What's the message on the runway for Baroque fashions? (Opinion)

When I was a boy, more than 50 years ago, ecclesiastical clothes were impressive. 

They were unusual and colorful, antique and sacral; they were distinctively Roman Catholic. 

The colored watered silk, the jeweled gloves, the red slippers (buskins) pointed to an individual caught up in a church office. 

This transcendent figure, a representative of the divine, appeared among the ordinary suits and dresses of working-class Catholics at rare moments. 

Nonetheless, even as a teenager singing in a college choir at the archbishop's liturgies, I had already noticed that sometimes rituals focused more on the clothes than on religious words and sacrament. Removing gloves and putting on glasses, keeping a skullcap in place or adjusting a pallium could appear more important than the elevation of the chalice.

Time passes, and today ecclesiastical clothes are less intelligible and point less clearly to something beyond their colors and gilt. They raise questions of gender and class, of culture and sacramentality.

There are three kinds of clothes male Catholics wear for public ecclesiastical and liturgical events. There are vestments for the liturgy of the Eucharist and other sacraments and for devotions. Among them are chasuble and stole, alb and cincture, miter and cope. Second, there are the habits of religious orders and congregations. Third, there are special garments for those in the episcopal order and for those in levels below (monsignors) or above (cardinals). Vestments at the Eucharist and other liturgies appear at their best when they are simple, aesthetically pleasing and inspiring to the people viewing them. Members of religious orders, particularly monks and friars, tend to wear their habits at liturgy and at other times inside their religious houses.

Here is a ninth-century description of the liturgical clothes used by the bishop of Rome, clothes related in their style to garments worn by Romans two centuries earlier. Walahfrid Strabo, who died in 849, wrote: "Priestly vestments have become progressively what they are today: ornaments. In earlier times priests celebrated Mass dressed like everyone else."

Often special church garments do not come from the patristic or medieval period (which did not encourage distinctive clothes). They come from the Baroque period from 1580 to 1720, when liturgy as theater arranged rituals to channel graces. After 1620, in the world of Pope Urban VIII, ecclesiastical garments began to assume the importance they have today in spotlighting ecclesiastical officeholders. Who may wear what, in which color, and at which church services? The years from 1830 to 1960 witnessed additional, quite artificial elaborations of church attire. Today vestments that reflect the simplicity of the patristic or early medieval style also appear contemporary, while those that appear antiquarian and flamboyant are the product of the Baroque.

Critics of religious clothes

Jesus is a critic of religion. He warns against human display and the use of religious objects to disdain others. He condemns using religion to further being noticed or set apart from most people. "The scribes and the Pharisees … do all their deeds to be seen by people; they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues … The greatest among you must be your slave" (Matthew 23:5-6, 12).

Few dimensions of human life aroused Jesus' anger, but religious leaders seeking attention and power through clothes were called "whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead" (Matthew 23:27).

In the years just before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Dominican Fr. Yves Congar wrote a critique of the church's display of power and privilege. He had researched the origins of church vestments and insignia in the Roman Empire and in feudalism, concluding that those clothes no longer have any clear meaning for people. He concluded that vestments can have value, although their religious presence must resonate with the people they address.

One contemporary critique of ecclesiastical clothes was Federico Fellini's 1972 movie "Roma." Ecclesiastical fashions are exhibited on a runway where models display chasubles and miters for an audience of nuns and clerics and a presiding cardinal, a pale, sexless creature with crimson robes and ill-suited sunglasses who falls asleep. The style show ends with new designs using electric lights on chasubles.

Vatican II spoke of "a noble simplicity" for ecclesiastical clothes. In the years just after Vatican II, Pope Paul VI sold papal tiaras and issued instructions to set aside unusual clothes like flamboyant cloaks, colored stockings, special buckles and sashes with tassels.

Clothes today

Among a few small groups in the church, religious clothes are returning. They may be returning not as religious signs but as distractions from faith and ministry. Sashes and birettas, chains and large crosses, amices and maniples, special gloves and shoes have reappeared. Restorationist and reactionary groups tend to have striking clothes just as dictatorships have uniforms.

These groups show a preference for special kinds of clerical collars, tall miters, elaborate trains, a metal cross hung around the neck. Programs on EWTN are the runway for Baroque fashions, some authentic, some from the 19th century, most imitations. Great attention is given to gold vestments and gold vessels, odd new habits and distortions of past religious objects. Monastic habits with tunic and hood were originally the ordinary clothes of laborers. As centuries passed, they became unusual when ordinary clothes changed. Still, the habits of the medieval monks and friars were simple, and no sashes and capes or medals are added. The habits of many congregations of men founded after 1830 were colorful and attention-getting, elaborating on the medieval or Baroque but without any connection to the modern world.

At graduations at Catholic universities, students, faculty and administrators wear their academic robes, while parents and families wear suits and dresses. A bishop in a silk cape with ribbons and a skullcap looks out of place. Once, at a fundraising event in a large hotel, a bishop wore what he called his "full dress uniform, which attracts lots of compliments on my wardrobe." The main speaker of the night remarked: "If I were dying and someone with a red bow and gown drew near, I would be scared stiff."

The media pays attention to the current pope's red-pink shoes, fur-lined hat of the eighth century, elaborately embroidered stole from the 18th century. Recent images on television of bishops and popes in white and red cassocks, Renaissance hats and jeweled gloves no longer seem religious and sacramental but antiquarian and self-centered. The pope, during a visit to the White House garden in white cassock and no visible pants, looked out of place; distinctive and different, yes, but not spiritual. American Catholics are, for the first time, reacting to televised gatherings of bishops and cardinals where there is concern over wearing properly colored skirts and sashes.

Clothes and ministry

New religious groups in the United States, along with some young members of older orders seem eager to wear a religious habit in public, not just on the grounds around a school but at airports or on the subway. What does a monastic habit or a cassock in public say to Americans at the beginning of the 21st century? It is not at all evident that the general public knows who this strangely dressed person is or even connects the clothes to religion. The symbolism is not clear and a message is not evident. The person does stand out, but as a kind of public oddity. Eccentric clothes instill separation. While some argue that odd clothes attract people, the fact is that more often than not they repel. Normal people are not attracted by the antique or bizarre costume, and ordinary Christians are not drawn to those whose special costume implies that others are inferior. Sometimes wearing clothes seems to be a substitute for real ministry.

It is not clear how men wearing dresses and capes proclaim God's transcendence or the Gospel's love. A man's identity is something complex; the search for it lasts a lifetime. A celibate cleric gives up things that form male identity, like being a husband and a father. One cannot overlook possible links between unusual clothes and celibacy. Does the celibate male have a neutral or third sexuality that can put on unusual clothes? Are special clothes a protection of celibacy? Or are they a neutralization of maleness? Why would a man want to wear a long dress or a cape in public? Are spiritual reasons the true motivation?

Cultural meaning

Clothes are useful as they keep us warm or cool and cover our nakedness. They can make men and women attractive to others. Human beings and societies have come up with a variety of clothes to which they give particular meanings, using a few clothes as symbols -- the toga, the high hat, the veil, the robe. What do ecclesiastical clothes say today? This question touches not only the wearer's identity but the community's faith. There is no absolute answer, no answer apart from people in their time and culture. Tradition and history are not an answer, for there is always a time when this ecclesiastical garment was unknown and there will be a time when it will be seen only in a museum.

Time brings and then buries styles. A medieval person probably understood episcopal regalia fairly well because aspects of his or her life depended upon its rare appearance, and it was seen in a milieu of many insignia. The elaborate arrangement of artificial clothes in the Catholic church is from the past four centuries. Today, unusual clothes appear on television as something connected to entertainment. What thoughts are conjured up when a cardinal or archbishop appears at a baseball game in a cape and gown? What does the cape and sash say personally and socially? Does it recall the New Testament or the liturgy of the Christian community?

There are no intrinsically religious clothes. Religious clothes are meant to point to some truth of faith or suggest a sacramental presence. The public person of each minister in the church should relate to the humble Jesus and to sacramentality in this church's life. In the Christian community all clothing -- this includes liturgical clothing -- expresses the church's life animated by the Spirit. Capes and cloaks in a Baroque style are neither prophetic nor countercultural. If regal or antiquarian distinction was once a value for church leaders, if pretension to being ecclesiastically or even metaphysically better was presumed, since Vatican II more and more people ignore such displays. Time never stands still. What seemed powerful in the past is today merely curious. Many Catholics are reaching a point where antiquated clothes are not inspiring and sacramental but exist outside human life.

Both the church's expression of the reign of God and the culture to which it speaks are historical. Change touches everything. At any time, something new is being born and something static and alien is dying. History flows through the relationships between faith and grace and people, and those are always being determined anew in the concrete. The Holy Spirit strives, against sin, unreality and selfishness, to animate the church. In the last analysis, clothes are just clothes.

Henry David Thoreau said it well: "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." Perhaps some lesson remains in the words of Psalm 132: "I will vest the priests in holiness, and the faithful will shout for joy."

[Dominican Fr. Thomas O'Meara is the Warren Professor of Theology Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. His latest book is Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation]

Fr. Flannery's grasp of theology better than that of his silencers

The Irish Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery refuses to meet the Vatican demand that he affirm, among other things, that "Christ instituted the church with a permanent hierarchical structure and that bishops are divinely appointed successors to the apostles."

Flannery, a popular preacher and writer, told The New York Times he has been "writing thought-provoking articles and books for decades without hindrance" and that the campaign against him "is being orchestrated by a secretive body that refuses to meet me. Surely I should at least be allowed to explain my views to my accusers."

Flannery also organized the Association of Catholic Priests in 2009 to articulate the views of rank-and-file members of the clergy, the Times reports. Flannery may have gotten himself investigated as much for giving Irish priests a voice as for using his own in challenging old-fashioned formulations with his well-informed knowledge of theology and history.

If Father Flannery is being asked to endorse the notion that Jesus established the hierarchical church and that the bishops are the divinely appointed successors of the apostles, one might be more concerned about how firm a grasp his accusers have on modern theology.

This incident is an early 21st-century reprise of the early 20th-century Roman worldwide crackdown on priests who were keeping up with the new advances in theological and scriptural studies. All priests were forced to take the Oath Against Modernism, the vague catch-all phrase that supposedly summarized the heresies rampant in the new learning.

In the United States, as historian Michael Gannon has shown in his work on the American priesthood before and after the modernist condemnation, committees of vigilance were set up to monitor and report on what priests were reading. 

The first American theological journal, the New York Review, was suppressed in 1909, and another did not appear until Theological Studies in 1940. The chaplain of the police department replaced the progressive rector of New York's St. Joseph's Seminary.

The situation is much different now, and while the Flannery condemnation is remarkable enough in itself, it should be recognized as a harbinger of the kind of problem that sure-of-their-infallibility Vatican authorities will encounter in their relationships with the rising generation of theological scholars, most of whom are laymen and women who will not accept condemnations such as that now imposed on Father Flannery.

Even well-educated Catholics know as much or more theology than these veiled Roman enforcers. That also goes for the American bishops, who are wonderful men in general but who are unprepared for theological conversations with their people. One of the reasons the bishops have difficulty in communicating effectively with ordinary Catholics arises from their discomfort and/or inability to discuss theological issues with them.

Consider just two of those that Flannery is being forced to sign off on if he wants to continue his work: Christ's having established the church in hierarchical form and the assertion, employed constantly by bishops to legitimate their authority, that they are the direct descendants of the apostles.

If anything, Christ called together a college of apostles, and the collegiality to which Vatican II returned is a far better image than the hierarchical form that was adopted from the hierarchical cosmological view of the universe and expressed in secular kingdoms, including the Roman Empire, whose provinces and proconsuls provided the model for laying out the governance of the church.
 
How many bishops have studied the work of one of America's foremost sacramental theologians, Franciscan Fr. Kenan Osborne, who writes in his book Priesthood: A History of Ordained Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church (Paulist Press) that "the college of bishops is not simply the sum of individual bishops ... It is fundamentally the college of bishops which is the successor of the 'College of the Apostles.' "

In other words, the succession is a function of the collegiality that Pope John Paul II so energetically suppressed with the help of the present pope when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is not related to the hierarchical form the pope is trying to revive throughout the church.

Flannery's condemnation is an augury of the deepening estrangement that will take place if the Vatican does not respect the growing theological understanding of its members. The bishops are sincere in wanting to establish better channels of communication with their people. 

The best thing they can do to achieve that is to master the language of modern theological and scriptural studies that so many Catholics understand better than they do right now.

[Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago]

Obama proposals on gun control align with religious leaders' pleas

A wide coalition of 47 national Catholic and other religious leaders urged an assault weapons ban and other tough measures against gun violence the day before President Barack Obama announced gun control proposals that largely matched their pleas.

"Every person who buys a gun should pass a criminal background check," the religious leaders said in a letter to Congress that was released Jan. 15.

The next day, Obama, announcing executive decisions and legislative proposals based on recommendations of a task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden, called for universal background checks before all firearm sales.

"High-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines should not be available to civilians," the religious leaders said. Obama asked Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds and ban the sale of armor-piercing bullets to civilians.

"Gun trafficking should be made a federal crime," the religious leaders said. Obama called for new legislation with stiffer penalties and stricter enforcement against straw buyers who purchase weapons for others who would not pass a background check.

Among the 14 Catholic leaders who signed the letter to Congress were Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Daughter of Charity Sr. Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association; and Fr. Larry Snyder, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.

At a news conference in Washington Jan. 15, Keehan said the nation's Catholic hospitals see the results of gun violence "in our emergency rooms every day."
Keehan was one of several faith leaders who spoke at the media event, sponsored by Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence and held at the United Methodist Building across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We know the cost, in lives and dollars, that could be prevented by a wiser gun policy and a better mental health safety net," she said.

"The Catholic church has spoken out for years about the urgency of reducing gun violence," she added. "Following the Newtown shooting [killing 20 children and six adult staff members at an elementary school in December], our bishops endorsed once again the effort to create a better gun ownership policy."

Keehan noted that she "saw the effects of gun violence firsthand" when she was president of Providence Hospital near The Catholic University of America in Washington. "I saw it in my emergency room when gang members would drive by and dump one of their comrades who had been shot, when people would come after them to finish the job, when people would come in dead that we could do nothing for. There were even people shot on our hospital grounds. When you work in an inner-city hospital, sadly, gun violence is all too routine."

Universal background checks, bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and stricter legislation against gun trafficking "will help save lives and make our communities safer," Keehan said.

"As we suggest these measures, we do so with great respect for our Constitution and the rights of hunters," she said, "but we join that to a respect for the lives of the people of our country. … I believe there is a balance between gun ownership and the broad availability of weapons that can only lead to tremendous violence."

The U.S. bishops "hope that the steps taken by the administration will help to build a culture of life," Blaire said in a Jan. 18 statement reacting to Obama's proposals.

"The frequent mass shootings over the course of 2012 reflected a tragic devaluing of human life, but also pointed to the moral duty of all people to take steps to defend it," Blaire said.

At the Jan. 15 news conference, the Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent evangelical leader and president and CEO of the national Christian magazine Sojourners, challenged the declaration by National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre, following the Dec. 14 mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

"That statement is at the heart of the problem of gun violence in America today," Wallis said, "not just because it is factually flawed, which of course it is, but because it is morally mistaken, theologically dangerous and religiously repugnant."

"The world is not full of 'good' and 'bad' people," Wallis added. "That is not what our Scriptures teach us. We are as human beings both good and bad. … As individual persons we have both good and bad in us -- and when we are bad, or isolated, or angry or furious or vengeful, or politically agitated, or confused or lost, or deranged or unhinged, and we have the ability to get and use weapons only designed to kill large numbers of people, our society is in great danger."

"When such weapons are allowed to be used out of powerful emotions, without restraints or rules," he said, American parents cannot honestly tell their children that they are safe and free of danger. "We cannot because they are not."

Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence was started two years ago by leaders of 24 national faith organizations, including Catholic, Protestant, interfaith, Jewish and Muslim groups. It has since grown to include at least 40 such groups.

Dublin rally supports Irish priest under Vatican scrutiny

An estimated 250 protesters demonstrated Sunday evening in Dublin at a vigil outside the papal nunciature in support of the restoration to ministry of Irish Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery.

A letter addressed to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, was handed in by the Irish branch of the We Are Church lay movement.

The protesters were mainly in their 60s or older, and two-thirds of them were women. They carried a banner that read "Dialogue Yes. Silence No." and sang the 1960s protest song of the civil rights movement, "We Shall Overcome."

The letter stated that the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had acted unjustly in its treatment of Flannery and should now restore him to his full priestly ministry.

"Catholics have to be grateful for the courage of Fr. Flannery in exposing the unacceptable insidious methods used by the congregation in silencing priests like Tony and many others," said Brendan Butler, the organizer of the protest, who also announced that a petition calling on the doctrinal congregation to restore Flannery to the ministry had by Sunday evening been signed by 1,400 Catholics in Ireland and from all over the world.

However, Brown was not at the residence, having traveled to County Cork for the consecration in Cobh Cathedral of Kerry priest William Crean as the 67th bishop of Cloyne and Ross in succession to the former secretary to three popes, John Magee.

Meanwhile, controversy continued over reported quotes from "senior Vatican sources" denying Flannery's claims that he was threatened excommunication by the congregation. 

But documents seen by the Sunday Independent in Dublin appeared to vindicate Flannery's assertion.

Following Flannery's coming under investigation a year ago for his writings in the Redemptorist magazine, the correspondence shows that the doctrinal congregation complained that he expressed heretical or heterodox views and pointed out that "a priest who has committed the delict [act] of heresy" incurs a "latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication."

Among demands made by the doctrinal congregation were for Flannery to accept that "ordination of women is not possible," but he said he still believes in ordaining women priests.

Butler told NCR that his group is considering traveling to Rome for delivery of the signatures to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Archbishop Gerhard Müller.

Church report criticises politicians and media over 'poverty stigma'

Church Action on Poverty has launched a shocking new report which exposes the huge harm done by politicians and the media to poor and vulnerable people. 

'The blame game must stop' offers a Christian response to the growing stigmatisation of people who are in poverty.

The report features powerful stories, gathered from people on benefits or low wages as part of the recent Greater Manchester Poverty Commission.

People said things like: "I don’t feel like a person any more" ...
 
"The poor are not listened to", "I feel as if my life is public property", "At the benefits office, they talk to you like you are a piece of dirt."

The latter prejudice will be exposed on a Panorama BBC1 television documentary tonight, which looks at disabled people and benefits.

The new Church Action on Poverty contains some powerful new statistics, gathered by the Free Churches' Joint Public Issues Team, which explode some of the myths used to demonise people experiencing poverty.

The report makes clear recommendations for how everybody - including politicians, journalists and the public - can end this harming blame game, and stop scapegoating the most vulnerable people in our society.

Niall Cooper, National Coordinator of Church Action on Poverty, said: “It is appalling that the UK’s economic crisis and rising levels of poverty are being blamed on those who are actually feeling their worst effects.

"Politicians and the media use abusive language and images, and fuel mistrust by contrasting supposed ‘strivers’ with ‘skivers’. They use this blame game to justify cuts to our safety net, which will drive hundreds of thousands of people further into poverty. Christians are called to act when anyone is marginalised or excluded. We urge all Christians to speak out now against this blame game.”
 
The report is free to download at www.church-poverty.org.uk/stigma. The web page also includes a simple online action which can be used to send a message about stigma to local newspapers.

It is being launched to coincide with the national Poverty & Homelessness Action Week (www.actionweek.org.uk), which is on the theme 'Can you cast the first stone?' in 2013.

Church Action on Poverty is a national ecumenical Christian social justice charity, committed to tackling poverty in the UK. We work in partnership with churches and with people in poverty themselves to find solutions to poverty, locally, nationally and globally.

CAP campaigns in partnership with churches across the UK to 'Close the Gap' between rich and poor, calling for Fair Taxes, fair Pay, Fair Prices and a Fair Say. (See www.church-poverty.org.uk/closethegap)

* Download the full report at www.church-poverty.org.uk/stigma/report/blamegamereport

Bishop Jones to retire from Liverpool

THE Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James Jones, will retire on his 65th birthday in August, it was announced Monday.

Bishop Jones was appointed to the post in 1998, and is a member of the House of Lords. 

He was widely praised last year for his chairing of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. 

He has suggested that this was "the most important work" he undertook as Bishop of Liverpool.

In a letter to the diocese, Bishop Jones said that the willingness of parishes to "rethink and to reshape our common life for the service of others" had been "inspiring". 

It had been a "privilege" to serve the wider community, "not least in chairing the Hillsborough Independent Panel. 

The diocese has recognised the rightness of me doing this which has given me great strength. The way the families and survivors have received the Panel's report, and the way truth is now opening up the path to justice, affirms the worth of the Panel's work."

After a farewell service at Liverpool Cathedral on 3 July, the Bishop will move with his wife to Yorkshire.

His letter concluded: "Sarah and I are very conscious of God's providence over the last 15 years. We are constantly humbled by the commitment of the laity and by the dedication of the clergy. It has been a joy to serve you all as bishop."

The Bishop of Warrington, the Rt Rev Richard Blackburn, who will lead the diocese in the interregnum, thanked God for the "15 years of exceptional and inspirational leadership" of Bishop James.

The Dean of Liverpool, the Very Revd Dr Pete Wilcox said that Bishop James had been "an extraordinary servant of the diocese of Liverpool, the city and the region, as well as a significant voice on a national stage . . . a wise pastor, a thoughtful and thought-provoking preacher and teacher, a courageous prophet, a champion of justice and a faithful friend."

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Revd Patrick Kelly, paid tribute to Bishop Jones' commitment to "the well-being in body, mind and spirit, to justice and healed memories, to dignity and hope for all those among whom the Lord called him to serve as Bishop."

Bishop Jones was Bishop of Hull for four years before his translation to Liverpool. He later chaired the New Deal for Communities programme in Liverpool. Almost half (45 per cent) of the parishes in the diocese are designated Urban Priority Areas.

He also established and chaired the governing body of the St Francis of Assisi City Academy, jointly sponsored by the Catholic and Anglican dioceses. It is the first academy to take the environment as its specialism, a particular interest of Bishop Jones, who helped to set up Faiths4Change, an organisation engaging people in "the holistic transformation of their local environment".

In 2011, he was appointed to chair the Independent Panel on Forestry. He will remain as adviser on Hillsborough to the Home Secretary, continue to write and broadcast, and will be involved in a number of other national projects.

The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) is scheduled to meet on 11 March and 25/26 April to nominate candidates for the see of Manchester, left vacant after the retirement of the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch; on 8 May and 6/7 June to nominate candidates for the see of Durham, left vacant after the appointment of the Rt Revd Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury; and on 18 July and 5/6 September to nominate candidates for the see of Bath & Wells, which will be left vacant when the Rt Revd Peter Price retires in June.

Prayers Of Winter

Recovering From Winter Illness

“God of power and might, be with [insert person’s name] as he/she recovers from a winter illness. Warm him/her in the light of Your love, that he/she might find the time, rest, and treatment to feel better soon. Remind [insert person’s name] that he/she is Your beloved child and that You are with him/her during this illness, and always. Amen.”

Beauty Of Winter

"God of creation, thank you for the beauty of winter- for snow, icy window panes, evergreen trees, warm coats, sledding, and hot cocoa. Let us enjoy Your creation in all its glory, this winter and always. Amen."

Road Safety

"God of safety, keep me and my loved ones safe on icy roads. Help me pay attention and drive cautiously. Grant me energy and patience if the drive takes longer than usual. Keep me warm and safe from harm. Be with me, be with me, be with me, in Your loving and precious name. Amen."

US boy scouts to end gay ban

The US Scout movement is signalling its readiness to end a ban on gay members and leaders after a wave of protest.

If approved by the Scouts’ national executive board, possibly as soon as next week, the change would be another momentous milestone for America’s gay-rights movement, following a surge of support for same-sex marriage and the ending of the ban on gays serving opening in military.

“The pulse of equality is strong in America, and today it beats a bit faster with news that the Boy Scouts may finally put an end to its long history of discrimination,” said Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group.

Under the proposed change the different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to decide for themselves how to address the issue - either maintaining an exclusion of gays, as is now required of all units, or opening up their membership.

Southern Baptist leaders – who consider homosexuality a sin – were furious about the possible change and said its approval might encourage churches to support other boys’ organizations instead. The Southern Baptists are among the largest sponsors of Scout units, along with the Roman Catholic, Mormon and United Methodist churches.

The BSA, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists. Smith said that a change in the policy toward atheists was not being considered and that the BSA continued to view “Duty to God” as one of its basic principles.

Protests over the no-gays policy gained momentum in 2000, when the US Supreme Court upheld the BSA’s right to exclude gays. Scout units lost sponsorships by public schools and other entities that adhered to non-discrimination policies, and several local Scout councils made public their displeasure with the policy.

More recently, pressure surfaced on the Scouts’ own national executive board. Two high-powered members – Ernst & Young chief executive James Turley and AT&T boss Randall Stephenson – indicated they would try to work from within to change the membership policy, which stood in contrast to their own companies’ non-discrimination policies.

Amid petition campaigns by Change.org, shipping giant UPS and drug-manufacturer Merck announced that they were halting donations from their charitable foundations to the Boy Scouts as long as the no-gays policy was in force.

The Scouts had reaffirmed the no-gays policy as recently as last year and appeared to have strong backing from the conservative religious denominations that sponsor large numbers of Scout units. Under the proposed change, they could continue excluding gays.

Vincent de Paul reports surge in calls from 'a forgotten layer of society'

St Vincent de Paul volunteers are at the coalface in the fight against poverty.

Today, the Society of St Vincent de Paul release its figures for the number of people who contacted its offices for help in 2012. For the first time the number of calls have exceeded 100,000; an increase of 104 per cent from 2009.

Once the calls come into any of the 13 offices around the country, volunteers will go out to offer help. Help takes the form of food vouchers, contributions to utility bills, school books, glasses for children, clothes, fuel, and sometimes simply a listening ear to those who feel unable to cope.

There are 10,500 Vincent de Paul volunteers around the State. Jimmy Scurry is one of them. 

For the last three years, he has gone out most Tuesdays with a partner volunteer to visit homes in Finglas, Dublin between 7 and 10pm.

We’re walking round the parts of Finglas he visits weekly; the Cappagh, Dunsink, and Wellmount areas. “There’s a forgotten layer of society out there I didn’t know even existed until I joined the society,” Scurry says.

Some houses he indicates look neglected, with yards full of abandoned household items. 

Others are beautifully maintained, with carefully tended gardens. But if you were equating need with appearance, you would be wrong, because all of the houses he points out contain families in need that are visited by Vincent de Paul.

“It’s like a business in that there are cycles,” Scurry observes. “You know when certain things will happen. At the moment, it’s utility bills and requests for fuel. Then there will be confirmations, communions, back to school, Christmas. They are the key times of need during the year.”

Family visits 

As we walk around the area, he talks about some of the families he has visited. Before Christmas, there was the couple, aged 85 and 82 respectively, who were making their first call to the society.

“They were terrified of the cold weather, and had no money to pay for oil.” Told they were too old to qualify for a credit union loan, they were referred to the Society by the fuel company. They were very upset they had to contact us. They had been donors in the past, as had their own parents.”

Some time ago, he got an emergency call to visit a middle-class family in a smart area of Dublin where the husband was no longer working. “They had four children, and there was literally nothing to eat in the house. Their priority had been to keep mortgage repayments up through savings. They didn’t want anyone to know, until they reached breaking point and called us.”

Scurry sees the fact that this family finally contacted the Society as positive. They helped them initially with food vouchers, referred them to Mabs (Money Advice and Budgeting Service), and continue to help on an ongoing basis.

“It’s the people out there in need who haven’t come forward that I worry about,” he says. “And we know they’re out there, in their hundreds and thousands.”

They receive calls from families trying to cope with suicide, or suicide attempts. There was, for instance, the call from the wife whose taxi-driver husband had lost his job and had attempted suicide when the household finances got on top of him. 

“She told us there was no money coming in, and we only discovered what had happened when we went to visit her.”

Difficult cases 

Then there are the calls to which they cannot offer any help. 

“It’s always the women who call,” he explains. They are calling in panic on behalf of husbands, sons or brothers, hoping the Society can help financially with money owing on drug deals.

Frequently, the men have just been released from prison, and are under physical threat. “We can’t ever get involved in that. We tell them to go to the guards. Obviously, we know the chances of that are probably nil, but paying off drug-related debts is not what the Society is about. Unfortunately, it’s the poor women, usually mothers, who are left to pick up the pieces.”

Scurry also talks frankly about “a learned helplessness” of some families who have had generational contact with the Society.

“It’s the next generation of people looking for support that their parents received, because that’s how they were brought up. So you go into some houses where the heat is on full blast all day, all through the house, and there’s maybe €20 paid off the last bill, and you have to ask people, ‘What do you think will happen if you don’t pay your bill?’

“The thing is, for so many people we work with, there is only the now, and they can only deal with today. There might be some money that comes in for something, say a grant for school books, but it gets spent on something else that’s needed today instead. We are never judgmental – if people ask for help, we give help – but there is a tough love you have to operate sometimes. Even so, it’s never the case that we say to anyone, ‘goodbye and good luck to you’.”

Older volunteers 

Scurry is 52, and reports that many volunteers around the country are in the upper age ranges. The society is not managing to attract the numbers of younger volunteers it needs, which is something they are trying to address.

“None of us are immune from the fact we may one day have to ask for help from the Society,” he points out. “If the network of volunteers weren’t there, who would bridge the gap between these people and what they need?”

svp.ie

NHS campaign asks Christians to give blood

A new NHS campaign is being launched today asking the church to increase the number of blood and organ donors in the UK.

The Fleshandblood campaign is sponsored by Give.net and has the support of the Church of England, The Salvation Army, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Baptist Union, Hope and the Evangelical Alliance.

Christians will be encouraged to donate blood regularly as part of their personal giving within churches.

Lorna Williamson, Medical Director of NHS Blood and Transplant says, “All major faith groups support donation in the spirit of giving and we’re excited to explore this in more detail by working with the Christian church. By raising awareness amongst its members and community about the daily need for blood transfusions and organ transplants across the NHS, we hope to banish myths, educate people and encourage blood and organ donation.
Donating blood, joining the Organ Donor Register, or consenting to organ donation from a deceased loved one is a unique gift and one that can truly save lives.”
 
The NHS needs 7,000 units of blood each day to meet the demand of hospitals. The need for organs also outstrips availability with more than a thousand people dying each year in the UK waiting for an organ transplant.

With millions of members across the UK, it is hoped churches can step in to fill the gap.

The campaign is the first time the NHS has worked alongside the churches on a national initiative of this kind.

Churches and individuals will have the opportunity to become blood and organ donation advocates, playing an active role in informing congregations, family, friends and their communities about how they can help save more lives.

The Reverend Dr Martyn Atkins, General Secretary of the Methodist Church, said: “It is impossible to overstate the vital importance of blood and organ donation. Quite simply, without such generous sacrifices, many in Britain would not enjoy the health they have, or even survive. Many of us know and cherish a person who’s life has been transformed through the life-giving gifts donated to them. I believe that God calls us all to live generously with all that we are and all that we have. Blood donation especially is a simple but precious way that many people can fulfil that calling.”

Catholic adoption agency warned over equality

A Catholic adoption agency in Scotland has been warned that it could lose its charitable status if it does not allow applications from gay couples.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has given St Margaret's Children and Family Care Society in Glasgow three months to change its policies to comply with equality regulations.

An inquiry into the adoption agency was prompted by a complaint from the National Secular Society.

The OSCR said St Margaret's "fails the charity test" and is operating in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

"The criteria it applies to people who enquire about assessment as prospective adoptive parents discriminate unlawfully against same sex couples," the OSCR said.

"The charity's preferred criteria prioritise couples who have been maried for at least two years: marriage is not available to same sex couples and this constitutes direct discrimination."

The OSCR concluded that the charity does not provide public benefit as the discrimination "causes disbenefit to same sex couples".

It warned that steps will be taken to remove St Margaret's from the Scottish Charity Register unless it amends its procedures to allow same sex couples to go forward for assessment as potential adoptive parents.

Mark Aitken heads Royal Foundation of St Katharine

The Reverend Mark Aitken has been licenced and installed as Master of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine.

The ceremony was led by the Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres, and follows Rev Aitken's appointment by the Queen last June.

The foundation is based in Limehouse, in the heart of London's East End, and comprises a retreat and conference centre.

The centre is available primarily to 'not for profit' organisations and provides affordable meeting space.

Rev Aitken joins the foundation from St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, where he was headmaster for eight years.

He has previously served as chaplain at Sherborne School in Dorset and in parish ministry.

He said: "I am delighted to become Master of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, a venerable institution with roots going back as far as 1147. I am particularly looking forward to exploring how the foundation can make a real impact in people’s lives, both in the local area and further afield."

Lack of faith can hurt marriage, may affect validity, pope says

A lack of faith in God can damage marriage, even to the point of affecting its validity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"Faith in God, sustained by divine grace, is therefore a very important element for living in mutual dedication and conjugal fidelity," he said.

The pope said he was not suggesting there was a simple, automatic link "between the lack of faith and the invalidity of marriage."

Rather, he hoped "to draw attention to how such a lack may, although not necessarily, also hurt the goods of marriage," given that referring to God's plan "is inherent in the covenant of marriage."

The pope made his comments Jan. 26 during a meeting with members of the Roman Rota, a Vatican-based tribunal that deals mainly with marriage cases.

The current crisis of faith has brought with it a state of crisis for the Christian vision of marriage as an indissoluble bond between a man and a woman, the pope said.

"The indissoluble covenant between man and woman does not require, for the purpose of sacramentality, the personal faith of those to be married," he said. "What is required, as the minimum condition, is the intention of doing what the church does" when it declares a marriage is a sacrament.

While the question of intent should not be confused with the question of the individuals' personal faith, "it is not always possible to completely separate them," he said.

The pope quoted Blessed John Paul II's speech to the Vatican court in 2003 in which he said, "an attitude on the part of those getting married that does not take into account the supernatural dimension of marriage can render it null and void only if it undermines its validity on the natural level on which the sacramental sign itself takes place."

"The Catholic Church has always recognized marriages between the non-baptized that become a Christian sacrament through the baptism of the spouses," and it does not doubt "the validity of the marriage of a Catholic with a non-baptized person if it is celebrated with the necessary dispensation," the late pope had said.

Pope Benedict said such considerations need further reflection, especially in a secularized culture that puts little faith in a person's ability to make a lifelong commitment and fosters an incorrect understanding of freedom and fulfillment.

Humanity is incapable of achieving what is truly good without God, the pope said, and refusing God's invitation "leads to a deep imbalance in all human relationships," including marriage.

While faith in God is "a very important" part of a marriage lived with commitment and loyalty, it does not mean that "loyalty and other (conjugal) properties are not possible in natural marriage between non-baptized" spouses, who still receive the graces that come from God.

"However, closing oneself off from God or refusing the sacred dimension of the conjugal union and its value in the order of grace certainly makes it more difficult to realize concretely the highest model of marriage as envisioned by the church according to God's plan, possibly going so far as to undermine the actual validity of the covenant" if the tribunal determines it amounts to a refusal of fidelity, procreativity, exclusivity and permanence.

Faith, therefore, "is important in the realization of the authentic conjugal good, which consists simply in always wanting the good for the other, no matter what," together with a true and indissoluble partnership for life, he said.

Faith without charity, which is love, "bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path," the pope said, citing his 2011 apostolic letter "Porta Fidei" ("The Door of Faith").

In addition to the three goods of procreation, marital fidelity and its indissolubility, "one must not exclude the possibility of cases in which, exactly because of the absence of faith, the good of the spouses ends up compromised and, therefore, there is a lack of consent," the pope said.

It's not the first time Pope Benedict has called for a closer reflection on the impact of an absence of faith in determining marriage annulments.

During an unscripted question-and-answer session with priests in northern Italy in 2005, the pope noted the problem of people who married in the church not because they were believers but because they wanted a traditional ceremony.

He said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he asked several bishops' conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was "a sacrament celebrated without faith."

He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking. "But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult" and that further study was necessary, he said.

March for Life participants offer joyful witness

Young participants at the 2013 March for Life voiced enthusiasm and hope as they stood up for the dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death.

This year's march has “a lot of energy,” observed Tony Visintainer, a 23-year-old seminarian at Mount St. Mary's in Maryland.
“I don’t know if it’s the 40th anniversary,” Visintainer told CNA, “but there’s a difference in the atmosphere.”
He noted that the massive crowds were chanting and dancing in the streets.
Hundreds of thousands of participants - mostly young people - braved freezing temperatures and snow to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 25.
The annual march commemorates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion throughout the nation.
Marchers listened to speakers at a rally on the National Mall before walking to the Supreme Court. Many carried signs voicing their support for life and prayed silently.
Christy Guillory, a student at St. Emory Catholic High School in Louisiana was “very excited” to be at the march for the first time, despite the cold weather.
“Snow’s a new thing for me,” she said, adding that the experience of being there with such huge pro-life crowds was “a lot to take in.”
Guillory said that she came to the march this year in order “to give witness” to the lives of the unborn, echoing the sentiments of many other participants.
Derek Smith of Chillicothe, Ohio, also came with his parish to the march in order to give witness. He explained that he had converted to the Catholic Church after his first March for Life four years ago.
“Really, this is what made me decide to be Catholic,” Smith said, noting that one thing that changed his mind about the Church was “the power behind” the march, both in prayers and the dedication of the individuals who participated.
Some women and men who attended march spoke out from experience about the pain that abortion left in their hearts and minds.
Josephine Todd, 59, of St. Petersburg, Fla., had an abortion in 1980 before becoming pro-life.
She explained that she came to the March for Life to “give my heart,” and stand up for what is right, showing “what I should have never done” and encouraging others to avoid her mistake.
Attendance among college students was also high, with many schools sending record-breaking numbers of students to the nation's capital.
Pro-life groups from several Ivy League schools gathered together for a group picture before the rally and lent their support to the march.
Caroline Bazinet, a student at Princeton University, noted the similarities between the civil rights and pro-life movements.
She explained that it is important to help people realize that the lives of millions of children have been lost by “standing in" for the missing members of her generation.
Harvard University student Chrissy Rodriguez, age 20, said that she is confident in the ability of the pro-life movement to bring about change.
“I’m only one person,” she said, “but I’m one person who can shout to the world: ‘This is what I believe!’”

Vatican Rosary begins live broadcast

The Vatican is now broadcasting the Rosary live every weekday from St. Peter's Square.
The Vatican television outlet CTV and the Catholic internet portal Aleteia are broadcasting "A Moment with Mary," which is being held Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. outside St. Peter's Basilica.
"We really want to bring the prayer to the people and enable the people all around the world to bring themselves closer to the heart of the Church," said the initiative's coordinator at Aleteia, Carly Andrews.
"We're trying to bring it to people through the new media technologies, through their social networks and with the new technology Google+," Andrews explained.
The broadcast is meant to be a response to the Pope asking that the Year of Faith be a time of entrusting people to the Blessed Virgin by praying the Rosary every day.
It is part of an initiative supported by the Church, which is celebrating the Year of Faith until Nov. 24, 2013.
"It's a personal moment, as each day is an appointment with Mary," stated Andrews.
"We're just inviting people to take half an hour out of their day to join us in prayer," she added.
A different group leads the prayer each day, including some parishes from around Rome and members of various Catholic movements.   
But groups from abroad also take part when visiting Rome.
Deacons from Minnesota's St. Paul Seminary were in charge of leading it on Jan. 16.

"The Rosary is a devotional prayer that developed in the Church to increase our devotion to the Blessed Mother, but more importantly that she can lead us to Jesus Christ," Deacon Jacob Greiner told CNA after the event.
"It's repetitive, but it's also soothing, and it's supposed to be a comfort to us who come to be under her mantle to really grow in relationship with her son," Deacon Greiner reflected.
He noted that "it is not a hard prayer, but one that goes deeper and deeper the more you pray it."
Many of those who help lead the Rosary are young people visiting from abroad, who pray in their group's mother tongue.
"We've seen a whole array of languages so far, and then everybody responds to us in Latin so that people who are following along on TV or on the web can join in with the responses," Andrews remarked.
Rosary comes from the Latin word "rosarium," signifying that the prayers serve as a "crown of roses" or "garland of roses."
It is a prayer devoted to Mary which offers people an opportunity to reflect on the most important events of the life of Jesus.

Church in Brazil united with victims of nightclub fire

The bishops and Catholic faithful across Brazil are voicing solidarity with the families of the 233 young people who died in a fire at the Kiss Nightclub Jan. 27 in the southern city of Santa Maria.

Tragedy struck at around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday at the nightclub when pyrotechnics set off by the band Gurizada Fandangueria apparently caught the ceiling on fire.

Rodrigo Martins a guitar player in the band told Radio Gaucha that the group “had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning.”

Most of the victims were college students who were not able to escape through the local’s sole entrance. Around 110 young people were wounded in the fire, with 79 in intensive care.

Hours after the fire, the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil, Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, expressed his condolences through a message sent to Archbishop Helio Adelar Rupert of Santa Maria.

Archbishop Rupert sent his own message expressing sadness over the tragedy and pledging the Church’s solidarity with “the families and all of society.”

“Do not lose hope: Let us pray to Jesus Christ, the source of life, our Savior.  Let us pray for the deceased and their families and for all of society that is suffering from this tragedy,” he said.

The president of the World Youth Day Organizing Committee, Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta, said thousands of young people from Rio de Janeiro would hold a prayer vigil at the Cathedral of Rio to pray for the deceased, their families and those wounded.

Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo asked priests in his archdiocese to celebrate Masses for the victims.  “Our sadness is only greater knowing that the tragedy was the result of a series of errors and omissions that could have been avoided,” he said.

“May our Lady of Mercy cover the parents and family members of these young people with her mantle of love,” said Archbishop Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo of Belo Horizonte.

Prayers and Mass were also being said at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil.

Pope stunned by Brazilian night club tragedy

Pope Benedict XVI is shocked at the deaths of 233 people at a Brazilian night club on Sunday and is praying for the wounded and the families and friends of those who passed away.

In a telegram sent to Archbishop Helio Adelar Rubert of the Santa Maria Archdiocese, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that the Pope is "shocked by the tragic death of hundreds of young people" and offers his "deepest condolences to the families of the victims, sharing in the sorrow of all those who mourn them."
Pope Benedict also "entrusts the dead to God, the Father of mercy, and prays for the comfort and restoration of the wounded and for the courage and consolation of all those affected by the tragedy," the message says.
"He sends his apostolic blessing to all those who are suffering and those who are assisting them."
Tragedy struck at around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday at the Kiss nightclub when pyrotechnics set off by the band Gurizada Fandangueria apparently caught the ceiling on fire.
Rodrigo Martins a guitar player in the band told Radio Gaucha that the group "had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."
"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it," he said. "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."
The fire spread rapidly and caused panic in the venue, but most of those who perished died from asphyxiation.
Police inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior told the media at a Jan. 28 news conference that three individuals were arrested on a temporary basis as part of the investigation into the fire and a fourth person was being sought.

Bishop snared in abuse scandal criticizes Catholic newspaper

Bishop Robert W. Finn wishes the independent National Catholic Reporter weren't so independent.

Finn is the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri. 

The National Catholic Reporter is a 59-year-old not-for-profit newspaper based in Kansas City.

Finn was convicted in September of shielding priests from sexual-abuse allegations -- prompting editorials from the newspaper calling for his resignation. 

Now, Finn, who is on probation, has taken to his own diocese's journalistic bully pulpit to denounce the paper.

"In the last months I have been deluged with emails and other correspondence from Catholics concerned about the editorial stances of the Reporter: officially condemning church teaching on the ordination of women, insistent undermining of church teaching on artificial contraception and sexual morality in general, lionizing dissident theologies while rejecting established magisterial teaching, and a litany of other issues," Finn wrote this weekend in his diocese's newspaper, the Catholic Key.

Finn noted that the National Catholic Reporter had long been a thorn in the side of Kansas City bishops; in 1968, one tried to get the publication to remove "Catholic" from its name.

Early in his tenure, Finn said, when he solicited the newspaper to "submit their bona fides as a Catholic media outlet in accord with the expectations of church law, they declined to participate, indicating that they considered themselves an 'independent newspaper which commented on "things Catholic."' 

At other times, correspondence has seemed to reach a dead end."

The National Catholic Reporter has won awards for its investigative reporting and has been covering church sex scandals since 1985, National Catholic Reporter publisher and former editor Tom Fox told the Kansas City Star.

“We are a Catholic publication, but independent of the church structure. That’s one of the keys to our credibility," Fox told the Star, adding of Finn, "He’s hurting. I know he thinks he’s doing his job."

According to the original criminal indictment against Finn, sometime in 2010 or 2011 Finn discovered that a priest's laptop computer contained "hundreds of photographs of children … including a child's naked vagina, up-skirt images and images focused on the crotch." 

Finn, who did not report his knowledge of the priest's photos for months, became the first bishop convicted in the U.S. in the church's sprawling child-abuse scandal.

Finn has been apologetic; the National Catholic Reporter's writers, less so.

"No one is suggesting Finn can't be forgiven his sins. Indeed, forgiveness is precisely what God always stands ready to offer," Bill Tammeus wrote in a December column published on the publication's website.

"But when someone in a position of ecclesial authority has failed in so spectacular a way that even a secular court has found him guilty, he has the obligation to do what he can to avoid further damage to what Finn often calls -- in words that should make him quake -- Holy Mother Church."

In other words: Resign.

Finn has not resigned. 

Instead, he has endured rumblings that he has lost support from the priests inside  his diocese, as well as parishioners. 

Nor has he been released from his duties by Pope Benedict XVI, who holds authority over the church's bishops.

Finn's Friday editorial was occasioned by the church's World Communications Day, in which the pope urged the faithful to reflect on how to find meaningfulness in communication both digital and analog. 

Finn's message started with his evocation of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalism, and closed by narrowing his eyes at the National Catholic Reporter.

"In light of the number of recent expressions of concern, I have a responsibility as the local bishop to instruct the faithful about the problematic nature of this media source which bears the name 'Catholic,'"  Finn wrote in his conclusion.

"While I remain open to substantive and respectful discussion with the legitimate representatives of NCR, I find that my ability to influence the National Catholic Reporter toward fidelity to the church seems limited to the supernatural level. For this we pray: St. Francis de Sales, intercede for us."