Catholic Sensibility

My current parish is the second in which I’ve ever lived where the liturgy schedule features one of the weekly Masses regularly scheduled for a weeknight. And it’s big.

We draw up to 175 for a 10PM Thursday Night Liturgy (TNL), and apparently the tradition goes back several pastors. Last September, our pastor tossed out a “statistic” at Sunday 7PM Mass encouraging students to attend, “43% of St Thomas student parishioners meet their future spouse at TNL.” Four days later, we had a high attendance watermark–183.

Can any readers relate experiences of any other Masses like this? Most parishes with schools have a weekly morning Mass for the student body. In my last parish, attendance was usually higher than on any given Sunday Mass. Of course, six-hundred-plus kids were on the school clock, not necessarily God’s time. I don’t think our TNL has the same feel as a school Mass.

My home parish during my grad student days had their own TNL. 7PM was a much more reasonable time. The story went that it was begun because most parishioners preferred organ and choir on Sundays, and a folk group had nowhere to sing. So an “informal” Mass was provided for young adults. By the time I arrived in 1982, this liturgy routinely drew 200 to 300 people–many parishioners, but also people from around the city and ‘burbs who found a certain appeal in the experience.

Some observations from both parishes:

- You would think that having Mass on a weeknight offers certain flexibility with readings and all. And it’s true: often one can elect to celebrate a votive Mass. But my old parish and new stick to the daily Lectionary.

- Observances like Easter Thursday cause some headscratching. Our associate pastor was particular about reciting the Creed a few weeks ago. But the planners bumbled the singing of the Gloria. So we had a very “traditional” Confiteor-Kyrie-Gloria all recited in the introductory rut. Yuck.

- My experience with these Masses is that they tend to be very formulaic, more than the Missal suggests. At my old parish, I once commented that Thursday Night Mass was more formal and restrictive in its practices than Sunday Masses. The parish receptionist protested my opinion until I noted that every week after Communion, the first announcement was always the same. The priest first asked for birthdays, then anniversaries. He always asked. It was always in that order. We never deviated. We weren’t turning conservative, I assured her; it was only the human love of ritual and good order.

- Bishops seem to like a weeknight liturgy when they visit. Since I’ve been in Ames, my archbishop (above) as well as the new Des Moines bishop have come to preside. Back in my old parish, we had three bishops visit in my six years there.

- Masses in which people come to worship because they choose are simply marvelous. I’m sure the appeal is similar for that TLM at the Basilica this past Saturday. It wasn’t a Sunday obligation. The community was diverse, spirited, and intentional. I’m convinced that intentionality is the key to vital liturgy, and by that token, a vital faith community.

Your thoughts? I’m especially curious about your experiences.

Before you look it up on your pda calendar or on the net or lower down in this post, answer this quickie: can Mother’s Day or Father’s Day ever fall on Pentecost?

I don’t know about other nations’ observances of parental love and commitment, but in the US, these holidays are observed on the 2nd Sunday in May and the 3rd Sunday in June respectively. Almost always, Pentecost falls between these two American Sundays. But in extreme situations like the very early Easter of 2008 and next year’s very late Easter, Pentecost can land on Mother’s Day and get pretty close to Father’s Day.

The odds are high against Mother’s Day and Pentecost coinciding: it happens only about two dozen times in a millennium.

Next year’s Easter will be observed in the West on April 25th. It can only be one day later than that. Father’s Day and Pentecost could coincide only if Easter were to fall on April 27th. Moving the holiday is much more likely to happen.

A March 9th Ash Wednesday means almost all of Lent will be after the equinox. Easter Vigil, to accommodate the “nightfall” rule, will have to start at 9PM for most of the US, or even a little later.  Poor Fairbanks Alaska. According to my almanac, your sunset on Holy Saturday 2011 is a few minutes shy of 10PM. That puts nightfall around 11PM. There’s still time for all nine readings and a full cadre of elect before dawn. How do you think a bishop would or should handle a situation in which there is no night for the Easter Vigil, either because of an extreme polar celebration, or a future human settlement on a planet without night?

Blogger Matt Abbott tries to generate some heat on the hospice movement. Quoting Ron Panzer, of the Hospice Patients Alliance:

Hundreds of thousands of patients are killed in the world each year in this manner …

That’s sure an attention-getter. Mr Panzer describes my understanding of the last stage before a patient dies:

In the ‘active phase of dying’ — the very, very end — a person does not eat or drink naturally, for he or she is truly dying: The individual’s organs and bodily systems are shutting down. At that time, it would be inappropriate to provide food — he or she would choke on it or it would be aspirated into the lungs — and a good amount of fluid would easily go right into the lungs.

I’m more concerned with how he prefaces the remark:

Evil has a way of mixing in truth with untruth, partial truth rather than whole truth, or using something appropriate at one time but misusing it at another time.

Well, it can be Evil. It can also be human nature, and we see it all the time in the blogosphere: people have a belief they wish to be true, and they emphasize aspects of truth that buttress their viewpoint, and ignore aspects that don’t.

Matters medical can also be less obvious without being evil. When the body begins to shut down, is it always an immediate and irrevocable shift: one minute the patient’s digestive system is receiving fluids and nutrients, and the next not? Can we keep in mind that hospice caregivers might also make an error? Ordinarily, error is not sinful.

As usual the Pewsitter headline would be funny if it weren’t so blatantly emotional: Quiet Genocide by Hospice.

Usually, one refers to genocide in terms of a racial, national, or ethnic group of people. Maybe “the dying” qualify. But “genocide” is a hot coal of a word. Toss it along with the mention of Terry Schiavo or the “media lies” into the discussion and an issue some of us might take seriously is suddenly a campfire chant. And a conspiracy theory to shelve next to the grassy knoll or Roswell.

The Rite of Reception (of a Baptized Christian) within Mass is much like the initiation rites we’ve seen elsewhere in RCIA, streamlined for the circumstances. The outline is:

Invitation
Profession of Faith
Act of Reception
[Confirmation] (if needed, with Laying on of hands and anointing with chrism)
Celebrant’s Sign of Welcome
General  Intercessions
Sign of Peace

And the Liturgy of the Eucharist follows.

The invitation (RCIA 490) and profession of faith (491) are closely linked. The text for the latter is often a memorized response by the candidate, no leeway on wording is given in the rite:

I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.

In RCIA 493, the text for the Act of Reception follows:

N, the Lord receives you into the Catholic Church.
His loving kindness has led you here,
so that in the unity of the Holy Spirit
you may have full communion with us
in the faith that you have professed in the presence of his family.

The accompanying rubric instructs the celebrant to lay his right hand on the head of the candidate, unless confirmation is to follow, in which case the two-handed gesture will accompany the prayer (RCIA 493) before anointing (494). If the candidate is not confirmed, the formula is the same as for the newly baptized adults (see RCIA 235), children (326) and those in danger of death (391).

Differing from the previous rites is the Sign of Welcome:

495. The celebrant then takes the hands of the newly received person into his own as a sign of friendship and acceptance. With the permission of the Ordinary, another suitable gesture may be substituted, depending on local and other circumstances.

This gesture is very interesting. It would mark a distinctive gesture not practiced for the freshly baptized. It is not included in the combined initiation rite of elect and baptized candidates.

The General Intercessions (496) are notable for the inclusion of prayers for separated “Communities” and even the “Church” of the newly received. Observe:

For all who believe in Christ and for the Communities to which they belong, that they may come to perfect unity …

For the Church [Communion] in which N was baptized and received his/her formation as a Christian, that it may always grow in knowledge of Christ and proclaim him more effectively …

For all in whom the spark of desire for God already burns …

For those who do not yet believe in Christ …

The sign of peace may be moved to the slot after the intercessions and before the Liturgy of the Eucharist (498). It is not repeated before the Lamb of God, if this is done.Communion under both forms is “fitting,” according to the rite.

Whew! That’s a mouthful. Any comments, questions, or observations?

In the continuing media blitz on sex abuse and cover-up, two items of note today:

First, the former archbishop of San Francisco in a PBS interview at Rock’s website. The video is embedded there. It will be interesting to see if the bishops, complaining that the media doesn’t promote the positives of the Church, will compliment secular journalists when they do ask the right questions:

MARGARET WARNER: So you don’t think it’s appropriate that people hold the church to a higher standard? There is more focus on the church?

CARDINAL WILLIAM LEVADA: That’s a fair question. I think we should hold ourselves to a higher standard in the sense that this is not something that one would have expected that a bishop or anybody in the church, parents none of us would have expected this but I think the causes we will see go back to changes in society that the church and priests were not prepared for, particularly changes involving how to be a celibate person in a time of the sexual revolution, that’s one of the causes I’d say.

Fair question indeed, and interesting response, if a somewhat evasive one. The cardinal doesn’t allude to the nature of the Church as a holy society, or its leaders as dedicated to a higher moral standard than the Boy Scouts or the town high school. As for the sexual revolution, I wonder how the cardinal might have improved on the blame game were he a student of history. Other ages have known sexual promiscuity in society and among the hierarchy. How did they cope?

That said, note the concession that bishops were wholly unprepared from the 70′s on.

A lay man and father of three asked for help in 2002. He asked his bishop to take the cover-up seriously.

The truth is that our bishops are not doing all they can to stop the sexual abuse of minors by their brother priests; they’re each doing all they care to. Like most Catholics I’m stunned and horrified that there’s a distinction, but after the disclosures of the past few weeks you can’t deny there still is.

Clearly, most of the rest of the Catholic Church is where Bishop Gregory and his colleagues were eight years ago. The link to David Spotanski’s memo is here. Worth a read. Definitely worth a read.

RCIA 487 gives the introductory rubrics for the Mass of receiving someone into Full Communion. “If the rite … takes place on a solemnity or on a Sunday” the Mass of the day is celebrated. I had not realized that on a weekday, the Mass “For the Unity of Christians” is suggested.

RCIA 488 reiterates the Mass choice, for the purpose of selecting readings, when appropriate. Number 489 describes the homily “express(ing) gratitude to God for those being received.” The three sacraments should also be “allude(d) to,” namely the Baptism the person or persons have already received, Confirmation, and the First Eucharist of the candidates.

In Arizona, no less. It’s not a fabrication of either fundamentalist Christians or American conservatives going bonkers about Cardinal Mahony and who want to shut down the Mexican influx. It’s about telescopes. Really.

Some of you knew the Vatican Observatory operates a telescope on Mt Graham in Arizona, right? A few of you might also know that many modern observatories consist of several telescopes, and that various universities and science institutions more or less cooperate to share an ideal viewing location. In the case of Mt Graham, a low-humidity, high elevation site to minimize atmospheric interference.

Next door to the Jesuit-run telescope on Mt Graham is the Large Binocular Telescope. And the LBT was recently enhanced by an installation of an instrument, the “Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research.” When I render that instrument as an acronym, I get LBTNUCIFUER. Apparently that was hard to pronounce, so a few consonants and a vowel were dropped to get LUCIFER.

“Light bearer” is actually a decently accurate name for an instrument that will image near-infrared (just beyond the red in the spectrum) radiation and probe more deeply into the universe. What I find hilarious is what came up when I did a Google search for “lucifer telescope vatican” and found all sorts of creepy end-of-the-world conspiracy theories. It actually reminded me of the “smoke of satan” legend dating from the days of Pope Paul VI. It was also a reminder of how truly bad internet reporting can be. They got the science wrong. They got the Church wrong. They even got the simple facts wrong. And blogs have the nerve to complain about the NYT.

I think astronomers need more of a sense of humor. Like when Mike Brown nicknamed the dwarf planet he discovered in 2005 for Xena, the warrior princess of cheesecake tv. Something more innocuous than the adversary of God … something like Biff. Bodacious Infra-red Field Finder.

That image above? It’s not from BIFF; it’s from NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: Ray A. Lucas (STScI/AURA)

Let’s wrap up the last four paragraphs of the introduction to the Reception of Baptized Christians. First, a word about the sponsor:

483. At the reception, the candidate should be accompanied by a sponsor and may even have two sponsors. If someone has had the principal part in guiding or preparing the candidate, he or she should be the sponsor.

This is illustrative. RCIA presumes a group of catechumens, learning and growing together in the faith. This note about the person who “has had the principal part” in formation, seems to presume this rite will be somewhat rarer, or perhaps not necessarily integrated into a group process for the unbaptized. And notice, too, the rite treats this one-on-one relationship of formation with great importance. That it is mentioned seems to indicate the framers of RCIA envisioned a more apprentice-like approach than only a teacher-student relationship.

Communion under both forms, and for all:

484. In the eucharistic celebration within which reception into full communion takes place or, if the reception takes place outside Mass, in the Mass that follows at a later time, communion under both kinds is permitted for the person received, the sponsor, the parents and spouse who are Catholic, lay catechists who may have instructed the person, and, if the number involved and other circumstances make this feasible, for all Catholics present.

Bishops and conferences of bishops may adapt:

485. The conferences of bishops may, in accord with the provisions of the Constitution on the Liturgy, art. 63, adapt the rite of reception to various circumstances. The local Ordinary, by expanding or shrtening the rite, may arrange it to suit the particular circumstances of the persons and place involved.

Keep records:

486. The names of those received into the full communion of the Catholic Church should be recorded in a psecial book, with the date and place of their baptism also recorded.

On my way from the young miss’s school dropoff to the bank this morning, I heard NPM’s two-part feature on the Church’s cover-up scandal. The first was bad enough, in which a Dutch teen reported abuse in 1964. And he gets a physical beating for it. From my parents’ stories of physical and emotional abuse they suffered growing up, I’d say the kids of the world, pre-Jay Study, knew what side the bread was buttered on. You kept quiet, or worse would happen. The real power resided in the adults: they controlled the world, and too many saw children as fodder for manipulation and consumption. Why does the Jay Study look like there was a boom in child abuse after 1960? It wasn’t the permissiveness of the 60′s, that’s for sure. It was age-old spiritual cannibalism. Power addicts consumed children, groomed allies, and maintained a mastery by sucking the life out of victims. And people wonder why the culture is so obsessed of vampires. It should be obvious to all.

The second involved the tragic and horrific case of Fr Maciel. Documented accusations against the LC founder were gathered and taken to Rome in 1998. The case can’t be opened, CDF head Cardinal Ratzinger is said to have asserted. Maciel is close to the Holy Father (then Pope John Paul II). An embittered ex-LC priest asserts that the current pope was part of the institutional cover-up for Maciel.

Given Cardinal Ratzinger’s reputation, I confess my own surprise that he was not a power player in all this. With his books, appearances, and high-profile tussles with theologians, the average Catholic might see him as a force in Rome. Could it be really true that he was just a paper-pushing figurehead? Were there other powers influencing the pope and curia? And if so, where did they originate if not in the CDF or some other curial congregation?

Call me a deep skeptic when it comes to grandiose conspiracy theories. Kennedy, area 51 and alien ufo’s, Mel Gibson: mostly nonsense. As for the Church, a moneyed controlling interest behind the scenes, the lavender mafia, the anti-Catholic secular media, the assassination of the first John Paul–these things are just lunacy. Aren’t they? And if they are just silly conspiracies, why wouldn’t Cardinal Ratzinger, as head of the former Holy Office, and a trusted lieutenant of the pope, not be in a position to sit down with JPII and lay out a case that the Legion of Christ must be investigated from the top down?

It seems to me that if everything is as it appears, there are three prime possibilities. First, that the curial heads do not govern the Church, other people do. Or, second, that Maciel had bewitched John Paul so deeply that he wouldn’t even listen to his brothers in the College of Cardinals. Or third, that Cardinal Ratzinger was indeed involved in covering up sex abuse while he was heading his congregation, and perhaps late in the game, converted to the truth.

None of these possibilities is very pretty. I’d like to think there’s some fourth option that makes everybody look a little less clueless. Next commentary I want to lay out a case in which the institutional outreach to victims, while sincere, may be far from enough. Meanwhile, if anyone can give me a fourth option, have at it.

Our cats have always liked the running water available in the bathtub. Gambit is the first to drink “standing up.”

RCIA 482 makes a strange distinction. But before we get to that, I want to clear up something I saw elsewhere on the internet about non-Catholics not being able to make a confession of sins. Certainly, the elect are ineligible to confess. And besides, they have the benefit of the scrutinies as well as being able to experience the forgiveness of sins in baptism.

The Church clearly expects candidates for full communion to celebrate the sacrament of Penance:

482. If the profession of faith and reception take place within Mass, the candidate, according to his or her own conscience, should make a confession of sins beforehand, first informing the confessor that he or she is about to be received into full communion. Any confessor who is lawfully approved may hear the candidate’s confession.

It’s curious that this confession “should” take place if the candidate is to receive Communion. One would think that for the conferral of Confirmation, one would also have had serious sins forgiven.

RCIA 482 makes sure we know this isn’t a “practice” confession or a “non-sacramental” event. Note the two important phrases:

- according to his or her own conscience

- should make a confession

Any confessors out there who have advice about the ideal thoroughness of this adult’s first confession? I’m pretty sure the “pick one sin you want to work on” approach is eliminated from the get-go.

Does he have them? I don’t know.

I think he has led a sheltered ministry: academia and the curia, mostly. I have no reason to doubt he is both a scholar and a spiritual man. Any serious believer in the Chair of Peter would have to be significantly dismayed at the spate of bishops resigning, being ousted, and withdrawing from office with hardly a public comment. And you have to know that if no reason is forthcoming on Scranton, Saint Catharines, and Tanzania, it’s probably not happy news. But you can be sure that the pope is hearing it. And if its any kind of bad news, I’m sure it weighs heavily on the Holy Father. When the lights go out in the papal apartment at night, I suspect that bishops and clergy are more often on his mind than the psalms or canticle of Compline.

Psalm 4:3 from my Grail version:

How long will your hearts be closed,
will you love what is futile and seek what is false?

The hearts of clergy closed to the suffering of innocent victims. The very brother priests and bishops of the pope on the side of wrongdoing. The futility of pinning blame on the forces of evil in the world. Evil from within the very community of Christ is responsible. One can fuss about opportunistic lawyers and journalists, but bishops themselves have been guilty of wrongdoing on two fronts: sheltering predators as well as numbering among them themselves.

A bit further in the psalm may be the answer to sleepless nights:

Make justice your sacrifice and trust in the Lord.

Certainly, sacrifices will have to be made. Sacrifice is always a part of dealing with sin. Victims are made sacrifices and have already known loss, long before contrition of offenders is usually in the picture. Penitents must sacrifice, both as a gesture of satisfaction to wronged communities, and as a means of personal restoration. Leaders, too, will have to make sacrifices. I suspect Pope Benedict knows this.

The Grail for $ale thread on PrayTell heated up quite a bit today. 1,000 characters is a tough limit to adhere to, I see. Sad, but not surprising, that someone had to toss their personal tastes into the discussion and start yet another mindless criticism of contemporary music.

Like Fr Ruff, I don’t know that the current situation is the best we can get. There seem to be lots of embittered (and unpublished!) composers out there who seem to think they deserve a share of the Eagles’ Wings Gold Mine. Maybe there’s a sense that the internet (especially the reform2 chant sites) will overhaul mainstream publishers. I might harp on the inattentive blunders with contemporary music by the big publishers, but I know for sure that when I start playing or reading homegrown resources (and I’ve seen some of their “big” sellers) I know that a third-party editor would have been a really good idea. Even if she or he would have to be paid.

I think a lot of people in the discussion have good points that deserve to be heard. But let’s also recognize that most everybody has scars, too. The scars drive the energy of this chat, not the productive points.

Publishers were very badly treated by parishes and by the Church in the 70′s. I have a copy of the “official” Missouri Catholic Hymnal on my office shelf. The traditional tunes and texts are carefully attributed, even with metrical designations. But the last section of the hymnal? Titles and words. No composers. No sources. No copyright notices. and this, a production by professional church musicians.

So if some people today are a little leery about Joe Reform2 Composer setting up a web site and using other people’s work, I can appreciate the concern.

Parish musicians are notoriously unpaid. Few of us will be granted a retirement pension like Bernard Huijbers for decades of service. So if a few people get published and it helps make end meet, I’m not inclined to begrudge them a little moonlighting income. My royalty check paid the dentist bill one year. Back in 2006, it gave my family a day pass at the major attractions at Niagara Falls. That’s not going to cut it when I turn 75. But that day is still a long way off.

And most of us feel a combination of apprehension, frustration, and concern that a sub-standard translation is being foisted on all us English-speakers. So when people appear positioned to rake in bonus income from it, there too I can appreciate that some serious resentment might surface.

I don’t have the answer, other than to note that strong feelings are still running hot. And in this climate, there’s probably not a lot of constructive discussion that can take place.

Russell Shaw writes on the notion of bishops resigning. I always pay attention to his essays when I see them. He’s one of the few commentators from the Catholic Right who’s respectful of bishops, but not fawning toward them. Russell Shaw is not Eddie Haskell, in other words.

I’m not sure that mainstream laity are interested in a Napoleonic replacement as much as a coming clean. What goes on in the hierarchy is Bill Clinton-esque or Nixonian, if you’ll pardon the crude comparison. Don’t tell the truth. Cover up for the greater good. Not all sleaze gets detected later, but when it does, it seems ten times as worse.

To be sure, my mother didn’t find out everything I did wrong as a kid. But we got the message that if we were under scrutiny, deception was not an option. Her motto was, “Lying is worse than stealing.” And she exacted her most dire consequences when any of us kids broke her trust.

From Mr Shaw:

But even supposing that wholesale changes in the hierarchy effected by papal intervention would have been a good idea eight years ago in America, or is a good idea now in Ireland or Germany or other countries racked by scandal, how realistic is the proposal as a general rule? In fact, it’s based on very dubious ideas about the relationship between popes and bishops.

The popular image of this relationship widely shared in pre-Vatican II days depicted bishops as something like branch managers reporting to a home office — the Vatican — headed by a CEO called “pope.” But that was never the case.

In theory, this is true. But there’s one glaring example of how both bishops and popes get both the theology wrong and, in practice, have fully embraced the CEO model:

Bishops need permission to resign.

It’s as simple and transparent as that.

The Church is clear about the proper duties of bishops and presbyters. Let’s read today’s section for review:

481. It is the office of the bishop to receive baptized Christians into the full c0mmunion of the Catholic Church. But a priest to whom the bishop entrusts the celebration of the rite has the faculty of confirming the candidate within the rite of reception (Rite of Confirmation 7b), unless the person has already been validly confirmed.

The usual practice, by far, is that priests receive baptized Christians into full communion. The rite reminds clergy, and all of us, that reception as well as initiation is a responsibility of the bishop–a view that dates back to the times of smaller dioceses, and when notable bishops left us the legacy of a baptismal theology. I don’t know that we’ve yet to recover this as much as we’re faced with the pragmatic situation: it is the parish clergy who are involved with initiation ministry, if any ordained priest is at all.