Pilgrim Shepherd:Fr. Tom's Blog

The Pilgrim Shepherd has moved

2011-04-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

Each week I get a traffic report on this blog, and find that there are still about 4 visits a day. Thanks so much for continuing to check back. Since life is a Pilgrimage, and Pilgrims are on a continuing journey, I moving my Pilgrim Shepherd blogsite to WordPress. I've explained why in my initial post, which is now there. It'll take a while to get it up to speed, but I hope to keep it updated and lively.

It's at http://tomwelbers.wordpress.com/. Don't worry, all past content will still be here at http://twlegacy.blogspot.com/.

Thanks for joining me on this journey of faith and life.

Separation Anxiety

2010-11-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

America Magazine - Separation Anxiety: "Yet as a major sponsor of education in the United States, the church needs to speak with a clearer voice not merely about textbooks, but about educational policy." Bishop Tom Curry's insightful article on the First Amendment and Catholic schools.

Note: if you have trouble accessing this article, try here.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Paradox of Suffering

2010-11-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

This morning in our chapel I read about yesterday's saint, Elizabeth of the Trinity, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984. She was born and died (1880-1906) just a few years after Therese of Lisieux. There lives overlapped and they were both French, but it's unlikely they ever knew or each other. Like Therese her brief life was one of total self-giving in the embrace of suffering in union with Jesus as her spouse.

Unlike Therese, she desired to enter a Carmelite convent as a teen, but was forcibly delayed from entering until she was 21 by her mother who hoped she'd get married. She endured this imposition with graceful obedience, remaining firm in her intention. Of this she wrote, "Even in the midst of the world, one can listen to God in the silence of a heart that wants only to be his."

Two years later, in 1903, she developed adrenal insufficiency, or Addison's disease, for which there was no effective treatment and which led to a complexity of painful conditions. Like Therese in her struggle with terminal illness, she was directed to write her thoughts, and in these writings and letters we have a valuable account of her spirituality. As her illness progressed, she wrote to her mother: "The Father has predestined me to be conformed to his crucified Son. My Spouse wishes me to be the surrogate human being in whom he can suffer again for the glory of the Father and the salvation of the Church. This thought makes e so happy." Although she continued to express joy in her sufferings, like Therese and Mother Teresa, she was also afflicted with feelings of desolation and abandonment and the prospect of death approached. She died on November 9, 1906, the same year my mother was born.

In these two parallel lives of Elizabeth and Therese there is a pattern of youthful and energetic coming to terms with the most basic paradox of human life: the meaning of suffering. This is a question that is utter nonsense to most people -- in all ages,not just today. And yet the flight from suffering is a headlong plunge into denial of reality, motivated by fear that often leads to division, blame, violence, and ultimately willfully causing the death one seeks to avoid. These lives provide an alternate vision -- perhaps the only alternate vision -- and are worth pondering.

Pilgrim Pope

2010-11-06T22:16:00.001-07:00

Today, Pope Benedict XVI visited Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, the famous and inspiring pilgrimage site honoring St. James, the brother of John, who was the first apostle to be martyred (in 44 AD), but who visited Spain before then, according to a much later legend. (You can find a lot more about him and the traditional pilgrimage site of Santiago at the Wikipedia entry.)

I found his three talks very helpful in coming to a better understanding of pilgrimage, as a metphor for the whole journey of life, of Christian life, and of the Church. This shed a lot light, for me at least, on the reality and purpose of our Early Christian World Pilgrimage.

At the welcoming ceremony at the airport, he said:

In his deepest being, man is always on a journey, ever in search of truth. The Church shares this profound human desire and herself sets out, accompanying humanity in its yearning for complete fulfillment. At the same time, the Church pursues her own interior journey which, through faith, hope and love, leads her to become a transparent sign of Christ for the world.

At his speech at the Cathedral, he gave a wonderful definition of Pilgrimage, which I am going to adopt in future informational and promotional materials:

To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.

While he mentioned in particular the persons and events associated with the Holy Land, Rome, and Compostela, the Early Christian World sites of Turkey do not trail behind them in significance for the same reasons.

And in his homily at the Mass, he spoke of the common experience and goal of all Pilgrims, whether those who trek the long hiking trail through France and Spain to Compostela or those who, in the relative comfort of Turkey's hotels and tour buses, follow the arduous schedule enforced by Fr. Tom and Aydin:

The fatigue of the journey, the variety of landscapes, their encounter with peoples of other nationalities - all of this opens their heart to what is the deepest and most common bond that unites us as human beings: we are in quest, we need truth and beauty, we need an experience of grace, charity, peace, forgiveness and redemption. And in the depth of each of us there resounds the presence of God and the working of the Holy Spirit.
I urge you to read the whole of these documents; they are not long, but they very much speak to the heart.

Tomorrow, visit the Vatican site to see what he has to say as he dedicated the imposing "work-in-progress" church of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

You can also watch excerpts from Vatican TV on the Vatican Channel on YouTube.

Initiation and Welcome

2010-10-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I gave a talk at the Regional Religious Education Congress for Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region here in Los Angeles. The title I chose was "The Quality of Our Welcome: A Fresh Look at RCIA." Christian Initiation is all about welcoming people into our family of faith, and I believe it is important for us to take a close look at just what the rite tells us from the point of view of welcome.

You can listen to the talk using the embedded player.

If that doesn't work, or if you'd like to download it for playing on an iPod or similar device, youcan access it at the following link.

http://www.archive.org/details/InitiationAndWelcome

You can also download my handout/notes by clicking here.

Marriage and Initiation

2010-10-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of the sensitive areas that must be dealt with as we, the Church, prepare to welcome new members into our family, is the question of how our understanding of the nature of marriage in itself, as well as marriage as a sacrament, relates to the life of a committed Catholic Christian. This becomes very real when one seeking to become Catholic has a former marriage that has ended, often tragically and painfully. If marriage is a commitment for life, the implications of this former marriage must be dealt with.

On September 29, 2010, I gave a talk to the Initiation community of Good Shepherd parish in an effort to surface and begin to deal with these questions as they might come up among those preparing to become catechumens.

You can listen to this talk using the embedded player. Please note that the talk is in two segments (Marriage-1 and Marriage-2), and you can toggle between the segments with the two little triangles facing the lines right and left.

If the embedded player doesn't work, you can download the talk at the following link as MP3 audio files, which you can listen to on your computer or play on an iPod or similar device.

http://www.archive.org/details/MarriageAndAnnulmentsInChristianInitiation

You can also view and download the notes (4 pages) in PDF format by clicking here.

Turkey drifts closer to the West - ŞAHİN ALPAY

2010-10-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

A good article to help understand Turkey today, from a Turkish perspective.

Turkey drifts closer to the West - ŞAHİN ALPAY: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Religion: When America feared and reviled Catholics - latimes.com

2010-10-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Religion: When America feared and reviled Catholics - latimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Excellent article, but the author is wrong on one point: anti-Catholicism is not dead, it just takes different forms. As she quotes Mark Twain, history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. See: http://www.amazon.com/New-Anti-Catholicism-Last-Acceptable-Prejudice/dp/0195154800

Beyond a 'Darth Vader' view of secularism | National Catholic Reporter

2010-10-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Beyond a 'Darth Vader' view of secularism | National Catholic Reporter"

Excellent piece by John Allen on the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, beginning today in Rome. Pray for them.

When will American Catholics learn that we are a mere 6% of the Catholic population of world, and open our eyes to the reality of global Catholicism?

(Shameless promotion: The Early Christian World Pilgrimage can help start the process.)

Development of Doctrine: St. Vincent of Lerins

2010-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today's Office of Readings has a piece by St. Vincent of Lerins, who died in 445, on the development of doctrine that is relevant for us today, especially following last month's beatification of John Henry Newman, whose "Essay on the Development of Doctrine" has been so influential in modern theology and Church teaching, as well as misunderstood by the advocates of both "radical change" and "return to tradition."

	An instruction by St Vincent of Lerins

The development of doctrine

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

The writers of the New Testament consistently record that Jesus has promised to be with us, his Church, until the end of time, as the head is to the members of a body, and that requires that the Church be true in its belief. That means that the primary place where infallibility resides is in the believing Church as a whole. The infallibility of the teaching Church, the bottom line of which resides in the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome, exists only to serve the faith of the whole Church, the whole Body of Christ.

Vincent and, much later, Newman insist that development of doctrine must be organic growth, not revolutionary change. It seems to me that this depends more than anything on a humble, open, and patient dialogue between the believing Church and the teaching Church. Magisterium always must be a two-way street. Magisterium is always a ministerium. The "big" (magis) exists only to serve the "little" (minus). The representatives of Christ-the Head must always respect the real presence of Christ in the members as well.

St. John Chrysostom: relevant words to us today

2010-09-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

We think we live in bad times? Here's an excerpt from a letter of St. John Chrysostom (c. 350-407), bishop of Constantinople, which he wrote from prison near the end of his life to his dear friend and colleague, the Deaconess St. Olympias:

Please listen to what I have to say. I am going to try to make you a little less depressed and get rid of the dark clouds in your mind. Why are you so worried, sad, and agitated? Because the storm that has attacked the churches is harsh and menacing, and because it has wrapped everything in unrelieved darkness? Because it is reaching crisis point? Because it brings dreadful shipwrecks every day, while the whole world collapses about us?

We see the ocean whirling up from its uttermost depths and sailors' bodies floating on it. We see others overcome by the force of the waves. . . . It is all so hopeless they can only scream, groan, cry, and weep. . . . Everywhere monsters of the deep rise up and threaten travelers. But no mere words can express the unutterable. No terminology I can think of can adequately convey the terror of these times.

Though I am aware of all these miseries, I never cease to hope. I always remember the universal Pilot. He does not rely on steersmanship to suffer the storm and come through it. He merely nods to calm the roaring oceans, and if he takes his time in doing so, well that is the Pilot's way. He does not stop dangers straightaway, but banishes them only when they get close to their most ghastly point, and almost everyone has abandoned hope. Only then does he show us marvels and miracles. Only then does he reveal the power which he alone possesses, and teach the suffering how to be patient.

Quoted in the new full edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints, September, p, 112. St. John Chrysostom, continue to pray for us.

Homily today: the prodigal . . .

2010-09-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

I recorded my homily today, and thought it might be worth sharing. See Luke 15:1-31.

If the above player doesn't work in your browser, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HomilyFor24thSundayYearC

How can we live with pain . . .?

2010-09-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the talk that I gave at the meeting of our Good Shepherd Seniors' Group, "Young at Heart," at their lunch meeting on Saturday, September 11, 2010. They asked me to speak on "How can we live with pain and the other things that are just 'not right' in life?"

If the player does not work on your computer, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HowCanWeLiveWithPain

Invocation at Memorial Service Beverly Hills, California, 9/11/2010

2010-09-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

We remember the countless innocent people whose lives were taken away nine years ago today, as well as those who have suffered and died in the many events of its equally tragic aftermath.

But today we especially commemorate, and in a very real sense celebrate, those who have given their lives so that others may live, abandoned their own safety so that others may live secure, freely laid down their lives so that others may be free.

How tragic when life is taken by violence born of fear, anger, hatred, and mistrust. How precious is the life that is freely given for the sake of another.

May we honor the lives of these men and women – these heroes – by not yielding to the illusory satisfaction of revenge or retaliation. Rather, may we face the challenges of our world today with the courage to echo, in the priorities our lives, the timeless and ever-relevant words attributed to St. Francis, who also lived in a time marked by conflict, war, and violence:

May we be instruments of true peace.
When confronted with hatred, may we bring love,
in pain, forgiveness,
in doubt, faith,
in despair, hope,
in darkness, light,
in sadness, joy.
May we seek not so much to be comforted as to encourage,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For in giving, we receive,
in forgiving, we are reconciled,
and in dying, new life is born.
Amen.

Note: It may come as a surprise that the beloved and traditional "Prayer of St. Francis" appears not to have a very long tradition behind it, has often been paraphrased, and has been used in many civic occasions such as this. So there is ample precedent for my use of it here.

You can listen to it as delivered at the "9/11 Day of Remembrance" ceremony here:

or download it at this link.

http://www.archive.org/details/BeverlyHills911Memorial-Invocation

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter

2010-09-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

Excellent piece on media and religious illiteracy by John Allen.

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter

Seventh Catholic History and Heritage Presentation: Questions and Answers

2010-08-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

We dealt with topics such as the Roman Catholic-Eastern Orthodox split, Hitler and the Jews and Pius XII and the Catholic Church, and Vatican II.

Here's the player:

Or, if the player doesn't work for you, you can listen or download the audio files here:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation7
There were no notes prepared for this presentation.

Sixth Catholic History and Heritage Presentation: Vatican II and its turbulent wake

2010-08-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

The full title and subtitle of this presentation was:

Vatican II and its turbulent wake: Reform and Resourcement; controversy and conflict

Who would have guessed what would blow in that open window?

Vatican II: fruit of the Spirit or spawn of Satan? And . . . who cares?

A rather provocative title, I guess. Then again, we live in provocative times! Listen to the whole presentation online (my apologies for taking so long to get it posted):

Don't forget you can toggle between part 1 and part 2 with the two little triangles facing the lines right and left.

As usual, if the embedded player doesn't work for you, you can download the original MP3 files at:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeitagePresentation6 (Uhm . . . yeah, there's a typo in the address, but it's too much of a hassle to try to change it on that site.)

And, of course, you can view and download the text of the notes, in PDF format, here. (This week I was not able to put any links for further information into the notes, but you can find a lot just by searching Google or Wikipedia with the obvious keywords.)

The reason why I was late in getting this online is that on Wednesday morning I received the 2011 price quotes from our Istanbul tour agency for the Early Christian World Pilgrimage, Orion-Tour, and have spent most of my spare time of the last few days putting together the initial publicity for the Pilgrimage in the form of a bulletin insert/letter for this weekend. You can see that letter here, and you will be able to keep up to date on the Pilgrimage news and itinerary at my Pilgrimage blogsite, http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

If you are looking for the past presentations, scroll through the list or past blogpost titles on the sidebar to the right, and you'll find them.

Solemnity of Our Lady of the Assumption

2010-08-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

August 15 is my most favorite day of the year -- well, one of them at least. Having been pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Claremont for 15 years before coming to Good shepherd in Beverly Hills, I had many occasions and lots of time to reflect on the meaning of this feast for us, Catholic Christians today. I tried to embody some of that in my homily today, which you can listen to here:

Or you can access it at this web address (click here).

Here's what I wrote on the Good Shepherd bulletin cover:

This image of Mary taken into heaven is the tapestry that graces Our Lady of Assumption Church in Claremont, where I served fifteen years before coming here to Good Shepherd. The feast we are celebrating today remains very dear to me, as it is to all Catholics, celebrating the entry of Mary into the same glory that is promised to us. This beautiful creation is the work of the Barillet Studios of Paris in the early 1950s. As our parishes are united in Christ and his holy Mother, I ask your prayers for the people of the OLA parish community as we celebrate their patronal feast. (Photo by Fr. Tom Welbers)

That tapestry certainly represents the triumph and glory that we often associate with the Assumption. As I note in my homily, however, Eastern Christianity has a very different perspective on this same feast, and they traditionally call it the "Dormition of Mary." (That name is actually older than the "assumption.") Compare the two images, which I reflect on in my homily, and see which one speaks most deeply to you. (This image is in the Church of St. Savior in Chora [Kariye Museum] in Istanbul, and one of a magnificent series of photos of Turkey by Dutch photographer Dick Osseman, freely available on the web.)

What Does the Pope Have to Do with Our Being Catholic?

2010-08-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Some would say nothing; others would say everything. Both sides are right . . . and wrong.

Hey, one of the fundamental requirements for being Catholic, as well as Christian -- as well as human, for that matter -- is to make friends with paradox. Life is not a neat and tidy little package, and there's a lot of apparent contradictions that are simply beyond our power to resolve to our satisfaction. Like the "core belief" we started with a few weeks ago, the Trinity -- one God, three Persons -- a paradox. And the Incarnation, Christ as fully God and fully human -- a paradox. And the Eucharist -- all the observable elements of nature, bread and wine, remain, but the substance, the underlying reality, is truly changed and becomes the body and blood of Christ -- a paradox. So, why shouldn't the Pope be a paradox?

Last week I ventured the opinion that the core beliefs of Catholic faith "boil down to just two: the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome." Then I discussed the "Real Presence." Some might say that many Protestant churches, including Anglicans/Episcopalians, celebrate the Eucharist and have a belief similar to ours. True, but none of them meet the criteria that we hold are essential for the complete reality (or validity) of the Eucharist as we understand and believe. That's a loaded statement on an ecumenically sensitive issue, and it needs to be unpacked and nuanced. But that's for another time. Of course, the place of the Pope in the Church is another sensitive issue, and that's the concern of this little essay.

First we need to be clear that the Pope is the Bishop of Rome, just like any other bishop is bishop of a particular local church, whether Los Angeles or Las Vegas or Talahassee or Talibon . . . or wherever. The Pope's relationship -- personal or official -- with other bishops, or with all Catholics worldwide, is not the heart of the issue. It's the relationship of the local Church (or diocese) of Rome with other local churches (dioceses). Because St. Peter, whose name means "rock," was singled out for a foundational role among the gathered disciples (see Matthew 16:18 -- the word "church" etymologically means "the people called together") and because tradition has it that he was the first Bishop of Rome, the same tradition has held that the Church of Rome, and therefore its bishop, has a unique relationship of both honor and authority among all the other churches and their bishops. We call this relationship primacy.

Christianity, from the age of the Apostles, has placed an essential value on unity and continuity, that is, the various local churches are authenticated both by their unity with one another, expressed in mutual recognition by the bishops of one another's legitimacy, and their continuity with the faith-community of the Apostles (i.e., the early Church) expressed through what is called "apostolic succession." As important as an individual's, or even a group's, personal faith truly is, the communal values of unity and continuity are more essential to the identity of the Church. Otherwise, the church becomes a conglomeration of individualistic do-it-yourselfers.

Apostolic succession is a fundamental criterion for a local church to be authentically Catholic. There must be an unbroken line of authority, through ordination, from the beginning down to our own day, and an essential element of that "unbroken line" is union with the local Church of Rome. Thus our second "core belief," without which we are not Catholic, can be simply labeled "apostolic succession," which must include organic union of all local churches with the Church of Rome.

What happened to Christians throughout the centuries to produce the disunity and fragmentation we experience today? First of all, the various Orthodox Churches have maintained apostolic succession and valid ordinations of bishops and priests, and therefore a valid celebration of the Eucharist, but split from unity with the Church of Rome in 1054. This was for a variety of tragically unfortunate and complex historical reasons, and sadly the division is still a long way from being healed. The Protestants (including Anglicans), for a variety of reasons, many of which legitimately addressed real abuses and even theological problems within the Catholic Church, not only broke the continuity of apostolic succession but also repudiated union with Rome. And that twofold fracture seems also a long way from healing.

Needless to say, both Orthodox and Protestant Christians would express this division differently, and would not see our core beliefs in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Primacy of the Bishop of Rome to be as central as we do. I call these "core beliefs" of Catholic faith simply because these pinpoint the heart of the difference between Catholic faith and all other Christian faiths. On the one hand, while there are undoubtedly many reasons why people choose to be or remain Catholic, these two core beliefs have to be at the center.

Obviously much more can (and must) be said. And I suspect what I have written over the past few weeks may raise more questions (and perhaps objections) than are answered. I hope, however, that, in trying to be concise, I have also been relatively clear. The more I have studied and and reflected in recent years, the more it seems to me that these four core beliefs -- two generically Christian and two specifically Catholic -- serve as hooks on which all other elements of our faith, from the smallest to the greatest, can be hung. Or to change analogies, they serve as the four foundational pillars, rising up from the One Foundation which is Jesus Christ himself, of who and what we are as Catholic Church.

May God continue to bless you and all those you love. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

P.S. You might be inclined to point out my inconsistency in capitalization of Church/church and Bishop/bishop. If you look closely, I have tried to capitalize them only when referring to a particular church or bishop, e.g. "the Bishop of the local Church of Fresno," but not when they are used generically, "a bishop in his own local church."

P.P.S. This Monday, August 16, is the last of six scheduled presentations on "the History and Heritage of our Faith" at 7:00 pm in the parish hall. Our topic will move us from the twentieth century into the twenty-first, examining first the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, and the turbulent years following it, up to today. The title, "Reform and Resourcement; Controversy and Conflict", I think sums it up pretty well. (Yeah, I like parallel contrasts and alliteration.) However, because I was not able to deal with questions at the time of the presentations, I've been asked to do another session just to deal with questions that were raised. So, there will be an additional session, devoted exclusively to questions and answers, the following Monday, same time and same place. I'm calling this session, "Your turn . . . have at Fr. Tom!" Don't forget that all the lectures and the notes are available online at http://tomwelbers.net. Also, new information on the 2011 Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey, April 25 to May 14, 2011, is continually being posted at http://ecwpilgrimage.org. There is some very good news about how to get there and back! Check it out.

Fifth Catholic History and Heritage Presentation: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

2010-08-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

Click on the "play" button (the triangle pointing right on the left side of the bar) to listen.

Or if the embedded player doesn't work in your browser, or if you would like to download the presentation in MP3 files, go directly to the site:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation5

Here are the notes, filled with many links to further background material.

A bridge across the years:

Here's the very first motion picture made of a pope -- Pope Leo XII in 1896. The soundtrack contains the first and only sound recording (an acoustical wax cylinder) of him singing "Ave Maria" in 1903, shortly before he died.

This is a brief clip of Pope Benedict XV, the only known motion picture footage of him, I think.

And here's Bishop Sheen on the 1950s TV Program, "What's My Line?"

Why Be Catholic?

2010-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

That's the core question that every Catholic must ask. It is not enough just to ride along on some kind of "default" or "cultural" Catholicism -- "I'm Catholic because I was 'born' Catholic." Nor, although this motivation is important, is enough to be Catholic because of friendliness, hospitality, good feelings, or a sense of personal fulfillment. Important, but not the "core," the center that I'm trying to identify in this little series of bulletin essays.

If the Trinity and the Incarnation are the core beliefs of Christianity, then what are the specifically core beliefs of Catholic faith, the particular beliefs that distinguish Catholic faith from the rest of Christianity? The basic question here is, Why be Catholic, anyway? It's an important question when many people, including myself, might find some very appealing, even tempting, attractions in other forms of Christianity.

It seems to me that the core beliefs of Catholic faith also boil down to just two: the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome. As I've already discussed, there's a lot more that's very important to being Christian and to being Catholic than just the core beliefs. But all the rest is somehow corollary to or derived from the core belief. I'm not trying to give here a catechism or a summary of our faith; I'm trying to identify the nucleus, the very center. It's a bit like scientists trying to discover the massively powerful object around which our entire galaxy revolves, although the name "black hole" doesn't express its real nature very well.

The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not something that the Church, or its teachers and leaders, "invented" somewhere along the line. It comes solely from taking Jesus Christ seriously in the New Testament. Three of the four Gospels recount Jesus at the Last Supper saying essentially, "This is my body . . . this is my blood." St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, is actually the first witness to these words, predating the earliest Gospel by at least twenty years. The Gospel of John does not record these words, but in Chapter 6 gives a long discourse of Jesus in which he emphasizes, in unmistakable words, that one must eat his body and drink his blood in order to have life -- the life that he has come to give.

Throughout the centuries, authentic Catholic faith has discovered many layers of meaning in these words, but had never departed from an understanding that Jesus meant exactly what he said.

The Orthodox Churches share with us this belief in its full integrity. While Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII also tried to hold on to essentially the same faith in the Real Presence of Christ, the churches they spawned, as they crumbled into fragments, pretty much let go of this belief, and most came to describe the Eucharist in merely symbolic terms, and some no longer even saw the Lord's Supper as an important part of Christian life and worship.

It's important for us to note that our Catholic faith does not deny that the bread and wine are symbols of Christ's presence and activity in the Eucharist. But there's much more to it, and we cannot deny the underlying reality that is expressed in symbol. I have not used the word "transsubstantiation," which the Church affirms accurately describes the process by which the Eucharist happens. I find the word problematic because most of the people who use it today don't understand it, and think it'[s synonymous with "physically present." It's not. And I'm in agreement with the St. Thomas Aquinas and the Council of Trent on this point.

Obviously so much more could be said about the Eucharist, but not here and now.

The second core Catholic belief, the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome, will have to wait until next week for further treatment because I'm out of space.

I love you,

Fr. Tom Welbers

P.S. Please note that the fifth of my presentations on "the History and Heritage of Our Faith" will be given this Monday at 7:00 pm in the parish Hall. The topic will be "Saints and Sinners: 19th and 20th century experience on being Catholic and catholic, Christian and human." You can listen to all the past lectures (and view the notes) at http://tomwelbers.net. I also have the complete itinerary for the 2011 Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey after next Easter online at http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

Fourth Catholic Heritage and History Presentation: The Reformers Are Coming!

2010-08-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

. . . and they keep on coming. Late Middle Ages, religious orders, the Inquisition, the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent, the Jesuits (especially Ignatius and Matteo Ricci), the Enlightenment, and revolutionary nationalism are all topics that we explore in this presentation.

In case your browser doesn't like the embedded player, or if you want to download it as MP3 files, here's the link:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation4

The notes and the PowerPoint slides I used. (Both are in PDF files.)

See the "Blog Archive" menu on the sidebar to the right for the previous presentations.

The Heart of What We Believe as Christians

2010-08-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

(This is my "Pastor's Reflection" on Page Two of Good Shepherd Church Bulletin, August 1, 2010.)

After two weeks of tantalizing you with background reflections, I must now answer my own question, What are our "core beliefs" as Christians? If you want to know why I believe this is important, please review the last two weeks' bulletins.

There are only two doctrines or articles of faith that specifically make us Christian and distinguish our faith from all non-Christian religions. In the shorthand of theological jargon, they are the Trinity and the Incarnation. If you believe in the Trinity and the Incarnation, you are a Christian; if you don't, you're not. Well, that's easy enough to say, but what does it mean?

Basically, the doctrine of the Trinity unites two apparently contradictory statements: there is one God, (not three), but the one God is three distinct persons, (not one). This is such a commonplace teaching, drilled into many of us from early childhood, that we often don't realize just how strange and paradoxical it is. If, as children, we questioned it, we were silenced by some kind of statement as, "It's a mystery, and so we can't understand it; we just have to believe it." That may be enough for a child's faith, although I was never convinced by it; it certainly isn't enough for an adult faith.

If the Bible is the source of our faith, we may want to ask, Where is it in the Bible? It may come as a surprise to find out that the word "trinity" never once appears in the Bible, nor does it anywhere explicitly say that there are three persons in one God. So why do we believe this, and how did we come to express this belief in those words?

First, Jesus was a Jew, and the Jews, unique among all the peoples of the ancient world three thousand years ago, came to understand that there is one God who is Lord of all, rather than many gods, each controlling some aspect of nature or giving special protection to a particular city or nation. Furthermore, the Jews had an awareness throughout their history that this one God had entered into a special relationship with them in a mutual covenant with certain obligations and promises. They saw this as God's revelation of himself to them, and the writings of the Bible were inspired documents of His revelations and the people's living response to it in their history.

The New Testament presents Jesus to us as viewed through the experience of His first disciples and the communities drawn together by them around this faith in Jesus. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is presented as relating Himself with this one God of the Jewish covenant in two particular ways. Frequently He identifies Himself with God, doing His own things that only God can do, such as forgiving sins. But He also speaks of this one God in distinct but intimate terms, referring to God as Father and Himself as Son. But the New Testament also speaks of another one who is active with the power of God, but who is not the Son, but continues and fulfills the work of the Son -- the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the first seven centuries of the Church, amid much controversy, the Church leaders gradually defined ways of coming to terms with the "raw data" of the New Testament, affirming both that there could be only one God, but that three distinct Divine Persons can be identified, each of whom is not the other, each of whom is fully God, but there is one God alone, not three. The Trinity.

Similarly, during those early centuries, the Church struggled with what Jesus was recorded as saying about Himself. The Councils came to the conclusion that anything short of affirming that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human, without some kind of lessening or accommodation of one or the other, does not do justice to what the inspired word of Scripture says. This is the Incarnation.

We can't answer the question, Why does God or Jesus have to be this way? Our exploration has to start with accepting the fact that this is the way it is. Then, we can explore, and this is the heart of theology's task, why God might have revealed Himself to us this way, and what it means for us.

I think we can be sure of this: the Trinity and the Incarnation, as the core Christian beliefs, aren't just God "showing off" how wonderful He is. There has to be a vital meaning in it for us. For openers, you might want to ask yourself, So what? What difference does faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation mean to me? Here's a hint, keep that question in mind from now on as you are listening to and participating in the prayers and readings of the Mass.

If the Trinity and Incarnation are the core beliefs of Christians, what makes our faith as Catholics unique and distinct from other Christians? What are our specifically Catholic core beliefs? Again there are two of them. It's important to know and understand them because there are many other ways of being Christian, some of them easier and even,, perhaps, more appealing than the Catholic Church. We need to ask, and try to answer, the question, Why be Catholic? Hand in hand with that question is another: Is it worth it?

Catholic core beliefs . . . next week.

I love you,

Fr. Tom Welbers

Third Catholic Heritage and History Presentation: The Middle Ages

2010-07-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

The Middle Ages are a complex system of interrelated peoples' and events rather than a single era, sometimes disparagingly referred to as the "Dark Ages." In this presentation, I probe the complexity of the time, and try to explore some of what has influenced our faith today. While talking more about kings and leaders and battles and conquests than the everyday life of ordinary people may seem dry and academic, I hope to shed some light on how the way we live and believe today has many roots in these eras. The question, "So what?" is never far from my mind when I'm exploring these topics, and I hope what I say stimulates thought about our own faith in today's world.

Last Monday's presentation is titled "Middle Ages: Barbarians, Arabs and Islam, Crusades, Scholastric Revival; 711-1492."

You can listen to it easily with this embedded player:

The presentation is in two roughly one-hour parts. At the left you see the familiar right-pointing triangle, which is the "play button." The two triangles-with-a-line next to it are buttons that will toggle the first and second parts. (The only way visually you can tell them apart will be the timings on the right side of the bar: part 1 is 57:33 and part 2 is 35:03.)

Some browsers may not support the embedded player. You can download the files in MP3 format, to play on your iPod while exercising, driving, or whatever, or burn to a CD (it will need two CDs) on your computer if you wish. Here's the link:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation3

To download PDF files of the four pages of notes that I prepared for this presentation, click here. I made extensive use of maps in my presentation, which I projected on a screen. All of them are readily available from sources on the internet, and I've provided links to them at appropriate places in the notes. (In listening to the recorded talk, you'll not there was some difficulty because I neglected to load a couple of the maps on the PowerPoint program I used, but I have included them in the notes.)

Uncovering Core Christian Beliefs

2010-07-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

(This is the "Pastor's Reflection" on Page Two of the Good Shepherd Parish bulletin, July 25, 2010.)

Last week I promised to identify what my own exploration into our Catholic history and heritage seems to indicate are the core beliefs of Christianity. By "core beliefs" I mean those things that are at the heart of the faith which all Christians share, and if one does not believe them, it's impossible by any stretch of the imagination, to call oneself Christian.

By no means do I want to suggest that these core beliefs explicitly contain all that we as Christians believe. (As Catholics we have an additional set of core beliefs that distinguish our faith from that of Protestants. I'll deal with those later.) I think a distinction between primary and secondary may be helpful. These core beliefs are primary because, as I already noted, they are absolutely essential and shared universally among those who consider themselves Christian. Not to assent to all of these core beliefs -- to deny any one of them -- automatically puts one outside the definition of what it means to be Christian. The word secondary rightly refers to most everything else one associates with Christian faith. I call these beliefs secondary not because they are unimportant -- some of them are very important -- but because they have meaning only in relation to the primary, the core. They are usually in some sense derivative, consequent, or corollary. Identifying these secondary beliefs, and exploring how and why they are secondary is a job for another time. First,
I want to identify what is primary, core beliefs of Christian faith, and then what is distinctive about Catholic faith -- our own core beliefs as Catholics.

The conclusions I've come to about the core beliefs of Christians in general and Catholics in particular are the result of a lifetime of study into Christian scripture, theology, and liturgy, combined with a strong interest in history, archaeology, and comparative religion -- plus full-time concentration on pastoral ministry in parishes and Newman Centers. I've never been a scholar, full-time teacher, or academician. All my learning and teaching has been in the context of day-to-day relations with the people of real-life communities, not the rarefied atmosphere of university, seminary, or monastery.

The conclusions I will share with you beginning next week, come from two questions, which I think are vital for every Christian and every Catholic. And these questions are related: First, what makes our Christian faith unique, different from all other religions and philosophies throughout the world and throughout the ages? Second, what makes our faith as Catholics unique, different from all the other varieties of Christian faith?

I think it is important to try to look at our faith from this perspective because we face a particular challenge in our world today. Christians and Catholics are by and large ignorant of their faith, or place a lot of effort into secondary, sometimes superficial or emotionally satisfying beliefs or practices, and leave the heart -- the core -- unreckoned. I think there are distortions, at least of misplaced emphasis, on both sides of the mainstream -- right and left, conservative and liberal. It's the core we have to firmly hold on to, and the rest, even if important, only takes meaning from the core.

In addition, it's our experience in today's diverse, secular world, that one does not have to be Catholic or Christian, or even religious, to be a good and moral person. There is a tendency to identify faith with morality, as if it doesn't really make much difference what you believe as long as you're nice. And if you look at the Gospels, at least 80% of Jesus' teaching (and 100% of his specifically moral teaching) can also be found in other, non-Christian religions and philosophies. This isn't anything new. Thomas Jefferson famously re-edited the Gospels, literally with a razor and paste, by deleting everything he thought was irrelevant -- miracles, the resurrection, and anything else that seemed "supernatural" and therefore offensive to "enlightened reason."

One final word before I get specific. I put a lot of effort into being authentically Catholic, and therefore in being 100% in union with the Catholic Church. However, this does not exclude the possibility of being critical of some elements of policy, practice, and even things that are put forth as teachings. One of the solid principles of both theology and canon law is that not all teachings or all laws have equal value, and individual doctrines, beliefs, and practices must be evaluated on the basis of how they relate to the core beliefs and principles. There are times also when one must be critical of what one holds most dear.

To me this is an exciting and important venture. And I'm happy to invite you along. For two weeks now I guess I've been teasing you with all this background stuff. "So, dear Father Tom," say you. "what exactly are these 'core beliefs' you've been making such a big deal about? "Next week . . .

I love you all.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Second Catholic Heritage and History Presentation

2010-07-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Last Monday evening's presentation (July 19) is now online. This one is titled East is East and West is West: Common Faith, Diverging Theologies, Political Divisions.

You can listen to it easily with this embedded player:

The presentation is in two roughly one-hour parts. At the left you see the familiar right-pointing triangle, which is the "play button." The two triangles-with-a-line next to it are buttons that will toggle the first and second parts. (The only way visually you can tell them apart will be the timings on the right side of the bar: part 1 is 59:23 and part 2 is 47:57.)

Some browsers may not support the embedded player. You can download the files in MP3 format, to play on your iPod while jogging or ironing, or burn to a CD on your computer if you wish, at this link:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation2

And you can view and download PDF files of the four pages of notes I prepared for the presentation: click here. You can also access the first presentation, given Monday evening, July 12, here.

Enjoy!

An Apologia

2010-07-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

(This is the "Pastor's Reflection" on Page Two of the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, July 18, 2010.)

The word sounds like an apology, but it's not. While there may be a lot of things for which I should say "I'm sorry," that’s not what this column is about.

An "apologia," derived from a Greek word, actually means an explanation of oneself, intended to help others understand where one is coming from. The famous Cardinal John Henry Newman, who will be beatified in September by Pope Benedict when he visits England, wrote a book entitled Apologia Pro Vita Sua, an explanation of his reasons for converting from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church. The word occurs several times in the New Testament, best known in 1 Peter 3:15: "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope."

Last Monday, I gave the first presentation on our "Catholic History and Heritage" to a group of about 60 parishioners, squeezed into the Good Shepherd Room of the Parish Center. Folks seemed to enjoy it, and most said they were coming back for tomorrow evening's presentation, which I am moving to the Parish Hall to give us more room. I have already posted it online, along with the notes, and you can listen and download it at my blogsite, http://tomwelbers.net. Even if you did not make it to the first presentation, you are still very welcome to the next ones: Mondays at 7:00 PM in the Parish Hall (until August 16).

Sometimes, I may seem (at least to myself), obsessed with the probing of our history to discover its lessons for us today, and doing everything I can to share these insights with you. I am convinced that, today more than ever, Catholics cannot just coast along uncritically on what we learned when we were growing up. Growing in faith means each of us has to become something like, as Jesus tells us, "the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." (Matthew 13:52)

So, in all fairness and to keep my interest and passion from becoming just an intellectually satisfying academic exercise, I really do have to take the time and effort to explain why I think probing our history and heritage is so important and what lessons do I think we can all gain from doing this. In other words, that all important question, "So what?" What I have to say here is a first word, not a last word.

First, as to the "why." none of us can divorce ourselves from our past. We have no choice of our DNA. That has been given to us through the union of egg and sperm over countless generations. Actually, we can count: if modern humans originated in Africa around 100,000 years ago, and if a generation is, say, 20 years from one's birth until the time one has a baby, then you and I have in our genetic makeup at least 5,000 distinct pairs of human ancestors. Each of them, through their union and the new individual they brought about, has contributed to what you and I are today! The more we know about them, the more we know about ourselves.

The same thing is true of our faith community, the Catholic Church. It has a long and checkered history, not all of it will make us feel good. But it's important to know, understand, and evaluate it because that history has formed who and what we are today. History in itself does not repeat, but the patterns of relationships and behaviors that make up the "stuff" of history continue to be the building blocks of our world.

I'd like to propose several very specific "lessons" that we can and need to learn and benefit from. The first is the importance of humility. Our strongest convictions and deepest motives are best held lightly, humbly, and with humor. Otherwise, they become monstrous distortions, born of fear and arrogance, that too often divide and destroy rather than heal and build. Sadly, that has happened over and over again in our history.

Another lesson is that it's important to identify our core truths -- those things worth dying for, (nothing except perhaps last-resort self defense, is worth killing for) -- that are central to our faith, those things that, without which we can no longer in any way call ourselves Christian or Catholic. These "core truths" are fewer than we think, and everything else is secondary, or derivative. "Secondary" does not mean unimportant, but it does mean that it properly exists only in relation to the primary, and not on its own.

What are those "core truths," at least as my exploration of our faith history and heritage would identify them? That's what I will talk about repeatedly in upcoming sessions of this series, and what I will simultaneously explore in these bulletin articles over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned, and may God bless you.

I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Success! First Catholic Heritage and History Presentation Online

2010-07-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted to report that I have successfully posted last night's Catholic History and Heritage presentation online in a way that should (I hope) be easily accessed, listened to, and downloaded on your computer. The title of the presentation is: Beginnings: Jesus and the First Disciples/Apostles; the First Three Centuries

It's in two roughly one-hour parts, divided at the intermission, and you should be able to listen to them if you see the embedded player below. Just click on the right or left arrows next to the "play" button to switch between the first part and the second part.

The following link will take you a page where you can download the files. (It's possible that some browsers may not support the embedded player.)

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation1

And here you can view and download the notes. (I added the population figures and some dates that I talked about but did not include in the original notes.)

Enjoy.

P.S. I mentioned having done a talk called "Crossing Paths with St. Paul," at the LA Religious Education Congress in 2009. You can view it here:

Benedict Spans the Centuries

2010-07-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

(This is the "Pastor's Reflection" column from the Parish Bulletin of Good Shepherd, July 11,2010.)

Today, July 11, is the feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, who lived from 480 to 547 AD. What relevance does a sixth-century monk have for today?

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope in 2005, he took the name Benedict, breaking a 90-year cycle of Piuses, Johns and Pauls. He readily explained his choice of name, acknowledging the importance of two great Benedicts, one of the distant past, the other more recent.

The more recent was Benedict XV, a tiny, frail and sadly ignored man whose relatively brief papacy spanned World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922). He worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation among the "Great Powers" of Europe, and was the first to propose a workable and just peace plan, which was completely ignored and even ridiculed. Had Benedict been taken seriously by the "Victors," who were bent on imposing punitive and destructive sanctions on Germany and greedily dividing up the Middle Eastern remnants of the dying Ottoman Empire, there's a strong likelihood that Hitler could never have risen to power and that the Middle East conflicts of today would not have arisen. He deserves a lot more attention than anyone has given him.

The earlier Benedict brought the eastern tradition of monasticism to the West. In the fourth century, when Christians were no longer "illegal" and persecuted, and Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, many felt that the true spirit of following Christ in His suffering was compromised. To be a Christian no longer meant living under a cloud of social suspicion and under the risk of persecution, torture and death. Now Christianity became a means of social prestige and even political advantage. Many in the eastern Mediterranean lands, seeking a life more in conformity with Christ, fled to the deserts of Egypt, Syria, or Central Turkey. They either lived alone as hermits or banded together in small groups which came to be known as monasteries. Whenever people live together there have to be some rules to guide their behavior and their relationships or else conflict and division will inevitably destroy the community. Some of the eastern "Fathers," such as John Cassian and Basil, compiled rules that were widely used.

Similar groups of holy men and women developed in the West also, and most of them owe a debt to Benedict, at Monte Cassino in Italy, for compiling the rule that was most widely used. Although he never intended to found a "religious order," which is a more modern kind of institution, communities using this rule came to be known as Benedictines, and there were later offshoots, such as the Cistercians, Carthusians, Camaldolese, and so on.

Benedict had a twin sister, Scholastica, who also founded a community of women religious.

The influence of Benedict was so great that he was later designated the patron of Europe, which is especially relevant today when the European Union refuses even to acknowledge its Christian heritage in its constitution.

If you'd like to read more, Wikipedia has brief but excellent biographies of both of these wonderful Benedicts.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XV and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_of_Nursia.

Don't forget that tomorrow, Monday, I'll begin my six-week program of talks on our Christian history and heritage. The first session will simply explore our beginnings, in Scripture and the Church of the first centuries. It will be from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in the Good Shepherd Room of the Parish Center. Hope to see you there.

Blessings and peace. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Two Anniversaries: Our Nation and Our Parish

2010-07-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

Oldest Catholic Church in the Original Thirteen States

Founded in 1641 by Jesuits who arrived on the Ark and Dove to assist in forming a new English Colony, St. Ignatius Church, in Port Tobacco, Maryland, remains the oldest continuously serving Catholic Parish in the original thirteen States. It was here, in 1789, that Father John Carroll was invested as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, although his consecration took place later in England, thereby establishing the Diocese of Baltimore.

This weekend marks the first anniversary of my arrival at Good Shepherd as your pastor.

The past year has been a wonderful experience for me, and I am very grateful for the warm welcome you have all given me. I am especially grateful for the help, moral support, and friendship given me by Father Colm O'Ryan, your former pastor who remains with us in retirement, and Father George O'Brien, who has been in residence doing fill-in service for these many years.

It has been truly a delight getting to know you and becoming part of this tremendously vital Good Shepherd and Beverly Hills community.

This first year has been one of observing and waiting, all the while trying to be as faithful as I can in serving you and meeting your needs and expectations. Experience has taught me, sometimes painfully, that hasty and precipitous action all too often brings regret, and lasting change must be in the form of organic growth -- evolution, not revolution.

At this time, however, foundations are being laid for the future growth and well-being of our parish community in very significant way. Last month we welcomed Deacon Eric Stoltz to ministry here at Good Shepherd. He will continue to be here for one or two Masses every Sunday, and will preach the homily about once month. As he gets to know the parish and you get to know him, you'll discover what tremendous gifts he brings to many areas of ministry here.

This week, Mr. Michael Caraway will be joining our parish staff as Director of Administration. His responsibilities will include nearly every aspect of running the business and administrative side of the parish. Having someone in this position has long been a felt need here. In fact, before I came, the Parish Finance Council recommended that a person be hired to manage parish business, but Fr. Colm wisely decided it would be better if the new pastor be free to do that. I've spent the past year uncovering the various needs and challenges unique to this parish (every parish is different!) in order to find the best person to help fulfill those needs. I also bring fifteen years of experience working in my former with hand-in-hand with a Director of Administration in managing the complexities of a modern parish. After a two-month search by a committee made of up of parishioners, several candidates were presented to me for interview, and the search committee concurred with me that Michael Caraway was the best choice. He begins work this week, and you will have a opportunity to meet him over the next few weeks.

This week we are also beginning a year-long strategic planning process called the Parish Assessment and Renewal. Father Tom Sweetser, a Jesuit from Milwaukee, will guide us in assessing our own strengths and weaknesses as a parish community in relation to our fulfillment of the Mission of Jesus Christ in our midst, which, after all, is what we are all about. He has worked with several hundred parishes over more than thirty years, and if anyone in the United States knows the best practices and potentials of American parishes deeply and intimately, it's Father Sweetser. He worked with me in my former parish, Our Lady of the Assumption in Claremont, and helped its people to grow into a dynamic and vibrant faith community. You will certainly be hearing more about this as the summer progresses, and every member of the parish will have the opportunity to take part.

As pastor of my former parish, I was frequently asked to be s guest speaker at the Independence Day Celebration at Memorial Park in Claremont. I valued this invitation because it was an opportunity to bring our Catholic faith tradition into the American public forum in a unique way, As we celebrate the Fourth of July this year, I've been asked to post some of the best of these speeches on this blog. (They are all the "July 2" entries preceding this one.) I've covered such topics as the cost of Religious Freedom, humility as a national virtue, Father Junipero Serra, the real meaning of "under God," and an early reflection on the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Of course, the tragic event of September 11, 2001 forms the backdrop for many of these reflections, and it remains an ongoing challenge to probe the realities of our world today in light of faith. This is not a task that yields easy certitudes, and always requires generous understanding.

My daily prayers are with you as we together seek to be faithful to the Lord's call in our midst. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Humility: the most important virtue for our health and survival as a nation

2010-07-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

I gave this presentation at the Annual Claremont Independence Day Oratory Program in 2006.

The title for this presentation was born out of my discomfort at seeing bumper stickers and posters touting pride as an American virtue. In my tradition and in the tradition that most of us Americans claim to share, pride is the first of the “seven deadly sins.” These sins are called “deadly,” not because they are worst evil acts in themselves, but because they name the inner attitudes and vices that are at the root of evil and give birth to all wrongdoing. Pride, and the other so-called “deadly sins” are the springboard from which the violence and destruction in our world is launched. And the Book of Proverbs tells us succinctly and unsparingly, “Pride goes before the fall.”

The virtue that is the opposite of pride is, of course, humility. But humility is a hard word to hear, and an unpopular subject to talk about. Having committed myself to a subject that nobody wants to hear, I set about looking for inspiration as to how to approach it. After some search, I found a website called “Speak Softly: What’s Happened to American Humility?” In fact, I found that Ira Williams, the author of the website, had already written what I wanted to say, far better than I could have. And so, from this point on what I am going to share with you are his words, not mine – with a few minor changes for better delivery, and with his permission:

* * *

First, Ira Williams says, I’m fully aware of the paradox of trying to make an impassioned exhortation about humility. How do I shout from the rooftops that it’s time for us to speak softly?

Humility is an old-fashioned word. It brings to mind images of hunched shoulders, bowed heads, whispered voices. Humility makes us think of weakness. It makes us think of individuals afraid to speak up for themselves. Humility is almost a condescending term given to people who have forsaken their own needs and desires in order to serve others. “He’s such a sweet, humble man …” or “She is so humble and unassuming …”. What goes unspoken, though, is that we would never trade places with that sweet, humble man or that humble, unassuming woman.

It’s human nature to want one’s own interests served. Altruism is a learned trait. From the time we are children, we are taught and conditioned to know this: to get along with other kids in the sandbox, we have to share. We can’t snatch things from others. …

As we get older and leave the playground behind, we reach a place where we are not nearly as selfish as we were as children. However, we still tend to be self-oriented. We often look inward to ask ourselves, “What would make me happy? What do I need? How can my life be improved?”

As Americans, we have a deeply rooted sense of individualism that is at the heart of our unprecedented rise to power in less than 250 years of existence. The unalienable rights described in the Declaration of Independence have empowered Americans to approach our lives with unfettered optimism and the belief that there is little that can stand in the way of our “pursuit of happiness.”

As a result, our view of the outside world, for better or worse, tends to be informed by that world’s impact on us: “How do the policies of our government affect my day-to-day life?” “How does the performance of my company affect my paycheck?” “How well is my school district preparing my kids for college?” “Why does it cost me so much to put gas in my car?”

This is not to say that we, as a nation, are completely self-absorbed and blind to the needs of others. We have a long history of generosity that continues to this day. We send billions of dollars in aid around the world, both as a nation and as individuals, to help relieve the sufferings of others. The generosity of Americans is not in question. The humility of Americans is.

Remember, for most of us, humility is equated with weakness. Americans are repelled by weakness of any sort. We crave strength because strength facilitates success and security, and these are almost universally believed to be at the heart of our pursuit of happiness.

However, it requires tremendous strength and character to place others’ interests before our own. I want to suggest that by moving our self-orientation to the background, and truly focusing upon enhancing the lives of those around us, we can attain a more balanced perspective of the world while simultaneously finding greater personal fulfillment for ourselves.

And so, here’s the secret: in order to be humble, you have to be strong; and you have to be so comfortable with that strength that you don’t have to flaunt it or impose it, or use it as a tool for control or domination. With true power comes an obligation to wield that power with humility, and to refrain from arrogance.

In describing his vision of the ideal American foreign policy, then-presidential-candidate George W. Bush said in October, 2000:

“If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us. If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that’s why we’ve got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.”

Admirable as that vision was, we cannot avoid the fact that, six years later, fair or not, our reputation with both friends and foes around the world is anything but humble.

* * *

That concludes the introduction to a much more lengthy essay by Ira Williams, and in it he unpacks further the implications of humility as a national virtue, and gives some suggestions as to how we might, as individuals and as a people, recover the ability to “speak softly” even while carrying the “big stick” of responsibility as the world’s only remaining “superpower.”

If you’d like to pursue this further, the address of his website is easy to remember: http://www.speaksoftly.org.

Thank you for your attention, and may God bless America!

Pope Benedict XVI: beyond the stereotypes and sound bites

2010-07-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

I gave this presentation at the Annual Claremont Independence Day Oratory Program in 2005.

Just a few months ago, for weeks on end worldwide media attention was riveted on Rome, first for the events surrounding the death and funeral of one of the longest reigning and most widely known popes in history – and history’s first Polish pope at that – and then for the conclave that elected one of his right-hand men, the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as his successor, taking the new name of Benedict XVI. This is an era when religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular are the subjects of controversy, conflict and disbelief, when the Catholic Church and its teachings as well as its discipline is becoming more and more relegated to the sidelines of irrelevance and even contempt in the view of people who consider themselves in touch with the modern world. This is true even on both sides of the so-called liberal-conservative spectrum. It’s perhaps surprising and certainly significant that, in such a time, the figure of Pope John Paul II attracted so much attention, both in life and in death, and his successor has raised so many questions about the direction his papacy will take. The secular world was fascinated by John Paul, even if often uncomfortable with him. That’s why I thought, as we celebrate our own greatest national holiday, it might be quite appropriate to take a look at our new Pope Benedict, and see if we can get a hint what his significance might be for our world and for our country.

To begin, we have to disabuse ourselves of any notion that there will be any radical change in Catholic doctrine or discipline. Catholic teaching, including the well known “hot-button” issues, will not change . . . and would remain the same no matter who was elected pope.

Cardinal Ratzinger was the long-time prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, often serving as the so-called “watchdog” against doctrinal deviancy in the Catholic Church. During this time, nearly 24 years, he gained a reputation as a rigid conservative. Some are very apprehensive and even discouraged by his election as pope, fearing that reform efforts in the Church will be irretrievably suppressed. Others are overjoyed, confident that dissenting voices will finally be effectively silenced.

My own opinion is that there will be very little short-term change, but that there are signs of hope for significant positive long-term change. Here are three signs in what Pope Benedict has said and done that I find very hopeful for the future. They may not seem terribly earthshaking on the surface, but I think they can in the long run be pivotal toward bringing about significant change in the Church and its relationship with the world.

First, and I believe most important, is that the very circumstances surrounding his election were the result of unprecedented communication among the Cardinals representing local Catholic churches throughout the world. Never before have they had the opportunity to get to know each other in such a close and intensive way. It’s clear that they left the new Pope Benedict with a mandate to continue and develop this kind of collegial communication, and to extend it beyond Cardinals. While I think it’s unlikely that he will call an ecumenical council as Pope John XXIII did (for one thing, in this day and age, a meeting on that scale would be tremendously expensive), I think that he will encourage and make use of wide-ranging consultation in the governance of the Church, including significant internet conferencing – something that no pope has ever been able to do before.

Second, and related to this, is his choice of an American archbishop, William Levada of San Francisco, to be his successor as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation. I know Bill Levada personally. In fact, he’s originally from Los Angeles, and went to St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo a few years ahead of me. He was also a very good friend of Monsignor Bill Barry, my predecessor here at OLA, who was something of a mentor to Levada in the early days of his priesthood. He’s now the number two person in the Vatican! He brings to that job not only the competence of a professional theologian and pastor, but his American identity, and lifelong experience and understanding of the American church as well as American culture that has never before been seen at the Vatican. He is fairly conservative as would be expected, but not rigidly so. In fact, one ultra-conservative Catholic website labeled him as a heretic because of his openness to ministry with homosexual Catholics, and urged its readers to write to the Pope and demand that he rescind the appointment! Fortunately, that’s quite unlikely – this pope does his homework before acting; nor does he yield to pressure from any side.

Third, what about the international scene? Pope Benedict will not be the great traveler and international superstar that so endeared the world to John Paul II. I doubt that he will have the same flair for diplomacy and international relations. John Paul’s role in the fall of communism and the dissolution of the Soviet empire was unique, and could not be repeated. I think Benedict’s main contribution on the international scene will be in ecumenism, specifically in advancing the work towards bringing the ancient traditions of eastern and western Christianity together, Catholic and Orthodox. And it is precisely here that he realizes that changes will be needed not in doctrine but in the papacy itself, changes that John Paul II alluded to in his own writings and speeches on ecumenism, but could not bring about. Before becoming Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger outlined a plan for continued dialogue with the Orthodox churches, in which the primacy of the pope would be seen less in authoritarian terms and more in a fraternal relationship with the ancient traditional patriarchs, the church leaders of the east. I believe that Benedict, particularly given his background as a professional theologian – the first pope with such credentials in modern history – may be able to begin to change the understanding of the papacy in ways that may make eventual union with the Orthodox churches more palatable to them.

Closer union, and eventually hoped-for full communion, between Catholic and Orthodox Churches will have significant international impact because so much of the east-west tensions in our world today have their roots in the conflicts and eventual split going back more than a millennium. It will also give a firmer foundation to relations with Islam because the first cultural and theological battleground between Islam and Christianity took place in the east on Byzantine turf, and today’s conflicts still embody the same resentments, misunderstandings and grudges that were born 1,200 years ago.

Finally, three days before he was elected pope, Joseph Ratzinger turned 78. He’s only seven years younger than John Paul. This will not be a lengthy pontificate, but it can have the same significance as a tiny change on the rudder of a great ship which may not be easily noticed but in the long run significantly alters the direction of its course.

“Under God” – Really?

2010-07-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

I gave this talk at the Annual Claremont Independence Day Oratory Program in 2003.

Today our nation celebrates its 227th birthday, the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. The “stars and stripes” was adopted as our national flag the following year, June 14, 1777. The United States’ Constitution was ratified in 1788, 215 years ago.

And the Pledge of Allegiance, then more commonly known as the “Salute to the Flag,” was composed in 1892, and was first publicly used on Columbus Day, 1893, just one hundred years ago. During the ensuing forty years, it underwent several modifications, and came to be recited by schoolchildren in classrooms throughout the country; but during that time, the first half of the twentieth century, it received little attention outside the schools.

It was only in 1942, just over sixty years ago, that the Salute to the Flag, already commonplace in the schools, gained enough popularity as a result of World War II patriotic fervor that it was given official recognition by an act of the U.S. Congress, incorporating it in the United States Flag Code.

The following year, in 1943, the United States Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a required part of their school curriculum. This ruling, entitled “West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette,” did not address the recitation of the pledge as such, but struck down a West Virginia Law imposing punishments on students who refused to salute the flag. That law required every student in every school – public, parochial or private – in the state of West Virginia, to recite the pledge, with arm upraised in a gesture of salute (which the PTA, scouting organizations, the Red Cross and the Federation of Women’s Clubs had criticized as being too much like Hitler’s Nazi salute!), or else they would be expelled, and could not return to school until compliant. Furthermore, absent from school, they were regarded as delinquents, and their parents were subject to a $50 fine and/or thirty days in jail.

Thus in West Virginia, to be a faithful Jehovah’s Witness was also to be an outlaw.

War does funny things to people, doesn’t it?

The Supreme Court’s judgment makes an interesting and important observation. They affirmed the right and duty of our schools and of our citizens to teach and to learn the meaning of patriotism, and even to be informed about the flag salute and what it means. Patriotism was not the issue. But, and I quote the text of the Court’s opinion written by Justice Robert Jackson: “The issue here is whether this slow and easily neglected route to aroused loyalties constitutionally may be short-cut by substituting a compulsory salute and slogan.”

The same opinion, goes on to make the prophetic statement that needs more than even to be heeded today: “Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard. It seems trite but necessary to say that the First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.”

Two years later, at the end of the War in 1945, the Salute to the Flag officially got the title “Pledge of Allegiance.”

In 1954, both Houses of Congress adopted the resolution to add the words “under God” to the pledge, which President Eisenhower signed into law on Flag Day of that year. This was as a result of two years of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization of which I too am a member. (I can’t resist a little plug here – over in the food area they are selling the world’s best Italian sausage sandwiches.)

Beyond the work of the Knights, however, I think this addition to the Pledge was very much a product of the times—that was the height of the Cold War, and fear of the spread of “atheistic Communism” was certainly a dominant force in our country.

In a subsequent message to the Knights of Columbus, President Eisenhower put a very different emphasis on the phrase “under God”: “These words will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.”

I think now, fifty years later, it is appropriate to do a “reality check”: do these words succeed in keeping us humble. Do they effectively focus our minds and hearts on the spiritual and moral principles of human dignity?

Having reviewed the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, which is neither deeply rooted in our national origins nor one of unchanging constancy, but which has been frequently modified in changing times, I would now like to examine very briefly each of those two words, “under God.”

For one thing, even Christians cannot really agree on our concept of God, and we have very different images and attributes in mind when we say God. Among Christians, in the past and even today, disagreement over the concept of God, as well as the moral behavior expected by God, too often has become the occasion for us to throw stones at one another, both verbal and sometimes physical. If Christians can’t agree about God, what happens when we add non-Christians and atheists, to the mix in a society whose pluralism we value. Expecting a unified agreement on this term is patently ridiculous, as well as offensive to many of our fellow citizens.

Perhaps we as Christians would do better by taking more seriously the advice of Jesus, “render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that belong to God.” Jesus anticipated the First Amendment by over seventeen centuries!

I personally believe that both Church and State will be better off, the more strictly we can keep each of them in its own domain, without meddling in each other’s domain. If Christians live genuinely true to their convictions, our witness will have its own power. We don’t have to impose our beliefs or our moral principles through civil legislation.

Even more problematic than the word “God” is the word “under.” “Under” means submission. Do we really live as a nation “under” God? Is the humility that President Eisenhower spoke of in any way valued among our national virtues? Do we, even the Christians of our nation, truly seek to discover and follow God’s will in relation to affairs of national interest?

I’m not going to try to answer that question. But I will unfold that question just a little bit more by asking what do we mean when we pray, “God bless America”? Is our prayer as believers, to seek the humility and gift of discernment of higher purpose and higher power? Or does our prayer really seek to make God the servant of our national interest? And I will conclude simply leaving you with that question.

A humbled church and a humbled nation – what can we learn?

2010-07-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

This is the presentation I gave at the Annual Claremont Oratory Program in 2002.

September 11 and Catholic Church scandals of last five months. Humiliation. Nothing will ever be quite the same for either nation or Church.

Humility. It's a hard word. Can a 227-year-old nation learn from a 2000-year-old tradition, even if the Church that had kept that tradition alive has some obvious problems in practicing it?

Humility is strong in scripture as the key virtue, without which all else is valueless. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. (James 4:6,10)

We can’t get humility just by trying. Humility isn’t merely another accomplishment to be proud of! Experience shows: no humility without humiliation. We can rise from humiliation, not with the pride that reinflates us, and only serves to increase our vulnerability no matter what we do to try to protect us. We can rise from humiliation more sure where our ground is., more careful where we place our feet and the direction of our steps. Word “humility” comes from Latin “humus,” meaning earth, soil, ground. It means to recognize where we come from and are going, and in between where we stand, where we find our foundation. We are “humus” into which God has breathed spirit. (Also root of “human”!)

For our nation, humility may mean an examination of our national conscience, our goals and priorities in the light of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [must be taken inclusively] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

And, as the next line says, that the government exists primarily to secure these rights – for all without exception.

The Statue of Liberty preserved was preserved on September 11. But can we take pride in that symbol when we ignore its inscription?

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Those words greeted my grandparents. And, I suspect many of yours as well. Yet our public policy, and our attitudes, find those words embarrassing, and for many, those words do not ring true. Should we perhaps shroud her in black until we examine our national conscience: How well do we welcome the poor, etc. ?

And the Church? We have to sit quietly – perhaps kneel quietly, and bow profoundly – and take to heart again the words of our Savior, “the greatest will be the one who serves the rest.” Yes the ways of worldly power and manipulation have too often found their way into ministry. We have to rediscover the meaning of the ministry: to stand small (not as put-down or weakness, but to build the other person up). The Church will recover its moral voice only in a posture of humility.

How can the Church live in our 21st century American society? I think we will have no trouble discovering how to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” if we can be sure that we have fully and without compromise “rendered unto God the things that are God’s.”

The Cost of Religious Freedom

2010-07-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is the talk I gave at Claremont's Annual Independence Day Oratory Program in 2001.

One of our deepest values as Americans is religious freedom. The American experiment in democratic self government has also caused religious freedom of citizens to be constitutionally enshrined and guaranteed in the majority of nations throughout the world. The US Department of State publishes an annual report on International Religious Freedom, which is readily available on their web site, which also details the many violations of religious freedom in too many countries throughout the world. While religious freedom is a matter of international concern, it is more fundamentally a question of individual attitude and behavior. How we look at one another as individuals is the basis of how we look at one another as communities, societies, and nations.

What is the cost of consistently upholding religious freedom in our relationships with one another? We may value our own freedom to worship as we choose, but the way that we value the freedom of another who disagrees with us may become more complex in practice than we’d like to think.

Any person of deep and sincere convictions is going to suffer pain when those convictions are not shared. It might be helpful to recognize that conflict over deeply held convictions is more often born of pain than power. If I am deeply convinced that my way is true, I cannot help but feel pain if those people I care about are on what I am convinced is the wrong path. I would be unfaithful to those convictions if I did not try to bring you to share my convictions.

Religious freedom means that what I say about my convictions, including the legitimacy of my desire to share the truth of my convictions with you, is equally said about your convictions and your desire to share the truth of your convictions with me. The sticky thing is that religious convictions are never solely a private, individual matter. They are always a shared belief system. Individual conviction determines how we relate to one another in society.

One of the foundations of a truly democratic society is that there are no limits or restrictions on whom we care about. If we believe that all are created equal, we have to put that belief into practice by upholding that equality. Of course, we as a nation and society continue to struggle with equality in practice. That struggle to discover the full meaning of equality, and how respect for this equality ought to be translated into action, points the direction to uncovering the cost of religious freedom. How can I be faithful to my convictions without compromise, including the public nature of those convictions, and at the same time respect your convictions as differing, perhaps radically from mine? That, I think is the challenge that faces all of us in a free society.

This affirmation of equality and dignity as a basic human right of all people without exception, is common to nearly all religious traditions. Yet how often exceptions are made in practice. We are usually conscious of those exceptions when others make them, especially in our own regard. The ways that we ourselves in practice make some “more equal” than others, is all too often hidden from our own eyes.
I believe that the basic cost of religious freedom is to bring to light our own attitudes that tend to separate us from others, to examine our own criteria for judging the worth of others in the light of the equality and dignity of the human person deeply rooted in our shared human nature, not subject to differences of behavior or culture.

Another way of looking at this is to say that the basic cost of religious freedom is to take to heart the “Golden Rule,” which in one form or other is part of nearly every religious tradition, including agnosticism and atheism: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The essence of the Golden Rule is that it is without condition or exception. It is not “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if they reciprocate.” It is not “Do unto others as they do unto you,” much less the humorous, but very real, twist we often put on it: “Do unto others before they do unto you”!

I think a problem arises when we confuse respect for one another’s religious freedom with tolerance. Mere tolerance is not yet respect. Tolerating another person is a far cry from respecting and accepting him or her, even with differing or opposing convictions.

What does religious freedom cost me, a Catholic priest, for example? Let me get personal about this. I believe it is twofold. First, I have to be faithful my convictions, which includes giving public witness to them – not to water them down or be silent about them, even in face of disagreement and diversity. But, secondly, my public witness has to respect the integrity and convictions of others, including those very diverse from my own – including even those whom I perceive as not respecting my convictions. Failure of mutual respect does not lesson my obligation of respect.

As a Catholic, I would go so far as to say that that kind of respect of persons and their human rights and dignity, even in the face of diversity and disagreement, is at the heart of what Jesus proclaimed as the “Kingdom on God.”

Do We Hold These Truths . . . ?

2010-07-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is the presentation I gave at the annual Independence Day Oratory Program in Claremont in 2000.

The Declaration of Independence affirms the dignity of the human person as “self evident.” I quote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Self-evident means not needing proof. Experience shows us, sadly, that different people put different limitations on what they consider “self evident.”

For example, some of the very signers of this Declaration owned slaves, and did not see the contradiction inherent in their very words.

Four score and seven years later, the most brutal war the world had known to that point, the American Civil War, was fought over the question of slavery, as well as its economic, social, and moral implications.

Divisive conflicts throughout our society into our own day, including, as we are so well aware, in our own city of Claremont*, amply demonstrate that the equality proclaimed by the Declaration and the rights won in the civil war victory of the Union, have not yet become fully a part of the fabric of our society.

Another example. It was a full century and a half before the laws determining participation in our society began to recognize that the equality of “all men” included women. And while that struggle for equal participation has made great strides, it is not yet complete.

And . . . the “unalienable” right to life, continues to be alienated all over the place! Perhaps more so in our day than in the past.

It is ironic that it was only in the 1970’s that science was able to prove genetically that the unborn baby is truly a distinct human being from the moment of conception—that’s not a so-called religious doctrine, that’s a scientific fact—and simultaneously in the 1970’s a woman’s choice to kill that unborn baby for any reason whatever was defined as a constitutional right by the nation’s highest court. The “unalienable” right to life of a human being was made dependent upon the criterion of whether or not it was “wanted.”

I do not want to make light of the agonizing choices and pain that lead individuals to choose to kill their unborn baby. But neither truth nor mercy is served by redefining the unborn baby as something less that human, or subjecting her or his right to life to another’s right to privacy. Alternate solutions are difficult as well as unpopular, but if we are a just society we must dedicate ourselves to finding and implementing them.

At the other end of the spectrum is the subordination of the unalienable right to life to certain qualities of behavior, specifically the death penalty as a punishment for certain types of serious and/or violent crimes. It is true that society cannot function if we are not adequately protected from the threat of violent crimes against persons and property. Both protection and deterrence are legitimate values in the penal system of a just society. But, punishment that exceeds what is necessary to protect society from further violence, particularly when that punishment is itself an act of violence—even the sanitized violence of pumping toxic chemicals into a human being’s veins—that punishment goes beyond justice, and enters into the realm of revenge.

Of course, the question of human rights and dignity, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, extends far beyond these two particular issues, even beyond the issue of life and death per se. How, for example, do our immigration and labor policies measure up to the basic human rights affirmed in the Declaration? How about our health care system? Are human rights violated when the environment in which others live is degraded by actions and policies motivated by profit? The list of similar questions can go on and on.

That having been said, our nation still serves as a beacon for much of the rest of the world in upholding human rights and dignity. In the global picture, our nation still does lead the world in successfully living as a democratic and just society.

All the more reason why we should be sure that the light truly shines bright and clear. All the more reason why we need never to take for granted that our actions are consistent with our ideals.

Then why is it that those who point out that there remain serious flaws and inconsistencies in the way we as a society uphold these values are so often branded as “un-American”?

(I’m reminded that the late, great South American Archbishop Helder Camara once lamented: “If I feed the poor, I’m called a saint. If I ask why people are poor, I’m called a Communist!”)

We all recognize that patriotism is more than just flag-waving. Perhaps the real patriots are those who do not let us settle for quick, easy, or obvious answers to the question: What are we waving the flag for?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .” Those simple words of the Declaration of Independence, whose values we claim as the guiding principle of our nation, still serve as a disquieting reminder—two hundred and twenty four years later—of how far short of those values we fall.

*Note: the "conflicts...in Claremont" refers to the controversy over the police shooting of Irvin Landrum in 1999.

Cain and Abel, and the Value of Human Life

2010-07-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

I gave this talk at the Independence Day Oratory Program in Claremont in 1998.

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is the age-old question that Cain asks God when God confronts him with the murder of his brother (Genesis 4:9). Is this question still relevant today? For us it goes hand in hand with another question, the one that the scribe cynically asked Jesus, and brought forth His parable of the Good Samaritan: “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Or in this case, “Who is my brother—or sister?”

The point of my talk this morning is this: all human life is sacred—or none is. I would like to reflect for a few minutes on the archetypal story of the value of human life—the drama of Cain and Abel at the beginning of the Bible in chapter 4 of Genesis.

The two brothers represent a conflict of values, age-old land-use disputes. The farmer versus the shepherd or the herder; the settled versus the nomad. They are incompatible, and each side poses a serious threat to the livelihood of the other. The grazing animals destroy the crops. Farming restricts the movements of the herds. This same dispute caused much conflict in the westward development of our own country as well—and provided the theme for lots of cowboy movies.

As so often the case in subsequent history, the conflict leads to violence and bloodshed. God had warned Cain about this, and His words are very interesting: “Sin is a demon lurking . . his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master” (verses 6-7) In other words, sin keeps after us, and once yielded to, it’s always easier the next time. The slope towards habit or compromise, once the priorities or values are relativised, is a slippery one.

This is why it is so important to uphold a consistent life ethic, the “seamless garment” of life issues, that the US Catholic bishops articulated, under the leadership of the late (and great) Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, and Pope John Paul II has unfolded at length in his 1996 encyclical letter entitled “The Gospel of Life.”

Human life is an absolute value, and cannot be subordinated to any other value. Whenever a choice among values must be made, and one of them is human life, the choice must be made in favor of human life.

Life-issues are related to each other as the strands that together form a woven fabric. When human life is relativised in any one area, it becomes easier to do it in another. A climate favoring abortion as simply a matter of choice, in which a new human individual not yet capable of survival outside the womb is arbitrarily declared not to be human, is not far distant from a climate favoring capital punishment in which it is supposed that the intrinsic dignity of human life is subject to the judgment of personal guilt or innocence. And both are related to the climate that increasingly favors euthanasia. In both cases, human life is no longer held as an absolute value, but is subjected to other values, ultimately subjected to the unwillingness of our society to handle the problems of inconvenient (or dangerous or painful) life in a way other than by doing away with it.

I do not mean to make light of the serious problems that occasion an attitude favoring abortion or capital punishment, or even euthanasia, as a solution. All I am saying is that the dignity of our God-given shared humanity, demands that we use our intelligence to collaborate in finding and employing solutions that respect the value of all life. This is not merely my opinion; this is the consistent teaching of the Church’s magisterium.

One final note on capital punishment. The story of Cain and Abel ends with Cain being severely and rightly punished by God for his deed—but protected from being killed for it. In this story, God is clearly denying the legitimacy of “taking a life for a life.” In some ways the real punishment is harsher. It’s the deprivation of the goals that the murderer was seeking to accomplish by his deed. The very earth on which his livelihood depended turned against him, and he had to give up the life of a settled farmer to become a wandering nomad. But, anyone who killed him because of his guilt would be avenged by God sevenfold. If that’s not a clear indication of how God feels about capital punishment, I don’t know what is!

Can we as a society recover a respect for the absolute value of human life, and put it into practice consistently? Or are we doomed to continue to make compromises—compromises of both the so-called “right” and the so-called “left”—until the value of human life is completely subjected to the relativity of greed and expediency? Or perhaps, are we already there?

Father Serra Today, 7/4/1996

2010-07-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

This is the first of the talks I gave at the annual Independence Day Oratory Program at Memorial Park in Claremont after I became Pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption.

T. Willard Hunter, Oratory Program
July 4, 1996, Memorial Park, Claremont
Rev. Thomas Welbers

FATHER SERRA TODAY

In 1864, Congress invited each state to contribute two statues of prominent citizens for permanent display in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol building. With the nation divided by civil war and recovery, the states were slow to respond—some haven’t to this day.

In 1927, the State of California established a commission to select the subjects and arrange for the placement of its two monuments. California’s two statues were completed, erected, and dedicated in the National Statuary Hall in 1931. It is noteworthy that both subjects from California are towering religious figures who, it could be argued, precisely because they were religious figures, made the most significant and lasting contributions in shaping the California of today. In addition, both left their mark in an amazingly brief period of time.

The two statues are of the Reverend Thomas Starr King and Padre Junipero Serra.

Thomas Starr King was a Unitarian minister who came to San Francisco from Boston in 1860. In four short years he was credited by no less than Abraham Lincoln himself as single-handedly keeping California joined to the Union and halting the popular secessionist movement in California. This by the power of his religious conviction and his preaching—and of course the dedication and action of his life giving power to his words.

This is an immensely significant piece of history. Lincoln received only 28 percent of the vote in California in 1860, and the Confederate flag—not the American flag—was flown over the Plaza in Los Angeles on the Fourth of July, 1861! Had California seceded, its immense gold resources would have gone exclusively to the Confederacy, and the outcome of the civil war could well have been very different.

Thomas Starr King died tragically young in 1864, just four years after he arrived in California.

Father Junipero Serra, California’s other representative in the National Statuary Hall, lived a hundred years earlier, and was a contemporary of our nation’s founding Fathers. Two of his California missions, San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano, were founded in 1776. He was also declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul II in 1988. This is the final step to canonization as a saint in the Catholic Church.

In Father Serra’s time, however, there was not yet any thought of California as a State in the Union. Spain was actively extending its colonizing power and influence through Mexico to the west coast of the Americas.

Most of us are familiar with Serra’s contribution to the shape of our state on the map, as well as the arrangement of social living patterns. The settlements that became cities that became major population centers all had their origin in the missions founded by Father Serra and his associates. As a result, the majority of people in California today, whatever their faith, live in places that bear the names of Catholic saints.

Serra arrived in what was to become San Diego in 1769, at age 56—an age when some people I know are thinking about retirement. In the fifteen years until his death in 1784 at age 71, he personally established 9 missions from San Diego to San Francisco. He traveled over 10,000 miles, half by sea and half by land—usually on horseback rather than on foot, popular legend notwithstanding. He suffered a chronic and painful infection of his foot and leg, as well as asthma, and of course, advancing age. He left a mark upon the land, and upon the spirit of the people who were to come after him, that subsequent years were unable to completely erase. Fifteen years—that’s less time than it takes to even start building a freeway through Claremont today!

Of course, controversy is generated by the simple fact that he—just like all of us—was a man of his time and his culture. The fact is that the Spanish crown was bent on conquering and colonizing the Californias, as they had done in Mexico and much of South America. (Of course, at that time the English crown was not exactly Mr. Nice Guy in other parts of the world!) And the fact is that native peoples did not always fare well under Spanish domination. (Of course the American native peoples did not fare very well under English colonization!)

It is to Father Serra’s credit that many of the best elements of European civilization, and of course, Christianity, first came to California. The environment of conquest and colonization is not exactly the most conducive to the spread of either culture or Christianity, and Serra consistently challenged the interference of military and civil functionaries in religious affairs as well as their frequent brutality towards the native peoples.

The greatness of Serra in these last fifteen years of his life when he so indelibly marked the beginnings of a California that we continue to experience, lay in his unconquerable will—he would never turn his back on anything he undertook. Nicknamed “el Viejo”—the aged one—his small, burdened frame marched along, climbing over every obstacle—for the glory of God and the earthly and eternal well-being of peoples the rest of the world either ignored or exploited.

Serra’s story is a pioneer’s story—and it is our story. In these days when the First Amendment separation of church and state is marked more by ambiguity than by clarity, and when there are still many among us whom people of power would rather ignore or exploit, it is good to have a hero who is also a saint in our nation’s Capitol. May his spirit guide those whose decisions in that very building continue to shape our national destiny.

Rev. Thomas Welbers, Pastor
Our Lady of the Assumption Church
Claremont, California
July 4, 1997

Postscript: How soon we forget! In 2006, Thomas Starr King's statue was unceremoniously removed from the Capitol's National Statuary Hall and replaced by Ronald Reagan. In 2009 it was installed and rededicated in the Capitol Park in Sacramento.

St. Irenaeus at Pentecost

2010-05-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

This morning, praying today's "Office of Readings" (for Pentecost Sunday), I was deeply impressed by the following passage from St. Irenaeus' "Against Heresies":

If we are not be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his woulds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.

I guess I was most intrigued by the free use of mixed metaphors and parables. No strictly literal interpretation of the the Bible here! And this by a second century great Christian leader, the bishop of Lugdunum (love that name!) in Gaul, which is present-day Lyons in France, who was a disciple of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, present-day Izmir in Turkey on the other side of the Mediterranean, who was in turn a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. To me it's fascinating to see how freely a writer, just a couple of generations removed from the apostles, makes use of the traditions of the Gospels.

Celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday on Pilgrimage.

2010-04-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

Early Christian World Pilgrims are keeping all of you at Good Shepherd in prayer as we celebrate Mass on this beautiful Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. In the Eastern Churches, this is called "Thomas Sunday" because of the event narrated in today's Gospel at Mass. This photo of Fr. Tom celebrating Mass in an ancient "cave-church" in Cappadocia, Turkey, was taken during the 2007 Early Christian World Pilgrimage by Roger Schulte.

A few of us, representing all of you, are traveling through Turkey visiting a land made holy by a history of great Christian saints, and is now a modern secular republic that is 99% Muslim. Our Early Christian World Pilgrimage explores all facets of our heritage and our experience both as Christians and as men and women living in our world today. In establishing Divine Mercy Sunday ten years ago, Pope John Paul II emphasized that, in Christ, God's mercy expends to all people, without exception.

In a society and culture where that vast majority of people do not believe as we do -- and I'm speaking about the USA as well as Turkey -- our role is not to proselytize and convert, but to bear witness. To let our actions as well as our words speak, faithfully and clearly, out of our own experience of the mercy and love of God. And that's what this feast is all about. To seek a deeper trust and dependence on God's overwhelming mercy, which we can claim because of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday (Saturday) we visited Troy and Gallipoli , both sites of famous battles -- one brutal and ancient, the other brutal and modern -- and we pray for peace in our troubled world. Today we go to Pergamon, site of a famous Hellenistic center for healing, as well as place of the "throne of Satan" mentioned in the book of Revelation (Rev. 2:13), and pray that we all maybe faithful in living the call of Christ to give witness to our faith by works of service. Midweek we will be in Ephesus, the ancient city graced by both St. Paul and St. John, and we will celebrate Mass at the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a shrine that is equally revered by both Christians and devout Muslims. We pray in a special way that Mary, loved in both religious traditions, may intercede to bring understanding and reconciliation among peoples.

The end of the week will find us in the Lycus Valley, the site of three cities -- Hierapolis, Laodicea, and Colossae -- whose Christian communities had a special relationship to St. Paul (see his letter to the Colossians and to Philemon). A week from today, next Sunday, after Mass at the tiny church of St. Paul and Thecla downtown, we'll visit the tomb of the great Sufi mystic, Rumi, who founded the Whirling Dervishes. Then we will spend time exploring Çatalhöyük, excavations of a 9,000-year-old neolithic settlement. We seek to discover the surprising hand of God even in ancient human history.

Easter andTurkey

2010-04-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Christ is risen, Alleluia! He has truly risen, Alleluia!

All Orthodox Christians throughout the world, as well as Catholics who follow "Eastern Rite" liturgies and traditions but are in union with the Church of Rome, greet one another with those words during the Easter season. The first sentence is the greeting by one person; the second sentence is the response by the other.

Sure beats "Hi, how are ya?", doesn't it?

If you want to look further into this, Wikipedia lists the variants of this greeting in dozens of languages worldwide at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_greeting. Nifty, isn't it. Imagine: so many languages, cultures, and nationalities, and one faith!

So what does this have to do with Turkey, a secular republic that is more than 99% Muslim? Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet, the greatest of the prophets before Muhammad. They even recognize his virgin birth from Mary. (In fact, Mary is mentioned more times in the Koran than she is the New Testament.) But they do not believe in his divinity, in his Resurrection, nor that he is the Son of God.

Accurate statistics are difficult to come by, but best estimates of the non-Muslim population are about 35,000 Catholics, 80,000 Orthodox (of which there are many varieties), 5,000 Protestants, and 26,000 Jews. (The majority of Jews in Turkey are Sephardic, descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492.)

Behind these numbers lies an extensive, multifaceted history that, like any history of peoples and cultures, has glorious and tragic elements intermingled. Unfortunately, the history that most of us have learned in our American education, including Catholic church history, is heavily biased toward Euro-centrism, ignoring or downplaying both the intrinsic value of other cultures and the significance of their contribution to what we now are pleased to call "Western Civilization."

Frankly, I have come very late in life to realize and understand this. I became interested in this significant and neglected part of our heritage, including the 2,000-year contribution of Eastern Christianity as well as the 1,300-year contribution of Islam and Muslim culture, only as a result of my first visit to Turkey in 2000, exactly 10 years ago. I too was thoroughly indoctrinated in Euro-centrism for the first 57 years of my life. My own cultural awakening has broadened and deepened my understanding of our heritage as Catholic Christians and its implication for our life here and now in today's world. This isn't limited to history or cultural anthropology alone. My life-long interest in theology, scripture, and liturgy has been re-oriented as well. (Don't forget that the etymology of the word "orientation" means "facing east.) Out of this has been born my passion to share, as widely as I can, understanding of this heritage. And that's why I see leading this Early Christian world Pilgrimage to Turkey every year as a central part of my ministry even as pastor of a parish.

Why Turkey? Christianity, including Catholic Christianity, grew up in the land we now call Turkey. Even before Rome could claim its role as the sole center of "Catholic" Christianity, the Christian church was a collaborative diversity of churches. There are undoubtedly more sites in Turkey, made holy by significant holy people and events, than anywhere else in the world, including Rome and Israel/Palestine. With good reason I often call Turkey "the other Holy Land." Sadly, East and West grew increasingly alienated from one another, until the (thus far) irrevocable split occurred in 1054 with an angry and tragic mutual excommunication. This mutual excommunication was formally nullified in 1965 by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I. There has been serious contact and dialogue since then, but any real, formal unity remains elusive.

More often than not, for a variety of historical reasons, the Orthodox celebrate Easter several weeks after we do in the West. This year, however, it's the same. On Thursday and Friday this week (April 8-9), our Early Christian World Pilgrims will be visiting several historic Orthodox churches in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), and will see those churches still decked out in their Easter finery. We will be praying for you at all the holy places in this land, dear to the heritage of both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. And we ask that you pray for us during the coming weeks of our Pilgrimage. You can follow us on the Pilgrimage at http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

Christ is risen, Alleluia! He has truly risen, Alleluia!

Where would/did Jesus stand?

2010-03-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading Fr. Greg Boyle's Tattoos on the Heart. It's a powerful book, and, once started, very hard to put down. Here is a man who has put his life -- humbly, firmly, and imperfectly -- where his mouth is.

"Mouth" calls to mind the great, divisive polarization that has so gripped our country, our Church, and our world. I don't believe that God's going to punish the world because of pro-choice abortion policies nor for racist anti-immigrant attitudes and policies, both of which are morally reprehensible if we take Jesus' teachings seriously. God's going to punish us by simply letting our own unwillingness to find common ground with those we disagree with to reach its logical and inevitable conclusion: self-destructive polarization. Armed camps bent on mutual destruction.

I like Greg Boyle's take on this. He doesn't try to "philosophize" as much as I do, and so his straightforward simplicity is very appealing. I'm going to quote at length, hoping I'll be forgiven a potential copyright transgression by promoting sale of a few copies. (Check it out on Amazon.com, and be sure to watch the video on that page.)

Success and failure, ultimately, have little to do with living the gospel. Jesus just stood with outcasts until they were welcomed or until he was crucified--whichever came first.

The American poet Jack Gilbert writes, "The pregnant heart is driven in hopes that are the wrong size for this world." The strategy and stance of Jesus was consistent in that it was always out of step with the world. Jesus defied all the categories upon which the world insisted: good-evil, success-failure, pure-impure. Surely, He was an equal-opportunity "pisser-offer" in this regard. The right wing would stare at Him and question where He chose to stand. They hated that He aligned Himself with the unclean, those outside--those folks you ought neither to touch nor be near. He hobnobbed with the leper, shared table fellowship with the sinner, and rendered Himself ritually impure in the process. They found it offensive that, to boot, Jesus had no regard for their wedge issues, their constitutional amendments or their culture wars.

The Left was equally annoyed. they wanted to see the ten-point plan, the revolution in high gear, the toppling of sinful social structures. They were impatient with His brand of solidarity. They wanted to see Him taking the right stand on issues, not just standing in the right place.

But Jesus just stood with the outcast. The Left screamed: "Don't just stand there, do something." And the Right maintained: "Don't stand with those folks at all." Both sides, seeing Jesus as the wrong size for this world, came to their own reasons for wanting Him dead. (pp. 172-173)

For my part, I know I have to keep calling myself back to the understanding, which I preach so often, that God doesn't want our success, God wants our fidelity. God grants success in God's own way, not as we humans like to measure it.

If you're not familiar with Homeboy Industries, check out their website. Perhaps even get a "virtual carwash." I did.

Parish Director of Administration Search

2010-03-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

(Note: this was the "Pastor's Reflection" for the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, March 28, 1010.)

What does it mean for a pastor to "run a parish"?

I think the expectation -- conscious or unconscious -- most people have is that the pastor is (or should be) omnicompetent and omnipotent -- makes all the decisions and carries them out flawlessly and to everyone's satisfaction, including, of course, God's.

That's not the real world anywhere else, nor is it in the Church.

After my first nine months as your pastor of watching and listening, as well as reflecting, consulting, and praying, I am launching a search for a parish Director of Administration. This will be the person who will directly manage all business, financial, and organizational aspects of the parish, including supervision of staff and facilities. There is currently no one, except the pastor, who has real responsibility and authority in all these areas. It's impossible for one human being to try to maintain sole control in a situation like this, and crazy-making to even try. I need a partner who will serve essentially as my right hand -- parish COO, if you will -- in all the management responsibilities involved in running the parish.

That will free me to be, well, a pastor. Like I was ordained to do.

Our current business consultant, Bill Vondrasek, is chairing a search committee which will recruit applicants, review resumes, and interview the strongest potential candidates. Bill will be joined by Barbara Gunning, Bill Gould, and Rob Weiler, who are members of either the parish Pastoral Council or the Finance Council. Rounding out the committee will be Mary Jean Neault, who served as Director of Administration in my previous parish, and is currently Director of Pastoral Ministries there. Nobody knows "the field" as well as she does.

I hope by the first week of May, when I return from the Early Christian World Pilgrimage in Turkey, they will be able to present several top candidates for me to interview and make the final selection.

In addition to a full complement of administrative and managerial skills, this person must have knowledge and experience in how the Catholic parish works, both as institution and as community. This means prior experience in Church administration is a requirement.

The position opening is being publicized among a rather specialized target audience throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but anyone who believes himself or herself qualified is welcome to apply. The salary will be commensurate with Archdiocesan scale, taking into account the person's qualifications. If you know anyone who may be qualified and interested, encourage them to send a resume and a written letter of interest to Bill Vondrasek, in care of the Good Shepherd Parish Office, 504 N. Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills, 90210.

Please offer a prayer or two that the right person will surface who can effectively partner with me to serve the parish community well in this vital role.

God bless you always. I love you.

Come with us on the Pilgrimage

2010-03-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

(Note: this was the "Pastor's Reflection" for the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, March 21, 2010)

These days, as we prepare to celebrate the mysteries of our redemption, the Passion-Death-Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Paschal Mystery), I am also preparing to leave the day after Easter on the Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey.

This will be the fourth such Pilgrimage I've led in the weeks following Easter. For many reasons -- spiritual, practical and aesthetic -- that's the only time to go. Even the inconvenience of the timing is a part of the grace: true Pilgrimage, after all, does involve hardship too.

Transformation is at the heart of the Paschal Mystery, and at the heart of Pilgrimage. Our Early Christian World Pilgrims of past year almost unanimously describe it as a "life-changing experience."

I'm always aware that the majority of people simply cannot come on this kind of journey, and there are many valid reasons for this. I have always felt compelled to try to share the benefits of the Pilgrimage as widely as possible. That's one reason why meetings to study and prepare have always be open to anyone. I have found that studying and praying with the ancient men and women of great wisdom we encounter while walking through history has enriched my own understanding and life of faith as a Catholic, and many of these insights find their way into my homilies. I've also been able to share bits and pieces of the Pilgrimage experience in videos I've uploaded to YouTube. There's also a lot of wonderful resources on the internet that enable anyone to gain much by virtually making the journey.

This year, I hope to be able to intentionally and systematically include you -- all of you who may want to come along virtually and have access to the internet on a computer. We are a small group of Pilgrims, only eleven plus me. That means we can all participate in sharing with you. This will probably take written form as well as pictures and video. We have a Pilgrimage website at http://ecwpilgrimage.org which will serve as a portal for all the resources we can put online. We also have an "Early Christian World Pilgrimage" Facebook Group. Join and you can make this an interactive experience, posting comments and discussion along the way. These are wonderful technological resources, and they can serve to help and enhance our faith in ways undreamed of in the past.

I'll be gone the whole month of April and the first few days of May. When the Pilgrimage formally ends on April 28, I'm planning to stay over the weekend in Istanbul. I've never yet had the chance to explore that marvelous city on my own, and I'm really looking forward to that few days of vacation.

"Mystagogia" is the time when newly initiated Christians are invited to explore and study the "Mysteries" of our faith, especially the sacraments. Our Pilgrimage provides the ideal occasion for this kind of exploration; it's really an immersion into our heritage of faith. Come with us, at least virtually and in spirit.

I'm already making plans for next year's Pilgrimage. It will be a little shorter and a bit later -- Easter is quite late next year. It will begin on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, in Istanbul (you have to leave a day or two before that), and will conclude on Saturday, May 14. It seems a long way off, but if you start planning and arranging your schedule now, it may be more possible than if you wait. Think and pray about it.

May these last weeks of Lent be filled with grace for you and all those you love. I love you.

Lent with the Elect

2010-03-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin for March 14, 2010)

Scrutiny.

Now there's a scary word. While I was growing up the word always carried with it a sense of threat, judgment, and impending doom. Like the feeling I got when, as a sixth grader, I had neglected to study for the spelling test.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines scrutiny as "a close, careful examination or study." When I'm trying to figure out the meaning of a word as we uses it today, I always find it helpful to explore the origin of the word. Looking at what how it came to us and how it developed through history reveals nuances of meaning that a mere definition can't express. So where did the word "scrutiny" come from?

First of all, it's from the Latin word scrutari, meaning "to search." So far so good. But behind simple answers there often lurks a telling surprise. That word comes from an earlier word scruta, meaning "trash."

So scrutiny originally means "looking for garbage." No wonder the word is scary. But that understanding enhances rather than diminishes its importance for a those who are sincerely seeking to change and renew their lives during Lent.

The authentic, ancient tradition of the Church never viewed conversion as a merely private matter. Those seeking to become disciples of Jesus Christ do so publicly in communion (fellowship) with the community of believers.

That's why the Second Vatican Council, nearly half a century ago, calling for us today to go back and learn from our origins and heritage, restored the ancient process of Christian Initiation involving a communal journey of growth in faith and life, characterized by well-defined steps and public rites marking transitions from one stage to the next. During Lent, the whole community is invited to join in a spirit of prayer and self-examination with those, now called the Elect, who are on the final leg of their journey to full initiation into the Catholic Church.

Lent, for all of us, is a time of quite literally searching for and getting rid of the garbage of our lives in order to provide hospitality for our Risen Lord who comes to share his life with us.

On the three middle Sundays of Lent we celebrate the Scrutinies with the Elect. These moments of self-searching, illuminated by three very striking Gospel events, are truly joyful because the task at hand is making way for our Savior who is also our eternal Lover.

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) tells us the "the Scrutinies are meant to uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the Elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong, and good" (#141). It goes on to say:

First of all, the Elect are instructed gradually about the mystery of sin, from which the whole world and every person longs to be delivered and thus saved from its present and future consequences. Second, their spirit is filled with Christ the Redeemer, who is the living water (Gospel of the Samaritan woman in the First Scrutiny), the light of the world (Gospel of the man born blind in the Second Scrutiny) the resurrection and the life (gospel of Lazarus in the Third Scrutiny). From the first to the final Scrutiny the Elect should progress in their perception of sin and their desire for salvation. (#143)

And we all do this along with them, gaining inspiration from their dedication and supporting them with our example and prayers. We can always profit from taking difficult things to heart, even the word "scrutiny."

I love you.

A good story . . .

2010-03-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin for March 7, 2010.)

A good story is always worth repeating, perhaps revealing some new insight in the retelling. I first heard this story many years ago, but when it reappeared in an email a few days ago, it seemed an especially appropriate reflection as we walk together through Lent.

Many years ago, the story goes, a mother wanted to encourage her young son’s progress in learning the piano. She took him to a concert featuring the renowned Polish pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Once seated, the mother spotted a friend and went over to greet her. Seizing the opportunity to explore the concert hall, the little boy wandered away from his seat, and finding a door labeled “No Admittance,” he pushed it open. As the house lights dimmed, the mother returned to her seat and discovered her son was missing. Suddenly, the stage curtains parted and in the spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway on stage, the horrified mother saw the little boy sitting at the keyboard innocently picking out, note by note, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

At that moment, the great Paderewski made his entrance onto the stage. He quickly moved to the piano and whispered in the boy’s ear, “Don’t stop. Keep playing!” Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. He reached around to the other side of the child and he added a running obbligato with his right hand. Together, the old master and the young novice transformed an unexpected situation into a wonderfully creative experience.

It really doesn't matter too much whether this story is true, in sense of factual. It's true insofar as it resonates with something in our lives. Whatever our feeble efforts at being faithful disciples of Jesus may be, do we hear him whisper, "Don't stop. Keep on." Can we believe that he is transforming our lives into something wonderful to fulfill his creative designs?

I love you.

Pilgrimage News

2010-02-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good shepherd Parish Bulletin for February 28, 2010.)

Many of you have asked about how plans are progressing for the Early Christian World Pilgrimage that I will be leading during April. Last week we closed registration with eleven participants, plus myself. This is a much smaller group than I had hoped for, a little more than half of the twenty that I had originally set as the minimum. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Ersan Atsur, owner of Orion-Tour, our agency in Istanbul, and AmericanTours International, our agency here, we are able to make this pilgrimage, in spite of our reduced number, with no increase in the cost.

About half of our Pilgrims are professional religious educators, a group that I really want to engage in this Pilgrimage experience, so that they can in turn influence young people. The only reason why I am committed to leading this Pilgrimage, and have done so three times in the past and hope to continue in the future, is that I firmly believe the future of humankind in our world today depends on building bridges of understanding among people of diverse backgrounds and convictions.

This kind of understanding can come only through first knowing and being comfortable with our own faith. And quite frankly, that's not an easy task. Learning and integrating our faith into our lives is a life-long task, and an important part of it is exploring our heritage, including what history has to teach us about why we believe as we do.

The other requirement for building bridges is to understand those who are different from ourselves, especially those whom we find difficult to understand or threatening -- or who see us that way.

Turkey is the perfect place to immerse ourselves in both of these essential dimensions of pilgrimage: touching our own heritage and discovering the identity of the other.

One of the opportunities given us by the small size of the group is that we can have more lively interaction with one another and our guide, Aydin Eroglu. Aydin is not only an expert in everything we need to know about Turkey, he is also a devout Muslim who is deeply committed to interfaith dialogue and understanding.

My goal in planning this pilgrimage is to share as widely as possible the insights and results of our explorations. One of our teachers at Good Shepherd School, Maddie Murphy, is coming, and we are designing ways that she can be in constant touch with her fifth-grade students and the rest of the school community. At the same time, I am working on putting a "virtual pilgrimage" on the web, and you'll be able to follow us at http://ecwpilgrimage.org. If, for whatever reason, you can't make the trip physically, you can still come along in spirit through the modern miracles of the internet.

Also, you might want to look at your calendar and see if you can join us for the Pilgrimage next year. We always begin during Easter week, and so next year our Pilgrimage, God willing, will begin on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Because several people could not make it this year because of the length, it will undoubtedly be shorter, probably sixteen days rather than twenty-two. You can be back home by Saturday, May 14.

We are all pilgrims in life, and I pray that everyone here at Good Shepherd will be able to learn and benefit in some way from our Pilgrim journey to Turkey's Early Christian World sites. Please pray for us who will be traveling as we prepare for this life-changing experience. May God bless you all.

Parking and Together in Mission

2010-02-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, February 21, 2010.)

Sorry I didn't write any reflections last week. Enough of you asked about it to make me happy to know it's being read. Sometimes I get a bit overloaded, and something's gotta give . . .

Last Tuesday, I celebrated Mardi Gras by spending the whole evening at the City Council, along with pastors and representatives of the other churches in Beverly Hills, waiting for the parking meter issue to come up. This was the third time we were there, after having waited in vain until 2:00 am two weeks earlier.

The heart of the proposed ordinance would authorize the operation of parking meters throughout the city from 6:00 am to a minute before midnight, seven days a week. The actual times of operation within that range would be determined by the Traffic and Parking Department. The position of the churches -- ourselves and our neighbors All Saints and Beverly Hills Presbyterian here on Santa Monica, as well as Mt Calvary Lutheran on Beverly Drive and Olympic -- was not to oppose the ordinance itself but to support the recommendations for implementation proposed by the staff, who had met with us beforehand to be sure our needs were accommodated. After considerable discussion and clarification from the staff, and our own input from pastors and members of the various churches, the Council unanimously voted to support an amended version of the ordinance that would ensure that any changes to the hours of operation for the parking meters be given thirty days' public notice and subject to the approval of the City Council.

The bottom line, as it impacts us church members, is that there will be no change in the operation of the parking meters of the parking structures across Santa Monica Boulevard. Evenings and Sundays will continue to have free parking in these structures as well as the streets with meters near the churches. Because the text of the ordinance was amended, it will have to have another final vote in two weeks, but that will, I think, be merely a formality. The real issues were hashed out last week, and the whole Council supports the accommodation for the churches.

Thank you for your attentiveness last week to Dr. Karen Kallay's presentation on Together in Mission and its importance to Ascension Catholic School in South LA, where she is principal. And thank you for your pledges to this important annual appeal. I must share with you that, as a result of her moving talk, I reconsidered my own pledge, and increased it from $1,000 to $1,500. Do you think you could do something similar?

Thank you all for the many ways you participate in and support the life and mission of our Catholic Church as a whole, and our Good Shepherd Parish community in particular. May God continue to bless you, especially as we seek, during this season of Lent, to empty ourselves so that God may find greater welcome in every aspect of our lives. I love you.

What are you doing for Lent?

2010-02-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "Pastor's Reflection" column in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, February 7, 2010.)

Lent is just a week and a half away.

The Gospel reading for the Mass of Ash Wednesday gives us a clear direction for our Lenten practice. Jesus speaks about almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18), and how we should do all three of those practices without calling attention to ourselves.

Almsgiving means that we should pay special attention to the needs of others. I think Jesus is asking us to put the needs of others, especially the less fortunate, ahead of our own needs at this time. And to use this time of Lent to practice how we might do that all the time.

This might mean paying particular attention to our favorite charity, and making our contributions more intentional, and even more sacrificial. Or perhaps we should look around for needs of others that aren't being met, and find ways of doing something about that.

Almsgiving is the way we can put into practice our belief in the Mystical Body of Christ, that you and I are together members of the Body of Christ, fulfilling our responsibility to care for one another as we would care for Christ himself.

Let is also a special time for prayer. Not so much that we say extra prayers at this time or engage in extra religious practices, and then abandon them after Easter. No. This is a time to acquire new habits of praying in ways that can continue throughout the rest of the year.

Fasting isn't simply giving up something. Fasting rather is a way of creating an emptiness, an opening in our lives where God can come in and fill us with himself. Fasting can also sharpen our awareness of our limitations and our oneness with those who are deprived without choosing it. Fasting should make us feel empty . . . and free.

Faithful Muslims have a lot to teach us about all three of these practices that Jesus and his Church ask us to do during Lent. Three of the five practices (called the"five pillars") of a faithful Muslim's life correspond to these three Gospel commands.

Muslims pray, devotedly and outwardly with particular gestures and movements as well as words, five times a day. The discipline of marking the major points of the day with prayer is also an ancient Christian monastic tradition, which may have influenced Islam in adopting this intentional commitment to regular prayer. If we don't pray, we become forgetful of God, taking him for granted and becoming negligent in our responsibility to acknowledge him as the Lord of our lives. Can you honestly say that Jesus is Lord and at the same time neglect to pay attention to him in prayer regularly through the day?

Perhaps we Christians can learn from Muslims the importance of frequently turning to God during our day, to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior.

Faithful Muslims fulfill the obligation each year to give 2.5% of their total wealth -- not just of their income, but of their "net worth" over and above a certain amount needed for basic sustenance of their own life. This must be given to the poor and for works that benefit the poor.

Can we as Christians, who are commanded to do to the "least" of our brothers and sisters as we would do to Christ, take on a Lenten practice of opening our eyes and paying greater attention to those in need on our very doorstep?

Perhaps the most well-known practice of faithful Muslims is to fast during the month of Ramadan. This is a rigorous fast, more so than our Catholic rules. No food or even water from dawn to sundown, and the fast is broken after sunset each day with a simple meals. Fasting for Muslims is a way of giving thanks to God the giver of all good by acknowledging our dependence on him. (Note that Muslims strictly follow a lunar calendar of 28 days, so Ramadan starts about ten or twelve days earlier each year. This year Ramadan is from August 11 to September 9. It is noteworthy that Islam forbids fasting for those whose health would be damaged or find it a serious hardship.)

Our own Catholic rules of fasting during Lent are simple and minimal: only one full meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from meat on the Fridays of Lent. Those are the rules, the minimum. Anyone who is serious about their relationship with God is going should work at finding more ways of creating emptiness so that God can fill it.

I realize of course that not all Muslims follow these practices faithfully, and there are those who seriously distort the meaning of Islam, which is a word meaning both submission to God and peace. But just as not all Christians faithfully imitate Christ and some do violence under the guise of Christianity, we cannot judge the true practice of the best by the distortions of the worst. We must learn from one another.

Please take advantage of these last days before Lent to plan what you are going to do in order to make this truly a season of grace.

Education and Formation

2010-01-31T19:36:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, January 31, 2010.)

It would be very difficult to come to church this weekend without being aware that this is Catholic Schools Week. Please permit me some reflections on the purpose, value and meaning of Catholic Education.

A very real first question has to be, "Why?" Why have Catholic schools in the first place? Especially when we in our society have excellent alternatives readily available, both public and private.

Without a strong Catholic identity at the core, Catholic education is a meaningless contradiction, wasting resources that are needed for engaging in the mission of Christ and his Church. If the core is firmly Catholic, the Catholic school is an integral and essential component of the mission of the Church.

A solid core of Catholic identity provides an important tool to integrate all facets of knowledge -- science, the humanities and arts, social studies, history and culture, as well as life-skills -- into a unified whole. So much secular education is fragmented, concentrating only on what's needed to fulfill personal, limited, and worldly goals, such as maintaining a lifestyle or making money. On the other hand, a lot of sectarian religious education propagates a narrow view of reality that rejects legitimate science and reason in favor of a fundamentalist blind faith. Witness the silly arguments of both creationists and atheists who "believe" that everything is fundamentally chance and devoid of any ultimate meaning beyond itself.

The only valid real purpose of education has to be formation. Those two words might seem synonymous, but there's a literally a world of difference between them. "Education" come from a Latin word meaning "to lead forth." It really speaks more of an external process of acquiring learning, going from "not knowing" to "knowing" something. "Formation," however, is an internal process of, literally, becoming something new. Formation will result in transformation, the bringing forth of something new.

Education tends to focus on getting something to achieve a goal. Not a bad thing in itself, just incomplete and inadequate. Formation brings about transformation, of the individual person, of the relationships that constitute community and society, and ultimately, of the world itself. We can't merely dismiss that ideal and settle for mere education without abandoning our reason for being.

Today is also the beginning of the annual Archdiocesan appeal for Together in Mission. We as Catholics have to realize that an essential part of our faith is the difficult love of those who are disadvantaged, a love that has to manifest itself in action. Together in Mission is our opportunity to help support Catholic schools where this "formation" and "transformation" are most important. As we consider Together in Mission over the coming weeks, I ask that you pay attention to Jesus pointing to our own neighboring parishes and schools where it is also our responsibility to serve the "least" of his brothers and sisters.

Finally, this idea of formation has been my primary motivating for putting so much effort into preparing for and leading my Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey, which is coming up in just two months, April 6-28.

A bishop goes to Mass!

2010-01-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

I have often felt that the one thing that would most improve the celebration of our liturgies would be for priests to go to Mass once in a while. I mean join their fellow baptized members of the Body of Christ in the pews, and actually experience what they routinely subject their flock to. I try to do that from time to time, even in my own parish, though not as often as I should.

I was delighted to discover that a bishop does that too! And even has the courage to write about it. God bless Bishop Tobin, and I'd like to suggest to my fellow priests that we all might benefit from a serious and consistent imitation of his practice. I know our people would.

During vacation this summer I followed my normal practice of attending Sunday Mass as a “private citizen,” that is, in secular attire, with the congregation, in the pews. Even though I truly cherish the privilege of leading the liturgy as I do almost every Sunday, it’s also refreshing once in awhile to be on the other side of the altar.
Doing so allows me to avoid the public spotlight, eliminates the pressure of having to prepare a homily, and helps me to return to the ministry relaxed and ready to go.Whenever I join the rank-and-file, it’s amazing how quickly I assume the characteristics of what might be considered the “typical Catholic.” ... Read the rest.

Connected by Bonds of Understanding

2010-01-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

(Note: the first part of this message is my "Pastor's Message" in the Good Shepherd Sunday Bulletin for January 24. But I didn't have space to continue it, which I am doing here.)

Last Tuesday I had the honor of signing and personally putting in the mail a check from the parish to Catholic Relief Services for Haiti Relief totaling $7,600. In your generosity, you contributed $6,560 last weekend, specifically designated for Haiti. We added, as promised, 10% of the regular Sunday collection, which you generously give weekly for the support of our church: $1,040. By the time you read this, CRS is putting this money to use. Contributions keep coming in, and so we will continue to forward these donations to them. You can find our more about CRS and donate directly online at http://crs.org.

I am grateful to you, the People of God who are the Catholic Community of the Good Shepherd, and proud of you, for your wonderful generosity to those in need as well as for your ongoing support of the life and mission of our parish.

Next week, we will begin the annual Los Angeles Archdiocesan appeal, Together in Mission, in which we are asked to help the very real local need of keeping Catholic churches and schools alive in our own distressed neighborhoods. I have been amazed at the level of support you gave this in the past, and look forward to a successful outcome in this, my first year with you.

When I turned my computer on today to begin writing this message to you, one item the "news corner" of my homepage was headlined, "Christian-Muslim Mayhem in Nigeria Kills Dozens." Why, when there is such need for cooperation in relieving the suffering in our world, are so many intent on creating more suffering?

I am saddened when this question is discussed, that so many resort to blaming the other and justifying their own righteousness. Is that helpful? Does that produce any good beyond fleeting self-satisfaction, which often leads to isolation, further alienation, retribution, more suffering, and, ultimately, self-destruction?

If we believe God's revelation in Jesus, love is the answer. But love is the ultimate weasel word. Everybody uses it to mean what they want it to mean, to the extent that it can even become a mask for indifference and hatred. Genuine love is tested by forgiveness. In fact, the second most often repeated command of Jesus in the Gospels is to "love your enemies."

The command takes various forms, including "forgive seventy times seven times," "turn the other cheek," and so on -- most all of them easily dismissed as "impractical." "Surely you couldn't have meant that, could you, Jesus?" Picture yourself asking him that face to face. What do you think his answer would be?

I repeat: the second most repeated command of Jesus is "Love your enemies," in a form that includes forgiveness as it's central component. Well, what's the first lcommand? Over and over again, Jesus is quoted as saying "Do not fear."

Could it be that fear is the true enemy of love? The kind of love that Jesus expects of us? The love that crosses and overcomes barriers? The love that does not hold back?

I would like to propose that it is understanding that directly addresses the sources of our fear, and puts them in the kind of perspective that enables us to rise beyond fear in order to forgive and to love.

I'd further like to propose that we tend to get the concept of "understanding" backward. Think about it. Isn't the question we usually ask, "what do I want to understand about you?" Picture somebody else asking that question about you, and then basing their understanding of you on what they want or think they need rather than on who or what you actually are? And the phrase "about you" makes you feel like an object rather than a person. Do you think that's fair? And yet, that's what we do a lot, especially when it comes to groups of people whom we believe, for whatever reason, are alien or threatening.

How can we look at it the other way around? What if our basic question was "What do you need me to understand about you?"

Suppose, before the earthquake, we had approached the people of Haiti with the question "What would you want us to understand about you?" Not "do for you" but "understand about you." Let's face it, what I do is always based on how I see things. Would that have begun to make a difference that might have changed how things unfolded after the earthquake? I don't know, of course. But if that had been the basic question people (and nations, religions, and cultures) asked one another over the past two hundred years, or two thousand years, can we imagine how different things would be today?

Over the past few years, one of the benefits of the Early Christian World Pilgrimage for me as the leader has been to reflect deeply on what is needed for mutual understanding among people. And I have come to the conclusion that all understanding has to be based on approaching people on their terms, not mine. Easier said, or pretended, than done, under the best of circumstances. Exponentially more difficult when conditions seem dangerous or threatening.

Yet, maybe it's true that "practice makes perfect." St. Thomas Aquinas made a big deal out of defining "virtue" as a "habit," a facility for doing good acquired by repeatedly doing it. Jesus said something kind of similar, "As you were faithful in small matters, I will put you in charge of greater."

Perhaps every time we talk with anyone else, it would be good to keep the other-centered question in the back of our minds. Not "What are you trying to tell me?" but "What do you need me to understand about you?"

I have often thought the basis for interfaith dialogue has to be asking the other dialogue partner to express what they want us to know. For example, between Christians and Muslims, the mutual questions need to be phrased carefully and asked sincerely: "What do you as a Muslim want me as a Christian to understand about Islam?" and "What do you as a Christian want me as a Muslim to understand about Christianity?"

This is why I am so committed to the Early Christian World Pilgrimage experience. We don't just visit "holy places." We immerse ourselves in the interactions among God and people, and people with one another, and discover a quality of undersanding that, I believe, is truly graced.

There are still openings for anyone who might want to and be able to come on this unique journey of faith and exploration this coming April. All the information you need is at http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

Pilgrimage to the "Other" Holy Land

2010-01-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

(Note: this was my "Pastor's Message" for the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, January 10, 2010.)

What is a pilgrimage? It has been described as a journey to a far place in order to live more fully in one's own near place. The "far place" is called holy or sacred, usually because of a person or event of the past in which the action of God is perceived in a special way. The Irish speak of "thin places" where the boundaries between the divine and the human become more transparent, and one experiences the nearness of God in an extraordinary way.

Except for a few tours, usually labeled "Footsteps of St. Paul," Turkey, a modern secular democratic republic that is 99% Muslim, is rarely thought of as a Christian pilgrimage destination. Yet even a quick look at the map and at history will reveal a greater concentration of places and events that have formed and shaped our Christian faith than any other country in the world, including Italy and Israel. Since 2006 I have led an annual "Early Christian World" Pilgrimage, which gives participants the opportunity to experience why Turkey earns the title, "the Other Holy Land."

The itinerary crosses paths with St. Paul in significant places, such as Tarsus, Ephesus, Antioch, and Galatia. It also touches something of the world of St. John and other Apostles, and includes a visit to Mary's house. It's fascinating to explore the archaeological remains of the early Christian communities here, since the New Testament gives so few details about their daily lives.

This land, even more than Rome, is where our Catholic faith grew and matured over the first eight centuries. Martyrs shed their blood here, communities of the faithful met for Eucharist in homes and later built churches. The early ecumenical councils, which served to define how we can understand the content of our Biblical faith in Jesus, and formulated the Nicene Creed which we profess every Sunday at Mass, took place in and around Constantinople (now Istanbul), Ephesus, and Nicea (present-day Iznik). Cappadocia, a fantastic volcanic landscape with weird rock formations, churches and dwellings carved into hillsides, and extensive and elaborate ancient underground cities, was home to some of the greatest monks and theologians of the early church.

Standing in many of these places, the ruins of which have been carefully excavated and exquisitely preserved or restored, one feels a part of the great panorama of history behind them, a history that speaks eloquently and clearly of the Spirit-led interaction between God and his people that is our heritage as Christians today. Understanding our past is essential to understanding and living our present.

Celebrating Mass together in many of these holy places, as well as daily prayer, is of course at the heart of our reasons for making this journey.

I often compare this Early Christian World experience to a child exploring his grandparents' attic, discovering treasures long hidden and filled with meaning, and coming out with a new appreciation of his own family life and origins. About seventy people have already made this Pilgrimage over the past few years, and many have found it truly life-changing.

This year's Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey will be a three-week journey, April 7-28. There are still opportunities to join us. The cost is quite reasonable for what you get, $2,950 per person, double occupancy, not including airfare to Istanbul. (I've found that many people prefer to make their own flight arrangements.) Round-trip airfare will be around $1,000 to $1,200, and, including incidental expenses, you can safely budget around $5,000 for the whole cost. If you are interested, please contact me without delay. Email me at thomas.welbers@gmail.com. There are many other dimensions and facets of this unique pilgrimage experience. You can explore them at http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

Haiti--Information and Help

2010-01-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

In addition to the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) I noted in my previous post, I'd suggest visiting the Haiti Mission page of Holy Family church in south Pasadena. It appears that any assistance given through them will go very directly and very specifically to their targeted relief efforts.

InterAction has a very extensive list of faith-based organizations that are providing disaster relief aid for Haiti. Everyone should find one (or several) that most matches his or her interests and desires for being of service.

There are several places to get news about Haiti and the aftermath of its devastating earthquake that you might not find in the usual media outlets.

Since the country is more than 80% Catholic, obviously the Catholic sources will give us an important perspective, and have on-the-scene connections that many others don't.

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Reporter

Other sites I've run across:

The Wikipedia 2010 Haiti Earthquake page is being constantly updated, and contributors draw from many sources.

HaitiXchange also has instructions for getting Google Earth satellite images of the devastation in Port-au-Prince

Below are three pictures of the Cathedral in P0rt-au-Prince (Our Lady of the Assumption -- Cathédrale Notre-Dame de L'Assomption).

First, from the ground, before and after.

Google Earth satellite picture of the Cathedral before:

...and after:

Haiti--Understand and Respond

2010-01-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

Here's what I've written for our parish bulletin on Sunday:

So much suffering has been inflicted on the people of Haiti, one of the very poorest nations in the world!

In praying for them, we need to realize that God does not "magically" answer prayers, but rather uses human instruments that are willing to extend themselves to relieve the sufferings of his "little ones." Let us pray that the hearts of all those in the world, nations and individuals alike, who "have enough" will be opened to embrace those who "have nothing," as Jesus himself and his Apostles have warned us we must do.

God can bring good out of evil. The old proverb, "God writes straight with crooked lines," remains true, but we must let God use us as his writing instruments. Perhaps, with the right kind of attentive help from the world community, the tragedy of this week can transform the ruling leadership of Haiti to become more a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," as must be the ideal-become-reality for all nations.

While prayer does not work magic, it can work wonders by transforming our own hearts to imitate the compassion and generosity of our loving God's heart.

We all have an immediate opportunity to contribute very directly to aid for the suffering people of Haiti following the devastating earthquake. As pastor of Good Shepherd, I believe that our parish community has a special responsibility to imitate Jesus the Good Shepherd in our care for his flock. This weekend I have directed that we will "tithe" 10% of our regular parish collection to disaster relief in Haiti. And if you wish to make a special donation, you may join me in adding to the regular collection a generous donation in the special envelopes in the pews. (We do not take up a separate "special collection" after Communion, so please put it in the regular collection basket.)

Our contributions for Haiti earthquake relief, in addition to the 10% of our regular collection amount, will be sent this week to Catholic Relief Services, which is nationally recognized as one of the most efficient and effective relief organizations in the world. If you would like to contribute directly to Catholic Relief Services, here's their address:

Catholic Relief Services
228 W. Lexington St.
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-3413
888-277-7575

They also welcome online contributions at www.crs.org.

If we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to letting God work through us, we can be assured that our prayer will be answered, because our lives will be the answer to his prayer to us. Think about the truth of that statement.

St. Anysius and geese

2009-12-29T23:28:00.000-08:00

No major saint today, the sixth day of Christmas, but a minor one who is also significant for Church-state relations, as well as Early Christian World Pilgrimage lore: St. Anysius was bishop of Thessalonica in 390 when Emperor Theodosius massacred 7,000 men, women and children in retaliation for a relatively minor disturbance in which a governor was killed. Theodosius was also the emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. (Contrary to popular belief it wasn't Constantine, who merely recognized its legitimacy, and was baptized only at the end of his life.) Theodosius must have thought he was de facto head of the Church (anticipating Henry VIII by 1,200 years!), but Ambrose of Milan forced him to do penance. Ambrose was the first bishop who actually succeeded in exercising control over a Roman emperor. Compared with the fascinating history of our Catholic heritage, who cares about a gaggle of geese? (Although their eggs might be tasty with bacon. I've never eaten one. Has any reader of this ever had a goose egg?)

I couldn't find much on St. Anysius on the web, so I'm sharing a photo I took of the entry in the new edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints. Interesting little tangent for ECW Pilgrims and others interested.

As I commented on Facebook: Theodosius wasn't a madman, in fact he justly has the title of "Great." What he did was not all that unusual even for the best of rulers (of all ages including today). What was unusual was that, in the battle of wills over his repentance, Ambrose won. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_I. It's a sign of greatness you can admit your wrongdoing, and a sign of small-mindedness when you have to twist reality to justify it.

Reflection on the Holy Innocents

2009-12-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

The new edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints notes that Matthew's telling of this story in chapter 2 of his Gospel "is not purely a record of events. He is concerned to show a parallel between the infancy of Jesus and the infancy of Moses, the fate of the Innocents resembling that of the Hebrew children killed on Pharaoh's orders when Moses was born (Exodus 1:13-22)."

We don't know how many slaughtered Innocents there were. Traditional counts from several centuries later (the Byzantine liturgy speaks of 14,000, and Syrian calendars say 64,000) are exaggerated beyond any reasonable estimate of the population of Bethlehem at the time. Most modern day estimates say there couldn't have been more than a dozen or so children under two in a small village such as Bethlehem and its surrounding countryside.

Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC, was the one who built the Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 AD. He was also a murderous madman, who even killed members of his own family. (There was a Roman quip that it was safer to be Herod's dog than his son!) So this massacre of infants was not out of character.

Christian tradition has venerated the Innocents as martyrs, "who died not only in witness to Christ but actually instead of Christ." In England the feast used to be "Childermas."

I have always pictured the escape of Joseph, Mary and Jesus into Egypt sort of like refugees alone in a strange and alien land. Actually, that wasn't quite the case. Alexandria, Egypt, at that time had one of the largest Jewish populations of any city in the world outside of Jerusalem, possibly several hundred thousand, and it was a flourishing center of learning and culture. It's very possible they found a warm and protective welcome among the Jewish diaspora community for the time they had to spend there.

60-Minutes on Patriarch Bartholomew

2009-12-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

Just today I was informed of last week's segment on CBS's 60-Minutes on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople/Istanbul. It is good background for the Early Christian World Pilgrimage, and gives a strikingly realistic (and pessimistic) view of the plight of the Orthodox Christians in present-day Turkey. (Too bad one has to put up with the offensive Viagra ad!)

Regarding the re-opening of the Halki Seminary, which Bob Simon visited with the Patriarch, Considerable international pressure has been put on Turkey, and President Obama in his speech to the Turkish Parliament on April 6, 2008 (video), also focused specifically on the issue. Obama again brought up the issue as recently as last month, when the Patriarch visited him in the USA. But so far nothing has come from the government except talk and unfulfilled promises.

There are, however, some over-simplifications and historical inaccuracies in the 60-Minutes piece, in particular regarding Cappadocia. The carved churches there date from the later medieval times (11th-13th centuries), not from the very origins of Christianity as erroneously stated by the guide.

They are correct, in my opinion, though, about calling Turkey "the other Holy Land," and locating the "origins" of Christianity there. It was in Antioch (present-day Antakya) ;where the disciples of Jesus were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). And from there (not from Jerusalem) most of the Apostles went for the bring the Gospel to the then-known world. On our Early Christian World Pilgrimage, we will spend a full day (two nights) in this ancient city, and celebrate Mass in a present-day "house church" reminiscent of the kind of place where these first Christians gathered for the Eucharist.

The Holy Family's relevance for today

2009-12-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here are my Sunday Bulletin reflections for December 27:

The last Sunday of 2009 and the Feast of the Holy Family today. I have two thoughts that I believe are worth sharing and considering. They are different, but related.

The first is that we usually consider the "holy family" to be Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, living quiet, holy lives in humble surroundings, with Jesus being raised as an ever-obedient only child, while Mary is the ever-patient mother doing her household chores and Joseph in his workshop making furniture for the village. That's a nice thought, but totally unreal. All small-town households of that time and culture were large, bustling, dynamic, and messy aggregations of all sorts of relatives living in close proximity. Even if Mary remained a life-long virgin, as Catholic tradition has always maintained, Jesus had "brother and sisters," either cousins living the same household or, more likely I think, Joseph's children from a previous marriage. Or both; very likely along with some of Joseph's or Mary's siblings. Joseph's widowed situation would not have been uncommon because the mortality rate in childbirth was high.

The point is that Jesus was raised experiencing all the beautiful and challenging messiness of family life, with many related individuals living together, whether by choice or necessity. To put it another way, Jesus experienced life not too much different in essence from our own.

The second, and related, point is that families are in trouble today mostly, I believe, because of isolation. Traditional marriage has always depended on a wide-ranging and complex network of family relationship, committed to mutual support. Now, at best, "traditional family" boils down to two people, and perhaps 2.5 children, facing the challenge of making it on their own. The wider network of family relationships no longer are part of the substance of family living, but are relegated to occasional (hopefully) friendly and festive gathering. Unlike in the past, the situations that give rise to conflicts are "nobody else's business," except of course when the media feeds on celebrities' troubles. When a couple experiences difficulty, they can't claim much support from a wider family network. All too often, there is no one willing to embrace them both and provide a context within which they can rebuild their relationship with each other.

One of the points I frequently make in my wedding homilies is that everyone who cares enough to come to witness the life-long commitment of this newly married couple, is also signifying their own commitment to support the couple in times of the inevitable trials that will come, so that their relationship may truly be for-life as they pledge on the wedding day.

As we pray for families today, please embody that prayer in your own loving support for the families of your own extended family and community. Blessings and peace of the New Year for all of you and those you love. I love you.

Swaddling bands and feeding trough

2009-12-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas bulletin greeting:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

What I'm most grateful for this Christmas is that I am celebrating the Eucharist with you, the people of God of Good Shepherd Parish Community.

We all know that beyond the sights, sounds and smells of the season, beyond the exhilaration of family and friends together, is the fact of what we are celebrating: God has so loved us that he sent his only Son to be our Savior.

For two thousand years, our Catholic faith has been centered on the Eucharist, the enduring sign and reality of the presence of God, through Jesus His Son, in our midst. As the beginning of St. John's Gosel reminds us, the eternal Word of God has taken on our human flesh -- our human nature fully -- and has made his dwelling with us.

One of my favorite images of the nativity dates back to the earliest centuries of the Church. It's a relief carving in marble that was unearthed on the Greek Island of Naxos, and dates to about 390 A.D. To me it speaks more eloquently than any other "nativity scene" of the reality and meaning of Christ's coming.

In the very center is the manger, in reality the trough from which the animals feed. Lying alone in the straw (you can even see its texture in the 1600-year-old weathered marble) is a little bundle with only a head showing. The infant's body is tightly wrapped in bands -- that's the meaning of "swaddling cloths." An ox and a donkey and two trees, a highly stylized palm and fig tree, are the only other figures.

The animals and trees represent all of creation, worshiping the bound-up Lord of the Universe, who bound himself by taking on the imperfection of our human nature. He has become one of us, so that we can become one with Him. And the feed-trough is not just a practical necessity of being born in a stable. It's an unmistakable sign of his relationship to us. In the Eucharist, he is our food, our nourishment , our sustenance.

As we celebrate today, let us not lose sight that all our gifts take their meaning from the One Great Gift, the gift of Jesus Himself.

May God continue to bless in abundance all those you love. Merry Christmas.

Fr. Tom Welbers

P.S. If you'd like a better, higher resolution copy of the picture, just sent me an email at thomas.welbers@gmail.com.

Peace and the Environment

2009-12-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

Here is the text of my "Pasotr's Reflections" for the Good Shepherd Bulletin for Sunday January 3:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

In 1968, the year I was ordained, Pope Paul VI issued the first World Day of Peace message on January 1. Every year since then in unbroken succession, each pope has continued the tradition, sending strong and thoughtful reflections to all people of good will for the benefit of humankind.

It was Pope Paul VI who first made the statement, "If you want peace, work for justice." After 9/11 with so much fear and retaliation in the air, Pope John Paul II added an important phrase: "There will be no peace without justice, and there will be no justice without forgiveness."

Pope Benedict XVI has, year-by-year, explored the ramifications of the theme of peace, touching many elements of spirituality and human life, as you can see from the list of titles of his past messages: 2006, "In Truth, Peace"; 2007, "The Human Person, the Heart of Peace"; 2008, "The Human Family, a Community of Peace"; 2009, "Fighting Poverty to Build Peace"

Although previous popes began to weave concern for the environment of our world into their reflections, the strongest voice for developing a consistent Christian approach to ecology has been Benedict XVI. His newly issued message for the 2010 World Day of Peace, "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation," develops the theme that he has stated many times: protecting our environment, and working to reverse the degradation of our planet that we humans have already brought about through exploitation and waste is an urgent Christian imperative.

All too often, the biblical command to have dominion over all creation (Genesis 1:28) has been interpreted as mastery without restraint. Whatever we do to profit from the exploitation of earth's resources, in this view, is legitimized and even seen as God's will. Dominion is seen to mean domination. Nothing could be further from the real plan of God, as seen even in the Old Testament, but certainly in its fulfillment in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Dominion really means that we are living in an environment, a world, that in truth belongs not to us but to the Creator. We are stewards not possessors. God has set us over creation as caretakers, not as owners.

You may want to read Pope Benedict's 2010 message, along with his previous ones. You can find them on the Vatican website at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/index_en.htm.

May this New Year bring many graces to you and all those you love. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Note that John Allen has an excellent article on the reaction to Pope Benedict's World Day of Peace Message, "Revolutionaries, Pastors, and Skeptic in Catholic Ecology."

Homily for December 20, Fourth Sunday of Advent

2009-12-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

There's an old saying I often repeat: "Be careful what you pray for, you might get it." That sounds kind of trite and silly, until we actually take seriously what we pray about. The implications of our prayer, if we are sincere, should give us pause for thought: Do I really mean what I just prayed?

An example is today's refrain of the Responsorial Psalm:

Lord, make us turn to you;
let us see your face and we shall be saved.

Think about it. If we say "Lord, make us turn to you," we are implying not only that we are not turned to God, but even that we cannot of ourselves turn to Him. God's the one who has to do that.

The second implication of that line is that we are open to God turning us around in His way, not ours. If we are busy about all kinds of other things, that process of turning might be painful because it involves letting God remove the obstacles that stand in His way. And some of those obstacles might be things we really like, maybe even depend on – and irt very well might hurt to have them moved out of the way so God can get closer.

All that, only in the first line. What about the second line?

Well, two questions arise there. Do we really want to see His face? And do we really want to be saved?

Have you ever had to face somebody who loves you deeply, but whom you have offended, perhaps by thoughtless neglect? It's difficult, isn't it. The person you've offended may very badly want you to look at them, but your inclination is to turn away in guilty embarrassment. It takes a strong person to face the One who loves us more than we love Him. A person strong enough to put aside ego. A person strong enough to look at our own unlovableness, and to let ourselves receive the gift of love we know we don't deserve and even can't deserve.

And what is salvation anyway? That's especially difficult when many of the needs that past ages looked to God for are now supplied by modern culture and technology. We can only get in touch with our real needs and the meaning of salvation when we painfully come to terms with our limits, and that God is beyond them. When our resources are exhausted, then we can acknowledge that we are not ultimately self-sufficient. That's when salvation becomes meaningful, but that's usually painful too.

All too often, when we have to face the things in our lives that God gives us to realize our dependence on Him, we are inclined to ask, "Why me?" when perhaps we should find ways of saying "Thank you."

What does this mean practically for you and for me? How we live depends a lot on how we pray. Can I put more thought into how I pray, and what I pray for. Do I pray that God will do such and so for me, that God will make everything turn out the way I want or think I need? Or do I pray that God will use me as in instrument of his will? Is the bottom line of my prayer, “thy will be done”?

It's a hard but necessary question: ultimately, is God the center of my prayer . . . or am I?

(Note: this holimyis a slightly revised and expanded vbersion of what I wrote for today's bulletin, below.)

Praying at Christmas?

2009-12-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

Bulletin reflection for December 20

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

There's an old saying I often repeat: "Be careful what you pray for, you might get it." That sounds kind fo trite and silly, until we actually take seriously what we pray about. The implications of our prayer, if we really mean them, should give us pause for thought: Do I really mean what I just prayed?

An example is today's refrain of the Responsorial Psalm:

Lord, make us turn to you;
let us see your face and we shall be saved.

If we say "Lord, make us turn to you," we are implying not only that we are not turned to God, but that we cannot of ourselves turn to Him. God's the one who has to do that.

The second implication of that line is that we are open to God turning us around in His way, not ours. If we are busy about all kinds of other things, that process might be painful because it involves letting God remove the obstacles that stand in His way. And some of those obstacles might be things we really like.

All that, only in the first line. What about the second line?

Well, two questions arise there. Do we really want to see His face? And do we really want to be saved?

Have you ever had to face somebody who loves you deeply, but whom you have offended, perhaps by thoughtless neglect? It's difficult, isn't it. The person you've offended may very badly want you to look at them, but your inclination is to turn away in guilty embarrassment. It takes a strong person to face the One who loves us more than we love Him. A person strong enough to put aside ego.

And what is salvation anyway? That's especially difficult when many of the needs that past ages looked to God for are now suppllied by modern culture and technology. We can only get in touch with our real needs and the meaning of salvation when we painfully come to terms with our limits, and that God is beyond them. When our resources are exhausted, then we can acknowledge that we are not ultimately self-sufficient. That's when salvation becomes meaningful, but that's usually painful too.

All too often, when we have to face the things in our lives that God gives us to realize our dependence on Him, we are inclined to ask, "Why me?" when perhaps we should find ways of saying "Thank you."

May these last days of preparation for celebrating the coming of the Messiah into our world help you to welcome Him into your life.

May God bless you and all those you love. I love you.

Fr.Tom Welbers

Martha and Mary at Christmas?

2009-12-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Bulletin Reflection for December 13:

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Making room.

Are you the kind of person for everything has to be "just right"? If so, this season is really hard on you, isn't it?

I know. I used to be that kind of person. Still am in many ways, but I think I tamed that perfectionism at least a bit.

There's so much to do, so many obligations to meet, such an investment of time and energy in making everything just right for everybody.

I sometimes wonder if if it would be a good idea for the Church to give us the Gospel reading of Mary and Martha during these last days of Christmas preparation. (It's Luke 10:36-42; hey, why not read it now?) Certainly we would hear Jesus challenging all the hustle and bustle of our perfectionist preparations.

More than ever, I think it's important during this time to step aside from it all, even if only for a few minutes. Catch our breath. And let Jesus speak

Even our prayer tends to be busy. As Catholics, many of us have grown up in a tradition that told us "praying" meant "saying prayers." And if you prayed simply by saying prayers, the more time you could give was automatically meritorious, and the faster you could say them -- the more prayers you could squeeze in a given length of time -- the better you prayed. I remember doing that. If you are old enough to have any gray hairs, you probably do too.

Between now and Christmas, try to step aside, for at least a few minutes a day, from the burdens of trying to get everything right. As Jesus so often said to his followers, "Come apart and rest a while." Rest was important for him. The openness and emptiness that are part of true rest are also important, because that gives God something to do. God can't fill us with the gift of himself if we are already full with all kinds of other things.

These last two weeks before Christmas the most important thing you can do is to make room . . .for Him.

I pray that this season of preparation may be one of great grace for you and all those you love. I love you.

Fr. Tom Welbers

Last Day in Rome

2009-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

This morning at 8:00 AM, I met Father Mark Haydu at the Porta Sant' Anna of the Vatican. He's the director of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, whom I met just a few weeks ago. He's the one whowas kind enough to arrange the wonderful "Patrons' Tour" for me this morning, and it was even more impressive that he was the guide, and I was the audience of one. Altogether he gave me about two hours of his time, out of a very busy schedule. His worldwide responsibility is to try to gather support, by developing local groups of patrons, to finance the preservation and restoration of great works of our artistic and faith heritage at the Vatican Museums. The Calfornia Chapter has been particjularly active and generous for many years.

First we went to the Sistine Chapel, where we were virtually alone. He described something of the recent cleaning and restoration work, but concentrated more on the person and history of Michelangelo, and the revolutionary creativity and dynamism, interwoven with symbolism, manifested in his work. It's hard for us today to appreciated how jarring he imagery was on his contemporaries because we are so used to it, perhaps much like Beethoven in the music world.

Here's a promotional video of Fr. Mark giving a little taste of the tour.

Then, after a chat over coffee in his office, he gave me a private tour of of the recent Santa Rosa Necropolis excavations. this video is a lot more informative than the last one, and gives a really good description of the excavations.

I was able to video Fr. Mark's tour, which is a lot more extensive. I hope I'll have an edited version fairly soon to show. After this, I spent a couple of hours by myself wandering the Museums. Unfortunately, the tour of the tomb of St. Peter was not available. Another time, I guess. I'm also disappointed that the newly discovered fresco portrait of St. Paul at the virtually unknown Catacomb of St. Thecla is in the process of stabilization and can't even be opened for a private tour. Another time for that one too. (Wanna come? I'll start a list.)

So, I had a nice "last meal" in a sort of rustic trattoria somehwere along the Viale Giulio Caesare, and came back to the hotel for a nap. Took a last walk around the area, and had a little dish of gelato, then came back to write this. Now it's time for bed. Got a long way to go tomorrow.

Rome Days Two and Three

2009-10-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Saturday) was pretty chilly, cloudy, and off-and-on rainy. Kind of miserable, actually. But that didn't stop your intrepid explorer of early Christian life. Where better than to discover life and in a cemetery? Yes, I finally made it to a couple of catacombs: Priscilla and St. Callistus. They are on opposite sides of the city, so it meant some fancy connections on the subway and bus system. Successfully done.

The Catacombs of Priscilla are on the Via Salaria, somewhat northeast of the historical center of Rome; in ancient times outside the walls, but now very much in the city. They are now part of a Benedictine convent, and tours are offered under their auspices. No photos, but there is a brief photo tour at their website, and a search for images on Google will produce a lot more.

Priscilla is not the name of a saint, but was probably the wealthy Christian landowner on whose property these catacombs were dug. Catacombs were burial places, not secret hiding places. The rich and powerful pagans often had their tombs above ground -- marble monuments and such. But it was lot cheaper to dig tombs underground, and the volcanic tuff rock is easily carved out and provided the ideal medium.

While most of the catacomb walls are lined with simple tombs (loculae, Latin for "little places"), some more elaborate areas boast the earliest know Christian art, usually in the form of frescoes, i.e., painting on plaster. There are many images of Christ as Good Shepherd, and he is usually depicted as a youth without a beard in Roman garb, a far cry from the sentimentalized images we are familiar with.

In the afternoon, I took the bus to the other side of the city, to the Appian Way and the Catacombs of St. Callistus, one of the most developed catacombs as a tourist attraction. Its artwork seemed a bit more "restored" (or "touched up") than Priscilla's, but I don't know if that's the case or not.

The early Christian artwork in the catacombs tell us a lot about their life, death, and faith. One interesting note: the size of the tombs reveals the size of the people. Men were just over 5-feet tall and women just under. Thus Romans and Greeks were actually quite a bit smaller than the people of today, and I've heard that the "barbarians" of northern and eastern Europe (especially the Huns) were fearsome because they were taller.

Yesterday evening, after a bit of rest and a panino (sandwich), I took the 64 bus to a stop just south of the Pantheon, and nostalgically wandered around. I had forgotten just how massive the Pantheon is. I finished my wandering at the Piazza Navona, and enjoyed a tartufo -- as good as ever, and only 5-euros to go.

Today, I slept in a little bit, and went to 8 AM Mass at the church around the corner from the hotel. I described the liturgy in an email to fellow members of the LA Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission as follows:

For better or worse, "went to Mass" seems the most accurate description of the experience: neither hot nor cold, neither wonderful nor awful. Small amount of singing was led by the lector/server/cantor. Priest seemed attentive and communicative, but routine. Sound system surprisingly effective in a reverberant space. Small assembly, mostly locals with a few obvious tourists, scattered around church. Locals sang well and enthusiastically with minimal leadership. Interesting that there was little uniformity about standing or kneeling during the Eucharistic Prayer and the Communion, even among the locals. Priest ate all the bread consecrated at the Mass (i.e., one small "large" host, broken in half) and drank all the consecrated wine. All Communion for the people was from the tabernacle; hosts small, thin, and white. Majority, even locals and elderly, received Communion in the hand. Priest seemed about my age, and seemed to reflect a lifetime of "saying Mass" rather than "presiding at the celebration of the liturgy,"

Ah well . . .

Then, after breakfast, I took the subway (Linea A) to St. Peter's, and got to the square just in time to see the Holy Father appear at his window for the noontime Angelus. He gave a ten-minute talk in Italian on World Mission Sunday, and greetings in a lot of languages, including English, before praying the Angelus. I think I got a pretty good video, with the zoom at maximum 10x -- haven't had time to review it. In some ways this is better than the Wednesday audience; not as long and much less hassle.

I took the 64 bus to Piazza Venezia and had a good meal at the Ristorante Abruzzi, and then wandered around the Casa Santa Maria, Gregorian University, Trevi Fountain and Piazza di Spagna before heading back to the hotel to rest a little and type up this report.

Now you're up to date. Tomorrow, the Vatican Museums, and Tuesday -- home.

Rome, Day One

2009-10-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't have a lot of blogging opportunity or initiative between the last post in Ravenna and today. Ravenna, day two, was rainy, but that didn't stoop me from spending good quality time at the Basilica of San Apollinare in Classe, which is a 5-km, 15-minute bus ride from the center of the town. More great mosaics in an impressive building. So much has happened since then, however, that I'll have to wait until I can review the pictures for a more detailed commentary.

Yesterday, Thursday, was travel to Rome day. I was hoping to write on the train, but it was so crowded and uncomfortable -- almost like an airplane -- that it was impossible not only to open up the computer but also to put two thoughts together rationally. I was pretty exhausted when I got to the "Yes Hotel," (nifty name) which is brand-newly refurbished with high tech amenities, including availab;e 125-volt power and an Ameican-style outlet. They must understand that today's travelers are into gadgets that need recharging, because the room is loaded with electrical outlets. And it's only a block from the Stazione Termini (Central Train Station), which also serves as the subway and bus hub of the city.

Today I was planning to visit the catacombs and ended up spending almost the whole day in Ostia Antica instead. Ostia was the ancient port city of Rome, and the excavations and partial reconstructions are among the best anywhere. I'm not going to Pompei or Herculaneum, which I imagine can be more impressive because of the way volcanic ash or mud preserved them. But those were resort towns for the rich and famous, and do not represent the great diversity of life in a real-world city. Ostia does. A little imagination could put one in the center of the bustling community life there. Another advantage is that so few people seem to know about it -- even I had no idea it was this extensive and well maintained -- that it's not overrun with tourists.

Subway/train connections are great, and onthe way back I visited St. Paul's Outside the Walls, The newly excavated tomb of St. Paul is barely visible through a glass opening in the shrine beneath the main altar. There is also a new door that was made specially for the Year of St. Paul, which recently concluded, with some striking relief sculptures.

It's now about 7:30 pm, and I'm kind of hungry and tired, so I think I'll get something to eat and go to bed. Rain is predicted for tomorrow, so I'm not sure what I'll do.

Ravenna, Day One

2009-10-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

This is the evening of my first full day in Ravenna. I decided quite early on today that I would not take many videos, unless there was some kind of "action" involved. "Panorama" shots in video can be better done with a single photo. So, I have five video files and 329 photos. Maybe I can organize them on the train to Rome, and perhaps post some before I get back to GSBH. (For now, if you want pictures and info, I suggest searching for these places in Google or Wikipedia. It's worth the effort.)

So, what happened today. For one thing, the day was bright, beautiful, and neither too hot nor too cool. Thank you, Lord.

After a small but nice breakfast at the Hotel Argentario, I started walking north on the Via di Roma. Half a block from the hotel are the ruins of the "So-Called Palace of Theodoric." "So-Called" means they probably aren't. That's a long story for another time. I walked around, soaked in the history, took some pictures, and went on.

Next door is the Basilica of St. Apollinare Nuovo (I'm still less than a block from my hotel!), which was not yet open. Later.

I walked a few more blocks up (north) on Via di Roma (yes, you go south on this road far enough and you'll end up in Rome; at least that's the way it used to be), and came to the Church of the Holy Spirit, which at one time was the Arian Cathedral, and now is used as an Orthodox Church (I think), and more impotantly, the Arian Baptistery, with some fantactic mosaics.

From there I made my way to the complex of the Basilica of San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, and the National Museum. The San Vitale was magnificent, and I spent lots of time and took a million pictures (well, not quite). (It seemed to me that the "standard" pictures you see in books or on the internet do not give context. A lot of those "professional" pictures are better than mine. But I think mine also give context.) The Mausolem of Gallia Placidia was poorly lighted and undergoing restoration -- my pix were not so good, and some really good stuff was covered up. The National Museum was, uhm, pretty "ho-hum."

Then I walked to the Orthodox Christian (as distinct from Arian) Baptistery, called "Neonian," which is attached to the present-day Cathedral. The Baptistery was open, the Cathedral was not.) More very ancient mosaics, and the time to contemplate them. (I'm going to have to write more sometime about the distinction between these two baptistries -- Arian and Neonian -- it's fascinating.)

A bit more wandering took me to the tomb of Dante. The poor guy was exiled from his native Florence to here because the Florentine elite didn't like him putting them all in hell in his "Divine Comedy." It seems they appreciated him here, probably because the Ravennese felt the same way he did.

By now it's mid-afternoon, and I decided to take in the Basilica of St. Apollonare Nouvo, about a hundred feet from my hotel. Breathtaking is the only word I can use -- as were San Vitale and Galla Placidia. Another million or so pictures, and the promise of more commentary to come.

Late afternoon. Nap at the hotel. Then a walk around the part of Ravenna on the other side of the train station and the innermost part of the port (remember it is a port city on the Adriatic coast) and the fifteenth-century fortress called the Rocca Brancaleone. Finally found a nice spot for dinner. Restaurants are fewer than I would have thought. And then back to my room to write this for you.

I'm glad and grateful that I decide to spend two full days here; one is definitely not enough.

Tomorrow the only major things left are the Mausoleum of Theodoric, which I past on my walk this evening, and the Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, which is a 5-km bus ride. God willing, it will be a good day with a relaxing finish.

Blessings and peace . . .

From Venice to Ravenna

2009-10-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Reflections on Venice and St. Mark's in particular

For several years I have actively wondered what the great Hagia Sophia looked like in its glory days as the greatest church of all Christianity. There are some books that reconstuct the liturgy. It is clear, for example, that there wasn't an opaque iconostasis, but there was something of a low wall and arched colonnade dividing the sanctuary from the nave. There was also a marked processional pathway between the sanctuary and the ambo, from which the scriptures were proclaimed in the middle of the assembly. There was also a bishop's throne against the back wall of the apse, and surrounded by terraced rows of seats for the presbyters. The ceremonial, involving processions, singing, prayers, various rites, etc., can be pieced together from contemporary documents. There were no seats for the assembly, except perhaps for the infirm and the elderly, which to my mind probably meant considerable mobility during the lengthy liturgies. Men and women were segregated -- men on the main floor and women inthe galleries, and there was a special gallery for the emperor and empress and their court.

The few surviving mosaics are tantalizing, but even they are not the early originals -- they date more or less from the 10th to the 14th centuries. After the fall of Constantinople to Mehmet II in 1453, the Turks immediately converted Hagia Sophia to a mosque, but actually preserved many of the mosaics by plastering over them rather than demolishing them. However, Hagia Sophia suffered terrible tragedies earlier in its history. The first was the iconoclastic dominance in the 7th and 8th centuries, which methodically and meticulously, as well as ruthlessly, destroyed all artwork representing Christ, Mary, and the saints, replacing them with simple crosses and geometric designs (as one sees in the apse of Hagia Irene. Nothing survived the ruthlessness of this movement. (Exceptions are in Milan, which I saw a few days ago, and Ravenna, where I am traveling to as I write this. In addition, there is a fragmentary 5th century mosaic of the annunciation in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, and a well preserved icon of the Virgin at St. Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai, which I saw at the exhibit at the Getty a few years ago.) When Orthodoxy prevailed after the second council of Nicea, iconic art, including mosaics, again flourished. These are the examples we see today, at Hagia Sophia and many other places, but they are not the originals.

The next catastrophe was the fourth crusade, 1204, in which Catholic forces invaded and occupied Constantinople. They greedily and ruthlessly looted the treasures of the great churches, especially Hagia Sophia and the Twelve Apostles. The latter church, since the time of Justianian, had housed the tomb of Constantine, as well as tombs or relics of the apostles, and various objects that were held to be relics of the life and passion of Christ. These found there way to various shrines in Europe, and many to the treasury of St. Mark's in Venice, which I visited on Saturday.

The church second in importance to Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was the Twelve Apostles, which was leveled after the Turkish conquest in 1453 in order to build the Fatih Mosque. (Those who were on the first ECW Pilgrimage in 2006 may remember stopping there, mainly to view some foundation stones of the original building which some archeologists speculate were part of the original church. The importance I placed on this site puzzled many Pilgrims as well as Aydin our guide. Now, armed with a little more knowledge, I hope to revisit this site in 2010.)

Why this long and very generalized historical ramblings as prelude to reflecting on St. Mark's? First, in attending two Masses there yesterday, there were moments when I had the distinct feeling that I was in Hagia Sophia. Both the overall design and many archectural elements evoked the "feel" of Hagia Sophia. And the profusion of gold-background mosaics covering nearly every square inch (centimeter, I guess I should say) of the arches, domes, walls and bays, recall the splendor of what Hagia Sophia must have been like.

St. Mark's was originally built in the 800's, and was modeled after the Twelve Apostles, which has few surviving indications of what it looked like. Experts are quick to point out the western elements that were changed from the Byzantine style, but even when I mentally adjust for them, the Byzantine character of the building and its decoration comes through strikingly clear. I suspect the dimensions are similar to the Twelve Apostles, so one can get a good idea of the "feel" of that church as well.

A note on the domes. The Byzantine domes are definitely "flatter" than one seen at St Mark's, which are taller and almost "egg-shaped." They are certainly the precursors to the taller domes one sees on St. Peter's and many later western churches (as well as the US Capitol), and I wonder if they are also a strage in the development of the "onion-dome" that characterizes many central and easten European churches.

I was saddened to see the state of the treasury. The pitifully few remnants of the glory days of Constantinople looted from the Hagia Sophia are indifferently lumped together in dusty display cases, and the relics (often substantial pieces of bone in old reliquaries, but including several good sized pieces of the True Cross) are crowded on dusty glass shelves in a small room. (At least Louis IX built the magnificent Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house the looted relics that came his way.) Everything is labeled in both Italian and English, which was helpful. I couldn't even try to sneak a few pictures because I left my camera in the hotel room because of the rain. There are photos of many of these things on the internet, and I hope to comment further. (IMHO Venice ought to "do the right thing" and return these relics and artifacts to the Orthodox Patriarch, like Pope John Paul II in 2004 returned the relics of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory Nazianzen, which were also part of the 1204 heist. They are beautifully displayed and venerated at the patriarchal church of St. George in Istanbul.)

Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and clear day. (Today it's cloudy again, and threatening rain. As the train was leaving Venice's Santa Lucia Station, I could see dark clouds and some lightning in the direction of St. Mark's.) I took the elevator to the top of the campanile (bell tower) in St. Mark's Square. The view was fantastic, and I could get a great view of the city in all directions -- evn the alps in the distance. Looking down at the roof confirmed my impression of the essential Byzantine character of the building itself. I think that spending some time talking about these things, with pictures, will help future Pilgrims understand some of the background of what they will see and experience on the Pilgrimage.

In the afternoon I also walked to the Rialto Bridge, and soaked in some of the "feel" for the city itself. And now I'm preparing for another "taste" of the early Byzantine world in the mosaics and churches/monuments of Ravenna.

These are some preliminary ramblings, written on the train to Ravenna. . . .

Now I've arrived in Ravenna, and checked into the Hotel Argentario. The city is so much more relaxed and spacious than Venice, which I began to find terribly oppressive. It's cloudy and off and on rainy, but fortunately I didn't get caught in it. The hotel, a short walk from the train station is roomy and accommodating, at 1/3 the cost of the one in Venice. Everything in this city -- at least the ancient stuff -- seems to be a relatively short walk. This afternoon and evening, though, I'm going to relax. There's a market and a department store a block or so from the hotel, and I may do a little shopping. I still need an umbrella.

Sunday in Venice

2009-10-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Bright, sunny, not-too-warm Venice redeemed itself today, after a miserably wet and soggy Saturday. I spent quality time in St. Mark's by attending two Masses. The guards were tolerant of picture-takers after the Masses, and I got some great impressions of the church in action. To really appreciate a church you have to experience it as a place of worship, not a museum. Will reflect on it more, but not tonight -- am tired and need a good night's sleep. Train to Ravenna tomorrow.

First night in Venezia

2009-10-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Venezia! After a brief but spectacular lightning/thunder/downpour storm in Milano, I successfully boarded the train to Venice about midday today. It was not one of the high speed ones, but a fast enough express – but very crowded. Then I found my way to the public boat (vaporetto) dock, and boarded #1 (also very crowded) , which, 50-minutes and fifteen stops down the Grand Canal later (I counted them on the map), dropped me off at San Marco. The Hotel Firenze is tiny -- really tinhy -- but kind of elegant in a miniature old style way, and only one short block from the vaporetto dock, and one short block from the Piazza di San Marco. I was (and am) pretty tired, so I walked around aimlessly a bit, had some gelato and then dinner (the same as I had in Milan – carbonara and a salad – but much better) – life is short, they say, so eat dessert first! It’s now about 9:00 pm (21:00) local time, and I’ll be in bed soon. Tomorrow should be a packed day of San Marco, other churches and museums – and who knows what! Weather in Venice was uncomfortably humid this afternoon, and comfortably cool this evening.

Although this is the way the sky looked at one point this afternoon, I didn't take this picture. It's a painting by Canaletto around 1730. It was a lot cleaner back then! (They are beginning a cleaning/restoration process. Your grandkids -- if you have small children now -- might see it.)

Good Shepherds in Milan Cathedral

2009-10-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

Two of the Archbishops of Milan in the 20th century have been beatified, possibly on the road to canonization. Interestingly, each led the Milan Church during 0ne of the two World Wars: Cardinal Andrea Carlo Ferrari, WWI, and Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, WWII.

The newest and one of the most beautiful stained glass window in the Cathedral is dedicated to the two of them. There are two very striking images of Christ the Good Shepherd in the window, which was designed in 1988 by Giovanni Hajnal.

These images speak eloquently of the relationship of these two great churchmen to their people during time of great suffering and danger for their people.

Greetings from Milan

2009-10-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

I arrived safely yesterday, and after good night's sleep, went off to explore the city today. Spent the morning at the Cathedral (Duomo). Cleaning of the facade and most of the exterior has just been completed, and it's splendid and bright. This is certainly one of the finest and most elaborate of all Gothic Cathedrals, and the lace-like delicate tracery and detail is just unending. Both the statuary and the stained glass windows are rich and varied, including a modern (1988) one of Blessed Cardinal Schuster, with an unusual depiction of the Good Shepherd. I was disappointed that the ancient baptistery is closed for further excavation and restoration.

After lunch of a great caprese salad and mediocre carbonara, I visited the Basilica of St. Ambrose, built by him the 4th century, which houses his tomb along with Sts. Gervase and Protase, and then to the Basilica of St. Lawrence Martyr, which part of which was also built in the 4th century and houses several splendid mosaics and frescoes of the same era.

Time to call it an evening. Tomorrow I'm taking the train to Venice.

Early Christian World in Italy: Itinerary

2009-10-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, getting acquainted with the Early Christian World sites in Turkey, it has become obvious to me that many sites in Italy relate directly to the sites we explore in Turkey--sites ranging form apostolic times to the Byzantine Empire and the interplay of the East and the West. Folr a long time I've wanted to explore those sites. Now, thanks to a wonderful gift from the ECW Pilgrims of the 2006-2008, I have the opportunity to do just that. Here's my itinerary for my trip to Italy this coming week. (Today--Saturday evening, October 3, I'm putting up the bare bones. I'll add flesh -- descriptions and more links -- as time goes on; subsequent entries will link to this basic itinerary.)

On Wednesday, October 7, I arrive in Milan at 8:50 am.

I will stay two nights at the Arco Romana Hotel, which is a 7 minute subway ride from the central station, and an even shorter subway ride from the historic center, with most of the sites I want to visit.

View Larger Map

Here's the weather in Milan. Looks like I'll be heading into rain! Warm too: 75-80 degrees F. every day for the next week.

On Friday, October 9, I'll take the train to Venice, where I'll stay in the Hotel Firenze, where I'll stay three nights (two full days). The hotel is just off St. Mark's Square, and a 5-euro boat ride from the train station.

View Larger Map

The hotel looks like it will be a great spot to relax, but I hope to get out and explore too. There are lots of places that arouse my interest.

Here's the weather in Venice.

(Only in Italy would one stay at the "Roman" hotel in Milan and the "Florence" hotel in Venice!)

Monday, October 12, will find me boarding the train to Ravenna, where I'll stay in the Hotel Argentario. , which is also close to the railroad station and many of the historic sites. Because of its pre-8th-century (i.e., before iconoclasm) mosaics and other ancient Byzantine monuments, this is the place I really want to immerse myself in. I'll be here three nights--two full days.

View Larger Map

Here's the weather in Ravenna.

Then, on to Rome, Thursday, October 15, where I'll stay at the Yes Hotel (yes, you got that right), which seems like a real "sweetheart" of a small hotel, just one block from the Stazione Termini (train station), which means a short distance by public transportation from just about everywhere.

View Larger Map

I'll be five nights (four full days) in Rome, and am not sure just where I'll go or what I'll see, but I am booked for a full day at the Vatican Museum (another link) and Scavi (excavations) on Monday. (i have no plans to see the pope -- I won't be there for the usual Wednesday audience. Maybe I'll run into him at a local trattoria or, perhaps, hofbrau.

Here's the weather in Rome.

On Tuesday, October 20, I'm returning to LAX, arriving, God willing, around 7:00 pm.

Greetings from Good Shepherd

2009-10-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

After four months of inactivity, I'm back to blogging again. Tomorrow will mark the completion of three months as the new pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. The welcome I've received has been genuine and wonderful, and I'm beginning to feel very much at home. A total move to a new location and a new ministry at age 67 is bound to be hard, and there have been ... uhm ... moments. But, on the whole I'm settling in, and enjoying both the perks and the fresh opportunities for ministry in this new spot.

Preparations are in order for the 2010 Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey next April. I've set up a dedicated website for it. I hope to update it often, so you might want to bookmark it. Its address is easy to remember: http://ecwpilgrimage.org. We just finalized the itinerary and pricing a few weeks ago ($2,950 for 22 days). I recommend anyone interested to contact me ASAP. We need a minimum of 20 participants and there's a maximum of 40. I already have commitments from 9 people, and strong "probables" from 3 more.

After three months, I am finally taking a vacation. Beginning next week, I'll be in Italy for two weeks. Although I spent two years in Rome studying liturgy in the 1970s, I haven't been back except for a very brief visit with the OLA choir in the spring of 2001. The Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey has really whetted my appetite to revisit some spots with new eyes, specifically the early Christian and Byzantine sites. So I'll be concentrating on Milan, Venice, Ravenna, and Rome.

I plan to post a lot of descriptions, reflections, and pictures on this blog, so you all can come with me virtually (and in spirit). Later this evening, I plan to post a day-by-day itinerary.

But for now, if you are interested, here are some video highlights of my installation as pastor here at Good Shepherd, with Bishop Ed Clark presiding, on Saturday evening, September 12.

Not just for kids!

2009-05-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Although the Holy Father has spoken very positively of the potential of the internet for evangelization and even building community, and his remarks were especially addressed to young people, here's someone to inspire even us geezers. Here's her blogspot.

More on Dolores' 100th BD party

2009-05-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Article in LA Times.

"Mass and martinis ..." hmmm.

Article in LA Daily News (misspelling her name!)

"We never imagined either one of our parents would live to be 100. But they both did. It's wonderful." -- Linda Hope

"She's a leading advocate for adoption and a champion of Catholic causes benefiting the poor."

AP News report.

Miguel Diaz named Ambassador to the Vatican

2009-05-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

I just read online that President Obama has appointed a pro-life Democrat university professor, Miguel Diaz, as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Very interesting appointment, especially in light of the President's well-received (in Vatican circles, though not in conservative USA circles!) Notre Dame speech.

Here's the article in the NCR and the news release from the College of St. Benedict / St. John's University, where Diaz teaches.

Dolores Hope turns 100 today!

2009-05-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Dolores Hope is celebrating her 100th birthday today. Bob, who died in 2003, also saw 100. Not too many married couple have that distinction.

During my years in residence at St. Charles Church in North Hollywood (1988-94), I frequently celebrated daily Mass with Dolores in the assembly, but I never really got to know them.

The Palm Springs Desert Sun has seveal nice articles commemorating this day:

"Dolores Hope springs eternal" (May 24, 2009)

"Dolores Hope: a legend in her own right" (May 25, 2009)

Happy birthday, Dolores. Thanks to you too for the memories!

Pope Benedict on Digital Technology

2009-05-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

USE IT, and use it for the good, not just empty chatter.

In his Message for the 43rd World Day Communications Day, this coming Sunday, May 24, he said things like:

promote human understanding and solidarity
promote a culture of respect, dialogue, and friendship
bring the witness of your faith to the digital world

He concludes with a special message to the youth of today:

I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world. Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital continent". Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds!

Pope on Young People and Internet

2009-05-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

At today's regular Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict urged young people to make use of the potentiall of the internet to build a better world, according to a just-released AP report. Too bad, he didn't include "old folks" like me. But, at age 82, Pope Benedict's own use of technology is really an outstanding model.

YouTube has just posted video of the brief summary in English that the Pope usually gives at the end of his weekly audience.

An English translation of the full text, which is always in Italian, is usually available in a few days. I'll post a link when I find it.

UPDATE: Apparently there was no more about tis in the audience, but he was echoing his just-released Message for the 43rd World Communications Day, Sunday, May 24. See the next post.

More Kmiec on Obama

2009-05-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

On Monday I posted a link to Doug Kmiec first article commenting on President Obama's Notre Dame Commencement address, entitled "Obama at Notre Dame: Incomplete Eloquence."

Professor Kmiec has just published a very thoughtful follow-up article: "Why was Obama Notre Dame visit 'Eloquence Incomplete'?" I highly recommend reading both articles, but especially the second.

Vatican Opinion Piece on Obama in English

2009-05-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

I finally found an (unofficial) English translation of the commentary on President Obama's first 100 days, which L'Osservatore Romano published back on April 29. Click here.

The same blogsite, which I ran across by accident, also has a passionate and thought-provoking piece by the President of Trinity Washington University, "Catholic Higher Education under Siege?" There is also a wonderful piece about Father Ted Hesburgh, "The Voice of Reason."

I havew not yet found an English translation of the full text of the L'Osservatore Romano's article on President Obamna's Notre Dame Commencement address.

The Vatican, Obama and Notre Dame

2009-05-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

Severe critics of President Obama and Notre Dame may (or may not) be interested in what the Vatican's officical newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has to say about the President's Commencement address.

I don't know if there will be an English translation, but here's the report from Catholic News Service.

Two weeks ago, L'Osservatore Romano also printed a fairly positive evaluation of the President's first 100 days. Again, I'm not aware of a full English translation of the article (you can read it in Italian here), but Catholic News Service again carried a summary. (You can, however, struggle though Google's automatic translation here.)

Kmiec and Noonan

2009-05-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

After Presidet Obama's talk yesterday, I was very interested to find out what Doug Kmiec would say. I didn't have to wait long. Here it is.

I was also interested in what Judge John Noonan said in his talk at the Notre Dame Commencement. You may recall that Mary Ann Glendon was originally scheduled to receive the University's Laetare Medal, but declined almost at the last minute (here's her statement). Noonan, who was awared the medal in 1984, was recruited by the University to give the talk in her place. I think he speaks well for himself, for the University, and for the Church as well.

On the Notre Dame website, you can view and listen to (as well as read) the addresses given by both Judge Noonan and President Obama.

President Obama's Speech

2009-05-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

After all the shrill shouting and hateful demonization that has led up to this event, the President's speech at Notre Dame today was remarkable. Simply remarkable. He speaks well for himself, and Catholics would do well to engage seriously and persistently in genuine dialogue, rather than diatribes, surrounding the wide range of human life and human living issues.

I enourage you to read the whole text of the speech yourself, and not be content with media snippets or one-sided opinions.

Or, if you don't want to read it, it's already on YouTube. Check Deacon Greg Kandra's "Deacon's Bench" blogsite for the video. (He's pretty on top of things.)

Fun and Frolic at Mayo Clinic

2009-05-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

I dare you to watch this and not smile!

A Real Choice for Life

2009-05-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hidden in today's LA Times Health Section is a brief article describing a young couple making a difficult and sacrificial yet, quite obviously, infinitely rewarding choice in favor of life. It's worth reading and pondering, in addition to celebrating and passing on. In the paper the headline was: The choice: Her life or her unborn child's. (Much better than the insipid headline of the online version.)

This unnamed woman recalls the story of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, a very modern woman who also lived to the full her vocation as wife, mother, physician ... and who also chose rightly.

Swine flu and the Mass

2009-04-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

If you've wondered about the safety of things we do at Mass, such as drinking the Precious Blood from the shared Communion cup, this article is for you:

http://www.olaclaremont.org/resources/flu2009.html

Saturday, April 27, 1968

2009-04-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot . . . today's the 41st anniversary of my ordination.

Liturgical Ministers' Dinner and "My Way"

2009-04-27T09:44:00.001-07:00

The reason for my previous post ("Their Way") is that that the OLA Liturgical Minsters hosted a wonderful dinner party for me, the first "farewell" of the "season," at Casa de Salsa last Friday evening, It was a wonderful evening. (You can see some really great pictures here.) During it, the mariachi band serenaded my table with a lengthy performance of "My Way," one of my least favorite songs in the whole world. It got me to thinking of a parody that appeared on "Prairie Home Companion" while I was still in Campus Ministry that lampooned the academic types with which I hobnobbed in those days. It was such fun that I stayed up late a few nights after the first broadcast to record a repeat broadcast, and then transcribed it, and put it up on a joke website, which can still be found almost twenty years later. (See for yourself, Google "tom welbers their way" and you'll find it.)

"Their Way"

2009-04-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

THEIR WAY (Sung to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," of course.)

I came, brought all my books, lived in the dorm, followed directions.

I worked, I studied hard, met lots of folk who had connections.

I crammed, they gave me grades, though may I say, not in a fair way.

But more, much more than this, I did it their way.

I memorized all sorts of things, although I know I'll never use them.

The courses that I took were all required; I didn't choose them.

I learned that to survive it's best to act the doctrinaire way.

And so I buckled down, and did it their way.

But there were times, I wondered why I had to walk when I could fly.

I had my doubts, but after all, I clipped my wings, I learned to crawl,

I learned to bend, and in the end, I did it their way.

And so, my fine young friend, now that I am a full professor,

Where once I was oppressed, I've now become the cruel oppressor.

Like me, you'll learn to cope, you'll learn to climb life's golden stairway.

Like me, you'll see the light, you'll do it their way.

For what can I say, what can I do? Open your book, read chapter two.

And if to you, it seems routine, don't speak to me, go see the dean.

As long as they give me my pay, I'll do it . . . their way!

(Words by Bob Blue, sung by Michael Cooney on Prairie Home Companion, April 18, 1987. Transcribed from broadcast by Tom Welbers.)

Religion vs. Religiosity

2009-04-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today's LA Times' Calendar section featured a review of a new book on Mark Twain by Tim Rutten, in which he makes an observation that has put me into pondering mode:

Twain, though an unbeliever, was one of the first American cultural observers to intuit that the country's great propblem was not religion per se, but a surfeit of religiosity.

As I ponder more, I may have a few more thoughts about light that this distinction may shed on the dialogue (or better, the rant-and-rage-filled lack thereof) that characterizes our religious / political / social interactions these days.

It should be obvious I like the word "ponder" (see some translations, e.g., KJV, of Luke 2:19). If you check what the online Merriam-Webster has to say about it, it should also be obvious why.

The more I read Tim Rutten, the more I'm grateful that the LA Times seems to value him. I haven't seen such perceptive wisdom (not to mention courage) there since the great Paul Conrad retired.

Meanwhile, enjoy the following post.

Who can resist this?

2009-04-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Faith Seeking Understanding

2009-04-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

St. Anselm, whom we celebrate today, has always been somebody dear to my heart. In the mid-seventies, I was sent to study liturgy at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, which was a part of the Benedictine University and Monastery of Sant' Anselmo in Rome, atop the Aventine Hill, overlooking the Tiber and the Vatican (as well as the very interesting "Monte Testaccio" in the other direction).

Anselm himself was an amazing man: monk, abbot, scholar,

multi-national diplomat, archbishop--an amazing intellect combined with an overwhelming and rare charm. He lived at a time (1033-1109) when Europe was just coming out of the so-called "Dark Ages," and had to navigate in the middle of bitter and divisive church-state controversies. (Since Constantine in the fourth century, most rulers felt they needed to control the church to achieve national unity, but this too often meant weakening faith and fragmenting the church. That's why the papacy had to become so authoritarian and monarchical. That's an oversimplified version of what was a very complex situation.)

In his own pursuit of learning, which was guided by his motto, "Faith Seeking Understanding," he is considered the father of the scholastic movement through which univiersities began to develop and flourish over the next several hundred years. I think he holds a special relevance to us today as we seek to make sense of our heritage of faith in the midst of a fast-paced changing world or conflicting values. Here's a wonderful quote from one of his writings:

" Come now, insignificant man, put aside your business for a while, take refuge for a little from your tumultuous thoughts, cast off your cares, and let your burdensome distractions wait. Take some leisure ofr God; rest awhile in him . . . put out everything [from your mind] except God and whatever helps you to seek him. . . . Say now to God with all your heart, 'I seek your face, O Lord, your face do I seek.'" (Proslogion, 1)

Easter "Day"

2009-04-16T15:53:00.001-07:00

The church doesn't know how to let go of a good thing. Beginning on Easter Sunday, the Preface for Easter refers to the whole week as "Easter Day." One eight-day-long DAY! Isn't it marvelous?

The eighth day (or octave) of Easter, which is now also Divine Mercy Sunday, concludes this one great Day with the giving of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins on Easter Sunday night. Seven, as in the number of days in a week, symbolizes earthly, human, natural completeness and fulfillment. The eighth day is the day which opens up to etenal perfeection, the day without end.

Holy Saturday

2009-04-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Holy Saturday, the day of emptiness and stillness of the tomb. The Sabbath day of rest; Jesus work is finished, and awaiting the promise and fulfillment of "the eighth day."

Wait, wait with the Lord. Feel the emptiness and stillness.

No matter what you must do today, don't let yourself get "caught up" in activity, or anesthetized by it.

Pastor of 90210

2009-04-07T18:45:00.001-07:00

Just today the letter came.

I've been assigned, effective July 1, as Pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills. It's a good assignment, and one of those I applied for. Of course, there's a much longer story, but that's for another time. Watch for more information in my open letter to all parishioners that will be available at OLA at the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday) services.

Also, Fr. Charles Ramirez, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Monrovia, has been assigned as the new pastor of OLA, and Fr. John Tran will be remaining for at least another year. Fr. Charles, of course, is no stranger to OLA, having served here when I first came as pastor back in the 1990s.

Now that the new pastors have been assigned -- I understand that the Clergy Personnel Board had to deal with a final total of 61 parishes needing new pastors or administrators (not an easy task!) -- they will now take up assignments of associate pastors.

I've already been nicknamed "Beverly Hills Pop" (after "Beverly Hills Cop," of course). Yes, it's the church of old-time celebrities, but not too many are left. You might enjoy visiting Gary Wayne's "Seeing-Stars" site.

Tale of Two Presidents (revised)

2009-04-06T09:08:00.001-07:00

The President of Turkey is Abdullah Gül; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the Prime Minister, as was pointed out by a reader commenting on my former post.

Here are some links to articles, including several which were sent to me by Aydın Eroğlu, our wonderful guide on our Early Christian World Pilgrimages.

Obama arrives in Turkey

Turkey's president welcomes U.S. President Obama (with photos)

Turkish-U.S. aliance shines with Obma's landmark visit

Obama encourages U.S.-Turkey collaboration

Obama encourages Armenian dialogue, seeks a "model with Turkey

There are a lot more articles in the Turkish press, and link to them on their pages. You can keep up-to-date as events of this historic visit by visiting both Today's Zaman (a news agancy that strongly suppports the current AK party's government) and Turkish Daily News (the English-language arm of the news agency Hurriyet, somewhat more "left-leaning" in supporting secularist views). It's fascinating to compare . . .

Legacy Lectures on the Passion of Jesus

2009-04-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

I finally got the recordings of my "Legacy Series" lectures on the Passion of Jesus in St. Paul and the Four Gospels, which I presented here at Our Ladyof the Assumption on March 12 and 26, up on YouTube. Click here to go directly to the playlist to listen to them. (YouTube policy requires that they have to be broken up into ten minute chunks, but the playlist organizes them in succession.)

You can download a copy of the Scripture readings, with the Gospels arranged in parallel "synopsis" format, here.

You can also watch and listen to the presentation I gave at at the end of February at

the Religious Education Congress, Crossing Paths with Paul.

I'm still learning the system, but hope to have the complete series, and more, up soon.