Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: In his weekly Bulletin at the Church of St. Michael in New York City, Fr. George Rutler listed some of the false predictions of the climate alarmists and noted their refusal ever to admit being wrong:
“Inevitably, the list of mistaken predictions keeps growing. We may remember being told in the 1960s that, within twenty years, overpopulation would cause universal starvation. Instead, we now have crises of empty cradles and obesity; birth dearth and increased girth. As the new year begins, we can reflect on a prediction of the president of Exxon USA in 1989 that by 2020 our national oil reserves would be practically nil, while the solid fact is that those reserves are far higher than even back then.
“In 1990, The Washington Post was confident that carbon dioxide emissions would have increased our planet’s average temperature about three degrees (and six degrees in the United States) by 2020. The increase has been only about one degree. If we trusted some experts, by now one billion people would be starving in the Third World due to climate toxicity, but instead the World Bank tells us that there has been a significant alleviation of dire poverty, with the assistance of developed countries and access to investment capital and prudent production.
“There still are glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro, despite a warning of the United Nations Environment Programme in 2003 that by now they would have melted. In 1997, the Reuters news wire announced that by 2020 some eight million people would have died because of global warming catastrophes, while such deaths actually have reached historic lows. Taking up that theme, a New York congresswoman and former bartender predicts that the world could end in twelve years.
“While to err is human and to forgive is divine…forgiveness requires apologizing. Wrong predictions in recent decades are conspicuous for their authors’ lack of contrition.”
Q. I have two questions: (1) Which of these two prayers — “Peace on earth, good will to men” or “Peace on earth to men of good will” — takes precedence, or are they coequal? (2) Is the word “holiday” a derivative of holy day, so that, in effect, wishing someone “Happy Holiday” is the same as wishing them “Happy Holy Day”? — J.G., Illinois
A. (1) We think that the two salutations mean different things. The first extends peace to everyone, whether they are people of good will or not. The second extends peace only to those who are people of good will. The New American Bible translation of this passage from Luke 2:14 has the angels over Bethlehem saying, “Glory to God in the highest/ and on earth peace to those on whom/ his favor rests.” The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, says, “Glory to God in the highest,/ and on earth peace among men with whom he/ is pleased.” The Douay-Rheims translation says, “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.”
(2) The word “holiday” comes from the Old English haligdeg, which meant holy day or consecrated day and referred to a religious festival or day of exemption from labor and recreation. The expression “Happy Holidays” appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century and, in Britain, referred to summer vacation from school. It became a Christmastime greeting in this country in 1937 in ads for Camel cigarettes.
Q. I have noticed in Catholic hymnals many hymns in which we put ourselves in the person of Jesus (“I Am the Bread of Life”). I don’t find hymns like that in Protestant hymnals or in Catholic hymnals prior to the Sixties. I am bothered by this and wonder if it is proper to sing as if we were Jesus. — G.L., via e-mail.
A. You raise a good point, and most of the questionable lyrics are in hymns about the Eucharist. For example, there is a Rory Cooney song Bread of Life that begins, “I myself am the bread of life.” Or the David Haas hymn, I Am the Living Bread. Or the Laurence Rosania hymn The Supper of the Lord, which starts off, “Precious body, precious blood, here in bread and wine.” Of course, once transubstantiation takes place, there is no longer bread and wine, only the Body and Blood of Christ.
Better to sing an old favorite like Panis Angelicus, which means “bread of angels” and which begins, “Holy and living bread, wondrous food from heaven sent, God’s sacrifice foretold – now in our hands we hold.”
Q. Can a priest (a/k/a presider) offer Mass if there are no laity present “actively participating”? It seems to me that Mass at an altar only needs a victim, while Mass at a table requires a presider and those he is presiding over. — C.S., Arizona.
A. A valid Mass requires a priest, an altar, and a victim. At Mass, Christ is both the priest and the victim, and He is offered by the priest on the altar of sacrifice in an unbloody manner to the Father. Canon 904 of the Code of Canon Law says that since “the work of redemption is continually accomplished in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, priests are to celebrate frequently; indeed daily celebration is strongly recommended, since even if the faithful cannot be present, it is the act of Christ and the Church in which priests fulfill their principal function.”
So if a priest does not have a scheduled parish Mass, at which the faithful would be “actively participating,” he may celebrate Mass with no members of the faithful present. Fr. Nicholas Halligan, OP, explains why in his book The Sacraments and Their Celebration:
“Even if the faithful cannot be present, the Mass is still the act of Christ and the Church, an action in which the priest is always acting for the salvation of the people. Therefore, priests cannot be easily excused from fault who without reasonable cause abstain from daily celebration, since they would seem to depreciate so great a benefit, both for themselves and for the Church at large, and especially if they would cause scandal or wonderment to the faithful” (p. 58).
Q. I was at a healing Mass where the participants were anointed with oil. Is this the same as the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick? And can a person receive Communion twice in one day? — D.M.D., Massachusetts.
A. No, the holy oil used at the healing Mass was a sacramental and is different from the holy oil that is used in the Anointing of the Sick. Yes, according to canon 917, a Catholic can receive Communion twice on the same day “only during the celebration of the Eucharist in which the person participates.”
Q. Whatever happened to Fr. John Corapi and Fr. Thomas Euteneuer? Ever since they worked together on the book Exorcism and the Church Militant, they have dropped out of sight. — B.H., Arizona.
A. We don’t know the whereabouts of either man. Fr. Corapi was a charismatic preacher who went off the grid in 2011 after accusations of sexual impropriety and drug abuse. He was ordered by his superiors in the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity to remain silent while the accusations were being investigated. Corapi reportedly announced a short time later that he was leaving the priesthood, but we don’t know any more than that. Wikipedia describes him as “an inactive Catholic priest of [SOLT] in the United States.”
Fr. Euteneuer was a priest in the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., who served as president of Human Life International from 2000 to 2010. He resigned from HLI in 2011 and issued a statement saying that he had violated “the boundaries of chastity with an adult female who was under my spiritual care.” He said that his conduct had nothing to do with HLI but fell “within the ministry of exorcism that I carried out independently from my responsibilities at HLI.”