[NYer]

Links to related articles may be found here.

[wideawake]

"The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." - St. Athanasius

[wideawake]

Interesting name for a bishop, BTW. Who was Saint Tod?

I see he has 5 years and 2 months left before he has to send his letter.

[Kolokotronis]

Is this all about kneeling during communion time? If it is, I am surprised. Canon 20 of the First Ecumenical Council banned kneeling on Sundays. This was reaffirmed by Canon 90 of the Council of Trullo which was held in conjunction with the Sixth Ecumenical Council. Seems to me the bishop is on pretty solid ground here, though if memory serves, communion was received kneeling during the Tridentine Mass, was it not?

[vincentjay]

Reading all of these hair-splitting replies amuses me and makes me glad that I escaped the roman catholic denomination many years ago. I find it's much more satisfying to be a generic Christian with only Jesus as my master.

[the invisib1e hand]

This is not to say that, sometime in the future, there may [omitted?] be an appropriate time when the question can be raised again.

I'm not on either side of this issue. But I did catch the omission of the completion of the implied meaning of this sentence -- a sentence that is really the tossing of a bone.

[Jaded]

In this diocese I have determined that the faithful will stand from the Great Amen until after receiving Holy Communion. This posture reflects our humble gratitude for the great things God has done in creating and redeeming us. We also recognize the eschatological significance of standing as we look forward to the day when Christ will come again and pray that Christ may find us worthy to stand before Him. After the reception of communion, each participant is free to kneel or sit, however they choose.

Not in my Arch-Diocese.

We had some churches in the Arch-D that were built with out kneelers. Your options, stand or sit, kneeling is old-school. Yes, those post-VII bookstores. I know that in some of these parishes kneelers are being put in much to the chagrin of the Cafeteria Catholics who attend.

[Petrosius]

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has determined that in the United States, Holy Communion is received standing and that the appropriate sign of respect is a bow of the head before the Sacrament. The Diocese of Orange is obliged to observe this norm.

It is interesting that Bishop Brown does not think that he is obliged to observe the following norms:

Only when there is a necessity may extraordinary ministers assist the Priest celebrant [with Communion] in accordance with the norm of law.
(Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,Redemptionis sacramentum, no. 88)

Moreover, respect must everywhere by shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.
(Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei)

[Dominick]

They and the people of the Diocese generally would likely view permission for the Tridentine Mass so close upon the protests as nothing less than a capitulation to a special interest group. This is not to say that, sometime in the future, there may be an appropriate time when the question can be raised again.

This I find curious. This is a clear example of what I said many times before. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Protests serve no purpose, except to entrench people.

No Bishop anywhere would serve his Church by appearing to cave into protests.

Only by submission to his Authority in the name of Christ, as the Church teaches, could you expect him to approve the Indult for this Parish.

This is why the Indult is by Diocese, because some would erode a Bishops authority in his diocese by suggesting that protests would sway any Diocesan policy.

Staging protests was a pretty counter-productive act

[dsc]

I urge everyone who deplores this letter to write to this bishop and blast him, not eschewing terms like "heresy" and "smoke of Satan."

I urge everyone who agrees with this letter to shut the hell up, you heretic morons.

[ninenot]

There were a couple of greasy little lies in Brown's letter. See:

http://dad29.blogspot.com/2006/09/anent-cuf-advice.html

and the post immediately preceding, which by coincidence surrounds the same issues:

http://dad29.blogspot.com/2006/09/some-questions-for-cufs-suprenant.html

[marshmallow]

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has determined that in the United States, Holy Communion is received standing and that the appropriate sign of respect is a bow of the head before the Sacrament. The Diocese of Orange is obliged to observe this norm.

Absolute horse sh!t!!

The Diocese of Orange is under no obligation to observe any sort of directive from USCCB. You are the ordinary of this diocese and you are responsible for its proper liturgical norms, not a committee of bureaucrats at USCCB.

I stopped reading right there but the rest of the letter probably runs along similar lines.

[muir_redwoods]

"This is where there should be some uniformity in our life as Catholics. Although there is room for variety in music, preaching and the way these rights are celebrated, these all must adhere to the backbone of liturgical legislation set down by the church."

Did he really spell it that way?

[Fast Ed97]

In this diocese I have determined that the faithful will stand from the Great Amen until after receiving Holy Communion. This posture reflects our humble gratitude for the great things God has done in creating and redeeming us. We also recognize the eschatological significance of standing as we look forward to the day when Christ will come again and pray that Christ may find us worthy to stand before Him.

What did he just say? In actuality all of this standing these modernist bishops are promoting really has to do with emphasizing the finding "the presence of Jesus in the community" rather than in "that breadbox in the altar"

[Maeve]

This bishop is an evil pig.

I have no time for this crap.

May God confound every foul evil thing he tries to do as well as every stupid and misguided step he takes, and May the Lord God the Holy Spirit remove this bishop as soon as possible from his see.

I am ready to offer a course on impreccatory prayer........

[hellinahandcart]

You helped me to understand your concerns more fully and I appreciated the clear and respectful way that you answered my questions... You feel now a sense of betrayal and your request for a restoration of what you consider nine fundamental past traditions reflects your desire to hold on to an experience that has, in some important ways, nourished your faith over a long period of time.

What the bishop has just done here is called "mirroring". I learned about it in a time-management seminar I was required to attend back when I was managing a retail business.

Say a customer comes in and she's hopping mad that the lining dropped out of her new $500 skirt during a big presentation. She feels that your product has caused her personal amd professional embarassment and she's out for a full refund, plus your blood. AND she's causing a scene and potentially driving other customers away.

"Mirroring" this woman means listening to every word, with a non-confrontational body posture, and then basically repeating every word she said right back to her: "You're angry that the lining fell out of your new $500 skirt during a presentation. You feel embarassed personally and professionally." To which the customer in theory will feel GREAT RELIEF that you were listening, and understood her, and saved her from having to pitch a real fit in order to get her refund---and so her anger will melt away just like that, and you'll be able to cut her a refund check and get her out of the store in mere minutes and STILL keep her as a customer. Because she FELT you understood her, when all you did was repeat her own words back to her.

However---a lot of people use these technique to "handle" their opposition. Schools do it to angry parents and then go right on to do the very thing the parents were angry about in the first place. Churches also do this. I used to be an Episcopal and it sounds mighty familiar.

The one problem wih "mirroring" is that it does not work at all if the person you're mirroring knows what you're doing. :D

The bishop is trying to "handle" the congregation, instead of trying to answer them. And they want to be answered, not handled. They know the difference.