Quote du Jour (Religion Department): The Roman Catholic Church and Change

The church and change? Which word doesn't go with the other?

I'm always guaranteed a hearty rueful laughs whenever I say, "We're the Catholic Church, we'll get back to you in 400 years."

And so you can easily imagine my delight when I found this gem set toward the end of John Allen's recent post, "Francis at 100 days: 'the world's parish priest'" The (longish) article is worth reading for Allen's typically smart style and wise analysis of what is -- or isn't -- going on at the Vatican since Pope Francis became the Bishop of Rome.

Key question: If a new culture for church leadership is being shaped, is it catching on? On the way to conjecture, this delightful sentence appears:


The Catholic church is legendary for thinking in centuries, and the Vatican in particular tends to respond to pressure for rapid change the way teetotalers react to an offer of Scotch and soda -- with a mixture of terror and disgust.
─ John L. Allen, Jr.

Life as a Clergy Wife: "We Have a Pope" Movie Night!

So, how did we relax at the end of a week that included the election of Pope Francis? We went to the movies in the cozy confines of my husband's Rumpus Room.

This is what I call the first floor Sanctus Sanctorum in which the big but not-too-big flat screen television is located as well as sermonating resources that include but are not limited to gazillion volumes of Feasting On The Word.* 

And what, pray tell, did we watch? By unanimous vote, my former Roman Catholic and current Episcopal priest husband and I watched: "We Have a Pope," a 2011 Italian drama-comedy (yes, hold those two concepts in your head simultaneously) about a cardinal who is dismayed to have been elected pope.

Against the background of this week's events, "We Have a Pope" seemed more prophetic and poignant than director Nanni Moretti probably intended.

Here, I'm thinking especially about reports about Pope Francis opting out of the ermine cape and purportedly saying, "You put it on instead. Carnival time is over!" and his comments about the papal apartments being a bit much. In this movie, the expressive face of the reluctant pontiff speaks volumes; no dialogue necessary. We, of course, had lots to say about the movie which staved off my husband's sermon prep for another hour.

Don't we get enough of this stuff? Apparently not.

 

* Great dowry or what?!?

Popes: Images that Signify

Driven to despair by one,

invited to hope by the other. 

Guess which.

#CatholicSpring

Habemus Papam: Pope Francis

For the first time in years I find myself feeling authentically hopeful about the possibility of a Roman Catholic Church that acts justly, loves tenderly, and walks humbly with and for God. Still taking in this news, so don't know that I can write much more at this juncture.

Basically I'm wandering around in optimistic wonder, especially after reading, "The Horror! A Buenos Aires journalist describe Bergoglio." In it, Marcelo Gonzalez excoriates Pope Francis for lending "his Cathedral to Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and even to partisan groups" as well as being a "sworn enemy of the Traditional Mass."

And what's this? Our new pope has allowed himself to be blessed by Protestant ministers? Oh the delightful, welcomed, and much needed One Body in Christ-ness of it all!

Quote du Jour (Religion Department) | As the Vatican Conclave Begins

As the Vatican Conclave looms near (on Tuesday, March 12) I find myself pondering the holy synchronicity of this happening during Lent during the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council during the Year of Faith, proclaimed as such by the first pope who has resigned in 600 years.

If you read my stuff you already know I'm keen on the Holy Spirit, so-called "lost person" of the Trinity. Not lost to me. For well over a decade, veni sancte spiritus has been my primary prayer -- and not because the priest at my very first Confession assigned it as my penance. 

I perk right up whenever I get to this in the Creed, "We believe in the Holy Spirit..." Even more so at, "who has spoken through the prophets."  Hans Kung, reviled by some Shiite Catholics as a heretic, has long-been a prophetic voice in the Roman church. Here's a paragraph I've pulled from a New York Times Op-Ed piece, "A Vatican Spring?" *  Veni Sance Spiritus!

. . .the church needs a pope who’s not living intellectually in the Middle Ages, who doesn't champion any kind of medieval theology, liturgy or church constitution. It needs a pope who is open to the concerns of the Reformation, to modernity. A pope who stands up for the freedom of the church in the world not just by giving sermons but by fighting with words and deeds for freedom and human rights within the church, for theologians, for women, for all Catholics who want to speak the truth openly. A pope who no longer forces the bishops to toe a reactionary party line, who puts into practice an appropriate democracy in the church, one shaped on the model of primitive Christianity. A pope who doesn't let himself be influenced by a Vatican-based “shadow pope” like Benedict and his loyal followers.

─  Hans Kung

* Of course I was thrilled to see the title for this piece because I've been trying for at least year (unsuccessfully)  to get some momentum for the hashtag #CatholicSpring on Twitter.

Quote du Jour (Religion Department) | Ecce Catholicism Inc.

Other than my post on the day of the pope's announced resignation, I've been remarkably silent (for me) about what I'm calling the Switch Lobsters and Dance* situation at the Vatican.

Nor have I treated anyone to my thoughts about the possible correlation between @pontifex's appearance on Twitter and Pope Benedict XVI's retirement from public life. To some extent I agree with what Elizabeth Scalia has written in her post titled, Prayer and Penance: Did Twitter Hasten Benedict's Retirement. Still pondering.

Meanwhile, I keep reading what everyone else has to say. Today I stumbled across this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Bill Keller titled, Catholicism Inc. In it he writes about what the Roman Catholic church might learn from leaders in the secular business world. Some great suggestions and the kicker sentence is fabulous. Here's the lede:


Behold a global business in distress — incoherently managed, resistant to the modernizing forces of the Internet age, tainted by scandal and corruption. It needs to tweak its marketing, straighten out its finances, up its recruiting game and repair its battered brand. Ecce Catholicism Inc.

─  Bill Keller



* Abiding admiration for whomever gets that literary reference.

Pope Benedict XVI Resigns. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

I remember the day Ratzinger was elected pope. Although I was still on a parish staff, I was not in the office -- not at first. I zipped back there when I heard on NPR that white smoke was blowing and a new pope would soon appear before the crowd gathered in St. Peter's square.

When he did and it turned out to be Ratzinger, our entire parish staff groaned. My priest-boss dropped his head in his hands. Franciscans were visiting at the time to lead our Lenten mission. "Get ready to wear a full habit again," quipped the brother to the sister.

Pizza arrived and we stuffed the rest of our feelings down with that. Double fudge brownies for dessert. With a brownie in his mouth and one in each hand my priest-boss mumbled to no one in particular, "Chocolate is good for stress, right?"

I would leave that parish job, that parish; serve as a lay liturgical minister in another; move from Princeton to Baltimore; join the parish rolls of Jesuit-led church and then stop going to Roman Catholic Mass shortly after the "new" Roman Missal appeared on the scene.

After several failed attempts to generate traction on Twitter for the hashtag #CatholicSpring, I basically gave up. Dumping the Roman Catholic Church in all its messy glory at the foot of the Cross seemed the prudently prayerful way to go.

This morning, my Episcopal Canon husband woke me up with these words, "I am not kidding and this is not a joke: Pope Benedict has resigned. There will be a new pope by Easter."

No (more) words for now. This prayer: Veni Sance Spiritus.

Can't Make This Up: The Vatican Promotes Latin Studies. Not *that* Latin.

Somehow I missed the big Vatican announcement last Saturday about B16 instituting the Pontifical Academy for Latin Studies.

That would be "Latin" as in the language no one reads, understands or uses, not "Latin" as in appreciating the culture of those Roman Catholics from Central and South America who have not yet fled the church.

Some of the headlines for this latest bit of je ne sais quoi (that's French) from the Vatican: "Vatican promoting Latin studies to put Catholics in touch with their roots."  Had they asked, I would have recommended adding Hebrew to First Holy Communion prep.

As a (clearly too slowly) recovering masochist, I couldn't stop myself from re-reading this kicker from a Reuters release: 

"The new academy's statutes, written of course in Latin, say its goal is to promote both written and spoken Latin through publications, conferences, seminars and performances."  

Performances. Carmina Burana, perhaps?