CNA Columns: Harvesting the Fruit of Vatican II

Receiving the Spirit�s Gift

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

If the Holy Spirit was to manifest before you today and say, �I have a gift for you,� how would you respond?

Is there any chance you�d say, �Sounds great, but that�s probably not for me?� Of course not! Yet that�s exactly what most Catholics have unwittingly been doing for the last four decades or so.

Pope John Paul II called the Second Vatican Council �the Spirit�s gift to the Church.� (Read more)

Fort Hood, Vatican II and Regensburg

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

What do Fort Hood, Vatican II and Regensburg have in common? More than you might think.

As details continue to emerge surrounding last week�s massacre at Fort Hood, which wounded nearly three dozen people and left thirteen others dead, the consequences of a hyper-sensitive �kid glove� approach to Islam is being brought into increasingly sharper focus.

According to coworkers, the accused gunman, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had plainly divulged his anti-American, pro-jihadist sentiments over a period of years, but rather than confronting Hasan�s radical Islamic hostility head-on, his military superiors chose to tread lightly. (Read more)

A Defining Moment for the Sacred Liturgy

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

With the Fall Meeting of the USCCB less than a month away, it was widely reported last week that Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, PA had made his campaign against the proposed changes to the Roman Missal public.

Speaking at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., the former chair of the USCCB Liturgy Committee harshly criticized what he called the �slavishly literal� English translations of the Latin text found in the typical edition (the authoritative version upon which all translations are based.)

The "sacred language" proposed by translators "tends to be elitist and remote from everyday speech and frequently not understandable," Bishop Trautman said, ultimately concluding that moving forward could invite a "pastoral disaster." (Read more)

The Devil�s in the Details

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

All of the preparations had been made, and as the setting sun gave way to the encroaching darkness, there was nothing left to do but wait. A sense of anticipation filled the air and admittedly I was growing just a little impatient.

Though far from unexpected, I jumped to my feet as if surprised by the sound of the doorbell�s ring. Not knowing exactly who or what awaited me on the other side, I flung the door open, confident that I had pretty much seen it all and was prepared for just about anything. Boy was I wrong.

There on my front porch was none other than His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI - all four-foot-two of him - with a crosier in one hand and a bag in the other. (Read more)

A Pastoral Council

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

Have you ever wondered what is meant by the notion that Vatican II was a �pastoral council?� According to some, this means that the teachings of Vatican II are not quite as reliable as those that were pronounced by the �dogmatic councils� like Trent or Nicea.

Still others will even go so far as to maintain that the Second Vatican Council, because it was simply a pastoral council, may have even erred in various ways. The next step in this logical progression is the idea that dissent from its teachings is not only justifiable, but at times truly laudable.

What should a faithful Catholic make of such assertions? (Read more)

When Home Doesn�t Feel Welcome

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

Last week I attended a talk given by a well-known Catholic Bible scholar during which he shared a conversation he had with a recent convert to the faith about her experiences at Mass. This woman, he told us, had �come home� to the Church just over a year ago, and yet even though she had participated in Holy Mass every week at the same parish, she lamented that she still �feels ignored at church.�

�Very few people in the parish even know my name,� she told him. Adding to her difficulty is the fact that her former Protestant community �was always so welcoming.�

Our lecturer then offered with matter-of-fact resignation what many people seem to have simply accepted as a regrettable truism, �You know, Catholics aren�t exactly known for being the warmest of people. In fact, the number one reason given by those who have left the Catholic Church for some other faith community is that they didn�t feel welcome.� (Read more)

The Council�s View of Man

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

I recently had an opportunity to discuss Gaudium et Spes, The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, with a group of what you might call �traditional-minded� Catholics. It occurred to me that some of their biggest concerns speak to key issues regarding the way we should approach the Council documents in general, and they are well worth our consideration here.

One of the criticisms that is sometimes directed toward Gaudium et Spes in particular concerns the matter of what is viewed as �ambiguous language;� i.e. portions of the text that are allegedly worded in such a way as to almost invite false interpretations.

In addressing this perceived flaw and the risk it supposedly invites, we first have to consider what exactly constitutes a �false interpretation.� (Read more)

Global Climate Change: When Misinformation Reigns

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

Plug the terms �Pope Benedict XVI� and �global climate change� into your favorite search engine and you�ll find numerous stories joyfully relating how the Holy Father has endorsed the current environmentalist cause du jour.

Not surprising, I suppose, when it comes from those secular sources that we expect to sympathize with the radical environmentalist agenda, but when a story like this is disseminated by an organ of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it�s downright shocking.

A recent Catholic News Service (CNS) article entitled �Encyclical applies to daily lives, political arena� plainly gave its many readers worldwide the impression that Pope Benedict VXI had issued an official treatise on �global climate-change� in his recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. (Read more)

�Religious Music� Not Necessarily Sacred

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

What exactly is sacred music? We know it when we hear it, right?

Well, for the Council Fathers, sacred music is something rather different than that which one might call "religious music;" that body of hymnody and song that although composed of pious themes has little to no place in the sacred liturgy.

Rather than attempting to define "sacred music" anew, the Council Fathers instead claimed recourse to Pope Saint Pius X�s treatment of the subject; the enduring validity of which the Council clearly affirmed. (Read more)

Not Your Average Mom

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500

By Louie Verrecchio

"The typical Jewish mother nudging her son."

Without any malice intended toward good Jewish mothers everywhere, that�s the tongue-in-cheek description a deacon friend once gave concerning Mary�s role at the Wedding Feast at Cana. (John 2:1-11)

"People with a deep devotion to Mary," he continued more seriously, "tend to inflate her role in salvation history." (Read more)