Forward Boldly Episode: On the Potential Closing of Holy Innocents Church
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Homily, Holy Innocents Parish (New York)
18 May 2014, Dominica IV Post Pascha
Rev. J. Wylie,
sac. Arcidioecesis Johannesburgensis
Dearly
beloved of God,
Today
the liturgy bids me speak to you of threes and sevens.
…
Dear
friends – and mark well that I speak to you now from the prophetic heart of my
sacerdotal paternity – Dom Prosper Gueranger has something important to say
also about threes. Hear it well:
“[T]he
sacraments, being visible signs, are an additional bond of unity between the
members of the Church: we say additional, because these members have the
two other strong links of union – submission to Peter and to the pastors sent
by him and profession of the same faith. The Holy Ghost tells us, in the sacred
Volume, that a threefold chord is not easily broken [Eccles. Iv 12]. Now
we have such a one, and it keeps us in the glorious unity of the Church:
hierarchy, dogma, and sacraments, all contribute to make us one Body.
Everywhere, from north to south, and from east to west, the sacraments testify
to the fraternity that exists amongst us; by them we know each other, no matter
in what part of the globe we may be, and by the same we are known by heretics
and infidels. These divine sacraments are the same in every country, how much
soever the liturgical formulae of their administration may differ; they are the
same in the graces they produce, they are the same in the signs whereby grace
is produced – in a word, they are the same in all the essentials” (pp. 228-9).
...
Dom
Gueranger writes these words for us under his entry for precisely this Fourth
Sunday after Easter, when in this parish, as I understand, you will meet to
discuss a path forward for the precarious existence of your own worshipping
community. Will this be the path Christ charts or will we make of ourselves
instruments of the evil one for division and derision? The test of this, as in
all things, is charity. Deus caritas est; et ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi
est. Where there is a breakdown of charity, there also is the spirit of the
antichrist. I urge you, therefore, to be obedient and to be charitable with
your legitimate superiors in all this, as well as with each other. Be firm and
clear, also, and just; however, let charity always be the litmus test of whom
it is you serve.
Allow
me to say, first of all, that it has been my great privilege to serve this
community during my term in New York. I have benefitted and learned so much
from you and from your piety and fidelity, vivacity and zeal. I refer to all of
you, now – you know who you are, I hope, from the love that I bear for you.
Some I know better than others, through service at the altar – your acolytes
and MCs; others I have loved with my voice and through my ears (like the
organists and choir); others yet through my eyes, such as those who keep the
church so beautiful, restored and adorned with flowers; others yet I bear with
love, such as those who source and restore such magnificent vestments; many of
you are known to me in the intimacy of the confessional or through the rich
friendship of spiritual direction: upon all of you I gaze from this pulpit with
a father's love and admiration. Yet I must make my own the words of our Blessed
Lord when I tell you that my heart breaks with pity to behold those who seem to
be as though sheep without a shepherd.
Allow
me to explain. When I first came to New York, I marveled at the freedom
traditional Catholics had always enjoyed in New York. When the Mass of the Ages
seemed everywhere in the world effectively to have been banned, here in New
York it found a home. “What freedom!” I thought, “What magnanimity from the
pastors of the Church here in this place!” Now, however, with the benefit of
time and deeper understanding, I see the superficiality of this first appreciation.
Indeed, such a conclusion would be more befitting the 1980s and 1990s when
Catholic laypeople were organizing such masses here and there on an ad hoc basis.
First at St. Agnes, I believe, and then elsewhere, “homes” were found for such
communities … and this indeed did give for their members here a happier
prospect than in many parts of the world. But in a post-Summorum Pontificum Church,
after Pope Benedict courageously proclaimed that the extraordinary form of the
liturgy pertains equally to the fulness of the Roman rite, this approach
cannot any more, I think, be characterised as true magnanimity.
As I said: during the dark days of prohibition, New York
seemed to be a happy place to be for you because of the indult-masses at places
like St. Agnes, but in the fresh juridical freedom Summorum Pontificum brings, New York has become, in my view, a less
felicitous place for traditional Catholics: because nothing is structured,
nothing acknowledged. Who takes responsibility for you pastorally?
Pastores
dabo vobis, the Lord promises Jeremiah: I will give you shepherds! Fundamentally – and this is something about which I urge
you to think well and pray much about – as a priest, I have to say: I worry
about the situation of traditional Catholics in the Archdiocese. Yes, the
archdiocese 'permits' a traditional mass here or there -- but responsibility
for the matter continues to rest upon the initiative and resourcefulness of the
laity, who with enormous difficulty have to source priests hither and thither
as though we were seemingly still living in Reformation England or Cromwellian
Ireland. Isn't it high time for the Church to take pastoral responsibility also
for these sheep? Do they not deserve a shepherd? a parish? or at least
some sense of juridical security? What happens to you when the parish you are
harbouring in closes its doors?
What will become of the priestly vocations aplenty I see
in these numerous young men of such quality as we have in abundance serving
here at Holy Innocents, St. Agnes and elsewhere – remaining as they do at the
mercy (and sometimes, caprice) of 'landlords' who, for one reason or another,
'permit' their presence in their parishes? Doors everywere seem closing to
them. Our Saviour has closed its doors to them. St. Agnes, for its part, guards
its doors vigilantly to make sure they don't enter the building 5 minutes too
early or don't overstay their welcome by 5 minutes more. Now, it seems, the
doors of Holy Innocents will be closed to them, too. Taken together, this is, in
my view, a clear instance of exclusion: an injustice which you should bring to
the attention of your shepherd, I think. You are fully-fledged members of the
baptised Faithful, for heaven's sake: why are you scurrying about like
ecclesiastical scavengers, hoping for a scrap or two to fall from the table for
your very existence? The precariousness of your community cannot hinge on a
church building being available to you as though you were a mere sodality or
guild. The days of renting space in hotels and the like must surely be over.
You are not schismatics! Are you schismatics?
Whatever happens to Holy Innocents – and this will be the
decision of your chief-shepherd here, who will base his decision on more
information than any of us has at his or her disposal – you need to assert that
you belong to the Church as fully as any other community. You have found a home
here, largely through your own hard work and perseverence: no good shepherd
could dispossess you of your home without providing safety and good pasture
elsewhere. Parishioners of a Novus ordo parish closure might easily find
another 'home' nearby; but what of you? You have a right to find the Mass (and
not only on Sundays); and not only the Mass, but the other sacraments and rites
of the Church. Closing this parish is more akin to closing a linguistic
parish or a Oriental rite parish. What becomes of you?
No longer, I say, should you think of yourselves as
squatters in the mighty edifice of Holy Church, nor should you find yourselves
turned out like squatters. Shepherds must needs make difficult decisions, such
as the erection or suppression of parishes – that is their onerous duty and in
this they must have our obedience, charity and prayer: but never should they
throw open the sheep-fold and allow the uncertain dispersion of their sheep
into a world full of wolves. Charity, of course, is a two-way street.
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