St. James the Greater Parish Life Newsletter Fall 2012 A BIG ANNIVERSARY By Fr. Thomas Nolker Sometimes a few words can sum up a whole lot of things. Take for instance two Latin phrases: populo congregato and sacerdos paratus. Both phrases describe the same thing – when Mass is supposed to start. Sacredos paratus is from the form of Mass developed after the Council of Trent. The phrase says that Mass starts when the priest (sacerdos) is ready (paratus). There is no reference to the people even being there. It’s time to start if the priest is ready. The directions for the form of Mass developed after the Second Vatican Council use the phrase populo congregato; Mass begins when the people (populo) have gathered (congregato). That’s a major shift. It no longer focuses on the priest but on the whole congregation. It also presumes that there will be a congregation for the celebration of Mass, which the older Mass rite didn’t. These two phrases sum up a lot of changes in Church life that occurred because of the Second Vatican Council. Robert Blair Kaiser was a correspondent for Time magazine at the Council. He was recently asked what some of the most revolutionary ideas at the Council were. He replied, “…they wanted to make it a people’s Church, it was too clerical…the people were in Chapter 3 [of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church], they put them in Chapter 1…” That revolutionary idea found an application in those directions for starting Mass and innumerable other things, like the emphasis on the role of the laity in the world and the responsibility of all members of the Church to tell the world about Jesus Christ. It is the basis for having Pastoral Councils, Finance Councils, lay people serving as pastoral associates, directors of religious education, business managers and even parish administrators. It is the basis for lay people and consecrated religious being involved in retreat ministries, being spiritual directors and chaplain in prisons, hospitals and schools. With a clergy centered understanding of Church none of this would have happened; it needed the primary focus to be on the laity. The teachings of the Council go far beyond this single issue. So many things that we consider part of the normal life of the Church today are the result of the Council’s documents. It described the Church as missionary in its nature. It unfolded the Church’s relationship with other religious peoples. The list goes on and on. There are some people today who wish the Second Vatican Council didn’t happen. I read one bishop’s remarks in which he said the authentic way to interpret what the Council documents mean isn’t to look at what the bishops who were at the Council meant in their writing of the documents, but what we today want them to mean. That’s like saying we can interpret the American Constitution any way we want because what the authors meant isn’t relevant. These people are satisfied with letting the Council and its magisterial teachings become nice, irrelevant antiquities. They favor a “reform” of the “reform” that allows the original meaning of the Council documents to be ignored. Of course, this would also mean we can undo all the development they inspired. There are also some people today who dismiss the Council as an event of ancient history. It did start in 1962, long before a lot of people were born. They think the Church is outdated and in need of progressive reform. Some of these would dismiss the Council as irrelevant in light of today’s major issues. A new Council, they say, would have to discuss Church teachings like divorce/remarriage, ordination of women and other hot topics. This view isn’t always built on a continuity of teachings in the Church, which is necessary. This October Pope Benedict will lead the Church is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. He has called for a “Year of Faith” in every diocese and parish to celebrate the anniversary. What I hope we will do is spend time studying the amazing documents the bishops issued at that Council. And that study will help us appreciate what has been achieved in these 50 years, and what still needs to be done. We need to rediscover the documents of the Council. We need to study them with openness to how they developed the traditional teachings of the Church, how they rediscovered theological understandings that had been clouded, and how they broke new ground for being the Church of Jesus Christ. We can go back to the transcriptions of the Council sessions; we can read the diaries of the bishops and the experts who helped them write these documents. With sound historical research we can discover exactly what the Council Fathers meant in these documents, and that meaning needs to be respected. For many of my seminary years and for several years after ordination, I had a framed picture of St. Peter’s basilica with all the bishops dressed in their mitres sitting in a ceremonial session. The picture wasn’t a great piece of art; it was a page from a magazine glued on cardboard. For me it symbolized the excitement and the beauty of what that Council said as official magisterial teachings in their decrees. I hope that this anniversary will give us an opportunity to revisit those documents and recommit ourselves to implementing them more fully. Pastoral Report – July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 Social Action/Outreach One of the major efforts in the parish each year is the Giving Tree prior to Christmas. In Advent 1025 tags were placed on the trees and all were taken. Children’s gifts went to St. Francis de Sales school and Glenmary missions in Kentucky; clothing and toys went to First Step Home and several families in our own parish. Food baskets, hats and gloves went to a number of groups. Baby items went to Healthy Moms and Babes as well as Pregnancy Center West. Other outreach programs included Loaves and Fishes which provides food for the Mercy St. John Center twice a year. There are the collections for our own St. Vincent de Paul Society which responds to the needs in our neighborhood all year long. In addition, there are events in the school which benefit the children in some inner-city public and Catholic schools. The generosity of the parish continues to express our care for others. The Circle of Care program was re-established as a result of the renewal process a few years ago. Volunteers were sought to help their neighbors in a number of ways and now Circle of Care is responding to these needs. Sadly, the requests for assistance have not been as numerous as expected. Adult Spiritual Formation Longing for the Holy was a spiritual renewal program which eventually involved almost 300 people in small faith sharing groups. Begun in the spring of 2011, the last sessions for it were held in the fall. Some of those groups have continued to meet and are now pursuing other spiritual resources together. Also concluding in the fall was our program to prepare for the implementation of the new Roman Missal for Mass. That program ran for a year and a half, and attracted about 100 people for each of the sessions. When the new Missal was implemented on November 27, 2011 our parish was ready and the new words rang out strongly. In the spring, two tracks of the 10 part series Catholicism were presented. This is a 10 part video series on the basic teachings of our faith. There was a limit to the number to be registered for this program. The morning sessions had a full group of 20 and the evening sessions had 10 participants. During Lent 2012 the Monday evening prayer opportunities returned. Because Longing for the Holy began in Lent of 2011, the parish did not schedule these Lenten devotions. This year again there were opportunities for Way of the Cross, Vespers (Evening Prayer) and special prayer services, including a Taize service which is always very popular. Youth Activities Our biggest youth activity in the parish is the grade school. Our school continues to thrive, exceeding the enrollment numbers project in 2007 by a committee from Pastoral Council and Education Commission that had studied the issue intensely. New teaching strategies are being implemented to assure attention to each student’s needs and learning ability. Miss Beebe, Mrs. Hinton and selected teachers have continued to participate in a program at Xavier University to help them accomplish this. Teachers of religion continue to upgrade their certifications as catechists in the archdiocese. The St. James Athletic Club continues to offer a variety of sports for our grade school children. The Cubs Scouts and Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and American Heritage Girls all are very active and participate in parish life in a number of ways. Hundreds of young people are involved in these programs. The number of high school students participating in the liturgical ministries of usher, distributor, lector, and youth choir continues to grow. This opportunity can deepen their own awareness of the Lord’s presence with them and prepares them for an active ministry in the Mass for the rest of their lives. Several of our high school students helped lead the confirmation retreat. Grade school students participate in several ministries, especially at Masses for the school. After confirmation, students are invited to participate in the liturgical ministries for Sunday.