"It is not thou that shapest God
it is God that shapest thee.
If thou art the work of God
await the hand of the artist
who does all things in due season.
Offer Him thy heart,
soft and tractable,
and keep the form
in which the artist has fashioned thee.
Let thy clay be moist,
lest thou grow hard
and lose the imprint of his fingers."
I just ran across this prayer by St. Irenaeus today. I love this part:
"Let thy clay be moist,
lest thou grow hard
and lose the imprint of his fingers."
Of course the issue which has sucked all the oxygen out of the room regarding the USCCB virtual meeting is whether or not President Joe Biden should be allowed to received Communion. But that was actually not the only issue discussed. One of them was the ongoing discussion of the infamous survey which indicated that 60-70% of Catholics did not believe in the Real Presence. This has been the cause of real anguish among clergy, catechists, and hierarchy who despair that we are failing to pass along the basics of the faith to Catholics. I think these people should take heart that the situation is not as dire as they imagine. I actually wrote about this in 2019 , hence the title of this post as Parsing the Eucharist II. I still feel that the survey was flawed; and how could it fail to be, since it tried to describe one of the "big three" mysteries of Catholic belief, the other two being the Trinity and the Incarnation.
I have since some across an article by Deacon Steven Greydanus which is the best explanation I have come across of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist:
No, neither B16 nor his aides have leaked his thoughts on Eucharistic Consistency controversy. Rather he spoke about it to the American Bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, 16 April 2008
The money quote (thanks to Rocco)
It is in this fertile soil, nourished from so many different sources, that all of you, Brother Bishops, are called to sow the seeds of the Gospel today. This leads me to ask how, in the twenty-first century, a bishop can best fulfill the call to “make all things new in Christ, our hope”? How can he lead his people to “an encounter with the living God”, the source of that life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks (cf. Spe Salvi, 4)?
Perhaps he needs to begin by clearing away some of the barriers to such an encounter. While it is true that this country is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behavior.
Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?
Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.
According to Rocco, no one has called attention to this yet.
Now I don't think that bishops should issue anything on Eucharist consistency. The most likely result of that will be that many people who have done virtual liturgy for the past year will use it as an excuse not to come to Church for communion. Maybe Communion is for Republicans? The virtual Mass is for Democrats.
However since the train has left the station and they need to avoid a train wreck, Benedict has created them a nice model. The last paragraph above is a good introduction to consistency. The previous paragraph is a well rounded model of Christian life.
I’d like to share with you some of my reflections that offered the seminarians during our retreat:
In my mind, the two greatest evils in American history are slavery and abortion. I will always be ashamed that instead of strongly opposing slavery and racism, too often in our history, American Catholics tended to be assimilated into the dominant culture that justified slavery, maybe even as a necessary evil, but necessary. Religious communities and Catholics were slaveowners; bishops defended the institution of slavery. This was fueled in part by a Catholic inferiority complex that impelled us to be ever trying to prove how American we were and, hence, very pliable under societal pressure. There were Catholic abolitionists, but the Church in the United States failed miserably to be a prophetic voice by not condemning the cruel institution of slavery. Other religious groups like the Quakers were much more faithful to the Gospel values and defending the human rights of the enslaved. The Catholic Church’s historical complicity with slavery causes much pain and shame today, particularly among our Black Catholics.
The Catholic Church’s history with abortion in the United States is different. We were not co-opted by the secular culture; we were not assimilated into the pro-abortion mentality of political correctness. The Catholic Church in the United States — the hierarchy of the United States —has never retreated from the fight against abortion. And before other groups ever raised a finger, the Catholic bishops were loud in our opposition to the culture of death. I do not know of any other hierarchy in the world that has fought harder to stop abortion and to promote the Gospel of Life.
As a young priest, I was working with Nellie Gray, organizing the first March for Life in Washington, eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches she would serve me in her living room. Nellie Gray was a lawyer working in the Labor Department at the time of Roe vs. Wade. She immediately gave up her job and dedicated her life to making the world safer for unborn babies. The pundits were all saying that these groups of pro-life people will all die off, and the future will be ours — for the people of choice.
Well, 50 years later, the pro-life movement has not died off, and, in great part, it is because the Catholic Church is here.
In my lifetime, our Church has not done a great job in teaching people about preparedness for the Eucharist. I grew up in a world where many people were afraid to come to Communion. If you swallowed even a sip of water while brushing your teeth, you might be afraid to draw near the Communion rail for fear of committing a sacrilege. As a young priest, I spent hours in the confessional with people tortured by scruples. No Catholic ever wants to commit a sacrilege. That fear often made people hesitate to receive the sacrament.
At the same time, I saw many people were motivated to leave behind a life of sin and vice because of their hunger to receive the Eucharist. Mauriac speaks of how people’s hunger for the Eucharist brings about conversion in their lives. Some people have resisted temptation, overcome feelings of jealousy and revenge, abandoned infidelities and lies, all because of their desire to be able to receive the Body and Blood of Christ worthily.
After the Second Vatican Council, we had many liturgical changes that came quickly. Many of these changes were very helpful, but often there was little explanation or catechesis about why things were changing. When I was a young lad, to receive Communion, we fasted from midnight, even from water. Only the priests could touch the host. We received Communion kneeling down. We all went to confession almost every Saturday. Women covered their heads in Church, if not with a hat, with a piece of Kleenex or a glove. All of this changed practically overnight. There was never any anthropological consideration of how changing the symbols can change the meaning for people.
One of the things that changed was the connection between confession and Communion. Suddenly, the impression was often given that everyone was invited to come forward to receive, regardless of their preparedness or lack of it.
I would welcome a good catechesis about how we must prepare to receive the Eucharist worthily, but I fear that the discussion that is simply about denying Communion to politicians has already become the focus of the conversation, resulting in a lot of finger-pointing and finger waving. The serious examination that we need to make as Catholics is being subsumed into the political polarization of our country.
Our Catholics, whether conservative liberal or middle-of-the-road, have been through a lot. I always say that being a Catholic in Boston is a contact sport. The secularization of our culture, the loss of a commonly held Christian anthropology, and now the fallout of the sex abuse crisis have left Catholics shaken in their faith, angry at the bishops and mistrustful of leadership in the Church.
The controversy about the denying of Communion to politicians fuels anger on both sides. If we bishops get caught up in this fight, we can easily give the impression that we are divided in our opposition to abortion, and I do not believe that.
We need to show a united stance on behalf of the Gospel of life and all of its ramifications. If we are divided, we will be weakening the Church, and our ability to promote the Gospel of Life will be compromised. Denial of Communion to politicians will be interpreted by most Americans and Catholics as partisan politics that has nothing to do with reverence or piety.
I understand how Catholics can be angry and saddened when our elected officials try to dismiss the Gospel of Life as some optional sectarian issue rather than the sacred duty to defend human rights. It has nothing to do about imposing our Catholic faith on anyone. It is a human rights issue.
We need to recommit ourselves to working tirelessly to overcome abortion by changing hearts, by serving women in difficult pregnancies and by changing the conditions of injustice that push people to the tragic choice of destroying their own children.
So often, when I am speaking to our priests and deacons about their great responsibility to teach the truths of the Catholic faith, I try to make the point that people will give us a hearing if they see that we are authentic in living our life of discipleship and if they are convinced that we care about them.
The Holy Father calls on us to dialogue with those who do not agree with our convictions. We must try to engage in a way that will bring more light and less heat to the conversation. Otherwise, the sad divisions that plague our country and our Church will only grow deeper and more intractable.
Today, we are living a very challenging time for the pro-life cause, as became evident at our Spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Though each bishop may have a different opinion on the best way to promote the defense of life in the current context, there is no doubt in my mind that they are all pro-life and want to do what is in their power to protect innocent human life and communicate the Church’s social teaching to our Catholic people.
It’s hard to imagine anyone in the United States who does not know of the Catholic Church’s unfailing opposition to abortion. This will never change.
The present debate about Communion for Catholic politicians supporting abortion exhibits a deep divide among the bishops on this topic, but not on abortion.
Unfortunately, when these kinds of divisions become too evident, it hinders our ability to be able to teach the Gospel and draw our communities closer to Christ and one another.
The Eucharist is the center of our life as a Church, and I hope that, as the drafting of the document progresses, we will find a way to reconcile the different perspectives on how to take a pastoral approach with our Catholic politicians without undermining the centrality and importance of the Eucharist.
The Holy Father is urging us to find paths to heal divisions and announce the good news boldly and joyfully.
Our prolife witness as Catholics: how to best do this
I liked the comparison to slavery; the life of the unborn is a civil rights issue. Life beginning at conception is a Catholic belief. I fully endorse the following quote
We need to recommit ourselves to working tirelessly to overcome abortion by changing hearts, by serving women in difficult pregnancies and by changing the conditions of injustice that push people to the tragic choice of destroying their own children.
The decline in awe of the Eucharist and its relationship to confession/
If the bishops just focus on giving a better model of these Eucharist and Confession I would be very happy.
In my lifetime, our Church has not done a great job in teaching people about preparedness for the Eucharist. I grew up in a world where many people were afraid to come to Communion.
One of the things that changed was the connection between confession and Communion I would welcome a good catechesis about how we must prepare to receive the Eucharist worthily,
Political and ecclesial polarization and dialogue
THE CENTRAL PROBLEM IS HOW TO PRODUCED A BADLY NEEDED DOCUMENT ON PREPARATION FOR THE EUCHARIST IN THE CONTEXT OF A MORE INCLUSIVE PROLIFE APPROACH THAT DECREASES RATHER THAN INCREASES POLARIZATION IN CHURCH AND SOCIETY. LOL! THE TRAIN HAS LEFT THE STATION. I SEE CARDINAL SEAN APPROACH AS ALSO BEING HELPFUL IN PREVENTING A TRAIN WRECK!
Denial of Communion to politicians will be interpreted by most Americans and Catholics as partisan politics that has nothing to do with reverence or piety.
The Holy Father calls on us to dialogue with those who do not agree with our convictions. We must try to engage in a way that will bring more light and less heat to the conversation. Otherwise, the sad divisions that plague our country and our Church will only grow deeper and more intractable.
UPDATE 6/24/2021 2:39 pm Central Time: the USCCB has released its own Q&A, available here (h/t Jim McCrea). It's quite brief. Among other things, it states that the bishops didn't vote last week to deny communion to anyone. It insists that the document to be drafted "is not meant to be disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one individual or class of persons." And it announces that "[t]here will be no national policy on withholding Communion from politicians."
UPDATE 6/21/2021 11:56 pm Central Time: I added some additional material to the answer to the third and final question below, in an attempt to provide some context for the motion's margin of passage. In short: even though the margin seems decisive, it falls short of a consensus. That supports the conclusion that the conference is currently divided on this question.
-----
News sources are reporting that, at the June meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which wrapped up last Friday, the bishops voted to proceed with drafting a document on the Eucharist. Here is Gabriella Borter and Julia Harte at Reuters:
A divided conference of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops announced on Friday that they had voted to draft a statement on Holy Communion that may admonish Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, who support abortion rights.
The 168-55 decision to draft a teaching document on the Eucharist, a holy sacrament in the Roman Catholic faith, came after two hours of debate at the virtual assembly of the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference on Thursday, in which the bishops weighed the merits of reaffirming church teachings against the possibility of sowing partisan division.
Naturally, questions occur. Herewith are some questions and their rather unsatisfactory answers.
A very curious op-ed in the NY Times from Mr. Perriello, the U.S. executive director of Open Society Foundations, who is a former diplomat and member of Congress. A Catholic, he tells us that he takes communion only when he is outside of the United States because of his displeasure with the American bishops!
So are we now going to have liberals decide that they are not going to go to communion, and perhaps not go physically to Mass, and perhaps no longer contribute to the collection box because American bishops have become involved in politics? That would be real escalation in weaponizing the Eucharist.
What happens if the end result of the Bishop's weaponizing the Eucharist is that many liberals decide that they basically want nothing to do with local churches and only identify with the Universal Church outside the USA?
Perriello does not explicitly advocate this but he certainly seems headed in that direction.
This is my homily for today, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B. The readings for today are here. I gave this homily at the Saturday evening mass - that is why I mentioned Juneteenth at the beginning.
Last night as I was closing things up, I noticed several fireflies from the back porch. I remembered the posts here about fireflies.
June 14, 2017 by Jean Raber 50 comments including much conversation about snakes, trees, climate change and Anglo-Saxons!
Normally Margaret Steinfels starts this off, but the fireflies are early in Michigan this year. Just a few last night. They usually peak around July 4. Hopefully mosquito spraying has not decimated them.
Nature observations are an anodyne to the political idiocy. No matter how bad humans mess up, the creatures do their creature thing and the moon and stars continue their predictable phases.
God has given us a beautiful world to live in that offers perspective and restoration.
Margaret: Back in NYC at the moment...so no fireflies. Glad Michigan has been lit up.
Tom: Florida life as usual. Zika mosquitoes are back. Also chickungunga or however you spell it, Eastern equine encephalitis, dengue fever, etc. Another summer in Paradise.
Stanley: I don't have to move to FL, Tom. Thanks to the CO2, FL is moving to PA.
Katherine: Seriously, would anyone miss Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus if they went extinct?
Crystal: I've still never seen a firefly. Maybe they don't live out west
Katherine: Have only seen one firefly here yet, and he was in the house. I was hoping the cats wouldn't catch him, it wouldn't do either them or the bug any good.
Jean, you are right about the beautiful world. We get so focused on the bad stuff that we forget to notice the beautiful things.
July 16, 2017 Margaret 17 comments Much about Michigan only passing mention of Fireflies
Margaret: Fireflies have probably flamed out. So let's ask Jean about "rust belt" Michigan.
July 3, 2019 Margaret 9 comments
Happy to report the fireflies have returned. Cold evenings, sometimes in the forties, were worrisome. But last night and tonight they are out and about glowing in the darkness.
Jimmy Mac: Haven't seen and since 1962.
Jean: Hardly any fireflies here, though this week has been hovering around 90 with humidity at 70 percent, and looks to be hotter tomorrow and Friday. A couple of weeks ago, it barely made it into the 60s and 70s.
Jack: Glad to see the firefly report is back. I saw my first ones about a week ago when I was out after sunset, and thought of the firefly report.
Jean: Plenty still here in Michigan, though they peaked about a week ago. Watched them last night. Temps have been extremely warm--high 80s/low 90s for most of the month. Hot weather seems to keep them around longer.
Katherine: Glad you get to spend some time at the cabin.
We are still having a few fireflies light up. They didn't really have a peak this year, but have been showing up a few at a time for a month. Maybe they are distancing.
We have been dismayed by the news stories that ground-penetrating radar confirmed the remains of the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, last month. The school was Canada's largest such facility and was operated by the Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969.
Pope Francis has been criticized that he expressed pain, but stopped short of a formal apology: Pope voices 'pain' over Indigenous children's deaths, doesn't apologize | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)
What form should an apology for a situation such as this take, when the victims are dead, and the perpetrators are likely to be as well? But the sins of the past cast a long shadow.
Update 6/21/2021 9:56 am CT: NY Times columnists Gail Collins and Bret Stephens do a mildly witty (well, sometimes it's actually pretty sharp and funny) written back-and-forth on current events called The Conversation. In their latest installment, they spend a few paragraphs on ranked choice voting. I've excerpted it at the bottom of the post.
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I am going to present two real-life math and logic problems. This is the first one.
This is an excellent article that gives the big picture with all its details. The summary below is a draft of what I intend to put out on the Cleveland Commonweal Community website. The original article is a delightful almost witty interview with this doctor.
1. TOTAL DEATHS U.S. COVID-19 deaths will soon surpass the domestic toll from the great influenza of a century ago even as widely available vaccines have worked wonders.
2. UNLIKELY TO BE ERADICATED A virus that infects multiple species, animals and humans, and has multiple new variants (each having the potential to re-infect people) is very poor candidate to be eradicated. Twelve different species have been infected with COVID-19, usually from humans. We have been unable to eradicate yellow fever because monkeys get it.
3. QUICKER RESPONSE It took us well over 200 years after we had a vaccine before we could eradicate smallpox,. Seventy years after we had a vaccine against polio, we began a global polio program. And by January, a year from the day that COVID-19 began, we had started a global vaccination program. That is astonishing progress; we should feel really grateful.
4. INEFFECTIVE VACCINES. We already have one vaccine AstraZeneca that, when matched against one variant, the beta, becomes 90 percent ineffective. In trials, its effectiveness was reduced to 10 or 20 percent. This should be a big flashing red light for us. We could get a variant that renders all vaccines ineffective. This is not a high probably, not fifty percent but maybe five percent! We should take into account even that low probability.
5. HOW MANY UNVACCINATED PEOPLE IS THE IMPORTANT NUMBER We should realize that if 30 percent of Americans are not vaccinated, that’s 120 million people. And that’s plenty for the virus—the ancestral virus, let alone a novel virus, let alone a super-variant—to come in and create another wave, and a large one at that.
6. CLUSTER BUSTING TEAMS. Therefore we need to have a defensive capability, a system of cluster-busters. This is a Japanese term for teams that are mobile, with highly computerized systems with a situational report that can see where every variant is. We can find asymptomatics. We need to be doing sewage sampling, environmental sampling. It’s very inexpensive once it’s set up. We need this to find out which countries are infected. We’ve done that in the polio program—this is not new! In the polio program, when we found out that Syria, which was supposedly free of polio, had causative viruses in the sewage, we sequenced the viruses to find out which polio variant it was. We did this 15 or 20 years ago—this is not science fiction. We should, all over the United States, have sewage sampling now.
7. EXPOSURE NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS. And we should be using exposure notification systems. I know there was a big article in The New York Times a few weeks ago about how bad they are. They’re not bad, they’re wonderful. Exposure notification systems, when compared to human contact-tracing systems, found two times as many contacts for people who are exposed (four, compared to two) and found them two days earlier. Then we’ll know who to test, who to isolate, and who to vaccinate
8. EARLY DETECTION AND ISOLATION. But you are never going to have a vaccine on the day that a novel virus leaps out from a chimpanzee or a mink to a human. On that day, the only thing you have is early detection and rapid response and isolation. .
9.ANIMAL PROTEIN Animals and humans are living in each other’s territory now in a way that we haven’t done. Sixty percent of the animals that we had 40, 50 years ago are gone, because humans are eating animals, including monkeys and rodents. And thirty years ago in China, the number of pigs and cows that were available for food was a fraction of what it is right now.
10.SUMMER TRAVEL Summer travel last year caused the explosion that we saw in the fall. If a third of the population, 30 percent, is not vaccinated, not wearing masks, and we’ve already got the variants in the United States—what do you think’s going to happen? Remember, what drives a virus is not how good we’ve been at vaccinating 60 percent. It’s the 120 million Americans who are not vaccinated, not wearing masks, not practicing social distancing, and who are congregating. And it only takes one little virus,
11.ANOTHER SOUTHERN SURGE? I am extremely worried that the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year cadence will bring about another wave this year. I look at Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi—the states that have been tepid about wearing masks, anti-vax, late to close, and early to open. That’s a formula for creating risk.
12. WHERE IN THE WORLD We have to worry about the parts of Africa that are densely populated. South Africa is an example of a country that became an explosive outbreak almost overnight because of a new variant.
13. AIR TRANSPORTATION H1N1, the virus that caused the great influenza, went around the world four times in one year. What did they not have then? Commercial airplanes. You don’t want to underestimate your adversary.
14. LAB BREAKOUTS Back to 1975, we worked so hard and we declared smallpox eliminated, and then we began the clock ticking. We weren’t going to declare it eradicated until two years would have passed after the last case. Before the two-year clock had ticked, we had our last case. Our last death was in Birmingham, England. It was a young woman who was a photographer. Her photographic studio was located above a smallpox lab. The virus somehow got into the air conditioning system and floated up from the smallpox lab and infected her and she died. If we were so careless that the last death of smallpox was a lab accident, a lab accident could happen anywhere.
15. R naught is really critical. Is defined as the number of secondary cases that come from a primary case. Because this virus is going to spread at exponential speed, it tells you what’s the exponent. In the case of measles, one case gives rise to 10 to 12 others. In the case of influenza or Ebola, one case gives rise to about 1.2 or 1.3. These are laggards; measles is the most transmissible. Smallpox was 3.5 to 4.5 and COVID-19, initially was thought to be 2 or 3. In retrospect, now that we know we were missing all the asymptomatic cases, it was originally 5 or 6. Below is a table which gives the percentage of the population that must be vaccinated for each R naught value. As the variants become more transmissible the percentage of vaccinated people needs to be higher to prevent its spread.
|
R |
Vaccinated |
|
10 |
90% |
|
9 |
89% |
|
8 |
88% |
|
7 |
86% |
|
6 |
83% |
|
5 |
80% |
|
4 |
75% |
|
3 |
67% |
|
2 |
50% |
This past Friday, the State of Illinois entered Phase 5 of its COVID plan. Essentially, Phase 5 means all restrictions are lifted, although those who are not vaccinated (nearly half the residents in the state still are not fully vaccinated) are encouraged to continue to exercise caution and take the same precautions we've been taking for the past 15 months.
In conjunction with the state reaching this milestone, the Chicago Archdiocese also lifted most restrictions for the celebration of mass. As I mentioned in a comment to Jack's recent post on vaccinated and unvaccinated persons worshiping together, we were back to normal in many ways. The hymnals were back in the pews and everyone was encouraged to sing along. We no longer have to register for mass. The church no longer is being disinfected after every service. Social distancing isn't required for those who are vaccinated. We've set aside a couple of sections of pews in the back for those who want to continue to social distance, but it seemed to me that people were "mixed" throughout the church today, with some in all sections wearing masks and some not.
The sense of joy was palpable today. People were in a festive mood. They really raised the roof with their congregational singing. I spoke with a number of people who hadn't been attending mass but now are back - they all said they were so happy to be there. The sense of joy was like Christmas or Easter.
In a way, it is like Christmas or Easter. It felt like a resurrection event today - like being back from the dead. And it feels like a new birth - a new beginning. In a worship commission meeting on Saturday, I urged the team to think of this as a chance for the parish to start fresh. Many things may change: some people may not come back. But some others may come who never have come before. It's an opportunity for the parish to re-evaluate old habits and ways of doing things.
It's hard for parishioners to think about new opportunities and change. Stability is intrinsic to parish life. Change is necessarily destabilizing. And of course, there is a powerful psychological urge to make things like they were before. But whatever those things are which will change, for today at least, it was a joyful homecoming and celebration.
Our local archdiocesan newspaper, the Chicago Catholic, printed an article which provides brief profiles of the 19 men ordained to the permanent diaconate last month. The sketches are here, if you're interested.
As the profiles tended to follow similar formats, I took a few minute to compile them into categories. Here is my roll-up, not rigorously scientific but possibly reasonably accurate, of new deacons in one diocese in one year.
 Photo: Alex Brandon/AP. Courtesy of Axios. |
Another entry in our continuing series (now up to two) of impertinent bugs landing on public figures in the presence of photographers. In this latest case, the critter accessorizing the prez's collar is - what else? - a cicada. The onlookers, neither of whom, as far as I know, is accused yet of mischievously planting an insect on the Commander in Chief, would seem to be flight personnel, as this was snapped at Andrews Air Force Base.
I am not a subscriber to the the NYT, but I get David Leonhardt's "The Morning" in my email. (I suppose trying to get me to bite and subscribe). Hopefully you won't get paywalled out of this morning's column: Pocketbook Politics - The New York Times (nytimes.com).
This is a bit of an update to my previous posting about Joe Manchin. From the Leonhardt column:
Well at last a group of mostly clergy are advocating caution in worship as the pandemic seems to be diminishing!
The real problem is that vaccinated and unvaccinated people (including children) are worshiping together.
This group have obviously been listening to epidemiologists, and realize that vaccinated people who know the risks of worship with large numbers of unvaccinated persons are not going to worship in person until the new cases per day in the surrounding area are very much reduced.
And of course cases may not be reduced if the Delta form of the virus begins its own vaccination program among the unvaccinated.
“And what we don’t want to do is to engage in any kind of stigmatization, or public shaming of people who are not vaccinated for whatever reason it may be.”
That is the heart of the problem. My answer is that vaccination is good for myself and the community. I want to display that I am vaccinated, and encourage others to be vaccinated My answer to the unvaccinated is that their real choice is between being inoculated by the vaccine or by the virus. And its going to be much worse to be inoculated by the virus. I do not feel sate around those who have not been inoculated (including children) for any more than a few minutes and then only with a mask and social distancing. Sorry I don't want your beliefs and behavior to endanger myself and loved ones! Sometimes tough love is necessary for everyone's sake.
This is a real problem for congregations.
Worship inside with many unvaccinated persons and children is not even relatively safe unless you have a very good air circulation system, and the unvaccinated wear masks and practice social distancing.
Worship inside by vaccinated persons without children would be safe, Everyone could sing, no masks or social distancing required. We have youth masses; we have had senior citizen hours at stores without policing. Why not senior masses that those who are unvaccinated would be asked not to attend, or perhaps to view by monitors in a parish hall with masks and social distancing.
Worship leaders really not cannot avoid taking sides about vaccination. If they choose to encourage vaccinated people to return to church without facing the problem of the unvaccinated, they have chosen the side of the unvaccinated. No thank you I am not returning until the virus disappears.
I confess to a certain sympathy for Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. I am what might be called a swing voter. I sometimes go with Democrats, and sometimes with Republicans. Right now Manchin and Sinema are on the Democrats', how shall I put it, waste list. Worse even than the ones in the opposite party.
I thought this article in The Week by Damon Linker explained their point of view well:
The U.S. has put all its eggs in the vaccine basket, abandoning behavioral management and concern about variants.
The only remnant of behavioral management is the CDC notice that while those who have been vaccinated can do whatever they want, unvaccinated persons are encouraged to wear masks and maintain their social distance. There was a sign to that effect yesterday morning at Lowe's and the parishes have announced they will have similar signs. I went very early to Lowe's garden center to get some things. As planned there were only few people there other than employees. Most everybody was not wearing a mask. I did not wear a mask but had my 'I have been vaccinated" sticker from the health department around my neck.
Britain has the capacity to figure out virus variants, so obviously they are being very cautious about new ones. Anytime one has capacity it tends to be used. We have less capacity however we appear to have been lucky about the variants. The one that appears to be knocking out all the other ones is not resistant to vaccine. (See second story below).
I am curious about what happens when we get down to the new cases level so that it could be managed by contract tracing. Will we begin to treat it as we do the season flue and not do contact tracing? Will we continue to publish the number of new cases at the county level? These are important because unless we vaccinate everyone or drive the virus down to extremely low levels we are always vulnerable to a vaccine resistant strain.
Have we put all our eggs in the vaccine basket because we are individualists who prize personal responsibility or is it because we are unwilling to jeopardize economic recovery?
The split is particularly stark in Britain, which is facing the spread of a new variant, while America has essentially lifted all rules for people who are vaccinated.
Besides making projections about the Decline of the Virus on the National Level
I have also doing that for Lake County
Lake County is now down to 198 new cases in the last
fourteen days, we have over 200,000 people so we are now under 100/100,000. I assume people are active that is able to spread the virus for about fourteen days. However about 200 cases means that there are
likely at least three times that amount and maybe ten times that amount, so a
potential 600 to 2000 active cases in the county.
If we continue downward at the present rate we would have
about
115 known cases in the last fourteen days before July 4th
potential 345 to 1150 cases in
this suburban county.
60 known cases in the
last fourteen days before August 6th potential 180 to 600 cases.
We like to celebrate this day with the
local Orthodox community, a well done Divine Liturgy with not that many people.
But looks like it will be too risky.
32 known cases in the
last fourteen days before Labor Day, potential 96 to 320 cases We also like to go to the Orthodox Church
for the Nativity of Mary (September 8th), and Exultation of the Holy
Cross (September 14). Again probably too risky
Fourth Mondays of September, October and November are likely
dates for our Commonweal local community to reassemble. We would like to be able go to Mass at the
local parish the Sunday before. Just might be possible.
21 known cases in the last fourteen days before the fourth
Monday of September, potential 63 to210 cases
We think the department will be able to resume contact
tracing somewhere between 21 and 12 cases, i.e. about 2 to 3 per day. Of course once that is done, the known cases
will expand and we will get closer to the true number of active cases.
12 known cases in the last fourteen days before the fourth
Monday of October, potential 36 to 120 cases
6 known cases in the last fourteen days before the fourth
Monday of November, potential 18 to 60 cases
MEETING THE GOAL OF
70 PERCENT VACCINATED
Massachusetts at 79% has surpassed the goal
Connecticut at 76% has surpassed the goal
New Jersey at 74% has surpassed the goal
Pennsylvania at 71% has surpassed the goal
Maryland at 70% has surpassed the goal
New York 68% 9 days to 70%
Michigan 60% 2 months August 1st
Ohio 57% 2 months August 1st
Indiana 53% 3 months September 1st
West Virginia 49% 4 months October 1st
We are a red state next to the blues states on the East and
red states to the South and West.
Despite DeWine’s lottery we will probably not get to seventy percent
until August. Hopefully he will have
enough of a push on getting kids vaccinated that we will be in good shape by
September.
We just had the Memorial Day restart, State of Ohio restrictions have been lifted, and our parishes are
restarting this Sunday. No more mask or
seating restrictions. Choir and people
may sing without masks. However there
will be signs encouraging people to wear masks if they have not been vaccinated
or wish to be more precautious.
So if Ohio stalls out, the stall may begin in the next two
weeks. That could push back any plans for me to restart Mass attendance the fourth
week of September. Of course when
September starts things could also stall because of unvaccinated kids and
college students. And then people will
be gathering indoors beginning in October (and return of school events) and
then the Holiday season.
A lot will depend upon variants. One in India is supposed to spread more quickly than the British variant and now is supposed to be taking over in England. An even more spreadable Viet Nam variant is rumored after that. The spread of variants in the US is likely to be retarded in the Blue states in comparison with the Red states.
Author John McWhorter recently published this article, which appeared in The Economist. McWhorter, who is Black, is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and the author of more than a dozen books. His specialty is linguistics, however he has also written extensively on race relations. He makes the case that the anti-racist movement, as it is being interpreted, harms black people .
From the article:
