Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: In his parish bulletin recently, Fr. George Rutler of the Church of St. Michael in New York City recalled the famous words of the great jazz singer Al Jolson: “You ain’t heard nothing yet” and compared them with the words of Jesus: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). He said that when Jesus rose from the dead, “He said, in so many human words, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’ The Resurrection was far from a grand finale; it was the start of everything else. As our Lord ascended in glory, He gave the Great Commission: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matt. 28:19).”
This commission today is called evangelization, said Fr. Rutler, “but in recent decades there have been numerous committees and programs to evangelize, with little effect, despite all their meetings and conferences and advertising. Christ was meticulous with everything except bureaucracy. Instead, He sent His disciples out with a commission. Only holiness evangelizes.” Rutler then cited the example of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who died in 2002 and is a candidate for sainthood because of his heroic virtue:
“Beginning in 1975, this coadjutor archbishop of Saigon was imprisoned by Communists in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of them in solitary confinement. He thought he might go mad, in a cell without light or ventilation and mushrooms growing on his thin mattress. But his serene example kept converting many of his prison guards to Christianity. The evangelization of souls, without benefit of councils or committees, was all that concerned him.
“Shortly before he died, he said, ‘If Jesus took a math examination, He would surely fail. A shepherd had 100 sheep; one of them strayed. Without thinking, the shepherd went in search of it, leaving the other 99 sheep. When he found the lost sheep he put it on his shoulders’ (Luke 15:4-5). For Jesus, 1 equals 99, perhaps even more. ”
Fr. Rutler quoted Jesus as saying, “‘a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live’ (John 5:25). I expect that when Cardinal Van Thuan died, he heard a voice saying: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’.”
Q. You had an article about six million Jews dying during the Holocaust, but why was there no mention of the six million Christians who also died during that time? — P.S., via e-mail.
A. Actually, the context of our reply had to do with whether it was legitimate to call the slaughter of millions of unborn babies by abortion a holocaust since some Jews object to using that term apart from the killing of millions of Jews by the Nazis. We did not mention the six million figure at all, but you raise a good point. In his book Hitler, the War and the Pope, Ronald J. Rychlak wrote as follows (p. 237):
“Most notoriously, an estimated 6,000,000 Jews, mostly from eastern Europe, were killed by the Nazis. Before the Final Solution, there were approximately 9,000,000 Jews north of Spain in continental Europe. By 1945, two-thirds of them had been murdered or died because of the conditions in the German concentration camps. In Germany, Austria, the Baltic countries, and Poland, ninety percent of all Jews were killed. Several million non-Jewish Nazi victims (estimates range as high as 6,000,000) also lost their lives in the death camps.”
Professor Rychlak went on to say that “the Vatican, too, suffered greatly during the war. Thousands of priests and nuns had been killed, millions of Catholics had died.” He referenced a book by Pierre Blet entitled Pius XII and the Second World War in which Blet said:
“It is estimated that 4 bishops, 1,996 priests, 113 clerics, and 238 female religious were murdered; sent to concentration camps were 3,642 priests, 389 clerics, 341 lay brothers, and 1,117 female religious.”
Q. For at least a year now, I’ve noticed a lack of bells during the elevation of the Host and then the chalice at Mass. Even on Easter Sunday, with a full complement of altar servers, one could hear a pin drop at these moments at Mass. What if folks brought their own bells to ring at the appointed time? Aren’t we all supposed to participate more at Mass? — M.S., Michigan.
A. We know you’re being facetious about everyone bringing their own bells, but bells are supposed to be rung during the consecration. According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, “A little before the Consecration, the server may ring a bell as a signal to the faithful. Depending on local custom, he also rings the bell at the showing of both the Host and the Chalice” (n. 109).
In his book Mass Confusion, which is a valuable source of information on “the dos and don’ts of Catholic worship,” James Akin called attention to the Holy See’s answer to the question of whether bells are to be rung at Mass (pp. 116-117):
“It all depends on the different circumstances of places and people, as is clear from GIRM 109….From a long and attentive catechesis and education in liturgy, a particular liturgical assembly may be able to take part in the Mass with such attention and awareness that it has no need of this signal at the central part of the Mass. This may easily be the case, for example, with religious communities or with particular or small groups.
“The opposite may be presumed in a parish or public church, where there is a different level of liturgical and religious education and where often people who are visitors or are not regular churchgoers take part. In these cases, the bell as a signal is entirely appropriate and is sometimes necessary. To conclude, usually a signal with the bell should be given, at least at the two elevations, in order to elicit joy and attention [Notitiae 8 (1972) 343, DOL 1499 n. R28].”
Q. Didn’t Pope St. John Paul predict years ago the crisis facing the Church today? Do you have his words at that time? — T.K., California.
A. Back in 1976, two years before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland spoke at a Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. On that occasion, he said these prophetic words:
“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.
“We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it. . . . How many times has the renewal of the Church been brought about in blood! It will not be different this time.”
This warning by the future Holy Father may have seemed hyperbolic in 1976, but it sounds on target 41 years later. In a recent talk at a conference in Rome, Fr. Linus Clovis of Family Life International mentioned some possible indicators of the rise of the anti-Church:
“Thus, politicians who vote for abortion and same-sex ‘marriage’ will be welcome at the Communion rails; husbands and wives who have abandoned their spouse and children and entered into adulterous relationships will be admitted to the sacraments; priests and theologians who publicly reject Catholic doctrines and morals will be at liberty to exercise ministry and to spread dissent, while faithful Catholics will be marginalized, maligned, and discredited at every turn. Thus, the anti-Church would succeed in achieving its goal of dethroning God as Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier and replacing Him with man the self-creator, the self-savior, and the self-sanctifier.”
