Post for August 30, 2010
A friend in the Anglican Church passed along the following website as a place containing interesting resources for pastoral leadership in congregations: the Congregational Resources Guide.
Of particular interest was this sub-section of the site, on congregational redevelopment. Basically, “congregational redevelopment” is a process by which congregations (in Catholic terms, parishes) refocus on their mission and put their resources to bear on building the kingdom of God.
Just passing on the info to any priest or minister who happens along this way!
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Post for August 7, 2010
One of the parishioners at St. Brendan parish passed this on to me, so I am passing it on to readers!
St. Brendan’s Knights of Columbus Council #14693, in keeping with their strong philanthropic efforts, are starting a new fundraising campaign called Cents of Hope to raise money for the Jewish General Hospital’s AYA (Adolescent and Youth Adult) Oncology Program. By placing containers for spare change throughout the city, like schools and churches, Cents of Hope is aiming to raise funds for a program that helps support what many say are an overlooked age group of cancer patients.
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs, ages 16-30) with cancer fall into a special category of patients – they have unique epidemiology, developmental tasks and healthcare needs specific to their age group. So when cancer survivor Biagio Pagano wanted to find a way to give back, he discovered the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program (AYAOP) at the Jewish General Hospital.
“I was looking for a new program focused on youth, a program that needed help and was not funded by either government,” Pagano, who is a member of St. Brendan’s Knights of Columbus Council #14693, says. “I went searching for that special charity, and after about six months of looking at all kinds of organizations and causes, the AYAOP came to me – it was God-sent. Needless to say, I was a little biased considering I went through a cancer myself and have one more year to hit remission.”
The Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program provides medical, psychological, social, educational, nutritional, and rehabilitation support through a team of healthcare professionals (which includes everyone from oncologists to social workers, nutritionists, and fertility experts). They work together to provide comprehensive care for an age group that reports say have long been overlooked – AYAs with cancer differ from those of children and adults because specific developmental needs are not served well by health professionals, young patients often respond poorly to traditional health care interactions, and young people are generally often perceived as a ‘difficult,’ demanding and non-compliant age group.
The next step was finding a way to help raise funds for the AYAOP. Pagano decided to continue his focus on youth. “I had this idea of children helping children. [I wanted] to stimulate this special age group and to make these kids aware of other kids just like them who may be less fortunate and in need of help,” Pagano explains. So he decided to create a charity called “Cents of Hope” and collect spare change to donate to the AYAOP. “We want children to participate and contribute the best they can, [with] pennies, nickels, dimes. We want to make them feel [that] it is their small change that can make a better tomorrow and give others a sense of hope.”
Containers will be strategically placed at various points across the city, including their church and schools (if you have any suggestions on where more of these containers can be set up, please contact Biagio at biagiopagano@videotron.ca).
“The St. Brendan’s Knights of Columbus Council will be raising funds with some different activities as well,” the hopeful philanthropist says. “I have hit so many walls [with this project], however I am still standing and this project will work. I am confident of it.”
The Knights of Columbus has grown from several members in one council to more than 15,000 councils and 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, Cuba, and Guatemala. In 2008, the organization gave more than $150 million directly to charity and performed over 68 million man hours in volunteer service.
Neither Cents of Hope nor the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program at the Jewish are funded by the government, which demonstrates how important it is for the public to get involved in and contribute to such a worthy cause.
For more information on the AYA program, visit http://www.jgh.ca and enter “AYA Oncology Program” in the search bar. And for more info on Cents of Hope, contact Pagano at biagiopagano@videotron.ca).
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Post for August 6, 2010
I got an email recently from the web assistant to the Communication Department of the World Youth Day 2011 Madrid, asking to add a link to their web site from mine. Done! You can find it in the links on the right, and you can also click through to their web site by clicking on the following banner:
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Post for July 22, 2010
Someone has died…what do we do?
Unless the death takes place in a health care institution, call 911, and mention that your loved one has died. A doctor will be sent to issue a death certificate, which is necessary before the body of the deceased can be moved.
Call the funeral home. They will receive the body, and begin to prepare it for the funeral rites.
Call your parish. It is our honour and privilege to journey with you in this difficult time. We can meet with you even before you go to the funeral home, so that the arrangements you make will benefit from the full consoling power of our Catholic traditions.
The Quebec government has a helpful website called What to do in the event of death. While this website does not explain any of the spiritual dimension, it does cover the many civil elements involved.
Planning a Catholic funeral
We must not underestimate the power of the Catholic funeral rites. By empowering us to turn our grief over to God they provide us some measure of closure, and help us to turn to the future with hope. We should want to take full advantage of what these rites offer.
Our first priority is to respect the wishes of the deceased, if at all possible. For example, if the person did not want a Catholic funeral, we should respect that. Feel free to talk over the specifics of any special wishes of the deceased with your priest, and he can let you know what is possible to do in a Catholic context.
We should mention that it is possible for a Protestant or Orthodox to receive a funeral in a Catholic church, provided of course that this would not have been contrary to their wishes.
The Catholic funeral rites have three main “stations”: (1) the visitation, (2) the funeral liturgy, and (3) the burial.
The Visitation
The visitation (usually at the funeral home) is a chance to come together and mutually console one another. It is also a chance to receive love and support from the community. A minister of the Church will typically make a visit as well. Do not hesitate to ask for prayers to be led, and feel free to have friends and family members themselves lead prayers (such as the Rosary, for example).
These rituals and gestures can be tiring but have tremendous consoling power. For these reasons, a visitation should not be too short — give yourselves time to let God prepare you for the next step.
The funeral liturgy
The funeral liturgy is the moment par excellence when we turn our grief over to God and implore his saving power. For Catholics this liturgy is usually a special funeral Mass, held in the parish church. The symbols, the readings and homily, the music, the communion and the gestures of farewell are all powerful reminders that God conquers all things — even death.
Many Catholics are opting to have a funeral liturgy in the funeral home. This is leading to some confusion. Despite appearances, the “chapel” in a funeral home is not, in fact, a Catholic chapel at all. It was built by a secular business that must report to its shareholders. While we have nothing against earning an honest profit, in this context there is a danger that the Mass can become part of a “product” that is bought and sold.
It is possible to have a Catholic funeral liturgy in a funeral home, but if this is your option you need to know that Catholic priests are not permitted to say Mass or distribute Holy Communion in the “chapel” of a funeral home.
If we think about it, though, does it not make more sense that the funeral liturgy take place in the church? After all, the person was baptized in church, had their First Communion and Confirmation in church, and would even have been married in church. Having the funeral liturgy in church recognizes that death is also a sacred event, with God no less present. So do consider bringing your loved one to church one last time. We are ready to welcome you.
The burial
The book of Genesis shows God creating the first human being out of the earth, and only then breathing a soul into him. After a loved one’s soul has gone to God in death, it is now time to return his or her body to the earth from which it was made by burying it in consecrated ground.
This burial usually takes place immediately after the funeral liturgy, but sometimes a temporary delay is needed. Either way your Catholic minister will be ready to lead you in prayer at the grave site.
Some cultures prefer to place the remains of the deceased in a special building or mausoleum dedicated to this purpose. This tradition reminds us of Jesus’ words, “In my Father’s house are many rooms”. (John 14: 2) Along with burial at sea, the use of a mausoleum is possible in the Catholic tradition.
The burial in a consecrated place is a powerful moment. It allows us to let go in a final gesture of farewell. This gives God room to enter our hearts and guide us to a future with hope. It also gives us a designated special place to visit on special days and anniversaries, to continue to pray for our loved one as well as for ourselves.
What about cremation?
Cremation is now a possible option within the Catholic funeral rites. It is important we understand how it fits in a Catholic context.
Our recommendation is, if cremation is to be used, that it be done after the funeral liturgy. Our Catholic traditions hold the body of the deceased in high esteem, because during the person’s life that body was a temple of the Holy Spirit. There are certain prayers and gestures in the funeral liturgy, such as sprinkling with Holy Water and the use of incense, which are meant to show honour to this body. These can only be used, however, if that body is actually present. So while it is possible to have a true funeral liturgy in the presence of ashes (and sometimes this is unavoidable), if we wish to truly take full advantage of the power of our Catholic traditions it is best to bring the body to church and have the cremation afterwards.
It is important to note that the ashes should be buried, in their entirety, and all in the same place. Some new and different practices are emerging, such as keeping some or all of the person’s remains behind at home, distributing them among people in small “souvenir urns”, or scattering them without actually burying them. These practices do not take full advantage of the spiritual power of the burial, whether because we do not really let go, or because we deprive ourselves of a special sacred place of future visitation. For these reasons none of these practices are part of the Catholic tradition, and Catholic ministers are not permitted to participate in alternative burial rites (by blessing the urns or ashes, for example, or by saying prayers at the “scattering”). Of course the wishes of the deceased must be respected, but if any alternative rituals have been proposed it is best to speak with your Catholic minister about them in the planning of the funeral rites.
We sometimes choose these alternative rituals because we just didn’t know what the Catholic way was. If you have the ashes of someone at home it is still possible to have them buried no matter how long it has been since your loved one has gone to God. Feel free to contact your parish without fear of embarrassment, and we will be glad to help you arrange this final send-off.
It is our honour and privilege to serve you
The visitation, funeral liturgy, and burial together form a powerful moment that should not be underestimated. These rituals carry in them the collective wisdom of almost 2000 years of experience. Your Catholic ministers have only your best interests at heart, because we have seen over and over again the beautiful and healing graces God gives people by means of these rituals. So feel free to contact us early in the process of planning the funeral rites, to help ensure that you, your family and your friends can take full advantage of the power that God wishes to share with you. May God bless you fully and abundantly!
“The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” (Wisdom 3: 1)
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Post for April 16, 2010
In case you were wondering if the feeding frenzy surrounding the Catholic Church right now has really jumped the shark, the fact that the idea of arresting Pope Benedict and putting him on trial has gotten any traction at all should be proof enough.
The plan, proposed by noted atheist Christopher Hitchens and backed by other noted atheist Richard Dawkins, is to arrest the Pope when he visits the United Kingdom on an upcoming papal voyage, and to have him put on trial for his supposed part in conspiracies to cover up child abuse.
As I mentioned in a previous post outlining 10 points regarding the current crisis in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict has actually been one of the heroes in all of this, not one of the villains. Proposing this arrest, therefore, is just a silly stunt, which John Allen pointed out quite well in his article Don’t be daft, you can’t arrest the Pope.
The problem is, I am not sure the authors of the silly stunt actually realise it is a silly stunt. In their own minds they may just be serious. This can unsettle people, therefore, because the confidence of those proposing the silly stunt may just override the otherwise natural instinct to cry out “the Emperor has no clothes!” As well, to help bring them back to reality, someone needs to point out to Dawkins et al (who supposedly pride themselves on their reason) that they are being absurd and quite non-rational.
Which brings me to the use of humour. As I have observed before, laughter is a natural reaction to the absurd. One of the best ways to deflate pompous silliness, therefore, is to laugh at the silliness itself. And so I offer you the latest in Downfall parodies: Dawkins Downfall (“Arrest the Pope” edition)Nothing better than humour to put things in perspective.
A word about the parody, BTW: “Downfall” is a movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler. In the film the German generals inform their Führer that the battle is going badly, and Hitler freaks out. This scene has become a key ingredient in Internet parodies around the world.
» Filed Under Social commentary | 2 Comments
Post for April 13, 2010
Although I haven’t yet decided where to fit this into my previous post “10 points regarding the current crisis in the Catholic Church”, I thought I should write it anyway. One thing I’ve noticed about the anger directed to the Catholic Church is the notion that the Church failed to sufficiently punish people, whether they were abusive priests or the bishops who mismanaged them. I thought I should put that notion in context.
People are sometimes surprised to discover that the Church has a penal section in its canon law, but on the other hand most organized societies do. The punishments vary — the Boy Scouts may just kick you out of the troop, while the Mafia will kill you — but they are usually there. Heck, even groups of little kids who are friends develop unwritten rules about what is acceptable/fair and what isn’t, with the punishments ranging from getting excluded to being made fun of to to getting beat up. Anyone who has worked with little kids knows how dramatic even these lesser punishments can be — and how arbitrarily they are meted out sometimes, based on things as stupid as how someone looks or even just what some popular people think.
So the Church has a penal law, and because it doesn’t want that law to be artibrary that law is governed by things like due process and the right to defend oneself and the right to appeal, etc. Of course, these things exist in secular societies as well, so we often just transpose our experience of our civil court system onto the Church, even though that experience more often comes from watching TV than from real life. However, the Church system is different from the civil system in a very fundamental way:
The Church penal system has, as its objectives, the protection of the innocent, the restoration of justice, the correction of the offender, and the prevention of bad example. I would argue that this is usually the order of priority as well, although the exact mix may vary depending on individual cases.
But did you notice what is missing? *Punishment.* Secular societies have, as a key goal, the regulation of the punishment impulse, which left to itself often comes out as a form of mob justice. In a sense, secular justice is often a calculated form of social revenge, with the system designed to make sure that “the punishment fits the crime”. It should not be surprising that people unfamiliar with the Catholic system see how it works and are therefore appalled, because (in their view) their isn’t enough *punishment*!
Now that doesn’t mean there aren’t forms of punishment within the Catholic system: there are. However, these punishments are always a means to an end, and not the end in itself. Were it the latter, punishment would not longer be a means of discipline but rather a means of revenge, and the Bible teaches us that vengeance belongs to God and God alone.
When we take a look at how the different cases of sexual abuse were handled, we see that, while some were mismanaged, most were handled according to the priorities outlined above, where (let us not forget) protection of the innocent is priority number one.
Let us draw from an actual case: Father P. is accused of abusing a child. He admits it, and is taken to civil trial where he pleads guilty. He begins to serve out his sentence. The diocese contacts the victim and makes arrangements for her to be assisted with whatever therapy, etc., she may need. But what does the diocese do with Father P.?
First of all, the diocese makes sure other innocents are protected: it limits his right to contact with the public, removing him from all public ministry and requiring him to live in a clergy residence where his movements are more easily supervised. Thus, the public is protected much better than if he were simply “kicked out” of the priesthood and left to live in the community.
Next, the diocese offers to have him retrained so that he can still make a useful contribution to society. This training will necessarily involve preparation for a position within the diocese itself, as the odds of him getting a secular job now are next to none. Besides, it is better if he works within the diocese, as the aforementioned supervision is more easily maintained. Thus, reparation begins to be made for the harm caused.
Finally, the diocese seeks that the offender be corrected. Father P., in this case, does not deny his sin/crime, and is truly contrite. However, as we now know that pedophilia cannot be cured, the diocese requires of Father P. that he continue to see a therapist for the rest of his life, so that at the very least his evil tendency can be managed and not overwhelm him.
(The goal of prevention of bad example usually only applies when the offender is trying to sow moral/spiritual confusion. Given that there is currently a broad social consensus against pedophilia, a consensus that the Church certainly agrees with, this goal does not really apply in this case. In other penal cases it might, though, although it should also be coupled with solid catechesis for the faithful. After all, it is hard to confuse people who have a solid grounding in their faith and morals in the first place.)
Given all this, the actions taken by the diocese in the case of Father P. are not only the best things the diocese could do, they are the best things anyone can do. After all, Father P. has already been punished by society, and once he “does his time” civil society will offer very little else to protect him (and others) from himself. He could be put on a sex-offender registry, but that is nothing like the direct involvement the diocese has as mentioned above.
Like I said, this is based on a real case. And what happened in real life, when the diocese tried to implement its measures?
(1) The diocese was accused of coddling Father P. by letting him live in a clergy house.
(2) When word got out that Father P. was to be retrained for administrative work, a huge hullabaloo arose that he was supposedly being rewarded with some sort of a promotion.
(3) People said, with great contempt, that because the diocese did not move to kick Father P. out of the priesthood it showed it preferred to shelter a pedophile.
Now might it have been smarter to simply have kicked Father P. out of the priesthood? On a public relations level, perhaps, because it would have been a response to the desire of many to see more punishment. It is also smarter on a financial level, as Father P. now no longer costs the diocese anything. But on the level of what is truly just, not just for the Church, but for society, does it make sense? Does it make sense to just unleash a sex offender into broader society with no realistic supervision, marketable skills, job prospects or support to avoid re-offending? How does that help avoid another victim? How does it help repair the harm done?
Simply put, it doesn’t. That is why mob justice, left to itself, inevitably tends to the death penalty: because the goal is to satisfy one’s anger by utterly destroying the offender.
Now I am not saying that the penal system in the Church is perfect. There is certainly room for improvement, particularly in how fast (or, usually, how slow) things proceed — after all, justice delayed is justice denied. Our canonists could have better training in this area, and some Church authorities could do with being more willing to follow actual procedure rather than trying to handle cases on an ad hoc basis.
All that being said, though, I am personally glad the Catholic Church instinctively resists the call of mob justice, and I am glad its penal system sees punishment as a means to an end, and not an end in itself. The only punishment that is legitimately a true final end is the punishment of Hell, and that judgment belongs to God alone. No one should wish that another wind up there, not even a worst enemy. And no one, especially not the Church, should be trying to force others to start to live their Hell now.
» Filed Under Social commentary | 7 Comments
Post for April 7, 2010
I have not really written on my blog since I returned from Mexico, as I have just had too much to do lately (including a little thing called “Easter”, you may have heard of it 
), but I did want to offer a few thoughts on the scandal/crisis currently gripping the Church. This post may be updated from time to time as my own reflection on the question develops.
Point 1: In this time of confusion and hurt, your priests are with you.
The Church is going through a very painful time right now, and by “church” I don’t just mean the institution but the People of God as a whole. This pain comes from many sources — from compassion for the victims, from anger at the abusers, from disappointment at some in authority, from confusion and hurt from things reported (not always accurately) in the media, and so on.
I just want to say that, as a priest who knows his brother priests, we are with you in this. Every priest is a Christian first, a priest second, and as members of the People of God (not just as leaders) we are living the pain too. We love you, we want to be good pastors for you, and we deeply regret that some of our brothers have taken advantage of your trust and love for nefarious ends. Seeing you confused and hurt like this is our worst nightmare, and many of us feel just as helpless at the situation continues.
In fact, this is one major reason why I have written this blog entry. It isn’t just to vent my feelings (although there is some of that), it is also to help myself and others get a grip on what is going on. Many people have asked me, individually or in groups, how to understand this crisis. I am hoping this post will help give us, at the very least, some clarity.
Point 2: Compassion for the victims is job number one.
I think this next point goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. There are no winners when sin happens, only losers, and compassion for the victims of crime and sin is absolutely necessary. A key corollary to this is that the victim, as much as possible and within reason, should get to decide what form this compassion takes.
For this reason, I personally utterly reject the attempts I’ve noticed in the media and comboxes around the Internet to link this problem of clergy sex abuse to things like the Catholic stance on abortion, contraception, women priests, and so on. I realise a lot of people disagree with the Catholic position on these things, and I believe there needs to be room to have a frank discussion regarding them (heck, this blog has been one of the places for it to take place). But these issues have nothing to do with clergy sex abuse, except in a very lateral way, so to invoke this crisis to try and whip up support for dissent on these issues is, in reality, an attempt to manipulate people’s disgust and pain to promote an unrelated end. I can assure you, true victims don’t like having their painful experiences used by third parties for unrelated ends.
Point 3: The Catholic Church is a Church of sinners called to holiness.
A key initial “point of clarity” that we must recognize is that the Church is not a hotel for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. To judge the Church based on how many sinners she contains is to miss the point. What is truly remarkable about the Church is not how many sinners she contains — those can be found anywhere — but how many saints she produces. In this we have nothing to be ashamed of.
Now some might say that a Church that has sinners in her midst should stop teaching her moral absolutes, as though it was somehow hypocritical to do so. That is like saying a doctor should stop treating his patients because they are sick. It is nonsense. The solution is not less treatment, but more. The solution for the Catholic Church is not to promote holiness less, but to promote it more.
There are also some who say that the issue is not the members of the Church so much as her leadership, i.e. that because the leadership of the Church does not always live up to the teachings the Church should just give up those teachings. Again, that is like saying an overweight nutritionist should stop teaching people how to eat right. The simple fact is that, when you have a Church of sinners called to be saints, you are always going to be faced with the possibility that some of the leadership (who are among those sinners as well) will have to effectively say “do as I say, not as I do”. That sucks, to be sure, but while I want the leaders of the Church to both teach *and* live the truth, I’ll rather they not give up teaching the truth even if they have trouble living it.
The Catholic Church has never claimed her members are morally perfect. The Catholic Church has never claimed her leadership is morally perfect. In fact, the only members she has ever claimed are morally perfect are the saints in heaven, and the only authority figure she has ever claimed to be morally perfect is Jesus himself. As for the rest, we admit, admit freely, and have always admitted, that ALL the living members of Church, the Pope included, are sinners.
Point 4: The Catholic Church, in its official teaching, has always been opposed to child sexual abuse.
We need to remember that opposition to child sexual abuse is part of the official teaching of the Catholic Church and always has been. Of this, we can be rightly proud. In the present day, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states very clearly that sexual abuse of minors is an offense against the moral law:
2389 Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.
There is no question that some Catholics sin against this moral law, whether directly or as enablers (e.g. by turning a blind eye). However, the problem is not with the law itself, but the sin. The horror people feel in the face of stories of sexual abuse is actually a legitimate Catholic response.
There are some who say that this crisis shows the Church to be hypocritical, because of the disconnect between her high moral standards and the behaviour of some of her members. This, however, is to misunderstand the nature of hypocrisy. To believe one thing and do another is not to be a hypocrite, it is to be a sinner. In the face of sin there are only two possible responses: hypocrisy, or conversion. With conversion, we change our behaviour to match our standards. With hypocrisy, we lower our standards to match our behaviour. Personally, I am proud that the Church has had a consistent high moral standard with regards to child sexual abuse, and I reject the idea that the Church is somehow being hypocritical. For us to be hypocrites, we would have to be trying to defend sexual abuse — which, I might add, no one is doing.
Or are we? I don’t mean as a Church, I mean as a society. Let’s not pretend that our society doesn’t permit (or even encourage) the sexualization of minors, because (as Mark Shea points out) it does. Let’s not pretend that there aren’t people who think that a sex abuser like Roman Polanski should get a free pass for drugging and sodomizing his victim, because there are (see Mitterand and Goldberg). If a by-product of all this negative publicity for the Church is to make sure pedophilia loses its cool, then maybe it is worth it.
Point 5: The sin of sexual abuse is less prevalent among Catholic priests than elsewhere.
As an initial caveat, let me begin by saying that, of course, even one case of sexual abuse is too many. However, as I have said before, the Catholic Church is a Church of sinners, and does not claim otherwise. Therefore, at any one one point, there will be pedophiles who are members of the Catholic Church, just as there will be pedophiles in any other walk of life. There is no magic wand we can wave to eliminate pedophilia from the Earth, and there is no magic pedophile detector that can infallibly weed out potential perpetrators from the Church and her clergy. It sucks, but that is reality.
Like I also said, though, the Catholic Church claims to be a hospital for those sinners, helping them to improve. Is this claim valid? The only way to know is to look at the numbers. Since the issue is Catholic priests, the question becomes: are there fewer cases of sexual abuse among Catholic priests than among the general population?
As it turns out, yes. Dr. Thomas Plante, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University as well as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, has written extensively on this subject. His article A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse demonstrates that, given the data for the last half-century, the prevalence of sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy has been half that of the general population, and has been declining even further.
Point 6: Not every claim of child sexual abuse is true.
While it may not be politically correct to say so, the sad truth is that not every claim of child sexual abuse is true. Such claims have been made not only against priests, but against educators, boy-scout leaders, and so on. It is the ultimate nightmare of anyone seeking to do good for children, as the damage from a false accusation is very hard to undo.
Yes, false claims have been made against Catholic clergy, as pointed out in the article The problem of false claims of clergy sexual abuse (originally published in 2002 in Risk Management magazine, a professional publication for corporate risk managers). These false claims can stem from a number of factors, but in all cases lead to a nightmare for the one falsely accused.
One of the most famous cases of a false claim is the one made against Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago by Steven Cook, a former seminarian, who later recanted. A lesser-known case is that of Father Gordon MacRae, who was actually convicted in a Kafkaesque trial.
Point 7: Not everything that looks like a cover-up is a cover-up.
As I mentioned in point 1, compassion for victims must be our top priority, and I believe that in the vast majority of cases Church authorities have tried to act with compassion. This genuine desire to be compassionate, however, can sometimes place those in authority in a bind. Imagine someone approaches their bishop with a complaint about a priest and says “Father so-and-so did this to me. I’m don’t hate the Church or anything, and I don’t want to go to the police or media, I just want you to know about it so that he can be prevented from doing it again. I don’t want anyone to know I spoke with you, and I don’t want any action against him to be traceable to me.” What can the bishop do? Assuming he believes the person, then what? And, of course, sometimes it isn’t the victim who comes forward, but a parent or friend who is adamant that the victim’s name, or even their own name, be kept out of it. How can the story even be checked in such a case? A victim has come forward, which took guts, but at the same time he or she is asking the bishop to do something without giving him the necessary tools. The bishop then has a choice: use the information even though knowledge of this testimony will come out (i.e. break confidentiality), or sit on it and hope that the person changes his or her mind, hoping that this will happen before another victim is created (creating the appearance of a cover-up). Which is better?
Breaking confidentiality can mean that future victims are possibly avoided, but the current victim feels betrayed and re-victimized (and others are perhaps discouraged from speaking out for fear of shame), while the opposite choice means that there is terrible potential risk to the community.
This is not simply a theoretical scenario. Assuming the case involves a minor, recent laws require reporting even a suspected case to the authorities, and I don’t know of any case where bishops failed to respect those laws. But in other situations the response is not so cut and dried, in part precisely because the person in authority wants to both respect the wishes of the victim and at the same time protect others. Personally I think if we are going to err it must be in the protection of possible future victims, as anyone who comes forward with negative information about someone else must take responsibility for that information, and in my experience a lot of victims eventually come around to this conclusion themselves. But it isn’t an easy discernment.
So there are cover-ups and there are cover-ups. The worst kind, the kind that really anger people (and rightly so) are the kind where the chief concern seems to be for the reputation of the institution rather than the potential harm to others. Respecting the confidentiality requested by a victim is one thing, but actually covering something up that is known to be true out of fear of the truth is simply unacceptable. The truth eventually gets out anyway, and the evident lack of respect for the truth is far more damaging — to everyone.
Point 8: We cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Mammon is the name given to the demon of greed and money. Jesus warned his disciples that they cannot serve both God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24). Saint Paul even went so far as to say that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), calling it a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). And it is true: when money starts to come into the equation, corruption is not far behind and all bets are off.
We must, therefore, call a spade a spade. One of the major reasons the problems surrounding clergy sexual abuse have been permitted to fester — indeed, one of the major reasons genuine cover-ups have occurred when they occurred — is out of the fears surrounding the loss of money.
These fears are not groundless. Entire dioceses have been bankrupted due to lawsuits stemming from the evil actions of just a few. In cases where a bishop was truly negligent in his management of his priests (i.e. when there is direct liability), most people agree that a lawsuit is in order. However, what many people don’t realise is that these lawsuits didn’t only just succeed when the bishop acted improperly. The is a legal principle called “vicarious liability”, which states that even if a bishop was totally unaware of the evil actions of a priest, he is responsible for compensating people for those evil actions. In fact, it isn’t just him, it is the whole diocese. This creates a deep pool of potential wealth for victims, and for their lawyers.
The consequence of this, of course, is that it creates even more victims. People treat “the Church” like an abstraction, as though it was not connected to ordinary, real people. But it is. Imagine you’ve been going to a parish on the west side of town for decades, maybe even having contributed to the building of the church itself, and suddenly you get told that, because of the evils done by Father X on the east side of town, your parish is now on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that the parishioners are going to have to dig even deeper to buy their parish back. As a good Christian you feel for the victims of Father X, of course, but is this scenario really fair? And, I might add, this is not merely a hypothetical scenario: the diocese of Saint George’s in Newfoundland went bankrupt in just this way, with the people forced to “buy back” their parishes, precisely because of a finding of vicarious liability due to the actions of a single priest.
And let’s forget about parish buildings for a second. Suppose a clinic providing free health care is forced to close due to vicarious liability — is that fair to the patients, who now cannot get service? Suppose a school providing quality education to poorer children is forced to close due to vicarious liability — is that fair to them and their families? When the aforementioned diocese of Saint George’s was sued, there was also an attempt to sue the entire Roman Catholic Church in Canada as a whole, thereby putting every single Church institution at risk — not just parishes. There are currently attempts to sue the Pope himself for these sorts of cases. There is no question that if this were permitted to go forward, a key consequence would be that it wouldn’t only be the Pope and the Vatican that would have to pay if the case went against him, it would be the entire Catholic Church. It would be the ultimate “deep pockets” of vicarious liability ever known, linking every single Catholic institution — dioceses, parishes, religious orders, schools, hospitals — into one big pot. So, in other words, even if Father X was in southern California, it could be Mother of Mercy Hospital in Maine that is made to cough up. And given that the lawyers in such cases are often paid on a commission basis, getting a percentage of what they win, it is of course in their interest to sue, sue often, and sue as broadly as possible.
This fear of the loss of money — which, as I say, can be valid — can therefore put Church officials on a collision course with their better impulse to be compassionate. Imagine a bishop receives a complaint from a person about a priest. The compassionate response would be, at a minimum, to offer to pay for the person’s therapy — an offer that was often made. However, making that offer can be taken as an admission of guilt, and therefore opens the entire diocese to this vicarious liability scenario. Sometimes victims were asked to sign a paper promising not to sue, but again that comes across as cold and cover-up. The bottom line is that the only way to get out of this scenario is for people to be fair to each other and to trust each other. When the potential for big financial payouts starts to enter the picture, though, that kind of fairness and trust often (sadly) evaporates.
Personally, I think we must take the risks associated with compassion. Yeah, we might get nailed before the civil courts, but I think we’d earn even greater credit in the courts of Heaven. That doesn’t mean we need to be stupid about it, of course, as prudent management is one of the prime duties of a leader. But I do think we need to admit that, on an institutional level, the reason why vicarious liability has had the potential to wreak such havoc in our dioceses is because we used the civil system to centralise diocesan power. Under canon law, each parish is a separate corporation — accountable to the bishop, yes, but with its own finance council meant to manage its own property and patrimony. In theory, the civil law reality should be parallel, with each parish being a separate corporation — but in fact, on a North American basis, this is only true here in Quebec. Everywhere else, the bishop is a “corporation sole” who, in reality, owns all the parishes. This gives the bishop tremendous immediate power over the parishes, but at the cost of this increased exposed liability. So perhaps the real reason we are in such a pickle financially is not that we wanted to be rich, but that the central authorities wanted control — more control than our own Catholic tradition normally admits they should have.
Point 9: Pope Benedict is part of the solution, not part of the problem.
In the feeding frenzy surrounding the scandalous revelation of cases of sex abuse have been attempts to link them directly to Pope Benedict. There can be various reasons for this — in some cases, it is an attempt to bolster the vicarious liability arguments, in other cases is might just be because people don’t like the Pope and what he stands for — but it must be said that, in the case of child sexual abuse, these accusations against Pope Benedict simply don’t hold water. Indeed, the evidence presented has actually demonstrated his efforts to try and correct the situation.
Christopher Hitchens was one of the first to put Pope Benedict on trial in this way, in an article published on Slate.com (and picked up by Canada’s National Post). Leaving aside the exaggeration and hyperbole for a moment, Hitchens puts forward two major claims: a general claim that, as a Cardinal under John Paul II, he aided an abetted a cover-up of sexual abuse; and a specific claim that, while Archbishop of Munich, he knowingly and wrongfully handled the case of a specific abuser. However, a closer examination of the evidence shows that the Pope, prior to becoming Pope, was actually acting to solve the situation. Sean Murphy wrote a brilliant rebuttal on the web site of the Catholic Education Resource Center, entitled A Response to Christopher Hitchens’ The Great Catholic Coverup. This article sifts through the facts quite exhaustively (Murphy provides 80 footnotes) and demonstrates the exact opposite of what Hitchens claimed.
The next major accusation against the Pope had a similar attack vector to the Munich case, only this time the city was Milwaukee. Fr. Lawrence Murphy was an abuser, and the claim against the Pope was that he (supposedly) prevented Murphy from being kicked out of the priesthood. The New York Times even published the so-called evidence to prove this, except that the documents proved nothing of the kind. A full rebuttal by Father Raymond DeSouza was published by the National Review, and Jimmy Akin has been covering this extensively as well over at the National Catholic Register.
When Pope Benedict visited the United States in 2008 he had an unannounced meeting with survivors of clergy sex abuse — a truly pastoral response. As John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter has pointed out in a series of articles (Will Ratzinger’s past trump Benedict’s present? and Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis come immediately to mind), Pope Benedict has come a long way on this issue personally, and is putting the weight of his office to bear on finding solutions. This is not just words: he personally authorized the investigations of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, and has announced that a similar investigation (called an Apostolic Visitation) will be undertaken of key elements of the Catholic Church of Ireland. The bottom line is that Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been (and is) one of the good guys in all of this.
Point 10: This crisis highlights certain institutional reforms that are needed in the Catholic Church.
In my discussions with people on the question of clergy sex abuse, I have found that most people are angrier at the Church for how the abuse cases were handled by those in authority than about the abuse itself. That doesn’t mean they aren’t angry about the abuse — they are — but that their anger about the abuse tends to be directed at the abusers, not the Church. When it comes to how some abuse cases were mismanaged, however, the anger *is* directed at the Church or, more precisely, her leadership.
The thing is, I personally believe most bishops are actually pretty decent fellows trying to do an impossible job. There is no “bishop school” to prepare someone for the role apart from a two-week session in Rome that you only attend *after* being named a bishop. This implies that bishops learn to be bishops by essentially two means: by observing other bishops and getting their take on issues; and by the institutional support offered by the broader church, whether on a national or international level, and usually coming in the form of documents (such as the Code of Canon Law). Of course, there is also all the work and studies they did as priests, but that is more background preparation than specific training.
Regarding the first method, which essentially involves learning by observation, the key problem is any profession that relies on this finds it leads to a mushy middle of mediocrity. This was essentially Father Raymond de Souza’s point in his article Culture Change in the Church, published in the National Post. According to Father de Souza, it isn’t that the local bishops were bad, just that they weren’t good enough, and that there was a culture of mediocrity among them.
I think the Father de Souza makes an interesting point, but I also think it isn’t that simple. The Church tries to encourage something better than mediocrity by means of the second method, i.e. by things like the Code of Canon Law. These tools themselves, however, have room for improvement. Father de Souza, for example, mentions that the bishops were “not Catholic enough” because some supposedly failed to apply canon law (he quotes from canon 1395.2, which states that clergy sex abusers are “to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants”). In reality, though, canon law is not always helpful. Canon 1341 states that a religious superior (called an “ordinary”) is to take care “to initiate a judicial or administrative process to impose or declare penalties only after he has ascertained that fraternal correction or rebuke or other means of pastoral solicitude cannot sufficiently repair the scandal, restore justice, reform the offender.” This is exactly what most bishops actually did — they kept the scandal quiet, they gave assurances to the victims and sent the priests for therapy — they probably felt they were doing the right thing in NOT sending these priests to canonical trial. If canon law had been so good already, there would have not been a need for Pope John Paul II to issue his 2001 letter Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela in the first place, which improved the rules on this question.
So some changes are in order, and on an institutional level. From what I can see, this needs to take certain concrete forms:
1. Transparency and openness need to be encouraged and supported. To the extent that a culture of secrecy exists within the Church, it must be abandoned. I have heard of several forms this could take, such as: fostering a responsible but free Catholic press; promoting accountability by requiring third-party audits of Catholic organizations; and implementing an ombudsman structure within Catholic institutions, particularly those that deal with the public. These are just a few, and I find them worth studying.
2. As mentioned previously, we need to take a look at how our financial power structures are set up. Yes, they may give us greater control in some cases, but if those same structures make it harder to live the Gospel, they have to change.
3. With regards to canon law, the simple reality is that the Catholic canon law presumes that there are three forms of authority in the structure of the Church: legislative, executive, and judicial. This is similar to the structure of a national government, which has a legislature, an executive, and a court system. Realistically, however, the way we work heavily favours executive authority over the legislative and judicial. Those holding executive power often have the capacity to dispense people from having to follow particular laws, and whether or not something goes to a penal trial is an executive decision, not a judicial one. In my view this easily creates an imbalance which, to be fair, is as unhealthy for the executive in question as it is for those subject to that authority. Corporations are structured in such a way that executives hold all the cards; the Church should be different, and if we are not we should not be shocked to discover that people treat us according to the structure we have given ourselves in practice if not on paper.
Conclusion
What can we conclude from all this sorry mess? I for one will never abandon the Catholic Church, because I truly believe she is, as Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The fact that some people did not live up to her teachings does not mean that those teachings aren’t true. At the same time, though, the human dimension of the Church is something that can always be made more perfect. Transparency and accountability are the order of the day, as well as the constant conversion needed to be true sons and daughters of the gospel. As Jesus himself said, “Everyone who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear that his actions may be exposed. But the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.” (John 3: 20-21) We must all have the courage to come out into the light.
» Filed Under Social commentary | 9 Comments
Post for February 15, 2010
I’ve been getting a fair number of questions about the faith recently, through email in particular. As an experiment, I’ve set up a Q&A message forum to handle these questions (and, hopefully, answers):
http://fatherdowd.net/questions
The point is not to get into debate about this or that hot button topic, but simply to be a safe place to seek answers when they exist. Feel free to wander over, take a look, offer some commentary, or just ask a question.
» Filed Under Explaining the faith | 3 Comments
Post for February 4, 2010
I tried to get back to Montreal today, but it would seem that God had other plans.
My flight was to leave Mexico City at 9:40 am, so Padre Roberto and I left Cuernavaca around 6:30. One hour of driving would get me to the airport two hours before departure… or so I thought.
It was not to be. We drove through pounding rain and heavy winds, only to be turned back by the federal police. The highway was closed.
Padre Roberto suggested we take the old two-lane highway as an alternative. We quickly discovered why the roads were closed. That pounding rain was turning roads into lakes, and the wind was literally sending trees crashing down onto the road.
How could it be so bad? Well, the road between Mexico City and Cuernavaca is actually a mountain pass, and it gets windy up in them there mountains. We eventually had to turn back, making it to Cuernavaca by noon.
Happily I had accepted the offer of a lift from Padre Roberto and not insisted in taking the bus. We managed to contact Air Canada to cancel the reservation (so I didn’t lost the ticket entirely) and another members of Air Canada personnel back home helped me to rebook. Let me at this point give a big shout-out to those people and to that company. We all know of airline horror stories, but I will tell you know that I received service above and beyond the call of duty. I actually had tears of gratitude in my eyes, I kid you not.
The people back at the parish were a bit surprised to see me again — after all, we had already said our goodbyes! But one thing I’ve noticed about every Mexican I’ve met is their ability to take things in stride. I’ve got something to learn there.
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Post for February 3, 2010
Every first Wednesday of the month Padre Roberto picks up his parents and takes them out to a restaurant for brunch. Today was no exception. What made it different was having a Canadian visitor to tag along!
I don’t think they were expecting to see me, but I must say we got along famously. A funny moment came when they asked Padre Roberto to translate for them when they would speak to me — when in fact I understood everything (or at least up until that point).
Breakfast was at a restaurant that Padre Roberto and I know well (a chain called Sanborns). After that they had some errands to run… well, to be more accurate, Padre Roberto went with his mom to run some errands, so I hung back with his dad. As it turns out we both have the same favourite way to kill time: in a bookstore. We each picked up this and that and chatted about that we found. Him: the story of the Mexican revolution. Me: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (hey, I need something easy for this Spanish stuff).
Priests don’t grow on trees: they come from real flesh-and-blood families, and it was nice to get to know Padre Roberto even more in this way.
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Post for February 2, 2010
The last time I was in Mexico I wrote about how my real test of Spanish knowledge did not involve writing exams or recieving diplomas. No, the real test was taking a taxi.
Well, today was my second test/diploma, and it was even more dramatic.
A bit of background: I’ve decided to go home a bit early (Thursday) so as to get some downtime before heading back to work. I’m having fun here, but thinking and speaking Spanish can be a bit tiring, especially given my level of knowledge (or lack thereof). So rather than take another week of classes, I decided to visit Mexico City (see the post for yesterday) and use today and tommorow to develop some personal study notes (i.e. consolidate what I knew) to help me stay fresh once I am back home. Oh, and take a bit of a break too!
But God had other plans. Around 10 am the parish secretary asked for me. There was a (very) young couple in the office, she explained, who had just had a baby (little Leslie Guadelupe). Unforunately the baby was in critical condition in the hospital, and the hospital did not have a chaplain. Given that Padre Roberto was out and was not expected until later this afternoon, could I go and do an emergency baptism?
I’ll admit I had a momentary flash of panic, but how could I say no? So I grabbed the ritual book and a stole, and off we went (the parish secretary came with us, thank God, to help translate not so much the words as the situation).
After going through a decontamination process, we saw the little one. How tiny! She was born with a hole in her abdomen, so some of her intestines actually were outside after birth (a condition called gastroschisis). Two surgeries later, she was still going but was very critical. I explained that I would use the short ritual for emergency baptisms, as it was the most appropriate in this case (heck, godparents had not even been identified yet). To be honest, I’m not sure the parents even noticed how stressed I was, nor do I think they cared about my broken Spanish — they were just glad it was happening.
When it was over I got their names for the baptism register and headed back home with the parish secretary. What an adrenaline rush! You feel glad and nervous all at the same time.
So my Spanish still sucks. After all, it has only been my second week here (sixth if you count my first time in Cuernavaca 18 months ago). But as lousy as it was, it was enough to get a little baby baptised. For me, that’s more than enough for now, and is a real incentive to keep learning.
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Post for February 1, 2010
Padre Roberto and I took that day off today and went to visit Mexico City. Well, actually, most of the country took the day off, as today was a national holiday dedicated to honouring the Mexican constitution. Well, actually, that day is on February 5, not Feb 1, but they transferred the holiday to give people a long weekend. (Why they didn’t consider that a Fri-Sat-Sun long weekend is just as long as a Sat-Sun-Mon long weekend is beyond me, but I digress…)
We left Cuernavaca early in the morning. Happily the main bus station is literally a three-minute walk from the parish, so it was a piece of cake to grab the first bus to Mexico City (they leave every half-hour). This brought us to a southern subway station (like Montreal, they call it the Metro). First impressions: the subway was immaculately clean, and ran very smooth (none of the usual screeching associated with metal-wheeled trains). Various vendors would wander through the cars, selling their wares (e.g. maps, flashlights, chocolate bars, pirated music, etc.) A street-performing pair also came in, whose performance involved smashing themselves with broken glass. I couldn’t look. Neither could Padre Roberto.
We got off at Zocalo station, located at the main square in Mexico City (also known as the Zocalo). Several main government buildings are there, as well as the Cathedral and the remains of the ancient pyramid temple of the Aztecs. Unfortunately all the museums were closed (they all close on Monday, like at home) so that cut out a lot of things we might otherwise have seen. But there was still lots to see! We wandered around a bit in the central historic section, eventually attending mass at a local church and grabbing some lunch. Then, after lunch, we hopped on one of those circuit tour buses that take you around the city.
The bus was ok. Of course, the things we were taken to see were interesting, but the pre-recorded translations that were offered made me laugh out loud at times. Also, it started to rain, and even got a bit chilly, so we had to stay in the bus. From my point of view, it was essentially a down-payment on my next visit.
Regarding the weather, BTW, when I say “a bit chilly” I am speaking as a Canadian, of course: the Mexicans themselves were freezing, and wore heavy jackets and scarves (I had a light sweatshirt over a t-shirt). Frankly, they know nothing of the cold. As for me, all it took was a good Starbucks coffee to warm me up and I was good to go again.
I took lots of photos, but I don’t have access to a decent photo editor here so posting them will have to wait. Our bus ride home was uneventful, and we made it back by 8pm. Poor Padre Roberto wasn’t feeling that great, so we hit the hay early. I had a bit of a headache myself (due to the pollution in Mexico City, I expect). At any rate, I am glad I went, and I look forward to the next time, now that I have a good sense of what is available to see.
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Post for January 30, 2010
Padre Roberto has two Saturday masses, one at the parish and one in the local hospital. Or at least, I thought it was in the hospital… more like *at* the hospital…
Allow me to explain. Because Mexico has a highly secular elite, with a strong separation between Church and State in law, priests sometimes have trouble getting into hospitals to care for people. There are no chaplains, for example, in a secular hospital. And, I might add, there are no chapels, and no masses.
However, because Mexico is also highly Catholic, the people *want* religious services. They *want* the mass said for the sick and their families, and they want it close to where their loved ones are, i.e. the hospital. So what is the solution?
Simple: the people themselves erected a shrine to Our Lady of Guadelupe just outside the hospital, in a side alley. And the priest goes once per week to say mass outdoors, in the side alley.
True story! So we packed up the car with a the mass books, a portable mass kit, and even a portable altar. Once we got there it took a grand total of five minutes to turn an alleyway into a chapel. We were expected: chairs were already set up, and there was even a choir! It was very touching, to see how people just would not let their faith be extinguished. I am not sure how many understood that the powers-that-be officially did not want them there. I expect many of them have had the experience of being looked down upon so much they hardly noticed it anymore. But at the same time, it didn’t change anything: the mass is the mass, even in an alley, and the Eucharist has the power to turn even an alley into a palace.
I shared some coffee with some people afterwards, and all I sensed was the joy of faith. Yeah, it was outdoors at night. Yeah, it was cold (by Cuernavaca standards). But these people were doing something their earliest ancestors on the faith did as well. If those early Christians has the same joy, no wonder the Roman Empire couldn’t get rid of them. From what I could see, joy is the ultimate answer to oppression.
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Post for January 29, 2010
Padre Roberto and I decided to head out to see (yet another) film this evening. I was a bit worried my presence was a distraction to him, but as he put it, “If I live alone I don’t get to see movies I want to see, because I don’t want to see them alone. With you here, I can go and see them!” Made sense to me.
We decided to see Up in the Air, the George Clooney film that people are talking about. It is about a guy whose job is to fire people — companies hire his firm to let people down easy (and in a way that covers their legal butts). He spends so much time on the road doing his job that he is barely ever home, a situation that he enjoys. He *likes* being in planes and airport lounges and hotel bars. Simply put, he is a travelling pro, who belives that the only way to be happy is to have no attachments to anything, not even people.
Of course, the vacuous nature of this rootless existence eventually catches up to him. His only goal in life is to acquire a particular level of frequent flyer miles, and he starts to wonder if this is enough. And he discovers it isn’t.
The end.
Well, there’s more. There are a number of funny (and sweet) moments that come from his interactions with a new employee in his firm who is young and perky and full of impractical ideas… he gets the job of showing her the ropes (to his dismay and hers). In some ways his rediscovery of idealism parallels her loss of hers. And there is his relationship with his family, which itself evolves.
But in the end, he is still left with nothing. The movie is about the deconstruction of an anti-hero. The possibility of some kind of redemption is held out at the end (quite literally, actually — he contemplates redeeming some travel points), but he does so with a lost look on his face. He starts out confident, he ends up lost. The end.
Quite depressing, if you ask me.
What is it about movies these days that they can’t have heroes? Maybe that’s why Avatar did so well. Not just the special effects, but the fact that the protagonist was himself changed and, in a way, redeemed. The nihilists were the *bad guys*.
At least Up in the Air faces the nihilism and shows us where it goes. I suppose that is valuable. And I’m sure there will be some who will say that it should be applauded as an aid to helping people become Nietzchean supermen, facing into the abyss. But personally, I think there is meaning to the world and to human existence. So I can’t celebrate tragedy, nor Up in the Air.
» Filed Under Reviews | 2 Comments
Post for January 28, 2010
Today I had a chance to visit with another friend, an older lady who owns a lovely home in the parish where I had stayed the last time I was in Cuernavaca. Padre Roberto and I, as well as the parish secretary and her family, were invited for dinner. And what a dinner it was! Where do these Mexicans pack away all the food that they eat?
I visited with Toni (the name of the hostess) and her husband the last time I was here, but unfortunately he has since died (he had been quite ill). He was English, and so had been delighted to speak with someone (i.e. me) in his mother tongue. Toni told me she had fond memories of that visit, as do I. I am told I have an open invitation to visit whenever I like.
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Post for January 27, 2010
One thing that I was worried might get me in trouble here at the parish (in Mexico) is the fact that I’ve been reading the gospel and concelebrating (with my own part of the Eucharistic prayer). You see, I can practice these ahead of time, so I actually sound pretty good in Spanish. Unfortunately, this also gives people the impression I can actually *speak* the language, rather than just read it.
So after mass one elderly lady come to me, asking me for prayers for… well, to be honest, I have no idea. None whatsoever. She was speaking softly, I guess so that no one would hear her request, and swallowing some of her syllables, so I got about 5% of what she said.
So I (in Spanish) told her that I didn’t speak all that much Spanish, and asked her to repeat herself. But she began to offer replies that made absolutely no sense. It was like she hadn’t understood me at all, but was just faking that she had.
It was then I realised that she was hard of hearing!
So I began faking that I understood her, as she faked understanding me. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision, but what else could I do? I couldn’t just walk away, and she seemed happy to be speaking with me. Well, to me. Well, at me. You get the picture. The bottom line is that there was a lot of head-nodding and hand-holding on my part, accompanied by can only have been a very strange exchange. I can only imagine what we must have sounded like to an eavesdropper!
In the end I blessed her, and she left contented. Not knowing what I should be praying for, I just offered it up to the Lord, saying “Lord, you know what she was talking about. Your will be done.” Which is pretty much what I might have prayed had I understood her in the first place.
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Post for January 26, 2010
My friends Lily and Jorge came by the parish this evening for the 6pm mass. The church was packed, so I only noticed them when it was almost over. They were the other two of the three friends who met me at the airport, so I was really delighted to see them again. And their generosity was proven once again, as we priests received a gift of… Krispy Kreme doughnuts! Mmmm… At any rate, we are planning to see one another again for dinner on Sunday. I look forward to it.
» Filed Under Scenes of priesthood | 1 Comment
Post for January 25, 2010
I had my first official Spanish classes at the IDEAL school today, and by the time I got back home I was just beat. Padre Roberto has his day off on Monday, and because he prefers to spend it outside the parish we headed out to visit a nearby town: Tepoztlán!
This is a really lovely town that is very popular with tourists but which has still kept a very local feel. We went mainly for the food, as there are a couple of very famous restaurants in the area (and I must admit, the chicken enchiladas with salsa verde we just amazing). I also was looking forward to seeing the local pyramid, but when I saw how far up it was I said forget it: all I had on was my sandals! But we did see the local parish church, which was very lovely.
On our way back we visited a local Benedictine monastery and stayed with the monks for vespers. It was nice to round off the day with a calming environment of prayer.
» Filed Under Scenes of priesthood | 1 Comment
Post for January 24, 2010
The last time I was in Mexico I connected with the Dominguez family, who have sort of “adopted” Padre Roberto and, now, myself. After the masses of the day I headed over to their place in Juitepec (a suburb of Cuernavaca). Dinner was delicious, and after we went for a walk in a nearby “greenbelt” area (although given it is dry season, it was more of a “brownbelt”). Padre Roberto joined us a bit later, and we played a rather silly game board game involving eggs dressed as people (click the link to see what I mean). All in all it was a nice chance to reconnect with people who helped me a lot the last time I was here, and who hold a special place in my heart.
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Post for January 23, 2010
It is presently Saturday, a little before 2 pm. I’m now on my 5th day here. I made a decision before coming here to not start Spanish lessons before spending one week here, so as to be able to “refresh” what I already had. After all, why pay a school to teach me things I already know? This, it turns out, was a wise move, for two reasons.
First of all, my Spanish has really roared back. Not that it was all that great to begin with, but I honestly find I do speak with more confidence, almost without having to think about it first, than when I left. I went out for a movie last night with some friends from my former Mexican trip, and they remarked on it as well.
The second reason has to be with my personal state. Frankly, I was a lot more tired than I thought. I was originally planning to do a lot of self-study, purchasing books and audio resources to that end, but I’ve found myself sleeping a lot instead. A *lot*. I feel a bit awkward about that — those who know me know I like to “get stuff done” — but on the other hand I guess I needed it. And I’ve found that the little I’ve studied I’ve been able to put into practice right away, which is awesome.
I have been out checking on schools, and I found one (called IDEAL) that actually has had a long-running partnership with Quebec (and more specifically, the Prêtres des missions étrangères). I find I feel at home there, even if it does stretch my budget a bit more than I expected. And, of course, there are other ways in which I feel at home no matter what, such as during the Eucharist. Wherever Christ is, is home.
Yeah, there are annoyances, which I will describe in order of importance. The most serious is a lack of general security: more than one person has told me to “watch my back” because I am an obvious gringo that robbers will assume has money. I take this seriously, because the Cuernavaca of today is not the one I knew two years ago, with drug lords now taking over the local crime scene (I even saw masked military police with BIG guns providing security at one point). A second annoyance, less serious, is the general environment of noise and air pollution, which constantly invades the senses, although to be honest it is roughly comparable to my living environment in downtown Montreal (especially when the Canadians win a game at home). Finally, on a more personal note, I walked too much a couple of days in, making my sandals start to fall apart and giving me a blister that just won’t heal. Very annoying, especially that I’m largely on foot: new sandals I can buy, but the foot not so much. Like I said, an annoyance.
I will mention one final thing about this trip, one that overwhelms everything else: the tremendous generosity of Father Roberto Dirzo, my host. He first accepted to welcome me when I visited two years ago, on the simple recommendation of a friend, and hosted me for 4 weeks. This time, when he heard I was coming, he offered that I stay with him again. He has been unfailingly hospitable and charitable, giving of himself to put up with my broken Spanish and general discombobulation. This is even more remarkable given that he is the pastor of the poorest parish in the city, and a busy one at that. He has shared with me some of his dreams for this place, and if I can find a way to help him, even financially, when I am back home, I will.
God bless from Mexico!
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Post for January 19, 2010
Well, I made it to Cuernavaca. I was received at the airport by three friends, including Padre Roberto with whom I am staying. We had lunch at the airport itself, and then took a tour of the basilica and grounds of the shrine of Our Lady of Guadelupe. I’d been there before, but I had only seen the church itself, so I was glad to get a chance to see more. On the hill itself where the apparations took place there is a good lookout over Mexico City, and you really see how absolutely ENORMOUS the place actually is.
From Mexico City we drove to Cuernavaca. There is a highway that connects the two cities that goes up over the mountains (and continues past Cuernavaca to Acapulco). The highway can be tricky on the way down, mind you, with lots of tight curves, and unfortunately a truck ahead of us took it too fast and rolled over. Traffic was horrendous as the road was closed for a bit, and then only opened to one lane. I don’t know that happened with the driver, but I said a prayer for him.
Once in Cuernavaca we did a bit of shopping (at Costco, if you believe it) and then we headed over to the parish church — dedicated to both the Ressurection of our Lord and Our Lady of Guadelupe. It is a very simple place, located in the poorest section of Cuernavaca, and I learned my timing was somewhat unusual: there have been a series of robberies here over the past several months (three in the past three weeks), so everything now has a lock on it. Oh, and no hot water (bring on those cold showers — brrrr). But they have high-speed internet! Ah, priorities…
Things got really interesting after a bit of grocery shopping. Padre Roberto was going to come with us, but a couple of ladies were waiting for him at the door so I headed out to the Mega supermarket with a parishioner and her grown children. When we got back we discovered those ladies were related to the fellow who had robbed the place at least those three most recent times, and they were here to return the things they found to the parish. A parade of stolen goods started to come in the door, and I had to laugh at how useless some of these things were — who steals a box full of tea bags, for example? Anyway, it was quite a first evening. We had a spot of supper and then I headed to bed, just exhausted.
As for today, Padre Roberto and I went out for breakfast to a nearby restaurant, and then he had to go an teach philosophy at the local seminary. I headed over to a couple of language schools to check out availability and prices. It turns out one school only offers one-on-one lessons (for a very high price), while another does group lessons but is at least a 30-minute walk. Yeah, I found that out the hard way, although I got a bit turned around going there so the leg out was more like 45 minutes. Still, this school is the one I studied at last time, so I am seriously considering returning, as I know what to expect, and I liked the people in general.
This evening I did dishes. A TON of dishes. Let’s just say that Padre Roberto’s home is definitely a bachelor pad. He was considering hiring a lady to help with cooking while I am here (I would contribute, of course), but she’s having some personal problems so so far she’s a no-show. While a number of things needed cleaning, the sink was just loaded, so I rolled up my sleeves and started in with the so-called “woman’s work”. Machismo be damned, somebody had to do it, and between us it got done.
Oh, did I mention the kitchen has no running water? The thief (or thieves) stole the copper tubing that fed the kitchen. We were hauling in buckets of water to get the job done. This is turning out to be quite an adventure!
I had a chance to spend a good hour before the Blessed Sacrament today, and I concelebrated mass this evening. I’ve been praying part of my breviary in Spanish, and of course the environment as a whole is forcing me to refresh what I already knew (and which is coming back to me muy rapido). For the next couple of days I will study on my own, reviewing the materials I brought with me as I continue to settle in. Oh, and I need to find a place to recharge my laptop, as right now I’m running on batteries and they won’t last forever — but one thing at a time. I’ll try and post again when I can. Pray for me and I’ll pray for you!
» Filed Under Personal tidbits | 4 Comments
Post for January 17, 2010
Hello friends, I know it has been a while since I have blogged, but it has been part of a personal choice of mine for the past couple of months. Still, I wanted to let readers know that I’m still alive and will be away for three weeks starting tomorrow: I am returning to Cuernavaca to continue by study of Spanish. Talk to you when I get back on February 8th!
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Post for December 1, 2009
The sacristy of the Cathedral (where I live) was recently being renovated. This was a big deal for me, because it basically meant I didn’t have a regular place to say daily mass a few weeks. I usually get home from the office after the main church is shut down, so all I really have is the small sacristy oratory.
Curiously, my requests for masses that I receive over the Internet also began to slow down around the same time. I have only 2 in my backlog since the renovations began — and I’m off to take care of one of those requests as soon as I’m done with this blog post.
Posted by Wordmobi
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Post for November 26, 2009
As I have mentioned in the past, yours truly is the Chairperson of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. Tonight was our Annual General Meeting.
In the past, the AGM was more of an extension of the Board of Directors. Certain changes to our by-laws in 2008, coupled with the creation of membership recruiting tools in 2009, has permitted us to increase our roster of members more easily and even to envisage having hundreds, if not thousands, of members some day. This AGM, therefore, was particularly important, because we are starting a paradigm shift: we are trying to make the AGM a real community-building exercise for the task of Christian unity and interreligious dialogue.
So apart from the usual business, we had two excellent presentation: one on the work of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (with which the Centre is partnered) and one from one of our Directors on the history of French Protestantism. The exercise of working on our usual business was also useful, as I think we now can have a better sense of how to scale it up for 2010. I’m hoping to be able to send out 1000 invitations to the AGM next year, and more than that, I’m hoping to create an energized base of members ready to collaborate in the mission of the Centre all across Canada. Oh, it’s a long-term project, but slowly the right steps are being taken. Tonight was just another one of those steps, and I am happy about it.
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Post for November 23, 2009
So my niece has been waiting with great anticipation for the new Twilight film, called “New Moon”, and now it is finally here. I had seen the first one, and while it was “ok” I had found it pretty cheesy, so I was wary about seeing the sequel. However, the various reviews I read of the film were actually quite positive. In general, the consensus was that the movie was better than the first installment of the series, and that the performances really let you get into the mindset of the main character Bella. Granted, she’s an angst-filled teenage girl, so I wasn’t sure it was a mindset I wanted to explore all that much, but I figured what the heck. After all, how bad could it be?
Oh my gosh. Pretty bad, as it turns out. After almost falling asleep after the first half hour (it was so slow) the movie became a complete caricature of itself. I mean, it was really painful. A friend sitting beside me whispered to himself aty one point, “This is torture!” And it was, it really was. Now I have seen bad cheesy movies in the past and thoroughly enjoyed them (Army of Darkness comes immediately to mind), but this film suffers from the fatal flaw that typically prevents a movie from elevating its cheesiness to an art form: it takes itself WAY to seriously.
As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones to think this: several times people in the theatre burst out laughing at moments that you can tell were not meant to be funny. And I must also confess that those of us who went to see the movie together wound up spending a considerable amount of time talking about the movie or, more accurately, our experience of the movie. We were merciless, and I laughed so hard I actually cried. Ah well, it was a good excuse for us to get together after and share a good scotch.
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Post for November 21, 2009
Today (Saturday) I once again had the beautiful opportunity to welcome a new member of the Christian family: baby Josef, the son of Terri and Fred (whose wedding I celebrated last year). It was like a spiritual reunion, a really joyful celebration of faith. And then, of course, there was the meal! The baptism in the early afternoon, so we got to the restaurant by about 2:30 pm. The promptly began eating… and eating… and eating! And I must confess, I have a weakness for Lebanese food, so I ate… and ate… and ate! I finally had to roll out of there about three hours later, and the main course hadn’t even yet arrived. You know, the Bible says that the Kingdom of God is like a banquet. Well, this new Christian, this new human that God has chosen in a special way for heaven, certainly gave us the occasion to have a taste of that abundance. Congrats to the family, and many thanks for inviting me to be a part of this special moment!
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Post for November 20, 2009
Today was Fr. Lowe’s funeral. Once again, my experience of funerals where faith is truly involved has been confirmed. In short, I have learned that when the deceased was a person of faith, the funeral, while sad, has a certain lightness about it. It is thanks to hope.
Many brother priests were there, and the church was full. But I must say, the homily was AMAZING. At first, I thought the preacher was being a bit abstract, talking about points of eucharistic doctrine etc. But then he brought it to Fr. Lowe’s life as an example of a man who, while being totally himself, was deeply committed to others: to Christ, to the Church, to his people. He loved the eucharist, he was deliberately faithful to the magisterium, and he was constant in promoting sound doctrine.
Again, it was amazing. It was like Father Lowe’s example was giving every priest, every PERSON, permission to be a true disciple of Christ. And the focus of the homily really wasn’t Father Lowe, but the things in which he believed. Fr. Lowe’s life was merely the key which opened a door of faith, and we were invited to walk through that door to Jesus.
Again, it was great. I am sorry my friend has died, of course, and I pray for the repose of his soul and for his community which will now be living a period of uncertainty. But I am grateful for having been given the chance to see experience that living faith that lets us grieve, but with true hope.
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Post for November 19, 2009
I attended a meeting this morning of the various lay pastoral agents for our Archdiocese, which was organized by our office (the Office for Pastoral Personnel). I found the gathering very touching — several witnesses got up to give their testimony of the work they are doing in the Lord’s vineyard, and more importantly of the work they see the Lord doing in his vineyard.
I really believe that the transformation of our culture is going to require a body of laity truly alive and the Spirit and awake to their task. Some commentators have called the Catholic laity a “slumbering giant”, and in some respects I think that is true. I was very encouraged by what I saw and heard, but we need more. We need a way to take these people, give them community *around the task they are called to accomplish* and give them the training they need so that they are (a) truly Catholic, and (b) truly competent. The Archdiocese has the herculean task of now trying to make it happen. Ah well, sleep is overrated…
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Post for November 17, 2009
The following email came in recently:
I always understood that when you die, your soul is immediately judged by God and are sent to hell or heaven. Some would be sent to purgatory for purification before entering eternal life.
However, Jesus did say that He would return to judge the living and the dead. Does this mean that those who have died must also wait for the return of Christ for the final judgment? Where does Purgatory come into this?
A few nuances are in order: the soul upon death is not so much judged by God as it experiences judgment. The two are not quite the same, as it is possible that it is the soul that judges itself.
Also, the souls are not “sent” anywhere so much as they begin to *experience* heaven, purgatory or hell.
Yes, Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, but the word judgment is being used differently in this context. It refers first and foremost to a “rescue operation” by Jesus in which the dead are restored to bodily existence in the resurrection. However, since both evil and good people rise, a second stage of the process is the separation of the blessed and the damned, akin to the separation they had previously when they didn’t yet have bodies again.
As for purgatory, there is a general consensus that it will no longer exist at the general resurrection from the dead. Whether this is because it will be “empty” by that point, or simply that it won’t be necessary anymore, is a debated point.
For an audio lecture of mine on these questions, check out my page on Adventus.org on the Creed, and scroll down to the April 9 lecture.
Finally, for a distinctly Canadian look at the “why” of purgatory, see my post on purgatory and hockey.
» Filed Under Explaining the faith | 3 Comments
Post for November 17, 2009
I got word Saturday evening that Fr. Don Lowe passed away earlier that day of a heart attack. His parishioners showed up for the Saturday evening mass and the doors were locked. When someone came with a key and they opened up the rectory, they found him dead. What an awful shock that must have been. I’ll post more details as I get them.
UPDATE: I just got word that Fr. Lowe’s funeral will be on Friday, November 20 @ 2:00 p.m., at Holy Family church in Deux-Montagnes. Visitation will be the previous evening (Thursday, November 19) from 7 to 9, and the next morning (the Friday) from 9 to noon (i.e. it finishes 2 hours before the funeral itself).
» Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Post for November 14, 2009
Whew, what a weekend. I had another 24-hour training session with some of the foreign priests, which had me going full steam all day Friday (until 10 pm) and all Sat morning. But it was amazing — Fr. Alain Pouliot came from the diocese of Quebec City to be our guest speaker on the subject of teamwork in the Quebec cultural context, and Francine Tremblay spoke to us Saturday morning on the relationship between men and women (again, in the local cultural context). Both sessions were just great, and I think everyone got a lot out of them. I know I could never have led them with such quality, so I’m really glad I was able to find people of quality to take on this challenge.
Our next sessions will be in two weeks, on media and communications. I may add a fourth 24 hour session to cover miscellaneous topics that have been arising over time. One thing I do know: the priests attending these sessions are not wasting their time.
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Post for November 12, 2009
A reader sends this along:
Last year several parishes across the US gave out copies of Rediscovering Catholicism at their Christmas Masses. The impact was incredible. For too many people this is the only time they come to Church each year, and the book became a touchstone for renewal.
We are making twenty thousand copies of the book available for just $1 per copy this year. If you would like between 250 and 3,000 copies for your parish please contact Analise Ebaugh by 5pm EST on Monday, November 16 via email: analise@matthewkelly.org
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Post for November 11, 2009
Today I had the chance to be the inaugural speaker for the Concordia University Catholic Students Association. They are a new group — only been around a month — so I was delighted to be able to be there with them and support them. The topic they had proposed was quite interesting: Man is made to keep the garden — Stewardship in environment and religion. Unfortunately there were relatively few students, but that may have been just as well — I wasn’t at my best, to be honest, having just come off 3 hours of teaching at the Grand Séminaire.
For those wanting to know more about a Catholic perspective on the environment, the following website entitled Catholic Conservation Center looks quite interesting.
One thing the students did mention to me was that they had a hard time selling this talk to their fellow Catholics, some of whom accused them of being part of a trendy fad or even of encouraging druidism (!). I’ve encountered this sort of reaction myself, and in my experience it is more a reaction to the excessive sentimentalism of some of the environmentalists than to the issues themselves. Indeed, this sentimentalism is sometimes downright irrational. However, I think that an excessive opposite reaction is not helpful either: we must be able to appreciate creation in a joyful reaction to its beauty, as a gift coming from God. There is the possibility of a genuine spirituality of creation, it would seem to me, that keeps things in their proper order. Anyway, that’s what I tried to get across.
» Filed Under Concordia University | 1 Comment
Post for November 10, 2009
Today I had a chance to visit the Melkite cathedral here in Montreal, in order to prepare an ecumenical pilgrimage that will take place in December. The Melkites are Catholics, generally from Lebanon, who follow the Byzantine liturgical tradition. Given the large Lebanese community in Montreal, the Holy See gave the Melkites their own diocese (called an eparchy) 25 years ago for all of Canada, with its home base in Montreal.
I was very warmly received by the curate of the cathedral, Father Jean Mansour, who was ordained in 2005 and has been in Canada for only a couple of years. We had a delicious lunch at a local Lebanese restaurant (well, more of a feast than a lunch, actually) completed with a couple of glasses of arak — I hope I got the spelling right. Arak is a liqueur that tastes like licorice — Fr. Mansour said that where he is from, the saying is that every day you should say at least one Our Father and drink one glass of arak. Let’s just say we were particularly pious today
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Post for November 8, 2009
Hmmm… MoPress had issues, mainly due to it not working properly with my Bluetooth keyboard. But now I’m trying Wordmobi, which seems to work really well.
Posted by Wordmobi
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Post for November 8, 2009
One thing I’ve been trying to get my phone to do for some time is write decent blog posts, thereby freeing me from my slavery to my regular PC. Well, I managed to find a neat little tool called MoPress, a Java tool that I installed on my phone that acts as an XML-RPC client. It isn’t perfect but it seems to be doing the trick. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to blog more frequently!
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Post for October 24, 2009
A few years ago I accepted, somewhat at the last minute, to teach an introduction to theology course at Concordia University. Years later, one of the happy consequences of that decision was the opportunity I had today to preside the wedding of one of my students, Jennifer, now married to Michael.
Congrats to the happy couple, my 42nd!
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Post for October 22, 2009
Today was a special training session for our new pastors, who were joined also by some priests who are likely soon to be named pastors. One thing they don’t teach us in seminary is how to administer a parish, and in the past a priest learned it by being an associate pastor for ten or twenty years. Well, we don’t have that luxury any more, and priests are becoming pastors with sometimes less than 3 years of experience. Hence, today’s training session.
We first covered the basic ecclesiology of what it means to be the presider of a community. Then, after lunch I presented a French-language version of a paper I once wrote on the relationship between a parish and a fabrique. Finally, we had a general overview of the administration of a parish: what papers need to be filed, how to avoid problems with the various level of government, and so on. It was a full day, to be sure!
I’m not sure how much 1 day of training is worth for the mammoth task of pastoring what can sometimes be several parishes at once. All the same, it is certainly better than nothing, and from the reactions of those just starting out, it was much appreciated.
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Post for October 20, 2009
Hey folks, I’ve been struggling with my computer ever since the VERY nasty virus it caught sometime in the last two weeks, but I just had to take some time to write about today’s important develop: the creation of a new canonical structure in the Roman Catholic Church to welcome Anglicans who wish to become Catholics but who also wish to retain an Anglican spirituality. I thought I’d offer my two cents.
While the media are treating this like a bolt out of the blue, in fact this is a response to a request made by the Traditional Anglican Communion in October 2007, i.e. two years ago! In short, they declared that they wanted to become Catholics, but that they also wanted to retain the classic Anglican approach to worship and prayer.
Frankly, I don’t see how the Pope could have refused this request. After all, we can’t very well refuse to accept people into full communion with the Church if they publicly profess the same faith.
Of course, the Pope could have said “Come on in, just leave your Anglican traditions at the door.” But what kind of a statement would that be regarding the value of traditional Anglican spirituality and worship? Contrary to what many believe, the Catholic Church is not a global monolith of one-size-fits-all spirituality, nor should it be. There are already many (albeit smaller) communities of Catholics operating under a special pastoral provision that preserves their spiritual heritage. The grand Tradition of the Church is not negotiable, but the specific traditions of time and place and culture are (within reasonable limits). To have refused to allow these believers to come into full communion with the Catholic Church on the basis of their specific traditions would have been both hypocritical (because we already welcome it) and unjust (because those traditions are not a barrier to faith and good morals).
So what are we left with? The Pope simply had to find a way to welcome these folks and at the same time preserve good order in the Roman Catholic Church, while also not destroying our ecumenical relationship with those Anglicans who choose to remain part of the Anglican Communion. Hence this new apostolic constitution, announced today. The Pope is going to allow the creation of “Personal Ordinariates”, a kind of special diocese for those Anglicans wishing to come into full communion with Rome while preserving their Anglican heritage.
The leeway given to the Ordinariates is actually quite large. For example, their priests and bishops can be reordained as Catholic priests, even if married. If unmarried, they can be reordained as bishops! They can establish seminaries for the training of future leaders. They can publish liturgical books consistent with their Anglican heritage. It is true that they are being asked to do these things in a way that is harmonious with existing Roman Catholic institutions (e.g. their seminarians should do some study alongside “regular” seminarians, their liturgical books will need to go through the same revision process that all others go through, etc.), but that strikes me as normal as part of being members of a larger Church family.
Of course, this comes at a time when the Anglican Communion is experiencing tremendous internal turmoil. It may look to some like this is a cynical attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to tempt disaffected Anglicans to “swim the Tiber”, but in fact it is not. Like I wrote earlier, this is primarily a response to the Traditional Anglican Communion (who apparently are quite happy about the whole thing), although I hear other parallel inquiries were also being made. This decision by the Pope, therefore, settles all these parallel cases in one fell swoop, this preserving that good order I mentioned before.
I commend Archbishop Rowan Williams for appearing at a joint press conference to announce this new pastoral approach being taken by Rome. I imagine that there are many faithful members of the Anglican Communion who will not be happy at this turn of events, but take heart. First of all, the Traditional Anglican Communion had left you folks a long time ago, so you aren’t really “losing” anybody. Next, you have an important Papal declaration of the genuine validity of the Anglican Christian heritage — this heritage is not merely being tolerated, it is being welcomed in a way that will allow it to flourish, and this within the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church.
English spirituality has always emphasized the importance of following one’s conscience; Anglicans themselves have a well-known tradition of inclusiveness (even if we can debate what the limits of that inclusiveness should be). The Pope’s decision, announced today, is about allowing people to live according to their conscience in a way that is inclusive of their spiritual heritage. In a sense, then, this Apostolic Constitution is actually a testament to the best of the English tradition.
» Filed Under Ecumenism | 3 Comments
Post for October 18, 2009
I’ve been having some major computer problems the past couple of weeks.
It started with a virus that installed a tiny FTP program that tried to install a rootkit. Nasty stuff, if it had succeeded I would have had my PC completely taken over by hackers.
To get rid of it completely, I had to wipe my hard drive using a rather drastic tool called Boot and Nuke. Then, a complete Windows XP reinstall, which took some time. Now I’m installing tools.
Unfortunately, I misconfigured one tool I installed and now my entire Hotmail inbox is gone. POOF! Yes, I am very annoyed. I’ll have to work from a backup file on my hard drive. If you’ve been waiting for an email response from me for something, I regret to inform you it may take some time…
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Post for October 14, 2009
A journalism student wants to do a class project on religion and blogging, and I am being interviewed for that purpose. However, she would also like to interview a couple of my blog readers (I guess to get the end-user point of view).
I’m posting this to ask for volunteers. Send me your name + contact info, and I’ll send a collated set to the student. She can then get in touch with you directly.
Many thanks!
» Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Post for October 1, 2009
Today I had a meeting of a special ad hoc committee within the diocesan structure: the “comité employeur”, which was put in place a few months ago to respond to certain elements of the ambient legal climate in which the Church finds itself.
Simply put, the Church does not exist apart from the world. We are *in* the world, but at the same time, we are not supposed to be *of* the world. Part of the secret to maintaining this distinction is to make sure that we, as Church, are strong in our understanding of who we are and what we are about. Part of this strength comes from being consistent in how we apply that understanding, i.e. we need to act justly and without arbitrariness. If we don’t do this, then the world will define these things for us — and will feel quite free about doing so, I might add, because we either won’t be living up to our own standards, or worse, we won’t even have a consistent picture of what those standards are.
Now one significant area of law other there in “the world” is the question of employment law. The rights and responsibilities of employer and employee are quite developed in the various branches of law and government. We also, in the Church, have a concept of being “workers in the vineyard”, with concept of hierarchy and obedience giving a “buck stops here” kind of structure that is parallel to what we find in most secular corporations. That being said, the fit is not perfect. Most secular employers, for example, don’t really care to what religion an employee belongs, but obviously this is a mission-critical question within the Catholic Church for most positions, particularly those where a mandate from the bishop is required.
So this “comité employeur” is all about trying to find a way to best interface with the requirements of secular society while at the same time retaining the independence of the Church and her freedom to act according to her conscience. It isn’t easy. Our legal advisors, for example, don’t all understand the nature of ecclesiatical work, and a host of jurispridence seems to indicate that even the courts and tribunals are trying to feel their way through the same questions. One thing is clear: they don’t want to wind up having to define what Catholics believe, and it seems to me all those judges and mediators would welcome a clear presentation by the Church that takes into account the complex social framework we have in place. Nope, it isn’t easy, but it is kind of fun (I like puzzles), and it is part of the challenge of the job I presently have.
» Filed Under Archdiocese of Montreal | 1 Comment
Post for September 30, 2009
Part of my role as Chairperson of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism is that I am responsible to head up the Executive Committee. We were having a devil of a time trying to find a time to meet, so we settled on today at lunch at the Grand Seminary of Montreal.
Today’s meeting highlighed a particular and immediate need at the Centre: we need a webmaster. We don’t need someone to do the technical infrastructure — that we have. What we need is someone to add the actual content to our site, to make it useful for the end user. The job is more editoral than technical. Any readers out there know someone who believes in the cause and can help in this area? I’d do it myself, but I’m already a Director, the corporate Secretary, and Chairperson of the Board. I’ve got too many hats already.
The Centre is, I believe, at a turning point in its existence. The world desperately needs to be more skilled in inter-faith understanding and reconciliation, and the Centre is an acknowleged nucleus of expertise in this area. But it is a bigger boat than I expected, and turning it is taking time. Still, we have a plan for how to move the Centre forward for the next 5 years, and I am committed to staying on until my services are no longer required for that purpose.
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Post for September 29, 2009
Given the very busy weekend I had I took it easy today (everybody needs a day off a some point). Still, there was one invitation I could not resist: this evening I spent some time with a group of Salesian Cooperators (sort of a third order for the Salesian family of religious organizations). We spent the evening discussing the latest Papal encyclical Caritatis in Veritate. I gave the main presentation, which in many ways didn’t involve the encyclical so much as giving a general background on Catholic social teaching so that people could read the encyclical on their own. I hope it was helpful to people.
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Post for September 28, 2009
…a funeral.
Father Paul was away from Saint Brendan’s parish over the weekend and into today, so I had the honour of presiding the funeral and burial of Alexandre Beaudet, an elderly gentleman who lived most of his 89 years in that same parish. I remember seeing him regularly at mass, even though I didn’t know his name, so I was quite saddened when I visited his family at the funeral parlour. Still, as any priest can tell you, faith makes a huge difference. The atmosphere itself was very light, even joyful, during the whole funeral process (wake, mass, burial). It was the most fitting tribute to the man and his trust in the Lord Jesus.
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Post for September 27, 2009
I presided Stan and Mirella’s wedding a few years ago, and today I had the honour of baptising their first little one — baby Giulia! What a sweetie. The ceremony was followed by a delicious supper over at their place, and I must say I felt really at home. It is very special to be able to be part of my married couples’ lives in this way, and I already have an invitation to go back for a house blessing. And I have two more baptisms coming up in October as well! Yee haw!
UPDATE: A picture of the blessed event!
Can’t you just spot the Holy Spirit descending?
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Post for September 26, 2009
I had the honour of presiding the wedding of these two this afternoon:
I had to arrive late for the reception due to a visit I needed to make to a funeral home, but I must say I was treated like royalty. Vic works in the restaurant business, so he knows how to make you feel right at a banquet, and it turns out some of the people who were at my table knew me from a previous pastoral assignment. We all had a really good time, and I wish my 41st couple well. We shall stay in touch!
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Post for September 25, 2009
Did I mention that video is hard? (See post of September 24 for the answer.)
Today I had the chance to interview Dawn Eden, the author of the book The Thrill of the Chaste and (former) blogger over at The Dawn Patrol. This wasn’t just for print, or even for audio: the Cardinal let me use his interview room at the Archdiocese and we had a genuine 3-camera setup. Many people came together to help make this happen, and I want to first say a public thank-you to Biagio, Vince, and especially Lisa, the director/camerawoman without whom I would have been TOTALLY lost.
The video will still need to be processed, as we had 1.5 hours of footage to fit into 3 10-minute clips — so stay tuned! But I have certainly come away from this with a new and awesome appreciation of the challenges of the video craft. Wow, it’s hard. On a purely technical level it’s hard, and I know that video is very unforgiving of even simple mistakes. But this is something I want to learn to do, and do well. It’s brutal, but that is kind of the point: if you can do it well, it really says something.
Many thanks to Dawn for coming to Montreal — it was a lot of fun to get to know her.
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Post for September 24, 2009
…and it isn’t here yet. Why? Because video is HARD!!!
I had dinner over at the home of a former student this evening (September 24) — his wife cooked a delicious meal, and his daughter was just a delight. As a gift he gave me a DVD of a pontifical mass in the Syriac Catholic tradition, and I worked and worked trying to get it ready for YouTube to share with you, the readers of this blog.
What I didn’t realise was how long it would take to render the video. HOURS of processing time. And wow, the software is really complex too, especially when (like me) you don’t really know what you are doing. NTSC vs PAL with frame rates and LAME audio encoding at 44.1 vs. 48 and what the heck does this button do and oh no I think I screwed up a default setting and 24 hours later the image is all squished…
And to do it all over again might very well mean another 24 hours wait…trial and error at this pace is very frustrating…
So, no video just yet. It’ll get there, it’ll get there.
Many thanks again to Elias for the delicious meal and delightful company!
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Post for September 22, 2009
This evening I had a chance to attend an event organized by the Order of Saint Lazarus: a cocktail fundraiser with Marc Garneau, Canada’s first man in space, as the guest speaker. The event was held at the Mount Royal Club, which I had never visited before (and I must say, is quite a swanky joint). While Mr. Garneau is now a politician, he refrained from talking up his party — and given the election fever that was gripping Canada at this point, I must say I respect his self-discipline! I got the chance to ask the first question, so I asked his opinion on whether we should return to the Moon or simply start trying to head to Mars. He thinks Mars, and I have to agree with him. The tough part is escaping Earth’s gravity: once you’ve done that, going to Mars is not much harder than going to the Moon, just longer (see Mars Direct).
BTW, the cocktail was a fundraiser for palliative care, one of the key objectives of the Order of Saint Lazarus. Many thanks to Marc Garneau for helping the Order help others.
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