The Popes Speak - May 2008 - By Father Matthew Albright

This past month, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, visited the United States (April 15-20). His visit among us was a source of great blessing for Catholics living in the United States. Seeing the Vicar of Christ on American soil re-connected us to the universal Church and to Jesus Christ in a deep way. We are reminded that the Church we serve is ancient and universal, and at the same time we are called to bring the Church of Christ to life in our own country. The Holy Father’s words to us were a great lesson in authenticity. He challenged us to be committed to the truth of our faith amid the attacks of relativism and to make the faith come alive in the hearts of all people despite the growing trend of secularism. In all things, we find our source of joy and peace in Christ our Hope. The following are some quotes from the apostolic journey of Pope Benedict XVI – his own words without commentary. I hope you will take some time to ponder them and be nourished by the wisdom of Benedict XVI.


Together with your Bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: "Christ our hope". Following in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II, I come to United States of America as Pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father.

Homily at Yankee Stadium, April 20, 2008
My dear young friends, like the seven men, “filled with the Spirit and wisdom” whom the Apostles charged with care for the young Church, may you step forward and take up the responsibility which your faith in Christ sets before you! May you find the courage to proclaim Christ, “the same, yesterday, and today and for ever” and the unchanging truths which have their foundation in him. These are the truths that set us free! They are the truths which alone can guarantee respect for the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our world – including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother’s womb. In a world where, as Pope John Paul II, speaking in this very place, reminded us, Lazarus continues to stand at our door, let your faith and love bear rich fruit in outreach to the poor, the needy and those without a voice. Young men and women of America, I urge you: open your hearts to the Lord’s call to follow him in the priesthood and the religious life. Can there be any greater mark of love than this: to follow in the footsteps of Christ, who was willing to lay down his life for his friends?

St. Patrick’s Cathedral: Mass for Priests and Religious April 19, 2008
The first [reflection on St. Patrick’s Cathedral] has to do with the stained glass windows, which flood the interior with mystic light. From the outside, those windows are dark, heavy, even dreary. But once one enters the church, they suddenly come alive; reflecting the light passing through them, they reveal all their splendor. Many writers – here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne – have used the image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the Church herself. It is only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty, adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit. It follows that we, who live the life of grace within the Church’s communion, are called to draw all people into this mystery of light.

Pope Encourages Reception of the Sacrament of Penance
April 17, 2008: Homily at Washington Nationals Stadium
The risen Lord bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and grants them the authority to forgive sins. Through the surpassing power of Christ’s grace, entrusted to frail human ministers, the Church is constantly reborn and each of us is given the hope of a new beginning. Let us trust in the Spirit’s power to inspire conversion, to heal every wound, to overcome every division, and to inspire new life and freedom. How much we need these gifts! And how close at hand they are, particularly in the sacrament of Penance! The liberating power of this sacrament, in which our honest confession of sin is met by God’s merciful word of pardon and peace, needs to be rediscovered and reappropriated by every Catholic. To a great extent, the renewal of the Church in America and throughout the world depends on the renewal of the practice of Penance and the growth in holiness which that sacrament both inspires and accomplishes.

True Freedom in Catholic Education
Address to Catholic Educators, April 17, 2008
From this perspective one can recognize that the contemporary "crisis of truth" is rooted in a "crisis of faith". Only through faith can we freely give our assent to God's testimony and acknowledge him as the transcendent guarantor of the truth he reveals. Again, we see why fostering personal intimacy with Jesus Christ and communal witness to his loving truth is indispensable in Catholic institutions of learning. Yet we all know, and observe with concern, the difficulty or reluctance many people have today in entrusting themselves to God. It is a complex phenomenon and one which I ponder continually. While we have sought diligently to engage the intellect of our young, perhaps we have neglected the will. Subsequently we observe, with distress, the notion of freedom being distorted. Freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in - a participation in Being itself. Hence authentic freedom can never be attained by turning away from God. Such a choice would ultimately disregard the very truth we need in order to understand ourselves. A particular responsibility therefore for each of you, and your colleagues, is to evoke among the young the desire for the act of faith, encouraging them to commit themselves to the ecclesial life that follows from this belief. It is here that freedom reaches the certainty of truth. In choosing to live by that truth, we embrace the fullness of the life of faith which is given to us in the Church.

Gathering with Seminarians & Young People, April 19, 2008
Friends, again I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ. The saints show us the selfless love of his way. As disciples of Christ, their extraordinary journeys unfolded within the community of hope, which is the Church. It is from within the Church that you too will find the courage and support to walk the way of the Lord. Nourished by personal prayer, prompted in silence, shaped by the Church’s liturgy you will discover the particular vocation God has for you. Embrace it with joy. You are Christ’s disciples today. Shine his light upon this great city and beyond. Show the world the reason for the hope that resonates within you. Tell others about the truth that sets you free.

April 16, 2008: Meeting with the Bishops of the United States
Perhaps America’s brand of secularism poses a particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God, and respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things “out there” are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life: living “as if God did not exist”. This is aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith and religion: far from a Catholic approach to “thinking with the Church”, each person believes he or she has a right to pick and choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ. Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind, Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age. We have seen this emerge in an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion.

April 19, 2008 Homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
The Church, as “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit”, is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life.

An Authentic Interreligious Dialogue
April 17, 2008 Meeting with Representatives of Other Religions
Confronted with these deeper questions concerning the origin and destiny of mankind, Christianity proposes Jesus of Nazareth. He, we believe, is the eternal Logos who became flesh in order to reconcile man to God and reveal the underlying reason of all things. It is he whom we bring to the forum of interreligious dialogue. The ardent desire to follow in his footsteps spurs Christians to open their minds and hearts in dialogue.
Dear friends, in our attempt to discover points of commonality, perhaps we have shied away from the responsibility to discuss our differences with calmness and clarity. While always uniting our hearts and minds in the call for peace, we must also listen attentively to the voice of truth. In this way, our dialogue will not stop at identifying a common set of values, but go on to probe their ultimate foundation. We have no reason to fear, for the truth unveils for us the essential relationship between the world and God. We are able to perceive that peace is a "heavenly gift" that calls us to conform human history to the divine order. Herein lies the "truth of peace".

April 20, 2008: Homily at Yankee Stadium
“Authority” … “obedience”. To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays. Words like these represent a “stumbling stone” for many of our contemporaries, especially in a society which rightly places a high value on personal freedom. Yet, in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ – “the way and the truth and the life” – we come to see the fullest meaning, value, and indeed beauty, of those words. The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves. True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. “In his will is our peace”

May God bless you and keep you always in His loving care!
--Father Matthew

The Popes Speak - April 2008 - By Father Matthew Albright

All the bishops of the world, who are ordinaries of diocese, are required to make an ad limina visit to the Holy Father in Rome every five years, as a sign of their communion with the Holy See. The phrase “ad limina” comes from the ancient practice of making pilgrimages ad limina apostolorum – to the thresholds (or the tombs) of the Apostles in Rome. When the bishops visit the Vatican, often in regional groups, they make a visit to the tombs of Saint Peter and Paul and have an audience with the Pope.

In their visit with the Pope, the bishops pledge their loyalty to the Holy See, present a report on what is happening in their diocese, and hear an address from the Pope on the specific concerns of their local church community. In this way, the bishops learn from the Pope, and the Pope and his advisors in the Vatican remain in touch with the Church throughout the world. These visits are a reminder to all of us of the universal dimension of the Church.

The Pope often addresses particular topics about which he believes the bishops of a certain country need to reflect. On October 9, 1998, Pope John Paul II received in an audience the bishops of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, in the United States of America. He spoke to them about the principle of “Active Participation in the Liturgy.”

The idea of “full, conscious, and active participation” in the Liturgy first appeared officially in the thoughts and writings Pope Pius X, including Tra le Sollecitudini, his 1903 instruction on sacred music. It was taken up by the leaders of the 19th / 20th Century Liturgical Movement and became a significant principle of operation for the Second Vatican Council. Active participation in the Liturgy is important and valuable for the life of the Church. Like all things of value, it must be understood completely and authentically. Pope John Paul II, himself a brilliant scholar and one who lived through the Council, offers an insightful reflection on this important issue.

Pope John Paul II, Ad limina Address – October 9, 1998
1.…To look back over what has been done in the field of liturgical renewal in the years since the Council is, first, to see many reasons for giving heartfelt thanks and praise to the Most Holy Trinity for the marvelous awareness which has developed among the faithful of their role and responsibility in this priestly work of Christ and his Church. It is also to realize that not all changes have always and everywhere been accompanied by the necessary explanation and catechesis; as a result, in some cases there has been a misunderstanding of the very nature of the liturgy, leading to abuses, polarization, and sometimes even grave scandal. After the experience of more than thirty years of liturgical renewal, we are well placed to assess both the strengths and weaknesses of what has been done, in order more confidently to plot our course into the future, which God has in mind for his cherished People.

2. The challenge now is to move beyond whatever misunderstandings there have been and to reach the proper point of balance, especially by entering more deeply into the contemplative dimension of worship, which includes the sense of awe, reverence and adoration which are fundamental attitudes in our relationship with God.

This will happen only if we recognize that the liturgy has dimensions both local and universal, time-bound and eternal, horizontal and vertical, subjective and objective. It is precisely these tensions which give to Catholic worship its distinctive character. The universal Church is united in the one great act of praise; but it is always the worship of a particular community in a particular culture. It is the eternal worship of Heaven, but it is also steeped in time…

...This is why it is so important that liturgical law be respected. The priest, who is the servant of the liturgy, not its inventor or producer, has a particular responsibility in this regard, lest he empty liturgy of its true meaning or obscure its sacred character. The core of the mystery of Christian worship is the sacrifice of Christ offered to the Father and the work of the Risen Christ who sanctifies his People through the liturgical signs. It is therefore essential that in seeking to enter more deeply into the contemplative depths of worship the inexhaustible mystery of the priesthood of Jesus Christ be fully acknowledged and respected. While all the baptized share in that one priesthood of Christ, not all share in it in the same manner. The ministerial priesthood, rooted in Apostolic Succession, confers on the ordained priest faculties and responsibilities which are different from those of the laity but which are at the service of the common priesthood and are directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1547). The priest therefore is not just one who presides, but one who acts in the person of Christ.

3. Only by being radically faithful to this doctrinal foundation can we avoid one-dimensional and unilateral interpretations of the Council's teaching. The sharing of all the baptized in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ is the key to understanding the Council's call for full, conscious and active participation in the liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14). Full participation certainly means that every member of the community has a part to play in the liturgy; and in this respect a great deal has been achieved in parishes and communities across your land. But full participation does not mean that everyone does everything, since this would lead to a clericalizing of the laity and a laicizing of the priesthood; and this was not what the Council had in mind. The liturgy, like the Church, is intended to be hierarchical and polyphonic, respecting the different roles assigned by Christ and allowing all the different voices to blend in one great hymn of praise.

Active participation certainly means that, in gesture, word, song and service, all the members of the community take part in an act of worship, which is anything but inert or passive. Yet active participation does not preclude the active passivity of silence, stillness and listening: indeed, it demands it. Worshippers are not passive, for instance, when listening to the readings or the homily, or following the prayers of the celebrant, and the chants and music of the liturgy. These are experiences of silence and stillness, but they are in their own way profoundly active. In a culture, which neither favors nor fosters meditative quiet, the art of interior listening is learned only with difficulty. Here we see how the liturgy, though it must always be properly inculturated, must also be counter-cultural.

Conscious participation calls for the entire community to be properly instructed in the mysteries of the liturgy, lest the experience of worship degenerate into a form of ritualism. But it does not mean a constant attempt within the liturgy itself to make the implicit explicit, since this often leads to a verbosity and informality which are alien to the Roman Rite and end by trivializing the act of worship. Nor does it mean the suppression of all subconscious experience, which is vital in a liturgy, which thrives on symbols that speak to the subconscious just as they speak to the conscious…

…The excellent synthesis of the Church's doctrinal wealth contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church has yet to be more widely felt as an influence on Catholic preaching.

This ad limina address is one of the most significant papal writings of our time, for it is the key to unlocking the treasure of what the Second Vatican Council has to offer. Discovering and being nourished by the abundant source of grace and strength that God has prepared for us depends upon accepting the challenge to move beyond misunderstandings, abuses, and dichotomies, and to live and celebrate the authentic realities of the Church, expressed in her teachings and directives, as the Holy Father explains.

The Sacred Liturgy is integral to our Catholic life, and to be truly and authentically involved in it is vital to our journey of faith. Pope John Paul II’s reflection helps us to grasp what this participation truly means. Essentially, he defined it in terms of interior disposition rather than purely external action. Full participation means that “every member of the community has a part to play” and “does not mean that everyone does everything,” for the “liturgy is intended to be hierarchical and polyphonic.” Active participation includes “silence, stillness, and listening,” which is anything but passive. Occasionally listening to a choral anthem sung by the choir is surely active participation, since it leads us to deeper contemplation of the mysteries of God being praised. Conscious participation means that the entire community is “properly instructed in the mysteries of the liturgy.”

Celebration of the Liturgy requires a profound humility, which enables us, within the Church’s rubrical framework, to enter into the contemplative dimension of the Liturgy. Humility also expects of us that we enter into the role of our own vocation and office in the Church. The beauty of the Liturgy, as with the Church, is that everyone has an authentic role to enact. In the harmony of those various roles is found the splendor of the Church’s life, just as the individual squares of a quilt are sewn together to form a beautiful image. All the squares cannot be the same color or the quilt looses its textured beauty. So it is that we cannot all be the same in the Church.

The actuosa participatio (“actual participation”) called for by the Council, as the late Holy Father explains, is one of carrying out only the actions proper to one’s unique vocation, being nourished in mind and soul, and developing a deep spiritual understanding of what is taking place and of the mysteries being celebrated. The focus of our liturgical celebration is not merely on external action or making sure everyone feels included. External action is important as an outward, bodily, sign of God’s grace at work in us. Liturgy is also much deeper than that. Liturgy, and indeed the whole Christian life, is about an inner conversion of minds, hearts, and souls to Christ, so that in Him we might live a peaceful, holy life, and attain to eternal happiness in Heaven with God forever.

May God bless you and keep you always in His loving care!
--Father Matthew