Vatican Christmas Tree To Be Lit In Ceremony Today

Benedict XVI today received a delegation from the town of Luson in the province of Bolzano, part of the Italian region of Alto Adige, which has donated the Christmas tree which will decorate St. Peter's Square during the festive season this year.

The tree, which will be lit this evening during a public ceremony to be presided by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, is a Norway spruce, thirty-four metres high and ninety-three years old. Apart from the main tree, Luson has also donated fifty smaller trees which will be used to decorate various sites in the Vatican.

The Holy Father noted that the spruce, "which stood at an altitude of 1500 metres and was cut down without damaging the forest environment, will stand next to the nativity scene until the end of the Christmas festivities".

"The Christmas tree", he went on, "enriches the symbolic value of the nativity scene, which is a message of fraternity and friendship, an invitation to unity and peace, an invitation to make space for God in our life and society. He offers us His omnipotent love through the fragile figure of a child, because He wants us to respond freely with our own love. Thus the nativity scene and the tree bear a message of hope and love, and help to create an environment in which to experience the mystery of the birth of the Redeemer in the right spiritual and religious context".

Americans Split over "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" : Poll

From Religion News Service via Huffington:

While more than nine out of 10 Americans say they plan to celebrate Christmas this year, they are divided on whether businesses should use messages like “Season’s Greetings” rather than “Merry Christmas,” according to a new poll.

The latest PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll, released Thursday (Dec. 16), found Americans are split, 44 percent in favor and 49 opposed, on whether retailers should use generic holiday greetings out of respect for people of different faiths.

The so-called “War on Christmas” has been a rallying cry for conservatives in recent years as they resist attempts to remove nativity scenes from town squares, Christmas carols from public schools and the words “Merry Christmas” from sales flyers.

The poll found a significant number of people engaging in secularized celebrations of Christmas, with Americans more likely to watch Christmas movies like It’s A Wonderful Life (83 percent) than attend religious services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (66 percent).

The holiday season is also slightly interreligious: One in 10 Americans say members of their families also celebrate another December holiday, such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.

Researchers said the range of ways that Americans celebrate Christmas could explain why the holy day is taking on a less religious feel.

Mid -Week Update

Good Afternoon Church,

Hoping that this post finds you all well and preparing yourselves during these remaining days of the Advent Season for the Coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.

No shortage of work here at the office and I am paging through letters and comments and am grateful for the support of so many that continues to inspire me to post to these pages.

My timing has been slightly off this month of December and for those who have asked I will be coming to St. Ann's in Flin Flon later in the month. December is a particularly demanding month and I have not been able to visit with you as I usually do from month to month. Be assured I continue to keep you and your families in my daily prayer.

Just wanting to say a hearty thank you for all of your patience with my scheduling and pastoral responsibilities: Fr. Bill & I are doing are best to visit the district and meet your needs as best we can taking into account the weather and other situations that arise.

For now, keep your stick on the ice and know that I keep you all in thought and prayer during this Season on Preparation. A little over a week to go folks...let's make it count.

Blessings,

Father Paul

Pope's Condom Remarks Leave Much Unsaid: Timmeus

Catholics may be sick of this subject, given the overwrought press coverage it has received in recent weeks, but I want to return to what Pope Bendict said about condom use in remarks that appear in the new book Light of the World:The Pope, the Church and the Sign of the Times.

I bring this up partly because its ripple effects may go on a long time. I also raise it as someone who has been part of an AIDS ministry at my church since 1989 and, thus, as one who has been with dozens of people, including at least one Catholic priest, as they’ve fought AIDS and lost.

Because of that, I’m aware that condoms can be fallible. I also know that, finally, the only safe sex is sex inside marriage or a committed relationship between faithful, uninfected partners. And yet I know, too, that no matter what, people will continue to engage in risky sexual behavior. We don’t need to approve of that to want to help mitigate the consequences.

So if I were pope (a terrible idea) I would say all of that and also say that if you choose to have risky sex, at least use a condom. That’s not, however, what the pope said.

What he said was that if someone does use a condom because of concern about the welfare of his partner, that very concern may be an indication of an awakening to a more moral sense about things. His comment was descriptive, not proscriptive. 

Thus, what the pontiff said was not, as the Associated Press quickly decided, a “seismic shift in papal teaching.” Will it lead to that? Maybe, but don’t bet the farm.

It’s not my job to tell the Catholic Church what its beliefs and teachings should be. I have enough trouble making sense of and living up to Presbyterian doctrine. But it is my task to analyze why the pope’s recent condom comment stirred up so much controversy and to figure out what we might learn from that.

All the excitement over this is tied into the Vatican’s apparent difficulty doing these two things at once: holding fast to essential doctrine while acknowledging (if not embracing) the reality of modernity and now the vicissitudes of post-modernity.

In fact, as we know from the 1995 book Sexuality and Catholicism by NCR’s Thomas C. Fox, the church has struggled in this way with issues of sex for a long time. Perhaps the most damaging example is the 1968 papal encyclical on birth control, Humanae Vitae.

That document, by its refusal to find a pastoral way to help faithful Catholics manage their complicated lives more effectively, did a great deal to estrange large parts of the American church from the Vatican. That’s an unhealed wound.

When Pope Benedict spoke recently about condom use, I hoped he might finally have found a way to engage Catholics and maybe even people outside the church who sometimes engage in behavior that trivializes the sacredness of sex. The church should be that moral voice.

But it didn’t happen. It took some time to explain just what Benedict meant about male prostitutes using condoms, but eventually it was clear that he had nothing new to say to people who might benefit from hearing -- and at least secretly might be longing for -- a clear theological and ethical voice that recognizes the messiness of life.

Life, indeed, is messier than we’d like. We sometimes find our children, grandchildren or even fellow parishioners making choices that appall us. I’m not suggesting we simply accept all of that as an immutable reality.

But our churches must find ways to talk frankly and realistically about sex (and lots of other subjects) if we want to have any influence at all. 

I regret that the pope didn’t do that, again. But perhaps he inadvertently opened the door.

(Bill Tammeus is a Presbyterian elder and former columnist for the Kansas City Star)

It Is God, Not Grand Promises, Who Changes the World: Pope

This morning the Pope made a pastoral visit to the parish of St. Maximilian Kolbe on the outskirts of Rome, where he celebrated Mass. As of the year 2009, the parish community has a new church, dedicated to that Polish Franciscan saint and martyr.

In his homily, the Pope highlighted how "Advent is a pressing invitation to us all to allow God to enter ever more deeply into our lives, our homes, our neighbourhoods, our communities, that we may have light amidst so much darkness and so much daily fatigue".

Noting how "with the passage of time the parish community has grown and become partly transformed, with the arrival of many people from the countries of Eastern Europe and other States", the Pope underlined the importance "of creating opportunities for dialogue and favouring mutual understanding between people from different cultures, backgrounds and social conditions".

"Here, as in all parishes", he said, "it is necessary to begin with those 'close by' then reach those 'far away', in order to bring an evangelical presence into the places in which we live and work. In parishes, everyone should be able to enjoy an adequate formation and to experience the community dimension which is a fundamental characteristic of Christian life", a community "that involves everyone, united in listening to the Word of God and in celebrating the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist".

Commenting then on today's Gospel reading in which John the Baptist asks whether Jesus is the Judge Who will change the world, or whether we must wait for another, Benedict XVI affirmed that "many prophets, ideologues and dictators have come and said: 'No, not him! He has not changed the world! We have!' And they created their empires, their dictatorships, their totalitarian regimes which were meant to change the world. And they did change it, but destructively. Today we know that all that is left of these grand promises is great emptiness and great destruction".

"The Lord, in the silent way characteristic of Him, replies: 'See what I have done. I have not brought a bloody revolution, I have not changed the world by force; but I have lit many lights which together form a great path of light over the millennia".

The Pope then turned his attention to St. Maximilian Kolbe "who volunteered to die of hunger in order to save the life of a married man", to St. Damian de Veuster "who lived and died with and for lepers", and to Mother Teresa of Calcutta "who brought light to so many people who, after a life spent without light, died with a smile because they were touched by the light of God's love.

"And so we could go on", he added, "and we would see, as the Lord said in His reply to John, that it is not violent revolution or great promises that change the world, but the silent light of truth, of God's goodness, which is the sign of His presence and gives us the certainty that we are fully loved, that we are not forgotten, that we are not the result of chance but of a will to love".

The Pope concluded his homily by highlighting how "God is close, ... but we are often far away. Let us, then draw close, let us come into the presence of His light, let us pray to the Lord and, in the contact of prayer, let us become a light for others".

Thought for the Day: Will Power

"Will Power - Our willingness to be used by a God." - Anonymous

How many times have you wanted something very badly, only to realize at a later date that having it would have been a major disaster? Often we pursue a certain want or desire when the Universe has something entirely different planned - something, which is for our higher good.

For years, Ann wanted to run her own daycare center. An opportunity arose for her to buy a local business, but the deal fell through at the last minute. Bitterly disappointed, she could not understand why her heart's desire was denied her. Then one day, she and her husband found out about a business that was for sale in a city where they had always wanted to live. Within weeks, they bought the business and moved to their new location. Ann gave thanks that the first opportunity did not work out.

From our earthly vantage point, we can't always see the big picture. We are like mice running in an open field, sensing what is in front of our noses. Only from the perspective of the eagle can the entire landscape be viewed.

Fortunately, there is a part of yourself that can see like the eagle. You can turn over your life and your plans to that higher vision, and then say with assurance, "It's all God's work. It's all in God's hands. And I am at peace with this." 

Calgary Anglicans Move Closer to Rome

A year ago, Pope Benedict invited traditionalist Anglicans to return to the fold of Roman Catholicism. Calgary's St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church is the first parish in Canada to accept his offer.
 

The 70-member congregation held meetings for 10 months, conducted research, prayed, and discerned about the decision. A vote was held Nov. 21, with 90 per cent in favour of rejoining the Catholic Church.

"The pressures to leave have always been there within the Anglo-Catholic movement," said Father Lee Kenyon, pastor at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Parish.

"They were there when John Henry Newman converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in the middle of the 19th century. There is a long history of Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church."

St. John the Evangelist opened its doors in 1905, with the church building opening in 1911. The church refers to itself as "Your Anglican (Anglo-Catholic) Parish."

"Essentially, St. John's and parishes like it have been trying to live out a Catholic life, a Catholic sacramental life, Catholic devotional life and a Catholic spiritual life. But they've been doing so without the full communion of Peter," said Kenyon, who is married with two children.

More conservative than most of Calgary's Anglican parishes, St. John's Anglo-Catholic parishioners were largely opposed to the increasingly liberal Anglican Church's recognition of same-sex blessings and other non-traditional practices.

"Most Anglo-Catholics within the Anglican Church of Canada actually left. They departed over the ordination of women and reforms in the liturgy. Certainly by the mid-1980s they were gone altogether," said Kenyon.

However, Kenyon said St. John the Evangelist Parish never sought to leave Anglicanism out of protest, and not out of anger or frustration over liberal reforms.

"Although those issues may have been the cause for people leaving the Anglican Church of Canada, it's very important to emphasize that they can never be the reasons in themselves for joining the Catholic Church," he said.

"Any Anglo-Catholic who has always had these goals in mind of corporate reunion cannot ignore the offer."

The pope extended the invitation, in a document known as Anglicanorum Coetibus, in November 2009. It allowed for Anglican converts to retain parts of their liturgy and traditions, including the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Kenyon hopes there will be mutual enrichment.

COLLINS OVERSEES

Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins will establish an Anglican ordinariate, aimed at helping convert Anglican priests and ordain them as Catholics. Kenyon hopes that by this time next year, the process will be complete.

Ownership of the red brick church building, constructed in 1911, has yet to be determined. Many of St. John the Evangelist parishioners have been attending church services there for more than 50 years and want to stay there.

"I am hoping that we can hold onto our building, but at the same time we are prepared to lose everything. What matters at the end of the day are the living stones and not the built stones," said Kenyon.

"What matters is the spiritual imperative to enter into the Catholic Church. Building and land are secondary."

COURT BATTLES

In November, a court ruled that four breakaway Anglican parishes in Vancouver continue to belong to the Anglican diocese. Other court battles are taking place across the country.

In England, five Anglican bishops recently announced that they want to be united with Rome.

The public and those Christians who know what this is about have been sympathetic, understanding, kind and considerate, said Kenyon. There have been no disputes with other Anglican clergy.

Advent: The Human Season

Advent is a season made for imperfect people, all of us, in other words, trying to maintain our balance as we scramble up the final slope of the shadow seamed mountain of the year. Advent's climb leads us to a view of the far reaches of the heavenly but in a profoundly human way. We pass through its weeks as we stroll by a succession of Christmas windows, surprised by images of ourselves superimposed on the displays, behold, as the angel of Christmas might say, this is what you really look like in everyday life.

Perhaps that is why the knowing liturgy allows us to view ourselves by candlelight so that we can gradually revise our self-images softened by its glow and be born again to a more homely, more human, and more livable understanding of ourselves.

These candles placed regularly along our climb toward the top of the year also embody the truth about the calling that transcends our occupations and professions. By their very nature, as we by ours, the candles let their substance be consumed by giving light, no matter how brief or flickering. These illuminations weave the weeks of Advent together by their symbolization of the Mystery of the Light of the World toward whose celebration they lead. 

These tapers, like the Christmas windows from which our avatars stare back at us, also illuminate how, as psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan expressed it, "we are much more simply human than anything else." We are called to give off the great human signal of the season to all the searching and the lonely in the growing winter darkness, come over here, there's plenty of room, we all belong to the same family. 

Advent is from the Latin that means "to come to," catching the period's significance as an ongoing journey, the being "in via," or "on the way," as our spiritual lives were described by ancient Christian writers. 

The word "Advent" is a plum pudding of meanings, for it signifies a "coming or arrival, especially of something awaited or momentous." We are aware of the biblical mystery of this long awaited coming but there are no feelings more familiar to men and women than those generated by our hellos and our goodbyes, by our longing for union and suffering separation, for our looking forward to comings or arrivals of all kinds, from graduations to weddings, to birthday parties and family reunions. 

Perhaps this wonder, that Advent underscores as it recognizes its utter humanity, is most powerfully experienced everyday before our eyes. As Joseph Campbell expressed it, "The latest version of Beauty and the Beast is taking place right now on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street." That is the Christmas-like wonder repeated when lovers find each other in the airport crowd as they first did, against all odds, in the great shouldering crowd of the world itself. 

If we travel far enough back in the origin of words we find a distant root of Advent in gwa that means "to come" but that is also linked to "welcome" and "guest." This archeological dig of words helps us grasp the many layers of the Advent Mystery and of how, in its illumination of our natures, it overflows with sacramental manifestations of what it means to be human. 

Advent allows us to rediscover not the sour version of a puritanical religion that is hard on humans but is one of living mystery and wonder. We feel this mystery in greater and lesser ways in all the comings and goings of this time of the year. We are all on the way to someplace else or are restlessly waiting for someone to come to us; we are suffused in the small mysteries of these defining human transactions that reveal the heart of our humanity. 

It also underscores all that is wondrous even in the more homely aspects of being human. We are always on journeys of one kind or another and the whole mystery of our destiny is repeated every time we leave home for work, take up an unfinished task, or dream about the future. There is nothing more human than our setting up camp only to break it at dawn and set off for another that seems filled with more promise or more challenge for us.

These all fit with Advent's pilgrimage that, as we reflect on it, puts us on a track that intersects with the Divine journey to the very same destination, to the "end," as Chesterton wrote, "of the wandering star," to becoming human that is the fathomless Mystery of Christmas.

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

Worry & Stress

"I'm learning it's what I do with my today that counts," said one group member. "I can make this a day to remember or a day to regret just by the kinds of thoughts I have about it.

"Let me explain what happened to make me realize this," he continued. "Two days ago, I woke up grumbling about my sorry lot in life. My divorce, my bills, and a recent argument with a close friend haunted me. Throughout the whole day I nursed my woes and convinced myself that this was just another rotten day. And do you know what? That's exactly what it turned out to be! Nothing went right. I even had a second argument with another friend who called to cheer me up.

"Yesterday, I overheard someone say that a person is made or unmade by what he thinks. I thought about this for a while and decided to try it out today. Instead of greeting the day with my usual, 'Good God, morning!' I consciously said, 'Good morning, God!' with the expectation that it would be a good day. And that's what it's been. I even called my two friends to apologize for my previous terrible mood, and I had a warm and friendly conversation with them both!"

TODAY I will lift up my thoughts. In expecting nothing but good to come to me, that is exactly what I will receive. 

Father Christmas?

 
Good day Church - a fitting photo of our Commander in Chief during this season of Advent.

That said, the topic of the "camauro's" (read Santa's Hat) brief return on December 23rd, 2005 made a cameo appearance in the freshly-released Light of the World.

Asked why the winter piece came out after nearly a half-century in abeyance, the Pope recalled that "I was just cold, and I happen to have a sensitive head. And I said, since the camauro is there, then let’s put it on."

Given the "stir" over what most of the press dubbed his "Santa hat," however, Benedict added that "I haven’t put it on again since. In order to forestall over-interpretation."