Author Archives: Jonathan Pinto

About Jonathan Pinto

Despite his Hispanic-sounding last name, Jonathan is as Indian and Catholic as you can get. Since moving to Pitt from Bombay in Fall 2003 for his PhD in Organizational Behavior, he has ‘enjoyed’ his lowest-ever standard of living (e.g. no car, no fancy restaurants, tiniest digs imaginable), yet his quality of life has never been higher. His philosophy and career strategy can be summed up in two words ‘avoid boredom’. A congenital contrarian, he is impossible to live with – which explains not only his single status, but also his state of uninterrupted bliss since starting graduate studies. A lifelong music dilettante his ultimate fantasy is to be a one-hit wonder. His life experiences and explorations in faith formation, have resulted in a very definite take on Catholicism and spirituality, which, to put it mildly, is not widely shared. He treasures the opportunities he has had to spend time with some remarkable people, in particular, two very wise Jesuit priests, Fr. Josef Neuner (based in Poona, India), and the late Fr. J.B. Fernandes. He thanks Funky for inviting him on to his blog, and reassures visitors that he only carps because he cares.

Fulfilling Your Sunday Obligation

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On Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22, 2005, a Total Catholic Education Conference, will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in downtown Pittsburgh. The conference is directed at at those who share in the teaching mission of the Church, including CCD catechists, campus ministers, priests, religious and other Catholic laity. The registration guidebook is impressive in terms of both content and packaging, and sessions feature heavy hitters like Bishop Bradley, Michael Aquilina, and Kimberly and Scott Hahn.

However, the full-page announcement for Eucharistic Liturgy on Saturday at 3.30 pm, features the legend, "This Mass fulfills your Sunday obligation" and that little line was more informative to me, than all the rest of the impressive text. The late Fr. John Baptist "JB" Fernandes, S.J., impressed upon me that ‘fulfilling an obligation’ is one of the least appropriate of reasons to go to Sunday Mass. The Lord wants us to attend Mass because He loves us, and we ought to be going, because we love Him. Surely the participating Catholic educators should understand this perspective. I dearly hope so, because it would be a shame if those in their charge, were only taught the ‘obligatory’ perspective.

Would it kill the participants to attend Mass on Sunday as well? Some, if not many, may actually do so, for reasons just highlighted. That begs the question, what is the understanding of the people organizing this conference, as regards Sunday Mass? Do they think of it primarily as an obligation? Further, do they believe, that the question of ‘whether or not the obligation is fulfilled’ would be uppermost in most participants’ minds? With the surfeit of contact information available in the guidebook, whoever (and I sincerely hope that would be, if not zero, a really small number) was concerned about that, could have find out that information for themselves. Maybe the organizers were anticipating a flood of emails/phonecalls and therefore decided to be proactive – pragmatism trumped spirituality.

Nationalism Trumps Catholicism

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“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of
mankind.” – Albert Einstein

Having been born and raised Catholic in India, a spiritual yet secular
and pluralistic society, I am appalled at how often the Catholic Church
in America tends to confound spirituality with nationalism.

The latest case in point (reference our discussion about the Stars and
Stripes being placed on the high altar, next to the tabernacle, for the
Latin Mass in St. Boniface), happened yesterday at St. Paul Cathedral. I
went to daily Mass (the 12.05) as is my wont, fully cognizant that it
was the 4th of July, and as such the homily would be around that theme.
And my expectations were not belied… the celebrant inter alia spoke
about heroes like JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, and Sandra Day O’Connor.

What I did not expect, and what thoroughly upset me, was that the
celebrant (not one of the Cathedral residents), after the homily, lead
the congregation in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. I almost
walked out of the church in disgust.

And then, less unexpected, but more ironic, bordering on the ridiculous,
the celebrant leads off the congregation with not a recessional hymn,
but a patriotic song, sung to the tune of “God Save the
King!”. On the day that commemorates American independence from the
British, the British national anthem is being sung, albeit with
different words!

I left St. Paul’s unsure whether to chuckle or rant. And if this is the
situation in the conservative seat of a conservative diocese, I shudder
to think what the situation must be like in other “more
liberal” parts of the country. “Auld Lang Syne” at
funeral masses? The picture of George W. Bush on the altar?

If the clergy themselves reduce catholic Catholic spirituality to the
level of petty nationalism, what hope is there for the poor sheep and
the Church as a whole?