November Bishops Meeting

The U.S. bishops are meeting this week in the second of their two meetings that are held each year.

JOHN ALLEN HAS A PREVIEW HERE.

HE ALSO HAS UPDATED COVERAGE UNDERWAY HERE.

If I can, I’ll offer some thoughts about what they’re discussing this time, but I wanted to get links up first so that people could stay informed on the progress of the meeting.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

41 thoughts on “November Bishops Meeting”

  1. In regards to the conference vice presidency slot: I know that John Allen commented on a couple of candidates, but I am unfamiliar with most of the Bishops listed.
    * Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of Austin, Texas
    * Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee
    * Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona
    * Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky
    * Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut
    * Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia
    * Bishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Duluth, Minnesota
    * Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania
    * Bishop Allen H. Vigneron of Oakland, California
    To me, Bishop Trautman would be a disaster after coming off of his stint as head of the BCL. I’ve heard some nice things about Bishop Dolan and Cardinal Rigali. The others – I recognize the names, but do not know that much about them. Anyone care to fill in the blanks?

  2. Bishop Trautman has displayed a definite mind of disobedience to the Holy Father and the Church in his hatred for the accurate translations in the new “Ordae Missae” to take the place of the inaccurate ICEL translations of the past 35 years.
    He is a staunch enemy of the Holy Father’s juridical release, “Summorum Pontificum”, and His Excellency greatly underestimates the laymans intelligence.
    Example: He actually believes that the accurate translation “consubstantial with the Father”, from “consubstantiali Patrem”, is to hard…waaah, waaah, for the layman to understand!
    And the list goes on.
    He is not in touch with reality, let us all pray for him.
    God bless you.

  3. Allen misreads, I think, the choice between Burke and Paprocki for Canonical Affairs. Both are excellent bishops and canonists. Burke has higher name recognition among laity, sure, but among bishops (who vote), both are recognized for credentials and competence. Either would be fine by me.

  4. Ed Peters,
    I don’t know. Perhaps you are reading more into what Allen says than what is actually there?
    John Allen didn’t say that one Bishop is more competent than the other. Given Bishop Burke’s well known stance on the pro-abort politician–communion issue, his election would publicly be interpreted as an endorsement of his position. (and I would agree with that assessment.)

  5. Brian,
    Bishop Lori is the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus and one of the bishops to decide to allow Plan B to be used in Catholic hospitals without an ovulation test but with a pregnancy test, to comply with a new state law. Don’t know much about the rest you were unsure of.

  6. I was going to make light of that post but after going to the website I can’t. We should pray for this dilusional individual who seems to think (though he is hard to follow) that many of his former coworkers are terrorists in disguise.

  7. Bishops grappling with priest shortage:
    “In those situations, Trautman said – especially in rural and mission dioceses – a rite for celebrating a Liturgy of the Word, which includes the distribution of communion hosts previously consecrated by a priest, is a simple pastoral necessity.”
    Pope St. Pius X, pray for us. It really does seem as if there’s a drive to marginalize the priesthood.

  8. “In those situations, Trautman said – especially in rural and mission dioceses – a rite for celebrating a Liturgy of the Word, which includes the distribution of communion hosts previously consecrated by a priest, is a simple pastoral necessity.”
    Isn’t there already some kind of provision for this?
    I’ve had the sad experience of showing up for a scheduled DAILY MASS in different places, only to find it replaced by a communion service like this. I generally head for the exit once it becomes apparent that Father isn’t going to be showing up to offer Mass…

  9. Our Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin is a good and holy man. He’s not necessarily a favorite with traditionalists as (I’m told) he didn’t permit priests to train for the Traditional Latin Mass in the past. But:
    -As soon as the Motu Proprio came out, he arranged for any priest who wanted to learn the TLM to do so.
    -A year before the Motu Proprio, he permitted the Indult parish to have Mass in his beautiful cathedral, as a regular Mass of the parish, at a reasonable time of day (thanks here also to the Cathedral rector, Fr. Roland). This “mainstreaming” of the TLM is contributing to its growth in attendance.
    -Bp. Aymond actively supports the pro-life movement in this diocese.
    -One of the first things Bp. Aymond did when arriving here in Austin was to set up an effective and comprehensive program to prevent sexual abuse by clergy and/or church employees/volunteers. When the Scandal broke, and journalists started to come around with questions, there was one of the country’s best programs in place to show them.
    -Bp. Aymond started a Catholic high school to serve the poorest and most at-risk kids on the city, the Hispanic teenagers east of the freeway whose dropout rate is horrifying. It’s a great success so far and is growing.
    Bp. Aymond has a historically liberal diocese to contend with, and while I don’t care for everything he’s done, I trust him completely.

  10. Austinite, I’m glad to see any time a bishop supports the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, but 3.30 on Sundays is in no sense a “reasonable time of day”. It would be a hardship for almost anyone to make that his regular hour of Sunday worship, not least because many who’re prepared to observe the stricter traditional eucharistic fast are forced to choose between abandoning a pious practice or else foregoing the innocent pleasure of a Sunday brunch almost till the dinner hour.
    I’m pleased to read that the Mass is flourishing in spite of ungenerous scheduling, but deliberately or not such scheduling impedes the ability of a parochial group to exist continenter, as Summorum Pontificum prescribes.

  11. Jesus is there, even if the priest is not.

    True, but it’s not the eucharistic sacrifice. The sacrificial offering occurs at the moment of consecration, thus a eucharistic service that is not a Mass is not a sacrifice.
    Of course Jesus is still Jesus, and I’m not saying I would head for the doorway. But something has been lost.

  12. “Of course Jesus is still Jesus, and I’m not saying I would head for the doorway. But something has been lost.”
    That is certainly true. A communion service should be a kind of emergency stop-gap measure, and not a matter of course. I just don’t think I would leave simply because I had been expecting a Mass.

  13. Romulus,
    I was thinking of the parishes that have scheduled the TLM for insanely early hours of the morning. With the current Mass schedule at the Cathedral, it was either early afternoon (as it is now) or 7 a.m., which I think you’ll agree would not be easy on the many families with small children. Displacing a currently scheduled Mass was not going to happen, given that the current ones, except for the 8:30, are at overflow levels already. In fact, Fr. Roland has been planning for some time–even before the TLM community joined us–to add an early-morning Mass to relieve some of the overcrowding, and the fact that he and the Bishop didn’t just use this opportunity to make that the TLM Mass tells you something.
    3:30 is not an ungenerous time of day, given these facts. The fast requirement as of 1962 was 3 hours, so there’s even time for lunch before Mass. If you’re really determined to fast from midnight, frankly I don’t see that it’s a massive hardship; Moslems fast till sundown through Ramadan, so I don’t see why a Catholic couldn’t make it till afternoon once a week.

  14. I would add that the Indult community was not forced to come have a 3:30 Mass at the Cathedral; they were invited, and they agreed to come. If any of the traditional Massgoers are unhappy about not being given the time slot of one of the standing-room-only Masses, I certainly haven’t heard such complaints.
    I thank God they did come to the Cathedral; it finally gave me the nerve to attend, and I have loved the traditional Mass ever since. My oldest child is ecstatic about it; she’s been studying Latin for years and smugly helps me when I get lost in the missal. I have a cool new chapel veil, and my youngest insisted on a pretty lacy cap for herself.
    Who knows, if more of us keep discovering the TLM at this rate, maybe a switch to one of the earlier time slots will be reasonable.

  15. “A communion service should be a kind of emergency stop-gap measure, and not a matter of course. I just don’t think I would leave simply because I had been expecting a Mass.”
    I understand Margaret’s response. Our local church has daily Mass Mon, Wed, Fri, with communion service Tues and Thurs. I don’t think that’s what the Vatican would define as “extraordinary”.

  16. I would agree that Bishop Aymond has done a lot of good, he’s definitely an improvement over the previous bishop.
    The only thing that sometimes irks me about him is that he loves to say “my sisters and brothers” and uses it all the time in place of the usual words! As you can see it could be a whole worse.

  17. “In those situations, Trautman said – especially in rural and mission dioceses – a rite for celebrating a Liturgy of the Word, which includes the distribution of communion hosts previously consecrated by a priest, is a simple pastoral necessity.”
    Or better still, put the laity and parish deacons in charge of all the non-priestly functions that pastors are burdened with these days.
    What qualifies a priest or demands he be the bookkeepper, plumber, custodian, dog walker, etc? Free up the priests from the chancery, social work, etc – let the laity do THAT.
    Then make sure they have good cars, and let them circuit ride the parishes like priests in America did for hundreds of years. If that means rural parishes out in the sticks don’t have Mass until 5pm on Sunday, so be it. Better a real Mass at 5pm, than an agape-love meal of pre-sanctified elements presided over by Sr. Joan at 10am.
    After you have done that Bp. Trautman, start to think about why you don’t have enough priests and places like Lincoln, NE, Arlington, VA, Devner, CO & Atlanta, GA have plenty of priests and seminarians. The Diocese of Superior had 2 before the new bishop came – now they have (2 years later?) 22. How come those places do so well? How come Erie does not? (Little hint/advice – don’t go to your buddy Sr. Joan and the Erie Benedictines for counseling on this matter…)

  18. Look! this what they want! They have created this deception! They have been pushing for women priests in the background for a long time now. If you can’t see this then you are very ignorant of what has been going on in many dioceses across the United States. The middle managment in chancery offices and parishes have been working together to create this deception. The dioceses with many seminarians are not pulling this “crap”. Because The Bishop there is being a Catholic Bishop!

  19. “hint/advice – don’t go to your buddy Sr. Joan and the Erie Benedictines for counseling on this matter…)”
    Good advice!!
    While attending UC Berkeley in the early 80’s, someone encouraged me to attend a 5 day silent retreat near San Jose, CA. And, I really thought it would be ‘orthodox’, due to it being “Silent’ and all!
    But no… It was run by a bunch of “Sr. Joan’s”, who also appointed themselves spiritual directors of the retreatants.
    When I finally passed those 5 days, and got back to normalcy at home, I thought those were perhaps the WORST 5 days of my entire life! I feel sorry for any seminarian who has to put up with such ‘baloney’ for extended periods of time! Such experiences are probably worse than a weekend retreat with the ‘Moonies’…because at least with them, you KNOW that they’re ‘wacked out’! Here, I was duped into thinking this was a solid, orthodox retreat..and it ended up being a ‘liberal, psychological,silent communal encounter’!
    For a Catholic who was just learning the faith at the time, it was really quite shocking and terrible! Lucky I had also been reading St. Augustine, so as to help ground me in true Catholic spirituality!
    This is why I so frequently advocate on this blog for others to read from the “lives of the Saints”, especially for new comers to Catholicism! Reading the ‘Lives of Saints’ help one to distinguish and ‘discern’ what is true and holy spirituality as compared to what is proud, worldly and false!
    …Kind of like those panals of experts that Jason always refers too! : )

  20. “I thought those were perhaps the WORST 5 days of my entire life!”
    The worst 5 days of my life was attending a diocesan catechist training seminar one weekend.
    It sure SEEMED like 5 days…
    Sister “Joan” thought it very important that we know that Catholics need to get over their obsession with Christ’s crucifixion and death and move on…

  21. I praise God who in his unfathomable providence has so guided my life that I am no longer a component in the “American” cathoic (universal???) church. I have not lived in America for decades and hence have no right to speak about the political devolutions within that august community. Having read the blogs above I am as confused as I have been for the last 50 or more years as to where the true Church (i.e. the Mind of Christ) is supposed to be heading in America. My mind is neither spiritual enough nor nimble enough to grasp the apparently profound visions of spiritual renewal that are advertised.
    However, who is this “Sister Joan” who is stating that we as catholics must finally get beyond our obsession with Christ’s crucifixion. Is she another of the self made “American” popes? I am sorry that I know nothing about her. I am grateful to the Holy Spirit who tells me through St. Paul to “preach Christ crucified’. Other great and holy Doctors of the Church such as Alphonsus Liguori, St. Francis of Assisi, etc. have reiterated such a true message of hope. Is Sister Joan a real person and, if so, does she really preach such nonsense?
    Jacobus puer ignavus

  22. james,
    From my experience, growing up in San Francisco, CA, and living there for 40+ years….”Sr.Joan” is a ‘characterization’ of many types of women leaders in the American Church… many of which are not even nuns, but ‘ex-nuns’. Many had left their convents in the 60’s and 70’s but continued to work in the Church in various ministries, such as, grade school principals, parish music directors and high school counsellors.
    To put it simply, this ‘Sr. Joan’ symbolism, seems to describe the types of woman espousing “The spirit of Vatican II” and who are clearly pushing their own feminist agenda in the Church, regardless of what the Pope or Vatican has to say about it. They are often influencing and encouraging Pastors and Bishops in the same direction, as they seem to be very active politically, much as are many other types of ‘left wingers’/ environmentalists/ anti-war crusaders, are.
    And if it takes the USCCB 7 or 8 years to officially translate the Roman Missal from Latin to English, you can just about figure, that 6 or 7 of those years had been allocated for debating and fighting ‘Sr. Joan’ and her liberal male supporters, who want to steer the Church in the same direction that the Episcopalian Church has been directed.. which everyone knows leads to woman priests and bishops.
    So, really all of this is VERY common in the American Church. What is NOT common, however, are those who are firmly supporting Pope Benedict and Cardinal Arinze, and who are trying to stem the tide of this liberal, ‘spirit of Vatican II’, non-sense.
    Conservatives, like myself, have been the minority for decades now, and in many ways ‘in the hands’ of, these liberal Catholic leaders who are trying to steer the Church as far away from its 2000 year old tradition, and history, as possible.
    So the spiritual battle for the ‘heart’ of the Church, with Pope Benedict XVI in the lead …goes on!
    If you REALLY want to know MORE about “Sr. Joan”…then you might also want to include in your blogging adventures, a visit to Gerald Augustinus’ site, “The Cafeteria is Closed”. It’s a good blog that demonstrates on a daily basis how far the liberal arm of the Catholic(?)Church in America will go to advance their ‘anti-tradition’, ‘anti B-16’ agenda!

  23. james,
    You might also be interested in an artical written by Sandra Magister on the general subject of the “Spirit of Vatican II”, published on the ‘Chiesa Magister’ site.
    You can either Google ‘Chiesa Magister’ for the direction, or try copying this address:
    http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/?eng=y
    It’s really an excellent, and scholarly, commentary on some of these Vatican II inspired conflicts currently affecting the Church and it’s liturgy!

  24. 15.11.2007
    Sorry…the above mentioned artical is dated 11/15/2007 and Titled:
    A Great Reunion: Romano Amerio and the Changes in the Catholic Church
    Have the changes of the conciliar era affected the essence of Catholicism, or not? “L’Osservatore Romano” brings the great Swiss thinker back into vogue. And archbishop Agostino Marchetto demolishes the theses of his adversaries: the “Bologna school” founded by Dossetti and Alberigo

  25. Funny, I knew a “Sr. Joan” who was actually named “Sr. Joan”. She loved to dress in pseudo liturgical garb and do a mock homily at Sunday Mass whilst the deacon and priest sat by (this in the Rochester diocese, of course). I once asked about this and was informed that I was, in fact, a sexist.
    I have to thank her and the Rochester diocese though. If not for them, I would never have learned about the richness and fullness (and the actual teachings) of our true faith.
    Still, I’m happy to not be living there nowadays.

  26. I think it refers to Sr. Joan Chittister, who is famous (or infamous) for her columns in National Catholic Reporter.

  27. “Is Sister Joan a real person and, if so, does she really preach such nonsense?”
    james –
    “Sister Joan” is a pseudonym for a woman who was (I am sorry to say) the Diocesan Director of Religious Education during the time I took that seminar. Yes, she really said that, and many other things. She moved on to spread her poison elsewhere, but I am aware of at least one person at that seminar (a new convert) who was scandalized to the point of near disillusionment with the whole Church.
    This was the same weekend that Mother Theresa died, which apparently escaped her notice. No mention of MT was made.
    Oh… she also (when I questioned her in private) would neither confirm nor deny Christ’s literal, bodily resurrection.
    She also stated that there had really been “NO reliable Catholic Bible scholarship until the last ten years or so… maybe five”. The documents of Vatican II (which I showed her) were already outdated and void, in her assessment.
    And *someone* gave her the responsibility of training catechists for our whole diocese!!

  28. To the above blogs. What can I say but “Wow”. It seems like the “American” catholic church needs a lot of prayers.
    Jacobus servus ignorantissimus

  29. There was (is?) an actual “Sr. Joan” at Annunciation in Minneapolis. She also put on liturgical garb to officiate at a Liturgy of the Word once a week.
    As to heretical teaching in general – in parishes and renegade universities – the bishops know exactly what is going on. They generally acquiesce. Sometimes they even support the heretics, since many are themselves heretics.
    1John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
    Mk 12:39 “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.

  30. Fortunately, all of these liturgical abuses are being paid attention to, and addressed, by Pope Benedict and the Holy See.
    For instance, just yesterday, an English translation was made available (by TERESA BENEDETTA) of an interview by the Fides News Agency with Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacramental Discipline. In it he discusses problems associated with a general spirit of disobedience found in many parishes, and even at the highest levels of the Church.
    Read one short selection of this interview to get an idea of how, at least, there is great attention being paid to the issue! :
    **************************
    “But the second great problem is a crisis of obedience to the Holy Father that is evident in some circles. The attitude of autonomy which some ecclesiastics have displayed, even in the highest ranks of the Church, certainly does not help the mission that Christ has entrusted to his Vicar on Earth.
    One has seen that in some countries and dioceses, bishops have issued rules that practically annul or deform the intentions of the Pope [in Summorum Pontificum]. Such behavior is not in consonance with the dignity and nobility of the vocation of a Pastor of the Church.
    I’m not saying this of everyone. Majority of the bishops and ecclesiastics have accepted the wishes of the Pope with due reverence and obedience, and that is very laudable. It is just unfortunate that there are these voices of protest.
    At the same time, it cannot be ignored that the Pope’s decision was necessary because as he said, the Holy Mass “in some places has not been celebrated in a way that follows the prescriptions of the new Missal, but instead, the new Missal was taken to be an authorization, or even an obligation, to be ‘creative’ which has often led to deformations of the liturgy to the limits of what is supportable.”
    “I speak from experience,” he continued, “because I, too, lived through that period with all its expectations and confusions, and I saw how the arbitrary deformations of the liturgy profoundly hurt many persons who are totally rooted in the faith of the Church” (Letter to Bishops).
    So the result of these abuses was a growing spirit of nostalgia for the traditional Mass.
    The situation has been aggravated by a sense of general disinterest in reading and following normative documents from the Holy See or even the Instructions and Premises of the liturgical books.
    Liturgy still does not count enough to be a priority in the courses for continuing education of churchmen.
    Let me be clear. The post-Conciliar reforms to the liturgy were certainly not all negative. There are many positive things that have been achieved. But there have also been abusive changes introduced and that continue to be practised despite their harmful effects on faith itself and the liturgical life of the Church.
    I would cite, for example, a change which was never proposed by the Council Fathers nor in Sacrosanctum concilium, which is to receive Communion in one’s hands. This alone has resulted in a certain diminution of faith in the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
    Such a practice, and doing away with communion rails, and kneelers for the pews, the introduction of practices which oblige the faithful to be seasted or standing at the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament – diminish the genuine significance of the Eucharist and the sense of profound reverence with which the Church, its faithful, should address the Lord, God’s only-begotten Son.
    Then, there is the fact that the Church, God’s dwelling, becomes nothing more than an assembly hall for meetings, concerts or inter-religious rites.
    In some Churches, the Blessed Sacrament is almost hidden away or abandoned in some inconsequential side chapel that is not even properly set up.
    All these laxities tend to dim and diminish the faith that is central to the Church, namely the real Presence of Christ. For us, Catholics, the physical Church is properly the dweelling of the eternal.
    Another serious error is to confuse the specific roles of the clergy and the laity in the liturgy, so that the presbytery, the space around the altar, becomes a place of too much movement – certainly not a place from which the Christian can catch a sense of wonder and splendor in the presence and saving grace of the Lord.
    Then there’s the use of dancing, musical instruments and songs that have little to do with liturgy and are not at all appropriate to the sacred environment of the Church and of the sacramental nature of liturgy. I would also add some homilies with a political-social character which are often extemporaneous. All this denatures the celebration of Holy Mass, making it a choreography and a theater event, but not a manifestation of faith.
    There are other aspects which are hardly consistent with the beauty and the wonder of what is being celebrated on the altar.
    Still, not everything has gone wrong with the Novus Ordo, but much has to be put into order so as to avoid further damage to the life of the Church.
    I think that our atttiude to the Pope, his decisions, and the expression of his concern for the good of the Church, should be what St. Paul advised the Corinthians – “Everything should be done for building up” (1 Cor 14,26).
    edited by TERESA BENEDETTA

  31. If there is one “light at the end of the tunnel”, of all of these liturgical and Doctrinal abuses in the the Church, it is that, at least Pope Benedict is highly aware of it all and trying his best to remedy things.
    Just this last week, there was an interview on this very subject matter (by the Fides News Agency) with Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacramental Discipline. It is highly revealiing of the current attitudes prevailing at the Vatican.
    Here’s a short selection to give an idea of its content. The translation was made by TERESA BENEDETTA:
    **********
    ..”But the second great problem is a crisis of obedience to the Holy Father that is evident in some circles. The attitude of autonomy which some ecclesiastics have displayed, even in the highest ranks of the Church, certainly does not help the mission that Christ has entrusted to his Vicar on Earth.
    One has seen that in some countries and dioceses, bishops have issued rules that practically annul or deform the intentions of the Pope [in Summorum Pontificum]. Such behavior is not in consonance with the dignity and nobility of the vocation of a Pastor of the Church.
    I’m not saying this of everyone. Majority of the bishops and ecclesiastics have accepted the wishes of the Pope with due reverence and obedience, and that is very laudable. It is just unfortunate that there are these voices of protest.
    At the same time, it cannot be ignored that the Pope’s decision was necessary because as he said, the Holy Mass “in some places has not been celebrated in a way that follows the prescriptions of the new Missal, but instead, the new Missal was taken to be an authorization, or even an obligation, to be ‘creative’ which has often led to deformations of the liturgy to the limits of what is supportable.”
    “I speak from experience,” he continued, “because I, too, lived through that period with all its expectations and confusions, and I saw how the arbitrary deformations of the liturgy profoundly hurt many persons who are totally rooted in the faith of the Church” (Letter to Bishops).
    So the result of these abuses was a growing spirit of nostalgia for the traditional Mass.
    The situation has been aggravated by a sense of general disinterest in reading and following normative documents from the Holy See or even the Instructions and Premises of the liturgical books.
    Liturgy still does not count enough to be a priority in the courses for continuing education of churchmen.
    Let me be clear. The post-Conciliar reforms to the liturgy were certainly not all negative. There are many positive things that have been achieved. But there have also been abusive changes introduced and that continue to be practised despite their harmful effects on faith itself and the liturgical life of the Church.
    I would cite, for example, a change which was never proposed by the Council Fathers nor in Sacrosanctum concilium, which is to receive Communion in one’s hands. This alone has resulted in a certain diminution of faith in the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
    Such a practice, and doing away with communion rails, and kneelers for the pews, the introduction of practices which oblige the faithful to be seasted or standing at the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament – diminish the genuine significance of the Eucharist and the sense of profound reverence with which the Church, its faithful, should address the Lord, God’s only-begotten Son.
    Then, there is the fact that the Church, God’s dwelling, becomes nothing more than an assembly hall for meetings, concerts or inter-religious rites.
    In some Churches, the Blessed Sacrament is almost hidden away or abandoned in some inconsequential side chapel that is not even properly set up.
    All these laxities tend to dim and diminish the faith that is central to the Church, namely the real Presence of Christ. For us, Catholics, the physical Church is properly the dweelling of the eternal.
    Another serious error is to confuse the specific roles of the clergy and the laity in the liturgy, so that the presbytery, the space around the altar, becomes a place of too much movement – certainly not a place from which the Christian can catch a sense of wonder and splendor in the presence and saving grace of the Lord.
    Then there’s the use of dancing, musical instruments and songs that have little to do with liturgy and are not at all appropriate to the sacred environment of the Church and of the sacramental nature of liturgy. I would also add some homilies with a political-social character which are often extemporaneous. All this denatures the celebration of Holy Mass, making it a choreography and a theater event, but not a manifestation of faith.
    There are other aspects which are hardly consistent with the beauty and the wonder of what is being celebrated on the altar.
    Still, not everything has gone wrong with the Novus Ordo, but much has to be put into order so as to avoid further damage to the life of the Church.
    I think that our atttiude to the Pope, his decisions, and the expression of his concern for the good of the Church, should be what St. Paul advised the Corinthians – “Everything should be done for building up” (1 Cor 14,26).
    ************

  32. Sorry folks for the double post!
    The first didn’t appear to register on my computer and so I thought it did not transmit to Jimmy’s site!
    However, I hope you’all find the interview interesting! : )

  33. Another example of a “Sr. Joan” ‘doing her thing’, from “The Cafeteria is Closed blog:
    “The Department of Theology and Philosophy of Barry University which is run by the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, will give an Award for Theological Excellence in January to radical feminist theologian Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson CSJ, a professor at Jesuit run Fordham University.
    Sister Elizabeth, who advocates goddess worship, actively dissents from the Church’s infallible teaching on the invalidity of women’s ordinations and promotes the cause of world government and a one-world religion.
    In her book She Who Is (Crossroad, 1993) Sister Elizabeth announced “that the time has come to stop addressing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to begin addressing Him as ‘She Who Is.'” For this she won awards and a promotion to “Distinguished” Professor of Theology at Catholic Fordham University.”

  34. The Newman Guide to choosing a Catholic college just came out, and it lists 21 colleges that are actually Catholic.
    http://thenewmanguide.com/Home/tabid/324/ctl/Details/mid/1225/ItemID/47/Default.aspx
    The recommended colleges are grouped into three categories: “Joyfully Catholic,” “Born from the Crisis” and “Fighting the Tide.”
    The first group is characterized by a Catholic identity that permeates all areas of campus life; the second includes institutions founded or expanded in the last few years; and the third group represents older colleges and universities that have succeeded in renewing and strengthening their Catholic identity.
    The “Joyfully Catholic” colleges are: Christendom College, The College of Saint Thomas More, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Magdalen College, Thomas Aquinas College, The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, University of Dallas, and the University of St. Thomas (Houston, Tex.).
    The “Born from the Crisis” colleges are: Ave Maria University, Holy Apostles College & Seminary, John Paul the Great Catholic University; Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, Southern Catholic College and Wyoming Catholic College.
    The “Fighting the Tide” colleges are: Aquinas College (Nashville, Tenn.), Belmont Abbey College, Benedictine College, The Catholic University of America, DeSales University, Mount St. Mary’s University and St. Gregory’s University.

Comments are closed.