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Registering

The Question:

Currently, we are officially a member of a nearby parish. However, we have been attending St. Edward and feel more spiritually connected to the small atmosphere of the parish. We are thinking of changing our membership but do not know how this can be handled. Any advise?

The Answer:

Call the parish office at 797-0241 between 8:30am and 4:30pm, Monday through Friday and ask to register. You can also stop by during that time. Welcome!

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More on the Changes

Here is the Question:

We are in between parishes at the moment after being active members of St. Edward since 1999.

We feel like orphans now since we considered St. Edward our extended family.

We appreciate all the liturgical changes you are implementing to rediscover the sacred in liturgy, BUT how about the "body"? The community is longing for a dialog, a participation in the process to enhance all the changes. A few of us are feeling left out.

Such a simple request for the music director to slow down during the Sanctus,sanctus...why not, so the assembly can sing?

And the answer:

I am sorry that you are feeling the way you do, but there are many forums here that may help. You say you appreciate all the changes, but I am not sure I understand your question about the “Body.” In the past few years the community has been invited to a number of forums and assemblies to listen and ask questions. There is another three session segment of Adult Faith Formation on the Mass called, “So Why Do We Do That?” coming in early October. I invite you to attend that so that you can learn and ask questions.

No one, to my knowledge, has asked me or Sam to slow down the Holy, Holy. We have been repeating these two settings of the “Holy, Holy” pretty consistently and the congregation is singing it better. Sam is playing the current piece much slower than the composer intended. Then again, we ARE getting these requests to speed things up. So this points out the difficulty of responding to individual requests and the need to be faithful to the integrity of the music itself. I believe more consistent attendance on your part may make things easier for you.

If you are truly interested in the dialog you would sign up for the parish Liturgical Commission, you would attend these forums during Adult Faith Formation, and you could volunteer for some Parish Council Sub committees since this is a topic given to them to explore and propose solutions.

Why the changes?

Here is the Question:

I have been a member of St. Edwards my whole life (35 years) and even attended school there for 8 years. I have been told that mass and St. Edwards in general has changed not necessarily for the good. Several members have left the church and gone elsewhere because of these changes.

Since we can not afford private school for my son, he attends a public school. He has been baptized and has made his first communion through CCD. Because he had such a bad experience with the Teachers in CCD I chose not to send him for a couple of years. While still educating my son through mass and life lessons. I would like to make sure that I am sending my son into a positive invironment in which he will learn more about his faith without anything that might keep him from not wanting to go.

It saddens me to know that people are being turned away for whatever reason: lack of sacraments, money, or simply a lack of compassion. Can you shed some light on where St. Edwards is headed? Honestly, I was taught that no matter who you are or where you come from as long as you have God in your heart, you will be welcomed in his Kingdom. However, it sound like St. Edwards is picking and choosing. Please enlighten me!

Here are my answers:

I am going to attempt to address each of your assertions by my best interpretation of your intent as I have no way to seek clarification from an anonymous writer.

You say, “I have been told…”. I take that to mean that you no longer attend St. Edward yourself (or you would know for yourself and would not need to “be told”, right?). You say several members have left because of “these changes”, but I don’t know with any certainty which changes you mean. Anecdotal evidence is that some have left and some have come back because of these “changes.” We get an equal number of compliments and complaints. Real data indicates that the attendance is up 13% since 2003, and the collections are rising. We are still in the red but not at the rate we were last year and this is the first time in six years that the parish is paying all its bills in full and on time.

So, I will do my best to answer what I perceive your concerns to be. If I guess wrongly, please (as you put it in your own words) “enlighten me”.

First, changes in the Mass. I’m going to take that to be the rubrics by which we celebrate the Mass. Yes, changes have been made. In part, these changes were made at the request of the Bishop in order for us to conform to the norms defined by the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM). He has requested that these changes be implemented throughout his Diocese. I cannot speak for others, and I have no interest in whether or not other parishes implement these changes or not. That is entirely up to the Pastor at each parish. Are they wrong if they do not? Not my place to question nor to answer. All I can do is follow my conscience as it applies to my perceived duty as a priest and pastor.

There are other “changes” in the Mass that I have requested; some have always been a part of the GIRM, some are, quite frankly, more of a personal preference. For example, I have asked that we return the atmosphere in the church to one of reverence, both before, during and after the Mass. This means quiet and prayer, rather than visiting and chatting in the pews. This means not applauding at the end of Mass. This is part of the GIRM, including the clapping. I have asked that the musical selections follow the GIRM in terms of which songs can be sung at the Gloria or the Responsorial Psalm (this is not a matter of taste; it is a matter of documented requirements of the church). I have stated a preference for not holding hands across the aisle during the Our Father. Although not explicitly stated in the GIRM, nowhere does it say to hold hands during the prayer; this being because it was never envisioned by church leaders that anyone would ever attempt to do so. At this part of the Mass our attention is called to focus upwards towards God, not cross-wise to each other. By this time in the liturgy our focus is to be so centered on the Consecration and the True Presence of Jesus and the unity that this brings, we should not even be aware enough of each other as individuals to be thinking about holding hands. I have been quoted as “forbidding” the holding of hands; not true. I have simply attempted to educate as to why it is not the best formation and shared my personal preference that it not be done; but I absolutely have not, and do not, “forbid” it. One priest in the mid-west posted on his blog a story about serving Mass at a nearby parish and was surprised to see the people joining their hands and forming what he called “liturgical crop circles”. People actually turn their backs to Jesus in order to join hands with someone in the pew behind them. This happens right here at St. Edward. How does this make sense?

Next, changes in the music. I have addressed this in part in the preceding paragraph, but I am well aware that the dissatisfaction with the musical changes runs deeper than just the Gloria and the Responsorial Psalm. Again, church documents state that the organ is to have pride-of-place. The same documents (and these documents include those from the Second Vatican Council, by the way) state that Gregorian Chant is to be the music of choice. If you want reasoning on this, I can provide you with links to many resources. I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say that we have actually done very little Gregorian Chant since I got here. But I have asked that the musical selections have text based on solid theology. That does mean that many of the songs known and loved here have been missing from our repertoire. I don’t know what to tell you about this except to say that we are formed and informed by our music. Do you object to your children listening to gangster rap? Sure you do. Your children will tell you they like the beat, the melody (sic), and that they don’t even listen to the words, right? But you know better; you know that even if they don’t “listen” to the words, they are influenced by them; it’s subliminal, and subliminal is the best way to indoctrinate ideas into ones subconscious. And so, we will use songs that reflect sound Catholic theology.

On the other hand, using the organ almost exclusively over the piano, while being part of the church’s direction, is somewhat of a personal preference. We do have the option to use piano in certain parts of the Mass. It is something that we intend to work on in the upcoming months. I have also heard it said that the organ is too loud, played too fast, and played too slowly. The organ is louder near the rear of the church because you are sitting right below. It is not as loud at the Altar and in the front pews. It’s a balancing act and we are trying to build an awareness of this with our organists.

So, I hope that I have hit upon the changes to which you may most object.

Now, about CCD (Faith Formation). I have no idea to what bad experience you might be referring and I don’t even know where to begin to guess. I believe our Faith Formation program to be one of the best around. We have over 80 volunteer Catechists who are so dedicated in their ministry and work diligently on their own time to share our faith with our children. Each Catechist brings their own gifts, and weaknesses, to the table. Some are stronger disciplinarians than others and we have had a few complaints from parents who think their child’s Catechist should be stricter with classroom behavior. Is that what the problem was? Because I have to tell you, these kids are so well-prepared for their Sacraments that I cannot even begin to think what “bad experience” they had. And if the classroom discipline was such a problem, it’s hard to understand then how they got to be so well-prepared for their Sacraments…see my logic?

Lastly, you say that “…people are being turned away for whatever reason: lack of sacrament, money, or simply a lack of compassion”. We have never, ever, even for one moment turned anyone away for lacking sacraments, money, or compassion. Huh? Never. Period. Hasn’t happened.

One, money is never an issue; never. We write-off thousands of dollars each year in Faith Formation tuition. If someone cannot afford the church fee for baptisms, wedding, or annulments, then we don’t charge them. Period. Never has anyone been turned away because of money.

If someone is in an irregular marriage (not married in the church, previously married and remarried without an annulment, single but living together) we ask that we be allowed to work with them to get the situation regularized before their children receive First Communion. Why? Well, because it’s our job. It’s our duty as Catholics to help our brethren in Christ to reconcile with God and to make every effort to help them to do so. It’s our duty, as Canon Law insists, to have reasonable hope that these children will be raised in the practice of the faith. We cannot and do not refuse the sacraments to anyone.

I ask that Catholics getting married be Confirmed first and in order to be Confirmed attend Adult Faith Formation classes. This is the proper order of the Sacraments. I am aware of one couple who did not want to “waste their time” getting Confirmed and so made their own choice to get married in another parish. Admittedly, I have a problem with wanting the big church wedding but not caring about the Sacramental part of it. If getting married in the church were about a true understanding and practice of the faith, then being Confirmed would also be important. To want to get married in the Church but not caring about being Confirmed first demonstrates a lack of good formation, and good formation is what was being offered. I sincerely, deeply, and completely believe that an adult and solid understanding and grounding in our faith results in lasting marriages.

I appreciate your taking the time to express your concerns. I hope that I have hit upon what you were getting at. But if not, please write again and I’ll see what I can do.

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Why we use Latin:

Because we are Roman Catholic; we are a universal Church, we come from many lands and we speak many languages. Aside from that as Catholics we learn to think with the Church. So why do we sing and pray in Latin? Because the Church asked us to! Check this out!

Bilingual Masses

The Question:

Padre Jeff, como católico perteneciente a su parroquia me gustaría preguntarle porque en las misas que obligan entre semana como la de la Asunción de la Virgen Maria no tenemos misa en español o porlomenos bilingüe muchos de los feligreses no hablan ingles y nosotros que somos bilingües sabemos lo importante que es sentir el hermoso sabor de nuestra misa en español, estuve leyendo una de los email's que le envían y la persona que dice que no entiende las canciones en latín me hace pensar que nosotros como latinos al igual que ella nos sentimos fuera de terreno cuando escuchamos el latín o cuando no escuchamos el español en misa. So, We felt something missing too.

The Answer:

1. First of all, my Spanish is not very good, but then your last line and the fact that you can read this blog tell me that you can understand English. Otherwise I would have gone to the trouble of having Irma translate the question and the response.
2. We have three priests here, one from California, one from Ohio, and one from India. Spanish is not our first language, but we are doing our best. We are trying to minister as best we can to the Spanish and Portuguese speaking, as well as those who speak only Vietnamese, Chinese or other languages that seem to be common here.
3. We would have Bilingual masses more often, but when we schedule them, people seem to stay away in droves. I have had Spanish speaking people complain when they come to bilingual masses, they want it only in Spanish.
4. Questions like yours convince me that we need to use more and more Latin. It is really unfortunate that the people at St. Edward of whatever language do not know how to sing a Sanctus or a Gloria in Latin. Twenty years ago when I was the music director, we knew how to do it. Latin is the language of the Universal Church and as this community is so diverse it becomes more and more necessary for us to use it.
5. When I was in Italy for eight weeks in 2003 I went daily to Mass in Italian for much of that time. Slowly I was able to learn the responses, the Santo, the Acclamations, etc. Interiorly I was still praying in English. Active and Actual participation is primarily interior. Praying the Mass is something one must learn to do regardless of what Language it is being prayed in. I have been to Mass in Polish, German, Tamil, Spanish and Gaelic, and in all of those times I was able to participate because I know the Mass and was able to follow the action, I knew what was being done, and I had a small Missal with the readings in English.
6. There are two judgments I am tempted to make when people complain about the language of the Mass. First, I wonder if they know how to pray the mass, and secondly I ask them what they are doing to promote vocations to the priesthood from their own language and culture.
7. There is much you can do to involve yourself in this community and help us to serve people in Spanish, especially if you know both languages, but no matter how hard I try, I will always be from California, English will always be my first language, and I will always have difficulty with foreign languages.

The Scapular

Question:

I was wondering if you can explain the meaning and origin of the Scapular. I wore one as a child, though; my grandmother never fully explained to me the significance. From some research I understand The Fathers of the Precious Blood have a scapular and confraternity named after their order. I was hoping you can provide some clarity.

Answer:

For a full explanation of the Scapular and its history, please visit the following link: Click Here

Within this link, near the end of the article, you will find this paragraph as it relates to the Scapular of the Most Precious Blood:

F. The Scapular of the Most Precious Blood. Priests who can receive the faithful into the Confraternity of the Precious Blood have also the faculty of blessing and investing these with this red scapular (or a red girdle). No special indulgences, however, are connected with the wearing of this scapular, and the wearing of it is left optional to the members of the confraternity. For the scapular it is prescribed only that it be of red cloth. The scapular as used in Rome bears on one portion a representation of the chalice with the Precious Blood adored by angels; the other segment which hangs at the back is simply a smaller portion of red cloth.

Vacation

The Summer has been particularly busy. I hope that you enjoyed the Summer Series. Iwill be returning to answer questions after School begins at the end of August.

Freemasons

Here is the Question:

I am thinking of accepting an offer from a friend to join the Freemasons. However there have been a lot of controversies involving membership in this society and our catholic faith. Does the Catholic Church allow the faithful to be a member of this society?

Here is my answer:

No, the Catholic Church does not allow the faithful to be a member of this society. For more on this, please check-out the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Catholicism_and_Freemasonry

If you are looking for a Catholic fraternal organization to join, though, I can make some suggestions. You might check out the St. Edward Men’s Club, the St. Edward St. Vincent de Paul Society, or the St. Edward Knights of Columbus. All these organizations will have members on hand at the June 11 Ministry Fair and I know they would be thrilled to have you stop by and chat-them-up!