June 2007 Archives

The English translation of the daily Vatican bulletin hasn't been released yet and I don't know Italian, but it is obvious what this entry is concerning.

For literally over a year now, there has been rumors all over the place about a Moto Proprio (a papal declaration made on "his own initiative") that would "liberate" the Mass according to the liturgical books in force in 1962, or in other words, the pre-Vatican II Mass.

Some may say, "I've seen such Masses advertised in the diocesan newspaper already?" From 1988 to present, the Pre-Vatican II Mass, also known as the "Tradentine Mass" (after the Council of Trent) or the Mass of John XXIII, after the Pope who promulgated the updates that were in effect in 1962, could be said by priests in three conditions:

1. Through direct permission of the local bishop
2. By a priest given an indult by a special office in the Roman Curia
3. Within religious orders that have been given an indult from Rome for their entire liturgical life to be according to the books of 1962, like the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, for example.

While the actual MP has not been released, the rumors basically say that the new declaration would reverse the situation. Any priest, anywhere will be able to celebrate the "Extraordinary Mass of the Roman Rite", or the pre-Vatican II Mass (as opposed as the current Novus Ordo "Ordinary Mass"), unless his bishop has formally issued a declaration not allowing the Mass to be said publically in his diocese.

Will this change things that much? In my personal opinion, no. A priest still has to want to celebrate the older Mass and virtually none of the priests in active ministry have had any training with the previous Mass. I would suspect half of the priests in active ministry has never seen a pre-Vatican II Mass celebrated. I doubt that any churches would switch over to only Mass according to the books of 1962, but some parishes may add a Mass once a week or once a month.

There are some questions open to debate—will the MP keep the 1962 Mass exactly as it was in 1962? There are some instances where Rome has confirmed questions from local bishops indicating that certain changes are acceptable. The calendar underwent a huge reform as part of the revision of the Mass in the late 1960s and early 1970s—will those changes be retained in the new usage of the 1962 Mass, will the 1962 calendar as it stood be in effect, or will 1962 memorials become an option? What about the Season of Passiontide with a Palm Sunday, followed by a Passion Sunday followed by Easter—will that be an option at all?

I've heard rumors that the document will be released on July 7 when the Pope is packing his bags for his vacation. I wonder if or when the Pope will celebrate his first public pre-Vatican II Mass?

So many questions, but one thing is certain—the Vatican has officially confirmed that the Moto Proprio exists and it is on the way.

Update: The English version is below, followed by the original.

MEETING DISCUSSES "MOTU PROPRIO" ON USE JOHN XXIII'S MISSAL

VATICAN CITY, JUN 28, 2007 (VIS) - Given below is the text of a communique released today by the Holy See Press Office concerning Benedict XVI's forthcoming "Motu Proprio" on the use of the Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962.

"Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican, a meeting was held under the presidency of the Cardinal Secretary of State in which the content and spirit of the Holy Father's forthcoming 'Motu Proprio' on the use of the Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962 was explained to representatives from various episcopal conferences. The Holy Father also arrived to greet those present, spending nearly an hour in deep conversation with them.

"The publication of the document - which will be accompanied by an extensive personal letter from the Holy Father to individual bishops - is expected within a few days, once the document itself has been sent to all the bishops with an indication of when it will come into effect."
OP/MOTU PROPRIO/...VIS 070628 (180)

The text of today's bulletin:

COMUNICATO DELLA SALA STAMPA DELLA SANTA SEDE

Si è svolta ieri pomeriggio in Vaticano una riunione, presieduta dal Cardinale Segretario di Stato, in cui è stato illustrato ai rappresentanti di diverse conferenze episcopali il contenuto e lo spirito dell'annunciato "Motu proprio" del Santo Padre sull'uso del Messale promulgato da Giovanni XXIII nel 1962. Il Santo Padre si è recato a salutare i presenti e si è intrattenuto con loro in un'approfondita conversazione per circa un'ora. La pubblicazione del documento - che sarà accompagnato da un'ampia lettera personale del Santo Padre ai singoli Vescovi - è prevista entro alcuni giorni, quando il documento stesso sarà stato inviato a tutti i Vescovi con la indicazione della sua successiva entrata in vigore.

[00979-01.01]

[B0356-XX.01]

I've been holding back on posting about this, but I just can't anymore. On Friday, Vanessa received a call from Meals on Wheels and More of Austin offering her a job! She formally accepted the offer today and so now everything is official.

She has an apartment, a roommate, a job, a boyfriend. What else is there? ;-)

Yay!

Today, Pope Benedict XVI issued a Motu Proprio, or a declaration of his own initiative, declaring that the Catholic Church will return to the traditional norms for electing a Pope. Pope John Paul II previously declared that, instead of a 2/3rd majority to elect a Pope, that only an absolute majority was needed after a long period without a winner. This process did not happen for Pope Benedict during his election as he won by a 2/3rd majority after the 4th ballot, I think.

In recent history (by secular standards), this procedure would never have been used. Overall, the elections since 1800 has resulted in a pope in between 3 and 14 ballots, except the Conclave of 1830-1831. On December 14, 1830, the 45 cardinal-electors entered the Sistine Chapel, celebrated the entire Christmas season and emerged on February 2, 1831 with a new pontiff, Pope Gregory XVI after an astronomical 83 ballots.

MOTU PROPRIO CONCERNING ELECTION OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF

VATICAN CITY, JUN 26, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a "Motu Proprio," written in Latin, with which the Holy Father Benedict XVI restores the traditional norm concerning the majority required for the election of the Supreme Pontiff. According to this norm, in order for the election of a new Pope to be considered valid it is always necessary to reach a majority of two thirds of the cardinals present.

With this document, Benedict XVI substitutes the norm established by John Paul II who, in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution "Universi Dominici gregis," laid down that the valid quorum for electing a new Pope was initially two thirds but that, after three days of voting without an election, there would be a day dedicated to reflection and prayer, without voting. Thereafter, voting would resume for seven additional ballots, another pause for reflection, another seven ballots, another pause and yet another seven ballots. After which an absolute majority was to decide how to proceed, either for a vote by absolute majority or with balloting between two candidates. This was to happen only in the event that the cardinals arrived at the 33rd or 34th ballot without a positive result.

Are you annoyed at the endlesss "pre-approved" credit card offers that flood your mailbox?

I am.

For awhile, I was writing "remove from list" and sending the application back to them in their postage-paid envelopes, but that was still leading to a ton of paper waste, extra mail through the USPS and my time.

I ran across a site, optoutprescreen.com, that is legit—endorsed by the FTC—that will register you with the three major credit bureaus.

Through the site, you can either opt-out for five years or forever. Hopefully, it'll work. I receive two or three offers a day.

I'm installing a beta version of the CMS that I use for this site. Expect some interesting activity.

Update: I fixed the issues that prevented me from posting new entries. I'm running into problems with a subroutine in the template.pm file. At this point, it is preventing me from editing a couple of template entries (including the master index).

[This entry will expire when everything is up and running.]

This is the second in a multi-part series sharing some aspects of a retreat I made last weekend.

I am a child of the information age. I can hardly remember a time without having a computer at home. I've had a website since 1996 (wow, eleven years!) and now, working primarily with university students, I'm used to conducting most of my affairs via the Internet. Not only that, but with the instant back-and-forth, I'm used to conducting most of my affairs quickly via the Internet.

Montserrat doesn't quite work like that.

Since Camp Bapchule was canceled out from under us and suddenly I had this week free, I selected this past weekend for the retreat. There is no way to register for a retreat via their website and so I sent them an e-mail. Days passed. I thought, I should call. I did. Their voicemail system does not make it easy to figure out who you need.

"For a priest, press 1. For a staff member, press 2." Figuring the priests were not in charge of reservations, I pressed 2. "For Greg, press 1. For Luz, press 2. For so-and-son, press 3." I have no idea who to talk to (Greg would work, for future reference). I press 0 attempting to go to a receptionist.

"The operator is not available. You will be disconnected. Goodbye."

Well, okay. I wait and an e-mail finally arrives. After a couple of exchanges, which did go faster than the initial inquiry, I was in business and registered. A confirmation letter was in the mail.

The confirmation letter never arrived, but I figure I wouldn't let that stop me. I drove up to Dallas on Friday after a half-day of work. Upon my arrival, four hours later, it is obvious that somehow my reservation never quite made it in the system. Luckily, they had an extra room, but talk about a close encounter (I suggest sending something via snail mail or perhaps fax. That might be more reliable).

So far, that was my only expectation and it was met. From my uber-efficient technological background, I had the feeling something was amiss with my registration. Beyond that, I had never read about silent retreats or what they are like. I had no idea what to expect.

The retreat center is on lakefront property facing a small inlet of Lake Lewisville, just north of Dallas in a small suburb known as "Lake Dallas". Off of a two-lane road and probably half a mile from the turn, you'll see Montserrat. A 12-foot tall statue of the Sacred Heart greets visitors with their new Jesuit Spirituality Center under construction behind it. To your right, you'll see the oldest remaining structure, St. Joseph Hall. St. Joseph Hall, containing some office space and a majority of retreatant rooms, forms the close side of a quadrangle that includes Advent Hall (another dorm building), St. Ignatius Chapel, Assumption Hall (library, offices and Jesuit living quarters) and the dining hall. Beyond the quadrangle is a wide open area all the way until the lake. White chairs dot the property along with little swings, a dock and some tall birdhouses.

After we settled in, we met at an optional session led by Fr. Joe, the director of the center, introducing us to the idea of a silent retreat. This particular retreat was led by Rev. Mr. Jose Fetzer, S.J.—the "Rev. Mr." is a fancy way of saying he is a transitional deacon that will be ordained a priest sometime in the near future.

While the "standard" form of a silent retreat includes one-on-one spiritual conferences, due to numbers, this retreat includes all of the retreatants gathering together multiple times a day, in silence, to listen to a conference given by Deacon Jose. These conferences were much like an extended homily on a particular subject, complete with notes. The conferences were offered as a "buffet"—a number of choices laid out before us. Individually, we can take what we will from the buffet and use it in our reflections.

The part of a silent retreat that concerned me the most would be the silence. Honestly, when was the last time did I shut off my phone for the entire weekend, much less not speak all weekend? I truly don't know if this has happened before in my life!

Lucky for me, so I thought, the retreat only would last just under 48 hours.

Over the next few days, I hope to share some aspects of a retreat I made last weekend. This first part looks at my decision to attend the retreat.

For some time now, I've been thinking to myself, "Self—you need to go on a retreat. You need to do something for your spiritual life." This was true.

While yes, I work at a church 40+ hours a week and I have the Blessed Sacrament mere feet from my workspace, this does not automatically equal a perfect spiritual life. While volunteering at a church may (and should) be a spiritually-rewarding activity, working for a church, at times, becomes work in the stereotypical way. "Man, I have to get up and go to work. I just want to go back to bed." or "Ugh, it is 3 pm. Why can't the day just end?!" That's no way to think about church! However, when you're always at church, it comes with the territory.

Over the two years I've worked at the University Catholic Center, I've transitioned myself from being a student-staff member to now, just a staff member. In other words, I used to "work" some events and participate, as a student, in others. I let Catholic campus ministry do its job on me as it should a student. Over the past six months, while this transition was at the forefront of my mind, I began to participate less and work more.

It is completely expected and normal. I was in my fifth year of studies as an undergraduate at The University and I was already working full-time, whether or not that is how my position was "advertised". As young freshmen walk in the door, I was constantly reminded that I'm that "old guy" that everyone knows as being around forever. As a staff member, however, the dynamic is different. I'm able to engage in ministry in new and profound ways as I'm able to relate to the students on a quasi-peer level while also being able to challenge them in ways that a peer usually can't do. While a student, it was important to be friends with everyone. As a staff member, I'm still friends with everyone, but that isn't the chief concern and a status that comes after working with them, ministering with them and helping them realize their potential as leaders and ministers in the Church.

Long story short, I stopped actively seeking the fulfillment of my spiritual needs. Over the last few months, I've toyed with the idea of going on various retreats, participating in various programs geared toward my location on this spiritual journey and the overall need to engage my own quest for God.

Through all of the options (and there are many!), I discerned to attend a silent retreat, in the Ignatian model of the Spiritual Exercises, at the Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House located north of Dallas on Lake Lewisville. In fairness to all of the other options, I had visited Montserrat last month when I went with Vanessa to a speaking engagement she had hosted at the retreat center and we learned of an open couples-friendly retreat. So far, most of the retreat I had researched were single-sex, so an option that allowed us both to go was appealing.

As fate had it, Vanessa's cousin (and now her Goddaughter) was going to be baptized the same weekend so she flew out to join her family and I made the drive to Dallas.

I think some of the questions were unfair or misleading, but I can't argue with the results! ;-)

You scored as Roman Catholic, You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you. Roman Catholic 100% Neo orthodox 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Classical Liberal 46% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Modern Liberal 29% Reformed Evangelical 21% Fundamentalist 7% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Pope Bendict XVI is going to announce the first Pauline year. The Church is known for dedicating years toward various themes; we've had many Marian years, years dedicated to the Eucharist or the Rosary, but now, to the Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul.

St. Paul, who is turning the ripe old age of 2,000, will be the focus of a year starting June 29, 2008, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul and ending on the same feast in 2009. No information has been released on what type of events the Vatican will be hosting for the year.

The Paulist Fathers, who look to St. Paul as their patron, will be the midst of celebrating their 150th anniversary.

I like it when things work together.

A story in today's Austin American-Statesman pointed out something I didn't realize: this weekend, the Republic of Texas Bike Rally and the Austin Pride Parade, celebrating gay, lesbian and transgendered folks, are both holding their celebrations in Austin.

When I say "bike rally", I mean big Harley-Davidson-riding, leather-wearing bikers.

In any other city, it would probably be a big problem since, from what I understand, bikers aren't the most pro-gay demographic group in the world. I suppose the two groups are mostly mutually-exclusive so who would have noticed the conflict? ::wink:: The newspaper article is interesting as it also adds that gay bikers do not believe they could be fully open as homosexual among other bikers.

Tomorrow, the Diocese of Austin will be ordaining three seminaries to the transitional diaconate. These three men will serve as a deacon for the next year or so before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Austin. All are welcome to join the Diocese in this celebration at St. Mary's Cathedral at 10 a.m.

Next Saturday, two deacons will be ordained priests at St. Margaret Mary in Cedar Park. I'll be in Houston so I will not be able to pray with the Church for the two soon-to-be priests.

I've never participated in an ordination to the Order of Deacons before so I'm curious to see the differences in the rites in person. The one priestly ordination I've attended was the 2006 ordination of Fr. Jamie Baca, C.S.P. at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in New York City.

The Rights of Catholics in the Church

by James A. Coriden

The work, by Rev. James Cordien, is obviously the work of a scholar of canon law. While very factual, the presentation is dry. At the end of the discussion in each section, Cordien adds needed flavor through a case study.

While the presentation is dry, the work is a comprehensive look at the rights of Catholics in Church (true to the name!) while admitting that these rights are not always respected. The sense from the author is that as the Church adapts more the notion of "rights of the faithful", some of the difficulty is presented by the Church, through her priests or bishops or through the institutions of appeal or lack thereof.

In many sectors of the Church, the faithful are sadly believe that "Father is always right", no matter the situation. This work brings to light many of the rights that I personally was not fully versed on, such as the right to educate children or for religious formation. Some rights, like the right to form assemblies of the faithful, are more well-known through their fruits, the many lay association movements that now exist in the Church. Other rights, such as the right to receive the sacraments should be explored in greater depth--many pastors prohibit individuals from marrying because of parish "registration", something not foreseen by the Church.

The work is divided into three broad sections: "An Overview of Rights in the Church", a section that looks at the historical development of rights and freedoms in the Church, from the apostles to the revised 1983 Code of Canon Law. The meat of the book is found in the second section, "The Rights of Catholics in the Church". This 100-page section speaks of twenty-eight rights identified from the Code of Canon Law by the author broken into relatively easy to understand sections that follow a logical order. Many of these discussions overlap since many of the rights are rooted in common themes, especially the active participation of the faithful in the life and ministry of the Chuch. The final section, "Limitations On and Defense of Rights in the Church", after acknowledging the rights, explores the limitations and nature of appealing when a person's rights are denied.

All in all, I give this book three stars for "I liked it". I probably won't read it cover-to-cover again, but it'll stay in my reference collection and add to my understanding of canon law. I do hope the author completes a second volume discussing the obligations, the flip side of the rights coin, of Catholics in the Church.