ARTICLES

Why Don't We Kneel?

SAN JOSE CATHOLICS CONFRONT DEFIANT PASTOR

By George Neumayr

Six Catholics at St. Lucy's in Campbell have confronted their pastor on two issues of concern to orthodox Catholics: standing during the consecration (a clear violation of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal) and the post-Vatican II tendency to obscure the precise meaning of the Eucharist.

In a letter of complaint to San Jose Bishop Pierre DuMaine, Barry Lemay, the leader of the group, describes the acrimonious mid-December meeting with St. Lucy's pastor Terrence Sullivan that led to the conflict:

"The intended topic was to resolve a two-year discussion regarding kneeling during the Eucharistic Prayer. During that two-year period, the documentation I found to support kneeling was overwhelming.... I found nothing to even begin to justify standing.... The discussion then turned to the nationwide decline in Catholics attending Mass, the loss of reverence by those who still come to Mass, the low percentage of people believing that Jesus is truly present on the altar--Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity."

"[Fr. Sullivan] was directly asked 3 or 4 times if the bread turned into the Body of Jesus.... His only reply was that it is a 'real presence'.... At one point the discussion got a little tense and Kathy [Mann] asked Father Sullivan if this was the real Body of Christ and he responded only by asking, 'Kathy, is that the real presence of Christ?' Kathy responded by asking, "Father, is that the Body of Christ?' This exact dialogue went back and forth four times with no direct answer by Fr. Sullivan. Fr. Sullivan then said, 'Kathy do you really think that that wafer really looks like a body?"

Fr. Sullivan, given an opportunity by this reporter to respond to the group's complaint, rebuffed the inquiry, questioning my competence to judge the matter ("What degrees do you have?") and saying that the story is not "newsworthy" ("Your questions are not relevant.") Asked several times if the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, he did not respond with those words. Asked if the members of the group were too "dumb" to hear his comments correctly, he said, "Yes." As he pulled away from the call, I told him that I would call back with more questions. "Well, I won't answer the call," he said as he hung up on me.

Lemay makes it clear that the group is a reluctant critic of the pastor and parish. Five of the six in the group have been parishioners "for over 20 years." Nor has the group leveled the criticism prematurely, says Lemay, pointing out that he has repeatedly tried to work within the parish system, even going so far as to find a canon lawyer to dissuade Fr. Sullivan: "Fr. Sullivan questioned the credentials of the canon lawyer. I asked him later in the [December] meeting if he would abide by the decision if I obtained a canon lawyer that met his criteria. He said, 'I will do what I think is right.'

Furthermore, the parish's problems, says Lemay, aren't trivial, but serious and pervasive. Recently, Lemay listened in disbelief as Fr. Benedict, St. Lucy's parochial vicar, said of the Eucharist, "That's not Jesus' body; it doesn't bleed when I break it," and that "is not the Body of Jesus on the altar. He died 2,000 years ago! That is the resurrected Christ. We're trying to teach those children over there [at St. Lucy's School] that this is the risen Christ." Lemay asked Fr. Benedict if he believed in transubstantiation. His response: "Transubstantiation is only one opinion and that there are several others and we don't have to believe it." (Fr. Benedict, given an opportunity to respond to Lemay's account, declined.)

"The words 'Holy Sacrifice of the Mass' seem to have disappeared from our vocabulary," writes Lemay in his letter to Bishop DuMaine. "Our pastor and associates use and encourage the use of inclusive language in the Mass, even though it has not been approved. Lectors are also encouraged to use inclusive language. They have initiated gathering of the people around the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer at daily Mass." (When Lemay raised this matter with Fr. Sullivan -- "It looks like a zoo on the altar" -- he came back with the response, "We thought it would be a good way to get people off their knees.")

Barbara Wilson, who signed the letter along with the other five in the group, adds that sermons at St. Lucy's "almost exclusively emphasize the community and people's love for one another and almost never touch on anything like abortion, birth control, homosexuality." (Lemay says he once asked Fr. Sullivan about the Church's teaching on artificial birth control. Sullivan soft-pedaled it: "He has given me reasons why it would be okay.")

Jan Besmer, the only member of the group who is not a parishioner, says that she is reluctant to join St. Lucy's because of Fr. Sullivan's strong opposition to kneeling during the consecration. She says his tone towards the kneelers is: "Who do you think you are? Are you better than anybody else that you have to kneel?" It is this sort of intimidation that caused Besmer to flee Queen of Apostles Church in San Jose: "I quit Queen of Apostles Church because I was called in one day [by the pastor] and told, 'Why was I kneeling during the preface of the Church and the consecration?' I said, 'Out of adoration." And he said, 'Don't you trust me.' And I said, 'Yes, I trust you father,' and he said, 'Then trust me and don't be kneeling.'" [This reporter called without success pastor Father Jim Mifsud, but did discover that Queen of the Apostles no longer has kneelers.]

Besmer is slack-jawed, too, over Fr. Sullivan's comments about the Eucharist: "I'm not a religious fanatic. I just think that this is appalling that they would deny the transubstantiation of Christ.... Everybody I talk to I say, 'Is this for real?.... This is the crux of the Catholic faith. I have about 84 nieces and nephews. Of the 84 about 13 go to Church because guess what they were taught in a Catholic school? This is a symbol.... No wonder they don't go to Church."

According to Lemay, charity demands that the bishop intervene, because St. Lucy's atmosphere of dissent is causing divison and confusion among Catholics, forcing them to choose between the binding norms of the universal Church and the flaky innovations of the local one:

"Most of the laity in our parish can read the missalette, which directs us to kneel, as well as numerous articles from Catholic magazines which all confirm the kneeling position during the Eucharistic Prayer," he says. "The blatant disobedience to the Magisterium and intimidation during homilies takes the focus away from the Mass. The division in our parish is growing.... In conclusion, we see a loss of vocations, a steady decline in attendance at Sunday Mass and a movement in our parish to depart from the teachings of the Magisterium.... Most of the people in our generation have a firm foundation in the teachings of our Church but even some of them are being led astray. What will happen to our children and their children?! I asked one of our priests, 'Why shouldn't I become Protestant?'

Such is the confusion at St. Lucy's that "I have had parishioners tell me that I'm wrong to kneel," says Barbara Wilson. Rosemary Lodi says that she has been told by some parishioners who stand during the consecration that "they wish they could kneel but they feel kind of intimidated."

According to Fr. Sullivan, kneeling during the consecration is the behavior of "spectators," not "active participants," as he put it in a 1995 St. Lucy's bulletin justifying standing.

But Fr. Regis Scanlon, in a 1994 Homiletic & Pastoral Review article, rebuts this view, making a point that is altogether relevant to the St. Lucy's case: "When Catholics worship by bending the knee in Eucharistic adoration, they strengthen belief in the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, for themselves and for the entire Church. When they can and do not, they weaken it."

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