september 2012

Katolsk tidsskrift kritiserer katolsk biskop

Katolsk /

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy i England arrangerer en interessant konferanse i oktober. Her skal bl.a. en engelsk, katolsk biskop delta, noe som får en skribent i det katolske tidssktiftet the Tablet til «å se rødt» (fra continuity-bloggen):

… the Tablet observes that Bishop Egan’s appointment was seen as «part of a trend to appoint outspoken defenders of Church teaching to dioceses in England and Wales.» How dreadful! Fancy appointing Bishops who are outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church! Most of us might see the defence of the teaching of the Church as an uncontroversial requirement of Canon Law for the appointment of Bishops. In Tablet-speak it makes him a «rising star for the conservative wing of the Church in England and Wales.» Can they really mean that the other Bishops are generally not outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church? Perish the thought!

In classic Tablet style, the Notebook piece was used as a dolly-up for a thunderous letter the following week … Mr Angry refers to Bishop Egan’s nefarious role as Church teaching defender, along with his guilt by association with Bishop Mark Davies. He reckons that «The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possible, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed.»

Her er så noe av det aktuelle leserinnlegget i the Tablet:

… The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possbile, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed. Being in his diocese, I am able to get a very good idea of the mentality of the confraternity from Bishop Davies’ own Shrewsbury Voice. It is reaction itself. It stands for a return of the Church to how it was before the Second Vatican Council. It holds to an excessive, hence highly unbalanced, interpretation of the role and power of the papacy which has no foundation in biblical and patristic sources. This is the pool from which episcopal appointments are now, and will be, made. It is totally unable to distinguish between its version of ecclesiology, the sacraments, male and female relationships, and so on from what is also now on offer, and has been for many centuries, in the Universal Church. The confraternity is a gathering of the like minded who root themselves in the nineteenth century and pre-Second World War Europe. It has influence, and its influence will grow. It has to be challenged, by whatever way it does it, by the rest of the hierarchy itself; by the clergy and with the equal involvement of the Catholic laity which is now anything but the subservient layer of the Church which the confraternity would like to return it to. …

Pave Benedikt om Guds lov

Katolsk, Paven /

Litt forsinket kommer her pave Benedikts preken til Angelus-bønnen sist søndag:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the “land” of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

This is what the devout Israelite prays: “I will delight in your statutes, / I will not forget your word…. Lead me in the path of your commandments, / for I delight in it” (Ps 119[118]:16, 35). In the Old Testament the person who passes on the Law to the People on God’s behalf is Moses. After the long journey in the wilderness, on the threshold of the promised land, he proclaims: “Now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you” (Deut 4:1). And this is the problem: when the People put down roots in the land and are the depository of the Law, they are tempted to place their security and joy in something that is no longer the Word of God: in possessions, in power, in other ‘gods’ that in reality are useless, they are idols. Of course, the Law of God remains but it is no longer the most important thing, the rule of life; rather, it becomes a camouflage, a cover-up, while life follows other paths, other rules, interests that are often forms of egoism, both individual and collective.

Thus religion loses its authentic meaning, which is to live listening to God in order to do his will — that is the truth of our being — and thus we live well, in true freedom, and it is reduced to practising secondary customs which instead satisfy the human need to feel in God’s place. This is a serious threat to every religion which Jesus encountered in his time and which, unfortunately, is also to be found in Christianity. Jesus’ words against the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel should therefore be food for thought for us as well.

Jesus makes his own the very words of the Prophet Isaiah: “This People honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mk 7:6-7; cf. Is 29,13). And he then concludes: “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men” (Mk 7:8).

The Apostle James too alerts us in his Letter to the danger of false piety. He writes to the Christians: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22). May the Virgin Mary, to whom we now turn in prayer, help us to listen with an open and sincere heart to the word of God so that every day it may guide our thoughts, our decisions and our actions.

Tradisjonell latinsk messe i Oslo 9. september

TLM /

I søndagens messe vil vi få høre følgende inngangsvers:

Inclina, Dómine, aurem tuam ad me, et exáudi me: salvum fac servum tuum, Deus meus, sperántem in te: miserére mihi, Dómine, quóniam ad te clamávi tota die. – Herre, bøy ditt øre til meg og hør min bønn; frels din tjener, som håper på deg, min Gud. Miskunn deg over meg, Herre, for dagen lang roper jeg til deg.

Og evangeliet er fra Lukas 7, 11-16:

På den tid hendte det at Jesus gikk til en by som heter Naim, og hans disipler gikk med ham og en stor mengde. Og da han kom nær til byporten, se, da ble en død båret ut, som var sin mors eneste sønn, og hun var enke; og en stor mengde fra byene var med henne. Da Herren så henne, ble han rørt av medlidenhet med henne, og han sa til henne: «Gråt ikke.» Og han gikk bort til båren og rørte ved den, og de som bar, sto stille. Og han sa: «Unge mann, jeg sier deg: Stå opp.» og den døde reiste seg opp og begynte å tale. Og han ga ham til moren. Men de ble alle tatt av frykt, og de priste Gud og sa: «En stor profet er stått fram mellom oss; Gud har gjestet sitt folk.»

Denne (kjente) teksten brukes svært lite i vår tid – les om det her.

Dette er siste gang disse tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo feires i St Joseph kirke sent søndag kveld, fra neste gang av (23. september) vil den finne sted i St Hallvard kirke i Oslo kl 14.30.

Kardinal Carlo Maria Martinis «åndelige testamente»

Katolsk /

Flere steder har vi lest om det siste intervjuet med Milanos tidligere erkebiskop, Kardinal Carlo Maria Martini, noen uker før han døde 31/8. Jeg vil gjøre det klart at jeg ikke deler hans synspunkter, faktisk syns jeg de er ganske sjokkerende. Men her er intervjuet i John Allens oversettelse, med følgende innledning:

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died in Varese, northern Italy, on Aug. 31 at the age of 85. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 8, Martini gave a final interview to his fellow Jesuit Fr. George Sporschill, with whom Martini had collaborated on a book titled Nocturnal Conversations in Jerusalem, and an Italian friend named Federica Radice Fossati Confalonieri. Radice has told Italian media outlets that Martini read and approved the text of the interview, intending it as a sort of «spiritual testament» to be published after his death.

Og her litt av intervjuet:

What tools do you recommend against the exhaustion of the church?

I recommend three very strong ones. The first is conversion: the church must recognize its errors and follow a radical path of change, beginning with the pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals compel us to take up a path of conversion. Questions about sexuality, and all the themes involving the body, are an example. These are important to everyone, sometimes perhaps too important. We have to ask ourselves if people still listen to the advice of the church on sexual matters. Is the church still an authoritative reference in this field, or simply a caricature in the media?

The second is the Word of God. Vatican II gave the Bible back to Catholics. Only those who perceive this Word in their heart can be part of those who will help achieve renewal of the church, and who will know how to respond to personal questions with the right choice. The Word of God is simple, and seeks out as its companion a heart that listens. … Neither the clergy nor ecclesiastical law can substitute for the inner life of the human person. All the external rules, the laws, the dogmas, are there to clarify this internal voice and for the discernment of spirits.

Who are the sacraments for? These are the third tool of healing. The sacraments are not an instrument of discipline, but a help for people in their journey and in the weaknesses of their life. Are we carrying the sacraments to the people who need new strength? I think of all the divorced and remarried couples, to extended families. They need special protection. The church upholds the indissolubility of matrimony. It’s a grace when a marriage and a family succeed …

The attitude we hold towards extended families determines the ability of the church to be close to their children. A woman, for instance, is abandoned by her husband and finds a new companion, who takes care of her and her three children. This second love succeeds. If this family is discriminated against, not only is the mother cut out [from the church] but also her children. If the parents feel like they’re outside the church, and don’t feel its support, the church will lose the future generation.

Before communion, we pray: «Lord, I am not worthy …’ We know we’re not worthy … Love is a grace. Love is a gift. The question of whether the divorced can receive communion ought to be turned around. How can the church reach people who have complicated family situations, bringing them help with the power of the sacraments? …

De tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo flyttes

TLM /

Søndag 9. september kl 19.00 er siste gang de tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo feires i St Joseph kirke; neste gang – 4. søndag i måneden – 23. september, feires søndagsmessen i St Hallvard kirke i Oslo, kl 14.30.

Inntil påske i år var dette tidpunktet ikke ledig i St Hallvard kirke (faktisk var ikke no tidspunkt ledig hele søndagen, men nå er det en åpning her), dette pluss min arbeidssituasjon og et ønske fra flere om å få messen på et tidligere tidspunkt, har ført til denne forandringen. Etter noen måneder får vi vurdere hvor vellykket det er.

Fra en av de berømte liturgiukene i USA

Katolsk, Liturgi /

En blogg jeg nettopp kom over – conciliaria.com – skriver om det som skjedde ved oppstarten av konsilet for 50 år siden. Nylig skrev de – dvs. presenterte gamle dokumenter som skrev – om den liturgiske konferansen som ble holdt i Seattle i juni 1962. En konferanse som ble beskrevet slik:

What is a Liturgical Week?
The first Liturgical Week, sponsored by the National Liturgical Conference, was held in 1940, in a room in the basement of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. It was attended by just a handful of people, mainly priests. But these days, it is clear that the Liturgical Movement is not just a fad or a trend, nor is it only for priests. Pope Pius XII, and his successor, our beloved Pope John XXIII, have embraced the Liturgical Movement as the work of the Church itself. Last year’s Liturgical Week in Oklahoma City drew about 5,000 people–priests, religious, and laity–who came together to pray together and to learn more about the Church’s worship and to explore displays, listen to lectures, view demonstrations and art exhibits, and even take part in a contest for the best church design. This year’s Liturgical Week in Seattle is expected to be the largest yet, with as many as 6,000 participants. The added attraction of the World’s Fair, and the excitement about the forthcoming Ecumenical Council, both have something to do with the surge of interest in the Liturgical Week. LES MER HER.

Bloggen viser også til en annen artikkel som ble skrevet om lturgien, etter at konferansen var over, og som tok med et bilde (over) av den første messen som ble feiret versus populum i Seattle:

From the June 28, 1962 issue of Commonweal Magazine, a provocative call for liturgical reform by an organizer of the North American Liturgical Week recently held in Seattle in conjunction with the World’s Fair, imagining how liturgy might be celebrated 50 years from now. LES MER HER.

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