THE PRIEST the journal of Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia.

ISSN 0818-9005 Where Peter is, there is the Church. Vol 11 No 2 – November 2007 IN THIS ISSUE Chairman’s Remarks Father Michael Kennedy 1 From the Editor Editor 2 Archbishop Ambrose B. De Pauli, r.i.p.: a tribute Editor 3 Signs of Our Times Archbishop Charles J Chaput, OFM Cap. 4 The Men He Intended Archbishop Charles J Chaput, OFM, Cap. 6 Renewing the Church and converting the World Archbishop Charles J Chaput, OFM Cap. 8 The Priest as Evangelical Witness Father Paul Mankowski, SJ 12 Photo credit: Isai1224, Flickr St Maria Goretti: a homily Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett 15 Where Are We Now? The most sure guarantee Bishop Peter J Elliott 16 that the Missal of Paul Lord, accept this Sacrifice ... VI can unite parish com- Bishop Peter J Elliott 18 munities and be loved by Images of our 2007 Annual Conference Editor 19 them consists in its being Father Cyril Cartwright, r.i.p.: a tribute celebrated with great rever- Father Nicholas Dillon 21 ence in harmony with the On Summorum Pontificum liturgical directives. This Father Glen Tattersall, FSSP 22 will bring out the spiritual Letter to the Bishops of the World richness and theological Pope Benedict XVI 24 Summorum Pontificum depth of this Missal. Pope Benedict XVI 26 (Benedict XVI in his letter to bishops A Case for Pastoral Change: Sacraments of Initiation transmitting Summorum Pontificum, Father John J. Walter 28 7 July 2007) The Catholic Priesthood Father Patrick Fox, CM 36

2007 Annual Conference Participants (Executive, front row, see page 4 of this issue) THE PRIEST the journal of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy Editor: Rev Paul-Anthony McGavin, MTh, PhD, MACE. Associate Editor: Professor David Birch, DPhil (York). Editor: PO Box 246, Jamison Centre ACT 2614 [email protected]

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia. Where Peter is, there is the Church. Chairman’s Remarks

As I write these words I have just returned to the parish, age as much as or even more than in ages past. This was no having made my annual retreat with a group of about twenty doubt uppermost in the Pope’s thoughts as he worked on priests. There were the usual elements in any clergy retreat: the book, for as we read on the book’s sleeve “In this bold, Holy Mass; Liturgy of the Hours; Eucharistic adoration; momentous work, the Pope – in his first book written as devotions; spiritual meditations; quiet reflection; fraternity; Benedict XVI – seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from and time for personal reading. Like me, I think most priests recent “popular” depictions and to restore Jesus’ true identity usually bring along on retreat that good book that they have as discovered in the Gospels. …. The Pope shares a rich, been meaning to read, but waiting for the right opportunity. compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and incites us And so there is normally a great variety of books being left to encounter, face-to-face, this central figure of the Christian on side tables at a clergy retreat. faith.” The Pope is thus utilising yet another medium for the dissemination of the Truth in an age dominated by the But at this year’s retreat many priests were carrying a par- “dictatorship of relativism”. ticular book under their arm: Pope Benedict’s latest book Jesus of Nazareth. One had to be sure to remember where he We priests can assist the Holy Father in this task by reading set down his copy, lest he pick up the wrong one by mistake! the book ourselves and by encouraging others to read it too. Holy Mass in Christ the King Catholic Church, Taralga, NSW As I read my way from chapter to chapter during the breaks More importantly, we can incorporate many of Benedict’s September 2007 in retreat activities, there was great satisfaction in knowing insights into our own preaching, since many of his reflec- that many of my brother priests were thumbing the same tions naturally lend themselves to talks and homilies. It From the Editor We live in an exciting era where forth the heritage of the Church to the praise and glory of God. pages and similarly benefiting from the Pope’s insightful, would not surprise me if this was, in fact, one of his hopes we can now see the “turnaround”, with the Church renewing The growing numbers of seminarians for the lead dioceses of intelligent, and pastoral look at the Scriptures and at the for the book: that he would find in the priests willing and in vigour. Priests attending our 2007 Annual Conference in Australia are characteristically committed to the charter of the person of Jesus Christ. (In the Foreword, the Holy Father enthusiastic cooperators in restoring the true image of Jesus Melbourne felt this in our expanded and more youthful profile, Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, Ubi Petrus, ibi also undertakes a succinct critique of the historical-critical Christ in our world. By the number of priests reading “Jesus and in the wonderful challenges that our speakers presented, ecclesia, “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” And this is method of biblical exegesis and the supposed distinction of Nazareth” on my recent retreat, I would say the Holy especially our keynote speaker, Archbishop Chaput of Denver, evident in their eagerness for the way that our Holy Father, between the “historical Jesus” and the “Christ of Faith”.) Father’s plan is unfolding nicely. I encourage you to pick it whose vibrant talks are reproduced in this issue. Benedict XVI, is leading the Church, with his emphasis on love up if you haven’t already. as seen both in his encylical Deus Caritas est (“God is Love”) Saint Paul warned us in his second letter to Timothy that Again, we were stimulated by the presence of Seminarians, and his Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis (“Sacrament of “the time is coming when people will not endure sound who not only benefited from the talks and the priestly Love”), and his reach for continuity in the order of prayer, lex teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for fraternity, but who also contributed so much through their orandi, in his Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum. themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn service of Conference liturgies, both in sanctuary service away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” (2 Rev Fr Michael Kennedy P.P. and in schola participation. As may be seen from the header Our valued Sponsors are acknowledged at page 3, over. (Ed.) Timothy 4:3-4) This warning certainly applies to our own National Chairman photograph on this page from the Editor’s parish church in Catholic Church of Christ the King (photo above) is Taralga, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, young men a NSW State Heritage Significant listing: see and boys are again keen to participate in liturgies that show www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_01_2.cfm?itemid=5054618 ACCC EXECUTIVE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES National Chairman National Vice-Chairman Secretary Clergy ordained more than 5 years $100 Students from Good Shepherd Seminary in Sydney process in Lismore: your Father Editor was slack during the 2007 Annual Rev Michael Kennedy PP Rev Gregory Pritchard PP Rev Brendan Lee Clergy ordained less than 5 years $50 Conference and overlooked taking a photo of all the attending Seminarians. The photo below is a substitute, especially for those PO Box 443 362 Station Street PO Box 553 Retired clergy $50 members who kindly made donations largely covering the costs of the 9 attending Seminarians. (photo: Diocese of Lismore / The Catholic Weekly) Leeton NSW 2705 Chelsea VIC 3196 Albury NSW 2640 Seminarians no dues payable Rev Anthony Robbie (02) 9746 7245 Editor Councillors NSW Lay Associates $20 VIC Rev Glen Tattersall FSSP (03) 9532 4154 Lay Pensioners/Retiree: $10 Rev Dr P A McGavin PP Rev Gregory Jordan, SJ 0424 280 358 QLD Longer Term Membership 5 yrs 10 yrs PO Box 246 Jamison ACT 2614 SA Rev Lew Wray (08) 8431 4496 WA Rev Stephen Casey (08) 9185 1406 Clergy $450 $875 Lay Associates $90 $175 Co-opted ACT Rev Kevin Brannelly (02) 6288 1979 Treasurer TAS Rev Gerald Quinn CP (03) 6234 4866 Rev Paul Crotty NZ Rev Nicholas Dillon 0011 64 28 Norman St Port Pirie SA 5540 3208 9601 Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia. Where Peter is, there is the Church. Membership and dues to: ACCC Secretariat, PO Box 8004, North Road LPO, Brighton East VIC 3187 phone/fax (9am-3pm weekdays only): (03) 9596 4343 e-mail: [email protected] NB: NOTE NEW ADDRESS & CONTACT DETAILS Web site: http://www.australianccc.org/ Desktop Publishing assistance: courtesy of Ignatius House Services Printing: Active Print, Wagga Wagga NSW

1 The Priest November 2007 2 His Excellency the Most Rev Ambrose B. De Pauli, Signs of Our Times Requiescat in Pace – and what they require from priests

The death on 10 October 2007 in Miami, Florida, USA, after This brief tribute is a long battle with leukaemia, of the Papal Nuncio to Austra- contributed by the Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. lia, His Excellency the Most Rev Ambrose B. De Pauli, was Editor. received with great sadness by the ACCC. My last contact with Pictured to the right (The text of this talk commences on opposite page. (Ed.)) the Nuncio was driving him to Tullamarine Airport on 5 July is the late Nuncio 2007 after his spending the day of 4 July 2007 with us for our with our National Chairman. Annual Conference. His parting gesture was so friendly that I The Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., is Metropolitan was a little taken-back and knelt down at the kerbside asking Archbishop of Denver, USA. He was principal speaker at the photograph posted at page 20 of this issue was placed before for a blessing. His manner was typical of the man: his official ACCC Annual Conference in Melbourne in July 2007, and this sad news, and shows him in a more formal setting that he communications were always those of a papal diplomat, but his this is one of his addresses to clergy participants. accepted, rather than desired. The photograph above, published personal demeanour was unpretentious and friendly. He told He is here pictured (with mitre) with the Rev. Andrew Keswick after last year’s Annual Conference in Inter Nos of August 2006, me that he’d never really wanted to be a diplomat, and that of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, deacon of the Mass, and captures a more typical demeanour of this servant of God and upon completing his Australia posting he wanted to retire to with the Most Rev Geoffrey Jarrett and the Most Rev Luc Mat- of the Supreme Pontiff. I would like to have re-published his the Florida diocese for which he was ordained and have a few thys, respectively of Lismore and Armidale. “Sacred Scripture as discourse with Jesus” from the May 2006 years being the pastor he had always wanted to be. It was not issue of The Priest, but this notice comes when the shape of this to be so. But for those who had the pleasure of dealing with issue is largely determined. It is worth retrieving and re-reading Conference Sponsors The Confraternity is particularly grateful to Sponsors for our 2007 Annual Conference. him, we are able to testify to his pastor’s heart. And it is my as a tribute to the man. The late Nuncio joined us in offering expectation that there will grow in this country an appreciation Numerous gifts from $10 to $500 were received by Associates to fund the participation of Seminarians in the Conference, and the Holy Sacrifice for our past members (see photo, page 18), of his particular contribution as the Holy Father’s representa- these have been acknowledged individually by the Secretariat, and Father Editor is offering Holy Masses when he can for indi- let us make the oblation for his eternal repose. (Ed.) tive to the renewal of the Catholic Church in Australia. The vidual sponsors. Our corporate Sponsors made a particular contribution to the costs of our “big city” and commercial venue costs for the 2007 Commencing text of Chaput article from page 4, opposite Conference, and acknowledgement and tribute to these Sponsors occurs in this panel. Introduction Catholic Church Insurances of course offers comprehensive insurance cover to all Some of you probably saw a film that came out last year, The about. We’ve “functionalised” the priesthood, reduced it to the Catholic churches and church organisations. Readers should be aware that personal property and property contents insurance is also available through CCI. We are most Children of Men. The story is set in Britain in the year 2021, and performance of certain tasks. grateful to CCI as a major sponsor. For contact details, enquire with your local dioc- the premise is that there hasn’t been a child born on the planet But being a priest isn’t a job. It’s a new way of being. A real esan offices. since 1995. Nobody knows the reason why. Humans have transformation took place when you and I were ordained. Like Catholic Development Fund of course offers banking services to Catholic churches and church organi- somehow become infertile. And all the efforts of all the world’s that of the bread and wine in the Eucharist, this transforma- sations. readers should be aware that personal banking services are also available, and that CDC offers governments and scientists to find a solution have proved futile. tion can’t be explained by physics or biology. We have a new these services through Commonwealth Australia Bank networks. For contact details, enquire with your The drama, of course, involves a “miraculous” pregnancy and identity. We can call it an “incarnational” identity. We’re still local diocesan offices. the journey of the expectant mother and her companion as they men. We’re still sinful clay. But we’re men called, and given try to bring the baby into the world. It’s a film worth seeing. But Serra Club International is active across Australia in the work of fostering vocations to the Sacred the grace, to make God incarnate through our words and actions. Ministry and Religious Life. They are commended to the involvement of Associates and Priests in their unfortunately, it’s only very loosely based on the P. D. James Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” You fine work of vocations promotion and prayer for vocations: and many thanks for your sponsorship sup- novel of the same name. I say “unfortunately” because James’ stand in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. And whoever port! For local contact details, enquire with your diocesan offices. book is a deeply Christian fable about our times. sees you, sees the Father. The “signs of our times” for us priests In the course of these talks I want to speak to you brother-to- Central Catholic Bookshop of 322 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, not only provided a fine brother and father-to-father. The first thing I want to say is that book stall at our 2007 Conference venue, but also generously offered corporate sponsorship And that’s what I’m here to talk to you about today – the signs we need to support each other. We need to remember who we of the Conference. Their motto is, “Faithfully expressing the Catholic tradition”, and we of our times and what they mean for us as priests. We could found that to be so in every respect. (Phone 03 9639 0844 [email protected]) are. We are fathers. choose dozens of different trends to discuss, but I want to focus on six specific signs: the confusion of priestly identity; “The apostles were sent as fathers,” St. Augustine said. You Lillypilly Wines use as their name and logo the fruit of a native Australian tree. The Editor is careful in his globalization; the worship of science; the diminishment of the have been ordained to continue the apostles’ mission, the photographic record to convey the sense that conferencing and worship are our main activities at our Annual human person; the rise of practical atheism; and sex as a cheap mission entrusted to them by Christ. You, too, are sent by the Conferences. We do, however, “drink”! and Lillypilly Wines of Leeton, NSW, put their products well to the substitute for transcendence. Father to be fathers to his children. To raise them up in holiness test at the 2007 Conference by providing in-kind corporate sponsorship: they passed the test with excellence! (Phone 02 6953 4069 [email protected]) I start with some prior assumptions. Here they are: Being a through the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance. To guide priest means being a man of God among the children of men. It them through the problems of this world until one day they reach means being a spiritual father to the children of God. It means their Father’s house and see him face to face. Granada Liturgical Arts in Australia again provided a fine liturgical arts stall at our knowing yourself to be a child of man and a child of God like To be good fathers, we need to know the world we’ve been 2007 Conference, besides generously offering corporate sponsorship of the Conference. The all others – yet a man set apart to lead others by a personal sent into. We’ve got to know the lay of the land. Our mission Sydney-based representative of the Spanish supplier of these superior products is Mary Roth calling from Jesus Christ himself: “It was not you who chose territory isn’t simply the parish we serve, or the city we live (Phone 02 9427 4299 [email protected]) me, but I who chose you.” in. It’s also the geography of the human heart, mind, body and Front cover photograph of 2007 Conference participants, with front row left-to-right identified: 1. He who sees you sees the Father soul. It’s a culture. We have to know what our people are up against. We need to understand what’s going on around them Rev Peter Connelly (PP, Springwood, Parramatta Diocese); Rev Nicholas Dillon, Dunedin Diocese, NZ (NZ Councillor); Rev Dr P Now, the first key sign of our times is that everything I just said and what’s going on inside them. That’s what it means to know A McGavin, PP, Taralga NSW, Canberra & Goulburn Diocese (Editor); Rev Paul Crotty, Pt Pirie Diocese (Treasurer); Rev Gregory about the priesthood is disputed. Of course, it shouldn’t be. the signs of the times. Printchard, PP, Chelsea, Melbourne Diocese (Vice Chairman); Rev Michael Kennedy, PP, Leeton, Wagga Wagga Diocese (National It’s the teaching of Jesus Christ and the teaching of his Church. Chairman); Most Rev Luc Matthys, Armidale; Most Rev Charles Chaput, Denver USA; Most Rev Geoffrey Jarrett, Lismore; Rev But ever since the Second Vatican Council, there’s been a real 2. Globalisation Continued overleaf at page 5 Glen Tattersall FSSP, Melbourne Latin Mass Chaplain (Victoria Councillor & 2007 Conference Organiser); Rev Brendan Lee, confusion about who we are as priests and what we should be Wagga Wagga Diocese (National Secretary). Particular thanks to Our Victoria Councillor for his great labours for our very suc- A second sign of our times is globalisation. I can stand here cessful 2007 Conference! He and his collaborators have earned our warm appreciation! (Editor)

3 The Priest November 2007 4 Continuing Chaput from page 3

in Melbourne, having travelled nearly 9,000 miles from the facto atheism. We also have to grapple with a strange sort of United States, and presume to start my talk by mentioning a anti-humanism. Because when God is out of the picture, our The Men He Intended: movie made in Hollywood based on a book written by a British image of man loses focus, too. claiming our vocation as priests of Jesus Christ woman. And I can presume that most of you have either heard It’s a curious irony. We replace God with science and about that movie or seen it, and that some of you probably even technology. We enjoy our achievements and relish the works Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. read the book. That’s a kind of everyday description of what’s of human hands and minds. But we forget that we ourselves The Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, been wrought by globalisation. Globalisation is a defining sign are the “works” of our Creator. When we do that, we lose our OFM Cap., Metropolitan Archbishop of our times. Globalisation could be a good thing, an expression own true identity. The Western tradition is founded on the Introduction: imagining and the real world of Denver, USA, addresses priests of our common humanity and solidarity. But right now, biblical truth that the human person is created in the image of at the Annual Conference 2007 in Sometimes art can shine more light on the way things really are Melbourne. globalisation is too often about money and power. Whatever God. Without God, the human person becomes nothing unique; than a newspaper or history book. And I think that’s true of P. material benefits it may one day bring, globalisation to date has simply another creature. produced a new kind of colonialism of the intellect and spirit. D. James’ The Children of Men. James imagines a future where If you want some useful vacation reading, pick up a little book As Benedict says, “A radical reduction of man has taken place. the voices of children are no longer heard, because children are written about 10 years ago, The Rise of Christianity by Rodney What do I mean by that? On the outside, globalisation is about [He is] considered a simple product of nature and as such not extinct. She writes of a world that has lost its fertility, its sense Stark. You’ll find all of this history and more. “stuff” – the making and moving of products and services. really free, and in himself susceptible to be treated like any of purpose, and therefore its hope in the future. On the outside we see that, despite vast differences in history, other animal.” Our challenges are those culture and language, the different peoples of the world are That world is imaginary. But we can see its shadow in some now wearing the same clothes, listening to the same music, 4. Diminishing the human person of the habits of our own real world here and now. And the of the first Catholic priests drinking the same soft drinks, and watching the same movies Here’s another irony, and the fourth sign of our times. We reduce world here and now is the one to which we’ve been sent into as Why begin a talk about priestly vocation and mission with and TV shows. And most of this “stuff” either comes from man to the status of an animal. And yet we proclaim ourselves to priests. Priests are the men Christ intends to bring new life to an excursus on ancient Rome? Because people often say American-related companies or is driven by American-influ- be great humanists. In fact, the reigning ideology of our times this world; to preach the Word of Life. To be fathers of a new we’re living at a “post-Christian” moment. That’s supposed enced sensibilities and financial interests. is what the Canadian Catholic philosopher, Charles Taylor, has people of God who will be a Light to the Nations. to describe the fact that Western nations have abandoned or labeled “exclusive humanism.” In this way of thinking, “human This has led to a peculiar vision of human life and happiness. greatly downplayed their Christian heritage in recent decades. flourishing [becomes] the unique focus of our lives,” as Taylor An “imaginary” culture: Globalisation’s biggest impact is “anthropological.” It’s creat- You have evidence of that in your country. I see it in mine, as puts it. But that flourishing is defined in strictly materialist heathen culture without Christ ing a new kind of secularised man. Men and women who are well. But our “post-Christian” moment actually looks a great terms. This world, and only this world, is presumed to be real. very often friendly, open and adaptable; but also pragmatic and I want to briefly sketch for you the picture of an anonymous deal like the pre-Christian moment. The signs of our times in All that’s good, all that life can mean, is to be found contained thoroughly materialist. It’s a vision of life that both appeals to culture. But everything I’m about to tell you comes from the the developed nations – morally, intellectually, spiritually and in this world, in this life. and repels us at the same time. factual record. This society is advanced in the sciences and even demographically – are uncomfortably similar to the signs As a result, religion comes to be viewed as a reactionary enemy the arts. It has a complex economy and a strong military. It in the world at the time of the Incarnation. Drawing lessons That’s where P. D. James comes in. James is known as a great of human progress and freedom. Talk of God or transcendent includes many different religions, although religion tends to be from history is a subjective business. There’s always the risk writer of detective mysteries. But she’s also a serious Christian, values or aspirations that aim beyond this world are treated as a private affair or a matter of civic ceremony. This particular of oversimplifying. But I do believe that the challenges we an Anglican. And The Children of Men is an anti-utopia compa- a threat to humanitarian goals and progress. society also has big problems. Among them is that fertility face as priests today are very much like those faced by the first rable to Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984. James rates remain below replacement levels. There aren’t enough Christian priests. And it might help to have a little perspective on asks us to imagine what the world would be like if we knew We have a casebook example of this in the current Australian children being born to replace the current adult population and how they went about evangelising their culture. They did such we were the last generation to inhabit the planet. What would debates about stem-cell research and cloning. In this one to do the work needed to keep society going. The government a good job that within 400 years Christianity was the world’s we do? How would we behave? What would we believe? debate we can see some of the most unsettling signs of our offers incentives to encourage people to have more babies. But dominant religion and the foundation of Western civilisation. Like Huxley and Orwell, she uses an imaginary future to help times. We see the worship of science, which is given the nothing seems to work. If we can learn from that history, the more easily God will work us see the present more clearly, to suggest where we’re likely power to create and destroy new life. We see the degradation through us to spark a new evangelisation. to wind up if we keep heading down the path we’re on. So I of the human person, who becomes simply biological matter Promiscuity is common and accepted. So are bisexuality, and want to use James’ critique as a kind of touchstone for looking to be manipulated in a laboratory. And we see the efforts of homosexuality. So is prostitution. Birth control and abortion Stark’s book, The Rise of Christianity, addresses a couple of at the signs of our times. a materialist society to ban the memory of God and authentic are legal, widely practiced, and justified by society’s leading key questions: How did Christianity succeed? How was it able Christian conscience from the public square. intellectuals. Every now and then, a lawmaker introduces to accomplish so much so fast? He’s a social scientist and also 3. Worship of science a measure to promote marriage, arguing that the health and a self-described atheist. So he has no interest in God’s will or Creating human embryos for the purpose of extracting their One of the signs she sees – the third sign on my list today – is future of society depend on stable families. These measures the workings of the Holy Spirit. He focuses only on facts he stem cells is a form of barbarism, whether it happens here, in the worship of science. “Western science has been our god,” typically go nowhere. can verify. Stark concludes that Christian success flowed from China or in the United States. It’s the work of a culture bent her main character, Theo, says. He continues, “In the variety of two things: Christian doctrine, and people being faithful to on its own extinction. To do that kind of work, to make laws its power [this deity] has preserved, comforted, healed, warmed, The “world” of USA, Australia, etc. that doctrine. Stark writes: “An essential factor in the religion’s that promote that kind of work, shows contempt for the sanctity fed and entertained us … the anaesthetic for the pain, the spare Okay. What society am I talking about? My own country, of success was what Christians believed…. And it was the way of human life. And so I want to urge you as strongly as I can: heart, the new lung, the antibiotic, the moving wheels and the course, would broadly fit this description. Yours would, too. those doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed Don’t let anyone silence the voice of the Church in Australia moving pictures.” But I’m not talking about us. organisational actions and individual behavior, that led to the on this issue. Please support Cardinal Pell and your bishops on rise of Christianity.” Pope Benedict XVI has also talked about science and technol- these crucial matters. I’ve just outlined the conditions of the Mediterranean world at ogy as one of the signs of our times. We can manipulate the the time of Christ. We tend to idealise the ancients, to look back I’m reminded of a line by the Dominican Father Jean Baptiste Fundamental values of Catholic life human genetic code and the physical composition of matter. We at Greece and Rome as an age of extraordinary achievements. Henri Lacordaire. Lacordaire was once a militant atheist, well Let’s put it in less academic terms: The Church, through her can change the course of rivers and travel into space. We can And of course, it was. But it had another side as well. on his way to being an influential barrister when he converted bishops and priests, preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People “create” new life in a lab and destroy it there as well. Benedict to the faith and was ordained. During the persecutions in We don’t usually think of Plato and Aristotle endorsing abor- believed in the Gospel. But they weren’t just agreeing to a set says, “Because we live in a world that almost always appears post-revolutionary France, he fought for the Church’s right tion or infanticide as state policy. But they did. Hippocrates, of propositions. Believing in the Gospel meant changing their to be of our own making” there’s no room left for God. And to freely preach the Gospel. He said once: “The priestly word the great medical pioneer, also famously created an abortion whole way of thinking and living. It was a radical transfor- that’s true, materially speaking: We don’t have any real “need” has been entrusted to me, and I was told to carry it to the ends kit that involved sharp blades for cutting up the foetus and a mation. So radical they couldn’t go on living like the people for God. We feel like we’ve got things under control. We’re of the earth, no one having the right to silence me on a single hook for ripping it from the womb. We rarely connect that around them anymore. self-sufficient. day of my life.” The priestly word, the Word of God, has been with his Hippocratic Oath. But some years ago, archaeologists Stark shows that one of the decisive areas in which Christians For you and me as priests, this “sign of the times” means entrusted to us too, brothers. And no one, not even a member discovered the remains of what appeared to be a Roman-era rejected the culture around them was marriage and family. From we’re ambassadors of God sent to a world that thinks it’s get- of Congress or Parliament or even an Attorney General, has abortion or infanticide “clinic.” It was a sewer filled with the ting along quite nicely without him. We have to deal with a de the start, to be a Christian meant believing that sex and marriage the right to silence that Word. Chaput: Continued at page 38 bones of more than 100 infants.

5 The Priest November7 2007 6 were sacred. From the start, to be a Christian meant rejecting Reclaiming our priestly identity: Renewing the Church and Converting the World abortion, infanticide, birth control, divorce, homosexual activ- fathers-in-God ity and marital infidelity – all those things widely practised by It’s time for us to reclaim our identity as spiritual fathers of the – reclaiming our Catholic mission their Roman neighbours. children of God. We need to know ourselves as God intends us Athenagoras, a layman, told the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to be known – as his fathers on earth. We’re called to be icons Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. in the year 176AD that abortion was “murder” and that those of his divine fatherhood. Do you have the confidence to say to involved would have to “give an account to God.” And he told your people what St. Paul said: “I became your father in Christ the emperor the reason why: “For we regard the very foetus Jesus through the gospel”? Do you exhort your people as he (Opposite) A photograph of those gathered to hear the Annual in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of did—“like a father [exhorts] his children”? Conference Public Lecture delivered by our 2007 Principal God’s care.” The first Christians made heroic sacrifices and gave extraordi- Speaker, Archbishop Chaput of Denver, USA, in the Cardinal Retrieving fervour in belief nary witness because they knew that, before the foundation of Knox Centre Lecture Theatre, Melbourne. the world, God had a plan to make them his children. To make Christian reverence for the unborn child is no medieval devel- them holy. To make them saints. They knew God created each opment. It comes from the very beginnings of our faith. The person for a reason. That he had a plan for each of their lives. Introduction – early Church had no debates over politicians and access to Holy The biblical narratives are filled with dates and geography, They knew all these things because their fathers told them so. Communion. There wasn’t any need. No one who tolerated or believing in history even the names of foreign rulers. Are you preaching these things to your people? Are you telling promoted abortion would have dared to approach the Eucharis- The New Testament continues that history, focusing on one them what Paul told the first Christians: “Be imitators of God, I’d like to start with a proposition. Here it is: To be a tic table, let alone dared to call themselves true Christians. particular child of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, and the com- as beloved children”? Christian is to believe in history. Now, what do I mean by And here’s why: The early Christians understood that they that? Well, I can tell you what I don’t mean. I don’t mean munity he founded, the Church. The story is told with lots were the offspring of a new worldwide family of God. They Preaching and living the mystery of Christ the “history of progress”, which has been the guiding faith of references – some direct, others subtle – to that earlier saw the culture around them as a culture of death, a society in the West for many years. The cult of “progress” claims history. Jesus is portrayed as fulfilling all that God prom- Men and women call you “Father.” But it needs to be much ised in the Old Testament. The Church is described as the that was slowly extinguishing itself. In fact, when you read more than an honorific title. It reflects a spiritual reality. Cath- that things are getting better all the time. That thanks to early Christian literature, practices like adultery and abortion science and technology, the human condition is constantly new people of God, the final realisation of Israel’s calling erine de Hueck Doherty was one of the most interesting Catholic to be God’s light to the nations. Again, throughout the New are often described as part of “the way of death” or the “way laywomen of the last century. She was a Russian aristocrat who improving. That our future is open to unlimited material of the black one” – that is, the devil. achievements. I have real problems with that sort of myth. Testament, we’re given precise historical markers. Here’s suffered under the Bolshevik revolution, and nearly starved to how the Gospel of Luke introduces the ministry of John the death at the hands of the Communists. She wrote very moving, I don’t see any evidence that it’s true. But that’s another There’s an interesting line in a Second Century apologetic talk for another time. Baptist: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, work written by Minucius Felix. He was a Roman lawyer and firsthand accounts of the Leninist regime’s slaughter of all the when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was a convert. He’s talking about a birth-control drug that works priests of Petrograd. And she wrote just as movingly about her To be a Christian is to believe in history. I mean this in the tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip tetrarch of ….” as an abortifacient. He describes its effects this way: “There own reverence for the Catholic priesthood. She said: way the great Catholic historian, Christopher Dawson, meant You get the idea. are women who swallow drugs to stifle in their own womb the We call you “Father” because you begot us in the mystery of it. Dawson wrote: “Christianity, together with the religion beginnings” of a person to be. That’s what the first Christians a tremendous love affair between you and God. Because you of Israel out of which it was born, is a historical religion in To be a Christian means believing very definite things about saw around them in their world. They believed the world was participate in the one priesthood of Christ. You are wedded a sense to which none of the other world religions can lay history and about our own respective places in history. to the Church, his bride…. We call you “Father” and we are snuffing out its own future. It was stifling future generations claim.” Think about the Bible. All the great world religions your “family”. We need you desperately … to serve us, to feed Historical specificity of our religion before they could come to be. It was slowly killing itself. If we have sacred books. The Qu’ran, the Bhagavad-Gita; the us with the Eucharist, to heal us with anointing, to reconcile Analects of Confucius. What all the sacred texts of other see similar signs in our own day, we need to find the courage us to God and one another in penance, to witness our unions We don’t just profess belief in the Incarnation. We say we those first Christians had in challenging their culture. We need of love in marriage, to preach God’s Word…. Teach us how religions have in common is that they’re essentially wisdom believe that God took flesh at a precise moment in time, to believe not only what they believed. We need to believe to love. Teach us how to pray. Inflame our hearts with the literature. They’re collections of often wise and noble teach- and in a definite place. That’s the reason for that odd detail those things with the same deep fervour. desire to wash the feet of our poor brethren, to feed them love, ings aimed at helping believers live ethically and find the in our Creed. Think about it: We’re the only religion to and to preach the gospel with our lives. right path to peace or happiness or enlightenment. remember our founder’s executioner by name every time The unchanging Apostolic mission we profess our faith. In fact, I don’t think there’s another Those words are addressed to you and me. They remind us Bible as history The early Christians staked their lives on the belief that God why God called us to the priesthood. We’re here to serve the profession of faith in any religion that mentions specific is our Father. They believed the Church is our Mother, as Paul children of God. To open their hearts to the mystery of God. The Bible also aims to make people wise. But it also seeks historical personages. told the Galatians. They believed their bishops and priests were To keep them from error and harm. to lead them to salvation, which is much more than “enlight- Pontius Pilate and Mary are mentioned by name in the creed. spiritual fathers and that through the sacraments they were enment”. Its starting point is totally different. The first Why? The reference to Mary, his mother, guarantees Christ’s made children of God, or “partakers of the divine nature”, as And being father to rebellious children words are: “In the beginning ….” The Bible begins with a Peter said. As I said elsewhere, I’ve been following your debates here in step-by-step report of the first day in the history of the world. The first Christians believed these things because their spiritual Australia about stem cell research. We have similar struggles The entire Old Testament is like that. After telling us about fathers – their bishops and priests – preached and taught them in my country. Though I do need to admit; I’ve been called a the first man and woman and their descendants, it proceeds these things. They taught what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lot of things, but I’ve never been publicly called a “Boofhead,” to present a historical account of God’s chosen people, the had heard from his Father and passed on to the Apostles. They as one of your Catholic MPs called Cardinal Pell. I’m not sure children of Israel. We read about their captivity in Egypt; taught what the Catholic Church is still called to teach until what that means. But His Eminence must have made exactly their deliverance and wandering to the promised land; the the end of the age. the right people very unhappy. rise and fall of their kingdom; their exile and restoration. That’s your mission, brothers. To preach the Word of life with In fact, I believe Cardinal Pell, Archbishop Hickey and others power. To incarnate that Word through the sacraments. To make were doing precisely what good priests should be doing. They (Opposite) Archbishop Chaput joins hands with his then that Word come alive and change the hearts of those who hear were being good spiritual fathers. A good father is a teacher. fellow-American, the then Papal Nuncio in Australia, it. You’re called as Christ’s priests to be fathers to a new race of He tries to keep his children from doing evil. He exhorts them the late His Excellency the Most Rev Ambrose De Pauli, women and men. Second Corinthians tells us that, “Therefore, to choose the good. He warns them when their lives – or their to cut an “Independence Day” cake kindly provided if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” It reminds us that souls – are in danger. by Catholic Women’s League members (two of whom Christ “entrust[ed] to us the message of reconciliation. So we The reaction of some of your Catholic MPs reflects the signs of pictured) for the “spread” after the Public Lecture in the are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through the times we talked about earlier. The temptation for today’s Cardinal Knox Centre on 4 July 2007. us” (5:17-21). Chaput: Continued at page 37 7 The Priest November 2007 8 humanity. The reference to Pilate, who condemned him to The Church as Christ present among us for the Church. I only wish these people would remember that teaching of the Apostles, Popes and Saints. But can we really death, guarantees his historicity. It ensures that we can never the Church includes them, too. When Christ said, “Be perfect believe it? Do you really believe that God has a mission, The Creed not only tells us about the past. It also speaks of reduce the Incarnation to an abstract concept, a metaphor, a as our Father in heaven is perfect”, he wasn’t talking only some special task that he has given you – and only you – to the future. We believe Jesus Christ will come again in glory pretty idea. It ensures that we can never regard Jesus Christ about the clergy. When he said, “Go and preach the Gospel carry out in this world? Do you really believe that you are to usher in a kingdom that will have no end. We anticipate as some kind of ideal archetype or mythical figure. He was to all nations,” he wasn’t talking only about religious profes- necessary to God’s plan for human history? What possible that kingdom in every Eucharist, when he comes to us under truly a man and truly God. And once he had a place he sionals. The demands of holiness and radical discipleship divine mission could St. Maximilian have been fulfilling the appearances of bread and wine. We live in joyful hope called home on this earth. apply to every one of us. No excuses. No exceptions. in giving up his life for a Jewish prisoner in the Nazi death for the coming of the “end” of history – when “time no longer camp at Auschwitz? Well, the same mission that God gives shall be,” as the Book of Revelation says. God’s action in history: salvation The Church as human and divine to each of us: to be holy. To live as children of God. To Something else, too. We believe that this historical event, Until that day, we live in the era of the Church. If the Incar- One of my inspirations was the French Catholic writer, love as Jesus loved, in all of the unique circumstances of which happened more than 2,000 years ago, represents a nation represents the past and the Second Coming represents Georges Bernanos. He’s most famous for a great novel that our individual lives. And by our love to spread the love of personal intervention by God “for us and for our salvation.” the future, the Church is always the “present” tense of God’s I strongly recommend to you, The Diary of a Country Priest. God to the ends of the earth. plan for history and for each of our lives. God entered history for you and me, for all humanity. Bernanos was a true prophet of the last century. One of the And our mission is love many things he got right was his thinking about the Church These are amazing claims. Again, all of them are unique Now, there’s a lot of confusion about the Church – about and what it means to be Catholic. He knew the Church in this That brings us to my third point: to be a Catholic is to be a to Christianity among the world religions. The four noble what it is and what it’s for. That too, is another talk for world was never meant to be a society of the perfect. missionary. A missionary of God’s love. We think of mis- truths of Buddhism don’t have anything to do with his- another time. sionaries as people like Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit who sailed tory. The Muslim profession of faith, the shahada, testifies He wrote: “The visible Church is not only the ecclesiastical But simply put, the Church is Jesus Christ risen and alive off to evangelise China in the 16th century. But most us simply that there is no God but God and that Muhammad hierarchy. She is you, she is me – which means the Church and working in the world through me and through you. Paul are called to be missionaries in a much more ordinary and was his messenger. To the degree that Islam has a historical is not always a pleasant thing. At times it’s even been a very said Christ is “one flesh” with the Church, like a man and local way – in our homes, neighbourhoods, and workplaces. narrative, it was arguably borrowed from and built on the unpleasant thing to have to look at the Church up close.” woman become one flesh in marriage. We are the Church. In We’re called to be what Madeleine Delbrêl used to call “mis- Jewish-Christian narrative that came before it. a mystical unity with Christ, we make up the family of God Bernanos knew that if the Church was already holy and sionaries without a boat”. Madeleine Delbrêl is a great story. That’s my first point today. To be a Catholic is to be very and the kingdom of God. And the Church we see on earth is perfect, there’d be no place in it for sinners like you and me. As a teen-ager she was a militant atheist who with great unique among the world’s believers. To be a Catholic means united inseparably to the Church we can’t see in heaven, the He wrote: “Instead of feeling at home, you would stop at the seriousness wrote manifestos like, “God Is Dead. Long Live believing that you are a part of a vast historical project. And communion of saints. threshold of this congregation of supermen, turning your cap Death!” But through reading and later, prayer, she came to it’s not our project. It’s God’s. Being Catholic means believ- in your hands, like a poor beggar at the door of the Ritz.” The Church continues the mission of Christ understand not only that God is real, but also that he had a ing that since the beginning of time God has been working plan for her life. She returned to the Church. In the years The Church is always going to look messy if you only look out his own hidden purposes in the history of nations and What’s the Church for? To continue Christ’s mission on before World War II she went to live in an experimental at the human element. Parliament looks messy. Corporate in the biography of every person. He’s still unfolding his earth, the mission of his Incarnation. The mission of love. communist city outside of Paris, known as Ivry-sur-Seine. boardrooms look messy. But remember, unlike those human purposes today, and each of us here has a part to play in his We’re here to proclaim God’s love and the good news of Madeleine lived there the rest of her life, working every day institutions, the Church is also supernatural and divine. In the divine plan. Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. We’re here to make shoulder-to-shoulder with avowed atheists who despised Church we encounter Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. disciples of all nations. the Church. She became famous for her love and sacrifices We hear his word of forgiveness in the confessional. We have Our part in the divine Plan for the poor. And she never tired of talking to people about In all this, we have Christ’s promise that he will be with us communion with his body and blood in the Eucharist. the source of her great love – Jesus Christ. Madeleine said: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy. until the end of the age. And he is. Through the Holy Spirit “Mission means doing the very work of Christ wherever In love, he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus that guards the truth of what the Church teaches. Through Uniqueness of the Church Christ” (Eph 1:4). St. Paul wrote that to the first Christians. we happen to be. We will not be the Church, and salvation the Eucharist and sacraments that sustain and sanctify us on The whole edifice of the Church – her structures, her teach- He meant those words for us, too. Before the foundation of will not reach the ends of the earth, unless we help save the our journey in this world. ings, her devotions and sacraments – exists to bring us into the world, God had each of us in mind. He made us out of people in the very situations in which we live.” contact with Jesus Christ. And through that contact, to love. He made us for a reason. To be holy, to be his sons A lot of people don’t “get” these connections between the transform us into the people that God has created us to be. and daughters through Jesus Christ. To help him in his plan divine and the human, the invisible and the visible, the spiri- Our mission: The Church exists to transform sinners – ordinary men and to share his love with the whole world. tual and the material. And that leads to a lot of problems. to love in our everyday circumstances We hear people all the time saying they’re upset with “the women like you and me – into saints. This is no ordinary In his first homily as Pope, Benedict XVI said the same Church.” Or that “the Church” has let them down. Or that human institution. In fact, there’s never been anything like That’s your mission. To help save the people you come in thing. He said: “We are not some casual and meaningless “the Church” has distorted Christ’s message and needs to the Catholic Church in the history of the world. And there contact with in your everyday lives – your spouses and chil- product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought be reformed. won’t be. dren, your coworkers, neighbors and friends. of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us We’re not living in an atheist environment like Madeleine is necessary.” This is a wonderful truth. Each of us is the I agree with these people. I’m not satisfied with the Church The renewal begins with ourselves Delbrêl. We’re living in an environment that’s much worse. result of an act of the creative imagination of God. either. I want the Church to be more holy. I want the Church to purge all the corrupting influences of sin, temptation, and No question about it: the Church needs to be renewed, revi- In fact, in your society and in mine, and throughout Western Again, no other religion makes anywhere near these kind worldliness. I want to the Church to be fearless in love, cou- talised. That’s why we’re here today. We need to understand Europe, we hear talk that this is a “post-Christian moment” of claims about the meaning of human life – and not just rageous in confronting evil, and eloquent in bearing witness what Jesus Christ wants from us. What I suggest to you is this: in history. That’s a polite, academic way of saying that “human life” in general, but each and every human life. God to the Gospel in a culture of greed and despair. the renewal of the Church begins inside each one of us. If the most people go about their days as if the Incarnation never willed each of us to be here. He loves us personally. But Church isn’t what we want the Church to be, it’s because you happened. how can the Pope say we are necessary? What does God and I aren’t yet the people that Jesus Christ has called us to The mission of the Church In his last book, Memory and Identity, which he finished need or want us to be doing? Let’s go back to the Creed be. All of this leads to my second point today. As Catholics, shortly before his death in 2005, Pope John Paul II warned for a minute. is a mission of the whole Church you have an “ecclesial” being and identity. The Church is about this. He wrote: “Again and again we encounter the where you belong. It’s where God has called you to be. In But what those people are really complaining about is the signs of an alternative civilisation to that built on Christ as We believe the Incarnation was a real historical event. For the Church you will find God’s will for your life. our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven at that point clergy. Their definition of “the Church” includes only the ‘cornerstone’ -– a civilisation which, even if not explicitly visible leadership of the Church; the Pope, the Cardinals, the atheist … is built upon the principle of thinking and acting in history when Pilate was Caesar’s man in Judea. And Our personal mission in life is found in the we believe that event changed everything. It’s the centre archbishops and bishops, the priests. That’s the Church they as if God did not exist.” want to criticise, shake up and turn around. Church and meaning of history. Everything before that was but a That’s what we’re up against. An alternative civilisation. The prologue and a prelude. But what about everything after I’m glad they hold bishops and priests, including me, to high St Maximilian Kolbe said that “Every man and woman in most powerful nations on earth are organised and operating as that? Well, that’s where we come in. standards. We should be leading holy lives that are an example this world is assigned a mission by God.” That’s true. It’s the if they have no need for God. “Practical atheism” has become

9 The Priest November 2007 10 a world religion. So what are you going to do? How are we And the power of God’s love for people going to convert this world? To get to my last point, I want The Priest as Evangelical Witness Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement to suggest an answer from history. back in the USA, said God became man to show men and Rev Dr Paul Mankowski, SJ, lectures at the Pontifical women a new way to be human. “He came to serve,” she Father Paul Mankowski, SJ Practical Christianity in a godless world Biblical College, Rome. said, “to show the new Way, the way of the powerless. In His lecture visit with the Did you ever wonder how the early Church did it? I mean, the face of Empire, the Way of Love.” Living the mystery how did a handful of men and women, disciples of an obscure John Paul II Institute in Mel- I have titled today’s talk, “The Priest as Evangelical Wit- man executed as a criminal, wind up changing the world We are not powerless in the face of today’s unbelieving bourne allowed his present- ness,” and in doing so am picking up on a point made the last – conquering an empire and founding a whole new civilisation and alternative civilisation. We can turn this world upside ing a typical thoughtful and time I addressed the ACCC (see, “Practice what you teach” provoking paper at our 2007 on the cornerstone of that executed man’s life and teachings? down if only we’re willing to love – the kind of Christian and “Believe what you read”, The Priest, November 2002 Annual Conference. In just a few centuries, without firing a single shot? love that is vastly more than just a warm feeling; the kind of love that breaks us open into something entirely new; the and May 2003). In the course of that lecture five years ago I I was talking to priests earlier about a little book called The kind of love that bears fruit in our personal zeal, courage, quoted a line from the former Archbishop of Paris, Emanuel marked. Among all the heathen, among most non-Catholic Rise of Christianity. It’s by one of the world’s leading social justice, mercy and apostolic action. Suhard, in a retreat given to his own clergy in the 1940s. Christians and many Catholics as well, priestly chastity is scientists, Rodney Stark. What’s interesting about Stark is Cardinal Suhard singled out the priest’s duty to serve as a uniquely perplexing, and consequently, uniquely eloquent that he’s a self-professed atheist. Unlike a lot of atheists, he’s Being taught by God witness, and said: testimony to Him for whose sake the satisfactions of the got no axe to grind against the Church. That’s refreshing. To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, So I leave you with this: Love well. Put your belief into flesh are renounced. It’s hard to overstate the force of But he’s also not about to buy the idea that the Church was nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. practice. Do everything for the love of God, even the little that testimony. Even priests manifestly defective in other successful because it was God’s will for the world. Those It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not things you have to do each day. Love those who don’t respects – men who are lazy, choleric, untruthful, or coarse are claims he can’t prove as a scientist. So he set out to make sense if God did not exist. love you. Love expecting nothing in return. Love and you – are viewed by the faithful (and not only the faithful) with study the material, historical and sociological “reasons” for the recognition that there is a mystery of love deeper than Christianity’s success. will find Jesus. Love and those you love will find Jesus, Heathendom, of course, is perfectly comfortable with self- too. Love, and through your actions, God will change this interest, and the heathen ordinarily shrewd in spying it in their patent deficiencies, a mystery tied to their celibacy. It Do you know what he concluded? That the Church conquered world. operation among other men. “If you love those who love makes no sense, if God does not exist. It makes no sense, the empire by the force of her beliefs and teachings. Because you,” asks our Lord, “what reward have you? Do not even unless God is lovable even to human unloveliness. One of my favorite stories about Mother Teresa is about the people practised what the Church preached. It was that simple. the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your time she found a woman on the streets who was covered in We’ve all been told that mandatory priestly celibacy is not People lived out their faith. And that living out of their faith brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even sores that were dirty and infected and crawling with insects. irreversible and that in the future the requirement may be had revolutionary consequences. the Gentiles do the same?” It makes sense to seek one’s Mother Teresa took her in and began cleaning her up. All abrogated. I don’t believe it will happen, but if it were, it’s own satisfaction, one’s own comfort, one’s own advantages The most radical Christian belief, Stark said, was the belief in the while, the woman was screaming at her, showering her clear that the non-celibate priesthood would be diminished – assuming, of course, that we live in a world in which there God’s love and the commandment to love our neighbours as with curses and insults. in mystery – not less pious, necessarily, but tamer, more ourselves. Today, we take these beliefs for granted. They’re is no true reason for nobility, or selflessness, or disinterested task-oriented, more “bourgeois” (by which I mean partak- clichés today. But originally they marked something very At one point the woman screamed: “Why are you doing this? love, a world in which we will never be called to account for ing of the pedestrian concerns and fashions of the life of the new in the history of religion. People don’t do things like this. Who taught you?” Mother our choices, a world in which there is no God. Conversely, mid-level bureaucrat). The atheist or half-Christian would Teresa said, “My God taught me.” The woman quieted down to be a living mystery, to act in a way that cannot be under- see a married priesthood as a sensible innovation, and the Stark puts it this way: “The simple phrase, ‘For God so loved and asked who was her God. Mother Teresa responded: stood except as a response to imperatives greater than the very things that make it reasonable in their eyes deprive it the world …’ would have puzzled an educated pagan. And “You know my God. My God is called love.” self, is to direct the minds of others toward the source of of witness value. the notion that the gods care how we treat one another would those imperatives. It is to be a witness. have been dismissed as patently absurd.” My friends, our God is called Love. And our God is calling And chastity as spiritual chastity you to follow Him in remaking the face of the world. Witness of celibacy I would enter two words of caution here. First, not a few The practice of God’s love for people Perhaps the way in which the mystery of which Suhard priests of my acquaintance are, perhaps, overly impressed by Never before had a religion taught that God loved people From the Q&A session that followed (kindly supplied by J. Klugman): speaks is most strikingly evidenced is by way of the evan- the sacrifice they make as celibates. Some are led to permit personally, and that God’s love began before the person was On Catholic education: We must work harder and harder to gelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It’s themselves any other indulgence by way of compensation even born. Abortion and birth control were rampant in the make Catholic schools Catholic. Home-schooling is a good noteworthy that, in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church for their celibacy. Such indulgences not only weaken the Roman Empire. Christians rejected it all from the beginning. option for those who can. of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, these counsels first find men- testimony given by chastity, but they tend to weaken a man’s Why? On what we can do from day to day: Our time is worse than tion not in the chapter on the religious state, but in the prior capacity to remain chaste (after all, there’s a single will Athenagoras, a Christian layman, explained why in an open early Christian times, because we have people who think they’re chapter on the Church’s Universal Vocation to Holiness. choosing to renounce or to succumb). Of this more later. letter he addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He said: Christians when they’re not. We need to love, to be faithful, and The practice of the counsels, under the impulsion of the Second, it sometimes happens that a priest views his celibacy to testify. Christianity is not complicated – it’s just difficult! “For we regard the very foetus in the womb as a created being, Holy Spirit, undertaken by many Christians, either pri- as requiring no more than sexual abstinence, and he feels and therefore an object of God’s care.” He wrote that in the On religious life: Religious life is in an absolute mess, and yet vately or in a Church-approved condition or state of life, himself at liberty to involve himself in romantic friendships no one is changing anything because no one is willing to say gives and must give in the world an outstanding witness and year 176. Can anyone have any doubt about what he might – often, deplorably, under a spiritual pretence – provided no they made mistakes. example of [the holiness of the Church]. (LG #39) write to your Parliament today regarding embryonic stem cell embraces or sexual congress take place. This is self-delu- On popularity: It is important for us not to try to fit in, or to Not all clergy, obviously, are constrained by vows to live sion. I’ve known priests who, as the woman in question research? Can anyone have any doubt about what you should try to be popular. We must live the Gospel and let the chips was married and her husband uninterested in religion, had write to them? fall as they fall. Priests and bishops should stop trying to be according to these evangelical counsels, yet I’d contend any priest, whether diocesan or religious, who is sincerely awarded themselves a kind of Pauline privilege, ostensibly Before Christianity came on the scene, no religion had ever friendly, and concentrate on being loving instead. The primary striving for holiness permits the counsels to shape his life supplying the spiritual companionship she wanted from her taught that God could be found in our neighbour. The world role of a good father is to be loving (and that involves issuing challenges), not a friend. We call priests Father, and Bishops in a way congruent with his circumstances. They constitute husband and did not receive. When, as sometimes happens, ignored the poor, the hungry, the stranger and the imprisoned. are fathers to their priests. three axes, as it were, in which we understand the project of Father’s amitié amoureuse alienates his companion from her It still does. And yet Jesus said that we find God in our love On conscience: Conscience is not a feeling; it is a moral decision the imitation of Christ. husband, he is offending against the integrity of a marriage, for these least brethren of ours. that is consonant with the truth. even if physically chaste. The witness such a man gives to Celibate chastity, without question, is the most dramatic Stark shows how the early Christians’ love had concrete On life issues: Winning isn’t everything. We must defend the husband in this situation does not bear thinking about. witness borne in ordinary circumstances by the priest today, consequences that enabled the faith to spread and grow. And rights, consistently, faithfully, joyfully. for the obvious reason that chastity is the aspect of priestly That said, in spite of the manifest failings of the Catholic I want to leave you today with my last point: that divine love On hope: Hope is a hard thing. Hope comes from realism, when life most dramatically at variance with the obsessive preoc- clergy in matters of chastity, that chastity remains a living remains the most revolutionary idea in the world today. we realise that there are obstacles, when we face what is wrong with us, and how much we need our Saviour. cupation with sexual gratification by which our culture is mystery, paradoxically fascinating even to those secularists

11 The Priest November 2007 12 who reject it. This was evident on one level from the preoc- tions of religious poverty, moreover, are detached from the of Can. 285 §1: “Clerics are to shun completely everything some priests to wear civvies as a kind of camouflage. Less cupation of secular media with the sexual dimensions of the classic ascetical Christian tradition in a way that the other that is unbecoming to their state,” and §2: “Clerics are to dramatically, most of us have faced the prospect of a long Vatican’s criteria for seminary admission, and it’s evident evangelical counsels are not. We sense a certain cultural avoid whatever is foreign to their state, even when it is not plane flight in which we longed to be free of the importunities on another level in those aspects of clerical life that scoffers continuity in reading what Augustine or Alphonsus Liguori unseemly.” of fellow travellers and to journey instead as Mister Average hold up for ridicule. When partygoers garb themselves in has to say about chastity and obedience, because for the Passenger. However, turning oneself into Mister Average fancy dress as a priest or a nun, which of the evangelical relevant purposes we continue to live in their world. But Clerical dress Passenger – for a priest – is like Frodo Baggins putting on counsels is to the fore in their mockery? Exactly. social and economic changes have made it the case every While we’re on the subject, another equilaterally operable the Ring in order to avoid his cousin Lobelia. It’s a sneaky clergyman and religious in the First World enjoys a degree Canon is #284: “Clerics are to wear suitable ecclesiastical way out that makes him a tiny bit more cowardly every time Obedience as witness of physical comfort and security impossible for all but the dress, in accordance with the norms established by the he takes it. Many resort to the expedient, few take pride in The evangelical counsel of obedience is usually less dramatic very wealthiest nobles prior to the 19th century – and this Episcopal Conference and legitimate local custom.” It’s it. Summing up, I’d contend that, on those occasions when in its impact, but not without effect. The demeanor a priest irrespective of the severity of his chosen austerities. In obvious to me that local custom is somewhat different in removing one’s collar is not yanking off a wedding ring and exhibits in accepting an uncongenial post, for example, fact, bashfulness about using the word “poverty” of our the USA and Australia regarding clerical garb, and I’m not when donning mufti is not slipping-on Tolkien’s ring, then can speak a lot to those around him about the place of God renunciation of ownership of property has brought it about in a strong position to say whether or not it’s legitimate it’s a responsible choice – neither an instance of taking the in his life. Here the contrast with lay and heathen life is that many religious communities speak about “simplicity local custom. (The requirement of clerical dress applies in easy way out nor of laying aside one’s duty. not so sharp (almost everyone is subject to some vexing of life” instead. Australia: see, The Priest, November 2001, pages 10-12.) authority in various aspects of his life), but again it is the But one of the advantages of giving a drive-by harangue of To repeat: the Canons that touch on priestly worldliness, as gratuitousness of the priest’s donation of self that can make Granted all this, the way we priests eat, dress, recreate; the the present kind is that I can light a fuse to a powder-keg of well as the spiritual dispositions that give them force, apply the difference. vehicles we use and the way we furnish our living quarters, ecclesiastical controversy, secure in the knowledge that I’ll equally to religious and diocesan clergy. As underlined by such things are subject to the same ceaseless scrutiny by the be out of harm’s way when the detonation takes place. the cry of John the Baptist mentioned above, the point of I was recently told of a book in which a woman describes world. “To be a witness,” says Cardinal Suhard, “means to these cautions against profane indulgences is that noisy self her fixing brunch for a monk whom she had invited to her live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if So here goes. My own conviction is that most priests most be eclipsed by the person of Christ. With the exception of house. She asked him, “How do your like your eggs?” and God did not exist.” Well, what do our elected comforts and of the time are consulting personal convenience rather than priests who are strictly cloistered monks, we’re all in the the brief tilt of his head and look of incomprehension told discomforts witness to? Apostolic impact on occasions when they choose to put same boat. her, incontrovertibly, that he’d never had a way he liked his off the Roman collar and dress in mufti. God knows I am eggs. He’d simply eaten what was put in front of him. The There are two equal and opposite errors to be avoided here. not insensible to those conveniences. Further, there are Asceticism as witness incident lasted only an instant, but it made a deep impres- One is a pharisaical rigorism that finds any superfluity (a some unpredictably urgent tasks for which clerical attire is Yet the mention of monks is not wholly beside the point. One sion on her, regarding the texture and meaning of a life lived cigarette, a novel, a second glass of wine) to be a cause of ill-suited, such as painting the ceiling of the presbytery or of the huge post-Conciliar losses to the priestly life generally so differently from her own. The occasion may be trivial, disedification that delegitimises one’s priestly life. This path, changing the transmission fluid on the parish van. In April has been the sea change in the model of contemplative life: but the sign value is not. Not only monks but every priest unless carefully signposted by living saints, leads to mad- of 1999, during a tertianship experiment, I found myself a life once aimed at mortification – a death to self through has forfeited areas of discretion in his life that the people ness. Its contrary is a self-administered moral anaesthetic in central NSW helping with pregnancy testing on a beef asceticism – now aimed at self-actualisation. The “self” has around him take for granted. The point is that people are that excuses any priestly indulgence on the grounds that the herd, shoulder-deep into a bemused heifer, and I admit that I taken centre stage. This change is important because, in spite watching, people are measuring a priest’s renunciations and labourer is worthy of his hire. As I mentioned earlier, there permitted myself a derogation from Canon 284 in favour of of 50-plus years of propaganda to the contrary, the monastic indulgences against his stated commitments by way of trying is a tendency for priests to think that the sacrifices made the loin of the non-baptised party. There are circumstances ideal remains a potent icon in any priest’s self-understanding. to understand what makes him tick. Freely offered obedi- in the order of chastity justify compensation in the form in which even Pius XII would lay aside his clergy stock ad Obedience, simplicity of life, and fidelity to prayer have ence serves not only to edify, but to strengthen the faithful of any and all carnal refreshment provided it’s non-sexual, majorem Dei gloriam. That said, such circumstances are different orientations in the case of a canon, a friar, and a in their own obligations. whence it’s easy to tumble into a life of pleasure-seeking rarer than commonly acknowledged. I generally apply what diocesan priest, obviously, but they are all monastic in trans- bachelordom, collecting the usual boy-toys, watching the I call a “two ring test.” mission and all essential to the clerical life. Where monastic To make use of an analogy from another walk of life, mili- movies and frequenting the bars and overlapping, to some life is healthy, it builds up even non-monastic parts of the tary officers often receive unwelcome orders from their own External signs of state of life. We all know of married men extent, the recreations of the young professional bronco. Church; including and in particular the lives of priests in the superiors and must pass them on to their troops. The troops who yank the wedding ring off their finger before leaving Too often, as we know, the overlap becomes total. But more active apostolate. Where monastic life is corrupt or lax, the will almost always be able to tell whether their officers find on their “boys’ night out,” and it’s sometimes the case that importantly, there comes a point at which the witness we loss extends to the larger Church as well – it’s as if a railing the orders congenial or not, yet the key factor is not whether priests put off the external signs of their priesthood for give in other aspects of our life is impaired by concern for were missing on one side of a balcony. When I was preparing the commands are welcome to those officers, but the alacrity analogous reasons. Mufti lets a priest go to the kind of personal comforts -- and this not by pharisaical envy but for priesthood my teachers lamented what they called the with which they are received as commands. Any inflection bars and restaurants and movie theatres that a man in cler- by honest dismay given to the good-willed faithful. (One “monastic” character of pre-conciliar seminaries and houses of sarcasm or dismay or contempt that creep into an officer’s ics would be shy of entering. It lets the priest stare at skirts bonus of the Catholic-interest blogs – for those familiar with of formation (fixed times for common prayer, silence, read- manner in relaying commands from above will, in effect, (etc.) that cross his path without provoking more than the this world – is that it lets us hear the candid and uncensored ing at meals, etc.), complaining that such disciplines were give his troops permission to tailor their obedience to their usual indignation. It lets a priest buy the kind of reading opinions of layfolk about us their clergy: opinions which ill-suited to their lives because they were destined not to be own convenience. By the same token, a priest’s alacrity in material that would raise eyebrows otherwise. It frees the are overwhelmingly, almost miraculously charitable in the monks but pastors, missionaries, and scholars. But looking carrying out assignments to his disadvantage communicates priest from the public pressure to edify – or at least not to main, but which also include the blunt observation that, at the lives of my contemporaries, one of the things I find the presence of a supernatural order of grace according to be disedifying. In mufti the priest can flip off people who when excess or luxury in food, drink or comfort is used as most obviously lacking is an appetite for prayer created by which he sets his priorities and makes his decisions. It cut him off in traffic and deal brusquely with panhandlers a substitute for sex, it’s hard to see the resultant chastity as good habits of prayer – habits that are usually the product exemplifies the death to self that John Baptist exemplified and quarrel with salespeople and waiters and airline person- a spiritual renunciation at all.) of a discipline we never had. The same is true of asceticism as necessary to the coming of Christ: he must increase, John nel – all the while emancipated from the duty to uphold an and self-denial generally. When laypersons enter a priest’s said, but I must increase. Adhering to what befits the clerical state institutional reputation. living quarters, for example, they don’t necessarily have to I make no distinction between diocesan and religious clergy Living with the inconveniences of a public state of life. The be shocked by the austerity, but they ought to walk away Poverty as witness in these matters. On the one hand, any vowed religious second ring derives from Tolkien’s famous trilogy. This is a with the impression that the man who lives there is good The evangelical counsel of poverty is one of the pivotal who really wants to can, in my experience, find a way to ring not removed but rather worn in circumstances of need. at saying No to himself. And monks are, or used to be, our issues of priestly discipleship and one of the most difficult obviate his obligations of poverty by shrewd exploitation Its property is to render the wearer invisible. Mufti, as we masters at saying No to the Self. to talk about in concrete terms. My own experience of reli- of prosperous lay friends and the perquisites of his own job. all know, gives the priest the ability to reveal his priesthood gious life is that community discussion of “poverty issues” is A Jesuit so inclined can live as sumptuously as a diocesan to those he wants and withhold it from those he wants. Shifting the focus exceptionlessly ugly – partly because almost everyone feels priest who enjoys a large private income. On the other hand, He can run with the hares or hunt with the hounds as the to the One to whom we witness vulnerable to criticism in some aspect or other of his life, Can. 282 §1: – “Clerics are to follow a simple way of life advantages of the particular social situations dictate. In the It is not my purpose to erect some kind of mental tribunal partly because there’s an unspoken recognition that poverty and avoid anything which smacks of worldliness” – applies USA, a few years ago at any rate, the detestation directed in which each priest brings evidence against himself. The and chastity issues are not entirely unrelated. Today’s ques- to diocesans as much as to religious, and the same is true at priests at the height of the clerical abuse scandal moved point of Cardinal Suhard’s dictum was not that his priests

13 The Priest November 2007 14 should exculpate themselves of wordliness, but that they St Maria Goretti: a homily should shift the focus off themselves entirely to give witness Where Are We Now? to God. They do this by being a living mystery, and that means to live and move and have one’s being in a universe Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett Bishop Peter J. Elliott The Most Rev Peter J. Elliott, opaque to the worldly. Doctor of Sacred Theology, Such is the embrace of the communion of Saints that today’s a foundation member of This opacity of spiritual goods to the eyes of the ungodly commemoration of St Maria Goretti, whom the Church As an avid map-reader and navigator, I like to know where ACCC, was ordained an has been wittily expressed by C. S. Lewis is his spiritual reveres for her witness to virginal chastity one century ago, I am, so I can work out where to go next. This practical Auxiliary Bishop of Mel- classic, The Screwtape Letters. It takes the form of a fictional easily takes the Christian mind back to the memory of the habit developed at the age of eleven, while steering dazed bourne on the Solemnity of correspondence in which a senior demon coaches a junior martyrs of her early centuries — those whom the Roman parents and a grizzling younger brother around post-War the Sacred Heart 2007. in the damnation of a human soul assigned as his target. At Church has so specially loved and honoured that from an London, where we spent six months. Often they would ask, This is his Dinner Address one point Screwtape takes a step back from concrete advice early date their names found their way into the Canon of “But how did you know the way to this place?” Ignoring during the ACCC 2007 Annual Conference. to vent his exasperation at the impossibility of understand- the Mass: Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucia, Agnes, Cecilia mystical implications that perhaps I had “been there before”, ing God’s motives. God, in this correspondence, is simply and Anastasia. in some other incarnation, the question usually provoked much waving of a large map with irritable explanations of called The Enemy: The veneration of these and thousands more across the the evident rationality of North, South, East and West and is now part of us. We are, or should be, comfortable and The truth is [writes Screwtape] I slipped by mere careless- centuries of course bears witness to the faithfulness of the useful shape of the River Thames. relaxed in the company of other Christians. I have recently ness into saying that the Enemy really loves the humans. the Church to the Gospel virtues, which she has upheld That, of course, is an impossibility. He is one being, they ventured into Evangelical-Pentecostal-Catholic dialogue, and taught with such constancy, so often in the face At present I am taking some new bearings. The past two are distinct from Him. Their good cannot be His. All His and feel quite at home, just as I maintain links with Angli- of incomprehension or ridicule. There may be mostly months have set me on a surprising course with many fas- talk about Love must be a disguise for something else – He cans within the Anglican Communion and in the Traditional women so honoured, but the witness of boys and men is cinating uncertainties, notwithstanding the clear guidelines must have some real motive for creating them and taking Anglican Church circle. so much trouble about them. The reason one comes to talk not overlooked as almost as close to our own time, and for the ministry of a bishop. But even when a map is to hand as if He really had this impossible Love is our utter failure perhaps with a particular relevance to the mores of the we may recall the Dubliner who was asked for directions to Ecumenical friendships help us realise to what extent many to out that real motive. What does He stand to make out of western world today, she recalls the witness to chastity of a certain place. Having given characteristically complex and internal issues in Catholicism have settled down since 1978. them? That is the insoluble question.... We know that He the Ugandan Martyrs. unnecessary information, he finally added, “But I wouldn’t The effects of the long and steady pontificate of the Servant cannot really love: nobody can: it doesn’t make sense. If we start here.” of God, John Paul II, and the continuity of the era of our Holy We priests surely understand well the value of our own could only find out what He isreally up to! Hypothesis after Father Pope Benedict XVI have brought greater stability and living witness to the virtue of chastity, so intimately bound We have no choice. We have to start here, where we find hypothesis has been tried, and still we can’t find out. genuine renewal, for example in terms of priestly vocations. up with our calling. In his homily at this year’s Chrism ourselves, and tonight we are at a fine dinner in the delight- Of its nature love is incomprehensible to Screwtape (at one Thanks to these Popes, we enjoy the peaceful resolution Mass, Pope Benedict recalled those beautiful but rather ful company of brother priests. So I hope most of us know point he writes of a Christian household, “We are certain (it of the very issues that divide, confuse and weaken other forgotten vesting prayers. We put on the alb of the clean where we are at this moment, unlike that perplexed old is a matter of first principles) that each member of the family Christian communions and communities: sexual ethics, heart, the garment washed in the blood of the Lamb. It is priest in Oxford who said that to find out what came next must in some way be making capital out of the others – but human life ethics, the ordination of women, etc. secured with the cincture of restraint, of defence against he would first have to wake up and then carefully look at we can’t find out how”), by the same token the fact that tainted desires that will keep us strong in the virtus what he was wearing: “If I have my pyjamas on, I know I Nevertheless, when other uncertainties arise, we need to there is no capital to be made out of our poverty, chastity, continentiae et castitatis. have to go down and say Mass. If I have my cassock on, I identify where we are, so as to confront unresolved issues. and obedience is nonsense to the dogmatic atheist. know it’s time to go down and take tea.” The broadest one is surely the hermeneutic of the Council. This freely embraced and daily lived virtue gives us a Pope Benedict has put his finger on this key question of special title to speak of it in our teaching. Indeed we often In the pilgrim journey of our Church we think more in terms interpretation, hence application, of the documents and find ourselves in pastoral moments of opportunity which of time, not space, but we often use the favoured metaphor consequences of the Council. The Holy Father proposes, pass into obligation. The preparation of couples for the of the Barque of Peter, that great ship pressing forward, what he envisions for all theology, the hermeneutic of sacrament of marriage comes to mind, but even well before often amidst storms, at times becalmed, occasionally put- continuity. that, in all those meetings with young people in groups large ting into a safe haven. The metaphor also frees us from an and small, when we have opportunities for the formation of individualistic approach, for we think of ourselves as the We need to return to the Vatican II sources, to read them the conscience at a sensitive period of development. Unless crew on this ship. again. But may God spare us from the reaction of a priest they are particularly fortunate, ours might be the only voice In an Australian perspective the prospects for the voyage who told me that, to mark the fortieth anniversary of the they hear that speaks of these beautiful things and of the are good. World Youth Day glistens ahead of us. This event end of the Council, he sat down and carefully read all the possibility and power to live them. may not be a safe haven, and, to switch metaphors, it is no documents. Then he put them down and said, “Well. That was that.” He responded with irony, because his agenda has We must not be afraid to speak, gently, clearly, and silver bullet, but it will surely lead to great and wonderful not been realised. He had based himself on the “spirit of sensitively, calling a new generation to Christly living, the developments and possibilities. the Council” and either he did not find “that” in the sources only path to true happiness. We know that so many of them The current developments of the Roman Liturgy offer or the documents did not lead where he chose them to go. today are unhappy, at an age that seems to start earlier and another cause for hope, particularly the prospect of a new Clergy in his circle misinterpreted the Council, and having earlier, because something has gone wrong in this area. We translation of the post-conciliar Mass that is accurate, beauti- set themselves up as the promoters of a false hermeneutic, often hear the stories of the pain they and their families ful and gracious. The appearance of the General Instruction they are disillusioned. suffer; we can exercise a wonderful and powerful influence of the Roman Missal in an official English translation for The Most Rev Geoffrey which brings about restoration of happiness through grace, Australia will help stabilise worship forms and settle some Evangelisation is another unresolved issue. In spite of the Jarrett, Bishop of Lis- and of virtue when it has been lost. issues regarding the renovation of churches. The Motu magnificent guidance of Paul VI inEvangelii Nuntiandi and more, is a past National the timely “New Evangelisation” of John Paul II, confusion, Chairman of ACCC. He Today’s story has a happy ending. God’s grace was at Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, widening the scope for paper shuffling and much waffle seem to reign. What does is pictured here after work to restore to virtue the very man who killed St Maria the Missal of Pope John XXIII can only have good effects “evangelisation” really mean? Are we naïve if we believe it presiding at the clos- Goretti. Alessandro underwent a profound conversion, and within the Church, particularly in calling us to recollected means converting non-believers to faith in Jesus Christ and ing Mass of the 2007 was released from prison after twenty-seven years. He and reverent celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. For priests membership in his authentic Church? Surely this is an area Annual Conference. His lived to see Maria canonised in 1950, himself died close these are all signs of a better era ahead as the ship takes a homily for the Memo- where we need to simplify matters and “cut to the chase”. to sanctity, and gives the world an enduring example of the steady course. rial of St Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr, power of grace to triumph over the darkest corners of the At first sight Ecumenism may not seem to offer particularly The Religious Life raises many unresolved and complex appears adjacent. human heart. hopeful prospects, until we stop and realise how Ecumenism questions. I am not “a religious” and am wary of treading

15 The Priest November 2007 16 on this ground, but, taken generally, the prospects for the Once the ethical walls collapse, the culture wars are lost. religious life in this country are not wonderful. Of course Lord, accept this Sacrifice ... Many people are now persuaded that the end justifies the much energy has been channelled into the new religious means – which is the key to the whole cloning and embryo movements, and some of these include or lead into forms of Bishop Peter J. Elliott experimentation debate. Here, the ethics of the doctors of the religious life. But I would hope that the classical forms Auschwitz have triumphed. The littlest people, unborn Through catechisms, we are all familiar with the ends for do this in the love of “communion”, the communion of all the of religious life can undergo revival. Priests ask “Where humans, can be used as genetical quarries and killed to make which the Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered: in praise and ado- Saints, through which we are able to reach out to our loved can we send young men and women who show interest in big people better. Frankly that is no different than what Dr ration, for intercession and atonement. But in recent decades ones across the change of death. We assist them by our prayers the religious life?” Perhaps radically new structures are Mengele and the Nazi scientists did to Jews, Gypsies and much less emphasis has been placed on the fourth end – that and sacrifices, above all through this the perfect Prayer, the needed and we pray that this may be one fruit of World Polish Catholics. Those men were agents of a regime that the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered as propitiation for sins. Liturgy of the living Church, which links time and eternity. Youth Day. at the same time strictly forbade such experimentation on As we celebrate this Requiem Mass for deceased members of How then do we encourage our people to recover a devotion Catholics today are more focused on the Bible. The place and dogs or rabbits! our Confraternity, it is good for us to recall the solemn teach- to the propitiatory sacrifice of the altar; that is, to seek to have the interpretation of the Scriptures will be the theme of the ing of the Church on this important dimension of the Mass. Our people are manipulated by the media, encouraged to feel Masses offered for their loved ones? I believe it can easily next World Synod of Bishops. But few have taken on board but not to think. Everything is subjective and sentimental, The Council of Trent was specific and precise, as we see in be done first by reminding them of the atoning power of the the Council’s understanding of the sources that together so “compassionate”, so “tolerant”, as a sinister post-modern chapter 2 of the Decree on the Doctrine of the Sacrifice of Cross, which we apply in every Mass. More precisely in our constitute “the Word of God”: Scripture and Tradition. In reshaping of reality descends into post-modern fantasyland. the Mass: “And forasmuch as, in this divine sacrifice which preaching we need to set the meaning and power of this Sac- some quarters we suffer from a pervasive Biblicism, a “sola Recently the predictable Sunday Age gave front-page cover- is celebrated in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and rifice in the dimension of the love of Christ, self-giving love, scriptura” approach which I have found among various age to two Lesbian mothers. One re-defined the reality of immolates in an unbloody manner, Who once offered Him- ajgavph, caritas. That is the love which, as St Paul tells us, is Catholic teachers, in a somewhat liberal Protestant form. the biological father of their child. She said, “Sam does not self on the Cross; the Holy Synod teaches that this Sacrifice shed abroad in our hearts, the love we are called to bear to one Some more conservative Catholics are likewise prone to have a father; he has someone who helped bring him into the is truly propitiatory (Canon vi), and that by means thereof this another in his Church. We need to remind our people that “the biblical fundamentalism, which they absorb from sources world.” Well, madam, forget the “facts of life”. Now we all is effected that we obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable Church” in fact is largely made of countless souls who have beyond the Church such as television evangelists. Our chal- know the truth. It wasn’t daddy, it was the stork after all! aid, if we draw nigh unto God, contrite and penitent, with a passed through death before us. lenge is to rediscover Scripture in the light of Tradition, sincere heart and upright faith, with fear and reverence.” particularly through patristic studies – and note that this is In such a world of illusions and delusions, our politicians Lumen Gentium #51 proposes the teaching of the Second Vati- precisely the focus of the Holy Father in the current series need ethical guidance – and some are looking for it. But To counteract Luther’s error that the Mass is only “a sacrifice can Council on this credal truth of the communion of Saints: of his Wednesday audiences. do you know your local politicians? Pro-life leaders are of praise and thanksgiving”, the Church teaching is specific. “This Sacred Council accepts loyally the venerable faith of encouraging the clergy to get to know politicians, to enter At the same time, the Council counteracted the Reformers’ our ancestors in the living communion which exists between Much is made of a growing interest in “spirituality”, into dialogue with them, to be there with them. claim that Catholics use the Mass in an automatic or magical us and our brothers who are in the glory of heaven or who particularly among the young. But, alongside good material way, like a pagan sacrifice, hence the Council Fathers stress are yet being purified after their death and it proposes again and a return to classical authors, phoney spirituality bubbles The post-modern world is also full of fear. This mood is the need for interior dispositions: contrition, penitence, sin- the decrees of the Second Council of Nicea, of the Council of up and seeps through the Church in Australia. Spiritual associated with all sorts of familiar preoccupations: climate cerity, faith, fear and reverence. And, brothers, that is how we Florence, and of the Council of Trent.” heresies are more subtle and elusive than doctrinal errors. change, or climate shift as one leading scientist prudently gather at the altar of God today, setting forth before the Father The belated arrival of “New Age” nonsense in the Church, calls it, global warming, energy crisis, globalisation, not for- Each person who seeks to have a Mass offered for the departed the Divine Victim, offered in the Holy Spirit, as we shall pro- such as “eco-feminism”, “creation spirituality” and “eco- getting terrorism and associated tensions. Into such a world may be reminded that he or she is acting out of love for dear claim in the great doxology of the Eucharistic Prayer. theology”, is a matter that requires serious attention. To we bring the Gospel message of hope and inner peace. ones, or, in some cases, even a generous love when Mass is counteract it, we have to be able to direct people to better The Tridentine teaching continues: “For the Lord, appeased requested for “forgotten souls” – who are only “forgotten” Bishops, priests and deacons are called to be messengers of sources and sound guides. As with the religious life, in some by the oblation thereof and granting the grace and gift of pen- from our limited perspective, never forgotten by God. the hope of Jesus Christ. As our great ship moves forward, parts of Australia basic questions arise, “But where do I itence, forgives even heinous crimes and sins. For the victim the crew need to be full of hope, so as to inspire all the people As we remind our people of this loving service, let us remind sent people to do a retreat? How do I find a good spiritual is one and the same now offering by the ministry of priests, on board, developing what Fr Bernard Bassett described as ourselves of it each time we go up to the altar, serving our director?” who then offered Himself on the Cross, the manner alone of “the ministry of encouragement”. Thus we can help guide people in the Eucharistic mystery of the boundless mercy of offering being different.” So far, I have asked “Where are we now?” as a jumping the progress of what Belloc once called the one and only God. off point. But each of us needs to ask, “Where am I now?” vessel for the one and only journey. Yet, all along, we know What happened in time on Calvary, is now made present sac- Taking bearings is all very well if you intend to go some- that there is a steady hand on the tiller of Peter’s Barque, for ramentally by our ministry at this altar, here in this commu- where. But you cannot move unless you are free, that is, the hand of the Fisherman is held in a greater divine Hand, nity. By the double consecration of bread and wine, as Pope mobile. I believe that the immediate personal challenge the firm but gentle grip of the One who will surely bring us Paul VI taught in Mysterium Fidei, Jesus offers his Body and The above homily by the Most Rev Peter J Elliott, MA, STD, to immobile priests is to free oneself from the recent past. all home to the eternal shores. Blood, the new and eternal covenant for the remission of the EV, was on the occasion of a Pontifical Concelebrated Req- uiem Mass for past members of the ACCC on 4 July 2007 in St sins of many. To the words Hoc est enim corpus meum the This applies to priests right across the board, of all ages and Anthony’s Church, Alphington, Melbourne. shades of opinion. postconciliar rite significantly adds the sacrificial language, The photograph below was taken afterwards in the church sacristy. [Dissatisfaction with the liturgical reforms following Vatican quod pro vobis tradetur, “which will be given up for you”, There is a tendency to dote on bad memories, to rake up what The concelebrating bishops (left to right) are the Archbishop of II] occurred above all because in many places celebrations just as the Roman rite has constantly maintained that his Denver, USA; His Excellency the late Papal Nuncio in Australia; the happened in seminary days or that unhappy phase in parish were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but saving blood is poured out pro vobis et pro multis. Bishop of Lismore, and the Bishop of Armidale. (Ed.) ministry, to whine about the mistakes of superiors, to brood the latter was actually [wrongly] understood as authorising or on the hurtful and shameful scandals of some of our brethren even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations The self-immolation of Jesus Christ is above all an act of love, a few years ago, or to allow injustices, real or imagined, to of the liturgy which were hard to bear. taken and developed so well by Pope Benedict XVI in Sacra- fester. But all Catholics, laity, religious and clergy, need to be (Pope Benedict XVI in his Letter to Bishops accompanying mentum Caritatis. Through a sublime self-donation, which is free from dwelling on the recent past or we cannot confront Summorum Pontificum, 7 July 2007) the essence of embodied love, the Incarnate One is priest and the real issues. Introspection has wasted too much spiritual victim, the altar and banquet of eternal nourishment. and evangelical energy in the Church. His Eucharistic love embraces especially the many holy souls As we work in the “real world”, we see that the culture wars detained in the merciful process of Purgatory. Never can they are intensifying. Bad thought is transformed into wicked Mr Frans Zylstra (pictured, right), Victoria be lost, for they are saved. But they must be purified, cleansed, actions, particularly the descent into the culture of death and President for Serra International, gave a brief prepared for the full enjoyment of the Beatific Vision and the address at our 2007 Conference that benefited glory of Resurrection. In hope we place them within the fiery the war on marriage and the family being run in our media from Serra corporate sponsorship. His message and the legislatures. What should be of particular concern to was that to promote Christ is to promote voca- furnace of the loving Heart of Jesus, the Divine Mercy. We priests is the collapse of basic ethics in the wider community. tions to the Sacred Ministry and Religious Life.

17 The Priest November 2007 18 Images of our 2007 Annual Conference liturgies, Images of our 2007 Annual Conference liturgies, St Anthony’s Parish, Alphington, Melbourne St Anthony’s Parish, Alphington, Melbourne

The ACCC is most grateful for the hospitality of His Grace, the Most Rev Denis Hart, Archbishop of Mel- The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Thurgoona, built with bourne, during our 2007 Annual conference – includ- 750 tonnes of rammed earth for walls and century-old timber ing the availability of the Cardinal Knox Centre Lecture trusses, and by local craftsmen and labourers. Theatre for the Public Lecture of Archbishop Chaput (see photos at page 8). He is pictured above as Princi- pal Celebrant with his Auxiliary, and with the Bishops of Lismore and Armidale, and the Archbishop of Denver, Pictured below is the Conference Sacristan, Mr Luke after our Conference Mass on the Feast of St Thomas, Duane, with some of the Seminarians who assisted AM, and before the Conference Dinner at which Bishop at Conference liturgies in the Church of St Anthony, Elliott spoke (see talk, pages 16-17). Alphington, Melbourne, so generously made available to Pictured opposite is His Excellency, the Most Rev Ambrose the Conference by the Parish Priest, Rev Werner Utri. De Pauli, the late Papal Nuncio in Australia, after a Con- Pictured above is the Principal Speaker at the 2007 Pictured below are members of the schola for the 2007 ference Solemn Vespers at which he presided. Conference (holding the excellent Conference liturgy Annual Conference: Mr Stephen Smith (leader, from booklet prepared by the schola leader), along with our Wollongong); with Mr Jeremy Fletcher (organist, from newest ACCC member elevated to the episcopacy as Melbourne, on his right); and to the left of them, Rev Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, with the Bishops of Glen Tattersall (FSSP Melbourne), Mr Andrew Benton Lismore and the Bishop of Armidale – following another (Good Shepherd Seminary, Sydney), Rev Michael of the Masses at St Anthony’s, Alphington, during the McCaffrey (FSSP Sydney); and to the right of them, Mr Conference. Epili Quimaqima (Good Shepherd Seminary, Sydney), and Rev Nicholas Dillon, Dunedin NZ.

19 The Priest November 2007 20 Father Cyril Thomas Cartwright , r.i.p. Summorum Pontificum – a commentary and appreciation: 14 October 1917 – 1 October 2007 “And the Church will give thanks for Benedict XVI” So faithful has been the small but growing NZ contingent each year to our Annual Conferences that the Executive last year made a decision in-principle to seek an opportunity to locate one of Father Glen Tattersall, FSSP Rev. Glen Tattersall FSSP, our Conferences in New Zealand, as a mark of our appreciation This photograph of Rev Cyril BA, LlB (Syd.), is Chaplain of our NZ confreres and as an encouragement to their further Thomas Cartwright, r.i.p., Commentary on Summorum Pontificum to the traditional Latin rite growth. That occasion has not yet arisen, but these words from was kindly scanned from a Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum, congregation in the Arch- our youngest NZ member (see photo, page 19) provide a fitting Requiem Mass booklet by promulgated Motu Proprio, is an event equal in significance diocese of Melbourne, and tribute to our long-faithful oldest NZ member. (Ed.) Father Dillon. (Ed.) to Pope St Pius V’s Bull, Quo primum, of 1570, and the Victoria Councillor of ACCC. In the early hours on the feast of the Little Flower, Father would go over to the neighbouring Mercy Convent Chapel Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Heading structure of article Cyril Thomas Cartwright’s 90-year-long earthly pilgrimage each afternoon to offer Holy Mass. His love of the priesthood Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963). is due to the Editor. was also evident in the great pleasure he took in being able to came to an end. Father died at Sacred Heart Home, Brock- Fundamental canonical principles. The fundamental canonical enjoy the company of his brother priests, particularly at the ville, Dunedin, where he had been a resident for only a few point of Summorum Pontificum is that the ancient or historical necessary to celebrate Mass according to what it now known weekly Monday evening gatherings at North Dunedin. He months, in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor. usage of the Roman Rite, as codified in the Missal of Pope as the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite. was able to participate right up till the last few months. Father Cartwright was one of the pioneer New Zealand mem- St Pius V in 1570 and reissued in its last form by Blessed The remaining articles of the Motu Proprio are variously bers of the ACCC. A priest of the Dunedin Diocese since Deteriorating health saw Father admitted to hospital. He then Pope John XXIII in 1962, was not abrogated or abolished by legislative - insofar as they regulate the right to celebrate or his ordination in 1942, Father had been parish priest of Port moved into the hospital wing of Sacred Heart Home. He had the subsequent promulgation in 1970 of a newer usage of the attend the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite - interpretive, th Chalmers, Palmerston, Tainui, South Dunedin, Mornington been looking forward to his 90 birthday and was planning Roman Rite, following Vatican Council II, by Pope Paul VI. hortatory, or concerned with enforcement. a celebration for the priests of the Diocese. A fall resulted and his home town, Oamaru. The legal status of the more ancient or extraordinary form of Article 2 allows that for Masses celebrated “without the people”, in a broken arm and the shock of this obviously affected his the Roman Rite rests first of all on immemorial custom. St Pius Father Cartwright spent time as Chaplain to Cherry Farm any priest of the Latin Rite (Diocesan or Religious), may use health. He died peacefully on 1 October, just short of the V’s Bull Quo Primum issued on 14th July 1570 adds to this the mental hospital where he was highly regarded for his th either Missal. It explicitly states that no further permission 90 birthday he was so looking forward to. protection of legislation: “We give and grant in perpetuity that diligence and attention to patients. He was an outstanding from the Apostolic See or his own Ordinary (ie local Bishop for the singing or reading of Mass in any Church whatoever and very supportive Diocesan Chaplain to the Catholic On 4 October a Vigil Mass for Father Cartwright was offered or religious superior) is necessary. It seems that sine populo this Missal may be followed absolutely, without any scruple Women’s League and to Natural Family Planning. In this by Vicar General, Msgr Vincent Walker, at St Patrick’s must be interpreted as simply unscheduled, or unadvertised, of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or latter role he was untiring in his commitment to promoting Basilica South Dunedin. His Requiem Mass was offered by as Article 4 goes on to state that such Masses may after all censure, and may be freely and lawfully used.” the Church’s teaching on marriage and family life. He also Bishop Colin Campbell in Oamaru’s St Patrick’s Basilica be attended by any of the faithful who, of their own free will, had a lifelong commitment to Citroën cars, even visiting on Friday 5 October. He was then buried near his parents at Pope Paul VI’s Constitution Missale Romanum of 1969 ask to be admitted. These highly significant articles insist on the factory in France! Oamaru cemetery. An only child, Father Cartwright’s brother proposed a new form of the Roman Rite of Mass, but did not the absolute equivalence of either Missal for so-called private priests were his family and it was their honour to carry him contain any language suggesting the abrogation or abolition celebrations. There has been some confusion regarding the All his life Father Cartwright was a keen student, taking to his place of rest. After the prayers of burial, the priests of the older use, and its total substitution by the new. Neither provision that such celebrations may occur on any day “with copious notes at conferences and lectures, and even recently chanted the Salve Regina. St Paul’s words to Timothy, read Quo primum nor the underlying custom was disturbed in this the exception of the Easter Triduum”. The article is not banning was studying one of the Books of the Old Testament. His at the Vigil and the Requiem, are a fitting epitaph for this regard; and it is a fundamental canonical principle that in doubt, the celebration of the 1962 Missal for the Triduum: it is saying loyalty to the Church was evident to all in his dedication to loyal son of the Church: “I have fought the good fight, I have the revocation of a previous law or the suppression of custom merely that private celebrations are not permitted. It has never the Magisterium. In this regard he found great solace and finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7) is not presumed. A commission of Cardinals which met in been permitted to celebrate the Triduum privately in either support in the ACCC. Requiescat in Pace. Rome in 1986 supported this view, but its findings were never use: these liturgies of their very nature require the attendance At the heart of his priesthood was the Eucharist. In latter published. But the one argument which was plausible until the of the Faithful. years, even as mobility was becoming more difficult, Father Father Nicholas Dillon publication of the Motu Proprio was that since the Missal of Pastoral responses. Scheduled public Masses for a stable Paul VI was simply a new edition of the Roman Missal (not a group are provided for in Article 5. The Pope asks Parish new Rite as such), such language of abrogation had no place The Singing Catechism The personal touch of the man ... Priests and Rectors “willingly” (libenter) to make provision and indeed was unnecessary: and that there was therefore an for requests by such groups. There is no minimum number Father B J H (James) Tierney, a retired priest of Broken Bay The un-posed 4 July 2007 photograph below of the late Papal implicit total substitution of the 1962 Missal by the Missal of Nuncio in Australia with Father Michael Rowe of the Archdio- given for the constitution of such a group: one hopes that Diocese in Sydney and now resident in the Archdiocese of 1969. Summorum Pontificum definitively rejects this view. In it, goodwill and commonsense will prevail on the part of both Canberra and Goulburn, is a founding member of ACCC who cese of Perth, Western Australia, nicely captures the “personal Pope Benedict judges and declares in Article 1 that the Roman pastors and the faithful. Such public celebrations may take has spent a lifetime in promoting sound Catholic catechet- touch” of His Excellency. Missal of St Pius V reissued by Bl John XXIII, and the Missal place once on Sundays and feasts, and also on weekdays, ics. His Catholic Family Catechism Disciples’ Edition has For a brief tribute, see page 3 of this issue. (Ed.) of Paul VI, are two usages of the one Roman Rite, and that the now been adapted to a version that enhances his emphasis and for special events such as marriages and funerals. The former was never abrogated, or replaced, by the latter. on “remembering”, “understanding”, “knowing” – it is a CD sense of this article is that in a parish or community where the priced at A$8 or a web-based Singing Catechism that has 50 Due honour for venerable usage. It should be noted then that newer use is normative, there is meant nevertheless to be the Questions and Answers on the Creed, Sacraments, Command- the Pope is not legislating in Article 1. He is not creating a greatest possible availability of the older use as well should ments, and Prayer. new legal status for the 1962 Missal. Rather, he is recognising there be a group requesting it, as long as this does not infringe The website (www.cardinalnewman.com.au) has WMA files an existing legal reality. The Pope also insists that the Missal on the ordinary pastoral care of the parish. To this end, explicit for opening and listening online or saving to hard drive MP3 reissued by Bl John XXIII, as the most recent codification of permission is also given for the older rituals to be used for the audio files with singing in Gregorian Chant that sets the rhyth- the historical liturgy of Rome, “must be given due honour for other sacraments (Article 9). mic prose and sense-lines of the Catholic Family Catechism in its venerable and ancient usage.” this “new” way of teaching. The Lectionary. Permission for the readings to be in the vernacular is given in Article 6: this extends to the whole For further information, contact the Cardinal Newman Faith On the basis of this judgement by the Supreme authority that Resource Centre at Merrylands Parish in the Diocese of Par- the 1962 Missal has remained in vigour, many of the provisions Latin Rite permissions that previously had been conceded to ramatta (PO Box 697, Merrylands NSW 2160. Phone (02)9637 of Quattuor abhinc annos (1984) and Ecclesia Dei (1988) France and Germany. If the vernacular is used, it must be in an 3351). are superseded. These operated essentially on the supposition edition of the Lectionary approved by the Holy See. This does – now overturned – that special permission, or an “indult”, was not mean however that the new Lectionary should be used, Editor

21 The Priest November 2007 22 since its cycle does not for the most part correspond with the Ecumenical implications. There are certainly positive Propers of the older use. Rather, one would need to employ implications here for ecumenism: already there are indications Letter of Pope Benedict XVI one of the approved Lectionaries of the so-called “interim that there is appreciation by the Eastern Orthodox Churches of to the Bishops of the World to rite” period, between 1964 -1968. Various Lectionaries were a renewed fidelity to traditional liturgical forms in the West, approved for different regions during this time, all of them and of an attitude of humility by the Pope before the treasures Present the “Motu Proprio” on the based on the calendar and propers of the traditional temporal of which he is steward. and sanctoral cycles. “Hermeneutic of continuity”. Secondly, there is a strong Use of the Roman Liturgy Ecclesia Dei Commission. Responding to the difficulties emphasis on continuity in the life of the Church. In his letter to which unfortunately have been experienced by the faithful the Bishops, Pope Benedict rejects in advance the view that the prior to the Reforms of 1970 until now in some places, in securing reasonable access to Motu Proprio detracts from the authority of the Second Vatican the older usage, the Pope makes provision for assistance and, Council. Rather, the Pope sees this initiative as an important if necessary, enforcement. Those faithful who have not been part of “coming to an interior reconciliation in the heart of the able to have their requests met by the Parish Priest are directed Church.” Although the healing of the rupture with the Society of Pope Benedict XVI Photo credit: Umut Arabul, Flickr first to the Diocesan Bishop, and if this proves unsatisfactory, St Pius X is an important part of this, that issue does not exhaust then the matter is to be referred to the Pontifical Commission the meaning of this “interior reconciliation”. Here, I believe the This letter of Pope Benedict XVI was issued 7 July 2007 been familiar to them from childhood. This was especially Ecclesia Dei (Art. 7). This Commission, in addition to the Pope is referring to, and acting upon, his now famous speech together with his Apostolic Letter “Summorum Pontificum” the case in countries where the liturgical movement had specific powers granted to it in 1988, now has a general power nd to the Roman curia of 22 December 2005. In this speech, on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal provided many people with a notable liturgical formation delegated to it to exercise the authority of the Holy See in Pope Benedict contrasted a hermeneutic of discontinuity and of 1962. The following is the Vatican’s unofficial translation and a deep, personal familiarity with the earlier Form of the all mattters pertaining to the observance and application of rupture with one of continuity and reform, in the interpretation of the official Latin text. liturgical celebration. We all know that, in the movement led Summorum Pontificum (Art. 12). and application of Vatican Council II. Only the second of these by Archbishop Lefebvre, fidelity to the old Missal became Finally, in addition to a broad availability of the older usage in is legitimate. What better way to demonstrate that the Church My dear Brother Bishops, an external mark of identity; the reasons for the break which of the pre-Conciliar and post-Conciliar periods is one and the arose over this, however, were at a deeper level. Many Parishes that retain there essential orientation in the ordinary With great trust and hope, I am consigning to you as Pastors form of the Roman Rite, the Motu Proprio foresees, and makes same Catholic Church? Hence Benedict’s insistence in his people who clearly accepted the binding character of the letter to the Bishops (reprinted after this article): “There is no the text of a new Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio data” on Second Vatican Council, and were faithful to the Pope and provision for, a greater number of communities dedicated to the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970. the extraordinary form as their normative worship. Since the contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. the Bishops, nonetheless also desired to recover the form of In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but The document is the fruit of much reflection, numerous the sacred liturgy that was dear to them. This occurred above promulgation of Ecclesia Dei in 1988 these already existed by consultations and prayer. way of special permission (eg, the Benedictines of Le Barroux, no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains all because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Priestly sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden News reports and judgments made without sufficient infor- the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually Fraternity of St Peter), but now it is possible for Religious entirely forbidden or even considered harmfiul.” In this way, mation have created no little confusion. There have been was understood as authorising or even requiring creativity, or clerical communities to decide – either as individual the renewed vigour of the historical usage of the Roman Rite very divergent reactions ranging from joyful acceptance which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which communities or entire institutes – to use the 1962 Missal is meant to be a powerful sign of the Church’s own continuity to harsh opposition, about a plan whose contents were in were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I permanently and habitually. The decision for this now rests with and essential identity. reality unknown. too lived through that period with all its hopes and its con- fusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the the Majors Superior of such Institutes (Art. 3). Corresponding Mutual enrichment between “extraordinary” and “ordinary” This document was most directly opposed on account of liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the to this, there is encouragement for stable communities of the lay forms of the Roman Rite. A third significant implication is the two fears, which I would like to address somewhat more faith of the Church. faithful dedicated to the extraordinary form to be established effect that the Motu Proprio might have, incidentally, on the closely in this letter. or consolidated by way of the appointment of chaplains, and celebration and even ultimate reform of the newer liturgical Pope John Paul II thus felt obliged to provide, in his Motu In the first place, there is the fear that the document detracts especially the erection of personal parishes (Art. 10). books. Again, in his letter to the Bishops, the Pope asserts Proprio Ecclesia Dei (2 July 1988), guidelines for the use from the authority of the Second Vatican Council, one of that “the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be of the 1962 Missal; that document, however, did not con- whose essential decisions – the liturgical reform – is being Implications mutually enriching”. In this connection, he speaks of the older tain detailed prescriptions but appealed in a general way to called into question. This fear is unfounded. In this regard, What are the implications of Summorum Pontificum, and of the Missal using some of the newer prefaces, and celebrating Saints the generous response of Bishops towards the “legitimate it must first be said that the Missal published by Paul VI and Pope’s letter to the Bishops which accompanied it? canonised since 1962, and of the newer usage learning how “to aspirations” of those members of the faithful who requested then republished in two subsequent editions by John Paul demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, this usage of the Roman Rite. At the time, the Pope primar- II, obviously is and continues to be the normal Form – the Limits to ecclesial authority. Firstly, in the Pope’s judgement the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage.” ily wanted to assist the Society of Saint Pius X to recover Forma ordinaria – of the Eucharistic Liturgy. The last ver- that the older usage had not been abrogated, there is a renewed This appears to be an endorsement of the so-called “Reform of full unity with the Successor of Peter, and sought to heal sion of the Missale Romanum prior to the Council, which emphasis on the limits of Ecclesial authority – even of the the Reform”, championed by Fr Joseph Fessio SJ and others. a wound experienced ever more painfully. Unfortunately was published with the authority of Pope John XXIII in 1962 Supreme authority of the Pope – and a reminder that this must Clearly, the Pope expects a resurgent and vital presence by the this reconciliation has not yet come about. Nonetheless, and used during the Council, will now be able to be used be exercised in humility. This has been a long-standing theme older usage of the Roman Rite to “inform”, organically, the a number of communities have gratefully made use of the as a Forma extraordinaria of the liturgical celebration. It is in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, but let it suffice to quote an celebration of the newer usage: and perhaps, eventually, to possibilities provided by the Motu Proprio. On the other th not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman address of the then Cardinal on 24 October 1998 to pilgrims inspire textual and ritual revisions to the newer Missal itself. hand, difficulties remain concerning the use of the 1962 th Missal as if they were “two Rites”. Rather, it is a matter of who had come to Rome to celebrate the 10 anniversary of Missal outside of these groups, because of the lack of precise Impact on the life and ministry of priests. Finally, the Motu a twofold use of one and the same rite. Ecclesia Dei: “Orthodox forms of a rite are a living reality, born juridical norms, particularly because Bishops, in such cases, of a dialogue of love between the Church and her Spouse. They Proprio ought to have have a significant impact on the life As for the use of the 1962 Missal as a Forma extraordinaria frequently feared that the authority of the Council would be are the expression of the Church’s life and have nourished faith, and ministry of priests, and priestly formation. There are two of the liturgy of the Mass, I would like to draw attention to called into question. Immediately after the Second Vatican prayer and the true life of generations, and in specific forms reasons for priests to take Summorum Pontificumto heart, and the fact that this Missal was never juridically abrogated and, Council it was presumed that requests for the use of the 1962 they incarnate both God’s initiative and man’s response. These to act upon it: one personal, the other pastoral. The Holy Father consequently, in principle, was always permitted. At the Missal would be limited to the older generation which had rites can come to an end if those who used them in a particular in his letter to the Bishops states that “it behooves all of us to time of the introduction of the new Missal, it did not seem grown up with it, but in the meantime it has clearly been epoch die, or if the living conditions of those people should preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith necessary to issue specific norms for the possible use of the demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this change. The Church authority has the power to define and limit and prayer, and to give them their proper place.” Bishops simply earlier Missal. Probably it was thought that it would be a liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of the use of such rites in the different historical situations, but cannot do this without priestly support. As the Pope points out matter of a few individual cases which would be resolved, encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, She can never simply ban them! So the Council ordered the in his letter to Bishops (see next article), he in principle is not case by case, on the local level. Afterwards, however, it soon particularly suited to them. Thus the need has arisen for a reform of the Liturgical Books but it did not ban the previous taking anything from their authority over the liturgy in the Diocese. But always episcopal interventions must be in the became apparent that a good number of people remained clearer juridical regulation which had not been foreseen at ones.” (Notizario 126-127 of Una Voce) terms of the Motu Proprio (that is, to enable, not to prevent strongly attached to this usage of the Roman Rite, which had the time of the 1988 Motu Proprio. The present Norms are

23 Tattersall, continued at page 27, below. The Priest November 2007 24 also meant to free Bishops from constantly having to evalu- give them their proper place. Needless to say, in order to ate anew how they are to respond to various situations. experience full communion, the priests of the communities Summorum Pontificum adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, In the second place, the fear was expressed in discussions Apostolic Letter of the Supreme Pontif exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total about the awaited Motu Proprio, that the possibility of a exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent Benedict XVI given motu proprio wider use of the 1962 Missal would lead to disarray or even with the recognition of its value and holiness. divisions within parish communities. This fear also strikes Up to our own times, it has been the constant concern of supreme me as quite unfounded. The use of the old Missal presup- In conclusion, dear Brothers, I very much wish to stress that pontiffs to ensure that the Church of Christ offers a worthy ritual But in some regions, no small numbers of faithful adhered and poses a certain degree of liturgical formation and some these new norms do not in any way lessen your own authority to the Divine Majesty, “to the praise and glory of His name”, and continue to adhere with great love and affection to the earlier knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found and responsibility, either for the liturgy or for the pastoral “to the benefit of all His Holy Church”. liturgical forms. These had so deeply marked their culture and very often. Already from these concrete presuppositions, it care of your faithful. Each Bishop, in fact, is the moderator of their spirit that in 1984 the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, moved Since time immemorial it has been necessary - as it is also for by a concern for the pastoral care of these faithful, with the special is clearly seen that the new Missal will certainly remain the the liturgy in his own Diocese (cf., Sacrosanctum Concilium, the future - to maintain the principle according to which “each indult “Quattuor abhinc anno”, issued by the Congregation for ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, not only on account of 22: “Sacrae Liturgiae moderatio ab Ecclesiae auctoritate particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only Divine Worship, granted permission to use the Roman Missal the juridical norms, but also because of the actual situation unice pendet quae quidem est apud Apostolicam Sedem et, as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but published by Blessed John XXIII in the year 1962. Later, in the of the communities of the faithful. ad normam iuris, apud Episcopum”). also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted year 1988, John Paul II with the Apostolic Letter given as Motu apostolic tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors It is true that there have been exaggerations and at times Nothing is taken away, then, from the authority of the Proprio, “Ecclesia Dei”, exhorted bishops to make generous use but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church’s social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful Bishop, whose role remains that of being watchful that all of this power in favor of all the faithful who so desired. law of prayer corresponds to her law of faith.”1 attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition. Your char- is done in peace and serenity. Should some problem arise Following the insistent prayers of these faithful, long deliberated Among the pontiffs who showed that requisite concern, particularly ity and pastoral prudence will be an incentive and guide for which the parish priest cannot resolve, the local Ordinary upon by our predecessor John Paul II, and after having listened to outstanding is the name of St Gregory the Great, who made every improving these. For that matter, the two Forms of the usage will always be able to intervene, in full harmony, however, the views of the Cardinal Fathers of the Consistory of 22 March effort to ensure that the new peoples of Europe received both the of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching: new Saints with all that has been laid down by the new norms of the 2006, having reflected deeply upon all aspects of the question, Catholic faith and the treasures of worship and culture that had and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted in Motu Proprio. invoked the Holy Spirit and trusting in the help of God, with these been accumulated by the Romans in preceding centuries. He com- the old Missal. The “Ecclesia Dei” Commission, in contact Apostolic Letters we establish the following: Furthermore, I invite you, dear Brothers, to send to the Holy manded that the form of the sacred liturgy as celebrated in Rome with various bodies devoted to the usus antiquior, will study See an account of your experiences, three years after this (concerning both the Sacrifice of Mass and the Divine Office) be Art 1. The Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI is the ordinary the practical possibilities in this regard. The celebration of Motu Proprio has taken effect. If truly serious difficulties conserved. He took great concern to ensure the dissemination of expression of the Lex orandi, “Law of prayer”, of the Catholic the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to Church of the Latin rite. Nonetheless, the Roman Missal pro- come to light, ways to remedy them can be sought. monks and nuns who, following the Rule of St. Benedict, together demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hith- with the announcement of the Gospel illustrated with their lives mulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII is to be erto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former Dear Brothers, with gratitude and trust, I entrust to your the wise provision of their Rule that “nothing should be placed considered as an extraordinary expression of that same Lex orandi, usage. The most sure guarantee that the Missal of Paul VI hearts as Pastors these pages and the norms of the Motu before the work of God”. In this way the sacred liturgy, celebrated and must be given due honour for its venerable and ancient usage. can unite parish communities and be loved by them consists Proprio. Let us always be mindful of the words of the Apostle according to the Roman use, enriched not only the faith and piety These two expressions of the Church’s Lex orandi will in no any in its being celebrated with great reverence in harmony with Paul addressed to the presbyters of Ephesus: “Take heed to but also the culture of many peoples. It is known, in fact, that the way lead to a division in the Church’s Lex credendi, “Law of the liturgical directives. This will bring out the spiritual rich- yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has Latin liturgy of the Church in its various forms, in each century belief”. They are, in fact two usages of the one Roman rite. ness and the theological depth of this Missal. made you overseers, to care for the Church of God which he of the Christian era, has been a spur to the spiritual life of many It is, therefore, permissible to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass obtained with the blood of his own Son” (Acts 20:28). saints, has reinforced many peoples in the virtue of religion and following the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by I now come to the positive reason which motivated my deci- fecundated their piety. Bl. John XXIII in 1962 and never abrogated, as an extraordinary sion to issue this Motu Proprio updating that of 1988. It is I entrust these norms to the powerful intercession of Mary, Many other Roman pontiffs, in the course of the centuries, showed form of the Liturgy of the Church. The conditions for the use of a matter of coming to an interior reconciliation in the heart Mother of the Church, and I cordially impart my Apostolic this Missal as laid down by earlier documents “Quattuor abhinc of the Church. Looking back over the past, to the divisions Blessing to you, dear Brothers, to the parish priests of your particular solicitude in ensuring that the sacred liturgy accom- plished this task more effectively. Outstanding among them is St annis” and “Ecclesia Dei”, are substituted as follows: which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of dioceses, and to all the priests, your co-workers, as well as Pius V who, sustained by great pastoral zeal and following the Art. 2. In Masses celebrated without the people, each Catholic Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical to all your faithful. exhortations of the Council of Trent, renewed the entire liturgy of priest of the Latin rite, whether secular or regular, may use the moments when divisions were coming about, not enough Given at Saint Peter’s, 7 July 2007 the Church, oversaw the publication of liturgical books amended Roman Missal published by Bl. Pope John XXIII in 1962, or the was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain rec- and “renewed in accordance with the norms of the Fathers”, and Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and may onciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions provided them for the use of the Latin Church. do so on any day with the exception of the Easter Triduum. For on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for One of the liturgical books of the Roman rite is the Roman Missal, such celebrations, with either one Missal or the other, the priest the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance which developed in the city of Rome and, with the passing of the has no need for permission from the Apostolic See or from his at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every centuries, little by little took forms very similar to that it has had Ordinary. effort to enable all those who truly desire unity to remain in recent times. Art. 3. Communities of Institutes of consecrated life and of Societ- in that unity or to attain it anew. I think of a sentence in the “It was towards this same goal that succeeding Roman Pontiffs ies of apostolic life, of either pontifical or diocesan right, wishing to Second Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul writes: “Our directed their energies during the subsequent centuries in order to celebrate Mass in accordance with the edition of the Roman Missal mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide. You ensure that the rites and liturgical books were brought up to date promulgated in 1962, for conventual or “community” celebration are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own and when necessary clarified. From the beginning of this century in their oratories, may do so. If an individual community or an affections. In return … widen your hearts also!” (2 Cor they undertook a more general reform.”2 Thus our predecessors entire Institute or Society wishes to undertake such celebrations 6:11-13). Paul was certainly speaking in another context, Clement VIII, Urban VIII, St. Pius X 3, Benedict XV, Pius XII and often, habitually or permanently, the decision must be taken by the but his exhortation can and must touch us too, precisely on Blessed John XXIII all played a part. Superiors Major, in accordance with the law and following their own specific decrees and statues. this subject. Let us generously open our hearts and make In more recent times, Vatican Council II expressed a desire that the room for everything that the faith itself allows. respectful reverence due to divine worship should be renewed and Art. 4. Celebrations of Mass as mentioned above in art. 2 may – observing all the norms of law – also be attended by faithful There is no contradiction between the two editions of the adapted to the needs of our time. Moved by this desire our prede- who, of their own free will, ask to be admitted. Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth cessor, the Supreme Pontiff Paul VI, approved, in 1970, reformed and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held and partly renewed liturgical books for the Latin Church. These, Art. 5. § 1 In parishes, where there is a stable group of faithful as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot translated into the various languages of the world, were willingly who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition, the pastor should willingly accept their requests to celebrate the Mass according to be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered accepted by bishops, priests and faithful. John Paul II amended the It was Novemeber 2006 when I saved this photo to my PC the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962, and ensure that harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which third typical edition of the Roman Missal. Thus Roman pontiffs hard-drive (failing to record source; mea culpa!), the caption have operated to ensure that “this kind of liturgical edifice ... should the welfare of these faithful harmonises with the ordinary pastoral have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to reading, “Up there, not them!” that now seems so topical! (Ed.) again appear resplendent for its dignity and harmony.”4 care of the parish, under the guidance of the bishop in accordance

25 The Priest November 2007 26 Continuing Summorum Pontificum from page 26 Continuing Tattersall article from page 23, above

with canon 392, avoiding discord and favouring the unity of the or forbid). This seems to be the first time a Pope has directly whole Church. charged Parish Priests with personal responsibility to respond A Case for Pastoral Change § 2 Celebration in accordance with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII to requests of this nature. with the Ongoing Sacraments of Initiation may take place on working days; while on Sundays and feast days Secondly, there is great personal and spiritual value for priests one such celebration may also be held. in “re-connecting” with the forms in which their predecessors Rev John J. Walter, § 3 For faithful and priests who request it, the pastor should also offered the Eucharistic sacrifice for centuries, and which Father John J. Walter PP of Riverwood allow celebrations in this extraordinary form for special circum- remained normative and indeed obligatory until a mere forty in the Archdiocese stances such as marriages, funerals or occasional celebrations, or so years ago. As one priest whom I recently helped to learn This paper was presented not long before the time when – belat- of Sydney, was founding Editor of e.g. pilgrimages. the older use, expressed it: “I feel as if I’m recovering from edly, and after at least a generation of neglect – the Bishops of NSW and the ACT issued their pastoral letter Catholic Schools The Priest and a § 4 Priests who use the Missal of Bl. John XXIII must be qualified amnesia!” Interestingly, in the Motu Proprio the Holy Father at the Crossroads (8 August 2007). Much of what the author founding member to do so and not juridically impeded. also made explicit provision for those in Holy Orders bound here addresses is implicitly or explicitly recognised in the bish- of ACCC. He is pic- § 5 In churches that are not parish or conventual churches, it is the to pray the Divine Office, to use the older form (promulgated ops’ letter. A fundamental point, however, is lacking: the piv- tured here with Rev duty of the Rector of the church to grant the above permission. in 1962 by Bl. John XXIII) if they wish (Art. 9). On a pastoral otal role of the Parish Priest in catechesis and evangelisation. Brian Harrison. Art. 6. In Masses celebrated in the presence of the people in level, if priests are to be able to respond to requests by the The bishops’ pastoral letter speaks often about “parishes” but accordance with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII, the readings may faithful in the way the Holy Father expects, then they should not about “parish priests”. The un-canonical perspective that increasingly uneasy about what can only be described as an be given in the vernacular, using editions recognised by the consider their need to reach a certain level of competence Catholic Education Offices (CEOs), schools, and other agen- “automatic admission” of children to the ongoing sacraments Apostolic See. in the older use. The same considerations obtain – perhaps cies such as CCD exercise a primary function –rather than a of initiation. This unease was the incentive for seeking to with even greater force – to the formation of seminarians. supporting function – in faith formation prevails. Bishops of devise a more appropriate pastoral tactic in favour of the faith Art. 7. If a group of lay faithful, as mentioned in Art. 5. § 1, has not course need to be pro-active (rather than “rubber stampiing”) Seminaries ought to take very seriously the Church’s insistence while maintaining and balancing respect for individual rights obtained satisfaction to their requests from the pastor, they should CEO, CCD, and school-based programs and practices. But and responsibilities. inform the diocesan bishop. The bishop is strongly requested to (which never ceased) on the importance of learning Latin, and Father Walter’s emphasis on priests as the key persons in faith provision should be made for seminarians (at least those who satisfy their wishes. If he cannot arrange for such celebration to formation remains timely, as also is recognition of the canoni- Prime among the sad realities pressing for a more effective express interest) to learn how to celebrate both forms of the take place, the matter should be referred to the Pontifical Com- cal fact that catechetical rights and responsibilities rest, not pastoral tactic is the strong indication that, by the time of Roman Rite, so that they are fully equipped by the time of their mission “Ecclesia Dei”. with bureaucratic organisations or schools, but with priests, graduation from high school, barely 5% of our Catholic school priestly ordination. and particularly with Parish Priests. (Editor) Art. 8. A bishop who, desirous of satisfying such requests, but who students are practising Catholics in the traditional sense of for various reasons is unable to do so, may refer the problem to the The long-period perspective: 2045AD ... Summorum Pontificum regular Sunday Mass attendance. This disastrous trend was Commission “Ecclesia Dei” to obtain counsel and assistance. was promulgated 38 years after the new (now “ordinary”) form Introduction first indicated some years ago for eastern Australia by the late Art. 9. § 1 The pastor, having attentively examined all aspects, may of the Roman Rite was introduced in 1969. What ought we Last year, the Sydney Catholic Education Office produced an Brother Marcellin Flynn fms and, more recently, was substan- also grant permission to use the earlier ritual for the administration expect too see in the life of the Church 38 years from now, overview of Catholic education by Brother Kelvin Canavan tially corroborated in Western Australia by Brother Luke Saker of the Sacraments of Baptism, Marriage, Penance, and the Anoint- in 2045? Please God, a stable and enriched liturgical life, in fms, Executive Director of Catholic Education in the Archdio- fms. Dismal supporting statistics point to a widespread jetti- ing of the Sick, if the good of souls would seem to require it. which most Catholics have an appreciation of their heritage cese of Sydney. I refer to Bulletin 88 from the CEO, Sydney, soning of Catholic belief and practice by Catholic high school § 2 Ordinaries are given the right to celebrate the Sacrament of of worship through the occasional or even regular celebration entitled “the changing face of catholic schools in australia” students, a deeply entrenched spiritual crisis emerges. The glib Confirmation using the earlier Roman Pontifical, if the good of of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite in many or even (note use of the politically correct lower case). In a broad- to over-optimistic response: “They will come back later” is not souls would seem to require it. most parishes, without prejudice to the normative status of the ranging resume with explicit reference to the Archdiocese of much supported in my own pastoral experience. Add to this the § 3 Clerics ordained “in sacris constitutis” may use the Roman ordinary form in these communities. However, the ordinary Sydney, Brother Kelvin proudly, and indeed justifiably, tables distraught voices of rank and file faithful expressing deepen- Breviary promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962. form itself may very likely have undergone some reforms by a range of advances in Catholic education in the state of New ing distress at the local Church’s apparent failure to graduate Art. 10. The ordinary of a particular place, if he feels it appropri- then, drawing it closer to the historical form: there will be a South Wales over the past 40 years. There is, however, one practising Catholics from our Catholic school systems, and we ate, may erect a personal parish in accordance with can. 518 for greater sense of decorum and a move away from informality and striking omission: total silence on religious education outcomes are presented with an authentic crie de coeur. celebrations following the ancient form of the Roman rite, or spontaneity. It is possible, and I suspect likely, that the newer over that same period. appoint a chaplain, while observing all the norms of law. forms will re-discover and embrace the value of “orientation”, Moving goal posts with the celebrant and people both looking together towards Undoubtedly, the enormous institutional growth of Catholic Art. 11. The Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, erected by education across Australia has indeed been commendable Catholic education’s outstanding success in teaching the secu- John Paul II in 1988,5 continues to exercise its function. Said the Lord, rather than across the altar at each other. Closely lar curricula has prompted more and more non-Catholics to connected with this, altars of dignity and nobility, and which and Catholic education’s ability to satisfy secular standards Commission will have the form, duties and norms that the Roman by delivering secular outcomes has been truly exceptional. knock on the doors for entry into our Catholic schools; so much Pontiff wishes to assign it. have an elevated position in the sanctuary, will be preferred. so that shortly before his retirement the former Archbishop of The respective values of Latin and the vernacular will be Catholic education systems have responded magnificently to Art. 12. This Commission, apart from the powers it enjoys, will Canberra-Goulburn, Francis Carroll, removed all limitations on appreciated and integrated, rather than placed in opposition to society’s demands for desired outcomes and ever since the exercise the authority of the Holy See, supervising the observance advent of state aid in the early 1960s, have been rewarded the number of non-Catholics enrolling in his Catholic schools. and application of these dispositions. each other. Gregorian Chant will once more be cherished and Some hailed this as a generous ecumenical gesture. Nonethe- given a place of honour, and the value of other forms of Sacred handsomely by state and federal governments. We order that everything We have established with these Apostolic less, a deeply disconcerting question remains unresolved: was Music will be tested against it. In the midst of this there will be Letters issued as Motu Proprio be considered as “established and But we are entitled to ask what has become of Catholic edu- this more than a gesture: was it sought and obtained to ensure flourishing communities – Parishes, and religious and clerical decreed”, and to be observed from 14 September of this year, cation’s raison d’être; in other words, why Catholic education the continued flow of government funding, to assure continu- Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, whatever there may be to institutes – for whom the “extraordinary form” of the Roman came into existence in the first place. We are at risk of forget- ing employment for teachers, despite growing lack of Catholic the contrary. Rite is normative, its beauty and dignity continuing to move ting its purpose: to so form young Catholics in their faith as to interest in Catholic school enrolment? If so, the goal posts of From Rome, at St Peter’s, 7 July 2007, third year of Our Pontificate. and inspire new generations. And the Church will give thanks mature to live in the world the life of practising Catholics. Catholic education have indeed more than moved. for Pope Benedict XVI. BENEDICTUS PP. XVI However great Catholic education’s success in achieving Religious educators have customarily sheeted home the blame 1 General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 3rd ed., 2002, no. 397. secular outcomes the failure rate in religious formation and for poor observance on such external factors as the secularisa- 2 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter “Vicesimus quintus annus,” 4 December 1988, subsequent practice has been truly abysmal. This must con- tion of society, the breakdown of family life and the ruinous Editor’s remark: Working on others’ texts reduces my own 3: AAS 81 (1989), 899. 3 Ibid. stitute the toughest pastoral conundrum facing the Church in inroads of a paganised value system, hostile to such fundamen- reading, and only this year did I read U. M. Lang, Cong. Orat., 4 St. Pius X, Apostolic Letter Motu propio data, “Abhinc duos annos,” 23 Octo- this country. A fuller understanding of the actual dimensions Turning toward the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer (Ignatius, tal faith issues as the Christian virtues. Without denying the ber 1913: AAS 5 (1913), 449-450; cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter “Vicesimus of this colossal lacuna requires attention also be directed to pernicious influence of all these factors, we must also acknowl- quintus annus,” no. 3: AAS 81 (1989), 899. San Francisco, 2004). I strongly urge its reading! the multitude of other factors contributing to this huge pastoral edge that these days, nominal Catholics are not motivated by 5 Cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Motu proprio data “Ecclesia Dei,” 2 July Father Tattersall has indicated his readiness to assist priests who want to learn the celebration of the earlier use (see contact data, p. 1, above). Other problem. religious reasons for sending their children to Catholic schools. 1988, 6: AAS 80 (1988), 1498. FSSP priests are no doubt likewise available, and I am soon in this regard to On the other hand, among the remnant faithful to the practice benefit from the help of Father McCaffrey, FSSP, in Sydney. (Ed.) Over my 45 year’s experience as a parish pastor, I have become

27 The Priest November 2007 28 of the faith, there is genuine fear that their children will lose tional policy. Hamstrung by their illiteracy, how could these prepared children for the ongoing sacraments of initiation in grave deficiency in promoting the practice of the Faith. The their baptismal faith when immersed in a Catholic high school deprived youngsters ever manage to make a job application congregational and parochial Catholic schools had remarkable responsibility for this grave shortcoming needs to be shoul- environment. But we must resist the temptation to engage here after graduation? They were incapable of reading job adver- success. Parish priests gratefully acknowledged their expertise dered in due proportion by Catholic parents, by Catholic school in a blame game by labelling a scapegoat. tisements, let alone capable of filling in the employment office and all were edified by their personal example of a lived faith. teachers and by us, Catholic clergy. application forms. Worse still, further down the track what hope Pastors were happy to accept without quibble the sacramental With hardly any Religious now teaching in our Catholic The Spirit of Generation Y had they to function co-operatively with others in society? In candidates they prepared. schools, an educational bureaucracy has taken their place. In reply, the deputy principal limply shrugged his shoulders and A team led by Rev Dr Michael Mason, CSsR, of Australian I was a product of such formation in the 1940s and 1950s. By most dioceses our lay-staffed schools are managed from a cen- stated that they would somehow have to resolve that problem Catholic University, Melbourne, published a research report far the majority of my schoolmates and their families were tral Catholic Education Office. Such centralisation can easily for themselves later on. Quite bluntly, even if regretfully, he on persons born between 1976 and 1990 entitled, The Spirit then regular in their religious duties. What is more, among weaken the link between school and parish. One consequence reiterated that remedying their illiteracy was no concern of of Generation Y (John Jarrett Publishing, Mulgrave, 2007) those few from careless families, many attended the Children’s of state aid – and this is certainly true in NSW high schools the high school. (http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/reserch/ccls/spir/sppub/sppub.htm) Sunday Mass, afterwards making a thanksgiving led by a reli- – is that the course of (generally eclectic) religious studies is that shows: The utter futility of this tragic conclusion has come back to gious brother or sister. We may have been poorer in terms of dictated by government bureaucrats. Although Catholic high Catholics make up about 21 per cent of “Gen Y”, while about me in sharp relief, now some thirty years later, as I tried to the things of this world, but we learned early on that regular school students often score very well in such religious studies, 20 per cent of former Catholics indicate that they now had decipher the complex mix of ingredients creating this pastoral Sunday Mass was the touchstone to the practice of the faith. that doesn’t mean they practise their Faith. no denominational identification. On nearly all measures of conundrum. One thing stands out: the more this pastoral hurdle Earlier in the 20th century still, Augustine Birrill, Protestant belief and practice, respondent Catholics were positioned cries out to be surmounted, the more our continuance of a Secretary for Ireland, cannily observed that for Catholics “it The pastoral objective between Anglican and Other Christian – although closer to the “business as usual” approach is pastorally indefensible. is the Mass that matters” . So much for underscoring the abundant evidence that our cur- former. Only on belief in life after death did the proportion of Now, fifty to sixty years on, the scene is much changed. For rent pastoral practice has proven so counter-productive that it Catholics accepting the doctrine approach respondents clas- The pastoral dimension many Catholic parents the Mass no longer matters, except is making little impression on and may even be directly con- sified as “Other Christians”. On the belief and practice scales, Our Catholic faith proclaims and reveres a compassionate, as a convenient public platform for their children to put on tributing to, the ever-increasing percentage of young Catholics Catholics scored significantly lower than “Other Christians” yet just, God. The virtue of hope assures us of the constant show their acquired skill in dramatic performance or for their growing up largely indistinguishable from their pagan peers. surveyed in the study. availability of God’s mercy, it is, nonetheless, mightily pre- elders to applaud their progress in the substitute secular gospel My prime objective now is to discern and urge application of This report confirms what experienced pastors already knew sumptuous to ignore the objective reality of his justice. The of self-esteem. For such parents no performance means no wiser, and practically effective, remedial tactics to counteract only too well. Disastrous as it was that the Australia-wide case I will be making for pastoral change in admission to the presence! As a result Vatican II’s call for actuosa participatio accelerating departure from the faith. on-going sacraments of initiation is, above all, not designed sample of young Catholics surveyed over the three-year (“actual participation”) in the Church’s liturgical worship has In the first place, our current pastoral practice or tactic has to be unmerciful to the innocent, to penalise them. Rather, it is period of The Spirit of Generation Y study had largely ceased been far more than misinterpreted. It has been downgraded to overwhelmingly omitted even to challenge nominal Catholic specifically aimed at doing genuine justice both to the children practising the faith of their baptism, far more alarming was the limelighting on centre stage. No wonder we priests are often families to return to the practice of the Faith. These families and to the faith in which they have been baptised. The Church revelation that about a quarter of sampled Catholics had also now forced to endure inappropriate eulogies and officiate at the continue to be as little interested in bringing up their children sometimes achieves a bad record for applying justice externally come to disown personal affiliation with the Catholic Church. graveside of a valued parishioner where the only one answering in the practice of the Faith as parents from the Baby Boomer but not taking it internally. Commonly, this was occurring over the period following the funeral prayers or the Rosary is the funeral director. generation. completion of primary school. Without mincing words, these We Australians have developed an inordinate taste for catchy From the very outset, state education in Australia has been Some of today’s young Catholics may eventually bring their youngsters were effectively apostatising from the Catholic slogans, such as “we are an inclusive Church” and “the faith secular, but ever since the state aid issue was politically settled children to be baptised (all too often, merely to obtain a pri- faith while receiving a Catholic education. is caught rather than taught”. These otherwise praiseworthy in the early 1960s the inroads of bureaucratic secularisation ority ticket of entry into a Catholic school). Many may even catch-cries have all too often been employed to veil, if not The May 2006 Sunday Mass attendance census, conducted just have increasingly challenged the local Church. Nor has Catho- expect them to make their First (and oftentimes, next to last) to condone, abandonment of practice of the faith. Such glib before the Australian National Census of August 2006, indicate lic education always succeeded in resisting the assault – some- Holy Communion and to be confirmed (whatever that may sloganeering together with our propensity for short-cut tactics reductions in Mass attendance by diocese ranging from 14% times, far from it – especially on occasions when parameters of actually mean to them!) when the bishop comes round on should not be allowed to supplant the persevering, face-to-face, to 35% over the five years since the previous census. due process have overshadowed the fundamental importance visitation. However all these major sacramental events impress hard work which is essential if the faith is to be handed on in of personal dedication to a lived Catholic faith. All too often, such Catholics as mere “rites of passage” – something akin its entirety and integrity. First, a lesson from the past one major criterion of teacher engagement – to satisfy labour to a deeply secularised Jewish bar mitzvah with superficial A good thirty years ago, while involved in state school cat- With the passage of time more and more Catholic children, relations – has come to heavily outweigh the central importance Catholic overtones, serving only to reassert and reinforce the echesis in a large, outer Sydney parish, I discovered that the be they products of Catholic or state schools, come from of engaging practising Catholics as teachers. nominalism of their Catholicism. As a corollary, the sociologi- Year 8 Catholic children were not only non-practising, they lax, unchurched and broken families. Nonetheless, we have cal label, “cultural Catholic”, is hardly appropriate to describe were functionally illiterate. I asked the deputy principal, who persisted with the practice of processing these innocents Transition to religious illiteracy a faith so utterly devoid of personal commitment. Rather, incidentally happened to be a Catholic and also a former reli- more or less automatically through the ongoing sacraments Like the state high school illiterates in my earlier example, we should realistically admit what it has actually become: a gious, just how they were expected to fare later on. With some of initiation. the innocent children from unchurched Catholic families are vacated shell. embarrassment he confessed that the few who were teachable certainly not responsible for their plight or, to put it in moral I am old enough to know that this policy is a survivor from Most of this time, I was as unaware as anyone of an amelio- were taught, but the high school staff were in no position to terms, formal sinners; but I for one – and some others are earlier times when the general level of religious practice was rating policy, let alone a solution to our conundrum. But after devote the time necessary to remedy the profound illiteracy of coming around to this way of thinking – believe our current much higher. Sadly, while the times have vastly changed, our six years experience of a different pastoral approach there has the others. All through primary school these youngsters had pastoral practice/tactic, if not actually sinning against them, is, pastoral practice seems bogged down in the dimming afterglow been a measure of success in bringing at least some careless been processed through a major defect in the state educational at the very least, no longer promoting the good of their souls. of former successes. This strengthened my conviction that Catholics back to practice of the Faith, if only at the level of system and had failed to achieve basic literacy. It was now too The end result is that, by the time these youngsters take their routine promotion of children through the ongoing sacraments Sunday Mass attendance. In 2004 I was encouraged to publish late. Despite this, the high school persisted with the inappropri- place in the world, the much vaunted Catholic ethos, so long of initiation, Confirmation and First Eucharist, in the face of my experience in two articles in the periodical, AD2000. Nor ate policy of routinely graduating them. the loud and proud boast of our extensive Catholic school moral certainty of their continued non-practice of the faith, is have I exercised a high-handed or Pharisaic toughness. as a system, has all too often proven ethereal indeed! In a desperate attempt to be positive, the deputy principal added no kindness either to them or to the faith that so many will, as few highly apprehensive bishops I have spoken to have hastily that many of these youngsters would excel on the sporting has been statistically shown, cease to profess. One thing is certainly true. Throughout their schooling there concluded. Not only is this conclusion unfounded; positive field. Some even stayed on for an extra year or two – or three, has been strong emphasis on hands-on practice in the broad amelioration of this conundrum continues to elude them. particularly if they gained a mark on the sporting field. This Historical background range of secular subjects now available in the curriculum. With the personal conviction that this problem has been rel- High School had gained a solid reputation for producing first In years gone by, when religious orders were flourishing, In addition, Australia’s reputation for dedication to sporting egated to the too-hard basket for far too long, I will now unpack grade Rugby League footballers, but equally, it was notorious dedicated religious teachers conscientiously shouldered what excellence, founded on guided practice and the example of for you how acute this crisis has become. for lack of academic achievement. had been, until then, an integral duty of the local clergy. outstanding role models, underwrites this proud aspect of our In those days dedicated religious brothers and sisters who I was naturally appalled at the lop-sided nature of this educa- national boast. Yet there remains a reluctance to confess to a

29 The Priest November 2007 30 JP II’s “Dutch tackle” their time with those who would not listen. With children there very pertinent indeed and amply illustrates how ignoring the and when the children in his parish should be admitted to the In speaking to Dutch youth in Holland very early in his pontifi- is no great problem. Our real challenge is how we can get their whole truth is no kindness. ongoing sacraments of initiation. Just as truly as on that earlier non-practising parents to listen – perhaps for the first time since occasion before admitting them to the sacrament of Baptism, it cate, the late servant of God, Pope John Paul II, emphasised how Parental right to nominate easily the “hard options” of the Gospel message are put aside in they themselves were poorly catechised children. had been, before God, his duty and not his bishop’s, to attain a Since the natural parents are the appropriate ones to nominate favour of the “soft options”. While visiting the Netherlands, he conscientious degree of moral certainty that the children would Transmitting the right message their children for the sacrament of Baptism, the local pastor is had to confront an even greater problem than religious nominal- be brought up in the practice of the faith. True, the bishop had Just as suddenly, I concluded that however well it had served obliged to decline any attempt to ignore or bypass that parental ism. He tackled head-on a scepticism among Catholic youth that the power to over-rule him but it was equally true that, for the us in the past, our current pastoral practice was no longer right. However, for the ongoing sacraments of initiation this heralded a secular, paganised lifestyle of total unbelief which bishop to disregard his advice without reasonable cause would transmitting the right message. I was also acutely aware that parental right has fallen into general disuse. It has been illegiti- ended in apostasy from the faith. ... At least, he tried. constitute an abuse of episcopal power. the prime reason we and our spiritual leaders were loath to mately replaced by an unfounded presumption that reception of While the right and duty to nominate and present children No doubt, maintenance of the status quo can be comfortable. change what had become so ineffectual was the long record these sacraments is somehow automatically harnessed to some for all the sacraments of initiation belongs to parents and so but in this current instance not only is it not working, my con- of former success. predetermined stage of the children’s schooling. tention is that it is demonstrably working against the genuine ought be respected, the local pastor’s right and duty to decide In all fairness, many bishops and priests could not entertain a Therefore, although children in the parish were being prepared good of souls, serving only to entrench these unfortunates in whether and when to admit them to these sacraments ought change which I myself had consistently rejected – namely, any for the ongoing sacraments of initiation by others, namely, by the non-practice of the faith. Without intending any offence, it also normally be respected. I consider it a huge pastoral error change which might be construed as penalising the innocent. catechists and Catholic teachers, there was a need to restore needs to said, however, how easily the taint of something more to devolve this pastoral duty on the school administration, So once more I focused on what, not so very long ago, had the fundamental right and responsibility of parents to nominate akin to cowardice can displace caution! thereby short-circuiting the rights and responsibilities both of been universally acknowledged as the bare minimum indicator their children for these sacraments. So I took positive measures parents and pastor. Change demands courage to see something through; and when of Catholic practice – regular Sunday Mass – as my attention to reintroduce the exercise of this right. Like the booking of a change is called for we certainly expect courage with resolu- focussed on finding ways to involve lax families in some regular Baptism, this nomination was not to be done by phone, nor at Good pastoral practice tion from those charged with spiritual leadership. At the risk experience of the Sunday liturgy. the parish office, nor at the presbytery front door; nor was the Whenever a pastor experienced qualms of conscience about of upsetting those, who in defence of maintaining the status application to be dropped in the mail box. It could only be done As I have already underscored, I could never bring myself to proceeding with an individual baptism he could generally find quo may be inclined to press the charge of elitism, I humbly by parents in writing and in the church after Sunday Mass. take the harsher approach – in other words, to bluntly tell par- vindication for giving children the benefit of the doubt and remind our spiritual leaders, you my fellow priests and some of ents that unless they came to Mass their children would not be baptising them. This justification might come by way of an our bishops too, that, on grounds that the good of souls is the A telling example admitted to the further sacraments of initiation. This would be, assurance from the parents, or maybe it was left to a grandparent supreme law, to expect of baptised Catholics fidelity to Sunday effectively, to hold a gun at their heads. In such a case compli- The time has come to detail a real-life example from an Aus- or a godparent to guarantee that the children would receive a Mass is not being elitist. A pastoral crisis of such dimensions ance does not indicate conviction. Instead, I endeavoured to tralian rural parish which amply illustrates just how this huge Catholic upbringing. But in time, local pastors were destined to must be engaged and I believe I am in a position to demonstrate advance positive and compelling reasons for them to bring pastoral problem has managed to install itself as a self-replicat- learn that, for the great majority of today’s nominally Catholic at least one positive direction to take. their children along to Mass on Sunday through a carefully ing blight. It perfectly illustrates how much our problem is com- families, any notion of a Catholic upbringing will reduce, at A foundational insight nuanced, yet unambiguous and firm pastoral approach that was pounded whenever we apply a “business as usual” approach. As most, to sending their children to a Catholic school. How abun- distanced from any hint of an authoritarian insistence that they Providence would have it, this situation came to my attention dantly true this was in the case we are now exploring. Some five years ago, after much soul searching and having out of the blue when an old friend, a local pastor with teaching must attend – or else! The local pastor knew with moral certainty that for him to admit consistently rejected all suggestions simply to bar, as some experience turned to me for advice. For our present purposes these children from unchurched families to First Eucharist, even pastors had been doing, non-practising Catholics from the ongo- Here the keynote needs to be persuasion, not coercion: by the rural parish and diocese can remain nameless. ing sacraments of initiation as too hard line. I was granted an issuance of an invitation, not imposition. This is the way the granting the innocence of their tender years, would be to admit important discernment. Since the problem resided not with the Lord Himself worked. Seldom is faith rekindled by imposing Forty-four children were enrolled in his small Primary School. them to last Eucharist. Likewise, to admit them to the sacrament children, who, especially in this matter, are innocents, but with an ultimatum; a gentler approach is needed to elicit a genuine Only half of these children were from Catholic families. My of Confirmation would, effectively, be to confirm them in the their non-practising families, we must tackle the parents. change of heart. Delivering an ultimatum may achieve a short- friend informed me that not one of the twenty-two Catholic non-practice of the Faith. As we have seen, the obstacle here children nor any family member had attended Mass the previous resides in the attitude of their parents. For them these sacra- My 45 year involvement in catechising children attending term external conformity but it also engenders the evil fruit of Christmas. Nor did they ever attend Sunday Mass at any other ments of initiation have become mere ‘rites of passage’, shorn Catholic primary schools and in the state school CCD apostolate hardened resentment. Our aim should be to induce a spiritually time either! Despite this, his bishop had been led to expect that of any transcendental meaning or purpose – and, quite literally, had taught me one thing: that most children are keen to learn motivated and, hopefully, enduring change of heart. five of these children would be admitted to First Eucharist and nothing more. For any local pastor to admit children in these about the Catholic faith. I was impressed that the innocent and Confirmation next time he visited the parish. circumstances indiscriminately to these sacraments would be otherwise deprived souls of such youngsters could be termed A head start with Baptism to endorse a charade. “naturally Christian.” However children have consistently told My regular practice over many years has been never to arrange The bishop reinforced his expectation to the local pastor in baptisms at second hand or over the phone, nor at the parish words like these: “After all, we have always done this.” What me that, though they wanted to go to Sunday Mass, “Mum and Some theological implications Dad are too busy (here read ‘lazy’ for ‘busy’) to take me.” In office or the presbytery front door. I request parents to come this actually meant was that the local Catholic school had In such cases, the families’ non-practice of the Faith effectively other words, so secularised were their families that they saw no and see me in person immediately after one of the Sunday scheduled five children for the ongoing sacraments of initia- blocks the ex opere operantis channels of grace, resulting in a earthly reason for making the effort. What obviously penalised Masses. Time and again, I have been asked more than the times tion at that time. In this diocese, as in most others, diocesan shadow or spectre – barring a miracle of grace – of what the these innocents was the faith deficit in their home upbringing. of Sunday Mass: I’ve been asked where the church was! And sacramental policy has become synonymous with Catholic sacraments are intended to be or to achieve. Operative here is It is this deficit which cries out to heaven and it is this that we time and time again, careless parents have turned up in person Education Office policy. But this policy bypasses not only the the respected dictum quidquid recipitur, per modum recipientis need to tackle ... and you may well ask how? on Sunday to obtain the baptismal information form and make right of parents to nominate – it is simply overwritten as part a booking. It wasn’t much but it was a start. For some very few of the Catholic school package – it also bypasses the pastor’s recipitur (“whatever is received is received according to the The call to re-evangelisation this was sufficient to put them back in touch with the Church vital role of discernment of the preparedness of prospective capability of the one receiving”). For as long as it remains clear that these children, innocent though they are, belong to families Time and again throughout his papacy, Pope John Paul II, and Sunday Mass. candidates. With his pastoral role thus reduced to a rubber stamp, any local pastor could well ask why he was even there. who don’t or won’t practise the Faith, it would be a fiction to stressed the need to re-evangelise, to start afresh. But we should Not so long ago, while engaged in rectifying the invalid union We priests are not functionaries and we are justified in resisting admit them to the ongoing sacraments of initiation. ask ourselves whether we have yet put a proper handle on what of one such couple who had thus resumed regular attendance any pressure to be reduced to that. a new evangelisation is, let alone honestly explored pastoral at Sunday Mass after the baptism of their twins, they informed It can be strongly argued that were the pastor prevailed upon tactics appropriate to a secularised society. I am convinced to proceed on the bishop’s directive he would be abdicating me that on the occasion of arranging the baptism they had been A matter of conscience that we must direct our approach primarily to those who are touched by the positive atmosphere of welcome. They had now one of his prime pastoral duties: to ensure the good of souls. prepared to listen. This was a tough lesson that St Paul came to found the courage to ask me to bless their marriage. And how The local pastor was in a bind; and it was a genuine bind of He would be endorsing ritualistic admission to full initiation learn the hard way from his failed experience of preaching in did I know they were invalidly married? Well, one request on conscience. He had no wish to disobey his bishop but he was into the Church, subjectively shorn of any connection with the the Areopagus of Athens. Recall also the Lord’s sending out of my baptismal information form is for church of marriage. The also convinced that, as the local pastor, it was he, not his bishop, lived faith of the Church. But the Catholic faith is not just a the Twelve for pastoral experience. He told them not to waste inclusion of this inquiry is far from impertinent. It has proved who before God had the prime duty of determining whether label, to be punctuated by an ongoing series of “rite of passage”

31 The Priest November 2007 32 ceremonies: the faith is a God-given gift that, unless lived, is at the same time praying that his bishop will progress along Not so very long ago a prominent Catholic educationalist, in graduating deserters from the faith. radically devalued. what could be considered an important and very necessary Professor Denis McLaughlin of the Brisbane campus of the This alone should be a strong indicator for a change of tactics. learning path. Australian Catholic University, went so far as to declare that Here there is urgent need to stand steadfast by the faith of It may well be that the fear we are unjustly penalising innocent the Catholic school has become the “new parish”. What a pity the Church that the sacrament of the Eucharist is a personal Clearly, this local pastor appreciates far better than his bishop children has been responsible for making us loath to change. he didn’t alert us to the fact that this “new parish” only oper- communication here below of Christ’s risen life as “the bread that these innocent children from lax, unchurched families are In the face of such criticism it is essential that we hold firmly ates between 9am and 3pm on five weekdays – school holidays of everlasting life”. Likewise, the sacrament of Confirmation destined – save a miracle of grace – to grow into adults whose to the truth that to defer is not to deny. This is no quibble over excepted – and for a maximum period of 12-13 years – and is directed to strengthening the baptised as members of the indifference to the practice of the faith will range all the way words. To defer the ongoing sacraments of initiation can indeed never on Sunday! communion of those faithful to Christ with the fulness of the from ignorance to defiance, from non-practice to deliberate be an exercise in justice, especially since the invitation can gifts of the Spirit so as to build up the Church, his living Body. apostasy. One has only to observe the lifestyle of what are Need for apologetics always be renewed. Neither the sacrament of the Eucharist nor the sacrament of now successive generations of nominal Catholic families to The rich young man in Mark’s Gospel, who turned away sad, Confirmation should be debased to merely symbolic, let alone uncover compelling evidence in support of the validity of this By way of conclusion may I suggest that various firm pastoral preferring earthly riches above following the Lord, was not vacuous rituals. conclusion. initiatives need to be agreed upon before there will be any alleviation of this largely unaddressed crisis. Undeniably, good rejected. We would all like to think that he came good later The core of the problem A defective tactic positive catechesis is necessary and certainly, it is an excellent on. Nor can my plea for a change of policy be construed as start. But it is only a beginning. Of itself catechesis alone cannot a matter of justice delayed being justice denied for no one To accuse the local pastor, in obeying his conscience, of arbi- It ought thus be clear that the pastoral policy of automatically bring about the change that is needed. has an absolute right to the sacraments, simply because of its trarily refusing the sacraments would be most unjust. Rather, processing children from nominally Catholic families, innocents very nature God’s grace is and remains something gratuitous, he is conscientiously trying to do his pastoral duty, deferring though they may be, through the ongoing sacraments of initia- Good catechesis will only take root when backed up by consist- gratis data. admission to the further sacraments of initiation until he has tion has much in common with the deeply flawed and fruitless ent, good example from parents and teachers. This necessitates some moral certainty that the children are being brought up in educational policy I earlier outlined of processing innocent filial fidelity to the Church’s teaching Magisterium. Surely, we All the sacraments presuppose appropriate dispositions for the practice of the faith. What is more, he is totally justified in illiterates through the state high school system. They will be have learned by now that softening the options simply does not their proper reception. An isolated appeal to the innocence of expecting, as a bare minimum yardstick of goodwill, faithful convinced only of one thing: that living the faith has absolutely work. We have only to look at the result of our reducing the the candidates is so simplistic that it may serve to blind us from and regular Sunday Mass attendance. To waive this expecta- nothing to do with being a Catholic; just as attendance at high obligation of Holy Days. doing what will be genuinely for the good of their souls. Not tion would be to endorse and encourage the very “soft-option” school, if you remained illiterate, had nothing to do with being only Catholic children are innocents. After all, in the case we To complete the circle, an up to date and pertinent apologetic Christianity. properly equipped to play one’s part as a citizen. It is this that have been examining the twenty-two non-Catholic children that clearly demonstrates “the why” of the Catholic faith as underlies why so much faith-defective catechesis has proven so at the Catholic school are also innocents. Can we be accused So long as we priests are prepared to accept and bless token much as appropriate catechesis demonstrates “the what” of unproductive, especially whenever a lived faith is not handed of unjustly excluding them from the ongoing sacraments of membership in the Catholic Church, utterly sundered from the faith is needed. Catholic secondary and tertiary students on by parents nor witnessed to by Catholic teachers. initiation! personal obligation or participation, espousal of nominal club urgently stand in need of discovering why they should live the membership will continue to debilitate the Church. This fester- If practice makes perfect in every other area of human activity, Catholic faith from a challenging course in apologetics. Conclusion ing canker lies at the very core of our pastoral problem. It is there can be no rational excuse why the practice of the faith Fidelity not only presupposes, it demands consistently good It is essential for for us priests, as pastors of souls, to bring home this that is crying out for remedial action and enactment of a should continue to be set aside as a non-issue before admission pastoral practice throughout the local church with clergy, to all lax Catholics, children and adults. a positive apprecia- genuine new evangelisation. to the ongoing sacraments of initiation. The end result of the parents and teachers co-operating out of love equally for their tion that evidence of a lived and living faith is a fundamental present pastoral policy is plainly counter-productive and will children and for the faith. All this ultimately hinges on positive condition, or disposition, for admission to the sacraments, More guidelines continue to perpetuate a nominal Catholic population, made and effective action, founded on telling, not hiding, the truth in and especially, for admission to the Eucharist. If this lesson up of those who care little to nothing about living the faith. While it is paramount that in all this the local pastor must act love, with the bishop and his priests united in the lead. is the only one learned, we would cease being besieged by with prudence and compassion, on the other hand, he must also This substitute “religion of soft options” is, at most, a flaccid unchurched, non-practising Catholics, mindlessly approach- properly apply the positive implications of the respected dictum pretence for genuine Catholicism, operating as a membership We must never forget how the Lord himself evangelised. He ing the Eucharist at First Communion Masses, at funerals and sacramenta propter homines (“the sacraments are intended for ticket in a nominally “Catholic Club” that for some may only did so by issuing a direct personal invitation and never by co- at Christmas, often the worse for wear, unshriven and clearly men”), and not succumb to turning the dictum on its head by be acknowledged on the national census form every five years option. He was as often disappointed as he was rewarded, and ignorant of what the Eucharist is all about. endorsing its very opposite. The mindless condoning of various and for others, as The Spirit of Generation Y report has exposed, this not only by the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Lawyers, St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians clearly shows that, quite abuses by some “inclusivist clerics” is evidence of this misap- will very soon cease to be acknowledged at all. who should have known better. Nor did he ever gratuitously early on, the celebration of the Supper of the Lord was being plication These have, for instance, invited all present to receive take on board any of those who chose not to respond to his reduced to communitarian party-time. It was never intended Holy Communion on the occasion of a First Eucharist or at a Indicative statistics invitation. We have only to recall the case of the rich young to descend to an inclusivist feast, and St Paul, that outstanding funeral. In yet another context, it has happened that all present The latest 2006 Australian National Census seems destined to man in the Gospel that Pope John Paul II made an object lesson apostle to the nations, that former Pharisee of the Pharisees, are indiscriminately invited to be anointed with the Holy Oils confirm the indicative conclusions of the report on The Spirit in beginning his magnificently instructive moral encyclical, was not at all interested in dispensing with appropriate disposi- at a healing Mass. of Generation Y namely, that growing numbers of our Catholic Veritatis Splendor. The end result was a sad but mutual part- tions. I rest my case. schooled youngsters are choosing not simply to continue in ing of the ways. Another hallowed dictum asserts that “grace builds on nature”. non-practice but also to renounce personal affiliation with the It serves as a reminder that certain natural indicators need to be This master class in pastoral tactics from the Gospels merits Catholic Church despite reception of the ongoing sacraments We are most grateful for the commen- minimally evident before admission to any of the sacraments. our frequent and deep meditation. Nor should we ever forget tary and critiques on Father Walter’s of initiation within the context of a supposedly Catholic edu- In regard to the sacraments of initiation, this discernment the Lord’s sharp and clear advice to the Twelve when he sent paper offered by Father Michael Mason, cation. properly belongs to the local pastor, who is charged to make them out to gain pastoral experience: “... And if any place does research leader of the Y-generation a dispassionate moral judgment of conscience in favour of the Bishops, dedicated local pastors and alert, faithful, Catholic not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you report, and Mr Michael Gilchrist, Editor walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to of AD2000. Unfortunately, space does ultimate good of each soul in his care. Education Office personnel would be well advised to face up not allow their inclusion in this issue. to this pastoral crisis immediately and give it priority long them.” (Mark 6:7-13) In the case we have been considering, if the bishop were to go (Ed.) before that current preoccupation (at least in some dioceses) ahead on his next visit to the parish and put aside the conscien- with a re-ordering of the ongoing sacraments of initiation. In The real sticking point tious advice of the local pastor and proceed to administer First Pictured left, Rev Dr Michael Mason, CSsR, of comparison to our present pastoral crisis the need for such a It is vital properly to identify the sticking point in this pastoral Eucharist and Confirmation to the five candidates prepared by ACU Melbourne, and above, Mr Michael Gil- re-ordering enterprise is hardly pressing. conundrum. It is not the children; it is their elders. The common the school, I believe that the local pastor would be entitled to christ with a copy of his book “Lost!” (Freedom pastoral practice of automatically admitting children of non- Publishing, Melbourne, 2006), that he presented dissociate himself quietly from this course of action. He would In many instances – and this is what we are presently experienc- practising families to the ongoing sacraments of initiation has to our Principal Speaker, Abp Charles Chaput of be entitled to request to be honourably excused from co-opera- ing – some educational devotees regard the school, and even only succeeded in producing generations of non-practising Denver, USA. We also benefited from a Serra Club tion, lest he be judged to condone something that, at least for the pub, as far more relevant to their world-view of Catholic presentation (see, p. 17), but again space restricts adults. That is why our Catholic schools have become so adept him, would constitute a grave dereliction of his priestly duty, practice than the parish. presentation. Apologies, and Thank you! (Ed.)

33 The Priest November 2007 34 But let’s be clear: the Holy Father has not “restored” anything nothing; he simply permits. He does not ban the newer liturgy really, at least not by way of imposing or ordering a return to or even recommend that there be at least one weekly celebra- The Catholic Priesthood older liturgical forms. He has simply permitted their free use. tion of Mass according to the older use in each parish or He has taken down the legal barriers that – as he says in his diocese. ... [He] humbly trusts that the pastoral judgement Father Patrick C. Fox, CM Rev. Patrick Charles Fox was Motu Proprio – should never have been erected in the first of priests of this and of coming generations will afford the born 9 September 1915, and place: His Holiness states clearly that the older liturgy was, in older liturgical forms their appropriate place in the life of the died 24 July 2007, soon after fact, “never abrogated”. ... Herein we glimpse the genius and Church. (Dr Alcuin Reid, in an article titled “An Act of Genius and No, the Editor is not a devotee of the “old rite”, just simply a priest the Holy Father’s issuance of the profound humility of Benedict XVI. ... He imposes Humility” published in “The Catholic Herald” [UK], July 2007) who appreciates the initiative of Pope Benedict XVI in his Sum- Summorum Pontificum. He morum Pontificum, and who sees it as a landmark document that remained to his death active in English Mass, and have no intention of doing so. In this I am will mark the inheritance of his pontificate. The issuance of that priestly ministry as a member Continuing Father Fox from page 36, opposite encouraged by two documents of our present Holy Father, apostolic letter occurred near the death of an Australian Vincentian of the Congregation of the priest who had never celebrated using the Novus Ordo and who was Mission (Vincentians). shameful priestly record for Sydney: 1989 in fact is the first Pope John Paul II: the Indult “Quattuor Abhinc Annis” of 3 friend to the Society of St Pius X in Australia, Father Patrick Fox, Photo credit: Father Scott, SSPX. October 1984 and the Apostolic Letter “Ecclesia Dei” of 2 July year in more than a century in which Sydney, a city of more CM. In the providence of God, it seemed as though he died with a Gilroy who was again seated. But this time, he was holding, not than three and a half million people, has not ordained even 1988. Both of these documents encourage the increased use vindication of his long-held and practised view that the Tridentine one Catholic priest! And throughout the whole State of New of the traditional Latin Mass, already commanded to be used rite remained (remains) a licit rite of the Church. What appears the Holy Oil container but a chalice, with wine, paten and host. South Wales, only three diocesan priests have been ordained by the “Quo Primum” Decree of Pope St Pius V in 1570, as below are excerpts from a sermon that – with the permission of the These I had to touch in a particular way; and while I was doing in 1989, in stark contrast to the 20 or 30 priests ordained two we have earlier seen. And remember that this was not a new then Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney – he preached 30 November so the Archbishop uttered these wonderful and awe-inspiring decades ago. I wonder indeed if, by any chance, the numerous Missal, because Pope St Pius V was then merely codifying the 1989 at his 50th ordination anniversary Mass in the crypt of St words: Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo, Missasque changes in the Ordination ceremony already alluded to, have already existing Missal and giving increased legal status to it. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, where he was ordained by Cardinal celebrare, tam pro vivis, quam pro defunctis. In nomine Domini. anything to do with the shameful 1989 priestly record just So, having been ordained after taking the Tridentine Oath, I Gilroy on 30 November 1939. These excerpts concentrate on his Amen. – Receive the power to offer sacrifice to God, and to reflections on the rite by which he received the presbyterial order mentioned. At any rate, Dr Gerry Iverson, the President of St. logically seek to celebrate the Mass that is closest to that Tri- celebrate Masses for the living as well as for the dead. In the of the priesthood at the hands of the then Cardinal Archbishop of Patrick’s College, Manly, the chief seminary in New South dentine Oath from which I have never been released. name of the Lord. Amen.” Sydney. (Ed.) Wales, said that the Ordination class of 1989 evaporated for … I would like to conclude, my Dear Brethren, by saying that, … [And] even now I fondly and gratefully recall … towards the a variety of reasons: “Some took time out, some dropped out, in view of the reasons earlier mentioned, this Latin Mass today … I also repeat what the priest says just after receiving the end of that ceremony the then Archbishop Gilroy, while seated, some postponed their decision.” Alas, perhaps Our Lord was is not at all against the wishes or commands of the Pope, and Sacred Host at this Mass: “Quid retribuam Domino pro omni- again imposed his hands upon my head and at the same time warning us … (cf., Mt 13:20-21, 24:12-13). this situation in itself encourages us to keep using this Tri- bus quae retribuit mihi? — What shall I render to the Lord for uttered these memorable and consoling words: Accipe Spiritum … [It is a] fact that the Apostolic Constitution Missale Roma- dentine Mas …. that has been so widely used by great Popes, all the things that He hath rendered to me?” (Ps 115:12), I think Sanctum. Quorum remiseris peccata, remissa sunt; et quorum num of Pope Paul VI, issued on 3 April 1969 to promulgate great Doctors of the Church, great theologians and by so many also of what St Paul said to the Corinthians: “What hast thou retinueris, retenta sunt — Receive the Holy Ghost. Whose sins the New Order of Mass, in its original Latin text never made Saints, martyrs and missionaries, for century after century. that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you this new Mass obligatory at all, either for priests or people. It These are the thoughts I leave with you. I ask you to pray for thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1Cor 4:7). shall retain, they are retained.” (Jn 20:23) me, to thank God for any good accomplished in the last fifty remains true therefore that even today, at the end of the 1980s, … And his voice, now also stilled, proclaimed aloud the … At this point, my Dear Brethren, we change from the years, and to ask His blessings for the future. … at the beginning of a new decade, there is no strictly obliging all-important words of the Ordination Preface in the Roman Ordination ceremony itself of fifty years ago to something command from Rome for anyone at all to celebrate or attend Pontifical:Da, quaesumus, Omnipotens Pater, in hos famulos that in those days had to be done beforehand: I had to kneel the new Mass, whether it be said in Latin or in English, or in tuos Presbyterii dignitatem – “We beseech Thee, Almighty before a priest who was representing the Archbishop, and put any other language. I myself have never celebrated this new Father, give unto these Thy servants the dignity of the Priest- my hand on the open page of the Gospel, in order to take the hood. Renew within their hearts the spirit of holiness, that Tridentine Oath; and the following was a part of that important The 2006 photograph, below, of 7 newly ordained deacons with the Rector of Good Shepherd Seminary, they may hold the function of second rank which they have Oath to which I then swore: “I resolutely accept and embrace Sydney, shows that – while there is still a good way to go to reach the numbers of Father Fox’s vintage – the recovery received from Thee.” To emphasise the importance of these the Traditions of the Apostles and all other Traditions of the of vocations to the priesthood is truly underway. words, the ordaining Archbishop, while reciting them, held Church, and all its observances and regulations…. Moreover, I In the unedited version of the above homily as received by the Editor, there was a quote from an altar boy who served his anniver- his hands extended; and from this combination of word and maintain and profess, without doubting, all the other teachings sary Mass, “That Jubilee Mass made me feel good, deep down inside. Never has any English Mass made me feel like this. Mum, gesture, we knew exactly what we were being ordained to, of the General Councils, especially the most Holy Council of I want to be a Saint!” This seemed to echo the words to the Editor of a 17 year-old young man, the back of whose head appears namely, to the second rank of the hierarchy, not to the first Trent and the (first) General Council of the Vatican (1869- among those in the photograph at page 2 of this issue following a Novus Ordo Latin Mass: “That Mass was something very, very rank of Bishops, nor to the third rank of Deacons, but to the 1870) ... I condemn, reject, and anathematise all opinions to special. It would be the most peaceful Mass I’ve ever been to. It’s just wonderful getting that close to heaven. It is a wonderful cor- second rank of Priesthood. the contrary and all heresies.... So I promise, vow and swear ... nerstone of our inheritance.” This seems to be the testimony of those who encounter holy Mass as celebrated according to the mind to hold and profess this Faith entire and unblemished ... until of the Church. (Ed.) Photo credit: Catholic Weekly …I extended towards [the bishop] the palms of my hands, my last breath, and so to teach any of those who may be com- which he anointed with the consecrated Oil of Catechumens, mitted to my charge. So help me God, and these Holy Gospels while reciting this inspiring and beautiful prayer: Consecrare which I now touch.” et sanctificare digneris, Domine, manus istas per istam unc- tionem et nostram benedictionem. Amen. Ut quaecumque … These considerations on the unchangableness of the Priest- benedixerint, benedicantur, et quaecumque consecraverint, hood, my Dear Brethren, intensify still more my desire to thank consecrentur et sanctificentur, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu God for admitting me into it so long ago, and for allowing me to Christi. Amen. – Deign to consecrate and sanctify these hands, persevere therein amid the ups and downs of fifty years. There O Lord, by this anointing and our blessing. Amen. That what- is no place at all here for even the slightest personal vanity or soever they shalt bless may be blessed, and whatsoever they vainglory; and on the contrary, I humbly ask God’s pardon for shall consecrate may be consecrated and sanctified, in the any mistakes which I have made in my priestly ministry. And I name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” beg your prayers that Almighty God may bless that ministry in the future, and indeed, that the Priesthood in Sydney and New … My Dear Brethren, I remember another detail about that South Wales, may indeed flourish amongst us as it used to. anointing of my hands which occurred this day fifty years ago: even while those hands were still wet with the Holy Oil, For remember, as the Sydney Morning Herald reminds us (11 they were bound with a white cloth, like a bandage wrapped December 1989) that this very year, 1989, is the year of a most around and enclosing both hands, but leaving the fingers free. With my hands thus bound, I knelt before the then Archbishop This artice by by Father Fox continues at page 35, opposite

35 The Priest November 2007 36 Chaput, Men He Intended: Continued from page 7, above. Chaput, Signs of our Times: Continued from page 5, above.

Catholics is to try to accommodate an increasingly hostile Priestly fraternity 5. Practical atheism world today. And make no mistake: The world she describes isn’t culture. Some of your MPs have bit that “apple” in a big way. implausible. There are fewer children under the age of 5 in the Brothers, we need to help each other be faithful in the little The fifth sign of our times is that the society we live in breeds I’ve seen the same appetite in the United States. world today than there were in 1990. If present trends continue, things of our priestly lives. Especially in our prayer and devo- a practical, workaday atheism. People go about their days as if many people in the developed world will soon have no personal I noted where one MP was angry with the Cardinal for allegedly tion, in our celebration of the sacraments and our preaching of God doesn’t exist. Because they live in a society that denies any experience of having a brother, sister, aunt or cousin. Unlike any not taking a “pastoral approach to this issue.” I read another the Word. The great Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek, who spent presence or need for God, people learn to live without him. The previous period in history, the depopulation of developed countries who made some rather incoherent remarks about the Dark Ages 23 years in Soviet prison camps, reminded us that there are no deeper questions of human existence – where do I come from, what isn’t being caused by outside forces like wars, famines or plagues. before saying, “These are matters for individual conscience. insignificant acts in the mystery of divine providence: am I here for, what should be the purpose and direction of my life We’re doing it to ourselves – destroying our young before they’re Churches are there to guide us; they are not meant to be there – these questions no longer seem relevant. We are not saved by doing our own will, but the will of the born; mutilating ourselves so we’re permanently incapable of to tell us.” That’s the language of alibis and excuses. These Father, … We do that, not by interpreting it or reducing it to Theo, the P. D. James’ hero, expresses the sum total of his meta- creating new life. Modern birth control and abortion have wiped do not seem to be people whose Catholic faith is the driving mean what we would like it to mean, but by accepting it in physical beliefs in these few words: “That once I was not, and that out more generations than all world wars put together. force in their lives; or at least, that’s what their actions say. But its fulness, as made manifest to us by the situations and cir- now I am. That one day I shall no longer be.” I’m afraid that’s the they’re still your spiritual family. You still need to exhort them cumstances and persons his providence sends us. Each day, unspoken creed of many of the people we serve, even many who The temptation of making the best we can as fathers. There’s nothing “pastoral” about keeping quiet in and every minute of every day, is given to us by God with that sit in our pews every Sunday. But the human heart is made for in mind. We, for our part, can accept and offer back to God This is the world that you and I have been sent into as priests. the face of evil. It’s not charity to let anyone persist in serious worship, to serve something or Somebody beyond itself. There’s every prayer, work and suffering of the day – no matter how The question then becomes: What are we to do? How are we to sin, or to help people make excuses. insignificant or unspectacular they may seem to us. a hole now in the modern heart. It’s a void left by the absence conduct our ministries as apostles and fathers? I’ll be focusing of God. People fill that hole with all the sights and sounds and There is no more important human office Ciszek knew more about the loneliness and suffering of the on that more in another of my other talks. Here I want to say only trinkets of our consumer culture. James’ character calls these that the natural temptation is to try to make the best we can of a God has entrusted his own children to you. He has given you priest’s ministry than we will ever imagine. We toil in the things “my consolations.” But there’s something vampiric about bad situation. There’s a certain misguided “realism” that tells us a share in the authority that his Son alone possessed. I mean vineyard sowing seeds of faith that will only bear fruit genera- the way consumerism works to “console” us for the loss of God. we should try to make whatever accommodations we can with the it quite literally and with all my heart when I remind you tions after we’ve gone. But there are no bit players in salvation It keeps us absorbed in the unimportant while it drains out the life culture. That we should compromise in order to gain some small that there is no more important human office than that of the history. We will only know the good we’ve done when we stand of the soul. measure of influence over a culture that’s increasingly hostile to the Catholic priest. before our Father at the end of our days. The rise of consumerist culture was one of the great worries of John Gospel. But that approach has been tried. It doesn’t work. One of my favorite Catholic writers is Georges Bernanos. If Doing what we are supposed to do Paul II in the later years of his pontificate. In his 1999 World Day In her novel, James paints a ruthless critique of her fellow you haven’t read his novel, The Diary of a Country Priest, do One last question before I leave you: How many of you know of Peace message. John Paul writes: “The history of our time has Christians. “During the mid-1990s,” she writes, “the recognized it now! Bernanos’ country priest describes the dignity of the who Mother Teresa was? It’s a trick question. Every one knows shown in a tragic way the danger which results from forgetting the churches … moved from a theology of sin and redemption to a priesthood in this way: “[God] delivered himself into our hands her. But how many of you know the name of her parish priest truth about the human person. Before our eyes, we have seen the less uncompromising doctrine: corporate responsibility coupled – body and soul – God’s body, God’s soul, God’s honour, into when she was a child? results of ideologies such as Marxism, Nazism, and Fascism…. with a sentimental humanism.” She describes one popular preacher our priestly hands.” The living God has delivered himself into No less pernicious, though not always obvious, are the effects of who stopped preaching about the Cross altogether and turned the What’s my point? Mother Teresa didn’t become Mother Teresa your priestly hands. To your hands he has entrusted his honor materialistic consumerism….” Those are strong words. John Paul Beatles’ song “All You Need Is Love” into a church hymn. Her by herself. She had a spiritual father. Someone who preached and his plans for the human family. You alone can make Christ’s argued that the habit of consumerist greed is “no less pernicious” caricature is useful. For more than a generation now, Christians the Word of God to her. Someone who fed her at the table of body and blood present in the Eucharist. You alone can forgive in its effects than Nazism, Marxism, and Fascism. The effects are have accepted the box that humanist ideology reserves for religion. the Lord. Someone who heard her confession and gave her sins with his voice in the confessional. as deadly and as destructive as the murderous systems of the 20th With the best intentions, and often in the name of “dialogue”, we’ve direction. Did he know he was helping to form the soul of one century – ideologies that gave us the Holocaust, the gulag and the The Curé d’Ars, St. John Vianney, used to say that if he met a contented ourselves with sentimental goals – helping the poor, of our age’s great witnesses to Christ? He couldn’t have. But killing fields of Cambodia. John Paul finishes this quotation with a priest and an angel, he would salute the priest before the angel. comforting the hurting, offering people a space to pray. We’ve it wouldn’t have made any difference. His mission would’ve comment on what materialist greed entails. With this ideology, he Why? Because, the angel is the friend of God, but the priest watered down our preaching, and replaced the Cross and the call been the same. He was doing what he was supposed to do. says, there is an “exaltation of the individual and the selfish satisfac- stands in his place. to holiness with a “less judgmental” approach. What God called him to do. tion of personal aspirations become the ultimate goal of life.” Rise up priests! We Christians – we priests – share the blame In one of her visions, Christ told St. Catherine of Siena some- That’s your mission, too, brothers. To help God make saints. This habit of consumerism forms the mind of the people we’re for the world we see around us. I’d like to quote Lacordaire again, thing similar: “[Priests] are my anointed ones and I call them my Maybe not one of the handful of men and women canonised called to serve. It’s so damaging because it makes people prisoners words that were spoken in 1857, but should form a part of the priestly Christs, because I have given them the office of administering by the Church. But ordinary, everyday saints. of their selfishness. It invites them to create their own chains, to examination of conscience 150 years later: me to you…. The angel himself has no such dignity, for I have be willing addicts to their appetites and passions. It keeps them The world needs you! Christian living is a rarity today, even among those who are Christians. The just given it to those men whom I have appointed as earthly away from the only questions that matter: why we’re here, and enfeeblement of character, the instability of conviction, the standardisa- angels in this life.” By the way, Mother Teresa’s priest growing up was a Jesuit where we’re heading. named Franjo Jambrenkovic. Though the world won’t remem- tion of personality, all seem to show that the power of the gospel is not impressing its mark on souls with sufficient force…. Easy morals have made He calls us by name! ber his name, she never forgot him. The world needs more 6. Sex as a substitute for transcendence their way everywhere; they have degraded many things and many men, Some of you may not be comfortable listening to my thoughts Mother Teresas. And for that, the world needs more Father I’ll mention a sixth and final sign of the times before I finish. even among the clergy. The clergy are perhaps even more lacking in inner right now. I can understand why. A lot of us here came of age Jambrenkovics. In other words, it needs you. It’s this. In a culture driven by selfishness, sex becomes a cheap resources than in theological knowledge or social conviction. at a time of change and confusion in the Church. Some of us I began this talk by noting that our world looks a lot like the substitute for transcendence. Malcolm Muggeridge once said of A world without children is a world without fathers. And the world is may still have the scars. I don’t plan to revisit any of those world did before the Incarnation. And the world is still waiting our age, “Sex is the mysticism of materialism.” He was right. without children because the world has been left without a credible debates. Nor do I diminish for a moment the gravity of the for the children of God to fulfill the promise of the Incarnation. Modern society chatters obsessively about sex. And if you listen witness to God our Father. It’s significant that in P. D. James’ fable, sins committed by some priests over the past few decades, and Today, we who profess to be Christians are called to do what carefully, you notice that the language used to describe sex is the miraculous baby is conceived by the only two characters who the suffering those sins caused. But our sins and failures as Rodney Stark said the first Christians did. We need to make almost religious. Sex is portrayed as a kind of life force, the denial try to retain some semblance of the true Christian faith. Even in the priests speak only to our own unworthiness. They take nothing the teachings of Christ take flesh in our lives. We need to live of which becomes a kind of mortal sin. The problem is that sex apocalyptic wasteland, every day they say the priestly prayers of away from the greatness of the vocation to which God called what we say we believe. We need to live as children of God, as a form of personal recreation is completely disordered. We’ve the ancient Eucharistic service, asking their merciful Father to give you. He called you by name. He knows your heart. And he holding fast to the Word of life in a troubled and confused made it something utterly routine – a consumer commodity like them the bread of life. And the book ends with a priestly act – the loves you. generation. everything else. baptism of their child. A child of man becomes a child of God. And The Church belongs to Christ. Our priesthood is his priesthood. Only a new generation of God’s children can make the waters of P. D. James describes how science and technology engineered like every new child of God, he is a sign of hope and the promise of No one else is given the mission we have. As Pope Benedict life flow once more in this barren world. But God has not left away an essential dimension of sexuality – the power to create God’s covenant. XVI has said, priests are Christ’s “living instruments.” We this world desolate. He has left us his priests. And that means new life, to make babies. “Sex totally divorced from procreation,” Psalm 90 tells us that the same God who brings man to dust, calls the were ordained to be “the voice and the hands of Christ in the you. That’s why you were born. That’s why you’re here! is how she describes it. Through birth control and abortion, we’ve children of men to turn back to new life. He still issues that call today world.” rendered sexuality both unnatural and infertile. The sexual sterility through you, his priests, his fathers. The children of men are in the James novel is a metaphor for the spiritual barrenness of our waiting for their true fathers. They’re waiting for you!

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In this issue: The Principal Speaker for the 2007 ACCC Annual Conference was the Most Rev Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., Metropoli- tan Archbishop of Denver, USA, pictured here returning to the sacristy at St Anthony’s, Alphin- gton, Melbourne, following one of the Conference liturgies. His talks are found at pages 4, 6, and 8 of this issue, and some of the dialogue at his Public Lec- ture at page 11. As the pictoral record shows our Conferences are not just “talk”, but also fel- lowship and also worship.