Bp. Jenky's great move — and a poll to vote on NOW!

This post was just going to be in support of Peoria's bishop, Most. Rev. Daniel R. Jenky CSC.  But something else cropped up to add to it ....

Yesterday EWTN News reported that Bp. Jenky has instated the St. Michael Prayer in all Sunday Masses during the intercessions to pray for Catholic's freedom "until these grave issues are favorably resolved".  (Full text of the letter at the diocesan website news post.)

While it is primarily the laity who should take the leading role in political and legal action, as your Bishop, it is my clear responsibility to summon our local church into spiritual and temporal combat in defense of Catholic Christianity.  Have faith!  Have courage!  Fight boldly for what you believe!  I strongly urge you not to be intimidated by extremist politicians or the malice of the cultural secularists arrayed against us.  Always remember that the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

 Now, I leave it up to you to decide whether this decision, as well as the full-throated blast at the Obama Administration that came with it, deserves an Ecclesial Backbone nomination.  The Prayer was originally said after Low Mass as part of the Leonine Prayers which Leo XIII instated in 1884 (the St. Michael prayer was added two years later).  If anything, it should be brought back nationwide, so I applaud Bp. Jenky's decision and hope other bishops follow his lead on this.

And the winner is ...

ARCHBISHOP JOHN C. NIENSTEDT OF ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS!

Here's the original nomination post:

Ecclesial Backbone: Standing up for religion and families

The angel of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Abp. John C. Nienstedt, is having a heckuva month.

First, he puts out an action alert to his archdiocese in reference to the Department of Health and Human Services' regulation amendment requiring most religious employers to include contraceptives and sterilization coverage in any health plan under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ... That in itself would be commendable.

Ecclesial Backbone Award 2011 — Time's running out to vote!

Just as a little reminder, folks: Sunday is your last day to vote for the recipient of the Ecclesial Backbone Award for 2011!

Also, you can start sending in your nominations for 2012.  Here are the parameters I look at:

• The nominee must be an active bishop of the Church (not including the Pope): the ordinary of a non-titular diocese or the major superior of a religious order.  Bishops emeritus and cardinal prefects of the Roman Curia should not be considered ... unless their actions really cause a flap!  And since the goal is to celebrate episcopal leadership, lay people and other priests or religious are not concerned.
• Ideally, the bishop has performed an act of leadership that is in defense of Catholic orthodox tradition, on a matter of internal discipline or catechesis, such as (mirabile dictu!) excommunicating a prominent pro-abortion politician or making a positive rule within his diocese requiring a particular set of actions or denying Catholic status to some dissident group.
• Ideally, the action has not only drawn media attention but has caused a prominent organ of Catholic dissent (e.g., National Catholic Distorter, USCatholic, Commonweal) to froth at the mouth.
• While the above two parameters are the ideal, I'm open to considering other acts that are timely, firmly orthodox, and directed towards the Catholic faithful on matters of faith and morals, provided those actions show moral courage (for instance, if they take place in a potentially hostile context) and call for Catholic solidarity, authentic witness and/or authentic practice of the Faith (e.g., frequent confession, observing holy days of obligation, chastity, etc.).

Ecclesial Backbone Award 2011 — Time to vote!

Yes, folks, it's that time of year when people vote to give other people recognition for oustanding efforts in fields from the earthshaking to the distressingly mundane.  If you look at the sidebar on the right, you'll notice I have a poll.  Please vote for the ordinary you think has shown the most extraordinary courage and leadership this year!  Poll closes Sunday night at midnight!

In the last few years, bishop-watching has gotten more interesting than watching yet another Kardashian become famous for being a Kardashian, or scanning the fashion news to see if Lady Gaga's apparel will complete the food pyramid.  Some months ago, because the image to your left (created by the incomparable Vincenzo) was floating around Father Z's blog here and there, I decided to appropriate it for a column on Cdl. Francis George of Chicago and jokingly nominate him for an award.  Since then, I've had occasion to "nominate" four other shepherds for the Ecclesial Backbone Award.

What does a bishop have to do to be nominated? you ask.  Simply put, the bishop must take a publicly firm, orthodox stand, in imitation of the apostles whose successors our ordinaries are supposed to be ... the more controversial, the better.  Preferably, the issue should be one of "internal housekeeping", if you will; i.e., not policy controversies, such as abortion or gay marriage, but rather a matter of doctrine or discipline in opposition to heterodoxy.  If you can get someone at the National Catholic Fishwrap or HuffPo to throw a spittle-flecked nutty, you're a shoe-in.

Ask Tony: What's wrong with holding hands during the Our Father?

Recently, the bishop of Covington, Ky., Most Rev. Joseph D. Foys, issued a decree in his diocese that has liberal Catholics up in arms and conservatives rejoicing. Of special note is paragraph 4c:

Special note should also be made concerning the gesture for the Our Father. Only the priest is given the instruction to “extend” his hands. Neither the deacon nor the lay faithful are instructed to do this. No gesture is prescribed for the lay faithful in the Roman Missal; nor the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, therefore the extending or holding of hands by the faithful should not be performed [bold type mine].

Strictly speaking, this forbids the practice of laypeople taking the orans (literally "praying") position, where hand are held up and off to the side. But by extension, it also means the congregation is not to hold hands during the Our Father. This is why Bryan Cones, among others, has thrown a nutty about the decree.

Well, what's so bloody wrong with it? Why shouldn't we hold hands as a sign of unity and family?

Ecclesial Backbone: Standing up for religion and families

The angel of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Abp. John C. Nienstedt, is having a heckuva month.

First, he puts out an action alert to his archdiocese in reference to the Department of Health and Human Services' regulation amendment requiring most religious employers to include contraceptives and sterilization coverage in any health plan under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (By the way, have you made your voice heard? Today's the last day!) That in itself would be commendable.

However, today the Archdiocese, in conjunction with the Minnesota Catholic Conference, issued a statement blasting Catholics for Marriage Equality MN, stating unequivocally that the pro-SSM group "has no recognition from nor affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church".

One of Catholics for Marriage Equality MN’s expressed aims is to defeat the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment that will appear on the November 2012 ballot, and which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The group misleadingly tries to convince Catholics that they can, in good conscience, support a state redefinition of marriage without undermining marriage itself. The Catholic Church, in keeping with Catholic teaching, reason and natural law, and in concert with many other faiths, strongly supports maintaining the current, traditional definition of marriage by voting “yes” for the Amendment during the November 2012 election.

A good old-fashioned Irish butt-kicking

Say what you will about Cdl. George Pell of Sydney, he's not a man to mince words. At the annual Catholic Voice dinner in Cork, Ireland on July 29, His Eminence gave a speech that opened with a direct challenge to the faithful in the audience, with clear reference to the predator-priest scandals and anti-Catholic attacks besetting the Church in Éire.

Here's the opening salvo (emphasis in bold mine):

I am not going to talk about the Church in Ireland but I am going to talk about what I am trying to do in Australia, as an archbishop, and you can draw your own conclusions on what might, or what might not, be adaptable to here in Ireland. Despite my English Protestant name (and I am proud of my English heritage) I have plenty of Irish blood, most of it Catholic, and so I think that entitles me to make the first point, and that is that we Irish Australians, and I suspect the Irish, enjoy bad news. It’s like the Englishman whose face will light up when he says, ‘Isn’t the weather terrible?’ This, then, is my question: has all the good Irish blood gone overseas into the colonies? [Wow! That's a slap in the face!] The Irish that I grew up with were fighters: they were people who had convictions and went and battled for them. Has the spirit of Dr. Daniel Mannix — one of the greatest exports of Cork — has his spirit vanished forever from this land? Are you going to sit on your tails and let 1000 years of tradition and faith just slip away? [And he follows the right hook with a left uppercut!] People are saying to me the same things they were saying to me back in 1998; we need this, we need that, nobody is doing anything — well, if nobody else is doing anything then you have to get it started yourself and if help comes, as it might or might not, at least you’re doing things. I realise that your presence here tonight is evidence of your desire and determination to do something BUT things are slipping and, from what I hear, you know you are slipping; so if others won’t act then do something yourselves.

Now, where I come from, it takes some ... er, intestinal fortitude to walk into a hall full of ostensibly friendly people and tell them, "Quit your bitching, get off your whiny butts and do something about it!" And, to be fair, the good prelate did tell his audience about some of the initiatives he'd taken to get the Church in Aus back on the path to orthodoxy. But still ... pardon my French, but DA-AAA-AMN! That's some cojones, mate! And that puts you on the list for the 2011 Ecclesial Backbone Award!

[H/T to Lux Occulta!]

Showing some spine in Detroit

As far as I know, the much talked-about meeting of the American Catholic Council is still going to happen, although the last I read, there were only just a bit more than 700 registered attendees and "early bird" discounts were still being offered. 

The kindest thing to say about the ACC is that it's a group of aging "progressive" CINOs getting together to reminisce, listen to Fr. Hans Küng spout his latest anti-Benedict diatribes, and convince themselves that they still matter within the Church in America. The worst thing to say is that they're a schismatic sect trying to yank the Church in America away from Rome; while their overall failure is guaranteed, that's not to say that they won't seduce a few congregations into joining a structure in competition with the USCCB.

Some time ago, Abp. Allen H. Vigneron, in whose archdiocese the Council's meeting is taking place this weekend, issued a warning to his priests and deacons on the matter. Last week, he issued another warning:

Abp. Vigneron Letter on the American Catholic Council

Issued: June 3, 2011

Contact: Joe Kohn, infodesk@aod.org / (313) 237-5943

My dear brother priests and deacons,

As you may be aware, a group calling itself the American Catholic Council will be meeting at Cobo Hall on the weekend of June 11 and 12. Despite my attempts to engage in a dialogue with them about this planned event, the organizers of this conference have not replied to me directly. I have a number of concerns about this event and caution any Catholic against participating for reasons expressed already in previous communications sent by the Archdiocese.

Of particular concern is the "Eucharistic Liturgy," noted on the schedule for this conference on Pentecost Sunday, June 12. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council instruct us, "Every legitimate celebration of the Eucharist is regulated by the bishop, to whom is committed the office of offering the worship of the Christian religion to the divine Majesty and of administering it in accordance with the Lord's commandments and with the Church's laws, as further defined by his particular judgment for his diocese." (Lumen Gentium, 26). I take my role as moderator of the liturgy for the archdiocese (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22) very seriously. [This is very good: Against the ACC's claims to be acting within the "spirit of Vatican II", Abp. Vigneron quotes actual documents from the Council.] To confirm the legitimacy of what they had planned, the ACC had been asked to provide details regarding this liturgy. The response received was ambiguous, and there are good reasons for believing forbidden concelebration will take place by the laity and with those not in full communion with the Church.

In order to fulfill my responsibilities, so clearly enunciated by the Second Vatican Council, of fostering of communion with both the local and the universal Church, I am compelled to caution any priests or deacons who may be considering participation in this liturgy. It is not being celebrated with my permission as required by the law and the good order of the People of God. Further, clergy should be aware of the impact of forbidden concelebration with those who are not in full communion (canons 908 and 1365). This is a serious delict, for which recourse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is required, and which may result in dismissal from the clerical state (cf. Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, 2001 and 2010). [The gravity of the crime is such that any Detroit priest or deacon accused of concelebrating in this illicit (and likely invalid) Eucharist will be tried not through the normal, glacially-slow process of the Apostolic Signatura but through the speeded-up format of the CDF adopted and modified to deal mainly with clerical predators. It simply remains to be seen whether the Archdiocese can make good on this threat by actually catching a concelebrating Detroit priest in flagrante delicto.]

I ask that you pray with me for the unity of the Church. As we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin in this upcoming Solemnity, may the Holy Spirit come afresh on all of us, keeping us united in the love of God and keeping our attention and energies focused on the task of sharing Christ in and through His Church.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit

 The statement focuses on the priests and deacons of the Detroit archdiocese because those are the only clerics for whom Abp. Vigneron is immediately responsible. Given that +Vigneron is very limited in what he can do and to whom he can do it, though, he's making it clear that he's not going to ignore the ACC meeting and hope nothing comes of it. Kudos to His Excellency for standing up for the authentic teaching of the Faith!

I told you not to let the door hit you on the way out ....

Ignore the Cardinal's resemblance to Dr. Evil.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Fr. Michael Pfleger, the controversial pastor of St. Sabina Parish in Chicago, has been suspended.

On March 11, Cdl. Francis George (left) asked Fr. Pfleger (right) to take over as principal of Leo High School. A week later, the pastor, who has characterized his own ministry as "progressive" ("I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice"), sent a reply letter; according to a spokesperson for St. Sabina, the letter said that Fr. Pfleger "was neither qualified nor experienced being president of a high school, but that he was willing to help Leo High School in any way that he could."

"As you know," Cdl. George wrote, "this was an honest offer, not driven by pressure by any group but by a pastoral need in the Archdiocese. You promised to consider what was a proposal, not a demand, even as I urged you to accept it."

Your written response to me after our preliminary conversation left open some possibility of your serving at Leo, and I continued discussions with those who are involved in priest transfers in the Archdiocese .... Even as these conversations began or were being planned, our private conversation was misrepresented publicly as an attempt to 'remove' you from St. Sabina's. You know that priests in the Archdiocese are 'removed' only because they have been found to have sexually abused a minor child or are guilty of financial malfeasance. In all other cases, priests are reassigned, moving from one pastoral office to another according to policies in place for the last forty years.

 If you'll remember, Fr. Pfleger also said on the radio, “If they say, ‘You either take this principalship of [Leo High School] or pastorship there or leave,’ then I’ll have to look outside the Church.” Cdl. George thundered, "If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish." Fr. Pfleger's suspension—no deadline or limit is mentioned—is to be spent praying over his priestly commitments "in order to come to mutual agreement on how you understand personally the obligations that make you a member of the Chicago presbyterate and of the Catholic Church."

Okay, so I've had my after-dinner slice of Schadenfreude. Now all I feel is sad. It didn't need to come to this. 

Secular (diocesan) priests know at their ordination that they're bound to celibacy and obedience by canon law (CIC 273, 274.2), and that they can lose ecclesial office by publicly defecting from the faith or the communion of the Church (CIC 194 §1.2). Was Fr. Pfleger counting on the priest shortage to give him leverage over the archdiocese? Did he miss the changing mood of the Church in America and its bishops, the declining tolerance for priests who make up their own rules as they go along?

Cardinal George has now effectively told Fr. Pfleger that if he stays it won't be on his own terms. Let's see if he has the humility to back down and accept defeat gracefully.

Update
Drat. For once, I thought I'd be the first to comment on this story. But no-ooo-oo! Father Z beat me to it, as did Lisa Graas and Tito Edwards! Here's the story from Radio 91.5 WBEZ. And Fr. Z links to a YouTube collection of Fr. Pfleger's rants, like this: