Pretending and Reality

Father Z has pointed out an article at the website of the Cincinnati Enquirer regarding the actions of the local ordinary in dismissing a female religious for advocating on behalf of women's (pretend) ordination. They're also doing a poll.

Check it out.

Last checked: 6:10 PM CDT

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Should the Church allow women to be ordained as priests?
Yes (1560) 55.85%
No (1157) 41.42%
I'm undecided (76) 2.72%
Total Votes: 2793

The Downward Slide

The Gallup poll:

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to Gallup Poll trends on church attendance among American Christians, weekly attendance among Protestants has been fairly steady over the past six decades, averaging 42% in 1955 versus 45% in the middle of the current decade. However, attendance among Roman Catholics dropped from 75% to 45% over the same period.

Most of the decline in church attendance among American Catholics occurred in the earlier decades, between 1955 and 1975; however, it continued at a rate of four percentage points a decade through the mid-1990s, and church attendance has since leveled off at 45%.
[...]

[Conclusion:]
Whatever the causes, it is clear that U.S. Catholics' once-nearly uniform obedience to their church's requirement of weekly mass attendance has faded, and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church. This has occurred among Catholics of all age categories, but is most pronounced among those under 60. The good news for the Catholic Church is that the drop in attendance seems to have slowed or abated altogether in the last decade, spanning a most difficult period for the church around 2002, when attendance did suffer temporarily.

Unless something else happens, have we reached our 'smaller, more pious' Church, at least in the US, as suggested by Benedict? Of course, nowadays, Mass attendance doesn't exactly correlate with following Catholic doctrine...

Someone's got it backwards

From swissinfo.org:

The Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches said in a statement that Rome's position threatened past ecumenical progress. It added that it was concerned that the Catholics would "no longer be in universal communion with other churches."

Shouldn't that be universal communion with the Catholic Church? I assume this quote is in referring to protestant groups: I didn't realize we were in universal anything with them...

It can't be broken if it never existed in the first place. But thanks for playing.

The Church of Christ

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS
OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH
[In English]

"It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church"[12].

I was going to sort through one of the articles I read about the Responses, but the article is just too full of misinformation to even bother with and the reader response at the bottom is kind of sad.

Magister: WYD and Constantinople

Sandro Magister takes a look at World Youth Day and upcoming events, namely the trip to Constantinople.

On World Youth Day, Magister notes,

And he kept this promise, too. From August 18-21 in Cologne, Benedict XVI did not bestow upon the crowd a mere theatrical gesture, or nothing more than a striking phrase. He led the young people to look, not at him, but always and only at the true protagonist: that Jesus whom the Magi adored in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread,” and who is now concealed in the consecrated host.

Joseph Razinger took a big risk in Cologne. Cardinal Angleo Scola, one of the many bishops who came to catechize the young people during the first three days of the vigil with the pope, thought he would win them over with a ten-minute recitation from “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac. Benedict XVI, on the other hand, challenged everyone’s attention span with a difficult explanation of “the different nuances of the word ‘adoration’ in Greek and in Latin. The Greek word is ‘proskynesis’. It refers to the gesture of submission, the recognition of God as our true measure. [...] The Latin word is ‘ad-oratio’, mouth to mouth contact, a kiss, an embrace, and hence ultimately love. Submission becomes union, because he to whom we submit is love.”

The now-famous tangent into linguistics will certainly be a hallmark of Ratzinger's papacy along with everything else. Aside from his message to the youth of the world, Magister examines the message to the Jews and the Muslims.

On the Jews, as Magister notes, there was no reference to Israel, simply the two faiths. It is an important distinction that all too often gets lost amid calls of anti-Semitism when anyone criticizes Israel. On the Muslims, Magister quotes an Algerian Muslim university teacher:

Khaled Fouad Allam, an Algerian Muslim with Italian citizenship who teaches at the universities of Trieste and Urbino, wrote in the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, "Avvenire":

"Benedict XVI's words are a big, healthy jolt for us. At a moment in which the wicked teachers seem to be raging within our communities, his words are an encouragement to bring forth true educators, who exist and are active, but who are not able to make their voices heard as they really need to be. The pope is right when he says that there can be no room for apathy and neglect. We need the courage to denounce and isolate those who use inflammatory speech and incite violence by using the name of God."

In his look at the visit to Constantinople, Magister notes the warm relations between the top theologian of the Patriarchate and the former top theologian of the Roman Church. They have been working to reinvigorate the commission on Catholic/Orthodox dialogue. Magister also mentions the Protestants and Benedict's concern:

What deeply concerns Ratzinger is the silence – or surrender – shown recently by many Christian authorities, especially Protestant ones, over attacks in various countries against the inviolability of each human being's life, from conception to natural death.

As I've noted here before, the best chance for reconciliation is between Rome and the Orthodox. When it comes to so many of the Protestant churches, the chance is simply not there, as so many of them are too far gone. Instead perhaps, we should look to them rather as crucibles of faith, where men and women can find their way eventually to the Catholic Church and the fullness of God's truth.

Anything else would either be a compromise of that truth or simply something too cosmetic to have any real meaning.

A note to French Protestants

Pope sends olive branch to French Protestants at The Washington Post

His Holiness Benedict XVI sent a note to the assembly of the Reformed Church of France during its annual meeting. The Reformed Church received the note with surprise and gratitude. It had been one of the most critical of Benedict XVI's election.

The Protestant Federation of France -- of which the Reformed Church is the largest member -- stood out among the well-wishers after Benedict's election on April 19 by bluntly expressing its concern about him and demanding "a sign of ecumenical openness."

The Pope had responded to such criticism immediately after his election:

In his first address as Pope, Benedict said he was "willing to do everything in my power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism ... and am fully determined to accept every initiative that seems opportune to promote contact and understanding."