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04 Jul 2010 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

TOO MUCH INK has been spilt already deciphering the “marks” Saint Paul bore on his body. Was he the first recorded stigmatic? The consensus is: highly improbable. His metaphor makes perfect sense without lobbing on that phenomenon. Paul contradicts the emphasis of his own religious training on circumcision by insisting that the marks he's earned in Christ outrank it. And considering his arrests, beatings, flogging, and a stoning, the marks on Paul were visually impressive enough. The Body of Christ continues to bear many marks, among them four of a more cheerful nature. "One, holy, catholic, and apostolic" are the official marks of the church. You know it's church when these four attributes are present. Unity is present in the source, Jesus himself, before anyone does a thing to confirm or contradict it. Yet the church must also demonstrate unity, the precious gift squandered each time a group of unhappy Christians splinters off to attempt church elsewhere. By definition we can't be church that way. In forfeiting our unity, we lose our identity, for the Body of Christ needs all its parts to function effectively in the world. Second, church is holy. We see this aspect most persuasively in the lives of saints but also in all the sanctifying signs: sacraments, worship, prayer, religious life. Most of all, the church's holiness is manifest in the charity of its members: "See how these Christians love one another!" Third, the church is catholic. Not merely with a capital C as the Church of Rome is known but also the small-c community of believers who espouse our universal mission across time, culture, and all petty differences. The church belongs to the world, not only to its members. Our mission is for the human race and not only for Catholics who share its ideology and enjoy its tangible benefits. Finally, the church is apostolic, founded on the witness of the apostles which continues to be shared through a faithfully transmitted creed. Luke betrays his early catholicity in the story of the 72 disciples. Expanding on Matthew's mission of the 12 apostles, Luke sends out a greater number symbolically representing not only Israel's 12 tribes but the Table of Nations from Genesis 10 as well. This gospel is for all people, and the ministries of the church—healing, teaching, preaching—are not intended for insiders. These disciples show their unity by traveling in pairs, revealing their holiness in not jostling for better homes and finer meals. Their apostolic nature is obvious: They are sent by Jesus and return to him faithfully. If we want to know how well a parish or other faith community is mirroring "real church," we need only check to see if the marks of Christ are as visible on us. Related scripture links It is not good to be alone: Gen. 2:18 Blaming the other: Gen. 3:1-20 Brother against brother: Gen. 4:1-16 Creation against itself: Gen. 6:5-7:22 The curse of languages: Gen. 11:1-9 Table of the nations: Gen. 10:1-32 Catechism links The meaning of the cross: CCC 164; 605-618; 765-766; 786-787; 1521 Signs: CCC 755; 1145-1152

Authors Alice Camille

body of christ Saint Paul catholic church apostle

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An unexpected “thumbs up”

17 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's reading from the First Letter of John encourages its hearers to love one another. There was no love lost between many in the Catholic Church and the producers of the 2006 film The Da Vinci Code, which suggested Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. But Vatican reviewers gave a surprisingly positive assessment to Angels and Demons, the movie adaptation of another novel by Code author Dan Brown. L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, described the Ron Howard film, which opens this Friday, as being filled with historical inaccuracies but also said it offers "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity." It characterized the movie as "a videogame that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun." The reviewers suggested the church should consider rethinking the way it presents itself in the media rather than regarding the success of Brown's works as a threat: "It would probably be an exaggeration to consider the books an alarm bell. But maybe they should be a stimulus to rethink and refresh the way the church uses the media to explain its positions on today's burning issues." In Angels and Demons Harvard academic Robert Langdon--played by Tom Hanks in both films--comes to the aid of the church when it is threatened by an ancient cult. "The theme is always the same: a sect versus the church," said L'Osservatore. "This time, the church is on the side of the good guys." Source: Articles by BBC News and Ariel David for The Huffington Post

losservatore romano da vinci code angels and demons catholic church media dan brown
Suffered the little ones

24 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Letter to the Ephesians for the Ascension this Sunday encourages Christians to "live in a manner worthy of the calling you have received." A nine-year inquiry into child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland concluded that many of those involved knew that sexual abuse was "endemic" but did little to prevent it. About 35,000 Irish children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools, and workhouses run by the church from the 1930s to the 1990s, when the last of them was closed. More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse that they suffered physical or sexual abuse while there. "When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse, the response of the religious authorities was to transfer the offender to another location where, in many instances, he was free to abuse again," the report said. Schools were run "in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff," the report concluded. "Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from." The report also slammed Ireland's Department of Education for its failure to stop the crimes. In rare cases when it was informed of sexual abuse, "it colluded in the silence," the report said. Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, said he was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions. "This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society," Brady said. "It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children." Source: Articles by Padraic Halpin and Carmel Crimmins for Reuters and by the BBC

Children sean brady catholic church ireland abuse sexual abuse physical abuse commission to inquire into child abuse
Vatican offers Anglicans new angle of entry

25 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's reading from the Book of Jeremiah, the exiled remnant of Israel is given hope that the Lord "will gather them from the ends of the world" so that "they shall return as an immense throng." While not predicting such a dramatic response, the Vatican Tuesday announced that disaffected Anglicans would be allowed to join the Roman Catholic Church within distinctive "personal ordinariates" led by former Anglican prelates and maintaining many Anglican spiritual and liturgical traditions. The Vatican's surprise announcement signaled a significant moment in relations between two churches that parted ways during the Reformation of the 16th century over theological issues and the primacy of the pope. Some observers saw the move as a bold invitation to traditionalist Anglicans--many of whom disagree with practices such as the ordination of women, openly gay clergy, and the blessing of same-sex unions--to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism. Catholic and Anglican leaders sought on Tuesday to present the move as a joint effort to aid those seeking conversion. But it appeared that the Vatican had engineered the policy on its own, presenting it as a fait accompli to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, only in recent weeks. The decision created a formal structure to streamline conversions that had previously been evaluated case by case. The Vatican said that it would release details in coming weeks, but that generally speaking former Anglican prelates chosen by the Catholic Church would oversee Anglicans, including entire parishes or even dioceses seeking to convert. Currently married Anglican priests and seminarians can become ordained Catholic priests--much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. Married Anglicans, though, cannot become Catholic bishops. Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, acknowledged at Tuesday's news conference that accepting large numbers of married Anglican priests while forbidding Catholic priests to marry could pose problems for some Catholics. But he argued that the circumstances differed. "The unity of the church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows," he said. Source: Articles by Rachel Donadio and Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times, Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press, and Jeff Israely for TIME

Conversion vatican catholic church anglicans rowan williams william j levada married priests
Are Latino immigrants saying adios to religion?

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul's wish is "that I may gain Christ and be found in him," we hear in this Sunday's second reading. While the Catholic Church in the U.S. has gained membership thanks to Latino population growth over the past two decades, a new analysis suggests a growing number eventually find themselves worshiping elsewhere or not worshiping at all.A report released Wednesday by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut found Latino religious identification increasingly diverse and more "Americanized." The analysis, based on data from the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, compared responses to phone surveys in 1990 and 2008 conducted in English and Spanish."What you see is growing diversity--away from Catholicism and splitting between those who join evangelical or Protestant groups or no religion," said report coauthor Barry Kosmin, a sociologist and director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College.While the Catholic Church in the U.S. added an estimated 11 million adults between 1990 to 2008, including 9 million Latinos, and while the Latino percentage of the total Catholic population rose from 20 to 32 percent in the same period, those who claimed "no religion" rose from fewer than 1 million (6 percent of U.S. Latinos) in 1990 to nearly 4 million (12 percent of Latinos) in 2008, the study found."As Latinos or any other ethnic group assimilates to American culture, they pick up the values of the broader American culture and are somewhat less likely to identify with the religious identification, or any other identification, that marked their parents or grandparents," said Mary Gautier, a senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.The new data send a clear message, said Father Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J., executive director of the USCCB Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church. "The biggest challenge the Catholic Church faces is the movement of Latino people not to other religions but rather to a secular way of life in which religion is no longer very important," he said. "We really need to ask ourselves why that is and what response the church can develop for this challenge." Source: An article by Sharon Jayson for USA TODAY

religion mary gautier religious affiliation catholic church latinos united states barry kosmin trinity college american religious identification survey allan figueroa deck
Too bad thievery is not a relic of the past

19 Jun 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

God gave the world the Son “so that everyone who believes in him might not perish,” this Sunday’s reading from John’s gospel informs us. Parishioners at a Catholic Church in California pray that a relic stolen from the church has not perished, and they said they have reason to hope for its return: The 780-year-old object belonged to Saint Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost items and missing persons. The relic was stolen from inside a cabinet beside the altar at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Long Beach on Monday, the feast day of the church's namesake. Father Jose Magana, the pastor, said he decided to bring it out this year, on the 780th anniversary of the death of Saint Anthony, because during rough economic times many of his parishioners have lost hope. The church opened its doors at 6 a.m. and when Magana turned to the relic during the 9 a.m. Mass, it had disappeared. Magana could hear his parishioners gasp when they realized it was gone, but he continued with the service and called police immediately afterward. The last time the relic was on view was eight years ago, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the parish. Magana said it is invaluable and deeply symbolic to his parish. "It's our history, so it's irreplaceable," Magana said. "It belongs to the church, not just the church here in Long Beach but the entire Catholic Church." "I'm hoping we've got some higher sources who’ve got our backs here and we can get it back," Magana said. "People here are pretty upset, but they're praying. They're praying to Saint Anthony for the return of his own object." ++ STORY UPDATE: Thursday evening, Long Beach police confirmed that the relic has been recovered in good condition and returned to the church and a suspect has been arrested in the case. Source: An article by Raquel Maria Dillon for the Associated Press

jose magana theft relics long beach st anthony catholic church anthony of padua
Catholics not in universal agreement on moral issues

30 Oct 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus instructs the people not to follow the example of the scribes and the Pharisees, “for they preach but they do not practice.” Disappointment with the way members of the church hierarchy have handled the sex abuse scandal is one of the factors that has led to a weakening of Catholic deference to church authority in matters of sexual morality, according to a new study released Monday. The sweeping survey shows that over the last quarter-century U.S. Catholics have become increasingly likely to say that individuals, not church leaders, should have the final say on such issues as abortion, homosexuality, and divorce and remarriage. The trend holds true across generational and ideological divides, according to the survey. “It’s the core creedal sacramental issues that really matter to American Catholics, more than the external trappings of church authority,” said Michele Dillon, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire and a coauthor of the report. While 83 percent of Catholics say the clergy sexual abuse scandal has hurt the bishops’ moral and political credibility and impaired the ability of priests "to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of their parishioners," Catholic loyalty and identity remain remarkably strong. “By and large, Catholics like being Catholic,” said coauthor Mary Gautier of Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Across the board, Catholics tend to agree on four key markers--the resurrection of Jesus (73 percent), helping the poor (67 percent), devotion to the Virgin Mar (64 percent), and the centrality of the sacraments (63 percent)—as core to their Catholicism. While Catholic loyalty persists, however, weekly Mass attendance continued to decline, from 44 percent to 31 percent over the survey’s quarter century. Those who go less than once a month has grown from 26 percent to 47 percent. “Monthly Mass has become the new weekly,” Dillon said. “Catholics are still remaining in touch with the sacraments and the Mass even though they’re not saying they need to go because it’s an externally imposed mandate from the hierarchy.” The survey also confirms that American Catholicism is also increasingly Latino, with about a third of Catholics in the United States identifying as Hispanic--a figure that has tripled in size in the past 25 years. Sources: Articles by David Gibson and Kevin Eckstrom for Religion News Serviceand Tom Roberts for the National Catholic Reporter

catholics united states catholic church
Bishop’s comments on president prove controversial

29 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“How often do you pray for the president?” asks PreparetheWord scripture commentator Alice Camille in discussing themes of leadership in the Sunday readings. Instead of a prayer for Barack Obama, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, Illinois made a comparison from the pulpit between the president’s policies on religious freedom to those of Stalin and Hitler that has led to some heated criticisms, including a formal complaint filed with the IRS alleging the diocese violated its tax-exempt status. The diocese said the bishop’s statement haD been taken out of context.Jenky’s April 15 homily criticized actions proposed by the Obama administration regarding coverage of contraceptives in healthcare insurance plans. The bishop included those policies in a litany of government challenges the Catholic Church has overcome in previous centuries, including actions by Hitler and Stalin.The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed the IRS complaint last week, accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria of violating federal law by intervening in a political campaign.Faculty at the University of Notre Dame have petitioned for a clear and strong retraction from the bishop, who is a member of university's sponsoring Congregation of Holy Cross, or his removal from the university’s board of overseers, and the Anti-Defamation League wants the bishop to apologize for making the comparison between the president and those who practiced wholesale genocide.A spokeswoman for the diocese responded to the criticism by saying the bishop’s statements were misunderstood. “Based upon the current government’s threatened infringement upon the church’s religious exercise of its ministry, Bishop Jenky offered historical context and comparisons as a means to prevent a repetition of historical attacks upon the Catholic Church and other religions,” said Patricia Gibson, chancellor of the Peoria Diocese. Sources: Articles by the Associated Press, The Huffington Post, and Manya A. Brachear for the Chicago Tribune

barack obama barry lynn diocese of peoria joseph stalin adolf hitler daniel r jenky catholic church university of notre dame religious freedom tax exemption
Brazilian Catholics migrating to other churches

08 Jul 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Catholic Church in Brazil might take some solace from Saint Paul’s message in this Sunday’s selection from Second Corinthians, where he says he is content with his weaknesses, hardships, and constraints because “when I am weak, then I am strong.” That is due to the fact that fewer than two thirds of Brazilians now identify as Catholics, marking a record decline in the country with the largest Catholic population in the world.Just over 64 percent of the Brazilian population of 191 million identifies itself as Catholic, according to figures from the 2010 census. In the year 2000, when the last census was carried out, Catholics comprised almost 74 percent of the population. The fall since 1970 has been stunning: In that year, almost 92 percent of Brazilians self-identified as Catholic.Meanwhile, the number of Brazilian Christian evangelists has risen rapidly, up nearly a third in the last decade, from 15.4 to 22.2 percent. Demographer Joseph Eustace Diniz Alves, from the National School of Statistical Sciences, said that if the trend continues, the number of evangelicals will surpass that of Catholics in 20 or 30 years. If that happens, "The largest Catholic country in the world will cease to be Catholic," Alves said, adding that evangelical churches are taking over in the suburbs and the new middle class with a "theology of prosperity” which promises an improved economic life to those who join.Father Thierry Linard of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil said the data reflect an "institutional failure" of the Catholic Church. In his view, the church has been unable to respond as quickly to the migration patterns in the country as have Pentecostal churches. "The Assembly of God has much more penetration in the periphery. Where a community arises, soon a little church comes," he said, adding that in the Catholic Church, the "structure is more onerous." Sources: Articles by Agence France Presse and Denise Menchen and Fabio Brisolla for Folia de S. Paulo

catholics catholic church brazil evangelicals assemblies of god pentecostal churches national school of statistical sciences joseph eustace diniz alves thierry linard
Magazine calls the church to accounts

26 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians this Sunday speaks of how Christ loved the church as a spouse, “cleansing her by the bath of water with the word” so that “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing . . . she might be holy and without blemish.” After looking at the way money is handled by Catholic churches in the U.S., a major financial journal begs to differ, concluding that “the finances of the Catholic Church in America are an unholy mess.” A Catholic researcher, on the other hand, said the analysis reveals “lack of understanding of what the church is as an institution.” The Economist magazine’s report begins by acknowledging the many charitable works done by Catholic organizations. But, the report continues, “The financial mismanagement and questionable business practices would have seen widespread resignations at the top of any other public institution. “The church’s finances look poorly coordinated . . . . The management of money is often sloppy. And some parts of the church have indulged in ungainly financial contortions in some cases—it is alleged—both to divert funds away from uses intended by donors and to frustrate creditors with legitimate claims, including its own nuns and priests,” said the report. “Thousands of claims for damages following sexual-abuse cases, which typically cost the church over $1 million per victim, according to lawyers involved, have led to a liquidity crisis,” the report said, arguing that because of the crisis, churches are resorting to some questionable and risky financial practices to make ends meet. Some influential Catholics are keen to see better management and more openness and accountability. Current U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called for outside oversight of church finances when he was a director of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, a position he relinquished in 2009 to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mark M. Gray, who edits a research blog for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, however, takes issue with the magazine’s approach to church economics. “Even a glancing read of the [Code of Canon Law] would have revealed that the church is quite clearly not run like a multinational corporation”” wrote Gray. “The sole objective of the modern corporation is to extract and grow profits. . . . But it sadly has no capacity for social justice.” “If the aim of this article was to encourage the church to be more like Walmart I personally remain unconvinced,” wrote Gray. “I don’t know any person or institution that is not without its sins and The Economist’s story correctly notes many of the church’s recent failings. But I would also counter that there are many corporations who really, really need to find a way to adopt some of the charitable focus of most nonprofits (religious or secular) more than the church needs to adopt corporate accounting practices on a unified global scale.” Sources: Articles by The Economist and Mark M. Gray for Nineteen Sixty-four, a CARA research blog

corporations catholic church cara financial practices the economist church finances

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