At long last there is a DVD available of the Pontifical Mass for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s election celebrated in Washington D.C.’s Shrine of the Immaculate Conception!
Here is the website. You can preview the DVD.
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You might remember Bp. Slattery’s fantastic sermon.
This comes from Freep… Detriot Free Press. NB: POLL ALERT! There’s a poll in the right-hand column of that article, asking whether you favor or oppose embryonic stem cell research.
My emphases:
Even in petri dish, life merits protection
I started out as an embryo. So did you and everyone else who shares this planet with us. And there is great significance to this irrefutable fact beyond the shared experience.
Time magazine’s cover story this week about the influence of life in the womb states the case: “We are the way we are because it’s in our genes: the DNA we inherited at conception.” Yes, upbringing and environment have a huge impact on our lives, but one thing never changes until our last natural breath: our DNA. Each human embryo is unique — it does not have the same DNA of the mother or father. That cell not only becomes us, it is us.
This reality is critical context as the World Stem Cell Summit meets in Detroit. Progress in research on umbilical cord blood cells and adult stem cells is to be saluted and supported. Patients and advocates alike can look to the growing number of cures and treatments discovered through research that does not destroy the living human embryo. Conversely, experiments on human embryonic stem cells deserve our scrutiny and scorn. If not us, who will speak for our fellow citizens-to-be?
We are blessed to live in a country with some of the most extraordinary founding documents in history. If, indeed, we believe we were “created equal,” doesn’t that belief extend to the indefensible living embryo in a petri dish? “Unalienable rights” means they can’t be taken away by the state.
Doesn’t that apply to science as well? And what of “life” in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? First, it must begin.
Embryonic stem cell researchers will attest that it is imperative to preserve an embryo because it is a living cell. It is after the living embryo is preserved with its human DNA signature that it is dissected, cloned, destroyed or discarded. True democracy is built on life, not death.
Ours is not the first country or culture to selectively pursue a moral calculus that justifies taking a life to enable scientific experiments. We know from sad experience that dangers follow when we put human hands on the switch of life and death.
Embryos are the genesis of human life, and it is morally unacceptable to intentionally destroy them, even if the scientist is trying to cure a debilitating disease or parents are responding to a difficult challenge in their family life. The country we live in defends human rights at home and abroad. That defense must extend to the laboratory.
In Michigan’s Compiled Laws, the fetal protection act is precise on punishing individuals who harm or kill a fetus — or embryo! — during an intentional assault.
How can there be such a disconnect with what happens in an assault case and what occurs in a laboratory when a human life is destroyed? The person who harmed an embryo in an assault is charged with a felony. The person who destroys an embryo in a petri dish is held harmless and likely considered some sort of medical pioneer. Yet the results were the same: two fewer people in the world who had no power to stop what was happening to them and had no voice in their demise.
The question is called.
Allen Vigneron is the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.
There is a poll:
I voted “NO. It is morally unacceptable.”
Right now…
UPDATE 2107 GMT:
UPDATE 2243 GMT:
UPDATE 5 Oct 1212 GMT:
Remember the movie I Confess? A priest’s nightmare. A murder confesses to a priest and then frames the priest with the murder.
I saw this on Catholic World News:
A priest who was fired from his teaching post at a Pennsylvania Catholic college and suspended from ministry may have been protecting the seal of confession, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Father Mark Gruber was dismissed last year by St. Vincent College after pornography was found on his computer. But a young man has now told police that he downloaded pornography onto the priest’s computer and later confessed to Father Gruber. The young man argues that the priest accepted responsibility for the pornography in order to protect the integrity of the confessional seal.
Father Gruber—who has sued St. Vincent College for defamation—never directly denied using pornography, school officials have noted. An attorney for the college points out that the priest could still bear responsibility for some of the images on his computer.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Priest fired for porn may have protected confession (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
It isn’t too early to think about death.
Given the discussion that has grown from a question I answered, here is a WDTPRS POLL.
Choose your answer and give reasons in the combox. It would be nice to get lot’s of people giving their reasons.
So that people feel free to post, would you confine yourselves to posting about your own thoughts, rather than commenting on other people’s remarks?
His Hermeneuticalness, Fr. Tim Finigan, posted a charming entry over at his place.
A lovely family that has occasionally come to my parish, recently moved into the area. I saw Mum & Dad and the children today and, as usual with newcomers, made sure that they knew they could come into the parish Social Club after Mass.
Having another good Catholic family move into the parish is always a bonus but today I was given an extra boost. The children are quite young and understandably a bit confused about moving house and everything that involves. One of the girls (aged 3 I think) asked Mummy “Are we going to our normal Church today?” Mum replied “No, we’re going to our new Church.” The little one then said “Oh, is that the Pope Benedict Church?”
That made my day! Viva Pope Benedict!
Also, WDTPRS congratulates the mighty parish of Our Lady of the Rosary for their feast day!
On Thursday 7 October at 6 pm, at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan (37th ST btwn Broadway and 7th) H.E. Most Rev. Joseph Perry (Aux. Chicago) will be celebrant for a Solemn Pontifical Mass according to the Missale Romanum for the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
The music for the Mass will be Palestrina’s Missa Ave Maria.
Bishop Perry is an experienced celebrant of Solemn Pontifical Mass according to the 1962 Missal. Ordained in 1975 for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Bishop Perry has been auxiliary bishop of Chicago since 1998. Among his many duties for the Archdiocese, he serves as Episcopal vicar for an area that includes 78 parishes and some 60 elementary and secondary schools. Bishop Perry completed his study of canon law at the Catholic University of America in 1981 and was Chief Judicial Officer of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1983 until 1995. He is an instructor in canon law at Mundelein Seminary. Since 2004, Bishop Perry has been Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on African American Catholics.
Holy Innocents Church is the only parish in the Archdiocese of New York where Mass according to the 1962 Missal is now celebrated daily.
Next week’s Mass is only the fourth Solemn Pontifical Mass according to the 1962 Missal celebrated in New York City since Cardinal O’Connor invited Cardinal Stickler to celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
For more information, call (212) 569-1252.
On a personal note, I have heard this choir. They are good. I have seen Bp. Perry pontificate. He is great. This should be a splendid Holy Mass. I will be there. Those of you in the area… make the effort and bring a friend or two.
From a reader:
Our parish has a long standing tradition of remembering the souls of parishioners and/or family members who passed away during the last calendar year. During the All Souls Day Mass family members of the deceased process one by one with a candle as the name of their deceased loved one is read. The candles are then placed on the side altars. While I am thrilled that we use the Feast of All Souls to actually remember and pray for the deceased, the procession and recitation of the names is quite lengthy and seems like something added to the liturgy for purely sentimental reasons. I was reminded of this practice recently as the announcement in the bulletin for participating in the service once again appeared. I am wondering if this practice is common in other parishes.
I think it is wonderful to remember the dead and then to pray for them. Too often, funerals are canonization ceremonies after which few remember to pray or gain indulgences for the deceased.
But what you describe is not part of the Mass. This is something well-intentioned, but not part of the Mass.
In my opinion, it would be better to do this before Mass begins.
Things like this should never be allowed to start (during Mass, at least). It is at times hard to stop abuses, especially those which are loaded with sentimentality. In this case, however, they could keep the custom by doing it before Mass.
From a reader:
Is it appropriate to wear an amice, when wearing a cope and surplice?
Under usual circumstances, such as Benediction, the priest or deacon will not use the amice with the surplice and cope.
However, an assistant priest at a Solemn or a Pontifical Mass will use the amice over the surplice before putting on the cope. So would the attendant deacons who would sit on either side of the bishop, handling his miter, etc., but they use the dalmatic.
Here is a photo of the vesting of a bishop before a Pontifical Mass. I was acting as one of the attending deacons and you can see me on the left with the amice over the surplice but before we put on our dalmatics. The second deacon is to the bishop’s left.
Here is a photo from a different Mass. The two attending deacons are standing in their places.
A reader asks:
Is there anything in Canon Law or else in pronouncements of the SRC or CDW regarding removing the Blessed Sacrament from a church whilst it is being used for a concert or similar event? In particular, if the Blessed Sacrament is normally reserved on the High Altar and there is a suitable temporary place for It, eg in a tabernacle in the Sacristy (where it would be kept on Good Friday):
1. Must the Blessed Sacrament be moved out of the church during the concert? OR 2. Should the Blessed Sacrament be moved out if practicable? OR 3. It is desirable and permissible to leave the Blessed Sacrament in the church as usual?
Chapter and verse of the official statement would be very helpful in offering advice to our Chaplain.
I wrote about this document fairly recently. It is Concerts in Churches issued by the CDW in 1987.
10. When the proposal is made that there should be a concert in a church, the Ordinary is to grant the permission per modum actus. These concerts should be occasional events. This excludes permission for a series of concerts, for example in the case of a festival or a cycle of concerts.
When the Ordinary considers it to be necessary, he can, in the conditions foreseen in the Code of Canon Law (can. 1222, para. 2) designate a church that is no longer used for divine service, to be an “auditorium” for the performance of sacred or religious music, and also of music not specifically religious but in keeping with the character of the place.
In this task the bishop should be assisted by the diocesan commission for Liturgy and sacred music.
In order that the sacred character of a church be conserved in the matter of concerts, the Ordinary can specify that:
a. Requests are to be made in writing, in good time, indicating the date and time of the proposed concert, the program, giving the works and the names of the composers.
b. After having received the authorization of the Ordinary, the rectors and parish priests of the churches should arranged details with the choir and orchestra so that the requisite norms are observed.
c. Entrance to the church must be without payment and open to all.
d. The performers and the audience must be dressed in a manner which is fitting to the sacred character of the place.
e. The musicians and the singers should not be placed in the sanctuary. The greatest respect is to be shown to the altar, the president’s chair and the ambo.
f. The Blessed Sacrament should be, as far as possible, reserved in a side chapel or in another safe and suitably adorned place (Cf. C.I.C., can 928, par. 4).
g. The concert should be presented or introduced not only with historical or technical details, but also in a way that fosters a deeper understanding and an interior participation on the part of the listeners.
h. The organizer of the concert will declare in writing that he accepts legal responsibilities for expenses involved, for leaving the church in order and for any possible damage incurred.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
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A Daily Prayer for Priests
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