Adoremus Bulletin
SEPTEMBER 2019
News & Views
For the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
Vol. XXV, No. 2
Cultural Compass Points and the True North of Faith
A Liturgical Tour of the Church’s Eastern Rites in Development and Practice
Seal of Confession is ‘Intrinsic Requirement,’ Vatican Says
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Vatican City (CNA)—The head of the Vatican’s Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary released a note July 1 reaffirming the inviolability of the seal of confession and the importance of other forms of secrecy in the life of the Church. The text follows action by governments in Australia, California, and other parts of the world, to undermine the sacramental seal. “The defense of the sacramental seal and the sanctity of confession can never constitute some form of connivance with evil; on the contrary, they represent the only true antidote to evil that threatens man and the whole world,” states the note signed by the head of the penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza. The Apostolic Penitentiary is responsible for dealing with cases related to the internal forum, and for processing certain reserved cases under the seal of confession. The Catholic Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is obliged, under the severest legal penalties, to keep absolute secrecy concerning everything learned in the context of sacramental confession. Violation of the seal by a priest is punishable by an automatic excommunication, and can be augmented with other penalties, including dismissal from the clerical state. In May, California’s state senate introduced a bill that would require priests to violate the seal if they had knowledge or suspicion of child abuse gained from hearing the Please see CONFESSION on next page
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By Courtney Grogan
The Church emerged in the world, fully formed, in AD 33 on Pentecost, as depicted in this 1732 painting by Jean II Restout (d.1768). At that moment, she possessed all of the gifts necessary to fulfill the Great Commission she received from her founder to make disciples of the nations. On that day, the Church, although composed in that moment completely of Jews, was at the same time already universal. And from Jerusalem, the apostles went out, to the north, the east, the south, and the west—to the four regions of the Earth.
By Father Thomas A. Baima
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id you know that the Ethiopian Rite has an anaphora (i.e., Eucharistic Prayer) directed to the Blessed Virgin Mary? Or that many of the Latin texts of the Roman Rite emerged not from the Eternal City but from North Africa? Or that Christianity appeared in the early centuries as another Eastern religion, one unlikely to take root in the West? The history of Christian culture—and Christian liturgy—is fascinating and complex. Too often in the past, when we spoke about the liturgical differences within the Church, particularly between East and West, we referred to the Eastern “rites” as if the sole difference between Latins and Easterners was liturgical rubrics. In the 20th century, the liturgical movement has helped us understand liturgy in a much richer way than merely as a different set of rubrics and ceremonies. Since the Second Vatican Council, schools of theology have done a better job at distinguishing doctrine from theological reflection, which has allowed the ecumenical movement to progress by stressing the essential elements of faith, sacramental life, and
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Adoremus Bulletin SEPTEMBER 2019
the ordained ministry between the churches in the East and West. In addition, theologians are also doing a better job of admitting that two churches (Latin and Coptic, for example) might explain a mystery of the faith (doctrine) differently because of their theology. At the same time, the liturgical rituals of the churches often express the essential unity better than formal theology. Theology, in a sense, has to catch up to
Each of these stories is told through the development of its liturgy, a development which took place in part because of geographical, social, and historical “accidents,” where the Gospel was first proclaimed and, in part, because the mission of the Church—to plant the seed of faith in diverse soils—remained integral to the expression of the faith as found in the various rites.
what is already expressed in the rites themselves. To help facilitate theology in this effort, it is important to explore the cultural roots of the Eastern Rites. Each ritual tradition, including the Latin Rite of the West, has a story to tell—rather than a theological treatise to expound.
Preparation for Voyage But to embark on a tour of the various rites—and the regions from which they sprang—requires that we have a good working definition of culture so that when we explore how the Gospel is “inculturated” in a particular ritual tradition, we do so in a way consistent with Catholic consciousness and attitudes. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council describe culture in Gaudium et Spes (GS) this way: “Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture…. The word ‘culture’ in its general sense indicates everything whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities; he strives by his Please see CULTURE on page 4
Got Culture? According to Father Thomas Baima, the Church does—with more than enough to transform all the compass points of human culture into historically beautiful liturgy.................................. 1
The Young and The Restless If you dread heading to Mass with children more than a trip to the dentist for a double root canal, Father Michael Rennier has some seriously playful advice for you ............................................ 8
Liturgy with a Kick Kansas City Chief ’s kicker Harrison Butker has one foot squarely on pigskin and, as Father Aaron Williams relates, the other set firmly on the rock of his Catholic faith................................. 3
The Bugnini Enigma No, it’s not the latest Robert Ludlum thriller— but it is, says Michael Brummond, what Yves Chiron attempts to unravel in his new bio of the Vatican liturgical reformer..................................12
“ Each ritual tradition, including the Latin Rite of the West, has a story to tell—rather than a theological treatise to expound.”
Flocking to the Truth Andrew Seeley and Rechina Curphey introduce the most important teacher in the classroom— Christ—as the key to success for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd............................................ 6
News & Views...................................................2 The Rite Questions....................................... 10 Donors & Memorials................................... 11
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019
NEWS & VIEWS
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Continued from CONFESSION, page 1
sacramental confessions of other priests or co-workers. A report by a Royal Commission set up to examine child sexual abuse in Australia recommended similar laws in that country last year. Priests and bishops, both in the United States and Australia, have repeatedly stated they will not violate the sacramental seal, even if it results in them being sent to prison. “The secrecy of confession is not an obligation imposed from the outside, but an intrinsic requirement of the sacrament and as such it cannot be dissolved even by the penitent himself,” Piacenza explained after the note’s publication. “It concerns the protection of the same sacrament, instituted by Christ to be a safe haven of salvation for sinners. Should the trust in the seal fail, the faithful would be discouraged from accessing the sacrament of Reconciliation, and this, obviously, with serious harm to souls,” he said.
California Bill Threatening Seal of Confession Pulled by Sponsor
By Joan Frawley Desmond
Sacramento, CA (National Catholic Register)—A measure that required California priests to break the seal of the confessional was pulled by its sponsor, Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, July 8, offering a reprieve for state Catholics who strongly opposed the measure. “The action follows the delivery of tens of thousands of letters, emails and phone calls from Catholics and others concerned with the free expression of religion,” said the California Catholic Conference in a statement released late July 8 that confirmed the news. If passed, S.B. 360 would have required priests to alert local law enforcement about any knowledge or suspicion of child abuse received while hearing the confession of another priest or colleague. And though the bill’s language had been modified to rule out the reporting of such information from the vast majority of penitents, it continued to stir alarm in dioceses and parishes across the state. “Analysis of S.B. 360 by the staff of the Public Safety Committee [of the California State Assembly], released today, also raised significant First Amendment concerns, emphasized that no other state had taken a similar approach and pointed to the impracticality of enforcing the new law,” said the California Catholic Conference in its statement marking the news. Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles underscored the importance of this critical political development. “S.B. 360 was a dangerous piece of legislation,” said Archbishop Gomez in a statement released on July 8. “If any legislature can force believers to reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings shared with God in confession, then truly there is no area of human life that is free or safe from government intrusion.” At the same time, he also made clear that the Golden State’s Catholic shepherds would continue to firmly support and adhere to mandatory-reporting laws that require pastors and other Church employees to forward allegations and concerns about suspected abuse to civil and Church authorities.
“From the beginning of this debate, we have argued that S.B. 360 would do nothing to protect children from the scourge of child abuse,” he said, and then he listed the norms and protocols already in place to protect minors and vulnerable adults. He also emphasized the need to continue to combat clergy sexual abuse. “So, as we thank God today for helping to keep confession sacred, we need to commit ourselves again— every one of us, in every faith and walk of life—to eliminate this scourge of abuse,” he said, in an implicit acknowledgement of the enormous damage that the abuse crisis has inflicted on the Catholic Church’s moral credibility. Sen. Hill continued to defend the need for his bill, but he acknowledged that it did “not have enough support” from assembly members. “The bill is on pause; it has not been withdrawn,” he said in a July 8 statement provided to the Register. The California Catholic Conference statement explained that “the California Legislature has a two-year session; the bill can still be considered next year.” Now, the “pause” on the confession bill marks a major win for Church leaders and the faithful, especially in a state that diverges from Church teaching on abortion, assisted suicide and conscience rights. The outpouring of opposition to the confession bill, said Archbishop Gomez, “was a sign of the great faith and vitality of our Catholic community and the importance of confession to our religious identity and practice.”
USCCB Approves Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests, and of Deacons
From the June 2019 Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy Newsletter
At the June 2019 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) plenary meeting, the Latin Church bishops of the United States approved the final translation (“Gray Book”) of Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests, and of Deacons, by a vote of 210-5 with one abstention. The text, which was prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), will be sent to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for the requisite confirmation. The body of bishops approved minor textual amendments in Ordination, as well as the incorporation of emendations resulting from the 1984 Cæremoniale Episcoporum. These emendations provide added clarity to the actions of the ordaining bishop at various moments in the Ordination rite (i.e., when he puts on or take off his miter, holds his pastoral staff, etc.). Finally, the sole ritual adaptation currently approved for the United States—allowing those present to assent to the election of a bishop, priest, or deacon by either a sung or spoken acclamation, or an action such as applause—will remain as-is. This edition of Ordination is the second time the Latin text has been translated in accord with the principles of Liturgiam authenticam. The United States previously approved and implemented such an edition in 2003, and that translation was reprinted in the 2012 Roman Pontifical produced by the Holy See’s Vox Clara Commission. No changes to the Ordination rite itself are found in this edition either. Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, then-ICEL Chairman, explained in a cover letter to the Gray Book that a new translation of Ordination “was requested by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to alleviate the confusion caused by having several versions of the same ritual book in use in English-speaking Conferences of Bishops.” Although the second typical edition of De Ordinatione Episcopi, presbyterorum et diaconorum was promulgated in 1989, a number of countries still use the 1978 translation of the first typical edition, where that
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version placed the ordination of deacons first, then priests, then bishops, and includes minor liturgical indications no longer in effect. Such a disparity in ritual editions has also resulted in different translations of the Prayers of Ordination, especially the sacramental formulas. Adoption of the new translation will provide greater unity for the rites of Ordination celebrated around the world.
USCCB Purchases Translation of Psalms and Canticles from Conception Abbey WASHINGTON, D.C.—On July 1, 2019 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) purchased the copyrights to the Revised Grail Psalter and the Old and New Testament Canticles translated by the monks of Conception Abbey in Missouri. The two texts will now together be titled Abbey Psalms and Canticles and will gradually be incorporated into the Church’s official liturgical books. These sacred texts play an important role in the public prayer of the Church, especially in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the readings for Mass. For over two decades, the bishops have sought a translation of the psalms and canticles that would be more accurate and more conducive to singing and recitation. Since at least 1998 the monks of Conception Abbey have been working to prepare translations that would meet these goals. The USCCB first approved the monks’ translation of the psalter in 2008, and the Holy See then approved that text in 2010. In June 2015 the USCCB approved Conception Abbey’s translation of the canticles, hymn-like passages from the Bible, such as the Song of Songs in the Old Testament and the Canticle of Mary or Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) in the New Testament, that are used on certain occasions in the liturgy. The bishops subsequently approved a revised version of the psalter in 2016. In May 2018 the Holy See approved both the psalter and the canticles in what should now be their definitive form. Since 2010 many composers have prepared their own settings of these Psalms for use in the liturgy, and some of the more recently-published liturgical books have already begun incorporating material from the new translations. In purchasing these copyrights, the bishops are following the guidelines of the Holy See’s Instruction Liturgiam authenticam, which requires that a conference of bishops possess all the rights necessary to promote and safeguard the accurate and appropriate use of the texts of the sacred liturgy.
Bishop Wall Introduces Regular ‘ad orientem’ Mass at Gallup Cathedral Gallup, N.M. (CNA)—Bishop James Wall of Gallup announced that each Sunday a Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral will be said with the celebrant facing the same direction as the faithful, in order better to respect the Blessed Sacrament. Such worship, he said in a July 22 letter to the Diocese of Gallup, is “a very powerful reminder of what we are about at Mass: meeting Christ Who comes to meet us. Practically speaking, this means that things will look a bit different, for at such Masses the Priest faces the same direction as the Assembly when he is at the altar.” “More specifically, when addressing God, such as during the orations and Eucharistic Prayer, he faces the same direction as the people, that is, toward God (ad Deum). He does so literally, to use a phrase dear to St. Augustine, by ‘turning toward the Lord’ present in the Blessed Sacrament. In contrast, when addressing the people, he turns to face them (versus populum).” Please see NEWS & VIEWS page 11 EDITOR - PUBLISHER: Christopher Carstens MANAGING EDITOR: Joseph O’Brien CONTENT MANAGER: Jeremy Priest GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Danelle Bjornson OFFICE MANAGER: Elizabeth Gallagher PHONE: 608.521.0385 WEBSITE: www.adoremus.org MEMBERSHIP REQUESTS & CHANGE OF ADDRESS: info@adoremus.org LETTERS TO THE EDITOR P.O. Box 385 La Crosse, WI 54602-0385 editor@adoremus.org
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Rev. Jerry Pokorsky = Helen Hull Hitchcock The Rev. Joseph Fessio, SJ
Contents copyright © 2019 by ADOREMUS. All rights reserved.
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It’s Time Again for Sunday Gridiron Liturgy! By Christopher Carstens, Editor
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hile baseball is called “America’s Game,” it appears these days that football has won America’s attention. As September comes around, baseball gives way to football for many viewers. After all, by now most baseball teams—and their respective fan-bases—are out of contention for post-season play, while most football teams (even the Cleveland Browns have 20-1 odds!)—and their fan bases—are all in the running. “Running,” I think, is an apt word at this time. Since last year’s Super Bowl, most off-season talk has been principally about team trades and the annual draft. Running backs, of course, are key, but there is an equally well-known and widely-important position that I’ve heard much of lately—and one that brings liturgy to mind—the wide receiver. In every specialty—medicine, tax preparation, writing, highway repair, parenting—a degree of expertise and precision develops in the way these professions speak and write about their terminology. What is music to the ears of one profession sounds like so much “blahblah-blah” (think Charlie Brown’s teacher) to other ears. Football is no exception. I myself have been fascinated by the talk about evaluating this year’s class of wide receivers. In particular, how they run their respective routes. One football website claims that “[t]here is an art to route running, [so] great receivers are intentional with their technique throughout the entirety of the route.” Thus, fantasy football players are picked according to their ability to run routes, and new receivers are ranked according to their route-running skill. Who—except for players, coaches, and TV’s newest football expert, color commentator, and ex-Cowboys quarterback, Tony Romo—would have ever guessed that running a simple “out” pattern was not so simple? Now, the analogies between games and liturgy have been made for decades. Romano Guardini’s 1918 book, The Spirit of the Liturgy devotes an entire chapter to the comparison, “The Playfulness of the Liturgy,” while Joseph Ratzinger’s 2000 text of the same name leads off with the comparison. The topic of route-running has brought the likeness between football and liturgy to my mind. Many factors go into a wide receiver’s route-running success on the field: his initial stance, the position of
“Football is a game of inches,” Vince Lombardi is to have said. So, too, the liturgy, for God is in the details.
his arms, the start speed, the telegraphing of the eyes, the stutter of his steps, the move (single or double?), the time of contact with the defender—and the list goes on and on. If all these factors are deemed essential, then how much more important the various moves, gestures, postures, and elements of the liturgy’s ministers—those receiving the grace of the liturgy in order to pass them along to the “rest of the team”? True, like all analogies, that between sports and liturgy, between route-running and liturgical action, limps. Despite similarities, liturgy isn’t merely a game (although liturgy does involve an element of playfulness), and liturgical ministers are not simple athletes (although liturgy does involve the body). Still, both physical contests and prayer are human activities requiring practice, attention to detail, repetition, and mental engagement. I’ve thought of this “art of celebrating” (what the Church calls ars celebrandi) doubly over the past year as Adoremus has published Monsignor Marc Caron’s essays on “Liturgical Traditions,” mostly in our monthly
e-newsletter, ABInsight. His essays examine ministers’ gestures and postures in the Novus Ordo according to our received heritage, so that we can celebrate and understand today’s liturgy in its necessary “hermeneutic of reform,” as Pope Benedict says. A minister’s liturgical actions are based upon the General Instruction of the Roman Missal’s directive that “attention should be paid to what is determined by this General Instruction and the traditional practice of the Roman Rite and to what serves the common spiritual good of the People of God, rather than private inclination or arbitrary choice” (42). How to position our hands and where to direct our prayer, how to sit, when to bow, where to focus one’s eyes: these are not random or irrelevant actions, but the details given by thousands of years of tradition to help us worship God the way he wishes to be worshiped. Any NFL wide-receiver would agree that such detail is essential to achieving success. But apart from the new NFL season upon us, and in addition to Msgr. Caron’s essays, I’m further confirmed in these necessary details by another year of clerical formation. Each year, as director of liturgy for my diocese (La Crosse, WI.), I guide the liturgical formation of candidates for ordination as deacons. As a class of men approaches its ordination date—including this upcoming year—candidates study the various ritual texts they will use as deacons and undergo liturgical practica relative to each of the rites. Let me just say that my own experience in facilitating liturgical practica shows that today’s deacons truly want to know what to do—and to do it correctly. These men are not fastidious aesthetes interested in abstruse liturgical minutiae for its own sake. They are veterinarians, firefighters, farmers, and pipefitters who wish to step beyond themselves and into an image of Christ the deacon and servant of all. Even if I think that a day’s worth of walking through the Mass is sufficient, their own detailed questions (e.g., “Where exactly do I kiss the page of the Gospel Book after proclaiming the text?”) demands much more time. In other words, all of these ritual details may seem insignificant—until you are the one who has to do them! A Sunday in the fall is a beautiful thing for many reasons. But beauty is often in the small parts that make up the whole. Here’s to hoping that both our liturgy’s ministers and football team’s wide receivers perform well for the good of the whole. For as football is a game of inches (as Vince Lombardi said), so God is in the details.
Evangelized by Beauty: NFL Kicker Harrison Butker Makes Encounters with Christ in the Liturgy His Main Goal By Father Aaron Williams
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his past February, an article by Trent Beattie ran in the National Catholic Register detailing the strong Catholic faith of Los Angeles Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein. But Zuerlein isn’t the only NFL kicker who places his Catholic faith first in his life. Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, a native of Decatur, Georgia, has been very open lately on social media and in public about his love of the Church—particularly a love rooted in the Sacred Liturgy. Like many young Catholics today, Butker’s devotion to the Catholic faith wasn’t well-established in his high school or early college years. Though raised in a Catholic family, Butker said that it wasn’t until later during his time as a student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, that the faith became meaningful to him. Butker describes how experiencing Masses at the university’s Catholic Center gave him an impression of Catholicism he had never had before. “There was reverence,” he said, “It didn’t feel like we just made this up. There is tradition in our liturgy. It is set apart from the world.” Butker also credits his new appreciation of the faith to the preaching and ministry of Father Joshua Allen, the Georgia Tech campus chaplain. “He didn’t shy away from Catholic truths,” Butker said. “He spoke in a charitable way, but in a way that made you hear the truth. You heard what the Catholic Church teaches and why.” On arriving in Kansas City, Butker made it a priority to find a parish that could keep his renewed love of Catholicism alive. Though he lives just outside of Kansas City, KS, Butker quickly claimed St. Mary’s in Independence, MO—a drive across state lines and forty minutes from his house in Overland Park, KS—as his new spiritual home. “I was googling Mass times and looked at diocesan parishes with the Latin Mass,” he said, “because I
Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, makes the liturgy the goal for himself and his family.
thought if they are offering the Latin Mass, I know the liturgy was going to be done well.” When asked about why the liturgy needs to be reverent, Butker said, “The summit of our faith is the Eucharist. That’s what makes us Catholic. You become Catholic because you believe in the Real Presence. A priest who celebrates the liturgy well believes what he is doing.” Butker is beginning his third season with the Chiefs and, along with his wife Isabelle and their newborn son, James, he still claims St. Mary’s as his parish. But Butker has found that he no longer wishes to simply attend the Sunday Mass—he also wants to help St. Mary’s pastor, Father Matthew Bartulica, celebrate the Mass well. “I’ve noticed that it is very difficult for priests to have time to teach and coordinate altar servers,” Butker told Adoremus. “There was a need to have boys and young men to serve, so I volunteered. Now I work with Father
Matthew to coordinate the servers at Mass. All these boys are just finding out about the Mass and tradition and they are really liking it.” Recently, Butker has forged a friendship with Father Shawn Tunink, the parochial vicar of St. Michael’s in Leawood, KS—just a few minutes from the Butker family home. Butker discovered that Father Shawn had been celebrating the Extraordinary Form privately and offered to serve his Masses, which were celebrated in the church but without any public announcement being made. News began to spread by word of mouth, though, and within a few weeks a sizable group had found themselves at St. Michael’s on Monday evening. In fact, only four months since the Monday Masses began, Butker helped organize and serve the first ever Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form offered
Please see EVANGELIZED on page 10
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knowledge and his labor, to bring the world itself under his control. He renders social life more human both in the family and the civic community, through improvement of customs and institutions. Throughout the course of time he expresses, communicates and conserves in his works, great spiritual experiences and desires, that they might be of advantage to the progress of many, even of the whole human family” (GS, 53). So, the first building stone to help create our working definition of culture is the role culture plays in expressing, communicating, and conserving things of essential value. Continuing, we can with this building stone understand the further definition of culture offered in the pastoral constitution: “Thence it follows that human culture has necessarily a historical and social aspect and the word ‘culture’ also often assumes a sociological and ethnological sense. According to this sense we speak of a plurality of cultures. Different styles of life and multiple scales of values arise from the diverse manner of using things, of laboring, of expressing oneself, of practicing religion, of forming customs, of establishing laws and juridic institutions, of cultivating the sciences, the arts and beauty. Thus, the customs handed down to it form the patrimony proper to each human community. It is also in this way that there is formed the definite, historical milieu which enfolds the man of every nation and age and from which he draws the values which permit him to promote civilization” (GS, 53). Culture, therefore, also has historical and social aspects, and because both history and society admit of degree and variety, it is possible then to speak of a plurality of cultures. Therefore, while there is one Faith, one sacramental economy, one ordered ministry—one Church—the presence of such a plurality means that there can be different Christian cultures. One way that the sole Church of Christ reaches all the nations is by purifying their respective cultures and making them Christian cultures. In addition, this plurality of cultures also means that the particular ritual traditions (rites) can have their own theology, liturgy, canon law, and spirituality without derogating from unity in faith, sacramental life, and ecclesiastical governance. One final comment on culture before we tour the different ritual traditions. In business administration today, consultants commonly talk about “creating corporate culture.” In this business model, culture is a fairly “thin” reality, created by the alignment of mission and vision in a community of practice. In other words, the reality of corporate culture is superficial and often does not extend beyond the place of business. There is nothing wrong with this worthy goal in a business community—artificial as much of it may be, such a culture effectively enhances a business’s ability to remain solvent. But it is far different from what the Church means by culture in her documents. As Joseph Ratzinger writes in his books on liturgy, since the Church is an “organism,” its culture must develop organically. In a similar way, since every culture is to some extent an organism, each culture that encounters Christ through the culture of the missionaries must also undergo an organic development when it receives and is purified by the gospel. This takes time and results in a “thick” reality that, unlike the reality of corporate culture, organically informs and transforms every dimension and every member of that culture. In the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, culture is not like a coat you can take off in favor of putting on another at the end of the workday. As a more accurate analogy, the Church understands culture to be like a wellness program which uses diet and exercise
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Continued from CULTURE, page 1
“It would be in Egypt that the great movement of Christian monasticism developed and became a permanent element of Christianity, spreading to Palestine and all other regions,” writes Father Thomas Baima. One of the leaders of the Church in Egypt was St. Anthony of the Desert, depicted here in Michelangelo’s first painting (c.1487) being tempted by devils.
to change the body from within. Thus, when a culture receives the gospel, that culture should become more integrally human, “whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities” (GS, 53). Like a sublime spiritual wellness program for culture, the inculturated gospel expresses the Word, communicating it in such a way that it transforms the culture
“ Like a sublime spiritual wellness program for culture, the inculturated gospel expresses the Word, communicating it in such a way that it transforms the culture from within.” from within. The transformed, Christianized culture conserves this change and transmits it to future generations. This is why “ritual traditions” rather than “rites” more aptly expresses how the inculturated gospel is “handed on” by the liturgy, which the late Herbert McCabe, Dominican philosopher at Oxford, once described so well as “the first instance of Tradition.” Christened Vessels I mentioned that culture has historical and social aspects. So to understand the many instances of successful inculturation that the Church has accomplished, we need to know a little history. I will do this very briefly. My point here is that, as St. Irenaeus taught, there are seeds of the Word already present in every culture. The Gospel waters these seeds and allows them to grow, thereby purifying the culture from within—or from the ground up, as it were—even as it received the Tradition from without. The Church emerged in the world, fully formed, in AD 33 on Pentecost. At that moment, she possessed all of the gifts
necessary to fulfill the Great Commission she received from her founder and head, Jesus Christ, to make disciples of the nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, by teaching them all he commanded, and by empowering them through his real (sacramental) presence in the world until the Second Coming. The Bible tells us: “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’ And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 2:5-12). It means that on that day in AD 33, the Church, although composed in that moment completely of Jews, was at the same time already universal. In fact, it was one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. And from Jerusalem, the apostles went out, to the north, the east, the south, and the west— to the four regions of the Earth. The Pilgrim Church Embarks The first missionaries went north into Semitic Syria. Here, in the great metropolis of Antioch, the first inculturation occurred around the Apostle Peter. Being another Semitic culture, the gospel took root in the same linguistic (Aramaic) context. Antioch, however, was close to the great trade routes which crossed the Middle East and linked the two great empires of the day, the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. From Antioch, the first great inculturation takes place—the seed of the Word planted in secular soil— and the Antiochene or Syriac Tradition
was born. From Antioch, the missionaries turned east toward Mesopotamia. If you know the geography of Abraham’s journey from Ur of the Chaldeans up to Haran, across the Fertile Crescent and down into Canaan, you have the path followed by the Syrian missionaries. The faith in the God of Abraham, now fulfilled in Jesus, was taken back along the path of Abraham’s original immigration. On the way to Mesopotamia, the missionaries established a stronghold in Edessa, a city destined to become an important theological school, reaching fame under St. Ephrem the Syrian (d.373). Ephrem wrote biblical commentary, poetry, and profound hymnody which embodied the theology of the Church of the East. From Edessa, missionaries went north into Armenia and further east into the Mesopotamian valley. In doing so, they crossed one of the great boundaries of the ancient world, the Euphrates River, which was the political boundary between Rome and Persia. The gospel was received by Jewish communities which first settled in Mesopotamia after the Exile. The missionaries’ efforts represent a textbook example of inculturation: being Semites, speaking Aramaic, and knowing the prophecies of the Old Testament, they were ready converts and the faith took root rapidly. Edessa was where Christian liturgical music originated—chant as we understand it today. Given the Jewish background of the first converts, the Syriac Tradition was also naturally aniconic—without images—maintaining the austerity of Judaism in this regard. Only the Holy Cross and an icon of the Mother of God decorated their churches. This first Eastern tradition (here meaning east of the Roman Empire) became the greatest missionary enterprise in history, planting the faith south along the west coast of India and east along the Silk Roads as far as China. In the first 300 years, Christianity was growing as an Asian religion. West of the Euphrates River, things were different, as the Roman Empire did not like Christians very much and at various times tried to kill us. Oxford historian Diarmaid MacCulloch has observed, in the third century, a prudent person would have expected the future of Christianity to lie in the Far East—or anywhere but the Roman Empire. Some of the unique elements of the Syriac Tradition have to do with its stress on typological interpretation of the Bible and the development of doctrinal poetry of a very high quality. As liturgical theologian David Fagerberg has noted, “when applied to liturgy [this typological approach] stresses connection of the rites with the historical Jesus” and how events in the earthly ministry are made present through the rites.1 Antiochene theology was interested in grammatical and linguistic meanings in the text. Philosophically, they were more inclined to the works of Aristotle and his deductive approach from the material world (rather than the works of Plato and his philosophical starting-point with the transcendent; more on this, below). The mystical writings of the Syriac fathers are profound. In particular, their Christology stresses protecting the humanity of Jesus through which he joins us to the Trinity. Further Journeys Meanwhile, the apostles fanned out in other directions. Some went south through Roman Palestine, others went west, across the Sinai and into Egypt and down in to Abyssinia (Ethiopia). We might call this the second Eastern Tradition. Egypt was historically the other great power in the region. The Coptic language was highly developed, and Greek was in use because of international trade. Already at this time, Egypt was part of the Roman orbit, but had a highly developed culture of its own. It would be
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019
Romeward Bound To the west of Alexandria, beginning where present day Tunisia protrudes north into the Mediterranean Sea, we find a separate region, the Roman Province of Africa. Distinct from cosmopolitan Alexandria and Egyptian culture, “Africa” was Latin speaking. It would become the land of the great Latin Fathers: Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. It was in Africa that the first Latin-language liturgy was composed (and where theological commentary, beginning with Tertullian, was being written for the first time in Latin). It was then exported to Rome by way of the shipping route from Tunisia, to Malta, to Sicily, to the south of the Italian peninsula and up to the capital city. The Latin Tradition gradually took hold in Rome. It supplanted the Greek language of the original Roman liturgy, already a vernacular translation from the Aramaic spoken in the Semitic lands. One of the distinctive features of the Latin Tradition, which is an example of inculturation, is the development of its liturgical language, once Latin became the sole language of culture in the Roman Empire. For, while there was great variety in the textual forms of the various Latin rites (Roman/African, Gallican, Milanese, Iberian/Mozarabic, and even Celtic), the language of culture—Latin—also became the sole liturgical language for all these rites. Ancient Roman culture is characterized by economy and efficiency. Wasting no words, Caesar said, Veni, vidi, vici. (“I came, I saw, I conquered”)—an apt example of Rome’s style. But in addition to this cultural feature, the requirements of
Rome’s missionary development, and due to frequent persecution—one way or another the early Latin Church was always “on the run”—it consequently found itself habitually streamlining its hull and trimming its sails. Thus, under constant duress, it required a noble and often simple ritual style. Rather than the developed poetry or hymnody of Syria’s Ephrem, a conservatism reveals itself in its use of biblical texts for its chants and textual source material. The Latin Tradition also
Armenian culture was Christianized and became inseparable from its national church. As noted, this is a grand example of how the gospel purifies a culture and turns it into a vehicle of evangelization for future generations. The Armenian Tradition, as a crossroads nation, embraced influences from East and West. Later in history, for example, elements of the Latin Tradition would also be organically included in the Armenian liturgy. Unlike other rites of the East
“In the first 300 years, Christianity was growing as an Asian religion. West of the Euphrates River, things were different, as the Roman Empire did not like Christians very much and at various times tried to kill us.” adopted the Alexandrian approach to biblical interpretation because the Alexandrian style best suited its own need for mobility and flexibility. Last But Not Least The Eastern liturgies treated above derive from one of two parents, Egypt or Syria. The two remaining ritual traditions are derived from the Syriac parent. These are the Byzantine and the Armenian. It was the Apostle Paul who brought the gospel to Asia Minor (present day Turkey and Greece). This was the vital mission to the pagans in the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Tradition emerges as a latecomer. Byzantium only rose in prominence after Emperor Constantine moved the Roman imperial capital there in 324— about 12 years after his conversion to Christianity. The liturgy there is derived from the rites of the churches of Asia Minor, especially Cappadocia and Pontus, with some influence from Antioch. The high culture of the capital city is evident in the ceremonial practices. This is not liturgy for the frontier (either the Germanic lands in the West or the Persian lands in the East), but a liturgy that expressed a high culture that only comes to great cities able to rest confident in their stability. Like the Roman liturgy, the Byzantine liturgy is deeply biblical in the Mass Ordinary; but in contrast to its Western cousin, it is far more open to hymnody in its Proper texts (e.g., those used during particular liturgical seasons or the celebration of certain saints). In fact, much of Byzantine dogmatic theology is found more directly in the liturgical hymns than in theological treatises. As a monk of Mount Athos has noted, theology is a hymn to be sung. The Alexandrian tradition of allegory is strong in Byzantine liturgical texts. Last, but by no means least, is the Armenian Tradition. It is here that we find the most direct example of inculturation. Armenia serves as a crossroads between two continents and several empires. It is distinguished as the first Christian nation, in the sense of Christianity becoming the state religion. This occurred in AD 301, years before Constantine’s conversion. Christianity entered Armenia from Caesarea in Cappadocia. The liturgy of Cappadocia was directly derived from that of Syria. As liturgical historian Josef Jungmann notes, if you lay the post-sanctus prayer of the Syrian Liturgy of St. Basil along side of the Armenian Liturgy, you can follow almost identical texts. In addition, as Kucharek writes, the liturgy of the Armenian Church was originally celebrated in Greek, as we would expect from its sources in Asia Minor. But through the efforts of translators, like St. Mesrob (d. 440) and others, the scriptures were eventually rendered in the local tongue. This stabilized the Armenian language by giving it both an alphabet and its first literary document, a native translation of the Holy Bible. Gradually,
which were Latinized by various colonial powers, the Armenians successfully borrowed Latin elements and included them in their rite in a somewhat seamless manner. Such a willing assimilation is another great example of what Joseph Ratzinger said about organic development in the liturgy. Charted Territories When the Church began to sail the globe in AD 33, she was captained by Christ, powered by the wind of the Spirit, destined for distant shores. When the apostles disembarked, they took with them the Word from Jerusalem, where it first suffered, died and was buried—and then sprang up from the ground as a fruitful vine full of new life. The apostles each took a cutting from this original vine to plant in similar fashion among the various cultures. Through prayer, toil, and a pastor’s oversight, they watched as the cutting grew, nourished by local customs and cultures, into the various Christian cultures and ritual traditions comprising
today’s Mystical Body. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says as much when it teaches that “[f]rom the first community of Jerusalem until the parousia [that is, Christ’s return to earth], it is the same Paschal mystery that the Churches of God, faithful to the apostolic faith, celebrate in every place. The mystery celebrated in the liturgy is one, but the forms of its celebration are diverse. The mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its expression in any single liturgical tradition. The history of the blossoming and development of these rites witnesses to a remarkable complementarity. When the Churches lived their respective liturgical traditions in the communion of the faith and the sacraments of the faith, they enriched one another and grew in fidelity to Tradition and to the common mission of the whole Church” (1200-1201). The various ritual traditions of the Christian East are not, then, mere rubrical variants. Rather, they are expressions of how the faith, sacramental life, and ordered ministry have taken root in a specific cultural framework and, at the same time, how variety in theology, liturgy, canon law, and spirituality has particularized the one true faith in a given place or culture. The Very Rev. Thomas A. Baima, M.B.A., S.T.D. is professor in the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois. A priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, he is the author, co-author or editor of seven books, including Forming the Church in the Modern World: The Theological Contribution of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., What is a Parish? Canonical, Pastoral and Theological Perspectives, and Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper. 1. Theologia Prima: What is Liturgical Theology? (Chicago: Hillenbrand Press, 2004), 163. 2. Ibid.
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in Egypt that the great movement of Christian monasticism developed and became a permanent element of Christianity, spreading to Palestine and all other regions. It would be in the great city of Alexandria, a seat of great learning, that the Coptic (Egyptian) or Alexandrian Tradition would develop. A distinctive element of Alexandrian theology is its use of allegory in biblical interpretation. Having a great deal of interaction with Greece, the philosophical traditions of that land, especially the Platonic tradition, conditioned the development of a distinct theological school in Alexandria. As a result, this school was interested in the several senses of the scripture beyond the literal and typological meanings. It was more speculative. Fagerberg notes that the “Alexandrian focus is almost exclusively eschatological, scarcely mentioning Christ’s earthly ministry, death, and resurrection, and so the liturgy is perceived as an ascent from the material to the spiritual realm.”2 Additionally, Alexandrian Christology more strongly stressed the divinity of Christ, and this is seen in the prayers of their liturgy. For example, in the Latin liturgy, prayers are directed to God the Father. Very few address Christ directly, and these are usually quiet prayers of the priest. By contrast both the Coptic and Ethiopic liturgies address Christ directly in the ordinary of the Mass. A part of the Alexandrian Tradition is the Ethiopian Church. While liturgically close to the Coptic, there are some interesting variants. The official language of this church is Amharic. In the liturgy, however, they use Geez. Both are Semitic languages which connect the Ethiopians to the Jewish origins of Christianity in ways that Greek or Coptic languages do not. In addition, the Ethiopian rite has a more distinctive Marian character than other ritual traditions. Of special interest is one Eucharistic prayer of the Ethiopian Church. Not only has it preserved some ancient traditions about the Blessed Virgin Mary not found in other ritual traditions, as liturgical historian Casimir Kucharek notes, it is the only liturgy which employs an anaphora directed to Mary.
Among the Eastern liturgical traditions, the Alexandrian focus is almost exclusively eschatological, as exemplified here in the first known depiction of Christ the Pantocrator, or “AllPowerful.” Because the Alexandrian liturgy scarcely mentions Christ’s earthly ministry, death, and resurrection, the Alexandrian ritual tradition is perceived as an ascent from the material to the spiritual realm.
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019
A Deep Dive into the Divine: The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd How a Unique Catechetical Program Offers a Profound—and Profoundly Liturgical—Method of Imparting the Faith
By Andrew Seeley, with Richena Curphey
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd forms children from 3 to 12 years of age. Very young children (ages 3-5) respond to Our Lord’s description of himself as the Good Shepherd as told by John; they also respond to the Infancy narratives from Luke’s Gospel and to the Last Supper stories.
year-old child. At first resistant to working with a child, she quickly came to realize that children are naturally metaphysical—they readily see the significance that lies beyond the senses. In particular, they have a unique way of being in the
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Wonder of Wonder But the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (hereafter, “the Catechesis”) is not merely another teaching program—it’s a full-immersion learning experience of the faith. A visitor to a parish or school using the Catechesis might walk into an Atrium, the name given to the room carefully prepared by a catechist, and immediately know that this Catechesis is unique. I first entered an Atrium some years ago while visiting a Catholic classical liberal arts school in Philadelphia. I was struck by the many models of liturgical items distributed around the room—a baptismal font, an ambo, a model altar with a tiny chalice and paten, each item labeled. Shelves were filled with inviting models and figurines—a circular area enclosed by a wooden fence with cutouts of sheep and a small statue of a shepherd, a Cenacle room with a Last Supper table and figurines of the Twelve Apostles with Our Lord, an Annunciation room with Our Lady and Gabriel, a topographical map of Israel, a model of the walled city of Jerusalem. I would not have minded playing with some of these liturgical models myself, or at least lingering long enough to take in all the details of each piece. (I was later corrected by my catechist, who told me, “The materials are not for play, but for work!”) I could see immediately why the growing movement of classical Catholic schools has embraced the Catechesis. In a short 1947 essay on education, “The Lost Tools of Learning,” English writer, Dorothy Sayers, argues that education should follow the natural rhythms of childhood learning, which Sayers connects with the Medieval idea of the Trivium—the
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ne day at Mass, I couldn’t help but overhear a brief exchange that took place in a nearby pew between a six-year-old child and his mother. At Mass this day, the lector was proclaiming St. Paul,s description of the end of time (1 Cor. 15:28): “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” Once the lector had finished the reading, the child whispered excitedly to his mother, “The Parousia!” For those of us not so well catechized as this six year old, Parousia is a Greek word indicating the arrival of an important official. In the New Testament and among the Church Fathers, this word refers to the second coming of Jesus, which all of time looks towards, and at which time all things will be fulfilled in Christ. That so young a child was paying attention to the readings at all is amazing in itself; that he recognized that the words of St. Paul referred to the second coming of Christ is staggering; that he knew the Greek word that refers to this ultimate event is beyond belief. How did a six year old come to have knowledge that is largely considered the exclusive province of theologians and liturgists? He, like many other children, is the beneficiary of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Those familiar with this form of catechesis would not have been surprised had this same six year old been able to tell them the liturgical season by the color of the celebrant’s chasuble, or name the ambo from which the Gospel was proclaimed, or assert that the altar candles represent Christ as the Light of the World.
As the founders of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd realized, children are naturally metaphysical—they readily see the significance that lies beyond the senses. In this sense, children are particularly attuned to liturgy, whose central actions present gifts to us through sensible signs. But the Catechesis is also physical—and practical. The three year old in the foreground is working with a practical life exercise called sponging. He sprinkles the tray with water and then systematically uses the little sponge to sop up the water, squeezing the sponge dry into the little bowl when it becomes saturated. The exercise builds concentration and attention. It develops hand eye coordination and squeezing the sponge helps build strength and coordination in the hand.
“ Children are expected to work with rather than play with
the materials; a child pretending the Good Shepherd is a Marvel action figure will be re-directed to another work, and perhaps have the Good Shepherd materials presented again on another day.”
study of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Young children have an amazing ability to absorb the details of whatever captures their attention; they love learning to identify and name what is new to their experience. Sayers believes that educators should feed this natural aptitude by allowing young students to imbibe the fundamental vocabulary and facts of the different areas of learning. I had never seen a program which embodied this philosophy better than the Catechesis.
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was developed by a pair of Italian Catho-
lic women—Sofia Cavalletti, a Hebrew scholar, and Gianna Gobbi, an educator trained in the methods of another Italian Catholic education reformer, Maria Montessori. Cavalletti and Gobbi saw that young children are apt to see everything they encounter as a gift for them, something intense and new, which leads them to naturally rejoice in things long overlooked by adults. Cavalletti first experienced this wonder-filled kind of learning when in 1954 she unexpectedly was asked to teach religion to a seven-
presence of God that is a gift to the adult who stops long enough to notice. In this sense, children are particularly attuned to liturgy, whose central actions present gifts to us through sensible signs. As a result of this early classroom experience, rather than simply imparting knowledge of religion, Cavalletti decided that real catechesis should consist in fostering the living relationship between the child and Christ, the one Teacher. As the Catechesis website puts it: “The child, particularly the religious life of the child, is central to the interest and commitment of the catechist of the Good Shepherd. The catechist observes and studies the vital needs of the child and the manifestations of those vital needs according to the developmental stage of the child.... The catechist attends to the conditions which are necessary for this life to be experienced and to flourish.”
Ageless and Age-Appropriate By carefully attending to the experience of the growing number of children brought to them for catechesis, Cavalletti and Gobbi discovered what was most powerfully formative for children at different stages of their development. Very young children (ages 3-5) respond to Our Lord’s description of himself as the Good Shepherd as told by John; they also respond to the Infancy narratives from Luke’s Gospel and to the Last Supper stories. Older children (ages 6-12) are ready to recognize typology in the stories of Creation, Noah, Abraham, and Exodus. In either case, Good Shepherd catechists always present these stories in the very words of Scripture, not versions altered to bring them down to what is supposedly a child’s level of understanding. But these catechists also use “The Materials” (as the liturgical models arranged in the Atrium are called) to help the
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Silent Learning Prelates like Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, and Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, NE, have cried out against the ceaseless noise that today fills souls with distractions. Full liturgical participation struggles to develop in a heart that knows no silence. But their cries fall on the deaf ears of those who have never experienced silence. When I was young, I would often stay at my grandparents’ small farm in southwest Michigan. I would sit in the quiet farmhouse and hear nothing but the ticking of the clock on the dining room mantle, or the long, slow approach and retreat of a car as it traveled past on the country highway. As a twelve year old used to constant television and radio, I found it very boring; yet it struck deep roots in my soul, and I have come to value silence more and more as an adult. For the Catechized young, interior and exterior quiet is considered “normal.” This does not mean that it is usual for
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was developed by a pair of Italian Catholic women— Sofia Cavalletti (at right, d.2011), a Hebrew scholar, and Gianna Gobbi (d.2002), an educator trained in the methods of another Italian Catholic education reformer, Maria Montessori.
children, but that it is the proper state within which catechesis should take place. The catechist strives to make the Atrium a place of prayer and reflection, realizing that, in order for children to be receptive to Christ, they have to become recollected and attentive. This is not easy; quietness ebbs and flows. Educators such as Sayers, Montessori, and John Senior (founder of the Integrated Humani-
pray in the words of Scripture, receiving a foretaste of Lectio Divina. As liturgical seasons change, the cloth is changed, often accompanied by a solemn procession and hymns. A model altar contains a paten, chalice and two candles. Not surprisingly, the candles are a particular favorite; as the catechist lights them, she says, “Christ has died and is risen.” Level I students follow the life of Our
“ For the Catechized young, interior and exterior quiet is
considered 'normal.' This does not mean that it is usual for children, but that it is the proper state within which catechesis should take place.” ties Program at University of Kansas, of which Bishop Conley was a student) affirm that attentiveness is relatively natural for children. Unfortunately, today's incessant noise, fast-moving images, and general busy-ness can drown out even a young child,s natural interest in the world. Children generally take several months to acclimate themselves to the Atrium’s atmosphere of recollected, attentive, prayerful quiet. As a child arrives at the Atrium, the catechist crouches down, shakes his hand, greets him by name, then whispers, “Do you have a work that you would like to do today?” Quiet voices, grace, and courtesy are fostered. Recollection is so essential as a preparation, that some of the works (such as using scissors to cut along lines or carefully transferring beans by a spoon from one place to another) have no immedi-
“ Children learn to pray in
the words of Scripture, receiving a foretaste of Lectio Divina.”
ate liturgical or catechetical connection. But as the children engage quietly in these absorbing activities, the chaos of the world drains away, and they become open to hear Christ, the Teacher within. In fact, the quiet activity of an Atrium mimics a monastic environment, where monks maintain and even develop a recollected state while digging gardens, copying manuscripts, or making beer. Liturgical Training The liturgical orientation of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is evident in the first work presented to new children: the Prayer Table, covered with a cloth colored according to the liturgical season, on which a Bible rests on a stand, along with a holy card, a picture suggesting a Scripture reading, and perhaps a statue. Around this table, the children learn to
III students, who are old enough to have developed a sense of time, uses salvation history as the connecting thread, as witnessed by two of Sofia Cavalletti's books: History of the Kingdom of God – From the Creation to the Parousia and Liturgy and the Building of the Kingdom. But children aren’t the only beneficiaries of the liturgical emphasis in the Catechesis. It is also a deeply formative experience for the catechists, who learn to integrate theological knowledge and living prayer. They have to grow in humility, minimizing themselves while fostering a relationship between Our Lord and his children. Each catechist (the majority are women) pours herself into her Atrium, preparing the environment and personally building and repairing her materials, which is for her both an act of love for the children and an opportunity for prayerful meditation on the themes she will present. After presenting each work with its corresponding word-and-model Kerygma, the catechist explains very little. Instead, she asks questions to encourage students to attend to and respond to the words of Scripture, prayers, or liturgical texts. Catechists are blessed as they witness the miracle of the Lord working in the souls of the children. Estimated Excellence After visiting a classical liberal arts school within his pastoral region, Bishop Robert Barron declared, “We have dramatically underestimated what students are capable of doing.” At more than 1,250 Atria currently operating in the United States alone, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is demonstrating, to the delight
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children to fully imagine and reflect upon the words of Scripture and Liturgy. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd refers to this interplay of words and models as the Kerygma, the proclamation of the Word of God that the work is meant to represent. As noted, the Catechesis is offered for children from 3 to 12 years of age, unfolding in three age-appropriate levels. In keeping with the principles of Montessori education, children are free to work with any of the materials that have been presented to them. In their work, the children recreate the stories they have heard, or develop them in ways that show how they are interiorizing what they have learned about Christ, his love and mercy, and their need for him. Children are expected to work with rather than play with the materials; a child pretending the Good Shepherd is a Marvel action figure will be re-directed to another work, and perhaps have the Good Shepherd materials presented again on another day. Still, the freedom given to the children makes this catechesis markedly different from other catechetical formats. Like a farmer with his seed, a catechist must have faith in the interior sources of learning and the patience to wait for its development. As an object lesson in such faith in the Catechesis process, one catechist became anxious over a child who spent months of his weekly time in her Atrium working only with the Annunciation materials. She presented several other works to him, but only the Annunciation attracted him. One day, having presented the Epiclesis, the moment at Mass when the priest calls down the Holy Spirit on the gifts of bread and wine, the catechist was disappointed that the child immediately returned to the Annunciation work. Then, to her amazement, she saw the child hold its hands over the figurine of Our Lady, recalling the words of the angel, “The power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you.” She ceased being concerned. With the same patience and faith in the process, catechists will also note that the Catechesis bears fruit outside the Atrium as well. The program takes as a principle that the religious life of children is especially fostered by liturgy and Scripture: “The themes presented in the atrium are those to which the children have responded with depth and joy,” the Catechesis website notes. “These themes are taken from the Bible and the liturgy (prayers and sacraments) as the fundamental sources for creating and sustaining Christian life at every developmental stage and, in particular, for illuminating and nourishing the child in his/her most vital religious needs.”
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd “Atrium” contains many models of liturgical items—a baptismal font, an ambo, a model altar with a tiny chalice and paten. These help the children to fully imagine and reflect upon the words of Scripture and Liturgy.
Lord. As Advent approaches, the catechist prepares for the Infancy Narratives by presenting geographical works, first locating Israel on a globe, then presenting the topography of Israel, including the locations of Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. These works allow the children to imagine, for instance, what Matthew (2:12) meant when he said: “And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way.” The Good Shepherd heralds the beginning of Lent, which the catechist uses to introduce the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord, who feeds us as his sheep from an altar in the midst of the congregation, where he remains present under the appearances of bread and wine. The Cenacle, the room of the Last Supper, is presented as Passiontide approaches; the young learn about the special meal called Passover and the new words that Jesus used during his celebration of it. Baptism is the focus of the Easter Season. Likewise, Catechesis for Level II &
of parents, teachers, and pastors, exactly how much we have underestimated children—and how much they are truly capable of accomplishing in learning the faith. Learn more about the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd by visiting their website (www.cgsusa.org), where you will find “32 Points of Reflection” on what makes Catechesis of the Good Shepherd distinctive. Their introductory suggestions include reading Gianna Gobbi’s Listening to God with Children, and Sofia Cavalletti’s The Religious Potential of the Child. Dr. Andrew Seeley is a Tutor at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, and Director of Advanced Formation for the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education. Richena Curphey is a Level III certified catechist for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; her Atrium can be found at St. Francis Parish is Fillmore, CA.
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Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019
Go—and Play—Unto the Altar of God
How to Make Mass More Child-friendly by Re-introducing a Youthful Wonder into the Liturgy I was with him, forming all things, and was de- lighted every day, playing before him at all times, playing in the world, and my delights were to be with the children of men. –Proverbs 8:30-31
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f you have children who squirm through Mass, who complain on Sunday morning, and make life miserable because they don’t want to go, you’re probably not alone. Mass at most parishes is not a child-friendly event. Priests are aware of the problem, and making Mass more appealing to children is a constant concern for us. Priests have been known to go to extremes, using props and interactive homilies in an attempt to engage young attention spans. I’ve seen it all—puppets that deliver homilies, hand-motions and dancing during songs, and an entire child-specific Eucharistic prayer. None of it works. Or if it does, what the children are learning is not to participate in Mass but to be satiated by what I would call Mass-adjacent entertainment. This is why I don’t use these methods. We could give in and create a separate Sunday morning experience for the kids—that way the parents could drop their children off before Mass, pick them up after, and have no distractions during an adult-only Mass. Or we could compromise and section off the kids who are repeat offenders into a cry room. These approaches I find equally troublesome, though, because they miss the point of worshiping as a family. They reduce the diversity of the congregation, are prejudicial against a certain age group, and make it all the more challenging for the little ones to learn how to participate once the adults deem them to be ready. If we want to find a solution for integrating children into the community, we would do far better to stop assuming that it is children who are the problem and take a hard look at ourselves. The problem isn’t the kids. It’s the adults. We have drained the Mass of its imagination and drama, creating a bland, highly intellectualized, auditory experience. Take, for instance, the secret but true motivation of priests: we want the children sent away so parishioners can hear
the homily. I admit, there are times when I’m preaching and kids are rattling the very bones of the building with shrieks and cries. It also isn’t unusual to look up from my text mid-homily and observe no less than 50 parishioners staring at a smiling baby instead of paying attention to me. It can be challenging to preach to such a diverse, distractable crowd, but is it so bad? Is it so bad for me to be forced to be more concise during my homily instead of indulgently droning on at length? Further, is it so bad for children to squirm and wiggle through Mass, to hear their off-tune voices drown out everyone else during the Agnus Dei? There’s a fine line between lawlessly out-ofcontrol toddlers and children who are trying their best but still learning how to be fully present. But I think we more or less agree on where that line is and can extend a certain degree of trust and charity to the parents. If any of us adults are tempted to cast the first stone, perhaps we might recall the times our eyes have glazed over during Mass and we’ve failed to fully participate. Simply because our failures are quieter and more socially acceptable doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with the same issue that the children do. In the meantime, there are, in fact, concrete and simple ways to make Mass more child-friendly in a way that also promotes reverential worship. Just Imagine First, we must understand the type of language the Mass is actually speaking. Worship isn’t an intellectual exercise. The purpose of Mass isn’t purely catechetical, the homily is not meant to be a lecture, and even us adults don’t know the full meaning of every action. The impulse of the priest to halt and explain every action or to delete any ritual that isn’t entirely clear is a symptom of the misunderstanding concerning the true language of worship. It’s perfectly acceptable to not understand everything happen-
ing at Mass. In fact, a bit of mystification is to be expected because the language of the Mass isn’t prose—it’s poetry. The Mass is a poem, and it uses the language of imagination and hope. Who speaks this type of imaginative language on a regular basis? Children. In Spirit of the Liturgy, Romano Guardini indicates as much, writing, “The liturgy gives a thousand strict and careful directions on the quality of the language, gestures, colors, garments and instruments which it employs,” and it can only “be understood by those who are able to take art and play seriously.” When he refers to “play,” Guardini means an activity that is undertaken for its own sake with no further motives. It is children who naturally take this type of activity seriously. They spend vast quantities of their day in the world of imagination and play. They speak the language of poetry, which Aristotle teaches is a communication of what might be and what ought to be. Each action of the Mass is a mediation of the heavenly reality, the ways in which God and Man are connected by Jacob’s Ladder as angels ascend and descend upon it. The air itself is thronged with saints, members of the Church triumphant who pray with us. The priest stands in place of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, and sends up an offering to our Heavenly Father, who in turn sends down his blessing upon our sacrificial gifts. This is the poetic, symbolic, and quite seriously playful language of the Mass. It’s a discussion in which children are uniquely qualified to participate. When I was a child, my friends and I would play baseball in the park behind my house. There weren’t enough of us to field complete teams of nine, so we created a strike zone by taping a square on the tennis court fence. We designated a stand of pine trees about twohundred feet away as the home run marker, created complicated rules about how runners would advance, how outs would be marked, and
“ If we want to find a solution for integrating children into the community, we would do far better to stop assuming that it is children who are the problem and take a hard look at ourselves. The problem isn’t the kids. It’s the adults. We have drained the Mass of its imagination and drama, creating a bland, highly intellectualized, auditory experience.”
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By Father Michael Rennier
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Play It Up I tell this story from my youth to say that children are serious about playing. Their games seem unimportant but they are earnest. Grave and dour adults may disapprove and, like the adults in Antoine St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, they may attempt to force children to address themselves to more practical pursuits such as balancing account books or counting their possessions. An analogue to the Mass might be the insistence that everything be highly orderly, efficient, and practical. Fancy vestments must be thrown out, the sanctuary simplified, and the shortest, simplest, vernacular prayers pressed into service. But as St. Exupery indicates, this denies a fundamental fact of our existence; the ability to look deeply and see the hidden truth of God’s sacramental presence. The inability to view the world as a child limits us to observing only the outer, physical shell. It misses the miraculous reality within. What is invisible to the eye is most important, but without the imagination of a child we are unable to see it. When this happens, the Mass becomes a shadow of itself as the focus turns away from its symbolic heart. It’s a patrimony squandered, a revolt of fathers against their very own children. Perhaps this is why Our Lord is so insistent that his apostles, later to become the first spiritual fathers of the Church, freely bring the little children into his presence. It’s a reminder we desperately need. It is, in fact, the children who do the apostles the favor. It is the children who lead the adults back to Our Lord and reveal to them the language of wonder. In the prayers at the foot of the altar in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, it is made abundantly clear that it is still the children who lead their priests to the place of worship. The priest pauses, and after acknowledging the Triune God, the first words out of his mouth are, “Introibo ad altare dei/ I will go unto the altar of God,” to which his server responds, “Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum/ To God who giveth joy to my youth.” The priest, as he steps up to the altar to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, does so with childlike wonder. Wonder, says Socrates, is the beginning of wisdom. It is not immature or unsophisticated for us to speak the language of children, and a reverent Mass won’t dispense with their presence. In fact, the presence of children at Mass is of great assistance to us jaded adults, and the only conclusion I can reach is that children are not only to be tolerated at Mass, but they are to be positively encouraged to participate because they lead us to Our Lord. Children of Men But children still need to be integrated into the community in such a way that they play by the rules. To that end, there are a number of ways to make a Mass more child-friendly. I have implemented a number of these in my parish and the result has been a noticeable increase in the number of children in our parish. I know a number of other priests who have done the same with similar results.
Minimize Cry Rooms If children are having trouble sitting still, it may be as simple as the fact that they cannot see what’s happening. I encourage young children to sit as close as possible. Even better, I encourage our children to jump into the thick of the action by becoming altar servers as soon as they can. There is no age minimum. Even if they’re simply standing next to the older children while wearing cassock and surplice, the responsibility is invigorating. All of this is lost in a cry room, which often feels like sitting in a fishbowl. Cry rooms are only for screaming infants. Maximize Incense Use generous amounts of incense and use it often. Mass should appeal to all five senses, including smell. Children are quite impressed with the effect of incense and the way it wafts up to heaven. The smell of it creates a strong association in the memory. Best of all, for the altar
boys, it adds a strong element of danger (Matches! Charcoal! Fire!)—and responsibility.
Bringing our actions in line with our words brings credibility to the Mass and keeps children interested. Emphasize Processions Children love processions. Processions are physical, impressive, and imaginative. Processions for Palm Sunday, to bury the Alleluia in the front garden, the Vidi Aquam, and getting out a canopy to march down the street while chanting the Pange Lingua for Corpus Christi: all of this speaks to the sensibilities of children. Colorize Devotions Colorful and vivid images, like music, serve as a universal language—and no less so for children—and no less so in liturgical and devotional life. Celebrate a May Crowning and have the children bring flowers from the garden at home, veil statues in Passiontide, burn palms after Mass to get ready for Lent. We recently restored the devotion of veiling our statues
and the children all had questions. One
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how hits would be measured. Having our rules delineated, we were ready to play. The first pitch arrived at home plate. And then we argued. Was it a ball or strike? Did it hit inside the square or not? Did the hit transgress the imaginary foul line? Our obviously partisan eyes deceived us, and the seriousness of the game required an extended disputation until finally a compromise would be negotiated. Then the next pitch would arrive and we would do it all over again.
Incense, processions, palms, candles, flowers, singing all weave a spectacle that lead children—and adults—to wonder with awe, as in this image painted by Zdzisław Jasiński (1863-1932), Palm Sunday Mass.
“ The inability to view the world as a child limits us to observing only the outer, physical shell. It misses the miraculous reality within.” Utilize Plainchant Plainchant is easy to teach to children and it requires very little music theory. Mostly it’s an understanding of relationships between notes that are sung with the fluidity of the way we would naturally speak. Teaching children to chant, especially the young children who cannot read, is a much more effective way to draw them into active participation in worship than hymns, which are difficult for children to read along with and sing. Catechize the Tongue When the language we use to describe something doesn’t match the reality, children immediately notice the disconnect. If I teach that the Blessed Sacrament is a precious treasure to be treated with reverential care but then behave in a casual fashion with it, children lose interest. They sense the falsehood and realize the adults aren’t as serious as they claim. I encourage all our parish children to receive on the tongue. We also use communion patens and I do the ablutions carefully and prayerfully at the altar.
child asked, “Why is Jesus hiding?” Intuitively, the child had caught onto the precise meaning of the veiling. The Joy of Youth Making a Mass child-friendly is actually fairly easy, and it’s all right there in our Catholic heritage. Give children a Mass that is serious but playful, imaginative and impressive, full of life and color, dangerous and mysterious, and they will absolutely fall in love. They’ll go home and make their own vestments and have processions at home and play Mass with every snack you give them. Speak to them in the language of poetry, of heaven, and open up for them greater vistas within which they can dream. Not only will your Mass become more child-friendly, it will also be of great benefit to us adults as we do our earnest best to approach the altar with the joy of our youth. Father Michael Rennier lives in St. Louis with his wife and children. A convert from Anglicanism with his family, he has an MDiv from Yale Divinity School and is a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He is associate editor at Dappled Things: A Quarterly of Ideas, Art & Faith, and a regular contributor at Aleteia.
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THE RITE QUESTIONS : Is the Universal Prayer (Prayers : Where can I find the texts and
Q of the Faithful or General
Intercessions)required at every Mass?
A
: The Universal Prayer or Prayers of the Faithful or General Intercessions are only obligatory on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963) called for the restoration of the Universal Prayer in the reform of the Sacred Liturgy: “Especially on Sundays and feasts of obligation there is to be restored, after the Gospel and the homily, ‘the common prayer’ or ‘the prayer of the faithful’” (53). Shortly after this, in 1965, a question was put to the Congregation of Rites with regard to “Whether in Masses celebrated with the people, the prayer of the faithful is obligatory on ferial days?” The Congregation responded that, no, the obligation to pray the Universal Prayer “does not oblige” at daily Masses. The current General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) stands in con-
tinuity with the Congregation when it states, “It is desirable [expedit] that there usually be such a form of prayer in Masses celebrated with the people” (69). The Latin word employed here, expedit, does not constitute a strict obligation, but a suggestion. So, while the Universal Prayer is not obligatory, it may be used at daily Masses to great benefit. Indeed, the Universal Prayer caps the Liturgy of the Word in a way similar to the reception of Holy Communion at the end of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. For in the Universal Prayer, the baptized exercise the very priesthood of Christ by mediating “for holy Church, for the civil authorities, for those oppressed by various needs, for all mankind, and for the salvation of the entire world” (SC, 53).
Continued from EVANGELIZED, page 3
Looking ahead, Butker hopes to continue to promote the Sacred Liturgy in the Kansas City area, but as a new father, he is also taking his duties as a parent seriously and has been building a veritable library of books on theology to educate himself and his wife further in the faith. “You can witness through your life, but you also need to witness through catechesis, which comes through education,” he said. “And, as the father of the family it’s my responsibility to pass on the truths of the faith to my children.”
at St. Michael’s. The Mass was on the Feast of the Annunciation this past March, and the attendance went from their usual crowd of 40 to over 350 persons, including a full choir which sang William Byrd’s “Mass for Four Voices.” Butker’s love for the Mass also carries over into his professional life. During the football season, Butker is not always able to attend Sunday Mass in a parish setting, but he has been working with the Chief ’s chaplain, Father Richard Rocha, to provide more beautiful and well-prepared Masses for the Catholic coaches and players each Saturday evening at the team hotel. “It is difficult in that context for the other guys to see this as a sacrifice,” Butker said. “It is important that we see beauty.”
—Answered by Jeremy Priest
Father Aaron Williams is a priest of the Diocese of Jackson (MS) serving as parochial vicar at St. Joseph parish in Greenville and director of seminarians. He is a graduate of Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, and is pursing a masters degree in Liturgical Studies from the Liturgical Institute.
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Q
music for the Offertory Chant, since there are none in the Roman Missal?
A
: The liturgical reformers foresaw that music would accompany the newly-restored procession at the offertory, and this is confirmed in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) 74: “The procession bringing the gifts is accompanied by the Offertory Chant (cf. no. 37 b), which continues at least until the gifts have been placed on the altar. The norms on the manner of singing are the same as for the Entrance Chant (cf. no. 48). Singing may always accompany the rite at the Offertory, even when there is no procession with the gifts.” What is ambiguous in the current English wording of GIRM 74 is the source of texts to be sung at the offertory—for none appear in the Missal itself, even though antiphons for the Entrance and Communion chants are printed. But does “manner of singing” govern only the execution of the chant, that is, who sings the antiphon (namely, the choir and the people, or a cantor and the people, or the people alone, or the choir alone)? When one looks at the universal Latin version of the GIRM (“Normæ de modo cantandi eædem sunt ac pro cantu ad introitum”), it is clear that the “manner of singing” includes not only who sings, but also what is sung. The options for the source of music and its texts are described in GIRM 48: “(1) the antiphon from the Missal or the antiphon with its Psalm from the Graduale Romanum, as set to music there or in another setting; (2) the antiphon and Psalm of the Graduale Simplex for the liturgical time; (3) a chant from another collection of Psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including Psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) another liturgical chant that is suited to the sacred action, the day, or the time of year, similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop.” The first option presents a slight difficulty since there is no “antiphon from the Missal” for the Offertory. We may overlook this problem though, since the Latin texts and Gregorian melodies of the Offertory Chant are readily available in the Graduale Romanum, and the texts there have also been set to magnificent polyphonic music throughout the ages. The publication Offertoriale Triplex from Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes augments the chant settings from the Graduale by including the lengthy medieval verses. Likewise, the Graduale Simplex includes an “antiphona ad offertorium” in each Mass collection.
Less common are collections which fit the criteria of option (3) from GIRM 48, while the most common is option (4), choosing another suitable liturgical chant, even though the necessity of it being “approved by the Conference of Bishops” has not been made fully available to Catholics in the United States. In some cases, collections of chants have been submitted to and approved by the local ordinary. Beyond the options mentioned in GIRM 48, silence can be observed, and in the silence the priest can recite some of the Offertory prayers aloud, or he can also recite them quietly. The GIRM (142) also foresees many places continuing the tradition of organ music or another suitable instrumental piece, except on those days when no solo instrumental music is permitted. A difficulty arises in the use of the vernacular for singing the Offertory. In recent decades, a number of composers, wanting to encourage singing of the proper texts of the Mass, have sought to set to music the proper texts in the vernacular. While the body of U.S. bishops have not approved translations of offertory chants, many collections have an individual bishop’s approval. For the Entrance and Communion antiphons, some composers have used the vernacular texts in the Missal, even though they were intended only to be spoken and often vary (especially the Communions) from the text in the Graduale Romanum. This incorporation of the Missal’s antiphons in musical settings has been done because composers have wanted to set an official translation, since, for now, no official translation of the texts of the Graduale Romanum exists. It seems that, since composers have been diligent in their efforts in this regard, the U.S. bishops have changed the U.S. versions of GIRM 48 and 87 to include the antiphon as found in the Missal as an option for the textual source of musical settings, even placing it in the first option in the list of possible sources. Since there is no Offertory text whatsoever in the Missal, composers have either omitted the Offertory from their collections, sought episcopal approval on the local level, employed texts such as the translations contained in the Gregorian Missal, or used other semi-official texts found in historical hand missals approved by censores librorum. — Answered by Jennifer Donelson, Associate Professor and Director of Sacred Music, St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie), New York
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The bishop wrote that “since the recent solemnity of Corpus Christi, the 11:00 am Sunday Mass will henceforth be celebrated ad orientem at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Gallup.” Bishop Wall opened by reflecting on Benedict XVI’s recent letter in which he noted a certain laxity in how the Eucharist is approached. “We would do well to remember,” Bishop Wall wrote, “that the Eucharist is not simply a nice ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’ of communion with God, but rather truly is communion with God.” He acknowledged that such celebration can be “contentious” and that “to make changes to the way we pray can be difficult,” adding that “by explaining and advocating for this, I am in no way trying to disrupt the way the people of this Diocese pray.” “Rather, I am trying to open the treasury of the Church’s patrimony, so that, together, we can all experience one of the most ancient ways that the Church has always prayed, starting with Jesus and reaching even to our own day, and thereby learn from the ‘ever ancient, ever new’ wisdom of the Church.” The bishop wrote that “celebrating Mass ad orientem is one of the most ancient and most consistent practices in the life of the Church.” However, he said that “celebration of Mass ad orientem is not a form of antiquarianism, i.e., choosing to do something because it is old, but rather choosing to do something that has always been.” “This also means, in turn, that versus populum worship is extremely new in the life of the Church, and, while a valid liturgical option today, it still must be considered novel when it comes to the celebration of Mass,” he noted. In ad orientem worship the main point, the bishop said, is that it “shows, even in its literal orientation, that the priest and the people are united together as one in worshipping God, even physically with their bodies.” He added that describing such Masses as ones in which “the priest has his back to the people,” while technically true, “largely misses” this main point, which is “much grander and more beautiful.” “Celebrating Mass ad orientem, then, is meant to remind us…that the Mass is not first and foremost about
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us, but rather about God and His glory—about worshipping Him as He desires and not as we think best. It is His work after all, not ours, and we are simply entering into it by His gracious will,” Bishop Wall reflected. He also pointed out that a “common objection or at least misunderstanding is that this particular way of celebrating Mass was disallowed at or after the Second Vatican Council. This is not accurate, as none of the conciliar documents even mention this.” In fact, “a close reading of the rubrics of the Roman Missal will still show today that ad orientem is assumed to be the normal posture at Mass: they often describe the priest ‘turning to face the people,’ which implies he is facing the altar before and after doing so.”
Blessed John Henry Newman to be Canonized on October 13 By Edward Pentin
Vatican City (National Catholic Register)—Pope Francis has formally approved the canonizations of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman and four other blesseds, and decreed that these canonizations will take place in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Oct. 13. The Holy Father made the announcement at a July 1 ordinary public consistory of cardinals on causes of canonization at the Vatican. The news follows an announcement in February that the Holy Father had formally approved a miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry’s intercession and that a date of the canonization would be forthcoming.
in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the Peoria-area town of Goodfield. He showed no signs of life as medical professionals tried to revive him. The child’s mother and father prayed to Archbishop Sheen to heal their son. A seven-member panel of medical experts advising the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave unanimous approval of the miracle attributed to the famous television personality and evangelist in March 2014.
Chesterton Sainthood Cause Halted Denver, CO (CNA)—A cause for the canonization of the pipe-smoking, plain-talking, mustachioed, and beloved Catholic author Gilbert Keith (GK) Chesterton will not be opened, announced Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, England, the late Chesterton’s home diocese. Despite Chesterton’s inspirational writings and his role in the Catholic revival in England during the early 20th century, several obstacles stand in the way of advancing the author’s cause for canonization, Doyle said in a letter read to the opening session of the American GK Chesterton Society conference. The three concerns cited by Doyle are that Chesterton lacks a “cult” of local devotion, the lack of a “pattern of personal spirituality” that could be discerned through his writing, and charges of anti-Semitism in his writing.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen to be Beatified By Courtney Grogan
Vatican City (CNA)—Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen on July 5, making possible the American television catechist’s beatification. The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree approving Sheen’s miracle on July 6. The miracle involves the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy born apparently stillborn
GK Chesterton, 1874-1936.
Adoremus Bulletin, September 2019 12 Profile in Shadow: Bugnini Biography Offers Important Clues to Enigmatic Reformer By Michael Brummond
Annibale Bugnini: Reformer of the Liturgy by Yves Chiron, Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2018. 200 pp. ISBN: 978-1621384113. $17.95 (paperback).
R
ichard John Neuhaus once said, reflecting on his experience of a liturgical week held in Washington, D.C., after the Second Vatican Council, that he imagined the voices of the pre-conciliar Liturgical Movement lamenting, “That is not what we meant. That is not what we meant at all.”1 While implying a negative judgement regarding the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, Neuhaus’ remark denotes certain truths that any informed observer could agree upon. First, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, stark changes were introduced into the liturgy. Second, many of these changes went beyond what was explicitly called for by the text of the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. Even those most amenable to the liturgical reforms could rightly ask, how did we get here? Obviously the liturgy does not arise nor develop in a vacuum. A clearer understanding of the post-conciliar liturgy requires us to view it through the lens of history, focusing on the ideas, movements, and people that most influenced the liturgical reform. Few people exerted as much influence over the liturgy in the 20th century as Annibale Bugnini. In fact, controversy surrounding the liturgical reforms is often focused on the person of Bugnini, almost as if he were the reforms personified. Hence, any inquiry into the shaping of the post-conciliar liturgy will lead ineluctably to one of its primary architects, Archbishop Bugnini. Historian Yves Chiron has filled a lacuna with his biography of Bugnini, Annibale Bugnini: Reformer of the Liturgy, which details the prelate’s role in the reform of the liturgy. While Bugnini wrote an account of the reforms 2 as well as his own memoirs,3 Chiron has produced the first monograph committed to this churchman. Bound inexorably as Bugnini was with the liturgy, any biography of Bugnini will also be equally an historical record of the reforms of the liturgy. Chiron’s pursuit in this book is to give an account of Bugnini’s role in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms, specifically asking, “To what extent did Archbishop Bugnini respect the Council’s wishes? How, and why, did he go well beyond them?” (12). Bugnini himself wished to be remembered as a servant of the Church who loved and cultivated the liturgy. 4 The picture that emerges in Chrion’s book is of a skilled organizer, deeply shaped by his personal experience of the liturgy, and a figure who exerted significant influence on key members of the hierarchy. Nevertheless, despite the wealth of detail provided by Chiron, the figure of Annibale Bugnini still remains somewhat enigmatic. French author Yves Chiron, though perhaps not as well known in the English-speaking world, is a prolific Church historian. His treatment of Annibale Bugnini is situated within a constellation of his other related works on topics such as the history of ecumenical councils, and biographies of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. Chiron’s work on Pope Paul VI is particularly relevant for his biography of Bugnini, as these two churchmen collaborated closely on the post-conciliar liturgical reforms. Chiron’s books on Pope Pius IX and Pius X have also been translated into English. Biography of Reform Annibale Bugnini: Reformer of the Liturgy is simultaneously a biography of Archbishop Bugnini and a history of the reforms of the liturgy. As the latter, Chiron’s book functions well as a brief introduction to the origins and unfolding of the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council, with helpful references to the work of the Liturgical Movement and the Pian Commission prior to the Council, also providing detailed accounts of the conciliar preparatory commission as well as the Consilium tasked with implementing the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Readers unfamiliar with the unfolding of the Council’s reforms will benefit from this succinct history of the key events, persons, and documents. Readers should be aware, however, that at times the work is so focused on describing the liturgical reforms themselves, that it digresses at length from the eponymous subject of the book. Presented chronologically, many readers will be particularly interested in the first chapter on Bugnini’s formation and early works. While those having even a passing familiarity with Bugnini may be acquainted with his work during and after the Council, the years preceding the Commissio Piana (a commission estab-
lished by Pope Pius XII in 1946 to study the reform of the liturgical books) hold out a kind of promise: perhaps we could gain deeper insight into this liturgical draftsman by understanding his intellectual pedigree. Chiron does offer some general details of Bugnini’s education, and mentions likely influences. On this point, however, the reader is left wanting more details to be drawn out. Names such as Dom Cunibert Mohlberg and Dom Ildefonso Schuster are identified as authors read by the young Bugnini, but few details are given as to how these first teachers of the liturgy shaped him. The reader also encounters Bugnini’s early experience of experimenting with his own form of dialog Mass in the early 1940s, an experience which impressed upon him the imperative of promoting the participation of all the faithful in the Mass and the pastoral problems surrounding the liturgy. As the book progresses, it underscores Bugnini’s seeming ubiquity in the world of liturgical reform. It highlights Bugnini’s service in such key positions as secretary of Pius XII’s Pontifical Commission for the Reform of the Liturgy, secretary of the conciliar preparatory commission for the liturgy, peritus during the Council (though not a member of the conciliar commission on the liturgy), secretary of the Consilium, director of the journal Ephemerides Liturgicae, and professor of liturgy at both the Pontifical University Urbaniana and the Lateran Pontifical University. Chiron demonstrates that, in the story of 20th-century liturgy, Bugnini is a primary recurring character. Mass Weight Beyond a mere list of Bugnini’s appointments, the author delves into many of the whys and wherefores of his weighty influence. Bugnini is often named as the person responsible for having individuals nominated to committees, organizing and coordinating the work of the groups, establishing agendas, and often promoting his own personal ideas. Bugnini’s approach was not overt though; Chiron refers to what he calls “the Bugnini method.” “On the one hand,” Chiron writes, “it consists in having groups of experts work separately on restricted subjects and having the members vote during very few plenary meetings…. On the other hand, it also consists in refraining at the outset from excessively bold proposals that might be rejected at the Council and putting certain questions and reforms off until later, after the Council. Remittatur quaestio post Concilium (‘Let the question be postponed until after the Council’) is a recurring note during the discussions of the preconciliar commission” (82). Indeed, it is Bugnini’s method for achieving his goals that gives his story a ring of intrigue. An influence composed of direct written or spoken interventions with a theological or pastoral content could rightly be weighed by its merits in light of history and theology. Instead, one gets the sense of a surreptitious, almost cloak-and-dagger affair. For instance, Chiron notes that during the conciliar preparatory commission, Bugnini convinced the relator of a subcommission dealing with Latin in the liturgy to withdraw his
report in the face of worrisome opposition, so that it would not be presented and discussed at the plenary session of the commission. “He [Bugnini],” the author writes, “gave assurances that it would be better to give scattered indications throughout than to devote a whole chapter to the subject” (71). Chiron generously calls this Bugnini acting “with prudence.” Bugnini himself spoke of this method, proceeding so that nothing he advocated would be dismissed by the Council: “…we must tread carefully and discreetly…. Carefully, so that proposals may be made in an acceptable manner, or, in my opinion, formulated in such a way that much is said without seeming to say anything: let many things be said in embryo and in this way let the door remain open to legitimate and possible postconciliar deductions and applications…”(82). Again, it is difficult not to get the impression of a kind of covert operation, secretly functioning behind closed doors. The reader is also frequently reminded of the access Bugnini had to Pope Paul VI and the influence he had upon the Pontiff, as well as the latter’s inimitable role in the implementation of the conciliar liturgical reforms. Bugnini spoke of spending many evenings with the Holy Father as the latter reviewed and annotated documents word by word. Paul VI displayed full confidence in Bugnini, and, in turn, the Pope exerted his authority in matters of liturgical reform. It was this access to Pope Paul VI that many of Bugnini’s opponents came to resent. In fact, the so-called Bugnini method seemed to play a role even in his dealing with the Pope. Bugnini seemed at times to exploit his access to the Holy Father. In one instance during the work of the Consilium, Paul VI expressed an opinion in terms of “it seems better….” Bugnini, however, presented the matter to the group as therefore settled. “The way in which Bugnini presented the pope’s opinion,” says Chiron, “was probably too blunt” (154). Others present at the time considered that Bugnini presented the Pope’s wishes “too absolutely and imperiously” (155). It could be argued that such an overstatement of the desires of the Holy Father could hinder the legitimate freedom of the Consilium. Mystery Remains A final point that will interest many readers involves Bugnini’s appointment as Apostolic Nuncio in Iran, and the persistent rumor that this exile was due to his being a Freemason. Without settling the matter, Chiron does argue that these accusations were not the determining cause of his dismissal, which should instead be explained by the disfavor of certain members of the curia. The author also helpfully produces a chronology of the origin and propagation of the accusations against Bugnini, so that the reader may form a judgement based on an accurate accounting of the evidence. Yves Chiron’s book indeed fills a gap, providing a sustained examination into the reform of the liturgy by focusing on its primary architect. Students of liturgical history and anyone interested in how the post-conciliar liturgy took shape will find in this work details that add depth to the story of the liturgy we now celebrate and the process by which we received it. After reading the book, however, the man Bugnini still remains in many ways a mystery. Perhaps Annibale Bugnini has become so synonymous with the liturgical reforms that one’s opinion of the latter will inevitably shape how one interprets the former. If one sees the reform of the rites as fundamentally beneficial, then Bugnini is the protagonist of the story, a brilliant organizer at the service of the liturgy. If the reforms were ultimately a disintegration of the liturgy, then the same actions of the same man can be read as duplicitous machinations. Yves Chiron has provided his readers with much of the data available to the historian; he also leaves to his readers the task of drawing their own conclusions regarding this enigmatic churchman. Dr. Mike Brummond holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. He is assistant professor of systematic studies and director of the MA program at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology in Hales Corners, WI. 1. Richard John Neuhaus, “What Happened to the Liturgical Movement?” Antiphon 6:2 (2001): 5. 2. Annibale Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy (1948-1975) (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990). 3. Annibale Bugnini, Liturgiae Cultor et Amator, Servì la Chiesa (Rome: Edizioni Liturgiche, 2012). 4. The epitaph on his tombstone reads “Liturgiae cultor et amator, servì la Chiesa.”