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Happy Friday friends,
I don’t know how it came to happen that I, of all people, ended up with a daughter as biddable and sweet natured as I did. It’s not genetic, that’s for sure.
She’s universally doted upon, to be sure, especially since we waited more than a decade — I won’t say always patiently, though usually prayerfully — for her arrival. Being a beloved and indulged only child has to, I imagine, do wonders for your sense of self and outlook on life.
But the line between indulged and spoiled has to be pretty thin, and I have to assume it’s something within her, rather than from outside, that is keeping her so contentedly on the right side of it.
In any event, I know I am lucky to have a four-year-old who is happy to wake up in the morning, happy to go to bed at night — at whatever time I capriciously ordain — and happy to do pretty much whatever’s happening in the hours in between.
In line with this positive outlook on life, she’s still yet to say “no” to any instruction I’ve given her. She has, though, started asking “why?” I’m sure every first time parent goes through the cycle of finding it initially charming and ultimately a little exasperating to have to explain oneself constantly in small syllable count words.
And I am sure every parent eventually ends up asking themselves if part of the exasperation isn’t that they don’t necessarily have a simple explanation to hand for why they do what they do.
In a lot of cases, it’s the difficulty of trying to explain systems of irreducible complexity — why do we need batteries?
But more and more I have found that the real answer to the question why isn’t so much a practical explanation as it is articulating who I am doing something for. At bottom, why I go most places and do most things is because it ultimately serves someone.
Explaining for whom I am doing something, or for whom I am telling my daughter to do it, has actually proven a far more satisfying answer for the kid than laying out the details of a practical necessity: “For your mum,” and “for you” are answers she can understand and appreciate.
It’s been clarifying to have to frame most things through the lens of for whom, if for no other reason than that the real answer is often “for myself.” Most of all, it’s been interesting to discover how readily she accepts “for God” as a perfectly reasonable explanation for why we do all sorts of things.
Perhaps that is what it is to become like little children.
Anyway, here’s the news. For you.
The News
The Trump administration announced a new rule this week to remove a one-year out-of-country waiting period for priests and religious seeking a new temporary R-1 visa after the expiration of their previous visa.
Catholic leaders praised the Department of Homeland Security’s new interim final rule, but argued that action is needed from Congress to prevent disruptions in ministry for priests and religious sisters in the process of applying for a green card.
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The Syro-Malabar Church has announced a “Community Empowerment Year” amid fears of demographic “extinction” in the Eastern Catholic Church’s Indian heartland due to emigration.
In a circular letter issued this week, Syro-Malabar leader Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil cautioned against “thoughtless migration” to countries outside of India, arguing that it can lead to large debts and a weakening of faith.
Thattil’s letter, issued after a Jan. 6-10 meeting of the Syro-Malabar Church’s Synod of Bishops, also addressed rising anti-Christian persecution in India — one of the drivers of emigration — and the Eastern Church’s decades-long liturgical dispute.
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The global diplomatic landscape remains unsettled, following the abduction of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces on Jan. 3.
The prospect of new U.S. interventions in nations like Greenland and Cuba have triggered a global rethink about effective diplomacy and the prospect of other previously unthinkable developments.
But amid reports that the Holy See was involved in last-minute negotiations over the fate of Maduro, might the emerging new normal bring with it renewed influence for Vatican diplomacy?
Could the Holy See, led by an American pope, emerge as a newly credible player, especially in the geopolitics of the Western hemisphere — and if so, what might that mean for local Churches?
I think so. Read the whole analysis here.
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A Ukrainian Catholic parish has filed a federal suit over new municipal restrictions, which prohibit construction of a new chapel and regulate the celebration of memorial services.
The pastor at the parish just north of Pittsburgh told The Pillar that the restrictions are “shocking beyond belief,” and that similar and larger developments were being allowed in the community, but the church is being uniquely prohibited from growing.
It’s not clear why, exactly, local planning authorities in a small Western Pa. township are placing such draconian restrictions on a church and apparently only on the church.
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Following the extraordinary consistory of the College of Cardinals last week, The Pillar spoke with Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., about his experience of the meeting.
The cardinal gave his forthright impressions about how he felt about the experience, and how the other cardinals reacted to the topics Pope Leo called them to Rome to discuss, and the format of the meetings.
You can read the whole interview here.
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PriestChat.com markets itself as a platform to “connect with compassionate priests for guidance and support… Experience confidential, one-on-one spiritual counseling, and enrich your faith journey anytime, anywhere.”
It guarantees that chats are with “actual priests,” that there is “no AI behind them.”
Well, this week, our own Jack Figge decided to test that guarantee. The results were sometimes enlightening, sometimes predictable, and sometimes downright hilarious.
Don’t miss this. And don’t use websites like PriestChat, except as a joke. Seriously.
This Lent, join Catholics across the country as we gather again for Bible Across America—the nation’s biggest Catholic Bible study. During our Lenten Bible study, Shane Owens and guests will blend biblical expertise with lived experience, unpacking the Bible’s practical relevance as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection.
Roche’s Rorschach test
Along with many others, I read Cardinal Arthur Roche’s “reflection” on the liturgy, written and distributed to the College of Cardinals during the consistory earlier this month. Hats off to Diane Montagna for publishing the text.
I read, too, various reactions to the cardinal’s reflections, which have been widely interpreted, for good or ill, as a full throated defense of Traditionis custodes, which has, along with the concept of synodality, become a totemic symbol of the Francis pontificate.
I confess, I found it rather less strident a document than many others apparently did. To be sure, the cardinal rehearsed the basic theory and ecclesiology of liturgical development and unity of expression, underpinned and emphasized by Vatican Council II. And Roche, naturally enough, quoted Francis on the subject, as well as Benedict XVI.
But far from “doubling down” on what was (in implementation if not in the original text) a total suppression of the pre-reform Mass, I considered it more apologia than rallying cry.
It could even be read as, if anything, a rather anemic background note for a productive conversation the cardinals might have about the future of the TLM.
It all depends on what you want to see in it, I guess.