Msgr Giussani's Cause: The Whinging Begins

I was going to leave blogging for the weekend, but I have an update to the opening of the Cause of Msgr Giussani which I would like to share with you: the resistance has begun, it seems.

The London Independent has the story, and, strangely, juxtaposes the opening of the Cause with the Holy Father's recent speech about the need for more humility and less hunger for power.  They are implying that one contradicts the other. 

Describing Msgr Giussani as anti-Marxist we are told that even "moderate Catholic groups" oppose the aims of the movement he founded.  I wonder what they mean by "moderate Catholic groups" - I presume We Are Church would be one of them for the critics of C&L.  According to the article above, Giussani and his movement are dangerous because they oppose stem cell research (by which they mean embryonic stem cell) and "assisted dying" (by which they mean helping something commit suicide or, if they are unable to do so, killing them).  They describe this as a right wing agenda. They also try to make him a buddy of Berlusconi.  Interestingly they are raising the same sort of objections they have thrown at St Josemaria Escriva for years.

Well people, that should get us all praying for Msgr Giussani's beatification: if the Marxist liberals are spitting venom, then this man will be a great saint indeed.  He might even be a patron and intercessor for the faithful as they continue to endure the whining and hand-wringing of dissidents who want to twist the Gospel into Marx's table talk and have little or no respect for vulnerable human life.  We need such a patron in these times!

Right, get your pens ready and write to Communion and Liberation for a prayer card, and start sending those petitions!   I'm off to buy another one of the holy man's books - he can be a tough read!  But then once you've tried to tackle von Balthasar, you're game for anything!

Communion and Liberation website here, contact your local group for information.

The Last Sting?

You know, the Irish Times really can be a bad egg in Ireland at times.  It is constantly stirring things up when it comes to the Church.   It is Ireland's paper of record, and yet when you look behind some of their stories, you tend to find things are a little bit different than they reported.  One example is personal to me.  When I preached on the Civil Partnership Bill about a year ago, the Irish Times mentioned me in an article giving the impression that they had spoken to me: they hadn't.  The journalist never spoke with me - made no contact. Not only had they the incident backwards, they never bothered to check their facts and if they had they would had a very different, and indeed less sensationalist, article. 

Well, they are off again stirring things up with regard to the new translation of the Missal - again (more appropriately, as one commenter in the combox said, the "corrected translation").   As expected, with the Missal on course for Advent, the old guard is still furiously dribbling over their complan and the Irish Times are spoonfeeding them to keep bashing the Church. 

It seems our bishops have met them and the priests have expressed their concerns, or if the Times' tone is anything to go on, they ranted and raved at their Lordships.   In respose the bishops are due to come out with a statement.   For one thing these priests are members of the dissident Association of Catholic Priests (sic), a minority group of aging liberals that does not represent the majority of priests in the country, so the bishops need to bear that in mind.   This issue may be the last sting of dying wasp for the ACP generation, but we have to bear in mind that that sting can be dangerous and highly toxic.

In discussion with brother priests, I think many, if not most, are willing to accept the corrected translation, their main concern being how to help the laity adjust.  Having spoken with many members of the laity (many of whom are women), they have no problem.  As some women (please note ACP) have indicated to me, they have no issue at all, some have said: "It'll be easier than the change from the Latin".  The corrected translation is going down very well with younger priests and the seminarians - in fact they are waiting with baited breaths to get into it - there is excitement among many of them.  Our seminarians are the future priests of the Church, the ones who will be ministering when all the members of the ACP are gone - we should be listening to them. 

Ironically, in their rejection of the Church's new official translation, one of ACP's number, Fr Sean McDonagh, an ecologist, said:

'the excuse for using sexist language in the new translation smacked of Humpty Dumpty in Alice through the Looking Glass, where he said “when I use a word . . . it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”'

Isn't that what these priests have been doing to Church teaching for decades - reinventing it, distorting it and manipulating it according to their own opinion so they can choose what it means, more or less? 

Interestingly, related to this, the dissidents in the US have given up the ghost, and have assented to the corrected translation.

Eucharistic Congress 2012: Worrying Developments

Meeting with a priest friend the other day, he let me read some of the documents emerging from the committees organising next year's Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.  One of them which lays down the rules for the journey of a Eucharistic Congress bell through the country (pretty rigid rules) reads more like something out of "Have I Got News For You?" or  the script of a Monty Python sketch.   But then again, the documents online are just as bad. 

 

Reading through the Pastoral Preparation Programme, available online here, I see a lot of problems, the main one being a disordered emphasis on the individual rather than on the mystery of the Eucharist.  The theme of the congress is The Eucharist, Communion with Christ and One Another, it seems to me most of the emphasis is on the latter end of the theme. 

 

Have a read of the document and see for yourself, it will remind you of those awful paraliturgies we have had to endure for the last thirty years, where we focus on "our" gathering, "our" story, "our" experience - the sort of stuff that has led a couple of generations of Catholics away from worshipping God to worshipping themselves. In reality this is where the Church is in Ireland at the moment, and has been for some time - certainly my generation got nothing else. The sort of stuff which reduces the mystery of the Eucharist to the subjective celebration of a community turned in on itself, rather than a community turning to God worshiping him and celebrating the Mystery of Salvation.  As a priest trying to prepare his parish for the Congress and foster a genuine Eucharistic faith this stuff is no help at all, more of a hindrance actually.

 

I know from a number of sources that there is a serious dispute going on behind the scenes.  Orthodox faithful who want to make the Eucharistic Congress a real celebration of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist against the old guard who seem most uncomfortable with Catholic Eucharistic piety - looking at these documents it seems the old guard won.

 

The Holy Father has already said that he sees the Congress as part of the Church's renewal in Ireland, I'm afraid if it turns out as the documents here intend, it will do the opposite.  One good thing though, with Eucharistic devotees from around the world in Ireland witnessing this stuff it will become apparent to the powers that be in Rome that serious doctrinal reform is needed in Ireland and that the Visitation must go far beyond the issue of child abuse and seminaries. 

 

As for the Eucharistic Congress Dublin 2012, another priest said to me last night: "It seems like its going to be another wasted opportunity for Ireland - as were the Years in preparation for the Jubilee 2000, the Jubilee itself, the Year of the Rosary, the Year of the Eucharist, the Pauline Year, the Year of the Priest....all of which were virtually ignored in Ireland."  I hope not, there is still time to turn the thing around.  

The Enemy Within?

Pope Benedict says something very interesting in his new book concerning some who hold professional positions in the Church - it has been referred to by a few blogs.  Here is what he says:

“The bureaucracy is spent and tired. It is sad that there are what you might call professional Catholics who make a living on their Catholicism, but in whom the spring of faith flows only faintly, in a few scattered drops.”

Some bloggers have been more explicit and ask why those who dissent from Church teaching hold so many important positions in the Church?   Indeed, in some countries they completely hold the reins of power and are engaged in an attempt to remould the Church according to their agenda - we see this notably in western countries. 

This has always baffled me, to be honest.  I saw bishops appointed who should never have been ordained priests at all because they do not believe, and their dioceses are in disarray, often in rebellion.  I see religious who long ago lost their faith at the helm of important Church projects.  I see Catholics who despise the Pope and Church teaching in positions of formation and catechesis.  I know of catechists who do not believe in the devil, among other things, and chide the children they are examining if they do believe in him - so much for the first baptismal vow.  And in their disbelief, these poor saps become putty in the devil's hands.  I know of children formed for First Communion by people do not believe in the Eucharist, and so these children have had no formation in Eucharistic theology - they see it as mere bread - victims of their teachers' disbelief.  

And then there are those who hold important positions who filter what comes from the Pope, reinvent Catholic teaching and feed this to the faithful as "official teaching".  I see women and men, priests and religious in the forefront, publicly denouncing the Pope and Church teaching, branding it as lacking in compassion, and, slaves to the intellectual, social and sexual promiscuity of this Godless age, they make themselves out to be the epitome of compassion, the ones who "really understand" the poor human condition and know how to respond in a "real Christian way".  They lead souls on a merry dance away from Christ and his Church and offer them a frail idol which they themselves have manufactured - made in their own image and likeness.  And what is said to them?  Nothing.  Their dissent is greeted with silence.  Many of them hold positions of power within the Church and not a move is made to get rid of them.  Long ago they lost their faith, now they are in rebellion but they do not have the good grace to leave the Church; and the Church continues to pay their wages and provide them with a living.  And they will stay because they know that if they leave their comfortable lifestyle is gone and no one will listen to them anymore. 

Yes, the Church needs reform alright.