CL in Salt Lake City

St. Nicholas
Last night we held our very first School of Community in the rectory of The Cathedral of the Madeleine. This is marks the beginning of something that has been developing here for awhile. Because our first meeting occurred on the vigil of the memorial of St. Nicholas, I suppose he is something of our heavenly patron. At present, we are planning one other meeting before Christmas, on Wednesday, 19 December, at 7:30 PM and one between New Year and the National Diaconia, which is 18-21 January 2008, on a Wednesday yet to be determined. For information, please contact me. A comment on this blog will work initially, or you can call me at The Cathedral of the Madeleine, my number is 328-8941, ext. 104. I am happy to say that I am attending the National Diaconia, which I am certain will be a great experience of fellowship and formation.

It looks like our initial group, including my wife and I, will be around 6 or 7 people. We will be joined in January by a university student from Argentina. So, all Celini, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

St. Nicholas- pray for us.

Hierarchy Update- Eastern Catholic Churches

It was just before Thanksgiving that I posted a comprehensive update on Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States. Well, this morning there is movement on that front. Bishop William Skurla, who was serving as bishop of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Van Nuys, California, was transferred to the Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey to replace Bishop Andrew Pataki, who is retiring due to age. Monsignor Gerald Dino, who was serving as pastor of St. George Ruthenian parish in Linden, New Jersey, has been appointed to replace Bishop Skurla in the Eparchy of Van Nuys.

Since the Ruthenians in the United States Constitute a sui juris Church (i.e., a Church in its own right) and do not have a patriarch, retirements and appointments are accepted and made directly by the Holy Father, as in the Roman Rite. The very fact that Msgr. Dino is a monsignor, which is a papal honor, indicates a close tie between the Ruthenians in the United States and the Holy See.

Among the Eastern Rite Catholic archeparchies and eparchies in the United States there are no episcopal vacancies and only the Armenian Rite bishop, Manuel Batakian, at age 78, is past retirement age.

Heaven and earth

According to press reports Roger Cardinal Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, was attacked last summer after dropping some letters in a mail box in downtown Los Angeles, near of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral. Apparently, the attack was quite brutal, causing His Eminence to be hospitalized. The assault was apparently related to the sex abuse scandal, which the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has recently paid $660 million dollars in claims to compensate victims.

Cardinal Mahony did not report the assault to police, instead choosing, according to a priest of the Los Angeles archdiocese, to offer it up as reparation for sins committed by abusing priests. Cardinal Mahony himself has not spoken publicly about this matter, but has discussed it with priests of his archdiocese.

I bring all of this up because without a doubt what has come to light these past few years in many dioceses across the country has been shocking, disappointing, and very discouraging to us all. Nonetheless, we must keep our bishops in our prayers constantly. Without a doubt, even in relatively small dioceses, the duties and responsibilities of a bishop are always demanding and frequently difficult. At the end of the day, we are all human beings, with our strengths, our weaknesses, our blindspots, and areas in which we are very perceptive. We are a communion of saints and sinners. Each one of us is a microcosm in which there exists saintliness alongside sinfulness. This is precisely why we need community, communion, to pray for each other and to help each other discover our true identity as daughters and sons of a loving Father who together make-up the Body of Christ. Advent is a particularly good time to focus on the incompleteness of this world and to focus on our hope, Jesus Christ, "the light [who] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1,5).

In an interview with NCR's John Allen during last month's consistory, Cardinal Mahony, speaking of the Holy Father's upcoming visit to these United States, put all this very well:

"I think it's also important to acknowledge the faith of our people, especially during the six or seven years of this crisis. Our people have remained so faith-filled. They realize that the church is not about perpetrators of sexual abuse, it's about Jesus Christ and his abiding presence with the church. That's the core."

Sometimes it isn't smoke and mirrors

Brad Pitt with Lower Ninth Ward resident Robert Green-
picture from NPR

For those, like myself, who frequently make fun of what Kerry Jackson, of X96's Radio from Hell, calls celebutards, it is diffilcult to admit that our deep-seated skepticism is sometimes shown for the sham that it sometimes is. In other words, it is all too easy, in a jaded and fallen world, to become completely jaded. On this note, I want to draw some attention to Brad Pitt, who, despite being a pretty boy, is a very fine actor. I am reminded of this inconvenient fact every time I watch one of his films. Unlike many so-called actors of his generation, Pitt is a consummate actor. Of course, we all love Fight Club, but for my money Pitt turns in no better performance than his role in Guy Richie's (Madonna's hubbie) film Snatch, in which he plays the unforegttable tough, Mickey O'Neil. Richie is also responsible for the film gem Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

What I particularly want to draw attention to is Pitt's New Orleans endeavor. He and Angela Jolie, along with their assorted children, moved to 'Nawlins a year or so ago to show solidarity with those who were abandoned in so many ways after Hurricane Katrina. His interview on this evening's All Things Considered with NPR's Melissa Block is well worth listening to, not to mention inspiring.

While I am on Things Contemporary, Todd Nuke 'Em's hair is pink. I also want to publicly thank KRAD for providing me with the comprehensive Joy Division library. Thanks, man! I owe you, maybe a movie and beer at Brewvies, where ten years ago we would sometimes hold RCIA. Hey, it was a young group, mostly U students, we met in the pub and talked theology with garlic burgers, which helped to determine commitment. It was around the time the lovely film Antonia's Line was released in this country.

The Gospel of Judas and the lure of gnosticism

Okay I am going to be immodest, before Fr. Imbelli posted on this article over on dotCommonweal, I wrote this on Saturday, but left it on a computer with no internet connectivity. On Saturday's New York Times OpEd page April DeConick, a professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in an article entitled Gospel Truth, blows the lid on the National Geographic’s much bally-hooed translation of what is readily admitted to be the third century text of The Gospel of Judas. Gnostic silliness has long captured the front pages of national newspapers and magazines. Every year as Lent comes to a close and Holy Week beckons us to Easter, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, or another widely read publication recycles the opinions of, among others, John Dominic Crossan, Elaine Pagels, and/or Marcus Borg. All of these are scholars whose opinions have long ceased to matter among their fellow scholars, which is what causes them to pander to the popular reader. Their highly imaginative reconstructions, based on little or no evidence, are about as true as Dan Brown’s imaginative reconstructions of Christian history in his various books, The Da Vinci Code only being the best known. The re-discovery of the ancient transcript of The Gospel of Judas, which had been locked away in a vault in Switzerland, provided a great occasion for many, like Pagels, whose book, written with Karen King, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, was another opportunity to squander what little credibility they may have had. As expected, the most reasonable and scholarly response to The Gospel of Judas, published shortly after the National Geographic Society’s translation was made public, right around Easter 2006, was by the appropriately named New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, who is Anglican bishop of Durham, England. His little book, Judas and the Gospel of Jesus: Have We Missed the Truth about Christianity?, is a must read for anybody concerned about these matters.

Before returning to Prof. DeConick’s opinion piece it bears pointing out that there is no dispute that The Gospel of Judas is a third century text, which means it was written in the 200s CE. That is at least one hundred years after the last written manuscripts that comprise our New Testament, The Gospel of St. John, along with The Apocalypse of St. John, known more popularly as Revelations, along with the rest of the Johannine corpus (i.e., 1,2.3 John) being the latest New Testament documents. There are ancient Christian manuscripts that are contemporaneous with the canonical books of scripture that are not included in our canon, namely The Didache and The Shepherd of Hermes. These books, while not scriptural, very well could be. But manuscripts that date as late as The Gospel of Judas, or The Gospel of Thomas, and are from places other than the Holy Land, do not even present the possibility of being accepted as apostolic.

Prof. DeConick’s article is based on her recent re-translation of The Gospel of Judas from the Coptic manuscript. In comparing her translation with the one so aggressively pedaled by the National Geographic Society, she notices some problems, to put it mildly, with the National Geographic translation. Unsurprisingly, these problems revolve around what appears to be an effort to lend credibility to the alternative history of Christianity as imagined by many, among whom Elaine Pagels is the best known. What is perhaps most ironic is that for all the abuse heaped upon the efforts to preserve and transcribe the badly damaged and fragmentary Dead Sea scrolls, the National Geographic Society, according to Prof. DeConick, in its treatment of the transcript of the manuscript of The Gospel of Judas, completely ignored The Society of Biblical Literature’s 1991 injunction “holding that, if the condition of the written manuscript requires that access be restricted, a facsimile reproduction should be the first order of business. It’s a shame that National Geographic, and its group of scholars, did not follow this sensible injunction”. I think in light of DeConick’s re-translation, we have a clue as to why a translatable manuscript was not made available sooner.

Recently viewed films

Okay, I am back to watching films, one of my true passions. One little known fact is that among the possible college majors for me were Economics, which I studied for awhile and through a class on Marxist economics became infatuated with Philosophy, which was the degree with which I was graduated, History, my minor and close to a double major, and Film.

My two most recent films, between which I watched the entire first season of The Sarah Silverman Program, were Ratatouille and The Last King of Scotland. I am nothing if not a bit eclectic. Though rated R, I watched The Last King of Scotland with my adolescent son. We spent some time discussing the film afterwards. It was a good experience for him, a somewhat disconcerting one.

I was so happy that Forest Whitaker won a best actor Oscar for his role of Idi Amin, even without seeing the film, but now having seen it, his Oscar was well-deserved. This is a film adaptation of the novel by journalist Giles Foden of the same title.

Ratatouille, while a bit predictable, was fun. It is no surprise that it was one of the most critically acclaimed films of last year, given the dreadfulness of most movies released these days. As for Sarah, she's not everybody's cup-o'-tea, but she is mine. If you watch dear Sarah, viewer beware. I can recommend the other two films with no such caveats.

Advent

The photograph is a creation of Ben Bell

I was going to wait until this evening after First Vespers to post this, but in light of the mass rush to celebrate Christmas before Advent has even begun, I think pointing out that it is just barely Advent a few hours early will not hurt. It is funny that as everybody rushes to remove all trace of Christmas (until the day after Halloween next year) the season is just beginning. No Christmas tree here until the last Sunday of Advent and it stays until Epiphany. Anyway . . . No apologies for the repeat of Ben Bell's thought provoking Advent card from last year.

Look for something on Spe Salvi in the near future, perhaps Monday. The Holy Father's new encyclical is, while quite lovely in many respects, troubling as regards the social implications of our faith. I am particularly puzzling over his interpretation of St. Paul's Letter to Philemon, owner of the slave and companion of the apostle, Onesimus. I am also somewhat troubled by the conclusions drawn about the life St. Josephine Bakhita. So, in my reading of this letter from the Pope, I am presently hung up on number 4. In particular, I am having a difficult time with the seeming rejection in both encyclicals of a social and political commitment, especially given that both letters are not addressed merely to the clergy but "ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL". In regard to social and political commitment the Holy Father seems to pick up where the beginning of Part II of Deus Caritas Est left off.