Notre Dame Des Victoires

It was a great privilege for me to participate in the Synod on Young People in the fall of 2018. Along with about three hundred other bishops and ecclesial experts from around the world, I spent four weeks in Rome exploring the complex question of the Church’s outreach to the young. About three weeks into the Synod process, a sub-committee of writers presented a preliminary text, meant to reflect our deliberations, questions, and decisions to that point. This draft represented, for the most part, an accurate account of our work, but there were a few pages that troubled a number of us. More or less out of the blue, a vigorous defense of “synodality” appeared in the text, though we had never, either in general session or in the small language groups, so much as discussed the theme. Moreover, the language was so imprecise that it…

Fue un gran privilegio para mí participar en el Sínodo sobre los Jóvenes en el otoño de 2018. Junto con unos trescientos obispos y expertos eclesiásticos de todo el mundo, pasé cuatro semanas en Roma explorando la compleja cuestión del alcance misionero de la Iglesia a los jóvenes. Alrededor de tres semanas después del proceso del Sínodo, un subcomité de redactores presentó un texto preliminar, con el fin de reflejar nuestras deliberaciones, preguntas y decisiones hasta ese momento. Este borrador representaba, en su mayor parte, un relato exacto de nuestro trabajo, pero había algunas páginas que nos preocupaban a varios de nosotros. Más o menos de improviso, una vigorosa defensa de la “sinodalidad” apareció en el texto, aunque nunca, ni en la sesión general ni en los pequeños grupos lingüísticos, habíamos discutido mucho sobre el tema. Además, el lenguaje era tan impreciso que daba la impresión de que la…

Some years ago, my friend Msgr. Francis Mannion wrote an article concerning the three essential features of the Eucharistic liturgy—namely, the priest, the rite, and the people. When these elements are in proper balance, rightly ordered liturgy obtains. Further, from these categories, he argued, we can discern the three typical distortions of the liturgy: clericalism (too much of the priest), ritualism (a fussy hyper-focus on the rite), and congregationalism (a disproportionate emphasis on the people). It was one of those observations that just manages to spread light in every direction. A similarly illuminating remark was made by Pope Benedict XVI concerning the work of the Church, and I would like to spend a little time exploring it. Papa Ratzinger said that the Church performs three basic tasks: it worships God, it evangelizes, and it serves the poor. The religious activities of over a billion Catholics around the globe, he maintained,…