Not So Much to be Defended As Shared

I know this is old news by now, but did any of you watch the Today Show segments from the Vatican last week? It was really a very nice, though not at all a fluff piece, and the Today Show crew was guided by Archbishop Dolan. Dolan's been a favorite in this household since he took Milwaukee by storm in 2002 (you can read a little bit about that at my old blog, Studeo). I think he's done a lot of great work, but a particular strength is how able he is at the important art of meeting people where they are and helping them move forward, even if it's just a little bit. A big piece of that, I think, is trust in God and a setting aside of fear. After all, a strong faith should help us to remember important things like: God will help us say the right thing at the right time and He has promised to protect his church.

When Archbishop Dolan went to New York, we watched all of the proceedings on EWTN. A particularly memorable part of what we saw was an interview he did with Raymond Arroyo. Among many other questions, Arroyo asked him about a tough moment in his time in Milwaukee, when he received a letter from a number of his priests asking him to consider having some dialogue on the question of celibacy. To many people, this seemed like a very contentious and controversial question. But Dolan always seems to know where he stands. He answered Arroyo that we don't need to be afraid of questions and that the Church is always willing to talk about things.

That was a really striking idea to me. Not an entirely new concept, but an important one that I hadn't seen with quite that much clarity before. It certainly has an application within my home too - to react kindly and patiently to any questions my children have and to develop a home environment in which they will be (hopefully!) comfortable bringing questions to me. Questions and doubts are a natural part of life and should be treated accordingly (and graciously!).

Somewhat along these lines, the interviews with the Today Show (which you can view through the link in the top line of this post) made me realize/remember that our faith is not so much something that needs to be defended (though there is a place for that) as to be shared with others. I know I sometimes get my priorities confused in this regard.

My thoughts came about also from some training that John and I did over the weekend in order to get involved in the marriage preparation ministry at our parish. The facilitator of the training very wisely informed us that we may very well be these couples' gateway into the church. That's a tall order. Thank goodness we're supposed to lean on God! :)

And on a related note...

This is a quote I really like from Archbishop Chaput's book, "Living the Catholic Faith: Discovering the Basics"...

'Go, make disciples of all nations was the last command Jesus gave to us before returning to His Father. It's a big one. How can simple people like us convert the world? That brings us back to Mary, and to the apostles at Pentecost. They changed the world by letting God change them and work through them. We don't need to be afraid. We need to be confident in the promise made by Christ Himself: 'I am with you always, to the close of the age.'


Don't be afraid of the world. The Holy Spirit is on your side. Charles Spurgeon once said, 'The way you defend the Bible is the same way you defend a lion. You just let it loose."

A Day of Tears

We spent quite a bit of our day today tuned into EWTN to watch Archbishop Dolan become Archbishop of New York City. By tuning in a bit early, we also saw his wonderful little interview with Raymond Arroyo. He will be great for this job - he's so humble and so filled with confidence in the truth of the Gospel message.

It's a bittersweet moment too, because it *is* hard to say goodbye, though having these weeks to prepare for this moment have certainly helped - kind of like what he says in "Farewell, Milwaukee". Our prayers and thanks go with him for all that he's done for us. We don't know him personally, but he's made a huge difference even to our own family, just because of the way he manifests God's love and the joy of the Christian message to others. His influence on vocations in the diocese will make a difference for generations!

Though it's hard to say goodbye, it is a wonderful thing to see him take on his new role with so much faith and joy. God Bless him!

On a sadder note, my niece called me this afternoon with tragic news from my alma mater. Thomas Aquinas College's beloved president, Dr. Thomas Dillon, was killed in a car accident this morning. He was in Ireland with his wife for some sort of Catholic educational conference. She was injured, but not seriously. Please pray for him and his family and the entire TAC community. We are all devastated by this loss.

Dr. Dillon has had an amazing fatherly influence on TAC students for decades. Particularly in the years before he became president, he was well-known for his love of playing basketball with the students (somewhere around here I believe I have a photo taken by my husband of Dr. Dillon on the basketball court) and he was an incredible tutor. I only had him for one year - for Junior Philosophy, in which we studied Aristotle's Ethics. It was a crazy year as he was in the process of taking over the presidency of the college and another tutor had to substitute often, but the chaos was totally worth it. I had many fine tutors at TAC, but I never experienced another tutor who was so interested in each and every student and what they thought or wanted to say about a particular topic. He was down to earth and funny and I really loved that class!

When he was taking over the presidency from founding president Dr. McArthur, I had my doubts. McArthur had huge shoes to fill after all! It was a few years ago, when I saw Dr. Dillon and his wife at a fundraising event in Milwaukee that I truly understood the genius of the choice of Dillon as president. He was incredibly humble and completely dedicated to the idea of the college and to *the* truth. He was a man who spent his life building up the Church by preparing young people to live the truth and share it with others.

He had a genuine love for and interest in each of the alumni and what they were up to after TAC. I've always loved the fact that he and his wife made a special effort to attend all the ordinations of alumni priests (there are over 40 now).

My sincerest condolences and love and prayers go out to dear Mrs. Dillon, to the entire Dillon family and to all who are mourning his death.

Farewell Mass for Archbishop Dolan

We attended a beautiful Mass for Archbishop Dolan today at Holy Hill. They sure pulled out all the stops to honor and thank the Archbishop for nearly seven years of service in our Archdiocese. We barely got seats in the main church by arriving an hour early. There was a big screen with close-circuit TV for those seated in the lower church. The place was filled and overflowing with clergy and Knights of Columbus (and other orders I hadn't seen before,  but only heard of - Knights of Malta, Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, wow!). 

I've been to quite a few packed Masses at Holy Hill, but this was one of those particularly memorable ones where all of the congregation responds and sings in a resounding way - as if to say, "We're here and we really mean it."

These pics are a little out-of-order as Blogger seems a little fussy today. These are the Knights of Columbus et al. processing into their pews just before Mass.

We weren't sure if we'd try to say hello to Archbishop Dolan after Mass because the lines were likely to be long and the littles ones were fast approaching the breaking point. In the end, we decided to give a try because Frank just missed shaking hands with Archbishop Dolan at the end of Mass. As it turned out, the line wasn't too bad. They had set up the Shrine Chapel as a place where the Archbishop could say hello to people individually. When we got in, we decided to swing around to the side to allow more people into the room. We ended up just behind our dear Schoenstatt sisters (who host a number of activities for our local homeschool group). That's Frank in the corner of the picture.

When the Archbishop came in, they were the first ones that he greeted. When they were done, they "pushed" us up into their place as they were anxious for Frank to say hello to the Archbishop too. :) 

And so we got to say hello and thank him and tell him we'd be praying for him. John also had the foresight to hand our camera to a friend standing just behind us, who got this shot.
Don't you just love how Frank insisted on wearing his new St. Michael T-shirt to Mass?

A Nice Explanation about Avoiding Extremes

I'm almost done reading Archbishop Dolan's new book To Whom Shall We Go? Lessons from the Apostle Peter. It's a lovely and very readable book which draws simple, manageable spiritual lessons from the life of St. Peter. It seems like a lovely parting gift to our archdiocese, especially given the dedication:

To my brother bishops, priests, and deacons, the consecrated religious men and women, and the wonderfully faithful people of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

There are lots of wonderful tidbits and stories in the book, but I just wanted to share his explanation of one important concept that's on my mind a lot (and applies to many things):

Despair will never be ours if we believe in the power of the sacrament of Penance and tap into it very often. This sacrament helps us avoid both extremes - the presumption of the Pharisees and the despair of Judas - and it keeps us, with St. Peter, in the healthy center. Contrite? Yes, but confident in the Lord's mercy. Aware of the sin? You bet, but equally aware of Christ's desire to forgive. Repentant? You bet, but renewed as well. And for us, this moment of honesty and healing takes place, concretely and personally, in the sacrament of Penance.

The concept of hope being in the happy middle between presumption and despair is actually my favorite example when I try to explain to others the important theological (and practical!) concept of means and extremes. It's a very useful way of keeping us in balance in every aspect of our lives.

The Internet is a Funny Place!

IMG_5343, originally uploaded by AmericanPapist.

I was reading some of the chit-chat about Archbishop Dolan on American Papist's blog when I decided to click through to his Flickr set on Archbishop Dolan - and found this picture of Archbishop Dolan with three of my daughters and two good friends (that's my Bernie getting a hug)!!!!

For Those Who Might Find It Interesting...

I'm keeping a set of links regarding Archbishop Timothy Dolan at the top of the sidebar for the time being.

The Greatest Threat to the Church Today...

I happened to discover this lovely quote from Archbishop Dolan via an article about him in USA Today.

"Maybe the greatest threat to the church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms."

I didn't really sink in until I heard the same quote in the homily at this morning's Mass! Powerful!

Archbishop Dolan will be leaving for New York

This is a post that's hard to write for me. It's written in the midst of tears because of how much he's meant to us here and how sorely he will be missed.

Let me take you back to 2002. Our archdiocese had been lacking in solid leadership for several decades which ended quite suddenly in a grave scandal that personally involved the previous archbishop. Support for this previous archbishop had been quite divided before that time, but everyone was shaken by the scandal.

Every summer in Milwaukee, a city famous for its cultural festivals, we celebrate the largest Irish festival outside of Ireland. The Lakefront Festival grounds overflow with Irish music, dancing, food and lots of other fun cultural stuff. Sunday morning there's a huge outdoor Mass attended by thousands of people. Early in 2002 (many months before the previous archbishop retired), the Festival Committee invited Dolan, then a bishop in St. Louis, to preside at the Irish Fest Mass.

By a lovely "coincidence", Dolan's announcement as new Archbishop took place just before Irish Fest. So he arrived for this special Mass and was greeted by a huge crowd (I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think they had around 15,000 people at the Mass where they would generally expect more like 9 or 10,000). It was an incredibly moving and memorable experience to be there. You'd think the pope had come to town, there was such an outpouring of joy and relief and emotion. He walked around greeting people (before Mass I think) and everyone was cheering and crying. There was such a strong sense that God is good to bring him here.

Archbishop Dolan will be leaving Milwaukee a much better place than when he came and for that I thank him and thank God! He will very much be in our prayers!

Easter Triduum

We had a very nice Easter Triduum.

On Holy Thursday we prepared a very simple "seder" meal as we do every year. The funny thing was that I realized how very much the kids love this ritual. I roast lamb and we pick up parsley (to dip in salt water) and radishes (bitter herbs) as well as a fake haroseth (applesauce, raisins and peanuts mixed together) and both store-bought matzos and home-made unleavened bread. We generally put out a tablecloth and read a little from The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland. The kids were just raving about how much they love this meal. Terri told me she had been looking forward to this meal for months and Gus said it was the best meal of the year that we eat at our house (he wasn't ready to have it top Uncle Mike's Thanksgiving feasts).

John took the older four kids to Mass at Holy Hill right after dinner (it always seems somewhat appropriate to be rushing off to Mass - at least keeping in the spirit of the first Passover). I didn't think the little ones could handle two late Masses so close together.

John had to work Friday morning, but the kids were very anxious to visit our usual Good Friday morning spot - the beautiful, life-size outdoor stations of the cross at Holy Hill. This year Archbishop Dolan led the stations and the kids really loved it. He's so friendly with the little ones and they managed to get fairly close to each station despite the big crowd (Ria - who was leading our bunch - realized she could follow right behind him and get everyone in fairly close). It really is a beautiful place of pilgrimage - many people drive up even from the Chicago area for Good Friday. It's gives us such a lovely sense of being Catholic that you don't always get in the United States. Not only is it a beautiful shrine (now officially a basilica!) but people visit from all over the world and speak many languages.

Friday afternoon, John and I watched the Passion of the Christ while the kids watched Jesus of Nazareth. It was the first time I watched it (at least in its entirety) since we saw it in the theatre. At the theatre, I found it so overwhelming that it was almost distracting. It didn't move me in the way I expected - kind of a sensory overload. I'm really glad I saw it again because I found it very beautiful and moving this second time through.

Saturday was busy with baking and cleaning until we left for the vigil Mass at our nearby Schoenstatt shrine. The Schoenstatt movement originated in Germany and has had a strong presence in Wisconsin for many years. Ria, Terri and Bernie have all been involved in girls' groups and retreats there. The vigil Mass is simple and very beautiful. It's really quite a small crowd, just a few families in addition to all of the Schoenstatt nuns and postulants. The sheltered location, the darkness, the cold, and the very simple architecture made it feel like we were swept away to some mountain hamlet in Europe for the night. The kids love the ritual of the Easter fire, the candles, the readings and singing of the psalms (and we all loved the harmonies that the sisters sang with each of the psalms). Frank was in awe when they sang the gloria with the bells ringing and lights being turned on one at a time. I had to spend most of the mass with him outside in the hallway (he had a nap that afternoon and was exuberantly joyful!), but it really was a beautiful night.

Perspective

A little thought I heard on Relevant Radio from Milwaukee's Archbishop Dolan:

"Church history gives you remarkable serenity."

Holy Hill a Basilica!

Archbishop Dolan announced last year that he would request this status for our own dear Holy Hill, but it's nice to hear that it came through. Hat tip - Stella Borealis.

Vandals at Holy Hill

This is really sad - although it looks like things will be repaired and cleaned rather quickly.

Holy Hill (The National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians and a Carmelite Monastery) is local to us - a fifteen or twenty minute drive. It's a beautiful shrine (Archbishop Dolan has put in a formal request to Rome to designate it a basilica) that we frequent for daily mass, confession, holy day masses and stations of the cross. It's usually pretty low-key during the week but quite crowded on weekends (except during the winter) when pilgrims come to visit from all over. It's always been a beautiful reminder to me of the universal nature of Catholicism, to hear languages from all over (Spanish, Philippino, Mandarin and others I think). We heard that Karol Wojtyla visited there some years before he became pope. There's a wall outside the Shrine Chapel filled with crutches and other devices that are no longer needed by their former owners.

I think the Church is vulnerable to the world in a similar way to how Christ allowed himself to be vulnerable to the world. We too sometimes have to "put our necks on the line" and stand for what is right. Sometimes just being who we are is enough to stir up hatred.

Here's one example of backlash toward Catholics for their sympathy to illegal immigrants... (hat tip Shrine of the Holy Whapping)

Here's another (albeit more complicated)...

This reminds me of the story I heard from someone at the University of St. Thomas about the year leading up to this speech (hat tip to the Curt Jester - warning - offensive language from protestors involved in video). The story began simply with... "This year we started perpetual adoration on campus."

To be quite frank, I don't think the speech is particularly moving or helpful (although sometimes you can't help cheering a guy with "guts" and he was voted into this spot by his fellow students - a 4.0 student, football player and seminarian - wow!) - I thought the most remarkable part of the story was the harshness of the reaction by those attending the graduation.

Here are a few more details of the story as it played out through the year according to one news source.

Welcome to the world of 21st century Catholic higher education.

My Children and the Papal Conclave

I barely remember the election of Pope John Paul II. I was eight years old, but don't remember watching the news coverage or anything. The thing I remember most clearly was my oldest sister writing to me from France (where she was living for a few years) to tell me that the Pope had the same birthday as me.

It was easy for Catholics of my generation (Generation X) to take Pope John Paul II for granted, yet we loved him a lot. He was a major shaping influence on the way we saw the world - even if not all of us accepted his message fully. If you consider two of the most prominent role models we had as children and teenagers - Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II - it's no wonder that we turned out more optimistic and pro-family-values than anyone expected.

It was just more of a shock to me than I expected when the Holy Father died. Peaceful, sad and at the same time joyful, but still a huge loss.

I really wanted my children to experience and remember the whole Papal Conclave and the announcement of the new pope. We took the whole day off on Monday, April 18 (first day of the Conclave) from "regular" schooling.

The big event was a special Mass at our local Marian Shrine celebrated by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan. We had been talking about going to this Mass for at least a week, but I admit that I almost bugged out because we had a particularly tiring weekend (I spoke at our local Catholic homeschool conference and manned a table there all day Saturday) and a slow start to our morning. Well, we did make it, but with only ten minutes to spare. To our dismay, only the most distant parking lots had space (a walk up the hill with kids) but the weather was nice, they were enthusiastic and it wasn't a big problem at all.

We made it to the upper church with just a few minutes to spare and it was packed. I shuffled the kids into a little nook toward the back on one side of the church. Just then, all of the priests walked right past us to line up for the procession. They were followed by the Archbishop who stopped to put his hand on the children's heads and thank them for coming.

My father-in-law showed up during the processional song to direct us all the way around the Church to a little chapel (they call it the oratory) that faces the altar on one side where there were still some open seats. This was nice because the little ones (especially the 1 and 3 year olds) had a little breathing space and it was carpeted, so the noises weren't so sensitive. The older kids sat in front with their grandparents and were able to see the altar pretty well.

It was a beautiful Mass, filled with hope and faith. The Archbishop gave a wonderful homily and the children were "glowing". The Holy Spirit seemed especially present. The sheer number of people there (it is a very large church and there were people lined up all along the back and sides) was very moving. I just love Church singing when the Church is REALLY packed. :)

This was already a very special day for us, but lo-and-behold, the Archbishop looked over at all of us through the little "windows" between the oratory and the altar and decided to distribute communion to (50 or 60 of) us personally. I received communion with a toddler on each arm (receiving on the tongue is such a convenient, as well as beautiful thing sometimes!).

The children were walking on clouds all day. What a beautiful and memorable way to celebrate (and even participate in by prayer) the Papal Conclave. The oldest ones, at least, will never forget that.

Now, we heard that we should look for the white or black smoke from the Vatican at about 4 am and 11 am our time. We heard by the time we got home from Mass that there was no decision that day. That night my 9 year old son asked permission, if he was awake at 4 am the next morning to turn on EWTN (we watch it on the Internet) to check for the smoke himself. He was and he did, but the smoke was still black.

Later that morning (when I was awake, hehe), I remembered to turn on EWTN - I think it was about 10:15, but I didn't want to forget. I called the children over because smoke was already pouring out, although it looked black again. We all watched as the announcers (Arroyo and Neuhaus) concluded that there was still no decision. The smoke continued to pour out though and there was some noise and anticipation in the crowd. The camera panned back to the smoke and it looked white. As the announcers discussed in wonder that the smoke looked white, our excitement at home grew. It was many moments before there was certainty - some bells turned out to be only the Angelus bells. The crowd was getting more and more excited too, when finally the Vatican bells, followed by bells from all over Rome pealed out in joy. Habemus Papam!

We were literally jumping up and down. (And God Bless EWTN for offering this excellent coverage for free on the Internet!) Now all we could do was wait and wonder who the new pope was. We had heard that the announcement would be made in Latin. Apparently there is sometimes confusion about the name of the new pope because of the "translation" of the name into Latin. I figured we'd have to listen pretty carefully and maybe be able to figure it out. As we got closer to the announcement, the signal became a little choppy. I imagine there was a surge of Internet activity from all the interest in the announcement. Finally, some movement at the window and Pope John Paul II's coat of arms draped from the balcony. The picture and especially the audio are cutting in and out.

Finally Cardinal Estevez is on the balcony (remember the picture is pausing and jumping on us). We hear "Habemus Papam!" We're cheering right along with the crowd in Rome. We're straining to hear and understand. The audio is still jumping on us, but we hear, clear as a bell Ratzinger. How great is that? [grin - I worked for Ignatius Press in high school, so I've known about Cardinal Ratzinger for a LONG time!] He comes out on the balcony looking dignified but a little bewildered.

He gives an awesome opening :

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me — a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.

"The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

"In the joy of the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help, we go forward. The Lord will help us and Mary his very holy mother stands by us."

and his blessing of course.

What a memorable two days for us - and especially my school age children. It is such an amazing time to be a Catholic (and the homeschooling doesn't hurt!). Viva il Papa and God Bless Pope John Paul the Great as well!