DOES THE THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA REFER TO POPE JOHN PAUL II OR POPE BENEDICT?

This is one interpretation of the Third Secret of Fatima as it concerns Pope John Paul II. Read it by pressing these sentences.

But more and more I'm wondering if it doesn't refer to Pope Benedict. How much more has he been maligned from the time of being Cardinal Ratzinger to the time he has been pope. He is maligned not only by the "world" who despises him and his Church but by Catholics too, especially those who have promoted the loss of Catholic identity through the preaching and living of the "spirit" of Vatican II which has nothing to do with what Vatican II actually teaches.

And how many protests has Pope Benedict seen and heard in his travels. And now SNAP wants him to be placed on trial by the "World" Court for crimes against humanity as it concerns the sexual abuse of minors by clerics of the Church.

And this Thursday he's visiting his home country of Germany for a rather grueling pilgrimage and already there are those who would like to see him eradicated. His is a martyrdom but of another kind.

READ THIS NEGATIVE STORY ON THE HOLY FATHER FROM THE WELL-KNOWN SECULAR NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE, DER SPIEGEL.

I HAVE A RETIRED ARCHBISHOP OF SAINT JOHN, NEWFOUNDLAND AS A COUSIN! JUST FOUND OUT THIS MINUTE AND FROM HIM!

Do we look alike or does my Italian half overpower my Canadian half?

About 20 minutes ago I received a call from Archbishop James H. MacDonald the Archbishop-Emeritus of St. John's Newfoundland. He introduced himself to me as my relative in Georgia.

He retired as Archbishop Metropolitan at the age of 75 in the year 2000. So he is now about 86 years old and would be a contemporary of my father.

The connection as I understood it is that his mother and my father's mother were first Cousins. So what does that make me to him? A first cousin twice removed????? His mother was from Judique, Cape Breton and was a MacEachern, just as my grandmother (who died in childbirth in 1912 at a very young age).

He's coming to Georgia in late October and will swing by to see me in Macon. I can't believe it and I'm excited to meet him!

Archbishop MacDonald first was an auxiliary bishop in Hamilton, Ontario and then became the bishop of Prince Edward Island right next to Cape Breton and then was name Archbishop of Saint John Newfoundland. Newfoundland is a half hour different in time than the Province of Nova Scotia. Just a little tidbit there!

Archbishop MacDonald, that has a very nice sound to it doesn't it?

PRESS HERE FOR THE WEBSITE OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. JOHN'S NEWFOUNDLAND

CELIBACY NOT THE BLAME!

ROME, SEPT. 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- It is often proposed that celibacy is to blame for a lack of vocations to the priesthood.
But according to the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, celibacy is not the problem at all.

ZENIT spoke with Cardinal Mauro Piacenza about the lack of priestly vocations and the true remedies for the problem.

ZENIT: Who are the priests in this Catholic Church and what is their role?

Cardinal Piacenza: They are not social workers and even less are they functionaries of God! The identity crisis is especially acute in the more secularized contexts in which it seems that there is no space for God. But priests are what they have always been; they are always what Christ wanted them to be! The priestly identity is Christocentric and therefore Eucharistic. It is Christocentric because, as the Holy Father has recalled many times, in the ministerial priesthood "Christ draws us into himself," involving himself with us and involving us in his own existence. This "real" attraction happens sacramentally, and so in an objective and unsurpassable manner, in the Eucharist -- of which priests are ministers, that is servants and effective instruments.

ZENIT: But is the law of celibacy so absolute? Can it really not be changed?

Cardinal Piacenza: It is not a mere law! The law is the consequence of a much higher reality that is grasped only in a living relationship with Christ. Jesus says: "He who understands, must understand." Holy celibacy is never something to progress beyond, rather it is always new, in the sense that, even through it, the life of the priest is "renewed," because it is always given, in a fidelity that has its root in God and its fruition in the blossoming of human freedom.

The true problem is in the contemporary inability to make definitive choices, in the dramatic reduction of human freedom that has become so fragile as not to pursue the good, not even when it is recognized and intuited as a possibility for one's own existence. Celibacy is not the problem, nor can the infidelity and weakness of certain priests be the criterion of judgment. Statistics tell us that more than 40% of marriages fail. But 2% of priests fail in celibacy, so the solution would not be in making holy celibacy optional. Should we not instead stop interpreting freedom as the "absence of ties" and of definitiveness, and begin to discover that the true realization of human felicity consists precisely in the definitiveness of the gift to the other and to God?

ZENIT: What about vocations? Would they not increase if celibacy were abolished?

Cardinal Piacenza: No! The Christian confessions in which, because there is no ordained priesthood, there is no doctrine and discipline of celibacy, find themselves in a state of deep crisis regarding "vocations" to the leadership of the community. There is also a crisis in the sacrament of marriage as one and indissoluble.
The crisis from which, in reality, we are slowly emerging, is linked, fundamentally, to the crisis of faith in the West. It is in making faith grow that we must be engaged. This is the point. In the same spheres the sanctification of the feast is in crisis, confession is in crisis, marriage is in crisis, etc…

Secularization and the consequent loss of the sense of the sacred, of faith and its practice have brought about and continue to bring about a diminution in the number of candidates to the priesthood. Along with these distinctively theological and ecclesial causes, there are also some of a sociological character: first of all, the evident decline in births, with the consequent diminution in the number of young men and, thus, also of priestly vocations. This too is a factor that cannot be ignored. Everything is connected. Sometimes the premises are laid down and then one does not want to accept the consequences, but these are inevitable.

The first and undeniable remedy for the drop in vocations Jesus himself suggested: "Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers into the harvest" (Matthew 9:38). This is the realism of pastoral work in vocations. Prayer for vocations, an intense, universal, widespread network of prayer and Eucharistic adoration that envelops the whole world, is the only possible answer to the crisis of the acceptance of vocations. Wherever such a prayerful attitude has a stable existence, one sees that a real turnaround is occurring. It is fundamental to watch over the identity and specificity in ecclesial life of priests, religious (in the uniqueness of the foundational charisms of the order to which they belong) and faithful laity, so that each may truly, in freedom, understand and welcome the vocation that God has in mind for him. But everyone must be himself and must work every day more and more to become what he is.

ZENIT: Your Eminence, in this moment in history how would you sum things up?

Cardinal Piacenza: Our project must not be to stay afloat at all costs, to desire the applause of public opinion: We must only serve our neighbor, whoever he is, out of love and with the love of our God, remembering that only Jesus is the Savior. We must let him pass, speak, act through our poor persons and our daily work. We must not put ourselves forward but him. We must not be frightened in the face of situations, not even the worst. The Lord is also aboard the Barque of Peter even if he seems to be sleeping; he is here! We must act with energy, as if everything depended on us but with the peace of those who know that everything depends on the Lord. Therefore, we must remember that the name of love in time is "fidelity"!

The believer knows that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life and not just "a" way, "a" truth, "a" life. This is why the key to the mission in our society is in the courage of truth at the cost of insults and scorn; it is this courage that is one with love, with pastoral charity, which must be recovered and that makes the Christian vocation more attractive today than ever. I would like to cite the words in which the Council of the Evangelical Church summed up its program in Stuttgart in 1945: "To proclaim with more courage, to pray with more confidence, to believe with more joy, to love with more passion."

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF VIENNA DOESN'T WANT TO LEAD A SCHISM, BUT IS HE?

The dying "spirit of Vatican II" clergy, grey, AGING and angry, are making threats against their cardinal archbishop in Vienna. They are calling for a Muslim like uprising in Vienna to overthrow the Vatican! They really want schism but can't bring themselves to join the Anglican Church or ask for a similar arrangement with the Anglican Church that the Catholic Church is allowing for disaffected Anglicans through the Anglican Ordinariate. At least the Anglicans who are disaffected have given up trying to remake the Anglican Church into the Catholic Church and have actually begun to join the Catholic Church. They have integrity! The clergy and their groupies in Vienna have no integrity whatsoever. Read on and see why I say that:

(Reuters) - The head of Vienna's Roman Catholic community ruled out sweeping changes demanded by dissident priests and said there could be "serious conflict" if they defied Church teaching on celibacy or give communion to remarried divorcees.

Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said he would not lead his diocese into a schism with leaders in the Vatican by letting priests flout Church rules after a group of priests issued a "Call to Disobedience" manifesto to try to press reform.

In weekend interviews with Austrian radio and television, Schoenborn backed celibacy for priests, limiting ordination to men and preserving marriage as a life-long commitment.

"If in our diocese here I would step out of line with the community of the Catholic Church then I would lead our diocese into a schism. I am not ready for this and I think no Austrian bishop is ready for this," he said on Saturday.

Late on Friday, he again warned dissident priests that they faced consequences if they stuck to their revolt.

"If it comes to actions that clearly contradict Catholic teaching on faith then it can lead to serious conflict," he said, adding it was not too late to reach common ground in a second round of talks due later this year.

"All possibilities are open. I am counting on dialogue and cooperation," he said.

Dissidents led by parish priest Helmut Schueller have issued the manifesto and say they hope the campaign will persuade Schoenborn to push reforms with Pope Benedict and the Vatican.

The dissidents, who have broad public backing in opinion polls, say they will break Church rules by giving communion to Protestants and remarried divorced Catholics or by allowing lay people to preach and head parishes without a priest.

They oppose the current drive to group several parishes together because of a shortage of priests.

"We are now really going to step on the gas," Hans-Peter Hurka, head of the Catholic reform group "We are the Church," told newspaper Der Standard this week, announcing plans to have hundreds of demonstrators march on bishops' offices.

"It is like in Egypt. There will be a revolution of Church people in Austria. We will make St. Stephen's Square (before the cathedral in Vienna) into Tahrir Square," another activist, Anton Achleitner, said, referring to the square where Egyptians staged protests that ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak.

The dispute has come to a head just before Pope Benedict's September 22-25 visit to neighbouring Germany. Benedict, 84, grew up in Bavarian villages close to the Austrian border.

Catholic reform groups in Germany have made similar demands, and a prominent retired Irish bishop, Edward Daly, called on Tuesday for an end to compulsory celibacy for priests, saying it was pushing new recruits away.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

VATICAN II WAS A PASTORAL COUNCIL CHANGING DISCIPLINE NOT ONE OUNCE OF DOGMA OR DOCRTINE!

In 1988, addressing the Chilean bishops, Cardinal Ratzinger affirmed, "The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of 'superdogma' which takes away the importance of all the rest."


While affirming his remaining attachment to Vatican II, Benedict XVI, on this September 14, 2011, brought down the taboo of the Council. For while no Pope could free a Catholic from the decisions of dogmatic Councils, the Pope, by way of the text of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, liberates the souls from those of a pastoral Council. From now on, one may be of the Church without holding on to the controversial points of Vatican II. In 2007, the helmsman of the Church had already undermined the monopoly held by the Novus Ordo. Four years later, he removes from the Conciliar doctrine its non-negotiable character and its exclusivity. It is not any longer the alpha and the omega of the life of the Church; that life is now once again refocused on its object: Faith.

My comments: Vatican II only changed the way the Church engaged other Christians, other religions and the world at large. It changed the discipline of the sacraments but not their meaning. It encouraged the laity to be more engaged with the institutional Church through a recovered sense of Baptismal charisms. But no doctrines or dogmas were changed and none new were defined or redefined!

Vatican II should help us grow closer to our orthodox faith, not aloof of it. It is the "spirit" of Vatican II that became dogmatic--a spirit that had no authority whatsover on Catholics.

NEW BISHOP AND HIS VISION FOR THE DIOCESE

Bishop-Elect Gregory John Hartmayer, OFM,Con. set forth some of his vision for ministry as our chief shepherd. The following is a brief synopsis. I hope I remember it correctly:

1. He will make good use of the Presbyteral Council as a broad representation of the clergy in the diocese, age, year of ordination, religious, secular.

2. He will look into expanding the college of consulters from six to twelve and using them as canon law envisions.

3. For the Sacrament of Confirmation, he wants to be informed of the particulars of the liturgy, any important issues amongst those being confirmed. He wants the boys to wear dress shirt, tie and dress pants and shoes. The girls are to wear modest dress-dresses. Since I've been pastor, I've required our boys to wear dark dress pants and shoes, white dress shirt and red tie (no coat). The girls must wear a modest white or off white dress.

4. Sponsors must be registered and practicing Catholics in good standing with the Church as it regards thier marriage. They must provide documentation for such.

5. We as priests and parishes should make sure we're up to snuff as it concerns the new media, i.e web pages, email, cell phones, etc.

6. He sees his first priority as bishop to his priests making sure we have what we need to do our ministry in the parish. He will be concerned for our spiritual, mental and physical health. He gave us direct access to his cell phone number and asked for ours.

7. He is very magnanamous to our retiring bishops using him when he can't be somewhere and allowing pastors to call upon him for confirmations or other parish events.

8. He likes Diet Coke instead of the more potent drinks like red bull.

9. I asked him about is vision for Catholic Stewardship in the Diocese and he has a very good grasp of it as a "way of life" and a potent form of Catholic Spirituality. It is discipleship pure and simple, touching on time spent in prayer, talents used for the building up of the parish and diocese and treasure for the support of both as well as other charities.

10. He would like each priest to promote vocations by inviting young men/boys to consider the priesthood. A happy priest is the best billboard for this.

11. He wants every priest to implement the corrected English translation completely by the First Sunday of Advent. The priests should not editorialize in a negative way about this as time for debating it is over and it must be implemented. He urged priests to begin singing the new Gloria and Sanctus at Mass. There's only 10 more Sundays to go.

A transition of bishops is always an anxious and exciting time. I think our new bishop has set the tone and has a vision for his ministry. May God bless him as he becomes our new shepherd.

I was able to introduce myself to him (I'm not accustomed to being an "unknown" to my bishop) by saying I was the "rector" of the other "cathedral" in the diocese located in Macon!

I'm in Panama City Beach as I overlook the magnificent Gulf of Mexico and sunny, cool morning and the water is emerald green and the sand sugar white! So nice. I'm using Fr. Pat Foley's putrid computer to write this which is slow and like a dinasour. It is almost impossible to make you jealous by posting pictures of what I'm looking at (Gulf) from the 14th floor (actually 13th floor but they won't number it that way, YIKES) of the hotel I'm in. This computer is so slow and outdated, an embarassment to me for even using it! So I'm not sure what else I'll blog until I get back to my PC in my office.

OFF TO ANNUAL PRIESTS' RETREAT FOR THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH

I'm off to our annual priests' retreat for the Diocese of Savannah. Our new Bishop-Elect Gregory John Hartmayer as well as our Bishop-Emeritus J. Kevin Boland will be there. Bishop-Elect Hartmayer is a Franciscan priest and our retreat master is going to be a Franciscan priest.

I wonder if we are being groomed to become Franciscans instead of diocesan priests? Time will tell.

I'll be going to my other annual retreat in Panama City Beach, Florida following the retreat and won't be back until Tuesday, September 20th.

Last year at this time, I was also on "rat respite." I still suffer from post rat traumatic-stress syndrome and see and hear rats in the rectory that supposedly aren't there anymore. Last year while on retreat, the mother rat of all, the biggest in the whole wide known world, was killed in my house. Only one smaller rat since then.

REMEMBERING 9-11

Another blog asked the question, "Do you remember what you did the day before 9-11?" I've never thought of that before and quite frankly I can't remember a thing about 9-10-01. But I can remember 9-11 almost as though it were yesterday. Of course what stands out the most are the images on live TV of the first tower bellowing smoke from what was thought to have been an accident when a "small" plane collided with the building. It wasn't until I saw the passenger jet actually hit the second tower as live TV had cameras fixed on the twin towers that we all realized that something more than an accident was taking place and in an unprecedented way that would change America and our way of life.

What I remember most though is making sure the front doors of our historic church in downtown Augusta were opened wide to indicate to everyone who desired, that a sanctuary of peace and prayer was open to them no matter their religious affiliation.

What I remember is watching people stream into our church to pray and seek comfort from God and divine protection for our nation and those in harms way.

Most of all I remember our daily Mass that day. It is celebrated each day at 12:15 PM. The normal attendance was always around 60 to 100 people. That day the Church was packed:

Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Augusta, Georgia, September 11, 2001, 12:15 PM daily Mass:

What I remember too was singing "America the Beautiful" at the recessional and getting to the last verse which left no dry eye in the church that day:

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

THE DISGRACE OF SIN AND THE GRACE OF RECONCILIATION

While I could live with the architecture of the building in the picture below, its accoutrements for altar, candles, ambo and pews are so minimalistic and sterile as to be more puritanical than the Puritans, more Calvinistic than the Calvins and more Masonic than the Masons. In my seminary in the early 1970's (about four years before I got there, there was actually a "liturgical ceremony" to strip the seminary's very traditional high altar and install a box like "free standing" "table" to be used for the new, stripped down Mass. The ceremony used a wheel barrow and seminarians placing the ornate altar cloth, six magnificent candlesticks and (empty) tabernacle into it and wheeling it off.)

What was unseen at that time in that seminary and many others of the late 1960's and 70's was the stripping down of Catholic sexual morality and substituting it with something else altogether different. Here, though, it wasn't a Puritanical, Calvinistic or Masonic morality being adopted, but the sexual, free love, do as you please and if it feels good morality of the raging 1960's sexual revolution. It's one thing when "normal" people express their sexuality in wild ways, but when abnormal people are given a license to do it because of the prevailing culture, either in the seminary or the world at large, you have a recipe for disaster and the potential for horrible abuse. The active disobedience by many seminary personnel and other priests and religious toward the Magisterium of the Church and Catholic teaching is what has brought us to such a low point in Church history. We need strong Catholic reformers like St. Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis of Assisi and St. John of the Cross to "rebuild my Church." Now read on below this and you'll see why I posted this photo!

Former Catholic, turned traditional Anglican, Archbishop John Hepworth, who was sexually abused by Catholic priests when in a Catholic seminary, now is seeking to be reconciled to the Catholic Church and is bringing 400,000 disaffected Anglicans with him. Is this the power of God's grace and reconciliation that a stripped down Catholic Church of the 1960's fomented, with architecture like that above and immorality like that described below? Isn't the story of each of us and of the Church about sin and reconciliation, death and new life? Is this a parable of such, but in real life and with real consequences?

Faith transcends desperation

From: The Australian
September 10, 2011 12:00AM

FEW people are better placed to assess both the virtue and venality of the Catholic Church than Archbishop John Hepworth, who after 36 years in exile is seeking his peace with Rome.

He was raped at 15, a month after entering Adelaide's St Francis Xavier Seminary to fulfill a childhood calling to train for the Catholic priesthood. After more than a decade of predatory physical and emotional abuse, he fled to England and drove trucks before defecting to the Anglican Church.

In an extraordinary act of forgiveness and reconciliation, he is leading a breakaway faction of some 400,000 Anglicans who want to reunite with Rome and submit to the teaching of the church that served him so badly.

Archbishop Hepworth's private story, revealed today by The Weekend Australian, is on one level a dispiriting reminder of human depravity and the church's institutional failure to exercise its duty of care.

But it can also be read as a narrative of redemption, a story about courage, faith and hope on the part of a dedicated priest whose love for the church is not diminished by human failings.

His story will make no sense whatsoever to the growing band of radical secularists who see religion as a dangerous throwback to a less-enlightened era. The separation of church and state, a founding principle of Australian governance, is not enough for them. They will not rest until religion is driven from the public sphere altogether, since, as Richard Dawkins maintains, religious faith has the characteristics of a mental illness.

You do not have to be a signed-up member of the Catholic Church - or any other religion, for that matter - to recognize scientific rationalism has its limits when it comes to understanding human complexity, our ability to love and our appreciation of beauty. Nor do you have to bother God to realize that while religion is a private matter it is also a public good. One of the few heartening aspects of the English riots was to see people standing shoulder to shoulder to protect their communities and businesses and call for calm. Unless we missed something, none were communities of atheists; they were Hindus, Muslims and Christians united and inspired by faith.

None of this disguises the fact that the official delays and denial that met Archbishop Hepworth's allegations are an all-too-familiar indictment of the church's failure to redress the wrongs of the past. It is encouraging to note, however, that the Melbourne process created by George Pell 15 years ago, which is independent of the church, resolved the relevant part of the case swiftly and efficiently. It is an indication that some in the church have learned from past mistakes. Other parts of the church have much to learn from it.

We strongly reject the argument that these individual failings, terrible as they may be, are evidence of a culture so rotten that the church is beyond redemption.

That argument - practically an article of faith for many modern progressives - does not recognize the broader contribution Catholicism has made and continues to make in Australia and around the world in the fields of health, education and charity or the personal peace many find through its ministry and liturgy.

Archbishop Hepworth's step of faith in returning to an institution that failed him badly is one not everyone would be prepared to take. Only he can decide if it is the right one, but we recognize the message of hope it sends to the wider world about the true purpose and place of religion in a modern, secular society.

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT'S HOMILY AT HIS INSTALLATION MASS ON THURSDAY

"This Church in Philadelphia faces very serious challenges these days. There’s no quick fix to problems that are so difficult, and none of us here today, except the Lord Himself, is a miracle worker. But it’s important to remember and to believe the Church is not defined by her failures. And you and I are not defined by our critics or by those who dislike us. What we do in the coming months and years to respond to these challenges – that will define who we really are. And in engaging that work, we need to be Catholics first, and always. Jesus Christ is the center of our lives, and the Church is our mother and teacher. Everything we do should flow from that."

Hear and watch His Excellency's full homily from Thursday here:

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia: Installation Homily from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.

WELL THE 5TH AND 6TH GRADERS' VERDICT IS IN, THEY LIKE IT BETTER! THE CORRECTED ENGLISH TRANSLATION THAT IS!

I teach at our school every Thursday. So I asked our 5th and 6th graders what they thought about the corrected English translation of the Mass we celebrated with them last Friday and this past Sunday. They said they like it much more and like how the words sounded and that it seems more devotional.

The teachers in the classrooms chimed in with the same response. They said that the previous translation lost something in translation that has now been recovered.

I say yes! yes! yes! The spiritual and devotional aspect of the reformed Mass in Latin which is the template for all vernacular translations has a spirituality, devotion and majesty not because of the Latin per se but because of the spirituality, doctrinal and devotional aspects of what is rightfully ours in the Latin Rite Mass no matter what language!

Those who translated the Mass for the 1970 missal using the Vatican approved "equivalency" method didn't get it. They thought banality and everyday speak would be good for the Liturgy and English speaking Catholics. They didn't think we needed the spirituality and devotional aspects of the Post Vatican II Latin Mass. They were dead wrong and way off mark!

Thank God for divine intervention that has given us this new corrected translation. It may not always be perfect English, but it perfectly captures what was lost in translation in the previous translation and it returns it to us English speaking Catholics who have been unnecessarily deprived of the fullness of our spirituality and devotional aspects of the Latin Rite Mass for almost 45 years. It didn't have to be even with the equivalency method of translating.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

IT'S THE BLESSED AND GLORIOUS VIRGIN MARY'S BIRTHDAY! READ THIS NICE DEVOTIONAL PIECE BY PRESSING THIS SENTENCE!

WHY DO I LOVE THIS ARCHBISHOP? BECAUSE HE CALLS A SPADE A SPADE

Archbishop Chaput: "If they don't believe what the church teaches, they're not really Catholic"

Read what Archbishop Chaput says, the new Archbishop of Philadelphia! PRESS THIS WHOLE SENTENCE.

NEW CATHEDRAL FOR RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA

This is splendid considering this day and age and what could have been. It's right on the mark!

This renovation misses the mark somewhere along the way!

A PONTIFICAL SOLEMN SUNG NUPTIAL MASS IN THE EF FORM

I've never celebrated a Pontifical one of these but I have celebrated two of these as a High Mass!

WAS POPE JOHN PAUL'S 1994 STATEMENT ON WOMEN'S ORDINATION "EX CATHEDRA?" NO, NO! NO!

Is this Apostolic Letter from Pope John Paul II in 1994 an Ex Cathedra Infallible statement of the Extraordinary Magisterium of the Church?
APOSTOLIC LETTER
ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS
OF JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON RESERVING PRIESTLY ORDINATION
TO MEN ALONE

Read the following and find out why it simply reiterates what the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church has held definitely as infallible and then go study your catechism for the difference between Ordinary and Extraordinary Magisterium.

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Latin for On Ordination to the Priesthood) is an Apostolic Letter issued from the Vatican by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994, whereby the Pope expounds the teaching of the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone." In its clear proclamation that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women," it has resulted in a significant amount of controversy since its release, although official understanding is that this letter is supposed to end controversy.
Drawing from an earlier Vatican document, "Declaration Inter Insigniores on the question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood" issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in October 1976, Pope John Paul explains the official Roman Catholic understanding that the priesthood is a special role specially set out by Jesus when he chose a dozen men out of his group of male and female followers. Pope John Paul notes that Jesus chose the Twelve[1] after a night in prayer (cf. Lk 6:12) and that the Apostles themselves were careful in the choice of their successors. The priesthood is "specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself."[2]
The letter concludes with the words:
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of Our ministry of confirming the brethren.[3] We declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful. (Declaramus Ecclesiam facultatem nullatenus habere ordinationem sacerdotalem mulieribus conferendi, hancque sententiam ab omnibus Ecclesiae fidelibus esse definitive tenendam.)
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not issued under the extraordinary papal magisterium as an ex cathedra statement, and so is not considered infallible in itself. Its contents are, however, considered infallible under the ordinary magisterium, as this doctrine has been held consistently by the Church. In a responsum ad dubium (reply to a doubt) explicitly approved by Pope John Paul II and dated October 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis had been "set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium" and accordingly was "to be held definitively, as belonging to the deposit of faith".[4][5]
In 1998, this was clarified slightly in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Doctrinal Commentary on Ad Tuendam Fidem[6] to state that the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not taught as being divinely revealed, although it might someday be so taught in the future:
A similar process can be observed in the more recent teaching regarding the doctrine that priestly ordination is reserved only to men. The Supreme Pontiff, while not wishing to proceed to a dogmatic definition, intended to reaffirm that this doctrine is to be held definitively, since, founded on the written Word of God, constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. As the prior example illustrates, this does not foreclose the possibility that, in the future, the consciousness of the Church might progress to the point where this teaching could be defined as a doctrine to be believed as divinely revealed.

WHY DID FATHER "ME" CHANGE THE MASS THIS PAST WEEKEND AND HOW CLUELESS ARE OTHER PARISHES IN OUR COUNTRY?

I had two lovely visitors from Connecticut come to me after our stunningly beautiful and corrected English translation of the 9:30 AM Mass this past Sunday (the first Sunday we implemented the corrected translation for the sung parts of the Mass) who asked me in the most polite way why "I had changed the Mass." I explained our bishop emeritus had given us permission to begin implementing the sung parts of the Mass that have the corrected translation. I went further to explain that the Church is asking for this change. The wife said, which Church? I said, the Roman Catholic Church through for English speaking Catholics throughout the world.

They then both said they had heard nothing about this from their parish Church in the supposedly progressive and liberal north, Connecticut to be exact.

I said that she needed to go and tell her pastor when she got home that he needed to get on the ball because by the First Sunday of Advent it has to be implemented in all parishes throughout the country. She said, "you don't tell my pastor anything!" Oh well.

I wonder how many pastors and parishes throughout the country are derelict in their duty to inform their parishioners and teach them about this major change that will be implemented everywhere in less than three months or to be exact in 12 Sundays?

If doctors can be sued for malpractice should priests? I know we are being sued! But maybe that should be extended to how priests fail to prepare people for big changes that have been in the works now for well over 25 years!

The bishops own website has had the corrected translation on it for over three years to prepare priests and laity for this change.

But on a bright note, even though this couple was discombobulated and wondered if they had wandered into a break away Catholic Church, they loved the changes and the solemnity in which St. Joseph Church celebrates the Mass. They said in their home parish they do things very casually and still have guitars up front and people waving their hands in front of them to bully them into singing! Oh well.

ON GOING LITURGICAL RENEWAL AT SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH MACON, GEORGIA, ESPECIALLY THE NEW TRANSLATION!

Click once or twice on picture to enlarge:



As I write this, we've only celebrated our Saturday Vigil Mass with the new translation and it went extremely well. The new Gloria we sung is the Gloria Simplex by Proulx and the congregation picked it up as the cantor led it very easily. We have a singing parish and they really try to sing everything they are asked to sing. We did not rehearse it ahead of time but made sure they have copies of it with notes in the pew.

I think the hardest part so far as been the new Memorial Acclamation which for now is the sung plain chant from the new missal. But even there many tried to sing it and by the end of the month, they'll have it down pat.

I think the one change that is so engrained in all of us is the response to "The Lord be with you." It is so natural to say "And also with you" even when you've been reminded two seconds earlier that the new response is "And with your spirit." We sing all our Sunday Masses and even sung, some reverted to "And also with you." It was kind of comical and you could see disbelief on the faces of those who intended to sing the new and sang the old!" But I predict in one month the old will be history except for those darn visitors we get from Interstate 75 who come from parishes who lag behind us on the implementation of the new translation curve and have pastors who haven't even bothered to inform them of this change which will be mandatory the First Sunday of Advent. We do have small green booklets from WLP in the hymnal racks for everyone, so visitors will be alerted to our extreme progressiveness in all thing liturgical!

The other major "reform" we are implementing occurs next weekend. It's not really a reform, but going back to what we've been doing for the past 35 years.

When the H1N1 flu was feared to become an epidemic, our bishop asked us to discontinue the common chalice and the sign of peace. We did. For me it was the first time anyone in the "official" Church acknowledged that indeed a virus could be spread through the shared chalice. We had always catechized parishioners that the alcohol content of the consecrated Wine, the turning of the chalice and the wiping of the rim with a purificator would prevent the spread of viruses. That was not quite true and I shall never again state it to parishioners in that fashion. I will state that it is possible to spread a serious virus from sharing from the common chalice. Therefore those who are sick with the flu or other viruses should not receive from the common chalice and those with auto-immune deficiencies should not receive from the common chalice if they are likely to get sick easily from others illnesses.

My preference would be intinction and it was well received in the parish the few times I offered it in the last year. However, it is not the norm in our diocese and I don't want to have a fight over it with my new bishop and my former bishop would not approve of it on a regular basis when I asked him if we could even though the General Instruction of the Roman Missal in the American Adaptation of it allows for it as a second option after the first choice which is the common chalice. Never mind that the first choice in the GIRM for the Entrance Chant of Mass is the the Official Introit from the Roman Missal or Roman Gradual and that the 4th choice is a suitable hymn of some other kind. Which is the most prominent practice in our diocese and throughout America for Entrance Chants? The 4th choice! But I digress.

(This should tell you something about my moderate conservatism. I want the bishop to approve what I'm doing and if I don't get it, I disinclined to do it. I do see the bishop as the primary liturgist of the diocese and while most bishops don't demand rigid uniformity from parish to parish, I don't want to be sticking out like a sore thumb "doing my own thing" (which is very 1970's) when no other parish in the diocese or elsewhere in the USA is doing it, but I digress again. But those who like my conservative nature better get over my desire to please my bishop or I could be a flaming liberal doing all kinds of other questionable practices!)

One of the things that I have like since eliminating the chalice is that we don't have a hoard of people approaching the altar at the Lamb of God to be Extra Ordinary Ministers of the Chalice. But what really drove me and others crazy to the point of distraction was those who didn't bother to be faithful to their schedule which meant that others who were not scheduled had to come up if they noticed we lacked the number we need. Then they'd come up only to be beaten to the punch by another person who saw the need. Very distracting to say the least.

So I'm requiring all the EM's to be in the Entrance Procession, but simply bow once they get to the sanctuary steps and circle around to their seat in the pew. That way we'll know everyone is there at the procession time. In addition, they will wear a "choir robe collar" not the robe itself, around their neck that is the liturgical color of the day to distinguish them for this particular service.

My parishioners use the Common Chalice and have missed it and really didn't mind intinction even though they have to receive the intincted host on the tongue. I've made it quite clear to everyone that the chalice is purely optional and that one receives our Lord's glorified and risen Body completely under either form of the Consecrated Host or "Precious Blood." Our Glorified and Risen Lord cannot be divided,Body and Blood, but is Risen and forever alive in His completeness as received under either Form.

THE UGLINESS OF CATHOLIC LIBERALISM OR PROGRESSIVISM

Let's be clear. I consider my self a middle of the road moderate in the Catholic Church but lean to the right mostly but also to the left infrequently. Just to be clear.

I grew up in a conservative town, with conservative, strict Catholic principles that could easily be classified as pre-Vatican II because our Catholicism was pre-Vatican II. We were a cusp family and the transition to a post-Vatican II Catholicism was not always pretty and in fact fragmented our family in terms of Catholicism just as it fragmented the Church of the 1960's and 70's.

I went to a very liberal seminary in the 1970's, St. Mary's in Baltimore, Maryland. However, I had many great teachers and they did an excellent job of comparing pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II approaches to theology and doctrine. While the manner in which the liturgy was celebrated was very much of its period, it was done well even with the many liberties various priests took with the Mass, some more egregious than others. Some priests refused elevations and genuflections. Our Masses definitely emphasized "meal" over "sacrifice" and "low church" over "high church," as well as "low Christology or high Christology." And believe me you that is the crux of most of Catholic lite or liberalism, low, low, low, Church, Christology and Ecclesiology--the human dimension overemphasized and the divine dimension diminished or marginalized. It's Pope Benedict's apt description of the "closed circle" horizontal view of being Church that excludes the Vertical dimension that is Divine and opens us to God and directs us away from our smallness.

What I never liked though about progressive Catholicism was its arrogance, bullying and subversiveness. As seminarians we were explicitly told by the administration not to go back to the diocese and bad-mouth the seminary or tell our bishops of the more unusual liberties the seminary allowed or turned a blind eye toward.

If a seminarian gave any appearance of being enamored with the more traditional aspects of Catholicism (and this antipathy of seminary authorities says more about them than those who liked these) such as praying the rosary, making holy hours before the Blessed Sacrament, desiring Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on a frequent basis and a desire for high church liturgy, that seminarian would be ridiculed, marginalized and ask to leave the seminary for being rigid and pre-Vatican II. I cringe today when I think about the great number of seminarians who either left the seminary disillusioned by the liberal tactics and bullying of the administration and/or other more liberal seminarians and who had their more conservative beliefs and values shattered by unthinking, uncaring and intolerant liberals. Yes, liberals are bullies when they think their agenda for the Church is being challenged or threatened by more conservative, right thinking individuals.

Look at the priests in Austria bullying their Cardinal Archbishop and bringing Austria to the brink of schism and the formation of yet another Protestant denomination, this time a new form of Protestantism that most Protestants would decry as unnecessary since there already exists numerous Protestant expression of the Church that embrace everything these bullying Clerics desire to establish. They simply want the Catholic Church to bend to their decrees and demands. They are truly bullies.

David Mills in a First Things article writes the following about progressive and dissident Catholics:

It’s the usual story: lifelong Catholics (who are women), love the Church, feel called to priesthood, Church misogynist, hope for future change, women were priests in the early church, have to stay to promote change, accepted someday, international movement, and so on, though it leaves out the almost inevitable “the church is not the magisterium” line and adds the faux reassurance that excommunication “does not remove one from the church” but only bars one from the sacraments. (Not, of course, that they care.) Blah, blah, blah! (my comment).

That type of speaking and thinking is quite prevalent amongst those who feel they have a mission to make the Catholic Church into something she simply isn't nor the Documents of Vatican II ever declared or intended. Yet, they continue to spew forth an errant theology claiming Vatican II supports them 100% of the way. They rely on the "dead" Magisterium that formulated the documents of Vatican II (all men as I recall) and yet deplore the male only hierarchy/Magisterium and its teaching authority that is living today. What hypocrisy!

Just read more progressive blogs and periodicals and comments that are written like PrayTell and The National Catholic Reporter. There is so much venom and hatred for official Catholicism. One wonders why in the world they don't leave and join the Episcopal Church or simply join together in a separate church with like-minded negative thinkers? Many of these characters display attitudes and contempt that could easily be diagnosed as "arrested development" when it comes to one's response to authority. It is no secret that many priests and religious have unresolved authority issues with their parents, particularly their fathers and bring that baggage and beat that adolescent drum as they project their hostility away from unresolved parental authority issues onto the authority figures of the Church, especially the hierarchy.

I did not despise the pre-Vatican II Church but recognized the rigid legalism of many Catholics of that period needed purification. I do dispise post-Vatican II promoters of the "spirit of Vatican II" which misled me and many others during that time and sowed confusion rather than clarity concerning Catholic identity. They were dead wrong and promoted an agenda that was alien to Catholicism and what Vatican II actually taught. But confusion is often the product of misguided renewal.

Today we are in a spiritual battle for the soul of Catholicism. For my part, no matter what, I will always be a papist. For me the heart of Catholicism is union with the Holy Father and the bishops in union with him including my very own bishop. I will never stray from that and I pray for an ever stronger and more glorious Catholic identity that is challenging and sacrificial and leads to true discipleship in the modern world.

BIG WEEKEND FOR SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH IN MACON, NEW TRANSLATION SUNDAY!

Today, which is First Friday, we celebrated Mass with our school children, grades K-4 through 6th. It was the first Mass where all their parts were in the new translation. We've been working with them for years for this very day. And in the past month our teachers and music teacher have done a wonderful job preparing them for the Mass today.

I had to chuckle, because the children were evidently told to emphasize the one word changes in the Gospel response: "Glory to you O Lord" and "...for our God and the good of God's HOLY Church."

They said the Dominus Non Sum Dignus flawlessly and sang the new Sanctus and Mystery of Faith like they'd always done it! WOW!

I told them that they were pioneers blazing a trail for the rest of the English speaking countries throughout the world! They were so excited and I told them to tell their parents about what they did today and that they'll help their parents on Sunday with the new translation.

Now, the Weekend Masses here we will institute all of the congregation's parts, sung and spoken. We have a fabulous new Gloria. I can't wait.

The only other big change we are instituting is the cantor singing "The Word of the Lord" after each reading and "The Gospel of the Lord" after the Gospel with the congregation singing the response.

And then on top of that we have our monthly First Sunday of the Month Extraordinary Form Mass! What Liturgical richness we have here at St. Joseph! I'm so blessed to be pastor here!

IF YOU ACCEPT THE CHURCH'S TEACHING ON CHASTITY, ARE YOU A BIGOT? SECULAR ELITIST'S HIERARCHY THINK YOU ARE!

From the Catholic League:
PIERS MORGAN BAITS SANTORUM

September 1, 2011

Last night on CNN, Piers Morgan asked presidential candidate Rick Santorum about his views on gay marriage. Santorum said he favored the traditional understanding of marriage, citing his allegiance to the teachings of the Catholic Church; both men are Catholic. Santorum said he also accepts the Church's teachings on homosexuality, which regards such behavior as sinful. When asked how he would respond if he learned that one of his sons were gay, the former Pennsylvania senator said he would love him "unconditionally."

Morgan then asked, "I guess one of the reasons it's troubling and difficult for people to come out is because of the level of bigotry that's out there against them. I have to say that your views you espoused on this issue are bordering on bigotry, aren't they?"

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds as follows:

Despite the obvious Catholic-baiting, Rick Santorum was eloquent in his exchange with Piers Morgan. The discussion proved once more the gap that exists between the thoroughly secular values of our cultural elites and the Judeo-Christian ethos shared by most Americans.

Most Americans, like most people on earth, reject gay marriage. Moreover, not a single world religion accepts this alternative lifestyle as being on a par with marriage, traditionally defined. And throughout history, in eastern as well as western civilization, the very idea that two men can get married would have been seen as bizarre, if not delirious. But Piers thinks "we're in a modern world," so things should change. Well, from the flash gangs in Philadelphia to the barbarism in the Middle East, there are plenty of reasons to wonder how modern we are.

If this is what we've come down to—cultural elites branding every person who holds to the traditional understanding of marriage as a bigot—then it's a clear indication that the elites are incapable of rational discourse.

MY COMMENTS AND OPINION:

I would caution Catholics from picking on homosexual acts when discussing sexual morality as it could appear to some that one is only concerned about homosexual immorality and not heterosexual immorality of which there is also a superabundance. One should approach sexual morality from a general and positive outlook.

1. There are different facets to love and love that respects people and their sexuality is to be encouraged. Intimate friendships that are chaste are quite moral between men and women, women and women and men and men.

2. Modesty in relationships is to be condoned. Exhibitionism with the intent to entice or shock should be seen as aberrant behavior.

3. Chastity applies to heterosexuals, homosexuals and the sexually ambiguous. This means that outside of the Sacrament and/or Union of Holy Matrimony as traditionally understood in the Judeo/Christian context, chastity is to be observed. Any act against chastity in this context is considered sinful and/or immoral.

4. Promoting sexual immorality by publicly living together outside of the traditional understanding of marriage, thus a mockery of marriage, is considered very gravely sinful. Any mockery of marriage is considered immoral by the Church as this is a sin against one of the Sacraments of the Church.

5. Unnatural forms of sex, either within marriage or outside of marriage are considered sinful or immoral. Natural sex implies openness to procreation and thus the method of the "marriage act" must climax within the context of that openness to pro-creation. All other sexual acts that are closed to the two purposes of sex (pro-creative and unitive) as properly exercised within marriage are considered immoral or sinful.

If someone then asks you about homosexual sex or marriage, you then say in light of what I write above, "what about it?" "Why are you focusing in only on that?"

Finally, I do think that the clergy and the laity of the Catholic Church shoot themselves in the foot when they only castigate homosexual immorality and do so in a way that promotes bigotry, through name calling and mockery. That is sinful also.

What Senator Rick Santorum said about the possibility of having a gay son is very relevant and his sentiments right on:

When asked how he would respond if he learned that one of his sons were gay, the former Pennsylvania senator said, "I would love him "unconditionally."

If those who love their homosexual children, relatives and friends perceive a contempt for them from Church members, this will undermine the greatest teaching of the Church, "Love of God and love of neighbor."
There are ways to admonish the sinner without showing hatred or contempt toward the sinner.

There is no reason to "freak out" more about homosexual immorality compared to heterosexual immorality. Both are not good for the soul or for society. But neither are unforgivable when true repentance is expressed.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN AUSTRIA MIGHT WELL BE GOOD FOR THE CHURCH IF HANDLED PROPERLY

READ A VERY GOOD ANALYSIS ABOUT THE AUSTRIAN REBELLION AND REFORM MOVEMENT BY PRESSING HERE!

My opinion: What we see in Austria with about 300 priests defying their Cardinal Archbishop is what many refer to as true "Clericalism." We can also refer to the laity who are being led by the nose by these clerics as being into crass "laity-ism."

Clericalism entails a belief by some in the clergy that they are a privileged class and thus are entitled to do whatever they please regardless of what their bishop says, their parishioners think and what the Church teaches. Sometime this attitude leads only to benign silliness. Other times though it leads to serious abuse of the priest's promises of celibacy and obedience. Sometimes it leads to criminal activity, such as theft, child or teenage sex abuse and so on. That of course is the extreme of clericalism.

The priests in Austria think they have a right to mislead the faithful, defy their bishop and do as they please without any accountability, the least of which should be "firing" from their ministry which in the Catholic Church is called either "suspension" or in more drastic circumstances, "Laicization" also known as "defrocking." The most that can be done is "excommunication."

Perhaps the Cardinal Archbishop could point out the crass clericalism of these priests and "fire" them all as a sign that priests too are accountable to the People of God, their bishop and civil authority.

"Laity-ism" thinks that the Church is not a hierarchy and that the laity have a right to rule the Church independently of their bishop or priest. That's another story for another post.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SPELL SCHISM AND NEO-PROTESTANT REFORMATION? READ ON:

When I was in the seminary in the 1970's much of the theology if you want to call it that, contained in the story below, was being taught to us as the theologians of that day really, really wanted and really, really believed that in the 21st century all of the things they were really, really promoting would officially be accepted, really. WRONG!

I would love to know the average age of these rebels. I bet you a million dollars that they are all my age and much, much older, bet ya!

It is all so, so sad on many levels. Excommunicate the hell out them, I say!

Austrian Catholic Priests Rebel, Demanding Church Reforms

AUSTRIA
Yahoo! News

By MICHAEL FRANK / SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG / WORLDCRUNCH

VIENNA - There is open rebellion among the clergy of Austria's Catholic Church. One highly placed man of the cloth has even warned about the risk of a coming schism as significant numbers of priests are refusing obedience to the Pope and bishops for the first time in memory.

The 300-plus supporters of the so-called Priests' Initiative have had enough of what they call the church's "delaying" tactics, and they are advocating pushing ahead with policies that openly defy current practices. These include letting nonordained people lead religious services and deliver sermons; making communion available to divorced people who have remarried; allowing women to become priests and to take on important positions in the hierarchy; and letting priests carry out pastoral functions even if, in defiance of church rules, they have a wife and family.

Cardinal Christoph SchÖnborn, Vienna's Archbishop and head of the Austrian Bishops' Conference, has threatened the rebels with excommunication. Incidentally, those involved in the initiative are not only low-profile members of the clergy. Indeed, it is being led by Helmut SchÜller - who was for many years vicar general of the archdiocese of Vienna and director of Caritas - and the cathedral pastor in the Carinthian diocese of Gurk.

A GREAT VIDEO ON CATHOLICISM AND ISN'T IT TIME TO STOP THE AMBIGUITY ABOUT KNEELING FOR HOLY COMMUNION?

Scottish archbishop tells Catholics not to kneel for communion">Scottish archbishop tells Catholics not to kneel for communion. Isn't it time for the Holy Father to make explicit to all world bishops that Catholics have a right to choose between kneeling and standing and that kneeling must be a comfortable option. CHANGE THE GIRM NOW--PRESS THIS FOR THE ARTICLE.

REQUIEM FOR THE LAMEDUCK ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MASS AT SAINT JOESEPH CHURCH, MACON!

Our Bishop-Emeritus J. Kevin Boland has granted St. Joseph Church in Macon permission to implement the people's parts of the new English translation of the Mass beginning the First Sunday in September, this coming Sunday! Last Sunday, August 28 our Masses were kind of a Requiem for a Mass or at least a peculiar English translation from the Latin original that the Vatican allowed over 45 years ago to be an equivalency of the Latin rather than a more literal version of it. Even the higher ups in the Vatican, the pope too, began to realize that allowing for equivalency in translating the original Latin had been an awful mistake (and that takes humility for the Vatican to do) and led translators to change in very subtle and not so subtle ways the spiritual, theological and sometimes doctrinal ethos that is ours in the Latin Rite Mass. They made it into something else altogether different than the reformed Latin Mass.

The new translation while not slavishly literal, is literal enough to maintain our Latin Rite Mass spirituality, theology and doctrinal purity not to mention devotional ethos. That is very good, in fact it is excellent!

In our "Requiem Masses" on Sunday we did not:

1. wear black vestments
2. canonize the old English version that we funeralized
3. Sing "On Eagle's Wings," "Be Not Afraid," hold hands and sing "Kumbaya," or "I Am the Bread of Life"

We did celebrate the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time by saying and singing the black and doing the red and reminded our well-catechized parish after the prayer after Holy Communion about the new and improved English translation we will begin using on Labor Day Weekend.

I DID NOT SEE ANY TEARS BEING SHED!

ARE THE METHODISTS ONTO SOMETHING: RETRACTABLE ALTAR RAILING!

Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church in Augusta, Georgia recently underwent a $7 million dollar renovation of their sanctuary. They belong to the North Georgia Conference (diocese) of the United Methodist Church and their form of worship is decidedly more Baptist or low church than Anglican (from whence they evolved)or high church. Macon's Methodist churches are in the South Georgia Conference and are more high church in worship style and sanctuary design with a main "altar" table and the pulpit to the side with a lectern for the Scriptures. These churches could pass for Episcopalian whereas the Augusta ones could pass for Baptist.

However, most Methodist Churches, high or low still incorporate the altar railing for personal prayer and sometimes for receiving Holy Communion. Trinity on the Hill in Augusta also televises its Sunday morning service. They celebrate holy communion only once a month. I happen to watch it one Sunday morning and their young curate who was the main minister that day told the congregation at communion time that anyone could come forward to receive holy communion whether or not you were Methodist and whether or not you were even baptized!

But I digress, the heading for this post is retractable altar railings. Trinity on the Hill is consecrating its "renewed" sanctuary this morning. One of the more unusual aspects of its new design is that it still incorporates a rather traditional altar railing although the new design follows "non-denominational churches" worship design allowing for an auditorium appearance for services that are rock concert like.

The altar railing would be the envy of most traditionally minded Catholics although it also has a very unusual ability: IT IS RETRACTABLE! Can you imagine new Catholic Churches with a RETRACTABLE ALTAR RAILING? When it is up, it's got to be the EF Mass coming your way! If it is down, it's the OF Mass.

Why didn't the Catholic Church think of that? Leave it to the Methodists! I wonder if this congregation feels separated from the stage because of that nasty altar railing? No problem, it retracts for those who feel separation anxiety!