7 Comments

Regarding Ed's suggestion for catechesis on the sin and penance (wholeheartedly agree), our church leaders have quite the battle ahead. Attempting to do this with a culture in which social media and the internet are so pervasive (causing a lot of people to not even consider an opposing view) is daunting. I've seen this for myself on this very topic in discussion with my Catholic friends. If not for belief and faith in God I don't see how anyone could muster the desire to even try. We must keep praying for the church! And I will keep praying for everyone at the Pillar. Were it not for the work you guys do I would be woefully uninformed.

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So many strong feelings with the USCCB meeting this week, guys! Most of them of the “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!!!!” variety. I am not actually “on Twitter” but I like to check in on some of Catholic Twitter, and all I can say is God bless Ed and JD and co. for sticking it out and reporting what is actually happening with the bishops despite the maelstrom of loudly shouted ignorance and straight up hostility. I honestly don’t know how you all keep sane, but kudos to you and prayers for your mental health! (And it’s not just bad online; I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and their reporting on this has been consistently awful.)

I appreciate your comments about the unity among bishops in all this. Amidst all the talk of “unity” last week I kept waiting for bishops to clarify that what we want is unity IN CHRIST. Compromise, concessions, and even consensus has no lasting value if it isn’t uniting us more fully to HIM. (And by extension, His Bride and her constant teachings.) A bunch of bishops just going along and getting along is not the goal and not instructive or salutary for anyone. Of course no one wants division or dissension but what 2020-21 has taught us is that we are at a point in our nation where there is increasingly no real middle ground, and at some point our leaders need to realize that they actually do have to choose “a side”- the City of God or the City of Man, so to speak- because the points of overlap are disappearing quickly.

(Upon re-reading: apologies for some major, unintended alliteration)

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Also, thanks for sharing this:💜❤️💙

“Through his incarnation, Christ took on the limitations and vulnerability of the human condition and associated with the poorest, the weakest, the most marginalized and excluded in society. The Suffering and Crucified One continues to live in solidarity with them during this pandemic and beyond. They are in the heart of God and central to the ministry of the entire people of God.”

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Well, The democratic party is now the teaching authority on the Eucharist with some Bishop's support

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About Eucharistic “Revival”: How about encouraging the laity to receive on the tongue while kneeling at an Communion rail,from an ordained priest or deacon?

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FWIW, coming from the Ann Arbor area and having converted to Catholicism at an Ann Arbor parish, there are absolutely more than 5 faithful Catholics on campus. There is 1 very faithful church on campus and one fairly close by.

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Sacramental Life

I have been asking myself this question for some years now and looking all over for a satisfactory answer.

If I know a priest to be living a sinful life how can I believe in the validity of the Sacraments he administers; is not attending such an event in itself sinful?

My question is not treated as the fundamental issue it seems to me to be. I know of nothing more important than the sacraments but I have been unable to find anyone who can answer the question I am posing.

I am an “oldish” Catholic born and baptised 1941. I have recently been utterly shattered in my faith which has been for me the only way to make some sort of sense about my existence. I have always lived as a sinner and at times reaching out for the grace promised by the life of Jesus and the subsequent teachings of St Paul and the other disciples. If I questioned something I have always sought to find the Church’s answer. Basically my belief and relationship to God is the same as it was when I was a sinful altar boy in the 1950s. I have always loved the Church and known that the Liturgy is the service and prayer of humanity to its Creator. I was taught to respect the holiness of the Priesthood and not to question the authority of a priest.

What I know now about the Clergy is known to the whole world; but it is not abuse scandals and dissolute clergy that have rocked my faith. They are only human. I am shocked as by an earthquake by what is the black and white teaching of the Church about the Sacraments.

The following is from the Vatican Website’s Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Sacraments of Salvation

1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.48 They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. the Father always hears the prayer of his Son's Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.

1128 This is the meaning of the Church's affirmation49 that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action's being performed"), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God."50 From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.

1129 The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.51 "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature52 by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Saviour

My Commentary

In 1127 there is a powerful explication that all the graces are given by Jesus himself working through the priest; that the Holy Spirit touches us all and ensures that grace is poured into our hearts. I have never found it necessary to either question or really think about this. But now I have noticed the qualifying phrase with which it starts “Celebrated worthily in faith” which is given as a condition for Jesus to be present with us in the celebration. The phrase can only mean that the Minister must be worthy and fully believing.

1128 shows that authors of these canons are not stupid. They are fully aware of the questions raised by “Celebrated worthily in faith”. But avoid the “going through the motions” implications of “ex opere operato” by turning the “work” from not that of the ordained minister but into the saving grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Which is of course independent of the spiritual condition of the minister. Of course it is! Then why does the efficacy of the reception of the Sacrament depend on the spiritual condition of the recipient? For this canon closes with another condition “Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.”

The message here is we priests do not need to be holy to confect the Sacraments but to receive them you must be! Sin is all right for us but not for you. Is that the message of the pulpit? Is it for this that the Incarnation Crucifixion and Resurrection had to be undergone in all its painful humility and humiliation?

I have always believed 1129’s “the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.” What am I to do if I cannot find them in the Church founded by Jesus. Would that our Overseers do their duty and remove from office those priests who openly flaunt their persons and those who do not follow the rules for the distribution of Sacraments. In the past the Church was almost broken by the sinful vanity of its prelates and the ignorance of its clergy. We the laity were here to do what we were told but it is to us and for us that the Love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was incarnated, lived, suffered, died and resurrected so that the Church might have a source of Grace to share with all mankind.

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