Ministry: September 2003 Archives

Or is it just a Rollover?

A few months ago Cardinal Law took bold and decisive action against the dissenting movement within the Archdiocese: well, no, not really. Instead, all he did was tell diocesan agencies to stop holding events at the most notorious dissenting parish, large, affluent Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton. After all, "Our Lady, Help Us Christians" was the launching pad of the self-important VOTF, and its pastor was vocally gay-friendly Rev. Walter Cuenin. For years, the archdiocese itself had been honoring this badly-misled parish by holding conferences and special services there. Most prominently, why on earth had they let Boston's #1 dissenter (well, maybe he's #2) have the honor of hosting Mother Teresa on her visit to Boston? That was a scandal.

It seems Cardinal Law finally got the point and ordered a stop to these affairs shortly before he resigned, but today, says the paper, Abp. O'Malley has lifted the prohibition in an arrangement worked out by Bp. Lennon, auxiliary for the western portion of the archdiocese.

Fono spotted an article from Germany's Welt am Sonntag paper about the Pope's health.

As you've probably noticed, Pope John Paul's voice has become progressively more incomprehensible in his public speeches, and according to the article, he now regularly skips whole paragraphs of his Wednesday general audience talks.

This becomes a practical problem for the Church when there are some tasks only a Pope can fulfill: e.g., to declare one of the faithful departed a saint or a blessed, as he plans to do for Mother Teresa on October 19. For the Pope, giving up his trip to Mongolia, and the wished-for side trip to Russia means that he will probably never fulfill his dream of consecrating Russia to our Lady from its own soil.

Andreas Englisch writes:

John Paul II sees his fate head-on. He openly indicates that he believes he does not have long to live. He declines to name the overdue replacements for the two most important Vatican offices: both Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano and the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, have surpassed the age limit of 75 years and would normally have to go into retirement. Yet John Paul II does not want to fill such important offices himself. He wants to leave the choice of successors to the next Pope, who will have to work closely together with the cardinals in both key positions.

A rather Evangelical Church of England parish streamed this week's Sunday service on the Internet.

"Thank you, children; thank you, Paul, for helping us with that Confession..."

Actually, the sermon is a thoughtful talk about finding God amid a confused culture.

It had to happen: when people want information on finding a religious community, they turn to... the web!

A Florida laywoman's publicity efforts are bringing interested visitors to consider the monastic life.