The Coming Stealth Synod Updated!

UPDATE: While there is little evidence that the American Bishops are doing anything about the Synod, the situation is very different south of the border.

First of its kind assembly to address future of Latin American Catholic Church

LIMA, PERU — Tens of thousands of Catholics throughout Latin America and the Caribbean — and some in the United States — have been discussing issues ranging from missionary discipleship to integral ecology as part of a "listening" process leading up to a regionwide ecclesial assembly to be held Nov. 21-28 in Mexico City.

About 1,000 people are expected to participate virtually in the assembly, Lozano said, including 200 bishops, 200 priests and deacons, 200 religious and 400 laypeople from various groups and ministries. Those participants will hold virtual meetings, breaking into smaller sessions, sometimes by vocation and sometimes in mixed groups.

A group of about 50 participants, broken down in the same proportions, with 40% laypeople, will meet in person in Mexico City, where they will also connect with the virtual groups.

A delegation of 70 U.S. Hispanic Catholics — consisting of 10 bishops, 10 priests and deacons, 10 religious, 30 laypeople and 10 Hispanics "from the periphery" — will also participate,

MAYBE THE HISPANICS WILL TEACH US HOW TO DO IT!

The Panic about the Eucharist

During this past summer I virtually attended the Notre Dame program "Will They Come Back After COVID?: Disaffiliation, Affiliation, and the Liturgy." 

The leader was Timothy O'Malley a  young lay theologian who is head of the ND McGrath Institute. His views are expressed in these two articles: 

The Difference Between Liturgical Naïveté and a Eucharistic Culture of Affiliation

What's at Stake in the Debates Swirling Around Eucharistic Coherence?

Peter Steinfel's references O'Malley articles in his argument that the bishops need to focus upon the meaning of the Eucharist rather than upon Eucharistic Coherence in his article in this month's Commonweal.

The Bishops, the Eucharist, and Abortion Separate Challenges

You are welcome but not required to read these three articles. If you find any interesting you may want to make your own post.  They are linked here to give you context for the big fish article by Cupich.  Why should I criticize a theologian, or even Steinfels when I can criticize a cardinal archbishop? 

Cardinal Cupich  has responded with the following article which I assume will appear in next month's Commonweal as well as being online now.

A Strategy for Launching a Eucharistic Revival: 

A response to Peter Steinfels

Overheard at the church doorway

To be fair, I didn't witness this myself.  Someone at the parish related it to me.  So if I heard it third hand, I guess you're learning about it fourth hand.  

Here is what happened: on Sunday at 11:29:55 am (i.e. right about the time mass was set to begin), a woman and her adult son walked into our church building without a mask.  In doing so, they violated the policy of the Chicago Archdiocese.   

Earlier in the pandemic, we had more layers of precautions in place: people were expected to pre-register in order to attend liturgy, and wouldn't be seated until they had signed in.  Parishioners staffing the sign-in desk would not have permitted someone to be seated in the church - nor even to remain in the building - if they weren't masked.  But those precautions have been done away with.

Our pastor, who was standing at the entrance to the worship space, waiting for the hymn to cue the entrance procession, approached her.  Their dialogue went something like this:

Pastor: You need to have a mask on.  Can I have someone get you one?

Parishioner: There is a religious exemption to mask mandates!

Pastor: Not in this archdiocese.  If you wish to come to mass here, you need to wear a mask

Parishioner: We have health issues that prevent us from wearing a mask!

At that point, the music started, and our pastor, visibly frustrated by these scofflaws, marched down the aisle and began mass.  I'm told the mother and son went into church and seated themselves, without wearing masks.

I know it's not charitable of me to think of these two people as obnoxious ignoramuses, but I'm struggling to think of a just characterization that is less mean.  All of us are wearing masks.  Few of us want to.  But - if we can't abide by this social obligation, are there any such that bind us?

Who do we say he is?

Here is a philosophical question for the group: if one writes a homily, but doesn't actually give it, is it still a homily?  I ask that because what follows is a homily I had written for yesterday, the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time for Cycle B.  I had been away on vacation for more than a week, and consequently was not at the parish the previous weekend, when they posted the preaching schedule for September.  My personal calendar told me I was supposed to preach yesterday.  So I spent a good deal of time last week, while we were vacationing, praying, thinking and discussing with my wife what I would say about yesterday's Gospel.  Then I waltzed into the sacristry yesterday before mass only to be informed that the official schedule for presiders and deacons has the deacons preaching, not this past weekend, but in a couple of weekends.  So I goofed, or the schedule changed, or something.  I was paired yesterday with a visiting priest who, naturally, had come prepared to preach, so I graciously (at least I hope I was gracious about it) deferred to him.

But, in case it is of interest, here is what I would have said.   

9/11

Where were you on September 9, 2011? It's one of those dates like Kennedy's assassination, or Pearl Harbor for an earlier generation, where it sticks in people's mind where they were when they got the news.

I was just starting what seemed like a normal day at work. One of my co-workers was listening to the radio and told us what had happened. At first I didn't believe it, thinking there had to be some mistake. But it was real. 

Then the other guy who worked in the lab with me came in and started putting things from his desk in a box. He looked somber, and I said, "Did you hear about the terrorist attack?" He said, "Which one? They just told me that I had been laid off."  I said I was sorry, and he said, "Ah, don't be. I've been wanting to blow this pop stand for a long time!" But it was graveyard humor.

The immediate effect for the rest of the year in our town was economic. There were a lot of layoffs, but of course the one where my co-worker was laid off was previously decided on, and it was a coincidence that it happened that particular morning.  I kept my job, but my husband was caught in a 200 person layoff  that October. 

The Under-Appreciated Sacrament

 I got through my procedure fine, and am at home loafing and letting my husband wait on me hand and foot. Thank you for praying for me.

Wednesday evening I received Anointing of the Sick, after the 5:30 Mass (the daily Masses in our parish are in the evening, except Friday for the school Mass).  The Gospel reading of the day was apt, dealing with Jesus doing both physical and spiritual healing. The priest normally gives a short mini homily, and he mentioned that 21% of the gospels' texts deal with Jesus healing ministry. Which is really kind of amazing.

Bearing witness

Our Catholic president weighed in on a controversial new Texas law.  To what is he bearing witness?