Fr. Harry Winter
Fr. Harry Winter Blog
Five Ways Book/Fellowship
A Support Group for Any Christian
March Five Ways E-Letter
March 29, 2023
First, my thanks to Artie Pingolt, president of Oblate Partners, for sending me the important attachment. It shows how crucial Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue are to confront serious challenges, such as the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia. Such cooperation is needed at the local level too.
Secondly, as we approach the Triduum of Holy Thursday evening through Easter Sunday, you might want to consider the custom of Eastern Christians on Easter Sunday afternoon. They gather in cemeteries to process to the graves of those who have died since last Easter. When they reach each grave, the priest shouts out “Christ is risen,” and the people respond “He is truly risen.”
Let us encourage all our friends and relatives who have dropped out of our Churches, to come with us on Easter and the Sundays after.
Thirdly, the website of Jesuit journal America posted an article on March 7 by theologian Jon Nilson, headlined “The Synod is missing something essential: other churches.” He is very concerned that the USA report “National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Diocesan Phase of the 2021-2023 Synod” was crafted from 290 documents distilled from 22,000 reports from parishes, dioceses, etc.
But the importance of working with other Christian Churches is never mentioned in the synthesis. Nilson does not report that the Eastern Churches in the USA did submit their own document. However, especially Episcopalian and Presbyterian Churches have a long record of involving the laity in every major decision and development. A major feature of synodality is to decrease clericalism and increase the role of lay people. Nilson’s concern that ecumenism did not make it into the USA synthesis needs further attention by our bishops.
If any of the Five Ways recipients can find the report on synodality from the Eastern Churches USA, please send it to me.
In the meantime, many thanks to all who commented on the Feb. 14 Five Ways e-letter. May we each have an inspiring Holy Week and Easter!
In Christ’s love,
Fr. Harry Winter, O.M.I.
People who have read the book Dividing or Strengthening, or who have made the retreat (both available, click here) have expressed a desire to pray for unity and to work with other Christians. We meet regularly and update. There are no dues and no regulations. We are a very small part of an increasing web of Christians who identify with one denomination and are concerned with all Christians. Some of the larger groups are Renovare, Stephan Ministries, Taize, and Iona.
Father Tom Ryan, CSP, in his 2015 book Christian Unity: How You Can Make a Difference, describes at length (ch. 5, pp. 83-107) the surge in the number of lay groups focusing on Evangelization and Christian Unity (Paulist Press). But he also states that apathy toward Christian Unity is growing (p. 121).
Currently we have about 50 people connected by e-mail and regular meetings. An initial group came out of the weekend retreat at King’s House, Buffalo, MN, Jan. 15-17, 2010. Following that, there were parish retreats at St. Casimir’s Church, St. Paul, MN, March, 2010 and St. Patrick’s Church, St. Paul, MN, March, 2012. What started out as an update meeting for those who attended any of the three previous retreats was expanded to anyone who is interested in the challenge of sharing our faith: June 6,7, 2012 (evening, repeated the following morning for those unable to come in the evening), and Nov. 7, 8, 2012; May15,16, 2013, May 7th, 8th 2014 See Below
Mass on the Moon
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (2019)
Fifty years ago yesterday, on July 20, 1969, Presbyterian Ruling Elder Buzz Aldrin celebrated the Lord’s Supper on the moon. The first food and drink consumed on the moon was the blessed bread and wine from Aldrin’s church, Webster Presbyterian, near Houston, TX.
Communion on the Moon Fifty Years Later (2019)
When President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union Message on Feb. 5, 2019, he reminded us that fifty years ago this July 20, humans first walked on the moon. By placing astronaut Buzz Aldrin, among those notables invited, he also reminded us that the first food and drink consumed on the moon was the Blessed Bread and Wine Aldrin had brought from his church, Webster Presbyterian, near Houston, TX.
May the rest of your day be filled with love and happiness
February, 2023
January, 2023
December, 2022
November 2022
September 24, 2022
August 17, 2022
July 14, 2022
June 15, 2022
May 17, 2022
April 13, 2022
March 20, 2022
February 19, 2022
January 11, 2022
2021
December 14, 2021
November 19, 2021
October 11, 2021
September 24, 2021
September 9, 2021
Current
Synodality and Oblates in the USA
Pope Francis is asking every parish, retreat center, house of formation, and Catholic center to discuss synodality. In the seven mandated questions, the fourth asks “How connected do you feel to the core mission of the Church–making disciples for Jesus?” St. Eugene de Mazenod must be agreeing with this on every Catholic being a missionary.
In our first installment, we mentioned how much St. Eugene lived synodality, even though he may not have used the word (Synodality and the Oblates: Part 1).
Since the core of synodality is mission, St. Eugene looks over our shoulders as we invest in synodality. (Click here Part Two)
In October, the Diocese entered into the process of discernment regarding ministry. The entire diocese was given 75 questions for parishioners to respond to. So we sent them out and had an above average number of folks fill it out. We also come out as environmentally green and are in the upper 80% in that category in the city and diocese. (Click here Part Three)
The Synodality report submitted by Fr. Jim Allen, regarding our Belleville Oblates, and the Synodality report submitted by Fr. Harry Winter, regarding the Diocese of Syracuse, may seem unrelated. But we are putting them together to show the widespread interest in the Synodality process going on in every religious community and every diocese in the world. Click here Part Four
Oblate Missiologists includes at least one Oblate Missiologist from each of our five geographical regions.
First produced as a hard copy in 1997, it is now made available in two versions on the internet. For a PDF version, click here. The type is smaller and you cannot edit it.
For Ecumenism and Laity in the Oct. 2021-OCt. 2023 Synod.
Thank you for being here for the opening of the Synod. you have come by many different roads and from different Churches, each bearing your own questions and hopes. I am certain the Spirit will guide us and give us the grace to move forward together, to listen to one another and to embark on a discernment of the times in which we are living, in solidarity with the struggles and aspirations of all humanity. I wan to say again that eh Synod is not a parliament or an opinion poll; the Synod is an ecclesial event and its protagonist is the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not present, there will be no Synod. Click Here to Read More
Political Order and the Ethics of Peace (August 15 – September 16, 2022)
The global political order is today confronted with one of its most serious and dangerous crises since 1945. The violation of ionternational norms and the massive scale of suffering and destruction have prompted vigorous and unprecedented forms of cooperation aimed at attaining a peaceful resolution. Click here to Read More
Lutheran and Catholic Churches in Sweden Increase Praying Together
In this Voices from the Communion interview, Bishop Johan Tyrberg, Diocese of Lund, Church of Sweden, looks back at how a historic ecumenical event that put his home city on the global map five years ago continues to change Lutheran-Catholic relations there. He also reflects on his early education, his interest in natural sciences and acting, and finding his way into theological formation, and eventually the pastoral ministry. Click Here to Read More
Archive
For Ecumenism and Laity in the Oct. 2021 – Oct. 2023 Synod
Thank you for being here for the opening of the Synod. you have come by many different roads and from different Churches, each bearing your own questions and hopes. I am certain the Spirit will guide us and give us the grace to move forward together, to listen to one another and to embark on a discernment of the times in which we are living, in solidarity with the struggles and aspirations of all humanity. I wan to say again that eh Synod is not a parliament or an opinion poll; the Synod is an ecclesial event and its protagonist is the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not present, there will be no Synod. Click Here to Read More
Pioneer Catholic Feminist, (available on Amazon books)
Do you know who is in your own Clod of Witnesses (heb 12:1), the people in your life who have died but still influence you positively in a significant way? Fr. Harry Winter, O.M.I., Ph.D. traces the history of Virginia’s Governor John Floyd Jr. (1783-1837) and his pioneer feminist wife, Letitia Preston Floyd, *1779-1852) and their descendants to show how their influence is as important for the United States today as President John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams and their decendants. Click Here to learn more
Superior General Describes Oblate Role in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate continue to play a significant role in many of the most difficult missions around the world. We are well known and highly regarded in the Church for our availability. although with good humor, we like to joke that we are specialists in making missions difficult, the simple truth is that Oblates are laboring with great zeal in many of the most challenging areas of the globe. Click Here to learn more
For the Muslim Response to Pope Francis’ Visit (March 2021)
Pope Francis’s recent trip to Iraq will undoubtably have a lasting impact on the country in ways that only time will tell, however, in the immediate aftermath, a few significant developments can already be seen. Click Here to learn more
“Ecumenical Vademecum” Statement Animating Christian Unity (December 3, 2020)
The ministry entrusted to the bishop is a service of unity both within his diocese and of unity between the local church and the universal church. That ministry therefore has special significance in the search for the unity of all Christ’s followers. The bishop’s responsibility for promoting Christian unity is clearly affirmed in the Code of Canon Law of the Latin Church among the tasks of his
pastoral office: “He is to act with humanity and charity toward the brothers and sisters who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church and is to foster ecumenism as it is understood by the Church” (Can 383 §3CIC 1983). Click Here to learn more
Oblate Missiologists includes at least one Oblate missiologist from each of our five geographical regions. First produced as a hard copy in 1997, it is now made available in two versions on the internet. For a PDF version, click here. The type is smaller and you cannot edit it.
Vatican and World Council of Churches publish dynamite document on COVID
Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity.
A Christian Call to reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond Click Here to learn more
Commentary on Dynamite Document and Season of Creation
Commentary on the Statement “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World” by Harry E. Winter, OMI. Printed in Ecumenical Trends 46 (Oct. 2017, 9):10-11.
Insight by Fernando Velazquez, OMI, May 15, 2017: part of the neglect of this statement comes from the earlier document “Dominus Iesus” (2000). Mission exists in a difficult and creative tension with Unity/Dialogue. Click Here to learn more
Two Oblate Ecumenists on the Road to Glory
Father Waclaw Hryniewicz, O.M.I., an expert on the Eastern Orthodox Church, died on May 26 at age 83 in Poland. Fr. Jean Gueguen, O.M.I., a promoter of the Taize Community, died on May 24 at age 95 in France.
On March 20, 1995, Hryniewicz was the featured speaker at Oblate College, Washington DC, to open the Oblate Center for Mission Studies. Due to his friendship with Fr. George McLean, O.M.I., Hryniewicz had agreed to speak about developments between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
“Understanding the signs of Our Times”
An interesting article from: McLean Center Online Seminars
The current pandemic felt by the entire globe has brought not only deep anxieties and fears but also profound quests and search for root causes and answers for our challenging situations – socio–
political, cultural, ecological, etc. In order to understand the uniqueness and specificity of our times and to look for some resources that may help us deepen our understanding, this special research project intends to explore the philosophical–theological writings of a special figure, Romano Guardini, one of most important intellectuals of the Catholic tradition in the 20th century. Click Here to learn more
New Biography on Fr. George McLean has been released!
If you wish to purchase a physical copy, give Matthew Martin a call 210-340-1366 ext 205 or email him at mmartin@ost.edu and he can sell you one for $17.50 plus $5.00 shipping and handling for a total of $22.50. We take VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. an electronic version is available. Click Here to learn more (link is to large to upload)
Mclean Center Activities — Click Here
Fr. George McLean, OMI — Full Bio — Click Here
Oblate Missiologist, Tragic and Talented (2018)
His Irish parents and he endured the persecution of the English during his youth in Ireland and England. So when Con Scollen worked with the Native Americans in Canada and the United States, he bluntly told them any treaty from the national governments wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. An Oblate for 26 years, and a diocesan priest for the 17 remaining years of his life, he surpassed his teacher, Father Albert Lacombe, OMI, for his knowledge of Native American languages and culture. He is revered by them today. Click Here to learn more
Native Peoples indigenous art at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (2019)
Thanks to Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI for this related piece. Click here to watch video
High Point of Bibliographia Missionaria (Dec. 6, 2017)
Thank you for being here for this important moment in the history of the University and our library. We present a volume, 70° c, a unique magazine, Bibliographia Missionaria. Begun in 1935 by Prof. Johannes Baptista Rommerskirchen, OMI, today presents itself as a significant contribution to reflection and research on all things related to the Church’s mission. Click Here to learn more
Witnessing to Jesus, and Ecumenism at Royal Wedding (May 19, 2018)
African-American Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the royal wedding is a marvelous combination of witnessing to Jesus, and Christian Unity. His quoting Jesuit theologian Teilhard de Chardin is unprecedented in such a world-wide event. However, he also is an example of the difficulty within the Anglican Communion, where many find his espousal of same sex marriage and other moral matters to be divisive. Click here to learn more
Grieving for an Oblate Accomplishment (2018)
For many years, Oblates were accustomed to seeing an annual photo of an Oblate missiologist presenting to the pope a comprehensive bibliography listing every book or article written the previous year on Mission, Ecumenism, Dialogue, Sociology of Religion, etc. Known as Bibliographia Missionaria, this book was of immense aid to anyone interested in a topic concerning the spread of the Christian faith. Click Here to learn more
Episcopalian/Anglicans Join Lutherans and Catholics in Reformation Document (2017)
On 31st of October 2017, the final day of the year of the common ecumenical Commemoration of the Reformation, we are very thankful for the spiritual and theological gifts received through the Reformation, a commemoration that we have shared together and with our ecumenical partners globally. Likewise, we begged forgiveness for our failures and for the ways in which Christians have wounded the Body of the Lord and offended each other during the five hundred years since the beginning of the Reformation until today. Click here to learn more
Four Articles on Oblates and the 50th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (2017)
December 19, 2017 – Father John Morin, OMI, and the Haitian US Charismatic Renewal Click Here to learn more
December 10, 2017 – US Oblates and the 50th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Part 3: Hispanic Charismatic Renewal Click Here to learn more
November 15, 2017 – US Oblates and 50th Anniversary of the Charismatic Renewal, Part Two Click Here to learn more
September 13, 2017 – US Oblates and the 50th Anniversary of the Charismatic Renewal, Part One Click Here to learn more
Controversial Article
An important Italian Catholic journal, La Civilta Cattolic, has an English version, and in the July 21 issue, there was a controversial article linking Protestant Fundamentalism with Catholic Integralism in the USA. An American bishop has responded with an easily readable article, agreeing with some of the author’s insights, by disagreeing with others. Click Here to learn more
Presbyterians join Lutherans and Roman Catholics (2017)
Five hundred years after the Reformation, one of Protestantism’s leading branches has officially said it now agrees with the Vatican on the main issue at the root of its split from the Roman Catholic Church. Click Here to learn more
Luther, Literacy, and Martin Luther King (2017)
(The Conversation) This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous 95 theses, which helped spark the founding of the Reformation and the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism. 
Click Here to learn more
Four Oblates Praised; Vital Statement Examined at Ecumenical Meeting (2017)
During the National Workshop on Christian Unity, held May 1-4 in Minneapolis, MN, four Oblates were praised and a vital statement concerning Social Justice, Mission, and Ecumenism/Interreligious Dialogue was publicized. Click Here to learn more
Commentary on the Statement “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World” (2017)
As an ecumenist convinced that Mission is at the heart of Christian Unity, I was stunned at the May 1-4, 2017 National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU)to discover that the statement “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World” was published in November, 2011. I had never heard of this remarkable, vital and practical accomplishment of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the World Council of Churches, and the World Evangelical Alliance. Click here to learn more
The 500th Anniversary on the Reformation: A Year of Unparalleled Opportunity (2017)
In his new book on Martin Luther: An Ecumenical Perspective, Cardinal Walter Kasper notes that our ideas about Martin Luther have undergone transformations in a number of ways over the past 500 years. Historically, for Catholics, Luther was the church father of Protestantism, the heretic to blame for the division of the Western Church. Click Here to learn more
Islam and Oblates
The 2017 De Mazenod Conference of the Missionary Oblate Partnership was held February 10-12 at the Oblate Renewal Center in San Antonio, Texas. The theme of this year’s conference: Christianity & Islam: Can We Talk? provided opportunities for enlightened conversations on a highly-charged and often emotional topic. Click Here to learn more
Basics of Islam
The Basics of Islam, presented to Oblate Partners, Feb. 10-12, San Antionio, TX. Scott Woodward, DMin, Oblate School of Theology
Click Here to learn more
Archbishop Hebda encourages homework in uniting Catholics and Lutherans (2017)
Most Rev. Bernard Hebda, Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul/Minneapolis, delivered these remarks at the joint serve led by two Lutheran bishops at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN on Jan. 22, 2017. His remarks set the spirit, though, for the entire year to come when on Jan. 21, 2018, one of the Lutheran bishops will speak at Hebda’s cathedral. Read of his inspiring and joyful presentation. Click Here to learn more
Oblate School of Theology Reformation Achievement: (2017)
Rev. Paul Ziese, Pastor of San Antonio, Tx’s MacArthur Lutheran Church: “There is probably more openness among Catholics to the need for reformation, and more Protestants recognize the wound of the Reformation.” Click Here to learn more
Witnessing to Jesus, and Ecumenism at Royal Wedding of May 19, 2018
African-American Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the royal wedding is a marvelous combination of witnessing to Jesus, and Christian Unity. His quoting Jesuit theologian Teilhard de Chardin is unprecedented in such a world-wide event. Click Here to learn more
Jim Holland, Praised Indigenous Oblate Missionary, to dismissed oblate, to Honary Oblate?
When our superior general, Louie Lougen, wrote his article for the Catholic Digest on Oblate Spirituality, he mentioned how Oblates are not only specialists in difficult missions, but specialists in making missions difficult (see Dialogue/Islam Page for his article). Click Here to learn more
For Lucien Bouchard OMI’s Ministry to Hmong in Laos
I’m writing these notes about my missionary life in Southeast Asia and will relate especially about my 18 ½ years stay in Laos from Nov. 17, 1956 to May 8, 1975. After I was forced out of Laos by the Communist Lao regime in 1975, I then joined six French ex-Laos missionaries and went with them to Indonesia where we arrived at the end of January, 1977 in the city of Jakarta. Click Here to learn more
Fr. Greg Gallagher, OMI Re-Elected Presiddent of U.S. Catholic Mission Association (May 2016)
Fr. Greg Gallagher, OM, Administrative Councilor/ Office of Mission and Ministry/Assistant Treasurer for the U.S. Province has been I re-elected president of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association. Click Here to learn more
Fr. Gallaher’s role in the choosing the new Executive Director of the US Catholic mission Association.
The Board of Directors of the United States Catholic Mission Association is pleased to announce the selection of Donald L. McCrabb, D.Min, as the new Executive Director for the USCMA, effective Dec. 7, 2015. Click Here to learn more
The Manhattan Decoration, an Oblate Connection (2009)
For most Oblates of a certain age, “Manhattan” means either the island borough in N.Y. City, or the “project” which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But on Nov. 20, 2009, an ecumenical group released a statement pledging their commitment to defend human life, traditional marriage, and the rights of conscience. Click Here to learn more
Buffalo New York, Holy Angels Church, 2 Bishops Statements
Personal Disclosure: the photo to the right shows Episcopalian then Father William Franklin with Father Harry Winter, O.M.I. and Father Franklin’s father-in-law, Joseph Vircillo, at the home of Joe and his wife Catarina Vircillo, in Fr. Winter’s Buffalo, NY parish, St. Rose of Lima, for the Christmas Eve traditional Italian fish dinner, 1998. Also at table but not in the photo is Father Franklin’s Catholic wife, Carmela Vircillo Franklin, a classical Latin scholar, who served as Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2005-10. During that time, Father Franklin served at several Episcopalian and Anglican Churches in Italy. They have two adult daughters.
Such marriages between leaders of two Christian Churches, once very rare, are becoming increasingly frequent. Are we Oblates prepared to work with such leaders?
Catholic and Episcopal Bishops of Western New York Issue Joint Call for Shared Prosperity March 4, 2016 2:57 pm
The Right Rev. R. William Franklin, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, and Most Reverend Richard Joseph Malone, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo issued am inspiring joint pastoral letter late last year, which we would like to share more widely. Our thanks go out to Fr. Harry Winter, OMI for bringing. Click Here to learn more
Priestless County Adapts (1977)
How does a former Oblate parish covering an entire county, adapt to being priestless? Several very significant elements have developed in Monroe County, West Virginia, to help the faith grow. Jim MacGee OMI became the first resident priest in Monroe County, in 1977.
Click Here to learn more
Newman DeMazenod, Bede
In the last issue of VieOblateLife (68,#1),, Bishop Gilles Cazabon OMI explained that St. Eugene visited Blessed Newman in 1859, at Maryvale, England (p. 41). As in many things, St. Eugene was ahead of his time, recognizing Newman’s holiness and insights. Do we need to continue our ecumenical conversion as a congregation? Click Here to learn more
November 22, 2013: Ecumenical and Missionary Aspects of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
From 1941 to 2006, Oblates ministered in Appalachia, especially in West Virginia. At that time, the Catholic population of the state was less than 5%; Protestants made up about 45% and were considered very anti-Catholic. John F. Kennedy could only win the presidency of the USA if he won his party’s primary election in WV. Click Here to learn more
The following statement, Please click here, is not only a celebration of Maryknoll’s Centennial, but more importantly for Oblates, how to refocus with diminishing numbers. Please consider especially the fourth principal, Mission and the Mass
Vatican 2
Short and incisive explanation of why Vatican II is a “pastoral” council, in which John O’Malley, S.J., summarizes the impact of Vatican II.
From the moment the Second Vatican Council opened, it has consistently been described as a pastoral council, sometimes so insistently and unthinkingly that the expression has become a cliché. The word cliché implies that while the description might well express a truth, it at the same time trivializes the council and produces yawns. Click Here to learn more
For Pope Francis on Vatican II and Ecumenism See Pope Francis Page
Did Seminarians and Student Priest in Rome Influence Vatican II? For Fr. Harry Winter’s Documentation click on the following Chapter links:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
The Four Oblates Who Influenced Vatican II the Most
The first session of the Second Vatican Council began on Oct. 11, 1962 with 33 Oblates listed as “Fathers of the Council,” 5 as periti (experts) and 6 as theologians accompanying individual bishops.1 The number of “Fathers” would change only slightly during the next three sessions, but the number of experts would significantly grow, as each Council Father would change his expert for each session, so more priests could experience the Council. Click Here to learn more
Vatican II and Anti-Clericalism from Paul VI to Pope Francis by Way of the Catacomb Pact
The major helping professions, Medicine, Law and Religion, all face professional deformation. Doctors need a strong bedside manner, or they fail in improving the health of their patients. Lawyers need to be approachable, or they will fail in defending their clients. And pastors must “smell like the sheep,” to use a favorite expression of Pope Francis. Yet the lengthy training of all three professions leads to a separation between the helpers and the helped.
Clericalism is the term applied to clergy who climb higher up than their people. Anti-clericalism is the effort which from time to time the Church develops to return pastors to being one with their people. One important warning: there are Catholics who want their clergy to be clerical, making all their decisions for them, and making their lives easier. As we speak about anti-clericalism, it is important to be on one’s guard against such parishioners.
Pope Paul VI during Vatican II, begged the bishops to simplify their life style and to become more approachable. He himself led the effort.
Walter Abbott SJ, in his edition of the Documents of Vatican II, has observed, in the discussion of the Decree on Bishops, that “During the Council, there was much criticism of the sign of pomp and wealth seen in the lives of bishops. The subject was as delicate as the proper age for episcopal retirement. But as the fourth session closed, Paul VI made an adroit gesture, full of his own generosity, but pointedly symbolic of this ‘humility and simplicity of life.’ He gave each bishop a ring, simple in form and tasteful in design, bearing no jewel nor decoration except a small engraved miter. The ring spoke more eloquently than a hundred decrees” (commenting on #15, p. 407, n. 45).
The final text of the Decree on Bishops, promulgated during the fourth session on Oct. 28, 1965, did contain the expression Abbott refers to: Bishops “should also be mindful of their obligation to give an example of holiness through charity, humility, and simplicity of life” (#15, p. 407). In retrospect, the effort for simplicity was buried in more theological questions in the decree: the relation of bishops to the pope, the development of episcopal conferences, and the compulsory retirement of bishops at a certain age.
One of my close childhood friends, a lieutenant colonel in the USA Armed Forces, arrived in Rome with his wife on Nov. 20, 1964, the day before the third session ended. Word had gone around the seminaries (I was in my fourth year of theological studies and my seventh year in Rome ) that Pope Paul had told the Council Fathers in no uncertain terms to “approach the people.” So when J.J. and Helene and I went to the Basilica of St. Mary Major for the pope’s visit in the afternoon of Nov. 21, after the third session had closed that morning in St. Peter’s, we found cardinals standing uncomfortably in the piazza, waiting for people to approach them. Unaccustomed to this, many Italians stood at a respectful distance.
Helene was the niece of the superior general of a small religious order, and had no awe of cardinals. With American directness she walked up to one of the cardinals and instead of kissing his ornate ring, shook his hand and started chatting with him. Quickly others followed. It was a great lesson that change could happen. Sadly, the next great step forward in declericalizing the Church, the Catacomb Pact, seems to have been forgotten until the cardinals chose Pope Francis. On Nov. 16, 1965, 40 bishops descended into the Catacombs of Domitilla and signed a radical pact: they vowed to forego expensive limousines, glorious palaces and even honorific titles. In internet items concerning a documentary made in 2012 for German tv and called “Pact of the Catacombs–The Secret Pact of Vatican II,” we learn that 500 council fathers would sign the pact and present it to Pope Paul VI as the council ended. Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife , Brazil , seems to have been the inspiration, joined by Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna , Italy .
The only complete text of the pact is furnished by Boaventura Kloppenburg OFM, in his book The Chronicle of Vatican II. (Kloppenburg was an expert at Vatican II and later a bishop in Brazil ). In six paragraphs, the signers not only pledge themselves to personal simplicity, but to remake their diocesan administration into social works based on charity and justice for all and led by competent laypeople.
Is there a direct connection between Helder Camara and the former archbishop of Buenos Aires , now Pope Francis? Attempts are being made by Oblates in Brazil to see if either Camara or Bergoglio mention each other in their writings.
A final piece which shows the great interest in this matter was begun by the Franciscan columnist for the national USA Catholic review America , edited by the Jesuits. Daniel P. Horan OFM never expected in his one page article “Lead Us Not Into Clericalism” to stimulate the discussion he did (Oct. 21, 2013, p. 33). There was an explosion of blog responses, letters, and a status update in the Nov. 18 issue, pp. 6-7. Another blog response was printed in the Nov. 25 issue, p. 7; Horan responded in general in the Dec. 9-16 issue, p. 7. He has touched a nerve, and Pope Francis keeps exposing that nerve, in order to address the issue.
As with so many advances, new questions are raised. What does professionalism mean and how does it differ from clericalism? Is the number of pastors who value parish councils increasing? It would seem to be in the monthly parish council meetings that both the substance and style of a new relationship between the pastor and the parish are shown. Reports on this are very mixed.
It would also seem that the leadership of the pope is crucial. Bishops will follow his example; priests will follow the example of their bishops. May Pope Francis, guided by the Holy Spirit, show us what Jesus would have us do regarding clergy lifestyle and example
It would also seem that the leadership of the pope is crucial. Bishops will follow his example; priests will follow the example of their bishops. May Pope Francis, guided by the Holy Spirit, show us what Jesus would have us do regarding clergy lifestyle and example
Secularism
I. John Allen, “Support for “Healthy Secularism”
During Benedict XVI’s Sept. 2008 trip to France, he endorsed what French President Nicolas Sarkozy has dubbed “positive laicite”—a French term for which there is no exact English equivalent, though the usual translation is “secularism.” The basic idea is that religious freedom and church/state separation are positive things, as long as they mean freedom for, rather than freedom from, religion.
The emergence of Islam as the church’s central interfaith preoccupation has turbocharged support for “healthy secularism.”
Proof can be found in the Middle East. Squeezed between two religiously defined behemoths, Israel and the Muslim states which surround it, the tiny Christian minority has no future if fundamentalism prevails. Their dream is to lead a democratic revolution in the region. That outlook reflects a basic law of religious life: secularism always looks better to minorities who would be the big losers in a theocracy.
Momentum towards healthy secularism in Catholic thought has implications well beyond the Middle East.
In both Europe and the States these days, there’s considerable debate about the political role of the church. Critics, including many Catholics, sometimes argue that bishops are “too political.” Americans, for instance, are still chewing over the role the U.S. bishops played in the health care reform debate.
If there is a force in Catholicism capable of balancing the scales, it’s likely to be the relationship with Islam, and the perceived need on the Catholic side to offer a credible model of the separation of religion and politics. That points to a keen irony: The specter of shariah might do more to give Catholic leaders pause about blurring church/state lines than a whole legion of liberal Western theologians. National Catholic Reporter blog, “Pondering Islam and its discontents,” Nov. 5, 2010.
II. May 27-30, 2008 Forum was partly to help the Secularity Team in Indiannapolis develop its program.
Click on Mission with Secularity for the link to more information on the team.
III. The following document was submitted to the participants in the May, 2008 meeting.
Missionary Ecumenism and the May 27-30, 2008 Forum on Secularity
by Harry E. Winter, OMI, hewomi@aol.com, May 4, 2008
…The division among Christians damages the most holy cause of preaching the gospel to every creature and blocks the way to the faith for many (Vatican II, Decree on Missionary Activity, #6; Decree on Ecumenism, #’s 1, 4; Catechism, #855).
…As Oblates with many scattered resources in missionary ecumenism, how can we bring these resources to bear on the challenge of secularity? The recent statement of Cardinal Walter Kasper that “certain features of the Christian mystery have at times been more effectively emphasized by other Churches or Ecclesial communities ” (A Handbook of Spiritual Ecumenism, New City Press, 2006, #10, highly recommended) applies to both Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism.
I…Eastern Orthodoxy
…..A friend who visited a state-owned art museum in Moscow not long ago was surprised to observe people kneeling, bowing their heads and praying reverently in public before the icons and other Christian works on display. Some worshipers left a flower or a candle on the floor beside a work. Apparently such gestures are commonplace. That these Christians had encountered the art outside a church seemed to matter not at all, since the art itself was seen in that culture and among the Orthodox as worthy of veneration (Karen Sue Smith, “Artful Contemplation,” America, March 3, 2008, p. 16).
…..With the recent thawing of contact with the Orthodox (“Ravenna Was ‘Breakthrough’ in Orthodox-Catholic Ties,” Zenit, 2/19/08), we need to take advantage of our Oblates who are bi-ritual. In the past two years, the Polish-Canadian pre-novices in Buffalo, NY have shown a great interest in the work of Father Waclaw Hryniewicz, OMI, the Polish Oblate who served for many years on the International Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue. Our Oblate College in Washington, DC, trained many priests of the Maronite and Ukranian Rites.
…..Many Eastern Orthodox leaders have recently indicated a new interest in working with Roman Catholics on secularity. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I has a special concern for environmental issues. “The Green Patriarch” and his actions in this area have the support of the Vatican. Environmental concern is an area where secularists and people of faith can work together.
II. Protestantism
…..”It seems that the evangelical and Pentecostal movements have the most energy in our time” (Dean Hoge, “Challenges Facing the Priesthood in America,” Origins 37 [April 17, 2008, #44] :710). Catholic charismatics have led an amazing convergence with Pentecostals and evangelicals. Although some Pentecostals (and fundamentalists) would still not be caught dead with an RC, the amount of cooperation today is growing by leaps and bounds. Oblates have a strong presence within the charismatic movement, and within earlier movements which also stress the same adult conversion experience (Cursillo and Marriage Encounter, for example).
…..One cannot forget how the Presbyterian Reformed centers of Taizé and Iona have resulted in greater cross-fertilization, for mission and evangelization, especially among the young. Even the late Francis Schaeffer’s center at L’Abri, Switzerland, took the lead in cooperation on reducing abortion, in addition to attracting thousands of young people to its various centers on different continents.
…..Hispanic bishops Ricardo Ramirez CSB (Las Cruces, NM) and Placido Rodriguez CMF (Lubbock, TX) have shown initiative in working with Hispanic evangelicals and Pentecostals. Efforts by World Vision International to build bridges to Catholicism are slow in Latin America, but they are trying. Pentecostal leader Juan Sepulveda has written movingly of ecumenical progress at the Fifth Latin American Bishops Conference (Aparecida, Brazil, 2007): Ecumenical Trends 37 (April, 2008, #4): 9/57-11/59.
…..Ron Rolheiser’s sketching of conservatism versus liberalism (Secularity and the Gospel, pp. 49-50, 85-87) reminds us of the phenomenon of red states and blue states. Red states not only tend to vote Republican and have conservative values; they also have higher rates of religious practice and are rural oriented. When Harvey Cox wrote his classic Secular City, he explained how urbanization is related to secularity (rev. ed., 1966, pp. 3-12). Can our three person secularity team, residing in Indianapolis, IN, also alert Oblates working in more rural and small town areas, to the differences between faith practices in red and blue states?
…..Cox’s ch. 9 “Sex and Secularization” has this marvelous view:
…..If Americans had consciously set out to think up a system that would produce maximal martial and premarital strife for both sexes, we could scarcely have invented a more sexually sabotaging set of dating procedures than we have today (p. 180).
…..Modesty, chastity, and a mature Christian view of sex are important elements in our exploration of secularity.
…..Since Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on social Justice Rerum Novarum (1891), observers have noted that the papacy is liberal in matters of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), and conservative in matters of doctrine. On the Protestant side, Jim Wallis and his journal Sojourners is the latest in a line of evangelical liberals, conservative in doctrine and liberal in JPIC.
…..Here in Buffalo, NY, a growing number of African-American Protestant pastors are discovering the courses in spirituality at the inter-diocesan seminary. Our resources in spirituality at Oblate School of Theology, and Lebh Shomea should be attractive to Hispanic evangelicals and Pentecostals.
III. Proclamation and Dialogue exist in creative tension. The following article from Columban Missions, Nov. 2007, p. 11 challenges us. See the Assisi Page for this article
Oblate Missiologists
Information about Bibliographia Missionaria
With disappointment and great regret, I want to inform you that after eighty-three years of activity the publication of the Bibliographia Missionaria comes to an end. Despite having the right staff and editor, the Rector of the Pontifical Urban University has taken the decision to conclude this important work for missiology. One of the few missiological journals published for so long, appreciated by many specialists, thus ends. As one of the publishers, I feel to remember the story of this publication. Read More Click Here
The Story of Brother Alexis Reynard, O.M.I., Our First Oblate Martyr. 2019/2020
Feb. 2020 edition of Oblate Missiologists, A Workbook, features the mention of the first Oblate martyr, Brother Alexis Reynard (1828-75). Click Here to Learn more
Oblates Preserving Hmong Culture in Minnesota (February 27, 2018)
How does a church named after the patron saint of Ireland, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, become the focal point of outreach to an ethnic group from Laos? It’s a testament to the diversity of ministry of the Missionary Oblates. Click Here to learn more
A Love Letter to One Oblate and all Oblates, as the Hmong language is Constructed. (June 6, 2017)
On behalf of the Catholic Hmong congregation here at St. Patrick, I want to Thank you Father for bringing us to this church. Without you, we might not be here today. So thank you so much for everything that you have done to find us a home. Click Here to learn more
Oblate Yves Bertrais and others construct the Hmong language. (October 4, 2018)
Although multiple attempts were made to spread the gospel to the Hmong in Asia, the most well known and successful was that of an Oblat of the Immaculate Heart priest namesed Yves Bertrais (Txiv Plig Nyiaj Pov). Click Here to learn more
For Lucien Bouchard OMI’s Ministry to Hmong in Laos
I’m writing these notes about my missionary life in Southeast Asia and will relate especially about my 18 ½ years stay in Laos from Nov. 17, 1956 to May 8, 1975. After I was forced out of Laos by the Communist Lao regime in 1975, I then joined six French ex-Laos missionaries and went with them to Indonesia where we arrived at the end of January, 1977 in the city of Jakarta. Click Here to learn more
Fr. Anatole Baillargeon, OMI (1914-2008) was among the many Oblates who have been involved with US Catholic Mission Association (USCMA), Executive Research Assistant, U.S. Catholic Mission Council. For more information, click here.
As the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Pontifical Urbaniana University Library discuss dropping the hardcopy annual edition of Bibliographia Missionaria, or perhaps ceasing publication entirely, it is helpful to review this priceless contribution by our community to the study of missiology.
Not only has the yearly issue been of immense help to missiologists of every denomination, but it has shown that German missiologists could work in a then French religious order, to be succeeded by Polish, and most recently, a Madagascar missiologist. Consult “Bibliographia Missiologia: Thermometer of Missiology,” for a sketch of this accomplishment:Click Here.
Based on the pioneering work in missiology bibliography by Oblates Robert Streit and Johannes Dindinger, the first volume of Bibliographia Missionaria was published in 1935 by Johannes Rommeskirchen, OMI. He edited the annual volume for the next 20 years.
In 1977, Willi Henkel, OMI assumed the role of editor. He was assisted by Josef Metzler, OMI, Nickolas Kowalski, OMI and Werner Rorig, OMI. For a detailed explanation of his predecessors by Henkel, see his 1982 “Bibliographers in the Service of Mission,” Oblate Missiologists, pp. 37-45, Click Here.
Marek Rostkowski, OMI, assumed the editorship in 1998, and published it until 2016, when Alphonse Rakontondravelo, OMI, took that position. Alphonse has been involved with the 2017 edition, which may be the first and last to be published online.
As the Urbaniana University decides whether an internet edition is possible, let us thank God for the 78 issues so far published. What an accomplishment by our Oblate missiologists! May the Holy Spirit help all concerned in the decision.
For a unique contribution by the Oblates to the study of Missiology, Ecumenism, and World Religion Click here to learn more
National Workshop on Christian Unity May 2017 praises Oblate Missiologists, Click Here Use link for OMIUSA Four Oblates
Letitia Preston Floyd: A direct descendant, Austin Floyd, has found many more unedited letters of the Floyd Family, at West Virginia University Library. More about this in the future.
It is fitting that this most spirited defense of a Catholic being able to serve in American politics, was written by the son of Letitia Preston Floyd (see below for our calling her an Oblate missiologist). Benjamin Rush Floyd penned this in 1852, See how far Catholics have come (and Jews and Southern Baptists and members of other faiths): Click Here to Learn More
Corona Virus: An Opportunity to Work with Fundamentalists, click here.
Ron Rolheiser OMI notes that the Oblates of Mary are the best kept secret in the missionary world. May this booklet help us become more grateful for the great witness God has enabled us to make.
Roman Catholic and Episcopalian Bishops of Buffalo, NY: Ecumenism for Evangelization. Some Oblate Reflections.
For Archived Oblate Missiologist Articles Please Click here
For June 3rd article on Letitia Preston Floyd Click Here; for more see below:
Letitia Preston Floyd Rediscovered (see third item below). Dr. Jim Glanville has recently publicized the importance of Letitia Preston Floyd, with three articles in The Smithfield Review, vol. 19, 2015. Working with Ryan S. Mays, he published “A Sketch of Letitia Preston Floyd and Some of Her Letters,” (pp. 77-120), and “Governor John Floyd, Letitia Preston Floyd and the Catholic Church” (pp. 121-36). He worked with Fr. Winter and edited the article Fr. Winter originally wrote in 1990 “Letitia Preston Floyd: Pioneer Catholic Feminist” (pp. 137-45). Copies of The Smithfield Review may be obtained: info@smithfieldplantation.org.
Much information on Letitia and her family is available on the website maintained by Dr. Glanville: www.lynnside.org.
Update on “Thermometer of Missiology”: the accomplishment described at the end of this paragraph is now edited by Marek Rostkowski, OMI, and the 77th volume, for the year 2014, has now grown to 4,727 bibliographical entries, 41 reviews, and 301 journals indexed. Any publication regarding ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, and social justice, as part of evangelization, is recorded. It has its own website: Bibliographia Missionaria. Please Click Here
Greg Gallagher OMI; Robert Schreiter, CPPS – 2014
The following article from the Summer 2014, Mission Update of the United States Catholic Mission Association (USCMA) explains why the ecumenical American Society of Missiology is so important. Twice Robert Schreiter, CPPS, is presented. Schreiter has taught many Oblates who have studied at the Chicago Theological Union.
Greg Gallaher, OMI, is currently President of the USCMA Click Here and look for pages 6 and 7.
An Oblate Missiologist: Letitia Preston Floyd (1779-1852)?
In what sense is this woman an Oblate missiologist? Her influence on spreading Catholicism in the States of WV, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee is enormous, through her children whom she encouraged to become Catholic at a time when Catholicism was despised and rejected. She was the sister of a governor of Virginia, James Patton Preston; the wife of a governor of Virginia, John Floyd; and the mother of a governor of Virginia, John Buchanan Floyd.
When Fr. James MacGee OMI became pastor of Monroe County, WV, he discovered St. John’s Chapel , Sweet Springs, WV, built by Letitia’s daughter Letitia Floyd Lewis. When I succeeded MacGee as pastor, I took up the story of the Floyd’s and Lewis’. Below is an article describing the high point, on Aug. 15, 1990, when the bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Bernard Schmitt, dedicated the marker on Mrs. Floyd’s grave.
Recently a Virginian historian, Jim Glanville, has discovered the article and is mining the correspondence between Mrs. Floyd and Bishop Vincent Whelan, for her actual entry into the Catholic Church. We hope to post his article soon.
Thus Mrs. Floyd is an Oblate Missiologist in the sense that she led many into the Catholic Church, and in the sense that Oblates have discovered her influence. Click here for the Aug. 15, 1990 article. Click here for article
April 18th 2013 Oblate Convocation. The interest group on Missionary Ecumenism was presented twice. Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI introduced it Harry Winter OMI facilitated and Dan Nassaney OMI concluded each session. Click here for introductory material
We now have the first doctoral dissertation (1983) done on Father Andre Seumois, OMI. Click here for the PDF version.
This article of Marcello Zago has appeared in the June 2012 issue of Ecumenical Trends. click here to view BONDING PROCLAMATION, ECUMENISM AND DIALOGUE
Mary & Unity
Mary and Mission: Not Only for December 8, 2019.
Very Rev. Louie Lougen’s insights for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 2019, are even more needed as we cope with the corona virus and racism. Click Here to learn More
Rolheiser on Mary of Scripture and Mary of Devotions (June 25, 2018)
There’s an axiom that says: Roman Catholics tend to adore Mary while Protestants and Evangelicals tend to ignore Mary. Neither is ideal.
Click Here to learn more
Cardinal Newman’s Import Way for Non-Catholics to appreciate Mary. (2018)
During our May 22-30, 2018 Novena to Our Lady of Pontmain, here at Immaculate Heart of Mary Residence, Tewksbury, MA, the homilist on May 23, Father Frank Demers, OMI, reminded us of Cardinal Newman’s original and most important distinction between faith and devotion. Click Here to learn more
100 Years of Mary at Fatima: Eamon Carrol Rosary Story
The apparitions of Mary at Fatima, on the 13th of every month from May to October, 1917, very much influenced Catholic life. Pope Francis’ recent visit (May 12-13) attracted a great deal of attention. Many non-Catholics witnessed the Miracle of the Sun, on Oct. 13, 1917. The Wikipedia article on the Miracle of the Sun has a notice that “the neutrality of this article is disputed.” Click Here to learn more
“Mary (Stands) Under the Cross” (Ron Rolheiser) (April 1, 2015)
One of the most popular images in all of scripture (an icon that’s been endlessly painted, sung, put into litanies, written up into poetry, and used to triggered every kind of pious feeling) is the image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, standing silently under the cross as her son dies. Click Here to learn more
Mary ponders. (2016)
The church has found many reasons to mark the importance of today’s feast. Aside from marking the calendar’s turn to the new year, an appropriate time for prayer and thanksgiving, this day is also the eighth day after the birth of Christ. Click Here to learn more
Official Page of Our Lady of the Snows, Belleville, IL. Click Here
150th Anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady of Pontmain
January 17, 2021 was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to four children in Pontmain, France. Click Here to learn more
Click Here for the Official Page of the Shrine of Our Lady of Pontmain
Mary, Evangelist and Ecumenist
When one looks at the New Testament, St. Paul is the outstanding missionary. But a story told by Cardinal Leo Suenens (1904-96) shows that Mary has a vital role too. Suenens reminds us that the Three Wise Men found Jesus in the arms of His Mother. Then Suenens asks “Who are the Three Wise Men Today?” He responded: “Let one be the Bishop of Rome, another the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the third, the Archbishop of Canterbury, representing the Anglican and Protestant Churches. Where will they find the Christ whom they seek together? Still in the arms of His Mother.”
On this page we will do two things. First is a message of Mary at one of the many places she has appeared. This will change about every six months. Second are ongoing developments in Mary’s role in Evangelization and Ecumenism.
Video below explains how Our Lady of the Snows journeyed from Rome to Belleville, Illinois.
https://youtu.be/z7WYe1G7VOI
The message of Mary at Pontmain, France, on Jan. 17, 1871, is that of Hope as she shows a blood-red crucifix. Oblates of Mary are especially interested in this apparition because one of the children to whom Mary appeared, Joseph Barbedette, OMI, (1860-1930), became an Oblate. The Oblates administered the shrine for many years. We still have a retreat center next to the shrine.
The website of Our Lady of Pontmain (www.sanctuaire-pontmain.com) has a very developed section in English because English Catholics discovered the shrine, which is close to the English channel, and now visit it in large numbers.
There are two very interesting signs that Mary is bringing Christians together, to make us better evangelists. First is the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the second, the statement of “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” on Mary.
Founded in 1967, the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary-USA (there is also one in the United Kingdom) has done much to bring main-line Protestant Churches, and the Catholic Church closer together on Mary’s place in Christian Unity. See the website www.esbvm.org/usa.
The movement “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” has done more in the area of joint evangelization with Evangelical Protestants. Their statement “Do Whatever He Tells You” (2009) agrees that Mary is “the first to give faith’s assent” to Jesus, and that she “is powerfully pertinent to our time.” The entire statement may be googled.
Pope Francis
Muslim Response to Pope Francis Visit (3/10/21)
ROME – Pope Francis’s recent trip to Iraq will undoubtably have a lasting impact on the country in ways that only time will tell, however, in the immediate aftermath, a few significant developments can already be seen. Click Here to learn more
Aposolic Journey of his Holiness Pope Francis to Iraq (3/5/21 – 3/8/21)
This blessed place brings us back to our origins, to the sources of God’s work, to the birth of our religions. Here, where Abraham our father lived, we seem to have returned home. It was here that Abraham heard God’s call; it was from here that he set out on a journey that would change history. We are the fruits of that call and that journey. God asked Abraham to raise his eyes to heaven and to count its stars (cf. Gen 15:5). In those stars, he saw the promise of his descendants; he saw us. Today we, Jews, Christians and Muslims, together with our brothers and sisters of other religions, honour our father Abraham by doing as he did: we look up to heaven and we journey on earth. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis and Charismatics join Evangelization, Christian Unity and Service of the Poor (2019)
When Pope Francis joined 6,000 people in Rome on June 8 for the launch on Pentecost eve of a new Vatican body to serve the 115 million charismatic Catholics around the world, they made sure to perform his favorite Latin-American “praise” song, “Vive Jesús el Señor” (“The Lord Jesus lives”) (pp 18-23) . Click Here to learn more
Pope and Orthodox Patriarchs Pray Together
Pope Francis on Saturday denounced the “murderous indifference” that has allowed violence to consume the Middle East and drive tens of thousands of Christians from their homes, calling out global powers for seeking power and profit at the expense of the region’s people during a remarkable gathering of Orthodox patriarchs and Catholic leaders. Click here to learn more
Vatican National Catholic Reporter columnist on the Pope’s Visit to Geneva (2018)
June 21 one-day trip is being styled as an ‘ecumenical pilgrimage’ Click Here to learn more
Further Insights on the Pope’s Visit (2018)
Pope Francis Visit to Geneva, update
The French Catholic magazine La Croix International published an interview of a World Council of Churches (WCC) leader on May 31, to update their readers on Pope Francis’ June 21 visit. Pastor Martin Robra, co-secretary of the mixed working group between the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church, “credits Pope Francis with ushering in a new springtime for ecumenism.” This working group, set up in 1965, is the answer to the continually discussed challenge of the Catholic Church formally joining the WCC. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis and 50th Anniversary of Catholic Charismatic Movement (2017)
Pope Francis updates: January 25, 2017
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus radically transformed the life of Saint Paul. Henceforth, for him, the meaning of life would no longer consist in trusting in his own ability to observe the Law strictly, but rather in cleaving with his whole being to the gracious and unmerited love of God: to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Paul experienced the inbreaking of a new life, life in the Spirit. By the power of the risen Lord, he came to know forgiveness, confidence and consolation. Nor could Paul keep this newness to himself. He was compelled by grace to proclaim the good news of the love and reconciliation that God offers fully in Christ to all humanity. Click Here to learn more
Finnish January 17, 2017
I joyfully welcome all of you, members of the Ecumenical Delegation, who have come as pilgrims from Finland to Rome on the occasion of the feast of Saint Henrik. I thank the Lutheran Bishop of Turku for his kind words… in Spanish! For more than thirty years, it has been a fine custom for your pilgrimage to take place during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which calls us to draw closer to one another anew through conversion. True ecumenism is based on a shared conversion to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Redeemer. If we draw close to him, we draw close also to one another. During these days let us pray more fervently to the Holy Spirit so that we may experience this conversion which makes reconciliation possible. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis on Vatican II (2015)
When Pope Francis announced the Jubilee of Mercy, on April 11, 2015, he spent two long paragraphs
describing his view of Vatican II. Consider prayerfully the following… Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis Triple Play (2015)
In baseball, a triple play is rare. It occurs when the team in the field can eliminate three opponents in one play, and that team
wins the inning. They may not win the game, but it certainly helps. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis’ Letter, “The Joy of the Gospel”, and Ecumenism
In over fifty years of studying papal documents, I have never come across one as unique as Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter, The Joy of the Gospel. Here I hope to sketch its importance in our search for unity with other Christians. In a future article, I hope to indicate its ground breaking value in our dialogue with our Jewish older brothers and sisters. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis Meets US Televangelists (7/9/2014)
(RNS) “The prosperity gospel seems to be fundamentally opposed to the message that Francis has been spreading. But he has shown that he’s willing to meet with just about anyone,” said Michael Peppard, a professor of theology at Fordham University. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis: The Miracle of unity has Begun – God will Finish It! (3/1/2014)
Pope of a New World (10/1/2013)
The Council Fathers knew that being open to modern culture meant religious ecumenism and dialogue with non-believers. But afterwards very little was done in that direction. I have the humility and ambition to want to do something.” Pope Francis to Eugenio Scalfari, editor of La Repubblica, Oct. 1, 2013.
Personal contact is so important for Christian unity. Pope John Paul II’s personal contact with Jewish people during his youth and his friendship with Billy Graham; and Pope Benedict XVI’s contact with Lutherans during his military service, have shown us that all ecumenism begins at home.
An article in the evangelical magazine Christianity Today quotes Argentinian evangelicals’ view of Pope Francis as “Answer to Our Prayers” (3/14/2013, website only). He “played a central role in Argentina’s CRECES (Renewal Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit) movement over the past 10 years.”
Regarding the Eastern Orthodox, on Wednesday, March 20, the day after his inauguration, he received several dozen representatives of the various Christian Churches and other world religions who had attended. Vatican Radio, on its website, showed him embracing Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and calling him “My brother Andrew,” after the Apostle Andrew, who is venerated as the founding apostle of Constantinople. Bartholomew was the only one to accompany Francis to the tomb of St.Peter the day before. Vatican Radio also reproduced the text of his discourse on March 20, in which Pope Francis assured his listeners of his “firm wish to continue on the path of ecumenical dialogue.”
In his inspiring inaugural homily, he asked the help of all to “protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest.”
May Christians see more than ever the need we have of each other to accomplish this.
Pope Benedict gave Pope Francis an unexpected legacy in Christian Unity. Click here for the photo and one page summary from the latest edition of Foreign Affairs. My thanks to Seamus Finn OMI for sending me this item.
Family/Laity
Inspiring Letter of Pope Francis to Families (12/26/21)
In this “Amoris Laetitia Family” Year, I am writing to express my deep affection and closeness to you at this very special time. Families have always been in my thoughts and prayers, but especially so during the pandemic, which has severely tested everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us. The present situation has made me want to accompany with humility, affection and openness each individual, married couple and family in all those situations in which you find yourselves. Click Here to learn more
Migrant Ministry to Hmong in the USA: Fr. Umberto Nespolo, OMI
From 1977 to mid 1980 there were about 12,000 Hmong immigrants living in Fresno CA. Beside Hmong Animism, Catholicism was the primary faith among the Hmong hence the works of the Missionaries in Laos (Oblates and MEP – Missions Étrangères de Paris).
Click Here to learn more
Madeleine Delbrel and Oblate Father Jean Guegen (2016)
Father Jean Gueguen, OMI, died yesterday, May 24, in the 96 year of his life. For 20 years, he was at Pontmain. In the beginning he was named vice-postulator for the cause of beatification of Madeleine Delbrel, in 1993 by Bishop Francois Fretelliere. Click here to learn more
Cardinal van Balthazar and Others on Madeleine Delbrel (2011)
Madeleine Delbrêl, the French laywoman who at the age of seventeen penned a remarkably lucid atheist manifesto entitled “God is dead . . . Long live death!”1 knew the pitiless suffering of the world of unbelief. In 1960, shortly before her death, she would describe what she held to be the most “profound misfortune” that can befall a man: “The inner support that holds all things in being crumbles from within . . . and all things are swallowed up in nothingness.”2 Click Here to learn more
Latest from America magazine on Madeleine Debrel, thanks to LauraRose Paradis (4/24/20)
Click https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/04/24/subway-mysticism-how-madeleine-delbrel-transformed-my-commute to learn more.
Delbrel and French Oblates (5/28/19)
On Jan. 26, 2018, Pope Francis declared Madeleine Delbrel venerable, setting this woman who has been called the Dorothy Day of France, on the first step to canonization. Click Here to learn more
Pope Francis regarding the need for expanding the relationship of the clergy to the laity, in his Letter to Priests for the Feast of St. John Vianney, Aug. 4, 2019: “Our people have a ‘nose’ for things. They sniff out, discover, new paths to make; they have the sensus fidei (the sens of the faithful, citing Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church, 12). What could be more beautiful than this? Jesus Himself is the model of this evangelizing option that leads us to the heart of our people.”
Brother Pat McGee, OMI and I were able to attend, on Jan. 5, the fantastic exhibit “Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation,” which ran at the Minneapolis, MN Institute of Art from Oct. 15, 2016 – Jan. 16, 2017. Not only were Luther’s insights dependent on the invention by layman Johannes Gutenberg of the printing press, but at the end of the exhibit were a display of small hourglasses. The docent told us with a smile that the sermons by the first reformers could be very long. So a layperson was authorized to watch the hourglass and when the promised time was over, to declare the sermon by the clergy ended.
Lisa Hunke Recommendation (this lay youth minister’s reflection for Advent applies to any season of the year). Thank you, Lisa, for forwarding it Click here to learn more
2018 Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel’s writings
Spiritual Reading for Family-Laity
There are two classics about the Family and Laity written by clergy, and one written by an English layman. St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life is required reading by any lay person wanting to progress in the spiritual life. Fr. Eugene Boylan (1904-64)’s This Tremendous Lover has been issued in several editions; the original hardcover has an excellent reading list.
Donald Nicholl (1923-97),, an Englishman who was a close friend of Mother Teresa, taught in the US for many years, and wrote Holiness in 1981, second edition 1987. Fr. Richard McBrien praised it highly.
Trail-breaking Vatican Document regarding the importance of the Laity
In 2014, Pope Francis approved the text of the International Theological Commission “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church.” In many ways it is revolutionary. But rather than breaking totally new ground, it recovers the importance of the laity in proposing what we believe. No longer are church leaders to consider the laity as simply praying, obeying and paying. In the early church, and in different historical periods, the consent and leadership of the laity was critical in passing on the teachings of Jesus.
The text is 53 pages, with about 3 more of footnotes. If you find it hard reading at the beginning, I recommend going to #’s 44-74, or 85. One might begin with the conclusion: #127. Click Here to learn more
Laity and Oblate Spirituality
Third Year of the Oblate Triennium:
Mission, Vow of Obedience and Evangelii Gaudium Click Here to learn more
What about the Single Vocation
- Our thanks to Lisa Hunke for forwarding JEff Cavins’ article “A Road Map for New Evangelization”. The Pastoral Letter from Bishop Paul Loverde, which they highly recommend and include, means a great deal to Oblates of Mary. Bishop Loverde spent a great deal of time as a youngster at Holy ANgels Parish, Buffalo, NY, conducted by the Oblates. And he invited me to celebrate at First Mass in the chapel of the North American College, Rome, Italy, with and my parents and himself, on Dec. 26, 1964.
Lisa Hunke also recommends New Evangelization Ministries. Click Here
During the unprecedented time of world peace and relative prosperity following the end of World War II, 1945, it has become evident and urgent that Mission (Evangeliztion), Ecumenism and Dialogue need to be rethought with the Family and Laity as both the main subjects and objects. Pope Francis is pushing this, culminating in his analysis of the two synods on the Family, when he writes: “The family lives its spirituality precisely by being at one and the same time a domestic church and a vital cell for transforming the world” (Amoris Laetitia, #324; see also 200, 201)
One of our young Polish Oblate missiologists stated this during the Oblate Charism Convocation of August, 2015, when he wrote about “a field of mission in accompanying families, which are training sites for becoming gift, schools of deeper humanity” Click here for 3 pp. document.
Besides Lisa Hunke’s items on Catechists and Faith Formation teachers (Click here for the first), we will also present the accomplishments of catechists in Third World countries.
There have been some significant developments in our understanding of “sensus fidei” — how does the understanding of the faithful laity affect the entire Church? With Pope Francis pushing hard against clericalism this is especially important. More on this in future updates.
Eucharistic Hospitality
Explanation of German Bishops on Eucharistic Hospitality
From its early days the Association of Interchurch Families has been curious about the situation of interchurch families in other countries and over time links have been established with similar families, groups and associations in other parts of the world. Click Here to learn more
One Bread, one Body: Further Reflections: (1999)
Although Published in 1999, by Our good Friend Ruth Reardon, for the Association of Interchurch Families in England, the Article is still very relevant: Click Here to learn more
Ron Rolheiser, OMI, on Communion with Protestants: What Makes for Christian Communion? (2019)
The question of intercommunion within our churches today is a big one, an important one, and a painful one. I’m old enough to remember another time, actually to remember two other times. Click Here to learn more
July 20, 2019: 50th Anniversary of Buzz Aldrin and Communion on the Moon. Click Here to learn more
Father John Crossin, OSFS, the outgoing Executive Director of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, wrote in the June issue of Ecumenical Trends (pp. 2/82-3/83) that we should give more attention to “an ongoing relationship (e.g. a sacramental marriage) rather than the current emphasis on episodic events” for increasing Eucharistic hospitality.
He noted that this consideration would give rise to improving the approach of the 1993 Vatican Ecumenical Directory.
Two Authorities Lessen the Rigidity Against Eucharistic Hospitality
Father Thomas Rausch, SJ, recently observed that under Pope Benedict, the first principle of the Eucharist as a sign of unity “almost completely eclipsed the second,” the Eucharist as a means of grace. “While intercommunion depends on formal relationships between churches, Eucharistic hospitality is personal, occasionally welcoming those non-Catholic Christians who share a Eucharistic faith and want to live in communion with us” (Ecumenical Trends 46 [April, 2017,4] 10/58.
The cardinal in charge of interpreting authoritative statements, Francesco Coccopalmerio, wrote that the competent authority for deciding if Catholics in irregular marital situations can receive Communion, is the parish priest, consulting if necessary with the bishop (Gerard O’Connell, ” ‘Amoris’ opens the door to Communion for Catholics in irregular unions,” America, March 20, 2017, p. 17). Until now, most believed it had to be the bishop who made such decisions.
For the story and photo of Rev. Martin Reardon (Anglican) and Dr. Ruth Reardon (RC) and their influence in this matter, see the click on within the January, 2016 Eucharistic sharing article on the home page.
Archbishop Hebda and Eucharistic Hospitality
During his presentation of Jan. 22, 2017, at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, (described on our home page), Archbishop Hebda explainedhow he had visited the exposition on Luther and the Arts, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on Jan. 2. He related that his docent was a Lutheran woman married to a Roman Catholic, who told him how difficult it was for her to be denied Communion when she attended Mass with her husband. Hebda said very clearly “We have to work on this.”
Update, October 1st. 2015. Ron Rolhieser, OMI, Column for April 26th 2015 : Praying for Other Christians Click Here to learn more
Convergence of Protestant Sunday Worship with Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Worship
For Eucharistic Ministers, and All Christians Concerned about Sharing in the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist
On July 20, 1969, a Presbyterian elder, Buzz Aldrin, celebrated the first Communion service on the moon. It was actually the first liquid poured and food eaten on the moon. Many Christians found this surprising; Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have a Sunday Eucharist, but what were Presbyterians doing carrying the consecrated species to the moon?
The amazing truth is that all Christian Churches have been converging regarding the importance of the Sunday Lord’s Supper, and its twofold form of the Table of the Word and the Table of the Sacrament. This fact should influence the hospitality which especially Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox show to members of other Churches when they participate in the Lord’s Supper.
For Roman Catholics, the blunt reality was stated in the Decree on Ecumenism, #8: the fact that common worship should signify the unity of the Church generally rules out common worship; the gaining of a needed grace sometimes commends it. Note the word is “commends,” not “tolerate,” or “allow.”
Since these two almost contradictory principles were first stated in 1964, the convergence of practice and belief regarding the Lord’s Supper has been remarkable. Cardinal Ratzinger, at the funeral of Pope John Paul, extended the Eucharist to the Protestant members of the Taize Community. John Paul II had done the same thing with Taize members earlier.
For a complete treatment, please click here for Ecumenical Trends, Sept. 2013, p. 14/126.
The article below, even though published in 1970, is unfortunately more relevant than ever.
THE EUCHARIST: Ecumenical Preaching
LIMITED INTER–COMMUNION probably will not be allowed by the hierarchy in the immediate near future” (The American Ecclesiastical Review, CLXIII. [Dec . 1970]. 389). Few, especially the author, expected these words to he qualified so quickly. The “Instruction Concerning Cases When Other Christians May Be Admitted to Eucharistic Communion in the Catholic Church, issued on June 1, 1972, by the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity is another cautious and noteworthy step by the Holy See in promoting Eucharistic hospitality with Protestants. Click Here to learn more
Preaching Ecumenically on the Eucharist
“In THIS ECUMENICAL business, we Catholics have been the only ones to give in. The Protestants haven’t budged an inch.” One hears such observations rather frequently, and it does seem true in certain matters. For example, some new Catholic churches have carried the advice of the Constitution on the Liturgy regarding statues (#125) to such an extreme that a bareness reminiscent of older Protestant churches has set in. Click Here to learn more