Changes in the Catholic Church since the 1960's

A lot of changes took place in the Church as a result of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). I’ve written about Mass being celebrated in the language spoken by the people attending it, rather than in Latin, and the altar being moved so the priest was facing the people instead of having his back to them. But these were only a small part of the changes. There was an emphasis on making the Church more relevant to the people. There was less emphasis on following the rules and more emphasis on understanding God’s love for us and bringing God’s love into the world. There was an increased emphasis on caring for God’s children who live in poverty, or are hurting or disabled. There was involvement in the Civil Rights movement and ministering to those living in the inner cities and poor rural areas of our country. I’ve written before about Fr. Brian McCormick and his ministry to the Wilbur section of inner-city Trenton (see my July 16, 2012 blog). I think his ministry there was very symbolic of the changes in the Church begun by Vatican II.

However, even soon after Vatican II some in the Church wanted to roll back the changes being made. During the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, there was a big focus on orthodoxy and compliance with the doctrine of the Church as interpreted by the Pope. There was an investigation into the practices of American nuns who saw their mission as ministering to the poor and needy. Fortunately, in my opinion, we now have a Pope whose focus is more on the pastoral care of Catholics (and people in general) and less on adherence to doctrine.

Often, the focus of the Church hierarchy is demonstrated through seemingly small actions, that are symbolic of the vision of the faith that they are pushing. For example, during the papacy of Benedict, there was a change in the translation of prayers used in the Mass that was ostensibly to make them more in line with the actual wording of the prayers in Latin. However, one of the results was to remove language that was simpler and easier to understand and replace it with language that most people will find less understandable and harder to relate to. For example, during the Creed at Mass, instead of being “born” Jesus is now “incarnate” of the Virgin Mary; instead of “one in being with the Father” he is “consubstantial with the Father”.

In Practicing Catholic, James Carroll writes about how, in the Church in which he grew up, before Vatican II, a main theme was our unworthiness as human beings (“Domine non sume dignus”; “Lord, I am not worthy”). With Vatican II, the focus changed to the love God has for us, that we are all his children. We see this with  Pope Francis and his emphasis on Mercy. But some prayers at Mass focus more on our sinfulness than God’s love and mercy. At the beginning of Mass, we pray the Confiteor, which begins “I confess to almighty God …” Until recently we recited “that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do …” This has been changed to the more severe wording “that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault …” The emphasis is back on our unworthiness. Frequently, during this prayer, I think “I haven’t greatly sinned” and it’s not “through my most grievous fault” (emphasis mine). I also think about the seventy and eighty year olds around me and have a hard time picturing them greatly sinning.

Another effect of Vatican II was an emphasis on simplicity. After my six years in the minor seminary at St. Charles College, I would go on to the major seminary (two years of studying Philosophy and then four years of studying Theology). In our minds, moving on to major seminary was a big deal. And there were symbols of this important step. In the minor seminary, we wore jackets and ties to chapel, classes, meals, etc. In the major seminary, we would wear cassocks (with a white surplice added when we went to chapel). During our last year at St. Charles, we would be fitted for and purchase cassocks and surplices. I remember specifically wanting to have a surplice that had a simple design. The one I purchased was made of heavy cotton, with no decorative aspects. I think this idea of simplicity was also reflected in changes to liturgical garments and vessels. Chasubles (outer garment worn by the priest during Mass) started to be made out of less silky-looking material and had a plainer design. Many priests ordained after Vatican II chose chalices (the cup used at Mass) that had a plainer design. I remember some of the chalices of the younger priests having a ceramic outside (gold on the inside) that more resembled a cup.  These newer designs reflected the concept of the priest being a humble servant of the people. Simplicity replaced the more elaborate designs that in earlier days emphasized adoration of a transcendent God. These days, we seem to be moving back to an adoring mode. For example, I’ve noticed that seminarians coming to our parish seem to be wearing surplices with decorative lace designs at the bottom of the sleeves and at the waist.

Here are links to some elaborate and simple styles of chasubles, surplices and chalices to illustrate:

Simple chasuble

Elaborate chasuble

Simple surplice (this is very similar to the surplice I chose for myself)

Elaborate surplice

Simple chalice

Elaborate chalice

I realize that there are those who believe that God is primarily a transcendent God (that is, that God is greater than human beings and our world and therefore our relationship to God should be one of adoration). One way of showing our adoration is to include in our worship services objects of great beauty to reflect how awesome God is. Others (I include myself here) believe that, while God is in fact greater than all we know and can imagine, he became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, to show God’s love for us and that God’s presence remains among us. Fr. RichardRohr, founder of The Center for Action and Contemplation, has written that “Jesus does not ask us to worship him. He asks us to follow him.”

In many ways the spirit of Vatican II has dissipated over the years. Pope John XXIII emphasized the principle of collegiality (bishops sharing in authority with the Pope). The Second Vatican Council was a shining example of collegiality. But John XXIII died before the end of the Council and was succeeded by Pope Paul VI. In Practicing Catholic, James Carroll writes that Paul VI ordered the Council to not take up the issue of birth control. It would be handled by the Pope. Paul VI later issued an encyclical reaffirming the Church’s prohibition of artificial contraception. The windows opened by John XXIII have been gradually closing. But Pope Francis seems intent on opening them up again. He emphasizes serving the poor. He condemns the lavish lifestyles of some “princes of the Church” and has had showers built in the Vatican for homeless people to use. I was pleased to read an article in “Network Connection” (a publication of Network, a Catholic social justice lobbying group) that included an interview with John Gehring, author of The Francis Effect. In it, he said “I heard from these seminarians that the pope is challenging them to encounter people, to recognize that their most significant challenge is not to preach doctrine, but to attract people to the faith and tap into what he calls the ‘freshness and fragrance of the gospel’. They were touched that he didn’t move into the Apostolic Palace, for example.” He also said that they understood that “their job as seminarians is to learn about the doctrine of the faith, but they see a pastor who is pope challenging them to recognize that the greatest doctrine of the church is good news for the poor and mercy.”

A while ago I received a bookmark from the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) that featured a Pope Francis comic strip (this is a regular feature in NCR). I thought this comic strip provided a good visual representation of the outlooks and focuses of the last few popes.

I am grateful that we have a Pope who is looking forward and is preaching a gospel of love and mercy for all men and women.

Easing My Way Back into "The World"

In previous blog posts about life in the seminary in the 1960’s, I wrote about changes happening in the Church at that time. Primarily, these were the result of Pope John XXIII and his convening of the Second Vatican Council to open the windows and let in fresh air, to bring the Church into the modern world. I wrote about how, before Vatican II, the emphasis was on our sinfulness and our unworthiness before God. But the Council emphasized how much God loves us. Before the Council, seminarians were kept separate from “the World” and its temptations. After the Council, seminarians and priests were expected to engage with the world and bring God’s love to others. I’ve also written about how not everyone in the Catholic Church was gung-ho about the changes.

During my last year at St. Charles College seminary (my sophomore college year), seminary life was in flux. For most of the men graduating from St. Charles, the next step would be two more years of college at St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in downtown Baltimore. While we were still at St. Charles, we were in contact with seminarians we knew who had moved on to St. Mary’s. We heard from them how different St. Mary’s was from St. Charles – how much more freedom they had. Faculty at St. Mary’s seemed to have embraced the spirit of Vatican II more than the faculty at St. Charles.

Life at St. Charles was still very regimented. However, there was one significant change. During my freshman year of college, the faculty had allowed the establishment of a student council. During that year, we went through a process of identifying how the student council would function. Our sophomore year was its first actual year. Officers were elected to the Student Council and each class elected representatives. I was one of the representatives chosen by my class. With all the changes going on in the Church and our awareness of things going on at St. Mary’s, there was a lot of discussion at Student Council meetings about whether changes could be made at St. Charles.

The actions of the Student Council weren’t belligerent or revolutionary, but we did ask questions about why some things had to be done a certain way and why they couldn’t change. In other words, we were questioning Authority. And Authority (the Rector and the faculty) didn’t like it. At the end of the year, there was a banquet for the graduating (sophomore) class. The Rector (i.e., the priest in charge of the seminary) gave a memorable speech, the main point of which was that the graduating class should have been going out wearing clean white hats. But the hats we wore were stained with dirt because of our lack of commitment and dedication to the ideals of the seminary program of preparation for the priesthood. More memorable was the speech given later in the banquet by Ken Hallahan, the Student Council president. He talked about how individuals who are working to get things done and make a difference in life find it difficult to keep their hats white. (Most of us connected more with Ken’s comments than the Rector’s.)

I expected that the following year I would be at St. Mary’s Paca Street, like those in classes ahead of me. But, because of the faculty assessment that identified me as a troublemaker, instead the Bishop of Trenton sent me and a few other seminarians who also had bad recommendations to Christ the King Seminary at St. Bonaventure University. I would spend one year at Christ the King and then leave the seminary and finish my college career at St. Bonaventure.

Although I would have preferred to go to St. Mary’s with my fellow classmates, I think my going to Christ the King was good for me. Along with allowing me the opportunity to make some good friends in the seminary there, it also provided a nice transition from the sheltered world of St. Charles. We had our Philosophy courses at the seminary. But we also took four classes at the University with other college students. And we had an opportunity to interact with the college students at other times when we were not in class. So, I also made some friends there who were not seminarians. I continued to spend most of my time at the seminary. But I also had more interactions with non-seminary college students. When I left the seminary and transferred to the University for my senior year, the transition was easier. I also consider the next two years as part of my transition. Because my first year out of college, I taught religion at a Catholic High School just outside of Trenton. So most of my time was spent interacting with Catholic teachers and high school students. And most of my day was spent talking about religion. Following that year, I took a job working at The Bancroft School, a day and residential program for individuals with developmental disabilities. With that, my transition from the sheltered life of the seminary was complete.

Originally, I had planned to include in this blog entry some more thoughts about the changes inspired by the Second Vatican Council and how they have not borne the fruits that some would have hoped. But that will have to wait till my next blog entry.

The Good Pope

I just finished reading the book The Good Pope by Greg Tobin. It is subtitled “John XXIII and Vatican II – the Making of a Saint and the Remaking of the Church”. A number of the actions and character traits portrayed in the book reminded me of our current Pope, Francis.

Angelo Roncalli, who later became Pope John XXIII, was born in 1881, in a town in northern Italy to a peasant farming family. Tobin writes “The Roncallis seldom even had bread, but made do with polenta (a dish made from corn meal). Despite this, they always had room at the table for one more.” As a boy, Angelo worked in the fields with his father. He went to the Bergamo junior seminary when he was 11 years old and, later in his seminary training studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. While still in the seminary, he and many of his classmates were drafted into the Italian army. After a year, he returned to the seminary. After his ordination, he returned to the Pontifical Roman Seminary to study Canon Law.

Later, he returned to Bergamo as secretary to the new bishop, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. Bishop Radini-Tedeschi had been involved with the Opera dei Congressi, an organization for social action groups. The bishop was a “firm believer in social justice and Catholicism as a spiritual force that could change the lives of the poor and less fortunate”. Radini-Tedeschi became Roncalli’s mentor.

In May1915, Italy declared war on Austria and Father Roncalli was once again called up to serve in the Italian military as a medical corpsman. He did both hospital orderly work and tended to the patients as a priest. In March 1916, all priests in the Italian army were made chaplains. He continued to serve in that capacity for the next 3 years.

In January 1921, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XV to oversee missionary work for the Vatican. In 1925, he was appointed apostolic delegate to Bulgaria and made a bishop. This was followed by diplomatic assignments in Turkey and Greece in 1934 and France in 1944. During these appointments, his diplomatic skills were very successful, probably because of his willingness to reach out and talk with the political and religious leaders of those countries, even those of different faiths. His efforts in this regard were not always in accord with the views of the Vatican, but he pursued them anyway. He also was very involved in charitable relief efforts in response to different situations in those countries.

In 1953, he was named the patriarch of Venice and made a Cardinal. Tobin writes: “The administration of a diocese and the thousands of demands on his time and attention were, to him, secondary to the primary task of tending to the spiritual needs of the people, ‘into which he flung himself with all the energy and ardor of his nature. He was, in fact, joyfully fulfilling a spiritual need of his own.’” Tobin also writes that “As in Paris, he did not shut himself away in his magnificent marble residence. Instead he spent a good deal of time in public, where he enjoyed traveling on the vaporetto, the water bus, rather than the Fiat provided him by the diocese.” And “He sold the patriarch’s summer palace to pay for a new seminary and used personal funds to support charities for the poor.”

John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). His intention was that the Council would address how the Church should interact with the modern world. Tobin writes: “The repository of belief that all Catholics shared, the pope said, ‘should be studied and expounded according to the methods of research and literary forms of modern thought.’” Although some previous popes had criticized “modernism”, John supported the humanistic values involved in modernism. Tobin continues: “This meant that historical and scientific studies of the Church and the Bible, in particular were welcome in John’s world; he wasn’t afraid to shed rational light on the mysteries of faith.  … the updating John had in mind was not merely window dressing or a useful slogan but a profound change in the way Catholics practiced their religion and viewed themselves and their Church.” Even though he died before the second of four Vatican II sessions, the Council he convened significantly changed the Church.

To me, John XXIII stands out from other recent popes because of his emphasis on people rather than on the rules and the institution of the Church. There were times before he was Pope when he acted in ways the Vatican powers would not have approved. And he used the resources of the Church to help people in need (e.g., those affected by natural catastrophes or war, Jews escaping from the Nazi regime). He also interacted with and reached out to religious leaders of different faiths and political leaders of different political views. He believed that we are all God’s children and was a big supporter of ecumenism. Pope Francis reminds me of Pope John XXIII in his emphasis on people, especially those who are in need, and his not embracing the finer things that usually come along with being a bishop, cardinal or pope. I remember reading in The Good Pope about John XXIII leaving the Vatican to visit people who were ill and in prison (although I was unable to find that specific passage in preparing this blog). I did find a reference in Wikipedia to his making visits to children with polio in some nearby hospitals and visiting a reformatory school for juvenile delinquents. He also visited the Regina Coeli prison. Here is a youtube video about that visit. The Wikipedia entry also refers to his “frequent habit of sneaking out of the Vatican late at night to walk the streets of the city of Rome.” Regarding Pope Francis, we have seen stories of him visiting the poor, ill and those in prison; even washing the feet of young people in a detention center during Holy Week. On his birthday, he had breakfast with 3 homeless men who live on the streets near the Vatican. It has also been reported that he will sneak out of the Vatican at night to visit homeless people. Just as John XXIII had a profound affect on the Church, it seems possible that Francis will “shake up” the Church with his emphasis on caring for the poor, ill, disabled, imprisoned, homeless, etc.

During this Christmas season, let us be thankful for the Good Pope, John, for his efforts to modernize the Church and his concern about people of all faiths and nationalities. And let us pray that our new Pope, Francis, will continue to direct the Church toward brotherly love for all people, especially those in need.

As I end this blog, my wish for all of you echoes the words the angels sang at that first Christmas and John XXIII used as the title of his last encyclical  – Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth)!