Catholics Come Home

Catholic Schools

We Want Authentic Catholic Schools that Help Form Saints

---

By Bishop Robert W. Finn
Kansas City-St. Joseph

---

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption, our schools begin to open. Students all over the diocese get their back packs together, some put on uniforms, and everyone begins getting up a bit earlier and ready for school. The studies, sports teams, and school clubs will soon be in full gear. The new year begins and our Catholic schools remain a big part of it: for many generations - and for thousands of students.

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is blessed with Catholic schools from early childhood through university. The mission and goals of our schools overlap in a variety of ways with the educational targets of the public schools. But there is something more that must define our schools.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his visit last spring to the United States met with Catholic educators from all over the country in Washington, D.C. He challenged the leaders of our schools to make "Catholic identity" something more than the numbers of Catholic students or even the particular excellence of certain fields of study.

Catholic identity, the Holy Father said, "demands and inspires much more: namely that each and every aspect of your learning communities reverberates within the ecclesial life of faith." Our schools must be defined by a unique culture of faith, hope and charity.

Catholic identity certainly starts with sound, authentic presentations of the teaching of the Church. This is that "without which" we would not be providing helpful formation in the tradition and life of the Church. Living and life-giving Christian Faith is also necessary: faith in God the Holy Trinity, and faithful participation in the life of the Church. Our students should know the sacraments, not only from having studied them in coursework. They must live them, and practice them as the foundation stones for their Catholic lives.

Pope Benedict, himself a university professor for many years, had a special challenge for the leaders of our Catholic universities. Acknowledging the importance of academic freedom, the Pope insisted that appeals to academic freedom "to justify positions that contradict the faith and teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission." This is the very core of the challenge extended to Catholic universities in the document "Ex Corde Ecclesia" which - some years ago - called all teachers of Theology to seek the "mandatum" or license of the local bishop to teach.

Schools sponsored activities and organizations, as well, must reflect the meaning and dignity of the human person. Secular or spiritual in focus, such opportunities must be totally consonant with the life of authentic faith and help the student in his or her healthy and holy development.

Catholic schools exist for a supernatural purpose. They are not only about measurable outcomes, or even helping students learn essential facts and marketable skills that prepare them for employment. They are about the formation of men and women in all aspects of life and living. Each student must be what God intends him or her to be. They must be helped toward their eternal salvation. It would seem to go without saying that "salvation" is discussed and taught in Catholic schools, but education in our schools must lead to the development of men and women who live virtue, understand better the mystery and meaning of life, and who will be set on a path which acknowledges the mystery of the Cross and has heaven as its ultimate goal.

Catholic schools must be based on a Catholic anthropology, that is, an authentic vision of what a person is and what his or her eternal destiny entails. We are not made ultimately for material success or sexual gratification, or just any kind of relationship. Rather, we are made for life-long faithful commitments that appropriately express our gender, our vocation and utilize our talents generously. Because we are called to holiness we must be helped to see how our daily work can be sanctified and sanctifying. Our moral life must take precedent over personal satisfaction or partisan political tendencies. The transcendent and unchanging truth of the value of human life must animate our convictions and guide all our decisions.

Catholic schools are a catalyst for growth in communion. We are more than individuals. The building block of society is the family which has the primary responsibility for the formation of children, and which must be safeguarded for the good of all society. We are beings - social and interactive by nature - who are incorporated through Baptism into a community of believers. We must be helped to see the differences and complementarity by which we actively make up the Church. We are meant to contribute; to give of ourselves as a response to the love and life we have received - first from God, and also from others. Obedience to God's law and cooperation for the good of the whole are necessary in any society. In the Catholic community our giving has a supernatural motive and is infused with Christian faith, hope and charity. Service toward others and a strong sense of mission and apostolate marks us as members of an apostolic Church which has been entrusted with the message of the Gospel for all to hear.

In our schools we pray. We need to pray. Prayer is a response to our sense of God's presence with us always, our readiness to be intercessors for one another, and the realization that we are persons constantly in need of God's light and grace. God is first, and when we put Him first, all the other good things find their proper place. We worship him in the community of the Church and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the font and highest expression of our life.

I pray that in our schools - from early childhood to university - we will be forming saints. Through obedience to the Holy Spirit, and His light entrusted to the Apostles, may our students begin to be more like Jesus Christ to the glory of the heavenly Father.

As we celebrate Mary's Assumption into heaven, let us entrust ourselves, our students and teachers - the whole mission and work of our schools - to her maternal love. Link (here)

Divine Mercy Continues

Polish Father Michal Sopocko, Sister Faustina Kowalska's confessor and spiritual director, and principal promoter of the revelations the nun received on Divine Mercy, will be beatified Sept. 28 in Poland. Father Sopocko (1888-1975) also founded the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus.

Link (here)

The Great Push Back

Strife at St Mary's over "Buddha" statue

Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby is considering whether the controversial St Mary's parish at South Brisbane "is in communion with the Catholic Church" after a parishioner protested to the Vatican over a Buddha-like statue.

A member of St Mary's South Brisbane Church told The Courier-Mail that it was understood Archbishop John Bathersby was weighing up the future of the church, after complaints were forwarded from the Vatican. "A very right wing parishioner came and was offended by some of the artwork in the church, including some indigenous art, and an image of a praying monk which they mistook as a Buddha,""That person took photos and sent them to Rome and Rome wrote to the bishop." However, the statue - which was about 1 metre tall - had since been taken out of the church by a disgruntled person and smashed. the parishioner said.

Parish priest Fr Peter Kennedy, who has headed St Mary's for nearly 28 years, said he was unable to comment until he had heard further from Archbishop Bathersby. In a written statement, Archbishop Bathersby confirmed he had received communiques from the Vatican about St Mary's and that they included complaints about an alleged Buddhist statue in the church's sanctuary and unorthodox masses being conducted. He said that since speaking with Fr Kennedy, he had received many letters from parishioners concerned that the church might be closed. He had responded by saying "the key question is whether St Mary's is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church or not." This was something he had previously raised with the church's community and "nothing has really changed since then". In 2004, claims that incorrect language was being used during baptism were upheld and hundreds of baptisms conducted at St Mary's were ruled invalid by Archbishop Bathersby.
Link (here)

SOURCE

Future of St Mary's South Brisbane Church in doubt (Courier-Mail, 20/8/08)

LINKS

St Mary's parish, South Brisbane

Buddha in South Brisbane Church (Letter, AD2000, July 2008)

If Mass Were An EPCOT Parade

Thank you Fr. Ray Blake, this Mass is the one at the Los Angeles religious education conference, presided by Cardinal Roger Mahoney, view the video (here)

Miracle Freezer Baby From Galilee

Premature baby 'comes back to life'

Aug. 18, 2008

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

A premature baby who was pronounced dead "came back to life" Sunday after five hours in Nahariya Hospital.The baby girl, who was in a cooler at the hospital, suddenly showed signs of life and was being treated in the premature baby unit. Doctors estimated that the cooler brought the fetus "back to life."

The mother, 26, from a Western Galilee village, was in the fifth month of her pregnancy when she underwent a series of tests, during which it was discovered that she was suffering from internal bleeding and that the embryo had ceased to show signs of life.

The woman underwent an abortion and the baby, weighing 610 grams, was extracted from her womb without a pulse, hospital officials said. A senior doctor pronounced the baby dead and she was transferred to the cooler.

Five hours later, the woman's husband came to the hospital to take what he thought was his dead baby girl for burial. When the baby was taken out of the cooler, she began to breathe.

The premature baby was then taken to the intensive care ward, where doctors were attempting to save her life.

Link (here)

Photo is of the Jeddin Fortress, Western Galilee, Israel

Update on the miracle baby (here) "Miracle morgue freezer baby dies again"

English Priest Comments On The Return Of The Traditional Latin Mass

An old priest comments:
“so many of the ardent became lukewarm, many lapsed”

CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:51 am

South Ashford Priest has guided me to a comment on the blog of the always interesting Fr. Ray Blake at St. Mary Magdalen in Brighton:

As a priest in my 83rd year I have to make a confession. I implemented the Pauline reforms without understanding or sensitivity. I did it relying on the advice and coercion of my bishop and diocesan authorities. As I did it I witnessed the hurt and pain of many of the devout, so many of the ardent became lukewarm, many lapsed. I thought I acted rightly but in my 59 years of priesthood I recognize that that which we hoped for has not come to pass.

I do welcome a careful reappraisal and assessment of what has been done since my ordination, especially by the younger clergy. In order to do that they must learn something of the spirituality that brought men of my generation in vast numbers to the seminary.

In short I welcome this Merton initiative.

Incidentally, in the solitude of my retirement, since last September, I have relearned the Mass of my youth, it brings me great consolation. It is the Mass I have not celebrated out of obedience since 1970.

Fr P O’Rourke

I cannot say adequately how deeply impressed I am by this priest’s comment.

Thank you Fr. Z and Fr. Ray Blake.
JMJ
J.F.

More Than A Gesture

Five U.S. soldiers join pilgrimage march to Polish shrine in goodwill gesture

Warsaw, Aug 6, 2008 / 09:07 pm (CNA).- Five U.S. soldiers embarked on a 10-day, 180 mile-long march to Poland’s Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa with hundreds of camouflaged soldiers from various nations on Tuesday. The shrine contains the icon of the Black Madonna, the creation of which tradition attributes to St. Luke. The 300-year old pilgrimage has deep religious and patriotic significance in Poland and is expected to end before August 15, the Feast of the Assumption. Many miracles have been attributed to the Black Madonna, which was brought to the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa in 1384. During a 1655 siege, 70 monks and 180 supporters held off nearly 4,000 soldiers from the Protestant Swedish army, in a reputed miracle that inspired Poles to repel the invaders. Before beginning the pilgrimage, soldiers attended an early morning Mass at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army where a priest blessed them with holy water and then exhorted them to set a moral example during the march. The purpose of the U.S. contingent’s participation in the pilgrimage, the Associated Press says, is to show solidarity with Poland, an ally in Iraq and Afghanistan. Master Sgt. Roman Waldron, a 37-year-old soldier from Springfield, Illinois, told the Associated Press the event is a chance “to come together and share a little bit, and hopefully develop closer bonds with foreign militaries in a non-combat type setting.” Sgt. 1st Class Evan Young, from Rock Island, Illinois, said “Originally when I was given the opportunity I thought it would be kind of a neat way to see Poland, but then I started doing research on the Black Madonna and the siege and I thought it's part of a much bigger thing.” "It's pretty neat to be taking part in this, and help improve relations with Poland and other countries that are here," said Young, who grew up Episcopalian. Only one of the five U.S. soldiers involved in the pilgrimage is Catholic.
Link (here)
Painting: King Sigismund III Vasa kneeling before the Black Madonna of Czestochowa

An Interesting Catholic Blog

My Life After, The Passion of the Christ (here)