What do you have to say for yourself ?
Okay, I'm confused. Does anyone see the rationale for this?
Birmingham is even smaller than Charleston, and I doubt that EWTN makes the role of the diocesan bishop that much more important.
Of course, if this is merely clearing the decks for Fr. Jay Scott Newman's elevation to the episcopate, then I would somewhat understand.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're losing our Bishop. Why? I like our Bishop. He's one of the ones who refuses communion to pro-abortion public figures.
Hopefully the new one we get will be good too.
Actually, EWTN has remarkable reach and influence on American Catholics. I wonder if this new bishop will allow EWTN to broadcast their Mass with the priest celebrating ad orientem.
I disagree with Gabriel's comment.
EWTN is HUGE, thus Birmingham is VERY important. EWTN is the face of the Church that Rome wants America and the world to see. It has been key to the reform of the reform of the liturgy. People see Mass as celebrated on EWTN and ask why their parishes seem more like a floor show. Also, EWTN is instrumental to the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. The best way to learn the old mass is to see it. On the tv it can also be explained.
EWTN makes the diocese of Birmingham one of the most important in the nation.
Gabriel:
Yes, EWTN does make it that important. It is one of the important Catholic apostolates based in the US, and this is a sign - appointment of a bishop sympathetic to EWTN - that perhaps the Powers that Be are recognizing that EWTN is here to stay and needs to have more interaction with the official church.
Baker could have turned it down, you know, but he didn't.
The rationale is that quite a few bishops didn't want to touch EWTN with a 10' pole. To accept the bishopric means becoming the complaints department for EWTN. Regardless what anyone think of EWTN, they are large and have impact.
The rationale Gabriel is simple, the Bishop of Birmingham governs the liturgical and teaching functions of the EWTN network, as such, he becomes, ipso facto, the main media governor of the entire church.
Hopefully Bs. Baker will lift the ridiculous ban on Ad Orientam liturgies being televised in the diocese of Birmingham.
Maybe Bishop Baker will now permit the celebration of Mass ad orientem in the gorgeous Church which Mother Angelica constructed in a manner that would permit it. Remember how the current bishop said she couldn't have ad orientem celebrations because it was "political" and then the bishop got slapped down by Cardinal Arinze? I think Mother, although she had the Vatican ruling in her favor, decided it wasn't worth the fight at the time. Hopefully that will now change. Tom
Alabama's getting lots of converts, contains everything from hightech rich industry to people poorer than dirt poor, and is dealing with all kinds of weird economic and medical-care problems. This sort of volatile situation is not designed for somebody who doesn't know what he's doing. And yes, Alabama's got EWTN, which is indeed Big Stuff both here and around the world; so it's very good that they picked a bishop who's also a writer -- and whom the EWTN folks already know.
Picking a seasoned bishop with special qualifications and sending him where the need is, instead of picking some newbie guy for such a difficult and important post -- I think that's very shrewd of the Pope. It's a sad thing for Charleston, but honestly, any bishop would be happy to be assigned to that gracious city. It takes somebody special to appreciate (and not fear) the diocese of Birmingham.
Gabriel, the diocese of Birmingham has been with a bishop for 27 months. That is 2 years and some change. The reason for that is EWTN, you can't have some flake of a bishop go down there and decide to get "funky" with that. The Holy See had a reason for taking its time with the placement of this bishop in this diocese. EWTN is a giant megaphone of the faith, and you might see a extraordinary rite on TV.
I know on occasion, priests of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia have celebrated the Liturgy there--ad orientem, as the rubrics direct--and it's been broadcast.
When the nuns were there, the Melkite and Maronite priests would liturgize for them sometimes.
Good news for Birmingham, that they are getting a Bishop who is friendly to EWTN!
Maybe he will allow an Extraordinary Rite Mass at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament?
Having had occasion to attend Mass at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Charleston, I can share with you that the liturgy in all respects was wonderful and uplifting---reverent in music and rubric and sense. From that alone one knew that the diocese was being well served by its Bishop. But, Bishop Burke also presents well as an erudite and contemplative man. Birmingham was once a major steel producing town with many ethnics and Catholics considering that it is in the deep South. Like Charleston, it has had for some time an "indigenous" Catholic population, and like Charleston (but not quite as much) it is growing, rising out of the ashes of the long displaced steel industry. We pray for the diocese of Charleston and Birmingham and that EWTN will continue to flourish through Bishop Burke.
Speaking of Birmingham, has anyone heard about who the new bishop of the Archdiocese of Mobile, which includes Mobile and Montgomery will be? My grandmother (who is not Catholic) lives in Montgomery, and it is always so hard for me to find an orthodox priest there, which is all the more sad because Montgomery is such a conservative, religious city with Protestant churches on every corner. Yet you can't find an orthodox priest anywhere. They had a very liberal archbishop for several decades it seems, but he has finally put in his resignation because of age.
Let's pray to keep getting orthodox bishops to replace the older liberals who are retiring.
Right then. I consider myself corrected.
A very savvy move by a very holy pope.
Sorry, Fr Newman should remain a parish priest. It would be unfortunate if he became a Bishop.
"Regardless what anyone think of EWTN, they are large and have impact."
I’d just like to say that I think they are WONDERFUL!
Fr Newman doesn't like the old Mass either.
Huh??? Father Newman a Bishop and the Bishop of Charleston no less??? It won't happen. Although he can be a faithful priest, he is hostile to the extraordinary form and will best serve the Church as a parish priest.
Any way, I would lay odds they would bring in an outside priest instead of one from the diocese. Although, I wouldn't mind see Father Greg Wilson as a Bishop of any Diocese -- he's one that will go far one of these days.
Ok, I'll bite. What does "hostile to the extraordinary rite" mean with respect to Fr. Newman? Has he said something to the effect that Summorum Pontificum was ill-considered?
On his personal blog, "Random Thoughts" he clearly states his opinion which I would say is far from neutral towards the extraordinary form. Here he states:
And in my experience, the partisans of liturgical change come in three primary flavors:
1. Bolsheviks who want to expand and export the liturgical revolution of the late 1960’s and 70’s. Think angry nuns in pants suits, folk musicians, dancing girls, clown noses....you get the picture.
2. Traditionalists who would sell the farm to eradicate everything that has happened in the Church since 1962.....or is that the French Revolution?
3. And confused Reform of the Reform types (like me) who are sure that both options above lead to a dead end but beyond that don’t have much a clue where we should go or how we’ll get there.
Naturally, partisans from each of these groups have very little to do with partisans from the other two groups, and when they are forced to occupy the same space, things can get a little unpleasant. This is surely what Our Lord meant when he said, “By this will men know that you are my disciples: Your contempt for each other based on differences of opinion about how you should pray.”
Truly, it’s enough to make one wonder.
In any event, last Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI threw a spanner in the works with his long-awaited, much-rumored, and oft-debated Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum, which more or less (kinda, sorta) gives any priest of the Latin Rite the choice of which Mass to offer: the Mass codified by Pope Pius V after the Council of Trent or the Mass codified by Pope Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council. It remains to be seen what effect, if any, this document will have on the life of the Church as it is lived in parishes, religious houses, seminaries, etc., and we will know the answer to that only with time. But while we wait to see how things turn out, perhaps there are some instructive precedents.
In February 1962, Pope John XXIII promulgated an Apostolic Constitution called Veterum Sapientia, mandating very specific requirements for the teaching and preservation of Latin in the Church, but because of the radical changes taking place in the world at the time, this authoritative document was Dead On Arrival and had zero effect in the life of the Church. Today, if this document is read at all, it is usually read with mirth. Well might we all mourn the passing away of Latin from wide use in the Church, but pass away it has. During the sessions of the Second Vatican Council, all public debate and discussion took place in Latin, and today there aren’t enough bishops in the entire world with a mastery of Latin to warrant having even a small Latin conversation circle during international meetings of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. And that’s among the bishops. The number of priests who can actually pick up a Latin text at random and read it for comprehension is tiny, and the number of priests who worry about this lack of latinity is tinier still. One might argue that it should not be this way, but as Chesterton famously insisted: pigs is pigs.
Will Summorum Pontificum be DOA in the same way as Veterum Sapientia? I honestly don’t know, and to tell the truth, I don’t much care one way or the other. But given the simple facts of life in the Church, I do suspect that the great majority of bishops and priests around the world will be doing things at the altar next July more or less exactly the same way they’re doing them today. Stay tuned, and we’ll all find out together.
http://web.mac.com/
jayscottnewma...34C37A3EE8.html
Oh, and the post is entitled "Liturgy Wars". How can this be positive?
Forget ad orientem - it would be fantastic if EWTN had some extraordinary form Masses now!
Hope this guy works out.
- An alumna of Bishop Kenny HS, I can attest that the kids always considered Christ the King and St. Paul's the "hip, lifeteen" parishes.
Don't know, never been to either one.
gabriel:
He has a blog on which he has strenuously argued against the Motu Proprio. He was dead set against it, and apparently made it difficult for the newly-ordained parochial vicar who would have like to celebrate the extraordinary rite.
gabriel,
On another note, Father Newman REFUSED to have an indult Mass said at his parish when it was under consideration several years ago.
Father Newman is a bit perplexing on this issue, since so many of his liturgical impulses are so very traditional and he has gone a long way in restoring dignity and tradition to the liturgy. If anyone has any insights to explain his views on the Extraordinary Rite (other than he did not grow up with it perhaps) that would be useful. Tom
TJM,
You're on point regarding Father Newman; at best, he is a bit perplexing regarding the whole traditional scene. My impression is that he has been heavily influenced by the camp that believe acceptance of the extraordinary form is rejection of the Second Vatican Counsel especially since he states, "2. Traditionalists who would sell the farm to eradicate everything that has happened in the Church since 1962.....or is that the French Revolution?" Maybe, or maybe not, his southern Baptist roots have had an impact. Or maybe, he feels like the extraordinary form threatens the Church as he knew it when he converted.
In a small way he has a point that some people are only interested in the extraordinary form to escape the abuses found in the ordinary form. Abuses, mind you, that he speaks out against heavily. Unfortunately, this is a mindset often find in our parish priests although these same priests cannot explain exactly how we came to the current ordinary form. A form that was originally rejected by the Bishops while the reforms set in place by the Second Vatican Counsel could have happened while preserving what is now known the extraordinary form of the Mass.
Priests such as Father Newman refer to Veterum Sapientia and Summorum Pontificum as being DOA, but fail to address the trauma experienced by the laity when the now ordinary form was forced upon them or explain how a revival of the extraordinary form could damage the laity more than what happened in the past although it is not being forced on anyone (if you don't want to attend the extraordinary form you don't have to) other than Bishops and priests who should honor the request of the laity despist their contempt for the extraordinary form. In fact, these are the very same people who probably forced the ordinary form on the people initially.
I'm not surprised that Father Newman is a perplexing regarding this issue, because he can perplexing in general at times.
Very interesting. I think you're exaggerating your case a little, but certainly Fr. Newman does not appear to see the MP or the Extraordinary Form as the answer to the liturgical problems within the Church. Thanks for pointing me towards his writings on the question.
I don't know this Fr. Newman, but I do know, from having lived in the Diocese of Arlington for 5.5 years, that "conservative" priests and bishops can often be more hostile to the idea of an optional TLM than "progressives." "Progressives" at least hold to the idea of a "big tent," but conservatives tend to be "my way or the highway."
As for the main topic of this thread, Bishop Baker will be great for EWTN. Bishop Foley may have played friendly, but he in Richmond before Birmingham and was a protege of the notorious Bp. Walter Sullivan.
As for Charleston, Bishop Baker cleaned this diocese up quite a bit, and I hope that whomever we get will continue his work.
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