The bishops assembled in Baltimore have just posted their major pronouncements on the Eucharist, contraception, and homosexuality, and I must say the first one leaves me downright gleeful.
"Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper" is the unwieldy title of a twenty-page document on the Eucharist. It is superb and, as one poster on Amy Welborn’s site remarked, ought to be mandatory reading for American Catholics. You won’t find Mick-like sophistry about "other presences," nor will you have need for bifocals to make your way through fuzzy doctrinal content. The bishops have written a measured, well-organized, and precise statement on the centrality of Holy Communion in the life of the Church.
…Its two flaws concern bars to worthiness (they should have mentioned contraception, given its prevalence) and the topic of scandal (everyone knows the bishops are talking about politicians who negotiate the "non negotiables," so why not say it?).
Regardless, I’d be tempted to high-five my pastor after Mass were he to review its contents in a forthcoming homily.
I totally agree with Rich Leonardi, except for the two flaws this is a very good document.
I do hate PDF formatted documents and this one was worse than usual since it is double spaced with plenty of footnotes in the text. I have converted it to html and formatted it to look nice and it is available here. I also moved the footnotes to the bottom of the document and hyper linked them. I spent much more time doing this than I had expected, but I do believe the results are worthwhile.
12 comments
Do we really need the bishops to tell us what the Catholic Church has taught us for centuries.Just read The Catechism of the Council of Trent,or ask any child who was educated with the Baltimore Catechism
Its like copying The Declaration of Independence and reading it at a colonial battle reenactment convention
What the bishops should be making prononcments about is reinstating the teaching of Latin into seminarys,in preparation for the demand after The Motu Proprio,as well as a document on straightening out disenters to The magisterium amongst their own.Their Excellencys Bishop’s,Burke,Bruskewitcz,and Vigneron excepted.
In (partial) defence of the current translation: beatus can be translated as “happy”, as well as “blessed”. While this can be debated, I think a case for “happy” can be made. For St. Thomas Aquinas, our highest end or goal is beatitudo perfecta, and this is often translated as “perfect happiness”. It consists in the beatific vision (note the same root) of God. The word “happiness” does have some theological and philosophical connotations – it is not mere feel good fuzziness. If we see happiness as our ultimate goal (reached finally in heaven), and the eucharist as the source and summit of our faith which leads us to heaven, then those called to the supper of the lamb should indeed be happy!
The omission of Agni (of the lamb) is absolutely indefensible though.
Aren’t you worried that the USCCB is going to crack down on you for copyright violation? 🙂
Very nice, indeed. Thank you. And when the USCCB’s Minister of Propaganda Control contacts you, you might want negotiate a compromise. If they let you post Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper you will promise not to post the New American Bible. A win-win! 😉
Thanks for the ‘attaboy, Jeff, and I like what you did with the document. And there are more than enough lawyers on St. Blog’s to lend you a legal hand if need be.
Having not read it as you did not give a link, but the title alone leaves me to question-why the title “Happy are those who are called to his supper” -As this is clearly an innovation of the Novus Ordo mass (please help me find this verse in the Traditional Latin Mass) as I have never heard it in or shall I say read it in my missal.
Happy are those…more of the Love Love Love lets join together for our “Communal Meal” garbage
John,
Most of the NAB is pretty much a tone deaf translation.
“Beati qui ad cenam Agni vocati sunt.” The accurate translation is, “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb.”
Which is much better and the replacement of Blessed with Happy is pretty much all through the NAB.
The link is in the post: http://www.splendoroftruth.com/HappyAreThoseWhoAreCalledtoHisSupper_doc.html
Footnote 38, which winks at, or possibly encourages, attendance at services with heretical or schismatic groups, I just don’t get. Surely the teaching of the Church hasn’t changed on these matters? Isn’t such an activity a violation of the first commandment?
I agree with Dan and Jeff
Why would one ever replaced Blessed with Happy? Happy?>One can be happy with a good pat on your back from the boss-but when one is “blessed”, well that is a different story as we know
There is something at work as it has been for the past 40 years to lower or at least deceive, to make the Eucharist appealing to Protestants so they can convert, and to keep us dumb Catholics still in the pews filling the coffers, which I have stopped doing
Actually, no lawyer who actually knows copyright law (and wants to keep her day job) will go near this with a ten foot pole. Now, others lawyers who *think* they know copyright law and live in St. Blogs and need to find more billable hours, I am sure would give their lawyering time to Jeff.
We all know Mr. Miller (and his St. Blogs lawyer friend) would like that to happen because, true to the blogosphere form, he would *looove* all this attention and “wow, ain’t the USCCB just aaawful” support he would get from all his St. Blogs fans.
The fact of the matter is this: A copyright holder has all rights to their work. Period. And the USCCB states this on its documents: �No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder.�
Miller (and his now more famous lawyer friend who has picked up a few more clients along the way) would lose but *wow* think of all the new readers Jeff would have with all the �attention� it would draw. Great way to keep focused on the issues, Jeff.
Jeff would just LOVE a fight with the USCCB. And so would many in his audience.
What a waste of time� and a distraction from the issues at hand.
-Katholic Kopyright Know-it-all
KKK,
Your attack is uncalled for, uncharitable and defamatory. No wonder you post it anonymously.
However, you are correct about copyright protection – and copyright protection is a good thing – even for the USCCB. That being said, the USCCB’s heavy handed approach is absurd from a Catholic perspective. The bishop’s job is to teach, if they choose to do so via written word, as they have, they shouldn’t hold the teaching so close to their chest. If they were serious about their role and their work they should be happy to have the faithful sharing and discussing their teaching. Their attitude seems absolutely contrary to their mission. Imagine St. Paul enforcing our copyright protection provisions for his works – it’s simply ludicrous. What’s more, and aggravatin, we do our duty and support our clergy so they are free to do God’s work – teach us and bring us the sacraments. Their work product (teaching) should be viewed as ours (Catholics) or at least freely available to us. Not that they shouldn’t protect the copyright in some fashion like the Vatican does, but it should be protected for us not from us.
So the gripe isn’t about copyright law at all, it’s about the mission of the Church, the roll of the bishops and how they operate.
As Stravinskas says, “People in mental asylums are ‘happy’.”
Beati means blessed.
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