Ban on Communion Wine: Prudent or Paranoid?

Today was a big day for our family as it was Miss Scarlet's First Communion and Princess P.'s baptism. We did both on the same day since most of our family does not live in the area. My parents, both of my brothers, DH's parents, and his sister came. The only one who was not able to make it was DH's brother, who is finishing up his last semester at college and scrambling to try to find a post-graduation job (it's a tough, tough market out there for this year's seniors!)

Anyways, at the First Communion Mass the priest read a letter from Archbishop Niederauer stating that because of the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu in the archdiocese the parish was not to offer the Eucharist under the species of the Blood. Miss Scarlet was happy to hear that, as she'd tried the unconsecrated wine at the rehearsal & hadn't liked it. But it just struck me as a bit overly cautious given that the total number of probable cases our county has reported so far is two.

Our parish could've just given the kids receiving their First Communion the Blood and not the rest of those attending the Mass. The schools in our town are all open, and that IMHO is a more likely method of transmission than the Communion cup.

File This Under "D" for "Duh"

Last month, the elite media heavily publicized the finding by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that 10% of Americans have left the Catholic Church after having been raised Catholic. Those ex-Catholics are fairly evenly split between those who are now Protestant and those who are now unaffiliated with any faith (only a small percentage have converted to non-Christian faiths). An article in today's Christian Science Monitor goes into detail about why survey participants reported leaving Catholicism:

"When asked to explain in their own words the main reason for leaving the Catholic Church, about half cite a disagreement with the church's religious or moral beliefs. For those now unaffiliated, about half were unhappy about birth control, 56 percent about teachings on abortion and homosexuality, and 40 percent about the treatment of women."

Yep, those are the 3 issues where Catholic doctrine most prominently differs from the "anything goes" mentality pushed by secular modern culture. While a number of the mainline Protestant denominations have chosen to abandon the traditional Biblical teachings on these issues in the name of "modernization", the Vatican has thus far resisted the pressure to do so.

As St. Paul preached to the Galatians almost 2,000 years ago:

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:10-12)

The CSM article mentions in passing the fact that most people who switch affiliation do so prior to the age of 24, but the Pew Forum website goes into more detail. Nearly half (48%) leave Catholicism prior to the age of 18. An additional 30% leave between 18 and 23.

To me, this statistic shows the failure of families, parish CCD programs, and Catholic schools to properly catechize Catholic youth as to the reasoning behind Catholic doctrine. I've discussed this issue at length here and here. If we want young Catholics to "follow the narrow way" and resist the siren song of moral relativism, we need to do more than simply tell them the rules. Catholics of whatever age are far more likely to obey if they understand *WHY* the Church teaches X, Y, or Z. It's far easier to dismiss simple appeals to clerical authority than it is to dismiss a reasoned argument in support of Church doctrine.

Catholics Called to Take Action on Climate Change

Via the link the commenter on my post the other day left promoting the "Meatless Mondays" campaign, I eventually wound up discovering a website for a group called the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. It was launched yesterday to call Catholics to "make a serious commitment" to all of the following:

"PRAY and reflect on the duty to care for God's creation and for the poor and vulnerable;

LEARN about and educate others on the moral dimensions of climate change;

ASSESS our participation-as individuals and organizations-in contributing to climate change (i.e. consumption and conservation);

ACT to change our choices and behaviors contributing to climate change and;

ADVOCATE Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact the poor and vulnerable."

As a Catholic, I do feel a moral obligation to try my best to be a good steward of God's creation. If we wait to take action until the debate over global warming has been settled it may very well be too late.

I also believe it's important for the Church to make its voice heard on this issue to make sure that any proposed government action does not conflict with Catholic doctrine. There are many environmental activists who would like to see family size limited in the name of "saving the planet". Catholics need to ensure that the focus is on reducing consumption through simpler and more sustainable living rather than fewer births.

Let's lead by example that families do not have to be small to be "green"!

Heart-Warming Link

Earlier this afternoon, the baby was asleep in my arms and I was sipping tea and flipping through this week's edition of the Archdiocese newspaper. I came across the following column by Ginny Kubitz Moyer (who blogs over at "Mary & Me"). Maybe it's just the wacky post-partum hormones, but it brought me to tears.

"it's not really the clothes I want to keep forever. It's this age, the beautiful baby months when Luke smiles his gummy smile, learns to hold his rattle, and laughs with the glee of the very new.

I love it, this sweet time when he fits perfectly against my shoulder, when his little body smells of warmth and sleep and babyhood.

No, I can't make the earth, or time, stand still.

But, like all moms, I'd give anything to try."

Beautiful!

George Weigel 1, Catholic Apologists for Obama 0

Boy, do I wish I had the disposable cash to make photocopies of the article by George Weigel in this week's issue of Newsweek to put on each car at my parish this weekend during Mass. The article is entitled "Can Catholics Back Pro-Choice Obama?" and it's a brilliant critique of the flaws in the arguments of several well-known Catholic supporters of Sen. Obama such as Douglas Kmiec and Nicholas Cafardi.

It's a message that many of my fellow parishioners would likely not want to hear, but as St. Paul wrote two millennia ago to the Galatians:

"Am I now seeking human approval or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of God." (Galatians 1:10, NRSV Cath. Ed.)

Despite House Speaker Pelosi's recent assertions to the contrary, the Catholic Church has had a clear and consistent record of opposing abortion dating back to the 1st century A.D. teachings of the Church Fathers in the Didache.

Pope Benedict XVI, back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote that a Catholic can vote for a pro-abortion candidate for other reasons only when those reasons are "proportionate". Under Catholic teaching, the taking of innocent life is considered the most serious sin prevalent in society today. For that reason, none of the commonly suggested reasons for voting for a pro-abortion candidate like Sen. Obama such as peace, health care, poverty reduction, etc. are considered proportionate.

Y'all Are Making Me Look Like a Slacker!

One thing about us Catholic homeschoolers- we are a fertile bunch! I had no idea there were so many of us due at the end of '08/beginning of '09 until I saw a post from Melissa Wiley over at "Here from the Bonny Glen" about it. I'm a bit humbled by the fact that most are on their fifth or more child while I'm only on my third, but I'm only 31 so if it's God's plan to bless us with more there ought to be plenty of time :-)

Congrats to all the other expecting mommies!

Expecting #10:
Kim from "Starry Sky Ranch" in the late fall.

Expecting #9:
Martha of "Yes, They're All Ours" in December.
Elizabeth Foss of "In the Heart of my Home" in December.

Expecting #8:
Mary Ellen Barrett from "Tales from the Bonny Blue House" in January.

Expecting #7
Christine from "Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother" in October.

Expecting #6:
Melissa Wiley of "Here in the Bonny Glen" in January.
Suzanne Temple of "Blessed Among Men" in December.
Alice Cantrell of "A Number of Things" in December.

Expecting #5:
C.J. from "Light and Momentary" in December.
Stephanie from "...and These Thy Gifts" in January (sorry for the initial mix-up!)

Expecting #3:
Carmen L. of "Carmie's Cozy Conifer Cabin" in November.

P.S. Congrats also to Dana Hanley from "Principled Discovery". She's not a Catholic, but she is expecting #5 :-)

Catholic Homeschooling Magazine Revived!

Margot Davidson of Hillside Education is reviving the old Heart and Mind Catholic homeschooling magazine. The renamed Mater et Magistra (Latin for "mother and teacher") is scheduled to publish its first new issue in July. Subscriptions are $20 per year for 4 quarterly issues. More info is available here.

(HT: Love2Learn )

Another Threat to Homeschooling Freedom in Europe

Most people are familiar with the persecution of homeschoolers in Germany by now, but did you know that there is also a threat to homeschooling freedom and parental rights in Belgium? I had no idea until I saw an article from the Brussels Journal entitled "Crackdown on Homeschoolers: It’s the UN Wot Done It [sic]".

Paul Belien and Alexandra Colen are homeschoolers living in the Flemish region of Belgium. Their oldest four children are now successfully attending university while their youngest is finishing up high school at home.

In 2003, the Flemish regional parliament decreed that all homeschoolers in the region must sign a document agreeing to raise their children in compliance with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, the document states that government inspectors decide whether families comply with the UN’s ideology and if there are two negative reports, the government will force the child to enroll in "an official government recognized school".

Mr. Belien and Dr. Colen refused to sign the document because they feel the UNCRC undermines their parental authority and transfers it to the state. They also objected to bureaucrats deciding on the basis of arbitrary criteria whether parents are in compliance with the imposed philosophy.

The Ministry of Education has asked the judiciary to press charges against Mr. Belien for child neglect, which is a criminal offense. Last week, he was hauled before the police as part of the inquiry process.

The UNCRC is full of very vague language that on the surface seem like things with which basically everyone would agree. However, the problem comes when the U.N. interprets innocuous sounding wording in such a way that clashes with parents' deeply held beliefs.

For example, consider Article 29:

"States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:

(a) The development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential;

(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;

(c) The development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own;

(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin;

(e) The development of respect for the natural environment."

Sounds pretty reasonable, right? But how I would personally interpret "human rights", "fundamental freedoms", "tolerance", "equality of sexes", etc. may be extremely different from how the U.N. interprets those.

The U.N. Committee for Human Rights goes on and on about the "right to life" but then explicitly excludes unborn babies from that right and furthermore defines abortion as a "human right". I could provide many other examples but that's a post for another day.

It is absolutely outrageous for the Flemish authorities to require parents to accept the UNCRC as a precondition for homeschooling!

R.I.P. Archbishop Paul Faraj Rahho of Iraq

The body of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paul Faraj Rahlo was found yesterday near Mosul in northern Iraq. He had been kidnapped Feb. 29th in an ambush that killed his driver and two security guards.

May God have mercy on Archbishop Rahlo's soul and may He protect the Christians in the Middle East from further persecution by Islamofascists.

DD's Response to the Labeling Question

In thinking about the "labeling" question, I asked my DD, who is 5 yrs 4 mos old, what she would say if someone asked her what religion she was.

She answered "Christian, of course."

So I asked her what that meant to her.

She paraphrased Mark 12:30-33: "Love God and my neighbor".

I was so proud of her! :-)

The "Labeling" Question

Via J.J. Ross at "Cocking a Snook", I read a very interesting post by Dale over at the "Parenting Beyond Belief" blog about his 6 year old daughter Laney's calling herself "humanist" when asked her religion. Dale and several of the commenters on the thread expressed a discomfort with parents raising their kids within a religious tradition because they feel it's "imposing" a "label" on them. Writes Dale:

"I am adamantly opposed to labeling children, or even allowing them to label themselves, with words that imply the informed selection of a complex worldview....Once a label is attached, thinking is necessarily colored and shaped by that label. I don’t want my kids to have to think their way out from under a presumptive claim placed on them by one worldview or another."

This attitude is one that I've run across before. The playwright Julie Pascal wrote an article for The Jewish Chronicle last spring where she called religion a form of child abuse:

"Perhaps organised religion should carry a health warning and only be made available at 18 with the right to vote. Isn’t it child abuse to imprint religion and identity on an infant? In our Western democracies, we say we believe in the freedom of the individual to make their own life choices but we allow parents to enforce their own dogma on their offspring. Why not teach children about all religions, as well as secularism and humanism, and let them decide how they wish to identify when they become adults? The 1989 UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child expressed the importance of 'respect for the views of the child', but which son or daughter is ever consulted about which religion they wish to follow? You get what your parents give you."

The question I have for Dale, Ms. Pascal, et. al. is whether they feel the same way about parents who are vegans for ethical reasons raising their children as vegans. Isn't that "enforcing their own dogma on their offspring" too? Would they truly advocate forcing vegans to feed their children animal products against the parents' deeply held ethical beliefs? Or would they be okay with the argument that the children will be perfectly free to eat animal products once they grow up should they choose to but until such time the parents have the right to raise their offspring in accordance with their values?

I suspect that the same atheists/agnostics who are so vehemently against religious believers "imposing" their family's faith on their offspring would be perfectly fine with vegans raising their kids as vegans. Which just goes to show that their criticism isn't really about "respecting the views of the child" but really about hostility to organized religion.

Rules to Obey, Not "Carefully Consider"

There's an interesting discussion going on in the comments of one of Dana's recent posts over at "Principled Discovery" about why some people raised in Christian homes turn away from the faith as adults.

Sunniemom from "A Woman on Purpose" wrote:

"I venture to say that the reason some ‘run’ from Christianity and the Bible is because of what it teaches-they aren’t running from ‘indoctrination’, but from ideas such as generosity, compassion, tolerance, and sacrifice. That is why so many ‘come back’ when they get all grown up."

J.J. Ross from "Cocking a Snook" replied:

"I don’t believe it was the tolerance, generosity and compassion [the preachers' kids] all were fleeing, but the weight of endless expectations and examples and limits, and rules and restrictions in every direction except OUT."

I actually happen to agree more with J.J. than with Sunniemom here because it's not the generosity and compassion that's so difficult about Christianity but the requirement for self-discipline. It's hard to deny ourselves things that may feel good for our bodies but are bad for our souls, especially when modern society so often glorifies vice and mocks virtue.

In recent decades, our culture has turned away from the moral absolutes of traditional Judeo-Christianity in favor of a wishy-washy moral relativism. This cultural trend has really polarized religious believers into two camps: those who've embraced relativism and those who've resisted it.

For an example of this, here are two very different approaches to teaching children about the 10 Commandments:

"There are ten, there are ten
There are ten commandments to consider carefully
There are ten, there are ten
There are ten commandments to consider."

Contrast that with:

"[The 10 Commandments] were written on tablets of stone; they could not be changed or erased. They are God's laws for every one of us. A law is a rule or command that everyone must follow. If people abide by these rules, everyone can be happy and safe. They are not rules just for the classroom, or the home, or the streets; they are rules for life. By following these Commandments of God, everyone can be happy....If anyone breaks a Commandment, he sins. Sin displeases God and a person must be sorry for his sins and try to do better."

The first makes it sound as if the 10 Commandments are optional, just things to "consider carefully" and then accept, modify, or reject as the individual feels is best at that moment. The second is black-and-white: the rules are for everyone at all times to obey as God decreed to Moses or else the person is sinning.

The first quote happens to be from the lyrics of a song on a Jewish holidays CD by Peter & Ellen Allard and the second quote happens to be from the teacher's manual of the catechism program we're using (Our Heavenly Father by Ignatius Press). However, there are plenty of liberal Catholics who ascribe to the sentiment in the Allards' song and plenty of conservative Jews who would agree with the sentiment in the catechism. Catholicism and Judaism by all means have real theological differences, but the 10 Commandments isn't one of them (leaving aside the minor numbering variation).

The good news is that the fastest growing faiths here in the U.S. are traditionalist ones: Mormons, Pentecostals, non-denominational Evangelicals, and Catholics. Within Judaism, the fastest-growing group are the ultra-orthodox Haredi. The largest declines are among the liberal Protestant denominations. This is due to both a higher birthrate among religious traditionalists and also their success in attracting adult converts.

Fascinating Article on Bl. Mother Teresa

I saw the cover story in this week's edition of Time about Blessed Mother Teresa's spiritual conflict at the grocery store the other day. I found it to be interesting though the inclusion of the atheist demagogue Christopher Hitchens and the psychobabble of a non-Christian Freudian analyst very much annoyed me.

Today I read a much better article on the subject from the May 2003 issue of First Things, which is available at the CatholicCulture.org website. Being written from a Catholic standpoint, it delved more deeply into the theology of "the divine darkness" than the secular Time article. This is something I'd never really heard much about before and it's a very thought-provoking idea. How does one maintain faith when God seems inaccessible and veiled?

The First Things article also includes a fascinating discussion of how Bl. Mother Teresa's life parallels in many ways that of St. Therese of Lisieux, who died almost exactly 100 years before. I've always felt drawn to the "Little Flower" and the idea that one can serve the Lord in countless small, often unremarkable, ways. I did not realize that Bl. Mother Teresa had so much in common with St. Therese since on the face of it, their lives appear to be so different. One was the founder of her own order and an international celebrity, while the other was a permanent novitiate and did not become well-known until after her death. Yet they both suffered from "the dark night of the soul" after making a vow to Christ to refuse nothing to Him.

"Could it be that this missionary contemplative and this contemplative missionary are companions in a joint work of grace?...If these days are in any sense a dark night for the Church, then Mother Teresa shows the way forward: faith that we are undergoing a purification rather than a free-fall, and fidelity, in small things as well as big, to the vows that bind in order to set free."

Powerful words to reflect upon...

Debunking the Myths About the Church & Science

James Hannam, a PhD. candidate in the history of science at the University of Cambridge in England has written a book called God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science. His goal is to translate the recent scholarship about medieval science for a lay audience. Most people outside of academia are unaware of how historians have debunked the popular misconceptions about the Church being allegedly "anti-Science". Not just Catholic apologists but respected secular scholars as well. Mr. Hannam has made the first chapter of God's Philosophers available for *FREE* download at his website. He is also building a registry of people who would be interested in possibly purchasing his book to demonstrate to skeptical publishers that there would be a market for the title.

I definitely think this book is needed because I was very frustrated with the way Joy Hakim perpetuated myths about the Church in her book The Story of Science Volume 1: Aristotle Leads the Way. I'm still using the first part of it about ancient times but the misinformation about the medieval times means we're going to skip the later chapters. I hope that God's Philosophers is published by the time we reach medieval history!

Catholic School to End Discount to "No-Show" Parishioners

Many Catholic schools offer discounted tuition rates to members of their affiliated parish. Father John Yockey of St. Jerome's in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee got tired of parents registering as members of the parish in order to get the discount but then not attending Mass regularly. So, after consulting with Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Fr. Yockey instituted an attendance policy for those claiming the discount. During school registration, parents who wanted the $1400 discount had to sign contracts in which they committed to the required minimum Mass attendance. If the parents don't have at least a 70% attendance rate in any single quarter, about 10 weeks, they'll have to pay full tuition for the rest of the school year.

Fr. Yockey said he has a sense of who is at Mass regularly among the parish's 1,400 families. Weekly donation envelopes collected at Mass also will be cross-checked with school parents' names. In addition, a guest book may be placed in church. People on vacation can bring a bulletin from the church they attended to the school office by noon the following Monday.

Fr. Yockey said the new policy addresses a matter of truth and fairness. It's "a grave injustice" to the parish, which dedicated a new school in 2004, to subsidize families that are not part of parish faith life.

"It was my decision. I'm calling it the expectation model. What this means is that parents who are registered as parishioners of St. Jerome are expected to live up to the teachings of the Catholic Church, and the official teaching reminds parents that they are the primary educators of their children in the ways of faith."

Fr. Yockey got the idea from area Lutheran schools, which traditionally require regular church attendance in order to receive discounted tuition and even list the attendance rate on the children's report cards.

It's sad that Fr. Yockey even has to resort to a formal policy :-( Church doctrine is quite clear about the obligation to attend Mass on the Sabbath and on Holy Days of Obligation. Unfortunately, though, too many individuals who consider themselves to be "Catholics" only attend Mass twice per year or not at all. To grant these folks the same tuition discount as active parishioners is simply unfair.

I personally think this type of policy should be standard at any school offering discounts to registered parishioners!

Pope Benedict XVI Speaks Out on Evolution

The more I hear from Pope Benedict XVI, the more I like him! I'll admit that I was a bit unsure of him when he took over from John Paul II because he seemed to lack the warmth of his predecessor. However, I've come to believe that he is absolutely the right pontiff for a post-9/11 world. With Christianity under attack from militant Islam and also secularism, we need a strong defender of the Faith.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to around 400 priests in the Diocese of Belluno and Feltre in Italy. He vigorously defended the idea that Reason and Faith are complementary ways of knowledge:

Christians believe that human beings are special precisely because they have a capacity for puzzling over and groping for meaning in a way that goes well beyond concern for their material needs.

"Our being is open," [Pope Benedict XVI] said. "It can hear the voice of being itself -- the voice of God. The greatness of the human person lies precisely in the fact that he is not closed in on himself, he is not reduced to concern about the material and quantifiable, but has an interior opening to the things that are essential, has the possibility of listening."

Pope Benedict also told the priests that evolution and the existence of God the creator should not be seen as two ideas in strict opposition to one another.

"Evolution exists, but it is not enough to answer the great questions," such as how human beings came to exist and why human beings have an inherent dignity, he said.

Father Lombardi said the pope had told the priests that when they encounter young people who think science has all the answers and they do not need God, priests should help them see "the great harmony of the universe" and ask if science alone can explain how it all works together and leads to such beauty.

"A world without God would become a world of the arbitrary," the pope told the priests.

This is what makes me glad to be Catholic! We are not forced to ignore science in the name of faith, but realize that they answer different questions. Science deals with "efficient" causes (HOW something happens) while faith deals with "final" causes (WHY something happens). To use Dr. Owen Gingerich's example from God's Universe, it's the difference between saying that water is boiling because it has been heated to 212 degrees Fahrenheit and saying that the water is boiling because I want to make a cup of tea.

Charity Begins at Home

Isn't it a wonderful feeling when one gets confirmation that the lessons one is trying to teach one's children don't just go in one ear and out the other?

After Mass, our parish offers coffee & donuts in the community center as a way of encouraging fellowship among parishioners. As a privilege, my children get to have a donut assuming they've behaved themselves during Mass. It's not an explicit bribe, but they do know that we go home straight after Mass without getting one when they are naughty. The Alfie Kohns of the world may object to this practice, but it really does work!

Anyways, we had to get home because DH was going to a networking brunch with a grad school classmate so we took the donuts with us out to the car rather than staying to socialize. I put DS' on top of the bulletin on the car roof while I was getting him into his car seat. A big gust of wind blew them onto the ground. Being 20 mos, he immediately started howling. DD (age 4 3/4) saw that he was upset at the loss of his donut and without anyone prompting her to, offered him the rest of hers! :-)

I was so proud of her for doing this! In our homeschooling, I talk a lot about Christ's teaching us to love one another as He loves us. I try to model kindness and empathy for our children, though being human it can be hard at times. I felt so grateful that God allowed me to see that my efforts are indeed making a difference in my children's lives :-)

Father Z. 1, Boston Globe 0

Father Zuhlsdorf over at "What Does the Prayer Really Say?" has an excellent critique of today's Boston Globe op-ed by Prof. Frank Flinn of Washington University.

To put it bluntly, Father Z. kicks Prof. Flinn's cafeteria-loving fanny!

So What Do We Do Now That the "Motu Proprio" is Out?

The Catholic blogosphere is naturally abuzz with discussion of the "Motu Proprio" released by the Vatican today. I came across a couple of really good posts with some practical advice for those of us Catholics who are supportive of the new policy.

First, Shawn Tribe from "The New Liturgical Movement" passed along some great advice from one of his readers who is a priest about how to convince one's local parish to start offering the Tridentine Mass. The post is entitled "After the Motu Proprio is released: advice from a Parish Priest".

Second, Richard Salbato from Unity Publishing wrote an excellent article in the May issue of his newsletter called "Learning the Tridentine Mass" explaining what parish churches, priests, and worshippers need to know about the Tridentine Mass. This information may seem basic to those who remember the way things were prior to Vatican II and for those who already attend a TLM. Bear in mind, however, that the majority of Catholics of my generation have never worshipped at a Tridentine Mass. A growing number have embraced orthodoxy but have not had the opportunity to attend a Tridentine Mass because of their limited availability.

Third, Father Jim Tucker over at "Dappled Things" has a great post from a few years ago called "7 Tips for Participating in the Traditional Mass". Again, it's geared towards newbies. (HT: Drew from "Shrine of the Holy Whapping").

I'll post links to other helpful articles as I come across them!

The "Motu Proprio" on the Tridentine Mass is Out!

Catholic World News has published an English translation of Pope Benedict XVI's "Motu Proprio" on expanding the use of the 1962 Latin Mass and the accompanying letter to the Bishops. The documents confirm that the Novus Ordo Mass will continue to be the "Forma ordinaria" but that where parish members desire it and there is a priest trained to perform it, the Tridentine Mass should also be offered.

I was especially glad to see Pope Benedict XVI criticize in his letter to the bishops the liturgical abuse that has been occurring in some areas:

"in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church."

Amen to that! I can remember growing up one parish priest we had who "condensed" the Mass such that it was over and done with in about 30 minutes. As a kid, I thought this was great because I did not understand, but now when I look back I am outraged. This was the same priest who supervised my First Holy Communion catechesis and told me that the Host was just "symbolic" of Christ's Body and did not require us children to go through Reconciliation prior to receiving our First Holy Communion. He was personally very nice but obviously his theology was pretty unorthodox!

Anyways, I am hopeful that this new "Motu Proprio" will result in the Tridentine Mass becoming available in my local area once again.

UPDATE: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' webpage has posted a newsletter to explain the "Motu Proprio" to American Catholics.