Archdiocese of Detroit responds to defiant priest's celebration of Mass at ACC dissent-fest

Photo: Susan Tusa/Detroit Free Press
Fr. Robert Wurm, 78, celebrates an unauthorized Mass at Cobo Hall in Detroit
which closed the American Catholic Council's conference

UPDATE: I have made another post which contains a more extensive audio interview with Archdiocese of Detroit spokesman that Al Kresta had the other day. I've provided some pertinent quotes in the body of that post, as well.

---

The Archbishop of Detroit was quick to react through a spokesman to the liturgical abuses which took place at the Mass which closing the American Catholic Council's dissent-fest.

This post has been updated, and may undergo further updates.
The Archdiocese of Detroit website is not yet updated, but Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press has reaction about the Mass in which organizers claim dozens of priests and deacons attended.  (Note: There are a number of photos in a slideshow in that link, with captions if you hover your mouse over them.  The article continues to be updated with additional info and pics, so you may want to revisit it).  Niraj writes:

The top Catholic leader in Michigan slammed a big liberal Mass today in Detroit, saying it had significant abuses and he ordered a review of a Ferndale priest who led the services before 1,500 Catholics, a church spokesman said.


“There were several, serious liturgical abuses at that service,” said Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese. “It’s disheartening that a Detroit priest would preside over a service with so many…serious liturgical abuses. There will be — has to be — a careful and thorough review.”

The Detroit News has a similar quote attributed to McGrath, but it goes one step further, saying it will also potentially be reviewed by the Vatican.

Photo: Susan Tusa/Detroit Free Press

Left, Suzanne Thiel, president of Roman Catholic Women Priest USA,

from Portland, Oregon, and Juanita Cordero,

from Los Gatos, CA participate in the liturgy celebration.

The celebrant, Fr. Wurm is a resident of Detroit.   The Free Press article goes on to read:

Wurn told the Free Press afterwards he was aware that Archbishiop Allen Vigneron had explicilty warned all priests and deacons to not participate. But Wurm said he's not worried being punished.

"I don't see that happening," Wurm said. "I'm older than he (Vigneron) is."

Wurm criticized Vigneron's letter that told clergy to stay away. 

"He was making a big mistake," Wurm said.

Catholics at the conference defended their conference and Mass, saying they are in accordance with the laws and values of Catholicism.

“He didn’t violate Canon law,” John Hushon, of Florida, a lead organizer of the conference, said. “We went right down the straight and narrow.”

According to the Detroit News, he is a Benedictine whose last assignment before he retired in 2004, was St. James in Ferndale.

Janet Hauter, the co-chair of the American Catholic Conference, said her group followed the rules and did not use a diocesan priest for the Mass. She said Wurm can't be censured or defrocked because is from the Benedictine order of priests.

Do they seriously think that a member of a religious order has got some kind of diplomatic immunity which hinders the Church from disciplining it's priests?

While Fr. Wurm is a Benedictine, his incardination in that order is a separate issue from the faculties given to him to celebrate Mass.  From what little is provided in the article, it seems that he had faculties here in the Archdiocese of Detroit back in 2004 when he retired.  Those can be revoked, at least for celebrating Mass.  Further, he is not out of reach of disciplinary action by the Holy See.  Some background on incardination and faculties can be found in this post on the excommunicated and laicized ex-priest, Marek Bozek.

Here is video from local ABC affiliate, WXYZ.  In the article that accompanies the video, they quoted Archbishop Vigneron from a recent statement:

“The American Catholic Council portrays itself as something other than what it is. In effect it advocates for what it calls ‘change’ by putting Catholic sacraments, church teachings and even the sanctity of life up to a vote. That’s not even close to liberal or left-leaning thinking; it’s beyond a bridge too far.”

Please pray for these misguided Catholics, and for the unity of the Church. 

More to come.

FURTHER READING:

• Archdiocese of Detroit Resource Page on the American Catholic Council (AoD)
• Fr. Perrone: Dissent almost always involves 'below the belt issues'...  (Te Deum)
• American Catholic Council's dust-up with the Archdiocese of Detroit  (Te Deum)
• Life imitates art! The American Catholic Council’s “Litany of Lament” (Fr. Z)

NOTE ABOUT CALL TO HOLINESS PHOTOS

I hope to have a photopost up soon on the Call to Holiness Conference which took place with the blessing of Archbishop Vigneron, and from today's Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Assumption Grotto.

I know.... I'm really behind.  I still have Easter photos to edit, among others.  The last two months have just been packed.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Fr. Perrone: Dissent almost always involves 'below the belt issues'...

Fr. Eduard Perrone during Benediction
at the outdoor Grotto

The conference for the 13th Call to Holiness has ended. Photos will be processed and up soon.  Today, there is an orchestra Mass (Solemn High EF Mass) at 9:30am at Assumption Grotto for Pentecost. There will be a tour at the Detroit Institute of Arts led by Johnette Benkovic after the Mass and there may be openings yet.  

In his June 12, 2011 pastor's column, Fr. Perrone talks about truth, and dissent, referring to a Scriptural passage that captures it better than any commentary can.

PENTECOST is often said to be the birthday of the Church. It marked the day when the Holy Spirit was first received, having been sent by the Father and by Christ at the Father’s right. Our Lord had promised the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church as the One who assures that the Church remain in truth. The Church–the Catholic Church– has this guarantee of infallibility so that its authoritative decisions cannot err in faith or in moral truth. It is this very reliability, this certainty that the Church has–that its teachings are entirely without error–which gives us the confidence to put our wholehearted trust in them. And so, it is not because the Church’s doctrines seem ‘right’ or merely only ‘best’ that we adhere to them, but because they have the confirmation of divine authority behind them.


How utterly ironic it is then that there are those allegedly within the Church who invoke the Holy Spirit, petitioning Him to reverse what He had formerly reve[a]led in the Catholic Church, as if He had erred in the past or possibly that He had made provisional teachings He meant to change in time. In either, there’s a clear case of blasphemy. If God can’t be trusted with telling unerring and permanent truth, then truth itself is–truth to tell–a lie. The contradiction is inescapable.

By the time you get this the 2011 Call to Holiness (CTH) Conference will have ended. The purpose of CTH from its inception has been to propagate the truth of Christ as the Church has received it: faithfully and entire. This initiative was necessitated by the organized efforts of said Catholics who wanted the Church to depart from truth and make it adopt beliefs and practices that are secular, sinful, and agreeable to the baser tendencies of fallen human nature. In short, the dissenters from Catholic truth (such as the American Catholic Council, Call to Action) want falsehood to be declared as if true. Can a more perverse proposal be made? Recall that original sin began with a deception and that Christ named Satan The Father of Lies. Such reflection however seems never to have been made by objectors to the Catholic faith, they who would prefer truth to conform to their wish and will. I’d like to offer some lines from Saint Peter’s Second Epistle (chapter 2) for meditation by anyone who may ever have harbored doubts about the veracity of Catholic teaching. I myself would never be so bold as to ascribe the following passage directly to our contemporary dissenters from Catholic teaching were it not God’s own word:

False teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies...bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their lewdness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled...They will exploit you with false words. Those who indulge in lust and despise authority, bold and wilful, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct... t he y wi l l be destroyed... They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation... They have eyes for adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. Accursed children!... For them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. Uttering loud boasts of foolishness, they entice with lewd passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. If, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become for them worse than the first. It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the commandment given to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog returns to his vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.

Dissent from the Catholic faith has almost always involved the ‘below the belt’ issues, seeking the freedom to divorce, to use contraception, to have abortion, to engage in any and all sexual practices, to receive Communion without any conditions, to abolish priestly celibacy. It is to these specific ends (cf. the lewd things in Saint Peter’s Epistle above) that they want changes in Church structure and hierarchy. It’s not a power struggle against ecclesiastical authority pure and simple but wanting the controls so as to declare that what isn’t true be true. The Apostle foresees a terrible future for people who hold such opinions and who persuade others to adopt them.


Our Pentecost prayer would be adroitly aimed for the enlightenment of those who have been deceived and for the conversion of those who have wittingly disabused them.


Fr. Perrone

On June 9th, the Archdiocese of Detroit had another press release about the dissent-fest taking place at Cobo Hall this weekend.  The American Catholic Council is an umbrella group for some 30 groups who openly dissent from Catholic teaching.

It’s important to again clarify the significance of who the American Catholic Council (ACC) is— what they espouse and the purpose of their conference. Last fall, the Detroit archdiocese posted a point-by-point advisory to the clergy and faithful on its website. It notes "...all of the invited keynote speakers have manifested dissent from Catholic teachings or support for dissenters." In fact, some of those presenting have publicly— sometimes angrily— left the church or have been dismissed because of their actions.


Certainly, the Roman Catholic faithful have legitimate concerns and aspirations for renewal while remaining grounded in the faith the church professes and united with their pastors. The church and Archbishop Vigneron stand ready to support all authentic efforts for renewal in the church. Regrettably, the ACC conference is not one of them.


The ACC portrays itself as something other than what it is. In effect, it advocates for what it calls "change" by putting Catholic sacraments, church teachings, and even the sanctity of life up to a vote. That's not even close to liberal or left-leaning thinking; it's beyond a bridge too far. And, it is why the archbishop felt it necessary to issue a warning about attending the conference and its scheduled liturgy.


Ned McGrath
Director of Communications
Archdiocese of Detroit
June 9, 2011


For the position paper from the Archdiocese of Detroit on the American Catholic Council go to www.AODonline.org/ACC.

Father Z, visiting Detroit, decided to drop in to the American Catholic Council event for a few minutes to get z scoop.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

American Catholic Council's dust-up with the Archdiocese of Detroit

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron

The American Catholic Council, which is an umbrella group for just about every dissident group calling itself Catholic has come under fire by the Archdiocese of Detroit with the event they have planned this weekend in Detroit.  At the same time, Archbishop Vigneron has endorsed the Call to Holiness also taking place this weekend, with the  main event on Saturday.  This post has a number of useful links and information.  It may be updated with additional links later today or tomorrow.

Most would find it absurd if a self-proclaimed vegan were to sit down and eat a beef steak and wash it down with a glass of milk. The American Catholic Council is doing just that. It is using the Catholic name in a disingenuous way, offering a meal stuffed with open dissent from authentic Catholic teaching. Just as one cannot redefine "vegan" to include those who eat steak and drink milk, the American Catholic Council cannot redefine Catholicism.

They want to make the Church into a democracy - literally. Using their rationale, if 9 out of 10 people wanted two-plus-two to equal five, then they would be willing to change the objective reality that the answer is four, by a majority vote.
Before I go any further, I want to suggest that you tune in to Ave Maria Radio (AM 990 in metro detroit or avemariaradio.net online) and listen to Kresta in the Afternoon today (4-6 pm local time here in Detroit) as I believe he will be discussing this today.   Watch his site later this morning to see his agenda which is posted daily at the Kresta in the Afternoon blog.
Many of the changes these groups want involve teachings the Church does not have the authority to change, like abortion, or homosexual activity, women's ordination.  They also want to change the Church's discipline on clerical celibacy often cloaking it with discussion of the clerical abuse scandal.  Apparently they have not briefed themselves on the fact that the greatest number of perpetrators of sexual abuse against children are within the family.   Hence, a man with a "taste" for children is not cured by marriage.  Further, sexual abuse of children is 100x worse by school personnel than by priests according to scholar, Charol Shakeshaft. How many of those teachers, administrators, and coaches abusing children were married?

The Catholic Church has apostolates like Courage which is a support group for people with same sex attraction who desire to live a chaste life, which is the path for anyone not bound in sacramental marriage.  However, you won't see Courage listed on any of the dissident group websites. Stepping back on other arguments as to why the Church cannot approve of homosexual activity which is at the core of same sex "marriage" or unions, I want to look at it with greater simplicity.  Just as the Church cannot say it is "ok" for a man to sleep with a woman who is not his wife, or a woman who is not her husband (which is called fornication or adultery in the Ten Commandments), the Church cannot condone homosexual activity.  The dissidents often consider the 10 Commandments as the "10 Suggestions", or they dismiss them altogether misleading themselves and others to think that either the New Testament or Vatican II itself voided them. Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and he mentions the Commandments in the Gospels (see examples here: John 15: 9-12, Mark 10:18, Matthew 5:17-20)

The group also wants the Church to ordain women.  In 1994, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Church did not have any such authority in a document called, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis:

4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.


Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

In 1995, then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote has head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith saying that the teaching belonged to the deposit of the faith and requires the assent of Catholics

Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.


Responsum: In the affirmative.


This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.


The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.

There is more information here on why this is considered infallible teaching.


The Detroit Free Press has an article about the American Catholic Council event coming up this weekend and discussed the archdiocesan position.  Likewise, the Detroit News is running an article on the dust-up this has caused for the archdiocese.  Catholic blogger, Larry D, has had a running list of posts on the American Catholic Council, including an analysis on their "Bill of Wrongs".  Click and scroll in his tab on the ACC


Further reading (note that links to Archdiocese of Detroit may load slowly).

• Archbishop Vigneron's Letter on American Catholic Council (June 3, 2011 - AoD)
• Archdiocese of Detroit Advisory on American Catholic Council (Oct 12, 2010 - AoD)
• Archdiocese of Detroit resource page on ACC (includes FAQ's)
• Commentary on ACC by Bill Donohue of Catholic League

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Rector Names Top Seven Common Holy Communion Profanations

Bishop Athanasius Schneider distributes holy Communion
at Assumption Grotto in Detroit in 2008

A priest sent this to me late last week and I decided to wait until today to post it since traffic is normally lower over weekends (especially in late spring and summer).

It has started to appear on a few other sites, like Courageous Priest

A Letter from The Cathedral Rector by Very Rev. Fr. John Lankeit,Rector,Ss. Simon &Jude Cathedral Phoenix,AZ January 30,2011 to his parishioners.

Dear Parishioners,


I want to thank all of you who have recently started receiving Holy Communion on the tongue,not to mention those of you who already had been. This subject has generated a lot of buzz over the past few weeks,the vast majority of which has been overwhelmingly positive.


While my main objective in encouraging reception on the tongue is to deepen appreciation for the Eucharist,I also have a pastoral responsibility to eliminate abuses common to receiving in the hand. Such abuses are no doubt unintentional. Nevertheless,what I witness troubles me. And I’m not alone.


In 2004,responding to the problem of Eucharistic profanation,the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament released an official instruction entitled REDEMPTIONIS SACRAMENTUS:On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist. Regarding Holy Communion the document states:

“[S]pecial care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister,so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation,then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.” (Paragraph 92)


Here are 7 common Holy Communion profanations that I see all too frequently:

• Blessing oneself with the host before consuming it. (The act of blessing with the Eucharist is called “Benediction”and is reserved to clergy).
• Receiving the host in the palm of the hand,contorting that same hand until the host is controlled by the fingers,then consuming it (resembling a one-handed “watch-the-coin-disappear”magic trick).
• Popping the host into the mouth like a piece of popcorn.
• Attempting to receive with other items in the hands,like a dirty Kleenex or a Rosary.
• Receiving the host with dirty hands.
• Receiving the host,closing the hand around it,then letting the hand fall to the side (as if carrying a suitcase) while walking away and/or blessing oneself with the other hand.
• Walking away without consuming the host.
• Giving the host to someone else after receiving (including animals)…yes,it happens!

We would never treat a piece of GOLD with the same casualness –especially in this economy! Yet many treat the Eucharist “piece”of GOD with casualness at best,indifference and irreverence at worst. Of course,much abuse is due to ignorance,owing to poor catechesis,which is precisely why I have written about this issue for four consecutive weeks.

Yet we have another great incentive…


When Holy Communion is received on the tongue…every single one of these abuses is instantly eliminated!
The way we treat another person says more about our relationship with that person than any words we might say. This is especially true of our relationship with the Divine Person,Jesus Christ. So let us continually seek to increase our reverence for our Eucharistic Savior,and to eliminate anything that degrades the respect He deserves.


God’s Blessings…
my prayers…


Rev. Fr. John Lankeit,
Rector,Ss. Simon &Jude Cathedral
Phoenix,AZ

I think he has listed at least seven reasons why we should go back to receiving holy Communion on the tongue. 

I also think that priests should consider the profanation that takes place when the paten is not used as is required by the GIRM.  If you receive at a parish where the paten is in use, you will notice many small Particles of Our Lord on it.  In most parishes today, they are all over the floor.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Pope leaves Croatia; his words remain for all Catholics to ponder

The Holy Father was in Croatia this weekend. All addresses and homilies can be found a page dedicated to the Pope's visit to Croatia at the Vatican's site.

A collection of videos can be found on this page at CatholicTv.com, at least for a time: http://www.catholictv.com/pope-benedict-xvi.aspx

As an American of Croatian and Polish descent, and one who lived among Croatians in Herzegovina for over 2 years, it was very endearing to not only see the Holy Father there, but to hear old Croatian hymns familiar to me. The sites and sounds brought back pleasant memories.

Here are a few select paragraphs from some of the events:

From his homily at the holy Mass on the occasion of the National Day of Croatian Catholic Families:

In today’s society the presence of exemplary Christian families is more necessary and urgent than ever. Unfortunately, we are forced to acknowledge the spread of a secularization which leads to the exclusion of God from life and the increasing disintegration of the family, especially in Europe. Freedom without commitment to the truth is made into an absolute, and individual well-being through the consumption of material goods and transient experiences is cultivated as an ideal, obscuring the quality of interpersonal relations and deeper human values; love is reduced to sentimental emotion and to the gratification of instinctive impulses, without a commitment to build lasting bonds of reciprocal belonging and without openness to life. We are called to oppose such a mentality! Alongside what the Church says, the testimony and commitment of the Christian family – your concrete testimony – is very important, especially when you affirm the inviolability of human life from conception until natural death, the singular and irreplaceable value of the family founded upon matrimony and the need for legislation which supports families in the task of giving birth to children and educating them. Dear families, be courageous! Do not give in to that secularized mentality which proposes living together as a preparation, or even a substitute for marriage! Show by the witness of your lives that it is possible, like Christ, to love without reserve, and do not be afraid to make a commitment to another person! Dear families, rejoice in fatherhood and motherhood! Openness to life is a sign of openness to the future, confidence in the future, just as respect for the natural moral law frees people, rather than demeaning them! The good of the family is also the good of the Church. I would like to repeat something I have said in the past: “the edification of each individual Christian family fits into the context of the larger family of the Church which supports it and carries it with her ... And the Church is reciprocally built up by the family, a ‘small domestic church’” (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Participants in the Ecclesial Diocesan Convention of Rome, 6 June 2005). Let us pray to the Lord, that families may come more and more to be small churches and that ecclesial communities may take on more and more the quality of a family!

Pope Benedict addressed bishops, priests and consecrated persons at the tomb of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac. Addressing bishops and priests specifically, he said:

Today too, the Church in Croatia is called to be united, to meet the challenges of a changed social context, identifying with missionary fervour new ways of evangelization, especially in the service of younger generations. My dear Brother Bishops, I would like to encourage you above all in the fulfilment of your mission. The more you work in fruitful cooperation among yourselves and in communion with the Successor of Peter, the more you will be able to confront the difficulties of our age. It also important for Bishops above all and for priests to strive for reconciliation among separated Christians and between Christians and Muslims, following the footsteps of Christ who is our peace. Regarding your priests, do not neglect to offer them clear spiritual, doctrinal and pastoral directions. While the Christian community admits legitimate diversity within itself, it cannot render faithful witness to the Lord except in the communion of its members. This requires of you the service of vigilance, offered in dialogue and with great love, but also with clarity and firmness. Dear Brothers, adhering to Christ means “keeping his word” (cf. Jn 14:23).


To this end, Blessed Cardinal Stepinac expressed himself in this way: “One of the greatest evils of our time is mediocrity in the questions of faith. Let us not deceive ourselves… Either we are Catholic or we are not. If we are, this must be seen in every area of our life” (Homily on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 1943). The Church’s moral teaching, often misunderstood today, cannot be detached from the Gospel. It falls particularly to the Bishops to propose it authoritatively to the faithful, in order to assist them in evaluating their personal responsibilities and in harmonizing their moral choices with the demands of the faith. In this way, your society will make progress towards that “cultural shift” necessary for promoting a culture of life and a society worthy of man.


Dear priests – especially those of you in charge of parishes – I know the importance and the variety of your tasks in an age when the scarcity of priests is beginning to make itself felt strongly. I urge you not to lose heart, to remain vigilant in prayer and in your spiritual lives, in order to perform your ministry fruitfully: to teach, to sanctify and to guide all those who are entrusted to your care. Welcome with magnanimity those who knock at the door of your heart, offering to each one the gifts that divine goodness has entrusted to you. Persevere in communion with your Bishops and in mutual cooperation. Nourish your commitment at the life-giving waters of Scripture, the Sacraments, the constant praise of God, always open and docile to the actions of the Holy Spirit; you will thus be effective workers in the new evangelization, which you are called to realize together with the laity, in a coordinated way and without confusing what pertains to ordained ministry with what belongs to the universal priesthood of all the baptized. Keep close to your hearts the promotion of vocations to the priesthood; by your enthusiasm and your fidelity, strive to transmit a living desire to respond generously and without hesitation to Christ, who calls each one to be conformed more intimately to himself, Head and Shepherd.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Archbishop Vigneron on ACC event: "I am compelled to caution any priests or deacons..."

Detroit's Archbishop Vigneron delivers a homily
on August 15, 2009 at Assumption Grotto

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit fired off another shot across the bow for those participating, or thinking of participating in the American Catholic Council (ACC) event in Detroit next weekend.  The ACC is an umbrella group for just about every organization which openly dissents from Catholic teaching.  Sadly, the conference is taking place at the same time as ordinations in Detroit.

Yesterday, I posted again on the upcoming Call to Holiness (CTH) conference (main event June 11).    Archbishop Vigneron endorsed the Call to Holiness while issuing an advisory against the American Catholic Council (the AoD's website loads really slow, but if you click through here, you will see all that the Archdiocese of Detroit has put out on the ACC, including the June 3 statement embedded below).  I recommend reading through the Q&A provided in that link. 

Here is that letter (emphasis mine in bold)

Abp. Vigneron Letter on the American Catholic Council


Issued: June 3, 2011
Contact: Joe Kohn, infodesk@aod.org / (313) 237-5943


My dear brother priests and deacons,

As you may be aware, a group calling itself the American Catholic Council will be meeting at Cobo Hall on the weekend of June 11 and 12. Despite my attempts to engage in a dialogue with them about this planned event, the organizers of this conference have not replied to me directly. I have a number of concerns about this event and caution any Catholic against participating for reasons expressed already in previous communications sent by the Archdiocese.


Of particular concern is the "Eucharistic Liturgy," noted on the schedule for this conference on Pentecost Sunday, June 12. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council instruct us, "Every legitimate celebration of the Eucharist is regulated by the bishop, to whom is committed the office of offering the worship of the Christian religion to the divine Majesty and of administering it in accordance with the Lord's commandments and with the Church's laws, as further defined by his particular judgment for his diocese." (Lumen Gentium, 26). I take my role as moderator of the liturgy for the archdiocese (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22) very seriously. To confirm the legitimacy of what they had planned, the ACC had been asked to provide details regarding this liturgy. The response received was ambiguous, and there are good reasons for believing forbidden concelebration will take place by the laity and with those not in full communion with the Church.


In order to fulfill my responsibilities, so clearly enunciated by the Second Vatican Council, of fostering of communion with both the local and the universal Church, I am compelled to caution any priests or deacons who may be considering participation in this liturgy. It is not being celebrated with my permission as required by the law and the good order of the People of God. Further, clergy should be aware of the impact of forbidden concelebration with those who are not in full communion (canons 908 and 1365). This is a serious delict, for which recourse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is required, and which may result in dismissal from the clerical state (cf. Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, 2001 and 2010).


I ask that you pray with me for the unity of the Church. As we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin in this upcoming Solemnity, may the Holy Spirit come afresh on all of us, keeping us united in the love of God and keeping our attention and energies focused on the task of sharing Christ in and through His Church.


Sincerely yours in Christ,
The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit

Please visit the Call to Holiness conference website and look at the list of those speaking on June 11th.  Here is what Archbishop Vigneron had to say about that:

CD's and DVD's can also be ordered at this time for those who cannot come.  Consider supporting the event by attending.

You can find a number of blogposts about the American "catholic" Council and problems with their "Bill of Rights" at Acts of the Apostasy.  Click here and scroll.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

A beached jellyfish teaches a spiritual lesson...

On my recent vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
a few Cannonball Jellyfish washed up overnight, like this one which I photographed.

You can enter deep spiritual meditation on most anything you come across, even a beached jellyfish.

I do not make it a habit of making known on social media when I leave town. This is for a number of reasons, chief among them is not advertising my absence to thieves.  I often blog and use my Twitter and Facebook accounts in a normal way while traveling and save my posting about a trip when I get home.  This time, I decided to let much of it go except for a few tweets.  I have several posts forthcoming, but wanted to get this initial reflection out to get back into the swing of blogging.


I have been on retreats, but haven't been on a vacation in a long time.   I went alone, to Myrtle Beach, where I not only rested, but took time for reflection as the opportunities arose.

Lessons of a Beached Jellyfish

Above is a picture of a jellyfish which had the misfortune of being beached overnight.  There is a decent, continuous surf and as the water recedes with the tide. Often left behind are interesting things along the beach.  Flashlights can be seen waving back and forth late at night or very early in the morning as people explore. 

I began to ponder the fate of this jellyfish, one of about four in a stretch that spanned perhaps a half mile.   One minute the cannonball jelly was going about life, floating along and hoping for something to fall into its path for a meal and the next moment it was eating sand, awaiting death.   

It's a lesson about life and death.  Reflecting on recent natural disasters from Japan to Joplin, people from all walks of life, and states of grace, died unexpectedly.  Many did not die immediately, but suffered for seconds, minutes, hours, and days with full knowledge the end was likely near. This may seem all the more horrific, but we must trust God who loves all of his children more than we ever could. 

Unlike the dying jellyfish which has no free will to make God-displeasing choices in the course of it's life, a person awaiting certain death can make a deliberate movement of the heart to repentance during the dying process whether it is slow or quick.  This does not mean we should just live as we please with intent to apologize to God as we die; such presumption may leave us outside (Matthew 25:1-13).

We are often concerned for our loved ones and friends who have fallen into utter disbelief in God, or who have left the faith, or are lukewarm in their practice of it.  Our Lord, as he carried his cross told the women to weep not for him, but for their children (Luke 23:28).  St. Monica shed many tears for her wandering son, praying for decades for the man who would later become St. Augustine - a bishop, and Church father and doctor.  Her actions, and Augustine's response to grace, are proof that such tears and prayers are heard.  St. Monica was fortunate enough to live to witness his conversion.  For many of us, we can only hope that our tears and prayers work, even in those final moments and without our knowledge.

Disasters, natural and man-made, happen.  They are small scale and large.  We might ponder why that one jellyfish ended it's life on the beach while hundreds or thousands of others nearby in those same waters continued to live.  Sometimes the fate of others, in life or in death, is used by God to teach others. Perhaps God permitted this one jellyfish to die in order to teach me a deeper lesson - one which I could share with you. 

Just as the jellyfish is at the mercy of that great ocean, we are at God's mercy for every breath we take.   A jellyfish gives glory to God by just going about life as he was intended by his Creator.  We, on the other hand, must give glory to God by a proper use of our free will with God-pleasing choices.  Jesus did not say that the road would be wide and comfortable.  He said it would be narrow and difficult, then he showed us that the road must be paved with much sacrifice (Col 1:24).  More often than not, those sacrifices are a simple matter of giving up our will, for God's will.  It starts with not only living the Beatitudes, but by knowing and living the Ten Commandments which Jesus affirmed in Sacred Scripture (John 15: 9-12, Mark 10:18, Matthew 5:17-20)

Ponder, without delay, your life's choices as if you were a beached jellyfish, waiting for the Just Judge.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Call to Holiness Conference - June 11

Click pic to visit CTH website

From Call to Holiness

Registration is continuing for the June 10-12 Call to Holiness conference Call to FIDELITY: The Power of TRUTH. Select one or all of the events: Friday church tour, the Saturday conference and dinner with seven renowned speakers, and the Sunday talk by Johnnette Benkovic with the docent led tour of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

As a preview, Al Kresta interviewed conference speaker Raymond de Souza on Kresta in the Afternoon WDEO 990 AM on Thursday, June 2. You can hear the interview here about 2/3 of the way through the hour http://avemariaradio.net/archiveListen.php?file=kpm_20110602_1

Dr. Salvador Salort-Pons, the Associate Curator of European Painting at the Detroit Institute of Arts was interviewed by Teresa Tomeo of Ave Maria Radio’s morning radio show Catholic Connection Thursday, June 2. Listen to the interview here http://avemariaradio.net/archiveListen.php?file=cc_20110602_1 Scroll through about ¾ of the hour for the interview.

Preview other conference speakers Johnnette Benkovic, Jeff Cavins, and Paul Rondeau at www.calltoholiness.com. If you have not yet registered, you’ll want to after you hear them! Invite your friends to join you and register online or call 313-451-4659.

The order form for conference CDs and DVDs is now available.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Video: Pope Benedict speaks with Astronauts

Compliments of Nasa.gov, is this video.

The Holy Father had an exchange with the astronauts after briefly addressing them.  He expressed his hope for continued improvement for Gabby Giffords, the wife of Commander Mark Kelly.  He then asked some questions of the astronauts.

Interesting what zero gravity does with long hair, eh? I suppose there is no such thing as a bad hair day in space. But, I suspect there is a scary hair day - LOL.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

iPhone App: iChant Gregorian

With a tip of the veil to Sr. Catherine Wybourne, aka @Digitalnun on Twitter, I discovered this neat little app for iPhone.  If you are learning to sing chant it could prove to be a handly little tool.   I have downloaded it and see that it si also available for iPad and iTouch. 

It is fairly easy to learn get the hang of getting into the "rhythm" of chant.  I actually find site reading little square notes easier than modern notation.  However, because I have very little understanding of music theory, scales, etc., I can't simply pic up a page of chant and sing the right notes without help. 

The tool is not something for listening to Gregorian chant.  Rather, it is an aid for those who are practicing.  When you touch the screen you can hear the notes for a given clef (see an explanation of Gregorian notation here). 

Shown above is the Do Clef.  Note that the app allows you to transpose which is handy when the notes run too high or low for a given singer or group.  Here is one example of a transposition (compare to that at the top):

As you can see, there is also the Fa Clef.

See more at the iTunes store on iChant Gregorian.  Android users might want to search their app store, as well.  The developer states in the combox of this post at Musica Sacra last year that he was working on a version for that OS.  

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

The Pope, St. Teresa, and Subjectivism...

The Holy Father addressed the Pontifical Theological Faculty Teresianum on it's 75th anniversary. In his address he spoke of the need for all Christians to have spiritual direction. There's no doubt that a good spiritual director is needed, ideally, by everyone.  As many can attest, finding one is another story.  Sometimes, the next best bet is to read the Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila, or the Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales. 

In the first part of his address Pope Benedict talks about St. Teresa of Avila. He then shifts to talk about spiritual direction. This was particularly interesting (emphasis mine in bold).

As she has never failed to do, again today the Church continues to recommend the practice of spiritual direction, not only to all those who wish to follow the Lord up close, but to every Christian who wishes to live responsibly his baptism, that is, the new life in Christ. Everyone, in fact, and in a particular way all those who have received the divine call to a closer following, needs to be supported personally by a sure guide in doctrine and expert in the things of God. A guide can help defend oneself from facile subjectivist interpretations, making available his own supply of knowledge and experiences in following Jesus. [Spiritual direction] is a matter of establishing that same personal relationship that the Lord had with his disciples, that special bond with which he led them, following him, to embrace the will of the Father (cf. Luke 22:42), that is, to embrace the cross.

Human fallen nature functions almost like a set of blinders. Others often see things in us about which we are unaware. When that someone is a trained spiritual director, rooted in the Church's richest understanding of the spiritual life, they can help us to navigate these areas. Teresa is very big on self-knowledge and self-mastery. You really cannot have self-mastery without the former. 
The Holy Father brings up that word "subjectivist". Stop and think for a moment what that means. Here, we have a simple definition from Dictionary.com:

sub·jec·tiv·ism
[suhb-jek-tuh-viz-uhm] Show IPA

–noun
1. Epistemology . the doctrine that all knowledge is limited to experiences by the self, and that transcendent knowledge is impossible.
2. Ethics .

a. any of various theories maintaining that moral judgments are statements concerning the emotional or mental reactions of the individual or the community.

b. any of several theories holding that certain states of thought or feeling are the highest good.

In society today, subjectivism is rampant.  There is a loss of objectivity, yet there must be a balance between the two, and never sacrificing objective truth for the feelings.  In prayer, people make the mistake of thinking that feelings towards prayer at a given moment somehow has an impact on it's efficacy.  Yet, the opposite is often true.  It is when we least feel like prayer and we pray; or, when we don't feel like going to Sunday Mass, but we go despite that "dryness" that it is most precious to God.  Here, it becomes a real act of love because now you do it not for your own sake, but for God's sake. 

Ponder whether feelings are truly the measure of what is good. On the moral front, we know that adultery and fornication are displeasing to God, so much so, that they were written in stone.  But many follow as the anything goes route, "if it feels good, do it".  There are probably more Christian couples cohabitating today than any other time, revealing a sad ignorance of Scripture and far less familiarity with Jesus.  Read Matthew 5:17-20.

17 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18* For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19* Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Others will use drugs, steal, defraud others, and even sexually assault and/or commit murder because it feels right at a given moment.  Those things are obvious, but it is the little things we are confronted with each day that we need to examine against something far greater than feelings.  The greatest metric we have is Jesus Christ and he did not live by feelings, but by objective truth.  The many martyrs of the Church would have felt just fine to avoid torture and stay alive, but they followed Christ in conquering feelings, with grace, for the sake of what was good and true.

There's much more that could be said on this and I think the topic of subjectivism needs to be looked at more deeply. 

You can find the full text of the Pope's speech at Zenit: http://www.zenit.org/article-32618?l=english

Catholic Culture has a few more links on this event and the organization.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Call to Holiness Conference - June 11 Metro Detroit

Click pic to visit the Call to Holiness Website (scroll down)

I'm still incredibly short on time.  If you click on my Twitter Feed here, or in my sidebar and scroll, you will see me passing along hot topics in Catholicism a few times daily. 

For now, I want to get word out about this conference and I hope you let others know.

From the CTH Newsletter about the 13th Conference:

Mark your calendars! Call to Holiness (CTH) will hold its 13th conference all day Saturday, June 11, 2011 at the Burton Manor in Livonia.


A Response to Call to Action
Call to Holiness was formed by the grace of God to shine the light of truth on the errors being promoted by Call to Action at their Detroit conference at Cobo Hall in November 1996. Call to Action (CTA) is an organization which dissents from Catholic Church authority and magisterial teachings. When Call to Action returns to Detroit in 2011, Call to Holiness will respond with a simultaneous conference with speakers faithful to the Magisterium. [continue reading the newsletter released in the summer of 2010 at the CTH website]

Archbishop Vigneron  has offered his support and blessing on the event:

DETAILS OF CONFERENCE AND OPTIONAL FRI/SUN ACTIVITIES

Tour five historic Detroit churches and Sacred Heart Seminary

Friday, June 10: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Choose the departure point for the bus tour:
· Burton Manor, 27777 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia  
· Assumption Grotto, 13770 Gratiot, Detroit

· Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, 2609 Tenth Street, Wyandotte

Sweetest Heart of Mary, Old St. Mary’s, Holy Family, St. Aloysius, and Ste. Anne. Mass and lunch at Sacred Heart Major Seminary are included for $50. Limited to 200 participants. The tour is part of the Call to Holiness Conference June 10 - 12, 2011. Register online at www.calltoholiness.com or call 313-451-4659.

Saturday, June 11: Speakers and Dinner

Jeff Cavins, Al Kresta, Raymond de Souza, Fr. Clement Machado, and Fr. Edmund McCaffrey speak during the day. Johnnette Benkovic will be the dinner speaker. The all day conference titled Call to FIDELITY: the Power of TRUTH will take place at Burton Manor in Livonia. Registration for the daytime speakers is $45, the dinner is $35 or attend both for $69 and save! Register online at www.calltoholiness.com or call 313-451-4659.

Sunday, June 12: DIA Catholic Art Tour and Talk

1:00 pm Detroit Institute of Arts Johnnette Benkovic speaking on Communicating Truth in the Culture of Our Day

2:00 pm Docent guided tour of DIA Medieval and Renaissance Catholic art

Registration is limited to 200 participants for $25 each. Register online as part of the Call to Holiness Conference at www.calltoholiness.com or call 313-451-4659.

Brochures and fliers for bulletins are available. Please call: 313-451-4659

HELP GET THE WORD OUT
There's so much more at the Call to Holiness website.  Please go there, click around, print off some posters and brochures and put them out (always obtain permission by the pastor before putting them out in parishes, and consider pinning some up around town where there are bulletin boards).  Most importantly, register now and reserve your seat.  Also consider donating to help with costs.

Bloggers, Tweeters, people on Facebook - please help get the word out about this conference.  You can right-click any of these banners for use on your site (sidebars, bottom of posts, etc).  Just attach this url so when people click on it, they can find details: http://calltoholiness.com

 

 

PAST CONFERENCES
Check out this interesting chart/list of past speakers.

You can see photoposts of prior Call to Holiness conferences in metro Detroit in these links (hint - you will want to follow links at the bottom of some of these to see more). 

• Call to Holiness in 2009
• Call to Holiness in 2007
• Call to Holiness in 2005

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

National Catholic Register's Twitter account hacked

Blogger was down for two days and I thought that was bad since there has been some interesting things happening in the world of Catholic news. 

I just went to NCRegister.com for the National Catholic Register, now owned by EWTN. I wondered why I had not seen them chirping. Here is what I found upon going to their site this evening. 

If you were following them on Twitter before, you'll want to go to http://twitter.com/NC_Register now and follow there. 

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Blogger is back....

For the better part of two days, I couldn't get into Blogger.  If you follow me on Twitter, or Facebook, you may have seen my posts there relaying this, and you will have seen the many interesting news items I was passing along.  I didn't miss the news; I just didn't get to blog it.

You were able to see most Blogger blogs because Google engineers put them into "read-only" mode. 

I read accounts of people moving to WordPress or other service because of this incident.  My attitude: Hey, it's a free service and the world doesn't start or stop because I can't blog.  I think in the nearly 5 years that I've been using Blogger, I can count on one hand how many times I was prevented from blogging for an extended period of time. Stuff happens on my home computer; it happens on my work computer.  Power goes out, internet goes out... yada, yada.  In time, you just learn to sit back and let the codies do their stuff and, like any Catholic should, offer it up!  

All kidding aside, I'd like to hear from others who switched to Word Press. What are the differences?  I might be too comfortable with Blogger.  What do I get in WP that I don't in Blogger?

I'll make a post to tomorrow to pass some things along in case you missed them.   Right now, my eyes tell me it's time for bed.  Good night!

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Happy Mother's Day to My Two Mothers...

Virgin Mary with infant Holy Child Jesus
Artist: Mark Sanislo

Today my thoughts turn to my two mothers: My birth mother, Rose, who passed into eternity two years ago, and my spiritual mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

My Mother Rose

My mother always wanted to have a dozen kids.  She beam from ear to ear upon seeing a large family.  Some years ago, in a previous parish I sometimes went to for Mass, she would marvel at a family that started coming to Mass with 9 children, and got all the more excited when we saw the mother come to Mass with yet another newborn.  For Mom, movies like "Cheaper By the Dozen" and "Yours, Mine and Ours", were among her favorites.  She loved children, but it was not meant for her to have more than three.  

Mom was never bashful about telling people, and reminding me in a joking manner, that I  ended the streak.  I gather from her explanations that I came into the world with such gusto that doctors were left with no choice but to do a hysterectomy.  It was disappointing for her.  Before and after my brother, the second oldest, she lost two babies to miscarriage.  Years later whenever she would recount this you could see the sadness in her eyes, followed by her characteristic expression, "oh well.... oh well, oh well".  She was resigned to the fact that God had other plans, but such pain can never fully be mitigated.  In recent years I have made it a habit to give Mom flowers on her birthday, and on Mother's Day with a simple message: Thanks Mom, for the gift of life! 

My Spiritual Mother, Mary

While my mother was devoted to Mary, it was my father's devotion to the Mother of God which ultimately led all of us to regard her as our spiritual mother.  I grew up in the 70's - a time in which Marian devotion fell either into neglect or attack in many quarters.  All that Mary stood for was in conflict with the feminist movement.  In my childhood parish, like many in the US, the Rosary and other Marian prayers were considered passé. 

Yet, who could be a greater sign of strength than Mary, who at such a young age didn't hesitate to say, "Yes!" to the Angel Gabriel, even though her pregnancy would raise many questions?  She shows us that strength is not found exclusively in muscle or in how well a woman can "man-up". Strength is manifested in giving up our own will for the will of God. 

Thankfully, Marian devotion, along with  Eucharistic devotion is on the rise, thanks in large part to Blessed John Paul II. 

I leave you with something from the Redemptoris Mater - the Encyclical written by Blesssed John Paul II on March 25, 1987 at New Advent.

22. We can therefore say that in this passage of John's Gospel we find as it were a first manifestation of the truth concerning Mary's maternal care. This truth has also found expression in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. It is important to note how the Council illustrates Mary's maternal role as it relates to the mediation of Christ. Thus we read: "Mary's maternal function towards mankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ but rather shows its efficacy," because "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5). This maternal role of Mary flows, according to God's good pleasure, "from the superabundance of the merits of Christ; it is founded on his mediation, absolutely depends on it and draws all its efficacy from it."(44). It is precisely in this sense that the episode at Cana in Galilee offers us a sort of first announcement of Mary's mediation, wholly oriented towards Christ and tending to the revelation of his salvific power.


From the text of John it is evident that it is a mediation which is maternal. As the Council proclaims: "Mary became "a mother to us in the order of grace." This motherhood in the order of grace flows from her divine motherhood. Because she was, by the design of divine Providence, the mother who nourished the divine Redeemer, Mary became "an associate of unique nobility, and the Lord's humble handmaid, " who "cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls."(45) And "this maternity of Mary in the order of grace . . . will last without interruption until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect."(46)

23. If John's description of the event at Cana presents Mary's caring motherhood at the beginning of Christ's messianic activity, another passage from the same Gospel confirms this motherhood in the salvific economy of grace at its crowning moment, namely when Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, his Paschal Mystery, is accomplished. John's description is concise: "Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother: 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (Jn 19:25-27).


Undoubtedly, we find here an expression of the Son's particular solicitude for his Mother, whom he is leaving in such great sorrow. And yet the "testament of Christ's Cross" says more. Jesus highlights a new relationship between Mother and Son, the whole truth and reality of which he solemnly confirms. One can say that if Mary's motherhood of the human race had already been outlined, now it is clearly stated and established. It emerges from the definitive accomplishment of the Redeemer's Paschal Mystery. The Mother of Christ, who stands at the very center of this mystery -- a mystery which embraces each individual and all humanity -- is given as mother to every single individual and all mankind. The man at the foot of the Cross is John, "the disciple whom he loved."(47) But it is not he alone. Following tradition, the Council does not hesitate to call Mary "the Mother of Christ and mother of mankind": since she "belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all human beings . . . Indeed she is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ . . . since she cooperated out of love so that there might be born in the Church the faithful.'"(48)


And so this "new motherhood of Mary," generated by faith, is the fruit of the "new" love which came to definitive maturity in her at the foot of the Cross, through her sharing in the redemptive love of her Son.

I would also like to extend a very happy and blessed Mother's Day to all mothers reading this blog.

---

For interesting news items I don't have time to blog on, check out my Twitter Feed: @TeDeumBlog

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.