| This novel begins with the transformation of a | | | | fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our |
| fictionalized American cardinal after he realizes he has | | | | Savior. He was conceived through the power of the |
| conducted himself more like the chief executive officer | | | | Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, a man like us in |
| of a big business rather than as a pastor whose life | | | | all things but sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good |
| reflects Christ's teachings to feed the hungry, shelter | | | | news of salvation, to prisoners, freedom, and to those |
| the homeless, care for the sick, etc. At the outset, | | | | in sorrow, joy. In fulfillment of your will he gave himself |
| many readers might feel they could predict the | | | | up to death; but by rising from the dead, he destroyed |
| outcome before finishing the novel: the prelate would | | | | death and restored life. And that we might live no |
| be treated like a pariah by his fellow bishops and | | | | longer for ourselves but for him, he sent the Holy Spirit |
| quietly removed from his post, with a successor | | | | from you, Father, as his first gift to those who believe, |
| appointed who understands the foremost rule of | | | | to complete his work on earth and bring us the fullness |
| today's Catholic bishops is to fall in lockstep behind the | | | | of grace." |
| pope. But the novel has unexpected twists and turns. | | | | Why NOT let the laity -- the congregation -- say these |
| Approximately one-quarter through the book, the | | | | beautiful words out loud during mass? For too long, the |
| author, a former journalist who covered the Vatican II | | | | conservatives running the Church have tried to |
| council for TIME magazine, introduced a number of | | | | maintain the pre-Vatican II notion that the clergy |
| thought-provoking ideas to enhance the laity's | | | | dispense God's graces and the laity's job is to seek |
| participation in all aspects of the church. As the much | | | | passively these ministerial graces from clergy - in a |
| beloved good Pope John XXIII once said, "The Catholic | | | | process ultimately controlled by the Vatican. Yet, in |
| Church is its people," as distinguished from its hierarchy. | | | | 1965 towards the end of the Vatican II council, Pope |
| In the novel, the priest shortage leads one church in | | | | Paul VI noted that the passive nature of the laity had |
| California administered by a nun to have communion | | | | changed. Outside of mass, Vatican II sought to codify |
| services in lieu of a mass. But the nun in this story | | | | and recognize the laity had spiritual gifts equal to (if not |
| does something relatively unique: she invites the small | | | | greater than) the spiritual gifts of the clergy. |
| congregation to join her in saying the eucharistic prayer | | | | How welcome indeed then are the scenes depicted in |
| in unison out loud. | | | | CARDINAL MAHONY, in which the Church in |
| When word of these communion services reaches | | | | California, and eventually across the country, rallies |
| the local bishop and eventually the Vatican, all the | | | | around the renegade nun, forces the conservative |
| conservatives are horrified that this upstart nun is | | | | hierarchy to back down, and demands a greater say |
| democratizing the mass and letting all the congregation | | | | in the administration of the church and the |
| join in feeling they play a role in consecrating bread | | | | accountability of its bishops. The novel explains the |
| and wine into the body and blood of Christ. But a | | | | concept of an autochthonous church - which is 100% |
| participant at the communion service describes it this | | | | Catholic and loyal to the pope, yet retains for itself |
| way. "First thing I'd say, we don't call them Masses. | | | | certain decision-making power. As Kaiser explains, |
| Second thing, these are the most devout, solemn | | | | autochthony does not mean autonomy; it means |
| liturgies I have ever seen. When we say the words (of | | | | "home grown." |
| the eucharistic prayer), we say them in the kind of | | | | According to Kaiser, as of 2007, the Vatican |
| wonder-filled tones we use when we're reading our | | | | recognizes twenty-one autochthonous churches inside |
| nieces and nephews their bedtime stories." | | | | the Catholic Church. These churches include the |
| Nevertheless the Vatican and America's conservative | | | | Melkites in Lebanon, the Maronites, and an Eastern |
| bishops get all in a tizzy over the very thought of | | | | European branch that has maintained married Catholic |
| people saying the same words used by the priest at | | | | priests from its first existence. In fact, the Roman |
| mass. | | | | Catholic Church in Africa and Latin America today |
| The typical Catholic mass in America involves a priest | | | | already has "home grown" elements in the prevalence |
| giving a too-long homily and then making up for lost | | | | of priests with unofficial companions. "It's an open |
| time by racing through the shortest eucharistic prayer | | | | secret that many Roman Catholic priests -- especially |
| for consecration. Because of this time constraint, the | | | | in African and Latin American nations -- have taken |
| fourth eucharistic prayer, which is the longest of the | | | | common-law wives," wrote Don Lattin in a nationally |
| four prayers available for consecration, is seldom used. | | | | circulated religious article for the San Francisco |
| Yet Eucharistic Prayer IV contains the most beautiful | | | | Chronicle in 1994. |
| words of all: "Father, you so loved the world that in the | | | | |