Church and State in Paris

If you followed the news, you’d have the impression that the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was primarily a backdrop for a political event at which President-Elect Donald Trump reconnected with world leaders. And you might not be wrong.

The Archdiocese of Paris tried to switch the emphasis to the religious, tried to relocate French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech to outside the cathedral to dispel the illusion that the French state was dedicating the cathedral (one it expropriated unjustly more than two centuries ago). But still, the political dominated the news about the Saturday reopening (albeit not the Sunday Mass consecrating the new altar).

Yes, the once-and-next President did reconnect with world leaders, since he and they were there. The attention paid is not Donald Trump’s fault. He came, he saw, and he met.

Nor was the event wholly political. There was another religion — an ersatz religion — in play: laïcité. It is very much the “faith” of the Republic which Macron represents (and behind the expropriation mentioned above). As commentator Solene Tadie observes (here), it’s not just ideological laïcité but practical secularism that afflicts the Church’s Eldest Daughter. All these forms of secularization are what really threaten Europe’s Christian religious heritage and identity.

There is one figure who could have refocused the event squarely on the religious. It was not Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich (who, although a Francis choice, remains like his predecessor Michel Aupetit not “peripheral” enough to get a red hat). That figure was Pope Francis. And he was not there. Yes, there might have been delicate church-state questions to resolve if he was to come, but the Church’s cause is not advanced when such questions are “resolved” by avoidance. The Holy See has diplomats, even if France is less threatening than, say, Communist China.

Yes, of course, the Pope does not attend every cathedral’s rededication. But Notre Dame is not just any cathedral. Notre Dame de Paris is not St. Mary’s of Trenton, either in history, prominence, or circumstances (even if both suffered fires) of why the rededication was happening.

But, you say, there was a consistory to create new cardinals. Couldn’t schedules be coordinated? Why not celebrate Mass with the cardinals-elect on Sunday (the Second Sunday of Advent) and hold the consistory on Monday, the actual feast? In my many years around seminaries, we often had candidacy for priesthood and diaconate ordinations on December 8. Any better day for creating cardinals? And, given Francis’s emphasis on more horizontal ecclesiology, these bishops could have followed the Bishop of Rome around Monday to the key Marian sites of the Eternal City and then taken canonical possession of their titular churches that evening. Can you think of a more appropriate occasion?

The Pope could fit a 10-hour jaunt to Ajaccio in Corsica but not one to the City of Luce?

Alas, it seems Francis was far more interested in his own politics, ensuring he continued ahead of the next conclave to stuff the College of Cardinals with choices he hopes are in his image and likeness. In other words, I guess Paris missed what might have seemed yet another politician.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

The wife of a deacon friend asked a telling question you never hear from the mass media: If sex differences are irrelevant, then why do all the first place medals in women’s sports go to men-pretending-to-be-women? When is the last time you saw a woman who “transitioned” to “being a man” bring home the gold in men’s sports?

Daniel Penny Verdict

Over at First Things, Helen Andrews called the acquittal of Marine Daniel Penny, charged for protecting a New York subway car full of passengers from a threatening crazy person, a “win for civilization.” That’s not hyperbole. If self-defense is to be questioned in even relatively explicit cases, then we will not have self-defense and Yeats’s vision will prevail: “mere anarchy” will be released, a “blood-dimmed tide” will be “loosed,” the best men will “lack all conviction,” and the worst will be “full of passionate intensity.” For my comments on this case when it first arose, see here.

Communion Posture

Chicago Cardinal Cupich just put out a letter telling Windy City Catholics that they should neither genuflect nor kneel for Communion but advance in an efficient procession to the altar. He justified the argument on grounds that this is supposedly the posture both Rome and the USCCB approve. Cupich invoked the principles of lex orandi, lex credendi (how we pray expresses what we believe), the role of the bishop in regulating the liturgy, and Vatican II to justify his missive.

Interesting how these actions tend to be selective. Cupich talks about the role of the bishop in regulating liturgy, but I haven’t seen equal attention toward liturgical abuses in Chicago, only toward traditional piety (e.g., Communion posture, the St. Michael Prayer). Like Francis, he talks about “clericalism” while telling us to obey. Lex orandi, lex credendi seems to work one way. When post-Vatican II Catholics disobeyed Roman norms and began distributing Communion in the hand and proliferating extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, that was branded a new expression of the sensus fidelium. But when the faithful who are still going to Mass suggest we need to revert to more pious expressions of Eucharistic reception, suddenly there’s nothing to learn there. (Incidentally, the proliferation of extraordinary ministers is still an abuse, but I don’t see Cupich or many other USCCB members telling parishes to cut down on them). Incidentally, I never hear a discussion of what I think is the “dirty little secret” behind both the Communion line and proliferation of extraordinary ministers: apart from the ideologues who defend it because of their ecclesiology, I suggest most priests acquiesce in it because it is simply convenient. If the laity roam the sanctuary, the other priests in the rectory need not be available to help out at Communion at every Mass and, if the folks don’t kneel, they move faster. Gotta keep the communicant and parking lot flow moving!

Like the post-Conciliar reform, lots of things were claimed in the “name” or — more often — the “spirit” of Vatican II that are not found in the Council’s documents but were forced on the faithful by Annibale Bugnini et al. I am far more curious about the timing of Cupich’s letter. The just concluded Synod likewise produced a “final document” full of ambiguities, one of which concerns liturgy: “Deepening the link between liturgy and synodality will help all Christian communities, in the diversity of their cultures and traditions, to adopt celebratory styles that make visible the face of a synodal Church. To this end, we call for the establishment of a specific Study Group which would be entrusted with reflection on how to make liturgical celebrations more an expression of synodality” (#27, emphasis added). We can certainly “help” them by mandating them (and finding a few yes-laymen or -laywomen to say “it’s just what we were all waiting for, thank you!”). I wonder if Cupich’s is the first salvo in perpetuating liturgical patterns that at best might be called post-Conciliar compromises, as the sole “legitimate” fruits of “Vatican II” and the Synod’s “synodal style.” 

The Synod was big into horizontality, but no amount of ecclesiastical levelling can erase the vertical that is man’s subordinate relationship to God. I would watch this space.

By the way, in preparation for the Jubilee Year, Bishop José Pavés of the Diocese of Asidonia-Jerez in Spain issued his own letter (here) December 11 on proper observation of the celebration, including Communion posture. In it, he exhorts that “the liturgical norm on the manner of receiving Communion be respected, since it leaves it to the communicant, not the minister, to choose the way to receive communion, on one’s knees or standing, in the mouth or in well-disposed hands …. The faithful receive Communion while kneeling or standing, as determined by the Conference of Bishops” (#7).

Rose Colored Vestments

Rose vestments put in appearances only twice in the liturgical year: on the Third Sunday (Gaudete) of Advent and the Fourth Sunday (Laetare) of Lent. Most American parishes have them, though some do not (and are found less commonly in other countries). If your parish doesn’t have them, you could consider the gift of a set.  More likely, they may have one chasuble but lack matching stoles when it comes to additional priests who provide Communion.  Without limiting your choices, I’ve found this seller offers reasonably priced vestments: https://alba.sklep.pl/en/

Pseudo-Catholicism

In this podcast Commonweal editor Mollie O’Reilly and Manhattan University “religious studies” professor Natalia Lee tell us what an “abyss” Americans face because abortion may be regulated. These are supposedly “Catholic” speakers upset that what Vatican II called an “unspeakable crime” might be limited. Of course, it’s also a trip down memory lane to the worst of 1970s “feminist theology” and how those moldy oldies might be recycled for “resistance” in our times. In the podcast you’ll learn, too, what a “misogynist” J.D. Vance is. And some wonder why the Church’s intellectual leadership is impaired?

Parent’s Job

A priest-friend from the Archdiocese of Newark shared a great line about the role of parents: “As a parent, my job is to get you into Heaven, not into Harvard.”