Katolsk

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. …

Hva er igjen hvis vi ikke har liturgien?

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Erkebiskop Alexander Sample i Portland, Oregon (der jeg er nå) er nettopp blitt intervjuet, både om erkebispedømmet (i et av de mest kirkeløse delene av USA), om bispesynoden og om liturgien. Om det siste emnet sier han:

The Church teaches us that the liturgy is the “source and summit” of the Church’s life [in Sacrosanctum Concilium]. There is nothing more important that the Church does. All our apostolic works flow from it. It is the heart of who we are as the body of Christ.

I had the pleasure of attending a general audience with Pope Benedict. As a bishop, I had the opportunity to greet him personally afterward. In the few moments I had with him, I told him I had a great admiration for what he’d done to renew the sacred liturgy and thanked him for his leadership. He responded, “If we don’t have the liturgy, what do we have?” I took that message to heart.

I want to do what the Church wants us to do in regards to liturgy. It is not my take, or my style, but what the Church is asking of us. I want to be faithful to what the Vatican II Council intended.

The liturgy is not the personal possession of any priest or liturgical commission, but belongs to Holy Mother Church. We must celebrate it according to the mind and heart of the Church.

Videre sier han også:

I’m grateful to Pope Benedict for allowing the Extraordinary Form to flourish again in the Church. I have a great love and appreciation for the ancient liturgy. I wish every priest and seminarian would familiarize himself with the Extraordinary Form, which can help us to better understand the Ordinary Form.

Jeg leste om dette først hos Father Z.

Messefeiring i England i middelalderen

Katolsk, Liturgi /

liturgy_medieval_england
Jeg er nå i gang med å lese The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History av Richard W. Pfaff, det er ei bok på nesten 600 sider, som det vil ta litt tid å komme gjennom. Amazon skriver om boka:

This book provides a comprehensive historical treatment of the Latin liturgy in medieval England. Richard Pfaff constructs a history of the worship carried out in churches – cathedral, monastic, or parish – primarily through the surviving manuscripts of service books, and sets this within the context of the wider political, ecclesiastical, and cultural history of the period. The main focus is on the mass and daily office, treated both chronologically and by type, the liturgies of each religious order and each secular ‘use’ being studied individually. Furthermore, hagiographical and historiographical themes – respectively, which saints are prominent in a given witness and how the labors of scholars over the last century and a half have both furthered and, in some cases, impeded our understandings – are explored throughout. The book thus provides both a narrative account and a reference tool of permanent value.

Boka går gjennom den ene tidsepoken etter den andre, bl.a. disse:

Early Anglo-Saxon England: a partly traceable story
Later Anglo-Saxon: liturgy for England
The Norman Conquest: cross fertilizations
Monastic liturgy, 1100-1215
Benedictine liturgy after 1215
The non-monastic religious orders: canons regular
The non-monastic religious orders: friars
Old Sarum: the beginnings of Sarum Use
New Sarum and the spread of Sarum Use
Exeter: the fullness of secular liturgy
Southern England: final Sarum Use
Regional Uses and local variety
Towards the end of the story

Pave Frans i Mexico

Katolsk, Paven /

francis_mexico
John Allen skriver om dette besøket:

Upon arriving in Mexico, Francis clearly wanted to make four statements, and he underscored each with a symbolically fitting destination:

1 The importance of popular faith and devotion, which he highlighted Saturday with a Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

2 The dignity of Latin America’s indigenous population, expressed on Monday by an outing to Chiapas, home to an armed Zapatista uprising fueled in part by a legacy of injustices directed at indigenous communities.

3 The indecency of the drug trade and drug-related violence, hammered home on Tuesday when the pontiff traveled to Morelia, a state in which scores of ordinary people and an estimated 40 Catholic priests have been killed by criminal gangs in the past decade.

4 The human dignity of immigrants, captured in the border stop on Wednesday.

Aides said Francis personally chose these destinations, and it’s hard to imagine an itinerary better reflecting his priorities. When the pope goes some place, a good chunk of the world’s media also travels with him, and it’s clear Francis wanted to exploit that spotlight.

Pave Frans snakket også til biskopene i Mexico, og om dette sier Allen:

In effect, what the Mexico trip underlined was the kind of bishop Francis wants. Key qualities include:

– A preference for ordinary people and the poor rather than elites.
– Close contact with social realities, including concrete humanitarian and charitable efforts.
– Political moderation and dialogue with all parties.
– Simplicity of lifestyle and approach.
– Personal integrity and a distaste for wheeling and dealing.
– Rejection of careerism; that is, a prelate who thinks more about this job than the next one.

John Allen om møtet mellom paven og den russisk-ortodokse kirken

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

16feb_pave_patriark
John Allen skriver interessant og nøkternt om dette møtet som nylig ble avholdt på Cuba. Han uttrykker lede over at møtet mellom de to kirkelederne endelig skjedde, men fortsetter slik:

Alas, and without trying to rain on anyone’s parade, there are also good reasons for caution, in large part because Moscow’s motives — both in terms of the Russian church, and the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin — are open to serious doubt.

(The Russian Orthodox Church is a close ally of Putin, and most observers believe Friday’s meeting would not have happened without his encouragement.)

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has bent over backwards to improve relations with Moscow. Given fears that Catholics try to poach Orthodox worshipers, for instance, the Church in Russia has been under what amounts to a quiet “no-growth” policy. Pastors have received instructions that if a Russian seeks to convert, he or she should be sent back to an Orthodox congregation.

Yet despite a slew of similar accommodations, Russian Orthodox leaders still routinely exude hostility. ….

Han kommer med mange flere interessante observasjoner (les gjerne hele artikkelen) og avslutter slik:

Given all that, how will we know if Friday’s meeting was more than a photo-op?

First, the Russian Orthodox could stop making life difficult for other Christians in their sphere of influence, whether that means Greek Catholics in Ukraine or other Orthodox Christians who want to be independent (the term in the East is “autocephalous.”)

Second, Kirill could officially reject claims by arch-conservative traditionalists in his church that Catholic sacraments and ministries aren’t valid. Catholic experience shows doing so won’t make those folks go away, but it will at least prevent them from claiming they speak for the church.

Third, Orthodox clergy could stop providing religious cover for Putin’s imperial ambitions and establish genuine independence from state control.

Fourth, Pope Francis and the Vatican could make the preceding three steps a precondition for moving forward.

If those things occur, then Friday’s get-together will represent a sea change. Longtime observers, however, may be forgiven for not holding their breath.

Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square

Generelt, Katolsk /

neuhaus_biography I dag har jeg lest ferdig ei bok som kom ut for akkurat ett år siden: Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square Neuhaus har betydd mye for meg, helt siden 1991, da jeg begynte å lese det nystartede tidsskriftet First Things, og også hørte at (den tidligere lutherske>) Neuhaus kort tid før dette hadde blitt katolikk. (Jeg skrev litt om mitt forhold til Neuhaus den dagen han døde i januar 2009.)

Biografien ble anmeldt i mange aviser da den kom ut, New York Times skriver bl.a.:

At the time of his death six years ago, the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus was arguably the most prominent conservative Roman Catholic in America. He was leader of the “theocons,” as critics labeled them, right-leaning Christian intellectuals grouped around First Things, a journal Neuhaus founded. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI knew him personally, as well as by his work, and George W. Bush sought Neuhaus’s counsel before and during his time as president. His 1984 book on the place of faith in politics, “The Naked Public Square,” has been credited with helping to define the climate in which Ronald Reagan won re-election.

Yet Neuhaus did not begin as a conservative, a Catholic or indeed in America. He was born and baptized the son of a Lutheran pastor in Pembroke, Ontario. Later, as a Lutheran pastor himself in New York, Neuhaus was an activist liberal — ally of Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggle, co-founder of Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam and antiwar delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Each half of Neuhaus’s life supplies ample material for a biography. …

… A man of the cloth as engaged in public life as Neuhaus was makes a difficult subject for a biography: The cavalcade of events threatens to overwhelm the spiritual side of his life. Boyagoda draws attention back to Neuhaus’s faith whenever he can, particularly in the moving final chapter, as Neuhaus approaches his death. But an adequate spiritual biography would have to be quite different from an account of a public life as full as the one Neuhaus’ led, and inevitably Boyagoda has to choose his focus. Here it is on the outward man, and Boyagoda has explored and explained this fascinating American as well as anyone could have hoped.

Les mer om denne boka her.

P. Erik Andreas Heyerdahl Holt inkardinert

Katolsk /

holth_inkardinert

Slik kan man lese på St Paul menighets nettsider (som også har mange flere bilder):

Under sin visitas i Bergen inkardinerte bp Bernt Eidsvig pastor Erik Andreas Heyerdahl Holt i Oslo Katolske Bispedømme. Pave Frans og Troskongregasjonen har godkjent hans tidligere prestevielse og han fikk dispensasjon fra sølibatet. P. Erik skal tjene som kapellan i St. Paul menighet.

Gratulerer p. Erik!

Om konselabrasjon av messen

Katolsk, Liturgi /

holy_eucharist Jeg har lest ferdig boka The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation, der forfatteren, Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD, er nokså kritisk til praksis som har kommet etter 1970 mht konselebrasjon av messen. Han er ikke mot konselebrasjon, og finner det bl.a. naturlig at prester konselebrerer med sin biskop ved spesielle anledninger, men han finner det ikke naturlig at mange prester skal konselebrere messer til stadighet, heller enn å feire egne messer. Han tar opp spørsmål som; blir ett eller flere messeoffer båret fram når mange prester konselebrerer en messe? Og han skiller tydelig mellom seremenoiell konselebrasjon (når f.eks. en biskop feirer messe med assisterende diakoner og en MC), og sakramental konselebrasjon (når flere prester deltar i konsekrasjonen).

Prof. Peter Kwasniewski har skrevet en grundig og positiv anmeldelse av boka på The New Liturgical Movement, og han åpner anmeldelsen slik:

Let me begin with the bottom line. This is the most important book ever to appear in English on the subject of concelebration. It ought to be read by every bishop, priest, religious, teacher of liturgy, and seminary formator, and absolutely anyone with a desire to learn about this complex and sometimes contentious issue.

Fr. Joseph de Sainte-Marie (1931–1985), a professor and specialist in Carmelite spirituality at the Pontifical Theological Faculty ‘Teresianum’ in Rome, published this substantial collection of his writings in 1982, only a few years before his death. One may regret that it has taken over 30 years for an English translation to appear — or better, one may rejoice that it has finally come out for the benefit of those who do not read French. Lest a nearly 600-page tome prompt any dismay, I hasten to repeat that this is a gathering together of a dozen finely-chiseled essays on the Mass and the Holy Eucharist, with special attention to concelebration. …

Har tar også med innholdfortegnelsen til boka:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction (xi)
Foreword (xvii)

Part I: A Disputed Question
1. Reflections and Questions on the Subject of Concelebration (3)
2. A Critical Note on a ‘Theology of Concelebration’ (29)
3. Concelebration: Sensus Fidei and Theology (81)

Part II: The Historical Inquiry
4. Concelebration: The History of a History (123)
5. Concelebration: An Historical Summary (179)
6. Eucharistic Concelebration in the Magisterium of the Second Vatican Council (203)
7. ‘Useless and Superfluous Masses’ (273)
8. The Church Asks for the Multiplication of Masses (297)

Part III: Theological Reflection
9. ‘Sacrificium Missae’ (323)
10. The Liturgy: Mystery, Symbol, and Sacrament (355)
11. The Mass: Meal, ‘Blessing’, Congregation, or Sacrifice? (425)
12. The Celebration and Multiplication of the Sacrifice (483)

Conclusion (539)

Katolikker fra Irak

Generelt, Katolsk /

Det fins også latinske katolikker fra Irak i Norge, men jeg tror nok de fleste katolikker fra Irak (i Norge og andre steder) tilhører den kaldeiske ritus (som bruker en dialekt av Jesu eget språk, arameisk). Avisa Dagen skriver om disse kaldeiske kristne (og nevner såvidt at de er katolikker) i en artikkel der hovedbudskapet et at alt håp er ute for de kristne i Irak. De skriver bl.a.:

Fader Rooni Yousif er Norges første kaldeiske prest. Han ser ikke lenger noen fremtid for kristne i hjemlandet. «Hvordan kan verden hjelpe de kristne til å bli værende i Irak?»

Vi stiller spørsmålet til Norges nye kaldeiske prest, på koselige Café Jordbærpikene på Tveita senter i Oslo. Svaret er blottet for kos.

«Det er for sent. Det hersker en fullstendig mangel på tillit. De har mistet troen på at de har en fremtid i Irak», svarer fader Rooni kontant.

Svaret ryster meg. Gang på gang har jeg hørt kirkeledere advare mot at Irak tømmes for kristne, hvis de ikke får hjelp til å bli, men aldri før har jeg hørt noen si at det faktisk er for sent.

«Men hvis verden virkelig mobiliserer», prøver jeg.

Den kaldeiske presten rister på hodet. «Det er for sent nå, svarer han. Altfor mange har reist.»

Siden Saddams fall i 2003 har tallet på kristne minket fra drøyt 1,2 millioner til nær 200.000.

Den siste masseflukten startet da IS erobret Mosul og de kristne landsbyene på Ninive-sletten i Nord-Irak sommeren 2014. Ett og et halvt år etter bor IS-flyktningene fremdeles i kummerlige, midlertidige boliger. De mangler det meste, mange av barna får ikke gå på skole, og IS-krigere okkuperer fremdeles hjemmene deres i Mosul og på Ninivesletten.

Lenge oppfordret irakiske kirkeledere de kristne til å vise mot og bli værende i Irak. Det har de fleste lederne sluttet med. …

Les mer om P. Yousif her.

The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Jeg har begynt å lese boka The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation, av Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD. Den handler om konselabrasjon av messen; hvordan det har foregått gjennom tidene, og hvorvidt det er en god praksis eller ikke.

holy_eucharistAmazon skriver om boka bl.a.:

The present book, originally published in French, and now in English with a new foreword by Dom Alcuin Reid OSB, is a splendid example ante litteram of the task of the Hermeneutic of Continuity so courageously undertaken by Pope Benedict XVI. Without calling for a change in the post-Conciliar discipline of the Latin Church, the author offers a complete and trenchant historical and dogmatic critique of the recent neglect of the individually celebrated Mass in favour of concelebration.

The discipline of the church after Sacrosanctum Concilium, up until the 1982 Code of Canon Law and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the third edition of the Missal of Paul VI, has always asserted the freedom of priests to celebrate individually, yet the liturgical and theological atmosphere of seminaries and religious communities has rarely favoured this freedom.

Here is a careful discussion of the value of the multiplication of celebrations of the Eucharist, in the light both of the nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice itself and of the theology of its fruits. A meticulous study of the history of the practice of concelebration shows that the present practice of daily concelebration, especially among simple priests without their Ordinary presiding, far from being a return to an ancient norm, is in fact a new development.

The author concludes with a carefully nuanced set of practical proposals which, while giving to concelebration its due place, would serve to make better use of the infinite riches contained in the Holy Sacrifice. This conclusion may be summed up by the ancient prayer over the gifts found in both forms of the Roman Mass and quoted in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council: As often as the memorial of this Victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is accomplished. May the careful examination of this beautifully reasoned study lead to a renewed sense of the efficacy of the Church’s Offering and of its frequent and devout celebration by her priests.

Tradisjonell latinsk messe i Oslo søndag 31. januar

Katolsk, TLM /

Denne søndagen feires søndag sexagesima etter den tradisjonelle kalenderen, i St Hallvard kirkes kapell kl 08.00.

Dette er den tradisjonelle såmanns-søndagen, og evangeliet fra Lukas 8, 4-15. begynner slik:

På den tid da det hadde samlet seg mye folk, og det løp mange fra byene til Jesus, sa han i en lignelse: «En såmann gikk ut og sådde sin sæd, og da han sådde, falt noe langs med veien og ble tråkket ned, og himmelens fugler åt det opp. Og noe falt på stengrunn, og da det vokste opp, visnet det fordi det ikke hadde væte. Og noe falt mellom torner, og tornene vokste opp sammen med det og kvalte det. Og noe falt i god jord, og da det vokste opp, ga det hundre fold.» …

Les alle dagens tekster og bønner her – og se en oversikt over vårens messer her.

Western Church in the Middle Ages – ganske interessant bok

Katolsk, Teologi /

thomson_western_church_l Western Church in the Middle Ages, skrevet John A. F. Thomson, var en ganske interessant bok, som tar for seg Kirkens historie i litt over 1000 år (fra 450 til 1515) – selv om den omtalt en hel del ting som jeg visste fra før. Slik skriver Amazon om boka:

From its origins in the ancient world as a rival to traditional paganism, Christianity has become one of the great world religions. How the Church took over spiritual control of Western Europe to become the foundation of medieval life, setting the moral agenda of society and dominating its intellectual world, is the guiding enquiry at the heart of this book.

Covering the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Reformation, the account is structured in three chronological blocks, starting with the gradual development of unity within the Western Church up to the 11th century, followed by the period of centralization between the 11th and 13th centuries, and concluding with the break-up of this centralization in the later Middle Ages.

Organizational developments and changes in spirituality and doctrine are examined, and the history of the papacy is situated in the wider context of both ecclesiastical and lay society. Intellectual developments and the rise of heresy, at both elite and popular levels, are the focus of an exploration of the mental world of medieval Christendom.

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