Today's Messages (off)
| Unanswered Messages (on)
| Forum: Pre-Vatican II Liturgy |
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| Topic: Use of ICEL Materials on Global Computer Networks |
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| Use of ICEL Materials on Global Computer Networks |
Sat, 30 August 2008 11:06 |
 M Anon
Messages: 1251
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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This doesn't seem to appear on ICEL copyright summary page, or in the 25 page PDF of their "complete" pulbication policy.
http://www.musicasacra.com/ordinary/
Use of ICEL Materials on Global Computer Networks
ICEL texts and translations that have been approved by the Conferences of Bishops, have received the recognition of the Holy See, and have subsequently been promulgated for use on the date established by the Conferences of Bishops may be reproduced in a non-commercial site (“Site”) on the global computer network commonly known as the internet without obtaining written or oral permission, subject to the following conditions:
1. there must be no fee charged to access the Site or any of the ICEL translations, texts, or music, thereon;
2. The appropriate ICEL copyright acknowledgment must appear on the first and last pages and/or frames within the Site displaying the ICEL translation or text (see www.icelweb.org and click on “copyright policies“);
3. The ICEL translations and texts must be followed exactly;
4. These policies do not grant a license to publish texts in any other form or any other right in ICEL’s name and marks, and the Site may not display the ICEL translations or texts or otherwise use the ICEL name in any way that implies affiliation with, or sponsorship or endorsement by, ICEL;
5. ICEL reserves the right to terminate or modify its permission to use its translations and texts;
6. ICEL reserves the right to take action against any party that fails to conform to these policies, infringes any of its intellectual property rights, or otherwise violates applicable law.
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| | Topic: Bishops Ask Catholics To Pray Election Novena |
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| Bishops Ask Catholics To Pray Election Novena |
Sat, 23 August 2008 19:50 |
M Anon
Messages: 1251
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2008/08-117.shtml
WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) invites U.S. Catholics to pray before the November election a novena for life, justice, and peace called Novena for Faithful Citizenship. It is a podcast and available for download.
Joan Rosenhauer, Associate Director for the USCCB’s Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, said that the special novena is part of “the bishops’ campaign to help Catholics develop well-formed consciences for addressing political and social questions.” The bishops issued their statement on forming consciences for faithful citizenship in November 2007.
Helen Osman, USCCB Secretary of Communications, expressed hope that the novena could help “Catholics enter into prayerful reflection as they prepare to vote.” Seventy-one percent of all visitors to the USCCB’s web site download the free podcasts of the daily NAB readings. These same visitors are encouraged to use the novena podcast for prayer. Osman said that the USCCB wants to support Catholics as they weigh pre-election issues and that “providing a prayer resource on the Web can help us focus on our common values and identity as Catholics.” The novena emphasizes the dignity of life, justice, and peace.
The Novena for Faithful Citizenship runs for nine days and can be used consecutively, one day each week, for nine days prior to the election, or “in any way that works best for a community or individual,” said Rosenhauer.
Novena for Faithful Citizenship
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
help us to conquer the menace of evil,
which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects
already weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings,
laden with the sufferings of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all sin:
individual sin and the “sin of the world,”
sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world
the infinite saving power of the redemption:
the power of merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope.
ALL: Amen.
The Novena for Faithful Citizenship is based on the Novena for Justice and Peace. Novena for Faithful Citizenship © 2008, 1988 United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce this text without change for free distribution in a parish or school.
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| | Topic: Interesting blog on Liturgy |
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| Interesting blog on Liturgy |
Sun, 17 August 2008 14:34 |
M Anon
Messages: 1251
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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I can vouch for none of this, but it certainly is provocative.
The author is Byzantine Catholic, I think.
http://pauca_lux_ex_oriente.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-modern- roman-catholic-music-sucks.html
Friday, August 15, 2008
Why (Modern) Roman Catholic Music Sucks so Much
Now that I have got your attention, I will attempt to answer the question posed above.
At first, I simply thought that it was simply because the texts which have been translated into English were so poorly translated. After all, our Lord said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven. And it was Mark Twain who said that a camel was a horse created by a committee. It is an obvious conclusion (at least to those who have drunk enough) that it is easier for a text written by committee to express the will of the Holy Spirit (other, of course, than an ecumenical counsel which specifically requested the aid of that Spirit) than it is for a rich person to enter into heaven. Or something like that.
Since the ICEL is one of the most uninspired and uninspiring committees that I have observed in the existence of recorded history, I thought that that was sufficient to explain the phenomenon. When both the eminent Fathers Zuhlsdorf and O'Leary are agreed on something, it must be beyond dispute.
Nonetheless, it would appear that other than some of the lamest translation into English that I have ever seen since the Norton Anthology of English Literature, there may be another reason besides the ICEL translations why Modern Roman Catholic Music sucks so much.
I mean to say, after all, we do have a number of good composers of liturgical music up and about these days. Henrik Gorecki is doing a capable job, as are Arvo Part, Ivan Moody, Sergei Glagolev, and even Sir John Tavener. The point is that all of them are Orthodox, and not Roman Catholic, composers.
However, all of these composers have two things going for them. The first is that they have decent translations to work with. Gorecki is working with Latin, Part is working with Slavonic, and the others are working with decent translations into English, Spanish and Portuguese. Even Sir John Tavener is working with the mock Elizabethan of the late Isobel Hapgood, which is better by far than anything that ICEL could muster.
But there is another factor. Everyone except ICEL puts their texts online, and allows you to use their texts without a hefty demand for royalties. Try googling liturgical texts for the Book of Common Prayer, or the Orthodox Church in America, or the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. Hell, try accessing the Southern Baptists or the Presbyterians. No difficulty, and no problem.
Then try finding any online texts for ICEL. Good luck. Or perhaps I should say, fat chance. Some good people have attempted to put ICEL texts online so that people could actually see what they said (or more to the point, did not say.) In each case, the minions of ICEL acted to make them take those texts off the internet. How transparent. How communicative. How helpful.
But the real killer is what the ICEL charges in royalties. I took the opportunity to access the ICEL's statement on copyright, which includes their sample contract, which they impose on anyone so foolish to attempt to use their texts in a liturgical setting. Basically, if you were to use ICEL texts exclusively for a musical setting, ICEL charges between 10% and 11% of the price of the text as their share of royalties.
I will beg to point out that the standard in which most choral music publishers give to composers is 10 percent. In other words, if a composer were so foolish as to use an ICEL text for his or her work, all of the royalties would go to ICEL, instead of the composer. Is it any wonder why composers are somewhat less than willing to use ICEL texts?
But wait: it gets even better. The Sample Contract (which is on and after page 20 of the PDF text) states in Section 7 of the Contract that if anyone fails to pay royalties on the disputed text, that they forfeit all rights under the contract. In short, that means that all rights to their work goes to ICEL. How Christian. How generous of them.
But wait, there's more: Under section 9 of the Sample Contract, in the event that the Publisher fails to keep the publication in print, the contract is void, and ICEL gets all rights in the work. Oh, yes, and under section 16 of the Sample Contract, in the event that the publisher becomes insolvent or bankrupt, all rights revert to ICEL as well.
I don't know about you, but it looks as though ICEL's prophetic leadership strongly resembles the Gospel according to Geffen.
And I don't know about you, but it would appear to me that any composer of choral music with an IQ above room temperature is likely to tell ICEL where they can pound sand. I would not blame them.
And for the author of the estimable blog, Do Geese See God, I would have to tell him that, for the foregoing reasons, I doubt that he will see good musical settings of the propers of the English Novus Ordo anytime soon. I am terribly sorry about that.
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| | Topic: USCCB releases revised English Order of Mass for formation education |
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| | Topic: Dedication of the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe |
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| Dedication of the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe |
Thu, 31 July 2008 14:10 |
M Anon
Messages: 1251
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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Anyone watching this?
http://www.catholicexchange.com/2008/07/29/112974/
What I was able to catch was very beautiful, very well done liturgy.
I have never had the opportunitty to attend a Roman Catholic church dedication, (been to a Byzantine, and to RC re-dedications.)
Archbishop Burke has been a great blessing to the people of the Church!
All the music seemed well-chosen to promote participation, and, when newly composed, to remain true to the values of authentic liturgical music.
(This is not, of course, a pre-Vatican II liturgy, but I do not see the point of trying to post on the new Womens Ordination Blog at http://www.rpinet.com/wforum/index.php?t=thread&frm_id=1 6&rid=261&S=2edbf1ee8c0bf60659167f9220ee0d41...)
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| | Topic: The Pope's New Youth Mass |
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| The Pope's New Youth Mass |
Mon, 28 July 2008 06:52 |
leoxiii
Messages: 139
Registered: June 2006
Location: New York City |
Senior Member |
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Link: The New Liturgical Movement
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Monday, July 21, 2008
The Pope's New Youth Mass
by Jeffrey Tucker
Here is my column for the Wanderer, which repeats much of what you have already read on this blog. Still, maybe it is a help to have it in one place.
______________
Some of the worst liturgical abuses in the last decades have taken place in the name of appealing to the youth. Liturgists set up this category called the "youth" to be an archetype within a dialectical drama that pit tradition against innovation. The youth were supposedly uninspired by solemnity and preferred laxity, pop music, casual celebrant demeanor, and practices such as liturgical dance and liturgical puppeteering that had no precedent in the entire history of the Roman Rite. The music in particular is my concern here, and in this area we heard the use of music that was not only incompatible with true spirit of the Mass but utterly contrary to it. The idea was that the Catholic Church had better embrace this stuff else it risks losing an entire generation.
So many parishes complied, first with set-aside youth Masses in which all heck broke loose, and any savvy Catholic in America knows exactly what I mean by that. Then the next step took place: the culture of these Masses began to flow into the other Masses at the parish. The reductio ad absurdum was the phenomenon known at Life Teen, at which garage bands were encouraged to unleash their talents and celebrants were encouraged to use any and every method to entertain people rather than draw people's attention toward the transcendent. One must also observe that previous World Youth Days—with their exhibitions of pop stars and over-the-top displays of emotional unleashings—have not been a help in this regard.
Well, there is a slight problem with hinging an entire liturgical project around a dogmatic demographic claim. Time moves forward. The present is infinitely vanishing, as Kierkegaard said. Demographics change. The youth get old, and the vanguard of the movement eventually gets trampled by the sheer passage of time. Thus do we observe the absurdity of obviously aging old-timers attached to styles and approaches that are as dated as shag carpet and big-bell jeans telling the actual youth of today what they should and shouldn't desire in liturgy. It comes across like 1970s kitsch, the stuff of low-budget comedy films about a time that today's real youth only know in caricature.
Well, that was then and this is now. Observe the Masses at World Youth Day in Australia. The trappings of the "youth Mass" of yesteryear were gone, replaced by a new solemnity that included Gregorian chant, traditional vestments, beautiful altar arrangements, attention to the rubrics, and so much more. Far from being an example of what not to do, these Masses were, in many ways, models that today's truly progressive parishes would do well to follow.
What were the youth doing during the event? Many of the most active were involved in Gregorian chant scholas, either with the main event or side projects such as the group Juventutem, which has a special attachment to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. The group brought in chant master Scott Turkington to train the new generation, which sang Mass ordinaries and hymns from the Parish Book of Chant published by the Church Music Association of America. They sang propers from the Liber Usualis, a book with a grand tradition that was being tossed out in the 1960s and 1970s but which is now experiencing a glorious resurgence.
But even in the ordinary form Masses celebrated during the main events, we heard Gregorian introits and communion antiphons. Here we see what was even a step forward from the best of the U.S. Papal Masses, which provided only selected seasonal communion antiphons in chant. It seems like the Vatican advance team, led by Papal MC Guido Marini, is getting ever more vigilant in encouraging a recovery of traditional practices and liturgical ideals. They have not been 100% successful (the final Mass in Australia included a few highly unfortunate moments), but they learn to be less naïve as time goes on. As Fr. Zulsdorf frequently says, progress in this area takes place brick by brick.
An example of an important step that represents an ongoing transition is the Benediction altar arrangement that we see in Papal Masses. The altar is not the high altar of the extaordinary form. It is the altar of the ordinary form, but with an important difference. The candle sticks are on the altar itself and there is a crucifix in front of the celebrant so that he can truly be turned toward the Lord rather than the people as if they are some kind of audience for his actions. The altar arrangement carries with it the important symbol that the purpose of liturgy is directed toward eternal things, glorifying God rather than the tastes of the congregation. This arrangement of course is not the final ideal but it is a step forward toward the historic Roman Rite practice of saying the Mass oriented toward the liturgical East, together with the people in procession toward the risen Lord. If the goal is to unseat the cult of personality and to get away from these entertainment-focused liturgical events, no step is more important.
As for the entrance and communion propers in chant, this is music that is deeply embedded as part of the Roman Rite. It is the music that is heard in its normative form, and the Popes have long taught that any music that substitutes for chant must in some sense grow out of its style and approach and unmistakable holiness. This realization is not a burden but a relief for musicians who struggle week to week to program music as part of Mass, using every manner of liturgical guide. When they turn to the very music of the Roman Rite, they are truly singing the Mass as it has been given to us by tradition. This is a musical form of liberation for musicians and for people of all ages. Newly discovering this truth is a new generation of young people who find in its both artistic challenge and profound spiritual energy.
Meanwhile, there is the persistent problem that many parishes that some Sunday Mass has been set aside as the Mass designed to appeal to the youth. Ironically, it is precisely these Masses that are most open to reform in the direction the Benedict XVI is calling for—much more so that the main Sunday Mass. These are the Masses where a dignified ordinary setting can be used, either in Latin or English. The new schola can sing propers, again in either Latin or English. They should be encouraged to sing all music without instruments, as a way of clearing the air, encouraging participation, and emphasizing a core truth that the primary liturgical instrument is not the guitar or piano or even organ but the human voice itself. The celebrant can do his part by singing the parts of the Mass that belong to him. The Mass can be said ad orientem and use incense and bells, all of which today's youth find intriguing precisely because these symbols of holiness are not available in the secular world. Here we have the basis of a new Youth Mass, and perhaps the approach of this Mass will have a meritorious influence on the other Masses of the parish.
The goal of such a reform is not to appeal to a certain demographic but to use an opportunity presented by the existence of such Mass times to institute a new pattern of liturgical use that defers to the tradition and puts a premium on the idea of sacred space. What we find in such spaces is something completely unlike what the rest of the world offers: actions designed to reach outside the passage of time and into eternity. Here we should find a form of beauty for which the world itself offers no parallel. To attend Mass and be part of this mystical action is a privilege of the highest order. It can be offered to today's youth so that they can be part of something much larger and infinitely greater than their own times and their own generation.
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- Joe
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| | Topic: Rome approves new English text for Missal ordinary |
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| | Topic: Interesting Sounding New Book |
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| Interesting Sounding New Book |
Sun, 13 July 2008 08:20 |
M Anon
Messages: 1251
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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This is a review by Alcuin Reid of a new book by a philosoper (who, I presume, is old enough to have experienced "pre-VCII" liturgies. I don't know from this whether his "post-Vatican II liturgical" experiences tend to be of the Rite of Blessed John XXII or the Rite of Paul VI.) [all emphasis mine]
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/reviews/r0000319.shtml
Divine worship and the rise of ‘feel-good liturgy’
Worship as a Revelation: The Past, Present and Future of Catholic Liturgy by Laurence Paul Hemming, Burns & Oates £14.99
We talk too much. We read too much. We hear too much. So much so, that we have lost the art of doing, of acting either as individuals or as a people. We no longer understand what it is to belong to a people who acts, who has "public action" of its own. We are no longer liturgical. For in our vernacularism and modernisation and reform, the very nature of the leiturgia - the nature of what is truly the work of the people - has been lost.
Today we seek to comprehend and explain and decide what we do in our churches but it is utterly questionable as to whether our people experience the liturgical revelation of Almighty God.
In fact, let's drop the adjective "liturgical" and use Hemming's words which assert that the liturgy is nothing less than "the ordinary and continual revealing of [God's] truth". If this is so, it cannot be a forum for our own self-expression. It cannot necessarily be within our immediate comprehension or subject to our didactic commentary. It must be experienced, indeed lived, as worship of Almighty God - as opposed to being "enjoyed" as a form of Christian activism - in order to begin to grasp something of what is being communicated in it: the very life of God Himself.
This raises the question not only of what liturgical practices are appropriate but, more fundamentally, of the place of the liturgy in Catholic theology.
Why has Hemming, essentially a philosopher, concerned himself with this question? The answer is simple. This is not an erudite academic discourse. Nor is it an ecclesio-political one. It is the fruit of the author's experience of Catholic worship. It is also testament to his experience that most attempts to facilitate such connection in recent decades - from guitars to garrulous clergy - while they may have resulted in our happily holding hands with each other, have in part (at least) led us to forget about the worship of Almighty God.
And while modern liturgical forms might have led us to "feel good", it is the former that most clearly and fruitfully reveals the Triune God who has definitively revealed himself in our history, and who thereby makes demands upon us by way of both orthopraxy and orthodoxy. Hemming - as a worshipping Catholic - knows this. As a philosopher and a theologian he has investigated its import for us today. Hence Worship as a Revelation.
This book's philosophical and theological sophistication will challenge theologians and liturgists to re-examine their assumptions about how they perceive the relationship between theology and liturgy. For if worship is indeed the revelation of Almighty God, its centrality and indeed its priority in theological endeavour cannot be denied. The Sacred Liturgy can no longer be one component of theology; it must be its foundation, for theology that is not grounded in the living revelation of God rapidly degenerates into the mere study of religion.
Hemming's evaluation of the liturgical reforms over the past century are provocative. Very few will have located the genesis of the late 20th-century liturgical crisis in the reign of the good and sainted Pope Pius X, but Hemming's argument for precisely this is compelling.
The author wisely refrains from proposing simplistic solutions but allows us to see the anomalies of liturgical reform in the 20th century for what they are - a dangerous tampering with the continuity of God's revelation. Few "trained liturgists" have been prepared to enter into serious debate on this question. It is to be hoped that this book might bring them forth.
For Hemming's rich and clear liturgical theology is starkly distinct from that prevailing in the western Catholic Church because it is not based on the desire for archaeological reconstruction of a "dreamtime" primitive liturgical purity, nor indeed for a modern ideological construction of something tailor-made for "modern man".
Hemming is no ideologue, nor is he an antiquarian. Catholic worship is indeed a revelation. It is a live epiphany. It is tangible theology. It is the very heart - indeed the "source and summit" - of our faith. That, of course, is why we tamper with the liturgy at our peril. That is why Pope Benedict XVI has placed the reform of the Sacred Liturgy so high on the agenda of this pontificate. And that is why this book will provoke the liturgical establishment, for Hemming does not accept that the apotheosis of all Christian liturgy may be found in the forms produced following the Second Vatican Council, or indeed in the manner in which these forms have been celebrated in the subsequent years.
The role of Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church is another area in which his liturgical theology makes serious and important claims. In short, he points out - and at last someone has had the courage and clarity to do this - that "the liturgy is the proper ground of Scripture (and not the other way round, ie the false view that the liturgy derives from Scripture)," or, put more simply, in the modern understanding of the relationship between the liturgy and scripture, "scripture has lost its ground".
This claim to priority on behalf of the liturgy over the biblical text will certainly provoke debate. But, once again, if Worship as a Revelation becomes a catalyst for the re-examination of what a Catholic understanding of the role of Sacred Scripture is, it shall have done very well indeed.
This then is a book that must be read and studied and read again by theologians, scripture scholars, liturgists, all seminary faculty and indeed by all liturgical practitioners.
It will challenge and it will inform. The pontificate of Pope Benedict continues to remind us that "the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the centre of any renewal of the Church whatever". Hemming has rendered the Church a fine service by pointing us along the path toward a true understanding of the liturgy, a path that cannot but inform our celebration of it.
[Updated on: Sun, 13 July 2008 08:22]
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| | Forum: Current ML Issue |
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| Topic: Sing Justice, Live Justly |
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| Sing Justice, Live Justly |
Wed, 11 July 2012 06:12 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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"When we feel the presence of the poor only at a distance, their bodies cannot pervade our hearts and our lives. We can hand our leftovers to the poor and even give clothes, money, and food to the pantries and soup kitchens and social service agencies to ease our consciences, but until they enter our lives as real people, we will not be doing what the liturgy requires. We will not change."
...Denise Morency Gannon
http://rpinet.com/ministry/3905f4.html
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| | Topic: Tabernacles and victims |
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| Tabernacles and victims |
Sun, 12 July 2009 08:19 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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One divine presence in two sacred places
Paul Mast makes a compelling argument regarding the sacramental dignity of the human person. He reflects on the elaborate (and necessary) rites required to restore sanctity when a tabernacle and the Blessed Sacrament inside have been desecrated and asks why no such ritual is considered when the Body of Christ in a person has been desecrated by sexual abuse. This is the sort of bold statement that no one seems to want to hear, but if we believe what we teach about the real presence, then we must consider this position.
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| | Forum: Pastoral Ministry/Social Justice |
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| Topic: Catholic Leaders Challenge Gingrich and Santorum on Divisive Rhetoric Around Race and Poverty |
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| | Topic: Survivors' groups leave talks with church over sex abuse concerns |
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| Survivors' groups leave talks with church over sex abuse concerns |
Thu, 13 October 2011 05:19 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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LONDON (CNS) -- Two sex abuse survivors' groups have withdrawn from "exploratory talks" with the Catholic Church in England and Wales on ways to improve the pastoral response to victims of clerical sex abuse. Representatives of Ministry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors and the Lantern Project said Oct. 11 that they would no longer participate in negotiations with the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service, which oversees the protection of children and vulnerable adults in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, because the church was continuing to "deny justice" to victims. "I can see no merit in continuing to deliberate with the Catholic Church ... while at the same time I am having to support victims who are being crushed by the Catholic Church in the courts," Graham Wilmer, founder of the Lantern Project, said in a letter to colleagues. "I personally can no longer stomach the idea of being an active part of the illusion of goodness and understanding the church is trying to create, so I am withdrawing from this particular endeavor," he said. Ministry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors announced its decision at an Oct. 11 meeting between survivors' representatives and the advisory group in London. In a press statement, MACSAS said it had withdrawn because of "the manner in which the talks have been conducted, the lack of any coherent purpose, aims or objectives, the manipulation of these talks in the media by the Catholic Church, and the failure of the Catholic Church to acknowledge the duty owed to the many thousands of victims of abuse perpetrated within the Catholic Church and its religious institutions in England and Wales."
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| | Topic: Father Jim Martin reflects on 9/11 |
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| | Topic: Debt Ceiling Debate |
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| | Topic: Pope Benedict and the Liberal Perversion of Social Justice |
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| | Topic: Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmstead |
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| | Topic: Treatment of immigrants 'not worthy of the Gospel' |
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| | Topic: The Pope or the Tea Party? |
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| The Pope or the Tea Party? |
Fri, 22 October 2010 08:30 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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http://ncronline.org/news/politics/pope-or-tea-party
" Benedict advocates for robust financial regulations, challenges governments to address climate change and even calls for a more equitable distribution of wealth. He recently urged the leaders of wealthy nations to do more to tackle the problem of global poverty, describing this priority as "too big to fail." If he ran for office in the U.S., you can imagine the political attack ads accusing the pope of being a socialist! But our roiling political arguments would be far more productive if we tuned out strident commentators and listened to this soft-spoken theologian who articulates the teachings of a faith tradition that for centuries has offered timely wisdom about the moral dimensions of the economy."
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| | Topic: Meanwhile, back to the Sex Scandal... |
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| | Topic: Glenn Beck's misunderstanding of liberation theology |
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| | Topic: MLK's I have a Dream speech |
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| | Topic: Sister's Excommunication 'Null and Void' |
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| | Topic: Glenn Beck Attacks Social Justice - James Martin |
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| | Topic: The nun and Glenn Beck |
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| | Topic: Eco Palms for Justice |
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| Eco Palms for Justice |
Tue, 17 February 2009 03:30 |
Augsburg Boy
Messages: 2061
Registered: May 2006
Location: Boston |
Senior Member |
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I believe I did this last year, so why shoulldn't this year be different? The Eco Palms for Justice program is at the link below:
http://www.lwr.org/palms/
And since it is a Known Christian fact of history, that the Jews of Jerusalem waved "strip palms" and NOT fronds, and of course sang All Glory Laud and Honor in four part harmony from their hymnals,  I provide a link for those "Palm Crosses", which is the only complaint I get each year about using fronds instead of strips.!
http://www.livinggracecatalog.com/product.jsp?path=-1|405104 |404810&id=150663
FWIW
Randy
"The Lord so loved the world that He did not send a committee."
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| | Topic: An organist friend finally becomes a Pastor |
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| An organist friend finally becomes a Pastor |
Sun, 17 June 2007 12:09 |
Augsburg Boy
Messages: 2061
Registered: May 2006
Location: Boston |
Senior Member |
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After serving as organist for a few Lutheran parishes near Worcester since 1984, Andrew Borden was ordained as a Lutheran Pastor last week, bringing both of his gifts of music and ministry to full fruition. And in the meantime, and co-existent was an industrial engineer for Bose Corp., and raised a family! A very long journey from the organ bench to the pulpit, but we are blessed with a gifted musician pastor who has a good sense of liturgy and music! 
Randy
"The Lord so loved the world that He did not send a committee."
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| | Topic: Interesting article on Boston Church Closing |
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| Interesting article on Boston Church Closing |
Sat, 26 May 2007 04:37 |
Augsburg Boy
Messages: 2061
Registered: May 2006
Location: Boston |
Senior Member |
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As the battle to get the Boston Archdiocese solvent continues, including moving the Chancery to "cheaper" headquarters in Braintree and out of Boston, this article is about one parish's fight to stay open in the Archdiocese.
Oh yeah, Boston College bought the old chancery grounds, and I believe St. John's Seminary goes with it. The irony is I believe St. J's produced a crop of those "problematic" priests! Anyway, for what is it worth.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/26/sjc_won t_intervene_in_church_closing/
Randy
"The Lord so loved the world that He did not send a committee."
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| | Topic: Bishops' Annual Labor Day Statement - 2006 |
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| Bishops' Annual Labor Day Statement - 2006 |
Mon, 28 August 2006 07:35 |
Katherine
Messages: 437
Registered: April 2004
Location: USA |
Senior Member |
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A Labor Day Reflection on
Immigration and Work
Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D., D.D.
Bishop of Brooklyn
Chairman, Domestic Policy Committee
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
September 4, 2006
Each year as summer draws to a close many of us gather on Labor Day with family, friends and neighbors to take a rest from our work. As a nation, we set this day aside to pay tribute to the workers who create our nation’s wealth and strength. Our Catholic faith reminds us of the inherent dignity and value of our work, through which, no matter how large or small the task, we participate in God’s creation, support our families, and contribute to the common good. Each Labor Day we celebrate and share our values on work and workers and remember the importance and the contributions of the labor movement to society.
Labor Day 2006 is a time when our nation and our church are struggling with the difficult and important issue of immigration. Men, women and children come here seeking work and a better life for their families, hoping to be welcomed as neighbors and contributors to our communities. They come as skilled and unskilled workers, agricultural laborers, or to study or join family already here. They come, in part, because U.S. employers need their labor and our economy depends upon them. Many come through official legal channels. Many others do not.
These realities and our inadequate immigration system have led to a necessary, but sadly divisive, debate on how our nation should respond. Unfortunately, the debate sometimes has not brought out the best in us. People of good will can and do disagree over how to improve our immigration laws. Regrettably, this disagreement sometimes disintegrates into polarization, partisanship and now paralysis. We must get beyond the anger and fear, stereotypes and slogans that too often dominate this essential discussion.
Immigration is not a new reality. We are a nation and a Church built by immigrants. However, immigration raises continuing questions with new urgency. Who is an American? Who is our “neighbor?” What are the impacts of immigration on our national economy? How much is too much–or not enough–immigration? How are individual workers and families affected–both native born workers and those newly arrived? How are we to address the reality that over 10 million people are here without legal documentation, but, with few exceptions, leading lives that share our values of work, family and community? How can we stand with some American workers who feel left behind or pushed aside? How are we to protect our borders against those who would do us harm?
We all bring our own perspectives, biases, even prejudices to this discussion. I hope as we approach Labor Day, each of us might try to see these difficult questions through the eyes and experiences of someone very different from ourselves:
· a father in Mexico who cannot feed his family, or a rancher on the border whose land has become a dangerous path for desperate people, threatening their lives and his livelihood
· a worker without legal status cutting meat or picking fruit, or a U.S. worker, with little education and few skills, searching for a job at a decent wage
· a farmer or business owner who can’t find enough workers, or a union leader working for exploited and unrepresented workers
· a border guard asked to do an impossible task with limited resources, or a legislator who has the difficult responsibility of trying to reconcile these very different perspectives in pursuit of the common good.
My convictions are shaped by my own history as a grandson of Italian immigrants, and now a bishop and pastor in Brooklyn, one of the most diverse and vibrant dioceses in our Church. I have also served as director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Migration and Refugee Services. I have seen the daily struggles and dreams of immigrants in my diocese and throughout the country. I understand their desire, shared by my grandparents, to give their children a better life. That is why I believe we must and we can find reasonable and responsible ways to welcome those seeking a new life and opportunity. I believe we can help newcomers without legal status to come out from the shadows and contribute more fully to our communities. When we do this, I believe we can also increase the security of our nation and the vitality of our Church.
The Catholic Church has a long history of involvement with immigrants. Our experience in working with immigrants throughout the years compels us to speak out on the issue of immigration reform, a moral issue which impacts human rights, human life and human dignity. The Church's mission in assisting and standing with immigrants flows from our belief that every person is created in God's image. Indeed, in His own life and work, Jesus called upon us to "welcome the stranger," for "what you do for the least of my brethren, you do unto me." (Mt. cf. 25: 35, 40). This is why the Catholic community has a broad and growing Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform that we hope will contribute to a constructive debate on immigration.(http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org)
Immigration touches many aspects of national life, but in this Labor Day statement, I want to focus on those aspects that touch on work. The challenge of immigration today is not just at the borders, but in our labor markets. Right now, more than 12% of U.S. residents and some 15% of workers were born in another country, up from about 5% in 1960. Recent census data reveals that many newcomers are settling in parts of the country that until recently saw little immigrant activity—regions like the South, Upper Midwest, New England and the Rocky Mountain States. As this happens, newcomers can find themselves linguistically and culturally isolated and more vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination because of their legal status and language barriers. And local communities can feel overwhelmed by the growing presence of people in their midst with different languages and different ways.
The simple fact is many parts of our nation’s economy have become dependent on immigrant workers. Agriculture relies heavily on seasonal workers to pick our crops. Our fruits and vegetables cannot be harvested without the backbreaking work of farmworkers. Immigrant workers are increasingly moving from fields to factories: working in meat and poultry processing plants, and large hog and cattle operations. The poultry industry, increasingly industrialized and offering some of the highest risk jobs in the U.S., has a low-paid workforce that is nearly half immigrant. Our country’s hotel and restaurant industries to a great extent rely on foreign born workers; they bus the tables, make the beds and clean up after us. The fact is we have come to depend more and more on international migration to fill our workforce. Without them our economy would have huge gaps.
Our immigration laws have failed to keep up with the demand for labor, so the need is filled by those who come into the country without legal sanction. Over 80% of those who have come here illegally are working part-time or full-time, contributing to the common good of our country through the work they perform and the taxes they pay.
I believe most Americans recognize the need for comprehensive reform of our fundamentally flawed U.S. immigration system. Some call for strictly limiting admission to the country as the only way to protect American workers. It is true that many newcomers may do difficult work at very low wages. But according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, it appears that overall increases in immigration do not result in increases in unemployment among native born workers.
What draws so many to our country? Many immigrants come because they want to live out the values we celebrate this Labor Day—hard work, providing a decent living for one’s family, contributing to the community, a life of dignity and opportunity gained through hard work.
These are also values of our faith. Catholic teaching on work insists that human beings share in God’s creation through their work. In Catholic social teaching, work is for the person, not the person for work. Work is the ordinary means by which individuals support themselves and their families and contribute to the common good. Catholic teaching supports the right of workers to decent and fair wages, health care, and time off. This is why our bishops’ Conference has traditionally supported the minimum wage and why we urge, once again, that our leaders move beyond their current partisan and ideological conflicts to enact a long over due increase in the minimum wage. Workers, also have a right to organize to protect their rights, to have a voice in the workplace and to be represented by trade unions. These basic human and economic rights are not invalidated or relinquished when one crosses a border.
The increasing international movement of goods, services, money, and people require new economic norms, ethical restraints and wise laws to regulate and address their moral and human dimensions. We need to recognize that growing globalization brings with it benefits, lost jobs, falling living standards, and inhumane working conditions. A role of the Church, as a universal community of faith and an international institution, is to raise up the dignity and value of workers. That is why the U.S. bishops support policies that will help people to remain in their own countries, as well as policies to address the impact of immigration in our own nation.
Men and women come to America because they cannot find in their own countries the economic, political and social conditions they need to support their families, live in dignity and achieve a decent life. The bishops and others are working to develop and advocate policies on global trade, international aid and debt relief that will reduce poverty and empower the poor, foster long-term economic development, protect human dignity in underdeveloped nations, and includes effective protections for workers in the U.S. and other countries. People should be able to provide a decent life for their families in their own countries.
Still, people come from all over the world seeking opportunity in the United States, and many come outside of the structures of our immigration laws. While the Church does not condone law-breaking, their presence here is a reality. We know their names and faces; they are in our parishes, schools and Catholic Charities agencies. That is why a comprehensive approach to immigration reform must include a pathway to earned legalization for the millions of those working in our country without legal status. Justice and prudence demand that we treat them with dignity and find a reasonable way for their contributions and presence to be recognized within the law.
Our Conference has also come to support a carefully designed and closely monitored, temporary worker program that ensures workers are not exploited and protects the rights of both foreign-born and U.S. workers. Everyone working in our country should have a safe workplace, wages and employment benefits to support their families, and the protection of our labor laws, including the right to organize and have a voice. Free trade unions have long played an essential and important role in protecting workers’ dignity and rights. We welcome the newly announced AFL-CIO partnership with day laborers. The labor movement’s effort to bring order and recognition to street corners inhabited by men, mostly immigrants, seeking a day’s work is an important step forward.
For the Catholic Church, immigration is not a political issue, but a fundamental human and moral issue. We bring to this discussion our faith, our moral principles and our long experience. Through the decades, immigrants have built our communities of faith and they are still bringing new life to our church. Immigrants are not numbers for us. They are our brothers and sisters; they are our “neighbors.”
In his powerful encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that Jesus calls us to expand who we see as our neighbor. The Holy Father, citing the parable of the Good Samaritan, says that “neighbor” can no longer be limited to
the closely-knit community of a single country or people. This limit is now abolished. Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor. ... ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God. (para. 15).
Who is our neighbor is not dependent on where they were born or what documents they possess.
The immigration debate this Labor Day challenges us to consider again who we are as a nation, how our economy treats all workers, how we welcome the “strangers” among us. As Catholics, we should join this discussion and bring our belief in the sacredness of human life, the inherent dignity of the human person and the value of work. We cannot simply retreat behind walls at our borders or in our hearts and minds. As believers, we are called to build bridges between the native born and newcomer, between legitimate concerns about security and national traditions of welcome, from fear and frustration to hope and action for a better tomorrow.
Today, and years ago when my grandparents came from Italy, immigration is a human story of people yearning for work and longing for freedom. Immigrants come seeking to provide a decent living for their families, dreaming of a better life for their children, hoping to make a contribution. These are the deeply held American values we celebrate on Labor Day. The principles of our faith and the traditions of our nation call us to welcome those who share these values and hopes. They add vitality and energy, diversity and hope to our communities and our country. Together, we can build a better nation, a stronger economy and a more faithful Church.
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| | Topic: Significant meeting |
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| | Topic: May Angels Greet Him... |
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| May Angels Greet Him... |
Fri, 04 August 2006 10:51 |
Katherine
Messages: 437
Registered: April 2004
Location: USA |
Senior Member |
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Cardinal Willebrands, ecumenical pioneer, dead at 96
Aug. 02 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, a leading Catholic figure in ecumenical affairs in the years after Vatican II, died August 1 at a nursing home in the Netherlands.
At the age of 96, Cardinal Willebrands had been the oldest living member of the College of Cardinals. (That distinction is now held by Cardinal Alfons Stickler, the retired Vatican archivist, whose 96th birthday will be August 23.)
Cardinal Willebrands had served for nearly 30 years in the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. He was named secretary of that Council in 1960 when it was first established by Pope John XXIII, and promoted by Pope Paul VI to become the Council's president in 1969. He resigned that post in December 1989. He also served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1975 to 1983. He was raised to the College of Cardinals by Pope Paul in 1975.
Born in September 1909, Johannes Willebrands was ordained to the priesthood in 1934 and consecrated a bishop in 1960 with his appointment to the post in the Roman Curia. He participated in the Second Vatican Council, playing an important role in the development of statements on ecumenism, and helped to arrange the historic meeting between Pope Paul and the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964.
Known as "the Flying Dutchman" because of his frequent travel to confer with other religious leaders, Cardinal Willebrands was a zealous controversial proponent of closer ties with other Christian bodies. That role sometimes drew him into debates over the interpretation of Catholic teachings, and his years at the head of the Utrecht archdiocese-- at a time of serious disputes among Catholics in the Netherlands over doctrinal and liturgical questions-- added to controversy that surrounded him.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to Cardinal Willebrands in a message to Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, his successor as Archbishop of Utrecht. The Pope described the deceased prelate as "a tireless pastor in service to the People of God and the unity of the Church," who gave "new life to ecumenical dialogue." He prayed that God would "welcome into the peace of his Kingdom this faithful servant of the Word and of brotherhood among Christians."
In a separate telegram to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the current president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, the Pope said: "I give thanks to the Lord for all the work done by the cardinal his ecumenical relations, of which he was an ardent advocate from the beginning of his priestly ministry." The Holy Father said that he prays the work of the late Dutch cardinal will bear fruit.
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| | Topic: Happy Father's Day ! |
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| Happy Father's Day ! |
Sun, 18 June 2006 10:59 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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...to all you fathers out there...and Fathers 
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| | Topic: Question about the work of Bishop Pilla |
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| Question about the work of Bishop Pilla |
Wed, 23 February 2005 11:27 |
Randy (the heretic)
Messages: 121
Registered: April 2004
Location: Boston |
Senior Member |
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I've been reading some of his work concerning his Church in the City Vision Process. Is anyone out there familiar with his work, where it is at today etc, and where I could get more resources on this work.
I've been to the Cleveland Diocese website, and got what they offer.
His idea of Partnerships especially is interesting, as we would like to expand on this process. Any help or direction is appreciated.
When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." attributed to Erma Bombeck
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| | Forum: RCIA and Catechesis |
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| Topic: suggestions for adult faith formation |
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| suggestions for adult faith formation |
Fri, 25 February 2011 07:08 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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By Kathy Gallo (Today's Parish)
Seven secrets to adult faith formation
1. Be a contextualist. Every parish is different. Every context is different no matter what the setting. Spend time getting to know the people in your parish. Talk to parishioners about the history of the community, the parish, and about the stories of the people.
2. Listen. Find ways to gather people in an informal setting and lisÂten. Listen to the lives of the people in your parish. Interview persons in your parish in a nonthreatening atmosphere. Knowing the people personally will inevitably change your approach to faith formation.
3. Think systematically. Adult faith formation will not occur priÂmarily in a classroom setting. Most likely, classroom settings will only reach a small portion of your adults. Parish leaders must look for conÂnections. Where can you meet the adults in their life experiences now? How can liturgy, community, catechesis, and service integrate and beÂcome a new format for adults to reflect meaningfully on their faith and life? Know the big picture of the small parish, or the group.
4. Collaborate. Staff will be at a premium in small parishes. Rural parish leadership needs the ability to pull together members of the parish in a variety of ways to plan for parish catechesis. There is a great wisdom in the people. Draw on the wisdom of the people to plan for their faith formation in a way that meets their needs as adults. Plan with the people of the parish, not for the people in the parish.
5. Focus on parish rather than on program. Every activity that goes on in the parish can be an opportunity for faith formation. Create prayer opportunities and times for reflection for groups that meet on an ongoing basis, such as the parish council, St. Vincent de Paul SociÂety, musicians, etc. These opportunities can be centered on a common theme for critical reflection by the parish. Each entity can be gathered together for a meal of appreciation and sharing of these reflections.
6. Don't be afraid of the media. Quality video, reading material, and especially the Internet can provide vehicles for people to learn, to critically reflect, and to interact with others. Use these resources well.
7. Model lifelong learning. If we truly want to create a church foÂcused on adult formation we must be adult learners ourselves. Being an adult learner will cultivate within us the qualities necessary to imÂplement change in our parishes when needed, to look for ways to meet people in the context of their lives, and to work with the parish to form a parish learning community. It is an exciting endeavor.
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| | Topic: questions considering Baptism , RCIA |
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| questions considering Baptism , RCIA |
Sat, 01 January 2011 09:56 |
Anne
Messages: 3816
Registered: April 2004 |
Senior Member |
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Are you considering the RCIA process and have questions?
If you have been led to the discussion boards at RPINET through a search engine...welcome.
We are a diverse group who will try to answer your questions and point you in the right direction.
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