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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
OCTOBER 1999

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SOMETHING OF SACRILEGE

This is just a short note to thank you for printing all the riches contained in Faith, Vol. 3, Number 8. The reprint from Catholic Dossier of [the] article by James Hitchcock is a special treasure [see "He Was the Last One I Would Have Expected", September], elucidating as it does the reason why many faithful people feel something of sacrilege rather than sacrament in Christian rites as too often administered today.

The Sex-ed coverage is vital also. Much of what passes for education not only violates but robs children of their one-and-only childhood and especially of their priceless latency period or "plateau." Is it any wonder that their feelings are those of affront, and that they turn to violence?

Yours gratefully,

Jane Wilgress
Pacific Grove


CALL FOR PRAYERS ACROSS THE BAY

In the Oakland diocese, we have been successful in getting at least one person to pray for each priest in the diocese for one year, the goal being to have each priest prayed for by at least one person daily. Our priests really need and deserve our prayers.

Would someone in the San Francisco diocese like to implement this program in your diocese? If so, I'll be happy to send you information on how we did it. My address is 336 Pimlico Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, my email address is creekelly@aol.com. Thank you,

Frances M. Kelly
Walnut Creek


WHY I DIDN'T RECEIVE COMMUNION

The following Open Letter to Father Barry Brusman was edited for space.

Open Letter to Fr. Barry Brunsman

Dear Fr. Brunsman,

We had an opportunity to chat after I attended the Mass you celebrated one Sunday in July. It was very gracious of you to spend the time with me. I mentioned to you that I did not go to Holy Communion and you said that you noticed. The reason, as I stated to you then, was my serious misgivings and doubts about the validity of the Mass.

Why did you not use one of the approved Eucharistic prayers for your Mass? You said you were using the version for the children's liturgy, which I cannot substantiate. But why were you adlibbing all the words of the Eucharistic prayers? Why did you not bow or kneel at all during the sacred words of the consecration after the raising of the altar bread and the wine? Why did you change the words of every prayer from the opening prayer, prayer of the gifts, prayer after communion? Do you not know that in the Vatican II era document, Inestimabile donum (Instruction on certain norms concerning the worship of the Eucharistic mystery, 1980), priests are warned: "No person, even if he be a priest, may add remove or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.... The faithful have a right to a true liturgy.... undue experimentation, changes and creativity bewilder the faithful." Furthermore, this same instruction warns that you as a priest are "guilty of falsification" when you contribute to the "proliferation of unapproved Eucharistic prayers, the manipulation of the liturgical texts for social and political ends."

The theme of your homily was very confusing. You preached about the "priesthood of the laity," stressing that aside from your ordination, priesthood is for all. The Church for over thirty years has been teaching against confusing the roles of the laity (the royal priesthood of the baptized Christian) and the ordained clergy. Inestimabile donum warned against "the confusion of roles, especially regarding the priestly ministry and the role of the laity." Pope John Paul II said in his symposium On the participation of the lay faithful in the priestly ministry in 1994: "We cannot make the Church's communion and unity grow by 'clericizing' the laity or 'laicising' the clergy. Consequently, we cannot offer the lay faithful experiences and instruments of participation in the pastoral ministry of priests." In addition, the Pope has also taught that the role of the laity is to evangelize the world, live out their vocations as parents, family members who are called to spread the good news. This is our baptismal obligation as Christians. Priests, however, are ordained to offer sacrifice in the sanctuary, to lead the faithful in the awesome celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There is a clear, distinct division in our roles, which should never be confused.

You explained to me that the blessings of a layperson are the same as the blessings of the priest. I don't believe this is so. You also told me that Our Lord never ordained or sent His apostles forth to follow him in the priestly ministry within the Church. You said that the ordination of priests did not take place within the primitive, early Church before the 3rd century. I believe this is not factual. As early as the 1st century, Pope St. Clement I (90-99 A.D.) wrote about the priesthood in an epistle to the Corinthians: "Inasmuch as peculiar gifts have been bestowed upon the chief priest, a special place has been assigned to the priests, and particular duties are incumbent upon the Levites. The layman is bound by the precepts pertaining to the laity.... Let each of us, brethren, 'in his own order' [1Cor. 15:23] with a good conscience not transgressing the prescribed rule of his own office give thanks to God honorably.... The Apostles were made preachers of the Gospel to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.... Accordingly, when they had proclaimed the word through country districts and cities and had tested the first converts of these by the spirit, they appointed bishops and deacons of those who were to believe." (Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, 30th ed., p. 20)

I neglected to ask your opinion about why there are so many vocations in orthodox dioceses like Peoria, Denver, Lincoln (Neb), and Omaha, while there are so few in dioceses like Oakland and Milwaukee? Could it be the shortages are not universal but only limited to places where there is unbridled dissent, rampant abuses in liturgical practices, rebellious bishops and clergy, and general rot and abandonment of the sacred mission of the Church in the propagation and handing down of the faith and in the inadequate education of seminarians by the local hierarchy?

I will continue to pray for you and your priesthood, Father Brunsman, especially to your patron, St. Francis of Assisi. A fellow Franciscan of yours, the revered Blessed Padre Pio, once said that "it is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass".

With sincerity and respect,

Phil Sevilla
Walnut Creek

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