7 Quick Takes

February 26, 2021 by Amy Welborn

— 1 —

Took a quick trip out west this past week, starting a week ago today and returning Wednesday. A summary is here, and then click back for daily reports. I haven’t gathered them all in one space yet. Will do that this weekend.

— 2 —

That’s it for travel for a while. School will be ramping up, there are …for the first time in two years, piano recitals coming up, church music work, etc. We’ll head to Charleston after Easter, but that’s it, unless we can squeeze in some local trips, which I hope to do.

— 3 —

Aside from the pleasures and pains of travel, my focus this week was on the Equality Act. A post here, but I did want to share with you what I thought was the best speech on the floor of the House, from Indiana Representative Victoria Spartz. If you want a quick intro to the problems with this bill, you can’t do much better than this. Less than four minutes, and she just about covers it all.

— 4 —

I was in Living Faith this past week. Go here for that.

— 5 —

Nina Shea on the totally predictable disaster of the Vatican-China deal.

In November, shortly after exchanging diplomatic notes verbales with Rome to renew the deal for another two years, China thoroughly negated it in a dry public posting by the state bureaucracy. Order No. 15, on new administrative rules for religious affairs, includes an article on establishing a process for the selection of Catholic bishops in China after May 1. The document makes no provision for any papal role in the process, not even a papal right to approve or veto episcopal appointments in China, which was supposed to be the single substantive concession to the Vatican in the agreement. It’s as if the deal never happened….
…
Significantly, the new rules require the clergy to “adhere to the principle of independent and self-administered religion in China.” This language tracks with a longstanding clause in the membership pledge of the so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church (CPCC), which bishops and priests are required to sign to be licensed for ministry. It means, in practical terms, that Chinese clergy must be actually independent of the Vatican and, therefore, must be apostates. In 2019, the Vatican suggested guidelines, outside the agreement’s framework, for rejecting the clause. Father Huang Jintong, a priest in Fujian, was held by police and tortured for four days for following the Vatican guidance.
The new rules stipulate that CPCC-aligned clergy actively support the ruling Communist Party. Article 3 requires them to “support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party” and “the socialist system,” as well as to “practice the core values of socialism.” The rules also require clergy to promote “social harmony,” by which Beijing means conformity of thought. In other words, the rules aim to turn churches into another arm of the authoritarian Chinese regime.

— 6 —

It’s Friday, so you’re abstaining, maybe fasting and generally Lent-ing. Looking for some reading on fasting, trying to understand it at a deeper level? Here are links to posts I’ve written in the past, drawing on the wisdom of the saints.

— 7 —

This Sunday’s Gospel will be the Transfiguration.

From The Loyola Kids Book of Bible Stories.

(What is below is the end of the story. The structure of every story is the same – a retelling, then an specifically Catholic application, Scriptural references, a reflection prompt and a prayer.)