Still Running Off at the Keyboard

CATHOLIC BUZZWORDS - "BUILDING WITH LIVING STONES"

Now that we've apparently all been indoctrinated with "time, talent, and treasure" it's time for new buzzwords.

To recap...first we were serenaded with "full and active participation" which moved the laity out of the passive mode of participation at Mass and into the dialogue mode.

Next...we were told "we are church," causing us to take ownership of the amorphous concept of "Church." (It had to be amorphous to be accepted, because any Catholic in the 50s knew that "Church" and "priest" were inseparable.) Taking ownership meshed well with "full and active participation" and we were easily hoodwinked.

Next came "time, talent, and treasure" which was so logical of course because afterall if "we are church," we had to take responsibility for the new laity-centered structure that was incarnating in our midst. Father got pushed aside when these two phrases were used in tandem. To explain this marginalizing we were introduced to the shortage of priests. Eucharistic ministers, first said to be "extraordinary," but very quickly becoming fixtures, were the common sight at Mass whether there were priests tripping over each other in the sanctuary or not.

This worked well with "priesthood of the faithful" or "priesthood of all believers" or "priestly people." The phrase had a few variations, but the concept never varied. The laity gradually took over the role of the ordained.

"Renovation" of aging structures was the next entry. This concept enabled the remaking of the interior of our churches from the cruciform into a layout reminiscent of the Masonic Lodge or the Wiccan safety circle.

"Vibrant" and the formal "Vibrant Parish Life" has been repeated enough times that we have come to know that the definition of "vibrant" was a parish alive with laity involved at every level. Lately "vibrant" has also come to mean financially solvent. And we all know which parishes are not financially solvent...those inner city parishes which have too often been the locus of the more traditional practice of the faith. Those churches where we could still find some remnant of the 2000-year-old faith. Those churches where the laity did not have deep enough pockets to finance the "renovation."

Now we must think in terms of "clustering" which will combine those parishes that are not "vibrant" into a "cluster parish", the ultimate goal being to wipe them off the face of the earth while building a new building large enough to accommodate the "cluster parish"...a new building that ignores cruciform in favor of "gathering space" which may or may not be a church on any given day since the church furniture is flexible if the model follows the Edward Sovik/Richard Vosko design, but which will provide plenty of room for "liturgical dance" and other elements of performance art. That works well, of course, when there is no priest, and so a "communion service" must take the place of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. A "communion service" can be laity led.

The sexual abuse scandal is supposed to be the finishing touches on the removal of the priesthood, as all of our priest have now come under suspicion, and so, I presume, we will be better prepared for their removal.

The next set of buzzwords is going to be "building with living stones."

The phrase is a variety of the concept presented in 1 Peter 2:4-5:

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I saw it first in the website of the Holy Family Catholic Community cluster in Fond du Lac. They have already established the "Building with Living Stones Campaign."

You can find the buzzwords at the Franciscan Spiritual Center where the August 13-17, 2006 retreat is titled "Build with Living Stones Program."

You can find it in the Columban Father's chapel-building program in Valparaiso, Chile.

You can find it in this article from "Marian Helper" magazine where a new building is being bought for a ministry in the UK.

You can find it at Ambassador Presbyterian Church.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church has a Building with Living Stones campaign.

The 2006 Spiritual Retreat at Cascade Methodist Church is titled "Building with Living Stones."

It's used in a Methodist hymn.

David H. Roper talks about it extensively in an essay titled "The Living Stones." What he has in mind, though, is taking God out of church and putting Him in man.

It's used by Shiloh House Ministries, though what denomination this one is I wasn't able to determine from the website. It looks like Jewish-Christian. In any case, what they have in mind is a theocracy.

Long before any of these uses of the phrase, there is one dated 1916, in "The Builder Magazine," June 1916. Near the bottom of the website:

In this building with "living stones," this construction of temples "not made with hands," not to be disintegrated and destroyed with the progress of the ages but to grace the unchanging landscape of the empire of God himself, what matters it that the perishable body be imperfect? If heart and mind be competent to the work the Speculative Mason is required to perform, what more in justice may we exact of him who desires to engage with us in our "great and important undertaking?"

Can the passage in 1 Peter be read to suggest that the priesthood should be eliminated? It does appear as though the priesthood is under attack here in America.

Perhaps the object of this paradigm shifting that we are seeing in the Church could be understood in the light of a passage from a book by Vicomte Leon De Poncins:

...on 20th February, 1959, the Plenary Assembly of the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of the Argentine, under the presidency of Cardinal Caggiano, published a long collective declaration on Freemasonry, from which we have taken the following passages...

"In 1958, the IVth Interamerican Conference of Freemasonry, which was held in Santiago, Chile, declared that 'the Order helps all its members to obtain important posts in the public life of the nations'. After this came a dissertation on the theme of 'The Defence of Laicism', to be followed by directions as to the new tactics to be adopted by Freemasonry, which coincide with the latest instructions of the Communist International. Freemasons are to work for the triumph of laicism in all walks of life, and Communists are to subvert social order in order to create a favorable terrain in which to achieve their ends. [Freemasonry and the Vatican, p. 38]

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!