Letters

Obedience

Matthew Buckley

Contents - Feb 2007 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The Church and globalisation - Peter Westmore Education: Australia's Catholic school systems: the case for radical surgery - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World East Timor: priests threatened with execution - Peter Westmore Fr John Speekman: Vatican orders reinstatement of wrongly removed Sale Diocese parish priest - Michael Gilchrist Priesthood: Orthodox priests in a divided Church - Fr John Trigilio The Church and the environment: address the moral pollution first - Wanda Skowronska Salesians help rebuild post-tsunami Sri Lanka - Br Michael Lynch Why we need holy days of obligation - Joanna Bogle Music: Johann Sebastian Bach and the heavenly choir - Fr Finbarr Flanagan Letters: Shared guilt - Errol Duke Letters: Lost! - Moya and Leo Morrissey Letters: Truth and love - Chris Hilder Letters: Root Cause - Marie Kennedy Letters: Safe-sex? - Jack Blair Poetry: Gender-Bender Autos - Bruce Dawe Letters: Limbo? - Lawrence R. Hurley Letters: Manipulating language - Carol V. Phillips Letters: Obedience - Matthew Buckley Letters: Latin Mass - John Gariano Letters: Religious materials - J.W. Smith Letters: Catholic dolls - Anne Cramer Books: TREASURE IN CLAY: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM: Five Reflections on the History of the Church - Sr Mariana Handley (reviewer) Books: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: Who Is It For and What Are Its Benefits? - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: B.A. Santamaria's correspondence published by MUP Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: Why the Church must continue to uphold priestly celibacy - Fr Pat Stratford

Pat Hurley's argument (November AD2000) concerning the primary meaning of "homines" misses the point that the word "men" in English also means all human beings and therefore can legitimately translate the former. Furthermore, literary style is an important consideration in translation as the language used at Mass should be sacral, not banal and flatfooted. (Vir, by the way, despite its appearance in the nominative, is a second, not a third, declension noun.)

Fran Swindle, then makes a series of non sequitur arguments - the Church hasn't fallen down, she still cherishes the faith to which she converted, she's involved in her parish, etc). All well and good.

It might be one little word (although at Nicea it all came down to one letter in another section of the Creed); but if so, why is it so hard to say it? It is a simple question of obedience. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 22, says, "Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority."

If you can obey in such supposedly small matters as this you will be able to obey in greater. That is true for everyone, including those with a degree in theology.

MATTHEW BUCKLEY
The Gap, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 20 No 1 (February 2007), p. 15