For His Friends

Probably the biggest news in the Church world this week was the announcement which all US bishops received yesterday from Cardinal Francis George that finally, after years of preparation, the new English texts for the Roman Missal have been approved by the Holy See and returned to all of the English speaking countries for printing, publication, and promulgation. Cardinal George in his message to the bishops said that in his capacity and role as president of the episcopal conference he was promulgating that the new translation of the texts used at Mass would be utilized starting on the first Sunday of Advent in 2011. So, the long and short of it is that you and I must begin to prepare ourselves for a new translation in English of texts which we have been using at Mass since the early seventies of the last century.

After the fathers of the Second Vatican Council decided that Mass could be celebrated in either Latin or in the language of every country in the world, the English speaking countries founded and financially supported an organization to translate the texts used at Mass from Latin into English. That organization was called the International Commission on English in the Liturgy or ICEL. Latin scholars and English technicians immediately set about to translate the texts used in the Missal on the altar at Mass into the vernacular of every country. There was enormous pressure to change at the time and the translation admittedly was rushed. The translators were allowed by the Holy See to use a translation technique called “dynamic equivalency” in translating which meant that they did not have to translate strictly but could use words and idiom of spoken language at that time. Or to put it more succinctly, both the Holy See and ICEL wished to present a translation which recognized that words change with time and a strict translation might not make sense to the hearer or reader. When published and approved by the Holy See, the translation we currently use served us well but if words can sometimes change and other words pass into disuse, then an updating from time to time was likely.

The bishops of the English speaking world began this updating about fifteen years ago and ICEL produced an absolutely magnificent translation of the Roman Missal which was passed by the US bishops conference by a vote of 235-32. But there was some controversy and the minority complained to Rome that they were not listened to in the debate in the US at least and Rome heard their complaint, refused to accept the new translation, and then amazingly did what the Council documents left to individual bishops’ conferences and changed the rules of translation from dynamic equivalency to a strict adherence to translating the Latin slavishly. The Holy See then ordered a new or third translation attempt, ICEL was radically altered and work begun on the Mass texts which you should be hearing and praying starting next November, 2011.  So, for example, the Latin et cum spiritu tuo which we have been rendering as and also with you is now to be and with your Spirit.

The changes which will be asked of our praying communities will not be a terrible burden, I think. They will take some getting accustomed to but so did moving from Latin followed by some Latin/English to total English in the Mass. If the praying Church did it in the late 1960′s and 1970′s, I am confident that the praying Church will do it again. Only time will tell if the new translation to be brought into being in fifteen months will stand the test of time as well as the current translation has. There are words being changed which will require catechesis on the part of all of us. We use the word offering at Mass but we will soon substitute oblation in its place. The latter is a stricter translation of the Latin. We need to teach our children and others the meaning of a word which is not in common parlance. Perhaps no big deal but change always comes with some pain.

The arguments among the bishops of this country on this translation wore most of us down but I can tell you that in the end, the Holy See did listen and accept many of the greater concerns of bishops who were uncomfortable with some of what was being proposed. I am personally at peace with the translation as I understand it will be coming to us and along with our priests, I will do everything I can to welcome this change, make it as palatable as possible, provide the necessary catechesis prior to implementation, and ready the parishes and chapels of this diocese for the First Sunday of Advent in 2011. I shall be returning to this subject often in the coming fifteen months. I hope we will be one of the best dioceses in preparing for and implementing the new missal. Now is the time and it falls to us as it fell to our parents as well as ourselves and our beloved Church in the late ’60′s and early ’70′s. As Christ said, be not afraid.

+RNL

No, this is not a blog getting you ready for the coming changes in the texts we use at Mass! I am not even sure how much Latin I remember but I am playing off the words attributed to Julius Caesar after conquering Gaul, when he imperially pronounced Veni, Vidi, Vici or “I came, I saw, I conquered.” If I have the case endings correct in the title to this blog, what I meant to say in Latin, is “they came, they saw, we conquered.” The “they” are the bishops of the United States who came and spent the better part of last week with us.

"For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies..."

After some of them had been here a while and enjoyed the beauty of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront and its parks, and the area’s finest gelateria on Beach Drive (four night average of 100 bishops a night prior to going to bed went to get an ice cream), they began to inquire about my health, how old I am, and who do they talk to about succeeding me. More than one referred to our city as “the last stop on the path to paradise.” I could not have been more proud.

The diocesan Worship Office assisted the national team in preparing morning and evening prayer, a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, and an hour-long penance service plus the daily celebration of the Eucharist. Michelle Rego of old St. Mary’s arranged for the superb musicians and our seminarians served the Masses and helped as lectors at many of the liturgical services. I am proud of them all – boasting like a proud parent, “they’re mine.”

As I mentioned earlier in a blog, this was one of those special assemblies which we hold every four years (the next one will be in San Diego in 2014) and there was practically no business conducted. Thus, we were absent the media, the TV lights and cameras, the staff from Washington and the many observers who attend our business meetings. It was just us, wearing “civies”, enjoying both the topic and the fraternity.

The main speakers were outstanding. Archbishop Dolan began the week with a keynote address giving the history of relations between priests and bishops throughout the centuries. Archbishop Collins of Toronto spoke about the relationship of the spirituality of priests and bishops. Archbishop Carlson spoke of the role of bishop with his priests, father, brother or friend. Finally, Archbishop Niederauer of San Francisco spoke of the communion between bishops and priests. To each presentation there were respondents, table discussion and floor discussion. I liked what I heard and hope to incorporate much of it which may have been missing in my ministry as bishop in these remaining years.

On Saturday as we came to a close, more than one bishop came up to thank me, for the hospitality, the hotel and their meals, for the experience, for the weather (humidity and afternoon thunderstorms right on time between 3-5pm) and many said it was the best assembly yet. St. Petersburg conquered the misgivings about coming to Florida in June and what they saw when they came, they surely liked. It will be several generations before they return to the area again – it was only the second time in the history of the conference that they had come to Florida but we set the bar very high. Members of my diocesan family, priests, deacons, religious and laity would have been very proud. I know I was.

+RNL

There is an old story which probably most of you know about the kid feverishly shoveling his way through a huge and high pile of compost. When asked what in the world he/she was doing, the child replied, “with all this, there has to be a pony down here somewhere.” Today in Rome, the Holy See announced the expected pontifical visitation to the Church in Ireland in light of the horrendous revelations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, religious brothers and religious sisters which has devastated the faith in that country. Some must ask why now? Is it not too late? Is the horse not already out of the barn? Of course, it is never to late to confess one’s sins, personal and institutional, amend one’s life, personal or institutional , and agree to commit the sin no more, as a person or an institution. The Catholic Church in Ireland has basically asked the Holy Father, send us “good confessors” to whom we can confess our sins and who will guide us on reclaiming moral high ground we seem to have lost. The Apostolic Visitators to the four archdioceses in Ireland and to the dioceses are all from outside of Ireland but all have born the heat of the day in their own dioceses and can be good confessors to a Church seeking healing and redemption. From the United States, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has been appointed by the Pope to perhaps the toughest of situations in the Archdiocese of Dublin and its related suffragan sees (ecclesiastical talk for the dioceses outside of Dublin which come under the loose supervision of the Archbishop of the capital city). At the same time as the whole Church in Ireland will be visited, there will also be a visitation to Ireland’s remaining seminaries led  by our Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. Archbishop Dolan spoke last week at Ireland’s major remaining seminary, St. Patrick’s in Maynooth and I encourage all of you to take the time to read his lecture by clicking here. Quite frankly, I think he has found the pony! It is a great synthesis of how I think my priests have suffered but made it through the last decade here, in St. Petersburg. Archbishop Dolan’s talk is lengthy but illuminating.

The bishops of the United States, some 210 strong, will be assembling in St. Petersburg starting Monday, June 14, 2010 at the Vinoy Hotel. 212 bishops have registered for an “assembly” which we hold every four years. It is not a business meeting so the media and observers will not be attending. It is closed to all but bishops. It is relaxed and informal. It is something like five days of continuing education and this year the general theme is “the bishop and his priests.” Archbishop Dolan will give the keynote address on Monday night to start us off. It has been my special privilege to be a part of every committee planning the agenda and topics for these assemblies since I was made a bishop and I was chair of the committee which planned the Assembly held in Tucson, Arizona, in June of 1998. We always invite a cardinal from outside the United States to spend the days with us and deliver the homilies at morning and evening prayer throughout the days and at daily Mass, lead our Hly Hours, and our Reconciliation and Penance Service. This year, our “spiritual father” will be  Cardinal Peter Turkson who is from Ghana and was recently asked by Pope Benedict XVI to leave his archdiocese and come to Rome to head the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I look forward to the Cardinal’s wisdom and insights into being a bishop in the Church and world today. He too will help us try and rediscover the “pony.” Our assemblies are  as I mentioned relaxed. Evenings can be spent in informal conversation with others, there are even new or relatively new movies which the Hollywood studios make available for bishops to see in the evening. If you happen to be in downtown St. Petersburg from Monday, June 14 through Saturday, June 19th and see a group of men in the evening walking through Straub or Vinoy Park, it will likely be some of us.

Relationships between bishops and priests is an important topic because it has changed for the worse since the sexual-abuse controversy of 2001 and following. In many places priests don’t trust their bishops any longer and are terrified that they will receive a call and be asked to come and see the bishop for fear it might be a complaint or something of that nature. Priests and bishops need to search together for the “pony” that remains down there somewhere, as it was before.

I ask your prayers for our Assembly which is being held in our diocese in two weeks. May it be five days of grace, wisdom and insight for those of us who have been asked to lead the Church at this moment in history.

+RNL

This Friday and Saturday are important days in the life of our local Church. For the third time in as many years, we will assemble at the Tampa Bay Convention Center for the third and final of our special concentrations on rediscovering the gift of the Eucharist. (You can visit the Living Eucharist website for more information.) At the present moment, there are about 2300 persons registered for Friday, nearly 1000 for Saturday morning and 400 youth of the diocese, also for Saturday morning. The Friday all-day session will conclude with the celebration of the Eucharist appropriately enough and a “commissioning” moment as we are sent from the Lord’s table back into our individual worlds from which we came but this time, hopefully, to evangelize, promote justice and peace, and build up the body of Christ. Originally conceived as a way of teaching the teachers, we concentrated on our Catholic school administrators and faculty, catechists and leaders of our religious education programs, and staff of parishes, it quickly became evident that there was a significant interest among the general diocesan population. Some parishes have spent a great deal of time and effort in education programs about the Eucharist between the convocations and report that the three years have been “Spirit inspired.” Some, as always, have done nothing which is a pity but a fact of life in the Church today.

Our diocesan effort has been guided by a core committee of people who have worked tirelessly on details, program, speakers, additional materials beyond those given out at the convocations, etc. These “giants of the faith” in our midst are tired but they know they have helped something wonderful happen. We began by focusing on the Liturgy of the Word or “Gathered” and last year we focused on the Liturgy of the Eucharist or “Nourished.” This year we conclude with the responsibilities all of us share by virtue of baptism, the last words of the Eucharistic celebration, “Go in the peace of Christ to love God and one another” or SENT. Each convocation has been preceded by three days of the major presenters interacting with the priests of the diocese: Father J-Glenn Murray, SJ focused our attention on proclaiming God’s word, Father Ed Foley, OFM Cap. focused our attention on the stunning beauty and rich meaning of the Eucharistic liturgy and this year, Fathers J. Bryan Hehir and Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP will share with us their vision of our obligation to do the work of justice in our world. Father Hehir is special assistant to Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston, arriving at that position after many distinguished years at the bishops’ conference in Washington and teaching at Georgetown and Harvard. Father Radcliffe is from England and is the former Master General of the world-wide Dominican order and author of a neat book entitled Why Go to Church? The Drama of the Eucharist. He has personally experienced the strengths and weaknesses of today’s Church around the world. Our priests enjoyed him very much last October and you will also if you are planning to come to the Tampa Convention Center this week-end.

This morning’s newspapers, radio and television reported on a massive traffic jam in downtown Tampa today caused by a heavily attended self-help seminar at the St. Pete Times Forum. What a gift to the Lord it would be if Friday they report, thousands of people are descending on Tampa to attend something concocted by the Catholic Church (We can’t expect them to understand or appreciate the significance of the Eucharist in our lives can we?). Maybe Jesus can garner as much attention as the self-help gurus in our midst today. I hope and I pray so. See you on Friday or Saturday, I hope and I pray.

+RNL

Cardinal Francis George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the USCCB

At almost the same time that President Obama was signing the house passed Health Care bill yesterday (Tuesday), the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was meeting in Washington for their three times yearly meeting (March, September and the Saturday prior to the November meeting). The Administrative Committee consists of approximately thirty-five bishops who head standing committees, represent the fifteen regional groupings of bishops and the Eastern Rite bishops, the elected officers of the Conference and the Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services. Their primary task is prepare the agenda for the plenary or general meetings that occur in June and November when all the bishops gather. But they also may address issues which come up between General Meetings and were either unforeseen at the time or discussed in general at the previous meeting.

Yesterday morning they met for their scheduled meeting and authorized Cardinal George, our elected President, to make the following statement on the passage of health care reform. I offer it below in its entirety and hope you will take time to read it. It will take some time for all that happened this week-end to be digested, finally analyzed, and its application made clearly known. Most of the health care reform bill does not take effect until the year 2014. But it should not take that long for constitutional scholars to unpack the issues and pro-life forces to monitor its implementation. This matter is far from concluded. It is not over. The coming days I hope will be more informative than the days just past with regard to the reach and impact of all this legislation and I hope and pray we move from an environment of a lot of heat and sometime insufficient light to a better understanding. The statement of our president (Cardinal George), unanimously supported by the members of the Administrative Committee, begins the Church’s contribution to the post-enactment analysis. My guess would be that most bishops felt that a lot of good was done last Sunday afternoon and evening but we also worry about how much harm might also have been done.

For nearly a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have called for reform of our health care system so that all may have access to the care that recognizes and affirms their human dignity. Christian discipleship means, “working to ensure that all people have access to what makes them fully human and fosters their human dignity” (United States Catechism for Adults, page 454). Included among those elements is the provision of necessary and appropriate health care.

For too long, this question has gone unaddressed in our country. Often, while many had access to excellent medical treatment, millions of others including expectant mothers, struggling families or those with serious medical or physical problems were left unable to afford the care they needed. As Catholic bishops, we have expressed our support for efforts to address this national and societal shortcoming. We have spoken for the poorest and most defenseless among us. Many elements of the health care reform measure signed into law by the President address these concerns and so help to fulfill the duty that we have to each other for the common good. We are bishops, and therefore pastors and teachers. In that role, we applaud the effort to expand health care to all.

Nevertheless, for whatever good this law achieves or intends, we as Catholic bishops have opposed its passage because there is compelling evidence that it would expand the role of the federal government in funding and facilitating abortion and plans that cover abortion. The statute appropriates billions of dollars in new funding without explicitly prohibiting the use of these funds for abortion, and it provides federal subsidies for health plans covering elective abortions. Its failure to preserve the legal status quo that has regulated the government’s relation to abortion, as did the original bill adopted by the House of Representatives last November, could undermine what has been the law of our land for decades and threatens the consensus of the majority of Americans: that federal funds not be used for abortions or plans that cover abortions. Stranger still, the statute forces all those who choose federally subsidized plans that cover abortion to pay for other peoples’ abortions with their own funds. If this new law is intended to prevent people from being complicit in the abortions of others, it is at war with itself.

We share fully the admirable intention of President Obama expressed in his pending Executive Order, where he states, “it is necessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for abortion services.” However, the fact that an Executive Order is necessary to clarify the legislation points to deficiencies in the statute itself. We do not understand how an Executive Order, no matter how well intentioned, can substitute for statutory provisions.

The statute is also profoundly flawed because it has failed to include necessary language to provide essential conscience protections (both within and beyond the abortion context). As well, many immigrant workers and their families could be left worse off since they will not be allowed to purchase health coverage in the new exchanges to be created, even if they use their own money.

Many in Congress and the Administration, as well as individuals and groups in the Catholic community, have repeatedly insisted that there is no federal funding for abortion in this statute and that strong conscience protection has been assured. Analyses that are being published separately show this not to be the case, which is why we oppose it in its current form. We and many others will follow the government’s implementation of health care reform and will work to ensure that Congress and the Administration live up to the claims that have contributed to its passage. We believe, finally, that new legislation to address its deficiencies will almost certainly be required.

As bishops, we wish to recognize the principled actions of the pro-life Members of Congress from both parties, in the House and the Senate, who have worked courageously to create legislation that respects the principles outlined above. They have often been vilified and have worked against great odds.

As bishops of the Catholic Church, we speak in the name of the Church and for the Catholic faith itself. The Catholic faith is not a partisan agenda, and we take this opportunity to recommit ourselves to working for health care which truly and fully safeguards the life, dignity, conscience and health of all, from the child in the womb to those in their last days on earth.