To the Threshold of the Apostles

Monthly Column in the Southeast Alaska Catholic

By Bishop Edward J. Burns

The bishops of Region XII of the US Bishops Conference (which makes up the northwest section of the country and includes the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska) were in Rome from April 22 – 27 meeting with officials of the Vatican. This visit is referred to as “ad limina apostolorum”, meaning, “to the threshold of the apostles.” Every five years bishops are called to the Vatican to give an account of their work within their dioceses. First and foremost, this is a pilgrimage to pray at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. We celebrated Masses at the sites where both of these men were martyred for their profession of the faith. While the details of St. Paul’s martyrdom are a bit sketchy, it is understood that St. Peter was crucified upside down.

The bishops of the Anchorage and Seattle province met with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on Monday, April 23, 2012. During this meeting, each of us gave the Pope a description of our life and ministry.

The bishops agreed to present different topics to the Holy Father, and I accepted to share with him the work that has taken place in creating a safe environment within our dioceses and parish communities. This June we will mark ten years since the US bishops promulgated the ‘Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.’ Since this Charter was put into place, the Catholic Church in the US has trained more than 2.1 million clergy, employees and volunteers in how to create a safe environment. This work has also prepared more than 5.2 million children to recognize abuse and protect themselves. Background checks have been conducted on more than 1.8 million volunteers and employees, 166,000 educators, 52,000 clerics and 6,000 men preparing for ordination. We were pleased to be informed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the Church in the US has taken the lead in addressing the issue of sexual abuse which has permeated all of society. Nevertheless, I mentioned to our Holy Father that much more needs to be done. First and foremost in being pastorally present to those who have been abused, to increase our collaboration and communication with others about this issue and to continue to restore trust among the members of the Church. It was also during this meeting with the Holy Father that I was able to extend the prayers and fidelity of the priests and people of the Diocese of Juneau.

In our meetings with the various Vatican offices, the Archbishops in our group (from Portland, Seattle and Anchorage), told the officials that the population in the Northwest US and Alaska are mostly unchurched. That is, the majority of people do not belong to a particular faith community, but it does not mean that they are not believers—although many identify themselves as agnostic or atheist. While the humanitarian efforts of the people in the region are very well organized, as spiritual leaders within the community, we discussed the ways in which we might raise the anthropological questions of our time to foster a ‘human ecology.’ The teachings of Pope Benedict XVI call us to defend creation while at the same time protecting humanity from self-destruction. As we were informed by one young theologian, these teachings ‘…are meant to alert us to the fact that self-emancipation from creation and the Creator is an illusion.’

It is a well known fact that the Catholic Church will continue to uphold natural law, defend the sanctity of life and present these truths within the discussions that make up the public forum. In light of this, we discussed the issues of the definition of marriage between one man and one woman, as well as the gift of life beginning at the moment of conception and ending with natural death. It was reinforced during our meetings that these issues are divinely inspired. As spiritual leaders, these topics are paramount. Within our meeting with the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Archbishop of that office said that politicians, who are concerned about the popular voice or vote, do not have the competence to define marriage which has been instituted by the Creator of the human family. He also applied this sentiment to the issues regarding the sanctity of life.

After our meetings in Rome, the bishops of Alaska wrapped up the trip with a couple days of prayer in Assisi. Throughout the entire experience, I remembered all of you, in particular, the faithful of the Diocese of Juneau, in my prayers and Masses. In turn, I am grateful for all the prayers and support leading up to this visit, in particular, the hard work put forth by the staff of the Diocese of Juneau. Through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, may the good work in our Diocese continue to thrive.

Gender and the Ministerial Priesthood

Along the Way
A Monthly column in the Southeast Alaska Catholic by Deacon Charles Rohrbacher

I had the experience a few weeks ago of having a long conversation with a person who asked me to explain to him why the Catholic church doesn’t ordain women as bishops and priests. After all, he said, women are clearly as talented and capable as men and in the contemporary world women participate equally in endeavors and enterprises that were closed to them just a generation ago. So why does the Catholic Church continue to ordain only men as bishops and priests? (The tradition of deaconesses in the ancient Church and admissibility of the ordination of women to the diaconate in the present day is an important question but outside of the scope of that conversation and this column.)

It’s complicated—not because of Church teaching, which is simplicity itself: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Churches believe as a matter of doctrine that the Church simply doesn’t have the authority to ordain women as bishops and priests.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church at § 1577 states: “Only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination. The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.”

Not difficult reasoning to understand but complicated nonetheless. Why? Because the argument from tradition, that is, fidelity to the teaching and example of Christ himself, and the apostles, which is the Church’s strongest doctrinal reason for ordaining only men as bishops and priests, is the least persuasive reason for contemporary men and women in western Europe, the United States and Canada. That the Catholic and Orthodox churches would seemingly deny women equal access to Holy Orders because Jesus chose twelve men as apostles two thousand years ago, is rejected out of hand by many of our contemporaries (and some of my fellow Catholics) as unreasonable and wrong because it appears to be arbitrary, unjust and discriminatory. I realize too that this is a difficult and even painful teaching for many in our diocese, especially women.

Yet I think that where one stands on this question depends on whether one regards the selection by Jesus of twelve men as his apostles to be part of Holy Tradition or outside of it. Holy Tradition, or the ‘deposit of faith’ (depositum fidei) is explained in the Catechism in this way:

The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus’ teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition. (CCC §83)

The Magisterium (or teaching office of the bishops in union with the successor of St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome) teaches that the tradition of ordaining only men as bishops and priests is definitively a part of Holy Tradition (the deposit of faith) and as such is not subject to change.

As the 1976 declaration Inter Insignores states:
“The practice of the Church therefore has a normative character: in the fact of conferring priestly ordination only on men, it is a question of unbroken tradition throughout the history of the Church, universal in the East and in the West, and alert to repress abuses immediately. This norm, based on Christ’s example, has been and is still observed because it is considered to conform to God’s plan for his Church.”

Bound up in the apostolic tradition is the Church’s understanding of the sacramental nature of the priesthood. We believe that it is always Jesus who acts in and through the person of the bishop or priest. We see this most clearly in the liturgy itself, the various ritual actions of respect and honor paid to the person of the bishop and the priest. While having no illusions about weaknesses and fallibility of her priests and bishops, the respect shown them is always directed towards Christ himself, made visible to us in their persons. The Church teaches and believes that the bishop or the priest, by the conferral of Holy Orders and in the exercise of his ministry, does not act in his own name, but acts in persona Christi.

Thus the person of the ordained minister is itself a sign of Christ whom he images. This iconic resemblance of the bishop or priest makes Christ visible and accessible for the people of God and for the world. We believe that Christ, the one High Priest who is the Mediator between the Father and all of humanity, is invisibly but truly present and active in the life of the Church. It is always Christ, embodied in the person of the bishop or the priest who presides at the Eucharist, offers the sacrifice, and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation forgives sins.

Thus, according to the Church’s reasoning, Christ, who was incarnate as a man, is, in our unbroken Tradition, necessarily imaged for us by a man and not a woman. Implicit is the proposition that gender is an essential and integral dimension of human identity (in the way that physical appearance, ethnicity, race, language or culture are not). Instead, male and female are equal, complementary but distinctly different ways of being human.

This complementary difference is the effect of God’s will from the beginning of human history: “male and female he created them [human beings]. (Gen.1:27) Gender, while not the most significant aspect of Jesus’ humanity, was at the same time not irrelevant either. Rather, gender was and remains an indivisible and permanent dimension of his human nature, which, with his divine nature, are uniquely united in the Person of Jesus.

The Catholic tradition of both the Eastern and Western churches believes that the gender of Jesus, far from being inconsequential or provisional, is profoundly bound up in its faithful witness to the mystery of the Word of God incarnate in Christ Jesus. Jesus reveals himself to be the obedient Son of the Father and was acclaimed as the Messiah, the Son of David, both in his lifetime and after his resurrection from the dead. He is the Suffering Servant and the Good Shepherd who brought to fulfillment the rich nuptial imagery of the psalms and the prophetic books of the Old Testament, Christ is revealed in the New Testament as the Bridegroom wedded to his Bride, the Church, which was born on the Cross from pierced side of Christ, the Second Adam as Eve was born from the side of the first Adam.

That this teaching of our Church presents great difficulties for many faithful contemporary Catholics is not surprising. Yet, I can’t help but think about how the teachings and example of Jesus contradicted the deeply held beliefs of his own society: when he declared marriage indissoluble; when he practiced non-violence and taught love of enemies; when he invited his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist and when he claimed not only to be the Messiah but to be the divine Son of God.

When the Church, in faithfulness to Christ and the apostolic tradition, calls only men to be its bishops and priests, this too is a difficult teaching for many Roman Catholics, because it appears to go against deeply held, seemingly self-evident beliefs in our society about justice, equality and gender.

Yet I am grateful for ancestors in faith who struggled, sometimes for centuries, to understand and to embrace those teachings of Jesus and his Church that challenged and contradicted their cultural and religious assumptions. I am confident however, that future generations of Christians will be grateful to us for our faithful engagement with those Church teachings that are difficult for us.

To read more about the Church’s official teaching on the question of admitting women to the ministerial priesthood, see the declaration Inter Insignores at: www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_197.

Our environmental challenge

By BISHOP EDWARD J. BURNS 

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau

Here in Juneau we live surrounded by mountains and glaciers. The majesty and beauty of the Mendenhall Glacier never ceases to impress me and I have been fortunate to view some of the other glaciers in Southeast Alaska. Just recently I had the opportunity to speak to a longtime Juneau resident who expressed her amazement at how the Mendenhall Glacier has receded over recent years.

The glaciers and the changes taking place reminded me that just a year ago the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Science published its report on the causes and consequences of the retreat of mountain glaciers and the impact of climate change on the natural environment and human society.

A working group of internationally renowned glaciologists, climate scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, physicists, chemists and other scientists came together at the Vatican for two days in April 2011 to present scientific papers on the worldwide phenomenon of melting mountain glaciers and to make recommendations regarding the risks and threats of climate change.

The report noted that the widespread loss of glaciers, ice and snow on the mountains is taking place on a global scale at a rapid rate which provides some of the clearest evidence available for a change in the climate system. The major causes appear to be rising temperatures because of greenhouse gases combined with large-scale emissions of dark soot particles and dust that cover glaciers and icefields which then absorb rather than reflect sunlight.

The Vatican working group made the following recommendations:

• Immediately reduce carbon dioxide emissions worldwide by employing renewal energy resources, addressing deforestation and increasing reforestation and employing technologies that “draw down excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Cut heat-absorbing pollutants like soot, methane and hydroflourocarbons by 50 percent.

• Adopt international policies to help countries to assess and adapt to the environmental and social impacts that climate change will bring.

If what the overwhelming majority of responsible scientists predict about climate change is correct, the possible consequences are grave within the near and long term. In the near future, rising sea levels threaten vulnerable island communities in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Long term, the accelerating breakup and melting of glaciers and icesheets in Antarctica and Greenland and the loss of the summer icepack in the Arctic Ocean means rising sea levels that by the end of the century will threaten coastal cities. The acidification of the oceans due to excessive carbon dioxide threatens to disrupt the aquatic food chain and the destruction of acid sensitive species such as reef corals and the plants and animals that depend on them.

As Pope Benedict XVI said in his 2010 message for the World Day of Peace, “There is a very close connection between respect for the human being and the safeguarding of creation. Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually and in relation to others.”

Making the changes necessary to turn around climate change before it is too late is not simply a scientific or political question but a moral and spiritual one. We are not the masters but the stewards of God’s creation and have a responsibility before God and to future generations to do what we can to reduce and eventually reverse the impact on the environment caused by the burning of fossil fuels that power our cars, trucks, airplanes and much of our economy.

In August of 2013 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is sending a delegation of bishops and experts from the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change will be coming to Alaska to learn for themselves some of the ways in which climate change has affected the Alaskan environment and the people of Alaska, especially in the rural areas.

Their visit, hosted by the Archbishop of Anchorage, Roger L. Schwietz, Fairbanks’ Bishop Donald Kettler and me, will begin with a symposium in Anchorage made up of church leaders, Alaskan scientists and academics, and Alaska Native elders. The USCCB delegation will then go to visit villages in western Alaska, where they will meet with the people most directly affected by the environmental changes brought about by global warming. On their return to Anchorage, the bishops will conclude the symposium with their own personal reflections on what they have witnessed.

As important as this visit is, we can begin to take action now. With the full support of the nation’s Catholic bishops, all across our country, Catholics are taking the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor. The St. Francis Pledge is a promise and a commitment by Catholic individuals, families, parishes, organizations and institutions to live our faith by protecting God’s creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts of global climate change. For more information about the St. Francis Pledge please go to:www.catholicclimatecovenant.org.

From B Street to the Vatican

Loaves and Fishes, Occasional reflections on the life of discipleship

http://charles-loavesandfishes.blogspot.com/

by Deacon Charles Rohrbacher

It’s hard to believe that a couple years ago I was in my little studio in Douglas  working hard to complete the illustrations for this book. Even harder to believe is this photo of my Bishop, Edward Burns, presenting Pope Benedict with a copy of the Illuminated Easter Proclamationduring his Ad Limina visit in April. Here he is showing the Holy Father the title page with the message I’d written to him. The Exsultet was signed by our three Alaskan bishops and all of the priests of their dioceses as an expression of the prayers and affection of all of  Catholic clergy, religious and faithful of our state.

Bishop Burns brought me back three official photos of the presentation of the book.  I was glad to see that in one of them Bishop Burns pointed out to the Pope the borders in the margins with plants from Southeast Alaska: blueberries, salmonberries, forget-me-nots and devil’s club.

What a humbling and gratifying moment this is.  Thank you Bishop Burns, Liturgical Press and all the good friends who made this book a reality!  I do hope that Pope Benedict had a chance to take another look at the book when he had a few moments to himself.  And I hope he liked the bees.

New rite blesses child in the womb

Hatty Arenivar is incredibly happy. Naturally concerned. Occasionally tired. Absolutely glowing.

Photo by James Baca/DCR
Hatty Arenivar receives a blessing for her unborn child from Deacon Charles Parker on May 3.

She is 24 weeks pregnant with a little boy she and husband, Chufo Ramirez, have already named “Mateo.”

While she jokes about how Mateo keeps her up at night, when he starts wiggling around right about the time she goes to bed, she couldn’t be more thankful for this gift God has provided them. And she will do everything she can to protect her beloved son.

Last week Arenivar and Mateo received a special, newly approved blessing: “Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb.” Its final text, originally approved by the U.S. bishops in 2008, was recently confirmed by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, just in time for Mother’s Day.

“Life is precious, it’s a gift from God and I want the best for my baby,” said Arenivar, 25, a parishioner of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Denver. “I know that having a special blessing will be the best for him … with God protecting him against everything.

“There is only so much I can do, and the rest, God will do.”

The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of a child, and to encourage others to pray for them as well.

“In the Book of Blessings we had a blessing for expectant mothers,” explained Deacon Charles Parker, director of the Denver Archdiocese’s Office of Liturgy. “The bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities felt it was important that we develop a blessing for the child as well.”

The new blessing incorporates the child, mother, father and any other family members present. It can be offered within the context of a Mass, or individually requested to a priest or deacon.

“It was the desire for the (bishops’ pro-life) committee to heighten the awareness of the need to bless the child in the womb,” said Deacon Parker. “So as the ritual says the blessing ‘…sustains the parents by imparting grace and comfort in time of concern and need, unites the parish in prayer for the unborn child, and fosters respect for human life within society.’

“It really fulfills a need,” Deacon Parker continued, “and was pretty prophetic of the bishops to move forward in developing this kind of blessing … at a time when human life is constantly being challenged.”

The archdiocese’s Office of Liturgy is producing 12,000 prayer cards, in English and in Spanish, with the Prayer for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb. The cover image is the “The Visitation of Mary to St. Elizabeth” painted by Eduard von Steinle in the 19th century. Cards will be distributed to all clergy as early as this week.

“We wanted to get it in their hands as quickly as we could,” said Deacon Parker, “to make the blessing available to expectant mothers.”

Prayer cards will also be distributed to the two Gabriel House pregnancy outreach locations (Denver and Boulder), Lighthouse Pregnancy Center in Denver, area Catholic hospital chaplains, and staff in pastoral care departments. Eventually the blessing will also be available on the U.S. bishops’ website, www.usccb.org; and in a printed prayer booklet.

For now, Deacon Parker encouraged expectant women to request the blessing from a priest or deacon before or after Mass. Going forward, he anticipates some pastors in the archdiocese will offer Masses specifically for expectant women and provide the blessing in context with the Eucharist.

“All blessings are important because sacramentals have an important place in the life of the Church,” he said. “They help people prepare for sacraments and they help people become more Christ-like.”

Arenivar is grateful for the support from Holy Mother Church.

“I feel really blessed and loved and supported by my Church,” she said. “I’m very thankful for (the bishops) thinking about the baby in the womb and how precious that gift is.”

Julie Filby: 303-715-3123; julie.filby@archden.org; www.twitter.com/DCRegisterJulie

Reform of U.S. sisters’ group an opportunity for dialogue, archbishop says

APRIL 25, 2012

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A newly announced reform of an association of women’s religious congregations in the U.S. offers the sisters and their bishops an opportunity to communicate and work together more closely, said the archbishop named by the Vatican to oversee the reform process.

POPE JOHN PAUL II BLESSES MERCY SISTER THERESA KANE, PRESIDENT OF LCWR, IN 1979
Mercy Sister Theresa Kane, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, is blessed by Pope John Paul II at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington during the pope’s 1979 visit to the U.S. Sister Kane, earlier in the service, had challenged the pope to include women in all ministries of the church. (CNS photo) (April 26, 2012)

The Vatican announced April 18 that Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle will provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for a period of up to five years. His tasks will include overseeing revision of the LCWR’s statutes, review of its liturgical practices, and the creation of formation programs for the conference’s member congregations.

The LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women’s communities as members, represents about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious.

In an eight-page, “doctrinal assessment” based on an investigation that began in April 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reported that the “current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern.” The assessment cited deviations from Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

“While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States,” the doctrinal congregation said. “Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching.”

The Vatican also found that “public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”

But the congregation’s document also praised the “great contributions of women religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor, which have been founded and staffed by religious over the years,” and insisted that the Vatican “does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of women religious” in the LCWR’s member congregations.

Archbishop Sartain told CNS his main role in the reform process would be to “facilitate relationships and understanding.”

Saying that he hoped he could “help the sisters and the LCWR recognize that we are all in this together,” the archbishop called the reform a “great opportunity” for women religious, U.S. bishops and the Vatican to “strengthen and improve all of our relationships on every level.”

Noting his extensive experience with religious communities in the four dioceses where he has served as a priest or bishop, the   archbishop expressed his “personal appreciation for the role of religious women in the United States” and “all the extraordinary things that they’ve done.”

Archbishop Sartain said he expected to meet with the LCWR “very soon,” and declined in the meantime to discuss the reform process in any detail. But he said that he and his two assistants, Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., would be assembling an advisory committee to include women religious with expertise in theology and canon law, among other fields.

“We’ll have ample opportunity for conversation and dialogue about all the issues,” the archbishop said.

May 1, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Blogpost by Deacon Charles Rohrbacher

St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us!

Icon of the Holy Family
(St. Paul's Catholic Church, Juneau)

About fifteen years ago I worked with a group of boys and girls on a fresco at their middle school in Juneau.  For two weeks the students and I (along with my collaborator Kathy Sievers, an iconographer from Portland, Oregon) worked together.  It was a true fresco, that is, we painted on wet plaster applied to the wall.  The students worked hard: they dryed and cleaned sand, mixed troughs of lime plaster and applied in layers to the wall and ground and mixed colors and applied paint to the fresh plaster.  It was a wonderful project and together we created a beautiful mural.  We invited parents to come by and visit while we were working and observe the progress we made each day.  We attracted a lot of fathers who worked in the building trades.  They came in their work clothes and boots to watch their sons and daughters do in a school setting the kinds of tasks they did every day.  One father, who hung drywall for a living, picked up a float and patiently showed the students (and his son) how to get the final painting coat perfectly smooth on the section we were preparing to paint that day.  He stepped back to watch the students work and said to me that this week working on the fresco had been the first time he thought his son really understood and appreciated the work he did every day.

It’s no secret that the feast of St. Joseph the Worker was originally proposed by the Church in the middle  years of the 20th century as an alternative to MayDay out of concern that Catholic workers in Europe were joining militant socialist (and later, communist) trade unions.  Yet, this feast has also helped to underscore the dignity of work and of working people in an economic system that too often brazenly exploits manual workers and seeks everyway possible to cut costs (and boost profits) by outsourcing, automating or eliminating their jobs.   Catholic social teaching proposes that every form of work has dignity, not only because work is necessary to human survival and flourishing but because work is one of the key ways we participate in society and is an intrinsic part of what it means to be fully human.

Blog website   http://www.charles-loavesandfishes.blogspot.com/