Katolsk

Helt feil overskrifter i Vårt Land – om katolsk ekteskap

Katolsk, Teologi /

«Han var utestengt fra nattverden i seks år – nå gir paven ham lov» leser vi på Vårt Lands hovednettside, men det er ikke spesielt presis formulert – selve artikkelen har overskriften «Lar gjengifte katolikker få nattverd».

I artikkelen vises det også til et oppslag høsten 2015, kalt «Hans første ekteskap varte i 12 år – ifølge paven var han aldri gift» – også en overskrift som er helt misforstått, for denne saken har jo paven ikke hatt noe som helst med.

Artikkelen fra i fjor høst forteller om en katolikk som hadde et vanskelig ekteskap i 12 år, ble skilt, og så giftet seg på nytt igjen. Etter det ventet han i over 20 år før han brakte det første ekteskapet inn for Tribunalet, som erklærte det for ugyldig – og deretter ble han viet i Den katolske kirke. Alt dette følger den katolske kirkeretten, det er ikke noe ekstraordinært i saken og den er nokså vanlig.

I artikkelen fra i fjor nevnes det imidlertid at før det andre ekteskapet ble godkjent av Kirken, hadde noen prester fortalt denne personen at han likevel kunne motta sakramentene (mest skriftemålet og nattverden) selv om Kirken vurderte hans ekteskap som ugyldig. Det er dette man kaller en «pastoral» løsning, en uoffisiell (og hemmelig) vurdering av en prest om at her må Kirkens regler settes til siden – en løsning jeg personlig (som prest) aldri har forstått grunnlaget for. Selvsagt skal en prest vise stor omsorg for medlemmer med slike problemer, men ikke bryte Kirkens regler for å løse deres problemer – dette har blitt sagt i mange pavelige dokumenter de siste 30-40 årene.

Dagens artikkel i Vårt Land omtaler denne siste saken, og man skriver: «Paven gjorde det klart at Den katolske kirke står fast ved hovedregelen om at gjengifte ikke får motta nattverd, i dokumentet som han la fram sist fredag. Samtidig åpner det katolske overhodet i en fotnote likevel opp for at det kan gjøres unntak i «visse tilfeller».»

Vårt Land har helt rett i at det er noe ulik praksis i Den katolske kirke om hva konsekvensene av gjengifte blir – noen prester følger reglene ganske nøye, mens andre mener de kan finne grunner til å bryte reglene, og det er også riktig at bispesynodene om familien og ekteskapet i 2014, og 2015, og sist ukes dokument fra disse synodene «Amoris lætitia» har vært svært opptatt av denne problemstillingen. Jeg kan likevel ikke se at pavens dokument åpner nattverdbordet for gjengifte på noen som helst generell måte – i hvilken fotnote til dokumentet står denne tillatelsen?

Mange reaksjoner på paven dokument «Amoris lætitia»

Katolsk, Paven, Teologi /

Fra det engelske Catholic Herald tar jeg med tre artikler om «Amoris lætitia». Den første artikkelen helter Amoris Laetitia: What people are saying, og den starter slik:

Church leaders have welcomed the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which was published on Friday.

Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban said: “What is new about this exhortation is its tone,” that it exhorted ministers “to be warm and caring in the way they deal with people in difficult circumstances”. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin identified “a unifying thread: The Gospel of the family is challenging and demanding, but … with the grace of God and his mercy, is attainable and fulfilling, enriching and worthwhile”.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane described the heart of the interview thus: “A genuinely pastoral approach to marriage and the family begins with the facts.” For Cardinal O’Malley of Boston, “Pope Francis challenges us to approach the weak with compassion.” ….

Den andre artikkelen heter When apostolic exhortations are too long all we are left with is spin, og inneholder bl.a.:

… the Pope’s recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, weighs in at 60,000 words or thereabouts. According to Fr Raymond de Souza, this makes Amoris Laetitia the longest document of the Papal Magisterium ever. The encyclicals of St John Paul II, which have been of lasting value to the Church, are long by the standards of his predecessors, but Amoris Laetitia beats all records.

This strikes me as unfortunate. When one writes anything – novel, article, or apostolic exhortation – one does so in the hope that it will be read as widely as possible. But when one’s apostolic exhortation is of record breaking length, the chances of it finding a wide readership become correspondingly slim. It simply won’t be read by the man and woman in the pew. The only people who will read it will be professional theologians and commentators, and many of the latter will skim read it, and mine it for quotations. Thus most people who hear about Amoris Laetitia will do so at second hand, and even then in a way that may well warp the meaning of the original. Given the unmanageability of the work itself, what we will be left with is the spin; neither will we be able to counsel people to read the original for themselves and make their own judgment.

Papal documents have been getting longer and longer of late. Perhaps one needs to remember that these are letters, like the pastoral letters that our bishops address to the faithful a few times a year and which are read out in church. A Papal letter than could be read out in all churches would really make people sit up and pay attention. …

Den tredje artikkelen heter Cardinal Burke: ‘Amoris Laetitia does not change Church teaching’, og her leser vi bl.a.:

… cardinal Burke said that “Pope Francis makes clear, from the beginning, that the post-synodal apostolic exhortation is not an act of the magisterium” and that “it is written as a reflection of the Holy Father on the work of the last two sessions of the Synod of Bishops (on the family).”

“A post-synodal apostolic exhortation, by its very nature, does not propose new doctrine and discipline but applies the perennial doctrine and discipline to the situation of the world at the time,” Cardinal Burke wrote.

The cardinal continued: “With the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the task of pastors and other teachers of the faith is to present it within the context of the Church’s teaching and discipline, so that it serves to build up the Body of Christ in its first cell of life, which is marriage and the family. …

AMORIS LÆTITIA – Oppsummeringen etter bispesynodene

Katolsk, Liturgi, Paven /

Oppsummeringen etter bispesynodene om familien i 2014 og 2015 ble utgitt i går, og norske nyhetskilder har meldt kort om dette, stort sett gjennom en NTB-arktikkel, som f.eks. Vårt Land har gjengitt. Denne korte gjengivelsen er korrekt på enkelt punkter, men også forholdsvis misforstått. Jeg har omstrukturert meldingen litt og gir også noen kommentarer til de enkelte artiklene.

I det nye dokumentet fra paven heter det at samboere bør ønskes velkommen og «rettledes, tålmodig og diskret». Han mener at homofile bør respekteres – men fastholder kirkens motstand mot homofile partnerskap og ekteskap.

Ingenting her er jo nytt; vi har i mange år mottatt samboere vennlig og veiledet dem diskret. (Riktignok kan det være at noen utenlandske prester her har vært altfor strenge, jeg har hørt et par eksempler på det.) Og de homofile skal også alltid møtes med respekt, det sa f.eks. Den katolske kirkes katekisme fra 1992 veldig tydelig. Der leser vi i artikkel 2358. «Et ikke ubetydelig antall menn og kvinner viser grunnleggende homoseksuelle tendenser. Denne tilbøyelighet, som er objektivt feilrettet, utgjør en prøvelse for de fleste av dem. Disse må tas imot med respekt, medfølelse og fintfølelse. Alle utslag av urettferdig diskriminering mot dem skal unngås. …»

I tillegg taler paven varmt om kjærlighetens «erotiske dimensjon», og mener kirken bør ta selvkritikk for tidligere å ha hevdet at ekteskapets eneste formål var å få barn.

Her er det knapt grunn til selvkritikk. Kirken har jo de siste årene alltid presentert ekteskapets to hovedformål som 1) Fellesskapet mellom de to, 2) å få barn. I tidligere tider var rekkefølgen her motsatt, og plikten til å få barn kunne bli satt over utviklingen av et godt og varmt fellesskap mellom ektefellene, men det er tross alt lenge siden.

Den katolske kirke anerkjenner ikke skilsmisse, selv om den juridiske skilsmissen er et faktum. I stedet har kirken en ordning med såkalt annullering av ekteskap. Ifølge katolsk lov/ kirkerett kan begrunnelsene for annullering være at den ene parten ikke ønsker barn, (ikke virkelig lovet/ ønsket at ekteskapet skulle vare hele livet), mindreårighet ved inngåelse, tvang, og psykisk sykdom – eller at den ene parten (hadde vært gift) tidligere.

En knapp måned i forkant av bispemøtet i fjor høst sendte paven ut et brev med sju punkter skal blant ­annet føre til at prosessen tar kortere tid og koster mindre (i Norge har den alltid vært billig).

I avsnittene over har jeg presisert enkelte ting (i parentes) som var uklare og mangelfulle. Men det står likevel fast at Kirken i alle år har hatt ekteskapstribunaler, som i mange land har fungert svært godt. Nå vektlegges det (og det er det absolutt ingen uenighet om i Kirken) at tribunalene må fungere godt (og være billige) alle steder, og prosessen har også blitt forkortet noe.

Paven ser ut til å åpne døren på gløtt for at skilte katolikker som har giftet seg på nytt (med en borgerlig vielse), kan få gå til nattverd – noe reglene inntil nå har sagt de ikke kan.

I dette siste avsnittet ligger det eneste kontroversielle i dette lange dokumentet; er det mulig at katolikker som lever i et nytt (sivilt) ekteskap som Kirken ikke har godtatt (fordi de ikke har prøvd å gifte seg kirkelig, ikke har gått til tribunalet med et tidligere ekteskap eller fått avslag fra tribunalet), at disse likevel skal kunne mottatt absolusjon i skriftemålet og kunne motta kommunion i messen? I rundt 50 år har det vært prester som har ment (jeg har ikke gjort det, og forstår heller ikke grunnlaget for å kunne gjøre det) at slike likevel kan motta sakramentene, gjennom det som kalles en pastoral løsning som pr. definisjon er uoffisiell.

Det kan muligens se ut til at en slik løsning har blitt delvis eller nesten godtatt av pave Frans, men dette er ikke skrevet tydelig i dette lange dokumentet noe sted. Jeg skal nå snart kaste meg over grundige og mer teologiske analyser at dokumentet «Amoris lætitia» og se hva de «lærde mener.

Man finner hele dokumentet på engelsk her.

Man tuller ikke med sakramentene

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Ei ny bok ble nylig presentert i Roma med denne tittelen; på italiensk «Con i Sacramenti non si Scherza». Forfatter er msgr Nicola Bux, og ved bokpresentasjonen var flere viktige teologer og geistlige til stede. Flere av disse uttalte seg svært negativt om liturgiske trender i dagens Kirke, kardinal Sarah sa bl.a.: «As Pope Benedict XVI repeatedly pointed out, in the decades since the Council we have witnessed deformations of the liturgy which are hard to bear, in a never-ending crescendo.» Og: «In the church today there is too much man and not enough God”.

Fr. Anthony Ruff på liturgibloggen PrayTell syns denne massive kritikken av dagens liturgi er overdrevet og lite nyttig, og sier bl.a.:

Cardinal Burke had his own bit of gaudium and spes to add to the occasion: there has been a “deformation of the sacraments in the name of creativity” since the Council. It appears that sacraments have become “private property” in some communities. But “Christ is the protagonist, not the priest.”

The cardinals are not entirely wrong, in my view. Sure, lots of things have gone wrong with the liturgy since the Council – lots of silliness, tackiness, misunderstanding, failed experiments, and all the rest. Might as well admit that. But overall, the cardinals’ diagnosis of the situation misses the mark. Their proposals are unhelpful and could even end up doing more harm than good. I think there’s an attitude problem here. Such unrelenting negativity does not help build up the church. ….

Let’s talk about creativity. It often feels to me like Cardinal Burke, and people like him, are fighting yesterday’s battles. So much of the misplaced creativity since Vatican II, which probably peaked sometime back in the 70s or so, has long since calmed down. If one were to trek around and sit in on lots of parish liturgies, I suspect one would find more of the opposite problem, especially among younger clergy: a rigid and off-putting ritualism, a formality that feels contrived – which is deadly to the true liturgical spirit, and a legalism that gets lost in minutiae and sometimes excludes and hurts people. Rather than focusing on yesterday’s problems, it would be more forward-looking to deal constructively with today’s. Let’s talk about ascendant tendencies now that merit critique and need some gentle redirection.

Burke is on to something when he says that the priest is not the protagonist, Christ is. But I observe that there are two ways for the presiding priest to draw attention to himself: by being a game show host, and by conspicuously imposing his Tridentine piety on the community’s liturgy.

Furthermore, instead of just railing at silly creativity (and I’m capable of that too – my personal liturgical tastes can tend toward the elitist and elegant), why don’t we talk about why it went off the rails at times? A little understanding and empathy would be helpful.

Rhinen renner ut i Tiberen

Katolsk /

16april_rhinen_tiberen Jeg har nå begynt å lese (en Kindle-utgave av) boka The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber, jeg leser den utvidede utgaven fra 1991 kalt The Inside Story of Vatican II: A Firsthand Account of the Council’s Inner Workings. Boka er visst kjent for å være faktabasert, og velger ikke side i diskusjonene i særlig grad – slik ser det også i starten av boka. Amazon skriver om den:

Only two years after the Second Vatican Council concluded in 1965, Catholics around the world welcomed the publication of The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber, a history of the Council published worldwide in four languages. Widely hailed for its balanced, factual reporting, this eye-opening insider’s account was written by Rev. Ralph M. Wiltgen, a priest and professional journalist who was an eyewitness with unparalleled access to the principal figures and events of the Council. The Inside Story of Vatican II is a revised, updated edition of that ground-breaking contemporary account, which details in particular the crucial influence on the Council’s proceedings exerted by its German-speaking bishops. As Catholics continue to debate the meaning and impact of Vatican II, they will find this book an indispensable guide for understanding what actually took place there behind the scenes.

Man kan lese mer om forfatteren, Fr Ralph M. Wiltgen, her, og han hadde følgende utgangspunkt for å skrive boka:

He holds the theory that the council was a theological dispute that pitted the churches of the countries where the Rhine flows (Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium, which where more liberal), against other churches (Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, English-speaking and Italian, which were more traditionalist). … The book received the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur in 1966 by later cardinal Terence Cooke though many members of the church appeared under a grim light.

Katolikker kan ikke glede seg over reformasjonen

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

Troskongregasjonens leder, kardinal Gerhard Müller, har nylig sagt dette, at katolikker ikke kan feire at reformasjonen begynte for snart 500 år siden (skriver Catholic Herald):

The German cardinal said in a new book-length interview: “We Catholics have no reason to celebrate October 31, 1517, the date that is considered the beginning of the Reformation that would lead to the rupture of Western Christianity.” …

… Cardinal Müller says in the new book: “If we are convinced that divine revelation is preserved whole and unchanged through Scripture and Tradition, in the doctrine of the Faith, in the sacraments, in the hierarchical constitution of the Church by divine right, founded on the sacrament of holy orders, we cannot accept that there exist sufficient reasons to separate from the Church.”

The remarks will cause a stir, coming a year before the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day. Extensive celebrations and commemorations are planned in Germany and elsewhere. ….

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith skriver også om dette i Catholic Herald, bl.a.:

The reminder from the ever excellent Cardinal Müller that the Reformation is nothing to celebrate, while a statement of the obvious – after all, how can one celebrate disunity? – still leaves us with a question: just how are we to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s revolt against Church doctrine?

Just ignoring it would not be right. The Reformation was a huge event and we are still living with its consequences, no one can deny. Much better that we should mark the anniversary in a way that deepens our understanding of it. Why did it happen? What can we learn from it? And what can we do, five centuries on, to heal the breaches created then? …

Han skriver så litt om hvorfor reformasjonen skjedde; tidligere trodde man det var fordi datidens katolske kirke hadde spilt fallitt og mistet oppslutning (men dette har vist seg å være feil), dernest nevner han politiske grunner (at noen herskere dermed fikk mer makt), og til slutt nevner han en ting som Den katolske kirke delvis var ansvarlig for, nemlig uklarheten om hvordan man blir frelst. Men i vår tid er jo ikke mennesker i moderne land interessert i å bli frelst – og så avslutter han artikkelen sin slik:

I think the best way to mark the Reformation is to emphasise that the Church can only be universal, that is Catholic, in that Christ only brought one revelation, and only founded one Church. The idea of a national church is completely absurd. Coupled with this there needs to be a strong presupposition in favour of internationalism (which, as my Brexiteer MP and I agreed, was quite in keeping with leaving the EU, as that institution is not to be confused with Europe itself).

Finally, I think we need to make the Reformation anniversary into a celebration of the role and nature of the papacy as the focus of unity and guarantor of doctrinal truth, for the splintering of Protestantism (of which Luther would not have approved, I feel) is the best advert for the papacy ever devised. Instead of asking the question “How can I be saved?” we need to turn our attention to the question “What is the Church?”

Konvertitter forblir katolikker

Generelt, Katolsk, Økumenikk /

Jeg må innrømme at jeg har hørt denne «sannheten» i Norge noen ganger de siste 2-3 årene; at en stor prosent av menneskene som blir opptatt i Den katolske kirke i voksen alder (konvertitter) forlater Kirken igjen ganske snart. Dette samsvarer ikke med min egen erfaring, men det har blitt påstått. Nå kan det se ut til at denne «sannheten» aldri har vært korrekt (skriver Catolic Herald):

For several years now, I have been hearing a “fact” stated with the utmost confidence: that a large proportion of adults entering the Church through the RCIA end up lapsing within the space of a year or two. I have even heard some depressingly precise figures quoted – 50 per cent, 75 per cent, even 90 per cent – along with authoritative, albeit non-specific, appeals to “a study from the United States”.

You have probably heard something similar yourself. Perhaps it flashed through your mind recently, briefly souring the joyful moment as you clapped those white-clad, beaming-faced “world’s newest Catholics” at your parish’s Easter Vigil.

Well, let me tell something. This week I was in Washington DC, among other things visiting the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). This is Georgetown University’s crack team of social scientists, who have been providing empirically rigorous yet pastorally useful answers to all manner of Catholic questions for over 50 years. (They have also partly inspired the creation of at least one other research centre, likewise based at a leading Catholic University in a major capital city.)

To be perfectly blunt, if there really is a “study from the United States” on the perseverence (or not) of adult converts, the good folks at CARA would not only know about it, but there’s a very good chance it would be theirs in the first place. Here’s the thing, though. No such study, showing a significant and imminent falling away of RCIA-ers, exists. What CARA do, however, is a raft of evidence suggesting precisely the opposite. All this is clearly set out in two blog posts, one from February of this year and the other from 2014, both of which I urge you to read.

The most recent, though modestly described as “a quick back of the envelope reality check”, is in fact a clever use of some very robust data sources. This estimates that something like 84 per cent of all American former RCIA-ers still regard themselves as Catholic. Given that, according to my own analysis of similar sorts of data, only 64 per cent of US cradle Catholics still identify as Catholic, that’s not bad going at all. …

En tradisjonalist har begynt å like den nye messen

Katolsk, Liturgi, TLM /

16apr_TLM
I England har Damian Thompson lenge vært en kjent katolsk journalist og blogger, og han har oftest kritisert de liberale kreftene i Kirken, og bl.a. elsket den tradisjonelle latinske messen. Nå ser dette ut til å ha forandret seg, kan vi lese i Catholic Herald (og nyheten diskuteres på en progressiv liturgiblogg):

… In the past few years I’ve been reintegrated into the ordinary Catholic Church. The process began when a musician friend started taking me to the low-key Sunday evening Mass at Farm Street. But things really picked up when I began regular attendance at the church opposite my flat, St Mary of the Angels, Notting Hill. My parish priest is the lovely Mgr Keith Barltrop, who has banished the last remnants of BCM (Bad Catholic Music); on Friday the shivers ran up my spine when, as I queued for the Adoration of the Cross, the organ struck up a familiar ground bass and I heard the Crucifixus of Bach’s B Minor Mass, exquisitely performed by a small choir that must have had professional singers in it. I fought back tears, which is how it should be on Good Friday.

Thanks to Fr Keith, there are proper candles in the sanctuary and a “Benedict Cross” on the altar. The servers are nicely drilled. But lots of them are girls and at every Mass there are lay ministers of Holy Communion. The sign of peace can be quite exuberant.

And it doesn’t bother me in the least. These are signs of the comforting “ordinariness” of worship that takes me back to my Catholic childhood. Indeed, the longer I attend, the more I realise that the cradle bits of my Catholicism never went away, though they’re not necessarily very edifying.

For example, my hearts leaps – just as it did in 1975 – when I hear the priest say the words, “the fount of all holiness” because it means he’s gone for the Second Eucharistic Prayer and it’s the shortest. Worse, I groan when the priest settles down for his moment of private prayer after Communion. The 13-year-old in me still thinks: come on, Father, we’re so tantalisingly near the end. …

I’m not going to try to justify these sentiments to David, my new fellow Catholic; you can’t expect a convert to understand. But they don’t really matter, either, because short Masses can be very uplifting. Parish priests, please note.

Muligens har det tradisjonalistiske miljøet der Thompson har vanket vært for elitistisk, muligens har de overdrevet høytideligheten i liturgien – jeg leste f.eks. for flere år siden at pave Pius X (for litt over 100 år siden) bemerket at prestene ikke måtte forlenge messene unødig (og slik irritere de troende). Jeg legger også merke til at Thompson har funnet en menighet der messen feires noenlunde verdig, og presten (som var min rektor på Allen Hall presteseminar da jeg var student der i 1997-98) har sluttet å bruke de aller dårligste messe»salmene».

Dokumentet etter bispesynodene om familien vil nok ikke avklare så mye

Katolsk, Teologi /

Sandro Magister mener i alle fall at man ikke skal forvente veldig mye klarhet i de 200 sidene, og referer til hva kardinal Kasper, erkebiskop Gänswein og kardinal Müller mener. Slik åpner artikkelen:

The anticipation of the apostolic exhortation in which Pope Francis will sum up the twofold synod on the family is becoming more feverish by the day.

And meanwhile the expectations concerning the papal document are being lined up on their respective fronts, even now presaging the divisions that will explode after its publication.

On the one side there is a triumphant Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leader of the reformers, according to whom the exhortation “will be the first step in a reform that will turn the page back for the Church after a period of 1700 years” (presumably a reference to the Council of Nicea in 325, canon 8 of which, according to a reckless exegesis, authorized communion for the divorced and remarried).

While on the opposite front there is for example Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the pontifical household and secretary of pope emeritus Benedict XVI, according to whom the exhortation will instead contain “what the magisterium of the Church has always said,” without deviations in doctrine or in pastoral practice.

The widespread sense is that both sides have a case to make, considering the invincible ambiguity that characterizes the pronouncements of Pope Francis. Because it is easy to foresee that anyone will be able to dig out from among the 200 pages of the document the passage that he likes most, and act accordingly.

The draft of the exhortation has also undergone the scrutiny of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, which – according to several leaks – sent it back to the pope along with a number of proposed changes. It is not been made known if and to what extent Francis may have taken the observations of the congregation to heart.

What is known, however, is the thinking in this area of the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, German cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, who is also one of the thirteen cardinals who at the beginning of the last synod warned the pope, in a letter, against the danger of “predetermined results on important disputed questions,” in rupture with tradition, especially on communion for the divorced and remarried.

And now Müller, just when the publication of the apostolic exhortation is imminent, has come out into the open again with a wide-ranging book-length interview, not only on the family but also on other burning questions.

The book was recently released in Spain, published by the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, and will soon be available in Italian, English, French, German …

Lenger nede i artikkelen gjengir Margister en del synspunkter fra Müllers intervjubok – om homofilt samliv, hvem som kan ta imot kommunion, protestantisering av Kirken, kvinnelige prester og sølibatet.

Kardinal Schönborn skal presentere Familiesynodens dokument

Katolsk, Teologi /

16april_schonborn
Det er nå kjent at det pavelige dokumentet, kalt Amoris Lætitia, som oppsummerer de to bispesynodene om familien skal offentliggjøres 8. april, og John Allen skriver at kardinal Schönborn skal presentere dokumentet. Han skriver om dette bl.a.:

In a move possibly hinting that Pope Francis will side with progressives on some contentious matters regarding family life, the Vatican announced Thursday that a keenly anticipated document from the pontiff will be released April 8 and presented by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria. …

… During the two synods, Schönborn was seen as a leading exponent of the moderate-to-progressive position on those issues.

He was part of a German-language group, for instance, which proposed an “internal forum” solution to the question about Communion for those Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church.

The “internal forum” refers to private exchanges between believers and priests or bishops, generally in the context of the sacrament of confession. Although canon lawyers debate whether, and how, it could be applied to the divorced and remarried, advocates of allowing them to return to Communion generally see it as way to accomplish that on a private, case-by-case basis.

During an Oct. 26 press conference last year, Schönborn, whose own parents were divorced when he was a teenager, told reporters he felt that the synod could not recommend a clear yes or no to Communion for the divorced and remarried.

“There is no black and white, a simple yes or no,” he said, arguing that situations vary widely and so too must the Church’s response. …

Men Allen legger også til – og jeg har alltid husket at Schönborn var sekretæren som sammen med Ratzinger (og en komité) skrev Den katolske kirkes katekisme i 1992:

… It may also reflect a degree of political savvy, since despite his progressive-seeming stances on the key synod debates, Schönborn nevertheless also has solid conservative credentials.

He’s an intellectual protégé of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, for instance, and was also the general editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church under St. John Paul II.

A member of the Dominican religious order, the 71-year-old Schönborn is widely regarded as one of the most intellectually impressive members of the College of Cardinals, and was mentioned as a possible candidate to be pope himself in both the conclaves of 2005 and 2013.

Prestevielser i København

Katolsk, Liturgi, TLM /

16mars_Praestevielse_DK

Lørdag før palmesøndag, 19. mars, ble to unge menn ordinert til katolske prester i København. Vi leste i avisene her i Oslo at fire unge norske prester var til stede ved denne ordinasjonen, og akkurat nå har jeg besøk at to amerikanske prester, som har kommet til Norden pga disse prestevielsene. Den ene amerikanske presten skal bl.a. være diakon i en tradisjonell høymesse (levittmesse ble det kalt i Norge) som den ene nyordinerte presten skal feire i København kommende søndag. Vi kan lese bl.a. dette om ordinasjonene:

Ikke én siddeplads var ledig i Jesu Hjerte Kirke i København, da biskop Czeslaw Kozon på Sct. Josefs festdag, lørdag den 19. marts, præsteviede Jan Hansen og Kasper Baadsgaard-Jensen. Familie og venner, repræsentanter fra menighederne i Vejle, Fredericia og Aarhus – hvor Kasper og Jan har været i praktik det sidste år – og katolikker fra hele Storkøbenhavn samt præster og diakoner fra ind- og udland udgjorde den festlige og flotte ramme om præstevielserne.

Efter i flere år at have talt om præstemangel i bispedømmet føjer Jan og Kasper sig nu til rækken af fem nye præster, som biskop Czeslaw har viet til præstegerningen i løbet af de seneste seks måneder, idet biskoppen 3. oktober sidste år viede Davide de Nigris, Mate Rada og Gilberto Vinciguerra til præster i Sct. Knud Lavard Kirke.

Biskop Czeslaw tog i sin prædiken udgangspunkt i at Jan og Kasper blev præsteviede på Sct. Josefs festdag – som ”I for resten af jeres liv kommer til at forbinde med denne vigtige begivenhed” – hvor man fejrer den hellige Josef som Kirkens værnehelgen.

De to amerikanske prestene som nå er her i Oslo fortsetter sine studier i Roma og bor på det store amerikanske seminaret der, kan fortelle at det hver lørdag feires tradisjonell høymesse der, og at opp mot 100 av de 225 seminaristene deltar i disse messene (ikke alle hver lørdag). Tydeligvis er interessen for den tradisjonelle messen forholdsvis stor enkelte steder, selv om man ikek merker så mye til det i Norge.

Og her er teksten og bildet som «avslører» de norske prestene som reiste til København til prestevielsen.

16mars_norske_prester_kobenhavn

EWTN og Mother Angelica

Katolsk /

Flere år fra 1995, da jeg nettopp hadde blitt katolikk og også nettopp hadde begynt å bruke Internet, brukte jeg ressursene til Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) ganske mye – de siste årene derimot ikke så mye. Likevel minnes jeg med glede stifteren av denne medietjenesten, Mother Angelica, som døde påskedag, 92 år gammel og etter flere års alvorlig sykdom. Catholic News Agency skriver slik om henne:

mother_angelica

The Catholic Church in the United States has lost the Poor Clare nun who changed the face of Catholicism in the United States and around the world. Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), passed away on March 27 after a lengthy struggle with the aftereffects of a stroke. She was 92 years old.

“Mother has always and will always personify EWTN, the network that God asked her to found,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Warsaw. “Her accomplishments and legacies in evangelization throughout the world are nothing short of miraculous and can only be attributed to divine Providence and her unwavering faithfulness to Our Lord.”

In 1981, Mother Angelica launched Eternal Word Television Network, which today transmits 24-hour-a-day programming to more than 264 million homes in 144 countries. What began with approximately 20 employees has now grown to nearly 400. The religious network broadcasts terrestrial and shortwave radio around the world, operates a religious goods catalog and publishes the National Catholic Register and Catholic News Agency, among other publishing ventures.

“Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation’s bishops themselves couldn’t achieve,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who has served on EWTN’s board of governors since 1995. …

Engelske Catholic Herald skriver også om henne.

Etter at Herren hadde ikledd seg menneskelig skikkelse og lidd for de lidende

Katolsk /

Oppstandelsen_Jacopo_da_Cione

When the Lord had clothed Himself with humanity, and had suffered for the sake of the sufferer, and had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned, and had been judged for the sake of the condemned, and buried for the sake of the one who was buried, He rose up from the dead, and cried aloud with this voice: “Who is he that contends with me? Let him stand in opposition to me. I set the condemned man free; I gave the dead man life; I raised up the one who had been entombed. Who is my opponent? I, He says, am the Christ. I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hades under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven; I, He says, am the Christ.

Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your Savior, I am your resurrection, I am your king. I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by My right hand.” … …

LES MER HER.

Påskedagens sekvens: Victimæ paschali laudes

Katolsk /

Over kan man høre den flotte påskesekvensen, med den tradisjonelle melodien i en ny innspilling.

Under ser man teksten på lating og norsk:

Victimæ paschali laudes immolent Christiani.
(Kristenhet, la lovsang tone påskens lam til ære.)
Agnus redemit oves; Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores.
(Lammet som for hjorden døde, Krist som skyldløs bar vår brøde, vil oss med vår Far forsone.)
Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando; dux vitæ mortuus, regnat vivus.
(Død med liv en tvekamp stred, som i under endte, da vår konge døden led, død til liv seg vendte. )
Dic nobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via?
(«Maria, tal for sant, om tegnene du fant.»)
Sepulchrum Christi viventis et gloriam vidi resurgentis.
(«Jeg så den grav som nyss var hans, jeg så den oppstandne i stråleglans,)
Angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.
(så engler stå vitner, så svetteduk og svøp.)
Surrexit Christus spes mea: præcedet vos in Galilæam.
(Oppstanden er Kristus, mitt håp og min heder. Til Galilea vandrer han forut for eder.»)
Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere; tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere. Amen. Alleluia.
(Oppstanden er Kristus, det vet vi for visst. Skjenk oss din miskunn, du seirende Krist. Amen. Alleluia.)

Under hører man samme tekst sunget til en melodi av Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, arrangert for 8 stemmer.

Et kloster som får mange nye kall

Katolsk /

Catholic Herald skriver om klosteret HEILIGENKREUZ utenfor Wien, bl.a.:
heiligenkreuz

Heiligenkreuz is more than a popular attraction. It is living and growing. This one monastery ordains more priests than some archdioceses. The oldest continuously occupied Cistercian monastery in the world, founded in 1133, is now thriving. There are currently more than 90 monks – 30 years ago it was half that – with an average age of under 50. Vocations are booming. Last year Heiligenkreuz clothed another eight novices, and candidates come from all over the world, including recently from England.

Fourteen monks currently teach at the faculty of theological studies, sited in the monastery’s new campus. With some 300 students, this is now the largest Catholic study centre in the German-speaking world. It is part theological academy, part seminary, teaching not only members of its community but also laity (both men and women), and 160 future diocesan priests and Religious from throughout Europe and the developing world. …

… Sebastian Cody, a British media consultant who has been visiting Heiligenkreuz for decades, says the reforms of the 1960s were a turning point. “I was privileged, as a very young man, to meet the late Abbot Karl Braunsdorfer. He was a Council Father who, when he returned to the monastery in the mid-1960s, had the responsibility to institute reform. And what he set – after no doubt deep soul-searching, faced with the many temptations of that era – sowed the seeds for the later flourishing, although at the time of his death in 1978 he might not have seen all the fruits.”

… The liturgy was reformed along the lines laid out by the Second Vatican Council. A new Latin edition of the monastic breviary was made especially for Heiligenkreuz, and Gregorian chant was again given pride of place. The habit was retained. Any visitor will be struck by the dignified liturgy that is at the heart of life in Heiligenkreuz. …

Kristi frelsende lidelse og seierrike oppstandelse, som knuser den gamle fiendes hovmot

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Slik lyder bønner og antifoner i dagens messe, mandag i den stille uke (les alle tekstene her):

Inngangsvers
Herre, gå i rette med dem som går i rette med meg; strid mot dem som strider mot meg. Grip skjold og verge og kom meg til hjelp; si til min sjel: Jeg er din frelser.

Kollektbønn
Allmektige Gud, vi ber deg, at vi som er svake, må få ny kraft ved din enbårne Sønns lidelse, han som lever og råder…

Bønn over offergavene
Herre, ta nådig imot disse hellige mysterier, som du har gitt os for å ta bort den dom som hviler over oss. Vi ber deg, la dem bringe oss evig liv. Ved Kristus, vår Herre.

Pasjonsprefasjon II
I sannhet, det er verdig og rett, vår skyldighet og vår frelse,
at vi alltid og alle vegne takker deg,
Herre, hellige Fader, allmektige, evige Gud, ved Kristus, vår Herre.
Nå nærmer dagen seg for hans frelsende lidelse og seierrike oppstandelse,
den som knuser den gamle fiendes hovmot, og minner oss om vår gjenløsnings mysterium.
Ved ham priser englenes hærskare din majestet og gleder seg evig for ditt åsyn.
Vi ber deg, forén våre røster med dem, idet vi jublende istemmer:

Kommunionsvers
Skjul ikke ditt åsyn for meg på nødens dag. Bøy ditt øre til meg, skynd deg og svar meg når jeg roper.

Bønn etter kommunion
Herre, vi ber deg, se til ditt folk. Våk i din miskunn over de hjerter som dette sakrament hår helliget, og gi oss å verne om de midler du nådig har gitt oss til evig frelse. Ved Kristus, vår Herre.

Tre bøker som er kritiske til deler av den nye liturgien

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Denne siste studieuka leser jeg også disse tre bøkene (som jeg alle i større eller mindre grad har lest tidligere), bøker som alle er kristiske til liturgirevisjonen etter konsilet.

lang_turning_to_the_lord Den første av disse bøkene er Turning Towards The Lord av Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, og Amazon skriver om den:

Turning towards the Lord presents an historical and theological argument for the traditional, common direction of liturgical prayer, known as “facing east”, and is meant as a contribution to the contemporary debate about the Catholic liturgy. Lang, a member of the London Oratory, studies the direction of liturgical prayer from an historical, theological, and pastoral point of view. At a propitious moment, this book resumes a debate that, despite appearances to the contrary, has never really gone away, not even after the Second Vatican Council. Historical research has made the controversy less partisan, and among the faithful there is an increasing sense of the problems inherent in an arrangement that hardly shows the liturgy to be open to the things that are above and to the world to come. … Without claiming to offer major new insights, Lang carefully presents the results of recent research and provides the material necessary for making an informed judgment. It is from such historical evidence that the author elicits the theological answers that he proposes.

Den andre boka er The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background av Klaus Gamber. Om denne skriver Alcuin Reid på Amazon:

The news that this book has been brought back into print by Roman Catholic Books is very good news indeed, for it is a seminal work which has done much to expose the extent of discontinuity in the post-conciliar reform. It stands alongside Archbishop Bugnini’s own book, The Reform of the Liturgy, as essential reading – though Gamber is certainly the more accessible of the two.

Gamber’s book is in fact two books. The first examines the overall work of the changes made to the liturgy in the 1960’s. He sees the question of whether or not the changes were an organic development as crucial. His conclusions speak for themselves: «Obviously, the reformers wanted a completely new liturgy, a liturgy that differed from the traditional one in spirit as well as in form; and in no way a liturgy that represented what the Council Fathers had envisioned, i.e., a liturgy that would meet the pastoral needs of the faithful» (p. 100). Gamber is clear and unequivocal: a large mistake has been made with regard to the liturgy, unprecedented in the Church’s history.

gamber_reform_liturgy However, it would be wrong to align Gamber with traditionalists who draw a line at 1962, 1955, or even earlier, beyond which all change is anathema. Gamber is a critical liturgical historian, as shown by his precise and detailed discussion of the question of which way the liturgy should be celebrated, which comprises the second book in this volume.

Gamber’s concerns are historical, doctrinal and pastoral. He readily accepts the appropriateness of vernacular readings, and even of the pruning of some of the later accretions to the Traditional Roman Rite (Psalm 42 from the prayers at the foot of the altar, the Offertory prayers, the last Gospel). These prudential decisions can be argued about, as they were at Trent. But he staunchly defends traditions integral to the Roman Rite throughout its history, e.g., facing eastwards and the Roman Canon, and deprecates «the cold breath of realism [that] now pervades our worship» (p.13).

Gamber speaks frankly of the destruction of the Roman Rite after the Council, the last example of which can be found in the Ordo Missae promulgated in 1965 as the reform called for by the Council. Significantly, Archbishop Bugnini dismissed this 1965 reform as insufficient because its alterations were merely «peripheral», insisting that «radical» changes were what was needed.

It is Gamber’s brave, loyal `critical traditionalism’ that gives such importance to his writing. His theses are well documented, and his research is impressive. One hopes more of his writings will be made available in translation.

crouan_liturgy_after_v2 Den tredje og siste av disse kritiske bøkene er The Liturgy After Vatican II: Collapsing or Resurgent? av Denis Crouan. Om denne kan vi lese:

Crouan, the author of several studies on liturgical questions including the book The Liturgy Betrayed presents another penetrating work on the state of the Eucharistic Liturgy, the problems and errors that still exist, and how to correct these abuses. The responses Crouan has received to all of his writing and speaking on this topic from Catholics of every stripe show the weariness and confusion of many of the faithful regarding the Sacred Liturgy.

Crouan says that the great majority of Catholics need and want, not celebrations that are “pastorally correct”, but a Eucharistic liturgy that offers all the guarantees of Catholicity and leads them to an authentic contemplation of the mysteries being celebrated. He expresses the urgency needed to examine what is going on in parish churches, and to clarify matters by acknowledging the liturgical errors in order to establish a greater fidelity to the real teaching of Vatican II and the Roman Missal.

En del av liturgireformen etter konsilet bygger på feil premisser

Katolsk, Liturgi, Teologi /

Med denne overskrifta sikter jeg spesielt til messens (Novus Ordo) andre eukaristiske bønn, den skulle visstnok bygge på en romersk eukaristisk bønn fra 200-tallet, funnet i skriftet Den apostoliske tradisjon, og være skrevet av en prest som heter Hippolytus. Men de siste 15-20 år har man forstått at dette faktisk ikke er tilfelle. Den kjente liturgen/ teologen John F. Baldovin, S.J. (som ikke er spesielt konservativ) skrev i 2003 om dette i tidsskriftet Theological Studies, Nr. 64 – og jeg leste artikkelen i går. Fr Baldovin skriver bl.a.:

When I was a student, the commonly accepted opinion on the Apostolic Tradition ran something like this: Here we have a church order that gives us data on important ecclesiastical practices from the early-third century. The writer was a presbyter/theologian, named Hippolytus, who opposed Bishop Callistus of Rome over the latter’s laxity in readmitting sinners to church fellowship. He thus became a schismatic anti-pope, but was reconciled before his death as a martyr. A conservative, he advocated ancient usages of the Church. A crusty old parish priest unwilling to abide by his bishop’s liturgical innovations, he set down in a single document these rather antiquarian rules for liturgy and church conduct.

Nothing about this synthesis is correct. The title of the document in question is not the Apostolic Tradition. It cannot be attributed to Hippolytus, an author whose corpus of biblical commentaries and anti-heretical treatises is somewhat well known. As a matter of fact it is even doubtful whether the corpus of that writer can actually be attributed to a single writer. Finally, the document does not give us certain information about the liturgical practice of the early-third-century Roman Church.

Why then is it important to revisit the document? The importance of the so-called Apostolic Tradition consists mainly in its use by modern students in constructing the early history of the liturgy, and its use as the foundation of contemporary liturgical practice. Three examples will suffice: (1) The Second Eucharistic Prayer of the post-Vatican II Roman Rite (not to mention similar prayers used by a number of Anglican and Protestant churches) finds its inspiration in the anaphora given in chapter four of the Apostolic Tradition. (2) The ordination prayers of the Roman Rite have been influenced by the document. And (3), as a colleague once put it, the Roman Catholic adult catechumenate would never have taken its present shape without the framework provided by Hippolytus.

How, then, did we arrive at this false synthesis known as the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome and what can we say today about the putative author and provenance of the document? …

Dette er en lærd artikkel på 23 sider, med svært mange fotnoter, så jeg må hoppe over det meste og bare ta med meg Fr Baldovins avslutning:

(1) The first conclusion is obvious, namely that, in its present state, the document commonly but probably mistakenly referred to as the Apostolic Tradition does not represent the state of affairs in the Church at Rome in the early-third century. While Rome cannot be completely ruled out as one of the places that the document originated, it seems far more likely that it was “born” in the East, perhaps even Alexandria …

(2) One can speak only cautiously of authorship of a document that consists of church regulations. It is a piece of “living literature.” At the most, one can say that there are some phrases that point to the compilers’ familiarity with the work attributed to the Hippolytus of the Contra Noetum and that some elements in the document have a second-century origin.

(3) The current state of research favors a picture of church order and ministerial structure in transition, if not necessarily at Rome, then perhaps in various churches of the third century.

(4) There is a very real possibility that the Apostolic Tradition describes liturgies that never existed. A fortiori, great caution must be employed in appealing to this document to justify contemporary rites. …

(5) Many doubts have been expressed here, and many questions left open. Even if the liturgies described in the so-called Apostolic Tradition never existed in practice, they have had a major impact on the subsequent history of liturgical practice especially and perhaps even ironically in the West. The document addressed in this study has shaped the contemporary liturgies of initiation, ordination, and Eucharist. Of this there can be no doubt at all.

Les hele artikkelen her.

Jeg leste også en artikkel Paul F. Bradshaw skriver om samme emne: Liturgy in the Absence of Hippolytus

Kardinal Pell i hardt vær – gamle overgrepssaker

Generelt, Katolsk /

Den katolske Kirke har ennå ikke blitt ferdig med overgrepssakene, selv om det nå er 15 år siden oppvasken for alvor begynte i USA og enkelte andre land. Jeg forstår at det fortsatt pågårrettssaker i enkelte bispedømmer i USA, og nylig var det en stor høring i Australia, der kardinal Pell ble intervjuet ganske så grundig. John Allen skriver om dette, bl.a.:

… Pell, the Vatican’s top financial officer, was giving testimony about his response to abuse cases in the city of Ballarat, where his priestly career began and which has been an epicenter of Australia’s abuse scandals, and also about his time as archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. He appeared via a video link from Rome, after a heart condition made the long flight home inadvisable.

The four-day hearing was not a walk in the park, and Pell undeniably took some hits.

Over and over, he insisted he was not aware of what he conceded was a “world of crimes and cover-ups” regarding pedophile priests, that he, too, had been deceived, and that at most he was guilty of being insufficiently curious. …

… Yet against all odds, there are five ways in which Pell actually may emerge in a stronger position from this experience.

First, the lengthy examination failed to produce any new “smoking gun” proving that Pell had direct knowledge of abuse and covered it up. He did admit to one instance in 1974 of being told by a student that a priest at a local school was “misbehaving with boys,” but said the student did not request action.

If there was such a bombshell, this surely would have been the moment in which it emerged.

By the end, the main charge seemed to pivot not on what Pell knew, but what he should have known — not what he did, but what he should have done. Those are serious questions, but there was no suggestion of any act that would rise to the standard of a crime, and the same questions could be asked of virtually anyone else who was in Ballarat at the time.

Second, Pell went through the strenuous process without complaint, agreeing to testify from 10 p.m. every night in Rome until 2 or 3 a.m. He was under no legal obligation to do so, which makes his cooperation meaningful.

Third, at the end Pell met with several of the 15-20 abuse survivors, relatives, and supporters who flew over from Australia for the hearing, with at least some coming away striking positive notes.

“I think he gets it,” said survivor Phil Nagle, who was abused by a priest in Ballarat while Pell was the vicar for education. “We talked about the future, not the past,” Nagle said. “We talked about compensation, about care, about what the future will be for us survivors and how the Church is going to help out from George’s level down.” That implies that Nagle sees a role for Pell as part of the solution, not just the problem.

Fourth, Pell pledged his support for the survivors and for recovery efforts from the abuse scandals, including offering to help create an Australian research center for abuse prevention and detection.

Fifth, at the end of the hearing, Pell did not use comments to journalists to issue laments about the unfairness of it all or to suggest that he’s some kind of martyr. …

Preken i requiemmessen til høyesterettsdommer Antonin Scalia

Generelt, Katolsk /

funeral_scalia

First Things gjengir her hele preken til Fr Paul Scalia, som han holdt i sin fars begravelse for noen dager siden

We are gathered here because of one man. A man known personally to many of us, known only by reputation to even more; a man loved by many, scorned by others; a man known for great controversy, and for great compassion. That man, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.

It is He Whom we proclaim: Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, buried, risen, seated at the right hand of the Father. It is because of Him, because of His life, death and resurrection that we do not mourn as those who have no hope, but in confidence we commend Antonin Scalia to the mercy of God.

Scripture says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And that sets a good course for our thoughts and our prayers here today. In effect, we look in three directions: to yesterday, in thanksgiving; to today, in petition; and into eternity with hope.

We look to Jesus Christ yesterday—that is, to the past—in thanksgiving for the blessings God bestowed upon Dad. In the past week, many have recounted what Dad did for them, but here today, we recount what God did for Dad; how He blessed him. We give thanks, first of all, for the atoning death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Lord died and rose not only for all of us, but also for each of us. And at this time we look to that yesterday of His death and His resurrection, and we give thanks that He died and rose for Dad. Further, we give thanks that Jesus brought him to new life in Baptism, nourished him with the Eucharist, and healed him in the confessional. We give thanks that Jesus bestowed upon him 55 years of marriage to the woman he loved—a woman who could match him at every step, and even hold him accountable.

God blessed Dad with a deep Catholic faith—the conviction that Christ’s presence and power continue in the world today through his Body, the Church. …..

The New York Times skriver også om denne begravelsen, bl.a.:

The nation’s leaders, including justices, judges, lawmakers, current and former vice presidents and a presidential candidate, gathered for a mostly solemn two-hour funeral Mass. The longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court, Justice Scalia died at age 79 last weekend at a Texas ranch after nearly 30 years on the highest bench. …

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