For faith, I’m thankful
The other night at dinner I was talking with a close friend about our shared Catholic faith. We touched on the profound—prayer and Mass; the silly—new cassock rules from the Vatican; and the seemingly lamentable—shuttered parishes and declining attendance among our peers.
The conversation stayed with me the past few days. I realized that, as we approached Thanksgiving, the faith that was introduced to me by my parents, deepened by priests and professors, and is sustained by ritual, reading, and writing, remains one of the great blessings of my life.
Along with family and friends, my faith offers hope, makes sense of a sometimes-confusing existence, and challenges me, disallowing complacence and self-satisfaction. For that I am thankful.
I am mindful of the challenges we face as Catholics, both from within and outside the church. As I connect with old friends over this Thanksgiving break, friends with whom I was confirmed and shared a deeply Catholic upbringing, I struggle as they have distanced themselves from the church for a variety of reasons. Some have simply fallen away, others make it clear that they identify as one of the many “nones” that comprise my generation.
But today, I’m thankful for that I’ve been offered a gift, a constitution that is open to faith, and hope that I use it well. It’s the Year of Faith. I’m thankful.
Michael J. O’Loughlin
US bishops say homilies should invite Catholics to conversion
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Sunday homilies should promote repentance, instill a sense of mission and lead Catholics to grow in understanding their faith, the U.S. bishops said in a new document on preaching.
“The ultimate goal of proclaiming the Gospel is to lead people into a loving and intimate relationship with the Lord, a relationship that forms the character of their persons and guides them in living out their faith,” the bishops emphasized.
In “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: the Sunday Homily,” the bishops offered a reflection on preaching for priests, deacons and those who are responsible for forming them.
Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to approve the document – which will also be translated into Spanish – on Nov. 13 at their fall general assembly in Baltimore. The vote tally was 227 in favor, 11 against and four abstaining.
The bishops noted that Catholics have asked for “more powerful and inspiring preaching” in surveys, and that the laity can become discouraged by a “steady diet of tepid or poorly prepared homilies.”
Homilists should respond to this desire by preaching with a “sense of urgency and freshness,” connecting Scripture, the Eucharist and the Creed, they advised.
As an “intrinsic part of the Sunday Eucharist,” the bishops said in the document, every homily must be centered on the person of Christ, whose death and resurrection are at the heart of our salvation.
“If a homilist conveys merely some example of proverbial wisdom or good manners, or only some insight gained from his personal experience, he may have spoken accurately and even helpfully, but he has not yet spoken the Gospel,” they stated.
And while “every effective homily is a summons to conversion,” the bishops also said this does not mean that a homilist should “simply berate the people for their failures.”
Instead, the clergy should emphasize the “offer of grace” and do so with “pastoral sensitivity.”
This invitation and “promise of grace” is an important context, particularly when addressing those who do not regularly attend Mass or discussing the moral challenges presented by Church teaching on delicate issues such as sexuality and marriage, they added.
The bishops also acknowledged that many Catholics seem to lack knowledge of Church teaching and be in need of stronger catechesis.
Since “the Sunday liturgy remains the basic setting in which most adult Catholics encounter Christ and their Catholic faith,” they counseled homilists to use the opportunity to present Church doctrine.
Over time, the homilist should cover the entire scope of the Church’s rich catechetical teaching, including its stance on critical issues such as the respect for human life, the importance of religious freedom and justice for the poor and migrants.
“Homilies are inspirational when they touch the deepest levels of the human heart and address the real questions of human experience,” the bishops said, noting the importance of incorporating both ordinary experiences and the deeper hopes and longings that give meaning to them.
“Our encounter with Jesus inevitably leads to mission,” they noted, adding that homilies are incomplete if they do not inspire a sense of mission that translates love of Christ into love for others.
Building on the New Evangelization, the Year of Faith and the call for a renewal of preaching by Pope Benedict XVI at the 2008 Synod on the Word, the bishops explained that preaching is a participation in the apostolic continuation of Jesus’ ministry.
They pointed to Mary as an example of hearing and proclaiming the Word of God without hesitation.
In their personal lives, homilists should work towards ongoing spiritual renewal, seeking to lead lives of holiness with a deep love of Scripture and respect for Tradition, they said.
The effectiveness of preaching can also be improved through an understanding of contemporary culture, including the music, movies and websites that are a part of the people’s lives.
The bishops offered several factors to consider when preparing homilies, including the growing individualism in modern culture, the need to speak respectfully about other religious traditions and the cultural diversity of Church communities.
“Once he has come to know the customs, mores, practices, history, and religiosity of a people, a homilist can draw on that richness in order to make his presentation of the faith fresh and enlivening,” they said.
Tags:
USCCB, Liturgy, Homilies
Remembering, and Mis-Remembering, Vatican II
When you get a roomful of Catholics together, the subject of Vatican II is going to come up, especially in this year which marks the 50tih anniversary of the convening of the Council. Yet, these conversations about what the Council did and did not achieve, what it meant, the whole hermeneutical question seems to me the have gotten bogged down in ideological presuppositions that distort the Council itself and, in a more fundamental way, what a Council means to the life of the Church. I wrote about some of this last month, and you can read that commentary by clicking here.
I raise these issues now because tomorrow marks the anniversary of what may have been the most important day at the Council. At the Council, Xavier Rynne penned his “Letters from Rome” series for the New Yorker, and these set the template for understanding the Council as a struggle between conservative curialists and the liberal reformers in which the liberal reformers overcame the opposition to reform in the aula. The reformers, convinced of the need for collegiality among the bishops, were not above getting direct papal intervention when needed, as happened after the November 20, 1962 vote on the curial draft text on revelation, De Fontibus, left the Council Fathers in great consternation. A majority had registered a vote indicating their displeasure with the draft document, a product of the curia, but they had failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed to set the document aside. They appealed to Pope John XXIII to intervene and create a “mixed commission” of curialists and reformers to amend the text, which he did. The next day, the Pope’s decision was announced to the Council Fathers. The first major showdown went to the reformers. Over the next four years, the reformers won virtually every showdown.
This is all history. There can be a debate about the hermeneutics, but not about the facts. The curialists presented a document that represented the prevailing conservative theology of the day, and a majority of the bishops rejected it. The “mixed commission” went on to draft a new text that reflected a far more sophisticated understanding of the issues involved, and not only as regarded this one document, but virtually every text. By the conclusion of the Council, the curial conservatives had been utterly defeated and the reformers utterly vindicated. This is a fact. No one today espouses the views once held by the curial conservatives, although the legalistic mindset that characterized that view persists in important ways.
Here is where the ideological predispositions enter the scene and confuse the issues. Not all the reformers wanted the same thing from their reforms. Those who were united against Cardinal Ottaviani and the curalists were not united amongst themselves. And, the actors themselves changed their own positions over time. But, what is clear is that in the post-conciliar era, two dominant theological trends developed, each with their own journals. The Concilium school and the Communio school were both led by those who had been champions of reform at the Council. But the Concilium school and the Communio school differed in important ways about what had been achieved at the Council.
This phenomenon of once united groups diverging after a victory is not unique to the Second Vatican Council. It did not take long after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution for two parties to form, one around James Madison and one around Alexander Hamilton. Both men had been instrumental in drafting and defending the Constitution but both men saw in the document different themes and emphases that led them to become bitter rivals. Similarly, after the recent election, a fight is on within both parties for control of the narrative. Some pro-choice women’s groups are taking credit for Obama’s victory, even though his share of the women’s vote declined from what he achieved in 2008. Latinos, with a better case based on the numbers, claim that they put Obama over the top. These two groups will not always see eye-to-eye in the weeks and months ahead. And, on the Republican side, the fact of defeat has likewise created two groups within the GOP, the one saying Romney was too conservative during the primaries, and the other complaining that he was never enough of a true-red conservative to begin with.
In terms of understanding the Council, however, it is simply false to try and explain what followed as the resurgence of the curial conservative party. Joseph Ratzinger was a reformer at the Council, to be sure. Despite the widespread belief that he lost his reforming sensibilities as a result of the 1968 turmoil on campuses throughout the world, it was evident in 1966, when Ratzinger delivered a series of lectures that became his book “Introduction to Christianity,” that he understood the Council’s call to reform as a call to renewal, a return to the sources of the Christian faith in the Patristic age and in the Scriptures themselves. Nothing Ratzinger wrote, not as a theologian and not as a Pope, suggests that he has abandoned his understanding of the need for reform at the time of the Council, still less that he has suddenly adopted the theology of Ottaviani. Nothing. What is clear is that Raztinger, already in 1966, understood that some were trying to make of the conciliar reforms something that was extraneous to the Church’s self-understanding, an adoption of attitudes and ideas drawn from the ambient culture that were, in the final analysis, incompatible with orthodoxy. There is not a sentence ever penned by Joseph Raztinger, not before the Council, not at the Council, and not since the Council, that would suggest any kind of rejection of normativity, any winking at the idea that the starting point for Catholic theology is anything other than the self-revelation of Jesus Christ and the Christian tradition that has carried that self-revelation through the centuries down to us. At its heart, Ratzinger’s theology, and that of the other Communio theologians, has been concerned, and rightly concerned, that the problem with secularization is not just an external problem but an internal one, that the eyes of faith can be in danger of adopting secular lenses, severing the connection between the Church today and its founding.
Some may see no danger here, but he has, and I do. And, not only theological danger, but historical danger. The other day, a friend opined that any significant reform always proceeds from the ground-up, not from the hierarchy down. Of course, Exhibit A for the counter-argument is the Council itself. You can search far and wide for evidence that the pre-conciliar Church was filled with lay people chomping at the bit for reform, but you will not find very much. Certainly, the great liturgical renewal associated with Solesmes laid the groundwork for the liturgical renewal at Vatican II, but Solesmes was hardly a populist enterprise. At the Council, key theologians and sympathetic bishops led the fights for theological renewal, but no history of the 1950s Church finds any proof that the people in the pews were in a lather about collegiality, or ecumenism, or even the Mass in the vernacular. In one area, the Church’s commitment to social justice and specifically its ties with organized labor, do you see anything that could be characterized as “popular” but the links with labor had been constructed long before the Council and sanctioned by successive pontiffs. Vatican II cannot be understood except as a top-down event.
Tomorrow, we can reflect on the anniversary of the date when good Pope John set aside the regulations of the Council to help the emerging majority enact their will against curial opposition. It was a critical moment in the triumph of the reformers at Vatican II. I can think of no better way to commemorate that day, or the Council itself, than by rejecting the idea that what has followed the Council has essentially been a retrenchment, led by Joseph Ratzinger especially. Like Madison and Hamilton, some may have desired something different from those reforms from what Ratzinger desired. They may wish for a pontiff who will be more in accord with their own desires and less with those of Ratzinger and the Communio school. But, it is ahistorical, and tendentious, to suggest that anything in Raztinger’s career is somehow at odds with the spirit or the letter of Vatican II. Like Hamilton and Madison, there may be divergence about the significance of what had been achieved through common effort, but we must rid ourselves of the temptation to suggest any sense of betrayal. It is not only uncharitable, it is historically inaccurate.
Catholics confirm their faith
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Archbishop Petero Mataca after the church service at Lami Parish. Picture ATU RASEA
YESTERDAY was special for 69 members of the Catholic faith at Lami Parish when they received the sacramemt of confirmation.
Parish priest Father Ioane Simione said after receiving the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament, the children were eligible to receive the certificates of the sacrament of confirmation.
The church believes that the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.
The sacrament of confirmation is unique for Catholics as it reconfirms their faith having being baptised, most as babies. “This event happens every year and we are pleased to see a huge number of children reconfirming their beliefs and faith in the teaching and the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” Father Simione said.
Head of the local Catholic Church Archbishop Petero Mataca was at the mass to confirm their names during the confirmation ceremony.
“I have only been here for the past six months and I am happy with the number of children that have renewed and accepted responsibility for their faith and destiny.
“They now have a spiritual duty to fight the war between good and evil, light and darkness,” he said.
Catholic radio set to reach local airwaves
Catholic Community Radio bought a New Orleans-based radio station and will use the airwaves to reach Catholics across the region from New Orleans to the Alabama-Mississippi border, to the Northshore and down to the Gulf Coast.
David Dawson, president of the Baton Rouge-based Catholic Community Radio, said the new station will be “very engaging talk radio” with interviews of local religious leaders and call-in shows, leaving the politics to other stations.
“My worst concern is to have boring radio,” he said. “If we’re going to evangelize, I can’t have it be boring. We want someone who’s not Catholic to say ‘Whoa. What’s that?’ and enjoy it.”
Dawson said the purchased station, formerly WTIX, is legendary and well-known among local folks for its old rock ‘n’ roll music.
The new station will broadcast some news, sports and weather, but focus mainly on Catholicism.
“In the morning when I turn on the radio in my car, by the time I make it to work I feel like my soul has been sucked out of me,” Dawson said. “We have a few praise and worship stations, but nothing like this. It will help people to understand the Catholic faith more.”
Catholic Community Radio will jump start each morning with nationally syndicated Catholic talk shows, followed by local shows.
“Here at CCR we say ‘This is your station,’ so when you turn it on you’re going to hear south Louisiana Catholic,” Dawson said. “You’ll also hear spots for good restaurants, some local priests and Bishop Sam Jacobs and Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond.”
The Rev. Joshua Rodrigue of the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma said the radio station will have a positive impact on local Catholics.
“It’s a great thing for our Catholic community,” he said. “I’m in my vehicle a lot, driving around, and I often listen to WWL. That station sets the standard for talk radio in our area, so I know the importance of getting good info out there. As far as religion, so many people are looking for something of substance on the radio because we’re so often in our vehicles, or even sitting at home we get tired of watching the same things on television.”
Rodrigue pays for a monthly Sirius XM Satellite Radio subscription and regularly listens to a New York City-based Catholic station. Understanding not everyone has the means to or is willing to pay for satellite radio, he is glad the new station will provide free access to uplifting radio.
“This year we will celebrate the Year of Faith, so this is something to look forward too,” he said. “Catholics don’t get the reputation of being a ‘go out and evangelize’ faith but this station will bring the faith into homes. People will have it at the touch of their fingertips, so they have the chance to allow it in and allow it to speak to their hearts.”
Dawson says he hopes to finalize the deal in mid-December and launch the station immediately after.
The AM signal will reach the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux during daylight hours.
A presentation about the purchase is scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 27 at the Knights of Columbus home, 719 7th St., Lockport.
Speakers include Jacobs, David Vacheresse, general manager of EWTN Radio, and Dawson, president of CCR.
For information call WPYR AM 1380 Catholic Community Radio at 225-448-3754. To listen online, visit catholiccommunityradio.org and click “listen live.”
US Bishops: Homilies Should Invite Catholics to Conversion
BALTIMORE — Sunday homilies should promote repentance, instill a sense of mission and lead Catholics to grow in understanding of their faith, the U.S. bishops said in a new document on preaching.
“The ultimate goal of proclaiming the Gospel is to lead people into a loving and intimate relationship with the Lord, a relationship that forms the character of their persons and guides them in living out their faith,” the bishops emphasized.
In “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily,” the bishops offered a reflection on preaching for priests, deacons and those who are responsible for forming them.
Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to approve the document — which will also be translated into Spanish — on Nov. 13 at their fall general assembly in Baltimore. The vote tally was 227-11, with four abstaining.
The bishops noted that Catholics have asked for “more powerful and inspiring preaching” in surveys and that the laity can become discouraged by a “steady diet of tepid or poorly prepared homilies.”
Homilists should respond to this desire by preaching with a “sense of urgency and freshness,” connecting Scripture, the Eucharist and the Creed, they advised.
As an “intrinsic part of the Sunday Eucharist,” the bishops said in the document, every homily must be centered on Christ, whose death and resurrection are at the heart of our salvation.
“If a homilist conveys merely some example of proverbial wisdom or good manners, or only some insight gained from his personal experience, he may have spoken accurately and even helpfully, but he has not yet spoken the Gospel,” they stated.
And while “every effective homily is a summons to conversion,” the bishops also said this does not mean that a homilist should “simply berate the people for their failures.”
Instead, the clergy should emphasize the “offer of grace” and do so with “pastoral sensitivity.”
This invitation and “promise of grace” is an important context, particularly when addressing those who do not regularly attend Mass or discussing the moral challenges presented by Church teaching on delicate issues such as sexuality and marriage, they added.
Lack of Knowledge
The bishops also acknowledged that many Catholics seem to lack knowledge of Church teaching and are in need of stronger catechesis.
Since “the Sunday liturgy remains the basic setting in which most adult Catholics encounter Christ and their Catholic faith,” they counseled homilists to use the opportunity to present Church doctrine.
Over time, the homilist should cover the entire scope of the Church’s rich catechetical teaching, including its stance on critical issues such as the respect for human life, the importance of religious freedom and justice for the poor and migrants.
“Homilies are inspirational when they touch the deepest levels of the human heart and address the real questions of human experience,” the bishops said, noting the importance of incorporating both ordinary experiences and the deeper hopes and longings that give meaning to them.
“Our encounter with Jesus inevitably leads to mission,” they noted, adding that homilies are incomplete if they do not inspire a sense of mission that translates love of Christ into love for others.
Building on the New Evangelization, the Year of Faith and the call for a renewal of preaching by Pope Benedict XVI at the 2008 Synod on the Word, the bishops explained that preaching is a participation in the apostolic continuation of Jesus’ ministry.
They pointed to Mary as an example of hearing and proclaiming the word of God without hesitation.
In their personal lives, homilists should work towards ongoing spiritual renewal, seeking to lead lives of holiness, with a deep love of Scripture and respect for Tradition, they said.
The effectiveness of preaching can also be improved through an understanding of contemporary culture, including the music, movies and websites that are a part of people’s lives.
The bishops offered several factors to consider when preparing homilies, including the growing individualism in modern culture, the need to speak respectfully about other religious traditions and the cultural diversity of Church communities.
Said the bishops, “Once he has come to know the customs, mores, practices, history and religiosity of a people, a homilist can draw on that richness in order to make his presentation of the faith fresh and enlivening.”
Archbishop José H. Gomez Sounds the Bugle On Immigration Reform with …
BALTIMORE, MD (Catholic Online) – St. Paul asked the Christians in Corinth a pointed question in his first letter, “If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8) The principle is noteworthy in this hour with all of the challenges we face as Catholics in the United States.
We need strong leaders if we intend to take the Social Doctrine of the Church to heart and offer it as leaven in the loaf of American culture. One of the most pressing public policy needs we face is authentic and comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.
Archbishop Jos H. Gomez of Los Angeles has sounded the Bugle. It is time to line up behind him. He is a passionate advocate for the poor and the authentic Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church. His leadership of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at this critical time is prophetic.So too is his emerging voice Nationally.
On July 28, 2011the Archbishop gave an address to the Napa Institute entitled “Immigration and the “Next America”: Perspectives from Our History” which can be – and should be – read in its entirety here. It should be read by anyone truly concerned about this pressing social challenge. In fact, he has so much of value to say on this sublect that most of this article will be lengthy quotes from him.
In “Next America” he wrote: “Our political debate about immigration in America frustrates me. Often I think we are we are just talking around the edges of the real issues. Both sides of this argument are inspired by a beautiful, patriotic idea of America’s history and values. But lately I’ve been starting to wonder.”
“What America are we really talking about? America is changing and it has been changing for a long time. The forces of globalization are changing our economy and forcing us to rethink the scope and purpose of our government. Threats from outside enemies are changing our sense of national sovereignty.”
“America is changing on the inside, too. Our culture is changing. We have a legal structure that allows, and even pays for, the killing of babies in the womb. Our courts and legislatures are redefining the natural institutions of marriage and the family. We have an elite culture – in government, the media and academia – that is openly hostile to religious faith”.
“America is becoming a fundamentally different country. It is time for all of us to recognize this – no matter what our position is on the political issue of immigration. We need to recognize that immigration is part of a larger set of questions about our national identity and destiny. What is America? What does it mean to be an American? “Who are we as a people – and where are heading as a country? What will the “next America” look like?”
“As Catholics who are faithful citizens in America, we have to answer these questions within a larger frame of reference. We have to always remember that there is more to the life of any nation than the demands of the moment in politics, economics and culture. We have to consider all of those demands and the debates about them in light of God’s plan for the nations.”
“This is a big challenge for us in this culture. Our culture pushes us to “privatize” our faith, to separate our faith from our life in society. We always have to resist that temptation. We are called to live our faith in our businesses, homes and communities, and in our participation in public life.That means we have to bring a Catholic faith perspective to this debate about immigration. We cannot just think about this issue as Democrats or Republicans or as liberals or conservatives”.
“That means we have to listen to the teachings of our Church on this issue. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. I think we all know the teachings of our Church on this issue. What we need to understand better is how to see immigration in light of America’s history and purposes, as seen through the perspective of our Catholic faith. When we understand immigration from this perspective we can see that immigration is not a problem for America. It’s an opportunity. It is a key to our American renewal.”
He continued to sound the bugle call in a stirring address he gave on August 3, 2011, at the 129th Supreme Convention in Denver, Colorado. It can be read in its entirety here. Here is an excerpt: “I know this issue is hard for people – including many people who are trying to be good Catholics. I am not a politician. I am a pastor of souls – and an American citizen. That is my perspective on these issues. As pastor of the largest Catholic community in the United States, I am deeply affected by our nation’s immigration policy crisis. Historically, the …
Celebrating Catholic faith
In an apostolic letter titled “Porta Fidei,” Pope Benedict XVI declared the year following Oct. 11, 2012, as a “Year of Faith.” The date marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the new Catechism.
Notre Dame’s Office of Campus Ministry is celebrating the Year of Faith by encouraging students to make small efforts to reflect on their Catholic identity and their relationship to the Lord, Campus Ministry program manager Katharine Barrett said.
“Part of the Year of Faith is to learn more about who we are as Catholics, so there’s sort of a learning piece of it,” Barrett said. “The main part is to deepen our relationship with God, so it’s more personal and spiritual.”
To guide students through this reflection, Campus Ministry will post monthly themes online so students can incorporate those suggestions into their Year of Faith journey, Barrett said.
“Our natural tendency for a lot of things at Notre Dame is to plan big events … In thinking about it more, we thought if you think about any developing relationship with a person, it typically becomes stronger and deeper over the long term of doing lots of little things together,” she said. “Your best friends are the ones you do normal stuff with all the time. We wanted in the Year of Faith to mimic that type of relationship through lots of little things.”
The theme for November is “sacred places.” Barrett said she encourages students to seek out sacred places on campus where most students have never been, such as the chapel in Moreau Seminary, or to revisit old ones, such as the Grotto.
“I remember finding the Grotto for the first time as a freshman — I sort of stumbled upon it by accident and was just stunned by its beauty, and by the fact that such a place was tucked away right here at Notre Dame,” Barrett said. “I hope everyone can find a place here which moves them that much and which becomes a beloved spot, a place they can return again and again for prayer, whether in grief, joy, confusion or praise.”
Students can also augment their Year of Faith experiences by reading more in the Catechism and Vatican II documents, Barrett said.
“The documents of Vatican II and the Catechism receive special recognition because they guide the faithful worldwide,” she said. “On Campus Ministry’s Year of Faith website we will highlight ways to use these two resources to find out more about the theme of each month.”
While individuals can follow the Year of Faith by keeping up with the themes posted on the Campus Ministry website, some dorm commissioners are trying to incorporate more members of their halls into these activities, Barrett said.
“Campus Ministry commissioners are working with us to create activities within the halls that will support and coincide with the Year of Faith themes and ideas,” she said. “For example, several halls already do Grotto walks together, and others will be trying them for the first time.”
Barrett said another way to better live out the Year of Faith is to share it with friends.
“If you find something online that you like, why not ask a friend to join you in that activity?” she said. “Sometimes we feel uncomfortable asking our friends to join us in a spiritual activity, but you never know who just needs to be asked — it’s worth being bold and taking a chance. You never know, for instance, who would love to go walk the Stations of the Cross around St. Joe Lake with you — just try asking.”
To learn more about the Year of Faith, visit http://campusministry.nd.edu/about/year-of-faith/.
US bishops discuss penance, homilies, religious liberty, economy
US bishops discuss penance, homilies, religious liberty, economy
By Catholic News Service
Posted: 11/13/2012
BALTIMORE (CNS) — The U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore began with an emphasis on conversion and a return to the sacrament of penance.
New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told the bishops at the start of the Nov. 12-15 meeting that he could imagine the criticism he might get for emphasizing penance when there are plenty of “controversies and urgent matters for the church right now.”
But he stressed that the bishops cannot engage culture, dialogue with others or confront challenges unless they first recognize their own sins and experience the grace of repentance.
The cardinal also said the sacrament of penance was something the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops planned to stress for all Catholics year-round with reflections on re-embracing Friday as a day of penance, including the possible re-institution of abstinence on all Fridays.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, papal nuncio to the United States, echoed Cardinal Dolan’s call for reconciliation.
Noting that there have been some clergy who “out of weaknesses have brought great pain to others,” Archbishop Vigano reminded the bishops. “We must continually undergo conversion ourselves … so people have faith and confidence in us.”
Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., chair of the bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, presented a document that encouraged all Catholics to make a renewed effort to seek the sacrament of penance, also known as reconciliation.
If approved, the document will be published as a pamphlet in time to allow dioceses to prepare for Lent 2013.
The bishops’ assembly, which opened nearly a week after Election Day, also included discussions about religious liberty and marriage.
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said the work of defending religious liberty would continue despite “setbacks or challenges.”
“Defense of religious freedom requires not just dealing with short-term and mid-term goals, but indeed is a project that requires long-term foundational and formational work,” he added.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said Election Day was “a disappointing day for marriage.” Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington state approved same-sex marriage; Minnesota voters rejected a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman.
He praised the work of the bishops in those four states to defend traditional marriage, noting that in all those states they were outspent by supporters of same-sex marriage.
Each measure passed by small margins, he said, a factor that pointed to the need to “redouble our efforts.”
A new statement on the economy, intended as a pastoral message of hope, received some sharp criticism as the document was formally introduced for consideration Nov. 12.
In floor discussion, some bishops said “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Economic Times” — which the bishops agreed in June should be drafted and fast-tracked to be ready for November — lacked connections to the bishops’ 1986 economics pastoral letter, gave what they felt was short shrift to church teaching on workers’ rights and inadequately addressing “the growing gap between the haves and have-nots” among other issues.
The document, written by a drafting committee under the direction of Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit, was scheduled for a final vote of approval Nov. 13.
The bishops also heard a preliminary presentation of a document that highlights the need for better preaching in Sunday homilies.
“Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily” encourages preachers to connect the Sunday homily with people’s daily lives. It was prepared by the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, chaired by Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis.
Preaching needs to be done “more effectively in the context of the new evangelization,” Archbishop Carlson said. “Our people hunger for better preaching, preaching that would help them rediscover their faith.”
The bishops also discussed the proposed “scope of work” for revision of the Liturgy of the Hours submitted by the Committee on Divine Worship. The committee’s request comes as the International Commission on English in the Liturgy has started work on revising some parts of the liturgy, specifically hymns, some orations and some antiphons.
A statement drafted by the Doctrine Committee was withdrawn, after the committee asked permission to expand its scope. Titled “Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities for the Exercise of the Teaching Ministry of the Diocesan Bishop,” it calls upon bishops to take advantage of new technologies — including social media, blogging and cellphone technology — to respond when church teaching is portrayed inaccurately.
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University of San Diego faculty demands reversal of theologian’s disinvite
More than 100 faculty members at the University of San Diego have presented their president with an ultimatum: Reinstate a canceled visiting fellowship for a British theologian or face potential public questioning of your capability to lead.
The faculty of the Catholic university’s College of Arts and Sciences made the move Tuesday in response to president Mary Lyons’ cancellation of a fellowship for Tina Beattie, a theologian known for her work in contemporary ethical issues.
Beattie was scheduled to begin a fellowship at the university’s Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture on Tuesday. Lyons, who alleges the theologian publicly dissented from church teaching by suggesting Catholics could support civil same-sex marriage, canceled the appointment in an Oct. 27 letter.
In a meeting of their academic assembly Tuesday, the University of San Diego faculty agreed to ask Lyons to reinstate Beattie’s appointment immediately or face a possible vote of no confidence in her leadership.
Carlton Floyd, the chair of the assembly’s executive committee, said in an interview Wednesday that the move was “exceptionally important.”
“The will of the faculty has made it very clear that they consider this matter a matter of extreme importance and a matter that requires our immediate attention,” said Floyd, an associate professor of English at the university.
While Floyd said the official count of the vote was not yet available, he said the vote was “overwhelmingly” in favor of the move. Another faculty member present at the meeting put the tally at 117 in favor, two against and three abstaining.
Floyd said the faculty agreed to meet again next week to reconsider the matter and any possible response from Lyons. Although Floyd said he wasn’t sure what the faculty would do next, he said a vote of no confidence in Lyons’ leadership is “definitely on the table.”
University representatives were not immediately available to comment Thursday morning on the faculty vote.
In a statement to NCR on Monday, Lyons said Beattie’s signature on an August letter in The Times of London — one of 27 — that said it would be “perfectly proper” for Catholics to support civil marriage for same-sex couples was the primary reason for her cancelation of the fellowship.
“It is significant that she signed the letter as a ‘theologian,’ ” Lyons wrote in the statement. “This action is materially different from the exercise of scholarship and teaching appropriate to the role of an academic and whose freedom to do so I consistently defend.”
Lyons’ move, which came after pressure from a conservative watchdog group backed by a high-ranking Vatican official, sparked wide-ranging criticism from academics in the U.S. and the U.K. who say the cancellation of Beattie’s fellowship represents a stifling of academic freedom.
The 47,000-member American Association of University Professors, which rates universities on their protection of academic freedom, said in a letter Monday that the situation raises “serious issues.”
The University of San Diego’s College of Arts and Sciences, one of seven colleges and schools at the university, lists about 212 faculty members. Academic assembly meetings, which normally occur once a month during the academic year, are open to all tenure and tenure-track faculty in the college, Floyd said.
The faculty vote Tuesday came hours after about 170 faculty and students protested the cancellation of Beattie’s fellowship outside the university’s main administration building.
One visiting faculty member has resigned his position at the university in a sign of solidarity with the theologian.
Michael Davis, a professor at the University of California, Riverside who had accepted a visiting fellowship at USD, announced his resignation in an email Nov. 2, which has since been made public on a Facebook page supporting Beattie.
Davis, a member of Riverside’s creative writing department who was expected to take up the USD’s Knapp Chair of Liberal Arts in January, said he felt it necessary to forego the fellowship to be in solidarity with Beattie and “with the stand that’s been taken by faculty and students.”
“There’s little to be said” about the resignation, Davis wrote in his email forgoing the post. “It’s obvious that the University has been put under excruciating pressure by clerical reactionaries.”
Terrence Tilley, the chair of the theology department at Fordham University, said in an interview Wednesday he thought Lyons might be “confused” about the relevance of Beattie’s signature on the August letter regarding same-sex marriage.
“Beattie doesn’t dissent from doctrine,” said Tilley, who is also the Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology at Jesuit-run Fordham. “[Beattie] has just made a statement about the legitimacy of Catholics voting in favor of civil rights for people who want to marry people of the same sex.”
“Of course, on moral grounds, the church finds this wrong,” Tilley continued. “But that she has chosen to make a statement regarding politics means that she is not denying or opposing Catholic doctrine.”
Regarding Lyons’ claim Beattie’s signature on the August letter is “materially different from the exercise of scholarship and teaching” of a theologian, Tilley agreed with the university president.
“Lyons’ claim that this action is materially different from the exercise of scholarship and teaching is entirely correct,” Tilley said. “But it’s one of the things that scholars and teachers do. We also function as public intellectuals.”
In its letter on the matter, the American Association of University Professors referenced similar concerns it raised about the university in 2009, when USD revoked an offer of an honorary chair position to Rosemary Radford Ruether, a prominent U.S. Catholic feminism scholar and theologian.
Referencing Beattie and Ruether’s rescissions, Tilley said that “the only conclusion I can draw is that the University of San Diego has again showed its disdain for serious academic theological scholarship, at least if it’s done by women.”
Floyd also portrayed Lyons’ decision as opposed to allowing a diversity of viewpoints on campus.
“Diversity is the hallmark of education,” he said. “If you can’t have opposing viewpoints, what exactly are you looking at if you can’t engage in dialog about those matters? What exactly does a university do?”
[Joshua J. McElwee is an NCR staff writer. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org.]
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