" PAST " HOW DID YOU KNOW I'M A POLICEMAN?

 

Bishop Bossuet Chaplain to the King of France -Heroic Pose to Meet Court Conventions - Bossuet was a very holy and faithful Bishop

Clerical Attire

The way we freely choose to dress, expresses who we wish to be seen to be. But the way we are required to dress in a given situation, when it is fundamental to our calling, expresses who we are. These two truths are well demonstrated in the no-doubt apocryphal story of the “liberated” “feminist” nun who, in a disheveled state approached a police
man saying “Officer do something, I am a Catholic Nun and I have been raped”. The Policeman responded: “How did you know I was a Policeman?”

Clerical attire has traversed some wide and varied territory from the Apostles’ sandals, tunic and cloak to the glories of a Chaplain to the King of France, to a Central Queensland Bishop in recent times. Are there standards? What is the ideal?

We are of course confining ourselves to everyday attire and not considering liturgical attire.

In the feverish period in the wake of the Second Vatican Council – a wake made tumultuous, not by the Council itself, so much, as by a clutch of North European clerics who daily, and on an organized basis, fed the gleeful world media their version of what the Council was about (never mind what the Council actually said or did, or what its documents proclaimed). There, bubbling in their tortured wake was “the false spirit of the Council”. This they said meant out with the old and in with anything new, across the board – and they began to speak of “the pre-Conciliar Church” and “the post-Conciliar Church” as if they should be two different creations on either side of a fundamental rupture.

Clerical attire? Why, the very idea was offensive! It divided priests from their people, alienating them. Out with the black suit and especially out with the cassock/soutane and the Roman Collar - the open neck white shirt would suffice, or…..whatever! Heady Stuff! (Speaking of the head – ditch the Biretta too!)

So, in the free for all that followed ,many Priests having thus “laicized themselves” as the Pope put it, they found a variety of ways to occupy their time, and in due course some found no time for their Priestly duties. Thousands abandoned their sacred ministry altogether. The rate of paedophilia and homosexuality among the clergy rose to the level of that in the general population for a time, as we have later found Pope Paul VI publicly proclaimed in anguish that it was “as if the smoke of Satan had entered the sanctuary through some crack “. At best,  madness was abroad – at worst, in the words of St. Peter: “The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour.”

Poor Pope Paul VI went to his grave and very shortly so too did his Successor the smiling Pope John Paul I. Enter Pope John Paul II (the Great) - he took the helm of the Barque of Saint Peter while the storm raged. He set about stabilizing the vessel and re-invigorating and instructing the remaining crew with the help of God’s Grace. At the end of his very long and heroic Pontificate (which was not without the occasional errors of judgment our frail human nature suffers), she had weathered the storm and was back on her true course with damage being repaired. The work has continued and accelerated under his Successor Pope Benedict XVI.

POPE BENEDICT XVI

But what of clerical attire? The Venerable Pope John Paul II looked at the issue as a fundamental theological one – not simply a disciplinary one. He demonstrated that Priesthood is essentially the definition of what the Priest IS – it is not just a function that the Priest performs. Accordingly,  he ought to want to be seen as a Priest if he is not to deny within himself to some extent, the reality of his position. Further, the people have the right to the services of the Priest at all times – not just when he chooses to “do the Priest thing”- they have the right to be able to identify the Priest as such wherever he is.

Spiritually he demonstrated, as the long history of the Church has shown, clerical attire works to protect the Priest from much temptation by precluding impropriety or the occasion of it.

                                Father Peruschitz OSB who died in the sinking of 

                             RMS TITANIC ministering to his fellow passengers.

 

 

 

He wrote that “Our pastoral activity demands that we should be close to the people and all their problems ……. but it also demands that we should be close “in a priestly way”. “After all, what would be the use of a Priest so assimilated” to the world as to become a camouflaged part of it and no longer a “transforming leaven.?”

The Code of Canon Law, the Popes and the Congregations of the Curia, have all set out the Church’s requirements and her theological and spiritual rationale in these matters. But the production of appropriate results is the responsibility of the individual Bishops, and here in all too many cases is where things break down – as in other matters. Whether from ignorance, pusillanimity, arrogance or whatever, many Bishops have long since adopted a “laissez faire” approach to their role. Ignoring the reality of their Sacred Anointing, they consider themselves no more than a type of constitutional ruler, acting only on advice” from lay hirelings or lesser clerics whom  in reality, as “Successors of the Apostles” ,these same Bishops are duty-bound to “teach to sanctify and to govern”.

Like the detritus of Queensland’s floods, the leavings of the post-Conciliar shambles will be with us for some time yet…..sometimes months, sometimes, regrettably, years.

TONY DIXON

" PAST " "CALL ME BRIAN"

                                                                        

The Cover of the November2009 issue of THE REVIEW - monthly Magazine of the Diocese of Rockhampton

It has been the custom of the Bishop of Rockhampton , Bishop Brian Heenan , since his nomination as Bishop , to invite people to "Call me Brian"and not "My Lord"or "Bishop" upon first introduction. Like Frank Sinatra he has in many things "done it my way".



The loss of the sense of the Sacred is commonly decried around the world. But “Call me Brian” actively participates in its acceleration. The above photos come from the official Diocesan Magazine “The Review” November,2009 issue.

The metal mug (First Image above Top LH picture on table)seems to serve in place of a Ciborium and assumably there was something to serve as a paten. The wine glass was substituted for a Chalice. But the apparently Bronze portable Baptismal Font more nobly provided for the waters of Baptism than was done for the Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself. Perhaps the specially made stole of denim with a pint pot and a damper on it (lyrically reported elsewhere in the same magazine), set the tone for this aggregation of liturgical abuse -and of course- not a Chasuble in sight.. The venue was a purely secular country race meeting with the customary drinking that involves, in the bush at Twin Hills.

There are more formal occasions in the Rockhampton Diocese. Shown on the cover at the head of this post  is the concelebrated Mass to open the much-vaunted Diocesan Assembly.

Note that there is on this occasion no chalice only a decanter of glass – the whole totally contrary to the Sacred Liturgical requirements. Pity the decent young priest called to concelebrate with his Bishop under such circumstances of abuse.



But forget about the Holy Mass, when something REALLY important comes up, proper Episcopal attire is dragged out and dusted off:


Alas Blogger is having a nervous breakdown and will not upload that picture - but it can be seen in the Diocesan Website under THE REVIEW - ARCHIVES - NOVEMBER,2009 - Launch of Cathedral Restoration Appeal


You guessed it folks. MONEY When money is needed in large lumps ($6,000,000) to restore the Cathedral, out comes the Roman Episcopal garb in pristine condition – nothing lacking – let’s look like the real thing – that should open the wallets and purses!





“Reprobated, therefore, is any practice of using for the celebration of Mass common vessels, or others lacking in quality, or devoid of all artistic merit or which are mere containers, as also other vessels made from glass , earthenware, clay or other materials that break easily. This norm is to be applied even as regards metals and other materials that easily rust or deteriorate.”(Redemptionis Sacramentum Chapter V .3.117 25 March 2004)