The Working Catholic: How to Vote by Bill Droel

Whom should U.S. Catholics vote for in the presidential election? The question, in so many words, was posed to Pope Francis during his recent return flight from Asia. Choose, he replied.  Both major candidates are flawed. Vice-president Kamala Harris does not fully respect life with her position on abortion. Former president Donald Trump does not respect life with his position on immigrants. “Decide according to [your] conscience,” the pope concluded.

Electoral politics is about incremental improvement, not about perfection. There is no perfect candidate for a Catholic voter, or in fact for any voter. Pope Francis is preaching humility, writes David French in The New York Times (9/22/24). His words are “an invitation to introspection, a call to examine your conscience.” French contrasts thoughtful humility with “absolute certainty.” He offers MAGA Christians as an example of having minds “largely free of doubt.” They are sure that “you cannot be a Christian and vote Democratic,” writes French.

Interestingly, only a small percentage of voters describe Donald Trump as religious. His supporters, a recent survey suggests, don’t care if he is religious or not. Even though those supporters might identify as Christian, they have other motivations for supporting Trump.

A Catholic voter or a Catholic office holder should strive for consistent application of principle, explains Steven Millies in A Consistent Ethic of Life (Paulist Press, 2024).However, he continues, consistent does not mean equal. Some issues are more pressing, others have wider consequences. The virtue of consistency requires experience, prudence and some sophistication. There is little value in adding-up checkmarks on a so-called guide for Catholic issues. The moral method is prior to the issues. (More from Millies in a subsequent blog.)

A faithful Catholic who practices thoughtful humility is not a relativist. He or she has strong principles but is savvy enough to consider contingencies. Simply signaling one’s virtue is arrogant. A sincere Catholic realizes that what is good for an individual or a group this month may not serve the common good in six months. The common good, by the way, is different from the greatest good for the greatest number. The common good looks further along the calendar. It considers the good things citizens can achieve only acting in common: neighborhood and school safety, clean water, a thriving economy and the like.

Who to vote for? Strategy is an additional consideration.

Some Catholic leaders of late advise voting for the individual, not for the party. This advice is directed to Catholics who favor multiple issues associated with a party, but who know that one or more of its candidates are mistaken on an important issue. Split your vote, this advice says.

This strategy is a big departure from what U.S. Catholics have long been taught: Vote the ticket. Unless a party controls a legislative body (city council or House of Representatives), there will be gridlock. No meaningful improvement will occur. Second according to the traditional Catholic strategy, benefits to a neighborhood or a family come by way of a united party, not by a solitary office holder. Third, it is the party that can best corral any office holder that goes rouge.

Humility, consistency and a view to the future are among the imperatives Catholics exercise in the voting booth.

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a print newsletter on faith and

The Working Catholic by Bill Droel

  

A victim syndrome underlies the divisiveness in our society, explains Frank Bruni in The Age of Grievance (Simon & Schuster, 2024).

Each of us experiences frustrations. We complain that the line in the grocery is too long and it was a mistake to shop or the neighbor’s dogs bark all day and a move to a No Pets apartment would be wise.

Grievance goes beyond such feelings of bad luck. We can normally get past daily frustrations with a swear word or two and a little wine at night. Grievance, however, is the belief that I have “been wronged,” writes Bruni.  It has damaging psychological and social repercussions. Grievance is excess agitation and excess sensitivity. It leads to “wildly disproportionate outbursts” and perhaps conspiracy theories. They are out to get me, an aggrieved person suspects. Grievance is “an all-encompassing lens” through which past hurts regularly reappear, Bruni continues. It is unfortunately a conflation of “the picayune and the profound.”

Grievance is also different from bad luck in that it reduces frustration to fault in others. An aggrieved person sees that someone is above or ahead of them. The advantage, our aggrieved person quickly concludes, was unfairly gained at his or her expense. An example is someone who says, my tax dollars go toward assisting those lazy, illegal migrants.

Although he is our Whiner in Chief, Donald Trump did not start the grievance trend. Bruni mentions Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) of France, who toured the U.S. and then famously wrote his generally positive impressions. However, de Tocqueville pointed out that people on our shores are forever “brooding over advantages they do not possess.” The grievance trend has steadily increased since the late 1960s as our culture and our economy have tilted away from organic communities and heavily toward individualism.

We no longer live in a Garden of Eden. There is bad luck, sin and dysfunctional institutions all around. However, children can learn to navigate life and thus develop a healthy disposition as adults. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) named stages of development. The crucial first one is trust vs. mistrust. That is, a child must come to believe that the world is generally a reliable place; that its scrapes and bumps and slights can soon enough be hopped over. Trust and thus happiness are achieved with dependable parents and a circle of good playmates.

Of course, Donald Trump doesn’t help matters with his harangues about scams and rigged processes and fake news and polluted institutions and losers. But Bruni goes beyond Trump’s pessimism to provide many examples of aggrieved behaviors. Bruni calls out those young adults who have a hyper-craving for safety. They want a buffer against what they consider offensive language, against teachers who present a full range of literature or history, against guest speakers with opposing views and more. A key word for these young adults is hurtful.   

In addition to Trump, other forces are fueling grievance. For example, elements in the self-help movement have morphed into a presumption that “all feelings are presumed meaningful and warrant a group’s attention.” This hypersensitivity assumes a right to be “protected from disappointment,” leading perhaps to temperamental antics by an individual or groups.

The massive wealth gap is another accelerant. It undermines our country’s promise of upward mobility. The gap hits home through an array of cultural signals like elite seating at stadiums, concierge health care arrangements, displays of luxury porn in magazines and on TV, executive-only washrooms and the like.

Bruni also mentions the prevalence of dystopian movies and internet sites in which destruction and end times are depicted. These films support pessimism and justify grievance.

Don’t misunderstand. There is injustice in the world. The healthy response to which is the virtue of social justice. It is unhealthy to respond by fantasizing villains lurking all around, by hallow displays of annoyance or by posturing oneself as a victim. Social justice is organizing like-minded people for improved policies or institutions. It requires competence, an end game and a good enough for now plan B.

Get What Is Social Justice? from National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $5)

"A Female President of the United States: A Hope?" by Leonardo Boff

 This weekend I received the following article from my friend in Brazil, theologian Leonardo Boff. I have cut it some to fit our format. Matthew Fox in his Daily Meditation from August 19, 2024

The real possibility that a woman, Kamala Harris, will become president of the imperial power, the United States of America, would represent a novum in the history of that country, and perhaps a step forward in the new relationship between genders. 

The USA, independent since 1776, has had 44 presidents, all men and none women.  Many see the president exclusively in military terms, more as the head of the Armed Forces--the one who holds the red telephone and the button to launch a nuclear war--than as the promoter of the common good. 

That's why they keep fighting wars everywhere.  Virtually all presidents, including Obama, are imbued with "manifest destiny," the belief that the United States is anointed as "that new people of God with a mission to bring (bourgeois) democracy, (individual) human rights, and peace (of the market) for the world".

Under the patriarchy that has lasted for ten thousand years, since the Neolithic era, with the formation of villages and agriculture, women have always been relegated to the private world.  Even knowing that a historical era existed, twenty thousand years ago, of matriarchy forming egalitarian societies that integrated with nature and was deeply spiritual.

Patriarchy, the predominance of the male (machismo) was one of the greatest mistakes in human history.  The type of State we have is attributed to patriarchy, including war and violence as a way of solving problems, the private appropriation of land, and the generation of inequalities and all types of discrimination.  

In capitalism, in its various forms, it gained its most expressive configuration, with the rate of social inequity it brings with it.  

Throughout this process, the main victims were women, along with those deprived of strength and power.  Since then, the destiny of women, in historical-social terms, has been defined based on the man who occupied every public space. 

But slowly, starting in the United States, in the 19th century, women became aware of their autonomous identity.  The feminist movement grew, became active in practically all countries and occupied public spaces.  Entering universities and then into the job market, women brought their unique (non-exclusive) values as women:  more given to collaboration as opposed to competition from men, more care, more flexibility, more ability to deal with complexity, more human sensitivity and heart, finally, more open to dialogue against sexist and patriarchal authoritarianism.  

In a word, they brought more humanity to a rational, rigid, competitive, efficient world, marked by the will to power as domination:  the world of men.  They, by their nature, represent rather the will to live and to relate.  

Even so, the fight for gender equality is far from being fully won.  It was only in 1920 that women gained the right to vote in the United States.  In Brazil only in 1932.  Today 52% of the electorate is female.  

Empowering women's identity and relational autonomy will generate a new paradigm:  that of reciprocity, of cooperation between men and women....

Politically, the best way to express this civilizational advance would be participatory, socio-ecological democracy, in which man and woman cooperatively and in solidarity would build a dream world that responds to the deepest desires of the human psyche.  

The Working Catholic: Two Labor Days by Bill Droel

  

The original Labor Day parade was held in 1882, in New York City. It was sponsored by the Knights of Labor. Its organizers were two Catholics. Though not related, they share the same last name. Matthew McGuire (1855-1917) was a machinist from New Jersey; Peter McGuire (1852-1906), working in Chicago at the time, was a carpenter. In 1894 Labor Day became a national holiday and was set on the first Monday of September.

St. Joseph, also a carpenter, is associated with Labor Day in round-about fashion. The saga begins here in Chicago where on May 1, 1886 a federation of labor unions began a campaign for an eight-hour workday. A subsequent rally in our now trendy Haymarket area turned violent when someone threw a stick of dynamite. Police then fired wildly into the crowd. Four workers and seven police died. Seven workers were rounded-up and sentenced, four of whom were hanged in November 1886.

In July 1889 communist leaders in several European countries designated May 1^st as Labor Day to honor the Chicago Haymarket workers. (Illinois Labor History Society; www.illinoislaborhistory.org)

 In 1956, to offset the communist influence on Europe’s Labor Day Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) established May 1^st as the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Some U.S. bishops immediately asked to observe the new St. Joseph feast on the first Monday of September in our country only. Permission was granted. Nonetheless instead of the September date, the May 1^st date for St. Joseph took hold in the U.S.

 Ed Marciniak (1917-2004), a Chicago labor activist, saw in the two dates a significant difference in worldviews. People in the U.S. “have never developed a strong class consciousness,” as did those in communist-influenced Europe, he wrote. Working families in Europe drifted away from Catholicism because Church officials there and in Latin America got too much “in league with the wealthy against the poor.” By contrast, U.S. Catholicism “has never had…a hostile working class.” (Since 1968 many Catholics in our country have left the church behind. They walked away out of indifference or lately in disgust, but not out of economic or political hostility.) 

An economic system predicated on “class struggle…will be inadequate and distorted,” Marciniak concludes. So maybe having two dates in our country (May 1^st and first Monday in September) contains a hidden blessing. 

(Learn more about Marciniak in Ed Marcinaik’s City and Church, National Center for the Laity, PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $20). 

 

 

The Working Catholic: Mystery by Bill Droel

 

It is commonly ranked as the top professional football play of all time. Only 22-seconds remained in the December 1972 AFC Division final. The Steelers were losing. That’s when Terry Bradshaw pitched the immaculate reception to Franco Harris (1950-2022) for the thrilling victory. The play is legendary; it can be viewed on several websites.

The Eucharist is not a legend. It is not a reenactment. It is not available on instant replay. It is a total reality that contains the Pascal Mystery of Jesus Christ. However, to enter into the Eucharist and absorb the real presence of Jesus/God it is necessary to experience the world as enchanting. And that is a problem. All of us these days are prone to misplaced enchantment. We take many things for granted, assuming that what we don’t know can easily be learned through a Google search. We shift our curiosity to superficialities—to rumors about celebrities, to gossip about schoolmates, to endless detail about daily comings-and-goings. We go to a football game, yet spend our time there attending to our mobile device.

We modern people have replaced awe and reverence with a blasé take on reality. Yes, a rare eclipse stimulates our imaginations. For the most part, however, we neglect the daily discipline of contemplation that would allow us to apprehend the surprising movements of grace lurking within or beneath normal routines. Nearly everything nowadays is taken at face value; and even then not taken too seriously. Ours is an age of irony.

There are moments when we do encounter something that defies the trivial. There are some levels of experience that are not readily explained on the internet. What is the meaning of death? What accounts for singular and incomprehensible recoveries? The internet does not know. Our first reaction is to diminish such things. There are clichés we can use to move on.

Another reaction to uncertainty is a MAGA-style conspiracy theory. It is intolerable that scientists can’t immediately know the cause of and simple cure for Covid-19. So it must be a hoax and the remarkable vaccine is really perpetuating a sinister plot. Our disposition toward the gracious and mysterious is scant.

The Eucharist is a complete story. It is more than a story, of course, but its enchanted drama is prior. Without that prior enchantment, an effort to philosophically explain the Eucharist can unintentionally have an opposite effect. Nor is openness to enchantment aided by too much technical stress on prior requirements for Eucharistic worthiness. No one is worthy. The Eucharist is a gift.

The Eucharist is a dynamic event that cannot be dissected. It has to be captivating. Marriage is a mystery. It must be entered into without total certainty and yet without paralyzing doubt. Marriage reveals what it contains over months and years; in its highs and lows. In the same way, the Eucharist is a mystery. The word mystery is not a cop-out, used by those who lack sensible explanations. The word mystery means that which can only be known in relationship.

Droel edits a print newsletter, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).

The Working Catholic: NO CONSECRATION by Bill Droel

The bells are back.

Years ago and for years before that, the attention of worshipers at Mass drifted for understandable reasons: their ignorance of Latin and their partially obstructed view of the drama. Congregants often used their time at Mass for private prayer. Thus at key moments in the Mass, particularly at the consecration, altar servers would ring an assemblage of bells. The bells went quietly into a closet nearly 60 years ago. In recent months, however, several churches have dusted off the old Mass bells. Their purpose is similar to what it was in the old days. Only today the distraction is individual use of mobile devices during what should be communal worship.

The Assyrian Church of the East has a Mass/Divine Liturgy ritual (Anaphora of Addai and Mari) without a consecration, also called “words of institution.” This ancient ritual, now used mostly in India, is in full communion with Roman Catholicism. How can this be? How can Jesus Christ be really present in what appears as bread and wine unless the formula of Jesus’ Last Supper is prayed over the bread and wine?

The current Mass ritual for Roman Catholics (the 1969/1970 Novus Ordo) is meant to pull all worshipers into “full and active participation” in this premier prayer. It is a single prayer, from the entrance procession to the dismissal procession. Christ is really present in a magnificent way throughout—beginning to end. Christ is present in the presider (the alter Christus). Christ is really present in the proclamation of God’s revealed Word, through the voice of the lectors. Christ is really present in the communion bread and the communion wine. Christ is really present in the congregation as they pray the Mass and as they head for the exit sign, acting as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Isn’t it possible that the truth of Christ really present in the entire Mass is conveyed as well in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari Rite (without an explicit consecration) as in the Latin Rite (with or without bells)? Still, is the Anaphora of Addai and Mari valid?

Most Catholics in the United States celebrate Mass in what is called the Latin Rite and most presume theirs (be it celebrated in Spanish, English or Polish) is the only Mass ritual. Yet in addition to the Latin Rite, Roman Catholicism has several other equally valid rites. For example, in October 2009 Pope Benedict XVI approved the Anglican Rite. Its Mass, celebrated here-and-there in Great Britain, the United States and India, varies only slightly from the Latin Rite. The ancient Byzantine Rite is widely used in the East, but also at a small number of designated parishes in the U.S. It has many differences from the Latin Rite. There is likewise the Maronite Rite used in Lebanon. There’s the Ge’ez Rite used in Ethiopia and also in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. All of these rites are equally valid within Roman Catholicism. So too are several more that are traced to the early days of Christianity.

Keep in mind too that the Mass or Divine Liturgy in all of the Eastern Orthodox churches is valid and licit; that Christ is truly and really present in their worship. 

The Assyrian Church of the East (the Addai and Mari Rite), which belongs to the East Syriac Rite, is not Eastern Orthodox; it is a separate branch of Christianity. Its Mass, as mentioned, is quite different from a Latin Rite Mass. However, it is valid and licit; Christ is truly and really present in their worship. Since 2001 there has even been an official agreement allowing “mutual admission” of one another’s worshipers between Assyrian Church of the East and Roman Catholicism.

To make matters more complicated and more interesting, Roman Catholicism judges the Mass of several break-away denominations to be valid, though not licit. That is, Christ is really present in their Liturgy/Mass, even though their rites may differ from the common Latin Rite. By illicit, Roman Catholicism means disapproval of their independent governance status. The Polish National Catholic Church, headquartered in Scranton, is one example.

Suffice it to say that God is bigger than any one parish, bigger than any one formula for the Mass/Liturgy and certainly bigger than any two-minute segment of a liturgy.

Droel edits a print newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago,

The Working Catholic: Eucharist by Bill Droel

 

Our U.S. Catholic bishops host a Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis from July 17-21, 2024. It is the culmination of a three-year process meant to teach the real presence of Jesus/God in the Eucharist.  The bishops are reacting to surveys that seemingly show that Catholics do not know or do not believe the dogma of the Eucharist. (There is ambiguity. For example, to answer a survey question by saying “the Eucharist is a symbol” does not preclude the belief that it is God’s real presence. It can be both. Additionally, our bishops have multiple motives. For example, one faction is using the Eucharistic Congress to highlight a contradiction between President Joseph Biden’s devotion to the Eucharist and his support for abortion access.)

Pope Pius X (1835-1914) was a conservative. He opposed several modern trends. However, he is credited with opening the door to modern liturgical reforms, centering them in the dogma of the Eucharist. In the first two decades of the 20 th century, monasteries in Germany, France and Belgium experimented with reforms that were soon enough authorized at Vatican II (1962-1965). These changes are meant to bring worshipers into closer relationship with the Eucharistic, through the Mass. They include prayers at Mass said aloud by the entire congregation—the Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Lamb of God and several responses. The Mass itself is prayed in the vernacular, rather than in Latin—in Spanish, English, Polish and more. Taking a cue from Pius X, regular reception of the Eucharist in both the consecrated wine and bread is the norm, no longer something rare or selective. Qualms about one’s worthiness are taken care of in the opening penitential rite of the Mass.

It is interesting to note that from the early 1900s until Vatican II, the liturgical movement was connected with the virtue of social justice. For example, Fr. Lambert Beauduin, OSB (1873-1960), a major figure in the liturgical movement, was a labor chaplain with a strong social conscience and compassion for the poor. Fr. Virgil Michel, OSB (1890-1938) of Minnesota did more than anyone else in the U.S. to promote the liturgical movement and the dogma of the Eucharist. “The liturgy is the ordinary school for [and] the indispensable basis of social reconstruction,” Michel said. The Eucharist inside a church is a failure if it doesn’t live in jobsites and neighborhoods during the week, he preached.

The concept linking Eucharist and social regeneration is called the Mystical Body of Christ. The Mystical Body is Christ acting all week long through people who are allergic to injustice. The phrase was well-known in the years prior to Vatican II. Then it quietly disappeared. 

Could the loss of the Mystical Body concept be listed among the causes of weak appreciation for the Eucharistic dogma? Might a renewed emphasis on social renewal be an effective way to reverence Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist? To be continued…

Droel edits a newsletter on faith and work for National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL

60629)