New York City, N.Y., Sep 11, 2017 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the clear, sunny morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Fr. Kevin Madigan heard an explosion overhead.
He grabbed oils for anointing, ran out the door of St. Peter’s parish in New York City, and wandered towards the center of the commotion – the World Trade Center only a block away.
Fifty blocks uptown, Fr. Christopher Keenan, OFM watched with the world as the smoke rising from the twin towers darkened the television screen. Looking to help, he went to St. Vincent’s Hospital downtown to tend to those wounded in the attack – but the victims never came.
All the while, he wondered what had happened to a brother friar assigned as chaplain to the firefighters of New York City: Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM, named by some the “Saint of 9/11.”
Sixteen years ago on this day, hijackers flew planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. In a field in southern Pennsylvania, passengers retook control of the cockpit and crashed the plane before it could reach its intended target, presumed to be in Washington, D.C.
The consequences of the attacks have rippled throughout the United States as the attacks spurred a new global war on terror and irreversibly changed the country’s outlook on terror, security, and international engagement.
For Fr. Madigan, Fr. Keenan and Fr. Judge, the day changed their own lives and ministries, as a pastor lost nearly his entire congregation, and a friar put himself in harm’s way to take on a new position – an assignment he only received because another friar gave the ultimate sacrifice as the Twin Towers came down.
“This experience has seared our soul and our spirit and our life, and it has so seared our spirit and our life that it has penetrated our DNA,” Fr. Keenan told CNA.
“It has changed our lives and we will never be the same,” he said.
It was like losing a village
On Sept. 11, 2001, Fr. Kevin Madigan had been assigned to St. Peter’s Church in the financial district of Lower Manhattan. The parish is the oldest Catholic Church in New York State, “half a block literally from the corner of the World Trade Center,” Fr. Madigan explained to CNA.
“Prior to 9/11 it was a parish that basically serviced the people who came to the neighborhood who came to Mass or Confession, devotions and things like that.” The parish had a full and well-attended schedule of liturgies and prayers, with multiple Masses said during the morning and lunch hour. September 11th changed that.
“Immediately after 9/11, that community was no longer there, because it was like losing a village of 40,000 people next door.”
Fr. Madigan was leaving the sanctuary that morning, heading back to the rectory when overhead he heard the first plane hit the towers. Immediately he made his way towards the commotion, looking to minister to anyone who had been hurt by what had happened.
“I took the oils for anointing anyone who was dying – I didn’t know what was going on there,” he said. However, most of those fleeing the building did not need anointing, Fr. Madigan recalled. “Most people either got out alive or were dead. There weren’t that many people who were in that in-between area.”
Then, there was another explosion from the other tower, and an object – the wheel of an airplane, in fact – went whizzing by Fr. Madigan’s head.
“After the second plane hit I went back to the office and made sure all the staff got out of there fast,” evacuating staff who were unaware of the chaos outside.
Fr. Madigan was back on the street when firefighters began to wonder if the towers might fall.
Thinking it ridiculous, Fr. Madigan kept an eye on a nearby subway entrance, which linked to an underground passage north of the towers. Then, a massive cloud of dust swept towards Fr. Madigan and another priest as the towers did collapse; they ducked into the subway station, emerging amidst the thick smoke and dust several blocks away.
After the towers came down, Fr. Madigan made his way first to the hospital for an emergency health screening, then back to check on St. Peter’s. While he was away from his parish, firefighters and other first responders made use of the sanctuary, temporarily laying to rest over 30 bodies recovered from the wreckage.
The death of Father Mychal
In September of 2001, Fr. Christopher Keenan had been assigned to work with a community ministry program near the parish of St. Francis in midtown Manhattan. At St. Francis, he lived in community along with several other Franciscan Friars, including an old friend he had known for years – Fr. Mychal Judge, chaplain for the Fire Department of New York City. Through Fr. Judge, the Friars became especially close with some of their neighbors at a firehouse across the street, who let the friars park their car at the firehouse.
Although the plane flew overhead, Fr. Keenan told CNA that “like everyone else, we found out while watching TV.” As the friars and brothers watched the events unfold on the television, they saw the second plane hit the South Tower; Fr. Keenan decided to go to St. Vincent’s Hospital – one of the closest medical facilities to the Word Trade Center. At the time, he thought there would be injured people who would need to be anointed or would like someone to hear their confession.
However, once he got to St. Vincent’s he found a long line of doctors, nurses and other responders who had come to help: together they “were all waiting for these people to get out who never came.” Victims were either largely able to walk away on their own, or they never made it to the hospital at all.
Instead, Fr. Keenan told CNA, “my responsibility was after people were treated to contact their family members to come and get them.”
As patients began to go home, Fr. Keenan continued to wonder about his brother friar, Fr. Judge, asking firefighters if they knew what had happened to the chaplain. Fr. Keenan left the hospital in the early evening to go hear confessions, but stopped at the firehouse across the street to ask the firemen if they knew where Fr. Judge was: “they told me his body was in the back of the firehouse.”
The mere fact that his body was intact and present at the firehouse that day was in itself a small miracle, Fr. Keenan said. “Mychal’s body that was brought out was one of the only bodies that was intact, recognizable and viewable,” he said. Among those that died in the Twin Towers, he continued, “everyone was vaporized, pulverized and cremated” by the heat of the fire in the towers and the violence of the towers’ collapse. “He was one of the only ones able to be brought out and to be brought home.”
That morning, Fr. Judge had gone along with Battalion 1 to answer a call in a neighborhood close to the Trade Center. Also with the battalion were two French filmmakers filming a documentary on the fire unit. When the towers were hit, the Battalion was one of the first to arrive on the scene. In the film released by the brothers, Fr. Keenan said, “you can see his face and you can tell he knows what’s happening and his lips are moving and you can tell he’s praying his rosary.”
The group entered the lobby of the North Tower and stood in the Mezzanine as the South Tower collapsed – spraying glass, debris and dust throughout the building.
“All the debris roared through the glass mezzanine like a roaring train and his body happened to be blown into the escalators,” Fr. Keenan relayed the experience eyewitnesses told him. In the impact, Fr. Judge hit his head on a piece of debris, killing him almost instantly.
“All of a sudden they feel something at their feet and it was Mychal, but he was gone.“
Members of the fire department, police department and other first responders carried Fr. Judge’s body out of the wreckage, putting his body down first to run as the second tower collapsed, then again to temporarily rest it at St. Peter’s Church. Members of the fire department brought it back to the firehouse where Fr. Keenan saw his friend and prayed over his body.
Fr. Mychal Judge was later listed as Victim 0001 – the first death certificate processed on 9/11.
Despite the sudden and unexpected nature of the attacks, Fr. Keenan told CNA that in the weeks before his friend’s death, Fr. Judge had a sense his death was near.
“He just had a sense that the Lord Jesus was coming.” On several occasions, Fr. Keenan said, Fr. Judge had told him, “You know, Chrissy, the Lord will be coming for me,” and made other references to his death.
“He had a sense that the Lord was coming for him.”
The grueling aftermath
“There was no playbook for how you deal with something in the wake of something like that,” Fr. Madigan said of the aftermath of 9/11. Personally, Fr. Madigan told CNA, he was well-prepared spiritually and mentally for the senseless nature of the attacks.
“I understand that innocent people get killed tragically all the time,” he said, noting that while the scale was larger and hit so close to home, “life goes on.” For many others that he ministered to, however, “it did shake their foundations, their trust and belief in God.”
While the attacks changed the focus of his ministry as a parish priest at the time, they also posed logistical challenges for ministry and aid: St. Peter’s usual congregation of people who worked in and around the World Trade Center vanished nearly overnight. Instead, the whole area was cordoned off for rescue workers and recovery activities as the city began the long task of sorting and removing the debris and rubble.
In addition, a small chapel named St. Joseph’s Chapel, which was cared for and administered by St. Peter’s, was used by FEMA workers as a base for recovery activities during the weeks after the attack. During that time, the sanctuary was damaged and several structures of the chapel, including the pulpit, chairs and interior were rendered unusable. According to Fr. Madigan, FEMA denies that it ever used the space.
Still, the priests at St. Peter’s saw it as their duty to minister to those that were there – whoever they were.
“The parish, the church building itself was open that whole time,” he said, saying that anyone who had clearance to be within the Ground Zero area was welcome at the church. In the weeks after the attacks, the parish acted as sanctuary, as recovery workers who were discovering body parts and other personal effects “would come in there just to sort of try to get away from that space.”
“Myself and one of the other priests would be out there each day just to be able to talk to anyone who wants to talk about what’s going on,” he added. “We’d celebrate Mass in a building nearby.”
Today, Fr. Madigan has been reassigned to another parish in uptown Manhattan, and St. Peter’s now has found a new congregation as new residents have moved into the neighborhoods surrounding the former World Trade Center site.
Only two months after the attack, Fr. Keenan took on the role of his old friend, Fr. Judge: he was installed as chaplain for the 14,000 first responders of the the FDNY.
Immediately, Fr. Keenan joined the firefighters in their task of looking for the remains – even the most minute fragments – of the more than 2,600 people killed at the World Trade Center. “The rest of the recovery process then was for nine months trying to find the remains.”
For the firefighters in particular, there was a drive to find the remains of the 343 firefighters killed at the World Trade Center and help bring closure to the family members. “You always bring your brother home, you never leave them on the battlefield,” Fr. Keenan said.
The resulting amount of work, as well as the “intense” tradition among firefighters to attend all funerals for members killed in the line of duty meant that the job became all-consuming, with all one’s spare time spent at the World Trade Center site. Sometimes, Fr. Keenan said, he would attend as many as four, five, or six funerals or memorials a day – and many families held a second funeral if body parts were recovered from the site.
“Here are the guys, overtime, going to all the funerals, working spare time on the site looking for recovery, and taking care of the families,” he said. “I was 24/7, 365 for 26 months.”
In addition, Fr. Keenan and the rest of the FDNY worked inside “this incredible toxic brew” of smoke, chemicals and fires that burned among the ruins at Ground Zero for months.
“I would be celebrating Mass at 10:00 on a Sunday morning down there,” he recalled, “and just 30 feet from where I’m celebrating Mass at the cross, the cranes are lifting up the steel.”
While both buildings had contained more than 200 floors of offices, there was “not a trace of a computer, telephones, files, nothing. Everything was totally decimated.” Instead, all that was left was steel, dirt and the chemicals feeding the fires that smouldered underground in the footprint of the towers.
“The cranes are lifting up the steel and the air is feeding the fires underneath, and out of that is coming these incredible colors of yellow, black and green smoke, and we all worked in the recovery process.” The experience working the recovery at the World Trade Center site is one that Fr. Keenan considers a “gift” and an “honor.”
“It was an incredible experience really,” he said.
Fr. Keenan recounted a conversation the firefighters had with him a few days after he was commissioned. After pledging to “offer my life to protect the people and property of New York City,” the other firefighters told their new chaplain “we know you’re ours, don’t you forget that every one of us is yours,” promising to stand by their new shepherd. “I’m the most loved and cared for person in the world and who has it better than me?”
While the formal recovery process has ended and a new tower, One World Trade Center, stands just yards from the original site of Ground Zero, the experience – and the chemicals rescue workers came in contact with for months – still affect the firefighters.
In 2016 alone, “we put 17 new names on the wall,” said Fr. Keenan, “who died this past year from of the effects of 9/11.” He explained that in the years following the attack, thousands of rescuers and first responders – including Fr. Keenan himself, have developed different cancers and illnesses linked to their exposure at the World Trade Center site. In fact, at the time of the interview in 2016, Fr. Keenan had just returned from a screening for the more than 20 toxic chemicals the responders were exposed to. He warned that the “different cancers and the lung problems that are emerging are just the tip of the iceberg,” and worried that as time progressed, other cancers and illnesses linked to the attack recovery would emerge.
The first responders are also dealing with the psychological fallout of the attacks among themselves, Fr. Keenan said, though many are dealing with it in their own way, and with one another.
Looking back, Fr. Keenan told CNA he still finds it difficult to express the experience to others or to make sense of what it was like when he would go down into “the pit” to work alongside the firefighters and other first responders. “The only image I had as time went on and I asked ‘how do I make sense of this as a man of faith?’ is that it was like I was descending into hell and I was seeing the face of God on the people that were there.”
The same image had come to his mind to make sense of taking care of patients with AIDS in the 1990s he said, even though nothing can fully make sense of events like these.
“I was like a midwife to people in their birthing process from life to death to new life,” he recalled. “All I can do is be present there, they have to do the work, I can be present there I can pray with them.”
“That’s how in faith I kind of sort of comprehended it.”
This article was originally published on CNA Sept. 11, 2016.
[…]
Its long been thought that people leave the Catholic church because it is too demanding. In reality, is is because there is not enough emphasis on moral standards and practical applications of being a Catholic. The church is not asking too much of its members, it is asking too little. And with each capitulation to secular society’s whim of the day ( like gay blessings) more crushed and disheartened catholics leave. The Bishops may be puzzled but the catholics in the pews are not.Where are the homilies about abortion, living together unmarried, gay unions, trans issues, etc? Bishops and priests, why did you become a priest at all if you were going to be content to follow what the New York Times wants you to do? That is NOT leading your flock. It is abandoning them. Very sad.
Sad to say that those subjects have had people leave the church… hard to believe, but true. The church wants the money and those that have spoken up (priests) have been scorned from their bishops and fellow catholic’s. I want them to speak up but when they do they get removed or go to another parish.
Excellent comment. Perfectly stated.
Where are the homilies about abortion, living together unmarried, gay unions, trans issues, etc? ”
********
Every one of those issues, plus contraception, was actually all addressed during the homily at our TLM last Sunday but Father doesn’t just save that for the TLM, his homilies are similar at his NO masses also.
But I do agree with what you say. People want to be challenged by their faith, especially young people. If the Church only offers what the world offers why bother?
And that is a rarity. I live in NY where I can “shop around” to many different parishes trying to find priests giving non-mundane homilies, and it is still very difficult. Fortunately, I have a car, and there are some good priests. It shouldn’t be a struggle.
So do you want to hear homilies about other peoples sins or do you want to hear homilies that convict you of your own sins and encourage you to change your behaviour. Unless you are tempted to homosexuality, what is the point of hearing a homily about that? Would it not be better to have a homily about pride or how to love your enemy, things that are really difficult and most people need to work on.
A couple of years ago, it was reported in the B.C. Catholic Newspaper, published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that 83% of young people, both male and female, by the time they reach the age of 25, have dropped out of the Catholic Church.
It would be worthwhile to interview young people who attended a World Youth day several years ago, if they are still practicing Catholics.
The Church is dying in Western culture and there’s one very simple explanation:
The dominant, secular, atheistic culture has successfully evangelized Christians in the West including those in the Catholic Church founded by Christ.
Let’s put it plainly for those who are not inclined to abstruse theological principles: There was a family with 10 children. The father was a thorough-going narcissist who enjoyed certain pleasures and paid little attention to his wife and children and their needs. He was rarely home and so the household went undisciplined. He rarely worked and so his family ate poorly and could not afford adequate medical attention. As a result, they could not resist disease and and were prone to long periods of being bedridden. Their house was in sorry need of repair: the roof leaked and routine maintenance was neglected. The children were provided little or no education because they were either too sickly to attend or they were busy fighting among themselves because the mother was over-stressed and the father routinely absent. Given their weakened state, the family was vulnerable to all sorts of attack from the outside – especially from those who hated families with many children. One of these external threats decided to eliminate the family altogether and plotted to infuse the family home with toxic gases while they slept. The denouement of their fate has yet been written. But onlookers feared the worst for them – all except the father who was observed to be playing the fiddle at the local pub when he was not advising his confreres about how best to raise their families.
Anybody listening?
Yadayadayada. We preach what we believe.
“I love social media,” he added.
Dumbed down faith, dumbed down liturgy. It’s truly amazing to come across a young person with any degree of personal devotion, given the thin gruel we’ve all been fed this past 50 years.
Richard, lest you implicitly connect “dumbed down faith” with Vatican II, read the Bishop again. It’s clear he distinguishes the West from the rest of the world. This phenomena of declining Catholicism due to secularism is true in the West but not in the Rest. In the Rest, the Church after Vatican II has grown explosively. Notably, the reformed liturgy in the people’s languages has significantly helped in this surge.
Worse than dumbed down, our faith has been compromised. The church is growing in Africa and Asia but there are two questions.
Is it the true uncompromised Catholic faith?
Is the growth due more to persecutons Catholics face?
Nick: Examine your line of thinking. You show traces of the typical sense of Western superiority short of racism. Why do you think the non-Westerners as incapable of embracing the Catholic faith fully? What makes you think that they can only get and live it compromised and dumbed down?
While I agree that hearing the Mass in your own language is a great plus, I don’t agree all the changes after Vatican II are good. It took me a long time to feel as if I was at Mass when attending the NO. Seemed the worship, the awe was mostly gone.
Trust me, you are not looking in the right place. At a typical Parish, I always met some. But I’ve seen endless numbers in Africa, parts of Asia, FOCUS, TAMU St. Mary’s Student Center, TLM Parishes, Ordinariate Parishes and other Parishes on this list: https://reverentcatholicmass.com/map
For religious life see: https://cmswr.org/ or https://religiouslife.com/
Visit any of these. You will be encouraged and amazed.
Amen!
And tomorrow, the ambitious, weathervane Bishop will praise the extraordinary leadership of Pope Francis. Hard to take one’s eyes off that red biretta…
What the youth all need and want is a liturgy that shows the utmost of respect to God. Why do you think Islam is on the rise? They drop to their knees 5 times a day and give honor and respect to their “allah”. They show him respect. At some point, while on ones knees one comes to the realization that – not only should God be respected – but, that the respect He’s given is most appropriate. The NO Missae falls woefully short of respect for God. It’s a “celebration” of ourselves with a passive nod (if at all) to the Divine. Even this notion of “communion with one another” is way off target. ALL focus should be on the holy high altar and tabernacle. In the presence of God, we should understand ourselves to be nothing, dust at best. Let us respect our good and gracious God again by honoring Him with worship worthy of Him. Give the youth the Latin Mass, give us ALL the Latin Mass and see what happens – the full restoration of the faith and the fullest expression of Catholic life. The longer we wait, the more souls we put in jeopardy.
Absolutely correct.
This past spring, I had business in the small town of Utica, NY. The city gasps for life; infrastructure and once notable architecture stood in grave need of repair. Three beautiful churches dating back to mid 19th or early 20th Century spoke of neglect and disregard or downright abandonment. The doors of St. Joseph-St. Patrick Catholic Church were bolted shut on my visit during a sunny spring weekday morning. Its website noted hours of operation: Mon-Thu 9:00-13:00, Fri 9:00-12:00, Saturday and Sunday: Closed.
Iron rails barred what appeared to have once been an adoration chapel, accessible from street level a few steps down. Thick layers of grime and dust veiled church windows. Stairs leading to the main church entrance were crumbling or cracked concrete. No Mass schedule was posted; perhaps Mass was no longer said there.
The town’s stately Episcopal Grace Church supports a majestic 216-foot spire which is visible from the nearby expressway. The awe of the distant observer dissolved with proximity. Overgrown grass, weeds, and litter matted and marred the yard near the main entrance. Notice soliciting goods and donations for the homeless was the only -communication on an ornate free-standing and cement-posted bulletin board on guard in the yard. A few years back, the church solicited a new rector–a beautiful young woman whose son arrived with her, but no mention was made of the boy’s father or the rector’s husband.
A mere two blocks from city center, a bright, light-colored, new, clean, attractive, large, Muslim mosque stood gleaming in a newer and updated area of downtown.
Signs of life, signs of the time. Desperate to escape, I could only bow my head to pray, thanking God for sunshine.
Dear Meiron,
If you can sit down while watching this, I would recommend it. This is our future. If we don’t start respecting Him again, we will be hard-pressed to continue showing Him even the disrespect we currently show Him. Who can blame Him?
https://truthsocial.com/@CitizenFreePress/posts/110900051624582246
Yes.
Sign of hope: My parish priest (FSSP) informs that the Maui Catholic Church spared destruction was where the TLM was said.
I don’t have any experience in Utica, NY but one of my children has traveled through NY State quite a bit for work and they’ve shared that there seems to be quite a lot decline in towns like Syracuse, etc.
Ive noticed that immigrants often take advantage of opportunities in places like Syracuse or towns in Appalachia. Communities that don’t attract upwardly mobile Americans. Perhaps that’s part of the reason behind the new mosque in Utica?
Meanwhile, another “Prince of the church” is engaged in this:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-cupich-to-appear-at-ecumenical-conference-coordinated-by-wiccan-priestess/
The kind of cognitive dissonance the faithful today are required to suffer for their allegiance to Christ through the church brings one to tears, not only tears of sorrow, but tears of pain at the migraine that arises from attempting to reconcile such absurd extremes. Can we all just go back to ACTUAL CATHOLICISM, PLEASE? When is enough, enough?
AMEN!!!!!
The link makes reference to the First World Parliament of Religions in 1893, also in Chicago….While we are repeatedly reassured that an internally synodal Church is not simply a “parliament,” now are we to learn from His Eminence that the non-parliament Church is only part of an external and composite—PARLIAMENT? A seat at the table!
Or, will we hear something at least remotely like what has heard in 1893, when religions were not so inclusive as to welcome anti-religions? Of the 111 papers delivered in 1893, seven (7) were from Catholic clerics, and one was from (the also mentioned) CARDINAL GIBBONS. Here’s part of what this Catholic Cardinal had to offer:
“The Gospel of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime conception of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his Creator. Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mystery to himself. He knew not whence he came nor whither he was going. He was groping in the dark [….] The Gospel of Christ, as propounded by the Catholic church, has brought not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart. It has given us ‘that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding’–the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth […]– peace with God by the observance of His commandments, peace with our neighbor by the exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves by repressing our inordinate appetites and keeping our passions subject to the law of reason and our reason illumined and controlled by the law of God.
[later follows several pages of not-so-new concrete benefits of the Faith]…
“To sum up: The Catholic church has taught man the knowledge of God and of himself; she has brought comfort to his heart by instructing him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy; she has sanctified the marriage bond; she has proclaimed the sanctity and inviolability of huma life from the moment that the body is animated by the spark of life till it is extinguished; she has founded asylums for the training of children of both sexes and for the support of the aged poor; she has established hospitals for the sick and homes for the redemption of fallen women; she has exerted her influence toward the mitigation and abolition of human slavery; she has been an unwavering friend of the sons of toil. These are some the blessings which the Catholic Church has conferred on society” (Gibbons, in “The World’s Congress of Religions,” Chicago: Mammoth Publishing Co., 1894, pp. 810-816).
TODAY, will Cupich berate the “backwards” Gibbons’ for mentioning abortion, today a “rabbit hole” superseded now by care for our “common home”—and our global amniotic sac?
Will he exchange the shepherd’s staff for a Wiccan stang as Pope Francis did at the World Youth Synod in 2018? https://novusordowatch.org/2018/10/stang-francis-synod-sorcerers-staff/
Or!!!, instead, will he seize the moment (Carpe Deim, that’s Latin!), and seize the mic (!) from the Wiccans (as he did from Cardinal DiNardo at a recent USCCB annual meeting)?
What a great opportunity, in crime-capital Chicago, for the Church and Cardinal Cupich to speak gently but clearly (1 Peter 3:15) about the self-disclosing Word of God. Like St. Paul did at Corinth—proclaiming the Contradiction of the Cross—after having been rejected in Athens by the indifferent and inclusive “pluralism” of the Areopagus.
Amen.
Letter CWR synod 2023 WYD 08-17-23
Yes to WYD, but is there a larger scheme by some in positions of power? How much does WYD (and even the Eucharistic Revival?) serve a more dialectical or only decorative function? Worse than simply “dumbing down”…
The Hegelian ploy of positioning the “backward” flock (of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church) as simply one pole within a larger, dialectical and synodal “tension” on the move? A backward pole now to be expertly harmonized within a more inclusive “synthesis” more concretely in step with the revelatory arc of history—the “never-ending journey”! Contradictions? What contradictions?
Yes, a worthy challenge, this—in season and out of season (!)—how to announce the Contradiction of the Cross to a deaf and unwelcoming world? And how, too, to call out the false shepherds? How to tell the truth AND nothing but the truth?
So, back to Bishop Barron. Here’s a meditation on the relatively innocent “dumbing down”: a meditation on a bookmark from way backward in the early 1980s:
“Adults,
discovering their spiritual emptiness,
look to the Church
not for a breezy bon mot,
but for the hard truths of
mystical life, fasting and prayer.
Lapsed Catholics,
tiptoeing back into the Church
on Sunday Morning,
look not for a communal meal
and a handshake,
but for a holy Sacrifice
and the promise of redemption.
Our faith is like a strong drink,
or a plate of hearty food.
We can make it easier to accept,
by watering it down
and taking out the spices.
But who wants a watery drink,
or a tasteless dish? (“If the salt
has lost its savor…”)
Our society is begging for red meat.
If we offer a thin soup, instead,
we shall rightly
be rejected.”
Yes, he does seem to be oblivious to the syncretistic theme of WYD. an attitude that is not exactly new in the dumbing down process of several decades. Like the layperson George Weigel, whom several of us just criticized for not identifying the source, Bishop Barron can be too obsequious to the high episcopate when the chips are down.
Many salient points here. I thought I’d just mention one we’re all familiar with, Niebuhr’s famous lament of liberal Protestantism clearly applies to our current crisis, which might have been useful for Bishop Barron to describe contemporary ecclesial reality in one sentence:
“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
I agree, but it’s more words in a sea of words until physical change is manifested. Make the liturgy more reverent. The Church elite removed the beauty and reverence from the old Rite claiming it was only relevant to the past. Replacing it, in arrogance, with ‘good ideas’ from the 1960s and 70s – the era where music, art, architecture etc all nose dived from order and beauty into the convenient and absurd. Less talk, more action.
Wish the liturgy was more reverent and the beauty and reverence you refer to wasn’t destroyed. To my astonishment, a priest told me the NO is closer to what was practiced in the early church and that the TLM was stupid sition. Wow. He also said a lot of other weird things.
I don’t think Bishop Barron has a grasp on the fundamental problem.
His theme of “dumbing down the faith” is a way (intentionally or unintentionally) of avoiding the main issue, which is the “preference” of the contemporary Church establishment to “re-invent” Jesus, and exchange “the Lion of Judah” for “buddy-Jesus,” the Church’s preference to evade the high moral demands that Jesus said he expects of us, and the preference of the Church establishment to substitute “themselves” as the head of the Church, and offer to us instead (as so insightfully stated by Fr. Robert Imbelli) a “Decapitated Body of Christ.”
I think Bishop Barron just pulls his punches, because he doesn’t want to go there…
“We’ve dumbed down the faith too much for too long.” Who is the “We”?
I think we know who the “We” is. But they do not wish to acknowledge their responsibility.
I agree, of course. Who could disagree?
But, as The Mass is “the point” where all Catholics receive, give, live…well, as The Mass is The High Point of everything, the “Sum and Summary of The Faith,” a Thing always Beyond Description, and as bishops are responsible for how poorly It is celebrated, how poorly It is offered, how poorly It is understood, how poorly reverence is “done,” etc., I can only say that this man, this bishop (while most likely sincere and well-intentioned) nonetheless shows just how blind he himself is, just like the vast, vast majority of his (mentally effeminate) brother bishops are. The apostles were men, authentic, ardent, deep (in accordance with their gifts), lovers of God and of our Lord and Savior, obedient to Him and to His Word in all Its depths. These (mentally effeminate) men who “lead” us today are, as the great and ardent lover of Our Lord Archbishop Sheen prophesied, these men today are politicians: he prophesied, “Theology will become politics.” We do not hear the term “political correctness” any more, but that is because is has taken root and borne its fruit.
I am no Traddie — going “backwards” is not the answer. I can understand (and also vigorously support) those who desire the Extraordinary Form, but I also believe in Vatican II and the hermeneutic of continuity (the only authentic and real hermeneutic). Vatican II was hijacked — and “men” such as this need to finally face up to that fact and work against that force.
The Mass of Vatican II — the Real One — whenever It is finally promulgated (perhaps not until The Era of Peace prophesied by Our Lady) will be obviously a growth/fruition of what is known as The Extraordinary Form, ORGANICALLY grown from It, ie, from that very same “organism.”
This man, one of the very few “good” bishops, shows he is just a blind as the rest of them, and, sadly, is not credible to me.
World Youth Day where consecrated Hosts were stored in cheap plastic boxes.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/a-look-behind-the-wyd-eucharist-controversy
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is complete in itself. Has the Holy Catholic Church forgotten that?
There is no need to dish out the Holy Eucharist to seemingly all and sundry, whether «shriven» or not, like M&Ms on every grand occasion such the above. That the celebrant and his ministers, no concelebrants required, partake of the Sacred Element/s is sufficient as is an act of Spiritual Communion.
Truly, familiarity has given rise to a mood of indifference to the Real Presence, and possibly worse. This «candy store» outlook to Holy Communion needs «fixing».
Dear Virginia, that’s an often repeated falsehood. In reality, the church in Africa *used to grow*, explosively, even, right up to Vatican II. Then the growth leveled out and now African Catholicism grows merely at the level of general population growth, i.e. it really just stagnates.
JPMA: That is because of encroaching Western secularism, but not due to Vatican II.
[“The real world is the worship of God, service of the poor, and communion with one another,” he said.]
Let’s apply this to Catholic schools which are now too expensive for the poor:
“A preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in our Catholic Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the poor, the Church should be ready to use its resources for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must give up general education in those countries where the State is providing it. The resources of the Church could then be focused on “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” and other programs which can be kept open to the poor. These resources could then be used to help society become more human in solidarity with the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic Schools for centuries. It can get along without them today. The essential factor from the Christian point of view is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely, THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the poor come first.
Mark: Your thinking is illogical in declaring that only the Vetus Ordo is worthy worship of God and that the Novus Ordo is not. Your thought on this is simply erroneous. I can see you think of the abuses of the NO but they are few in between and they do not constitute the full reality of NO. NO as implemented and celebrated well is worthy of the worship of God. In fact, as Pope Francis has decreed in rescinding the unrestricted celebration of the VO, the NO is the only legitimate way to worthily celebrate the Mass of the Roman Rite that is in line with the reformed liturgical laws and teachings (lex credendi, lex orandi) of the latest ecumenical council that is Vatican II. As food for your thought, read Pope Francis’ letter on the worthy worship of God in the liturgy, Desiderio Desideravi.
“…as Pope Francis has decreed in rescinding the unrestricted celebration of the VO, the NO is the only legitimate way to worthily celebrate the Mass of the Roman Rite that is in line with the reformed liturgical laws and teachings (lex credendi, lex orandi) of the latest ecumenical council that is Vatican II.” If you truly believe this nonsense, I would suggest you read Sacrosanctum Concilium. Pope Francis’s erroneous views notwithstanding, and despite the document’s occasionally contradictory language, there is there is absolutely no way you can stretch that conciliar document to derive a justification for the typical Novus Ordo celebrated throughout the world today.
There’s no doubt that the faith has been dumbed down for centuries. However, the most damaging above all is the gay network in the Church. Few, including Pope Francis, dare not mention it. Some promote it. Tens of thousands of young men lost their lives at the hands of this particular group. Millions of others have been affected by this. These are also of the peripheries, to say the least. many were led to suicide. How outrageous! Not worth mentioning and treating firmly>? I think so. We’ve heard nothing definitive on that from the Vatican but we know that the Pope has named most cardinals, archbishops, and bishops who are gay friends or gay… many haven’t even hidden it. Is a gay Pope next? It’s quite possible. When it comes to messing with my kids, no one would go near such an institution. It’s high time we had a ‘synod’ on that reality: the gay network in the Church.