Ubi Petrus

Only in praying the Liturgy of the Hours do we get to pray

As for man, his days are like grass;

he flowers like the flower of the field;

the wind blows and he is gone

and his place never sees him again.

Ps. 103:14-15

and then immediately pray

Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.

and do it all right before Christmas.  There’s just something about not always being able to pick for yourself what part of the Bible you’re going to read that’s both revealing and refreshing, and I must say quite freeing.  As I’ve been taking to saying a lot more lately, God knows what He’s doing…

You can read it here or listen to it here.  It’s refreshing on occasion to see someone looking at the good things about the Christmas season even in the modern days.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a Pope who has spent so much of his time in the Vatican would know how to control information when he really wants to.  But I can’t remember a time in recent history (since, say, maybe Humanae Vitae) when self-styled Vatican watchers were caught more off-guard.

Today Pope Benedict promulgated, among others, the decrees of heroic virtue virtue for Pope John Paul II, which had been well-reported and expected, and to the great surprise of many, the joy of some and the irritation of others, that of Pope Pius XII.  In greatly understated language we simply see these names in a list along with seven others and ten approved miracles, five of which clear the way for canonization and five of which for beatification.  Announcing the heroic virtues of Pope Pius XII at the same time as that of Pope John Paul II was a very interesting way of managing the sure-to-come controversy.

It should be interesting to see now how those who made a great noise against Pope Pius XII, even in the face of continuing and growing evidence of his efforts to save as many Jewish people as possible in WWII, will address this rather ad intra issue.  While I am no expert on Pope Pius XII what I do know tells me this is a well overdue recognition.

One would not, indeed, have thought that Pope John Paul II being named Venerable would be able to be overshadowed on the very day of the announcement.  His was a life of which we are quite unlikely to see a corollary any time soon.  Then again, these are increasingly interesting times in which we live, so who knows what God has in store for us.

Anyone who has been following the rather curious career of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo knows what an absolute thorn in the side he has been for Rome and the kind of theological and ecclesiological troublemaker he has become over the past several years.  Despite years of increasing penalties he has refused to conform to even the most basic requirements to return to good standing.  It comes as no surprise to see this in a VIS story:

The commission of these grave crimes, which has recently been established, is to be considered as proof of the persistent contumacy of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. The Holy See has therefore been obliged to impose upon him the further penalty of dismissal from the clerical state.

It should be noted that the dismissal from the clerical state of one ordained to the Episcopate is, to say the least, extraordinarily rare.  Dr. Ed Peters comments further on this case which leaves some rather interesting questions as yet unanswered, particularly around the statement that the Church “does not recognize” ordinations by Abp. Milingo.  One can assume this is restricted to his episcopal ordinations, but perhaps not, and exactly how these ordinations are to be considered invalid and not just illicit is well beyond my competence.  It has been a very busy, and interesting, past couple of days in the land of Canon Law.

For once, not mine.  Recently we had the second collection for the Religious Retirement Fund.  Around these parts that also translates to someone, usually a Sister or a Nun, make a plea in the stead of the homily.  But, surprise, surprise I’m not going to grouse about the violation of Canon Law and the rubrics of the Mass.  Well, not more than I just did.

For whatever reason after who knows how many of these appeals it struck me that not once have I heard more than a cursory mention of the need for, and beauty of, new vocations to the religious life.  This last one probably spent more time on the topic than any other and even that was in the vague area of only a minute.  Now I know the purpose of this appeal is for money for a particular fund but the severe need for these funds is directly related to the fact that many orders now have more retired members than active ones – get more people doing the work that paid these orders’ bills for so many years and just maybe the need won’t be quite so drastic.

Maybe it’s the American in me, but I also think that some people have an aversion to donating money to a cause, even a good one, that shows no sign of improving.  It’s a terrible thing to say, but I do wonder if that issue doesn’t run through peoples’ minds, particularly in this country of the Rugged Individual.

So, here’s my thought.  If you’re going to be given the ten minutes of homily time anyway, instead of spending nine minutes on facts and figures and one or less on vocations, spend five minutes on facts and figures and five on vocations.  I know this is a thing incredibly easier to say than do, but if someone stands up and shows that they are on fire with love for their vocation and their order, shows a genuine joy, they will draw people like a magnet.  And if you can convince people to dedicate their lives to the religious life you can bet you can convince others to open their wallets even wider.  The two are intricately related, and in the great both/and tradition of Catholicism if you treat both of them fully the whole will be far greater than the sum of its parts.

Elena Maria has a beautiful Christmas Novena for us all.  It starts today, so nothing like no warning from me, I know.  Worst comes to worst, I’ve never heard of God getting cranky at a well-intentioned Octave.  I have to admit I’m simply terrible at remembering Novenas but somehow I don’t think I’ll forget when this one ends.  H/T to Argent for this great link.

The Vatican today announced the motu proprio Omnium in mentem, which makes changes to a few of the Canon laws by which the Church is governed.  Unfortunately to my knowledge a full translation into English has not yet been made available, but that hasn’t stopped the commentary from flying.  In short, the motu proprio does two things:

• Changes the requirements for Catholics who formally defected from the Church such that they are no longer bound to observe canonical form in marriages.  What it, in the end, means is that a great number of marriages that heretofore have been considered valid are now considered null.  Many marriage tribunals are now going to have their hands full figuring out exactly how to apply these newly worded canons.
• Alters the definition of the ministerial function of Deacons, specifically by removing any reference to a capacity to act in the person of Christ the Head, moving that terminology to the canon defining the presbyterate.

Fr. Z shares the VIS story announcing the new motu proprio here (the combox is, per usual, lively and informative), and Dr. Ed Peters gives his commentary on the first bullet here.  I suspect Dr. Peters will help explicate the effect of the second bullet when it is more well understood.  Life, I must say, in the Catholic world is never dull!

I’ve been spending much of my time not posting here lately as you may (or may not) have noticed.  It’s not that I have run out of things to say (please, no laughing) but rather that I’ve been crossed in so many directions I just couldn’t get my thoughts together long enough to even make a few coherent posts.  It has not been just the same work and economy and family concerns that just about everyone is dealing with these days, I’ve had something completely dominating my thoughts for some time now. [click to continue…]

With a H/T to Fr. Daren Zehnle at Servant and Steward, this is a great, short video for anyone who’s wondering about life in a seminary in the words of seminarians themselves.  It is, I think, particularly appropriate in this the week of Gaudete Sunday.