Beautifully handled
Seeing “Tolton” at our parish in Portland last evening was a marvelous experience. “Tolton” tells the story of the rise of August Tolton from slavery to the priesthood. How could anyone, even St. Luke Productions, treat such a difficult topic so wonderfully? It was a magnificent, warm, happy evening, with much song and good humor, yet not leaving the U.S. Catholic Church of the late 1800s guiltless. It was both sobering and inspiring, a hymn of praise to the priesthood, a blow to racial prejudice and good counsel for the mothers of boys. In short, we liked it. Adult education people, get this to your parish!
Lee Gilbert
Milwaukee, Oregon
Mass and evangelization
The Archdiocesan Synod Small Groups are an opportunity to discuss Pope Francis’ motu proprio directive regarding Mass forms. A common understanding and commitment to magisterium of the Church is a Synod goal. Two of the three Synod focus topics are evangelization and youth and young adult formation. If the Church is to reach youth and the larger community, the Mass must be conducted in real time and in a common parlance that speaks to both new and re-engaged Catholics, and embraces the Novus Ordo as expressed in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal as the definitive Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis’ motu proprio has made it clear that to effectively evangelize youth and young adults, it is irrelevant to speak of the “ordinary” form or “extraordinary” form, but rather to present an active, living Church in which all worshipers are called to the table and invited to be disciples of Christ.
Ted May
St. Maximilian Kolbe, Delano
Latin Mass
(Re: “Mass change?” July 29) I truly dislike the thoughts of those who would return to pre-Vatican II to the Latin Mass and all that it represents. It is a return to a previous time when all seemed to be clear and beautifully peaceful: our childhood. As a recent Gospel stated, we should put aside the things of childhood when no longer a child. I lived through the changes, I had sung the wonderful old Latin Masses, mutely listened while paging through my two language missals while the priest singularly did his thing up on the altar with his back turned. But I loved being involved in English when the changes happened. Yet I do love going to an occasional Latin Mass and hearing that music: It is a visit to the past just as we like visiting a historic village, but would we want to live and work there? It is time to go forward, with an occasional glance backward so we don’t forget it.
Shirley Schoenbauer
St. Wenceslaus, New Prague
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