After
the bishop had a conversation with the Papal delegate to the United
States, things had gotten too quiet. Before the phone call when he had to
offer some explanation about the incident caught on video by CNN, the
bishop had received many calls from all over the country. Some had been
supportive and some had been questioning, but at least there had been
calls. After the long phone conversation with the nuncio, however, phone
calls from fellow bishops or other connections within the hierarchy had
almost stopped. This was disturbing.
The
bishop knew he had broken the “Cardinal” rule as his best friends like to
call it. This rule was based on the actions of the cardinal in the
Vatican, upon whom he and his friends modeled themselves. As a rule,
bishops should act with an absolutism demanded by present church politics,
but they should always keep a personal manner suggesting an even nature
and benevolent pastoral care.
Obviously that girl had goaded him into looking like the
very thing he couldn’t look like - a dictatorial and unreasonable
male authority figure bent on protecting a dictatorial and male authority.
Of course, that was what he should be, but it wasn’t good public relations
to look like he was attempting to restore aggressively and without care an
age-old male caste system that many people had believed was going to
disappear.
Women especially seemed skeptical about this aged
male structure even though it was obviously ordained by Christ. He
saw this irony as being the bishop’s dilemma. What could a bishop do with
all those women and their clearly unrealistic expectations?
As
he contemplated these matters waiting to hear from the nuncio, he hid in
the chancery and had very few appointments. One of the appointments he did
have was with a Cathedral woman parishioner who had been his ally. Even
she seemed somewhat closed-mouth in her brief meeting with him, but she
had dropped off some materials she had been given that mocked the bishop
and his beliefs.
Someone had written a description of the sacraments
suggesting it was the “New Order of the Sacraments for the Diocese,”
written by the bishop. Although the bishop knew it was meant as a mockery,
he found it more obvious than potentially satirical. For instance, the
“order” suggested that baptism was important because it was the first step
for young men towards holy orders and that marriage was important because
it eventually produced young men, who could one day aspire to holy orders.
Another satirical work was a rewriting of one of the
hymns he had listed as not to be sung at any liturgy at which he presided.
One of his least favorite hymns, because it hinted at the need for renewal
of the old traditions, was Sing a New Church into Being. Someone
had rewritten it as Sing an Old Church into Being.
All
of this would have bothered him more if he weren’t already so upset by the
silence from the nuncio’s office in Washington, DC. When a call finally
came it was worse than he had imagined. The nuncio was sending someone to
“look into” the incident with the girl. He knew it was more than formality
when he heard that Fr. James Ferro was being sent, a man he had known
in his years working for the Council of Bishops. He hadn’t been friends
with Ferro. He had always been suspicious that Ferro was too open-minded.
Somehow, Fr. Ferro had become an advisor to the nuncio and was
usually called in to examine the most delicate of situations.
Fr.
Ferro was going to visit for a week and wanted to meet the “girl.” The
bishop decided he would make sure that this visit was without
incident.
In
the meantime, across the street from the chancery, unknown to him, Catie
Jo was mounting a new challenge to his authority. She decided she didn’t
like the new rules from the bishop about altar girls.
Altar girls could no longer serve some masses,
especially those at which the bishop was the celebrant. Altar
girls could not take a lead role in other services and had pretty much
been delegated to carrying candles at the rear of liturgical processions.
Catie Jo saw this as another attempt to push women back into a place
somewhere outside the inner circle of men, who alone could stand
around the altar.
She
got this idea, she told Fr. Hugh, from her friends, who said it was a
blatant attempt to restore the “caste system.” Catie Jo said she had
looked up the word “caste” and had been shocked at what it meant. Her
friends had told her that there was no “caste system” in Heaven. In fact,
in Heaven God in all three persons of the Trinity hardly had a thought
about whether a human being was male or female. The Trinity interacted
with each individual in the same loving and open way. That “open access to
the Altar of God,” as St. Catherine called it, was one of the best things
about Heaven, where joy and God’s loving esteem were equally available to
all. Catie Jo also told Fr. Hugh that St. Joan had told her to disobey the
new altar girl rules. She hoped Fr. Hugh thought that was OK.
Fr.
Hugh, who was spending more time than he had ever spent in humble prayer
for guidance and wisdom, found himself telling Catie Jo to go for
it.
Catie Jo decided to sign up to serve the bishop’s mass,
although girls had been told they weren’t allowed to do this. She also
decided to sign up to be one of the servers, who served at the Offertory.
At the meeting after Religious Education class when servers met and signed
up for the month, she did not hesitate to put her name down on the lines
that said “boys only.”
She
must have had a secret ally in this crusade because no one challenged her.
Since no one said a word about this fact, the bishop had no idea that she
would be present when he hoped to put his best face forward with the
visiting priest.
On
the Sunday after Fr. Ferro’s arrival, the bishop was in a good mood. He
had found the visiting priest was genuinely concerned for him and for the
peace of the diocese. He went to mass with a new energy he had hadn’t felt
for several weeks. Before mass the servers came into the sacristy and the
bishop spoke to them as a group. He told them what an honor it was for
them to meet Fr. Ferro. He told the servers to pay special
attention at the Consecration when the concelebrating priests would
consecrate the bread and wine, making it the Body and Blood of Christ. He
told them this is what a priest could do.
He
said all of this because he didn’t notice the small server in the back,
who wasn’t a boy. He didn’t notice until the girl stepped forward and
asked a question. “What about the Holy Spirit?” said Catie Jo. “Didn’t the
Holy Spirit play a big part in the consecration?”
The
bishop was shocked and started to stutter in response to this question. It
was a trick question. He couldn’t deny that part of the consecration
happened when the Holy Spirit came upon the gifts and made them holy. He
knew this question struck at the heart of the struggle against the
teachings of Vatican II. He was speechless when he found himself faced
with this question by his nemesis in front of a man sent to report back to
the powers of the Vatican about his competence. He turned red and
began to sputter.
He
was saved when Fr. Manion said it was time to go to the back of the church
and process into mass. The bishop was red-faced walking with the servers
and he continued to be red-faced during mass. He gave a homily that
rambled on about vocations and the different vocations for men
and women. He wasn’t sure if it had made any sense. He almost lost
his temper when Catie Jo stood before him holding the wine during the
preparation of the gifts. He found control he didn’t know he had and
ignored her presence. He continued saying mass without revealing his
feelings, or so he thought. His feelings were very apparent to Fr. Ferro,
who had not missed any of the details of this encounter.
To be continued . . .
