Burbidge Takes The Helm In RaleighMore of the same, just in a fancier box?
His Excellency Michael Burbidge was installed yesterday as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'll admit, I was pretty jazzed when I first heard the news that he was heading this way to take the place of Bishop "Just Call Me Joe" Gossman. My initial enthusiasm has settled into a cautious optimism.
Here's why. From the Raleigh News & Observer; (my comments in black)
Burbidge, 49, a native Philadelphian, will be installed Friday at Meymandi Concert Hall as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. He brings a sea change in style -- and likely in substance.
His predecessor, F. Joseph Gossman, has lived 31 years in Raleigh and never cared much for the formal trappings of the office. He typically signed letters to his priests, "Your brother, Joe."
By contrast, Burbidge dresses like a bishop. He wears a pectoral cross suspended by a chain and a bishop's ring -- ritual adornments reserved for bishops that Gossman rarely claimed.
Though the two men were nurtured in the same faith, they were shaped by vastly different historical forces. While Gossman was made bishop in the 1960s, during the era of the Second Vatican Council reforms, Burbidge's priestly life took shape in the early 1980s, an era characterized by a resurgence of traditional practices.
Gossman has said he struggles with his church's teaching that women can't be priests. In 2004, he disagreed with other bishops who wanted to deny the Eucharist to politicians who advocated for legal abortion. And some still wonder why I call this place the Roman Protestant Diocese of Raleigh.
Burbidge, meanwhile, is theologically and politically conservative. He represents an American Catholicism that is ritually and doctrinally precise and proud of its fidelity to Rome.
The 49-year-old bishop then celebrated his first Mass in the diocese emphasizing what will likely be a priority during his tenure: building up the priesthood.
"I make an earnest appeal to our young people here today and to those watching through the media to seriously consider if Jesus is calling you to follow him," he said. "I beg all in the Diocese of Raleigh to pray daily that our Lord Jesus will bless our local church with more priests." I can name two young men right now that were recently booted out of the seminary by the Lavender Mafia for being openly heterosexual, but willing to live a celibate and holy lifestyle. Bishop Burbidge, will you reinstate them?
After the homily, prayers were said in Vietnamese, Korean and Polish, among other languages. What... no Latin? We are The Latin Rite, are we not? Uh-oh, looks like we just may have more of the same old, same old "we're nothing more than a bigger version of Episcopalianism".
Nowhere was the contrast between them clearer than at the news conference last month announcing Burbidge's appointment as bishop of Raleigh.
In a makeshift meeting room with its tables pushed to the back, Burbidge and Gossman took their places. Gossman wore a button-down clergy shirt, faded to gray from frequent washing. Burbidge appeared crisp, with a vest over his clergy shirt, the chain of his pectoral cross showing and a bishop's ring on his finger. Later he performed the bishop's triple blessing, a sign of the cross multiplied by three.
There was no mistaking the difference: Raleigh, a place known for its informality and openness; Philadelphia, often described as more Roman than Rome.
And from the Diocese of Raleigh website;
"Christians must be distinguished more than ever by the art of prayer," and then stated, "How can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual conversation, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament." Wow!! He actually recognized the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist!!?? What a nice change of pace here in the Roman Protestant Diocese of Raleigh! Seriously!!!
Imagine the ongoing transformation that would take place in this diocese and in our lives if we were renewed in our commitment to proclaim Jesus with clarity, compassion, conviction and with a strong fidelity to our holy Catholic faith, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the teachings of the Church rooted in this Gospel, especially those found in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is what especially took the wind out of my sails in my enthusiasm for Bishop Burbidge... his leaning so heavy on Vatican II. Bishop Burbidge, wasn't there 2,000 years of Catholicism prior to V2? Did the Catholic Church magically appear in 1962? I get it now -- 33 AD to 1962 AD ~ The Missing Years.
Oh well, like I said, I'll be cautiously optimistic. Like my parish priest prays every Sunday -- "that our new bishop will return to orthodoxy, and is a friend to Tradition".
Just keep praying, Caveman.
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
6:26 AM
8 Comments:
The Spirit of Vatican II crowd can't base their arguments on the actual text of Vat II, which makes me think, instead of your pessimistic appraisal of Burbidge's statement, that it's a shot across the bow for the hippies in the diocese. That's what the hippies grouse about most, when it come to Vatican II, is that their imagined changes weren't put in the documents, so they have to rely on the Spirit of Vatican II (we know what that is) to rationalize their heretical practices.
I know that you're out there in hippieland, and all you find are the 'fruits' of the Spirit of Vatican II. I grew up in New Hampshire in the 1970's, and I look back on horror at the liturgies I experienced as a child. Now being in Lincoln, Nebraska, I see how the Church should be and Vatican II implemented. The difference is night and day, Caveman , night and day.
I do travel from time to time, and I get to experience fruity masses. It's disyracying to try and compare the experiences during Mass. I just have to remember 'Opus Operatum'.
I find something fundamentally wrong with glossing over 2,000 years of Catholcism, and laser focusing on V2 and it's subsiquesnt Catechism.
Like I said - 33 AD to 1962 AD, The Lost Years
I would say that mention of the "Holy Catholic Faith" covers all 2000 years, as well as the CCC, which cites the Fathers of the Church.
As far as V2 goes, I agree with St. Jimbob. Most modernists don't give a fig about what the documents actually say, but blather about the so-called "spirit". St. John Cantius in Chicago, St. Agnes in the Twin Cities, and Brompton Oratory in London are all examples of real implementation.
Au contraire, Caver--I think that his linking the CCC and VatII's DOCUMENTS was represents a clear and present danger to the wackos in Raleigh.
But then, when Abp. Dolan arrived in Milwaukee, we heard he was a straight-shootin' Roman Catholic kinda guy.
So far, we know for sure he's a guy.
I absolutely understand what your saying, Dave. Here's what has me concerned... why did the good bishop laser focus on V2 with his statement "....to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the teachings of the Church rooted in this Gospel, especially those found in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church."
Consider this... how much sense would it make if he would have said "...to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the teachings of the Church rooted in this Gospel, especially those found in the documents of the Councils of Trent and Milan and Carthage and Hippo and Rome, etc, etc.) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church."
Again, I just have to wonder why the special emphasis on V2?
I sympathize with you completely, Caveman, and I fully agree that cautious optimism is the absolute most that any new prelate in the U.S. rates.
And these days, that's much more than I can muster for any of them.
Probably because the documents themselves have never been implemented properly in most places. Remember that it took a long time for Trent to get off the ground...
As it is, I agree with Fr. Rutler that V2 will be properly understood and appreciated when it is treated as a council rather than as the council...
The reason that the documents werent "implemented properly" is because they are deliberately ambiguous.
They are deliberately ambiguous because the Second Vatican Council was overseen by Protestant and Jewish observers.
The Protestant and Jewish observers were there to help make Catholicism (read: ~1,962 years of Tradition) less offensive to Protestants and Jews.
Now, we have the Novus Ordo, unauthorised female "priests", and Clown Masses.
No thank you. I'll stick with Tradition.
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