Travelogue -- San Pablo 2-2-2 Saturday began very early with a prayer service at the site where the seminary was founded. A couple of the priests were surprised that I was able to walk the entire length of the procession to the present location of the seminary. The priest in the procession was wearing a biretta. It seemed that this was perhaps appropriate in a celebration marking a move from the place where the seminary was founded. I commented to a couple of the seminarians that I hoped the biretta -- a three-pointed hat which priests wore in the pre-Vatican II days -- was 50 years old and that I also hoped the Church in a poor country is not spending money on birettas. At that point I discovered there is a conservative movement among the seminarians as there is among U.S. seminarians. One of the students I was speaking to, Darryl, happens, it seems, to be the leader of the conservative movement. This led to a long conversation. He said that birettas only cost about $50. I said that a lot of families in Tacloban could use $50. But it was a very good conversation, and I found out that Darryl is also very interested in social justice. At that point Darryl and I disagreed on a lot of things. Three mornings later when I gave my talk on Vatican II Darryl told me, We agreed on a lot of things. I obviously cant speak for the Catholic laity in the Philippines, but I think that more than 98 percent of the Catholic laity in the U.S. want good proclamations of the Scriptures, good preaching and good music at Mass a lot more than we want to see priests wearing birettas.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 22:05:42 +0000
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