March 9, 2009   •   VOL. 47, NO. 5   •   Oakland, CA

By Father Dan Danielson

We are now in the midst of Lent, that time of year which the Eastern Church calls the “Great Fast.” As children we were probably encouraged to give up something for Lent. It may have been movies or candy or gum or popcorn.

As adults some of us still give up things (sometimes combined with the mixed motive of dieting) such as chocolate or desserts or, more seriously, alcohol or television. And we all need to fast from anger, resentment, unforgiveness, hardness of heart.

Father Dan Danielson

Such disciplines are good for the soul. They help us be more in control of our lives, which can so easily get swept along in the latest fads and cravings. They help us be more free and less controlled by things.

Besides fasting, the other traditional Lenten practices are prayer and almsgiving. These too require discipline, setting aside time in our busy lives to focus on the Lord and our relationship with Him, taking some of our often scarce resources and freely giving them away to those in need. This is often hard to do, especially in a tightening economy.

All this self-discipline, however, as important as it is, is not for its own sake. It is rather to make us more free to embrace the Lord at Easter when we celebrate the true freedom of spirit won for us by Christ. You will remember that it is at Easter that we celebrate and renew the promises of our Baptism — hopefully not just in words.

And yet, even all that is not for its own sake. We are commissioned to continue the saving work of Jesus in our world, to reach out in mercy and forgiveness to those on the margins of our lives, to work to transform the structures of our society and our world so that the are truly in service to all God’s people and not just a chosen few. We are strengthened and renewed for mission, for turning outward.

We turn inward during the Great Fast that we may be more readily available, more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit calling us to witness and service and sending us forth.

So during this Lent I encourage us all to do something of each of the three traditional practices — fasting, prayer, almsgiving. I’ve learned that I need to make these commitments specific and doable or I probably won’t get around to making them at all.

But I want to ask the Lord in prayer to make me his servant in all the aspects of my life, imperfect and sinful though I be. If the Great Fast this year is entered into as an invitation, an opportunity, for all of us to be more open and available for that, it will be a great season of personal renewal.

For over 50 years now, Lent has been my personal favorite season of the Church year. I welcome it again this year with joy.

(Father Dan Danielson is administrator of the Oakland Diocese. He is former pastor of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton.)

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By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A pair of recent miscues at the Vatican has prompted questions about how papal decisions are made and criticism of the apparent lack of consultation inside the Roman Curia.

In late January, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four ultratraditionalist bishops, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who has said the Holocaust was exaggerated and that no Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers.

Then the pope chose as an auxiliary bishop of Linz, Austria, Father Gerhard Wagner, who once linked the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to the “spiritual pollution” of New Orleans. Two weeks later, after an embarrassing no-confidence vote by senior clergy in the Linz Diocese, Bishop-designate Wagner asked the pope to withdraw his nomination.

An overwhelmingly negative reaction greeted both of these papal decisions, and many wondered why the Vatican failed to see it coming. The concern voiced by some of the Church’s own officials was that the episodes illustrated a dysfunctional system of internal communications at the Vatican.

“We hope inadequate channels of communication in the Vatican can be improved so the pope’s service to humanity is not impaired,” Austrian bishops said after meeting to discuss the situation of Bishop-designate Wagner Feb. 16.

In the case of Bishop Williamson, Vatican officials themselves were among the critics. Cardinal Walter Kasper, who coordinates Vatican dialogue with the Jews, told Vatican Radio that the controversy was the result of “management errors in the Curia” and might have been avoided by wider consultation. His office had not been consulted, he said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, made clear that Pope Benedict had not known in advance about Bishop Williamson’s views on the Holocaust.

“If someone should have known, it was Cardinal (Dario) Castrillon Hoyos,” Father Lombardi said. The implication was that Cardinal Castrillon, head of the commission in charge of reconciliation with the traditionalists, should have also made sure the pope was informed.

Traditionally, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State has acted as the coordinating agency for some of the important decisions that involve more than one Roman Curia agency or have global implications. The plain fact, however, is that the Vatican has no central communications clearinghouse, and no “chain of command” responsible for raising red flags on potentially explosive moves.

The Vatican’s communications agencies, including its press office, are generally not involved in the gestation stage of important decisions. Their task is to deliver the end product — and sometimes to help clean up the mess.

That doesn’t mean internal consultation never occurs; many important papal documents, for example, undergo revisions based on critical in-house commentary. But it’s inconsistent, and so is the way such documents are released. Some papal decisions are rolled out with a press conference and endless explanation, while others drop from the sky unannounced.

Vatican officials say that under Pope Benedict, the decision-making process in general has been streamlined and consultation is more on a need-to-know basis. On the issue of lifting the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, the pope appears to have conferred primarily with Cardinal Castrillon’s Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” which has conducted talks with the society, and with the Congregation for Bishops.

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