December 2004 Archives

The Vatican Information Service released today that the Holy Father made some changes involving the various dioceses of Texas.

All the dioceses of Texas were "suffragan dioceses" to the Archdiocese of San Antonio. For the most part, that doesn't mean too much to the average Catholic. More is explained below.

The ecclesiastical province of San Antonio was the largest in the world with 14 suffragen dioceses- until today.

The Holy Father first accepted the resignation of Archbishop Patrick Flores upon reaching the age limit. Archbishop Emertis Flores is 75 years old and had been archbishop of San Antonio since 1979.

The Holy Father appointed Bishop Jose Gomez, an auxiliary bishop under Archbishop Chaput in Denver, as the new archbishop. Archbishop-elect Gomez was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in 1978 and bishop is 2001. For those doing math at home, he has been a priest for just over 26 years and a bishop for just under 4 years. An interesting sidenote- Archbishop-elect Fiorenza was one of his co-consecrators.

Opus Dei, literally the Work of God, was founded in 1928 by St. Josemaria Escriva. It has become more well-known through works of fiction like The Da Vinci Code. From my personal experience and from any trusted source, I have not heard anything about them that is negative- maybe not my cup of tea, but not negative.

The next step was something that had not happened within Texas since 1926: A new Archdiocese was elevated.

The Holy Father erected the new ecclesiastical province of Galveston-Houston, elevating the Diocese of Galveston-Houston to a metropolitan archdiocese. From the province of San Antonio, Pope John Paul II transferred the dioceses of Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Tyler and Victoria as the new suffragens.

San Antonio remains with the dioceses of Amarillo, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, Lubbock, and San Angelo.

To govern the new archdiocese, the Pontiff raised Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Gavleston-Houston to the dignity of archbishop. As many of you may know, he was ordained for the Diocese of Galveston in 1954.

So what can Archbishop-elect Fiorenza do that he couldn't do before? The Code of Canon Law grants him a handful of duties. First, he is to "see that faith and ecclesiastical discipline are carefully observed and to notify the Roman Pontiff if there be any abuses", to "to conduct a canonical visitation if the suffragan Bishop has neglected it", and to "appoint a diocesan Administrator" when a suffragen see is vacant according to various other canons. Also, Rome can grant to him other special funcations if circumstances merit it. The Metropolitan has no other powers, except he can celebrate all sacred functions as the Bishop of that place in any church within the province and if it is the cathedral, he must notify the diocesan bishop.

The new Metropolitan would wear all of the same vestments as before with the exception of the pallium. This is a small wool yoke-like vestment. It is usually conferred on new metropolitans on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome (in person or by proxy) and is made from lamb's wool that had been blessed on the Feast of St. Agnus. The pallium is a sign of jursidiction so the Metropolitan is able to wear it anywhere within his province but never outside of it. He is also not to wear it in the presence of the Pope or his approved representatives.

Lastly, the Pope elevated Bishop Daniel Dinardo, the coadjutor of Galveston-Houston, to the dignity of archbishop. He enjoys none of the powers mentioned above because he is not the Ordinary (i.e. the Archbishop) thus not the Metropolitan of Galveston-Houston.

All of this is something that has been expected and Bishop Aymond, at the last dinner the Lambdas had with him, predicted the elevation.

Frankly, I don't know what kind of ceremonies are attached to the elevation of a diocese, or the elevation of a bishop to archbishop. I'll be interested in finding all of that out.

VATICAN CITY, DEC 29, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Jose Horacio Gomez, auxiliary of Denver, U.S.A., as metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese of San Antonio (area 60,013, population 1,959,950, Catholics 644,357, priests 351, permanent deacons 312, religious 1090), U.S.A. The archbishop-elect was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1951 and was ordained a priest in 1978. He succeeds Archbishop Patrick F. Flores whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese was accepted upon having reached the age limit.

- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Galveston-Houston, U.S.A., elevating the see to metropolitan archdiocese and making the following dioceses suffragens: Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Tyler and Victoria in Texas, formerly part of the ecclesiastical province of San Antonio, U.S.A.

- Appointed Bishop Joseph Anthony Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, U.S.A., as first metropolitan archbishop of the same archdiocese (area 23,257, population 4,704,532, Catholics 1,006,425, priests 438, permanent deacons 250, religious 726).

- Elevated Bishop Daniel Nicholas Dinardo, coadjutor of Galveston-Houston, U.S.A., as to the dignity of archbishop.

One of the definite downside to being in Wichita Falls for the break is the detachment from my life, as I now know it. While this is a "vacation" from school, I am not on an actual vacation. So, in the week that I've been in Wichita Falls, I have caught up on bills, had lunch with a couple people I haven't seen since the summer and made a good amount of progress on The Brandon Kraft Foundation (although you cannot yet tell that from the site). I finished all of the Christmas cards I ended up finishing for this year and I am slowly catching up on laundry. But, after being away from Austin in a week, I am ready to get the wheels out of the mud that home has become in many ways. I have no doubt that my mailbox in Austin is stuffed and I will probably have mail to pick up that wouldn't fit into my box. In many ways, I am restless at home.

I mentioned in my last post about my inability to reflect on things while at home and I attributed that to my inability to truly be at peace while home. After writing that, I went to Midnight Mass at Sacred Heart. While there, for the first time since being home, I didn't feel restless. Nothing came to me that was blog-worthy, but I was at peace being where I was.

Then, Sunday, I went back for the Feast of the Holy Family. Ironically, I was the only member of my family there for the Feast of the Holy Family and when Fr. Koch asked all families rise so that he could give them a blessing, I did not think it was my place to recieve such a blessing. Even with that, I again felt at peace. This time various things came to mind- some personal, some blog-worthy.

Of course, I get home and I lose any motivation or 'spirit' to write anything. Someday I might go on about the various things I thought of: reflections on Fr. Koch's homily (mostly about our natural families as the domestic church; what a family is and what a family isn't), thoughts on the suggestion that "Jesus disobeyed his parents when he went to the Temple, maybe even breaking a commandments by doing so" and personal thoughts on my family's "Catholic" nature.

Between now and when the semester starts up again, I'll be in Wichita Falls, Dallas, Houston, Austin and Wichita, KS- wish me safe travels and hopefully, I'll shake off this writer's block.

Five thousand one hundred ninety-nine years from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created heaven and earth; two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven years from the deluge; two thousand and fifteen years from the birth of Abraham; one thousand five hundred and ten years from Moses and the going out of the people of Israel from Egypt; one thousand and thirty-two years from David's being anointed king; In the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel; In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; seven hundred and fifty-two years from the building of the city of Rome; In the forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus: The whole world being in peace: In the sixth age of the world:

Jesus Christ, the eternal God, and Son of the eternal Father, wishing to consecrate this world by his most merciful coming, being conceived of the Holy Spirit, and nine months since his conception having passed, In Bethlehem of Judah, is born of the Virgin Mary, being made Man: THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH!

In my parishes, and many others, the above is proclaimed, or sung, before Midnight Mass annoucing the feast of the day- Christmas.

I've been home in Wichita Falls for almost a week now meeting with old friends and enjoying a break from the usual routine of Austin. Perhaps because of the different routine, or perhaps because of my inability to be at peace here, I don't have reflections on Christmas. However, a friend of mine from Austin, Cristina is working on a four-post series on various other holidays during this period. She has two posts online now, one on Kwanzaa and one on Los Posadas, a Mexican celebration marking Mary and Joseph's hunt for lodging before the birth of Christ. A couple of interesting posts that I've enjoyed.

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According to Reuters, the Vatican has opened a coffee bar on top of St. Peter's basilica. The shop serves customers who have already been to the top of the dome and are making their way down. The story notes that unlike other coffee bars in Italy, this one does not serve alcoholic beverages.

While looking at the Vatican in the news, I found a story about Holy Mother Church taking possession of a couple of Lamborghinies... Lamborghini electric golf carts. Four electric carts were given to aid in security. Before the carts, patrol was done on foot with cars entering St. Peter's square during emergenies only.

That's not it from the Vatican. This year, if you're in Italy, you could watch Pope John Paul II celebrate Midnight Mass over your cell phone. Talk about the New Evangelization!

After being home a few days, I logged onto my website to try to get something out to post. When the splash screen came up and told me that I had 165 new comments to approve, I knew what kind of post this was going to be.

First, for the record, since I upgraded my website to use this automated content management system, I have logged a total of 110 comments. So, being alerted to 165 new comments from a span of 40 hours did not seem to be something normal.

I start digging through the comments to discover that all 165 of them are for one or two online poker sites. I didn't look at any of them- just deleted all 165. The ironic part is none of the spam comments ever posted to my website have ever been seen by anyone but me. I have to approve every single comment posted.

For the moment, I am suspending the comment option. It is simply too much of a pain to sort through all of the spam. However, once I get back to Austin (read: to a connection faster than 50 kbps), I'll figure out a solution that will allow comments and reduce spam. At first, it will probably be using a TypeKey registration system. My goal is a system that will blacklist comments from known IP addresses or even better, a system that will blacklist comments with a certain number of "bad" words (i.e. poker, pills, drugs, cheap, etc). For now, I do not have the time to spend on a dial-up connection to figure it out though.

If you wish to leave me a comment, send it to web-comments@brandonkraft.com. Once the system is back running, I'll post whatever comments I receive (if any).

On Monday evening, while chatting with friends, the question arose of 'what if you have not heard God's call in your life?'

First, is God's calling in our lives necessary? No. We all have received our instruction from God in some way, if nothing else, through the Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Is that comforting and a sign of a personal loving God? Not always but nonetheless, we have heard some calling indirectly.

What does God do when he calls us? He is revealing himself to us. The invisible God is making himself known to us in some way. God, the infinite source of life and love, shows himself to us so that we can better understand or believe, the way to become closer to him. Seldom is this revelation of the divine as unambiguous as Paul's conversion or as evident as we hear about from the Saints. The revelation of God is God revealing to us his mystery.

How are the mysteries of God manifested so that they can be revealed? They are revealed through prayer, reflection and the Mystical Body of Christ. Prayer and reflection, while not easy, seem to be obvious to many people- to experience the mysteries of God, one should enter into the realm of God.

But, God's Kingdom is already here! His realm already extends to the earth through Christ's Mystical Body, which is the community of believers. God's mysteries are made known to us by us. Let's take a look at this in context of vocational discernment.

First, we, as humanity, have been created by God to love and serve him. Through the love and service to the Lord, we obtain the ultimate goal: to become closer to him. That in mind, the essence of our vocation is to find a place in this world that we can become closer to God and see how many other people we can bring with us. We are to become closer to God and help aid our fellow brothers and sisters in becoming closer to him.

What is marriage? Among other things, it is two people unifying in each other to reflect the unity of God. It is two people through each other coming closer to God. What is the priesthood? Among other things, it is a man sacrificing his humanity to God. It is someone desiring to come closer to God through sacrifice in order to bring himself and others to God.

God reveals himself through marriage and the priesthood using the Mystical Body. God's revelation through these sacraments is him extending his call to us.

Has God sat me down on a bench and said "Son, here's a cell phone. Have it on Sunday afternoon- I'm going to give you a call?" No, but he has allowed me to see him through the Mystical Body and by seeing him, igniting my desire to become closer to him. How you see God is an indication of your calling in life.

While yes, you can see God in all of creation, there is an element of discernment that must come into play. While you can see and acknowledge God in many things, which of those things leads you to desire God through it?

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"When I see these things, how I can tell between my will and God's will?"
Through my own struggle, I have yet to figure this one out. (Then again, when do we ever really figure out things of this nature?) First, God loves us no matter what and is not dependent on whether or not we get married, become a priest, live as a missionary or anything like that. If we follow a particular path because we want it to take us closer to God and we do no harm to ourselves or others through it, there is something noble and diving in that pursuit. Equally so, if we follow a particular path because of our own reasons, there is something flawed.

For example, let's again look at marriage and the priesthood. If you discern to enter the priesthood simply because you think it would be cool to dress up and be able to say Mass, there is something fundamentally flawed- even though you may do good if you become a priest. If you discern marriage with someone with the primal thought of enjoying sex with yourfiancée, there is something fundamentally flawed- even if the family you create is very loving.

If you date and discern the marriage vocation as a vocation that is primarily concerned with the unification of two people, both different yet both in the image of God to become closer to God through love and sacrifice or if you discern the priestly vocation as a vocation that will require you to sacrifice yourself so that you can bring yourself and others closer to God, then you are trying to discern your calling by being centered on God.

While there is much more to it, if you are discerning centered on God or centered on yourself, that is a very basic way to answer the question. Personally, if you're centering yourself on God, you're going to discern the "right" thing. Assuming the God-centered approach, there will be aspects of any vocation you discern that will appeal to you- and that should not be confused with you being selfish regarding it. In other words, there are perks and that's okay.

Center yourself and your discernment on God and everything will work out.

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In this Advent season, we are preparing to celebrate one of the ultimate revelations of God: God coming to earth in the flesh. The season of Advent is for us to prepare our minds and hearts to be ready to accept such a confusing revelation. While most Christians accept this revelation without much thought, it is seriously difficult to accept it. God- the Absolute, the Almighty, the Everlasting, the source of all creation, the father of Justice and Wisdom, Love itself, the Word- has entered the world. He did not come down on a gold chariot of fire. He was born of a woman. The Creator was born of a creature. He was not born fully able to live in the world. He was born as an infant, further dependent on his creation to live in it. That is a heavy revelation. The Church gives us Advent as a month to prepare ourselves to accept such a thing.

In our discernment, we too must prepare our minds and hearts to accept the revelation of God in our lives. We simply cannot wake up one morning and start looking for God revealing himself. While he is always reaching out his hand to our hearts, we must be of an open heart to accept. Through his mercy and grace, we must try to rid ourselves of our vices that complicate and confuse our interpretation of his revelations to us. Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel! This exhortation, one of the options the priest has when giving us ashes on Ash Wednesday, is required of us to follow. We have the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent for us to prepare ourselves to accept the great revelations: The Word made Flesh and God's sacrifice and resurrection.

Without repentance and attempting to walk in the light, we will forever to blind to God reveling himself. This is true of both the great revelations mentioned above as well as God trying to reveal himself to us in our individual lives.

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God loves us. He wants us to become closer to him. He has written on the hearts of us all instructions to lead us closer to him. Turn towards God, listen to your heart and walk in faith. He will not lead you astray. The journey will not always be easy and painless, but it will lead you to the ultimate destination.

Reflection of the past is something that we are, as human beings, unique in doing. I think that is something important that many times we can and do ignore if we look at past events and decisions as things that are invariant. I took, and assume misheard, your point as stating that past events always were invariant, i.e. my decision tomorrow is as fixed as my decision yesterday. Personally, I do not like the view of my decisions tomorrow being fixed without my ability to enact my free will to change them.

God's foreknowledge of my decision making? It's there, but God's knowledge of what option I'm going to take does not impact my ability to decide it. Can I trick God? Of course not. But God knowing what decision I am going to make does not remove from me the obligation to responsible reflection of past experience and knowledge to aid in rendering that decision.

The above is from an e-mail I wrote earlier in the evening about a debate I was having with a friend of mine. The debate, which was a major tangent from our original conversation, hit the reflection of the past.

Perhaps it is because it's 4 am, but the concept of reflecting on the past is something that always amaze me. We take old things and form new thoughts from them.

Rejoice! Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. Traditionally, on this day, all of the vestments of the Church turn pink. A bad joke could be said here of a priest who was ill-trained in how to live in the world and mixed his red and white vestments in the wash but we'll let that sleeping dog lie.

Seriously, today, the Church sets aside the purple vestments and the general season of Advent for a moment. The Church uses purple as a penitential and expecting color: funeral rites, the upcoming coming (Advent) and rising (Lent) of the Lord. The Church also knows the reality that Christ is already here and has already been raised. So, on the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we go pink. Known by the first word of the entrance antiphon for the day, these Sundays are known as Gaudete and Laetare Sundays respectively.

Now what does that really mean? Permit me to build up to that for the Advent season. On the First Sunday, if you recall, the theme was of trust in God. Isaiah starts us out by telling us of the upcoming Messianic time. In the Psalm, we sing of rejoicing to the house of the Lord. So far, nothing seems not too bad. Isaiah tells us of the next era and a psalm about rejoicing. St. Paul brings us back to earth- he tells us to "put on the Lord!" He teaches us that the day is at hand and we can not be indulging ourselves in the desire of the flesh. Finally, the Gospel sobers us up even more: The Lord will come like a thief in the night.

So, we begin the season of Advent. A little joyful expectation followed by "wait, a second- are you ready for the coming of the Lord? Have you put on Christ and left yourself of earthly desires? You think you have time? If you should only be so lucky!" We are, after all, preparing for the Second Coming.

The Second Sunday of Advent brings us back to hear more of the coming of Christ. Isaiah keeps our hopes up. He tells us that the Christ to come is a Messiah of Peace. Not only for peace of nations, but he is a Messiah for peace in our own hearts, in fact, for all creation. He will herald a time of peace in all things; the likes of which we have never known. If Isaiah last week didn't set our eyes, with wishful yearning, to the day of Christ, this brings us there. The Psalmist sings of justice and peace while St. Paul reminds us that the Scriptures- the Old Testament- was written as instructions for the current day. We are to attempt to act as if the Lord is here- try to bring peace to earth now. The Gospel keeps us on our toes by telling us of John the Baptist: we must prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord!

So now, we're looking into the future for the Second Coming. We know that we ourselves are not ready but we know to try.

The Entrance Antiphon, not usually said because of the processional hymn, exclaims out for the Third Sunday: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice! The Lord is near." Gaudete Sunday is a Sunday of Rejoicing! Today, Isaiah continues to light our future telling us of flowers that will bloom in the desert and that "sorrow and mourning will flee." St. Paul continues to tell us that the Second Coming is at hand. The Gospel is of John the Baptist's disciple asking Jesus if he is the one who is to come or if we should wait for another. You can say that Jesus responded with "Look about you! What do you think? The blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk- even the dead now lives." The Gospel tells us that the Lord is here now! Christ, the Messiah that Isaiah tells us to look forward to is here! He now walks on the same earth that we walk upon!

The season of Advent, until today, has been recalling our minds to the Second Coming of Christ. It has been preparing us now for what is to come. The Kingdom of God is at hand- soon will be the day that we all live in it. Today marks a shift. Though a paradox, the truth rings out- the Kingdom of God is here now. Yes, Christ will come again and yes, that coming will be glorious. We cannot forget, however, that Jesus, son of God and son of Man, has already been born to herald in a new era. We already have the instructions that St. Paul speaks of during the Second Sunday. In fact, we have the instruction of old with the Lamb of the new. We not only have the Law of God but we have the Word of God made flesh already.

The Season of Advent, while still reminding us to prepare for the Second Coming, asks us to remember the First Coming. For the first time, the Opening Prayer calls us to mind the upcoming "birthday" of the Lord. We are expecting, but we also have received what was expected.

So, the next time you look at the pink candle of the Advent Wreath remember that Christmas is not here yet, but the joy already has arrived. Rejoice! The Joy is here.