Father Rutler: Churches East and West

Father George W. Rutler

In the late 1990s I watched the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, replicating the nineteenth-century cathedral that had been dynamited by Stalin in 1931. It can hold an estimated ten thousand worshipers (they stand throughout the long services, for pews are abhorrent to venerable tradition) and is the tallest Orthodox church in the world with a dome reaching 338 feet. Stalin’s plan to build on its site a Palace of the Soviets with a huge statue of Lenin atop its dome was never realized because of World War II. That recalls the statue of Zeus, “the Abomination of Desolation,” which the Greek ruler of Syria, Antiochus IV, erected in the Jerusalem temple after he despoiled its sacred vessels. Antiochus basked in the title Epiphanes, which means “radiance of God,” but the Jews punned that as Epimanes, or “the mad man.”
 

Two hundred churches are planned for Moscow, along with an estimated thousand across the nation, replacing and adding to those destroyed in the Communist period, during which priests were crucified on the church doors. These are in the classical Byzantine style, not the modern biscuit boxes and flying saucers that were the bane of the West over the last few decades. In some towns, the local people are taught iconography and mosaic art, so the churches really are the work of their own hands.
 

These days in China, where Christianity is oppressed, not especially for theological reasons, but because it is a threat to the political hegemony of the state, churches are being destroyed. Within the past few months, for example, in Henan Province an evangelical church was dynamited in Shangqiu, with a blithe ferocity paralleling that of Stalin.
 

In the West, churches are getting demolished for reasons other than political: redundancy, the lack of need for “ethnic” parishes, and the sheer cost of maintenance. Often, people who are much wealthier than their ancestors who built the churches sacrificially out of their penury, do not contribute enough for maintenance. Between 1995 and the present, the Catholic population in the United States has increased from 57 million to over 70 million.  New churches are being built in the South and West where populations are growing faster than the decline in other parts of the country.
 

There is another factor, however, in the loss of churches in much of our nation, and it is simply indifference. The vice of sloth is a spiritual malignancy, and many of our great metropolises have become hospices for lapsed believers. When I was sent to our parish here in “Hell’s Kitchen,” which is experiencing a phenomenal population growth, I was asked, “How many Catholics live there?” The proper question is, “How many Catholics will live there?”
 

The Ascending Lord did not send his disciples into Catholic neighborhoods, because there were none.

Father George Rutler: "Only Holiness Evangelizes"

A few blocks north of our church, at 1664 Broadway in the old Warners’ Theatre which was demolished in 1952, the first Vitaphone talking film, The Jazz Singer, opened on October 6, 1927. I have been astonished that some of our bright young parishioners never heard of Al Jolson, but history records, as did Vitaphone, his words, “You ain’t heard nothing yet.” The Lord of History said more monumentally: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).

The Word could finally be heard, having been “made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When that Word rose from the dead, he said, in so many human words, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The Resurrection was far from a grand finale: it was the start of everything else. As our Lord ascended in glory, he gave the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

This commission is called evangelization, for it means to announce the good news. Our Lord structured the organism for this by creating the Church. If half-hearted Catholics do not evangelize, they are not truly Catholic, and if well meaning people try to evangelize without the Catholic Church, they are not truly Evangelical.

In obedience to the Great Commission, the Holy See has a Pontifical Council for New Evangelization. All well and good, even if not clearly defined. But in recent decades there have been numerous committees and programs to evangelize, with little effect, despite all their meetings and conferences and advertising. Christ was meticulous with everything except bureaucracy. Instead, he sent his disciples out with a commission. Only holiness evangelizes.

Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who died in 2002, has recently been declared a candidate for sainthood for his heroic virtues. Beginning in 1975, this coadjutor archbishop of Saigon was imprisoned by communists in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of them in solitary confinement. He thought he might go mad, in a cell without light or ventilation, and mushrooms growing on his thin mattress. But his serene example kept converting many of his prison guards to Christianity.

The evangelization of souls, without benefit of councils or committees, was all that concerned him. Shortly before he died, he said, “If Jesus took a math examination he would surely fail. A shepherd had 100 sheep; one of them strayed. Without thinking, the shepherd went in search of it, leaving the other 99 sheep. When he found the lost sheep he put it on his shoulders (Luke 15:4-5). For Jesus, 1 equals 99, perhaps even more . . .”

Jesus said, “. . . a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). I expect that when Cardinal Van Thuan died, he heard a voice saying: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Catholicism Flourishing in South Carolina and Throughout the South and West

Saint Joseph Catholic Church, Columbia, South Carolina

We were astonished to learn this past Sunday that in our Columbia, South Carolina parish, 9 adults will be baptized and an additional 28 adults will be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil.  In following-up on this good news, the statistician for the statewide Diocese of Charleston informs us that approximately 500 adults throughout South Carolina will be received into the Church this Easter.  In a small state where Catholics are not quite 4% of the population, that is a remarkable rate of growth.  Indeed, Catholic numbers in South Carolina are up by more than 30,000 in the past 10 years, and unlike traditional centers of Catholic life, like the Archdiocese of Newark, which has closed more than 80 schools in the past 10 years, South Carolina is building new churches and schools.

At a recent conference at Villanova University, demographers have presented heartening data indicating that Church numbers in the United States are climbing and would continue to grow even without immigration.

Holy Mass at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Taylors, South Carolina

Having lived in Virginia and South Carolina, as well as in the Northeast and Midwest, we can attest to an extraordinary contrast between regions.  The most faithful, orthodox and beautiful liturgies we have encountered have been in the South.  Devotion to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, traditional Catholic devotions, sound preaching and all the richness, beauty and fullness of the Faith are alive and well in places like the Dioceses of Arlington and Charleston.  After all the painful corruption and scandal on the part of a few, we can see the hand of God renewing His Church in unexpected places and in  wondrous and surprising ways.  "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound."

Father Robert Barron at Elmhurst College: Evangelizing the Culture

An acclaimed author, speaker and theologian, Robert Barron is a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire. He is the creator and host of the 10-part TV series Catholicism, and serves as the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein.

In 2012, Father Barron presented the annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin lecture at Elmhurst College, a comprehensive, private, liberal arts college in Elmhurst, Illinois which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

 

My Journey Home: 6 Things that Led This Evangelical to the Catholic Church

From Aleteia
By Brantly Millegan

It was the end of the spring semester of our senior year at the evangelical school Wheaton College when my wife and I plus four other students stood in front of the congregation at St. Michael parish, said we believed everything taught by the Catholic Church to be revealed by God, received the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and left the Mass full members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

That was almost four years ago. Just last month, I flew out to Ohio to tell Marcus Grodi, host of the EWTN show The Journey Home, and his viewers what convinced me to do it. The episode aired yesterday evening and can be viewed above.

My interview is not an apologetic for the Catholic faith. I point to some arguments, but don’t delve too much into the details. I cite personal reasons and accidents of my personal history that ended up being influential. It’s thoroughly my story, but one I hope could nonetheless strengthen Catholics in their faith - and maybe pique the interest of non-Catholics.

But if it’s too long to watch (it’s almost an hour!), here’s a list of 6 key factors that led me to the Church.

1) Jesus

I wanted to follow Jesus. How am I supposed to do that? This was my driving question.

I wasn’t content with following Jesus on my own terms, I wanted to “worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4.24) This compelled me to read Scripture, study Church history, and carefully examine serious claims to the Christian faith - which included the Catholic Church.

2) Faithful Catholics

It’s easy for Protestants to see so many nominal Catholics and write the Church off as “dead religion.” There are certainly lots of nominal Catholics (there are lots of nominal Protestants, too), but from my time in Catholic schools growing up I also knew there were many faithful Catholics.

I’m not talking about Catholics who had the whole Bible memorized or could explain every Catholic dogma. I’m talking about Catholics who sincerely wanted to follow Christ, who took Scripture seriously, and had a real prayer life.

That didn’t prove the Catholic faith - there are faithful adherents to any religion - but it did mean I couldn’t write off Catholicism so easily.

 

Pope Benedict XVI’s “First Convert”

The story of how a New York Jew wrestled with Christ and became Catholic

From The Catholic World Report

By Roger Dubin

 

Groucho Marx once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have a guy like me as a member.”  

 

So began my witness testimony at the Easter Vigil on April 7, 2007, when my wife Barbara and I entered the Catholic Church. For a New York Jew, who’d detested the name “Jesus” for as long as he could remember, to be standing before a packed congregation at Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Arizona, having to recount in three minutes how he got there—well, you can imagine what a surreal a moment that was. 

Yet now, when instead of three minutes I have three thousand words, plus six years as a Catholic, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis for perspective, the task is, if anything, even more daunting. But Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, asked me to give it a shot, so here goes. 

I Wonder If It’s Unrealisitic to Think I Could Double the Size of My Congregation in One Year?

By Monsignor Charles Pope

Why not? Why shouldn’t I aim high? And really, is it that high? Is it really so unrealistic to ask every member of my congregation to shepherd one soul back to the sacraments and the practice of the faith in the next year? Is that so impossible, for each one to reach one, and work with them for a year and to invite them to come and learn more of the faith? 

Well, I’m going to try. As a parish we have been engaged in a door-to-door evangelization campaign and that’s been going quite well, actually. Over 1500 homes have been visited and our Sunday numbers are up by 50.