The fight over Communion has taken on local significance for me.
Protesters urge bishop to deny communion to pro-abortion legislators
Thursday, June 17, 2004
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A dozen people picketed the Downtown headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh yesterday, calling on Bishop Donald Wuerl to deny communion to Catholic legislators who support legal abortion."
Here’s a completely different take on the current communion debate that’s all the
rage these days.
Staying
in the Pew at Communion Time
I’ve come to believe that part of the problem has to do with the unremitting insistence
on frequent Communion. I will pause for a moment as 90% of my readers emit gasps
of horror at what I’ve just written. I think we’ve hammered frequent Communion (a
wonderful thing, in itself) into the people’s heads so hard and have at the same
time failed so miserably to catechize them on the full richness of this Sacrament’s
meaning, that now we find Communion time resembling (as one of my scandalized Mexican
parishioners described the English-language Masses) a stampede of cattle, leaving
behind empty pew after empty pew as everyone surges forward to get a Host. And if
they can’t have a Host, you damn sure better give them a nice blessing because it’s
Communion time and, you know, everybody has to get something. I’ve had people go
to confession for not having gone to Communion even though they were present for
an entire Mass. It is not a sin not to go to Communion. But people have been led
to believe that it is. Together with the misunderstood insistence on frequent Communion,
a poor understanding of “active participation in the Liturgy” must shoulder
a fair share of the blame.
It’s a cool coincidence that my wedding is in the inaugural month of the Year of
the Eucharist. 🙂
John
Paul II Convokes “Year of the Eucharist”
From October 2004 to October 2005
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 10, 2004 (Zenit.org).- On the feast of Corpus Christ, John Paul
II announced a “Year of the Eucharist” that the Catholic Church will observe
from October 2004 to October 2005.
Pope
Explains Why He Convoked “Year of the Eucharist”
Church’s Program Is to Start Afresh From Christ, He Says
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 13, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II said he convoked the “Year
of the Eucharist” because the program he presented to the Church at the start
of the millennium is based on “starting afresh from Christ.”
Most of the content in Pittsburgh City Paper is a bit raw, but this article is interesting and respectful.
My office looks out over I-376 to the hill next to Bates Street. During the winter, I noticed wooden crosses and a white sculpture that looked like the Virgin Mary on the hillside. What is it?
Question submitted by: Vivienne Marshall, Glenshaw
Writer: CHRIS POTTER
You are not the first to have a vision of the Virgin Mary on that spot, though in its long history of religious visionaries, you may be among the few to identify a two-foot-tall statue from across a six-lane highway.
The following article is interesting mainly for the comments found below it.
American
bishops and Ronald Reagan
Catholic bishops share in the charism of infallibility when they speak on faith
and morals, in conjunction with the Holy Father. That is part of the magisterium,
the teaching authority by which we know the pure truth of the Gospel. That magisterium
cannot be broken because it comes from God himself (Mt 16:18).When they stray from faith and morals, bishops are no more likely to be free from error than any other well-informed people. On many important subjects in the 1970s and ’80s, American bishops brought their prestige to bear against many policies Ronald Reagan favored.