Communio – Page 397 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Sacred Duties, Episcopal Ministry: what’s wrong with the US Conference of Bishops

Few people in these parts (in the Eastern part of the USA) know the name Robert F. Vasa except ecclesial-philes like myself, but that’s because he’s on the other side of the country. Never mind. Who could say with honesty that there’s a genuine concern for knowing ecclesial affairs viz. from a person who has little name recognition such as Robert Vasa. That is, until now, who, with some excellent, even controversial ideas, is sure to anger the round heads. Only now Vasa’s thinking is gaining some currency. But let’s give him his just due respect. Robert F. Vasa, 59, is the Bishop of Baker, OR, a priest of the Lincoln Diocese who delivered an extraordinarily good address titled, “Sacred Duties, Episcopal Ministry” on September 16, 2010 at the 2010 InsideCatholic Partnership Award Dinner in Washington, DC, that has not received the attention it deserves.

The Bishop is taking a critical look at the contemporary ministry of the bishop, at least in the USA, as we’ve seen it unfold with the existence of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

I DON’T like the USCCB and would prefer to see it close, or at least downsize significantly. I find USCCB officials intrusive, their work open to misinterpretation, the bishops not doing what they are supposed to do for “needy bishops” –to give fraternal constructive correction to bishops not doing or incapable of doing their episcopal ministry as expected– and I find the USCCB documents compromised or agenda driven. In addition, I find the tax paid on each “Catholic head” in the dioceses to be excessive and it’s a genuine burden on many dioceses, particularly the Eastern Church dioceses who don’t have access to large amounts of money. One last word on the bishops’ documents: they are often not written by the bishops themselves (who would have the time?) but are produced by the staffers of the USCCB or outsiders and are vague and lack substance that would clearly address the issues at hand; when the documents are “committee documents” they are often ground for the lefty-loonies to manipulate for their own ends.

There are few instances where I think a conference of bishops in the USA is useful but not absolutely necessary. The usefulness of a conference of bishops would be seen in knowing the needs of the Church in North America, in the work done in the fields of the sacred Liturgy, certain questions on immigration, healthcare and pro-life and certain relief agencies like CRS. The translation of texts is labor intensive and it needs wider episcopal oversight and input that 10 bishops can give. BUT let’s be clear, the USCCB is not an alternative teaching body for the Church in America; it has no authority to teach or make laws over and above the Universal Church or the individual diocesan bishop; it does not speak for the Church’s bishops. Diocesan bishops can’t absolve themselves of the duty to rightly to teach, govern and sanctify the people entrusted to them personally by the Holy Spirit and for the Church in general. Episcopal ministry is exercised not with strategies and programs but by listening, praying and teaching when needed.

Some people who are USCCB favorable will be dramatic by saying, “The USCCB said and demands thus and such….” AND the response you should give is, “SO what.”

Read, study and pray with Bishop Vasa’s address noted above. You may want to say a prayer for him, too. He’ll likely get hate mail for his attempt to teach what is true. In my mind this address is necessary reading for informed Catholics. The point here is not be disrespectful of the sacred duties and responsibilities of bishops. My point here is to live, to act and to think with the Church under the Roman Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him. As Catholics we are to be total and radically centered on the person of Jesus Christ lived in the sacrament of the Church and under her magisterium. I follow Christ through the ministry of the Pope, the bishop of this diocese but not in a bureaucracy of bishops.

Our Lady of the Rosary

I once told a youth director who was getting “heat” from his colleagues for having his parish youth group pray the rosary that that prayer is really Scripture study. What else could you call the each of the mysteries, the Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer? On the simplest level praying the rosary is not only a tool of spiritual education in the School of Mary, but also uniting oneself more and more closely to the Lord.

It is often said that if you want to end sin in your life, evil in the world, that is, to slice the head off evil, then pray the Rosary. I see more rosaries around the rear view mirror or around the neck but so rarely in those same hands fingering the beads of the Mysteries of the Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. In the rosary we trace the lines of salvation history and the beautiful mission of Jesus.

Pope, saints, good priests and religious and grandmothers recommend wholeheartedly our attachment to this divine gift of love.

The previous year’s post for this feast is here.

The infant church in prayer was gathered round

Th’apostles and the Mother of the Lord;

In faithfulness to Christ’s farewell command,

They prayed and waited, trusting in the Word.

With joy we think on incarnation’s grace;

With light we meditate upon Christ’s life;

With sorrow, all his passion keep in mind;

And in his glory, hope beyond all strife.

For Mary’s faithfulness we praise you, Lord,

who heard and trusted in your promise strong;

To you we sing, O Trinity most blessed,

In praise that through the ages echoes long.

10 10 10 10

SURSUM CORDA

Saint Faustina Kowalska

Clued-in Catholics know the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. They are, however, unlikely to know the person who made this devotion known to the world and who was instrumental in getting the work of divine mercy known in the world today. Today, the Church gives us the woman who made the Lord’s mercy known to men and women of today.

Sr Faustina
Kowalska wrote in her Diary: “I feel tremendous pain when I see the
sufferings of my neighbours. All my neighbours’ sufferings reverberate in my
own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even
physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in
order to relieve my neighbour” (Diary, p. 365). This is the degree of
compassion to which love leads, when it takes the love of God as its
measure!

It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face
the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs
and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person. Thus the
message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the value of every
human being. Each person is precious in God’s eyes; Christ gave his life for
each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy. (Pope John Paul II, Canonization homily, April 30, 2000).

Prayer for a friend, Pauline Fahey

Today, we are praying the Mass of Christian Burial for a friend, Pauline Marie Fahey, who died last Thursday after living with cancer. Join me in praying for her peaceful repose thanking God for this blessing.

Let’s also remember Father Michael A. Fahey, SJ, Pauline’s brother and a very dear friend, who survives her.

May Pauline’s memory be eternal.

Let’s also pray for those who served in the medical profession as nurses, as Pauline did for decades.

Prayer through the intercession of Saints Benedict & Maurus

The Benedictines celebrate the feast of Saint Maurus, a first disciple of Saint Benedict on January 15 and the Roman Martyrology notes his feast day as today. Liturgical calendars of religious aren’t always the same, sometimes for very good reasons. For Saint Maurus’ feast day in January I posted a prayer for the sick through his intercession which may interest you. Today, we’re honoring Saint Benedict and his student Maurus, by giving this prayer more “press” recalling the profound love they had for the Cross of Christ.

Let us pray:

Through the intercession of the Immaculate Mother of God, ever a virgin, and by the intercession of St. Benedict and of St. Maurus, may the power of God + the Father, the wisdom of God + the Son, and the might of God + the Holy Spirit, deliver you from this infirmity. Amen.

May God’s will be done in all things, and so may it be done in your case, just as you seek and desire only the praise and honor of the all-holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lastly, the priest blesses the sick person with the relic of the holy cross, saying:

May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son + and Holy Spirit, come upon you and remain with you forever. Amen.

This formula provided by Abbot Maurus Wolter OSB, the then Abbot-President of the Beuronese Congregation, was approved by the Sacred Congregation for all priests and deacons, to impart the blessing, provided the formula approved by the Holy See is used.

The life of Saint Maurus is filled with terrific narratives of healings at the request of this saint at the Throne of Grace. One such miracle was a man’s diseased arm that needed healing Maurus prayed prostrate “at the foot of the altar, pouring forth his soul in fervent prayer. Having finished praying, he took from the altar the case of relics which had been sent him by his master, St. Benedict, and went to the bedside of the sick man. Having exposed the relic of the Cross, he made the sign of the Cross over every part of the arm from the shoulder to the fingers,” saying:

O God, the Creator of all things, You ordained that Your only Son should take flesh of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit for the restoration of your people, and You deigned to heal the wounds and infirmities of our souls by the redemption accomplished upon the sacred and glorious wood of the life-giving Cross: do You also vouchsafe through this powerful sign to restore health to Your servant.

Firsts for the US Supreme Court 2010

There are several “firsts” for the new session of the Supreme Court of the United States. Among the firsts:

members of the bench are either Catholic (6) or Jewish (3)– there are no Protestants serving
1/3 of the members of the bench are women
first time in 35 years that Justice John Paul Stevens will not serve as a Justice
Justice Kagan is the 100th Supreme Court Justice

Read the brief overview of the Supreme Court

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis seems to be a model of holiness for many, many people. Protestants of all flavors, the Muslims and Jews honor dear Francis for a variety of reasons. They’ve met Francis in as many ways as I have.

This morning I am pondering why I love Francis. Preparing for my reception of the sacrament of Confirmation I chose as my “confirmation name” Francis of Assisi because he not only seemed to reasonable guide for life, especially the spiritual life, but I was drawn to him through the stained glass in the parish church, the secular Franciscans were present but more important, the narrative of Saint Francis’ life was verifiably compelling.

Over time I’ve come to know Francis as not only poor, humble, loving, faithful, guru of the human condition but also that he preached what he received from the Lord Himself: the mercy of Christ crucified is real, the truth of faith, hope and love in Christ is the path to salvation, that he preached the reality of knowing who in fact God is (that is, Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and not what he thought, guessed about God. Saint Francis emblematic of the Catholic second chance, that is, one can be given another chance for happiness. So, the real Saint Francis is not the personage hijacked by the lefty-looines who use him to justify all sort of liberalities of theology, Liturgy, social concern and life in the public order. Francis is not the stereotypical garden statue nor is he a man unconcerned with true conversion of life. He’s quite the opposite: he life was a life in Christ firmly rooted in the Mystical Body of Christ –the Church– nourished by the sacraments, most especially the Holy Eucharist.

Friar Charles, OFMCap had this to say about Saint Francis.

The Transitus of Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis died during the evening of October 3/4. The Church observes the death of Saint Francis on October 4.

As he lay dying, Francis prayed Psalm 142 and during the closing verse he died. This human and liturgical event is solemnly remembered each year by Franciscans to honor their holy
Father’s entrance into the joy of being the Most Blessed Trinity be prayerfully remembering the passage –a transitus– of Francis from life to Life today, October 3.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Francis, poor and humble, enters
heaven rich and is welcomed with celestial hymns. Alleluia.

Psalm 142

I cried to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord did I make my supplication.

I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him trouble.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then he knew my path.

In the way where I walked have they secretly laid a snare for me.

I looked on right hand, and held, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

I cried to You, O Lord: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

Attend to my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name: the righteous shall compass me about; for You shall deal bountifully with me.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and
will be forever. Amen.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Francis, poor and humble, enters
heaven rich and is welcomed with celestial hymns. Alleluia.

O God, you granted
our blessed Father Francis the reward of everlasting joy: grant that we, who
celebrate the memory of his death, may at last come to the same eternal joy;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

DiNoia preaches the Red Mass, Washington, DC: Man without God isn’t more free but in greater danger

The annual Red Mass celebrated by Archbishop Donald Wuerl at Saint Matthew’s Cathedral (Washington, DC) was preached by Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, OP, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship (Rome). Today’s Red Mass is the 57th and was sponsored by the John Carroll Society. Present was the Vice President, the Chief Justice and four other justices. Archbishop DiNoia’s homily follows.

In anticipation of the official opening of the Supreme Court term tomorrow, we unite in prayer today in this solemn liturgy in order to invoke the Holy Spirit upon the distinguished justices, the judges, attorneys, and lawmakers, professors and students of the law, the law clerks and paralegals, and upon all others who serve us in the various sectors of the legal profession. We give thanks to God for their precious service, and we humbly pray, “Holy Spirit, Lord of light / From the clear celestial height / Thy pure beaming radiance give”(Veni Sancte Spiritus, Pentecost Sequence, trans. Nat. Lit. Conf. England and Wales, 1967).

The annual invocation of the Holy Spirit at the start of the judicial year in Washington reflects a 700 year old tradition honoring the sacred character of the law and the vital civic role of its guardians. Indeed, the practice of celebrating a Red Mass–“red” because of the color of both the liturgical vesture and the traditional judicial robes–at the opening of the judicial term is as old as the legal profession itself. According to historian James Brundage (cf. The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession, University of Chicago Press, 2008), the emergence of a distinctive legal profession in the West dates roughly to the thirteenth century–precisely when the first recorded celebrations of the Red Mass occurred in Paris in 1245 and in Westminster in 1301. It may well be that the widespread practice of celebrating a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit at other similar occasions–like the start of the academic year–originated with the tradition of the Red Mass.

The celebration of the annual Red Mass signals the profound esteem which the Church has for the Supreme Court and the legal and judicial institutions of this nation, for the invocation of the Holy Spirit on this occasion springs from nothing other than the trinitarian faith which is at the very center of her faith. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our dwelling with him.” Christ teaches and the Church proclaims that God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, desires to share the communion of trinitarian life with creaturely persons, that–in the famous formulation of St. Irenaeus–God who is without need of anyone gives communion with himself to those who need him. Christ teaches us, moreover, that it is the Holy Spirit who plays a critical role in fitting individual persons and the Church herself for this high destiny. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that the Father will send in my name…will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Thus we can pray: Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit! “Thou, on us who evermore / Thee confess and thee adore, / With thy sevenfold gifts descend. / Give us comfort when we die; / Give us life with thee on high; / Give us joys that never end.”

What should we be praying for as we invoke the Holy Spirit on the justices and on all the rest of us during this Red Mass? As St. Paul reminds us, the Holy Spirit himself helps us to ask for the right things: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groaning.” We have already heard some verses from the ancient “Golden Sequence” for Pentecost Sunday, the Veni Sancte Spiritus; let us turn to it again to learn more of what we can expect when the Church invokes the Holy Spirit in this solemn setting.

Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit! “Thou, of all consolers best, / Thou the soul’s delightful guest, / Dost refreshing peace bestow; / Thou in toil art comfort sweet; / Pleasant coolness in the heat; / Solace in the midst of woe.” In praying to the Holy Spirit, for, among other blessings, consolation, peace, and solace, the Church understands the nearly overwhelming complexity of the climate which envelops the practice of law and the administration of justice today.

And perhaps not just today. It was precisely such complexity that gave rise to the legal profession in the 13th century as popes, kings and bishops found it impossible to carry out their duties without expert legal advice. You will be amused to learn that, during this period, there was lively debate about whether popes should be elected from the ranks of theologians or of canon lawyers: as a theologian, it pains me to report that learned opinion favored the election of qualified lawyers to the See of Peter.

In all seriousness, no informed observer can fail to acknowledge that the social and cultural pluralism of our times–not to mention the relentless and sometimes pitiless public scrutiny to which you are subjected–makes the work of judges and lawyers today very hard indeed. The Church prays that, amidst the clamor of contending interests and seemingly intractable moral disagreements, the Holy Spirit will help you to maintain your personal integrity and professional equilibrium. Not for nothing, then, do we invoke the Holy Spirit today with these poignant words. Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit! “Heal our wounds, our strength renew; / On our dryness pour thy dew; / Wash the stains of guilt away. / Bend the stubborn heart and will; / Melt the frozen, warm the chill; / Guide the steps that go astray.”

The words of the prophet Ezechiel recall another important element in our invocation of the Holy Spirit today. “I will put my Spirit within you,” he says, “and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.” Positive law rests on certain principles the knowledge of which constitutes nothing less than a participation in the divine law itself: the pursuit of the common good through respect for the natural law, the dignity of the human person, the inviolability of innocent life from conception to natural death, the sanctity of marriage, justice for the poor, protection of minors, and so on. The legal profession is entrusted with the discernment and administration of justice and the rule of law according to an objective measure–in effect, according to principles–not of our own making. A consensus about these principles inspired the founders of modern democracies, and although it was profoundly influenced by Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (think of Averroes, Maimonides and Aquinas), this consensus was understood to transcend religious and cultural differences. Thus, it follows that the invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Red Mass is a prayer for light and guidance. Among the things for which we ardently pray is the wisdom to affirm and maintain those profound truths about human nature that are at the foundation of the common life we treasure in this great nation. “Holy Spirit, Lord of Light … / Come thou light of all that live … / Light immortal, light divine.”

At the deepest level, our invocation of the Holy Spirit here today manifests the conviction that the democratic state does not so much confer the most fundamental human rights and the duties of citizenship as acknowledge their existence and source in a power beyond the state, namely in God himself. Your presence here today bears eloquent witness to the enduring power of this conviction.

Yet, as she invokes the guidance and consolation of the Holy Spirit today, the erosion of this conviction is a source of deep concern for the Church. The alternative view–until recently more or less successfully resisted by dem
ocratic societies like ours–is the idea that man can find happiness and freedom only apart from God. This exclusive humanism has been exposed as an anti-humanism of the most radical kind. Man without God is not more free but surely in greater danger. The tragic history of the last century–as John Paul II and Benedict XVI have unceasingly reminded us–demonstrates that the eclipse of God leads not to greater human liberation but to the most dire human peril. That innocent human life is now so broadly under threat has seemed to many of us one of the many signs of this growing peril. Gabriel Marcel said somewhere that in our time “human flesh has undergone such intolerable outrage that it must receive some kind of reparation in glory…The world today can be endured only if one’s spirit is riveted on [the] hope of the resurrection… If this hope were shared by a greater number, perhaps, respect for the flesh and for the body, so terribly lacking in our time, would be restored.” Thus, along with wisdom and light, today we must also beg the Holy Spirit for the gift of hope in the resurrection.

Our enactment of this ancient ritual of the Red Mass joins us to the generations of judges and lawyers who pursued their professions conscious of their need for divine grace and guidance, for enlightenment, for consolation, for refreshment, for solace, for healing, for comfort, for hope. May these wonderful blessings of the Holy Spirit be yours today!

Veni Sancte Spritus! Come Holy Spirit!

“Come, thou Father of the poor,

Come with treasures which endure…

Light immortal, light divine,

Visit thou these hearts of thine,

And our inmost being fill.” Amen.

The Cross of Christ prepares us for the final judgment

Autumn is upon us with its mix of weather: recent days
there’s been warmth and coolness, rain, clouds and sun. The earth is adjusting and so are we, at least liturgically. Judging by the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church we are
near the end of the liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent only a few weeks away. Some churches, like the Maronites in
particular, mark this time of the liturgical year by counting weeks after the
Exaltation of the Cross in a time called the Season of the Cross. This particular season of the Maronite liturgical calendar prepares us to account for our lives by looking to our personal final victory through prayer, fasting, waiting, and conversion of life. The rich liturgical theology of the Maronite Church ought to draw us more closely to the glory of the Lord’s right side in an attitude of gratitude for all things in life.

You’ll hear Maronite liturgical theology speak of
Jesus’ Cross as “the Cross of Light,” the symbol -the reality– par excellence of
the victorious Son of Man and Son of God. The cross of is that primary sign by
which Jesus Christ, Our Lord, becomes for us the victor over death and opens
the gates of heaven for our entrance into blessedness with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The Maronite Church
prayed today: When you shall appear on the last day the sign of the cross shall
shine brighter than the sun, enable us, your worshipers, to enter your kingdom
of light, and glorify and thank you, O Christ, with your father, and your Holy
Spirit, now and forever.