As promised, the Holy Father has issued his letter to the Church in Ireland concerning the sexual abuse of children and young people. It is quite direct and minces no words especially when he addresses those who committed abuse and the Bishops and Superiors who failed to act according to Canon Law when abuse was reported. The full text can be found here, and is worth the read.
Our Lady of Knock, pray for us.
St. Patrick, pray for us.
St. Brigit, pray for us.
St. Oliver Plunkett, pray for us.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Catholic Teaching and Health Care
This weekend will see, according to the latest news reports, the final disposition of Health Care Reform by the House of Representatives. How the vote will go is still a bit of an uncertainty, as is whether it will actually be a vote on the health care bill or some other version of political machinations.
The bishops of the United States have made the true Catholic position clear concerning this bill. His Eminence, Cardinal George issued an explanation of the huge moral problems the bill contains which makes it impossible for Catholics to support the legislation in its current form. His Eminence, Cardinal DiNardo has given a talk emphasizing the same points. The Archbishop of Denver, His Excellency, Archbishop Chaput, has spoken and written numerous times over the past few days on this issue as well, this being the latest.
The teaching of the Church is clear, at least to those that have ears to hear. There have been some vocal dissents to this teaching from those claiming to be Catholic (specifically the Catholic Health Association as well as NETWORK). Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the majority of the dissenters have been women religious who have for years been attacking and undermining the teaching of the Church. Needless to say, this group of "nuns" continues to bank on the credibility they have with the average Catholic who remembers the days when what "sister" lived, taught and said was what the Church lived, taught and said. This situation has become so problematic that the President of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), Mother Mary Quentin, issued the following statement on behalf of the Council. I know that this seems very confusing to most folks, but the CMSWR represents those orders of women religious who are faithful, in full, to the Church. We need to start realizing that many of the "sisters" we all knew and loved have moved beyond the faith they once professed. More importantly, we need to pray for those women religious who are still members of the orders that have dissidents in the leadership roles but who themselves are faithful daughters of the Church. They are suffering a white martyrdom.
While I was not going to create a post concerning this issue, since so many have done so in a way better than I can hope to do, Speaker Pelosi's comments yesterday caused me such frustration that I had to write something. The Speaker invoked the aid of St. Joseph -- on his feastday -- to get the current healthcare reform bill through the House. The woman has no shame and it seems that those who have ecclesiastical jurisdiction over her have chosen to allow her to make comments which are in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Church without any official rebuttal or penalty.
We do ned, however, to invoke the assistance of St. Joseph about this legislation. He, the universal patron of the Church, is a powerful intercessor before God. Speaker Pelosi may ultimately regret asking for his assistance, since he may have a very different outcome in mind.
The bishops of the United States have made the true Catholic position clear concerning this bill. His Eminence, Cardinal George issued an explanation of the huge moral problems the bill contains which makes it impossible for Catholics to support the legislation in its current form. His Eminence, Cardinal DiNardo has given a talk emphasizing the same points. The Archbishop of Denver, His Excellency, Archbishop Chaput, has spoken and written numerous times over the past few days on this issue as well, this being the latest.
The teaching of the Church is clear, at least to those that have ears to hear. There have been some vocal dissents to this teaching from those claiming to be Catholic (specifically the Catholic Health Association as well as NETWORK). Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the majority of the dissenters have been women religious who have for years been attacking and undermining the teaching of the Church. Needless to say, this group of "nuns" continues to bank on the credibility they have with the average Catholic who remembers the days when what "sister" lived, taught and said was what the Church lived, taught and said. This situation has become so problematic that the President of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), Mother Mary Quentin, issued the following statement on behalf of the Council. I know that this seems very confusing to most folks, but the CMSWR represents those orders of women religious who are faithful, in full, to the Church. We need to start realizing that many of the "sisters" we all knew and loved have moved beyond the faith they once professed. More importantly, we need to pray for those women religious who are still members of the orders that have dissidents in the leadership roles but who themselves are faithful daughters of the Church. They are suffering a white martyrdom.
While I was not going to create a post concerning this issue, since so many have done so in a way better than I can hope to do, Speaker Pelosi's comments yesterday caused me such frustration that I had to write something. The Speaker invoked the aid of St. Joseph -- on his feastday -- to get the current healthcare reform bill through the House. The woman has no shame and it seems that those who have ecclesiastical jurisdiction over her have chosen to allow her to make comments which are in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Church without any official rebuttal or penalty.
We do ned, however, to invoke the assistance of St. Joseph about this legislation. He, the universal patron of the Church, is a powerful intercessor before God. Speaker Pelosi may ultimately regret asking for his assistance, since he may have a very different outcome in mind.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wonderful allocution by the Holy Father about the Priesthood
Yesterday the Holy Father gave a brief allocution to the participants in a conference organized by the Congregation for the Clergy. The Vatican Information Service has given the following summary:
VATICAN CITY, 12 MAR 2010 (VIS) - At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in a theological congress promoted by the Congregation for the Clergy, and which is being held on 11 and 12 March in the Pontifical Lateran University on the theme: "Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of Priests".
In a time such as our own, said the Pope, "it is important clearly to bear in mind the theological specificity of ordained ministry, in order not to surrender to the temptation of reducing it to predominant cultural models. In the context of widespread secularisation which progressively tends to exclude God from the public sphere and from the shared social conscience, the priest often appears 'removed' from common sense". Yet , the Pope went on, "it is important to avoid a dangerous reductionism which, over recent decades ... has presented the priest almost as a 'social worker', with the risk of betraying the very Priesthood of Christ.
"Just as the hermeneutic of continuity is revealing itself to be ever more important for an adequate understanding of the texts of Vatican Council II", he added, "in the same way we see the need for a hermeneutic we could describe as 'of priestly continuity', one which, starting from Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, and over the two thousand years of history, greatness, sanctity, culture and piety which the Priesthood has given the world, comes down to our own day".
Benedict XVI affirmed that "it is particularly important that the call to participate in the one Priesthood of Christ in ordained Ministry should flower from the 'charism of prophecy'. There is great need for priests who speak of God to the world and who present the world to God; men not subject to ephemeral cultural fashions, but capable of authentically living the freedom that only the certainty of belonging to God can give. ... And the prophecy most necessary today is that of faithfulness" which "leads us to live our priesthood in complete adherence to Christ and the Church".
Priests, the Holy Father continued, "must be careful to distance themselves from the predominant mentality which tends to associate the value of Ministry not with its being, but with its function". Our "ontological association with God", he said "is the right framework in which to understand and reaffirm, also in our own time, the value of celibacy which in the Latin Church is a charism imposed by Holy Orders, and is held in great esteem by the Oriental Churches. ... It is an expression of the gift of the self to God and to others".
"The vocation of priests is an exalted one, and remains a great mystery. ... Our limitations and weaknesses must induce us to live and safeguard this precious gift with great faith, a gift with which Christ configured us to Himself, making us participants in His mission of salvation. Indeed, the understanding of priestly ministry is linked to faith and requires, ever more strongly, a radical continuity between formation in seminaries and permanent formation".
The Holy Father concluded by telling his audience that "the men and women of our time ask us only to be priests to the full, nothing else. The lay faithful will be able to meet their human needs in many other people, but only in the priest will they find that Word of God which must always be on his lips, the Mercy of the Father abundantly and gratuitously distributed in the Sacrament of Penance, and the bread of new life".The entire talk is not yet available in English translation; hopefully this will be forthcoming. In any case, one needs to wonder how the reframing of the understanding of the priesthood over the past 45 years have led to the evil and scandalous sexual abuse of young people by members of the clergy (I am not referring to those cases which are pathological -- i.e., true pedophilia, but cases of personal sinfulness and moral turpitude).
Some have implied that "putting the priest on a pedestal" contributed to a priest thinking himself above the people he serves and above the moral teaching of Christ and His Church, and thus led to the sexual abuse. I think this would be true for only the truly hard of heart. My own experience has been that any acts of deference shown by God's people to me or being "put on a pedestal" has caused me to experience a greater sense of unworthiness and a desire to try, with God's grace, to become a better priest and more faithful to the calling I have received. Coming to appreciate once again what the Church has always taught that priests are, might be the most important step in reversing the "vocation crisis" and the "new springtime" for the faith which Vatican II so hoped for.
Priests exist for the Sacraments, most especially the Holy Eucharist, and prayer, most especially the Divine Office. Anything else they do or any other ministry they have must always be referenced back to this -- as priests move away from this understanding, they betray the essence of their very being: their ontological conformity to Jesus Christ the High Priest through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Please pray for priests!
Pray for the Holy Father
The recent revelations of sexual abuse by clerics in Germany and Austria have unleashed another vitriolic attack by the secular press seeking to create connections where none exist and to, by smarmy phraseology to imply that Msgr. Georg Ratzinger (the Holy Father's elder brother) and the Holy Father himself may have engaged in "cover up" activity. Both of these implications are clearly false to anyone who attempts a slightly objective read the accounts.
In any case, we need to offer prayers for the Holy Father so that he may continue to have the strength to feed the Lord's flock, which is his divinely given responsibility:
Let us pray for Benedict, our Pope. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make
him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the
will of his enemies. [Ps 40:3]
Our Father, Hail Mary.
O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look
mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen
as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we
beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify
those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the
flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In any case, we need to offer prayers for the Holy Father so that he may continue to have the strength to feed the Lord's flock, which is his divinely given responsibility:
Let us pray for Benedict, our Pope. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make
him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the
will of his enemies. [Ps 40:3]
Our Father, Hail Mary.
O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look
mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen
as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we
beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify
those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the
flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Consecration of the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
Yesterday was an extremely thrilling day for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The chapel of their recently constructed seminary in Denton, Nebraska was consecrated by His Excellency Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, in the presence of His Eminence William Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The chapel is quite beautiful and is built along Classic lines, and the consecration ceremony took a simple building and set it apart as a dwelling place for the Most High. The four and one half hour ceremony was televised by EWTN and was quite moving. The website for the seminary promises to have pictures of the consecration posted very soon. Go over and have a look; it is worth the trip!
The priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter are a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right founded with the approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1988, for the formation and sanctification of priests in the framework of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and their pastoral deployment in the service of the Church. They also have many vocations!
The priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter are a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right founded with the approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1988, for the formation and sanctification of priests in the framework of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and their pastoral deployment in the service of the Church. They also have many vocations!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)