Canon Law

Relics: Pious Devotion, Healing Power, or Something Else?

August 29, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 11 Comments

Last year, attending the diaconate convocation for the Archdiocese of Detroit, I wrote about how my husband and I were privileged to pray before a first-class relic of St. Teresa of Avila.

And What, Exactly, Is a Relic?

First, let’s clear up what it’s not. Catholics do not, under any circumstances, “worship” relics.

St. Jerome wrote, “We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are.”

There are three different types of relics:

First-Class Relics are items directly associated with the events of Christ’s life (the manger, the cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, etc.).

A Second-Class Relic is an item which was worn by a saint (such as a shirt or a glove), or which the saint owned or frequently used (such as a crucifix or book).
A Third-Class Relic is an object that is touched to a first- or second-class relic. Most third-class relics are small pieces of cloth.

Relics from the life of Christ include, most famously, the Shroud of Turin. Pieces of the True Cross among the most prized First-Class Relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that John Calvin once remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship. Calvin’s assertion was disproven in an 1870 study which found that all the known pieces of the cross, if put together,would weigh less than 1.7 kg.

Is Praying With a Relic Merely a Catholic Superstition?

Catholics believe that only God can heal, but that God may in some cases permit healing through physical means, such as a relic of a holy person. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling can affect the physical body, and God can work miracles through the bodies of deceased saints. As far back as the Old Testament, the relics of the deceased have been shown to possess a power which certainly comes from God.

One of the earliest verses which shows the efficacy of relics is in the Old Testament book of Second Kings (2 Kings 13:20-21). The prophet Elisha had died and his body had been buried. In the spring of the year, an invading band of Moabites was burying a man from their tribe when they came upon the grave of Elisha. The Moabites tossed the deceased man into the grave, atop the bones of Elisha; and as soon as he touched the bones, the man was revived and stood on his feet.

And in the New Testament, Acts 19:11-12 recounts the story of Paul’s handkerchiefs, which were imbued by God with healing power.

Can Relics Be Bought or Sold?

A quick check of E-bay turns up several relics, either real or purported, which are offered for sale—sometimes for hundreds of dollars. The Catholic Church, though, strictly forbids the sale of relics. The Code of Canon Law states:

§1190 §1 – “It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics.”

§1190 §2 – “Relics of great significance and other relics honored with great reverence by the people cannot be alienated validly in any manner or transferred permanently without the permission of the Apostolic See.”

Filed Under: Canon Law, Reliquary, St. Teresa of Avila 11 Comments

It’s CHRIST CATHEDRAL! May America’s Newest Cathedral Shine with the Light of the Gospel

June 9, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 1 Comment

And so it’s official: The grand glass edifice formerly known as the Crystal Cathedral has been renamed Christ Cathedral, it was announced this morning.

More than 1,500 people heard the Most Reverend Tod D. Brown, Bishop of the Diocese of Orange in California, make the announcement today at the close of the ordination ceremony in St. Columban Church, where he ordained four new priests who will serve the diocese.

The Crystal Cathedral was designed by architect Philip Johnson, and opened in 1980 as home to Pastor Robert Schuller’s nationally syndicated “Hour of Power” broadcast. In recent years the ministry ran into hard times, facing declining participation and internal struggles; and it finally filed for bankruptcy protection. After a court challenge and a nail-biting bidding war with Chapman University, the Roman Catholic diocese won the bid for the Crystal Cathedral and its 40-acre campus in November 2011. (I wrote about the ups and downs leading up to the sale, and about the Schuller family’s friendly relationship with the Catholic Church, last November; read about it here.)

So why, after more than 4,100 people entered a competition to choose the new name, did the Diocese choose “Christ Cathedral”? From the beginning, Bishop Tod Brown has promised to give the new edifice a name that is Christological in significance.

“We hold Reverend Schuller and his ministry in the highest esteem,” Bishop Brown noted at the conclusion of the Ordination Mass. “It was important that any change of name for the cathedral itself be respectful of its spiritual legacy while accommodating our needs to clearly define this important facility as a Catholic center of worship.”

The formal process for the naming of a Catholic Church requires that the proposed name be submitted to the Congregation of Bishops, the curia in Rome. Bishop Brown submitted Christ Cathedral as the proposed name, as required, and received approval from the curia on April 26, 2012.

As I wrote in 2011, the Crystal Cathedral under Reverend Schuller has long enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Catholic Church, inviting such notable Catholics to its pulpit as Mother Teresa and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. That trend has continued in the months leading up to the building’s transformation to a Catholic cathedral:

On May 10, 2012, the Crystal Cathedral welcomed Kathleen Eaton, president of Birth Choice Health Clinics and a prominent California Catholic, for a free pro-life event at the church. Other keynote speakers for Birth Choice’s 31^st anniversary celebration included Lila Rose, president of Live Action; Kristan Hawkins, director of Students for Life of America, and other noted pro-life speakers.
On May 13, 2012—Mother’s Day—Robert Schuller’s grandson, Reverend Bobby Schuller, returned to the pulpit as the Crystal Cathedral honored Mother Teresa, humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and now, a Catholic saint.

The Diocese of Orange has been leasing the cathedral back to the Crystal Cathedral Ministries for $150,000 per month; but just this week, the ministry accepted an invitation to move to nearby St. Callistus Catholic Church in June 2013. The diocese has offered the use of the St. Callistus property free for one year, after which monthly rent payments would be required.

I spoke recently with Tim Busch, lead attorney for the diocese in the purchase of the property. Busch confirmed that significant changes will be required to make the Crystal Cathedral suitable for Catholic worship. The worship space will be gutted, save for the organ; a new floor will be installed. An altar, pulpit, ambo, baptismal font, pews and kneelers will be added, as well as a sacristy. Given the extensive renovations required, no date has been announced for the cathedral’s reopening.

Filed Under: Architecture, Bishops, Canon Law, Catholic, Crystal Cathedral Tagged With: Bishop Tod Brown, Christ Cathedral, Crystal Cathedral, Hour of Power, Rev. Robert Schuller, St. Callistus 1 Comment

CNN Wants to See More Female Altar Servers?

November 26, 2011 By Kathy Schiffer 2 Comments

You’ve gotta hand it to CNN: If nothing else, they’re consistent.

Readers on my Facebook page got into a discussion one day recently about the CNN “Belief Blog.” The general consensus was that it’s actually more of an “UN-Belief Blog”: The point of the feature seems to be to identify a particular teaching or practice of the Catholic Church that is unpopular this week, then pontificate [an ironic word!] about why it should be changed.

This week’s column by Roland S. Martin on the topic of female altar servers (or “altar servants,” as he mistakenly calls them) is a case in point.

Without knowing diddly about the Church’s long tradition, about the view of some that serving at Mass is an encouragement to young men to hear God’s call to the priesthood, or about the many roles which are available to Catholic women within the Church, Martin spouts off about “keeping women in their place” and “erecting barriers.” Were it not for women, he scolds, there might never have been Christianity.

I’ve heard all this tired stuff before, notably from self-described “progressives” like Michael Sean Winters, columnist for the National Catholic Reporter. I am puzzled by the logic of those who suggest that women will be somehow damaged by gender-based restrictions, because that’s just not my experience. In fact, the opposite is true: If you believe that I can’t get beyond a male pronoun to understand that you’re also referring to me, a woman, then you don’t think much of my cognitive abilities.

So what, exactly, is the advantage of having male altar servers?

In a word: Vocations. At a time when there is a great need for young men to answer God’s call to serve as priests, service at the altar in this small way can provide the impetus to consider the priesthood. And there is correlative evidence to suggest that it works: Almost all ordained priests and deacons—adult converts excepted—were altar servers in their youth.

And what, exactly, is the advantage of having female altar servers?

In a word: Service. While women do not serve in ordained ministries, there is need for women and men to become more involved in ministries within the Church, as religious education teachers, Christian service volunteers, visitors to the homebound, and in many other capacities. Serving at the altar can help girls to feel more entrenched in the Church, and may prompt them to seek other ways to serve God within the Church when they reach adulthood.

The debate about female altar servers was brought front and center in August of this year, when the Diocese of Phoenix announced that girls would no longer be among the altar servers at its Cathedral of Sts. Simon and Jude. Girls are encouraged to be sacristans—to help prepare the altar and the sanctuary for Mass. Father John Lankeit, rector of the cathedral, said that he had made the decision in an effort to nurture priestly vocations among the fifth- through eighth-grade boys who served there.

Father Lankeit, in dividing the genders into two different “service groups” in the Church, is operating within the dictates of canon law. Before the canon law was revised in 1983, girls were not permitted to serve Mass; but even after canon law was changed, bishops and priests have always had the option of restricting the role to boys. Only one diocese—Lincoln, Nebraska—has established a policy of “boys only” for altar servers; and it’s noteworthy that the Diocese of Lincoln has had to build a new seminary to house all the young men pursuing a vocation and, according to the Official Catholic Directory, the ratio of seminarians to Catholics is higher than anywhere else in the country.

Blogger Matt Bowman, writing a few months ago on the Catholic Vote site, made an interesting point regarding the people who decry the boys-only policy as anti-woman.

Aren’t they really, Matt asks, putting a false emphasis on humans-doing-things-around-the-altar as THE kind of activity that really “counts” as important in the Church? Matt explains:

They try to ram laity and gender inclusiveness into the altar because fundamentally they think clerical things are what matter most.

The sacrifice of the Mass is the center of our lives as Christian lay people, but it is so by what we can all do at Mass–the prayers and reception of communion–in order to have union with God and take Jesus OUT into the world. It is not the center of the Christian life merely or even especially to the extent that we get up around the altar and play those liturgical roles.

Ironically, liberal complaints along these lines are a rejection of the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on the laity. When they call it a denial of justice if girls cannot be altar servers (or priests), they assume that only clerical roles are really important.

Instead, “important stuff” for the laity means prayer, communing with our Lord, and then going out into the world. Altar service is important primarily as an experience for boys to get to know the role of the ministerial priesthood.