{"id":268,"date":"2007-11-12T12:13:53","date_gmt":"2007-11-12T12:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/11\/bishops-pope-etc.html"},"modified":"2007-11-12T12:13:53","modified_gmt":"2007-11-12T12:13:53","slug":"bishops-pope-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/11\/bishops-pope-etc.html","title":{"rendered":"Bishops, pope, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m trying not to watch the USCCB\u00a0 <\/a>– is it sad that it’s a temptation? Perhaps. But it’s interesting to see the personalities in action, to read between lines, etc.
\nI was interested this morning to hear bits and pieces of Archbishop Wuerl speak on a proposed high school curriculum outline. I didn’t know something like this was in the works, and I’m glad to hear it. As he described it, the core of the curriculum would be Christ. As in: This is who Jesus is. (Christology\/Scripture) This is how He lives today. (Church) \u00a0This is how we are saved by Him. (Faith) \u00a0And this is how a disciple of Jesus lives. (Morality\/spirituality)
\nYoung people don’t need to be shown prettier and more awesome pictures of the Church as an institution, pictures that are somehow supposed to convince them that it’s the cool place to be and that “Catholic identity” is neat, too. They need to be awakened to the nature of their humanity and what they were made for, introduced to Jesus Christ as the answer\u00a0and his Church as\u00a0His Body, where they truly meet him, grow in relationship with him, learn how to serve Him in gratitude and are nourished by Him. \u00a0
\nThis morning is basically preliminary\u00a0 – talking about the action items\/documents that are going to be voted on, simply introducing them. Amendments are accepted to the drafts during the day, and then the resultant documents will be voted on in the course of the rest of the meeting.
\nAnd…Benedict’s coming to town – to DC and NYC. From John Allen:<\/a>
\nAPRIL 15
\nBenedict XVI arrives in the afternoon.
\nAPRIL 16
\nMorning: Official welcome at the White House
\nAfternoon: Address to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
\nAPRIL 17
\nMorning: Mass at the new sports stadium in Washington, D.C.
\nAfternoon: Meeting at the Catholic University of America with educational leaders
\nAPRIL 18
\nMorning: Address to the United Nations
\nAfternoon: Ecumenical meeting
\nAPRIL 19
\nMorning: Concelebration with priests of New York and from across the country in St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral
\nAfternoon: Session at the Seminary of the New York archdiocese organized by the seminarians
\nAPRIL 20
\nMorning: visit to Ground Zero
\nAfternoon: Returns to Rome<\/em>
\n(April 16 will be his 81st birthday.)
\nAnd…on the music document, “Sing to the Lord” – it will no longer be a document with force of law, but an advisory document. Interesting. And I think <\/em>it has been withdrawn from further consideration at this meeting because of the number of proposed amendments (over 100). Correct me if I’m wrong on that last point.
\nFr. Z parses it:<\/a><\/p>\n

The document was originally to be an official document of the conference and thus would have some force of law.\u00a0 As such it would have required a 2\/3 majority vote and then the recognitio <\/em>of the Holy See.
\nHowever, Bp. Trautman offered the docume to the bishops as “Guidelines” rather than as an official document.\u00a0 This meant that a simple majority of bishops could have passed it and it would not have requried the recognitio<\/em> of the Holy See.
\nWhile I was rather pleased that the USCCB <\/span>(BTW\u2026 every go review Apostolos suos<\/a><\/em>) was not going to get into something as important as sacred music<\/em>.\u00a0 I still shudder with the horrors my imagination conjured.\u00a0 So, the fact that this is not to be an official document is a good thing.
\nHowever, consider that the document, if it is eventually passed in the form of Guidelines<\/u>, would not need the approval of the Holy See<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0
\nWe all know that in the past even guidelines were taken as if they had the force of law.\u00a0 Think of the disasters that resulted from the NCCB<\/span>\u2019s ghastly Environement and Art in Catholic Worship<\/em> and various other now obsolete unofficial documents.
\nHad the document on sacred music remained classified as a proposed official <\/em>document of the conference, Rome could have gotten involved with the content.
\nNow that it is proposed as mere guidelines, the bishops would not have to send it to Rome.
\nFood for thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Allen is dispatching. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m trying not to watch the USCCB\u00a0 – is it sad that it’s a temptation? Perhaps. But it’s interesting to see the personalities in action, to read between lines, etc. I was interested this morning to hear bits and pieces of Archbishop Wuerl speak on a proposed high school curriculum outline. I didn’t know something…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBishops, pope, etc. - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/11\/bishops-pope-etc.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bishops, pope, etc. - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m trying not to watch the USCCB\u00a0 – is it sad that it’s a temptation? Perhaps. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}