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Worship Times
BrotherSun.NetWould St. Francis have surfed the net in between church construction and ecstatic visioning? No one knows, but his followers hope you do. In cooperation with Rome’s Jubilee Planning Agency, the Franciscans’ convent at Assisi has built a web site that provides information about Francis, the order he founded and the basilica of St. Francis, which was ravaged by a 1997 earthquake and is in the process of being restored.The site offers an e-mail address for visitors to use to ask questions about the painstaking restoration and also an address to send donations to help with the project. Take a cyber tour of the church at www.romagiubileo.it/assisi. The devil’s in the detailsIt took years to get an approved version of the new funeral rite and even more years to get an update of the lectionary. The revised wedding rite and sacramentary are in limbo. But the Vatican did recently announce the release of the new rite of exorcism. We’re not talking about the RCIA here. This is the kind of exorcism that made Linda Blair famous. It’s the head-spinning, bed-lifting, blood-curdling kind.Commenting on the new document, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, stated that a person’s capacity to welcome God is “blurred by sin, and at times evil occupies the place where God wishes to dwell. For this reason, Jesus Christ came to liberate the person from the dominion of evil and sin. … Jesus Christ drove out demons and liberated people who were possessed with evil spirits to make space for him in that person.” Cardinal Medina explained that “there is great continuity between the old and the new rites, that there are no radical changes. The language is more somber and fewer adjectives are used; however, the expression of faith in the power of God to expel the devil is the same in both cases.” ML wonders if the language was made more inclusive so female demons might find themselves on a more equal footing with male demons. St. Buffy, pray for usArchbishop Michael J. Sheehan doesn’t want to baptize anymore “Crystals” or “Fifis.” The head of the Santa Fe archdiocese said, “I have a special ruling to invoke our saints as heroes. I kept noticing that people wanted to be confirmed with odd names, but the last straw was ‘Crystal,’ which doesn’t mean anything, and ‘Fifi.’ When I think of ‘Fifi,’ I think of a French poodle, so I told her she would be confirmed under the name ‘Maria’ instead.”The sacramental policies for Santa Fe require that the people of the archdiocese must have a saint’s name for baptism and confirmation. Aging hierarchyAge could force the retirement of as many as 19 U.S. bishops in 1999. Or maybe not. Church law requires a bishop to present his resignation to the pope when a bishop turns 75. The pope may refuse or delay the resignation, which, in recent years, John Paul II has done with increasing frequency. Thirteen active bishops reached their 75th birthdays a year or more ago but remain in office. The pope may be keeping them active so they can participate in the millennium celebrations at the end of this year.Vatican Ambassador appointedThe Vatican has named Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo to be its ambassador to the United States, according to a Catholic News Service report by Jerry Filteau. The 69-year-old Montalvo was born in Colombia and is a veteran of more than 40 years in Vatican diplomatic service.He worked in Vatican embassies in Bolivia, Argentina and El Salvador before he was called to Rome in 1964, where he spent 10 years as an Eastern Europe specialist in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Montalvo is the first papal representative in the United States to hold the title of nuncio. Keeping the church pure and holy“The church cannot escape from the clutches of the laity unless priests first escape from the clutches of their wives.” Pope Gregory VII said that back in the 11th century when he mandated that anyone wishing to be ordained must also be celibate. John Horan, dean of students at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School in Chicago, thinks it’s time we updated our thinking about a celibate clergy. Horan, who is himself a married priest, notes that since June 1980 some 70-plus Protestant ministers have converted to Roman Catholicism, been ordained, and (those that were married) remained married.“You can be a married Catholic priest if you started out a married Protestant minister,” wrote Horan in the February issue of U.S. Catholic. “But you can’t be a married priest if you started out Catholic. If you are experiencing the beginning of a headache, you are not alone. Someone is confused.” Horan suggests we welcome married Catholic priests back to active Catholic ministry. “Catholics are regularly denied access to the Eucharist because of the priest shortage caused by the mandated requirement of celibacy,” said Horan. He sees the married clergy as a solution to that problem. U.S. Catholic readers agree with him. Eighty percent of those who responded said the Catholic Church’s tradition of mandatory celibacy for Catholic priests should be discontinued. Feed the rich?During his recent trip to Mexico, Pope John Paul II urged the bishops of North America and South America to minister to the rich, according to a report in the New York Times.“Love for the poor must be preferential, but not exclusive,” the pope said in an Apostolic Exhortation. “The leading sectors of society have been neglected and many people have thus been estranged from the church.” The pope warned that, “if this evangelization of society’s leaders is neglected, it should come as no surprise that many who are a part of it will be guided by criteria alien to the Gospel and at times openly hostile to it.” The pope urged greater solidarity and cooperation between the North and South American continents, calling for a new evangelization of the Americas. What do YOU Think?
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