The Eucharist; today's seminarians, tomorrow's church; more on Catholic colleges
Dressed for life I always appreciate Sidney Callahan's keen common sense. In her fine reflection on the Eucharist [April 23] she writes: "What we imagine, attend to, and imitate we become."...
...A black-and-white moral universe is appealing to some, but the church recognizes the complex, nuanced realities of the modern world...
...Next November our hierarchy must decide where to look first, to Rome or to our schools...
...These factors raise some additional questions that were not included in your special issue...
...Thus the integral celebration of the Eucharist must, of its nature, foster countercultural attitudes and dispositions, however much we celebrants may camouflage them with clouds of incense...
...enough time and anguish have been spent on canonical rules, and not enough on reversing secularization and promoting a dynamic Christian presence in academia...
...I do not question the sincerity or good faith of the Mount Saint Mary's seminarians, but I do question whether asceticism, mystical piety, and clericalism encourage priests to develop whole, integrated lives...
...Chesterton in his biography of Thomas, Bishop Tempier "thought that admiring Aristotle was a weakness likely to be followed by adoring Apollo...
...Periodic solution Re: "Keeping Colleges Catholic...
...In fact, Rome did have an effect on me...
...As Callahan ponders the appropriateness of the assembly's donning the "thanks and praise garments—much like the gowns worn by Oxford scholars to signal their role as seekers after wisdom," she might incorporate Annie Dillard's suggestion regarding the headgear most suitable for the liturgy's transformative challenge: the crash helmet...
...To accomplish this requires consideration of more than one perspective, perhaps even a few of the "ahistorical truths" taught at Mount Saint Mary's...
...It's fine to quote Karl Rahner's phrase, "the world is a sacrament," for there's obviously truth in it...
...The time has come for a reaffirmation of our eucharistic faith, and this includes a hard look at contemporary Catholicism's suspicion of beauty, awe, and silence (when was the last time your celebrant observed the "meditation after Communion" prescribed for liturgy...
...In just the past two weeks I have had to explain the Angelus, mortal sin, and Easter duty...
...Article 7 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy declares the presence to abide there "most especially" (or "par excellence," as Callahan renders it)— "maxime sub speciebus eucharisticis" (emphasis added...
...I hope they do not stand so far apart that they lose touch with reality...
...he merely transferred to a non-Catholic chair in the religion department...
...While identifying with the other "presences" of Christ just as Callahan does—congregation, Scripture, celebrant—Vatican 11 is at pains to privilege Christ's presence "under the species of the Eucharist...
...Isn't the Holy Spirit involved here somewhere...
...Amid their preoccupations with Roman collars and people's reactions, wedding rings, chalices, married couples "contracepting," feelgood files certifying their worth and their fantasies of heaven, I missed a passion for social justice, compassion for disenfranchised Catholics, concern about women in the church, a realistic appreciation of the relationship between sexual orientation and mature celibacy, and an awareness of the importance of laity as church...
...WAYNE SATTLER Bismarck, N. Dak...
...When the students talk about those dorm Masses, they say things like, "I only like going to Mass in my dorm because there the homily is geared to us, and all my friends are there and I feel close to them...
...In my forty years of pastoral experience, I have found that the most effective priests are those who are comfortable with their own humanity and are open to the humanity of others...
...The Matterhorn you sled down is pasteboard, held up by scaffolding, hollow inside...
...ROBERT NUGENT, S.D.S...
...david munroe Montgomery, Ohio Widen your lens As faculty members in a Catholic institution of higher education, teaching in a theological department whose student body is highly ecumenical and quite pluralistic, we were very appreciative of the insightful articles dealing with Ex corde ecclesiae and its proposed norms...
...The problem has been discussed at length and eloquently in past issues of Commonweal, but Callahan says it simply: The pendulum has swung too far...
...If the local ordinary received a copy of the report, the canonical element would be satisfied, and the cloud of mistrust would be blown away...
...This would accomplish a juridical tie with minimal impact on academic freedom...
...J. MURRAY ELWOOD Strafford, Pa...
...You question the validity of the seminarians' vocations by noting that the distance "traveled from obedient, rulefollowing careerist to obedient, rulefollowing seminarian is not that great...
...We need priests who, through their life-giving example and leadership, can inspire the people of God to live the vision of a whole, just, and peaceful world...
...The church, as a mother, has always been concerned with helping to form the consciences of her children and has entrusted this duty to her priests...
...But such a sanction would be a last resort, and, as Steinfels says, procedures could be devised to assure that it will be used only "rarely and responsibly...
...I left for ordination full of zeal, high in ideals, in love with the church, and with a filial affection for Pope John Paul II...
...anthony kosnick ANNALIESE SINNOT Detroit, Mich...
...Thin faith at Notre Dame Though I agree with Andrew Greeley [April 9] that Notre Dame students have an emotional attachment to the Grotto and to dorm Masses, I am constantly surprised by their ignorance of the most basic points of Christian doctrine, church history, the saints, liturgy, and traditional Catholic piety...
...No college that accepts the notion of prior restraints juridically imposed can command respect...
...The seminarians' perception of confession and their role of judging sins and giving correct penances is far from Vatican II's renewal of the communal aspect of reconciliation and the role of confessor as physician and healer...
...These were the days when 90 percent of baptized Catholics attended Mass...
...The bishops and each pope since John XXIII have called the church to a creative engagement with human cultures, rather than an anxiously disengaged parochialism...
...And this means that "Catholics should get ready to hear plenty about the redemptive meaning of suffering...
...Greeley's best As a Commonweal reader who doesn't like to admit that he goes all the way back to the editorship of John Cogley, I think your recent "Keeping Colleges Catholic" is the most arresting and topical issue I've ever read...
...REV...
...All too often our culture imagines, attends to, and imitates death not life, as that cranky and canny Catholic, Walker Percy, warned in The Thanatos Syndrome (a warning eerily echoed in Don DeLillo's White Noise...
...Faith in and experience of the real presence in the Eucharist does not in any inevitable way cancel our experience of each other as a sacred community, our openness to the power of Scripture, our impulse to charity and social justice, or our response to the world as a place where grace abounds...
...For many Catholics today, according to all these disturbing polls we read, the Communion event is genial and commemorative, as it is for many Protestants, but hardly an experience of the "body, blood, soul, and divinity" of Jesus himself, as our predecessors in the faith witnessed it to be...
...I admire their dedication, commitment, and emphasis on prayer and preaching...
...The disastrous loss of adherents to mainline Protestantism—that is, to religion that's become mere "ethics with feeling"— should serve as a sad but clear warning...
...Glib is right down his alleyWanted: dialogue I would like to commend your analysis of the recent article on Catholic seminarians published in the New York Times Magazine...
...How does one do advanced studies without knowing the basics...
...Voice from the future I thought you might be interested, or at least amused, to hear from one who rather fits the stereotype of upcoming priests you outlined in your editorial [April 23], having been ordained but two years and having received my seminary formation from the Pontifical North American College in Rome...
...Second, the editorial in question did not find theological conservatism worrisome...
...When Hans Kiing's mandate was withdrawn he continued to teach at Tubingen, a state university...
...This would be a theological quibble if the issue of Real Presence hadn't become a central factor in contemporary Catholicism's crisis of faith...
...What do they know...
...That these words embarrass us today is a sobering development, for it can persuasively be argued that much of the strength of Catholic loyalty in the past—in the face of mumbled Latin Masses and all the other issues—had to do with knowing that "Jesus is here in this church" and capable of uniquely incarnating his words from John, "1 in them...
...Reality check As a Vatican II-generation priest, I was glad to learn I was not alone in feeling despondent after reading the New York Times Magazine article on seminarians...
...The theologians at Notre Dame rightly insist that it isn't their job to do catechesis and apologetics, but we have this unusual configuration where students may know Karl Rahner but not the catechism...
...As for sermons on "the redemptive meaning of suffering," I welcome them—they give me hope after reading statements like these...
...REV...
...MOST RKV...
...GEORGE F. WERNER Edgewood, N.Mex...
...It would cost money, but isn't Catholic identity and academic freedom worth it...
...Given that the modern world would never encourage such radical behavior, perhaps a "retreat from the modern world" is just what is needed to get on the right path...
...The church has certainly contributed to making the world a more human place, but Jesus' invitation to "deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me" (Luke 9:23) will always be countercultural...
...If Stephen Tempier, bishop of Paris in Thomas Aquinas's day, had had the power to impose a prior restraint on the work of scholars, much of the work of the church's greatest philosopher might never have been produced...
...The writers are, respectively, director and associate director of the pastoral ministry department at Marygrove College...
...network, a Catholic social-justice lobby, has just released the results of its three-year effort to track the outcome of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996...
...They believed the immortal souls of their students were at stake...
...Issues of principle, academic freedom, canon law, etc., apart, the civil legalities alone—as outlined by Paul Saunders—are enough to caution our bishops about which choice to make...
...Greeley insists that Notre Dame students like being Catholic, but I hear a surprising number say or write in their papers comments such as, "I don't go to Mass," "My roommate is an atheist," "I've been to confession twice in my life," and "What is an encyclical...
...REV...
...Room for the spirit Your recent editorial regarding the Mount Saint Mary's seminarians is startling in its judgmentalness...
...This would end academic freedom, imperil federal aid, etc...
...john david Alexandria, Va...
...Equally worrisome are glib sermons on the redemptive meaning of suffering, which have too often been used in the past to excuse a certain moral complacency...
...What lies behind the tidal wave of "spirituality," New Age and otherwise, is a hunger for the "sense of the sacred," that is, for contact with the mysterium tremendum that the church used to provide and that seems to have been largely expropriated by science and quantum cosmology, the angel craze, and by such Hollywood imaginings as Close Encounters and Star Wars...
...Certainly Oscar Romero did...
...For the complete report, "Poverty amid Plenty," see network at hyperlink http: / / www.networklobby.org...
...Baltimore, Md...
...I might also remind you that freedom of conscience, that fundamental Christian value, requires that the conscience be properly formed...
...In the future, we suggest that such perspectives find their way into your otherwise quite comprehensive explorations...
...Lessons from Germany All the authors of "Keeping Colleges Catholic" condemned any juridical ties between the church and the university...
...I admire their willingness to stand against the culture for the truth, but their unnuanced equation of truth with "what the church is saying" is revealing...
...Logically, in fact, our engagement with the world stands to be strengthened by the empowering experience of Christ's presence within our very tissues...
...But that sound bite, in a world that runs on sound bites, can subtly disorient us...
...Furthermore, in response to your concern about how ready people in the pews are to return to sermons on difficult moral issues, although abortion and contraception are not regular topics, my parishioners' response has (Continued on page 28) 4 (Continued from page 4) been overwhelmingly positive on the occasions I have addressed them...
...My love for the church is paralleled and complemented by the love I bear for my parishioners, so that I am compelled to reveal the beauty of the church's teachings to them...
...They find 29 emotional support in the dorm Masses and inspiration in service work, but little philosophical or intellectual support for Catholicism...
...At the end of the moratorium period, a reassessment of the situation can be made...
...According to G.K...
...If eucharistic celebration lies at the heart of the "Gospel of Life," it also impels us to discern the anti-eucharistic elements that pervade much of our culture...
...ROBERT HYDE Whitney Point, N.Y...
...Although I do not teach theology, I regularly have to explain doctrines or define terms because they come up in our readings and no one knows what they mean...
...We cannot predict how these men will grow, but we should at least give them the benefit of the doubt that they will...
...But we need to recall the words of Andrew Greeley from another recent issue of Commonweal [April 9], that Catholicism is a "both/and" religion...
...Theology professors would, like Kung, merely move to the religious studies department...
...RP.V...
...What need do we have then of the "sacrament" of church if it is merely more of the same, or in a word, redundant...
...we learn that many of today's seminarians are "theologically conser(Continued on page 4) 2 (Continued from page 4) vative," making it "worrisome" that their thinking is "as uniform as their clothing...
...However, we felt a certain deficiency in your presentation...
...As part of the study, a statistical survey was distributed in ten states to fifty-nine Catholic social-service facilities with heavy caseloads of people eligible for AFDC...
...They know that priests should be allowed to marry, women should be ordained, natural family planning is a joke, and the church is cruel to gays and lesbians...
...Poverty amid plenty Skip Barry ["Homeless at Fifty-five," April 23] has it exactly right: "Washington and state governments need to step up efforts to insure that the rewards of a growing economy are more equitably distributed...
...They know that the pre-Vatican II church was horrible, that Mass then was muttered in some foreign gibberish and the congregation didn't "participate...
...bishops adopt a five-year moratorium on the canonical question as Cavadini urges, so that "with muscle" bishops and college administrators develop strategies, courses, and opportunities to reaffirm a higher education tradition that is both academi28 cally excellent and profoundly Catholic...
...So do not be too quick to judge us young clergy...
...Didn't Thomas Merton grow as time progressed...
...john fahey Copperopolis, Calif...
...Those earlier Catholic faculty members were candid about the fact that they were evangelizing, catechizing, and proselytizing...
...Could we not take a lesson from Germany...
...Or, "I hate Mass in my parish church because of all the dumb, boring ritual...
...As regards the latter, quite frankly I don't have time to watch "Seinfeld," and rock 'n' roll docs nothing to wind me down at the end of the day...
...Donohue welcomes such sermons...
...If there is a compromise, I cannot imagine what it might be...
...I wonder how many of them will have read this issue of Commonweal by the time they have gone to Washington in November...
...But certainly the "juridical" control the Vatican is demanding cannot take the form of a prior restraint upon thinking and publishing...
...Far from approaching these concerns to scold my parishioners, I have been able to "intellectually engage and transform" my parishioners on these topics...
...But we don't doubt that Mr...
...The editors reply: Mr...
...C. ARRICALE Bayside, N.Y...
...Donohue is both a careless reader and a tendentious one...
...WILLIAM A. DONIOHL'E New York, N.Y...
...Uniformly mistaken In the April 23 editorial ('The Future...
...Bland uniformity of opinion among liberal theologians is just as bad...
...marian e. crowe Notre Dame, Ind...
...The Mississippi River at Disneyland looks deep but in fact is pretty shallow— only a couple of feet...
...Every American college goes through a periodic review by its accrediting agency...
...it found the bland uniformity of opinion among the seminarians worrisome...
...Also, I fail to appreciate how subjecting myself to these "sexually decadent and seductive" forms of entertainment will enhance my ability to preach...
...REV...
...Rather, I would endorse Peter Steinfels's suggestion: Start with "a definition of Catholic identity" and establish "benchmarks for measuring how [colleges] are living up to that definition...
...But your real lack of charity is the failure to grant that the seminarians are on a spiritual journey, of which Mount Saint Mary's is just a starting point...
...To us Commonweal Catholics, this line of talk can sound awfully like "restorationism," as Callahan implies...
...george e. ward Plymouth, Mich...
...Good vision Congratulations, and thanks, for the vision and good work that went into the special section on keeping colleges Catholic...
...FRANK...
...In fairness, this article was about only one seminary and three representative students interviewed, but I fear they represent many more...
...No wonder people are turning elsewhere...
...Touchdown Jesus, the Grotto, and the Golden Dome are testimonies to the faith of earlier generations of Holy Cross priests and their students, but not necessarily to that of most of the current faculty or students...
...We work among a student body that is largely female, largely AfricanAmerican, and represents a variety of Christian traditions...
...All the articles were superb, but Andrew Greeley's was Andrew Greeley at his best—wry, witty, caustic, and full of hope...
...Let the energies be directed to producing models in the concrete campuses of various types and traditions...
...In the editorial, you expressed concern that a person like myself would find a difficult time being heard by an "educated audience and questioning laity," especially if I chose to address topics of abortion and contraception and didn't subject myself to listening to rock 'n' roll and watching "Seinfeld...
...Key findings show that poverty continues as people receive less government assistance, and that a staggering 35 million people live in poverty at the same time that segments of the nation's people enjoy unparalleled economic prosperity...
...The study is one of the few that have followed people dropped from the public-assistance rolls...
...This survey revealed just how radically the sense of the sacred has been expunged from our liturgical and devotional traditions...
...Although I feel "Catholic studies" as opposed to Catholic theology is a subdivision of anthropology, I accept Steinfels's admonition that Catholic identity on campus can come in a variety of models...
...Two years later, not much has changed...
...While knowing that "the church will triumph" might console them, I suspect it will only reinforce their feeling of men standing apart...
...You spoke of the importance of freedom of conscience, but a conscience is only free to choose when it is properly informed...
...Peter Steinfels and John Cavadini clearly distinguish between the need to reassert and define Catholic identity on the campus (especially in the wake of the 1960s and 1970s "silliness" so well graphed by Andrew Greeley), and the canonical controversy provoked by the papal letter's juridical concerns, which, in turn, can cause the unforeseen civil-law disasters outlined by Paul Saunders...
...Moratorium "with muscle" Commonweal has again surpassed itself [April 9...
...Greeley's reference to Notre Dame as a "Catholic theme park" is perhaps more accurate than he knows...
...Maybe we do not...
...In that spirit, I pray the U.S...
...ANNE LAURANCE Washington, D.C...
...The writer is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights...
...In the wake of the Littleton killings we also glimpse the demonic underside of that observation...
...Catholic colleges might enhance this process with a review of their Catholic identity by the establishment of goals, self-study, review by outside experts, and on implementation schedule...
...One wonders just what their theology of the Eucharist is...
...ROBERT P. IMBELLI Newton Centre, Mass...
...It's nice to know what constitutes a hot button at Commonweal these days, but beyond that, I don't believe for a moment that the editors have a problem with uniform thinking: Had the seminarians been uniformly of the "We Are Church" school of thought, they would have been hailed for their open-mindedness...
...Required reading The April 9 issue of Commonweal with its special supplement on Ex corde ecclesiae was excellent...
...As Steinfels points out, "bishops always retain the prerogative of unilaterally announcing that a college or university" can no longer be "considered distinctly Catholic...
...The writer is an adjunct assistant professor in the arts and letters core course at Notre Dame...
...Surely the starting point of a conversion is not abandonment of one's personality and temperament, but orienting these toward Christ...
...Mount Saint Mary's Seminary is located in the Western Vicariate of the Archdiocese of Baltimore where I am privileged to serve as vicar bishop...
...FRANCIS MURPHY Baltimore, Md...
...Sense of the sacred In my opinion, Sidney Callahan ["The Eucharist," April 23] has isolated a core crisis in North American Catholicism—the demystification of the Eucharist...
...I sense that many of my students who are holding onto their Catholic faith are confused, struggling hard to make it a coherent and strong center for their lives, and finding little intellectual support for it...
...An honorable compromise would be that no faculty member would lose a job as a result of theological dissent...
...Several years ago, America asked two dozen or so practicing Roman Catholics to describe how they experienced God in their lives, and not one of them mentioned "in the sacrament of the Eucharist...
...First, we challenge him to find one positive editorial reference in Commonweal to "We Are Church...
...Prior restraint As a graduate of a Jesuit university, I can appreciate the difficulty of maintaining both a Catholic identity and academic integrity...
...Indeed, as Callahan found, sacramentality is often sensed everywhere except in the church...
...I encourage you to continue the dialogue on these important issues...
...While some may regard the seminary training at the Mount as a reassuring return to an earlier tradition of American Catholicism, I fear that it represents a departure from our more enduring practice of open dialogue in discerning our unfolding tradition...
...JOHN MULREANY Elmhurst, N.Y...
...It seems a little-known fact that the church's moral teachings are not meant to be punitive or burdensome, but are promulgated to guide people toward true fulfillment in their daily life...
...The seminarians cannot be faulted for being made of the same "psychic stuff" both before and after they entered the seminary...
Vol. 126 • May 1999 • No. 10
