Philadelphia National Meeting 
Chair's Address

Report to the FDLC Membership
Rev. John H. Burton
Chair, FDLC Board of Directors  

We gather with heavy hearts at this time of national tragedy. We come to our work mindful of thousands who have lost their lives so senselessly and so unjustly. The horrific acts of terror committed on 11 September still haunt us. We are distracted. One of our Board members, detained by work at his parish because of all of this, suggested that our work seems to pale in light of the catastrophe of that hellish day in the middle of September.

We have a different perspective, indeed. We see our world through a different prism now. Our work is more urgent, not less. We stand stunned and sobered by events of less than a month ago. What we have done at this meeting and what we do in our dioceses assumes a much greater value precisely because these awful things have forced us to our knees. For us Christians and for us ministers, these events have thrust our sights beyond this disaster to God who wipes away the tears from our eyes, to God who makes all things new.

During these past few weeks, we have seen the immense power of liturgy to provide a framework for people to discover the God who cradles the suffering and who calls us to healing. Our task is vital because our calling is to help shape the time of our worship to heal and to be healed, to console and to be consoled, and in all of this to provide access to the mystery of God through the liturgy we celebrate.

In the face of this tragedy we have come to a new awareness of the importance of the work we do and the spirit of co-operation and collaboration in which we do it. Our work together in this Federation helps us to find the connections and the resources to aid the celebration of the liturgy for the people we serve.

When we left Orange last year, you asked us to establish a web site. The FDLC Website was established within a few months of that meeting. Last year, you asked to be consulted on the recommendations our Conference of Bishops would make to the Holy See regarding the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal. By the January Board Meeting, your responses from across the nation were collated by the Eucharist and Liturgical Year Committee, accepted by your Board of Directors at its January, 2001 Meeting, and presented to the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy at a special meeting of that Committee in February.

Your growing response to FDLC publications moved us to enter a publishing agreement with Oregon Catholic Press. OCP will now publish and market our titles under the FDLC logo. This year FDLC has released several publications. The Three Days: A Liturgical Guide is a study guide to the liturgy of the Triduum which originated in a Position Statement passed at the 1997 National Meeting. Liturgical Commissions and Offices: A Resource Book by John Foster will be a valuable reference for diocesan worship personnel. Our third publication this year, Choosing a Liturgical Consultant, was developed by our Liturgical Arts Committee. This series of worksheets provides a systematic means of compiling information and a set of standardized evaluation forms to help parishes select the consultant most suited to their needs. Two sets of Bulletin Inserts have been translated into Spanish: How Prayer Looks and Full, conscious and Active Participation. Our cremation brochure has also been translated into Spanish.

You asked your Board of Directors to refine the schedule of our National Meeting. At this year's meeting, only one major talk was presented each day. Last evening, we were able to offer three special interest sessions for members: An Open Forum with the BCL, presented by Father James Moroney, Executive Director of the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy; a discussion on Built of Living Stones for architects, moderated by Father Andrew Ciferni; and a discussion for seminary professors of liturgy facilitated by Sister Sharon MacMillan.

Wanting to give something back to the local Church, the FDLC now includes as part of the National Meeting a day for parish ministers. I am happy to report that for the Parish Day tomorrow, over 260 people have registered from Philadelphia and nearby dioceses.

This summer saw the publication of the instruction Liturgiam authenticam from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. This document has raised many questions on many fronts. It is essential that we continue open, honest and respectful dialogue with our bishops as they work to guide the liturgical life of their dioceses and of this country, while being faithful to the concerns of the Holy See.

While we struggle over issues of translation to provide accuracy, it is also essential that we strive to produce a liturgical framework that is authentic while at the same time is beautiful, reflecting the very finest we have to offer to the God we worship. While the liturgy must be faithful and accurate, the liturgy also must engage the whole person in her or his world—a reality made all the more significant by the events of 11 September.

During the past summer, a joint proposal has been developed by the Georgetown Center for Liturgy, the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy, and our own Federation to present a Study Week for Diocesan Liturgy Directors and Chairs of Commissions. The purpose of the Study Week is to offer a time of study, formation and reflection in order to address the ongoing need for education, formation and renewal of all diocesan liturgists. As our new Board of Directors convenes tomorrow morning, I will assign this matter to our Ministry Committee with the strong request that they give this matter a very high priority.

During this meeting, you have also voiced serious concern for many who fall seriously ill, and who are deprived of the opportunity to receive the consolation of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, because of a lack of priests to anoint them. I will communicate with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains to share the concerns our Federation, raised in a Position Statement several years ago, and repeated here at this National Meeting. I will ask for information about the regional symposia the Association plans to offer. When we receive this information, we will pass it along to the membership of the Federation.

There has also been much discussion about the formation of an organization for liturgists who work at the parish level, providing yet a further network for support and exchange in our efforts to be a service to the Church. We support such a project. We hope that the Parish Day on the last day of the National Meeting will provide an impetus to this effort. We hope that Regions will also support this venture through the Regional Meetings and the excellent networking among the dioceses which happens as a result of being part of the Federation.

We have gathered to do our work at a very dark time, but our work is vital, and it offers hope. This year as we leave we begin to see anew the light of Christ, the bright Morning Star which never sets. We come together in solidarity with those who have suffered so much in the attacks of 11 September. We come together with a people who long to see the comforting face of God. We come together with a Church who invites all to a feast in the name of its Master whose dying prayer was that all may be one, and whose death opened for us the gates of unending life. We come together as professionals who are called to serve, called to use our talents and our skills for the good of all. In the face of the darkness, our path is lit by the blazing light of Christ that can never be extinguished. Keep going. Hold fast to the vision, for the vision still has its time. And in that time, we will see the glory of God shining on the face of Christ in the gathering of the Church at prayer.