Those pesky leaks at the Vatican

John L. Allen Jr. sums up the ongoing controversy:

This week, whenever such a chance encounter has occurred, conversation fairly quickly has turned to one question above all: What the hell is going on around here?
The basis for the question, of course, is the mushrooming Vatican leaks scandal, in which confidential documents are appearing in the papers almost on a daily basis, putting the Vatican in a highly unfavorable light. By now, there are almost too many to keep track, but big-ticket items have included:

• Letters written to the pope and to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, by the current papal ambassador in the United States, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, complaining of corruption in Vatican finances and a campaign of defamation against him. At the time, he was the No. 2 official in the Vatican City State, and desperately trying to avoid being sent away.

• An anonymous memo written about a new Vatican law against money laundering, which suggests the law contains an enormous loophole -- that it blocks action against any offense before April 1, 2011, when the law came into effect.

• Leaked materials fueling charges that the Institute for the Works of Religion (the so-called "Vatican Bank") recently transferred millions of Euro to foreign banks to evade Italian controls, and that it's dodged various Italian inquests.

• Another anonymous document, written in German, describing a conversation Cardinal Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Sicily, allegedly had during a trip to China, in which he predicted the pope would be dead within 12 months and replaced with Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan. That document was passed along to the pope by retired Colombian Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos.

• Two internal Vatican memos, including one written by Cardinal Atillio Nicora, who heads a new financial watchdog agency, warning that recent modifications to the Vatican's law against money laundering would be seen as a "step back" on reform, and could create "alarm" among international regulatory bodies.

As this column is written, rumors have it that more leaked documents are on the way, perhaps as early as the end of this week. Obviously, someone inside the Vatican -- what L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, recently called a bunch of irresponsible "wolves" -- has decided to let the photocopies roll.

And analyzes the impact of these continuing leaks.

Pray for the Holy Father and the Cardinals as they gather for the Consistory tomorrow.

The bill to axe Section 13 passes first major hurdle

OTTAWA (CCN)—A private member’s bill that would axe the controversial censorship provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) has now gone to committee for further study.

Conservative MP Brian Storseth’s Bill C-304, which would repeal the so-called hate speech provision Section 13 in the CHRA, passed l second reading by a 158-131 vote Feb. 15.

A lone Liberal, MP Scott Simms who represents the Bonavista-Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor riding in Newfoundland, voted with the Conservatives, who overwhelmingly supported the bill. Otherwise, the NDP and Liberals opposed the bill.

“I was excited that there was one courageous enough to stand up for his constituents and his own personal views,” said Storseth, who said he hopes for more support from Opposition MPs. Bill C-304 now moves to the justice committee where Storseth hopes it can be fast-tracked for study. If he is successful in getting a priority placed on the bill, it could come up for a final vote in the House this spring, and then go on to the Senate.

The Catholic Civil Rights League applauded the second reading vote. In a Feb. 16 news release, the League said Section 13 “has been used to penalize the peaceable expression of opinion based on religious belief.” It cited the complaints brought against Catholic Insight Magazine that were later dropped, but not until the magazine had spent more than $30,000 defending itself.

“The hate speech provisions in the Criminal Code provide limits on expression that are sufficient in a democracy,” said League executive director Joanne McGarry. “A situation where accusers are free to file complaints that may even lack a serious basis, and then leave the accused to pay his or her own potentially high costs in response, is unacceptable.”

“Freedom of expression and freedom of religion are both Charter rights, and any limitation on them belongs in Parliament and the courts, not administrative tribunals,” she said.

My first story on todays Supreme Court of Canada decision

Read the whole thing over at B.C. Catholic
 
OTTAWA (CCN)—The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Quebec’s mandatory Ethics and Religious Culture program (ERC) does not violate the religious freedom of Catholic parents who wished to exempt their children.
 
The decision has drawn a cautious response from the Quebec Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). They promise to study the decision and monitor further developments. 
 
But the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF), and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) have expressed disappointment with the decision. The League has called it a denial of parental rights.
 
The decision concerns the so-called Drummondville parents, known in the decision as L and J, who fought all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to have their children exempted from the mandatory course on religious freedom grounds. 

“L and J have not proven that the ERC Program infringed their freedom of religion, or consequently, that the school board’s refusal to exempt their children from the ERC course violated their constitutional right,” the decision said. 

 The Canadian Catholic School Trustees, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), the Christian Legal Fellowship and Liberties Association were among the interveners. 

At least 2,000 parents have asked to have their children exempted.   
   
The parents and several interveners argued the ERC is not neutral but indoctrinates children into a form of moral relativism.  The Supreme Court said the evidence does not support that view. The court also said Quebec’s education ministry does not promote a philosophy of relativism, or influence children’s beliefs.

Mark Steyn: handing out condoms on the Titanic

Great column by Mark Steyn.  Go read it all. Here's a taste:

I notice that in their coverage NPR and the evening news shows generally refer to the controversy as being about "contraception," discreetly avoiding mention of sterilization and pharmacological abortion, as if the GOP have finally jumped the shark in order to prevent you jumping anything at all.

It may well be that the Democrats succeed in establishing this narrative. But anyone who falls for it is a sap. In fact, these two issues – the Obama condoms-for-clunkers giveaway and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 900 percent by 2075 – are not unconnected. In Greece, 100 grandparents have 42 grandchildren – i.e., an upside-down family tree. As I wrote a few weeks ago, "If 100 geezers run up a bazillion dollars' worth of debt, is it likely that 42 youngsters will ever be able to pay it off?" Most analysts know the answer to that question: Greece is demographically insolvent. So it's looking to Germany to continue bankrolling its First World lifestyle.

-snip-

But in America, an oblivious political class, led by a president who characterizes young motherhood as a "punishment," prefers to offer solutions to problems that don't exist rather than the ones that are all too real. I think this is what they call handing out condoms on the Titanic.
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, distills the current hysteria thus: "It's as if we passed a law requiring mosques to sell bacon and then, when people objected, responded by saying 'What's wrong with bacon? You're trying to ban bacon!!!!'"
Americans foolish enough to fall for the Democrats' crude bit of misdirection can hardly complain about their rendezvous with the sharp end of that page 58 budget graph. People are free to buy bacon, and free to buy condoms. But the state has no compelling interest to force either down your throat.

Archbishop Hepworth's pastoral letter

Fr.  Anthony Chadwick has it posted in full over at The English Catholic.

I'm going to pick out some excerpts.  Go read it all, though, it is vintage Hepworth.

• Continuing Churches have a long history.  Some have been glorious, others are better forgotten.  They can never be permanent.  They must continue to relate to the Church from which they withdrew, to influence it for good, to make clear the reasons for their withdrawal “into the desert”.  To permanently split from the Church is schism.  To go into the desert to heal the Church is heroic.

• There is only one Church, one Body of Christ, one Vine.  Every ecclesial group must be able to show evidence of its oneness with the Body of Christ, the Church.  As soon as a group becomes permanently and comfortably alone, unacknowledged by any other part of the Church, believing itself to be the only perfect form of Christianity, and accepts and even welcomes that isolation, it has slipped into the schism of the sect.

• There is only one truth given once and for all by Christ.  The Church seeks to expound that truth in every age and to apply it to problems that are new, and to those things that have been challenges in every age.  It is not what the individual thinks; it is what the Church teaches.  The great ecumenical conversations of the past century acknowledged this fact and sought to define both the teaching authority of the Church and the truth that is taught.

• The past century has been a time of massive expansion of human conflict and of the instruments that undergird human conflict.  The permanent expansion of the instruments of conflict has created a world that is tolerant of conflict and human destruction.  Anglican Churches have adopted too readily the destruction of human dignity in all its manifestations – family, livelihood, vocation, community – to achieve ideological victory.  The far more difficult pathway of tolerance and love has been lost.

• The Apostolic Letter of the Pope to Anglicans has reignited dormant bigotry and anti-Catholicism, has forced people (even bishops) to examine the true nature of their faith and to assess the importance of the Catholic teachings that they cannot accept.

The present attempts to expel those who are working (often with exquisite difficulties) to test a vocation to fuse Anglican heritage with Catholic Communion, newly available and still in infancy, is not to be tolerated.

Sad day for religious freedom in Canada

The Drummondville parents lost big time in today's Supreme Court of Canada decision.  The mandatory nature of Quebec's mandatory Ethics and Religious Culture program was upheld and parents do not have a right on religious freedom or conscience grounds to exempt their children from the course.

Here's a link to today's decision:

LifeSiteNews.com was first out of the gate with reaction.  Here's an excerpt.  

“Exposing children to a comprehensive presentation of various religions without forcing the children to join them does not constitute an indoctrination of students that would infringe the freedom of religion of L and J,” the justices wrote in the majority decision.

The high court’s ruling, released at 9:45 Friday morning, comes in the case of S.L. et al. v. Commission scolare des Chênes et al., which involved a Catholic family who took their school board to court after it refused to grant their child an exemption from the province’s controversial ethics and religious culture course (ERC).
The course, which seeks to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a “neutral” stance, was introduced by the province in 2008 and has been widely criticized by the religious and a-religious alike. Moral conservatives and people of faith have criticized its relativistic approach to moral issues, teaching even at the earliest grades, for instance, that homosexuality is a normal choice for family life.
Despite provincial legislation allowing for exemptions from school curriculum, the Ministry of Education has turned down over 1,700 requests, and had even moved to impose the course on private schools and homeschoolers.
Critics warned that a ruling against the family would have frightening consequences for parental authority and risked emboldening provincial governments across the country as they move to impose their own versions of “diversity” education.
The Supreme Court said the parents failed to establish that the course infringed on their ability to pass their faith on to their children.
“Although the sincerity of a person’s belief that a religious practice must be observed is relevant to whether the person’s right to freedom of religion is at issue, an infringement of this right cannot be established without objective proof of an interference with the observance of that practice,” the Supreme Court justices wrote. “It is not enough for a person to say that his or her rights have been infringed.  The person must prove the infringement on a balance of probabilities.”

Victor Davis Hanson on illegal immigration

Excellent points.  Read it all here:

It is time that Americans revisit the issue and ponder very carefully the morality of entering the United States illegally.

True, American employers have welcomed in illegal aliens as a source of cheap labor. Employers were happy to pass the ensuing social costs on to taxpayers. To summarily deport those who have resided here for 20 years, obeyed the law, worked hard, stayed off public assistance, and are now willing to pay a fine, demonstrate English proficiency, and pass a citizenship test would be impracticable, callous, and counterproductive.

Most, however, probably do not fit those reasonable criteria.

More important, we forget that the influx of millions of illegal aliens unfairly undercuts the wages of the working American poor, especially in times of high unemployment.

Crossing the border was also hardly a one-time “infraction.” It was the beginning of serial unethical behavior, as illegal aliens on everyday forms and affidavits are not truthful about their immigration status.

The legal process of immigrating to America has been reduced to a free-for-all rush to the border. Million of applicants abroad wait patiently, if not naïvely, in line to have their education, skills, and capital resources evaluated. But they are punished with delay or rejection because they alone follow immigration law.

Billions of dollars in state and federal social services do not just help provide parity to illegal aliens, but also free them to send back about $50 billion in remittances to Latin America each year. That staggering sum also suggests that Mexico and other Latin American governments, as an element of national policy, quite cynically export human capital to gain U.S. dollars, rather than make the necessary economic, social, and political reforms to keep their own human capital at home.

H/t Blazingcatfur

That Sarah Palin

Wonderful article about her and her son Trig:

Sarah Palin has opened up in an honest and personal account of the joys and challenges of raising a son with Down's Syndrome. 

When she first found out she was expecting Trig, 3, Palin, 47, has admits that she was terrified by the possibility of having a child with special needs. 

'When I discovered early in my pregnancy that my baby would be born with an extra chromosome, the diagnosis of Down syndrome frightened me so much that I dared not discuss my pregnancy for many months. 

'All I could seem to muster was a calling out to God to prepare my heart for what was ahead,' she says in the article to be published in Newseek. 

'My prayers were answered beyond my shallow understanding of what true joy could be.'

The former Alaska governor offered her touching account in Newseek after GOP candidate Rick Santorum briefly abandoned his campaign trail when his three-year-old daughter Bella,Trisomy 18, was hospitalised with pneumonia last week.

Palin said; 'It’s a sacrifice every parent and caregiver of a child with special needs sympathises with.' 

'Yes, we face extra fears and challenges, but our children are a blessing, and the rest of the world is missing out in not knowing this.'

In article for Newsweek, Palin, pictured here with Trig in 2009, admits that she was terrified at the prospect of having a child with special needs when she first found out she was pregnant

The mother-of-five said she herself has had to make sacrifices by putting her family first, but has never regretted it despite having to place some pursuits on the back burner.

In the Newsweek article, she lays bare the difficulties of raising a child with special needs, admitting that it is a 'unique challenge'.

She acknowledges the constant fear about Trig's future because of health and social challenges. 

'Certainly some days are much more difficult than if I had a 'normal' child. 

'Many everyday activities like doctor’s appointments and social gatherings
and travel accommodations and even mealtimes and a solid night of sleep are that much more difficult.'

But despite the difficulties Palin said she would not change her son for the world.

'At the end of the day I wouldn’t trade the relative difficulties for any convenience or absence of fear. God knew what he was doing when he blessed us with Trig. 

'We went from fear of the unknown to proudly displaying a bumper sticker sent to us that reads: “My kid has more chromosomes than your kid!'

Mother-of-five Sarah Palin, pictured here (2nd L) holding Trig as she stands with her daughters Willow (L), Piper (R) and her husband Todd, has opened up in a Newsweek article

Everyday Trig wakes up with a round of applause, Palin says in the article.

'He welcomes each day with thunderous applause and laughter. He looks around at creation and claps as if to say, 'OK, world, what do you have for me today?'

A Valentine's Day statement from our Ordinary

Well, he's not our Ordinary yet, but we are hoping he eventually will be, that is, unless by some miracle we get a Canadian Ordinariate.  But I'm liking this a lot:

Msgr. Steenson Speaks out against the HHS Mandate

Msgr. Steenson on Recent HHS Mandate

Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image:
Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make
no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use
our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of
justice in our communities and among the nations, to the
glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.

-Collect for Social Justice
Book of Divine Worship, Page 509

As the newly-installed Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I stand with the bishops and those throughout the Church in protesting recent threats by the Administration to our moral teaching and constitutional freedoms.  I urge all those in association or sympathy with the Ordinariate to pray for justice and to make your concerns known to those in authority.

Recently, the President proposed a mandate that would force Catholic and other religious organizations to violate their consciences by paying for artificial contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, and surgical sterilizations, as part of employee insurance plans. This is in violation of Catholic moral teaching.

Strong nationwide objections were raised. As a result, the Administration put forth a second proposal. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops notes that this proposed “compromise” remains unacceptable. The USCCB has provided excellent resources online to ensure parishioners have the most current information. I ask that you review these materials, contact your legislators as called for and to continue to pray for respect for our basic right to practice our religion.

As Catholics we are called to live out our faith not simply on Sunday, but in all aspects of our lives, and to speak out on behalf of the truth. This is one of those times as we face proposed health care mandates that would violate Catholic teaching and seriously infringe on our religious liberty.

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson
February 14, 2012

A treasure trove----look at this on spiritual friendship

The Society of Canadian Catholic Bloggers a treasure trove of blog posts and this morning, in between filing my HST/GST taxes and preparing to write several stories, I came across this gem on Holy Friendship at The Christian State in Life:

United in Christ: Bl. Jordan of Saxony & Bl. Diana d’Andalo
By: Madeleine Gubbels

“You are so deeply engraven on my heart that the more I realize how truly you love me from the depths of your soul, the more incapable I am of forgetting you and the more constantly you are in my thoughts; for your love of me moves me profoundly, and makes my love for you burn more strongly.”

You will probably be surprised to learn that those words were written to a Dominican nun from a Dominican priest in the thirteenth century. You may be even more surprised to learn that their relationship was nothing like that of Abelard and Heloise or of Martin Luther and Katherine von Bora. Indeed, the love between Bl. Jordan of Saxony and Bl. Diana d’Andalo burned ever passionately but ever chastely from the day they met until the day they died—and beyond! As Jordan wrote to her again:

“…Why are you thus anguished? Am I not yours, am I not with you: yours in labour, yours in rest; yours when I am with you, yours when I am far away; yours in prayer, yours in merit, yours too, as I hope, in the eternal reward? …were I to die you would not be losing me; you would be sending me before you to [heaven], that I abiding there might pray for you to the Father and so be of much greater use to you there, living with the Lord, than here in this world where I die all the day long.”

What an unusual pair of lovers! It is not often that the Church has seen a celibate couple bound to each other with such strength of love, though Francis and Claire of Assisi, and Jane de Chantal and Francis de Sales, spring to mind. Their relationship challenges us: how can a love between a man and a woman be so intense yet so disinterested, so detached?

Celebrating kids birthdays

You can find some of the most interesting and heartwarming things over at the Society of Canadian Catholic Bloggers, such as this post by Embracing the Now  (this is an excerpt--go read it all, it will warm your heart!)

February 7, 2012

kid-focused birthdays

We could call this post "blurry photo alert!" because if kid birthdays are nothing else, they are often a flurry of movement that can be almost impossible to capture without an expensive camera, of which I am currently deprived.

But I've been thinking a lot lately about how we do birthdays, and since my poor little Jeremiah didn't get to enjoy a blog post when he turned five three days before Christmas (come to think of it, I don't think that I have ever blogged about his birthday), I thought that he deserved an honourable mention. By the time I had four kids, I learned a little about setting priorities. Home-made cakes (with butter and icing sugar frosting) have always been something that I've wanted to be part of my kids' childhood, but letting them be involved in how we celebrate their birthdays is really important to us as well. The last few years have involved a lot of scenes like this one pictured above. Do you see the five made out of blueberries? Look closely? This particular cake was basically a large blueberry muffin (he requested a blueberry cake) baked in a pie pan. So easy since I didn't even have to remove the cake from the pan to serve it. Yes, that is partially melted icing on the cake (we were in a hurry to get it decorated and it hadn't quite cooled yet). And the second one? That was for Christmas morning brunch. Ha, ha. Aren't I clever, multi-tasking like that?

And Thetheologyofdad, host of the new Canadian Catholic blog aggregator, has posted some nice pictures of his lovely family.  He writes:

 You may have been wondering why no pictures of the family for a while. See, it was shame-motivated. I had given a blogging buddy a hard time for this same thing once. She had not been posting pictures because she could not find the cable to upload the pictures to her computer. This same thing happened to me. Now it is found, so the shame has lifted and we can all sit back and enjoy the Kerr family for a few minutes:

There are lots more pictures here.

And speaking of birthdays----here is some news about the fifth birthday party of the most beautiful boy in the world:

Since we were in Greer on Ben's birthday, we had his birthday party a week later. This is the first real birthday party I have thrown for him and I think it was a HUGE success. He chose transformer theme (well, I kind of encouraged that theme since I had obtained all the decoration and plates etc on clearance:) ). We had 4 kids show up and it was the perfect number - any more and it would have been chaos!

When the kids arrived they were greeted by a large Optimus Prime Truck. I had built it out of cardboard boxes and table cloths, with Ben (and Mae's) assistance. I was sure the party would destroy it but it turned out to be super sturdy and is STILL sitting in my front room 1 week later. Not sure what I am going to do with it as it's too cool to throw out!
We also had a table set up with a bunch of Ben's transformer toys for the kids to play with.
After everyone had arrived, our 1st activity was making our own transformer pictures. I had precut all different shapes and colors of construction paper and gave each child a glue stick and blank paper to create their transformer on. This activity was completed in about 4 minutes :)

My story on the Companions of the Cross

Sadly, I misspelled Fr. Scott McCaig's last name in the piece.  Read the whole thing over at the B.C. Catholic/

OTTAWA (CCN) - When the Companions of the Cross (CC) met for the General Assembly Jan. 30-Feb. 3 in Cornwall, Ontario, the priests had their first chance to reflect on the impact of last year’s death of their founder, Father Bob Bedard.

“The passing of a founder, of a spiritual father in Christ is a watershed for any community in the history of the Church,” said CC Moderator Father Scott McQuaig, who was re-elected Feb. 3 for a second six-year term as the Order’s leader.

“The Lord really spoke a vision for life and spirituality and mission into the heart of Father Bob and this is what we’re called to live ourselves now,” he said. “The Church often speaks of the charism of the founder. Spiritual communities need to be faithful to that initial grace, that initial mission; we need to live that out.”

The Order’s 38 priests, who are based in Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto and Houston, Texas, never had an opportunity to get together to talk as brothers after Bedard’s Oct. 12 funeral, McQuaig said.

“A big part of what we did is talk about the spiritual patrimony passed on to us by Father Bob and what gifts we are meant to multiply, to pass on and incarnate.”

McQuaig described Bedard as a pioneer of the New Evangelization. Reading Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelization in the modern world in 1975 “changed everything” for Bedard from his preaching to his priorities as a priest, he said. “He grasped the significance of the document.”

The CC priests can look back and see a prophetic dimension to Father Bob’s life and priesthood, as he founded the new order a little more than 25 years ago,” McQuaig said. Bedard saw the found as a “move of God” that was in the current of grace announced by Pope John Paul II when he spoke of the New Evangelization.

But just as the first evangelization, required Pentecost, where the disciples waited in the Upper Room to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II also spoke of a new Pentecost to provide the new gifts to lead and empower the New Evangelization, McQuaig said, noting Pope Benedict XVI has also spoken of this. “Father Bob was prophetically aware of that early on.”

Bedard was a pioneer of the New Pentecost through his experience of the Holy Spirit in 1975, and a leader in the Charismatic Renewal up to the last years of his life, McQuaig said.

“The reason he was so effective as a leader of the Renewal was he was able to bring it into the heart of the faith,” McQuaig said. In the 1970s, the Marian Movement and Charismatic Renewal were separate and exhibited mutual distrust, but Father Bob integrated the Marian teachings, as well as the teaching authority of the Magisterium, the role of Peter in unity, the lives of the saints and the importance of the sacraments—especially the centrality of the Eucharist into his teaching.

“He coined a phrase for us: Fully Catholic, with an Evangelical heart and Pentecostal fire,” he said.

IMFC weighs in on Bill 13

Bill 13 foists activism on Ontario schoolchildren

• 
 
• 
 
• comments

Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 11:44

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) has published a study entitled Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy Reviewed.- imfcanada.org

OTTAWA - An Ottawa-based think tank said mandating gay-straight alliances (GSAs) as part of Ontario government’s anti-bullying strategy will only force students into activism.

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) warns of negative effects on freedom and equality if Ontario’s Equity and Inclusion Strategy forces students to move “beyond tolerance to acceptance and respect.”

“Diversity will only flourish in Ontario schools when students are encouraged to respectfully interact with different thoughts and opinions,” said the IMFC in its study entitled Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy Reviewed.[DOWNLOAD REPORT HERE]

The IMFC is a non-partisan think tank that compiles the latest social science research to help guide public policy in the areas of marriage and family. It recommends that parents, as “primary” educators, should be actively involved in their children’s education and that they should hold school boards and trustees accountable for “ensuring equity strategies encourage diversity of thought and opinion.”

Read it all at the Catholic Register

Preparing for Lent

And I think I will give up blogging and indiscriminately surfing the Internet and reading my favorite blogs--except on Sundays, in which you might see some posts from me.

So what do you think of my planned electronic fast for Lent?

I would fast altogether, but alas, for my work, I do need to stay connected to the Internet.
The temptation to peek will be fierce.

Welcome and Congratulations Msgr. Steenson!

Whispers in the Loggia reports on his installation yesterday:

Clad in the pontificalia of a bishop yet still the married father of three, this Sunday made for a unique moment in the life of the Stateside church as Jeffrey Steenson -- once head of the Episcopal church's most sprawling diocese -- was liturgically installed as founding shepherd of thenationwide Ordinariatefor Anglicans entering the Catholic communion, dedicated to the Chair of St Peter.
While the Anglican Use Mass in the Cathedral of the new jurisdiction's see-city of Houston had initially been slated for next Sunday to coincide with the venture's patronal feast, the liturgy was moved up in light of next weekend's consistory to accommodate the presence of two of the top Vatican project's key American movers: Cardinals Donald Wuerl of Washington (Rome's delegate for the US' implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus) and Galveston-Houston's Daniel DiNardo, who's released his archdiocese's Our Lady of Walsingham parish to serve as the Ordinariate's de facto cathedral, technically termed its "principal church."
-snip-
With the Ordinariate's erection by CDF decree on New Year's Day, the number of American Catholic jurisdictions now stands at 198. Some hundred priests and as many as two thousand laity are expected to enter the structure just in its first wave; the first community to directly join the Ordinariate, Baltimore's Mount Calvary parish, was received by Steenson in late January. Given earlier indications from north of the border, the reach of the quasi-diocese is likewise to include Canadian groups seeking to take up Pope Benedict's 2009 offer of joint entry to Anglican communities wishing to full communion en masse.
Following sign-offs from the Vatican and their local Latin-rite bishop, the Ordinariate's approved candidates for priesthood will soon begin an expedited online program of formation, with the first of the crop likely to be ordained before year's end.

Photos here. 

Fr. Steenson's installation homily today

Congratulations Fr. Steenson.  I wish I could have been there.  But I assure you of my prayers and support.

Here's an excerpt of his homily.  Go on over and read it all.

The third century popes are heroes to me, because they were courageous pastors who sought to restore those brethren who had broken or fallen away to the full communion of the Catholic Church.  At a time when many bishops were very severe and uncompromising about the purity of the Church, God gave us popes who understood that welcoming back the wandering and the fallen is of the very essence of the ministry that Jesus gave to the Apostles.  In the letters of St. Cyprian there is a remarkable and revealing correspondence from St. Firmilian of Caesarea about Pope Stephen (Ep. 75, ca. 255) – Can you believe it, Cyprian?  Stephen actually thinks that he sits on the chair of Peter as he orders us to accept the baptism of these separated groups!  He actually wants us to regard these people as Christians!

I think this is the important context in which to understand what Pope Benedict is saying to us inAnglicanorum coetibus.  Some will argue that the Catholic Church makes Christian unity a difficult thing to achieve.  Look at what is being asked of those who are considering the Ordinariate! – Anglicans have not only to be received but even confirmed, and their clergy ordained in the absolute form.  Is this not asking them to begin all over again?  Certainly not!  From Zephyrinus to Callistus to Cornelius to Stephen – these third century popes, most of whom laid down their lives as martyrs, who governed the Church at a time when it seemed as though the gates of hell really might prevail, threatening to destroy her essential unity – the Catholic Church simply asked that the bonds of charity be restored sacramentally by invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit.  These are brothers and sisters, returning home.

The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity.  St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy.  He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort.  Like an old coat which is always being torn and is difficult to mend, the unity of the Church must never be taken for granted but requires great diligence and courage from her leaders (Bas. Ep.113).  St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day.  This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.  I can’t think of a better illustration for this homily than Bernini’s great sculpture of the Chair of St. Peter in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica:  Peter’s chair is upheld by the great fathers of the Church; and, hovering over it all, the luminous alabaster dove, the Holy Spirit, bathing everything in the radiance of God’s love. 

There is so much to be celebrated about the patrimony of Anglicanism, its liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions, which the Catholic Church welcomes as a treasure to be shared.  But let us be clear about our first principles.  So many people during the 477 years that Anglicans have been separated from Rome have prayed fervently and made great sacrifices for this day to come.  In obedience and trust they embraced whole-heartedly all that Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his disciples requires (Jn. 17:21).  It is surely no coincidence that this reconciliation should come at the very time Pope Benedict has put the new evangelization at the top of the Church’s agenda.  To be converted and conformed to the image of Christ means that his Church will be transformed and renewed through and through.  I so much appreciate how our Chancellor, Dr. Margaret Chalmers, puts it:  “Our patrimony is people.”  We thus open our hearts, in humility and love, to all Christians divided by culture and circumstance and misunderstanding.  We extend our hand in friendship to all who seek the Truth.  These are our companions along the way.  We begin with a strong faith that God has given us Peter, his hand firmly on the tiller, returning us to Jesus, “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (I Pet. 2:25).

– Fr. Jeffrey Steenson