Bishop O’Donnell was bishop whenever I entered St. Joseph Seminary college back in 1998 and I can truly say that I’m grateful to him for allowing me to enter the seminary – it has changed my life for the better.   Bishop O’Donnell was eulogized as being a man who was focused on others rather than himself .  He didn’t believe in living a life of luxury.  I can still remember him driving around Lafayette in his Subaru hatchback.  I say I had the privilege of attending his funeral because indeed he was my spiritual father- not only as a seminarian but as a lay person living in his diocese.

I think too often we neglect in looking up to our bishops as our spiritual fathers but are rather more often concerned with judging and condeming them.  Just as we all are, bishops are human and have their faults and Bishop O’Donnell was certainly no exception.  Despite this failings he was a man who was concerned with the people whom God gave him to Shepherd.  Requiescat in Pace Your Excellency.

Bishop Michael Jarrell has announced the following appointments:

Effective June 16, 2008:

Reverend Monsignor J. Douglas Courville, Pastor of Saint Jules Parish in Lafayette, appointed Pastor of Saint Martin de Tours in Saint Martinville for a term of six (6) years, according to Diocesan Policy on tenure.

Reverend John Gale "Buddy" Breaux, Administrator of Saint Joseph Church in Loreauville appointed Pastor of Saint Joseph in Loreauville for a period of six (6) years, according to Diocesan Policy on tenure.

Reverend Neil McNeill, LC, Pastor of Our Lady Queen of All Saints Parish in Ville Platte, appointed Pastor of Saint Jules Parish in Lafayette. In addition to his duties as Pastor of Saint Jules, Father McNeill is appointed Director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry.

Reverend William Rogalla, Pastor of Saint Augustine Parish in Basile, granted a leave of absence for reasons of health and will be in residence at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lafayette.

Reverend Cyprian Eze, Associate Pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lafayette appointed Associate Pastor of Saint Jules Parish in Lafayette. This appointment is made in addition to his hospital ministry as Chaplain at Medical Center of Southwest in Lafayette.

Effective June 18, 2008:

Reverend Jason Vidrine, Associate Pastor of Our Lady of Wisdom Parish in Lafayette, appointed Associate Pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Scott.

Other Appointments:

Reverend Mr. Clint James Trahan will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on Saturday, June 7, 2008 and will be appointed Associate Pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Rayne, effective June 18, 2008.

Reverend Mr. Michael Keith Landry will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on Saturday, June 7, 2008 and will be appointed Associate Pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Broussard, effective June 18, 2008.

Reverend Mr. Durel Blaine Clement will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on Saturday, June 7, 2008 and will be appointed Associate Pastor of Our Lady of Wisdom Parish in Lafayette, effective June 18, 2008.

Pending appointments involving Saint Augustine Parish in Basile and Our Lady Queen of All Saints Parish in Ville Platte will be announced at a later date.

If this is the case, then what would prevent Father or Deacon from pre-recording a homily in those instances where there would be a "Communion Service" without the presence of a Deacon?  I realize this isn't ideal but the question is still there.

The news for the past few days has been how the Archbishop of San Francisco communicated cross-dressing men who call themselves "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence."  The Archbishop of San Francisco has denied that he knew what was going on and has even said in his official press release that he "didn't notice any mock religious garb."  Now there can only be two scenarios in this situation:  1) He knew what was going on and intentionally communicated them or 2) The Archbishop really had no clue what was going on.

Now let me say up front that I would be the first person to stand up and say this is objectively a grave sacrilege of the Eucharist to permit those who are in grave scandal to receive the Eucharist but in this situation I want to give the Archbishop the benefit of the doubt and believe he had no clue who and what they were.  Honestly before I heard about this whole scandal I had no idea who these people were.  If I would have been distributing communion I probably would have communicated them because I would have assumed they were just strangely dressed people who were guilty of nothing else than being weird.  I truly hope this was a situation in which, even though the "nuns" had run-ins with the parish before, the Archbishop wasn't informed of what was going on.

Now there are many who are calling for his resignation and saying that the Pope needs to remove him from the Diocese.  Those who advocate that do not understand the relationshio of the Pope to his brother Bishops – in this case the principle of first among equals seems to supercede all things.    Assuming that the Archbishop really did communicate them knowing what was going on, it proves the point what we as Catholics believe.  We don't put our stock in human persons.  Imagine what the early church would have been like had Judas' betrayal caused a great rift.  The truth is that no matter how frail and how incompetent the clergy or laity may be, it is our faith in Christ and His Church that sustains us.  We know that the Church has always overcome situations like this and she will continue to.  Some blogs have implied that individuals should jump ship because this isn't the Church that conservatives hoped it would be under Benedict XVI.  The truth is that the Church doesn't belong to John Paul II, or Benedict XVI – they are the guardians of the Church.  The Church belongs to all of us and we are called to be faithful just as the early disciples were faithful.

If Catholics didn't have the understanding of ecclesiology that we do then maybe at times we could be tempted to jump ship – we could be tempted to start our own denominations but in the end the Church still stands for Truth and it is still within this Church that our salvation is found.  It is in this Church that we are fed with the Eucharist.  We are constantly failed by people and I often tell people don't work for the Church and not expect to get hurt.  The truth is that at time we don't all do our best and we all fail and fall short.  Sometimes we don't do the best we can.  Often Protestant churches fail because the congregation puts all their faith in their pastor who commits some egregious sin causing a rift in their ecclesial community – I've talked to many former Protestants who found the Catholic Church because of situations like this.  Even though the Church's members has its faults, the Church will remain until the end of time and we are called to be faithful to Her!

Also, its important to note that prior to this motu proprio going into effect, individual priest have not been permitted to say the Tridentine form of the liturgy on their own initiative.  We’ll see if that is still the case when the document comes out.  It still requires the permission of the bishop simply because clerics are permitted, unless otherwise noted, to use the approved editio typica of the current rite.  This means that technically if clerics in the USA say the liturgy of the hours according to the British version, they haven’t satisfied their obligation to pray the liturgy of the hours (canonists are free to correct me on this, but from talking with other canonists, this seems to be the case.)

In any case, rejoice because the Motu Proprio is indeed going to raised from a state of potentiality to actuality!  

Another confusing issue seems to be the term "Tridentine Rite."  Those who have studied ritual churches and the particular different rites know there is no such thing as the Tridentine rite.  In the Latin Church there are a few different rites such as Ambrosian, Dominican, and the predominantly used Roman rite.  With the promulgation of the "Novus Ordo" Mass by Pope Paul VI, the old Roman Rite (the erroneously referred to Tridentine Rite) was replaced by the Mass of Pope Paul VI.  I have seen some make statements such as "The Tridentine Rite was never abolished."  This is true because there is no such thing.  The former liturgy was simply surpressed with the promulgation of the new missal.

Now that we’ve gotten that straight, The current Mass that most western Catholics used is the modern form of the Roman Rite.  To be proper, the Mass of Pope Paul VI.  The former form of the Roman Rite that Pope Benedict is expected to liberalize could be called the Mass of Pope John XXIII because it is John XXIII who revised the Missal.  The real term Tridentine should be applied to the Mass that Pope Pius V instituted up until the time of John XXIII’s reform.

Now that that’s been said…stop calling it the Tridentine rite.  That just bugs the heck out of me!

Honestly, I don’t really have a great attachment to the "Old Mass."  I have only attended it once and didn’t find an exceptional pull towards it.  My lack of attachment is most probably due to my lack of experience with it.  As it stands, for me the most beautiful Mass I have ever attended has been the Anglican Use Liturgy at Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston.  I make it a point when in Houston to make it by business to attend Mass there.  A close second is the  Mass of Pope Paul VI with the ordinary of the Mass in Latin and the Mass said Ad Orientem.  I have experienced this in a few places and I find it to be the most authentic interpretation of what Pope Paul VI wanted.  This liturgy is very similar to that Anglican Use Liturgy and, of course, the Anglican Use doesn’t use the corrupted ICEL translation.  Whenever I attend the Anglican Use Liturgy I can only say to myself "Aah, this is way it should be!"

The good news is that soon the new and highly improved ICEL translation should be released soon, but of course, Bishop Donald Troutman (or as a friend of mine says, to be politically correct, Bishop Fish Person) doesn’t approve