Adoremus Bulletin
JANUARY 2024
Vatican Approves Blessing of Same-sex Couples By Jonathan Liedl
CNA—The Vatican has issued new guidance on the topic of blessings of same-sex attracted people, stating that Catholic priests can bless samesex couples as an expression of pastoral closeness without condoning their sexual relations. The ruling, which also applies to Catholics civilly remarried without having received an annulment as well as to couples in other “irregular situations,” underscored that such blessings cannot be offered in a way that would cause any confusion about the nature of marriage, which the document affirms is the only “context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning.” “The Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm,” the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) said in its December 18 declaration. The declaration emphasizes that blessings may only be given “spontaneously” and not in the context of a formal liturgical rite. The guidance is the latest—and most authoritative—intervention by the Vatican on an issue that has embroiled the universal Church in recent years. In September 2022, the bishops of the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium published a blessing ceremony for same-sex couples in their dioceses. The move appeared to be in stark contrast to the DDF’s February 2021 affirmation that the Church did not have the power to impart blessings on unions of persons of the same sex. This past March, the controversial German Synodal Way approved a
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XXIX, No. 4
The Mass and Broadcast Media: A Post-Covid Post-Mortem By John M. Grondelski
T
he COVID shutdown of 2020-21 had a unique and unprecedented impact on Catholics: for at least several months, many dioceses closed churches, offered no public Masses even on Sundays, and dispensed the obligation of the dominical precept to attend Mass on Sunday. Catholics were recommended to avail themselves of Masses broadcast by television or online though, in a strict sense, there was no obligation to use them because a televised Mass does not fulfill the obligation1 of attending Sunday Mass. Catholics were told that this ministerial shutdown was an expression of the “field hospital’s pastoral care” for the faithful although—to the best of my knowledge—field hospitals generally do not shut down and leave the battlefield in the middle of a war. Furthermore, following a local crisis, most hospitals conduct a wideranging, frank, and open assessment of their performance under stress: what worked, what did not, what should be repeated, what should not? Again, I have yet to see the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or any local bishops for that matter leading candid evaluations of the “great shutdown” of 2020-21. One of those assessments should be about televised Masses. TV Guide In 1996, the USCCB issued “Guidelines for Televising the Liturgy,” a document that received minor editorial revisions in 2014. The “Guidelines” are valuable insofar as they remind us that the liturgy is and always remains a sacred act, not a drama or TV event. That norm should guide the overall recording of televised Masses, both on the level of principle as well as of specific techniques (e.g., no excisions or canned music to facilitate the filming of the Mass). But the truth is also that those “Guidelines” have been overtaken by recent events: they never envisioned nor address the Church’s “big time” entry into broadcast/social media because of COVID. Prior to COVID, a few dioceses
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Adoremus Bulletin JANUARY 2024
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News & Views
For the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
Prior to COVID, a few dioceses and religious orders broadcast a Sunday Mass. The COVID shutdown suddenly compelled these limited undertakings to address large-scale needs. Parishes whose familiarity with social media was often rudimentary suddenly found themselves trying to provide an online Mass to parishioners. The results were mixed.
“ The liturgy is and always remains a sacred act, not a drama or TV event.” and religious orders broadcast a Sunday Mass. These were mostly local undertakings, targeted at the homebound. The COVID shutdown suddenly compelled these limited undertakings to address large-scale needs. Parishes whose familiarity with social media was often rudimentary suddenly found themselves trying to provide an online Mass to parishioners. The results were mixed. To their credit, many parishes quickly learned at least how to stream a Mass online. Dioceses and orders with established broadcast Masses ramped up; beginners may have initially foundered but eventually offered something. Let’s also examine what we learned from these efforts. There was a palpable difference between established “TV Masses” and parochial or even diocesan startups. That difference comes from the fundamental distinction between a parish Mass and a “made for television” Mass with a congregation
as a kind of “studio audience.” For one, “made for television” Masses take into account the audiovisual demands of the medium. Parish Masses offered online generally do not (and probably should not). An example: visual angles. “Made for television” Masses usually use multiple cameras. They fade in and out, e.g., from the conclusion of the celebrant’s Collect to the reader of the First Reading. They may offer different views, e.g., the “Sunday TV Mass” sponsored by the Archdiocese of Toronto cuts off to a stained-glass window depicting singing angels during the Sanctus and another window depicting Peter receiving the “keys of the Kingdom” for the Pater. Such transitions are natural for a visual-intensive medium like television, something we expect from “regular” television or movies. Parish Masses, by contrast, tend to have a fixed angle: there is one camera, and it concentrates on one point. Generally, it has to be broad to ensure it encompasses everything, e.g., the celebrant at the altar, the Scripture readers at the lectern or ambo, etc. That fixed angle in turn gives a kind of amateurish feel to the production. There is one scene. The wide angle needed to include the readings Please see TELEVISED on page 4
Liturgy TV For better or worse, Mass was mostly televised during the saddest days of COVID time—and John Grondeslski gives the play-by-play with all the good, bad, and ugly these broadcasts entailed. .................................................................. 1
Canopy Panoply Baldacchino, Tester, Ciborium—if these words don’t quite make it under your umbrella of familiar words, don’t worry—Michael Bursch’s look at the importance of altar canopies has got it covered. ............................................................... 8
Day in the Life Carmina Chapp finds in the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day, a model for holiness who built her mission to the poorest of the poor on the rich foundation of the sacred liturgy. ......................................................... 3
Sacramental Health In a review of Father Ralph Weimann’s Sacramentals: Their Meaning & Spiritual Use, Roland Millare shows why these sacred actions should retain their place as sources of grace in the life of the Church. ..........................................................12
Life with Father In this first of three essays on the Trinity’s work in the liturgy, each commemorating the 60th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, Michael Brummond examines the central role that God the Father plays. .................................................... 6
News & Views......................................................... 1 Editorial................................................................... 3 Rite Questions......................................................11