Honoring the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Affirming Tradition, Leaving Controversial Questions Open by Francis X

The CatholicWitness The Newspaper of the Diocese of Harrisburg OctOber 24, 2014 VOl. 48 NO. 20 Synod Ends by Honoring the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Affirming Tradition, Leaving Controversial Questions Open By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service After several days of animated de- bate over its official midterm report, the Synod of Bishops on the family agreed on a final document more clearly grounded in traditional Catho- lic teaching. Yet the assembly failed to reach consensus on especially controversial questions of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried and the pastoral care of homosexuals. The synod’s last working session, Oct. 18, also featured a speech by Pope Francis, in which he celebrated the members’ frank exchanges while warn- ing against extremism in the defense of tradition or the pursuit of progress. Discussions in the synod hall had grown heated after the Oct. 13 delivery of a midterm report that used strikingly conciliatory language toward people with ways of life contrary to Church teaching, including divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and those in same-sex unions. The summaries of working-group discussions, published Oct. 16, showed a majority of synod fathers wanted the final document to be clearer about rel- EMILY M. ALBERT evant Church doctrine and give more Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Elysburg revealed two beautiful paintings in a votive area in the church nar- attention to families whose lives exem- thex, created by commissioned artist, Father Peter Gray, S.S. The priest, shown with an image of the Blessed Mother plify that teaching. that he painted for the parish, also has artwork on display at the Nunicature and at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. See additional coverage on page 11. The final report, which the pope or- dered published almost at once after the synod’s conclusion, featured many more citations of Scripture, as well as Father Fontanella ‘Poured Out His Life as a Priest’ new references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the teachings of By Jen Reed Charles Seminary, Overbrook, Pa. He was Pope Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope The Catholic Witness ordained a priest of the Diocese of Harris- Benedict XVI. burg by Bishop George L. Leech on May Synod fathers voted on each of the In front of a congregation at St. Patrick 10, 1956, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Har- document’s 62 paragraphs. All received Church in Carlisle – where Father Andrew risburg. a simple majority, but three failed to J. Fontanella served for 27 of his 58 years as He served as assistant pastor of St. Fran- gain the two-thirds supermajority ordi- a diocesan priest – Father William C. For- cis of Assisi Parish in Harrisburg (1956- rey, current pastor, said the late priest was narily required for approval of synodal 1959), St. Peter Parish in Mount Carmel documents. known as a poet, philosopher, theologian, (1959), Assumption of the Blessed Virgin writer, musician, golfer and boater. Two of those paragraphs dealt with a Mary Parish in Lebanon (1959-1960), Cor- controversial proposal by German Car- But the role of which Father Fontanella pus Christi Parish in Chambersburg (1960- was most proud was pastor, Father Forrey dinal Walter Kasper that would make it 1964), St. Joan of Arc Parish in Hershey easier for divorced and civilly remar- said. (1964-1968), and Holy Spirit Parish in Pal- “If anyone had asked him of all the things ried Catholics to receive Communion. myra (1968-1972), before being appointed The document noted disagreements on he had done and all the things he was, what as pastor there, a role he served for year be- was the most important thing in his life, his the subject and recommended further fore an assignment to Holy Family Parish study. answer would have been that he, Andrew J. in Harrisburg from 1973-1976. Father Andrew J. Fontanella The document’s section on homo- Fontanella, poured out his life as a priest,” In 1976, Father Fontanella began his 27- sexuality, which also fell short of su- Father Forrey said in his homily during the funeral Mass year pastorate at St. Patrick Parish in Carlisle, where he permajority approval, was significantly Oct. 18 at St. Patrick’s. served until his retirement in June of 2003. He eventually changed from its counterpart in the Father Fontanella, a retired priest of the diocese, died Oct. moved to Crisfield, Md., where he assisted at several East- midterm report. ern Shore parishes. 11 at Alice Byrd Tawes Nursing Home in Crisfied, Md. He The original section heading – “wel- Father Forrey recalled the story at Father Fontanella was 86. coming homosexuals” – was changed would tell about his arrival to St. Patrick’s. “He would say, Born March 30, 1928, in Patterson, N.J., he was a son of to “pastoral attention to persons with ‘There was $39 in the bank account, and I had a $5,000 Andrew and Lucy Vuolo Fontanella. He attended St. Mi- homosexual orientation.” payroll to meet.’” chael’s School in Patterson, Don Bosco High School and A statement that same-sex unions can He secured a bank loan for St. Patrick’s, and “took a par- Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., before entering St. be a “precious support in the life of the ish that was broke and struggling, and in his 27 years turned partners” was removed. this parish into a thriving community,” Father Forrey said. Father Fontanella led the parish in the construction of its The final report quoted a 2003 docu- school in 1986 and its addition ten years later. He also over- ment from the Congregation for the saw the restoration of the parish’s shrine church, and initi- Doctrine of the Faith: “There are ab- ated the project to build the Parish Activity Center, which solutely no grounds for considering was named in his honor during the dedication in the sum- homosexual unions to be in any way mer of 2011. similar or even remotely analogous to “Countless people say to me that Father Fontanella’s God’s plan for marriage and family.” More FATHER FONTANELLA, page 8 More SYNOD, page 2 The 2 - Catholic Witness • October 24, 2014 sembly’s expressions of disagreement. Pope Francis warned against several name of a misguided mercy binds up Synod “Personally, I would have been very temptations that he said had been pres- wounds without first treating and medi- Continued from 1 worried and saddened if there hadn’t ent during the two-week synod. cating them; that treats symptoms and been these temptations and these ani- One of the temptations he cited was not causes and roots. It is the tempta- Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, mated discussions,” the pope said, “if that of “hostile rigidity” that seeks ref- tion of do-gooders, of the timorous and the Vatican spokesman, told reporters everybody had agreed or remained si- uge in the letter of the law, “in the cer- also of the so-called progressives and that the absence of a supermajority in- lent in a false and quietistic peace.” tainty of what we know and not of what liberals.” dicated a lack of consensus and a need “So many commentators, or peo- we must still learn and achieve.” This Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Lou- for more discussion, but stressed that ple who talk, imagined they saw the temptation, he said, is characteristic of isville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. none of the document carried doctrinal Church quarreling, one part against the the “zealous, the scrupulous, the atten- Conference of Catholic Bishops, said weight. The synod’s final report will other, even doubting the Holy Spirit, tive and – today – of the so-called tradi- in a statement that he was “grateful serve as an agenda for the October 2015 the true promoter and guarantor of uni- tionalists and also of intellectuals.” that the clarifications and deepening world synod on the family, which will ty and harmony in the Church,” he said. Another temptation for the synod fa- of scriptural and theological reflection make recommendations to the pope. While reassuring the assembly that thers, the pope said, was that of “de- shine consistently” through the final re- Pope Francis said he welcomed the as- the Church’s unity was not in danger, structive do-goodism, which in the port. “Now the real work begins!” Pope Beatifies Blessed Paul VI, the ‘Great Helmsman’ of Vatican II By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service Beatifying Blessed Paul VI at the concluding Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the family, Pope Francis praised the late pope as the “great helmsman” of the Second Vatican Council and founder of the synod, as well as a “humble and prophetic witness of love for Christ and his Church.” The pope spoke during a homily in St. Peter’s Square at a Mass for more than 30,000 people, under a sunny sky on an unseasonably warm Oct. 19. “When we look to this great pope, this courageous Christian, this tireless apostle, we cannot but say in the sight of God a word as simple as it is heartfelt and important: thanks,” the pope said, drawing applause from the congregation, which included retired Pope Bene- dict, whom Blessed Paul made a cardinal in 1977. “Facing the advent of a secularized and hostile soci- ety, [Blessed Paul] could hold fast, with farsightedness and wisdom – and at times alone – to the helm of the barque of Peter,” Pope Francis said, in a possible allu- sion to “Humanae Vitae,” the late pope’s 1968 encycli- cal, which affirmed Catholic teaching against contra- ception amid widespread dissent.

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