Catholic Sensibility

Cardinal Bertone is upset with the press.

Many journalists play at imitating Dan Brown. They continue to invent fables or repeat legends.

Leaks are not legends. Mr Brown is an author of fiction. He makes oodles of money from book sales and film rights. Not so journalists who jostle with various media outlets and personalities to get attention. Their jobs are predicated on out-performing the opposition.

Cardinal Bertone lamented that stories of the church’s extensive charitable works have been “intentionally ignored or erased” amid heavy press coverage of the scandal.

It happens. Scandal sells product for the corporate masters. I can attest that my political posts get more attention than our discussions on liturgical documents. Of course, I’m glad to report that wedding readings get the most visits of all. I still think a daily blog from the pope, even edited sections of his writings, adapted for a daily reflection, would get swamped with visitors. Instead, we get the spectacle of cardinals fighting, of a suspicious-looking guilty butler, and questions that involve lots and lots of money.

Meanwhile, Dan Brown is a producer of stories. I remember several years ago when St Blog’s was going ga-ga over the works of Mr Brown. I kept saying, “It’s fiction, folks.” Clearly, he’s made an impression in the Vatican.

Let’s get back to VatiLeaks. I have little doubt that the cardinal is right to suggest that “there is a malicious will to produce division” in the Church. Some of it comes from some members of a hierarchy in their attempt to gain and/or consolidate power. There are others who enjoy the spectacle of scandal in the way that it’s interesting to watch a trainwreck. I wonder if some just want to force the Church into a locus of telling the truth. The journalists are just working with what they’re fed. I hope Cardinal Bertone is giving his boss the full picture here. Pope Benedict has more to be sad about than his personal assistant.

Three weeks later, I’m still slightly abuzz with fond memories from my MLS outing with the young miss. We’ve been following Euro 2012–actually, it’s been more her, with me getting text updates at work after every goal.

As a fan venue, Livestrong Sporting Park is amazing. I’ve been to NFL games in a few different cities. Baseball in a lot more. College football. I can’t ever remember such an exquisite and chilling experience as I had in Kansas City. As a cynic about professional sports, I’m amazed I’m writing that.

Part of it is the sharing of a special experience with my daughter–the day before her 16th birthday. There are really no words that capture the whole thing. Not even my clumsy panorama of the stadium:

Are you satisfied with the pope’s message to Irish Catholics?

How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord’s body and confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way? It remains a mystery.

Religious mysteries are matters beyond mortal comprehension. To me, that brings to mind the Trinity, Real Presence, and what happens after death.

Sex offenders were able, like many addicts, to compartmentalize their lives. It’s a matter less of a rational analysis or even of religious behavior, and more one of psychology. The intellect can fail us. Or more accurately, the intellect can create its own delusions: the behavior can take over and the religious addict survives by splitting her or his life into two or more parts. It doesn’t make any logical sense to the outsider, but people in 12-Step recovery have realized this for decades.

A person has to be open to God’s grace. That means setting aside, sometimes, the old ways of doing things. God invited many saints to great rupture in their lives: Abram called in old age, Joseph sold into slavery, Ruth accompanying her mother-in-law to a new land. Career fishermen became apostles.

In many ways continuity is the friend of addiction. It minimizes upset. It permits secrecy and hiding. Addicts need not confront their wrongdoing. Continuity ensures their employment, their circles of allies, their friendly cover. Which came first, the ordination or the addiction? It wouldn’t surprise me that many addicts are drawn to a lifestyle in which one can avoid intimacy, achieve a certain level of comfort, and be insulated from the suspicions of others. Some addicts in the clergy have been able to live very fine lives indeed. When one’s focus is on sex and domination, the trappings of the sacraments are little more than regular dues paid, like a writer may have a nine-to-five job to pay the bills so as to create novels or poetry. Or a parent cleans and orders a household in order to care for a family.

I disagree with Pope Benedict on this one. It’s no mystery. It may be beyond his personal experience, but there’s nothing surprising about it.

Numbered sections 53-56 in Chapter II outline the events to take place during the Liturgy of the Word. Before the first word of scripture is uttered, the bishop has something to say:

79. The inauguration of a chapel where the blessed sacrament is to be reserved, is carried out appropriately in this way: after Communion the pyx containing the blessed sacrament is left on the table of the altar. The Bishop goes to the chair, and all pray silently for a brief period. Then the  Bishop says the following prayer after Communion:

Let us pray.

Pause for silent prayer, if this has not preceded.

Lord,
through these gifts
increase the vision of your truth in our minds.

May we always worship you in your holy temple,
and rejoice in your presence with all your saints.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

All:
Amen.

80. When the prayer is completed, the bishop returns to the altar, genuflects, and incenses the blessed sacrament. Afterward, when he has received the humeral veil, he takes the pyx, which he covers with the veil itself. Then a procession is formed in which, preceded by the crossbearer and with lighted torches and incense, the blessed sacrament is carried through the main body of the church to the chapel of reservation. As the procession proceeds, the following antiphon is sung with Psalm 147:12-20:

Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Another appropriate song may be sung.

81. When the procession comes to the chapel of reservation, the bishop places the pyx on the altar or in the tabernacle, the door of which remains open. Then he puts incense in the censer, kneels, and incenses the blessed sacrament. Finally, after a brief period during which all pray in silence, the deacon puts the pyx in the tabernacle or closes the door. A minister lights the lamp, which will burn perpetually before the blessed sacrament.

82. If the chapel where the blessed sacrament is reserved can be seen clearly by the congregation, the bishop immediately imparts the blessings of the Mass (cf. below, no. 84). Otherwise the procession returns to the sanctuary by the shorter route, and the bishop imparts the blessing either at the altar or at the chair.

Commentary:

What do you make of the terminology of “inauguration”? Also, that there is no explicit “blessing” of a tabernacle–nothing that approaches the treatment of the altar and walls of the church? Jeffery noted not much given for the blessing/inauguration of the altar. Perhaps there was the desire to keep the rite as streamlined as possible. If that was the thought, we’d have to note the repeated strong symbols used in the dedication rite: oil, water, incense, and light.

In the 2003 edition, the vessel is described as a ciborium, not a pyx. While we know pyxes come in various sizes, what do you make of the prescription for a vessel that suggests something smaller rather than a ciborium?

Your thoughts?