Catholic Mass for May 19, 2013 – Pentecost Sunday

St. Anthony’s to host exhibit of sacred relics

St. Anthony Catholic Church in Temperance will have an exhibition of sacred relics from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Kenna Hall, 4605 St. Anthony Rd.

More than 150 artifacts, some thought to be more than 2,000 years old, will be displayed. They will include what are described as pieces of the veil of the Virgin Mary and one of the largest fragments of the True Cross.

Visitors who bring articles of devotion such as holy cards and rosaries will be able to touch them to reliquaries containing the artifacts as a means of intercession. For more information, call the parish office at 734-854-1143.

Catholic Mass – 5/12/2013 (Seventh Sunday of Easter)

Catholic. Nuff Said. – Patheos

When I modify the word “Catholic” with some preceding description — be it traditional Catholic, liberal Catholic, or faithful Catholic — I do a disservice to the Catholic Church. Perhaps there are times when a concise modification is good, true, and beautiful, but on the off-chance that you — like me — are doing your Catholicism wrong, have a reason to quit your modifying: It’s usually a reaction which unintentionally gives credence to the thing reacted against.

I used to call myself a conservative Catholic, because there’s only so many times a man can hear Nancy Pelosi say that her “Catholic faith” urges her to support abortion before he’s flipping tables, setting himself on fire, and otherwise striving to make a distinction between what Pelosi understands of the Catholic faith and what he knows it to be. Similarly, I am often tempted to call myself a liberal Catholic in reaction to those who frame Catholicism as a branch of the Republican party, a defender of capitalism, the death penalty, nuclear bombs, and traditional American values (which, one assumes, does not include lynching Catholics.)

Land that I loooooovvvee

But labels that express one half of an established dichotomy grant their opposite an equal validity. By claiming myself “conservative”, I am not saying that pulling a Pelosi and ignoring the teaching of the Church is wrong. I’m saying it’s liberal. Publicly supporting the murder of the unborn becomes an expression of liberal Catholicism, when in reality, it is an eloquent expression of not being Catholic at all.

So too with the proud label of “liberal Catholic”. By claiming, coddling, and taking it out for a nice seafood dinner, we carve a ghetto within the Catholic Faith, baptizing those conservatives who are quite simply not being Catholic in regards to war, Just Wage, or the treatment of persons with homosexuality as conservative Catholics, thus granting their heresy equal validity. Declaring yourself as a liberal Catholic allows the conservative Catholic to exist — quite comfortably — as your opposite, and thus the Church ceases to bring offense to the world, for it has slipped into the dichotomy of American politics, in which the infinitely passionate declarations of “right” and “wrong” are replaced with “sides.”

The Catholic Church transcends the idiocy of both liberals and conservatives by transcending the very language of liberalism and conservatism, claiming — with their founder, Jesus Christ — that there is one faith, a faith that frustrates everyone as Pope Francis frustrates everyone, simultaneously declaring a love for the poor, an intolerance of unjust economic schemes, and an opposition to the objectification of children within gay marriage and IVF. Far better than giving the world an opportunity to subsume you into idiocy with a political label is to be Catholic. Then, when Pelosi begins posing, you — as a Catholic, not a conservative Catholic — have the opportunity to explain that Catholicism, naked without shame and preceding adjectives, is a faith lived insofar as we “believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God,” and that — shock and terror — the Catholic Church has written these revelations down in the finalized language of authority, so we can all check up on whether or not support for abortion is Catholic, successfully ignoring the liberal/conservative dichotomy that makes this country stupid.

Now the modifiers “faithful” and “orthodox” that hang like mullets behind the word “Catholic” are useful when attempting to distinguish for the press — who cannot fathom that Church doctrine is not determined by American opinion polls — the difference between a woman who goes to church and the woman hasn’t seen the inside of a church since she burnt her bra in the pew; to explain to them that a person may claim the title “Catholic” and simultaneously have nothing to do with the Catholic Church. But as a personal modifier of Catholicism, such words are stupid. You relinquish your claim on “faithful Catholic” the moment you watch porn. You are unorthodox at the precise moment you snap at your children. “Faithful” can scarcely be upheld as a modifier until you’re dead, buried, and canonized. “Trying to be faithful,” maybe, but again, attaching this modifier to Catholicism undermines the fact that striving for faithfulness is implied in simply being Catholic, lending itself to the false idea that there are other types of Catholic to be.

This is also true of the labels that reference our liturgical preferences. A Catholic who loves the extraordinary form of the Mass loves an authentic reality of the Catholic faith. His love for the extraordinary form is part of being Catholic, for the extraordinary form comes to him from the heart of the Catholic Church. To move from this authentic love-affair with the Catholic Church to the label “traditional” is — I think — an injustice. First of all, the label lends itself to a denial of what the extraordinary form of the Mass is — a present reality, lived and breathed by the Church here and now. (I understand the desire to “promote” the extraordinary form as “being in contact with the rich history of the Church,” “praying the Mass most of the Saints prayed” but the value of the Mass is in its present reality, as being precisely what it is, not what it reminds us of.)

Secondly, such gleefully accepted labeling has precisely the same effect as the liberal/conservative dichotomy. By giving up on being Catholic qua Catholic and expressing ourselves as such in favor of an easy, you-know-what-I-mean-by-traditional route, we allow its opposite label to be just that — another label and another option.

This phenomenon achieves a heightened expression at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, in which there is a sharp, and often painstakingly expressed distinction between traditional Catholics and charismatic Catholics. Such a distinction actually works directly against the intentions of so-called traditional Catholics, for by insistence upon its label, they make the actions of so-called charismatic Catholics simply the actions of an equally possible label.

Thus, even though The Sacred Congregation Of Rites instructs that, if secular instruments are to be used in the liturgy, “they are to be played with such seriousness, and religious devotion that every suggestion of raucous secular music is avoided, and the devotion of the faithful is fostered,” and even though the General Instruction for the Roman Missal clearly states that “sacred silence also, as part of the celebration, is to be observed at the designated times” and that “the main place should be given, all things being equal, to Gregorian chant, as being proper to the Roman Liturgy,” these rules are often ignored. Why? Because instead of being expressed as fundamentally, authoritatively, and timelessly Catholic, these instructions are couched in the language of “traditional” Catholicism, as a rallying cry of a particular faction that can be easily ignored precisely as a faction. Which is, of course, ridiculous. It’s not “traditional” to follow the GIRM. It’s Catholic.

It occurs to me that any limiting modification on the word Catholic is a contradiction in terms. Catholic means universal. If saying I am a traditional universal means I am not a charismatic universal, I’ve negated the term universal, in which there can be no factions, or else it wouldn’t be, you know, universal. Labeling the word universal is a little like quantifying infinity into multiple parts: “You take the first half of infinity, I’ll take the second.” It doesn’t work, and worse than that, it cleverly avoids the discussion of what it means to be “Catholic, nuff said”.

The constructive killing of labels in no way promotes a homogeneity about the faith. Catholicism blossoms in a explosion of expressions, in a plethora of spiritualities, a multitude of philosophical languages — whether thomist, personalist, phenomenological, or existentialist — and a cornucopia of devotions, prayers, forms, rites, and rituals. The Catholic faith is true, but because this truth is universal — expressing the reality of the entire Cosmos and every man’s place in it — assent to the Catholic faith leap of the entire, subjective person into reality itself. Catholicism cannot be homogenous any more than you and your neighbor can be homogenous, for God’s love calls you and your neighbor to Catholicism in your infinite uniqueness.

Killing your labels will not homogenize the Church, but valuing them over Catholicism will, for labels are limitations upon the Universal Faith. I fear the urge to label Catholicism bubbles from our doubt that Catholicism really is enough, the universal This, all things visible and invisible, to which not a word can be added. But be not afraid: God has given us the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church is enough.

Hundreds Expected in Washington for ‘Blue Mass’

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the country are expected to attend a Mass being held in Washington ahead of National Police Week.

The Annual Blue Mass will be held Tuesday at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington. The Mass honors law enforcement and first responders. Some streets in the area will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Washington’s Archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, will celebrate the Mass, which will include an honor guard, bagpipers and the playing of taps in honor of law enforcement officers who died in the past year.

National Police Week will begin Sunday.

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(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Catholic vote

IS THERE a “Catholic vote”? It is said there are Catholic votes, but there are of two kinds: one based on Vatican I and the other on Vatican II. Vatican I is viewed as emphasizing the conscience of the institutional Church over the conscience of the individual. Vatican II is viewed as emphasizing the conscience of the individual over the conscience of the institutional Church. Further emphasis is made on the division of the Catholics into two groups: those on the side of conservative Vatican I and those on the side of liberal Vatican II.

But then what really is a Catholic vote? Is a vote cast for those who cry for the approval of RH bill a Catholic vote, and a vote cast for those who cry for the rejection of RH bill also a Catholic vote? What is the difference? On what grounds, then, should a Catholic vote be based? Should it be based on the spirit of Vatican I or that of Vatican II?

It must be made clear that the topic on Catholic vote arises from the issue on RH bill, which has been controversial because it is deemed as anti-life. Now the Catholic Church, as an institution, is a promoter of life. Consequently, it is against RH bill for its being anti-life. Catholics, therefore, are enjoined–if and if they are truly believers of the Catholic faith–to uphold the doctrinal teachings of the Church to which they “claim” they belong. Therefore, the true Catholic vote is the one cast for the reason of faithfully upholding the doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church.

It is a fact that some Catholics–those who easily compromise, or even reject, their faith–cry for the approval of RH bill, and some other Catholics–those who do not and cannot compromise their faith–also cry for the rejection of the same bill. Those who cry for the approval of the bill use “freedom of conscience” of the individual as their battle-cry. Those who cry for the rejection of the bill try their best to faithfully abide by the doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church to which they belong.

It must be made clear that when and when it is a question of the doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church, all Catholics are enjoined to uphold them, in and with their strong faith. For God, the Holy Trinity, wills to save mankind, and it is through the teachings preserved and perpetuated by the Church that the continuing salvation of souls–brought about by Jesus Christ through the Cross–be achieved. This is, and must be, the “Conscience” of the non-compromising Catholics.

Within Catholicism itself, there are indeed two kinds of believers: the compromisers and the non-compromisers. Compromisers are those who can easily wave or reject the doctrinal teachings in exchange for the values of the world proliferated by modern philosophies. Non-compromisers are those who, prodded by their strong faith in God, try to uphold the doctrinal teachings. Who then can be said as true Catholics? The compromisers or the non-compromisers? It is not difficult to distinguish a compromising from a non-compromising Catholic.

The true Catholic vote, then, is the one cast, not according to his/her own personal, self-determined “freedom of conscience” but according to the “conscience” of the Catholic Church, which he/she is enjoined to uphold–that if he/she is truly faithful to his/her belief. It should be made clear to Catholics that one’s “conscience” can either be in line or against the “conscience” of the Catholic Church. On this basis, it is a fact that a Catholic can either keep his/her faith, specifically in the area of Catholic morality, or sell it in exchange for the values, or morality, of the present modernistic world.

Therefore, it is a fallacy to say that a vote cast according to one’s “freedom of conscience” which is against the teachings of the Church is just as Catholic as the vote cast according to the “conscience” of the Catholic Church. –Jose D. Clepidio, Minglanilla, Cebu

A happy time – Estes Park Trail

Gabe Housewright, 8, flashes a shy smile after his First Communion on Sunday at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church. First Communion is a Catholic celebration of the first reception of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

The Secret Faith of Washington

But as close as he is to the president, McDonough is even closer to his faith. In fact, he can sometimes be found in the basement of the West Wing, sharing an early morning breakfast and conversation with a bishop or priest. In a recent interview, his first-ever in-depth conversation with the media about his religious beliefs, MCDonough told me that his deep Catholic faith did not come by accident. In 1966, when his Irish Catholic parents, Bill and Kathleen, moved from Boston, Massachusetts, to Stillwater, Minnesota, his mother had two rules for their relocation: they had to live close to the kids’ school, and close to a Catholic church.

The Catholic Mass from the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 4-28-13

German court says Catholic who renounced faith has no right to job at Catholic …

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German court says Catholic who renounced faith has no right to job at Catholic charity

CWN – April 26, 2013

From Our Store: Liturgical Year 2012-2013, Vol. 3: Lent (eBook)

A German court has ruled against a man who had claimed that he had a right to work for a Catholic charity even after he legally renounced his Catholic faith.

The plaintiff in the case had been dismissed as a tutor, working for Caritas Germany, after he changed his legal registration as a Catholic, in a public protest against Church policies. He said that his dismissal was a violation of his freedom of expression.

The court ruled that the Catholic Church, and other German religious groups, have the right to set their own standards for employment.

In Germany, citizens can register their religious affiliation, and a portion of their taxes are directed to their chosen church. Some Germans have changed their registration, dropping their affiliation with the Catholic Church. Although that public action does not constitute a formal renunciation of the Catholic faith, it does raise questions as to whether the individual can continue to be identified as Catholic.

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• Ex-Catholic has no right to Church job: German court (Reuters)

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