Evangelical Catholicism And The Critical Need to Keep Going Forward

Pope Francis at World Youth Day

in Rio de Janeiro 

An interesting article in the New York Times this morning about the Church in Latin America.  On the one hand there is new vitality for the Catholic Church South of our border.  Sixty years ago the nations of Latin America were dependent on missionary priests and sisters from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.  Today, while the Churches of Europe and North America are lacking in sufficient clergy for their own needs, the former missionary countries of Latin America are actually sending vocations to the United States.  At the World Youth Day last year we saw the tremendous energy of the Church in Brazil and surrounding countries.  The key to renewal has been threefold: the growth of small base communities (communidades de base) where people reflect together on the scriptures, the culturalization of the liturgy where an intelligent participation in prayer is made more easily accessible, and liberation theology where the lived experience of the faithful is brought into dialogue with the ancient tenets of the Church.  That is the good news. 

The bad news is that while sixty years ago you had a Church that was dead in the water with no vocations, with 15% Mass attendance, and with a symbiotic relationship with right-wing dictatorships, you also had 90% of the faithful identifying themselves as Catholic.  Today you have almost 20% of the population identifying as Protestant and another 11% saying they are religiously unaffiliated. 

Secularization is a problem throughout the developed world and it should not be surprising that the majority of those who identify themselves as without religious affiliation come not from the poorer elements of society but from the upper Middle Class that have more in common culturally with North Americans and Europeans than with the poor of their own countries.   As a Church we need to develop a strategy to effectively address the challenges secularism presents to society.  But perhaps the more pressing thing to look at is why there has been such a shift from Catholicism to Protestantism.   The New York Times article says:

Latin Americans who converted from Catholicism to Protestantism most often said they did so because they were seeking a more personal connection with God. 

I think this is something that we must pay great attention to as I believe holds the solution not only to the loss of Catholics to Protestantism in Latin America but to the empty pews here at home.  

I remember running into Pastor Lon Solomon of McLean bible Church in McLean Virginia about fourteen years ago.  I was on a “Footsteps of Saint Paul” pilgrimage in Greece and Pastor Solomon was leading a group of his congregants on a similar expedition.  Our different busses both pulled into the same restaurant for lunch.  I am not sure quite how the conversation started between us but he told me some interesting things about McLean Bible.  I was familiar with MBC as I have at various times lived in the Washington DC metropolitan area but Pastor Solomon told me that perhaps half of his 13,000 members were or had been Roman Catholics.  (I say “were or had been” as a number of them—including some friends of mine from Great Falls—still consider themselves to be Catholics only that they more often attend McLean Bible Church rather than their local parishes.)  why are Catholics being drawn to Evangelical Churches like McLean Bible?  To be honest McLean Bible is no hell-fire and damnation church.  But people want a deeper and more personal relationship with God than they are getting in most Catholic parishes.  The sad thing is that if we Catholics knew our own heritage, we would be the target churches for those who were seeking that relationship. 

I mention McLean Bible, let me also mention Tara Brach and the Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC.  Dr. Brach teaches Buddhist Vipassana meditation.  Her Wednesday night teachings, held at River Road Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda MD draws hundreds of people each week.  It draws young people—people in their thirties and forties—the sort of people that we aren’t seeing in our Catholic and Lutheran and Episcopalian and Presbyterian Churches on Sundays, the sort of people we usually associate with “secularism.”  Dr. Brach, in fact, offers a spirituality that well suits the young and the intelligent in today’s world.  And on my visit there I was surprised to hear her cite not only Buddhist scriptures and teachers, but Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as well as Thomas Merton and contemporary Catholic authors. 

Catholic author, the Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, writes:

….we are reaping the rewards of such repression.  Much of the Western world has given up on the church and is going other places for wisdom.  Unfortunately, in these other places they are sometimes “willingly filling their belly with the husks the pigs are eating” (Luke 15:16) But we in the church must ask ourselves if we have not been the parent who sent them away because there was nothing trustworthy or life-giving at home.

We have a rich heritage of spiritual authors that we keep as if under lock and key.  Can’t we see we are only beginning the renewal called for at the Second Vatican Council?  What has happened so far is mostly “clearing the ground” so that we can build a strong Church for the future. 

Again, I have reservations on George Weigel’s book, Evangelical Catholicism, but his basic premise is, I believe, spot on.

The Catholic Church is being invited to meet the Risen Lord in the Scriptures, the Sacraments, and Prayer and to make friendship with him the center of Catholic life. Every Catholic has received this invitation in Baptism, the invitation to accept the Great Commission, to act as evangelists and to measure the truth of Catholic life by the way in which Catholics give expression to the human decency and solidarity that flows from friendship with Christ the Lord.

As a Church, as the Community of the Body of the Risen Lord, we need to provide people with that friendship—that personal relationship—with Jesus Christ.  We have the scriptures, we have the Liturgy (the sacraments), and we have a rich tradition of spirituality (prayer)with which to do this.  We have the tools.  Pope Francis is right, we need to stop the screaming about abortion, about same-sex marriage, about the “evils of the modern world” and pick up the tools the Holy Spirit has given us to deepen our own faith and to bring that living faith to others.  The protection of human life, the moral and spiritual renewal of society, will all follow.  

Things Change, Kundun

The altar at World Youth Day 2013

I mentioned in the previous post about the author of the Les Femmes website and her complaints of the Pope’s Mass for World Youth Day.  Drawing on the video of John Vennari of Catholic Family News, she noted the following things to have been “objectionable” about Pope Francis’ Mass. 

 Profane music more appropriate to a rock concert and in violation of the rubrics on music,

Dancing more appropriate to an aerobics class than the liturgy,

Drums and other rock instruments specifically prohibited by sacred documents on music,

Solo singing reminiscent of a cabaret act,

Plastic cups for distributing the Body of Christ???

Some of these objections are obviously highly subjective: whether a particular solo is more appropriate for a “cabaret” than for worship or whether particular dancing is more appropriate to an aerobics class than for worship.  Others are just disinformation: there is no ban on the use of drums in the Sacred Liturgy. 

I don’t think there is malice on part of the good lady, only ignorance.  And this is the problem.  I gather from reading her posts and her news letter over the years that she and I grew up at the same time, I north of the Mason Dixon and she south.  I gather that we both went to Catholic Schools where we had the good nuns who taught us the music of the Latin Liturgy (especially Mass 8), and told us about Pope Saint Pius X and his insistence on the organ being the only instrument for the liturgy.  Pius was reacting to the orchestra masses of the 18^th and 19^th century—the Mozart Coronation Mass for example—in which the congregation was reduced to the state of an audience while professional singers were required for performance.  Pius’ determination to restore chant was precisely to restore active participation in the Liturgy.  Pius’ Liturgical reforms were a tremendous step forward, but they were not the final step in liturgical development. Now I am not saying that Pope Saint Pius X would have loved the Copacabana Mass.  I am sure he would not have.  But like all us mortals, Pius lived in a fixed period of time which shaped his worldview.  The Church is a living organism, as is its liturgy.  It has continued to develop since the days of the Pope who made such a difference in Catholic devotion with permission for daily Holy Communion.  Pius’ norms remained in effect for decades but change did come and it came before Vatican II.  First came the encyclical letter of Pius XII, Mediator Dei approximately fourteen years before the Council opened.  Then came Vatican II and Sacrosanctum Concilium which mandated serious revision of the Sacred Liturgy (though not perhaps as serious a revision as we were given in the Missal of Paul VI) and encouraged “inculturation” to permit the liturgy to be adapted to the various cultures in which the Church finds itself.  Sacrosanctum Concilium was followed by innumerable other documents carrying out the mandate of the Council that the Liturgy should involve a full, active, and conscious participation on the part of the laity in the Mass.  All sorts of permissions were given and some permissions were denied.  Some permissions—dance for example—were allowed in certain cultures and banned in others.  The Papal Masses, both in Rome and when the popes were “on the road” became models for what could be done with the Liturgy and different cultures used Papal Visits to showcase their unique gifts and now being worthy of an offering to God.
Personally I am delighted that Pope Francis has signaled an end to the attempts at partial restoration of the pre-conciliar rites.  His choice to wash the feet of women in the Holy Thursday liturgy was the first clear sign that there is a new sheriff in town.  His choice of the simplest of vestments, his insistence on celebrating facing the congregatgion (versus populum as opposed to versus apsidem), his use of the “for all” (as opposed to the “for many”) in vernacular celebrations, and other gestures have been clear signs that we don’t have to worry about the peculiarities of the neo-trads being imposed on us at prayer.  I know it upsets the good lady from Woodstock and others of her ilk who thought that they were about to restore the traditions they knew so well but which had begun to fade from pious memory, but it is allowing the rest of us to get on with a serious and focused approach to our faith.      

Know Your Sources

Our friend over at Les Femmes recently published an attack on Pope Francis and his liturgical style.  The video was prepared by John Vennari who was at one time connected with sede vacantists such as, among others, Marion Horvat  from Tradition in Action and Gerry Matatics, a prominent Evangelical turned Catholic turned Sede Vacantist.  (A Sede Vacantist is one who believes that there is no legitimate Pope at the moment because the alleged Pope is a heretic.  The “See is Empty”: Sede Vacante in Italian.   Most Sede Vacantists allege that every Pope since and including John XXIII has been in heresy and that the Second Vatican Council is a “false council,” its decrees being, according to them, heretical.  This Sede Vacantist connection was probably unknown to the author of the Les Femmes site who, while ignorant of (or disagreement with) most legitimate changes in liturgical and canonical law over the last forty years, is sincere in adhering to papal authority, or at least papal authority that support her somewhat eclectic choice of political and devotional positions.
Mr. Vennari seems to have left his Sede Vacantist position to edit Catholic Family News, a website that manages  to stay just on the Catholic side of the schismatic line.  Catholic Family News is the source of many of the Videos posted on the Les Femmes site.  Vennari’s site also has a consistent stance of rejecting the Council and its changes without formally renouncing papal authority.  It has been extremely critical of Pope Francis and especially for his liturgical style.  The Papal Mass at World Youth Day sent Catholic Family News over the edge and its video is replete with allegations of liturgical violations in the Papal Liturgy as if Tra le Sollecitudini of Pope St. Pius X and other pre-conciliar legislation had not been superseded by Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II and Post Conciliar legislation.  The only effect of such biased videos is to undermine not only the Conciliar liturgical reforms but papal authority itself. 
What the Oracle of Woodstock doesn’t seem to realize is that videos like this are an attack not simply on a style of liturgy which perturbs her, but an attack on the Pope who celebrated this Mass and celebrated it with an obvious enthusiasm and enjoyment.  Granted that the more introverted Pope Benedict would have been somewhat discomforted by its enthusiasm, but even in the days of Pope Benedict and his penchant for liturgical restorationism it was clear that the best the neo-trads could hope for was space for their particular liturgical preferences.  There was never a realistic chance for “The Reform of the Reform” to reestablish its ideal of liturgy draped as tragic opera to be the normative worship of the Catholic Church in the United States much less in Latin America, Asia, or Africa where indigenous cultures have been integrated into Catholic worship.  Francis has made it clear from the first moments of his papacy that he was not going to permit the Church to go backward.  He is no liberal and liberals must take note of that, but he is thoroughly committed to the program of the Second Vatican Council as it was originally understood before Cardinal Ratzinger’s attempts at the “hermeneutic of continuity” began revising the Council.   No, I think we are going to see plenty of liturgical dancing and music with a beat and roaring crowds at future World Youth Days as well as at other gatherings.  But then the Oracle of Woodstock dreams of her new Catholic Scouts sitting around a campfire saying the rosary and singing Latin hymns (see posting for June 13, 2013).  Just what do they smoke in Woodstock?

The Franciscan Revolution

Youth and World Youth Day: Evil is only in the

eye of the beholder

Well the Katholic wing-nuts have gone into open despair over Pope Francis as his trip to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro ended with some remarkable bangs.  The right-wing has always been skeptical about World Youth Day as it is the occasion for youth to be, well, youth and that sort of freedom of the children of God is just a bit more than they can handle.  And when you finish up with a Mass on the beach at Copacabana, well, expect kids to be kids.  And Pope Francis loved it, every minute of it.  It all comes down to one’s point of view: do we live in a world where the ultimate mystery is Grace or where the ultimate mystery is Sin?  The influence of Jansenism on the religious conservatives has convinced them that depravity rules and Grace is but a Band-Aid for those who are to be saved.  Francis, on the other hand, seems to see the world as the unfolding of the mystery of Grace and does not presume the worst about people.  That is a bit of a change from the dour tone of his predecessor.  In some ways, Francis seems to be John Paul I redivivus.  The one month of that smiling Pope with his fresh and happy outlook was far too short a break between the anguished Paul VI and the Slavic Sulk and German Reich that followed.   

Catholic neo-trads organized their own parallel World Youth Day in Rio to run simultaneously with the papal events.  Juventutem Niteroi of the quasi-Diocese (Apostolic Administration) of Campos Brazil.  While massive crowds were gathering about Pope Francis for the official liturgies and programs of World Youth Day, the alternative program, led by Bishop Fernando Rifan, celebrated Mass in the Extraordinary Form and held a series of catechetical sessions in which Bishop Rifan and priests of the Apostolic Administration  taught Catholic doctrine with the neo-traditionalist twist.  The Campos program drew about two thousand youth and sponsors; Pope Francis drew two million.  Go Francis!  Let’s hear it for bringing back Vatican II.  



The Alternative Program for Neo-Trads:

the Prelate of Campos Celebrates the Old Rite

Shortly before Francis went to Brazil the Vatican Congregation responsible for religious orders, with the express authorization of the Pope, limited the use of the Extra-ordinary Form (Tridentine Mass) among a neo-traditionalist group of Franciscans, the Franciscans of the Immaculate.    The friars had been using both the “old Mass” and the “new Mass,” but apparently a decision by their leadership decided that in their monasteries they would use only the Extraordinary Form.  This displeased some of the friars who, though conservative, favor the revised liturgy.  Apparently the situation quickly devolved into a serious split in the community and the Congregation for the Consecrated Life stepped in and appointed an outside commissioner—a Capuchin Franciscan—to take temporary control of the Friars and at the same time restricted use of the Extraordinary Form.  According the guidelines individual friars and communities may apply for permission to use the Extraordinary Form but ordinarily the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite must be used.  Neo-trads were appalled as this would seem to limit the wide freedoms given by Benedict XVI in his motu prorprio,  Summorum Pontificium.  Francis is known to be no friend of the older Rite and this step can be seen as the first step in withdrawing the free and easy access of priests to the Tridentine Mass.  

As if that wasn’t bad news enough for the neo-trad wing-nuts, Francis on his return flight to Rome signaled a remarkable change of direction both to Gay and Lesbian Catholics and to Catholics who have married outside the Church.  Francis certainly did not endorse same-sex relationships, but when asked about gay priests said:  If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?"  Who am I to judge???  This drives the neo-trads right up the wall.  If the Pope can’t judge, then how can they?  And if they can’t judge then what use is religion after all.  The main point of religion for them is to know that they are better than everyone else.  Francis went on to suggest that the Church needs to reexamine its policy of banning those who are married outside the Church, and specifically those who have remarried after a divorce without obtaining a Church annulment, from Holy Communion.  Several other churchmen have said this over the past decade, including a number of Cardinals, but when the Pope says it, it is news.  There has of yet been no official change of policy however. 

In the same interview Francis said that the Church must look again at the role of women.  He specifically excluded the possibility of ordaining women to the priesthood or episcopate but he said that they must have greater roles than serving at the altar or being chancellor of a diocese or heading up a Vatican bureau.  What is he thinking of?  He was not clear.  But without ordaining women to the priesthood or episcopate while opening up top-level Vatican careers, could he be hinting at the possibility of naming women to the College of Cardinals?  It is not necessary for one to be a bishop or even a priest to be a Cardinal.  If the diaconate were open to women, and there is no reason why it could not be, a woman could be a Cardinal deacon.  And, if one looks at history, it would even be possible to name a woman—or a man for that matter—to the College without even the diaconate.  The last lay Cardinal was in the nineteenth century but there is a long tradition of them.  Wouldn’t that make the next conclave fascinating?   

All this has bunched the panties of the neo-trads and to look at their blogs, they are in a panic.  Their future which seemed so rosy a year ago is in great disarray.  Who would have thought that the tables could turn so quickly?  On the other hand, tables can turn again.  Little did we know when the ultra-staid Pius XII was writing his revolutionary encyclicals  Divino  Afflante Spiritu, Mystici Corporis, and Mediator Dei that we were on the first incline of what has proved these last fifty years to be a wild roller-coaster ride in Church history.