Catholic Sensibility

First principle: harmony with law and an eye to serve the liturgy. Where does one find thay legal guidance? The GIRM, the RDCA, the rites and also canon law.

§ 28 §

1. The church building is designed in harmony with church laws and serves the needs of the liturgy. The liturgical books are the foundational source for those who wish to plan a building well suited for the liturgy. First among these are the prescriptions contained in the fifth chapter of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and the norms in the introduction to the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar. Other directives can be found in the various liturgical books and the Code of Canon Law.

Architects and pastors should be familiar with all these documents where they can be applied to the “geography” of the rites.

The bulleting is my edit here, but the text is unchanged:

§ 29 § Because the church is

• a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and the Blessed Sacrament is reserved,
• a place where the faithful assemble,
• and a setting where Christ is worshiped,

it should be

• worthy of prayer and sacred celebration,
• built in conformity with the laws of the Church,
• and dignified with noble beauty and intrinsically excellent art. (CCC 1179; Presbyterorum Ordinis 5; cf. SC 122-127; GIRM 288)

The general plan of the building

• reflects the Church that Christ gathers there,
• is expressive of its prayer,
• fosters the members’ participation in sacred realities,
• and supports the solemn character of the sacred liturgy.

But there’s an addition in BLS 30:

§ 30 § The general plan of the building should be such that “in some way it conveys the image of the gathered assembly. It should also allow the participants to take the place most appropriate to them and assist all to carry out their function properly.”(RDCA II, 3)

BLS writers stick pretty close to the official line, as you see from the reference notes. Liam commented yesterday that there are not a lot of specifics to get us to the ideal. Much is left to a local interpretation, to whomever has the strgoner and more convincing approach between the local bishop, the pastor, the hired professionals, or the parishioners.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

I note that blogocommenters are going either goo-goo or gah! over Archbishop Dolan’s invite to pray “as a priest” at Tampa’s GOP Convention in a few weeks. I confess I can’t get excited either way. The Cardinal is a US citizen, perhaps a card-carrying Republican. And if the local bishop is okay with it, why is it a bother to me? Or anyone else?

The New York archbishop stumbles in the eyes of some by inviting the president to dinner. The blogocritics pile on. Yawn. This is pretty much the same, isn’t it? Cardinal Dolan gets places, and he’s not afraid to spread it around, is he?

I just point out that actions have consequences. He associates with the president, and some critics will pounce, and pounce with bile. He associates with the GOP in a rather formal way “for a priest,” and that action has predictable consequences too. For me, it seems to be part of the cult of celebrity. Our culture is soaked in it, and the Church has its moments of hero-worship too. Me, I just can’t get excited about it one way or the other. I am watching Hurricane Isaac. What do you want to bet that Rep Bachmann and conservative others don’t think a hurricane strike on the GOP is an act of God?

My mother’s only sibling passed away last Friday after nearly ninety-one years of life capped by a four-month struggle with cancer. She was my last and favorite aunt. Despite the trip aligning with the first three days of Iowa State students in classes, I thought we could sneak a trip to Ohio, my wife, the young miss and I.

I believe this was my first Baptist funeral, and I have to say that with the exception of the reports of pastoral care and a few well-chosen Protestant hymns, I was fairly disappointed. My aunt loved to travel with friends and relatives. Her new pastor reported that she would always be in church on Sunday. Except when she reported that she would be away on a trip. He said her attitude in her final days was very similar. She expected to be in heaven, and reported that with the same feelings of anticipation and joy as she reported visiting her younger son in Alaska, or her daughter in Florida, or when going on one of her short cruises with a friend or sister-in-law.

My aunt’s favorite Scripture passage is Psalm 103. (I didn’t know that!) Verses 1 through 11 were printed in the small brochure. The pastor emeritus (or reassigned–not sure which) got up to preach over an “altar rail” of flowers and commented that he had never preached on a psalm before. And alas, after getting to the third verse of the 103rd, he veered into Romans 8 and I suppose he can still say he’s never preached on a psalm. I love Romans 8:31-39 as much as any other Christian, but still …

I do get to an occasional Protestant service now and then. But I want to know when the proclamation of Scripture has been set aside.

The message, alas, was hellfire for the unsaved. I know I had family members present who are not churchgoing Christians. Not sure what the point was in the attempted scare tactics on the non-believers and inactives. I suppose in the tradition of Luther and Calvin and the Great Awakening, the message was orthodox enough. But was it prudent? Or effective? Or even in keeping with the message of the Psalmist:

The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide:
neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins;
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth,
so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. (Ps 103:8-11, KJV)

Mercy!

It seems that many believers approach the modern world somewhere along a spectrum of two mindsets. One might lament the present day and its many problems, and look to the Church as a bastion of good sense and virtue, holding back the flood waters of evil. The other can look for vigor and goodness and potential in the world, and work from the assumption that the time and place is right for bringing the Gospel out from behind shuttered gates.

Pope Paul VI had it hard in some ways. John XXIII called a council and gets the glory. But his successor was left to oversee three-fourths of its sessions, plus weather the inevitable joys, storms, and resistance that followed. Plus, he is remembered for Humanae Vitae. I suspect the fruit of his time as Bishop of Rome is a bit richer than that.

Over the next few months, I’d like to look at his document Evangelii Nuntiandi. In this “apostolic exhortation,” Paul VI summarizes the 1974 Synod of Bishops on the topic of spreading the Gospel. As we break open the first paragraphs of this document, let’s keep in mind some important aspects of language. Pre-conciliar Catholicism spoke most often of the mission apostolate, of “professionals” going to non-Christian lands and “converting” non-believers.

Paul VI begins to speak more of “evangelism” here. I think the perspective here is a bit wider. The Church is not interested only in lassoing members into the official fold. The evangelism here includes a kerygmatic element–the basic preaching/presentation of Christ in the Word of God. And then we await God’s grace to move people curious about Jesus Christ from there.

Without jumping too far ahead of ourselves, suffice it to say that this is an important document. Probably more important than many encyclical letters for the content, import, and consultation that went into its composition. Pope Paul addresses this letter “to the episcopate, to the clergy and to all the faithful of the entire world.” Consider this series a delivery of a very important letter addressed to you (if you consider yourself a believer). It may have been the result of bishops discussing and meeting way back in 1974. It may have been lost to most Catholics as the first edition of the Roman Missal was completed. But it’s still worth considering, discussing, and certainly implementing in our individual lives, in our parishes, and in the universal Church.

Venerable brothers and dear sons and daughters: health and the apostolic blessing.

1. There is no doubt that the effort to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today, who are buoyed up by hope but at the same time often oppressed by fear and distress, is a service rendered to the Christian community and also to the whole of humanity.

For this reason the duty of confirming the brethren – a duty which with the office of being the Successor of Peter[Cf. Lk 22:32] we have received from the Lord, and which is for us a “daily preoccupation,”[2 Cor 11:28] a program of life and action, and a fundamental commitment of our Pontificate – seems to us all the more noble and necessary when it is a matter of encouraging our brethren in their mission as evangelizers, in order that, in this time of uncertainty and confusion, they may accomplish this task with ever increasing love, zeal and joy.

I find the echo of Gaudium et Spes; do you? No doubt that the people of today, of 1975, and of 1965 suffered their “griefs and anxieties” (GS 1) as well as their “fear and distress.” Do Catholics today see non-believers or inactive Christians as bouncing between the hope of their lives and the “fear and distress” which is also an undeniable product of the times? Or perhaps as people to be preached “at”?

Not sure who Paul’s “brethren” are here. He didn’t write EN in English so he could mean his brother bishops. If he means all the baptized, as he addresses in his introduction, then of course, he means all his Catholic brothers and sisters. We will see the laity possess a vital role in the spreading of the Gospel. And these men and women, too, need encouragement to weather the circumstances of “uncertainty and confusion.” Don’t you think?

The last section of BLS Chapter 1 treats “Liturgical Principles for Building or Renovating Churches.” We will devote the next week looking at these principles. BLS informs us these principles are found in Sacrosanctum Concilium and the various liturgical documents that implemented conciliar reform. This is the sort of list that should be in every church architect’s mind, every artist’s drawing board, and every design committee binder’s first page.

§ 27 § The basic liturgical principles for designing and renovating churches today are drawn from the Second Vatican Council and the documents that implemented its decrees. (These include the SC, the GIRM, the RDCA, the Ceremonial of Bishops, the various sacramental rituals, and canon law.) Even though the Church offers no universal blueprint or style for the design of a church, attention to the following principles will insure that from the beginning, the ritual requirements will receive the priority they deserve in the design process.

What are these principles? Here is how they are organized in BLS 28-45:

1. The church building is designed in harmony with church laws and serves the needs of the liturgy. (BLS 28-30)
2. The church building fosters participation in the liturgy. (BLS 31)
3. The design of the church building reflects the various roles of the participants. (BLS 32-37)
4. The church building respects the culture of every time and place. (BLS 38-43)
5. The church building should be beautiful (BLS 44-45)

We’ll get to each of these principles in turn over the next several posts. But for now, any glaring omission, poor inclusion, or needed adjustment? Other comments?

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Check out Luke Hill’s reportoing on Bruce Springsteen at dotCommonweal. A few pieces:

Much  of the audience at a typical Bruce Springsteen concert looks like the  folks you might see at the 11:00 Sunday Mass in suburban parishes across  the country.  (In some cases, they are the same people.)   There’s one notable difference: the people at Springsteen’s shows sing.   They sing song after song—knowing every word, catching the slightest  tempo change, reasonably in tune and definitely in full voice.

Hey! But I concede my parish doesn’t have a typical 11AM Sunday Mass.

You may need (at age 62!) to give 3 1/2 hour  concerts—comforting, challenging and inspiring your audience with  songs old and new.

I guess most all of our Easter Vigils have some catching up to do. Not just in the 210-minute department.

Let’s complete the discussion on “Christ’s Presence in Sign and Symbol.”

§ 26 § Just as Christ invited those who heard him to share his personal union with the Father through material signs, so Christ leads the Church through these same signs in the liturgy from the visible to the invisible. (Cf. SC 59; CCC 1075) As a result, effective liturgical signs have a teaching function and encourage full, conscious, and active participation, express and strengthen faith, and lead people to God. Poorly utilized or minimal signs do not enliven the community’s faith and can even diminish active participation. (Cf. Music in Catholic Worship 6-7) It must likewise be kept in mind that the liturgy and its signs and symbols do not exercise merely a teaching function. They also touch and move a person to conversion of heart and not simply to enlightenment of mind.

Liturgical signs, then, are multivalent. They form people in the faith on many levels: evangelization, initial faith, deeper faith. They should be informative with being exclusively teaching moments.

I like the commentary on the place for participation, not as an end to itself, but as part of a continuum that leads to a definitive expression of faith, and ultimately, the deepest experience of and encounter with God.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Bringing this Vatican II implementation document to a close, we read of …

22. Scientific institutes should be increased in the missions according to needs and possibilities. These should work together with concerted effort so that the labors of research and specialization are properly organized; care should be taken to avoid duplication of projects of the same nature in the same region (Ad Gentes 34).

23. Cooperation with missionary bishops is necessary in order that immigrants from mission countries may be properly received and assisted by fitting pastoral care from bishops in established Christian countries (Ad Gentes 38).

24. Regarding lay(persons) in the missions:

(1) The sincere intention of serving the missions, maturity, suitable preparation, professional specialization as it is called, and a suitable time to be spent in the missions are to be urged.

(2) Lay mission organizations should be efficiently coordinated.

(3) The bishop of the mission should be solicitous for the welfare of such lay(persons).

(4) Social security is to be assured for these lay(persons) (Ad Gentes 41).

Not as exciting as the liturgy documents. Liturgy is much more developed in the Roman tradition than evangelization. So much in the preaching of the Gospel depends on the setting. As much as some might wince, effective evangelization is relative.

Next up: Evangelii Nuntiandi.

We’re on the trek home from my aunt’s funeral in Ohio today. Leaving the Greek restaurant (spanakopita!) just after sunset, the crescent moon made a lovely counterpoint to the triangle of Mars, Saturn, and Spica. Check out this western image tonight in the next hour if you can. The moon will be at the top of the triangle by tomorrow night. The triangle will remain a western sky feature for a few weeks longer.

This is a nice opportunity for newbie astronomers to note how Mars and Saturn “wander” compared to the background stars. Spica is the brightest in the constellation Virgo, and while not quite as bright to Earthling eyes, gives us an easy reference point to judge planetary movement. Our English word for “planet” comes from the Greek (πλανήτης, planētēs).

We got a very early start yesterday for this trip. Driving east on I-80, Jupiter was well overhead. Venus was a bright beacon. I thought I glimpsed Mercury low in the east before the lightening sky washed it out.

Keep your eyes on the sky–good things up/out there.

Saint John develops the sacramental notion well–the primordial sacrament: Christ the earthly sign of the Father. Christ in turn is communicated through all the sacraments: 

§ 25 § Christ, taking on human flesh, reveals the Father. “No one has ever seen God” (1 Jn 4:12). The only begotten Son, living in the Father’s heart, has revealed him. Indeed, Jesus said, “Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me” (Jn 12:45). Christ is himself the sacrament of the Father. In his risen glory, he is no longer visible in this world and Leo the Great testifies that “What has been visible of our Savior has passed over into the sacraments”: Quod igitur conspicuum fuit Salvatoris Nostri in sacramenta transivit (Sermo. 74, 2: PL 54, 398). And so washing and anointing, breaking the bread and sharing the cup, raising arms in blessing and imposing hands are visible signs by which Christ manifests and accomplishes our sanctification and salvation in the Church. (Cf. CCC 1148; 1152) To the central signs and word, the Church adds gestures and material elements such as incense, ashes, holy water, candles, and vestments to dispose us for the heavenly gifts of our crucified and Risen Lord and to deepen our reverence for the unceasing mercy and grace that come to us in the Church through the passion and death of Jesus, our Lord.

These visible signs are vital to the possibilities of grace in the sacramental life of the Church.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

A few topics today. When First Worlders donate to the missions, some of it goes to leadership:

19. In the distribution of subsidies, a suitable share is to be set aside each year for the training and support of local clergy, the missionaries and catechists, and for the study groups mentioned above in No. 18. Bishops should present documentation on these matters to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. (Ad Gentes 17, 29)

Lay people should be part of the oversight of funding and ministries. Also the gathering of people to conference in a larger group for the direction of the evangelical ministry:

20. A pastoral council should be duly established which according to No. 27 of the Decree Christus Dominus will have the duty to “investigate pastoral works, to weigh them and to formulate practical conclusions regarding them.” They are also to devote themselves to the preparation of a diocesan synod and to see to the implementation of the synodal statutes.(Ad Gentes 30)

Don’t look now, but groups like LCWR should be active:

21. Conferences and unions of men Religious and of women Religious are to be established in the missions in which the major superiors of all the institutes of the same country or region are to participate and by which their projects are to be coordinated.(Ad Gentes 33).

Comments?

Part of the Catholic genius is the care taken to facilitate an experience of the divine that is tangible–something we can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. This gets the realm of God out of thoughts and speech, and into something of which we can get a sense: 

§ 23 § Gestures, language, and actions are the physical, visible, and public expressions by which human beings understand and manifest their inner life. Since human beings on this earth are always made of flesh and blood, they not only will and think, but also speak and sing, move and celebrate. These human actions as well as physical objects are also the signs by which Christians express and deepen their relationship to God. (CCC 1146; GIRM 288)

§ 24 § Jesus himself used physical signs to manifest his union with the Father and to reveal his mission to the world. Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan River, he fed the multitudes with bread, healed the sick with his touch and forgave sinners. He was anointed with oil, he shared a Passover meal with his disciples, and he surrendered his body to death on the cross. Christ, the incarnate one, used material signs to show to humanity the invisible God. (CCC 1151)

These material signs are part of the Church’s sacramental life, as well as the building which houses it all.

All texts from Built of Living Stones are copyright © 2000, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Pluto has been demoted from planethood, but before that determination and after, it has been carefully studied. As much as a point of light on a photographic plate can be studied. Clyde Tombaugh really picked a needle out of a celestial haystack:

Would you catch that without the arrows? Neither would I.

Seth Barnes Nicholson, discoverer of four satellites of Jupiter, studied that faint dot after Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery. His analysis suggested that faraway Pluto had about the mass of the Earth. A respectable planet, to be sure.

As the years passed, astronomers were able to discern a bit more about that white spot. Gerard Kuiper, another satellite discoverer, whittled Pluto’s size estimate down to about a tenth that of Earth–about the size of Mars. No idea how he did that. Other astronomers saw enough of a shift in the light to determine that Pluto spun on its axis giving it a day of about 153 hours. How they got that from a small white dot on a photographic plate, I have no idea on that either.

Two things happened by the mid-1970′s. First, NASA was looking at targeting Pluto for one of its Grand Tour missions to the outer planets. Second, Dale Cruikshank, Carl Pilcher and David Morrison of the University of Hawaii determined that Pluto’s surface was largely bright methane ice. And because a bright faraway object was likely smaller than a dark body at the same distance, Pluto’s size estimate was further reduced to about one-hundredth of the Earth. A bit smaller than the moon.

Enter James Christy. In 1978, the astronomer, a double star specialist, was looking at photographic plates snapped by the 61-inch telescope at the US Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona (USNOF). He found a bulge in the grainy image of planet Pluto. Since his specialty was observing distant stars revolve around each other, his best judgment was that Pluto had a moon. It orbited once every 6.39 days, the same as what astronomers thought Pluto’s day was.

Do you see the satellite in the discovery plate? It’s the lump appearing on different sides of the planet:

Christy checked some of the photographic plates in storage at the USNOF. Way back in 1965, someone marked an image, “Pluto image elongated.” But astronomers just assumed that it was a smudge or some error, human or instrument. Guess that might teach some people to jump to conclusions …

Most scientists agreed with Christy. But a few thought it might be a big mountain on the planet. After all, a lump is a lump, right? All skepticism was silenced in 1985, when the tilt of orbits permitted astronomers to verify, through changing light levels, that Pluto actually had a moon. And more, very rough maps were produced. By the time the Hubble Space Telescope was in orbit, there was no doubt, as you can see from this 1994 image:

No mountain, that.

Once scientists had verified a body in orbit around Pluto, it’s an easy matter to “weigh” both planet and satellite. Alas, Pluto came out on the short end again. The final determination was that it would take five-hundred Plutos to balance the scales with Earth. That new satellite was pretty hefty, relatively speaking. Twelfth largest in the solar system.

Let’s get to the name. Astronomers who discover things often get to name the object. It must pass muster with the IAU (International Astronomical Union). But as long as one keeps to the conventions, it’s likely to get approved. Christy’s colleagues at the USNOF were pushing for Persephone, the consort of the Roman god Pluto. But the discoverer wanted to honor his wife Charlene, familiarly known as Char. As it turns out, Charon is the name of the ferry operator in the Greek myths about the underworld. Greek pronunciation, however, is the hard “k.” Charon was approved. Though Mrs Christy is honored by many English-speaking astronomers who have picked up the soft “sh” sound. I pronounce it “sh.” I can appreciate honoring a wife.

I will likely not ever be a satellite discoverer. Asteroid, possibly. The list of asteroid names is ample. My wife’s is not on the list, though my daughter’s name is attached to minor planet number 51599. I don’t know how James Christy thought of his wife. If I were to indulge my imagination, my wife would be my star around which I spin. Maybe my wife and daughter a double star, and I would be a planet revolving around both. It doesn’t take much imagination to ponder that. I think you need more to see a lump on a black spot and think “satellite” rather than “mountain” or “mistake.”

This section has a lot of meat on which to chew. First, a suggestion that episcopal conferences work across national borders to serve more effectively:

18. Because it is desirable that episcopal conferences in the missions be united in organic groups according to the so-called socio-cultural areas (see ES III 9) the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Ad Gentes 29) should promote such coordinations of episcopal conferences.

It is the function of these conferences, in collaboration with the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith:

(1) To explore methods, even new ones, by which the faithful and the missionary institutes by uniting forces must incorporate themselves into the peoples or groups with whom they live or to whom they are sent (Ad Gentes 10-11), and with whom they must undertake the dialogue of salvation;

(2) To establish study groups to investigate peoples’ ways of thinking about the universe, (people) and (their) attitude towards God, and to give theological consideration to whatever is good and true. (Ad Gentes 22)

Such theological study should provide the necessary foundation for the adaptations which must be made, and which the study groups should investigate. These adaptations should among other things give attention to methods of preaching the Gospel, liturgical forms, the religious life and ecclesiastical legislation. (Ad Gentes 19)

This is easily summed up: know the people. Approaches that work for First World school children, non-believing adults in Western cultures, or what may have seemed to work in ages past might each lead to failure. With the recent resistance to Vatican II in some quarters, seeking the theological good in other faiths and cultures may be hampered.

With regard to perfecting methods of evangelization and catechesis (Ad Gentes 13-14), the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith should promote close cooperation among the higher institutes of pastoral studies.

With regard to liturgical forms, the study groups should submit documents and proposals to the council for the implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

We’ve covered a lot of this in Varietates Legitimae, plus the rites themselves.

As far as the religious condition is concerned (Ad Gentes 18), care should be taken lest more attention be given to exterior forms (such as gestures, dress, the arts, etc.) than to the religious dispositions of the peoples which are to be adopted and the evangelical perfection which is to be assimilated.

Appearances are of exaggerated importance in the West–our culture’s indulgence for style over substance.

(3) To promote at stated times meetings of seminary teachers to adapt study programs and to exchange information, and by conferring with the study groups mentioned above to provide more suitably for modern needs in the training of priests. (Ad Gentes 16).

Conferences of seminary professors: how often do they happen?

(4) To investigate a more suitable method by which personnel (priests, catechists, institutes, etc.) can be distributed in the territory especially to make better provision for the lack of personnel in densely populated places.

As opposed to reassignments in Europe and North America to bolster the sense of entitlement among many Catholics there.

Thoughts?

College students are pouring into town. The young miss begins school Thursday. Summer will soon be a dream. Speaking of which, one of my favorite pop songs from the 70′s.