We need to live in solidarity with our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters

Sandro Magister's summary of the recently concluded Special Synod of Bishops on the Church in the Middle East far exceeds any other brief yet comprehensive account of this important gathering I have read. He begins by citing a very important demographic statistic, namely that "that in comparison with the twelve million faithful of the ancient Eastern Churches who today live between Egypt and Iran, there are now about seven million living elsewhere." This number living in what is often called by Eastern Christians the diaspora constitutes roughly 37% of members of these ancient apostolic communities. Further, more Christians leave everyday. CNN reported over the weekend that Syriac Archbishop, Athanasio Dawood, speaking from London (Syriac Christians are not Orthodox, a mistake frequently made by the media who wouldn't know that Chaldean Christians are Catholics), called on Syriac Christians to leave Iraq for their own safety. He went on to harshly criticize the Iraqi government, accurately in my view, for doing little or nothing to protect Christians in Iraq, be they Syriac, Orthodox, or Chaldean Catholics.

Magister observes that at the synod most of the participating bishops were careful and diplomatic when speaking about the situation of their flocks, but the representative of the Chaldean Patriarch in Jordan was courageous enough to speak the truth, which is that there is "a deliberate campaign to drive out the Christians. There are Satanic plans by extremist fundamentalist [Islamic] groups against Christians not only in Iraq, but in all the Middle East." This is very much in line with some extemporaneous remarks of the Holy Father made at the beginning of synod:

"Concerning this battle in which we find ourselves, of this taking power away from God, of this fall of false gods, that fall because they are not deities, but powers that can destroy the world, chapter 12 of Revelations mentions these, even if with a mysterious image, for which, I believe, there are many different and beautiful interpretations. It has been said that the dragon places a large river of water before the fleeing woman to overcome her. And it would seem inevitable that the woman will drown in this river. But the good earth absorbs this river and it cannot be harmful. I think that the river is easily interpreted: these are the currents that dominate all and wish to make faith in the Church disappear, the Church that seems no longer to have a place in the face of the force of these currents that impose themselves as the only rationality, as the only way to live."

Perhaps the most important thing to emerge from the synod is the dire need for Eastern Catholic Churches to work more closely together. Plans to do just this were set forth in several of the forty-one propositions that were given to the Holy Father for inclusion in his post-synodal exhortation, which will likely take a year to produce. A Year of the Bible to be simultaneously observed by the Eastern Catholic Churches is one concrete example.

More urgently, it is important to focus "[t]he attention of the whole world... on the tragic situation of certain Christian communities of the Middle East which suffer all manner of trials sometimes even to the point of martyrdom." Hand-in-hand with this is the creation of a commission "entrusted with the study of the phenomenon of migration and of the factors behind it so as to find ways of stopping it." Most concretely, the "1. the creation of a commission of cooperation between the Catholic hierarchs of the Middle East, which will be responsible for the promotion of a common pastoral strategy, better understanding of one another's traditions, inter-ritual institutions and joint charitable organizations; 2. the organisation of regular meetings between Catholic hierarchies of the Middle East; 3. the sharing of material resources between rich and poor dioceses; 4. the foundation of a priestly association, Fidei Donum, for the mutual assistance of eparchies and Churches."

As a member of Communion & Liberation, one of the so-called New Ecclesial Movements, proposition seventeen takes on much importance. It recognizes that the Movements "are a gift of the Spirit to the whole Church," but they arise from within "the Western tradition" and are "increasingly present in the Churches of the Middle East." But it is necessary for members of these movements, in order "to build up the Church" and "to live out their own charism" to take "into full account the culture, history, liturgy, and spirituality of the local Church." In order to do this the Eastern bishops ask that "these movements... without delay to start working in union with the bishop of the place and to follow his pastoral instructions. It would be desirable for the Catholic hierarchy of each country of the Middle East to work out a common pastoral position on the movements in question, their integration and pastoral activity." Indeed, it seems prudent to require this of these ecclesial movements if their charism leads them to be present and active in the Middle East. In nowise should New Ecclesial Movements be a means of Latinizing Eastern Christians!

Writing about my own Movement, we sometimes become so fixated on what happens in the West that we fail to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are undergoing what can only be described as bloody martyrdom. Large ecclesial Movements can and should do more to bring attention to the plight of the Churches of the Middle East and render assistance, especially the assistance of helping these Churches to remain present in their lands of origin.

Further, it was proposed that Eastern Catholic patriarchs be granted jurisdiction over their whole Churches, whether in their land of origin or overseas. For example, the Maronite patriarch should have papal-like jurisdiction over the Maronite Church everywhere in the world. Eastern Churches should be allowed to send and ordain married priests to minister to communities anywhere in the world. Eastern Churches should be allowed much more autonomy in appointing bishops. Finally, Eastern Patriarchs should be included in conclaves to select a new pope "ipso facto" and "without the necessity of receiving the Latin title of cardinal." This would mean no superannuation at age 80, due to the fact that, like the pope, patriarchs serve until death. This, at least it is hoped, would allow the pope "a new form of the exercise of the primacy inspired by the ecclesial forms of the first millennium." "All of this," Magister points out, is to help bring "the positions of the Catholic Church closer to those of the Eastern Orthodox Churches" with regard to the exercise of papal primacy.

Many bishops also brought up the absolute necessity, even in these difficult circumstances, for the Church to reinvigorate its missionary mandate. The Chaldean "archbishop of Tehran, Ramzi Garmou, delved even deeper into this need. After saying that 'a new missionary impulse' is vital 'to knock over the ethnic and nationalist barriers that threaten to asphyxiate and make sterile the Churches of the East,' he recalled 'the fundamental importance of monastic life for the renewal and reawakening of our Churches.'"

Finally, the always problematic issue of Israel. In short, Eastern Christians need to stop their reactive hostility to Israel and to see in militant Islam the greatest threat to individual Christians and to their churches.

All holy men and women, pray for us

Visions of Jack: affection and the heart

It seems fitting on the day that Pope Benedict XVI dedicated the beautifully bizarre La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, to write something more about Jack Kerouac, especially given that we are still only a week into November. La Sagrada Familia is the realization of the unique vision given to Antoni Gaudí, a vision, as the Holy Father pointed out, "inspired by the ardour of his Christian faith."

Not all beautiful visions are fully realized, however. Perhaps many unrealized visions are the result of the visionary being so intent on satiating desire that he crashes into the inherent limits of our fallen and contingent world. The limitations that, when recognized, lead to humility and, if we're honest, some disappointment, are summed well in a psalm: "LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me. Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me" (Psalm 131).

The insatiable visionary wants to suckle the breast of God until it runs dry. The problem, therefore, becomes the classic case of trying, like the Chinese brother, to drink, not only the ocean, but all the oceans, attempting to pour infinity into a one gallon pitcher.

Once again, for anyone struck by Kerouac's overheated vision, I cannot recommend too highly John Leland's book Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think). Leland cites something Kerouac wrote in his journal, namely that he was looking for "a purpose in eternity, something to decide on from which I'll never deviate now in whatever dark existence follows... Why should I want this?- Because there isn't enough here on earth to want, or that is, not a single thing here exists that I do want... [R]eason and the body of facts, science and truth, do not make me feel, and do not bridge eternity, and in fact choke me like stale, close air."

Yesterday, watching and listening to Fr. Carrón's Beginning Day Assembly, I was tremendously struck by his affirmation of the unity of reason and affectivity. Citing Don Giussani, he said that reason and affection are what constitute our hearts. And only the heart can claim the victory over relativism, over the ephemeral, over the constant temptation to reduce signs to mere appearances, which empties existence of meaning and reduces our humanity, thus giving rise to ideology, even among the so-called religious. If your faith is most noticeable by your political commitments, then you are reducing the signs to appearances and so reducing your humanity and that of others because you have reduced faith to morality. By reducing faith to morality you give God's grace, which is but a name we give to God's wild unpredictability, no space, no time.

Indeed, it seems to me that Kerouac's project was to overcome the so-what?ness of earthly/earthbound existence. While this insight may sound banal, it is not. Too often we are victims of a false dilemma. As beautiful and unified a vision as Kierkegaard presented us with, he was quite wrong to articulate as an axiom either/or. Jack Kerouac never reduced the sign to a mere appearance! But, as Leland brilliantly shows, Kerouac, at least in the character of Sal Paradise, comes away from each vision, each encounter, "not enlightened but broken... [t]he vision's vagueness gives him nothing to hang on to." But if, as Carrón insisted in his Beginning Day remarks, "honesty constitutes the morality of a person," then Kerouac was very moral because he remained intensely loyal to his experience, even mortally so.

I remember watching a documentary on Kerouac many years ago, shortly after reading On the Road for the first time. The documentary was more of a hagiographic piece, meaning very anti-thetical to Jack's way of being. His parish priest from Lowell, MA, who was interviewed towards the end, said that he was a saint. I am inclined to think not. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that there is something discernibly saintly about Kerouac's acute grasp of the fact that we exist between being and nothingness, what might best be summed up as the crisis of being, which is the source of our existential angst, which provokes us to think again when we think we have it all doped out.

All holy men and women, pray for us

"Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from...sin"

The priest with whom I collaborate most closely these days is in Rome this week. The night before he departed we were speaking rather late in the night. As I was leaving the rectory, he said to me, "I will pray at Pope Paul VI's tomb for you because I know how much you love him." We had spoken of this previously, but not for awhile. So, the spontaneity of his comment struck me. His words were so moving that all I could say was "Thank you, Father." I was a little choked up. Tonight while channel-surfing, I came across EWTN, a station I rarely watch, and happened into the beautiful Italian film, the translated title of which is A Pope In The Tempest, or A Pope in the Storm. This, dear friends, is not mere happenstance.

Pope Paul VI was the most courageous of popes for many centuries and probably for centuries to come. So, tonight, at end of a very long week, I post Papa Montini's Credo of the People of God, given 30 June 1968. It's a little long, but worth the time it takes to read it.

"We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels, and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.

"We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses, and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us: so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, 'dwelling in light inaccessible' is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure. We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the most holy Trinity.

"We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son, in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaequales, the life and beatitude of God perfectly one superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated being, and always 'there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity.'

"We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri, and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity; and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.

"He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered -- the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits -- those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.

"And His Kingdom will have no end.

"We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord, and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His resurrection and His ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and guides the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus: 'Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect' (Matt. 5:48).

Greeting the Ecumenical (Orthodox) Patriarch Athenagoras in the Holy Land in 1964 the revocation of the mutual excommunications

"We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of original sin and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.

"Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.

"We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents -- established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin, is transmitted with human nature, 'not by imitation, but by propagation" and that it is thus "proper to everyone.'

"We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the apostle, 'where sin abounded grace did more abound.'

"We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ Jesus.

"We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory. In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude. By these she makes her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement. She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

"Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium. We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedraas pastor and teacher of all the faithful, and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.

"We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her unity, make it more manifest.

"Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity, and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity, we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.

"We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church. But the divine design of salvation embraces all men, and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.

We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.

Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.

"The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.

"We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

"We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ -- whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief -- are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.

"We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal beatitude they see God as He is, and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.

"We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask and you will receive. Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

"Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen."

Papa Montini, pray for us!

"Love is a burning thing.."

Language Warning- one word in the middle of the song

"... and it makes a fiery ring/Bound by wild desire." Somehow I think Johnny would approve. One of my parents' very first dates my Dad took my Mom to see Johnny Cash. To this day my Mom, who was not impressed, says, still with a little disgust in her voice, "I don't know who was more drunk, your Dad or Johnny Cash." Anyway, that was a long time ago and we all got here somehow. It's very earthy, but it is cool that our existence is the result of desire, both human and divine: "For our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). Hence, Social Distortion singing Ring of Fire is our Friday traditio.

Since November is the month during which we commemorate our beloved dead, our Friday traditio will be kick ass covers of the songs of our beloved musical dead.

All holy men and women, pray for us

Praying for an end to "this absurd violence"

"I pray for the victims of this absurd violence, which is even more savage because it struck defenseless people, gathered in God's house, which is a house of love and reconciliation." PP Benedictus XVI 1 November 2010, the Solemnity of All Saints.

The following day, he sent a telegram to Baghdad as Catholics held funerals for two priests and several others among the 58 people killed in the violence.

"Deeply saddened by the violent deaths of so many faithful and of Fathers Tha'ir Saad and Boutros Wasim, I want to participate spiritually in the funeral while I pray that these brothers and sisters would be welcomed into the mercy of Christ in the Father's house.

"For years, this beloved country has suffered unspeakable pain, and even the Christians have become the objects of savage attacks which, with total disrespect for life, the inviolable gift of God, try to undermine trust and civil coexistence.

Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart, damaged by bullets, at the entrance of the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral in Baghdad

"I renew my appeal that the sacrifice of these brothers and sisters of ours may be seeds of peace and of true rebirth and so that all those who have at heart reconciliation and a coexistence marked by fraternity and solidarity would find reasons and strength to work for good" PP. Benedictus in a telegram sent to the Catholics of Baghdad on 2 November, All Souls Day.

I am bereft at this and so relegated to passing along the Holy Father's words. This slaughter comes very shortly after the death of another martyr, Bishop Luigi Padovese of Iskenderun, Turkey. These 58 sisters and brothers of mine, led by their faithful pastors, Tha'ir Saad and Boutros Wasim, are surely martyrs and we should venerate them as saints. Above all, we need to begin caring about the plight of the Church throughout the Middle East. Their martyrdom occurred on what we observe on the Latin calendar as All Hallows Eve.

All holy men and women, pray for us

All Souls Day

All Souls Day brings to an end our annual three-day festival of the communio sanctorum that ushers in the month during which we remember our beloved dead. Traditionally, this day is essentially liturgical Memorial Day. On 2 November we commemorate our faithful departed and ask God to have mercy on them and all who have gone before us. The custom of setting apart a day to intercede for certain of the faithful departed dates to the end of the tenth century and began at the Benedictine monastery of Cluny.

Given the influence of Cluny, this custom first spread to other Benedictine communities associated with Cluny. Before long commemorating the faithful departed on this date was practiced in several dioceses in France before spreading throughout the Western Church. It was quite late coming to Rome, where it was accepted in the fourteenth century. In time, with All Saints day being established on 1 November in AD 835 and the celebration of All Souls on 2 November, the entire month of November came was dedicated to remembering the dead, at least in the Western Catholic Church.

There exists today in many Catholic parishes the practice of placing a list of names of those to be remembered close to the altar. This is a lovely custom we carry on at The Cathedral of the Madeleine, the parish in which I serve.

Let us pray for our faithful departed, our beloved dead

All Saints Day

The first mention of All Saints Day dates from around the 4th century. Traditionally, All Saints was observed in the springtime, which it still is among Eastern Christians. As with many truly great things, Halloween was brought into being by the ancient Celts who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. The celebration preceded their conversion to Christianity. For the ancient Celts, 1 November marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, who, in Celtic mythology, was Lord of the Dead.

It was believed that during this festival the souls of the dead, including ghosts, goblins and witches, returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires. When the Romans conquered the Celts, showing a distinct lack of the requisite Celtic spirit, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. The Romans also bobbed for apples and drank cider! So, where, you might ask, does the Christian aspect of the holiday begin?

Well, in AD 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all martyrs (later all saints) from 13 May to 1 November. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Eve or "holy evening." Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween.

Sadly, because All Saints falls on a Monday this year, it is not a holy day of obligation in the United States. However, it would be difficult for me to imagine not going to Mass on All Saints and All Souls.

All holy men and women, pray for us