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Praise the Lord in song

We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28

I’d been following the progress of Fernando Varela and the group Forte on America’s Got Talent. They were eventually eliminated. What struck me most is the fact that popularity and fame were secondary to faith for Fernando. The stories in his local newspaper highlighted his work for the Lord. The Polish National Catholic Church supports and rewards those who endeavor to praise the Lord through music. Through Fernando’s work may many come to know and praise the Lord in music.

From the Ocala Star Banner: ‘America’s Got Talent’ star back at Belleview church

The man with the big voice was back at his little Belleview church on Sunday, wowing the faithful who packed the pews at St. Paul National Catholic Church to hear the talent they knew well before a contest introduced him to the world.

Fernando Varela returned to St. Paul, where he’s served as music director for the past four years, for the first time since last month’s near miss in the finals of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

At numerous points during a Mass that stretched for almost two hours, Varela was applauded by St. Paul’s appreciative parishioners, who clearly reveled in the outcome of the classic local-boy-makes-good tale.

“Fernando raises the roof,” said Barbara Field, a resident of The Villages who was a parishioner at St. Paul’s when Varela started there.

Field said she regularly attends another church because it better accommodated her schedule, but periodically comes back to St. Paul. On Sunday, she went there — for the second of two services she went to — with her neighbor, Karen Castle, specifically so they could listen to Varela.

“I just don’t see how he came in fourth,” Field said.

Varela, as part of an operatic trio of tenors called Forte, was one of six acts that made the show’s finale in September.

Forte was the third one eliminated that night by the audience vote.

Still, the finish was strong enough to land Varela and his partners in Forte — Josh Page and Sean Panikkar — a recording deal with Columbia Records and shows at Carnegie Hall and the Tropicana casino resort in Las Vegas.

The Tropicana’s website is already billing the group’s appearance there at the end of December.

Homilies, , , ,

Septuagesima Sunday

First Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18
Psalm: Ps 103:1-4,8,10,12-13
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48

Do you not know that you are the temple of God,

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Leviticus:

The Book of Leviticus may seem like one of the most boring books in the Bible. It is a book of laws, rules and regulations given to Moses concerning how people should live. If we look at this as just a book of laws we will get bored, we will get frustrated, we will wonder why God bothered with some of this.

What we need to have in our heats as we study this book is the sentence found in the second verse from today’s reading: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.” The book is about what it takes to be holy, to approach God in His temple, prepared to meet Him. God asks us to meet Him in a state of personal and communal holiness and perfection.

Let’s remember that, we are going to meet God, and we need to be holy to do it.

Where’s God:

I have a question, Where does God live?

What do we hear: God lives in heaven. God is everywhere. God is with us.

Fr. Stephen Freeman recently wrote a book which will be available starting March 1st, , “Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe.”

He asks that we think about our encounter with God, how we perceive Him, how we perceive our world. How we encounter Him, how we encounter our world. If God dwells in heaven, on a spiritual plane, somewhere we cannot see or know, He dwells apart from us. He lives upstairs. We live in a natural world where we try to make sense of how stuff works, why rain falls, why the sky is blue, why the energy of atoms can be configured in so many different ways that they make up all we see. We live downstairs.

In the world we have science, medicine, arts, entertainment. Sure, we acknowledge God, but He is in the spiritual realm in a place we can’t quite touch. When we chance across the holy, and receive communion, or get splashed with holy water, or get the cross we have, on the chain around our necks, blessed, we briefly touch on the spiritual world, but don’t quite go there. We don’t dive into it. God isn’t really encountered in the two storey world because God is upstairs and we are downstairs.

Think how Hollywood loves to use the spiritual realm to scare us, to heighten our senses. We get demons, exorcists, all sorts of spooky stuff, and in the process we recognize a god, who lives apart from us, upstairs in the spiritual realm, who is only there to do magical and spooky stuff, raising the dead, healing the sick, creating these well publicized tourist attractions called apparitions.

God is there, we are here, God and the world are apart, and we’re no more holy and perfect for it. In fact, we are going backwards.

Remember, we are going to meet God, and we need to be holy to do it. How do we get there?

Getting there:

Leviticus tells us that to get there, to become holy and perfect, we are to be like God. We are to be holy like He is holy. We should not hate outwardly or in our hearts, because we are to be like God who bears no hatred. We shouldn’t take revenge or cherish grudges against anyone, Because we are to be like God who doesn’t seek revenge and who doesn’t bear grudges. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, because if we are like God, we must love like He does.

St. Paul goes on to tell us that we are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Not just lives with us, like a roommate, The Spirit doesn’t stop by every Sunday like an invited guest, He dwells in us, lives in us, in our hearts, in our hands, in our minds, in every aspect of who we are as people. He is there when we wake and when we sleep, when we work, and pray, and eat. He is there when we cry, and laugh, and even when we sin. He is right there in us and with us continuously calling us to be holy and perfect as I am holy and perfect.

Is God crazy?

Now we need to pause, and look at ourselves. My first question would be, Is God crazy? God wants me to become like Him? But He lives upstairs on the spiritual plane, sure He’s everywhere, but that’s just like saying He’s nowhere. I can’t see Him or grasp Him, or be with Him, He’s just too different, too far away, too spooky. And perfect! I’m the farthest thing from perfect. I sin. Maybe I gamble, or eat, or drink, or smoke, or yell at the kids, or get frustrated with co-workers and annoying drivers a little too much, but perfect and holy, no. What does the Man Upstairs expect from me?

“Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”

Jesus:

The Gospel of St. John begins with a beautiful series of phrases about the coming of Jesus. At verse 14 we find: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” The Word became flesh, the Word is Jesus, the Son of God, His Word sent forth who existed from all eternity. The Word became flesh, became human, and came to dwell with us. Not as a buddy, roommate, friend, traveling companion, doer of spooky miracle things, but as a man to dwell, to share in the world, with us.

God came to dwell with us. Dwelling with us He was tempted, He bore infirmities, He was like His brethren, He stooped and washed feet, He cried over Jerusalem and was moved to sorrow at the death of His friend Lazarus. He suffered and He died. He dwelt with us to raise us to holiness and perfection. He dwelt with us to show us the way to what was possible, here, now, on earth, in the present.

He teaches us:

Jesus teaches us how to live like God lives, how to be holy and perfect like God in today’s Gospel. The Message translation of the bible makes Jesus’ words very plain:

‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it.

If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it.

If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer.

This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Jesus is teaching us that the requirement for meeting God is to be holy and perfect like He is. By doing these everyday, and sometimes difficult things, we will reach the holiness and perfection of God.

Where’s God?

Do any of you live in a two storey house, or an apartment building. If you do, you know what it like to have someone living upstairs. You kind of know they are there. Sometimes you hear them clunking about, maybe a little music or the TV, and once and a while you encounter them in the hallway. You nod and whisper hello.

Isn’t that how we treat God? Isn’t He that upstairs neighbor we never really see? Once and a while we encounter Him, brief miraculous seconds, in communion, when we feel particularly loved, or when we are scared. In those brief encounters a whispered prayer, a little hello and a nod to the upstairs neighbor.

Fr. Freeman’s book and today’s readings talk about a One-Storey Universe. God isn’t up there, He’s here. He dwells with us, in the same apartment, on the same floor, at the same supper table, in the same car on the way to and fro. We have to realize His presence in our lives and in our world. We have to encounter God full on every day as part of and essential to our lives. He isn’t going away. God isn’t hiding in heaven. God doesn’t dwell apart from us on a far away spiritual plane, upstairs, but is here, present and active, dwelling with us in this time and place. We need to immerse ourselves in Him.

When we come to communion today, let’s not nibble at God or quietly let Him dissolve on our tongues, because its not a magical spooky pill. It is God’s body given to us as food – EAT! When we bless ourselves on the way into or out of church, let’s grab a handful of that holy water and pour it over our heads, knowing that Jesus washed His disciples feet with that water, was immersed in that water at baptism, and that water flowed out of His side. Cherish it and bathe in it! When we confess, let us cry over our sins, and know that God loves us so much He has forgotten them. When we hear the sacrament of the Word, let us learn from it, and learn to live the way God lives. Completely feel and know that God is here, downstairs with us.

Then, let us go out, immersed in God, fed by God, dwelling with God, understanding God, and forgiven by God — to forgive others, wash others, baptize others, feed others, teach others. God is here with us and them, not somewhere else. As we do this, as we live with our God who lives with us, we — will — be — changed. We will become more and more holy, more and more perfect, and we will meet God. Amen.


Christian Witness, Political, , ,

Whatsoever you do, Wisconsin version

From Jim Wallis at Sojourner’s: Controversy in Wisconsin which speaks to the power of authentic Christian witness in the face of character assignation, threats of financial ruin, improperly making faithful youth a point of leverage, and political machinations of a few pharisees dressed in holy robes.

I doff my cheesehead hat and salute the witnesses in Wisconsin who saw past the sheep’s clothing to the wolves lurking beneath.

It was a nice invitation, not unlike many I’ve received before. Every summer, a number of Christian music and arts festivals convene around the country, featuring musicians and speakers and attracting tens of thousands of young people. I have spoken at many such events over the years and, in fact, met my wife, Joy Carroll, at the Greenbelt festival in England! I’m guessing I’ve spoken there as many as 10 times. Joy is helping to organize an —American Greenbelt— for next summer called the —Wild Goose— Festival, an image that in Celtic spirituality signifies the Holy Spirit.

So when Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin invited me to come and speak this summer, and the date was free, I accepted. Bob Lenz, who directs the annual gathering, is a wonderful man with a big heart and a powerful ministry among high school kids that has saved many from suicide. He’s the kind of guy you want to say yes to. It was put in the calendar.

Then a firestorm erupted. A local Christian radio station, which had always supported Lifest, and a local pastor started circulating attacks against me, suggesting that I was a communist, a deceiver, and, worst of all, an adviser to Barack Obama. My favorite was that I was an —avowed Marxist— and that any young person that heard me would be in —spiritual peril.— They were especially concerned that —the social justice message and agenda [Sojourners] promote[s] is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government.— Does that sound anything like the language of a certain Fox News talk show host who has recently come after —social justice— Christians and me in particular? Oh no, they insisted, this had nothing to do with Glenn Beck.

The intimidation of Bob Lenz and Lifest began, insisting that I be canceled or they would face pull-outs and protests. A letter was sent to local churches to call for my cancellation and, like Glenn Beck, the authors just made stuff up. Under a great deal of pressure, Bob called me to discuss what to do. He believed that these people were spreading lies and didn’t want to capitulate to their threats. But they were really stirring up trouble, and people were coming after him personally. I decided to call the president of the radio station myself, to ask him what his concerns were, and to offer a dialogue with his board or anybody else he wanted while I was in Wisconsin. But he refused the dialogue unless the station’s demands for my cancellation were met (sounds like Glenn Beck again).

He said he was against the —unholy marriage between the government and the church.— Me too, I said. When I told him how I successfully worked with the Obama administration to preserve religious freedom in hiring for faith-based organizations who receive any public funds (such as World Vision and The Salvation Army), and spent half of my time on health care in preserving the rule against federal funding of abortion, he became silent and kept moving on to —other issues— —“ the last of which was Sojourners supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I reminded him that there actually were Palestinian Christians, and that most mainline evangelical organizations now support a two-state solution, he got silent again. But he refused to change his position about me not speaking, and his final reason was that I had supported the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative! So my openness to a previous president’s ideas for faith-based partnerships in alleviating poverty was the reason I shouldn’t speak at Lifest? This was getting quite silly. But when the wild and fabricated charges they began with all fell flat in face of the facts, they were left with not much of an argument. But they stuck with it and pulled out of the festival.

I didn’t realize how big a deal this had become until I got to Wisconsin. Green Bay and Milwaukee television stations were there, with the story already in their local media and newspapers. I arrived to a series of press interviews and meetings with local pastors who were very sorry about all this and expressed hope that I would still come back to Wisconsin (I assured them that I loved their state and would love to come back).

Finally I got to speak to the young people, which was the reason that I came in the first place. I told them that I came because of them and the hope their generation provides to me. And that I liked the title of the talk I was to give: —The Call to Jesus and his Kingdom of Justice.— So that’s what I talked about to a very enthusiastic response from the thousands of young people who were there —“ the crowd made even larger because of the controversy, of course.

I said that when we have controversy and conflict in the church and speak badly of one another as Christians, it actually turns people away from Christ. And I said what unites us is not our different cultures, nationalities, or political views. What unites us is the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom, and their job as a new generation was to make that clear. When I quoted Jesus’ opening sermon at Nazareth and concluded that —any gospel that isn’t good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus Christ,— they all cheered.

The front page of the local paper in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I boarded my flight for home the next day, led with the story of the night before in nearby Oshkosh by saying, —Jim Wallis shared his Bible-based message of serving the poor Friday night to a large, welcoming crowd at Lifest despite a small number of boos at his introduction.— They reported what Bob Lenz courageously said in his kind introduction: —This is my brother in Christ,— he told the crowd. —I think he has a message for God’s church. Part of who I am is because of this man.—

I told the young crowd that heeding what the Bible says about serving the poor and seeking justice was not about social action or politics, but rather about nothing less than restoring the integrity of the Word of God in our lives, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Their response to that indicated that many young people today are no longer stuck in the old arguments and divisions in the church.

Most seemed to feel that the controversy and protest looked pretty foolish and unnecessary after the event had taken place. Many thanked Bob for standing firm against some pretty nasty attacks and pressure. But if the attackers had succeeded with intimidation to cancel a speaker they didn’t agree with, there is no doubt that the tactics of distortion and intimidation would have been repeated in other places. That is, after all, how some media celebrities now make their living, and they are encouraging others to follow their example. The newspaper article ended with my saying it was time to —replace the gospel of Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Bill with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.—

When I got to the TSA agent at airport security, she looked at my ID, smiled, and said, —So, you’re Jim Wallis! I hope you felt very welcome here; many of us are very glad you came.— I did feel very welcome and am very glad that I came.

PNCC,

Welcome home Fr. Walczak

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: [Rev] Melvin Walczak rejoins St. Casimir

IRONDEQUOIT —” A priest who made headlines as the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester has returned to the church of his first ministry, St. Casimir Polish National Catholic Church on Simpson Road.

Along the way, the Rev. Melvin Walczak, 62, has had quite a journey.

St. Casimir is part of the Polish National Catholic Church, which formed in 1897 by Polish nationalists who broke away from Roman Catholicism. The church, which according to its Web site has more than 25,000 members nationally, allows married priests.

The Roman Catholic Church typically does not, but policy does permit married priests ordained in another church to become Roman Catholics and continue to serve as priests.

Walczak served as pastor of St. Casimir from 1973 until 1985, when he switched denominations. He served at four Roman Catholic diocesan churches as well as at Rochester General Hospital, where he was director of pastoral care.

But after experiencing a —crisis of ministry,— Walczak left the diocese in 1996 and worked for the administrations of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks and, before that, former county executive Jack Doyle.

Walczak retired last year and thought about moving to the South to be near his brother. But when he learned of financial problems at St. Casimir, Walczak contacted the church’s bishop, who reappointed him.

And last Sunday, for the first time in a quarter-century, Walczak celebrated Mass at St. Casimir.

A homecoming

—I was frightened by how comfortable it felt, but frightened by how nervous I felt,— Walczak said. —As it unfolded, God provided the grace to make it easier for me. The anxiousness comes from not surrendering to God, and the peace comes from saying, ‘It’s in your hands now.’— Parishioners at St. Casimir said they were thrilled with Walczak’s return.

—We consider Father Mel a friend as well as pastor,— said Gary Richardson of Penfield, who got married at St. Casimir in 1963, when the church was still on Ernst Street in Rochester. —He’s a take-charge guy, and that’s a good thing. We’re all delighted with Father Mel coming back. If anyone can save the church, it’s Father Mel.—

Maria Weldy of Irondequoit, who joined St. Casimir after Walczak left, has been fighting to keep the church open. Membership now is about 20 families, compared with about 200 families when Walczak first served there.

—When someone comes over and offers his experience, it’s incredible,— Weldy said. —We’re very grateful, and it’s very surprising.—

…

Walczak … retired in 2009 and planned to spend a year in retirement before making any —dramatic changes.—

Then he read about St. Casimir’s problems.

—I have a friend who said, ‘Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,’ and I have leaned on that,— Walczak said. —I hope to appeal to folks who have not been going to church, and to people who are going but are disillusioned.

—I’m still not sure why I’m here. I’m not sure that I understand God’s plan. But there are a lot of God’s plans that I don’t understand.—

Welcome home Fr. Walczak. May God grant you great joy and perseverance in your ministry in the Polish National Catholic Church.

Christian Witness, Perspective,

A primer on Christianity understood

Nicholas Kristof writing in the NY Times: Learning From the Sin of Sodom

A pop quiz: What’s the largest U.S.-based international relief and development organization?

It’s not Save the Children, and it’s not CARE —” both terrific secular organizations. Rather, it’s World Vision, a Seattle-based Christian organization (with strong evangelical roots) whose budget has roughly tripled over the last decade.

World Vision now has 40,000 staff members in nearly 100 countries. That’s more staff members than CARE, Save the Children and the worldwide operations of the United States Agency for International Development —” combined.

A growing number of conservative Christians are explicitly and self-critically acknowledging that to be —pro-life— must mean more than opposing abortion. The head of World Vision in the United States, Richard Stearns, begins his fascinating book, —The Hole in Our Gospel,— with an account of a visit a decade ago to Uganda, where he met a 13-year-old AIDS orphan who was raising his younger brothers by himself.

—What sickened me most was this question: where was the Church?— he writes. —Where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time? Surely the Church should have been caring for these ‘orphans and widows in their distress.’ (James 1:27). Shouldn’t the pulpits across America have flamed with exhortations to rush to the front lines of compassion?

—How have we missed it so tragically, when even rock stars and Hollywood actors seem to understand?—

Mr. Stearns argues that evangelicals were often so focused on sexual morality and a personal relationship with God that they ignored the needy. He writes laceratingly about —a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics.—

In one striking passage, Mr. Stearns quotes the prophet Ezekiel as saying that the great sin of the people of Sodom wasn’t so much that they were promiscuous or gay as that they were —arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.— (Ezekiel 16:49.)

Hmm. Imagine if sodomy laws could be used to punish the stingy, unconcerned rich!

…

One of the most inspiring figures I’ve met while covering Congo’s brutal civil war is a determined Polish nun in the terrifying hinterland, feeding orphans, standing up to drunken soldiers and comforting survivors —” all in a war zone. I came back and decided: I want to grow up and become a Polish nun.

Some Americans assume that religious groups offer aid to entice converts. That’s incorrect. Today, groups like World Vision ban the use of aid to lure anyone into a religious conversation.

Some liberals are pushing to end the longtime practice (it’s a myth that this started with President George W. Bush) of channeling American aid through faith-based organizations. That change would be a catastrophe. In Haiti, more than half of food distributions go through religious groups like World Vision that have indispensable networks on the ground. We mustn’t make Haitians the casualties in our cultural wars.

A root problem is a liberal snobbishness toward faith-based organizations. Those doing the sneering typically give away far less money than evangelicals. They’re also less likely to spend vacations volunteering at, say, a school or a clinic in Rwanda.

If secular liberals can give up some of their snootiness, and if evangelicals can retire some of their sanctimony, then we all might succeed together in making greater progress against common enemies of humanity, like illiteracy, human trafficking and maternal mortality.

The only aspect of the article I would say wasn’t covered well was the subtle shot at the Church’s defense of life. That’s part of a continuity rarely understood. That said, the subtle shot makes the point, Christians should not be single issue people. We should take heed of our very teachings on the continuity of life. As with the mite and the beam (Matthew 7:3), if we cannot care for our brothers and sisters, how can we criticize those who do not respect life.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , , , ,

Two kinds of people who know better than the Holy Church

From BreakingNews: Supreme Court ruling loosens Catholic diocese hold on priest sex abuse papers

The first kind are those that make themselves greater than the Church, substituting private judgment and corporate fear for faithful duty consistent with Scripture and Tradition.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a Roman Catholic diocese in Connecticut, saying that thousands of documents generated by lawsuits against six priests for alleged sexual abuse cannot remain sealed.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Tuesday denied the Bridgeport diocese’s request to continue a stay on the release of the papers until the full court decides whether to review the case.

Ralph Johnson III, a lawyer for the diocese, said church officials were considering whether to ask all nine justices to rule on the request.

The diocese said on its Web site Tuesday afternoon that it was disappointed with Ginsburg’s decision and that it —intends to proceed with its announced determination to ask the full U.S. Supreme Court to review the important constitutional issues that this case presents.—

Jonathan Albano, attorney for three newspapers who requested the documents, said the ruling compels the diocese to release the documents, but he acknowledged the church could ask the full court to reconsider Ginsburg’s decision.

—At the end of the day, the diocese will be able to say they were heard before every court that was available to them,— Albano said.

…

The Connecticut high court also rejected the claim by church officials that the documents were subject to constitutional privileges, including religious privileges under the First Amendment…

From The Deacons Bench: Dissident (Fr.) Roy Bourgeois: ‘I will not be silenced.’

The second kind — those who see their private judgment and assessment as some sort of revelation when it is no more than mimicry of the the world’s message.

The controversial priest who participated in a woman’s ordination ceremony last year is back in the news again — and continuing to stir the pot:

“A prominent priest whose support for women’s ordination has him in trouble with the Catholic Church ratcheted up his confrontation with the hierarchy yesterday, calling the church’s refusal to ordain women a —scandal” and —spiritual violence.”

—I will not be silenced on this issue,” said the priest, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, to about 100 people in Weston at an event hosted by the congregation of Jean Marchant, a former staffer for the Archdiocese of Boston who claims she was ordained as a priest in an unsanctioned ceremony four years ago.

“The Catholic Church views Marchant and Bourgeois as having been automatically excommunicated for participating in unsanctioned ordination ceremonies.

“Yesterday Bourgeois said he remained unclear about his status because he has had no formal communication from his order, the Maryknoll Fathers, or from the Vatican, which last fall told him he would face excommunication if he did not recant.

—If they choose to kick me out of the church because I believe that men and women are equal, so be it,” Bourgeois said. —I will never be at peace being in any organization that would exclude others…

What’s funny in this case is the Rev. Bourgeois’ name – bourgeois which describes his attitude more than anything. As the Young Fogey might say, the class that touts SWPL (stuff white people love) – knowing better than the Church based on private judgment and believing that everyone must absolutely believe what you believe or they are evil, of course all in the name of “human” justice.

The Rev. Bourgeois is completely wrong of course, and women’s ordination is non-Catholic and a non-issue. It has nothing to do with equality or exclusion, but rather people of his class and background touting their personal assessment of what equality and exclusion mean — and then forcing others to eat that assessment.

Funny how all the Churches that eat and enjoy Rev. Bourgeois’ assessment are about as non-inclusive as they come. If you don’t buy what they sell you are out — you are just the ignorant proletariat. Further their congregations and parishes are dying at a fast rate (see here or read Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity) while truly Catholic Churches (Roman Catholic, Orthodox) are bringing the remnant in.

People who know know that Catholic Churches are all about inclusivity – all are welcome to come and pray. All are ministered to. All have a role consistent with Scripture and Tradition within those Churches.

The voice of the Holy Spirit is not asking that we grasp at straws for an answer, but that we show our faithfulness to what has been handed on to us. Not enough men in the seminary? We need to challenge them, be dynamic examples as men motivated by deep faith, love, and service. It’s hard work to put aside the tiredness, the monotony that can creep in to our all too human lives, but we can do it — truth, work, and struggle and we will be victorious. The solution isn’t in Rev. Bourgeois’ head or in our heads. It isn’t in society. It is in faithfulness.

Christian Witness, Current Events, PNCC

In the midst of gun shots

From the Herald News: Fall River police investigate Winthrop Street shooting which always gives rise to the question of Christian witness in old, inner city ethnic neighborhoods whose demographics have changed.

I advocate for a continued presence because our history, our democratic Church, speaks to people of every background and is able to bring the message of Christ to every community. It is certainly difficult to concentrate on love driving out all fear (1 John 4:18) when bullets are whizzing by, but it is worth considering before we respond on instinct.

Police are looking for two suspects following a reported Wednesday morning shooting on Winthrop Street near Plymouth Avenue and towed a black BMW that reportedly belongs to one of the suspects.

Two witnesses told The Herald News they heard two initial shots. One man, who declined to be identified, said he fled for safety with his young son. The other witness said a young black male exited the BMW, fired another shot at a black Cadillac Escalade and jumped a wall through her yard.

From there, the second witness, whose identity The Herald News is protecting, said, —I could see the gun through his T-shirt.—

It was the fourth reported city shooting since July 24, including the fatal shooting of Charles Smith on July 27.

The initial call about 11:45 a.m. reported a shooting at 112 Winthrop St.

An hour later, police put out a call in search of a black male who may have been an unexplained shooting victim, according to radio dispatch accounts.

—I can confirm we are investigating a report of shots fired in that area. No reports have been completed,— police spokesman Sgt. Paul Gauvin said.

One of several police officers interviewing witnesses on the lower portion of Winthrop Street, near Blessed Trinity Parish National Catholic Church, said they were seeking —two suspects on foot.—…

Christian Witness, PNCC,

New Ordinary for the Western Diocese leaves Stratford, Connecticut

From the Connecticut Post: Kopka leaving Stratford parish to head West

Kopka Named Diocean Bishop of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church in Chicago, covering eight states

STRATFORD — Bishop Anthony Kopka and many of his parishioners at St. Joseph’s Polish National Catholic Church still recall his first sermon on Father’s Day in 1982, when the congregation was in Bridgeport and the 26-year-old priest came strolling into the church carrying his clergy shirt and collar on a hangar, with a few dozen people in attendance.

It will be far different for Kopka when he delivers his final sermon Sunday at 4 p.m. in front of an expected crowd of 400 people at St. Joseph’s parish, 1300 Stratford Road, before departing for his new job in Chicago on Tuesday.

He won’t be carrying his clothing on a hanger this time, and there will be plenty of tears from those who eagerly awaited his arrival 27 years ago after being without a priest for more than a year.

Kopka will be adorned in the full black Bishop’s Cassock and floor-length robes, with red trim, and a brass headdress of miter and crosier — centuries-old symbols of regalia for bishops.

Kopka, now 53, has been named Bishop of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church in Chicago, which covers eight Midwestern and southern states and 30 parishes. He’ll also be pastor of All Saints Cathedral in Chicago. It’s a big change from overseeing a couple of hundred people for most of his time at St. Joseph’s, before being named auxiliary bishop of the Eastern Diocese in November 2006 that covers four New England states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Manchester.

“It’s a very emotional time. I have loved every minute of my 27 years here and it’s not easy to leave,” said Kopka, getting uncharacteristically choked up several times during an interview this week. “I grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania, but after all my wonderful experiences here — being part of the community and raising a family — I will now forever say I’m from Stratford.”

Kopka said he is ready for the new challenge.

“I believe God has been preparing me for this for a long time,” Kopka said. “I want to help take our church into a new era that goes beyond just (Polish) ethnicity and appeals to all those searching for an alternative. Our church tends to be more liberal in its doctrine as priests and bishops are allowed to marry and have families, which I think is important because we can relate to the same everyday problems that face other people.”

Dolores Smith, 68, who has been a church member her entire life and is chairwoman of a gala party Sunday that will celebrate Kopka’s tenure, said the party will include 20 members of the clergy from the area, as well as Mayor James R. Miron, State Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, and Supt. of Schools Irene Cornish.

Smith said it will be tough to replace a pastor who has led the congregation for nearly three decades, including the move from Bridgeport in 1989, “who has made such an impact on the community with his outreach and leadership.

“I still remember that first sermon he gave like it was yesterday,” Smith said. “Bishop Anthony was so young and hopeful, and had this wonderful big smile that has been comforting us all these years. It’s very bittersweet to see him go, but we know God will send us the right person to replace him, just like when he was sent to us all those years ago.”

When Kopka arrived church membership was dwindling, as parishioners were becoming scared to come to Barnum Avenue and Harriet Street on the east side of Bridgeport. He said car break-ins, muggings, threats to churchgoers and women being accosted resulted in the congregation voting overwhelmingly in 1988 to move to the Lordship section of Stratford, where the church owned a parcel of land.

A new church was built and opened in January of 1989. “It was the right decision and turning point in helping to revive church membership, which has more than doubled to over 200 since that time,” said Smith. “We now have members in more than 20 communities and much of the credit for that has to go to Bishop Kopka, who has been a sparkling presence in the area and made our church a community center where so many events have taken place.”

While Kopka didn’t want to give away too much about his final sermon, he said the theme would be uplifting and hopeful.

“I’m going to talk about how much we have grown together, how we all have gifts from God and because we’ve shared them with each other we have all grown in our faith and relationships,” Kopka said, again having a hard time holding back the tears. ” I hope to use that same theme as a model in all the parishes I’ll be overseeing.”

Kopka’s new assignment, which covers the largest geographic area of the church’s five regions in the country, includes Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri, Florida and a mission in the State of Washington. Bishop Kopka replaces Bishop Jan Dawidziuk, who is retiring on June 30.

The Polish National Catholic Church was established in 1897 in Scranton, Pa., with members breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church. Today, there are more than 25,000 members in America.

Among the many local boards Kopka has served on include a stint as chairman of the Ethics Commission and president of the Stratford Clergy Association, chaplain for the Stratford Police Department, and coordinator of youth groups of Stratford congregations for the Bridge Building Initiative of the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport.

Kopka and his wife Darlene, have two grown daughters, Kristen, 25 and Lauren, 23, who both live in Stratford and plan to remain here. “It’s great because when I come back and visit, we know we have a place to stay,” Kopka said.

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The ecumenical Dutch Touch that leads to unity

Fr. Robert Hart of the Continuum Blog has an interesting article on the “Dutch Touch” and Anglican Orders. In The Dutch Touch: A study in irrelevance he says:

Frankly, Saepius Officio, written in 1897 by the Archbishops of England (Canterbury and York) said everything that needed to be said in defense of our Orders, and the best summary anywhere is that of Bicknell.

As for the subject of the Infusion itself, it is a relic of an innocent age of ecumenical hope, that innocence and hope that would suffer destruction for the official Anglican Communion in 1976. If the Infusion may help someday between orthodox Anglicans of the Continuum and Rome or, restart some ecumenical relations with the Polish National Catholic Church, then maybe it will not have been a big wasted effort after all.

Until such a time, who cares?

Two observations: First, I think that ecumenical contact between orthodox Anglicans and the PNCC would be a fine thing. We offer the Declaration of Scranton as a point of unity between national churches, and as a structural building block in accord with the National Church philosophy expounded by Bishop Hodur.

The interesting thing about the word continuum is that it means a connection that surpasses the here and now. At core it is a continuation of a Church’s traditions, practices, and character (of course only important if they are Catholic in character and in fact). I have said before, including to local clergy of the TAC, swimming the Tiber will eventually lead to the dissolution of everything that you are. Simply put, the weight of the Roman Church will subsume the TAC and any other Continuum Church that joins it, just as Anglican Use parishes will disappear within two generations.

I also think that there is another issue that gets lost in the whole swimming the Tiber spirit within the TAC, “Is that what your people really want? Just as among clergy some will say yes, but I believe that a majority will see what I see, that ‘who they are’ will slip away.

My second observation, and I congratulate Fr. Hart for making the point, is “who cares.” That is really the point if your Church believes itself to be Catholic. Like the Orthodox Churches we need to place less emphasis on what Rome thinks of us and more on what we think of ourselves (and no emphasis on what some over-the-top on-line R.C. pundits and detractors think of us). The full body of Catholic Churches are, in their varied external manifestations (those whose ecclesiology, polity, and praxis are Catholic), the totality of the Church, which is truly universal.

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words! 

From the Rt. Rev. Thaddeus Peplowski from the May – June – July 2009 Issue of ACTS, a publication of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church:

We are all familiar with the saying: “Actions speak louder than words!” It reminds us that when positive things are being done, then the words that introduced the actions need not be repeated, since they are being manifested.

When Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection, they were mere words to the Apostles who did not even want to hear them; but when Christ died on the cross, that action stung the hearts of these men, who seemed to be completely lost in their sorrow. The resurrection from the dead of our Savior and His multiple appearances to His disciples, made them reassess everything that Jesus said during His three-year ministry in a new light of faith and truth. Before the resurrection, they were just ordinary men with ordinary fears, but after He rose from the dead and breathed upon them the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were transformed into superheroes, men who feared nothing, even death itself. The kind of faith that they professed as missionaries caused the fledging Church to grow by leaps and bounds – nothing could restrain the power of the Word that caused the spontaneous growth of the Church.

That is the kind of faith and spirit that needs to be revived in the Church today. The Holy Spirit is guiding us to a variety of groups of people, not only here in our country, but even in far-off Italy, who are seeking to create parishes modeled after the example of the Polish National Catholic Church. The so-called “hidden treasure” of our ecclesial structure is being sought after as the ideal form of establishing National Catholic Parishes that resemble early Christian communities. Yes, just speaking about our faith is not enough, we need to share it in outward form of helping others to establish congregations regardless of their ethnic, national or racial background, so that our words may produce actions.

Recently, we have been responding to the pleading of Catholic people who are desperately seeking to establish parishes within the PNCC. We are accepting their challenge and going forth to help them. Just like St. Paul accepted the call of the Macedonians, so we too must reach out and assist those who are seeking to become one with us in faith and service. If we fail to answer their call, we are also failing our Lord Jesus Christ who in the Great Commission delegated His Apostles to “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

We too, like the Apostles, are commissioned to continue the same missionary call of bringing those who are abandoned and lost back into the fold of the Church. It is wrong to proselytize members of other churches, but it is good to respond to the call of people who are seeking to become members of our Church, and come to us on their own. On Pentecost, when Peter converted over 3,000 Jewish men, he did so because they came to him, seeking the Word of Life and seeking conversion and baptism on their own. We need to do more than speak about the blessings that God has bestowed upon the National Catholic Movement; we need to open our hearts and minds to welcoming into our fold those who wish to be brothers and sisters with us in the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that the Polish National Catholic Church professes to be in doctrine and practice.

…Opportunities are always being presented to us, all we need to do is respond to the plea of people who are seeking to become National Catholics. We need to embrace them with the same welcoming love that each one of our parishes received when they were accepted into the Polish National Catholic Church.

Pray for the continued success of our Mission and Evangelism Program … that it may bring new members to our existing parishes, as well as inspiring groups of believers who are seeking to establish new PNCC congregations. It is only through the Words of encouragement that our Prayers and Words of faith precipitate the Actions of organizing new Parishes, proving that Actions do speak louder than Words.

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