"PRIESTHOOD"

By Fr. John Trigilio
posted on his blog The Black Biretta

Pope Benedict XVI washed the feet of 12 priests from the diocese of Rome this year at the Maundy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at the Basilica Cathedral of St. John Lateran. The pedelavium is a poignant reminder to all in holy orders that each man is called to serve and not be served. Whether bishop, priest or deacon, the ordained ministry is one of service to Holy Mother Church and has nothing to do with personal or self-aggrandizement. This is why celebrants are warned in the rubrics not to insert their own agenda nor are they to introduce illicit innovations let alone proliferate outright liturgical abuses for any reasons whatsoever since they are ordained to serve the Mystical Body of Christ. The People of God deserve valid and licit and reverent Sacraments and they deserve nothing but the best that Jesus Christ gave His Church for the sanctification of souls. Anything less is equivalent to sacerdotal malpractice.

A growing concern, however, is for the orthodox, devout, parish priest who literally says the black and does the red is that he may inadvertently neglect his spiritual NEEDS. Too many good and doctrinely sound priests and deacons burn out or become discouraged, disenchanted and disillusioned. These men have NOT lost their faith, but they are very close to losing HOPE. These men do not leave the priesthood, but they can lose their zeal and their love of what they do IF they do not take care of their own spiritual needs.

Secular progressive bishops who use a corporate business paradigm to run the diocese instill a dangerous mindset among the presbyterate. If BEING a priest becomes less important than DOING priestly things, trouble is not far behind. As B16 (and Fr Z) have pointed out, Catholicism is the religion of the great et ... et (BOTH ... AND) as opposed to the aut ... aut (EITHER ... OR). Hence, the Church needs men to BOTH BE priests AND to DO priestly things (i.e., ACT like priests).

American pragmatism has infiltrated priestly formation, both seminary and ongoing. Many priests convince themselves that they are good priests as long as they spend their entire day, week, month, year, etc., DOING priestly things. Certainly, no one can argue that men are ordained deacon, priest or bishop to serve the Church in that particular ministry. Priests are ordained to celebrate Mass, to hear confessions, to anoint the sick, to marry couples, to baptize babies, to preach and teach the truths of our faith, to solace the sick and dying, et al. YES, YES, YES. We are ordained to do these sacerdotal works of mercy (spiritual and coporal). Each priest is ordained to be an ALTER CHRISTUS so that he can act IN PERSONA CHRISTI when he administers and celebrates the Sacraments. The Sacred Liturgy is the zenith of what a priest DOES.

Simultaneously, the priest must also tend to his own spiritual welfare just as he does his physical. Physiological and psychological health are in the hands of each priest himself. So, too, the SPIRITUAL health of priests, deacons and bishops. We all have our own dentists, doctors, mechanics, and tax advisors. How many ordained clergy still have and use a SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR, however? Seminary forced you to have one and use one. If you missed your monthly meeting, he came looking for you just like if you missed Mass, class or Liturgy of the Hours. Once ordained, however, even those who faithfully pray their Breviary do not always show the same commitment to monthly or bi-monthly spiritual direction. Some priests fool themselves into thinking that they are 'too busy' to take a day off or take a vacation. Yet, canon law and local diocesan policy guarantee and exhort clergy to take some time off. Jesus was no workaholic. He took a nap in the boat; He ate at Zaccheus' home; He frequented the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. He preached in the synagogues and in the streets and fields. He WORKED and He RESTED.

Clergy (deacons, priests and bishops) who consistently ignore or avoid regular days off and vacation are not martyrs for the cause but they will drive others to seriously consider making them a martyr. ONGOING FORMATION of the clergy, as demanded and called by Vatican II (presbyterorum ordinis), Canon Law and the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests, is not a suggestion or an option. It is a MANDATE. The ordained NEED to promote and facilitate ongoing SPIRITUAL, THEOLOGICAL and PASTORAL formation in a FRATERNAL setting.

Besides days off and vacation, canon law DEMANDS clergy take an annual RETREAT. It also STRONGLY encourages participation in workshops and/or seminars designed specifically for the ordained ministry. Fraternal associations are also given full and enthusiastic support. Sadly, many priests and deacons NEGLECT these important resources.

As President of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, I see the invaluable and priceless worth of ONGOING FORMATION. I also know of priests who only get to confession once a year when they are on retreat or at the annual gathering of priests in their diocese for the Chrism Mass. To be a good confessor, we priests need to be good penitents ourselves. Since we are in the confessionals most if not every Saturday, it is difficult for us to get to confession in comparison to the laity who come to us week after week, month after month.

MONTHLY confession is possible if a cleric is part of an association or group of priests/deacons who meet regularly for an afternoon, morning or evening of recollection. Opus Dei and the Legionnaires of Christ, e.g., sponsor such monthly gatherings as do local chapters of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. Yet, we often hear from orthodox, pious and dedicated priests that they cannot come every month because they have other commitments to the parish. If he had a cavity, Father MAKES TIME to get to the dentist. If his car breaks down, he MAKES TIME to go to the local garage. If his soul NEEDS regular spiritual direction and frequent confession, then he MUST MAKE TIME.

Visiting the nursing homes, teaching RCIA or CCD or Pre-Cana, preparing your Sunday sermon, attending parish council and finance committee meetings, etc. are all part and parcel of being a priest or deacon in a typical parish in 2008. If the cleric, however, does not spend some QUALITY time (weekly or monthly) with other solid colleagues for fraternal support, he will eventually turn elsewhere, and it may not always be a good place at that.

I ask Bishops to urge their priests and deacons to make their spiritual health a PRIORITY. Just as we NEED a healthy diet of good food and exercise to stay physically fit, we need regular direction and frequent confession as well as our annual retreat and occasional workshops or seminars. We would all love to fulfill the romantic vision of one day falling over dead while celebrating Mass or going on a sick call, i.e., to die ON THE JOB. It is a noble thought but not probable. Most of us will die of disease, accident or old age like our parishioners, late at night. If the priest or deacon or bishop neglects his spiritual need for direction, confession, fraternity and prudent leisure time, then the probability is that he will become mean, nasty, bitter, ornery, cantankerous, obnoxious or completely insane. Burned out, stressed out clergy either leave the active ministry or they stay and become resentful that they are not appreciated; they they have been overlooked; that no one is ever satisfied; that no good deed goes unpunished.

Bad enough diocesan bureaucrats, episcopal sychophants, and other ambitious 'professional' clergymen get good assignments, promotions, honors, recognition, support and appreciation from their superiors, but when the real good guys who defend the Magisterium and celebrate valid, licit and reverent sacraments and who spend their lives in service to their parish, diocese or religious community, get nothing but disdain and grief from their own kind, then a solid foundation is all the more necessary.

A house built on rock rather than on sand, will survive the storm. So, too, clergy who make their spiritual well being a PRIORITY are like the fathers of families who make sure they are physically and emotionally fit so as to live a long and healthy life in order to best take care of their wives and children. Clergy need to BE good priests as well as DO priestly work.

Are two or three hours a month too much to ask to maintain a healthy spirituality? Once a month gathering with brother priests for an afternoon or morning of recollection, with time before the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction, spiritual conference, rosary, Divine Office, and time for confession followed by an opportunity for FRATERNITY --- are not our people worth it for us to be at our best so we can in turn give them our best? If we do not make time now and then for ourselves, we can be tempted to compensate with other avenues. Annual retreats need ongoing sustenance via regular spiritual direction. Frequent confession and participation in theological discussions help to better serve our parishioners. The CCC and Opus Dei have helped FORM me before and after ordination. Sadly, I know too many priests and deacons who are 'too busy' for their own spiritual needs. That is negligence, I hate to say. No different than someone who neglects their physical health.

Imagine a priest who did not bathe for over a month. As Martha said in the Gospel of John, "surely, Lord, there will be a stench." Bishops have had to tell priests who neglected their physical health to go get help. We may need that for the spiritual health as well. Problem is that unlike the stinky cleric who has B.O., the one who has not been on retreat for several years, and/or has not been to confession for over a year and/or who has not read or discussed a theological document since seminary days does not have the same 'odor'.

Parishioners, if you love your priests and deacons, urge and encourage them to remain orthodox in their teaching. Thank them for their daily prayer and for their service every day, every week, every month and every year to the parish. Show appreciation for their time to others BUT also urge them to give their own souls time, too. I had several parishioners from across the nation ask what can they do to help their pastor, parochial vicar or deacon. I told them to give them gift subscriptions to orthodox Catholic newspapers and magazines; offer to help pay their travel expenses to attend a seminar or workshop (like the annual Convocation of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy this July 14-17 in Baltimore). The diocese or parish usually gives them a stipend to pay some if not all the fees to attend retreats, seminars and workshops but not travel expense. An inexpensive bus, train or plane ticket might make an excellent birthday or anniversary or ordination gift for a favorite priest or deacon. There have even been a few laity who drove their pastor to several of our annual gatherings.

Doctors, lawyers, politicians, and teachers network with each other and make professional friendships. Priests and deacons are no different. We NEED to support each other. We need our people to understand Father may not be physically on the property 24/7, so don't wait until someone is on their deathbed to call the priest for the last rites. Call the rectory regularly for someone to bring Holy Communion to the sick and for occasional anointing of the terminally ill rather than wait until it may be too late. And encourage your parish clergy to aggressively pursue regular ONGOING spiritual, theological and pastoral formation in a fraternal setting. It will benefit him and you in the long run. Priests who LOVE the priesthood and love their people must also love themselves enough to take care of and provide for their own spiritual NEEDS otherwise they will not be able nor be around to take care of the spiritual needs of their parishioners.

"In Persona Christi: Holy Thursday, The Priest and Contraception"

From Human Life International's "Spirit and Life"

"In Persona Christi: Holy Thursday, The Priest and Contraception"

By John Mallon

In Persona Christi, the priest stands for the Bridegroom in ministering to His Bride, the Church. In bringing new life to the Bride in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, he acts in a husbanding role and as a father. He cultivates.

The marriage bed is the altar of the domestic Church. Just as the priest brings new life spiritually, (zoe), to the Bride on the altar, the husband brings new biological life, (bios), to his wife on the marriage bed. In confecting and administering the Eucharist the priest brings new life to the family of Heaven, and the husband brings new life to the family on earth. In each case God is directly involved. Only through the Holy Spirit at the hands of the priest can bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ; and in human intercourse, only God can create a soul through the union of husband and wife.

The more one meditates on this Bridal mysticism the more staggering and beautiful it becomes, and the more the horror of contraception comes into relief.

In Genesis, when God set about to create man He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” (Gen 1:26a). He spoke in plural. God is not a lone male figure, but a family: the Trinity. He went on to say, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground,” (Gen 1:26b), here also indicating man as family. Man as species, man complete as one flesh. He also shares His dominion with man.

In the image of God, man not only images what God the Holy Trinity is, a family, but also images what God does: love and give life.

Feminist ideology, which often counters our message, doesn’t get this. It thinks in term of separateness, not unity. It is an ideology of despair, especially despairing of love; despair issuing from a failure of love—sin—the despair that comes from being sinned against, and taking refuge in more sin. It is despair buried under generational layers of abuse, exploitation and sin. Whereas, the Church holds up loving union; with love as its path.

Human sexuality and reproduction, as one of God’s greatest gifts, was wrapped by Him in pleasure and love, but too many in our time merely play with the wrappings and throw away the gift, soon finding only emptiness among the shreds.

The priest is a soldier of love, a soldier of beauty, a soldier of truth—a soldier of life. Sin divides. Sin kills. Contraception divides sperm from egg, husband from wife and man from God. Abortifacient contraception divides the embryo from the womb and, in destroying it, divides the newly minted soul from its tiny body.

The priest is tasked with restoring all things in Christ. This is not easy, but soldiers are men who fight wars, get wounded, maimed and even killed in a cause greater than themselves. Those fallen in this war we call martyrs. In fighting this war you may be killed. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have both called for a willingness to be martyred on the part of clergy—and all Christians—in these hostile days.

One may not be physically killed, but standing with Christ on the truth of life and contraception may earn him the smaller deaths of ridicule, mockery, and ostracism—even from his brother priests, who may still be under the misapprehension that priesthood is a nice, comfortable and respectable life where they will be well-liked and popular.

It is plausible that on the first Holy Thursday, in Gethsemane, Jesus underwent another kind of death, or perhaps the beginning of the death He would suffer the next day: heartbreak. It is plausible that in that heartbreak he died for the sins of His friends, the Church throughout history, the betrayals and abandonment beginning that very night with Peter’s denial and the slumber of His sleepy friends who could not stay awake and watch with Him.

It is He whom you serve. It is He in Whose place you stand. To be bland and uncontroversial is a very poor way to imitate Christ. They don’t put you on the cross for mediocrity.

"Pope Benedict XVI on Priestly Spirituality"

The entire post below is from Fr. Mark Kirby, O. Cist. (parts of post that are not italicized are exerpts from Pope Benedict XVI's Chrism Mass Homily)

From Fr. Kirby:

A huge thank you to Sandro Magister for providing readers with the Holy Father's six Holy Week homilies. His homily at the Mass of Chrism on Holy Thursday captivated me. My own comments are in italics.

The Essence of the Priestly Ministry

At the same time, Holy Thursday is for us an opportunity to ask ourselves again: To what did we say "yes"? What is this "being a priest of Jesus Christ"? Canon II of our missal, which was probably composed in Rome before the end of the second century, describes the essence of the priestly ministry with the words that, in the book of Deuteronomy (18:5,7), described the essence of the Old Testament priesthood: astare coram te et tibi ministrare.

Pope Benedict XVI goes to the heart of the question. What is the essence of the priestly ministry? He answers it with words drawn from the Sacred Liturgy itself: "astare coram te et tibi ministrare" — to stand before Thee and worship in Thy presence. The priest is one who faces God and waits upon Him. The priest is the eyes of the world fixed upon God, and the hands of the world lifted up in worship before Him. The priest lives his priesthood most intensely when standing before the altar.

Standing Before the Lord

Two functions, therefore, define the essence of the ministerial priesthood: in the first place, "standing before the Lord." In the book of Deuteronomy, this should be interpreted in the context of the previous dispensation, according to which the priests did not receive any portion of the Holy Land – they lived by God, and for God. They did not attend to the usual work necessary for sustaining daily life. Their profession was "to stand before the Lord" – looking to Him, living for Him. Thus, all told, the word indicated a life lived in the presence of God, and thus also a ministry in representation of others.

The priest lives by God, and for God. A young disciple of Blessed Abbot Marmion, Dom Pie de Hemptinne, O.S.B., said something similar; reflecting on his own priesthood, the young Benedictine said that would live "by the altar, and for the altar." Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes the mediatorship of the priest. The priest lives in the presence of God as the representative of all his brothers; he serves in the sanctuary on behalf of all who, in some sense, stand behind him.

To Keep the World Open to God

Just as the others cultivated the land, from which the priest also lived, so he kept the world open to God, he had to live with his gaze turned to Him. If these words are now found in the Canon of the Mass immediately after the consecration of the gifts, after the entry of the Lord among the assembly gathered in prayer, then they indicate for us the standing before the Lord who is present; it indicates, that is, the Eucharist as the center of the priestly life.


This is brilliant. The priest is a man who "keeps the world open to God." The priest lives "with his gaze turned to God." Underlying these observations is the Holy Father's desire to see restored the traditional position of the priest during the Eucharistic Prayer. The "closed circle" of "versus populum" celebrations is, I think, directly linked to the current crisis in priestly spirituality. When the priest, standing at the altar, faces the crucifix, he offers his own body to "keep the world open to God." By not looking at the people during the Holy Mysteries, the priest exemplifies for them that, "being risen with Christ," they are called to "lift their thoughts above, where Christ now seats at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1).

One Who Watches

But even here its impact goes further. In the hymn of the liturgy of the hours that, during Lent, introduces the office of readings – the office that the monks used to pray during the hour of the nocturnal vigil before God, and for the sake of men – one of the tasks of Lent is described in the imperative: arctius perstemus in custodia – let us be watchful with greater intensity. In the tradition of Syriac monasticism, the monks were described as "those who stand on their feet"; standing on one's feet was an expression of vigilance. What was here considered as the task of the monks, we can reasonably view as being also an expression of the priestly mission, and as a correct interpretation of the words of Deuteronomy: the priest must be one who watches.

Pope Benedict XVI understands that there is no opposition between the monastic vocation and the priestly one. He goes so far as to say that "what was here considered as the task of monks, we can reasonably view as being also an expression of the priestly mission." "The priest," he says, "must be one who watches." How can we not recall the vigils of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney before the altar of the parish church of Ars, the prolonged adorations of Saint Peter Julian Eymard before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance, and the passion of Saint Gaetano Catanoso (photo above) for keeping watch before the Eucharistic Face of Christ?

Last October 16th, for the feast of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, I had the privilege of being in Paray-le-Monial. While there I encountered a brother priest who shared with me something of his own experience of keeping watch in prayer during the night. This priest found in nocturnal adoration a spiritual refreshment and an intimacy with Christ that he found at no other time. The priest, like the monk, is a watchman, for the sake of the people entrusted to his care.

Standing Upright

He must stand guard before the relentless powers of evil. He must keep the world awake to God. He must be one who stands on his feet: upright in the face of the currents of the time. Upright in the truth. Upright in his commitment to goodness. Standing before the Lord must always be, in its inmost depths, also a lifting up of men to the Lord, who, in turn, lifts all of us up to the Father. And it must be a lifting up of Him, of Christ, of his word, of his truth, of his love. The priest must be upright, unwavering and ready even to suffer outrage for the sake of the Lord, as shown in the Acts of the Apostles: they "[rejoiced] that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name" (5:41).

The Holy Father is lucid when it comes to the reality of spiritual combat with the powers of darkness. I find the suppression of the Short Lesson at the beginning of Compline in the reformed Liturgy of the Hours most unfortunate. It is a text that every priest needs to repeat and hear nightly: "Brethren, be sober, and watch well; the devil, who is your enemy, goes about roaring like a lion, to find his prey, but you, grounded in the faith, must face him boldly" (1 P 5:8-9).

Pope Benedict XVI dares to close the gap between the so called "monastic" and "priestly" spiritualities. The "monastic" dimension of the diocesan priesthood becomes apparent to all who take the Holy Father's teaching to heart. It was, I think, precisely the evacuation of "monastic" values from priestly spirituality that contributed in no small measure to the present crisis in priestly life and in vocations. "Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches" (Ap 2:7).

Pope Benedict XVI's 2008 Chrism Mass Homily

Thanks to Fr. Blake for finding this and Sandro Magister for translating.

Dear brothers and sisters, each year the Chrism Mass exhorts us to return to that "yes" to the call of God which we pronounced on the day of our priestly ordination. "Adsum – here I am!", we said like Isaiah, when he heard the voice of God, who asked him: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am, send me!", Isaiah replied (Isaiah 6:8). Then the Lord himself, through the hands of the bishop, laid his hands upon us and we gave ourselves to his mission. Since then, we have traveled down various roads in following his call. Can we always claim what Paul, after years of a service of the Gospel that was often laborious and marked by sufferings of all kinds, wrote to the Corinthians: "Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged" (2 Cor. 4:1)? "We are not discouraged." Let us pray today that our zeal may always be rekindled, so that it is constantly fed by the living flame of the Gospel.

At the same time, Holy Thursday is for us an opportunity to ask ourselves again: To what did we say "yes"? What is this "being a priest of Jesus Christ"? Canon II of our missal, which was probably composed in Rome before the end of the second century, describes the essence of the priestly ministry with the words that, in the book of Deuteronomy (18:5,7), described the essence of the Old Testament priesthood: astare coram te et tibi ministrare. Two functions, therefore, define the essence of the ministerial priesthood: in the first place, "standing before the Lord." In the book of Deuteronomy, this should be interpreted in the context of the previous dispensation, according to which the priests did not receive any portion of the Holy Land – they lived by God, and for God. They did not attend to the usual work necessary for sustaining daily life. Their profession was "to stand before the Lord" – looking to Him, living for Him. Thus, all told, the word indicated a life lived in the presence of God, and thus also a ministry in representation of others. Just as the others cultivated the land, from which the priest also lived, so he kept the world open to God, he had to live with his gaze turned to Him. If these words are now found in the Canon of the Mass immediately after the consecration of the gifts, after the entry of the Lord among the assembly gathered in prayer, then they indicate for us the standing before the Lord who is present; it indicates, that is, the Eucharist as the center of the priestly life. But even here its impact goes further. In the hymn of the liturgy of the hours that, during Lent, introduces the office of readings – the office that the monks used to pray during the hour of the nocturnal vigil before God, and for the sake of men – one of the tasks of Lent is described in the imperative: arctius perstemus in custodia – let us be watchful with greater intensity. In the tradition of Syriac monasticism, the monks were described as "those who stand on their feet"; standing on one's feet was an expression of vigilance. What was here considered as the task of the monks, we can reasonably view as being also an expression of the priestly mission, and as a correct interpretation of the words of Deuteronomy: the priest must be one who watches. He must stand guard before the relentless powers of evil. He must keep the world awake to God. He must be one who stands on his feet: upright in the face of the currents of the time. Upright in the truth. Upright in his commitment to goodness. Standing before the Lord must always be, in its inmost depths, also a lifting up of men to the Lord, who, in turn, lifts all of us up to the Father. And it must be a lifting up of Him, of Christ, of his word, of his truth, of his love. The priest must be upright, unwavering and ready even to suffer outrage for the sake of the Lord, as shown in the Acts of the Apostles: they "[rejoiced] that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name" (5:41).

Let's continue now to the second expression, which Canon II takes from the Old Testament – "to stand in your presence and serve you." The priest must be an upright, vigilant person, a person who stands straight. Then, to all of this, service is added. In the text of the Old Testament, this word has an essentially ritual meaning: the priest was responsible for all of the acts of worship stipulated by the Law. But this acting according to ritual was then classified as service, as a task of service, and this explains in what spirit these activities had to be carried out. With the inclusion of the expression "to serve" in the Canon, this liturgical meaning of the term is in a certain way adopted – in keeping with the newness of Christian worship. What the priest does at that moment, and in the celebration of the Eucharist, is to serve, and to carry out a service of God and a service of men. The worship that Christ rendered to the Father was that of giving of himself to the end, for the sake of men. The priest must insert himself into this worship, into this service. Thus the expression "to serve" involves many dimensions. Certainly first among these is the proper celebration of the Liturgy and of the Sacraments in general, carried out with interior participation. We must learn to understand more and more the sacred liturgy in all of its essence, to develop a lively familiarity with it, so that it becomes the soul of our daily life. It is then that we celebrate properly, it is then that there emerges on its own account the ars celebrandi, the art of celebrating. There must be nothing artificial in this art. If the Liturgy is a central task of the priest, this also means that priority must be given to learning continually anew and more profoundly how to pray, in the school of Christ and of the saints of all ages. Because the Christian Liturgy, by its nature, is also always a proclamation, we must be persons who are familiar with the Word of God, who love it and live it: only then will we be able to explain it in an adequate way. "To serve the Lord" – priestly service also means learning to know the Lord in his word, and to make Him known to all those He entrusts to us.

Two other aspects, finally, are part of service. No one is as close to his master as the servant, who has access to the most private dimension of his life. In this sense, "serving" means closeness, it requires familiarity. This familiarity also brings a danger: that our constant contact with the sacred might make it become routine for us. Thus reverential fear is extinguished. Under the influence of all of our habits, we no longer perceive the great, new, surprising fact, the He himself is present, that He speaks to us, He gives himself to us. We must fight without rest against this habituation to the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, recognizing always anew our insufficiency and the grace that is present in the fact that he delivers himself into our hands in this way. Serving means closeness, but above all it means obedience. The servant is under orders: "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). With these words on the Mount of Olives, Jesus resolved the decisive battle against sin, against the rebellion of the fallen heart. Adam's sin consisted precisely in the fact that he wanted to do his own will, and not that of God. The temptation of humanity is always that of being totally autonomous, of following only its own will and of maintaining that only in this way will we be free; that it is only through such limitless freedom that man can be fully himself. But in this very way, we pit ourselves against the truth. Because the truth is that we must share our freedom with others, and can be free only in communion with them. This shared freedom can be true freedom only if through this we enter into what constitutes the measure of freedom, if we enter into the will of God. This fundamental obedience that is part of the human being, a being that is not solely of and for itself, becomes even more concrete in the priest: we do not proclaim ourselves, but rather Him and his Word, which we could not have imagined on our own. We proclaim the word of Christ correctly only in the communion of his Body. Our obedience is believing together with the Church, thinking and speaking together with the Church, serving together with it. This always involves what Jesus predicted to Peter: 'someone else will . . . lead you where you do not want to go'. This being led where we do not want to go is an essential dimension of our service, and it is precisely this that makes us free. By being led in this way, which can be contrary to our own ideas and plans, we experience something new – the riches of the love of God.

"To stand before Him and serve Him": Jesus Christ, as the true High Priest of the world, has conferred upon these words a profundity that was unimaginable before. He, who as Son was and is Lord, wanted to become that servant of God whom the vision of the book of the prophet Isaiah had foreseen. He wanted to be the servant of all. He depicted the entirety of his high priesthood in the gesture of the washing of the feet. With the gesture of love until the very end, He washes our dirty feet, with the humility of his service He purifies us from the sickness of our arrogance. Thus he makes us capable of becoming God's companions. He descended, and the true ascension of man is now realized in our ascending with Him and to Him. His elevation is the Cross. This is the most profound descent, and, as love pushed to the very limit, it is at the same time the culmination of the ascent, the "elevation" of man. "To stand before Him and serve Him" – this now means entering into his call as servant of God. The Eucharist as the presence of the descent and ascent of Christ thus refers, beyond itself, to the many ways of the service of love of neighbor. Let us ask the Lord, on this day, for the gift of being able to say once more in this sense our "yes" to his call: "Here I am. Send me, Lord" (cf. Isaiah 6:8). Amen.

"Family’s three sons called to priesthood"

Strand brothers from Dousman follow distinct paths to same destination in Catholic Church

By KATHERINE MICHALETS - Greater Milwaukee Today
March 27, 2008

From left, siblings, Jacob Strand, Vincent Strand and Luke Strand are seen in this August 2007 photo while in St. Paul, Minn., for Vincent’s vows. Jacob, Vincent and Luke say they have felt a calling from God to become priests.

MILWAUKEE - The path that Luke Strand has chosen to follow is not a common one, nor is it an easy one.

But it is one he feels God called him to take - to become a Catholic priest.

What makes his decision all the more extraordinary is that his two brothers, Vincent and Jacob, have chosen similar paths and are also studying to become ministers of God’s word during a time when the Catholic Church is experiencing a shortage of priests and increased scrutiny.

"I very much fell in love with the church. I think the Catholic Church is beautiful," Luke Strand, 27, said. "In a time when there is a lot of skepticism about the Catholic Church, I feel called to share the joys she brings to the world."

Growing up as Catholics in Dousman, the three brothers considered themselves religious but never seriously considered becoming priests.

"Our journeys are all very unique and each of us have our own gifts to offer the church," Luke Strand said.

Answering God’s calling

Vincent Strand, S.J., 25, was a student at Marquette University studying biological sciences and theology when he began to feel that God was calling him. He said that he began to spend time with people from the Society of Jesus, also called Jesuits.

"I really became convinced that God was calling me to be a Jesuit. I really thought he was asking me to do it personally," Vincent Strand said. "The call was not vague or abstract, it felt very concrete to me and that Jesus was speaking directly to my heart."

In December 2004, he began to apply for admittance to start the novitiate process with the Jesuits. He is currently in New York City striving for a master’s degree in philosophy as part of his education process in the Society of Jesus.

"There was just tremendous peace, joy and freedom," he said about pursuing God’s calling.

Jacob Strand, 22, said he started to think about becoming a priest while a senior at Kettle Moraine High School. After completing two years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the desire became stronger.

"This began to occupy a larger area of my life," he said.

Jacob Strand thought going to seminary might help him discern better what he wanted to do with his life.

"When I began to look into this more closely, there was a strong sense of peace and that I was fulfilling what God wanted for me," he said.

In fall 2006, Jacob Strand entered seminary through the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, but because Milwaukee doesn’t have a college seminary, he is at St. Joseph College Seminary in Chicago.

Luke Strand, the oldest and first brother to chose the life of a priest, said he never considered becoming a priest while growing up. He said as a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he wanted a degree in marketing, to have a large Catholic family and to make money.

But those expectations began to change.

"I had some experiences that really led me to moments of conversion," Luke Strand said.

He said he started to frequent the Newman Center chapel and to help at a homeless shelter, Father Carr’s Place 2B.

"As I continued this journey, priesthood began to seem like something God was calling me to - something that God was putting in the forefront of my mind," he said.

Luke Strand is currently studying at the St. Francis Seminary, where he will be ordained a deacon this May and a priest in May 2009.

Family reaction and support

It hasn’t always been easy for the friends and family of the Strand brothers to understand their decisions.

"It's always surprising. It’s something that parents don’t expect," Luke Strand said, adding "They’ve been very encouraging in the process."

Their dad, Jerry Strand, admits it’s been difficult to accept their decisions at times.

"As parents, you always raise your kids to be independent and sometimes to take the road less traveled," he said. "We just didn’t think all three would make this decision."

Jerry Strand and his wife, Bernadette, have realized how happy their sons’ chosen vocations have made them.

"You get behind them and you give up personal selfishness," Jerry Strand said. "We’re just happy that our boys are able to make tough decisions."

"It wasn’t easy for them, but I’ve been amazed and grateful for how they’ve come to accept it and support us through it," Jacob Strand said of his parents.

The brothers have also received support from their younger sister, Theresa Strand.

Throughout the process, the brothers have been there for each other, as well.

"It’s a great support to have my brothers in many ways walking a similar path. We can understand one another - the struggles, as well as the joys, that our vocations offer us," Vincent Strand said.

The future of the Catholic Church

The Strand brothers see a vibrant future for the Catholic Church despite the recent sex scandals and decline in the number of priests.

"The church is certainly going through the healing process and through this process it will become stronger," Jacob Strand said. "Now I think there is even a renewed sense of integrity and there’s a renewed sense of hope."

Vincent Strand said that when he saw the Catholic Church in need, he wanted to help.

He said the Catholic Church and the Gospel are still relevant in the world and that the Catholic Church is growing globally.

"I think there is a great wave of young people who are zealous for the Catholic Church," Vincent Strand said.

Luke Strand agreed.

"People are searching for truth, and I think that search for the truth has led a lot of young people to the church, to priesthood and to religious life," he said.

Luke Strand feels optimistic.

"I think there’s something really great happening in the the church and it’s exciting to be a part of it," he said.

"Thumbing their way down God's highway"

In an effort to collect and post articles and stories about the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, something that is not particularly easy to do since they have no website and no real web presence anywhere, I came across this article. If you don't know anything about the FPO's this article is indicative of what I know about them. Public transportation is not really used by the FPO's. In a conversation with one of the friars several years ago, he told me how they hiked 75 miles to get to a retreat they were leading.

I will be trying to post more items about them and will try to get my hands on some of their "vocation literature". Once upon a time I had it, but seem to have misplaced it. Handwritten and photocopied, their tri-fold vocations "brochure" speaks volumes of their radical committment to poverty. With their permission I will post it online with contact information.

From the Roanoke Times

Friday, June 11, 2004

A pair of Franciscan friars on their way to Nicaragua hitchhiked through Roanoke on Thursday.

By Annie Thompson

On the sun-baked sidewalk near an Interstate 581 entrance ramp, two Franciscan friars prayed for a ride Thursday afternoon as they waited in their woolen robes, thumbs in the air.

They were on their way to Nicaragua from Emmitsburg, Md., where they started their journey Wednesday - without money or food.

They believe God will get them there.

"We just let God provide for us - even for food. And he always does," Brother Patrick Mary Ginty said.

Ginty and Brother Sean Patrick Hurley, both 24, have lived at the Mother of the Good Shepherd Friary in Emmitsburg since it opened last fall. They plan to establish such a community in Nicaragua along with four other friars who are traveling in pairs.

All six left Maryland on Wednesday morning. They will meet near Birmingham, Ala., where there is a community of Franciscans, and again in Laredo, Texas. They expect it will take about a month to get to Nicaragua.

After hitching five rides Wednesday, Hurley and Ginty made it to Roanoke about 7 p.m. That night, the Madonna House on Campbell Avenue gave them dinner, a place to sleep and breakfast because they are clergy members.

"One of our ministries is to clergy passing through," said Beth Ryan, a staff worker.

Wearing habits too warm for a June afternoon, with ropes each containing four knots to symbolize the vows they've taken, and a rosary around their waists, the Roman Catholic friars were not a common sight for Roanokers.

Passers-by honked, gawked and waved, but they didn't stop.

In Maryland, the pair lived with 13 other friars. Nine are left to continue the ministry there. Once the traveling six arrive in Nicaragua, they plan to build a modest house on a coffee plantation, establishing a new friary.

Hurley and Ginty plan to study philosophy in the South American country for about four years and later become priests.

While they waited, they prayed, read from their prayer books, sang songs and "waited for the Lord to show his light," Ginty said. They said it's easier to get a ride in the New England states, where people are more familiar with Franciscan friars, who have taken vows of poverty, obedience, chastity and total consecration to the Virgin Mary.

Hurley is originally from Rhode Island, where his parents still live. He is the oldest of four children and has been in the Franciscan community for four years.

"My family's very supportive. I see them once in a while," Hurley said.

Ginty is a native of Ontario, Canada. He joined the Franciscans three years ago.

"I did nothing constructive; in fact I was quite destructive," before becoming a friar, Ginty said. He said his life before entering the order was marked by the "typical party lifestyle."

"I realized I was seriously lacking something. Unless you have Jesus in your life, you can't have that fullness of joy," Ginty said. "That's what we try to bring to the people who pick us up."

The pair waited 3 1/2 hours on the northbound entrance to I-581 at Orange Avenue until they received a ride.

"The people who stop are always the ones who need it. It's a beautiful thing," Ginty said.

Two women who asked to be called "Quarter Pounder" and "Blondie" gave them a ride.

"The Spirit led me to stop," one said before driving away.

End of year (2004) follow up:

THEN: The friars were picked up by two women, who asked to be called "Quarterpounder" and "Blondie," after standing on the northbound entrance ramp to Interstate 581 at Orange Avenue for 3 1/2 hours.

NOW: All six of the friars from the Mother of the Good Shepherd Friary in Emmitsburg, Md., who were hitchhiking in pairs, made it to Nicaragua safely in about three weeks.

- Annie Thompson

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"Franciscans of Primitive Observance come to the Mount"

By: Megan Wertner

From Mount St. Mary's "Mountain Echo"
Posted: 12/3/2003

Picture is not from original article, but is a picture of the FPO's from a recent 2008 post on Cardinal O'Malley's blog.

Junior Adam Windsor was approached by a bearded young man wearing a grey robe in Patriot Hall one evening. "For the love of God, could you spare a meal?" the man asked. Windsor gladly used his flex dollars to buy food for Brother Sean Patrick.

Brother Sean Patrick is one of seven Franciscans of Primitive Observance (FPOs) who arrived in Emmitsburg last June. The FPOs came to prepare four of their men for the priesthood at the Mount and currently live in a house off campus. This group includes two priests, two friars enrolled in the seminary, two friars studying philosophy at the college, and another friar who helps care for his brothers.

The FPOs live a simple life in imitation of the apostles, walking where they need to go, begging for food, and sleeping on the floor. They strive to be completely reliant on God's providence and to be "totally emptied of self," explains Brother Sean Patrick. Their physical poverty is a "material expression of a higher spiritual goal."

Brother Sean Patrick, 24, joined the FPOs when he was 20 years old. He was impressed by the friars who had very little, but were joyful and seemed to have "something real, something deep." He is now studying philosophy and hopes to become a priest.

The Franciscans of Primitive Observance began with six friars in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1995 and now includes sixteen members. Their apostolate is evangelization and working with the poor.

Brother Sean Patrick says that evangelization is often "re-evangelization" in today's world. The brothers run retreats for men, women, and children, give talks in local schools, visit people door-to-door, pray outside of abortion clinics, and help parishes who need priests.

The friars also assist other religious orders in their missions, minister in prisons, and help people living in impoverished areas. They remain available to help where needed and "try to be the presence of Christ" wherever they go.

Prayer is the FPOs' "top priority," says Brother Sean Patrick. "It's in prayer that we receive strength to keep up the apostolate." The friars structure their day around prayer. They attend Mass every morning, say or chant the Liturgy of the Hours, pray the rosary together, and have Eucharistic adoration for an hour each day. In addition to daily private prayer, each brother is required to make several solitude retreats a year to different hermitages.

Another essential element in Franciscan charism is penance. The brothers do penance for their sins and for the sins of the world. They try to make it known that people can always turn back to God. The friars' effort is "not just social work, but spiritual work," states Brother Sean Patrick.

The brothers try to serve as a witness to family life as they pray and work together in their community. Windsor enjoys seeing the brothers around campus. He says, "Not only they, but all the different orders are so nice."

Brother Sean Patrick has found Mount Saint Mary's to be "friendly." He hopes that it will become a place where "faith can be nurtured, taught, and upheld and that the college will become known for that."

Where will the Franciscans of Primitive Observance be in the future? According to Brother Sean Patrick, "Wherever God wants us."

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More posts on the FPO's

Franciscans of Primitive Observance

Small group of monks, nuns brings prayerful, ascetic mission to New Bedford

By Bill McNamara, Standard-Times correspondent
Staff photos by Hank Seaman

Article originally published in 1997

These Franciscans are a group with no baggage. Literally.

They own no radios, televisions or other worldly possessions. Meat, sweets and snack foods are not in their diets. They sleep on the floor and rise in the middle of night to pray. The men's gray habits are their only wardrobe, the big cowls marking them as Capuchins. They have no mode of transportation other than their feet. And they operate with no budget; there's little to account for besides spiritual formation and growth.

Most of their hours, day and night, are spent praying and toiling for the spiritual welfare of the populace.

The seven Franciscan Friars of the Primitive Observance, along with seven Capuchin Recollect Sisters, are radical by today's material standards. Even by the standards of their own larger Franciscan order, the reform group is extreme in its strict bond to an ascetic way of life. Direct ministering to the community is a minor part of their mission.

Invited to SouthCoast two years ago by Bishop Sean O'Malley -- himself a member of the Capuchin (reformed) division of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) -- the New Bedford-based group of monks and "nunks" are fashioning one of the strictest religious communities in this region and perhaps in the Western world.

Clearly, the 14 monks and nuns would prefer prayerful anonymity to any public notice of the self-denial characterizing a lifestyle that hearkens back to their mendicant founder, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226).

They would rather "turn the other cheek" than look to the lens of a camera or submit to a news interview. (Their superiors, Father Pio Mandato and Sister Theresa May, spoke respectively for the friars and sisters.) They do it now -- the media thing -- at the behest of journalists who believe that more general awareness and understanding of their vocation can have exemplary effects for the community.

The monks themselves would rather think of those spiritual advantages accruing without benefit of publicity but they are all for mutual acceptance and understanding. Indeed, from the time of St. Francis, the Franciscans have been notorious for their jollity, sociability and human relations.
As Father Pio observes, "They have been the authentic Christian humanists of Western society."
Most people who do come to know them and to confront their radical way of life react with shock to the degree of renunciation practiced by the young women at Mother of God Convent on Bullard Street and the young men at Immaculate Conception Friary on Rivet Street, north and south ends of town respectively. (It wasn't a deliberate strategy to keep them apart.)

"I was just stunned when they told me how they lived," said a woman whose household was visited by two of the friars. "They have nothing, not even a radio to turn on for a little music. That seems a bit extreme to me, but they don't seem to mind at all."

Asking not to be identified ("I'm not a critic. I don't want them to think of me as a critic"), the woman said it shook her up to see how dependent society has become on more and more material possessions. "And maybe that's their message. It's a good one but, goodness, denying themselves the pleasure of switching on some music in their life strikes me as a drawback."
She recalled that "they loved the music our radio was playing while they were here; they kept commenting on it."

That's it, says Father Pio. They pick up their arias and overtures and birdsong as they make their rounds of the community, as did St. Francis. Music and other pleasures of life they don't have to make room for in their own cubicles.

"God provides," says Father Superior who has been a Franciscan priest for 12 years.
He and his fellow-reformers in New York sought out Bishop O'Malley when they felt ready for reorganization. After "much dialogue" over the course of about six months, the invitation arrived from the Fall River diocese. Again with the help of the bishop, the friars found a temporary home on Kempton Street, New Bedford, until about a year ago when they moved to Rivet Street and went to work on serious renovations. (The diocese is supporting the group as it gets established.)
There are two priests, Father Pio and Father Pat, who joined the community here in New Bedford. Four friars are studying for the priesthood. Brother Joseph, who was in his final vows at the New York community of Capuchins, will remain a lay brother. An expert carpenter, he led the renovation project.

Reception in the neighborhood has been "very positive," according to Father Pio. "We've gotten to know a lot of the families, kids especially, and more and more people are coming to the door for confession or for spiritual guidance. But we try not to take over any parish responsibilities. We want to complement their work. We often refer people to the parish."
Their ministry involves preaching, conducting missions and retreats, and working with young people.

"Being a small, young community," says the group's leader, Father Pio, "we each have to wear a lot of different hats. We still spend a lot of time perfecting our constitution, going back to the founding principles and to the Capuchin reforms in 1536. The cross is always there. Our willingness to struggle through it is the key to growth."

Above all, says Father Pio, "we have to protect our contemplative life, but we do it in the marketplace. How to respond charitably? We don't want a revolving door, but we do want to respect people's dignity."

A day at the friary goes, more or less, like this: 2 a.m., night vigil, office of readings; 6:30 a.m., morning prayer together followed by an individual hour of prayer and solitude; 8 a.m., Mass; then class, study, work, etc.; noon, midday prayer and recollection, pickup lunch; afternoon work and study; 4:45 p.m., evening prayer in common, followed by one hour of silent eucharistic adoration; 6 p.m., supper (the monks take turns preparing and serving), recreation, followed by Compline (the evening prayer), the rosary and, finally, the Grand Silence (close of the day, normally around 9 p.m.)

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More posts on the FPO's

"Inside Clear Creek Monastery"

"Tulsa World" has launched a website with articles and a slideshow about the Benedictine Monks at Clear Creek Monastery in Tulsa Oklahoma. The photographs are beautiful, the slideshow is excellent and the articles (posted below) are very good. Enjoy.

Faith rules: Inside the Clear Creek Monastery

by: MICHAEL OVERALL Tulsa World
3/23/2008 12:00 AM

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series about the Clear Creek Monastery. In Monday’s World, part two: “Keeping the faith.”

Some people say the world is slipping into a new Dark Age. Some might say the world has been in the Dark Ages for quite a while already.

In morality, in architecture, in craftsmanship and art and literature, the 21st century is a long way from the Renaissance, and many self-described “traditionalists” would suggest that it’s a long way down.

Less than a generation after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, a growing number of Catholics want to restore Latin as a regular part of worship. But for them, it’s not just about language. It’s about reversing the decline of civilization itself.

In their eyes, the loss of Latin represented a much wider crisis in the modern world — a rejection of tradition, a defiance of history, the severing of cultural roots and a loss of faith in general. In bringing back old-fashioned prayers, they hope to bring back old-fashioned values, too.

In this worldwide effort to “reform the reforms,” Tulsa has stepped to the forefront because of a place called Clear Creek.

For three days in February, the Tulsa World gained unprecedented access to the only contemplative Benedictine monastery in the United States. And it offered a glimpse of what life might be like in a world where . . .faith rules.


The bell ringer comes outside an hour before dawn.

No light escapes from the open door. No stars peek through the cloud cover. The remote landscape offers nothing but darkness for miles in every direction.

Wearing a long black robe with a hood pulled over his head, this solitary monk seems almost invisible, silhouetted like a shadow against the crypt’s bare concrete wall.

In the strict silence of the monastery — so quiet that the monks can lie awake and meditate to the sound of their own heartbeats — his footsteps seem subversively loud, crunching on the gravel path. A few steps from the door, he reaches out with both hands to pull on a rope that dangles down the side of the crypt.

The bell tears through the cold morning air, echoing for miles across the wooded hills that surround the north side of Fort Gibson Lake. Inside, the monks descend into the crypt in a long, solemn line, black robes brushing lightly across the concrete floor.

Heads bowed, hands clasped together, they can see their own breath in this chilly, underground chamber, lit only by a few dim bulbs and candles flickering from the altar.

“Gloria Patri,” the monks begin to sing, “et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto . . . .”

Outside, unseen by the monks, a pair of headlights appears on the crest of a distant hill. Then a second. Then a third.

Snaking along the dirt road and across a small, stone bridge, the outsiders pull into an unpaved parking lot, tires crunching on the gravel louder than any monk’s footsteps.

A couple climb out of the first SUV. Three kids and their mother emerge from a minivan. A second SUV unloads half a dozen passengers, men, women and children.

With the first subtle hint of dawn shading the sky, they all file through a side entrance to the crypt, the heavy door — its hinges squeaking — slamming shut behind them.

The Benedictines came to Oklahoma looking for solitude; to escape from the rest of the world, protected by muddy roads and low-water bridges and the sheer distance from any main highway.

Now the world is coming to the Monastery of Clear Creek.


‘Set a standard’


The iron comes out of the fire glowing red, sending sparks across the cluttered workshop as George Carpenter pounds it with a mallet.

Starting out as a thin strip, the metal twists and folds into the shape of a door hinge for one of the new monastery’s grand entrances.

In a more philosophical mood, Carpenter might reflect on the way religion shapes a man’s life, bending and twisting, folding and turning. A younger man, with a soul that is still red-hot and malleable, might question his faith.

Does he really believe in the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection? Or is it like believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Is he Catholic because he really embraces the church? Or just because his parents are Catholic?

“I was looking for some kind of spiritual connection,” Carpenter remembers now that he’s approaching middle age. “Something solid. Firm. Something permanent, that didn’t need reformed.”

Part of the first generation born after the Second Vatican Council, Carpenter grew up hearing Mass in English instead of Latin. Since the council in the 1960s, most Catholic services have been in a country’s common language.

Whether the changes sparked a crisis or simply coincided with it, that’s a matter of debate. But church attendance has dropped, seminaries face shortages of new priests and millions of Catholics openly dissent from church teachings.

Now a growing movement is trying to “reform the reforms,” bringing back Latin in hopes of bringing back faithfulness in general. The pope himself recently changed church rules to encourage a broader use of Latin in services.

For Carpenter, “the renewal,” as the movement calls itself, began several years ago when his father-in-law showed him a video of an old Latin service.

“I was drawn to it immediately,” he says, pausing for a moment to pound another red-hot piece of iron.

“It was mysterious. Beautiful. Timeless.”

Using an anvil and his own linebacker-size muscles, Carpenter bends the metal into an “S” shape, forming another part of the door hinge. Blacksmiths used the same techniques in the sixth century, when St. Benedict was alive.

“When the metal is hot,” Carpenter explains, “it’s not much different from shaping clay. As it cools, the shape becomes firm.”

Growing older, Carpenter left his doubts behind and took his family to a traditional Latin parish in Texas. But in shaping his children’s lives, faith had to compete with modern culture.

He worried about the endless pursuit of consumer goods and what he calls “the trivialization of promiscuity,” even in schools and on “family” television shows.

“We wanted to raise our kids in a truly Christian culture,” he says, “a place where the church is the backdrop for everyday life.”

Four years ago, they moved to a small farm just up the road from Clear Creek, where Carpenter works part time in the metal shop.

Others have come from the West Coast and the East, the Midwest and the Deep South. From all across the country, dozens of families have moved to this obscure corner of rural Oklahoma to live within reach of the monastery bell. Like the monks, they want to “be ye separate” from the world.

“The monks set a standard for us to look up to,” Carpenter says, throwing more coals on the fire. “We’re the foot soldiers of the church, so to speak, but they’re the special forces. They’re the Marines.”

In the fight to reclaim traditions, Clear Creek is the tip of the spear.


‘Our cultural home’


The daily Mass ends just after 11 a.m., with each monk pausing in front of the altar and falling to his knees, bowing with his forehead nearly touching the floor.

Two-by-two, they stand up and march out of the crypt in perfect rhythm, left-right-left. Hands clasped, heads bowed, they don’t whisper a word. They don’t even glance at the people in the pews.

Careful not to make the slightest noise, Carpenter and the other laymen wait patiently while the monks pass. The last one out the door hits a light switch, leaving everybody else in the dark.

They must remember — this Mass was not for them.

Catholics usually genuflect before leaving a sanctuary. But here, most people follow the monks’ example — bowing on both knees.

The younger girls struggle with the maneuver, awkward in skirts that reach to their ankles, lacy scarves slipping off their heads. But their mothers make it look effortless.

In the vestibule, laypeople go out the door on the right, to the parking lot. No matter how close they live, no matter how often they come here to worship, they’re still outsiders. The monks never asked anybody to come and now they have to leave.

It takes special permission to go through the door on the left, then up a flight of stairs to a loggia. An arched opening leads to the inner cloister itself, a courtyard that would be strictly off limits if the prior himself was not serving as a personal escort.

Eventually, as construction continues, the monastery buildings will form a giant square with this courtyard hidden in the middle. But for now, the church remains nothing but a crypt, a kind of basement foundation where the monks gather to pray.

Only one side of the square has been finished — a four-story residential hall big enough for 60 monks to occupy.

“It’s an ambitious undertaking,” admits Father Philip Anderson, the prior of Clear Creek and one of the original 13 monks who opened the monastery in 1999. “If I was doing it over again, I’m not sure we would be so ambitious.”

The fundraising and the construction can become a distraction from what the monks came here to do — to pray. And to pray, specifically, the old Latin liturgy.

“You can see that civilization is in a crisis,” Anderson says, his robe fluttering in the breeze as he walks in the courtyard.

“This crisis has, in some ways, infected even the church. There’s a lack of discipline, a lack of clear moral principles.”

Society keeps trying to reinvent itself — political revolutions, sexual revolutions, technological revolutions.

“But every attempt at a solution only makes the crisis grow deeper,” Anderson says, his voice staying meditatively calm. “We’ve had all kinds of solutions — except tradition. We’ve explored many different paths — except turning back, returning to our cultural home, returning to the ancient faith.”

At Clear Creek, the ancient traditions aren’t history. They’re here. Now. And the monks are determined to keep them for the future.

Keeping the faith (part II)
Editor’s note: Tulsa World Staff Writer Michael Overall was allowed unprecedented access behind the walls of the Clear Creek Monastery. Here is part two of a two-part series about the monastery.

by: MICHAEL OVERALL
Tulsa World

For monks, prayer is path to a brighter future

No one sits down. No one talks. Heads bowed, hands clasped together, the monks wait.

The prior stands just inside the door with a pitcher of water, an empty bowl and a clean white towel. In the sixth century, St. Benedict insisted that his followers wash a visitor’s feet before dinner, but traditions evolve — now the prior washes a visitor’s hands.

Guests eat in the middle of the room, separate from the monks, who surround two long, wooden tables against opposite walls.

“In nomine Patris,” they pray, as always, in Latin before finally sitting down, “et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. . . .”

The food comes with perfect etiquette, dishes served from the left, taken away from the right, and at a brisk pace.

Slurp quickly or the soup will disappear half finished to make room for fresh beets and coleslaw.

The monks resist earthly temptations — but when they eat, they flirt with extravagance.

Tonight, a hearty portion of salmon comes with a creamy tomato sauce, complemented by generous pours of cabmerlot wine.

The third course includes buttered noodles that look bland but taste decadent, with espresso for dessert.

When not needed, the servers stand at attention near the kitchen door, white aprons covering their black robes, ready to swoop down on the slightest crumb that might fall.

Benedictines don’t take a vow of silence. In fact, most Benedictines work at schools or hospitals, talking as much as anybody else.

Clear Creek is the only contemplative Benedictine monastery in the United States.

Nestled on the north end of Fort Gibson Lake near Hulbert, the monastery began operating in 1999.

Even here, a monk might clear his throat to ask for more wine, or whisper a couple of words if necessary. But living a contemplative life includes speaking as little as possible, lest you be distracted from always thinking about God.

Dinner would pass as quietly as the rest of the day if not for the cantor, sitting alone at a small table in the corner with a microphone and a book of saints.

“The sword cut deep into the martyr’s head,” he reads, describing the death of St. Boniface, a Benedictine missionary who brought Christianity to Germany in the eighth century. “And blood spurted forth.”

Every meal comes with a history lesson, and after a few days, a general theme emerges.

As Western civilization slid into the Dark Ages, monasteries became repositories of culture. Indeed, many scholars suggest that the Dark Ages weren’t dark at all, considering the art, literature and philosophy that flourished around the Benedictines, the Augustinians and the Carthusians.

The Renaissance would’ve been impossible without monks, and now some people see the need for another Renaissance.

In fashion, architecture, art and literature — and especially in public morals — hardly anything about 2008 looks like 1908, much less 1608.

And to the monks at Clear Creek, 2008 looks decidedly inferior.

Monasteries have saved civilization before, and monasteries might do it again.


‘JUST BEING FAITHFUL’


Silence has a way of amplifying noise. The drip of a faucet, the click of a light switch, the breeze tapping against the window. Everything draws attention to itself.

A guest will send footsteps echoing down the long corridors of the residential hall. But somehow, Father Mark Bachmann’s knocking on the door comes as a complete surprise.

“Being quiet,” he explains, “becomes a habit for us, like breathing.”

A guest’s private room measures less than 10 feet by 10, but the tall ceiling makes it seem reasonably spacious. A bed, not much bigger than an army cot, sits against the wall, with a small desk and chair beneath the window.

A separate room includes a sink and shower, but the toilets are down the hall. Each monk lives in a room, called a cell, just like this.

“Except for the sink and shower,” Bachmann says, taking a seat on the room’s footlocker. “We thought our guests might appreciate the privacy, but it’s a luxury we can do without.”

Ordinarily, Bachmann would study Scripture or read devotional texts during this free time between dinner and evening prayers. But the prior has given him permission to visit the guest area, divided from the monks’ quarters by a locked door at the end of the corridor.

Taking vows more than 24 years ago, he’s one of the older monks here. Several are recent college graduates, but the prior hesitates to let the younger ones talk to outsiders.

“It’s the way parents are always more protective of children the younger they are,” Bachmann says. “They need to mature in their vows, grow stronger in their discipline.”

Once or twice a year, family members can come to the monastery to ask for “parlor time” — maybe 30 or 45 minutes in a visiting room downstairs. The prior rarely grants permission for a monk to leave the monastery grounds, which stretch for a thousand acres across Cherokee County.

“The death of a parent, for example,” Bachmann says.

Then a monk might ask to go home for a couple of days.

“What if we get homesick?

Of course, that will happen occasionally,” he says.

“Then that is something we can offer up to God as a sacrifice.”

The separation is usually harder for the families — especially considering that many of the monks are converts, and just being Catholic seemed controversial enough.

“In time, most parents come to be proud of a son for taking vows,” Bachmann says. “They come to understand that we are just being faithful to what God has called us to do.”

The monks understand the high hopes that traditional Catholics are placing on them — that the use of Latin will spread from Clear Creek and reinvigorate the faith as a whole.

Already, Gregorian chant can be heard in more and more parishes across the Tulsa diocese, where ordinary church choirs have learned Gregorian chant from the monks.

And although most of the Sunday Mass is still in English at Tulsa’s Holy Family Cathedral, the congregation slips into Latin for some prayers.

“If it is God’s will for Latin to regain prominence in the church,” Bachmann says, “then it will happen.”

But that’s not what the monks are trying to do. They believe in the power of prayer to change the world — and that’s the only kind of prayer they are trying to make.

“We’ve heard the Lord calling us to this life of prayer,” Bachmann says. “Just as Peter and John and the other Apostles heard the Lord say, ‘Come, follow me.’ They were just being obedient. They didn’t set out to change the world.”

But change it they did.


‘INTO THE FUTURE’


Sunday morning, the monastery bell echoes across the countryside to announce that High Mass will begin in 10 minutes. But the parking lot already looks full.

Inside the crypt, the reverent silence gives way to a murmuring crowd. Babies cry.

Toddlers squirm. Teenagers pass secrets between themselves.

As the monks come down the aisle, sunlight streams through the windows above the altar and bright votive candles cast a warm glow across the pews.

On most Sundays, latecomers might have to stand in the back.

But the flu has been going around, leaving a few empty seats.

George Carpenter, the blacksmith, arrives with only one son, while his wife and six other children — plus one more on the way — have stayed home.

Around here, that’s not a particularly large family. Some parents count children into double digits.

“If you understand that a child is the greatest blessing that God can give you,” Carpenter says, “well, why would you do anything to keep God from blessing you?”

Last year, Carpenter took an informal census of the Clear Creek community — counting 35 families with a total of 145 people, including 96 children.

There have been several pregnancies since then.

Realistically, most of these children won’t stay in Clear Creek after they grow up.

They’ll go off to college, then find jobs and move to big cities. But their parents expect them to stay devoutly Catholic wherever they go.

“They’ll raise children of their own in the faith,” Carpenter says. “And those children will raise children, and those children. . . .”

After a couple of generations, 145 people can multiply into several hundreds, then a few thousand. In five or six generations, the descendants of Clear Creek might amount to a tribe of their own, taking conservative values and traditional morals with them.

“That’s the way the faith reaches into the future,” Carpenter says. “That’s how traditions survive.”

That’s how the world is changed.

"Boys step up to altar, en Mass"

There is most certainly a vocations connection here...

By Laura Crimaldi Sunday, March 23, 2008 http://www.bostonherald.com/
Photo by Matt Stone

A new generation of young altar servers captivated by the solemn rituals of Latin Mass is mastering the traditional rite in growing numbers in the Boston archdiocese as the liturgy makes a comeback after a four-decade hiatus.

“It’s really reverent. That’s why I like it,” said altar server Brendan MacKenzie, 12, of Marshfield, as he readied for the Tenebrae, or “Spy Wednesday,” service at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton during Holy Week. “It brings you closer to God.”

Since April, the number of young boys trained to perform Latin Mass in the Boston area has more than doubled, from eight to 18 servers, said the Rev. Charles J. Higgins, pastor at Mary Immaculate, where the old-style Mass is celebrated every Sunday at noon.

There are an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 altar servers throughout the Boston Archdiocese, a spokesman said. Keeping with the tradition, only boys serve at Latin Mass.

Higgins, 46, who is self-taught in the Latin liturgy, said the increase in boys studying the traditional Mass has more to do with his repeated appeals for volunteers than last year’s “motu propio” from Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican order reversed 43 years of near banishment of the worship service by allowing priests to perform the liturgy without the authorization of a local bishop.

The devoted altar boys agree with this interpretation of how the pool of servers took on a more youthful look after years of just adult men on the altar.

“As Father Higgins says, he wants an army of servers,” said Stephen Farynaz, 12, of Lunenberg, who has been serving at Latin Mass since he was 7 years old.

A minimum of nine servers is needed to perform the highly choreographed rite, which can be traced to the sixth century and is referred to as the Tridentine Mass. The training takes weeks and entails memorizing Latin responses and learning the ceremony’s many rubrics, such as how to walk, genuflect, hold your hands, stand and carry objects.

Frank Doyle Jr., 43, of West Roxbury, a veteran master of ceremonies who has been serving Latin Mass for 17 years, trains new servers in the nuances of the Mass while conveying that they need not be Thomas Aquinas to get the hang of it.

“When in doubt, genuflect. That’s an old MC’s joke,” said Doyle, who studied the work of English priest Adrian Fortescue to learn the Mass.

To teach some details, Doyle conjures up some fire-and-brimstone mnemonic devices. Take how to kiss the thurible, which contains incense.

“You kiss the top of the chain where there is a disc or you will be like the Prophet Isaiah and know what it’s like to have coal purify your lips,” Doyle said.

Angelus Davulis, 13, of Dorchester was first exposed to Latin Mass at age 7 when his uncle, the Rev. Dominic Gentile, performed a High Solemn Mass. Since the 1990s, the Boston archdiocese has offered Latin Mass at Holy Trinity Church in the South End. The Mass relocated to Mary Immaculate last year.

Davulis studies from a booklet titled “How To Serve Low Mass and Benediction” to learn the difficult Latin. He said he prefers serving at Latin Mass to serving at the Novus Ordo, or modern Mass, because he feels more involved.

“I just want to learn it now before it’s too late,” said Davulis.

MacKenzie’s older brother, Cameron, 14, said he resisted when his parents urged him to serve.

“I guess the first time when I served I realized I was serving God. I guess it just took me away,” he said.

Higgins said he is heartened by his new flock of servers and is training five priests to say Latin Mass.

“They have an openness to the religious practice, which is very refreshing,” said Higgins. “I see it as a hopeful sign that when they come of age, that whatever stage of life they choose, that they will be strong Christian men whether as priests or family men.”

Hat tip to Fr. Zuhlsdorf

"Austrian monks win recording contract with YouTube clip"

Read my recent post about the Cistercian Monks from Heiligenkreuz HERE. Youtube video to go with the article below is at the bottom of this post.

Monday, March 24, 2008 12:26 PM CBC News

A group of Austrian monks have signed a major recording contract after submitting a YouTube clip of their Gregorian chanting.

Universal Music put out a call in religious publications for "monks, men of the cloth and sacred singers" in February.

Recording executives were inundated with hundreds of demos but said the monks from the Heiligenkreuz monastery stood head and shoulders above the competition.

Tom Lewis said he was "blown away" by the quality of the monks' singing.

"It was beautiful, beautiful music, and they're using the very latest in terms of communication devices available to them to get their music heard," Lewis told BBC News.

"They're lovely people, they're very passionate about their music and they're very excited about this opportunity."

Universal is hoping to re-create the success of the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo De Silos in northern Spain, who reinvigorated interest in Gregorian chanting through a CD that sold in excess of five million worldwide in the early 1990s.

The Gregorian chant is a melodic ritual song that has its roots dating back to the sixth century.

There are 80 monks at Heiligenkreuz, a Cistercian monastery located in the Vienna woods that dates back to 1133.

An album, set for global release later this year, will be recorded next month.

The monastery's Rev. Karl Wallner said the album would include about a dozen singers.

"It's a fun experience because I didn't think they would choose us — it was just for fun that we [contacted] them. It's a good thing because Gregorian chant is part of spirituality and our life."

Wallner also said he didn't think his monks were on the level of music superstars.

"We're not Robbie Williams or Michael Jackson, we're just a group of monks who sing every day."

"Priestly Identity: Crisis and Renewal (Part 2)"

Interview With Father David Toups
Associate Director of the Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

By Annamarie Adkins

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Prayer and a deep spiritual life are necessary elements for priests facing the challenges of being overworked, discouraged or alone, says Father David Toups.

Father Toups, the associate director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. episcopal conference, is the author of "Reclaiming Our Priestly Character."

In this interview with ZENIT, Father Toups comments on the challenges of the priesthood, along with the six principles of priestly renewal.

Q: "Reclaiming Our Priestly Character" lays out six principles for renewing the priesthood in general, as well as the life of each priest. Can you briefly describe each principle?

Father Toups: The first principle is the permanence of the priesthood, namely the reminder that the priest has entered into a permanent relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church by virtue of ordination.

He receives, in ordination, an ontological character that cannot be removed or erased. This reality affects the way he prepares for the priesthood in the seminary, the way he understands himself as a chaste spouse of the Church and spiritual father of the faithful.

The second principle is that the priest acts "in persona Christi," assuring both himself and the faithful that the sacraments are efficacious "ex opere operato."

The flip side of this is that, although he has received the sacerdotal character, he is obliged to keep working on his own personal character development as a man striving for holiness in his daily life.

The third principle is a reminder that the priest is not his own, but rather he belongs to and represents the Church "in persona Ecclesiae." Thus, he prays the Liturgy of the Hours, as he promised at ordination, for the needs of the whole Church.

Likewise, he embraces and hands on the teachings of the Church as the steward, not the master, of her truths. He is also proud -- in the best sense -- to be visibly recognizable as a priest, knowing he is called to courageously be a sign and symbol pointing beyond himself to Christ.

The fourth principle is priestly presence, namely that everything the priest does is priestly and has immense value, as Christ desires to work through him at all times. This happens in a particular way when preaching, shepherding, and healing God’s people as their spiritual father.

The fifth principle is the caution for priests to avoid the trap of functionalism or activism. The priest can get so busy that he can forget who he is or for whom he is doing the work.

He must be supernaturally sensitive, grounding himself by being a man of prayer who encounters God through daily, silent meditation, desiring an ever more intimate relationship with him.

Finally, the sixth principle, which has already been discussed, is ongoing formation. These principles all find their basis in the priestly character and serve as a foundation for a priestly life lived joyfully, bearing abundant fruit.

Q: Do your recommendations apply equally to diocesan priests and those priests in religious orders?

Father Toups: Absolutely. In fact, the studies done by Dean Hoge of Catholic University reveal that a larger percentage of religious have greater confusion regarding the exact nature of the ontological character of the priesthood. For all priests, diocesan or religious, a proper understanding of the character of orders grounds them in an ever more fruitful life of ministry and service.

The studies mentioned above confirm that priests who have a clear understanding of this doctrine are more likely to be content in their ministry and joyful in their vocation.

The Thomistic axiom, "agere sequitur esse" -- doing follows being -- is true for all priests; the more they understand their priestly identity, the more they will be able to act and serve in the manner Christ has called them. This proper understanding does not guarantee fidelity or holiness, but it certainly is a strong foundation to build upon.

Q: What are some of the biggest difficulties priests face today?

Father Toups: The greatest challenges today lie in the amount of work required of the parish priest, as well as a sense of discouragement and, at times, loneliness. If these are the challenges, the answer rests in learning how to bring these concerns and frustrations before the Lord in deep, relational prayer.

A lack of interiority allows the burdens of the office to take hold of the heart and obscure the truth of his identity which serves to keep him grounded. The new Fifth Edition of the Program of Priestly Formation -- 115-- states that spirituality is the necessary core and governing principle of the whole priestly life. The other aspects of his life remain focused in as much as the priest is grounded in prayer.

Also, with fewer priests, it is all the more important for him to stay connected with his brother priests. Fraternal groups, such as the Jesus Caritas movement, allow him to express himself and be gently challenged to greater holiness by his brothers who truly understand what is happening in his life; the need for spiritual direction and frequent confession must also be attended to.

Further, healthy relationships with family and friends are a genuine joy for the priest; it is a grave danger to be a “lone-ranger” in the world today.

Q: What are, or have been, some of the major impediments to fostering the “doctrine of the priestly character”? How can seminaries and bishops remove these impediments and help priests foster happy and healthy lives?

Father Toups: The greatest impediment has been “bad” theology.

In the wake of the Council, there were a number of well-known theologians who taught that this doctrine was simply a medieval invention. Because of this, many priests, unwittingly, were simply not given the tools to properly understand the theology of the priesthood.

This has adversely affected a generation in the Church, both priest and laity alike. This is precisely why I go to such pains to show the foundation of this teaching from the sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium.

Correcting this misperception was a priority during the pontificate of John Paul II. The priest is not a mere functionary who represents the community but a man called by Christ and consecrated in order to consecrate on behalf of the whole Church. Role clarity has proven to be crucial for the happiness of priests.

Bishops and seminary rectors can foster this by ensuring the teachings of the Church are being faithfully handed on to their men in formation. Likewise, dioceses should foster ongoing formation of the presbyterate so priests are being fed spiritually and intellectually with the mind of the Church.

Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, said that orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy; well-grounded men are more likely to lead happy and healthy lives.

Q: How might existing priests cope with the stresses of the priest shortage? Do you see the trend of diocesan priests living in community and sharing responsibilities as a positive development?

Father Toups: As previously mentioned, the spiritual life is of the utmost importance, as well as fostering a balanced lifestyle in which the priest gets the proper amount of sleep, healthy diet, exercise, and recreation.

Priests actually foster their own vocation as they promote vocations in general. There is nothing more life-giving than to pass on one’s own vocation to another. Every priest is called to be a “fisher of men” with regards to vocations.

Eighty percent of the newly ordained said it was a priest’s direct contact that fostered their vocation, but unfortunately only thirty percent of our priests are actively promoting vocations.

Jesus told the apostles, his first priests, “I will make you fishers of men;” the Church Fathers confirm that this apostolic gift was given to those men that stand in persona Christi in order to revitalize and regenerate the priesthood.

If every priest took a little time to foster vocations, we would be well on our way to greater numbers in the seminaries, and the priests themselves would find greater satisfaction and contentment, decreasing their stress and frustration as they see the presbyterate being renewed.

To answer your final question, let me begin by stating that whether priests live together in rectories, the presbyterate as a whole must grow in cooperation, love, and respect for one another. Again, the priesthood is attractive only if lived in communion with others.

I do believe that there are future opportunities for priests to work together in a more communal setting, where multiple parishes might need to be clustered and a number of priests could cooperate in the ministries of these communities. This kind of arrangement cannot be forced, but many priests yearn for a more fraternal life of prayer and communion with their brothers.

It will be interesting to see how this develops in the years to come. Jesus sent the disciples out in twos; there is greater support and effectiveness “when brothers live in unity.”

"Priestly Identity: Crisis and Renewal (Part 1)"

Interview With Father David Toups
Associate Director of the Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

By Annamarie Adkins

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A general crisis of authentic masculinity in society has also affected the priesthood as only "real men" can adequately fulfill the role of priest and pastor, says Father David Toups.

Father Toups, the associate director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. episcopal conference, is the author of "Reclaiming Our Priestly Character."

In this interview with ZENIT, Father Toups comments on the identity and character of the priesthood, and the various challenges it faces today.

Q: Your book focuses on recovering what you call the “doctrine of the priestly character.” Can you describe this “doctrine” in a nutshell?

Father Toups: The “doctrine of the priestly character” is about the permanent relationship the priest enters into with Christ the High Priest on the day of his ordination.

The priest is always a priest; he is not a simple functionary who performs ritual actions, but rather he is configured to Christ in the depths of his being by what is called an ontological change.
Christ is working through him at the altar, “This is my Body,” and in the confessional, “I absolve you of your sins,” but also in his daily actions outside the sanctuary.

The character that the priest receives is a comfort to the faithful inasmuch as they realize that their faith is not based in the personality of the priest, but rather the Person of Christ working through the priest.

On the other hand, the priest is called, like all of the faithful, to a life of holiness. The character received at ordination is actually a dynamism for priestly holiness. The more he can assimilate his life to Christ and submit to the gift he received at ordination, the more he will be a credible witness to the faithful and edify the Body of Christ.

Q: Is it your view that the nature of the priesthood is unknown or misunderstood by many priests? Is mandatory “continuing priestly education” the answer?

Father Toups: Studies show that there has been confusion regarding the exact nature of the priesthood among priests themselves depending on the timing of their seminary training.

Immediately following the Second Vatican Council, there was confusion among priests and laity alike about the difference between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood.

Vatican II’s intention was not to suppress one in order to highlight the other, but rather to recognize the universal call to holiness and the dignity of both.

The ministerial priesthood is a specific vocation within the Church in which a man is called by Christ in the apostolic line to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Priests are different by virtue of ordination, as confirmed by the council itself in paragraph 10 of “Lumen Gentium,” which emphasized that the baptized and the ordained share in the one and the same priesthood of Christ, but in a way that differs “in essence and not only in degree.”

This difference certainly does not mean better or even holier -- that would be a major error -- but it does mean that there is a distinction.

Cardinal Avery Dulles points out that, if anything, the priesthood of the faithful is more exalted because the ministerial priesthood is ordered to its service. Hence, a recovery from the confusion lies in the need to understand the balance a priest is to find; he is both a servant and one who has been set aside by Christ and the Church to stand "in persona Christi" -- not as a personal honor, but as “one who has come to serve and not be served.”

The priest need not be embarrassed about this high calling, but should boldly live it out in the midst of the world. Pope John Paul the Great regularly reminded priests: “Do not be afraid to be who you are!”

This brings us to the second part of your question, namely, is mandatory “continuing priestly education” the answer?

In the book, I use the term “formation,” not education -- though learning is an important, component part.

Ongoing formation is essential for every Christian vocation. In the midst of full liturgical schedules, parish councils, leaking roofs and hospital visits, the priest must continually open his heart and mind to Christ in prayer and study, annual retreats and seminars, as well as times of recreation and vacation, if he is to thrive as an individual and as a man of faith.

Ongoing formation is about deepening one’s interiority and fostering a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is about an ongoing conversion that reminds the priest who he is as a minister of the Gospel and whose he is as a son of God.

So is ongoing formation the answer? It is certainly a part of the solution to a happier, healthier presbyterate. Pope John Paul II wrote, “Ongoing formation helps the priest to be and act as a priest in the spirit and style of Jesus the Good Shepherd” ("Pastores Dabo Vobis," 73).

Q: Some observers fear that encouraging young priests -- many of who are already attempting to recover traditional liturgical and devotional practices -- to rediscover their priestly character will only foster a new form of clericalism. Others believe giving prominence to the ministerial priesthood will diminish the common priesthood of the faithful -- a development that many see as one of the hallmarks of Vatican II. How would you respond to critics of your proposal?

Father Toups: Highlighting both the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood should actually strengthen both; they are not mutually exclusive or in any way opposed to one another.

When our particular calls within the Church are not given their proper distinctions, the Church suffers. St. Paul rightly reminds us of this with his beautiful analogy of how the Body of Christ is made up of diverse members working together for the good of the whole.

The laity and the priest are not in competition but complement each other’s particular calling.

There is a danger of what John Paul II called the “clericalization of the laity and the laicization of the clergy” when distinctions are not made in the life of the Church -- again, different does not mean better. Clericalism is not what happens when one has a clear identity of who they are, but rather when it is lived in such a way that is not in the service of the faithful.

The priest should not be embarrassed to wear the roman collar and be called “father,” for this is not clericalism, but he is to do so in charity and humility as a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

So in response to your remark about younger clergy -- especially those who, in their youthful zeal, may come across too strong -- let us be patient with them as they mature in the priesthood. It takes a while for the ontology to catch up with the psychology.

To young priests who may fall into this category, I would simply say, be men of prayer with the love of Christ as your guiding light, and pray for your own deepening conversion. One can have all of the right answers, but if they are presented “without love, you are a noisy gong or a clanging symbol” as St. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13.

Thus we do not deny the ministerial priesthood; we live it inside and out. If the priest lives his calling with humility and service as the driving force, it is more a form of asceticism than of clericalism. He is a visible sign of the radical commitment of the priestly life.

Proper knowledge and integration of the sacramental character into the priestly life and ministry are fundamental for priests to be the men the Church needs them to be.

Q: Is there a crisis of authentic masculinity in the priesthood? Could this be a source of the vocation shortage, especially among Latinos?

Father Toups: Allow me to rephrase the first question to be more all embracing: Is there a crisis of authentic masculinity in the world? I would say yes.

There is a crisis of commitment, fidelity and fatherhood all rooted in men not living up to their call to be “real men” -- men who model their lives on Christ, who lay down their lives out of love, and who learn what it is to be a father from our Father in heaven.

So in the context of the priesthood, which flows out of society, there is a particular challenge to help men grow in manly virtue. The priesthood is not for the faint of heart, but for men who are up to the challenge of living as Christ in laying down their life on a daily basis.

As the priest says the words of consecration, “This is my Body,” Christ is not only speaking through him, but the priest is offering his own life as well for the people to whom he is called to serve.

If a seminarian does not have a deep desire to get married and have children, he might need to rethink his vocation, for these are the natural and healthy manly desires of the heart. He needs to recognize that; in actuality, the priest truly is a married man and a father.

As the priest stands "in persona Christi," he is called to embrace the Bride of Christ, the Church, as his own spouse. A great danger is for the priest to fall into a “bachelor mentality,” which can become a selfish, disembodied and non-relational life.

Instead, if he sees himself in a permanent commitment to the people of God, his life of sacrifice will have great meaning as he lives the nuptial imagery of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and laid down his life for her.”

When the notions of love, sacrifice and relationship are taken out of the vocation, it becomes sterile and unattractive to young men. For this reason the DVD "Fishers of Men," developed by the USCCB office in which I work, has been so well received; it shows the priestly vocation as heroic and manly in the best sense of the word. To paraphrase the old Marine slogan: God is looking for a few good men!

Q: What role does the concept of “fatherhood” play in the priestly life? Is there a fear of this term because of political correctness?

Father Toups: Spiritual fatherhood in the priesthood flows from the understanding of being a chaste spouse of the Church.

Just as an earthly father feeds, comforts and nurtures his family, so too do our spiritual fathers feed us in the Eucharist, comfort us in reconciliation and the anointing of the sick, and nurture us throughout our lives of faith.

For me, spiritual fatherhood is one of the great joys of my vocation -- to be invited into the hearts and homes of people is such a place of privilege and great responsibility.

Think about your own life. Priests have -- hopefully -- played an important role in all of the key moments of life: birth, death, triumphs, struggles, graduations and marriage.

By living out spiritual fatherhood, the priest experiences the great fruitfulness and generative fecundity of his vocation. For the priest, this should be life-giving; just as parents will make incredible sacrifices for their children, so too priests do radical things -- renounce family and possessions -- to be available to their family of faith.

Where there is love, sacrifice is easy.

Benedict XVI, speaking of the kind of mature manhood needed to be a spiritual father, said: “In reality, we grow in affective maturity when our hearts adhere to God. Christ needs priests who are mature, virile, and capable of cultivating an authentic spiritual paternity. For this to happen, priests need to be honest with themselves, open with their spiritual director and trusting in divine mercy.”

We need to move beyond the fear of being “politically incorrect” to being more worried about embracing the truth of who we are; hence the title of my book focuses on reclaiming our priestly character.

"Benedict XVI: Essence of Priesthood Is Service"

Urges Priests to Believe, Think and Speak With Church

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 20, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The essence of priestly ministry is service, Benedict XVI says, encouraging priests to renew their "yes" to the call of God.

The Pope spoke about the essence of the priesthood today at the Holy Thursday chrism Mass held this morning at St. Peter's Basilica. The Mass brought together some 1,600 priests, and cardinals and bishops to renew the promises they made on the day of their ordination.

According to the Old Testament, the Holy Father explained, there are two tasks that define the essence of the priestly ministry: to be present before the Lord and to serve.

"To be present before the Lord should always be, in its depths, to take charge of mankind before the Lord who, for his part, takes charge of all of us before the Father," he said. In the second place, the Pontiff continued, the priest should serve.

He said that this service is manifested in a concrete way in the Eucharistic celebration. There, the Pope said, what the priest does "is serve, to complete a service to God and a service to man. […] The homage that Christ offered to the Father consisted in giving himself unto the end for man. The priest should unite himself with this homage, with this service."

The word "serve," in its many dimensions, implies "the correct celebration of the liturgy and the sacraments in general, carried out with interior participation," the Pontiff affirmed.

Learning

Benedict XVI continued, saying that an attitude of service implies that the priest should always be in a state of learning: learning to pray, "always anew and always in a deeper way," and learning to know the Lord in his word so that his preaching becomes effective.

"In this sense, 'to serve' means closeness, demands familiarity," the Pope said.

But he cautioned that this familiarity also implies a danger: that the sacred, with which priests come into constant contact, becomes a routine.

"In this way, holy fear is snuffed out," the Holy Father warned. "Conditioned by all the habits, we don't perceive the fact that is most great, new, surprising -- that he himself is present, speaks to us, gives himself to us. We should fight unrelentingly against this habitualness in the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, recognizing anew our insufficiency and the grace there is in the fact that he surrenders himself in this way into our hands."

Obeying

To serve implies obedience, the Bishop of Rome affirmed: "The servant is at the command of the Word. […] The temptation of humanity is always to want to be totally autonomous, follow one's own will alone and to think that only in that way, will we be free -- that only thanks to a limitless liberty will man be completely man. But in this way we put ourselves on the side contrary to the truth."

We are only free, he cautioned, if "we share our liberty with the rest" and "if we participate in the will of God. This fundamental obedience that forms part of the essence of man is much more concrete in the priest.

"We do not proclaim ourselves, but rather him and his word, which we cannot dream up on our own. Our obedience is to believe with the Church, think and speak with the Church, serve with her," the Pope continued. This implies, he acknowledged, what Christ predicted for Peter, "They will lead you where you do not want to go."

"This allowing ourselves to be led where we do not want is an essential dimension of our service, and it is precisely in this way that we become free," Benedict XVI asserted. "If we allow ourselves to be led, even though it could be against our ideas and our projects, we experience again the richness of the love of God."

The Pope concluded with an allusion to the washing of the feet, with which Christ, "the true High Priest of the world" wants "to be the servant of all. [… ] With the gesture of love to the end, he washes our soiled feet; with the humility of his service, he purifies us of the illness of our pride."

"Cardinal Rodé Calls for Renewal of Religious Life"

Says Young Monks and Priests Give Wordless Testimony

ROME, MARCH 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A return to the authenticity of religious life is being encouraged by Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Vatican congregation that oversees consecrated life in the Church.

Cardinal Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, spoke Tuesday with Vatican Radio about the situation of religious life in France.

"France certainly forms part of the reality of Western Europe and there, secularization has been very strong over the last 40 years, after the Council," he said. "It could be said that certain traditional congregations suffer because of this secularized mentality that has seeped into them."
The cardinal recalled that Benedict XVI "continuously warns against the danger of so-called internal secularization."

"To flee from this worldly spirit, therefore, and to put the emphasis on life in community, on fraternal life, on prayer, on poverty, on obedience, on chastity lived in the joy of the heart and in interior liberty, it is this that we should recover, that we should live intensely," he proposed.

"Living the charism intensely and returning to the authenticity of religious life," is what Cardinal Rodé suggested as the "only way to get out of this crisis situation in which religious life finds itself."

Despite the difficulties, the cardinal also noted "surprising reactions." He pointed to the experience of "great admiration and joy when you encounter young monks, young Carmelite or Dominican fathers, Benedictine religious, and you see them full of joy, transparent, with a great interior liberty."

"They are visibly in their place, where God wants them, and they live their vocation in the joy and peace of the heart," the cardinal affirmed. "I think this is the first testimony that these religious give and it is a very convincing, very believable testimony. As the philosopher Bergson said in other times, their existence is an invitation; they have no need for words."

"Papal Visit 2008: Pope Benedict Returns To Yonkers Seminary After 20 Years"

By Shazia Khan

For NY1

March 20, 2008

In April, a Yonkers seminary will host Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the same place 20 years before as a cardinal. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.

Twenty years ago, Father Michael Morris was still a student at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, when a special guest from Vatican City paid a visit – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German man who will return to New York City in April as Pope Benedict XVI.

“The enthusiasm was incredible because we read his books," said Morris. "He's a scholar - that's his work. He's a teacher and he's a studier, he's a reader, he's a great student. And we were just thrilled to be able to meet him.”

Back in 1988, Ratzinger was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for defending the church orthodoxy. He came to be known as “Cardinal No,” even “God's Rottweiler” for his strict adherence to the doctrine.

This April, Ratzinger will go back to St. Joseph’s Seminary as part of his papal visit.

“The pope's job is to proclaim the message of our faith in Jesus Christ and proclaim what that means and how people must live their lives and how to develop it,” said Father Gerard Rafferty, a professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary.

“In his last job, he was given the task of looking at what other people were doing and proclaiming and then trying to evaluate and help them evaluate whether in fact they were remaining consistent to the church,” said Rafferty.

St Joseph's has visiting cardinals plant a tree to commemorate their visits, and the tree Pope Benedict planted 20 years ago has now grown tall.

Another tree was planted in remembrance of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the seminary in 1995, the first visit made by a pontiff to the institution.

Bishop Gerald Walsh, the seminary’s rector, will join Edward Cardinal Egan to welcome the pope who will first greet seminarians before meeting a small group of children with disabilities in the chapel. He will then step outside and on to a stage to address more than 20,000 young Catholics, some of whom might be interested in religious vocations.

“The theme will be - make room for the Lord in your life, listen to what he is saying, and try to live your life the best you can,” said Walsh.

Seminarians are looking forward to being reintroduced to the scholarly pope.

“It’s not the rock star image of perhaps John Paul II, but there is a very solid, quiet teacher here that's got a power in the word the way he unfolds it,” said Rafferty.

And though it has been twenty years since the pope’s last visit, it might as well have been yesterday.

“Physically he looks exactly the same - I mean it is amazing- the only thing different about him is he is wearing white now,” said Morris.

"Former ‘globe-trotter’ plans to spend life as cloistered nun"

Leaving the world behind

By Maria Wiering
The Catholic Spirit

Mary Gibson plans to join the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles in Kansas City, Mo., June 11. The Cathedral of St. Paul’s Sacred Heart Chapel holds a special place in her heart. “It in particular is my home, and the part [of the Cathedral] I will miss the most,” she said. -Photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

Mary Gibson's childhood dream was to see the world.

She pursued global studies at the University of Minnesota for a year because she wanted a job that would take her abroad. In 2005, she moved to Italy for a year and visited Austria, France and Germany.

However, at age 26, her globe-trotting days are done.

Gibson, a self-described "information junkie" with two blogs, may never again have Internet access. She loves food, but will only eat one meal a day for much of the year. A gregarious talker, she'll spend most of her days in silence.

And, judging by the way her eyes sparkle, she couldn't be happier.

"I feel like an engaged person," she said. "I'm really awaiting my beloved."

On June 11, this Minnesota wo­man will join the cloistered life of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Kansas City, Mo.

Although the degree of strictness differs from one community to another, typically cloistered nuns and monks rarely leave the grounds of their cloister and limit their contact with the rest of the world.

The cloistered life

Gibson has been discerning God's will for her life since she started taking her Catholic faith more seriously in her early 20s. She was open to a religious vocation, but didn't expect to be called to cloistered life, she said.

However, during a 10-day discernment retreat with the nuns in November, she said she felt Jesus ask her to be with him there.

Before a year ago, she didn't know the community existed. She first heard of it from parishioners at St. John the Baptist in Excelsior, where she directs religious education. Some parishioners knew Sister Crystal Wirth, who joined the community last year.

Gibson stumbled across the community's Web site advertising the priestly vestments that members sew. After reading about the nuns, she said, she couldn't get the community out of her mind.

Following the rule St. Benedict wrote in the 6th century, the community's life revolves around liturgical prayer. They pray especially for priests.

Claire Roufs, religious life liaison for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said young women joining cloistered communities is more common than most people think.

About one-third of women she's worked with who have joined religious life have joined cloistered communities, she said. That totals about five women in the last few years.

"Almost always they are very young and talented," she said. "It is such a mysterious vocation."

Discerning a call

Gibson grew up Catholic in Vesper, Wis. After she left home to become a paramedic, however, she stopped going to Mass. She still considered herself Christian, but faith didn't play a central role in her life.

She moved to St. Paul to work and take classes at the University of Minnesota. Within months, she was dissatisfied with her job, and her classes were forcing her to re-evaluate her beliefs, she said.

Her apartment was two blocks from the Cathedral of St. Paul, and the dome's golden cross was a constant reminder of what she had left, she said.

Gibson returned to Mass on a Sunday in February 2003 and spoke afterward with Father Joseph Williams, the associate pastor at the time.

A few weeks later, she called him to hear her confession. She wanted to come back to the church. For her penance, Father Williams asked her to say the Divine Mercy chaplet, which he prayed with her in the Cathedral's Sacred Heart Chapel.

Gibson helped to start the Cathedral's young adults group, attended daily Mass and transferred to the University of St. Thomas because of its Catholic studies program.

She also started asking God how she could serve him.

"Once I realized that he was truly there, I started realizing what I had to do is give back," she said. In October 2003 Gibson went on pilgrimage to Rome, where she "first encountered the fullness of the Catholic faith," she said.

She returned to Rome to study from fall 2005 to spring 2006 and ended her stay with a four-day retreat with cloistered American Benedictine monks in Norcia, Italy.

That's when she first thought about cloistered life, she said.

She realized she had many misconceptions of cloistered life. "You choose to be limited; you're not disconnected from the world," she said.

Cloistered men and women still receive and write letters to friends and family, and many receive visitors at least once a year. However, in choosing the cloistered life, they seek to detach themselves from worldly things. And that, for her, is true freedom, she said.

The invitation

Right now, the Benedictines of Mary live in a convent in Kansas City built for another order who had once taught at the adjacent Pius X High School. The community plans to build a priory on 120 acres of donated land in northwest Missouri. The sisters hope to be as self-sustaining as possible, raising bees, dairy cows and grain.

Peace engulfed Gibson during her 10-day stay with the nuns in November, she said.

"People think that people enter the convent because they're escaping something," Gibson said. That's not the case at all for her, she added. It was while she was thanking the Lord for all of the blessings in her life - her family, friends, travel, work, passions - that she felt the Lord ask her to give it back to him.

"He gave me the choice," she said - she could choose not to be a cloistered sister, but the Lord was inviting her to serve him in that way.

There, in the chapel, she said aloud, "Yes."

At 26, Gibson is at the average age of the community's 14 sisters, which doesn't surprise her. She's the oldest of the four aspirants who are expected to join the community in June.

Cloistered orders are gaining vocations, said Sister Therese, the community's prioress. "The young ladies of this world have had it. They're throwing away their lipstick and high heels and joining."

God also supplies the needs of the world at each age, she added.

"I think that's why the young ladies are finding us from all over the country - because the Lord wants this," she said. "What it's all about is that we have to get to heaven, and we have to take as many people as we can with us."

For more please check out Mary's blog - Veritatis Splendor, and consider helping her out by reducing her college debt through the Laboure Society.

"Former veterinarian chooses a life of prayer and service"

From The Catholic Sentinel

By Ed Langlois
-

Sr. Maria Gabriel Standfield shares a laugh with Srs. Barbara and Rose Marie at Our Lady of Peace.Sentinel photo by Ed Langlois

-

When she was a hard-working veterinarian, Victoria Standfield commuted at all hours between Salem and Tigard. After midnight on April 1, 1997, she fell asleep at the wheel.

Her car careened off the road and clipped a signpost. The windshield shattered. Glass flew everywhere.

But she walked away without a scratch. Later, she found shards all over — even directly behind where she was sitting.

What’s the deal? she thought.

Now known as Sister Maria Gabriel, she sees the event as filled with meaning. For her, God sweats the details, loving us mightily in everyday life.

When Sister Gabriel, 43, professed lifelong vows of poverty, chastity and obedience last month at Our Lady of Peace Retreat House, 300 people came.

The crowd was too much for the chapel, so the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows converted the large dining room and meeting hall into a church.

Sister Gabriel feels a lot of support, worldly and other-worldly. She looks at religious life as an extension of the call of baptism, something all Christians inherit.

“It’s about living the life of Christ,” she sums up.

She is the second of three daughters born to a 30-year U.S. Army veteran and the woman with whom he fell in love when he was stationed in Germany during the Cold War in the 1960s.

Sister Gabriel (her parents sometimes slip up and call her Victoria), was born at Fort Ord, Calif. Charles and Helga Standfield are cradle Catholics. He was educated by nuns in Pensacola, Fla. and she grew up in Germany.

Helga taught preschool and Charles, even after he left the Army, worked on military transportation contracts.

The family bounced around as Army families do — California, Massachusetts, Colorado and back to Germany.

In fifth grade, Victoria went on a field trip to the University of California at Davis. The idea grew in her — she wanted to be a veterinarian.

A little later, when she was 12, she heard a missionary nun serving in Africa give a slide show on the ministry. The photos were so bright and colorful; that seemed like a good and noble life. She spent hours poring over Maryknoll magazine.

Sister Gabriel, who even then professed a belief in angels, gradated from high school in Wiesbaden. She sang in church choirs and was open about her faith in Jesus.

Not one to rush into things, she pursued the more standard course, getting a college degree in biology and heading to veterinary school at Davis.

One day, doing a rotation on animal heart disease, three nuns brought their beloved German shepherd into the university clinic. Young Dr. Standfield helped them and took careful note of them and their ways.

She graduated from veterinary school in 1993 and the next year moved to Salem to work. She became a member of St. Joseph Parish and felt her spiritual life intensify there.

As time went by, she felt called to more intense discipleship and considered religious life seriously.

By 1996, she was attending vocations retreats, including one at Our Lady of Peace. She admired the contentedness at the place and learned that this was the home of the same community of fascinating women who had brought their ailing dog to her years before in California.

Before long, she picked up a church magazine and ran across an advertisement. It showed a map of the U.S. and a map of China with a crucifix between. It said, “In Christ there is no east or west.” The words and image, especially the crucifix, caused her heart to thump. It was an appeal for vocations from the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, which ministers in China and the U.S. and has members from both hemispheres.

While working as a veterinarian, she began joining the sisters for prayer and fun. She felt at home.

Her spiritual director, a chaplain at Fort Ord named Father Michael Drury had become a family friend years before. He asked her candid questions, wanting her to be under no illusions about religious life.

“I feel that she made a mature decision,” says Father Drury, a priest of the Diocese of Helena now serving in Montana. “I see her happiness. That is what makes me feel good.”

She read about St. Bernadette Soubirous and felt a kinship with her, as well as with St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Faustina Kowalska.

She was accepted into the Franciscans in 1999. After a pilgrimage to Europe, which included a stay at Assisi, she entered formation.

Her German relatives were a bit shocked. They said she was “crazy” but wished her luck.

For her father, the life change has taken some getting used to. A practical man, he felt good about her veterinarian career.

“She was making good money and she gave all that up,” says Charles, who now lives with Helga in Marina, Calif. “She just gave everything away. God must have called her.”

But he realizes that he is one of the tools God used to get to his daughter. He would often talk about the Sisters who taught him, using words of great admiration and affection.

Formation had its ups and downs. It was a thrill at first. Then came everyday life. But as she’s progressed, Sister Gabriel’s commitment and devotion have deepened.

“The way it has deepened for me is for me to remain docile at the times when the life is not so exciting,” she explains. “If you are open to gifts, you can be sustained and find joy in those times.”

Over the years, the Sisters get to know each other’s glories and foibles, like any family. Only then, Sister Gabriel says, can someone make a valid life commitment. She is delighted with her community. And she will likely get to know them all. There are 23 Sisters in the U.S. and 35 worldwide.

Sister Anne Marie Warren, superior of the Portland community, says she admires and appreciates Sister Gabriel’s honesty and enthusiasm. Both qualities have been great gifts to the community.

“Sister Maria Gabriel has a deep devotion to prayer,” Sister Anne Marie says. “Only if you build a relationship with Jesus can you sustain yourself in the hard times.”

Sister Gabriel has tended the frail and sick sisters, running the infirmary. She also leads the Franciscan Girls Club, helping girls grow in knowledge of the faith. She has traveled to the Sisters’ house in Gallup, New Mexico, where they work with girls who have had troubled lives. On occasion, she still practices as a veterinarian, specializing in small animal medicine.

Sister Gabriel, a trained scientist, has kept up on some current theory. Researchers say more and more that everything is linked by webs of influence. Energy waves tends to sweep past all matter, affecting it in parallel ways.

She’s not surprised. In her language, she sees that as one more movement of the hand of God.

"Poor Clares discuss their religious vocations"

By Tim Puet
2/26/2008
Catholic Times of Coumbus

CLOISTER - Sister Marie Therese (far left) Sister Imelda Marie (center) and Sister Marie St. Claire (right)pray at St. Joseph Monastery in Portsmouth, Ohio. (Catholic Times/Jack Kuston)

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (Catholic Times) - Any notion that cloistered nuns who constantly pray before the Blessed Sacrament and spend much of their lives in silence must live a solemn, somewhat grim existence quickly disappears on a visit to St. Joseph Monastery in Portsmouth.

Five of the six Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration who live there gathered for an interview last week with the Catholic Times — the sixth, Sister Mary Vincentia, PCPA, was excused because of age. Throughout the hourlong session, smiles and laughter were abundant as they talked about what made then decide to spend their lives adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and praying for the world beyond the monastery.

Mother Dolores Marie, PCPA, abbess, said the monastery has been revitalized by the presence of three young women who have become part of the community since 2003. The newest member, Sister Mary Immaculate, PCPA, is in the second year of a two-year novitiate in which she is preparing for her first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Their vocation decisions

Sister Marie Ste. Claire, PCPA, and Sister Marie Therese, PCPA, both joined the order at about the same time and took their first vows a little more than a year ago. The vows will be renewed each year until 2011, when both take solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for life.

Mother Dolores Marie, a member of the community since 1991, and the monastery’s mother vicar, Sister Imelda Marie, PCPA, a member since 1994, both came to Ohio in 2002 from the Poor Clares’ Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Ala., which was founded by Mother Angelica, best known as the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network.

All five nuns said the decision to enter the cloister wasn’t as difficult as it might appear to be because they felt an overwhelming desire to live the contemplative life.

"I found my Protestant friends understood my choice better and admired it more than my Catholic friends did," said Sister Marie Therese, an Alabama native. "It shocked so many people that a ‘normal girl’ who was very much into acting and the theater in high school would become a nun, but this was something I’d been drawn to for years, partly because my dad worked for EWTN."

"I was looking for love and realized the world couldn’t offer everything I was looking for," Sister Imelda Marie said. "I had plenty of friends in Louisiana where I grew up, and I know I could have gotten married and been happy in that life, but it just wasn’t what I was called to do.

"In this hidden life, you don’t always see or know whether your prayers have been answered, but as you trust more and more in God’s love, you find yourself realizing that he will meet your needs, and that’s a liberating thing."

"I grew up Catholic in a part of Florida where there weren’t many religious or priests from which I could take an example," said Sister Mary Immaculate. "I said the Rosary daily and prayed to find what I was meant to do. When I was 16, I began to realize the Lord wanted something more for me, and I wanted to give more for God. He has done so much for me and was calling me to serve him with an undivided heart."

God wins them over

Sister Marie Ste. Claire described herself as "a southern California girl who mostly likes Ohio but misses the beach."

"The Lord kept inspiring me with this desire to give him everything, even though I kept fighting it," she said. "Eventually, I came to realize God had given me his whole self in the Blessed Sacrament and I wanted to return that gift by giving myself to him. ...

"I went to college in New Hampshire with the idea of going to med school, but instead, that’s where I made the decision that led me here. After my first visit to St. Joseph’s, I knew Jesus was here. A friend at college used to say I’d marry the first guy who asked me, and he was right, but not in the way he expected."

Mother Dolores Marie came to the Poor Clares from a career in retail merchandising and said the last thing she would have anticipated while growing up was becoming a nun.

"I never was involved with religion until I went to work at EWTN as a set designer’s assistant," she said. "When I saw the nuns there in their habits, I was terrified. I tried my best to avoid being introduced to Mother Angelica, but it happened.

"I was caught up in a lot of worldly things, but in time I found myself increasingly drawn to spending time with the Blessed Sacrament. I’d go there sometimes not to pray, but just to be in the presence of Jesus. At first I didn’t realize I had a vocation, but in time I realized God was calling me to his service."

When Mother Dolores Marie was transferred to Portsmouth, there was concern that the monastery would have to close because of the declining health of the four elderly nuns who lived there, but the addition of the younger sisters eliminated that threat.

Local postulants wanted

Sister Mary Vincentia is the last of the older nuns remaining at the monastery. Two others are at the Mohun Health Care Center in Columbus and one has died.

A woman from Ireland is scheduled to enter the monastery March 31 to begin her postulancy, a year of discernment which will lead to the novitiate if she and the community agree she is suited for a nun’s life.

The monastery, In existence for 52 years, still is looking for its first potential postulate from Ohio or the surrounding states. Mother Dolores Marie said that may be in part because of its location away from large population centers. This is one reason why the nuns hope to move elsewhere within the diocese.

The Poor Clares’ life is limited to the monastery, except for necessary errands such as visits to the doctor (or more recently, to look for land for a new monastery, Mother Dolores Marie said). But they’re hardly isolated from the world. For instance, they were quickly made aware of the shooting and stabbing of a teacher at Portsmouth Notre Dame Elementary School on Feb. 7 through several phone calls.

Life in a cloister

The nuns themselves can write home and receive letters once a month. At Christmas time, they are allowed to send and receive letters to anyone.

Family visits are allowed twice a year for two days each, but take place with nuns and their families on the opposite side of a wooden latticework grille. The nuns’ adoration chapel is open to the public daily from 5:45 to 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but when the nuns are at prayer during those times, they remain behind a wooden screen.

Pictures included with these stories are one of the few public glimpses the nuns have offered of their life in the monastery.

It’s a life lived in simple surroundings, which starts with a common wakeup time of 5 a.m. and continues through "lights out" at 10 p.m. Additional adoration occurs Wednesday and Saturday nights, with each nun assigned an hour on Wednesday and 90 minutes on Saturday.

Mass is at 7 a.m., usually with Father Joseph Klee of Portsmouth St. Mary Church, and the day proceeds through a set schedule which includes the Church’s Office of Readings, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Franciscan Crown devotion to the seven joys of Mary, the Stations of the Cross, and set times for work, study, recreation, and free time.

Lunch at noon is the main meal of the day, with toast and peanut butter generally for breakfast, and a sandwich or cereal at supper. The main meal usually consists of a protein, a starch, two vegetables and fruit. Meat is eaten on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and on Church feasts and solemnities. Snacks and desserts are limited to Sundays and solemnities.

The monastery’s main source of revenue is the packaging of altar bread which comes from an outside supplier. That means the monastery is visited nearly every day by a United Parcel Service truck. At one time, the sisters made their own bread, but that stopped as the sisters got older.

The practice of silence

Most of the day is spent in silence; indeed, the word "Silence" is posted throughout the monastery. It’s not an absolute silence, since the nuns are permitted to speak to each other about things that are necessary during the day. Greater silence is observed from after 8 p.m. night prayers until the next morning.

The silence also is broken occasionally by one of the monastery’s three dogs — Jewel, an adult schnauzer, and Pippin and Merry, two black Labrador puppies.

Talk is done quietly and kept to a minimum, but as Mother Dolores Marie put it, "If something funny happens, we laugh. We don’t expect anyone to be inhuman or oblivious to the situations around us. We are not experts at silence, but we continually work at it and try to renew ourselves in our efforts to attain it."

She acknowledged that the sisters sometimes became as distracted as most laypeople do while praying. "It is part of the human condition," she said. "Especially when you have repetitive prayers, it is hard not to wander off to some other subject or thought. So we have to have humility and realize we are not capable of anything without the help of God. ...

"Sometimes it is easier than others to pray, but the point is to keep doing it, keep making the effort, no matter how we feel about it. We may feel that we haven’t prayed one bit, but in the mind of God, it may be the most fruitful time of prayer we have offered yet."

Testing the call

Any single woman who is between 18 and 35, has a high school education, is a Catholic in good standing, and is in good physical and psychological health is eligible to join the Poor Clares.

"I would encourage any young woman to spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament to help discern the direction of her life," Mother Dolores Marie said. "You have to have a longing for a life of prayer, specifically a life of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

"A contemplative life is not for everyone, but it is a rich and fulfilling one, and I would encourage anyone who feels such a calling to not be afraid, but to listen to what God may be saying."

The convent also has a Web site, www.stjosephmonastery.com, can send and receive e-mail, and receives Portsmouth’s daily newspaper and the Catholic Times. Mother Dolores Marie monitors the various means of communication and informs the other nuns of significant events in the Church and the world.

"5 Questions: Sister Jeanne Haley"

5 Questions: Sister Jeanne Haley
Administrator of St. Patrick's Residence

From The Naperville Sun
March 17, 2008

"We're not just these holy nuns who give and give and give. We do, but we get so much in return," says Sister Jeanne Haley, administrator at St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville, at right, about her life as a Carmelite Sister for the Aged and Infirm. Here, she visits with resident Katherine Ferianc, seated, and Ferianc's daughter, Ellie Augustine of La Grange, March 10 in Naperville.
Danielle Gardner / Staff photographer

Growing up, Sister Jeanne Haley never thought of herself as nun material.

As a teenager she sometimes got into mischief. But she never forgot the pleasure she felt during the summer she volunteered at Sacred Heart Manor, a home for the elderly in Chicago run by the Carmelite Sisters. She was 14 at the time and her admiration for the joyful society of the nuns ultimately led her to the religious vocation she has cherished for 38 years.


For the last decade, Haley has been administrator at St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville, a non-profit, 210-bed nursing and rehabilitation facility served by the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Her goal is to make St. Pat's not only comfortable and homey for its residents, but also an integrated part of the Naperville community. St. Patrick's is represented at various city activities including Naper Days' annual Bed Races.

Haley was born in Oak Park, the third of six children. The family lived with her grandmother, who helped her parents care for the children, including younger sister Jeanne, who was developmentally disabled.

It was that sister's name that Haley took when she joined the Carmelites in 1970.

Through the years, Haley also has taken care of elders in Carmelite homes in New York City, Philadelphia and Davenport, Iowa. While serving the latter, she graduated from Scott Community College with a degree in nursing.

Haley had always wanted to be a nurse since reading Sue Barton books by Helen Dore Boylston as a young girl. Helping care for her younger sister also intensified her passion for the profession.
Haley's other interests include playing cards, puzzles and spending time with family.

1. What made you decide to become a nun?

I was 19 years old and I believed in what the sisters did. I'm not going to say God tapped me on the shoulder. He didn't. But I felt drawn to become a part of what their mission was. I dated in high school. I went to my senior prom. I wasn't all my life sitting saying 'oh yes, I want to be a nun.' But I felt called to it. ... Through all these years, the vocation just becomes stronger. I can remember as a postulant sometimes not believing I was this fortunate to be able to be part of this community - to be able to have my wish of caring for the elderly, of being a nurse and then putting it together, being a part of a community that did the things I wanted to do and had such a beautiful prayer life.

2. What are some of your other interests?

I like to bowl. I love the White Sox ... I don't care if the Sox are winning or losing, I just love to go to the games ... It's fun to get out to the ball park, to get the fresh air, to yell and scream. We have more laughs. We have a great big sign that says 'Nuns love the White Sox' and its got a picture of a nun with a baseball bat. We get our pictures taken with half the world. We've had old altar boys send us up hot dogs one year. We danced on the dugout with the mascot. We need to do it because we are human and we need to have fun. But it's also important for us to get out there and show people that religious can have fun.

3. What is your personal philosophy?

Trust in God and realize that it's not all about you. I think that's the only way we can live our lives. So if you think everything is about us and how we are going to handle things and what we are going to do and what we are going to achieve, we're going to be exhausted and not accomplish anything. But if we can understand that God put all these people in our lives making our lives better and to make what we do better, then it can be a joy. I don't always live by that rule as well as I should.

4. How would you describe yourself?

I would say I am someone that loves to be a part of a mission, someone that loves to be blessed to be in the community I'm in and someone who tries to be joyful and thankful to the Lord every day.

5. What are some of your personal goals?

I'm still striving to gain the balance of being an administrator and still staying who I am. I think I'm always striving to be the religious that I want to be and be joyful in doing it.

"Priest heeds call to Iraq"

By REX W. HUPPKE
McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
CHICAGO - The Rev. Matt Foley has stood by the ornate oak altar of his church and made the sign of the cross over dozens of young soldiers bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each time, his blessing has echoed through the Little Village sanctuary and back to a long-ago promise unfulfilled.

In the early 1980s, Foley faced diverging paths: Follow his brother into the Army, or follow his faith into the priesthood. Reluctantly, he felt pulled to the church.

But he told his brother, Mike, that he would join him in the service if war ever came.

The United States invaded Iraq in 1991. Mike commanded a company of Bradley Fighting Vehicles as they stormed across the desert. Matt was two years out of the seminary, sworn to the church, tied to his priestly duties at a North Lawndale parish.

There was no resentment, but in the decade that followed, the Irish Catholic priest could never shake the feeling he had let his brother down.

In 2000, Matt took over St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church, becoming a dynamic and beloved figure known across Little Village as ‘‘Padre Mateo.’’

He marched with parishioners, protesting the neighborhood’s lack of parks. He boldly scolded the community for allowing gang violence to claim young lives.

When a man tried to break into the church’s donation box, the priest chased him down, tackled him and held him until police arrived.

But even as the parish flourished, Foley, 45, began to feel tugged toward a change, the same sensation he had when God pulled him into the priesthood. It was something in the worried eyes of the young men and women who sought his blessing before going to war.

‘‘I keep sending these people, and now I feel like it’s my turn to go,’’ said Foley, his head resting against the wall of a dimly lit prayer room a day before he was sworn in to the Army. ‘‘I just feel like it’s my turn to go. You can’t just keep blessing people.’’

On Feb. 27, by the church’s altar, Foley recited an oath to his brother, an Iraq veteran twice over.

‘‘I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,’’ said Matt Foley, standing rigid, right hand raised, beside the family of a Little Village soldier serving in Iraq.

It was the culmination of more than a year of prayer and meditation. Foley had searched his soul, thought about the strong parish he had built and the people he would leave behind.

‘‘When you bury people’s children or their relatives, you’re really connected to them on a very high level,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel like I’m not going to be with these people who will forever be mourning their losses.’’

He also had to seek approval from the archdiocese of Chicago - to which he had vowed obedience - at a time when the church faces a shortage of priests.

The Rev. Claudio Diaz Jr., director of Hispanic ministries for the archdiocese, said Cardinal Francis George let Foley go because he recognized the dearth of Catholic priests in Iraq and believed Foley’s calling was sincere.

‘‘That’s part of who we are as priests,’’ Diaz said. ‘‘We remind the people of God to be attentive of God’s will in their lives. Simultaneously, as priests, we have to be attentive to the voice of God in terms of our ministry and service to his people.’’

Foley will leave in June, bound for military chaplain training in South Carolina. He has asked the Army to send him to Iraq as soon as possible, and Army officials say his wish will certainly be granted.

During his swearing-in ceremony, the priest read a fitting Gospel passage: ‘‘When you were young, you walked where you wanted to walk. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will carry you where you do not want to go.’’

Up through college, Foley was a troublemaker, a partyer. As a political science major at Marquette University, he played rugby with fellow student and soon-to-be-famous comedian Chris Farley, known for his life of excess. Farley, who died in 1997, named one of his most revered ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ characters, a bumbling motivational speaker, after Foley.

‘‘I was interested in law and drinking beer,’’ Foley said.

Yet he couldn’t escape a pull he had felt since his high school days in Libertyville, the sense that God was calling him. Maybe it came from memories of his Uncle Jerome, an Army chaplain who served two tours in Vietnam. Foley still recalls 1970s nights spent by the television, watching the end of the network newscast as names of the day’s soldiers killed in action scrolled down the screen, praying his uncle was safe.

By his junior year at Marquette, in 1983, Foley reached his crossroads. His brother, Mike, a senior and already enlisted, was sure Foley would become an Army man.

‘‘My roommate and I both became infantry officers,’’ Mike Foley said. ‘‘And Matt enjoyed being around us all the time. We’d tell him about what we were doing. I think Matt always liked that adventure, that leadership kind of thing.’’

But Matt couldn’t resist the spiritual pressure bearing down on him. He surprised everyone he knew by entering the seminary in Chicago.

‘‘I surrendered,’’ Foley said. ‘‘I let somebody else control me. I let my God guide me.’’

He finished the seminary in 1989 and became an associate pastor at St. Agatha in North Lawndale, a white priest in a nearly all-black community.

In 1994, barely able to speak a word of Spanish, he moved to a parish in Quechultenango, Mexico.

Six years later he returned to Chicago and took control of St. Agnes, a spiritual anchor in a culturally rich neighborhood divided by rival Latino gangs, struggling with issues of poverty and immigration.

Once again, Foley was a stranger relying on divine direction.

‘‘We started to notice a lot of things changing right away,’’ said Dolores Castaneda, a parishioner and activist. ‘‘He fixed the church. He fixed the school. He fought for us to have better places for the children to go. He joined marches, he got angry, he protested.’’

Quickly - more quickly then anyone could expect - he was embraced. They liked him because he admitted his own sins and warned them of theirs. He spoke of how he enjoyed hearing babies cry during Mass because they sounded full of life.

Since he arrived in 2000, Foley has buried nearly 30 members of the feuding Latin Kings and the Two Sixers street gangs. He never tried to hide his frustration.

‘‘He’d tell us that we don’t have compassion, we’re not really focused on God,’’ Castaneda said. ‘‘If you’re focused on God, you’re not killing your brother, you’re not killing your neighbor.’’

But what few knew about Padre Mateo was that his time in Little Village began expiring as soon as he felt comfort setting in. He said it’s the nature of his relationship with God, a connection that, in order to work, must routinely be renewed.

‘‘I’m so restless with my God,’’ Foley said. ‘‘When I get stripped of this place, which has been my life, my home, my family, I’m going to be brought to a place where I’m not going to know anyone. I’ll be a vessel that God’s going to use.’’

And he’ll fulfill a promise unkept. When Foley told his brother, now a reservist based in Georgia, that he was signing up, the response was simple.

‘‘About time,’’ Mike Foley said.

He was joking, but the priest knew it was time to move on. He felt the flutters of fear in his gut, worried he could lose his zeal, as though he still had to run to stay ahead of the college kid who never thought he would be a priest in the first place.

So Foley will stay with his parish until June, serving more than 6,000 people who attend Mass each Sunday and look to him for help.

Then he’ll pack his bags and let himself again be carried somewhere he doesn’t want to go, but needs to be.

"Pro-life group launches Humanae Vitae Priests web site"

Front Royal, Va, Mar 10, 2008 / 09:47 pm (Catholic News Agency).

Human Life International has launched a web site to help priests, deacons and seminarians teach and evangelize using Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae.

The site producers plan to supply offering reflections, commentaries, homily aids and solid practical resources for priests to preach about and defend Catholic teachings concerning marital love and contraception. The site is located at http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/

According to John Mallon, director of HumanaeVitaePriests.org, the site will examine the “disastrous aspects of widespread contraception,” including its “medical, sociological, hormonal, psychological, cultural, pastoral, spiritual, even environmental aspects.” It will feature the commentary of special guest experts.

The site includes a special supplement from the magazine Inside the Vatican’s 1998 issue commemorating the 30th anniversary of the encyclical. The free supplement, titled “A Prophecy for Our Time,” includes interviews with Human Life International founder Father Paul Marx, Priests for Life president Father Frank Pavone, Dr. Janet Smith, and Dr. Alice von Hildebrand. It also contains a pastoral letter from Archbishop Charles Chaput and an article from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his election to the papacy.

“Our prayer is that this project will be a positive effort to spread the light and truth of God’s plan for love, marriage and sexuality,” said Mallon.

"Diocesan priest community established in Denver"

Denver, Mar 15, 2008 / 01:53 am (CNA).

In response to a call from Vatican II for priests to share a common life, four seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver have decided to begin a priestly community that will eventually be opened up to any priest or seminarian in the archdiocese.

Currently, the Companions of Christ is an association of seminarians established in the Archdiocese of Denver. Once the four founding men are ordained, they will live together as priests in a rectory close to their pastoral assignments in the Archdiocese of Denver.

The priests will strive to live with three emphases: “Observance of the evangelical counsels in the context of the diocesan priesthood, commitment to a common life of prayer and fraternity, and dedication to the New Evangelization, including catechesis, spiritual renewal, and the fostering of vocations,” according to their website.

The Companions of Christ have already received the blessing of the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput who established the fraternity “canonically” on December 12, 2007, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“Our priests today face immense challenges: larger parishes, fewer priests to assist them, and a more secular culture that is at times hostile to both the Gospel and the priesthood,” said the archbishop. “Grouped in rectories in various parts of the Archdiocese, they strive together for the ideal of the priesthood, giving mutual support and holding each other to a strict accountability.”

Noting the difficulties priests face, Father Michael Glenn, Rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary added, “All priests want to live a committed and zealous life, but the demands of ministry, human weakness and the difficulty of their work can often discourage them, revealing a life far different than what he expected while in the seminary.”

The Companions of Christ will directly address the problems priests are currently facing and will offer encouragement. “Fraternal life offers unity in prayer and identity, as well as strength and support for Christ’s mission. God has truly blessed us with a model of life that will help Companion Priests and many others to be holy, joyful, and healthy shepherds in their service and leadership of God’s people. Nothing promotes vocations, invites to prayer, or enlivens a parish more than dynamic, fulfilled priests who love the life they live. Strengthened as brothers in Christ, priests are ready to step forward in leadership for the New Evangelization.”

Companions of Christ is comprised of four Denver seminarians: John Nepil, Matt Book, Brian Larkin, and Mike Rapp who will be ordained in the next two or three years.

Plans for the group began after one seminarian learned about a similar community in St. Paul, Minnesota. The seminarians there “insisted that it wasn’t a new idea, just something that had been lost, that the Church was seeking to recover.”

After years of prayer, three other seminarians were drawn to the idea of the fraternity. “The four men spent the next year together quietly praying and sharing meals, all the while fully immersed in the life of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.”

Since the announcement of the community, the Companions of Christ have been received with support and encouragement.

"Summorum Pontificum" in the Seminary

From ZENIT:

Cardinal Rigali on Introducing Seminarians to the 1962 Missal

By Annamarie Adkins

PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Since Benedict XVI has said that the Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII should be available to those who prefer it, seminarians should be taught to say it, says Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The Pope clarified in his apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" that there are two forms of the liturgy in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church: ordinary and extraordinary.

To learn what some bishops are doing to implement the document in seminaries, ZENIT spoke with Cardinal Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, about his plans to introduce seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to the extraordinary form of the Mass.

Cardinal Rigali also suggested why priests already in active ministry should become familiar with the Missal of 1962.

Q: What practical steps are being taken to incorporate "Summorum Pontificum" into the life and curriculum of the seminary?

Cardinal Rigali: First there will be a lecture offered on the "motu proprio" that elucidates the theology underlying the 1962 missal so that the seminarians are afforded a clear understanding of the "motu proprio" and the Holy Father's pastoral concern for the faithful who have a deep love for the Tridentine liturgy.

Since nearly all of the seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary have grown up attending Mass according to the "Novus Ordo" -- Missal of Paul VI -- it is important to offer an exposition of the Mass according to the 1962 missal -- Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

Further, seminary course work in theology, liturgy and Church history will cover and expound upon the Holy Father's initiative. It will be helpful for them to see the continuity between the two expressions, but will also afford the opportunity to address the changes that took place in the liturgy following the Second Vatican Council.

Sometime in the spring semester, after the lecture, Holy Mass according to the extraordinary form will be celebrated once for the entire St. Charles Borromeo Seminary community. This will demonstrate to the seminarians the liturgically correct manner in which the extraordinary form of the Mass is to be celebrated.

Q: What about "Summorum Pontificum" has led you to support the incorporation of that document into the life of St. Charles Borromeo seminary? Are you foreseeing a greater demand for the traditional form of the Mass in the future?

Cardinal Rigali: The Holy Father has indicated that the Mass according to the extraordinary form as well as celebration of the sacraments should be available to the faithful when there is a genuine pastoral need.

Many of our clergy have never celebrated Mass or administered the sacraments according to the 1962 missal and the other liturgical texts. In order to provide for the pastoral needs, should they arise, the current seminarians should have the opportunity to be properly educated as to the rituals involved and the theology that underlies these forms.

At present I do not foresee a great demand for celebrations according to the extraordinary form of the Mass. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia the requests we have received are very few. Most Catholics today find spiritual satisfaction in the Mass as celebrated using the Missal of Paul VI, and this remains the ordinary form of the celebration.

This being said, we are blessed to have two parishes in different areas of the archdiocese that celebrate Mass in the extraordinary form, who had already for some time been offering Mass with the Tridentine Missal by grant of the necessary indult. I am grateful that these parishes provide for the spiritual and pastoral needs of those faithful who prefer the extraordinary form.

Q: Some analysts of "Summorum Pontificum" have said that it is primarily directed at priests, and is a gift to them. What is your view?

Cardinal Rigali: The "motu proprio" is issued by the Holy Father for all Catholics.

With regard to priests, any statement from the Holy Father on the liturgy or any change in the liturgical forms or formula afford the priests an opportunity for thought and reflection on the mysteries they celebrate in the liturgy.

Many priests find in these opportunities a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the liturgy and an opportunity for recommitment to celebrate these liturgies in a more reflective, reverent and respectful manner.

In this sense, "Summorum Pontificum" is a gift to all priests, because it encourages them, through the sacred liturgy, to draw all people into a deeper communion of holiness with the Lord.

Q: Seminaries are in the business of formation, particularly liturgical formation. What formative effect do you believe learning and celebrating the extraordinary form of the Mass will have upon seminarians?

Cardinal Rigali: Studying about and learning the Mass according to the 1962 Missal will afford the seminarians an opportunity to experience the continuity between the older and newer forms.

So much of our faith is based on continuity and tradition, handing on of the faith from one generation to the next. Sometimes the rituals change and develop but at the core they remain the same.

Benedict XVI stated in his letter to the bishops that accompanied the "motu proprio," "There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be of all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches that have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place."

The liturgical training St. Charles Borromeo seminarians receive forms them in reverence and holiness, which in turn will serve the faithful to whom they will minister once they are ordained.

Q: Will saying Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII affect the way a priest says the "Novus Ordo" Mass?

Cardinal Rigali: Any priest who is unfamiliar with the extraordinary form, or who has not celebrated the liturgy according to this form for some time, will probably, and quite naturally, reflect on the manner in which he celebrates Mass according to the "Novus Ordo."

Such a reflection is positive because it cannot help but lead to a more reverent and worthy celebration of the liturgy.

Q: What can priests do to incorporate "Summorum Pontificum" into their own priestly ministry?

Cardinal Rigali: St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is offering a course for priests who wish to be educated and trained in the proper celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII to ensure competence in the Latin language and the rubrics of the extraordinary form.

Prior to engaging a "practicum" experience, the theology behind the liturgy and the "motu proprio" will be studied. I have encouraged any priest who may wish to learn to celebrate this liturgy to seek such educational opportunities so that the liturgy may be celebrated in a prayerful and reverent manner.

Priests hope Pope Benedict visit inspires vocations

From Detroit Free Press

BY GARY STERN • WESTCHESTER JOURNAL NEWS • March11, 2008

When Pope Benedict XVI addresses 20,000 youths at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., and 60,000 people at Yankee Stadium next month, many priests will be crossing their fingers that the pontiff urges -- demands, even -- that young Catholic men consider a collar.

Like the Detroit area, the Archdiocese of New York is in serious need of new priests. Of the 176 Catholic dioceses in the U.S., the Archdiocese of New York ranks 170th in terms of the ratio of seminarians to the total Catholic population, according to a December study by Catholic World Report.

Detroit also ranked in the bottom 20 in the report, but unlike New York, will not be receiving a papal visit.

Right now the main seminary at St. Joseph's is preparing only 23 seminarians for possible ordination as diocesan priests over the next four years.

And not a single man is scheduled to enter the seminary program next fall.

Bishop Gerald Walsh, rector of St. Joseph's, said that the absence of a freshman class could be a good thing if it forces New York's Catholic community to face the dire need for priests.

"It is a wake-up call," Walsh said. "We have to do something. I'm a believer that difficulties can be opportunities, not disasters. It depends on what you do with them."

The hope is that the visit by Pope Benedict will inspire young men to listen for God's call to the priesthood and rouse Catholic families to mention the priesthood around the dinner table.

"His mission is really to encourage us in the faith, to strengthen us in our belief and commitment to Jesus Christ, make us better disciples," said the Rev. Luke Sweeney, vocations director for the archdiocese. "If he does that and that alone, vocations will come from it."

But Sweeney hopes the pope will go a step farther when he's speaking directly to New Yorkers.

"I presume that the Holy Father will make an appeal to some of them, to say that God wants you to be priests," he said. "That, coming from the pope, will mean a world of difference to young people."

Nationally, the number of diocesan priests dropped from 36,000 in 1975 to 28,000 last year. But the number of seminarians, after falling sharply since the 1960s, rebounded in the last decade to 3,300.

In big-city archdioceses like Detroit, the seriousness of the shortage tends to be hidden because priests just work harder and longer, even though they are more isolated than ever before, said Dean Hoge, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

"You can muddle through with one priest for many, many Catholics," said Hoge, a leading expert on the priest shortage. "But it's still a monster problem. There is no way we can continue to go ahead much longer with parish life as we know it when there are so few priests and so many Catholics."

Many insist that the frenetic pace of modern life, combined with a growing social emphasis on individualism and secularism, may discourage young men from listening.

"I think the odds are stacked against us in the age in which we live, more than in any other age," said Brian Graebe, 27, from Staten Island, a first-year student at St. Joseph's. "We have a tough battle. How do we counter all of these trends that are working against this timeless message, this august call to the priesthood? The message is there, it's strong, it speaks for itself. We just have to allow them to hear it."

New York's Irish community has provided the vast majority of parish priests for 200 years. Part of the problem facing the archdiocese is that an estimated 40% to 50% of Catholic New Yorkers are Hispanic, but Hispanic communities are not producing priests.

Dominican-born Alex Reyes, 24, of the Bronx, a third-year seminarian, said many Hispanic young men told him they might be interested in becoming priests if not for one thing.

"I know a lot of young Hispanic guys who are very interested in the priesthood, but to tell you the truth, the big problem is celibacy," Reyes said. "That is the main reason they hold off."

This is where Pope Benedict comes in. He is visiting the U.S., in part, to inspire the faithful.

The Rev. Michael Morris, professor of church history at St. Joseph's, said he was among many seminarians during the 1980s who became sure of their call after Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979.

"I discovered when I got to seminary, that I wasn't alone," he said. "Other guys felt the same way that I did. Hopefully, this will happen as a result of this papal visit. Hopefully we'll be filled again someday."

U.S. Dominican nuns turn heads, spread God's love to youths in Sydney

By Dan McAloon
Catholic News Service

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- Everywhere they go in Sydney, the three Dominican nuns from Tennessee keep turning heads. Dressed in their distinctive white habits and black and white veils, the sisters stand out in the crowd.

At Sydney Harbor, where the tourists fix their cameras on the iconic Opera House and bridge, the arrival of Sisters Anna Wray, Mary Rachel Capets and Mary Madeline Todd gets everybody's viewfinders swinging in their direction.

The reaction of local residents in Belmore, the multicultural suburb where they are staying, is similar. The Vietnamese baker and his wife tell them of the kindness of Catholic nuns to war orphans in their homeland. The older people in the street stop to reminisce about the nuns who taught them at school. The "hijab"-wearing Muslim women, at first surprised at the sight of the nuns' veils, smile broadly with the recognition of the love of a common God.

"You're making our neighborhood a different place," the Lebanese shopkeeper told them. And when his customers ask if he has seen the strange new nuns about, the shopkeeper boasts: "Yes, of course! They are my friends!"

The nuns are in Sydney at the invitation of Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, World Youth Day 2008 coordinator and fellow Dominican. Normally they would be at home teaching, but their motherhouse in Nashville has sent delegations to assist with preparations for each World Youth Day since Denver was the host city in 1993.

"It's part of our apostolic mission to spread God's love to the youth of the world," said Sister Anna, 28, noting that as Dominicans their lives are balanced between "contemplation and action."

"Wherever we are, we live by our values. Our founder Dominic was about taking God's word into the world and influencing people. We have a capacity to be adaptive, you could say. We know that people won't listen to us unless we are clearly living what we preach," she said.

A colleague at the Sydney Archdiocese describes the three as a "breath of fresh air about the place."

While Sister Mary Madeline is working as an assistant to Bishop Fisher, Sister Anna works with the liturgical committee and Sister Mary Rachel helps plan the youth festival.

As the July 15-20 World Youth Day events approach, there are still myriad details to be finalized in time for the arrival of the pilgrims. More than 125,000 are expected to arrive from overseas for the event, including 38,000 from the United States.

Sister Mary Rachel, 32, said that despite the 20-hour flight from Los Angeles, pilgrims from the U.S. won't be disappointed.

"They will find a beautiful, friendly city. People here are very generous because many are migrants and they know what it is to be the stranger," she said. "And for the pilgrims there's the special grace of being in the presence of the pope and in experiencing the beauty of the universal church."

"All Catholic life is a pilgrimage, and every experience teaches us something new," added Sister Mary Madeline. "I think the people of Sydney will be very surprised by how many pilgrims are ready to make that journey for Christ and celebrate their life in communion."

Sister Anna, a Dominican novice, has her own pilgrim story to tell of the influence World Youth Day had in calling her to religious life.

"Being in Rome for World Youth Day (in 2000) really was a catalyst for my entering religious life," she said. "I had no intention of being a sister then, but I did hear the offering of the church and the Holy Father, 'Do not be afraid to live the Gospel directly.' And that is something I have tried to do ever since."

As a retired nun turns 100, she reflects on her years of devotion to God, others

By Sophia Rodriguez
The Post and Courier
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Sister Brendan Lacey has led a full life. She immigrated to the United States in her teens, brought people through medical catastrophes as a nurse, helped bring life into the world, and developed a close and deeply personal relationship with God.

She has a lifetime of memories to draw upon, and a few days before her 100th birthday are just as good a time as any to reflect on them.

"All life is what you make of it," she said, sitting in the parlor of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy convent on Fort Johnson Road, her hands folded serenely in her lap and a slight smile on her kind face.

This is one of those life lessons she has learned from her many years on Earth. It all depends how you view your circumstances and what you decide you want out of life. Some may shun the ideals of a Catholic sisterhood, a life void of a spouse, raising a family and pursuing a layman's career as too quaint, too provincial, maybe too boring to seriously consider. But in a way, Lacey has all those things.

Even though she had never considered working as a nurse, she found her way into that field as a result of her pull toward the religious life as a young teenager. Not only does she have other family members in the United States, but she always has had a built-in one at the institutions where she has lived throughout her life. And in a sense, her closeness to God is a marriage: one of love and strong bonds built over the years.

Lacey's story began when she was born as Elizabeth on March 14, 1908, in County Laois, Ireland, about 90 miles southwest of Dublin. She was educated at the National School and then by Mother McAuley's Sisters of Mercy. When she was 13, she started to feel she was being called to serve in a similar capacity as the nuns who were her teachers.

"It was beyond a boarding school," Lacey said. She also was preparing for her future service.

She met two nuns at Our Lady of

Mercy from Charleston. They were vacationing in the beautiful country, but they also had been instructed by the area's bishop at the time, the Most Rev. William T. Russell, to invite young women who were interested in serving in foreign missions to Charleston. The 16-year-old girl took them up on the offer and, along with seven other girls, hopped aboard a ship headed for New York Harbor.

She arrived in 1924, and a few days later, sailed down to Charleston on a Clyde Mallory Line vessel. One of the first noticeable differences she encountered between her homeland and her new land was the temperature jump. The August heat took her by surprise because in comparison, "Ireland is a very cold country." She also had to get used to the Southern drawl. But she didn't feel lost.

"I didn't feel I was in a foreign country because there were four girls here who had come out of school a year before me," she said.

She began her training for the sisterhood, called novitiate, at the motherhouse, which was behind the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist at the time.

"You go through the routine of the day," she said. "You have different times of the day when you pray, and you have different times for meals. You go to bed at a certain time, and wake up at a certain time."

After six months, she received her habit and a new religious name that she got to pick: Brendan.

"I had no other reason than, 'Here is an Irish saint,' " she said.

After that, she entered the standard two years of training. The first year consisted of learning the rules and structure of her new life. She did no outside work and took three vows, that of poverty, chastity and obedience. "We study each one of those vows and what they entail. ... We don't marry, we don't own anything in private and we obey what (the leaders of the convent and church) say."

After that training was over, she entered nurse's training, something she had never considered doing before but agreed to because it was asked of her. She was on the St. Francis Xavier Hospital's staff until 1960, then transferred to Divine Saviour Hospital and Nursing Home in York. She spent three years as the matron of the City Orphan Asylum that was on Queen Street in Charleston, and then returned to Divine Saviour in 1964 and remained there until the early '90s.

Most of those years, she worked as a night supervisor in an active emergency room, treating patients for injuries from car accidents and "things resulting from brawls and fights and things like that."

"I had to accommodate myself to a lot of things, especially OB. You can read about those things, but when you see it, it's a different thing."

She would sleep in the daytime and work 12-hour shifts. It was a happy and educational time. "It gets you into the joys and sorrows of people," she said.

In 1992, she moved to Simpsonville to be a fellow nun's companion. Although she didn't have any assigned work, she found small tasks to occupy her time. She wrote thank-you letters at the St. Mary Magdalene Society to people who asked for Masses to be said for someone or sent money to the church. She stayed there until four years ago, when she retired to her current home at the motherhouse on James Island.

She considers her nursing years as a ministry of service, while her days now are spent in a ministry of prayer. She feels fortunate to have access to daily Mass at Our Lady of Mercy's chapel. Prayer has been the constant thread throughout her years — prayers for families, the community's needs, prayers for people to acquire virtue, prayers for the sick, the deceased, the cessation of war — the list goes on.

"I pray a lot, and that sustains me," she said. "I enjoy the company of the other sisters."

Her pleasures and activities are simple. She doesn't know much about what goes on beyond the convent walls, but she keeps up with newspapers and television broadcasts. She religiously watches Brian Williams on the "NBC Nightly News" even though her eyesight isn't what it used to be.

As for turning the ripe young age of 100?

"Situations make you feel old," she said, gesturing to her walker. "Your body is a good teacher. It tells you what you're capable of and what you're not."

As for the rest of it, "I feel no different in my life than when I was 20. I just know my years are shorter."

"Nun can stop these teachers"

"Nun can stop these teachers"

Parents praise St. Francis school education

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer Gallup Independent

GALLUP — For parents like Cindy Vargas, St. Francis of Assisi School is “a little miracle” on West Wilson Avenue.

And for Vargas, much of what makes St. Francis such a good school for Dylan, her son in first grade, are the Catholic sisters who work there as teachers and teacher’s aides.

Vargas was one of three parents who talked with the Independent recently about their appreciation for the sisters and the school. She was joined by Marisa Hutchinson, the mother of sixth-grader Danielle and first-grader Gabriel, and by Mellissa Aparicio, also the mother of a first-grade son named Gabriel.

In light of the much-publicized struggles and failings of the public school system, the three local moms wanted to spotlight some positive attention on what they believe are eight strengths of St. Francis — the four sisters of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph from Mexico and the four Rosarian Dominican sisters from the Philippines.

In fact, St. Francis School is even unusual in the Diocese of Gallup because 80 percent of the school’s teachers and teacher’s aides are Catholic sisters. All the other schools in the diocese, like many Catholic schools across the country, have higher numbers of lay teachers because of declining numbers of women entering religious orders over the last several decades. According to Sister Rene Backe, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, only two sisters teach at St. Anthony in Zuni and St. Michael Elementary School in Arizona, four are at St. Bonaventure in Thoreau and at St. Michael High School in Arizona, and Sacred Heart in Farmington and St. Joseph in San Fidel only have one sister each. The St. Michael schools also have three religious brothers as teachers.

And unlike many contemporary Catholic sisters who dress similarly to women in the larger society, the sisters at St. Francis are unusual in that their distinctive habits reflect their more traditional and conservative religious orders.

That traditional background seems to reflect what Vargas, Hutchinson, and Aparicio were searching for when they went looking for a school to educate their children.

Vargas, a product of Gallup’s old Cathedral School, was taught by sisters and believes she received a high-quality education.

“I wanted my son to grow up that way,” she said. Vargas said she has been pleased with the academics at St. Francis, adding that her son began reading while enrolled in his pre-K4 class.

Hutchinson and Aparicio, who both moved to Gallup because of their husbands’ jobs, transferred their children to St. Francis after being dissatisfied with their first schools in Gallup. Both mothers said their children tested as gifted but weren’t being academically challenged in their former schools. In contrast, they said, the sisters at St. Francis are good at providing challenging assignments rather than just extra busy work. They have also been pleased with the small class size and the resulting individual attention for each pupil.

According to Mary Peretti, a secretary at the school, St. Francis currently has 100 children enrolled from pre-K3 to sixth grade, with the average class size of 12 pupils. Peretti is somewhat of an authority about St. Francis: she and her siblings attended there up through the eighth grade, she taught there for 18 years, all her children have attended St. Francis, and now her grandchildren are enrolled.

Although not Catholic, Hutchinson said she is also happy with the religious instruction in the school. Originally from Florida, Hutchinson said her church background is with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Noting that “God has been taken out of everything” in American society, Hutchison said she is OK with her children learning Catholic beliefs and prayers. “It’s still Christianity,” she said.

Vargas and Aparico, who are both Catholic, said they were attracted to the school’s emphasis on faith-based education. “I’m learning things about the Bible that I didn’t even know by reviewing the lessons,” said Aparico.

The women believe that faith-based approach positively influences relationships between pupils and between parents. Through working on classroom projects and school fundraisers, Aparico said she has come to view the other mothers in the school as her sisters. Vargas credited the teachers as fostering that caring atmosphere among parents.

“They bring the quality of compassion and Catholicism,” agreed Principal Mary Ann Frank.

The eight sisters also bring an international flavor to the school. Having teachers from Mexico and the Philippines helps broaden the children’s cultural understanding, said Hutchinson, who added that her daughter has loved performing the traditional Mexican dances she has learned from her teachers.

“They’re in a multi-cultural school,” agreed Aparicio. She said she’s been pleased that her son has been exposed to both Spanish and the Filipino language of Tagalog while in school, and she doesn’t believe the teachers’ foreign accents have hindered Gabriel’s English reading and writing skills.

Other parents in Gallup may not share that same view. According to Frank, a first year principal at St. Francis, some parents have voiced concern about English being the sisters’ second language. Some parents may not consider the school as an educational option because of that factor, she said, and also because of its “across the tracks” location.

An additional challenge the school faces, Frank said, involves the immigration status of the four Filipino sisters. Although the sisters are working in the U.S. legally, she explained, a paperwork snafu from a few years ago is threatening their ability to stay in Gallup. Frank said she hopes someone will be able to help solve the problem before the end of the school year.

Frank expressed appreciation for the parents’ support, particularly the “dogged persistence every month” by those parents who organize fund-raiser after fund-raiser to help support St. Francis. The aging school, which has a lot of maintenance issues, is not funded by either the Diocese of Gallup or the St. Francis parish, she explained, but rather seems to survive on “lots of grace and support.”

"Football priest shocks referee"

As I've said before, priests are human, and sports tend to elicit some deep seeded elements of our humanity.

From Afrik.com:

A footballer priest from Burkina Faso shocked spectators when he angrily threw his shirt at his referee in a match held at the Vatican City. In its efforts to curb football violence in Italy and to give the game a positive facelift, Italian sports officials hope the clericius Cup – an international football tournament including Catholic priests and seminarians – sets an example. Paul the Apostle’s College (where the priest played) was eliminated due to the priest’s actions. (Monday 10 March - 16:28)

Catholic Blog Awards

Less than a week left to vote! Roman Catholic Vocations is in the top 10 of two of the five categories in which it is nominated for a Catholic Blog Award. If you haven't had a chance to cast a vote, please do so before Monday, March 17th -it would be greatly appreciated!

11-year-olds, 11th-graders focus on vocations for a day

Looking to his classmates for guidance, Stephen Sturtevant of Sacred Heart Interparochial School in Pinellas Park tries to match religious men and women with their previous professions during an activity. JANET SHELTON FC

More than 1,000 youths and teens attended this year’s Focus 11 the week of Feb. 11 at St. Lawrence Parish, Tampa.

JANET SHELTON FLORIDA CATHOLIC

TAMPA Church vocation directors say a crucial element of encouraging vocations is inviting young people to consider entering the priesthood or religious life. Focus 11, an annual diocesan vocations rally, ensures at least two groups of Catholic youths get at least one high-energy invitation.

Focus 11 is aimed at students in grades six (or about age 11), and grade 11. Studies show these are the times when adolescents and teens most think about their future life and work. The church believes it is the perfect time to ask them to consider their vocation: what God wants them to do in their lives.

More than 1,000 youths and teens attended this year’s Focus 11 the week of Feb. 11 at St. Lawrence Parish, Tampa. One day was dedicated to high school juniors; the other two were divided between sixth-grade students.

Feb. 12 belonged to about 550 sixth-graders, most from Pinellas County. Over the course of the day they competed for the loudest, most-spirited cheer; sang songs; watched Spiderman clips and humorous skits; and played scavenger hunts that allowed them to meet sisters, brothers and priests from about a dozen religious communities.

Keynote presenter Sister Tracey Dugas, a Daughter of St. Paul stationed in Miami, told the students her big goal as a teen was to get a job at the mall so she could “get a really good discount at The Gap.” A spiritual retreat took her in a different direction. She went from caring about clothes to caring about serving Jesus.

“I realized religion was more about having a relationship with Jesus,” she said. “Focus 11 is about your looking into the future and saying, ‘what kind of person do I want to be?’”

Diocesan schools dedicate an entire school day to the rally. The chairwoman, Poor Clare Sister Phyllis Shaughnessy, who also chairs the diocese’s Clergy and Religious Promotion Commission, said students from public schools, home-schooled children and students of Catholic schools not overseen by the diocese also attended this year.

In addition to inviting teens and preteens to consider a church vocation, Focus 11 encourages those who do not feel the call to support those who do. It isn’t easy for those contemplating the priesthood or religious life, organizers said, because society in general touts self-indulgence, affluence and prestige.

“To go to the seminary today is a lot harder than 20 years ago,” said diocesan Vocations Director Father Len Plazewski. “There’s society, peer pressure. … Guys who go to the seminary today, they really are making a heroic decision.”

Another barrier is parents who harbor negative views of a church vocation, he said. Without thinking, moms and dads say things about the priesthood they would never say about other professions, or make comments that lead children to believe they aren’t “good enough” to hand their life over to God. Some parents feel the religious life is less joyful than what one could have as a married person or parent. Others are downright hostile.

“I can say without a doubt that the No. 1 challenge in vocations is parents,” the priest said. “Even parents who might not object may say subtle things like, ‘that’s a hard life,’ as opposed to saying something (similar) about a doctor. … There’s this (image) of a priest as having a sad and lonely life.”

St. Raphael Catholic School student Cody Hesson said he’s not interested in becoming a priest, but figures his mom would probably be OK with it. His classmate Jason Wacker said his parents would likely say something along the lines of, “Yeah. Right.”

Days before Focus 11, Jennifer Crumley of St. Paul Catholic School in St. Petersburg came home and talked to her mom about the possibility of becoming a religious sister. Amy Crumbley admitted to a less-than-supportive response.

“I told her I wanted grandchildren,” she said.

Father Plazewski said it’s natural for parents to want for their children what has made the parents happy or would have made the parents happy. But moms and dads should be aware that an underlying selfishness could be at play, he said.

“(It could be) ‘I want grandchildren,’ or ‘I want them to make a certain amount of money so they can take care of me when I’m older,’” the priest said.

When young men and women do pursue a church vocation, disapproval usually dissolves when parents see their sons and daughters find happiness. However, getting to that point takes perseverance by the young man or woman. Society and family often work against a call from God, and there are no easy solutions.

“That’s why it’s important to pray for vocations,” Father Plazewski said. “Because it does take courage to say, ‘I’m going to seek this out.’”

Shelton is interim St. Petersburg diocesan editor for the Florida Catholic.

Explaining priesthood's call

A priest with Tampa Bay area roots is the author of a book on challenges facing the clergy today.
By Waveney Ann Moore

St. Petersburg Times

Published March 9, 2008

Acknowledging the challenges facing the contemporary church, Father David Toups, a homegrown Roman Catholic priest now based in the nation's capital, has written a book to bolster fellow priests, men studying for the vocation, and by extension, all of the faithful.

The author of Reclaiming Our Priestly Character is a graduate of Clearwater Central Catholic High School. He was ordained at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in 1997 and until recently was dean of students at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

Now associate director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Toups, 36, is optimistic about the future of the priesthood and the Catholic Church.

This spring Toups will provide "color" commentary for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Washington, D.C., from April 15 to 17, on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Web site, which will be featuring a live feed of the pontiff's entire visit to the United States.

Toups' book, an expansion of his doctoral dissertation in Rome, where he studied for seven years, is dedicated to his late father, Leon Toups. His father was a well-known supporter of vocations in the Diocese of St. Petersburg. His mother, Lynn, lives in Largo. Last week, Toups spoke by telephone about his book.

Please discuss your book's timing.

The timing follows Pope John Paul II's pontificate, who certainly was a man who called priests to know who they are and to not be afraid to say that we are called to be different. That doesn't mean we are better. Certainly, following the 2002 outbreak of scandals and in a day and age of fewer priests, this book is meant to be part of the solution, giving us the tools to be renewed in our own lives and also to regenerate the priesthood by joyfully living the vocation that Jesus has called us to.

What is the Roman Catholic Church's view of the unique nature of its priests?

The unique gift of the priesthood in the Catholic Church is the fact that it is an institution which began with Christ and the 12 apostles - his first priests - and through the laying on of hands, or ordination, that unique gift has been transmitted in the Catholic Church for 2,000 years. The priest who participates in the very priesthood of Jesus Christ makes present Jesus to the holy people of God as he celebrates the sacraments for them.

In your book, you write about the different understandings of the priestly role among those ordained before Vatican II and priests ordained after the historic council. How have each of these differing perceptions affected the priesthood and is either correct on its own, or should the understanding be a combination of both?

The question is really about confusion that happened after the Second Vatican Council amongst the priests and laity. The council highlighted in a particular way the priesthood of all of the faithful, which is a beautiful doctrine for the church in which all of the baptized offer the sacrifice of their lives. However, this highlighting of the doctrine of the priesthood of the baptized in some venues obscured the ministerial priesthood which offers to the faithful the holy sacrifice of the Mass in a particular way. And especially highlighted in that era in the late '60s, early '70s, we lived in an egalitarian age in which differences were shunned and hierarchy and discipline were regarded as obsolete. What really the Second Vatican Council simply wanted to do was highlight the beauty and the dignity of the vocation of all of the laity and the vocation of our ministerial priests. Reclaiming our priestly character is about affirming the dignity of both Christian callings.

You say "priests need to be proud of who they are and who they represent." What are the challenges of being a priest today, with relation to the recent sex scandals, fewer men responding to the call and, as a consequence, expanding responsibilities?

It's a great challenge being a priest today, but challenge takes men of heroic virtue to respond to the call of our times. Our priests working in the parishes certainly find themselves very busy fulfilling the duties of their parishes. All the more it is important to foster an interior life of prayer so as not to fall into the trap of functionalism in the priesthood.

You outline coping mechanisms, or as you say, "a plan of living a happy, healthy and holy priesthood." Could you talk about this plan?

First and foremost, one's spiritual life has to be a priority, so daily Mass and Liturgy of the Hours - prayers priests say five times a day - are important. We pray because as Pope John Paul II said, "As we do the work of the Lord, we don't forget the Lord of the work.' Secondarily, one must foster healthy holy relationships with brother priests, with friends and family. ... And also, one must pay attention to one's physical life. That's part of finding balance in life - a healthy diet, good sleep, some exercise. Lastly, there's ongoing formation, which is part of the call to keep ourselves and our 'skills' sharp. Study really fosters one's soul, one's intellect."

What do you mean when you say that a seminarian "lacking a deep desire for marriage and children needs to rethink his vocation?" Couldn't such a desire lead to frustration and problems with retention?

A priest truly is a spiritual father to the people of God. And a priest truly is wedded to the church, so the deepest need of a man to be father and spouse in the deepest sense are met by faithfully fulfilling one's life as a priest. The greatest joy of the priest is what joy we find in being spiritual fathers, of being present to families in their need, of feeding them, the joys of really entering into the hearts of people in their joys and sorrows. It is such a privileged position that we are invited into. It's a grave responsibility that we have to not violate the sanctuary of people's hearts. The vast majority of our priests have been faithful. It takes a man's man to become a priest today. It's not for the faint of heart.

Book endorsments

Hope in the Future

The article below, from today's New York Times, is about a beautiful new chapel being built at St. Anthony's High School on Long Island. Br. Gary Cregan, OSF, the principal at St. Anthony's, used to be the Assistant Principal at the High School in Raleigh were I taught. I could write at length about Brother Gary and the influence he has been on thousands of lives (including my own), and their discernment of vocations. While the article isn't directly about vocations, I think you will agree that a chapel like this, and a sense of the transcendent in our faith can only help students to contemplate God's will for their lives. (emphases and comments mine)

A Design to Set Thoughts Aloft

By VALERIE COTSALAS

New York Times
Published: March 9, 2008

BROTHER GARY CREGAN, a Franciscan friar and the principal of St. Anthony’s High School here, speaks plainly when discussing the modernist architecture of many area parochial schools and churches built in the mid-20th century.

“I have a general disgust for Catholic architecture since the 1950s,” he said recently. Dressed in a brown (BLACK) habit belted with rope, he becomes animated — even enthusiastic — as he discusses the high school’s plan to build a new, more traditional chapel.

The $3 million structure, designed by Baldassano Architecture, is inspired by a 12th-century Romanesque apse (the Fuentiduena Chapel) that is part of the Cloisters collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Upper Manhattan, according to Alex Badalamenti, one of the architects who worked on the school’s design.

That ancient apse, from Segovia, Spain, is a semicircular room with a half-dome ceiling and a central fresco.

The new school chapel, with a yellowish limestone veneer that does faintly resemble the coloring and style of the Cloisters apse, also adds a bell tower, and is meant to bring back an older tradition of worship, Brother Cregan said.

Many modernist churches, he added, are laid out horizontally. The school chapel that is being replaced, for example, is integrated into a side wing of the building with a classroom-style entry door, across the hall from a science lab. Its ceilings are eight feet high, and behind the pews there is a small niche with an electronic keyboard.

By contrast, the new building and its tower are rising from behind a glass corridor that connects the two wings of the school — classrooms on one side and the gym and auditorium on the other.

Brother Cregan and other Franciscans who “want to stress verticality,” he said, believe that the new chapel, with its soaring 30-foot ceilings, will teach teenagers that they are “worshiping God, not each other.” (AMEN!)

In church architecture, the return to traditionalism is a trend across the country, according to Duncan Stroik, a specialist in the design of Catholic churches.

Mr. Stroik is also a professor at the University of Notre Dame, in the school’s classical architecture and traditional cities program, one of the few of its kind.

For a high school, he said, the decision to go traditional is unusual. “It’s so interesting that the high school is fairly contemporary, but the chapel is consciously a separate building,” he said. “Even from the outside, you can tell that it’s something different.”

Mr. Stroik explained that many of his clients these days express the desire for a church that lures people, rather than one that simply provides a functional gathering place.

As he put it: “There’s this sense that in walking into a vertical space, whether it’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral or Grand Central station, on the one hand you are in awe of how grand it is, and how small you are. But also there’s a kind of feeling that you are lifted up, you are ennobled.”

In the case of the Huntington school’s new chapel, some ennobling accessories were acquired with the help of modern technology. Stepping gingerly through the chapel construction site, Mr. Cregan pointed out his bargain-price purchases on eBay, the Internet auction Web site. These included the confessionals and pews, a 110-year-old arched stained glass window and a 100-year-old statue of St. Anthony. (There is also a 14th century marble altar front with a traditional pelican design - you can see the altar front and more pictures of the chapel HERE)

He is proudest of the bell suspended from the top of the tower — another eBay find, for $4,000. A new one would have cost $20,000, according to John Petrocelli of the J. Petrocelli Construction Company, which is building the chapel.

The new chapel will seat 300, about twice the number accommodated by the current chapel. But for Brother Cregan and the school administration, bringing the chapel more in line with purist Franciscan traditions is the more pressing goal.

Many details of the design, including the unadorned archways and a wooden trussed ceiling in place of the more grandiose arched ceiling of stone or brick, have a Franciscan air, Mr. Stroik said. “There seems to be a Franciscan simplicity about it,” he added. “Looking at the exterior, there’s a simple stone facade, simple openings. The tower — it’s traditional, but not very ornate.”

There are 11 Catholic high schools on Long Island, according to the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Enrollment has been rising steadily by about 2 percent in the high schools over the last decade, Brother Cregan said, after a period in the late 1980s when several parochial schools in the area closed. St. Anthony’s is coeducational, with 2,400 students in Grades 9 through 12. Some students commute from as far east as Cutchogue and Water Mill, or from Queens to the west.

The school, which moved to its current campus in 1984 from Kings Park in Smithtown, is making other changes too. A field behind the school now holds a steel skeleton that will eventually be a $34 million 140,000-square-foot student activities center. The rendering, on a sign near the site, shows a glassy modern design.

Next fall, when the chapel is complete, students will take up the ancient activity of bell ringing for services, using a simple rope in the bell tower.

There might be some laughing from kids watching through the glass wall in the cafeteria next door. But that’s the idea, Brother Cregan said. “It’s in classic Franciscan fashion,” he explained, for the church to be “in the marketplace, not high on a hill.”

How Things Have Changed

Recently I had to read a book for our Permanent Diaconate formation that spoke to the idea of how "liberated" the Church had become post Vatican II, particularly in that Sisters had been freed from their enslavement as teachers in Catholic schools (not an exact quote, but that gets to the point of the author's message). How much better it is today that Priests, Sisters and laity are equals in "ministry" was the point of the text. Which gave me pause. Without the great number of vocations to religious teaching orders, what has happened to Catholic education? Here in the Diocese of Raleigh, where our Catholic schools are overwhelmingly staffed by lay teachers, the cost of tuition is out of reach for most. Elementary school tuition is around $4000 and the Diocesan High School is about $10,000 a year.

Long gone are the days when the likes of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Katherine Drexel founded schools to educate the children of immigrants, minorities, and the poor. Where has Catholic education ended up post Vatican II? The Diocese of Raleigh once had an exemplary history of Catholic schools founded by women's religious communities. St. Katherine Drexel supported schools in our Diocese and even visited them. Rural communities had schools where poor children received fine educations. Today many of those schools are closed, and a Catholic education is, for the most part, reserved to the wealthy. This is not to speak poorly of those who are blessed to send their children to these schools, or the schools themselves - they have to make ends meet and pay their teachers a competive wage with benefits. It is to comment on how things have changed - for the worse, due to the vocations "crisis" in many of our country's great religious teaching orders.

Thankfully there is good news. Some of the "teaching orders" that are very faithful to the Magisterium of the Church and continue to wear habits, among them the Nashville Dominicans and the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, are seeing an increase in the number of vocations to their communities. In turn they are sending out Sisters to more and more schools - DEO GRATIAS!

Great video from the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist: "Our Mission is to Teach"


‘Growing Up Catholic’ in mid-20th century: Nuns in habits provided great formation

By Kevin Cullen
3/7/2008
The Catholic Moment

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (The Catholic Moment) - Millions of middle-aged and older Catholics remember Sister Mary Margaret, their third-grade teacher. She told gory stories about the martyrs, lived and breathed The Baltimore Catechism, and made you hold your nose to the blackboard if you didn’t do your homework.

Fuel for some funny stories, yes. But noted Catholic scholar Robert Orsi says that Sister provided fervent religious formation and helped transform Catholics into one of the most educated, most successful segments of American society.

Teaching nuns in 1960 were “the most educated sisters in all Catholic history,” he said in a lecture at Purdue University Feb. 8. “They had been going to summer schools since the 1920s … The idea that these were ignorant women who knew nothing about the world was simply not the case.”

Orsi, who earned a doctorate from Yale, holds the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University. His talk, titled “Growing Up Catholic: A Case Study of Catholic Children in Mid-20th Century America,” drew a crowd of approximately 150. It was based on the research he did for a book on the social and cultural history of 20th-century Catholic childhoods, which will be published by Harvard University Press.

The lecture was sponsored by the Aquinas Education Foundation and the Religious Studies Program at Purdue.

Well prepared for the world

“My dad is Irish-Catholic, so it’s interesting to hear how he grew up,” said Michael O’Neill, a Purdue economics major from Indianapolis. “I grew up in Catholic schools, too. Our sisters said they would pray for us students.”

Orsi previously taught at Fordham, Indiana University and the Harvard Divinity School. He is past-president of the American Academy of Religion. The author of several books, he is an expert on Catholicism in the United States.

His research focused on Catholic children between 1925 and 1975. During that 50-year period, Catholics caught up with Protestants and Jews educationally, and by the 1970s they were more educated, and earning more, than either group, he said.

“These children were prepared for the world and did very well in it,” he said.

Catholic children, especially those taught in Catholic schools, tended to be disciplined and extremely well-versed in their faith, Orsi said. To them, supernatural things were real. Guardian angels were real. Souls in purgatory were really released. The saints depicted on religious cards shed real blood.

“Before World War II, if the crayon makers made colors just for Catholic children, they would come mostly in shades of red,” said Orsi, whose study involved interviewing adults across the country about their Catholic childhoods.

Solemn rites, deep theology

In addition to teaching academic subjects, school sisters wanted to ensure that the souls of their students were saved, he said. They made them memorize their catechisms. They stressed the sacraments, and expected them to understand complex theological concepts at an early age.

Because Catholic high schools were relatively rare, “the nuns and priests knew they had children until eighth grade,” Orsi said.

Catholic rites were solemn, and that intensified the imaginations of children. There was no such thing as a “children’s Mass.”

Some interview subjects admitted that they didn’t understand transubstantiation, and were terrified when they entered a confessional for the first time. They worried about the souls of unbaptized children in limbo, and cried when an adult told them that a beloved neighbor, who was not Catholic, could not enter heaven.

In many cases, the Church presented by adults “eluded their grasp,” he said. They were presented with “secrets and knowledge they were not ready for,” but that still prepared them for their adult roles.

Some kids tried to invent ingenious ways to “get around” Church prohibitions, especially those concerning fasting. All sorts of rumors and superstitions arose about Catholic sisters.

Still, Catholic children learned that evil was real and that the forces of grace offered protection and care, Orsi said. They saw themselves as embodied beings, and they often accepted heroic challenges. They knew that much was asked of them, both on earth and in heaven.

A priceless gift

Today, those long-ago children are adults. Often, they like to emphasize the distance they have traveled, intellectually and spiritually, since they memorized the questions and answers of their little catechisms.

Still, they received a priceless gift. Thanks to adults who taught them their faith, Orsi said, “the world made sense.”

The Catholic Church today is “very healthy,” he said, but few Catholic children are molded as they were when Sister Mary Margaret taught school.

“It was a very powerful formation,” Orsi said. “I can’t imagine it today … it was a striking way of engaging children’s minds and hearts.”

Fifth graders learn joy of answering God's call

From The Catholic Key, Newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY - When she was in high school before she became a nun, Sister Mary Helen nearly flunked English.
"Sister Mary John was my English teacher," she told a classroom filled with girls at the annual Fifth Grade Vocation Days.

Lori Wood Habiger/Key photo
Sister Mary Helen of the School Sisters of Christ the King works on planting a seed of vocation in the minds of fifth grade girls during Vocation Days at O'Hara High School.

"I did not listen to her when she taught," Sister Mary Helen admitted. "I kept watching her and asking, 'What makes Sister so happy?'"

Only years later after she joined the Lincoln, Neb.-based School Sisters of Christ the King did Sister Mary Helen understand that the source of her high school teacher's joy was the same as the source of her own joy today: Both women answered God's special call to consecrated life.

While she was in college and studying architecture, Sister Mary Helen said, "I met our community of sisters and I knew I had to move on that invitation from God."

Split into two days Feb. 28-29 at Archbishop O'Hara High School, hundreds of Catholic fifth-graders heard the message that God is calling from priests and sisters.

The annual vocation days are designed to plant a seed of vocation into the minds of the students, whether God is calling them to the priesthood, religious life, single life or marriage.

Whatever the call, Sister Mary Helen urged the girls who came to hear her to learn how to pray and to listen to God.

"He has a plan for you," Sister Mary Helen said. "He wants you to be part of the church right now. He wants to use your gifts and your talents."

Sister Mary Helen suggested a simple prayer, formulated by former Lincoln Bishop Glennon P. Flavin: "Dear Jesus, please tell me what you would like me to do with my life, and I will do it."

Father Joseph Totton, pastor of St. James Parish in St. Joseph, told a classroom of boys much the same thing.

He also found his audience pretty well versed in the life of a priest when hands shot up all over the room after he asked what priests do:

"They preach the word of God."

"They lead Masses."

"They pray."

"They pray for everybody," Father Totton quickly added. "They don't just pray for Catholics. They pray for everybody in their parishes."

Father Totton described his own joy at being able to offer Mass every day.

"The Mass gives us the opportunity to participate in Jesus' offering to his Father, and his offering is himself," he said. "At his ordination, a priest is configured in a particular way to Jesus. It is a gift given to him so that he might be of service to all in the church."

Father Totton also told of his joy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

"We ask for forgiveness from God, the almighty Father, and the priest is the conduit through which that forgiveness is given to us," Father Totton said.

"Serving God and answering God's call is cool," Father Totton said. "And he always gives us the help we need to do it."

The message, also delivered by Bishop Robert W. Finn in separate talks for girls and boys, apparently got through.

"God will call us to our vocation," said Hannah Gorman of St. Andrew School in Gladstone. "It is what you are going to do with your life."

Lindsay Cohen and Allison Stiens of St. Gregory School in Maryville said they learned that different orders of nuns wear different habits to identify themselves.

"First they become a novice, then when they become a full nun, they wear blue," said Lindsay of Sister Mary Helen's School Sisters of Christ the King.

"Some nuns wear different things," noted Allison. "Franciscans wear brown."

In his homily at the Mass which ended each day, Bishop Finn again stressed the importance of listening to God and answering his call, even if at first God's call isn't perfectly understood.

"When God calls us, we don't always understand every word, we don't always understand where that might lead in our lives," Bishop Finn said.

"It takes time," the bishop said. "And we should ask people along the way."

Bishop Finn recalled that when he was a boy, he asked a priest in confession if God was calling him to the priesthood.

"I asked, 'Father, how do you know if God is calling you?'" Bishop Finn said.

"He said, 'If you are doing all that thinking about it, then God is probably calling you. You need to listen along the way,'" the bishop said.

Bishop Finn said that priests and sisters and religious brothers all rejoice when others join them in doing the work God is calling them to do.

"It is so exciting for us to have other people join us," Bishop Finn said. "It is so exciting for the sisters to have a young lady say, 'I want to see what your life is all about. It seems like such a happy life.'

"When we have found something so important and so wonderful," Bishop Finn said, "this is something we want to share."

Lenten Meditation from the Sisters of Life

The following post is a Lenten Discernment Meditation from Sr. Mary Gabriel, SV, Vocations Director for the Sisters of Life:

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Know that you and all your loved ones are in the prayers of the Sisters of Life as we progress through this holy season!

-Lenten Discernment Meditation-
Lent came upon us early this year. Here we are entering March, already deep in the Holy Season. During Lent the Church calls us to fast. What is the purpose of fasting? Christian sacrifice is not about giving to God what He would not have without us but rather it is about receptivity. God does not need our coffee or our jelly donuts. The real purpose of fasting is to make room in our hearts for Him. In choosing not to take a cup of coffee or a donut we are saying to the Lord, I abstain from trying to fill my own desires and give you the empty space in my heart to fill as You desire. The season of Lent is a season of Love. The Lord is speaking to each of us when He says; “So I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” Hos 2:16

Deep in the heart of every woman is the desire to be loved for herself. The Lord places these desires in our hearts, and He intends them to be fulfilled. The trouble is that we often try to fulfill our desires by our own means. It is a great struggle to surrender control and allow the Lord to fill our hearts in the time and the way He has designed for us uniquely. Opening one’s heart to the possibility of a religious vocation can be a scary thing. We are afraid. Will the Lord really fill the desires of my heart? Will I lose my identity, the uniqueness of who I am? We fear letting go of what I want to do and how I want to do it. We fear the unknown. The answer to all these fears is Love, and love is a person - Jesus Christ. Cardinal O’Connor would encourage “Do not be afraid to put yourself into the hands of the God who created you.” The Lord is faithful, tender, and gentle. Mother Teresa would often tell her Sisters: “Go into the Chapel, sit before the Tabernacle and say ‘Here I am Jesus, love me.’” It is in sitting in front of Him and allowing Him to love you that you will come to know and surrender to His loving plan for you.

Every definitive vocation, whether it be to marriage or religious life, is fundamentally a call to spousal love. The question each of us must ask, especially in a time of vocational discernment, is: Lord, You have created my heart to give and receive love, how are you calling me to love with my entire life?

Lent is a precious time to re-orient ourselves to the serious and joyous reality that Jesus Christ has redeemed us and set us free through His sacrificial, spousal love. We belong to Him. Lent allows us time to grow in our response to His love and to fan the fire of love in our hearts for Jesus - to love Him ardently that we might love others as ourselves.

As Sisters of Life, through the faithful living of our vows, we seek to surrender daily to the Lord trusting that our love will be made fruitful in Him. Through the power of consecration, grace is pour into the people hearts around the world, that others too may say YES to the gift of life and self-giving of love.

This Lent thousands of women will be shocked to learn that they are pregnant, many others will learn they cannot conceive a child. Married couples will face new threats to the bond of their marriage. Families will watch as loved ones struggle with a long-term and debilitating illness. Each of these situations is a call to love. Each requires the grace of heroic love, to accept the Lord’s promise of life within particular circumstances.

You too, at this point in your life, during this holy Lenten season, can become instruments of grace for others. Every little fast, every yes to heroic love, every prayer from the heart, every emptying of yourself will fan into greater flame the fire in your heart, transform you to receive the fullness of Love in the beating Heart of Jesus, and will make more room in the world for His grace to be received.

Do not be afraid to cast down your idols this Lent to make room for the Living God.

Fr. Corapi's Personal Testimony

If you've never seen Fr. Corapi's "Personal Testimony" it is well worth watching. This is a condensed 10 minute version. Long story short he went from a Los Angeles millionaire, to drug addicted street person, to a Catholic Priest. Think you're not worthy enough to be a priest? What man is? But after hearing Fr. Corapi's story, odds are you won't feel so unworthy.

I had the pleasure of seeing Fr. Corapi years ago and getting to talk to him briefly. What an incredibly gifted speaker. His talks for seminarians and priests are outstanding, you can order them on CD at the links below:

Fr. John Corapi's "Message to Seminarians"

Fr. John Corapi's "The Priesthood: Sacrifice, Service, Crucifixion"

Fr. John Corapi's "Priests and Seminarians Retreat"

By the way, for those who don't know me personally, despite the pictures, the beard is unfortunately gone.

Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine, Benedictine Monks

Hat tip to Vocation Station

Time to VOTE!!!

Roman Catholic Vocations has been nominated for 5 Catholic Blog Awards:

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Best Individual Catholic Blog

Best New Catholic Blog

Best Overall Catholic Blog

Most Informative and Insightful Catholic Blog

Most Spiritual Blog

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Voting is open until Monday, March 17th, but why wait? Please consider heading on over there and casting your votes. Votes in any or all of the above categories would be greatly appreciated. Even if you don't vote for this blog (please do), take the time to vote for many of the great Catholic blogs out there in blogosphere.

FSSP Diaconate Ordinations

If you are interested in seeing some beautiful and extensive ordination photos, go HERE and scroll down to see a slideshow of the recent Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter Diaconate ordinations. It was great to see Fr. Ferguson, FSSP in the pictures (subdeacon). Fr. Ferguson assisted at the Cathedral in Raleigh for the Solemn High Mass this past January.

Hat tip to New Liturgical Movement

Another PCED response about seminarians and, this time, Latin requirements

A post from Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog:


"You might recall that I posted a letter sent by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED) to a questioner asking about the rights of seminarians to be trained in the use of the 1962 Missale Romanum as well as, presumably, the Rituale Romanum.

I just received a copy of another letter from the same PCED to someone making inquiries.

The response of the PCED Secretary, Msgr. Camille Perl, repeats what we knew from the other letter, namely, that seminarians have the right to be trained to use the older form and that seminaries should provide that training.

Then there is a third response:

3. There is no plan to implement a generalized Latin test for seminarians and priests who wish to celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, but it is expected that those who celebrate should have a sufficient mastery of Latin to be bale to read, pronounce correctly and understand the sacred texts which they must recite or sing.

We expect that these matters will soon be treated in an instruction on the application of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

I like the use of the word "soon" in relation to the "instruction on the application" of Summorum Pontificum.

So, here we get a little direction about the concept behind idoneus. The PCED says there will not be a test for Latin. However, that does not mean there can’t be tests. (That would, of course, open up the whole "double standard" issue again.) The PCED speaks of "sufficient mastery" of a) reading, pronouncing, and c) understanding texts. There is no indication of what "sufficient mastery" is, but it is a start. I think "to read" and "pronounce correctly" are pretty much the same thing, unless "to read" and "understand" are the same. Either way, the letter does indicate that whatever the priest reads aloud must be pronounced properly.

However, I can usually tell when the person reading Latin actually grasps what he is reading aloud… or not. For example, I know a pastor of a large parish known for its Masses in Latin who clearly can pronounce Latin words. However, he sings texts in such a way that it is clear he really doesn’t hear what the texts mean while he sings them. I grant that texts can be read in different ways, to stress now one thing, now another. But, when a guy doesn’t have a clue, you can tell. And then there are those who use speed to give the impression of expertise. But I digress…

There is always going to be a connection between the sound and the meaning.

In any event, this letter of the PCED is another indication that we will soon have more direction."

Vocation inquiries increased 30 percent in 2007, survey finds

I've been out of the loop for little while. Bishop Burbidge, Fr. Shlesinger and I were at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary last week, and I had diaconate formation this past weekend. This VISION Vocation Guide came out last week, but I didn't have time to post on it. I will try to get the Guide itself up here for resources sake.

Catholic News Agency STAFF, Feb 29, 2008 (CNA).- A new survey has revealed that Catholic religious communities in the United States have increased the number of individuals they have in initial formation by 30 percent. Furthermore, 62 percent of communities participating in the survey reported an increase in vocation inquiries last year.

The figures come from the VocationMatch.com Second Annual Survey on Trends in Religious Vocation. The survey was sponsored by VISION Vocation Guide and published by TrueQuest Communications of Chicago on behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference.

The results come from surveys of 1096 discerners, of whom 320 responded, and 476 vocation directors, of whom 225 responded. Researchers also examined and compared, inquirer profiles, using 3,422 profiles from late 2007 to mid-2008 and 5,591 profiles from late 2006 to mid-2007.

The majority of individuals considering religious life are under thirty. One in five respondents plan to enter a religious community in the next year, while another 64 percent are “seriously considering it.”

About 73 percent of respondents considered “essential” or “very important” both praying in community and devotional prayer. Living a life of faithfulness to the Church and her teachings was ranked as “very important” or “essential” by 90 percent of those in discernment.

Vocation directors for both women and men commented on an increased interest among inquirers in wearing a habit or traditional religious garb.

Personal contact with a religious priest, sister, or brother was considered “essential” or “very important” in obtaining vocation information by 82 percent of respondents. Communities’ websites were considered “important” or “very important” sources of vocation information by 70 percent of respondents. Using prayer as a discernment tool was ranked as “essential” or “very important” by 97 percent of respondents.

Inquirers believed the “discipline of prayer” would be the most difficult part of religious life, followed by a vow of celibacy and a life of service. Discerners ranked “living with people who are not my age” their least important concern.

Respondents noted that they were most surprised by the “diversity of communities and spiritualities,” and also found “great joy” among religious men and women. Some were most surprised that they were considering religious life at all. “A year ago I would have laughed if someone had suggested that I enter into religious life," one young man said.

Patrice Tuohy, executive editor of VISION Vocation Guide and VocationMatch.com, commented on the survey results, saying, "Religious vocation as a life choice has been off the radar screen for too long. What this crop of discerners is finding is that the option of life as a brother, sister, or priest may be the one that satisfies their heart's desire above all else."

Vocations and Catholic Schools

From Fr. Kyle Schnipple, Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati:

During Catholic Schools Week, I was looking over our files on how many of our seminarians are graduates of Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese. The number surprised me, as I found only nine of 28 of our currents seminarians had done so. I expected a higher number, especially considering we have one of the largest Catholic school systems in the country. Plus, I remember stories of huge numbers of grads from the schools entering the seminary each year, between ten and fifteen every year from Elder High School, alone. Yet now, we have one Elder alumnus in formation. (For the sake of completeness, there is one graduate from each of the following in formation: Alter, Badin, Carroll, Elder, Fenwick, Moeller, LaSalle, Springfield Central Catholic and Summit Country Day.)

To an extent, I can understand the drop off, for I taught in the system the first two years after I was ordained, and I know the pressures first hand that are put on the administrators and teachers by not only the state regulations, but also by the alumni, parents, and even the students. But I still wonder if we might be missing some aspect of education.

I fully admit that when I was teaching, my primary goal was to instruct my students in the ways of the New Testament and the person of Jesus Christ. Yet, there is a further dimension to the process that I missed then, and am only now coming to realize: education, especially in the Catholic sense, is not just about teaching the faith; it is about helping the parents to form their children as disciples of Christ. This is the key, in my understanding, to not only an increase in the number of seminarians, but also the revitalization of the Catholic Schools. It is not enough to teach each student, because the public schools can do that. Rather, each student needs to come to the realization that there is some special path that God is leading him or her down, a path that leads to a unique spot in this world, in the Church, which only this one particular student can do: the mission, (the vocation, in a broader sense) that this student has been given by God to enrich the world. Not a small task, by any means!

Accomplishing this new movement, though, can be done through some easy steps, I believe, and it begins with parental involvement, as they are the ‘first teachers of their children in the way of faith.’ Their witness of discipleship helps to shape their children as disciples. The witness of those who have chosen radical discipleship as a way of life also gives a favorable impression to the next generation. The current class of seminarians are excellent speakers and witnesses of how following Christ as a disciple can lead to a tremendous and wonderful thing. In addition to bringing seminarians to the schools, bring the schools to the seminary or visit convents that in your area. The witness of the aged members of the communities who have served as a religious for 70 years inspires me to want to give even more in my own journey as a disciple.

But even with the witness of those who have given all to following Christ, the next generation will not be able to follow Him if they first do not know Him. Both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the newer US Catholic Adult Catechism give the basis of the faith, and lead the reader into a deeper relationship with Christ. Both of these wonderful resources are dripping with Scripture citations, highlighting the need to know and read Scripture, for ‘ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,’ as St. Jerome so wonderfully said.

Finally, a perpetual challenge is to make the connections for the students through the curriculum, especially highlighting how the Church led so many innovations and discoveries throughout history. John Henry Newman stated, in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, that to be a student of history was to cease being Protestant. His study of history led him from atheism through Anglicanism to the fullness of the Church in Catholicism.

Does the faith highlight and inform everything that happens in our schools? If so, we will be turning out disciples ready to serve Christ in radical ways.