Catholic Sensibility

Sections 22 through 26 look at “Christ’s Presence in Sign and Symbol.” First, BLS reiterates the well-known teaching on where to find Christ in the church:

§ 22 § In the liturgical assembly, Christ’s presence is realized* in all the baptized who gather in his name, in the word of God proclaimed in the assembly, in the person of the priest through whom Christ offers himself to the Father and gathers the assembly, in sacramental celebrations, and especially, in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. (GIRM 27) In building a house for the Church that is also the house of God on earth, all the expressions of Christ’s presence have prominence of place that reflects their proper nature. Among these, the eucharistic species is accorded supreme prominence. (Mysterium Fidei 39) From the very beginning of the planning and design process, parishes will want to reflect upon the relationship of the altar, the ambo, the tabernacle, the chair of the priest celebrant, and the space for congregation.

Two comments from me.

The starred note provides a very good brief summary of how the believer has experienced God’s presence. In full:

*From the creation of the world, God’s presence has been mediated through the very works of his hands (Rom 1:20). With the people of Israel, that presence was seen more clearly and even localized at first in the Tent of Meeting and later in the Temple. These were understood as the place or epiphany of God’s glory (the Shekinah) (Ex 40:34-35). In the New Testament, Christ comes to be seen as the complete and definitive epiphany of God’s glory (Jn 1:4; Heb 1:3, 10:5-7). The Church, the People of God, is the continued sacramental presence of Christ, and the new church building is the privileged place of this continued epiphany in the ongoing history of salvation.

This original text suggests the Church as a sacrament of Christ. How do you find that statement?

Another original statement, that it is important not only to consider the degree of honor accorded each of these aspects (altar, ambo, tabernacle, chair, and nave) but also how they relate in the larger “presentation” of the church building. Do you find that a sound expression of an essential point not covered in universal church teaching? Or something that can or should be skipped over?

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

John Cornwall at The Tablet has a piece up describing “trends” but also some personal experiences, first and second-hand, of the Sacrament of Penance. A few bits I had not considered before, including this co-incidence of sex abuse and the lowering of the age of First Eucharist, and therefore Penance:

Strong and widespread evidence has emerged of a link between early confession and clerical sexual abuse. The lowered age of confession from 13 to seven coincides, according to meta-analyses (see Marie Keenan’s Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church, Oxford University Press, 2011), with the age group of most affected victims. Pius X’s initiative resulted in the frequent exposure of Catholic children to priests untrained in child psychology and pedagogy, in circumstances of unsupervised intimacy. It is perhaps significant that the rise in sexual attacks, which started in the late 1950s through to the 1980s, coincides with not only the explosion of sexual permissiveness of that era, but the tendency for priests to hear confessions outside of the confessional box – in sacristies, parlours and priests’ quarters.

That “strong and widespread evidence,” I’d like to see something of that. I hope it’s something more than blaming the Beatles for Vatican II.

(You readers know I’m a skeptic on the so-called “rise” in attacks in the 50′s. We obviously have no statistics on dead victims and predators. The bell curve of the people we’ve talked to is always going to start somewhere, if we only ask those living as of a certain date. We can never know for sure if there was a slow rise in sexual predation through the first half of the 20th century. That might point to a causation, but it’s likely just one of many.)

I think we can settle that some approaches to rejuvenating the sacrament have failed.

Knocking form III out of the picture hasn’t “forced” people into form I. Form II seems a constant over the years. And for Catholic school students, it may be an interesting part of the problem. School kids can’t be coerced into form I, and the only opportunity many of them experience is form II in an elementary or high school format. Getting into the teen and young adult years, the retreat or pilgrimage experience seems dominant. We have at least a full generation of Catholics who are formed in Reconciliation as second graders, then experience the sacrament in group forms as they mature. But there is little to no follow-up formation in the examination of conscience.

Another interesting insight was that reference to “priests untrained in child psychology and pedagogy.” Six to ten years of hurry-up reconciliation conducted perhaps by amateurs. And even if those retreats and youth events are well-attended, that high is not likely to be found in a Saturday afternoon church where the pastor may have a homily, a wedding, and possibly other concerns.

The author is seeking input on a book. What would you tell him?

Missionary institutes, which would seem to include the main varieties of religious orders established in mission territory, as well as outposts staffed by permanent or temporary, religious or lay, personnel–these folks will need to collaborate with the local bishop:

17. The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith after consultation with episcopal conferences and missionary institutes should as soon as possible outline general principles according to which agreements should be made between the local Ordinaries and missionary institutes to govern their mutual relations. (Ad Gentes 32)

In making these agreements the continuance of missionary activity and the needs of the institutes are to be taken into account.

The hope is not good relations for the sake of making nice, but the real pastoral needs of the people and the good of the apostolate in that regard.

Saudi Arabia has a problem with .catholic domains going to the Roman Catholic church:

Many other Christians use the term ‘Catholic’ to refer more broadly to the whole Christian Church regardless of denominational affiliation.

True. Probably more other Christians would object to .orthodox.

.rcc? Does it matter? Bloggers won’t get them anyway.

From Bishop Lynch’s tribute to Bishop Trautman:

I accompanied Bishop Trautman and others on his Committee to the Congregation for Divine Worship to make the strongest case for gender sensitive (aka “inclusive”) language only to have him treated very shabbily by an American Jesuit either still in or just finished graduate education at Rome’s Gregorian University. That was an awful moment that the bishop took far better than I did.

Shabby treatment: pretty much the modus operandi for those who can’t muster either a sliver of charity or half a brain of good theology.

This is another excellent section for discussion:

§ 21 § The liturgy is the perfect expression of the Church, “the summit toward which [all the Church's] activity is directed” and the source of all her power. (SC 10) In the New Testament, the term liturgy is intimately connected with the proclamation of the Good News and with active charity. (Cf. Lk 1:23; Acts 13:2; Rom 15:16, 27:2; and Phil 2:14-17, 25, 30) Through baptism and confirmation, Christians share in Christ’s priesthood which they exercise through their worship of God and their vocation of service to others. At the Eucharist, Christ calls his members to conversion in the proclamation of the word; he invites them to join with him in offering his perfect sacrifice to the Father; and he sends them forth from liturgy to serve the community in charity. Liturgical participation commits a person to a life of faithful discipleship. “Every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others.” (SC 7)

Commentary:

The Scriptures and Sacrosanctum Concilium give the backbone of this explanation of the importance of liturgy. I doubt many liturgy geeks need to be reminded of it. But we should know it in order to preach it.

Liturgical participation commits a person to a life of faithful discipleship.

This gives the essence of the importance of participation. True, an interior orientation is essential. But in the corporate (that is, the Body’s) experience of liturgy, something more needs to be in evidence. The interior roots us in personal commitment. But the external singing, moving, speaking, is part of a public commitment we make to God and to one another. If and when participation of any kind leads people to faithful discipleship, then it would seem we have arrived at the optimal expression of worship. Any thoughts on this?

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

I thought I was picking up a new book. On the cover, one of astronaut Alan Bean’s striking paintings was catchy for a volume that didn’t have the SF tag at my local library. Sure enough, it was SF mega-author Dan Simmons‘ second or so novel, in which he relates the midlife crisis of fictional astronaut Richard Baedecker. I was glad I picked it up, I really enjoyed it.

There are no elements of science fiction in this novel, which leads off its first few dozen pages switching back and forth between Baedecker’s two days on the moon and his life, adrift, fifteen years later. That later life finds the protagonist divorced, alienated from his son, and doing meaningless PR scut work. After being one of a dozen human beings to explore the moon in person, what’s left in life? As a man, I could relate to the theoreticals. (Even if I personally feel my best accomplishments may be ahead.)

The details of the novel are well-researched, but there are a few inconsequential stumbles here and there. The fictional Apollo mission Baedecker flew isn’t numbered, but it’s probably Apollo 16, as it references the previous mission led by real-life astronaut Dave Scott, and it doesn’t seem to be the last.

The action is thoughtful as it centers on Baedecker, and the author drops in perspectives from the man’s boyhood, his relationships with his father and his son, and a good number of astronaut stories. The changing perspectives are what one finds in a serious novel, and once in awhile, when my attention drifted I found I had to reorient myself. My bad. The author does a good job keeping all this straight, unless you read without focus.

For a book which deals with the heroic (lunar exploration) as well as the psychological (a man struggling to find himself, post-peak) this is a very quiet and measured volume. Well worth reading.

A few dry sections, including the make-up of the SCPF, and a breakdown by the numbers:

15. Unless in individual cases the Supreme Pontiff decrees otherwise, 24 representatives take part in the direction of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith with a deliberative vote. These are: 12 prelates from the missions, 4 from other regions, 4 from the superiors of institutes, 4 from the pontifical mission societies. All will be called together twice a year. Members of this body are to be named for five-year terms, with approximately one-fifth changed each year. On completion of their term, they can be named for another five years.

Episcopal conferences, however, institutes and the pontifical mission societies, observing norms to be communicated as soon as possible by the Apostolic See, are to propose the names from which the Supreme Pontiff will choose the above-mentioned representatives and also the names of those, even if they live in the missions, from whom consultors can be chosen.

Bishops suggest, the pope selects. The past few decades, since careerism has been ramped up, it seems likely that curial insiders have the pope’s ear on those selections. Does this hold for the SCPF?

16. Representatives of Religious institutes in the missions, of regional mission societies and lay councils, especially those which are international, are to take part in meetings of this curial office with a consultative vote. (Ad Gentes 29)

Lay people, including religious, are consultants. “Consultative vote”–I wonder what that means, exactly.

As an astronomy buff, my ears perk up at that phrase, “time and space.” Time is obvious. The Church marks time based on the Christian observance of the day and week, as well as marking years with the celebration of our two chief cycles.

The connection with space seems a bit weaker to me. Not that I dispute God’s supremacy over the universe; I just don’t quite grasp the link between churches and “all space.” What do you see?

§ 20 § The Church marks time as holy by setting aside Sunday and by celebrating the Liturgical Year with its rhythm and seasons. It demonstrates God’s reign over all space by dedicating buildings to house the Church and its worship. Each Sunday the baptized are challenged to rest from their daily labors, to contemplate the goodness of God, to make present the victory and triumph of Christ’s death (SC 6), to enter the joy of the Risen Lord, to receive the life-giving breath of the Spirit, and to commit themselves to serve those in need. Sunday affirms both the primacy of God and the dignity of the person.* While the worship of God is not limited to any one place, Christians build churches to shelter the liturgical assembly that praises God and celebrates the sacraments through which the Church is sanctified.

I’d like to let Pope John Paul II take up the commentary on this. The starred note refers to Dies Domini: Observing and Celebrating the Day of the Lord 68. The money quote from BLS’s footnotes:

In order that rest may not degenerate into emptiness or boredom, it must offer spiritual enrichment, greater freedom, opportunities for contemplation and fraternal communion. Therefore, among the forms of culture and entertainment which society offers, the faithful should choose those which are most in keeping with a life lived in obedience to the precepts of the Gospel. Sunday rest then becomes ‘prophetic,’ affirming not only the absolute primacy of God, but also the primacy and dignity of the person with respect to the demands of social and economic life, and anticipating in a certain sense the ‘new heavens’ and the ‘new earth,’ in which liberation from slavery to needs will be final and complete. In short, the Lord’s Day thus becomes in the truest sense the day of (humankind) as well.

I really like this text. Outside of the realm of worship, I like setting aside Sunday for freedom, contemplation, and community. We all need that. We all need to make good judgments about activities in which we engage. It is not surprising that John Paul II would suggest that the Lord’s Day is also our own.

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

Archbishop Dolan concedes he’s bothered by criticism of his invitation of the president to the Al Smith dinner. Mark Silk at RNS dismantles some of the giving-scandal concern.

My sense is that the word “scandal” has a particular meaning. In the theological and moral context, it does not mean “stuff I disagree with,” as defined by rabid pro-lifers and other ideologues. Professor Silk cites Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic tradition in suggesting that if a person is scandalized by another person’s good behavior, other moral qualities (such as envy) may be involved in the so-called scandalized. It seems that everybody needs to not only step back and take a deep breath, but conduct an examination of conscience.

On NPR earlier this summer, I recall Bishop Leonard Blair was bothered that Sr Pat Farrell and the LCWR declined to define themselves as pro-life in exactly the way the politicos want. This is sort of what’s happening to Archbishop Dolan here. He’s the LCWR. His pro-life critics are the CDF and Bishop Blair.

Perhaps it is possible for a person to embrace full moral goodness and live the anti-abortion message 24/7/365. At some point a certain radical standard cannot be met. Do political pro-lifers skip meals, decline to watch tv, get less sleep, refuse entertainment, and become hermits in order to further the cause? If someone is criticizing the Al Smith dinner, can other activities of pro-lifers be fair game? Things like walking the dog, sipping a coffee, taking a vacation, or sending one’s children to college? Because that’s where the logical approach will find this line of thought, when taken to extremes.

I feel badly that Archbishop Dolan is feeling the heat on this. But I’m not at all surprised. Anger has to go somewhere. And many of my otherwise fine brother and sister pro-lifers have allowed a basic good–the defense of human life–to color and cloud relationships. Not to mention obscure an even greater good than life. Faith itself.

I don’t feel badly, though, that the good archbishop is in good company with the Misunderstood. The LCWR likely would tell him to just take a number. His last word:

I’m encouraged by the example of Jesus, who was blistered by his critics for dining with those some considered sinners; and by the recognition that, if I only sat down with people who agreed with me, and I with them, or with those who were saints, I’d be taking all my meals alone.

I’d tell the man this is about more than being a solo foodie. This strikes at the very heart of the SCGS* movement. Divide and conquer, it seems to me, and an attempt to get 1.2 billion Churches of one. Good army slogan, perhaps. Less so for the cause of the Great Commission.

* Small Church, Getting Smaller

The next several sections outline some responsibilities of and points of collaboration with the curia, particularly the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (SCPF). First, who’s in charge, administratively speaking:

13. (1) There is to be but one competent curial office (dicasterium) for all the missions, namely the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. But since certain missions are for special reasons temporarily still subject to other curial offices, a missionary section should in the meantime be established in these offices which will maintain close relations with the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith so as to provide a completely constant and uniform method and norm in the organization and direction of all the missions.

(2) Subject to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith are: the Pontifical Mission Societies, that is, the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter for the native clergy, the Missionary Union of the Clergy and the Holy Childhood Association.

There is provision for cross-fertilization between Christian Unity and Propagation of the Faith:

14. The president of the Secretariat for Christian Unity, by reason of his office, is a member of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith; the secretary of this secretariat is one of the consultors of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. (Ad Gentes 29)

The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith is to be represented in like manner in the Secretariat for Christian Unity.

BLS 19 through 21 cover material under the heading of “Worship in Time and Space.”

§ 19 § Liturgy is “the participation of the People of God in ‘the work of God.’” (CCC 1069) It is the “exercise of the priestly office of Jesus” in which God is worshiped and adored and people are made holy. (SC 7; Cf. CCC 834) God begins the work of sanctifying people in time and space and brings that work to completion. Those who respond to God in worship and in service are given the privilege of becoming co-workers in the divine plan. (CCC 2567)

The basic principle of liturgy: Christ praises the Father. Christ’s Body participates in this praise. The important secondary effect: people become holy through their response to God’s grace.

This foundational statement underlies anything and everything we discuss in liturgy, including provisions for its buildings and its art.

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

Some oversight issues on the level of the national conference:

9. In the episcopal conferences there should be an episcopal commission for the missions which will have the duty of fostering missionary activity, mission awareness, coordinated arrangements for cooperation among the dioceses, and also of maintaining relations with other episcopal conferences and seeking ways to maintain equity as far as possible in missionary aid. (Ad Gentes 38)

10. Since missionary institutes remain extremely necessary, let all recognize that they have an office of evangelization entrusted to them by ecclesiastical authority to carry out the missionary duty of the entire People of God. (Ad Gentes 27)

11. Bishops should also use missionary institutes to inspire the faithful with zeal for things missionary and they should, observing the right order, provide opportunities for these institutes to arouse and foster mission vocations among youth and to seek contributions. (Ad Gentes 23, 37, 38)

However, to maintain greater unity and efficiency, bishops should make use of the national or regional mission council which will consist of the directors of the pontifical mission societies and the missionary institutes functioning in the country or region.

12. Each missionary institute should immediately take steps toward its own adaptation and renewal, particularly regarding its methods of preaching the Gospel and of Christian initiation and its form of community life (Perfectae Caritatis 3).

Commentary:

Missionary institutes: these would be particular societies ordered around the charism and apostolate of evangelization, I presume. These institutes are in possession of the “office” for this ministry in the Church. They provide the energy for the gathering of vocations, with the cooperation of the bishops, of course.

These institutes were charged to undertake conciliar renewal from the promulgation of this document in 1966.

Your comments?

C.S. Lewis wrote of Mars and Venus, but not the solar system’s innermost planet. His good friend, J.R.R. Tolkien now has a namesake crater there, near the Mercurian north pole. The convention is that craters on that planet are named for artists and writers. I looked over this list for church musicians of the chant and polyphony stage, but only noticed des Prez and Monteverdi. What artists and writers do you find missing who should be included for names of craters?

Chapter One’s second heading, “The Church Building,” covers heavily footnoted ground:

§ 16 § Just as the term Church refers to the living temple, God’s People, the term church also has been used to describe “the building in which the Christian community gathers to hear the word of God, to pray together, to receive the sacraments, and celebrate the eucharist.” (RDCA II, 1) That building is both the house of God on earth (domus Dei) and a house fit for the prayers of the saints (domus ecclesiae). Such a house of prayer must be expressive of the presence of God and suited for the celebration of the sacrifice of Christ, as well as reflective of the community that celebrates there.

So there is a careful balance that must be maintained. A church must convince believers and seekers and visitors alike that God is present, but it must also possess something that tells people about the community that lives its prayer life there.

§ 17 § The church is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community, especially the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday. It is also the privileged place for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and reservation of the Eucharist for Communion for the sick. Whenever communities have built houses for worship, the design of the building has been of critical importance. (Cf. CCC, 2691; Cf. RDCA, TC, 6.) Churches are never “simply gathering spaces but signify and make visible the Church living in [a particular] place, the dwelling of God” among us, now “reconciled and united in Christ.” (CCC 1180) As such, the building itself becomes “a sign of the pilgrim Church on earth and reflects the Church dwelling in heaven.” (RDCA I, 2; Cf. canon law 1214) Every church building is a gathering place for the assembly, a resting place, a place of encounter with God, as well as a point of departure on the Church’s unfinished journey toward the reign of God.

I like what BLS has to say about design. Churches are not only places where God gathers people. God gathers people in all sorts of ways. I like the two important qualities the Catechism brings out. Christ must be experienced in the qualities of reconciliation (I suspect a rather larger ambit than the sacrament of Penance) and unity.

I also like the notion of pilgrimage brought into this discussion. Inasmuch as we are pilgrims, the grandest building we construct is a mere tent, only a waystation compared to the final experience of the reign of God.

That said, you can’t just pitch a tent. Art and architecture work together to enhance and define the ars celebrandi, the art of celebration:

§ 18 § Churches, therefore, must be places “suited to sacred celebrations,” “dignified,” and beautiful. (RDCA II, 3) Their suitability for worship is determined by their ability through the architectural design of space and the application of artistic gifts to embody God’s initiative and the community’s faithful response. Church buildings and the religious artworks that beautify them are forms of worship themselves and both inspire and reflect the prayer of the community as well as the inner life of grace. (Cf. Liturgiam Authenticam 12, 16) Conversely, church buildings and religious artifacts that are trivial, contrived, or lack beauty can detract from the community’s liturgy. Architecture and art become the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the local community, that of preparing human hearts to receive God’s word and to enter more fully into communion with God. (CCC 1098)

That last Catechism footnote also contains this caution: It is for this reason that Sacrosanctum Concilium (nos. 14-17, and 129) maintains that a firm education in liturgical theology and in the historical development of the arts is central to seminary education.

These sections provide some real meat for discussion. I could see a parish committee spending an entire meeting, or even a workshop getting to the local expression of these principles. What do you see?

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