Restoring the Calendar, Reset Priority

"Not to labour a point I've been making a lot recently, what has been happening since the 1960s is not, generally speaking, a clear, authoritative, rejection of traditional teaching. It is highly significant that reformers took so much away from the honour given in Mass to the Blessed Sacrament, but we can't conclude that the Church stopped believing in the Real Presence. After all, the Blessed Sacrament is still give some honour in the Novus Ordo. Its significance lies in the fact that, first, the teaching is no longer conveyed so effectively, so the people become less certain about it and may even forget it altogether, and, secondly, that it became possible for priests and theologians to deny it, without their denial being immediately contradicted by the Mass. The vacuum created by the official liturgy ceasing to teach the doctrine clearly, could be filled by unofficial progressive preaching against the doctrine.

That's what they want to do with marriage, by getting rid of the Church's visible discipline on remarriage after divorce."

I have never been one to hide my enthusiasm for the FIUV Position Papers, nay, rather I guess I am ready to shout it from the house tops: take and read! Joseph Shaw has just published another on Septuagesima, Vigils and Octaves with respect to the calendar changes which took place in the Roman Rite. The paper is great, but the above quote comes from an introductory comment on the LMS Chairman's blog. Well worth your time and reflection, both.

Cancer as Friend

"Many people are living with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, especially various forms of cancer. I remember often the advice given me, when I was thirteen and had contracted polio, by a neighbor whose daughter began her experience with the disease a year before. He came to my house, ran my leg through some exercises and said that I was not as severely affected as his daughter. Then he told me: “There is always someone who is worse off than you. Don’t ever feel sorry for yourself.” I have recalled this advice many times, in different circumstances over the years. It was the best advice I ever received. It enables me to encourage others, and many now write to tell me that they have found courage to face their own illness because I am still doing, in an increasingly restricted way, what I have been called upon to do by my office. At the same time, God also purifies us, and I have a sense that I’m being taught to let go, to put aside many of the concerns that have shaped my life, even as a bishop. I welcome that “purification of desires,” because it brings the “Unum necessarium” into clearer focus."

Cardinal George has much to say in an America magazine interview, but I gladly carry this paragraph, especially the last two sentences with me. Saint Francis of Assisi talked about "sister death", but I suspect for most people today the shock effect would come from treating cancer as a friend or companion.

I offer a prayer of petition for myself and the world today: for a purification of desires!

To Release from Bonds

The Gospel for today's Mass is no doubt a text to stir emotions in the light of all the controversy surrounding the recent extraordinary synod in Rome:

     "One sabbath day Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who for eighteen years had been possessed by a spirit that left her enfeebled; she was bent double and quite unable to stand upright. When Jesus saw her he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are rid of your infirmity’ and he laid his hands on her. And at once she straightened up, and she glorified God.

     But the synagogue official was indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, and he addressed the people present. ‘There are six days’ he said ‘when work is to be done. Come and be healed on one of those days and not on the sabbath.’ But the Lord answered him. ‘Hypocrites!’ he said ‘Is there one of you who does not untie his ox or his donkey from the manger on the sabbath and take it out for watering? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has held bound these eighteen years – was it not right to untie her bonds on the sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his adversaries were covered with confusion, and all the people were overjoyed at all the wonders he worked." [Luke 13:10-17]

The question is really what is involved in untying bonds. Apart from physical healing such as that worked by the Lord Jesus for that dear woman on a sabbath, I think clarity and direction, living in and witnessing to the fullness of truth as it comes to us only from Christ is at the essence of freedom. The man or woman who is enabled to live in the light of truth is unbound, unchained. I think that is the whole point of taking the ox or the donkey out for watering each day, isn't it?

I am praying that this year which separates us from the ordinary synod might be graced by a profound experience in the Church of the true freedom which comes from embracing the truth which comes to us from God alone. We really need to come home to Christ in lots of ways; we need to be led and not just given our head.

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

"Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” [Matthew 21:43-44]

I had the great joy and privilege in these last couple days of sharing in the annual gathering of Europe's Oriental Catholic Bishops hosted this year in Lviv by the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) against the backdrop of the 25th Anniversary of that Church's emergence from over 40 years of illegality and persecution by the Soviets. 

It was great that so many brother bishops from other Churches of central and eastern Europe which had suffered a similar fate could be here to rejoice with the UGCC, today a youthful and flourishing Church. Lviv was the city where the Church reemerged twenty-five years ago and on Saturday morning we celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church whose pastor had been one of the ring leaders of the "pseudo sobor" (a synod without bishops) of 1946, which ratified the soviet dictates for the destruction of the Church and received all its property on behalf of the Orthodox. This same church was the first in 1989 to come back to Catholicism and to hear the Holy Father's name commemorated once again in public within the Divine Liturgy. 

What touched me deeply about all the events of these days was the sense of awe which was all pervasive. There was no triumphalism at all but profound gratitude for this work done by God Himself: freeing the Church and then despite the imperfections of the people involved, prospering the work of their hands in the course of these twenty-five years. It could have been someone else elsewhere, but God in His mercy chose to prosper the Church of Kyiv, of the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus! The lot fell to the UGCC!

At some point during an historical presentation on the struggles of these last years and hopes for the future, in light of an honest admission of both the strengths and the weaknesses of the UGCC, the above words from our Lord and Savior came crowding into my thoughts. What do we know about how long the Lord's favor might last? It is more than urgent that we be good tenants of His vineyard, that we prove faithful and prudent stewards of His manifold grace.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Elijah on Mount Horeb

Humanae Vitae

Paul VI, Pope

 (2011-02-16). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

"Consequently, if one does not want to see the mission of generating life exposed to the arbitrary decisions of men, one must of necessity recognize certain absolute limits to the possibility of a human being’s dominion over his or her body and its functions, limits that no one, whether a private individual or someone invested with authority has any right to exceed. And such limits cannot be determined except by the respect owed to the integrity of the human organism and its functions, according to the principles recalled above and according to the correct understanding of the “principle of totality”, explained by our predecessor, Pius XII." (Kindle Locations 204-209)

I must confess that I had a bit of an attack of melancholy when I learned that Blessed Paul VI was not getting an altar upstairs in St. Peter's Basilica. For some reason I presumed an altar for him somewhere, which would then become a focus for respect life devotion and pilgrimage on the Vatican Hill. At any rate, this disappointment moved me on Sunday to pick up and read his great 1968 encyclical again and let it once again work its magic in my soul. 

This short pamphlet is mighty. My first reading at age 18 was disturbed by all the static emanating from the rebellious world around me. At 28, I had the good fortune of attending a seminar and listening to a series of tapes by a Catholic philosopher, a married laymen, eager to share the conversion which the encyclical had worked in his life, eager to confess his sins and omissions in living out his marital vocation with its mission of generating life.

Subsequent decades have always granted new insights and greater courage in defense of marriage and family and allowed me sadly to witness the prophecies therein contained fulfilled and human life, matrimony and family degraded by contraception and the mentality which has opened the floodgates of state interference into the noble mission which is the essence and the crown of Christian matrimony. The decades go by and the quiet whisper of Humanae vitae is still to be heard, not unlike that faint sound which the prophet Elijah experienced on Mount Horeb, calling him back to his prophetic destiny for the sake of the life of the world.

Altar or no, I wish to entrust the precious gift of human life, its generation and defense, to the faithful prophet, who amidst the fright and turmoil of his day, shared with us what he had heard all alone on the mountain of God, Horeb. Blessed Paul VI, pray for us!

Getting the Word out

Today would have started better if I had been on retreat without access to the various means of social communication. As it is, via Facebook, Twitter and my two "Readers", I am sharing the pain of lots of folks burdened by the lies and impositions of others. You might say that in a less virtual world maybe one or two at the most of these people could have shared with me something of what was upon them and I could have communicated back effectively registering my understanding, solidarity and full confidence in the Lord of All. Instead, well, I use Skype to dump on another friend, who pulls out his best emoticons to cheer me up. Nice world we live in!

Truth to be told, not even the human exchange or closeness of Gethsemane was all that consoling (see the Passion Account of Matthew's Gospel):

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”

Let us just say that it all seems to be part of it, although I would pray that the Lord would grant deliverance and show us His merciful kindness! Through the intercession (of a Saturday) of His Most Blessed Mother!

Maria, breit den Mantel aus,

mach Schirm und Schild für uns daraus;

lass uns darunter sicher stehn,

bis alle Stürm vorüber gehn.

Patronin voller Güte,

uns allezeit behüte.

Dein Mantel ist sehr weit und breit,

er deckt die ganze Christenheit,

er deckt die weite, breite Welt,

ist aller Zuflucht und Gezelt.

Patronin voller Güte,

uns allezeit behüte!

Maria, hilf der Christenheit,

zeig deine Hilf uns allezeit;

mit deiner Gnade bei uns bleib,

bewahre uns an Seel und Leib!

Patronin voller Güte,

uns allezeit behüte!

O Mutter der Barmherzigkeit,

den Mantel über uns ausbreit;

uns all darunter wohl bewahr,

zu jeder Zeit in aller Gefahr.

Patronin voller Güte,

uns allezeit behüte.

Good News to be Shared

I am personally profoundly grateful to Cardinal Dolan for having the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic on his radio program. It is well worth a listen (here).

Fruits of the Synod

Remaining in the Truth of Christ: 

Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church.

edited by Robert Dodaro, OSA

2014. Kindle Edition.

"Postmodernity has hurled a mortal dare at the family, because it has designed to substantially modify the relational character of matrimony upon which the family is founded. The Church has only one response that is adequate to this challenge: to announce the gospel of matrimony." (Kindle Locations 1912-1914)

If nothing else comes out of the 2014 Synod, I am happy with Fr. Robert Dodaro's extraordinary editorial effort in bringing together great Catholic teaching on the part of truly worthy and approved, living Catholic authors on the nature and indissolubility of Christian matrimony. The book is worth it for his introductory highlights alone. The appended texts from recent magisterium are also a great reference well worth having close at hand.

This book should be part of every priest's hand library and ought to be enough to get any young man through a good portion of his seminary studies. I would not hesitate to recommend it to non specialists and regular lay folk as well.

The above quote comes from Chapter 7: "Sacramental Ontology and the Indissolubility of Marriage" by Carlo Cardinal Caffarra. No less a treat for me personally, as a canonist living in Kyiv, was Chapter 4: "Separation, Divorce, Dissolution of the Bond, and Remarriage: Theological and Practical Approaches of the Orthodox Churches" by Archbishop Cyril Vasil’, S.J. If I had to pick another favorite, which brought perspective to some of the general notions I had from seminary of the history of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the notion of indissolubility, it would have to be Chapter 5: "Unity and Indissolubility of Marriage: From the Middle Ages to the Council of Trent" by Walter Cardinal Brandmüller.

As I say, I plan to go back to this book and not only for the wealth it provides on the Sacrament of Matrimony, but also on the important topic of our ecumenical approach to the Orthodox.

Penny Loafers Without Socks

In an otherwise lovely, little, preachy video on what it takes to be a church musician, I got sidetracked by the lip service paid to a supposed evil of the Church in our times, referred to as "clericalism". It reminded me of a casual fashion statement which held sway for a long time, especially in summer or in warmer climes, among preppy types and even among a middle-aged social elite (I bet it was the word "elitist" from the video which set me off!). If you don't know what penny loafers are, ask your mother or grandmother! The style was to wear them when dressed casually without socks and oddly enough the practice was never branded as smelly or unhygienic. Now, my father could never have worn penny loafers without socks on an evening out to the golf club for supper with Mom for two reasons: a) you had to have a slim build to fit the model, and more importantly, b) he did not belong to the professional class which could permit itself such a dress down, even if the missus had spent long hours picking trousers, knit shirt and sport coat at some exclusive men's shop.

Anybody who would brand penny loafers without socks as elitist would be laughed out of the house; it was no more and no less than a "guy thing" which persisted for years despite good sense and even comfort (maybe slim guys of a professional social category don't get sweaty feet?). 

Enough! On to "clericalism"! When I was a seminarian in Rome the non plus ultra of clerical dress was the black clerical suit, with white shirt, French cuffs and gaudy cuff links, and something we Americans referred to with the French name "gilet". It was a high button down the front vest with built in Roman collar: very elegant! Personally, I was never tempted to have myself fit for one because of the economic straits of my student days in the eternal city (Imagine that the Italian Lire was gaining in worth against the Dollar for most my four years there!). Lanky, long arms more or less took me out of the running for French cuffs as well. Sic transit gloria mundi! At any rate, of a cut that could not afford such vanities, I branded them clericalism and vowed never to indulge in such even when I could afford them (the excesses of youth!). 

Older and wiser, although still without a gilet for reasons of a neck which has gotten thicker over the years, I would have to say that such matters of dress are as much an indication of clericalism as penny loafers without socks bespeak some sort of elitist agenda. Approved authors to the contrary, I am beginning to suspect that clericalism as such does not exist at all, but is rather a construct imposed by anti-clericalists on a category because of the sins of the few. I do not say that there are not clerics who seek privilege for themselves, but I would like rather to see the sin on the side of anti-clericalism, tarring and feathering all my brothers with the same bucket and brush.

Maybe it is best just to ignore me this Sunday morning. At any rate, I remember Roman anti-clericalism for the 1970's quite well. It was something which spat upon every poor little priest in his cassock and "saturno" who attempted to run the gauntlet of center city. Perhaps it explains why the younger Italian clergy traded black for blue or grey so as to blend in with the city's bus and taxi drivers? Anti-clericalism drove the clergy out of the public eye and succeeded in fostering the indifference which reigns in most quarters of the Eternal City today.

My plea would be not to confuse the vanities of fashion, whether gilet or sockless penny loafers, with the quest for privilege and the abuse of power. I think the sin to be condemned is rather anti-clericalism. I say it boldly, not owning a gilet or a white shirt with French cuffs. Sorry to friends and fans, but any cuff-links gifted over the years are lost somewhere in the bottom of a dresser drawer.

In the Name of Renewal and Organic Development

Recovery of the Sacred: Reforming The Reformed Liturgy

Hitchcock, James

2nd edition.  Kindle Edition.

For a book first published in 1974, even then, Hitchcock basically got it right in describing the pitfalls of post-conciliar liturgical change. In the preface to the 1995 edition he sums things up well in one sentence:

"The aim of post-conciliar liturgical change, whether or not fully conscious, has been to make liturgy quite obviously a human creation, a mere extension of the self." (Kindle Locations 56-57)

Simply expressed, a great wrong was done to Divine Worship in making it something less than that, something less than sublime, something less than sacred. What happened after the council, perhaps on the basis of conciliar premises, was for all practical purposes a series of acts of aggression against the source and summit of Christian life "...whether or not fully conscious".  

Now ten years later, I'd like to be able to sit with the author and explain to him and for all the reasons he stated in 1974 why today it is patently clear that the reformed liturgy cannot be reformed, the liturgy must be restored because "...a human creation, a mere extension of the self" cannot be simply rendered sacred.

This little book is a spine-chilling, almost not to be believed, record of the atrocities committed after the council in the name of reform. He recounts much sadness, which should simply be buried and forgotten. I suspect the reader would be better advised to pick from the new literature which indicates how much has really been achieved, especially since 2007 and Summorum Pontificum.

Much of what I read insists without rancor on the saving benefits for the Christian life which a recovery or restoration of the liturgy would have. Certainly, better catechesis and care for the life of the family, outreach to the poor and emarginated go with all that, but we need desperately to restore the temple. We hope and pray for leadership from the hierarchy for the sake of the flock entrusted to their care.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

What is "Graduality"?

I have to admit I was a bit shocked by the refusal of Cardinal Marx to answer a simple question from the Catholic News Service about where we are going in this synodal search for pastoral solutions to problems which seem to challenge fundamental Church teaching not only on marriage and family, but on the nature of the human person.

If a person's life moves at 180 degrees from God's trajectory and plan for coming to know, love and serve Him in this life, so as to be happy with Him in the life to come, I can't quite figure out what is anything  "gradual" about that.

What is gradual about the rather common refusal to submit to the tribunal of the Sacrament of Penance and the repeated denial by many over the last 50 years, to accept the sound teaching that mortal sins are describable and confessable by kind, number and circumstance? There is no "graduality" if I am not seeking to respond to the call to conversion. Who are and how have dissenters been "gradually" coming to grips with the Papal teaching of Humanae vitae, showing itself ever more wise since 1968? Has the contraceptive mentality become any less anchored over the course of these decades and how many generations of late adolescents and young adults have been sacrificed to expediency or a stiff-necked cynicism which denies the cultivation of virtue its place in the life of youth? Who is leading them and where "gradually"?

In ordinary parlance, if I say I intend to humor someone, well, I do so with no illusion of winning that person over. Don't get me wrong! I find the resort to public lashings by so-called Cossacks among the anti-Ukrainian forces in the east of this country as something utterly bizzare, but teaching truth and precept, exhorting to do good and avoid evil is nowhere done with the lash in our Catholic world. It would seem rather to be our duty after the manner of Christ to insist, with every kind of teaching and never lose patience. To call a spade a spade, if you will...

Some rate at 40 years the story of neglect of proper catechesis within the Catholic Church. However many decades or generations it might be, "graduality" would lead us to be as candid with our interlocutors as Jesus was with the woman at the well. Her conversion was inspired by the God-Man who read her heart and opened her eyes to the truth of the Gospel.

 In speaking thus, as far as family and marriage go, I have not addressed the tragedy of domestic violence, issues related to drug abuse, alcoholism and mental illness. I am confident the Synodal Fathers will find ways to face these matters with renewed pastoral urgency. My difficulty is with "graduality", which does not address these problems in the least and bars the pathway to God by calling no one to pick up after a fall and get back on the pathway which leads to God.

A Gift: Something for Everyone

SACRED LITURGY 

The Source and Summit of the Live and Mission of the Church edited by Alcuin Reid, 

Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2014.

I just finished another summer book purchase: the proceedings of the international conference on the sacred liturgy "Sacra Liturgia 2013", held in Rome 25-28 June 2013. I would treat this volume as classed a treasure trove, one which so far I have mined for my own particular interests. I would invite others to buy the book, especially priests, and keep it at hand as a reference for insight and enrichment on any number of topics related to the Sacred Liturgy. It is not a manual for anything, but a rich source of background material accessible even to non-experts.

Overall, I would have to say that what various contributors to the conference had to say about the role of the liturgy in the new evangelization demands more than a second look from all those committed evangelizers out there who are still not looking hard enough or long enough at the cultural component to evangelizing in the post-modern. Sadly, our world, yes, our Catholic world has effectively been stripped not only of Shakespeare but even of Winnie the Pooh: culturally destitute.

Let me highlight two of the articles which touched me in and of themselves! I picked up some book titles from a couple of others which I hope to read at some point. As I say, I find the acts of the conference all in all a worthwhile read. Two articles, then:

Permit me another salvo in the direction of bishops and priests still languishing in their resistance to doing the only right thing and restoring the continuity of worship ad Orientem to the Roman Rite. The article beginning on page 87, by Stefan Heid, entitled "The Early Christian Altar - Lessons for Today", is a must read. He is especially good at banishing once and for all the Last Supper/dinner table stuff, which infected my own liturgical studies in the seminary. The article is much more: Take and read! While people would cry "foul!" if I were to class Mass facing the people across the altar an abuse, I hope they understand that the restoration of oriented worship, our greatest physical link with the past and with the Byzantine tradition is urgently called for.

Being a person of the New World, I have a hard time holding on to grudges and rancor over the centuries is something incomprehensible for me. For that reason, the name Tracy Rowland, pages 115ff. "The Usus Antiquior and the New Evangelization", didn't set off any alarms. It was only when I got to the latter part of the article that it dawned on me who the dear lady was and what rage she had provoked with a part of this article. Please, ignore her potshots at trads and suggestions for a dress-code for women at worship and look again at the first part of her article and what she has to say about expressivist and instrumental theories of language. Tracy fits with John Senior and some of my other favorites in terms of seeing the Mass of the Ages as a solidly set anchor for Catholic Faith and evangelizing amidst the storms of relativism and secularization.

There is nothing strident about the published acts of Sacra Liturgia 2013. I dare anyone to read them and not come away beholding to the work of restoring our liturgical heritage as a best contribution to renewing all in Christ, the Redeemer of mankind. 

St. Vincent Ferrer and the Great Western Schism

Call me obsessive-compulsive, but my refusal to write a review of a book I read recently is haunting me. It is a historical study related to the canonization process for St. Vincent Ferrer. With a great deal of method, lots of serious research and an agreeable writing style, the author tries to get to the bottom of just why there was such a push for the canonization of a plague saint, with three miraculous resuscitations of dead people regularly noted in his iconography. Smoller fixates on the account of the return to life of the dismembered and partially cooked baby, which she wants to make a metaphor for the Church's attribution to St. Vincent of a key role in healing the Great Western Schism. The author asks too much of herself and of her sources, given her rationalist, perhaps, but in any case too "enlightened" mindset for approaching the abundant material she has reviewed in the book.

St. Vincent Ferrer was indeed a very popular preacher in his day:

"They testified to the effectiveness of Vincent’s sermons: blasphemy and gambling ceased; those who never had known how could now say the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria and make the sign of the cross. And above all, they recalled Vincent’s asceticism and his kindness." [Smoller, Laura Ackerman (2014-01-21). The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby: The Cult of Vincent Ferrer in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Kindle Locations 292-294). Cornell University Press. Kindle Edition.]

 St. Vincent did not shy away from the scandal of division in the Church which, no doubt, fed or fanned the flames of his apocalyptic preaching, which surely helped put an end to the divisions. I just can't bring myself to invite others to spend time over Smoller's noble effort. It is not hagiography and I don't think it contributes to the historical analysis of the Great Western Schism.

Perhaps what really haunts me is the terrible thought the book planted in my mind about the Church in our own day and time. Could such a division, through the election of one or more anti-popes, come to plague Mother Church in our day and time? There! I've said it out loud and as Smoller does not even touch on such, I have no one to blame but myself! Is it a bad thought that should be confessed? Is it just folly and seriously unthinkable in our great day and age?

In St. Vincent's day, the moving force behind the divisions should probably be placed not only on Satan's wicked head but also on the shoulders of some of Europe's crowned heads. They and their extended families were still the movers and shakers in society in competition or alliance with the great mendicant religious orders, like St. Vincent's Dominicans and the sons of St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast is today. Neither the G7, G8, G9 or G20 heads seem eager for an alliance with the Church today. We come off quite irrelevant, I suspect, in their geopolitical calculations; the minds and hearts of the people are much distracted by consumerism. Nonetheless, I still fear for Christ's seamless garment in our own day and time.

Obviously, the crowned heads are no longer the movers and shakers in the Catholic world; the journalists, bloggers, vaticanista, media folk, however, seem to have usurped their place in weighing heavily on Mother Church and pulling her here and there. As many cool heads as want can say what they will about the next two weeks of synod not having anything to do with questioning faith and teaching on the indissolubility of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the sacredness of life, but the movers and shakers are tugging this way and that on His seamless garment.

We entrust all to the Lord through the intercession of St. Francis, first and foremost the obedient son of the Church, whose profound reverence for the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass kept him a deacon. May those pulling and tugging from outside come to order and bow before the Good Shepherd. May the shepherds find the wisdom and courage to repel the attacks of the ravenous wolves!

St. Michael! St. Francis! St. Vincent!

Heal and defend the Holy Church!

A Gathering of Angels

On their Feast, we beseech the Mother of God and Queen of Angels to give special orders for the guardians of Ukraine!