Abbey-Roads2

Liturgical anarchy.

I never could figure that out - why after renovation of a parish church to look like a gym, parishioners chose to worship in the school gym anyway?  That is what they did at St. Stephen’s - they made up their own liturgy and held it in the gym.  The “spirits” guiding these folk discourage liturgical  rubrics, rules of order, and obedience to the Magisterium.  Naturally, to be Roman Catholic, a parish is obliged to follow the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), that isn’t too much to ask.  Unless elements within the worshipping community are not Roman Catholic, in that case, the honest thing to do would be to go elsewhere for worship.

In the Gospel, several followers left Jesus after our Lord revealed himself as the Bread of Life, proclaiming, “if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.” (Jn. 6)  “From this time on, many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer.”  (Jn. 6)  Just so, some of the parishioners at St. Stephens have found the integrity to move off Church grounds to celebrate worship services which accord with their personal piety elsewhere.

Some of the protestors chose to remain behind in the school gym to conduct their eucharistic celebration, an act of “holy resistance” - as the above photo demonstrates.  The woman performing the ‘elevation’  of the wine at the end is a Sister of St. Joseph.

Thankfully, the new pastor, Fr. Joseph Williams, is a very kind and holy priest, he will be an immense blessing for those in the parish who hunger for authentic worship, in spirit and truth.  He arrives on the Sunday after Easter, supported by the faithful of the archdiocese and much prayer.

(Topmost photo:  Laetare Sunday Procession of protestant Catholics leaving the school gym for their new “underground” church.)

Links:

Photos and story of the migration: The Wild Reed

All the background you need on the ruckus:  Stella Borealis

…in the archdiocese of MPLS/ST. PAUL

Curt Jester, via one local blog to another…  Big news!   Some crackpot writing for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune - it’s a local newspaper few people read  - writes a story about a “crack down” on a dissident parish in South Minneapolis, St. Stevens.  And the blogroll rolls.  Of course, every orthodox Catholic comes out of the closet to cheer-lead the supposed crackdown.

There is no “crackdown” - That is media hype - the archdiocese is simply asking all of the parishes in the area to follow the rubrics - same term for “rules” - and that is all.  Archbishop Harry Flynn, together with his coadjutor, Archbishop Nienstedt have directed the effort. 

Some people spotlighted in the dissident parish are a little verklempft - but they are trying to cope, mostly by moving to another facility for whatever it is they do do for worship.  They can do that.  It’s not such a big deal, really.  As I commented on another blog: 

“I see all of this as a wonderful blessing and opportunity for reconciliation… as for the transition to using the GIRM and following the teaching of the Church in faith and morals, it seems to me our Lord is gently admonishing them; “All of these you should have practiced without neglecting the others.” - Matt. 23:23.  (Truly, many are the works of mercy the parish of St. Stephen’s did not neglect.  As a parish, they have led the archdiocese in ministry to the poor and marginalized.)

And sending such a good priest as Fr. Joseph Williams  to reclaim what was lost seems to me to be a beautiful sign of God’s mercy, the realization - nay, the materialisation of Jesus’ words, “How often have I yearned to gather your children as a mother hen gathers her young under her wings.” - Matt. 23:37

That’s all.

Links: 

The link to the Strib doesn’t work, for the article check out Stella Borealis. 

Vatican II and the New Springtime.

I think one focus of study for anyone who entered religious life since the 1970’s has been the Documents of Vatican II - at least that was the case for me.  Over the years I return to ’spot check’ certain points in the Conciliar Documents, while recently, I’ve been reading them more closely.  After all, Pope Benedict XVI stands by the Second Vatican Council and recommends we reread the documents from our vantage point of 40 years after…

“And thus it seems to me that we must rediscover the great heritage of the Council, which is not a “spirit” reconstructed behind the texts, but the great conciliar texts themselves, reread today with the experiences that we have had and that have born fruit in so many movements, in so many new religious communities.” - Benedict XVI informal Q and A with priests of Auronzo di Cadore, 2007 

In retrospect, I’ve often been surprised by the positive outlook the Conciliar Popes have taken regarding the Council, beginning with Blessed John XXIII when he convened the assembly in 1962.  Addressing the Council Fathers, John XXIII spoke of the “happy circumstances under which the Ecumenical Council commences.”  (No disrespect intended, but what spiritual realm was he living in?  It was the height of the Cold War, among other things.)  The Pope continued:

In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure.  In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin… We feel we must disagree with these prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster…”  John XXIII, Opening Speech, October 11, 1962

Who were the prophets of gloom and what were they saying to the Holy Father, and why was the Pope so convinced to the contrary?  Especially when his predecessor, Pius XII had not been all that optimistic for the future?

Affirming the Council.

While on vacation this past summer, Pope Benedict admitted the difficulties which followed in the wake of the Council, even hinting at a personal disillusionment, yet true to form, he proposes a rather positive outlook for the true teaching  of Vatican II.

“I, too, lived through Vatican Council II, coming to Saint Peter’s Basilica with great enthusiasm and seeing how new doors were opening. It really seemed to be the new Pentecost, in which the Church would once again be able to convince humanity. After the Church’s withdrawal from the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it seemed that the Church and the world were coming together again, and that there was a rebirth of a Christian world and of a Church of the world and truly open to the world.

We had such great hopes, but in reality things proved to be more difficult. Nonetheless, it is still true that the great legacy of the Council, which opened a new road, is a “magna carta” of the Church’s path, very essential and fundamental.”- Q and A at Auronzo di Cadore.

In between the extremes - there is the fruit.

Pope Benedict, just as his predecessor, speaks positively of the Second Vatican Council, despite the confusion which the Council appears to have generated over the years.  Benedict XVI compares it to the turmoil which followed other Councils, especially the Council of Nicaea.

“In his book on the Holy Spirit, saint Basil compares the Church’s situation after the Council of Nicaea to a nighttime naval battle, in which no one recognizes another, but everyone is pitted against everyone else. It really was a situation of total chaos: this is how saint Basil paints in vivid colors the drama of the period following the Council of Nicaea. 

So it is not now, in retrospect, such a great surprise how difficult it was at first for all of us to digest the Council, this great message. To imbue this into the life of the Church, to receive it, such that it becomes the Church’s life, to assimilate it into the various realities of the Church is a form of suffering, and it is only in suffering that growth is realized. To grow is always to suffer as well, because it means leaving one condition and passing to another.”- Q and A at Auronzo di Cadore.

Spiritual rain…

The Holy Father went on to point to two great upheavals in the last century which seemed to have complicated the growth expected from the Council.  These disorientations took place with the “cultural revolution”  of the late 1960’s, followed by “the fall into nihilism after 1989″ -both of which led to even greater confusion after the Council.  However, Pope Benedict see’s a silver lining beneath the apparent confusion. 

“It seems very important to me that we can now see with open eyes how much that was positive also grew following the Council: in the renewal of the liturgy, in the synods – Roman synods, universal synods, diocesan synods – in the parish structures, in collaboration, in the new responsibility of laypeople, in intercultural and intercontinental shared responsibility, in a new experience of the Church’s catholicity, of the unanimity that grows in humility, and nonetheless is the true hope of the world.”- Q and A at Auronzo di Cadore.

Really?  I guess we ought to have the same hope the post-Conciliar Popes have had.  Although the seemingly apparent disconnect with reality reminds me of  Evelyn Waugh’s illustration of a popular Protestant misunderstanding concerning papal infallibility:

“Suppose the Pope looked up, saw a cloud and said, “It’s going to rain”, would that be bound to happen?
“Oh yes, Father.”
“But suppose it didn’t?”
“I suppose it would be sort of raining spiritually, only we were too sinful to see it.”  - Brideshead Revisited.

I’m certain I am too sinful to see all the fruits of Vatican II.  Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

I guess abortifacients are OK some of the time… 

The Roman Catholic Bishops of Connecticut have given the OK for Catholic hospitals to administer emergency contraception to rape victims, reversing an earlier decision days before the state would require them to do so.

The church, which runs four of the state’s 30 hospitals, had fought the state law requiring medical personnel to give rape victims emergency contraception, sold as Plan B, even if the women are ovulating.

Church officials had said the treatment was tantamount to abortion and had been considering legal action, but they took a step away from that position Thursday, in a joint statement by the Catholic Bishops of Connecticut and leaders of the Catholic hospitals. - YahooNews

Nice example of heroic virtue in the middle of the New Springtime.  Or maybe I don’t understand what aspects of contraception are sinful? 

Lay ministry. 

In the middle of the New Springtime  will become a label I will  begin to use for anomalies  that occurr which seem to contradict the reform of the reform.   Stuff that happens in the Church which suggests ‘business as usual’ rather than a return to tradition.  (I know a reform doesn’t take place over night, but some stuff that happens seems to be for the long term, as if to forestall any chance at reform.) 

California Catholic Daily  has a piece on the recent commissioning of lay pastoral associates by Cardinal Mahoney in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  (Sept. 9)

In a ceremony, Sept. 9, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony formally commissioned three lay women and one deacon as parish pastoral associates.

Pastoral associates, said the Sept. 15 Tidings, the archdiocesan newspaper, are “professional ministers who share with their pastors the overall care of the parish.”

They are, usually, full-time members of the parish staff and “accountable to the pastor.” They differ from Parish Life Directors who are male or female lay or religious, or deacons, who administer parishes without a resident pastor. - California Catholic Daily 

So what do pastoral associates do?

Naturally they assist the pastor.  The average parish has Directors of Pastoral Ministry, Liturgy and Music, Faith Formation, Youth Ministry, an Administrator, a Secretary, and various coordinators and other staff members, depending upon the size and budget of the parish.  Often there is only 1 priest - the pastor.  In the old days, he would have had at least one assistant, another priest - today the priest is called an associate.  When there are not enough priests to go around, lay people can be commissioned as pastoral associates - as in the LA situation. 

Lay pastoral associates will do graveside blessings, conduct Communion services, visit the sick and dying, as well as other things the priest may be too busy to do.  (If I’m dying, I hope I have a priest who can administer the sacraments and not just an ordinary lay pastoral minister who can simply read prayers from The Book of Blessings.)

What to do with your otherwise  useless theology degree.

With the increasing number of people holding theology degrees either in Pastoral Ministry or something else, albeit unable to find employment in the secular world, perhaps Church services can be a good career path after all.  Here is another excerpt from the Catholic Daily article which offers a glimpse into the resume of the divorced (and annulled) woman who has recently been commissioned by the Cardinal. 

The Sept. 10 Los Angeles Times featured one of the commissioned associates, Noel Fuentes Becker, 42, who has been assigned to St. Raphael Church, near Santa Barbara. For 15 years, Becker has been a technical writer in the high-tech industry and, since 2003, she has been St. Raphael’s administrative manager. According to the Sept. 8, 2006 Tidings, her role as pastoral associate would be to assist the pastor, Fr. Bruce Correio, in adult and education and ministries coordination. Among Becker’s other duties, said the Times, would helping with graveside services and leading prayer services.

It was Correio who suggested that Becker enter the archdiocese’s pastoral associates’ program. In May 2006, she received her Masters in Theology in Pastoral Ministry from St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo and was certified as a pastoral associate. According to the Times, Becker “took classes in preaching” and “learned how to comfort the sick and dying.”

Becker told the Tidings last year that she wanted to work in the FCAP (“full conscious act of participation”) project with liturgical ministers at the parish and relieve the pastor so he could attend to other needs. “I think I was blessed and born with a pastoral heart,” said Becker. “I’ve always been a good listener; I personalize everything.” 
- California Catholic Daily

” I personalize everything.”   I wonder if that could be a problem.

Let’s pray for vocations to the priesthood.