WobLog: Church News Archives

Habemus episcopum!

Ever since then-Bishop Vigneron was appointed Archbishop of Detroit, we've been praying for a new bishop, and speculating amongst friends about who the new bishop might be. Among our fellow parishioners, one name clearly stood out. Well, lo and behold...

From today's Vatican Information Service Bulletin:

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 23 MAR 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, auxiliary of San Diego, U.S.A., as bishop of Oakland (area 3,798, population 2,466,692, Catholics 406,947, priests 433, permanent deacons 112, religious 843), U.S.A.

Here's a news release with more details:

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, 52, as the Fourth Bishop of Oakland. Bishop Cordileone until now has been Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. His installation as Bishop of Oakland will take place at noon on May 5, 2009 at Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light.

On January 5, 2009, Oakland's Bishop Allen Vigneron was appointed Archbishop of Detroit and was installed in that office on January 28. At that time priests in Oakland's College of Consultors elected Fr. Daniel E. Danielson as Diocesan Administrator, to manage day-to-day business of the Diocese until a new bishop was named.

Fr. Danielson will introduce Bishop Salvatore Cordileone at a news conference on Monday, March 23, at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Media should enter through the main conference center entrance at 2121 Harrison Street, Oakland.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone

Bishop Cordileone was born in 1956 in San Diego, California, where he and his family were members of Blessed Sacrament Parish. He entered the seminary in San Diego in 1975, received his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of San Diego in 1978 and went on for theology studies in Rome at the Pontifical North American College. He received the Bachelor's Degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1981.

After being ordained a priest in 1982, Bishop Cordileone served as associate pastor in La Mesa, California before again returning to study in Rome. He received the Doctoral Degree in Canon Law from Gregorian University in 1989. Returning to San Diego he held various diocesan positions and from 1991 served as pastor at a parish in Calexico, California until 1995 when he returned to Rome.

For the next seven years Bishop Cordileone served as an assistant at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest judicial court. On July 5, 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed him as Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of San Diego and he was installed by Bishop Robert Brom the following month.

The Diocese of Oakland

As Bishop of Oakland, Bishop Cordileone will be the chief shepherd for over 550,000 Catholics who reside in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Diocese of Oakland was created in 1962 and is comprised of 84 parishes within Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The First Bishop of Oakland was the Most Reverend Floyd Begin who served from 1962 until his death in 1977. He was succeeded by Bishop John Cummins who retired in 2003 and was succeeded by Bishop Vigneron. Bishop Vigneron was appointed Archbishop of Detroit in January of this year and Fr. Daniel Danielson has been acting as Diocesan Administrator since that time.

More info on Bishop Cordileone can be found here, here, and here (Bishop Cordileone celebrated a Novus Ordo Mass in the newly inaugurated TAC Chapel ad orientem in Latin).

Posted by Don Roberts at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Low Mass?

We worship using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (also known as the Traditional Mass, or the Latin Mass) at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland. We are blessed enough to have a High Mass every Sunday, so this is the form we're most familiar with. Sometimes when we go to Mass during the week, we'll attend a Low Mass. The most obvious difference is the lack of a choir for the Low Mass, or, if you're our children, you might say the most obvious difference is that the Low Mass is shorter.

We very rarely attend the Ordinatry Form of the Roman Rite (also know as the Novus Ordo Mass.) In fact, we pretty much only attend when we travel, so the kids aren't very used to this form of the liturgy.

This past Sunday, while traveling, we attended a Novus Ordo Mass. Only someone who has been to both Masses can appreciate how different they can be, depending upon the manner in which they are celebrated. This particular Mass was celebrated in a very modern way.

This was not the first time we've gone to Mass in this particular church, and in the middle of this Mass, my five year old son, Alex leaned over to his grandmother and said, "Do they always have Low Mass here?" Grandma managed to stifle her laughter and replied, "Yes."

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The origin of "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel"

Over at the New Liturgical Movement, they have an interesting entry on the origin of the Christmas carol "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

The well-known Advent hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel belongs to the ever-growing repertoire of popular hymns known, loved, and sung all over the English-speaking world. It made its first appearance as far back as 1854, in Part II of the Hymnal Noted, edited by Thomas Helmore. The English words are based on a free Latin paraphrase of the great O Antiphons, which are sung with the Magnificat at Vespers on the days leading up to Christmas Eve. These antiphons themselves came into existence at least as early as the eighth century. The paraphrase can he traced back to the seventh edition of the Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, published in Cologne in 1710. The present splendid English translation was made by Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853-1931) for the English Hymna1 (1906), of which he was joint editor.

The familiar melody was said by Thomas Helmore to have been "copied by the late J. M. Neale from a French Missal" which he located “in the National Library, Lisbon." But in a letter to the press in 1909, H. Jenner claimed that his father, Bishop Jenner, had copied both the tune and the words in Lisbon in 1853. All attempts to track it down, however, failed: neither a "French Missal," nor indeed any service-book from Lisbon could be produced to justify either claim. The compilers of the 1909 historical edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern drew a complete blank, and, more recently, one scholar even made the ingenious suggestion that Thomas Helmore had perhaps composed the tune himself, coyly hiding his identity behind the pretence that it was an ancient tune gleaned from a Continental source.

I was able, however, in 1966, to vindicate his honor. My attention had been drawn to a small fifteenth century processional in the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale. It was Franciscan in origin and probably intended far the use of nuns rather than friars. Turning the pages I discovered, on folio 89v ff, a number of troped verses for the funeral responsory Libera me in the form of a litany, beginning with the words "Bone iesu, dulcis cunctis.” The melody of these tropes was none other than the tune of O come, O come Emmanuel. It appeared in square notation on the left-hand page, and on the opposite page there was a second part that fitted exactly, like a mirror-image, in note-against-note harmony with the hymn-tune. The book would thus have been shared by two sisters, each singing her own part as they processed.

So it would seem that this great Advent hymn-tune was not, in the first instance, associated with Advent at all, but with a funeral litany of the saints in verse, interspersed between the sections of a well-known responsory. Perhaps it is a measure of Helmore's genius that he detected in this melody an appropriate Advent sound as well, one which conveys an unmistakable sense of solemn expectancy, not only for the Nativity of Christ, but also for his Second Coming as judge and as savior. Helmore was shrewd enough, also, to have been aware that an indubitable link exists between the theology of Advent and a procession marking the passage from death to eternal life.

Posted by Don Roberts at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Denver Archbishop corrects Sen. Biden's abortion errors

In the wake of Speaker Pelosi's mangling of Catholic Church teaching, Democrat VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and did the same. Here is Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's response to Senator Biden's comments:

Public Servants and Moral Reasoning:
A notice to the Catholic community in northern Colorado

Monday, Sept. 8, 2008

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:

When Catholics serve on the national stage, their actions and words impact the faith of Catholics around the country. As a result, they open themselves to legitimate scrutiny by local Catholics and local bishops on matters of Catholic belief. In 2008, although NBC probably didn't intend it, Meet the Presshas become a national window on the flawed moral reasoning of some Catholic public servants.

On August 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, describing herself as an ardent, practicing Catholic, misrepresented the overwhelming body of Catholic teaching against abortion to the show's nationwide audience, while defending her "pro-choice" abortion views. On September 7, Sen. Joseph Biden compounded the problem to the same Meet the Press audience.

Sen. Biden is a man of distinguished public service. That doesn't excuse poor logic or bad facts. Asked when life begins, Sen. Biden said that, "it's a personal and private issue." But in reality, modern biology knows exactly when human life begins: at the moment of conception. Religion has nothing to do with it. People might argue when human "personhood" begins - though that leads public policy in very dangerous directions - but no one can any longer claim that the beginning of life is a matter of religious opinion.

Continue reading "Denver Archbishop corrects Sen. Biden's abortion errors" »

Posted by Don Roberts at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Continue reading "Fr. Z on liturgy" »

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.

Continue reading "Return of the Solemn Latin Mass to Knoxville, TN" »

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)