If you’re creating a new messiah, then you’ve got to have the requisite hagiography/infancy narrative. The Obama Messiah blog points us to this children’s biography of Obama, designed to indoctrinate the younglings early: “Obama: "Son of Promise, Child of Hope"”. (Check out the whole tongue-in-check blog to see the very disturbing imagery often used by those who imagine Obama as a secular savior, not the least of whom are the journalists who are supposed to be objective!)

Witness the way in which Obama is portrayed in this summary of the book. Note how “Hope” is capitalized the way we would capitalize “Holy Spirit”, i.e. as a Person. Note how he is lifted onto a pedestal as being unlike the rest of us mere mortals.

Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held on to Hope. Even as a boy, Barack knew he wasn’t quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to Hope and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together.

I have no problem with someone being an ordinary political supporter, even an ardent supporter, but this sort of thing—and the rest of it chronicled at that blog—goes far beyond support to personality cult or religion. And that’s what scares me about Obama—more so than any other recent presidential political candidate.

Let me be even more pointed. I don’t believe that Obama is the Antichrist of fundamentalist Protestant nightmares, but if you were trying to create the appearance of being the Antichrist and scaring the “fundies” you couldn’t do a much more complete job than this.

A few months ago, I purchased an iPod touch to replace my old broken iPod. What sets the touch apart is the applications it can run next to the music functions. In fact, it was essentially an iPhone without the phone or built-in camera and it was indeed quite spiffy.

But when the new iPhone 3G was released in mid-July, Apple also released an update to the operating system that runs the older iPhone and iPod touch too. Among the improvements, the biggest was the opening of the device to third-party applications. Suddenly there was a whole world of new functionality available. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s like a whole new device. Let me give you some examples, based on programs I’ve downloaded from the store. I will point out that a very large proportion of what’s available in Apple’s iTunes AppStore is free and of the apps I’ve purchased, most have been less than $5 and only one was $19.

The app of most interest to my Catholic readers would be the Universalis Catholic Calendar. From the fine folks who brought you the Universalis web site, which gives you the Mass readings and Divine Office readings every day, the Catholic Calendar is a free app that tells you the feast or memorial of the day, and a brief biography of the saint or saints for the day. Apart from offering customization for the English-speaking country you live in, as well as any provincial peculiarities, that’s about it. Nice, but not earth-shattering.

However, if you’re willing to pony up $32.99, then you can get the full Universalis app, which gives you all the Mass readings, all the Liturgies of the Hours, all the Offices of Readings, everything! If you’ve ever seen the multi-volume breviary plus a daily Missal, then you know how compact this is. Plus, they do all the organizing of the different sections for you, so there’s no more page-flipping, back and forth, and no more rushing out to buy the little calendar update at the end of the year. While $33 may sound like a lot for an iPhone app, I may be working this into my budget in the future.

Helping me get things done

Another indispensable app on my iPod is Omnifocus. This is a companion to the desktop version of the productivity and task management software based on the principles of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book. Some reviewers have called it complex, but I’ve been able to fit it into my workflow. The nice thing about the iPod app is that it synchronizes with the desktop app over wifi, which means it happens on a regular schedule, not just when I connect the iPod’s cable.

Now, if I had an iPhone it would have another amazing ability: location-awareness. One of the principles of GTD is that when you record your “next-actions”, you put them in a context, which is the place or situation you need to do them. For example, office, home, grocery store, client A, client B, and so on. The theory is that when you’re in a particular context you can do all the appropriate next-actions, regardless of the project they’re attached to. Since the iPhone has a built-in GPS, it knows where you are. You can imagine the possibilities for that! Imagine going into the grocery store and Omnifocus presenting you with your grocery list. Or you’re at the mall, and it shows you the five items you needed in three different stores. Or you go to your doctor’s office for a check-up and it presents a list of all the questions you’ve been meaning to ask him.

While the iPod touch doesn’t have GPS, Apple’s iPhone OS can triangulate location based on known Wifi hotspots as well. It does pretty well for my home and office so that’s nice. Plus, I can now record new tasks and projects right into my Omnifocus as they occur to me; I don’t have to be sitting at my computer.

Another “like magic” set of apps are those that provide streaming music. While iPods have always let you carry your music around with you, now with an Internet connection (always-on for iPhones or when around WiFi networks for iPod touches) you can get streaming music from a variety of sources. The free Pandora Radio connects you to the excellent Pandora web application that plays music for you based on how you train it regarding your likes and dislikes. The iPhone app will play that same music for you without requiring a computer. Who needs a radio?

Streaming music

And if you want to hear the music you’ve already purchased on CD or via online music stores, there’s the awesome Simplify Media (also free). First, you download the free desktop client from the Simplify Media site (available for Mac, PC, and Linux). Then you launch it, create a free account, and point it at your iTunes software. Then on the iPhone/iPod launch the client and enter your account info and your entire iTunes library appears. This is great for me since I only have an 8GB iPod, while my music library is over 31GB. Now, when I’m near an open WiFi hotspot, I can listen to anything in my library, not just what I’ve fit on the iPod.

I haven’t even touched on Simplify Media’s other function, which is that it will let you listen to streaming iTunes music from up to 30 of your friends as well!

I could go on and on—I haven’t even touched on the fun, little games to keep me occupied, for example, while waiting in line—but you get the idea. What the new iPhone and iPod capabilities show is that this is no mere PDA or smartphone, but a whole, new computer platform that opens up a whole world of possibilities. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

More and more Protestants are turning to natural family planning not just for medical reasons, but also for spiritual reasons. While some are using NFP as a form of contraception, as opposed to the Catholic sense of the openness to life, most of the Protestants interviewed for the article in the Austin American-Statesman say they’ve rejected artificial contraception because they believe it doesn’t show complete trust in God and they’d rather work with the way God created women’s fertility, rather than impose upon it.

It is gratifying to see that the reporter did her homework and got most of the Catholic teaching right, and did at least as well as any other secular story I’ve read. Not perfect, but not bad either.

Natural family planning is frequently dismissed by Protestants as an outmoded Catholic practice that most Catholics don’t even follow anymore. But 40 years after Pope Paul VI released Humanae Vitae, the document outlining the church’s position on marital sex and procreation, the method and the theology behind it are earning respect among some young Protestants, according to Christian scholars.

The 1968 papal encyclical explains the church’s interpretation of the moral and natural laws, which includes a prohibition against artificial contraception but allows couples who want to plan their children to “take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse … during those times that are infertile.”

This approach, for years known as the rhythm method because it relied on a calendar to track a woman’s ovulation based on past cycles, underwent improvements over the years, becoming a more reliable system known as natural family planning.

In seeking balance in the story, the reporter also found a Protestant couple who had tried NFP, but then gave up on it, although I found the reasoning to be curious.

Though the book said that natural family planning only involved a short period of abstinence, the couple wrote that they didn’t know that during breast-feeding cycles it often involves month-long periods of abstinence and what they called intense stress. “During such times (as well as during menopause and stressful life seasons), strict NFP reaches a point where it is more harmful for a marriage than good,” they wrote.

I was baffled by the reference to a month-long periods of abstinence during breastfeeding, especially since we know that if your child is exclusively nursing, the mom’s fertility does not return for some months. Yes, we learned that breastfeeding does throw off the usual charting method, but Melanie took a supplemental class that taught a way to compensate. (Frankly, we just wing it anyway, which is probably why Melanie gets pregnant almost as soon as fertility returns.)

Of course, Melanie points out to me that the Archdiocese of Boston’s Family Life Office actually created its own curriculum for teaching NFP and that it’s exceptionally complete, whereas much of what’s out there is not as good. I suppose that there might be others teaching NFP who won’t go into the more complex charting during breastfeeding and just cop out with a blanket abstention.

In any case, it’s gratifying to see Protestants re-discovering more of their Catholic patrimony. I’ve seen anecdotal evidence in recent years of Protestants re-discovering devotion to Mary and the Rosary; the importance of Lent and Advent and Ash Wednesday; the value of rituals and ceremonies; and the Catholic teaching on human sexuality and the dignity of life.

Example chart from Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University.

Today marks the launch of yet another George Lucas Star Wars film, this time an animated feature called Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and I’m disappointed to say that most of the reviews I’ve seen, from both professional film critics and average Joes, report that the Star Wars dynasty has sunk yet another step. One such negative review comes from TJ who recounts the decline of the Star Wars brand over time. (Warning: Strong language and a minor spoiler. And I don’t buy into everything he writes, but then I haven’t see the latest movie yet.)

TJ points out what was so good about Star Wars: A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, compared to the other four (and now, five) movies in the saga. What was wrong with the Prequels, he posits, is that they were written for six-year-olds, as witnessed by the silly droid army which was given lines like “Roger, roger,” not to mention, Jar-Jar Binks, the most hated sci-fi character since Wesley Crusher strode the bridge of the Enterprise.

And what did Lucas did well in his movies? Battle scenes.

The good parts of the second-trilogy is quite simply the battle scenes. Lucas does them well. It’s why the Death Star invasion at the end of the 1977 movie was so good, why the Hoth battle and Luke-vs-Vader in Empire was so good, and why the best parts of ROTJ were the battle scenes.

In the second-trilogy, we get a multitude of light-saber battles, including Darth Maul, whose lightsaber battle with Qui Gon and Obi-Wan is by far the best part of The Phantom Menace, and why the Jedi battles are the best parts of the next two.

And yet, I think there’s something more that made Star Wars so good. Something that made that aforementioned lightsaber duel in The Phantom Menace so thrilling: John Williams’ score. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Star Wars without the rising crescendo. Go to the StarWars.com site and listen to it and tell me it doesn’t bring it all back. When I first saw Star Wars in 1977 as a 9-year-old boy, all I could articulate as we drove away from theater and I tried to process what I’d just experienced was the (inaccurate) statement: “I love classical music,” (by which I meant, orchestral music, of course. Cut me some slack; I was nine.)

It was the music that defined the sensory experience more than anything. What was the defining emotional moment in The Phantom Menace? That battle between Darth Maul and the Jedi, but it was Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” that got your heart pumping and brought all your senses to bear.

And if you think about it, John Williams’ music has probably done more to define the great cinematic experiences of the past forty years than any one individual. When you look at the the most popular and the highest-grossing movies in that time period, you consistently see one name attached to all of them: Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter.

When he wasn’t composing the scores, Williams was there as the unseen influence on the composers’ shoulder. You can hear echoes of Williams’ work in movies like The Lord of the Rings (James Horner Howard Shore), Titanic (James Horner), the Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on.

I wonder if, hundreds of years from now as historians look back, they will see this as the John Williams era as far as the performing arts go: movies and TV. Perhaps he and Steven Spielberg will be held up as the exemplars of the coming of age of the motion picture arts. I hope so.

But I also wish there was more appreciation of the man and his influence on the cinema today. I’m surprised I don’t see this discussed more often in fact.

Photo of John Williams used under Creative Commons license via Wikimedia. Poster art from StarWars.com.

Catholic World News is dead. Long live Catholic World News… as the all new Catholic Culture project! A couple of years ago Trinity Communications, the company behind Catholic Culture—and longtime provider of CWN’s technical infrastructure—purchased Catholic World News from Philip Lawler, editor and publisher. And now, they’re taking CWN to the next level by incorporating it into Catholic Culture.

This has particular significance for me since I was there at the beginning of CWN and worked alongside Phil for 9 years. I even created the first iteration of CWN’s web site back in 1997! But now CWN is no more, except as a header for a section on the Catholic Culture site.

But that’s okay, because the new Catholic Culture site is great! Phil and Trinity have taken the best part of CWN—the insightful and knowledgeable commentary—and expanded it while preserving the parts no one else was doing as well, including breaking Catholic news and providing links to the breadth and depth of coverage of issues and news of interest to Catholics.

Under the News section are Feature Stories, which is the original reporting CWN is known for, and NewsPlus Stories (the old “NewsBytes”), now with added commentary to give context for other media outlets’ coverage. Under Commentary, you’ll find commentary and analysis by Phil, Jeff Mirus, and others; the Catholic Culture blog, where Phil and Jeff write brief bits; Off the Record, where our old friend Diogenes continues to hold court; Catholic Culture Insights, the archives of Jeff’s weekly email newsletter; Letters to the Editor; and Sound Off, which is the combox for the various articles. The Culture section holds most of what was the old Catholic Culture site, including reviews, information on the liturgical year, the text of the Catechism, the Catholic dictionary, and so on. Best of all there are a bunch of new RSS feeds for keeping track of all this great information.

Keep in mind that the site is still in beta, so there will be occasional glitches, but I’m excited by the promise we see here. Oh, and did I mention that the former pay service is now free, although they are now donor supported. Which means you better feel a moral obligation to support this excellent apostolate if you receive benefit from it, just as much as you would if it were still a mandatory subscription.

I’m happy to see CWN grow and expand into a whole new and promising form of Catholic news and analysis site. Bravo to Phil, Jeff, Peter, and the whole gang at Trinity!

Looks like Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, is finally getting some perspective on his life after the personal and professional turmoil of the last couple of years. He tells Esquire that his value in the eyes of God is not as a quarterback.

Look at the attention I get: It’s because I throw a football. But that’s what society values. That’s not what God values,” Brady said. “He didn’t invent the game. We did. I have some eye-hand coordination, and I can throw the ball. I don’t think that matters to God.”

Incidentally, Brady’s dad is a Catholic deacon. I met him a couple of years ago when he spoke at Proud2BCatholic. Nice guy dealing firsthand with a son whose fame comes with a price.

Anyway, I hope Brady Jr. continues on his spiritual journey.

Yesterday was the Proud2BCatholic Family Festival, the eighth annual one, and it was lots of fun as usual. And as usual I was grateful to meet several of you there, both and new and old faces (Not that I’m calling any of you “old” old, if you know what I mean.) Melanie has a lot more to write about the day, but I wanted to pull out one it that deserves special attention, because it engendered some thoughts and conversation. What she describes occurred during Communion at Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Sean O’Malley from the main stage, overlooking the field of people gathered.

After communion I’m kneeling, cradling my now awake but still drowsy baby, when I notice a slight commotion in the communion line nearest me. A mother has just received and turns back to her daughter who stands before the priest. They were the last two people in that line. The little girl stands several feet back from the priest, her hands pressed to the sides of her face— like Munch’s painting of The Scream— fearful. As I watch, I begin to suspect she has Down syndrome. She stand there, trembling, yearning. Her eyes pool with tears and her whole body seems filled with conflict. Afraid to approach and yet unable to turn away. Her mother beckons. The priest takes a hesitant step forward, hand outstretched in welcome, benediction. The girl jumps back like a nervous cat, startled, stumbling, afraid. And yet she stares so longingly. They remain in tension. The priest moves again, the girl tries to move and can’t, tearful, fearful. Finally, the mother turns and begins to walk away and after another moment the priest lifts his hand, blesses her with the sign of the cross, and then also turns, reluctant but acknowledging the impasse. And the girl crumbles to the ground in abject anguish as her mother rushes to console her. Tears roll down my face and my heart yearns toward her, praying. She stumbles away, cradled in her mother’s arms. Tears. Anguish. Raw.

Later Dom articulates what my heart understood but my mind couldn’t quite grasp: In her you could see what we all should be at this moment— the fear and awe of the presence of God that made it impossible for her to approach, the hunger that made it impossible for her to leave. She seemed to see, more clearly than any of us, Him Who is Present there.

There was something about the reaction of this girl with Down syndrome that really struck home. It was as if she saw clearly the reality that we see only darkly. If we only saw as truly Who we are approaching in the Eucharist, maybe we would stand frozen in awe too. And yet something in us would draw us forward, unable to resist His Presence and His call, His offer of a divine intimacy. Something to meditate on.

In the breezy, hip style of travel shows on PBS and the Travel Channel, a new Catholic DVD series, The Faithful Traveler, takes you on a visit to Catholic shrines and places of pilgrimage. Well, so far they take you to the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Philadelphia, but they promise to introduce us to more. (They also have video about St. Katharine Drexel Shrine and the National Shrines of St. Rita of Cascia, also in the Philly area, in the works.)

The show is edited, written, and hosted by Diana von Glahn—an attractive and engaging young woman—and directed and shot by her husband David. (I’d compliment him too, but he never appears on-screen.) With Diana’s youth and energy complemented by a soundtrack of both contemporary Catholic music and classic chant, the DVD is an interesting and engaging introduction to a treasure of devotion and Catholic art in our own backyard. In fact, the United States is overflowing with such shrines and pilgrimage sites. Here in the Archdiocese of Boston, there’s at least a half-dozen, probably more, all beautiful locations where you can pray in peace and experience natural and man-made beauty.

I’ve seen guidebooks to America’s Catholic holy places, but a video is much more interesting, because it reveals a lot more than a couple of pages and tiny photos in a book. And it would only be good for more Catholics to discover shrines and visit them.

For the moment, if you’re in Philadelphia, plan to visit, or just want to learn more about some Catholic shrines and devotions (great for families!), check our their site and DVDs.You’ll find that they’re not just travelogues because they take the time to inform you of the saints and devotions behind the shrines themselves.

Incidentally, a nice feature of their site is the “Locations” page, an interactive map of the US that gives you links and information about Catholic shrines throughout the country. Nice.

My friend Steve Colella, co-director of the Office for the New Evangelization of Youth and Young Adults of the Archdiocese of Boston, led a major part of the pilgrimage from Boston to Sydney, Australia, for World Youth Day. Part of the celebration of WYD was the unprecedented journey of the relics of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati from Turin, Italy, to Sydney. Frassati was a patron of WYD and the promoters of his cause and Australian WYD organizers wanted to bring him there so pilgrims could venerate and pray for his intercession.

So Steve went to the church where the relics were placed and took some very nice photos of the exhibition, which gives a brief glimpse of his life and thoughts and deeds, as well as the place of veneration and his casket.

I really wish I could have been there, even just for that experience. Wow.

Attention all New England Catholics! We’re one week away, August 9, from the 2008 Proud2BCatholic Music Festival. This year it’s not just the eighth annual event, but also the ‘official Youth event for the Bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston.

This is a fun all-day event, centrally located in Framingham, Massachusetts, just off the Mass. Turnpike at the Marist Center, which is run by the Marist Fathers order. Cardinal Sean O’Malley will be celebrating Mass. The musicians include Tony Melendez, Martin Doman, Kelly Pease, Zealou, and others. There’s Adoration all-day, as well as Confession; an International food court; talks by speakers for the whole family; folks selling all kinds of cool Catholic stuff.

Tickets this year are a reduced price of $15 and children under 12 are free with adult admission. Religious and clergy get in free.

My brother-in-law Pete Campbell is the organizer, visionary, and driving force behind these events and every year it’s a great time that all too few people take advantage of. Really, what are you doing next weekend that’s better than hanging out with your family, with friends, with hundreds of other excited Catholics, sitting in a beautiful field under sunny skies (we pray!), listening to music, and then worshipping God in the Eucharist with Cardinal O’Malley. Come on!

And if you do plan on going, look for me or drop me an email and we’ll get together and say Hi. I love seeing you guys there every year.

What’s an old Catholic church in Flatbush, New York, to do when summer heat bakes the old stone, un-air-conditioned building? Of course, they turn to a Big Ass Fan. No, really that’s what it’s called.

A Kentucky company with a wicked name - Big Ass Fans - is putting one of its industrial-sized machines in an unlikely place: a Brooklyn Catholic church.

The nearly century-old Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush, where the congregation dwindles every summer because of scorching heat, plans to install the 240-pound fan next weekend.

“Oh my gosh!” church business administrator Judy Agard said. “We might have to change the name. It’s a church!”

I also like the name of the parish: Our Lady of Refuge. Now with the B.A.F., that’s what this church will be: a refuge from the heat. The fan has a 24-foot diameter and 10 steel blades—now inscribed with the autographs of the donors who ponied up the $7,500 to install it.

“The name of the company isn’t something that you’d want to put in print, but I had to laugh - it is a big-ass fan,” said Ronald Holder, a parishioner since 1980 who helped spearhead a fund-raising bid that began last year.

Big Ass Fans director of sales Paul Lauritzen said that since 1999 the company has installed its large fans at about 50 churches nationwide, insisting the name has not yet offended the churchgoing public.

Frankly, I wish our parish had a B.A.F. in it. Here in New England, you don’t find many air-conditioned churches either and it can get stifling.

Some time ago I responded to an email offer to bloggers from a group called Lighthouse Catholic Media. They sell CDs containing talks from noted Catholic speakers and to expand their business they were offering a portion of sales to bloggers who placed LCM ads on their blogs. I did so because I thought it would be a win-win: readers get good Catholic content and I get financial support for the blog. Unfortunately, that financial support never materialized—I don’t think I got a single affiliate payment—and then the other side of LCM became apparent.

Lighthouse Catholic Media operates like a multi-level marketing scheme that just won’t let go. They send a constant stream of emails with strategies for selling and how to increase sales and how to market to all your friends and neighbors and fellow parishioners and pastor, etc. There are constant invitations to regional call-in sales meetings and state call-in sales meetings and local call-in sales meetings. It’s like “Glen Garry Glen Ross” without the cursing.

And no matter how many times I’ve asked them to stop emailing me, how many times I’ve politely informed them that I no longer wish to take part, no matter how many times I’ve firmly ordered them to stop or I will report them to their Internet Service Provider as a spammer, they. Won’t. Stop. Emailing. Me!

So they’ve asked for it. I’m now exposing them as the slimy Internet spammers they are who seem to be more interested in the number of sales they can make and how much money they can earn over the content of their “Catholic” CDs. Their attitude clearly shows they could just as easily be peddling real estate CDs or little cans of SPAM for all their attention they give to, you know, the Gospel.

My advice: Stay away from Lighthouse “Catholic” Media. they are a sleazy outfit I would not trust with my credit card and would not enrich in any way.

I received several good comments in response to my inquiry about the hypothetical instance of invalid and valid consecrations by concelebrants at the same Mass. This response was too long for the combox, but is of such detail and is so worthwhile that I’m posting here with the permission of its author, who asked to remain anonymous. I think I can reveal that this contributor has done advanced studies in theological areas:

At the very least, I think we have to say that a Mass in which principal celebrant says the wrong words of consecration is of doubtful validity. The Holy See has never issued a responsium ad dubium to this question but I would tend to lean toward the idea that the Mass is not valid in the case you mention for the following reasons.

The concelebrants do not hold the species. The principal celebrant does. It’s his hands that are holding the species and connecting his words to the species in his hands.

First, we must remember that there is a distinction between the sacrament and the sacrifice of the Mass-—the sacrament is the Real Presence in the elements, the sacrifice the offering of Christ to the Father. Traditionally, the sacrifice is effected/consummated when the celebrant receives both species. Hence, a priest who consecrates both species but receives only one has validly confected the sacrament but has not consummated the sacrifice (and while this does not invalidate the sacrament itself, it does invalidate the Mass and the priest should not receive a stipend for it). The same is true if a priest consecrates one species but unintentionally not the other (e.g., speaking the words of consecration of the bread over both species). The properly consecrated species is validly confected, even if the other is not-—although now the sacrifice is not complete until the other species is confected and received by the priest. In the Middle Ages, there were questions of what to do when a priest dies in between consecrations. Universally, the answer was always that another priest should finish with the rest of Mass so that the sacrifice may be completed. The importance of this point is not to be underestimated. The Code of Canon Law Canon 927 says explicitly, “It is absolutely forbidden, in even extreme necessity, to consecrate one matter without the other or even both outside the Eucharistic celebration.” The Latin here for “absolutely forbidden” is actually nefas, which has no proper English translation but is an ancient word which is related to something like “against the divine will.” It’s used only six times in the Code, and this is one of them. Though the Canon does not mention the validity of such a consecration, the importance of the sacrifice is highlighted here.

The celebrant must hold the sacred species

Read the rest of the blog entry...

During daily Mass today, the priest in his homily said that since we’re all one big happy family, we should hug one another during the Sign of Peace. For my part I said to my buddy sitting next to me, “Don’t even think about it.”

Yes, I hear all the time how stiff and frozen we New England, European-heritage Catholics are, especially compared to our Hispanic brethren. Hey, I thought we were all about cultural diversity. Well, in my culture we don’t get all huggy with strangers and mere acquaintances. At least, I don’t.

I have several reasons for my stance. For one thing, this was a Mass at my workplace in the new Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. Even though this is a religious celebration, I think it would be inappropriate for me to start hugging my co-workers. Second, while the people to my left and right were men—in which case a biff to the shoulder is as close to a hug as they’ll get from me—in front and behind me were women, including three much younger, unmarried women.

Maybe I’m old fashioned or just over-sensitive, but out of respect for my wife, as a policy with rare exceptions, I don’t hug women outside my family, especially younger unmarried women. (One exception was last Friday when one of my long-time temps left us. She wanted to give me a hug in thanks and goodbye and I agreed since it was her last day and it seemed to be the thing to do at the moment.) It seems to me that a hug is just too intimate to be shared with just anyone, only one step removed from a kiss. You may say I’m being silly, but I say that it’s a partially a byproduct of an oversexualized culture and partially my own desire to make hugging more than just a fleeting fancy.

Maybe I’m old fashioned or just over-sensitive, but out of respect for my wife ... I don’t hug women outside my family.

Several years ago I volunteered in my parish’s youth ministry program and the youth minister, an old friend, insisted that the adult volunteers should be giving all the kids hugs whenever we see them because they don’t normally feel the love from the Church. (Suffice to say that this was pre-2002.) I flatly refused because that just seemed like he was asking for problems. Sure enough, the program’s decline started about the time one of the volunteers was revealed as showing too much interest in one of the kids. Nothing illegal, immoral, or even unethical, just … inappropriate.

Now, if you’re one of those affectionate people who likes to hug everyone you meet, that’s fine for you. But keep in mind that there are those of us out there who don’t feel the same way, so please don’t get offended. It’s just not my culture and cultural differences aren’t bad. They’re just different.

Photo credit: Kalandrakas on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

Here’s a quick liturgy question. If two priests are concelebrating Mass and the principal concelebrant messes with the words of consecration to such an extent as to render the Mass invalid normally, but the co-celebrant uses the correct formulation, is the Mass still invalid? And what does the person in the pew do if he’s sure of what the principal celebrant said, but not sure what the co-celebrant said?

This is theoretical, but relevant I think.