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CU Episode 111: Eleventy-One!

Topics from the Show…
a New Website from the USCCB on the Roman Missal, we’re happy about the Reprint Permissions! Get our Picks of the Week, cu metro and more!

Episode 111 Shownotes

The Panel

• Fr. Chris Decker (@digitalcatholic | facebook/cdecker | card.ly/digitalcatholic)
• Fr. Ryan Humphries (@frhumphries | facebook/frhumphries | card.ly/frhumphries)

Topics from the Show…

• New Website from the USCCB on the Roman Missal

We’re happy about the Reprint Permissions!

The Committee on Divine Worship of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is happy to grant gratis permission to reproduce the materials on this website under the following conditions:
1. The text must not be edited; any omissions must be noted with ellipses.
2. Material must be distributed without charge.
3. Material may not be posted to other sites, including blogs. Permission is granted to create an unframed link to pages on the Committee on Divine Worship website.
4. This permission is limited to material created by the Committee on Divine Worship.  For materials created by others (including the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions), please contact those organizations directly.
5. Any use of content from the website must be accompanied by the following acknowledgment:
Copyright © 2008 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C.  Used with permission.  All rights reserved.
For any other uses, or if you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact the USCCB Permissions Department at nabperm@usccb.org.

• Conservative Lutherans mull future after ELCA lifts gay ban

Modernism is basically:
- A reduction of scripture and creed to it’s human features
- A belief that salvation can be found in this world
- The raising of worldly concerns like justice and relevance above the essential Christian mission of salvation and evangelization

Our Picks of the Week

• Fr. Ryan, iPhone App & Web Service
• Fr. Chris, Store.Frijole.Info

The CU Metro

• Time Magazine this week encouraged social media and web users to make plans for eternal data…

The Music

• Dance, The Moot

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Production Info

• Recorded Date: 24 Aug 09
• Release Date:
• Duration:
• Edited By: Fr. Chris
• Shownotes By: Fr. Ryan
• Notes: No Video this week. Daniel was sick. Josh still working.

Google Quick Search Bar

I am big on the idea that if you can find even one thing that can save you time then use it. I use countless apps on my computer to do my job, surf the internet, and what not, so quicker ways to do those things are golden for me. I have for a long time been a huge advocate of QuickSilver for the Mac. It was easily invoked by a shortcut key, and gave me countless options all from a keystroke. That doesn’t sound like much but imagine how much time it takes to go to your applications folder, find a program, and then open it. say 15-30 seconds, with Quicksilver I could do it in 5 seconds. Well I started to find that there were some issues with Quicksilver with upgrading to Snow Leopard that were preventing me from getting where I needed to fast. It was actually taking me longer than before.

Enter Google Quick Search Bar. This little app for both Mac and PC, I know…I am recommending something that works on PC too, is really slick. It is available for the Mac here and for the PC as bundled with Google Desktop. Google QS Bar knows what applications you have on your computer and starts to learn what you use the most. As you begin typing it searches by your term for the best option for you. So aphabetically if I start to type “Te” it will pull up results listing things like TextEdit, Terminal, TextMate, the song “Ten” from Peal Jam, and offer to search for texas lottery. Well if I always type “Te” to open the program TextMate it will learn to start presenting TextMate at the top of the list. Huge time saver!

Many people ask me what is the difference between my local search say spotlight or windows search? Well it also has the option to tie into services offered by these programs. If I begin searching for my wife’s name, Anna Kedinger, it begins searching my email, address book, and then I can tab and have more options from those options. So with a few keystrokes I just sent an email to my wife. Fast. My only down side to the app is that QuickSilver did have alot of API type stuff that tied into some neat little actions. Most I never used. I like that I can combine my desires for search, internet, and app launching much more seamless and cleaner than QuickSilver into one interface.

Hope you enjoy it!

Rating:

I’ll be in France if You Need Me.

On Monday, I leave for France along with some other priests for two weeks in the middle of nowhere, Ars to be precise.  In fact, it’s still a veritable nowhere except for the someone who went to Ars a little over 150 years ago. His name was Jean Vianney.

Speaking with priests in my diocese who have traveled extensively in France, including one who managed to find himself on a school bus headed to Ars in the middle of the night, it’s nearly impossible to get to Ars unless you’re trying to do so. No trains or planes go directly there. It can only be accessed by car or on foot!  It was to this place that St. Jean was sent by his bishop to bring them to the Sacraments, to Confession, and ultimately back to God.

One priest sent into the middle of nowhere to a (still) remote parish effected the conversions of many in his day and countless others in the century and a half since his death. Further, it was specifically his priesthood that did the job.  His faithfulness to the Sacramental life of the Church, his dedication to the confessional stall, and his love for Eucharistic Adoration were the means and are now the example of a priest’s identity as alter Christus.

For this reason, Pope Benedict XVI named St. John Vianney, the Curé (curate or pastor) d’Ars, the universal patron of priests. And it is because of this that priests from all over the globe are converging upon Ars for a retreat to reflect upon priestly identity from this faithful pastor’s point of view.  Now a saint of the Church, St. John’s example is a model for priestly ministry after Jesus’ own Sacred Heart.

I’m excited to be going.  If time permits, I’d like to keep you Undergrounders in the know as I am able.  I remember well that Europe doesn’t really have WiFi, and I don’t really the like internet café experiece.  Also, I’m excited to unplug from technology for a little while, we’ll see how it goes.  At any rate, pray for me and for my brothers as I go on retreat. I will be praying for you!

As Pére Jean-Baptiste Vianney said to a child who willingly showed him the route to his new parish he now says to us (and to me!), “You have shown me the way to Ars. Now I will show you the way to heaven!”

Oremus Pro Invicem.

The Holy Father’s Letter to the Bishops – Commentary

I began to write a blog article concerning the Holy Father’s letter to the Bishops of the world concerning the lifting of 1988 excommunications of those bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre but quickly found myself writing in Father Z style.  Here are my 2 cents on the subject.

Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry!

The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and was difficult to view positively in the light of the issues and tasks facing the Church today. Even though many Bishops and members of the faithful were disposed in principle to take a positive view of the Pope’s concern for reconciliation, the question remained whether such a gesture was fitting in view of the genuinely urgent demands of the life of faith in our time. Some groups, on the other hand, openly accused the Pope of wanting to turn back the clock to before the Council: as a result, an avalanche of protests was unleashed, whose bitterness laid bare wounds deeper than those of the present moment. I (notice the personalization of the letter.  Rather than employing the formal Pontifical ‘we,’ the Pope chooses a more personal salutation as he is writing to his brother bishops here) therefore feel obliged to offer you, dear Brothers, a word of clarification, which ought to help you understand the concerns which led me and the competent offices of the Holy See to take this step. In this way I hope to contribute to peace in the Church. (While it is true that at Supreme Pontiff, the Holy Father doesn’t owe an explanation to anyone why he chose to lift the excommunications, he nonetheless feels it necessary to explain his position so as to prevent division – this is truly a humble and pastoral move.)

An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came on top of the remission of the excommunication. The discreet gesture of mercy towards four Bishops ordained validly but not legitimately (The Holy Father makes it clear that the four bishops were indeed validly ordained but not licitly.  I don’t think there was much debate about this among most but maybe among some.) suddenly appeared as something completely different: as the repudiation of reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and thus as the reversal of what the Council had laid down in this regard to guide the Church’s path. A gesture of reconciliation with an ecclesial group engaged in a process of separation thus turned into its very antithesis: an apparent step backwards with regard to all the steps of reconciliation between Christians and Jews taken since the Council – steps which my own work as a theologian had sought from the beginning to take part in and support. (This should be an indicator to those who have accused Pope Benedict of being Anti-Semitic that Christian-Jewish relations are at the forefront of his mission as Pope) That this overlapping of two opposed processes took place and momentarily upset peace between Christians and Jews, as well as peace within the Church, is something which I can only deeply deplore. I have been told that consulting the information available on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news. (This is an amazing statement from the Holy Father.  As members of the cu podcast, we’ve always pushed for technology at the service of the faith and its excellent to see the Holy Father indicting that the Holy See will make better use of the Internet as a source for information in the future.) I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility. (I think many of us are saddened by those who have chosen to do this) Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust which – as in the days of Pope John Paul II – has also existed throughout my pontificate and, thank God, continues to exist.

Another mistake , which I deeply regret, is the fact that the extent and limits of the provision of 21 January 2009 were not clearly and adequately explained at the moment of its publication. (notice the Holy Father doesn’t make excuses for what has happened with regards to the Williamson situation but clearly says it was a mistake as was a lack of an extended explanation about the lifting of the excommunications) The excommunication affects individuals, not institutions (See the distinction here, the status of the individual bishops has changed not the status of the SSPX). An episcopal ordination lacking a pontifical mandate raises the danger of a schism, since it jeopardizes the unity of the College of Bishops with the Pope. Consequently the Church must react by employing her most severe punishment – excommunication – with the aim of calling those thus punished to repent and to return to unity. Twenty years after the ordinations, this goal has sadly not yet been attained. The remission of the excommunication has the same aim as that of the punishment: namely, to invite the four Bishops once more to return. (This is always the aim of excommunication, it is not meant to punish but rather as a disciplinary measure that is meant to call one to conversion.  The Holy Father has noted that this method of discipline was not effective so it seems rather he has turned to mercy as an avenue for reconciliation.) This gesture was possible once the interested parties had expressed their recognition in principle of the Pope and his authority as Pastor, albeit with some reservations in the area of obedience to his doctrinal authority and to the authority of the Council. Here I return to the distinction between individuals and institutions. The remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline: the individuals were freed from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. This disciplinary level needs to be distinguished from the doctrinal level. (There is a twofold problem that is at hand – disciplinary issues and doctrinal issues.  The Holy Father, in his mercy, has lifted the excommunications based on a genuine perception that the four bishops have recognized the primary of the Holy Father and the office of Peter.  It appears he has therefore lifted the excommunications as a means to reconcile the bishops at the disciplinary level in the hopes of restoring them at the doctrinal level.) The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. (This is a key point.  Simply because the excommunications have been lifted does not mean that these bishops automatically assume roles as prelates and clerics within the Church.  They still remain members of a Society which has no canonical status and as such are simply members of the Church with no authority to exercise ministry) There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church. (Just in case it wasn’t clear the first time.)

In light of this situation, it is my intention henceforth to join the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” – the body which has been competent since 1988 for those communities and persons who, coming from the Society of Saint Pius X or from similar groups, wish to return to full communion with the Pope – to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Popes. The collegial bodies with which the Congregation studies questions which arise (especially the ordinary Wednesday meeting of Cardinals and the annual or biennial Plenary Session) ensure the involvement of the Prefects of the different Roman Congregations and representatives from the world’s Bishops in the process of decision-making. The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. (An excellent point, while there can be legitimate preference for liturgy of 1962, there cannot be a rejection of the teaching authority after this time) But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.

I hope, dear Brothers, that this serves to clarify the positive significance and also the limits of the provision of 21 January 2009. But the question still remains: Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority? Aren’t other things perhaps more important? Of course there are more important and urgent matters. I believe that I set forth clearly the priorities of my pontificate in the addresses which I gave at its beginning. Everything that I said then continues unchanged as my plan of action. The first priority for the Successor of Peter was laid down by the Lord in the Upper Room in the clearest of terms: “You… strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32). Peter himself formulated this priority anew in his first Letter: “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15). In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses “to the end” (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects.

Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity, their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility of their talk of God. (and it is precisely this disunity that is truly scandalous to the message of Christ himself.) Hence the effort to promote a common witness by Christians to their faith – ecumenism – is part of the supreme priority. Added to this is the need for all those who believe in God to join in seeking peace, to attempt to draw closer to one another, and to journey together, even with their differing images of God, towards the source of Light – this is interreligious dialogue. Whoever proclaims that God is Love “to the end” has to bear witness to love: in loving devotion to the suffering, in the rejection of hatred and enmity – this is the social dimension of the Christian faith, of which I spoke in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

So if the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always) the Church’s real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small. That the quiet gesture of extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet half-way the brother who “has something against you” (cf. Mt 5:23ff.) and to seek reconciliation? (This is the real meat and potatoes of the situation – the lifting of the excommunications should be viewed as an act of mercy and an attempt at reaching out to the bishops for reconciliation, not as an act of “giving in” on the part of the Holy See) Should not civil society also try to forestall forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents – to the extent possible – in the great currents shaping social life, and thus avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for the whole? I myself saw, in the years after 1988, how the return of communities which had been separated from Rome changed their interior attitudes; I saw how returning to the bigger and broader Church enabled them to move beyond one-sided positions and broke down rigidity so that positive energies could emerge for the whole. Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church? I think for example of the 491 priests. We cannot know how mixed their motives may be. All the same, I do not think that they would have chosen the priesthood if, alongside various distorted and unhealthy elements, they did not have a love for Christ and a desire to proclaim him and, with him, the living God. Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?

Certainly, for some time now, and once again on this specific occasion, we have heard from some representatives of that community many unpleasant things – arrogance and presumptuousness, an obsession with one-sided positions, etc. Yet to tell the truth, I must add that I have also received a number of touching testimonials of gratitude which clearly showed an openness of heart. (This is clearly the case.  Look at the sheer number of the members of the SSPX who have been reconciled to the Church since 1988, many directly as a result of the death of Pope John Paul II.  We can only hope for a complete return of all of the members of the SSPX to Church) But should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas? And should we not admit that some unpleasant things have also emerged in Church circles? At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the Pope – he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint.

Dear Brothers, during the days when I first had the idea of writing this letter, by chance, during a visit to the Roman Seminary, I had to interpret and comment on Galatians 5:13-15. I was surprised at the directness with which that passage speaks to us about the present moment: “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another.” I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this “biting and devouring” also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians? That at the very least we are threatened by the same temptations? That we must always learn anew the proper use of freedom? And that we must always learn anew the supreme priority, which is love? The day I spoke about this at the Major Seminary, the feast of Our Lady of Trust was being celebrated in Rome. And so it is: Mary teaches us trust. She leads us to her Son, in whom all of us can put our trust. He will be our guide – even in turbulent times. And so I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many Bishops who have lately offered me touching tokens of trust and affection, and above all assured me of their prayers. My thanks also go to all the faithful who in these days have given me testimony of their constant fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter. May the Lord protect all of us and guide our steps along the way of peace. This is the prayer that rises up instinctively from my heart at the beginning of this Lent, a liturgical season particularly suited to interior purification, one which invites all of us to look with renewed hope to the light which awaits us at Easter.

With a special Apostolic Blessing, I remain

Yours in the Lord,

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Homily, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our first reading today, we hear God speaking words of encouragement to the Israelites through the preaching of the Prophet Isaiah. They are returning from a long exile and are understandably weary. Further, the homeland to which they are returning has been occupied by strangers.

Ecamm Call Recorder

When we began the podcast almost 4 years ago, we were presented with a few problems.  The primary problem was our respective locations: Fr. Ryan is in Natchitoches, LA, Joshua is in Abbeville, LA, and Daniel is in Lafayette, LA. We’re all in the same state, but in very different parts of it. To do a weekly podcast we were faced with meeting up every week in one or another city (which is most impractical) or with some sort of audio over internet solution.  Skype took care of this problem providing free computer to computer conference calling; in fact, it’s still the way we record the podcast when we aren’t all in the same spot for a special occasion.

The second problem came when we realized we’d have to have a way to record the conversation. There was no built-in recording feature in Skype and so we were in a sense back where we started.  Being able to talk to one another, but unable to produce it into a recorded conversation.

After a few early development pieces of software, and some fairly helpful solutions from the fine folks at Ambrosia Software ( WireTap ) and Rogue Amoeba’s AudioHijack, we were able to get started recording the composite of our audio stream. My audio direct from the microphone and Fr. Ryan, Josh, and Daniel’s audio mixed together from Skype were able to be recorded into one “hijacked” system audio stream.  There was however no solution for Skype’s quirk of randomly throttling volume for one or another caller. So, Fr. Ryan would be insanely loud, while Daniel would be barely audible, and I might overpower them all locally on a microphone, all recorded on the same channel. There was no ability to tweak.

Enter Call Recorder from Ecamm.  Sadly a Mac only product, Call Recorder is a third party application that installs itself within Skype and allows for both video and audio recording of both sides of a conversation. The files are first recorded into a Quicktime .mov file and saved on the host computer.  A set of tools that come with Call Recorder offer very helpful conversion applications as well as the ability to split the sides of the conversation into two separate files from one .mov file.  At last, I can tweak my audio and the audio of the others phoning in on Skype.

While there is still no way to account for Skype’s occasional audio volume issues, this program solved a significant obstacle to our audio quality. All of us on the Mac platforms use Call Recorder.  At just under $20 for an individual license, it’s just right for the beginner podcaster or the advanced web producer who needs to pull audio.  Further, once you’ve paid for Call Recorder, you get free upgrades for life!

From their website, here are a few of the feautes of Call Recorder:

• Manually start/stop/pause, or automatically record all calls.

• Records Skype Video.

• Record and save your voicemail messages.

• Control file size and quality.

• State-of-the-art H.264 and AAC file formats saves space.

• Convert your calls to MP3 format.

• Add time indexed notes to recordings.

• Uncompressed audio option for highest quality.

And, here’s a little hint that we’ve just started using: for optimal audio quality, we each use Call Recorder (or the PC equivalent) to record our own streams from within Skype.  The cu crew then sends the files to me for editing so we have the mic audio from each person in original quality as well 3 other backups just in case the gremlins are at work that episode.

Whether you’re splitting the audio tracks up and post-producing in GarageBand or just pushing the composite to the web for a podcast, Call Recorder is an easy and top notch solution.

STANLEY RATING: Rating:

Gotta love photofunia!

Gotta love photofunia!