How pathetic is Mario Cuomo?

Asked on the Huckabee show tonight how President-elect Obama should handle issues of faith and governance, and just after host Mike Huckabee saluted him for being a devout "Roman Catholic," Cuomo unhesitatingly offered the example of embryonic stem cell research, and said that whether or not a human embryo is deserving of protection has been for President Bush a "sacred," not a scientific, judgment. God bless Mr. Huckabee, a Baptist minister, for responding, "Well, we know a human embryo is a developing human, not a stalk of broccoli," which brought the studio audience to rapturous applause.

Words cannot describe it

From the Navarre Bible commentary for the Jan. 18 Sunday Gospel (John 1:35-42), which you can obtain free via the Daily Word Google group:

Christian faith can never be just a matter of intellectual curiosity; it affects one's whole life: a person cannot understand it unless he really lives it; therefore, our Lord does not at this point tell them in detail about His way of life; He invites them to spend the day with Him. St Thomas Aquinas comments on this passage saying that our Lord speaks in a lofty, mystical way because what God is (in Himself or in grace) can only be understood through experience: words cannot describe it. We grow in this understanding by doing good works (they immediately accepted Christ's invitation and as a reward "they saw"), by recollection and by applying our mind to the contemplation of divine things, by desiring to taste the sweetness of God, by assiduous prayer. Our Lord invited everyone to do all this when He said, "Come and see", and the disciples discovered it all when, in obedience to our Lord, "they went" and were able to learn by personal experience, whereas they could not understand the words alone (cf. "Commentary on St John, in loc".)

Your letters to Rome ...

... from Rochester may be having an impact. From a reader:

I heard the rumors that Sr. Joan Sobala -- enough said -- has stated in a recent parish bulletin that she will be seated in the pew during Mass because it is the priest's role to preside at the Eucharist. Seems too good to be true and I can't find any archived bulletins for St. Ann's. I've also noticed in our parish that our pastoral administrator has been much more low key in her liturgical activities -- perhaps because of parishioner complaints. Also, our priest -- I cringe too much typing "sacramental minister" -- said that the diocese is cracking down on everything, even liturgy, because of the imminent departure of the bishop. Maybe it's just griping but it seems that something might be going on.

UPDATE. From an attendee at the 11 am Sunday Mass (18 Jan. '08) at St. Anne's of Rochester:

Good news folks! Sr. Joan did not deliver any part of the homily. She was not wearing an alb, did not give any commentary in random parts of the Mass, did not sit alongside the priest, etc.

She did come and speak at the pulpit at the end of Mass, but it was during the time that general news events are made. She sure speaks for a long time though.

This is encouraging news, and does not disagree at all with what that writer of the letter rumored about. I wouldn't bust out the champagne just yet, but how can one be discouraged by this news?

Sadly there was no incense used, and the chalice was made of glass. But progress may be being made.

Hermeneutics of rupture

The author of the quote below about Vatican II will be speaking at the Josephinum in Columbus on January 25.

It suggests, indeed, that at stake were almost two different visions of Catholicism: from commands to invitations, from laws to ideals, from definition to mystery, from threats to persuasion, from coercion to conscience, from monologue to dialogue, from ruling to serving, from withdrawn to integrated, from vertical to horizontal, from exclusion to inclusion, from hostility to friendship, from rivalry to partnership, from suspicion to trust, from static to ongoing, from passive acceptance to active engagement, from fault-finding to appreciation, from prescriptive to principled, from behavior modification to inner appropriation.

Sympathy for the Pharisee

Since time immemorial – or at least since 1968 – any Catholic perceived to spend too much time defending doctrines or liturgical norms has been labeled a “Pharisee.” Indeed, pharisaical is a fairly common pejorative term. Yet in Mary Healy’s commentary for the Gospel of Mark, she includes this fascinating partial defense of the Pharisees in one of her many text boxes:

The Pharisees were members of a small but highly influential renewal movement in ancient Judaism who practiced strict piety and regarded themselves as guardians of the Torah. The term “Pharisee” meant “separated” and reflected their zeal to maintain the distinctive identity of the Jewish people during a period of foreign occupation and blending of cultures. To insulate themselves from Gentile defilement, they developed elaborate rules for devotion and ritual purity (Mark 2:18, 7:1-15).

Jesus at times sharply admonished the Pharisees for hollow religiosity and a zeal that rested on self-reliance rather than surrender to God (Mark 8:15; 12:15; see Matt 23). Yet if Jesus is severe toward the Pharisees, it is because he is closer to them than to other contemporary Jewish groups. He affirms some of their doctrines, including the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels, and forms of piety like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. His warnings against their errors are recorded in the Gospels because they are warnings to Christians as well.

The Pharisees often appear in the Gospels opposing Jesus, seeking to ensnare him in a misstep (Mark 3:2, 6; 8:11; 10:2; 12:13). But not all Pharisees rejected the Gospel (John 3:1-2); some became Christians (see Acts 15:5). The most famous Pharisee was St. Paul, who considered his being a Pharisee mark of honor (Acts 23:6; Phil 3:5-6), although he regarded his former righteousness under the law “rubbish” in comparison with Christ (Phil 3:8). After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Pharisees survived and became the forerunners of rabbinic Judaism.

The beginnings of the Church-state separation mantra

In Elizabeth Lev's latest missive from Rome, she describes a conference that revisits Pope Benedict's trip to America and his praise for the American model of Church and state relations. One of the participants reveals that the familiar Church-state separation mantra has a dubious origin:

Professor Hamburger explained that the founding fathers intended a vertical separation of government and religion so that the state could not reach down into the religious sphere. Today it has been misinterpreted as a wall between Church and state and glossed with prejudice and intolerance.

A fascinating historical nugget presented by Professor Hamburger recounted the beginnings of the Church-state separation mantra in the anti-Catholic slogans of the 1840s against the immigrant Irish. Those slogans were picked up by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Catholics were painted as ignorant, mindless followers of a foreign despot, while Protestants were intellectually independent and acted according to conscience.

Generally healthy

The Catholic News Service reports on the results of the recent apostolic visitation to U.S. seminaries:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- An apostolic visitation team concluded that U.S. Catholic seminaries and houses of priestly formation are generally healthy, but recommended a stronger focus on moral theology, increased oversight of seminarians and greater involvement of diocesan bishops in the formation process.

"This visitation has demonstrated that, since the 1990s, a greater sense of stability now prevails in the U.S. seminaries," the report said. "The appointment, over time, of rectors who are wise and faithful to the church has meant a gradual improvement, at least in the diocesan seminaries."

This is great news, and the recovery of seminary formation is one of the untold positive stories of the Church in America. The recommended areas should come as good news to Cincinnatians, since Coadjutor Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr has stated that he intends to be very involved in vocational recruitment and seminary formation. One area not mentioned, either by CNS or perhaps by the apostolic visitation team, is liturgical formation. Pope Benedict is emphatic about the need for a "reform of the reform" and has been leading by example. While there has been a great deal of coverage given to his restoration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to a position of legitimacy, other exemplary measures have gone unnoticed. He has celebrated the Ordinary Form ad orientem, or "facing East" toward the altar with the people, twice, and for papal Masses where that isn't feasible he has instituted the Benedictine altar arrangement, by which the priest faces an altar crucifix flanked by three candles on each side. What's more, communion on the tongue, the universal way to receive the Eucharist, is now the standard for receiving from the Holy Father. Yet my sense is that newly ordained priests, both here in Cincinnati and elsewhere, are "on their own" should they try to imbue their Masses with the same sensibility. (Witness the, um, diversity in the ars celebrandi that you can observe in young pastors around the diocese.) At many seminaries, the reform of the reform is something to be either avoided or delayed as much as possible. I'm curious to learn what some of the seminarians and young priests among my readers think of the report. You are welcome to post anonymously.

The Eighth Day

What is the Third Commandment? What’s the purpose and meaning of the Sabbath? Why do Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday? How is Sunday the “Eighth Day”? What is the “heart of Sunday”? How is the Third Commandment reflected in the Precepts of the Church? Is it sinful to miss Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation? May we work on Sunday?

Tune in the Son Rise Morning Show tomorrow (Friday) at 8:10 am for our discussion of Chapter 27 of the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults: “The Third Commandment: Love the Lord’s Day”‏

Dayton priest gives nearly $5,000 to Obama for America

A visit to the Dayton page for CampaignMoney.com reveals an interesting series of contributions:

Friebel Cpps, Fr Rick	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Roman	$2,300	08/23/2008	P	OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat
Friebel, Richard	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Priest	$250	06/24/2008	G	MITAKIDES FOR CONGRESS - Democrat
Friebel, Richard A	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Priest	$250	06/07/2007	P	OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat
Friebel, Richard A	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Priest	$-250	06/07/2007	P	OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat
Friebel, Richard A	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Priest	$250	06/07/2007	G	OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat
Friebel, Richard A	Holy Trinity Catholic Church/Priest	$2,300	03/16/2007	P	OBAMA FOR AMERICA - Democrat

A July 2007 note in the Catholic Telegraph indicates that Fr. Friebel was named Knights of Columbus "Chaplain of the Year" for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. (Seriously, I'm not making this up.)

Look it up

In addition to providing an online "word of the day," Our Sunday Visitor has created a search engine for its very good Catholic Dictionary. Here's a sample search my Rochester readers may be able to put to good use in conversations at their parishes:

Women, Ordination of
(or-dih-NAY-shuhn uhv WIH-mehn)
The exclusion of women from ordination is found in the expressed will of Christ, Who called men alone to be His Apostles, and it has been the constant tradition and teaching of the Church that women are ineligible to receive the Sacrament of Orders. This is not a reflection on the dignity of women, but rather because of the relationship between Christ as Spouse and the Church as Bride. In 1976, the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Inter Insigniores, dealt with this matter in a detailed and authoritative manner, followed by the irreformable document of Pope John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, in 1994.

The key word is "prostituting"

Here's one for your "Seriously, I'm not making this up" file. A Catholic shill for pro-abortion politicians was busted for running a prostitution ring:

Eric McFadden was the founder of Catholics for Kerry, a group which proudly proclaimed that Catholics should support John Kerry notwithstanding his support for abortion.

After the election McFadden went on to bigger and better things when he was appointed by Ted Strickland, pro-abort Democrat governor of Ohio, in February 2007 to head the Ohio Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

McFadden resigned from that position in October of 2007.

McFadden also served as head of Catholic outreach for the Clinton campaign in 2008. And here we have him making the first comment in this thread, carrying water for pro-abort Obama.

Then we have McFadden writing a public letter attacking Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus for reminding Catholics that Obama and Biden hold views on abortion diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church.

Yesterday he was arrested and charged with running a prostitution ring for 6 years in Columbus, Ohio.

McFadden made a brief appearance on this site to defend his fellow shills at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

Considered so serious

The Cincinnati Enquirer links to an AP story on the Vatican's latest effort to combat the decline of confession among the faithful:

ROME (AP) -- One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history.

The Vatican has long lamented that fewer and fewer Catholics are going to confession, the sacrament in which the faithful can receive forgiveness if they sincerely confess their sins to a priest.

To combat the decline, the so-called "tribunal of conscience" invited the public into the frescoed halls of its imposing 16th-century palazzo for a two-day conference that ended Wednesday.

The aim was to explain what the Apostolic Penitentiary actually does, and thereby encourage more of the faithful to go to confession, said Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the tribunal's No. 2 official.

"Even though it's the oldest department of the Holy See, it's very little known - specifically because by its nature it deals with secret things," he said. "We want to relaunch the sacrament of penance."

By lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding the tribunal's work, the Vatican hopes to emphasize the fundamental role the sacrament plays in saving souls, the Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said in a paper delivered at the conference.

"Today it seems as though the sense of sin has been forgotten," he said.

Confessions of even the most heinous of crimes and sins - such as genocide or mass murder - are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal.

Its work involves those sins that are reserved for the pope - considered so serious that a local priest or bishop is not qualified to grant absolution, said Cardinal James Francis Stafford, an American who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary.

These include defiling the Eucharist, which Catholics believe is the body and blood of Christ. Stafford said this offense is occurring with more and more frequency, not just in satanic rites but by ordinary faithful who receive Communion and then remove the host from their mouths and spit it out or otherwise desecrate it.

Others include a priest breaking the seal of the confessional by revealing the nature of the sin and the person who sought penance, or a priest who has sex with someone and then offered forgiveness for the act.

These sins bring automatic excommunication from the church. Once absolution is granted, the excommunication is lifted, Stafford said.

A fourth type of case that comes to the tribunal involves a man who directly caused an abortion - such as by paying for it - who then seeks to become a priest or deacon, Stafford said.

While "Let a hundred flowers bloom" should probably serve as our motto here, it doesn't seem likely this effort will bear much fruit. As the sense of sin among the faithful has declined, the yardstick against which we measure our bad behavior has gotten longer. "I'm a good person -- I haven't murdered anybody." Father Pacwa once said, "Our frame of reference should be Jesus Christ, not Al Capone." Since the tribunal handles Capone-like offenses, how will opening its vaults prompt any of us to amend our lives?

What boys need

If you read nothing else today, spend ten minutes with Zenit's interview with Legionary of Christ Father Michael Sliney, spiritual director to adolescents. Entitled "7 Things Teenage Boys Most Need," it is chock full of trenchant observations and useful advice. As the ad says, "Life comes at you fast," so don't wing it. My oldest son turns 13 in less than two years. I have some work to do. Here's an excerpt:

Q: Can you expand on the importance of the dad's role in relation to his son?

Father Sliney: Kids, especially in high school, need to spend time with their dad, doing things together. This time together creates a space for him to open up and talk if he wants to. Take him out to breakfast or out to a game. Look for ways that he would want to do something with you. Dads need to get personally involved with their sons and dedicate time especially to their more difficult kids. Making little gestures of kindness is so important. My dad used to stop in every night before going to bed. He showed me he cared by asking how I was doing with my homework, how things were going. It was just a quick gesture but it was very helpful.

We're living in a very feminized culture, so dads need to teach their sons what true masculinity is all about. Being masculine doesn't mean being a tough football player and lifting weights. Manliness means strong character, self-control, quiet strength, and getting through adversity without whining. Kids need to see the example of what it means to be a man in their dad. It's about having an internal toughness, not complaining, and not letting others tell you what to do. You're the man of the house, you think about things, and you have things under control.

If you're living an authentic life, it comes across. One time when I was a kid, we got a pretty serious tornado warning while we were out in the yard, cleaning up. My dad went to each one of us: He was calm, in control, and he knew what needed to be done. Once we were all in the basement, he was at peace, having a good conversation with us. He was a calming force, full of confidence and authenticity.

And dads need to be a reliable source of guidance because high school kids are looking for words of wisdom. Kids are looking for advice from the one they love. Dads need to be available, but also offer. Kids shouldn't be intimidated or afraid to approach their dad for advice.

Joy-riding crystals

If you haven't yet viewed Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," a 90-minute documentary which up-ends dogmatic Darwinism by -- of all things -- interviewing Darwinists, you must do so. Put it in your NetFlix or Blockbuster queue today. Below is a YouTube video of Ben Stein's interview with Richard Dawkins, which appears at the end of the documentary.

Cathedral community

I'm not sure what's more disheartening; that Rochester's Sacred Heart Cathedral would think nothing of advertising an abuse of the liturgy on the home page of its website (see "evergreen" screenshot here), or that the "mother church" for the diocese appears to be empty. On second thought, perhaps there's a connection.

Instituted by Christ

The bishops conference has produced a series of videos on the seven sacraments. Led by Msgr. John Zenz of the Archdiocese of Detroit, they are roughly four minutes in length and cover the basics. The USCCB is promoting them as part of a "Previewing Lent" initiative. Although I've only viewed the first video, an introduction, they appear to be solid, with straightforward text mostly coming from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In fact, the introduction begins and ends with the traditional definition of a sacrament -- "outward signs, instituted by Christ, to give grace."

UPDATE. They're even better than I thought. Here's what Mike at DOR Catholic observed in the video on the Eucharist:

About 4 minutes in the monsignor ties together altar, cross and tabernacle, saying, "That is why it is good for us, appropriate for us, to have the tabernacle highlighted in the church. Somewhere near the altar there should be the cross and the tabernacle because these three help us to understand the mystery of this great sacrament of our faith."

A good news/bad news3/good news situation

Dr. K calls our attention to the state of priestly vocations in my home diocese of Rochester. You might call it a good news/bad news situation. Or maybe a good news/bad news³/good news situation. In 2009 the diocese will ordain one new priest. For three straight years after that, there will be zero priestly ordinations. Zero. Then in 2013 there may be five. And the year after that, perhaps two. May God bless the efforts of vocations coordinator Fr. Timothy Horan.

Unfortunately, though, there will be no priestly ordinations in our diocese for at least the next three years (2010, 2011 and 2012). In addition, retirements over the next 5 years will bring the number of diocesan priests in active ministry to below 100.

But now some good news. This past fall five courageous, faith-filled men entered Becket Hall to begin a year of discernment about a possible call to the ordained priesthood. This spring Bishop Clark announced that these same men have accepted his invitation to begin formal theological studies leading to the priesthood. All five wish to attend seminary this fall. Given current formation requirements the earliest we could celebrate a priestly ordination after next year will be in 2013. But then, God willing, we might ordain five.

Also, two men have already applied for residence at Becket Hall for next September. Becket Hall is a one-year experience for men college-aged or older to live in community, complete studies in philosophy, test their appetite for pastoral work, and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in determining God's call to them.
Has God put a young man in your parish, marked with a deep faith and love for the Lord and a desire to bring that love to others? Have you talked to him? Might priesthood be the answer to his hungry heart? How will he know if no one speaks to him about it?

Grief renders the world itself ghostly

In Joseph Bottum's touching eulogy for his friend and colleague Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, he captures the essence of grief:

Only a month ago--it was only a month ago that he was still whole, still sharp, still himself. Novels and movies always seem to me to get it wrong. Grief doesn't conjure up ghosts. Grief renders the world itself ghostly. The absent thing alone is real, and in comparison, all present things are pale, gray, and indistinct: a vague background to the sharp-edged portrait of what is gone.

Anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one knows what he means. Simple things that I once enjoyed with my father -- cooking on the grill, watching football games, visiting the ocean -- are altogether less real without him in the world. Ditto for my beloved maternal grandparents. The fact that I am blessed -- or cursed -- with an uncanny ability to store and retrieve memories as though my brain were a digital recorder adds to this sensation. It has rendered Rochester, in a certain sense, a ghost town.

As long as we hide the light

An excerpt from a comment in the "Why they go away" post:

Often I have breakfast with my children on weekends at First Watch in Hyde Park. (Mom gets to sleep in.) If you listen quietly most mornings you will hear the name of Christ. His name is being invoked by various Crossroads members having breakfast planning meetings, Bible studies, spiritual fellowship, etc. [Ed. note: Crossroads is a fairly typical evangelical community on Cincinnati's East side.] This morning two late 30’s/early 40’s men (one African American and one Caucasian) sat next to our table talking about how they would partner that year to bring Christ fully into their lives via accountability meetings. The point is that you will find passion for Obama, Marxism, Costa Rican Rain Forests, etc., at my parish, but by and large you simply don't see a public passion for Christ. We have to understand that as long as we hide the light under the bushel basket, Crossroads will continue to be, and rightly so, more attractive to those with a spiritual hunger.

Limewash

The fifth YouTube segment (of six) from Simon Schama's very good treatment of the English Reformation -- Henrician Revolution is a better term -- in his "History of Britain" series describes how, under the young Edward VI, Protestant iconoclasts worked mayhem in gorgeous old churches. "Images, statues, stained glass, paintings were attacked with chisels and limewash." The limewash would leave the stone interior looking pale and bleached. Frankly, it had never dawned on me how those walls were scrubbed clean. For a glimpse of this limewashed look, one need not travel to the English countryside. Rochester's Bishop Clark has recreated it rather nicely:

Vocation correlation

For National Vocations Awareness Week, the Cardinal Newman Society unsurprisingly finds that religious and priestly vocations are generated by Catholic universities with a reputation for orthodoxy. The names are familiar: Franciscan University of Stubenville, Christendom College, Magdalen College, and Ave Maria.

With appreciation for the important role that faithful Catholic colleges and universities play in fostering religious vocations, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) joins with the nation’s bishops in celebrating National Vocation Awareness Week, January 11-17.

“Priests and other religious are the backbone of the Church,” said Patrick J. Reilly, founder and president of CNS. “We salute those Catholic colleges and universities that, by their sincere commitment to both faith and reason, have helped young men and women prepare for a lifetime of service to God.”

Several of the colleges profiled in CNS’s The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College have had notable success in promoting vocations, whether through formal programs, a robust campus ministry or by creating a faithful learning environment emphasizing the Catholic intellectual tradition. ...

The inverse of this correlation is probably true as well, that the further a Catholic university meanders from orthodoxy, the fewer its vocations. That would seem to be the case with our two local schools, the commitment-challenged Xavier University and the University of Dayton. I am familiar with only one vocation in recent years from either, a young priest who spent some time at XU. The University of Cincinnati appears more frequently on the CVs of our seminarians. (FWIW, Fr. Schnippel recently examined local Catholic high schools and found little correlation between attendance there and discerning a priestly vocation.)

Converting?

National Review's the Corner picks up Fr. George Rutler's eulogy for Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. In it, Fr. Rutler claims Fr. Neuhaus objected to the term "converting" when applied to those who've been baptized. This argument is familiar to me, and during my days in RCIA the program director told our candidates that they weren't really converts due to the efficacy of their baptism. While I get the point, it has the effect of dampening the enthusiasm for ... embracing Catholicism. As Fr. Rutler might say, we read and are inspired by the stories of converts, not "embracers."

He objected to the term "converting" for a baptized Christian who became Catholic: Rather, such a one "embraced" Catholicism. I demurred, as I thought I had converted, albeit not from so intensely dogmatic a confession as Lutheranism but from the pleasant perch of Anglicanism. That same evening, he pointed out that the heating system in a nearby building was being converted to gas, to which I replied that he should have said it was embracing gas.

Welcome Son Rise Morning Show listeners

Thank you for visiting my site, the address for which was mentioned during my segments for this morning's "national hour" from 7 to 8 am EST this morning. I'm also premiering a slightly new look for the masthead and text using the latest Blogger template. Let me know what you think.

Shining examples of holiness and virtue

National Vocation Awareness Week has begun. I ask you to do three things: (1) pray for priests, (2) thank a priest for his service, and (3) ask your son whether he's ever thought about being a priest. About the last of these, you may be surprised by what you hear.

Living a life of virtue is striving for a life of holiness. Virtue is simply applying the teachings of the Church into one’s own life and seeking to follow Christ wherever He may lead. A life of virtue is necessary to fully embrace any vocation, whether that be as a priest or religious, married or single.

However, a life of virtue is often seen as a life of boredom. Our young people might ask: “Can you enjoy life if you strive to be temperate?” “Yes,” I argue. In fact, embracing a life of virtue leads to a greater and deeper contentment than succumbing to a life of vice ever could; because a life of virtue is cooperating with the design that God has instilled in our souls, as we are made in His image and likeness.

This year for National Vocation Awareness Week¸ we focus on striving to live a life of virtue as a basis for living out one’s vocation in Christ and in the Church. Striving to live this life of virtue and holiness helps to reveal the unique and loving plan that God has sketched for each of His children.

Vocation Awareness Week, however, is not just about a somewhat generic following of God. It is during this week that the Church takes a particular focus on the need to call out to God for more priests, religious and consecrated; for these are the heroes of our faith who aid their children in embracing this life of holiness. It is through the example and graciousness of the priests and religious that we all grow deeper in faith, stronger in love and more permanent in hope that Christ truly is the Lord of the World and that He will overcome all evil.

As we gather for this week of prayer, asking God to manifest His will in each of our lives, we also pray for our priests, religious and consecrated that they will be shining examples of holiness and virtue, that we may all grow in holiness as well.

In Christ,
Fr. Kyle Schnippel
Vocation Director

Pursuing priestly vocations full-throttle

Reader and good friend Jackie reports that former Cincinnati vocations director Fr. Mark Watkins is still pursuing priestly vocations full-throttle:

He spoke about his own life as a priest - how he 'loves being a priest' and 'loves being our pastor'.

Lastly he spoke about a time at St. Lawrence (which if you stand on the front steps and point yourself in any direction and give a good spit - you hit another Catholic parish - St. Williams, Holy Family, St. Teresa of Avila to name just a few) that this one parish had about 30 men in seminary at the same time. Now - granted - that was high school seminary, pretheologate and seminary - but still 30!

He spoke to us about talking to, praying for and encouraging young people 'so that they don't get lost in in worldly pursuits and fail to hear the voice of the Lord calling them.'

Finally, he set a challenge to parish: 5 men in the seminary and 5 women in the convent in the next 5 years. He asked members of the parish to send names to him and Sr. Helen Julia with address and phone number for them to be contacted!

Why they go away

There has been a lively discussion over at Fr. Z's site about why Catholics fall away from the Faith. Frequent commenter Maureen, who hails from the northern hinterland of the archdiocese, summarizes the reasons:

1. Mainstream culture is blah or hostile toward faith in general, and Catholicism in particular. If you don’t love your faith and you aren’t growing and learning in it, I think it’s very likely that faith will dribble away.

2. Peer pressure/example of loved ones. If you don’t have strong reasons of your own to stay with Catholicism, it’s very easy to resolve tension by doing what other people you care about want you to do. This can lead to conversion to another faith or to nothing in particular.

3. Bad example or hostile actions by priest or parish. There are some real horror stories that one hears from some fallen away Catholics, even without progressing to actual physical or mental abuse (which one also hears). God isn’t going to look kindly on us for any fallen away people lost in this way.

4. Message not liked. Sometimes this could have been solved with more tact or persuasiveness; sometimes it really is the fallen away person refusing to hear God’s word.

5. Lonesomeness or physical need not met by parish community. There are some Catholics whose parishes have allowed them to go hungry, who have been fed by their new evangelical churches. We’ve mostly let the sodalities and other Catholic social/religious groups go to pot. Again, I don’t think God will think kindly of us for driving these people away.

6. Enthusiastic conversion to something else. This is one where I’m not sure that it’s anyone’s fault. One might be able to prevent this by more spiritual nourishment and prayers in the parish, or by teaching discernment. But if the Devil is sending somebody visions to convert them to worshipping some neopagan goddess, there’s not much that the parish can do unless the poor sucker tells a priest or someone.

Fundamentally, I think, it comes down to catechesis. If you knew and believed what happens at Mass, you would never miss. You might, for example, migrate to a parish where this mystery is given its due, but you would not go away.

Help them recognize their own calling

For your information, Father Thomas McCarthy, parochial vicar/associate pastor for Cincinnati's St. Maximilian Kolbe, is hosting a forum on priestly and religious vocations tonight. If you have a young person in your family or of your acquaintance who may be hearing the call but struggling to respond, this may be the event for him.

Teens and young adults who are experiencing a call to religious life can discuss vocations with a panel of Sisters, seminarians, priests and Coadjutor Archbishop

Dennis M. Schnurr on Jan. 11 at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church in Liberty Township.

Members of the panel will share their own experiences.

"It’s a time for the teens and single men and women to learn a little bit about vocations," said Father Thomas McCarthy, associate pastor at St. Maximilian Kolbe. "It gives them an opportunity to not only hear from seminarians and priests, but also from religious Sisters."

About 80 people attended the event last year.

The event will enable attendees to hear the panelists’ life stories, obtain information about vocation, and may help them recognize their own calling.

The event runs from 7-9 p.m. in the Father John Porter Parish Center at St. Maximilian Kolbe parish.