FOLLOW UP: McBrien’s “rather adolescently rigid” article… NCR readers react!

Posted on 9 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Notre Dame’s Richard McBrien says that "Eucharistic adoration, perpetual or not, is a doctrinal, theological, and spiritual step backward, not forward."

You can read his sneering NCR article if you want or read it with my commentary HERE.

A WDTPRS reader was looking at the comments over at NCR and noted that even the liberal comments over there are turning against McBrian’s flawed ideas!

Let’s see a few, as gathered by reader AT (my emphases and comments):

I generally enjoy Fr. McBrien’s postings, but I have to disagree with him this time…I do agree that the Mass is the center of our Catholic life, but Adoration provides a context for meditation and prayer that I find to be most helpful. I do not believe it to be an obsolete devotion, but one very relevant in today’s hectic and off-centered world. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]
Nick Marziani

___
 
Father McBrien, I never expected to disagree with you on much of anything…but I do need to question several aspects of this column on eucharistic adoration. First, I have to wonder whether you, like many other progressive Catholics, view every pronouncement from Rome on current liturgy as a threat to the spirit of Vatican II–indeed, as an intentional inroad in that direction. If so, I have to tell you that I find your attitude rather adolescently rigid. [OORAH!]
Maggie Harrison Mangan

___

Eucharistic adoration at the parish level arose out of nowhere at the end of the 20th Century. Nobody planned it. Nobody foresaw it. I believe it was an authentic movement of the Holy Spirit acting in the Church.  [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]
Kevin Aldrich

___

Dear Fr. McBrien, Did it ever even cross your mind that the Holy Spirit might be encouraging people towards this devotion, that it might not be simply a symptom of their backwardness or spiritual immaturity? If it were just an initiative of the people, without God’s help, it would not have taken the root it has and would not be spreading as it is.  [yep]
Colin

___

Dear Fr. McBrien, I consider myself a progressive Catholic like yourself. I love the way the Mass is celebrated now rather than before Vatican II. I wish the Church would allow qualified lay people to preach at the time reserved for the homily. I favor ordaining women as deacons and priests. I hope that someday married, baptized Catholic men will be allowed in the priesthood and I don’t look forward to the new Mass translations that our Bishops had to approve at their June plenary session. However, Fr. McBrien, I must strongly disagree with your negative attitude about the Holy Father encouraging the restoration of Eucharistic adoration…Because of the large crop of faithful lay volunteers, my parish has Eucharistic adoration 24 hours every Friday of the week, which is attended by hundreds of parishioners (3000 families are registered in my parish) and even non-parishioners throughout the day and evening. Yes, celebrating the Eucharist each Sunday with the Catholic community should be the highest form of worship in a Catholic’s prayer life. But you see, Father McBrien, Catholics like myself are craving for some individual quiet time with Jesus too…That’s why it’s so important for Catholic churches to keep their doors open at least once during the weekday to allow some quiet prayer time for parishioners.
A literate catholic

___

I usually agree with Fr. McBrien’s views; in this instance, however, I part company…the sheer tone of Fr. McBrien’s column and various statements, such as "devotional excess" and "extraneous eucharistic devotions" make him sound like an over educated, pompous, theologically intellectual elitist, which I hope he is not.  [If it walks like an "over educated, pompous, theologically intellectual elitist…".]
Kate Gile

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Dear Fr. O’Brien, While I appreciate your columns very much, I disagree with your final sentence in this piece, as would contemplatives everywhere. The Real Presence in the Mass does "provide all" that is needed, but the Mystery is inexhaustible and some in the Body of Christ feel compelled to extend worship beyond the actual time of the Eucharistic celebration. To say that there is "no need for extraneous eucharistic devotions" seems similar to debunking intimate friendship, being in love, the time "wasted" by lovers for whom simply communing is a value in itself.
Anonymous

Many thanks to AT, who gathered these great comments from NCR and that "over educated, pompous, theologically intellectual elitist", and "rather adolescently rigid" article by McBrien. 

Hey!  Their words, not mine!

Posted in Linking Back, What are they REALLY saying? | Tagged , , , ,
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Two years later… the “gravitational pull”

Posted on 9 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the blog Ten Reasons I find this brick by brick post – with a rather nice turn of phrase in it!

Feeling gravity’s pull

A friend who would know tells me that the Friday 9 AM Latin Mass in the Ordinary Form resumes at St. Cecilia Church on Cincinnati’s East side this Friday, September 11, and will continue every second and fourth Friday. It arrives just in time to celebrate the "gravitational pull" of Summorum Pontificum on the motu proprio’s September 14 second anniversary.

 

 

Posted in Brick by Brick, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM |
5 Comments

PODCAzT 91: A hymn dissected “Te lucis ante terminum”; Don Camillo (part VI)

Posted on 9 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today we will drill into a hymn sung by Holy Church in the Liturgia horarum for Compline every evening.  It is called Te lucis ante terminum.

Since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the hymn was rewritten a bit, the words changed… and thus the meaning.  We will see the variations.  As a matter of fact in the making of this audio project I noted that in one recording of the pre-Conciliar version monks were singing “omnipotens” even while I was reading “piissime“!  Shocking!

I dissect this hymn, sing it in the Gregorian chant tone, and we hear different translations and many other musical versions.

I just might ramble a little while drilling into the meaning of the hymn.

Sing along with the hymns! Buy a Liber Hymnarius!

Also, we have another installment of stories about the fictional don Camillo Tarocci, (+ A.D. … ?) parish priest of “The Little World”.

Some time ago, I began a to read stories from The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi.  There is a Don Camillo tag you can use to find the others easily.

These delightful pieces are set in post-war Northern Italy. 

They blend brilliant insight into the human condition with solid applied Catholic Faith.

Today we hear two tales:

The Avenger

https://zuhlsdorf.computer/podcazt/09_09_09.mp3
And perhaps in your charity you might listen to:PODCAzT 90: St. Leo on the beatitudes; the sacred, sacrilege and reparation

UPDATE:

By coincidence… ? … there was a story on ZENIT today in Italian on Guareschi!

Posted in don Camillo, PODCAzT, WDTPRS | Tagged , , , , , , , ,
4 Comments

Want to use your phone in church? Think again!

Posted on 8 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Have you ever wished that your car had a phaser option?  That there was a trap door under the pulpit?Buy WDTPRS stuff!

A tip of the biretta to Mulier Fortis for the following.

In the future there may be some serious penalties for cellphone use in church.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

I must find out more about this system.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Just Too Cool, Lighter fare |
27 Comments

Internet distance learning in Aristotelean/Thomist philosophy

Posted on 8 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I had a note from some people who have started a great program, potentially very useful.

What I was sent is too long to post, but here are a few items to let you know essentially what they are about.

First, there is a group who want to restore training in Aristotelean/Thomist philosophy.  Therefore, it is about the restoration of critical thinking.

Second, they are going to offer courses through internet distance learning.

The International Society of Scholastics was founded in 2005 by students of the Roman Pontifical Universities in collaboration with noted Scholastic philosophers at the Vatican and worldwide.

We are an intellectual association committed to restoring the philosophic doctrines, didactic principles and scientific synthesis of the greatest masters of the classical universities, the Scholastics.  It is our purpose to reestablish the Scholastic synthesis in all speculative and practical fields as offering the normative model for rational inquiry and practical activity that results in personal perfection, economic stability, and political faultlessness.

With a strong emphasis on Logic, the division and subordination of the sciences, and strict methodology, we defend our attention to detail with the axiom:

‘A small error in principle is a large error in conclusion.’

Our courses in philosophical science aim to make Scholasticism available in its classical, unadulterated form; educational materials that follow not only the content of traditional philosophy, but its structure as well.

For further Society details, please visit the ‘about us’ pages on our website, www.SocietyofScholastics.org.  There you will find our Constitution, principles, officers, goals, and more.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email us: TheSchoolmen@societyofscholastics.org

About the courses….

SAPIENTIS ONLINE COURSES

Sign up for the Sapientis online education program and soon you will be sharing a cyber-classroom with scholars from the United States, China, Brazil, New Zealand, Ireland, England, and elsewhere in an effort to master the Scholastic synthesis!

Currently, we’re offering courses in Scholastic Logic and Ethics.  Eventually we’ll be adding Natural Philosophy (including Philosophical Psychology), Economics, Politics, and Metaphysics.  However, we strongly recommend that students begin with the course in Logic.  As Aristotle noted, it is absurd to search for knowledge and the method of acquiring it at the same time. …

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes |
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I mentioned “reparation” in my last PODCAzT

Posted on 8 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Then comes this.

Here is the PODCAzT.

090 09-09-05 St. Leo on the beatitudes; the sacred, sacrilege and reparation

Posted in Linking Back, The future and our choices |
Comments Off on I mentioned “reparation” in my last PODCAzT

Portland, ME: Staggeringly inept comments on the Pope’s Summorum Pontificum

Posted on 8 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We are coming up on the 2nd anniversary of the implementation of the Holy Father’s "emancipation proclamation" Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. 

You would that that, by now, enough time had passed for Holy Church’s shepherds to have at least sifted out the misinformation about the Holy Father’s provisions so that when speaking to their flocks, they could provide an accurate commentary.

This comes to us from the parish bulletin for 6 Sept from St. Pius and St. Patrick (I think they must be combined) in Portland, Maine.

The parish is staffed by Jesuits.

THE LATIN MASS

Many bishops feel their role has been undermined by Pope Benedict [From the onset, the writer wants to pit the Pope against the bishops.] who appears to allow priests to opt for the Latin Mass regardless of the attitude of local bishops. ["appears"?  The writer should perhaps read the Pope’s provisions in Summorum Pontificum.  The decision is now in the hands of pastors… who, btw, cannot simply ignore people who want the older form of Mass.] The view that the ordinary form of the Mass (in English) is in some way deficient, finds no place with these bishops. [Bad writing.  Who are "these bishops"… the "many" referred to earlier?  The "local bishops" referred to later?  What does "local" mean, here.  The bishops around Portland, ME?  Diocesan ordinaries and auxiliaries?]  A priest’s taste or preference is irrelevant. [HUH?  Okay… if this is true, then perhaps more priests would be using the normative book, the Missale Romanum, in Latin, and would have Gregorian chant – which has pride of place in all the Church’s sacred music.  Need I go on?]  The single most pressing reason why the bishops [once again with "the bishops"] defend the ordinary form of the Mass, is the absence of any role for the laity. [This writer doesn’t really have a clue about what he is saying, does he.  Watch for the tired clichés.. which you can feel are right around the corner…] They were little more than spectators  [winner winner chicken dinner!] of what the celebrant was doing at the altar; in practice this meant many of them concentrated [wait for it…] on their own private devotions. It is an established principle of good liturgy to encourage the active participation of all those taking part in the Mass. [It helps if you know what "active participation" actually means.  Now watch this incredible blunder of reasoning…] Implicit [!] in this directive is the rejection of any discrimination against girls and women among those who assist at Mass, such as altar servers, readers and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist.  [Just.Plain.Dumb.  The writer clearly thinks that "active participation" essentially means carrying stuff around or doing what the priest does.]

The Latin Mass can take its proper but necessarily marginal place in the life of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Bob

I am guessing that the "Fr. Bob" here is the Fr. Robert F. Regan, S.J. listed in the parish bulletin.  He is not the pastor, but rather is on the staff.   But clearly, something like this would have the imprimatur of the pastor.

Again, after a couple of years, you would think something this staggeringly sloppy would have gone the way of the Dodo. 

We still have a lot of work to do… and the biological solution still requires a little more time.

In the meantime, I remember writing about Portland, ME and Summorum Pontificum.  The bishop in Portland, Most. Rev. Richard J. Malone, implemented the older form of Mass at the Cathedral there.   The "local bishop" can’t be feeling too undermined by Pope Benedict.

BTW… doesn’t this sound an awful lot like that editorial in The Tablet?  aka RU-486?

Posted in SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill |
16 Comments

The grapes and the mushrooms

Posted on 7 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When Dr. Stephen Maturin stays in London, he lodges at his digs at The Grapes in the precincts of the Savoy… that interesting autonomous zone.

Dr. Maturin is not the only one with grapes. 

I wonder what kind of mushrooms these are. Click for a larger image:

Posted in My View |
3 Comments

A priest writes about his disconcerting experiences

Posted on 7 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest reader with my emphases and comments:

Really appreciate your blog. Priests like you give us other priests a lot of encouragement to keep working to bring more reverence to the liturgy. Thank you so so so much.  May God Bless you.  [You are welcome!]
 
Long story short.  In my last parish over a three year period I introduced an EF mass offered each Sunday.  Started using the altar rail for communion on the tongue.  Started to celebrate the OF ad orientem.  Started using more latin in the OF, e.g., gloria, credo, canon, pater noster.  Helped to work with the choir to learn Gregorian chant which we added to the celebration of our Sunday Liturgies.  The celebration of the Mass ad orientem made the biggest difference in my experience.  [The eminent liturgical scholar Klaus Gamber, who had such an influence on Joseph Ratzinger, opined that the turning of altars was the single most damaging change made after the Council.] The altar boys loved it and they immediately became more serious and reverent.  Communion at the altar rail also made a big difference.  And then because of the complaints of a few parishioners I was ordered by the bishop to cease and desist. [Stopped.. doing things that were perfectly legitimate, btw.  But … it is always a few vinegary types, isn’t it.] I stopped, lost all credibility with the parishioners and was very discouraged for a few weeks. 
 
Now I’m in another parish and I have made a few little changes.  Like wanting to have male altar servers.  And the complaints are starting to add up.  People really need to pray for their priests!  I guess I’m not looking for any answers but it really does feel difficult sometimes trying to do what the Lord wants us to do. [Especially when the bishop leaves you to twist in the wind.]

Father… don’t be discouraged. 

The tide really is turning.

Posted in Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity |
28 Comments

A parish priest’s feedback about the funeral of Sen. Kennedy

Posted on 7 September 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have received a great deal of feedback by e-mail from readers concerning my comments on the funeral of the late Edward Kennedy, pro-abortion Catholic Senator.

Most of the feedback was what you might expect: we should celebrate Kennedy’s life, you people are so mean, how dare you criticize, you are just a mean stupid Republican, blah blah blah. 

However, there are been some very thoughtful comments as well.  Here is one, from a parish priest, with my emphases and comments.

Dear Fr Z,
 
Thank you for your blog which I have found to be very informative.  As a diocesan priest I would like to make a comment about the Funeral for Ted Kennedy.
 
I think that is was completely proper and canonically correct to offer Holy Mass for the repose of his soul.  [This next comment is hard to deny…] If the Catholic leaders did not discipline him during his lifetime it would have been a very cheap shot to do it after his death.  We pray for all the faithful departed.  He was a national figure and so the Funeral was televised.  As I said I see no problem with this.  [Well… I still do.  But I see his point.]
 
My problem is that it was not a Catholic Funeral. This was not a Funeral.  It did not follow the Novus Ordo.  The whole "celebration" was focused on Ted Kennedy and what a great man he was.  It [This is important…] seemed that he was not in need of salvation, forgiveness, mercy, grace, etc.  That would not have been proper if he were had been Mother Teresa herself.  Catholic Funerals are not about the person’s past achievements.  Since Holy Mass is part of it, first of all, the Funeral is about worship of God.  Secondly, it is a profession of our Catholic Faith.  [And this is why I still have a problem with the public nature of the funeral: the Senator’s record concerning abortion.] Thirdly, Holy Mass is offered for the repose of the deceased immortal soul and asking God’s mercy on him.  Fourthly, we pray for the consolation of those who mourn.  Ted Kennedy’s Funeral did not even follow even the guidelines of the Archdioceise of Boston.  [That is a problem, isn’t it.] It was badly planned and poorly carried out.
 
It was poorly planned because whoever directed the planning had no idea of what a Catholic Funeral is about.  Readings are not chosen to highlight the deceased achievements nor because they were his/her favorite’s passages.  [If I recall, the first reading was a standard selection, but the responsorial psalm and Gospel resounded with irony.] They are chosen to speak to us of the teachings of the Word of God regarding the mystery of death, forgiveness, and eternal life.  They are chosen to give hope that God’ mercy which is undeserved for any of us, may be given to this deceased person.  The Prayers of the Faithful are a time to pray for all these intentions not to push agendas. [Those "intercessions" were perhaps the worse part of the whole thing.]  Eulogies are not allowed.  A simple short reflection by a family member may be given before the Final Commendation which I personal wished had never been permitted.  The place for all of this is some Memorial at another time and another place than a church.
 
The Liturgy was very poorly executed.  You could hear the directions being given over the open microphones.  ("where is the pall?"  etc.)
 
This was not a Catholic Funeral.
 
Worst of all from a parish priest’s perspective is that now that millions have seen this, this is the type of Funeral they want. [Remember that the Code of Canon Law says that we should not have a public funeral if there is danger of scandal.  I think it was entirely possible that this funeral did just that… in more than one respect.]  It because impossible to say no as it is a difficult time for the family and they say the Cardinal of Boston do this.  It makes the parish priest look like he is being unreasonable [Exactly!] and not following the Church for his own agenda.  I have been to too many Catholic Funerals where an important person has died, or a family member of a priest, or a religious has died, and the very people who will not allow this for their parishioners break every norm.  (In my diocese for example, priests have the choir sing the "Gloria" at their parent’s Funeral because we are suppose to be joyful.  [Or, God forbid, "Danny Boy", or similar.] Of course, the bishop and his Liturgical Director encourage this.) 
 
I agreed with your question.  When did we stop praying for the deceased at a funeral?

Perhaps when we gave up Black vestments and the Dies irae.

Didn’t Pius XII warn against the loss of black vestments?

Some past entries of relevance…

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Linking Back, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , ,
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