Apologies for Anglican concelebration in Phoenix

In 2004 Fr. John Cunningham, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Phoenix, was videotaped "concelebrating" a Mass with an Anglican priest.

This presented a couple of problems.  First, it's against canon law -- specifically Canon 908, which forbids such interreligious concelebration.

Second, the Anglican priest was not a real priest.  Anglican orders are invalid, as Pope Leo XIII declared more than a century ago.  It's considered a "dogmatic fact" (a concept which is distinct from a "dogma", by the way) and all Catholics are required to give "firm and definitive assent" to this declaration.

Because the situation was so serious, Fr. Cunningham was removed as pastor, suspended from exercising the priesthood, sent away on retreat, and ordered to retract.  To his credit, Fr. Cunningham took his medicine, and recently wrote this letter of apology:

June 20, 2006

Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop of Phoenix
400 E. Monroe Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Dear Bishop Olmsted,

More than two years ago, while I was pastor at St. Mary Magdalene in Gilbert, an engaged couple and parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene asked me to conduct a nuptial Mass and preside over the exchange of their wedding vows. They also asked if an Anglican priest, who was a long-time friend of the bride, could participate in the nuptial Mass and the wedding celebration. Since St. Mary Magdalene did not have a church, the wedding was to be conducted at St. Anne' in Gilbert.

On April 24, 2004, their wedding occurred and the Anglican priest participated in portions of the nuptial Mass. I allowed the Anglican priest to participate in such a way that his conduct was judged by canonical assessors as a concelebration of the Eucharist and a violation of Canon 908, which prohibits such activities by a priest or minister not in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. I was administratively suspended as a priest by you on April 28, 2004. I apologize unconditionally for conduct on my part which was a violation of Canon 908.

I apologize to Fr. Doug Lorig, pastor of St. Anne' Catholic Church for using his church to celebrate the nuptial Mass. I also apologize to Jean Estes-Gonzales and Amy Jacobs, employees of St. Anne', for litigation I filed against them for defamation and which has been dismissed.

Thirty years of work and service to the people that I put in as a priest for the Diocese of Phoenix were the high points of my life. I ask you to reinstate me as a priest in good standing and for early retirement from the Diocese of Phoenix.

Sincerely yours,

John Cunningham

And at that, Bishop Olmsted declared his sanctions were fulfilled and the case closed.  (Hat tip to Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia for this interesting story.)

It's not as far off as you might think

From the wires today:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Catholic Church could one day be prosecuted for its right-to-life stance by some countries where
abortion is considered a woman's right, a senior Vatican cardinal said in an interview published on Thursday.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, criticized several Western countries for allowing abortion and introducing gay marriage and civil unions.

"I fear that faced with current legislation, speaking in defense of life, of the rights of the family, is becoming in some societies a crime against the state, a form of disobedience of the government, a discrimination against women.

"The Church risks being brought in front of some international court, if the debate gets any more tense, if the most radical opinions are heeded," Lopez Trujillo told Famiglia Cristiana, a Catholic Italian weekly.

Full story here.

Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Today is one of the big feast days of the year.  In much of the world -- though not in the United States -- it's a holy day of obligation.

Read more about St. Paul (Apostle to the Gentiles) and St. Peter (our first pope) in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

These men, conquering all human frailty, shed their blood and helped the Church to grow. By sharing the cup of the Lord's suffering, they became the friends of God.

Memorial of St. Irenaeus

Another day, another Church Father -- and another great post from Mike Aquilina:

St. Irenaeus is a giant. Pay no mind to the modern academics who portray him as a meanie nun out to rap gnostic knuckles with a crozier-sized ruler. St. Irenaeus was a scholar's scholar, a biblical theologian of the first rank. He was a global diplomat who actually succeeded at making peace. And he was a holy, plain-speaking, and truth-telling bishop. If today's gnostic resurgents don't like him, it's because, after eighteen centuries and more, his critique is still right as rain and still raining all over the gnostic parade.

Irenaeus deserves a posthumous Purple Heart for having read all the available gnostic writings in their entirety. I have six children, but I cannot imagine that kind of patience. And most of the time he was able to address the gnostic arguments (I use the term loosely) in an even tone. Sometimes they raise his ire. Once their cosmology gets so flaky that it inspires the saint to compose a parody. There are times when only satire will do.

St. Irenaeus is an important link in tradition's golden chain. He probably composed his works when he was very old, in the late 100s in the land we now know as France. When he was a young man, though, he lived in Asia Minor, where he studied under the holy bishop Polycarp, who had himself converted to Christianity under St. John the Apostle. Irenaeus treasured the stories of John that he had learned from his master. His few, small anecdotes are a precious witness to the life of the apostle.

Read the entire piece here.

And here's the Catholic Encyclopedia article on St. Irenaeus.

Father, you called Saint Irenaeus to uphold your truth and bring peace to your Church.  By his prayers renew us in faith and love that we may always be intent on fostering unity and peace. Amen.

Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria

Here's the Catholic Encyclopedia article on today's saint.  Better yet, go read the wonderful essay on Mike Aquilina's blog, where "Cyril the Virile" is aptly described as "one of the odd uncles among the Church Fathers."

Father, the bishop Cyril courageously taught that Mary was the Mother of God. May we who cherish this belief receive salvation through the incarnation of Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Holy See envoys in China?

The Vatican Information Service sent this cryptic one-line message earlier today:

VATICAN CITY, JUN 27, 2006 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls released the following declaration at midday today: "I have no comments to make on news that has appeared in various organs of the press concerning ongoing contacts between a Holy See delegation and the Chinese authorities."

The Catholic News Agency has the background:

Several news services are reporting that two senior Vatican officials were in Beijing Tuesday for talks on re-establishing diplomatic relations with China. . . . Talks between the Holy See and China have been rumored for two weeks.  The Sunday Times reported last week that Chinese representatives were in Rome.  The week prior, reports had surfaced that envoys from the Vatican were in China.

Get the full story here.

How to give a bad homily

The Medicine Box offers 11 tips for giving a bad homily.  Here's a sample, from Tip no. 4 ("Reach the young people"):

Do popular songs on the radio remind you of Biblical passages? Is there some way a blockbuster summer movie can be said to show God's forgiveness? Is Jesus maybe a little bit like Spider-Man?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're well on your way to developing one of the most popular techniques for delivering a bad homily: tailoring it to young worshipers by dumbing it down with a plethora of poorly thought out pop culture references.

When doing so, though, you'll want to remember to keep those references vaguely out of date, so that anyone in the pews who might possibly be reached by such a tactic will instead focus on their mirth at your use of "X-Files" terminology.

You'll also want to keep the metaphors as tortured as possible. Popular culture, like all Western culture, is indeed filled with allusions and references - sometimes self-aware, sometimes not - to Christianity. Instead of going for the obvious ones, though, you'll want to instead explain how Jesus is like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the vampires are sins and they're not really being slain so much as forgiven, and of course Jesus is not a woman.

You can read the other ten tips at the Medicine Box.  (And yes, bad homily anecdotes -- no naming names, please -- are welcome in the comments box below.)

I love old tortoises

From the BBC:

A giant Galapagos tortoise, the world's oldest known living creature, has died in Australia at the age of 176. Harriet the tortoise passed away after a short illness. Experts believe the elderly creature . . . was once the personal pet of the British naturalist, Charles Darwin.

Other Galapagos tortoises have lived even longer. The world record holder, which died in 1965 at age 188, was once the personal pet of Captain James Cook.

This Wednesday, the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, might be a good day to meditate on these creatures.  A Galapagos tortoise born the same year as Christ might easily have lived through the dispersion of the Apostles and the apostolic witness of men like St. Ignatius (50-115), St. Polycarp (69-155) and St. Irenaeus (130-202).  Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of the Apostles themselves, and Irenaeus was Polycarp's student.  All three of them left voluminous writings attesting to the Catholic beliefs of the early Church.  (You can read them all here.)

Dan Brown notwithstanding, 176 years is not such a long time for Church Fathers.  Or tortoises.

Praying at Denny's

We ran across a discussion a couple of months ago at Yahoo! Answers about praying in restaurants. The poster said:

"Why do people insist on saying grace at a restaurant? One of my girlfriends' best friend's husband insists that we do this. I feel that any public prayer is hypocritical and I have been brought up to feel this way. It is also forbidden in Matthew 6:5. . . ."

In this particular case, I can see one of the poster's points: nobody likes to be pressured into a hand-holding session while the "prayer leader" ad-libs a pre-meal speech.  Especially when you don't even share the guy's beliefs, and he's raising his voice to unnatural levels, and you just want to eat your cheeseburger while it's still hot.  (It's happened to us before.)

But these cases are relatively uncommon. Grace before meals usually seems humble and sincere.  Most of us do it at home. So why is it so rarely seen in restaurants? Why does it seem to break all the Rules -- especially when we punctuate it by making the sign of the cross? And most of all, in this age of the "new evangelization", when Christians are supposed to be signs of contradiction and leaven in the world, why do we accommodate the objectors?

These aren't rhetorical questions.  I'd honestly like to hear from people on all sides of this -- personal anecdotes are especially welcome.

The 12 Promises

The Sacred Heart devotion is ancient, but Christ Himself gave it a massive boost when he appeared personally to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque with a plan to revitalize the devotion.

St. Margaret Mary wrote to a friend: "He made me see that it was the great desire He had of being loved by men, and of removing them from the road of damnation, that induced Him to conceive this plan of making His Heart known to men."

And for those who renewed their devotion to His Sacred Heart, Our Lord made these twelve promises:

1. I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their homes.
3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
4. I will be their secure refuge during life and, above all, in death.
5. I will bestow abundant blessing upon all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. By devotion to My Heart tepid souls shall grow fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
9. I will bless every place where a picture of My Heart shall be set up and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
12. I will grant the grace of final penitence to those who receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months.

St. Margaret Mary wrote elsewhere that the plan was simple:  "He continually burns with love for us in the Blessed Sacrament. To become saints it suffices to love this Holy of Holies."

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reminder no. 1:  God has a human nature

Today's feast is devoted to the doctrine of the hypostatic union -- which is a fancy way of saying that two natures, human and divine, are united in the one divine Person of Christ.

When our worship focuses on God's divine nature, we worship God Himself. When our worship focuses on God's human nature, we worship God Himself. And when we worship even a piece of His human nature, muscles or blood or eyelids, we worship God Himself.  Not everyone agrees on that -- the Jansenists sure didn't -- but it's true.

Reminder no. 2: God loves you

So why commemorate the Sacred Heart and not the Sacred Elbows, for instance?  Because the heart symbolizes love itself.  The human heart of Jesus is the symbol of His infinite love -- for the Father, for all mankind, and particularly for you.

Father, we have wounded the heart of Jesus your Son, but He brings us forgiveness and grace. Help us to prove our grateful love and make amends for our sins. Amen.

Paulinus, Thomas and John

Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Paulinus of Nola, and of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher.

You are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials, and now I confer a kingdom on you, says the Lord. You will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. (Luke 22:28-30)

Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Aloysius (1568-1591) was born into a rich family, and was castle-schooled for a few years until chronic kidney disease changed his life.  St. Charles Borromeo gave him First Communion. St. Robert Bellarmine taught him the faith. His cousin St. Rudolph Acquaviva prayed for him.  By the time Aloysius turned 18, he was ready to sign away his share of the family fortune and become a Jesuit. He died five years later, caring for the victims of a Roman plague outbreak. He was only 23 years old.

Read more about him in the Catholic Encyclopedia article St. Aloysius Gonzaga.

Father of love, giver of all good things, in Saint Aloysius you combined remarkable innocence with the spirit of penance. By the help of his prayers may we who have not followed his innocence follow his example of penance. Amen.

For those of you keeping score

Here's a summary of the latest Vatican gossip:

• Tarcisio Bertone (Archbishop of Genoa) will soon replace Angelo Sodano (Secretary of State).  This might happen around June 29 or so.
• Angelo Scola (Archbishop of Venice) will replace Zenon Grocholewsky (Prefect for Catholic Education).
• Zenon Grocholewsky will replace Jozef Glemp in Warsaw.

"Sharp writing, vibrant visuals, solid storytelling"

So says the USCCB's review of Cars.  (The full review can be found at the Denver Catholic Register here.)  IMDB says that each frame of the movie took 17 hours of computer time to render.  I believe it, because this is one of the sharpest-looking films I've seen in years.  Bottom line:  Pixar's done it again.  Go see this movie.