Tag: new evangelization

praying with john xxiii

I’m back from Rome, still heavy headed from jet-lag. I didn’t have much time for extra reading while I was there. The days were filled with meetings, and discussions continued into late night hours. Today, I tried to catch up on church news. And, what news!

photo by Isabella R. Moyer

At last month’s Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, made an announcement that all clergy visiting the Vatican should wear cassocks. The foundation for the request came from a 1982 letter written by Pope John Paul II asking priests to wear the more formal dress as a “distinguishing mark” which contributes to “the beauty of the priest in his external behavior.” It must be clarified, that this request was made during a Synod devoted to the New Evangelization; studying ways and means to bring disaffected, disillusioned and distanced Catholics back into the folds of the Church.

The second piece of news was the announcement that Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a member of Maryknoll for 45 years who had come under scrutiny for his support of women’s ordination, was dismissed from the order by the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation in October. The National Catholic Reporter has been updating the news all day.

Reaction to the first story has been one of incredulity. Yet again, the men at the Vatican appear to have lost all sense of reality. With all the crises that face our world and church, they are focusing on garments. At a time when many women and men are disgusted with clericalism, they want to bring back an old symbol of clerical exclusivity.

The dismissal of Fr. Roy Bourgeois, from both his religious order and the priesthood, has discussion boards fuming with the obvious injustice of it all. Priests and bishops, who were found guilty of sexual abuse of children, or the cover-up of that abuse, were not treated as harshly. Some, like Cardinal Law, ended up in cushy Vatican positions. The crime that will get you kicked out in record time is to speak out, publicly and loudly, for women’s ordination.

My one goal with this recent trip to Rome was to spend time at the tomb of Blessed John XXIII. We sat quietly in prayer, ending our meditation with a recitation of the Creed to commemorate the Year of Faith. The Creed is the foundation of our faith. It is the prayer we recite, or is recited for us, as we are welcomed into the Church – the Body of Christ. We believe in God our Creator. We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s son and our redeemer. We believe in the Holy Spirit, giver of wisdom and of life. And, yes, we believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. But, it is getting harder and harder to believe some of the nonsense that is coming from our church.

photo by Isabella R. Moyer

Pope John XXIII inspired the church to fling open her windows so the stale air of centuries past may be open to the freely blowing breezes of the Holy Spirit. He urged the people of God to ignore prophets of doom and gloom, to embrace the good news of the gospel so it may be lived in all corners of the world. He opened his arms to the world and other religions, so we may celebrate what unites us and collaborate in bringing justice and peace to all.

Blessed John XXIII…..pray for us.

voices of hope from the synod for the new evangelization

In this week’s catholic dialogue column in the Prairie Messenger, I try to give a shout out to some of the many hopeful voices heard in the recent Synod for the New Evangelization. I was getting frustrated with the negativity towards the Synod that was showing up on some discussion boards. Some thought the whole thing was a waste of time. Others find negativity in anything said or done by bishops.

But, there was a lot of wisdom being shared from around the world;  voices who ‘got it’ when it comes to the new evangelization.

These are just a few of the voices from the synod, but they give us hope. They speak of a new evangelization grounded in the more optimistic Vatican II understanding of relationships within the church, and between the church and the world. Evangelization needs the open windows of freshly blowing Spirit, and the much-needed breezes just might be coming.

Here is the article,

Voices from the Synod worth listening to

german bishops – no church tax, no sacraments!

Today’s NCR Morning Briefing gave a link to the following Reuter’s story German bishops get tough on Catholics who opt out of church tax.

Here in North America, we are used to supporting our churches through the Sunday collection and other voluntary donations. We can choose how much to give, or whether to give at all.

I confess that I have used the power of the purse as a form of protest. Giving a meagre amount or even withholding our collection was the only way we could voice our frustrations; the only vote we had as lay folks in the pews. Paying for the costs of our parish and its ministries was one thing. Paying for the extravagant life-style of a pastor or the legal bills of abusers was another. But, no one was checking our donation status at the door or turning us away. No one was stopping us in the communion line and refusing us the sacrament because we weren’t financially supporting the institutional church.

Things are different in some European countries. If a person claims a religious affiliation, they are charged a church tax . This money is then forwarded to their religious organization. On the one hand, it means that those with no religious affiliation are not required to financially support religions with their tax money. On the other hand, it requires a public declaration of religious affiliation and a compulsory financial contribution. (According to official statistics, church taxes brought in about 5 billion euros for the Roman Catholic Church in 2010.)

There has been a mass exodus of angry and disillusioned Catholics from the church in Germany; as in many parts of the western world. Here, we can quietly sneak out the back door and head into a time of personal exile; often with no one noticing or (sadly) even caring. In Germany, these Catholics have to make a very public statement. By asking to be taken off the tax roll, they are essentially stating they are no longer members of the church.

The bishops of Germany are now cracking down. They have declared that those who do not pay church taxes will not have access to the sacraments, or religious burials. They cannot work in the church or its institutions or be active in church-sponsored associations such as charity groups or choirs. They cannot be godparents for Catholic children and must get a bishop’s permission to marry a Catholic in a church ceremony.

“This decree makes clear that one cannot partly leave the Church,” a statement from the bishops conference said. “It is not possible to separate the spiritual community of the Church from the institutional Church.”

For the German bishops, you are either in or out. And, being ‘in’ requires financial payment.

The Synod of Bishops are meeting next month in Rome to discuss the new evangelization; how to revitalize the Catholic faith in countries where many have left the church. The new evangelization requires open dialogue, compassion, a reading of the signs of the times, and reaching people where they are. It requires looking anew at how we preach the good news of Jesus. It requires a mutual desire for inner conversion, getting to the root of the spiritual dimensions of our faith.

To deny Catholics access to their church and her sacramental life because they refuse to financially support the institutional church does not encourage those who have left to return. The German bishops are presenting the institutional church as a heavy-handed bully focused on money. They need to ponder more deeply the concept of evangelization.