Quiet Attacks

Some are using the pandemic as cover for activities against the earth and against people: Israel seeking to annex Palestine; China exerting hegemony over Hong Kong. The president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences has called all Christians to pray “with great insistence” for Hong Kong because “‘the new law approved by China’s National People’s Congress…seriously weakens Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and Hong Kong’s autonomy’ and ‘radically changes Hong Kong’s identity.’” 

Cardinal Bo: Pray for Hong Kong amid China crackdown https://t.co/Ov3wPVOOAi

— America Magazine (@americamag) July 3, 2020

Some Numbers Not Promising

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection has released its 2019 Annual Report.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection releases its 2019 Annual Report, showing that 4,220 adults came forward with 4,434 allegations of abuse.https://t.co/xpymOD7wzL

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 26, 2020

First of Four

Today began a series of 4 webinars on topics related to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. Today’s webinar may be view at this link.

Vatican News announced this series earlier today. Its report includes background of the series, the dates and presenters of the webinars and an audio report.

Several organizations team up to present a series of webinars directed toward raising awareness about the ongoing need to safeguard children and vulnerable adults.https://t.co/9koXVKDKNu

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 8, 2020

Born During Pandemic

A picture of newly born child was tweeted recently. A story about a new born in Nigeria 2 days ago reported mother and child doing well. Another story was different: newborn lived; mother died of Covid-19 6 days later. More stories will emerge about people born as others struggle to live.

During the 14^th-C pandemic births included a saint. Catherine of Siena was born as it flared in Italy. “Her writings can help us to respond more fully to how God might be calling each of us in the midst of the current pandemic,” wrote America senior editor J.D. Long-García. Mr. Long-Garcia sampled some of Catherine's words to savour.

During this time of social isolation, we can wade into St. Catherine’s writings and into dialogue with God. At a time when many of us feel helpless, Catherine can lead us into a deeper union with God, to become friends of God and servants to our neighbors.https://t.co/wTHcncFR8M

— America Magazine (@americamag) April 29, 2020

Act To Become Known by Heart

In 2003 receiving the Eucharist was not hindered as now by the pandemic. That year Pope St. John Paul recalled the origins of spiritual communion:

it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of “spiritual communion”, which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life. Saint Teresa of Jesus wrote: “When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you” (34).

“To cultivate in our hearts” disposes us to welcome the gift of Christ’s presence. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, referring to those words of his predecessor, recalled that one is never under “an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist” (55). His words addressed “personal conditions for an ‘active participation’” in the liturgy. Regarding communion the conditions of the pandemic leave only one active-participation option: an act of spiritual communion. Pope Francis has recommended by example.

Here is an Act of Spiritual Communion, for when you cannot physically receive the Eucharist, via @CatholicNewsSvc pic.twitter.com/jJKaBsvQwr

— Jesuit News (@jesuitnews) April 27, 2020

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Later: 2 New Prayers for May

Signs of the Times

Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny noted in the pandemic Catholics and other Christians are “at a sort of ‘crossroads’ – in Greek, krisis.” Choosing one road “feeds on the need for security; its ‘substitute logic’ has us think only about how to adapt to the present annoyances and discomforts, perhaps finding a way to continue doing what we were doing before without contravening the restrictions imposed by the authorities.” The other road embraces “the ‘saving logic’ of the gospel.” It reaches “through uncertainty and grasp a renewed identity and mission as baptised Christians and missionary disciples.”

How do we interpret the signs of these extraordinary times? @jesuitczerny asks whether, in our responses to #coronavirus, we are embracing the ‘saving logic’ of the gospel and all of its opportunities, or resigning ourselves to a ‘substitute logic’. https://t.co/LmN16RiotI pic.twitter.com/2LbcWq7avp

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 23, 2020

Updating Earlier Post

The post, Situation Poses Questions, offered an Orthodox wondering about the absence of Eucharist. Director of Evangelization and Adult Formation Michael Bayer offered a Catholic perspective. Mr. Bayer recalled that Eucharistic hunger is the norm for many in the world. Our “hunger [for the Eucharist and the other sacraments] can sometimes reveal an unhealthy and uniquely American form of self-centered exceptionalism.” A grace in our hunger can be learning how “we are being renewed and reformed to be ever more the community of disciples that Jesus envisioned.”

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Wiki-image Saint John Neumann Catholic Church (Sunbury, Ohio) - stained glass, narthex, Sacraments of Baptism & the Eucharist by “Nheyob | CC BY-SA 3.0"

Pope Francis on Palm Sunday

In 2 ½ minutes.

Called to Greater Solidarity

In a post at the end of last month John Christman sought to reply to the question, “What eucharistic challenges and corresponding graces might we see in the present moment?" Asking him was apt because he is a member of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

Because the time of the pandemic is prolonged answering the question posed by the post requires much time and thought. Fr. Christman helps readers focus on solidarity, a new appreciation of grace and the “call to be ‘a mystic’ might be more important now than he ever imagined.”

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Wiki-image Eucharist by “original author: SajoR | CC BY-SA 4.0"

No One Is Not Affected

Everyone is adversely affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Individuals experience personal and household financial losses as well as mobile constraints. Individuals constitute various groupings—government, business, academic, charitable, faith. One faith group is a religious order. 

Yesterday the Curia (headquarters) of the Society of Jesus posted a brief report on its daily operations. Despite the changes in executing its mission, the mission of the Society of Jesus has not changed. It continues “bringing the consolation, hope and healing of the Risen Lord.”

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Wiki-image St. Aloysius stained glass by “Nheyob | CC BY-SA 4.0"

Daily Experience, Lenten Moment

The Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council promptly identified the church as “the People of God.” In that second chapter it noted the singular status of the family or household: “The family is, so to speak, the domestic church:” parents pass on the word of faith to children  and encourage them to grow into their vocations in life (n. 11).

Congregation of Jesus Sister Gemma Simmonds suggested, “Perhaps this is a good time for us to reflect on how we do domestic Church, and how the great liturgical moments in the year or the great theological themes that underpin them permeate our ordinary lives.” One lenten moment for many is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Pope Francis and the Vatican have reminded that the impossibility of celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation does not prevent God from forgiving a person’s sins.

The pandemic and our prudent, courageous actions to stay home provide an opportunity to grow beyond the image of the church as a toll house: “The Church, whether institutional or domestic, frequently acts, ‘as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.'"

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Wiki-image Return of the Prodigal by “James Tissot | PD-US"  upload

Closing Churches Happened in 1918

Father A. Schrenk (Diocese of Pittsburgh) discovered that closing schools and churches and suspending masses happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic. From his Twitter feed:

The closure of churches and suspension of public Mass continues to be difficult to accept, but as I do further personal research into the 1918 flu pandemic, I find more and more that these actions are by no means novel, nor symptomatic of an age that has lost faith. pic.twitter.com/boWxGeL9Lk

— Fʀ. A. Sᴄʜʀᴇɴᴋ (@frajds) March 27, 2020

Imagining the Sunday Gospel

On the Fifth Sunday of Lent many Christians hear the gospel passage of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead [RCL; RCL]. We have the time to read it reflectively while we are home. Reflective reading allows us to inhabit the scripture; its word is living and effective. We can allow scripture to have an effect on us.

Jesuit Brian Purfield walks us through the narrative. At the outset he asks, “How can [the raising of Lazarus] speak to us in our current situation?”

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Wiki-image Jesus Wept by “James Tissot  | PD-US"

Prayer, Blessing, Encouragement, Call

The days of Christmas and Easter have been the occasions for popes to bless the city of Rome and the world (Latin: urbi et orbi). Yesterday Pope Francis blessed the world from Rome. It followed three-quarters of an hour of prayer. Francis’ reflection on the occasion spoke to our current fear and noted an invitation resides in the pandemic: “to reawaken and [enact] solidarity and hope.”   

[The previous link includes the YouTube video of the event.]

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Wiki-image Basilica of St. Peter by “Siyatalebi  | CC BY-SA 3.0"

The Long Reach

When Moses fretted to the Eternal God, wondering how Moses could feed the wandering people, the Eternal replied it would be done by divine power: Is the Eternal One’s hand too short? (Numbers 11.23). Some  translate: Is there a limit to the Eternal’s power? One renders it colloquially: Is this beyond the Lord’s reach? 

Feeling as though we are beyond God’s reach is easy these days. We are out of reach of nearly everyone. Prudently foregoing access to the usual ritual behaviour that assures us God and humans are near stretches us to find other ways to recall and to feel God’s eternal closeness. Churches are trying to remind us the “outstretched hand” of God is not too short to hold all humans. The metaphor belongs to one “at the global epicenter of the crisis,” Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco of Genoa. Mr. John L. Allen Jr. related Cardinal Bagnasco’s pastoral care and “optimism.”

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Wikimage Panathenaic Genova panorama… by "Bbruno / CC BY-SA 4.0"

Getting Over Them

The Vatican seems to be making efforts to handle its “PR troubles.” Secrecy may be giving way to transparency. Will some in the Vatican may do their best to block that transition? Mr. John A. Allen Jr. offers his analysis of the new PR person hired and his job.

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Wiki-image by Cgs of Mirror used by CC BY-SA 3.0.

Defending the Whole

Two tweets yesterday focused differently yet spoke about the whole church. Jesuit Jason Brauninger took on the often-heard self-identifier, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” At The Jesuit Post, he addressed “the task of reforging the bond between spirituality and religion.”  

In Commonweal, E. J. Dionne Jr. refused the command, “It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church.” Addressing all members of the church in his “Quit the Church? Thanks but no thanks,” he noted: “Secularists, who never liked Catholicism in the first place, want us to leave the church, but so do Catholic conservatives who want the church all to themselves.”

With particular emphases each author reminds that the church is a large ship and needs an entire crew to navigate well and faithfully.

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Photo of Jason Brauninger, S.J., is located here at The Jesuit Post.

Christians in the Middle East

Jesuit Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J., professor of History of Arab Culture and Islamic Studies, is an “expert in interreligious dialogue in Rome and Beirut.” Zenit published a transcript of an interview with Fr. Samir, “conducted by Mark Riedemann for ‘Where God Weeps,’ a weekly TV & radio show produced by Catholic Radio & Television Network in conjunction with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.” Fr. Samir offered a more detailed look at Christians in the Middle East.

More audio interviews are available at this page at Where God Weeps. 

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Wiki-image of NASA screenshot of Middle East is in the public domain.

Why They Leave

The bishop of the Diocese of Trenton (New Jersey) wanted to know why Catholics left their church. Here’s a summary of the study that learned why.

Two Interviews of Worlds Apart

An outsider’s view of Christian life in Egypt illumines the complex reality of Christianity there. In a ZENIT interview an Italian priest, who has been ministering in Egypt for three years, offers his view.

Another ZENIT interview with the Japanese ambassador to Italy looks at Japan one year after its devastating tsunami.