Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Archbp. Martin: “Irish Catholics are very weak, and that’s the fault of generations of the Church…”

Posted on 14 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Dublin archbishop says lapsed Catholics should admit their non-belief
By Benjamin Mann

Dublin, Ireland, Dec 14, 2011 / 06:05 am (CNA).- Non-practicing and non-believing Irish Catholics should be honest about their relation to the Church, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin told the makers of a TV documentary that aired Dec. 11.

“It requires maturity on two sides: maturity of those people who want their children to become members of the Church community, and maturity of those people who say, ‘I don’t believe in God, I really shouldn’t be hanging on to the vestiges of faith when I don’t really believe in it,’” he said.

Archbishop Martin’s comments were featured in an episode of “Would You Believe,” RTE Television’s investigative series on religion.

Its Dec. 11 episode looked at the issue of Irish parents who have ceased to practice their faith, but still want their children to receive the Catholic sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.

Filmmaker Mick Peelo’s interviews showed many self-identified Irish Catholics seeking sacramental preparation for their children, while lacking either the intention or the ability to pass on the principles and meaning of the faith.

People interviewed for the show gave various reasons for wanting their children to receive the sacraments, despite their own lack of belief and practical commitment.

One woman described the rites of initiation as a “platform from which (children) can question” in later life. Another noted that a child often “doesn’t want to be left out” when their peers are making their First Communion.

While Archbishop Martin called for honesty among adults no longer committed to the Church’s faith, he also acknowledged that the problem’s roots run deep.

“Irish Catholics are very weak, and that’s the fault of generations of the Church in their understanding of Scriptures,” he said, reflecting on teachings that “taught us things about religion” but “didn’t really deepen our faith.”

He suggested that practices of the past may have inspired anxiety, in place of a personal commitment.

“For many people in Ireland, the God we were practicing and teaching wasn’t necessarily the God of love at all. It was a God who inspired fear, it was a God who was sort of a ‘somebody watching you,’ rather than freeing and empowering you.”

The situation calls not only for honesty, but for a more substantial presentation of Catholicism.

“We have to do a radical new look at the way that religious education takes place,” Archbishop Martin said in his interview with Peelo.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Read Pope Benedict’s Letter to the Irish People HERE.

Pray for the new Nuncio, Archbp. Brown.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Dogs and Fleas, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Archbp. Martin, Ireland, New Evangelization
14 Comments

CH: Why have confessions dropped off in England but not Kenya?

Posted on 14 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

CH: Why have confessions dropped off in England but not Kenya? From the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald.

Many Catholics in Britain do not grasp how important and rewarding regular Confession can be

Why has the practice dropped off so dramatically here, but not in Italy, say, or Kenya?

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

It is easy to forget that Advent is a penitential season, [We fast before our feasts.] especially if you are invited to numerous Christmas parties before the Christmas season begins, or if you are subjected to Christmas carols (rather than proper advent hymns) in pubs, shops and clubs in the lead up to December 25. But one welcome and counter-cultural development is the Advent penitential service that seems to be a fixture now in many parishes. I have been to several this year already. Almost all parishes seem to have them, and I certainly consider them worthwhile.

The best penitential service is, to my mind, the simplest of all: perhaps an introductory hymn, a prayer, a brief reflection, and then the chance for individual confessions. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] If there are lots of priests there, the individual penitent does not have to worry that he or she is holding up the queue, but can spend as long as required talking to the priest. And then, having received individual penance and absolution, the people are free to go. I don’t think one really needs anything else. [“Amen!”, bruthuhs n sistuhs!]

The guided examination of conscience is rather important; it can help a great deal if it is sensitively done. And here we get to the nub of the question. We all know that in recent decades the number of people going to confession in our churches in England and Wales (and I can’t imagine Scotland is much different) has fallen off dramatically. Why is this? It hasn’t happened, strangely enough, in Italy, where people still go to confession in considerable numbers. [?] Or in Kenya, where I often used to hear confessions during days of recollection for young people.

Is there something in our national character which stops us going to confession as often as we might?

Or is it that we simply do not need to go?

Or is it that we have not been properly catechised, and that we do not know just how rewarding regular and frequent confession can be, and indeed how essential for progress in the spiritual life?

I think the answer might be a combination of the first and third options, not the second. I wonder what other people think? And if they have any suggestions that, if put into practice, might lead to a revival of this essential Catholic practice?

I think priests have to move their collective backsides from the comfy chair in the rectory to the comfy chair in the confessional. I think priests and especially bishops have to preach about and teach about and talk about confession far more often. I think we need proper confessionals, too.

A few minutes of confessions before Mass will help.

This is the promotion of the “new evangelization”.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged confession, examination of conscience, reconciliation, sacrament of penance
21 Comments

Learning Latin responses for the TLM

Posted on 14 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Every once in a while I get a request to record the Latin responses for the TLM so that people who want to serve Mass can learn them more easily.

A friend sent me a link to online recordings made in the 1950’s!

HERE.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Catholic University of America, CUA, Latin responses
7 Comments

UK: CTS edition of the DAILY Missal with the new translation

Posted on 14 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have seen the Catholic Truth Society’s edition for people in the pews of the SUNDAY Masses. You can pre-order the DAILY Mass edition at a reduced price.

And for those of you in the UK who just want the Sunday edition with a slip cover. Click HERE.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Catholic Truth Society, CTS
7 Comments

QUAERITUR: Rubrics for Aztec dancers during the offertory

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

On the fest of Our Lady of Guadeloupe the local parish here had Aztec
liturgical dancing during the offertory. Everything else was fine, but this seemed a bit off.

It opened with the dancers running to the altar accompanied by a
excruciatingly loud beating of the drums. [So far so good.] They then proceeded to present the gifts, while dancing around the altar as the priest celebrant prepared it.

We had few questions about the rubrics that might allow for something like this. On an almost petty note, should the Aztec dancers present the gifts before or after the priest incense the altar?

On a more serious note, is it acceptable to have clearly non-Catholic images onthe cultural costumes and drum?

I assume that these things are not in line with the will of the current Roman Pontiff, but we were wondering if thisshould be raised to the attention of our bishop or perhaps the CDW?

I’ve linked to some of the better photos that you can use if you want.
They should also give you an idea of what we were talking about.

[…]

I think I get the general idea. I wonder if the CDW has enough of these photos yet.

Perhaps you should send them in, asking for the clarification about the incense.

My sense about the incense is that the priest is to incense the altar after the Aztec dancers present their gifts. I understand that the gifts may be carried in also to the accompaniment of special ordination tambourines.

However, if any of the victims are sneezing because of the smoke, or are otherwise manifesting their resentment loudly enough to be heard over the beating of the drums (which is why the drums are important, by the way!), it may be necessary to act as an Extraordinary Minister of Blows to the Head … ad hoc, as it were. I think there is a blessing and commissioning for an EMBH, though normally the local bishop has to certify EMBHs for Aztec rituals during Mass.

If you are going to “EM”, do it right!

Seriously, I don’t think there is any problem with ethnic or indigenous garb for people who are “bringing up the gifts”, so long as it is decent and modest and doesn’t have elements that are contrary to our Christian Faith.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged aztec, ethnic dress, ordination tambourines
70 Comments

The Fishwrap and Sr. Fiedler bow to Hillary Clinton’s Magisterium

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sr. Fiedler may finally be having some memory problems. She has a deeply confused and poorly written piece in the National catholic Fishwrap lauding the Magisterium of Hillary Clinton, who definitively teaches Fishwrap about the human rights of people who do unnatural things with their bodies.

Sr. Fiedler’s article is bad all the way through, indeed so bad that I shouldn’t be spending much time on it. But there is one particular problem that I have to point out.

Here she is. Just be patient.

In short, Secretary Clinton said the human rights and equality of all human persons include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. And she injected that sentiment directly into the foreign policy of the United States, saying that the U.S. will defend that principle with both foreign aid decisions and diplomacy. It was a breathtaking statement in many ways, but one that should be applauded by everyone concerned about universal human rights. I may be wrong, but I have yet to hear any Catholic bishop praise that statement. [The bishops oppose gay marriage, but they claim to defend the equal rights of LGBT people otherwise].

Typical.

Sr. Fiedler doesn’t realize that we already have a Pope and a Magisterium and that Catholics don’t look to Hillary Clinton and the Magisterium of Nuns for their understanding of “human rights”. Sr. Fiedler thinks the US Bishops should be listening to …. Hillary Clinton?

Shades of the Patriotic Church in China! The Fishwrap and their tribe think that the Bishops should take their marching orders from the People’s Party… so long as the People’s Party is not… well… that other party.

But here is the important thing to understand about just how deeply wrong and confused Fiedler and the Fishwrap have become.

Since we have a Pope, we should consider what he has to say about the confusion of civil rights and human rights.

Pope Benedict, in his address to the UN and speaking about the UN’s Declaration on Human rights, underscored the problems that result from a confusion of civil rights (from positive law) and human rights (from natural law and therefore from our having been made by God in His image). Benedict says that giving civil rights to some group or class does not thereby point to previously unrecognized human rights. For Benedict, civil rights should be founded on human rights, which are prior and superior to civil rights. Civil rights, just because they are legislated, do not by that fact alter human rights. People are more and more talking about human rights as a common point of reference for all peoples. They seem to be misusing or misunderstanding that human rights are grounded in what God has made. Civil rights, legislated by man, do not alter what God has made.

Civil rights must properly reflect what God has written into the human person.

When the Holy Father spoke at the UN General Assembly, he said this. Remember: he is primarily dealing with abortion and speaking in “UN-speak”. You have to think about what is he is saying. It pertains perfectly to the topic:

“Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their foundation and their goal.

And this, from Benedict’s Message for World Day of Peace 2007:

“Today, however, peace is not only threatened by the conflict between reductive visions of man, in other words, between ideologies. It is also threatened by indifference as to what constitutes man’s true nature. Many of our contemporaries actually deny the existence of a specific human nature and thus open the door to the most extravagant interpretations of what essentially constitutes a human being. Here too clarity is necessary: a ‘weak’ vision of the person, which would leave room for every conception, even the most bizarre, only apparently favours peace. [Get that Fishwrap?]

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, SESSIUNCULA, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged American Patriot Catholic Association, Hillary Clinton, magisterium of nuns, NCFishwrap, patriotic church, Sr. Maureen Fiedler
9 Comments

Sound English priests react to the Tablet’s bashing of Bp. Davies

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friends Frs. Blake and Finigan have blog entries about the bashing of Bp Davies by The Tablet (aka The Bitter Pill aka RU-486)

From Fr Finigan:

[…] Bishop Davies said to the young people that a previous generation failed to pass on the fullness of the faith. So we are treated to the observation that “No generation ever alive has passed on the fullness of faith to the next. The fullness of faith is beyond us all.” So let us distinguish. The kindly Bishop was not criticising a previous generation for failing to provide an immediate experience of the beatific vision. He was pointing out what it obvious to anyone willing to be honest about the life of the Church in the past few decades. Children, parents and young grandparents have grown up without clear teaching on the divinity of Christ, the infallibility of the Church, the real presence, the Sunday Mass obligation, the wrongfulness of artificial contraception, the existence of purgatory… to list but a few of the doctrines that have been considered too hard. That is what he means by the failure to pass on the fullness of the faith. He is unquestionably right and it is a grave injustice to the People of God if we pretend that it has not happened; and more so if we fail to rectify the situation with urgency.

If just one young Bishop can provoke this kind of opposition with a homily to young people, I wonder how things will be when there are one or two other like-minded Bishops appointed in due course to fill a couple of the many sees that are vacant or becoming so.

From Fr. Blake:

[… ] The last half century has been an attempt by successive Popes to clarify the teaching of the Council.

The Tabet blog, which I have just discovered, is bashing Bishop Davies for saying that faith has not been passed on in recent generations. Sr Gemma Simmonds of Heythrop says in gushing terms. “The greatest gift to our time is the enduring legacy of the Council [VII], the most authoritative gathering of the Church on earth.” I would like to debate with her what she meant by “authoritative”.

She then goes on to deny a principle teaching of the Council, that the liturgy “is the source and summit of the Church’s life”, by saying, “Going to Mass on Sunday is certainly a way to express and nourish faith, but it is not the fullness of faith, which is something that has to be lived in the context of the ordinary in solidarity with all that is good and true and beautiful in our world.” I tend to agree with someone who comments on this post and reminds Sister that in Jesus Christ we encounter the fullness of faith.

For me Sister and the commenter who speaks disdainfully of “the Institutional Church”, as if Christ found a Church without Apostolic leadership, seem to encapsulate a way of understand VII that praises it as concept yet denies its teaching.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity, SESSIUNCULA, The Drill, The future and our choices, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged Bp. Davies, Sr Gemma Simmonds, The Tablet
16 Comments

Dr. Peters concerning the excomm’d Mercy Sister in Phoenix

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I posted about the Mercy Sister in Phoenix who approved a direct abortion at a Catholic hospital. The local Bishop, confirmed that she had incurred an automatic excommunication. Then a story emerged that she, Sr. McBride, had been reconciled. I thought that was a bit odd, because there was no additional statement to that effect from the Diocese. The bishop did not excommunicate her. The law itself did. But since his office made a public statement, I thought there would be a public statement when it was resolved.

The Canonical Defender, Dr. Ed Peters, who wrote the book on excommunications, has jumped in. He doesn’t have a combox, but do visit his blog.

Thus, Dr. Peters:

The reconciliation of Sr. Margaret McBride
Despite the great attention that excommunication generates in the secular media, actual instances of excommunication are rare. Rarer still are remissions of excommunications for, as we all know, some offenders never repent. Most Church or Church-related officials have little experience in dealing with excommunication matters, and most reporters have zero experience reporting on them. Thus, when what looks like an excommunication (rare) remission (rarer still) makes the news, one should treat such news, welcome in itself of course, with some caution.

ILOTL [“In The Light Of The Law“, Dr. Peters fine blog] readers will recall (see e.g. my posts of 21 May 2010, 1 Jun 2010, 19 Jun 2010, 21 Dec 2010, and 23 Dec 2010) the case of Sr. Margaret McBride, rsm, the religious whose consent, as administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, was apparently necessary for the commission of an abortion in that hospital back in 2009. Against many who argued that Sr. Margaret’s actions could not, as matter of law, result in her excommunication under Canon 1398, I argued that her reported actions could result in her excommunication at least as an accomplice to abortion per Canon 1329. Prescinding from my long-standing misgivings about the operation of automatic censures in canon law, I argued that nothing in the reports available to the public suggested that Sr. Margaret had not met the requirements for excommunication in her case. As to whether Bp. Olmsted’s early public statements about Sr. Margaret’s canonical status sufficed for a formal declaration or imposition of excommunication, my sense was that we had too little information to decide either way; in any event, the bishops later confirmed the status of Sr. Margaret as excommunicated, a development that raised canonical issues about Sr. Margaret’s future in her religious community.

There the matter rested for a year or more.

Last week, however, per the Catholic News Service, St. Joseph’s Hospital stated that Sr. Margaret has “met the requirements for reinstatement with the church and she is no longer excommunicated. She continues to be a member in good standing with the Sisters of Mercy and is a valued member of the St. Joseph’s executive team.” This seems like good news, of course. The whole point of excommunication is to bring offenders to repent of their action. But the generation of the announcement itself seems odd to me. [And also with you?]

The announcement comes from neither the Diocese of Phoenix (pace 1983 CIC 1355-1357) nor from Sr. Margaret’s religious superiors (pace 1983 CIC 573, 654, 696), but rather from St. Joseph’s Hospital, that is, it seems, from her employer.

Now, whatever one makes of the process for remission of sanctions possibly automatically incurred and apparently later formally declared or imposed—and we do not have enough information to speculate on those permutations—the one group that is not empowered to bring about the reconciliation of anyone under an ecclesiastical sanction is that person’s employer. So, it seems, someone else must have acted here, and that someone else must have communicated their actions to Sr. Margaret and/or to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Given the extraordinary publicity that was associated with this matter and the direct statements made on it by the competent ecclesiastical authorities, I think it would be good to know, officially and free of ambiguous phrases like “reinstatement with the church”, that Sr. Margaret’s status has been rectified. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] Considering that sanctions themselves operate in the external forum, appropriate news of the remission of a high-profile censure can, I think, be offered or confirmed without endangering the internal forum; doing so here would broadly contribute to the common good.

That said, I hope the report about Sr. Margaret’s status is accurate, and that we can put this sad episode behind us.

PS: I’ve seen nothing in these recent reports suggesting that Bp. Olmsted’s revocation of the Catholic identity of St. Joseph’s Hospital would be impacted by changes in the canonical status of Sr. Margaret.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged abortion, D. Phoenix, Dr. Peters, excommincation, Sr. Margaret McBride, Sr. McBride
13 Comments

Wyoming Catholic College Video

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From time to time I have mentioned Wyoming Catholic College, which trains students in a modified form of the Trivium and Quadrivium, and makes sure they know their Latin, have the TLM, and how to take care of a horse.

I’ve been there. Impressive place with a great vision.

They learn how to learn, how to think and make distinctions. They also learn how to articulate what they know.

WCC now has a video about the college which you will enjoy. It is about 7 minutes long.

[wp_youtube]2ganIqre0QE[/wp_youtube]

Posted in Just Too Cool, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged great books, Quadrivium, Trivium, Wyoming Catholic College
47 Comments

QUAERITUR: Missing Masses with the “corny music”

Posted on 13 December 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I am having difficulties reconciling my love of the EF Mass with the
fact that sometimes I miss the OF Mass and it’s corny music. You know, sometimes I miss being able to expressively belt out Table of Plenty or something classic like Peace is Flowing Like a River or something hip smacking like Lord of Glory. I don’t know what to do, and I can’t help but feel like I’m sinning because it’s the sheer comedic enjoyment I get out of such Masses rather than the most holy sacrifice.

What should I do?

First, make sure you fulfill your Mass obligation on days of precept and receive Holy Communion in the state of grace in either form of Holy Mass

I have here sometimes used the provocative image of the TLM being the grown-up Mass (T-Bone steak and Cabernet) and the Novus Ordo, at least as celebrated in many places, as the kiddy Mass (jar of pureed carrot and milk). Condescending? I suppose. I can live with that. While milk and pureed carrots are the proper food for the very young, sometimes adults eat it too, as for example when she has a broken jaw. Each form of food has its time and purpose.