Good Samaritan spirituality

 This is my homily for this past weekend, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C.  The readings are here.

How to de-Evangelize

 My friend got his letter from the Paterson Diocese Tribunal informing him that he is free from "spiritual obligations of the first union".  But, in another decision, in italics, they inform him that he cannot be married in the RC Church without first the "express approval of the Paterson Tribunal".

Did his cheating, lying, slandering (but now churchgoing) ex-wife get the same second paragraph?

Is this second decision boilerplate or is it only in certain circumstances and, if so, what are they?

At any rate, this cold perfunctory letter doesn't have a nanogram of Jesus in it.  I certainly am unable to explain the ways of a bureaucratic church to anybody.

At this point, I would say that my friend's daughter has zero chance of remaining Catholic, given his present derision for the Church and the ex-wife and her side being a bunch of obvious hypocrites.

How did the Church of Jesus Christ come to this?

Diocesan Synod Syntheses: Bad News for USCCB?

 The ten-page syntheses that each diocese should produce about their diocesan synod process were due on June 30th in Rome and at the USCCB. They have begun to surface. The Archdiocese of Seattle, and the Archdiocese of Washington have published theirs. They contain some sharp language for the USCCB (the bishops' conference). The USCCB is required to produce its own ten-page synthesis of the syntheses to be sent to Rome on August 15. That could be interesting.  Just imagine Francis sitting down with the American Cardinals shortly afterwards. "When are you going to listen to your people?"

Good-bye, Boris

I awoke this morning to reports that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is stepping down.  His downfall was triggered by a wave of resignations by cabinet members and other officials from his own party.   

Johnson's sins include hypocrisy (attending parties while the country was locked down during the COVID pandemic), and a serial inability to tell the truth.  Those are the sorts of missteps and red flags that, until 2016, would have put immense pressure on a US president, too.  

This post practically writes itself: President Trump's sins are several magnitudes worse, notably including an attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.  And yet he has dodged convictions in two impeachment trials, thanks to senators in his own party notoriously declining to hold him accountable.  The contrast between the GOP leadership and Tory leadership could not be starker.

Trump continues to operate with impunity today, trying to play the kingmaker role during the GOP primary season, and attending rallies where he repeats his trust-eroding lies about the 2020 election.  And he may be announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy at any time.

It's difficult to escape the conclusion that the British system is functioning better than ours these days; and the British people might be better than us right now, too.

John O'Malley on the" Papalization" of the Church

John W. O'Malley the Jesuit historian is one of my favorite authors. He is an authority on both the Council of Trent and Vatican II. This article is from America.

How popes became so powerful—and how Pope Francis could reverse the trend

In 2000, Thomas Reese, S.J., then the editor in chief of America, asked me to write an article on how the church differed between the first millennium and the second. I found the assignment easy because one difference stood out like no other: a new centrality of the popes in the church of the second millennium. 

I called this phenomenon the papalization of the church. 

 some of the most important and symptomatic steps in the process were the results of direct actions taken by the popes themselves. The popes were in fact the single most important agents in the papalization process. I describe their actions as self-conferred upgrades. 

Dealing With Mixed Feelings About July 4th

I came across an article this morning that I needed to read, titled "I can't remember the last time I felt patriotic, can you?" The author was Molly Cahill, and the article appeared on the America Magazine site. 

From the article:

Paul Rose: Sing the Hours

Sing the Hours

is a Virtual Breviary, mostly the creation of one person, a young man, Paul Rose, with the help of his family, especially his dad John Rose. 

Paul wanted to sing the Hours of Morning and Evening Prayer daily. Disappointed that he could find nothing on the internet, he decided to do it himself.  He had the basic musical skills and the production skills which consist of computer programs that combine and edit audio-visual streams. Now more than a year later his YouTube site is a collection of more than a year of Morning and Evening Prayer using the official texts and his free style interpretation of them done in Gregorian Chant. He has almost 15,000 subscribers on YouTube with daily counts now running over 3000.  The Hours are also available as a podcast on Apple and Spotify.  

Paul and his family are converts from an Evangelical background. His dad loves Latin hymns and does some excellent translations of them. I wish they would just sing the English translations and not try to get us to appreciate the Latin poetry. 

Paul thinks the production of the hours that he does is servile work which he does not do on Sundays or even Solemnities. Last Sunday, he first told subscribers there would be no Sunday Vespers production available, then decided it was OK to do Vespers live on YouTube. That resulted in the following hour-long YouTube post.  He has now reposted it with the outline below. You probably will not want to listen to Vespers since it really is not his usual professional production. However, do listen to the first fifteen minutes which give what I would call his "spirituality of the hours."  After Vespers he gives an impromptu lesson in Gregorian chant to convince everyone that Gregorian chant is easy. You can skip that unless you want to learn how to sing Gregorian chant.

Vespers and Chat

Going to sing Vespers live and stick around for a few minutes to answer any questions you might have!