Extra special for Sts Peter and Paul day

Father Barron and the Catholicism project are giving us a free episode to watch today--the one that focuses on today's great saints. Enjoy! And don't forget to pray for Father Barron's Word on Fire ministry (and his many other responsibilities in the Church).

Movie project update

Sister Helena came home last night triumphant: all the audio for the upcoming documentary on our Founder has now been recorded. And not only that: the last tracks were recorded precisely on the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the Daughters of St. Paul in the United States (June 28, 1932)!

Fr. Angelo Biancalana (a Comboni missionary from northern Italy) served as the English-speaking voice of Fr. Alberione (who never learned English). Father Angelo, like most Italians an avid soccer fan, gave up watching Italy's team in the World Cup games in order to meet the movie deadline. The recording was done in the  "Winds of Change" studio in basement of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church here in Chicago. 


So on today's Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, we really have something special to celebrate--and to entrust to St. Paul--the approaching completion of the film itself!

Eucharistic Witness: Bl. Charles de Foucauld

It's fitting that someone who enjoyed life's pleasures to the highest degree, only to find that they left him hungry, bored and unsatisfied, would discover the real secret of satisfaction in the Eucharist. And it makes sense that someone who plunged wholeheartedly into what was passing would then plunge completely into the eternal. That's Charles de Foucauld in a nutshell.

"The Holy Eucharist is Jesus, it is the whole Jesus! […] Oh, Let us never stay away from the presence of the Holy Eucharist even for one second in which Jesus permits us to be there!"
According to the Postulator for his Cause, Mons. Maurice Bouvier, Blessed Charles expressed his love for the Blessed Sacrament "in long hours of silent adoration, as well as in all the forms of Eucharistic devotion of his era. Above all else, in the Eucharist he contemplated the presence of Jesus, a presence so real in the tabernacle that he saw it spreading like rays over the country, becoming a fountain of sanctification and of salvation for all the people in the surrounding area, the way in the past, the silent, hidden prayer of Jesus at Nazareth was a source of grace for his fellow citizens.
Bouvier continues: "But the Spirit of Jesus taught him that Eucharistic service and service of the "little ones" is one single act of worship of the Body of Christ. The loving intimacy spent at the feet of the one he loved, the long hours of silent (and often dry) adoration, prompted him to go out towards the least of his brethren....and finally prompted him to leave for Tamanrasset, where he lived as the only priest--the only Christian--among the Tuareg people who accepted him, and among whom he would be a witness of Jesus-Love. From that lonely hermitage, he wrote to his cousin 'I do not suffer at all in this solitude, but find it most sweet; I have the Blessed Sacrament, the best of friends, with whom to speak day and night.' "



Read more about Bl. Charles in this book by one of his spiritual daughters. Find a complete listing of Chicago Adoration Chapel locations and hours online!

When the world is trying to tell you to smile...

This was on Sr Margaret Joseph's Facebook feed today: a totally undoctored image of her her honest-to-God breakfast today. But really, how can you eat something like that?

What does your breakfast say?

TOB Tuesday

Here's a lovely TOB presentation from the Knights of Columbus magazine (Columbia, Nov. 2011), drawing from the frescoes of what Bl. John Paul II called the "Shrine of Theology of the Body," the Sistine Chapel.

Michaelangelo's frescoes, Pope John Paul said, express “in a certain way the hope of a world transfigured, the world inaugurated by the risen Christ.... [W]e stand before the glory of Christ’s humanity. … As the only Mediator between God and men, from the Sistine Chapel Christ expresses in himself the whole mystery of the visibility of the Invisible.”*


* These words are Theology of the Body in a nutshell!

The unexpected convert

In case you missed it online, on MSNBC and on CNN, a particularly interesting blogger "came out" last week: she is moving her blog from the "atheist" portal of the cultural site Patheos to the (horrors!) "Catholic" portal and beginning the RCIA process.

What I noticed when the news first hit was that so many of the comments from self-professed atheists seemed to assume that human life has only one dimension that really counts: the intellectual. And that atheists corner that market. While I obviously take issue with the second assumption, it is the first that rally strikes me as sad. What a diminution of humanity! And it is precisely the restriction that the new catechumen could not accept: her approach to the Church came through the recognition thta, in the end, "morality" is a person. And He loves her.

For a summary and all the pertinent links, go to that same Catholic portal for Elizabeth Scalia's observations, among which the following:

We have a long history of brilliant people — atheists and non — who have trained their big brains on Catholicism, intending to either disprove it or simply to splash about in its currents, only to find themselves drawn further in. Catholic teaching has been thoroughly reasoned and laboriously fleshed-out; there is actual thinking, full of nuance and complexity, at its core — where Faith and Reason share a kinship, within which the natural and supernatural wave back and forth, like wind-stirred wheat in a field; it’s a dance of organic wholeness.

Tomorrow's Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist marks the only time a regular saint (i.e., one who is not also the Mother of God) trumps a Sunday liturgy. That's right: tomorrow you won't hear the readings and prayers for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but those of St. John the Baptist.

There's something truly remarkable about this noble prophet who stood between two Testaments, drawing people to himself only so he could redirect them to Jesus.

And isn't that the mission of each and every follower of Jesus, too?

Thomas More and the heart's treasure

Today's saints certainly embody today's Gospel ("Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be.")

More and Fisher, to put it simply, refused to be of two minds on the hot-button issue of their day. They rejected the notion of externally conforming to something that was at odds with their convictions, whether "for fellowship," by force, or by mere hypocrisy--because, in the end, that is what they were being pressured into. There are some sophisticated voices today also saying that we should be willing to compromise our convictions--just a little--for the sake of efficiency, for the greater good. They reproach the bishops for drawing the particular line in the sand that they did over the HHS mandate, or suggest that Church is for Sunday, in a consecrated building and nowhere else.

To their contemporaries, John Fisher and Thomas More they seemed to be taking an impractical, extreme positition, well demonstrated in "A Man for All Seasons" in More's conversation with the Duke of Norfolk. That clip isn't available, but this other one is:



Listen to Fr Reginald Foster translating the Latin document of canonization of today's martyrs  (Foster was the Vatican Latinist and leading expert in Latin for decades).

Eucharistic Reflection

On this Thursday, here is Bl. James Alberione's advice for living a Eucharistic Day:

"Make the Host the day's foundation.... From midday to the following morning you start your preparation (for Mass) by offering, sanctifying and carrying out your various duties with your heart in tune with the Dweller in the tabernacle; spend the morning in thanksgiving, displaying the fruits of a holy joy, working 'through Him, and with Him, and in Him" to the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity.

"Prepare your spiritual preparation before Mass by acts of faith, hope and charity; fall into step with Jesus who takes the road to Calvary; walk with Mary."

Faith and Freedom

If you were attending the Catholic Media Conference with
Sr Rose, Lisa Hendey et al, you could get a foam freedom
finger at the USCCB booth, but you're just reading my
blog, so you only get a picture of it.

Today begins the "Fortnight for Freedom" being promoted by the bishops here in the US.

It's also the first day of our community's novena to St. Paul (whose feast we celebrate on June 30, in place of the memorial of the generic Martyrs of Rome). So our Sr. Margaret Joseph put the two together in a "Freedom Novena to St. Paul," otherwise known as "St. Paul, Pray for U.S."

What "Fortnight for Freedom" concepts seem the most important to you?

Polyglot

As of late Saturday night, we are now (and for the rest of the summer) a community in which over half the sisters' native languages are not English. Sister Lusia learned English in school back in Samoa, but nobody actually spoke it, so she learned spoken English when she entered the convent. But her experience is surely a comfort to Sr Marta, who is here to learn English (Sr Hortensia will be consoled, too, but she hasn't arrived yet). Srs. Marta and Hortensia are in the US from their native Argentina and Mexico for our new Pauline outreach to the Spanish-speaking population.

We are excited to have them in Chicago even if only for two months or so, because they will be able to network with the leaders in Hispanic ministry, and help us begin to broaden our mission beyond the people who happen upon our downtown bookstore.

The sisters studied English last summer, but in the meantime they have been living in Miami, which is its own Spanish-speaking universe. Our entire Miami community is bilingual. Here in Chicago, not so much. And until Thursday night, it's just me, Sr Marta and Sr Lusia here, so our efforts at conversation  have been ... interesting. Sr Marta spent some time in Italy (as well as Brazil), so in attempting to express herself, she falls to the congregation's heritage language, with English nouns when she knows them. And it's hard for me not to lapse into Italian as well, out of the desire to simply communicate. But Sr Lusia doesn't know Italian, so then I have to translate for her.

And then we all laugh...in the same language.

Three days to the fortnight

So the "Fortnight for Freedom," the two-week countdown to the 4th of July, starts this week. The unusual observance come s at the request of the US Bishops, who see the freedom "endowed by the Creator" at risk in the very nation that first made freedom a pillar of identity (see "Declaration of Independence," 1776).

Today's Mass readings set before us an interesting conundrum: In the first (from 1 Kings), the king is thwarted in his goal of obtaining a certain desirable piece of property. His wife, the notorious Jezebel, uninhibited by scruples, gets the job done. Yet in the Gospel, Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek" and "go the second mile."

In establishing the "Fortnight for Freedom" in the days leading up to July 4 (rather than, say, the two weeks beginning with July 4), the bishops made sure that two saints in particular would come to our attention. St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, a layman and a bishop, were the most prominent Catholics in the entire realm of King Henry VIII. 

Henry wanted a regional return to a kind of "Caesaro-papism," of the sort the Byzantine world had known. It had been a time when the Roman Emperor, in virtue of being a Christian as well as the supreme ruler, could convoke Church councils to resolve theological quarrels. In the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, there was a kind of opposite situation. You could perhaps call it "Papal-Caesarism." The Pope had so much temporal power, he was effectively just another king--indeed, a king with more extensive territories and claims than merely hereditary rulers. Henry wanted to opt out of that arrangement. And he expected his Parliament, his Chancellor, and the Very Rev'd Lord Bishops, to support him.


More, especially, "turned the other cheek" for as long as he could. He stepped down from public office and attempted to live a quiet, private life at home. But there was a line he would not cross. He would not violate his conscience. And his conscience, formed by careful study of the issue, had led him to the conviction that the Pope's role in the Church was established by "our Blessed Lord" upon the Apostle Saint Peter. He could not turn away from Peter's successor without turning away from the Lord himself. Bishop Fisher took a more direct approach, acknowledging that he would probably become "a martyr for the sacrament of matrimony".  Sadly, Fisher was one of the few bishops of the time to take such a stand. The capitulation of the many may have changed the course of history.



For quite a while, the Bishops have seemed almost alone in their protests that the HHS mandate requiring all employers except houses of worship and institutions that employ and serve only their own co-religionists to pay for birth control and sterilization "services" no matter what the institution's teachings. Even the Catholic Health Association demurred--until Friday.

It may take quite a while before other Catholics are on board. Some may feel that "bishops are promoting their own views without consideration for how many of their parishioners feel," as one Chicagoan said (in this article in the Tribune). Some even wonder why the bishops are allocating resources to the issue, when those same funds could be used for the care of the poor. (They don't seem to realize yet that the HHS mandate will take those same funds from the care of the poor and allocate them to providing free birth control and sterilization procedures for people who already have jobs and benefits.)

For Henry VIII, it was a matter of offspring: securing an heir for the throne; for the current administration, it is a matter of avoiding offspring. In both cases, the response of the bishops could be critical--if not for history, at least for the church.

Double Doings

Today is a doubly special day for us: Not only is it the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart; this year, the feast falls on the anniversary of the Daughters of St. Paul. (To celebrate, I am making a strawberry-rhubarb pie which the two of us who are home today will enjoy at supper.)

And since we are in the "B" cycle of Sunday readings (Solemnities are liturgically like Sundays, except for the "obligation" part), there is even a connection in the readings: Today's second reading (from Ephesians) includes the "motto" of the Daughters of St. Paul, words that used to appear on the large medal the sisters received when they made their vows.

These words of St. Paul sum up the ultimate goal of the Pauline mission:

That through the Church, 
God's manifold wisdom might be made known.

Eucharistic Witness: Bl. Manuel Gonzales Garcia

Father Garcia's ordination picture

I learned recently about Bishop (now "Blessed") Garcia, an Apostle of Eucharistic devotion, born in Spain in 1877 and ordained priest in 1901.

 Just five months after his ordination, young Fr. Garcia was sent to preach a parish mission in the town of Palomares del Rio. What he saw there determined the whole course of his priestly ministry and spirituality. The wooden tabernacle of the parish church was pocked with termite holes and draped in cobwebs, filthy dirty. The scene remained, he later said, "glued" to his soul. He was determined that, as much as lay in his power, he would never see another tabernacle abandoned again.

After careful preparation, Garcia established a kind of sodality for women. He called it "The Work of the Three Marys," after the women who remained at the foot of Jesus' cross when all the others (but John) had fled. But it wasn't enough that women should take up his call, so he also established the "Disciples of St. John" and then the "Children of the Tabernacle." His aim broadened, and within six years there were "Diocesan Eucharistic Missionaries" sharing the dream.

In 1920, Garcia was made bishop of Malaga. This gave him just the position he needed to establish his works on a more lasting foundation by founding a congregation of sisters (the "Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth"), who would carry the work forward after his death.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the bishop's residence was set aflame, and Garcia fled to Gibralter, and then to Madrid. During this time, he launched a secular institute (the "Nazarene Auxiliary Missionaries") and the "Children's Eucharistic Reparation" movement.

What is the connection between the "missionary" thrust so evident in the names of his later foundations and the house of Nazareth? Garcia saw the house of Nazareth as the place of Jesus' apprenticeship for the hidden life of the Eucharist. In their convents (which the sisters called their "Nazareths"), the sisters would "learn to speak like Jesus in the Gospel and be silent like Jesus in the tabernacle."

Named bishop of Palencia, Garcia died only four years later. He is buried in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of his Cathedral, so that his very bones "after my death, as my tongue and my pen during life, might continue to say to everyone who passes by, 'Jesus is here! He is here!' "

For the website of the Eucharistic Reparation Union (the "family" of Garcia's followers),  you might need the help of a translation service.

Following the bishops

This week the bishops are meeting in Atlanta (you can follow the proceedings on Twitter @usccblive or watch it in real time--something I can't do this week, since I am needed in the bookstore). They have a lot to cover! The Year of Faith, which begins in October, was one topic. (In that context, one of the bishops announced an interactive version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to be made a available online.) The bishops also got updates on how the Charter for the Protection of Children is being observed.

As you might well expect, religious freedom was on the agenda--but not just religious freedom here in the US; instead they also looked at the subject of international religious freedom. Speaking on the topic were Thomas Farr of Georgetown ("religious freedom is seen as a threat to the theory of modern sexual liberation") and John Garvey (President of Catholic University) on how changing attitudes toward religion influence how a culture perceives religious freedom (including conscience protection). Iraqi Bishop Schlemon Warduni also addressed the bishops, on the state of Christianity in Iraq (Warduni received a standing ovation from the US Bishops).

You can view these talks yourself online (http://usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/2012-june-meeting/video-on-demand.cfm --just go to the mid-point, about 48 minutes in).

The "Fortnight for Freedom" which the Bishops' Conference is promoting as a time of greater prayer and reflection (but mainly prayer) on religious liberty begins a week from tomorrow, and extends through July 4. During that span, we commemorate two martyrs of religious freedom in England, and a third great biblical martyr for the sanctity of marriage. I prepared a special Facebook "cover" picture which I am using on my Facebook page through July 4. Feel free to download it and use it as your cover picture, too, or share it on your wall!

TOB Tuesday, late update

I was going to call this "late breaking news," but I'm the one who's late. I only found out five minutes ago that Philadelphia will be welcoming Pope Benedict in 2015 for the next World Meeting of Families, a kind of TOB World Youth Day.

TOB Tuesday

The Theology of the Body, with its complete vision of the human person, has got to be the most urgent message of all for the people of our time. So why are some of those who are committed to promoting TOB spending so much time critiquing other presenters? What a terrible waste of time! It's like the uber-fundamentalists sending missionaries into Catholic countries to people who already revere the Bible as the Word of God, while vast populations in other (non-Christian) are still waiting to hear the name of Jesus. (Well, Paul had the same problem of being followed around by "super-apostles" who were convinced that he was undermining the faith.)

Over the weekend, Sr Helena posted a point-by-point response to some of the (same old) criticisms of TOB popularizer Christopher West, even after West himself wrote an entire book in answer to those same (old) observations.

One thing that both West and Sr Helena point out is that some of the harshest criticisms aimed at West actually take issue with the parts of West's books that come directly from Pope John Paul. This makes me want to pray even harder for the TOB message to be fully accepted!



Here are two posts by Tim Muldoon at Patheos highlighting the timeliness of the Theology of the Body, and the urgency of spending more energy getting it out than making sure other TOB evangelizers get it exactly the way we do:

The McDonaldization of Sex 1 

The McDonaldization of Sex 2

My hero.

It took me only a moment to realize that today is June11, the feast-day of St Barnabas, who ranks up there with Paul, John the Baptist and Ignatius of Loyola, as far as I'm concerned. St Luke seems to have the same assessment: Barnabas is described in the Acts of the Apostles in terms that would otherwise seem to apply only to the Church at large: "good", "filled with the Holy Spirit and faith"; able to "see the grace of God". This is the Apostle Paul's mentor, for crying out loud!

And that is what I find most heroic about Barnabas. In his ability to "see the grace of God," Barnabas could look at the recently converted Saul, and know: "This man is a chosen instrument...to bring the Name before Gentiles and Kings." He vouched for Saul before the entire Jerusalem community, and years later when he "saw the grace of God" in Antioch (where Gentiles were joining the Church in such numbers that the Jewish quality of the community seemed to be diluted), it was Barnabas who undertook the sea voyage to Tarsus, "to look for Saul" and bring him to that cosmopolitan city, third largest in the Roman Empire, where his talents could be used "to bring the Name before Gentiles."


There must have been a reason that the people of Lyconia, witnessing the Apostles Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey, presumed that Barnabas was Zeus, the King of Olympus. He was clearly the leader of the little mission team, even as Paul (or was it Hermes?) did all the talking. And yet it was on this trip that the protege, the "least of the Apostles," began to outpace his noble mentor.

Like John the Baptist, Barnabas was willing to "decrease" that the one coming after him might "increase." That has got to be the most heroic thing about both of those great men.

Little blessings in Community

Sr Helena is at the retreat house in Massachusetts, and we are feeling her absence. But that very feeling of our community being diminished for the time being has made me pay more attention to the little blessings of our community life.

There's the way we each look for ways that the others' talents can be fostered or promoted. And the way we notice each others' interests. When I'm away, for example, Sr Helena always pulls the recipe section out of the Chicago Tribune and puts it by my room so it won't get recycled. I, in turn, used my valuable Coke rewards points (which the folks back home save for me) to get Sr Frances a subscription to an interior design magazine.

It's also a blessing, in its own way, to be worried about. Last week, I was out uncharacteristically late at a Jubilee dinner that, well, let's just say it was one of the most extravagant affairs I have ever been to in my life. (There was a princess at the head table!!!) The sisters had forgotten about the commitment (and I failed to remind them), and they were frantic with worry for me. Until Sr Frances remembered something about a Jubilee, and the superior called the downtown hotel where it was being held.

And I bless Sr Frances every single morning God made for preparing the coffeepot the night before.

None of those things are essential, and yet in a way they are, because they are the stuff of real life, and real life is what the Lord wants to live in us.

Surprised by Scripture

You would think that after 35+  years of daily Mass, I would stop being surprised by the unexpected connections between the Mass readings. Another one came popping out at me today.

In the first reading, Paul (in prison) is exhorting Timothy to stick to his guns, and above all to remember the Scriptural message he had imbibed from childhood, because "all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, refutation, correction and training in righteousness." 

In the Gospel, Jesus gives a demonstration of just what Paul meant. He raises an innocent question: "Why do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?" Then he "refutes" the most obvious interpretation of that belief by bringing in the Scriptures: "David himself calls the Messiah 'Lord' when--inspired by the Holy Spirit-- he writes [in the Psalm], 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand".' "  Using the Scriptures (and highlighting their inspired character), Jesus reveals that there is much more going on in the Messianic prophecies than anyone could have suspected.

That must have been an ongoing experience in the early Church: going back to the old, old writings in the Law, Prophets and Psalms and, with a start, recognizing that in a mysterious way, Jesus had been there all along. By reading the Scriptures of Israel, the first generation of Christians came to know Jesus even better. And of course, so can we.

Eucharistic Reflection

It is this blog's relatively recent tradition to mark Thursdays with a post offering a reflection on Eucharistic Adoration. This is based on the Church's rather longstanding tradition of associating Thursdays with the Eucharist--and today on the Universal Calendar that tradition has its clearest expression. Even though we in the US won't celebrate it until Sunday, today is "Corpus Christi": the feast of the "Body of Christ."

Fittingly, here is a thought from Pope Benedict's "Sacrament of  Charity" (n. 68) which explictly refers to today's Feast:

"Besides encouraging individual believers to make time for personal prayer before the Sacrament of the Altar, I feel obliged to urge parishes and other church groups to set aside times for collective adoration. Naturally, already existing forms of eucharistic piety retain their full value. I am thinking, for example, of processions with the Blessed Sacrament, especially the traditional procession on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Forty Hours devotion local, national and international Eucharistic Congresses, and other similar initiatives. If suitably updated and adapted to local circumstances, these forms of devotion are still worthy of being practised today."

Have you ever taken part in a Corpus Christi procession? (Here in Chicago, they have been held downtown for several years.)

This is why I'm on Facebook

Because I find gems like this:

Catholic story found glory at the box office!

Thanks to well-planned advance screenings and aggressive social media marketing, "For Greater Glory" found a glory spot in the TOP 10 on its opening weekend. This, without the mega-sized billboards and bus stop ads of, say, the latest version of Snow White--and despite the fact that, with only 757 theaters compared to Snow White's opening weekend in 3,773.

Even though "For Greater Glory" has some real weaknesses as a movie (among them, too many noble speeches), it deserves the box office glory it won this weekend. And all of you who went to the theaters in a show of support for films with a moral core also deserve kudos!

Return of the Donatists?

Every so often, seemingly out of the blue, someone raises the issue of the priest sex abuse scandal, and often with a question or remark to the effect that there is no way that the perpetrators could have so much as even offered a valid Mass. In other words, not even the Holy Spirit can get past the filth those men covered themselves in.

I am sure that these observations are made out of respect for the Eucharist; it seems to be "protecting" the dignity of the Mass to insist that there be a certain level of uprightness on the part of the priest to guarantee a truly "holy" Eucharist. And, of course, no one would argue that because of their call to act "in persona Christi" in the sacraments, priests are called to a more exacting standard. This is precisely why the abuse scandal was so appalling.

Back in the 4th century, many Christians witnessed another kind of priest scandal. During waves of brutal persecution, some deacons, priests and even bishops escaped martyrdom by publicly offering incense to pagan idols, or handing over the Gospel books to the authorities, or simply denying their faith. One bishop even admitted to murdering his nephew as a mode of self-protection! After the threat of persecution passed, these same ministers expected to resume their former roles in the Church--albeit after doing public penance. The very idea contributed to a schism. A group who identified with the noble and eloquent Donatus (hence "donatists") declared that those who had publicly denied the faith had lost everything: they had to be rebaptized, and that any sacraments they might attempt to celebrate didn't even count. In other words, such sacraments were invalid.

It was St Augustine who clarified what was at stake.

As fitting as it is, and as much as the Church should make every effort to ensure that the ministers of the Gospel live what they preach, the minister's personal holiness is an invisible and unverifiable criteria for the validity of the sacraments. Most sins are not as easily identifiable as the abuse of young children or the negligent oversight of bishops. And as other events have also shown, a convincing facade of holiness and high ideals can mask a secret life right out of the sleaziest novels. How could we ever have full confidence that the baptism or confession, or Communion we received was, in fact, the saving work of Jesus Christ among us?

Unless, of course, it is not so much the human minister as Christ who is really acting in the sacraments. Then, although a sinful minister may be heaping sin on top of sin by celebrating the sacraments without being, as is he is required to be, "in the state of grace," those who receive those sacraments still participate in a graced event. Because it is Christ's grace, not the minister's.

Does that mean, as St Paul said, let us go on sinning so that grace may more abound? That is not what the Rite of Ordination implies: "Know what your are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate.  In the memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection, make every effort to die to sin and to walk in the new life of Christ."

And... that holds just as true for all of us in the pews!

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict responded to some questions about the Church's teachings on marriage and family life. Those same issues were behind a statement issued today from the Pope's old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). CDF had spent two years in a conversation with an American sister, whose book on Christian sexual ethics departs radically from Catholic teachings, and not just in one or two disputed areas. (Reading Sister's responses to CDF, it doesn't take much to come to the same conclusion.)

It's unfortunate that this official statement was published just as the American sisters' organization itself is being called to a reform. Having the same office label a sister's writings as unorthodox fits into the story line that the Vatican is "attacking" the nuns. Indeed, over the weekend I was running a book table for a conference and saw several people sporting buttons that said "I stand with the Sisters," as if some kind of battle lines were being drawn.

Anyway, here is a bit of the Vatican News Service write-up about the Q&A with the Pope "on subjects which included the economic crisis, the position of divorced people in the Church and the indissolubility of Marriage." (Emphases mine.)

An engaged couple from Madagascar who are studying at university in Italy spoke of the anxiety they felt when faced with the "forever" of Marriage. The Pope explained that falling in love, being an emotion, is not eternal. "The emotion of love must be purified", he said, "it must undertake a journey of discernment in which the mind and the will also come into play. ... In the rite of Marriage the Church does not ask whether you are in love but whether you 'will' it*, whether you are resolved. In other words, falling in love must become true love; it must involve the will and the mind in a journey (which is the period of engagement) of purification, of greater profundity so that it is truly all of man, with all his capacities, with the discernment of reason and the force of will, who says: 'Yes, this is my life'". The Holy Father also mentioned other important factors such as communion of life with others, with friends, the Church, the faith and God Himself.

A Brazilian family raised the issue of divorced couples who have remarried and cannot avail themselves of the Sacraments.

Benedict XVI affirmed: "this is one of the the great causes of suffering for the Church today, and we do not have simple solutions. ... Naturally, one very important factor is prevention. This means ensuring that, from the beginning, the act of falling love is transformed in a more profound and mature decision. Another factor is that of accompanying people during marriage, to ensure that families are never alone but find authentic company on their journey. We must tell people in this situation that the Church loves them, but they must see and feel this love".

Parishes and other Catholic communities "must do everything possible so that such people feel loved and accepted, that they are not 'outsiders' even if they cannot receive absolution and the Eucharist. They must see that they too live fully within the Church. ... The Eucharist is real and shared if people truly enter into communion with the Body of Christ. Even without the 'corporeal' assumption of the Sacrament, we can be spiritually united to Christ". It is important for divorced couples "to have the chance to live a life of faith, ... to see that their suffering is a gift for the Church, because they also help others to defend the stability of love, of Marriage; ... theirs is a suffering in the community of the Church for the great values of our faith".

I translated as " 'will' it" what the VIS translation translated as "want".
News items reprinted from the Vatican Press Office: http://www.visnews-en.blogspot.com/

Jesus and the Americans

In today's Gospel a group of Americans--make that Pharisees--come to Jesus with a question. "By whose authority do you do these things?" It could also be rephrased as "Where do you get the right to do the things you do and teach the things you do?" It's a good question. In fact, faced with Jesus' words and deeds, it is a necessary question. Even now, if we do not have the answer to that question, all the religious observances in the world rest on a flimsy foundation. And yet when Jesus turns the tables on them with his own question of authority, the Pharisees show themselves proto-Americans. Instead of looking for the truth, they calculate their answer by cause and effect, and they stay there. "If we say this, he will say that; if we say the other thing, the people will react like this..." In other words, "Which answer 'works' best for us? And so they pled ignorance. "We have no idea where John the Baptist's mission came from." The question of authority is just as vital in the life of the Church in our day. It isn't enough to appeal to the Church's authority as if it were its own source. The truth behind the Church's authority to "do the things she does and teach the things she teaches" has to be discerned and recognized (and ultimately surrendered to), even though our cultural temptation might be to take a practical approach and simply go with whichever answer "works" best for us.

In Theaters NOW

A few weeks ago I was able to attend a screening of "For Greater Glory," a movie based on mostly-suppressed historical events in early twentieth century Mexico. The ruling party from the Cristero days remained in power until 1997, and had no interest in making its bloody, repressive origins too familiar. Even Chicago auxiliary bishop Rojas, who grew up in 1970's Mexico, said that he didn't learn about the "Cristeros" in school, but from the stories told by elderly members of the family. Other Mexicans in the audience that day said it was the same for them.

Many of those family stories came together over the years and were investigated by the Church, resulting in the beatification and then canonization as martyrs of 25 saints by Pope John Paul during the Jubilee Year 2000. (I remember this well, because as I was getting on Rome's Metro to sing at Santa Susanna's parish (near the Piazza della Repubblica), an enormous contingent of musicians in mariachi uniforms was boarding.) (Read the Pope's homily from that day.)

This is not a feel-good movie; not in the least. The Cristeros were warriors, fighting a bloody war for religious freedom under a hostile government that was being supplied with high-powered American weapons.  According to the movie's telling, the Pope was not too keen on the notion of war (this was less than 10 years after World War I, the "War to End All Wars"). Even some priests took up arms (none of these was considered for sainthood).

This is the story behind the movie that opens today in theaters. It is visually spectacular, frequently moving, sometimes a bit too slow. I also found the Andy Garcia character, the General, confusing: he is the only one of the Cristeros to speak with an American accent, so I assumed he was an American who had become involved somehow with the Mexican army and ...  No, he is meant to be a regular, run of the mill (if well-off) Mexican businessman with a military past. Two of the movie characters are actual, historical figures--both martyrs (beatified by Pope Benedict with 11 others in 2005); other characters are composites.

"For Greater Glory"is a must-see, at least once, simply because the story deserves to be told. Plus, it really helps send a message that, yes, there is an audience for movies like this. "For Greater Glory" being an extremely "Catholic" movie, it may not win an audience among more fundamentalist Christians; it just pushes too many offensive buttons (statues and rosaries and genuflections and all that). If this movie is to have any kind of ranking, it's going to have to come from Catholics.

Today being a First Friday, you might want to consider plunking $10 down as a kind of "tithe" in honor of the Cristero martyrs. We need their intercession. And we may very well need the inspiration of their forthright defense of the faith (rather than their recourse to weapons).