Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec 1, 2017 / 12:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A parish priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh has rescinded a dispensation he claimed would excuse his parishioners from the Sunday Mass obligation on the weekend of Christmas this year, the diocese has confirmed.
Because Christmas falls on a Monday, Catholics are obligated to attend Mass on two consecutive days – one for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and one for Christmas.
In October, the Diocese of Pittsburgh sent out an e-mail to all of its priests, reminding them of this obligation and reiterating the importance of keeping the Mass schedules in accordance with guidance from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
However, in a parish bulletin announcement on Sunday, Nov. 26, Fr. Lou Vallone, pastor of St. Catherine’s parish in Crescent, Pa. attempted to offer a dispensation from Mass obligations to his parishioners.
Vallone wrote that he would dispense anyone of the Sunday Mass obligation if they met the following three requirements: They read the dispensation announcement in the parish bulletin, they were a parishioner of the parish either by “geography or registration,” and finally, that all giving envelopes for both celebrations be placed in the collection basket of the Mass of their choosing that weekend.
Fr. Nick Vaskov, the executive director of communications for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, told CNA that the diocese was made aware of the broad dispensation and “saw a flaw in it, because while a pastor can dispense an individual, he can’t generally offer a dispensation for the individual to apply to himself.”
Canon law allows for individual dispensations from Mass obligations in the cases of a just cause, such as “in case of a natural disaster like a blizzard or something like that,” Fr. Vaskov said, but dispensations can not be given generally or without just cause.
“In light of this we followed up with (Vallone)…just reiterating the importance of educating the faithful as to the importance of the Advent season, the beauty of the liturgy in that sense and the anticipation of Christmas, and that the schedule for that weekend shouldn’t change,” Vaskov told CNA.
Vaskov confirmed to CNA that Vallone had rescinded his dispensation as of Thursday evening.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Eve, from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, c. 1510. / null
Denver, Colo., Nov 15, 2022 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Michelangelo’s artistic masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel broke new ground in portraying the dynamic creative acts of God, but his work also depicts the combined importance of men and women through all of sacred history, art historian Elizabeth Lev has said.
“The spirit of artistic adventure led the artist to experiment with a completely new vision of creation,” Lev said Nov. 12. “He took a book that had been painted, sculpted, mosaiced, and illuminated over and over again in the history of art and created something completely new.”
She spoke at the closing keynote Saturday evening at the fall conference of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Lev teaches at the Rome campus of Duquesne University and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Her speech, “Creation, Complementarity, & St. John Paul II in Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling,” focused on one of the key artistic treasures of Vatican City.
The 16th-century Florentine artist Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling and the upper section of its walls. This was the artist’s focus from 1508 to 1512. He later finished the Last Judgment above the chapel altar from 1535 to 1541.
The ceiling frescoes show the creation of the heavens and the earth, the creation of Adam and Eve, their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the great flood, and the rebirth of humankind through Noah.
Lev cited St. John Paul II’s description of Michelangelo’s work in his poem “Meditations on the Book of Genesis at the Threshold of the Sistine Chapel.”
“It is the book of the origins — Genesis,” the pope said. “Here, in this chapel, Michelangelo penned it, not with words, but with the richness of piled-up colors. We enter in order to read it again, going from wonder to wonder.”
Lev reflected on the first three panels depicting the creation of the world. These show “the mighty dynamic figure of God the Father at work.”
“It’s not what God creates, it’s that God creates,” she said. Michelangelo broke ground in portraying God as “physically engaged in creation.” For Lev, this offers “a preview of the Incarnation.”
Turning to Michelangelo’s famous depiction of the Creation of Adam, Lev noted that the artist depicts “just God and the creature formed in his likeness.” Adam is shown as “somewhat listless” in contrast with God’s energy. Adam is “sentient and awake but he has no will or strength or purpose to rise,” she said. “He looks completely passive and dependent despite that incredibly beautiful form.”
“It’s God who reaches towards man,” she continued. For Lev, the outstretched finger of God makes the viewer “almost lean forward in his seat waiting for that final Act of Creation, the divine spark, the Breath of Life that will release that latent energy and allow Adam to take his place as the greatest of creations.”
“This is the joy in humanity that permeates the Renaissance,” Lev said.
There is academic debate over a female figure shown in the Creation of Adam. As God the Father stretches out one arm to Adam, his other arm curls around a female figure. Some have identified this figure as Wisdom, some as Mary.
Lev suggested it is best to identify this figure as Eve, both because the figure provides visual balance to Adam and because her gaze “connects her more intimately with Adam.”
The creation of Eve from Adam, depicted next on the chapel ceiling, shows Eve emerging from Adam’s side with her hands clasped in prayer, an image of the Church and the personification of Mary, the “Second Eve.”
Lev cited St. John Paul II’s 1999 homily inaugurating the newly restored Sistine Chapel, after centuries of grime and soot were removed. The pope called the chapel the “sanctuary of the theology of the human body,” alluding to his catecheses offered from 1979 to 1984. The pope suggested that Michelangelo allowed himself to be guided by the Book of Genesis’ depiction of mankind in Eden: “the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.”
Before the fall, Lev commented, Michelangelo depicted Adam and Eve in the state of grace as “two of his most beautiful figures.”
“They are filled with dynamism. They’re buoyant. They’re luminous,” Lev said, adding that their bodies “suggest immortality.” After the fall, however, both of their bodies “lose their luminosity” and appear heavier, like a burden. Adam’s shoulder seems to force Eve into the background, “subjugating her.”
For Lev, the artistic depiction of the genealogy of Jesus Christ also deserves attention. The portrayal of the ancestors of Jesus Christ shows “a genealogy of men and women struggling from generation to generation.” These figures seem “more approachable” and “much more similar to candid family photographs.” Even though 22 women in Jesus’ genealogy are not named, Michelangelo pairs them with their husbands.
Lev noted that Michelangelo broke with artistic convention both by including mothers and by showing them as busy, everyday women “tending to toddlers, toilettes, and tasks.” His style of painting them with “incredible immediacy” adds observations of human nature: Eleazar’s wife holds the purse strings and the key to the house, and her husband looks “startled” as she surveys their son. Other depictions are “tender and intimate,” like the portrayal of the wife of Manasseh, who cradles a swaddled son while rocking an infant’s cradle.
Here, Lev drew on John Paul II’s 1995 “Letter to Women.” He wrote that womanhood and manhood are complementary at the physical, psychological, and even ontological level.
“It is only through the duality of the masculine and the feminine that the human finds full recognition,” the pope said. “To this unity of the two, God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life but the creation of history itself.”
Lev noted that the passing of generations “necessarily emphasizes the begetting of children.” This means that the complementarity of the sexes is essential for a population to form and for creation to continue.
In Michelangelo’s portrayal of the Last Judgment, the artist still looks back to creation but also breaks new ground. He placed Mary next to Christ, as “a foil to Christ’s sternness.”
“She is the picture of mercy gazing down towards the elect, placed by the wound in Christ’s side whence the Church sprang,” Lev said. “Mary is transfigured into the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave his life and to whom he cannot say no. She is the conduit to Christ, as Eve was the link between God and man in the creation of woman.”
For Lev, the Sistine Chapel shows the “incredible gift of creation” from the beginning of the world down through the generations, “through which all of us today are a part of that continuation of creation.”
Catholic bishops in Canada will gather next week, the final week of September, to discuss a series of issues including the growth of euthanasia, the Church’s work in overseas development, and the protection of minors.
The 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), which is held annually, will begin on Monday, Sept. 25, and conclude on Thursday, Sept. 28. The meeting will take place in King City, Ontario, just outside of Toronto, and 79 Latin and Eastern-rite bishops are expected to participate.
One of the main topics to be discussed is the growth of euthanasia throughout Canada, which is known legally as Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAiD. Although voluntary euthanasia has been legal in Canada since 2016, a revision of that law going into effect in March 2024 will vastly expand eligibility.
More than 30,000 Canadians died from euthanasia between 2016 and 2021, and it has seen a growth in use annually. The revision, which will go into effect in less than six months, will make mental illness an eligible condition to receive approval for MAiD, opening the procedure up to significantly more people.
The Standing Committee for Family and Life, chaired by Archbishop Christian Lépine, will hold a panel discussion on this topic, which is meant to help the Church “engage with the urgency of promoting palliative care” rather than euthanasia.
Another aspect of the meeting will focus on Development and Peace — Caritas Canada, known as DPCC. This project encompasses charity and development work overseas. Clergy on the DPCC National Council will update the bishops on the activities since last year and will be joined by DPCC President Brenda Arakaza and Executive Director Carl Hétu.
The bishops will also discuss “safeguarding persons in vulnerable situations,” which includes minors. The Standing Committee for Responsible Ministry has been studying this issue over the past year and intends to discuss how to define vulnerability, how to reduce risks, and what behaviors to encourage on the part of the ministry.
Part of the meeting will also focus on the upcoming Synod on Synodality. According to the CCCB, there will be four Canadian bishops taking part in the synod and four non-bishop Catholics chosen by the Vatican.
“In order to help prepare the episcopal delegates, bishops present at the Plenary Assembly meeting will reflect on one of the three dimensions of synodality (communion, participation, and mission), guided by the questions in the Instrumentum Laboris and the results of the ‘national’ and ‘continental’ stages of the synod process,” a statement from the CCCB read.
The bishops will also review various reports from subcommittees, which will include topics such as liturgy, catechesis, and evangelization. Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle from the Philippines will address the bishops virtually and the apostolic nuncio to Canada, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, will also give an address.
“A meeting of the Plenary Assembly is a solemn and momentous event in the life of the Church in Canada because it gathers together all the members of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), who total 79 bishops of the Latin and Eastern Churches across Canada,” a statement from the CCCB read. “Decisions taken by the Plenary Assembly are the highest instance of authority within the CCCB and represent the unity of action of all the bishops on a national level.”
San Antonio, Texas, Aug 23, 2018 / 02:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Before being allowed to celebrate Mass for families housed at a migrant detention center in south Texas, a local priest was made to sign a confidentiality agreement promising that he would n… […]
6 Comments
“Because Christmas falls on a Monday, Catholics are obligated to attend Mass on two consecutive days”
Oh, the horror! The horror! Mass *two days in a row!*
‘“In light of this we followed up with (Vallone)…just reiterating the importance of educating the faithful as to the importance of the Advent season, the beauty of the liturgy in that sense and the anticipation of Christmas, and that the schedule for that weekend shouldn’t change,” Vaskov told CNA.’
Sounds like Father Louis F. Vallone needs quite a bit of educating himself. It appears that that MDiv and MA he received aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Are you listening Bishop Zubik?
The Diocese of Pittsburgh has far worse problems than the renegade Fr. Vallone who thinks he can do whatever he wants. Our Bishop does too. He’s in the middle of reducing the diocese from 188 parishes to just 48 parishes. Pray for us!
“Because Christmas falls on a Monday, Catholics are obligated to attend Mass on two consecutive days”
Oh, the horror! The horror! Mass *two days in a row!*
Good grief. How pathetic.
well, judging from what he tried to do, I have to imagine that sitting through mass at St Catherine’s is probably very trying experience.
The parishioners are learning how to “offer it up” if anything.
‘“In light of this we followed up with (Vallone)…just reiterating the importance of educating the faithful as to the importance of the Advent season, the beauty of the liturgy in that sense and the anticipation of Christmas, and that the schedule for that weekend shouldn’t change,” Vaskov told CNA.’
Sounds like Father Louis F. Vallone needs quite a bit of educating himself. It appears that that MDiv and MA he received aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Are you listening Bishop Zubik?
The Diocese of Pittsburgh has far worse problems than the renegade Fr. Vallone who thinks he can do whatever he wants. Our Bishop does too. He’s in the middle of reducing the diocese from 188 parishes to just 48 parishes. Pray for us!
wow! that new Pentecost sure hit Pittsburgh hard.