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October 17, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
In
His Light
Three important matters for East Bay Catholics
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Generally I have just one topic or theme that I consider in my column,
but here in the middle of October I have three matters that I feel are
very timely for us to consider.
Prop. 73: The “Parents’ Right to Know” Initiative
First, I want to bring to your prayerful attention Prop. 73: The “Parents’
Right to Know” Initiative. It will appear on the Nov. 8 special
election ballot and will mandate that, except for medical emergency or
judicial bypass, no abortion could be performed on a minor unless the
physician notifies the minor’s parent or legal guardian at least
48 hours before the procedure.
Prop. 73 aims to amend the State Constitution in order to promote, as
it says, our “special and compelling interest in and parental responsibility
for protecting the health and well-being of children, ensuring that parents
are properly informed of potential health-related risks to their children
and promoting parent-child communication and parental responsibility.”
I, along with all the other bishops of California, strongly support this
initiative. We see that a “young woman’s welfare and society’s
common good are best served when family communication is promoted in public
policy.”
A minor faced with a serious emotional, psychological and medical decision
needs her parents – their love, their wisdom, their counsel. In
addition, society’s common good is enhanced when family integrity
is honored and parental responsibility is respected.”
Witness to the fundamental importance of the family and an unambiguous
commitment to protecting its integrity are great gifts which our Catholic
community in the East Bay, through all of its diverse cultures and traditions,
offers to our neighbors in the wider society.
Our faith reinforces the conviction that arises quite naturally and spontaneously
in hearts and minds attuned to the truth of things about family life:
that it is, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, a “ privileged
community” wherein children are meant to grow in wisdom, stature
and grace, the foundation for “freedom, security, and fraternity
within society” (nn. 2206-2207).
Like my brother bishops, I strongly encourage you “to offer [your]
full support in promoting Prop. 73 as good public policy and in exercising
[your] citizenship in voting for it in November.”
And, so that you can be well-informed on this initiative and share our
community’s wisdom with others, I commend to your attention the
excellent informational documents on Prop. 73 found on the California
Catholic Conference web site: www.cacatholic.org.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal
The second topic I want to touch on is the program of instruction going
on in our parishes in these weeks to prepare for the full implementation
of the new “General Instruction of the Roman Missal.”
You’ll recall that in publishing the third revised edition of the
Roman Missal on Holy Thursday of the Year 2000, our late Holy Father Pope
John Paul II made several changes in the ritual we follow in celebrating
the Holy Eucharist.
One of the most obvious ones is that the congregation is to stand while
saying the prayer “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands….”
The General Instruction also mandated that the bishops of each country
were to consider particular adaptations for their own dioceses.
It was in response to this that we bishops specified the posture for the
faithful during the Eucharistic Prayer and the Rite of Communion. (The
text of the “General Instruction, along with much helpful background
information is available on the web site of the U.S. Bishops Conference’s
Liturgy Committee: www.usccb.org/liturgy/girm.)
By the First Sunday of Advent here in the Oakland Diocese we will come
to the conclusion of the process that Pope John Paul II initiated in the
Great Jubilee Year.
Admittedly we have taken a significant amount of time for this, but that’s
because we are dealing with a mystery of incomparable importance: the
Most Holy Eucharist in which “is contained,” as the Second
Vatican Council says so eloquently, “the whole spiritual good of
the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch” (PO, 5).
We have had the time we need as pastors and people to understand afresh
the meaning of what we are doing.
In that way we will not simply be “complying with directives”
but using the words and actions of the Eucharistic Liturgy to enter fully
into the Mystery of Christ’s Passover Sacrifice.
I am deeply grateful to all my brother priests, the deacons and their
co-workers on parish staffs for their hard work in offering to those they
serve the catechesis which has been so essential in this process.
In connection with this effort for ongoing faith formation, I want to
mention to you a book I am now reading: “What Happens at Mass”
by Father Jeremy Driscoll, OSB (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications).
Just as its title indicates, the book aims to offer a guide to understand
what happens at Mass – the meaning of what we do and say, and the
meaning of what God does and says.
As Archbishop Pilarczyk of Cincinnati puts it in a blurb on the back cover:
“This book is simple and straightforward, but not simplified. It
is thoughtful and theologically profound.”
This book is excellent, and I predict that it will bear great fruit in
the life of the Church. I recommend it to everyone, especially to all
those who minister as catechists. You could not find a better way to spend
$10.95.
The First Sunday of Advent marks a significant milestone in our diocese’s
energetic effort to advance the renewal of the Sacred Liturgy called for
by the Second Vatican Council.
This comes very soon after the close of the Year of the Eucharist. In
the light of that fact we can rightly think of the First Sunday of Advent
as a sort of harvest of the graces we have sought in this Year of the
Eucharist, as we have asked our Heavenly Father to fill our hearts and
minds once more with the light of Christ’s Spirit about “what
happens at Mass.”
Convocation of priests
Finally I want to ask your prayers for my brother priests and me during
the days of our Convocation, Oct. 16-21. This time together away from
our pastoral duties is an important part of the on-going formation we
need in order to serve as your pastors.
What is happening is that we are living again the very experience that
Peter and John and Philip and the others of the Twelve had with Christ
when he said to them, “Come away by ourselves to a lonely place,
and rest a while” (Mk 6:31), so that he can teach us how to be priests
after his own heart.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully in us so that he can make
the Word take flesh again in our hearts.
Previous "In His Light" Columns by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron
