Editorial
STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Business Manager: Gregory...
...Commonwee...
...challenging Mahony's vision of liturgical renewal...
...Hardly...
...More important, presiding in the assembly should not be seen as a denigration of the priest's sacerdotal powers...
...Telephone: (212) 662-4200...
...Mahony had been accused of heresy on national television, and he demanded a retraction and an apology...
...On television last November, Mother Angelica accused Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles of denying the doctrine of the Real Presence...
...E-mail: commonweal@msn.com...
...Much of Adoremus's critique focuses on Mahony's alleged blurring of the liturgical roles of priest and assembly...
...Even the eucharistic prayer, after all, does not belong to the priest alone, but is the prayer of the whole assembly...
...Mother Angelica, a kind of Rush Limbaugh in a wimple, even went on to urge Mahony's flock to deny their bishop "obedience...
...we would not run incendiary ads urging discrimination against blacks, immigrants, women, gays, workers, evangelicals, etc...
...Do we strongly reject much of the thrust of Herrnstein and Murray's Tile Bell Curve...
...Would we reject some ads...
...on the other, we do not consider that publishing an ad constitutes an endorsement by us...
...Single Copy, $2.25...
...Could we read ahead of time all the books we advertise...
...As the report on the liturgy in this issue of Commonweal attests (beginning on page 9), Catholics from across the ideological spectrum have both great devotion to and understandable concerns about current liturgical practice...
...POSTMASTER: send address changes to Commonweal, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 405, New York, NY 10115...
...Consequently, a recognition of the assembly's liturgical authority need not be regarded as a move in a "horizontal" direction and the slighting of the liturgy's "vertical, or transcendent dimension," as Adoremus charges...
...As any fairminded reading of "Gather Faithfully Together" makes clear, Mahony's discussion of the distinct but complementary roles of assembly and priest, the nature of the eucharistic elements, the meaning of the eucharistic prayer, and the use of inclusive language, are uncontroversial...
...we would not run an ad for an abortion clinic...
...The liturgical reform has reminded Catholics that the Eucharist is an act of the entire church, not something the priest "does...
...I answered," Newman recalled, "that the church would look foolish without them...
...We would not run an ad recruiting mercenaries or raising funds for the contras during the Nicaraguan conflict...
...In short, where heterodox views are not asserted, they should Commonweal 5 January30, 1998 not be imputed...
...We believe we would...
...Mahony's pastoral letter, Adoremus divines, is "likely to increase the liturgical confusion already pervasive in the church...
...bank...
...ads that directly urge actions (not ideas) that we consider immoral...
...Europe, $89...
...3, 7, 28, 31, Baloo, Rothco...
...Real changes have been effected by the liturgical reform, and the complexity of eucharistic doct r i n e - i t attempts to explain, after all, a profound mystery--can be daunting...
...6 Janua~ 30, 1998...
...He received a half-hearted obsequium in which Mother Angelica characterized the pastoral letter as "confusing," criticizing its emphasis on the assembly "rather than the Eucharist...
...On the one hand, we consider advertisers innocent until proven guilty...
...Finally, we would certainly reject some ads even for ideas when we find the ideas indisputably and overwhelmingly immoral, for example, books that are unquestionably racist or that blatantly deny the Holocaust or justify torture or are pornographic...
...Special two-year rate: U.S...
...columnist portraits, Elaine Mills...
...A textbook example of how not to engage others is currently being provided by Mother Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), and by Adoremus, the Society for the Renewal of Catholic Liturgy...
...The burden of the letter was Mahony's recognition, in the words of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, that "something more is required than the mere observance of the laws governing valid and lawful celebration" if the liturgy is to enlist the active participation of all...
...Only the most tendentious reading can conclude, as Adoremus incomprehensibly does, that the letter offers a "strikingly truncated theology of the Eucharist" and a "defective, functionalist view of the priesthood...
...Dionne, Jr., Sidney Callahan Staff: Harriette Balsky, Carmen P. Alava, Sandra Smith Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly except Christmas/New Year's...
...p. 22, Lowry, Rothco...
...This strikes us as an impossible and self-defeating route to pursue...
...More than any conceivable shortcoming in Mahony's pastoral letter, it is the intemperate charges of Adoremus and Mother Angelica that increase "the liturgical confusion already pervasive in the church...
...Illustrations: Cover, p. 3, Antonucci...
...Still, Adoremus, whose executive committee features self-styled "orthodox" Catholics Joseph Fessio, S.J., and Helen Hull Hitchcock, has rallied to Mother Angelica's defense with a 5,300-word statement (what is the connection between liturgy and prolixity...
...Canada, $47...
...Failing to understand the "conversational" tone of the letter and overlooking its explicit affirmation of the traditional understanding of transubstantiation, Mother Angelica imagined that "the cardinal of California is teaching that it is bread and wine before the Eucharist and after the Eucharist...
...Or do they condemn first and ask questions later...
...Liturgical confusion C ontroversy need not be a symptom of institutional weakness, decay, or even disunity...
...But doctrinally venturesome...
...Our reasons are both practical and principled...
...Rather, "Gather Faithfully Together" recognizes that priesthood finds its culmination and truest expression precisely in leadership of the worshiping community...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...As "Gather Faithfully Together" demonstrates, Cardinal Mahony shares Newman's sound instincts about the faithfulness and credibility of the laity...
...Canada, $81...
...Although some popular misunderstandings about the priesthood should be a matter of concern, this specific charge is baseless...
...Commonu,eal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest, and Book Review Index...
...Do they presume the best about each other's motives...
...Are they willing to listen to one another...
...Although present in the bread and wine in an exceptional way, Christ is also present in the assembly...
...From time to time, we get complaints about specific ads we run, and from time to time we get out our policy and dust it off...
...It seems to us condescending to protect you from ideas we reject, and all too reminiscent of past unhappy practices of the Catholic church...
...All these elements exist in tension...
...Or the worst...
...Moreover, juxtaposing, as Adoremus does, the ideas of sacrifice and meal, priest and assembly, the socalled "vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions of the Eucharist, is itself a rather truncated understanding of the essentially dialectical nature of the Eucharist...
...Would we refuse to advertise it...
...Principled: Our readers are adults...
...other parts of the world, $99...
...a bishop once condescendingly asked Cardinal Newman...
...But here we would be careful to draw a wide boundary of what can be debated...
...Fax: (212) 662-4183...
...foreign, $50...
...Portland, ME 04106 (207) 799-4387, classified advertising correspondence to 475 Riverside Dr...
...Would we advertise a seriously argued prochoice book or a thoughtful case for assisted suicide...
...Contrary to Adoremus's seeming longing for a return to the days when the distinction between priest and people was given exaggerated importance, the reformed liturgy returns us to a more venerable Catholic tradition that unites all the baptized in one act of sacrifice and remembrance...
...Display advertising correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...In seeming to emphasize the priest as "presider," the cardinal's letter supposedly encourages an effort to cast the assembly as "co-celebrants...
...Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional offices...
...We feel strongly about this policy when it comes to "idea" advertising--for books, tapes, and conferences...
...Who are the laity...
...foreign, $87...
...The source of Mother Angelica's "I will not serve" was her evidently hasty and uncomprehending reading of "Gather Faithfully Together: A Guide to Sunday Mass," a pastoral letter in which Mahony offered a "vision of a parish Sunday Eucharist" as he hoped it would be celebrated in the jubilee year 2000...
...Much depends on how the parties involved in any dispute conduct themselves...
...and monthly July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 475 Riverside Drive, Rm...
...Practical: It would be unrealistic for us to try to evaluate all the ideas that are directly or indirectly promoted through proposed advertisements...
...We thought readers might be interested in knowing how we think about these matters...
...Presumably even cardinals can be extended this courtesy...
...And if we started refusing ads for ideas we disagree with, will readers assume that we agree with the ideas promoted in the ads we do accept...
...p. 3, Ross, Rothco...
...Annual rates for air-mail delivery outside U.S.: Western Hemisphere, $84...
...Yes, and we have: ads that are in themselves hopelessly tasteless or tawdry, regardless of the merits of the advertised products...
...A desire to encourage the full participation of all Catholics in the liturgy--Mahony's stated goal--might seem naturally to begin with a proper regard for the assembly...
...Copyright _9 1998 Commonweal Foundation...
...Web: http: / / www.commonwealmagazine.org...
...they are not mutually exclusive...
...A willingness to presume the good faith and orthopraxis of others would therefore seem appropriate...
...it is often a sign of intellectual vitality and passionate attachment...
...ads that, insofar as we can tell, are fraudulent (it is not always easy to detect this sort of thing until readers alert us...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...Mahony's pastoral letter is, admittedly, very long, somewhat repetitive, and as much pep talk as guideline...
...We have our editorial space and our choice of articles to make clear, forcefully in many cases, where we stand, and our readers, we believe, know the difference between that and paid ads...
...Recent complaints about advertisements for conferences on homosexuality brought out the dust rag...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $44...
...405, New York, NY, 10115...
...Nowhere does Mahony minimize the role or status of the ordained...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M148106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, OH 44691...
...Corn monweal articles also are available at many libraries and research facilities on CDROM and in electronic data bases...
...Even rarer, are they open to the possibility of learning something, even from their critics...
...And readers too can make their views known in our correspondence columns...
...Advertising: One of the pillars of Commonweal's financial semi-solidity is advertising...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...we would not run ads for organizations carrying out anticlinic violence...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Business Manager: Gregory Wilpert Poetry: Rosemary Deen Design: Emil Antonucci Screen: Richard Alleva Media: Frank McConnell Stage: Celia Wren Columnists: John Garvey, Abigail McCarthy, E.J...
...Commonweal's working policy is to sell ad space to those who request it...
Vol. 125 • January 1998 • No. 2
