewish) tradition regarding the bridal and maternal actions attributed to the Holy Spirit in the economy of salvation. In this effort, Scott stands in a long line that begins with the very texts of the Sacred Scriptures as they have been interpreted by saints and doctors of the Church, and by the Church's living tradition and liturgy - not to mention by some of the finest orthodox theologians of our generation.

Among others, he quotes from the great Fathers of the Church—St. Methodius of Olympus and St. Ephrem of Syria, who is also a doctor of the Church—and from St. Catherine of Siena (also a doctor), St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Edith Stein. He also cites the contemporary thinking of the eminent Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

All of these have suggested the fruitfulness of the theological reflection on the maternal and bridal dimension of the mission of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, nowhere does Scott suggest any such things as his accuser alleges, let alone change the traditional use of male pronouns to refer to God or the Holy Spirit. In this, the editorialist strangely appears to think, for instance, that our belief in the fatherhood of God somehow establishes a physical "gender identity" for God, and that the overshadowing of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation was somehow a sexual act.

In short, the editorialist seems to distort Scott's ideas into a sick parody.

I am troubled by the harm and confusion that such an attack can have at a time when the Catholic flock in the United States is already reeling from scandal—and at a time when many faithful Catholics are already profoundly distrustful of theologians and biblical exegetes.

I can certainly understand the great sensitivity that many in the Church feel in the face of the cultural onslaught of the radical feminist agenda and the homosexual ideology, and I would be the first to agree that the Church has been less than well-served by many of its theologians and exegetes in recent years.

However, I do feel the need to speak up to defend Scott Hahn's reputation.

Indeed, I would say that, in these times, we need more theologians and exegetes like him—men and women of deep faith who make the sacred page the wood of their theology and who see their work as an ecclesial vocation, carried out in the Church and for the Church and in complete adherence to the supreme teaching authority of the Church.

First Comes Love bears the endorsements of two of my brother bishops, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver and Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh. To their voices I add my own.

More importantly, First Comes Love bears yet another bishop's imprimatur, and for good reason—it is both completely orthodox and exceptionally useful.

Most Rev. Fabian W. Bruskewitz is the Bishop of Lincoln and a member of CUF's episcopal advisory council.

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