(Was a) Deacon's Blog

From Jacksonville.com: Catholic Church sees influx of foreign-born priests: Priests from other nations are needed to meet shortages

Fully agree with the movement toward tradition. The problem of course is inculturation. There are sets of preconceived expectations on the part of the priests and the people and it takes time to adjust. Sometimes it can be a train wreck rather than a God-send.

The Rev. Andy Blaszkowski’s English is clear, but his Polish accent unmistakable as he reads from the Gospel and preaches during Masses at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine.

During a recent service for some 300 parish school children, he told them the Eucharist is a “geeft” from God and that they should rely on their faith for direction in how to “leaf” their “lifes.”

But that was OK with 24-year-old parishioner Jason Craig, who traded Presbyterianism for Catholicism three years ago.

“I’m a convert, so it’s new and unique for me” to hear accents from the pulpit, Craig said. “In other denominations, there are no foreign priests, so it really shows the universality of the Catholic Church.”

It also shows the future for the American church and the Jacksonville-based Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. Studies and church officials are reporting that seminaries and parish priest openings are increasingly being filled by men from other nations. And given the shortage of priests in the United States, few Catholics complain about the trend.

Study: more foreign-born priests

According to The Associated Press, a new report reveals that the latest and next generations of priests, brothers, sisters and nuns who belong to Roman Catholic religious orders in the U.S. are more ethnically diverse and tradition-bound than their predecessors.

The report confirmed what many have speculated: The few orders that are attracting and retaining younger members are more traditional. That generally means fidelity to the church and other members of the order, living in a community, taking part in daily devotions and wearing a habit.

The familiar white and black habits of nuns teaching elementary school or the robes worn by some fathers and brothers were shed by many orders as remnants of clericalism in the last 40 or 50 years, but a younger generation sees them as tangible displays of their faith and symbols of fidelity to church and community.

“This younger generation is seeking an identity, a religious identity as well as a Catholic identity,” Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the Chicago-based National Religious Vocation Conference, a professional organization of Catholic religious vocation directors, told The Associated Press. “Symbolism, images and ritual is all very important to this generation, and they want to give witness to their faith.”…

From Pew: Poll: Six in 10 U.S. Catholics ambivalent about Latin Mass

Of course the problem is that it is about Latin over right faith and right belief. A continuum is important and vital to renewal in the R.C. Church, but shouldn’t be sacrificed on the pyre of Latin-or-bust.

Two years after Pope Benedict XVI eased restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass, more than six in 10 American Catholics have no opinion on the return of the traditional liturgy, according to a new survey.

In 2007, Benedict told priests to work with local parishioners when there is a “stable group” interested in the Latin Mass, which is celebrated in Latin by a priest facing away from the congregation. The Mass dates to the 16th century but fell out of use after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Benedict said the move was intended to promote “reconciliation” with Catholics disaffected by the contemporary version of the liturgy and to encourage greater “reverence” during worship.

According to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, one in four U.S. Catholics favors having the Latin Mass as a liturgical option, 12 percent oppose it, and 63 percent have “no opinion.”

Only three in 10 U.S. Catholics who do not oppose bringing back the Latin Mass — equivalent to about 5.7 Catholics — say they would attend the service if it was convenient, according to CARA. Apathy was most prevalent among Catholics born after 1982 — 78 percent said they have no opinion Benedict bringing back the Latin Mass…

From the Baltimore Sun: Episcopal nuns’ exit widens rift: As sect ordains women and gays, Catonsville sisters become Catholic

They are right. The Catholic faith is untenable in the face of such innovations.

In a move that religious scholars say is unprecedented, 10 of the 12 nuns at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville left their church Thursday to become Roman Catholics, the latest defectors from a denomination divided over the ordination of gay men and women.

The members of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor were welcomed into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, who confirmed the women during a Mass in their chapel. Each vowed to continue the tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

“We know our beliefs and where we are,” said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order that came to Baltimore in 1872. “We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Also joining the church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sisters’ chaplain. In a statement, Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton wished them God’s blessings.

“Despite the sadness we feel in having to say farewell, our mutual joy is that we remain as one spiritual family of faith, one body in Christ,” he said…

From Voice from the Dessert on the former Bishop of Scranton: Why did the bishop of Scranton, Pa., resign? Though Bishop Martino is gone, the diocese’s future may be set

A lot to this article — a few excerpts below and of course mention of the PNCC.

Like Cardinal Egan in New York, Bishop Martino’s personality and work habits were exactly what was ordered for the hatchet job he was to perform. Really, I’m astonished at all the wonderment this resignation has raised. The Roman Church sends the man that they feel is needed for the job. It has nothing to do with being liked, that’s reserved for the man they send to be pastoral. Of course the big problem is that’s the way corporations are run, not the way the Church should be run. The need for change and being pastoral can be reconciled, they are not mutually exclusive. This was simply a choice for expediency sake. I pray for Bishop Martino… to do one’s duty and to be distanced from love is a terrible cross.

When Bishop Joseph F. Martino resigned Aug. 31 after six tumultuous years as bishop of Scranton, Pa., he left behind a diocese badly divided and demoralized, but, ironically, better prepared for the future than it was in 2003.

Sources contacted by NCR said the problem was Martino’s remote, uncommunicative and often authoritarian leadership style, not his decisions to close nearly half the Catholic schools and 40 percent of the parishes in the northeastern Pennsylvania diocese.

One longtime pastor said the parish and school closings and mergers —were absolutely needed.— He predicted that the basic program of restructuring the parishes, scheduled to be completed by 2012, will continue —pretty much as planned, with perhaps some fine tuning,— regardless of who the next bishop is. The basic program of school closings is already completed.

For months preceding his resignation —” at the age of 63, 12 years before the usual retirement age for bishops —” rumors flew around the diocese that the increasingly unpopular bishop had been called to Rome in June and had been asked, urged or maybe even ordered to submit his resignation.

No one contacted could offer positive evidence to confirm or rebut the speculation.
—It is very unusual for a bishop to resign at 63 years of age— and the Vatican would accept such a resignation only for exceptional reasons, said Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center in Washington.

At the same time, —it is extremely rare for the Vatican to pressure a bishop to resign,— said Reese, author of three in-depth studies on how U.S. bishops and the Vatican exercise authority, pastoral leadership and administrative duties.

At the press conference announcing his resignation, Martino said he did so for health reasons, including —bouts of insomnia and, at times, crippling physical fatigue.— But he also acknowledged that his recent physical ailments stemmed from the stress and sorrow he felt over the lack of a —clear consensus among the clergy and the people of the diocese of Scranton regarding my pastoral initiatives or my method of governance.—

He said the diocese needs a —physically vigorous— bishop to lead it into the future and —I am not that bishop.—

—I think the bishop seems to have recognized that there really was a need for new leadership,— said Reese.

—I congratulate him for his courage and willingness— to face that and resign, he added. —I only wish a few other bishops would do the same.—

…

Mary Ann Paulukonis, who recently retired as Scranton diocesan family life director, said that when Martino first arrived in October 2003, —he came with a vision that excited most of us. … Initially he was friendly and open and easy to dialogue with.—

But that started to change as the problems of the diocese emerged, she said. —I don’t think he expected— the serious financial problems that were facing the diocese and its schools and parishes.

—There were parishes in debt— with no way to pay it off —and some of the schools were bleeding,— she said.

Reorganization

Just one month after his arrival, Martino announced to the staff that one of his first priorities was going to be restructuring to tackle the debt problem, Paulukonis said, and that winter he announced his intention to reorganize the schools.

In the meantime he also began reorganizing diocesan offices to cut administrative costs and installed four regional episcopal vicars to serve as his chief deputies on all church matters in those parts of the diocese.

…

—When troubles started occurring, he wasn’t available. A leader who is invisible is the enemy. People started misinterpreting [things Martino said or did]. … He was a villain— in people’s perception of him, she said.

She, Milz and the pastor who asked not to be named all said the bishop’s unilateral decertification of the Catholic teachers’ union in January 2008, right after the schools had all been consolidated and regrouped administratively under four regional diocesan structures, marked a new turning point in the bishop’s souring relations with the faithful —” most of them descendants of Irish, Polish, Italian and other immigrants who owed their entry into the American middle class to church-supported unions.

Union factor

Scranton’s union history is a major factor here. In the mid-19th century, the city grew rapidly because of iron ore veins in hills a little to the south, substantial anthracite coal deposits to the south and north, and the steel industry in town that melded the two natural resources.

Northeast Pennsylvania was the birthplace of the United Mine Workers, and founder John Mitchell converted to Catholicism largely because of local church support for coal mine workers’ efforts to unionize and obtain better living standards. Mitchell is buried in the Scranton cathedral’s cemetery and there is a monument to him next to the Lackawanna County Court House in Scranton, scene of a key decision ending the historic 1902 strike of anthracite coal miners in the area.

…

A longtime theology professor at one of the local Catholic universities who is involved in many Catholic activities and organizations locally and nationally —” who also asked to remain unidentified, not for personal concerns but for fear of diocesan repercussions for the university where he teaches —” said the longtime union culture in the diocese was one of the key factors in the division between Martino and his priests and people in the past couple of years.

The theologian said the religious conservatism and the history of ethnic tensions of Catholics in the Scranton diocese —” including the century-old Polish National Catholic church [sic] schism from Roman Catholicism, which started with an Irish-American bishop’s insensitivity to a Polish national parish in Scranton —” are also major factors that have to be taken into account in any assessment of the complex negative response of local priests and laity to Martino’s style of governance.

In many cities in the diocese, national parishes for Poles, Italians, Irish or other Catholic immigrant groups that were established in the late 19th or early 20th century, sometimes within two or three blocks of one another, still existed when Martino arrived, even though membership numbers had dropped dramatically over recent decades because of deaths, suburban emigration and other factors, the theologian said…

From PolskieRadio: Sunday trading ban —“ legislation for lazybones?

Think Blue laws. Really they are right. If a society truly values family over commerce it would have just such a law. Government is not the arbiter of right and wrong but is can cooperate in creating an environment that supports what is right.

A Solidarity trade union initiative to ban shops opening after noon on Sunday has divided politicians, even those from the same party.

A draft of the bill forbidding trade on Sunday afternoons is to be ready this year and is supported by numerous politicians from the opposition Law and Justice party and even some in the ruling Polish Peasant’s Party/Civic Platform coalition.

One MP who is very much against is Janusz Palikot from Civic Platform. —MPs who want to forbid trading [on a Sunday] are just lazybones. They don’t feel like working and they want to prevent others from working to excuse themselves.’ says the politician, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

Senator Jan Rulewski, also from Civic Platform, is of the opposite view.

—Those who want to keep shops open on Sundays think in the same way the communist did. They wanted us to work weekends, arguing that the development of the socialist motherland was more important than the family,— he says. —We strongly oppose this point of view and want to restrict trade on Sundays and ban it completely in future.—

…

The bill has the support of church authorities and trade unionists, however, claiming that working on Sunday is harmful to family life.