Welcome to
Buffalo, a big time city with small town comfort. A person can’t help
but be impressed with Buffalo’s parks and buildings, its inner harbor
and crisp fall feel after the Northeast’s long and hot summer As we
gather, we remember, too, our colleagues in the Gulf Coast, shattered
by the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. You are in our prayers.
May God sustain you and raise you quickly from this suffering.
I welcome
you to this annual meeting of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. Thank
you Bishop Kmiec, the Bishop of this diocese, for having us. Thank you
to Bishop, now Archbishop Mansell, for inviting us. And thank we thank
our hosts, the member dioceses of Region 2.
I began
these reflections in early February, the second of that month, to be
exact, Candlemas Day. We had just finished the January Board of
Directors meeting. We were returning home weary. Not just from the
intense days of the Board meeting, but from the concrete demands
facing us as we considered the budget for fiscal 2006. The grim words
spoken in October 2005 were now being birthed into harsh reality. But
times of crisis are times of grace.
The Board
of Directors was and is determined to face this difficulty And to see
this body through these difficult times during the January Meeting the
Board decided that fiscal 2006 will reflect a balanced budget. We made
two major decisions then. We announced them to you already this year:
1.
That there would be no Board of Directors meeting in Florida in
2006. Rather the Board of Directors will do as much as it can during
this national meeting. In January we will meet on line to continue the
Board’s work.
2.
Second the Newsletter, usually published in hard copy, will be
published and distributed electronically for our membership. The
bishops will continue to receive their copy of the Newsletter in hard
copy for their convenience.
3.
The Board made a third decision: to develop a strategic plan:
so that we many see the goals of the Federation more clearly and
pursue them more effectively.
This
strategic plan poses two fundamental questions: What is our mission?
Where do we go from here?
While our
basic mission won’t change, the circumstances surrounding us sometimes
force us to reshape the direction toward the fulfillment of the
mission. Position Statement 2006 F, to be considered at this National
Meeting, speaks directly to this point.
The
Federation has served the liturgical concerns of our nation for more
than four decades. We are deeply committed to this work as we face a
future challenged by cutbacks, the slow but steady closing of worship
offices and commissions, raising the serious concerns of the Board,
and demoralizing scandals. The new millennium filled with hope and
possibility was shattered within a year by four airplanes. Scandals
shook our institutions to their roots, the Church in the United States
included.
Nonetheless
we wrestle with a question touching our very heart: How do we worship
God authentically with fidelity to our tradition and with respect for
the place of each person baptized into it? After January’s Board
meeting, we asked you to return those members up for reelection to the
Board in order to maintain stability as we work through these current
challenges.
Except for
those whose circumstances did not allow them to remain, you returned
all of us to the Board. Thank you for this vote of confidence. Allow
me to welcome to our Board of Directors Father Michael Balash, Region
6 Mr. Doug Reatini, Region 4 and Ms. Vicki Klima, Region 8.
I can
assure you that each one of us is committed to continuing the
Federations mission of implementing the full vision of the
Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy so that all the Church will be
engaged in full, conscious and active worship of baptized by the
virture of our participations in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Please
allow me also to extend the deep thanks of the Board and the
Federation to Father Larry Tensi, Region 6, to Father Michael Carrier,
Region 4 and to Mr. Patrick Gorman, Region 8 as they complete their
service on the Board of Directors.
The past
August, the dream we dreamed in 2001 and announced to you in
Philadelphia that year came to reality as more than sixty people
gathered for a study week in Adrian Michigan to hear Monsignor Kevin
Irwin, Father Kevin Seasoltz, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk and Father
Mark Francis broadened our visions with their keen insights.
Thank you,
Father Larry Madden, Anne Koester, and Jeff Price of Georgetown Center
for Liturgy and Lisa Tarker, Dolly Sokol, and Rita Thiron of FDLC for
helping us to bring this dream to fruition.
Our
National Office has taken back responsibility for the publications of
the Federation and has worked hard to bring us to the level of
production we once enjoyed. We are well on our way to that goal.
Lisa Tarker
continues the networking process, not simply with the Liturgical
Community, but with the local chairs and executive directors of the
variety of Catholic organizations in the Washington DC area.
Of course
we can’t forget our primary association with the members of the
Secretariat for the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, Monsignor James
Moroney, Monsignor Anthony Sherman, Sister Doris Turek. We are
collaborators with them in the work of implementing the ongoing
reforms of the Liturgy. We are grateful for their generous support and
for all their efforts on behalf of the Federation.
Because of
our association with the Secretariat and the Bishops’ Committee
itself, Lisa Tarker and I serve ex officio as advisors to the
Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy at its June meeting. This past June
we met in Chicago to share with the Committee the concerns of the
Federation and to assist them in their ongoing work. It was impressive
to see the care and dedication of each of the Bishop members. Their
careful and thoughtful labor over the revised translation of the Order
of Mass only proved the point that translation is not merely a science
nor just and art, but it must be both to give voice to the prayer of
the Church.
It was a
particular joy to work with Bishop Donald Trautman, recipient of the
2003 McManus Award and now Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on the
Liturgy. Bishop Trautman, it is a blessing for us to see you in this
position of leadership once again. Certainly the right man has been
chosen for the right time. We look forward to working with you, and we
will support your efforts in any way we can. Welcome to this National
Meeting, Bishop!
During the
past several years you have indicated a need to refine the National
Process. Each year we have refined and reshaped our discussion so that
the Federation will effectively articulate the issues of the day in a
timely fashion in service to our Bishops and to the People of God.
Over these
many years, you have simultaneously expressed concern about the lack
of Position Statements brought to this National Meeting. Perhaps it
was just the tenor of the times. Perhaps issues have recently been
more local in nature than national. This year, however, we have six
Position Statements for our consideration They range from a need to
assist Bishops and their Worship Offices in dealing with the
ramifications of clusterings and closings of parishes to a
consideration of our mandate as a Federation in relation to the
Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy.
Surely,
while there is much to challenge us there is more to encourage us:
1.
Bishops who, despite the pressure of cutbacks commit to funding
a worship office and to a liturgical commission; who maintain their
membership in the FDLC and who continue to send delegates to this
National Meeting
2.
The members of the Federation so committed that they come to
this meeting using their own resources. Your commitment to the cause
reflects the spirit of those gone before us who gathered in basements
and in parish halls to discuss and debate and to study what it means
to worship God in Spirit and truth. Your dedication is an inspiration
and your commitment is a gift that will be transformed by God’s power
For the good of the Church.
3.
The organizations who have rallied to our support: a. The
Southwest Liturgical Conference who at last year’s meeting gave the
Federation $5000 and who has supported us throughout the year. b. The
dioceses of Region 6 who recently sent us a check in the amount of
$3000 to support our work. c. And most of all our staff at the
national office whose dedication every day sustains us and keeps us
afloat. Lisa, Joe, Massimo, and Dianne your daily devotion to this
work and your loyalty to the Federation are a gift beyond price. For
this we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
I am happy
to announce that because of these combined efforts our finances have
begun to improve. The horizon which has seemed so dark and far away is
brighter now, and a little closer, but we still have far to go.
The number
of registrations for this meeting, much lower than expected, is due
largely to budget cutbacks in dioceses, which in turn impact the
Federation and its work.
Nonetheless, we continue despite constraints. In addition to the
ongoing work of the National Office and the Chair, our committees have
done much as well.
It was
Candlemas Day when I first put a pen to paper to record these thoughts
and hopes as we look to our future. The feast of the presentation of
the Lord, the Feast of the Meeting. A Christmas feast outside the
Christmas season, Candlemas stands as a clear reminder that Christmas
, with its rich hope and awesome challenge isn’t about a season.
It is about
life: God comes into our midst to be light in our darkness, Candlemas
is a day of dreams fulfilled and challenges to face. As hope is
cradled in aged hands and a sword of sorrow is promised to a maiden
mother. It is a day of contradiction and hope. Hope in the work and
dedication of so many: our Board, our staff, our colleagues at the BCL,
our friends in the liturgical community. And most of all, you, all of
you, the membership of this Federation. You have sacrificed much to
be here. You have given of your time, your talent, and in so many ways
your treasure every day to do this work. It is an offering to God who
speaks in whispers and who transforms simple gifts into mighty signs
of his abiding presence and awesome power.
We gather
today facing many challenges, but we gather sustained in hope given us
by Christ, so “that in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.”
