Update 8/10/2022 10:42 pm CDT: I attended the mass this evening, did get drafted to help out at mass, and ended up working a booth for a while afterward as well. I'll post my report at the bottom of the post.
I've been invited to attend, this coming Wednesday, a Mass of Thanksgiving for the end of Roe v Wade. All priests and deacons from my town are invited to..."concelebrate" probably isn't the right word, as deacons aren't celebrants. But I think the expectation is that I won't just show up in civvies and sit anonymously in a rear pew; I'm supposed to bring my vestments - presumably including my spiffy Chicago Archdiocese stole with the archdiocesan logo stitched onto it - and will sit vested with the other deacons, probably in reserved pews up front.
Unless someone asks me, and nobody has so far, I won't have any diaconal liturgical duties. so I guess the idea of having us all present and vested is to show the local Catholic clergy's unanimity and resolve, or something like that. (The priests presumably really will concelebrate, with all of them vested, seated in the sanctuary and gathered around the altar; but I've never seen more than two deacons up there, and even that might be one too many :-)).
Questions of extraneous vesting aside, I'll be curious to sample the mood and attitude of those in attendance. As this event is being held on a Wednesday evening, I wouldn't expect it to draw more than the Catholic pro-life true believers - of whom, to be sure, there are a fair number in my town.
One of the deplorable aspects of our contemporary life is the tendency to live in media bubbles, and my recent experience of pro-life true believers is that many/most of them are in-bubble residents. So my expectation is that I'll hear whatever people within that bubble tell one another.
As I don't really live in that media bubble, I am not exactly sure what the in-bubble chatter is these days. I suspect it's sort of been a whiplash experience recently, with Roe v Wade falling (good), and then the Kansas referendum failing (bad), and then Indiana abortion restrictions passing (good).
Personally, I see the Kansas event as a portent that pro-choice forces are better-prepared, better-funded and perhaps better-generaled than their pro-life counterparts; and that the pro-life movement has been so singularly focused for so many years on making Roe v Wade go away that it hasn't yet mentally and emotionally adjusted to the new world of engaging in state-level activism for the next umpteen years.
To put it candidly: I'm curious to see whether the people in attendance have made that mental and emotional adjustment. To put it even more candidly: I'm curious to judge how tethered to reality these folks are.
I'll report back whatever I learn.
----
Update: So here is what happened: The turnout was good tonight: the church - the largest Catholic church in our town - was mostly full. The clergy had a decent turnout: a good number of priests, a fair-to-mediocre showing by the deacons. (It is starting to dawn on me that the pro-life engagement and witness by deacons in this area leaves a bit to be desired. Frankly, we are not in the vanguard in this ministry. That calls for some looking-into on my part, I think.)
I think I had stated earlier that I expected to be seated in the pews, but this church has a really large sanctuary, and they put a lot of chairs up there, so all the priests and all the deacons were up there together. I don't think that's exactly by the book, but I think the point was to provide a visual "show of force" (which would have been more impressive if more deacons had shown up!)
For some reason, I expect these pro-life gatherings to be full of older, rather stern people (in other words, like my parents :-)). But I'm always pleasantly surprised: the crowds at these things are younger and more joyful than I anticipate. Not everyone was young, but virtually every age group was pretty well represented. Frankly, on the whole it was a considerably younger demographic than that which comes to our parish's Sunday masses.
Most people seemed to be in a pretty good mood. This wasn't a Sunday mass, so there was no sense of, 'We're only here because we hafta be.' (In fairness, our cardinal still hasn't gotten around to reinstating the Sunday obligation, so there is no genuine "hafta-be" in our archdiocese these days.) People gave up their weekday evening to show up because they wanted to be there.
I arrived a half hour early - one of the first two deacons to arrive (the other was the other deacon from my parish). As we were the first two there, we were given the liturgical duties: I was the so-called "Deacon of the Word", doing the deacon stuff during the first part of mass; the other guy was the "Deacon of the Eucharist". The mass itself was celebrated by the pastor of the parish which hosted the event, with another five priests concelebrating. His homily was not a pro-life barn-burner. He wasn't looking to get people fired up; he was trying to connect the readings to the occasion. I think he was speaking off the cuff.
The rest of the mass was pretty standard mass fare - and that's good. Masses for a particular occasion are definitely a thing, but one of the underappreciated strengths of ritual worship is that it's mostly the same for all the different occasions - weddings, funerals, in time of war, in thanksgiving for the repeal of a Supreme Court decision. Some of the music managed to work in themes of life (example: "Let all things now living / A song of thanksgiving / To God in the highest triumphantly raise"). I'd report what the readings were, but frankly, they were read by teens who were not trained readers, and I had difficulty understanding them. The responsorial psalm was from Psalm 139, which contains the line about "you knit me together in my mother's womb.". I read the Gospel, which was the one about the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to search for the one lost sheep.
The Prayers of the Faithful (aka the Universal Prayer) probably had the most overtly pro-life content. As the petitions were shared out ahead of time, I have the text, and I'm pasting it here for your consideration. On the whole, I think they strike the right notes, although I might rewrite one or two of them (which is my typical reaction to what I'm given to read on any given Sunday). In the actual event, they were read by even younger children than those assigned to the readings, so I'm not sure how intelligible these were to folks who hadn't seen them beforehand. But here they are:
For Pope Francis, all bishops, priests and deacons that they may be strengthened to lead our Church into a deeper respect for life;
We pray to the Lord…
In thanksgiving for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and for wisdom for each member of the Supreme Court.
We pray to the Lord…
For women and men suffering after abortion: May the Church’s abortion healing ministry, Project Rachel, help them find peace and healing through Christ’s endless mercy;
We pray to the Lord…
For all those facing an unexpected pregnancy: that the peace of Christ may fill their hearts and that we may rush quickly to offer support;
We pray to the Lord…
For those working to build a culture of life where every person is welcomed as a gift from God, That their faith may be strengthened and their work bear fruit.
We pray to the Lord …
For all men, that they may joyfully discover and live their fatherhood, either spiritual or in the vocation of marriage, as they protect, guide, and love their wives and children. We pray to the Lord…
For all women to embrace fully the special gift God has given them to bring life into the world and be true witnesses to the beauty and dignity of womanhood. We pray to the Lord…
For doctors, politicians, and all who have assisted or promoted abortion, that they might turn from the culture of death and embrace the light of the Gospel of Life; We pray to the Lord:.
After mass is when the real socializing began. The Respect Life ministries from the area parishes, which organized and hosted the event, set up tables in the foyer with pro-life info, as well as cookies and punch. Unbeknownst to me ahead of time, the organization I am a part of, Rest in His Arms, was present and had squeezed into an end of one of the tables, so I worked the booth for a few minutes afterward. Didn't get a lot of traffic, though - we were over against a wall where it was hard to get to us, and most of the folks I spoke with already knew about us.
I did hear one rather appalling comment: the folks next to me at the table (who were strangers to me and were pitching something different, I didn't quite figure out what), were talking about leaving some information about whatever they were pitching on the bulletin board at a local grocery store, and expecting that pro-choice people in the community will take it down sooner or later (which strikes me as pretty uncool and intolerant, but it's the world we live in). Someone suggested that the group next to me should ask our local library to fly their flag. Of course, that was a reference to a recent Supreme Court decision. The guy grousing about the grocery store bulletin board responded that our library only flies "LGBT" flags. That refers to a controversy in our town from a few weeks ago. The library had agreed to fly a rainbow flag; the town's city council then voted against it. But then there was an outcry from the community, and the city council reversed itself. (The library is its own, independent entity with its own board, so I don't believe our city council can stop the library from doing this sort of thing, but even a symbolic vote has some meaning). Maybe there is a way to construe the guy's comment innocently, but I was incensed. Happily, nobody else took him up on the theme (I sometimes think I must radiate disapproval, and people pick up on it).
I'm curious too, Jim. Looking forward to your report.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if they also celebrated the new bill addressing the climate emergency, drug prices and inflation.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of climate change, according to the WaPo, Biden is trying to get up a bill to address safety for workers who work in deadly heat conditions. As you might expect, lobbyists for construction, landscaping, farming, etc. industries are saying they're already doing that stuff, no law needed. I guess the "duh" question is that if they're already doing that stuff, what is there to object to about making it the law?
DeleteYes, just like we got the 40 hour work week and abolition of child labor thanks to the intrinsic goodheartedness of our capitalist overlords.
DeleteDon't get me started. The Boy works at a huge garden center with an outdoor cafe, tavern, and pizzeria. It was 93 down there, with the pavement running 40-50 degrees hotter. He was pulling the cashiers in every 2 hours for 15 minute breaks in the AC. They talked to the owners about green spaces and more awnings/fans, but the initial response is that that would eat up parking lot space and cost $$. What about installing solar panels to offset costs? Pfft. Those guys are sitting poolside in their gated communities. They don't care.
DeleteIt is true that every parish around here has a Respect Life group, but I don't know of any which have a Dignity of Workers group.
DeleteIs there such a thing as a Dignity of Workers group in the Church? Seems like American Catholics have ignored the working class as surely as the Democratic Party has.
DeleteMitt Romney recently invited a Canadian conservative to a function for other GOP lawmakers to discuss how to better support women, children, and families in the wake of Roe being overturned. The Washington Post reported scant interest among invitees. It seemed like a very hopeful sign to me. But Mitch McConnell, who seemed to be responding directly to Romney's effort, said there are sufficient programs to deal with whatever hardships unexpected births might have on individuals and families.
ReplyDeleteCelebrate the babies, by all means, but hopefully all those men getting gussied up in their special vestments for the festivities will also have a few words for the women and families whose pregnancies are complicated by age, chemo, diabetes, immune disorders, fetal abnormalities, poverty, lack of obstetrical care, incest, rape, mental health problems, etc etc.
but hopefully all those men getting gussied up in their special vestments for the festivities will also have a few words for the women and families whose pregnancies are complicated by age, chemo, diabetes, immune disorders! Poverty, lack of obstetrical care, incest, rape ….etc
DeleteI wouldn’t hold my breath about this. There is a glaring absence of concern and compassion for women whose lives will not just be disrupted, but will be both physically and emotionally impacted for the rest of their lives because of an unwanted pregnancy.
Very often what comes through on the part of the so- called pro- life people is contempt for women who get “caught” , a thinly disguised belief that they deserve lifelong punishment for having sex. Incest and rape are regrettable. But do not justify abortion. Never a word about the reality that women almost always pay the full price for this, while most men walk away. The hypocrisy in this allegedly pro- life group, especially the celibate clergy, is sickening.
I am curious. Who or what organized this event? The archdiocese or one of its offices? A parish or group of parishes? Some organization? I presume town means some suburb of Chicago.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can understand the mythical nature of Roe to abortion opponents, e.g., “the fall of Jericho,” celebrating any law or legal decision with a Mass seems inappropriate until long after the event and we see its consequences.
The consequences of Roe’s fall always seem unclear to me. Less abortions? More abortions? More conflict in our society? More conflict in the church? Probably all of these in some or many places.
"I am curious. Who or what organized this event? The archdiocese or one of its offices? A parish or group of parishes? Some organization? I presume town means some suburb of Chicago."
DeleteI was invited to attend by our parish's Respect Life coordinator, so I believe this mass probably is the collective brainchild of the Respect Life groups from each of the local parishes. Yes, our town is a suburb of Chicago.
It's not sounding like it was your archbishop's brainchild. However if you are being asked to wear the stoles with the archdiocese insignia I assume it has to at least have had his permission. One of those deals where he's darned if he does, and darned if he doesn't.
DeleteYeah, I dunno if it needs his permission or if that's what we're supposed to wear. I don't even know if we're supposed to wear white. Trying to find all that out right now.
DeleteThe only times I've seen all the clergy vest up and sit as a body here have been for an ordination, or a funeral of one of their number.
ReplyDeleteSome people have been doing a victory dance since the fall of Roe, and I guess I don't blame them. As Jack said, it's a "fall of Jericho" event for them. But we still don't know the consequences; except in the short term at least, lots of turmoil.
Laws allowing unfettered access to abortion strike me as cynical and sad, the same way that assisted suicide laws do. They're both saying "this life doesn't matter, and we'd all be better off ending it."
DeleteBy the same token, I would not celebrate the demise of assisted suicide laws until I saw that more aggressive pain management and bodily care for the terminally ill was firmly in place.
I think the Church has hammered the complicity issue re abortion so hard into Catholics over the last 50 years that some feel that their own salvation depends on overturning Roe and getting restrictive laws passed in states.
Jack The consequences of Roe’s fall always seem unclear to me. Less abortions? More abortions? More conflict in our society? More conflict in the church? Probably all of these in some or many places.
ReplyDeleteMore conflict and polarization in our country for sure.
Right, if I were preaching (and nobody has asked me, and maybe it's a good thing!), it would probably run along the lines of, "Overturning Roe is not the end, it's a good means to a good end - one of many means to get to that good end".
ReplyDeleteJust to continue on in a bit of stream-of-consciousness way: using climate change as an analogy: Laudato Si is not, properly speaking, a climate-change encyclical. It's actual theme is, "Care for our common home", and it recognizes that the health of our planet's ecology is intimately linked to the health of our human ecology. The document is extremely lengthy because it's a comprehensive treatise on the many aspects of human social thought and behavior and their relationship to our surroundings. It talks about economic activity, the exploitation of workers in the developing world, life issues, private property ownership, globalization and technocratic solutions, intergenerational justice, and many other topics, because they're all interrelated.
I might take the same approach regarding Roe: abortion is not a standalone issue: it is part of a broader human ecology. Changing a law without also transforming human hearts is a recipe for failure.
"Changing a law without also transforming human hearts is a recipe for failure." I would certainly agree with that.
Delete. . . . Mass of Thanksgiving for the end of Roe v Wade. . . .
ReplyDeleteI don't understand. Who is being thanked? Is God allegedly responsible for Supreme Court decisions?
I have seen references to the "Catholic Supreme Court" that made me ever so slightly uncomfortable. But if there are going to be Catholic masses of thanksgiving for Supreme Court decisions, I wonder if that will reinforce what seem to me to be possibly anti-Catholic sentiments about SCOTUS. Or maybe it isn't entirely misguided to refer to the court as Catholic.
Yes, I've heard the Court referred to as the Catholic Court, too, presumably to make the point that it is out of step with and not representative of the nation as a whole.
DeleteThe Catholic justices rarely vote as a bloc. Sotomayor and Roberts have both shown some discomfort with the other four. Sotomayor has been downright hostile to the others at times.
But I think there's a perception that Catholics are the most anti abortion denomination "because they don't even believe in birth control." So even if Roe has been overturned because it's foundation was shaky (I am not a legal scholar, so I don't know), Songs is viewed as a Catholic decision.
Thomas's comments about rethinking gay marriage and birth control decisions are seen as "Catholic" ideas.
And the court has also been tainted by Justice Thomas' wife, Ginni, fairly or not. She's an outspoken culture warrior with a lot of political ties to the Trumpists. Media reports paint her as flakey and unhinged. Having someone like that close to a justice gives a lot of people the willies. It does me.
*Songs = Dobbs
DeleteI think the disproportionate presence of Catholics on the court reflects, at least in part, their disproportionate presence in the legal profession. My college was a lawyer factory.
DeleteI don't presume to know how or even whether God had any hand in overturning Roe. Did he have any hand in the great Civil Rights victories in the 1950s and 60s? I think there were many Christians who were willing to thank him for his help.
Jim, what you said about the legal profession rings true. I have sure known a lot of lawyers over the years who graduated from Creighton.
DeleteIt's funny (as in peculiar) that they call Scotus a "Catholic court". As Jean pointed out, they don't all vote as a bloc. Neither Sotomayor nor Gorsuch self-identify as Catholic any more. What they're talking about are a very conservative four who do vote as a bloc. I'd say that carries more weight than their religious identity. We also have a Catholic president and speaker of the House, who identify as Catholic. Oh, they don't mean *that* sort of Catholic. We do come in assorted flavors.
The event as Jim has described it so far sounds like an opportunity for the prolifers to congratulate themselves and get their pictures in the diocesan magazine. It will do nothing to further anything remotely useful for anyone who's dealing with a crisis.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to see how it unfolds. It's a mass, so I hope it won't be self-congratulatory; that's sort of the opposite of what a mass aims to be.
DeleteI think it's a good thing that Roe v Wade no longer is in effect, apart from whatever the short-term practical consequences are going go be, so I'll be able to offer thanksgiving with sincerity tonight.
My prayer is that everyone at your Mass will be blessed with compassionate understanding as you go forth to consider what kind of penalties you want to mete out as you seek to make abortion a crime in your state.
DeleteFWIW - we are very far from making abortion a crime in our state. Pro-life folks are completely on the defensive in Illinois. What strikes us as realistic (but extremely difficult) is getting enough pro-life legislators elected that Democrats don't have a supermajority to ram through whatever pro-choice measures they wish, with impunity.
DeleteOur governor (and, not unthinkably, the next president of the United States), JB Pritzker, is actively reaching out to large employers in the states that surround Illinois, urging them to relocate to Illinois because abortion is freely and amply available here. Personally, I think that is a tough sale, but not because of the abortion factor - there are many other compelling reasons for employers to stay out of Illinois.
But the fact remains that you hope to criminalize it.
DeleteI think to a degree abortion is becoming a surrogate for other things that people aren't talking about. I can't imagine a company relocating because of abortion rights. Maybe it's code for personal freedom, taking a leaf from libertarian playbook.
Delete"But the fact remains that you hope to criminalize it."
DeleteIf abortion providers are behind bars for a very long stretch, I'm more than fine with that.
"If abortion providers are behind bars for a very long stretch, I'm more than fine with that." Yeah, for the Kermit Gosnells.
DeleteBut for ordinary ob/gyns who deal with ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages according to accepted medical practice, not to mention life threatening emergencies (like the one in AZ where the nun got excommunicated a few years back) there has to be protection under the law, otherwise we're going to face a shortage of doctors. Because no one is going to want to deal with zealotry like that in Texas, where citizens can basically be bounty hunters, or frivolous lawsuits can be brought.
"But for ordinary ob/gyns who deal with ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages according to accepted medical practice"
DeleteBut are those really banned anywhere? My understanding is there is a lot of misinformation about that flying around - and some of it allegedly is confusing ob/gyns, pharmacists, et al. That confusion needs to get sorted out, quickly. But I don't believe there are many, or any, laws in the US that would prevent a woman with an ectopic pregnancy from getting medical treatment. The same would be true of any woman facing any sort of a life-threatening pregnancy.
And still not a single sign of empathy, not a single word of compassion for the women who are caught up in a problem pregnancy pregnancy. Just hard nosed judgement - put em jail where they belong.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I don't think there is much of a constituency anywhere to jail women who get abortions. I'd expect any laws that overreach in that regard to get changed sooner rather than later.
DeleteI referred to abortion providers. Planned Parenthood. That whole org, from top to bottom, belongs in the pokey - and then throw away the key.
Jim, you and others in your movement are being inconsistent. If abortion ends the life of a person, and providers must go to prison for the murder of embryos and fetuses, then the person who hired the murderer is also guilty. At least that is the case when born humans are murdered by a hired killer.Both the person who hired the murderer and the murderer who carries out the crime are charged with murder.
DeleteOr maybe the blueberry sized embryo without a brain, nervous system or even separate fingers isn’t really a human being - yet - but a potential human being?
Right - I don't consider the culpability of the abortion provider to be the same as that of the mother. I'm willing to sentence one to significant prison time but not the other.
DeletePerhaps now you'll try to tell me that I lack compassion for providers of abortion, who really are victims.
No. Providers are not victims. They provide medical care that they believe is needed.
DeleteI’m Simply pointing out that the movement you are part of is not consistent. Although you may not agree, some in the anti- choice movement actually do support sending the women to prison also because they hired someone to kill their « baby ». Katherine doesn’t like the term “ forced birth” but that is the actual result of an absolute ban on abortion. Everyone needs to face the reality of what they are pushing for with an absolute ban on abortion.
Fair enough. I don't support an absolute ban, for prudential reasons: the country doesn't support it. I'm more consistent in my views than my policy preferences would indicate. Hobgoblins, and all that.
DeleteRe: "forced birth" - I guess it's one of many accurate appellations to describe the mom's situation. It's very hard - but killing the child is even worse.
Glad to know Rest in His Arms is still in operation. I knitted about eight or ten blankets for them, but am providing them closer to home these days. Trying to get our library to do a "book and blankie" program for young parents. They get a blanket, a board book, and a little bookmark explaining how important it is to talk/read to babies to help them acquire language skills. One of the pitfalls of infant day care centers is the lack of linguistic stimulation. Linguistic development starts right after birth, and delayed linguistic stimulation affects socialization and learning later on. Everybody talks about the all important bonding, but parental leave that can keep a kid out of day care for a couple of years can also boost language/social skills if parents are willing to talk and read to their babies.
ReplyDeleteJean - I love it!
DeleteFWIW - for years, I prepped young couples to get their babies baptized. Most of them decided to do the baptism right around the time their family leaves were coming to an end. Having to go back to work and put their children in daycare was extremely hard on them. Grandparents helped out in quite a few cases. If my kids started having kids, I don't know that we could stop working to be free daycare for the grandkids.
I used to give books and blankets to my expectant students. Nearly all of them said, "A book, great! I just had my shower and nobody got me books."
DeleteOur parents were way too old, too weird, and too far away to provide day care. I went back to adjunct teaching so The Boy was only in day care a couple days a week. One of the many reasons we are broke now.
But the psychologist who tested him for his learning disability said he was well socialized and very verbal ...