South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, April 16, 1993 Page: 4 of 16
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4-April 16, 1993
Thinking about the issue
Thoughts that I wanted to share with you about things
that have been in the news, recendy:
1) Last week the Supreme Court decided that a state
could enforce a law that called for the death penalty when
a criminal displayed “an utter disregard for human life.”
Strange thing from a group of judges that has legalized the
practice of 26,000,000 abortions—by disregarding the fact
that every one of the procedures snuffs out a human life.
2) Fewer and fewer medical schoolsarc offering training
in abortions. None any longer requires that medical stu-
dents receive the training (though some did in the past).
And fewer and fewer medical students are accepting the
training. This parallels the evidence that the number of
practicing physicians who are
willing to kill unborn babies is
also declining.
Thank God for the courageous
>
pro-lifers who have refused to be si-
lenced and with their lives and love have kept the con-
science of our culture alive.
3) When Bill Clinton decided the military that protects
you and me should no longer protect the unborn citizens of
America, he announced that abortions could be performed
on military bases. What he hadn't counted on was that they
would not be able to find any military doctors willing to do
the killing.
Last week, the last military “abortion provider” an-
nounced his refusal to provide any more killing. He
mentioned “ethical and moral” considerations. The "pro-
choicers” condemned his “anti-choice” “choice". (It says
something about how confused we have become when it
takes so many quotation marks to write such a simple
sentence.)
4) According to the Center for Disease Control in
Atlanta, the abortion rate is lower today than at any time
since 1978 and the number of women having their first
abortion is declining steadily. They also state that they
have no idea what is causing the trend. Maybe it is that the
women who have been 1 ied to and exploited by the abortion
industry arc now figuring out the truth.
5) Have you ever noticed that the preamble to the
Constitution of the United Stales includes a concern about
and commitment to “posterity”? Apparently, our forefa-
thers feltan obligation to provide for the future of the as yet
unbom-but didn't intend that any steps be taken to make
sure they could be bom in order to benefit from the steps
taken.
6) Recent statistics demonstrate that 56 million Ameri-
can men and women now suffer from some incurable
sexually transmitted disease. There are only 250 million
people living here. When you take out the millions of
children and the other people who are not sexually active
and consider all those who are faithfully keeping their
marriage vows, you realize that of the rest, 56 million arc
carrying and distributing death. It is an unspeakable trag-
edy that what God intended for life and love has become
for so many nothing but an occasion for sickness and death, t
(ISSN 0745-9343)
Published biweekly Jan 1 -Dec 31. published first and fourth weeks of
July and not published second and third weeks ol July by the Diocese
of CorpusChrlsti for $10.00 per year Office address 1200 Lanlana St..
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age paid In Corpus Christ!, Texas POSTMASTER Send address
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Rev. Deacon Pete Horseman
Executive Editor
Debbie Gluck
Production Manager
Father John Michael Vega
Editor
Bishop Rend H. Gracida
Publisher
Jonette Childs
Account Executive
Luz Loza
Spanish Editor
COMMENTARY
From
the
Bishop
Q. Can you explain what the Church bases its
teaching on that allows lay people to become
“Eucharistic Ministers”? Please also explain the
meaning of the Sign of the Peace.
A. Your question about serving as a Special Min-
ister of the Eucharist caused me to review several
points on the origin of that ministry in the Church.
Lay persons distributing the Eucharist is not new in
the history of the Church. In the early Church, family
members took Holy Communion home from the
Mass to give to those who could not attend. Among
the saints shown in the sanctuary dome of the Corpus
Christi Cathedral arc Saint Clare and Saint Tarcisius,
lay persons who carried the Holy Eucharist.
The Second Vatican Council called upon all the
faithful to live out their baptismal commitment by
taking an active part in the life of the Church, even in
ministerial roles previously left to the clergy and
religious.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law approved by Pope
John Paul II, makes positive applications of the
teachings of the Second Vatican Council. Canon 910
states that the bishop, priest and deacon are the
ordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Canon 230
says that there may be special ministers of the Eucha-
rist whenever the needs of the Church justify their
use.
Pope Paul VI approved the use of Special Ministers
of the Eucharist when the ordinary ministers such as
priests and deacons were not available or where large
crowds of people would delay people waiting to
receive. The Pope added that the care of the sick was
another reason for granting such a privilege.
In our own Diocese of Corpus Christi Guidelines
for Individuals Serving as Special Ministers of the
Eucharist arc set down in the Pastoral Directory of the
Diocese, Section “S”, December 1989. The guide-
lines do stale, however, that exact procedures for
approaching the altar may vary according to the
custom of the parish. The pastor would be the person
who would determine such procedures.
Bringing added ciboria from the tabernacle, at the
discretion of the pastor, is one of the actions
listed in the diocesan guidelines.
“To touch the sacred species (Holy Commun-
ion) and to distribute them with their own hands
is a privilege of the ordained, one which indi-
cates an active participation in the ministry of
the Eucharist. It is obvious that the Church can
grant this faculty to those who are neither priests
nor deacons-or with other lay people who are
chosen for this to meet a just need, but always
after an adequate preparation.” Pope John Paul
II in his letter to all the Bishops on The Mystery
and Worship of the Holy Eucharist, Feb.24,
1980.
Concerning the Sign of Peace at the Mass, the
usual interpretation of the Rile is that the cel-
ebrant gives the sign of peace to those at the altar.
The faithful in the pews should turn to the
pcrson(s) next to them and offer a customary
sign of peace. The Bishops' Committee on the
Liturgy: The Sign of Peace, 1977, mentioned
that neither the people nor the ministers should
try to give the sign of peace to everyone present
in the church or even to a great number around
them. However, the specific manner of giving
the sign of peace was left to local custom.
The letter of Pope John Paul II to the Bishops
mentioned above carries his earnest plea that the
Mass and Holy Communion which is our sign of
unity with Christ and with one another not be a
source of disharmony among Catholics.
I pray that all who minister at the altar in the
Diocese of Corpus Christi will give an example
of charity that will build up the prayerful joy of
Christ's faithful who come to Mass or Holy
Communion seeking Jesus, the Savior.
Yours in Christ,
MJrtta*
l/d 5
Rene H. Gracida
Bishop of Corpus Christi
“Ask the Bishop" is excerpledfrom the newsletter
"From the Bishop's Desk", a monthly publication
available by subscription for $6 a year. Please send
name and address with a check to The Bishop's
Office, P.O. Box 2620, Corpus Christi, Tx 78403.
Holy Week events show faith
based on historical reality
By James Hitchcock
Most of the details of Jesus' life which arc recorded in the
Gospels are there for a purpose. The Gospel of John itself
says that not everything Jesus said and did could be
recorded, and the Evangelists obviously chose those inci-
dents which illuminated Jesus' identity and mission.
Yet there arc some tantalizing incidents which do not
clearly fit the pattern, such as the fact that Jesus ate a piece
of fish sometime after his Resurrection, or the mysterious
, episode in the garden when an unnamed young man was
grabbed by the soldiers, managed to slip out of his cloak,
and fled naked into the night.
These kinds of details seem to show that the Gospels are
historical documents. Religious myths include only details
which have some symbolic importance in understanding
the meaning behind the myth. I think the Evangelists,
although they left out things which to them had no particu-
lar significance (or which seemed repetitive) were them-
selves baffled by some of the events of Jesus' life and
recorded them without comment.
A novelist selects and arranges details to move towards
a desired conclusion, while a historian often feels con-
strained to show that many things happened which do not
fit any obvious pattern of meaning.
The idea that Christianity is a historical religion is
extremely familiar, but its implications have not always
been understood. It isa historical religion because itclaims
that the events on which it is based really did happen, that,
if we could be transported by a time machine, we could
witness them.
This is in complete contrast to religious mythology, in
which the “events” described took place outside time and
were not visible to mere mortals. Far from being vague
about when its central events occurred, Christianity is
extremely precise “in the fifteenth year of the reign of the
Caesar Tiberius”).
Holy Week is the climax of Jesus' life and thus also of
Christianity as a historical religion, but the events of that
week are significant only if they really occurred. If the
death and resurrection of Jesus are viewed as merely a
metaphor for the death and rebirth of nature, or of the
cosmos, or of the human soul, they are no better and no
worse than many other such metaphors in all times and
places. Christianity does not claim that it has created a
beautiful myth about life and death but that Jesus tri-
umphed over death in historical time.
The bloodiness of the passion, which has always dis-
turbed people, illustrates this. A my th of God’s death would
have made it a noble, mystical thing, scarcely physical at
all. But the Gospels record the vicious scourging, the
crown of thorns, the slaps, the falls on the way to Calvary,
and the three hours' agony on the cross because those things
really happened.
I recently heard of a high-school religion class in which
students were asked to invent their own religion, a formi-
dable task indeed! Suppose that, having never heard of
Christianity, we were asked to describe what we think the
religion of the one true God would be like. I doubt that, if
all the most creative people in the world went at the task
for years, they would ever arrive at such ideas as a baby
bom in a stable, a prophet tortured and crucified. Ideas of
resurrection are common in many cultures, but it is
Christianity's inescapable historicity which discloses res-
See Faith, page 7
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Horseman, Pete & Vega, John Michael. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, April 16, 1993, newspaper, April 16, 1993; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth855702/m1/4/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .