The One: Philosopher King or Sophist?

Peter Wehner,"Our Sophist-in-Chief" (Commentary):

While I realize my efforts to decode Barack Obama may turn into a never-ending task, I want to focus on another of his rhetorical habits: his ceaseless attempts to portray himself as America's philosopher-king, the person standing not only above country but above politics itself. Obama is, he would have us believe, uniquely able to transcend old, tired, and rutted debates, to think anew, and to bring a fresh, creative approach to the problems of our time. He alone inhabits the upper world.

Whether it's the economy, health care, education, poverty, gay rights, the word is that "... the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory ...." On the last issue, for example, he says that "though we've made progress, there are still fellow citizens -- perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones -- who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes, who fail to see your families like their families and who would deny you the rights that most Americans take for granted."

What should one think about this? Wehner suggests the following:

• That what is most tired, old, and worn out is Obama's lazy rhetorical ploy. He relies on a few stock, and by now hackneyed, phrases to substitute for a serious engagement with issues.
• That his words reinforce the impression some of us have that his most dangerous personal characteristic is his other-worldly self-regard. He seems to believe he is unlike, and better than, any others who have come before him. He sees himself as a man of awe-inspiring intellectual honesty, a mind rinsed off of prejudice and bias.
• That "despite his pretensions to the contrary - [he] is a completely orthodox, doctrinaire liberal. His policies are strikingly uncreative and, if I might borrow from the Obama lexicon, tired, old, dogmatic, ideological, and discredited. Is a top-down, government-controlled, tax-and-spend approach to economics fresh, new, and interesting? As President, Obama has shown no intellectual boldness when it comes to his policies. Most of his reforms are hollow and non-existent... More than any president in modern times, he is deferring to barons on the Hill to steer the ship of state. Whatever that qualifies as, it is not a break with worn-out ideas and the politics of the past.
• That Obama fashions himself as the Great Liberator - freeing us from old arguments, old creeds, and old ways. Mentioning the past is meant to evoke barely disguised contempt; it is the harbor for antediluvian prejudices. Obama alone can remake the rules and remake the world. There is something vaguely utopian and deeply un-conservative in Obama's attitude. And, I might add, deeply unwise and dangerous as well.

Wehner concludes: "Barack Obama, it turns out, is not our Socrates; he is our Sophist-in-Chief. As this becomes clearer over time, more and more people will make their way up the steep and rugged ascent, out of the cave, free of the shadows, and into the sunlight."

[Hat tip to E.E.]

"Wyatt, you're an OAK!"

[Hat tip to American Catholic, via C.B. See also La Republica]

Motu Proprio "Ecclesiae Unitatem" - in English

APOSTOLIC LETTER
ECCLESIAE UNITATEM
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
GIVEN MOTU PROPRIO

1. The role of guarding THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH, with the solicitude of offering to all aid for responding in an opportune manner to this vocation and divine grace, belongs in a particular way to the Successor of the Apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity both of Bishops and of the faithful[1]. The supreme and fundamental priority of the Church, in every age, of leading men towards an encounter with God must be favored through the effort of promoting the common witness of faith of all Christians.

2. In faithfulness to this mandate, following the act with which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, illicitly conferred the episcopal ordination on four priests, Pope John Paul II, of venerable memory, instituted, on July 2, 1988, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei "whose task of collaborating with the bishops, with the Departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Fraternity founded by Mons. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Mons. Lefebvre"[2].

3. In this way faithfully adhering to the same purpose of serving the universal communion of the Church also in her visible manifestation and making every effort so that to all those who truly desire unity it is made possible to remain in it or to find it anew, We have desired to widen and renew, with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the general indications already contained in the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei regarding the possibility of using the Missale Romanum of 1962, through more precise and detailed rules[3].

4. In the same spirit, and with the same commitment of favoring the overcoming of each fracture and division in the Church and to heal a wound felt in an always more painful way in the ecclesial tissue, We desired to remit the excommunication of the four Bishops illicitly ordained by Mons. Lefebvre. With such a decision, We intended to remove an obstacle which could prevent the opening of a door to dialogue, and thus invite the Bishops and the "Fraternity of Saint Pius X" to find anew the path towards full communion with the Church. As We explained in the Letter to the Catholic Bishops of past March 10, the remission of the excommunication was a decision in the area of ecclesiastical discipline which could liberate the weight of conscience represented by the gravest ecclesiastical censure. The doctrinal questions, however, obviously remain, and, until they are not clarified, the Fraternity does not have a canonical status within the Church, and its ministers cannot exercise any ministry legitimately.

5. Since the questions which must be dealt with the Fraternity are of an essentially doctrinal nature, We have decided - twenty-one years after the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei, and as We had planned to do[4] - to restructure the Commission Ecclesia Dei, linking it more directly with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

6. Therefore, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei will be constituted thus:

a) The President of the Commission is the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

b) The Commission has its own structure, including a Secretary and Officials.

c) It belongs to the President, aided by the Secretary, to present the main events and questions of a doctrinal nature to the study and deliberation of the ordinary instances of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as to submit the conclusions to the superior judgment of the Supreme Pontiff.

7. With this decision, We have desired, in particular, to display our fatherly solicitude to the "Fraternity of Saint Pius X" so that in the end it may come to full communion with the Church.

We earnestly invite all to pray to the Lord incessantly, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "ut unum sint".


Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on July 2 of the year 2009, the fifth of Our Pontificate.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Notes:

1. Cfr Conc. Oecum. Vat. II, Const. dogm. de Ecclesia, Lumen gentium, 23; Conc. Oecum. Vat. I, Const. dogm. de Ecclesia Christi Pastor aeternus, c. 3: DS 3060.

2. Ioannes Paulus II, Litt. ap. motu proprio datae Ecclesia Dei (2 Iulii 1988), n. 6: AAS 80 (1988), 1498.

3. Cfr Benedictus XVI, Litt. ap. motu proprio datae Summorum Pontificum (7 Iulii 2007): AAS 99 (2007), 777-781.

4. Cfr ibid. art. 11, 781.

[Hat tip to the ever vigilant New Catholic for his post at Rorate Caeli, July 8, 2009.]

Substance, Accident, and Transubstantiation

by
Peter A. Kwasniewski


Abraham Bloemaert, Supper at Emmaus

The priest celebrating the traditional Roman Rite whispers in the midst of consecrating the Precious Blood: “mysterium fidei.” Indeed, the Real Presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is among the greatest mysteries of our faith. Over the millennia the Catholic Church has lovingly pondered this mystery, and her great theologians, while humbly acknowledging reason’s limits in probing what is divine and supernatural, have nevertheless been able to offer a reasoned defense of it against all objections that unbelief and heresy have hurled against it. In the modern world, where materialism, scientism, skepticism, and similar views reign supreme, the mysterious change that the Church calls “transubstantiation” has its mockers and would-be debunkers — even, sadly, conscientious or de facto dissenters within the ranks of the Church, such as the modernists who populate many a Catholic university, seminary, or chancery. As Catholics who seek to understand and live our faith more deeply, we need to make an effort to get hold of the common-sense philosophy of reality that provides the Church with the raw materials for her dogmatic definition of transubstantiation. If we do this, we stand a better chance of achieving clear (or in any case, clearer) thinking about this wondrous work of God and thus of being in a position to speak of it to others. In his encyclical Mysterium Fidei (1965), Pope Paul VI said, apropos the Magisterium’s use of philosophically refined language in formulating Eucharistic dogma:

These formulas [of the Council of Trent] — like the others that the Church used to propose the dogmas of faith — express concepts that are not tied to a certain specific form of human culture, or to a certain level of scientific progress, or to one or another theological school. Instead they set forth what the human mind grasps of reality through necessary and universal experience and what it expresses in apt and exact words, whether it be in ordinary or more refined language. For this reason, these formulas are adapted to all men of all times and all places. (§24)

This article will attempt to show just what the Church’s formulas mean and how the mystery, while never ceasing to be a marvel and a miracle past all human thought, can nonetheless be clarified to the mind so that it no longer seems a colossal contradiction or impossibility. In short, we offer to the reader a modest essay in what the Father of Scholasticism, St. Anselm, called “faith seeking understanding.”

[Read the rest of this article here: "Substance, Accident, and Transubstantiation" (Scripture and Catholic Tradition, July 5, 2009), reprinted there by permission of Peter A. Kwasniewski and Latin Mass Magazine, 391 E. Virginia Terrace, Santa Paula, CA 93060.]

Local progress of EF Mass, ever ancient, ever new

Tridentine Community News (July 5, 2009):

Welcome Fr. Ross Bartley, Fr. John Johnson, & Fr. Robert Marczewski

Windsor and metro Detroit have gained three additional priest supporters of the Extraordinary Form Mass. First, the Diocese of London has assigned Fr. Ross Bartley [pictured left] to be the Assistant Pastor of Windsor’s Assumption Church, effective June 30. This assignment was made in part to support Assumption’s merger with Holy Name of Mary Parish. Ordinary Form Masses will continue at Holy Name of Mary Church, which is now officially a worship site of Assumption Parish.

Second, Fr. John Johnson has been appointed pastor of the new cluster of St. Teresa and St. Vincent de Paul Churches in Windsor.

Frs. Bartley and Johnson were previously assigned to the northern part of the diocese, near Stratford. Both are friends of Extraordinary Form advocate Fr. Paul Nicholson and have attended training on the Mass. We hope that their presence and schedules will permit additional Tridentine Masses, and more frequent Solemn High Masses, in both Windsor and Detroit. Lest there be any misconception, however, Fr. Peter Hrytsyk remains the chaplain and principal celebrant for the Tridentine Mass at Assumption Church.

On the other side of the river, Fr. Robert Marczewski, formerly of the Philadelphia area, has moved to our region to join the faculty of Orchard Lake’s Ss. Cyril & Methodius Seminary. Fr. Marczewski is currently learning the Extraordinary Form of Holy Mass and hopes to join St. Josaphat’s roster of celebrants starting in September.

We are always looking for additional priests and deacons who are interested in learning the Extraordinary Form. They do not need to commit to helping out at our churches, though they are welcome to do so if they wish. If you know of any who may be curious, please e-mail the address at the bottom of this page, and we will arrange training.

St. Albertus Church Schedules Additional Tridentine Masses

Besides the obvious appeal of holding Holy Mass in this beautiful church, these Masses will provide the option of attending the Tridentine Mass at noon for those who may find that time convenient. On months with a St. Albertus Mass, you will have the option of noon Tridentine Masses twice per month, once at St. Joseph and once at St. Albertus. Masses at St. Albertus will not be held on the Fourth Sunday of the month, so as not to conflict with St. Joseph’s Tridentine Mass.

EWTN Uses Assumption-Windsor’s Chant Sheets

On Wednesday, July 1, EWTN broadcast a Pontifical Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago. As one could see in one of the EWTN screen shots, Michel Ozorak’s Chant Sheets were used by the subdeacon and deacon to chant the Epistle and Gospel, respectively. This is quite an honor, and indicative of the uniqueness of his work. Michel is considering publishing a book of these sheets once more of the liturgical year has been completed.

Incidentally, it is a sign of the times that the newsworthy item here is not that a Tridentine Mass was broadcast on EWTN, or even that it was the first time that it was celebrated by a bishop. In that regard, the extraordinary has truly become ordinary.

Upcoming Special Sung Masses

St. Josaphat continues to hold Tridentine High Masses (Missa Cantata) on many of the First and Second Class Feast Days which specify a Gloria and Credo. Below is the schedule through the end of 2009, excluding Christmas Eve and Day. Unless otherwise specified, all Masses are at 7:00 PM.

Thursday, August 6: Transfiguration
Saturday, August 15 (9:30 AM): Assumption (Holy Day)
Saturday, August 22 (9:30 AM): Immaculate Heart
Thursday, September 8: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
Monday, September 14: Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Tuesday, September 15: Seven Sorrows of the BVM
Monday, September 21: St. Matthew the Apostle
Tuesday, September 29: Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel
Wednesday, October 28: Ss. Simon & Jude
Monday, November 2: All Souls
Monday, November 9: Dedication of Archbasilica of Our Savior
Monday, November 30: St. Andrew the Apostle
Tuesday, December 8: Immaculate Conception (Holy Day)
Monday, December 21: St. Thomas the Apostle
Monday, December 28: Holy Innocents

A 7:00 PM High Mass is also planned for the Friday visit of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima to Sweetest Heart of Mary Church this fall. Low Masses will be held for its visits to St. Josaphat and St. Joseph. Details will be announced later.

We thank those who have been attending the special weekday sung Masses thus far, as it is your support that is encouraging the continuation of this program.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for July 5, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]

Prayer request

I solicit your kind intercessory prayers on behalf of a special intention of serious personal consequence.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
P.B.

Surprise! Femi-nuns Find Themselves Under the Microscope?

by Pieter Vree
The increasing number of Catholics who have been calling for the Vatican to exert more influence on the Catholic Church in the U.S. are about to get their wish.

No sooner had the ink dried on our May 2009 New Oxford Note "Song of the Boo-Birds" about the now-underway apostolic visitation of U.S. women's religious orders that it was announced that the Holy See is preparing an additional investigation of consecrated women in the U.S.

As detailed in that New Oxford Note, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) was directed by Pope Benedict XVI to "look into the quality of life" at the general and provincial houses and centers of initial formation of women religious in the U.S. This visitation, led by the Rev. Mother Mary Claire Millea, will take an estimated two years to complete.

The new investigation, by contrast, has been placed under the purview of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which will make a "doctrinal assessment" of the tenor and content of various addresses given at the annual assemblies of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The LCWR is the nation's largest organization of administrators of women's religious orders, claiming over 1,500 members, who together represent around 95 percent of the 58,000 women religious in the U.S. No small potatoes. The LCWR also happens to be the bastion of leftist feminism in the U.S. Catholic Church. The LCWR's mission statement includes this choice line: "Developing models for initiating and strengthening relationships with groups concerned with the needs of society, thereby maximizing the potential of the conference for effecting change." One of the LCWR's stated purposes is "collaborating in Catholic church and societal efforts that influence systemic change." Judging by this chirping about "change," one could easily conclude that the LCWR fancies itself the political body of the institutional revolution in religious life since Vatican II.

That a national leadership conference should be the subject of a doctrinal inquiry by the Holy See is "virtually unprecedented," says the always informative Vatican insider John L. Allen Jr. (National Catholic Reporter, May 1), because such tasks are commonly left to the competence of national bishops' conferences. Moreover, that the CDF, the highest doctrinal office in the Church, is spearheading the investigation — as opposed to the CICLSAL, which has jurisdiction over religious orders — suggests that Rome has grave concerns about the theological currents emanating from the LCWR's assemblies. Here is one instance in which Benedict's curious selection of William Cardinal Levada as prefect of the CDF will be of benefit: The American cardinal should have no trouble decoding "nuance" in the LCWR material to be scrutinized.

With three investigations concurrently underway — U.S. women's religious orders, the Legion of Christ (see the preceding New Oxford Note), and the LCWR — no one can say that the Vatican is sitting on its collective hands these days. Indeed, Rome has been a hotbed of activity of late.

The LCWR was apprised of the CDF's intent to investigate in a letter from Cardinal Levada dated February 20 and received March 10. He wrote that the investigation became necessary when, at their 2001 annual meeting, the CDF instructed the LCWR to "report on the initiatives taken or planned" to promote three areas of doctrinal concern: the CDF's 1986 "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons"; Pope John Paul II's 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacer­dotalis, which reiterated Church teaching on the all-male priesthood; and the CDF's 2001 declaration Dominus Iesus, which emphasized the uniqueness of the Catholic Church in the economy of salvation. Evidently, in the ensuing eight years, the report was never submitted. In his letter, Cardinal Levada wrote, "Given both the tenor and doctrinal content of various addresses given at the annual assemblies of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the intervening years, this Dicastery can only conclude that the problems which had motivated its request in 2001 continue to be present."

After consulting with Franc Cardinal Rodé, prefect of the CICLSAL, Cardinal Levada decided it was time to take action. He tapped Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine, to lead the inquiry. Cardinal Rodé will assist Cardinal Levada in determining what measures will be necessary once Bishop Blair submits his completed report. (No timetable has been given.)

Donna Steichen, author of Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism, the groundbreaking 1991 exposé of U.S. women's religious orders, said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com (Apr. 22) that she welcomes the CDF's inquiry, but that it's "at least 30 years behind the need." Steichen also pointed out that "the [religious] communities involved [in the LCWR] have almost completed their suicides, and they know it, and it gives them pause for thought."

The shaky future of women's religious orders in the U.S. was the theme of the keynote address at the LCWR's 2007 annual conference. Titled "A Marginal Life: Pursuing Holiness in the 21st Century" [PDF] and delivered by Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Laurie Brink, this talk "aroused particular concern" at the CDF, reports Jack Smith, editor of The Catholic Key, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. In her discussion of the decline of women's religious congregations in modern times, Sr. Brink identified four possible future paths for struggling congregations. The "dynamic option," she said, "involves moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus." This is the path chosen by what she termed the "sojourning" congregation. This type of congregation "is no longer ecclesiastical. It has grown beyond the bounds of institutional religion. Its search for the Holy may have begun rooted in Jesus as the Christ, but deep reflection, study and prayer have opened it up to the spirit of the Holy in all of creation." Sr. Brink continued, "Ecclesiastical authorities no longer fit this congregation, which in most respects is Post-Christian." Why post-Christian? Because "Jesus is not the only son of God. Salvation is not limited to Christians."

If this is the path women's congregations have chosen for themselves, it's no wonder they're dying off. Who's ever heard of a "post-Christian" vocation? Sojourning is the suicidal option.

But Sr. Brink seems to indicate that this indeed was the path chosen by a great many communities after Vatican II, and her description reads like a laundry list of heresies and errors:

• "When religious communities embraced the spirit of renewal in the 1970s, they took seriously that the world was no longer the enemy, that a sense of ecumenism required encountering the holy 'other,' and that the God of Jesus might well be the God of Moses and the God of Mohammed…." Here we have the error of restricted indifferentism, which Pope Gregory XVI called "rotten," a "base opinion," and "a prolific cause of evils."
  
  
• "The emergence of the women's movement with its concomitant critique of religion invited women everywhere to use a hermeneutical lens of suspicion when reading the androcentric Scriptures and the texts of the Tradition. With a new lens, women also began to see the divine within nature, the value and importance of the cosmos, and that the emerging new cosmology encouraged their spirituality and fed their souls." Here we have a warped feminist reading of the foundational aspects of the Church, as well as pantheism, which was condemned by Pope Pius IX in his "Syllabus of Errors."
  
  
• "Who's to say that the movement beyond Christ is not, in reality, a movement into the very heart of God? A movement the ecclesiastical system would not recognize…. But a whole new way that is also not Catholic Religious Life. The Benedictine Women of Madison are the most current example I can name. Their commitment to ecumenism leads them beyond the exclusivity of the Catholic Church into a new inclusivity, where all manner of seeking God is welcomed. They are certainly religious women, but they are no longer women religious as it is defined by the Roman Catholic Church. They choose as a congregation to step outside the Church in order to step into a greater sense of holiness." Here we have a clear-cut case of willful apostasy on the part of a religious congregation that has chosen to turn away from the light of the Catholic faith. This, surely, is the unhappy end of the "sojourning" congregation: the casting of oneself into outer darkness.

St. Paul said that the Gospel of Christ "is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4). It is no coincidence that an embrace of worldly ideologies blinds one's mind to the glory of the Gospel of Christ, leading to death — even the death of entire religious congregations.

Are we witnessing the death throes of an ill-conceived revolution gone horribly awry? Hilary White reported for LifeSiteNews.com (Aug. 8, 2008) that the "ideologies of radical feminism that infiltrated the women's orders represented by LCWR have been shown to be instrumental in the collapse of women's vocations. While thousands left their orders in the 1960s and 1970s, the number of young women applying to enter the LCWR communities dropped to nearly nothing and has not significantly increased." Sr. Brink too recognizes that "death" is the "default mode" of religious congregations whose "self-image is stuck in the 1970s." These she calls "zombie congregations."

Ah, but the outlook isn't all doom and despair. Donna Steichen insists that the "future clearly lies with the new and reformed young orders of, one might say, 'primitive' observance" — i.e., congregations that practice a markedly more orthodox Catholic faith. Many of these new orders belong to a smaller, newer umbrella organization, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, which was given canonical status by the Vatican in 1995, and is viewed as the levelheaded "conservative" counterpart to the fatal liberal wackiness of the LCWR. As one would expect, the LCWR is openly hostile to these upstart congregations. Sr. Brink accuses them of "making choices that a generation ago would have been anathema to their members," such as putting the habit back on and catering to "seemingly conservative young adults." But, Sr. Brink admits, such congregations "are flourishing."

One of the reasons John Allen gives for the CDF's "unusual" sponsorship of the doctrinal inquiry is that since 1959 the LCWR has also had canonical status as an official entity of the Church. Therefore, the CDF has the capacity to issue "official recommendations or mandates" to the LCWR, whereas the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops can only offer "non-binding guidance." The CDF also has the ability to alter or revoke the LCWR's canonical status. "The implied threat," Allen suggests, is that the Vatican could leave the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious as "the lone official representative of women religious in the United States."

This outcome, however remote, would accord well with Pope Benedict XVI's concept of "evangelical pruning" of institutions in the Church whose Catholic identity has been compromised. When he was elected Pope, much was made of this quote from an interview published in the 1997 Ignatius title Salt of the Earth: "Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the Church's history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intense struggle against evil and bring good into the world — that let God in."

If something along the lines of the marginalization or the abolition of the LCWR were to come to pass, then we would be able to stand up and say we have witnessed the full blooming of the Ratzinger papacy.

[The foregoing article by New Oxford Review editor Peter Vree, "Surprise! Femi-nuns Find Themselves Under the Microscope?," was originally published as a New Oxford Note in New Oxford Review (June 2009), pp. 18-20, and is reproduced here by kind permission of New Oxford Review, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706.]

“They Don’t Build ‘em Like This Any More” Or Do They? – Part 3 of 3

Tridentine Community News (June 28, 2009):

In addition to the resurgence of construction of traditionally-designed churches, there is also a growing trend towards church restoration, or “un-wreckovation”. Some diocesan Building Departments are apparently relaxing their restrictions on restorations, which used to be as tightly regulated as new construction. Formerly whitewashed and modified churches are being restored to their original designs or better. High altars are being constructed, communion rails added, and murals painted. Churches both historic and relatively new are being outfitted in traditional, ornate fashion by interior design firms such as Mazzolini Artcraft, Murals by Jericho, King Richard’s, Fynders Keepers, and the granddaddy of them all, Conrad Schmitt Studios.

Schmitt is known for handling some of the largest and most detailed church restoration projects in North America. Stained glass, statuary, murals, and mosaics are all part of their design and construction capabilities. The below photo of Milwaukee’s Basilica of St. Josaphat is an example of the extraordinary level of detail that they are known for. Every nook and cranny of the space is devoted to serious sacred art. The building also makes use of imaginative cove lighting to illuminate some of the murals.


Lower profile local craftsmen also play key roles, such as John Nalepa, who has worked on St. Josaphat, St. Joseph, and many of Detroit’s historic churches. A beautiful example of the work of individual skilled artisans is the recently restored St. Aloysius Church in Olivia, Minnesota, pictured below.


Restoration can also incorporate new elements that benefit church design. For instance, there are superior lighting technologies available today that can illuminate a church better as well as focus attention on appropriate areas of the sanctuary. A visitor to St. Louis, Missouri’s Shine of St. Joseph will immediately be struck by the impressive, high-tech spotlighting of the high altar. The improved technology of modern sound systems helps everyone hear more clearly what is being preached. More efficient HVAC systems, insulation, and sealing make churches more comfortable and economical to operate. None of this need interfere with the architectural message that classic church design is meant to convey. One must resist the temptation to carry things too far, however. Power Point projection screens would be completely inappropriate to the ethos of the Extraordinary Form liturgy.

What must be done to bring about a wider-ranging return to traditional sacred architecture? First, there must be catechesis concerning the history of and rationale for universal church design standards, especially those established by St. Charles Borromeo. This awareness must be spread among everyone from parishioners, to clergy, to members of diocesan Building Departments, to national Bishops’ Conferences. Church design ideas did not start in 1965. Second, accommodation for possible celebration of the Extraordinary Form of Holy Mass must be made in architectural plans. This trend is growing, and many seminarians have an interest in it; it isn’t going away. The Extraordinary Form mandates certain design elements whose presence reduces the number of opportunities for errors or omissions in the plans. Third, architects and fundraisers need to make convincing cases that there is merit in spending more money to surpass the rec-room look of so many modern churches. Do we really need another drop-ceiling, fluorescent light, simple wooden altar-table design? The Church is not a franchise; all “branches” need not look the same. Newly-established parishes building their first churches, and existing parishes replacing outmoded churches, must make a conscious choice for the sacred rather than the mass-produced look, just as our ancestors did during the local church construction boom years of 1870-1930.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for June 28, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]

U.S. Seminaries: Condition Stabilized

by Dale Vree
Perhaps you saw the headline earlier this year: "Vatican reports most U.S. seminaries are generally healthy." If you missed it, you're not the only one. The results of the long-awaited "apostolic visitation of U.S. seminaries" were released by the Vatican way back on December 15, 2008 -- but news of the report didn't begin filtering out in the American press until mid-January when the U.S. bishops posted a response to the report by Boston's Sean Cardinal O'Malley. Given the scant attention paid to the report in the media, it is likely that this tidbit passed many by. Even those reports that attempted to sum up the 20-page document on the moral and intellectual life of U.S. seminaries seemed to gloss over the most noteworthy aspects of the findings, instead opting for a sanitized "all is well" synopsis. It is instructive to note that the U.S. bishops themselves seemed none too keen on drawing attention to the Vatican report. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) didn't even bother to send out a press release; the report itself, though available, is buried deep in the USCCB website.

So, what did the report actually say, and why aren't the U.S. bishops promoting it?

A little bit of background first. In his book Goodbye, Good Men, published a full seven years ago, NOR Associate Editor Michael S. Rose concretely and vividly described how certain vocations directors and seminaries screen out or persecute manly orthodox men while homosexuals and dissenters are welcomed and proceed to ordination. The book was researched and written in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the clerical sex-abuse scandals of 2002. Rose was one step ahead of a situation that caught most of the Catholic world by surprise. Given the history of out-in-the-open and flagrant homosexuality at certain seminaries discussed by Rose, Goodbye, Good Men went a long way in explaining how we could have had so many moral degenerates in the priesthood in recent decades. Not only did the book make The New York Times bestseller list, it was reportedly widely read in and around Rome. While it is difficult to trace the influence of any particular book, Goodbye, Good Men did, without a doubt, introduce into the mainstream the terms "lavender mafia" and "pink palace."

A few short months after the book's release, Pope John Paul II held a Vatican summit with all the U.S. cardinals. One result of that surprise emergency meeting was a call for another Vatican investigation of U.S. seminaries: "A new and serious Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and other institutes of formation must be made without delay, with particular emphasis on the need for fidelity to the Church's teaching, especially in the area of morality, and the need for a deeper study of the criteria of suitability of candidates to the priesthood." (A previous systematic on-site investigation of seminaries ordered by the Pope in 1981 was generally regarded as a whitewash, having been delegated to certain unreliable U.S. bishops with the expectation that they would effectively investigate themselves.)

As for the line about "the criteria of suitability of candidates to the priesthood," John L. Allen Jr., the National Catholic Reporter's Rome correspondent, explained its meaning (May 3, 2002): "Observers took this point as an oblique way of calling for a much tougher policy concerning the admission of homosexuals to seminary study. [Bishop Wilton] Gregory [then-president of the USCCB] lent weight to this perception during an April 23 press briefing, acknowledging the existence of a ‘homosexual atmosphere and dynamic' in some seminaries.... Gregory called for ‘an ongoing struggle to be sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men.' Conservative Catholic commentators...have argued that tolerance of a ‘homosexual subculture' in the priesthood was partly to blame [for the priestly sex scandals].... The summit endorsed that view." In other words, while Rose was being smeared by conservative Catholic publications, banned from appearing on EWTN, and threatened with a libel suit by one seminary, the Vatican summit essentially affirmed what he reported in Goodbye, Good Men.

It took three years to organize, but the Apostolic Visitation (meaning an investigation commissioned by bishops) took place from September 2005 to May 2006, with 117 investigators visiting all 229 U.S. seminaries. It then took another two-and-a-half years for the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education to digest the data, produce its findings, and offer its recommendations to the U.S. bishops. After all that, the USCCB has done little to publicize the results. Why? Certainly not because it isn't a hot-button issue relevant to the health of the Church in the U.S. After all, seminaries are the seedbed of the priesthood. This is where vocations come to germinate, where men come to be formed and educated and trained as the future leaders of our parishes and other Catholic institutions. The health of seminaries is relevant to every believing Catholic -- and more than a few others.

One possible reason for the bishops' reticence is that the Vatican report vindicates all the general critical claims made in Goodbye, Good Men. Though couched in carefully diplomatic Vatican language, the report also uses unusually blunt terms, especially in its criticism of seminaries run by religious orders. That being said, the assessment also gives American Catholics some authentic cause for hope. Generally speaking, most U.S. seminaries are in better shape -- morally, spiritually, and intellectually -- than they were a dozen years ago. That's good news, yes; but there's still much work to be done if the state of American seminaries is to be considered healthy and robust. Thankfully, the Vatican report clearly identifies several problem areas and proposes simple, viable solutions.

Four basic problem areas are worthy of a closer look: the dissidence of some seminary faculty members who are contemptuous of Church teaching; the "ambiguity" about homosexuality in the seminary and the priesthood (including cases of accepting homosexuality as a part of seminary life); the liturgical and devotional life of seminarians; and the teaching on the nature of the Catholic priesthood itself. Not surprisingly, these were the four basic areas of seminary life that received extensive treatment in Goodbye, Good Men.

First, the most obvious problem is the employment of professors and spiritual directors who reject Church teaching, something the report notes was not news to most seminary rectors. The report reminds bishops that procedures exist to fire such dissenting faculty members, and notes that these procedures "are not invoked as often as they should be." What the report calls a "lack of harmony" in the formation of priests "is almost always" due to educators "being less than faithful to the Magisterium of the Church." We're talking about priests, nuns, and laymen who do not believe what the Church teaches on essential matters of faith and morals, including the nature of the priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. "Quite often," the report states, "the Visitation discovered one or more faculty members who, although not speaking openly against Church teaching, let the students understand -- through hints, off-the-cuff remarks, etc. -- their disapproval of some articles of Magisterial teaching." But in other places the dissent was flagrant: "particularly in some schools of theology run by religious [orders], dissent is widespread" in the area of moral theology, which includes the Church's teaching on sexual morality. "It is not rare in religious institutes to find basic tenets of Catholic moral doctrine being called into question."

Obviously, one of the issues of moral theology concerns homosexuality, and on this subject the report notes that "ambiguities still exist," again, especially in seminaries and "houses of formation" run by religious orders. The report urges seminary educators and evaluators to continue to watch candidates for signs of homosexual tendencies and underscores the importance of the Vatican instruction that prohibits accepting as candidates men who experience deep-seated homosexual attractions. Just as Archbishop Wilton Gregory admitted, the Vatican is concerned that seminaries -- in the U.S. and elsewhere -- ought not become magnets for the homosexual subculture. The report confirmed that homosexual seminary subcultures were a problem by acknowledging that "homosexual behavior" is now on the wane in U.S. seminaries, though it still persists: "Of course, here and there some case or other of immorality -- again, usually homosexual behavior -- continues to show up."

Another significant problem identified by the report is that in some seminaries, again particularly those run by religious orders, the teaching on the nature of the Catholic priesthood itself is distorted. The report noted that students in some seminaries have an "insufficient grasp" of Catholic teaching on the distinction between the common priesthood of the faithful and the hierarchical priesthood. The report also observed that seminaries are hampered by "mistaken" fears of offending those "who judge the reservation of the Sacrament of Holy Orders [priesthood] to men alone as discriminatory." In other words, they're buying into the concept of women's ordination. Another problem is that the discipline of clerical celibacy is too often called into question. Generally speaking, however, the report states that "chastity" education appears to be "adequate" in all of the U.S. seminaries. Still, the Vatican evaluators recommended stronger oversight of seminarians during their free time, including monitoring their use of the Internet.

The report also points to the decline in many seminaries, widely reported anecdotally by priests and seminarians, of the traditional Catholic devotional life. The report called it "profoundly regrettable" that many seminaries do not include such practices as the Rosary as a normal part of the day-to-day life of students. "Some institutes even have an atmosphere that discourages traditional acts of Catholic piety -- which begs the question as to whether the faculty's ideas of spirituality are consonant with Church teaching and tradition.... Unless a great many seminaries introduce regular recitation of the Rosary, novenas, litanies, Stations of the Cross, and so on, the seminarians will lack an education in the sacramentals and will be unprepared for ministry in the Church, which greatly treasures these practices." Blunt words for the Vatican, to be sure. It should be noted, however, that the report lays the blame at the feet of seminary administrations, and actually praised the seminarians themselves, saying, "Almost without exception, the seminarians show authentic apostolic zeal and possess a ‘Catholic' vision of Church life." This is what one wants to hear. And from all indications, 21st-century seminarians, on the whole, are much more tradition-minded and orthodox than their instructors and other priests ordained a generation before them.

Lending credence to reports that U.S. seminaries are "generally healthy," the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education concludes: "This visitation has demonstrated that, since the 1990s, a greater sense of stability now prevails in the U.S. seminaries. The appointment, over time, of rectors who are wise and faithful to the Church has meant a gradual improvement, at least in the diocesan seminaries."

Next up: the Vatican has ordered an apostolic visitation of women's religious orders in the United States, with an eye toward revitalizing and renewing religious life.

[The forgoing article was originally published as one of the New Oxford Notes in New Oxford Review (April 2009), and is reproduced here by kind permission of New Oxford Review, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706.]

Tea bags will not stop this

A very insightful piece by Peter Wehner, "Decoding Obama" (Commentary), begins thus:

In the course of only five months, President Obama has reached into his bag and pulled out a dazzling number of misleading rhetorical tricks.

Let’s begin with his much-touted claim that his Administration is responsible for having “saved or created” at least 150,000 American jobs, even though we have shed well over a million jobs since Obama took office. Jesus may have turned water into wine – but even He did not claim to have turned job losses into job gains. That is the picture Obama is trying to portray. Of course, to place an empirical figure on the number of jobs Obama has “saved” is risible; if Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush had tried to get away with such a stunt, they would have been ridiculed and criticized mercilessly. Among the largely supine and compliant Obama press corps, however, the claim is reported as if it were written on tablets of stone.

... and the rest is well-worth reading. Then, Wehner followed that up by a piece entitled "Still decoding Obama" (Commentary), in which he writes:

In reading more of his comments, I’ve noticed a tendency that now almost qualifies as a reflex: the more strongly the president denies something — and especially, the more he mocks his critics and feigns amusement at what they say — the greater the odds are that he will do what he denies.

... Here’s the thing, though: in every one of these instances Obama is not only doing something different than what he said, he’s doing very nearly the opposite of what he says. Obama’s “light touch” is turning out to be as intrusive a set of actions by the federal government as we have seen. He is “growing government” in record-shattering ways. Facing a staggering deficit and debt, Obama has decided to hit the accelerator rather than pump the brakes when it comes to federal spending. Facing a deficit and debt he calls unsustainable, Obama is adding trillions to them. He actually is running GM. He really is trying to engineer a government takeover of health care. His health-care plan may be the single worst thing he could do for America’s long-term fiscal health. And his Justice Department has acknowledged that FBI agents have read terrorist suspects their Miranda rights.

... [Obama] uses soothing words that come across as reassuring and reasonable. The problem comes when you examine what he says versus what he does. And by that standard, Mr. Obama is turning out to be almost promiscuously misleading. He is not yet Bill Clinton, who belongs in a category all his own — but Obama is taking up residence in the same zip code, which is troubling enough. And for those of us who thought Obama, whatever his political ideology, would bring intellectual integrity to his words and his tenure, it is disappointing. It is hardly the change we were promised. But I imagine that it will catch up with him sooner or later — and when it does, the man who promised to be the antidote to cynicism will only deepen it.

[Hat tip to Prof. E.E.]

Muggeridge vs. "liberal" power mongers

Well, of course this is an old saw, and there is such a thing as just power and just government, but Muggeridge's point does get at the thorny issue of evil and sin in human history.

[Hat tip to S.K.]

“They Don’t Build ‘em Like This Any More” Or Do They? – Part 2 of 3

Tridentine Community News (June 21, 2009):

Some of the churches and chapels served by the Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King are either new construction or retrofits of churches built for other denominations. Those churches have a certain beauty, but are often quite small. Because these churches are used exclusively for the Extraordinary Form, high altars against the wall are the norm. Their small size means they often lack an element of the vertical that leaves them out of the league of the majestic kinds of churches we are mainly addressing in this series of columns. The FSSP’s new church in Naples, Florida, pictured below, is representative of such projects. This particular photo displays one of the frustrating realities that small churches can impose: The sanctuary is so small that sacred ministers may have to be outside the Communion Rail.


While even small-scale new construction of a traditional style is commendable, it seems that just a little more verticality in the design would achieve a more inspirational atmosphere. Consider Detroit’s Holy Family Church. Holy Family is relatively small, yet its proportionately high ceiling and bounteous sacred art give it the feel of a larger edifice. Adding some height would be possible in new construction of small churches, but is probably not likely when an existing structure is adapted.

One of the most impressive projects completed in recent years is an SSPX church: St. Isidore the Farmer near Denver, Colorado [click here for image]. Whatever one thinks of the SSPX, one has to admit that this is an impressive structure. Construction began in 1999. This church combines all of the elements of traditional church layout specified as the norm by St. Charles Borromeo at the time of the Council of Trent. The priest’s commentary on their web site reveals that much thought went into the symbolism of the various design elements. We submit that St. Isidore could serve as a model or starting point for designing other new churches. It is a case study of beauty without extravagance. A removable freestanding altar is all that would need to be added to make this design additionally suitable for versus pópulum celebration of the Ordinary Form.

Ethan Anthony of HDB/Cram and Ferguson is the custodian of a proud legacy, that of architectural giant Ralph Adams Cram. In metro Detroit, Cram designed Hamtramck’s St. Florian Church and St. Mary of Redford, two magnificent gothic edifices. Anthony’s recent work seems to focus on grand Gothic and Romanesque exteriors (see St. John Vianney, Fishers, Indiana [click here for image] – a 1500 seat church), with slightly disappointing, more modern interior layouts, making them less suited for the Extraordinary Form. Perhaps this is just a quirk of the kind of projects he has been receiving. One must give him credit for obtaining commissions for relatively large churches, and for selling the notion of classic exteriors in a time when bland, modern design is the norm. As difficult as it might be to imagine such grand churches being built in the Windsor or Detroit suburbs today, Anthony is setting important precedents that will be useful when future building projects are being discussed.

Mr. Anthony has also developed an apparent skill at achieving an expensive look using inexpensive techniques. This is nothing new: Have you noticed that St. Josaphat’s pillars which appear to be marble are actually just decorated plaster? Did you know that the “marble” pillars on St. Josaphat’s high altar are cheap (and loose) pieces of wood? One of our readers, an architect, is no fan of such artificiality. Yet, like fake jewelry or Hollywood sets, such techniques in the hands of a prudent church architect can help produce impressive results when a budget does not permit use of better quality building materials. See more of Ethan Anthony’s work and pending projects at www.hdb.com.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for June 21, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]

Fatal political narcissism

Our correspondent in bourgeois-bohemian Seattle just sent us this lovely crack-me-up line from George Will (of which he has more than a few:

Politicians have extraordinary shoulder joints that enable them to pat themselves on the back, and last week the president, a master of that calisthenic, performed it in the Rose Garden.

Source: George Will, "Burned by a tobacco bill" (Townhall, June 18, 2009).

[Hat tip to K.K.]

How Obama's "New Realism" backfired in Iran

Mark Steyn, "The 'New Realism'" (NRO, June 17, 2009).

[Hat tip to T.K.]

Obama vs. Sacred Heart?

I've been out of the news loop for a while, so I was surprised to see that Mr. Obama seems to be trying to displace June, 2009, as Month of the Sacred Heart with June, 2009, as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Pride Month (White House, Office of Press Secretary, June 1, 2009). Go figure -- you just turn your head for a few moments, and look what happens. The Obamanation of Desolation strikes again.

And I see that PBS is phasing out religious programming, including any more Masses (Politics, June 16, 2009), and the Vatican internet users are being blocked from social networking cites like Facebook and Myspace (CNS, June 16, 2009). And this after ABC turned its programming over to Obama with news to be anchored from the White House (Drudge, June 16) and report of Obama's plan for supervision of global financial firms (Reuters, June 16) [see "The audacity of neo-socialist megalomania," Musings, June 16, see below).