"In the News" Part 1 - 3/23/23

Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Mueller are calling for a trial to charge German Catholic Church leaders for heresy. They are concerned about the blessings of same-sex marriages and communion for the divorced and remarried. The Vatican has also recognized the issues with the German Church. Cardinal Burke has written a book about the exclusionary aspect of Holy Communion and the responsibility of church leaders to apply certain restrictions. Pope Francis has also mentioned the possibility of lifting the celibacy requirement for priests, but there are mixed opinions on whether this would be beneficial. The Feast of the Annunciation and Holy Week are upcoming, providing an opportunity to reflect on the incarnation and pro-life issues. Okay, then I'm going to start, okay? Welcome to In the News Show. My name is Judy Dezagatis, and I'm here with Father Bill Weary and Joe Nebustynski, our technician. Welcome to, Father, and welcome to our listeners. I hope everyone's doing well today. I also want to thank David Hillowitz for our theme music and for Joe's assistance today with the technical setup of our show. So let's get started. We have a lot to cover, as usual. The big story, which I'm going to have Father tell us about, is Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Gerhard Mueller are calling for a canonical trial to charge German Catholic Church leaders on heresy. Can you fill us in on that? This is hot off the press. I'll do the best I can, not being a canon lawyer as such, but they are blowing the whistle on the sonata process that is ongoing around the world, but really fast-paced in Germany. And they're calling for, you know, blessings of same-sex marriages, some sort of blessing, and then communion to the divorced and remarried, and pretty much an open-door policy on reception of holy communion. And so I recognize the problems therein of the German Church, and the Vatican has as well. Even a pope has called for a slowdown of their methodology and their process and the content as well. So this call for a canonical trial is a real eyebrow-raiser. I'm not sure how that would work exactly. But, of course, heresy is a sin, it's what we call a delect in the Church, and that is a, you know, sort of a criminal canonical fault, and they're rescinding from proceeding from the doctrine of the faith. And the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as a matter of fact, several years ago, did say you cannot do blessings of same-sex unions, because that's blessing sin. And they're not calling for, I have to say, outright marriages, so that's to their credit in Germany. They're not calling for an actual exchange of vows in a marital sense, but they are calling for certain blessings, formal ceremonial blessings of same-sex unions. And Cardinal Mueller and Cardinal Burke are, you know, calling them out on that. And I, for one, welcome that, but I don't know if they're going to get that canonical trial. That would be a decision of the pope and the Vatican, and I'm not sure we're going to see that. So we'll have to see how this plays out. Okay. Can we tie that a little bit to, we didn't get this on the last show, about Cardinal Burke's book. Right. If you could tie that together for us. He just came out with a book entitled, Deny Holy Communion?, and he's establishing or reestablishing the principle that I speak of, and I just wrote a bulletin column about it in my parish bulletin, that there is an exclusionary aspect to Holy Communion, that it's not one come all, but up to the communion line. And Cardinal Burke, in a short book about, it's 64 pages long, has reiterated that, quoting 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in the Bible of St. Paul, who speaks of examining oneself, and we could eat and drink judgment unto ourselves if we approach communion unworthily. But then also Canon 915, that speaks very specifically of not coming for those who are in public mortal sin, or not to come forward for Holy Communion. And it's a very good book, and I'm going to buy several copies of it and hand it out to others who maybe disagree with the official church stance on this. He acknowledges that it's very difficult to apply Canon 915 in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, but that there is a responsibility on church leaders to do so. And he invokes the secularization of the United States of America, and the radical hostility toward the faith, strong cultural trends of relativism, and we have to stand strong against that church leaders, have to exercise good stewardship, and quite frankly, the gatekeeping function. And that would refer to those who are cohabitating, those who are in same-sex, active same-sex unions, invalid marriages, second marriage without a previous annulment, and also, quite frankly, you know, deliberately missing mass on Sunday without a good reason is mortal sin, and that precludes from communion also. So there you have it. And I commend Cardinal Burke on his book, and I hope it is widely read. Yeah, it certainly is a short book. I'd like to get that one myself. It's probably a pretty quick read and would be very informational for the faithful to know that position and why we have that position. And it sounds like that Pope Francis is going to have a couple of things on his plate that he's going to have to sift through, and that kind of leads me into the next story. I saw this on the Catholic News Agency. It is, the title of it is kind of interesting. It says, no, Pope Francis didn't really hint that the requirement for priestly celibacy will be listed. This is another item that's been in the news lately, and I thought it was interesting because it was saying that unlike Holy Orders, which is permanent, he is commenting that priestly celibacy is temporal. So could you sift that for us a little bit, Father, why he might be leaning toward this, or is this is something that's more of a negotiation than fact? Well, he's correct doctrinally in saying that celibacy is not intrinsically connected to priesthood, that there are married priests now as we speak. There are dispensations and exceptions, especially I'm thinking of Protestant ministers with wives and children who convert to the Catholic faith and then apply for Holy Orders and are ordained. And we have Father Paul Schenck in this diocese. He's one of them. And there's a couple of others as well. I've met them. I don't remember their names right now, but they're in diocese of Harrisburg. And, of course, Byzantine priests, that's the eastern right priests are, if they're married before ordination, they, of course, continue with that matrimony. And that's the same with the eastern Orthodox, although in the eastern Orthodox and among the Byzantines as well, monks and bishops are chosen from among the ranks of the celibate. So the Pope is correct on that one, that you could lift the celibacy requirement altogether. And it just pertains to the Roman Catholic Church, not to the eastern Catholic churches. So there is that. Now, is this a good idea? Should it be carried out? And should there be a general listing of the celibacy requirement? I'm not crazy about that. I think it's a gift to the church. And, of course, there would still always be an option, of course. Let's state that. Candidates for the priesthood would not be required to be married. If somebody wanted to embrace celibacy under the proposed change, they could certainly do that. Right now, it's mandatory, as you know, that we take a promise of celibacy. Religious order men take a vow of chastity. And diocesan priests, a promise of celibacy. And that is required now. I would like to see, personally, I'd like to see that continue, the requirement. I think it's been a strength, a real gift to the church. The reason he wants to do this is just for reasons of, what should I say, maybe numbers. He thinks the numbers would increase. I'm not sure about that either. I just saw a Fox News presentation on this with Jonathan Morris, the former priest. He was a legionary of Christ. I think his name is Jonathan Morris. He was in a coat and tie for this segment because he has left the active priesthood. And although he was a commentator as a priest for Fox News on religion when he was a legionary of Christ, and he's continuing in that role. And he said it would improve the leadership pool. He's in favor of it. He's married now with a family. He says he's still a committed Catholic, and he says it would improve and increase the leadership pool in the Catholic church. Presumably, bishops would still be chosen from among the ranks of the celibate. I would think that's the ancient, that is the ancient tradition. But he thinks it would be an improvement of the situation if you would get more, a wider range of, shall we say, if I could put it this way, of the talent pool. Not a really good way to say it, but that's what he says in so many words that it would be a very good thing for leadership in the church. I'm not convinced. One question that I have that maybe our listeners have is there's the question of the priestly celibacy being lifted if you have a married priest like Father Schenck that's already married. Would this be something that could be either misconstrued or a movement toward accepting someone who would then marry after they were a priest? I mean, that would have to be decided. Yeah. Again, the ancient tradition is from the Eastern churches is a marriage previous to ordination, and a single man is ordained in those traditions. Then celibacy becomes mandatory for him. And so there would be, I am thinking of the Polish National Catholic Church that's headquartered in Scranton, broke off in the 1800s, and they do have married bishops. And of course, married priests and married bishops, and that's a real departure from the ancient tradition. But that detail that you spoke about, that would have to be decided and discussed and debated. Okay. Well, more to come on that celibacy issue. We have about a minute to go. I just wanted to engage you, Father, just for about a minute before we go to our break, that we do have a shift a little bit, that we do have the Feast of the Annunciation coming up, and then we also have Holy Week coming up. So any helpful hints just real quickly about how we can prepare for Holy Week? Well, take note that, of course, I think everybody knows this, March 25th is exactly nine months before Christmas. So it does mark the incarnation, the inception, miraculously, virginally, of our Lord in Mary's womb. And I think it's a wonderful opportunity to also meditate on pro-life issues. We just had a March for Life in Lewistown. We're a little late. We usually do it in January. But what a wonderful day we had. And I think it's connected with very much the Annunciation, where the angel announces to Mary this wonderful gift of the incarnation to our world. And I would encourage everybody to go to Mass that day and to really rejoice in God's intervention in our world. The Word made flesh dwelling among us. And it happens on a Saturday, too. So with that, we'll go to our break. Please continue to listen to the 720 WHYF, Holy Family Radio. We'll be back in a few minutes. How am I, is my voice coming across okay? Yeah, the screen freezes a little bit, but I can figure it out. Let's see where we should start next. I like this article about Pope Francis denying that hell is a place. Oh, boy. Yeah. I didn't hear him say that. Yeah, it says it's a posture towards life, so, as opposed to a place. So I guess we'll talk a little bit about that. Start soon. Okay. All right. And then we can go to some other lighthearted things like the NASA instruction manual. And then we can go to some other lighthearted things like the NASA instructor and the Jesus at the Capitol. And if we have time, then we'll come up with something else. Okay, yeah. Oh, it's going to end in 10 minutes. Okay. Okay. Welcome back to In the News Show. We're on the second half of the show. And here's an interesting article from LifeSite News. It says that Pope Francis denies that hell is, quote unquote, a place. Says it's more of a posture towards life. That's an interesting comment, I think. Isn't it, though? Yeah. You know, I'm familiar with this over the years, every now and then. You hear theologians coming out with these sort of things, saying with purgatory, even in heaven, that heaven is not a place. I don't think it's a wise thing to say. Of course, we're dealing with mysterious realities regarding the afterlife. We don't know what it is like exactly. Nevertheless, these kind of statements, I think, are disturbing to the faithful. Coming from the church leaders, they are, shall we say, creative theology, speculative theology, proceeding from, again, the mysteries of heaven, hell, and purgatory. We're in the area that the branch of theology is called eschatology. And I think it needs, personally, I think it needs to be developed more in the Catholic Church. I would like to see more writing on it, on the nature of heaven, hell, purgatory. A lot of it is speculative. To say, you know, hell is not a place is an interesting statement. It's certainly not a place like, it's not going to be like here on earth. That is for sure. But it's hard to picture, you know, dying and then being transitioned into an attitude or a posture. I'm not sure what that means exactly. And there are reports, just like there are reports of people coming back from heaven, the after, the life after life incidents. Now there are some reports of people coming back from hell, having visited hell. And according to their accounts, I mean, it's very much a place. There's no requirement to believe those accounts. But nevertheless, I would, I'd like to hear more from the Pope on that. I'm sure he'll be getting some pushback on it as well. Yeah, so we'll have to wait to see what he's going to say about that. I think sometimes the idea of a place comes probably from, I know, like Dante's Inferno. You know, we think of it as a place and it was very picturesque in terms of one way or another if you're looking at heaven or hell. So maybe that's where that comes from as far as it being more of a posture than it is a place. So we will wait to hear from our Holy Father on that. I have a small little article. I thought this was a nice positive from LifeSite News as well. This is a NASA instructor. She witnesses to her Catholic faith. One of the things she said, quote, is Christ is the most important part of my life. And the woman is Alyssa Batokleti-Nofsky. I'm sure I'm not saying her name right. But she says, quote, unquote, I just marvel at God's creation and creating this whole universe. I think it's kind of neat because she's a NASA instructor. And of course, you know, there's a lot of debate a lot of times now between religion and the science. We've heard a lot about the science in the last three years. So it's nice to see someone who is a scientific person, a NASA instructor, focusing on the spiritual part and knowing that Christ is the most important part of her life. She's 35 years old and she's known as the professor of spacewalking at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. And she just has spoken up recently about the impact of her Catholic upbringing and how much Christ and the Catholic faith means to her. So that's a very positive thing. That's and it's nice that it was on LifeSite News and it's being covered by the news in this in this very positive way. And the fact that she marvels at God's creation and she's got a nice mix of the spiritual and the science. I also welcome these kind of statements from people of science. I think it's a great example. I think they give great testimony to skeptics, you know, who tend to be into scientism, which is, you know, science is everything. And somebody like this to say that is it's fabulous, especially upholding her Catholic faith. I'm thinking right now of William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek. And he went up in space some time ago at 90 years of age, and he said it was a disturbing experience. He thought he would be enraptured by the beauty of outer space, but it scared him. And he said it was he looked at space, he just saw death. But then he looked down at our Earth was enraptured by the beauty of the Earth. And he said, this is where it's at. This is where it's at. And it instilled within him a new recommitment to life on Earth, maybe environmentalism, but just to enjoy the beauty of this planet as we have it. And outer space is not where it's at, he said. Here's where it's at. And this is what we have to cultivate our home here. So interesting. Yeah, it's nice that we have, as you said, Father, people that are focusing on these spiritual aspects, who are scientists. And some of the Star Trek shows were a little scary to me. I mean, watching them as a kid. So, you know, I'm not saying he believed any of that, William Shatner. But it's nice that, you know, you look at the Earth just like they used to with the astronauts. That was really fun. So another nice article, we'll stay with that, National Catholic Register, there is the Eucharist is adored at the Minnesota Capitol State Building. And they actually have on every first Friday, they have a Eucharistic holy hour. And it's in the basement of the Minnesota Capitol. And I think that's really amazing because there was a lot of turmoil in Minnesota a few years ago. And there still is, you know, a lot of times. I know Minneapolis was a big hotbed when there was all the riots and everything. So this is amazing to hear that this is going on. And people are taking advantage of it on each first Friday of the month. They do it through January through May. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in a quiet room near the Capitol complex, this tunnel system to help Catholics enter the right spiritual mindset to work effectively with their legislators. And this was according to Jason Adkins. He's the MCC, the Capitol Executive Director and General Counsel. While dioceses in a number of states have held Eucharistic processions culminating outside their state capitals in recent years, Adkins believes Minnesota is the only state where the Eucharistic Lord is adored regularly inside its Capitol building. Wow. I hope they can continue to have this and people don't fight about it because that's having it right in the building. That's amazing. I'm delighted and surprised. And you sort of wait for the other shoe to drop and the boom to lower on that with pushback and, you know, violation of church and state. But I hope it continues as well. We are in the year of the Eucharist, of course, so declared by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to uphold the Eucharist and to preach and teach about it, remind our people. And I think that's in response to that Pew Research survey some years ago, whereby they asked people about real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, how many Catholics believed that there was a high percentage that thought it was just symbolic. And so that raised yellow flags among the bishops and thus the call for the year of the Eucharist to reiterate the teaching and the gift of the real presence. And what they're doing in Minnesota is a real step in the right direction. Yeah, amen to that. I also wanted to just mention briefly that there was a conference recently. It was called Journalism in a Post-Truth World. And I think people could have attended this virtually as well. And I didn't participate in it. But this is something that has come about as a result of the 2016 at the height of the fake news phenomenon where there's, you know, word of the year of 2016 was post-truth or talking about what's truth. And of course, we know Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. But when you're when you're trying as a journalist, father, you know that you have to.