The Catholic Holy Land Communication Centre

Here's a interesting new apostlate: The Catholic Holy Land Communication Centre in Jerusalem


Per Spero News:


The new Holy Land Catholic Communications Centre based in Jerusalem hopes to provide information in five languages - English, Italian, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, according to FIDES.

The agency will provide news and information on the initiatives, life, and activity of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. It will also serve as a centre for information, coordination and networking among the churches, parishes, and pastoral centers of the various Catholic rites that exist there.

The agency aims to contribute to the spread of reliable reports on the situations in the Holy Land, in response to the Church’s essential mission of announcing the truth.


For instance, I did not know that most Catholic churches in Palestine and Jordan are keeping the same liturgical calendar as the eastern Churches and celebrated Easter last Sunday! From the website, dated April 25:

Most Catholic parishes in Palestine and Jordan are celebrating the Holy Week. The date coincides with that of the Oriental Churches that follow the Julian calendar. The choice to celebrate together with the Oriental Churches has been made to underline the importance of the journey towards full communion.

The website has a brief introduction to each the various Churches that are in communion with Rome: Armenian, Greek Catholic, Maronite, Syrian Catholic, Caldean, and has a fascinating page on Arabic-speaking saints of the Holy Land.

One - ABUNA YAAQUB EL-HADDAD - will be beatified June 22.

The site has pictures, videos, and some valuable links to various Catholic churches and institutions in the Holy Land. It is worth adding to your blogroll.

Check it out

St. Catherine on Dominican Spirituality

St. Catherine on Dominican spirituality and preaching:

From a lecture on Dominican spirituality by Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P. given at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C (and a touch of Op humor!)

More Catherine Goodies

Susan over at Creo et Dios posts a lovely bit from St. Catherine's Dialogue here.

By the way, if you are looking for Catherine goodies, you've come to the right spot:

We've got her Dialogue, her Letters (Vol 1 and Vol 2), her Prayers, as well as copies of the wonderful icon of St. Catherine written for the Institute, and a lovely holy card.

Happy St. Catherine's Feast Day!

Happy St. Catherine's feast day!

Alas, I am celebrating by one last big push to get a big project out. There is no rest for the wicked!

But for those of you who have been good - there is a treat over at the invaluable Disputations where Tom has been carefully, and in the best Dominican manner, discussing the challenging content of one of St. Catherine's letters to a seeking layman.

Of course, when was Catherine not challenging in her letters?

When reading Raymond de Capua's biography of Catherine, I found myself overwhelmed, thinking " Did that woman ever spend 10 minutes in a normal, boring manner?"

You gotta allow for the hagiographic instinct - especially since Raymond was writing with an eye toward Catherine's eventual canonization.

There may possibly be time for more later. But in the meantime as Tom puts it:

In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary, happy Feast of St. Catherine of Siena!

Cultural Catholicism, RIP

From a excellent post this morning by Amy Welborn that is music to our ears (thanks to Keith Strohm for bringing to my attention):

Amy writes:

Here is the Catholic problem that I see when Benedict’s words bounce around my head. Let me see if I can say this concisely:

For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Catholic “way” of being in this world has been rooted in some assumptions. For my purposes, I’ll highlight this one: The Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ. This is obvious to anyone with eyes to see and the relationship between one’s individual faith, Christ, and the Church is clear and intuitive.

Sherry's note: Of course, it isn't obvious anymore - not to the majority of those born and raised within the Church apparently (or the majority of our baptized members would not be awol) and certainly not for those outside and soaked in our post-modern culture. (who are nevertheless culturally disposed to seek a personal faith for themselves if we can be bothered to propose the Gospel to them explicitly and meaningfully).

"You take that, and mix it with 1500 years of being able to maintain this assumption without any competing viewpoints, and you have a formula for being ill-equipped to make those connections in the contemporary world."

Absolutely. The nice thing is that Amy can say this sort of thing without be accused of being a covert Protestant. :-}

And as I see it, this is the core of what Benedict is trying to help us all do. Focus on Christ, take an honest look at the world around us, the questions people ask and the reasons people don’t believe and then be in this world, as the Body of Christ, in a way that makes it clear that Jesus Christ came to answers those questions, quench that thirst, give eternal life, and that the Church is where he is found.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Which is exactly what our seminar Making Disciples is all about.

"In other words…the “new evangelization” called for by these last two Popes is not about reaffirming Catholic identity in some abstract or institutional sense. It’s about confidently believing that Jesus Christ is the answer and then just as confidently helping people see and experience Christ in the Church: in its spiritual tradition, sacramental life, teachings, artistic heritage and sacrificial service to the poor, sick and dying.

In other words: Cultural Catholicism, RIP.

What will rise in its stead?"


Exactly. If we are to avoid "reaffirming Catholic identity in some abstract or institutional sense" everything we do, all our institutions and traditions and the Church herself must be seen and proposed in light of their beginning and ending in Christ.

Help - My Anti-Charism is Showing!

I'm having problems with blogger. I want to post some You tube videos for St. Catherine's feast day tomorrow but
I no longer can simply copy the embed HTML and paste it. Anybody know how to do with the new blogger tools?

Whose (State of) Life Is It?

I wanted to make more public some reflections on state of life callings that would have been hidden in a thread on Sherry's post last Thursday on priestless parishes. One poster quoted Pope Benedict's comment on the importance of prayer and vocations:

"Prayer is the first means by which we come to know the Lord's will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God's call. So I think learning prayer, being prayerful people, is an essential point for the living church. Programs, plans, projects are necessary and have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples."

Another poster responded by saying,

"In the 1996 apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata, John Paul revived the language of higher and lower vocations....Thus the consecrated life is objectively a higher expression of a universal vocation."

Marriage, celibacy and virginity all point to self-giving in Catholic theology, as every Christian, in imitation of Jesus, is meant to give themselves first completely to God, and then to other people. In his book, "The Holy Longing," Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, describes marriage as an exploration of the depths of human love, and celibacy/virginity as an exploration of the breadth of human love. But the common thread of the Christian life is self-giving love.

The idea of celibacy being a preferable condition to marriage is found in St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and reflects his perspective that the present age is quickly passing away and that Christ's return in glory and judgment is imminent. He also refers to celibacy as a gift (in Greek, charisma) from God not given to all.

Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am, but each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. Now to the unmarried and to widows, I say: it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do, but if they cannot exercise self-control they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire. 1Cor 7:7-9

If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that. I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away. I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction. 1 Cor 7:28-35

In Paul's mind, marriage could interfere with the relationship with Christ, even though he also sees marriage as a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:21-28)

What can be forgotten in the discussion of these states of life is the fundamental call to discipleship and the nature of Christian life as one of continual self-gift. From the moment of our baptism we are directed towards others by virtue of the charisms we are given by God in that sacrament. They are for others, rather than ourselves. They indicate that whatever calling we pursue and whatever state of life, our life is not our own; we are Christ's.

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.” Rom. 14:7-8

My discomfort with the idea of celibacy being a 'higher' vocation than marriage isn't with the teaching, but with the practice. Certainly married people can be selfish - and the unhappiness of many marriages may well reflect that. But a celibate life is not automatically a sign of greater selflessness. It can be just the opposite. The freedom that I enjoy as a celibate can easily be turned to selfishness, particularly if I begin to take advantage of people who apparently feel sorry for me because, in their words, "I've given so much up." In the past week alone I have been offered several boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts, cash, a loaner bike to ride along with a helmet, bottles of Powerade and cash; a cake, a soda, and several free lunches.

Now, I suppose it's possible that some of this generosity is due to the fact that I'm such a lovable guy. Or, perhaps, I'm much more pathetic than I thought, and naturally elicit waves of pity from others.

But I think it's more likely that we've lost sight of the fundamental and universal call to holiness and discipleship. If we consider marriage - or just good 'ole sex - to be the greatest good, then, yes, I have "given up so much." But the religious life I've embraced is meant to point to the Kingdom of God and heaven, where Mt 22:30 says we live like angels, not given in marriage. My life is meant to point to a greater good even than sex and marriage - discipleship and the eternal union with Jesus that it leads to! In this sense my celibate life can said to be "higher" in that it points to a higher, eternal reality that we can easily forget: married, single, virgin, divorced, widowed, cleric, lay, religious, regardless of sexual orientation, we are the Lord's! If the primary relationship of the Christian is with Christ, then it is the married person who has "given so much up," not the other way around!

Let me buy a round of Krispy Kremes!

Called & Gifted: Minnesota Style

Thomas Hall, founder of LoveToBeCatholic.com, a sort of Catholic You Tube, writes about his experience of the small group version of the Called & Gifted process in Minnesota last weekend.

Tom had been invited to tell his story and received a warm welcome. He writes:

"The Called and Gifted seminar in a great idea. We all have received gifts, through Baptism and Confirmation, for the ways God intends his love to reach others through us. This seminar helps people discover these gifts! I hope these types of programs become widespread. I believe that many lay men and women want do more, but do not quite known how to discern God's call. This weekend, a group of wonderful and dedicated Catholics in Faribault, Minnesota are sacrificing their time with family to figure it out. God bless them."

Groups like the one Tom describes are meeting all over the country and other parts of the world from Cairns, Australia to Singapore. As the sister facilitating a discernment group in her mid-western parish wrote us last week. "The process is amazing."

What do we expect? When we start seriously attending to the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of real men and women, how could it help but be amazing?

Rome - Before It Was Catholic

Blogging has gotten short shrift lately - between work and spring time clean -up in the garden and expanding the irrigation system (this time for a 800 sf wildflower bed, one of many I have to fill)

Oh - and there's one more thing: I've been watching Rome: the HBO series recommended by a historian friend of mine, who raves about how that the series gets so many Roman attitudes right.

Especially religion.

Set in the Rome of Julius Ceasar and Cicero, and Cato, and Brutus and Pompey, the series doesn't attempt to portray the political and military history of the period with meticulous accuracy - but it does go to great length to portray characters operating from within a truly Roman worldview and the result is both amazing and disturbing.

Imagine a world without a concept of "morality" as we understand it - because there is no idea of universal right and wrong. (There was duty - to the state, to one's family, according to one's status is life.) "Universal human rights?" Unknown. Your "rights" were linked inextricably to your status, not intrinsic to your humanity. A single all powerful, God of self=giving love who is utterly committed to your good, to your ultimate, eternal, happiness, to your salvation, and desires an intimate relationship with you? A God whose character and purposes are pure, incorrupt, and utterly trustworthy? Unimaginable.

Because "God" as we understand him does not exist. Life is saturated with religion but it has nothing to do with right or wrong. It is a religion of fear - because the gods are to out to get you. There are gods for everything - from war to door hinges - and human beings spend their lives constantly sacrificing to (and you have to do the ritual exactly right or its no good) and placating these gods cause if you don't, these powerful, self-absorbed, divine and semi=divine bastards are going to make you pay.

So you invoke the gods to protect your child (as one character does by having a bull slaughtered above and being drenched in the bull's blood) and to destroy your enemy (in one of the most chilling scenes, an elegant matron curses her enemies and promises the gods she will rejoice and sacrifice to them if her enemies are destroyed).

As the historical consultant to Rome points out over and over here, our contemporary western ideas of right and wrong and assumptions about the universe are the outgrowth of Judeo-Christian values which are profoundly different from those that Romans knew before Christ. He also pointed out that many viewers liked the idea of having the "burden" of Judeo-Christian morality lifted from them.

Which is titillating, I suppose, if you are sitting in your clean, bright, safe 21st century living room watching your 50 inch plasma TV.

But what if you were one of the millions of slaves that were the source of Roman wealth. One of the startling things about the series is watching the casual way in which patrician Romans strike and whip their slaves on a whim. Slaves were regarded as being without a soul and kindness to a slave was considered weakness. Slaves who were to testify in court were required by law to be tortured first. Read St. Paul's Letter to Philemon in light of that reality.

Or if you were happily married and your father or mother simply informed you that you would be divorced and married to someone else. Marriage was not a sacrament and the pater familia retained total power over children through out their lives.

Husbands could beat their wives and children whenever they felt like it - to death even - if they were sufficiently displeased. (One main character, Niobe, lives in terror that her soldier husband will find out that she had an affair after being told that her husband had died in battle. Because as she tells her daughter, if he finds out, he will kill us all.) Now re-read Ephesians 4 and see how it sounds.

They tell of a actual letter written by a Roman man to his wife in which he ends matter of factly with this words: "About the child you are about to bear. If it is a boy, keep it. If it is a girl, expose it."

The cumulative force of watching human beings wrestling with the burden of life in a world devoid of the gospel and all it has generated over 2,000 years is stunning.

One of the two main characters (both Roman soldiers mentioned by name by Julius Caesar) is Lucius Vorenus. His is a poignant character. Although Vorenus is a dour, hard man, he is also naturally deeply religious and seems to be longing for a God really worth worshiping and a universe larger than the one he knows. I was irresistibly reminded of the Advent passages: "a people walking in darkness have seen a great light." How i longed to tell Vorenus that there was so much more.

Rome helps you sense in a new way the beauty, the power, the impact, the compelling quality of the gospel when first heard by men and women living in such a world.

It also illuminates anew the extraordinary willingness of the Father to give his son to and the Son to agree to be born into such a world.

The darkness of post-modern post-Christendom is not the darkness of the pre-Christian world. Many Catholic commentators have noted this but we tend to assume that the darkness we deal with is far worse.

Watch Rome and then we'll talk.

(Note: This is not a show for children. There is lots of sex, nudity, and violence and it can be hard even on adult stomachs and spirits. It is beautifully photographed and acted, compelling but dark as was the world it depicts.)

Nearly Half US Parishes Share Pastor

Per the Emerging Models of Pastoral Ministry Conference that was held last weekend (and which we were strongly urged to attend but just couldn't manage). From Catholic New Service:

Reported the results of a four-year study conducted in response to ongoing shifts in the Catholic Church. The study, commissioned in 2002 by a coalition of six Catholic national organizations, received a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to conduct the study and to assess its findings.

One finding:

With about 28,000 diocesan priests, 70 percent of whom are older than 55, the United States is moving toward clusters of parishes under the care of a single pastor, she said. Indeed, nearly half of all U.S. parishes already share their pastor with another parish or mission.


I've never seen a national figure like this but I'm not surprised.

A number of the dioceses we've worked with are busy cutting the number of parishes in half and twinning or merging communities.

What was announced in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey three weeks ago (38 merged parishes, three parish clusters (involving six parishes) and 22 stand-alone parishes. The reconfiguration, when fully implemented, will bring about an overall reduction in the number of parishes from the current 124 parishes to 66 parishes.) is already present reality or the immediate future for many other dioceses.

The number of priests in the US will continue to decline until about 2015 when we should bottom out and stabilize.

But bringing the proportion of priest to lay Catholic back up to the pre-Vatican II level seems most unlikely. Yes, a higher proportion of Gen X/Millenial generation are becoming priests and religious - but since only 17 - 19% of those generations attend Mass every week (from which the majority of ecclesial vocations come), our overall numbers are not going to go up much.

This is a totally different model of priestly ministry than our practice and theology has assumed and one of the unintended effects of the fact that our Catholic population continues to grow.

What on earth would we do if the 75% of US Catholics who don't attend Mass every Sunday actually showed up? What if all the adults received at Easter were still there a year later?

Here's the deal. Our individual vocations are a mystery hidden in Christ and revealed through an extended relationship with Christ. Intentional discipleship is the source of all vocations.

If we create a culture of discipleship in our parishes today, we will change our tomorrow.

Padre Pio on Display

Padre Pio's body will be on display, starting today, according to CNN, the BBC, the Telegraph, and this interesting MSNBC piece, etc.

A million pilgrims are expected to see the saint between now and mid-September

Per Catholic Online:

SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy (CNS) - The body of St. Padre Pio will be exhumed, studied and displayed for public veneration from mid-April to late September, said the archbishop who oversees the shrine where the saint is buried.

Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, papal delegate for the shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, announced Jan. 6 that he and the Capuchin friars of Padre Pio's community had decided it was important to verify the condition of the saint's body and find a way to ensure its preservation.

"A further motive for rejoicing," he said, stems from the fact that the Capuchins, with Vatican approval, "have authorized the exposition and public veneration of the saint's body for several months beginning in mid-April."

In addition to marking the 40th anniversary of Padre Pio's death Sept. 23, 1968, the public veneration of his remains also will coincide with the 90th anniversary of the day on which he was believed to have received the stigmata, bloody wounds recalling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.

According to the Capuchins, Padre Pio received the stigmata Sept. 20, 1918.


Per the New York Times:

Capuchin friars at the sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy, where Padre Pio's tomb is visited by seven million pilgrims annually, said that "parts of the body" had been found to be "intact". Archbishop D'Ambrosio said the body was in "surprisingly good condition. As soon as we got inside the tomb we could clearly make out the beard. The top part of the skull is partly skeletal but the chin is perfect and the rest of the body is well preserved. The knees, hands, mittens and nails are clearly visible.........If Padre Pio allows me, I might say he looks as though he just had a manicure''. The body would be placed in a glass covered coffin for veneration on 24 April for a period of "several months".

The exhumation of the saint, who was credited with over a thousand miraculous cures, had been approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Congregation's Prefect, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, noted that the body of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963, had also been exhumed when he was beatified, the step before sainthood. The body was found to be unusually well preserved.

Vatican officials said Padre Pio's body had been injected with formalin for burial but "no special measures" were otherwise taken to preserve his body.

Here are pictures of the thousands at San Giovanni Rotundo today. (Via AOL news)

One surprise: It is said that when Pio's body was exhumed, there was no sign of stigmata.

Comments?

One of our C & G teachers had been healed from terminal cancer via St. Pio's intercession.

Anyone else have a Padre Pio story?

First Native Priest To Be Ordained in Kazakhstan

Good news from Khazakhstan via Aid to the Church

CATHOLICS in Kazakhstan are preparing for the ordination of what Church leaders believe is the first priest to come from the country’s native population in modern times.

Up to 80 percent of Catholic priests and most of the faithful in the central Asian republic are foreigners with the rest made up of descendants of immigrants.

As a result, their outreach to the country’s native people is severely hampered but if all goes to plan the situation could change dramatically when on 29th June 25-year-old Ruslan Rakhimberlinov, a teenage convert to Catholicism, is ordained.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Ruslan’s bishop, Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, central Kazakhstan explained: “This is a very historic event – the first ever.”

With his Mongolian physical features as is typical among natives in Kazakhstan, Ruslan is expected to make a big impression in a country where often the Catholic Church is often seen as very foreign.

Bishop Schneider, who will preside at the ordination ceremony, said: “I do not expect there will be an immediate reaction but when the people see him, they will I am sure become accustomed to him.”

For Bishop Schneider, the ordination is hugely important: “The Church has yet to be properly implanted and this is only possible with clergy native to Kazakhstan.”

Today’s Catholic community is made up of descendants of people from Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, who were deported to Kazakhstan during the Soviet era. Bishop Schneider said that around Karaganda there was a concentration camp and a series of control centres about the size of France.

Hence the wide gulf in society in Kazakhstan.

Message from a Dominican in Mosul

This brief note was forwarded to the members of my Province by our Provincial. It's from an unnamed friar in Iraq. I am sure that the anxiety and fear that marks the lives of Christians in Iraq is shared by many of their Muslim neighbors.

“As I am writing this message for you two explosions took place close to Mosul University which is nearby the Spiritual centre. Thank God nothing happened to the convent. All the sisters are safe. Thank God the student sisters were not at the university. They were at the convent. They are safe as well. We are fed up as the situation is getting worse day after day. We can no longer bear the uncertainty of the coming moments or persevere the great amount of the suppressed pressure, panic and fear. On Wednesday at a quarter to eight pm two cars exploded near Alsaa church. Fr. Phillip was with a couple of young men in the priory. Thank God for their safety. They were not even injured. I rang him, but he could hardly give me any news because he was in panic and fear. I phoned him the next morning inquiring if I could go to see him. He said that reaching the place was impossible, but he provided me with these details: great damage was done to the flats that belong to Dominican friars where many Christian families live. Most of the people in these flats were wounded, among them were many children and elderly. Many soldiers who lost their lives were the victim of these explosions. Almost all the fantastic windows of Alsaa church were smashed, the doors were broken and the marvelous clocks fell down. The friars are tired of repairing the church for the third time.”

Let's pray for peace in Iraq for all people.

Made It

Just finished a delightful lunch of rabbit stew.
Had a lovely bouquet of wildflowers to grace my table.
Sat with my back to the window.

Make My Day

Just back from seeing the sun rise on snowy peaks, wild rabbits playing, the first wildflowers.

I know. I sound like Madeline Basset* on a particularly bad day but spring in God's country can do that to you.

That's why I'm so glad that I have the suffering of Mark and other blog slaves to keep me grounded.

It just makes your day to know that you aren't one of them.

The Curt Jester Triumphs Again

LOL.

"Distraction is prayer is known in the spiritual director field as Prayer Attention Deficit Disorder (PADD) or Supplication Attention Deficit (SAD) and is a birth defect caused by original sin. Since Adam and Eve only Jesus and Mary have not had to deal with Prayer Attention Deficit Disorder.

But you ask "Now that I know what the problem is how do I deal with it?"

That is where St. Johnson and St. Johnson's steps in with the latest pharmaceutical wonder. Our patented ingredients help to put your daily life behind you and to help you to concentrate while praying.

You can find information on our new product Ridalin on television or the sample ad below in your favorite magazine."




And as Fr. Philip, OP comments:

Sign me up for one of those once a month renewal prescriptions...I'll need the extra strength, extended release, please.

Visit the divinely inspired Jester to savor the whole thing.

Blogger's Delight

SPQN, Father Roderick's group, is sponsoring the first Catholic New Media Celebration in Atlanta on June 22 right after their Eucharistic Conference.

Blogs, podcasts, websites, software, games, and just about anything interactive are considered New Media and both creators and consumers are invited to this one day event. From their website:

CNMC is a day of sharing the latest technologies and techniques used by both religious and laypeople to creatively and effectively invite others to grow in the Catholic faith through new and modern ways, not only in parishes and dioceses, but throughout the whole world. New media includes podcasts and online video, games and software, websites and blogs, mobile technology and all things interactive.

From the description of the schedule, it looks like pod-casting will rule the day. Fr. Roderick will be there as well as the writer of That Catholic Show. Registration is free. Check it out.

Blessed John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman, the great English convert and theologian of the 19th century, is going to be beatified this year according to Sunday's London Times. While I have learned to be cautious about Church news that comes from the Times, this looks pretty solid.

The Vatican will announce the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman after accepting that he was responsible for a miracle in which an American clergyman was “cured” of a crippling spinal disorder.

Newman will be given the title “Blessed” after a ceremony later this year, leaving him one step away from full sainthood.

If the Catholic church attributes a further miracle to him, Newman could be canonised as early as 2009.

Praise God!

And after canonization, doctor of the Church? What less for the "Father" of the Second Vatican Council?

For the definitive collection of Newman links for your every Newman need, where else would one go but to Dave Armstrong?

We quote Newman at every Called & Gifted workshop. Partly because Newman laid the groundwork for the discussions on the dignity, mission, spirituality, and formation of the laity that occurred at the Second Vatican Council.

Take a look at this excellent article by Paul Chavasse on Newman and the Laity:

On the contribution of the laity to the development of doctrine:

Some one hundred years after Newman’s death, what can we say about his thoughts on the laity and their vital role in the life of the Church? Seen positively, many of Newman’s deepest insights have been taken up and have become an accepted part of modem ecclesiological thinking. This is undoubtedly because Newman’s research and thought were so soundly based on Scripture and the Fathers; his own “methodology” sprang from a true understanding of the Church’s Tradition. Any true renewal has to begin in this manner: a true growth based on what has gone before, seen in the needs that the present and future make apparent. The breadth of vision and understanding that Newman presents in his writings was such as to make him the “unseen guide” in so many of the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council and in its teachings on the laity in the Church. It will be profitable to see this in practice, by quoting one or two passages from the conciliar documents. For instance, the constitution Lumen Gentium contains the following reflection on how the faithful share in Christ’s prophetic message:

The holy People of God shares also in Christ’s prophetic office: it spreads abroad a living witness to him, especially by a life of faith and love and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips praising his name (cf. Heb 13:15). The whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the holy one (cf. 1 Jn 2:20 and 27) cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of the faith (sensus fidei) of the whole people, when, “from the bishops to the last of the faithful” they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals. By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (magisterium) and obeying it, receives not the mere word of men, but truly the word of God (cf.1Th 2:13),the faith once for all delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3). The People unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life. [44]

This paragraph had originally been intended to form part of Chapter IV, on the laity, but was brought forward into the chapter on the People of God in order to mark the unity that exists between the laity and the hierarchy, which together form the People of God, who cannot err in matters of belief when they show that “universalis consensus” in matters of faith and morals. Objections and amendments to the text, which had wanted to highlight the role of the hierarchy more prominently, were not admitted, because the Council Fathers wanted to show that the sensus fidei was not to be considered as a particular prerogative of the hierarchy but as a power of the whole Church. There is a unity in bearing witness to the Faith that belongs to the totality of the Body of Christ. This concern of the Council Fathers is a most eloquent echo of the “pastorum et fidelium conspiratio” that Newman believed in and advocated so strongly.

Newman’s explanation of the importance of the consensus of the faithful and how that assists the Church is also to be found in the Council documents. Some of the bishops wished to say that the faithful are infallible because they reflect the teaching of the infallible Magisterium, but this was objected to as being an inadequate notion. Investigating Tradition, as Newman had done, it was obvious that the process of doctrinal development sometimes begins with the people: their consensus activates the infallible teaching authority of the Magisterium, which must discern and judge what has happened. The laity do not just reflect the teaching of the Magisterium, but they possess an active exercise of their prerogative that comes from their being constituted as the people of God. This is so made up of all the baptized because, irrespective of their hierarchical status or lack of it, they are the recipients of those motions or inspirations of the Holy Spirit that form the “dynamic element” in the Church, over against the “static element”, which is the hierarchy as such.

On the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the laity:

It is not only through the sacraments and the ministrations of the Church that the Holy Spirit makes holy the People, leads them and enriches them with his virtues. Allotting his gifts according as he wills (cf. 1 Cor 12:11), he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts he makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church, as it is written, “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit” (1 Cor 12:7). Whether these charisms be very remarkable or more simple and widely diffused, they are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation since they are fitting and useful for the needs of the Church. [45]

This teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit being given to and for the good of the whole Church is also identical to that which Newman believed and proclaimed to be the case. His own criterion, which established the fact that the laity ought to be consulted, is precisely that they are open to and led by the workings of the Holy Spirit — the Divine Indwelling. This enables them, as devout believers, to appreciate ever more readily the Church’s Traditions and beliefs and, as we have already noted, guided by the same Holy Spirit, the laity has the gift of knowing the meaning of the Creed and the Deposit of Faith and in such a way that they can resist heresy and cling unswervingly to the truth.

Especially important in view of what Newman taught is the following passage:

For the exercise of the apostolate [the Holy Spirit] gives the faithful special gifts . . . so that each and all, putting at the service of others the grace received, may be “as good stewards of God’s varied gifts” (1 Pet 4:10) . . . . From the reception of these charisms, even the most ordinary ones, there arise for each of the faithful the right and duty of exercising them in the Church and in the world for the good of men and the development of the Church. [49]

That “right and duty” Newman had perceived at work when the laity helped save the Church from the Arian heresy. In a later age, he hoped it would be developed and used again to defend the Church from outside attacks, and, within, to prevent the Church from becoming too clericalized and turned in upon itself, and he hoped that a well-deployed, educated, and faithful laity would be able to do more good in those many areas of secular life where even an army of priests could not penetrate so effectively.

Comments?

Coming Home Forum

Missed most of the Yankee Stadium papal Mass and the farewell ceremony.

Cause I was part of a panel of converts telling their story to a nearly 100 person crowd in Colorado Springs. Not all present were Catholic, I was told. I liked and admired all the other panelists.

Did get to meet Paul McCusker, the creator of the Odyssey children's radio drama, who had never told his story before. He was poised and impressive. Paul mentioned that he was startled to receive an e-mail from a total stranger simply stated "I understand that you have become Catholic".

That's when I realized with a start that I was probably the culprit. Not knowing that he had only been Catholic 6 months and had never talked about it publicly, I had blithely blogged about this little upcoming gig and mentioned his name and some evangelical blogs had picked it up and voila! its suddenly public. Paul seemed to be dealing with it fine but was obviously a little disoriented by internet fame. I'll think twice in future when tempted to blog about a new convert whose background is especially noteworthy.

A couple themes:

How differently God works with all of us. There is no paradigm for this journey. One had wrestled with issues of authority. I read all the books but was really propelled into the Church by a series of mystical experiences. There was a couple: he had read his way into the Church while she came from a very tortured background. Both had been involved with New Age and occult movement and so still approach Marian devotion with alot of caution although they accept everything the Church teaches.

But all on a journey of mercy into the heart of God's body on earth. And there is room for all of us, thank God.

A number of the "new Catholics" present were former Episcopalians/Anglicans. One panelist and his wife were displaced by the dramatic divisions with the largest Episcopalian Church in our area which had, until last year, been a booming center of orthodox Anglicanism. He became Catholic, his wife attends with him but doesn't know where her place is anymore. Several people came up and mentioned to me that they had once been Episcopalian themselves.

As am I, although there wasn't enough time for me to mention that little detail of my journey, I have often thought how glad I am to have become Catholic 20 years ago rather than stay and attempt to fight a tortured rear guard action in the TEC.

But I grasped something of their pain.

And it was reminder once again that I am not called to apologetics. When one young man in the room asked the panel an unbelievably detailed question about Aramaic and Greek grammer and its significance for the Biblical foundation of papal primacy, we were all stumped. I was beyond stumped since I haven't even thought about such issues in years.

I think I'll stick to theology.

Much simpler.

A Christian Life That is Convincing

And this from Angelo Matara over at the marvelous Godspy:

He (Pope Benedict) ended by providing the answer to the problem he diagnosed decades ago, in 1968, in his book, Introduction to Christianity. The radical argument made by that book was brought to the public’s attention by Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete in his interview with Charley Rose shortly after the Pope’s election.

According to Albacete, then Josef Ratzinger saw that: “the number one problem with Christianity today is that the Christian life is no longer convincing. It doesn’t convince anyone. So his program is the formation of he says creative minorities, throughout the world, that will offer not words but the witness of a life full of humanity, of peace, of joy, so that people from what is a cruel world will find a home in these communities.”

Reading the Pope’s speech to the bishops, what’s evident is that the Pope is proposing the method of the “creative minorities” to all the faithful. While the Pope will accept a Church that is smaller and more convincing, if that is God’s will, he won’t accept it without a fight: it’s the task of the Bishops to promote the “call to holiness” to all Catholics:

“In a society that rightly values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every level of her teaching — in catechesis, preaching, seminary and university instruction — an apologetics aimed at affirming the truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason, and a sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as a liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an authentic and fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be preached and taught as an integral way of life, offering an attractive and true answer, intellectually and practically, to real human problems… I believe that the Church in America, at this point in her history, is faced with the challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment.

No more Christendom, big battalions assumptions. No illusions about where we stand vis a vis the culture.

But not a barricade/ghetto mentality either. Not small circles, filled with rage and fear, talking to ourselves in language only we understand about subjects that only the initiate understand and care about. Because the ghetto is not the only alternative to Christendom.

Convincing is the word. And who are we seeking to convince? Not just those already in the pews.

I'm reading a couple of really intriguing books on evangelizing post-moderns right now in preparation for our Making Disciples seminars this summer. One book spends a lot of time on the necessity of arousing curiosity about Jesus and the faith through exposure to your own life and the lives of other Christians.

Of course, the obvious, painful, question, the question that must be asked, is "What about my life would arouse curiosity about Christ in a non-believer?"

And a variant question that all of us who blog should ask: What about this blog would arouse curiosity about Christ in a non-believer? Because in a 24/7 internet world, our discussions are not private.

Our discussions - all of them - are a witness.

Fall in Love . . .And It Will Decide Everything

Susan over at Creo En Dios! posted this beautiful meditation attributed to Pedro Arrupe, SJ, former General of the Jesuit Order, in light of the Pope's focus on relationship with Christ as the foundation of all other things:

Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you
out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love; stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

Benedict & Avery Dulles

How absolutely wonderful.

The Pope is going to make a personal visit to Cardinal Avery Dulles in his bedroom while in Dunwoody seminary. It was not on his schedule. Cardinal Dulles is too ill to attend any of the events but no one deserves a private visit more.

Dulles, who is 89, is one of the great converts and theologians of the 20th century and gave his final annual McGinley lecture at Fordham on April 1. When I met him last April, he was still able to walk with a cane. Now he is wheelchair bound.

Here is the full text of his lecture from America magazine.

Here is the moving end of his lecture:

As I approach the termination of my active life, I gratefully acknowledge that a benign providence has governed my days. The persons I have met, the places I have been, the things I have been asked to do, have all coalesced into a pattern, so that each stage of my life has prepared me for the next. My 20 years on the McGinley Chair have been a kind of climax, at least from my personal point of view. I often feel that there is no one on earth with whom I would want to exchange places. It has been a special privilege to serve in the Society of Jesus, a religious community specially dedicated to the Savior of the world.

The good life does not have to be an easy one, as our blessed Lord and the saints have taught us. Pope John Paul II in his later years used to say, “The Pope must suffer.” Suffering and diminishment are not the greatest of evils, but are normal ingredients in life, especially in old age. They are to be accepted as elements of a full human existence. Well into my 90th year I have been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity. “Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

But it is this picture of Dulles that will stay with me (as I wrote last April)

The most moving personal moment for me was meeting and spending a little time with Cardinal Avery Dulles. He is elderly and very frail now and walks with a four pronged cane, but still very sharp and possessing a lovely sense of humor. Very unpretentious - he simply introduced himself at breakfast as "Hello, I'm Avery Dulles". I got to sit at his small table at dinner and again at breakfast but the most memorable moment did not involve any words.

I visited the large, beautiful chapel before breakfast to spend a few minutes in adoration and found three other people there. Two students and Avery Dulles. He was alone, without his young priest assistant, who had been constantly at his side, steadying him throughout Mass and helping him ascend the podium. No longer able to kneel, he sat praying in a corner, his cane beside him.

The hidden source of all that wisdom.

Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church

This comment from Just Another Begger in the discussion on Benedict's "Post-Constantinian" Strategy below deserves to be highlighted.

"We need to be continuously reminded that to be Catholic is to be Christ; our life as a Catholic is a PARTICIPATION with Christ in HIS life, passion, death and resurrection, both individually and corporately. Thus, the Eucharist and the Liturgy become central to our lives again. Did not our fourth Pope, St. Clement say that where Christ is, there is His Church?"

Actually, it was Ignatius of Antioch who said it but you are certainly right about his meaning:

"Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.

Joyfully Glorious

The Mass at St. Patrick's just finished. No deep observations. We don't discuss liturgy here anyway and I'd prefer to look at the text of the Pope's homily before commenting on it. As George Weigel noted yesterday, Benedict speaks in paragraphs, You have to read him to do him justice.

Just a few tidbits that I particularly enjoyed.

1) St. Patricks is truly beautiful. Someday I'll have to visit.

2) The EWTN team let the event speak for itself this time. Thank God.

3) Loved the obvious joy and energy from all the priests and religious present - especially the sisters.

4) Great cantor. With a voice and looks like that, that man is going to be a star.

5) Dare I say it? I liked everything: the music, the applause and the spontaneous standing ovation at the beginning, the Pope's homily, the prayers of the people in all the different languages of the archdiocese, the Holy Father's apparently spontaneous words of gratitude at the end. He struggled a bit with his English and that just made it more real and intimate - a glimpse of the private man. It was joyfully glorious and yet the television coverage makes it seem somehow intimate. (Although it was interesting to have an obviously Anglo nun praying in very carefully enunciated Chinese. A returned missionary, perhaps?)

Even the glimpse of the tall black man in what looked like a chasuble lifting his hands high in some kind of touchdown dance as the Pope passed down the center aisle. Had he managed to touch the Pope? I'm sure that he thought the pillar hid him from the cameras -but it didn't! :-} I love the little unplanned human eccentricities that say so much about what God is doing in people's hearts and minds through the Pope's visit.

So excommunicate me.

6) From now on, I'm gonna treat Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity with more respect. You just don't want to get between those sisters and the Pope. The same steely quality that makes them so effective with the poorest of the poor makes them a security detail's nightmare.

7) It was good to see so many Sisters of Life evident in their snazzy habits. I empathized with the young sister who sang the Psalm and who looked pretty anxious just before she opened her mouth. She did just fine.

Why the Pope Speaks for Evangelicals, Too

Richard Mouw, President of my alma mater, Fuller Theological Seminary has a nice essay in the New York Times this morning:

"Why the Pope Speaks for Evangelicals, Too." It begins:

I admire Pope Benedict, just as I admired his recent predecessors. As an evangelical Protestant, I don’t believe in “papal authority.” But I do see him as having an important pastoral role in the broader Christian community. In many ways and on many subjects, he speaks for me.

Benedict's "post-Constantinian" Strategy?

David Gibson's piece in the New York Time on Pope's Benedict's efforts to restore Catholic culture ended with these thought-provoking paragraphs:

"In the Christian ideal, God has no grandchildren; faith must be ever new. But then how does the church encourage Catholicism as a culture while keeping the faith fresh and alive? It is an age-old question, the search for a link between the collective sense of a people and the requirement of individual sanctification. Answers have ranged from Kierkegaard's attack on Christendom to H. Richard Niebuhr's seminal work, "Christ and Culture."

For his part, Benedict seems to embrace a kind of "post-Constantinian" strategy that attempts the tricky two-step of, as the pope said, "cultivating a Catholic identity which is based not so much on externals as on a way of thinking and acting grounded in the Gospel and enriched by the Church's living tradition." Benedict's approach is so novel -- as is the ever-changing world that the age-old church now inhabits -- that it's hard to know what to call it. Vatican expert John Allen has tried out labels like "evangelical Catholicism" or "affirmative orthodoxy." Yet neither seems to encompass Benedict's goal of making an Old World religion pulse with the vitality of a New World spirituality.


Comments?

Kateri's Cause

Lovely.

The canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was submitted to the Vatican today - on her feast day.

Monsignor Paul Lenz has informed CNA that on Thursday, he will submit the Cause for the Canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to the Vatican. Tomorrow, April 17, is the feast day of the Native American blessed.

Bl. Kateri has been accorded the title of the patroness of the environment and ecology and is dear to the hearts of many Native Americans. She was born in upstate New York, near Auriesville. Both of her parents were Native Americans. Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother an Algonquin, who was raised Catholic.

In her lifetime Kateri was frequently afflicted with illness and became partially blind. In order for her to walk, she groped her way around as she walked. She was then named, Tekakwitha which literally means, “One who walks groping for her way.”

Bl. Kateri was baptized when she was 20 years old after being catechized by Father de Lambertville S.J. After her baptism, Kateri was considered an outcast by her tribal community. Living on her own, she professed a vow of perpetual virginity. Poor health and the effects of small pox led to her death in 1680 at the age of 24.

In 1943 Kateri was declared venerable and then in 1980 she was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II. She is the first Native American to be declared blessed and was the patroness of the 2002 World Youth Day.

Go to Lily-of-the-Mohawks.com for more on her life, her travels, her cause, and her tomb.

Kateri's story is remarkable and one we try to tell at every Called & Gifted workshop. But the whole tale of the zealous Catholic Native Americans of the 17th century, especially the Hurons, many of whom paid with their lives for their faith, is not known to most of us - but deserves to be.

It is encouraging that we are starting to sing the "Huron Carol" - the first Christmas Carol written in this country.

Amusing

Watching the Pope's meeting with inter-religious leaders on EWTN. At one point, leaders of the 5 different religious communities Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain were introduced one at a time as they came up to meet the Pope.

My eyes really got big when I thought I heard this:

"Bishop Jongmae K. Park of the Korean Baptist Taego Order"


The ultimate post-modern: A Baptist Buddhist Bishop!

But it was too good to be entirely true.

Apparently he is called a Bishop (Do Buddhists have "Bishops" or is this simply an westernized equivalent?) but he is not a Baptist.

He is the
Reverend Bishop Jongmae K. Park, Ph.D. from the Korean Buddhist Taego Order of
Los Angeles, California

Amazing

Wolf Blitzer of CNN is positively glowing himself this afternoon. He had a chance for a brief private meeting (with 10 others) with the Pope and confessed to being so awed, he didn't say anything!

Blitzer's CNN colleagues were clearly struck by Wolf's intense reaction to meeting the Pope and questioned him on air about this most uncharacteristic behavior. All he could say was that he felt "blessed" and was in such awe, he couldn't speak. Pope Benedict gave him a gold medal and Wolf obviously cherished it.

Thank You, God!

I loved watching Pope Benedict's glowing face as he reached out to the eager crowds as he made his way to his car after the Mass this afternoon. He seemed to be experiencing the energy and joy that Pope John Paul II so commonly received from crowds. Is the reception that he is receiving here different than he receives elsewhere?

Enjoy there was this lovely anecdote this afternoon from the blog Pope 2008:

"Benedict was late, and the media coordinator said there was no way he would spend any time here. But he made a beeline around the back of the limo, straight to the waiting pilgrims.

There, he shook hands and was generally mobbed.

"He was trying to give me peace," said Marilyn Villacort from St. Catherine Laboure Parish. "He was bringing me and my family a message of peace from God. Only God knows what I've been going through. He just stared at me and wouldn't let go of me, saying 'Everything's gonna be okay. Just trust in God and everything will be okay."

Then the Secret Servicemen came and began peeling arms off of him and urging him back to the car. In the car he was so energized by the crowd that he turned bodily in his seat, leaning over the cardinal next to him to keep his face in the window closest the crowd.

Even the Washington Post photographer, as we walked away from the event, was moved. He threw his arms in the air and said, "This time I can say: 'Thank you God!'"

The Holy Spirit Works Retail

Students at Catholic University spend all night in prayer and adoration for the Pope's visit to campus today. Lots more pictures and video here.

Much of what the Holy Spirit is doing through Benedict's visit is happening in small, hidden venues like this and in the hearts of ordinary people - Catholic and non-Catholic - for whom the larger event is an external actual grace - a event that is the occasion of or disposes them to respond to interior prompting and graces of the Holy Spirit.