Usually my blog posts link to insightful articles. I seldom reflect on a topic without linking to thoughts which reflect, refract, or contradict my own.
My wife just came to me, however, and expressed a vision she has, a vision of Pope Benedict's pastoral care for those of us in the English-speaking world. Our bishops, God bless them, too often reflect the determination, high achievements, and organizational skills of corporate executives rather than the counter-cultural and sacrificial commitments of martyrs and monks. Pope Benedict wants the Church to worship God in spirit and truth, and he is appalled at how the lowest common denominator of worship tends to crowd out liturgies and music that bring us closer to God. The independence of American bishops is also frustrating to the Roman curia. It is easier to herd cats.
But what if The Book of Common Prayer, that English magnum opus which has informed the thoughts, prayers, theology, political economy, moral philosophy, and worship on the North American continent since Jamestown, Virginia was settled in 1607, what if it became, with some revisions, a Catholic prayer book for the English-speaking world? Pope Benedict is too smart to try to force it upon English-speaking Catholics by ecclesiastical fiat, but what if American Catholics had some internal competition from not just one, but two traditional and beautiful liturgies?
The Tridentine Mass is now allowed and unhindered for Catholics all over the world. This news was greeted with hostility in a few circles, with enthusiasm among traditionalists, and with a yawn among most Catholics. What if bishops in the English-speaking world found a traditionalist Catholic competitor within their cities and towns which was under Rome's supervision and not under the American bishops?
It appears that Pope Benedict understands his duty to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, including American Catholics. To build the Church in America requires the cooperation, as well as the competition, of disparate elements:
(1) traditionalists who love the Latin Mass and can bring this ancient strength to a nation that scorns tradition;
(2) those "calcified" Catholics in older ethnic neighborhoods who have parochial schools, beautiful parishes, and low birthrates;
(3) the charismatics, especially those among the Spanish-speaking Catholics, who have energy and zeal;
(4) Asian and African immigrants from places such as Vietnam, Korea, and Zaire whose Catholic identity includes recent memories of martyrdom;
(5) what I call "JPII Catholics", those younger people who found their faith and live it by the example of a great and very visible witness to hope.
But what if Pope Benedict could forge another major force for Catholicism in the English-speaking world, what if he could harness the very English language in its beauty and strength to bring the world to Christ's truth and teachings?
Thus, this week's dramatic initiative to integrate Anglicans into the Catholic Church takes on greater significance. If The Book of Common Prayer, scorned and neglected by Episcopal church leadership, but beloved by Anglican traditionalists and part of the cultural bedrock of every English-speaking nation, becomes a primary book of Catholic worship, then Pope Benedict would have regained much of the ground lost since 1534. (Pope Benedict measures the Church's strength by the quality of its liturgy rather than the number of people in the pews.) The Protestant Reformation in England will end not with a bang but a whimper. The language of English worship will be fully captured by the Catholic Church. The poetry, prose, and songs of England will be fully integrated with Catholic liturgy.
As for my wife and me, we can unite our fractured family histories of worship. We both have English and Irish heritage. As Catholics, our English heritage was in some ways inaccessible because our English (and Protestant) relatives were historic foes of what we had come to believe. This is a tremendous healing for us and the opening of a new world. The hijacking of England's Christian faith and the English language is ending. The snow is melting in Narnia.
My wife just came to me, however, and expressed a vision she has, a vision of Pope Benedict's pastoral care for those of us in the English-speaking world. Our bishops, God bless them, too often reflect the determination, high achievements, and organizational skills of corporate executives rather than the counter-cultural and sacrificial commitments of martyrs and monks. Pope Benedict wants the Church to worship God in spirit and truth, and he is appalled at how the lowest common denominator of worship tends to crowd out liturgies and music that bring us closer to God. The independence of American bishops is also frustrating to the Roman curia. It is easier to herd cats.
But what if The Book of Common Prayer, that English magnum opus which has informed the thoughts, prayers, theology, political economy, moral philosophy, and worship on the North American continent since Jamestown, Virginia was settled in 1607, what if it became, with some revisions, a Catholic prayer book for the English-speaking world? Pope Benedict is too smart to try to force it upon English-speaking Catholics by ecclesiastical fiat, but what if American Catholics had some internal competition from not just one, but two traditional and beautiful liturgies?
The Tridentine Mass is now allowed and unhindered for Catholics all over the world. This news was greeted with hostility in a few circles, with enthusiasm among traditionalists, and with a yawn among most Catholics. What if bishops in the English-speaking world found a traditionalist Catholic competitor within their cities and towns which was under Rome's supervision and not under the American bishops?
It appears that Pope Benedict understands his duty to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, including American Catholics. To build the Church in America requires the cooperation, as well as the competition, of disparate elements:
(1) traditionalists who love the Latin Mass and can bring this ancient strength to a nation that scorns tradition;
(2) those "calcified" Catholics in older ethnic neighborhoods who have parochial schools, beautiful parishes, and low birthrates;
(3) the charismatics, especially those among the Spanish-speaking Catholics, who have energy and zeal;
(4) Asian and African immigrants from places such as Vietnam, Korea, and Zaire whose Catholic identity includes recent memories of martyrdom;
(5) what I call "JPII Catholics", those younger people who found their faith and live it by the example of a great and very visible witness to hope.
But what if Pope Benedict could forge another major force for Catholicism in the English-speaking world, what if he could harness the very English language in its beauty and strength to bring the world to Christ's truth and teachings?
Thus, this week's dramatic initiative to integrate Anglicans into the Catholic Church takes on greater significance. If The Book of Common Prayer, scorned and neglected by Episcopal church leadership, but beloved by Anglican traditionalists and part of the cultural bedrock of every English-speaking nation, becomes a primary book of Catholic worship, then Pope Benedict would have regained much of the ground lost since 1534. (Pope Benedict measures the Church's strength by the quality of its liturgy rather than the number of people in the pews.) The Protestant Reformation in England will end not with a bang but a whimper. The language of English worship will be fully captured by the Catholic Church. The poetry, prose, and songs of England will be fully integrated with Catholic liturgy.
As for my wife and me, we can unite our fractured family histories of worship. We both have English and Irish heritage. As Catholics, our English heritage was in some ways inaccessible because our English (and Protestant) relatives were historic foes of what we had come to believe. This is a tremendous healing for us and the opening of a new world. The hijacking of England's Christian faith and the English language is ending. The snow is melting in Narnia.
[Photos above: Little Gidding, as written about by T.S. Eliot, and Saint John Fisher.]
1 comments:
I'm a daily reader and I have come to reply on your links, but this is further proof that you should write more yourself as well!
I love this whole concept.
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