Albertus Minimus

Lots of coloured paper

I suspect that I'm not the only one to treat consultative processes, entered into with much public enthusiasm by bishops and archbishops, with some scepticism. All too often in the past they seem to be more public relations' exercises than anything else, and designed in such a way that a bishop can extract from them the justification for what he was going to do in any case. So when Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the archbishop of the Westminster diocese of which I am a part, announced that he was going to ask the people of the diocese about the way forward, and publish the results in (first) a 'green paper' and (finally) a 'white paper', I was not too hopeful about the outcome. (I must admit that the name given to the process, 'Graced by the Spirit', also served to raise my hackles, suggesting to me the ecclesiastical equivalent of business speak.)

My hopes suffered further when I went along to one of the 'consultative phases' (or talking shops) a couple of years ago as the representative of my parish, and found that the little group of which I was a part was hijacked by an ageing nun, in traditional polyester, to push all the usual, tired clichés of 'reform'.

So I must admit that when the Cardinal finally published his 'white paper' at the end of all this, entitled 'Communion and Mission', I was not expecting much. There were rumours that the paper would contain concrete proposals for parish clustering, and even suggest closing some parishes, in response to the decline in the number of priests in the diocese.

But no. In fact, the document proposes five priorities for the diocese over the next few years, all of which seem to me to be worthwhile.

Priority 1: The Call to Holiness, Prayer and the Eucharist

The first priority must be the universal call to holiness manifested in each one of us through a life of prayer and worship. Our parishes should be schools of prayer in which there are opportunities for people to learn how to pray and to be supported in doing so. In addition, I would hope that every parish would increase the time available for adoration of the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament, as the Bishops’ meeting in Rome recently urged.

I will be asking the Liturgy Commission to look at the provision of courses and resources for all involved in the liturgical life of a parish. These will take place at designated centres in the Diocese staffed and resourced by parishes and deaneries. The courses will seek to build up a dedicated liturgical ministry of people whose task it is to support their priest in the development of liturgy and worship.

Priority 2: Formation of Adults and Young People

My next priority is the formation of all the baptised for their mission of bearing witness to Jesus Christ. I wish to place special emphasis on formation for leadership and on formation for young people.

If all the baptised are to share in the Church’s mission then we must have a proper formation of lay people in their faith. We also need enthusiastic leaders who can motivate the whole Church, especially youth and young adults, to be the Body of Christ in our world, responsible for its growth.

In order to bring this priority into greater fruition effective religious education and faith formation programmes are to be offered throughout the Diocese on all levels: children, youth, young adults and adults. A new Agency for Evangelisation, in collaboration with the Education Service, will begin by surveying the resources which are already available and then look at how to fill the gaps in provision.

Priority 3: Small Communities

The formation of small communities has been one of the fruits of At Your Word, Lord. They have been a vital development in the life of our Diocese. Countless people have told me how much they have been nourished by their experience of prayer and companionship in the Lord by the existence of these small groups.

I have increasingly called the Diocese to be a ‘community of communities’. Now that the At Your Word, Lord programme has finished, I hope that the hundreds of groups across the Diocese will continue to meet. I would also ask every parish to establish small faith communities where they do not exist and to develop them where they are not already strong. The new Agency for Evangelisation will provide materials and other forms of support.

Priority 4: Priesthood and Vocations

The priest is the spiritual leader of the people of the parish. He presides at the Eucharist and the other Sacraments. He preaches the Word of God to his people. He is himself a sign of Christ by the example of faith and by the pastoral service that he gives.

I am convinced that priests need to continue to renew their appreciation and their manner of celebrating the liturgy. The Archbishop’s Council will look at ways of promoting the ongoing formation of clergy. More broadly, I would like us all to be involved in creating in the Diocese a stronger culture of vocations in the years ahead. I am asking the Vocations Director and his team to provide assistance and resources to parishes and ecclesial communities in order to foster vocations from the diverse communities within the Diocese.

Priority 5: Structures for Participation, Change and Accountability

There is a call in the ‘Green Paper’ for greater partnership between parishes, as well as a greater sense of belonging to the local Church. The Church in Westminster must continue evaluating and revitalising present structures and devise new ones where necessary. One element of renewal must be to provide for increased participation, collaboration and accountability in our diocesan mission. We need to find ways of ensuring that our increasingly diverse congregations are being heard.

Decisions affecting the life of the Church at every level must be made collaboratively. They will not be taken centrally and imposed but will be taken gradually, at different times, as the circumstances arise, and only after the evaluation and contribution of each local community is assessed.

Each parish should have a parish council/team. This is a group of lay people who are regularly consulted by the parish priest in relation to the history, the life, the structure of the parish, its resources and its mission. I will be asking the Deans with the Auxiliary Bishops to conduct an audit in consultation with the parish councils/teams and the priests of the deanery. This audit will profile the life and mission of each parish so as to assess its needs and resources and to help develop its relationships with neighbouring parishes and within the deanery.

This is the essence of the Cardinal's proposals. To read the full text of the white paper, 'Communion and Mission', go here.

I'm particularly encouraged by, firstly, his emphasis on the Eucharist, and the need for worthy liturgies and his encouragement for Eucharistic Adoration, and secondly the impression he gives that he has not given up on vocations. Yes, we will inevitably face a shortfall of priests here in Westminster in the short and possibly medium term - the age profile of the clerical population makes that inevitable. But the one way to ensure a long term dearth of priests is to assume that the decline in vocations is inevitable and irreversible. I don't for a minute believe that is the case, and the same seems to be true, I'm glad to say, for the cardinal.

Parochial matters

So, we are continuing with our ideas to improve the parish, and make it a more prayerful community orientated towards God. Things are proceeding slowly, but they are moving on, and we have just begun a mother's prayers group. This involves groups of mothers, and sometimes grandmothers, gathering in small groups to place their children in to the hands of Our Lord, in the knowledge that He can bring healing and forgiveness in manners far beyond our own capabilities. If you're interested in forming such a group in your parish, here's the link to the mother's prayers web site.

Of course, this has the problem, in common with almost all such parish initiatives, of drawing mainly those who are already committed to the Faith. Again in common with many other parishes, we are scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do with those occasional Catholics, who infrequently attend church, and that other group who suddenly start coming to Mass when their children are approaching school age, and then tend to slide away once the little ones are safely ensconced in the local Catholic school.

What to do? Well, let's break this down a bit first. Let's take the occasional Catholics first. The positive aspect is that they come to church in the first place. This indicates that there is, somewhere in their hearts, an inchoate sense of God's presence in the Mass and the Eucharist. However, all sorts of factors militate against those occasional visits becoming regular, some of which are beyond our control (the change in working hours being one, so that in many households people are working at the weekend). There's not much we can do about that in the short term, so let's look at what we can do. The first, most repeated, and most obvious reason for this pattern is simply poor catechesis. It's become a cliché that catechesis has been terrible for the last thirty years for the simple reason that it's true. People from my generation (I was born in 1963) were simply not taught the Faith, or if we were it was done so badly as to be positively off putting. So how can we teach these people more about the Faith?

What is the great under utilised area of Catholic catechesis? I would argue it is the sermon. Another truism is that Protestants are generally appalled by the poverty of Catholic sermons. This does not seem to have been helped by the general instruction that the homily should expand and explain the readings of the day. So one idea, which we hope to put into practice sometime, probably this coming Advent or Lent of 2007, is to devote all the sermons over such a period to a systematic exposition of the Faith, coupled with texts of the sermons attached to the newsletter complete with web links and suggestions for further reading. This has the advantage of reaching everyone who is at Mass, many of whom do not involve themselves any further in the life of the parish. I had hoped to have this running for this coming season of Lent, but it requires more preparation than I have been able to give it as yet.

The next avenue which we are pursuing is the fairly obvious one of setting up a parish web site. I'm talking to a web designer on Wednesday, and I should like to canvass suggestions for particularly good parish web sites that you might have come across. I'm looking for ideas both on the practical side – how we can make the site look good and convey the necessary parochial information clearly and quickly – and on the catechetical front – sites that educate and inform the members of the local parish about the Faith. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Portrait of a parish

In the comments to my previous post asking for ideas to improve the prayer life within my parish, Jeff very reasonably points out that it's hard to make suggestions without knowing what we already do. So here is my portrait of a London parish.

We are located in the suburbs of London, in what is generally a lower middle class region, although the parish has more deprived areas within it. Now, as you no doubt know, London is an extraordinarily mixed city culturally, and a Catholic parish is probably even more heterogeneous than the capital's norm. Irish immigrants who had made a little money and moved out into the suburbs comprised the first main group, but they were quickly followed by the Italians, many of whom also live around here. There are a reasonable number of people from the subcontinent and recently we have seen a growth in the number of Nigerian parishioners.

The church itself, while not likely to win any architectural prizes, is simple and conducive to prayer.

We have a parish priest who is a fine man, active and engaged, and a good pastor. There is an assistant priest, who unfortunately suffers from ill health, so he is only really here at the weekend. In addition, we often have visting priests, studying in London, in residence, who help with saying Masses. Finally, a great help to the parish is a visiting Jesuit of great learning and holiness (see, good Jesuits do exist!) who normally says at least one Mass on Sunday.

There are six Sunday Masses (one on Saturday evening, four Sunday morning and one Sunday evening), a daily 10am Mass and, if priestly numbers allow, a daily 8am Mass. If a priest is not available for this, a Eucharistic Service takes place. The Sunday Masses are all well attended, with the Family Mass (which features a folk group) particularly well attended. The High Mass has a choir of reasonable standard and normally at least the Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei are sung in Latin. The other Masses are said in English.

The parish is only slowly entering the modern world of information storage, so our data on parishioners is somewhat sketchy. We have, I think, about 2,000 parishioners, but only a proportion of these are registered. Another difference from American parishes, I believe, is that the number of lay people employed by the parish is small: two part time secretaries (the office is only open in the mornings), and a catechetical coordinator. All other roles are taken by volunteers.

There is a primary school attached to the parish (ages 4-11) that has a good reputation and is generally oversubscribed. Thus we have a number of parents attending Mass with the object of getting their children into the school. Of course, this is, as Amy Welborn says, a teaching opportunity for us, although one that we seem unable as yet to take advantage of.

As in most parishes, there is a core of committed people, usually families, whose vocations range from prayer, pure and simple, to all sorts of service to the parish and community. I feel a particular responsibility to the devout, a number of whom have told me that they have been praying for a chance to lead the parish in a more prayerful direction. Such people often, however, seem to find it difficult to influence others; their very fervour can be seen as off putting in a society that regards religion as something best not mentioned in polite company.

In terms of parish activities, there are the usual First Communion and Confirmation programmes, which are the responsibility of the catechetical coordinator. We have very active Scouts and Guides groups, and a parish Youth Club has just been started to take advantage of our new parish hall. There are mothers and toddlers mornings, the Bernadette Club for older parishioners, and, a spin off from the At Your Word Lord programme, a young adult group of great enthusiasm and energy has spontaneously developed. The parish council meets regularly to discuss and plan events within the parish, and financially we are on a sound footing, despite the debt incurred building our new parish hall.

So, there you have it. If there is anything else you would like to know, please feel free to ask. It's occurred to me that it would be good to know if we have produced any vocations to the priesthood or religious life over the last few decades, and I'll try to find out. I think it may be quite a valuable exercise to compare parish practices around the world to see what we can learn from each other.

The power, the power!

As I mentioned in a previous post, earlier this year I was asked to take over as chairman of the parish council of my local church (and, yes, I was surprised). Anyway, this does mean I have the opportunity to bring forward ideas, both at parish council meetings and to the parish priest, for changes in the parish. The previous chairmen, together with previous parish priests, have done a great job in improving the fabric of the parish, both the church itself and in the building of a fine new parish hall. Although we are still paying off the debt incurred by this construction, we are ahead of schedule and seem to be in a financially sound position. In any case, these matters are being taken care of by people more competent than I in such fields. So, what was I going to do as chairman?

Well, the obvious answer seemed to be that now we had the facilities, what were we going to do with them? We are a fairly typical, largely but not exclusively middle class, parish, with six well-attended Masses each weekend. There is a backbone of devout parishioners who form the silent heart of all things in the parish, and many of these people also do a great deal of the practical work necessary to run a parish.

But what can we do to reach out to the greater part of parishioners, those whose only involvement is attendance at Mass, whether weekly or less frequently?

To put it simply, what can we do to make the parish a holier, more Christ-centred community? I would welcome any suggestions. After all, it's sometimes been said that members of St Blogs do nothing but complain, but are rarely willing to join in with the nitty gritty of running things. Now I have been given the chance to do something, it would be wonderful to really see some changes (for the better, hopefully!).

Well, he wanted the laity involved

We've all heard them: bitter sermons from embittered priests, blaming the Church for the distress in their souls. And we've all sat quietly and listened as the bile has flowed, maybe making some futile remark to father afterwards, maybe praying but mostly keeping quiet. But what happens when a congregation has had enough?

"Jesus never said anything about Limbo. It's not in the Bible. It's in the Catechism..."

"No it isn't!" - Said a voice. Then I realized that voice was me. I would have stopped there but someone else took over! Another parishoner judged it was open season on Fr Pat and laid in to him explaining how he as ruined her faith and how "we don't come here to listen to your baggage". She demanded a vote to see if anyone else agreed with her but Fr Pat said no to voting.

Click on the link above for a (probably unexpected by the pastor concerned) example of lay involvement in parochial life.

Even the young shall remember them

It was Remembrance Sunday yesterday and the local Scouts and Guides, Cubs and Brownies paraded into the church for Mass and various troop members did the readings, brought up the offertory and so on. But what was notable was the silence with which they stood for the two minutes of remembrance at the beginning of Mass. I spoke about it afterwards with one of the scout masters and he confirmed what I thought: the uniformed groups come in their units to church on a number of occasions during the year, but Remembrance Sunday is the one occasion when he can rely on them to stand in silence, without fidgeting or yawning or anything else. It's good to see.

It also meant that we got to sing two of the great national hymn, 'I vow to thee my country' and 'Jerusalem'. If you don't them, here are the words. If you have the time, search for an MP3 file and take a listen to what must be among the most stirring songs ever written.

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.

And 'Jerusalem'

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills.

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O Clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land!

Surfing the infobahn

Look to the right and you'll see a new collection of links to German Catholic blogs. Unfortunately, my German is pretty minimal, but I decided to provide the links to show the Anglosphere that there are things going on in other tongues apart from our own, and by the looks of it, quite interesting they are too.

In fact, German Catholic blogs seem to be both more numerous and more active than their UK counterparts, and judging by the pictures, links and what I can read, they appear to be written by people both young and orthodox. Come to think of it, that is really to be expected: in the great secular wastelands of northern Europe, what else is left to those seeking to be, in the best sense, counter-cultural?

Another story

The following story was also passed on to me by the young adults group that I mentioned in the previous post: so now outwards it goes again.

A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed.  The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

"I guess you were expecting me, he said.

'No, who are you?" said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up,"

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?" Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.  Here is what I suggest: Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'. Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now."

"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though.  If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown
or send me off to the funny farm."

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.

Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.

Did he die in peace?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, "when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me how much he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death.  Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"  

Signs of life in the old dog yet

It seems to be taken as a given in US Catholic blogs that the Faith is dead on its feet in Europe. Well, while the statistics may tell one story, my own impression is that reports of its demise are premature. From my own little area of parish life here in north London, it seems to me that there are reasons for hope, although certainly some things, most notably priestly vocations, remain problematic.

Looking at the mass attendance figures for my parish over the last thirty years we, like most other places in the west, suffered a large decline during the seventies and eighties. But things have stabilised over the last ten-fifteen years, and we still have six masses at the weekend: one on Saturday and five on Sunday.

Now, to my astonishment, I was asked by the parish priest to become chairman of the parish council a couple of months ago. Finding myself 'Mr Chairman' I thought the best thing I could do was set about finding ways to improve the prayer life of the parish. Lots of ideas have been forthcoming, which I'll write about over the coming weeks, but today I want to mention one particularly hopeful sign: a young adult group has spontaneously formed up in the parish and are doing great things. This Sunday they will be speaking and presenting about their experiences at World Youth Day. They have plans to do outreach work, want to institute regular days of Eucharistic Adoration, and much more.

So, at least in this little corner of the Old World, blood still beats through the veins of Holy Mother Church.