Sentire Cum Ecclesia

I deeply apologise for the lack of communication over the last week or so. Even this is not a post of any consequence, just an explanation of some of the things that have been going on.

Of course, the whole back to school thing changed the rhythm of Casa Schutz-Beaton. Add to this the start of new teaching rounds for Anima Education, and lots going on at the start of the year at work, and that would be enough. But two other things have kept me really busy.

First, I spent every spare moment of three or four days at the end of the week before last writing a very long letter to my 13 year old daughter on the topic of sexual ethics, including homosexuality and same-sex marriage. She has been watching a lot of TV and Internet programs in which gay issues arise and are dealt with under the category of “justice” and “tolerance”. So she thought her dad was particularly intolerant for not being in favour of these things as a life-style choice. I realised I was up against some hefty alternative sources of information and authority. There was a time when all parents needed to do was explain the birds and the bees to their kids, today that can almost be taken as read by the time they are 13 – but you have to explain a whole lot more. And all this just at the stage when they really are not ready to hear very long explanations. And there are not many short explanations to some of these things. On top of which, discussing the issue of homosexuality is also intertwined with marriage and divorce, contraception and abortion, IVF and surragocy, and a whole bunch of other things. So the only way I could decently do justice to any of these topics was by writing them all out as simply as I could. Sort of like giving the recipe for a very complicated cake. She read what became a 20,000 word essay in a matter of quarter of an hour! We are still talking through the issues raised, and she said that it has helped her form her own thinking – which still isn’t that of her father’s, but at least she now has some kind of basis on which to think about the issues.

The whole experience has gotten me thinking: why don’t we have a program on the Theology of the Body for pre- and early-teens? Early adulthood is way to late. We need an exciting and engaging program that parents can attend with their pre-adolescent children to work through these issues at an early stage, before their thinking is hijacked by Hollywood. It is the sort of thing that is beyond me, but surely we have someone out there who could do this? I would see it as a kind of adjunct to the sex education that is currently on offer. Something that really grounds them in an understanding of who they are as God’s creations in relation to themselves and others…

In the meantime, I am wondering whether the “big letter” might be something others might find useful for explaining things to their children. However, it was written to her personally, and I would need to (a) ask her permission for further publication and (b) do some editing and probably even further expansion first.

The other thing that has kept me very busy indeed is learning how to drive a new piece of technology. I am currently roadtesting a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet (Android). Other folk in the Archdiocese have been using ipads, but this is the first time we are testing out how an Android tablet might better serve the needs of the agency employees. I am a happy little guineapig, but any piece of new technology takes some getting used to. I can report so far that I am pleasantly surprised. It is quite a versatile instrument. The real limitations are the available apps – far less and less sophisticated than the ipad. Still, I have found most of the apps that I need without having to pay anything other than an upgrade for Docs to Go. The machine itself however is a far better deal than the ipad with a lot more versatility.

Anyway, that’s what I have been doing. I have been reading some great books too, the best of which is James L. Kugel’s “How to read the Bible”. I also attended the launch of Fr Brendan Purcell’s “From Big Bang to Big Mystery” which is also needing a good read. I will write about both books in due course. A break from reading Wright at least…

…to loose two of them might, to some folk, seem like carelessness!

But of course, we here in The Great Episcopal Incubation Chamber don’t see it like that, and certainly our Archbisop doesn’t.

Here is his announcement of the latest Glad Tidings of Great Joy from the Holy See:

I have pleasure in notifying you that the Holy Father has appointed Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe, S.D.B., D.D., Archbishop of Perth.

?The announcement will be made in Rome at twelve noon on Monday, 20th February 2012 (10.00 p.m. e.a.s.t).

?We are deeply grateful to Bishop Costelloe for his work in Melbourne as a Salesian Priest, Formator, Parish Priest and Auxiliary Bishop.

?He has given great leadership as Chair of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, Chair of the Board of the Archbishop’s Office for Evangelisation and Chair of Mannix College Council, as well as his long involvement with Catholic Theological College, and with many parishes and communities.

?As he prepares to take up his new appointment we assure him of our congratulations and prayers for his new responsibilities.

?The date of a Mass of Farewell (with an opportunity to meet the people) in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral will be advised in due course. The date of his Mass of Reception in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Perth is Wednesday, 21st March, 2012. The time is yet to be confirmed.

?From the time of his departure an Episcopal Vicar will be appointed for the Northern Region until the appointment of a new Auxiliary Bishop.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Denis J. Hart

ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE.

SCE offers its heartiest congratulations to Archbishop-designate Timothy, and we invoke the intercession of his namesake St Timothy for his future ministry.

In the mean time, while there are plenty more appointments of new ordinaries yet to be made of around Australia, I hope the Holy Father realises we only have two auxiliaries left…

…I would read something by Peter Singer I actually agree with. The Internet is indeed an interesting space.

Back on the day Ratty died, I attended Low Mass at St Phillip’s Blackburn North with Josh, the Tasmanian owner of the blog Psallite Sapientier. Josh acted as server for the day. We spent some time talking afterward, and Josh asked me if I would be willing to do an “interview” for his blog on my thoughts on the Latin EF “Low Mass”. He has posted my responses on his blog here, and given me permission to put the whole interview up on my blog at the same time – a kind of “simulcast” if you like. So, here are his questions and my answers.

**************

Low Mass as Seen by David

My good friend and fellow blogger, David Schütz, was kind enough to invite me to join him last Saturday morning for the usual Low Mass offered by Fr Dillon at St Philip’s, Blackburn. The twenty happy parishioners present testified to their esteem for their new parish priest. As matters transpired, I was drafted to serve the Mass.

Upon later reflection, I was curious to know more of how David enters into this distinct form of the Liturgy, given both his usual attendance at Ordinary Form Masses (daily at the Cathedral, on Sundays at St Philip’s or in his home parish at Boronia or wherever his work and family life takes him), and his unique background as a Catholic-minded Lutheran pastor prior to entering full communion with the Bishop of Rome.

David being agreeable, I sent him a list of questions, to which he has deigned to vouchsafe a response (as the new translation would express it):

1. The service being in Latin would I suspect be at once notable and yet, to a well-educated Lutheran pastor, not at all difficult; indeed, I recall David asking me about the Gospel pericope and in doing so betraying that he had been reading along in Latin! Any further comments, David?

Actually, what I betrayed was my ignorance in matters of Latin. I couldn’t work out the reference to a little “rex” – it was, of course, a misprint in the pew sheet for “grex”. Silly me. Few Lutherans today are well educated in Latin, although Luther wished it to be retained for liturgies conducted “in the schools”, and many of the Lutheran Agendas (ritual books) retained Latin for the parts of the Ordo of the Mass. But ecclesiastical Latin was offered as an “elective” in my Seminary training. I opted to do it as a part of my BA at Adelaide Uni, however. The reminder that the Western Rite is the Latin Rite (even in its Lutheran form) is quite pertinent.

2. Beginning at the beginning, would the fact of the liturgy being celebrated ad orientem

This is a curious matter. It was only while I was in Seminary in the late 1980’s that celebration “facing the people” entered into local Lutheran usage. Catholics should not underestimate the effect that their own liturgical practice has on their Protestant brethren and sistern [sic] around them. Up until then, the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) followed the time honoured practice of the Lutheran tradition, which was indeed ad orientemad orientemad orientem

3. Were the minutely specified and executed liturgical gestures of the priest, most carefully observing the ceremonial rubrics (and the attempts at doing the same by his bumbling server) something adding to or detracting from the Mass?

Certainly, for me, it was not a distraction. There were Lutheran manuals for ceremonial (I remember one by Lang, called “Ceremony and Celebration”

4. In contrast to the priest’s manifold posturings, his bowings and crossings, the congregation at a Low Mass simply kneel, but for standing at both Gospels and sitting during the Epistle and Offertory – which is very different to the standing, sitting and kneeling both at High Mass and at all modern Roman Rite Masses. How do you find this – more meditative, or constricting? Or just odd?

Yes, I find this very confusing. Lutherans always fully participated in their liturgies, both in singing or saying the responses and in terms of posture. So the postures were more like the modern Ordinary Form than the traditional Extraordinary Form. The exception was kneeling – which was only done for the general confession and absolution (corresponding to the prayers at the foot of the altar) – although some Lutherans practiced kneeling for the Sanctus

5. I would expect that, mutatis mutandis, the prayers at the foot of the altar, the psalmodic dialogue and mutual confession of priest and server, would be recognizable to Lutheran eyes as similar to way their own traditional services began with a hymn and confession, even before the Introit – but the invocation of Our Lady and the Saints would of course mark this ritual as Roman. Am I right in saying that, to an ex-Lutheran, now mainly a Novus Ordo Mass-goer, the prayers at the foot of the altar have an unexpectedly familiar feel?

Yes, as I said above, the Lutheran orders all followed the Roman rite in this respect: Invocation, usually followed by the Opening Hymn, followed by General Confession and Absolution (kneeling), followed by the Introit (said by the Pastor) and Glory be (sung by the Congregation), followed by the KyrieGloria in excelsis. The “Lord be with with you: and with your spirit” preceded the Collect as in the old mass. And certainly no invocation of Our Lady or the Saints in the confession of sins!

6. Similarly, am I right in saying that the use of Introit with Gloria Patri

Again, I have pre-empted this question. Yes, that was the way it was done – although the Antiphon was never repeated after the Gloria Patri. And although there were settings of the Introit available for singing, I have never attended a Lutheran mass where this was done. The Gloria Patri, however, was routinely sung. Most Lutherans (uneducated in the origin of this practice) regarded it as a part of the liturgy separate to the introit.

7. Any reactions to the Kyrie, the Gloria in excelsis

Well, there was only ever one Collect – and we followed more or less the traditional English Collects according to Cranmer – although in later years, there was a proliferation of “alternative collects”. Otherwise, the entrance rites were just the same as in the old Roman rite. The Gloria in excelsisGloria

8. David, you being the Scripture expert, how do you perhaps differently perceive and appreciate the Epistle and Gospel (not to mention the Gradual and so forth) when read by the priest at the Latin Mass, as opposed to the less formal manner in which they are proclaimed by lay readers?

Traditionally, Lutherans followed the historical lectionary with only the Epistle and Gospel, although since the late 1800’s, several different Old Testament lectionaries were added as well. The Roman “three-year lectionary” became common since the late 1970’s, although this has largely been replaced by the modern “Revised Three-year Lectionary” common now in all Protestant Churches – which is something of an improvement, may I say, on the Roman version. Again, copying Rome, lay readers for the first two readings is now the norm, although in my childhood, the pastor read all three readings. There was no “responsorial psalm” between the Old Testament and Epistle readings. The psalm of the day, even now, is usually used in the place of the Introit. Where parishes have adopted the Roman usage (as in my wife’s parish) the psalm is often sung responsorily. The LCA has many settings for these psalms produced as part of the Lutheran Worship Project (for which I was the major editor in the years immediately prior to my conversion). You can find these resources here. The musical settings are available as a separate booklet to be ordered from the LCA head office.

9. Dr Martin famously claimed that, from the Offertory onwards, “all stinks of oblation” – hence his cutting away the Minor Canon (the offertory prayers) and the Major Canon (all bar the Lord’s own Words) from the Mass as he himself, as a good Augustinian priest, had celebrated it daily for many years. David, given your unique background, and as a liturgist yourself, how do you regard the silent offertory and the prayers so robustly offering sacrifices of propitiation and expiation to the Lord?

Well, given that almost all these prayers were traditionally said silently, it does not surprise me that Lutherans in the 16th Century barely noticed their omission – especially when the practice was for the choir or congregation to sing an extended Sanctusaloud

10. The silent Canon is to contemporary Catholics one of the most surprising features of the Extraordinary Form Mass. Luther remodelled this part of the traditional service, by retaining only the Preface, the SanctusVerba Domini, that central Institution Narrative whereby the Consecration is effected, and having it all prayed aloud. How do you relate to the age-old silence of the Roman Canon, into which the priest enters to offer sacrifice?

Again, I have anticipated this question. Reflecting more upon it, I see that there is correspondence here with the Eastern practice of visually hiding the consecration behind the iconastasis. Whereas the East veiled the consecration from sight, the Western practice was to “veil” it with silence. I think Joseph Ratzinger has written on this…

11. Dr Martin retained the Elevation, at least at first, regarding it as a visible preaching of Christ’s New and everlasting Testament, whereby all are called to eat the Bread containing His Flesh, Flesh given up for us sinners to save us. Adoring the Real Presence of Christ as both good Lutherans and good Catholics do, may I ask if any such “Lutheran patrimony” still strikes you at this holy moment?

Luther retained the elevation all his life – it was only in the 17th Century that the practice died out. I restored it in all liturgies that I celebrated. Luther taught that it was right and proper to adore Christ present in the Sacrament during the celebration. Lutherans still retain kneeling for the reception of the Sacrament. My wife and children have no problem at all with the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, whether in their own parish or when they join me for mass or adoration. I am thrilled when attending EF masses to be able to kneel to receive Holy Communion.

12. Many moderns find it strange that the priest in the old rite says the Lord’s Prayer by himself, the server responding only with the last phrase thereof. I believe that Lutherans say the prayer all together, and that traditionally by them it is regarded as quasi-consecratory, by reason of its words “Give us this day our daily bread”, regarded almost as an epiclesis, and its repositioning in the Lutheran service to before the Words of Consecration. How do you relate both to the manner and the specifically Eucharistic connotation of the Pater noster?

Traditionally, when the Lord’s Prayer is used before the Words of Institution, it is said by the pastor alone, with the people joining in the doxology, thus retaining the sense that this is THE prayer of consecration. Luther taught that the Real Presence became present during the praying of the Lord’s Prayer, and not only with the Verba. However, today it is indeed usually said by the congregation as a whole. This is not in accordance with Lutheran tradition, and is, I think, a matter of copying the modern Roman rite once again. The understanding that “Give us today our daily bread” refers to the Sacramental Bread is not well known in Lutheran circles.

13. Very sagely, Luther realized that the Pax Domini

Although the practice of “passing the peace” has entered into modern Lutheran practice – again copying Rome – you are right that the “Pax” was understood as blessing. In traditional Lutheran rites, the response to the “Pax” is not “and with your spirit” but “Amen”. Some Lutheran parishes – my wife’s for instance – has the passing of the peace after the absolution at the beginning of the service.

14. Crying out Agnus Dei, begging mercy from Christ the Lamb of God Who alone takes sins away is, of course, very Catholic and very Lutheran, being simply Christian. But in the traditional liturgy, the attendant prayers and rites are rather more complex than in the Mass of Paul VI; and so far as I recall the Ecce Agnus DeiDomine non sum dignus

You are right on all counts. The Agnus DeiEcce, there is an invitation to communion along the lines of “Come, for all things are now ready”.

15. Kneeling for communion would, again, be more familiar to you qua Lutheran rather than qua Catholic – ?

Oh yes. A thousand times yes. There was never anything corresponding to the Anglican “black rubric” in the Lutheran Church!

16. The Last Gospel and the Leonine Prayers are unique to the old Mass; comments?

The Last Gospel was known in Luther’s day, but he cut it out. The Leonine prayers are much later of course, and never had any place in the Lutheran rite.

17. I personally, when not serving, can find the dialogue of priest and server alone a bit irritating, being used to giving the responses, and having enough Latin to do so confidently. How do you find this?

I agree. I want to join in. Which is why I generally prefer the High or Solemn Mass to the Low Mass in the EF. I wish the “Dialogue Mass” – which was only just gaining ground when Vatican II came along – could have a place in today’s celebration of the Low Mass. The people seem to want this.

18. Do you miss the Prayers of the Faithful, or for that matter any other parts of the modern Mass, such as the Memorial Acclamations?

No, not really. I am now used to occasions at weekday masses where the Prayers of the Faithful are omitted, and I am not a fan of the innovation of the Memorial Acclamations, which seem to interrupt the flow of the Canon.

19. I forgot to query Communion under one species only, which is very un-Lutheran! You?

I must confess that I still prefer a mass where I can receive under both kinds, but I accept the necessity for one kind communion in large groups. I am not a fan of the Lutheran practice of consecrating a whole flagon of wine for the Eucharist – the danger of profanation of the left over “wine” is too great.

20. Any other points come to mind?

I hope that this has answered most of your questions. My preference is still for the Ordinary Form of the liturgy – although I would wish for: more Latin than usual, ad orientem, and kneeling to receive Holy Communion. I think Pope Ratzinger’s idea of the Old and New forms mutually enriching each other would be a good thing, if it ever came to pass!

Archbishop Hart’s Lenten messages are always clear and to the point. He regularly emphasises the three disciplines – prayer, fasting and acts of charity – from the Sermon on the Mount which we read on Ash Wednesday. This year’s message is no exception, but I have been particularly struck at the simple and practical guidance he gives for observing our Lenten disciplines.

Prayer is listening and speaking to God. I recommend:

• silence in our churches is essential to prayer as a haven for reflection;
• that we keep our churches as places of prayer for converse with God;
• that we try to participate in the great prayer of the Mass very regularly during Lent, even daily;
• personal prayer, whether in Eucharistic adoration, reading and reflection on Scripture, or prayer with the family, will help us keep the spirit of this holy season.

Similarly, in silence and fasting we train our body and spirit. I recommend:

• that we limit the amount of food we eat and drink to make our mind and heart more focussed on God and others;
• acts of self-denial;
• contribution to Project Compassion;
• spending time with the sick or elderly

I like the way he links the disciplines to silence. The Parish Priest of St Phillip’s in Blackburn North concentrated on this topic in a recent bulletin, and Pope Benedict has also been reflecting on the need for silence in his message for World Communications Day. Spending time in prayer in the church both before and after mass is something quite unique to the Catholic tradition. Protestants file out in order during the organ postlude after the recessional hymn, to shake hands with the pastor and get to the coffee. Only Catholics linger, recognising that the Church building is a place of personal, private prayer as well as public liturgy.

You may not have read the book of the prophet Habbakuk lately, so let me remind you: Habbakuk 2:20 reads: “The LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him”. Those words were often to found inscribed above the sanctuary in Lutheran Churches in Australia – a rule more often observed in the breach, actually. In the Catholic Church we believe that “the Lord” really is “in his holy temple” – present in the reserved sacrament in the tabernacle. Hence the verse is even more pertinent to our places of worship.

Archbishop Hart seems to be indicating that our works of charity and the true meaning of our fasting will flow from the acts of prayer that we conduct in the silence of the presence of the Lord (note his reference to prayer before the blessed Sacrament). If we can all make his suggestions a part of our Lenten disciplines, I think that we will be able to truly observe a “good Lent”.

…or just a well behaved husband?

Rome has its own "redish" gathering - not a mass though: the Roman Rota meets with Pope Benedict on January 21

A reader of the blog has drawn to my attention that the Holy Father addressed the Roman Rota on January 21st, and that in his speech he used the phrase “sentire cum ecclesia”. The Roman Rota is, of course (inter alia), the last court of appeal for marriage annulment cases in the Catholic Church, and so it has some connection with the dispute that was going on in the combox under the previous page.

The passage in which he uses the phrase which forms the title of this blog is this:

It follows that interpretation of canon law must occur in the Church. It is not a question of a mere external, environmental circumstance: it is a return to the very “humus” of canon law and the realities it regulates. The dictum “sentire cum Ecclesiae” (thinking or feeling with the Church) is also relevant to disciplinary matters by reason of the doctrinal foundations that are always present and at work in the Church’s legal norms. In this way, there must also be applied to canon law that hermeneutic of renewal in continuity, of which I spoke in reference to Vatican II, which is so closely connected to current canonical legislation. Christian maturity leads one to an ever greater love of the law and a desire that it be faithfully applied.

The whole speech is very interesting from a number of angles – including its place in the future of what will become known (I am sure) as Benedict’s “Hermeneutic of Reform vs. Hermeneutic of Discontinuity” speeches. He uses a variant of that phrase above (“hermeneutic of renewal in continuity” – thus combining both thoughts in the same phrase, something I have not seen him do before).

The basic idea of the speech, as I see it, is that the process of applying Canon Law is not just about applying “the letter of the law” (to swipe a phrase from St Paul), which is what secular lawyers do, always looking for a “loophole” that will enable the outcome the client desires, but rather an activity of faith itself. Again, while he is at it, Pope Benedict picks up the old liturgical adage “lex orandi lex credendi” and modifies it to make it applicable to the exercise of Canon Law: “Lex agendi” (the law of practice) “lex credendi” (the law of faith or believing). I am not quite sure that the translation in Zenit (to which I have linked above – I don’t think this speech is on the Vatican website yet) does justice to the point that the Pope is trying to make. I haven’t read the original but the translation says:

The connection with the topic that I have mentioned — the right interpretation of faith — is not to be reduced to a mere semantic agreement given that canon law has in the truths of faith its foundation and its meaning, and that the “lex agendi” (rule of acting) cannot but reflect the “lex credendi” (rule of believing).

 I think the point is that given that canon law has the truths of faith as its foundation and its meaning, one cannot reduce the application of canon law to “mere semantics”. Now, I know that in the combox to the previous post, Gareth was arguing that the fault in relation to the exercise of assessing annulment cases is with Canon Law itself, but it seems that Pope Benedict is saying that things will be vastly improved if canon lawyers interpret and apply Canon Law itself according to the “lex credendi” and not just according to the “mere semantic” meaning of the letter of the law. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”, as St Paul said.

 The Pope says:

In recent times some currents of thought have warned against excessive attachment to the Church’s laws, beginning with the Codices, regarding it as a manifestation of legalism. Consequently, there have been proposals for hermeneutic approaches that are more in keeping with the theological bases and also the pastoral intention of the canonical norm, leading to juridical creativity in which the individual situation becomes the decisive factor for grasping the authentic meaning of the legal precept in the concrete case.

Now I don’t think the Pope has any problem with the lawyers applying the law in keeping with “the pastoral intention of the canonical norm” – after all, the very last of the laws in the Code states that “the salvation of souls is the supreme law in the Church” – never the less, it does seem that he has a bone to pick with those who might employ “juridical creativity” in using a kind of situational ethics according to individual cases. This is in fact a kind of “positivism”:

itself to replacing the one positivism with another in which the human interpretive work comes to prominence as the protagonist in determining what is lawful. There is a lack of a sense of an objective law to be discovered since it is subjected to considerations that pretend to be theological and pastoral, but that are, in the end, exposed to the danger of arbitrariness.

So he isn’t speaking against the objectivity of the law when he warns against excessive attention to “mere semantics”. He explains this in reference to his Reichstag speech:

As I wished to explain at my country’s Federal Parliament, in the Reichstag in Berlin, true law is inseparable from justice. Obviously the principle also holds for canon law in the sense that it cannot be shut up in a merely human normative system but must be connected to a just order of the Church in which a superior law reigns.

And this is where he comes back to the saying “Sentire cum Ecclesia”:

In this realistic perspective, the interpretive work, which is occasionally arduous, acquires a meaning and a direction. The use of the interpretive methods foreseen by the Code of Canon Law in canon 17, beginning with “the proper meaning of the words considered in their text and context,” is no longer a mere logical exercise. It is a matter of a task that is enlivened by an authentic contact with the whole reality of the Church, that seeks to penetrate the true meaning of the letter of the law. Something occurs that is similar to what I have said about the interior process of St. Augustine in biblical hermeneutics: “transcending the letter made the letter itself credible.”

There is much more in this very important speech, which I think will give canon lawyers the world  over much to think about, but I do hope that we can see here the right way to regard the role of our Tribunals in the Church. It is not their role, nor, it seems, even the Pope’s intention, to hold the letter of the law up for question. Nor is the way out a kind of “pastoral” (read “creative”) application of the law. Rather, it is always to apply the law with the heart of faith, of The Faith, to do faithfully what the Church intends by its laws, for the sake of true justice.

Speaking of “for the word had passed around”, we must have done somethong right with our latest round of advertising for Anima Education’s “Opening the Old Testament” course which started tonight. We mormally have classes of about a dozen, but tonight we had 42 people enrolled for the new course. We had to rearrange the room to fit them all in, and even then, they were proverbially “hanging from the rafters”. It was a real buzz for me and other AE regulars to have so many new faces, and all enthusiastic to get into the Scriptures. If you are free for the next four Monday nights, you might like to join us – I think there was still a few spaces left on the back rafter! Full details on the Anima Education website under “weeknight courses”.

PS. The current teaching load should be a clue to the lack of blogging going on on SCE. I’m also leading Wednesday night classes on Mark at Chelsea during Lent, speaking at Melbourne Carholic Singles on Divorce and Annulments this weekend, and doing the Christian Traditions course for CAEC in Sydney next month. Full details on the website.

…that Sandhurst finally has a new bishop!

From the media statement this evening:

Pope Benedict XVI announced in Rome today the appointment of Bishop Les Tomlinson D.D., as Bishop of Sandhurst. Bishop Tomlinson is presently the Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Melbourne. He will take up his position as Bishop of Sandhurst on 1 March 2012.

The Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst includes central Victoria and the Goulburn Valley and north-eastern Victoria to the Murray River in the north.

Bishop Tomlinson said he was humbled by the confidence that the Pope has shown in him and that he was delighted to accept the appointment. Bishop Tomlinson was born and raised in Mildura and is no stranger to country life. Bishop Tomlinson said, “I am looking forward to moving to Bendigo, becoming part of the Church there and fulfilling my role of leadership as Bishop, Teacher and Pastor in the Diocese of Sandhurst.”

Bishop Tomlinson’s appointment follows the sudden and untimely death of Bishop Joe Grech just over 12 months ago.

Bishop Tomlinson has been Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne since 2003 and was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in 2009.

Denis Hart, Archbishop of Melbourne paid tribute to Bishop Tomlinson’s years of work in the Melbourne Archdiocese and to his personal goodness and friendship. The Archbishop said, “Bishop Tomlinson has worked as a priest and bishop for 40 years. I am genuinely pleased that the Holy Father has named him Bishop of Sandhurst. We esteem him as a man of God, a devoted pastor who has shown patient and generous care for all. I pay tribute to his years of work in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and to his personal goodness and friendship. I know he will be warmly welcomed in Sandhurst and will serve his new diocese with equal distinction.”

Sentire Cum Ecclessia (and, I trust, our whole Commentary Table) wishes Bishop Tomlinson every blessing from the Lord for his work in Sandhurst!

Just as an aside, that means that Melbourne will once again be one down in its usual full serving of four auxiliary bishops. Somewhere along the line, a priest will have to chosen to fill this vacancy. I don’t expect there will be any urgency on this, compared to the urgency of filling vacant Archdioceses and Dioceses around the country in the near future. But prayers are asked in any case that God (and the Holy Father) will raise up a faithful servant in his house to serve his people here in Melbourne too!

I have just posted a page of “Prayers for the Burial of a Pet” (under “Other Stuff” link above and in the side bar) which some may be interested in. If you have small children and pets (contrary to popular thinking, in the Church you sometimes have to work with both!) in the family, you might like to bookmark this for future reference as the furry purries and the hairy scarries have a tendancy to die on a reasonably regular basis causing moments of grief that need some sort of pastoral reaction.

I was reflecting a little more on our experience last Saturday. There was a wonderful moment in the Animal Hospital, just after we had said farewell to Twitchy and while we were waiting for them to come back to us with his body. We were sitting in a consultation room on our own, and I said: “We thank God for all the lovely times we had with Ratty”. I said this casually, but my daughters picked up the cue and began a short moment of offering their own prayers. It really helped with the grief and tension they were experiencing.

We went to the Pet Shop on Monday morning to find that they had just received a new litter of baby rats, and now we have two new pet rats, Minerva and Tiffany. They are somewhat more lively than old Twitchy was, and you have to watch them closely or they will scamper off into some small corner…

Seven pets now…a cat, a dog, a rabbit, two guinea pigs and TWO rats. But all is happiness and light once again in Casa Schütz-Beaton.