ONE PARISHIONER'S RESPONSE (to the Palmerston North 'Diocesan Pastoral Consultation and Planning Strategy 2018')

The Catholic Diocese of Palmerston  North New Zealand has come up with a 'Diocesan Pastoral Consultation and Planning Strategy 2018'.

The Diocese asks firstly for parishioners' response to the following question:

How can we grow and strengthen and make more dynamic our parish this year through sacraments and liturgy?

Here are a few ideas (more may be forthcoming!): 

With homilies that give instruction on the sacraments and liturgy, especially the Sacrifice of the Mass and Reconciliation. Parishioners aren’t likely to give up precious leisure time - except through habit – if they don’t know the inestimable benefits to them and their families and friends, of attending Mass with sins forgiven.

Reminders of our Sunday obligation. Parishioners should be encouraged by the knowledge, for example, that ”the faithful join in the offering of the Eucharist by virtue of their royal priesthood ... Taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of Christian life, they offer the divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with it. Thus both by the act of oblation and through Holy Communion, all perform their proper part in this liturgical service ... By offering the immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn to offer themselves”; and further, that “the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ does nothing other than transform us into that which we consume” (Vat II).

Homilies which restore to our people “the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom”. Children need to be taught this in schools and ‘children’s liturgy’, in the same way as they’re taught to take care in crossing the road for fear of injury from oncoming traffic. They need to learn to take care in obeying the Commandments, for fear of injury by sin. "Those who approach the sacrament of penance obtain pardon from the mercy of God for offenses committed against him. They are reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, example and prayer seeks their conversion" (Vat II). 

Homilies which consistently and faithfully preach the Gospel. Parishioners need to know not just that “the righteous” will go into “eternal life” but that “the goats” will go away into eternal punishment. They deserve to hear the whole text of that reading, not hear just the happy ending of the sheep. We need to reminded of what happens to the goats.

Family and parishioners attending funeral Masses should not be encouraged to assume that their dear departed is in Heaven. The saints tell us that very few people attain Heaven, and so does Scripture: If it is hard for the upright to be saved, what will happen to the wicked and to sinners? (Pet 4:18).

Parishioners need reminding that before receiving Holy Communion they must have fasted for an hour from all food and drink (including coffee!) except medication and water.

We need to be reminded that to receive Holy Communion in a state of serious sin is to profane the Blessed Sacrament. Unmarried couples can’t receive Holy Communion when living together as if married (i.e. living in adultery). Homosexual acts preclude reception of Holy Communion. People may receive Holy Communion only if they believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation.

Holy Communion must not be given to non-Catholics. Eucharistic sharing with people of other faiths can be done only in exceptional circumstances by express permission of the bishop.

The use of ‘Special Ministers of the Eucharist’ (properly called Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion) should be discontinued.  “To touch the Sacred Species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained” (Pope St John Paul II). “Laymen are officially incompetent to dispense any sacrament, and that they can baptise in cases of necessity is due to the Divine dispensation” (St Thomas Aquinas).

This means that as stated by the Magisterium the practice of Communion in the hand should be discouraged, in favour of receiving on the tongue. There's no need to offer Holy Communion under both kinds, entailing extra people rostered as ministers: "active participation" in the Mass doesn't mean getting up and doing things. It means using one's mind, heart and spirit, not one's hands and feet. 

Parishioners should be encouraged if they are able, to kneel for the Consecration. Children especially should be encouraged to kneel and this means, in many churches, restoring kneelers.

People need encouragement from our priests to attend weekday Mass, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and to pray the Rosary - urged on the Church by Our Lady at Fatima, but now largely forgotten - and priests to lead by example. Parishioners respond to example from their priest, not from fellow parishioners. We have only to think of what the Cure of Ars achieved in a hopeless parish, simply by spending hours in the empty church, adoring Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Priests must be allowed the time they need for personal prayer (Divine Office, meditation/contemplation), as well as celebrating Mass and the sacraments. All other tasks, apart from hobbies for relaxation, should be delegated to lay people.   

Boys should be preferred to girls as altar servers, in accord with direction from the Magisterium, as a means to encourage the priestly vocations which post-Vatican II practices have dried up. (Older boys  especially don't like wearing what looks like a dress, exactly the same as the girls. If it's only boys wearing these vestments, they find it acceptable.) 

Priests should fearlessly preach the teaching of the Church on contraception and abortion.

The Latin Mass should be promoted. Its mystery and reverence have enormous appeal, especially to the young.

The celebration of Mass with priest and congregation all facing the altar (i.e. facing the Lord, rather than one another) should be encouraged.

Tabernacles should be returned to their proper, central location, that is, in full view on first entering the church.

All the benefits sought in the following questions -

(2.     How can we strengthen our parish through greater participation of Maori and other ethnic groups? 

      3.     How can we grow participation in our parish this year with more children, young families and teenagers?

4.     How can we enliven our parish this year through social justice and service initiatives?) -

will flow from the practices outlined above.

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This is not a call to return to the ‘good old days’ but to Tradition, by which "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes"; further, we need to remember that "liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition." (CCC).

‘Lex orandi, lex credendi' (the Church believes as she prays’  - or conversely, we pray as we believe). No disinterested onlooker observing our current liturgical practice would think that Catholics truly believe in the Real Presence.

Jesus Christ was crucified for what he preached but paradoxically, that preaching led to the establishment of the greatest religion in world history. It's the fear of upsetting people and turning them away from the Mass which, paradoxically, is largely responsible for achieving exactly that result. 

The Church of Palmerston North needs to cease operations as the Church of Nice, and to return to courageous preaching and practice of the Gospel.

It's only by following the way of Christ crucified that we will restore the practice of our faith, our vanishing congregations and vocations to the priesthood.