Priesthood is enlightened by reason & freedom, Archbishop Piacenza said


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“Are you resolved, with the help of the Holy Spirit,
to discharge without fail the office of the priesthood in the presbyteral order
as a conscientious fellow worker with the Bishop in caring for the Lord’s
flock?”

The Archbishop-Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy,
Mauro Piacenza, wrote to the world’s priests on July 15th reflecting on the
liturgical theology that identifies and supports the theology of priesthood.
Now that we are clearly in the Year of the Priest we have to make solid effort
at connecting our daily prayer for priests (and, those preparing for
ordination) and education on what the Church believes and teaches about the
priesthood. This year dedicated to the priesthood is not only directed to
renewal and reform of the priesthood but also conversion of the entire Church. The
year of priestly renewal is not merely centered on prayer for the local priest (which
is most essential) but also a time for some intellectual formation for both
priest and people. So, the proposal of the Pope is that we give a sufficient
attention to both prayer and education, not one or the other. I’d like to note
that I find myself disappointed to see the lack of a public of storming heaven
for the graces of renewal but also the lack of sufficient discussion of what
the Church teaches and believes. What to do? In the meantime, Archbishop
Piacenza offers a number of juicy tidbits to consider. He said in part:

The
Church, in her maternal wisdom, has always taught that the ministry is born of
the encounter of two freedoms: divine and human. If on the one hand one must
always recall that, “no one claims this office for himself; he is called to it
by God” (CCC n.1578), on the other hand, clearly, it is always a “human and
created I”, with his own story and identity, with his own qualities and also
his own limitations, who responds to the divine call.

            The
liturgical-sacramental translation of this asymmetric and necessary dialogue
between the divine freedom which calls and the human freedom which responds is
represented by the questions which each of us has had addressed to him by the
Bishop during the rite our own ordination, immediately prior to the imposition
of hands. We shall revisit together in the months ahead this “dialogue of love
and freedom”.

            We
have been asked, “Are you resolved, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to
discharge without fail the office of the priesthood in the presbyteral order as
a conscientious fellow worker with the Bishop in caring for the Lord’s flock?”
We answered, “I Am”

            The
free and conscious response is based, therefore, on an explicit act of the will
(“Are you resolved to discharge the office”, “I am”) which, as we know well,
requires to be continuously enlightened by the judgement of reason and
sustained by freedom, so as not to become a sterile voluntarism or, worse, to
change over time, becoming unfaithful. The act of the will is enduring of its
very nature, because it is a human act, in which the fundamental qualities of
which the Creator has made us participants are expressed.

            The
undertaking, then, that we have assumed is “for the whole of life” and thus not
related to fads or indulgences much less to sentiments, which might be apparent
to a greater or less degree. While feelings may be said to have a role in
coming to the knowledge of the truth, it is only so as to direct out focus in
such a way as not to obstruct such knowledge but to assist the discernment of
it. Nevertheless, this is but one aspect of consciousness and cannot be its
determining factor.

            Our
will has accepted to exercise “the priestly ministry”, not other “professions”!
Above all else we are called to be priests always and, as the Saints remind us,
in every circumstance, exercising with our very being that ministry to which we
have been called. One does not merely act as a priest: one is a priest!

            Each
one of us is part of a dynamic entity, called to collaborate by demonstrating,
each in his own way, the Head of this Body: always as “fellow workers with the
Bishop“, in obedience to the good which he indicates, and “under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit”, that is in praying with each breath. Only he who prays can
hear the voice of the Spirit. As the Holy Father recalled in the General
Audience of the 1st July last, “Those who pray are not afraid; those who pray
are never alone; those who pray are saved!”.

Saint Elijah (Elias) the Prophet

An angel in the flesh, the foundation of the prophets, and the second forerunner of Christ, the glorious Elijah from on high sent grace to
Elisha, to cure sicknesses & cleanse lepers. He likewise overflows with
healing for those who honor him.

(Troparion of the feast, Tone 4)

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Let all Christ’s Church assemble here

And, gathered in His holy Name,

Keep solemn, joyful festival

To sing of great Elijah’s fame.

Of all the prophets who foretold

God’s hidden plan of saving grace,

He is the chief: to him we give,

The Tishbite, now the choicest place.

He called the folk of Israel

Back to their covenant with God;

Through kingly wrath and violence

God’s narrow way of truth he trod.

When earthly tasks for him were done,

You called him in a special way:

A fiery chariot came for him,

Foretelling Christ’s ascension day.

For all the graces You have giv’n

Through what Elijah did for You,

Your Church on earth gives endless praise,

O Father, Son, and Spirit true.

L.M. (88.88)

James Michael Thompson (2009)

New Haven native priest moonlights as clothing designer

Fr Andrew O'Connor.jpgInteresting people come from the Elm City! The New Haven native who’s also a Catholic priest, Father Andrew O’Connor, of the Archdiocese of New York, designs clothes, provides jobs in two countries and continues to preach the Gospel.

Mary O’Leary’s New Haven Register article on Father O’Connor altar-ations can be read here.
Nice to see Mary Alice & Charles’ son in the media!

Saint Camillus de Lellis

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As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my
love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have
kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken
to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Father, you
gave Saint Camillus a special love for the sick. Through his prayers inspire us
with your grace, so that by serving you in our brothers and sisters we may come
safely to you at the end of our lives.


A bio on Saint Camillus

Saint Bonaventure

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O God, Who did give Thy people blessed Bonaventure as a minister of eternal salvation, we beseech Thee; grant that we may deserve to have him as an intercessor in heaven, whom we had as a teacher of life on earth.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast day of Saint
Bonaventure. Born and baptized in 1221 as John in Bagnoregio, Tuscany, he had an encounter with Saint Francis of Assisi. John was a very sick child is said to have been brought to Saint Francis who prayed over him and brought him back to health. The pious legend has it that Saint Francis exclaimed “O buona ventura.”The healing wasn’t enough for John to enter the Franciscan order. A man of considerable talent and brilliance, the desire to study led him to the University of Paris where as a layman he completed his Master of Arts by the age of 22. He was regarded as an expert and a popular lecturer in logic and rhetoric. The Franciscans indicate that he enter the fraternity in either 1238 or 1243.By 1256 Bonaventure’s university life was anxiety provoking when lay professors started violently opposing their religious counterparts. In 1257 and not yet 36 years old, Bonaventure was elected minister general of the Franciscans. He was known to keep the unity and direction for the friars at a time that the order was experiencing unrest. Both Saints Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas were given their doctoral degrees from the University of Paris on 23 October 1257.The saint served the Church as bishop of Albano and as a cardinal.

Bonaventure died in 1274 while participating in the Council of Lyon; he was invited to the council by Pope Gregory X.

As a scholar and thinker with a sterling character, Saint Bonaventure was known to intercede for others before God and richly blessed by God leading others to say that he had escaped original sin. He left the Church a rich written legacy intellectual works and an incredible constellation of high profile students. His The Life of Saint Francis, Commentary on the Sentences of Lombard, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, and Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum, Breviloquium are his significant works.

Bonaventure was canonized by Pope Sixtus IV and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Sixtus V.

Saint Thomas Aquinas asked Saint Bonaventure about the source of his teaching; Bonaventure responded, “I study only the crucified one, Jesus Christ.” And so should we.

In your spare time why not read Joseph Ratzinger’s book, Theology of History in St. Bonaventure?

St Stanislaus Church (New Haven, CT) to host the St Gregory Society

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Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, Archbishop of Hartford, in a letter to the Saint Gregory Society of New Haven, Connecticut, gave his permission for the Traditional Latin Mass community to relocate from Sacred Heart Church in New Haven to Saint Stanislaus Church at 9 Eld Street in New Haven.

“He wants to be certain the church is appropriate for your needs,” wrote the archbishop.

He gave permission for the first Traditional Latin Mass at Saint Stanislaus in New Haven to be on The Feast of the Holy Cross, September 13, 2009. The Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal will be celebrated at 2 pm at Saint Stanislaus just as it had been celebrated at 2 PM at Sacred Heart.

In his cordial letter of introduction, Archbishop Mansell encouraged cordial relations with the pastor, Father Roman Kmiec, C.M., pastor of Saint Stanislaus. Father Kmiec has indeed warmly welcomed the Saint Gregory Society.

Archbishop Mansell said he was “glad to help” the Saint Gregory Society in finding a new home for the Community.

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Saint Stanislaus Church is staffed by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians) of the New England Province. The Vincentians, an congregation of priests and brothers founded by Saint Vincent de Paul in the 1600s, spread the gospel message of Jesus in championing the needs of the poor.

The De Paul Provincial House is located at 234 Keeney Street in Manchester, CT.

I am happy to receive this news. I spent nine years of my formative years at Saint Stan’s with the Vincentians and the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Saint Stan’s is New Haven’s best looking church maintaining the original artwork and liturgical furnishings.

The Saint Gregory Society of New Haven is a non-profit lay association founded in 1985 to promote the local celebration of the Traditional Latin Liturgy according to the Tridentine Missal in response to the Papal indult of October 3, 1984, Quattuor abhinc annos, which granted the use of the liturgical books in force in 1962.

Since January 1986, the Traditional Latin Mass regularly has been celebrated at the Sacred Heart Church in downtown New Haven. The Saint Gregory Society exists primarily to advocate the preservation of the immemorial rite of the Mass, to work for its celebration on a regular and unrestricted basis, and to disseminate information about and cultivate interest in the classical Roman liturgy and its central importance for Catholic faith and culture.

The Society supports a professional Schola Cantorum that provides the proper Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony for all sung liturgical functions.

For further information: saintgregorysociety@gmail.com.

(this article is edited & adapted)

Giving Caritatis in Veritate a first look

How is Caritatis in Veritate (CV; Truth in Charity) binding on the
consciences of Catholics or anyone else? CV is a teaching document that is
addressed to clergy and all people of good will. If you want to talk about it
binding a person’s faith and reason it comes only in the willingness to accept the pope’s vision of life expressed in this teaching. Its ability to influence the reader lies in how receptive the reader is to that which is presented in love.


CV is a document of the Church’s ordinary magisterium and
therefore not in the realm of being an infallible teaching. It is not an infallible teaching for one reason: encyclicals by nature do not define dogma, that is faith and morals, but it may explain in contemporary terms what the Church believes and teaches about a piece of dogma. Encyclicals like this one which deals with the social teaching of the Church and therefore integrates faith and morals developing new data. New information requires a contemporary application. That which is taught in CV does not bear directly on salvation. Furthermore for a teaching to be infallible a pope has to include in the teaching the threefold formula of “we pronounce, declare and define.” Ultimately, we see that CV is signed by the
pope himself therefore it is an official papal document and official teaching but not on the level of dogma.

Some readers will find this work
a bit difficult, that is dense. There are few things to remember at CV: it’s a
committee document, it’s lengthy (about 30K words), and it has theological
depth. Further and most important, CV has what some will call a theological
tour de force because it’s a “classic Ratzinger theology” because you see his insistence
on the integration of faith and reason.

We can never get away from truth known as a Person ( Jesus Christ). In this current work of Benedict there is an insistence on our seeking truth which is found and expressed, according to the pope, in the economy of charity.

For ages now we should know that the Church has no expertise secular mechanisms but in
humanity particularly moral and doctrinal; its mission to man’s dignity
and vocation. In Benedict’s own words we hear the echo of what has always been believed, that “The Church does not have technical solutions to present but, as an expert
in humanity, she offers to everyone the teaching of the sacred Scripture on the
truth about man and proclaims the Gospel of Love and justice.” In another
place the pope also said that “The solutions to the current problems of
humanity cannot be merely technical, but must take account of all the needs of
the person, who is endowed with soul and body, and must thus take the Creator,
God, into consideration.”


CV clearly celebrates and applies in contemporary terms Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical Populorum
progressio and the Pope recognizes today’s situation is
different and therefore adapts the church’s approach to social matters.  This encyclical a work of continuity in Church teaching. That is to say, Pope Benedict is taking his lead from the continuous teaching of the Church and therefore awakens our attention to a clearer sense of responsibility for shaping the 21st century according to the virtue of peace born of truth and justice. Consistently through the years the Church demands from us a heightened consciousness of our own freedom particularly a freedom wrought by Jesus Christ by indicating the scandals of injustice that exist when man and woman are blinded by sin.


The
Pope Benedict links man’s religious and human freedom with life issues. If you have to think about
a subtext, CV is a synthesis of the whole of theology. In this encyclical we
see the notion that human dignity is anchored in truth; man and woman has to be
at the center of every decision. As Pope John Paul II said in Centesimus
annus, man is mankind’s greatest asset. Speaking of the
Church’s interest in humanity, John Paul said: 

Her sole purpose has been
care and responsibility for man, who has been entrusted to her by Christ
himself: for this man, whom, as the Second Vatican Council recalls, is the only
creature on earth which God willed for its own sake, and for which God has his
plan, that is, a share in eternal salvation. We are not dealing here with man
in the “abstract”, but with the real, “concrete”,
“historical” man. We are dealing with each individual, since each one
is included in the mystery of Redemption, and through this mystery Christ has
united himself with each one for ever. It follows that the Church cannot
abandon man, and that “this man is the primary route that the Church must
travel in fulfilling her mission … the way traced out by Christ himself, the
way that leads invariably through the mystery of the Incarnation and the
Redemption.”


Catholics, indeed all men and women of good will, have to make the connection with reality that humanity is radically connected with
the divine. But also, Catholics will come to see in CV that Pope Benedict believes in a companionship that is essential if we are to really thrive as a people with a common destiny; our job is to be mindful that there is truth in genuine friendship (cf. the other encyclicals of the pope). I think as we progress in this millennium we have to
regularly consider with faith and reason who man is according to method of faith and reason viz. what those who are
constructing a globalized sense of society say man is or is not. In other words, whose understanding of humanity is more reasonable, more loving and more life-giving? The Church’s or Citigroup’s? Increasingly
we hear how bad the world has been or is becoming and little on how a true
Christian responds to such anxieties. Sadly, many homilies we hear the priest or
deacon speak more of a reduction of man’s faith and the radical nihilism man
faces than salvation history wrought by Jesus Christ. CV opens the doors for us to live as God wants us to live by reminding us that the truth in freedom lies in the adherence to God’s discoverable plan.