A bit belated, but I've posted a great homily on the website written by a friend of mine. He preached it last Sunday and I really enjoyed reading it.

The Kingship of Christ is a divine Kingship that was His from before the foundation of the world. Yet it is at the Passion where Jesus claims that Kingship through a public act. When Our Lord hangs on the Cross, He is not a condemned criminal, but the One and Only King of the universe reigning from His throne.

There's more where that came from...

Labels: reflection

A must see from (the spouse of) Ironic Catholic:

The Food and Drug Administration has rejected the Nutrition Facts label submitted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in order to comply with FDA regulations, a USCCB spokeswoman said today. The action was likely to exacerbate the dispute between the Church and the agency following the agency's ruling last month that the Eucharist, in both species, falls under FDA oversight.

"We submitted what we believe to be a factually accurate label," said USCCB spokeswoman Sr. Mary Jane Waltz. "Ontologically speaking, it reflects the reality of what the faithful are consuming when they receive the Eucharist."

But FDA regulators were "not amused" by the label, which listed as ingredients the "Body and Blood, soul and divinity" of Jesus Christ. The label also included a detailed list of the graces received with reception of the Eucharist.

Labels: Church humor

I will be seeing this movie on the opening weekend!

The world premiere was today at the Vatican (the first-ever in the world's smallest country). Fr. John was there and I really enjoyed his review.

Labels: entertainment, Vatican

The Knights of Columbus prayer for Pope Benedict's safety during his trip this week to Turkey:

Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we humbly ask that you sustain, inspire, and protect your servant, Pope Benedict XVI, as he goes on pilgrimage to Turkey – a land to which St. Paul brought the Gospel of your Son; a land where once the Mother of your Son, the Seat of Wisdom, dwelt; a land where faith in your Son’s true divinity was definitively professed. Bless our Holy Father, who comes as a messenger of truth and love to all people of faith and good will dwelling in this land so rich in history. In the power of the Holy Spirit, may this visit of the Holy Father bring about deeper ties of understanding, cooperation, and peace among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and those who profess Islam. May the prayers and events of these historic days greatly contribute both to greater accord among those who worship you, the living and true God, and also to peace in our world so often torn apart by war and sectarian violence.

We also ask, O Heavenly Father, that you watch over and protect Pope Benedict and entrust him to the loving care of Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, a title cherished both by Catholics and Muslims. Through her prayers and maternal love, may Pope Benedict be kept safe from all harm as he prays, bears witness to the Gospel, and invites all peoples to a dialogue of faith, reason, and love. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Let's remember him and the safety of his entourage this week.

Labels: Pope Benedict, prayer

I was talking to a friend of mine who lives out in the Midwest and is working through his first year of priesthood. I told him about the terrible homily I heard today. It was about how the martini (yes, the drink) has changed over time just like our concept of kingship. Basically, he told us that we are incapable as Americans of understanding the concept of Christ the King. So he just left it at that instead of helping us to grasp it. (Sidebar: priests in this area of the country do not need help convincing people that they drink a little too much... giving homilies on alcoholic beverages does not help).

Well, my friend was telling me about his homily today. He said he talked about how Christ's kingship is easily intelligible to us Americans because it's all about freedom: freedom to believe, to worship, and to live life to the fullest possible measure in Christ. What a wonderful perspective!

I've been going to a different church every week since I've relocated. Let me just say, I have yet to attend a licit Mass in this diocese. At two parishes, the deacons were treated and acted like the priest. Talk about blurring the lines. This morning the EMHC couldn't get into the Tabernacle. Another one went over to help and neither one of them could open it. Then the priest went over and he couldn't open it either. I was tempted to think that perhaps Someone was keeping them out (of course, I don't mean that... just being crabby).

So how do I get through it? I just pray that the priests in this diocese fall in love with the Mass and realize that it's not about them. I've heard the Novus Ordo is beautiful. Someday I hope I can find a local priest who's actually devoted to celebrating it!

Today's rant is now over.

Labels: reflection

Lately I've noticed the Vatican is very busy with Saturday announcements. Today there was a whole list of items including the naming of members and consultors to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications (headed by an American, Archbishop John Foley) and a total reorganization of the Church in Mexico. As usual, Rocco has full coverage.

Labels: Vatican

ZENIT translated a section of the Preface of the pope's new book. Of course, this is not an official translation. It's posted here because I think it's worth a read.

PREFACE

I have come to the book on Jesus, the first part of which I now present, following a long interior journey. In the period of my youth -- the thirties and forties -- a series of fascinating books were published on Jesus. I remember the name of some of the authors: Karl Adam, Romano Guardini, Franz Michel Willam, Giovanni Papini, Jean Daniel-Rops. In all these books, the image of Jesus Christ was delineated from the Gospels: how he lived on earth and how, despite his being fully man, at the same time he led men to God, with whom, as Son, he was but one. Thus, through the man Jesus, God was made visible and from God the image of the just man could be seen.

Beginning in the fifties, the situation changed. The split between the "historical Jesus" and the "Christ of faith" became ever greater: One was rapidly removed from the other. However, what meaning could faith in Jesus Christ have, in Jesus the Son of the living God, if the man Jesus was so different from the way he was presented by the evangelists and the way he is proclaimed by the Church from the Gospels? Progress in historical-critical research led to ever more subtle distinctions between the different strata of tradition. In the wake of this research, the figure of Jesus, on which faith leans, became ever more uncertain, it took on increasingly less defined features.

At the same time, reconstructions of this Jesus, who should be sought after the traditions of the evangelists and their sources, became ever more contradictory: from the revolutionary enemy of the Romans who opposed the established power and naturally failed, to the gentle moralist who allowed everything and inexplicably ended up by causing his own ruin.

Whoever reads a few of these reconstructions can see immediately that they are more photographs of the authors and their ideals than a real questioning of an image that has become confused. Meanwhile, mistrust was growing toward these images of Jesus, and the figure itself of Jesus was ever more removed from us.

All these attempts have left in their wake, as common denominator, the impression that we know very little about Jesus, and that only later faith in his divinity has formed his image. Meanwhile, this image has been penetrating profoundly in the common consciousness of Christianity. Such a situation is tragic for the faith, because it makes its authentic point of reference uncertain: intimate friendship with Jesus, from whom everything depends, is debated and runs the risk of becoming useless. [...]

I have felt the need to give readers these indications of a methodological character so that they can determine the path of my interpretation of the figure of Jesus in the New Testament. With reference to my interpretation of Jesus, this means first of all that I trust the Gospels. Of course I take as a given all that the Council and modern exegesis say about the literary genres, the intention of their affirmations, on the communal context of the Gospels and its words in this living context. Accepting all this in the measure that was possible to me, I wished to present the Jesus of the Gospels as the true Jesus, as the "historical Jesus" in the true sense of the expression.

I am convinced, and I hope the reader will also realize, that this figure is far more logical and, from the historical point of view, also more comprehensible than the reconstructions we have had to deal with in the last decades.

I believe, in fact, that this Jesus -- the one of the Gospels -- is a historically honest and convincing figure. The Crucifixion and its efficacy can only be explained if something extraordinary happened, if Jesus' figure and words radically exceeded all the hopes and expectations of the age.

Approximately twenty years after Jesus' death, we find fully displayed in the great hymn to Christ that is the Letter to the Philippians (2:6-8) a Christology which says that Jesus was equal to God but that he stripped himself, became man, humbled himself unto death on the cross and that to him is owed the homage of creation, the adoration that in the prophet Isaiah (45:23) God proclaimed is owed only to Him.

With good judgment, critical research asks the question: What happened in the twenty years after Jesus' Crucifixion? How was this Christology arrived at?

The action of anonymous community formations, of which attempts are made to find exponents, in fact does not explain anything. How would it be possible for groups of unknowns to be so creative, so convincing to the point of imposing themselves in this way? Is it not more logical, also from the historical point of view, that greatness be found in the origin and that the figure of Jesus break all available categories and thus be understood only from the mystery of God?

Of course, to believe that though being man He "was" God and to make this known shrouding it in parables and in an ever clearer way, goes beyond the possibilities of the historical method. On the contrary, if from this conviction of faith the texts are read with the historical method and the opening is greater, the texts open to reveal a path and a figure that are worthy of faith. Also clarified then is the struggle at other levels present in the writings of the New Testament around the figure of Jesus and despite all the differences, one comes to profound agreement with these writings.

Of course with this vision of the figure of Jesus I go beyond what, for example, Schnackenburg says in representation of the greater part of contemporary exegesis. I hope, on the contrary, that the reader will understand that this book has not been written against modern exegesis, but with great recognition of all that it continues to give us.

It has made us aware of a great quantity of sources and concepts through which the figure of Jesus can become present with a vivacity and profundity that only a few decades ago we could not even imagine. I have attempted to go beyond the mere historical-critical interpretation applying new methodological criteria, which allows us to make a properly theological interpretation of the Bible and that naturally requires faith, without by so doing wanting in any way to renounce historical seriousness. I do not think it is necessary to say expressly that this book is not at all a magisterial act, but the expression of my personal seeking of the "Lord's face" (Psalm 27:8). Therefore, every one has the liberty to contradict me. I only ask from women and men readers the anticipation of sympathy without which there is no possible understanding.

As I already mentioned at the beginning of this Preface, the interior journey to this book has been long. I was able to begin work on it during my vacation of 2003. In August 2004, Chapters 1 to 4 took their final form. Following my election to the episcopal See of Rome I have used all the free moments I have had to carry on with it. Given that I do not know how much time and how much strength will still be given to me, I have decided to publish now as the first part of the book the first ten chapters that extend from the Baptism in the Jordan to Peter's confession and the Transfiguration.

Labels: Pope Benedict

In his blog entry this week (posted today rather than Friday to avoid the holiday break), Cardinal Sean writes his own letter to those serving in the military and he shares the reflections of several people in the Archdiocese, one a nun from Iraq now ministering in Boston, and two others from priests who both served as chaplains to the military. They are well worth a read. To me, they serve as a reminder to keep praying for those who are serving our country and for their families back home who suffer the pain of separation during the holidays.

Cardinal Sean's Blog

Labels: prayer, U.S. Bishops

Time's cover story this week (November 27th edition) is in anticipation of Pope Benedict's trip to Turkey next week. There's a summary of the entire story at cnn.com:

It was not a laid-back Turkish holiday. The citizens of the proud, predominantly Muslim nation had no love of Popes. To the East, the Iranian government was galvanizing anti-Western feeling.

The news reported that an escaped killer was on the loose, threatening to assassinate the pontiff when he arrived. Yet the Holy Father was undaunted.

"Love is stronger than danger," he said. "I am in the hands of God."

He fared forward -- to Ankara, to Istanbul -- and preached the commonality of the world's great faiths. He enjoined both Christians and Muslims to "seek ties of friendship with other believers who invoke the name of a single God."

He did not leave covered with garlands, but he set a groundwork for what would be years of rapprochement between the Holy See and Islam. He was a uniter, not a divider.

That was 1979. When Benedict XVI travels to Turkey next week on his first visit to a Muslim country since becoming pope last year, he is unlikely to cloak himself in the downy banner of brotherhood, the way Pope John Paul II did during his sojourn there 27 years ago.

Instead, Benedict, 79, will arrive carrying a much different reputation: that of a hard-knuckle intellect with a taste for blunt talk and interreligious confrontation. Just 19 months into his tenure, the pope has become as much a lightning rod as a moral leader; suddenly, when he speaks, the whole world listens.

And what takes place over four days in three Turkish cities has the potential to define his papacy -- and a good deal more.

You can read the actual article here.

Labels: Pope Benedict

Another defection detailed quite nicely in this morning's Boston Globe:

ATTLEBORO -- The wave of defections that has rocked the Episcopal Church since the ordination of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in 2003 has reached the liberal Diocese of Massachusetts, where one congregation has severed its ties to the national church. Nearly two dozen others across New England have disassociated themselves from the church's teachings on gay clergy, homosexuality, and salvation.

In the first of what adherents of traditional Anglican doctrine in the United States say will be a string of defections, the Attleboro congregation that for 115 years was known as All Saints Episcopal Church has changed its name to All Saints Anglican Church and affiliated itself with the Anglican Province of Rwanda.

And in a step many see as preliminary to following the lead of All Saints, 23 other churches in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the region have joined the Anglican Communion Network, an organization of US congregations that do not accept current Episcopal teachings on the controversial topics.

"It seems we are at the moment of fracture," said the Rev. William L. Murdoch of All Saints Church in West Newbury, who is the leader of the disaffected churches in New England.

The Rev. Lance K. Giuffrida , an Episcopal minister for 28 years and pastor of All Saints in Attleboro for the last five, said, "We did not want to go. We thought we could turn this around. We were wrong."

Labels: ecumenism

Catholic World News is reporting that Cardinal Arinze has sent a letter to the heads of all English-speaking episcopal conferences aroudn the world that all new English translations of the Eucharistic Prayer should render pro multis as "for many" instead of as "for all."

I think this is interesting especially considering the recent denial of the Holy See to renew the indult that allows extraordinary ministers of holy communion to purify the vessels in the United States. It seems things are finally happening, albeit in small ways, to reform the reform. Frankly, I welcome any steps by the Holy See to make the Mass more respectful, reverent, and theologically sound.

Now if only the U.S. Bishops would get some backbone regarding liturgical music!

Labels: liturgy

Elizabeth Lev uncovers something unfortunate in her Rome Notes column in tonight's Zenit. She expounds on her discovery:

...a ZENIT reader brought to my attention that one of the official Patrons of the Vatican Museums is also an active and public supporter of Planned Parenthood, the world's largest abortion provider.

The Patrons of the Vatican Museums were formed in 1983 as an international society organized from within the Holy See institution. The Patrons were dedicated to supporting and maintaining the art of the Vatican Museums. While there are chapters of Patrons in several parts of Europe, by far and away the greatest number of patrons can be found in the United States.

The Vatican Museums maintain an office just for the Patrons where they are brought on private guided visits and have special events and dinners on the premises.

The Patrons donate between €250 and €1,000 (about $320 to $1,280 at current exchange rates) annually to the museums and are coordinated in different parts of the United States by chairpersons who serve as links between the Vatican institution and the local area.

The chair for the Minnesota chapter is one Maureen Kucera-Walsh, as can be seen on the Vatican Museums Website on the Patrons page.

Kucera-Walsh was particularly instrumental when the "St. Peter and the Vatican" show toured the States in 2004. She was indicated in the June 2004 issue of Basilica, the magazine of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the point person for visiting the traveling exhibition. Her Minnesota chapter restored the hammer used to verify the death of the Pope as well as the statues of Sts. Peter and Paul from the sacristy of St. Peter's.

But Kucera-Walsh does not limit her charitable activities to the preservation of sacred art. Last Oct. 9, she served as a host for a Planned Parenthood event in Minneapolis.

This event was organized to marshal support against the proposed law in South Dakota which would have make it a crime for anyone to perform an abortion except where the mother's life was in danger. One of the principal items on the agenda of this event was to "get the inside scoop on the effort to defeat South Dakota's abortion ban."

Benefactors of this event paid between $100 and $1,000 to participate. Kucera-Walsh was listed among the hosts for this event.

This activity, unfortunately, is not the extent of Kucera-Walsh's role in Planned Parenthood. In the Planned Parenthood annual report of 2005, she sits on the 2006 board of directors.

What a sad state of affairs when one can be so involved with the preservation and protection of the works of art in the Vatican but so easily turn one's back on most fundamental moral teachings and beliefs that inspired them.

Why does this matter?

The position of Kucera-Walsh reflects the common contemporary view that the art of the Vatican is somehow disconnected from the teaching of the Church that commissioned it.

...

With one hand, people like Maureen Kucera-Walsh polish the effigies of the saints, while with the other they dismiss what the saints died for. That gives a perverted twist to the Gospel injunction not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing!

Labels: life issues, Vatican

Have you noticed the home page this week?

Over last weekend while I was "relaxing," I realized that since I don't have time to write something up on the Sunday readings each week, then it might be nice if I provided some links for those who want to see more resources to prepare for the Lord's Day.

There are hundreds of resources on the web, so I tried to boil it down to the things that I think are valuable. The homilies come from Fathers Landry and Lane both of whom add much to our understanding of the Sunday Scriptures, albeit in different ways.

Be sure to let me know what you think!

Labels: site news

"I wish God were still alive to see this!"
- Homer Simpson on witnessing a meteor shower

The U.S. Bishops began meeting today after quite a Mass at the newly restored basilica in Baltimore last night. I watched a little bit of the meeting today on EWTN before they went into executive session. I saw a few bishops I knew but I didn't catch any of the local boys. They must have been sitting in the back.

I won't be covering much of the meeting here since I can't watch much because I'm in school and others are doing a wonderful job. Specifically, I've read both Rocco and Amy today and they have some great stuff. Be sure to check them out.

On a totally unrelated note: I had read a post Rocco had written for All Saints and I remembered a section of it on Mother Cabrini that I quoted to my students today. He mentioned that Mother Cabrini was the patron saint of finding a parking spot. He said one might pray the following: "Mother Cabrini, Mother Cabrini, find a spot for my little machiney."

Cute.

Labels: saints, U.S. Bishops

Well I'm back home now and quite happy to be here. It took over seven hours to get home because of traffic. Suffice it to say, I wasn't a happy camper, but I got over it fairly quickly.

This morning I went to pray for all of my students and colleagues at the Basilica of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. I actually knelt right at her tomb to pray for everyone. After that I went up to the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. I played the organ for their Sunday Mass like I did for over two years while I went to graduate school. I was sure to stay behind a bit after Mass so I could pray for my students and colleagues in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

All in all, I had a wonderful weekend and I'm ready to get back to school. On Saturday, a portion of my portfolio is due which is quite a bit of work. I also have an observation on Tuesday so I don't imagine I'll be bored at all! Is it Thanksgiving break yet???

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!

Labels: personal

Article in today's Boston Globe on the identity and mission of Catholic colleges and universities:

It's 8:30 on a rainy Tuesday night on the Boston College campus, and the big news of the evening is that Massachusetts has elected its first African-American governor and a major Democratic sweep of Congress is underway.

But in the campus's new Hillside Cafe, with Starbucks coffee and track lighting and Pink Martini playing through a laptop, 150 students have gathered to discuss an unlikely subject: the Catholic Mass.

In a new effort at the Jesuit university to engage students in conversations about faith, the college has launched a monthly series of discussions about Catholicism.

The program, intentionally scheduled late at night, over food, and outside of a church, is also deliberately irreverent: organizers wear espresso-colored T-shirts reading "What Would Jesus Brew?"; promotional posters feature a philosophy professor with a latte foam mustache; and the first topic of discussion was "Who needs religion?"

In last week's discussion, "Mass Appeal: Why do we go?", the speaker, adjunct philosophy professor Kerry M. Cronin, lists the best Masses she has attended, acknowledges that in some cases she attended Mass to look for boys, and then oversees a discussion on issues such as the merits of contemporary music at Mass and how to find a decent liturgy away from a college campus.

In its entirety, it's not as bad as it sounds.

Labels: Catholic education

Well today was just as good as yesterday. I began the day by seeing my old spiritual director and that was wonderful. We had a very nice visit.

I took a friend from the university to lunch and we had a nice time catching up. Then I came back to the hotel to relax for a little while.

Tonight I went to see a family I knew down here when I played the organ at the Grotto. They're a great family and I got to meet their new addition: their tenth child, a daughter. She's wonderfully friendly at eleven months and I had a blast.

Tomorrow for the Lord's Day, I'll be playing organ at the Grotto. Before rehearsing with the choir I plan to stop over at the Basilica of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and pray for my students at her tomb. Then I'll be heading home to prepare for school this week. Since it's supposed to rain quite a bit tomorrow, please pray for my safe travels.

Labels: personal

Instead of doing schoolwork all weekend, I'm actually having fun. I decided that since we had today off from school (and thus a long weekend) I would go to Maryland and visit my friends.

Well, the day started out bad: I way overslept. Then I got on the road and it was a decent ride overall. The weather was gorgeous and the traffic was reasonable.

I got to the hotel and took a quick shower then met a friend for dinner. Then we met up with a bunch of our other friends. Then we went back to my alma mater and hung out for a while. It was nice to talk "church" for a while with old friends.

Saturday is shaping up to be a good day. I'm having an appointment with an old spiritual director in the morning then meeting up with other friends from the university in the afternoon, then families from the grotto for dinner in the evening.

Today was good for the soul. After a great week at school, I'm looking forward to returning, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy fun times with fun people. Who knows what will happen? There's no doubt I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

To my friends down here in Maryland: thanks for a great time!

I haven't had a lot of jobs in my lifetime, but I've had a few and I can honestly say that nothing compares to being a teacher. I say that both positively and negatively. What other job gives you the joy of knowing that you're influencing the next generation of every field that exists from scientists to housewives?

On the other hand, the students can be tough. I often don't see if I'm having an impact. Many I will lose contact with forever once they leave my classroom. Some are too close-minded to even hear the message. Others don't see the value in the material yet and just make life difficult for me and for the other students.

Last week was a mess. There was this unbelievable rush to the end of the term, teachers trying to finish grades, students trying to finish up their assignments. We had our dinner theatre on Saturday and that was wonderful, but I couldn't help going into the new term on Monday with a negative feeling both from me and towards me.

So I had an idea: what if I passed around papers and had students write down anonymously everything they hated about my class or even about me. They were not to write anything positive (that way I wouldn't be accused of setting up an ego boost). I told the students to think hard... I know my class isn't perfect.

Well, they all wrote something. Some of them were personal attacks, others attacked the classroom format or the work, others didn't really want to criticize anything so they just put something down that really didn't have to do with anything. As you can imagine, these weren't easy to read for me, but it turned out to be quite worth it. Here's where the Lord is awesome and he gives us consolations right when we need them.

That same afternoon the school had its monthly turn serving the hungry at the community soup kitchen. You should have seen the showing of students! It was tons of fun and many were first time volunteers. They said they would be back next month... we'll see! I'm very optimistic though.

Tuesday was amazingly positive. All the negative comments seem to have disappeared and everyone was happy and ready to work. Those who hadn't done as well as they would have liked in the first term were wide awake and taking notes. They were making eye contact and listening to what I was teaching. What a great feeling!

And then there was today... I made a 32-slide Powerpoint on the Lateran Basilica. Many really enjoyed it. It was a great break from the day-to-day routine of hardcore theology. Not only that but both of my classes had open notebook quizzes this week. Almost every single student got an A. Not only is their confidence level really high as we begin a new term, but now I feel great too.

Teaching is not easy but God gives us so many consolations so long as our eyes are open to see them. I mentioned to students that I wanted to encourage them in their spiritual journey. So I have two ideas: an Advent breakfast club once a week and a brown bag Bible study during lunch one day a week. Many were excited about trying it... go figure!

Wow! Who knows what the future holds for these students. But tonight I received two emails: one from two students who read the Book of Revelation because they felt like it and they have lots of questions for me and another group of students who thought tonight's episode of the O.C. exemplified several aspects of the Church's social teaching that we're learning in class.

There's so much to think about everyday. Am I doing the right thing for these students? Am I being faithful to the mission of the Church and of the school? I have no clue, but I'd like to think so. I'm operating in a fishbowl. I have 75 students watching my every move and critiquing my every step. I have other teachers, administrators, and parents keeping an eye on me or at least hearing through the grapevine what's going on in junior and senior theology and who knows if they're hearing the real story!

If I'm doing anything right, it's all grace. For now, I'll just keep listening to the Lord and doing my best. Taking the consolations where I can find them and praying through the daily trials that every teacher experiences. Considering where I was a year ago both physically and spiritually, all I can say is, "God is good!"

I guess we can expect good things (from today's Zenit):

The new prefect of the Congregation for Clergy says one of the challenges facing the Church is greater rigor in the selection and formation of seminarians.

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes emphasized that point in public statements shortly after his appointment to the Vatican dicastery.

He revealed that the Vatican "has issued guidelines and they are being implemented. There must be a more rigorous selection in the seminaries, a more exacting formation, so that we have the moral certainty that they [future priests] will have the conditions to live celibacy exactly as the Church asks them to live."

The cardinal made these statements in his Sao Paulo residence to Reuters, hours after the Holy See announced that the 72-year-old Brazilian will take up the new post. He succeeded Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, 77.

Regarding clerical sex-abuse scandals, Cardinal Hummes said that "when there are such cases and accusations, they must be examined by the Holy See."

The new prefect added that the news of his appointment was a "very big surprise." He received the news Oct. 8 from the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

"The first thing I felt I should do was to begin to pray, to ask God to illuminate me," Cardinal Hummes explained, "because for me the Pope's voice is the voice of God and, therefore, I had to say yes."

So he's 72... apparently the pope only wants someone for a few years' work...

This is a great question and answer from ZENIT on Tuesday:

Q: "Quo Primum" is a papal bull decreed by Pope St. Pius V on July 14, 1570, which set in stone for all time the exactness of the holy sacrifice of the Mass to be said in the mother tongue of the Church. To quote his instruction: "[I]t shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than that of this Missal published by Us; ..." Another: "… which shall have the force of law in perpetuity, We order and enjoin under pain of Our displeasure that nothing be added to Our newly published Missal, nothing omitted therefrom, and nothing whatsoever altered therein." Another: "In the case of those resident in other parts of the world it shall be excommunication 'latae sententiae' and all other penalties at Our discretion ..." Finally: "Should any person venture to do so, let him understand that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul." In the light of the foregoing: 1) Can an ancient papal bull be amended, changed, modified, abrogated, etc., by future popes? If yes, then what are the conditions? 2) Is the Mass of Pope Paul VI licit and valid? -- A.D., Carindale, Australia

A: A papal bull (from "bolla," the leaden seal attached to the document) is a solemn instrument that popes use for various questions such as doctrinal decisions, canonizations, disciplinary questions, jubilees and the like. Only occasionally have they been used for the liturgy.

A bull's influence on later popes depends on the nature of its content and not the legal force of the document as such.

Thus a bull such as "Ineffabilis Deus" through which Blessed Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 is a definitive and irreformable act.

Other bulls may contain a mixture of doctrinal and disciplinary matters. An example would be Pius IV's 1564 document "Dominici Gregis Custodiae" containing the rules for forbidding books, among which was the norm that reading a translation of the Old Testament was restricted to learned and pious men with permission from the bishop.

Such norms are evidently tied to the circumstances of time and place and may be adjusted, attenuated or abrogated by future popes as situations change.

St. Pius V's bull "Quo Primum" is above all a legal document although it also contains some doctrinal elements. As such it is not intended to be definitive in the same way as a doctrinal definition would be and would not bind St. Pius V himself or future popes if they decided to further fine-tune the missal.

The saintly Pope's concern was to ensure as much unity as possible for the liturgy in a time when such unity was sorely needed. Even so, the same bull contains a clause exempting any Church which had its own ordo more than 200 years old. Many local Churches could have availed of this concession but most preferred to adopt the new missal for practical reasons.

Some religious orders and some dioceses such as Lyon in France and Milan in Italy did opt to legitimately maintain their own rite. Thus expressions such as "it shall be unlawful henceforth and forever throughout the Christian world to sing or to read Masses according to any formula other than that of this Missal published by Us" cannot be interpreted in an absolutely literal sense.

Likewise, legal expressions such as "which shall have the force of law in perpetuity, We order and enjoin under pain of Our displeasure that nothing be added to Our newly published Missal, nothing omitted therefrom, and nothing whatsoever altered therein" cannot be literally interpreted as binding on possible later actions of Pope St. Pius V or upon his successors. The strictures fall only upon those who act without due authority.

If it were otherwise, then Pope St. Pius V would have excommunicated himself a couple of years after publishing "Quo Primum" when he added the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary to the missal following the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, not to mention Pope Clement XI who canonized Pius V in 1712, thus altering the missal.

Among the many other Popes who would have thus incurred "the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul" would have been St. Pius X for reforming the calendar, Pius XI who added the first new preface in centuries for the feast of Christ the King, Pius XII for completely revamping the rites of Holy Week as well as simplifying the rubrics, and Blessed John XXIII for adding St. Joseph's name to the Roman Canon.

Certainly, the reform undertaken under the Servant of God Pope Paul VI ranged more widely than anything done under earlier Popes since St. Pius V. But Paul VI acted with the same papal authority as all of them.

As the Roman proverb goes: "Popes die, the Pope never." Each individual pontiff -- saint or sinner though he be -- holds the same authority, granted by Christ, to bind and loose, forgive or retain, so that the Lord's flock may be fed through the centuries.

It is for this reason that, except in matters of faith and morals, a pope's disciplinary decrees in matters such as the non-essential elements of liturgical rites are never "set in stone" and can be changed by a subsequent Supreme Pontiff whenever he believes that the duty of feeding Christ's flock requires it.

Finally, the answer to the second question should be already clear, the so-called Mass of Paul VI is both valid and licit.