Catholic Identity and Academic Freedom

Fr. Joseph G. Mueller, S.J., associate professor of theology, Marquette University, at the Milwaukee Catholic Herald, looking back fifty years to the Land O' Lakes Statement on the Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University.

Advice to the Archbishop of Canterbury

"If I were the Archbishop of Canterbury, which has not yet been proposed, I would certainly say that the ritual of the church must adapt to people’s expectations, but one of the strongest expectations people have is that ritual doesn’t adapt."

-Roger Scruton, at The Guardian

Xavier Rynne on the conclusion of Vatican II

Letter from Vatican City, by Xavier Rynne, December 9, 1965

Francis effect

The Pope's visit to America provides fresh opportunity for conservatives and liberals to scrap http://t.co/RVJMvNyF4k pic.twitter.com/Kllh1Ray34

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) September 17, 2015

'In 2005'?

John L. Allen Jr. at Crux

"In 2005, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina wrote a foreword to a book [Una apuesta por America Latina (A Commitment to Latin America)] by a Vatican official from Uruguay named Guzmán Carriquiry, in which the future pontiff argued that Latin America has a pivotal role to play in the major ideological battles of the early 21st century.

"Drawing on Argentina’s Peronist heritage, Bergoglio said that Latin America can lead the way towards a 'third position' between Communism and free-market capitalism."

Ratzinger on a smaller Church

Time for some Resourcement.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki predicts the Future of the Catholic Church to be smaller quantity but higher quality in the blog post adapted from his July 22, 2014 "Love One Another" email.

In turn, a post on it at The Badger Catholic drew an Anonymous comment with a link to a quote from Joseph Ratzinger to the same effect at Fr. Z's Blog.

He links to his source, a quote at the Catholic Education Resource Center from Faith and the Future (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009) by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Note its original publication was in 1969 when he was Father Joseph Ratzinger.

He did speak to the same effect as a Cardinal in a September 5, 2003 interview by Raymond Arroyo on EWTN's The World Over.

"Raymond: Talk for a moment about the New Springtime. The Pope has talked a great deal about the New Springtime and you, yourself have laid out your own ideas. Your vision is a little different from some. Some see the numbers growing and everybody believing and dancing hand-in-hand (the Cardinal chuckles) into the millennium. You see a different picture. Tell us what that picture involves. How do you see this Springtime evolving?

"Cardinal: As I do not exclude even this dancing hand-in-hand, but this is only one moment. And my idea is that really the springtime of the Church will not say that we will have in a near time buses of conversions, that all peoples of the world will be converted to Catholicism. This is not the way of God. The essential things in history begin always with the small, more convinced communities. So, the Church begins with the 12 Apostles. And even the Church of St. Paul diffused in the Mediterranean are little communities, but this community in itself is the future of the world, because we have the truth and the force of conviction. So, I think also today it should be an error to think now or in 10 years with the new springtime, all people will be Catholic. This is not our future, nor our expectation. But we will have really convinced communities with élan of the faith, no? This is springtime — a new life in very convinced persons with joy of the faith.

"Raymond: But, smaller numbers? In the macro?

"Cardinal: Smaller numbers, I think. But from these small numbers we will have a radiation of joy in the world. And so, it’s an attraction, as it was in the old Church. Even when Constantine made Christianity the public religion, there were a small number of percentage at this time; but it was clear, this is the future. So we can live in the future, just give us a way in a different future. ..."

So there are your links for future reference.

The Myth and Reality of Second Marriages among the Orthodox

Sandro Magister posts

"There is a widespread opinion that the Eastern Churches permit a new marriage after divorce, and give communion to the remarried. But this is not the case, as Nicola Bux explains. Only the first marriage is celebrated as a true sacrament."

The explanation referred to is "The Orthodox Church and Second Marriages", by Nicola Bux, translation by Matthew Sherry. As described, Orthodox practice appears more strict than the Catholic practice of divorce, annulment, and remarriage in the U.S.

It further appears that a half-century of post-conciliar ecumenism has not included even many Catholic cardinals actually studying-up on Orthodox belief and practice.

Liturgical Translations and Two Instructions in Perspective

"Vague, imprecise, ideological and at times quirky translations that astonishingly moved away from biblical language have for almost two generations hindered effective catechesis in some important languages areas. Beautiful and ancient prayers that are a synthesis of the spiritual doctrine and teaching of the Fathers of the Church, with deep biblical roots, were lost to view, and this in the middle of an unprecedented religious crisis." --Cardinal George Pell, address delivered at the conference "Gratitude and commitment to a great movement of ecclesial communion", observing the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy.

(via Adoremus Bulletin)

Invisible Monastery

The phrase "invisible monastery" is the title of a brochure that caught my eye while visiting an area church. The brochure included a link to the Think Priest website of our Archdiocese of Milwaukee's Vocations Office. That's site included a link to the national Invisible Monastery program.

The phrase comes from Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry, which suggested

"it would be good for the Diocesan Office for Vocations to propose and organize an 'invisible monastery' in which many persons, day and night, are committed to continuous prayer for priestly vocations." (17)

The brochure and website include some suggested prayers. They also permit you to sign up as a participant, though you can also stay more literally invisible and anonymous.

P.S. Despite the phrase "invisible monastery", these suggestions do not appear to include anything from the Liturgy of the Hours, (see Sacrosanctum Concilium 100). You can, of course, choose that on your own.

Host, bread, and waffle

Deacon Sandy Sites, Parish Director of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, explains the intransitive form of the verb "to minister" in this now-viral video, starting at 3:55.

"You're going to notice that the form of Eucharist, which is as valid as the other, if physically and literally bread. Why do we do that? Why don't we use the wafers or hosts? Not that either one is more valid or better or worse than the other."

"We do it because we find that the ministers themselves, who bake the bread, have shared with us over the years that they're more able to enter more fully, because their hands have been part of what is happening in terms of the Consecration. There's the bread they've prepared."

So the bread baking ministry is not primarily about service to the community, it's primarily for the benefit of the bakers themselves.

In addition, you recall the Symmetric Property of Equality, "If a = b then b = a." Deacon Sandy apparently does not, since he says both that hosts would be no worse, and that the "bread" is better. He does this again when he goes on to say,

"We also feel that it is more symbolic and representative of what actually happened with Christ during the Last Supper itself."

Or more likely he referred to hosts in a Seinfeldian "Not that there's anything wrong with that" sense.

Update (7:45PM): More, including more from Deacon Sites, at Creative Minority Report.

When in Rome, do what ... ever

Ambrose didn't see this coming.

Whether up in the VIP section, or down on the plaza, some sit, some stand, at the November 24, 2013 Papal Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. (This was the Feast of Christ the King, which marked the close of the Year of Faith, and included the first public exposition of the relics of St. Peter).

Burnishing the Sheen

While Bishop of Rochester, New York, Fulton Sheen considered communicating with the diocese by buying a page weekly in the local daily newspaper instead of publishing its own. This fell through because of a long term printing contract for the diocesan newspaper. He does not explain why that meant dropping the idea as a failure rather than deferring it. [Treasure in Clay (1980), by Fulton J. Sheen, pp. 177-178]

Perhaps it reflected our Church's current culture. Experimentation sometimes means someone can remember that something similar was tried in the past and failed, and therefore there's absolutely no point to examining the experience to see if what's being suggested could be modified to produce better results. (Other times experimentation means something that some recall fondly as avant-garde in the immediate post-conciliar era never goes away, or will keep coming back without change, without regard to results.)

Perhaps in neither of these senses, Bishop of Orange Kevin Vann announces,

The Orange County Catholic will expand its current distribution from a monthly to weekly edition every Wednesday starting Nov. 6. In addition to its circulation to parishes, the Orange County Catholic will also be available on a free opt-in basis for Orange County Register seven-day subscribers.

The weekly Milwaukee Catholic Herald is mailed to subscribers. I've wondered if it could be delivered with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to subscribers of both. And maybe once in a while to everyone.

(via Rocco Palmo Twitter feed)

How many minutes in six and one-half years

As I've noted before, at least as far back as January 2, 2007, the Parish Council page of our St. Alphonsus parish website indicated that Council Minutes were going to be posted online (see Internet Archive).

There is now a Parish Council Minutes page with the Minutes from August 1, 2013 [doc].

Seems like this took a long time, but at least it's a few months ahead of the 50th anniversary of Inter Mirifica.

P.S. This might not be the record for our parish website being out-of-date, see this June 5, 2008 post.

The angle of the death spiral of the U.S. Catholic Church

Using the data in the post on The Growing Mystery of the 'Missing' Catholic Infants at the Nineteen Sixty-four blog, it appears U.S. Catholic baptisms as a proportion of total U.S. births have declined about 40% in 46 years [33.9% in 1965 to 20.1% in 2011]. I calculate that if this decline continues at that rate, the percentage will be 0% by around 2080. The post says,

"I am often one to caution overreactions to any piece of data. But its hard not to think that there is a pressing need to solve this mystery."

And yet it's hard to cite evidence that our bishops or priests or paid staff think this is a pressing problem. (My usual benchmark for "pressing" is an effort commensurate with a fund-raising campaign.)

Anything to drink with that?

Mary Beth Bonacci posted on parish as community.

"We aren’t just a bunch of unconnected people in line at Panera, waiting to get our individual orders of bread."

We aren't meant to be, but the change to being handed the Eucharist is susceptible to just such an association.

The usual answer to that observation is that this was not the intended effect of that change. A related issue came up back at a meeting of the Peter Favre Forum (think Businessmen's Prayer Breakfast with Bishop Sklba as chaplain). In response to some point that month's speaker had made, I noted that moving choirs to the front of the church had the effect of making the assembly like their audience. Afterward, a number of attendees who were in their parish choirs came up to assure me that was not what was intended. The underlying assumption seems to be if intentions are good, but results are not, the problem must lie elsewhere.

Catholic tripping point

"Hundreds of people, most of them Catholic", a "mostly older crowd", attended Austrian priest the Rev. Helmut Schuller's presentation at a Unitarian church in Dedham, Massachusetts, Fred Thys reports at WBUR. The move to a Unitarian church came after Rev. Schuller was banned from Catholic facilities by Boston's Cardinal Archbishop Sean O'Malley. The gist of Rev. Schuller's ""Catholic Tipping Point" tour might be summarized with his statement,

“We don’t agree with the plans of our bishops to come there and to close the parishes and to say to the people, 'You can go to the next village, there you will get your communion,' Schuller said. 'Like a supermarket, you can buy something there.'"

As the size and demographics of his audience indicate, though, closings reflect not the decades of decline in the number of priests, but the decline in the number of participating lay people.

(via Rocco Palmo Twitter feed)

Fledgling national priests' group to tackle broad agenda

Dan Morris-Young reports at the National Catholic Reporter on the upcoming second annual meeting of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests. Mr. Morris-Young interviewed AUSCP president Father David Cooper (also pastor at St. Matthias Church in Milwaukee) about the meeting and its agenda [pdf]

"Asked how he might respond to those who would say the 15 resolutions sound like a party platform for the progressive wing of the Catholic church, Cooper said, 'Well, that's what Vatican Council II embraced.'"

If only they'd explicitly said that in the documents!

Father Cooper also touches on the Association's future.

"Confirming that the average age of members is about 70, Cooper said there has been resistance from younger, more recently ordained priests, some of whom 'see us as disloyal if not downright dissenting.'"

And this after not that long ago being in the seminary studying, among other things, Vatican Council II.

"Alluding to recent studies that have pointed to differing views of church and authority between older and younger generations of Catholic clergy, Cooper described 'Vatican II priests' as viewing the priesthood in terms of 'service, of washing the feet of others' in contrast to clerics who hold a 'priest as ruler' model."

My pastor's among the AUSCP's founders, and last fall issued an anathema against parishioners who genuflect before receiving communion, so I'm not sure I'm seeing this as a distinction in practice.

From the AUSCP meeting brochure [pdf]:
June 24th opening night events include Outdoor Barbecue, followed by Prayerful Lamentation.
June 25th presentations include Robert Kaiser on "Listening to the Signs of the Times" [sic].
June 26th such a hit at last year's meeting, the St. Louis Jesuits are back!
June 27th Fr. Patrick Brennan's presentation on "How can the church become a more genuine relational network?"

(via Bonfire of the Vanities)

If necessary, use words, and pictures

Pope Benedict XVI's message for the 47th World Communications Day, today, was issued January 24th of this year and linked that day at our Archdiocese of Milwaukee's website.

This year's theme is Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization which is itself a message that shouldn't go without saying. The day is the only new observance called for by the Second Vatican Council, in the Decree on the Media of Social Communication (Inter Mirifica) 17-18.

The goal could be expressed in terms of getting back to and then beyond where Church media was sixty years ago when Bishop Sheen had a weekly network television show.

(via Whispers in the Loggia)

Good intentions or good results

John L. Allen Jr., posted from Argentina, where Pope Francis was Archbishop [Jorge Mario Bergoglio] of Buenos Aires for 15 years. Most of the report is on our new Pope's general outlook and what we might call his management approach. As to actual results, though,

'vocations to the priesthood have been falling in Buenos Aires on his watch, despite the fact they’re up in some other dioceses. Last year the archdiocese ordained just 12 new priests, as opposed to 40-50 per year when Bergoglio took over.'

Mr. Allen reported goes on to describe the then-Archbishop's missionary vision, including that

'Perhaps the signature pastoral innovation associated with the Bergoglio years is his emphasis on putting priests into the slums and shantytowns of Buenos Aires'.

But before you can put priests anywhere, there first have to be priests.

Rocco Palma does note at Whispers in the Loggia,

'it is indeed conspicuous that Papa Bergoglio's first American personnel moves – more than any other aspect of a pontificate, the place where the rubber hits the road – have both gone to priests of [the Diocese of] Lincoln',

Specifically, he appointed Bishop Michael Jackels of Wichita Archbishop of Dubuque, and Msgr. John Folda, rector of Lincoln's St. Gregory the Great Seminary, as Bishop of Fargo.

'In any event, as Francis' identikit for nominees begins to emerge, both appointments reflect a premium on picks who've yielded impressive, concrete results.

'On that front, Jackels' Wichita has set a national high-watermark both in priestly vocations and a stewardship-based Catholic school system believed to be the US' lone outfit that (get this) doesn't charge tuition to active parishioners, while the Lincoln seminary – whose fairly recent establishment [1998] bucked the prevailing trend – has served as the engine behind the building of a formation group numbering over 40 men, a figure barely equaled even by most of the largest local churches on these shores.'

Around my parish and archdiocese I've often heard that better results elsewhere are solely due to unique circumstances and so we ought not reconsider our current approach even as things deteriorate. We'll see if Pope Francis has empathy or impatience with that outlook.

Vatican II at 50

Essay by Robert Royal in the Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2012

The direction that this spirit [of Vatican II] blew was uniformly to the left. Unorthodox Catholics started to speak of human beings in rather Rousseauian terms. Except for evil capitalists and their political enablers, human beings seemed to be mostly victims. How this squared with the fundamental point of Christianity—that the whole human race was fallen and that it took God to come down and die on a cross to save people from themselves—seemed to all but disappear in some quarters. Perhaps part of the problem was that in none of the Conciliar documents did Hell ever appear by name—though Jesus himself talks about it more than any Biblical figure.