Tag: Question Box

By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box

Q: Can you please explain the priest’s vestments for Mass and their significance?

A: The first and most basic vestment is the alb. It is a long, white garment that comes in a variety of styles. It is the baptismal garment. The word “alb” comes from the Latin albus, meaning white.  Some priests subscribe to the “more lace, more grace” theory and others prefer the noble simplicity that is the hallmark of the Roman Rite.

While the vesting prayers are no longer strictly required, many priests still use them and they are a good way to prepare for Mass. The traditional vesting prayer while putting on the alb reads: “Purify me, Lord, and cleanse my heart so that, washed in the Blood of the Lamb, I may enjoy eternal bliss.”

Depending on the style of the alb, an amice may be worn underneath the alb to cover the collar or neck. This is a rectangular white cloth with two long strings. The cloth is tucked around the collar and the strings are wrapped under the arms behind the back and tied around the waist in front to secure it in place. It is symbolic of the “helmet of salvation” (see Ephesians 6:17). The vesting prayer for the amice (put on before the alb) reads: “Lord, set the helmet of salvation on my head to fend off all the assaults of the devil.”

The amice also serves a very practical function of preventing “ring around the collar.” It is a lot easier to throw an amice in with your whites and some bleach than to have to wash or dry clean your alb after just a few uses. Some clergy really work up a sweat under all those layers.

Once the amice (if necessary) and alb are donned, the next vestment is the cincture. This is basically a rope belt, often with tassels or knots at each end. Again, not all styles of alb may require a cincture, but the purpose is to gather or “cinch” the alb. In these modern times it also provides a handy place to clip a lavalier microphone pack. Cinctures may be white or correspond to the color of the other vestments for the season or particular feast.

The cincture is a symbol of purity and, accordingly, the vesting prayer for the cincture reads:  “Lord, gird me with the cincture of purity and extinguish my fleshly desires, that the virtue of continence and chastity may abide within me.”

The cincture also serves to hold in place the stole, which is the next vestment that the priest puts on. The stole is the long strip that goes over the neck and hangs down in front. It is in the color of the season or feast. The stole is a symbol of the priest’s authority. The vesting prayer for the stole is: “Lord, restore the stole of immortality, which I lost through the collusion of our first parents, and, unworthy as I am to approach Thy sacred mysteries, may I yet gain eternal joy.”

Lastly, the priest puts on the chasuble, a large, usually circular cloth (also in the color of the season or feast) with a hole in the middle, worn like a poncho. The chasuble is the symbol of charity or love (see Colossians 3:14). In the seminary, we were taught the chasuble is worn over the stole because the priest’s authority should also be covered by love.

The vesting prayer for the chasuble reads: “O Lord, who has said, ‘My yoke is sweet and My burden light,’ grant that I may so carry it as to merit Thy grace.”

Tip to toe, now you know what the priest is wearing and what it means!

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Dav­enport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

Q: How many bishops have been ordained at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport?

A: Surprisingly, few! On Sept. 27, Bishop Dennis Walsh was ordained 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport, but he is only one of four bishops ordained at Sacred Heart Cathedral and only the second to be ordained there for our diocese. All of the others were ordained elsewhere, for various reasons, and two were ordained at Sacred Heart but for other dioceses.

First, a little history. The Diocese of Dubuque was created in 1837 with Bishop Matthias Loras as its first bishop (he was a childhood friend of St. John Vianney, incidentally). At that time, the diocese covered the entire territory of Iowa and up into Minnesota and the Dakotas.

In 1881, the creation of the Diocese of Davenport carved off the southern half of the state of Iowa as its territory. That left the northern half as the Diocese of Du­buque, which was elevated to an archdiocese in 1893.

The Dav­enport Diocese did not have a cathedral when Bishop John McMullen became our first bishop. A priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, he was consecrated at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, where he had served as rector. He rebuilt the cathedral following the great Chicago fire of 1871 and later served as the archdiocese’s vicar general.

When Bishop McMullen took possession of the Davenport Diocese, he chose St. Margaret Church on a hilltop in east Davenport as our first cathedral. The church, named for St. Margaret of Scotland, really was a nod to Marguerite LeClaire, wife of Antoine LeClaire. Her husband, considered the principal founder of Davenport, gave the land and money to build the church.

The diocese quickly outgrew St. Margaret Church, which led to the start of the cathedral next door at 10th and Iowa streets. Bishop Mc­Mullen served two years as bishop until his death in 1883 — before the cathedral was dedicated in 1891 and named after the Sacred Heart of Jesus (with a St. Margaret Chapel by order of Rome). That meant that his suc­cessor, Bish­op Henry Cos­grove (1884-1906) was ordained in the former St. Mar­garet Cathedral.

The first bishop ordained at Sacred Heart Cathedral was our third bishop, Bishop James Davis, ordained as co-adjutor bishop in 1904 and taking over for Bishop Cosgrove in 1906.

Our only auxiliary bishop was Bishop Edward Howard (1923-1926), who was ordained at St. Raphael Cathedral in Dubuque and eventually made Bishop of Oregon City (now Portland).

Our fourth bishop, Bishop Henry Rohlman (1927-1944), also consecrated at St. Raphael Cathedral, was installed the following day at Sacred Heart in Davenport.

The second episcopal ordination at Sacred Heart Cathedral was that of Bishop William Adrian in 1936. A priest of the Davenport Diocese, he was ordained Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee.

Our fifth bishop, Bishop Ralph Hayes (1944-1966), was already a bishop when he came to us. In 1933, he was consecrated a bishop in Pitts­burgh, where he was from, for the Diocese of Hel­ena, Montana. He became rector of the Pontifical North Ameri­can College in Rome during World War II, before his appointment to Davenport.

Our sixth bishop, Bishop Gerald O’Keefe (1966-1994), came to us as an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul, Minn­e­sota. He was installed at Sacred Heart Cathedral in January 1967.

The third bishop ordained at Sacred Heart, Bishop Maurice Dingman, was one of our own but appointed to the Diocese of Des Moines in 1968.

Our seventh bishop, now-Bishop Em­erit­us William Franklin (1993-2006), was an auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, where he was consecrated (at St. Raphael’s) in 1987.

Bishop Emeritus Martin Amos (2006-2017) was also already an auxiliary bishop (of the Diocese of Cle­veland, Ohio) when he became our eighth bishop.

Our ninth bishop, now-Archbishop Thomas Zinkula (2017-2023) was consecrated at St. John Vianney Church in Bettendorf due to the construction of the gathering space and diocesan hall at Sacred Heart Cathedral. He now serves as the archbishop of the Dubuque Archdiocese.

There you have it! So, Bishop Walsh is only the fourth bishop ordained at the present cathedral and only the second for our diocese in nearly 120 years!

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Dav­enport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box

Several weeks ago in this column, I attempted to tackle a question about why God seems to put up with wars, violence and other human atrocities. I only got so far. After all, it is much “easier” to explain human-made disasters. We have free will and often misuse it. But what about things such as natural disasters or disease? Why doesn’t God step in and fix those? Does he like toying with us or watching people suffer? No! A thousand times, no. But why then?

Things like natural disasters and illness fall into a category of what we call “natural” or “physical evil,” as opposed to “moral evil,” which implies human agency. A “natural or physical evil” doesn’t mean it is diabolical (from the devil) or that it has a will of its own or that God is hurling it at us. We mean evil in the most general sense of the word: a privation of some good.

So, why do does God seem to allow natural or physical evil to happen, even if he doesn’t actively cause them? The world does as the world does; things in the world do as they were created to do. In a way, “why?” is the wrong question. We might as well ask, “Why is the sky blue?” Yes, I know there is a perfectly reasonable scientific answer to this question but it is more about how this phenomenon occurs than why. The larger question still looming is why this has to be the way it is in the first place.

Similarly, while it is perfectly normal human behavior to ask why in the face of evil, whether moral or natural, the more relevant spiritual question is: How do I respond to this reality?

When faced with a moral evil, we can ask, “What can I do to change this?” In the face of truly natural disaster, however, I think we can waste a lot of emotional energy trying to figure out why, when sometimes we need to accept those things that are truly out of our control and carry on as best we can.

I know, I’m not really answering the question. But if I had an “easy,” perfect answer that you could tie up with a pretty little bow, then I would advise you to run the other way. This is a timeless question for a reason.

It is okay not to have crisp, clean answers to everything. At the same time, it important for us to engage the process and wrestle with these things. Many “short cuts” lead off a cliff and some meandering paths turn out to be worth the journey. I honestly worry about humanity’s current capacity to do this kind of thing, to grapple with mystery.

Beyond just saying that the world does as the world does, there is also a sense in our theological tradition that the first choice of human beings to turn away from God had far-reaching repercussions for them and for the rest of creation. St. Paul seems to allude to this when he writes, “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now.” There is a sense that all of creation was caught up in our fall and, therefore, that all creation is also caught up in our redemption. We can take this notion too far, of course, but I don’t think we can absolutely dismiss it.

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box

Q: Do Catholics believe in ghosts?
A: Every old building seems to have at least a few ghost stories attached to it. I know that my old seminary did.

There was a story of a seminarian who was working on a paper late at night in the lower level of the seminary where the computer lab was located. He pressed the elevator button to go back up to his room. While he was waiting for the elevator to arrive, he noticed a figure in black pants and a white shirt at the far end of the corridor. Assuming it was just another seminarian going down to the computer lab, he wondered how he hadn’t noticed him before. When the elevator arrived, the seminarian stepped in and turned around, only to see this person now standing in front of the elevator door, as though instantly transported from the end of the long hallway. The figure said, “Pray for me,” and the elevator doors closed!

Great story, huh? But is it true? I don’t know. The story goes that the seminarian told his spiritual director about it and they arranged to have some Masses offered for the repose of this person’s soul and there was never another encounter after that.

So, do Catholics believe in ghosts? Not exactly. From a theological perspective, what people think of as “ghosts” can be only one of four things: (1) our imaginations gone wild; (2) angels; (3) demons; or (4) souls in purgatory trying to get our attention to pray for them.

Personally, I am a bit of a natural skeptic when it comes to these things. I am always going to try to find a natural explanation first. The human mind is a vast and weird place. We can easily think we heard, saw or felt something. We can even begin to convince ourselves of this by re-telling the story. We can be easily influenced by things we may have recently heard or seen.

When I was a college chaplain I would always get a lot more requests for room or house blessings in the weeks leading up to Halloween, as students were convinced something supernatural was going on. I was happy to explain what we believe and don’t believe, the importance of daily prayer, reading Scripture, going to Mass and regular confession, and the use of sacramentals (holy water, etc.). I would ask some general questions and often found that the students had been watching scary movies or shows or were not sleeping as much or as well as they should. Sometimes I would find out they were messing around with a Ouija board or other like things. Do you think any of that could have had an effect? Probably.

The Church explicitly forbids any kind of “divination” to tell the future or attempts to communicate with the dead (see “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” para. 2115-2117). At best, fortune telling, séances and the like are just silly; at worst they could be opening doors that ought not be opened. The Bible in several places also specifically condemns these practices (see Deuteronomy 18:10-11, Isaiah 19:3 and Jeremiah 29:8). Anytime we try to go around God to seek hidden (“occult”) knowledge we are in violation of the First Commandment.

We don’t need to look for a devil behind every bush, but we do believe in unseen realities and should exercise caution in what sort of things we expose ourselves to. I enjoy a good ghost story as much as anyone, but in the end I believe in the one God, who is God of the living and the dead, and in his Son, who has conquered death and promises resurrection for those who believe.

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box

Q: Why does God put up with wars and other human-made disasters generation after generation?
A: Finally, an easy question! Not so much. Your question gets to the very heart of one of life’s biggest questions: Why does God permit evil?
The atheist might answer: “Easy. There is no God. People are very complicated animals, but animals nonetheless. They do terrible things to each other and to the earth out of a sense of need, greed, advantage or dominance. Life is only as meaningful as we make it. Enjoy it while it lasts and try not to ruin it for others.”
The fundamentalist might answer: “God is working out his divine wrath on a wayward world. We are being punished for our sins. If we repent, there may be hope, but the end is surely near, so buckle up!”
Both of these are pretty “easy” answers. There’s not a lot of room for mystery in either. But what is the Catholic response? I don’t claim to speak for all Catholics, but I have studied and know something about Catholic thought and here’s what I would say:
God created the world (by some process) and everything and everyone in it. Creation is inherently good because God made it. God also created human beings. Human beings are inherently good and yet we possess free will. In fact, this is one of the things that makes us most like God. This means that from the beginning we have had the capacity to reject God and his benevolent will for us — and, boy, did we!
We are still dealing with the fallout of those first humans turning away from God. We call this “original sin.” This is not a sin that we have personally committed, but a condition in which we find ourselves after this truly earth-shattering decision.
G.K. Chesterton once quipped that he could not understand why some theologians reject the doctrine of original sin, as it is “the only part of Christian theology that can really be proved.” We certainly see evidence of it everywhere. Despite our fundamental goodness and the goodness of creation, there is something broken in us and in our world.
God could have made us to be perfect little moral robots programmed never do anything wrong. But then we would also be incapable of genuine love. We would be incapable of choosing love. We would just be following our programming. Morality doesn’t even enter into it. In a strange way, the necessary condition for genuine love (free will) is the very thing that opens us to sin (the misuse of free will).
I don’t think that God “puts up with” wars and other human-made tragedies in the sense that he is indifferent to them. In fact, I think God hates them. He hates to see the terrible things that we do to each other. He does not cause these things, much less delight in them, even as he allows them to happen. But why even allow them? Because, ironically, out of love for us, God will not override our free will. He wants us to choose him, to choose the good, to choose love.
“Okay, Father Smarty-Pants, what about natural disasters, disease and the like? Why does God allow that stuff?”
First, I would say that some of these natural disasters and even diseases may well be human-made or at least human-influenced and so again our misuse of free will comes into play here. But, what if none of those things is human-influenced? I’ll grant that this is a much tougher question than the question of human evil.
Wow! Look at the time! Stay tuned…
(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

By Fr. Thom Hennen
Question Box

Why is Mary so honored in the Catholic Church? Is she recognized in other churches?

It is no big secret that the Catholic Church has a deep love and respect for Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Her relationship to Jesus alone merits this. I have often wondered how other Christians could pay her such little mind.

That said, many other Christians also have a great devotion to Mary. She is revered in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion and even among some mainline Protestant denominations. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin wrote highly of her and her pivotal role in our salvation, even as they set aside other beliefs about her. They both would have defended Mary’s personal holiness and the virginal birth of her son. She is also highly respected within Islam.

Let’s face it: no Mary, no Jesus. She was not chosen at random. We believe she was specially prepared and called by God for this mission. Furthermore, we believe that everything that made Jesus truly and fully human he received from her, without losing anything of his divinity. Had he not been made incarnate of the Virgin Mary, he could not have laid down his life for us on the cross. Given this, how can we fail to honor her?

Mary features prominently in the infancy narrative of Luke’s Gospel and appears throughout the public ministry of Jesus, from the wedding feast at Cana to the foot of the cross. There are a few verses to which I think we should pay special attention.

In Luke 1:28 we have the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary: “Hail, full of grace,” or some translations say, “Hail, favored one!” The word “hail” doesn’t mean “worship” but is simply a greeting. As for “full of grace/favored one,” the Greek word used here is “kecharitomene,” which literally means “you who have been graced.” It is in the past perfect tense, which indicates that something has happened prior to this encounter. She is not simply graced by the angel’s presence or by God’s choice of her only in this moment. Rather, she has already received from God the grace to accept this role.

This is at the heart of the Catholic teaching on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, namely, that Mary was conceived without stain of original sin. She is the “New Eve,” only the grace that she received from the first moment of her precious life in the womb was even greater than that of our first parents in the garden. It was the grace of our redemption, applied to her in advance, as though baptized at the moment of her conception.

“But wait, Jesus hadn’t even been born yet to redeem us! How is that possible?” God is eternal; he lives in the eternal now. He is not subject to linear time in the way that we are. And so, God can apply the graces won for us through the passion, death and resurrection of his son “out of order,” if you will. While the Immaculate Conception was only formally defined as a dogma in 1854 by Pope Pius IX, it was long held by the Church. The early Church fathers attested to this belief in their writing and preaching.

Another key couple of verses that demonstrate why we hold Mary in such regard are John 19:26-27. With his dying breaths, from the cross, Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son,” indicating the beloved disciple. In turn, he looked at the beloved disciple, representing all disciples, and said, “Behold, your mother.” Regardless of whether all Christians accept her as such, she is our mother.

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport and vicar general for the Diocese of Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)

By Father Thom Hennen
Question Box

What can Catholics do to make sure their investments align with Catholic values? — Part II

(Read Part I HERE)

In my last column I started to address the concept of cooperation in evil. Obviously, our goal is never to cooperate (even unwillingly) with evil, but we live in a complicated world. At the very least, as Catholics we have a responsibility to do the best we can to ensure that where we spend or invest our money is not supporting causes that are antithetical to Catholic teaching.

An excellent starting point may be the “Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines” issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2021 and accessible on their website. These are the USCCB’s own investing guidelines, which a small host of Catholic funds and investing companies have also embraced and follow in their own investment strategies.

These guidelines are rooted in the social doctrine of the Church and good stewardship. They offer a few basic investing strategies. First, “Avoid doing harm.” Second, “Actively work for change.” Third, “Promote the common good.” This document outlines five areas where we need to be particularly attentive: (1) protecting human life; (2) promoting human dignity; (3) enhancing the common good; (4) pursuing economic justice; and (5) saving our global common home.

The USCCB pledges not to invest in any company that supports abortion, euthanasia or assisted suicide; that violate human dignity through various forms of discrimination; that support pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation; or that manufacture contraceptives. They further pledge to “encourage companies… to advocate for an understanding of marriage or sexuality that is consistent with Church teaching and natural law.”

The bishops also pledge to do their part to reduce arms production and not to invest in companies whose “primary purpose is to derive revenue from gambling or the production of tobacco or the recreational use of cannabis.”

The U.S. bishops have also pledged themselves to pursue economic justice by encouraging social, environmental and financial responsibility, upholding fair labor standards and just wages and promoting affordable banking and housing.

Lastly, they are committed to care of creation by addressing climate change, promoting conservation and biodiversity, safeguarding water and natural resources, sustainable use of technology, and reducing our impact on the environment.

Probably very few companies are 100% aligned with Catholic teaching. As I often tell people, we are just too darn consistent for the world to make sense of us. There is a profound logic to how we see the world in relationship to God and our neighbor. This affects everything we do.

The classic axiom of Catholic moral theology is that “One may never directly do evil that good may result.” We are not utilitarians or pure pragmatists who simply do what is the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people or makes the most profit. We stand on some non-negotiable principles. At the same time, we are called to be “as shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Mt 10:16). As a body, we can also wield some substantial influence. There are 72 million Catholics in the United States, imagine what we could do if we could act together?

I would encourage you to talk to your own financial advisor about what options are available for socially responsible investing that aligns with Catholic teaching and may even explicitly follow the USCCB guidelines. At both the diocesan and parish level, as well as personally, I know there are ways to go about this. It may be more difficult to negotiate with your employer regarding a 401K program, but who knows? If we don’t speak up, nothing will change.

(Father Thom Hennen serves as the pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport. Send questions to messenger@davenportdiocese.org)