The West Wing's "Top Catholic"

You might not know the figure standing behind President Obama by sight... but when the Commander-in-Chief seeks to speak Catholic, odds are the result's an echo of Denis McDonough's voice.

The finding once noted 'round these parts, the 40 year-old Deputy National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff at the National Security Council was just one White House adviser who Religion News Service's Dan Burke profiled among the members of Obama's "spiritual cabinet":

When Denis McDonough was in eighth grade, he heard his older brother, a Catholic priest, deliver a homily entirely in Spanish. McDonough soon learned Spanish himself, and became an expert on bridging cultural gaps.

Now... McDonough is working to strengthen international bonds strained by the Bush administration’s go-it-alone approach to foreign policy.

Traveling by the president’s side on overseas missions, the 40-year-old Minnesotan is a crucial player in Obama’s quest to engage Muslims, find common cause with the Vatican, and restore the country’s moral authority.

McDonough helped craft Obama’s landmark address to Muslims last June in Cairo, and the robust defense of American foreign policy—including the waging of “just wars”—during the president’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Norway.

A key component of Obama’s foreign policy is the Catholic concept of the common good, McDonough said. “It’s a general posture of seeking engagement to find mutual interests, but also realizes that there is real evil in the world that we must confront,” he said in an interview at his West Wing office. “The president also recognizes that we are strongest when we work together with our allies.”

In addition, McDonough has schooled Obama on the internal politics of the Catholic Church, an institution he knows intimately. His brother Kevin was vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, another brother is a priest-turned-theologian, and his best friend in Washington is a Redemptorist priest. A graduate of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., he helped vet a young theologian on the faculty, Miguel Diaz, to become ambassador to the Vatican last May.

Likewise among Burke's list of ad intra luminaries sought out by the Prez: DC's retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick -- now a globe-trotting goodwill ambassador for causes of all sorts -- who directly preceded Obama as Notre Dame's commencement speaker in 2008.

This weekend, in keeping with 130 years of tradition, the Golden Dome will announce the 2010 winner of the Stateside church's most prestigious award -- the university's Laetare Medal, declined last year by Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon amid the heated protest over Notre Dame's decision to award an honorary doctorate to the President given Obama's stance in support of legal abortion.

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Benedict's "Defining Moment"?

Earlier today, an impeccably-briefed friend in Rome closed a rushed note with an ominous take: "The implosion has begun...."

No doubt, that assessment might be a tad much for some. Still, with the president of the German bishops due to hold crisis talks with his countryman-Pope tomorrow morning, Austria's senior churchman -- once the lead editor of the first universal catechism in five centuries -- calling for an "unflinching examination" of (among other things) priestly celibacy in the face of scandal, the Holy See's own newspaper on an astonishing front-page tear and, even if not personally responsible nor implicated, the specter of revelations reaching to the august choir led for three decades by B16's own brother, it's safe to say that, as never before and all in a matter of days, the "Long Lent" wrought by the global uncovering of sexual abuse by clergy -- and, above all, its woeful mishandling by church institutions -- has landed on the Vatican's doorstep with a seismic, shattering thud.

Put bluntly, as if there was any chance before, there's no going back now. And compared to the developments that've rocked the church in most of the English-speaking world these last two decades, the Holy See's response -- and the attention it's devoted -- to the developments over recent days has arguably been unlike anything even longtime observers have ever seen.

What'll happen come tomorrow morning, when the pontiff receives the head of the Deutschebench, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, remains wide open... yet in the meanwhile, among others, Reuters' Tom Heneghan and The Times of London's Richard Owen highlight the stakes, the latter going so far as to declare that "how [Benedict] responds" to the quickly-unfolding crisis in his native heart of Europe could be -- at least, as external perception goes -- "the defining moment of his pontificate." (For good measure, the conservative church commentator Bob Moynihan -- a veteran of the Vatican beat -- echoed the point earlier today, noting in his latest e.mail dispatch that "the battle occurring right now is over how history will judge Benedict's papacy.")

Ergo, welcome to uncharted territory, folks. Above all, hold fast and pray... and, hard as it might be, stay tuned.

PHOTO: Reuters

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On Sticking With What You're Good At....

Lest anyone thought otherwise, even when the postings aren't humming along, your narrator's always trying to figure out ways to make the page better and make it all come to life a little more.

Along these lines, just spent the last two hours experimenting with a new platform that seemed to be worth integrating... and after hitting wall after wall along the way, I feel like I've been electrocuted.

Or, at least, something of the sort.

Keep the prayers comin', gang -- as ever, we try harder 'round here... and, well, hopefully the result's somewhat sufficient.

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Joemas Gifts: Saintly Treats... and Friday Meats

Lest anyone's tempted to think otherwise, be forewarned: your monitor isn't edible.

As always, the Green Beer, Irish potatoes -- and, of course, Corned Beef -- of St Paddy's Day might be taking the dominant line as feast-day food goes this time of year... but for the Northeastern Italians among us (and those elsewhere lucky enough to have the goods shipped their way by friends), these mid-March days are all about (Spring Training and) the Zeppoli, the cream-filled cakes shown above that traditionally herald St Joseph's Day, observed annually on the 19th.

While the lines outside the South Pharaohtown bakeries are already out the doors for The Most Blessed of All Pastries, this year's celebration of Jesus's foster-father (and the church's universal patron, to boot) brings an added bonus: given its place on a Lenten Friday, the penitential practice is globally superseded -- that is, the obligation to abstain from meat disappears.

The provision for the switch-up comes courtesy of Canon 1251, which stipulates that "abstinence from meat is to be observed... unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday." For the record, the rule also applies to next year's Annunciation Day, 25 March, which will likewise come at the workweek's end.

Admittedly, this isn't as fun as covering the "Corned Beef Indult" -- the customary roster of dioceses that relax the no-meat rule within their boundaries whenever St Patrick's Day falls on Friday. Said blessed event won't occur again 'til 2017.

Still, lest anyone was unaware of the Joe's Day reprieve, there you have it... and let the carnivores among us rejoice.

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Vatican Daily on Abuse: "Where Were the Women?"

With the European outbreak of sex-abuse scandals turning a renewed focus on the Vatican and its response, today's edition of the "Papal Paper" -- the Holy See's daily L'Osservatore Romano -- features a significant, prominently-placed piece on the presence of women (or lack thereof) in church governance... and how, even with full regard for the integrity of orders as-is, an enhanced adherence to papal teaching on a female role in the "decision-making spheres" could've impacted matters to a more salutary end.

Appearing on the front page and above the fold -- the spot reserved for the paper's lead article -- the commentary was written by L'Osservatore's leading contributor of late, the historian/journalist Lucetta Scaraffia. As if the news context wasn't appropriate enough, the piece ran just on the heels of Monday's observance of the 100th International Women's Day.

Given its import, below is a full translation of Scaraffia's article, with thanks to the house's most cherished Sister-collaborator for quickly turning around an impeccable edit.

* * *
Women and men in today's church

A collaboration ancient and new

by Lucetta Scaraffia

The changes in Western society that have allowed women to occupy spaces previously reserved only to men -- changes that are influencing other cultures in the world -- have provoked a revolution in the configuration of gender roles, also placing before the Catholic church the question of enlarging the role of women. It brings up a problem of equality on which the Christian tradition has been quite clear since its origins, sparking an authentic revolution in the clashes over ways of conceiving sexual differences. In its time, this radical change originated contemporaneously with the feminist revolution in Western society. But if, in centuries past, the church showed itself more open than the secular world in confronting the issue of woman, today the situation is turned on its head, and the external and internal pressure is strong and urgent for the Catholic world to tackle it.

Until now, the Catholic response has been articulated above all on the theoretical plain, whereas in secular society changes were theorized as they were taking place and, therefore, there was little awareness of the risks that many of these revolutionary innovations could bring about, for example, the demographic collapse. The Church’s posture offers an initial advantage, because the trajectory by which it must move to a greater feminine presence is clear: John Paul II's Mulieris dignitatem indeed reminded us that women must be attributed roles of equal importance, albeit of different nature, to those of men in the life of the Church, a principle likewise recalled by Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in his Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and the World.

The problem, however, is that this important theoretical articulation was not also followed up with as clear a transformation in the female participation in the life of the church, or at least, a participation which, even if significantly broadened, has been almost always kept outside the spheres of decision-making, and the areas of cultural expression. It can be understood, then, that the stress on exclusion -- often without merit and subtle though it is -- can be felt. It is not just a problem of social justice, or of "equal opportunity," for the church thus often risks not yielding fruit or of making a contribution of prime importance.

One example suffices: in the sorrowing and shameful situations in which the molestation and sexual abuse by ecclesiastics on the young entrusted to them come to light, we can hypothesize that a greater, non-subordinated feminine presence would have been able to rip the veil of the code of masculine silence ["omertà"] that in the past often covered over in silence the denunciation of misdeeds. Indeed, women, religious and lay, would be by nature more inclined to the defense of the young in cases of sexual abuse, ridding the church of the evils that these guilty attitudes have procured for it.

In some way, this was perceived in the second half of the nineteenth century by Daniele Comboni, who was beatified and canonized by John Paul II. Assuming the highly-difficult task of organizing the Christian missions in the present-day Sudan, where almost no European had previously adventured, he quickly understood that his project couldn't be realized without the presence of women religious. He sought then, amid thousands of difficulties, to found a congregation of female missionaries prepared to place themselves in very savage and dangerous locales. His choice was motivated by many reasons: religious women, in fact, were tougher and inserted themselves more easily into different cultural contexts.

The great missionary was likewise convinced that the presence of Western women alongside that of his male missionaries would help to maintain appropriate behavior, and above all would keeep them from violating the vow of chastity, a danger not infrequent in isolated places, where sexual promiscuity, and above all power-roles in interacting with women and children rendered the temptation likely. Comboni wrote, in fact, that the sister is "essential" for the missions, because "she is a defense and a guarantee for the missionary." This historical example indicates a possibility, realizable among many others, of the collaboration and reciprocal aid that women and men can exchange in the life of the church in the service of the human person. In fact, it's almost non existent among congregations that along with a male branch also exists a female one: a sign of that intuition that foresees in the specific role of the consecrated woman a gift that only she is able to bring.

* * *

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For Big D, High Hats

In just the latest sign of the church's rise in the Lone Star State, the Pope has named twin auxiliaries for the 1.2 million-member diocese of Dallas, which has grown sixfold since 1990.

Tapped to aid Bishop Kevin Farrell (who's now blogging) at the helm of the Big D church, Fr J. Douglas Deshotel and Msgr Mark Seitz are the first auxiliaries given the diocese since the boom.

Both born elsewhere, the duo have served their entire priesthoods in pastoral, seminary and administrative posts across North Texas: Bishop-elect Deshotel, 58, is currently Farrell's vicar-general, while Bishop-elect Seitz, 56 -- a specialist in bioethics -- has led a North Dallas parish since 2003.

Until Bishop Joe Vasquez's January elevation to Austin, Dallas had been the largest Stateside diocese without an auxiliary; since then, the distinction's belonged to the 1.3 million-member archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, whose already-pending petition for one assistant bishop was upgraded to two following the 52 year-old prelate's appointment to lead Texas' capital diocese.

Before this morning's moves, the last time a US diocese received a double-shot of auxiliaries came in 2006, when Bishops John Dooher and Robert Henessey were named to aid Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap.

As ever, more to come.

SVILUPPO: Statements and all, the Dallas diocese's page already has a portal up and running on the auxiliaries-elect... alongside announcing their joint ordination for Tuesday, 27 April at the city's Catedral Santuario de Guadalupe (above left).

SVILUPPO 2: Per custom, the Appointment Day presser has been scheduled for 11am local time... and in a useful bit of context, the Morning News notes that Seitz had "made headlines" last November for donating a kidney to one of his parishioners.

"We follow the model of one who literally gave his life for us," he said at the time.

"If he can lay down his life, I can give away a kidney."

Dubbed "a popular and energetic priest" by the Big D daily, the bishop-elect dabbles in roller-blading... and his statement today features an according tone:

When Bishop Farrell informed me that I was chosen to be an auxiliary bishop he prefaced it by saying that he was about to turn my life upside down. He certainly spoke the truth. From my earliest memories I have felt drawn to the priesthood. Nothing seemed like it could compare to the chance to give my life to God in this way and to serve people by offering them the greatest of His gifts. Maybe it was a result of growing up as the eldest of ten. Parish communities felt like home to me.

After high school in Wisconsin, where I was born, I found myself here in Irving at Holy Trinity Seminary. When it came time to make a decision as to which diocese I would commit to serve, I realized I had fallen in love with the Diocese of Dallas, a small young church, that was growing rapidly and that had imbibed the same never-say-never, can-do spirit you will find all through north Texas.

While in these past nearly 30 years of priestly ministry I never had a doubt that I was called to parish ministry. For all of its daily challenges and trials this service has brought me great joy.

But God is the Lord of my life. I have learned through the years that following Christ is an adventure filled with totally unexpected dips and turns. When you give your life to His service you better learn to enjoy the ride.

So now, as the Bishop predicted, I am upside down. I trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in this shocking decision of the Holy Father. I want to assure His Holiness and my ordinary, Bishop Farrell, that I will serve with all that is in me.

Returning to the diocese at large, in an Election Sunday report on his aforementioned blog, the K.Far noted that the Dallas church will welcome a staggering 3,000 adults into the fold come Easter -- 800 catechumens, 2,200 candidates.

At Easter 2008, just two parishes in the Big D diocese received a combined 500 adults. As the bishop subsequently said in an interview, while the widely-circulated Pew report released earlier that year had "valid points" on the spiraling decline facing much of the Stateside church, "it does not apply to the experience in Dallas."

And, well, 'nuff said.

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60s' "New Church" = B16's "Anarchy"

Currently amid a long series of Wednesday talks on the church's great spiritual lights through history, five years into his pontificate it's become pretty clear that, while they're rich spiritual texts, the topics of B16's General Audiences find their greatest news-value not in their chosen topics, but the tangential zingers he'll throw out there from time to time, with little to no warning whatsoever.

Having recently covered the founders of the Franciscan and Dominican families, today saw the Pope return for a second week of reflection on St Bonaventure -- the 13th century minister-general of the Franciscans, later a cardinal -- who a young Fr Joseph Ratzinger once studied extensively, recalling the time with "a certain nostalgia" in introducing his first catechesis on the saint last week.

That said, along the way at this morning's session, Benedict lobbed another of the aforementioned zingers -- this time dealing with the perception and legacy of no less than the Second Vatican Council....

Here it is in full, in a house translation of the Vatican's released text:

"At this point maybe it's useful to say that even today exist visions by which the history of the church in the second millennium was one of permanent decline; some see this decline beginning shortly after the New Testament. In reality, "Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt," the work of Christ never recedes, but progresses. What would the church be without the new spirituality of the Cistercians, the Franciscans and Dominicans, the spirituality of St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, and so forth? Even today merits this affirmation: "Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt," they work continues. St Bonaventure teaches us both a necessary, even severe, discernment in sober realism and an opening to the new charisms given by Christ, in the Holy Spirit, to his church. And while this idea of decline repeats itself, there's also the opposite idea, this "spiritualistic utopianism," that is likewise repeated. Indeed, we know that after the Second Vatican Council some were convinced that all would be made new, that another church was being made, that the pre-conciliar church was finished and we would have another, totally "other" [church]. An anarchic utopianism! Thanks be to God the wise helmsmen of the barque of Peter, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, from one side defended the novelties of the Council, and from the other, at the same time, defended the uniqueness and the continuity of the church, which is always the same church of sinners and always a place of grace."

Beyond the obvious, a key piece of context here is the ongoing Vatican reconciliation talks with the Society of St Pius X, the Swiss-based traditionalist group which has long rejected the council's teachings on, among other things, the liturgy, ecumenism, religious freedom and, of course, the church's stance toward Judaism.

Tip to Tornielli.

PHOTO: AP

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Bearing "Hope" -- "Not Last Rites" -- Tim Takes Albany

As photos and the news go, the one above is... well, complete the sentence.

Amid a furious storm over Gov. David Paterson's reported intervention in an aide's domestic violence case -- and growing calls for the Harlem Democrat's resignation as a result -- the bishops of New York State swooped into Albany these last 48 hours for their annual Public Policy Day, the traditional lobby-press of the Empire State's leadership on the church's issues of concern.

The controversy over Paterson's future happened to coincide with Archbishop Timothy Dolan's first turn at the helm of the capital tradition... then again, having mastered the art of low-key engagement with public officials at the quiet give-and-take sessions on church teaching he happily set up for local politicos in his former charge of Milwaukee, the Gotham prelate toed a careful line on the fracas, posting the following on his blog tonight (emphases original):

One of the highlights of [yesterday] was joining with my brother bishops of the state for a meeting with Governor David Paterson. Many reporters stopped me during the day to ask for my thoughts on the difficulties currently facing the Governor; I was pleased to be able to tell the Governor at the very beginning of our meeting that while we bishops were there to discuss some very serious public policy issues, we were, first and foremost, pastors, and wanted him to know of our prayers for him. He seemed genuinely grateful....

The Governor was also very properly concerned over the enormous fiscal pressures currently facing our state; we bishops, who are all facing the same pressures in our dioceses, could certainly relate. While we presented several concrete proposals to him, our underlying message for each of them was the same: during tough economic times, we must do all that we can to make certain that the poor and vulnerable among us are protected. We must not let the fiscal problems of the state further hurt those who are already suffering. I believe the Governor shares our concern.

One other highlight from last night. I had the pleasure of attending the annual Irish Legislators Dinner, and I told those who were present of my admiration for them and the work that they do. Public service, I said, is a noble profession, but there always seems to be those who seek to drag down those in public life (some deservedly so). Two qualities are hallmarks of the Irish people: Hope and helping others.

I urged our public officials, hundreds of them there, not to lose hope, even in tough times, a period of real crisis here in Albany. The green of Saint Patrick’s Day, I observed, symbolizes hope, the rebirth of spring, the triumph of life over death. Don’t lose hope, I exhorted them.

And here, video....

* * *

With 11 months at 452 Madison under his belt and recent interviews seeing the Tenth Archbishop starting to take stands on national issues, just seven days and a couple hours separate us from what could be considered the most prominent relaunch of "Dolan 2.0" -- the Big Apple's venerable St Patrick's Day parade, its draw of a million-plus revelers along Fifth Avenue multiplied by wall-to-wall TV coverage next Wednesday, much of it focused on the front steps of St Patrick's Cathedral, where the quintessential Irish cleric will be holding court at the fore of the reviewing stand for the first time following the traditional kickoff Mass inside.

Right now, there's probably no hotter ticket in Gotham than The House That Hughes Built come a week from tomorrow... even so, as Our Sunday Visitor's Mary DeTurris Poust reported earlier today, the rumored cardinal-in-waiting dedicated his Tuesday morning to laying out the "six pillars" of Catholic social teaching for the crowd of 1,200 who took part in the lobbying day:

1. God comes first. "His ways, His law have dominion."

2. The innate dignity of every individual human person. Every man and woman is made in the image and likeness of God and has an "eternal destiny" and a "divine character."

3. The common good is always normative. "We are never in it just for myself but for ourselves."

4. Solidarity. "We are members of a family, and we have a special duty to the poor among us."

5. Subsidiarity. "One of the geniuses of Catholic social teaching is the closer you are to the grassroots, the better you are."

6. Supreme duty to bring values, God's truth and our principles into the public square. There can be no "cleavage" between what we believe and how we act.

PHOTO: Nate Whitchurch

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"The Very Serious Question"

Building on the post below on the widening revelations of sex abuse in church institutions in Germany, Holland and now Austria, a fresh-off-the-wire piece from Catholic News Service reports that, in comments published today in a German paper, the Pope's brother Msgr Georg Ratzinger said that though he "had no idea that molestation was taking place" prior to his time as head of the Regensburger Domspatzen, "I'm deeply sorry for anyone whose spiritual or physical integrity was injured by abuse.

"Today, such things are condemned even more because of greater sensitivities," the Papstbruder told the Neue Passauer Presse, adding that "I also condemn them, and simultaneously ask pardon from the victims."

Meanwhile, a significant response to the wave of allegations likewise emerged today from the Holy See.

In a statement released via the Press Office and Vatican Radio, the Sala Stampa director Fr Federico Lombardi SJ said the following:

"For some months now the very serious question of the sexual abuse of minors in institutions run by ecclesiastical bodies and by people with positions of responsibility within the Church, priests in particular, has been investing the Church and society in Ireland. The Holy Father recently demonstrated his own concern, particularly through two meetings: firstly with high-ranking members of the episcopate, then with all the ordinaries. He is also preparing the publication of a letter on the subject for the Irish Church.

"But over recent weeks the debate on the sexual abuse of minors has also involved the Church in certain central European countries (Germany, Austria and Holland). And it is on this development that we wish to make some simple remarks.

"The main ecclesiastical institutions concerned - the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference - have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago. By doing so they have approached the matter 'on the right foot', because the correct starting point is recognition of what happened and concern for the victims and the consequences of the acts committed against them. Moreover, they have re-examined the extant 'Directives' and have planned new operative guidelines which also aim to identify a prevention strategy, so that everything possible may be done to ensure that similar cases are not repeated in the future.

"These events mobilise the Church to find appropriate responses and should be placed in a more wide-ranging context that concerns the protection of children and young people from sexual abuse in society as a whole. Certainly, the errors committed in ecclesiastical institutions and by Church figures are particularly reprehensible because of the Church's educational and moral responsibility, but all objective and well-informed people know that the question is much broader, and concentrating accusations against the Church alone gives a false perspective. By way of example, recent data supplied by the competent authorities in Austria shows that, over the same period of time, the number of proven cases in Church institutions was 17, while there were 510 other cases in other areas. It would be as well to concern ourselves also with them.

"In Germany initiatives are now rightly being suggested, promoted by the Ministry for the Family, to call a 'round table' of the various educational and social organisations in order to consider the question from an appropriate and comprehensive viewpoint. The Church is naturally ready to participate and become involved and, perhaps, her own painful experience may also be a useful contribution for others. Chancellor Angela Merkel had justly recognised the seriousness and constructive approach shown by the German Church.

"In order to complete these remarks, it is as well to recall once again that the Church exists as part of civil society and shoulders her own responsibilities in society, but she also has her own specific code, the 'canonical code', which reflects her spiritual and sacramental nature and in which, therefore, judicial and penal procedures are different (for example, they contain no provision for pecuniary sanctions or for the deprivation of freedom, but for impediment in the exercise of the ministry and privation of rights in the ecclesiastical field, etc.). In the ambit of canon law, the crime of the sexual abuse of minors has always been considered as one of the most serious of all, and canonical norms have constantly reaffirmed this, in particular the 2001 Letter 'De delictis gravioribus', sometimes improperly cited as the cause of a 'culture of silence'. Those who know and understand its contents, are aware that it was a decisive signal to remind the episcopate of the seriousness of the problem, as well as a real incentive to draw up operational guidelines to face it.

"In conclusion, although the seriousness of the difficulties the Church is going through cannot be denied, we must not fail to do everything possible in order to ensure that, in the end, they bring positive results, of better protection for infancy and youth in the Church and in society, and the purification of the Church herself".

As previously noted, on Friday the Pope will receive the head of the German bishops, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg and Breisgau, to be briefed in full on the crisis and the local response.

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Quote of the Day

“I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry.

A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important.”

--Pope Benedict XVI
Interview with German Press
Castel Gandolfo
5 August 2006

Suffice it to say, on looking around, it just seems the reminder could be of use.

PHOTO: Reuters

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"The Goal of Ecumenism": Levada on Anglicans

Fresh off presiding and preaching at last week's dedication of a new Nebraska seminary chapel for the traditionalist Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, the church's "Grand Inquisitor" -- California's own Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- went North, using a Saturday address at a dinner in Kingston to offer his most in-depth comments to date on Anglicanorum coetibus, the Vatican's controversial new pathway for groups of disaffected Anglicans to swim the Tiber whilst maintaining significant elements of the patrimony of the English church.

Reflecting the significance of Levada's remarks, a transcript of his text has been posted by our friends at Salt + Light....

Here, but a snip from the lengthy talk:

Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism—one could put, “we phrase it that way”. Yet the very process of working towards union works a change in churches and ecclesial communities that engage one another in dialogue, in actual instances of entering into communion do indeed transform the Catholic Church by way of enrichment. Let me add right away that when I say enrichment I am referring not to any addition of essential elements of sanctification and truth to the Catholic Church. Christ has endowed her with all the essential elements. I am referring to the addition of modes of expression of these essential elements, modes which enhance everyone’s appreciation of the inexhaustible treasures bestowed on the Church by her divine founder.

The new reality of visible unity among Christians should not thought of as the coming together of disparate elements that previously had not existed in any one community. The Second Vatican Council clearly teaches that all the elements of sanctification and truth which Christ bestowed on the Church are found in the Catholic Church. What is new then is not the acquisition of something essential which had hitherto been absent. Instead, what is new is that perennial truths and elements of holiness already found in the Catholic Church are given new focus, or a different stress by the way they are lived by various groups of the faithful who are called by Christ to come together in perfect communion with one another, enjoying the bonds of creed, code, cult and charity, in diverse ways that blend harmoniously.

Since the Church is like a sacrament, she bears within herself the truth and grace of Christ. When we say that Christ reveals God, and that the Church bears the revelation of Christ in the world, we are admitting that the unenlightened human intellect is not up to the task of knowing God’s ways perfectly. We humans need revelation, enlightenment. Baptism as the foundational sacrament of Christian faith is the normal means for that enlightenment to begin to penetrate our intellects. Even so, while God in Christ has revealed as much about Himself and about our relationship to Him as we need, revealed truths about the infinite God still exceed our finite intelligence. There is always an element of mystery in our knowledge of God and God’s work. Therefore, we fully expect that, while we may accurately know what can be truthfully said, the full knowledge of what that means is enhanced by the contemplation of many groups of people on the same mystery.

This contemplation is not just an academic exercise. It is also a necessarily an exercise of worship. That is why the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium, closely associates elements of truth with elements of sanctification. Worship enables one to penetrate divine truth with the clarity of lovers, who have gotten to know their beloved, through his love of them. And worship thus impels believers to study, just as their sturdy strengthens their love of the God whose goodness they have come to learn.

Visible union with the Catholic Church does not mean absorption into a monolith, with the absorbed body being lost to the greater whole, the way a teaspoon of sugar would be lost if dissolved in a gallon of coffee. Rather, visible union with the Catholic Church can be compared to an orchestral ensemble. Some instruments can play all the notes, like a piano. There is no note that a piano has that a violin or a harp or a flute or a tuba does not have. But when all these instruments play the notes that the piano has, the notes are enriched and enhanced. The result is symphonic, full communion. One can perhaps say that the ecumenical movement wishes to move from cacophony to symphony, with all playing the same notes of doctrinal clarity, the same euphonic chords of sanctifying activity, observing the rhythm of Christian conduct in charity, and filling the world with the beautiful and inviting sound of the Word of God. While the other instruments may tune themselves according to the piano, when playing in concert there is no mistaking them for the piano. It is God’s will that those to whom the Word of God is addressed, the world, that is, should hear one pleasing melody made splendid by the contributions of many different instruments.

The Catholic Church approaches ecumenical dialogue convincedm as the Second Vatican Council’s degree of ecumenism states, that, and I quote here: “Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God.” (Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio)

She believes that she is the mystical body of Christ and she is convinced that the Church of Christ subsists in her because she recognizes that, while she is like the piano that has all of the notes, that is, all of the elements of sanctification and truth, many of those notes are shared with other communities and those communities often have beautiful ways of sounding the notes that can lead to a heightened appreciation of truth and holiness, both within the Catholic Church and within her partners in the ecumenical endeavour....

To return to our earlier metaphor, people long for discordant tones and voices to be harmonized, united, and when an individual or, indeed, a community, is ready for unity with the Church of Christ that subsists in the Catholic Church, it would be a betrayal of Catholic ecumenical principles and goals to refuse to embrace them and to embrace them with all the distinctive gifts that enrich the Church, that help her approach the world symphonically, sounding together or united. Just as there is one Saviour, so there is one universal sacrament of Salvation, the Church. The Eastern Churches that are united to Rome are enjoined to preserve their distinct institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions and way of Christian life. By so doing, the Second Vatican Council teaches they do not harm the Church’s unity, but rather, make it manifest.

The experience we are embarking on with Anglicanorum coetibus promises also to make the Church’s fundamental unity manifest by adding to her life distinctive expressions of Christ’s gifts of holiness and truth. Nevertheless, a strict comparison between the Anglicans and the Eastern Church and Catholic Churches would not be correct, I hasten to add. The Eastern Churches, like the Ukrainian Catholic Church so numerous in Canada, are in the fullest sense of the term “Churches” since they have valid apostolic succession and thus valid Eucharist. They are therefore called Churches “sui juris” because they have their own legal structures of governance, all while maintaining bonds of hierarchical communion with the Bishop of Rome. The term Church is applied differently to the Anglican Communion for reasons rehearsed over a century ago by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae curae. So the legal framework for Anglican communities seeking full communion precisely as communities would be different from that of Eastern Churches. They remain a part of the Western Latin Church tradition. That is why the Holy Father has decided to erect personal ordinarities in order to provide pastoral care for such groups who wish to share their gifts corporately with their Catholic sisters and brothers and with whom they have shared a long history before the Reformation in the 16th century.

PHOTO: Jason Steinberg/San Francisco Sentinel

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South by Vásquez

Live from the Austin afterparty... mariachis.

Among other notes, in an unprecedented tribute to what's recently become the Lone Star state's largest religious group, Texas Gov. Rick Perry was in the front pew at today's three-hour Mass, fresh off winning a bruising primary fight.

And speaking of the "triangle" and its ascendant crossover crop, a Lenten message from Bishop Danny Flores of Brownsville:


Almost 90% of its home-Valley's total population Catholic, one notable attribute of the million-member border diocese is worth recalling: just under half the entire Brownsville church is younger than age 25.

And with its freshly-installed ordinary all of 48, another distinction on the wider front... the next-youngest prelate among the heads of Stateside Catholicism's 15 largest sees is none less than the just-turned-60 year-old archbishop of New York.

Even money says not even LA's gonna change that... or even if it does, not by terribly much.

Just like the church it serves, the top of the bench is undergoing "the greatest change we'll see in our lives"... lest anyone's still looking toward it, well, it's already here -- and it's begun with twin appointments in Texas.

For all the rest, as always, stay tuned.

PHOTOS: Loggiarazzi(1); Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman(2)

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Papstbruder... Witness?

In a development eerily reminiscent of what 2002 unleashed on these shores, recent weeks have found the German church suddenly engulfed in a wave of allegations of sexual abuse going back decades, the revelations appearing to cast an ever-wider net.

Sparked by a January report in Der Spiegel -- which chronicled the "systematic" abuse of close to 20 onetime students at an elite Berlin school run by the Jesuits -- the allegations currently number over 150, mostly from boarding schools operated by orders in the 1970s and '80s, with new complaints "surfacing almost daily."

After the German bishops issued a "deeply shocked" apology at their winter meeting last month, the Deutschebench's president, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg and Breislau, is scheduled to meet with Benedict XVI on Friday and brief the pontiff on the crisis. Yet in the meanwhile, arguably the most personal locale of any abuse case to date for B16 has emerged as two allegations were lodged late last week by a former member of the Regensburger Domspatzen -- the famous boys' choir of the Bavarian cathedral led by the Pope's brother, Msgr Georg Ratzinger, from 1964-94.

While the claims predate Georg Ratzinger's arrival as director by several years, the Papstbruder openly stated that he'd "certainly be available to testify" should he be called upon by local prosecutors, but indicated that he had "no knowledge whatsoever of punishable actions" in a Saturday interview with Rome's La Repubblica. (The duo still enjoying an immensely close relationship, the brothers Ratzinger are shown above left following a January 2009 Sistine Chapel concert to celebrate Msgr Georg's 85th birthday.)

With the abuse of the one choir member said to have been committed by two clerics, the cases in question took place in or around 1958. According to a letter released by Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg in the wake of the allegations, both of the cited clerics were subsequently removed from their posts and jailed on charges.

For its part, the "innocence of Georg" was affirmed by the Holy See, as was its intent for "full clarity" on the cases. In a statement run in Sunday's L'Osservatore Romano and reported on by Catholic News Service, the Vatican backed up Muller's push for openness, saying that cases needed to be examined "with decisiveness and openness" and that the church's primary interest was "to render justice to the victims."

Along these lines, the same Repubblica piece that featured Msgr Georg Ratzinger's response saw the Roman Curia's second-ranking German prelate saying "enough" and calling for a "serious housecleaning" in the church.

Soon to retire as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper termed the revealed abuses "execrable and unpardonable," saying that they must be "pursued with absolute firmness."

The escalating German reports were just one aspect of a particularly difficult news-week for the Vatican; abuse claims by the dozens began to emerge in the Netherlands following press coverage of decades-old misconduct at a religious school there, and a stunning story unfolded behind the walls as a Gentleman of His Holiness -- the Vatican corps of distinguished laymen who serve as ushers at papal liturgies and in the Pope's Apartment -- was dismissed from his post after his involvement was uncovered "in what prosecutors believe was an organized network of gay prostitution," one that reportedly included the procurement of seminarians for the married gentleman-usher.

As the Italian vaticanista Paolo Rodari put it late in the week, the developments made for "Caos Vaticano" -- "Chaos in the Vatican."

SVILUPPO: Catholic News Service reports that, in comments run on Tuesday, 9 March, in a German paper, Msgr Ratzinger said that, though he "had no idea that molestation was taking place... I'm deeply sorry for anyone whose spiritual or physical integrity was injured by abuse.

"Today, such things are condemned even more because of greater sensitivities," the retired choirmaster told the Neue Passauer Presse, adding that "I also condemn them, and simultaneously ask pardon from the victims."

PHOTO: Reuters

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In Austin, "Crossover" Day

Later this week, the mother of all indie music festivals -- South by Southwest -- opens for the 24th time in Austin... today, however, sees an ecclesial opening act in Texas' capital: the installation of its new bishop.

Slated to begin at 2pm Central (2000 GMT) the rites welcoming Bishop Joe Vasquez take place against the backdrop of a rapidly-growing Austin church, its current membership of over 500,000 more than twice its 1990 size, and projected to double again within the next 15 to 20 years. While much of the boom owes itself to the migration born of Central Texas' ascent as a hub of technology and commerce (and the home-base of Whole Foods), an infusion of mission-driven energy alongside the growth has added a special exuberance to the place, making the diocese a national hotspot for vocations of every sort, topped out by some 50 seminarians currently in formation and enough ordinations over recent years that its prior shepherd, now-Archbishop Greg Aymond of New Orleans, had the rare perk of telling priests applying for incardination that he had nowhere to station them.

The second of the recent "Texas triangle" of dioceses to be filled, the Austin nod fell in January to a prelate widely cited as a rising star. Now 52, Vasquez became the youngest member of the US bench on his 2002 ordination as an auxiliary of Galveston-Houston, then spent the last four years running the booming H-Town shop as Cardinal Daniel DiNardo's vicar-general.

Given the continuing waves of Hispanics coming to these shores -- and likely to become the majority bloc of the nation's 68 million Catholics within the next two decades -- the appointment to Austin highlighted Vasquez among the group of prelates possessing what's arguably the most-sought quality for no shortage of openings these days: the "crossover" abilities that result from being American-born, Hispanic-bred, Rome-trained and able to fluently engage all sides of the ecclesial divide, both ethnically and beyond.

The first Hispanic named to the Austin post, Vasquez notably comes to the leg of the "triangle" with the lowest percentage of Latinos among the recently-filled trio (some 35-40%, according to the curia there). Still, considering the traditional lead role of the capital bishop on the church's engagement with state government, the move can be considered a Roman move to highlight the community's role in the rise of Catholicism in Texas, now home to the nation's third-largest Catholic population by state after California and New York, alongside three of the Stateside church's 15 largest sees (Galveston-Houston, Dallas and Brownsville).

With St Mary's Cathedral too small to fit the invited crowd, a recently-dedicated, traditionally-designed 2,000-seat parish church will be hosting today's Mass, which'll be livestreamed through the diocesan page. For more on the nominee, recent weeks saw Vasquez profiled extensively in Austin's American-Statesman.

And lastly, the final of the three Texas rites takes place on the 25th's Annunciation Day with the ordination and installation of Bishop-elect Michael Mulvey of Corpus Christi.

Until today, Mulvey has served as administrator of the Austin church.

SVILUPPO:Lest anyone missed it the first time, our friends at CatholicTV will be re-airing today's Mass at 8pm Eastern tonight (livefeed), then keeping it on-demand in their archive of "cathedral events" from around the country.

PHOTO: Kelly West/Austin American-Statesman

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"A Brother Among Brothers": Bishops and Priests, Wilton Edition

Greetings from Baltimore -- first and forever, the cradle of the Stateside church... and, today, the backdrop of a significant talk on one of the key issues of this ecclesial moment, especially on these shores over the course of the last decade.

In the first of this year's John Carroll Lectures sponsored by the Charm City church -- all of them dedicated to the Vatican's Year of the Priest -- Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta spoke on the topic of "Bishop-Priest Relationships."

In recent years, the issue might've only made national news twice... but, indeed, it's an oft-cited concern in the trenches, and on both sides of the desk at that.

What's more, the topic's not the only aspect of note here; as president of the USCCB during the national outbreak of the clergy sex-abuse crisis in 2002, Gregory was the driving force behind the drafting of the "Dallas Charter," arguably the lead catalyst behind an increasingly fraught atmosphere between bishops and their presbyterates in many locales in the scandals' wake.

That said, Gregory enjoys a widespread affection and regard among his priests in the booming Hotlanta church... which, given recent trends, probably racked up another hundred newcomers in the hour or so it took the archbishop to give his talk.

Given the context and the interest the topic holds in the trenches, here in full are the audio of both Gregory's lecture and the subsequent (and quite interesting) Q&A period... or, for those who'd just like to scan it, the Wilt-text as prepared for delivery:

SVILUPPO: Thanks to those who wrote in saying the audio links had died... don't know why that happened, but it should be fixed now.

PHOTO: Michael Alexander/Georgia Bulletin

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Weekend Reading

And away we go... well, in a bit.



See you then, and feel free to get an early start on the questions.

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"A Man of Sorrows"

We interrupt the news-cycle for an important reminder: it's Lent, gang... and here's hoping yours is going great.

Keeping with custom, your pages' Friday chorus for these 40 Days....





Stay tuned for a "Back Page" before the day's out... and, well, more then.

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The Reign, In Spain

Defying the conventional wisdom that would've seen the invite declined in light of his expected headlining of August 2011's World Youth Day in Madrid, B16 will be making his second Pope-Trip to Spain in early November -- a two-day trek... with some notable items on the agenda.

The report from CNS:

On the first day of the trip, Pope Benedict will preside over the consecration of Barcelona's famous church, La Sagrada Familia [right], the unfinished masterpiece by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.

The Barcelona church, officially called the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family), was begun in 1882 but was not completed by Gaudi. It has never been formally consecrated.

The architect was a Catholic who renounced secular art in his later years and dedicated most of his life to building the church. When questioned about the lengthy construction period, he would answer, "My client is not in a hurry."

The day after visiting Barcelona, the pope will head to Santiago de Compostela, the northern Spanish city that became an important pilgrim destination in the Middle Ages. Tradition holds that the remains of the Apostle James the Greater are buried there.

The pope's trip to Santiago de Compostela coincides with the city's Holy Year, which occurs every time St. James' feast day, July 25, falls on a Sunday.

Struck and killed by a passing trolley in 1926, Gaudí's cause for beatification was floated some years back; on a related note, the Spanish church will soon celebrate the elevation of Manuel Lozano Garrido -- the first known journalist to be raised to the penultimate step to sainthood, his beatification scheduled for June.

As the wire notes, alongside the freshest addition to 2010's papal road roster are visits to Malta next month, Portugal in May, Cyprus come June and, of course, the pontiff's visit to Britain, soon to be confirmed for 16-19 September.

That said, the Spanish trip will tie the country with Benedict's native Germany for the most-visited destination of his five-year reign -- the pontiff first visited Spain in summer 2006 for the church's World Meeting of Families in Valencia.

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