Punditry

Vatican City, 3 June 2012 (VIS) – At midday today, after having celebrated Mass in the presence of almost one million faithful at Bresso Park in Milan and before praying the Angelus, the Holy Father announced that the eighth World Meeting of Families will be held in Philadelphia, U.S.A. in the year 2015. “I send my warm greetings to Archbishop Charles Chaput”, he said, “and to the Catholics of that great city, and look forward to meeting them there along with numerous families from all around the world”. (source)

I really need to move to wherever Archbishop Chaput is at the time. When he was in Denver they had World Youth Day there and not that he is in Philadelphia they are going to have the “World Meeting of Families” there.

Here is a rather interesting story on a couple of levels.

A Umatilla teenager said she was forced to choose between her Catholic faith and serving as a delegate to Florida Girls State, a government-in-action leadership program for teen girls.

“I was shocked. This is basically discrimination,” said Margeaux (Mar-go) Graham, 16, a junior at Umatilla High School, who was told that she would not be allowed to attend Sunday Mass while Girls State is hosted June 15-23 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, even though a Catholic cathedral is across the street from FSU.
Graham’s mother, Mary, offered to make the trip to escort her daughter to church.

“The girls are not allowed to leave our program for any reason,” said Robin Briere, department secretary-treasurer of the American Legion Auxiliary, who noted it would be an insurance liability to allow any of the 300 delegates to leave the premises.
Briere said a non-denominational Sunday service is provided for the delegates.
As a faithful Catholic, Graham said it would be a mortal sin for her not to attend Mass, as it’s her religious and moral obligation to attend Mass every single Sunday.

“Missing Mass is not an option,” added Jackie Smart, director of religious education at St. Mary of the Lakes Catholic Church in Eustis, where Graham is a parishioner.

“If you’re Catholic, you’re obliged to gather with your fellow Catholics on Sundays to celebrate Mass and it’s not something that we can choose not to participate in, if you’re an active Catholic,” Smart said. “If you really believe what our faith teaches, there would be no way to keep you from Mass and that’s the way Margeaux feels…

“Good for Margeaux for not being afraid to stand up for her faith. There is so much pressure on these young men and women nowadays that it’s not cool to embrace your faith, and I think that it’s really great that Margeaux is willing to stand up for that. …She is just a very determined young lady. She has a very strong grasps of her faith and what it means to be a Catholic.”

A friend of the Graham family, Carl Ludecke, commander of American Legion Post 21 in Umatilla, called Robin Briere at the state American Legion Auxiliary and proposed the idea of allowing a priest or university chaplain to come to Girls State to celebrate Mass for the Catholic delegates.

“I thought, why not bring in somebody in at the same time as they were doing a service in another room?, Ludecke said, recalling the idea was immediately rejected.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was just trying to get this resolved so everybody could be happy,” he said. “We had a screaming match on the telephone and I didn’t get anywhere, because I really don’t have any jurisdiction to do it.”

Briere said this is the first time in her 19 years on staff with Girls State, a privately-funded program, that religion has become an issue.

“We are a non-denominational program and intentionally keep religion out of our program out of respect for the 300 girls that come from many different faiths,” she said. “We set aside time on Sunday morning, from our very busy schedule, to allow each girl to honor her faith silently and the girls collectively put a program together to honor all faiths.”

The Sunday service is written and executed by the delegates, she said, adding it’s something that they enjoy doing.

What I find interesting is that this had never been seen as a problem before and surely a percentage of Catholics had participated in this program during all these years. Offering only a ecumenical Sunday service is certainly of the Protestant mindset where they think there is not any actual obligation in the first place. A non-sacramental mindset that reduces worship to a sermon that could just as well be heard on TV or the internet.

The keystone of the article is the subject of missing Mass on Sunday.

Canon 1247

On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass; they are also to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body.

Canon 1248

1. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.

2. If because of lack of a sacred minister or for other grave cause participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the liturgy of the word if it is celebrated in the parish church or in another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families.

With missing Mass requiring a “grave cause”. Of course illness or having to take care of a family member are often given as examples that meet this criteria. Being on vacation in an area with no convenient access to Mass is another example and there is no requirement to drive a long distance in these circumstances. Now whether attending a leadership conference and not being allowed permission to go to Mass is a sufficient “grave cause”, I certainly could not be definitive on. This would be an area that would be best discussed with their parish priest. Though I also think while possible this could fall into that category, it is more meritorious in taking this requirement obligation seriously.

It is also very nice to see a director of religious education at her home parish (Jackie Smart) say something like “Missing Mass is not an option” since the serious obligation to attend Mass is something that many serious Catholics seem to think has been done away with since Vatican II. I like Jackie Smart’s comment “If you really believe what our faith teaches, there would be no way to keep you from Mass and that’s the way Margeaux feels..” So often you hear Mass proposes as an imposition, something to get out of the way. That actually being told to go to Mass is rather mean or troublesome – a view I think bishops unintentionally reinforce when they do things like move the Ascension to Sunday.

The other interesting thing about the story is how the staff of Girls State will not make the simplest compromise on the subject. They wouldn’t even allow the mother to come in an take her to Mass across the street. If this is the type of leadership this organization is demonstrating then it is a good thing this young women is missing out on it. Why is this rule so unbreakable and no compromise possible. The staff of Girls State might have a promising career working for President Obama’s HHS.

“I’m just amazed at the uproar over this,” added Briere, who also is Catholic by faith. “It’s not like she’s forced to go to this program and we’re denying her religious rights. … What has surprised me the most, through all of this, was having the Umatilla American Legion commander call and demand that we had to do it.”

Briere said she does not feel less of a Catholic when she misses Mass while being involved in leading Girls State.

Because the objective state of something is based on what you feel. I don’t feel this is a sin, so thus it isn’t. The cry of “Officer I didn’t feel this was a crime” would be laughed at, unfortunately similar protestations are taken seriously. Besides is it really the case that Briere is not allowed to attend Mass when these conferences happen?

She goes on to say:

“I respect her religious beliefs, and certainly I share them as we’re the same faith,” Briere said. “The Catholic religion that I know is not that narrow thinking, but I do respect how she feels. I’m not disrespecting her in any way. I just feel bad that she is being put in the position to choose between the two. Unfortunately, because of this, she has lost her opportunity to go to Girl State and that cannot be changed now. She’s out of the program, and it was her choice.”

She is being put into that position simply because they refuse to make any compromise. Funny how so many will deride you for not making a compromise when they would not offer a compromise themselves.

(source)
(Via GetReligion)

Those who have been around the Catholic blogosphere during it’s early part a decade a go will remember (and fondly remember) Fr. Bryce Sibley.

He has an article in Crisis Magazine which voices my opinion on Christian films like Courageous quite well. He is able to put succinctly what I try to grasp to understand in why I think these movies don’t ultimately succeed. His comparison of these movies to the Christian fiction so often produced is a nice parallel in that as he says they both fail to have a “sacramental imagination”.

I also fully agree when he writes:

While films like Courageous have their place, Christian filmmakers should take up the challenge to not only convey the truths of the Christian faith, but that also convey a sense of beauty and mystery in their films. These are the type films that will have the power to truly change minds and touch hearts for generations to come.

Courageous certainly shows the filmmaker has grown, but compare it to a movie like “Of Gods and Men” and then you can rightly see it more as a good Christian Bookstore Movie than what it should be, a work of art.

I encourage you to read his thoughtful article.

Rorate Caeli has a story of Hans Küng declaring Benedict XVI schismatic over the issue of the possible SSPX unification.

Now while Hans Küng is somewhat of an expert on disobedience, heresy, and schism somehow I think he got this one wrong. Yeah what a surprise. He pins all this on the extremely debatable point that the Bishops and Priests of the SSPX were “definitely invalidly ordained.” Well not really debatable just plain Bravo Sierra. So I guess according to Mr. Küng attempts at ordaining women by a range of suspects are all valid, but the Bishops and Priest of the SSPX weren’t.

This is a kind of a “I’m rubber you’re glue, if I’m a schismatic than so are you.”

It’s official: Ave Maria University will no longer make available health coverage for students, according to a statement by Ave Maria President Jim Towey.

In making the announcement, available on the university’s website, Towey cited both moral objections and skyrocketing costs that are consequences of President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the associated HHS contraception mandate.

The university is also dropping the requirement that students be insured. The new policy goes into effect August 15, 2012.

Ave Maria announced that the college was recently informed by its insurance carrier that the provisions of Obamacare would require an increase in the maximum benefit per injury or illness (from $50,000 to $100,000) and that students would not only face a 66% increase in their premiums (from $839 to $1,392) but an increase in their deductibles (from $100 to $250 per policy year).

On top of that, the HHS mandate would require the university to provide coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization procedures, which Towey called “an affront to our core values.” (Matthew Archbold @ Cardinal Newman Society)

This of course follows the news last week when the Franciscan University of Steubenville did the same.

At 11 a.m. Eastern time today, 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations — including Our Sunday Visitor and the University of Notre Dame — filed religious liberty lawsuits against the federal government in a dozen different jurisdictions around the country.

At issue are regulations that require Catholic organizations, employers and insurers to provide or facilitate abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception — in violation of their consciences.

Equally troubling is the extreme narrowness of the government’s new test for determining which religious organizations are exempt from this mandate — which would appear to exclude Catholic schools, health care facilities, charities and others like Our Sunday Visitor. source

Fr. Jenkins of the University of Notre Dame comments here

The speaker who received an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony would not release a full statement.

But he did say how is that “sensible conscience clause” working out for you?

Well Christ did take a lickin’ and keep on ticking’

At a party this weekend celebrating New York Design Week, which begins today, the Chilean-born artist plans to hand out 100 “Christian Popsicles” made of “frozen holy wine transformed into the blood of Christ” and featuring a crucifix instead the tongue depressor that typically hosts the frozen treats, he said.

GetReligion Covers this story from CNN which is a textbook example of the typical horrible mainstream religion reporting.

An image of Jesus Christ positioned traditionally on the cross is visible once the ice pop is consumed. As for the frozen wine, Errazuriz said, he concealed it in a cooler and took it into a church, where it was “inadvertently blessed by the priest while turning wine into the blood of Christ during the Eucharist.”

Lets bypass the whole “inadvertently blessed” component for a minute and cover another point. Now why did this self-admitted atheist artist decide that he needed first to attempt this aspect of it anyway? He doesn’t believe in the doctrine of the Eucharist and consecrated wine and unconsecrated wine is all the same to him.

No doubt it is the same reason so many artists attempt blasphemous art for attention. Mocking of belief is one component and to increase making the believer think that consecrated wine was actually used increases the intensity of such mocking. The “daring” artist is so common now and almost always the target is specifically the Catholic faith. Though that is an old trend that started with the shaping of the Crown of Thorns.

Raised in a Catholic household, Errazuriz is now a “practicing atheist,” but he has many friends and family members who are religious, and he respects their beliefs. … His frozen cocktails stand as a symbol, he said, an invitation to “drink the Kool-Aid” that he feels so many religious zealots are stirring up.

Well if this is how he “respects” their beliefs, I wonder what he does when he disrespects something. So in answer to all this “religious zealotry” the answer is art mocking one aspect of belief – yeah that will really make the world better and not stir anything up.

Now as to the “inadvertently blessed” aspect of the story this is so ridiculous and GetReligion rightly lambasts CNN for not challenging this aspect of the story in any way.

Now I am rather skeptical that this artist actually brought a cooler into a Church with enough wine for 100 popsicles. But even if he did there is no scenario where the wine would actually get consecrated. Even if he did go to all the trouble of putting the cooler underneath the altar (with nobody noticing this), consecration is an intentional act – not a piece of magic. It is not as if any wine or bread in the Church gets consecrated if they happen to be in people’s pockets regardless of how close they are to the priest during consecration. What a shock that another ex-Catholic turned atheist doesn’t have even a basic theological understanding. If you are going to go to all the effort to mock something, you might just want to check if you actually succeeded. If you are going for the P.Z. Myers school of art you first actually need something to desecrate. For my part I am glad he was inept about this, though actually getting hold of a volume of consecrated wine would be fairly difficult to pull off.

GetReligion asks the pertinent questions about the reporting.

In other words, this story is a disaster. Did the CNN team grasp the bizarre and ludicrous nature of this claim by the artist? Did anyone stop and think about the practical details of what was said to have happened? If so, why was the story published without some kind of commentary from a liturgical expert, if not a priest or bishop of the church?

As Errazuriz himself states, this was not a joke. Why did CNN treat it as a kind of wink-wink joke?

Update: Jimmy Akin posts on the subject.

According to the late Fr. Nicholas Halligan, OP, in his outstanding book, The Sacraments and Their Celebration (written as a training manual for priests and seminarians):

The material to be consecrated must be definitely intended by the minister, since by intention the formula determines the significance of the material. . . . The bread and wine to be consecrated should be placed on the corporal (or the altar cloth). If there is material to be consecrated or which is consecratable on the altar, but its presence is unknown to the celebrant, by that very fact it is not consecrated, since the intention of the minister must in some sufficient way designate or include the material that is to be consecrated (pp. 68-69, emphasis in original).