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Letters
Our readers

Certain Uniformity

Among the items in Signs of the Times on Aug. 4 is a notice that the Vatican says flexibility allowed on posture after Communion, even though the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 43, states that all are to remain standing until the end of Mass. The reason given for this statement by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is worth noting and should be observed as a principle regarding other postures at Mass, such as standing for the eucharistic prayer: The mind of the prescription of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 43, is intended, on the one hand, to ensure within broad limits a certain uniformity of posture with the congregation for the various parts of the celebration of Holy Mass, and on the other, to not regulate posture rigidly....

That explanation is in accord with the much-ignored principle of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 37, which insists that even in the sacred liturgy the Church does not wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve the faith or the good of the whole community.

Charles E. Miller, C.M.

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John F. Kavanaugh
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The Vatican Concordat With Hitler's Reich: The Concordat of 1933 was ambiguous in its day and remains so.
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Film
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The future referred to in these readings is not simply the one we want for ourselves. It is God’s future, the one that God wants for us.
Editorials
Catholic Relief Services
The Editors
Faced with the suffering caused by World War 60 years ago the Catholic bishops of the United States founded the War Relief Services. That organization evolved into Catholic Relief Services, which can now look back on a proud heritage of supporting disaster relief efforts throughout the world during
Personal, Private Views: A newly discovered report from 1938 reveals Cardinal Pacelli's anti-Nazi stance.
Charles R. Gallagher
Recently The New York Times writer Peter Steinfels offered a considered examination of the dynamic tension between Pope John Paul II’s moral leadership during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the exercise of papal diplomacy. Morally and religiously, the pope could make sweeping public claims for pe
Teaching English as a Second Language
Yvonne Pesquera
When the bell rings on Monday evenings, the adult students in my class gather their book bags and rush out—eager to end their long day and go home. I shout after them, “Have a good night” and “Get home safely.” They wave back and tell me the same—in English. &nbsp
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Core Reality

Patricia McCann, R.S.M., has provided an excellent, sweeping overview of what has happened to religious life among women religious in the United States since the Second Vatican Council (Catholic Identity, New Age and Women Religious, 7/21). Her knowledge of history is undoubtedly what made possible her judicious synopsis of the decline of religious life, arguably one of the most confusing phenomena in the postmodern world and one that has plagued the church to the present day. Indeed, what will happen to religious life, that rich gift to the 19th- and 20th-century American Catholic Church?

Of particular interest to me is Sister McCann’s willingness to admit the degree to which New Age action and perspectives have invaded the life and thinking of so many active religious congregations today. This is an honest and correct observation, yet it is ignored as a major reason for the obvious problems within congregations and the consequent decline in religious vocations. If not accepted by religious sisters as occasioning points of confusion, it has certainly not been understood by our lay sisters and brothers.

Here is where I wish that Sister McCann had been more emphatic. She says, for example, that we were not yet ready to focus on an evaluative analysis of these changes and suggests, Now it is time for a dialogue between Catholic faith tradition and New Age thought. To my mind, it is time for dialogue to give way to action. It is time for women religious to recognize that a certain New Age secularity has taken priority, one that must be re-evaluated in terms of its consequences for the future of religious life.

In this time of diminishment and mounting secular ridicule, it is time to face the larger questions Sister McCann also poses. The first question she suggests could alone set us all on the path we need to considernamely, Is faith in God made manifest in Jesus and articulated through the Catholic Church and its theological tradition still our core reality? My hope is that the challenge Sister McCann presents in her insightful article will not be left unexamined by today’s women religious.

Dolores Liptak, R.S.M.

Books
Visionary Women
Mary E. Giles
In this admirably researched study of women rsquo s spirituality in 16th- and 17th-century Spain Stephen Haliczer Distinguished Research Professor of History at Northern Illinois University provides a panoramic yet detailed account of women who constructed their religious identity and authority i
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope Deplores Bombings in Iraq, Jerusalem, Urges End to ViolencePope John Paul II deplored deadly bombings in Iraq and Jerusalem and urged steps to end the new spiral of violence in the Middle East. The pope spoke at a general audience on Aug. 20, a day after a U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, wa
Nourishing the Spirit
Evelyn Eaton Whitehead
The city of Shenzhen, an hour’s train ride from Hong Kong, was until recently a sleepy fishing village. In 1979 Deng Xiaoping designated this hamlet and a vast tract of surrounding territory as a special economic zone. With generous tax incentives in place for foreign investment, the city has
Faith in Focus
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Adele Azar-Rucquoi
When my father passed through the gates of Ellis Island as a boy, the life that awaited him would be new and exciting yet fated with a grinding scarcity. For decades, all Dad had to show for it was hard work, more hard work and very little money. Still, before he knew it, this once faceless immigran
Books
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Tom Beaudoin
Many Catholics today seem content to attend Mass on Sunday send our children to Catholic schools and worship the gods of materialism and secularism for the other 167 hours of the week Matthew Kelly a motivational speaker and unabashed Catholic evangelist is a post-Vatican II Catholic who writes
Of Many Things
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George M. Anderson
A gleaming new, state-of-the-art building in a poor section of the South Bronx? One, moreover, that houses free services for local residents? A rarity indeed, and yet there it was: the Mercy Center (www.mercycenterbronx.org), facing me as I turned onto 145th Street for a late afternoon visit. Two Si
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Raised an Episcopalian, I initially knew of the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus, but not as an object of devotion. Only on becoming Catholic as an adult did I turn to prayers like the Memorare, the rosary and the litanies that focus on the titles applied to Mary through the centuries and into our
Columns
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Terry Golway
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Maria Celi Scalon
The Vatican and the Latin American bishops have expressed great concern for but little sophisticated understanding of the success of Protestant denominations in Latin America. Who is being converted, and why, are questions that need to be answered by research, not by clerics who do not listen to the