All Else Confusion

Catie O'Brien died on January 25th of this year, but she left behind two precious gifts. Her dying wish was for friends and family to raise enough money to cover all of the operating costs for St. Jude Hospital for one day each year in her name, preferably on her birthday, April 23rd. That amounts to a $1.4 million donation. Though her family only had a few months to raise the money this year, they had $1.96 million to present to the hospital today, Catie's birthday.

But, Catie wished to take care of the spiritual needs of her friends at St. Jude's as well as their physical ones. Unable to find a patron saint of pediatric cancer, Catie told her parents that she wanted to someday be that saint.

I pray that Catie gets both her wishes.

To donate:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
In Memory of Catie O'Brien, Code #21824409
501 St. Jude Place
Memphis, TN 38105

The Arlington Catholic Herald has a beautiful story about Catie.

Though it may seem a trivial thing, the loss of Friday Abstinence in the American Church has had profound effects. As Amy Welborn once observed in a letter to First Things about the post-Vatican II era: "The transformation, in less than a decade, is staggering. The most concrete symbol of this feeling is something seemingly minor but actually not: the abandonment of the Friday abstinence. Something that Catholics had been taught was deeply expressive of both individual and corporate Catholic identity was simply dropped." Losing this symbol of Catholic identity meant that other markers of Catholic identity were viewed as variable as well. In Chapter 3 of her 1970 book, Natural Symbols, anthropologist Mary Douglas explored the phenomenon of the Bog Irish in London and linked their loss of identity and assimilation into London's secular culture to the abolishing of the Friday abstinence observing that though abolishing the obligation was done with the well-meant expectation that Catholics would thereby be freed to continue their penances with greater choice, the opposite happened. Douglas wrote, "To take away one symbol that meant something is no guarantee that the spirit of charity will flow in its place." In fact its loss played a role in severing individual Catholics from identification with the group.

All this is by way of introduction to the letter by Bishop Conlon of Steubenville to his flock inviting them to return to Friday abstinence. He states:

... The resumption of year-round abstinence in the Diocese of Steubenville will begin after this coming Easter, one week after Good Friday (April 17). Although the practice will not be a requirement of law, and failing to keep it will not constitute a sin, I hope every one who is old enough to receive Holy Communion and well enough to come to church will take it seriously. Our parishes, schools and organizations should provide meatless food at their Friday activities.

Though Bishop Conlon still leaves Friday abstinence in the realm of the optional, I hope that his invitation to return to this ancient tradition will be a start of reminding Catholics what was lost when we moved from corporate penance to individual choice. As Eamon Duffy writes in this wonderful essay from First Things, "There are no quick fixes: tradition cannot be rebuilt to a neat program and by orders from Rome. Our shared past can only be excavated by shared endeavor, by a painful and constant process of reeducation and rediscovery; in that process, we start from where we are, not where we wish we had stayed." Bishop Conlon has made a wonderful start toward "reeducation and rediscovery."

h/t to Thomas Peters at American Papist

Labels: Catholic culture

I just found out that Dr. Thomas Dillon, the President of Thomas Aquinas College in California and whose children went to high school with me, was killed today in a car accident in Ireland. The following is posted on TAC's website:

On Wednesday, April 15, 2009, Dr. Thomas E. Dillon, the president of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, was killed in an automobile accident in Ireland, where he was traveling with his wife, Terri, on behalf of the college. Mrs. Dillon was only slightly injured and is hospitalized for the time being. Family members and a representative of the College are en route to Ireland to bring Mrs. Dillon back to California and to accompany Dr. Dillon’s body.

A rosary was said and Mass offered for the repose of Dr. Dillon’s soul at 3:00 p.m. today in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Information concerning funeral arrangements will be posted at a later time.

Please pray for the happy repose of Dr. Dillon’s soul, and for the consolation of his family.