A Federal bankruptcy judge in an Oregon case has ruled that parish property belongs to the Portland Archdiocese, adding to the possibility that some of that property will have to be liquidated to pay abuse victims.
December 2005 Archives
Some dealer's offering a pallium for sale on eBay. I hope he's not selling one that's been blessed already: wouldn't that be simony?
Who'll want it, anyway? The riverboat episcopettes?
Today a news story of moderate importance broke. The Vatican Information Service indicated obliquely that Rome was acknowledging a decision the Ukrainian Catholic Church made some months ago: to move its major see from Lviv to Kyiv, and move Cardinal Husar, the major archbishop who presides over that Eastern church, along with it. The VIS announcement simply mentioned that Cdl. Husar had transferred an auxiliary bishop to fill the see at Lviv.
Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Archbishop Major of Kyiv-Halyc, with the consent of the Synod of the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church and after having informed the Apostolic See, transferred Bishop Ihor Vozniak, C.SS.R., from Auxiliary Bishop of the Archeparchy of Lviv of the Ukrainians to residential Archbishop of the same see.
Gotta do your homework
Now, this is pretty arcane stuff, and normally the Internet's Vatican watchers would jump over themselves to explain the minutiae. Alas, the most vigorous self-promoter among them, the religion blogger Rocco Palmo, stumbled over the story, posting two misleading entries on this one news item.
Continue reading News and (haphazard) comment.
It's always fun to read the rantings of those who think they know what the Church should, could, and would do if it was perfect (like the Commentator, of course.)
Here's a nugget about the election of Pope Benedict from the man who wrote "God's Hit Man"
"We needed a retreat from the high papacy of JPII. He tried to be omnipresent and was up for every gig that you could poke a stick at," Dr Collins said.
I can imagine JPII surrounded by a gaggle of cardinals, bishops and monsignors: "I hear the MGM Grand is spectacular. If Babs can play there, I can. Get me booked there before the end of '04 or you're going to be transferred to the Congregation of the Vatican Latrines. And make sure you tell the Boy Scout Troop 717 I'll be there for Columbus day. C'mon people - I want to do every gig that I can poke a stick at!"
And more:
"In Benedict we have a more modest approach -- he's got a better grip of the true role of the pope, which is partly to inspire others to use their gifts."
I'm sure Dr. Collins feels more inspired. And that's what counts.
Here's another equally stupid tidbit from the same article:
Another church commentator, Fr. Ephraim Chifley, said the curia was likely to be frightened of the new pope because he used to be one of them.
I'm glad to see the news that Pope Benedict is following up on the Synod on the Eucharist by stopping some questionable practices. He's directed the "Neo-catechumenal communities" to put a stop to most of their liturgical deviations. (Maybe instead of "neo-" that should be "quasi-" or "pseudo-".)
(Hat tip to Dom.)
The 2006 Boston Catholic Men's conference will be on March 4, and will feature Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa (preacher to the papal household), evangelist Fr. John Corapi, Scott Hahn (convert and theology professor at Steubenville), musician Sean Forrest and Archbishop Sean O'Malley. Tickets are available at $25 until 12/31, a little more after that.
The light of Bethlehem has never been extinguished. In every age it has touched men and women, "it has shone around them". Wherever people put their faith in that Child, charity also sprang up – charity towards others, loving concern for the weak and the suffering, the grace of forgiveness. From Bethlehem a stream of light, love and truth spreads through the centuries. If we look to the Saints – from Paul and Augustine to Francis and Dominic, from Francis Xavier and Teresa of Avila to Mother Teresa of Calcutta – we see this flood of goodness, this path of light kindled ever anew by the mystery of Bethlehem, by that God who became a Child. In that Child, God countered the violence of this world with his own goodness. He calls us to follow that Child.
Along with the Christmas tree, our Austrian friends have also brought us a small flame lit in Bethlehem, as if to say that the true mystery of Christmas is the inner brightness radiating from this Child. May that inner brightness spread to us, and kindle in our hearts the flame of God’s goodness; may all of us, by our love, bring light to the world! Let us keep this light-giving flame from being extinguished by the cold winds of our time! Let us guard it faithfully and give it to others!
Full text here.
A merry Christ Mass to you all, and thanks for your prayers during this election campaign. It has been so intense that it will be nice to have a week off to spend with family. As I do every year, I wrote a Christ Mass essay.
This year's essay is a tribute to a Catholic gentleman named Raymond. It borrows its title from an old New Covenant article called The Gifts Not Under the Tree.
It appears that the administrator of Holy Trinity Church improperly transferred 20% of the parish's income, over a six-year period, to pay bills of the parish where he resides. No wonder the Archbishop has been willing to put the planned closure of HTC on hold.
ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON
2121 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE
BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02135-3193(617) 254-0100 FAX (617) 783-4564
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
December 15, 2005Ms. Delores Miller
[...]
Dorchester, MA 02125Dear Ms. Miller:
I thank you for your letter of December 10, 2005 regarding our now-concluding investigation of financial matters of Holy Trinity Church in Boston.In your letter of December 10, you indicated that you do not wish to come in for a meeting at this time. Rather, you ask to simply have me deliver the results of the investigation. The results of the investigation are that, net of bills paid on behalf of Holy Trinity Parish by St. James Parish, Holy Trinity Parish transferred $176,390 to St. James Parish over the period of the audit.
That amount was borrowed today by St. James Parish and deposited to an existing account belonging to Holy Trinity Parish.
Since you have elected not to come in at the present time, I will be sharing the full results of this audit with the Reconfiguration Oversight Committee this evening. I would have preferred to take the representatives of the Parish through it directly, but I do see the need for. an outside review of our work and will therefore cover this with our committee established by the Archbishop to report on the integrity of our process.
If you find that you or the members of your group want to go through the detail, we would be happy to schedule time to meet with you.
Sincerely,
David W. Smith Chancellor
c: Most Reverend Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap.
Hon. Thomas F. Reilly, Attorney General, Comm. of Mass.
Reconfiguration Oversight Committee
Via Victor: the worst rendition of "O Holy Night" you've ever heard. Far worse than Cher's. I think the Army is gonna use this as a sonic crowd-control weapon: y'know, the sort of horrendous sound that turns strong men's viscera to water.
I gotta dig around and see if I can get a Leona Anderson album somewhere.
A JW named Dorothy called me this morning to tell me helpfully that Christmas was based on Mithra-worship (not to be confused with the veneration of Mothra), that "Cornelius" (she meant Constantine) who had a vision of the Cross and conquered under that symbol never became a Christian (not quite correct there), and the holiday is based on the Saturnalia. Ho hum. I chatted with her a while, so she'd know I'd heard it all before, and gave her 1 Tim 3:15 to look up: "the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth".
Is this what they do now when they can't get into the building?
EBay Scraps Plans to Offer Live Pets
Maybe Jeff Miller can make a faux Ebay Live Pet listing.
Seriously - if you want a pet, go to your local animal shelter. We adopted a 4 month old belgian shepherd mutt and she's a wonderful dog. She even howls along when I sing.
I'd take a pound puppy over a pure-bred any day. They're smarter and more grateful to have a home.
My lovely wife and I had the distinct pleasure of attending a reverent Low Mass here on Saturday and a reverent (and exceedingly well-sung by the outstanding schola cantorum) High Mass here on Sunday morning. These churches are unconditionally recommended for travelers to either of these fair cities.
Today's strike is another instance where unions have thrown everyone else in front of a bus while trying to have their demands met. This couldn't come at a worse time for NYC retailers - the week before Christmas is one of their biggest weeks of the year. Whether it's in Jersey or inside the city, folks are going to be shopping locally.
Archbishop's Veracity Is Questioned
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Attorneys for alleged victims of sex abuse asked a federal judge to let them question a top-ranking Vatican official about a church doctrine that might permit him to lie under oath...The Catholic Church teaches it is a sin to lie, but the doctrine of mental reservation allows for circumstances when it may be better to avoid the truth to serve a higher purpose. ...more
Another case of lawyers doing everything they can to make the Church look bad.
My wife and I went to confession and Mass at a parish in Reston yesterday. In the pews they had Gather Comprehensive (aka "A Few Hymns And A Lot of Cheese" or "The Collected Works of Marty Haugen and Friends.")
In spite of having a hymnal, they had a "Worship Aid" with a few Disney knock-offs. That was our music for the 4th Sunday of Advent. I suppose because in the minds of the powers that be, Gather Comprehensive just doesn't have enough sentimental Marian or Advent ditties: we had to sing new pieces of cheese.
The results were alot of people looking dumbstruck in the congregation. Not much singing.
Pope Benedict has appointed Sri Lankan archbishop Malcolm Ranjith to be Secretary of the Congregation of Divine Worship.
After serving as a priest and bishop in his native country, Abp. Ranjith became an official of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Since 2004, he has been nuncio in Indonesia, where he served during the tsunami disaster.
To get a sample of his thinking in general -- though this doesn't give us any indications about his views on the sacred liturgy -- here's a paper he presented to an evangelization conference about "How to Evangelize in Asia". The Church, he indicates, should make it possible for Asians to discover Christ as Savior in personal experience, and show a connection between Revelation and the rooted religious traditions of the Church in Asia.
It's Advent, and one of the annual routines of the season has appeared: the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights' president William Donohue is out in public, generating embarrassment for the Faith by his complaints over trivialities.
The League's press releases for the past 30 days show a lot of activity. Some of is spot-on right, but some of it's just wrongheaded:
November 9: Some dolt in Wal-Mart's customer service department sent out his personal insulting opinions to a Christian customer. CL demanded that the company "[withdraw] its insane statement regarding the origins of Christmas", and called for a boycott.
My take: Wal-Mart, for all its faults, is a company that knows its middle-American customer base, and anybody who actually thinks that the guy's statement was really Wal-Mart's statement is deluded. This looks like a case of rash accusation by Donohue.
November 22: Mr. Donohue takes a public college in Florida to task for allegedly banning Christmas music from a December concert. The media story that triggered his complaint was in error, and Donohue had to apologize.
My take: Here there are two mistakes: (1) acting on a media report without confirming it, and (2) failing to indicate in his own press release that his complaint was based on a media report and not on any information directly reported to CL. Mistake #1 is an injustice to the college, and mistake #2 is an injustice to the Catholic faithful who support him and join in his publicity campaigns.
December 1: This time Donohue takes on Lands' End for avoiding the word "Christmas" in its catalog. Once he got a statement from customer-service defending it, he took to the warpath.
My take: Are we starting to see a pattern here? Take a little grievance against some company's P.C. approach in its advertising, and complain to customer service. Sometimes you'll get back a stupid or even offensive reply from a low-level staffer, and if you're a publicity hound, you can take that as a golden opportunity to raise holy heck about it. In the end, the top level of the company will issue a statement disavowing the foolishness of the temp who wrote the offensive reply, and you can declare victory.
Now, if you were to ask me (and I know you didn't, but bear with me) the sensible, constructive thing to do would be to take these grievances straight to the top level of the organization and give the company the chance to set things right.
Seven of Donohue's 20 press releases from 11/9 to 12/9 were about these overblown complaints. That's over one-third, a performance bad enough to hurt his credibility the other two-thirds of the time. Checking his facts and going to the top to solve problems means he'd have less face time on Hannity's show, but I think the image of the Church is not improved by a would-be defender's misplaced complaints and accusations.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Dissident theologians opposed to the beatification of Pope John Paul have issued an appeal urging Catholics critical of the late pope to tell the Vatican if they also think he should not be made a saint.The 11 Catholic theologians said Church officials who are reviewing John Paul's life and pontificate should also consider the "negative evaluation" liberal critics have of the nearly 27-year-old papacy that ended when John Paul died in April. ...more
Boston College rejects proposed gay theme for dance
Boston College has asked a student group to adopt a "less gay" theme for an AIDS benefit dance, saying the proposed "A Night in Gay Paris" defies the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
NEWARK, N.J. -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, a former Roman Catholic altar boy who resigned from office last year after acknowledging a gay affair, says he now attends Episcopal services. [full story]
Because now it's ok to be an active homosexual and be a member of the Episcopal church.
My question: what does being an altar boy have to do with it?
U.S. Catholic activits to march on Guantanamo prison
HAVANA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A group of [lefty, granola-eating] Catholic peace activists [who are stuck in the 1960's], defying a U.S. travel ban to Cuba, will set out on Wednesday from the [atheistic] Communist island on a 50-mile (80.5-km) trek [in their Birckenstocks] to the U.S. Guantanamo Navel [SIC] Base aiming to protest conditions for [totally innocent] terrorism suspects.
The first one is a "now but not yet" gift: the Pope's first encyclical is said to bear Thursday's date, and I only wish Deus Caritas Est were ready to release. According to CNS, we'll have to wait until January for it.
But also on Thursday Pope Benedict (gotta love him!) is granting the faithful a special one-time-bonus plenary indulgence, if we join him in honoring our Lady on her Solemnity. Of course, for those of us in the States, where it's a holy day of obligation, it'll be easy to fulfill that by our attendance at Mass.
On this Solemnity, when the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI will be paying a public tribute of praise to the Immaculate Virgin, he deeply desires that the heart of the whole Church be united with him so that all the faithful, gathered in the name of our common Mother, may be further strengthened in the Faith, bound with greater devotion to Christ, and love their brothers and sisters with more fervent charity: as the Second Vatican Council taught with great wisdom, this results in works of mercy for the indigent, the observance of justice, and the defence and search for peace.
Therefore, the Holy Father, who has very much at heart that the love and trust of the faithful towards the Virgin Mother of God be increased and that their lives, with the help and example of her holiness, be faithfully conformed to the wise teachings of the Second Vatican Council, in hierarchical communion with himself and with his Bishops, has benevolently granted the gift of the Plenary Indulgence.
On the upcoming Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the faithful may obtain this Indulgence on the usual conditions (sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff), in a spirit that is completely detached from affection for any sin, if they participate in a sacred rite in its honour or at least offer an open witness of Marian devotion before an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, displayed for public veneration, adding the recitation of the Our Father and the Creed and exclamatory invocations to Mary Immaculate, such as "You are All Fair, Mary, and in you there is no stain of original sin!", or "O Queen, conceived without original sin, pray for us!".
Here's the declaration.
Fr. Wojciech Giertych, OP, newly appointed Theologian to the Papal Household, teaches moral theology at the Angelicum in Rome (that is, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas). One of his former students has posted notes to his course in Fundamental Moral Theology on-line.
My colleague at St. Marks, Dick Weiand, who has been an organist and bell choir director there for over 3 decades has had a recurrence of liver cancer. His health is growing much worse. I'd like to give him a spiritual bouquet, please let me know what prayers & sacrifices you can offer in the comment boxes below.
Thanks and God bless you all.
