October – The Month of the Most Holy Rosary

Did you know…? October 7, the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, owes its origin to a remarkable victory of European Christians (the Holy League) over Muslim Turks in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in 1571. The destruction of the Turkish fleet ended dominance of the Ottoman Empire over the Mediterranean and the threat of further expansion of the Muslim world into Christian Europe. The league of European countries who won the battle attributed their success to the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary, as thousands of Catholics in Rome prayed the beads in support of their ships in battle, far to the east.

While other popes instituted and refined the name and date of the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, Pope Leo XIII, one the great pontiffs of the Nineteenth Century, extended emphasis on praying the Rosary throughout the month of October. Brother Knights of Columbus are strongly urged to pray the Rosary, and are given a special rosary upon entering the Order. Isn’t it fair to say that we are very much today engaged in battle, Christians, especially Catholics, against rampant evils in the world: abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryo destruction for “scientific” research, terrorism…? Our Lady, tradition tells us, tasked the Dominicans with spreading the Rosary, and subsequently inspired men and women and children (remember Fatima) down through the ages to faithfully pray, asking her intercession with her Son. We need action to fight these evils, but that action must be undergirded with prayer. Our late John Paul II treasured the beads and even added five more mysteries (the Luminous) for us to meditate on.

Welcome the Rosary beads onto your fingers, meditate on the mysteries, and offer your concerns and those of the whole world into the hands of the Lord, via the prayer that honors his extraordinary Mother.

In Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,

Deacon Rex Pilger

KC Council 12392 Knights Talk October 2010

As a new school year begins...

September...

For families with school or college-age children, it's time for another year. Summer vacation is over, though occasional warm days still occur. For those with grown children, the school year still affects their lives, from lower speeds in school zones to the sounds of children playing at recess. Our oldest grandchild (and only grandson) begins First Grade in far-off Minnesota, while his younger sister (age four) and two girl cousins (ages 2 1/2 and 1), closer to home, await the challenge of Kindergarten; of course the cousins have no idea what is in store.

Whether it be the changes of seasons or the arrival of another year, time rolls on. What about our lives? For husbands and fathers (and grandfathers, too) time seems to move so fast.As we try to provide for our families, sometimes we may lose sight of what our lives are all about. We have such great hopes for our children and grandchildren -- success in school and, ultimately life. But, for Catholic fathers, the hope is even more profound: that each child "catch" the reality and truth of the faith and carry it with them throughout their lives. Our hope and our prayer need to be made real in every conscious moment, so that we fulfill the promise made at their baptisms: to teach them to love God and neighbor.  

For the single, never-married man, for whom wife and family may be in the future, there may be different calls, faint at first, but maybe still insistent... to celibacy and maybe even the priesthood or religious life. 

For the widower, there is the memory of that beloved wife, and the hope to someday join her and all who have gone before, in the light of Christ's presence at the end of time.

As the challenges of a new year and a new season present themselves, let us, each Knight, renew our own commitment to fulfilling the vocation God has called us to, through virtue, service, love, faith, and prayer.

KC Council 12392 Knights Talk September 2010

Omnium in Mentem Fascination

Blog comments on Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio, Omnium in Mentem as it relates to the identity and ministry of deacons range over quite a spectrum. One Anglo-Catholic thinks it's part of a conspiracy to rope more of the Anglican flock into reunion with Rome. At least two commentators (one a deacon, the other a self-identified canon lawyer!) think the changes in Canons 1008 and 1009 will make it easier to “ordain” women deacons. Other typical responses are puzzlement, if not apathy. At least one canon lawyer’s website betrays shock if not confusion. One blogger thinks that the proclamation is merely correcting an error (score one for her).


The changes in the two canons resolve a conflict among Lumen Gentium and the 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church on one hand and the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The International Theological Commission described the conflict in 2003 (English version, 2004) -- From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles. At the heart of the conflict is the applicability of the term “in persona Christi capitis” to not only bishops and priests, but also deacons. Lumen Gentium and the 1997 Catechism limit the term to only bishops and priests while the 1983 Code includes application of the term to deacons as well. The first edition of the Catechism was consistent with the 1983 Code. One of the principal changes included in the 1997 Catechism restored consistency with Lumen Gentium; with that change the Code was the only outlier. The Motu Proprio achieves consistency among all three Magisterial documents in regard to this particular teaching.


Are there any further implications beyond consistency? Of course, there are.

Let’s dismiss the silliness first:
No, it’s not a conspiracy “against” Anglicans.
Ordain women deacons? Please! Canon 1024 (“A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.”) hasn’t been changed.
Other comments related to a fragmentation of the ministerial priesthood are inverted. Instead of an identification of priesthood and the clerical state (see canon 266), perhaps another question should be the focus. Do priests lose their diaconal identity when they receive the priesthood? Consider the first (apparently unchanged) part of Canon 1008: “By divine institution, the sacrament of orders establishes some among the Christian faithful as sacred ministers through an indelible character which marks them” (emphasis added). The faculties a deacon receives upon ordination continue into priesthood and episcopacy. The deacon himself is the matter of the sacrament; the form is the contained in the Rite of Ordination to the Diaconate.

Perhaps this is still puzzling or seemingly irrelevant. Nevertheless it is important to not only deacons, but also priests and bishops -- indeed the entire People of God.

Update - English version of Omnium in Mentem: link.

2007 Book Review - The Deacon at Mass

Original published in Homiletic and Pastoral Review (November, 2007; December, 2009, corrections and additions underlined)

Book Review

The role of the Deacon

THE DEACON AT MASS: A THEOLOGICAL AND PASTORAL GUIDE. By William T. Ditewig (Paulist Press, 997 Macarthur Blvd., Mahwah, N. J. 07430, 2007), xii + 126 pp. PB $14.95.

Deacon Ditewig’s latest book interprets the role of the deacon in light of the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) and the post-GIRM instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum (RS). (1) He introduces his interpretation with a brief history of the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the Latin Church, drawing on his previous work. While Deacon Ditewig serves in the Secretariat for the Diaconate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,* his interpretations are clearly personal, with anecdotes drawn from personal experience and those of other deacons.

Ditewig quotes John Paul II (p. 6): “The service of the deacon is the Church’s service sacramentalized.” If the timing of the book had been delayed a bit, he could have quoted Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est as well: “The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). (2) Thus deacons are the visible sacramental signs of the ministry of the Church.

The author appropriately cites RS: “Let all Deacons then, do their part so that the Sacred Liturgy will be celebrated according to the norms of the duly approved liturgical books” (p. 10). RS could have been quoted further: “…it is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes.” (3)

Consistent with the GIRM and RS, Ditewig admonishes deacons to serve Mass as often as possible and to be fully vested in not only alb and stole, but cincture (where appropriate) and, especially, dalmatic. Ditewig proposes a useful rule: when the celebrant wears the chasuble, the deacon wears the dalmatic; he implies another: if a deacon is present at Mass, he should serve and fulfill all the roles proper to him [if another deacon is not serving].

The author has strong opinions. The preaching of the deacon should be distinctive: “prophetic… to take the Gospel out of the assembly and into the world at large” (p. 19-20). One could add the connection of Word with Eucharist as prerequisite to evangelization. “[L]iturgy demands that on occasion, certain parts are to be sung, and this includes parts assigned to the deacon” (p. 31). [Reviewer’s experience:] Even the most musically-challenged can develop acceptable chanting abilities.

There is one controversial idea asserted by Ditewig: In proclaiming the Gospel, the deacon “acts in persona Christi” (p. 91).** An authoritative study (4) considered the term in relation to deacons (in addition to priests and bishops), without coming to a definitive conclusion.

The ministry of deacon along with the entire Church finds its source and summit in the Liturgy. The book can be valuable if it encourages deacons to probe more deeply into their liturgical identity, especially in the GIRM and RS. By careful study, the deacon can assess what in fact the Church intends, beyond the opinions interpreters [including the reviewer] may express. Long-ministering deacons will find echoes of their own experience in Ditewig’s anecdotes and should also find motivation for even more faithful exercise of their liturgical identity.

Deacon Rex H. Pilger, Jr.
Arvada, Colo.

End Notes

(1) Redemptionis Sacramentum, On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist, Vatican (2004).
(2) Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, Vatican (2006).
(3) RS, no 12.
(4) From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles, Hillenbrand Books, Mundelein, IL., 124p. (2004)

Homiletic and Pastoral Review, v. CVIII, no. 2, November, 2007, p. 78-79.

© Ignatius Press

* DeaconDitewig is now a professor at Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, Florida.

** According to Benedict XVI’s (2009) Motu Proprio, Omnium in Mentem, “in persona Christi capitis” applies only to priests and bishops.

Motu Proprio - Clarification in Code of Canon Law

As predicted in a 2008 letter to Homiletic and Pastoral Review (link: last letter in post), the Code of Canon Law is now to be consistent with both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Lumen Gentium in the distinction between Bishops and Priests (who act in persona Christi capitis) and Deacons who serve as ministers of liturgy, Word and charity.

See: From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles (2003, 2004).

See also In Persona Christi and the Deacon (2007).

Temporary English text of the Motu Proprio (OMNIUM IN MENTEM): link; courtesy Jimmy Akin.org (link).

Update - Official English text: link.

Back to the Future?

Weak and skinny as I am, I'm eager to return to work and active ministry, to the extent I can. Now, I have to deal with red tape imposed by our benevolent government on corporations to move from medical leave to full-time employee again. So I can't predict how soon I can get back with my talented coworkers to design and develop the next versions of our software.

Ministry-wise, I'm aiming to serve one Christmas Eve Mass. I may not be able to carry the Book of the Gospels or the gifts from the people to the altar, but I should be able to prepare the bread and pour the wine. I'd be eager to preach, too, but I'm not sure my voice is strong enough for everyone to hear, even with a mike.

I'm dependent on God's time, I guess, not my own schedule.

In the meantime, there's time spent with my wife and family, time to pray and write, time to thank God and his people for this amazing reprieve.

The Latest Struggle…

Until this summer, I thought my struggles as a man, deacon, husband, father, grandfather, software product manager, and geophysicist were all well-defined: juggle family, job, and ministry responsibilities while getting out of debt. It had been twelve years since my last surgery. And, yes, there was a troublesome fibrillation, but it was under control, after all – heartbeat and blood thinners, with frequent monitoring. Oh, and yes, the weight was a bit troublesome, but I lost ten pounds since February by cutting down on wine and fat and was on the cholesterol meds, too. (Oh, if the heart starts fibrillating, the nurses in ER get testy like librarians asking for your missing library card, if you admit to driving yourself to the hospital, even if you said you stayed in the right lane, just in case.)

But, the pain in the chest in late July was undeniable. This time my wife was home and drove me in. That almost forgotten surgery (two episodes) had come undone. The optimistic young surgeon scheduled the laparoscopic procedure that would fix it for early September. A success, he felt. One and a half weeks later, feeling better, I returned home.

Alas, within hours I was retching and heaving. Returning to the ER, to X-rays and cat scans and fluoroscopes the news was like that with my second surgery (which repaired the first failed lap procedure thirteen years ago), only worse. No, the third surgery hadn’t failed, but rather, much of the stomach had penetrated the diaphragm.Three weeks later I awoke in an ambulance transporting me from the critical care hospital to a rehabilitation facility where I spent the next five weeks. I thought the ambulance was taking me to a South Louisiana facility (I had been ordained in Baton Rouge twenty-one years earlier); I thought to myself, well the archbishop must know what he is doing by sending me here.

The intervening time was to me a time of crazy hallucinations – I was on a late night call-in show hosted by Pat Sajak and the audience thought I was pretty funny; another time I was watching Bret Favre (still dressed in green and yellow) in a reality competition to find the next tailback to play with him; then my wife and I were adopting a child from New Zealand (with five grown children and four grandkids I’m sure she would have been delighted).

My wife gradually filled in the reality of those lost weeks. Three weeks unconscious in the ICU. Prayers of family, friends, fellow deacon and KC families, parishioners and even strangers flooded the heavens. Even my mother-in-law in Florida reported hearing from a friend to be sure and pray for a seriously ill deacon in Colorado. A deacon-doctor whom I had taught in diaconate formation provided valuable advice to her as she made the hard decisions and warned her of the tracheotomy that was likely to be required (it was).

Hallucinations continued for the first week or so – somehow the insurance had provided for our garage to be converted into a simultaneous recovery room at the hospital and twenty miles away at home – it was better than the Star Trek Holodeck room: “reality” in two places. And my bed was recovered from a German auto accident. I later explained to my wife the dual spaces were why I kept asking where we were. Another time I thought I was helping rebel New Mexicans against their rich oppressors and managed to remove my IV’s in the struggle.

Recovery was too, too slow. Retching continued along with the pain. My chest looked like the GPS map on my wife’s Tom-Tom, or like a railroad map, with most routes headed east.

Finally… home. And forty pounds lighter. I hadn’t weighed this little since I was what, 25? I wrote my boss that I was now a skinny old man. As I lay in bed, I discovered how difficult it was to lay on my side – bony leg on bony leg.

Two weekends in a row and I’m able to go to Sunday Mass – not to serve, that’s not in the plan yet, but just to worship with my caring parishioners is enough. Both times our Pastor announces my presence to joyful applause. And, I'm able to go to my company's annual pre-Thanksgiving celebration; unfortunately most of co-workers must have headed to the mountains.

Even at home, the retching continued, if under some control. A month later, a visit to the surgeon convinced him to re-hospitalize me – over Thanksgiving. Biggest hurdle: pain. I agreed to stop the oxycodone. And then accept alternative nausea med – reglan. I had forgotten that it had been tried at the rehab place, where I had hated the hyperactive side effects. Well, I got to feel the effects again. But, happily the gastroenterologist said – let’s lower the dosage. It worked. Hooray! And, he has a plan for transitioning to a comparable medicine down the road. A little residual pain without retching is definitely worth it.

For the two days I’m confined local Extraordinary Ministers bring Holy Communion. One tells me it’s only her third time. I tell her I’m a deacon and how much I appreciate her new ministry. I give her a mini-homily about how we Catholics have the extraordinary blessing of Eucharist and the responsibility of living our lives not only for ourselves but for all but doing penance for all, and she responded, yes, including our children and politicians in our country and especially state, with which I strongly agreed. (I hope my sufferings more than compensate for not only my own sinfulness, but for my family, my friends, and strangers – even politicians). I mentioned that I know most of the deacons in Denver and she expressed her joy in a newly ordained deacon’s recent homily, for which I promptly took some credit – he was another I had taught. Before leaving she asks for my deacon blessing – so I'm still ministering from my hospital bed.

I now am home with my long-suffering wife. She’s delighted and I’m content for now. It’s been about twenty-eight hours. We spent the morning with me as navigator of my wheelchair while she propelled us around Super Target, Christmas shopping for the grandkids (we saved $10.69 on this “Black Saturday”). I’m still skinny, weak, and feeling old (my goatee is only a memory – too much gray), but, praise God! I’m still here. No retching so she can join me in sharing our bed for the first time in months.

And my wife continues to tell me stories of what happened “while I was sleeping”: Of her tears and the comfort she received from our sons, of the care of all our children for Dad, of her anxieties, her conversations with the physicians, and the decisions she made… of the care of deacons, especially John and Joe, my two supervisors, and my (non-Catholic) boss. She said that what I said during my hallucinations was indeed very funny; she me she wished she could have written them down, but she was too busy holding me down.

Come Monday physical therapy starts. And I have to remind myself to eat. I will see my primary physician – constantly surprised by my latest adventures (his name is Tom and “My Lord and My God” is posted on the wall of one of his examination rooms – appropriate for a Thomas, don’t you think?)

My wife helps me with the timing of the meds and reality checks, but soon, I hope, I’ll get back to work and active ministry. I hope they’ll recognize me.