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Why did an aging New England peacenik child of the ’60s become a Catholic? You can read Webster Bull’s answers at Why I Am Catholic.

This evening I’m re-reading a church document from 1997 on a topic so broad that eight separate Vatican dicasteries (Church departments) were involved in its writing.
I only wish someone somewhere would pay attention to everything it says!
The “Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest” contains a valuable summary of the Church’s teaching on the ministries and duties belonging to the clergy. The calling of the laity is to primarily to bear witness to Christ in all the fields of secular life: family, community, work, culture, civic responsibility; but at times the non-ordained faithful can be called upon to assist priests in carrying out some of their functions.
That’s all legitimate, but in most places I know of, that sort of assistance has undergone a “mission creep”, turning temporary assistance into a new status that seems to make parish volunteers into “mini-clergy” who think of their activity as some sort of right, as a real fulfillment of the vocation of the laity, instead of as a temporary aid to the overburdened priests.
This document reminds us of the limitations of such assistance, in order to avoid confusion in which non-ordained faithful would displace priests or reduce their service to a minimalistic role as functionaries to ensure the validity of the sacraments.
The Instruction includes these (and many more) concrete directives about avoiding abuses:

• “All previous norms which may have admitted the non-ordained faithful to preaching the homily during the Holy Eucharist are to be considered abrogated by canon 767, § 1.”
• [Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest] “cannot substitute for the eucharistic Sacrifice […. The] obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation is satisfied only by attendance at Holy Mass. In cases where distance or physical conditions are not an obstacle, every effort should be made to encourage and assist the faithful to fulfill this precept.”
• The bishop may depute a non-ordained member of the faithful to act as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion for a period of time. A priest may only authorize a lay Catholic to act as an EMHC on a one-time basis(“ad actum”) “in exceptional cases or in unforeseen circumstances”.
• “certain practices are to be avoided and eliminated…”: ” the habitual use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass, thus arbitrarily extending” the claim of particular need due to a “great number of the faithful”.
• “Since they are not priests, in no instance may the non-ordained perform anointings either with the Oil of the Sick or ony other oil.” [This used to be common in lay-led prayers for healing.]
• [If and when there is a need to appoint lay people to provide assistance to priests in these functions…] “the competent Authority is bound to select lay faithful of sound doctrine and exemplary moral life.”
• And: “It should also be understood that these clarifications and distinctions do not stem from a concern to defend clerical privileges but from the need to be obedient to the will of Christ, and to respect the constitutive form which he indelibly impressed on his Church”.

Long-time Catholic Light readers know Gordon Zaft for the great guy that he is, so this entry is not addressed to you except to apologize for the sudden invasion of Maciel-related posts. I share your concern. Rich can attest that we discussed it about a week ago via IM. Our intention is to return to normal as soon as possible.
The reason Catholic Light has taken this temporary detour is as follows: it’s become one of several sources of information for folks on the inside who are trying to make sense of this scandal and discern the right way forward. Not only rank-and-file members of RC, but LC priests, seminarians and RC families who paycheck is tied to the movement. So we’ve joined several other blogs in attempting to reach out to them.
To our new readers, welcome aboard Catholic Light! We’re happy to have you, even though the difficult circumstances led to your visit. Here’s some background to make your stay more enjoyable one:
– Catholic Light (CL) was the first blog in the St. Blog’s domain. It was one of the first Catholic blogs on the internet, and it generally covers a wide variety of topics of interest to Catholics.
– CL is a group blog overseen by Richard Chonak, who also oversees the St. Blog’s domain. Although I’m a member of the CL team and Richard seldom intervenes in what individual team members blog, it’s because of his generosity that I blog here.
– Richard has been using his full name in recent LC-related threads. But he is generally known around St. Blog’s by his initials “RC”. So if you see references to RC or this being owned by RC, please don’t panic.
– I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill, but with passions high among many recently involved with LC/RC, I need to point out that Gordon Zaft is was one of the blog’s first readers and he’s simply expressing the concern of several long-time readers. He’s also a great guy in real life, as I discovered when he entertained my wife and me over tequila and ribs the time we met face-to-face in Tucson.
So my apologies to our long-time readers and our new readers for not clarifying all this sooner. And Gordon, we’d be happy to return the favor the next time you’re in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

Welcome to our parish! Join us as we worship the Lord together.
You can help us preserve an atmosphere of peace and reverence:

• Please set any telephones or pagers to be silent;
• You are welcome to take photographs before or after services;
• Please refrain from chewing gum while approaching to receive Holy Communion;
• If possible, please dress suitably: casual work attire is fine, avoid short-shorts, swimwear, and pants with slogans on the butt.

Thank you, and above all, welcome again, and God bless you!

I don’t care that Zenit hasn’t met its fund raising goal: they’ve raised their fund-raising target 10% this year. They raised it 17% in two years. Considering how bad the reputation of LC/RC apostolates is this year, that’s a lot of nerve!
Fund-raising goal for their English-language news service:
2007: $360,000
2008: $380,000
2009: $420,000