Dr. Arthur Kirk, Jr., Mrs. Gail Whiting, and Mr. Paul Whiting, 2010 Recipients of the St. Leo Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies Eternal Light Award

Oh, oh you are probably saying to yourself reading the above caption. Yet another, third priest has died! Not so. Last Wednesday night I was honored to participate in the latest Eternal Light Award Dinner sponsored by the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies located at St. Leo University. The center which has now been in existence for longer than a decade was originally the brainchild of a Jewish Rabbi, James A. Rudin, for many years deeply involved in the intricacies of interreligious dialogue. He approached me to inquire if I thought that St. Leo (“College” then, but on the cusp of becoming a “University”) would be a good home for a deep Southern center for extending the dialogue between Jews and Catholics. I told him that the future of St. Leo was not all that certain at that moment but that I felt that the new University President, Dr. Arthur Kirk, Jr. would be receptive. Rabbi Rudin had been referred to me by Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore who has no equal in American Catholic history to date for his engagement in Jewish-Catholic relations. Rabbi Rudin, often a colleague of Cardinal Keeler’s in those dicey moments of the early dialogue (the Auschwitz convent, Vatican recognition of Israel, etc.) had developed a reputation with Bishop John Nevins, Bishop Emeritus of Venice to our south, who had begun an annual dinner of Jews and Catholics in his diocese.

Over the years, the Center has grown but Jewish-Catholic understanding in this area has grown by leaps and bounds. Going out on a limb somewhat, I would say that my closest non-Catholic minister friend in this area is Rabbi Jacob Lusky and his wife JoAnn who have made me welcome in their synagogue, their home for Passover, and their family life. His synagogue is hundreds of feet from my Cathedral and he was present for my ordination, on a Friday and almost stretching into his own sacred time. Jacob has educated me to the intense feelings which our Jewish brothers and sisters feel when they feel slighted or worse by people who they identify as Catholics. And I have shared with Jacob and his congregants my uneasiness that they of all people should be more with us as we decry abortion-on-request in the United States and attempt, like they, an increasingly expensive private, religious school system. At the personal and ministerial level, I have come to a deeper understand and love of my Jewish sisters and brothers through my meetings and dialogues with religious leaders in this area. But it is not always easy when dealing with the Jewish faith to calculate and understand the differences in their three distinct representations. They probably find it significantly easier to deal with one Catholic bishop than I do on occasion with reformed, conservative and orthodox. I have learned not to be daunted by the challenges of the dialogue but to embrace them.

On Wednesday night, the Center gave their “Eternal Light” award to two parishioners of Christ the King parish in Tampa and to Doctor Kirk. Paul and Gail Whiting give much back to the community in which they live and Gail was one of the first Catholic directors on the Board of the Center when it began, at my “ask.” Paul, when he had retired from his very successful business life came to see me to ask what he might do to help me and I recommended that a new initiative seeking grounding in Tampa which I had a hand in establishing in Pinellas could use his wisdom and insight. He remains today as the first and only Chairman of the Board of Academy Prep in Tampa which takes in at-risk African-American children and works educational wonders with them. Whether it is their work in their parish, their community, or the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, this couple allows the light of their faith to illuminate the faith, fate and hope of others.

The same can be said of Dr. Kirk who made a home for the center at St. Leo, now on firmer ground under his leadership as an educational institution of higher learning. Commitment counts and Art Kirk has remained committed to this interreligious center for dialogue and greater understanding. Dr. Kirk and Deacon William Dietweg noted that this year’s awards were being given on the exact 45th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s incredible document entitled Nostra Aetate which moved our Church to recognize the fundamental reality that all religions which lead to God have a role and place to play in the salvation story.

Congratulations Gail, Paul and Art and to you, Rabbi Rudin and to those who participate in this worthy endeavor. May eternal light always shine upon you.

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I seem to be spending a lot of time in the seminary these days. Week before last I attended the Board of Trustee Meetings at both seminaries and this past week-end, I was invited back to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist  and install some of the seminary community officially as lectors and acolytes. There were also candidates for the permanent diaconate of the Diocese of Palm Beach included in the large number to receive these ministries. Before the changes brought about in the simplifications which followed the Second Vatican Council there used to be eight steps leading to ordination of priests:

1. TONSURE – When a young man had made his first commitment to being ordained and had chosen a diocese or religious order for which he would be ordained, he was “tonsured.’ This involved the bishop coming and presiding at a ceremony and each candidate would come forward and be “tonsured” which meant that the bishop cut a lock of his hair off from the top of his head. The tonsuring bishop wore gloves at ceremonies then and there were all kinds of stories about him snipping the finger tips of his gloves while looking for a thinning lock of hair. The ceremony itself was a symbol that the candidate for priesthood was willing to sacrifice worldly affectations and esteem. Classic pictures of monks and friars like St. Francis of Assisi show the tonsure or shaved spot on the top of one’s head. God Himself took care of my tonsure!

2. PORTER – At this preparatory step, the bishop handed the candidate for ordination the keys to the Church and the latter went out and locked and unlocked the doors, an indication that some day soon, the candidate would be responsible for the safe-keeping of the sacred as well as safeguarding entry into sacred space.

First theology seminarian Bradley Reed receives the Gospel Book and is installed in the Ministry of Lector.

3. LECTOR – In this step the candidate would be given the Lectionary as a symbol that they could now proclaim the first reading at Mass (there was generally no second reading at that time or better put, the second reading was the Gospel which then and now can only be proclaimed by a deacon or priest or bishop). This “minor order” survived the changes.

Second theology seminarian Brian Fabiszewski receives the chalice and is installed in the Ministry of Acolyte.

4. ACOLYTE – In this step one was allowed to touch the sacred objects used at Mass such as the chalice, ciborium in which the consecrated hosts were contained, etc. One could also wash the sacred cloths used to purify the sacred vessels after Mass and the sacred vessels themselves. Much more reverence was given in those days to those items which were used in the consecration of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This minor order remained but sacristans and others could touch and wash the linens, clean the vessels, etc. And as we know, boys and girls were allowed to serve at Mass. This minor order remains and those invested with it are allowed to distribute the Eucharist at Holy Communion time by virtue of their “order” as an acolyte.

5. EXORCIST – This was the fourth and last of what were called the “minor orders” leading to the major orders leading to the priesthood and in my day this was a symbolic office, not to be exercised (spelled differently please note).

6. SUBDEACON – The preceding five steps were simply ceremonies of conferral of minor orders but the subdiaconate was an actual ordination ceremony, the first of three possible ordinations; subdiaconate, diaconate. and priesthood. The subdeacon was ordained in a ceremony and it was his lot in life at Mass to hold the sacred paten on which the Body of Christ would rest from the Our Father to Communion. He wore what was called a tunic which looked an awful lot like the dalmatic which was worn by the next order.

7. DIACONATE – All the aforementioned except the ministries of lector and acolyte  were eliminated and the diaconate became the first of three surviving ordination ceremonies. (Liturgical sharpies are thinking the bishop has made a glaring mistake! With the reforms bishops were no longer considered consecrated but rather ordained to the episcopal office which explains why I deliberately did not include episcopal ordination in #6 above). The deacon was ordained by the imposition of hands but chrism was not used and still is not used. The deacon’s ministry in the transitional and restored rite at Mass is to proclaim the Gospel, minister the cup at communion, lead the penitential intercessions, invite to share the sign of peace, and dismiss. Additionally a deacon is an ordinary minister of baptism, may witness marriages, and may preach the word plus all manner of other responsibilities.

8. PRIESTHOOD – This one is a no-brainer

9. EPISCOPACY   – This one is also no brainer.

Anyway, yesterday at St. Vincent de Paul I instituted   future priests as lectors and   as acolytes. It was a privilege and since a number of those instituted are our own men, it was a double source of joy.

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Curtis Carro, Anthony Ustick, Bradley Reed, and Chuck Dornquast (all first theologians) after their installation into the Order of Lector.

Kyle Smith, Jonathan Emery, Brian Fabiszewski - the Ordination Class of 2014 minus Bill Santhouse. The Assistant Master of Ceremonies for this occasion was Victor Amorose who will be ordained a deacon next Spring, priest in 2012 and he is on the far right.

In all my sixty-nine years, I would  never have guessed that I would be leading prayer in a Cathedral Church, anywhere, in the presence of the human remains of a great saint but today that was indeed the case. My diocesan family knows that for twenty-six hours beginning last night at 7 p.m. we had the incredible privilege of having the relics of Saint John Bosco in our midst. The local media, and particularly the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES in articles written by Waveney Ann Moore (all linked on the diocesan web site’s relic visit page) have been most generous in providing coverage of this historic moment. For those of you reading this and not living in our five counties, in preparation for the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian order of religious women, brothers, priests and lay cooperators, a casket containing a wax image of the famous saint of the youth and a major portion of the bone structure of his arm is making the rounds of Salesian places throughout the world. Last night and today are our turn because we have been blessed to have the community here in the diocese for a long, long time (Mary, Help of Christians, St. Joseph’s Tampa, Villa Madonna, St. Petersburg Catholic High School and until a few years ago at Christ the King).

About seven hundred people filled the Cathedral last night for the Prayer Service of Welcome, a similar number this morning for Mass in the presence of the relics, and then about 2700 sixth through twelth graders this afternoon who spent the day at St. Petersburg Catholic, had lunch and then processed to the Cathedral to see the relics and pray with me. Throughout the night the Cathedral was open and there was a line last night until eleven and always about thirty praying at a time. Incredible witness to a powerful presence even in our own lifetime. I can not say enough good things about the wonderful cooperation received from the Knights of Columbus who have stood guard, the City of St. Petersburg and its police department [motorcycles led the procession of the youth] and the faculty, students and staff of St. Petersburg Catholic High School.

Relics not unlike indulgences have slipped from our modern Catholic parlance since the Second Vatican Council so I was amazed at both the interest in and the effect of this saint on those who have come to pray and witness. It is an example of the power of “popular piety” which intuits important things which can not always be clearly explained. Going back to early Christian times when believers went to the catecombs not so much for safety but to be in the decomposed presence of their ancestors and other saintly people, a relic is a treasured momento of some person of the past who has been declared officially by the Church to be a saint. Catholic altars usually always contained an “altar stone” which itself was the home of a first class relic of a saint. ["First Class Relic" is a piece of bone or a hair of a canonized saint; "Second Class Relic" is something which the saint most likely wore; etc.] Today, few altars contain either stones or relics. Today relics are usually found only in a glass container in some Churches and even some homes, accompanied by proper papers attesting to their authenticity.

Wikipedia and the Salesian website all have wonderful narratives of the life of this great saint and his total dedication to the education of youth and particularly poor youth, of which he was once one.

Faith-filled Catholics and the inquiring minds of our children turned out in great number today to touch the glass casket, pray at the site of the relic and recall the incredible presence today, one hundred and twenty-five years or so after his death. His legacy which has long outlived him is the similar dedication of his sisters, brothers and priests. If you are reading this and I do not yet have some pictures of the day’s events, come back and look. I will put them up as soon as they are available to me.

Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us!

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

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

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

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

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

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Several things have happened in the last few days which cause me to pause and reflect on my role as bishop. I really think that the definition of what a bishop is expected to be is evolving in the Church though not theologically or canonically. We know that when we were ordained to this ministry of service, we were told that our three principal tasks were to teach, govern and sanctify. Those three words are right there in the episcopal ordination rite itself. However, the office has evolved to include a lot of things which are not directly related to those three munera. The bishop also has to pastor people, albeit in a sometimes slightly different way than say your pastors and priests “pastor” you in your parishes.

I have a special obligation to my brother priests which transcends governance and acquires the characteristics of a familial relationship. Some say the bishop is to be a “father” to his priests and some would say, wrong person in the family food chain, the bishop should be a “brother” to his priests. In the last decade as a result of the sexual misconduct scandals, the bishop’s relationship with his clergy has become in some instances strained. There is hardly room in the typical family definition of either father or brother for a prosecutorial role, yet that is how some priests view their bishop. One phone call can change their lives, whether they are innocent or guilty. I don’t think bishops in the past were ever truly “fathers” to their priests unless what I would call (forgive me, men) the Irish notion of father was operative in the Church. They were administrators, often remote, sometimes threatening in their very character, neither frightfully loving or expressive of their gratitude. Often isolated and insulated by the “trappings” of the office, one did not approach the bishop except for the most serious of reasons. Better to ask forgiveness than permission was often the norm for dealing with one’s bishop. The Second Vatican Council attempted to “humanize the office”, taking away a lot of the trappings and suggesting a more servant oriented definition of bishop.

Today’s bishop, even with the newer paradigm, probably needs to ignore the comparisons of father/brother and just be present to his priests, in moments of happiness and sadness. I had some time to think about all of this yesterday as I was traveling to and from the funeral Mass for John Schneider, the 92 year old father of our Father Bob Schneider, pastor of Espiritu Santo. It was not easy for me to get to Salina, Kansas and Father Bob and his family would probably easily have forgiven me for not being there (I had missed his mother’s funeral several years ago at Christmas time). But I try whenever possible to be with my priests when they lose a parent. I am successful honestly about half of the time and the parental deaths of our Polish, African and Indian priests are very hard to attend, primarily because of the custom of immediate burials (so quick that if the priest son is not present at the time of death, he too misses the funeral) and, of course, the distance, time and expense. I hate to miss them nonetheless and often feel a sense of guilt for a while when I know it was impossible. There is no time when a priest needs the support of his bishop more than the death of someone dear to him. Yesterday, it was particularly heart warming to see the priests of the Salina diocese gather in great number to support Father Bob who prior to coming to the diocese of St. Petersburg had been ordained for and served in his home diocese. The current and retired local bishops were present and about twenty priests and several hundred friends of the family. I felt good coming back last night, feeling that being there was as important for me as for Father Schneider.

In fourteen years, I have had the privilege of saying the funeral Mass for almost all of our deceased priests, if they lived in the area. I shall not soon forget that during even the height of my incapacity last year I was unable to attend the Mass for our beloved Father Stephen Dambrauskas. I still think of that, long after everyone else probably has forgotten it. I feel a strong sense of going to the cemetery after the funeral Mass for our priests even though it is not always the custom for a local bishop to do that. I guess I would want my successor(s) to be with me to my grave and so many of our older men have no natural family, only myself and their brother priests. Whatever we are called, there is a strong element of family among us.

Driving back to the Wichita Airport, I called my office and learned that a Marine son of one of our long-time employees in Finance, Tracy Kelly of Christ the King parish in Tampa had been shot and very seriously wounded in Afghanistan late last week. Alex is going to live but rehabilitation will be long and begins today as he is flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Most of Tracy’s children are serving in the armed forces of the United States and each time they are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan she has asked me for prayers for their safety. Learning that Alex was shot was like a blow in the stomach to me. How often his Mom had asked for my prayers when Richard (“Ricky”) left for an Army deployment or Katherine (“Katie”) left for the Navy. But I remember especially Tracy asking for prayers for Alex, the Marine, headed back, this time to Afghanistan. Yesterday when I talked to Tracy, she was a strong mom but one could tell she was struggling. I promised more prayers for Alex and she said a remarkable thing: “Alex asks for prayers for his buddies in his company he left behind. He is alive and grateful for it. He is most worried about his buddies.” Even bishops learn a lot from the lived experience of other people.

Maybe I had too much time on the two plane rides, but each year I learn more and more about what the role of the bishop is in the family of Christ’s church. Perhaps in six years, God willing, at the time of retirement, I will have finally learned what being a good bishop really involves.

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In Rome, they are in the first week of a “Synod on Africa” Approximately 150 bishops from the African continent are gathered in the Synod Hall inside the Vatican for twice a day meetings. Joining them are bishops, some religious heads of orders and a few lay people. The “Synod” is an outgrowth of the desire of the fathers at the Second Vatican Council for greater collaboration between the world’s bishops and the Holy Father so once every three years an ordinary meeting is called and then as needed the Pope calls the bishops of a continent or region together. The latter is happening now. The Holy Father attends most of the General or Ordinary Sessions at which each participant is allowed to make a five minute intervention (aka “speech”). It takes the first two weeks to complete the 170 or so speeches which can be quite tedious on the attendees. Then they break down into small groups and try to make final recommendations to be voted on by the assembly and then given to the Holy Father for his final review. After about a year, the Pope issues a document on the Synod’s work.

There are no press or media allowed in the Synod Hall at any time and an occasional press briefing is held where one or more of the Synod fathers summarize the nature of the discussions to date. The working press assigned to the “Vatican beat” hate this but have learned how to live with it by developing sources within the hall who tend to share any “fireworks” that may happen. The Church has safely guarded over the centuries the role of the Pope as universal pastor of all the Churches so the synod process underscores that decisions for the good of the whole Church are solely in his hands. Many Catholics, particularly living in the world’s democracies have a hard time with this but for myself, I think it has served the Gospel far better than any other governance model. No Holy Father that I have ever known has been on a “power trip” and neither should any bishop. I have attempted to be as collaborative and collegial as I can, running almost everything through countless committees and I will continue to do that until I die or hand over the diocese to my successor. But I am also conscious of my duty to uphold the faith and traditions of our Church and to be loyal to Peter’s successor. It has been rare that I have had to swallow hard but there may been some of those moments but I only have a feel for what happens here and not how this might affect Kenya or Korea and Samoa. That is the gift of the Holy Father and the Spirit which guides him.

The Church in Africa has striven mightily to get the western world to accept that there are cultural realities which she faces that are unique to most of the continent. So for the next three weeks that will make their case to “Peter” and those who collaborate with him. But there will be no deliberative vote on Church polity at the end. They will defer to Peter and I hope you know by now how that is a good thing.

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Pope Benedict XVI last week lifted the excommunications of four men who were ordained bishops by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre . To help you understand this action I need to share some recent Church history with you in as simple a manner as possible even though the issues are quite complicated. Archbishop Lefebvre, French by birth and at one time a papal nuncio in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See, began a movement in the Church in the early 1970′s which ultimately rejected not only the Second Vatican Council (and particularly its decrees on the Divine Liturgy, Ecumenism, the role of the laity in the Church) but also challenged the validity of all Popes since 1965 (therefore Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II.) The late Archbishop first founded a society of priests (The Society of St. Pius X) whose major mission seemingly has been to celebrate the Latin Mass according to the Tridentine Rite (what we did prior to the implementation of the Council’s decree on the Liturgy). For a number of years he threatened to ordain bishops for what eventually became a schismatic Church (cut off from the Church of Rome) and was told by two Popes that if he did it, he and they would automatically incur the penalty of excommunication. He did it anyway in 1988. They were excommunicated.

Pope John Paul II tried a number of initiatives to get the four schismatic bishops and their followers back into union with the Church and all such efforts failed. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger was often the “point person” in these efforts. To be accepted back into the Church, the four bishops and their followers would have to do the following:

1,  Accept the Second Vatican Council as a legitimate exercise of the magisterial office or infallible teaching authority of the Church and a Council free of error and heresy (their accusation).

2. Recognize the successor to the See of St. Peter as a legitimate,

3. Acknowledge the truth of all the Council documents, including those on ecumenism and inter-religious relations (Catholic-Jewish relations).

4. Accept the  ”New Order” for the celebration of Mass and the other sacraments of Pope Paul VI to be legitimate even while they could continue to have permission to celebrate the sacraments and the liturgy in Latin.

Generally, up to this moment, the response of this group  to any attempt at outreach can be fairly characterized as telling the Holy See “we’re not interested.” With concessions offered to them over the years which caused many bishops and others in the Church to scratch their heads, the leadership strategy of thre Society of St. Pius X has been almost singularly focused on telling the Pope “thanks, but no thanks.”

Despite all this, Pope Benedict this week lifted the excommunications in the hope that it might allow dialogue at yet another level which would result in a return to the Church of Rome of these four schismatic bishops and their followers. The Holy Father said it was an exercise of his “paternal (or fatherly) ministry” over the Churches.

One of the four bishops it was learned, Bishop Richard Williamson, had recently appeared on television responded saying that the Nazi Holocaust never really happened, or “perhaps only 200,000 to 300,000″ Jews were killed and none in a gas chamber. That statement is both incredible and despicable and horribly anti-Semitic. Our Jewish friends were once again hurt by words spoken by someone whom they see as a Roman Catholic Bishop to whom the Pope is reaching out for reunion.  Pope Benedict earlier in his pontificate seemed to have changed the words of the Good Friday intercessionary prayer for the Jewish people to language more amenable to the Society of St. Pius X in order to get them back into the fold and that action hurt the Jewish community as well. In Bishop Williamson’s latest tirade they have a right to be both hurt and angry. For Jews, the holocaust remains a real and, God forbid,  even possible recurring crime against humanity. Pope Benedict, his principal collaborator in Catholic/Jewish relations, Cardinal Walter Kasper and practically every bishop in Europe and the Americas has repudiated the statement of Bishop Williamson this week and so do I. Additionally, on behalf of the Catholic people of the five counties of this diocese, I apologize for the harm and hurt these words have caused. I take no comfort in the fact that a seeming bishop who has just been handed an opportunity for reunion uses the occasion to vent anti-Semitic statements. An occasion of unusual grace offered has been received with ingratitude and ignorance. Shame on him!

Jewish-Catholic dialogue, in my opinion, has advanced further and faster than our bi-lateral discussions with other faiths and religions. I believe it is precisely because we share a common religious heritage up to the time of Christ. It is not always easy to maintain these dialogues and from time to time events occur which throw mutual understanding and tolerance into a proverbial tailspin. But we generally find our balance and continue our conversations. I hope that the convergence of an effort at ending a schism in our Church with a group will not be an occasion to step backward. I genuinely love and respect my Jewish friends, admire them for their tenacity, and want them to love and forgive us. By now it should be clear that Bishop Richard Williamson does not speak for the Church, for me, or for the people of this diocese. For much fuller and accurate background on this matter and the people involved, you might wish to check WIKIPEDIA under “Society of St. Pius X.”

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Sunday the Church will celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul worldwide  which will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Blessed Pope John XXIII announcing his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council, the first in more than one hundred years. Giving it the name, Second Vatican Council, good Pope John called all of the bishops from around the world to meet in Rome four years after his announcement. The announcement took place at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-walls in Rome on January 25th.

In calling the Council, the Holy Father announced that it was time to open the windows of the Church and allow some fresh new wind to blow through her. I was in the seminary at the time and the announcement of the convening of the Council which was relayed to us by the Rector was stunning news. What was the purpose? What changes might be occasioned? Who else would be invited? What would be the scope of the Council’s agenda/ Who would win the inevitable battle between the conservatives and the progressives in the Church? Would we continue to study philosophy and theology in Latin? Would we continue to pray only in Latin? Our professors made it correctly clear that there would likely be no changes in doctrine but there might be many in discipline: fish on Friday, strict Eucharistic fast and Friday abstinence, relationships with other Christian churches and perhaps a  new openness to Scriptural interpretation which up to that time had mostly been a freedom allowed only to non-Catholic biblical scholars.

There are many interpretations of the effects of the Council on the life of the Church, some positive and some negative. My first cousin is visiting me today and she said, “I’ve got a bone to pick with the Council as the Church stopped teaching the catechism and substituted a ‘God is love’ theory that allowed almost anything to go. The children since the Council do not understand the faith.” That is one person’s idea but there is some scintilla of truth to be found in it. From a standpoint of the priests, I do not know a single one who was ordained prior to the Council who would ever want to go back to the ministry they once knew. Some ordained since the Council might but they did not experience what the Church was like in the late ’50′s and early ’60′s. For many younger Catholics the Second Vatican Council is as foreign as the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council was to us in the ’50′s. The active “shelf life” of most of the later Councils which did not attack and define heresies has been short.

It is my personal feeling and only that which has led me to think we would be in far worse shape as a Church that some feel we are now. We needed desperately “full and active participation in the Eucharist” and we have it. How many presently in Church would be there today if we had the normally painful experience of music and prayer in a language we did not speak, understand, or appreciate? Did we lose some of the beautiful musical patrimony of the Church – indeed, but it is still recoverable and capable of being appreciated  when it is done well as it seldom was prior to the Council. We have greater respect and dialogue with our Protestant, Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers. We retained disciplines which helped people and discarded those which hindered many.

But have we lost some good things also? I think the answer is yes. I will reflect on some of those things in coming days but I do not believe them to be foundational. I doubt if I would have become a priest had Pope John XXIII not convened the Council and Pope Paul VI implemented it. I owe those men and the Holy Spirit who guided them soon to be thirty one years of priestly ministry.

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There are two important anniversaries this month and one national moment which cry out to me for comment. I shall not begin my commentary today with this blog but just wish to give you some previews of coming attractions on this blog site.

ANNIVERSARY NO. ONE – January 22 will mark yet another tragic anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade and Doe v. Bolton. My brother bishops and I have our annual statement on this sad occasion which will be included here as well as some of my own reflections on where I feel the Church and we are today in the pro-life effort.

ANNIVERSARY NO. TWO - January 26 will mark the 50th anniversary of the decision of Blessed Pope John XXIII to convene a second Vatican Council. I will offer my reflections on the pre-conciliar Church and the Church which exists today, positive mostly, but some negative consequences perhaps.

THE NATIONAL MOMENT – The inauguration of the nation’s first President of color on January 21.

So I am working on these items and hope to have the first available for your read and reflection early next week. Stay tuned.

+RNL