Vol 8 Issue 3 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier

January 17, 2015 ~ St. Anthony, opn!
1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (2)
2. Second Sunday after Epiphany
3. St Peter’s Chair in Rome
4. Marriage and Parenthood (3)
5. Articles and notices 

Dear Reader:

Last Sunday was the Feast of the Holy Family and tomorrow, the Second Sunday after Epiphany, we celebrate the third manifestation of Jesus (to His disciples) at the Wedding Feast of Cana. As we end the secular year meditating on the Holy Family and begin the secular year meditating upon the Holy Family and Marriage, it must be seen in the context of Divine Providence, reminding us the visible world was created so mankind would have everything needed to have a holy family; and secular society, too, was established so families would be supported in every way to continue to be able to bringing souls into this world who would glorify God and live with Him forever in heaven. Many will join movements this week to oppose abortion—but remember that the source of these abortions are conceptions based not on love within a family, but the animalistic passions that have no place in humanity. We cannot believe that we can end something if we do not eliminate the cause: the breakdown of the family. Here, in America, we pride ourselves of being in the land of the free, but it is not true. Americans are slaves to their passions and they’ve convinced themselves that this is freedom when it is not. A slave who submits to his master may not feel the burden of the work as much as the slave who, refusing to be a slave, wants to be free of the burden of his work. So, those obeying their passions may not feel the burden of their passions, but they are ruled by them. Those who refuse to be ruled by their passions feel the sting, but know they will not submit because they are freemen and will not be enslaved. Americans don’t even know what it means to be an American besides allowing oneself to be ruled by one’s passions because there is nothing that defines an American any other way—do so and you will find yourself labeled politically incorrect, bigoted, red neck and extremist.

Again, as I said last week, may all our families be blessed in their desire of imitating the Holy Family and fulfilling the obligations of parents and children.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Introduction (b)

The Encyclical was so clear and concise that it would have seemed to have ended the participation of Catholics in these so-called pan-religious (ecumenical) meetings. Apparently, in the intellectual circles it was still being discussed and propagated and why Leonard Feeney joined other Catholics who were voicing their opposition at Boston College.

The following is from a partial summary of the “Boston Heresy” event as it is given in the periodical, Reign of Mary, 1992:

This rapidly stirred up a reaction, and in April of 1949, Dr. Maluf and three other professors, all members of the St. Benedict Center, were expelled from…[Boston College] for having taught an erroneous doctrine. They claimed that all those who were not explicitly members of the visible Church were damned, and accused all those who denied this of being heretics.

In order to explain the reasons to the press, the Very Reverend William L. Keheler, S.J., President of Boston College, declared: “They persisted in teaching, both in and outside the classroom, doctrines which contradicted the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church, ideas that fostered fanaticism and intolerance.”

The affair became a scandal when on April 17, 1949, Father Leonard Feeney publicly undertook the defense of these professors and their doctrine.

The following day, Richard J. Cushing, the Archbishop of Boston, without any warning to the interested parties, declared to the press that Father Leonard Feeney was suspended a divinis, in the archdiocese and the St. Benedict’s Center was placed under interdict.

Considering this double sanction to be against canon law, Father Feeney appealed to Rome. From then on, there was open war between the priest and local authorities.

On the 8th of August, 1949, Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani, Secretary of the Holy Office, wrote to the Archbishop of Boston and sent him a Declaration of this Holy Office to be conveyed to Father Feeney, which made clear the sense in which one should understand the doctrine that “There is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church.”

The declaration is as follows:

THE SUPREME SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY OFFICE

From the Headquarters of the Holy Office

August 8, 1949

Protocol Number 122/49

Your Excellency:

This Supreme Sacred Congregation has followed very attentively the rise and the course of the grave controversy stirred up by certain associates of “St. Benedict Center” and “Boston College” in regard to the interpretation of that axiom: “Outside the Church there is no salvation.”

After having examined all the documents that are necessary or useful in this matter, among them information from your Chancery, as well as appeals and reports in which the associates of “St. Benedict Center” explain their opinions and complaints, and also many other documents pertinent to the controversy, officially collected, the same Sacred Congregation is convinced that the unfortunate controversy arose from the fact that the axiom: “outside the Church there is no salvation,” was not correctly understood and weighed, and that the same controversy was rendered more bitter by serious disturbance of discipline arising from the fact that some of the associates of the institutes mentioned above refused reverence and obedience to legitimate authorities.

Accordingly, the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinals of this Supreme Congregation, in a plenary session, held on Wednesday, July 27, 1949, decreed, and the August Pontiff in an audience on the following Thursday, July 28, 1949, deigned to give his approval, that the following explanations pertinent to the doctrine, and also that invitations and exhortations relevant to discipline be given:

We are bound by divine and Catholic faith to believe all those things which are contained in the word of God, whether it be Scripture or Tradition, and are proposed by the Church to be believed as divinely revealed, not only through solemn judgement but also through the ordinary and universal teaching office (Denziger, n. 1792).

Now, among those things which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach is contained also that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.

However, this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For, it was not to private judgments that Our Saviour gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church.

Now, in the first place, the Church teaches that in this matter there is question of a most strict command of Jesus Christ. For He explicitly enjoined on his apostles to teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever He Himself had commanded (Matt., 28:19-20).Now, among the commandments of Christ, that one holds not the least place, by which we are commanded to be incorporated by Baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to His Vicar, through whom He Himself in a visible manner governs the Church on earth.

Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

Not only did the Savior command that all nations should enter the Church, but He also decreed the Church to be a means of salvation, without which no one can enter the kingdom of eternal glory.

In His infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed toward man’s final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institution, can also be obtained in certain circumstances when those helps are used only in desire and longing. This we see clearly stated in the Sacred Council of Trent, both in reference to the Sacrament of Regeneration and in reference to the Sacraments of Penance (Denziger, nn. 797, 807).

The same in its own degree must be asserted of the Church, in as far as she is the general help to salvation. Therefore, that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.

However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but when a person is involved in invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.

These things are clearly taught in that dogmatic letter which was issued by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Pius XII, on June 29, 1943, “On the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.” (AAS, Vol. 35, an. 1943, p. 193 ff.) For in this letter the Sovereign Pontiff clearly distinguishes between those who are actually incorporated into the Church as members, and those who are united to the Church only by desire.
Discussing the members of which the Mystical Body is composed here on earth, the same August Pontiff says: “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.”

Toward the end of this same Encyclical Letter, when most affectionately inviting to unity those who do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church, he mentions those who “are related to the Mystical Body of the Redeemer by a certain unconscious yearning and desire,” and these he by no means excludes from eternal salvation, but on the other hand states that they are in a condition ” in which they cannot be sure of their salvation” since “they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church” (AAS, loc. cit., 342)

With these wise words he reproves both those who exclude from eternal salvation all united to the Church only by implicit desire, and those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally well in every religion (cf. Pope Pius IX, Allocution “Singulari quadam,” in Denziger, nn. 1641, ff. – also Pope Pius IX in the Encyclical Letter “Quanto conficiamur mœrore” in Denzinger, n. 1677).

But it must not be thought that any kind of desire of entering the Church suffices that one may be saved. It is necessary that the desire by which one is related to the Church be animated by perfect charity. Nor can an implicit desire produce its effect, unless a person has supernatural faith: “For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews, 11:6). The Council of Trent declares (Session VI, chap. 8): “Faith is the beginning of man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and attain to fellowship of His children” (Denz., n. 801)

From what has been said it is evident that those things which are proposed in the periodical “From the Housetops,” fascicle 3, as the genuine teaching of the Catholic Church are far from being such and are very harmful both to those within the Church and those without.

From these declarations which pertain to doctrine certain conclusions follow which regard discipline and conduct, and which cannot be unknown to those who vigorously defend the necessity by which all are bound of belonging to the true Church and of submitting to the authority of the Roman Pontiff and of the Bishops “whom the Holy Ghost has placed . . . to rule the Church” (Act, 20:28)

Hence, one cannot understand how the St. Benedict Center can consistently claim to be a Catholic school and wish to be accounted such, and yet not conform to the prescriptions of Canon 1381 and 1382 of the Code of Canon Law, and continue to exist as a source of discord and rebellion against ecclesiastical authority and as a source of the disturbance of many consciences.

Furthermore, it is beyond understanding how a member of a religious institute, namely Father Feeney, presents himself as a “Defender of the faith,” and at the same time does not hesitate to attack the catechetical instruction proposed by lawful authorities, and has not even feared to incur grave sanctions threatened by the sacred canons because of his serious violations of his duties as a religious, a priest and an ordinary member of the Church.

Finally, it is in no wise to be tolerated that certain Catholics shall claim for themselves the right to publish a periodical, for the purpose of spreading theological doctrines, without the permission of competent Church Authority, called the “imprimatur,” which is prescribed by the sacred canons.

Therefore, let them who in grave peril are ranged against the Church seriously bear in mind that after “Rome has spoken” they cannot be excused even by reasons of good faith. Certainly, their bond and duty of obedience toward the Church is much graver than that of those who as yet are related to the Church “only by an unconscious desire.” Let them realize that they are children of the Church, lovingly nourished by her with the milk of doctrine and the sacraments, and hence, having heard the clear voice of their Mother, they cannot be excused from culpable ignorance, and therefore to them applies without any restriction that principle: submission to the Catholic Church and to the Sovereign Pontiff is required as necessary for salvation.

In sending this letter, I declare my profound esteem, and remain

Your Excellency’s most devoted

1. 
   Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani
2. Ottaviani, Assessor.

(Private); Holy Office, 8 Aug., 1949.

Published in October of 1952 in The American Ecclesiastical Review [CXXVII, 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 307-315.] This decree, Suprema haec Sacra, of the Holy Office was voted on in plenary session on Wednesday, July 27, 1949. The Prefect of the Holy Office, Pope Pius XII, approved the decree on Thursday, July 28, 1949.

(To be continued)

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Second Sunday after Epiphany

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

Mary, the Bride of, the Holy Spirit

1. “At that time there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the marriage” (Gospel). In the union of Christ, the Son of God, to humanity, Mary played a leading role. In the liturgy she herself is the bride whom the Lord chose, the new Eve alongside the new Adam, Christ. In admiration the Church in her liturgy gazes untiringly on Mary, on the picture which the Psalmist describes: “The daughters of kings have delighted Thee in Thy glory. The queen stood on thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety” (Ps. 44: 10).
2. Mary is the royal bride to whom the Father entrusted His Son, the King of Glory. From the very first moment of her existence, the Father began to prepare her for her union with His Son. Never did the stain of sin touch the future bride. Immaculately she was conceived, free from all inordinate passions, shining with the brilliance of the choicest gifts of mind and heart. The Holy Ghost gave her as jewels the fullness of His gifts; the Son clothed His future mother in the bridal attire of complete holiness and the richest virtues. “All beautiful art thou, Mary, and there is no stain in thee.” Therefore “the King desires thy beauty.” He sends the angel Gabriel as matchmaker to ask Mary’s consent to the marriage. The bride gives her answer: “Be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Mysteriously the union of the eternal Son of God and Mary, the virgin bride, takes place. This union, full of grace, endured on earth for thirty-three years. The new Eve took her place at the side of the new Adam and became His trustworthy assistant in the work of our redemption.

The first Eve lost our inheritance for us; the second Eve returns us to Christ the new Adam. As the new Eve, Mary stands under the cross, shares the pains with the new Adam, and courageously offers Him to the Father. In like manner she is His helpmate in the painful regeneration of the children of salvation. “Woman, behold Thy son.” She is the mother of the living, the mother of those redeemed on the cross. By her assumption she became queen of heaven and earth. She is the mistress, the queen of all, the bride of Him to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given. As bride and queen she has been made protectress of His treasures and dispenser of all His graces. She is enthroned at the right hand of the King, attired in the gold of God’s glory, surrounded by choirs of angels and saints, with power over the heart of her bridegroom and King. We rejoice that the Lord has chosen her as His bride. We congratulate her; we pay her homage. With boundless confidence we turn to her, the bride of the omnipotent God, our powerful intercessor.

“They have no wine.” Mary is the virgin bride, the mighty helpmate of the new Adam. She has a quick perception and an eager eye for the necessities of those around her. She grasps the situation at once and does the right thing. She notices before anyone else that the wine is short. “They have no wine.” The first recorded words of Mary, the royal bride, at the wedding feast in Cana are spoken to relieve the need of her host-a human and superficial need, but she is aware even of these. In the mouth of the bride of Christ, this plea to Christ has a symbolic meaning. We hear this plea and recognize it as a symbol of the requests she makes for us before the throne of Christ. “They have no wine.” If Mary had such sympathy for the needs of the couple at the feast of Cana, how much more will she heed our more pressing needs? All the necessities of men, their cares and sufferings, she will carry to the Lord of heaven: “They have no wine.” Upon her request, what we have need of will be given to us.

“Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.” The second words of Mary are directed toward us. Hardly has she made known our needs to the Lord, when she turns to us and makes known to us what God wishes of us. Just as she noted quickly what men were in need of, so, too, she perceives what God demands of His children. “Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.”

3. “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within golden borders, clothed round about with varieties. After her shall virgins be brought to the king” (Ps. 44: 14). Mary is the royal bride enthroned above all other creatures. In external life she is so humble, so poor, so insignificant in the eyes of men; and yet she is of royal birth. But that which is unnoticed by men is the very thing that God chooses in His work. “He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, because He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name; and His mercy is from generation unto generations” (Luke I: 48-50). Mary desires to be nothing more than a handmaid, yet God elevates her to the position of Queen of Heaven. This is the mystery of humility: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:11; 18:14).

“After her shall virgins be brought to the king; … they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing” (Ps. 44: 15 f.). They are the companions of the royal bride, her honored escort, themselves brides of Christ, noble daughters of the King. “These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins” (Apoc. 14:4). They leave earthly pleasures and take flight to the heavenly bridegroom. Rejoice at the hour when He shall take you home to the blessed wedding feast in heaven. Virginity and chastity are raised to the highest dignity. “Blessed are the clean of heart” (Matt. 5:8).

“After her shall virgins be brought to the King.” Blessed are those souls called to the religious life. “And I will espouse thee to Me forever, and I will espouse thee to Me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and in commiserations” (Osee 2:19). Truly He has “blessed thee forever” (Ps. 44:3). “See” the bridegroom; to Him alone “incline thy ear …. Forget thy people and thy father’s house” (Ps. 44: 11). Give up everything to gain all in Christ, imitating Mary, the royal bride.

“After her shall virgins be brought to the King.” Great as their number may be, do not take heed of those who are concerned only with the things of the flesh. Learn to treasure, honor, and love Christ.

PRAYER

Protect us, O Lord, and grant that we may seek the things of God and serve Thee with body and soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christ, the Bridegroom

1. “At that time there was a wedding feast at Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples to the marriage.”

This was doubtless a very ordinary Jewish wedding. Who the bride and groom were does not seem to be important. The bridegroom is mentioned several times, but the Evangelist does not think it worthwhile to record his reply to the chief steward. We feel, when reading the account, that the wedding feast it-self is of little importance to the Evangelist. He uses it as background material for another wedding feast, the marriage of Christ to His Church, to the Christian soul. These are the thoughts proposed to us at Epiphany.

2. Christ, the divine King, is the bridegroom of the soul. He is not satisfied with becoming our brother, our Redeemer, the vine which upholds the branches and fills them with life; He desires to be united in the most intimate union of which man is capable. “Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). “This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church” (Eph. 5:32). St. Paul points out the great mystery in this union of a man and wife. But he also proclaims very clearly that this union is great and holy because it is a symbol of the union of Christ the Lord with His Church and with our souls. In this light the words of the Apostle take on a wider and deeper meaning: “The husband shall leave father and mother and cling to his wife,” and the two shall become one in spirit, one in thought, one in desire and will. They shall have one heart and one understanding and one soul, loving and possessing one another completely. Sweet is the name father, and sweet is the name mother and the name friend, but sweetest of all is the name husband and wife. Husband and wife have everything in common and nothing of their own. They have one inheritance, one house, one table, one bridal chamber, one heart, and one will. The Apostle desires to lead us into such a holy union with Christ. “I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (II Cor. 11:2). The Lord desires to take our soul unto Himself as the clean and unspotted bride. He desires to be the bridegroom of our soul.

“All I have is thine” (Luke 15:31). The union of Christ with our soul produces three characteristics, the first of which consists of the sublime gift of sanctifying grace, of supernatural virtue, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. We receive the plenitude of supernatural life when our soul is in union with Christ. “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within golden borders, clothed round about with varieties” (Ps. 44: 14).

The second characteristic of this union is that the soul possesses all the good things that Christ possesses. “All I have is thine,” the divine bridegroom says to the soul. He gives it His merits, His prayers, His heart, His humanity. He gives it His divinity, His mother, His inheritance in heaven, so completely does He love the soul.

The third characteristic is that the soul shares with Christ His royal dignity, His power, and His majesty. The bride, the individual soul, will also be queen and share in the sovereign power of the bridegroom, elevated above all that is earthly. It will lose its fear of men and of the world. It will be freed from lust, from the pride of life, and will overcome all human suffering and all sinful attachments. It will escape Satan and hell.

Our soul must be consumed by a burning desire to be joined to the heavenly bridegroom, who has done so much for us. He desires to belong entirely to us, to fill us with His grace. How fortunate we are because we have been entrusted to Him who has loved us with an eternal love and has undergone death and has poured forth His blood to purify us! “Hearken, O daughter, and see and incline thy ear; and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty” (Ps. 44: 11 f.). “All I have is thine.”

3. “Shout with joy to God, all the earth; sing ye a psalm to His name. Come and hear, and I will tell you what great things the Lord hath done for my soul” (Offertory). Betrothal to Christ! Could the Lord have done greater things for His Church, or for us, than to raise us to this union? How heartily we should thank Him for uniting Himself with humanity in a nuptial union when He became man! What can we offer in return for His desire to die for us, to unite us with Himself? What return can we make for the regeneration of baptism and for the more intimate union accomplished through our religious profession? He comes to us daily in the Mass and in Holy Communion to unite Himself more closely with us. He wishes to share with us His possessions, His power, and His majesty. “Forget thy people and thy father’s house.” Give all in order to possess Him alone.

“In all things you are made rich in Him” (I Cor. 1:5). We

are indeed made rich by this nuptial union with Christ. Why are we yet so depressed, so weak, so perplexed and despondent? Why do we cling to the earth, to our petty sufferings? Why do we struggle so in our own small miseries? Is it not because we do not consider our riches in Christ and our union with Him? Epiphany must make us conscious of this inheritance. The Lord must appear anew as the bridegroom of the Church and of our soul.

PRAYER

May the operation of Thy power be increased within us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that being quickened by Thy divine sacraments, we may by Thy bounty be prepared to receive what they promise. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Postcommunion.)

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JANUARY 18

St. Peter’s Chair at Rome

1. In the holy liturgy today, we commemorate an event of great moment in the history of the Church. According to tradition, the holy Apostle Peter came to Rome for the first time about the year 42 and established an episcopal See in that city. Through Peter, its first Bishop, the Church of Rome held primacy over the other churches of both the East and West; Rome became the center of Christendom and of its unity. “Thou art Peter, and it is upon this rock that I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). We listen to the words of the first epistle of Peter, which is read as the Lesson of this Mass. It announces to us the riches of our holy Faith, and instructs us regarding the practical consequences of our membership in the Church.
2. “Grace and peace be yours abundantly. Blessed be that God, that Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us anew, making hope live in us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are to share an inheritance that is incorruptible, inviolate, and unfading. It is stored up for you in heaven, and meanwhile, through your faith, the power of God affords you safe conduct till you reach it, this salvation which is waiting to be disclosed at the end of time. Then you will be triumphant. What if you have trials of many sorts to sadden your hearts in this brief interval? That must needs happen, so that you may give proof of your faith, a much more precious thing than the gold we test by fire; proof which will bring you praise, and glory, and honor when Jesus is revealed” (Epistle).

“Rid your minds, then, of every encumbrance, keep full of mastery of your senses, and set your hopes on the precious gift that is offered you when Jesus Christ appears. Obedience should be native to you now. . . it is a holy God who has called you, and you too must be holy in all the ordering of your lives; You must be holy, the scripture says, because I am holy (I Pet. 1:13 ff.). “You must put aside, then, every trace of ill-will and deceitfulness, your affectations, the grudges you bore, and all the slanderous talk. . . . Draw near to him; he is the living antitype of that stone which men rejected, which God has chosen and prized; you too must be built on him, stones that live and breathe, into a spiritual fabric; you must be a holy priesthood, to offer up that spiritual sacrifice which God accepts through Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 2:1 ff.).

3. The Incarnation of the Son of God has brought magnificent gifts and joyous hopes for us. In addition, it has given us the power to rise higher, day after day, unto a life of holiness; a life which is especially active in the Christian love of neighbor, in devotion to the mystical body of Christ, the Church. In her we are intimately united to Christ and become living stones, built up together unto a supernatural spiritual temple of God, who gives us a share in the fullness of His life as an imperishable reward. Let us thank God unceasingly for the spiritual riches conferred on us in the Incarnation.

During the distribution of Holy Communion, the Church sings today: “Thou art Peter, and it is upon this rock I will build my Church.” In each celebration of the Mass, we become more firmly mortared into that living, divine edifice which was founded on Peter. Only through visible membership in that Church can we obtain the spiritual blessings of the Incarnation. Let us, then, be faithful to Peter and to his successor, the reigning pope.

Collect: God, Thou who didst bestow the keys of the heavenly kingdom upon Thy apostle, blessed Peter, conferring on him pontifical authority to bind and loose, grant that by the help of his intercession we may be released from the fetters of our sins. Amen.

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

The Catholic Ideal

By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard (1911)

CHAPTER I

INSTITUTION AND PURPOSE

From the fact that Christ raised the natural contract into a Sacrament, it follows that the parties to the contract are the ministers of the Sacrament. It is the man and woman who hand themselves over to each other making a mutual contract to live together till death. It is the man and woman, therefore, who confer on each other the Sacrament enabling them to fulfil the higher duties which are involved in the Christian married state. The priest is not the minister of the Sacrament, but only the witness of it. Our late Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII, emphasized this when he insisted that the contract and the Sacrament were not two separate things. “The distinction, or rather separation,” he said, “ cannot be approved of; since it is clear that in Christian matrimony the contract is not separable from the Sacrament, and consequently that a true and lawful contract cannot exist without being by that very fact a Sacrament. For Christ Our Lord endowed matrimony with the sacramental dignity; but matrimony is the contract itself, provided that the contract is rightly made. . . . Therefore, it is plain that every true marriage among Christians is in itself and by itself a Sacrament; and that nothing is further from the truth than that the Sacrament is a sort of added ornament or quality introduced from without, which may be detached from the contract at the discretion of man.” [1 Leo XIII, Encyc, Arcanum.]  If, therefore, the Sacrament is the mutual contract, it is the woman, who, as God’s minister, confers on the man those soul beauties which make him a figure of Christ, the bridegroom of the Church; and so likewise is it the man who, as God’s minister, confers on the woman those soul beauties, which make her a figure of the Church, the bride of Christ. Husband and wife are thus seen to be the complement of each other in their supernatural, as well as in their natural, relationships.

It is well to keep this supernatural aspect of the case prominently before our minds when we consider the duties and obligations of the state. The end for which marriage was instituted was a most difficult end to attain. Indeed, it were an impossible task without the special divine helps provided. Remembering these helps, however, the married couple may face their difficulties with a good heart. The sacramental effect of matrimony does not spend itself out within a week or two of the nuptial ceremony. The grace conferred on the wedding morning remains with them when they leave the church, remains with them in their home life, fortifies them in their discouragements, and steels their wills to the emergencies of every difficult situation.

The Church then, having made this clear to them, sets aside all false modesty and tells them in grave and plain language what their duties are. The first duty is the bringing of children into the world and the educating of them in the service of God; the second duty is mutual love and service in the companionship of domestic life. In the nuptial Mass the priest solemnly prays over them that they may be fruitful in their offspring and that they may see their children’s children unto the third and fourth generation. And finally in his exhortation he warns them to be faithful to each other, and to remain chaste at special times of prayer, during the fasts and solemn seasons of the Church.

Now all this involves much trouble and anxiety both on the part of the husband and of the wife. With the former lies the paramount obligation of working for the sustenance of the household; with the latter lie all the cares of child-bearing; with both lies that anxiety for the temporal and spiritual well-being of each other and of the children. “But if thou take a wife,” says St. Paul, “thou hast not sinned. But if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned; nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh.” Those who enter this state, therefore, should do so with their eyes wide open to the fact that it is a life fraught with difficulty and that both man and woman are supposed to be willing to bear grave inconveniences. When a man complains of his loss of liberty or the increased burden on his pocket; or when a woman complains of the troubles of children, there has evidently been some radical misunderstanding as to the end of the institution of marriage and of its burdens. What is needed on those occasions is the consideration that marriage is a Sacrament,—a Sacrament which is a channel of divine strength to bear the burden, of divine light to see the way out of the difficulties, of divine refreshment for the constant renewal of conjugal life and love.

(To be continued)

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http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/15437

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/vatican-ii-catholic-church-changes_n_1956641.html

Huffington Post

Vatican II Changed The Catholic Church — And The World

Religion News Service    |  By John Pope

Posted:  10/11/2012 8:53 am EDT    Updated:  10/12/2012 11:04 am EDT

VATICAN II CATHOLIC CHURCH

(RNS) Fifty years ago on Thursday (Oct. 11), hundreds of elaborately robed leaders strode into St. Peter’s Basilica in a massive display of solemn ecclesiastical pomp. It signaled the start of a historic three-year assembly that would change the way members of the world’s largest Christian denomination viewed themselves, their church and the rest of the world.

It was the first day of the Second Vatican Council, more popularly known as Vatican II, which was designed to assess the church’s role in a rapidly changing world. Leading the prelates was Pope John XXIII, who said frequently that he convened the council because he thought it was time to open the windows and let in some fresh air.

For many Catholics, the air came in at gale force.

As a result of Vatican II, priests started celebrating Mass in the language of the countries in which they lived, and they faced the congregation, not only to be heard and seen but also to signal to worshipers that they were being included because they were a vital component of the service.

“It called for people not to have passive participation but active participation,” said New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who chairs the Committee on Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Prayer is not supposed to be a performance. We’re supposed to be actively participating.”

The changes didn’t stop when Mass ended. As time went by, many nuns shucked their voluminous habits in favor of clothes similar to those worn by the people they served. And men and women in religious orders started taking on causes, even risking arrest, when they spoke out in favor of civil rights and workers’ rights and against the war in Vietnam.

Such changes represented an about-face from the church’s defensive approach to the world before Vatican II, said Christopher Baglow, a theology professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

“It wasn’t that the church wasn’t committed to human dignity before Vatican II,” he said. “With Vatican II, the church began to look closely at the ways with which modern thinkers tended to promote human dignity and showed how they and the Gospels are complementary.”

With Vatican II, the Catholic Church sent out the message that it was part of the modern world, said Thomas Ryan, director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry. “Not against, not above, not apart, but in the modern world,” he said. “The church sought to engage, not condemn.”

The council documents say there must be a conversation between the church and the world, Aymond said. “The church, by its teaching and by its discipleship, has something to say to the world. At the same time, the world is saying something to the church.”

“We can’t just say we’re not going to be involved in these conversations,” he said. “As the church, we have to be in conversation with others who agree and disagree with us.”

This shift included the Catholic Church’s attitude toward other religions. Before Vatican II, Catholics weren’t supposed to visit other denominations’ houses of worship. “Catholics looked down on other religions and thought of them as condemned to hell,” Ryan said.

But one document from the council acknowledged that these disparate faiths had a common belief in God, said Ryan, who described it as nothing less than “a revolutionary approach.”

Perhaps the biggest of these changes came in the church’s approach to Judaism. Before Vatican II, Jews were stigmatized as the people who killed Jesus Christ. That changed with the council, when the Catholic Church acknowledged its Jewish roots and Jews’ covenant with God, Ryan said.

“It had the effect that the sun has when it comes up and interrupts the night,” said Rabbi Edward Cohn of New Orleans’ Temple Sinai, whose best friend as a child had to get permission from the archbishop to attend Cohn’s bar mitzvah. “It was no less dramatic than that. It provided an entirely new day. It changed everything.”

Not all the changes brought about by Vatican II have been welcomed, and many would say there haven’t been enough changes regarding the status of women. This spring, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog launched a full-scale overhaul of the largest umbrella group of American nuns, accusing the group of taking positions that undermine church teaching and promoting several “radical feminist themes” that are incompatible with Catholic teachings.

Although Vatican II was a catalyst for a great deal of change, it didn’t happen in a bubble, Aymond said. The 1960s was a decade of change, with protests against racism, war, sexual behavior, the status quo and authority in general.

“If that’s going on in the world and in society, that’s bound to affect the church because we’re both a divine and a human institution,” Aymond said.

“Vatican II isn’t about replacing what the church is,” said Baglow, the theologian at Notre Dame Seminary. “It’s about helping it be more vitally what God intended it to be in the first place.”

(John Pope writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)

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