Sentire Cum Ecclesia

So said St Paul, and so reads the title of George Cardinal Pell’s new book (I am currently reading one sermon a night for my devotional reading – incidentally, today I also picked up a copy of “Donne’s Sermons: Selected Passages” which might also join Pell’s book on my bedside cupboard).

Voltaire also famously said: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” In this country we have a free press, and I am glad of it. Thank God we do not have a government controlled media as in many less democratic and open states.

Nevertheless, St Paul’s/Pell’s dictum holds good for the media too. In his 1997 Pentecost Pastoral Letter to Youth (the first chapter in “Test Everything”), +George wrote:

To all young people battling with conflicting pressures, I repeat St Paul’s urgings as you search for the truth. Look before you leap. Search out genuine love and service. Reject evil. Test the claims of the advertisers as carefully as you examine Christian claims.

I would say that that advise goes as well for what we read in the morning papers as for anything else. Like advertisers (and indeed Christian preachers) we say what we say for a reason. Those who read this material have to ask themselves “Why are they saying this? Is it true?”.

In another sermon in the same volume, Cardinal Pell says “We are not free to choose what is false” (not an exact quote – I don’t have the book with me – as I said, it is next to my bed). I take this to mean that when we choose what is false rather than what is true, we are not free, we are rather binding ourselves to falsehood – and as Christ said, only “the Truth will make you free.”

In the academy, writers of papers and theses have to have references and footnotes to back up their claims. In the Press, on the other hand, it is seen as a veritable virtue to “protect your sources”. So what we read is often “alleged” or “unconfirmed”.

Like rumours of Vatican appointments, such reports are not facts. “Test everything; hold fast to what is good.”

I am glad we have a free press, but I urge everyone who reads the press not to swallow it all gullibly. In other words, I defend your right to say what you say, but I will fight to the death to urge those who hear what you say to “test everything” before believing it.

Cardinal George Pell will soon succeed Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

So reads the caption under the picture of +George on this page on the ABC Drum website. What?! Had I missed an announcement? No, and the author of the piece (Scott Stephens, the Religion and Ethics Editor for the ABC) is a little more careful to point out this is only Andrea Tornielli’s story. In this piece, Stephens is full of praise for Benedict and for Pell, but not so much for others in the Church. He links to several other stories on the ABC News and 7:30 Report websites – interesting to see that Crittenden is still working for the ABC in some capacity – which carry statements and stories that don’t seem entirely to match up, so I stress to say that I have no opinion personally on this material. But Stephens does seem to be of the opinion that Benedict is a part of the solution to the current situation, and that Pell would be an asset for the Holy Father in this cause.

Twice recently we have had discussions about “heretics” who continue “in good standing” in the Church: once in reference to Fr Küng and once (thanks to PE’s ramblings) in reference to de Lubac and Von Balthasar.

So here is today’s trick question: In what year of his life was Uldrich Zwingli declared a heretic? Why?

Cathnews is carrying the story about the American father of six to be ordained as priest. Scott Caton was a Baptist pastor before becoming Catholic.

The article calls this case “rare – but allowable”. Indeed it is both. But it is particularly rare because Mr Caton comes from one of those protestant traditions that does not have a high understanding of the office of ministry, and one of the usual arguments used to move along the ordination of former protestant clergy is that they have already been “formed” to some extent in the priestly character.
Apart from former Anglican priests, ordination of married former protestant clergy remains rare. I know of one fomer Uniting Church minister who has been ordained here in Australia, but no Lutherans and certainly no Baptists.

Given the rarity of this step, therefore, the Rochester Diocese must have made a compelling case for Mr Caton’s ordination, which makes me confident that he will be a great asset to the Church in that place.

Don’t have satellite TV? Well, now you can watch EWTN over the internet on their new YouTube channel. HT to Sharon.

This entry on Cathblog by Simon Rowney (a CathNews reader from Corrimal NSW) is worth reading in full. He concludes his post by saying:

In the modern world proclaiming public and definite truths has special difficulties. Dawkins and many spokespeople for science are not even aware these difficulties exist. They move forward in blissful ignorance of their fundamental myopia.

The Church, on the other hand, is acutely aware of the modern challenge. She is equally aware that personal philosophy can strengthen Faith and create opportunities for evangelization. In large part the Church’s view has been the happy result of Cardinal Newman’s influence. Through the life and writings of this thoroughly modern man, the Church has come to understand and embrace the extraordinary interplay between a personal philosophy and a public creed.

Pope Benedict, deeply influenced by Cardinal Newman has a great deal to offer all people who are willing to listen. We can only hope and pray that one day Dawkins and co will be counted among them.

Last night, I took our Anima Education class out on a “school excursion”. We cancelled the usual lesson at Mary Glowrey House in order to attend the launch of Cardinal George Pell’s new book “Test Everything” at the Celtic Club in Queens Street. My estimate is that there were well over one hundred people present, perhaps 150? I am not a good judge of these things.

“Test Everything” is a bit of an odd book for this day and age. Edited by his biographer, Tess Livingstone, it is a collection of sermons (in the main) and other writings from +George’s episcopal career. I haven’t read it all through yet, but it contains about 80 separate short and individually contained sermons (and such) arranged roughly according to subject rather than date.

Professor Claudio Véliz was on hand to launch the book. He entertained and educated us all – clearly a talented teacher.

He began by describing what he called the “devastating sanity” of Cardinal Pell’s writing and preaching, giving several examples from the book.

Towards the end of the speech, he told us:

I come from one of Chile’s oldest Presbyterian families. I am a member of Scots Church. Apologies to Anthony [Cappello – the publisher] who might have thought that I am a Catholic. This must be the first time that a book by a prince of the Church has been launched by a Chilean Calvinist!

Cardinal Pell spoke simply but also entertainingly of the importance of the Church’s faithfulness to Christ and the Gospel. “I’m not a Catholic atheist or agnostic,” he said:

“I believe what the Catholic Church teaches. As Catholics, we have to keep our base intact. We are one of the important rivers that feeds Australian society, and we have to keep the waters pure.”

He encouraged us as Christians to “keep on talking publically”, stressing that we should do so “courteously”. He went on to show that courtesy himself by saying to Professor Veliz:

“Actually, it was I who suggested Professor Veliz should say a few words, and I was very well aware that he is a Chilean Protestant!”

He did tell a funny story about a visit to a primary school where he was asked to talk to a class of prep students. One young boy stood up and asked him:

“What was Moses’ mother’s name?”
“I’m not sure. It wasn’t Miriam because that was his sister.”
“That’s correct”, the boy replied.
“Well, it’s probably in the Bible somewhere”, the Cardinal continued.
“Yes, it is,” came back the confident affirmation.
“I guess it would be a Hebrew name.”
“Of course,” said the boy.
The Cardinal gave up. “Well, you seem to know the answer; what is it?”
“Jochebed.”

The punchline to this story seems to come at the very end, however, because the Cardinal said he caused “a minor flurry” in the staff room when he asked for a copy of the bible to check the boy’s information! They did manage to find one finally somewhere in the school, and of course, the lad was spot on (check at Exodus 6:20 – and remember this bit of information for when you next have a question and answer opportunity with a Cardinal).

The Cardinal went on to urge us to remain firm with the “basic good news”. The recent meeting of bishops in Sydney was “a tiny bit unusual”, he said:

“We had some very good meetings with my brother bishops. We were all at one on the centrality of preaching Christ. Well, so what, you might say, isn’t that what you should be? Well, you listen to some other people about what you need to do to fac the crisis in the Church and they will list lots of other things than preaching Christ and repentance.”

Sound familiar?

He also spoke of the new liturgy translation, on which he has been working as the Chairman of Vox Clara. He spoke about the simple change of the translation of “Et cum spiritu tuo” to “And with your spirit.”

“A great advantage will be that we will not be able to dodge the question “What is a spirit?”. Because if all Catholic have become materialists the game would be over.”

I will give a further review of the book after I have had a chance to dip into it a bit more, but herewith some pictures (in no particular order):

A week or so ago, reporting on the interview that the Holy Father gave en route to Portugal, John L. Allen Jr. wrote:

In as clear an example of a pope changing the Vatican’s public tone as one is ever likely to see, Benedict pointedly insisted that the real “persecution” facing him personally, and Catholicism generally, comes not from external attacks but from the reality of sin within the church.

What Papa Benny said was this:

In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church. The suffering of the church also comes from within the church, because sin exists in the church. This too has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way. The greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside, but is born in sin within the church. The church thus has a deep need to re-learn penance, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice. Forgiveness does not exclude justice. We have to re-learn the essentials: conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues.

Then just yesterday, addressing a crowd of 150,000 who had gathered at the encouragement of the Italian Bishops Conference for a public show of support for the Holy Father on his return to the Vatican from Portugal, Papa BXVI drove the point home with a hammer (source: Cathnews):

“Today you show the great affection and profound closeness of the Church and the Italian people to the pope and your priests… because, in the commitment to spiritual and moral renewal, we can always do better,” Benedict said, addressing the crowd from the balcony of his Vatican apartment.

“The real enemy to fear and to fight is sin, spiritual evil, which at times, unfortunately, also infects members of the Church,” he said.

Here on Sentire Cum Ecclesia, we have sought to show our support for the Holy Father in the virtual reality of the blogworld in the same way in which that crowd of 150,000 has shown it in Rome. Yet at the same time we have highlighted from the first that what Pope Benedict has been calling for (and explicitly called for in the Irish Letter): a renewed spirit of penitence through fasting, prayer, works of mercy, the reading of scripture and regular recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, and at the same time an increase in Eucharistic Adoration in the presence of the Lord as reparation for sins committed within the Church and by her members. I said at the time that the letter was released that Benedict saw the real problem to be a spiritual one which could only – in the final analysis – be combated with a spiritual revolution.

At the time, I remember Pastor Mark asking for a greater explanation of what reparation meant – a important task to which I will devote myself at some time in the future. But it is even more clear now that the Holy Father sees himself and the Church, far from being “under seige” from forces outside the Church, is under attack from human sin and pride within the Church.

There is an old saying, often quoted by those who work for social justice: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” We might well say that what Pope Benedict is saying to every member of the Church is: “Let there be holiness in the Church, and let it begin with me.” That is a point which I need to have driven home to me every day in my own life, and which my stubborn heart still in so many ways refuses to hear, but I thank God for the pastoral leadership of the Holy Father, and pray that I may hear this message first of all in my own heart and that it may make a change in the way I live my life – for the sake of the Church.

Zenit reports the Pope’s final homily on his Portugal trip:

All People Await Jesus, Says Benedict XVI
Urges Continual Proposal of Gospel, Without Imposing

PORTO, Portugal, MAY 14, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Everyone is waiting for Jesus, even those who don’t realize it, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope stated this today in a Mass celebrated in Porto’s Avenida de los Aliados, in front of the municipal palace, with the participation of 120,000 faithful. Today is the final day of his apostolic trip to Portugal.

“My brothers and sisters,” he said, “you need to become witnesses with me to the resurrection of Jesus.”

The “indispensable mission of every ecclesial community” is “to receive from God and to offer to the world the Risen Christ, so that every situation of weakness and of death may be transformed, through the Holy Spirit, into an opportunity for growth and life,” the Pontiff said.

“And everyone, in the end, asks this of us, even those who seem not to,” he affirmed. “From personal and communal experience, we know well that it is Jesus whom everyone awaits.”

“We impose nothing, yet we propose ceaselessly,” the Holy Father stated.

That’s what we do here at Sentire Cum Ecclesia, Holy Father!

In addition to the new “Liturgical Music in the Catholic Churches of Australia: Crisis and Response – Reflections and Suggestions” I have published an old article called “Liturgical Music and Song: An examination of Conscience” which I wrote in 2003. Again, it provides useful background to my thinking on this topic. And again again, all comments pertaining to that article may be left at the bottom of the article itself rather than here.