{"id":18777,"date":"2024-06-16T18:18:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T00:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=18777"},"modified":"2024-06-16T18:18:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T00:18:48","slug":"is-cardinal-cupich-a-prayer-denialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2024\/06\/is-cardinal-cupich-a-prayer-denialist.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Cardinal Cupich a “prayer-denialist”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
A term I just coined, of course.<\/p>\n
But the Catholic Church has, for millennia, in fact, believed that to pray is to do something good for others, not just a form of personal entertainment such as reading a novel, nor a means to an end like taking classes to get a promotion.<\/p>\n
That belief has been fundamental to the very idea of monastic life.\u00a0 Yes, monks \u201csaved civilization\u201d through the scriptoria, and in American history actual cloistered religious life was less common for women than the sisters who staffed schools for generations.\u00a0 Modern day monks sell caskets or specialty coffee.\u00a0 But the caskets and coffee and asks for donations are meant to support the monks in their \u201cwork\u201d of prayer, they aren\u2019t simply so that we outsiders can enable men (or women) to pursue their hobby.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the equivalent of supporting an Olympic hopeful in their training so that they can dedicate themselves to it rather than working.<\/p>\n
And, to be clear, perhaps you, dear reader, may not believe that.\u00a0 But it is what the Catholic Church teaches.<\/p>\n
Or, perhaps it is better to switch that to the past tense:\u00a0 what the Catholic Church taught.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s not so clear to me whether our leaders, at least in the US, believe that any longer.\u00a0 At least, judging from the \u201cEucharistic Revival\u201d and, in particular, Cardinal Cupich\u2019s statements, they reject the value of Eucharistic Adoration (which is, of course, a form of prayer) except as a tool, a means to an end, a mechanism of inspiring people to go out and, well, not \u201cpreach the gospel,\u201d because this is also verboten<\/em>, but to go out and do good deeds.\u00a0 Therefore, prayer is acceptable, but only to the extent necessary to inspire those charitable deeds \u2014 anything more is a waste of time that should be spent on those charitable deeds.\u00a0 (Or maybe, since the charitable deeds most of us can do is fairly limited, we should be spending our prayer-time working more to earn more to give to charity, or maybe phone banking for approved anti-poverty candidates or agendas.\u00a0 It\u2019s not entirely clear what the logic is.)<\/p>\n
Am I being uncharitable to Cupich?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s first take a look at the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.\u00a0 Up just north of the Archdiocese of Chicago, in southeastern Wisconsin, there is an actual pilgrimage.\u00a0 People walking from one church to another.\u00a0 \u00a0It may be that portions of the route are by car, but as far as I can tell, they are keeping with the idea of a pilgrimage as much as is feasible.<\/p>\n
The schedule is available at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website<\/a>:<\/p>\n
On Day 1, the procession arrives in the archdiocese and there is a Holy Hour and an overnight adoration.<\/p>\n
On Day 2, there are 14 miles of walking procession mixed with some intermediate driving, and stops at 6 parishes.<\/p>\n
Day 3 includes 8 miles of walking procession, with stops at 5 parishes and two other sites.<\/p>\n
Day 4:\u00a0 11 miles of procession, 12 parishes, 3 Marian shrines, and a convent.<\/p>\n
Days 5 & 6:\u00a0 4\/7 miles of procession and various Milwaukee stops.<\/p>\n
Day 7:\u00a0 9 miles, 10 stops.<\/p>\n
Day 8:\u00a0 11 miles, 9 stops.<\/p>\n
Day 9:\u00a0 5 miles, 5 stops, ending with a drive to Mundelein Seminary in northern Illinois\/the north part of the Archdiocese of Chicago.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n
In contrast, here is the schedule for Chicago<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Day 1:\u00a0 the \u201cpilgrimage\u201d stays entirely onsite at the seminary, with a three-hour event consisting of mass, adoration, a onsite procession and testimonies by the pilgrims.\u00a0 This is labelled as being \u201cfor youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day 2:\u00a0 an event apparently again entirely onsite, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.\u00a0 There are no further details at the official Archdiocese website nor even a link to the website with the schedule<\/a>, which indicates that the \u201cprocession\u201d element of the event is an hour, at most (depending on whether \u201cPrayer of the Holy Rosary with Procession\u201d is a rosary said while processing or a rosary, then a procession), and silent adoration is scheduled for a whopping one hour.\u00a0 Ironically, the designated petition for the hour of \u201cAdoration with the Prayer of the Holy Rosary\u201d is \u201cFor the Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Chicago,\u201d but it appears that organizers are pretty fearful of Chicagoans seeing any of these events.<\/p>\n
Day 3:\u00a0 the activities scheduled on Day 3 are intended for specific racial\/ethnic groups:\u00a0 Asian Catholics, Black Catholics, Hispanic Catholics, and Polish Catholics.\u00a0 Not one of these groups?\u00a0 You\u2019re out of luck.\u00a0 This day isn\u2019t for you.\u00a0 And only one of these racial\/ethnic groups has a Eucharistic procession anyway, and three of the four events are only in the evening or 2 \u2013 2.5 hours anyway (though to be fair there seems to be some poor editing as there are two different schedules listed for the Poles.\u00a0 Also, there is another event specifically for young adults, again in the evening, this time for 3.5 hours, though again it takes some further digging to find more info, this time finding in the bulletin<\/a> that there are 45 minutes blocked for a candlelit procession.<\/p>\n
Day 4 is slated as a \u201cDay of Service.\u201d\u00a0 One parish has \u201ca carnival and more,\u201d another \u201ca block party with food, fun and games.\u201d\u00a0 A Little Sisters of the Poor home is hosting an event, and people are invited to make cards at the Kolbe House Jail Ministry.\u00a0 \u00a0Others seem to be hosting actual adoration, or have at least added themselves to the \u201cevents\u201d list to feature their ongoing adoration chapels.\u00a0 And each of the six vicarates has a mass, with some, but not all, listing as well, as one of the spots says, \u201cAdoration and\/or Eucharistic Procession.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Day 5 includes a mass at the Syro-Malabar community and a mass with Cardinal Cupich, with \u201ca Eucharistic procession around the campus of Holy Name Cathedral.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honestly, this is really sad to me.\u00a0 Rather than processions in the community, which are a part of our heritage as Catholics and which are a beautiful way of affirming our faith and bearing witness publically, Cupich is putting the Catholic light under a bushel, with processions merely around the church or on closed of sites such as the seminary and the Shrine.<\/p>\n
And after reading this, I recalled something I had come across a while ago, and dug it up again, from The Pillar:\u00a0 \u201cEucharistic pilgrimage expected to \u2018restrict\u2019 adoration in Chicago archdiocese<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n
Church officials close to the pilgrimage, who were not authorized to speak on the record, described Cardinal Cupich as \u201copposed\u201d to the Eucharistic pilgrimages \u2014 saying the cardinal has raised objections among bishops about the way the walking pilgrimages might be perceived.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to understand,\u201d one official told The Pillar, \u201che\u2019s reluctant to have this whole affair parading down the middle of his diocese.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n
Along with other bishops, the cardinal has instead argued that current plans for the Eucharistic Revival focus too much on adoration and Eucharistic piety, and, for that reason could diminish a Eucharistic theology emphasizing the communal nature of Christian worship in the Mass.<\/p>\n
The cardinal has written prolifically in recent years to propose his own vision for the Eucharistic Revival \u2014 and expressed concern about the role of Eucharistic adoration in the Eucharistic Revival project. . . .<\/p>\n
Absent proper catechesis, he warned, \u201cEucharistic adoration can privatize one\u2019s relationship to the sacrament and to the Lord himself, overlooking the communitarian dimension of Eucharistic worship, and our responsibility to engage with our community in an active way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cupich has argued that the Church aims to see adoration take place in public liturgical events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe liturgical books that offer the pathway for adoration assume a community context \u2014 proclamation of the Word of God, perhaps some music, and a common gathering of the faithful for adoration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Absent that context is the prospect for excessive individualism, the cardinal argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the prayer associated with adoration can and should be personal, it cannot be merely private and authentically Eucharistic at the same time,\u201d he wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Am I reading between the lines too much here?\u00a0 After all, which does Cupich mean by \u201cexcessive individualism\u201d?\u00a0 To be honest, I am also relying on my memory here, that Cupich has emphasized the importance of service projects as more important than prayer, though I am coming up empty when I now try to find the statements that I remember in my head.<\/p>\n
But I find it deeply sad.\u00a0 Fundamentally, Cupich\u2019s actions are a matter of \u201ceating the seed corn,\u201d using the resources of the Archdiocese for his social justice projects rather than to pass on the Catholic faith to a new generation, which simply has to be the top priority and cannot be a source of embarrassment or shame.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
image public domain from pixabay<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A term I just coined, of course. But the Catholic Church has, for millennia, in fact, believed that to pray is to do something good for others, not just a form of personal entertainment such as reading a novel, nor a means to an end like taking classes to get a promotion. That belief has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,1156,1494],"class_list":["post-18777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archbishop-cupich","tag-cupich","tag-eucharist"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Cardinal Cupich a "prayer-denialist"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A term I just coined, of course. 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