The Bishop of Rochester, an appointee to that progressive/liberal diocese, perhaps the most progressive/liberal diocese in the country, by His Holiness, Pope Francis I, Bishop of Rome, preached the following in his inaugural homily at his installation as Rochester's new bishop: "To His Holiness, our Holy Father Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI, in whose pontificate I began my apostolic mission, to him I express my continued admiration and esteem for the guidance he selflessly gave to the Church, emphasizing a theology and an ecclesiology of continuity. A theology that builds and does not destroy. An ecclesiology that appreciates the contributions of every age that does not disdain the past which through the hard labors of others paved the way for the future."
– Bishop Salvatore R. Matano of Rochester, during the opening section of his homily for his Installation Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral, 3 January 2014
Please note the horrible (what some might call a "wreckovation")renovation of this Gothic Cathedral by the previous bishop. The Ambo (what some call a pulpit) is located directly behind the altar and elevated higher than it. It looks like the set-up in most Southern Baptist Churches and some Methodist Churches here in the south except with a slight nod to Catholic tradition. Yuck!
Bishop Matano's homily in Rochester, one of the most progressive/liberal, moving toward post-Catholic, dioceses in the country, you hear him promote vocations to the priesthood as absolutely necessary for this diocese if the Catholicity of the diocese is to be preserved. He thanks the religious (who have dwindled there and everywhere) and acknowledges their great efforts and with their diminished numbers we are even more aware of what they accomplished in the past and pray that one day they will return in greater numbers through an increase in vocations and recover their great mission.
He acknowledges permanent deacons who have taken on increased responsibilities in light of the shortage of priests in that diocese and thanks them.
He acknowledges married people and reminded them that their marriage is their primary vocation!
He does not acknowlege lay ministers in that diocese who want to act as priests and become clericialized laity!
Kudos to Bishop Matano! He sets out a vision for his diocese that could easily be in every diocese in the world and is both "Benedictine" and "Franciscan!"
PLEASE LISTEN TO HIS LAST COMMENTS AT THE END OF THE HOMILY, ESPECIALLY PREACHED IN ROCHESTER, AS IT SAYS IT ALL ABOUT THE DIRECTION IN WHICH THIS BISHOP APPOINTED BY POPE FRANCIS WILL TAKE THIS MOST PROGRESSIVE/LIBERAL DIOCESE IN THE COUNTRY!ALL I CAN SAY ABOUT THIS ENTIRE HOMILY, ESPECIALLY THAT LAST PART, BUT ALSO THE ENTIRE CORPUS, IS WOW! WOW! WOW!
6 comments:
I still recall vividly the inaugural sermon of Cardinal Burke as Archbishop of St. Louis, when he laid out in specific and tangible terms his vision for St. Louis. Encouraged by your recommendation, I listened to all 35 min 32 seconds of this one, and heard nothing similar, only nice generalities, fine in themselves, but which could just as well have been spoken (and likely were) by his disastrous predecessor who wrecked the Diocese of Rochester as badly as any diocese in the country has been wrecked since Vatican II.
Here in Rochester, those of us who are orthodox are thrilled...the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, it is the dawn of a new age. The progressives are in shock. Bishop Matano is a true son of the Church.
What Bishop Matano said in his homily, would of NEVER been uttered by his predecessor...acknowledge tradition favorably, champion the Eucharist and priests? I doubt it!
CPT Tom, that's exactly what I was thinking given what I know about Rochester and schisms there supported by the NCR. I would certainly think that clergy and laity there use to being cooked in the crock pot of heterodoxy must have been stunned during his homily, absolutely stunned and for them to think that Pope Francis is the one who sent them this shepherd!
Evidently I ought to plead guilty to being too far from Rochester to have a relevant sense of the situation on the ground there. That this (to me, rather diplomatic and moderate) sermon of Bishop Matano could have been perceived as shockingly traditional in Rochester tells me that the situation there has been even worse than I assumed. And that the faithful white martyrs of saintly Bishop Sheen's former diocese deserve to remembered in the prayers of those of us who have not borne their burden.
I myself would have taken it as a more tangible signal of intended re-Catholization if, for instance, he had used just once the phrase
"the Sacrifice of the Mass" rather than "the Eucharist", an objectively impeccable phrase that has come to function as an all-purpose circumlocution meaning whatever the listener wishes to believe (or not) about it.
The suggestion that Mantano is "re-Catholizing" anything is indeed humorous. Mantano is a Ratzinger appointed Bishop who, like Ratzinger, is a "Romantic" - more concerned with the re-Romanizing the church. Ironically, Ratzinger sits in the Vatican city as a prisoner of his own making: more concerned with protecting church "patrimony" and preserving the illusion of perfection of the institution than the transparency and the legal requirement to preserve the well being of the children abused by those his misguidance at the CDF empowered for decades, he will be arrested if he steps into any of a whole number of countries who want him to explain what he knew and what he did.
I have only to say ... I along with many others in the Rochester area are absolutely thrilled. We've been waiting years for Bishop Matano.
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