Rebuilding the Church

Sure, no shortage of us might have an act of God to start shoveling out from this Sunday... yet even if good judgment hinders many 'round these parts from heading to Mass today, at least the parishes are up and running.

Coming up on a month since Haiti's "monster" 7.0 quake struck, its toll in the hundreds of thousands, the same obviously can't be said of the heavily-Catholic country. But with the recovery stage now past -- and, indeed, most worship still being held outside -- today's Miami Herald reports that efforts to rebuild the country's ravaged ecclesial apparatus are already underway.

Given the tragedy's distinction as the "the most devastating natural disaster [ever] to hit" a local church, what awaits is no mean task:

More than three weeks after disaster shattered Haitian life, the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Catholic church and the Vatican have quietly begun the task of rebuilding the Catholic church in Haiti, arguably the country's hardest-hit institution. Churches of other denominations are also looking toward reconstruction.

Sacred Heart was among at least 60 Catholic churches that collapsed in the 7.0 quake that killed more than 100 nuns and priests and the top church leadership. It's estimated that seven out of every 10 Catholic churches were lost. Damage estimates run in the tens of millions of dollars.

The earthquake is believed to be the most devastating natural disaster to hit a Catholic diocese, said Bishop Joseph Lafontant. With the death of the archbishop and vicar general of Port-au-Prince, Lafontant is now one of the church's top leaders in Haiti.

``As for material things -- we can rebuild,'' he said last week during a break from a daylong meeting with surviving priests. ``In lives, the archdiocese suffered.''

In a country where the government has always struggled to provide even the most basic services, the Catholic Church has always been a lifeline -- it runs schools, hospitals, orphanages and charities.

``In Haiti, the church is like a central living womb for the community,'' said the Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary of Miami's Notre Dame d'Haiti church, who has been conducting prayers and officiating funerals at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Port-au-Prince....

``We're talking about tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars of damage,'' said the Rev. Andrew Small of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaking only of the damage to church structures. The Vatican has tasked the U.S. church with spearheading reconstruction in Haiti, and Small is leading that effort....

``This is a many-year process,'' said Small, who recently flew to Port-au-Prince to evaluate damages.

As a modest first step, the U.S. Catholic church has sent $30,000 worth of equipment to revitalize Radio Soleil, a Catholic radio station operating out of a van in minimally damaged Pétionville. While vast numbers of Haitians still don't have churches to attend, they can listen to prayers on the radio, Small said....

[R]estoring the Haitian church will take longer and be costlier than anything that's come before.

``You are not just talking about the church buildings. You are talking schools, clinics and dispensaries, convents and seminaries,'' said Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, a former Miami pastor who is working with Small on rebuilding.

``It's safe to say Port-au-Prince will need a cathedral again and the country will need seminaries once again, but where they are and how we go about doing it will need to be decided with the Haitians,'' Small added.

The Rev. Jean-Mary of Notre Dame d'Haiti is one of several South Florida Catholic clergymen to rushed to Haiti to fill the spiritual void. Others include the Rev. Robés Charles of St. Clement in Wilton Manors and the Rev. Jean Pierre of St. James in North Miami.

They are spearheading an effort that will soon have South Florida priests taking rotations there.

``You have bodies of your people, students, still in the rubble,'' Jean-Mary said. ``The survivors are in a state of shock. They are people of faith. They are not supermen and women. Down the road, construction of the church will be essential. Without that, people cannot go on.''

PHOTO: Getty

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"Back Page," Bowl Edition

Again, to everyone buried in amid this "Snowmageddon," hope you're keeping warm... even, especially, if your power's gone out.

Your narrator's too old for snow angels or building igloos outside, so this'll be our fun for the night.


For those of you who'll be around, looking forward to your company, lots of fun, and funny, comments... and, well, whatever else comes up.

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New Ways to George: Didn't Know, Don't Care

Lest anyone was wondering how the leadership of New Ways Ministry learned of yesterday's strongly-worded judgment on its ecclesial standing from the USCCB president... let's just say you're reading it.

In response to Cardinal Francis George's "clarification" that the Maryland-based outreach's "claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination," New Ways' executive director Francis DeBernardo released the following statement earlier this afternoon:

New Ways Ministry will continue its bridge-building work between lesbian/gay Catholics and the Church because that work is needed now more than ever. Cardinal George’s statement of February 5, 2010, will not impede or slow us in our efforts to work for justice for lesbian/gay people in the Church and society.

We are astonished that Cardinal George released such a statement, since New Ways Ministry has never been contacted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to discuss the nature of our work. We were not even extended the basic courtesy of being informed of the statement as it was being released to the press. Instead, we learned about it only by reading a press account.

When dealing with such a sensitive topic as homosexuality, it is not surprising that questions will arise from individual Church leaders. Yet, for more than three decades, New Ways Ministry has had its programs reviewed by scores of Catholic bishops, theologians, and pastoral leaders, and we have always been found to be firmly in line with authentic Catholic teaching.

If the USSCB [sic] had concerns about our ministry, why didn’t they contact us before a judgment was made? Why was New Ways Ministry not given an opportunity to explain our positions?

For almost 33 years New Ways Ministry has been sustained spiritually by the prayers of millions of Catholics, and we owe it to these supporters to continue the work to which God has called us.

New Ways Ministry calls on its supporters not to give up hope in the Catholic Church, but to continue to pray and work for the day when lesbian/gay people are welcomed as full and equal members in our beloved Church.

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Chief Clarifies New Ways

It might be late on a Friday afternoon, with snow bearing down on the capital... so it seems, though, the Mothership's still whirring away.

Just before 4pm Eastern, a "clarification" emerged from the USCCB President, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, on the ecclesial standing of New Ways Ministry, the "gay-positive" outreach for Catholic gays and lesbians whose founders were sanctioned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1999 and barred from further ministry to the community.

Apparently motivated by New Ways' criticism of "efforts by the church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman" and the group's call for "Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex 'marriage,'" here's George's statement in full:

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I, archbishop of Chicago and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued the following statement on the status of the organization "New Ways Ministry":

New Ways Ministry is an organization based in Mount Rainier, Maryland, that describes itself as "a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities." From the time of the organization's founding in 1977, serious questions have been raised about the group’s adherence to Church teaching on homosexuality. In 1984, the archbishop of Washington denied New Ways Ministry any official authorization or approval of its activities. At that time, he forbade the two co-founders of New Ways Ministry, Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Fr. Robert Nugent, to continue their activities in the Archdiocese of Washington. In the same year, Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent were ordered by their superiors to separate themselves from New Ways Ministry. Although they resigned from leadership posts, they continued their involvement in New Ways Ministry activities until 1999, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that because of errors and ambiguities in the approach of Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent they are permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons.

In reference to his decision not to grant any approval or authorization to New Ways Ministry in the 1980s, Archbishop James Hickey of Washington cited the organization's lack of adherence to Church teaching on the morality of homosexual acts. This was the central issue in the subsequent investigation and censure of the founders of New Ways Ministry, Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent. This continues to be the crucial defect in the approach of New Ways Ministry, which has not changed its position after the departure of the cofounders.

New Ways Ministry has recently criticized efforts by the Church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and has urged Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex "marriage." No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination. Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States.

SVILUPPO: On further reflection, the above statement is significant on multiple fronts....

Even more than being a noteworthy intervention from the president of the conference (and one who tends to heavily delegate the message-lifting to his committee chairs, at that), the New Ways call-out can be viewed as the first concrete result of George's push -- announced in his Opening Day address to November's USCCB meeting in Baltimore, and previewed several months before -- "to clarify questions of truth or faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of Catholic communion."

With nine months left in the Chicago prelate's three-year mandate at the conference's helm, smart money says George's task forces "on how [the bishops] might strengthen [their] relationship to Catholic universities, to media claiming the right to be a voice in the Church, and to organizations that direct various works under Catholic auspices" will likely be reaching similar conclusions on other apostolates as the year goes on...

...which leads us, of course, to the million-dollar question: Who's next?

SVILUPPO 2: Having been caught flat-footed by the conference statement, New Ways has issued its response.

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Before all else, church, Happy Friday and hope you've got a great weekend in store....

'Round here, it's just gonna be more snow. Lots of it.

As some have been asking, there'll be another marathon "Back Page" at some point while the white stuff falls, so for those who won't be able to take part in real-time, feel free to send along whatever questions, comments or stories are on your mind, and I'll do my best to include 'em along the way. As ever, it'll all be waiting for you on-demand whenever you get around to it.

That said, folks have asked if the feed could be scheduled for a regular time so they know when to expect it. In a perfect world, that'd be doable, but hopefully you'll understand why it isn't -- the news-cycle is too unpredictable to keep anything to a schedule... and what's more, the sessions really take a lot of prep: a two-hour session that flows well only does thanks to some 10-12 hours of research, if not more.

For those of you who know, it feels like comps. That's not a complaint, but as with no shortage of other things 'round these parts, it's not as easy to pull off as it might look. The priority is simply to do it right, regardless of how long it takes. Most of all, though, as the response to the feeds has been extremely positive, thanks for that, and if there's any way they could be better still, the inbox is always open for whatever insights you're up to share.

Along those lines, back to brushing up.... In the meanwhile, just know that there is news.

To one and all, hope you're keeping warm and happy in the midst of these cold, short days... and to the especially kind souls who've helped keep the shop afloat -- and allowed this scribe to breathe a whole lot easier in the process -- as ever, no words could say thanks enough.

More soon, gang... as always, stay tuned.

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For Scots Bench, "A Positive and Inspiring Vision"

Four days after giving his "marching orders" to the bishops of England and Wales in advance of his fall visit, this morning the Pope closed out the British ad limina by receiving the bishops of Scotland, who followed their southern counterparts in making the now seven-yearly Roman pilgrimage through this week.

As he did with the first UK group, B16 confirmed that he'll be visiting Scotland "later this year," again leaving out the trip's widely-circulated dates of 16-19 September.

According to the latest reports on the itinerary to leak out, the trip could begin north of the border, where Benedict would meet Queen Elizabeth II in the midst of her traditional summer hiatus in Scotland.

Here below, the pontiff's fulltext:

While no photos have yet emerged of the Northern ad limina, the shot above comes from a Flickrstream of pics from the E&W visit.

Tip to the scribe of the "Morning Must-Read": Luke Coppen of the Catholic Herald.

PHOTO: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk

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First, The Report... Now, The Revolt

In ten days' time, the Vatican's most intense response yet to the global church's clergy sex-abuse crises begins as Pope Benedict spends two days in an unprecedented closed-door summit with Ireland's 30 active bishops, along with the expected release of a pastoral letter from the pontiff to the heavily-Catholic Isle, still reeling from November's harrowing conclusions of a state inquiry that chronicled the history of abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin, and the serial mishandling of accused priests by generations of its church leadership.

Since the Murphy Report's Thanksgiving Day release, the capital's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has garnered wide acclaim for addressing the wide currents of public shock and anger at the actions of his predecessors, a response most prominent in his thinly-veiled demands for the resignations of current and former Dublin auxiliaries implicated in the cover-up, and repeated calls for a wholesale renewal of the Isle's once-vaunted ecclesial life.

Among at least some of the onetime Vatican diplomat's clergy, however, reaction seems to run rather different... and on the eve of the crucial meeting in Rome, a leak to the Irish church's paper of record has seen the emergence of a "scathing critique," and from no less a source than an "irate" score of Martin's own priests.

Here, the Irish Times summary:

A MEETING of priests has heard demands that Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin be confronted over his handling of the fallout from the Murphy report on clerical child sex abuse.

It also heard claims that the archbishop had become “a source of division” among priests and bishops. About 25 Dublin priests attended the meeting at Manresa retreat house on January 18th....

“Anger, frustration and a sense of helplessness [were] expressed at the lack of compassion shown by the diocese in recent months, particularly towards the auxiliary bishops,” the minutes report.

“We felt that a grave injustice has been done to men who have loyally served this diocese with selfless commitment and Christ-like compassion.”...

The clerical meeting also heard claims that Dr Martin spoke to his auxiliaries through the media. And in television interviews he seemed to have more in common with his obvious opponents than his bishops.

“He enjoyed a good honeymoon period with the press . . . but now there is a general feeling that the archbishop is a source of division among his priests and among his fellow bishops,” the minutes state. “Justice demands that he be confronted and told that if he is about reform, then his priests and the laity . . . need to be part of the entire process. We are no longer content to be puppets of the diocese.”

The meeting heard claims that Dr Martin had a “dictatorial manner” and said it had emerged “not just now but from the first day he returned to Drumcondra [i.e. Archbishop's House, the Dublin curia]”.

And as if that wasn't enough, Irish reports from Rome speak of "confusion and alarm" in the Vatican over appearances of "infighting" within the Isle's hierarchy itself.

The priests minutes' release comes days after after an exchange of letters emerged between the archbishop and a retired Dublin auxiliary, Bishop Dermot O'Mahony, who sought to take Martin to task for accepting the state commission's finding of a "cover-up" and said that the archbishop "had no idea how traumatic it was for those of us who had to deal with allegations without protocols or guidelines."

After his handling of abuse claims was deemed "particularly bad" in the report, Martin had asked O'Mahony to refrain from performing Confirmations prior to the correspondence.

Following the row's public turn, Martin told the Times that "all [he] would like to see is people accept accountability and say, 'look this is what happened'.

In Mahony's letter, he added, "there is a certain rejection of what happened -- that this horrendous scandal and the cover-up never took place. This I don't accept.... People can criticize me but I believe that, for me, the reaction to the Murphy report must be predominant -- something horrendous happened on our watch and we got it spectacularly wrong."

Prior to his 2003 appointment as coadjutor to Cardinal Desmond Connell, Martin had spent 27 years in the Roman Curia. A curate and student-priest before departing his home-diocese, the archbishop hadn't worked in the Dublin curia until his return there as ordinary-in-waiting.

And, lastly, after the Holy See's response (or lack thereof) was faulted by the state inquiry -- even if the scenario owed itself to the latter's failure to send its requests for cooperation through diplomatic channels -- the papal nuncio to Ireland Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza has been summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee to discuss his "role," including the "issues" experienced during the report's preparation.

PHOTO: Reuters

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Rodé: Consecrated in "Crisis"

Fresh off the church's annual celebration of consecrated life -- and with the US' womens' communities already facing top-level scrutiny -- the Vatican's lead overseer of religious made a fresh batch of pointed comments yesterday on the state of the professed.

First given at a Naples conference, the key points from Cardinal Franc Rodé CM were given an added amplification on their appearance in the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano... and from Rome, CNS' John Thavis brings the story home:

A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a "crisis" caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.

Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life [CICLSAL], said the problems go deeper than the drastic drop in the numbers of religious men and women.

"The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church," Cardinal Rode said in a talk delivered Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy.

"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," he said.

Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious became precipitous after the Second Vatican Council, which he described as a period "rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission."...

In any case, he said, "big numbers are not indispensable" for religious orders to prove their validity. It's more important today, he said, that religious orders "overcome the egocentrism in which institutes are often closed, and open themselves to joint projects with other institutes, local churches and lay faithful."

Of course, an assessment of the sort from the Slovenian Vincentian is nothing new -- Rodé blasted what he termed a "pseudo-aggorniamento" on the part of many communities at a 2008 conference on religious life held at Massachusetts' Stonehill College.

That gathering is believed to have played a key part in the cardinal's subsequent call for an Apostolic Visitation of Stateside communities of women, which was announced four months later. In comments last fall, the prefect said the two-year study of American sisters was motivated by perceptions of "a certain secularist mentality that has spread among these religious families, perhaps even a certain 'feminist' spirit."

Named to head CICLSAL in 2004, the cardinal reached the retirement age of 75 in September.

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From the Sports Desk

Nine days before the 21st Olympic Winter Games open in Vancouver, this morning's Vatican press bulletin included the following message from B16 to the host-city's top prelate, Archbishop Michael Miller CSB:

I was pleased to learn that the XXI Winter Olympic Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games are to be held in the Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Diocese of Kamloops, from 12 to 28 February 2010. As I send my cordial greetings to you and Bishop David Monroe, my good wishes also go to the participating athletes, the organizers and the many community volunteers who are generously cooperating in the celebration of the significant international event.

Such an important occurrence for both athletes and spectators allows me to recall how sport "can make an effective contribution to peaceful understanding between peoples and to establishing the new civilization of love" (John Paul II, Homily, 29 October 2000, 2). In this light, may sport always be a valued building block of peace and friendship between peoples and nations. I also note the ecumenical initiative More Than Gold, intended to provide spiritual and material assistance to visitors, participants and volunteers alike. I pray that all who avail themselves of this service will be confirmed in their love of God and neighbour.

With these sentiments in mind, upon all associated with the celebration of the XXI Winter Olympic Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games, I cordially invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.

As if the two weeks of competition wasn't enough, Vancouver does bear watching on the church-beat, too -- Canadian Catholicism's Pacific hub has exploded in size over the last two decades, now numbering in excess of half a million members, half of whom are notably of Asian migration or descent.

What's more, the archdiocese's profile was burnished mightily by the 2007 arrival of Miller, a former #2 at Rome's Congregation for Catholic Education (and president of Houston's University of St Thomas) rightly regarded as one of the English-speaking church's brightest minds... and a still rising star, at that.

As Miller's the type who "sends thank-you notes for thank-you notes," his call for "radical hospitality" during the game should be a cinch.

* * *

Closer to home, while it won't be scoring a papal message, all eyes in Stateside sport are on Miami, where the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints will face off in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday night.

For starters, here's hoping for a repeat of what happened at the AFC Championship Pre-Game, when Indy's Archbishop Daniel Buechlein led his hometown side onto the field, riding shotgun (above) with the namesake of the Colts' field, local oil magnate Forrest Lucas.

That said, a high-hat showdown's likewise afoot -- with the Indy prelate and NOLA's Archbishop Greg Aymond having booked a wager (pork chops vs. gumbo) on the game's result, given the devout faith of Saints owner Tom Benson, a horde of Crescent City church-folk are reportedly the team's guests for Sunday's game, heading down on the owner's private jet.

The group will be led by Aymond -- the city's first native son to return as archbishop -- and his 97 year-old predecessor, the legendary Philip Hannan, who played a role in the franchise's naming and led an on-field prayer before its first-ever game in 1967.

PHOTOS: AP(1); Archdiocese of Indianapolis(2)

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For Lent, "To Each His Due"

Hard as it is to believe, folks, Lent is just around the corner -- this year's Ash Wednesday falls on the 17th of this month.

And so, in keeping with Vatican custom, this morning saw the rollout of B16's annual message for the penitential season, which took "The Justice of God has been manifested through faith in Christ" -- a line from St Paul's letter to the Romans -- as its theme.

Here below, the fulltext:

PHOTO: AP

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Mission of Healing... Mission of Hope

Sorry for the slow cycle, gang... the road called -- but, as tends to happen, not without yielding a moving story.

As for its source, your narrator spent the day in New York for some business at The NET -- the Brooklyn diocese's newly-rechristened TV station and home-base of, among others, the celebrated Deacon Greg Kandra.

Along the way, as the Emmy-winning news director and his staff were preparing their nightly newscast, the crew shared one item for this Wednesday's Currents: a look at Haiti's lone free pediatric hospital -- St Damien's, founded and run by a US-born Passionist priest, Fr Rick Frechette (right).

A DO alongside his CP who's built 18 schools and several street clinics alongside the hospital, Frechette was caring for his dying mother in the States when last month's 7.0-magnitude quake devastated much of his adopted country.

Afterwards, so he wrote, the missionary's mom ordered him "to go [back]. The problems there are worse than mine."

He did... and while St Damien's building suffered only minor damage, not only has the demand for care been overwhelming (and supplies running out), but a report in the quake's wake showed the staff working outside to avoid aftershocks.

To aid the ongoing efforts, an impromptu medical team of eleven -- all members of a Passionist-run parish in North Carolina -- left for St Damien's last week.

So they wouldn't add to an already pressing food shortage, the nine docs and two nurses brought along their own meals -- and, thanks to the local medical community, a "massive" infusion of supplies.

Bottom line: the news-cycle might've begun to move on. As always, though, with every gift and from every part, this church is in for the long haul.

They rarely get the credit they deserve... but, in a word, it's what our kind do best.

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South Texas... Center Stage

A week after its third and final appointee emerged, the "Texas triangle" begins taking charge tonight with Bishop Daniel Flores' installation in Brownsville -- the largest and, arguably, most challenging of the three dioceses recently filled in the Lone Star state.

In a rare evening inaugural, the 6pm Central (0000GMT) Mass at the Mission Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle -- chosen for its ability to accommodate hundreds more than the Border Country's Immaculate Conception Cathedral -- will be webstreamed... and is well worth watching, for even more reasons than usual.

As for the "why" behind that, something exceptional, something unique, is worth noting here…

...but not that, at 45, Flores was among the youngest American bishops to be named in the two decades prior to his 2006 appointment as an auxiliary of Detroit… nor that he's the first Stateside auxiliary picked by Benedict XVI to be advanced to a diocese of his own… not even that, well, it's quite a diocese -- over a million Catholics at Texas' southernmost point, 86% of the area's total population, half of them under age 25… nor that the next-youngest head of one of the nation's 15 largest local churches is the 59 year-old archbishop of New York.

Each of these are significant and should tell you something, so add it up. Yet not even these, nor his gifts of language, memory or poetry are the most telling thing… nor that he was made a monsignor at 33, can quote Thomas, Tolkien and Sinatra verbatim and with equal ease… and the list could go on, and on, and on.

Much as all that is considerable, the standout is this: that over the years, folks as disparate as Latin Mass-goers in his adopted Motor City and Pax Christi-types in his native Corpus Christi -- and no shortage of others in between -- have spoken of the 48 year-old prelate with the same conspicuously fervent degrees of admiration and affection.

In a church too often needlessly -- and dangerously -- divided in seemingly every possible way into "us" versus "them," all the other attributes are far easier to find… and dare it be said, the latter just as soundly outshines all the rest.

No mean accomplishment, that -- and no wonder that, even before the surprising Brownsville nod dropped in December, one of Flores' Corpus confreres wrote in to say that "the whole country is now witnessing what we've known of him for years."

* * *

On a related note, it didn't take long after mentioning today's installation during Saturday's livefeed to find everyone's favorite question drop in from the gallery: "Is Flores conservative or liberal?"

Admittedly, it was tempting to answer in the moment, and the first response that came to mind was the chief's beloved line… the thing that this whole church (that's you and me, folks) is called to be: in a word, he's "simply Catholic."

That said, we've found an even better answer: last April, Flores' addressed a group of parish planners... and, luckily, someone ran a camera for the whole thing.

Suffice it to say, just watch:


It is Presentation Day, folks... and appropriately enough on it, the shining qualities South Texans have "known for years" begin to make their mark on the future of the American church.

* * *

On a final note, tonight's rites likewise end one of the country's longest-standing episcopates: ordained an auxiliary of San Antonio in 1976 (at the young age of 42), Brownsville's departing Bishop Raymundo Peña finally reaches a well-earned, "happy retirement"... but one where he's still planning to keep busy.

In a farewell from the chair he's held since 1995, Peña announced his plans to become chaplain to the diocese's community of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, in addition to regular duties as a confessor and aiding the local jail ministry.

"I cannot be truly happy if I am not doing what a priest does," the retiring prelate wrote.

"I was ordained 'a priest forever'; I will happily exercise my priestly ministry all the days of my life."

SVILUPPO: Especially as the livefeeds kept going haywire, here below, Flores' English fulltext for tonight's Mass, as prepared for delivery.

On an editor's note, with the prepared preach evenly divided between English and Spanish, the bracketed sections indicate those passages translated from the latter where the former didn't already echo it.

That said, all emphases original:

On a crowd note, the evening rites saw an exceptionally large throng show up -- some 2,000 packed into the San Juan basilica, and at least another 2,000 watched on screens set up in a large tent outside.

Ramps were closed, parking lots overfilled, and the event was said to have provided a boost to the local economy.

As starts go, not bad at all.

PHOTOS: Joel Martinez/The Monitor(2,3)

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The Visitation's Birthday Wish

Lest we forget, gang, a gentle reminder that this Candlemas Day likewise sees the church's World Day for Consecrated Life.

Instituted in 1997 by John Paul II, the annual observance on this 40th day after Christmas is traditionally moved to the following weekend by several national churches (the US included) to garner wider participation.

Either way, let's all take a minute to recognize our religious Sisters, Fathers and Brothers, who so often tackle this church's hardest work... and, indeed, provide its most beloved and respected face in the world.

* * *

That said, last weekend saw another milestone among the professed -- a year since the sudden announcement of an Apostolic Visitation of the nation's communities of apostolic women religious.

Ever since, the Vatican-chartered study has garnered an exceptional amount of coverage for an ad intra story, especially after reports of widespread resistance emerged in the lack of sufficient responses to a questionnaire sent to each the roughly 300 communities as part of the two-year process, which one anonymous sister memorably deemed part of "a cycle of violence" in the pages of the National Catholic Reporter, which has taken the lead in chronicling the story from the get-go.

While the Visitation wouldn't confirm the November reports head-on, a recent letter to the sisters' superiors from the study's head, Mother Mary Clare Millea, indicated her "sadness and disappointment that not all congregations have responded to this phase of dialogue with the church in a manner fully supportive of the purpose and goals of the Apostolic Visitation."

Saying that she had reported her impressions to the Vatican's lead overseer of the professed, Millea reported that Cardinal Franc Rodé CM "encouraged me to ask those who have not yet fully complied to prayerfully reconsider their response."

For its part, the Visitation had already made a notable concession on the questionnaire, striking some elements from it amid expressions of concern in the months following its release. The disregarded portions dealt primarily with the communities' temporal assets.

Come April, however, what's likely to be the most contentious stage of the process is slated to begin as teams appointed by Millea make on-site visits to a number of the communities. The visits will continue through the fall, following which, as sole Visitor, Millea will compile her final report to the Vatican's "Congregation for Religious," where her findings and recommendations will shape whatever definitive action Rome deems necessary as the study's final result.

Shortly after the Visitation's emergence, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith chartered a separate "doctrinal assessment" into the sisters' lead umbrella group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

While the half-century old LCWR includes some 95% of the communities, their total membership only comprises around four-fifths of the nation's 65,000 sisters. The rest -- and, indeed, the majority of the growing orders -- fall under the umbrella of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CSMWR), a more traditional alternative founded in 1992 and given Roman approbation three years later.

Though national bodies for mens' and womens' superiors date back to an impetus of Pope Pius XII, the US is the lone country to have multiple groups for religious of a single gender.

PHOTOS: AP(1), Reuters(2)

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E&W's "Marching Orders": Teach, Obey, Unite

Given at 12.15 Rome time today, the text of the Pope's ad limina speech to the English and Welsh bishops has dropped... and in a word, it's unusually short.

And just as blunt.

After confirming his "forthcoming" visit to Britain -- but leaving out the trek's already well-circulated September dates -- B16 lowered the boom on several fronts, panning an equality bill currently before Parliament that, according to some interpretations, could make a male-only priesthood illegal and would ban moral considerations from personnel decisions; urging the prelates to present and defend the church's moral teaching "in its entirety"; noting that "it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate," and adding a notable call for cohesion in observing that "if the full saving message of Christ is to be presented effectively and convincingly to the world, the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice."

For all of it, here, the fulltext:

Dear Brother Bishops,

I welcome all of you on your ad Limina visit to Rome, where you have come to venerate the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. I thank you for the kind words that Archbishop Vincent Nichols has addressed to me on your behalf, and I offer you my warmest good wishes and prayers for yourselves and all the faithful of England and Wales entrusted to your pastoral care. Your visit to Rome strengthens the bonds of communion between the Catholic community in your country and the Apostolic See, a communion that sustained your people’s faith for centuries, and today provides fresh energies for renewal and evangelization. Even amid the pressures of a secular age, there are many signs of living faith and devotion among the Catholics of England and Wales. I am thinking, for example, of the enthusiasm generated by the visit of the relics of Saint Thérèse, the interest aroused by the prospect of Cardinal Newman’s beatification, and the eagerness of young people to take part in pilgrimages and World Youth Days. On the occasion of my forthcoming Apostolic Visit to Great Britain, I shall be able to witness that faith for myself and, as Successor of Peter, to strengthen and confirm it. During the months of preparation that lie ahead, be sure to encourage the Catholics of England and Wales in their devotion, and assure them that the Pope constantly remembers them in his prayers and holds them in his heart.

Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed. I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church’s moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended. Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth. Continue to insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society. In doing so, you are not only maintaining long-standing British traditions of freedom of expression and honest exchange of opinion, but you are actually giving voice to the convictions of many people who lack the means to express them: when so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard?

If the full saving message of Christ is to be presented effectively and convincingly to the world, the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice. This requires not only you, the Bishops, but also priests, teachers, catechists, writers – in short all who are engaged in the task of communicating the Gospel – to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, who guides the whole Church into the truth, gathers her into unity and inspires her with missionary zeal.

Make it your concern, then, to draw on the considerable gifts of the lay faithful in England and Wales and see that they are equipped to hand on the faith to new generations comprehensively, accurately, and with a keen awareness that in so doing they are playing their part in the Church’s mission. In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free. Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that "kindly light" wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost. Great writers and communicators of his stature and integrity are needed in the Church today, and it is my hope that devotion to him will inspire many to follow in his footsteps.

Much attention has rightly been given to Newman’s scholarship and to his extensive writings, but it is important to remember that he saw himself first and foremost as a priest. In this Annus Sacerdotalis [Year for Priests], I urge you to hold up to your priests his example of dedication to prayer, pastoral sensitivity towards the needs of his flock, and passion for preaching the Gospel. You yourselves should set a similar example. Be close to your priests, and rekindle their sense of the enormous privilege and joy of standing among the people of God as alter Christus. In Newman’s words, "Christ’s priests have no priesthood but His … what they do, He does; when they baptize, He is baptizing; when they bless, He is blessing" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, VI 242). Indeed, since the priest plays an irreplaceable role in the life of the Church, spare no effort in encouraging priestly vocations and emphasizing to the faithful the true meaning and necessity of the priesthood. Encourage the lay faithful to express their appreciation of the priests who serve them, and to recognize the difficulties they sometimes face on account of their declining numbers and increasing pressures. The support and understanding of the faithful is particularly necessary when parishes have to be merged or Mass times adjusted. Help them to avoid any temptation to view the clergy as mere functionaries but rather to rejoice in the gift of priestly ministry, a gift that can never be taken for granted.

Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue assume great importance in England and Wales, given the varied demographic profile of the population. As well as encouraging you in your important work in these areas, I would ask you to be generous in implementing the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, so as to assist those groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. I am convinced that, if given a warm and open-hearted welcome, such groups will be a blessing for the entire Church.

With these thoughts, I commend your apostolic ministry to the intercession of Saint David, Saint George and all the saints and martyrs of England and Wales. May Our Lady of Walsingham guide and protect you always. To all of you, and to the priests, religious and lay faithful of your country, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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"Groups of Anglicans"... Group of Catholics

As noted on the "Back Page," tomorrow morning will see B16's address to the bishops of England and Wales on their first ad limina visit of his pontificate.

While the pontiff's much-awaited assessment of the British church -- well, two-thirds of it -- remains a matter of mystery at this hour, it's worth wagering that Benedict's recent outreach to groups of traditional Anglicans will come up, as it reportedly has over the course of the prelates' meetings with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

Along these lines, in what appears to be the highest-profile Stateside engagement to date of Anglicanorum coetibus, the "Cardinal of the South" recently appeared at his own diocese's Anglican Use parish to discuss November's historic Apostolic Constitution.

Here, snips from a VirtueOnline report:

[Cardinal Daniel DiNardo] would not hazard a guess as to when the Anglican Ordinariate would be formally established other than to say that Pope Benedict XVI in the Anglicanorum Coetibus has mandated the Ordinariates, therefore, they will happen in Rome's good timing. He urged abundant patience as Vatican wheels churned out the details.

In fact, the Cardinal hopes that his established warm relationship with [Houston's Our Lady of Walsingham parish] will continue even after the Anglican Use parish becomes a formal part of the Anglican Ordinariate. He would like to have a close fraternal bond with the first Ordinary -- whom he hopes is a Catholic bishop and not a Pastoral Provision priest, even one who formerly may have been an Episcopal bishop -- of the new Ordinariate. He would welcome invitations to visit OLW since the church would remain tucked within the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston much like the Vatican is located within the city walls of Rome.

Looking towards the future actuality of an American Ordinariate, Cardinal DiNardo has already joined with Archbishop José Gomez of the Archdiocese of San Antonio -- home to Our Lady of the Atonement Anglican Use Catholic Church and OLA Academy -- and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth -- home to St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Use Catholic Church in putting their mitered heads together and forging a way for the three Latin Rite jurisdictions to transfer their Anglican Use parish and school properties to the Anglican Ordinariate when the Vatican-designed ecclesial structure gets up and running.

"Who gets the property?" Cardinal DiNardo asks teasingly tongue-in-cheek, sounding much like an Anglican in so doing.

For the Catholic Archdioceses of Galveston-Houston and San Antonio and Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth the transfer of established Anglican Use properties to the new Ordinariates will be relatively smooth.

However, in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, where there is some notable interest in entire Episcopal parishes converting such as St. Bartholomew's did in 1994, thus becoming St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Use Catholic Church, the smooth transfer of property could be more problematic with The Episcopal Church's on-going property litigations in that diocese.

Although Cardinal DiNardo is very supportive of the Anglican Use personal parish and the fruition of the Anglican Ordinariates, he advises caution in the fleshing out of the skeletal structure put into place by Pope Benedict with the Anglicanorum Coetibus and its accompanying Norms.

He noted that the Anglicanorum Coetibus was not only a work of the Holy See, but more importantly the document was a work of the Holy Spirit seeking unity.

Cardinal DiNardo also sees the Anglican Use parish as an effective Catholic evangelization tool to not only reach out to the spiritual marooned Episcopalians in this country and Anglicans abroad to bring them into the fullness of faith in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church through the See of Peter and to also bring those disenfranchised Catholics who have left the Church and discovered Her again through the beauty and majesty of the Anglican Use liturgy.

However, the Cardinal warned against Anglican Use parishes becoming a select group and failing to enter into the cross pollination of liturgical and spiritual enrichment with the wider Latin Rite Catholic Church. He did note that the Liturgy is celebrated in at least 15 different languages within his archdiocese.

A check with the Galveston-Houston Archdiocesan directory shows that Mass is celebrated in several languages and dialects including but not limited to: English, Spanish, Latin, Chinese, Korean, Polish and Vietnamese. So the Anglican Use Elizabethan English adds a nice complement to the multi-linguistic Archdiocesan liturgical celebrations.

Cardinal DiNardo feels that it would be very prudent if once the Ordinariate gets up and running that the transferring Ordinariate priests continue to receive some monetary assistance from their local Latin Rite dioceses for on-going financial support at least in the terms of health insurance and retirement benefits until the Ordinariate can afford to foot the entire cost of a married priest and his family needs. He explained that in the beginning the Ordinariate will be small with few self-sustaining parishes and would therefore be financially strapped while the Ordinariate will have to immediately be able to support its own Ordinary and his immediate chancellery structure.

"Go slow." Cardinal DiNardo emphasized, reminding his Anglican Use audience several times to be patient as the internal workings of the Ordinariate are developed and put into place, reminding the group that the Anglican Ordinariates are a work in process.

He noted that patience, common sense and good humor will be needed by all as the details of the Ordinariates are developed and hammered into place while imploring the intercession of the Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Walsingham and realizing that eventually things will fall into place.

"Everything can be worked out," the Cardinal explained.

While the particulars -- and, indeed, the number of Tiber-swimmers via Canterbury -- remain to be seen, the Roman expression of their liturgical patrimony is, of course, already in place... and for those who haven't yet seen it, a copy of the Anglican Use Book of Divine Worship is available for online reading.

As for the rest, expect B16's fulltext here as soon as it emerges.

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