Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas

Item

Title: Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas
Description: An official Interdiocesan organ published bi-monthly by the University of Santo Tomas and printed at U.S.T. Press Manila Philippines.
Issue Date: Volume XLVI (Issue No. 515) May-June 1972
Publisher: University of Santo Tomas
Year: 1972
Language: English; Spanish
Subject: Catholic Church--Philippines--Periodicals; Philippines -- Religion -- Periodicals.
Rights
Place of publication: Manila
Local URL: Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas
extracted text: Boletin ECLESIASTICD DE piLIPINAS Vol. XLVI *515 Moy-June 1972 MSGR. JOSE N. JOVELLANOS Man of God Boletin Eclesiastico de yiLIPINAS THE OFFICIAL INTERDIOCESAN ORGAN EDITOR FR. JAIME BOQU1REN, OP. EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS ER. FRANCISCO DEL RIO, O P. ER. QUINTIN M. GARCIA, O.P ER. JESUS MERINO. O.P. FR. FIDEL V1LLARROEL, O.P. ER. LEONARDO LEGASPI. O.P FR. EFREN RIVERA. O.P. BUSINESS MANAGER FR. FLORENCIO TESTERA. O.P. BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS, Official Interdiocesan Organ, is published monthly by the University of Santo Tomas and is printed at U.S.T. Press, Manila, Philippines. Entered as Second Class Mail Matter at the Manila, Post Office on June 21, 1946. Subscription Rates. Yearly subscription in the Philippines. P20.00; Two Years, P36.00; Three Years, P54.00. Abroad, $6.0C a year. Price per copy, P2.00. Subscriptions are paid in advance Communications of an editorial nature concerning articles, cases and reviews should be addressed to the Editor. Advertising and subscription enquiries should be addressed to the Business Manager. Orders for renewals or changes of address should include both old and new address, and will go into effect fifteen days after notification. Address all communications to. BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Fathers’ Residence University of Santo Tomas Manila 0-403 Philippines Vol. XLVI • 515 Moy-June, 1972 TABLE OF CONTENTS Msgr. Jovellanos, Mon of God.................................................. 323 Long Live, the Pope ................................................................. 328 Nobody Talks About Sin Anymore.......................................... 330 Church's Feelings for the Working Man ............................... 333 Church, Custodian of the Faith .............................................. 336 Baptism and Christian Names .............................................. 339 Safeguarding Belief in the Incarnation and the Most Holy Trinity ......................................................... 343 Introductory Letter to New Document on Bishops............... 349 The Selection of Candidates for the Episcopacy.................... 350 New Document on Bishops ...................................................... 356 The Future of Tonsure and Minor Orders ............................ 360 I Hove Only One Theme — Christ ....................................... 373 Response to "Manifesto" of 33 Theologians 381 The Religious Habit ond Secular Dress ................................. 386 The Opera: "Jesus Christ, Superstar" 393 History of the Church in the Philippines (Ch. 24) 401 The Jovellanos That Was Tondo 409 EDITORIALS MSGR. JOVELLANOS, MAN OF GOD Msgr. Jose Jovellanos, a Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Manila and former parish priest of Tondo, died on April 30, 1972, at the age of 84. For 3 days he lay in state at the Tondo parish church. He was buried at the La Loma Cemetery in the afternoon of May 3rd. During those 3 days, thousands of people — parishioners, fellow priests and bishops—came and met at the Tondo Church. Invariably, the conversations centered on Msgr. Jovellanos and his having been a man of God. Almost everyone had an annecdote to illustrate the -goodness of Msgr. Jovellanos. Of course, there were some lay people who, while praising the Monsignor, could not help comparing him with other priests. And the comparisons were not very flattering. “Why are not all priests like Him?” asked one lay man. Msgr. Jovellanos is gone. But his memory and his good example are left behind. And they are memories and examples that inspire all — priests and lay people alike — to goodness. For, in the words of his thousands of spiritual children, Msgr. Jovellanos was “father to the poor and needy”, “patient and mild to those who are hard to live with”, “good shepherd to his parishioners of Tondo”, “a brother to his fellow priests specially those in need”, “loyal servant of the Church”, “a man of God.” LONG LIVE THE POPE On June 30, 1972, Pope Paul VI celebrates his 9th anni versary (1963) as Vicar of Christ on earth. And we all join him in commemorating the event. This is an occasion when every Catholic should recall what the Pope is so as to renew the loyalty and love for him. And what is the Pope? EDITORIAL 329 In the words of Archbishop Jaime L. Sin of Jaro, the Pope is “the cornerstone of the holy edifice, the Church, of which we, clergy and laity, are living stones. He is the Cus todian, the Depository of the truths of Faith and of the means of eternal salvation. He is the Sentinel, over watchful, with a vigilance that includes all peoples without distinction and with a paternal love that is equally bestowed to all. He is the mouthpiece of God announcing to the world the truths of Faith, the principles of morality and justice and the law of Love. He it is who speaks with the authority of Jesus Christ, to the Bishops, confiding to them a portion of the flock, and directing them to govern and rule it with that same code of love which Christ gave to His first Vicar.” “The Papacy, the one and the indestructible Chinch found ed on the Pope alive at that moment, will always endure. The Primacy of Peter will always exist, with the special assistance promised him when Jesus charged him with the task of con firming his brothers in the faith. Whatever be the name, the face, the human origin of any Pope, it is always Peter who rules and governs.” Let us all unite in praying for our Holy Father Pope Paul VI, for he is the Representative of Christ on Earth. HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI On the 9th anniversary of His Coronation June 30th, our prayers and congra tulations. “MAY THE LORD PRESERVE HIM AND GIVE HIM LIFE AND MAKE HIM BLESSED ON EARTH.” Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas NOBODY TALKS ABOUT SIN ANYMORE * In order to understand the general conception of the Chris tian religious system, and to apply it to our salvation, we cannot refrain from mentioning an essential chapter of this history of the objective and existential relationship between man and God; and this vast and tremendous chapter is entitled sin. We cannot disregard this tragic fact, which starts from the initial ruin of mankind, original sin, and has its repercus sions in the whole immense and successive network of human misfortunes and of our .fatal responsibilities, which are our per sonal sins, if we wish to understand something of Christ’s mis sion and of the economy of salvation he set up, and if we want to participate in it ourselves. We cannot enter the prayerful and sacramental sanctuary of the liturgy, especially when it cele brates not just the memory of the evangelical account of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord, but the fulfilment of the mystery of redemption, in which all mankind is interested, unless we have in our minds the antithesis of this drama, which is sin. Sin is the negative crux of this doctrine and this lasting salvific intervention, which makes us acclaim Christ liberator and makes us aware of our fate, miserable to begin with, and then blissful when we are associated with the paschal mystery. Sin: today it is a word passed over in silence. The mental ity of our times is loath not only to consider sin for what it is, but even to speak about it. This word seems to have gone out of use, as if it were unseemly, in bad taste. And it is understand able why. The notion of sin involves two other realities, with which modem man does not wish to concern himself. The first one is a transcendent Reality, absolute, living, om nipresent, mysterious, but undeniable: God; God the creator, whose creatures we are. Whether we like it or not, “ it is in him ' This address of the Holy Father is reprinted from L’Osservatore Romano, March 16, 1972. TALKS ABOUT SIN 331 (God) we live and move and have our being”, St. Paul says in his speech at the Areopagus (Acts 17:28). We owe God every thing: being, life, freedom, conscience, and therefore our obe dience, the condition of order, our dignity and our real welfare; God who is love, watching over us, immanent, inviting us to the paternal-filial conversation of his communion, his supernatural kingdom. The second is a subjective reality, connected with our per son, a metaphysico-moral reality; that is, the inalienable rela tionship of our actions with God, present, omniscient, and exam ining our free choice. Every free and conscious action of ours has this value of choice in conformity or not with the law, with the love of God, and our yes, or no is transcribed in Him, so to speak, is recorded in Him. This no is sin. It is suicide. Since sin is not only a personal defect of ours, but an inter personal offence, which begins with us and arrives at God, it is not merely a lack of legality in the human order, an offence against society, or against our inner moral logic; it is a fatal snapping of the vital, objective bond that unites us with the one supreme source of life, which is God. With this first deadly consequence: that we, who are capable, by virtue of the gift of freedom, which makes man “like unto God” (cf. Par. I, 105). of penetrating that offence, that break, and with such facility, arc no longer capable of putting it right, by ourselves (cf. Jn. 15:5). We are capable of ruining ourselves, not of saving our selves. This makes us meditate on the extent of our responsi bility The act becomes a state; a state of death. It is terrible. Sin brings with us a curse, which would be an irreparable condemnation, if God Himself had not taken the initiative to help us, revealing his omnipotence in kindness and mercy. This is marvellous. This is redemption, the supreme liberation. A wonderful liturgico-theological prayer says: “Oh God, who manifest your omnipotence most of all with forgiveness and mercy . ..” (Collect on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, in the old Missal). The idolatry of contemporary humanism, which denies, or neglects our relationship with God, denies or neglects the exis tence of sin. The result is a crazy ethics. Crazy with optimism, which tends to make everything permisible if it is pleasant or profitable, and crazy with pessimism, which takes from life its 332 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS deep significance, derived from the transcendent distinction be tween good and evil, and abases it i.n a final vision of anguish and desperate fatuousness. Christianity on the contrary, which sharpens so much the awareness of sin, listening to the peerless lesson of the Divine Master (cf. the Sermon c.n the Mount), takes advantage of this to initiate man in the sense of perfection, and consoles him with lhe gift of spiritual energy, grace, which makes him capable of aiming at it and reaching it. But above all it carries out its in exhaustible miracle of God’s forgiveness, that is, the remission of sins, which implies the resurrection of the soul in participation in the life and love of the kingdom of God. Let us restore in ourselves the right awareness of sin, which is not frightening, or weakening, but manly and Chris tian. The awareness of good will grow in opposition to the awareness of evil. The sense of responsibility will grow, rising from inner moral judgement and widening to the sense of our duties, personal, social ^pd religious. Our need of Christ will grow, Christ, the healer of our miseries, the Redeemer and the victim of our evil, the conqueror of sin and of death, he whio made his pain and his cross the price of our redemption and. our salvation. With our Apostolic Blessing. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “Fifty years ago, a young priest, Fr. Jose N. Jovellanos, came to Tondo to be its parish priest. It was a significant year, 1919, for it marked the beginning of Tondo’s spiritual progress which earned for this earstwhile forsaken district the reputa tion of being the largest parish in the world. The name Jovel lanos grew with Tondo. . . . And after fifty years of this mutual belongingness, we can now truly say that Jovellanos is Tondo, and Tondo is Jovellanos.” (Foreword, 50 Pastoral Years in Tondo) CHURCH'S FEELING FOR WORKING MAN * * This address was delivered by the Pope on 1 May 1972. The first of May, the feast of Work! What a great subject of study and speech! A topical, fundamental, constitutional theme, which concerns human activity fully! (cf. Gaudium et Spes, nn. 33, ss.) A fruitful topic, covering history, science, technique, eco nomy, sociology, morality, politics, culture and civilization. It is an anthropological, theological, spiritual theme, and now, with the appearance of St. Joseph in the midst of the feast of work, a liturgical one. A central theme, therefore, in the word phenomenon of development and human progress; and therefore a controversial, explosive, resolutive theme. How much talk there has been about it; how much there is still! The Church too, what studies, what documents, what experiments, what efforts and what work she has lavished upon it! We will just mention this theme, so that, if needs be, you may think about it, and become aware of the interest, the im portance and the complexity of the subject that is called work, and understand how it presupposes and at the same time produces a general conception of life. We live in modern times, which more than any others celebrate human activity, which we call work. This study is for you, who are well aware how much the Church nourishes it with doctrine and example. The time is too short for us to speak about it. And do you know what? If we had to speak about it, we should prefer to speak of the workers, rather than of work itself; that is, of hu man beings, the persons, engaged in work. Among them we should 334 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS chooae those who work by hand, I mean carry out the physical toil, rather than those (though they, too, are worthy of our in terest) who prepare it with studies and direct it. And here, in this brief moment, it is not with words that we wish to contact the boundless world of Workers, but with another means of social communication, a silent means, which is perhaps not perceptible to everyone: sympathy. Yes, today we address to all Workers this spiritual and cor dial current: sympathy. This wave, invisible in itself and im ponderable, has, however, its own reality and its own efficacy Our sympathy, which is that of the Church, that of declared dis ciples of the Gospel, is poured forth over Workers; we would like them to know it, and even feel it somehow. A silent voice; but a real voice. In the environments of labour it is very often the opposite opinion that is prevalent: that the Church has no sympathy for working people, who so often are the people of the lower classes, poor people. The Church, it is said, does not know us, the Church is on the side of the rich, and the powerful. The Church is con servative, the Church preaches the duties of the weak and the tights of the strong. The Church concerns herself with moral and religious values, and takes no interest in economic and tem poral values. The.Church seeks her interests, her privileges; she is miserly, selfish; she does not think of us, the subordinate, ex ploited, abandoned Workers. And when the facts prove the contrary? Then other objec tions are made to the rightful interpretation of the friendly soli darity of the Church with working people. These working people often doubt and mistrust the benevolent words and ges tures of the Church. She does so, people think and say, because she is afraid of the working people. She ingratiates herself with us, some people say, to catch us and to paralyse our claims, or even to exploit our numbers, to deceive our simple uneducated minds, to curb the momentum of our social conquests, now irre sistible: or at least to defend the whole castle of religion, in which we no longer believe. . . And this mistrust often and quickly changes to opposition, hatred, struggle and malediction, alas, as is well known in those countries where atheism prevails and has become a programme. Many other things could be said. Yet the Church cannot, does not wish to look at the worker, precisely as such, without this inextinguishable sentiment of sympathy. Whether he wants it or not, whether he knows it CHURCH AND WORKER 335 or not, the Worker is the object of sympathy on the part of the Church of Christ. What does sympathy mean? Oh! It means a great many things, which we all know! It means, in the first place, sharing in the suffering of others; it means moral affi nity, it means understanding; it means an inclination to esteem, favor, friendship, service, love. Does the Church harbour such a sentiment? Yes, sons and brothers; yes, you know it, all you Workers, who hear the echo of this simple profession of sympathy, of this silent discourse. If we were to tell you the reasons for this deep sentiment, the discourse would no longer be a silent one, but would be a never-ending one. The Church has sympathy for the Worker, in the first place, because she sees and proclaims his dignity as a man, a brother equal to every other man, an inviolable per son on whose face it printed a divine likeness. And this sym pathy is all the greater (not all the smaller, mind you!) the more the face bears the marks of want, weakness, suffering, insult, the longing for qualification and liberation. Toil, pover ty, insecurity, exploitation, and even perhaps, inferiority, are claims to the sympathy of the Church To the many other reasons that call forth from the heart of the Church this sympathy for the innumerable multitude of men, who sweat and suffer because of work, and today wait and demand, we will finally add the following two, which sum them all up. Firstly, Christ too, was a manual worker; he learned to toil in the school of Joseph, he was called “the car penter’s son” (Mk. (i:3), he was the fellow-worker of you all because he gave his life, his blood, to save everyone. And se fondly, Christ’s cry still echoes down thte centuries and through out the world: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavv laden and I will give you rest”. (Mt. 11:28). This is the sympathy of Christ, of the Church, for the working world, even to the present day. With our Apostolic Blessing. THE CHURCH IS CUSTODIAN, TRANSMITTER, INTERPRETER OF DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH * Consider the many great questions concerning the origin of the universe, the meaning of life, the longing to know the des tiny of mankind, the religious phenomenon, which seeks to an swer these problems, assimilating and transcending what science and philosophy can tell us about them. Then set the Christian fact in the face of these questions, which recognized in their boundless demands we call darkness, but which, confronted with the Christian fact itself, light up and give us a glimpse of their mysterious depths and art the same time of a certain marvellous beauty. Do this and you will feel echoing within you, as if they had been uttered that very moment, the well-known words of John’s Gospel: “the light shines in the darkness” (Jn. 1:5). The panorama of the cosmos is lit up as if the sun had risen from the night; things show a delightful order, which can still be explored: and man, almost laughing and trembling with joy. gets to know himself. He discovers himself as the privileged wayfarer advancing, tiny and supreme, over the world stage. At the same time he is aware that he has the right and the capacity to dominate it, and both the duty and the possibility of transcending it in the fascination of a new relationship that is superior to him — the dialogue with God: a dialogue that opens in this way: “Our Father, who art in heaven...”. It is not a dream, or imagination, or an hallucination. It is simply the first and normal effect of the Gospel, of its light shining on a soul, which has opened to its rays. What do we call this projection of light? It is Revelation. And what is this opening of the soul? It is called faith. ■ This article is the text of the Holy Father’s address during the General Audience on 19 January 1972 as printed in L'Osservatore Romano, January 27, 1972. CHURCH AND DOCTRINE 337 We learn these stupendous things from that sublime book of theology and mysticism, which is called the catechism, that is. the religious book of fundamental truths. But today this introduction aims at interesting those who hear it in a further question, which we consider of the utmost importance with re gard to the ideological condition in which thinking man finds h’mself on the religious plane. This question is this. Is con tact with God, resulting from the Gospel, a moment of a natural evolution of the human spirit, and evolution that still continues, transforming and surpassing itself? Or is it a single, definitive moment, on which we must nourish ourselves endlessly, but al ways recognizing its essential content as unchangeable? The answer is clear: it is a single and definitive moment. Revelation is inserted in time, in history, at a precise date, on the occasion of a specific event, and it must' be regarded as con cluded and complete for us with the death of the Apostles (cfr. Denz.-Sch. 3421). Revelation is a fact, and at the same time a mystery, which did not have its origin in the human spirit, but came from a divine intervention. It has many pro gressive manifestations, spread out over a long history, the Old Testament; and it culminated in Jesus Christ (cfr. Hebr. 1:1; I Jn. 2-3; Conciliar constitution, Dei Verbum, n. 1). Thus for us eventually the Word of God is the Word Incarnate, the historic Christ, who continues to live in the community united with him through faith and the Holy Spirit, in the Church which is his Mystical Body. This is how things are, beloved Sons; ar.d in this way our doctrine is separated from the errors which have circulated and still crop up in the culture of our times, and which might ruin completely our Christian conception of life and history. Modern ism was the characteristic expression of these errors, and it still exists today, under other names (cfr. Deer. Lamentabili of St. l’ius X, 1907, and his Encyclical Pascendi; Denz-Sch. 3401, ss.). So we can understand why the Catholic Church, in the past and today, has given and gives so much importance to the scrupu lous preservation of the authentic Revelation. She considers it an inviolable treasure, and is sternly aware of her fundamental duty to defend and transmit the doctrine of the faith in un equivocal terms. Orthodoxy is her first concern; the pastoral magisterium her primary and providential function. The apos tolic teaching fixed the canons of her preaching. The Apostle Paul’s order: “Depositum custodi” (I Tim. 6:20; II Tim. 1:14) is for her such a commitment, that it would be a betrayal to vioBOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS late it. The teaching Church does not invent her doctrine; she is a witness, a custodian, an interpreter, a transmitter. As re gards the truths of the Christian message, she can be called con servative, uncompromising. To those who urge her to make her faith easier, more in keeping with the tastes of the changing mentality of the times, she answers with the Apostles: “Non possumus”, we cannot (Acts 4:20). This too brief lesson does not end here. It still remains to be explained how this original revelation is transmitted through words, study, interpretation, application; that is, how it gives rise to a tradition, which the magisterium of the Church receives and verifies, sometimes with decisive and infallible authority. It should also be recalled how the knowledge of the faith and the teaching that it sets forth, namely theology, can be expressed in different measure, language and form. In other words, a theological “pluralism” is legitimate when it is contained with in the limits of the faith and the magisterium entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and their successors. It would also be necessary to explain that the Word of God, preserved in its authenticity, is not for that reason dry and sterile, but fruitful and alive, and meant to be listened to not merely passively, but to be lived, always renewed and ever em bodied in individual souls, in individual communities, in indivi dual Churches, according to human gifts and according to the c’narisms of the Holy Spirit, which are at the disposal of all those who become faithful disciples of the living and penetrating Word of God (cfr. Hebr. 4:12). We will speak about this again, perhaps, God willing. But m the meantime may these fragments of Catholic doctrine suf fice to make you fervent and happy, and give you food for thought. With our Apostolic Blessing. BAPTISM AND CHRISTIAN NAMES * * This article is taken from the text of the Holy Father’s address durin" the General Audience on 19 January 1972 as printed in L’Osservatore Ro mano, January 27, 1972. THE MEANING OF A RUBRIC On the occasion of the publication of the Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum some people have searched for new ele ments or for something sensational to present to the public. Among such people the rubrics of numbers 88 and 203, which concern the new name that is to be imposed at Baptism, have caused some interest. This act can take place at the be ginning of the catechumenate (n. 88) or just before baptism (n. 203), according to the judgement of the Episcopal ConferThe text of the rubric of n. 88 is as follows: “Sicubi vigent religiones non christianae. quae nomen novum initiatis statis imponunt, C'onferentia Episcoporum decernere potest ut novis cathecumenis iam nun nomen imponatur ve] christianum vel in culturibus localibus usitatum, non obstante nraeseriptione can. 761 CIC, dummodo christiano sensu affici valeat” (cfr. n. 203) Tn a certain sense, this is really something new, as the prescription of the Code of Canon Law — already, however, rea sonably fluid — is reduced in force: “Curent parochi ut ei qui haptizatur, christianum imponatur nomen: quod si id consequi non poterunt, nomini a parentibus imposito addant nomen ali cuius Sancti...” (Can. 761). But what is the real meaning of this rubric and what reasons have inspired it? 1. First of all it must be said that the rubric of Nos. 88 and 203 was not formulated on the basis of particular contigent circumstances. The Ordo went throught a long period of pre paration and experimentation (cfr. the preceeding article of the 340 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS same issue of Notitiae, pp. 88-89). The final redaction of the rubric of which we speak dates, in its present form, from June 1968. 2. With the new dispositions it is certainly not intended to discourage the use on the part of those to be baptized of taking the name of a saint. As in the Ordo for the Baptism of Infants (n. 48) a.nd in that for the Christian initiation of adults (n. 214) the possi bility of inserting the invocation of the saints whose names are being taken by the baptized into the litany is foreseen. In the Christian tradition, the strong link between the per son and the saint whose name he bears has always been favour ably looked upon. It is a relationship of protection and, at the same time, an encouragement to reproduce the ideal of Christian life realised by the saint-protector. In the case of the adult the imposition of a Christian name has a particular significance. Baptism is in fact the beginning of a new life. On this account, the change of name is most expressive of, so to speak, the change from the previous way of life to that which is Christian. Also in this regard one should remember the use by many monastic families and of religious of giving another name at the moment of entry into religious life. This fact, rooted in psychology and in human tradition, is generally acceptable to newly baptized adults who, especially when they live in an environment that is non-christian are very proud of their Christian name. It is a sign of their dignity and a continual recalling of their new state. The new Ordo takes into account of all this, but considers also the particular situations in determinate cultures. For example, in Japan, it was noted: “The baptismal name does not have to be exclusively that of a saint, but also could be another Japanese name which expresses a Christian idea. In fact, Japanese names are very often imposed precisely because of their meaning. One might, at the same time, give the can didate a patron saint and allow him to keep his previous name.” It was noted that the change of name is of importance in Japan, it being done there, for example, following the joining of some particular association. BAPTISM AND CHRISTIAN NAMES 341 This is the sense of the rubric. So much is true that it speaks of the possibility if taking a name which “christianu sensu indui quaet” and it adds “Interdum... satis erit ut electo expaLnetur significatio, Christiana nominis antea accepti” (Nos. 203 and 205). The new disposition has a certain broadness. It wanted to be respectful to the Christian tradition of imposing a new name, preferably that of a saint, and at the same time to be attentive to the customs and sensibility of the various peoples. And so three possibilities are foreseen: —the imposition of a Christian name; —the giving of a “local” name which, however, has a Christian significance; —the consenting to keep the name which the baptized al ready has, explaining to him the Christian significance. 3. This, evidently, does not concern anyone who has al ready been baptized for some time and who has already assumed a Christian name. Such people, that is, cannot find in the rubric in question any motive for abandoning the name of the saint which they have carried since the time of baptism. Such an abandonment, either when it is voluntary, or, of greater import, if it is imposed, could however appear as gesture which is not respectful to religion to which this name must be referred. Nor does this article n. 88 of the Ordo, which we have quoted, touch per se, those who receive baptism at infancy, for whom the dispositions of Canon 761 .still hold. 4. Considering the wide scope of the problem, the rubrical indications could not but be general. The application to con crete cases and to local situations will be carried out by the competent ecclesiastical authorities, more precisely by the Epis copal Conferences, who know the exigencies of their own coun tries. and the most fruitful methods for an effective pastoral of baptism, better. In this, as in regard to other points, it applies to them (and not — might it be said incidentally — to non-ecclesiastical authorities) to give more precise norms, which will then have the value of law. 342 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS It is within their competence in law, for example, to judge whether some names are less convenient or less meaningful for a Christian, and also, if they believe it necessary, that a candi date, desirous of keeping his own name, would also have to take the name of a saint. 5. The question of baptismal names, which might also ap pear at first glance to be of secondary importance, takes on prominence for the reason shown above, and for the meaning that can be justifiably attributed to it. To be expected, above all, from a properly orientated pas toral of baptism is the awakening in the fruitful — over and above the outward signs, that is. the imposition of a “Christian” name — of a consciousness of that “new life” which is inau gurated in the “bath of regeneration”. Truly the baptized is a “different man”, a “new man”, and this “difference” must be engraved profoundly into his existence and into his acts. That does not mean any sort of misunderstanding, much less an abandonment or denial, of the most authentic values of human traditions, and culture — which Christianity, more over, favours and elevates — but on the contrary, their being brought to advantage and their refinement. Christians, in fact, do not cease to be the sons of their own people, and altogether belong to those people “who are called and really are the sons of God.” TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS "I will never forget those precious minutes every morning at the pre-dicu with this man praying in common our morning de votions. His fatherly example gave me the inspiration to keep up the spirit of Christ in thick and in thin. His generosity to the poor of Tondo will put to shame those philantrophists of our time. It was and it is still a common sight to see hordes of indigents crowding the convent and they never left with empty hands. His undying zeal for souls is proverbial. Here is indeed a man of God!” Msgr. Amado Paulino, D.D. SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH * ’ This article is taken from L’Osservatorc Romano, March 30. 1972. ' Cfr. Phil. 2, 6 8. - 1 Cor. 8. 6. 1 Jn. I. 1. 14 (cfr. 1. 18). < Cone. Oec. Deer., Herder 1962. p 785 Dz. Sch. 3020 1. The mystery of the Son of God, who was made man, and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, both pertaining to the innermost substance of Revelation, must be in their authen tic truth the source of light for the lives of Christ’s faithful. Rut because some recent errors undermine these mysteries, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has deter mined to reaffirm and to safeguard the belief in them that has been handed down to us. 2. Catholic belief jn the Son of God who was made man. Jesus Christ, while dwelling on this earth, manifested i.n various ways, by word and by deed, the adorable mystery of his person. DECLARATION FOR SAFEGUARDING THE BELIEF IN THE MYSTERIES OF THE INCARNA TION AND OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY AGAINST SOME RECENT ERRORS. After being made “obedient unto death”* 1 he was divinely exalted in his glorious resurrection, as was fitting for the Son “by whom al) things”- were made by the Father. Of him St. John solemnly proclaimed: "I.n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . And the Word was made flesh”? The Church reverently preserved the mys tery of the Son of God, who was made man. and “in the course of the Ages and of the centuries”1 has propounded it for belief 344 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS in a more explicit way. In the Creed of Constantinople, which is still recited today during Mass, the Church proclaims her faith in “Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God and bom of the Father before all the ages... true God from true God... conaubstantial with the Father.. . who for us men and for our salvation... was made man”.5 * The Council of Chalcedon laid down to be believed that the Son of God according to his divi nity was begotten of the Father before all the ages, and accord ing to his humanity was begotten in time of the Virgin Mary.1'' Further, this council called one and the same Christ the Son of God a “person” (hypostasis), but used the term “nature” to describe his divinity and his humanity, and using these terms it taught that both his natures, divine and human, together be long, without confusion, unalterably, individedly and inseparately. to the one person of our Redeemer.7 In the same way, the Fourth Lateran Council taught for belief and profession that the Son of God, coeternal with the Father, was made true man and is one person in two natures? This is the Catholic belief which the recent Vatican Council II, holding to the constant tradition of the whole Church, clearly expressed in many pas sages.1’ Missale Romanum, ed. typica Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1970, p. 389; Dz-Sch. 150. 11 Cfr. Cone. Chalc. (Definitio); Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 62; Dez-Sch. 301. 7 Cfr. ibid.. Dez.-Sch. 302. s Cfr. Cone. Lat. IV: Const. Firmiler credimus; Cone. Oec., Deer. p. 206; Dz.-Sch. 800 f. n Cfr. Cone. Vat. II: Const dogm. Lumen Gentium, nn. 3, 7 , 52, 53; Const, dogm. Dei Verbum, nn. 2, 3; Const, pas Gaudium et spes, nn. 22; Dcr. Uuitatis redintegratio, n. 12; Christus Dominus, n. 1; Deer. Ad Genies, n. 3; also Pope Paul VI Solemnis professio fidei, n .11, A.A S. 60 (1968), 437. 3. Recent errors in regard to belief in the Son of God. The opinions according which it has not been revealed and made known to us, that the Son of God subsists from all eternity in the mystery of the Godhead, distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, are in open conflict with this belief; likewise the opinions according to which the notion is to be abandoned of the one person of Jesus Christ begotten in his divinity of the Father before all the ages and begotten in his humanity of the Virgin Mary in time; and lastly the assertion that the humanity of Christ existed not as being assumed into the eternal person of the Son of God but existed rather of itself as a person, and therefore that the mystery of Jesus Christ consists only in the CONGREGATION FOR THE FAITH 345 fact that God, in revealing himself, was present in the highest degree in the human person Jesus. Those who think in this way are far removed from the true belief in Christ, even when they maintain that the special presence of God in Jesus results in his being the supreme and final expression of divine Revelation. Nor do they come back to the true belief in the divinity of Christ by adding that Jesus can be called God by reason of the fact that in what they call his human person God is supremely present. 4. Catholic belief in the Most Holy Trinity, and especially in the Holy Spirit. Once the mystery of the divine and eternal person of Christ the Son of God, is abandoned, the truth res pecting the Most Holy Trinity is also undermined, and with it the truth regarding the Holy Spirit who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, or from the Father through the Son10. Therefore, in view of recent errors, some points concerning be lief in the Most Holy Trinity, and especially in the Holy Spirit, are to be recalled to mind. 1,1 Cfr. Cone. Flor.: Bull Laetentur caeli; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 501 f; 11 2 Cor. 13. 14. '-See Math. 28. 19. 1:1 Jn. 15, 26. 21 Con. Vat. II: Const, dofim. Dei Verbum, n. 10. r’Missale Romanum, loc. cit.: Dz -Sch. 150. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians concludes with this admirable expression: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”". The commission to baptize, recorded in St. Matthews’ Gospel, names the Father, and the Son. and the Holy Spirit as the three pertaining to the mystery of God and it is in their name that the converts must be reborn1-’ Lastly, in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “When the Paraclete comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will give tes timony of me”1" On the basis of the indications of divine Revelation, the Magisterium of the Church, to which alone is entrusted “the office of authentic interpretation of the Word of God, written or handed down”", acclaims in the Creed of Constantinople “the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life... who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified”1'’. In like manner the Fourth Latemal Council taught that it is to be believed and * 11 346 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS professed “that there is but one only true God .. . Father and Son and Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence.. the Father proceeding from none, the Son from the Father alone and the Holy Spirit equally from both, without beginning, al ways, and without end”"1. 111 See Cone. Lat. IV: Const. Firmiter credimus; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 206; Denz.-Sch. 800. 17 Ibid. ,sConc. Vat. I: Const, dogm. Dei Filius, c. 4, can. 3; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 787: Dz.-Sch. 3043. See Pope John XXIII Aloe, in S. Cone. Vat. II inaugurationc, A.A S. 54 (1962) 792, and Cone. Vat. II: Const past. Gaudium et spes, n. 62. Cfr. Also Paul VI Sollemnis professio fidei, n. 4, A.A.S. 60 5. Recent errors concerning the most Holy Trinity, and es pecially concerning the Holy Spirit. The opinion that Revela tion has left us uncertain about the eternity of the Trinity, and in particular about the eternal existence of the Holy Spirit as a person in God distinct from the Father and the Son, is out of line with the faith. It is true that the mystery of the most Holy Trinity was revealed to us in the economy of salvation, and most of all in Christ himself who was sent into the world by the Father and together with the Father sends to the People of God the life-giving Spirit. But by this Revelation there is also given to those who believe some knowledge of God’s intimate life, in which “the Father who generates, the Son who is gene rated. and the Holy Spirit who proceeds” are “consubstantial and co-equal, alike omnipotent and co-eternal”* 17. 6. The mystery of the Incarnation and of the Trinity are to be faithfully preserved and expounded. What is expressed in the documents of the Councils referred to above, concerning the one and same Christ the Son of God, begotten before the ages in his divine nature and in time in his human nature, and also concerning the eternal persons of the Most Holy Trinity, belongs to the immutable truth of the Catholic faith. This certainty does not prevent the Church in her aware ness of the progress of human thought from considering that it is her duty to take steps to have the aforesaid mysteries con tinually examined by contemplation and by theological examina tion and to have them more fully expounded in up to date ter minology. But while the necessary duty of investigation is being pursued, diligent care must be taken that these profound mys teries do not be interpreted in a meaning other than that in which “the Church has understood and understands them”" * . CONGREGATION FOR THE FAITH 347 The unimpaired truth of these mysteries is of the greatest moment for the whole Relevation of Christ, because they per tain to its very core, in such a way indeed that if they are undermined, the rest of the treasure of Revelation is falsified. The truth of these same mysteries is of no less concern to the Christian way of life both because nothing so effectively mani fests the charity of God, to which the whole of Christian life should be a response, as does the Incarnation of the Son of God. our Redeemer19, and also because “through Christ, the Word made flesh, men have access to the Father in the Holy Spirit and are made partakers of the divine nature2". n' Cfr. 1 Jn. 4. 9 f. ■"Cfr. Coonc. Vat. II: Const, dogm. Dei Verbuni, n. 2; cfr. Eph. 2. Pet. 1. 4. -' Cfr. Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Quinque iam anni, inA.A.S. 68 (1971). 99. -- Cfr. 2 Tim. 4. 1-5. See Pope Paul VI ibid., p. 103 f. See also Synodus Episcoporum (1967): Relatio Connnissioni Synodalii; constitutae ad examen ultcrius peragendum circa opiniones periculosas et atheismuni II 3: De Pastorali ratione agendi in exercitio magisterii, Typis Polvgloltis Vaticanis. 1967 p. 10 f (Oss. Rom. 30-31 Oct. 1967, p. 3). -;l Pope Paul VI, ibid. p. 3 -’Cfr Paul VI. ibid. p.-103. 7. With regard to the truths which the present Declaration is safeguarding, it pertains to the Pastors of the Church to see that there is unity in professing the faith on the part of their people, and especially on the part of those who by mandate re ceived from the Magisterium teach the sacred sciences or preach the word of God. This function of the Bishops belongs to the office divinely committed to them “of keeping pure and whole”. . . “the deposit of faith” in common with the Successor of Peter and “of proclaiming the Gospel without ceasing”21; and by reason of this same office they are bound not to permit that ministers of the word of God, deviating from the way of sound doctrine, should pass it on corrupted or incomplete22. The people, committed as they are to the care of the Bishops who “have to render account to God”23 for them, enjoy “the sacred and in alienable right of receiving the word of God, the whole word of God, into which the Church does not cease to penetrate ever more profoundly21. The faithful, then, and above all the theologians because of their important office and necessary function in the Church, must make faithful profession of the mysteries which this Decla ration reaffirms. In like manner, by the movement and illumi 348 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS nation of the Holy Spirit, the song of the Church must hold fast to the whole teaching of the faith under the leadership of their Pastors and of the Pastor of the universal Church25 “so that, in holding, practising and professing the faith that has been handed down, a common effort results on the part of the Bishops and faithful”2". 2'> Cfr. Cone. Vat. II: Const. Dogm. Lumen Gentium, nn. 12, 25; Synodus Episcoporoum (1967): Relatlo Commissionis Synodalis II, 4: De Theologorum opera et responsabilitae p. 11 (Oss. Rom., loc. cit.). 2» Cone. Vat. II: Const, dogm. Dei Verbum, n. 10. The Supreme Pontiff by divine Providence Pope Paul VI, in an audience granted on February 21, 1972, to the undersigned Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ratified and confirmed this Declaration for safeguarding from certain recent errors the belief in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Most Holy Trinity, and ordered it to be published. Given at Rome, from the offices of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the 21st day of February, feast of St. Peter Damian, in the year of our Lord 1972. FRANCIS Card. SEPER Prefect PAUL PHILIPPE Tit. Archp. of Heracleopolis Secretary 8 March 1972 INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS The choice of bishops is to be made in such a way as to ensure that the Church will be entrusted to Pastors who will be ‘‘examples to the flock” (I Peter 5:3). Thus in the past the Apostolic See has provided for the selection of bishops by is suing particular rules for various countries. The decisions of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council however must also be applied in this field. Hence, Pope Paul VI, accepting the wishes of many of his brothers in the episcopate, and having sought the views of the competent departments of the Roman Curia, proceeded to give effect to what was laid down in the Motu Propio Ecclesiae Sanctae, 10: “The Episcopal Conferences shall each year, in accordance with the norms made or to be made by the Apostolic See, prudently discuss in private the ecclesiastics to be called to the office of bishop in their ter ritory and propose the names of candidates to the Apostolic See.” He accordingly gave instructions that a document on this subject be very carefully drawn up and placed before the Epis copal Conferences for their examination. This having been done, the Pope has approved the an nexed norms on the promotion to the episcopacy of ecclesias tics of the Latin rite. The norms do not affect the laws proper to the Eastern Churches. They are to come into force on 21 May 1972, on which date the particular decrees mentioned above will be abrogated. All things to the contrary notwithstanding. From the Vatican, 25 March 1970. J. Card. Villot Prefect of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE EPISCOPACY IN THE LATIN CHURCH ARTICLE I 1. Bishops have the faculty and the duty of making known to the Apostolic See the names of priests whom they consider worthy of the episcopal office and suited for it, whether these priests belong to the diocesan clergy, or are religious performing their sacred ministry i.n the diocese, or are priests, of another jurisdiction who are well known to them. 2. Every diocesan tjjshop and other local ordinaries, with the exception of the vicars general, shall take care to obtain all the information needed to carry out this important and dif ficult duty. They shall do so either by personal investigation, or by appropriately -consulting, within the limits of their juris diction. although not collectively, priests of the cathedral chapNORMS FOR THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE MINISTRY IN THE LATIN CHVRCH ter or diocesan consultors, or members of the council of priests, er other members of the clergy, diocesan or regular, or members of the laity. 3. With regard, to ecclesiastical territories entrusted to mis sionary institutes, it is recognized that the superiors general con cerned have the faculty, in accordance with the present practice of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to propose candidates from their institutes, while the Apostolic See always retains the right to make other provisions, if it con siders it apportune to do so. CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 351 ARTICLE II 1. The names of candidates for the office of bishop shall as a general rule be examined and proposed by the bishops during their meetings. But every bishop and every other ordinary as above (article I. 2) can propose candidates directly to the Apos tolic See. 2. The meetings or conferences in question shall usually be on the provincial level; in other words they shall be composed of the bishops and other ordinaries as above belonging to the same ecclesiastical province, unless special circumstances sug gest interprovincial, regional or even national meetings. In these last cases prior notice shall be given to the Apostolic See. ARTICLE III 1. All the bishops of the province or of the region or nation who according to the respective statutes belong to the same Episcopal Conference and have a deliberative vote take part in the meeting with equal rights. 2. In the case of a provincial meeting, the metropolitan is to prepare the agenda and preside over the meeting; in his absence this is to be done by the senior suffragan. In the case of a regional or national meeting the task is to be carried out by the President of the respective Conference. ARTICLE IV 1. The meetings are to be held at fixed intervals, in ac cordance with the rule laid down in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae, Sanctae 10. It is fiting that they should be held during the usual assemblies of the bishops. 2. The periodical meetings are to be convened in order that the bishops may propose candidates., or, if appropriate, sup ply further information concerning candidates previously pro posed. It may also happen that some candidates previously put forward should no longer be kept on the list, because of age, ill health or some other reason making him unfit for the epis copal office. ARTICLE V At a suitable time before the meeting, the names of the candidates to be proposed shall be sent to the President by those 352 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS who have the right and duty to be present at the assembly. The President, with proper precautions, shall take care to communi cate to them the complete list of names. They shall examine the names of the candidates and con sider what they know about each one. ARTICLE VI 1. At the meeting, the bishops shall share their informa tion and observations on each candidate, indicating whether they are speaking from first-hand knowledge or expressing what they have heard from others. 2. The candidates are to be examined in such a way that it may be seen whether they are endowed with the qualities ne cessary for a good pastor of souls and teacher of the Faith: v hether they enjoy a good reputation; whether they are of ir reproachable morality, whether they are endowed with right judgement and prudence; whether they are even-tempered and of stable character; whether'they firmly hold the orthodox Faith; whether they are devoted to the Apostolic See and faithful to the magisterium of the Church; whether they have a thorough knowledge of dogmatic and moral theology and canon law; whether they are outstanding for their piety, their spirit of sacrifice and their pastoral zeal; whether they have an aptitude for governing. Consideration must also be given to intellectual qualities, studies completed, social sense, spirit of dialogue and cooperation, openness to the signs of the times, praiseworthy impartiality, family background, age and inherited character istics. ARTICLE VII 1. When the discussion has been completed, votes, or abs tentions, concerning each candidate are to be expressed in writ ing or in some other suitable manner. 2. Votes are to be cast in secret, to preserve the complete freedom of each one in voting. It is fitting that, apart from the vote itself, a clear indication should be given of the nature of the diocese or office for which each candidate appears more suitable. 3. After the votes have been cast for each candidate, they are to be exactly counted. CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 353 4. If it seems advantageous, the President may invite the bishops to hold a further discussion on one or more candidates, and have another vote taken, so that the particular characteris tics of each candidate may be clarified. ARTICLE VIII 1. Before the close of the meeting, a list is to be drawn up of those who, being worthy and suitable for the episcopal office, are to be proposed to the Apostolic See. 2. Likewise, before the meeting closes everything from which it might be possible to discover how each has voted is to be destroyed. However, the minutes of the meeting are to be drawn up according to the norms of the law. 3. It is very desirable that the bishops should not depart before they have read, approved and signed the minutes. ARTICLE IX The President of the meeting will send to the Apostolic See through the Pontifical Representative a complete copy of the minutes and of the list of candidates. ARTICLE X 1. In the case of nations where there is more than one ecclesiastical province, if at least two-thirds of those with a deli berative vote in the National Episcopal Conference judge it op portune, the list drawn up by a provincial or regional meeting shall be sent for information to the President of the National Episcopal Conference. He can add comments and information, keeping in mind the needs and circumstances of the Church in the whole country. 2. Likewise, if the majority, specified in the preceding para graph, of the members of the National Episcopal Conference con sider it opportune, it may be arranged that either the permanent committee of the Conference, or a special commission of res tricted size, may add comments and information as in paragraph I above. The members of this special commission will be elected for a fixed term by the plenary meeting of the Conference; the President of the National Conference will preside over the com mission. 354 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS ARTICLE XI 1. When candidates for a particular episcopal office are to be proposed to the Apostolic See, the lists drawn up by the pro vincial meetings, or by regional or national meetings in the cases described i.n article II, 2, are to be taken into account. 2. These lists however do not detract from the liberty of the Roman Pontiff, who in virtue of his office is always free to choose and appoint men who do not appear on the lists. ARTICLE XII 1. Before any candidate is appointed bishop, the Apostolic See conducts a careful and wide-ranging enquiry about him. It consults individually people who know him very well and who are able to provide the fullest possible information and to make before God a prudent and considered judgement about him. 2. This enquiry is entrusted to the Pontifical Representa tive. He submits the question drawn up for his purpose to ec clesiastics: bishops, priests and religious. Prudent and genuine ly reliable lay people who possess useful information about the candidate can also be consulted in the same way. ARTICLE XIII 1. When there is a question of appointing someone to a diocese or of naming a coadjutor with right of succession, the Pontifical representative will ask the vicar capitular or apostolic administrator or the ordinary himself for a full and careful re port on the condition and needs of the diocese. The clergy and laity, especially through their canonically established represen tative bodies, may also be consulted, as well as religious. 2. Apart from cases legitimately exempted by a particular law or custom or for some other reason, before proposing the “ternae” to the Apostolic See, the Pontifical Representative has the task of requesting, individually, the suggestions of the me tropolitan and suffragans of the province to which the vacant diocese belongs, or whose meeting it attends, as well as those of the President of the National Episcopal Conference. These suggestions, together with his own recommendation, he will then transmit to the Apostolic See. The Pontifical Representative moreover will, as may be apportune, hear the opinions of some of the members of the cathedral chapter, or of the diocesan CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 355 consultors, and of other members of the clergy, both secular and religious, especially members of the priests’ council in existence while the diocese is still filled. 3. With the necessary adjustment, a similar method of pro cedure is to be followed by those who have the task of proposing candidates for nomination as auxiliary bishops. ARTICLE XIV In all these matters, the prescribed “papal secret” is to be strictly observed by the bishops, the Pontifical Representative, the priests and the laity in any way involved. This is demanded by the very nature of the matter and by the respect due to the persons being considered. ARTICLE XV Maintaining unaltered the desire expressed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the Decree Christus Dominus, 20, concerning the free election of bishops, the preceding norms neither abrogate nor replace privileges or rights that have been lawfully acquired, or special procedures approved by the Apos tolic See by agreement or in some other way. "Since the apostolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and serves a spiritual and supernatural purpose, this most sacred Ecumenical Synod declares that the right of nominating and appointing bishops belongs properly, peculiarly, and of itself exclu sively to the competent ecclesiastical authority. Therefore, for the purpose of duly protecting the freedom of the Church and of promoting more suitably and efficiently the welfare of the faithful, this most holy Council desires that in the future no rights or privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation for the office of bishop be any longer granted to civil authorities. Such civil authorities, whose favorable attitude toward the Church this most Sacred Synod gratefully acknowledges and very warmly appreciates, are most kindly requested to make a voluntary renunciation of the above-mentioned rights and privileges which they presently eniov by reason of a treaty or custom. The matter, however, should first be discussed with the Apostolic See.” (Christus Dominus. n. 20) NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS AS PRESENTED BY FR. ROBERTO TUCCI, S.J. After the Council, and particularly in the last few years, the various members of the ecclesial community had stressed, in different countries, the necessity of updating the procedure for designating candidates for the episcopate. The question is now dealt within the normative document that was published on 12 May, preceded by an introductory letter from Cardinal John Villot, in his capacity as Prefect of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church. Presenting the document to journalists in the Press Office of the Holy See on 12 May, Father Roberto Tucci, S.J. stressed in the first place its topical interest, connecting up its letter and spirit both with the indications given by the Council and with the Motu Propio Ecclesiae Sanctae in 1966. In the decree Christus Dominus on the Bishop’s pastoral office, the only sec tion on the nomination of bishops is the one that claims the full freedom of the Church as regards the civil authorities (n. 20). But it was certainly the ecclesiological renewal brought about by the Council — Fr. Tucci pointed out — “with the well ba lanced stress laid on collegial collaboration and the responsibi lities of the whole People of God, that contributed to a greater extent to making the need felt for an updating of the existing norms, even in the more responsible spheres. In any case, these norms have varied considerably even in more recent times, ac cording to the different circumstances of time and place”. This updating was heralded as early as 1966, in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, with which Paul VI established the norms for the application of some decrees of Vatican II, in con nection with the nomination of bishops and with reference to the decree Christus Dominus. It said in fact: “While it remains the right of the Roman Pontiff to nominate the bishops freely NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS 357 and confer the office upon them, and without interfering with the discipline of the Oriental Churches, the episcopal Conferences will discuss every year, prudently and in secrecy, which eccle siastics are worthy of being promoted to the episcopal office and will propose the names of the candidates to the Apostolic See, according to the norms established or to be established by the Holy See” (I, article 10). Some time afterwards a broad consultation was held to find out the opinion of the pontifical Representatives and the local episcopates. A first thorough examination of the question by the members of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church and of the Sacred Congregation for the Bishops, took place as early as May 1968. In the various phases of drawing up the new norms, the collaboration of two other Congregations con cerned was requested, namely the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (competent for the nomination of bishops in the territories under its jurisdiction) and the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches (competent for the rare cases of dioceses of the Latin rite in territories under the juris diction of this Congregation), and also the collaboration of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law The declared purpose of this work was to revise all the material on the designation of candidates to the episcopate, that is, to update the decrees already in force and to introduce them in countries in which there were not yet regular meetings of the bishops to draw up lists of suitable candidates for the epis copate. Thus we come to the non-definitive text, which was sent on 1 September 1970 by Cardinal Villot to all the episcopal Confe rences. To give the latter a better possibility to make known their remarks and suggestions on this text, the deadline for their communications was extended first to 15 February and then to the end of July 1971. Numerous answers were received. Forty-two out of 84 Epis copal Conferences sent their observations: probably some were not directly concerned. Non-collegial answers came from eight other episcopates. Thus the document was revised again on the basis of these replies. The definitive text obtained in this way, Father Tucci pointed out, if compared with the preceding one, 358 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS shows some appreciable improvements in the direction indicated by the episcopates. The main requests put forward by the Epis copal Conferences were, in fact, included in it. The definitive text was sent to the Episcopal Conferences, with a letter from Cardinal Villot, on 25 March last. The document will come into force on 21 May. Fr. Tucci went on to deal with the nature of the document. It contains the new norms approved by the Holy Father regard ing the designation of candidates to the episcopate in the whole Church of Latin rite; these norms do not apply, therefore, to the Oriental Churches, which have their own discipline. As re gards the Church of Latin rite, the cancel the preceding norms, but not the legitimate privileges recognized by law and the par ticular procedures approved by the Holy See by means of an agreement or in any other way, nor do they take their place (art. XV). The exception considered here concern both the case, for example, of particular Churches whose cathedral Chapter en joys the right and privilege of presenting three nominees, and the case of countries in which there exists a Concordat (or simi lar agreement) with particular clauses regarding a possible in tervention of the civil authorities in the procedure of nomina ting the bishops. At the same time the desire expressed b^ Va tican II in the decree Christus Dominus, n. 20, concerning the free choice of bishops, is repeated (art. XV) : “Since the apos tolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and serve a spiritual and supernatural purpose, this most sacred Ecumenical Synod declares that the right of nominating and appointing bishops belongs properly, particularly, and of itself exclusively to the competent ecclesiastical authority. Therefore, for the purpose of duly protecting the freedom of the Church and of promoting more suitably and efficiently the welfare of the faithful, this most holy Council desires that in the future no rights or privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation for office of bishop be granted to civil authorities. Such vivid authorities, whose favorable attitude towards the Church this most sacred Synod gratefully acknowledges and very warmly appreciates, are most kindly requested to make a volun tary renunciation of the above-mentioned rights and privilages which they presently enjoy by reason of a treaty or custom. The matter, however, should first be discussed with the Apostolic See”. NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS 359 The Council, Father Tucci added, wished to specify, by list ing them analytically, what were the privileges that violate the freedom of the Church. In fact the privilege of election, presen tation and designation is one thing, and that of an unofficial pre-notification is quite another. The latter does not in itself harm the freedom of the Church, unless the government consi ders it a right of veto, in which case it would fall under the cases the Council listed. Pius XI affirmed very forcefully, in connection with the Condordat with Italy, and explicitly sanc tioned in the Concordat with Germany, the principle that un official pre-notification does not constitute a right of veto. The central purpose of the document is to carry out the in dications of the Council, and to apply what was established in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, to give the procedure in question a common content, wide enough, however, to allow for the great diversity of circumstances of the various particular Churches, and introducing considerable innovations on more than one point, at least as regards even the more recent practice in several countries. The document aims, finally, at ensuring better, in the present concrete and varied situation of the Church of the Latin rite, the choice of Pastors really suited to guide the local Churches in the present necessities and to exer cise collegial co-responsibility at the various levels. It does so mainly by authorizing, though within precise limits, a wider consultation of the ecclesial community at the different levels. "Since the pastoral office of bishops is so important and weighty, when diocesan bishops and others, regarded in law as their equals, have become less capable of fulfilling their duties properly because of the increasing burden of age or some other serious reason, they are earnestly requested to offer their resignation from their office either on their own initiative or upon invitation from the competent authority. If the competent authority accepts the resignation, it will make provision for the suitable support of all those who have resigned and for special rights to be accorded them.” (Christus Dominus. n. 21) THE FUTURE OF TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS by H.S. GRAF, S.V.D. 1. THE PROBLEM The liturgy consists of sacred signs. One of the most important principles of the reform of the liturgy is that of the “truth of the signs”. The truthfulness of these signs had to be restored because “with the passage of time there have.crept into the rites of the sacraments and sacranientals certain features which have rendered their nature and pur pose less clear to the people today; and hence to that extent the need arises to adjust certain aspects of these rites to the requirements of our times" (Const, on the Lit., art. 62). Classical examples of those rites whose nature and purpose had become “less clear’’ in the course of time, are the first tonsure and the minor orders. How many of those who have been ordained porters ever acted afterwards as, let us say, ushers in the church? For centuries the porter’s tasks have been taken over by sacristans. But these were not members of the clergy, nor did they receive a special ordination. How many of those who were ordained exorcists were ever allowed to exorcize someone possessed by a demon? In view of these facts and moved by the growing awareness of the missing “truth of signs” ever more young men studying for the priest hood became reluctant to be ordained porter, lector, exorcist or acolyte. Could not any young boy of the age of ten or twelve do everything — without receiving an ordination—what an ordained acolyte was allowed to do. With other words; these rites had lost their original meaning. Today they have meaning only as a kind of stepping stones to the priestly ordination. But this was not their intended significance when they were introduced into the Church. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 361 2. A PROPOSED SOLUTION Moved by the growing uneasiness of their students in major seniin^ ries some bishops’ conferences asked Rome to create new rites and to give new meaning to the former rites of first tonsure and minor orders. Rome in turn asked these bishops’ conferences to come up with practical proposals of their own. These new rites obtained the provisional approval of the Congregation of Divine Worship. Finally, inspired by these first drafts, Rome prepared rites of its own and made them public in early 1971. thereby asking the bishops of the whole world for their comments and further suggestions. The period of four months, however, envisioned by the guidelines, was too short, because during this short time not all the bishops had the opportunity to ordain clerics according to these ex perimental rites. Together with other bishops’ conferences also our bishops asked Rome for the pel-mission to use this new ritual and thus gather further ex perience. On August 7, 1971 the Congregation of Divine Worship granted this petition. 3. FROM THE FIRST TONSURE TO THE RECEPTION INTO THE CLERICAL STATE A. A CHANGED SITUATION During the Middle Ages it was the privilege of the free man to wear his hair long. Short hair was a sign, of being a slave. In order to signify that they considered themselves servants of God for the sake of his people, monks and clerics started to wear their hair short. Today the outward signs of class distinctions have largely disap peared. Everyone is free to wear his hair as he likes. In a sense also clerics and religious had acknowledged this fact, because their tonsure had become smaller and smaller; in the end it was only a small round spot on the crown of their heads. In this way it did no longer signify what it was intended to in the beginning. It was equally characteristic for the Europe of the Middle Ages that each social class, and even each individual profession had its particular custom to dress; they had a kind of uniform. The clerical state as a special group in this social structure had also its particular vestments. Consequently, when a young man was received into the clerical state 362 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS ho was also given the vestments of a cleric. But from the twelfth century on they did not give him his proper clerical vestment but only the sur plice (super-pelliceum), a kind of shortened alb which was wide enough to be worn also in winter over the furs or ‘‘pellcs”. Today everyone dresses as he likes and as he can afford to. Among the last ones to follow this usage of our times, were the clerics. These historical reflections show that both tonsure and the clerical investiture have lost their original meaning. Now the Church acknowl edges this fact by changing the former rite of first tonsure into a ceremonial reception into the clerical state. This reception is not a private affair, affecting only the seminarian and his bishop; it has consequences for the whole People of God in a diocese. It is, therefore, fitting, that it be held in a public ceremony. From the moment of this celebration on the seminarian is an official candidate for holy orders; he acquires a special relationship to the local Church: he is incardinated into the diocese. B. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE This rite may be held during Mass or in the course of a Bible Ser vice. The readings of this service are to be taken either from the liturgy of the day or from the- special lectionary of the experimental rite. After the gospel, the bishop (or in religious orders and congregations the abbot or provincial) explains the rite to the assembly: Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the resolution of these our brothers, who present themselves today before the Church, concerns us all. Because they want to declare publicly that they intend to become deacons and (and/or) priests. This concerns us. the bishop and the priests, because they want to become, with the grace of God, our co-workers in the ministry of the Church. It concerns you, my brothers and sisters, because they will eventually be sent to you, later on. When they came to this place they were convinced that they were answering a special call of God. Now they ask me to confirm this call. They heard the Lord's call in the way God guided them in the various events and circumstances of their lives. The concern for those of their fellow men who are hard pressed by the difficulties of life has moved them. They were urged by the good example of the communities where they grew up. Christ called them to continue the work of salvation which he has performed in his earthly life. Strengthened by the powerful grace of the Holy Spirit, they came to the conclusion, that they had to give themselves to the service of God and their fellow men. This decision they want to proclaim in public. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 363 In order that they may become in the future our faithful helpers in the apostolic ministry, they began a spiritual, apostolic and intellectual training. They trusted in the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom they placed the firm hope that he will enable them to remain faithful to their vocation. Now they will be called to come forward and to declare their intention in public and to ask me to accept their promise. The the candidates ;i asks for the candidates' ire called by name to come forward. Before he readiness to become ministers in his diocese the bishop declares publicly that he is ready to accept them because of the favorable testimony of others, mainly of the staff of the seminary. Only then he addresses the candidates, asking them for their readiness to con tinue and complete their seminary training, and to accept, after their ordination to the priesthood, a ministry in his diocese. After their favor able reply the bishop accepts their promise in the name of the diocese, the local Church. B. My dear sons. your pastors and teachers, your educators in the seminary and others who know you well assured me of your good conduct of life. Gladly accept their testimony. Therefore. I ask you now: Are you ready and willing, in answer to the Lord’s call, to continue and complete your training, and to get ready to accept in due time a ministry in the Church? A. 1 am ready. B. Are you ready to serve Christ the Lord, and his Body, the Church faithfully? A. I am ready. B. Gladly the Church accepts your promise. May God who began the good work in you see to its completion. To this all present answer "Amen.” Xow there remains nothing to do but to pray and to ask Cod for his assistance that the new clerics fulfill what they promised. They have to become close followers of Christ; they are to "follow in his steps” (1 I’t 2:21). In the following of Jesus, the ‘ faithful witness" (Apoc 1:5) they have to become Christ’s witnesses before the world. Christ "took our illnesses and carried away our diseases" (Mt 8:17; cf. Jes 53:1). The Christian community prays, therefore, that the new clerics l>e ready to carry one another’s burden and so fulfil the law of Christ ■fef. Gal 6:2) 364 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Since they have to strengthen the faith of their brothers—like Peter—they must “walk by faith, following the example of Abraham” (Vatican II, Decree on Priestly Ministry and Life, art. 22). They have to develop a deep devotion to the eucharist, because they have to gather the Christian people for its celebration later on, knowing that this is the centra) mystery of their lives, "the source and apex of the whole work of preaching the gospel” (Ibid., art. 5). For all this the community prays when the bishop rises and invites the faithful to pray: My dear friends, let us earnestly pray to the Lord, our God, that he may pour out the abundance of his blessings on these his servants, who want to dedicate themselves to the service of the Church. Some or all of the following petitions are then pronounced by the deacon or some other minister: For our brothers that they more closely adhere to Christ, our Lord, and become his faithful witnesses before the world, let us pray to the Lord. That they get ready to carry the burdens of their fellow men and be willing to listed always to the voice of the Spirit, let us pray to the Lord. That he make them ministers of the Church who strengthen the faith of their brothers and gather them together for the celebration of the eucharist, let us pray to the Lord. The bishop continues, concluding this prayer of intercession: Lord help us and listen to our prayers. Kindly bless + these your sons who want to dedicate themselves to your service, and to the pastoral care of your people. May they grow in holiness to the joy of your Church and become worthy to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. Another, optional formula is found in the new ritual with which the bishop may conclude the intercessions of the people. It asks for a deep love of God in the new clerics. Out of this love of God the love TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 365 for those for whom they are to be ordained later on is to grow. The Spirit of love is to inspire them to serve God willingly in their brothers and sisters in all conditions of life. Lord. grant to these your servants to obtain an ever deeper knowledge of the mystery of your love for them. Give them the grace to get involved in the affairs of your people with open heart and willing mind. May the Spirit of charity be active in them that they serve willingly their brothers and sisters in all conditions of life. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. — R. Amen. If this rite of admission to the clerical state takes place during Mass the celebration continues in the normal way. If it is held during a celebration of the Word of God, the bishop now blesses the congrega tion and dismisses them. 4. FROM THE LECTORATE TO THE COMMISSIONING TO PROCLAIM THE WORD OF GOD. A. HISTORY The lectorate is the oldest of the minor orders in the Church, both in the East and the West. Not all could read in Christian antiquity. Therefore, those who could were asked to do so for the benefit of the assembly. Soon this service became an ecclesiastical office conferred in a special ordination. Rut relatively soon a part of the readings — especially the gospel — was reserved to the presbyters and deacons, particularly during the celebration of the eucharist. In the Roman High Mass even the epistle was withdrawn from the lector and reserved for the subdeacon so that in the end, simple lectors were only allowed to read the lessons from the Old Testament in Mass and the readings from Sacred Scripture at Matins in the Divine Office. No wonder that in the end the office of lectors became obsolete in the Roman rite and disappeared. When it was re-introduced in the tenth century—together with the other minor orders—it remained simply a stepping stone to the presbyterate. When the Council of Trent tried to restore the minor orders it did not succeed because it failed to give them a new meaning and 366 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS real tasks, even though it stated in a special canon: “If anyone shall say that besides the priesthood there are not in the Church other orders, both major and minor, by which, as by certain steps, advance is made to the priesthood, let him be anathema” (Denz. 895/1772). When the bishops were asked about liturgical matters to be reformed before Vatican II, a number of them brought up also the question of the minor orders. In the future, porters and exorcists are no longer needed in the liturgy. With high probability the order of the subdiaconate will ulso be suppressed. Its tasks will be taken over by the acolytate, its obliga tions by the diaconate. Two additional questions will be inserted into the ordination rite of deacons: one concerning celibacy, the other con cerning the willingness to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours. There are to remain, consequently, two minor orders; the lectorate and the acolytate. B. PROBLEMS One of the guidelines Of the ongoing reform of priestly education states that in the years of their formation the seminarians be gradually introduced into the duties of their future pastoral life. Relatively soon in the course of their training they should be made familiar with their principal task: the proclamation of the Word of God. But, as a matter of fact, every Christian has the right and the duty to proclaim the good news in virtue of the Sacraments of Christian initiation (Vatican II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, art, 3). Consequently, it has been rightly observed that the minor orders are not ramifications of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but concretisations of the Christian obligation to proclaim the Word of God which has its basis in the Sacraments of initiation, particularly in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Church acknowledges this fact, especially today, by com missioning lay people, both men and women, to proclaim the Word of God, granting them the so-called "missio canonica”, and ordering others to act as lectors in liturgical assemblies, even in the celebration of the eucharist. This task is, as the guidelines of the new Missal say “a ministerial, not a presidential function” (n. 34). These deliberations could induce us to suspect that the lectorate also be suppressed. But this is not the case. For the time being, at least, Rome is not willing to drop the lectorate nor the acolytate. Actual ly, by publishing experimental rites for these two minor orders, Rome is trying to revive them and to give them a new meaning. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 367 These two minor orders are now to be conferred by the local ordinary or, in the case of religious, by the major superiors (abbot, provincial or their equivalents). These ministers may also delegate other priests who have some higher ecclesiastical office. It is obvious, then, that before seminarians be sent out to teach religion in schools, they should be ordained lector, that is to say, they should be commissioned to proclaim the Word of God. There should be, however, an appropriate space of time between the admission to the clerical state and the lectorate on the one side, and the lectorate and the acolytate on the other. The judge in this matter is the bishop or the religious ordinary. C. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE The ordination of lectors takes place either during Mass or in a celebration of the Word of God. Lectors are ordained before the first reading of the Mass or after the gospel. Here appears a kind of hesita tion in the new ritual. Practically all reformed rites of Sacraments and sacramentals to be held during the eucharistic celebration, have now been inserted between the celebration of the Word and before the preparation of the gifts. If lectors are ordained before the first reading of Mass, it gives to one, or at highest tiro of the newly ordained the possibility to exercise this ministry during the eucharistic celebration. After the candidates have been called nominally by the deacon or a priest, the bishop addresses them with the following words: My dear sons, God the Father fulfilled the mystery of our salvation and revealed it to us through his Son, Jesus Christ, who is God and man. After he had told us everything the Father had ordered him to reveal to us, he entrusted the Church with the task to preach this Good News to the whole world. As lectors, as readers of the Word of God, you are to help in its proclamation. When you will be ordained lectors in the Church, you become co-responsible for the faith of your fellow men, since faith has its very foundation in the Word of God. You have to read the Word of God in the liturgical assemblies; you have to give religious instruction to children and adults, to baptized people and to catechumens; you have even to proclaim the Gospel, that is to say, the Good News, to people who have never heard of it. In this way, through your help, all men are to come to the knowledge of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent into the world, so that they may obtain eternal life. While you proclaim to others the Word of God, you have to receive it yourselves willingly in your hearts. Meditate eagerly on this Word. May your whole way of life be a manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ before the world. 368 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hb 11:6). But howare people “to believe in him of whom they never heard And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:4 f). For future priests and deacons this official sending takes place now in their ordination as lectors. In order to be able to instruct others in the Word of God the lector has to study this Word of God and to meditate regularly on it. “Practice these duties; devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Take he:-d to yourself and to teaching; hold to that, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers’’ (1 Tim 4:15; 16). After the allocution all stand and the bishop invites the faithful to pray for the candidates: My dear brothers and sisters, let us pray to God, the all-powerful Father, that he may bless these his servants, whom he has chosen to become lectors in the Church. May they faithfully perform the tasks entrusted to them. By preaching Christ, may they glorify the Father who is in heaven. After a while of silent prayer the bishop sums up the prayers of the assembly, asking for God’s blessing; it is to enable the seminarians to meditate constantly on the Word of God. It is to give them a deeper insight into the content of their faith, and to grant them the ability to communicate the Christian message effectively to others: O God, you are the sourse of light and goodness. You sent your Son, the Word of Life, to mankind, to reveal the mystery of your love. Bless + these our brothers whom you have chosen to become lectors in the Church. Help them to meditate always on your word. Give them a deer, knowledge of the faith so that they become ready to proclaim the truth faithfully to their brothers and sisters. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. — Amen. By handing over to the candidates a volume of Sacred Scripture and ordering them to proclaim the word of God faithfully, the bishop bestows on them the office of readers, saying: Receive the book of Sacred Scripture. Proclaim the word of God faithfully to your brothers and sisters that it may grow vigorously in their hearts. — B. Amen. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS In the meantime, especially if many are to be ordained, one may sing Psalm 18 or any othej- suitable chant. Then the Mass continues in the usual way. If the lectors have been ordained before the first reading, one of them reads the lesson. Another of them announces the individual petitions of the Prayer of the Faithful. 5. FROM THE ACOLYTATE TO THE COMMIS SIONING OF EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION A. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT The highest of the four minor orders was the acolytate. From the very beginning it had a close affinity to the Eucharist (breaking of the eucharistic bread; "fermentum”), to the altar and to all that is connected with it. In the course of time the tasks of the acolytes were partly entrusted to lay people and partly taken over by higher orders. Often the aco lyte’s tasks at the altar were entrusted to small boys. Like the other minor orders, also the acolytate became one of the stepping stones to the priestly ordination. When it was decided to retain from among the four minor orders the acolytate, it had to be given new tasks. The acolyte is now to be ordained as assistant of the priest and the deacon; he has to help them at the altar. He is to be the extra-ordinary minister of the distribution of holy Communion. He may lawfully distribute holy Communion if priests or deacons are not available. He may bring holy Communion to the sick and the aged who cannot regularly attend the Sunday services in the parish. In case the number of communicants is so great, he may help the priests in parishes in order not to delay unduly the end of holy Mass. B. PROBLEMS But in this case too we are faced by a certain dilemma. In virtue of their royal priesthood, the Church entrusts today again lay people with the task, not only to conduct priestless Sunday services and to preach the Word of God at these occasions. She allows them also to bring holy Communion to these celebrations from the parish church and to distribute the eucharist to the people attending these services. Many 370 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS religious sisters working as nurses bring today in a number of countries holy Communion to the sick. Obviously, these lay people are to be com missioned to this task, and there exist proper, though experimental, rites (cf. Liturgical Information Bulletin 5(1970) pp. JKL). This act of commissioning, however, must not be considered an ordination. Here we are now faced with the question: What is to happen to a seminarian who had been commissioned to distribute holy Communion or lo act as reader, or obtained the “missio canonica”, when his classmates are to receive the minor orders of lector and acolyte? Is he to receive these orders, after he has exercised the tasks connected with them, event ually over a longer period of time? The most reasonable solution would be not to ordain him lector and acolyte, because the Church had com missioned him earlier to these tasks. After the reception into the clerical state this seminarian could be ordained deacon immediately. But this is a matter to be left to the decision of the hierarchy. In view of these problems theologians as well as liturgists have asked themselves whether the present-day attempts to revive at least two of the minor orders w[U be successful, because the sharp decrease of priestly vocations in many countries will necessarily imply that major seminarians will be relatively soon asked to teach religion in schools and to help out in parishes on Sundays. This help will certainly include the distribution of holy Communion. C. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE This rite consists of a calling of the candidates, an allocution of the ordaining minister, the ordination prayer (with invitation anti collect) and finally the handing over of the symbols of the office of acolyte. The acceptance into the clerical state and the ordination of lectors may be held during a celebration of the Word of God (Bible service); the acolytate, however, because of its close connection to the eucharist, has to be conferred during the celebration of the eucharist. In the course of his homily the bishop has also to mention, toward the end, the tasks entrusted to acolytes in the Church and the qualities of his life. Aco lytes as extra-ordinary ministers of holy Communion make is possible for their fellow Christians to become one with their Lord. Therefore, acolytes should be themselves united with Christ in sincere personal love. This is a new motive why, as acolytes, the candidates have to strive after a deep and intensive love of Christ and their fellow men: My dear sons, you have been chosen to become acolytes. Thus you get a special part in the mystery of the Church, whose summit and well-spring TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 371 is the eucharist. By the eucharist the people of God develops and grows. From now on you have to perform the tasks entrusted to you in religious celebrations, by assisting priests and deacons. As extra ordinary ministers of the distribution of holy Communion you have to give the body of Christ to the faithful, and bring it also to those who are sick. When you do all this, keep in mind that you become one with your brothers when you share with them the one bread of Christ. May the word of the Lord which he spoke to his disciples during the Last Supper strengthen you in your service: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” After an invitation to pray for the future acolytes, the bishop sums up the silent prayers of all present. Jesus is the true bread of lift Riven to us by the heavenly Father. Acolytes bring this heavenly bread to other members of the Church. They need God’s special assistance for this task, to be faithful and trustworthy stewards of the table of the Lord. Exhorting the faithful to prayer the bishop says; My brothers and sisters, let us ask God the all-powerful Father, to pour on these his servants the abundance of his blessings. He chose them to become acolytes. May he. therefore, give them the strength to be his faithful servants in the Church. After silent prayer of all, the bishop continues: Father, in your loving kindness you gave to the Church through your Son the Bread of Life. Bless • these our brothers whom we chose to the office of acolyteS. Help them to become faithful stewards of your holy altars. Through Christ our Lord. — B. Amen. In a symbolic act the bishop entrusts finally to the seminarians their new office A vessel (paten or ciborium) filled with unconsecrated altar bread is handed over to each one. The ordaining prelate exhorts them to be worthy servants of the Lord's table, and worthy stewards of the Church which grows through the eucharist. While he gives the vessel holding hosts for holy Mass, the bishop says: Receive this vessel with bread for the celebration of the eucharist. Be a worthy servant of the Lord's table and of the Church. 372 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS For the preparation of the gifts some of the newly ordained acolytes bring this vessel, together with wine and water, to the altar and hand it back to the bishop, for the celebration of the eucharist. Immediately after the priests and deacons of the concelebrated Mass, the newly or dained receive holy Communion. Before the distribution of holy Communion to the people starts, the bishop may hand over the vessel a second time, this time filled with consecrated hosts. As the Bread of Life they give the Lord under the eucharistic species to their fellow Christians and act in this way for the first time as extraordinary minis. EPISCOPAL ORDINATION ANNIVERSARIES Let u,s pray for our Bishops on the occasion of their ordination anniversaries. Most Rev. Emilio Cinense May 11, 1957 Most Rev. Jesus J. Sison May 11, 1963 Most Rev. Juan N. Nilmar May 11, 1959 Most Rev. Godofredo Padernal May 18, 1968 Most Rev. Mariano M. Madriaga May 24, 1938 Most Rev. Felix Perez May 27, 1969 Most Rev. Amado Paulino May 27, 1969 Most Rev. Antonio F. Frondosa May 28, 1952 Most Rev. Mariano G. Gaviola June 4, 1963 Most Rev. Cipriano V. Urgel June 12, 1962 Most Rev. Cornelio de Wit June 19, 1962 Most Rev. Charles van de Ouwelant June 21, 1955 Most Rev. Francisco Cruces June 24, 1968 Most Rev. Alfredo Ma. Obviar June 29, 1944 Most Rev. Gerard Mongeau June 29, 1944 I HAVE ONLY ONE THEME: CHRIST * By MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN T. S. Eliot, the poet, said that. “Today men dream up sys tems so that we will not have to be good”. We talk about re newal. It is a very comfortable subject, first of all, because it refers to something outside ourselves — structures establish ment, the Church, the way we dross, where we live, and whether we can do “our thing”. Renewal has another advantage: you can discuss it. You never have to make a personal decision; we' are all out of the firing line. The trouble is out there. So in the Church today, it is very much like the story of the court which decided, in the presence of the king, to have a parade of all of its costumers. Various men were hired-one to wear a hunting costume, another a sport costume, another a court, another a diplomatic, another regal. Hundreds of men passed by with hundreds of different uniforms and finally a little boy who was there said,” “Look, the king is naked”. So 1 wonder if we have forgotten the King. We talk too much today about the Church. Notice when vou try to buy a book. Almost all the books are about the Church, and they are against it. (Generally, if you read one •ou read them all). Very few are about Christ, about the King. So we are going to talk about the king, not to convince you—you are already convinced. That is why you are here. You are an elect, a select group, a credit to the Church. What a joy it is to look out upon you and to see that you are identifiable is those consecrated to the King. My good Sisters, we think we know all about Him. We know al) about Him from books-yes, the way we have been taught-but let us see if we really know Him. In the sixteenth "This is the text of the homily delivered by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen during the Consorium Perfectac Caritatis Meeting on 2 March 1971 at Holiday Inn. Washington, D.C. 374 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS chapter of Matthew, Our Lord asked the most important ques tion. In the world no question is answered until this one is answered. “Who am I ? First He asks the Gallop Poll: “Who do men say that lam? What is the percentage”. “Twenty-nine percent, John the Baptist; sixteen percent, Elijah; Thirty-two percent, Jeremiah; and the rest one of the prophets”. So He is a man. "Who do you say?”. The twelve — no answer be cause they were fighting among themselves. And God illumines one of them who steps out of the line and says, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” That was right! He is man and He is God. Now this is the theology. This is the hypostatic union; this is the way we meet Christ, all of us. Now we have what man says of Him. What does He say of Himself? This is the question we have to answer: who does He say He is? He says, “I am Ebed Yahweh; I am your suffer ing servant. I have come to handle guilt for sin, and 1 am going to Jerusalem; I am going to be delivered over to the Gentiles; I am young to be crucified; and the third day I am going to rise again.” And just as soxxn as Peter heard this, he said, “Listen, we are willing to have a dying, divine Christ, but we are not willing to have a suffering one. We want no victim. We want to talk about free equals; but we do not want to talk about victimhood”. Why Satan? Because Satan tempts one away from the cross. The Gospel of last Sunday gave three short cuts away from the cross. Firstly, follow your taste obey your instinct. Secondly, propagandize and follow technology; people want wonders; throw yourself from the steeples. And thirdly, theology is politics; the kingdom of the world is mine; you can win all this without paying any attention to guilt. So who is Our Lord? He is the victim for the world of sin. Now this is Christ. This is what he says of himself. And He called you and He called me to share that life. There follow some consequences from this for our spiritual lives. I will see how many I can develop in a short space of time. IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST We have to be identifiable. That is first. In the Incarna tion God Took upon Himself an individual human nature from Mary. Because it was never capped, limited by a human per sonality, it can absorb every nature in the world that will give himself or herself to Him. And so in our spiritual life Christ says to us, “I need other human natures. I will have no other HOMILY 375 eyes in the world except your own; no other lips but yours. Would you give me your human nature?”. When you give it, give it. And give it so much that when you renew My sacrifice you can say (the secondary meaning of the words of the con secration), "This is my body; this is my blood”. We are not keeping back our intellect; it is captured by Him. And we are not keeping our will; we are not singing the song, “I want to be me”. I don’t want to be me; I want to be His. The more totally I am His, the more He can do with me. If I had a pencil, and wanted that pencil to write “God” it would be responsive to me. It would be a supple instrument in my hand to my will. It would be flexible. I could do any thing with it. Suppose, however, that the pencil had a con sciousness of its own. and when I wanted to write “God”, 1 wrote “dog”. It would be a useless pencil. And, Sisters, the reason ice are losing our effectiveness in the world is that Un people are not seeing that ice are Christ’s instruments. And they know it. They know it by our actions; they know it by our dress; they know it by our talk. The instinct of the laity is infallible about us priests. Any individual judgement of a lav person may be awry; but the corporate judgement is right. They know ns. And they want us right. And believe me within the next twenty years, they are going to set us right. They set the bishops right in the Council of Constantinople, and they will do it again, because they want us to be what we are supposed to be — His. Thus is why ice must spend at least one hour a day in medita tion — at least, an absolute minimum. It takes fifteen minutes to slough off the world. IVe hare to first escape the world, then we hare got to inscape into it so that we interiorize Christ. HV put Him into our consciousness in meditation and that seeps down into unconsciousness and comes out in the way We teach, in the way we act, in the way ice lore. This is our first practical conclusion of being a follower of Christ who is a suffering ser vant. the slave of humanity. We are the slave of humanity, helping Him to remove the stain of guilt in His name. That s our first role. RELATION TO THE WORLD Our second role is in relation to the world. We have been too separated from the world. In the Vatican Council the world came into the Church through the pen, and the Church went into the world as Paul VI was crowned outside in the piazza of 376 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS St. Peter’s. We have been too separated from suffering huma nity, from the sick and the socially disinherited, from those who are calling for the Church. Those who plead, “We have to busy ourselves with the world”, are right-half right. We know that, first, we are Christ’s. Once we are His, then we become useful to the world, then and only then. In the story of Maltha and Mary, there is found not the distinction between the contemplative and the active life. This story follows the story of the Good Samaritan. And lest some would conclude from the Good Samaritan, that simply because the liturgists, the priest and Levite, were on their way to litur gical worship in the temple and ignored the world, that there fore, we have to give up entirely the divine and devote ourselves totally and solely to the world, Our Blessed Lord followed up that story with Martha and Mary to re-mind us that there is limit to activity. And that is why He said to Martha, “Martha, listen. Surely, we have to live. I am willing to eat a thousand island salad but not provided you go through a thousand diffe rent kinds of legalities. Believe me there comes a time when you must sit at my feet. You are too active. You are to much engaged in work.” In the gospel of next Sunday we have the Transfiguration. Peter wanted to stay up in the mountain. Our Lord said, “No you have to go down. There is frustration. There is evidence that there is half-witness. There is a distraught father down be low in that valley”. And when He got down, what did He find? He found nine of His apostles absolutely helpless in the face of driving out the devil. Our Lord gave to His apostles the power to drive out devils and here were nine helpless men. And this father came to our Lord, “Maybe you can help me; maybe you can help me”. And what did Our Lord sav to these apostles? He said, “How long do I have to suffer with you? You have no faith. That is why you cannot drive out devils. Why are you so intent on taking care of the distressed and the mentally destitute and so forth, if you do not have any faith, if you are not really close to me-”. And I tell you. Sister, that if we simply think that what we have to do is to busy ourselves in the social order without staying close to Christ, we are never going to do His work, as effectively as the Communists or the Secularists or the Humanists, because we have already failed before we start. We are like Gehazi. Gehazi was the servant of one of the Old Testament prophets who was to take the rod and HOMILY 377 to go and heal, and he could not heal. He had all the instru ments, worthless. What was the first word of Our Lord’s public life? “Come, Come, Come. Come to me; learn of me. The branches cannot live without the vine. Without me you can do nothing. Come”. What was the last word of Our Lord’s public life? “Go! Go into the world. Now you will be effective simply because you have come. You learn of me — caught my spirit, caught my fire — and now you can go into the world and not become secularized and not deny me as Peter did when a girl came up to him as he warmed himself by the fire and said, “You have been with the Galilean. And he said, “No, I don’t know Him, no I don’t know Him. I don’t dress like Him; I don’t talk like Him; I don’t identify myself with Christ”. So first we come then we go and then we are effective and we have power. This is the source of our scandal today. Believe me the Lord takes us at His word and our word when we say we are His. And we have to live intimately and closely with Him. And that is ivhy I say, Sisters, that our big problem today is not the Church. The Church irill settle itself once ire get back to Christ. When ice live close to Christ the Church trill begin to grow again and ire trill begin to get vocations. If we are not with Him, we will not stop the apostasy until we get back again to Him. It is the only thing in the world that works. Those nine — nine apostles were down below after Our Lord came down from the mountain of the Transfi guration— they were the Church. They symbolized priests; they symbolized nuns — ineffective — no faith. So I have only one theme: Christ. Sisters, 1 am travelling the country from one end to ano ther giving priest’s retreats, talking in secular universities (1 do not go to Catholic ones very much). Secular universities: I have been in forty of them in the last eight or nine months. They are looking for something. They have not found the answer in just the rock stories or music about Jesus. One of the New York papers this morning said: “There is a kind of religious ritualism instead of spirituality”. But in any case, they are reaching out. And there is only one salvation and there is no other name except heaven by which we can be saved except Christ and Him crucified. And it is a challenge to young people. They want to hear it! And that is why I say you have to begin to be His totally, completely. Then we need not fear for the world. 378 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS KENOSIS Do you think we have time for another point? And now 1 am hesitating to which one to give you. Oh yes! I think one of the most important texts in Scripture for these days. In the second chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians (I recently heard someone read, “the epistle to the Filipinos”), verses six and following, St. Paul tells us, "Christ emptied Himsef, taking upon Himself the form of a slave — not ser vant, slave—and became subject to death for our sakes”. The Greek word for death is “kenosis”. He put off His glory — we almost have that whole Second Philippians in St. John’s des cription of what Our Lord did the night of the Last Supper — He got up from the table, took off His outer garment, gird ed Himself with a towel which was the mark of a slave, got down and washed the dirty feet of His disciple, poured water, wiped them. That was like rising up in heaven and throwing off His glory, girding Himself with the towel of humanity, pouring out His blood, and washing our souls and sanctifying them with the Holy Spirit. CHRIST’S HOLD ON YOU Do you think that would be humiliating? What is then for God to take upon Himself a human form — limiting Him self to human qualities, subjecting Himself to human birth, growing never speaking the WORD but speaking words, sub jecting Himself to pain? Has God ever died, ever suffered? You ask these questions and you have the answers. God suf fered and died. Was God hungry? Did He ever go without food as we do? Does He know what it is to be born in slum? Was He ever the victim of totalitarian regime? Did He have to run from a political tyrant? Was He ever among betrayers? He ever have His lips blistered with a kiss? Did He know what it was to have a migraine headache? Did He know what it was to be wounded as people are wounded in war, in auto mobile accidents? So He took upon Himself our misery and then He had to spend the rest of His life with men — all of them from the wrong side of the tracks except one, and he was the one who betrayed Him, And so on the night of the Last Sup HOMILY 379 per He said to Philip, “Philip, Philip, have I been all this time with you, and still you do not understand”. And now this is the humilation of the Son of God. This is our suffering ser vant. This is our master. This is our King. He is the one to whom we have communicated ourselves. How effective are we? We are effective just to the extent that He has mastery over us. If you teach school, if you rule, if you work for the poor, regardless of what it is, your effectiveness will depend entirely on how much of a hold Christ has on you. So that the reason we are not sometimes more effective is because we do not let Christ get a hold of us. We are not open enough. W’e keep secret guard in the back of our hearts. We lock Him out of the house. Do you remember when the Old Testa ment prophet came to the widow? Her sons were about to be sold to the creditors. He said, “What do you have?”. She said, "I have' one vessel of oil”. “Go out to the neighbours to gather up all the vessels and crocks that you can”. And the prophet told her to pour the oil. And the oil poured, and poured and poured, and it did not stop. Finally she said to her son, “Get me another vessel”. He said, “There is no more”. And the oil stopped. That oil is the spirit of Christ who comes into us to possess us. And so to be filled with Him. the con dition is that ire empty ourselves. GETTING “WHOLE” AGAIN Sisters, this is our problem today. It is not renewal. The word renewal is not found in the New Testament in relation ship to any kind of structure or dress. It is found only in relationship to two things: one, “Be infants”; and secondly, “Become a new creature. Listen, we don’t need renewal, we don’t need renovation, like around a house. We have got to get whole again. We are like Nicodemus who said, How can I be born?”. Well ire hare to be bon ayain, not jusf. be renewed. We have a great enemy outside — the devil and his cohorts. He is very real. Theologians do not talk about the devil; psychia trists do. The two greatest psychiatrists in the world are captured by the devil in modern society. We don’t talk about it. We don’t believe it anymore. We don’t believe in guilt and hence we don’t talk about Christ and about sin and about guilt. We have an enemy to fight. 380 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS GOD’S WAY Our ranks are decreasing. Maybe that is the way God wants it. Maybe He is doing to us What He did to Gideon. He told Gideon to go out and capture the Midianites, 65,000. Gideon had an army of 30,000. God said, “Your army is too great. Tell the cowards among them to leave”. Do you know how many cowards there were? 20,000-two-thirds. He had 10,000 left. God said to him, “Send them to the river; watch them drink” Many of them threw themselves prone and drank from the river. And others ran along the river and tapped up the water like an animal. They drank in the manner of the dog. And God said. “That is your army. Now go out, and I am with you”. Sisters, God is thinning our ranks. You are the army of Gideon. You are the elect. And the Lord is counting on you. The very fact that you have come here from all over the world, all over the United States, is an indication that you have felt in your own hearts that there has to be rebirth, that we have to get back to Christ; get back to His cross. We are .suffering from a disease of staurophobia. “Stauros” in Greek is “cross” and “phobia” is “fear” — staurophobia. Discipline, cross, penance, cxcentrated decivili zation— we never thought of that, just of society, always our selves. But let us yire ourselves to Him and then we will be effective in the world and will really renew the Church, re newed by our beiny reborn in Christ. God bless you. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “(The) services of Monsignor Jovellanos for the good of the soul and even of the body of every inhabitant of Tondo cannot be measured by time nor can it be equalled by any earthly treasure. No one can count the number of souls borne by him into heaven, delivered by him from the sorrows of the hear! and of the body, and brought by him to goodness, holiness and salvation.’’ Rufino Cardinal Santos, D.D. RESPONSE TO "MANIFESTO" OF 33 THEOLOGIANS * Rev. Philippe Delhaye OPINION On 17 March, 33 professors of theology published a mani festo "against the resignation that exists in the Church”. Cath olic opinion has reacted in very different ways according to countries and regions. In Belgium, for example, the Flemish speaking papers devoted a certain attention to it, laying stress on the names of professors from Nijmegen who had signed this text. On the other hand, French-speaking papers, even those of progressive trend, gave only a few short lines to the state ment. It was the same in France, where the paragraphs on the manifesto gave the impression of a certain dissatisfaction, with out explaining why. In other countries, on the contrary, certain environments reproduced the complete text. It is necessary, therefore, to examine it briefly. It is not a question of being polemical: the Church today has been only too ready to set the example of dissension to a world that expects from it a testi mony of peace and harmony. We cannot be silent, however; we should be accused 6f rejecting dialogue, and, furthermore, we should lose the opportunity of discussing unjust accusations and regrettable contesting projects. Qui facet consentire videtur. THE SIGNATORIES In such a case, one thinks instinctively of reading the signatures first of all. It is in the nature of man to attribute at least as much importance to the persons speaking as to th-”1 arguments put forward. "Thirty three professors of theology" is a very small number. If compared with the number of pro' This article taken from L’Osservatore Romano, May 11. 1972 382 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS fcssors teaching in the faculties and seminaries, five or six thousand in the whole world, it is certainly not a large per centage. One wonders, too, how the authors of the proclama tion got together and what meaning is to be given to the list makes it possible to find a solution to the first question. Two schools of theology are represented substantially: Tubinger with seven names, Nijmegen with five. The most advanced group of Concilium, in particular some organizers of the 1969 congress and the spearhead of the collaborators of the review bearing the same name, also appear here. It is known, of course, that the various councils of the sections of this review gather a large number of professors and researchers. But the fact that they up 15 of the 33 names is very significant all the same. Closer membership of this movement certainly explains, more over, the presence of certain more isolated signatures, in Madrid, Vienna, Philadelphia, Toronto, Bonn, Lucerne, for example. The absences, also conspicuous, should be studied I learned be change that a very well-known theologian had been paid a visit by the organizer of this manifesto and had refused to support it, saying that the text .did not correspond either to his prob lems or to his ecclesiology. These are important words, preg nant with meaning, which are well worth thinking over. THE MEANING OF THE DOCUMENT To understand the meaning of this protest, it is necessary to set it in the general movement of ideas. Since the end of the Council, innumerable pontifical and episcopal texts and theo logical writings have had as their purpose to bring the teach ings and directives of Vatican II into theology, pastoral life and institutions. The success of this immense effort is cer tainly not complete; this is clearly seen by the way the Sove reign Pontiff is continually coming back to, and stressing the lessons of the Council. Certain regretable expressions, of op position have appeared, but we must take into account, above all. the slowness of movement of ideas. After each of the great councils, historians note, it takes 25 or 30 years before the mes sage is. completely assimilated. But some people have become impatient. It seemed to them that the ways opened by the Council were not getting anywhere; so they looked for others. This movement of the “post-Council” had expected to triumph at the Brussels Congress, but is was forced to realize that it had no backing. It renewed its RESPONSE TO “MANIFESTO” 383 efforts in 1971 to condition the Synod; the Holy Father publicly noted the action of pressure groups, particularly to modify or suppress the law of ecclesiastical celibacy. In the course of the summer of 1971, veritable press and radio campaigns were or ganized as regards particularly notorious defections which, as was cynically said, should “make the Synod think”. A new theology of the priesthood was insistently proposed. It prac tically suppressed the difference between the ordinary priest hood and the ministerial priesthood. The Christian assembly was to be the determining element in conferring the priestly or episcopal service. The Synod was not impressed by these ideas. It recalled that the powers of the bishop and the priest come from Christ by apostolic succession, that the Eucharist makes present the sacrifice of Christ, the mediator between God and men, that it could not therefore be confused with a meal of brotherly com munion. Under these conditions, the priest is a man consecrated to God and his involvement in secular values (profession, politics, family) must be different, without however discrediting these values, to which laymen are witnesses by the grace of Christ. The progressive movement did its utmost to discredit the Synod The fact is now well known to make it unnecessary to stress it further. As a result it lost some of its sympathizers, who realized they had been harbouring illusions. To defend themselves personally and to rally their routed troops, the par tisans of a “beyond the Council” are forced to take a new path: contestation. What they are afraid of above all is to see the discontented abandon the fight. The manifesto of the 33 merely says more harshly and clearly w'hat they had been hinting at lor six months. The tactic it presents,is what might be called an ecclesiastical “guerilla”. The authorities are to be harrassed by interventions of small groups, and apparently harmless re forms are to be put forward to prepare for greater ones IS THIS THEOLOGY? It is very curious to see that, in countries in w hich the press merely summarized the document, it mentioned the fact of dis content with the Church and its criticism of the Church, but passed over the “strategic” and longer part of the document. This can be regarded as a sign of uneasiness wdth regard to such undignified maneuvers on the part of priests and professors BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Christians as a whole, even those who criticize the present situa tion, hesitate on seeing professors of theology commit them selves to contestation. Some people even see it as being a sign of clericalism, for the reform of the procedure of episcopal nominations and the consultations asked for in the document concern laymen as much as ecclesiastics and theologians. One cannot help feeling — however much they protest — that it is the action of tiny, noisy minority trying to deceive people about the value of their aims and methods. Is that really what the Christian people expect from theolo gians today? In many countries, the faithful are scandalized by the doctrinal and moral lapses of those who ought to have served as leaders of opinion. What the whole Church wants today, in the great light of Vatican II, is to be increasingly faithful to the Gospel, without denying human values. Constant study of the message of the Revelation of Christ in its eternal and contemporary meaning, this is what the faithful expect of professors of theology. John XXIII, Paul VI, Guadium et Spes laid great stress on the ipethod of the “signs of the times’’. It is a matter of Christians being more sensitive than ever before to human aspirations and comparing them with the faith in order to keep what is praiseworthy, and strengthen it by its insertion in Christ. In this pastoral work, theologians have a specific role, for they must not be content with a certain knowledge of Revelation or of public opinion. They must study the Scriptures, with the aid of literary and historical sciences, according to the faith and in fidelity to the magisterium. They must find an analysis and a Christian understanding of the new human sciences, just as St. Augustine and St. Thomas re-interpreted Platonism and Aristotelianism in a Christian context. This is not remaining extraneous to the life of the Church, as the 33 say. It means preparing the patterns of thought and action by which the magisterium will be inspired, if it considers it opportune bv virtue of its pastoral charism, and by which the Christian will live in the renewed joy of being more of a man because he is a Christian and more of a Christian because he is more of a man. NO FALSE RESIGNATION! In our turn, let us adopt the slogan of the 33 to apply it to their own manifesto. To the extent to which it takes this text into account, Christian opinion has two paths before it. RESPONSE TO “MANIFESTO” 385 Some run the risk of refusing all renewal, maintaining that severity and strictness are the only ways of ending contesta tion. They are not completely wrong. No community can ac cept declarations from some of its members however few, that they wish to undermine the group from within. But, on the other hand, if we attach importance to a bad-tempered gesture, are we not falling into a trap? Is it not better to adopt a posi tive attitude? There is no error that does not contain an ele ment of truth. The 33 ask for more co-responsibility. This is also what the Holy Father and so many bishops have done since 1965. We must continue in this direction, but keep in mind the fact that anarchy and contestion are not gestures of responsible Christians, but risks of irresponsible childishness. The Church proclaims freedom ad extra but not ad intra, the document declares. But as a matter of fact, if there is a conflict between authority and freedom, the immense majority of the faithful feel that freedom has prevailed over authority. They sometimes wonder what they must still believe and prac tise, so many are the voices raised in contestation and denial. They ask for a return to a certain authority, understood essentially as a service of the truth that Christ entrusted to Peter and to the Apostles. Cardinal Garrone showed this clear ly in his courageous answer to the document of the 33. But is a discreet exercise of authority possible without self-discipline? Must not theologians be more vigilant than ever not to propose personal opinions, ideas that are not mature or justified, as certainties. Meditating upon the text of the 33 in the perspective of faith and charity, we must all see in it, an appeal for increased vigilance, ever greater faithfulness to Christ and to the Church. The 33 are wrong to preach contestation to us, and we must say so. Let us not give them the opportunity, however, to play the part of the misunderstood. It is in the very name of faithfulness to Christ — which, I like to think, we share with them — that we refuse the ways of disobedience and contesta tion. The Religious Habit and Secular Dress by Sister Ellen Fitzgerald, R.S.M. THE observations I make are based on. my experience as a full time resident graduate student at a Catho lic university. Between 1966 and 1971 I have lived with perhaps 175200 different Sisters representing many religious orders from all over the United States and Canada. In the course of these five years, the majority of the Sisters have given up wearing the habit. I have lived in the middle of this large-scale shift since its very beginning: during the entire period I have been wearing a contemporary habit and veil. After my five years of observation and questioning, any evaluation I could make of the “experimentation” with secular clothing would have to be unfavourable. Several Sisters told me that they hoped to be able to get along with four or five simple, basic suits and dresses; none cf them wore able to do so. It is not socially acceptable in the professional world to wear the same things day after day, unless one is wearing habit. On the contrary, there is a constant outlay of money for new and stylish accessories, make up and jewellery, for new mix-and-match items, for new types of clothing to keep up with fashion trends (for instance, almost every Sister who had a wardrobe of suits and dresses a couple of years ago now has another wardrobe of pant-suits), and for different clothes for the many different occasions that come up in the more active lives we now lead. Again, it is not socially acceptable to wear the same outfit to a picnic by the l; ke and to an evening concert, for taking a bicycle trip to the grocery store and for teaching a class of young men. These are just a few of the actual occasions I have met which would have called for entirely different types of clothes, had I not been wearing a habit. Thus, the Sisters who wear secular clothes must accumulate extensive and costly wardrobes. They tend also to spend a good deal of time and money caring for these wardrobes and for their hair styling. RELIGIOUS POVERTY Related to this matter of expense is the deeper issue of religious poverty. Besides wondering whether we really want to spend so much community money on ourselves when it could be put to so many other uses, w'e must ask whether either poverty or community is being served when some indivi duals have much more money and many more clothes than RELIGIOUS HABIT 387 their Sisters. This happens in several ways. Some commu nities placed the burden of the initial secular-clothing cash out lay on the Sisters’ relatives. But some Sisters do not have relatives who are willing or able to outfit them. Others do. The hall I live in is shared by Sister graduate students and young women graduate students; and I have heard many cri ticisms from the girls about the elaborate wardrobes and styles of living which they have observed among Sisters here and elsewhere PERSONAL VALUES Besides questions about the values being communicated to other people by the way a Sister dresses and acts, there are many questions which can be raised about her own personal values and how they may be affected by a life-style, including secular clothes, exactly like that of a non-Sister. Undoubtedly it is true that merely wearing a habit does not make one a religious, but surely it is also true that the clothes we wear do have an effect on ourselves and others. All clothing says something about both status and role. If the message is, “I’m pretty, unmarried, and available” it should not be surprising that others will begin responding to the mes sage. And if a person’s style of dress marks her as a success ful. independent, upper middle-class, professional woman, is it too far-fetched to imagine that she will begin thinking of her self in those terms instead of in terms of a poor celibate, obe dient servant To say that there is no connection at all between what we wear and what we are is an extremely naive view of human nature and a denial of the fact that we are incarnate spirit, inspirited fle«h. In fact, such an attitude is really a new variety of angelism; it represents an exclusive emphasis on the spirit and a lack of understanding of the body. Religi ous life is not just like every other form of Christian life, either physically or otherwise, and to pretend so is a disservice to everyone concerned. WATCHING THE PAPER SALES One disturbing factor in the w’hole changeover to secular clothes is the mindlessness w’ith which the step is being taken. There is a pattern involved, a pattern which I have seen repeated over and over literally dozens of times. To begin with, there is a great deal of talk about ideals, about being more available 388 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS for apostolic service, about appearing relevant to today’s young people, about budgets, about limiting oneself to a very simple wardrobe, and so forth. Basic conservative suits are favoured. Then one needs an inexpensive skirt or two to wear around for casual occasions, so as not to wear out the good suit. At this point the Sisters start watching the paper sales. Next, things are bought because more clothing is needed; the season changes and a whole new array of fabricsf style and colour is called for, or various occasions come up which demand different types of clothing. The next step is to buy individual items because they are so useful in extending one’s wardrobe — a scarf that will go with three different suits, or a sweater-vest which can trans form a skirt into a new outfit. As time goes on, things are bought because they are on sale and really are outstanding bar gains. And finally, new clothes are bought on nearly every shop, ping trip because “it was so cute”, or “I needed something to cheer me up after exams,” or “everybody else has one,” or just because “I like it.” ILLUSION OF EXPERIMENT Moreover, in spite of all the talk of experimenting, there never has been real experimentation with secular clothing, be cause a decision to try it out has practically always proved to be an irrevocable decision to wear such clothing all the time. Once people have accumulated an attractive wardrobe and re ceived a few compliments on how pretty they look, they are perhaps not really free to evaluate the so-called “experiment” ob jectively, let alone to choose the habit again .. . THE PRICE OF PEACE Even those Sisters who really would prefer to wear a habit end up in secular clothes once the movement has begun in their communities. When I have asked why this happens, I have been told that it is practically impossible to have peace and unity and charity unless one goes along with what most of the house or most of the community is doing. This process always works to the benefit of those who want secular clothing: for if the habit group criticizes, their uncharitable and intolerant attitude becomes a weapon for those who call for greater openness, free dom, and individuality (that is, for secular clothes) ; whereas if the habit group is composed of truly magnanimous, loving RELIGIOUS HABIT 389 Sisters concerned for their community, they give up their own preference out of unselfish concern for peace and unity. Either way the habit group loses. Theoretically there is freedom of choice, but in practice this simply has not worked out. The pressure usually brought to bear on individuals to take off the habit is hard to believe unless you have experienced it. and it gets worse every year. Every means is used from open derision of the habit and scornful treatment of those who wear it to very subtle forms of persuasion. I have experienced all this myself. PRESSURE AND INERTIA Not a few Sisters in secular clothes seem intent on forcing everyone to go along, almost as if the presence of some Sisters in habits were an unbearable reminder of something, a living pi oof that in fact it is not necessary to take off the habit in order to be a mature, apostolically effective, and personally fulf'l'ed "modern nun”. But my main point in these last few paragraphs is that the decision to wear secular clothing sometimes or “experiment” with it for a while, in the long run. becomes a sort of inertia or fol lowing of the line of least resistance. A few years ago when people were advancing real reasons why it might be a good idea to change to secular clothes, one of the most frequently repeated advantages was supposed to be that Sisters not wearing habits would be more “available.” Over the years this has simply not proved true, at least in the con text of this university. As a Sister wearing a habit, I have taught all-male classes here, worked on several campus projects with undergraduates, been an active member of the graduate school, had a great deal to do with many activities in my residence hall, and spent many hours talking to and listening to both under grad students of mine and young women grad students in this hall. I am certainly not aware that wearing the habit has at all hindered me or the other Sisters in habits in any of these acti vities. In fact, the Sisters in habits have consistently received good teacher evaluations from classes they have taught; these computerized reports, which include items about the helpfulness 390 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS and availability of the teacher, indicate that they have main tained very good rapport with the undergraduate men who have been their students. The Sisters in secular clothing have not been outstanding for any greater success in this regard. As a matter of fact, I have become friends with quite a few students whom I met solely because I was wearing a habit. A young unescorted woman does not always feel, especially in these days of street crime, that she can strike up a conver sation or be approached in conversation (for instance, at a bus stop, in a cafeteria line, or while walking across campus), but the habit is both a safeguard and an invitation in these cases. While it may be true that some people have not felt free to talk to me because they were put off by my habit, it is also an inescapable fact that many people have known I was someone they were welcome to talk to, and they have in fact talked to me, because of this very same habit. COMFORT AND FUN I have been told several times that “symbolic clothing is definitely out and Very passe”. But when I look around me, 1 have observed that a large proportion of the people here choose to wear very symbolic clothing. These days, long hair and a beard may symbolize a whole attitude towards commercialism and exploitative advertising and manufacturing, or towards a certain political philosophy. Bright “hippie-type” clothing often does the same. Certain styles of dress speak so clearly that, during the war-protests in Washington earlier in May, anyone wearing blue jeans was swept up and arrested in some areas of the city! Dressing like a successful middle-class career person might turn out to be very symbolic too; it might symbolize a whole set of values which are exceedingly irrelevant to many young people today. As a matter of fact, I have had several very pleasant en counters with out-of-the-system or hippie-type young people, in such places as the train station, the airport, and at a Mass for peace, because I was recognised by them as a person who was not particularly interested in making money, gaining status, or getting ahead in the system. My habit said this to them before I said a word. RELIGIOUS HABIT 391 DARING TO BE DIFFERENT It is one of the ironies of this entire matter that the ma jority who wear secular clothes think and speak of themselves as being courageously different, daring, and very individual, whereas the majority in habits are actually the courageous and no.n-intimidated individualists under many circumstances, espe cially when they must remain markedly independent of the “in group” in order to maintain their convictions and commitments. To give another rather amusing example from personal exper ience, the other evening I was with a group of Sisters (all of them in secular clothes) when one of them showed us a banner she had just bought. This is a popular banner often seen on Sisters’ doors or in their rooms here. It is from The Art of Living, and it urges everyone to “dare to be different”, to “seek your own truth” and “follow your own star,” and so forth. Everyone was quite taken by this banner and admired it at length. But shortly afterwards that same evening, everyone in that group began criticizing the habit for several' reasons I have already cited, and also because everyone wears secular clothes now and it looks funny to be in a habit. They were un able to make the transfer from the sentimental comments on the banner to a real life situation where in fact only one per son was daring to be different — the one in the habit. THE “INTELLECTUAL” PRESSURE GROUP I realise, of course, that the whole matter of that habit is less important than many of the issues and problems facing re ligious life today. But because there ‘has been so much pub licity for and defence of secular clothing. I feel it is only fair that someone should advance a few comments in support of the other point of view. The fact that the majority of the com munities today seem to be moving out of the habit completely does not necessarily mean that this course of action is the wave of the future and the best decision. I might note here that it does not seem to be the public which wants us to go into secular clothing; that is, not the parishioners and the people we serve. Catholic or non-Catholic. In my opinion it is a relatively small group of university-type people, the “Catholic intellectuals” and self-styled liberals who are pushing for the change. They represent a small, if vocal. 392 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS part of the Church, and a smaller part of society in general; and they may very well be mistaken about the best way to serve that Church and that society. DEMYTHOLOGIZING SECULAR CLOTHES I do not wish to imply that all the Sisters I know who wear secular clothes dress provocatively, act foolishly, or waste a disproportionate amount of time and money on themselves. The fact remains, though, that those Sisters who have made the most graceful transition from the habit to secular clothes are those who had already spent many years in religious life and who had apparently grown to the point of a very great inter nalization of the positive values bespoken by the habit. They do try to maintain a style of evangelical simplicity in their lives. But as they have been the first to point out to me, real sim plicity in secular clothing is expensive, while cheaper things tend to be solution but a time-consuming one. Only the habit can, so to speak, “be all things to all men”. While I was working on this paper a friend of mine men tioned it to an acquaintance who happens to be one of the of ficers of a national Sisters’ group. This Sister, when she heard that a position paper on the habit was being drawn up said, “Well, I certainly hope she is demythologizing the habit”. (She herself does not wear the habit.) My friend, a lay person, re plied, “No, Sister, she’s doing something that needs to be done even more right now — she’s demythologizing secular clothes”. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “I could write with all sincerity that I owe to a great extent my vocation to him. His priestly example gave me the incentive to join him in the sacerdotal life. I could not ask for more in his actuations as a priest of God, and I believe many many others share with me this opinion.” Msgr. Bienvenido M. Lopez, D.D. The Opera "JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR" by J. Ma. Cavanna, C.M. JESUS BEFORE HIS CONTEMPORARIES The mission of Webber and Rice’s creative work in the controversial opera we are studying, was — it is said — to present “Christ as He appeared to those around Him . . . Judas and the Apostles, Magdalen, Pilate and Herod, and all the simple folk of the Jerusalem of His time. It is very possible that years and years of prejudice have convinced us that peo ple around Jesus at that time were convinced lOO'X of Christ’s being ‘human-plus-something-else.’ The more plausible view is that for most of them this happening called Jesus Christ was an entirely understandable human drama with political understones.” That is, — if I understand well the above statement — Christ as He appeared to those around Him in the events of His life (the happening called Jesus Christ) was not a “humanplus-something-else” being, but “just a man, as anyone else” (as Webber and Rice’s opera presents Him), who was drawn to intense emotional conflicts (an entirely understandable human drama) due somewhat to underlying political im plications (with political understones). In other words, the happening called Jesus Christ was quite similar to that of a certain Theudas of those days who “arose, yirhiy himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean arose. . . and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered." (Acts 5,36-37). If that is the meaning of the above statement, then 1 beg to disagree. I am not a biblical scholar, and less still any expert m modern “demythologizing” exegesis. I am just an assiduous reader of the New Testament for about 50 years of life. It is 394 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS possible that half a century "of prejudice has convinced me” that the people around Jesus, those who knew Him and fol lowed Him as friends or as enemies — not all indeed, but cer tainly quite many, probably most of them — were convinced — whether 100'■'< or 50% seems irrelevant to our question — at least for some time and in certain occasions, as when they witnessed Our Lord’s miracles or when they listened to His doc trine, that there was before them a “Man-plus-something-else”, and not merely “just a man as anyone else.” They could eventually forget or waver in that conviction or even lose at all that strong persuasion or belief (I am not talking here of faith), at least for some time. But, is not that a normal occurrence in human fickleness, inconstancy or changeableness? However, that very forgetfulness, hesitancy or loss of some thing previously possessed, is the best proof of the existence of the thing forgotten, doubted or lost. We know the illustra tive examples of the apostles’ desertion and Peter’s denials (Mt. 26,56; Mk. 14,66-72) after their most earnest promises of unswerving loyalty .(Mk. 14,31) ; and the mad crowd crying "Crucify Him!” (Mk. 15.14) five days only after He was ac claimed “Son of David, who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Mt. 21,9). I wonder what might be the “prejudice” of those past “years and years”, alluded in the above statement, which seems affected by the malady of our days, namely, “prejudice against everything of the past”. Because, if I am not mistaken, the real “prejudice” — if any — in the past, was rather the oppo site. The common rank and file among Christians not so well acquainted with the Gospels, were rather prejudiced against the Jews in general as enemies of Christ and responsible for His death. Hence, the prejudice could have been that those around Jesus were not convinced that He was a “Man-plussomething-else.” But even those who in the past might have entertained such anti-semitic bias, did never include in their prejudice the close frends of Jesus, like the Apostles, the family of Bethany, the crowds of simple folk who followed Him and who were cured by Him. Precisely, just the contrary of what Webber and Rice’s opera conveys. Let us then try to find out what the contemporaries of Jesus who were around Him, thought of Him with more or less conviction. First of all, let us make it clear that I do not mean to affirm that many of those around Our Lord recog nized in Him the Incarnate Son of God, our Lord and God “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 395 Himself (cf. Jn. 20,28), as Christians believed after the resur rection and Pentecost, and more definitely still after the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. What I maintain is that quite many, probably most of those around Jesus, at least surmised — if they were not actually convinced 100%—that He was the “Messias" so long expected by the chosen people of God, the “Christ” or the “Anointed One", “Son of David", “King of Israel”, “King of the Jews”, “a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people . . . the One to redeem Israel” (Lk. 24.19-21), the “Son of Man to come on the clouds of heaven” (cf. Dan. 7,13; Mt. 26,61) that is, “someone who is more than human”1, “an ideal Man, super natural, preexisting others, possibly God and man at the same time”2. I repeat, for me the more plausible vieic — and if I am wrong, I would welcome any correction — is that most of those who surrounded Jesus, either friends or enemies, during His public life, recognized Him, at least occasionally, as a “Man-plus-something-else” beyond mere human nature, i.e. a man with at least some undeniable preternatural or supernatural gifts or powers. 1 cf. Till-: Hol.Y B1HI.E, 1‘erised Standard \\rni<»i. Catholic Edition. London. C.T.S., T/ir Old Testament, .Votes, p. 1011. -cf. Simon-Dorado, C.SS. R„ Praelectiones Hiblicae, Xorum Testamcatum, I, Marietti, Madrid, 1900 p. 223. Otherwise 1 simply could not understand so many passages of the Gospels. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph evidently knew that Jesus was the “Son of the Most High”, “eternal King”, “Savior of his and of all peoples”, "the Christ of the Lord” (Mt. 1,21; 2,2.11; Lk. 1,32-33; 2,11.19.30-32). St. John the Baptist acknowledged Him as “the Lord who baptizes with the Holy Spirit,” “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” “the beloved Son of God (the Father)” (Mt. 3,3.11.17; Jn. 1,29.33-35). Of the Apostles, St. Andrew and St. John recognized Him as “the Messias (which interpreted is Christ)”; St. Philip, as the One * 'of whom Moses in the Law and the propsets wrote”; St. Bartholomew, as the “Son of God, King of Israel” (i.e., the promised Messias) (Jn. 1, 41.15.49). And this was at their first encounter with Jesus. Soon, after the first miracle at the Cana wedding when “He manifested his glory, his disciples believed in Him” (Jn. 2,11) still more firmly; and when they saw Him rebuking the wind and the sea during the storm on the lake “and there came a great calm, the men marvelled saying: ‘Who then is this that 396 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS even wind and sea obey Him?”’ (Mt. 8.27); and when they saw Him walking upon the waters of the lake of Genesareth they “worshipped Him, saying: ‘Truly, you are the Son of God”’ (Mt. 14,33). Thus when at the last year of His public ministry Jesus asked His apostles “Who do you say that I am?”, Simon the son of Jonas, in the name of the twelve, replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the tiring God” (Mt. 16,16), that is. not only the long expected “Messias” or “Son of God” — as they called Him before at the lake—by adoption (as Elias, Jeremias or other prophets were also), but rather ‘‘Son of the tiring God" by nature.1' Ibid., p. 669. ' Ibid., p. 136. It is true that Judas Iscariot, due to his ill dispositions, soon perhaps lose gradually his faith in Jesus, so that by the time of Peter’s Confession. Our Lord had already spoken of him as “a devil” (Jn. 6,71). But at the beginning, in all cer tainty, he believed in Jesus as the others. Because, even such a miserable and wretched person as Herod, who just “heard of Jesus, for His name had become well known, kept saying, ‘John the Baptist hag, risen from the dead, and what is why miraculous powers are working through him ... It is John whom I beheaded; he has risen from the dead” (Mk. 6,14.16). And even the “woman . . . who was a sinner” (Lk. 7,37), and “certain women who had been cured of evil spirits” as well as “Mary, who is called the Magdalene, from whom seven devils had gone out” (Lk. 8,2) became all of them generous believers and ministers of Our Lord (Jn. 4,29; Lk. 8,3; Mk. 16,1.9; Lk. 24,10). Nay. the demoniacs themselves acknowl edge Him: the one of Capharnaum called Him: “The Holy One of God” (Mk. 1.21), and the two of Gerasa (Mt. 8,28) called Him: “Son of the Most High God” (Lk. 8,28). And the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, upon hearing that Jesus has claimed to be “Son of God” surmised this possibility in view of the unexplainable dignified peace and silence of the innocent man so unjustly accused by a mad rabble (Jn. 19,9-12). Still more, the most bitter enemies of Jesus, unable to explain the miracles wrought by the Master, and even obstinately refusing to admit that God was with Him, since they could not deny the facts they just dared to blaspheme attributing them to “the prince of devils” (Mt. 12,24). And when they interviewed the man born blind, cured by Jesus, they were not able to refute the common sensible logic of that poor man, and were “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 397 just content with insulting and turning him out (Jn. 9,34). And when they saw Lazarus alive after his death and four days at the grave, they just planned, in a fit of desperate madness “to put Lazarus to death also” (Jn. 12,10) together with Jesus. They were indeed at a loss, reasoning out: “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus. . .” (Jn. 11.47-48). In other words, they admitted that Jesus was really a “man-plus-something-else” beyond mere human nature. They did not like to believe in Him as “the Christ, the Son of God” (Mt. 26,63), but they were convinced that He was a “man-plus-something-else” they could not explain; and so they resorted to the wicked schemes of the ungodly men of the Scriptures (Wis. 2,12-20), fulfilling thus to the letter what was written of them. Nicodemus, however, among the Pharisees, “a ruler of the Jews . . . said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, ice know that you are a Teacher come from God; for no one can do these siyns that you do, unless God is with him’” (Jn. 3.2). So, he was convinced, and with him many others, that Jesus possessed special mis sion and powers from God, nay, that God was, in a very special way, with Him-, that means to be a “man-plus-something-else”! And the royal official of Capharnaum, together with “his whole household”, upon realizing the cure of his son, “believed” in Jesus (Jn. 4,53). And the leper (Mk. 1,40), and the paralytic with the four men who brought him down through the roof (Mk. 2,5), and Jairus (Mk. 5.36), and the Canaanite Syronhoenician mother (Mt. 15,28), and the father of the possessed boy (Mk. 9,23), and the blind Bartimeus (Mk. 10.52), and the other two blind men (Mt. 9.28-29), and the woman with a hemorrhage (Lk. 8,48), and the proselyte centurion (Mt. 8,10), and the pagan Roman centurion (Mt. 15,39) : all of them believed and had faith in Jesus. But these are isolated instances of the people who surroun ded Him. Let us look now at the crowds, the huge multitudes that followed Him. From the beginning of His public life, at the first Passover in Jerusalem “many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did” (Jn. 2,23), that is many believed in His divine mission,1 although Our Lord who "knew what was in man did not trust Himself to them” because He understood well human inconstancy. And then in Caphar naum, the people “at sundown brought to Him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was (la thered together about door (of the house of Simon 398 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Peter) ... And in the (next) morning Simon said to Him, 'Every one is searching for you. . . ” An then, it was in the “city of Samaria” called Sychar, that "many Samaritans from that city believed in Him” and after “He stayed there two days many more believed because of His word” and “they said, ‘We know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world’ ” (Jn. 4,5.39-42). And after the cure of the paralytic in Capharnaum the big crowd gathered together at the house “they were all amazed and glorified God saying, ‘We never saw anything tike this’” (Mk.2,12) : “when the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men” (Mt. 9,8). In the first multiplication of loaves in the desert an immense crowd of 5,000 people without counting women and children, come “from all the cities” of the northern shore of Genesareth lake, said: “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world”, and they were about to take Him by force and make Him king (Jn. 6,14-15). At the second multiplication of loaves realized at the eastern region of the lake, there was another multitude of "4,000 men apart from children and1 women” (Mt. 15,38) who were simi larly impressed. So much more because in that ocassion “great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw dumb speaking the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel” (Mt. 15,30-31. After the resurrection of the widow’s son at Naim “a large crowd” that accompanied Jesus, and ano ther “large gathering from the town” were present, and "fear seized upon all. and they began to glorify God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us’ and ‘God has visited his people’. And this report concerning Him went forth throughout the whole of Judea, and all the country roundabout” (Lk. 7,11-17). And when the crowds heard his doctrine, “they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Mt. 13,54) ; “How is it that this man has learning, when He has never studied?” (Jn. 7,15). That is why all the people considered Him at least as a great Prophet, and by no means as a mere “man, just as anyone else”. At Caesarea Philippi “Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ” (Mt. 16,13-14). No one among the people thought that He was “just a man”! ‘JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 399 The Pharisees knew well that the immense majority of the people believed in John the Baptist as “a Prophet” sent by God (Mt. 21,26). And then, according to the Evangelist, “many (of those Jews) came to Jesus, and they were saying, ‘John indeed worked no sign. All things, however, that John said of this Man were true.’ And many believed in Him” (Jn. 10,41-42). His enemies “sought to arrest Him. . . Yet many of the people believed in Him; they said, ‘When the Christ appears will He do more signs than this Man has done?’ The Pharisees heard the crou d thus muttering about Him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him. . . The officers then (later) went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?’ The officers answered, '.Vo man ever spoke like this man!’” (Jn. 7, 30-46). The people of Jerusalem were divided in their opinion about Jesus. “Some of the people said, ‘This is really the Prophet’. Others said, ‘This is the Christ’. But some said, Is the Christ to come from Galilee?...’” (Jn. 7,40-41). “And there was much muttering about Him among the people. While some said, He is a good man,” other said, “No, lie is leading the people astray.’ Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.” (Jn. 7,12-13). Hence, all the people agree that Jesus was either a "Prophet”, or “the Christ”, or at least someone who might have messianic claims, if it were not only because of his appa rent (mistakenly thought of) origin. Even those who said that ‘lie was leading the people astray” obviously admitted that He was not a mere man “just as anyone else; all agree that He had the character of a “prophet”, although certainly not everybody agreed that He was the Christ or the Messias’ “Yet for fear of the Jews —enemies of Christ — no one spoke openly of him”, which obviously they would have done, if there would be at least some who could convincingly say that “lie was just a man, as anyone else”! Even the Pharisee Simon did not discard the possibility of a prophetic character in Jesus, although he tried to find some argument against it (“If this man were a prophet. . .”-Lk.7,39) which at once was proved to be groundless (Lk. 7,10) ; nay. Our Lord then proved to be more than a prophet, since He could forgive sins (Lk. 7,-18-50; Mt. 9,2) which God alone can do (Lk. 5,21; Mk. 2,7). Everybody around Jesus was convinced of this, that is why “the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and...’ Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the 400 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS people’ ” Mt. 26,3-5; Mk. 14,2). Hence, they knew well that the immense majority believed Jesus to be more than a mere man. And this was evident at the triumphal entrance in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday: “a great crowd. . .took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! ’. .. The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd (who had come to the feast) went to meet Him was that they heard He had done this sign. The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see that you can do nothing; look, the world has gone after Him!" (Jn. 12, 12-19). This admission from the mouth of the mortal enemies of Jesus is the best proof of what we have tried to show here. But. . ., what about the crowd that later cried before Pilate: “Away with him ! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’’ (Jn. 19-15) ? That was simply a mob instigated by the chief priests and the rulers (Lk. 23, 13), which in a fit of popular commotion “did not know what they were doing” (cf. Lk. 23,34) ; and soon, after Jesus “breathed his last. . . all the multitudes who assem bled to see the sight. ..returned home beating their breasts” (Lk. 23,46-48), and together with the centurion "they were filled with awe. and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God”’ (Mt. 27, 54). Hence, even the rabble that in a moment of frenzy were pushed to ask for His death, became themselves so many othr'- witnesses convinced of His being “human-plus-somethingelse.” ANNOUNCEMENT SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR SUNDAY HOMILIES FROM A NEW PROGRAM OVER RADIO VERITAS (860 KHZ) BIBL1YA AT BUHAY EVERY FRIDAY, AT 7:30 —8:00 P.M. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES Pablo Fernandez, O.P. CHAPTER 24 OTHER SERVICES Besides the services mentioned in the preceding chapters, the Church performed other services for the government in the Philippines, which we could group under the titles of gene ral military service, military chaplaincy, and miscellaneous services. 1. General Military Services 1) Exploration of the Moluccas. — Among the first such activities, the services rendered by the Jesuit lay Brother Gas par Gomez stand out. Around 1593 he undertook a commission entrusted to him by Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, to go with the company of Captain Gregorio Cubillo to reconnoiter the Moluccas, find out the defensework, equipment, soldiers, al lies and enemies of the king of Ternate, against whom the Spaniards were readying an expedition. Cubillo died in an accident and Brother Gomez fulfilled his commission and sub mitted the information needed. Although Dasmarinas was unable to carry out the planned invasion because he was as sassinated by some Chinese crewmen off the coast of Batangas. October 25, 1953, the plan eventually succeeded in the time of Governor Pedro Bravo de Acuna, who entrusted the Jesuit Brother with the distinguished but difficult task of going to Spain to report the victory to the king.’ 2) Defeated Soldiers in Formosa Return to the Philip pines.— In 1641, when Father Juan de los Angeles was a missionary in Formosa, he made a trip to Manila for the sole ' Saderra Maso, S.J.. Miguel, Ulisiows Jesidticas <>i Filipnuis I Manila: Tcp. Pont. Univ, de Sto. Tomas, 1924), p. 32. 402 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS purpose of notifying the governor of the Islands and seeking aid against the danger threatening that island because of the Dutch. Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera was then gover nor of the Philippines, veteran of several campaigns against Moslems. He sent only eight soldiers and a small band of auxiliaries aboard a decrepit boat. This explains why the Spanish garrison in Formosa had to surrender to the Dutch on 24 August 1642, when the latter presented themselves with superior forces before the fortress of Keelung. But the ser vices of Father de los Angeles did not end here. Taken pri soner with the few remaining soldiers of the garrison to Batavia,he obtained from the Dutch governor, Anton van Diemen, the release of fifty Spanish soldiers whom he under took to feed and lead back to Manila, where they arrived on 29 June 1643.-’ 3) A Dominican Acting Governor-General. — Fray Juan Arrechedera. O.P., governed the Philippine Islands in the in terim capacity from 1745 to 1750. He ordered the melting of the best canons of the -armory for some time, renovated the governor’s palace and encouraged trade. For all of these activities, he received praise from the king as a loyal minister, worthy of greater tasks.'1 4) Four Student Companies at the University of Santo Tomas. — During the war carried on by France and Spain against England from 1779 to 1783, the Rector of the University, Father Domingo Collantes, raised four companies of fifty sol diers each from among the students. This was due to a rumor that an English squadron from India was already on its way to the Philippines to bombard Manila, as had happened in 1762. The uniforms and the rations of that small company of two hundred men were for many months paid for by the University. The school also placed at the governor’s disposal the supplies of rice and livestock available in its haciendas. For this, His Majesty, Charles III gave it the title of “Royal University” by a royal cedula dated 7 March 1785J - Ocio, O.P., Hilario Maria, Monumento dominicano, o sea, Memorial d< las Casas que lia adqnirido la Pror. del SSmo Rosario de Filipinas. llesde 1587 hasta 1898. MSS, AUST, Seccion “Hist.— Prov.,” p. 410; Juan de los Angeles, O.P., Formosa Lost to Spain, in BR. XXXV, 128-162. 'Ibid., p. 412 Fnndacion del colepio y erection de la Unnirersidad de Santo Tomas (Manila, 1874), p. 27. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 403 5) Quartering of Soldiers in Church Buildings. — Because of the constant threat of war between Great Britain and Spain during the succeeding years, Manila was always on war foot ing; and, since the government had no buildings to quarter the troops, it had to request the Augustinians and the Dominicans, among others, for part of the convent of San Agustin, various halls of the university edifice and the entire hospital of San Gabriel. Both orders acceded to the request, although they foresaw the losses and inconveniences which such guests could cause them, as happened in Santo Tomas, where the enrollment fell considerably. The troop occupied San Gabriel from 1795 to 1802. and from 1803 to 1814.5 II. Chaplains during Military Campaigns 6) The Jesuits. — We have already indicated the embassy of two Jesuit priests undertaken by commission of the govern ment, to the Viceroy of India in Goa in order to unite the Luso-Hispanic forces for the purpose of dislodging the Dutch from the Moluccas. To this end, Governor Juan de Silva or ganized a fleet of ten ships and other minor craft, which, carrying on board 5,000 men. both Spaniards and Filipinos, unfurled its sails on 5 January 1616. Six Jesuit sailed as chap lains of the fleet: Father Pedro Gomez, rector of Malacca; Miguel Ignacio, rector of Cebu; Garcia Garces, Melchor de Vera, Manuel Ribevro and a Japanese. This was the biggest and mightiest fleet to ever sail from the Philippine shores under the Spanish colors in the past. But almost nothing was accom plished against the enemy, due to the unexpected death in Malacca of Governor Silva who commanded it. Hardly had this powerful armada sailed out of Manila Bay. when a Dutch squadron appeared off the Mariveles coast. The moment chosen by the enemy to attack could not be more timely, since the military force of the colony had sailed away with the governor. Nonetheless, the city did not lose heart. The people prepared themselves to win divir.e protection by their prayers and public orations. At the same time they set up the meager defenses available in the city. It was at this moment that a Jesuit lay brother, at the request of the royal audiencia, took charge of directing and organizing the artillery •> hiforoie del Rector. Fr. Joao Robles, al noberoador de las Islas (haeia 1800), MSS, APSR, t. 2-1-1, fol. 349 v. 404 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS of the fortress. Fortunately, the enemy sailed away without attempting an attack® 7) The Victories of La Naval. — In 1646, there appeared in the waters of the Philippines fifteen Dutch boats well equip ped and strongly armed to conquer the islands, or, at least, the galleon that plied the Acapulco route and brought the annual royal subsidy. To repulse them, the government had only two ancient galleons, La Encarnacion and Rosario. Human ly speaking, it was imprudent and rash to launch these galleons on a fight. But, trusting in the Virgin of the Rosary, the Fil-Hispanic forces sailed out to meet the enemy. But before entering the combat, at the suggestion of the four Dominican Chaplains, soldiers and sailors prayed the rosary with real de votion and made the vow to join and go on procession to the Church of Santo Domingo if the Lord should give them the vic tory. Indeed, in the five naval encounters which occurred between the two squadrons, the Catholic force always emerged the vic tor. Because of these victories, believed to be miraculous by the ecclesiastical chapter sitting en banc, the city of Manila ob liged itself to celebrate perpetually the eight day of the feast of th" Holv Rosary with a mass and sermon. It is from this vow that the famous La Naval precessions originated and have continued to be held without interruption from that time till our our own days.7 8) French-Spanish Expedition to Cochinchina.—In August 1858, two battleships were headed towards Cochinchina, one Spanish, the other French, bringing on board the first contin gent of a force of 1500 men which the Philippine government was offering for the success of the campaign against Tu-Duc, a persecutor of Christianity. With them went as chaplain the Dominican Fray Francisco Gainza, future bishop of Nueva Caceres. He was also acting as a member of the general head quarters of the French Vice Admiral. Rigault de Genouelly. This first division, occupied without bloodshed, the fortress of 11 Murillo Velarde, S.J., Pedro, Hist, de la Pror. de Pilipinas de la Coiupaiia de Jesus (Manila: en la imprenta de la Compafia de Jesus, 17'19), t. II, fols. 1 v — 3. “Even in the armada under the command of the Oidor Morga, which sailed in 1600 from Manila to fight the Dutch fleet of Oliver van Noort, there was a Jesuit who acted as chaplain, with a lay brother, and both died when the eapitana went to the bottom, a result of its weak construction, more than anything else.” (Colin, Francisco, Labor eranpeliea. Madrid, 1663, pp. 407-409). " Ocio, Op. cit., pp. 411-412. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 405 the Observatory, the North, near Turana (Nadang). Shortly after these, a second contingent of the Fil-Hispanic expedi tionary force, consisting of 500 more men, left for Turana aboard the Durance. As chaplains, the Dominicans Manuel de Rivas and Francisco Rivas sailed with them. We could affirm that, in view of the results of this military enterprise from which Spain hardly had any gains, and the Church won, be sides a recrudescence of the persecutions, merely the liberation of a small group of Spanish missionaries who sought refuge in the rescue boat, the Preyent, obtained from the French Vice Admiral, thanks to Father Gainza’s tact and ingenuity. As for the rest, the Filipinos proved beyond doubt their heroism in the Saigon area in the fighting that dragged on for years against the Vietnamese. Father Gainza also received from the Spanish government the reward of the bishopric of Nueva Ca ceres as a reward for the services he had rendered to the country and the Church? III. Miscellaneous Services 9) Protectors of Indios. — In this catalogue of services, we must not forget the role the missionaries played for the Filipino people as their protectors. It is true that few of those apostles carried the formal title, for history remembers only the names of Fray Andres de Urdaneta, Bishop Salazar, and perhaps a third. But there were numberless religious, with no title or official commission, but moved only by evangelical charity, undertook this thorny task and protected the natives with all their zeal and influence." Such were, among so many eminent men. Bishop Miguel de Benavides and Bernardo Navar ro, both of them Dominicans. The first, during a trip to Spain in 1591, obtained the permission to establish among the Manila residents the commerce with New Spain, bringing back the sum of P500.000 and not merely the capital which was the practice until then, while the profit stayed in Mexico. Besides, he also brought about the recognition of the rights the natives had over their mountains, lands anel rivers, for it was not iust to deprived them of this natural right simply by the fact that '•Gainza, O.P., Francisco, ( ta/win de Coclmiehbia, MSS AUST, T. 124. "The Augustinian Diego de Herrera, writing to Philip II front Mexico, 111 January 1570, says: "... I came to this Nueva Espana to give information ... of some injuries done to the natives on account of the extremeties that the soldiers suffered . . .(BR, III, 71) 406 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS of their submission to the Castilian crown and reduce them to the condition of slaves.1" Bishop Navarro interceded with Governor Juan de Silva, vainly seeking an end to the oppression of the people occasioned by the preparations readied to repulse the Dutch from this eastern part of the globe.11 Another religious who purely out of charity assumed the difficult and bothersome task of defending the natives was the Franciscan Fray Francisco de la Trinidad who, “out of his tender love for the indios suffered many heartaches in their defense, because he was an outright defender against the al caldes and encomenderos and other officials who molested themHe mothered them.” 12 Of Father Juan Antonio Campion who died in 1651, Murillo Velarde says that “he bitterly defended the indios from the vexations inflicted on them,” 1:1 “for it is unbelievable,” he adds elsewhere, “except by those of us who experienced it, that some petty officials of lowly rank could pretend to exercise so much authority over.lhese unfortunate people. They imagine that, because of the latter’s natural timidity, they could threaten these poor people with the gibbet and the sword.” u Among the norms which the Recollects formulated for their guide in Zanibales missions, thej' decided, in regards to the protection that they ought to provide for the people: “the religious also made other resolutions pertaining to the protec tion and defense of the Indios, in case anyone shuld err by trying to do violence to them, so that, as true fathers, they might oppose courageously any annoyance that the malice of the heartless men of this always iniquitous age might at tempt.” 1-1 10) Voluntary Submission, of the People to the Crown of Castilla Through the Efforts of Fray Miguel de Benavides.— Because Philip II had scruples regarding the right of Spain to the Philippines whose conquest, according to some was un justified. he tried, following the counsel of a theological meet ing, to win from the native islanders, their voluntary submission ’"Ocio, Rrseiia hiogrnfica (Manila, 1891) I, p. 66. 11 Ibid., pp. 83-84. '-Martinez, O.F.M., Domingo, Compendia historical (Madrid, 1756) p. 53, col. 2. l:f Murillo Velarde, Op. cit., p. 195, col. 2. Ibid., p. 246 v, col. 2. '■ BR, XXI, 152. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 407 and acknowledgment of the Castilian kingship. He commis sioned to undertake this delicate task in the provinces of north ern Luzon newly designated Bishop Miguel de Benavides of Nueva Segovia. This prelate succeeded so well in this sensitive matter that the natives accepted with good grace their vassallage to Spain. What greatly helped this was the self-abnegation of the missionaries, who had captivated by their example and their self-sacrificing personal life, the hearts of the people; so much so that the people of Cagayan answered that they made themselves vassals of Spain because they had been sent mis sionaries; and that, had they known the great good that would come to them through the latter, they themselves would have gone to look for the missionaries."’ 11) The Casa of Father Moiuga.—This holy Franciscan performed for the Philippines one of the most important ser vices ever done by any man, when he presented himself in 1618 to King Philip III in Madrid, to beg from him what the pro curators of the other religious orders had failed to obtain, namely, that Philip order the abrogation of the decree just expedited by the monarch himself regarding the abandonment of the Philippines. In revoking the decree, the king spoke these unforgettable words: “Go with God, Father Moraga; for it will not be said of me that I neglect what my father won.” This venerable Franciscan won such signal victory for Catho licism in the Philippines at the cost of his own life, for, with thirty religious missionaries he sailed in a fleet of six boats headed for Mexico, but which a violent storm destroyed and Father Moraga drowned as well as many others.* 17 1,1 Ocio, Oi>. cit., p. 408. In the province of Ilocos, in the diocesis of the bishop of Nueva Segovia, this was very well done; and submission was rendered to your Majesty. Likewise the whole district of Manila, a mission of the Augustinian fathers, has rendered submission. Laguna, in charge of the Franciscan Fathers, has not so easily yielded; for the natives there have asked a year’s time in which to answer . . . The same thing will be done in other provinces which ask delays’’ (Letter from Governor Don Francisco Tello, 12 July 1599, BR, X, 254; also p. 277). 17 Gomez Platero, O.F.M., Eusebio, Catalogo biografico de los reli<7io8os franciscanos de la Prorincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas (Manila: Imprenta del Real Colegio de Santo' Tomas, 1880) pp. 83-84. This was not the first time that in Spain they had thought of abandoning the Philippine Islands, as we read in Book VII, Chapter 8 of the life of Philip II by Cabrera: “the Council brought to his attention the many cares and expenses and the little profit which the Philippine Islands could occasion, and that it would be better to leave them aside. To this, he gave an answer worthy of so catholic a prince: ‘If the revenue of the 408 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS 12) Water to Manila. — Manila is based on a beachland watered by the Pasig river which flows into the bay. Right from the beginning, people felt the lack of potable water. The residents used to go and fetch it from Cavite, or in another spot three leagues farther away from the sea or the tides. The richer people used to build cisterns with which to gather rain water as it fell on the roof. But this was not always possible for the poor, although it was the most obvious and easy way. The Dominicans sympathized with the people who had to suffer the inconveniences of the lack of drinking water and they sought and found in San Juan del Monte, five kilometers from the City, a source of pure and fresh water. They channeled it to the bank of Maitunas creek, by means of an open canal in the rocky terrain. From there, bancas transported it easily along San Juan river to Manila. The creator of this system was the engineer-historian, Fray Juan Peguero (+ 1690), for several years Vicar of the Dominican Sanctuary of the Holy Cross in San Juan. This work needed four years to complete 1686-1690, and several * 1housands of pesos charged to the Or der.'" Later after 1882, thanks to a pious fund left by the Spaniard Don Francisco Carriedo in 1733, the city soon had throughout its streets, and even in many houses, abundant drinking water.* 19 Philippines and New Spain did not suffice to maintain one hermitage, even if it was only to preserve the name and the devotion to Jesus Christ, he would send the revenue of Spain by which to propagate His gospel.”' (Antolin, O.P., Francisco, Camino de Ituy y Paniqui, MSS, APSR, t. 110). 1S Ocio, Op. cit., p. 142. 19 Unitas (November, 1933) gives a brief account by Santiago Artiaga and Manuel Manosa, of Spanish projects to supply Manila with potable water. With regards to the Carriedo Fund, there is a "respuesta” or an opinion in answer to a consultation dating fnom the first half of the nineteenth century, which throws some light on the fortunes of this Pious Trust Fund, before the wishes of its pious founder could be fulfilled. (Cf. MSS. AUST, Seccion “Consultas," formerly tomo 191, No. 8, p. 14, but now still uncatalogued). Other services rather frequently rendered by the religious and the ecclesiastical chapter of Manila to the government, especially throughout the nineteenth century, included the sub mission of well-studied reports or answers to difficult and transcendent questions, acting as presidents or members of the board of governors of the Obras Pias, of councils to lay down educational programs, and acting as censors of books, etc. THE JOVELLANOS THAT WAS TONDO April 30, 1972 marks the death of Msgr. Jose N. Jovellanos at the age of 84, at the orphanage of the Hospicio de San Jose. Msgr. Jovellanos was parish priest of Tondo for fifty years. He served the Tondefios through war and peaee. “During the Japanese Occupation, when the whole national structure lost its bearing and public morale was shattered by confusion and struggle for survival, Monsignor Jovellanos maintained his com posure and went about his parochial chores with the calmliness and consistency of one whose faith in God and love for his people cannot be shaken by the reverse of the times. He held on for as long as he could to the Tondo Church, keeping his flock to gether within its fold. When the Japanese Army finally coman(leered the church desecrating the holy place and depriving the Tondefios of their house of worship, Monsignor Jovellanos carried on his ministry even if it took him the pains of collecting his people in other places. He saved all he could of the sacred objects of the church including the famous image of the Santo Nino, risking his own life in the process when the church was burned down in the Japanese Army’s last effort to delay the liberation of Manila.” It was indeed hard to maintain a minister’s fold in those days of destruction. But it was harder to reconstruct what has been destroyed. And this is true not only in the physical order but even more so in the spiritual and moral order. During the war, the people of Tondo “. . . saw too much murders and massacres and all forms of human indignities per petrated by the Japanese forces with the Tondefios at the groan ing end. The instinct of self-preservation got the better part of the Tondefios and not uncommonly did they cast aside con ventions and eveji self-respect, in the struggle for survival. The attitude was imbedded in their moral fiber, carried over to the post-war period, picked up by the emerging generations and finally became an institution.” 410 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS It was from the depths of this physical and moral degrada tion that the Right Reverend Jose N. Jovellanos had to redeem his people. And for this end, the monsignor harnessed all his and his people’s potentialities. “Every need of Tondo paris hioners, spiritual and material, was assigned lay organizations or clubs which in their little and humble ways attended to these needs within the limits of their time and facilities.” The St. Joseph Patronage of the Sick was established under the en couraging inspiration of Msgr. Jovellanos. In 1950, the Knights of Columbus was formed. The Adoration Nocturna Filipina. Torno de Nuestra Senora de Purification, organized as early as November 20, 1920. was envigorated to adapt to the needs of the people The social and moral conditions of the immediate post-war era brought the nationalism of the Aglipayans to the fore. The foreign influence of Protestantism even helped this nationalistic sect grow. Msgr. Jovellanos to offer his own version of patriot ism, organized the first Catholic Boy Scout Troop in the Philip pines, thinking that in this way he can also help the young. On July 8, 1951, the Philippine and Papal flags were blessed and erected at the main alter of the Tondo Church. In addition, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was organized with the purpose of forming “leaders among the young of Tondo’s society for active lay apostolate”. To meet this end, study clubs were erected in the different sec tions of the parish. This was later instituted as a catechetical instruction group with volunteer workers from among the Bel gian sisters, high school students of the Tondo Orphanage and the Institute de Mujeres, together with a pioneer group among the more devoted parishioners. In 1925, the Tondo Religious Instruction League was established out of this instruction group. Msgr. Jovellanos was also a patron of the Institute de Mu jeres. He is the founder of the Tondo Parochial School which is now named Holy Child Catholic School. Having enough humility to accept his limitations, he recom mended the separation of certain portions of his parish. Thus, in 1924, Gagalangin became an independent parish under the patronage of St. Joseph. In 1933, the parish of San Jose de Trozo was also erected. The Immaculate Conception Parish folJOVELLANO OF TONDO 411 lowed in 1951. In 1965, Balut became the present San Rafael Parish. In 1966, the San Jose Parish of Manuguit was formed. And in 1968, St. John Bosco Parish of Barrio Magsaysay was established. Jose N. Jovellanos was born on December 6, 1887 in Ermita. Jlis parents were Cesario Jovellanos and Fructuosa de Guia. In 1904, he graduated from the Normal Superior de Maestros, in the same year, he entered the St. Xavier Seminary. He v.as ordained priest on March 15, 1913. After short periods of pastoral work in Gapan, Antipolo, Malate, Malabon and Malolos, Padre Jose, as he was fondly called by his parishioners, was appointed parish priest of Tondo in December, 1919. On July 15, 1931, he was invested Domestic Prelate by the late Archbishop Michael J. O’Doherty. In the same year, he was elevated to the position of Canon of the Manila Cathedral. The monsenor celebrated his Silver Sacerdotal Jubilee on March 15, 1938. In 1945, he was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Manila. By 1954, Rome conferred on him the title of Pro tonotary Apostolic by means of which he was made a “member of the judicial body of the Catholic Church which studies and makes decisions regarding ecclesiastical cases and which inter prets the canon laws of the Church.” Commemorating his Golden Sacerdotal Jubilee on March, 1963, he also “saw” before he died his fiftieth year in Tondo in the year nineteen hundred and sixty nine. • Wilfredo C. I’aguio FERIA, FERIA, LUGTU & LA’O ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELLORS AT LAW PHILIPPINE TRUST BLDG.. PLAZA GOIT1 . P. O BOX 1219 • MANILA JOAQUIN RAMIREZ FRANCISCO 0RTIGA8, JR. RAFAEL ORTIGAS JOAQUIN RAMIREZ, JR. RAFAEL ORTIGAS, JR. iRamtrps & ©rtigas Abogabos lf>16 ROXAS BLVD. BUILDING. MANILA VKRAUT art gl«55'neon 879 BILIBIO VIEJO • MANILA • TEL. 47-39-23
BAPTISM AND CHRISTIAN NAMES * * This article is taken from the text of the Holy Father’s address durin" the General Audience on 19 January 1972 as printed in L’Osservatore Ro mano, January 27, 1972. THE MEANING OF A RUBRIC On the occasion of the publication of the Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum some people have searched for new ele ments or for something sensational to present to the public. Among such people the rubrics of numbers 88 and 203, which concern the new name that is to be imposed at Baptism, have caused some interest. This act can take place at the be ginning of the catechumenate (n. 88) or just before baptism (n. 203), according to the judgement of the Episcopal ConferThe text of the rubric of n. 88 is as follows: “Sicubi vigent religiones non christianae. quae nomen novum initiatis statis imponunt, C'onferentia Episcoporum decernere potest ut novis cathecumenis iam nun nomen imponatur ve] christianum vel in culturibus localibus usitatum, non obstante nraeseriptione can. 761 CIC, dummodo christiano sensu affici valeat” (cfr. n. 203) Tn a certain sense, this is really something new, as the prescription of the Code of Canon Law — already, however, rea sonably fluid — is reduced in force: “Curent parochi ut ei qui haptizatur, christianum imponatur nomen: quod si id consequi non poterunt, nomini a parentibus imposito addant nomen ali cuius Sancti...” (Can. 761). But what is the real meaning of this rubric and what reasons have inspired it? 1. First of all it must be said that the rubric of Nos. 88 and 203 was not formulated on the basis of particular contigent circumstances. The Ordo went throught a long period of pre paration and experimentation (cfr. the preceeding article of the 340 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS same issue of Notitiae, pp. 88-89). The final redaction of the rubric of which we speak dates, in its present form, from June 1968. 2. With the new dispositions it is certainly not intended to discourage the use on the part of those to be baptized of taking the name of a saint. As in the Ordo for the Baptism of Infants (n. 48) a.nd in that for the Christian initiation of adults (n. 214) the possi bility of inserting the invocation of the saints whose names are being taken by the baptized into the litany is foreseen. In the Christian tradition, the strong link between the per son and the saint whose name he bears has always been favour ably looked upon. It is a relationship of protection and, at the same time, an encouragement to reproduce the ideal of Christian life realised by the saint-protector. In the case of the adult the imposition of a Christian name has a particular significance. Baptism is in fact the beginning of a new life. On this account, the change of name is most expressive of, so to speak, the change from the previous way of life to that which is Christian. Also in this regard one should remember the use by many monastic families and of religious of giving another name at the moment of entry into religious life. This fact, rooted in psychology and in human tradition, is generally acceptable to newly baptized adults who, especially when they live in an environment that is non-christian are very proud of their Christian name. It is a sign of their dignity and a continual recalling of their new state. The new Ordo takes into account of all this, but considers also the particular situations in determinate cultures. For example, in Japan, it was noted: “The baptismal name does not have to be exclusively that of a saint, but also could be another Japanese name which expresses a Christian idea. In fact, Japanese names are very often imposed precisely because of their meaning. One might, at the same time, give the can didate a patron saint and allow him to keep his previous name.” It was noted that the change of name is of importance in Japan, it being done there, for example, following the joining of some particular association. BAPTISM AND CHRISTIAN NAMES 341 This is the sense of the rubric. So much is true that it speaks of the possibility if taking a name which “christianu sensu indui quaet” and it adds “Interdum... satis erit ut electo expaLnetur significatio, Christiana nominis antea accepti” (Nos. 203 and 205). The new disposition has a certain broadness. It wanted to be respectful to the Christian tradition of imposing a new name, preferably that of a saint, and at the same time to be attentive to the customs and sensibility of the various peoples. And so three possibilities are foreseen: —the imposition of a Christian name; —the giving of a “local” name which, however, has a Christian significance; —the consenting to keep the name which the baptized al ready has, explaining to him the Christian significance. 3. This, evidently, does not concern anyone who has al ready been baptized for some time and who has already assumed a Christian name. Such people, that is, cannot find in the rubric in question any motive for abandoning the name of the saint which they have carried since the time of baptism. Such an abandonment, either when it is voluntary, or, of greater import, if it is imposed, could however appear as gesture which is not respectful to religion to which this name must be referred. Nor does this article n. 88 of the Ordo, which we have quoted, touch per se, those who receive baptism at infancy, for whom the dispositions of Canon 761 .still hold. 4. Considering the wide scope of the problem, the rubrical indications could not but be general. The application to con crete cases and to local situations will be carried out by the competent ecclesiastical authorities, more precisely by the Epis copal Conferences, who know the exigencies of their own coun tries. and the most fruitful methods for an effective pastoral of baptism, better. In this, as in regard to other points, it applies to them (and not — might it be said incidentally — to non-ecclesiastical authorities) to give more precise norms, which will then have the value of law. 342 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS It is within their competence in law, for example, to judge whether some names are less convenient or less meaningful for a Christian, and also, if they believe it necessary, that a candi date, desirous of keeping his own name, would also have to take the name of a saint. 5. The question of baptismal names, which might also ap pear at first glance to be of secondary importance, takes on prominence for the reason shown above, and for the meaning that can be justifiably attributed to it. To be expected, above all, from a properly orientated pas toral of baptism is the awakening in the fruitful — over and above the outward signs, that is. the imposition of a “Christian” name — of a consciousness of that “new life” which is inau gurated in the “bath of regeneration”. Truly the baptized is a “different man”, a “new man”, and this “difference” must be engraved profoundly into his existence and into his acts. That does not mean any sort of misunderstanding, much less an abandonment or denial, of the most authentic values of human traditions, and culture — which Christianity, more over, favours and elevates — but on the contrary, their being brought to advantage and their refinement. Christians, in fact, do not cease to be the sons of their own people, and altogether belong to those people “who are called and really are the sons of God.” TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS "I will never forget those precious minutes every morning at the pre-dicu with this man praying in common our morning de votions. His fatherly example gave me the inspiration to keep up the spirit of Christ in thick and in thin. His generosity to the poor of Tondo will put to shame those philantrophists of our time. It was and it is still a common sight to see hordes of indigents crowding the convent and they never left with empty hands. His undying zeal for souls is proverbial. Here is indeed a man of God!” Msgr. Amado Paulino, D.D.
CHURCH'S FEELING FOR WORKING MAN * * This address was delivered by the Pope on 1 May 1972. The first of May, the feast of Work! What a great subject of study and speech! A topical, fundamental, constitutional theme, which concerns human activity fully! (cf. Gaudium et Spes, nn. 33, ss.) A fruitful topic, covering history, science, technique, eco nomy, sociology, morality, politics, culture and civilization. It is an anthropological, theological, spiritual theme, and now, with the appearance of St. Joseph in the midst of the feast of work, a liturgical one. A central theme, therefore, in the word phenomenon of development and human progress; and therefore a controversial, explosive, resolutive theme. How much talk there has been about it; how much there is still! The Church too, what studies, what documents, what experiments, what efforts and what work she has lavished upon it! We will just mention this theme, so that, if needs be, you may think about it, and become aware of the interest, the im portance and the complexity of the subject that is called work, and understand how it presupposes and at the same time produces a general conception of life. We live in modern times, which more than any others celebrate human activity, which we call work. This study is for you, who are well aware how much the Church nourishes it with doctrine and example. The time is too short for us to speak about it. And do you know what? If we had to speak about it, we should prefer to speak of the workers, rather than of work itself; that is, of hu man beings, the persons, engaged in work. Among them we should 334 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS chooae those who work by hand, I mean carry out the physical toil, rather than those (though they, too, are worthy of our in terest) who prepare it with studies and direct it. And here, in this brief moment, it is not with words that we wish to contact the boundless world of Workers, but with another means of social communication, a silent means, which is perhaps not perceptible to everyone: sympathy. Yes, today we address to all Workers this spiritual and cor dial current: sympathy. This wave, invisible in itself and im ponderable, has, however, its own reality and its own efficacy Our sympathy, which is that of the Church, that of declared dis ciples of the Gospel, is poured forth over Workers; we would like them to know it, and even feel it somehow. A silent voice; but a real voice. In the environments of labour it is very often the opposite opinion that is prevalent: that the Church has no sympathy for working people, who so often are the people of the lower classes, poor people. The Church, it is said, does not know us, the Church is on the side of the rich, and the powerful. The Church is con servative, the Church preaches the duties of the weak and the tights of the strong. The Church concerns herself with moral and religious values, and takes no interest in economic and tem poral values. The.Church seeks her interests, her privileges; she is miserly, selfish; she does not think of us, the subordinate, ex ploited, abandoned Workers. And when the facts prove the contrary? Then other objec tions are made to the rightful interpretation of the friendly soli darity of the Church with working people. These working people often doubt and mistrust the benevolent words and ges tures of the Church. She does so, people think and say, because she is afraid of the working people. She ingratiates herself with us, some people say, to catch us and to paralyse our claims, or even to exploit our numbers, to deceive our simple uneducated minds, to curb the momentum of our social conquests, now irre sistible: or at least to defend the whole castle of religion, in which we no longer believe. . . And this mistrust often and quickly changes to opposition, hatred, struggle and malediction, alas, as is well known in those countries where atheism prevails and has become a programme. Many other things could be said. Yet the Church cannot, does not wish to look at the worker, precisely as such, without this inextinguishable sentiment of sympathy. Whether he wants it or not, whether he knows it CHURCH AND WORKER 335 or not, the Worker is the object of sympathy on the part of the Church of Christ. What does sympathy mean? Oh! It means a great many things, which we all know! It means, in the first place, sharing in the suffering of others; it means moral affi nity, it means understanding; it means an inclination to esteem, favor, friendship, service, love. Does the Church harbour such a sentiment? Yes, sons and brothers; yes, you know it, all you Workers, who hear the echo of this simple profession of sympathy, of this silent discourse. If we were to tell you the reasons for this deep sentiment, the discourse would no longer be a silent one, but would be a never-ending one. The Church has sympathy for the Worker, in the first place, because she sees and proclaims his dignity as a man, a brother equal to every other man, an inviolable per son on whose face it printed a divine likeness. And this sym pathy is all the greater (not all the smaller, mind you!) the more the face bears the marks of want, weakness, suffering, insult, the longing for qualification and liberation. Toil, pover ty, insecurity, exploitation, and even perhaps, inferiority, are claims to the sympathy of the Church To the many other reasons that call forth from the heart of the Church this sympathy for the innumerable multitude of men, who sweat and suffer because of work, and today wait and demand, we will finally add the following two, which sum them all up. Firstly, Christ too, was a manual worker; he learned to toil in the school of Joseph, he was called “the car penter’s son” (Mk. (i:3), he was the fellow-worker of you all because he gave his life, his blood, to save everyone. And se fondly, Christ’s cry still echoes down thte centuries and through out the world: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavv laden and I will give you rest”. (Mt. 11:28). This is the sympathy of Christ, of the Church, for the working world, even to the present day. With our Apostolic Blessing.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES Pablo Fernandez, O.P. CHAPTER 24 OTHER SERVICES Besides the services mentioned in the preceding chapters, the Church performed other services for the government in the Philippines, which we could group under the titles of gene ral military service, military chaplaincy, and miscellaneous services. 1. General Military Services 1) Exploration of the Moluccas. — Among the first such activities, the services rendered by the Jesuit lay Brother Gas par Gomez stand out. Around 1593 he undertook a commission entrusted to him by Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, to go with the company of Captain Gregorio Cubillo to reconnoiter the Moluccas, find out the defensework, equipment, soldiers, al lies and enemies of the king of Ternate, against whom the Spaniards were readying an expedition. Cubillo died in an accident and Brother Gomez fulfilled his commission and sub mitted the information needed. Although Dasmarinas was unable to carry out the planned invasion because he was as sassinated by some Chinese crewmen off the coast of Batangas. October 25, 1953, the plan eventually succeeded in the time of Governor Pedro Bravo de Acuna, who entrusted the Jesuit Brother with the distinguished but difficult task of going to Spain to report the victory to the king.’ 2) Defeated Soldiers in Formosa Return to the Philip pines.— In 1641, when Father Juan de los Angeles was a missionary in Formosa, he made a trip to Manila for the sole ' Saderra Maso, S.J.. Miguel, Ulisiows Jesidticas <>i Filipnuis I Manila: Tcp. Pont. Univ, de Sto. Tomas, 1924), p. 32. 402 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS purpose of notifying the governor of the Islands and seeking aid against the danger threatening that island because of the Dutch. Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera was then gover nor of the Philippines, veteran of several campaigns against Moslems. He sent only eight soldiers and a small band of auxiliaries aboard a decrepit boat. This explains why the Spanish garrison in Formosa had to surrender to the Dutch on 24 August 1642, when the latter presented themselves with superior forces before the fortress of Keelung. But the ser vices of Father de los Angeles did not end here. Taken pri soner with the few remaining soldiers of the garrison to Batavia,he obtained from the Dutch governor, Anton van Diemen, the release of fifty Spanish soldiers whom he under took to feed and lead back to Manila, where they arrived on 29 June 1643.-’ 3) A Dominican Acting Governor-General. — Fray Juan Arrechedera. O.P., governed the Philippine Islands in the in terim capacity from 1745 to 1750. He ordered the melting of the best canons of the -armory for some time, renovated the governor’s palace and encouraged trade. For all of these activities, he received praise from the king as a loyal minister, worthy of greater tasks.'1 4) Four Student Companies at the University of Santo Tomas. — During the war carried on by France and Spain against England from 1779 to 1783, the Rector of the University, Father Domingo Collantes, raised four companies of fifty sol diers each from among the students. This was due to a rumor that an English squadron from India was already on its way to the Philippines to bombard Manila, as had happened in 1762. The uniforms and the rations of that small company of two hundred men were for many months paid for by the University. The school also placed at the governor’s disposal the supplies of rice and livestock available in its haciendas. For this, His Majesty, Charles III gave it the title of “Royal University” by a royal cedula dated 7 March 1785J - Ocio, O.P., Hilario Maria, Monumento dominicano, o sea, Memorial d< las Casas que lia adqnirido la Pror. del SSmo Rosario de Filipinas. llesde 1587 hasta 1898. MSS, AUST, Seccion “Hist.— Prov.,” p. 410; Juan de los Angeles, O.P., Formosa Lost to Spain, in BR. XXXV, 128-162. 'Ibid., p. 412 Fnndacion del colepio y erection de la Unnirersidad de Santo Tomas (Manila, 1874), p. 27. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 403 5) Quartering of Soldiers in Church Buildings. — Because of the constant threat of war between Great Britain and Spain during the succeeding years, Manila was always on war foot ing; and, since the government had no buildings to quarter the troops, it had to request the Augustinians and the Dominicans, among others, for part of the convent of San Agustin, various halls of the university edifice and the entire hospital of San Gabriel. Both orders acceded to the request, although they foresaw the losses and inconveniences which such guests could cause them, as happened in Santo Tomas, where the enrollment fell considerably. The troop occupied San Gabriel from 1795 to 1802. and from 1803 to 1814.5 II. Chaplains during Military Campaigns 6) The Jesuits. — We have already indicated the embassy of two Jesuit priests undertaken by commission of the govern ment, to the Viceroy of India in Goa in order to unite the Luso-Hispanic forces for the purpose of dislodging the Dutch from the Moluccas. To this end, Governor Juan de Silva or ganized a fleet of ten ships and other minor craft, which, carrying on board 5,000 men. both Spaniards and Filipinos, unfurled its sails on 5 January 1616. Six Jesuit sailed as chap lains of the fleet: Father Pedro Gomez, rector of Malacca; Miguel Ignacio, rector of Cebu; Garcia Garces, Melchor de Vera, Manuel Ribevro and a Japanese. This was the biggest and mightiest fleet to ever sail from the Philippine shores under the Spanish colors in the past. But almost nothing was accom plished against the enemy, due to the unexpected death in Malacca of Governor Silva who commanded it. Hardly had this powerful armada sailed out of Manila Bay. when a Dutch squadron appeared off the Mariveles coast. The moment chosen by the enemy to attack could not be more timely, since the military force of the colony had sailed away with the governor. Nonetheless, the city did not lose heart. The people prepared themselves to win divir.e protection by their prayers and public orations. At the same time they set up the meager defenses available in the city. It was at this moment that a Jesuit lay brother, at the request of the royal audiencia, took charge of directing and organizing the artillery •> hiforoie del Rector. Fr. Joao Robles, al noberoador de las Islas (haeia 1800), MSS, APSR, t. 2-1-1, fol. 349 v. 404 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS of the fortress. Fortunately, the enemy sailed away without attempting an attack® 7) The Victories of La Naval. — In 1646, there appeared in the waters of the Philippines fifteen Dutch boats well equip ped and strongly armed to conquer the islands, or, at least, the galleon that plied the Acapulco route and brought the annual royal subsidy. To repulse them, the government had only two ancient galleons, La Encarnacion and Rosario. Human ly speaking, it was imprudent and rash to launch these galleons on a fight. But, trusting in the Virgin of the Rosary, the Fil-Hispanic forces sailed out to meet the enemy. But before entering the combat, at the suggestion of the four Dominican Chaplains, soldiers and sailors prayed the rosary with real de votion and made the vow to join and go on procession to the Church of Santo Domingo if the Lord should give them the vic tory. Indeed, in the five naval encounters which occurred between the two squadrons, the Catholic force always emerged the vic tor. Because of these victories, believed to be miraculous by the ecclesiastical chapter sitting en banc, the city of Manila ob liged itself to celebrate perpetually the eight day of the feast of th" Holv Rosary with a mass and sermon. It is from this vow that the famous La Naval precessions originated and have continued to be held without interruption from that time till our our own days.7 8) French-Spanish Expedition to Cochinchina.—In August 1858, two battleships were headed towards Cochinchina, one Spanish, the other French, bringing on board the first contin gent of a force of 1500 men which the Philippine government was offering for the success of the campaign against Tu-Duc, a persecutor of Christianity. With them went as chaplain the Dominican Fray Francisco Gainza, future bishop of Nueva Caceres. He was also acting as a member of the general head quarters of the French Vice Admiral. Rigault de Genouelly. This first division, occupied without bloodshed, the fortress of 11 Murillo Velarde, S.J., Pedro, Hist, de la Pror. de Pilipinas de la Coiupaiia de Jesus (Manila: en la imprenta de la Compafia de Jesus, 17'19), t. II, fols. 1 v — 3. “Even in the armada under the command of the Oidor Morga, which sailed in 1600 from Manila to fight the Dutch fleet of Oliver van Noort, there was a Jesuit who acted as chaplain, with a lay brother, and both died when the eapitana went to the bottom, a result of its weak construction, more than anything else.” (Colin, Francisco, Labor eranpeliea. Madrid, 1663, pp. 407-409). " Ocio, Op. cit., pp. 411-412. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 405 the Observatory, the North, near Turana (Nadang). Shortly after these, a second contingent of the Fil-Hispanic expedi tionary force, consisting of 500 more men, left for Turana aboard the Durance. As chaplains, the Dominicans Manuel de Rivas and Francisco Rivas sailed with them. We could affirm that, in view of the results of this military enterprise from which Spain hardly had any gains, and the Church won, be sides a recrudescence of the persecutions, merely the liberation of a small group of Spanish missionaries who sought refuge in the rescue boat, the Preyent, obtained from the French Vice Admiral, thanks to Father Gainza’s tact and ingenuity. As for the rest, the Filipinos proved beyond doubt their heroism in the Saigon area in the fighting that dragged on for years against the Vietnamese. Father Gainza also received from the Spanish government the reward of the bishopric of Nueva Ca ceres as a reward for the services he had rendered to the country and the Church? III. Miscellaneous Services 9) Protectors of Indios. — In this catalogue of services, we must not forget the role the missionaries played for the Filipino people as their protectors. It is true that few of those apostles carried the formal title, for history remembers only the names of Fray Andres de Urdaneta, Bishop Salazar, and perhaps a third. But there were numberless religious, with no title or official commission, but moved only by evangelical charity, undertook this thorny task and protected the natives with all their zeal and influence." Such were, among so many eminent men. Bishop Miguel de Benavides and Bernardo Navar ro, both of them Dominicans. The first, during a trip to Spain in 1591, obtained the permission to establish among the Manila residents the commerce with New Spain, bringing back the sum of P500.000 and not merely the capital which was the practice until then, while the profit stayed in Mexico. Besides, he also brought about the recognition of the rights the natives had over their mountains, lands anel rivers, for it was not iust to deprived them of this natural right simply by the fact that '•Gainza, O.P., Francisco, ( ta/win de Coclmiehbia, MSS AUST, T. 124. "The Augustinian Diego de Herrera, writing to Philip II front Mexico, 111 January 1570, says: "... I came to this Nueva Espana to give information ... of some injuries done to the natives on account of the extremeties that the soldiers suffered . . .(BR, III, 71) 406 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS of their submission to the Castilian crown and reduce them to the condition of slaves.1" Bishop Navarro interceded with Governor Juan de Silva, vainly seeking an end to the oppression of the people occasioned by the preparations readied to repulse the Dutch from this eastern part of the globe.11 Another religious who purely out of charity assumed the difficult and bothersome task of defending the natives was the Franciscan Fray Francisco de la Trinidad who, “out of his tender love for the indios suffered many heartaches in their defense, because he was an outright defender against the al caldes and encomenderos and other officials who molested themHe mothered them.” 12 Of Father Juan Antonio Campion who died in 1651, Murillo Velarde says that “he bitterly defended the indios from the vexations inflicted on them,” 1:1 “for it is unbelievable,” he adds elsewhere, “except by those of us who experienced it, that some petty officials of lowly rank could pretend to exercise so much authority over.lhese unfortunate people. They imagine that, because of the latter’s natural timidity, they could threaten these poor people with the gibbet and the sword.” u Among the norms which the Recollects formulated for their guide in Zanibales missions, thej' decided, in regards to the protection that they ought to provide for the people: “the religious also made other resolutions pertaining to the protec tion and defense of the Indios, in case anyone shuld err by trying to do violence to them, so that, as true fathers, they might oppose courageously any annoyance that the malice of the heartless men of this always iniquitous age might at tempt.” 1-1 10) Voluntary Submission, of the People to the Crown of Castilla Through the Efforts of Fray Miguel de Benavides.— Because Philip II had scruples regarding the right of Spain to the Philippines whose conquest, according to some was un justified. he tried, following the counsel of a theological meet ing, to win from the native islanders, their voluntary submission ’"Ocio, Rrseiia hiogrnfica (Manila, 1891) I, p. 66. 11 Ibid., pp. 83-84. '-Martinez, O.F.M., Domingo, Compendia historical (Madrid, 1756) p. 53, col. 2. l:f Murillo Velarde, Op. cit., p. 195, col. 2. Ibid., p. 246 v, col. 2. '■ BR, XXI, 152. PHILIPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 407 and acknowledgment of the Castilian kingship. He commis sioned to undertake this delicate task in the provinces of north ern Luzon newly designated Bishop Miguel de Benavides of Nueva Segovia. This prelate succeeded so well in this sensitive matter that the natives accepted with good grace their vassallage to Spain. What greatly helped this was the self-abnegation of the missionaries, who had captivated by their example and their self-sacrificing personal life, the hearts of the people; so much so that the people of Cagayan answered that they made themselves vassals of Spain because they had been sent mis sionaries; and that, had they known the great good that would come to them through the latter, they themselves would have gone to look for the missionaries."’ 11) The Casa of Father Moiuga.—This holy Franciscan performed for the Philippines one of the most important ser vices ever done by any man, when he presented himself in 1618 to King Philip III in Madrid, to beg from him what the pro curators of the other religious orders had failed to obtain, namely, that Philip order the abrogation of the decree just expedited by the monarch himself regarding the abandonment of the Philippines. In revoking the decree, the king spoke these unforgettable words: “Go with God, Father Moraga; for it will not be said of me that I neglect what my father won.” This venerable Franciscan won such signal victory for Catho licism in the Philippines at the cost of his own life, for, with thirty religious missionaries he sailed in a fleet of six boats headed for Mexico, but which a violent storm destroyed and Father Moraga drowned as well as many others.* 17 1,1 Ocio, Oi>. cit., p. 408. In the province of Ilocos, in the diocesis of the bishop of Nueva Segovia, this was very well done; and submission was rendered to your Majesty. Likewise the whole district of Manila, a mission of the Augustinian fathers, has rendered submission. Laguna, in charge of the Franciscan Fathers, has not so easily yielded; for the natives there have asked a year’s time in which to answer . . . The same thing will be done in other provinces which ask delays’’ (Letter from Governor Don Francisco Tello, 12 July 1599, BR, X, 254; also p. 277). 17 Gomez Platero, O.F.M., Eusebio, Catalogo biografico de los reli<7io8os franciscanos de la Prorincia de San Gregorio Magno de Filipinas (Manila: Imprenta del Real Colegio de Santo' Tomas, 1880) pp. 83-84. This was not the first time that in Spain they had thought of abandoning the Philippine Islands, as we read in Book VII, Chapter 8 of the life of Philip II by Cabrera: “the Council brought to his attention the many cares and expenses and the little profit which the Philippine Islands could occasion, and that it would be better to leave them aside. To this, he gave an answer worthy of so catholic a prince: ‘If the revenue of the 408 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS 12) Water to Manila. — Manila is based on a beachland watered by the Pasig river which flows into the bay. Right from the beginning, people felt the lack of potable water. The residents used to go and fetch it from Cavite, or in another spot three leagues farther away from the sea or the tides. The richer people used to build cisterns with which to gather rain water as it fell on the roof. But this was not always possible for the poor, although it was the most obvious and easy way. The Dominicans sympathized with the people who had to suffer the inconveniences of the lack of drinking water and they sought and found in San Juan del Monte, five kilometers from the City, a source of pure and fresh water. They channeled it to the bank of Maitunas creek, by means of an open canal in the rocky terrain. From there, bancas transported it easily along San Juan river to Manila. The creator of this system was the engineer-historian, Fray Juan Peguero (+ 1690), for several years Vicar of the Dominican Sanctuary of the Holy Cross in San Juan. This work needed four years to complete 1686-1690, and several * 1housands of pesos charged to the Or der.'" Later after 1882, thanks to a pious fund left by the Spaniard Don Francisco Carriedo in 1733, the city soon had throughout its streets, and even in many houses, abundant drinking water.* 19 Philippines and New Spain did not suffice to maintain one hermitage, even if it was only to preserve the name and the devotion to Jesus Christ, he would send the revenue of Spain by which to propagate His gospel.”' (Antolin, O.P., Francisco, Camino de Ituy y Paniqui, MSS, APSR, t. 110). 1S Ocio, Op. cit., p. 142. 19 Unitas (November, 1933) gives a brief account by Santiago Artiaga and Manuel Manosa, of Spanish projects to supply Manila with potable water. With regards to the Carriedo Fund, there is a "respuesta” or an opinion in answer to a consultation dating fnom the first half of the nineteenth century, which throws some light on the fortunes of this Pious Trust Fund, before the wishes of its pious founder could be fulfilled. (Cf. MSS. AUST, Seccion “Consultas," formerly tomo 191, No. 8, p. 14, but now still uncatalogued). Other services rather frequently rendered by the religious and the ecclesiastical chapter of Manila to the government, especially throughout the nineteenth century, included the sub mission of well-studied reports or answers to difficult and transcendent questions, acting as presidents or members of the board of governors of the Obras Pias, of councils to lay down educational programs, and acting as censors of books, etc.
I HAVE ONLY ONE THEME: CHRIST * By MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN T. S. Eliot, the poet, said that. “Today men dream up sys tems so that we will not have to be good”. We talk about re newal. It is a very comfortable subject, first of all, because it refers to something outside ourselves — structures establish ment, the Church, the way we dross, where we live, and whether we can do “our thing”. Renewal has another advantage: you can discuss it. You never have to make a personal decision; we' are all out of the firing line. The trouble is out there. So in the Church today, it is very much like the story of the court which decided, in the presence of the king, to have a parade of all of its costumers. Various men were hired-one to wear a hunting costume, another a sport costume, another a court, another a diplomatic, another regal. Hundreds of men passed by with hundreds of different uniforms and finally a little boy who was there said,” “Look, the king is naked”. So 1 wonder if we have forgotten the King. We talk too much today about the Church. Notice when vou try to buy a book. Almost all the books are about the Church, and they are against it. (Generally, if you read one •ou read them all). Very few are about Christ, about the King. So we are going to talk about the king, not to convince you—you are already convinced. That is why you are here. You are an elect, a select group, a credit to the Church. What a joy it is to look out upon you and to see that you are identifiable is those consecrated to the King. My good Sisters, we think we know all about Him. We know al) about Him from books-yes, the way we have been taught-but let us see if we really know Him. In the sixteenth "This is the text of the homily delivered by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen during the Consorium Perfectac Caritatis Meeting on 2 March 1971 at Holiday Inn. Washington, D.C. 374 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS chapter of Matthew, Our Lord asked the most important ques tion. In the world no question is answered until this one is answered. “Who am I ? First He asks the Gallop Poll: “Who do men say that lam? What is the percentage”. “Twenty-nine percent, John the Baptist; sixteen percent, Elijah; Thirty-two percent, Jeremiah; and the rest one of the prophets”. So He is a man. "Who do you say?”. The twelve — no answer be cause they were fighting among themselves. And God illumines one of them who steps out of the line and says, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” That was right! He is man and He is God. Now this is the theology. This is the hypostatic union; this is the way we meet Christ, all of us. Now we have what man says of Him. What does He say of Himself? This is the question we have to answer: who does He say He is? He says, “I am Ebed Yahweh; I am your suffer ing servant. I have come to handle guilt for sin, and 1 am going to Jerusalem; I am going to be delivered over to the Gentiles; I am young to be crucified; and the third day I am going to rise again.” And just as soxxn as Peter heard this, he said, “Listen, we are willing to have a dying, divine Christ, but we are not willing to have a suffering one. We want no victim. We want to talk about free equals; but we do not want to talk about victimhood”. Why Satan? Because Satan tempts one away from the cross. The Gospel of last Sunday gave three short cuts away from the cross. Firstly, follow your taste obey your instinct. Secondly, propagandize and follow technology; people want wonders; throw yourself from the steeples. And thirdly, theology is politics; the kingdom of the world is mine; you can win all this without paying any attention to guilt. So who is Our Lord? He is the victim for the world of sin. Now this is Christ. This is what he says of himself. And He called you and He called me to share that life. There follow some consequences from this for our spiritual lives. I will see how many I can develop in a short space of time. IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST We have to be identifiable. That is first. In the Incarna tion God Took upon Himself an individual human nature from Mary. Because it was never capped, limited by a human per sonality, it can absorb every nature in the world that will give himself or herself to Him. And so in our spiritual life Christ says to us, “I need other human natures. I will have no other HOMILY 375 eyes in the world except your own; no other lips but yours. Would you give me your human nature?”. When you give it, give it. And give it so much that when you renew My sacrifice you can say (the secondary meaning of the words of the con secration), "This is my body; this is my blood”. We are not keeping back our intellect; it is captured by Him. And we are not keeping our will; we are not singing the song, “I want to be me”. I don’t want to be me; I want to be His. The more totally I am His, the more He can do with me. If I had a pencil, and wanted that pencil to write “God” it would be responsive to me. It would be a supple instrument in my hand to my will. It would be flexible. I could do any thing with it. Suppose, however, that the pencil had a con sciousness of its own. and when I wanted to write “God”, 1 wrote “dog”. It would be a useless pencil. And, Sisters, the reason ice are losing our effectiveness in the world is that Un people are not seeing that ice are Christ’s instruments. And they know it. They know it by our actions; they know it by our dress; they know it by our talk. The instinct of the laity is infallible about us priests. Any individual judgement of a lav person may be awry; but the corporate judgement is right. They know ns. And they want us right. And believe me within the next twenty years, they are going to set us right. They set the bishops right in the Council of Constantinople, and they will do it again, because they want us to be what we are supposed to be — His. Thus is why ice must spend at least one hour a day in medita tion — at least, an absolute minimum. It takes fifteen minutes to slough off the world. IVe hare to first escape the world, then we hare got to inscape into it so that we interiorize Christ. HV put Him into our consciousness in meditation and that seeps down into unconsciousness and comes out in the way We teach, in the way we act, in the way ice lore. This is our first practical conclusion of being a follower of Christ who is a suffering ser vant. the slave of humanity. We are the slave of humanity, helping Him to remove the stain of guilt in His name. That s our first role. RELATION TO THE WORLD Our second role is in relation to the world. We have been too separated from the world. In the Vatican Council the world came into the Church through the pen, and the Church went into the world as Paul VI was crowned outside in the piazza of 376 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS St. Peter’s. We have been too separated from suffering huma nity, from the sick and the socially disinherited, from those who are calling for the Church. Those who plead, “We have to busy ourselves with the world”, are right-half right. We know that, first, we are Christ’s. Once we are His, then we become useful to the world, then and only then. In the story of Maltha and Mary, there is found not the distinction between the contemplative and the active life. This story follows the story of the Good Samaritan. And lest some would conclude from the Good Samaritan, that simply because the liturgists, the priest and Levite, were on their way to litur gical worship in the temple and ignored the world, that there fore, we have to give up entirely the divine and devote ourselves totally and solely to the world, Our Blessed Lord followed up that story with Martha and Mary to re-mind us that there is limit to activity. And that is why He said to Martha, “Martha, listen. Surely, we have to live. I am willing to eat a thousand island salad but not provided you go through a thousand diffe rent kinds of legalities. Believe me there comes a time when you must sit at my feet. You are too active. You are to much engaged in work.” In the gospel of next Sunday we have the Transfiguration. Peter wanted to stay up in the mountain. Our Lord said, “No you have to go down. There is frustration. There is evidence that there is half-witness. There is a distraught father down be low in that valley”. And when He got down, what did He find? He found nine of His apostles absolutely helpless in the face of driving out the devil. Our Lord gave to His apostles the power to drive out devils and here were nine helpless men. And this father came to our Lord, “Maybe you can help me; maybe you can help me”. And what did Our Lord sav to these apostles? He said, “How long do I have to suffer with you? You have no faith. That is why you cannot drive out devils. Why are you so intent on taking care of the distressed and the mentally destitute and so forth, if you do not have any faith, if you are not really close to me-”. And I tell you. Sister, that if we simply think that what we have to do is to busy ourselves in the social order without staying close to Christ, we are never going to do His work, as effectively as the Communists or the Secularists or the Humanists, because we have already failed before we start. We are like Gehazi. Gehazi was the servant of one of the Old Testament prophets who was to take the rod and HOMILY 377 to go and heal, and he could not heal. He had all the instru ments, worthless. What was the first word of Our Lord’s public life? “Come, Come, Come. Come to me; learn of me. The branches cannot live without the vine. Without me you can do nothing. Come”. What was the last word of Our Lord’s public life? “Go! Go into the world. Now you will be effective simply because you have come. You learn of me — caught my spirit, caught my fire — and now you can go into the world and not become secularized and not deny me as Peter did when a girl came up to him as he warmed himself by the fire and said, “You have been with the Galilean. And he said, “No, I don’t know Him, no I don’t know Him. I don’t dress like Him; I don’t talk like Him; I don’t identify myself with Christ”. So first we come then we go and then we are effective and we have power. This is the source of our scandal today. Believe me the Lord takes us at His word and our word when we say we are His. And we have to live intimately and closely with Him. And that is ivhy I say, Sisters, that our big problem today is not the Church. The Church irill settle itself once ire get back to Christ. When ice live close to Christ the Church trill begin to grow again and ire trill begin to get vocations. If we are not with Him, we will not stop the apostasy until we get back again to Him. It is the only thing in the world that works. Those nine — nine apostles were down below after Our Lord came down from the mountain of the Transfi guration— they were the Church. They symbolized priests; they symbolized nuns — ineffective — no faith. So I have only one theme: Christ. Sisters, 1 am travelling the country from one end to ano ther giving priest’s retreats, talking in secular universities (1 do not go to Catholic ones very much). Secular universities: I have been in forty of them in the last eight or nine months. They are looking for something. They have not found the answer in just the rock stories or music about Jesus. One of the New York papers this morning said: “There is a kind of religious ritualism instead of spirituality”. But in any case, they are reaching out. And there is only one salvation and there is no other name except heaven by which we can be saved except Christ and Him crucified. And it is a challenge to young people. They want to hear it! And that is why I say you have to begin to be His totally, completely. Then we need not fear for the world. 378 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS KENOSIS Do you think we have time for another point? And now 1 am hesitating to which one to give you. Oh yes! I think one of the most important texts in Scripture for these days. In the second chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians (I recently heard someone read, “the epistle to the Filipinos”), verses six and following, St. Paul tells us, "Christ emptied Himsef, taking upon Himself the form of a slave — not ser vant, slave—and became subject to death for our sakes”. The Greek word for death is “kenosis”. He put off His glory — we almost have that whole Second Philippians in St. John’s des cription of what Our Lord did the night of the Last Supper — He got up from the table, took off His outer garment, gird ed Himself with a towel which was the mark of a slave, got down and washed the dirty feet of His disciple, poured water, wiped them. That was like rising up in heaven and throwing off His glory, girding Himself with the towel of humanity, pouring out His blood, and washing our souls and sanctifying them with the Holy Spirit. CHRIST’S HOLD ON YOU Do you think that would be humiliating? What is then for God to take upon Himself a human form — limiting Him self to human qualities, subjecting Himself to human birth, growing never speaking the WORD but speaking words, sub jecting Himself to pain? Has God ever died, ever suffered? You ask these questions and you have the answers. God suf fered and died. Was God hungry? Did He ever go without food as we do? Does He know what it is to be born in slum? Was He ever the victim of totalitarian regime? Did He have to run from a political tyrant? Was He ever among betrayers? He ever have His lips blistered with a kiss? Did He know what it was to have a migraine headache? Did He know what it was to be wounded as people are wounded in war, in auto mobile accidents? So He took upon Himself our misery and then He had to spend the rest of His life with men — all of them from the wrong side of the tracks except one, and he was the one who betrayed Him, And so on the night of the Last Sup HOMILY 379 per He said to Philip, “Philip, Philip, have I been all this time with you, and still you do not understand”. And now this is the humilation of the Son of God. This is our suffering ser vant. This is our master. This is our King. He is the one to whom we have communicated ourselves. How effective are we? We are effective just to the extent that He has mastery over us. If you teach school, if you rule, if you work for the poor, regardless of what it is, your effectiveness will depend entirely on how much of a hold Christ has on you. So that the reason we are not sometimes more effective is because we do not let Christ get a hold of us. We are not open enough. W’e keep secret guard in the back of our hearts. We lock Him out of the house. Do you remember when the Old Testa ment prophet came to the widow? Her sons were about to be sold to the creditors. He said, “What do you have?”. She said, "I have' one vessel of oil”. “Go out to the neighbours to gather up all the vessels and crocks that you can”. And the prophet told her to pour the oil. And the oil poured, and poured and poured, and it did not stop. Finally she said to her son, “Get me another vessel”. He said, “There is no more”. And the oil stopped. That oil is the spirit of Christ who comes into us to possess us. And so to be filled with Him. the con dition is that ire empty ourselves. GETTING “WHOLE” AGAIN Sisters, this is our problem today. It is not renewal. The word renewal is not found in the New Testament in relation ship to any kind of structure or dress. It is found only in relationship to two things: one, “Be infants”; and secondly, “Become a new creature. Listen, we don’t need renewal, we don’t need renovation, like around a house. We have got to get whole again. We are like Nicodemus who said, How can I be born?”. Well ire hare to be bon ayain, not jusf. be renewed. We have a great enemy outside — the devil and his cohorts. He is very real. Theologians do not talk about the devil; psychia trists do. The two greatest psychiatrists in the world are captured by the devil in modern society. We don’t talk about it. We don’t believe it anymore. We don’t believe in guilt and hence we don’t talk about Christ and about sin and about guilt. We have an enemy to fight. 380 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS GOD’S WAY Our ranks are decreasing. Maybe that is the way God wants it. Maybe He is doing to us What He did to Gideon. He told Gideon to go out and capture the Midianites, 65,000. Gideon had an army of 30,000. God said, “Your army is too great. Tell the cowards among them to leave”. Do you know how many cowards there were? 20,000-two-thirds. He had 10,000 left. God said to him, “Send them to the river; watch them drink” Many of them threw themselves prone and drank from the river. And others ran along the river and tapped up the water like an animal. They drank in the manner of the dog. And God said. “That is your army. Now go out, and I am with you”. Sisters, God is thinning our ranks. You are the army of Gideon. You are the elect. And the Lord is counting on you. The very fact that you have come here from all over the world, all over the United States, is an indication that you have felt in your own hearts that there has to be rebirth, that we have to get back to Christ; get back to His cross. We are .suffering from a disease of staurophobia. “Stauros” in Greek is “cross” and “phobia” is “fear” — staurophobia. Discipline, cross, penance, cxcentrated decivili zation— we never thought of that, just of society, always our selves. But let us yire ourselves to Him and then we will be effective in the world and will really renew the Church, re newed by our beiny reborn in Christ. God bless you. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “(The) services of Monsignor Jovellanos for the good of the soul and even of the body of every inhabitant of Tondo cannot be measured by time nor can it be equalled by any earthly treasure. No one can count the number of souls borne by him into heaven, delivered by him from the sorrows of the hear! and of the body, and brought by him to goodness, holiness and salvation.’’ Rufino Cardinal Santos, D.D.
NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS AS PRESENTED BY FR. ROBERTO TUCCI, S.J. After the Council, and particularly in the last few years, the various members of the ecclesial community had stressed, in different countries, the necessity of updating the procedure for designating candidates for the episcopate. The question is now dealt within the normative document that was published on 12 May, preceded by an introductory letter from Cardinal John Villot, in his capacity as Prefect of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church. Presenting the document to journalists in the Press Office of the Holy See on 12 May, Father Roberto Tucci, S.J. stressed in the first place its topical interest, connecting up its letter and spirit both with the indications given by the Council and with the Motu Propio Ecclesiae Sanctae in 1966. In the decree Christus Dominus on the Bishop’s pastoral office, the only sec tion on the nomination of bishops is the one that claims the full freedom of the Church as regards the civil authorities (n. 20). But it was certainly the ecclesiological renewal brought about by the Council — Fr. Tucci pointed out — “with the well ba lanced stress laid on collegial collaboration and the responsibi lities of the whole People of God, that contributed to a greater extent to making the need felt for an updating of the existing norms, even in the more responsible spheres. In any case, these norms have varied considerably even in more recent times, ac cording to the different circumstances of time and place”. This updating was heralded as early as 1966, in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, with which Paul VI established the norms for the application of some decrees of Vatican II, in con nection with the nomination of bishops and with reference to the decree Christus Dominus. It said in fact: “While it remains the right of the Roman Pontiff to nominate the bishops freely NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS 357 and confer the office upon them, and without interfering with the discipline of the Oriental Churches, the episcopal Conferences will discuss every year, prudently and in secrecy, which eccle siastics are worthy of being promoted to the episcopal office and will propose the names of the candidates to the Apostolic See, according to the norms established or to be established by the Holy See” (I, article 10). Some time afterwards a broad consultation was held to find out the opinion of the pontifical Representatives and the local episcopates. A first thorough examination of the question by the members of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church and of the Sacred Congregation for the Bishops, took place as early as May 1968. In the various phases of drawing up the new norms, the collaboration of two other Congregations con cerned was requested, namely the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (competent for the nomination of bishops in the territories under its jurisdiction) and the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches (competent for the rare cases of dioceses of the Latin rite in territories under the juris diction of this Congregation), and also the collaboration of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law The declared purpose of this work was to revise all the material on the designation of candidates to the episcopate, that is, to update the decrees already in force and to introduce them in countries in which there were not yet regular meetings of the bishops to draw up lists of suitable candidates for the epis copate. Thus we come to the non-definitive text, which was sent on 1 September 1970 by Cardinal Villot to all the episcopal Confe rences. To give the latter a better possibility to make known their remarks and suggestions on this text, the deadline for their communications was extended first to 15 February and then to the end of July 1971. Numerous answers were received. Forty-two out of 84 Epis copal Conferences sent their observations: probably some were not directly concerned. Non-collegial answers came from eight other episcopates. Thus the document was revised again on the basis of these replies. The definitive text obtained in this way, Father Tucci pointed out, if compared with the preceding one, NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS 357 and confer the office upon them, and without interfering with the discipline of the Oriental Churches, the episcopal Conferences will discuss every year, prudently and in secrecy, which eccle siastics are worthy of being promoted to the episcopal office and will propose the names of the candidates to the Apostolic See, according to the norms established or to be established by the Holy See” (I, article 10). Some time afterwards a broad consultation was held to find out the opinion of the pontifical Representatives and the local episcopates. A first thorough examination of the question by the members of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church and of the Sacred Congregation for the Bishops, took place as early as May 1968. In the various phases of drawing up the new norms, the collaboration of two other Congregations con cerned was requested, namely the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (competent for the nomination of bishops in the territories under its jurisdiction) and the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches (competent for the rare cases of dioceses of the Latin rite in territories under the juris diction of this Congregation), and also the collaboration of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law The declared purpose of this work was to revise all the material on the designation of candidates to the episcopate, that is, to update the decrees already in force and to introduce them in countries in which there were not yet regular meetings of the bishops to draw up lists of suitable candidates for the epis copate. Thus we come to the non-definitive text, which was sent on 1 September 1970 by Cardinal Villot to all the episcopal Confe rences. To give the latter a better possibility to make known their remarks and suggestions on this text, the deadline for their communications was extended first to 15 February and then to the end of July 1971. Numerous answers were received. Forty-two out of 84 Epis copal Conferences sent their observations: probably some were not directly concerned. Non-collegial answers came from eight other episcopates. Thus the document was revised again on the basis of these replies. The definitive text obtained in this way, Father Tucci pointed out, if compared with the preceding one, 358 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS shows some appreciable improvements in the direction indicated by the episcopates. The main requests put forward by the Epis copal Conferences were, in fact, included in it. The definitive text was sent to the Episcopal Conferences, with a letter from Cardinal Villot, on 25 March last. The document will come into force on 21 May. Fr. Tucci went on to deal with the nature of the document. It contains the new norms approved by the Holy Father regard ing the designation of candidates to the episcopate in the whole Church of Latin rite; these norms do not apply, therefore, to the Oriental Churches, which have their own discipline. As re gards the Church of Latin rite, the cancel the preceding norms, but not the legitimate privileges recognized by law and the par ticular procedures approved by the Holy See by means of an agreement or in any other way, nor do they take their place (art. XV). The exception considered here concern both the case, for example, of particular Churches whose cathedral Chapter en joys the right and privilege of presenting three nominees, and the case of countries in which there exists a Concordat (or simi lar agreement) with particular clauses regarding a possible in tervention of the civil authorities in the procedure of nomina ting the bishops. At the same time the desire expressed b^ Va tican II in the decree Christus Dominus, n. 20, concerning the free choice of bishops, is repeated (art. XV) : “Since the apos tolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and serve a spiritual and supernatural purpose, this most sacred Ecumenical Synod declares that the right of nominating and appointing bishops belongs properly, particularly, and of itself exclusively to the competent ecclesiastical authority. Therefore, for the purpose of duly protecting the freedom of the Church and of promoting more suitably and efficiently the welfare of the faithful, this most holy Council desires that in the future no rights or privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation for office of bishop be granted to civil authorities. Such vivid authorities, whose favorable attitude towards the Church this most sacred Synod gratefully acknowledges and very warmly appreciates, are most kindly requested to make a volun tary renunciation of the above-mentioned rights and privilages which they presently enjoy by reason of a treaty or custom. The matter, however, should first be discussed with the Apostolic See”. NEW DOCUMENT ON BISHOPS 359 The Council, Father Tucci added, wished to specify, by list ing them analytically, what were the privileges that violate the freedom of the Church. In fact the privilege of election, presen tation and designation is one thing, and that of an unofficial pre-notification is quite another. The latter does not in itself harm the freedom of the Church, unless the government consi ders it a right of veto, in which case it would fall under the cases the Council listed. Pius XI affirmed very forcefully, in connection with the Condordat with Italy, and explicitly sanc tioned in the Concordat with Germany, the principle that un official pre-notification does not constitute a right of veto. The central purpose of the document is to carry out the in dications of the Council, and to apply what was established in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, to give the procedure in question a common content, wide enough, however, to allow for the great diversity of circumstances of the various particular Churches, and introducing considerable innovations on more than one point, at least as regards even the more recent practice in several countries. The document aims, finally, at ensuring better, in the present concrete and varied situation of the Church of the Latin rite, the choice of Pastors really suited to guide the local Churches in the present necessities and to exer cise collegial co-responsibility at the various levels. It does so mainly by authorizing, though within precise limits, a wider consultation of the ecclesial community at the different levels. "Since the pastoral office of bishops is so important and weighty, when diocesan bishops and others, regarded in law as their equals, have become less capable of fulfilling their duties properly because of the increasing burden of age or some other serious reason, they are earnestly requested to offer their resignation from their office either on their own initiative or upon invitation from the competent authority. If the competent authority accepts the resignation, it will make provision for the suitable support of all those who have resigned and for special rights to be accorded them.” (Christus Dominus. n. 21)
NOBODY TALKS ABOUT SIN ANYMORE * In order to understand the general conception of the Chris tian religious system, and to apply it to our salvation, we cannot refrain from mentioning an essential chapter of this history of the objective and existential relationship between man and God; and this vast and tremendous chapter is entitled sin. We cannot disregard this tragic fact, which starts from the initial ruin of mankind, original sin, and has its repercus sions in the whole immense and successive network of human misfortunes and of our .fatal responsibilities, which are our per sonal sins, if we wish to understand something of Christ’s mis sion and of the economy of salvation he set up, and if we want to participate in it ourselves. We cannot enter the prayerful and sacramental sanctuary of the liturgy, especially when it cele brates not just the memory of the evangelical account of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord, but the fulfilment of the mystery of redemption, in which all mankind is interested, unless we have in our minds the antithesis of this drama, which is sin. Sin is the negative crux of this doctrine and this lasting salvific intervention, which makes us acclaim Christ liberator and makes us aware of our fate, miserable to begin with, and then blissful when we are associated with the paschal mystery. Sin: today it is a word passed over in silence. The mental ity of our times is loath not only to consider sin for what it is, but even to speak about it. This word seems to have gone out of use, as if it were unseemly, in bad taste. And it is understand able why. The notion of sin involves two other realities, with which modem man does not wish to concern himself. The first one is a transcendent Reality, absolute, living, om nipresent, mysterious, but undeniable: God; God the creator, whose creatures we are. Whether we like it or not, “ it is in him ' This address of the Holy Father is reprinted from L’Osservatore Romano, March 16, 1972. TALKS ABOUT SIN 331 (God) we live and move and have our being”, St. Paul says in his speech at the Areopagus (Acts 17:28). We owe God every thing: being, life, freedom, conscience, and therefore our obe dience, the condition of order, our dignity and our real welfare; God who is love, watching over us, immanent, inviting us to the paternal-filial conversation of his communion, his supernatural kingdom. The second is a subjective reality, connected with our per son, a metaphysico-moral reality; that is, the inalienable rela tionship of our actions with God, present, omniscient, and exam ining our free choice. Every free and conscious action of ours has this value of choice in conformity or not with the law, with the love of God, and our yes, or no is transcribed in Him, so to speak, is recorded in Him. This no is sin. It is suicide. Since sin is not only a personal defect of ours, but an inter personal offence, which begins with us and arrives at God, it is not merely a lack of legality in the human order, an offence against society, or against our inner moral logic; it is a fatal snapping of the vital, objective bond that unites us with the one supreme source of life, which is God. With this first deadly consequence: that we, who are capable, by virtue of the gift of freedom, which makes man “like unto God” (cf. Par. I, 105). of penetrating that offence, that break, and with such facility, arc no longer capable of putting it right, by ourselves (cf. Jn. 15:5). We are capable of ruining ourselves, not of saving our selves. This makes us meditate on the extent of our responsi bility The act becomes a state; a state of death. It is terrible. Sin brings with us a curse, which would be an irreparable condemnation, if God Himself had not taken the initiative to help us, revealing his omnipotence in kindness and mercy. This is marvellous. This is redemption, the supreme liberation. A wonderful liturgico-theological prayer says: “Oh God, who manifest your omnipotence most of all with forgiveness and mercy . ..” (Collect on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, in the old Missal). The idolatry of contemporary humanism, which denies, or neglects our relationship with God, denies or neglects the exis tence of sin. The result is a crazy ethics. Crazy with optimism, which tends to make everything permisible if it is pleasant or profitable, and crazy with pessimism, which takes from life its 332 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS deep significance, derived from the transcendent distinction be tween good and evil, and abases it i.n a final vision of anguish and desperate fatuousness. Christianity on the contrary, which sharpens so much the awareness of sin, listening to the peerless lesson of the Divine Master (cf. the Sermon c.n the Mount), takes advantage of this to initiate man in the sense of perfection, and consoles him with lhe gift of spiritual energy, grace, which makes him capable of aiming at it and reaching it. But above all it carries out its in exhaustible miracle of God’s forgiveness, that is, the remission of sins, which implies the resurrection of the soul in participation in the life and love of the kingdom of God. Let us restore in ourselves the right awareness of sin, which is not frightening, or weakening, but manly and Chris tian. The awareness of good will grow in opposition to the awareness of evil. The sense of responsibility will grow, rising from inner moral judgement and widening to the sense of our duties, personal, social ^pd religious. Our need of Christ will grow, Christ, the healer of our miseries, the Redeemer and the victim of our evil, the conqueror of sin and of death, he whio made his pain and his cross the price of our redemption and. our salvation. With our Apostolic Blessing. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “Fifty years ago, a young priest, Fr. Jose N. Jovellanos, came to Tondo to be its parish priest. It was a significant year, 1919, for it marked the beginning of Tondo’s spiritual progress which earned for this earstwhile forsaken district the reputa tion of being the largest parish in the world. The name Jovel lanos grew with Tondo. . . . And after fifty years of this mutual belongingness, we can now truly say that Jovellanos is Tondo, and Tondo is Jovellanos.” (Foreword, 50 Pastoral Years in Tondo)
RESPONSE TO "MANIFESTO" OF 33 THEOLOGIANS * Rev. Philippe Delhaye OPINION On 17 March, 33 professors of theology published a mani festo "against the resignation that exists in the Church”. Cath olic opinion has reacted in very different ways according to countries and regions. In Belgium, for example, the Flemish speaking papers devoted a certain attention to it, laying stress on the names of professors from Nijmegen who had signed this text. On the other hand, French-speaking papers, even those of progressive trend, gave only a few short lines to the state ment. It was the same in France, where the paragraphs on the manifesto gave the impression of a certain dissatisfaction, with out explaining why. In other countries, on the contrary, certain environments reproduced the complete text. It is necessary, therefore, to examine it briefly. It is not a question of being polemical: the Church today has been only too ready to set the example of dissension to a world that expects from it a testi mony of peace and harmony. We cannot be silent, however; we should be accused 6f rejecting dialogue, and, furthermore, we should lose the opportunity of discussing unjust accusations and regrettable contesting projects. Qui facet consentire videtur. THE SIGNATORIES In such a case, one thinks instinctively of reading the signatures first of all. It is in the nature of man to attribute at least as much importance to the persons speaking as to th-”1 arguments put forward. "Thirty three professors of theology" is a very small number. If compared with the number of pro' This article taken from L’Osservatore Romano, May 11. 1972 382 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS fcssors teaching in the faculties and seminaries, five or six thousand in the whole world, it is certainly not a large per centage. One wonders, too, how the authors of the proclama tion got together and what meaning is to be given to the list makes it possible to find a solution to the first question. Two schools of theology are represented substantially: Tubinger with seven names, Nijmegen with five. The most advanced group of Concilium, in particular some organizers of the 1969 congress and the spearhead of the collaborators of the review bearing the same name, also appear here. It is known, of course, that the various councils of the sections of this review gather a large number of professors and researchers. But the fact that they up 15 of the 33 names is very significant all the same. Closer membership of this movement certainly explains, more over, the presence of certain more isolated signatures, in Madrid, Vienna, Philadelphia, Toronto, Bonn, Lucerne, for example. The absences, also conspicuous, should be studied I learned be change that a very well-known theologian had been paid a visit by the organizer of this manifesto and had refused to support it, saying that the text .did not correspond either to his prob lems or to his ecclesiology. These are important words, preg nant with meaning, which are well worth thinking over. THE MEANING OF THE DOCUMENT To understand the meaning of this protest, it is necessary to set it in the general movement of ideas. Since the end of the Council, innumerable pontifical and episcopal texts and theo logical writings have had as their purpose to bring the teach ings and directives of Vatican II into theology, pastoral life and institutions. The success of this immense effort is cer tainly not complete; this is clearly seen by the way the Sove reign Pontiff is continually coming back to, and stressing the lessons of the Council. Certain regretable expressions, of op position have appeared, but we must take into account, above all. the slowness of movement of ideas. After each of the great councils, historians note, it takes 25 or 30 years before the mes sage is. completely assimilated. But some people have become impatient. It seemed to them that the ways opened by the Council were not getting anywhere; so they looked for others. This movement of the “post-Council” had expected to triumph at the Brussels Congress, but is was forced to realize that it had no backing. It renewed its RESPONSE TO “MANIFESTO” 383 efforts in 1971 to condition the Synod; the Holy Father publicly noted the action of pressure groups, particularly to modify or suppress the law of ecclesiastical celibacy. In the course of the summer of 1971, veritable press and radio campaigns were or ganized as regards particularly notorious defections which, as was cynically said, should “make the Synod think”. A new theology of the priesthood was insistently proposed. It prac tically suppressed the difference between the ordinary priest hood and the ministerial priesthood. The Christian assembly was to be the determining element in conferring the priestly or episcopal service. The Synod was not impressed by these ideas. It recalled that the powers of the bishop and the priest come from Christ by apostolic succession, that the Eucharist makes present the sacrifice of Christ, the mediator between God and men, that it could not therefore be confused with a meal of brotherly com munion. Under these conditions, the priest is a man consecrated to God and his involvement in secular values (profession, politics, family) must be different, without however discrediting these values, to which laymen are witnesses by the grace of Christ. The progressive movement did its utmost to discredit the Synod The fact is now well known to make it unnecessary to stress it further. As a result it lost some of its sympathizers, who realized they had been harbouring illusions. To defend themselves personally and to rally their routed troops, the par tisans of a “beyond the Council” are forced to take a new path: contestation. What they are afraid of above all is to see the discontented abandon the fight. The manifesto of the 33 merely says more harshly and clearly w'hat they had been hinting at lor six months. The tactic it presents,is what might be called an ecclesiastical “guerilla”. The authorities are to be harrassed by interventions of small groups, and apparently harmless re forms are to be put forward to prepare for greater ones IS THIS THEOLOGY? It is very curious to see that, in countries in w hich the press merely summarized the document, it mentioned the fact of dis content with the Church and its criticism of the Church, but passed over the “strategic” and longer part of the document. This can be regarded as a sign of uneasiness wdth regard to such undignified maneuvers on the part of priests and professors BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Christians as a whole, even those who criticize the present situa tion, hesitate on seeing professors of theology commit them selves to contestation. Some people even see it as being a sign of clericalism, for the reform of the procedure of episcopal nominations and the consultations asked for in the document concern laymen as much as ecclesiastics and theologians. One cannot help feeling — however much they protest — that it is the action of tiny, noisy minority trying to deceive people about the value of their aims and methods. Is that really what the Christian people expect from theolo gians today? In many countries, the faithful are scandalized by the doctrinal and moral lapses of those who ought to have served as leaders of opinion. What the whole Church wants today, in the great light of Vatican II, is to be increasingly faithful to the Gospel, without denying human values. Constant study of the message of the Revelation of Christ in its eternal and contemporary meaning, this is what the faithful expect of professors of theology. John XXIII, Paul VI, Guadium et Spes laid great stress on the ipethod of the “signs of the times’’. It is a matter of Christians being more sensitive than ever before to human aspirations and comparing them with the faith in order to keep what is praiseworthy, and strengthen it by its insertion in Christ. In this pastoral work, theologians have a specific role, for they must not be content with a certain knowledge of Revelation or of public opinion. They must study the Scriptures, with the aid of literary and historical sciences, according to the faith and in fidelity to the magisterium. They must find an analysis and a Christian understanding of the new human sciences, just as St. Augustine and St. Thomas re-interpreted Platonism and Aristotelianism in a Christian context. This is not remaining extraneous to the life of the Church, as the 33 say. It means preparing the patterns of thought and action by which the magisterium will be inspired, if it considers it opportune bv virtue of its pastoral charism, and by which the Christian will live in the renewed joy of being more of a man because he is a Christian and more of a Christian because he is more of a man. NO FALSE RESIGNATION! In our turn, let us adopt the slogan of the 33 to apply it to their own manifesto. To the extent to which it takes this text into account, Christian opinion has two paths before it. RESPONSE TO “MANIFESTO” 385 Some run the risk of refusing all renewal, maintaining that severity and strictness are the only ways of ending contesta tion. They are not completely wrong. No community can ac cept declarations from some of its members however few, that they wish to undermine the group from within. But, on the other hand, if we attach importance to a bad-tempered gesture, are we not falling into a trap? Is it not better to adopt a posi tive attitude? There is no error that does not contain an ele ment of truth. The 33 ask for more co-responsibility. This is also what the Holy Father and so many bishops have done since 1965. We must continue in this direction, but keep in mind the fact that anarchy and contestion are not gestures of responsible Christians, but risks of irresponsible childishness. The Church proclaims freedom ad extra but not ad intra, the document declares. But as a matter of fact, if there is a conflict between authority and freedom, the immense majority of the faithful feel that freedom has prevailed over authority. They sometimes wonder what they must still believe and prac tise, so many are the voices raised in contestation and denial. They ask for a return to a certain authority, understood essentially as a service of the truth that Christ entrusted to Peter and to the Apostles. Cardinal Garrone showed this clear ly in his courageous answer to the document of the 33. But is a discreet exercise of authority possible without self-discipline? Must not theologians be more vigilant than ever not to propose personal opinions, ideas that are not mature or justified, as certainties. Meditating upon the text of the 33 in the perspective of faith and charity, we must all see in it, an appeal for increased vigilance, ever greater faithfulness to Christ and to the Church. The 33 are wrong to preach contestation to us, and we must say so. Let us not give them the opportunity, however, to play the part of the misunderstood. It is in the very name of faithfulness to Christ — which, I like to think, we share with them — that we refuse the ways of disobedience and contesta tion.
SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH * ’ This article is taken from L’Osservatorc Romano, March 30. 1972. ' Cfr. Phil. 2, 6 8. - 1 Cor. 8. 6. 1 Jn. I. 1. 14 (cfr. 1. 18). < Cone. Oec. Deer., Herder 1962. p 785 Dz. Sch. 3020 1. The mystery of the Son of God, who was made man, and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, both pertaining to the innermost substance of Revelation, must be in their authen tic truth the source of light for the lives of Christ’s faithful. Rut because some recent errors undermine these mysteries, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has deter mined to reaffirm and to safeguard the belief in them that has been handed down to us. 2. Catholic belief jn the Son of God who was made man. Jesus Christ, while dwelling on this earth, manifested i.n various ways, by word and by deed, the adorable mystery of his person. DECLARATION FOR SAFEGUARDING THE BELIEF IN THE MYSTERIES OF THE INCARNA TION AND OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY AGAINST SOME RECENT ERRORS. After being made “obedient unto death”* 1 he was divinely exalted in his glorious resurrection, as was fitting for the Son “by whom al) things”- were made by the Father. Of him St. John solemnly proclaimed: "I.n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . And the Word was made flesh”? The Church reverently preserved the mys tery of the Son of God, who was made man. and “in the course of the Ages and of the centuries”1 has propounded it for belief 344 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS in a more explicit way. In the Creed of Constantinople, which is still recited today during Mass, the Church proclaims her faith in “Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God and bom of the Father before all the ages... true God from true God... conaubstantial with the Father.. . who for us men and for our salvation... was made man”.5 * The Council of Chalcedon laid down to be believed that the Son of God according to his divi nity was begotten of the Father before all the ages, and accord ing to his humanity was begotten in time of the Virgin Mary.1'' Further, this council called one and the same Christ the Son of God a “person” (hypostasis), but used the term “nature” to describe his divinity and his humanity, and using these terms it taught that both his natures, divine and human, together be long, without confusion, unalterably, individedly and inseparately. to the one person of our Redeemer.7 In the same way, the Fourth Lateran Council taught for belief and profession that the Son of God, coeternal with the Father, was made true man and is one person in two natures? This is the Catholic belief which the recent Vatican Council II, holding to the constant tradition of the whole Church, clearly expressed in many pas sages.1’ Missale Romanum, ed. typica Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1970, p. 389; Dz-Sch. 150. 11 Cfr. Cone. Chalc. (Definitio); Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 62; Dez-Sch. 301. 7 Cfr. ibid.. Dez.-Sch. 302. s Cfr. Cone. Lat. IV: Const. Firmiler credimus; Cone. Oec., Deer. p. 206; Dz.-Sch. 800 f. n Cfr. Cone. Vat. II: Const dogm. Lumen Gentium, nn. 3, 7 , 52, 53; Const, dogm. Dei Verbum, nn. 2, 3; Const, pas Gaudium et spes, nn. 22; Dcr. Uuitatis redintegratio, n. 12; Christus Dominus, n. 1; Deer. Ad Genies, n. 3; also Pope Paul VI Solemnis professio fidei, n .11, A.A S. 60 (1968), 437. 3. Recent errors in regard to belief in the Son of God. The opinions according which it has not been revealed and made known to us, that the Son of God subsists from all eternity in the mystery of the Godhead, distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, are in open conflict with this belief; likewise the opinions according to which the notion is to be abandoned of the one person of Jesus Christ begotten in his divinity of the Father before all the ages and begotten in his humanity of the Virgin Mary in time; and lastly the assertion that the humanity of Christ existed not as being assumed into the eternal person of the Son of God but existed rather of itself as a person, and therefore that the mystery of Jesus Christ consists only in the CONGREGATION FOR THE FAITH 345 fact that God, in revealing himself, was present in the highest degree in the human person Jesus. Those who think in this way are far removed from the true belief in Christ, even when they maintain that the special presence of God in Jesus results in his being the supreme and final expression of divine Revelation. Nor do they come back to the true belief in the divinity of Christ by adding that Jesus can be called God by reason of the fact that in what they call his human person God is supremely present. 4. Catholic belief in the Most Holy Trinity, and especially in the Holy Spirit. Once the mystery of the divine and eternal person of Christ the Son of God, is abandoned, the truth res pecting the Most Holy Trinity is also undermined, and with it the truth regarding the Holy Spirit who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, or from the Father through the Son10. Therefore, in view of recent errors, some points concerning be lief in the Most Holy Trinity, and especially in the Holy Spirit, are to be recalled to mind. 1,1 Cfr. Cone. Flor.: Bull Laetentur caeli; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 501 f; 11 2 Cor. 13. 14. '-See Math. 28. 19. 1:1 Jn. 15, 26. 21 Con. Vat. II: Const, dofim. Dei Verbum, n. 10. r’Missale Romanum, loc. cit.: Dz -Sch. 150. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians concludes with this admirable expression: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”". The commission to baptize, recorded in St. Matthews’ Gospel, names the Father, and the Son. and the Holy Spirit as the three pertaining to the mystery of God and it is in their name that the converts must be reborn1-’ Lastly, in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “When the Paraclete comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will give tes timony of me”1" On the basis of the indications of divine Revelation, the Magisterium of the Church, to which alone is entrusted “the office of authentic interpretation of the Word of God, written or handed down”", acclaims in the Creed of Constantinople “the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life... who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified”1'’. In like manner the Fourth Latemal Council taught that it is to be believed and * 11 346 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS professed “that there is but one only true God .. . Father and Son and Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence.. the Father proceeding from none, the Son from the Father alone and the Holy Spirit equally from both, without beginning, al ways, and without end”"1. 111 See Cone. Lat. IV: Const. Firmiter credimus; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 206; Denz.-Sch. 800. 17 Ibid. ,sConc. Vat. I: Const, dogm. Dei Filius, c. 4, can. 3; Cone. Oec. Deer., p. 787: Dz.-Sch. 3043. See Pope John XXIII Aloe, in S. Cone. Vat. II inaugurationc, A.A S. 54 (1962) 792, and Cone. Vat. II: Const past. Gaudium et spes, n. 62. Cfr. Also Paul VI Sollemnis professio fidei, n. 4, A.A.S. 60 5. Recent errors concerning the most Holy Trinity, and es pecially concerning the Holy Spirit. The opinion that Revela tion has left us uncertain about the eternity of the Trinity, and in particular about the eternal existence of the Holy Spirit as a person in God distinct from the Father and the Son, is out of line with the faith. It is true that the mystery of the most Holy Trinity was revealed to us in the economy of salvation, and most of all in Christ himself who was sent into the world by the Father and together with the Father sends to the People of God the life-giving Spirit. But by this Revelation there is also given to those who believe some knowledge of God’s intimate life, in which “the Father who generates, the Son who is gene rated. and the Holy Spirit who proceeds” are “consubstantial and co-equal, alike omnipotent and co-eternal”* 17. 6. The mystery of the Incarnation and of the Trinity are to be faithfully preserved and expounded. What is expressed in the documents of the Councils referred to above, concerning the one and same Christ the Son of God, begotten before the ages in his divine nature and in time in his human nature, and also concerning the eternal persons of the Most Holy Trinity, belongs to the immutable truth of the Catholic faith. This certainty does not prevent the Church in her aware ness of the progress of human thought from considering that it is her duty to take steps to have the aforesaid mysteries con tinually examined by contemplation and by theological examina tion and to have them more fully expounded in up to date ter minology. But while the necessary duty of investigation is being pursued, diligent care must be taken that these profound mys teries do not be interpreted in a meaning other than that in which “the Church has understood and understands them”" * . CONGREGATION FOR THE FAITH 347 The unimpaired truth of these mysteries is of the greatest moment for the whole Relevation of Christ, because they per tain to its very core, in such a way indeed that if they are undermined, the rest of the treasure of Revelation is falsified. The truth of these same mysteries is of no less concern to the Christian way of life both because nothing so effectively mani fests the charity of God, to which the whole of Christian life should be a response, as does the Incarnation of the Son of God. our Redeemer19, and also because “through Christ, the Word made flesh, men have access to the Father in the Holy Spirit and are made partakers of the divine nature2". n' Cfr. 1 Jn. 4. 9 f. ■"Cfr. Coonc. Vat. II: Const, dogm. Dei Verbuni, n. 2; cfr. Eph. 2. Pet. 1. 4. -' Cfr. Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Quinque iam anni, inA.A.S. 68 (1971). 99. -- Cfr. 2 Tim. 4. 1-5. See Pope Paul VI ibid., p. 103 f. See also Synodus Episcoporum (1967): Relatio Connnissioni Synodalii; constitutae ad examen ultcrius peragendum circa opiniones periculosas et atheismuni II 3: De Pastorali ratione agendi in exercitio magisterii, Typis Polvgloltis Vaticanis. 1967 p. 10 f (Oss. Rom. 30-31 Oct. 1967, p. 3). -;l Pope Paul VI, ibid. p. 3 -’Cfr Paul VI. ibid. p.-103. 7. With regard to the truths which the present Declaration is safeguarding, it pertains to the Pastors of the Church to see that there is unity in professing the faith on the part of their people, and especially on the part of those who by mandate re ceived from the Magisterium teach the sacred sciences or preach the word of God. This function of the Bishops belongs to the office divinely committed to them “of keeping pure and whole”. . . “the deposit of faith” in common with the Successor of Peter and “of proclaiming the Gospel without ceasing”21; and by reason of this same office they are bound not to permit that ministers of the word of God, deviating from the way of sound doctrine, should pass it on corrupted or incomplete22. The people, committed as they are to the care of the Bishops who “have to render account to God”23 for them, enjoy “the sacred and in alienable right of receiving the word of God, the whole word of God, into which the Church does not cease to penetrate ever more profoundly21. The faithful, then, and above all the theologians because of their important office and necessary function in the Church, must make faithful profession of the mysteries which this Decla ration reaffirms. In like manner, by the movement and illumi 348 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS nation of the Holy Spirit, the song of the Church must hold fast to the whole teaching of the faith under the leadership of their Pastors and of the Pastor of the universal Church25 “so that, in holding, practising and professing the faith that has been handed down, a common effort results on the part of the Bishops and faithful”2". 2'> Cfr. Cone. Vat. II: Const. Dogm. Lumen Gentium, nn. 12, 25; Synodus Episcoporoum (1967): Relatlo Commissionis Synodalis II, 4: De Theologorum opera et responsabilitae p. 11 (Oss. Rom., loc. cit.). 2» Cone. Vat. II: Const, dogm. Dei Verbum, n. 10. The Supreme Pontiff by divine Providence Pope Paul VI, in an audience granted on February 21, 1972, to the undersigned Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ratified and confirmed this Declaration for safeguarding from certain recent errors the belief in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Most Holy Trinity, and ordered it to be published. Given at Rome, from the offices of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the 21st day of February, feast of St. Peter Damian, in the year of our Lord 1972. FRANCIS Card. SEPER Prefect PAUL PHILIPPE Tit. Archp. of Heracleopolis Secretary 8 March 1972
THE CHURCH IS CUSTODIAN, TRANSMITTER, INTERPRETER OF DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH * Consider the many great questions concerning the origin of the universe, the meaning of life, the longing to know the des tiny of mankind, the religious phenomenon, which seeks to an swer these problems, assimilating and transcending what science and philosophy can tell us about them. Then set the Christian fact in the face of these questions, which recognized in their boundless demands we call darkness, but which, confronted with the Christian fact itself, light up and give us a glimpse of their mysterious depths and art the same time of a certain marvellous beauty. Do this and you will feel echoing within you, as if they had been uttered that very moment, the well-known words of John’s Gospel: “the light shines in the darkness” (Jn. 1:5). The panorama of the cosmos is lit up as if the sun had risen from the night; things show a delightful order, which can still be explored: and man, almost laughing and trembling with joy. gets to know himself. He discovers himself as the privileged wayfarer advancing, tiny and supreme, over the world stage. At the same time he is aware that he has the right and the capacity to dominate it, and both the duty and the possibility of transcending it in the fascination of a new relationship that is superior to him — the dialogue with God: a dialogue that opens in this way: “Our Father, who art in heaven...”. It is not a dream, or imagination, or an hallucination. It is simply the first and normal effect of the Gospel, of its light shining on a soul, which has opened to its rays. What do we call this projection of light? It is Revelation. And what is this opening of the soul? It is called faith. ■ This article is the text of the Holy Father’s address during the General Audience on 19 January 1972 as printed in L'Osservatore Romano, January 27, 1972. CHURCH AND DOCTRINE 337 We learn these stupendous things from that sublime book of theology and mysticism, which is called the catechism, that is. the religious book of fundamental truths. But today this introduction aims at interesting those who hear it in a further question, which we consider of the utmost importance with re gard to the ideological condition in which thinking man finds h’mself on the religious plane. This question is this. Is con tact with God, resulting from the Gospel, a moment of a natural evolution of the human spirit, and evolution that still continues, transforming and surpassing itself? Or is it a single, definitive moment, on which we must nourish ourselves endlessly, but al ways recognizing its essential content as unchangeable? The answer is clear: it is a single and definitive moment. Revelation is inserted in time, in history, at a precise date, on the occasion of a specific event, and it must' be regarded as con cluded and complete for us with the death of the Apostles (cfr. Denz.-Sch. 3421). Revelation is a fact, and at the same time a mystery, which did not have its origin in the human spirit, but came from a divine intervention. It has many pro gressive manifestations, spread out over a long history, the Old Testament; and it culminated in Jesus Christ (cfr. Hebr. 1:1; I Jn. 2-3; Conciliar constitution, Dei Verbum, n. 1). Thus for us eventually the Word of God is the Word Incarnate, the historic Christ, who continues to live in the community united with him through faith and the Holy Spirit, in the Church which is his Mystical Body. This is how things are, beloved Sons; ar.d in this way our doctrine is separated from the errors which have circulated and still crop up in the culture of our times, and which might ruin completely our Christian conception of life and history. Modern ism was the characteristic expression of these errors, and it still exists today, under other names (cfr. Deer. Lamentabili of St. l’ius X, 1907, and his Encyclical Pascendi; Denz-Sch. 3401, ss.). So we can understand why the Catholic Church, in the past and today, has given and gives so much importance to the scrupu lous preservation of the authentic Revelation. She considers it an inviolable treasure, and is sternly aware of her fundamental duty to defend and transmit the doctrine of the faith in un equivocal terms. Orthodoxy is her first concern; the pastoral magisterium her primary and providential function. The apos tolic teaching fixed the canons of her preaching. The Apostle Paul’s order: “Depositum custodi” (I Tim. 6:20; II Tim. 1:14) is for her such a commitment, that it would be a betrayal to vioBOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS late it. The teaching Church does not invent her doctrine; she is a witness, a custodian, an interpreter, a transmitter. As re gards the truths of the Christian message, she can be called con servative, uncompromising. To those who urge her to make her faith easier, more in keeping with the tastes of the changing mentality of the times, she answers with the Apostles: “Non possumus”, we cannot (Acts 4:20). This too brief lesson does not end here. It still remains to be explained how this original revelation is transmitted through words, study, interpretation, application; that is, how it gives rise to a tradition, which the magisterium of the Church receives and verifies, sometimes with decisive and infallible authority. It should also be recalled how the knowledge of the faith and the teaching that it sets forth, namely theology, can be expressed in different measure, language and form. In other words, a theological “pluralism” is legitimate when it is contained with in the limits of the faith and the magisterium entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and their successors. It would also be necessary to explain that the Word of God, preserved in its authenticity, is not for that reason dry and sterile, but fruitful and alive, and meant to be listened to not merely passively, but to be lived, always renewed and ever em bodied in individual souls, in individual communities, in indivi dual Churches, according to human gifts and according to the c’narisms of the Holy Spirit, which are at the disposal of all those who become faithful disciples of the living and penetrating Word of God (cfr. Hebr. 4:12). We will speak about this again, perhaps, God willing. But m the meantime may these fragments of Catholic doctrine suf fice to make you fervent and happy, and give you food for thought. With our Apostolic Blessing.
THE FUTURE OF TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS by H.S. GRAF, S.V.D. 1. THE PROBLEM The liturgy consists of sacred signs. One of the most important principles of the reform of the liturgy is that of the “truth of the signs”. The truthfulness of these signs had to be restored because “with the passage of time there have.crept into the rites of the sacraments and sacranientals certain features which have rendered their nature and pur pose less clear to the people today; and hence to that extent the need arises to adjust certain aspects of these rites to the requirements of our times" (Const, on the Lit., art. 62). Classical examples of those rites whose nature and purpose had become “less clear’’ in the course of time, are the first tonsure and the minor orders. How many of those who have been ordained porters ever acted afterwards as, let us say, ushers in the church? For centuries the porter’s tasks have been taken over by sacristans. But these were not members of the clergy, nor did they receive a special ordination. How many of those who were ordained exorcists were ever allowed to exorcize someone possessed by a demon? In view of these facts and moved by the growing awareness of the missing “truth of signs” ever more young men studying for the priest hood became reluctant to be ordained porter, lector, exorcist or acolyte. Could not any young boy of the age of ten or twelve do everything — without receiving an ordination—what an ordained acolyte was allowed to do. With other words; these rites had lost their original meaning. Today they have meaning only as a kind of stepping stones to the priestly ordination. But this was not their intended significance when they were introduced into the Church. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 361 2. A PROPOSED SOLUTION Moved by the growing uneasiness of their students in major seniin^ ries some bishops’ conferences asked Rome to create new rites and to give new meaning to the former rites of first tonsure and minor orders. Rome in turn asked these bishops’ conferences to come up with practical proposals of their own. These new rites obtained the provisional approval of the Congregation of Divine Worship. Finally, inspired by these first drafts, Rome prepared rites of its own and made them public in early 1971. thereby asking the bishops of the whole world for their comments and further suggestions. The period of four months, however, envisioned by the guidelines, was too short, because during this short time not all the bishops had the opportunity to ordain clerics according to these ex perimental rites. Together with other bishops’ conferences also our bishops asked Rome for the pel-mission to use this new ritual and thus gather further ex perience. On August 7, 1971 the Congregation of Divine Worship granted this petition. 3. FROM THE FIRST TONSURE TO THE RECEPTION INTO THE CLERICAL STATE A. A CHANGED SITUATION During the Middle Ages it was the privilege of the free man to wear his hair long. Short hair was a sign, of being a slave. In order to signify that they considered themselves servants of God for the sake of his people, monks and clerics started to wear their hair short. Today the outward signs of class distinctions have largely disap peared. Everyone is free to wear his hair as he likes. In a sense also clerics and religious had acknowledged this fact, because their tonsure had become smaller and smaller; in the end it was only a small round spot on the crown of their heads. In this way it did no longer signify what it was intended to in the beginning. It was equally characteristic for the Europe of the Middle Ages that each social class, and even each individual profession had its particular custom to dress; they had a kind of uniform. The clerical state as a special group in this social structure had also its particular vestments. Consequently, when a young man was received into the clerical state 362 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS ho was also given the vestments of a cleric. But from the twelfth century on they did not give him his proper clerical vestment but only the sur plice (super-pelliceum), a kind of shortened alb which was wide enough to be worn also in winter over the furs or ‘‘pellcs”. Today everyone dresses as he likes and as he can afford to. Among the last ones to follow this usage of our times, were the clerics. These historical reflections show that both tonsure and the clerical investiture have lost their original meaning. Now the Church acknowl edges this fact by changing the former rite of first tonsure into a ceremonial reception into the clerical state. This reception is not a private affair, affecting only the seminarian and his bishop; it has consequences for the whole People of God in a diocese. It is, therefore, fitting, that it be held in a public ceremony. From the moment of this celebration on the seminarian is an official candidate for holy orders; he acquires a special relationship to the local Church: he is incardinated into the diocese. B. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE This rite may be held during Mass or in the course of a Bible Ser vice. The readings of this service are to be taken either from the liturgy of the day or from the- special lectionary of the experimental rite. After the gospel, the bishop (or in religious orders and congregations the abbot or provincial) explains the rite to the assembly: Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the resolution of these our brothers, who present themselves today before the Church, concerns us all. Because they want to declare publicly that they intend to become deacons and (and/or) priests. This concerns us. the bishop and the priests, because they want to become, with the grace of God, our co-workers in the ministry of the Church. It concerns you, my brothers and sisters, because they will eventually be sent to you, later on. When they came to this place they were convinced that they were answering a special call of God. Now they ask me to confirm this call. They heard the Lord's call in the way God guided them in the various events and circumstances of their lives. The concern for those of their fellow men who are hard pressed by the difficulties of life has moved them. They were urged by the good example of the communities where they grew up. Christ called them to continue the work of salvation which he has performed in his earthly life. Strengthened by the powerful grace of the Holy Spirit, they came to the conclusion, that they had to give themselves to the service of God and their fellow men. This decision they want to proclaim in public. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 363 In order that they may become in the future our faithful helpers in the apostolic ministry, they began a spiritual, apostolic and intellectual training. They trusted in the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom they placed the firm hope that he will enable them to remain faithful to their vocation. Now they will be called to come forward and to declare their intention in public and to ask me to accept their promise. The the candidates ;i asks for the candidates' ire called by name to come forward. Before he readiness to become ministers in his diocese the bishop declares publicly that he is ready to accept them because of the favorable testimony of others, mainly of the staff of the seminary. Only then he addresses the candidates, asking them for their readiness to con tinue and complete their seminary training, and to accept, after their ordination to the priesthood, a ministry in his diocese. After their favor able reply the bishop accepts their promise in the name of the diocese, the local Church. B. My dear sons. your pastors and teachers, your educators in the seminary and others who know you well assured me of your good conduct of life. Gladly accept their testimony. Therefore. I ask you now: Are you ready and willing, in answer to the Lord’s call, to continue and complete your training, and to get ready to accept in due time a ministry in the Church? A. 1 am ready. B. Are you ready to serve Christ the Lord, and his Body, the Church faithfully? A. I am ready. B. Gladly the Church accepts your promise. May God who began the good work in you see to its completion. To this all present answer "Amen.” Xow there remains nothing to do but to pray and to ask Cod for his assistance that the new clerics fulfill what they promised. They have to become close followers of Christ; they are to "follow in his steps” (1 I’t 2:21). In the following of Jesus, the ‘ faithful witness" (Apoc 1:5) they have to become Christ’s witnesses before the world. Christ "took our illnesses and carried away our diseases" (Mt 8:17; cf. Jes 53:1). The Christian community prays, therefore, that the new clerics l>e ready to carry one another’s burden and so fulfil the law of Christ ■fef. Gal 6:2) 364 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Since they have to strengthen the faith of their brothers—like Peter—they must “walk by faith, following the example of Abraham” (Vatican II, Decree on Priestly Ministry and Life, art. 22). They have to develop a deep devotion to the eucharist, because they have to gather the Christian people for its celebration later on, knowing that this is the centra) mystery of their lives, "the source and apex of the whole work of preaching the gospel” (Ibid., art. 5). For all this the community prays when the bishop rises and invites the faithful to pray: My dear friends, let us earnestly pray to the Lord, our God, that he may pour out the abundance of his blessings on these his servants, who want to dedicate themselves to the service of the Church. Some or all of the following petitions are then pronounced by the deacon or some other minister: For our brothers that they more closely adhere to Christ, our Lord, and become his faithful witnesses before the world, let us pray to the Lord. That they get ready to carry the burdens of their fellow men and be willing to listed always to the voice of the Spirit, let us pray to the Lord. That he make them ministers of the Church who strengthen the faith of their brothers and gather them together for the celebration of the eucharist, let us pray to the Lord. The bishop continues, concluding this prayer of intercession: Lord help us and listen to our prayers. Kindly bless + these your sons who want to dedicate themselves to your service, and to the pastoral care of your people. May they grow in holiness to the joy of your Church and become worthy to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. Another, optional formula is found in the new ritual with which the bishop may conclude the intercessions of the people. It asks for a deep love of God in the new clerics. Out of this love of God the love TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 365 for those for whom they are to be ordained later on is to grow. The Spirit of love is to inspire them to serve God willingly in their brothers and sisters in all conditions of life. Lord. grant to these your servants to obtain an ever deeper knowledge of the mystery of your love for them. Give them the grace to get involved in the affairs of your people with open heart and willing mind. May the Spirit of charity be active in them that they serve willingly their brothers and sisters in all conditions of life. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. — R. Amen. If this rite of admission to the clerical state takes place during Mass the celebration continues in the normal way. If it is held during a celebration of the Word of God, the bishop now blesses the congrega tion and dismisses them. 4. FROM THE LECTORATE TO THE COMMISSIONING TO PROCLAIM THE WORD OF GOD. A. HISTORY The lectorate is the oldest of the minor orders in the Church, both in the East and the West. Not all could read in Christian antiquity. Therefore, those who could were asked to do so for the benefit of the assembly. Soon this service became an ecclesiastical office conferred in a special ordination. Rut relatively soon a part of the readings — especially the gospel — was reserved to the presbyters and deacons, particularly during the celebration of the eucharist. In the Roman High Mass even the epistle was withdrawn from the lector and reserved for the subdeacon so that in the end, simple lectors were only allowed to read the lessons from the Old Testament in Mass and the readings from Sacred Scripture at Matins in the Divine Office. No wonder that in the end the office of lectors became obsolete in the Roman rite and disappeared. When it was re-introduced in the tenth century—together with the other minor orders—it remained simply a stepping stone to the presbyterate. When the Council of Trent tried to restore the minor orders it did not succeed because it failed to give them a new meaning and 366 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS real tasks, even though it stated in a special canon: “If anyone shall say that besides the priesthood there are not in the Church other orders, both major and minor, by which, as by certain steps, advance is made to the priesthood, let him be anathema” (Denz. 895/1772). When the bishops were asked about liturgical matters to be reformed before Vatican II, a number of them brought up also the question of the minor orders. In the future, porters and exorcists are no longer needed in the liturgy. With high probability the order of the subdiaconate will ulso be suppressed. Its tasks will be taken over by the acolytate, its obliga tions by the diaconate. Two additional questions will be inserted into the ordination rite of deacons: one concerning celibacy, the other con cerning the willingness to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours. There are to remain, consequently, two minor orders; the lectorate and the acolytate. B. PROBLEMS One of the guidelines Of the ongoing reform of priestly education states that in the years of their formation the seminarians be gradually introduced into the duties of their future pastoral life. Relatively soon in the course of their training they should be made familiar with their principal task: the proclamation of the Word of God. But, as a matter of fact, every Christian has the right and the duty to proclaim the good news in virtue of the Sacraments of Christian initiation (Vatican II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, art, 3). Consequently, it has been rightly observed that the minor orders are not ramifications of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but concretisations of the Christian obligation to proclaim the Word of God which has its basis in the Sacraments of initiation, particularly in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Church acknowledges this fact, especially today, by com missioning lay people, both men and women, to proclaim the Word of God, granting them the so-called "missio canonica”, and ordering others to act as lectors in liturgical assemblies, even in the celebration of the eucharist. This task is, as the guidelines of the new Missal say “a ministerial, not a presidential function” (n. 34). These deliberations could induce us to suspect that the lectorate also be suppressed. But this is not the case. For the time being, at least, Rome is not willing to drop the lectorate nor the acolytate. Actual ly, by publishing experimental rites for these two minor orders, Rome is trying to revive them and to give them a new meaning. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 367 These two minor orders are now to be conferred by the local ordinary or, in the case of religious, by the major superiors (abbot, provincial or their equivalents). These ministers may also delegate other priests who have some higher ecclesiastical office. It is obvious, then, that before seminarians be sent out to teach religion in schools, they should be ordained lector, that is to say, they should be commissioned to proclaim the Word of God. There should be, however, an appropriate space of time between the admission to the clerical state and the lectorate on the one side, and the lectorate and the acolytate on the other. The judge in this matter is the bishop or the religious ordinary. C. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE The ordination of lectors takes place either during Mass or in a celebration of the Word of God. Lectors are ordained before the first reading of the Mass or after the gospel. Here appears a kind of hesita tion in the new ritual. Practically all reformed rites of Sacraments and sacramentals to be held during the eucharistic celebration, have now been inserted between the celebration of the Word and before the preparation of the gifts. If lectors are ordained before the first reading of Mass, it gives to one, or at highest tiro of the newly ordained the possibility to exercise this ministry during the eucharistic celebration. After the candidates have been called nominally by the deacon or a priest, the bishop addresses them with the following words: My dear sons, God the Father fulfilled the mystery of our salvation and revealed it to us through his Son, Jesus Christ, who is God and man. After he had told us everything the Father had ordered him to reveal to us, he entrusted the Church with the task to preach this Good News to the whole world. As lectors, as readers of the Word of God, you are to help in its proclamation. When you will be ordained lectors in the Church, you become co-responsible for the faith of your fellow men, since faith has its very foundation in the Word of God. You have to read the Word of God in the liturgical assemblies; you have to give religious instruction to children and adults, to baptized people and to catechumens; you have even to proclaim the Gospel, that is to say, the Good News, to people who have never heard of it. In this way, through your help, all men are to come to the knowledge of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent into the world, so that they may obtain eternal life. While you proclaim to others the Word of God, you have to receive it yourselves willingly in your hearts. Meditate eagerly on this Word. May your whole way of life be a manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ before the world. 368 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hb 11:6). But howare people “to believe in him of whom they never heard And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:4 f). For future priests and deacons this official sending takes place now in their ordination as lectors. In order to be able to instruct others in the Word of God the lector has to study this Word of God and to meditate regularly on it. “Practice these duties; devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Take he:-d to yourself and to teaching; hold to that, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers’’ (1 Tim 4:15; 16). After the allocution all stand and the bishop invites the faithful to pray for the candidates: My dear brothers and sisters, let us pray to God, the all-powerful Father, that he may bless these his servants, whom he has chosen to become lectors in the Church. May they faithfully perform the tasks entrusted to them. By preaching Christ, may they glorify the Father who is in heaven. After a while of silent prayer the bishop sums up the prayers of the assembly, asking for God’s blessing; it is to enable the seminarians to meditate constantly on the Word of God. It is to give them a deeper insight into the content of their faith, and to grant them the ability to communicate the Christian message effectively to others: O God, you are the sourse of light and goodness. You sent your Son, the Word of Life, to mankind, to reveal the mystery of your love. Bless + these our brothers whom you have chosen to become lectors in the Church. Help them to meditate always on your word. Give them a deer, knowledge of the faith so that they become ready to proclaim the truth faithfully to their brothers and sisters. This we ask you through Christ our Lord. — Amen. By handing over to the candidates a volume of Sacred Scripture and ordering them to proclaim the word of God faithfully, the bishop bestows on them the office of readers, saying: Receive the book of Sacred Scripture. Proclaim the word of God faithfully to your brothers and sisters that it may grow vigorously in their hearts. — B. Amen. TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS In the meantime, especially if many are to be ordained, one may sing Psalm 18 or any othej- suitable chant. Then the Mass continues in the usual way. If the lectors have been ordained before the first reading, one of them reads the lesson. Another of them announces the individual petitions of the Prayer of the Faithful. 5. FROM THE ACOLYTATE TO THE COMMIS SIONING OF EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION A. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT The highest of the four minor orders was the acolytate. From the very beginning it had a close affinity to the Eucharist (breaking of the eucharistic bread; "fermentum”), to the altar and to all that is connected with it. In the course of time the tasks of the acolytes were partly entrusted to lay people and partly taken over by higher orders. Often the aco lyte’s tasks at the altar were entrusted to small boys. Like the other minor orders, also the acolytate became one of the stepping stones to the priestly ordination. When it was decided to retain from among the four minor orders the acolytate, it had to be given new tasks. The acolyte is now to be ordained as assistant of the priest and the deacon; he has to help them at the altar. He is to be the extra-ordinary minister of the distribution of holy Communion. He may lawfully distribute holy Communion if priests or deacons are not available. He may bring holy Communion to the sick and the aged who cannot regularly attend the Sunday services in the parish. In case the number of communicants is so great, he may help the priests in parishes in order not to delay unduly the end of holy Mass. B. PROBLEMS But in this case too we are faced by a certain dilemma. In virtue of their royal priesthood, the Church entrusts today again lay people with the task, not only to conduct priestless Sunday services and to preach the Word of God at these occasions. She allows them also to bring holy Communion to these celebrations from the parish church and to distribute the eucharist to the people attending these services. Many 370 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS religious sisters working as nurses bring today in a number of countries holy Communion to the sick. Obviously, these lay people are to be com missioned to this task, and there exist proper, though experimental, rites (cf. Liturgical Information Bulletin 5(1970) pp. JKL). This act of commissioning, however, must not be considered an ordination. Here we are now faced with the question: What is to happen to a seminarian who had been commissioned to distribute holy Communion or lo act as reader, or obtained the “missio canonica”, when his classmates are to receive the minor orders of lector and acolyte? Is he to receive these orders, after he has exercised the tasks connected with them, event ually over a longer period of time? The most reasonable solution would be not to ordain him lector and acolyte, because the Church had com missioned him earlier to these tasks. After the reception into the clerical state this seminarian could be ordained deacon immediately. But this is a matter to be left to the decision of the hierarchy. In view of these problems theologians as well as liturgists have asked themselves whether the present-day attempts to revive at least two of the minor orders w[U be successful, because the sharp decrease of priestly vocations in many countries will necessarily imply that major seminarians will be relatively soon asked to teach religion in schools and to help out in parishes on Sundays. This help will certainly include the distribution of holy Communion. C. THE EXPERIMENTAL RITE This rite consists of a calling of the candidates, an allocution of the ordaining minister, the ordination prayer (with invitation anti collect) and finally the handing over of the symbols of the office of acolyte. The acceptance into the clerical state and the ordination of lectors may be held during a celebration of the Word of God (Bible service); the acolytate, however, because of its close connection to the eucharist, has to be conferred during the celebration of the eucharist. In the course of his homily the bishop has also to mention, toward the end, the tasks entrusted to acolytes in the Church and the qualities of his life. Aco lytes as extra-ordinary ministers of holy Communion make is possible for their fellow Christians to become one with their Lord. Therefore, acolytes should be themselves united with Christ in sincere personal love. This is a new motive why, as acolytes, the candidates have to strive after a deep and intensive love of Christ and their fellow men: My dear sons, you have been chosen to become acolytes. Thus you get a special part in the mystery of the Church, whose summit and well-spring TONSURE AND MINOR ORDERS 371 is the eucharist. By the eucharist the people of God develops and grows. From now on you have to perform the tasks entrusted to you in religious celebrations, by assisting priests and deacons. As extra ordinary ministers of the distribution of holy Communion you have to give the body of Christ to the faithful, and bring it also to those who are sick. When you do all this, keep in mind that you become one with your brothers when you share with them the one bread of Christ. May the word of the Lord which he spoke to his disciples during the Last Supper strengthen you in your service: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” After an invitation to pray for the future acolytes, the bishop sums up the silent prayers of all present. Jesus is the true bread of lift Riven to us by the heavenly Father. Acolytes bring this heavenly bread to other members of the Church. They need God’s special assistance for this task, to be faithful and trustworthy stewards of the table of the Lord. Exhorting the faithful to prayer the bishop says; My brothers and sisters, let us ask God the all-powerful Father, to pour on these his servants the abundance of his blessings. He chose them to become acolytes. May he. therefore, give them the strength to be his faithful servants in the Church. After silent prayer of all, the bishop continues: Father, in your loving kindness you gave to the Church through your Son the Bread of Life. Bless • these our brothers whom we chose to the office of acolyteS. Help them to become faithful stewards of your holy altars. Through Christ our Lord. — B. Amen. In a symbolic act the bishop entrusts finally to the seminarians their new office A vessel (paten or ciborium) filled with unconsecrated altar bread is handed over to each one. The ordaining prelate exhorts them to be worthy servants of the Lord's table, and worthy stewards of the Church which grows through the eucharist. While he gives the vessel holding hosts for holy Mass, the bishop says: Receive this vessel with bread for the celebration of the eucharist. Be a worthy servant of the Lord's table and of the Church. 372 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS For the preparation of the gifts some of the newly ordained acolytes bring this vessel, together with wine and water, to the altar and hand it back to the bishop, for the celebration of the eucharist. Immediately after the priests and deacons of the concelebrated Mass, the newly or dained receive holy Communion. Before the distribution of holy Communion to the people starts, the bishop may hand over the vessel a second time, this time filled with consecrated hosts. As the Bread of Life they give the Lord under the eucharistic species to their fellow Christians and act in this way for the first time as extraordinary minis. EPISCOPAL ORDINATION ANNIVERSARIES Let u,s pray for our Bishops on the occasion of their ordination anniversaries. Most Rev. Emilio Cinense May 11, 1957 Most Rev. Jesus J. Sison May 11, 1963 Most Rev. Juan N. Nilmar May 11, 1959 Most Rev. Godofredo Padernal May 18, 1968 Most Rev. Mariano M. Madriaga May 24, 1938 Most Rev. Felix Perez May 27, 1969 Most Rev. Amado Paulino May 27, 1969 Most Rev. Antonio F. Frondosa May 28, 1952 Most Rev. Mariano G. Gaviola June 4, 1963 Most Rev. Cipriano V. Urgel June 12, 1962 Most Rev. Cornelio de Wit June 19, 1962 Most Rev. Charles van de Ouwelant June 21, 1955 Most Rev. Francisco Cruces June 24, 1968 Most Rev. Alfredo Ma. Obviar June 29, 1944 Most Rev. Gerard Mongeau June 29, 1944
THE JOVELLANOS THAT WAS TONDO April 30, 1972 marks the death of Msgr. Jose N. Jovellanos at the age of 84, at the orphanage of the Hospicio de San Jose. Msgr. Jovellanos was parish priest of Tondo for fifty years. He served the Tondefios through war and peaee. “During the Japanese Occupation, when the whole national structure lost its bearing and public morale was shattered by confusion and struggle for survival, Monsignor Jovellanos maintained his com posure and went about his parochial chores with the calmliness and consistency of one whose faith in God and love for his people cannot be shaken by the reverse of the times. He held on for as long as he could to the Tondo Church, keeping his flock to gether within its fold. When the Japanese Army finally coman(leered the church desecrating the holy place and depriving the Tondefios of their house of worship, Monsignor Jovellanos carried on his ministry even if it took him the pains of collecting his people in other places. He saved all he could of the sacred objects of the church including the famous image of the Santo Nino, risking his own life in the process when the church was burned down in the Japanese Army’s last effort to delay the liberation of Manila.” It was indeed hard to maintain a minister’s fold in those days of destruction. But it was harder to reconstruct what has been destroyed. And this is true not only in the physical order but even more so in the spiritual and moral order. During the war, the people of Tondo “. . . saw too much murders and massacres and all forms of human indignities per petrated by the Japanese forces with the Tondefios at the groan ing end. The instinct of self-preservation got the better part of the Tondefios and not uncommonly did they cast aside con ventions and eveji self-respect, in the struggle for survival. The attitude was imbedded in their moral fiber, carried over to the post-war period, picked up by the emerging generations and finally became an institution.” 410 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS It was from the depths of this physical and moral degrada tion that the Right Reverend Jose N. Jovellanos had to redeem his people. And for this end, the monsignor harnessed all his and his people’s potentialities. “Every need of Tondo paris hioners, spiritual and material, was assigned lay organizations or clubs which in their little and humble ways attended to these needs within the limits of their time and facilities.” The St. Joseph Patronage of the Sick was established under the en couraging inspiration of Msgr. Jovellanos. In 1950, the Knights of Columbus was formed. The Adoration Nocturna Filipina. Torno de Nuestra Senora de Purification, organized as early as November 20, 1920. was envigorated to adapt to the needs of the people The social and moral conditions of the immediate post-war era brought the nationalism of the Aglipayans to the fore. The foreign influence of Protestantism even helped this nationalistic sect grow. Msgr. Jovellanos to offer his own version of patriot ism, organized the first Catholic Boy Scout Troop in the Philip pines, thinking that in this way he can also help the young. On July 8, 1951, the Philippine and Papal flags were blessed and erected at the main alter of the Tondo Church. In addition, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was organized with the purpose of forming “leaders among the young of Tondo’s society for active lay apostolate”. To meet this end, study clubs were erected in the different sec tions of the parish. This was later instituted as a catechetical instruction group with volunteer workers from among the Bel gian sisters, high school students of the Tondo Orphanage and the Institute de Mujeres, together with a pioneer group among the more devoted parishioners. In 1925, the Tondo Religious Instruction League was established out of this instruction group. Msgr. Jovellanos was also a patron of the Institute de Mu jeres. He is the founder of the Tondo Parochial School which is now named Holy Child Catholic School. Having enough humility to accept his limitations, he recom mended the separation of certain portions of his parish. Thus, in 1924, Gagalangin became an independent parish under the patronage of St. Joseph. In 1933, the parish of San Jose de Trozo was also erected. The Immaculate Conception Parish folJOVELLANO OF TONDO 411 lowed in 1951. In 1965, Balut became the present San Rafael Parish. In 1966, the San Jose Parish of Manuguit was formed. And in 1968, St. John Bosco Parish of Barrio Magsaysay was established. Jose N. Jovellanos was born on December 6, 1887 in Ermita. Jlis parents were Cesario Jovellanos and Fructuosa de Guia. In 1904, he graduated from the Normal Superior de Maestros, in the same year, he entered the St. Xavier Seminary. He v.as ordained priest on March 15, 1913. After short periods of pastoral work in Gapan, Antipolo, Malate, Malabon and Malolos, Padre Jose, as he was fondly called by his parishioners, was appointed parish priest of Tondo in December, 1919. On July 15, 1931, he was invested Domestic Prelate by the late Archbishop Michael J. O’Doherty. In the same year, he was elevated to the position of Canon of the Manila Cathedral. The monsenor celebrated his Silver Sacerdotal Jubilee on March 15, 1938. In 1945, he was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Manila. By 1954, Rome conferred on him the title of Pro tonotary Apostolic by means of which he was made a “member of the judicial body of the Catholic Church which studies and makes decisions regarding ecclesiastical cases and which inter prets the canon laws of the Church.” Commemorating his Golden Sacerdotal Jubilee on March, 1963, he also “saw” before he died his fiftieth year in Tondo in the year nineteen hundred and sixty nine. • Wilfredo C. I’aguio
The Opera "JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR" by J. Ma. Cavanna, C.M. JESUS BEFORE HIS CONTEMPORARIES The mission of Webber and Rice’s creative work in the controversial opera we are studying, was — it is said — to present “Christ as He appeared to those around Him . . . Judas and the Apostles, Magdalen, Pilate and Herod, and all the simple folk of the Jerusalem of His time. It is very possible that years and years of prejudice have convinced us that peo ple around Jesus at that time were convinced lOO'X of Christ’s being ‘human-plus-something-else.’ The more plausible view is that for most of them this happening called Jesus Christ was an entirely understandable human drama with political understones.” That is, — if I understand well the above statement — Christ as He appeared to those around Him in the events of His life (the happening called Jesus Christ) was not a “humanplus-something-else” being, but “just a man, as anyone else” (as Webber and Rice’s opera presents Him), who was drawn to intense emotional conflicts (an entirely understandable human drama) due somewhat to underlying political im plications (with political understones). In other words, the happening called Jesus Christ was quite similar to that of a certain Theudas of those days who “arose, yirhiy himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean arose. . . and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered." (Acts 5,36-37). If that is the meaning of the above statement, then 1 beg to disagree. I am not a biblical scholar, and less still any expert m modern “demythologizing” exegesis. I am just an assiduous reader of the New Testament for about 50 years of life. It is 394 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS possible that half a century "of prejudice has convinced me” that the people around Jesus, those who knew Him and fol lowed Him as friends or as enemies — not all indeed, but cer tainly quite many, probably most of them — were convinced — whether 100'■'< or 50% seems irrelevant to our question — at least for some time and in certain occasions, as when they witnessed Our Lord’s miracles or when they listened to His doc trine, that there was before them a “Man-plus-something-else”, and not merely “just a man as anyone else.” They could eventually forget or waver in that conviction or even lose at all that strong persuasion or belief (I am not talking here of faith), at least for some time. But, is not that a normal occurrence in human fickleness, inconstancy or changeableness? However, that very forgetfulness, hesitancy or loss of some thing previously possessed, is the best proof of the existence of the thing forgotten, doubted or lost. We know the illustra tive examples of the apostles’ desertion and Peter’s denials (Mt. 26,56; Mk. 14,66-72) after their most earnest promises of unswerving loyalty .(Mk. 14,31) ; and the mad crowd crying "Crucify Him!” (Mk. 15.14) five days only after He was ac claimed “Son of David, who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Mt. 21,9). I wonder what might be the “prejudice” of those past “years and years”, alluded in the above statement, which seems affected by the malady of our days, namely, “prejudice against everything of the past”. Because, if I am not mistaken, the real “prejudice” — if any — in the past, was rather the oppo site. The common rank and file among Christians not so well acquainted with the Gospels, were rather prejudiced against the Jews in general as enemies of Christ and responsible for His death. Hence, the prejudice could have been that those around Jesus were not convinced that He was a “Man-plussomething-else.” But even those who in the past might have entertained such anti-semitic bias, did never include in their prejudice the close frends of Jesus, like the Apostles, the family of Bethany, the crowds of simple folk who followed Him and who were cured by Him. Precisely, just the contrary of what Webber and Rice’s opera conveys. Let us then try to find out what the contemporaries of Jesus who were around Him, thought of Him with more or less conviction. First of all, let us make it clear that I do not mean to affirm that many of those around Our Lord recog nized in Him the Incarnate Son of God, our Lord and God “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 395 Himself (cf. Jn. 20,28), as Christians believed after the resur rection and Pentecost, and more definitely still after the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. What I maintain is that quite many, probably most of those around Jesus, at least surmised — if they were not actually convinced 100%—that He was the “Messias" so long expected by the chosen people of God, the “Christ” or the “Anointed One", “Son of David", “King of Israel”, “King of the Jews”, “a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people . . . the One to redeem Israel” (Lk. 24.19-21), the “Son of Man to come on the clouds of heaven” (cf. Dan. 7,13; Mt. 26,61) that is, “someone who is more than human”1, “an ideal Man, super natural, preexisting others, possibly God and man at the same time”2. I repeat, for me the more plausible vieic — and if I am wrong, I would welcome any correction — is that most of those who surrounded Jesus, either friends or enemies, during His public life, recognized Him, at least occasionally, as a “Man-plus-something-else” beyond mere human nature, i.e. a man with at least some undeniable preternatural or supernatural gifts or powers. 1 cf. Till-: Hol.Y B1HI.E, 1‘erised Standard \\rni<»i. Catholic Edition. London. C.T.S., T/ir Old Testament, .Votes, p. 1011. -cf. Simon-Dorado, C.SS. R„ Praelectiones Hiblicae, Xorum Testamcatum, I, Marietti, Madrid, 1900 p. 223. Otherwise 1 simply could not understand so many passages of the Gospels. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph evidently knew that Jesus was the “Son of the Most High”, “eternal King”, “Savior of his and of all peoples”, "the Christ of the Lord” (Mt. 1,21; 2,2.11; Lk. 1,32-33; 2,11.19.30-32). St. John the Baptist acknowledged Him as “the Lord who baptizes with the Holy Spirit,” “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” “the beloved Son of God (the Father)” (Mt. 3,3.11.17; Jn. 1,29.33-35). Of the Apostles, St. Andrew and St. John recognized Him as “the Messias (which interpreted is Christ)”; St. Philip, as the One * 'of whom Moses in the Law and the propsets wrote”; St. Bartholomew, as the “Son of God, King of Israel” (i.e., the promised Messias) (Jn. 1, 41.15.49). And this was at their first encounter with Jesus. Soon, after the first miracle at the Cana wedding when “He manifested his glory, his disciples believed in Him” (Jn. 2,11) still more firmly; and when they saw Him rebuking the wind and the sea during the storm on the lake “and there came a great calm, the men marvelled saying: ‘Who then is this that 396 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS even wind and sea obey Him?”’ (Mt. 8.27); and when they saw Him walking upon the waters of the lake of Genesareth they “worshipped Him, saying: ‘Truly, you are the Son of God”’ (Mt. 14,33). Thus when at the last year of His public ministry Jesus asked His apostles “Who do you say that I am?”, Simon the son of Jonas, in the name of the twelve, replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the tiring God” (Mt. 16,16), that is. not only the long expected “Messias” or “Son of God” — as they called Him before at the lake—by adoption (as Elias, Jeremias or other prophets were also), but rather ‘‘Son of the tiring God" by nature.1' Ibid., p. 669. ' Ibid., p. 136. It is true that Judas Iscariot, due to his ill dispositions, soon perhaps lose gradually his faith in Jesus, so that by the time of Peter’s Confession. Our Lord had already spoken of him as “a devil” (Jn. 6,71). But at the beginning, in all cer tainty, he believed in Jesus as the others. Because, even such a miserable and wretched person as Herod, who just “heard of Jesus, for His name had become well known, kept saying, ‘John the Baptist hag, risen from the dead, and what is why miraculous powers are working through him ... It is John whom I beheaded; he has risen from the dead” (Mk. 6,14.16). And even the “woman . . . who was a sinner” (Lk. 7,37), and “certain women who had been cured of evil spirits” as well as “Mary, who is called the Magdalene, from whom seven devils had gone out” (Lk. 8,2) became all of them generous believers and ministers of Our Lord (Jn. 4,29; Lk. 8,3; Mk. 16,1.9; Lk. 24,10). Nay. the demoniacs themselves acknowl edge Him: the one of Capharnaum called Him: “The Holy One of God” (Mk. 1.21), and the two of Gerasa (Mt. 8,28) called Him: “Son of the Most High God” (Lk. 8,28). And the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, upon hearing that Jesus has claimed to be “Son of God” surmised this possibility in view of the unexplainable dignified peace and silence of the innocent man so unjustly accused by a mad rabble (Jn. 19,9-12). Still more, the most bitter enemies of Jesus, unable to explain the miracles wrought by the Master, and even obstinately refusing to admit that God was with Him, since they could not deny the facts they just dared to blaspheme attributing them to “the prince of devils” (Mt. 12,24). And when they interviewed the man born blind, cured by Jesus, they were not able to refute the common sensible logic of that poor man, and were “JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 397 just content with insulting and turning him out (Jn. 9,34). And when they saw Lazarus alive after his death and four days at the grave, they just planned, in a fit of desperate madness “to put Lazarus to death also” (Jn. 12,10) together with Jesus. They were indeed at a loss, reasoning out: “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus. . .” (Jn. 11.47-48). In other words, they admitted that Jesus was really a “man-plus-something-else” beyond mere human nature. They did not like to believe in Him as “the Christ, the Son of God” (Mt. 26,63), but they were convinced that He was a “man-plus-something-else” they could not explain; and so they resorted to the wicked schemes of the ungodly men of the Scriptures (Wis. 2,12-20), fulfilling thus to the letter what was written of them. Nicodemus, however, among the Pharisees, “a ruler of the Jews . . . said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, ice know that you are a Teacher come from God; for no one can do these siyns that you do, unless God is with him’” (Jn. 3.2). So, he was convinced, and with him many others, that Jesus possessed special mis sion and powers from God, nay, that God was, in a very special way, with Him-, that means to be a “man-plus-something-else”! And the royal official of Capharnaum, together with “his whole household”, upon realizing the cure of his son, “believed” in Jesus (Jn. 4,53). And the leper (Mk. 1,40), and the paralytic with the four men who brought him down through the roof (Mk. 2,5), and Jairus (Mk. 5.36), and the Canaanite Syronhoenician mother (Mt. 15,28), and the father of the possessed boy (Mk. 9,23), and the blind Bartimeus (Mk. 10.52), and the other two blind men (Mt. 9.28-29), and the woman with a hemorrhage (Lk. 8,48), and the proselyte centurion (Mt. 8,10), and the pagan Roman centurion (Mt. 15,39) : all of them believed and had faith in Jesus. But these are isolated instances of the people who surroun ded Him. Let us look now at the crowds, the huge multitudes that followed Him. From the beginning of His public life, at the first Passover in Jerusalem “many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did” (Jn. 2,23), that is many believed in His divine mission,1 although Our Lord who "knew what was in man did not trust Himself to them” because He understood well human inconstancy. And then in Caphar naum, the people “at sundown brought to Him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was (la thered together about door (of the house of Simon 398 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS Peter) ... And in the (next) morning Simon said to Him, 'Every one is searching for you. . . ” An then, it was in the “city of Samaria” called Sychar, that "many Samaritans from that city believed in Him” and after “He stayed there two days many more believed because of His word” and “they said, ‘We know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world’ ” (Jn. 4,5.39-42). And after the cure of the paralytic in Capharnaum the big crowd gathered together at the house “they were all amazed and glorified God saying, ‘We never saw anything tike this’” (Mk.2,12) : “when the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men” (Mt. 9,8). In the first multiplication of loaves in the desert an immense crowd of 5,000 people without counting women and children, come “from all the cities” of the northern shore of Genesareth lake, said: “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world”, and they were about to take Him by force and make Him king (Jn. 6,14-15). At the second multiplication of loaves realized at the eastern region of the lake, there was another multitude of "4,000 men apart from children and1 women” (Mt. 15,38) who were simi larly impressed. So much more because in that ocassion “great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw dumb speaking the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel” (Mt. 15,30-31. After the resurrection of the widow’s son at Naim “a large crowd” that accompanied Jesus, and ano ther “large gathering from the town” were present, and "fear seized upon all. and they began to glorify God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us’ and ‘God has visited his people’. And this report concerning Him went forth throughout the whole of Judea, and all the country roundabout” (Lk. 7,11-17). And when the crowds heard his doctrine, “they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Mt. 13,54) ; “How is it that this man has learning, when He has never studied?” (Jn. 7,15). That is why all the people considered Him at least as a great Prophet, and by no means as a mere “man, just as anyone else”. At Caesarea Philippi “Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ” (Mt. 16,13-14). No one among the people thought that He was “just a man”! ‘JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR” 399 The Pharisees knew well that the immense majority of the people believed in John the Baptist as “a Prophet” sent by God (Mt. 21,26). And then, according to the Evangelist, “many (of those Jews) came to Jesus, and they were saying, ‘John indeed worked no sign. All things, however, that John said of this Man were true.’ And many believed in Him” (Jn. 10,41-42). His enemies “sought to arrest Him. . . Yet many of the people believed in Him; they said, ‘When the Christ appears will He do more signs than this Man has done?’ The Pharisees heard the crou d thus muttering about Him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him. . . The officers then (later) went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?’ The officers answered, '.Vo man ever spoke like this man!’” (Jn. 7, 30-46). The people of Jerusalem were divided in their opinion about Jesus. “Some of the people said, ‘This is really the Prophet’. Others said, ‘This is the Christ’. But some said, Is the Christ to come from Galilee?...’” (Jn. 7,40-41). “And there was much muttering about Him among the people. While some said, He is a good man,” other said, “No, lie is leading the people astray.’ Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.” (Jn. 7,12-13). Hence, all the people agree that Jesus was either a "Prophet”, or “the Christ”, or at least someone who might have messianic claims, if it were not only because of his appa rent (mistakenly thought of) origin. Even those who said that ‘lie was leading the people astray” obviously admitted that He was not a mere man “just as anyone else; all agree that He had the character of a “prophet”, although certainly not everybody agreed that He was the Christ or the Messias’ “Yet for fear of the Jews —enemies of Christ — no one spoke openly of him”, which obviously they would have done, if there would be at least some who could convincingly say that “lie was just a man, as anyone else”! Even the Pharisee Simon did not discard the possibility of a prophetic character in Jesus, although he tried to find some argument against it (“If this man were a prophet. . .”-Lk.7,39) which at once was proved to be groundless (Lk. 7,10) ; nay. Our Lord then proved to be more than a prophet, since He could forgive sins (Lk. 7,-18-50; Mt. 9,2) which God alone can do (Lk. 5,21; Mk. 2,7). Everybody around Jesus was convinced of this, that is why “the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and...’ Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the 400 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS people’ ” Mt. 26,3-5; Mk. 14,2). Hence, they knew well that the immense majority believed Jesus to be more than a mere man. And this was evident at the triumphal entrance in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday: “a great crowd. . .took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, crying, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! ’. .. The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd (who had come to the feast) went to meet Him was that they heard He had done this sign. The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see that you can do nothing; look, the world has gone after Him!" (Jn. 12, 12-19). This admission from the mouth of the mortal enemies of Jesus is the best proof of what we have tried to show here. But. . ., what about the crowd that later cried before Pilate: “Away with him ! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’’ (Jn. 19-15) ? That was simply a mob instigated by the chief priests and the rulers (Lk. 23, 13), which in a fit of popular commotion “did not know what they were doing” (cf. Lk. 23,34) ; and soon, after Jesus “breathed his last. . . all the multitudes who assem bled to see the sight. ..returned home beating their breasts” (Lk. 23,46-48), and together with the centurion "they were filled with awe. and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God”’ (Mt. 27, 54). Hence, even the rabble that in a moment of frenzy were pushed to ask for His death, became themselves so many othr'- witnesses convinced of His being “human-plus-somethingelse.” ANNOUNCEMENT SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR SUNDAY HOMILIES FROM A NEW PROGRAM OVER RADIO VERITAS (860 KHZ) BIBL1YA AT BUHAY EVERY FRIDAY, AT 7:30 —8:00 P.M.
The Religious Habit and Secular Dress by Sister Ellen Fitzgerald, R.S.M. THE observations I make are based on. my experience as a full time resident graduate student at a Catho lic university. Between 1966 and 1971 I have lived with perhaps 175200 different Sisters representing many religious orders from all over the United States and Canada. In the course of these five years, the majority of the Sisters have given up wearing the habit. I have lived in the middle of this large-scale shift since its very beginning: during the entire period I have been wearing a contemporary habit and veil. After my five years of observation and questioning, any evaluation I could make of the “experimentation” with secular clothing would have to be unfavourable. Several Sisters told me that they hoped to be able to get along with four or five simple, basic suits and dresses; none cf them wore able to do so. It is not socially acceptable in the professional world to wear the same things day after day, unless one is wearing habit. On the contrary, there is a constant outlay of money for new and stylish accessories, make up and jewellery, for new mix-and-match items, for new types of clothing to keep up with fashion trends (for instance, almost every Sister who had a wardrobe of suits and dresses a couple of years ago now has another wardrobe of pant-suits), and for different clothes for the many different occasions that come up in the more active lives we now lead. Again, it is not socially acceptable to wear the same outfit to a picnic by the l; ke and to an evening concert, for taking a bicycle trip to the grocery store and for teaching a class of young men. These are just a few of the actual occasions I have met which would have called for entirely different types of clothes, had I not been wearing a habit. Thus, the Sisters who wear secular clothes must accumulate extensive and costly wardrobes. They tend also to spend a good deal of time and money caring for these wardrobes and for their hair styling. RELIGIOUS POVERTY Related to this matter of expense is the deeper issue of religious poverty. Besides wondering whether we really want to spend so much community money on ourselves when it could be put to so many other uses, w'e must ask whether either poverty or community is being served when some indivi duals have much more money and many more clothes than RELIGIOUS HABIT 387 their Sisters. This happens in several ways. Some commu nities placed the burden of the initial secular-clothing cash out lay on the Sisters’ relatives. But some Sisters do not have relatives who are willing or able to outfit them. Others do. The hall I live in is shared by Sister graduate students and young women graduate students; and I have heard many cri ticisms from the girls about the elaborate wardrobes and styles of living which they have observed among Sisters here and elsewhere PERSONAL VALUES Besides questions about the values being communicated to other people by the way a Sister dresses and acts, there are many questions which can be raised about her own personal values and how they may be affected by a life-style, including secular clothes, exactly like that of a non-Sister. Undoubtedly it is true that merely wearing a habit does not make one a religious, but surely it is also true that the clothes we wear do have an effect on ourselves and others. All clothing says something about both status and role. If the message is, “I’m pretty, unmarried, and available” it should not be surprising that others will begin responding to the mes sage. And if a person’s style of dress marks her as a success ful. independent, upper middle-class, professional woman, is it too far-fetched to imagine that she will begin thinking of her self in those terms instead of in terms of a poor celibate, obe dient servant To say that there is no connection at all between what we wear and what we are is an extremely naive view of human nature and a denial of the fact that we are incarnate spirit, inspirited fle«h. In fact, such an attitude is really a new variety of angelism; it represents an exclusive emphasis on the spirit and a lack of understanding of the body. Religi ous life is not just like every other form of Christian life, either physically or otherwise, and to pretend so is a disservice to everyone concerned. WATCHING THE PAPER SALES One disturbing factor in the w’hole changeover to secular clothes is the mindlessness w’ith which the step is being taken. There is a pattern involved, a pattern which I have seen repeated over and over literally dozens of times. To begin with, there is a great deal of talk about ideals, about being more available 388 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS for apostolic service, about appearing relevant to today’s young people, about budgets, about limiting oneself to a very simple wardrobe, and so forth. Basic conservative suits are favoured. Then one needs an inexpensive skirt or two to wear around for casual occasions, so as not to wear out the good suit. At this point the Sisters start watching the paper sales. Next, things are bought because more clothing is needed; the season changes and a whole new array of fabricsf style and colour is called for, or various occasions come up which demand different types of clothing. The next step is to buy individual items because they are so useful in extending one’s wardrobe — a scarf that will go with three different suits, or a sweater-vest which can trans form a skirt into a new outfit. As time goes on, things are bought because they are on sale and really are outstanding bar gains. And finally, new clothes are bought on nearly every shop, ping trip because “it was so cute”, or “I needed something to cheer me up after exams,” or “everybody else has one,” or just because “I like it.” ILLUSION OF EXPERIMENT Moreover, in spite of all the talk of experimenting, there never has been real experimentation with secular clothing, be cause a decision to try it out has practically always proved to be an irrevocable decision to wear such clothing all the time. Once people have accumulated an attractive wardrobe and re ceived a few compliments on how pretty they look, they are perhaps not really free to evaluate the so-called “experiment” ob jectively, let alone to choose the habit again .. . THE PRICE OF PEACE Even those Sisters who really would prefer to wear a habit end up in secular clothes once the movement has begun in their communities. When I have asked why this happens, I have been told that it is practically impossible to have peace and unity and charity unless one goes along with what most of the house or most of the community is doing. This process always works to the benefit of those who want secular clothing: for if the habit group criticizes, their uncharitable and intolerant attitude becomes a weapon for those who call for greater openness, free dom, and individuality (that is, for secular clothes) ; whereas if the habit group is composed of truly magnanimous, loving RELIGIOUS HABIT 389 Sisters concerned for their community, they give up their own preference out of unselfish concern for peace and unity. Either way the habit group loses. Theoretically there is freedom of choice, but in practice this simply has not worked out. The pressure usually brought to bear on individuals to take off the habit is hard to believe unless you have experienced it. and it gets worse every year. Every means is used from open derision of the habit and scornful treatment of those who wear it to very subtle forms of persuasion. I have experienced all this myself. PRESSURE AND INERTIA Not a few Sisters in secular clothes seem intent on forcing everyone to go along, almost as if the presence of some Sisters in habits were an unbearable reminder of something, a living pi oof that in fact it is not necessary to take off the habit in order to be a mature, apostolically effective, and personally fulf'l'ed "modern nun”. But my main point in these last few paragraphs is that the decision to wear secular clothing sometimes or “experiment” with it for a while, in the long run. becomes a sort of inertia or fol lowing of the line of least resistance. A few years ago when people were advancing real reasons why it might be a good idea to change to secular clothes, one of the most frequently repeated advantages was supposed to be that Sisters not wearing habits would be more “available.” Over the years this has simply not proved true, at least in the con text of this university. As a Sister wearing a habit, I have taught all-male classes here, worked on several campus projects with undergraduates, been an active member of the graduate school, had a great deal to do with many activities in my residence hall, and spent many hours talking to and listening to both under grad students of mine and young women grad students in this hall. I am certainly not aware that wearing the habit has at all hindered me or the other Sisters in habits in any of these acti vities. In fact, the Sisters in habits have consistently received good teacher evaluations from classes they have taught; these computerized reports, which include items about the helpfulness 390 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS and availability of the teacher, indicate that they have main tained very good rapport with the undergraduate men who have been their students. The Sisters in secular clothing have not been outstanding for any greater success in this regard. As a matter of fact, I have become friends with quite a few students whom I met solely because I was wearing a habit. A young unescorted woman does not always feel, especially in these days of street crime, that she can strike up a conver sation or be approached in conversation (for instance, at a bus stop, in a cafeteria line, or while walking across campus), but the habit is both a safeguard and an invitation in these cases. While it may be true that some people have not felt free to talk to me because they were put off by my habit, it is also an inescapable fact that many people have known I was someone they were welcome to talk to, and they have in fact talked to me, because of this very same habit. COMFORT AND FUN I have been told several times that “symbolic clothing is definitely out and Very passe”. But when I look around me, 1 have observed that a large proportion of the people here choose to wear very symbolic clothing. These days, long hair and a beard may symbolize a whole attitude towards commercialism and exploitative advertising and manufacturing, or towards a certain political philosophy. Bright “hippie-type” clothing often does the same. Certain styles of dress speak so clearly that, during the war-protests in Washington earlier in May, anyone wearing blue jeans was swept up and arrested in some areas of the city! Dressing like a successful middle-class career person might turn out to be very symbolic too; it might symbolize a whole set of values which are exceedingly irrelevant to many young people today. As a matter of fact, I have had several very pleasant en counters with out-of-the-system or hippie-type young people, in such places as the train station, the airport, and at a Mass for peace, because I was recognised by them as a person who was not particularly interested in making money, gaining status, or getting ahead in the system. My habit said this to them before I said a word. RELIGIOUS HABIT 391 DARING TO BE DIFFERENT It is one of the ironies of this entire matter that the ma jority who wear secular clothes think and speak of themselves as being courageously different, daring, and very individual, whereas the majority in habits are actually the courageous and no.n-intimidated individualists under many circumstances, espe cially when they must remain markedly independent of the “in group” in order to maintain their convictions and commitments. To give another rather amusing example from personal exper ience, the other evening I was with a group of Sisters (all of them in secular clothes) when one of them showed us a banner she had just bought. This is a popular banner often seen on Sisters’ doors or in their rooms here. It is from The Art of Living, and it urges everyone to “dare to be different”, to “seek your own truth” and “follow your own star,” and so forth. Everyone was quite taken by this banner and admired it at length. But shortly afterwards that same evening, everyone in that group began criticizing the habit for several' reasons I have already cited, and also because everyone wears secular clothes now and it looks funny to be in a habit. They were un able to make the transfer from the sentimental comments on the banner to a real life situation where in fact only one per son was daring to be different — the one in the habit. THE “INTELLECTUAL” PRESSURE GROUP I realise, of course, that the whole matter of that habit is less important than many of the issues and problems facing re ligious life today. But because there ‘has been so much pub licity for and defence of secular clothing. I feel it is only fair that someone should advance a few comments in support of the other point of view. The fact that the majority of the com munities today seem to be moving out of the habit completely does not necessarily mean that this course of action is the wave of the future and the best decision. I might note here that it does not seem to be the public which wants us to go into secular clothing; that is, not the parishioners and the people we serve. Catholic or non-Catholic. In my opinion it is a relatively small group of university-type people, the “Catholic intellectuals” and self-styled liberals who are pushing for the change. They represent a small, if vocal. 392 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS part of the Church, and a smaller part of society in general; and they may very well be mistaken about the best way to serve that Church and that society. DEMYTHOLOGIZING SECULAR CLOTHES I do not wish to imply that all the Sisters I know who wear secular clothes dress provocatively, act foolishly, or waste a disproportionate amount of time and money on themselves. The fact remains, though, that those Sisters who have made the most graceful transition from the habit to secular clothes are those who had already spent many years in religious life and who had apparently grown to the point of a very great inter nalization of the positive values bespoken by the habit. They do try to maintain a style of evangelical simplicity in their lives. But as they have been the first to point out to me, real sim plicity in secular clothing is expensive, while cheaper things tend to be solution but a time-consuming one. Only the habit can, so to speak, “be all things to all men”. While I was working on this paper a friend of mine men tioned it to an acquaintance who happens to be one of the of ficers of a national Sisters’ group. This Sister, when she heard that a position paper on the habit was being drawn up said, “Well, I certainly hope she is demythologizing the habit”. (She herself does not wear the habit.) My friend, a lay person, re plied, “No, Sister, she’s doing something that needs to be done even more right now — she’s demythologizing secular clothes”. TRIBUTE TO MSGR. JOVELLANOS “I could write with all sincerity that I owe to a great extent my vocation to him. His priestly example gave me the incentive to join him in the sacerdotal life. I could not ask for more in his actuations as a priest of God, and I believe many many others share with me this opinion.” Msgr. Bienvenido M. Lopez, D.D.
THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE EPISCOPACY IN THE LATIN CHURCH ARTICLE I 1. Bishops have the faculty and the duty of making known to the Apostolic See the names of priests whom they consider worthy of the episcopal office and suited for it, whether these priests belong to the diocesan clergy, or are religious performing their sacred ministry i.n the diocese, or are priests, of another jurisdiction who are well known to them. 2. Every diocesan tjjshop and other local ordinaries, with the exception of the vicars general, shall take care to obtain all the information needed to carry out this important and dif ficult duty. They shall do so either by personal investigation, or by appropriately -consulting, within the limits of their juris diction. although not collectively, priests of the cathedral chapNORMS FOR THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE MINISTRY IN THE LATIN CHVRCH ter or diocesan consultors, or members of the council of priests, er other members of the clergy, diocesan or regular, or members of the laity. 3. With regard, to ecclesiastical territories entrusted to mis sionary institutes, it is recognized that the superiors general con cerned have the faculty, in accordance with the present practice of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, to propose candidates from their institutes, while the Apostolic See always retains the right to make other provisions, if it con siders it apportune to do so. CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 351 ARTICLE II 1. The names of candidates for the office of bishop shall as a general rule be examined and proposed by the bishops during their meetings. But every bishop and every other ordinary as above (article I. 2) can propose candidates directly to the Apos tolic See. 2. The meetings or conferences in question shall usually be on the provincial level; in other words they shall be composed of the bishops and other ordinaries as above belonging to the same ecclesiastical province, unless special circumstances sug gest interprovincial, regional or even national meetings. In these last cases prior notice shall be given to the Apostolic See. ARTICLE III 1. All the bishops of the province or of the region or nation who according to the respective statutes belong to the same Episcopal Conference and have a deliberative vote take part in the meeting with equal rights. 2. In the case of a provincial meeting, the metropolitan is to prepare the agenda and preside over the meeting; in his absence this is to be done by the senior suffragan. In the case of a regional or national meeting the task is to be carried out by the President of the respective Conference. ARTICLE IV 1. The meetings are to be held at fixed intervals, in ac cordance with the rule laid down in the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae, Sanctae 10. It is fiting that they should be held during the usual assemblies of the bishops. 2. The periodical meetings are to be convened in order that the bishops may propose candidates., or, if appropriate, sup ply further information concerning candidates previously pro posed. It may also happen that some candidates previously put forward should no longer be kept on the list, because of age, ill health or some other reason making him unfit for the epis copal office. ARTICLE V At a suitable time before the meeting, the names of the candidates to be proposed shall be sent to the President by those 352 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS who have the right and duty to be present at the assembly. The President, with proper precautions, shall take care to communi cate to them the complete list of names. They shall examine the names of the candidates and con sider what they know about each one. ARTICLE VI 1. At the meeting, the bishops shall share their informa tion and observations on each candidate, indicating whether they are speaking from first-hand knowledge or expressing what they have heard from others. 2. The candidates are to be examined in such a way that it may be seen whether they are endowed with the qualities ne cessary for a good pastor of souls and teacher of the Faith: v hether they enjoy a good reputation; whether they are of ir reproachable morality, whether they are endowed with right judgement and prudence; whether they are even-tempered and of stable character; whether'they firmly hold the orthodox Faith; whether they are devoted to the Apostolic See and faithful to the magisterium of the Church; whether they have a thorough knowledge of dogmatic and moral theology and canon law; whether they are outstanding for their piety, their spirit of sacrifice and their pastoral zeal; whether they have an aptitude for governing. Consideration must also be given to intellectual qualities, studies completed, social sense, spirit of dialogue and cooperation, openness to the signs of the times, praiseworthy impartiality, family background, age and inherited character istics. ARTICLE VII 1. When the discussion has been completed, votes, or abs tentions, concerning each candidate are to be expressed in writ ing or in some other suitable manner. 2. Votes are to be cast in secret, to preserve the complete freedom of each one in voting. It is fitting that, apart from the vote itself, a clear indication should be given of the nature of the diocese or office for which each candidate appears more suitable. 3. After the votes have been cast for each candidate, they are to be exactly counted. CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 353 4. If it seems advantageous, the President may invite the bishops to hold a further discussion on one or more candidates, and have another vote taken, so that the particular characteris tics of each candidate may be clarified. ARTICLE VIII 1. Before the close of the meeting, a list is to be drawn up of those who, being worthy and suitable for the episcopal office, are to be proposed to the Apostolic See. 2. Likewise, before the meeting closes everything from which it might be possible to discover how each has voted is to be destroyed. However, the minutes of the meeting are to be drawn up according to the norms of the law. 3. It is very desirable that the bishops should not depart before they have read, approved and signed the minutes. ARTICLE IX The President of the meeting will send to the Apostolic See through the Pontifical Representative a complete copy of the minutes and of the list of candidates. ARTICLE X 1. In the case of nations where there is more than one ecclesiastical province, if at least two-thirds of those with a deli berative vote in the National Episcopal Conference judge it op portune, the list drawn up by a provincial or regional meeting shall be sent for information to the President of the National Episcopal Conference. He can add comments and information, keeping in mind the needs and circumstances of the Church in the whole country. 2. Likewise, if the majority, specified in the preceding para graph, of the members of the National Episcopal Conference con sider it opportune, it may be arranged that either the permanent committee of the Conference, or a special commission of res tricted size, may add comments and information as in paragraph I above. The members of this special commission will be elected for a fixed term by the plenary meeting of the Conference; the President of the National Conference will preside over the com mission. 354 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS ARTICLE XI 1. When candidates for a particular episcopal office are to be proposed to the Apostolic See, the lists drawn up by the pro vincial meetings, or by regional or national meetings in the cases described i.n article II, 2, are to be taken into account. 2. These lists however do not detract from the liberty of the Roman Pontiff, who in virtue of his office is always free to choose and appoint men who do not appear on the lists. ARTICLE XII 1. Before any candidate is appointed bishop, the Apostolic See conducts a careful and wide-ranging enquiry about him. It consults individually people who know him very well and who are able to provide the fullest possible information and to make before God a prudent and considered judgement about him. 2. This enquiry is entrusted to the Pontifical Representa tive. He submits the question drawn up for his purpose to ec clesiastics: bishops, priests and religious. Prudent and genuine ly reliable lay people who possess useful information about the candidate can also be consulted in the same way. ARTICLE XIII 1. When there is a question of appointing someone to a diocese or of naming a coadjutor with right of succession, the Pontifical representative will ask the vicar capitular or apostolic administrator or the ordinary himself for a full and careful re port on the condition and needs of the diocese. The clergy and laity, especially through their canonically established represen tative bodies, may also be consulted, as well as religious. 2. Apart from cases legitimately exempted by a particular law or custom or for some other reason, before proposing the “ternae” to the Apostolic See, the Pontifical Representative has the task of requesting, individually, the suggestions of the me tropolitan and suffragans of the province to which the vacant diocese belongs, or whose meeting it attends, as well as those of the President of the National Episcopal Conference. These suggestions, together with his own recommendation, he will then transmit to the Apostolic See. The Pontifical Representative moreover will, as may be apportune, hear the opinions of some of the members of the cathedral chapter, or of the diocesan CANDIDATES FOR EPISCOPACY 355 consultors, and of other members of the clergy, both secular and religious, especially members of the priests’ council in existence while the diocese is still filled. 3. With the necessary adjustment, a similar method of pro cedure is to be followed by those who have the task of proposing candidates for nomination as auxiliary bishops. ARTICLE XIV In all these matters, the prescribed “papal secret” is to be strictly observed by the bishops, the Pontifical Representative, the priests and the laity in any way involved. This is demanded by the very nature of the matter and by the respect due to the persons being considered. ARTICLE XV Maintaining unaltered the desire expressed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the Decree Christus Dominus, 20, concerning the free election of bishops, the preceding norms neither abrogate nor replace privileges or rights that have been lawfully acquired, or special procedures approved by the Apos tolic See by agreement or in some other way. "Since the apostolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and serves a spiritual and supernatural purpose, this most sacred Ecumenical Synod declares that the right of nominating and appointing bishops belongs properly, peculiarly, and of itself exclu sively to the competent ecclesiastical authority. Therefore, for the purpose of duly protecting the freedom of the Church and of promoting more suitably and efficiently the welfare of the faithful, this most holy Council desires that in the future no rights or privileges of election, nomination, presentation, or designation for the office of bishop be any longer granted to civil authorities. Such civil authorities, whose favorable attitude toward the Church this most Sacred Synod gratefully acknowledges and very warmly appreciates, are most kindly requested to make a voluntary renunciation of the above-mentioned rights and privileges which they presently eniov by reason of a treaty or custom. The matter, however, should first be discussed with the Apostolic See.” (Christus Dominus. n. 20)

Item sets: Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas

Media: Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas; Baptism and Christian names [the meaning of a Rubric]; Church's feeling for working man; History of the church in the Philippines; I have only one theme [Christ]; New documents on Bishops; Nobody talks about sin anymore; Response to 'Manifesto' of 33 theologians; Sacred congregation for the doctrine of the Faith; The church is custodian, transmitter, interpreter of doctrines of the faith; The future of tonsure and minor orders; The Jovellanos that was Tondo; The opera 'Jesus Christ superstar'; The religious habit and secular dress; The selection of candidates for the episcopacy in the Latin church