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December 8, 2006

A Shepherd’s Message

By Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo

At the beginning of November, Bishop Rizzotto announced his retirement as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese; he had turned 75 in September and sent his letter of retirement to the Holy Father, as required by the Code of Canon Law. The retirement was accepted by the Pope and the date of announcement was set for November 6. On the day of the announcement, Bishop Rizzotto remarked on his many years of priesthood and his work in the episcopacy since 2001. He spoke of his love for the priesthood and his desire to continue in that work in the days ahead as his health permits. Earlier this year, I was able to thank Bishop Rizzotto as he celebrated 50 years of priesthood. He has always been a zealous priest and a very dedicated one at that. I now want to thank him for his years of service as a bishop. I want to assure him of our gratitude and esteem. I also want him to know that I hope he continues on in his ministry, in his helpful advice and collaboration with me, and in his readiness to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation in the parishes of our archdiocese. He will continue his leadership of the committee dealing with the internal liturgical design and arrangement of the new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. He is also heading the group that will work on the events surrounding the dedication of the same Co-Cathedral. I will soon be appointing a new Director for the Secretariat for Chaplaincy and Clergy Formation, a role that Bishop Rizzotto has filled admirably and one which requires membership on a number of boards and committees in the archdiocese. I will miss him in these roles but will continue to count on his advice and good sense in addressing the issues of chaplains and clergy personnel. I know that I speak for all the priests, deacons religious and faithful of this local Church when I say the simple words, “Thank you,” to Bishop Rizzotto. Those who have had the great blessing of knowing him in his many years as parish priest will enlarge the reasons for this gratitude. But thanks it is for one who has been a loyal and faithful priest. Ad multos annos!

November was also the meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. At the beginning of our meeting, we celebrated Mass in the newly renovated Basilica of the Assumption, the first Cathedral in the United States. The renovation was spectacular and Cardinal Keeler is to be congratulated and thanked for the magnificent work that was done to revivify the beauty of that wonderful church. It has been the site of a large number of important events in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. What is remarkable and startling about the architecture is its “lightness;” it is full of light. It also breathes with the serenity of its classical form. The role of the beautiful in proclaiming the truth and the goodness of our Catholic Faith needs to be emphasized, especially in this time when much of what we see and hear is ugly or distorted. During the Bishops’ Conference, a number of short documents were presented and approved. In future columns I will comment upon them so as to bring them to the attention of this local Church. For this column, I do want to comment upon the late October letter of Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and for the Discipline of the Sacraments. In his letter to Bishop William Skylstad, current President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Arinze wrote that the Indult granted by the Holy See in 2002 to the Bishops of the United States allowing Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to purify the sacred vessels was not to be renewed. Therefore Paragraph 279 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which notes that only bishops, priests, deacons and installed acolytes are to be involved in that part of the rite of the Mass, was to be followed. (It should be mentioned that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, first published in Rome in its present form in 1970, has been updated several times in the last 35 years, the most recent being the year 2000.) Cardinal Arinze’s letter expressly stated that this was the decision of the Holy Father himself after the Congregation had brought the request of the United States Bishops to him, a request to renew the Indult. This decision of liturgical discipline, then, must be seen as one given by the supreme legislator himself, the Holy Father. During our November meeting, the Bishops discussed the implementation of this decision. We also received some further directions on implementation from the Liturgy Office of the Bishops’ Conference. Once I returned home, I began consultations with our Office of Worship and our Liturgical Commission of the Archdiocese. I will be sending the information to all our parishes and institutions and will set a date for the implementation of the directives soon. I have received a number of letters from priests and some of the faithful expressing disappointment with the decision. I have also received letters from others expressing concern that I have not yet implemented the decision. In the latter case, Roman law always allows a period of time for implementation. I desired to wait until I had the occasion to speak with the bishops at the November meeting and receive suggestions from the Liturgy Office of the Conference of Bishops. For those, on the other hand, who are disappointed by the papal decision, I want to recall that what had been granted was an Indult. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal is clear on the rite of the purification of vessels. My surmise is that, given the recent revision and the sheer number of requests for indults coming from various countries on a wide variety of liturgical issues, Rome felt a clear need to uphold the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, since it had just been renewed in the year 2000. One does not immediately change what has just been issued. Secondly, the Indult granted to the United States may have been too wide in its application. It appears that the Holy See desires that only a restricted number of people, most especially those in Holy Orders, take primary responsibility for the ablution or cleansing of the sacred vessels. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion perform a very useful function in our parishes in assisting the priests and deacons in distributing Holy Communion to the faithful at Mass and bringing Holy Communion to the sick and home bound. This is a great honor for them and I know that they fulfill their ministry with care. This is a question of liturgical discipline and these matters always involve a final decision from the Church in Rome. It reminds us that the liturgy is ultimately not a purely local matter and that the Roman Rite is ultimately governed and shepherded by the Holy See. The decision will pose some difficulties to our larger parishes where the number of sacred vessels used in the distribution of Holy Communion are more numerous. My suggestion would be that pastors invite some men of the parish, perhaps sacristans, who can be trained and formed so that they would be installed as acolytes, a ministry of the Church that all who are to be ordained must receive but a ministry that can also be granted to laymen. Installed acolytes may also purify the vessels for Mass. I am studying the requirements for that ministry and am working with the Office of Worship to offer help to our pastors. In all procedures of the liturgy, the care and attentiveness we show, even in smaller matters, reflects our sense of awe and reverence before the great event of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection, re-presented each time we are gathered by the Lord to celebrate the Mystery of Faith. I know that all of our priests, deacons and faithful, whatever their disappointment, will collaborate with me and be faithful to all the liturgical norms set down for divine worship. There may also be a blessing in that the time for purification immediately after Communion will become a space in which the faithful can meditate on the gift they have been privileged to receive, either through silent prayer or joined together by a Eucharistic hymn of praise.

It is already Advent, a new liturgical year beginning, and a time of preparation for the multiple “comings” of Christ in our midst. He came once in poverty in a manger; he comes now in word and sacrament, in deed of proclamation, witness, justice and charity; he will come again in glory. May Advent restrain our commercial instincts, so out of control in the culture all around us, and ground us in quiet contemplation, if even for a few moments amid the frenzy of December. Let a verse of St. Ambrose’s great hymn of Advent stop us in our tracks: “O Equal to thy Father Thou Gird on thy fleshly mantle now. The weakness of our mortal state with deathless might invigorate.”