WobLog: Church News Archives

Fr. Z on liturgy

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has one of the best blogs of any priest presently writing about the Church. Today, he posted his "bullet points" about the Church, the liturgy, and the world:

Over time I have developed some ideas which guide most of what I post here regarding liturgy, liturgical translation, use of the older form of Mass, etc.

Let’s review some of the aphorisms and basic starting points I use here which are like helpful pegs upon which we can organize our thoughts when talking to people.

Think of a tool shop, where you see pegs on the wall with the shape of the tool that belongs their painted around the beg.

Liturgy is the tip of the spear

There is a reciprocal relationship between how we pray and what we believe. Change our prayer, we change our understanding of doctrine. At the same time, if you believe a certain thing, that will affect how you pray. Our identity begins to shift. The Latin phrase lex orandi lex credendi expresses this… the "law of praying is the law of believing".

The older Mass exerts a "gravitational pull"

Use the image of gravity or "cross-pollination", "harmonic resonance", whatever.

The use of the older form of Mass will exert an influence on the way the newer form of Mass is being celebrated. First, younger priests (and older too) will discover new dimensions to Holy Mass by learning or refreshing the older form. This will change their self perception and how they say Mass. In turn, this will influence how people in the pews see them and understand Holy Mass. Since the Eucharist (Its celebration and the Sacrament Itself) is the "source and summit" of our Christian life, identity, mores, etc., everything about our Church will begin to shift because of these changes of self-perception.

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Posted by Don Roberts at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Return of the Solemn Latin Mass to Knoxville, TN

The fruits of Summorum Pontificum just keep on coming!

Knoxville Catholics’ First Solemn Latin Mass in Decades

At 2 pm on Sunday, April 20 at Knoxville’s historic Holy Ghost Catholic Church—currently celebrating its centennial—area Catholics will enjoy the city’s first solemn Latin Mass celebrated in the four decades since the newer vernacular Mass was introduced in the years following the Second Vatican Council.

As a special feature for this festive occasion, a combined multi-parish choir and orchestra directed by Mary Frazier Garner will sing the principal choral parts of the Mass in the famous "Coronation Mass" setting composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This unique event will afford the opportunity of hearing some of the Church’s greatest sacred music presented not solely in concert but as an active part of the liturgy in a "live" church worship service.

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Posted by Don Roberts at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Great WaPo article on traditional Catholics

In advance of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S., the Washington Post profiles several D.C.-area Catholic families who buck the dominant culture, even within the Church, adhering to more traditional Catholic practices. Some excerpts:

During an era when two-thirds of young Catholics say they can be good Catholics without going to Mass and many believe in a woman's right to choose abortion and view premarital sex as morally acceptable, Karen and David Hickey might be considered renegades -- because they are so devout.

The lives of the Fairfax County couple and their five young children revolve around the Catholic Church, and they stand out as devoted because so many others do not follow the teachings of their church to the letter.

Such young Catholics' strict obedience to the tenets of their faith makes them an anomaly in their generation. Only 14 percent of Catholics ages 20 to 40 attend Mass at least weekly, according to research by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, and just one in five goes to confession once a year or more.

For conservative Catholics, that's unthinkable.

"You have to live your faith and practice, not just learn the doctrine," said Anne Francoise Guelcher, 40, the mother of six children -- ages 15 months to 14 years -- who lives with husband James in Montclair, Va.

Guelcher home-schools her children. "That way, I can really teach them about the faith," she says.

The family goes to Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days and celebrates the myriad Catholic feast days. Like other devout Catholics, they keep holy water, which has been blessed by a priest, in a small font by their front door. They say the rosary and pray to the saints daily.

"We live it every day," Guelcher said.

This isn't a phenomenon confined to just D.C, of course. The San Francisco Chronicle featured our own parish, St. Margaret Mary, in an article that appeared on Good Friday. Rod Dreher noted similar developments not only among young Catholics, but also among the Orthodox and Protestant evangelicals in his book Crunchy Cons.

Posted by Don Roberts at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

St. Patrick's Day: no green beer this year

This year, the Feast of St. Patrick on March 17 falls during Holy Week. Faithful Catholics will have to forgo the whooping it up with corned beef and green beer to maintain their focus on the central element of Holy Week: the Lord's Passion. The Dallas News has an article on the tension between this increasingly secular holiday and the Church's most important week:

Few days in the Christian calendar have such a split personality as March 17.

The luck of the Irish was with Clyde Watts on Thursday as he worked on a float at Lone Star Parade Floats for Saturday's festivities on Greenville Avenue. The day dedicated to the bishop who overthrew paganism in Ireland has long since become, for most Americans, an excuse to wear (or drink) something green. Even Christmas, commercialized though it is, isn't commonly commemorated with wet T-shirt contests.

"There is a tension there, the idea of celebrating it as a religious feast compared to a secular holiday," said John Norris, chairman of theology at the University of Dallas.

The conflict has been brought into sharper relief this year, when for the first time since 1940, St. Patrick's Day falls during Holy Week.

I gave up beer for Lent this year, so even if St. Paddy's Day had fallen outside of Holy Week, I'd have been out of luck. The only thing left to decide is whether I'm going to wear green on Monday or not. I'm thinking not, because the inevitable questions that come up will give me the opportunity to explain that this year the feast has been superseded by Holy Week.

Posted by Don Roberts at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Servant of God Vincent Robert Capodanno

Last Friday's Wall Street Journal had an article about the cause for canonization of the Rev. Vincent Capodanno.

Some excerpts:

As a young chaplain candidate in the U.S. Navy in the late 1980s, the Rev. Daniel L. Mode became captivated by the story of a Roman Catholic priest who was killed at age 38 while ministering to U.S. Marines in 1967. Over the next several years, Father Mode immersed himself in the life of the Rev. Vincent R. Capodanno, a Maryknoll missionary from Staten Island, N.Y., who spent 16 months traveling from battlefield to battlefield in Vietnam. What began as Father Mode's master's thesis at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., turned into a book called "The Grunt Padre," published in 2000.

Father Capodanno was renowned for his willingness to be among Marines in the heat of combat. "If a company was going out, he would just slip into their midst and he'd be gone before you knew it," says Tony Grimm, a captain who was assigned by his battalion commander to keep track of the priest.

On Sept. 4, 1967, the men of M or "Mike" Company, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, fought a vicious battle with North Vietnamese Army regulars in the Que Son Valley, 30 miles south of Da Nang. Throughout the day, Father Capodanno administered last rites, delivered medical care and dragged injured Marines to safety -- even after he was twice struck by gunfire in his hand and shoulder.

Ray Harton, who at the time of the battle had been in Vietnam for three months and who now lives in Carrollton, Ga., was one of the last Marines to see Father Capodanno alive. He himself was injured in the battle, having been shot in the left arm. He recalls the peace that came over him as he heard the priest's voice: "Stay calm, Marine. Someone will be here to help. God is with all of us this day." Father Capodanno then dashed to tend to another wounded corpsman -- and was fatally cut down by machine-gun fire.

The article points hour the Fr. Capodanno's postulator, Fr. Mode, is following in his footsteps:

Father Mode, who is 42, does not advocate for his hero's holiness from behind a desk in a diocesan headquarters somewhere. Rather, he is following Father Capodanno's example, serving as a Navy chaplain in a war zone. He has been on active duty for three years now, including 20 months in Afghanistan.

There are 300 active-duty Catholic chaplains serving in the U.S. military, and they need both our prayers and our financial support. If you would like to help out, check out the organization responsible for supporting the work of Catholic chaplains: CatholicMil.org.

Posted by Don Roberts at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

All-Night Adoration at St. Margaret Mary Church in March

On the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, March 7th, St. Margaret Mary Church, at 1219 Excelsior Avenue in Oakland, will hold its third All-Night Adoration. Stations of the Cross will be prayed at 6 pm, followed by High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and Exposition. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed solemnly until the next morning at 7:00 am. This all-night adoration begins on the feast of the "Doctor Angelicus", St. Thomas Aquinas, and immediately precedes Passion Sunday (March 9th). It is designed to help the faithful prepare even more effectively for the coming celebrations of Holy Week and Easter.

St. Thomas Aquinas, who taught so admirably especially about the mysteries of the Eucharist is another co-patron of the Institute of Christ the King; a plenary indulgence is attached to the attendance of the Mass on the 7th of March, under the usual conditions. For further information please contact Fr. Michael Wiener at (510) 482-2053 or father.wiener@institute-christ-king.org

Posted by Don Roberts at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pope Benedict celebrates Mass ad orientem

For today's liturgy in Rome commemorating the Baptism of the Lord was celebrated by the Holy Father in the Sistine Chapel. For today's liturgy, the high altar of the chapel was used, rather than a temporary, freestanding "people's" altar — as has been done in recent times. This is a significant development, for while the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council did not abolish celebration of the Mass with the priest and the people in a common orientation to the "East," the practice has become so uncommon that many Catholics believe it was banned.

Amy Welborn writes about her tour of the Sistine Chapel, in particular about how the arrangement of the high altar has theological significance:

What I want to point out in relation to today’s Mass is something Liz showed us. There is nothing accidental about the interior decoration of the chapel, including Michelangelo’s Last Judgment fresco on the wall behind the altar. It is purposefully designed to provide a “space” for a large altar cross. The cross is set up to be directly below the figure of the Risen Christ - and these are the images which we - and the celebrant - face during Mass. To set up another altar in front of that and have the focus shift away does, indeed, violate the original intention of the space.

As with his motu proprio encouraging wider use of the traditional Latin liturgy, the Holy Father's celebration of the Mass today shows his commitment to emphasizing the continuity in Catholic thought and practice, in contrast to those who — erroneously — believe that Vatican II somehow inaugurated a "new church."

Posted by Don Roberts at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Plans to "Wreckovate" St. Malachy Church in Tehachapi

Chris Zehnder writes in the California Catholic Daily about plans to perform a major "renovation" of St. Malachy's Church in Tehachapi, CA. This is the church that we attend when we're visiting Lisa's parents, so it's sad to see it fall victim to the hippy holdovers from the 60's:

Notes from a Cultural Madhouse

By Christopher Zehnder

McMullan Hall at St. Malachy’s church in Tehachapi was decked out as for a child’s birthday party on the night of Dec. 18. A profusion of gold and white balloons, interspersed with green, gold, and aquamarine stars, hung gaily from the ceiling and along the walls. Gold tinsel, like dangling curls, drooped pendant overhead. Against the back wall, on either side of a large movie screen, Christmas tree tinsel strands – on one side gold, on the other, red – spelled in capital letters the word “WOW.”

Yes, it was the long expected “WOW Night” – the night on which St. Malachy’s parishioners would see what their “consensus” wrought in the renovation of the parish church. I place the word consensus in inverted commas because, somewhere along the line, during the three months of parish meetings on the proposed renovation of St. Malachy’s, the word somehow fell into disuse. We heard less of “consensus” and more of “diversity.” But more on that anon.

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Posted by Don Roberts at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Novena in preparation for the Feast of St. Francis de Sales

Here's an announcement for an upcoming event at our parish, St. Margaret Mary Church in Oakland, CA:

Novena in Preparation of the Feast of St. Francis de Sales with Bishop Vigneron

On January 29th, 2008 the Church celebrates the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Universal Church, Bishop, founder of the Visitation Order (of which St. Margaret Mary was a member), patron of Journalists, co-patron of the Diocese of Oakland and of the Institute of Christ the King. In preparation for this joyful event we will pray a novena, starting on the 20th of January and ending on January 28th, after the Mass celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. During the Masses we will receive guest homilists who will teach us about the "Doctor of Charity", who led so many souls to sanctity, so that we may be well prepared for this beautiful feast of our patron. We are especially grateful and honored that His Excellency, Bishop Vigneron, will be with us during Mass on the 23rd of January 2008 at 6:00 pm to preach about “St. Francis de Sales as co-patron of the Diocese of Oakland”. Other priests who will talk in the homilies about St. Francis during this important novena are Fr. R. Schenk O.P., Fr. A. Ramelow O.P. , Fr. L. Goode, Fr. W. Young and the Vice-Provincial of the Institute of Christ the King in the United States, Fr. K. Lenhardt. Please come and pray with us to our beloved patron!

Thanks to Fr. Michael Wiener, Episcopal Delegate for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in the Diocese of Oakland, for passing this info along.

Posted by Don Roberts at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)