Monday, March 5, 2012

Rick Santorum , Catholic Wafers, and Grueling Eucharistic Adoration ( NYT)

Get Religion a somewhat good somewhat bad article the New York Times did on Rick Santorum and his Catholic Faith. See Santorum is a “wafer” madness believer!.

I agree that one of the nails on the chalkboard moments was the "wafer" bit. I am never sure if this is intentional or just ignorance that so many journalist push the "wafer" button. But I do agree for many readers of a strong Eucharistic Faith they might not get that part of the story to notice anything else.

On the Eucharist again I found this somewhat bizarre and amusing:

The parish is known for its Washington luminaries — Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court is a member — as well as its spiritual ardor. Mass is offered in Latin every Sunday at noon — most parishes have Mass only in English — and each Wednesday parishioners take turns praying nonstop for 24 hours before a consecrated communion wafer, a demanding practice known as Eucharistic adoration.

Demanding? Well I guess it would be demanding if one person did actually pray in the Host for 24 hours straight. Eucharistic adoration is not a bizarre or unheard thing .

There seems to be a lapse in the practice somewhat after Vatican II but really has made a sustained comeback since the late 80's.

In my State in the Archdiocese of New Orleans for instance we see here there is PERPETUAL ADORATION "24 hours a day, seven days a week" in 18 places in the Archdiocese.

Plus many many more that have weekly Adoration for many many hours once or more during the week.

In the Diocese where Rick Santorum resides there are 4 Perptetual adoration ( 24 hour a day 7 days a week) chapels with of course many more that no doubt that like Santorum's Parish has it during the week for extended time periods. So this is nothing strange.

As the Get Religion noted:
The thread running through this news story, it seems to me, is that Catholics who actually try to live out this faith in their day-to-day lives (especially if they are living public lives) are strange and a bit dangerous. We have seen the following question implied in the past (but not explicitly voiced in this story): What do you call a Catholic who actually believes the doctrines of his or her Church? You call them an “evangelical.” What do you call a Catholic who does not believe some or many of the doctrines of his or her Church? They are called “Catholics.” .

I am not sure if that was the writers intention or not , but it's a vibe I picked up regardless.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Thanks for making perpetual adoration sound totally hardcore, NYT. Makes me want to stop at my own parish's perpetual adoration chapel.

You are right on about the prevalence of Eucharistic adoration in the Arlington Diocese. Santorum's parish is just one of many devoutly traditional ones here.

James H said...

Thanks!!

I was just struck how alien this practice seemed to the writer lol

APOV said...

Even such a person as myself considers it a low blow to ridicule the "wafer" even if it looks more like a piece of styrofoam than the unleavened bread with which I celebrate the Lord's Supper. An attact upon these people performing what they call "Eucharistic Adoration" is most certainly an attack upon their religious liberty. Demanding that employers treat their employees as free citizens, fully responsible for their own morality, and demanding that those employees be treated with the same dignity, fairness, and equity as any other employees is not an attack on religious liberty.