The human yearning for adoration

Colleen Carroll Campbell takes a hard look at the twin sociological phenomena of our time: (1) growing religiosity among committed Christians and (2) the expansion of the atheism of indifference among the rest:

The implications of this trend extend beyond religion. Just as more Americans are moving toward stronger religious observance or none at all, a related divide is widening between Americans who fear the growth of government as a threat to religious liberty and those who welcome it as a means of secular salvation. It's no coincidence that we are witnessing an unprecedented expansion of government at the same time that more Americans are disengaging from the faith traditions and communities that provided social, spiritual and economic support for the generations before them. Nor is it surprising that the president driving this expansion inspires religious fervor bordering on idolatry among many of his followers, particularly those with no religious affiliation. The human yearning for adoration of some higher power -- be it God, government or Barack Obama -- dies hard.

Transformation and new life

This morning Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at the church of Sao Paulo in Luanda, Angola. His homily touched on the theme of baptism, which has a special resonance at the Leonardi home this weekend; tomorrow afternoon our newborn son will be baptized. Here is a key excerpt from the Vatican Information Service's press release:

"'Let us make haste to know the Lord', the Risen One!" he exclaimed. "As you know, Jesus, perfect man, is also our true God. In Him, God became visible to our eyes, to give us a share in His divine life. With Him a new dimension of being, of life, has come about, a dimension which integrates matter and through which a new world arises".

This new dimension "comes to each of us through faith and Baptism. This Sacrament is truly death and resurrection, transformation and new life. ... I live, but no longer I. In a certain way, my identity has been taken away and made part of an even greater identity; I still have my personal identity, but now it is changed and open to others as a result of my becoming part of Another: in Christ I find myself living on a new plane".

The maze craze and the mother church

The transformation from diocese to club for New Age dissidents under way in Rochester continues. This morning's Democrat & Chronicle informs us that Sacred Heart Cathedral now features a "labyrinth":

Sacred Heart Cathedral, 296 Flower City Park, will offer a unique opportunity for people to experience a different form of devotional prayer: the prayer labyrinth. Visitors are welcome to walk the prayer labyrinth on Monday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. or on Tuesday and Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. except during the daily 12:10 p.m. Masses.

The folks at Catholic Culture provide an article which exposes the dubious origins of this "different form of devotional prayer."

"Fresh"

Let it suffice to say that an article with the headline "Church takes fresh look at prayer" is bound to contain mischief:

"Any parish gets used to hearing the same priest all the time, and to be able to inject a new perspective and fresh ideas is always good for a parish," said the Rev. Rick Bolte, pastor of St. Timothy Church.

"Our hope is for people to take the occasion to improve and work on their prayer," he said.

Arico will offer the homily for all of this weekend's Masses, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and at 8, 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Then, he'll speak:

Sunday at 7 p.m. and Monday at 8:30 a.m. on "Prayer as Relationship: The Spiritual Journey."

Monday at 7 p.m. and Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. on "A Taste of Silence: Centering Prayer." [emphasis mine.]

You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about centering prayer in this article from Catholic Answers.

UPDATE: Obama to deliver Notre Dame commencement address

Story here; principles violated here.

From ND's press release:

President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. May 17 (Sunday) in the Joyce Center on campus.

Mr. Obama will be the ninth U.S. president to be awarded an honorary degree by the University and the sixth to be the Commencement speaker.

The University will confer degrees on approximately 2,000 undergraduates, 420 MBA students and 200 Notre Dame Law School students. ...

Stone cold crazy

An article in today's Catholic Courier of Rochester describes a curious ritual that took place at Sacred Heart Cathedral last night:

Denise Mack, pastoral associate at Church of the Assumption in Fairport, led those gathered in a call to transformation. When they entered the cathedral participants had been given smooth stones that symbolized the grief, remorse, pain and shame caused by the war in Iraq. After the call to transformation, people slowly processed to the altar and one by one dropped their stones into a basket. Mack then poured water over the stones and asked God to soften participants' hearts the way water smooths the rough edges of rocks.

The universal destination of goods

What is the Seventh Commandment? What does it forbid? With what is it primarily concerned? What is covered by the Seventh Commandment? How do we keep it? What is required by the Seventh Commandment once it is broken? What is the universal destination of goods? To what are the temporal goods of men ordered? What is the central focus of the Church's social teaching? In what principle is Catholic social teaching rooted? What areas are covered by Catholic social teaching?

Join Brian Patrick and me tomorrow morning (Friday) at 8:10 am on the Son Rise Morning Show as we discuss Chapter 31 of the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults: "The Seventh Commandment: Do Not Steal -- Act Justly."

"(Again, think Madoff.)"

Partisan operative or Catholic nun?

You decide:

... This story rings so true today with the current economic crisis. Those who have the most want more. Those who demanded “more bricks” with less remuneration for the workers seem to be the ones who have caused our global economic mess. The Bernie Madoffs and over-paid CEOs of the world never had enough and in their greed have bankrupted thousands. Whole housing subdivisions are being abandoned as homelessness soars. Food scarcity is not all that uncommon in America today as attested to by any food bank. ...

Take it easy

The Catholic Education Resource Center, one of my daily stops, reprints a 2004 article from Arlene Oost-Zinner and Jeffrey Tucker on "Fourteen Easy Ways to Improve the Liturgy." Here they are in summary form:

1. Turn down the volume.
2. Chant for a prelude.
3. Curb the announcements.
4. Choose plain, traditional hymns for the processional.
5. Sing the Kyrie.
6. Choose a plainer Gloria.
7. Fix the Psalm.
8. The Offertory should be a time of preparation.
9. Reduce and simplify the ‘Mystery of Faith' and the ‘Great Amen.'
10. Shorten the Sign of Peace.
11. Begin the communion chant (a simple Latin hymn will do) after the priest receives.
12. Don't force people to sing during communion.
13. Allow for silence after communion.
14. Don't attempt a rousing good-bye.

The article then provides "More Elaborate Suggestions" and concludes with "Musical Reminders from the General Instruction." Share this one with your pastor or worship commission.

"It always helps to listen carefully when they speak"

Dueling headlines from Rochester this week:

- Bishop Clark: Events recall the ways in which God renews our community

- Channel 13: Churches in Trouble; Closing an Option

"In Joseph, faith is not separated from action"

At vespers last night in Cameroon, Pope Benedict delivered a sermon on St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church and favorite saint of Italian-American families like mine.

"Joseph teaches us that it is possible to love without possessing," said the Holy Father. "In contemplating Joseph, all men and women can, by God's grace, come to experience healing from their emotional wounds, if only they embrace the plan that God has begun to bring about in those close to him, just as Joseph entered into the work of redemption through Mary and as a result of what God had already done in her."

"Joseph was caught up at every moment by the mystery of the Incarnation," reflected Benedict XVI. "Not only physically, but in his heart as well, Joseph reveals to us the secret of a humanity which dwells in the presence of mystery and is open to that mystery at every moment of everyday life.

"In Joseph, faith is not separated from action. His faith had a decisive effect on his actions. Paradoxically, it was by acting, by carrying out his responsibilities, that he stepped aside and left God free to act, placing no obstacles in his way. Joseph is a 'just man because his existence is 'ad-justed' to the word of God."

"The life of Saint Joseph, lived in obedience to God’s word, is an eloquent sign for all the disciples of Jesus who seek the unity of the Church," the Pope concluded. "His example helps us to understand that it is only by complete submission to the will of God that we become effective workers in the service of his plan to gather together all mankind into one family, one assembly, one 'ecclesia.'"

Happy St. Joseph's Day, everyone -- grab yourself a sfinge and celebrate.

Evidence for Africa

British Catholic journalist Joanna Bogle, who evidently took a lot of heat on the BBC's Channel 4 for correctly pointing out that AIDS and condoms go together like car keys, whiskey, and teenage boys, offers some evidence:

Let's take the figures. The Phillipines and Thailand both reported their first cases of HIV in 1984. Thailand enacted a widespread condom-distribution programme. The Filipino government took a different approach - the Church had a considerable influence in what is a heavily Catholic country. Figures for 2005: Thailand's cases of AIDS 580,000; The population of the Phillipines , with a population of 84 million, just 12,000, or 0.03 per cent.

Evidence from Africa is interesting, too. Uganda, which was the first country to implement a non-condom approach, had a very low percentage of AIDS infection (4 per cent of the population). Swaziland - where there was a big condom-campaign: 42.6 per cent of the population.

British Medical Journal 331 (30 July 2005) is relevant, also the World Health Organisation has useful data. Check it out.

On Christian realism

En route to Cameroon to begin his trip to Africa this week, Pope Benedict fielded a handful of questions from reporters. This response, on the proliferation of sects on the continent, stood out:

We, unlike some of them, do not announce a Gospel of prosperity, but Christian realism. We do not announce miracles, as some do, but the sobriety of Christian life. We are convinced that all this sobriety and realism which announce a God Who became man (therefore a profoundly human God a God Who also suffers with us) give meaning to our own suffering. In this way, announcement has a broader horizon and a greater future. We also know that these sects are not very stable. ... The announcement of prosperity, of miraculous healing, etc., may do good in the short term, but we soon see that life is difficult, that a human God, a God Who suffers with us, is more convincing, truer, and offers greater help for life.

Final expenses

This morning's Cincinnati Enquirer features a story about a new low-price "casket store" downtown and what it says about the times we're living in:

Not surprisingly, funeral homes are not among Lusain's biggest fans.

Some have spread false information, he said, about his caskets supposedly being of inferior quality. A few, though, see the logic in his argument that his modest sales "aren't going to put anyone out of business" in a city with 15,000-plus deaths annually and that, by keeping funeral prices down, he can help them combat a growing trend toward cremations [emphasis mine.]

"I don't want to lose a casket sale, but if someone like Eric sells people a good product at a fair price, I've got no problem with that," said Bob Webster, owner of Webster Funeral Home in Fairfield.

Lusain, Webster said, simply tapped into the move toward cheaper funerals, one that began long before the recession.

"Years ago, people would come in and say, 'I want the best for mom,'" Webster said. "Not anymore. Now they ask, 'What's the cheapest you've got?' It's almost like grandmother dying is an inconvenience they want to deal with as quickly and cheaply as possible."

His message, Lusain said, is that a low price tag does not imply disrespect for the deceased. With that in mind, Lusain recently added grave monuments to his product line to help people shave even more off what the industry euphemistically terms "final expenses."

New structures and supposed solutions

One day after His Excellency Matthew Clark of Rochester celebrated another "installation Mass" for a female lay pastoral administrator, Pope Benedict cautions bishops against the dilution of the priestly ministry:

The Holy Father urged the bishops to ensure that "the 'new structures' or pastoral organizations are not planned for a time in which it will be possible to 'do without' ordained ministry, on the basis of an erroneous interpretation of the promotion of the laity, because this would lay the foundations for a further dilution in priestly ministry, and any supposed 'solutions' would, in fact, dramatically coincide with the real causes of the problems currently affecting the ministry."

Is religion necessary?

I stumbled across online references to Barbara Reed Mason's fascinating book Is Religion Necessary? And Other Questions: A Study Guide for Home Groups to Be Used with the Compendium of the Catechism. It is a walk through the Compendium via common questions like, What does it mean to believe in God? How do we know what is true? How can there be One Way in a world of different cultures? Why does God allow suffering? Does God send people to hell? Do I have to go to church? Is sexual fulfillment a basic human need? So it works in a fair amount of apologetics. You can use Amazon's "search inside" feature to examine the text. What's below is a review from the U.K.'s Faith magazine. I think this book would be a useful guide for one of my "faith formation" groups or a follow up to my segments on the United States Catholic Catechism on the Son Rise Morning Show. Unfortunately, an exhaustive search reveals it isn't available in the U.S., and the one U.K. bookseller I found charges ~$20 for shipping. If anyone has any ideas for how I can obtain it, I'm all ears.

Faith readers will know how beneficial study groups are. There is a real need for a good booklet that can be used by study groups and this booklet admirably fills that need. The basic idea of the booklet is that it should be used as a study guide for home groups in conjunction with the Compendium of the Catechism. Every section contains a brief summary or quotation from The Compendiumtogether with other authoritative sources, such as the teaching of the popes, and wide and frequent references to the Bible, Canon Law, and the full Catechism. The explanations are clear and the book is not afraid to give lucid definitions. It could not be better done. I know, in fact, that the book has been very successfully used by adult home groups.

In fact I believe that the booklet could be widely used by all who want to know the faith better or to teach it. The booklet would be especially appropriate for sixth form general RE in schools that do want to teach the faith and not just have vague socialism with a Christian tinge. Younger pupils would find this booklet a useful supplement to their GCSE course, or a replacement for it for one year. Parents and grandparents trying to teach the faith at home would find it a Godsend. Parish priests could put it safely and profitably into the hands of converts and all who want to deepen their faith.

Consider just some of the topic headings: ‘What does it mean to believe in God? How do we know what is true? The Church’s teaching on the Trinity; The Church’s teaching on Tradition; How can there be One Way in a world of different cultures? Why does God allow suffering? Does God send people to hell? Do I have to go to church? Is sexual fulfilment a basic human need? Cultural Christianity; obedience and authority; Submission in an age of rebellion’. The book itself is a minor miracle in that these questions are considered succinctly without any superficiality or smart-Alec answers. The tone is one of reasonable discussion by those of good will, another reason why it would be such a success in schools. But it is quite clear that the Catholic Church teaches “as one with authority”. Most of those titles are in the form of questions in order to provoke the discussion that this book fosters.

Ministers of Penance and educators of conscience

Those two things form the core of the priestly pastoral ministry. So says Pope Benedict in a message to the Apostolic Penitentiary. He called the Sacrament of Penance "indispensable." Zenit's synopsis is here; Vatican Information Service account here and below. Would that every priest in the archdiocese internalized this message.

"One pastoral priority of our own times", writes the Pope in his Message, "is the correct formation of believers' consciences, because ... in the extent to which the idea of sin is lost, so unfortunately the sense of guilt increases, which it is then sought to eliminate through inadequate palliative remedies".

In order to form consciences, the Pope mentions such means as "catechism, preaching, homilies, spiritual guidance, the Sacrament of Penance and the celebration of the Eucharist" [emphasis mine.]

"Adequate catechesis", he says, "stimulates consciences to better perceive the sense of sin, which today has become somewhat faded or, worse still, obfuscated by an 'etsi Deus non daretur' way of thinking and living, ... denoting a relativism closed to the true meaning of life,

"Catechesis must be accompanied by a wise use of preaching", he adds, highlighting how the homily "is without doubt the most widespread form of preaching with which the consciences of millions of faithful are educated every Sunday. In the recent Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the Word of God in the Church, a number of Synod Fathers rightly stressed the value and importance of homilies, which must be adapted to the modern mentality".

Benedict XVI continues his Message: "Spiritual guidance also has a contribution to make to the formation of consciences. Today more than ever there is need for wise and saintly 'masters of the spirit'. Theirs is an important ecclesial service which requires interior vitality, to be implored as a gift of the Holy Spirit through intense and prolonged prayer, and through carefully-acquired training.

"Priests", he adds, "are called to administer divine mercy in the Sacrament of Penance, through which they remit sins in the name of Christ and help penitents to follow the demanding path of sanctity with an upright and informed conscience. In order to accomplish this indispensable ministry, each priest must nourish his own spiritual life and ensure his own ongoing theological and pastoral 'aggiornamento'". ...

"What does that tag say?"

A good friend brought one of these over for Mrs. Leonardi. Hysterical.