ECCE HOMILY: Nun Continues to Preach in Breach of Canon 767

KENAI, AK - Sr. Joyce Ross, R.C.M, again delivered the homily at the Saturday night vigil Mass at Our Lady of the Angels parish in Kenai.  Rev. Andy Sensenig, O.M.I. was the celebrant otherwise.

This is in persistent and knowledgeable disobedience to Canon 767, as posted earlier on this blog here.  Here are some comments from parishioners regarding this 'sermon' and the equivocations used by the Pastoral Team to explain it:

Last night's Mass featured Fr. Andy turning over the sermon to Sr. Joyce.  I would say the time was 30/70, maybe 40/60 in balance between Fr. Andy's sermon and Sr. Joyce's.

At times the priests have used phrases like 'Sr. Joyce will share with us her reflections', I would guess as a way of screening what she is giving really isn't a sermon.  But yesterday she referred to her time as a 'a homily', as in 'whenever I prepare a homily...'

To quote Shakespeare:

Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.

Please pray for Our Lady of the Angels parish.

CLARION CALL: Nuns 'Restricted' by Canon Law

KENAI, AK - Today's issue of the Peninsula Clarion revealed that Sister Joyce Ross, R.S.M., and Sister Joan Barina, M.M.S., were "Restricted by Canon Law" during their 30 year tenure at Our Lady of the Angels parish in Kenai.

This comes as a surprise to just about everyone, including the sisters themselves.

Here's the quote, from an article written by Phil Hermanek:

Restricted by Canon Law in which official duties they can perform, the sisters were allowed to baptize, perform marriages, conduct funeral services and conduct eucharistic services.

No mention was made as to which authority "allows" the sisters to baptize, perform marriages, conduct funerals, and eucharistic services.

An equally startling epiphany was that which Sr. Joyce believed to be her most outstanding achievement in 30 years:

...the fact that we were able to meet and associate with the people in all the Christian communities.  We got so much more from them than we gave.

No mention of the Church, sacraments, catechesis, or any other distinctively Catholic traits was made by either nun.

Please pray for Sr. Joan and Sr. Joyce and the parishioners they have influenced - for good or ill - at Our Lady of the Angels.

BREAKING: More Liturgical Abuse in Kenai

KENAI, AK - Rev. Joe Dowling, O.M.I. neglected to give a homily today, instead permitting Sr. Joyce Ross, R.S.M. to preach during the 10:00 AM First Communion Mass at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Kenai.

This is directly disobedient to Canon 767, which states that only ordained ministers - priests and deacons - should deliver the homily.  Here are the pertinent sections of the aforementioned Canon:

can. 767, §1: Among the forms of preaching, THE HOMILY, WHICH IS PART OF THE LITURGY ITSELF AND IS RESERVED TO THE PRIEST OR DEACON, IS PREEMINENT; in the homily the mysteries of the faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year.

can. 767, §4: It is for the pastor or rector of a church to take care that THESE PRESCRIPTS ARE OBSERVED CONSCIENTIOUSLY. (caps my emphases)

This is yet another instance of  liturgical abuse by Sr. Joyce reported by this blog; you can find earlier abuses here.

With the retirement announcement of Sr. Joyce, more abuses have been planned: this parish bulletin states that she will preside at communion services May 23rd and 24th at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Soldotna.  This is a grave abuse that would deprive OLPH parishioners of the right to fulfill the mandate of Canon 1247, which states that the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass on all Sundays and holy days.

Please pray for Our Lady of the Angels and Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishes, and especially for Sr. Joyce.

UPDATE: Bishop D'Arcy Applies the Crozier

FORT WAYNE, IN - Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend has publicly corrected Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C., President of the University of Notre Dame.

Exercising his role as priest, shepherd, and minister, and standing in the place of the apostles (Vatican II, LG ¶20), Bishop D'Arcy cited canon law, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the USCCB's letter Catholics in Political Life (2004), and Fr. Jenkins' own statement in his judicious reprimand.  In particular, Bishop D'Arcy stresses that the authoritative teacher and legislator of the USCCB's letter should be himself:

The failure to consult the local bishop who, whatever his unworthiness, is the teacher and lawgiver in the diocese, is a serious mistake.  Proper consultation could have prevented an action, which has caused painful division between Notre Dame and many bishops - and a large number of the faithful.

In addition, Bishop D'Arcy cited the nationwide petitions, letters, emails, phone calls, et al, as evidence that Fr. Jenkins' decision "...has, in fact, scandalized many Catholics and other people of goodwill."

Please pray that Bishop D'Arcy, Archbishop Schwietz, and all of our U.S. bishops may judiciously and courageously exercise their holy mandate as successors of the apostles.

CATECHISM BREAKTHROUGH: Purgatory is a Doctrine

SOLDOTNA, AK - The Catechism of the Catholic Church, recently published in 1992, has asserted that purgatory is a doctrine.

This contradicts the teaching of Rev. Tony Dummer, O.M.I., the current leader of the Pastoral Team at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Soldotna.  In the November 2, 2008 issue of the OLPH bulletin, Fr. Tony stated:

Purgatory is not a doctrine ---it is a reasonable explanation of the problems of restitution, rehabilitation, punishment and maybe even "cosmic-congruence".

In contrast, Canon 1031 of the Catechism reads:

 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.  The Church formulated her DOCTRINE OF FAITH ON PURGATORY especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. (caps my emphasis)

In his Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum, the late Pope John Paul II described the Catechism as "...a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic tradition, and the Church's Magisterium."

Allaying doubts of post-conciliar Catholics, John Paul also reassured that the Catechism is "...a very important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church, as desired and begun by the Second Vatican Council."

More to follow.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Anti-Papal Homosexual Advocate at APU

Dr. Vincent Smiles, an open critic of Pope Benedict XVI and the Church's teaching on homosexuality, will give a series of talks at the Midsummer's Light Bible Institute this June, hosted by Alaska Pacific University and sponsored by the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

Currently a professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, Dr. Smiles has written anti-papal articles on a blog attached to the magazine Commonweal.  An excerpt:

December 23rd, 2008

I find the Pope's stance on homosexuality SCANDALOUS IN THE FULL THEOLOGICAL SENSE OF THE TERM ("stumbling block" to faith)...the Vatican's use of the Bible is embarrassingly simplistic and fundamentalist.  We need to recover the resources of our tradition that enable an alternative view to that of Benedict XVI...The scandal of Benedict's stance is that he speaks as though faith provided a certainty that is simply not available, and in doing so HIS PRONOUNCEMENTS ARE CRUELLY MISLEADING AND UNJUST. (caps my emphases)

Dr. Smiles' unholy rebuke and his generally dissident demeanor contradict the teachings of Vatican II; to wit:

In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent of soul.  This religious submission of will and of mind must be shown in a special way to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra.  (Lumen Gentium, ¶25). 

Further, in a pro-homosexual union article written for the St. Cloud Times in 2005 (WARNING: posted here on a gay catholic blog), Dr. Smiles contends that "there is no basis for absolute certainty on this issue".  Again, this flies in the face of the CDF Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons:

Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. (Cardinal Ratzinger, 1986)

Finally, Dr. Smiles is on the record as defending Dan Maguire, a Marquette professor who was publicly corrected by the USCCB in 2007 regarding abortion and homosexuality.  You can read the USCCB's censure here.

As an impious denouncer of the Pope and Church doctrine, Dr. Smiles is wholly unfit to speak and teach the faith at a purportedly Catholic colloquium.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Dr. Smiles comes to Anchorage at the invitation of Dr. Regina Boisclair, the current Cardinal Newman Chair of Catholic Theology at APU.

UPDATE: More on LCWR and Gnosticism

Hat-tip to Amy Welborn's blog, as well as the Kansas City Catholic Key, for bringing the 2007 LCWR keynote address to light.

Given by a Sr. Laurie Brink, O.P., a Sinsinawa Dominican, the latent Gnosticism from the 2008 keynote is much more apparent here.  I've supplied some rebuttal commentary from the Gospel of John in order to highlight the strategic necessity of undermining the Gospel of John that "Post-Christian" theologians employ.

No bulwark stands firmer against Gnosticism than that Gospel written by the man who was illuminated by Christ's refulgence on Mt. Tabor, reclined upon Christ's breast at the Last Supper, slept through Christ's agony in Gethsemane, passed with Christ into the priestly courtyard for trial, walked with Mary along Christ's Via Dolorosa, heard Christ commend him to His mother, saw the blood and water flow from Christ's pierced side, and raced Peter to the empty tomb on the Resurrection morn.

The dynamic option for Religious Life, which I am calling, Sojourning, is much more difficult to discuss, since it involves moving beyond the Church, EVEN BEYOND JESUS. A sojourning congregation is no longer ecclesiastical. It has grown beyond the bounds of institutional religion. Its search for the Holy may have begun rooted in Jesus as the Christ, but deep reflection, study and prayer have opened it up to THE SPIRIT OF THE HOLY IN ALL CREATION. Religious titles, institutional limitations, ecclesiastical authorities no longer fit this congregation, which in most respects is Post-Christian.

This is heresy; cf: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but by me'" (Jn 14:6).

When religious communities embraced the spirit of renewal in the 1970s, they took seriously that THE WORLD WAS NO LONGER THE ENEMY, that a sense of ecumenism required encountering the holy “other,” and that the God of Jesus might well be the God of Moses and the God of Mohammed. The works of Thomas Merton encouraged an exploration of the nexus between Eastern and Western religious practices. The emergence of the women’s movement with is concomitant critique of religion invited women everywhere to use a hermeneutical lens of suspicion when reading the androcentric Scriptures and the texts of the Tradition. With a new lens, women also began to see the divine within nature, the value and importance of the cosmos, and that the emerging new cosmology encouraged their spirituality and fed their souls.

The world is no longer the enemy? Cf: "And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (Jn 17:14-16).

 As one sister described it, “I was rooted in the story of Jesus, and it remains at my core, but I’ve also moved beyond Jesus.” The Jesus narrative is not the only or the most important narrative for these women.  They still hold up and reverence the values of the Gospel, but they also recognize that these same values are not solely the property of Christianity. Buddhism, Native American spirituality, Judaism, Islam and others hold similar tenets for right behavior within the community, right relationship with the earth and right relationship with the Divine. With these insights come a shattering or freeing realization—depending on where you stand. JESUS IS NOT THE ONLY SON OF GOD. Salvation is not limited to Christians. Wisdom is found in the traditions of the Church as well as beyond it.

'Jesus is not the only Son of God', eh?  Cf: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (Jn 1:14).

 Sojourners have left the religious home of their fathers and mothers and are traveling in a foreign land, mapping their way as they go. They are courageous women among us. And very well may provide a glimpse into the new thing that God is bringing about in our midst. Who’s to say that the movement beyond Christ is not, in reality, a movement into the very heart of God? A movement the ecclesiastical system would not recognize. A wholly new way of being holy that is integrative, non-dominating, and inclusive. But a whole new way that is also not Catholic Religious Life. The Benedictine Women of Madison are the most current example I can name. Their commitment to ecumenism lead them beyond the exclusivity of the Catholic Church into a new inclusivity, where all manner of seeking God is welcomed. They are certainly religious women, but they are no longer women religious as it is defined by the Roman Catholic Church. They choose as a congregation to step outside the Church in order to step into a greater sense of holiness. Theirs was a choice of integrity, insight and courage. 

...and apostasy!  Sanctus Athanasius, ora pro nobis.

RETRACTION: Archdiocesan Liturgical Policy

In an earlier post, this blog implied that the Archdiocese has not offered any statement on liturgical innovations.  This was a mistake.  Here are the Archdiocesan Sacramental Catechetical Guidelines as issued by Archbishop Roger Schwietz, O.M.I. last August.  Some salient excerpts:

Cultural sensitivity and adaptations through music and gesture in the celebrations of the sacraments IS ENCOURAGED.  In order to protect the integrity of the sacramental life of the Church and avoid abuses, the adaptations NEED THE APPROVAL OF THE ARCHBISHOP.  Requests for approval are to be made through the Office of the Archbishop.

Mass is to be celebrated with care and reverence in every parish of the Archdiocese ACCORDING TO THE CURRENT LITURGICAL BOOKS, CANONS, AND NORMS set out by the universal Church and the Archbishop in his role as moderator of the liturgy of the local Church. (caps my emphases)

Commentary and more to follow.

UPDATE: Apostolic Visitation of LWCR

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), headed by William Joseph Cardinal Levada, continues to investigate the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious (LCWR) in America for doctrinal heresy.

Three main topics are at stake: women's ordination, salvation outside the Catholic Church, and homosexuality.

In 2001, LCWR was instructed by the CDF - then helmed by the current pope, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger - to report on the promulgation of the above doctrines in their orders and provinces.  No report has been forthcoming, so the CDF has decreed an apostolic visitation as necessary.

How does this apply to Kenai and Alaska at large?

Sr. Joyce Ross, a Sister of Mercy, Sr. Charlotte Davenport, a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace and Chancellor of the Archdiocese, and any number of the Adrian Dominican Sisters who serve the Archdiocese of Anchorage are all members of the 100+ orders that LCWR represents.  As has already been noted on this blog, Sr. Joyce's involvement with liturgical abuse in Kenai demonstrates a prejudice against the Church's teaching on women's ordination; hence, this apostolic visitation may have a direct effect upon the frequency and character of the liturgical abuse described here.

For more on the particular type of theology that LCWR espouses, here are excerpts from the keynote address of their 2008 annual assembly:

Human thought and love, we are learning, are not something injected into the universe from without, but are the flowering, the concentration, in us of deeply cosmic energies. Matter, zesty with energy, evolves to life, then to consciousness, then to spirit.

Folks, claiming that matter evolves into spirit is heresy.  Here's what the catechism has to say on the creation of the soul:

The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not 'produced' by the parents - and also that it is immortal; it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection (CCC 366).

Please pray for the Pope, Cardinal Levada, and all the members of the LWCR.

More Pope Benedict on Sacred Music

When man comes into contact with God, mere speech is not enough.

In his essay Music and Liturgy (p. 185 of The Essential Pope Benedict, originally from his book The Spirit of the Liturgy), Pope Benedict XVI names the standard by which all sacred music should be measured: Logos, or the Word of God that is Jesus.  Some particular relationships exist between liturgical music and Logos:

1. WORDS - Christ sanctified human thought and speech by creating man in his image and likeness; as Aristotle puts it in the Politics, man is the only animal with the power of speech.  Hence Benedict:

Thus the relation of liturgical music to Logos means, first of all, simply its relation to words.  That is why singing in the liturgy has priority over instrumental music.

2. SOBER INEBRIATION - a term used first by St. Cyprian of Carthage, this is the opposite of drunkenness or intoxication from wine or, allegorically, worldly goods; rather, Cyprian is meditating on the cup of salvation from the Psalms, now revealed in Christian times as the Blood of Christ.  For Benedict, this sober inebriation applied to music means:

...Music that draws senses into the spirit and so brings man to wholeness.  It does not abolish the senses, but inserts them into the unity of this creature that is man...Not every kind of music can have a place in Christian worship.  It has its standards, and that standard is the Logos.

So what kind of music DOES NOT meet the standard of the Logos?

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense.  It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a CULT OF THE BANAL.  "Rock", on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, A FORM OF WORSHIP, IN FACT, IN OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.  People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects.  However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.  The music of the Holy Spirit's SOBER INEBRIATION seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind a shackle, and breaking out from both appears to be a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments. (caps my emphases)

Bluntly: pop and rock music are both inappropriate for Mass, pop music for its inherent banality, rock music for its inherent elementality, which presents an attack upon the dignity of the human person as a temple of the Holy Spirit.