Archbishop Martin John Spalding, the Baltimore Catechism, and Babe Ruth...

I had the opportunity to cover a Mass this morning for a brother priest at one of the most historic parishes in our Archdiocese: Holy Name of Mary parish in Calvary, KY. The historian in me was distracted all during the Mass thinking of the significance of this small parish in the Kentucky countryside.

It's the home parish of two bishops, John Lancaster Spalding and Martin John Spalding. John Lancaster would go on to be the first bishop of Peoria, Illinois, and be connected with a rather nefarious story involving the Caldwell family of Kentucky. The Caldwell sisters were big contributors to the newly founded Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. They are the namesakes of Caldwell Hall, where I studied canon law for the last three years.

Martin John Spalding succeeded Benedict Joseph Flaget to be the second bishop of Louisville. As bishop of Louisville (a See recently transferred from Bardstown, KY and the first inland diocese created in the USA) he defended the Catholic Church against the "Know Nothing" political party of the mid-nineteenth century. The "Know Nothings" incited the infamous "Bloody Monday Riots" which claimed the life of upwards of 100 German Catholic immigrants (several being murdered on the front steps of my soon-to-be parish St. Martin of Tours - a church whose patron was selected in honor of Bishop Spalding). Bishop Spalding spent upwards of a decade in Louisville - founding all sorts of institutions such as schools, pious and charitable organizations, and orphanages - before being named the fourth Archbishop of Baltimore. He invited the Xaverian Brothers (C.F.X.) to the USA, the same order that operates the high school I attended in Louisville. This order would found a school in Baltimore - St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys - where Babe Ruth would be discovered, the greatest baseball player of all time. Archbishop Spalding was influential in the founding of the American College in Louvain, Belgium, where thousands of American priests would study (and was recently closed last year). He was an influential participant in the Plenary Councils of Baltimore (origin of the "Baltimore Catechism"), an outspoken advocate of Catholic schools, founder of the St. Vincent DePaul Society aiding the poor, an influential participant in the First Vatican Council (advocating for the doctrine of papal infallibility), among other accomplishments. With all these things on my mind it was good that the preaching duties were handled by the deacon...

Driving to Calvary on a beautifully foggy Kentucky morning:



Historical marker commemorating Archbishop Martin John Spalding:



Marian grotto at the parish:



Holy Name of Mary Church:

Fr. Matthew and my Visits to Gethsemani...

Many years ago, during my seminary days (when I was home) and when I was first ordained, I frequently attended the Sunday Compline and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at the Trappist abbey of Gethsemani south of Bardstown. It's a very peaceful drive of about an hour south of Louisville. One of the monks, Fr. Matthew, would give a spiritual talk - always begun with a poem - after Compline ended in the chapel of the guest house. He was one of the best preachers I have ever heard; I stole many a homily idea from him. He died about a year ago at the age of 95. I recently came across some videos posted on YouTube of these talks and thought I'd share them here. They take me back...

Change of Assignment...

So the announcements have been made at the respective parishes this weekend and I can now speak publicly. Effective June 20th, I will be moving from St. Francis Xavier and All Saints to become pastor of St. Martin of Tours in Louisville. I will continue as Judicial Vicar and director of the Tribunal.

It's a two edged sword, really. With any change of assignment there are people and places left behind. Having only spent one year at St. Francis and All Saints, I hate to leave what are two wonderful parishes. In a very short time I came to feel at home here. That being said, being assigned to St. Martin's represents a sort of coming-full-circle for me. St. Martin's is the parish I attended for several years before entering seminary; it's the parish where I celebrated my first Mass; it's the parish I've assisted with the Extraordinary Form for many years. I know many wonderful people there. I'm excited to be able to return in a new role.

St. Martin's is known for many things, among them: perpetual Eucharistic adoration, a strong emphasis on the celebration of the liturgy in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, a great sacred music program, social outreach programs, and others. I'm excited to have the opportunity to be involved in all these parts of parish life.

So as these next couple months go by, I'll be enjoying the rest of my time in my current assignment while preparing for yet another move. Good thing I never got around to throwing out all those boxes I used last year to move home from Washington...

St. Martin of Tours:







Celebrating the Extraordinary Form at St. Martin's, October 2011:

Easter Vigil...

Here's a pic from the Easter Vigil a week ago here at St. Francis Xavier. Five were baptized, three received into full communion.

I Second That...

From Cardinal Mahony (http://www.cardinalmahonyblogsla.org/) of Los Angeles:



Mr. President, you are trying to resolve the wrong problem. Your HHS new federal rule governing mandated health care services is not just about women's services and who pays for them.

Rather, the real question is what protections and guarantees are afforded Americans and our various institutions by the Constitution. Your ill-placed focus should be frightening to all Americans.

Freedom of conscience and religious liberty are not concessions grudgingly granted by the Federal Government--either directly, or by way of exemption or exception. Our nation was founded on those basic and inalienable rights as the bedrock of who we are as Americans. Our Constitution was written precisely to reject and to avoid the dreadful English model whereby the king and the government are the granter of all rights, including religious rights--as well as the single power to withdraw, limit, or negate those rights.

As a Catholic American, I am outraged not only by your incredulous contortions to justify your untenable position, I am insulted that you would think that Americans who value and treasure our Constitutional freedoms would even question your overreaching infringement on individual freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

Your "accommodation" actually makes the entire matter far worse. Every effort must be undertaken to reverse your ill-conceived revocation of our Constitutional rights.

I encourage all Catholics and millions of others of good will in our country to challenge candidates for election to Congress and to the presidency to take a strong stance in favor of guaranteeing and protecting our nation's Constitutional rights.

I fear, Mr. President, that you are knowingly and intentionally trampling upon and reversing our Constitutional rights.

Odds and Ends, and a New Assignment...

Once again, it has been a while since I have posted anything here. Advent has come and gone; Christmas has come and gone. And a new responsibility/assignment has been assumed.

Effective at the stroke of midnight, January 1, I became Judicial Vicar and director of the tribunal for the archdiocese. This while remaining pastor of All Saints and St. Francis Xavier. It's a tremendous responsibility, and I'm humbled that Archbishop Kurtz has asked me to fulfill this new office. I'll be relying tremendously upon the help of our Vicar General Fr. Mark, and our Adjutant JV Fr. Philip, for their advice and expertise. As far as JCL's are concerned around here, I'm the new guy on the block, and I'll be anxiously learning the ropes as far as applying the law that I have been studying for the past three years in Washington.

Christmas went very well in the parishes. Seeing that it fell on a Sunday meant that us priests got a bit of a break, Mass-wise. All Saints and St. Francis normally have five scheduled Masses a weekend, of which four are celebrated by yours truly (I'm very grateful for the help of a wonderful retired priest, Fr. Murphy, who generally celebrates one of the two Saturday evening Masses). Since Christmas fell on Sunday this year, however, I ended up with only three Masses for the weekend. One of these was a midnight Mass at St. Francis. While it was WAY past my bedtime, I celebrated a true midnight Mass, not taking the creative interpretation of claiming a midnight Mass because it ENDED at midnight (a.k.a. an 11:00 O'clock "midnight Mass"...).

Finally, as we speak, I'm in Washington, DC. Through the generosity of the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales, whom I lived with for my three years of studies, I have a place to lay my head in DC. I'm taking advantage of their generosity and spending a few days catching up with friends. I've been visiting with friends here in DC, as well as taking a train up to Boston to catch up with some of my Capuchin friends up there. My good friend Br. James is in charge of their formation house (Friary of S. Lorenzo) in south Boston while working on his dissertation for the JCD. Did I mention that the Sam Adams brewery is only a block away? What a great tour and even greater tasting. The true highlight of the weekend, though, was that we had the privilege of sharing a very enjoyable lunch with Cardinal O'Malley yesterday, who himself is a Capuchin. It's been a great few days, but it's time to get back home.

Good ol' DC Metro:






There it is. My thesis was on the shelf in the university library. I have my own Dewey Decimal now...!












Riding Amtrak up to Boston (here's the New York city skyline):






With Fr. John, Fr. Dan, and Cardinal O'Malley:






At the Boston Cathedral with Capuchin friends Br. James and Fr. Charles:






No trip to DC is complete without a visit to Shelly's!

On the Eve of the Implementation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal...

Like all others, I suppose, I approach this weekend - the implementation of the newest translation of the Roman Missal - with some trepidation. But as I told my congregation last week at the two parishes, we'll probably look back at ourselves in six months and wonder what all the fuss was about. We're as prepared as we likely can be, and there will no doubt be some stumbling along the way ("and with your spirit, and with your spirit, and with your spirit..."), but I am of the mind that this will be only minimally disruptive. I will be able to return to celebrating Mass with my eyes closed before too long. And in the end we will be better for this, if for no other reason than it will force us to be more attentive and appreciative of the words we speak to God.







I heard someone (a priest friend) say a few months ago that this whole process had gotten him to pay closer attention to the words he was currently using in celebrating the Mass; how the language of many of the orations seemed to be directing God to do this or that for us; that the translation we have been using for so long now is in the indicative voice, rather than the more pleading tone of the subjunctive voice. I have to say that it got me noticing the same thing. As one who has had the privilege of celebrating in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (the "Latin Mass," aka "Tridentine Mass") for many years now, I have to say that the difference is striking. The voice of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form is almost always in the subjunctive. A common phrase in all the orations is "quaesumus Domine" ("we humbly entreat you, O Lord"). I must confess that I think it a good thing that we are making a return to this type of language in the Ordinary Form. Not because it lowers our status (I don't think it does), but rather because it elevates God's. The inconvenience involved for me to learn some new words seems to pale in comparison to the benefit gained in speaking in a more humble way to God.

Tomorrow morning I will celebrate for the last time using the text of the Mass which has become so familiar to me in my ten years as a priest. I can literally do it with my eyes closed. As is so often the case, there is a certain sadness in parting with comfortable familiarity. I do think, however, that what we are receiving is an improvement. Therefore, I look forward to this weekend!

As an aside, the new translation has brought to birth a whole new corpus of liturgical music that evokes the rich musical tradition of the Church. Informed by - and in keeping with - the conciliar documents such as Sacrosanctum Concilium, they give pride of place to Gregorian chant, all while fostering full, active, and conscious participation of the faithful in the Mass (hardly anything bugs me more in the Ordinary Form than the use of Mass settings - both new and ancient - that the people can't sing and have the air of being mere "performance"). I've been following with great interest blogs such as chantcafe.com that have been chronicalling these new developments, and I include a link below to some particularly well done (in my humble estimation) settings of the Gloria. Check them out:

http://www.chantcafe.com/2011/10/more-english-mass-settings-watershed.html

Young Fogeys: The storm on the horizon and my grief about it

Young Fogeys: The storm on the horizon and my grief about it: No, I'm not talking about weather.  For two times in the last four days, I've been contacted to anoint someone who is dying.  Certainly, thi...

Been a While...

Ok, it's been quite a while since I put anything on here (in case anyone actually looks at this blog anymore...). Hard to believe that it has been four months since I began my new assignment as a pastor of two parishes and judge in the tribunal. It feels like my time as a canon law student at CUA was a long time ago. Things have been very busy just getting the lay of the land, trying to learn new names and faces (I'm horrible with the names...), figuring out which keys are for which doors, etc, etc. All the usual challenges of starting a new assignment. Things seem to be going well in spite of me, however. The people here are wonderful.

It hasn't been "all work and no play" however. I have been on the golf course a few times trying to rediscover my game (with mixed results), and have been doing some fishing. On that topic, my latest adventure is pictured below: a fly fishing pontoon. Came across a GREAT deal on this little bad boy (hereafter named "Sacerdos II") and it has been a lot of fun. Instead of being restricted to where I can only walk in and wade fish, this little boat means I can hop in and float large stretches of otherwise unreachable water, anchoring off wherever I see fish rising. A golfing buddy of mine, who has also been bitten hard by the fly fishing bug, has one of his own. We recently loaded them up and drove down South on I-65 where we floated the upper stretch of the Cumberland River in Southern Kentucky. Another buddy of mine, recognizing the sheer genius in this move of mine, has purchased his own pontoon and plans on joining in on future trips. Did I mention the boat has a rack for a cooler too?







What I'm attempting not to do:

God Bless America...

Good News For Vocations...

People often comment to me how sad it is that our seminaries are empty and there are no young men entering the priesthood these days. It strikes me that this is by and large everyone's assumption of what the state of affairs is for vocations these days. Many are surprised when I tell them that things are changing in this area. No doubt, gone are the days when we ordain a dozen at a time to the priesthood, and it's true that we here in Louisville could be doing even better than we are, but the tide is beginning to turn. Here's a good example compliments of a friend of mine (Fr. John) who is from St. Paul, MN.

Another Film on Religious Life...

Akin to "Into Great Silence" (a film journal of life in a Carthusian monastery), a somewhat similar movie is being released chronicling life as a Carmelite Nun.

Pics from Rome, a year+ late...

Received some pictures from my canon law class's trip to Rome in the spring of last year to visit various of the Roman Dicasteries. Here's a sampling:

With Cardinal Burke at the Apostolic Signatura:




The Roman Rota:







Sunday Mass at St. Peter's. I was asked to participate in the prayers of the faithful for the Mass:

ETC...

Some random shots from what's been going on for the last couple of weeks...

Visit to South Holston Lake for a couple days fishing before I began new assignment:



Welcome to the Parish:


My new office at the Tribunal:


Trip to Evansville for Bishop Thompson's Consecration & Installation:

New Bishop...

Last week I was privileged to attend the consecration and installation of a priest of the archdiocese as bishop of Evansville, IN: Bishop Charles Thompson. He is a fine priest, and will be an excellent bishop. Came across this video of the Mass: