Fishwrap starts to spin Holy See’s smackdown of the LCWR

Posted on 15 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Let the games begin!

The Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) is now between a rock and a hard spot.

The NSR and LCWR are practically one flesh.  At the same time, NSR has been crooning about Pope Francis new “humble” style.

I have been predicting that liberals will eventually turn on Francis (HERE). He will reaffirm things that they want overturned and they will go for him.

The CDF’s Francis-approved smackdown of the LCWR today present a dilemma.

Over at the NSR, there is a first attempt to spin out from between the rock and hard spot.

The writer, Joshua McElwee, has been among the most zealous supporters of the LCWR.

Watch how McElwee attempts to redirect attention from Francis’ involvement to the role of dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

Pope Francis reaffirms LCWR critique, plan to reform
Joshua J. McElwee

[…]

Notice of Monday’s meeting could reawaken a divide between members of the Vatican bureaucracy over how to handle the sisters’ group.

While the doctrinal congregation may be taking a hard-line approach, [the villain of the story] the Vatican congregation responsible for overseeing the work of religious orders [the good guys] around the world recently has taken a more sensitive tack, even indicating it sought dialogue with the sisters.  [What a load of … peach cobbler!  “hard-line”… “dialogue”… “sensitive”… If you can clear that loud buzzing from your head as you read this, the CDF has been in constant “dialogue” with the LCWR.  McElwee suggests that the CDF refuses to “listen”, as opposed to the “sensitive” Congregation.  Did an LCWR sister ghost write this for him?]

The April 6 appointment of Franciscan Fr. José Rodríguez Carballo as the second-in-command of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Pope Francis’ first appointment to the Vatican bureaucracy, seemed to approve the softer approach: [Oh?] Rodríguez’s colleagues said he is someone who seeks collaboration rather than conflict.

[…]

McElwee is dodging a couple things.

The CDF is the only dicastery that matters for the LCWR right now.

Pope Francis approved what the CDF did today.

Keep your eyes on the ball! 

Posted in Brick by Brick, Liberals, Women Religious | Tagged , , , ,
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Recent LCWR statements – context for the Holy See’s smackdown

Posted on 15 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith smacked down, hard, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.  This is, as you may remember, the group of leaders of communities of women religious (not all the religious themselves, but the leaders), who have recently been under scrutiny by the Holy See… and rightly so.

When Francis was elected, they issued this statement. HERE

Prayers for Pope Francis
March 13, 2013

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) offers its congratulations and heartfelt prayer to Pope Francis as he assumes the papacy at this critical time for the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio demonstrated great dedication to the mission of the Church during his leadership in Argentina. As he serves in the papacy, we trust that his many gifts will continue to be spent on behalf of the universal church, and most especially for people who live in poverty in all parts of the world.

As a conference of leaders of orders of Catholic sisters in the United States, we welcome Pope Francis’s spiritual leadership and look forward to working with him in carrying forward the Gospel message.

In the wake of today’s Francis-approved smackdown, they issued this statement. HERE

LCWR Statement on Meeting with CDF
April 15, 2013

On April 15, 2013 Sister Florence Deacon, OSF, LCWR president; Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ, LCWR president-elect; and Sister Janet Mock, CSJ, LCWR executive director; met with Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF); Archbishop Luis Ladaria, secretary of CDF; and other members of the CDF dicastery. Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was also present.

The LCWR officers reviewed the activities of this past year since receiving the report of CDF’s doctrinal assessment of LCWR in April 2012.

In his opening remarks, ArchbishopMüller informed the group the he had met with Pope Francis who “reaffirmed the findings of the assessment and the program of reform for this Conference of Major Superiors“.

The conversation was open and frank. [I’ll bet it was.] We pray that these conversations may bear fruit for the good of the Church.

Although the sisters have been whining for months that they have been treated unfairly by the mean old Vatican men, Francis agrees with the CDF.

Francis agrees that the sisters need to change they ways.

Posted in Francis, Magisterium of Nuns, Our Catholic Identity, Women Religious | Tagged , , ,
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HUGE! CDF to LCWR

Posted on 15 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Will this be the moment the National Schismatic Reporter crowd turns on Francis?

This is new.  It does NOT refer to their meeting of some months ago.

From news.va:

COMMUNIQUE OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH CONCERNING A MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENCY OF THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN THE USA

Today the Superiors of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met with the Presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States of America. Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, Archbishop of Seattle and the Holy See’s Delegate for the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR, also participated in the meeting.

As this was his first opportunity to meet with the Presidency of the LCWR, the Prefect of the Congregation, Most Rev. Gerhard Ludwig Müller, expressed his gratitude for the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years.

The Prefect then highlighted the teaching of the Second Vatican Council regarding the important mission of Religious to promote a vision of ecclesial communion founded on faith in Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church as faithfully taught through the ages under the guidance of the Magisterium (Cf. Lumen gentium, nn. 43-47). He also emphasized that a Conference of Major Superiors, such as the LCWR, exists in order to promote common efforts among its member Institutes as well as cooperation with the local Conference of Bishops and with individual Bishops. For this reason, such Conferences are constituted by and remain under the direction of the Holy See (Cf. Code of Canon Law, cann. 708-709).

Finally, Archbishop Müller informed the Presidency that he had recently discussed the Doctrinal Assessment with Pope Francis, [FRANCIS!] who reaffirmed the findings of the Assessment and the program of reform for this Conference of Major Superiors.

It is the sincere desire of the Holy See that this meeting may help to promote the integral witness of women Religious, based on a firm foundation of faith and Christian love, so as to preserve and strengthen it for the enrichment of the Church and society for generations to come.

This is big news.

And now we will watch to see how the sisters and their supporters react.

 

Posted in Liberals, Magisterium of Nuns, Women Religious | Tagged , , ,
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Francis, the G8, and reform of the Roman Curia – some musings

Posted on 13 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over here I posted about the new G8 that Pope Francis will call together in October.  They are supposedly to help with alterations to the constitution called Pastor bonus, that governs the Roman Curia.

We all agree that reform of the Curia is necessary.  We can all imagine that Francis was elected because the Cardinals thought he could and would do the job.

Let’s think about this.

First, the G8 (the group of 8 Cardinals) won’t meet until October.  That means that not much will be done for about a year or so into this Pope’s pontificate.  He has been Pope for about a month.  The G8 meets for the first time over half a year from now.  They won’t be leaping into action on the day after there meeting. They will have to ponder and consult and listen some more.  They will have to draft proposals, which will need study and reflection and more consultation.

A lot can happen in a year of a pontificate.  Consider, for example, what happened in Benedict XVI’s first year after the famous Regensburg Address.  Benedict was set to launch a reform of the Curia.  He had even started in motion the combination of offices into a new location, hoisted the head of the dicastery for inter-religious dialogue, etc.  After Regensburg, that crawled to a halt.  A lot can happen in a year of a pontificate.  Even six months.

Second, when people start talking about structural reformation, they usually think about term limits.  Term limits sweep out the undesirable chaff.  That’s what we want in curial reform, right?  Out with the chaff?  The problem with term limits is that the wheat is also term limited.  In the Roman Curia clerics are generally given 5 year appointments.  They are appointed ad quinquennium, with possibility of renewal…or not.  Fine.  The problem with giving pretty much everyone the heave-ho after 5 years is that you lose both institutional memory and you lose competence.  If takes about 5 years to learn some of these complicated positions well.  Moreover,  it takes a while to get language skill up to speed.  If anyone is under the illusion that just because a man studied in Rome he speaks Italian well (much less writes it well), well… get over that.  They live and study and work in their own little national ghettos where they don’t have to speak or write in Italian.  In most of the universities, profs accept exams and papers in the major languages, since Latin is all but lost.  Furthermore, and this is not a secret, bishops are not always eager to let their brightest and best go: they are needed in the diocese.  There is, therefore, a fairly small pool of men who can fill the jobs competently and they need time to get up to speed.  In addition, if they are swept out every few years, it may be hard to motivate them.

Some might accuse me of defending “careerism”, which they will identify as a root of problems in the Curia. Term limits, however, might not produce the desired results: a lean but still competent, well-motivated Curia.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you are itching to say, “What you are saying is an argument in favor of declericalizing the Curia.  We need more lay men!  And women!  They would never be as incompetent and corrupt as those bad male clerics.  And there are more of them, too!  It’s a larger pool.  There’s your solution!”

Curial reform doesn’t eliminate the effects of original sin.

If you are looking for the real corruption, the deep and serious curial corruption, forget about the clerics.  For example, in the scandal about the vast overspending on things like flowers for papal events or the building of the Christmas presepio in St. Peter’s Square, the kickbacks and bribes and the differences in actual costs versus what was paid were not going into the pockets of clerics.  Lay people are not the silver bullets for the curial werewolf.  And the clerics who could name names were shown the door.

And, frankly, some matter have to be handled by clerics.

I don’t know what the G8 are going to recommend (if they recommend anything at all).  Having been on the inside for a while, I can say with confidence that the reform of the Roman Curia won’t be among the easiest of many pending herculean labors.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Francis, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , , , ,
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Pope Francis convokes a “group” of Cardinals

Posted on 13 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

One month into his pontificate, Pope Francis has done a few unusual things.  Here is another.

The G8.

Pope Francis invited a group of cardinals to meet to help him, among other things it seems, revise John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus, which governs the activity of the Roman Curia.  The Cardinals are from different continents.  The group has no legislative role.  Apparently during the General Congregations leading up to the Conclave there was a call for such a group.

The first meeting is 1-3 October.

The members of the group are:

  • – Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State; [Whom I suspect could wind up Secretary of State one day.]
  • – Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Chile; [S. America, Spanish speaker.]
  • – Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India; [Asia. He was a member of Vox Clara.]
  • – Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; [Europe.]
  • – Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; [Africa. He preached the Curia’s spiritual exercises in 2012.]
  • – Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Boston, USA; [N. America. Spanish speaker.]
  • – Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; [Australia. The only Australian Cardinal.]
  • – Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the role of coordinator; [C. America is not a continent, and S. America is represented. He is a Salesian, as is SecState Bertone. Spanish speaker, of course, as well as German and English.] and
  • – Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy, in the role of secretary. [Bishop of one of the nearby Suburbicarian dioceses, also where Castel Gandolfo is.]

What is interesting is not only which Cardinals were chosen, but which were not chosen.

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged , ,
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Groovy new recording of a new Vivaldi “Dixit Dominus”

Posted on 13 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

No grooves, as it turns out.  It’s all digital now, isn’t it?

A reader passed news to me that La Nuova Musica recorded a newly identified Dixit Dominus (a common first antiphon for Sunday vespers), by Vivaldi.  It was previously thought to be by Baldassare Galuppi. Also on the recording Handel’s Dixit Dominus, HWV 232.    Also, Vivaldi’s In furore iustissimae irae featuring soprano Lucy Crowe.

It was music like this that made me turn away from Lutheranism when I was a kid.

Here is a really video about making the recording (now on my wishlist).  Looks and sounds like original instruments.  And they look so young!

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

USA CD HERE
USA MP3 HERE 

For Canada and UK copy LA NUOVA MUSICA and paste it into the search boxes at the bottom of the blog.  Easy.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged , , ,
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The Tablet inserts another extremist into the “foot washing” debate!

Posted on 13 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Tablet (aka The Bitter Pill) has printed a piece about the washing of women’s feet during the Holy Thursday Mass.

Let’s see what this extremist has to say, with my emphases and comments.

Priests should not wash women’s feet, says liturgist

PARISH PRIESTS in England and Wales should not follow the example of Pope Francis by washing women’s feet, according to the liturgy secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.  [WOAH!  Wait!  What a fanatic!]

During the first Holy Week of his papacy, Pope Francis washed the feet of two women on Maundy Thursday at the Casa del Marmo prison for young offenders in Rome.

Fr Paul Gunter, secretary of the Department for Christian Life and Worship, told The Tablet that Pope Francis had legitimately dispensed himself from liturgical norms but that his was a unique pastoral context. In parish churches, Fr Paul said that the washing of the feet is meant to be an imitation of the Last Supper and is “intrinsically attached” to the institution of the priesthood.  [Poor poor Father… doesn’t he understand that it’s really all about making people feel good about themselves… and keeping feminists happy?  He’s just trying to turn the clock back!]

Other liturgical experts have also pointed out that liturgical rubrics specify that only men should have their feet washed on the grounds that the washing of the feet is supposed to imitate Jesus’ washing the feet of the male Apostles.  [Not only sexist, but also species-ist!  People should be able to bring their female pets to church to have the hooves and paws washed, or in the case of the leg-challenged, their long pale underbellies.]

Fr Paul, a Benedictine monk who is a professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’ Anselmo, Rome, said: “The purpose of the indications for the Washing of the Feet, as given in the Missal, is not to be meanspirited or petty [You know those conservatives.  When they day it isn’t about being meanspirited and petty, it’s about being meanspirited and petty.] but to present the rite as the mimesis [imitation] it is,” he said. “Jesus performed the Washing of the Feet when he gave his mandatum to the 12 Apostles. [But the church has move beyond Jesus and those male apostles. We are now free of those hidebound, time-bound, cultural paradigms of patriarchal oppression.] Since the occasion was intrinsically attached to the institution of the priesthood, the gesture was not incomplete because of its not being extended to women.”  [Vatican II changed all that.  Listen to the Voz del Pueblo!]

Fr Paul also stressed that papal liturgy should not be seen as the exemplar for other liturgies. “It is precisely because the papal liturgy is a distinct reality in itself, that local churches can neither call on its precedent to dispense themselves from norms that apply to the whole Church, nor change, of their own accord, the approved rites and prayers that define and steer the liturgical celebration itself,” Fr Paul said.  [See all that white male oppressive legalism?  It must be a manifestation of inner insecurities and fears.]

“While it is known that there exist, in some parts of the Church, those who extend the rite of the mandatum to women, contrary to the liturgical norms contained in the liturgical books, and that there are those who also celebrate other rites according to their personal preferences; such indications, nonetheless, pertain to different conversations about ecclesiological perspectives regarding the magisterial authority attached to authorised liturgical books.”  [They sure do!  Since 13 March we are now free of those old oppressive ways.  We are an Easter Pueblo!]

Sounds like “Say The Black – Do The Red” to me.

And on that note… you can buy some stuff!

Posted in Francis, Liberals, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , ,
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That’s fast… cruel, but fast

Posted on 12 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader who knows of my not so secret yearning for a Bugatti Veyron sent this, from IOL:

The world’s fastest convertible is… a Bugatti.

Following on the speed of 431.072km/h set by the the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport coupe in 2010, a Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse has set a benchmark for open-top production sports cars at the Volkswagen proving grounds in Ehra-Lessien.

German standards organisation TÜV confirmed that the 885kW Vitesse, driven by the Chinese entrepreneur and passionate racing driver Anthony Liu, reached a top speed of 408.84km/h.

Bugatti boss Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber said: “When we introduced the Vitesse, we established the top speed that was practicable for open-top driving was about 375km/h, but we couldn’t let go of the possibility of reaching the 400km/h milestone with this car as well – and now we’ve done it!”

[…]

Read the rest there.

Frankly, it is cruel to send a guy looking for a new car an article about a Bugatti Vitesse.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged ,
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ACTION ITEM! Video about the revival of a inner city parish by using actual Catholicism.

Posted on 12 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I want about 15 minutes of your time.

If you are a bishop or a priest or a seminarian, please give your special attention.

Below is an excerpt from a documentary to be shown soon on EWTN (30 April 6:30 EDT) about the vision that has revived an inner city church and parish in Omaha.

St. Peter’s in Omaha.  HERE

The documentary is called Where Heaven Meets Earth.

These priests have their heads screwed on in the right direction and I give them high marks.

You will note along the way that, as part of their backstory, they inspired by what Fr. Philips did at St. John Cantius in Chicago.  However, part of that backstory is that St. John’s was in part inspired by what Msgr. Richard Schuler did at St. Agnes in St. Paul.

What I love about this is how the baton get passed on.

But it not just a baton.  The baton multiplies as it is passed on.

What follows is not rocket science.  It is especially well articulated, however.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

I’d enjoy visiting this parish some day.

After you try out my donation button, you might go over there and try theirs.

Hey, people write to me all the time asking about good causes to donate to, things they don’t worry they are wasting their money on.  I think this is one.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Priests and Priesthood, REVIEWS, The future and our choices, Year of Faith | Tagged , , , ,
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Jesuit-run Gonzaga University rejects Knights of Columbus?

Posted on 12 April 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is absurd.

The last acceptable prejudice around these days is to hate faithful practicing Catholics who accept the Churches teachings on faith and moral.

Now the acceptable prejudice is creeping into the catholic community itself.

I read at Catholic World Report about the rejection by Jesuit-run Gonzaga University – theoretically a Catholic school – of a student group of the Knights of Columbus.  Why were they rejected?  Because only Catholics belong to the KofCs.

Let’s get this straight…

Professor: Will Gonzaga also consider removing the Society of Jesus from campus?

Dr. Eric Cunningham, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Gonzaga University (GU) and a former advisor to the campus council of the Knights of Columbus at GU, yesterday sent a letter to Sue Weitz, Vice President for Student Life, remarking upon her letter explaining that a Knights of Columbus group’s application to be recognized as an official student organization had been denied by GU.

Weitz’s letter stated, in part:
The Knights of Columbus, by their very nature, is a men’s organization in which only Catholics may participate via membership. These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organization recognition at Gonzaga University, as well as the University’s commitment to non-discrimination based on certain characteristics, one of which is religion.

In response to that statement, Dr. Cunningham (a contributer to Catholic World Report) wrote:

The chief reason for my confusion is that as an organization, the Knights of Columbus is, by these criteria, identical to the Society of Jesus. How strange it is to think that if Ignatius of Loyola and his companions, who were students at the University of Paris when they established the Society, had tried to apply for club status at Gonzaga, they would have been denied.

[…]

Read the rest there.

By the reasoning of Sue Weitz and her superiors… Jesuit-run Gonzaga University should know expel the Jesuits.  (Not a bad idea in some cases… but… let’s move on.)

There is a growing gulf between hard identity and soft identity Catholics.

Which side is winning? Probably soft identity… the types who call themselves Catholics, but are actually CINOs… catholics In Name Only.   They hold a lot of power and they are using it, in coordination with secular power-brokers (such as the Obama Administration).  They are, right now, emboldened.

This is in part the fruit of the dissolution of our education system over the past few decades.  Fewer and fewer can reason now and many are subject to the dictatorship of relativism.  What is “true” can vary from person to person… except for liberals, of course.  If the root of the word “liberal” is “liber… free”, then a liberal is someone with whom you are free to agree with.

In the meantime, would you $34,570 per year to Gonzaga University, or any other putative Catholic school that would deny the presence of the Knights of Columbus on the grounds that it is a Catholic organization for Catholic members?

 

Posted in Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , ,
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