Bishop of Pittsburgh Opens Churches to Voters on Monday

The Bishop of Pittsburgh is planning to open local Catholic churches (some around the clock) to voters on Monday so that they can prayerfully discern how they should vote.

What a wonderful idea. I hope that more bishops do the same.

Catholicism: Northern No Longer

John Allen's Friday piece is interesting, as always. (My question: how does he manage to do all those interviews, write all those articles and books, and prepare all those speeches? I'm tired just contemplating it.)

Although his article is mostly about the evolution of Liberation Theology, I want to focus right now on his observation about global Catholicism.

"There are now local churches in every part of the world, and the hierarchy is being transformed by members from Africa, Asia and Latin America," George said during a conference in Chicago sponsored by the Catholic Theological Union and DePaul University. "What was once known as the 'Third World' is now a source of life and renewal for the church elsewhere."

Catholic demography certainly bears George out. In 1900, just twenty-five percent of the 266 million Catholics in the world lived in Africa, Asia and Latin America; by 2000, sixty-six percent of 1.1 billion Catholics lived in the global South, and by 2050, the Southern share is projected to be seventy-five percent, or three-quarters of all the Catholics on the planet. That's perhaps the most rapid, most sweeping, transformation of the Catholic population in more than 2,000 years of history.

I posted this amazing graph a year ago. It deals with Christianity as a whole, not just Catholicism but you see exactly the same picture. And two things that particularly struck me:



One: The only other time that Christianity went through a global shift this dramatic was in the 1st century when the Church moved from 100% southern to 60% southern in a century as she expanded throughout the ancient world. Note that the majority of Christians in the world were in the global south until the 10th century.

Two: The absolute nadir of southern Christianity occurred during one of the most traumatic centuries for northern Christianity. The 16th century was the only time in history when 90+ of all Christians on the planet were European. The century of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reformation and Trent and religious war between Catholics and Protestants. In historical terms, it was a blip because the Catholic missionary movement that arose from the Catholic Reformation began to change that - as the modest rise in southern Christianity that follows shows.

(By the way, the first 18 centuries of Christian missionary work was overwhelmingly Catholic (and Orthodox). Protestants didn't really start to engage in it in a major way till the late 19th century. HIstorically, Protestant missionary work is an anomaly.)

But the image of Catholicism as overwhelmingly, profoundly, and intrinsically northern and European in its very marrow that underlies so many of our current conversations is just wrong. It is, in the fullest sense, parochial.

Catholicism wasn't a northern faith in its first century. It is not a northern faith now. And all the indicators are that we have come full circle and that the 3rd millennium of Christian history is going to be once again dominated by the global south. None of us knows exactly what that will mean, of course. It will take centuries for the full impact to be felt just as it took centuries for medieval Christendom to rise from the ruins of the ancient world and the ravages of pagan invaders.

I am not saying that the European heritage of the Church will, much less, should be rejected or silenced. It will continue to inform and enrich a truly global Catholicism, as it should and must, but it will now be part of a global chorus as African, Asian, and Latin Catholicism take their rightful places. Before the rise of Islam, African Christianity was one of the the great glories of the Church. It is time it was restored.

So Allen's article about 2009 being the "Year of Africa".

"The explosion of Catholicism in sub-Saharan Africa during the 20th century ranks among the greatest missionary success stories in church history. From a Catholic population of 1.9 million in 1900, the total for sub-Saharan African mushroomed to 139 million in 2000, a staggering growth rate of 6,70 percent. Moreover, almost half of the adult baptisms in global Catholicism occur in Africa, meaning that the growth of the church has been driven not merely by overall demographic trends but also by success in attracting new converts.

By 2050, three African nations will rank among the ten largest Catholic countries on earth: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (97 million Catholics), Uganda (56 million) and Nigeria (47 million). The traditional Catholic powerhouses of Spain and Poland, meanwhile, are projected to drop off the list.

Vocations are also booming. Bigard Memorial Seminary in southeastern Nigeria, with an enrollment of over 1,100, is said to be the largest Catholic seminary in the world. Its student population by itself is roughly one-fifth the total number of seminarians currently preparing for the priesthood in the United States. Yet despite this phenomenal harvest, there is no priest surplus in Africa, in large part because Africans are being baptized even more rapidly than they’re being ordained.

The focus on Africa throughout 2009 should thus offer a striking contrast to Western perceptions of contraction and decline in the church, because that is not necessarily the global story."

42 years from now, only 25% of Catholics will probably be northern: European, North American.

But the reality is in our midst today.


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The Catholic Witness Protection Program

Funny.

Boston's Cardinal O'Malley on lapsed Catholics:

The cardinal said catechists need to welcome home inactive Catholics who have stormed off, dozed off or fallen through the cracks.

“There are 17 million people in the witness protection program of the Catholic Church,” he said.

Now that's a line worth stealing.

Ms. Smith Votes in Colorado Springs

I just voted.

After waiting in line for 1 1/4 hour with all the other early birds. One of the officials told me that it would be like this through Friday (the last day of early voting). Stood in line behind a woman who goes to my parish and who cheerily urged me to vote for a specific candidate. Soldiers (men and women) in flight suits and camouflage are a common sight here and so they were in line. Now that I think about it, I hardly ever see someone in the standard dress uniform.

Our county is famous for its conservatism so I imagine that the majority in line with me were McCain voters. How the rest of the state goes is the question.

Even though I'm up to my eyeballs, I couldn't skip voting, especially when I'm living in one of the infamous "battleground" states. You never felt such urgency in Washington state. You always knew who would win.

And despite my work haze, I couldn't help but be moved by the sight of all the careful organization and clerks working so hard to make sure that I had my chance to make my mark. And at the sight of several hundred people lined up on a Thursday morning to exercise their civic right. It was a little "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" moment.

For all the relentless craziness of the preceding months, I was moved, proud, and honored to be standing in that line.

100,000 baptized in LA in 2007

I'm having one of those high anxiety moments as I begin preparing for a major presentation in the Archdiocese of LA next week. Not enough time at home between gigs and so much to do! Your prayers would help immensely!

In the midst of my research, I came across this startling figure via the Tidings:

"The 2008 edition of The Official Catholic Directory notes the 100,604 people baptized in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007 included 95,408 infant Baptisms, 3,511 minor age Baptisms, and 1,685 adult Baptisms."

100,604 Baptisms exceed the total Catholic population of some 50 Arch/Dioceses across the country. This number also exceeds the total Catholic population of every one of the Eastern Rite Catholic Dioceses in our country. Put another way, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in a sense baptized "a new Diocese of Catholics into the Church last year."

Snip.

--Very soon, Catholics will comprise 50 percent of the total population in our three Counties: Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles. And in a few years, Catholics will be a significant majority of the population.

"---Our great challenge is to not only baptize so many new members, but to make certain that they are properly evangelized and catechized so that their Catholic Faith underpins their daily lives."

Aye, there's the rub . . .

And I would note that 1,6oo adult baptisms is pretty small for a diocese of over 4 million.

But note: This is nearly 4 x the number baptized in the second largest archdiocese of the country:

---The Archdiocese of New York: a total Catholic population of 2,554,454, and 27,011 Baptisms.

and nearly 3X as many as were baptized in the third largest archdiocese:

---The Archdiocese of Chicago: a total Catholic population of 2,341,000, and 38,533 Baptisms.

Obviously, there are a lot more children being born to Catholic families in LA. Makes you wonder what percentage of those baptized are non-Anglo?

Refuse to Choose II

Back in February, 2007, when the film Amazing Grace came out, I blogged on a group of Christian activists who achieved the unthinkable: the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Compared to the abolition of slavery - an institution as old as human culture and part of nearly every civilization in history - overturning Roe v. Wade and a mere 35 years of judicial activism is relatively simple. We could learn alot from the "Clapham Sect" a group of faith-driven Christian Activists who changed the course of Britain's history.

As I wrote then:




I just returned from seeing the film Amazing Grace about the life of William Wilberforce. It is not exactly brilliant movie making but it is very solid with good performances, a very careful period look, and a compelling story. Well worth a trip to the movies. I could do without the bagpipe version of Amazing Grace at the end - but oh well.

But the story of the impact that a small group of highly committed lay Christians at the end of the 18th and first decades of the 19th century had upon their time is deeply inspiring. At the center of this movement was a gathering of like minded Anglicans, Quakers, and evangelicals whose primary goal was the abolition of slavery in the British empire.



















(The picture is that of the famous ceramic Wedgewood anti-slavery badge "Am I not a Man and a Brother?")

In their spare time, they tackled bull fighting and bear baiting, prison reform, the abolition of the death penalty, factory working condition, amd educational reform. They founded schools, mission societies, the Foreign Bible society and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Wilberforce supported the end of anti-Catholic penalties, the so-called "Catholic Emancipation" in 1829.

And eventually in 1833, they did suceed in ending slavery throughout the British empire. Slavery would be abolished, but the planters would be heavily compensated. "Thank God', said Wilberforce, 'that I have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of Slavery". Three days later, on 29 July 1833, he died. Wilberforce had been fighting slavery for 46 years. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Christian History Institute has an interesting brochure on the "Clapham Sect" to which Wilberforce belonged. At the end, the author lists a dozen characteristics of the approach of the Clapham group to achieving significant societal change as disciples.

1. Set clear and specific goals
2. Researched carefully to produce reliable and irrefutable evidence
3. Built a committed support community. The battle could not be carried on alone.
4. Refused to accept setbacks as final defeats
5. Committed to the struggle for the long haul, even if it took decades.
6. Focused on issues, not allowing opponents' vicious attacks on their person to distract them, or provoke them into similar response.
7. Empathized with opponents' position so that meaningful interaction could take place.
8. Accepted incremental gains when everything could not be achieved at once.
9. Cultivated grassroots support when rebuffed by those in power.
10. Transcended a single issue mentality by addressing issues as part of overall moral climate.
11. Worked through recognized channels without resort to dirty tactics or violence.
12. Proceeded with a sense of mission and conviction that God would providentially guide if they were truly acting in his service.

I find several of these characteristics particularly compelling in light of our work at the Institute.

What do you think?

Act to End Violence in India

Mobs of Indians, spurred on by Hindu extremists, during the past eight weeks have torched an estimated 4,000 homes as well as churches, convents, and other church institutions, attacking, raping and killing Christians. An estimated 50,000 have fled to forests in rural provinces. At least two dozen people have been reported killed in the very poor Kandhamal district alone. Some who fled are living in a dozen relief camps set up by the government. Some, like the girl pictured in this post, have suffered burns and other injuries in the attacks.

Local observers say the government’s response to the violence has been woefully inadequate and Christians remain at the mercy of the mobs.

in an article posted by NCR,

Father John Fernandes, professor of Christian Studies at Mangalore University in Karnataka, told UCA New service that the anti-Christian incidents are part of "planned strategies" to garner votes for the 2009 election. "In terms of votes Christians are insignificant, but for uniting Hindus, the hate campaign is significant for them," the priest was quoted as saying last month.

He added he regretted that a polarizing "success" in one place motivates Hindu radicals to test the strategy in other areas.
Meanwhile, Christians have held rallies across India to protest the violence. In the port city of Mangalore in Western India, Christians, Hindus and Muslims organized a hunger strike and formed a human chain.

While it is encouraging that people of good will from these three religious groups are speaking out, we need to make our voices heard, as well. As Fr. Fernandes points out, if such violence enables a group to grow more powerfully politically in an area of India where as much as 20% of the populace is Christian, similar tactics will be used in other states where Christians are a smaller minority.

Please consider sending an e-mail to various political leaders in India. A sample letter and some e-mail addresses are provided here [N.B. there is a typo in President Patel's e-mail: the correct address is " presidentofindia@rb.nic.in "]. In addition, please pray diligently for an end to the violence going on now in India, and for the thousands of Christians who are living in fear, especially those who have lost loved ones, been raped, or have seen their homes and businesses burned.

Why Democrats Are Blue

Very interesting.

Check out New Catholic Politics, a blog by Mark Stricherz, the author of Why Democrats are Blue:Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People's Party.

Acording to his Amazon blurb, Stricherz covers in great detail the behind the scenes political maneuvering "through which secular, educated elites, using a commission created at the 1968 convention in Chicago and later chaired by Senator George McGovern, took the Democratic Party away from working class and religious Democrats. This quiet revolution helps explain why six of the last nine Democratic presidential candidates have lost."

Amy Welborn is reading the book and has a long post on it here.

Although I am not a political junkie and don't often have the time to read anything that isn't immediately work-related, I am intrigued by how much behind the scenes maneuvering by people whose names most of us will never know, so often determines the candidates who are presented to us. And it was that sort of fundamental slogging in the trenches that I was referring to in my post below "Refuse to Choose".

We need an army of exceedingly tenacious and shrewd, well-formed pro-life Catholic politicos who are willing to pay their dues at the local level and earn the right to change the course of their parties where life is concerned. We need a new intentional national coalition, a coalition that transcends party, of politicians, constitutional lawyers, bio-ethicists, medical experts and practitioners, community activists, social entrepreneurs, journalists, and scholars who collaborate together - over the long haul - to recapture the power and influence centers of our nation for life.

That is what I meant by "refusing to choose", not freezing, ballot in hand, at the entrance of the voting booth because you can't stomach either of the two options before you. Options already determined by events that occurred decades before in some smoke-filled back room.

If every bishop in the US, if every bishop in the world, spoke loudly and unilaterally for life, it would not accomplish what is needed. This is our job. It is one of those quintessentially lay tasks that cannot never be done by the clergy.

It is something only the laity can do and yet it would have an immense impact on the life of the Church. It would be one of the great lay apostolates of the 21st century.

A Note from the Synod on the Bible

John Allen reports on the results of the Synod on the Scriptures that just concluded in Rome. He notes several propositions that have to do with the laity and the Scriptures. In another vote of confidence in lay activity, the bishops also endorsed the practice of Bible reading in small Christian communities ...“

These small communities meet regularly around the Word of God, in order to share it among themselves, and they draw strength from it,” the bishops said in proposition 21. “The service of the laity who guide these communities must be esteemed and promoted, because they render a missionary service to which all the baptized are called,” the bishops said.

Concern for the laity even ran through the synod’s treatment of priestly formation. Proposition 32, dealing with educating future priests about the Bible, included the following recommendation: “Parallel to formation inside the seminary, future priests are also invited to take part in meetings with groups or associations of laity gathering around the Word of God. These meetings … favor in future ministers the experience and the taste for hearing what the Holy Spirit is arousing in believers gathering as the church, whether these gatherings are large or small.”

These are encouraging to me. First of all, disciples of Jesus naturally want to gather to share and reflect together on the scriptures which proclaim the activity of God in human history, particularly in the life of Jesus, the "Word made flesh." Such small group gatherings around the word deepen the faith of the participants, helps them to understand that to which the Word is calling them, and through mutual support can strengthen the will of those involved to actually conform themselves to the will of God.

Secondly, I am particularly excited that the Bishops recognize the need for seminarians to hear how the Word is heard by those to whom they will eventually be preaching. Far too often I have heard (and have been guilty of giving) homilies that were long on exegesis and short on connection to the life of the preacher or the Christian community gathered at worship! Hopefully hearing the questions raised by the laity, the challenges they face at work and at home, as well as their insights into the scriptures will form seminarians as better preachers. In addition, I would guess that groups of laity that gather regularly to pray over and study the scriptures are filled with intentional disciples, and these people may be instruments of God to inspire, challenge and edify those preparing to be ordained as servants of the common priesthood.

We Are All Missionaries

I missed MIssion Sunday (October 19) because I was in another country and away from cell and internet access.

But I love this Mission Sunday poster:



Preach it.

Refuse to Choose

I was quite struck by John Allen's column this past Friday on the election about the political disenfranchising of so many Catholics in this country because the platforms of both parties make us feel that we must always choose between the lesser of two evils. I, for one, certainly fall into that camp. Here's Allen:

"Here's a thought exercise: In the abstract, what would the political fortunes be in America of a candidate who actually embodied the full range of Catholic social concerns? What would happen if a serious candidate came along who's pro-life, pro-family, anti-war, pro-immigrant, anti-death penalty, pro-sustainable development, and a multi-lateralist in foreign policy concerned with religious freedom and a robust role for believers in public life? My hunch is that such a candidate could be attractive to a broad cross-section of moderates and independents. The machinery of both major parties, however, appears almost designed to prevent such a person from ever being nominated.

After Nov. 4, Catholics on the winning side will start scrambling for various forms of access and patronage from the new administration, while those who backed the loser will start organizing the opposition. In other words, both the victors and the vanquished in American politics know exactly what to do once the smoke from battle clears.

For disenfranchised Catholics, the road ahead is far less clear. For what it's worth, my own reading is that it's no use trying an end-run around the two-party system. If a holistic Catholic sensibility is ever going to cut ice in American politics, it will have to come from one of the two parties being hijacked from within -- the way Reagan moved the goalposts for the Republicans, or Clinton for the Democrats. (Or, if you prefer an overseas example, the way that Blair built "New Labour.")

In that light, it would be an interesting experiment if a network of Catholic policy groups, activists, and intellectuals were to take shape once election season is over, devoted to laying the groundwork for influencing both parties from within. I'm talking not just about making compelling arguments, but doing the hard nuts-and-bolts work of political organizing, including identifying potential candidates and making them battle-ready.

All that would, of course, require time, money, and expertise, and I'm not sure where any of it might come from. In the absence of such an effort, however, many of the best and brightest in American Catholicism are doomed to feel perpetually alienated, forever choosing between the lesser of two evils. While no political system is ever perfect, the question these Catholics are asking is: Can't we do better than this?"


What Allen describes above could only be done by a generation of exceedingly sharp, tough, well-formed, well-networked, and politically creative lay Catholics who can see and move beyond the old shibboleths of liberal and conservative politics in this country. Lay Catholics who are willing to forgo the immediate rewards of the existing system in order to force the parties to change in a direction that supports life across the board. Who recognize that a true culture of life cannot be built in this country without the significant participation of both parties.

Now that would be a work worthy of our most gifted and gutsy people, who simply refuse to sell out.

In the mid 90's, when the Seattle Mariners won, miraculously, their first chance to be in the play-offs - the fan mantra was "Refuse to Lose".*

What if American Catholics simply "refused to choose" between life issues? We are the biggest single religious bloc by far - the 70 million strong political gorilla - and there are many other Christians and people of faith and good will who would be intrigued by and follow our lead. Neither party can win or govern without substantial Catholic support and participation. Why are we behaving as though we simply have to accept the stark, mutually exclusive, alternatives that the current party system spits out at us?

What if we simply Refused to Choose?


*For the baseball-inclined, here"s the rest of the story:

1995: "Refuse to Lose"
1995 was the season that saved baseball in Seattle. Capping a miraculous September surge that saw them end the season tied with Anaheim, the Mariners earned the first post-season berth in franchise history by thumping the Angels in a one-game playoff at the Kingdome. After dropping the opening two stanzas of their five-game ALDS matchup with the Yankees, the Mariners pulled off three straight dramatic wins. In the classic Game Five the M's rallied from an early deficit against Yanks starter David Cone to force extra innings before Martinez brought them back one last time on a two-run 11th inning double, inspiring pandemonium at the Kingdome. Seattle eventually succumbed to a heavily favored Cleveland juggernaut in the League Championship series, but not before throwing a scare into the Indians by extending them to six hard-fought games.

Professional Soccer Player Answers the Call to Priesthood

Back in golden Colorado. Great trip to Chicago and mucb enthusiasm.

There will be more as I'm home all week (imagine!) but have lots of work to do.

Meanwhile, take a look at this fascinating story of Chase, a professional soccer player who is now a seminarian at Mount St. Mary's. Via ESPN.

See You Later

I'm sitting next to Sherry in the Colorado Springs airport, awaiting my plane to Chicago - not to be confused with Sherry's plane to Chicago. I'm on United this morning, she's on Northwest. Like the POTUS and V.POTUS (president and vice president of the U.S.) we never fly on the same plane.

Contrary to vicious rumors, I have NOT taken out a large life insurance policy on Sherry.

I hope to blog when I return to Tucson after the Gurnee Called & GIfted.

Election Coverage

While I have been mostly edified by the statements several bishops (1 in 4 according to Rocco Palmo) have made on abortion in the run-up to the election, I am reminded that they wouldn't have to so frantically remind us of our moral and political obligations every election year if we concentrated a fostering cultures of intentional discipleship in our parishes and dioceses all the time. Somehow I think intentional disciples with well-formed consciences can figure out how to vote the "Christian way" without as much difficultly as it seems to be for Catholics these days. Just a thought...

We Put the "M" in Mendicant

Yes, we're bad bloggers . . .but we are also beleaguered mendicants.

This time - Chicago-land again. Fr. Mike and I will be offering a Called & Gifted workshop in a most suitable location for the Pauline year: St. Paul the Apostle church in Guernee, IL.

This is a quickie - out before the sun deigns to rise on Friday and back about noon on Sunday.

Which is good because I am behind. Parish mission to finish, presentation on Making Disciples for one of the regions of the Archdiocese of LA, the teaching schedule for Making Disciples in Omaha, book to write.

And so much interesting political stuff happened while we were gone. I'm glad that JACK felt free to blog so thoughtfully on the subject.

I'm voting early cause I'll be spending my second election eve in a row with Fr. Mike is some distant foreign land. In 2004, it was Melbourne, Australia. In 2008, Los Angeles. We will actually be preaching a mission on election eve. . . The four people who come to hear us will edified, I'm sure.

Christians Under Attack in Iraq

This letter from Fr. Philippe LeBlance, OP, Senior Advocacy Officer of the Dominicans for Justice and Peace, was sent to members of my province on Sunday, October 12, 2008.

The Permanent Delegate of the Order at the UN, Olivier Poquillon, OP,
provided information on the serious situation facing Christians in
Mosul and has requested that Justice Promoters in the United States take
action and intervene at the highest levels to make people aware of the
worsening situation of Christians in Mosul. Our brothers in Mosul are
under great pressure and it is not certain that they can hold out much
longer. Furthermore, the Vicar of the Arab World of Olivier’s Province
has requested that strong action be taken concerning the deteriorating
situation in Mosul.

There are reports that 3,000 Christians have fled the city *over the
past week alone* in a "major displacement," according to Duraid Mohammed
Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province. He said
most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in
nearby Christian villages and towns.

In a statement, Mr. Kashmoula also said that "The Christians were
subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are
subjected to a killing campaign," .He said he was worried about what he
termed a "campaign of killings and deportations against the Christian
citizens in Mosul."

Mosul police have reported finding the bullet-riddled bodies of seven
Christians in separate attacks so far this month, the latest a day
laborer found on Wednesday. On Saturday, militants blew up three
abandoned Christian homes in eastern Mosul, police said.

Father Bolis Jacob of Mosul's Mar Afram Church said he was at a loss to
understand the violence. "We respect the Islamic religion and the Muslim
clerics," he said. "We don't know under what religion's pretexts these
terrorists work."

The violence in Mosul occurs despite U.S.-Iraqi operations launched over
the summer aimed at routing al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents from
remaining strongholds north of the capital.

The killings come as Christian leaders are lobbying Parliament to pass a
law setting aside a number of seats for minorities, such as Christians,
in upcoming provincial elections, fearing they could be further
marginalized in the predominantly Muslim country.

Iraq's Christian community has been estimated at 3 percent of Iraq's 26
million people, or about 800,000, and has a significant presence in the
northern Ninevah province.

In Mosul, where Christians have lived for some 1,800 years, a number of
centuries-old churches still stand.

Please keep these poor people in your prayers, and pray for the conversion of all those who would resort to violence, intimidation, and murder.

Grüß Gott!

Grüß Gott! Morgan.

It's a bother that my MAC doesn't possess an easy way to move between different language keys so I have to copy Grüß Gott from the interesting Wiki article below:

Grüß Gott (literally 'Greet God', see explanation below) is a greeting, less often a farewell, in the Upper German Sprachraum especially in Swabia, Bavaria and Austria particularly in Catholic states. The greeting was publicized in the 19th century by the Catholic clergy and along with its variants has long been the most common greeting form in Southern Germany and Austria. The salutation often receives an ironic response from Northern Germans such as "When I see him"('Wenn ich ihn sehe.') or "Hopefully not too soon" ('Hoffentlich nicht so bald.')

Grüß Gott is the shortened form of both (Es) Grüße dich Gott and its plural (Es) Grüße euch Gott ('may God greet you'). The verb grüßen originally had a meaning similar to segnen ('to bless'), although it now means 'to greet'. The essential meaning of grüß (dich) Gott is therefore 'God bless you'.

In Bavaria, they really do greet you with "Grüß Gott" and yes, you can slip into an early morning Mass and find men in leaderhosen and grey boiled wool jackets and women in dirndl skirts. The difference between the real thing and the tourist thing is color. Germans dress in sober colors - lots of black, grey, brown - not unlike my tribe from western Washington. Since the climate and landscape are very similar, It is interesting that the preferred color range is also similar.

More later. I got home last night at midnight after 24 hours of travel and 9 days without sleep. I never did adjust (next time, I'll bring Tylenol PM or something) and so had to make do with 3 or 4 wildly interrupted hours a night. I skipped several meals in favor of naps to keep going (after all, I was supposed to be working!) but don't think I have ever arrived home more tired. Fr. Mike get home late tonight. He has the camera so pictures will have to wait. Despite everything, we had a great time and enjoyed our Bavarian sojourn very much. And picked out our new CSI Europe headquarters.



Danke for your prayers. The Called & Gifted seemed to go well.

Since I only have 3 days at home before jetting off to Chicago again this weekend - sleep, washing clothes, and getting reading for several November events - have to be the priority. But I hope to get in some blogging as well.

The Travails of Voting

I hope that Sherry and Fr. Mike don't mind that my first return to this blog is to post some serious questions about a most volatile topic these days in the Catholic blogosphere: voting. (By all means, if the conversation on this gets out of hand, take this post down Sherry. My hope is for a productive conversation, but I'm not naive about what may result.)

I post this because I've struggled with whom to vote for in this upcoming election. For the record, I have already decided and cast my ballot (thanks to early voting in my state). So I am going to try and focus on just the Church's teaching on voting without (if that's possible) referencing this current election. It strikes me that many are wedded to their specific candidates and, in the ideological and apocalyptic political culture we have fostered in this country, can't seem to have a reasoned conversation on this subject if candidates' names are invoked. I also post this here because it strikes me that the mission of the Intentional Disciple is to let Christ enter the whole of their life, including their voting.

As I understand it, the Church teaches that it is never permissible for a Catholic (or anyone for that matter) to support a candidate who advocates for intrinsically evil things as a means of supporting those intrinsically evil things. I also understand that the Church teaches that when all candidates support intrinsically evil things, it may be possible to still vote for such candidate if (a) one does so despite their support for the intrinsically evil things (i.e., not in order to advance support for the intrinsically evil things) and (b) if there exists proportional reasons for supporting this candidate despite their support for intrinsically evil things.

All that seems clear enough, until you start to apply it. And this is where the bishops statements seem to not give as much guidance as I'd like.

For example, let's start with the question of what should be the first prong of our analysis. From the Bishops' statement, it would seem to me that the first thing would be to identify all of the candidates and determine whether any of them do not support intrinsically evil things. However, in identifying "all the Candidates", most Catholics these days let the question of electability seep in. Some don't even bother to consider anyone other than a Republican or Democrat in the race. Others consider third-party candidates, but only so long as to deem them unelectable and push them to the side. I understand their reasoning and pragmatism. Yet, I can't help but notice that the Church's teaching doesn't really speak to this and instead speaks to "when all candidates....". So I would love to hear from some moral theologians on what consideration should a Catholic be giving to a candidate who doesn't support intrinsically evil things when he happens to be not one of the two-major party candidates and is deemed to be unlikely to win the election. From my eyes, at best, all I can say is that I don't see a basis in what the Church has taught to support a priori dismissal of this candidate from consideration.

Second, I'd like to ask about proportional reasons. Every time I see the Church's teaching applied, people seem to make an argument that proportional reasons translates into "my chosen candidate supports fewer intrinsically evil things than the other major-party candidate". This just leaves me wanting and seems to reduce what I presume the Church means to be a high hurdle down to not much of anything. I suppose I should be fair -- proponents of this usually couple it with some argument on the level of "... and the other candidate is going to enact so many evil policies that your head will spin and the world will explode." I know some will object to my characterization, but my point is to suggest that, for my eyes, the arguments about the evils another candidate might inflict if elected usually tend to be hyperbolic and not reflecting that the same constraints that might prevent your chosen candidate from doing good might similarly act to restrain another candidate from doing evil. In other words, the magnitude of harm is usually assumed to satisfy the test the Church proposes by the mere presence of support for additional intrinsic evils. Instead, I'd love some clear reflection on what proportional reasons or analysis looks like on this subject in the eyes of the Church.

It strikes me, more this year than any year in the past, that American Catholics are in need of greater clarity regarding the Church's teaching. Maybe my eyes were not open to the issue in the past, but they are now. I hope some might oblige me my request. (By "some" by the way, I mean those who will engage in serious, reasonable and prudent theological reflection, preferably with some training in moral theology. Not those who wish to present circular arguments justifying why they are voting for one candidate or another. There are other blogs on which to do that.)

World Mission Sunday

Today is the Church's annual reminder that her essential mission is to invite those who do not know Christ into a personal, transforming encounter with him. Here are a couple of highlights:

The Holy Father's Message for the day. It reminds us that the "missionary mandate continues to be an absolute priority for all baptized persons who are called to be "servants and apostles of Christ Jesus" at the beginning of this millennium."

Also, today saw the beatification of the parents of the patroness of missions, St Therese. Happily adding another lay, married couple to the ranks of beati. 

And, as expected, the Catholic dimension of the election is heating up with recent comments from bishops across the country, counter-statements by various Catholic public intellectuals, and, most interestingly, a candid and frank address on the matter by Archbishop Chaput in Denver last week. All of this illustrates- strikingly so- the current incoherence of our moral discourse and the need for a clear, coherent, and credible witness to Jesus Christ. On this Missions Sunday, let us pray that the Church, throughout the whole world and in every language, may courageously bear witness to Him who is the Lord of life and Prince of Peace.

Happy Sunday!

"Credible Witnesses of Christ Present in the Scriptures"

As Fr Mike and Sherry head to Germany, I will try to forestall any blogging lull that could result from their tour abroad. Nonetheless, I do hope that we receive periodic updates on Bavaria's autumnal splendor and their activities. 

Today Cardinal Bertone discussed the ways in which young people could be encouraged to take the scriptures more seriously. He called for more attention to the role of credible witnesses who take the Word seriously in their own lives and compel young people to the same. 

Nevertheless, one notices that many of these young people show a surprising interest in the Bible when the syncrony is reached not as much, at least in the beginning, through the authority of a Biblical page called the Word of God, but by adults working who go to them as patient teachers and credible witnesses of the greatest figure, who is Jesus; in other words, people who when they say the Word of God, demonstrate it with their own life.

Let us fervently pray for such witnesses!

I have an hour before I leave for the aiport again so thought I would fill you in on my Stewardship experience.

I did - finally - make it to downtown Chicago about 10 pm Sunday. It was a short - but luxurious night (I've never stayed in a Hyatt hotel before - excellent service. It's too bad I was too tired to enjoy it much and too busy to venture outside. There's a reason why I'm writing the Michelin Guide to the abandoned rectories and convents of North America. They are my usual fare.)

The next day was simply jammed but very fruitful. Up early and because of tiredness and time, for the first and only time in my life, I had breakfast in my room. Then down to look at the venue, find my booktable materials. Thank God, we had a hotel AV tech who set up everything for us!!! (For once in my life, I wasn't technically blind leading the even more technically blind. Parishes often have digital projectors that no one knews how to use so they just hand them over me to figure out!)

God was at work and the presentation itself went very well - I'm guessing 350 - 370 or so attendees. I had lots of questions and was mobbed at the booktable. Thank God, Patty, one of our champions from New Jersey was there and pitched in to help. As it was, a number had to leave before we could get to them. The rest of the afternoon, as I walked about, people were coming up to thank me, hug me, and talk about us coming to their diocese or parish -including several from the UK. I also got to meet some old friends, including one who knew the Called & Gifted process in the very earliest days - before the Institute even began. So I hope for some good fruit from this.

Which was good to keep in mind as I spent 1 1/2 hours on the cab ride from another dimension of sight and sound . . .

It was supposed to be a 30 mile drive and I had printed out Mapquest direction, but my driver got lost and went 20 miles out of his way until even I, who know nothing about Chicago, knew we were lost and called my hostess - 5 times - to get us where we were supposed to be. How fast a $50 cab ride can become $100. He acknowledged the error and reduced the fare but I couldn't help but think that I could have stayed another night in luxury and rested for not much more.

So your prayers for the trip to Germany would be greatly appreciated. i seem to be exercising a travel anti-charism on this trip and can just envison myself being trapped in some kind of endless alternate reality loop in Amsterdam or something.

Next stop: the Bavarian Alps in Herbst (Autumn in German) I've printed out a few key Germany phrases to study on the way. I took high school German but haven't used it in many years.
but it all came flooding back.

Auf Weidersehen.

More Synod News

As a complement to Fr Mike's previous post, I think the words addressed to the synod fathers from the founders and leaders of the new ecclesial movements have much of the same character as those from the superiors of the various religious orders present. I particularly enjoyed these words from the found of the Community of Sant'Egidio, the historian, Andrea Riccardi:

"Gregory the Great teaches us that the Word grows with he who reads it. It enlightens the poor, guiding us to understand that to be close to them is to be close to Christ Himself. Thus emerges the structural dimension of the Christian: the disciple. ... At a time of a whirlwind of words, the Word matures in silence. ... At times the Word is chained by projects, protagonists, and ideological readings. ... To evangelize is not a technique, but to overflow with the Word. The Synod can be the right moment to promote a mature season of love for Scripture in the people of God. Strengthened by a century of biblical culture, is it not time to develop devotion to the Sacred Text among the people of God? Christian men and women will thus become - as Chrysostom says - 'simple with intelligence' in a complex world".

Synod News

Sherry's preparing to speak at the International Catholic Stewardship Convention in a few minutes. I thought I'd take a moment to quote John Allen's article on a few speeches made by religious superiors at the Synod in Rome on the Scriptures. He wrote,

It’s long been an established conviction among synod-watchers that the most interesting speeches during these gatherings, more often than not, come from the heads of religious orders.

Perhaps that’s because the speeches are less solo performances than a reflection of the wisdom of an entire community, or perhaps it’s because most superiors are elected to fixed terms and are conscious they may not have this opportunity again. It may even be because serving as a superior these days requires continual travel around the world, so they’ve got long hours to fill on airplanes polishing their texts.

Whatever the explanation, this Synod of Bishops on the Bible has been no exception. A speech earlier in the week by Fr. Glen Lewandowski, a Minnesotan who serves as Master General of the Crosier order, on the link between scripture and liturgy was widely hailed for its nifty turns of phrase, such as a warning that too often the “Great Amen” at Mass seems tacked on as a “drowsy afterthought.”

Yesterday, Fr. Tony Pernia, a Filipino who serves as Superior General of the Society of the Divine Word, offered what may be one of the few images heard on the synod floor destined to outlive the synod itself: Religious orders as the “hearing aid” of the Catholic church.

Pernia argued that the title of the Synod of Bishops, “The Word of God in the Mission and Life of the Church,” can be rephrased as “The Word of God IS the Mission of the Church.”

That mission, Pernia said, is rooted in “God’s on-going dialogue with the world and humanity.” In that light, he suggested, “the mission of the church needs to be understood as dialogue.”

As such, Pernia said, evangelization is never a one-way street, in which the church speaks and the world listens. To be true to its mission, he said, the church must also listen to “the searching of faith-seekers, the cultural and religious traditions of people of other faiths, the aspirations of the poor and marginalized.”

In this effort to listen to the world, he suggested, religious orders can play the role of the church’s “hearing aid.”

“Consecrated men and women, especially the missionaries who are engaged in mission at the frontiers of faith and the margins of society, can be the ‘hearing aid’ of the church,” Pernia said, “as they endeavor to listen to the Word of God revealed particularly in the lives of people.”

Quoting the document of the Second Vatican Council on divine revelation, Dei Verbum, Pernia closed by suggesting that consecrated life “can contribute to making the church a community that not only proclaims but also listens.”

On the other hand, Pernia’s memorable speech seems a convincing indication that religious orders can also do the reverse – not only listen, but speak, and do it well.

I also saw that as a consequence of the Synod's topic, there may be a call for a year focusing on better preaching on the part of the clergy; preaching that connects the Word of God to the daily lives of His people. Perhaps that's why Fr. Carlos Aspiroz Costa, OP, Master of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) will be giving one of the closing speeches at the Synod.

It would follow, it seems to me, to focus on preaching after a Synod on the Bible in the Mission of the Church. As has been mentioned at the Synod, Christians are not so much a people of the Book, but a people of the Word. We are united with Christ, the Word of God, and meant to continue his mission in the world today. Thus it is absolutely imperative that the clergy be able to help the laity apply the living Word of God to the complex situations we find ourselves in these days. It is a disservice to the Word and to our congregations to simply help people understand what the text meant to the original listeners, or to ascend to beautiful theological doctrines based on the scriptures without grounding the Word in today's problems.

Without that living application - which often will have to be discerned in dialogue with the laity who are encountering first hand the problems and issues in the world - the Word dies, or is stillborn in our hearts.

The Flight From Purgatory

About that whole plane boarding scenario . . .

It didn't happen exactly as planned. I did board the plane alright but was then ordered off because the crew had discovered that, overnight, some bright soul had hit the plane with a truck or loader and left a 4 foot long dent in the side. So that was the end of that flight and the beginning of the next 2 hours and 15 min, during which I

Called Northwest airlines elite line 4 times
Checked in 4 times (don't ask)
Went through security twice
Was physically searched once (and told that I would be searched every time I go through security today)
Spent 1 hour 10 minutes standing in various lines.

The end of which is that I'm now on an entirely different airline and leaving at 5pm and will see the bright lights of downtown Chicago about 10 pm. It's gonna be a short night and my talk is at 10 am Monday.

So I'm back home for a few hours and gonna take the nap that I usually take on the early flight to Minneapolis. Those 3am wake calls are murder.

And then I'll return to the airport, allowing time to be personally searched again . . .

Perhaps more later.

More on French Revival

Oh here we go a-blogging amid the airport so green . . .

On my way again - to Chicago and then Bavaria.

But before I leave, I thought I'd use this time to share a bit more about the Catholic revival in France.

One thing became obvious as I read:

The revival didn't happen because of the 35 years of religious war. The endless violence, and more Catholic than thou Holy League's reign of terror in Paris (where they were known to arrest Catholics at Mass at Notre Dame for not being Catholic enough) only showed the spiritual bankruptcy of Catholicism-as-tribe and Catholicism-as-political/military-movement. Neither of them were capable of responding adequately to the challenges of the day.

Two to four million French man and women died in those conflicts and 20% of the population of Paris died because of the siege of 1590. The first generation of reformers were nearly all children or students during the civil wars years. Though most of them were not active participants in the civil war, they were deeply marked by their parent's experience of it and the atmosphere it created. When a tentative peace was restored under a Protestant-turned-Catholic king and the Edict of Nantes, the new stability included a permanent Protestant minority. The whole experience moved them from looking at the emergence of Protestantism as the cause of all of France's problems and starting to understand it as a symptom.

It was when the reformers turned to considering their own sins and failure and the failures of the larger French Church, and they turned to confession, penance, and a life of serious, disciplined devotion and mission (which was the 17th century language for "intentional discipleship) that the revival began. And this revival was anything but nostalgic. The Catholic Reformation was successful and regained much of the ground that had been lost because it produced a tidal wave of widespread spiritual, evangelical, and pastoral reforms and innovations that we now think of as essential Catholicism.

Deeply faithful to Christ, to the Tradition, to the Church and profoundly innovative and future-oriented as well. The fact that the Vatican Council (II) happened in a time of peace and apparent institutional strength has distorted our perspective. We keep projecting our concerns back on the Council of Trent and the early modern Catholic Church and they were not at all the same. Their backs were against the wall. They knew that reform and change was imperative. In that situation, there was no talk of hermeneutics of continuity.

All kinds of long-standing practices and "traditions" were suppressed as part of that renewal - liturgical, pastoral, disciplinary - and that was necessary but the heart and soul of the revival was the love-inspired creativity of heroic figures like Frances de Sales, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marrilac, etc.

My plane is boarding. Got to go. God bless!

Christ in the City

I went last night to St Patrick's Church in downtown Washington for the monthly "Christ in the City" Holy Hour for young adults. I was very much impressed by the way it was organized, the beauty of the church, the lovely music that was a mix of contemporary Christian favorites and chant, by the generous silence, and by the preaching, which invited us to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ and called those who do not know Christ to "open the doors of their hearts" to him. The church was darkened and I sat in the back, but it appeared that there were at least 125 folks there who looked mainly to be young professionals or students. After the homily the lines were quite long for all three priests who were hearing confessions. More information on this monthly event is here.

While it was all very beautiful and the folks there seemed to be deeply devoted to our Lord, I was struck by the ways in which this gesture is perfect for those who are not intentional disciples, who may be curious, open, or seeking and may benefit from a rather unstructured, no frills, no obligation encounter with the Eucharistic-Emmanuel. The setting was typical of what postmoderns say they like in church (an experience of the transcendent, otherwordly, etc) and which the emergent church movement has capitalized on. I am sure this can be fruitfully replicated in other cities with high concentrations of young adults as a tool for evangelization, as well as an occasion for committed young adults to deepen their relationship with the Lord.

15 Days of Prayer with Dominican Saints

For the Domino-phils on your gift list, here are some very interesting titles published by New City Press, the publishing arm of Focolare:

15 Days of Prayer with St. Dominic

15 Days of Prayer with St. Thomas Aquinas

and most importantly,

15 Days of Prayer with St. Catherine of Siena will be coming out in January.

Here's the publisher's description:

Saint Catherine issues an invitation and challenge: change direction, move away from self and toward God and neighbor. This 15-day journey will teach you to focus on Christ and be transformed by him, sharing the knowledge and joy of his love with others. The Cross is the central axis of these fifteen days because it is the place that leads to God. This is the vision of spiritual awakening in Christ that Saint Catherine offers us.

The authors (and one a Jesuit, no less!)
Chantal van der Plancke has a doctorate in theology, and is a professor at Lumen Vitae, the international center for pastoral studies and catechesis in Brussels. André Knockaert, S.J. is the former director of Lumen Vitae, and is a professor and a theological consultant for the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels.


ABOUT THE SERIES
Spiritual journeys are best experienced with a guide. Now you can receive guidance from some of the seminal spiritual figures of all time. Each volume in the “15 Days of Prayer” series contains:
• A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader introduced in that volume
• A guide to creating a format for prayer and retreat
• 15 meditations sessions with focus points and reflection guides

Up, Up, and Away

I'm sitting in the Colorado Springs airport on a glorious autumn morning, watching a hot air balloon rise over the city. Conception Abbey, MO, is my first destination, where I'll be leading a small men's retreat. Then, after a day in Ankeny, IA, with Charlie and Amy Hoover, two of our wonderful monthly donors, I'll be off to the Military Council of Catholic Women Conference in Ettal, Germany. Hopefully, Sherry will join me in the Munich airport a short three hours after I arrive.

Blogging from me will be spottier than normal. I imagine your lives will lurch along, nonetheless.

Monkey Waiters

Cause Austin (our office manager) thinks we are all monkeys . . .



She just doesn't know how good she has it . . .

We'll Always Have Paris

I have felt a bit overwhelmed by the challenge of sharing some of what I learned about the great French revival of the 17th century during my week as a wanna-be scholar in Athens, Ohio.

First of all, Dave made me read tons about the dark days that set the stage for the generation of saints and the profound religious revival that marked France and especially Paris for 150 years. That meant the Eight Wars of Religion that racked France for 36 years. Massacres, siege, famine, civil war, mob lynchings, reigns of terror, and some of the nastiest diatribes ever written. Oh, and real albino friar assassins. Dominicans. Hmmm.

Dave told me that the relentless grimness was one reason he had never been able to bring himself to read Reformation history. A convert from evangelicalism, he couldn't stand reading about Christians doing the unspeakable to one another in the name of Christ. (So he specialized in World War II Poland and ethnic cleansing instead which is mostly about Nazis and Communists doing the unspeakable to the ideologically and racially impure. I don't know as how I count that as an improvement.)

The fascinating thing is that many 20th century historians of the period don't take religion seriously as a motive. It had to be a cover for economic or class warfare, political motivations, power grabs, etc. It is the most recent generation of scholars, writing in the 80's and 90's, who have insisted that as uncomfortable as it makes us - 17th century Frenchmen and women were truly exercised by religious questions and driven by religious feelings. And this startlingly anachronistic working assumption that France and the French were essentially non-religious people also permeates our popular culture.

I realized as I read that I had a powerful, unspoken image of Paris, nurtured by innumerable films and stories, as a cheerfully amoral and irreligious place where style in living and the arts, food, and sex are recognized as the center and purpose of life. (Think of Professor Henry Higgens declaiming: "

"The French don't care what they do actually as long as they pronounce it properly."


The Myth that is Paris seems to run like this: When Americans want to get out from under our bourgeois, work-obsessed, dour, joyless Puritanism; when we want discover our inner passion, artist, and cool; we go where an irresistible sensuous tide will carry us - guiltless - away and tutor us in the arts of living. We, like Audrey Hepburn or Anne Hathaway or Gene Kelly, go to Paris. Mere morals are helpless to resist the sensuous force that is Paris.

So it was a bit startling to grasp how uneasy the Maurice Chevalier of American films would have been in intensely religious late 16th and 17th century Paris. That Paris would easily give early American Puritans, 16th century Spain, and Islamic Mecca a run for their money in a contest for most religious culture. For 100 years, Paris was one of the most religious cities on earth.

Paris was the Catholic bastion in France, the center of Catholic resistance in the Wars of Religion. For six years, Paris was run by a radical branch of the ultra-Catholic Holy League. Penitential Eucharistic processions filled the streets of the capital for months at a time. Parisians endured months of siege and starvation rather than accept a Protestant king. It was the intransigence of Parisian Catholics that ultimately forced the Protestant heir to the French throne, Henry of Navarre, to become the Catholic King Henry IV. (And no, Henry never said "Paris is worth a Mass." The quip that launched a thousand bad histories was coined by ultra-Catholic propagandists who insisted that Henry was not capable of conversion. More on that later.)

Over 60 new religious orders were founded in the city in the first half of the 17th century. And the majority of these new religious were contemplatives who lived very rigorous and ascetic lives. Parish was the center of the Catholic revival that ultimately transformed the entire nation.

So the next time you hear Humphrey Bogart say "We'll always have Paris.", remember that Paris has not always been the seductive, religion-free, symbol of our escapist fantasies.

More as I have time. I must finish preparing for the Stewardship Conference talk next week. It was fun telling Fr. Mike this morning (as i dropped him off at the airport) "See you in Munich." Now that's something I've never been able to do before!

Autumn Travels

Hi Y'all:

I'm back home for the nonce, It is a stunningly beautiful October day here and i am reveling in the last of my flowers. Chances are that they won't be blooming by the time I get back from our next trip. Cause it's October and you know that means lots of airplanes and frequent flyer miles.

Friday, Fr. Mike will begin leading a weekend men's retreat at Conception Abbey in Missouri. Meanwhile, Mary Kaufman will be training more Called & Gifted interviewers for the Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa.

I leave home again on Sunday for the International Catholic Stewardship Conference in dowtown Chicago where I'll be giving a presentation on charisms in stewardship and evangelization.

Then both Fr. Mike and I fly to Germany next Tuesday where I will share the story of my conversion and he and I will teach the Called & Gifted workshop. Our venue is tough: the gorgeous Benedictine Monastery in Ettal, Bavaria.



After this, Fr. Mike loses his right to complain about those tundra mission tours.

While Fr. Mike is practicing his yodel and I my schloss, another Institute team will be offering the Called & Gifted workshop in Salem, Oregon.

If you can't join us, your prayers would be greatly appreciated!

And this, just because I have always been moved by this observation by C. S. Lewis:

"Yes, autumn really is the best of seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life. But of course, like autumn, it doesn't last."

More from the Synod

Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago made the following comments during his intervention at the Synod on the Word of God ongoing in Rome:

"To speak of the Word of God in the Church is to speak of the Word of God in the lives of believers. Pastors should attend to conversion of the imagination, the intellect and the will of those to whom they proclaim the Word of God and for whom they interpret Scripture. Too often, the contemporary imagination has lost the image of God as actor in history. The contemporary intellect finds little consistency in the books of the Bible and is not informed by the 'regula fidei'. The contemporary heart has not been shaped by worship and the submission to God's word in the liturgical year. If the power of God's word in Holy Scripture is to be felt in the life and mission of the Church, pastors must attend to personal context as well as to inspired text."

Answered Prayers

The other day I expressed a hope that the synod in Rome on the Scriptures would "focus on calling Catholics to discipleship and the intentional following of Jesus." It appears that the relator, or moderator of the synod is calling for just that - and more. Here's a quote from John Allen's coverage of the synod.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec City, the relator of the synod, issued a strong call for what he called “spiritual exegesis” of the Bible, premised not just on cognitive understanding but, above all, on personal faith and commitment (emphasis mine).

Ouellet proposed a new “Marian paradigm” for Scripture study – using the Virgin Mary as a model of a response to God’s Word that, in his words, is “dynamic,” “dialogical,” and “contemplative.”

Among other things, Ouellet argued that the Bible has to be seen as part of a broader relationship with Jesus Christ, the “living Word of God,” that’s both personal and also rooted in the community of the church (again, my emphasis). "Christianity is not really a 'religion of the Book,' Ouellet said, but rather a “religion of the Word – not solely or mainly of the Word in its written form.” ... Ouellet placed great stress on reading the Bible within the context of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, as well as the fathers of the church and the great saints. He called the liturgy the “crib” of God’s word, its “Sitz im Leben” – a technical term from Bible studies that means its social context.

I am pleased by both the emphasis on reading scripture as an expression of our relationship with Christ - as well as a means to deepen it - and by the contextualization of it within the Eucharist. As the sacramental re-presentation of the Last Supper and Jesus' atoning death on the cross, it only makes sense that we listen to him speak to us today, in our context, just as he spoke to his disciples in theirs. He then feeds us, like them, with his body and blood.

That "speaking to our hearts" in the context of the liturgy must continue throughout the week as we sit and contemplate his word to us in both the Old and New Testaments.

Attacks on Christians in India

News of attacks on Christians in India made the papers a few months ago, then dropped out of the news. But the attacks have not abated, and Christians and Muslims in rural areas of India need our prayers. This letter was distributed by Sr. Marie-Therese, OP, from the Dominican Justice and Peace committee.

Attacks against Christian and Muslim minorities have existed for years in India rural zones. But they have become more violent since the end of August, especially in the State of Orissa (north East of India) and, more recently, in the Karnataka State (South west of India, Bangalore is the capital). The population of these two States include between 2 and 13% of Christians. But there has been violence also in several other States. The media have said little. It seems that the Government would like to hush it up.

The authors of these crimes are Hindu extremists, especially the Hindutva movment whose active arm is the RSS (Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh) which is present in both India and the U.S. This movement is trying to establish a Hindu India, ethnically pure (like the Nazi Movement in the Germany of the thirties) It also wants to perpetuate the caste system. The Governing party does not fight them, and, in some cases, the police seem to take part with them in the attacks instead of trying to stop them.

There have been murders of priests (all Indians), of religious sisters (also Indians) and of lay people, destruction and desecration of churches, of convents, educational institutions, and orphanages… These attacks are not led by local Hindu people, but by gangs coming from the outside, fanatisized, indoctrinated, and sometimes inebriated.

The causes of these persecutions, in addition to ethnical purification, are of two kinds:
o allegation of mass conversions of Hindus to Christianity by force or by fraudulent tactics. This allegation is without foundation.
o the work of Christians with tribal people and dalits (the untouchable caste) makes them more aware of their human dignity and of their rights, thereby disturbing landlords in their use of these people as cheap labor in their farms.

An intervention of the international community is quite necessary, particularly of the U.N.

Our sisters are well, but they do not know for how long… Of course they are counting on our prayers and on whatever we can do to alert the international community. I hope to be able to suggest to you some concrete actions in a few days. A letter to the Prime Minister of India is being prepared at the level of the Dominican Family.

I hope you can find it in your heart to also pray for the conversion of the hearts of the Hindu extremists, so they put aside their violent ways.

A Synod on the Bible

Beginning this Monday, October 6, 180 bishops representing episcopal conferences around the world, 24 members of the Roman Curia, 10 heads of religious orders, 32 clerics appointed directly by the pope, 37 observers, of whom 19 are women, and 41 experts in scripture, liturgy and doctrine will be gathering in Rome for the 22nd session of the Synod of Bishops. The topic for this synod is, “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” The ever-intrepid John Allen reports,

In preparation for the synod, the Catholic Biblical Federation commissioned GFK Eurisko, Italy’s leading market research organization, to poll 13 countries about attitudes toward the Bible. It was billed as “the most systematic scientific undertaking yet attempted to compare, on an international scale, levels and forms of familiarity with the scriptures.”

In broad strokes, the survey found that even in highly secularized nations, people have a basically positive attitude towards the Bible, finding it “interesting” and wanting to know more about it. Yet across the board, Biblical literacy is often astonishingly low. For example, large numbers of Americans, like people in the other countries surveyed, mistakenly believe Jesus authored a book of the Bible, and they can’t correctly distinguish between Paul and Moses in terms of which figure belongs to the Old Testament.

In light of such findings, there will undoubtedly be considerable attention to meat-and-potatoes questions of how the church can boost study and prayer with the Bible on the pastoral front lines.

How's this for 'meat-and-potatoes': focus on calling Catholics to discipleship and the intentional following of Jesus! I hope the bishops and their advisors, rather than asking about techniques or programs, focus on the reality that people who hear about Jesus from others who are in a living relationship with him are often intrigued and want to know more about him. The scriptures become the means by which Our Lord speaks to the individual's heart and mind, calling them to conversion and a new life in him.

As believers and disciples, it is our role, whether lay or ordained, to
1) live the faith we profess in an intentional, daily manner that evokes a response from others because of its non-conformity with the values of the world;
2) be ready to be able to speak of our relationship with the Lord in a way that is compelling and clear;
3) be able to help guide others through the savoring and study of scripture so that they neither interpret them in a fundamentalist-literalist manner, nor rely simply upon a scientific historical-critical exegetical approach (especially one that by default excludes the possibility of the supernatural!)
4) help people interested in the Scriptures and the God who reveals himself in them also encounter the Body of Christ, the Church, which is ultimately responsible for the transmission, preaching and interpretation of the Word.

Let's remember to pray for the success of this synod, and that devotion to God's self-revelation in the Scriptures might be approached with reverence, awe, and great joy because of the treasures it contains.

My Precious

After the Lord of the Rings trilogy (whether one read the books or saw the movies), it's hard to read the title of this post and not put a few extra s's on the end of precious. But, according to a book by San Francisco's Archbishop George Niederauer, when he was still bishop of Salt Lake City, that's how God sees us.

In Precious as Silver: Imagining Your Life With God, Archbishop Niederauer guides us through reflections on a series of excellent questions:
What is God Like?
What Are We Like for God?
What is God's plan for us?
What Does it Mean to Be a Disciple?
Why and How Does a Disciple Pray?
and How Are DIsciples Called to Serve in Ministry?

The title comes from a passage in Malachi 3:1-3.
Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye.
He will sit refining and purifying [silver],
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifices to the Lord.

As a small sample of the archbishop's insights, I offer this excerpt from his book:

The truth is this: We are God's silver. All of us. God "sits refining and purifying" us all, his children, generation after generation, because he loves us. He knows that it is in our nature to become tarnished, to behave sinfully and ignor him, and that he must constantly call us back to himself and polish us with his attentive love and grace. God knows that we will go on getting more or less tarnished, and he will have to continue polishing. Even after Jesus Christ has "refined" us sacramentally through the power of his saving action, we will need that polishing all our lives long.

Why does God do it? He polishes us because he cherishes us. We are precious and valuable to him. He could have created a stainless steel equivalent, but he created us. The reason why is a mystery, but the cherishing is real. The preaching of Jesus Christ is full of the good news of that cherishing.

This realization can calm our anxiety about our worth in God's eyes. It should not tempt us to complacency...The important lesson this image teaches is that we are simultaneously cherished and imperfect. To God, "cherished" matters much more than "imperfect," so it should matter much more to us.

The last few days the daily reading from the Old Testament has come from the book of Job, which asks the perennial question, "Why do good people suffer?" Of course, we often ask a similar question, especially when the suffering is personal. In these cases, the question becomes all the more pointed and urgent, "Why am I suffering?"

God's 'answer' to Job is instructive, but not terribly comforting. Simply put, God says, "I'm God, you're not. Trust that I know what I'm doing. Everything's under control."

When confronting our tendency to worry or lament our misfortune, Jesus points out, a bit more comfortingly (and maybe with a wry smile) than the Almighty who speaks to Job. Jesus asks rhetorically, "Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." Lk 12:6-7

Perhaps our suffering is often a sign that God may be polishing us a bit. Maybe the splendid brilliance in which we were created has become a bit darkened with tarnish. Rather than the free creatures God has made us to be, we have become slaves to lesser goods, or created lesser gods in our own image. Am I suffering as an effect of my sinfulness? That pain can be a call to conversion! Am I suffering because I've lost my home in a hurricane? Well, Job lost more, and he didn't curse God. In fact, his horrific losses got him thinking about and talking to God quite a bit, didn't it? The struggle, of course, is to remain believing we are precious in the midst of suffering. It is tough to believe every hair on our head is counted, or that we haven't, in fact, escaped God's notice, when our hair is falling out in chemotherapy-induced clumps.

I would suggest that our painful losses, whether the loss of property, prestige, youth, opportunity, health, or a beloved, are opportunities for us to return to the Lord with renewed dependence. Pain can actually be an invitation to be polished, and you and I have encountered people of faith who have suffered, or are suffering, and who have grown closer to God, and more in touch with their fragile creatureliness, as a consequence.

And they can be beautiful and brilliant to behold. And that is so because they still know they are cherished and precious even as they lose everything.

The paradox is, for those who cherish God in return, nothing else really matters, and the only loss that is feared is the loss of that relationship. To live in such a way is to enter the kingdom of heaven. That is precisely what the rich young man in Matthew 19 could not do because of his attachment to his wealth. He could keep the commandments - follow the rules - but he couldn't abandon himself to his Creator. Because of his attachments, he went away sad, unable to be polished, and unable to know how precious he was.

Glory to God in the Highest

I'm having a most fruitful and interesting time in Athens, Ohio , which is a lovely university town nestled in wooded hills that are just beginning to turn but this piece from our local Colorado Springs Gazette reminds me of what I am missing: the almost indescribable glory of the aspens at their height.

The closest thing to the light of the Beatific Vision that I expect to experience in my earthly lifetime.

Enjoy.

Touching the Reign of God

I just finished reading a manuscript by Mary Sharon Moore, one of our Called & Gifted workshop teachers, titled, "Touching the Reign of God: Bringing theological reflection to daily life." It will be published, probably in December, by Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene. I'll let you know when it is available.

Mary Sharon is founding director of Awakening Vocations, a ministry dedicated to awakening the vocational culture of parishes and guiding the vocation discernment of individuals. She is an active spiritual director, frequent writer, and her Journey with the Word seasonal meditations are heard on Catholic radio stations around the United States. Her monthly vocations column, Conformed to Christ, appears in diocesan newspapers.

In a time when many don’t believe that God is personal, Mary Sharon shows us just how deeply personal and transformative a relationship with God who is love, mercy, humility, and forgiveness can be.

Through short reflections from the heart of a woman in whom Jesus has made a home, we are offered graceful entry into Mary Sharon's inner life of reflective prayer and her outer life as a Christian in the world. Further, we are allowed to see for ourselves how the Holy Spirit connects the two. Neither is perfect, yet both are real, instructive, and humbly inspiring.

Like her life, her book is saturated with Scripture. In her everyday encounters with the world and its denizens, the living Word of God challenges her, shapes her attitudes, insinuates himself into her thoughts, and judges her words, her actions, and even her inaction. As a result, we glimpse the possibility of life and prayer becoming one, and realize that not only can we touch the reign of God, but God’s reign reaches under the door of our hearts to touch us.

Touching the Reign of God reveals the startling practicality and ancient mystery of prayer lived; prayer taken seriously, not in the multiplication of words or measure of time, but through attentiveness to the Trinity with Whom we each long to be united. From the experience of her prayer-life (and life-prayer), Mary Sharon can confidently and audaciously proclaim, “No aspect of human life falls outside of God’s blessing.”