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

On the site of the ultra-liberal dissenting NCR Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB shared her precious insights on the text of the Holy Father’s encyclical, about which she can know really very little.

I won’t tire you with the whole sad thing, but this little blurb you should read.

... [E]arly reports indicate that the pope’s upcoming encyclical, Veritas in Caritate (“Charity in Truth,”), [what the… ?!?] clearly argues that the defense of the poor and the defense of unborn life are "necessarily linked."

Which leaves us in a quandary. Is the attempt by some to ostracize those who seek alternative approaches to the subject of abortion really the most effective—and the most moral position—a Catholic can take? By ignoring—and so minimizing—all other social justice issues, can we possibly consider ourselves sufficiently grounded in a Catholic vision of the world, even in regard to our commitment to this one?

She doesn’t even get the name of the encyclical right.  And even if it were entitled Veritas in caritate that wouldn’t be translated "Charity in truth". 

But she knows what the unpublished encyclical says. 

Trust her! She knows.

Read what she wrote in the context of President Obama’s attempts to jam through universal abortion through the present UN meeting.

UPDATE 2235 GMT:

It is sure that Sr. Chittister and those of her school – alas a school involving very little Latin  – are going to claim that His Holiness’ reception of Pres. Obama will amount His Holiness’ approval of Pres. Obama’s agenda.

Upon these we are pleased to bestow the new WDTPRS "Idi Amin Dada" Award, inaugurated in honor of the 10 September 1975 visit of this famous head of state to Pope Paul VI.   The president kept the Pope waiting and the Pope did not bestow upon Idi Amin Dada the honor of a doctorate in law.

Sister should feel free to capture the graphic and put it on her own blog.

From a reader:

I’m sure this has been discussed to death (as has holding hands during the Our Father, whether it should be done or not, etc) but I was wondering about reverence for the Mass.  Or even reverence before, during and even after the Mass.

I’m in my mid 40’s so was very familiar, and was even comfortable, with the new Masses of my youth, the music, etc. Maybe it was the Church’s way of welcoming or bringing back the youth, I don’t know. But now I believe that something was lost along the way. 

I read that Catholics younger than me are thirsting for more, wanting and seeking the reverence that they do not find in some of their parishes. I seek that too.

One Sunday, whilst waiting for Mass to begin, there was casual chit-chat behind my husband and I, and voices in other places, that I felt as if we were waiting for a show to begin.  What was missing was the crunching of popcorn and peanuts in the pews. My husband described is as "cacophony" and I was later surprised to read online that there were others who described it that way too.

I understand that sometimes people need to talk in hushed whispers or that the choir needs to practice. But why is there still conversation going on while the other parishioners are saying the rosary? My husband sits in his seat with his eyes closed. That is how he prays in the church. I remain quiet in my seat. And yet one parishioner goes over to the seat behind my husband, where her friend is seated, and they have a conversation. And not in hushed tones, either. My husband later said that there was no respect. If it were the Pope seated there, surely they wouldn’t do that. I had to agree with him.  [But they do so in the presence of the tabernacle and… their fellow worshipers.]

I  have never attended a Latin mass and I don’t think there are any around here. I enjoy our Masses but it’s disturbing as well as frustrating when a priest exerts his own personality upon the mass and turns it into a show of sorts.  There was a visiting priest who said a few masses several Sundays in a row. He was very respectful during the consecration but was otherwise "entertaining". I know we are not supposed to judge but I also suppose that is precisely what I am doing right now.

How to deal with this, Father, on a regular basis, when there are others who insist on talking and carrying on whilst waiting for the Mass to be performed. It is not always that way but it does depend on the priest, I have to admit, not only the congregation.

Unlike me, my husband doesn’t care what others think of him, but I do sometimes wonder if there are other parishioners who think that we are too quiet in church. But then, are we not supposed to be quiet and prayerful in church?  I miss that. I used to love sitting quietly in church by myself (when churches used to be opened during the day and before they had adoration rooms). It’s not that way anymore.

Here are a few thoughts. 

I believe that over the last decades there has been a dissolution of our Catholic identity and our Catholic worship.  They are inextricable, the one from the other.  When we changed our forms of prayer, the design and decoration of our sacred spaces, and the manner of the prayer – so much in the hands of priests – we slowly but surely have been forgetting who we are in church, who others are in church, who we come to find in church. 

Our Holy Father in his letter Sacramentum caritatis addressed the issue of the manner and style of liturgical celebration, especially in reference to the priest celebrant.  The ars celebrandi or "art of celebrating" is of critical importance.  The foundation of a sound ars celebrandi must rest on the priest getting himself out of the way of the words and actions of the true Actor during our worship: Christ the High Priest.  We must carefully follow our texts and rubrics and get ourselves out of the way so that what Christ desires to give us through the ministry of Holy Church will ring clear and true.

Our sacred spaces must ring clearly only with what is sacred.  Our texts and music must be oriented to God.  But just as important is what does not ring at all: silence.  Worship must must must include silence.  We are busy creatures, easily distracted, with many cares. We depend for our proper attitude of participation in worship – our active receptivity to what the Priest is offering  – on the proper environment, before, during and after.  We need silence for the sake of our immediate disposition for our receptivity. 

 

We are culturally bound, to a certain extent.  We are people of our era and our environment.  But surely it is incumbent on the priest to help his flock to the very best sort of active participation in our worship even if what he proposes – imposes – is counter-cultural.  Even if he must strive to break bad habits, it is his duty to see to it that his flock benefit as much as possible from what the Church is offering.

A good story from Stella Borealis, a blog which focuses on matters churchy in my native place and surrounding territories.

This tells the tale of one of the most amazing used book stores I know and a certain (present Archbishop of St. Louis):

Archbishop Carlson Saved Loome Theological Booksellers in Stillwater (long ago) .

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson once saved Loome Theological Booksellers [the world’s largest used book store dealing in books on religious subjects and theology] from the "out with the old, in with the new" spirit of Vatican II hardliners in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis.

Before he was Archbishop of St. Louis, before he was Bishop of Saginaw, before he was Bishop of Sioux Falls, and before he was the Auxiliary Bishop of St. Paul/Minneapolis, he was the Chancellor for the Archdiocese. Before Loome Theological Booksellers was the largest theological bookstore in the world, it was not. The following story was recounted to me by Dr. Loome just last week (some embellishments of suspense and style were added by me – but most of the story is true).

In those dark days Dr. Loome received a tip from a certain Dr. Briel at the University of St. Thomas that an edict had gone out from the chancery that seminarians were not to patronize Loome Theological Booksellers. St. John Vianney seminary was told that Loome Theological Booksellers was "out of bounds" because it sold "retrograde, conservative" books. It was then that they started coming at night, the seminarians that is. After hours the Loome family (who lived in the bookstore at the time or rather the bookstore was part of their house) would hear furtive knocks on their door and open the door a crack to let in the disobedient seminarians. The seminarians seemed to know that the books in Loome Theological Booksellers were necessary for their education. [I can solemnly attest that those were very bad days for seminarians of any true Catholic faith.  There were many casualties and expulsions for offenses such as "having a driving need to know the truth" or having such dangerous religous objects as a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in one’s room.  Seminarians had to pretty much sneak out to gather on Tuesday evenings at St. Agnes rectory, sometimes referred to in code.  But I digress.]

Although the furtive visits were exciting for Dr. Loome and his wife Karen they decided that the damage to the store’s reputation by this edict needed to be addressed. Dr. Loome soon made the call to the chancery and who happened to answer the phone, but our hero, Chancellor Carlson himself! Dr. Loome asked him why the edict had been issued against his bookstore. Chancellor Carlson paused . . . and said as delicately as he could, "no such edict has been issued". As Dr. Loome struggled to understand his meaning, Carlson further explained that no such edict had been issued by him and therefore no such edict had effect. Later, Dr. Loome learned that the Assistant Chancellor had been the one to issue the edict.

Chancellor Carlson, recognizing the great good of Loome Theological Booksellers, came up with a plan to save the bookstore’s reputation. He asked Dr. Loome, "Has your business been blessed yet?"  [Shopkeepers, are you paying attention?] Dr. Loome began to smile and said, "No it has not". Chancellor Carlson then made plans to bless Loome Theological Booksellers and invited the local diocesan newspaper to the event. In no time at all the reputation of Loome Theological Booksellers was rightly corrected and seminarians soon could come in plain clothes during the day. That’s how Carlson saved Loome Theological Booksellers and thwarted the schemes of the "out with the old, in with the new" spirit of Vatican II hardliners.

Back in the day I must have paid Loome’s rent several times over and some of my acqusitions are still near to hand and used with frequency today.

Back in the day, back in the day … those were bad days for Catholic seminarians …

UPDATE 4 July 1630 GMT:

In a comment, below, the present rector of St. John Vianney Seminary, Fr. Wm. Baer, chimes in.  Be sure to read his comment.

 

 

Excellent news for Philadelphians:

Starting October 25, 2009 St. Paul Church in South Philadelphia, PA. will offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form,  a Missa Cantata, every Sunday at Noon. 

Father Gerald P. Carey, pastor of St. Paul’s,  made the surprise announcement on Sunday June 28th at a Mass in the Extraordinary Form,  which he celebrated in anticipation of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.  

St. Paul’s is located in the Italian Market area of Philadelphia at 10th and Christian Streets (telephone 215-923-0355) and parking is available directly across from the church, which is also easily accessed by public transportation. 

Our friends at Rorate have an excerpt of an interview His Eminence Dario Card. Castrillon Hoyos, Pres. of the PCED, gave to El Tiempo.

Here is … well… an excerpt of the excerpt…

We enter in medias res when the Cardinal mentions that on stepping down from his post he is pleased with the projects he set for himself.

And what projects were these?

In Ecclesia Dei, I set three goals for myself, and I could accomplish them. First, that all priests of the world could be able to celebrate the Mass freely, that the ancient Rite were freed without opposition to the new one, and not being obligatory. Second, to make the richness of this rite known; and, third, to remove the excommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops, and to bring them closer to the Church once again.

How did the scandal due to this last issue end?

It was temporary, but it caused much damage. They (the Lefebvrians) were excommunicated because they were ordained without an authorization, not for anything else. When the excommunication was lifted, the declarations, erroneous, of Bishop Williamson, who denied the Nazi Holocaust, appeared. But one thing was unrelated to the other.

 

So now we begin to see the fruits of "common ground" and "dialogue" between the Obama Administration and the Catholic Church on the abortion issue.

From the indispensable C-Fam:

Obama Administration Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting

By Samantha Singson

Obama Clinton

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  At United Nations (UN) headquarters this week, the Obama administration continued its push for ever increasing access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil. The US proposal calls for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health services including universal access to family planning.” The document under consideration will culminate in the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, which convenes next week in Geneva.

     The sticking point for many delegations and what has driven apart the usual solid European bloc is the use of the word “services” in the context of “reproductive health.” Way back in 2001 during negotiations related to the ten year review of the Child Convention, a Canadian delegate blurted out “of course everyone knows ‘services’ means abortion.” Ever since, the word “services” has been a topic of hot debate.

     So controversial is the topic of “services” in the context of “reproductive health” that the usually impenetrable negotiating bloc of the 27 member European Union has imploded with Malta, Poland and Ireland splitting from their allies and joining the Holy See in opposing the measure.  [And who will be the new US Ambassador to Malta?]

     In addition to the word "services," delegates are also concerned with attempts to link “sexual and reproductive health” to “universal access,” something the UN has never agreed to and what would amount to a major gain for pro-abortion forces. There have been numerous attempts at the UN to insert language on "universal access to sexual and reproductive health services."  In 2005 at the Commission on Population and Development, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) joined with pro-abortion lobby groups to call for "universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and programmes." They were defeated in large part by the Bush-appointed US delegates who insisted that none of the terms related to reproductive health be interpreted to include abortion.

     In recent weeks the new US administration has interpreted "reproductive health" to include abortion. In April, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a US House subcommittee, “We [the Obama administration] happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.” In this statement, Clinton also contradicted the agreement reached at the Cairo Conference which said that abortion can never be used as a part of family planning. This was a document that Clinton helped to negotiate.

     Apart from the US, other delegations including Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Estonia and the United Kingdom are pushing for the language.
 
     The G-77 developing nations’ bloc is still holding its own negotiations to determine whether or not they will have a common position on the paragraph.

     Negotiations are scheduled to continue this week and the draft declaration will be adopted by high level government ministers at the end of next week’s meeting in Geneva.

 

I am sure you have seen the news about the new decrees for beatification.

From the Bolletino:

PROMULGAZIONE DI DECRETI DELLA CONGREGAZIONE DELLE CAUSE DEI SANTI

Oggi, 3 luglio 2009, il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha ricevuto in Udienza privata S:E. Mons. Angelo Amato, S.D.B., Prefetto della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. Nel corso dell’Udienza il Santo Padre ha autorizzato la Congregazione a promulgare i Decreti riguardanti:

- un miracolo, attribuito all’intercessione della Beata Candida Maria di Gesù Cipitria y Barriola (al secolo: Giovanna Giuseppa), Fondatrice della Congregazione delle Figlie di Gesù; nata ad Andoain (Spagna) il 31 maggio 1845 e morta a Salamanca (Spagna) il 9 agosto 1912;

- un miracolo, attribuito all’intercessione del Venerabile Servo di Dio Giovanni Enrico Newman, Cardinale e Fondatore degli Oratori di San Filippo Neri in Inghilterra; nato a Londra (Inghilterra) il 21 aprile 1801 e morto a Edgbaston (Inghilterra) l’11 agosto 1890;

- un miracolo, attribuito all’intercessione del Venerabile Servo di Dio Angelo Paoli (al secolo: Francesco), Sacerdote professo dell’Ordine dei Carmelitani dell’Antica Osservanza; nato ad Artigliano (Italia) il 1° settembre 1642 e morto a Roma il 20 gennaio 1720;

- un miracolo, attribuito all’intercessione della Venerabile Serva di Dio Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas (al secolo: Soultaneh Maria), Confondatrice della Congregazione delle Suore Domenicane del Santissimo Rosario di Gerusalemme; nata a Gerusalemme il 4 ottobre 1843 e morta ad Ain Karem il 25 marzo 1927;

- il martirio del Servo di Dio Giuseppe Samsó i Elías, Sacerdote diocesano, Parroco ed Arciprete di Santa Maria de Mataró; nato a Castellbisbal (Spagna) il 17 gennaio 1887 e ucciso, in odio alla Fede, il 1° settembre 1936 durante la persecuzione religiosa in Spagna;

- il martirio dei Servi di Dio Teofilo Fernández de Legaria Goñi (al secolo: Beniamino), e IV Compagni, Sacerdoti professi della Congregazione dei Sacri Cuori (PICPUS), uccisi, in odio alla Fede, durante la persecuzione religiosa in Spagna nel 1936;

- il martirio del Servo di Dio Giorgio Häfner, Sacerdote diocesano; nato a Würzburg (Germania) il 19 ottobre 1900 e ucciso, in odio alla Fede, nel campo di concentramento di Dachau (Germania) il 20 agosto 1942;

- il martirio del Servo di Dio Zoltán Ludovico Meszlényi, Vescovo titolare di Sinope e Vescovo Ausiliare di Esztergom in Ungheria; nato ad Hatvan (Ungheria) il 2 gennaio 1892 e ucciso, in odio alla Fede, a Kistárcsa (Ungheria) il 4 marzo 1951;

- le virtù eroiche del Servo di Dio Engelmar Unzeitig (al secolo: Uberto), Sacerdote professo della Congregazione dei Missionari di Mariannhill; nato a Greifendorf (Moravia dell’Est) il 1 marzo 1911 e morto a Dachau (Germania) il 2 marzo 1945;

- le virtù eroiche della Serva di Dio Anna Maria Janer Anglarill, Fondatrice dell’Istituto delle Suore della Sacra Famiglia di Urgell; nata a Cervera (Spagna) il 18 dicembre 1800 e morta a Talarn (Spagna) l’11 gennaio 1885;

- le virtù eroiche della Serva di Dio Maria Serafina del Sacro Cuore di Gesù Micheli (al secolo: Clotilde), Fondatrice dell’Istituto delle Suore degli Angeli; nata a Imèr (Trento, allora Impero Austro-Ungarico) l’11 settembre 1849 e morta a Faicchio (Italia) il 24 marzo 1911;

- le virtù eroiche della Serva di Dio Teresa Manganiello, giovane laica, del Terz’Ordine di San Francesco; nata a Montefusco (Italia) il 1° gennaio 1849 ed ivi morta il 4 novembre 1876.