Cathedral News “Evangelizing the Nones” (Part II) Bishop Barron Reflects on the Path Home for Fallen and non-Catholics
Inside: History of Our Refinished Chalice Why Catholic Schools Are Essential Totus Tuus: Igniting the Hearts of Young People
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Newsletter, February2018
“EVANGELIZING THE NONES” (Part II) by Bishop Robert Barron, STD Edited by Very Rev. Chukwudi Jovita Okonkwo, Ph.D.
(Editor’s Note) In part two of this essay, Bishop Barron argues that the war between religion and science is an ideological mishap that has roots neither in science nor in critical reasoning. Granted that the physical sciences with their technology have had tremendous success in improving human living, the idea that truth resides only within the physical sciences is intellectually dishonest—for science cannot prove that it alone has access to truth. Barron posits philosophy as the bridge that would necessarily oil the flow of ideas and give meaning to the work of man’s hands. For Barron, we should not fear to challenge the mind, even of the young, to a contemplation of truth. We’ll thus be able to enter into the mystery of the incarnate God and through Christian witnessing attract the insouciant and mindless to the beauty of the Christian faith and life. Here is Bishop Barron, in his own word. RELIGION IN RELATION TO SCIENCE In [a recent] Pew study, [the relationship between religion and science] was listed as the number one reason why people, especially young people, are leaving the Christian churches. It is sadly becoming axiomatic among many that religious faith is incompatible with a scientific worldview. As philosophy at the university level has degenerated into deconstruction, relativism, and nihilism, and as literary study has devolved into political correctness, trigger warnings, and the uncovering of microaggressions, the hard physical sciences remain, in the minds of many, the sole reliable bearers of truth about the world. And many have bought the critique that religion is, at best, a primitive and outmoded version of science. Read Daniel Dennett, Stephen Hawking, Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, and Richard Dawkins if you want the details. I can testify from direct engagement with the contemporary culture that the disciples of these figures
are thick on the ground—and these devotees have not been hugged into atheism; they have been argued into it. We have to argue them back to our position. THE SMASHING SUCCESS OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES The most fundamental problem in this regard is scientism, the reduction of all knowledge to the scientific form. The smashing success of the physical sciences and their attendant technologies has, understandably enough, beguiled the young into thinking that the scientific method is the only legitimate route to truth and that anything lying outside its purview is nonsense or fantasy. As Cardinal George once observed, the effective disappearance of philosophy as a mediating discipline between science and religion has had a deleterious effect on epistemology in general. When philosophy was construed as a legitimate bearer of truth, people saw that a discipline could be nonscientific and yet altogether rational. Given the self-destruction of philosophy, religion seemed, a fortiori, relegated to the shadows of irrationality and superstition. Scientism is, in point of fact, a rather silly position to hold. It is operationally self-refuting: In no way can it be proven through the scientific method that the scientific method is the sole route of access to truth. Moreover, as I have frequently endeavored to show in my apologetic work, people readily, though without assenting to it consciously, accept drama, painting, literature, and philosophy as not only diverting but truth-bearing. Though they are anything but scientific texts, Hamlet, the Symposium, and The Waste Land teach truths about the world, destiny, and human psychology that could not be known in any other way. I have also found traction demonstrating that the modern physical sciences emerged when and where they did precisely because of a Christian thoughtmatrix. As a number of theorists have maintained, two assumptions are essential to the development of the sciences: that the world is not divine (and hence can be investigated and analyzed rather than worshipped), and that the universe is intelligible (and hence in correspondence with an inquiring intelligence). Both of these assumptions are corollaries of the properly theological doctrine of creation, which insists that the world is other than God and endowed in every
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dimension with intelligibility, since it was thought into being by a person. Ratzinger says that this connection is signaled by the word “recognition,” literally recognition, implying that every act of knowledge is a rethinking of what had been antecedently thought by a higher intelligence. If this last point is true, then religion is not only compatible with science; in a real sense, it is the precondition for the possibility of science. I believe that addressing this issue should be priority one for a new apologetics.
YES, YOUNG MINDS CAN GRASP THEODICY A few years ago, the daughter of one of my Word on Fire colleagues came to our office. Her mother said, “Tell Fr. Barron how much you know about Star Wars.” With that, an eight-year-old girl launched into a detailed account of the Star Wars narrative, involving subplots, extremely minor characters, thematic trajectories, and so on. As she was unfolding her tale, I thought of the many educators whom I have heard over the years assuring me that young people cannot possibly take in the complexities, convoluted plot twists, and strange names found in the Scriptures. I don’t know, but I don’t think Methuselah and Habakkuk are really any more puzzling than Obi-Wan Kenobi and Lando Calrissian. There is nothing new in the arguments of the New Atheists. They are borrowed from Feuerbach, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, and Sartre. And what all the atheists, new and old, have in common is a mistaken notion of God, for to a person they construe God as one being among many, an item within the nexus of conditioned things. God and creation are [thus misconstrued] as rivals… competing for space; [an idea that] an impatient atheism sees as a menace to human flourishing. Jean-Paul Sartre, in the twentieth century, captured the exasperation with the competitive God in a syllogism: “If God exists, I cannot be free; but I am free; therefore, God does not exist.” And Christopher Hitchens has restated the Feuerbach view, observing that believing in God is like accepting permanent citizenship in a cosmic version of North Korea. WE MUST ARTICULATE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO GOD IS We who would evangelize simply have to become better theologians, that is to say, articulators of the truth about who God is. I would suggest that the best biblical image for God is the burning bush—on fire, but not
Newsletter, February 2018
consumed—which appeared to Moses. The closer the true God comes to a creature, the more radiant and beautiful that creature becomes. It is not destroyed, nor is it obligated to give way; rather, it becomes the very best version of itself[…] Nowhere is the God of the burning bush more fully on display than in the Incarnation—that event by which God becomes a creature without ceasing to be God or undermining the integrity of the creature he becomes. It is most instructive to note how the formula of the Council of Chalcedon— two natures in one person—held off an extremism of the right (monophysitism), an extremism of the left (Nestorianism), and, if I can put it this way, an extremism of the middle (Arianism). “Fully divine and fully human” is intelligible only within a metaphysical framework of non-competition. Michael Buckley argued many years ago in At the Origins of Modern Atheism that one of the conditions for the emergence of aggressive atheism in these last two centuries has been the ineptitude of Christians at articulating what they mean by the word “God.” My experience on the evangelical frontlines suggests that his observation remains relevant today. THE SHEER POWER CHRISTIAN WITNESS I have spoken so far of the beautiful and the true. I will close by saying a word about the third transcendental, the good. One of the better-known one-liners from the ancient Church is the observation made by Tertullian about the followers of Jesus: “How these Christians love one another.” There is little doubt that one of the principal reasons that the Christian Church grew within the context of the Roman Empire was the witness of its adepts, especially their willingness to care for the suffering of those around them, including those who were not members of their community. So out of step was it with the tribalism and elitism of the time, this practice led many to embrace the faith. We find something very similar in the example of the desert fathers, beginning with Antony. Their lifestyle of simplicity, poverty, and trust in God’s providence brought armies of young men and women to the desert, and The Life of Antony, composed by the great Athanasius of Alexandria, had a galvanizing effect on some of the best and brightest of the fourth and fifth centuries, including Augustine. It is said that the young Gregory Thaumaturgos came to Origen seeking to understand Christian doctrine, and the great teacher
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said, “First come and share our life, and then you will understand our doctrine.” In the sixth century, when the order of Rome had definitively collapsed, monastic communities began to form in the West. The best known was that of Benedict and his brothers. Prayer, poverty, simplicity of life, and confidence in providence were, once more, the hallmarks of this form of life. It is commonplace to observe that these communities served not only to evangelize Europe, but to restore its civilization. Something very similar happened in the thirteenth century, during a time of significant clerical and institutional corruption. Both Dominic and Francis opted to return to evangelical basics, and both helped to revitalize the mission of the Church. After the French Revolution, when the Church was threatened with extinction in Western Europe, many great missionary orders arose: the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the Marianists, to name three. The twentieth century, the time of greatest persecution in the history of the Church, witnessed the rise of Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, and Focolare, as well as the stunning example of St. Teresa of Calcutta.
Newsletter, February 2018
Our Chalice By Jane L. Sloan, Treasurer of Holy Family Cathedral Women’s Club
From the beginning of our parish, lay women have contributed their time and effort for the building and improvement of the parish and the church. Originally organized in 1905 under the name Altar Society, the ladies raised money and literally purchased the altars for our 1914 new church. Later, they bought the town clock and chimes for the steeple. The Altar Society was reorganized into the Cathedral Women’s Club in February of 1933. One of our responsibilities continues to be “to furnish the necessary requisites for the RETURN TO BASIC EVANGELICALISM In light of the recent sex-abuse scandals and the celebration of the Divine Service.” Two of our members emergence of an aggressive New Atheism, the recovery who tend the altar, Helga Gorman and Beth Henry, have noticed that some of the altar vessels belonging to of a radical form of the Christian life is essential to the task of evangelization. We must regain our moral and the church have become scratched and were in need of spiritual credibility, and this happens, as it always does, attention. The Women’s Club voted to get an estimate of the cost of repair for at least one of these vessels and through a back-to-basics evangelicalism. We must recover Christian practices—study, fasting, Father Jovita and Father John selected a chalice. contemplative prayer, the corporal works of mercy—in I took the wrapped chalice to F. C. Ziegler Co. and asked for an estimate of the cost of cleaning or their intense forms, both as an expression of resistance and as an evangelical witness. restoration. When the young lady removed the In its most elemental form, Christianity is not a set wrapping from the package I had given her, we stood of ideas, but rather a friendship with the Son of God, a there looking at a scratched, worn, but still glorious very friendship so powerful and transforming that Christians old chalice. I did not expect anything so grand. I asked up and down the ages could say, with St. Paul, “It is no for assistance reading the hallmarks and other markings on the inside of the bottom. An assistant manager longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” When it is radically internalized in this Pauline way, the friendship quickly determined that it was made of sterling silver with Jesus fills the mind, fires the heart, awakens the will, with 24 karat gold plating. It was around one hundred years old and had been made in Munster, Germany by and changes the body. And then it sends us on mission. Jon. Aloys Bruun. I also noticed that the name “Holy May Mother Mary, Queen of Evangelists speak the good Family Church” was clearly pressed into the metal on the news to us and in us that we may lead the stray back to her bottom. It had been made for us. Son’s loving heart! I have verified the hallmarks on our chalice and they tell us that the piece had been sold in Germany in 1888 or
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later because it was marked with the symbols of a crescent moon and a royal crown. The German government had enacted laws that became effective in 1888 that to sell anything made of silver required these symbols and also that any piece of silver be marked with the maker’s name, and the decimal silver standard mark. The exact year it was made does not appear on our chalice. When I searched for the talented artisan who created our chalice I found no biographical information about him, only his works speaking for him. His name appears in a directory of The Association for Science and Art in the year 1883 for the North-Rhine Westphalia Province of Germany. Herr. Johann Aloys Bruun was listed in Munster in 1883 as an Enameller and Goldsmith. Munster and the North-Rhine Westphalia Province are near Belgium. I can’t determine who commissioned Bruun to make the chalice for us. Our first Bishop and first priests were supposed to be financially able and apparently generous from the diary of Fr. Chas. Van Hulse. Since our parish was established and built by Belgians Bishop Meerschaert and priests Charles and Theophile Van Hulse, I wonder if it was a gift to us for our first wooden church. So take a minute and imagine the chalice being offered up to the sounds of hoofbeats on brick streets, the hum of gas lights, and the whistle of the train close to the Third and Elgin church. Then later the chalice would have made the move to the new church with the stained glass windows and the bell. I reviewed the small hardback book published for the 25th Anniversary of our parish simply named Silver Jubilee and written by Fr. John Heiring himself. Fr. Heiring wrote the history of the diocese and our church since its establishment and thanked by name every parishioner or organization that had donated or purchased individual items for our new church. Included in these donations is “Margaret Von Waag [who] donated for the celebration of the Sacred Hosts, the chalice and the ciborium.” Then toward the end of the donations he listed the things the Altar Society had furnished “Also have they provided funds for further vessels, such as a chalice and two ciboriums which I ordered during my travel in Europe but have not as yet arrived.” He had visited Europe and the Holy Land from approximately February to October of 1922. Perhaps Fr. Heiring chose it for us. While I was looking for more details about Herr. Bruun, I
Newsletter, February 2018
found articles about his work beginning in 1888 when he was hired to repair a monstrance in Poland that had first been made for them in 1688. He was working in 1909 when he made a gilded silver monstrance for the church of St. Nicholas in North Rhine-Westphalia. I also found numerous auction companies selling his work in recent decades. I find that disrespectful to the artist and his labor. It is very sad. His works of art have a religious purpose, either as an art object with a religious subject or to be used by the Catholic Church in worship. He applied his talent for the glory of God. I found a hinged domestic altar that had been used by a German aristocratic family, a ciborium that probably had been consecrated, and an exquisite Madonna and child that I would love to see. All these things were being auctioned to the highest bidder. I can only hope Herr. Bruun’s works were purchased by parties who will respect them and use them for the purpose he intended. We will continue to use the chalice he made for us for its proper purpose. It is precious not only for the precious blood it has held for us but also for the century of prayers by the priests who have offered it up. Jane L. Sloan, Treasurer Holy Family Cathedral Women’s Club
Holy Family Cathedral School 2017-2018 Dear Holy Family Cathedral Parishioners, Catholic schools have always been places of sanctification and preparation for families seeking to ensure a solid foundation in the faith and a life-long commitment to learning for their children. Holy Family Cathedral School has been the cornerstone of this legacy in Tulsa for more than one hundred years. Some of Tulsa’s most respected civic leaders are alumni of Holy Family, and we count business entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and nationally recognized scholars amongst our recent graduates. Today, more than ever, Catholic schools are essential to the well being of our Church. Current headlines reflect a society focused on self, and detail a distressing decline in those who consider themselves Catholic. Studies conducted in the last decade reflect a staggering decline in Church followers. According to a Pew Report, “Catholicism loses more members than it gains at a
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Newsletter, February 2018
higher rate than any other denomination, with nearly 13 percent of all Americans describing themselves as ‘former Catholics.’”
which supports students with academic or intellectual challenges in the traditional classroom. Our faculty and staff work tirelessly to create meaningful curriculum and learning experiences for students who have traditionally been relegated to segregated classrooms.
We are proud to report that Holy Family Cathedral School is shattering these perceptions. Holy Family is a leader in cultural diversity. Our student population includes students of all races and ethnicities, students across the spectrum of ability, and students from all socio -economic backgrounds. The mission of Holy Family Cathedral School is to provide a quality, Catholic education to any family that desires it.
Amazingly, thanks to our generous benefactors, Holy Family is able to accomplish all of these things while still maintaining one of the lowest tuition rates in the City of Tulsa, and despite offering tuition assistance to upwards of sixty percent of our families. As we head into Catholic Schools Week, we encourage you to consider whether Catholic schools may be the right choice for your family, and to join us for our Open House on Sunday, February 4th between 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. We also ask that you prayerfully consider making a donation to Holy Family Cathedral School. All donations made to the school are used for student aide, teacher salaries and benefits, and upkeep and maintenance of our historic building.
Holy Family Cathedral School, in response to the Vision 2024 Report commissioned by the Catholic Schools Office in 2014, made a commitment to re-imagining itself as the Arts and Sciences Academy for the diocese. Recently, Holy Family was selected to As a supporter of Catholic schools you have the power to participate in the Oklahoma A+ Initiative promoting changes this dynamic. According to work performed by integration of the Arts across the curriculum. Holy Family the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate enthusiastically promotes the arts through our music, (CARA), there is a strong correlation between attending drama, and graphic arts program. Each year our Catholic school and remaining active in the students display their varied talents during the Advent Church.* However, recent NCEA figures suggest that just season and during our Spring Arts Festival. Holy Family one in eight Catholic children attend a Catholic boasts a top-notch children’s choir, participates in school. The most common perceptions cited by parents Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program, and proudly offers the for this decision are: 1) lack of a diverse learning only Band program in a Catholic school in our environment; 2) failure to provide cutting-edge science diocese. Holy Family has also established an after and technology instruction, failure to serve students with school Conservatory program which offers a broad defined special needs, weak or missing performing arts range of fine arts program to students across the programs; and 3) lack of affordability and elitism. Diocese of Tulsa.
Holy Family offers an excellent, hands-on science and technology curriculum. Every student in kindergarten through eighth grade has access to quality instructional materials and digital resources. Additionally, students have weekly science lab and incorporate technology across the curriculum. Our students shine in local engineering competitions, regularly visit the FAB Lab, learn coding skills, and participate in the Lego Robotics League. Holy Family Cathedral School is a fully inclusive campus. Working closely with diocesan and local school systems, Holy Family has created the Petra Program
Yours in Christ, Mrs. Southerland
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Newsletter, February 2018
Family Faith Formation 2017-2018 with lunch and Summer Youth Programming at Holy Family Cathedral snack service. Parishioners also Totus Tuus is a summer Catholic youth provide lunch and program dedicated to sharing the Gospel dinner for the Totus and promoting the Catholic faith through Tuus team and evangelization, catechesis, Christian adult volunteers witness, and Eucharistic worship. Our week for six days. The -long Parish Summer Catechetical Program saying many hands make light the work is most assists parents and parishes in the appropriate here. Whether you have children evangelizing and catechizing of their participating or not you can help! Currently, there are two youth by supplementing the work they are already doing. possible dates for our parish to host a team, provided we The methodology, structure, content, and enthusiasm of can secure volunteers in advance, namely June 23-29 or Totus Tuus is concerned not only with teaching the faith, July 7-14. Please contact the Office of Family but also igniting the hearts of the team members, young Evangelization to offer your assistance and help provide people, and with parishes served. The result has been the this summer program for our youth. formation of young adults who continue to dedicate themselves to the Church’s mission of evangelization. As always, please keep our youth in your prayers, ~2017 Totus Tuus of Oklahoma Monica Conro Director of Family Evangelization Totus Tuus is a holyfamilyfaithformationtulsa@gmail.com Latin phrase that means Totally Yours. It was the papal motto of St. John Paul II taken from St. Louis de Montfort's True Devotion. Each summer the parishes in our diocese have the opportunity to host a week-long summer youth program for school age children in 1st - 12th grade lead by an enthusiastic, young-adult team consisting of two men and two women. They lead the students in songs, lessons and games. In the evening they share their own personal encounters with Christ in the high school program. They attend Mass, Adoration, and lead prayers with our parish children. The week culminates with a fun ‘water-day’ with the the local fire department. The week is long but fruitful. As with all youth opportunities, many adult volunteers are needed each day of the program week in order to provide this wonderful opportunity. The Totus Tuus team will live with host families for the week they serve our parish. Two host families are needed, one for the two young men and one for the two young women. Four - six adult classroom volunteers are needed to assist between the hours of 9am - 3pm. Two adults are needed to assist
Holy Family Cathedral PO Box 3204 Tulsa, OK 74101-3204 Electronic Service Requested
Most Rev. David A. Konderla, Bishop of Tulsa Most Rev. Edward J. Slattery, Bishop Emeritus Very Rev. Jovita C. Okonkwo, Rector Rev. John Grant, Associate Pastor Rev. Msgr. Gregory A. Gier, Rector Emeritus Deacon Tom Gorman Deacon Greg Stice Deacon Kevin Tulipana Deacon Jerry Mattox Deacon B.D. Tidmore Deacon Jon Conro Holy Family Cathedral Parish PO Box 3204, Tulsa, OK 74101-3204 918-582-6247 HolyFamilyCathedralParish.com TulsaCathedral@gmail.com Holy Family Cathedral School 820 South Boulder Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74119 918-582-0422 HolyFamilyCathedralSchool.com
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Weekend Mass Schedule: 5:00 p.m. Saturday 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12:00 Noon, and 5:00 p.m. Sunday Weekday Mass Schedule: 12:05 p.m. Monday 7:00 a.m. & 12:05 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday 7:00 a.m., 12:05 & 5:05 p.m. Friday 8:00 a.m. Saturday Tuesday-Saturday daily Masses are usually in the Chapel of Peace. Confessions: Ten minutes before all Masses, and 3:30 - 4:45 p.m. Saturday Friday Evening Holy Hour: 5:05 p.m. Mass, followed by Adoration and Benediction until 6:30 p.m.