Hello Friends at Catholic Exchange!
First, let me thank you all for your efforts. My husband and I have given a donation of financial support to the site. We want CE’s ministry to continue as it's helping us to proclaim and defend the Catholic faith with loving, patient, knowledgeable apologetics.
I am curious, though, as to why you don’t update the discussion forum topics and/or Truth Tracts more regularly. Have you ever considered hosting a live chat room on Catholic Exchange? I would really like to be able to long in and chat in real-time about the faith issues I’m studying.
A bulletin board allowing anyone to post questions and answers would be great, too. Of course, I realize the danger of people logging in and posting incorrect and/or spiteful comments is always a danger and hindrance to bulletin boards. Yet, with proper monitoring and control, it seems this could be a wonderful tool to spread the Gospel, exhort and edify the individuals who make up our Catholic communities, educate our brothers and sisters whose faith is just beginning to mature and most importantly give praise and glory to the Trinity!
If Catholic Exchange is ever in need of volunteers to help update or refresh some pages, or to help answer e-mails, or just to do anything at all, please think of me. I'd be only too glad to help spread the message of the Gospels and the Faith in anyway I can.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Sheila Darisse
Dear Sheila,
Your kind words and financial support of Catholic Exchange is much appreciated. Our mission is to provide Catholics with a safe place to call home on the Internet—a home full of rich faith and life content that is continuously updated.
Your ideas are great, and we would love to implement them. Unfortunately, however, our wish list of improvements has to be put on hold for the time being. We have a very small staff at Catholic Exchange, and even a smaller pocketbook. Both our staff and our wallets need to expand considerably before we can take on any of these wonderful ideas.
You're right; a chat room would be a great addition to Catholic Exchange. However, chat rooms require a bigger bandwidth, more human resources and more finances than we have. We pray one day we will be able to realize all of our dreams for Catholic Exchange.
In the meantime, thanks for your kind offer for volunteer help. Someone will contact you. We need people like you to help spread the beautiful truths of God’s Kingdom on earth.
God bless,
Tom Kyd
Catholic Exchange
Church Ministries—Where Do They Lead Us?
Dear Catholic Exchange:
Please thank Amy Welborn for her article on Irony. It was almost poetic.
The general point about obfuscation in our suffering Church begs for greater exposure. I teach catechism to sixth graders and the textbook and teaching manual I use seem to have been written specifically to confuse the children and hide the truth. An example (I quote form memory), “The psalms are not so much the word of God as they are stories of men crying out to God.” I know what the author may have meant by this claim, but such a statement is not appropriate for a catechism.
The specific point about parish life (the big, busy parishes with fountains of ministries) was right on target. I joined my present parish five months ago, and I have heard more about stewardship than anything else, perhaps even more than about Jesus Himself. The pastor, a fine priest, conveys the message: if you get involved in a ministry, you are going to love this place. Can someone address the question of where this trend is leading us? For now, it rings hollow.
Thank you for all your good work,
Joseph Orchard
Deacons Are Ordained, Too!
Dear Carol Kennedy:
You and I share a great love and thankfulness for Christ’s tremendous gift of the ministerial priesthood. Your article, Catholic Priests—More Than Just “Consecrators”, highlights many of the reasons all Catholics should be as grateful as we are for our priests.
Your article also, however, reflects a rather common and tragic flaw in the way the permanent deaconate is presented and perceived, even among the well educated and well catechized among us. Cases in point:
• You refer to “ordained men” in a manner that very clearly seems to exclude deacons even though they are ordained ministers of the Church.
• You may already know this, so please forgive me for appearing to assume otherwise, but the sacrament of Holy Orders is received in three degrees. The first degree of ordination is to the deaconate (permanent or transitional.) The souls of these men bear an indelible mark, as they are ontologically configured to Christ the Servant. The second degree is ordination to the presbuteros (priesthood.) The third is ordination to the episcopate (bishopric). The priest and bishop are specifically configured to Christ the Head in a way that the deacon is not, but only our bishops have received the fullness of Holy Orders.
• All of the duties deacon “Bill” performed in the Mass mentioned in your article are entirely proper to his state due to ordination. In addition to these, he may proclaim the gospel at Mass, baptize, bless, officiate at a marriage in the name of the Church, impart Benediction, and so on.
• The closing of your article solidified my impression that it promotes a misunderstanding of the great gift of the deaconate. You state, “Let's face it, it is not just the deacon who takes on the priest's duties, the laity do so as well….” Again, deacons are not members of the laity—they are ordained ministers of the Church. Clearly this sentence reflects the flawed notion that the two states—the lay state and the state of the deacon—are the same.
Yes, by all means we should be on our knees daily thanking Jesus for our priests without whom we would have no access to Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. We should, however, also promote recognition of (and thankfulness for) the tragically under-appreciated gift of the deaconate. Sadly, your article promotes the former at the expense of the latter.
My hope is that you will take these observations in the spirit with which they are offered. Perhaps you even agree with me that the deaconate is a largely disregarded gift from Jesus to His Church.
Please consider writing a follow-up article that addresses this issue.
Yours In Christ with Immaculate Mary,
Louie Verrecchio, MI
Dear Mr. Verrecchio:
Thank you for reading and responding to my article. It was not my intention to imply that deacons are not ordained. I was merely focusing on priestly ordination and the role of priests in particular. The end of my article, which you quoted in your note, is actually making a distinction between the deacon and the laity: “Let's face it, it is not just the deacon who takes on the priest's duties, the laity do so as well….” As for the deacon's role, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal from 1975, which still stands as the authority since the new one has not yet been promulgated in English, discusses the duties of the deacon in Chapter IV (see: Chapter IV-A: Mass with a Congregation.)
I see no mention of preaching the homily or saying any of the other prayers, which I mentioned in my article. Again, I have no intention of contributing to the misconception that deacons are not ordained. I am sorry if you misunderstood.
In Christ,
Carol Kennedy
Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.
Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.
Dear Mrs. Kennedy,
Respectfully, I wish to point out that your reply is innacurate concerning the proper ministry of permanent deacons. In stating, “I see no mention [in the GIRM] of preaching the homily or saying the other prayers [during Mass]…”, you lead readers to believe that a liturgical abuse occurs each time the deacon preaches. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
In 1998, the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Congregation for the Clergy recognized the “need for a certain unity of direction and clarification of concepts, that addresses the formation and ministry of deacons.” To that end, the Congregations issued a joint declaration. Concerning the homily, the document states:
When the deacon presides at a liturgical celebration, in accordance with the relevant norms, he shall give due importance to the homily, since it “proclaims the marvels worked by God in the mystery of Christ, present and effective in the liturgical celebrations.”
Sadly, many well educated Catholics do not understand the permanent diaconate. I'd like to urge all Catholic Exchange viewers to take the initiative to learn more about the diaconate by reading the Joint Declaration on the Formation and Ministry of Permanent Deacons in its entirety. Only then we will be able to fully appreciate the gift of ordained ministry, and indeed, the Church. In the words of the Cathechism:
Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters [priests] as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church (CCC #1554).
Respectfully in Christ,
Louie Verrecchio MI
