What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

The American Papist has been keeping and undated list of US Bishops who have issued statements about remarks made by Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Meet The Press. 

Speaker Pelosi effectively said that the Church does say when human life begins and, even if we knew, it shouldn’t make a difference in the free choice of abortion.

We need some unity amongst bloggers to keep us all up to date on what is going on.  We need to educate people about the issues.

Speaker Pelosi made scandalous statements on a grand scale, on one of the most important TV interview programs in the world.  The consequences must be public.

Here is the complete list of American bishops who have responded to Nancy Pelosi’s comments so far:

   1.      Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver was the first American bishop to respond
   2.      Bishop James Conley, his auxiliary, joined him
   3.      Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington DC responded twice, first in a press release and second in a statement to The Hill. He has also appeared on Fox News, I am told.
   4.      Cardinal Justin Regali of Philadelphia, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued this statement through the USCCB website…
   5.      Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, joined him
   6.      Cardinal Edward Egan of New York publised a strongly worded statement of his own
   7.      Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo issued a letter correcting Pelosi’s claims
   8.      Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh
   9.      Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs have chimed-in
  10.      Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio, CNA reports has added his voice …
  11.     Bishop Oscar Cantu, his auxiliary bishop, has joined him
  12.      Bishop William Murphy of Rockville has published an extensive letter
  13.      Bishop Edward Slatter of Tulsa adds himself to the list
  14.      Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas has joined the USCCB’s efforts
  15.      Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin is on-board
  16.      Bishop James Slattery of Tulsa has a detailed response
  17.      Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston mentions the USCCB on his blog
  18.      Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando has written at length
  19.      Archbishop John Nienstedt of Saint Paul/Minneapolis challenges Pelosi’s statement
  20.      Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, President of the US Bishops, has weighed-in
  21.      Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, OR publishes in the Catholic Sentinel
  22.      Bishop Jerome Listecki of La Crosse, WI responds in a word document
  23.      Bishop Joseph Gossman of Raleigh, N C responds to the misrepresentation
  24.      Bishop Richard Lennon of Cleveland, OH will comment in his September 5th column (PDF)
  25.      Bishop Ralph Nickless of Sioux City, IA has one of the very best responses I’ve read
  26.      Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco has invited Pelosi to a "conversation"

I am getting strange and even hysterical e-mail from quite a few people about VP candidate Sarah Palin being an "apostate Catholic". 

"BUT FATHER! BUT FATHERFATHERFATHER! WHY aren’t YOU paying ATTENTION to THIS???!?".

Some e-mail is reasonable and mature.  Some includes lots of SHOUTING and UNDERLINING. 

Tip for the future:  If you write e-mail like that to me, I delete it, mostly unread.

However, about Sarah Palin as "apostate", ...

To my knowledge Gov. Palin was baptized in the Catholic Church, but her parents left the Catholic Church for some Protestant sect when she was around 12 years old.

I don’t hold twelve-year-old children accountable for the actions of their parents.

Would that be even slightly rational?

I understand she attends a non-denominational Christian church of some sort.

"Apostasy" is accomplished by a formal act, not by being taken away from the Church as a child and then growing up in a Christian sect. 

I wish she were a Catholic!  I wish everyone were Catholic!  But she’s not, and it seems not to be her fault.

Some who are Catholic really aren’t… and in the case of some politicians that is their fault.

Until it is revealed that Gov. Palin has made some sort of formal act of apostasy from the Catholic Church or done something anti-Catholic, I think you ought to breathe deeply and regularly, trying breathing into a paper bag, and maintain some control.

And stop shouting at me about it. 

Following on various entries concerning ad orientem worship, and my request that people post their experiences of Holy Mass celebrated ad orientem.... Fr. John Trigilio now posts this, about implementing ad orientem worship in his parish.

My emphases and comments.

Tonight was the maiden voyage, so to speak, and the comments after Mass were overwhelmingly POSITIVE. In fact, not one complaint and only compliments on the REVERENCE of the Mass, which is accentuated, I believe, by celebrating AD ORIENTEM. I also preached on PROPER FRATERNAL CORRECTION which means people MUST speak to me PRIVATELY IN PERSON if they have any complaints, problems, questions or issues we can discuss them confidentially and charitably. I told them if they choose to whisper behind people’s backs and gossip, then they need to go to confession. Gossip is a sin and the Catechism spells out three bad fruits of gossip: rash judgment, calumny (slander) and detraction. Too many of my colleagues are afraid of celebrating AD ORIENTEM because of gossip and the infamous rumor mill. [I suppose that is true in many cases.]  Best to be out in the open with the people and they with their pastor. I told my people I am more than happy to explain the liturgical and theological reasons for what we do as Roman Catholics, including all legitimate options. BTW, people loved the analogy of the airplane pilot and the bus driver. [Good tip for for priests.] Are they turning their backs on the passengers OR are they facing the same direction as everyone else in the hope of arriving at the same destination?

Thank you Fr. Trigilio for your confident work to deepen the participation of your people at Holy Mass.  You are playing your part in the Benedictine "Marshall Plan".

UPDATE:

This is from Fr. Trigilio’s site The Black Biretta

FROM THE PASTOR:

Another aspect of our human life is the work we do in sacred worship. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is also called the Sacred Liturgy. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has set the stage for a renewal and renaissance of Catholic worship. This was the intention and objective of the Council Fathers at Vatican II. As mentioned before, we will be learning and using some Latin for common parts of the Mass on one weekend a month. The first Sunday (and evening before) in Marysville and the last Sunday (and evening before) in Duncannon, we will be using the Kyrie (Greek: Lord Have Mercy), Gloria (Latin: Glory to God), Sanctus (Latin: Holy, Holy), Pater Noster (Latin: Our Father), and Agnus Dei (Latin: Lamb of God). They are found in #862-869 of the large Music Issue of Today’s Missal. ‘Catholic’ comes from the Greek word katholikos which means ‘universal’ One obvious and poignant way to demonstrate the universality of our chur