North Coast Catholic • July 2015
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NORTH COAST CATHOLIC The newspaper of the Diocese of Santa Rosa • www.srdiocese.org • JULY 2015 Pope Releases Environment Encyclical Noticias en español, p. 19 by News and analysis from NCC staff and wire reports Vatican City - Vatican observers are claiming the nearly climate change, the advances have been regrettably few,” Healdsburg’s 200-page Laudato Si (“The Care for Our Common Home”) noting that “reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, is more than an ecological encyclical. Instead, they say, Pope courage, and responsibility, above all on the part of those Francis has given the Church and the world a document countries which are more powerful and pollute the most” Parochial School that addresses the full range of Catholic social teaching (no. 169). on economics, politics, culture, employment, technology, Laudato Si, therefore, explicitly is aimed at a comprehen- Hires New Principal migration, poverty, peace, architecture, urban planning, sive, global climate-change treaty. That is very significant, education, human rights, and the environment. as its endorsement of climate policies meshes with the by NCC Staff The secular headlines predictably focused on the Holy priorities of the global progressive elite. Father’s acceptance that a “very solid scientific consensus Thus when Pope Francis arrives in Washington, DC, In June, St. John the Baptist indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing President Barack Obama will claim no American presi- School in Healdsburg hired warming of the climatic system” (no. 23). This conforms dential administration has had policies more in line with a replacement for Princi- to his explicit hope for Laudato Si, which is to support the the priorities of the Holy See. Of course this ignores the pal Dr. Colleen Bruckman, establishment of “enforceable international agreements Holy Father’s observation that natural ecology cannot be who resigned for personal [that] are urgently needed” (no. 173). separated from human ecology. Therefore authentic care reasons before the end of Specifically the Holy Father laments that “with regard to (see Environment Encyclical, p. 7) the 2014-15 term. Her replacement is James Brandt, a San Diego native. For the past seven years he has taught at St. James Brandt Joseph Academy in San Marcos a K-12 school not unlike Napa’s Kolbe Academy and Trinity Prep. Brandt’s journey to Healdsburg is an interesting one. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame on a naval ROTC scholarship in the late 1980s, he received his commission as an officer in the United States Navy and spent the next 15 years in service to the nation. The last three of those he spent teaching calculus at the US Naval Academy, and it was during this time that he strongly discerned a vocation to the priesthood. However to fully test that vocation, he knew he needed to enter the seminary. And so after finishing the fall 2004 semester at the Acad- emy, Brandt entered the Catholic University of America (CUA) as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Washington. He chose this See because its ordinary at the time, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, is very supportive of our armed forces and encouraged Brandt’s desire to become a naval chaplain. Brandt left just after the 2006-07 term, however. He (see New Principal, p. 8) Andrew Pacheco Raised to Supreme Court the Transitional Diaconate Legalizes Same by NCC Staff Sex Unions As reported in last month’s issue of North Coast CNA/EWTN and NCC staff Catholic, Bishop Robert F. Vasa ordained Mr. Andrew Pacheco to the transitional diaconate on Washington, DC—On June 26, just two days after faith June 5. leaders pleaded with the Supreme Court of the United A transitional deacon is different from a perma- States (SCOTUS) to not overturn the social order by cor- nent deacon because he will eventually receive the rupting the foundation of society—marriage—the Court’s sacrament of holy orders. That is, he will become Justices did just on a 5-4 vote. a priest. In a wide-reaching decision, the SCOTUS has declared God willing, now-Dcn. Pacheco is expected to that same-sex “marriage” is a constitutional right and that enter the priesthood next summer. states must recognize same-sex unions contracted as mar- Andrew Pacheco Born and raised in Ukiah, Deacon’s road to the riages in other states. clerical state began at a young age. His parent David and Beth Pacheco raised their The Cap ruled that states must acknowledge same-sex children with a strong Catholic foundation. “marriages” under the Fourteenth Amendment and recog- But the biggest influence on his vocation were his maternal grandparents Edward nize such unions contracted in other states. and Barbara Graves. They regularly took the Pacheco siblings to daily Mass. Fur- The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges dealt with claims thermore, Dcn. Andrew started serving as an altar boy at age six. Additionally, his that Ohio’s marriage law discriminated by not recognizing grandparents said the Rosary with their grandchildren. same-sex unions contracted as marriages in other states. (see Andrew Pacheco, p. 23) (see Supreme Court, p. 9) Is the Eucharist Boring? Pope’s Worship Chief’s Recent In 2004, Francis Cardinal Arinze, then-prefect of the performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of by the Head and by His members. From this it follows the Sacraments issued an instruction on the Eucharist that every liturgical celebration—because it is an action of Comments Cause titled Redemptionis Sacramentum (“The Sacrament of Christ the priest and of His Body the Church—is a sacred Redemption”). action surpassing all others” (no. 7). If you have never heard of it, you are not alone. It can often One of the reasons for the annual Corpus Christi cel- Controversy happen that documents such as this can fail to come to the ebration and procession like we had in June at the cathe- attention of the People of God and thus dral is precisely to reinforce for us that from various sources are never seen. Maybe they are not glitzy the Mass “is a sacred action surpass- enough for the media. Who knows. ing all others” and that the Most Holy New York City—In both a recent column in the Vatican In any event, this instruction is sig- Eucharist is a gift of inestimable value. newspaper and in a message sent to a June 7 conference in nificant because it responded to a spe- In these sacred and other, even more Manhattan, the Pope’s liturgical minister has made com- cific request by Pope St. John Paul II in solemn occasions, we are reminded of ments that were applauded by some and questioned by his encyclical letter of April 17, 2003, the “otherness” of the Eucharist and of others. Ecclesia de Eucharistia. our need to stand in His Presence with a Calling the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on That request was this: “Precisely to spirit inspired “wonder and awe.” With- the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, a liturgi- bring out more clearly this deeper mean- out these solemn reminders we all run cal “Magna Carta,” Robert Cardinal Sarah, Pope Francis’ ing of liturgical norms, I have asked the the risk of allowing our participation prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the competent offices of the Roman Curia to From the Bishop at the Most Holy Eucharist to become Discipline of the Sacraments, called for a more faithful prepare a more specific document … on commonplace, routine and, sadly, even implementation of its text. this important subject. [i.e., performing Bishop Robert F. Vasa is haphazard. He also lamented misinterpretations of its teaching on the liturgical norms “with great fidel- the sixth bishop of the A reading or re-reading of the encycli- “active participation,” and he suggested an appendix to the ity”] No one is permitted to undervalue Diocese of Santa Rosa. cal and the instruction noted above is a Roman Missal that might better show the continuity of the the mystery entrusted to our hands: it good, even necessary exercise as a type ordinary and extraordinary (i.e., pre-1969) forms of the is too great for anyone to feel free to of self-examination to determine if our celebration of the Mass. treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its dress, demeanor, and deportment in the Presence of the Most Furthermore because Vatican II never called for elimi- universality” (no. 52). Holy Eucharist are, in fact, consistent with the faith which we nating all Latin, Sarah called for more use of that language These two documents—the encyclical and the subse- profess in regard to this great and awesome mystery. on Sundays. quent instruction—are both entirely consistent with the Next month I will make reference to Pope emeritus Most controversially, however, he suggested returning intent of the Second Vatican Council, which stated, in Benedict XVI’s 2007 post-synodal apostolic exhortation to the ad orientem form of Catholic worship in which the its very first document, Sacrosanctum Concilium (“On Sacramentum Caritatis (“The Sacrament of Charity”) to priest and people face in the same direction, toward God. the Sacred Liturgy”), “In liturgy full public worship is continue this eucharistic emphasis. ❖ This is the same way Christians worshipped for at least 1,500 years, if not longer. Following Vatican II, however, this was replaced with the priest facing the people (versus populum). “The liturgy is essentially the action of Christ,” he wrote in the June 12 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the ¿Es la Eucaristía Aburrido? Vatican’s newspaper. “…The participatio actuosa [i.e., the actual/active participation of the laity called for by the Por el año 2004, el Cardenal Francis Arinze, siendo enton- Uno de los motivos por los cuales se celebra anualmente Council] should not therefore be understood as the need ces prefecto de la Congregación para el Culto Divino y la fiesta de Corpus Christi con su procesión, como lo aca- to do something.