A First Saturday Prayer for the Church

On this First Saturday (and feast of St John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests), I am sharing another of Alberione's prayers, this one to Mary as "Mother of the Good Shepherd." Although Alberione was somewhat obsessive about inculcating in the Pauline Family a special devotion to Mary under the title "Queen of the Apostles," he made an exception of sorts for one of the congregations. The Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd (nicknamed "Pastorelle" Sisters) were founded to work alongside parish priests in the care of souls. He entrusted them to Mary under the title of "Mother of the Good Shepherd" (sometimes "Mother of the Divine Shepherd"); it helps all of us understand what Alberione meant by "Queen of Apostles"! This is from the First Saturday prayers written for the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd (the picture is a detail of the mosaic in the Sisters' motherhouse chapel).

Mother of the Good Shepherd,

Have pity on your scattered children, on so many who are still straying like sheep without a shepherd. Save the innocent, convert sinners, strengthen the weak, sustain the wavering, comfort the troubled, assist the sorrowful. Form many saints! Give us apostles and good pastors! 

You know, Mother, what a valley of tears we live in, how we walk in the midst of so many enemies, what fragile clay we are made of. Turn your merciful gaze toward us. May you lead us to Jesus, Way and Truth and Life, the eternal Shepherd of all; to the joy of Heaven. Amen.

A Prayer for Priests

On this First Friday, a prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for his priests (adapted from a set of Sacred Heart prayers by Bl. James Alberione):


Jesus, Divine Master, 

I bless and thank your most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests are sent by you, as you were sent by the Father. To them you entrusted the treasures of your doctrine, of your law, of your grace, and souls themselves. 

Grant me the grace to love them, pray for them, and support their efforts to build up the Body of Christ of which I want to be a living, active member. Jesus, I especially entrust to your Sacred Heart today the priests towards whom I have a special debt of charity: the priest who baptized me or welcomed me into the full communion of your Church; the priests who have heard my confessions and absolved my sins in your name; priests who have ministered to me over the years and who may now be worn out, discouraged, or tempted; priests in whose vocation I have had some role to play.

Jesus, send good laborers into your harvest. May priests be the salt which purifies and preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city placed on the mountain. May they all be formed according to your heart. And one day in heaven, may they have around themselves, as a crown of joy, a multitude of souls won for you.

The Potter, the Clay, and the Scandal. UPDATED.

After I posted this reflection earlier today, I received some information that requires me to edit out what may not in fact be based in objective truth. While outright erasing is not standard blogging protocol (strikethrough is the preferred method of indicating a correction), I do not wish to keep any untruths live on my blog, since they will live long enough in the ether as it is. So this is a completely re-edited post, with references to particulars deleted. In the interests of truth and charity, please do not make any effort to find the original post.

With all the disheartening news in the Catholic world over the past several weeks, the Scripture readings during this same time have been extraordinarily pertinent and consoling. It is as if the Mass readings were tailored precisely to our questioning and our disillusionment. It makes me feel sorry for Catholics who are trying to work their way through all of this without "the lessons of encouragement...in the Scriptures" (see Romans 15:4, but also 1 Cor 10:11!). If you cannot make it to daily Mass, at least make the daily readings an essential part of your prayer life!!!

In the midst of new revelations (of old evils), today's readings are no exception. They follow from yesterday's passionate thread about the treasure of the Word of God, worth "selling all" to possess. (Indeed, Jeremiah sounds like no one more than Augustine with his distressing admission, "When I found your words I devoured them. They became my joy and the happiness of my heart...")

Today we are looking at Judgment Day, but not before another encouraging word from Jeremiah. Sent to the potter's house, the prophet tells us basically that we cannot mess things up badly enough that God cannot rework the situation to good. Not the original good, and not the good outcome we may expect or require, but a genuine good for which we will glorify him forever.

"Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. ... 'Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?' says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel."

Today I am using this reading as a springboard to pray for priests who have fallen seriously in their vocation, or who are struggling wearily and are disheartened and afraid, even terrified, as their past sins, long ago repented and forgiven, threaten to come to light. Some of these men were corrupted in their youth. Pressured to please their superior, may have ended up with habits of alcohol abuse, pornography, or immoral behavior (even all of the above), but they were permitted to go forward to the altar of God, bringing their newly acquired compulsions with them to the ministry.

When yet another disedifying story reached me yesterday, I wanted blood. No more secrets! No more hiding! No more hypocrisy! I wanted all the names published on the front page of the New York Times. I wanted to see a procession of men in cassocks beating their breasts and chanting "mea maxima culpa."

But then last night I couldn't sleep, thinking of the priests whose worse nightmare is coming true a decade or more after they have repented, confessed, and done penance. I've been praying for them nonstop ever since. Some of these men (and others who may have never confronted the matter face-on) may be tempted to suicide. Satan still "prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8), and no morsel is more tasty to him than someone consecrated with priestly chrism.

I am convinced that many of these men have faced the full truth of the wrong that was done to them, and which they themselves in turn did to others. I do not for a minute doubt that some of these men are living saints, daily offering reparation for those evils and actively cooperating with grace in the daily effort to replace vice with virtue and laboring in ministry to make positive atonement for the damage done to the Body of Christ through their sins.

God can work with the clay in his hands. We can only see that things have turned out very badly indeed, but God is infinitely creative and faithful. All this will turn out to good in some mysterious way (Romans 8:28). Our part is to cooperate with forthrightness, fidelity, charity, and prayer. "For men it is impossible, but not for God" (Matthew 19:26).

Weeds among the Wheat: Facing Scandal (Again)

I am putting news links in this post out of a sense of responsibility, so you can see that I am not making this stuff up. However, for your peace of mind I do not recommend that you read the articles I have linked. If you feel the need to get the facts, please pray to the Holy Spirit for a grace of sanctification of the mind so that you do not suffer interior harm from what you will find in the news items.


We thought this was pretty much behind us. At least I did. When the Pope met with the bishops of Chile in May over the clergy sex abuse scandal in that nation, I thought that we in the north finally had our house in as much order as one could expect in this valley of tears. Ha! Just weeks later, "verifiable allegations" of sexual misconduct against a retired Cardinal brought it all back. Since then, more revelations have come forth, including a powerful testimonial by a priest who had been a seminarian under McCarrick in Newark but moved to Albany to escape the bishop's advances (as well as the sexual assaults of certain seminarians who had been emboldened by the bishop's abusive behavior).

This past week the anger levels on Catholic social media continued rising to combustible levels. Not only had McCarrick gotten away with his evil deeds (at least one case of abuse of a minor, and a number of accusations by adults who were — they might say "trapped" — under his jurisdiction), he clearly managed to do so with the help of friends in high places. It seems that McCarrick's misdeeds were shruggingly and silently tolerated even as he advanced from Bishop of Metuchen to Archbishop of Newark to Archbishop of Washington DC to Cardinal. So far no one (beginning with McCarrick) admits knowing anything. (According to a report by the New York Times, the serial abuses ended before 1994, after McCarrick was confronted by an auxiliary bishop and the Papal Nuncio.)

Early this morning (July 28), Pope Francis accepted McCarrick's resignation from the College of Cardinals and assigned him to a "life of prayer and penance" while awaiting a canonical trial on the charges made against him. The Pope has yet to name a place where the disgraced cleric will live, but he is not permitting McCarrick a choice in that matter, either.

Thanks be to God.

It is a real sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church that while all this was going on, and especially over these past seven days, the liturgy has presented us with powerful readings from the prophet Jeremiah pronouncing "Woe!" to the false shepherds of God's people. And today it is the Gospel that encourages us in a parable that is quite a picture of our current situation.

Let me share with you some of my lectio divina on today's Gospel:

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
"The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

The Kingdom of God may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
Everything comes from God, and everything will one day return to God. But it comes from God in an incomplete form, a seed; he lets his creation grow and develop in its own way, with a power he has given it. "God looked at all he had made, and he found it very good" (Gen 1:31). When it returns to God, its development will bear a creaturely stamp, but it will be made "complete in Christ" (Col 2:10).

While everyone was asleep...
Most of this ugly saga took place under Saint John Paul's watch (McCarrick was named a bishop by Pope Paul VI one year before John Paul's election). Is it possible that "everyone was asleep" because the Polish Pope was so charismatic that we put all our trust in him?

his enemy sowed weeds all through the wheat...
"Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens" (Eph 6:12). The sinner is not our enemy, but is in the grip of "the enemy of human nature." It is urgent that we pray for the perpetrator of the abuse and all who assisted (even if out of misplaced loyalty) in covering for him. "For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light" (Lk 8:17).

the crop grew and bore fruit...
These are very hope-filled words! The weeds do not appear until the wheat is already "bearing fruit for eternal life" (cf. Jn 4:36)! The harvest is within view; the crop has reached a certain maturity. There is just a little time left for the grain to fully ripen. "The Lord is near!" (Phil 4:5).

Let them grow together until harvest.
Admittedly, this is the hardest part to accept. Like the farm hands in the parable, I want to go into the field and ruthlessly tear out anything that even looks like a weed, not only in the Church, but in my own heart. God sees that this could be even more destructive than what the weeds alone can do. Besides, with time and grace, it is possible for the weeds in God's field to become wheat. He wants us to tread lightly on his farmland. Despite appearances to the contrary, God is still in charge.

Collect the weeds ... for burning
It seems unfathomable that someone can believe in the just judgment of God and carry on an elaborate system of seduction and abuse of power. This is where the dogma of Hell never ceases to be relevant. Not that we can claim that anyone has yet been consigned to eternal damnation, but it remains the truth that God and his love can be rejected. We can "love self to the point of hatred for God" (wasn't it Augustine who said that?).

Gather the wheat into my barn.

Heaven, total communion with God, corresponds to our nature and desire. God has granted us to learn this already, while we are still "planted" in the field, so we can live with a conscious and deliberate view to Heaven; so that we can look forward to it; taste it in anticipation and be refreshed in trials by the thought of it. That is a huge grace, and the parable ends on this high note. "God makes all things work together for the good for those who love him" (Rom 8:28). It is a call to all of us sinners to let the Word of the Lord work on us, to transform our weeds into wheat for the Kingdom.

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!

Fr Barron: Seminary is med school for "soul doctors"

Fr Robert Barron (the man behind the Catholicism TV series),  newly appointed rector of Chicago's Mundelein seminary, was interviewed recently about his vision for preparing men for the priesthood "in a new setting that’s become indifferent to the faith, at best, and hostile at worst."

It is, he says, a matter of turning young men into heroic leaders: "In the wake of the sexual abuse scandals, many men have come forward to say it’s a time for greatness in the priesthood and heroic priests." (That word "hero" shows up a striking number of times in the short interview featured in the National Catholic Register.)  "I want people who are well-trained soul doctors and who also understand the culture. We cannot hunker down behind a wall."

Barron says that his goal is "to make Mundelein a powerhouse of the New Evangelization — a place where the New Evangelization is thought about, where it’s practiced and implemented, and where that ethos is placed in the heart of the students." And this means really grasping what the bishops at Vatican II intended fifty years ago: "The Second Vatican Council was a reform council to make the Church a more effective vehicle for evangelization in the modern world. My generation [Barron is 52] received an inadequate interpretation of Vatican II. The reform has to recover a correct interpretation — that is to make the Church at all levels a more effective vehicle for the true evangelization."

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-robert-barron-named-rector-of-mundelein-seminary/#ixzz1ux6SJqmg