Pater Albert

Die 20 mensis Junii anni 2022 obiit in Abbatia B.M.V. ad Sanctam Crucem, P. Albertus Urban, anno ætatis suæ 92, professionis 73, sacerdotii vero 68.
Pro cuius anima vestras precamur orationes et sacrificiorum suffragia ex caritate et orabimus pro vestris.

Arcanum

In Arcanum divinae sapientiae Pope Leo XIII notes that Christianity tried to end the double-standard in matrimonial morality common in ancient times. Among pagans, he notes, the allowance of divorce and other evils gave men a specious freedom or rather licence, while degrading women:

Man assumed right of dominion over his wife, ordering her to go about her business, often without any just cause; while he was himself at liberty “to run headlong with impunity into lust, unbridled and unrestrained, in houses of ill-fame and amongst his female slaves, as if the dignity of the persons sinned with, and not the will of the sinner, made the guilt.”(4) When the licentiousness of a husband thus showed itself, nothing could be more piteous than the wife, sunk so low as to be all but reckoned as a means for the gratification of passion, or for the production of offspring. Without any feeling of shame, marriageable girls were bought and sold, tike so much merchandise,(5) and power was sometimes given to the father and to the husband to inflict capital punishment on the wife.

Christians, however, charged the husband to be as faithful as the wife:

 ‘And thus the rights of husbands and wives were made equal: for, as St. Jerome says, “with us that which is unlawful for women is unlawful for men also, and the same restraint is imposed on equal conditions.”(23) The self-same rights also were firmly established for reciprocal affection and for the interchange of duties; the dignity of the woman was asserted and assured; and it was forbidden to the man to inflict capital punishment for adultery,(25) or lustfully and shamelessly to violate his plighted faith.

Christian morality imposes strict obligations, that limit superficial freedom of action, but it is at the service of a deeper moral freedom. The liberals of Pope Leo’s time, however, convinced by Enlightenment philosophy, wanted to destroy those Christian restraints in the name of freedom. Their main goal was the legalization of divorce:

Yet, owing to the efforts of the archenemy of mankind, there are persons who, thanklessly casting away so many other blessings of redemption, despise also or utterly ignore the restoration of marriage to its original perfection. […] The chief reason why they act in this way is because very many, imbued with the maxims of a false philosophy and corrupted in morals, judge nothing so unbearable as submission and obedience; and strive with all their might to bring about that not only individual men, but families, also-indeed, human society itself-may in haughty pride despise the sovereignty of God. […] For, the salutary fear of God being removed, and there being no longer that refreshment in toil which is nowhere more abounding than in the Christian religion, it very often happens, as indeed is natural, that the mutual services and duties of marriage seem almost unbearable; and thus very many yearn for the loosening of the tie which they believe to be woven by human law and of their own will, whenever incompatibility of temper, or quarrels, or the violation of the marriage vow, or mutual consent, or other reasons induce them to think that it would be well to be set free. Then, if they are hindered by law from carrying out this shameless desire, they contend that the laws are iniquitous, inhuman, and at variance with the rights of free citizens; adding that every effort should be made to repeal such enactments, and to introduce a more humane code sanctioning divorce.

Divorce increases superficial freedom of choice, but it leads to moral slavery and the destruction of human happiness and society. Moreover, Pope Leo argues, divorce re-introduces the double-standard between husband and wife that had characterized paganism:

Truly, it is hardly possible to describe how great are the evils that flow from divorce. Matrimonial contracts are by it made variable; mutual kindness is weakened; deplorable inducements to unfaithfulness are supplied; harm is done to the education and training of children; occasion is afforded for the breaking up of homes; the seeds of dissension are sown among families; the dignity of womanhood is lessened and brought low, and women run the risk of being deserted after having ministered to the pleasures of men. Since, then, nothing has such power to lay waste families and destroy the mainstay of kingdoms as the corruption of morals, it is easily seen that divorces are in the highest degree hostile to the prosperity of families and States, springing as they do from the depraved morals of the people, and, as experience shows us, opening out a way to every kind of evil-doing in public and in private life.

Liberal feminism understandably reacted against that double standard. Its “solution,” however, was the opposite of the Christian one. Instead of holding men to the same strict standard as women, it decided to hold women to the lax standard of men. Contraception and abortion are the means by which it is possible for women to have the same false and licentious freedom as pagan men. (Note that in pagan Rome men had the power of killing their new born children by exposure).

Easter Monday in Gaaden

In Austria the old custom of reading the story of the Road to Emmaus on Easter Monday has been preserved. In many parishes it is customary to have an “Emmaus Walk” often with an outdoor Mass at the end, as here in Gaaden. This year it was a bit cold, but worth it.

Holy Saturday in Gaaden

The “veil of death” at the Holy Sepulchre, viewed from a confessional.

Good Friday in Gaaden

Procession to the “Mount of Olives” on Maundy Thursday in Gaaden

Mandatum 2022

The “Mandatum”, the washing of the feet, in Heiligenkreuz on the morning of Maundy Thursday. The monks wash the feet of twelve men from our parishes.

Photos: Stift Heiligenkreuz

Saint Joseph: Most Just and Most Chaste

Sermon, Feast of Saint Joseph, Saint Peter Church, Steubenville, March 19^th, 2021.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The liturgical texts for the Feast of St. Joseph emphasizes one of his virtues more than all the rest: namely, his justice. Justus ut palma florébit: sicut cedrus Líbani multiplicábitur / The just man shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon, the schola chanted in the introit. And in the Gospel we heard: Joseph autem, vir ejus, cum esset justus et nollet eam tradúcere, vóluit occúlte dimíttere eam / Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. In the Preface I will sing: Qui et vir justus, a te Deíparæ Vírgini Sponsus est datus: et fidélis servus ac prudens, super Famíliam tuam est constitútus / who, being a just man, was given by Thee as a Spouse to the Virgin Mother of God, and, as a faithful and prudent servant was set over Thy Family.

Saint Joseph is the just man. 

The iconographic tradition puts more emphasis on another one of his virtues: chastity. He is depicted with a lily the symbol of purity. Joseph is resplendent with the spiritual beauty of chastity.

Jesus is Still at Work

From the Magnificat Lenten Companion

Two Loves, One Fearlessness, and One Fear

The whole art of being a parish priest can be summed up in two loves, one fearlessness, and one fear.

The first love: Love of God. My predecessor in Sulz, the late Pater Norbert, used to spend an hour kneeling in prayer in the parish Church before Sunday Mass, and many of his parishioners have told me how moved they were by his evident friendship with God. Nothing inspires to prayer as much as seeing someone fulfilled by prayer.

The second love: Love of the parishioners. This means willing their good, and that necessitates being interested in their lives, remembering their names, suffering with those who suffer and rejoicing with those who rejoice. There is a priest in the Archdiocese of Vienna who carries a bouquet of flowers to every married couple in his parish on their wedding anniversary every year. Most every day he has several bouquets to deliver.

The one fearlessness: In order to truly love his parishioners it is important that a priest not fear them, that he not be dependent on their praise and approval, that he not be too weighed down by their criticisms. People will always be upset about something or other (“You coward! How dare you follow the Bishop’s directives on the Corona prevention!” etc.). It is important to be able to accept their anger with patience and good humor.

The one fear: The Fear of God. Nothing drives out the fear of human persons more than the fear of God. One has to realize that one will be answerable at the judgement Seat of Christ for every time that one gives way out of respect of persons.Obviously, these habits are easy to blog about, but are difficult to live in real life, as I am discovering through experience.