Many portions of the "corrected" English translation of the Mass have been translated from the original Latin into what some find a "howling" English equivalent. Actually it is the "literal dynamic" way of translating rather than an "equivalent dynamic" of translating into English.
These "howlers" have been scoffed at; made fun of and the translators whom some in the blogging world feel hijacked the translating process and used preposterous language that could have been and was actually better translated are rubbing the faces of these translators into words and phrases that they used such as in today's Christ the King preface: "...making all created things subject to His rule, he might present to the immensity of your majesty an eternal and universal kingdom..."
At the three Masses this weekend were I sang these words, I thought, that's not how I would have worded that, but it grew on me after the third Mass.
But more importantly, no one howled during Mass, fell out of their pew in disbelief or was slain in the Spirit. No one walked out of Mass and no one has done so for the past three months since we've been praying the corrected English translation. I don't even think anyone noticed that it was different than the Christ the King preface I sang last year on this Sunday!
I call those who are hysterical and upset with the corrected translation and keep on calling "fire" in the crowed theater of the Church a corrupt trouble making brood of characters. They will not go down in Liturgical history as the good guys, but as,sophomoric fire howlers!
But sing a Te Deum! For most of the parishes throughout the English speaking world, in particular the USA, the horrible, dynamic equivalent translation of Latin into English we've been using for 40 years, like wandering Jews in the desert, is ended. This Sunday is the last of the 40 year desert experience. Advent brings the dawn of new hope and expectations for our Liturgy as the desert is watered and flowers sprout because of this corrected translation; and I am convinced it will be a tremendous blessing even with some of the more awkward words and phrasing in the corrected translation.
Sing no dirges for the 1970 English missal, but only alleluia that it is now relinquished to the archives of "what were we thinking when we issued this?"
I don't have any photos of today's Rite of Acceptance, but this is last year's Easter Vigil Candidates: Last year's newly baptized, former catechumens at the Easter Vigil This morning on the Solemnity of Christ our Universal King, we accepted our inquirers into the Order of Cathecumens (unbaptized) and Candidates, (baptized). We average every year about 30 candidates and this year is no different, we have 34 candidates.
Last year we had 17 to be baptized at the Eater Vigil, the most people I've ever baptized at the Vigil or any other time.
This year out of the 34 we only have three who are not baptized which will make the Easter Vigil a bit easier to celebrate logistically.
We began in the Social Hall at 9:15 PM with the candidates and their sponsors and others and welcomed them, accepted them and signed/blessed all their senses from head to feet!
At 9:30 AM we processed into Mass and after the homily we acknowledged them once again by name and gave them a cross to wear. We gave them the Catholic Bible earlier in the year.
Today we begin the dismissal after the homily where they go to the social hall to reflect more deeply on the readings of Mass and ask questions. This will continue through Palm Sunday.
I wasn't able to watch the Mass with Pope Benedict this morning in Benin, West Africa until the very end. After the blessing and dismissal the recessional song began with a soloist and a pianist leading the music and singing. It sounded to me like a French Folk Song, if there is such a thing and the pianist improvised on the music as the pianist progressed in an "American jazz" sort of way! I'm not kidding! Guess who else was singing? NO ONE! It was a solo performance by a soloist on a microphone in French for the recessional at an African Mass.
I would have thought that the Africans if given the opportunity to sing something of their culture at that time would have been heard on our side of the Atlantic! But no, the French colonial influence on them (from the 1960's evidently)took away what could have been a rather exuberant experience. I didn't see any other aspect of the Mass, so it might have been more African than French 1960's Colonial than what the recessional was.
But it just confirms what I already know from my Georgian experience of being a priest for over 31 years. When contemporary music is sung or led, the only ones actually singing are the soloists and their cohort and everyone else is just idly listening. No one participates except interiorly; but most of this stuff is not for contemplation!
What is your experience with contemporary music or folk music and folk groups that lead it during Mass--is it music that people embrace and sing well or simply tune in?
I know in our traditional hymn and music parts of the Mass, people seem more engaged and sing what is sung. Am I wrong?
JUST REMEMBER FOLKS: YOU READ IT HERE FIRST! THE NUMBER ONE NAME IN CLAIRVOYANCE AND BREAKING NEWS--BUT MAYBE NOT! As you know I am clairvoyant, but maybe I'm not. Yesterday while studying the Corrected English translation of the new Roman Missal, I discovered something that really puzzled me.
The new missal for the Nuptial Mass states in the rubrics that the Penitential Act is omitted but the Gloria is said or sung. That is new! Normally for Nuptial Masses, the penitential rite is said or the rite of sprinkling can be used as an option with that rite's absolution. Normally, the Gloria is not said or sung because it was never clear in the rubrics that it should be. That has now been very much clarified.
But what is so bizarre is that the Penitential Act is omitted. How do you get from the greeting to the Gloria when there is not an intermediate rite, either penitential or sprinkling? There are no words given in the missal to do this which means that the revised "Rite of Marriage" has the words but this revision has not been leaked and there is no date for it to be released and implemented. We just know that it will be or is being revised.
Now this is where I start putting two and two together. As you know I'm clairvoyant but maybe I'm not so keep that in mind as I explain the following!
The Marriage Rite is being revised. This is fact, not clairvoyance on my part. No one has seen any revision, but the order of the Nuptial Mass or the Nuptials outside of Mass is being revised and has been in process supposedly for years. But evidently it is top secret since I've seen no interest in leaking anything that is being redesigned. So much for transparency, so thank God for my charism of clairvoyance!
So this is my take on the peculiar directive in the new Missal as it concerns the omission of the Penitential Act but the saying or singing of the Gloria and this is really a clairvoyant moment for me and putting two and two together:
The actual exchange of vows, blessing of rings and exchange of rings will occur after the greeting of the Nuptial Mass! Then the Gloria will be sung! So starting with the Gloria of the Nuptial Mass, the couple will already be married and they will together sing or say the Gloria and listen to the Word of God and the homily as husband and wife, something that is sorely lacking in the current form of the Nuptial Mass where the marriage vows don't take place until after the homily. So they are not married until after the Liturgy of the Word. How odd!
Keep in mind that the Extraordinary Form of the Nuptial Mass has the "Rite of Marriage" as a prelude to it, as a distinct ceremony, just like the Rite of Sprinkling Holy Water in the EF is a prelude not integral to the actual Mass. The revision of the Rite of Sprinkling in the OF Mass incorporates it into the Mass in place of the Penitential Act. So this is what I predict is going to happen with the Nuptial Mass, the Rite of Marriage will be incorporated into the Nuptial Mass, but now in place of the Penitential Act and not after the homily! Thus we have the hermeneutic of reform within continuity!
The other thing that makes me think this apart from my supposed clairvoyance is that in the Funeral Mass, the rite of welcoming the deceased and the family, sprinkling the coffin and covering it with the pall and any other options at that time, replaces the Penitential Act. Of course the Gloria is never said or sung in a Mass of the Dead, so after the priest reaches the altar and goes to his chair, he simply says or chants the Opening Collect.
I'm also predicting that this same order will be in the Rite of Marriage outside of Mass. You will have the opening greeting, exchange of vows and rings and opening Collect. Then you'll have the Liturgy of the Word, homily and conclude with the Intercessions, Nuptial Blessing, Lord's Prayer and Final Blessing/Dismissal. But keep in mind, maybe not!
My comments first: In the article from The Associated Press below the video, can you detect any slams? But apart from that please reflect on the last sentence of the article said by a West African priest: "Catholicism is a much more flexible religion now than it once was. The church shouldn't try to chase away African culture," he said. "What it needs to do is act like a sieve, and remove only the things that don't help human beings evolve." In antiquity when the Church following the example of Saint Paul tried to incorporate the culture of the pagan world into various aspects of the Church, did not the Church "act like a sieve, and remove only the things that don't help human beings evolve?" For example, the Church's celebration of Christmas, taking on many of the pagan antecedents of this celebration, like light, fir trees and even the date of Christmas, not to mention Easter and its pagan antecedents. The Church does not prohibit Easter Bunnies, Easter eggs and the like but even gives a Catholic meaning of the resurrection to these pagan symbols of fertility and new life. How does this differ with cyncretism?
Pope in Western Africa to Outline Church's Future By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 18, 2011 at 4:27 PM ET
COTONOU, Benin (AP) — Women wearing dresses bearing Pope Benedict XVI's portrait tried to climb flagpoles to catch a glimpse of him as he arrived Friday on his second trip to Africa, while security struggled to hold back African nuns trying to reach their hands over the security cordon to touch him.
Africa, where the 84-year-old pope is returning for the first time since his controversial comments on condoms two years ago, is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church. Its rapidly growing congregations and pool of aspiring priests are helping breathe life into a church which has seen a steep decline in the Western Hemisphere.
Several hundred women lined the tarmac awaiting his arrival, each one wearing a traditional block-print dress decorated with his face. Catholics carrying umbrellas printed with a silhouette of the pontiff lined the highway. Even the female anchors presenting the newscast on local television stations traded their usual wardrobe for outfits printed with the pope's likeness.
Benedict's trip is centered on the release of a document which articulates the role of the church in Africa, and which attempts to use the church doctrine of forgiveness to address the continent's chronic wars. It is meant to serve as a pastoral guide for Africa and includes some of the ideas he first touched on in his 2009 trip to Cameroon and Angola.
His message was derailed before his plane even landed, after he told reporters on the flight that condom distribution was worsening the problem of AIDS, setting off a storm of criticism.
This time, reporters traveling with the pope were instructed to submit written questions before the trip, and during the in-flight news conference, the pope steered clear of the touchy issue.
The 87-page document is the pontiff's position paper on a continent that is now seen as central to the church's future, but which also presents a challenge to the conscience of Christians worldwide because of the concentration of human suffering. Among the religious tools he is proposing is a "sacrament of reconciliation" which will use individual and collective acts of forgiveness as a way to try to resolve the region's cycle of violence.
After emerging from the plane, the pope grasped the handrails and slowly descended, his face turned downward against the blazing sun. He took slow steps along the red carpet flanked by Benin's lanky president, who slowed his gait so as not to overtake the pope. When Benedict neared the platform set up for him on the tarmac, an aide rushed to hold back the skirt of his robe so that he didn't trip.
"May this document fall into the ground and take root, grow and bear much fruit," the pope said when he took the microphone, referring to the text which he will sign at a ceremony this weekend.
In preparation for the pope's arrival, parishes throughout the country have tried to impart the principle of reconciliation, using creative techniques to reach the nearly two-thirds of Benin's population of 9 million that cannot read. The capital's seven choirs, for example, were asked to compose songs in local languages to explain through music the importance of getting past ethnic divisions.
At the cathedral, 9-year-old Mael Dossou waited for the pope alongside other pupils from one of the city's Catholic schools. He said his teacher had asked them to look no further than the playground to apply the pope's message.
"For example, there's my friend Muriel," Mael said. "We were horsing around and she insulted me. And I insulted her. From then on, we stopped being friends. But because the pope is coming, I went to her and I asked her to please forgive me. And she did, and now we're friends again."
The pope arrived at the cathedral encased inside the bulletproof glass of the popemobile. Nuns in white habits ululated as the car pulled in, and a frisson went across the hundreds of people gathered in the cathedral's courtyard.
Benedict, who recently started using a moving platform to get down the long aisle of St. Peter's Basilica, entered the cathedral and inched his way down the aisle. In its nave, he kneeled, closed his eyes and prayed for Africa.
"Our Lady of Africa," he said in French. "Fill the hearts of those who thirst for justice, for peace, for reconciliation."
Among the messages he is bringing to the faithful is that they do not need to eradicate their culture to be good Catholics. Based in part on the recommendations of the 2009 synod on Africa, the pope is expected to encourage the in-depth study of local customs, especially rituals used to resolve disputes in a region that has seen Rwanda emerge from genocide, creating neighborhoods where victims live side-by-side with those that murdered their families.
Priests who have traveled from neighboring countries to see the pope say the idea of looking to African traditions shows the Catholic faith has become more supple since colonial times, when becoming Christian meant turning your back on indigenous rites.
Among Cameroon's Bassa people, for example, if a man beats his wife and she returns to her parents' home, the husband can only get her back if he comes with plates of food and negotiates a cash amount to be paid to her kin in reparation, says Cameroonian priest Rev. Jean Benoit Nlend.
"In my seminary, we went around the table and talked about the types of rituals our ancestors performed to fix problems that arose in the society. If you try to destroy these things, you render the people fragile. You take away their moral coordinates," said Nlend, an editor at Cameroon's Episcopalian publication.
"Catholicism is a much more flexible religion now than it once was. The church shouldn't try to chase away African culture," he said. "What it needs to do is act like a sieve, and remove only the things that don't help human beings evolve."
___
Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
As you know, I am clairvoyant but maybe not. For years I have wondered what the Crystal Cathedral would look like if the Rev. Dr. Shuller would allow a traditional Catholic Mass to be celebrated in his Crystal Cathedral. I've always been fascinated by the building but have never seen it in person, only on television's Hour of Power! My clairvoyant charism did not ever lead me to think that the Catholic Diocese of Orange, California would actually buy it from Dr. Shuller and turn it into a Cathedral, but buy it they did! Wow! I can only imagine what it will look like when it is given a Catholic liturgical identity. There are so many ultra-modern Catholic Cathedrals in California that I can't wait to see! No kidding, I like truly artistic modern buildings. This baptismal font is to die for, I hope it stays!
It is purely coincidental that this modern Ultramontane art piece resembles the Krystal Katholic Kathedral above--it must have been a premonition of what I would post later in the day above! The Holy Father has been modeling for pastors the way the Mass of Pope Paul VI should be celebrated. When you hear Rome speaking of "pastors" you shouldn't be seeing in your mind's eye, Father McDonald or any other "pastor" or "priest" of the Catholic Church. You should be seeing "Bishop" for the word "pastor" when Rome refers to "pastors."
What you have not seen Pope Benedict XVI modeling for anyone is the Extraordinary Form of the Mass for the Holy Father knows that the Ordinary Form of the Mass is precisely that, the Ordinary, normal form of the Mass and as valid and truthful as any Mass in the Catholic Church both in the East and in the West.
What do we see the Holy Father modeling? I would suggest not only viewing his "modeling" at the Vatican, but on his trips/pilgrimages outside of the Vatican to ordinary parish churches in Rome and his visits abroad. I will be very interested in photos of his African Masses in Benin, West Africa.
But let's look at Papal Liturgies at Saint Peters. The Mass is as dignified as you can have and it is the Ordinary Form of the Mass. There is the use of Lay Lectors both male and female for the Scriptures as well as readers, and multiples of them, for the Universal Prayers (General Intercessions).
The Mass when the Holy Father travels is always facing the people but with the so-called "Benedictine" altar arrangement.
The music is diverse. I watched the Holy Father celebrate Mass about two years ago in a rather small parish at the outskirts of Rome. It looked and sounded like many parish Masses around the world except it was in Italian. But there was a "contemporary music group" to the left of the altar which included guitars. There were altar girls as well as altar boys. Believe me, if the pope did not want altar girls at one of his Masses, his MC would have made sure there were none just as he makes sure that the altar does have the Benedictine arrangement.
For those who are more rigid in how the Mass should be celebrated or who would prefer only the EF Mass, I say that is your right; but you also have to live in the real world of the Church just as the Holy Father does and has done so gracefully over the years.
I think one of the greatest problems with the reform of the Mass apart from the very poorly accomplished English translation that went above and beyond "equivalency" is music. Can you detect the opposing theologies in this video not just in translation of words, but in translation of music?
I didn't know Larry King was taught "Coloring Book Catholicism." I prefer cartoon/lampoon Catholicism. the sad thing is that the Larry King character really exists amongst people his age in the Church and younger too. If you go to some of the more progressive blogs and read comments posted to various blog postings, they sound like the caricature of Larry King below--amazing!
The President's Double Standard? President Barack Obama says the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State has an important message for institutions far beyond college sports: that protecting children is more important than shielding institutions.
Apart from institutions reporting crimes, cleaning house and having their pants sued off, I wonder which institution is held to a different standard of accountability as it concerns litigious action, sometimes for cases going back 50 and 60 years if not more? Is it the Executive Branch of Government? No! Is it the Legislative Branch of Government? No! Is it the Judicial Branch of Government? No! Is it public schools and teachers' unions? No! Is it law enforcement? No! Is it the Roman Catholic Church? Yes!
A few blogs back when I was making comparisons with how the Church has handled its sex abuses scandal and crisis and how Penn State has handled it, I wrote the following:
But the bottom line is that if anyone knows for sure that a cleric is abusing a child and is an eye witness to it, like the case at Penn State, the first course of action is to call the police. I think that is the lesson learned. Don't deal with it in house first. Call the police.
But then is there a scandal just waiting to be reported concerning the police, lawyers, judges and the like? Will the press expose that corruption too?
And now we read:
A Penn State assistant football coach, who has been criticized for not doing more in an alleged rape of a boy by former coach Jerry Sandusky, said in an e-mail that he helped stop the assault and talked with police about it.
"I did stop it, not physically, but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room," assistant coach Mike McQueary wrote in the November 8 e-mail to a former classmate obtained by the Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper.
"No one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds," McQueary said. "Trust me."
McQueary also wrote that he "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police" following the alleged incident involving Sandusky.
The information is the first to indicate he had discussions with police.
If what assistant coach Mike McQueary says is true, why would Joe Paterno have to go to the police too? One would think if he thought McQueary did, all that Joe would have to do is to tell college officials which he did.
But the greater question is, "will the press investigate the police" in this situation and around the country and go back 50 and 60 years in all precincts throughout the USA and demand heads roll, pay out be made and the like? Can an ordinary citizen-victim sue the police, the state or the government or is that just for Church institutions, the boys scouts and the like?
What about suing congress and going back 50 and 60 years?
On July 14, 1983 the House Ethics Committee recommended that Rep. Dan Crane (R-IL) and Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) be reprimanded for having engaged in sexual relationships with minors, specifically 17-year-old congressional pages.[1] Washington, D.C., law specifies an age of consent of 16, meaning that the relationships were legal;[2] however the committee felt "any sexual relationship between a member of the House of Representatives and a congressional page, or any sexual advance by a member to a page, represents a serious breach of duty." The Congressional Report found that in 1980, a year after entering office, Crane had sex four or five times at his suburban apartment with a female page and in 1973, the year he entered office, Studds invited a male page, who testified he felt no ill will towards Studds, to his Georgetown apartment and later on a two-week trip to Portugal. Both representatives admitted to the charges.[3]
Barney Frank - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to present. Admitted to having paid teenager Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex and subsequently hiring Gobie as his personal assistant. Gobie used the congressman's Washington apartment for prostitution. A move to expel Frank from the House of Representatives failed and a motion to censure him failed.
Yes, let's hold institutions accountable and protect kids and teenagers.
Oh, and what about President Clinton and his abuse of a White House intern? She wasn't a teenager, but she was an intern. Can the White House be sued? No!
Macon's Karla Redding-Andrews, daughter of late, great Otis Redding of Macon will chair the Capital Campaign to raise funds for De Paul, USA's DAYBREAK in downtown Macon. The director is St. Joseph's Sister Elizabeth Griem, a Daughter of Charity.
The amazing aspect of Sister Elizabeth's work is the coalition of downtown churches and synagogues to facilitate this ministry to the homeless during daylight hours.
DePaul USA underscored the importance of this ministry for them in Macon by inviting the head of De Paul International from London to be present for yesterday's kick off of Daybreak's capital campaign.
It seems to me that most people who are Catholic are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives. They are looking for community, the knowledge of right and wrong and they are looking for affirmation, love and forgiveness. I would hope too they are looking for the way to eternal life which can only be found in Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.
Some Catholics want a deep spiritual awareness of the Real Presence of Christ in the Church, in the Sacraments and in their lives.
But some Catholics get side tracked by peripheral affairs. When we get preoccupied by the sins of commission and omission of other Catholics then we can become sidetracked.
If we get too involved in the politics of the Church, the intrigue of the different factions in the Church, we can really go astray and live in the hothouse of controversy and opinion which is no different than the secular counterparts of various organizations.
WHY ARE YOU CATHOLIC AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM YOUR FAITH AND YOUR PARISH?
For the past three years, as a part of our Catholic Stewardship Renewal of Time, Talent and Treasure, our parish has produced these videos. In 2009 the theme was Prayer; in 2010 the theme was Christian Formation; this year's theme is Christian Service; and next year's theme will be Christian Hospitality. These are the four pillars of Catholic Stewardship.
This video is being shown at all our Masses on our giant "jumbotron" this weekend, November 12/13. It was produced by Mr. Stacey Lumley:
This one was produced by Mr. Lovel Miguel and its theme is Christian Education shown at all Masses in 2010:
My comments first:As a Catholic growing up in the Bible Belt and with Southern Baptists and Presbyterians in particular, I certainly have been influenced by Calvinism. It's part of the southern culture of religion and you almost breathe it in. There are some aspects of it I like that appeal to the Jansenism that many Irish-American Catholics were dished by a predominantly Irish Church in America. But what really intrigued me was "Once saved, always saved." That would reduce a great deal of Catholic anxiety about salvation if only it were true. But is it? I fret so much! But Carol's comment on the Four Last Things and Pinanv525 response to hers I find fascinating. PINANV525 is a former Presbyterian Minister and member of St. Joseph Church in Macon now.
Carol H. said...
When I lived in Dayton, Ohio, my parish priest said that if anyone truly understood how horrible the effects of their sins were, they would never commit any. He then went on to say that this proves our ignorance and therefore mortal sin is impossible. Nobody commits mortal sin, so everyone will go to heaven.
He then began a building renovation campaign, removed the tabernacle from front and center and hid it behind a glass block wall, and removed the pews-replacing them with interlocking chairs. He said the church should resemble a tea-house, and feel empty when no people are inside. He told us that we were no longer allowed to kneel for the consecration, and that we had to stand for all of the kneeling parts- even after receiving communion.
I thank God for EWTN because they educated me in the true faith. My family left that parish and found one that preached the truth.
Please pray for the ignorant victims who fall prey to false teaching, and also for the false teachers, that Christ shine his light upon them so they see their errors. Maybe if they receive this grace they, like St Paul, will spend the rest of their lives proclaiming the true gospel.
pinanv525 then said:
It is really only a short step,theologically, from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" to the neo-protestant "universal salvation" of Carol's misguided and heretical pastor. The protestant (and post Vat II for some Catholics) view of sin, embodied in its purest form in Calvin's doctrine of "Total Depravity," was intended to emphasize the overpowering triumph of Christ's Grace. The blacker and more hopeless our sinfulness, all the more marvelous is Christ's mercy. Only the terrible Sovereignty of a wrathful God is powerful enough, through the loving and redeeming Son, to save sinners in bondage to the power of evil. This, of course, leads to Calvin's doctrines of "Unconditional Salvation and Irresistible Grace;" God must do it all...we can do nothing because we are so mired in sin there is nothing left of God's Image in us.
There is no distinction, in Protestantism, between venial and mortal sin; theologically, stealing a piece of bubble gum is as much a stain on God's Holiness as murder. All sin, however small, is a violation of the Righteousness of God. So, the logic of such thinking leads, ultimately, to just the kind of mentality Carol is reacting to in her Priest...universalism. (Calvin, perhaps seeing this coming, could only avoid it with his misunderstood and extreme view of Predestination.) Interestingly, this theology of Universalism plays right into the hands of the secular, egalitarian mindset and is what has led to such things as trying to normalize homosexuality and gay marriage, defending abortion, cultural and moral "equivalence," and a hatred for authoritarianism and traditionalism in any form...especially something as outrageous as the EF and all it implies theologically.
This is a part of the reason I became a Catholic; the fruits of Protestantism are a clear indication of its error and continuing degeneration. We cannot allow this to happen in the Catholic Church...God will not allow it as long as we are faithful. Go to Confession! Go to Mass! Christ have mercy!
My comments first: The article from the UK's Guardian Newspaper below my comments shows the nonsensical silliness of liberal Catholic progressiveness and how they become an embarrassment to themselves as a caricature of 1970's Coloring Book Catholicism--also known as "Do It Yourself Catholicism", devoid of intellectual integrity. Catholic secularists want to take the God-given (Christ-given) authority of the pope and bishops and give it to the laity. Do you think that this demand, this small movement is about furthering the work of Christ, promoting divine teaching and leading people to heaven? No, for these secularists it is about "power" and "empowerment" and fomenting radical change in the Catholic Church--it is about refashioning Catholicism according to liberal secular politics and its agenda. It is a form of the anti-Christ described in the Catholic Epistles of the New Testament.
Most Catholics who are like the Catholic writer of the UK's Guardian Newspaper below who describes herself as a Catholic "hanging by her fingernails", who were schooled by radical nuns, priests and brothers of the coloring book Catholicism era of the 1970's. For Religious Women in particular their brand of Catholicism was wrestling power away from the old men of the Vatican and their henchmen the bishops--this is back in the 1970's and I heard it first hand and was taught it too! I'm so nostalgic! The language of "empowerment" and burning bras comes from the same period. Oh, to go back in time! It chills the chest.
What do these Catholic secularists really want with a democratic Catholic Church? They want what the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country has become--a caricature of 1970's Coloring Book Catholicism. Just what has the Episcopal Church become with its radical diversity approved by democratic procedures? It has become a Church that has moved from traditional, historic Christianity to a post-Christian conglomeration that is bleeding members and witness in a breath taking way.It accepts females in all branches of their "Holy Orders." It accepts contraception, abortion, same sex marriage, adultery, fornication and euthanasia. Does their "We Believe" sound an awful like modern godless secular politics and their "we believe"?
This "power crap of the people" applied to the Church is all about political secularism's agenda and reducing the Church's opposition to all that the secularists promote for our world today. They are today's version of the anti-Christ. Yes, there is a power struggle, a spiritual battle. But just who the hell has won the battle already? What's going on now is just a remnant of that well fought and won battle.
This is from a paper in England, The Guardian, a secular newspaper:
People power – a stranger at the Catholic church's door
Hear this, bishops and priests: Catholics' version of the Arab spring has started, and this week has seen important milestones
Joanna Moorhead guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 November 2011
People power is all around: think the Arab spring, the protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral (Anglican), the national outpouring of outrage over phone hacking and, before that, MPs' expenses. This week, popular democracy came crashing in on yet another institution in desperate need of reform – the Catholic church, which has been a bastion of power for one of the most tightly-knit, elderly male oligarchies of all time.
What has happened over the past few days might not have looked particularly dramatic, but it has shaken the powers that be in the Catholic church in this country to their core. And although ordinary people didn't seem to be in the vanguard in the same way they were in the Arab spring, they have played a key role.
What's happened is this: First, Lord Carlile's report into a Catholic school in west London, St Benedict's, has concluded that the monks who run it have been guilty of a "lengthy and cumulative failure" to protect the children in their care from abuse, and that the school's organisational structure lacks "independence, transparency, accountability and diversity, and is drawn from too narrow a group of people". It recommends that the Benedictine monks who set the school up should forfeit control of it, and two trusts are now being set up to remove "all power from the abbey". The new body, says Carlile, should have policies and procedures that are clearly understandable to outsiders, and should have monitoring safeguards in place.
Second, a high court judge has ruled that the church is responsible as an organisation for crimes committed by its priests. This follows a case in which a former resident of a Catholic children's home in Hampshire alleged that she was raped and assaulted by a priest. Lawyers for the diocese involved, who are arguing that the relationship between a priest and a bishop is different from a normal employee/employer situation, have said they will appeal.
That case is likely to drag on for some years (and will do the church no end of PR disaster along the way); but both it and the Carlile report have something important in common, which they share with other popular movements of recent times. It is this: ordinary people, long repressed and silent, but with great power when they do choose to act, have spoken out. If former pupils from St Benedict's School in Ealing had not come forward; if the woman from the children's home (and she is not alone; others are alleging similar abuse) had not spoken out, the changes we have seen this week would never have happened.
And they are enormously significant, because power sharing is an entirely novel concept for those at the top of the Catholic church. Transparent, Lord Carlile? Independent? Accountable? Diverse? Oh, dear me: the bishops may need some explanation as to the very meaning of these concepts. And as to the idea that policies and procedures should be put in place at St Benedict's that are understandable to outsiders: well, I imagine there are a few splutterings over breakfast cereal at bishops' residences around the Catholic dioceses of the country this week.
I have been a member of the Catholic church all my life (albeit, sometimes, hanging on by my fingernails); and for me, as for many other Catholics, the problem is that the men who control the church do not see democracy as containing any inherent value. As far as they are concerned, power isn't devolved from the people, it is imposed from above – from God himself. They believe in a God who makes his wishes known to a small and select group of individuals, individuals who happen to be exclusively male, and rather elderly.
I don't believe in that God any more, and I suspect and hope that many of my fellow Catholics feel the same. I don't believe in a God who would not merely allow, but actively want power to be concentrated in the hands of a tiny (male) minority, while the majority had to do as they were told until they discover that what they are being told has been shot through for decades and even centuries with lies, cover-ups, smokescreens and an inability to grasp nettles. I believe in a God whose truths and goodness are located, not in the minds and hearts of a small number of men, but in the minds and hearts of a large number of women and men who care about one another and the wider community and the church itself, and whose views have for too long been ignored.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and its untenable power structures won't be dismantled in one either. The Catholic church's Arab spring will take many years, probably decades, to achieve. But hear this, bishops and priests: our spring has started, and this week's developments were important milestones. And know this too: the church that will emerge from the ashes of the old guard will be better, and bigger, and kinder, and more honest; it will be transparent, and accountable, and independent, and diverse. But best of all, it will be more Christ-like, too.
This is only one rat, the size of a rabbit, that was killed in my rectory in September of 2010, the place that is my home and office and this one is only one of about 8 or more that we killed there! The story below comes out of Atlanta today and renews my post-traumatic rat STRESS syndrome with which I still suffer. I see rats and hear them when as people assure me, they aren't really there any more! Or are they? I almost put a sign outside the rectory saying:"RATS R US!" Giant rats invade Atlanta elementary school Associated Press Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 8:02 AM
ATLANTA — Authorities say an Atlanta elementary school has become infested with giant rats, prompting the principal to send a letter to parents alerting them of the situation.
Thomasville Heights Elementary Principal Charles Penn said the rodents have been a persistent problem, and the school system has hired an exterminator.
Teachers told WSB-TV that rats have left a foul smell in many of the classrooms, and that teachers have used yardsticks to bat them away in the middle of the school day.
Parent Sherrilyn Cullins said the rats are all over the school. Her daughter describes them as being the size of rabbits.
Death: Judgement: Heaven: Hell: For those school in the catehetics of coloring way back in the 1970's, '80's and even the 90's, more than likely cannot name the "Four Last Things." They were schooled in the happy face, happy-go-lucky Jesus who would never judge them or send them to hell. Even death had a happy face for these "Easter" people for it was the way to instant sainthood. To heck with black vestments and requiem Masses, we celebrate and with great joy "Resurrection" Masses and wear white and are happy and joyful. We even sing at "Resurrection" Masses, "Joyful, joyful..." and "Alleluia!" No one wants to feel bad at a funeral since instant sainthood through the Resurrection Mass's canonization is all about happy face Catholicism! I've read on some "catholic" blogs that if only the bishops would do this, or that and stop being an "all male, men's club" protecting their interests and forcing their authority on the rest of mankind, oops, I mean, peoplekind, that the world would be this smiley face, happy-go-lucky place that Vatican II ushered in until those godawful pre-Vatican II sad faced men wrestled back control of the church from the happy face theologians.
These happy faced theologians go so far as to insinuate or outright declare that the sex abuse scandal in the Church is all about the male hierarchy and thus exclusive to them. They even say that the method that has given us the corrected English translation of Mass is a part of a "monarchical" form of Catholicism that enables sex abuse and abuse of God's people! It must be toppled through grass roots movements similar to those who toppled the governments in Muslim nations. Such nonsense.
Of course they are dead wrong in their evaluations and "spirit" of Vatican II corrupted thinking. There is a woman Episcopal bishop in a very high place who is being questioned about something in her Church that she approved that sounds awfully male dominated to me!
Of course these happy face theologians fail to call on the carpet academic institutions that do the very same thing. In fact I would say that today, academics enjoy the privileges of being academics in a "clerical" way that makes the "clericalism" of priesthood look like small potatoes. And just to name one, can you spell "Penn State?"
Can you spell "public schools?" Can you spell the "nuclear family?" Can you spell "scouting?" Can you spell any institution where children are involved? Evidently, these smiley face catholic "theologians" must have been coloring through spelling!
So let's have a healthy dose of DEATH, JUDGEMENT, HEAVEN AND HELL!
Death is in the here and now and all of us will experience it, some happily so, others in the most grisly way possible! Macon, Georgia learned that this summer. Death is here and now.
Judgement is here and now too. Each time we go to confession, we are judged and called to die to sin and live for Christ. Christ judges us, our sincerity in repentance, offers us a punishment (penance) (since purgatory is here and now too) and then forgives and reconciles us to Himself and His Church, which is like heaven on earth when this happens sacramentally.
But also think about the Last Judgement for traces of it are being experienced on a more cosmic level also in the here and now. The sex abuse scandal in the Church, at Penn State, in public schools, scouting and yes in the nuclear family is being exposed in a way that would have be unthinkable even 40 years ago.
Isn't the Last Judgement meant to do the same thing, every thing will be exposed and all secrets revealed as well as all good deeds and not only will individuals be judged, but the world as a whole will be judged and all her institutions? It won't be a pretty picture either. Those who have done evil and have been unrepentant will go to hell forever with their resurrected bodies and those who have done good and repented in Christ will go to heaven with their resurrected bodies. You know what? That scares the hell out of me! I wonder how many "happy face" Catholics who were taught coloring book Catholicism know this? How do they make sense out the horrible scandals of sex abuse in the Church and elsewhere and its public exposure in the media?
Heaven of course begins in the here and now too. When God initiates us into His Church through Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion. When God heals us in the Sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick, when God shows us His spousal relationship with us in the Church, with us as the Bride of Christ and a part of His Glorified Body and He has our Bridegroom and Head. And heaven is on earth through the ministry of those men who receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders and continue the "ministry of Jesus Christ" in sacramental ways, especially at Holy Mass as the eternal event of the Sacrifice of the Cross that is re-presented in an unbloody way at every Mass and where Christ is truly and substantially present in the sacramental Food of Bread and Wine whereby when we receive Him worthily, He does not become a part of us, but He continues to make us a part of Him through His Body the Church which is also the His bride.
Heaven is on earth when we know God's unconditional love for us and His sanctifying grace through Holy Baptism and actual grace through other means enables us to love God in return with our entire being and our neighbor as ourselves.
Hell is in the here and now too, when we refuse God's gift of unconditional love, do not participate in the gift of grace given us nor make any attempt to unwrap it in our lives and we live in the opposite manner that Jesus teaches as revealed by the Magisterium of the the living Church, Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Hell is chasing God out of our lives and living as though He does not exist and being perfectly content with that--that's hell and that begins in the here and now and looms as a very real possibility for those content enough with this for an eternity!
But make no mistake about it, if someone is in hell, God has made no mistake in allowing them to be there for an eternity. They truly deserve it beyond a shadow of a doubt. But the good thing is that those in heaven, even those harmed horribly by those in hell, will nonetheless be fully reconciled to them and love them as God loves them although those in hell deservedly spend an eternity in hell. Those in hell don't love anyone including God and love that just perfectly. They love hell perfectly and are pleasured by being there as they were pleasured by their mortal sins and lifestyle here and now. Think about it!
Folks, this isn't coloring book Catholicism, but it is the truth of Catholicism. Do we fear the harsh aspects of our faith and the looming possibilities? This is the truth of the Last Judgement, not in coloring book, happy face style, but in powerful mosaic:
Now the press just might recognize that the horror of sex abuse against children and teenagers is not just a priest problem, it is a society problem that afflicts all institutions, public and private schools, scouts and sadly families.
The conspiracy to silence and cover-up is not just a Catholic problem but a universal phenomenon. Sex abuse within families and from family members, fathers, brothers, uncles and yes mothers, aunts and sisters to a lesser extent is quite common and unfortunately more common than we suspect as families have had a conspiracy to silence and cover-up too.
Do you wonder why? Because a mother who suspects her husband is abusing their children fears divorce and financial instability not to mention public scandal, arrest and prison time for her husband and maybe the removal of her children from the home. It is better to live in denial than to complicate the family's life by public humiliation. Of course who suffers the most here? It is the child being abused and who also fears telling anyone probably for the same reasons as the mother.
It is no secret that the bishops of the Catholic Church and worldwide have an abysmal record in handling sex abuse by clergy or even other bishops. They have exacerbated the scandal by covering it up, covering for each other and fearing what has come to pass through their flawed polices, public scandal, humiliation and the disintegration of their moral authority and accelerating godless secularism in the world which is also anti-religion. These "leaders" have fueled the fire of godless secularism worldwide by their secrecy and inaction with how they managed the sex abuse crisis in the Church.
Is Penn State the new role model for how to deal with the president (bishop), coaches, (priests) and other enablers? The Board of Trustees have taken decisive action. They have fired all the principle players in this scandal including just last night the iconic Joe Paterno and the well-like and very competent president of the university.
But just like the Catholic bishops who kept things silent to save face and avoid public scandal and humiliation (which in the long run exacerbated that 100 fold)the Board of Trustees was saving face in another way by their decisive action. It's all about saving face!
We live in a get-even, you're fired, divorce driven society. Is that the best way to go? To be honest, as it regards the Church, I am conflicted and I wonder if there isn't a better way to go that challenges revenge, litigiousness and the divorce mentality while at the same time recognizing the devastation sex abuse visits upon the young which remains with them a life time and the need for legitimate justice. But somehow Divine Mercy must also be in the equation.
The scandal at Penn State is very serious. What has happened in many Catholic Dioceses is more serious and more scandalous as abusers and enablers were Catholic bishops and priests who represent God, Divine Truth and moral/ethical certitude. For children abused by these people was like God abusing them. For the abusers it is better to have had a millstone tied around their neck...
The only perpetrators punished thus far in the Catholic Church and only because the National Catholic Reporter and then the secular media exposed it for what it was, in particular The Boston Globe, have been priests.
Only a small handful of bishops have been "fired." Many priests are now "defrocked" and serving prison time for their crimes. I know of no bishops in a similar situation due to this scandal.
I think it is too much for the pope to micro manage bishops, although there should be universal canon law to protect the innocent and to make clear what the procedure should be to seek justice in situations that we have experienced in the Church and Penn State is experiencing.
Is Penn State's secular model the answer?
Should the regions of bishops in various countries have a "Board of Trustees" that would meet to make decisions concerning the fate of incompetent bishops or bishops who have not acted as they should?
Should statutes of limitation be dropped retroactively? Should bishops be in prison?
I believe that statutes of limitations are in civil law precisely because in American Law due process must be observed and fair trials must be conducted. How can a fair trial be conducted when events of crimes occurred 30, 40 and 50 years ago, witness can't recall or are dead?
Policies in dioceses concerning the fate of priests in terms of sex abuse seem to be good today because the media forced bishops into developing these polices and there are boards to assist bishops in making decisions now and for the same reasons.
But the bottom line is that if anyone knows for sure that a cleric is abusing a child and is an eye witness to it, like the case at Penn State, the first course of action is to call the police. I think that is the lesson learned. Don't deal with it in house first. Call the police.
But then is there a scandal just waiting to be reported concerning the police, lawyers, judges and the like? Will the press expose that corruption too?
The Extraordinary Form of the Mass makes clear that we are miserable, grievous sinners. There is the Confiteor for the priest and another one for the laity during the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. There is the Lord have Mercy and another Confiteor in missals prior to 1962 before the laity's communion. There is the "Lamb of God" and "The Lord I am not Worthy" said three times right before Holy Communion.
The reformed Mass marginalized our grievous sinfulness by eliminating what was called "useless repetition." But was this repetition really useless? Maybe we need to revisit it.
At least the corrected English translation of the Mass has recaptured the Latin's original Confiteor with these "useless?" repetitions:
"...I have greatly sinned...Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!"
But also recall the words of the Easter Exultet:
"O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam that gained for us so great a Savior!" Divine Mercy is waiting for those who receive Jesus!
The press doesn't understand the scandal of forgiveness nor do godless secularists.
Do you detect the different theologies concerning the Mass and the acknowledgement of the grievous nature of our sinfulness in these two photos? Should the Church put on the "sack cloth and ashes" of the first photo and do away with the reform that has led to the diminution of the state of our grievous sinfulness in the eyes of so many Catholics?
(Below the picture, there are two links you can click to learn more.) When I was in the seminary in Baltimore, Maryland at St. Mary's Seminary and University between 1976 and 1980, I use to see these nuns around town. In fact I saw two of them by the Basilica in the 1970's where on November 1st just a few days ago they were received and acknowledged as a Roman Catholic Priory. They had been received into the Full Communion of the Church about two years ago.
I was familiar with Episcopal nuns as there is a small convent in Augusta, Georgia. I use to trespass on their property as a child and the nuns threatened us that they'd call the police for us trespassing!
Years later, like 30 or so, I became pastor of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta in 1991 and there was this Episcopal Nun who came to our Saturday Vigil Mass. In fact, she was the nun who 30 years earlier threatened my friends and me with being arrested as children for trespassing, (a bit of hyperbole). I thought she was still gunning for me all these years later.
Well to make a long story short, Sister Clare came into the Full Communion of the Church around 2003 I think as I received her. She lived to be 102 years old, so I think she was about 97 when I received her. However, her good Episcopal sisters allowed her to remain in the convent until her death as a Catholic Episcopal Nun. They all came to her funeral at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity which I celebrated.
But back to the Baltimore nuns, I can remember the Catholic sisters in Baltimore mocking these nuns as they never changed their habit or got rid of them for street clothes. Can you imagine this picture if they were all in short cropped hair and frumpy clothes? It just wouldn't make the same impression would it? It would make us sad! They have a wonderful convent/monastery/priory in Catonsville, Maryland a suburb of Baltimore. I think it is All Saints' Convent, thus the reason they were officially "Prioritized" (get the pun? he, he!) on All Saints Day. It was a cool place even as an Episcopal Convent. Read the story by pressing this sentence! ALL SAINTS SISTERS OF THE POOR, A ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF SISTERS FORMERLY EPISCOPAL!
The blurry deacon was preaching that Sunday. Can you guess what the Gospel of the day was and what the celebrant, whose name will go unmentioned, is wearing? Would this be done an an EF Mass, I ask in good fun of course?
St. Joseph's Extraordinary Mass for All Souls made an international blog, I think, from Spain. If you read Spanish well, can you tell me where this blog originates?
Then scroll down and you'll see yours truly and the servers for the EF All Souls' Mass and then click Southern Orders under the picture and then you are back to my blog for the posting of pictures of our All Souls' Mass.
