Advent rich in old, deep symbols

Over at American Spectator, Jonathan Aitken offers an insightful look into the upcoming Advent season. Here’s an excerpt worth a look:

Later this month we start Advent, a spiritual season rich in visual and musical images. Its contemporary manifestations include pop-up calendars, corporate carol services, school Nativity plays, and endless renditions of “Joy to the World” or “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” Along with tinsel, pictures of Santa with his reindeer, and early shopping for presents, these superficialities bring to mind Garrison Keillor’s line: “A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.”

But there is an alternative to the boisterous countdown of the weeks leading up to Christmas, and it’s called Advent. The older and deeper symbols of this season include readings from Isaiah and performances of Handel’s Messiah and of the earliest Advent composition known as the Great O’s or originally Antiphonae Majores. These were poetic chants written in the seventh century for the early church’s pre-Christmas liturgy. Each begins with a vocative “O” connecting ancient Hebrew invocations for the first coming of the expected Savior of Israel with petitions for his return in the second coming.

Read more

Thanksgiving offering for the parish priest: Pray for him

Last month, the Black Biretta asked, “Did you pray for your parish priest today?” Good question. The news is filled with DAILY reports of scandalous behavior of priests. Here’s an excerpt of Black Biretta’s (aka Fr. John Trigilio) thoughts on what we can do to help:

It is easy today to recognize and identify the warts and blemishes on the clergy because we have been so careless and casual in how we obtained them. While there has always been sin and failure in ordained ministry, the same can be said for marriage and religious life. Every vocation and career has seen its examples of rotten apples. Who can say they have never heard of a bad doctor, bad cop, bad soldier, bad coach, bad teacher or bad parent? They exist and so do bad priests. As Christians, we are challenged to hate the sin and love the sinner.  We must repudiate and denounce bad behavior and even punish it while at the same time pray for and seek repentance. Jesus said he came not to cure the healthy but to cure the sick; not to help the righteous but to help sinners. He never condoned nor excused any sin and neither should we. At the same time, we are asked by our holy religion to pray for the conversion of sinners. To ask for God’s grace that those who misbehave would STOP. That they would REPENT. Is there not more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner?  Imagine how much joy over one repentant bad priest or bishop?  Purgatory and jurisprudence exist to ensure justice and punish the guilty while protecting the innocent. Divine Justice cannot be thwarted and will be achieved in this life or the next.  Divine Mercy is as necessary and important as Divine Justice.

That is why during this YEAR FOR PRIESTS we need to pray for more good priests.  Pray for those men in the seminaries that they persevere and become good priests when ordained.

‘Poaching’ infers disaffected Anglicans can’t think for themselves

The press likes to use that verb, “poach,” to describe the recent action of the Catholic Church in creating a system to receive converts from the Anglican communion en masse. This story from the Daily Mail (U.K.) is a good example. Commentary at the bottom of that linked report includes criticism of the p-word as insulting the intelligence of folks presumed “owned by the CE.”

Meanwhile, the Pope met with the Archbishop of Cantebury on November 21. According to this report from Catholic Culture, the Archbishop said that he had felt obligated to tell the Pontiff that the October announcement had put him “in an awkward position for a time,” and embarrassed many Anglican leaders.

Pope Benedict XVI met on November 21 with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams. It was their first meeting since the October announcement of the Pope’s plans to welcome Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

However, a brief Vatican announcement released after the meeting made no mention of the Pope’s apostolic constitution, saying only that the “cordial discussions” had involved “the challenges facing all Christian communities at the beginning of this millennium.” The Vatican statement did say that the Pope had spoken with Dr. Williams about Catholic-Anglican relations, but stressed “the shared will to continue and consolidate the ecumenical relationship,” especially through the work of the official ARCIC dialogue.

Read more here

Vatican Radio interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams

Pope to meet with artists in Sistine Chapel

Vatican Radio

In an effort to restore an alliance between art and faith, Benedict XVI will meet painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, masters of the theatre and film from around the world. Tomorrow’s scheduled meeting is to take place in the Sistine Chapel.

The meeting was presented [September 9th] at the Holy See Press Office by Archbishop Ravasi President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

In 1964 Paul VI, was the first Pope to reach out to the artistic world when he met with artists and called for a new alliance between the divine inspiration of faith and the creative inspiration of art. This wish was reiterated in a letter addressed to artists ten years ago by John Paul II.

Now, it seems its time to try again.

Art – says Archbishop Ravasi – has increasingly become dedicated to experiments with form and language and has abandoned “the idea that the artwork embodies a transcendent vision of being”

UPDATE Nov. 21, 2009 from VIS press release of the event included Pope Benedict XVI remarks about the Sistine Chapel fresco of the Last Judgement:

…explaining that it “reminds us that human history is … a continuing tension towards fullness, towards human happiness. … Yet the dramatic scene portrayed in this fresco also places before our eyes the risk of man’s definitive fall. … The fresco issues a strong prophetic cry against evil, against every form of injustice. For believers, though, the Risen Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. For His faithful followers, He is the Door through which we are brought to that ‘face-to-face’ vision of God from which limitless, full and definitive happiness flows”.

Behind closed doors U.S. bishops discuss Catholic colleges

Associated Press

BALTIMORE — Fallout continues from the summer controversy over the University of Notre Dame awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops went behind closed doors at their fall meeting Wednesday to discuss, among other issues, what action they should take to increase oversight of the nation’s more than 200 Roman Catholic colleges and universities.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops’ conference, revealed this week that he had formed a task force charged with reviewing the issue. Its research included a look at what church law says about bishops’ authority over the schools.

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities has planned a similar discussion of canon law and bishops’ authority at the group’s annual meeting, set to begin Jan. 30 in Washington.

“Can bishops just pull the plug on us? It’s not that simple,” said Richard Yanikoski, president of the Catholic college association. He attended a meeting of the bishops’ education committee last Sunday that briefly touched on higher education. He expected the bishops’ would more fully examine the issue in their executive session.

The decision by Notre Dame, the nation’s flagship Catholic university, to honor Obama at its May commencement caused an uproar within the church and drew protests from around the country and on the school campus by anti-abortion groups.

More than 70 U.S. bishops spoke out against the university’s decision, a remarkable reaction given that it is customary for only a local bishop to comment.

Read the rest here

US bishops’ pastoral letter on marriage upholds Humanae Vitae and condemns homosexual unions

From Catholic Culture (Nov. 18, 2009)–The bishops of the United States have issued a 60-page pastoral letter on marriage that offers an overview of Catholic teaching on the sacrament while addressing the challenges posed by contraception, same-sex unions, divorce, and cohabitation.

US bishops' pastoral letter, "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan"

The draft of the document, which earned praise from pro-life and pro-family leaders, underwent nearly 100 changes before it was approved by a 180-45 margin. For example, in the section on contraception– which cites Humanae Vitae seven times– the sentence “this is an intrinsically evil action” was changed and expanded to read:

This is objectively wrong in and of itself and is essentially opposed to God’s plan for marriage and proper human development. It makes the act of intercourse signify, or speak, something less than the unreserved self-gift intended in the marriage promises.

The draft’s key paragraph condemning the legal recognition of homosexual unions remained unchanged:

The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.

Statements and election results from the USCCB Fall Assembly in Balitmore this week can be found here.

Historic Missal translation approved: bishops urged to prepare for changes as early as 2011

Ending a six-year approval process, the U.S. bishops’ conference ratified the final set of translations for the new Roman Missal for use in this country, according to Zenit. The new English translation of the Missal now goes to the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments for the final “recognitio” (permission), after which the new translation will be implemented, according to the report. Zenit quotes Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, chairman of the Committee on Divine Worship, as stating that the “recognitio” is expected at the beginning of 2010, but it will take another year before the publication is available. The date for use will be set at that time, Bishop Serratelli stated.

The report continues:

“We have come to a historic moment,” he said as the voting on the translation was concluded this afternoon.

“After hours of discussion and debate, we have completed our work as a national conference on the translation,” the prelate affirmed.

He acknowledged that even the best translation will not suit everyone’s preferences, but he reminded the conference that there is something greater in this work.

This missal, the bishop said, is not composed of the “expressions of an individual,” but of a community. The prayers “pass on the faith from one generation to the next,” and thus it is an important task to provide translations that are “accurate and inspiring,” he said.

“No translation is perfect,” Bishop Serratelli affirmed, “but the new translation is good and worthy of our use.”

He urged his fellow prelates to catechize the people in preparation for the coming liturgical changes. The prelate announced that many publishers are already preparing material to help in the implementation of the new missal.

He exhorted parishes to “begin now” to prepare their people, for priests to review the approved translations on the Web site of the conference Committee on Divine Worship. In the Spring, he said, 20 workshops will be held around the country to help in the preparation…

Full Zenit report here.

Details about Bishop Trautman’s creative move to delay the approval process can be found at Fr Z’s site.

Keeping up with the bishops’ fall meeting

Epic voting slated for today!

Rocco Palmo’s Whispers in the Loggia loads news, twitter feeds and statements all in one site. Great place to watch the action integrated with the insightful commentary we have come to expect from his site. You will LOVE his opening photo and caption for Day 2. That alone is worth the visit over there.

Excerpt from today’s post:

Tuesday: Trautman’s Last Stand

Looking forward for a minute, just a heads-up that today’s agenda brings all the votes of this November Meeting — committee chairs, marriage pastoral, revision on nutrition and hydration… and, closing out a full two decades of annual battles over liturgical translations (not all of them eventually implemented), the final votes on the new English rendering of the Roman Missal, its recognitio from the Holy See already tipped for April, with implementation to follow roughly a year hence.

Given the lengthy prevalence of the “liturgy wars” storyline over these meetings, it’d be hard to overstate the degree to which the early afternoon worship ballots mark the end of an era.

Yet even as the clock ticks down, the project’s lead critic isn’t going without a fight.

Over recent weeks, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie has stepped things up one last time, delivering a high-profile Washington lecture on the translation’s shortcomings, and making a final vouch for his case in the press before the full Missal ends up in Rome’s hands.

That said, at this point there’s little indication the votes’ll go his way — even if, to be sure, many who wish they did will end up voting “yes.”…

US bishops slated to vote on last Missal texts

Approval for various English texts are presented today, according to the USCCB Agenda.

COMMITTEE ON DIVINE WORSHIP
Most Reverend Arthur Serratelli
Approval of the ICEL Gray Book Translations of The Proper of Saints
ACTION ITEM #4
Approval of the ICEL Gray Book Translation of the Roman Missal Supplement
ACTION ITEM #5
Approval of the ICEL Gray Book
Translation of The Commons
ACTION ITEM#7
Approval of the U.S. Propers
ACTION ITEM #6
U.S. Adaptations to the Missale Romanum
ACTION ITEM #8

Pittsburgh newspaper offers overview of debate on translations and Bishop Trautman’s efforts to stall the process:

‘This is our last chance to raise these issues and talk about them’

Bishops split over Mass translation

Monday, November 16, 2009

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[excerpt]

U.S. Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., presents the third annual Frederick R. McManus Memorial Lecture at The Catholic University of America in Washington Oct. 22. Bishop Trautman spoke about the nonpastoral approach of some passages in the new Eng lish translation of the Roman Missal. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

What divides them is a new translation of the Mass that has been in the works for years. Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie has led the charge against what he sees as a “slavish” rendering of Latin into convoluted, ungrammatical English.

“American Catholics have every right to expect a translation of the new missal to follow the rules for English grammar. But this violates English syntax in the most egregious way,” he said.

The bishops didn’t write it. Rome requires one international committee to translate for each major language, and this text is intended to serve nations as diverse as Ireland and Pakistan. The bishops can propose amendments, but Vatican officials have final say over the text.

In 2001, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments published Liturgiam Authenticam, new rules for translation. It stressed faithfulness to fourth-century Latin texts that were translations from Greek, Hebrew and other languages. It encouraged a special vocabulary for prayer that differed from everyday speech.

“Thus it may happen that a certain manner of speech which has come to be considered somewhat obsolete in daily usage may continue to be maintained in the liturgical context,” it said.

Bishop Trautman, a biblical scholar and a past president of the bishops’ committees on doctrine and liturgy, has been the most vocal critic of the resulting translations. The bishops have already approved most of the new Mass. The last few parts — mostly prayers for saints days — are now up for a vote.

Bishop Trautman’s objections aren’t to the most recent changes but to the tone of the entire translation. He wants the bishops to reject at least one set of translations this week, then send a high-level delegation to Rome to work out revisions throughout the Mass.

“This is our last chance to raise these issues and talk about them. But the parliamentary laws probably won’t allow us to get at the heart of the issue [in Baltimore], because we can only discuss and debate the four items before us,” he said.

Read more

U.S. Bishops annual fall general assembly underway: new missal translation up for vote

Auxiliary Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Diego submits ballots during a vote Nov. 11 at the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec. Opening session was Nov. 10.

Bishops To Meet Nov. 16-19, In Baltimore; Agenda Includes Votes On Liturgical Texts, Letter On Marriage, Document On Reproductive Technologies, Revision Of Item In Ethical And Religious Directives

Fall Assembly 2009 web site includes agenda, statements and election results.

Live coverage of some of the sessions are available on streaming video here. Download pdf file of the Agenda here.

Holy water dispenser a popular item in churches trying to prevent Swine Flu

Inventor Luciano Marabese displays a prototype of his holy water dispenser at his office in Capriano Briosco, around 40 km (25 miles) north of Milan November 10, 2009. Parishes in northern Italy have begun installing automatic holy water dispensers in churches to allow the faithful to make the sign of the cross without the fear of catching H1N1 swine flu when using communal water fonts. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

You’ve seen it on tv. It doesn’t even need an infomercial because the news media is all over the Italian novelty. Simply place your hands under the dispenser, and it squirts out blessed water. Voila! Here’s the story.

Acrimony flares between Bishop and Pat Kennedy

U. S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island claims, according to a New York Times report, that his discord with the Church hierarchy “does not make me any less of a Catholic.” Thomas J. Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, begs to differ. Of course, the issue is abortion and the recent health care amendments and bill passed Saturday through Congress. In this piece you’ll read some of the most acrimonious language heard in decades from a bishop to a political figure who advertises himself as a Catholic while at the same time votes to fund abortion. According to the report, the bishop does not limit the issue to just the political/public work of this congressman, but he presses the concern further in terms of Kennedy’s personal faith. According to the article:

Bishop Tobin, in a letter publicly released Monday, called Mr. Kennedy’s support of abortion rights “a deliberate and obstinate act of the will” that was “unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members.”

“It’s not too late for you to repair your relationship with the Church,” he wrote, “redeem your public image, and emerge as an authentic ‘profile in courage,’ especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children.”

Elsewhere in the report, Bishop Tobin accused Mr. Kennedy of

“false advertising” for describing himself as a Catholic and saying he should not receive holy communion because he supports using taxpayer money for abortions.

“If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things,” Bishop Tobin said on WPRO, a Providence radio station. “If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.”

Released: Apostolic Constitution addressing annexing Anglicans into the Catholic Church

Here it is in English:

Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus

Vatican: Anglican pact has no impact on celibacy norm

New York Times publishes uncharacteristically bias-free report of the Vatican’s point of view–100% dissident free, so readers can draw their own conclusions without the rhetorical bias pressed from the reporter. oooh!

New York Times

[excerpt]

By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: November 9, 2009

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said on Monday that its new rules facilitating the conversion of Anglicans, including married Anglican priests, did not “signify any change” in its rules for priestly celibacy.

The announcement seemed aimed at dampening recent debate about whether in creating a new Anglican rite within the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican had brought in a kind of Trojan horse — married former Anglican clergy — a practice that might someday normalize the acceptance of married Catholic priests…

On Monday, the Vatican released the rules governing the new structures. They uphold current practice, in which married Anglican priests can become Catholic priests only on “a case-by-case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See,” the rules say.

The new norm “does not signify any change in the church’s discipline of clerical celibacy,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.

It added that the new structure was “consistent” with the church’s “commitment to ecumenical dialogue.”

The Vatican has stressed that the new norms were not aimed at poaching Anglicans but were created in response to requests by traditionalist Anglicans. In its statement on Monday, the Vatican said the new structure was “a generous response from the Holy Father to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups.”

…The new rules stipulate that men who were baptized as Catholics and subsequently become Anglicans cannot become priests. They also say that Anglican bishops who convert to Catholicism will remain priests but will lose the rank of bishop.

Called Personal Ordinariates, the new structures are akin to dioceses but without geographic bounds. They are to be overseen by bishops or priests chosen by the pope. The ordinariates will work in conjunction with local dioceses but will not answer to them, and will belong to the local bishops conference…

Full story here.

Chaplain at Ft. Hood blessed 11 of the 13 dead: ‘I was led by the Spirit, and here I am’

Boston Globe November 8, 2009

The Rev. Edward McCabe didn’t want to go to Fort Hood when the assignment came for the Army Reserves captain to become senior Catholic chaplain at the sprawling military post.

McCabe, a priest from Milton attached to the Archdiocese of Boston, had lived around water all his life, and a land-locked post in Texas offered no appeal.

But, he said, something called him to accept the post.

Two months after he arrived, when he was needed to pray for those felled by a gunman, McCabe came to understand why Fort Hood was where he needed to be.

After Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage that left 13 dead and many more wounded, McCabe provided last rites to soldiers dying of gunshot wounds and prayed over the bodies of nine more who lay slain in a building on the post.

“In retrospect, I know why I came here,’’ McCabe said by phone last night from Texas, his voice hoarse, and nearly gone.

“A priest has to believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding you. I was led by the Spirit, and here I am,’’ he said…

On Thursday, McCabe was 10 minutes into a weekly chaplains’ meeting when reports came in about a gunman on the loose. He rushed to the post hospital, where a short time later, McCabe said, one of the wounded female soldiers died.

“It was chaos, because we had 15 to 18 wounded in and medical people trying to run around dealing with all of these injured, but I was able to bless her and anoint her,’’ he said.

An hour later, McCabe was taken to the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Center, where the attack was centered. “I was able to enter the building,’’ he said. “In there, on the floor, there were nine dead. I was able to say some prayers over the dead.’’

Then, he was taken to an off-post hospital to anoint another soldier, minutes before he died from three chest wounds.

Then, it was back to the post to consult with military and religious leaders on how to deal with the living – both the physically injured and those touched emotionally by the death and violence. McCabe was on duty until about 3 a.m. Friday.

“Now we’re in healing mode, comforting soldiers who lost members of their units and making funeral arrangements,’’ he said. Several religious services have been held, and McCabe said Mass yesterday.

Chaplains are plentiful in the military and in police and fire departments across the country. A soldier on duty at Fort Hood said by phone yesterday that the post has dozens of clergy. Fort Hood had more than 33,000 residents in the 2000 Census. On such a sizable post, chaplains handle all matters of faith, including soldiers’ weddings and baptisms for their children.

Read full story here

Of the 13 people who died, McCabe blessed 11 of them.

Fr. Rutler: NYTimes itself is ‘not fit’

So, what does the Times consider NOT fit to print?

Fr. George Rutler, pastor, Church of Our Savior, NYC

Fr. George Rutler of Church of Our Savior in New York City reacts to the New York Times rejection of Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s Op-Ed submission. Fr. Rutler sent his remarks via e-mail to subscribers today.

November 8, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler

One assumes that The New York Times would have been glad to receive an Op-Ed article from the new Archbishop of New York. The Archdiocese of New York is responsible for a very important part of the city’s educational, medical, and charitable life. The newspaper refused to print it. Such censorship only whets the appetite to know what was thought not fit to print. There are many items that the Times, which claims to publish everything that’s fit to print, has printed although they were not fit. There were, for instance, its mockery in 1920 of Goddard’s hypothesis that rocket propulsion can take place in a vacuum, a denial of Stalin’s forced famine in Ukraine and a whitewash of his show trials by its Moscow bureau chief Walter Duranty, its advocacy of Fidel Castro, and its benign regard for the Soviet spy Alger Hiss. So there had to be some journalistic equivalent of a cerebral stroke to make the editors of the Times unable to print Archbishop Dolan’s words.

The cause of the apoplexy was the Archbishop’s imputation of bigotry to the newspaper. His charge was not self-indulgent whining. He did not have to go back farther than a couple of weeks for examples. First, in reporting widespread child abuse in Brooklyn’s community of Orthodox Jews, there was not the “selective outrage” which animates The New York Times against criminous Catholic clerics, whose numbers are in fact proportionally much smaller than other religious and professional groups.

Then there was the sensational front-page publicity of a paternity suit involving a Franciscan friar, going back twenty-five years, and getting more space than the war in Afghanistan and genocide in Sudan. Headlines also claimed that the Pope was seeking to “lure” Anglicans into his fold, when in fact he was responding to a petition. Then a columnist invoked the Inquisition, portrayed the theology of priesthood as neurotic sexism, and even mocked the Pope’s haberdashery. The Archbishop said that her prejudice, “while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.” While a free press is free to criticize, said the Archbishop, such criticism should be “fair, rational, and accurate.”

Hostility raised to such a pitch that journalistic standards are abandoned, is provoked by an awareness that the Catholic Church continues to be the substantial voice for classical moral standards and supernatural confidence amid the noise of a disintegrating behaviorist culture. A tabloid is still a tabloid even if its editors dress in tweeds. Churchill said, “No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.” Not to worry. Christ promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his Church. He did not include The New York Times, 30% of whose work force has been laid off in the last year and a half.

Prayers for souls of deceased priests promoted for this First Thursday

Fr. Z is promoting a prayer project for this week focusing on the souls of deceased priests as a particular prayer intention during this Year for Priests. During this week of All Saints/Souls, he suggests a special effort of prayer for the souls of deceased priests on Thursday, November 5.  An indulgence is in effect. Below is an excerpt of the details from his web site:

Pray for the souls of priests.

First, remember that you can gain indulgences on All Souls and the days following.
Second, 5 November is a first Thursday.  You can gain a plenary indulgence during this year for Priests.
Third, would it not be a good idea in this Year for Priests, during the week after All Souls, for this 1st Thursday, to pray in a special way for the souls of deceased priests?

Would you recommend this to your prayer groups, friends and family?

All through November, you can gain partial indulgence every day you visit the cemetery and pray for the dead.

Archpishop of NY blasts NYTimes: anti-Catholicism is a ‘national pastime’

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archdiocese of New York

You can read Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s blog piece here in its entirety, but I’m going to wing this and copy/paste it below because it’s that worthy of our attention. The New York Post dutifully ran its own coverage of its newspaper competitor to give us a bit more background.

Here is the Archbishop’s full piece:

October 29, 2009

The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article. The Times declined to publish it. I thought you might be interested in reading it.
FOUL BALL!
By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism.

It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” while John Higham described it as “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” “The anti-semitism of the left,” is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic “the last acceptable prejudice.”

If you want recent evidence of this unfairness against the Catholic Church, look no further than a few of these following examples of occurrences over the last couple weeks:

• On October 14, in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Paul Vitello exposed the sad extent of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. According to the article, there were forty cases of such abuse in this tiny community last year alone. Yet the Times did not demand what it has called for incessantly when addressing the same kind of abuse by a tiny minority of priests: release of names of abusers, rollback of statute of limitations, external investigations, release of all records, and total transparency. Instead, an attorney is quoted urging law enforcement officials to recognize “religious sensitivities,” and no criticism was offered of the DA’s office for allowing Orthodox rabbis to settle these cases “internally.” Given the Catholic Church’s own recent horrible experience, I am hardly in any position to criticize our Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and have no wish to do so . . . but I can criticize this kind of “selective outrage.”

Of course, this selective outrage probably should not surprise us at all, as we have seen many other examples of the phenomenon in recent years when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse. To cite but two: In 2004, Professor Carol Shakeshaft documented the wide-spread problem of sexual abuse of minors in our nation’s public schools (the study can be found here). In 2007, the Associated Press issued a series of investigative reports that also showed the numerous examples of sexual abuse by educators against public school students. Both the Shakeshaft study and the AP reports were essentially ignored, as papers such as the New York Times only seem to have priests in their crosshairs.

• On October 16, Laurie Goodstein of the Times offered a front page, above-the-fold story on the sad episode of a Franciscan priest who had fathered a child. Even taking into account that the relationship with the mother was consensual and between two adults, and that the Franciscans have attempted to deal justly with the errant priest’s responsibilities to his son, this action is still sinful, scandalous, and indefensible. However, one still has to wonder why a quarter-century old story of a sin by a priest is now suddenly more pressing and newsworthy than the war in Afghanistan, health care, and starvation–genocide in Sudan. No other cleric from religions other than Catholic ever seems to merit such attention.

• Five days later, October 21, the Times gave its major headline to the decision by the Vatican to welcome Anglicans who had requested union with Rome. Fair enough. Unfair, though, was the article’s observation that the Holy See lured and bid for the Anglicans. Of course, the reality is simply that for years thousands of Anglicans have been asking Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church with a special sensitivity for their own tradition. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s chief ecumenist, observed, “We are not fishing in the Anglican pond.” Not enough for the Times; for them, this was another case of the conniving Vatican luring and bidding unsuspecting, good people, greedily capitalizing on the current internal tensions in Anglicanism.

• Finally, the most combustible example of all came Sunday with an intemperate and scurrilous piece by Maureen Dowd on the opinion pages of the Times. In a diatribe that rightly never would have passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue, she digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription — along with every other German teenage boy — into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.

True enough, the matter that triggered her spasm — the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives — is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning. But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.

I do not mean to suggest that anti-catholicism is confined to the pages New York Times. Unfortunately, abundant examples can be found in many different venues. I will not even begin to try and list the many cases of anti-catholicism in the so-called entertainment media, as they are so prevalent they sometimes seem almost routine and obligatory. Elsewhere, last week, Representative Patrick Kennedy made some incredibly inaccurate and uncalled-for remarks concerning the Catholic bishops, as mentioned in this blog on Monday. Also, the New York State Legislature has levied a special payroll tax to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fund its deficit. This legislation calls for the public schools to be reimbursed the cost of the tax; Catholic schools, and other private schools, will not receive the reimbursement, costing each of the schools thousands – in some cases tens of thousands – of dollars, money that the parents and schools can hardly afford. (Nor can the archdiocese, which already underwrites the schools by $30 million annually.) Is it not an issue of basic fairness for ALL school-children and their parents to be treated equally?

The Catholic Church is not above criticism. We Catholics do a fair amount of it ourselves. We welcome and expect it. All we ask is that such critique be fair, rational, and accurate, what we would expect for anybody. The suspicion and bias against the Church is a national pastime that should be “rained out” for good.

I guess my own background in American history should caution me not to hold my breath.

Then again, yesterday was the Feast of Saint Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes.

Wishful thinking fuels rampant speculation on relaxation of celibacy rule as reason for delay of document integrating Anglicans into the Church: Holy See offers clarification

In light of the upcoming Apostolic Constitution making provisions for the integration of Anglicans and Anglican clergy into communion with the Catholic Church, we see lots of speculation out there about the ramifications on the celibacy rule for Catholic priests in general.

Wishful thinking on the part of folks who publish mere speculations without a hint of valid sourcing can be read here and here and here for examples. Of course, published reports point out, the celibacy issue is the reason for the delay of the Apostolic Constitution.  The Holy See set this wishful thinking straight in its October 31st press release stating that the delays are technical. As for the speculation on the relaxation of celibacy norms, the press release states rather clearly,

“Unmarried ministers must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy of canon 277, para 1 of the Code of Canon Law…The Ordinary, in full observance of the discipline of celibate clergy in the Latin Church, as a rule (‘pro regula’) will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter. He may also petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from canon 277, para 1, for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

“This article is to be understood as consistent with the current practice of the Church, in which married former Anglican ministers may be admitted to priestly ministry in the Catholic Church on a case by case basis. With regard to future seminarians, it was considered purely speculative whether there might be some cases in which a dispensation from the celibacy rule might be petitioned. For this reason, objective criteria about any such possibilities (e.g. married seminarians already in preparation) are to be developed jointly by the Personal Ordinariate and the Episcopal Conference, and submitted for approval of the Holy See.

Cardinal Levada said he anticipates the technical work on the Constitution and Norms will be completed by the end of the first week of November.”

Read entire press release here.

Canon lawyer, Edward N. Peters, explains that the Vatican’s note clarifies that there is “no change in the law of celibacy and no change in the process by which married candidates from Protestant denominations can petition for and, if selected for orders, be exempted from the law of celibacy…”

The Vatican press release specifies the reason for the delay in publishing the Apostolic Constitution: “The delay is purely technical in the sense of ensuring consistency in canonical language and references. The translation issues are secondary; the decision to delay publication in order to wait for the ‘official’ Latin text to be published in ‘Acta Apostolicae Sedis’ was made some time ago.”

[It is uncertain whether the absence of the Vatican's chief Latinist is the cause for the delay in the official Latin text.]

All Saints/Souls feasts developed independent of pagan influence

Despite what we viewed on the History Channel last night, both the Feast of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls evolved in the life of the Church independently of paganism and Halloween. That is the conclusion of the historical analysis from Fr. William Saunders who wrote about these feasts a few years ago in the Arlington Catholic Herald. His historical overview, reproduced by Catholic Education Resource Center, is worth a read to warm up for these two feast days in which he concedes that “elements of pagan practices were perhaps ‘baptized’ by some cultures or attached themselves to the celebration of All Saints and All Souls”–celebrations which clearly arose from a genuine Christian devotion.

A couple of sentences gleaned from this interesting historical analysis:

The designation of Nov. 1 as the Feast of All Saints occurred over time…we find the Church establishing a liturgical feast day in honor of the saints independent of any pagan influence.

During World War I, Pope Benedict XV, recognizing the number of war dead and the numerous Masses that could not be fulfilled because of destroyed Churches, granted all priests the privilege of offering three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the particular intention, one for all of the faithful departed, and one for the intentions of the Holy Father.

Responses to Vatican’s recent Anglican accomodations

National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ press release.

Anglicans ponder: how many? Reuters

Some ask whether intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux was behind the Vatican’s move to provide a structure to welcome Anglicans into full communion. See: The Catholic Key Blog

Britan’s “Conservative” Anglicans are interviewed in the Los Angeles Times

The worldwide Anglican communion numbers about 77 million people, including 2.4 million members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and 13.4 million Anglicans in Britain.

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Meanwhile, the National Catholic Register canvassed media coverage of the Catholic welcome mat extended to Anglicans. It uncovers “unsavory terms” used by the secular media to describe the Church’s actions. The article offers several links to read prime examples of this anti-Catholic bias in reporting.

While the media would like to see the Church as predator and the Anglicans as prey, there’s nothing of the sort here. In fact, the move, which has taken years to happen, occurred only because such a large number of Anglicans petitioned the Vatican to find a way to make it happen.

“This is a response to overtures that had already been made – it’s not as if the Catholic Church had gone ‘poaching’ or ‘fishing’ as some media may have claimed,” said Father Robert Imbelli, associate professor of theology at Boston College.

An Anglican’s view at National Catholic Register.

U.S. Canadian reaction noted at CNS.

Wall Street Journal looks at the challenges facing the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Vatican publishes compendium to help priests celebrate Mass

Catholic World News

The Congregation for Divine Worship has completed a new volume, the Compendium Eucharisticum, designed to help priests celebrate Mass with proper reverence. The compendium, prepared at the request of Pope Benedict XVI, includes prayers, theological texts, and other study materials. Cardinal Antonio Canizares, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said the volume offers “everything that may be useful for the correct understanding, celebration, and adoration of the sacrament of the altar.” The text has been published in Italian; an English-language translation is forthcoming.

Fr. Z makes these important observations about the compendium:

Contrary to news reports the Compendium was published in Latin not Italian.
Also, …

1. It is divided into 3 sections: doctrinal, liturgical, and devotional.
2. It has number of appendices: Book IV of the Imitation; section of 1983 Latin Code; section of 1990 Eastern Code on the Eucharist.
3. The preface is by the Prefect of the Cong. for Divine Worship, Card. Canizares.  It clearly speaks of both forms of the Roman Rite being of equal importance.
4. The doctrinal section contains excerpts from the the decree of the Council of Trent on the Eucharist; Vatican II; the Compendium of the Catechism on the Eucharist; a commentary on the Four Eucharist prayers.
5. The liturgical section contains the Ordo Missae of the Novus Ordo; the Ordo Missae of the 1962 Missale Romanum; the Office of Corpus Christi from the Liturgia Horarum; the complete Office for Coprus Christi from the 1961 Breviarium Romanum; two Votive Masses of the Holy Eucharist; the Order of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; 7 Litanies; and a number of Eucharistic hymns.

The devotional part contains the prayers before Mass, the prayers after Mass, vesting prayers for the priest and for the bishop, and other devotional prayers.

New Regulations for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church

Vatican Channel on YouTube–The Holy See has prepared a new canonical structure for Anglican clergy and faithful who wish to enter into the Catholic Church. The announcement was made by Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Pope offers system for generous accommodations to Anglican converts

“…the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church.”

Note from Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Catholic World News

Pope Benedict is promulgating an apostolic constitution that will permit Anglican communities whose members wish to be received into the Catholic Church to do so as communities.

The papal document allows for the creation of “personal ordinariates” to be headed by formerly Anglican priests, providing a structure within the Catholic hierarchy to supervise the pastoral care of Anglicans who have become Catholics. These “personal ordinariates” would be integrated into national episcopal conferences, but encouraged to preserve the distinctive aspects of the Anglican tradition.

“In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” according to a note published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.”

“The forthcoming Apostolic Constitution provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon, by offering a single canonical model for the universal Church which is adaptable to various local situations and equitable to former Anglicans in its universal application,” the note continues. “It provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy. Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop. The seminarians in the Ordinariate are to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the Ordinariate may establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony. In this way, the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church.”

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury– Dr. Rowan Williams, the primate of the Anglican Communion– issued a joint statement in response to the announcement. Their joint statement said that the new apostolic constitution was the fruit of years of ecumenical dialogue, without which such a rapprochement would not be possible. Acknowledging that recent developments in the Anglican communion have complicated the quest for reunion with Rome, the joint statement nevertheless insists that both the Vatican and the Anglican communion remain committed to the ecumenical process.

Statement from Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a network of mostly former Anglicans holding to a very traditional pattern of Anglican Faith and Worship–”May I firstly state that this is an act of great goodness on the part of the Holy Father. He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity. It more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours.”

Remarks of Archbishop of Canterbury–”…we don’t believe that there’s anything to be gained by trying to score points at each others’ expense or to work separately when we can work together…it does not disrupt business as usual in the relations between our communions…
What is to me very interesting about the constitution proposed and the ideas behind it is that it is itself also another kind of product of our years of conversation, prayer together…
So I think it’s very important for us in the Anglican communion to be grateful for what has been achieved…
I’ve been aware for a few years that there have been some groups approaching the Holy See to discuss the possibilities of what might roughly be called “group reunion”. Prominent among those for example has been the Traditional Anglican Communion…I know there have been some groups in the United States of America, similarly who made contact, and I know of course that there are some within the Anglican communion, as it now is, who have been – as you might put it – looking at their options should the Anglican communion take any further steps which they would regard as problematic. It’s no secret that in this country the ordination of women as bishops is one of those test issues. However, I don’t think that this constitution should be seen as, in any sense, a commentary on Anglican problems offered by the Vatican. It is, as has been said, a response to this range of requests and inquiries from a very very broad variety of people, either Anglicans or of Anglican heritage, as you might say. And in that sense it has no negative impact on the relation of the Communion as a whole, to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole.”

Guardian (U.K.) –“It creates not so much a church within a church as an enclave operating under the auspices of the Vatican or a safe haven for endangered Anglicans.”

Time Magazine
“For Anglican leaders, the Vatican announcement is the latest minefield to manage in their ongoing effort to avoid a full-fledged schism within their 80-million-strong church, which includes 2.2 million American Episcopalians.”

Daily Telegraph
“Pope Benedict XVI has paved the way for thousands of Anglicans who are disillusioned by the church’s stance on female clergy and homosexuality to convert to Roman Catholicism.”

Reuters
“The move comes after years of discontent in some sectors of the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican community over the ordination of women priests and homosexual bishops.”

Catholic News Service

COMMENTARY

Fr. George Rutler, former Anglican priest [h/t Deacon's Bench]–”The Apostolic Constitution is not a retraction of ecumenical desires, but rather is the fulfillment of ecumenical aspirations, albeit not the way most Anglican leaders had envisioned it.”

Phil Lawler–”On one hand, the Anglicans coming home to full communion will be active in practice, theologically aware, and proportionately resistant to gay and feminist faddishness. On the other hand we have to admit that a sizable minority of (nominally) Catholic clergy envy the Church of England for precisely the reasons its orthodox are bolting. Who knows how many of our own ecclesiastics, even unindicted ones, are gazing wistfully at the lighted windows of Gene Robinson’s honeymoon suite while Rembert Weakland’s autobiography slumbers in their lap?”

Canon lawyer, Ed Peters‘, commentary with Fr. Z’s reactions in a simultaneous read. Fr. Z points to implications for the next round of talks with SSPX.

Priesthood Sunday on Oct. 25

The board of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, the voice of parish priests in the U.S., first declared Priesthood Sunday, but the event is now sponsored by USA Council of Serra International and is supported through the NCCS Vocations Committee, Worldwide Marriage Encounter and other Church vocation support organizations. Check out Serra Club’s Priesthood Sunday and WWME’s dedicated web page for ideas and planning guides.