IEC2012 Pt. 8: Communion...

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 8

Catechesis: God as Loving Communion

Arhcbishop Barry Hickey, Emeritus of Perth, Australia

Tuesday, June 12 - 2pm

Testimony: Communion in Marriage and Family

Mr. Carl Anderson

3pm

Disclaimer: This was easily my least favorite part of my three days at the IEC, and it has provoked what will be a not-as-intelligent-and-cohesive-as-I-want-it-to-be rant.

I was seriously underwhelmed by the archbishop. He was clearly intelligent, well-spoken, commanding, and a strong leader, but I thought his piece on the value of family was too much of a speech against birth-control. His message was one of "anti," which I am ok with, if it had provided a faithful argument against negative things rather than simply rail on something as wrong in a manner whose best reasoning seemed to be "because" or "since I said so." I have a near insatiable hunger for theology, faith seeking understanding, keynotes, lectures, talks, and speeches, but I couldn't distill out much of use from this speech. Here are the three bullets I wrote before deciding to close my notebook and just listen:

• The alternatives to marriage are futile.
• God Himself as Trinity lives in perfect loving communion (via John Paul II).
• The Archbishop's main argument against contraception - the danger of an anti-child mentality.

Those first two points are wonderful, and I don't disagree with his third point. The modern attitude toward sexuality is that sex absolutely does not have to be procreative, and often, it doesn't have to be unitive either; these are the two things that the Church teaches should be present simultaneously in sex. Modern society seeks to invent ways around nature so that humans don't have to change the behavior they want to practice. Rather than practice chastity, humanity had to develop "birth control" to enable it to freely have sex without worry of pregnancy, which is treated as an inconvenience. Such an attitude toward pregnancy can create a seriously flawed attitude toward sex that can affect how people approach engagement, marriage, and starting a family. It's a slippery slope situation, and that's as solid of an argument as I find here, I think.

I started piecing together how I might approach it, and unfortunately, I can't come up with an argument that I feel is both logical and superior to the one I heard there. So I have to just say what I live and feel is best conscientiously. For me, it just comes back to self-denial, and I acknowledge that this is both unpopular and widely viewed as unrealistic. But I think it remains a valuable and effective discipline. 

Wait to start drinking until you're 21, and you will probably be a more responsible drinker. Save up your money and shop around really well before buying your new iPad or laptop or choosing your new car, and you'll gain discipline and end up with the best product you can have. Spend time with a new friend of the opposite sex to talk a bit, do some social things together, and discern how you fit together before jumping into a relationship, and you'll probably have a better relationship. Let your physical sexuality develop in proportion to the whole intimacy or closeness of your relationship, and the relationship will be more nourishing and loving. Wait to have sex until marriage, and it will mean more because it celebrates the full self-gift of two people to each other in a way only possible within the sacramentality of marriage.

And that's where I lose most people. They don't care to exercise patience. People are happy enough to spend freely on expensive stuff, experiment with drinks, cigarettes, or other drugs, and hastily accelerate physical sexuality with others, often many different people right in a row, let alone involving themselves in a relationship. The tendency toward instant gratification, the aversion to cultivating patience, and people's not wanting to learn from self-denial and slow-playing things are all tremendous barriers to the adoption of a more chaste sexuality.

And now the nuggets from Mr. Anderson:

• Mr. Anderson quoted Jesus, "Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you do not have life within you." But people receiving Eucharist still have life, so how is it different? Not sure what the answer exactly turns out to be, but it is something along the lines of not realizing the full reality of communion made possible by Christ in Christ.
• He told us that Eucharist is always both horizontal and vertical. Benedict XVI teaches us that where we fail to live communion with each other, we fail also to know communion with God.
• He believes that the Eucharist, not our works, is the ultimate measure of our lives (cited JP2 for this). The Eucharist is what makes us effective collaborators in the spreading of God's love and the building of His Kingdom.
• Finally, he sees great similarity between the Trinitarian relationship and human community. Through Eucharist, we can know and execute profoundly the love shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Son, Jesus Christ, became incarnate by the Holy Spirit, a beautiful miracle that placed God in the human family, by way of the Holy Family, and also in the greater family that is the Church.

Mr. Anderson was a wonderful testifier to faith, but my attention and focus was diluted by the previous talk and the falling rains during his talk - so, my apologies for not having better notes on him. 

IEC2012 Pt. 7: Strengthening Marriage and Family Life

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 7

Strengthening Marriage and Family Life

Mr. John Quinn, writer/broadcaster and Bishop Christopher Jones, President of the Council for Marriage and Family, Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference

Tuesday, June 12 - 11.30am

Bishop Jones' Remarks

Bishop Jones opened by explaining, via the Catechism, that marriage is "an efficacious sign of Christ's love." Marriage is not just a symbolic thing, but rather, it's something that makes Christ effectively present in the couple. Christ is the perfect self-gift, as the One God who became man and offered Himself as a totally innocent sacrifice on behalf of our sins. Catholic marriage is meant to be like the perfect self-gift of Christ; just as Christ wed Himself to the Church, the husband and wife must seek to make perfect self-gift of themselves to each other, and thus make Christ and His love present.

Good marriages create homes that make known and present the love of the family of God. Bishop Jones broke it down really nicely: the domestic church (probably my favorite name ever for the family) localize the joy and love of the People of God. We believe in a Triune God, a God in three persons that are in complete, reciprocal relation with one another. This loving relationship of the Trinity is realized and shared in the family and the home they create. The love experienced here is a foretaste of the love that we can know in eternal life and love with God.

This was the beginning of a day that taught me how the love of God is the love of a marriage and family and that a Eucharistic life is the means that establishes, renews, and reinforces this reality in the domestic church that is a family.

Mr. Quinn's Remarks

John Quinn is well-known in Ireland for a his radio program and related book, Letters to Olive. A reflection he did, in the form of a letter, on the life of his wife and their time together before her passing away as just a middle-aged woman. As they were quite fond of writing letters - their courtship began by correspondence at an infirmary for TB - his tribute to her followed this form as well. His presentation at the IEC was a letter he wrote to his wife, read aloud to all of us, full of insights, anecdotes, and heart-wrenching emotion. Some of the best...

• "One day, it will delight us to remember these things."
• "Happily ever after is for Hollywood and fairy tales... Marriage is about a 4-letter word: life."
• "Let there be spaces in your togetherness; if you don't, that's when troubles - deep freezes - arise."
• "Love may every day be implied but never declared." (actually, from Jane Austen)
• "The best way of giving is thanksgiving."

IEC2012 Pt. 6: Where is the Young Adult Church Today?

Friends! A quick word of thanks to everyone who follows my blog: this is my 100th post! I can't thank all of you enough for the affirmations and kind words along the years. I write these posts for the sake of trying to use and grow my gifts and passions, combining my enjoyment of writing with my passion for reflecting on our faith and sharing my thoughts. It's wonderfully life-giving for me when I get to sit down with an idea and flesh it out here, but the greater joy comes from knowing how loyally so many of you bookmark and follow the blog. I'm so heartened to have all of you keeping track of my posts through Facebook, Google Reader, and bookmarks bars. Please do keep reading (and telling me what you think if you get the chance). Here's to 100 more posts and beyond!

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 6

Where is the Young Adult Church Today?

Mr. Gerard Gallagher, Office of Evangelization, Archdiocese of Dublin

Tuesday, June 12 - 10am

Mr. Gallagher's talk

Mr. Gallagher founded his talk on an unfortunate reality in the Church today: the Church loves to talk about young people, but it doesn't talk to them (or with them, I'd add) or carry out good mission to them. His remedy - his mission statement, if you will - is to provide young people the means and the methods to begin searching for purpose and meaning in their life with the foundation being a relationship with God through Christ.

Mr. Gallagher feels that we need young people to be apostles to one another. In ministering to their peers, young people can utilize their unique perspective of modern culture as they minister to one another.

He explained that the mission of the Church in pastoral youth ministry should be founded on three main pillars:

1. evangelization
2. development
3. service

It's easy to say this from what was a comfortable seat in the crowd, but I'd offer a different strategy... Service needs to be at the heart of a teenager's faith development, but my two complementary pillars to it would be catechesis and social life. Ideally, the three can be working together almost all the time. I think youth ministry is futile if it's not fun. Fun is the catalyst to get them interested, the momentum to keep them interested, and the attraction to stay interested as faith takes root and grows. When they're having fun, and doing it socially - with other people their age, with peers, not just adult leaders and priests - then they are more amenable to catechesis (teaching moments) and can find a comfort zone in learning and living their faith. It takes YouTube videos, silly dances, and using popular culture (new music, TV shows) to hook them, and good youth ministry successfully uses the content of what's already in their lives to show them the entry point for faith.

Mr. Gallagher suggested those who still come to mass can loosely fit three categories: (1) committed people from families that transmit the faith generationally, (2) conservative people that are more inclined toward clericalism (a priest-centered view of Church), orthodoxy, and formalism/ritualism/devotionals, and (3) confused people who come out of habit but without really knowing what draws them.

He says that sacramental preparation is actually a form of family ministry that overlaps with youth formation. Without comprehensive, extensive, sturdy pastoral programming, young people don't stand much of a chance. Mr. Gallagher believes the key for youth ministry is responding to young people's desire for "authenticity and simplicity." Beyond just statements and speeches, there should be a preferential option for the young to make some real youth ministry happen.

When youth are active in the Church, Mr. Gallagher feels it can be a big source of hope for adults' faith. However, he encourages interaction between all ages. Young people can't be an exhibit, on display in a religious fish bowl. The members of the community must have shared, communal experience. This is the point that I felt to be most resonant.

Personally, I'm averse to youth groups forged in the model of LifeTeen or the Irish programme Youth 2000. I'm ignorant because I've never really been involved in either, but I'm not wild about situations where the youth are (almost) always segregated from the wider community. There needs to be special programming for young people - movie watches, social outings (bowling, mini-golf, sports games, etc.), faith-sharing situations - but when it comes to prayer and worship, they should be in the main flow of the parish and local community. Young people should be able to be singers/cantors, musicians, lectors, EM's, altar servers, ushers/ministers of hospitality at all/any/every mass and service at the Church. I'm not against age-specific choirs forming, but I am against quarantining the visible youth presence and involvement in the liturgy to a specific mass. They need to grow into a place in the community that can be sustained as they gain adult independence and grow into making lives for themselves.

In a nice, slightly pointed moment, Mr. Gallagher asked, what about starting youth ministry not just with ice-breakers but with the Gospel? It's a nice ideal we can keep working toward.

During the Q&A follow-up, a veteran of Net Ministries (an int'l volunteer ministry organization working in Ireland) shed some nice light on things for us. Mr. Gallagher's speech fell short in terms of practical, specific suggestions, of which he really offered none. This young lady stepped up and offered two nice insights that I'll leave you with:

1. Meet youth where they are: allow them to freely talk about temptations and vices, and work with them as they come.
2. Use their ideas to nurture their creativity: let them put suggestions into action (my comment: within reason, especially remaining respectful to liturgy), and help them own it so they can learn from the process and grow personally and as ministers.

IEC2012 Pt. 5: From Big Bang to Big Mystery

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 5

From Big Bang to Big Mystery: Reflections on Human Origins

Rev. Dr. Brendan Purcell, Professor at Notre Dame University, Australia

Monday, June 11 - 7pm

Dr. Purcell's talk

I initially was thinking this talk was going to be about cosmology, a look into how we can associate the mystery of our Creator God with what science is learning about the "Big Bang" and the origins of the universe. However, Dr. Purcell deals more so with biological and evolutionary considerations, tracing the links between humanity and the world that we came from. He frames humanity and our lived existence in the context of Creation and its Creator.

He started by looking back to the roots of monotheistic religion. Yahweh and the Israelites transformed spirituality, which he defined as the human quest for gods/God, because Yahweh showed that God is personal. Yahweh intervened for Israel and with Israel in the Israelites' lives.

Dr. Purcell said that God didn't create the world in several acts per se, but rather, Creation is a grand, whole act of love by God - what Dr. Purcell called "Creative Love." God gives us a share in His existence but also wants us to embrace and harness the creative power that He gave us - a tip that sounded to me like Dr. Purcell's interpretation of humanity as stewards of Creation, as the ones with dominion over it. We are intended to use our rationality and innovation - the gifts God gave us - to be an extension of Creative Love. Dr. Purcell said that this isn't evidence of some weakness on God's part; conversely, it's actually an example of His infinite goodness.

In a nod to godless skeptics and atheists, Dr. Purcell quoted the great astrophysicist, Fred Hoyle. Hoyle renounced his atheism in the face of his career's work of studying the universe: "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion [the existence of a superintellect] almost beyond question." (full quote courtesy of UCSB)

Dr. Purcell's view of the tensions and relations between science and religion is indicative of his faith. He believes if gaps exist in our explanations of the universe and its origins, the gaps are in science, the limits of human reason, and in our vocabulary. To Dr. Purcell, "God's Act of Creation is full and perfect." This includes Christ's sacrifice, which was one that gave over all six levels of being - human, zoological, biological, botanical, physical, and chemical - to the seventh and greatest level, the Divine. Christ gave a whole and full sacrifice to God.

He then outlined "7 Grace Notes" special to human beings:

1. We are all member of a species that is only recently diversifying - the first human beings 200,000-140,000 years ago in Sub-Saharan Africa aren't that old, relatively speaking. Part of this point was his argument (I didn't record the scientific data he cited) that we didn't "come from monkeys."
2. We have a brain capacity to receive and produce speech alongside a unique physical ability to vocalize.
3. Human infancy/childhood lasts much longer for us than other animals - we have the chance to learn intellectually, to go beyond instincts and transmitted knowledge. This is not a biological advantage, but it is crucial to our nature as social beings.
4. We have a penchant for symbolism, a capacity and desire for inner meaning and next-level significance.
5. Human languages give unique realization to our form of being (human).
6. We have unique knowledge that combines sensory experience, understanding, and judgments.
7. Freedom. We can make free decisions above this threefold equation of knowledge, which constitutes a conscience that can override instinct and mechanized survivalism.

Some other nuggets:

• Procreation = pro-creation : participation in the one Creative Love.
• Citing Benedict XVI, he said that Eucharist helps make the world - the whole cosmos - into a living liturgy in which all things can give praise to God.
• History is the exposition of the reality of Christ as large, having an infinite reach. Christ, who is the God that exists beyond time, entered history and instituted the Eucharist within time. Through the Eucharist, Christ can reach all people in all spaces and in all times.

IEC2012 Pt. 4: Word of Life Testimony

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 4

Testimony: Word of Life

Dr. Maria Voce, Leader of the Focolare Movement

Monday, June 11 - 3pm

Dr. Voce gave her testimony in Italian, which gave me my only opportunity to use my nifty translation earpiece.

Dr. Voce testified to us that baptism is our invitation to be in communion with Christ and with all baptized persons, a nice extension of the theme of the Congress to invite us to consider every baptized person in our reflections on universal communion.

She added that the pursuit of this ideal is "an invitation, not a command." When it comes to realizing such communion in our lives as baptized Christians, we must seek it freely. We must want to say yes to working with others, and ideally, we grow in a way where all Christians can give their yes all together to greater communion with Christ and one another.

The Focolare Movement seeks to give an intimate hearing to the Gospel and, as a result of increased closeness to God's Word, give life to it in their lives. The first members of the movement had a miraculous vision during their reflections on the Bible in which the letters on the page of their Bible became illuminated, inspiring them to proclaim Christ as truly alive. Their first meeting centered on the illuminated letters they saw in the Bible, the prayer of Jesus for unity, "that they may be one."

She told us that reciprocal love - the combination of giving to others and receiving from their love in turn - is a cornerstone of Christian love. The pinnacle of her message was a simple exhortation to live the Gospel: we should live in such a way that, if all the copies of the Gospels were destroyed, the Bible could be recreated based on our actions.

IEC2012 Pt. 3: A Passion for Unity

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 3

Catechesis on Communion and Baptism: A Passion for the Unity of Christ's Body

Brother Alois Löser, Prior of the Taizé Community

Monday, June 11 - 2pm

Br. Alois giving us our daily catechesis (teaching moment) in the Main Arena of the RDS

"Without the Resurrection, we would not be here," Brother Roger said. "Christ is communion. He did not come to earth to start a new church but to gather all the communion in God."

Br. Alois (check out this brief bio for a better insight into the 2nd Prior in the history of Taizé) was maybe my favorite speaker of the Congress. His unique perspective as the prior of the globally preeminent ecumenical community was integral to the Monday's theme of Christian Unity. He is clearly an idealist and a staunch optimist, preaching the greatest of ecumenical hopes as realizable to a crowd of many different Christians. On the whole, I think he might be aiming higher than is realistic, but I think it is part of his personal call and the unique call of leading that community. I believe he is answering this call from God with incredible, inspiring faithfulness.

Unlike the first prior of Taizé, Alois is a Catholic. He told us, though, that he most conclusively discovered the Catholicity of the Church and his Catholic-Christian faith through the way he experienced it as lived in the Taizé Community.

Citing St. Paul, Alois points to the truth that there is only one baptism, that which initiates us into Christ. This emphasis by Alois has been popularized by one of the many mantra-based, circular prayer songs that has emerged from the Taizé Prayer music, the music that the brothers and their pilgrims sing together in prayer at Taize that has radiated outward all around the world. Its use of simple lyrics with realistically singable melodies have spread far and wide, due in part also to the songs' inclusion of many languages, sometimes adapting songs' refrains to work in several languages. "There is one God, one faith, one baptism..."

Br. Alois suggested to us that, when we are asked what religion we are, our answer should be, "I am a baptized Christian." Alois believes that the first and primary way that we should identify ourselves is as a person who has been baptized into Christ. He feels that this is at the root of some of the disunity among Christians.

My understanding of Alois is that we must seek to make the default setting for all Christians an emphasis on baptism, the one baptism. I don't think we can just say "it's all the same Christianity" or "we all believe in Jesus" and just leave it at that; regardless of who/what is right or wrong, the divisions within Christianity are both theological and emotional - the schisms created rivalry and tension on top of doctrinal or ritual discrepancies. So before we set out to unifying our theology and belief into a more united Christian catholic Church, we need to focus on our shared baptism and what it means.

A repeated theme of our ministry this year in Ireland has been the almost non-existent catechesis around baptism, both now for newly baptized babies and for adults who have grown up with no understanding of their baptism. Unfortunately, I found myself with much of the same ignorance that we are witnessing. The core root of it is that we need to realize the dignity of our baptism. The way that I personally summarize this is that we have been baptized into someone and something bigger than us.

We are initiated into Christ, and we must live as His love. As we live Christian lives, we can live in Him, as His Body, the Body of Christ, many members sharing together in the One who gave us eternal life and the gift of Love. We can start from there, deciding that as Christians, our primary identification lies in Christ. Perhaps from there, we can build toward fuller unity based on our shared study and prayer in the Bible; the 2008 Catholic Synod of Bishops affirms Baptism and the Word as the existing unities for Christians to share and build upon. Alois believes that lived faith and lived community are trailblazers toward theological communion.

When I studied ecumenism in London (here's links to 2 posts I wrote during the study: A Chat with a Monsignor and an intro to the project), my main takeaway - the thesis to my summary paper - was that ecumenism breeds a troublesome lack of identity, a genericized/vanilla Christianity that becomes too watery. Alois pointed to the foundations laid by his predecessor Roger, saying he never felt a loss or lack of identity in the Taize endeavors. To him, identity is communion with Christ, as realized in interaction with brothers and sisters. Roger found reconciliation between "the faith of his origins" and Catholic and Orthodox faith. And thus reconciliation became the charism of Taizé, bringing Christians together into fuller communion. He taught that Taizé must be "a parable of community" to the world.

Alois told us, "In the heart of God, the Church is one." It is up to us to discover ways to live and experience this reality of God. When it came to Roger and cultivating such an endeavor at Taizé, he sought full communion among Christians by having all members of the community (made up of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox men) receive Catholic Eucharist (under dispensation from the local bishop) and seeking to utilize the Pope as a unifying leader, a practice that John Paul II had advocated, offering himself to other Christians. Roger and Alois have done well over the years to build positive relationships with the popes in Rome as well patriarchs and bishops from several other Christian denominations. Taizé exists as a concrete example of something that Christians across the lines have agreed upon, not just in negotiated statements but also in significant practice.

Some other nuggets:

• At Taizé, the prayer and worship consists of three daily prayer services, biblical teaching, and group discussions. They celebrate mostly Catholic masses for their Sunday prayer with occasional Orthodox or other Christian Sunday services instead.
• He admits that new Taizé-inspired communities may not have orthodox doctrines and beliefs, existing in some area even more shadowy than the place where Taizé sits in the scene of Christianity. Always the visionary, Alois still upholds these communities as places of utmost hope.

IEC2012 Pt. 2: Vatican II and Ecumenism Today

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the Congress theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.

Part 2
Vatican II and Ecumenism Today
Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Unity (Holy See)
and Doctor Richard Clutterbuck, Professor, Edgehill College Belfast
Monday, June 11 - 12pm

Bishop Farrell and Dr. Clutterbuck speaking to a capacity crowd

Reflections on Bishop Farrell's Remarks


Before Vatican II, non-Catholics, even those who were properly disposed toward aspects of the Catholic Church's liturgies and practices, were refused any inclusion in any Church activities and were simply viewed as being "outside the Church." Bishop Farrell, and many people from his generation, bring a wonderful perspective when they speak on ecumenical concerns because they have seen the pre-Vatican II Church, the Church as it went through the reforms, and the Church as it began to figure out how to live its new directives. For someone like me who grew up with ecumenical Taizé Prayer services under the direction of very welcoming brothers and priests, it is staggering but necessary to be reminded where things stood just 50 years ago and even more recently, too. Non-Catholics couldn't even come inside a church, let alone pray with their brother/sister Christians.


Bishop Farrell emphasized two significant points from the Vatican II pronouncements on ecumenism:

1. We have a common baptism in Christ.
2. Non-Catholic Christian Churches are valid churches of Christ, and they are effective means of grace for their members.

I really love these (more on #1 in my next post), especially the word choice for that second point - effective means of grace. We believe as Catholics not-so-much that our Church is 100% perfect and the no-doubt path to eternal life, but we do believe that out of all the options out there that we have figured out the best equation for what Church ought to be. Present in that perspective, but too often left to be implied, is the idea that our sister churches in Christ share, at minimum, our common Baptism in Christ in which we're christened in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - also known as the Holy Trinity that we all believe in. Put simply - there is salvation beyond the Catholic Church; we think we are honing the best path to it, but the grace toward eternal life is present and thriving in other Christian churches, too!

These other Christian churches are still vehicles for grace for their communities and their individual believers. We may have theological and doctrinal differences over sacraments and orders (the nature of ordained ministers) - and I ask people who aren't especially into theology to not belittle those differences as "not a big deal" because things like our contrasting views on what the Eucharist is and what Holy Orders entails are integral - but they are truly valid communities because of their initiation into Christ's death and resurrection and for so many more reasons. There is so much that can be shared, and I thank God I live in an age when we can enthusiastically share in service, prayer, and fellowship.

A few other nuggets from Bishop Farrell:

• The Catholic Church has dialogued out authoritative statements on Christology (the nature of Christ) with several Oriental rites, also known as Eastern Catholics.
• Bishop Farrell's group seeks out dialogue that enables many different Christians to look at how far they've come and discover what they can profess together.
• They are also trying to learn better how ecclesiality worked before 500 AD - how did the people of the West and East fit together with multiple centers of faith and strong patriarchies thriving all across the ancient world?

Dr. Clutterbuck's Remarks

Dr. Clutterbuck is a Methodist minister, and his academic formation focused on ecumenical studies and ecclesiology (the study of the church). He teaches at a college in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK).

He pointed out to us that Methodism was not associated with the initial Reformation but rather sprung from a dispute within the Anglican Church/Church of England, so the differences between Methodism and Catholicism are distinct. A personal note I would add: during my research into ecumenism well studying abroad in London, the Monsignor in charge of ecumenism for the English/Welsh bishops' conference told me that the Methodists are the most logical group to work with because they have the most unified theology and set of beliefs out of all the Protestant denominations (as contrasted, for example, with the relatively big tent that is Anglicanism/Episcopalianism).

He described Vatican II as "opening the floodgates" for ecumenism and leading many at the time to feel that union between the churches was within grasp. However, it hasn't developed in exactly the way that original hopefuls might have desired. Dr. Clutterbuck highlighted how Vatican II gave previously unknown permission to Catholics to recognize and engage with the non-Catholic denominations. The change in culture helped create "reciprocity," especially in the formal documents, which encouraged the Christians to together recognize their shared central tenets and the place of the Gospel in the Church.

Perhaps the most provocative moment of his lecture - which actually elicited verbal comments of agreement and affirmation from the man sitting next to me - was Dr. Clutterbuck's comments on how the Catholic Church is a "fellow pilgrim on the journey" with the other Christian churches. He quoted Karl Barth, who said, "[Vatican II] makes me wonder if the Reformation was really necessary." Dr. Clutterbuck wondered aloud - what if all the Vatican II pronouncements had been made 500 years earlier?

This is something we can never know for sure, but one has to think that some of the bold progressivism that the Catholic bishops showed in near unanimity would have been hugely helpful to the cracks that grew into schism in the 16th-century Church. The movement toward the vernacular in worship, encouragement of Bible study by lay people, and the famous encouragement for full, active participation by everyone are a few things that I think Protestants would have loved to hear before they broke away. Though such musings make one contemplate doing some time-travel, we returned to the present to tackle ecumenism as we know it today... a few other bits:

• Dr. Clutterbuck has found in his experience that ecumenism is wonderfully logical, natural, and effective when Christians cooperate in mission and in ministry.
• Despite major growth in the common ground on Eucharist, he feels Catholics' practice of not giving Communion to Protestants and the reality of incomplete Communion remains "a sorrow and a scandal." He ensured Catholics in the room that such rupture is felt "acutely" by Protestants. He advocates Eucharistic communion as a means to catalyze fuller union (something I know to be held by many Anglicans, too), whereas the Catholic Church reserves full communion for the day when we are all one. I tend to agree with our practice - you can't get ahead of yourselves and share something in a moment of worship that isn't shared wholly.
• He affirmed the spread of the Revised Common Lectionary as a positive way that Christians can and are increasingly sharing in the Word. I think this is pretty awesome and unfortunately not widely known - it's a beautiful reality of unity that is so subtle yet so profound.

Some Follow-up Discussion

A Nigerian sister asked the panel what can be done when local churches don't accept the consensus documents that the leaders of their denominations have worked out in dialogue with the Catholic Church. She also wondered what can be said about the proliferation of hundreds of different Christian denominations. The panelists admitted the imperfection of the documents being created mostly in Europe and sent to the rest of the world. Bishop Farrell admitted Rome has yet to adapt, failing to include a more universal representation in its dialoguing bodies and also falling short in providing developing areas with usable content. His tone was that of disappointment and hope amid uncertainty as to how to fix it.

A Croatian woman put the panel to the screws, asking if there's reason to hope for Eucharistic communion in the foreseeable future. The panel correctly avoided promising anything, downplaying ideas of timelines as artificial and unhelpful, but Dr. Clutterbeck encourage us by saying that this doesn't mean it won't come before we know it. They encouraged better listening between theologians as well as between local communities.

Next up - Part 3: Br. Alois Löser, Prior of the Taizé Community

IEC2012 Pt. 1: The Church in the Modern World

As a follow up to my spending June 11-13 at the three first full days of 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, I am writing a series of reflections on the different talks, addresses, and workshops I attended on the theme of The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. I took notes (including some quotes, hopefully nearly verbatim, that will appear within quotation marks) during the speeches based on different things that struck me personally, and what I offer here on the blog is simply a distillation of how the speeches affected me. They are not meant to be comprehensive summaries but rather the reactions of one pilgrim from a subjective perspective.


Part 1
The Church in the Modern World
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland
Monday, June 11 - 11.30am


Archbishop Martin had the honor, before the Papal Legate and the chock-full concert hall at the Royal Dublin Society, of giving the opening address for the Congress, the first remarks following the opening mass the day before.

Archbishop Martin on stage in the RDS Concert Hall

Early in his address, Archbishop Martin quoted Pope Paul VI, who called the Church an "expert in humanity."

We get our example for Christian life from the One who became man Himself. Christ is God Incarnate, the man who was and is our God who chose to become man and walk among us. In Jesus Christ, we have the perfect human example. Christ gave us the ultimate way of being. In the example of Christ, we as Christians and our Church as a whole are entrusted with realizing this example of Christ.

In a reflection paper I wrote as a high school junior about where I was in the progression of developing faith, I felt I was still short of owning my faith because I'm not able to live up to Jesus' example 100% of the time; my delightfully wise religion teacher wrote above that remark, in red pen, "Then, you'd be God." Her insight was contextualized the thought I had: we can't put excessive pressure on ourselves to achieve perfection when we are limited and flawed, but the ideal of Christ - to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect - is the measure we must strive toward.

Our Church is the way that Christ ordained for us to share in communion with Him and with one another, by living a Eucharistic life together in this social community that is the most effective means toward salvation in Christ. Our Church is guided by the Holy Spirit, with Christ as its head, but it is a society of humans. We are limited and flawed; our leaders and our members are human (let's not just cite the humanity of our priests and bishops when they screw up; let's remember too that all of us are human and make mistakes). And though being human encompasses the inherency of shortcomings and making mistakes, our being human is ultimately oriented toward Christ, whose being human was perfect. We have an ideal within our grasp that hopefully permeates our lives and the life of the Church as we all seek to make our lives Eucharistic.

Later, Archbishop Martin wondered, where are the points of contact? Where can the Gospel, Truth, and the Church get inserted into culture? He pointed to The New Evangelization, something which I'm not entirely clear on, which perhaps isn't his fault. It's a kind of abstract term that I hear or read from Church leaders. I know to what it's referring, but I feel as if it's in danger of becoming an abstraction for which there isn't a clear definition or mission.

Archbishop Maritn did add some depth to that, even if it wasn't direct definition. He wants believers, especially those doing evangelization, to be prepared for spreading the Gospel with "competence and idealism." He hopes that such a process will embolden other people to join the wave and give witness themselves. Archbishop Martin also pointed forward instead of looking back, citing John Paul II's insight that we must not restore the past per se but rather take the risk of walking new steps together.

As a young person, I found myself looking for more concrete direction and wanting some examples of what could be done from many of these speakers. I don't really blame bishops, especially of larger dioceses, for not providing empirical witness since they oversee so much at once and must seek to encourage and inspire on wider levels and to so many people. I only hope that, if and when believers in this archbishop's diocese and others do seek to take new steps forward, they have the support of their priests and bishops to do it - to empower lay people to sing and respond and participate audibly and together as one in the mass; to enlist parishioners (including young people!) to become Eucharistic Ministers, lectors, and ushers/ministers of hospitality; to discover singers and musicians that will form sturdy choirs; to provide community and formation for teens and adults to bridge the gap between the gray-haired faithful parishioners and the young, dutiful parents seeking sacraments for their children.

The Archbishop added that the modern world is experiencing the "ambiguity of progress," a phrase he quoted from Pope Benedict XVI. He told us that progress is not linear; as we've moved forward into an age of amazing technology and discovery, we've overlooked the dark sides of progress. I thought personally of the proliferation of easily accessed pornography all over the internet, which has always been a temptation for me, of the gap between rich, developed countries and those that remain third world, and of the cloudy ethics of stem cell research and the treatment of embryos by those researchers and in vitro fertilization programs.

Archbishop Martin feared that we'd overlooked the lessons and insights we could have gained while moving forward. He pointed to the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes, which stresses the negative effects of egoism and self-interest, things that I view as extreme, gotten-out-of-hand versions of sometimes positive factors like self-confidence (believing in one's ability and capacity) and stewardship (utilizing the earth and one's surroundings to support life).

Toward his conclusion, Archbishop Martin expressed his hope and his intention that the Church must become a builder of community throughout society - an aim right in line with the life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ who is the expert in humanity.

A Pilgrimage of People

I began writing this post before heading off to the International Eucharistic Congress, in light of my community's recent pilgrimage to some of the wonder of Ireland's holy places. Now, having returned from the IEC, I'm finishing up this reflection to segue into a series of posts I hope to begin imminently, reflecting on the many workshops and talks I attended while in Dublin with my Christian brothers and sisters from literally all over the world...

Last week, my community-mates and I were given the parish's blessing to go off on a short pilgrimage together. We chose to head west to Co. Mayo, Ireland, to visit Knock and climb Croagh Patrick.

Knock is a normal parish in the middle of Mayo, but its renown changed forever in 1879. In August of that year, Mary appeared to 15 locals from the parish, coming to them in an apparition on the back wall of the parish church, between Sts. Joseph and John the Baptist, next to an altar with a lamb atop it surrounded by angels. Today, that back wall of the church has been enclosed in a new chapel with statues on the wall to commemorate the appearance by Our Lady of Knock and these saints. The grounds of Knock also include a basilica church, an Adoration chapel, an amazing Chapel of Reconciliation where over 40 confession rooms receive penitential pilgrims, and two wonderful Stations of the Cross walks, both outside. It is an authentic, Church-endorsed apparition site with amazing devotion and steady streams of pilgrims.

Croagh Patrick is a 2500-foot mountain near the coastline of Ireland and the town of Westport. A statue of St. Patrick blesses pilgrims at the foot of the trail that turns from dirt and grass to loose rocks and the climb steepens nearing the peak of the pilgrimage hike. Legend has it that Patrick climbed the mountain to fast on its summit for forty days, and today, there is "the bed of Patrick," a small rectangle of land where pilgrims can pray for his intercession on the spot where he might have rested. Pilgrims of varying degrees of piety and intentionality hike the trails to the summit in the steps of many who have gone before them, including, perhaps, the patron saint of Ireland.

Long story, short: those are just two of many pilgrimages that exist in Ireland, in Europe, and in the world. Part of the rich heritage and tradition of our Catholic Church is the many pilgrimages that are out there. They come in many different varieties, though Marian shrines and hikes/walks are two most common forms I've come across.

One of the beautiful aspects of a pilgrimage is how it enables its participants (I like using that word here because of how active and intentional pilgrimage can and should be) to realize their identity as part of someone (JESUS!) and something (the Church!) bigger than themselves.

Making the journey to any old destination always involves following in the footsteps of many others, many of whom shared their experience through personal stories, writing travel guides, or posting to travel sites with tips for your travels. The difference with pilgrimage - which any vacation can be, to the degree you might decide to make it - is that these shared insights go beyond simple message boards and guidebooks; they are inherently spiritual experiences, journeys meant to be centered more intentionally on God, using the intentionality of making a journey to manifest one's desire to move toward God in a special way.

Whether you make the trip as an individual or with others, you are joining in communion with all the pilgrims who have preceded you and those who will come after you by virtue of the One Lord Jesus Christ who unites all of you. Eucharist is and should be a central part of pilgrimage, whether as part of the preparation, the experience, or the culmination of the pilgrimage. The Eucharist makes maximally present the mystical bond that unites all believers and all pilgrims in Christ. To finish my walk on the Camino de Santiago, I went to a grand All Saints Day mass at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, which began with the swinging of the enormous botafumeiro thurable; on the flip side, it can be as simple as the small gathering we were invited to my a priest at the Fr. Peyton Memorial Centre in Attymass, Co. Mayo, where we joined a small group of a dozen pilgrims for mass in a little oratory.

We all walk these pilgrim paths in search of something, turning simple tourism and vacation into renewing and regrounding searches for Christ in our lives, finding Christ in the experience of communion with our fellow pilgrims, whether friends or strangers, and with Christ Himself through our community, our prayer, and the Eucharist.

Last night, I left Dublin, having spent three days at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, the theme of which was The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another. It was a beautiful experience because of how wonderfully that theme was enfleshed comprehensively through the talks, the masses, and the Congress as a whole.

In this case, the pilgrimage had almost nothing to do with the place or what was physically there - no apparition, no mountain, no pilgrim trail, no rich tradition tied to the grounds of the Royal Dublin Society. This time, the pilgrimage's magnitude was based entirely on people, people from all over our universal church answering the call to gather and share dynamically in the richness of the Eucharist. I think I'll share two small stories rather than attempt to boil down the experience to a few futile paragraphs.

Among the 120+ countries represented, I saw a group of women from Zimbabwe. They caught my eye especially because they had beautiful dresses and headwear made with patterns of the IEC2012 logo and bible quotes and sayings all over. Tuesday night, I found my seat in a not-yet-crowded hall for a talk on the renewal of marriage through Eucharist, choosing a seat in front where I could stretch out. As the room became half-full, a woman came into my peripheral vision, moving in to become the 2nd person in this near-empty row, saying smilingly, "You need someone to sit next to you?"

We made some small-talk; I fetched her the handout for the talk that she had missed on her way in; and, we talked a bit about our homelands and marriage. Her name was Sindisiwe (like Cindy-Sue-way), and she was lovely with her English and taking notes in very neat handwriting. After the talk, she asked me what state I was from. When I told her "Illinois," she didn't seem to recognize it, so I added, "Chicago - a big city." I could tell it was one of those questions asked in large part so to give the asker the chance to share her own answer. She replied, "My son's in Philadelphia." I told her I'd be visiting there in a few weeks to see friends and family. Without missing a beat, having instant trust in me, she invitold (a word invented to combine invitation and being told) me to bring her son a gift, which I was happy to agree to - she gave me his name and e-mail address and wanted to give his phone number, too, but her phone had disappeared. She had bought a bunch of keepsake rosaries for family and friends, and she wanted Sibanda to have one, too.

He moved to the US for work 7 years ago, and they have not been able to see each other since then. She gave me her e-mail, too, so she could get in touch with me to give me his phone number when she got back to Zimbabwe. So now, when I go to Philadelphia, I'm going to visit a best friend, see my aunt and uncle, travel on to Scranton to see another friend, and serve as a pilgrim courier to connect a loving mother with her dear son through a simple holy gift.

One more for the road: I went to a talk on Wednesday morning about the permanent deaconate, something that I - and many in the Church - don't understand well enough, and actually, many countries don't even have actively. During the talk, I spoke with a nearby man during a conversation break who is in formation for the deaconate. It became clear that many men in the room, scattered around lay men and women and some priests, were either deacons already, in formation for the deaconate, or discerning that vocation. After the formal talk ended, we had ample time for question-and-answer.

People were bringing up great things and really adding depth to what we were learning that morning, making this talk the one during which I took the most notes by far. Toward the end, a man in clerical blacks (not a rare sight at all at the IEC) asked for the mic. He stood up and introduced himself as Archbishop Napier of Durban, South Africa. He then proceeded to make some wonderful comments, including his personal involvement, at least once a year, in interviewing deacons and their wives on their status in progressing through the six-year formation, as well as stressing that deacons must be affirmed for the duties they do rather than the things they don't do, upholding them as an important distinct ministry of vocational call rather than an afterthought to priests.

I was struck my his insights - he clearly is a learned and wise man - but I was more struck by his humility. He took a seat in the middle of everyone else, toward the back, and blended right in as one of many pilgrims just coming to partake in the dialogue. Granted, he had the advantage of relative anonymity since he is so far from his home turf, but he had a quiet approach to his participation there, choosing a way of being that aimed to simply share the experience. I had another moment of appreciation for the humility of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who along with the Papal Legate and a few other prominent bishops, sat up front, alongside Br. Alois of Taize, during an evening Taize prayer service in the Youth Space - Archbishop Martin and the others sat patiently and quietly as the 1,000ish people processed forward for at least half an hour to reverence a Taize cross as the music circled around the prayer. As I made my way toward the cross, I caught the Archbishop's eye and saw in his gaze such patience as he was clearly in gentle awe at the devotion that was unfolding so steadily.

The global reach, the humility, and the faithful exchange was all around, from simple pilgrims seeking just an opportunity to have to those committed and appointed shepherds of this flock. I hope you'll take a stroll with me in the coming days and weeks as I try to share a portion of the insights I found during my time at IEC2012.