New wine, old wineskins?

Yesterday we had ten people at morning prayer. Only three were Society members. Things improved (?) at Evening Prayer when we had four Society members, but then we had 22 visitors.

Our guests were permanent deacons and their wives from around the United States who came to Maryknoll for a weekend symposium on the diaconate and mission. Organized by Deacon Steve DeMartino from our vocations office, this annual event helps foster a mission spirit among the growing number of permanent deacons.

I gotta say, I was impressed with the way the deacons' wives deftly navigated the macrame complexities of the breviary ribbons during the Octave of Easter.

Maybe this (many guests/few Maryknollers) is a foreshadowing of a not-so-bad future where a small and (one can only hope, still) vital part of the Maryknoll Society acts as a focal point and catalyst for a much larger and dynamic ministry to mission by other groups.

But between here and there there is fixed a great abyss. We have to somehow slough off our present situation if new possibilities are to emerge. Getting to there from here won't be easy. Or pretty.

Mistake #1 happened right after our building renovations ended and there was much hope-filled talk of a Mission Center, with various groups coming to imbibe the mission spirit here at the Knoll whilst planning ministries for the new millennium. That plan required setting aside the R-Wing rooms exclusively for these visitors. Alas, ensconced missioners (an oxymoron if ever there was one) refused to move to other sections of the building reserved for permanent members. The result was that when visitors come, we must intersperse them all over the building.

Mistake #2 happened as our headquarters slowly devolved over the years into a retirement home. The ever-growing tail has been wagging the shrinking dog more and more. As one very influential Maryknoller noted, "We owe members a place to stay, but it doesn't have to be here at the Center." But if the Administration couldn't get Members to move to another wing, can you imagine them trying to get Members to move away altogether? One solution may be to empty the R Wing of Maryknollers by attrition. Assign no Members a room there, either temporarily or permanently. Should some die-hards dig in their heels, they forfeit any right to complain about the noise or disruptions caused by visitors. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

Mistake #3 is the on-going lack of communication, conversation and transparency, those lofty ideals that wafted from the last Chapter and have remained elusive ever since. Oh, we have communication, usually one way and only after the cat is out of the bag. Conversation of any import seldom makes it past the salad bar. And forget transparency. That too seems one-sided, where hoi polloi are expected to be totally open about all our plans without any reciprocity, like passing through the emotional equivalent of a full-body scanner.

Case in point: no one in the dining room seems to know just where Roy Bourgeois stands vis-a-vis the Society. (Or rather, thems that know aren't talking). Did the Second Letter get sent? Did the Third Letter get sent? What happens if too much time elapses between letters and there is no action? Of course, we'll find out what happened just as soon as the National Catholic Reporter tells us.

In the meantime, as we prepare for our Regional Assembly at the end of May, will anyone dare suggest discussing a radical idea: that the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, as it is currently defined and established, can no longer meet the challenges of announcing the Reign of God nor fulfill the demands of mission in our time ?

October surprises?

+ We welcome Fr. Dave Smith, newly from Tanzania, who has arrived at Mother Knoll to take up his new role as Maryknoll's Chief Financial Officer, replacing outgoing CFO Fr.Richard Callahan. Dave shared some interesting tidbits of news from Tanzania, currently in the midst of a presidential election. Tales of chicanery and dirty tricks rivals anything going on here in the U.S., one week from midterms.

I strongly urged Dave to get involved in some kind of week-end ministry, just so he can get out of this loony bin and maintain his sanity. Interestingly enough, Dave said I was the second person to suggest that in the past 30 minutes. I maintain you can tell by how a person conducts himself here whether or not he gets away on weekends or not.

+ Super G, Fr. Ed Dougherty is, even as we speak, visiting the DPRK for the first time. (One wag at dinner suggested he's there to pick up tips. Another countered that the new heir designate could pick up a few pointers himself.) Fr. Gerry Hammond, who visits several times a year with the Bell Foundation that supplies medical supplies to the North, is accompanying him. Would be nice if Gerry finally gets permission to establish a residency in Pyongyang. Wouldn't THAT be a great way to inaugurate our centenary celebrations!

+ Keep sending prayers for the Holy Spirit to bless participants at the vocation retreat going on right now at Los Altos. Fr. Dennis Moorman, Fr. Jim Madden and Deacon Steve De Martino are directing the retreat for five prospects.

+ The new security system in now active. You'll need a swipe card to get in any door except the main entrance. I doubt this will curb the mysterious recent disappearance of the purificators from the sacristy, along with the new aspergellum, the old aspergellum, both holy water buckets, and complete set of summer vestments. Seems the foxes are living in the chicken coop.

Weekend update

Responding to the "clarification" by the Vatican that lumped "the attempted ordination of women" as a "grievous sin" on par with the sexual abuse of children, our own prophet-in-exile Roy Bourgeoise issued a statement. In it he merely observed that to date not one convicted pedophile priest or bishop has been excommunicated. Protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, it does seem that by this punishment some in the Vatican must think ordaining women is actually worse that abusing children. Hard to argue with this logic. But as with most things from the Vatican these days, logic is not the issue.

I erred in an earlier post when I wrote the mission exposure trip to Honduras was already underway. Actually four men depart for Central America tomorrow, Saturday the 17th. Deacon Steve DeMartino will accompany Pablo Talavera, Sean Farry, Richard Rivera and Ryan Danaher. (Yes, they pay their way down and back and enjoy Maryknoll hospitality in between.) Please pray the Holy Spirit guide their discernment but that they apply to Maryknoll anyway. (I couldn't resist.)

Having celebrated the Mass for the community this past week, I had the opportunity to fan some sparks into flame---in a good way, I hope. It is my contention that Maryknoll is not dying, but we might very well kill it with our indifference. I see the two greatest threats to our survival as a Society as apathy and inertia. We no longer want to try new things and take risks that might upset our comfortable routine. Fr. Ernie Brunelle said we apply the "lowest common denominator." Today's first reading from Isaiah for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel spoke of the dying Hezekiah who turned facing the wall to pray and weep at his imminent demise. God heard his prayer and granted him 15 more years. If we could only cultivate an equally fervent spirit of prayer, I am confident Maryknoll will enjoy many more years of mission service.

This weekend at the Knoll we welcome parishioners from St. Michael's Church in Jersey who are on retreat.

Similarly, tomorrow all day in the Asia room there will be the School for Vibrational Healing Meditation. Seriously. (Thank you, Prudence chip, but I never pick low-hanging fruit.

Holy Week Bits of Tid

AN THEN THE RAINS CAME. Sweet Mother of Pearl, the quadrangle out back reminds me of the rice paddies that used to surround every mission in Asia up until 1975. Guys now gaze out from the upper cloister and wistfully say, "I remember when this was all dry land."

Luckily the rains held off so that we could have not one but two Palm Sunday services, one for our community and the other for the 150 Haitians here for retreat lead by Fr. Romane St. Vil, back from his second relief trip to Haiti.

Fr. Dennis Moorman and Deacon Steve DeMartino, along with Fr. Dave LaBuda, are in Jamaica (the one in the Caribbean, not the one in Queens) conducting a Vocations Retreat at the parish of Father Leo Shea. Five young men are attending. Please hold them in prayer for guidance and discernment during this holiest of weeks.

The Holy Week Vocations Retreat alternates between here at the Center and at a mission site overseas. Absent any young'uns here this week, we are scaling back on our own services. For example, this Good Friday we will not have the outdoor Stations of the Cross as has been our custom nigh these many years. If our guys had to schlepp that huge wooden cross themselves around the property, more than our Lord would be falling three times.

There may be as many as six men applying for admissions to the Society this year. Pray for them, the admission board, our men in formation, their formators and for an increase of vocations to Maryknoll.

The rains are to continue till Wednesday, after which the spring sun and temperatures in the 70s are forecast for the Triduum.

[Personal musing: one of the reasons Pope Benedict excommunicated Fr. Roy Bourgeois was because Roy's outspoken and public advocacy for women's ordinations was causing "scandal and confusion" among the faithful. Now that His Holiness himself is the source of scandal, confusion and not a little anger, outrage and disappointment, how will he discipline himself? Just wondering...]