Ite Missa Est

The following is my article which was printed in the June 26, 2011 issue of the "Umatuna", the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Agana. It can be read in entirety here. "Ite Missa Est" will be the title of a weekly column I will write regarding living the Faith beyond the church doors.

“Sunday Catholics.” It’s a common accusation leveled at some who seem to pay little heed to their faith outside of Sunday Mass. Certainly, only God can judge the heart, but the allegation still resonates. 

There are many reasons why one might neglect his or her faith during the week, but perhaps one reason could be simply a translation problem.  At the end of the Mass, we are told  “The Mass is ended, go in peace.” There’s something about that word “ended”, you know, like, “We’re done for this Sunday...out a here...let’s go to brunch””, and so on. 


Sometimes we hear “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” That’s perhaps a little more of an encouragement to continue one’s faith life beyond the church doors (“serve the Lord”), but it still feels like “Have a good week and see you next Sunday”. 

The Latin text from which these dismissal phrases derive is “Ite, missa est”, which literally translates: “Go, sent is.” Hmmm. “Go, sent is”. What to make of this? The Catholic Dictionary tells us that “Ite, missa est” is “one of the most ancient Roman formulae, as can be seen by its archaic and difficult expression”, and notes that even medieval commentators were “much exercised to explain the meaning of the strange expression.”

Abortion on Guam - What Next? A Catholic View

The following appeared in the June 19, 2011 issue of the "Umatuna", the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Agana, Guam

Because The Esperansa Project does not engage the abortion issue from a particular religious perspective, Tim Rohr of the Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam, was asked to address abortion relative to the teachings of the Catholic Church. His comments follow.

Abortion on Guam - What’s Next? A Catholic view

On procured abortion, the teaching of the Catholic Church is unequivocal: “a grave offense...a crime against human life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church), “an unspeakable crime” (Gaudium et Spes), the “most unjust of discriminations” and “murder...particularly serious and deplorable” (Evangelium Vitae).

A Response to Julian Bond of the NAACP

This letter was printed as a Letter to the Editor in the Pacifc Daily News, June 2011

In his article “Marriage equality is civil rights issue” (PDN, 06/12/11), NAACP chief, Julian Bond, misquotes Loving v. Virginia. In fact, he literally “miss quotes” as in “misses quotation marks” around the words “basic civil rights of man”. Those words are in quotations in the Loving decision because the court was referencing a previous case: Skinner v. Oklahoma (1944). 

The context of the quote in Skinner is as follows: “We are dealing here with legislation which involves one of the basic civil rights of man. Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race.” 

Thus, in contrast to Mr. Bond’s claim that Loving paves a precedent for same-sex marriage, the Loving court (by referencing Skinner) actually remakes the case for the right to marry in light of the procreative potential of the marital union and the fundamental necessity of such unions for “the very existence and survival of the [human] race.” In fact, even if the Loving court did not reference Skinner, the words “very existence and survival” (though they also appear in Skinner) can only refer to a potentially procreative union. 

Nothing is ever said in Loving, in Skinner, or elsewhere in the law, about marriage being for the good or happiness of a couple. Marriage, in the law, is a straightforward civil institution, deserving of protection and social incentives due to its unique capacity to produce, socialize, and educate the necessary next generation - naturally sterile couples (and irresponsible parents) notwithstanding - upon which the “very existence and survival” of society depends.

Also, Bond’s appeal to the aging Mildred Loving’s desire to see marital rights extended to same-sex couples is about as substantive as an appeal to Norma McCovey’s desire to see an end to legalized abortion. McCovey is, today, an ardent pro-life activist. But in 1973 she was Jane Roe, the pro-abortion poster girl of Roe v. Wade. 

Bond, and others who wish to advance the case for same-sex marriage, must construct arguments that do not manipulate social, historical, anthropological, and juridical realities in an attempt to manufacture precedent. Such constructions simply undermine the credibility of the cause and those associated with it. Perhaps that is why, under Bond, the influence of the NAACP has seriously waned.

Tim Rohr is a resident of Agat

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary & The Synod of Capua

Morning musings of a Devil's Advocate: on the beatification of JPII

Today, May 1, is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Divine Mercy Sunday, May Day, my eldest daughter's birthday, and the day Pope John Paul II will be beatified (final step before sainthood).

The Royal Wedding and the Thing Itself

The Royal Wedding - I didn't catch it all. Caught a rerun about the time the homily was given. Wasn't going to bother watching. We only get 3 channels in Guam (via antenna). Was going to turn to PBS for Saturday morning cartoons for my kids. Decided to give the remote a random punch just to see if the Royal deal was on. It was. Figured it would be worth a few moments just for the spectacle.

Reflection on Good Friday trek up Mt. Jumallong Manglo

Every year on Good Friday I take my children up Mt. Jumallong where each year thousands of Guam residents trek to the top with a large wooden cross. However, for many years we did not go up in the morning with the crowds, but in the afternoon where we had some privacy to pray along the way.

This year I decided to go up in the morning again just for the experience. As expected, there was the usual mix: people praying, people cussing, people partying, people shouting, running.

It bothered me at first to hear the F word and the S word casually flung about as we attempted to enter into the holiest of experiences: the way of the cross. I kept my head down and trudged upward, stopping at each station to pray with my kids and concluding our prayers with a singing of the Stabat Mater.

By the grace of God my anger at the disrespect and rabble which met me at every turn dissipated as I realized that this is probably exactly what accompanied the original way of the cross: praying, cussing, partying, joking, casual curiosity, rabble (that's such a good word)....

It helped me reflect on something I heard on a Christian radio station yesterday: that Christ's real suffering was way beyond the physical. The speaker mentioned that lots of people suffered crucifixion. Christ's physical sufferings were not unique. What was unique about the suffering of Christ was the inner crucifixion he suffered: the rejection of His love by those he "knit in their mother's womb" (Ps 139).

But still couldn't help but think that such disrespect and casual observance is something fairly new for Guam. Too bad.

Prayer for Consecration of the Day

O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, may it please Thee this day to order and to hallow, to rule and to govern our hearts and our bodies, our thoughts, our words and our works, according to Thy law and in the doing of Thy commandments, that we, being helped by Thee, may here and hereafter worthily be saved and delivered by Thee, O Saviour of the world, who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.

DIRIGIRE et sanctificare, regere et gubernare dignare, Domine Deus, Rex coeli et terrae, hodie corda et corpora nostra, sensus, sermones et actus nostros in lege tua et in operibus mandatorum tuorum; ut hic et in aeternum, te auxilante, salvi et liberi esse mereamur, Salvator mundi: Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum, Amen.

Mark 11: 22-24

In illo tempore: Respondens Jesus discipulis suis, ait illis: Habete fidem Dei.
At that time, Jesus answering, said to His disciples: Have the Faith of God.
Amen dico vobis, quia quicumque dixerit huic monti:
Amen, I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain:
Tollere, et mittere in mare, et non tere in mare, et non haesitaverit in corde suo, se crediderit, quia quodcumque dixerit, fiat, fiet ei. Propteria fiat, fiet ei.
Be thou removed and be cast into the sea; and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe that whatsoever he hat said shall be done, it shall be done unto him.
Proptera dico vobis: Omnia quaecumque orantes petitis, credite quia accidpietis, et evenient vobis.
Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come unto you.

The Griswold Connection

On August 4, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. Compared to the plaintiffs, the defense was ill-prepared and under represented. But perhaps its greatest liability was its principal argument:: “the central purpose of marriage...(is to) promote naturally procreative sexual relationships and to channel them into stable, enduring unions for the sake of producing and raising the next generation.”

Under this banner, the defense was doomed, not on August 4, 2010, but on June 7, 1965. On that day the Supreme Court declared a Connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraceptives within marriage to be unconstitutional (Griswold v. Connecticut). That such a law was still in effect as late as 1965 (several states had similar laws) underscores, not just the government’s understanding of marriage, but it’s expectation of it...at least until 1965.

Catholic-Muslim History and the Holy Name of Mary

For the last nine days in traditional novena fashion, the parish of Agana, has been celebrating its patron saint, the Blessed Virgin Mary - under the title of "Dulce Nombre Maria. The novena culminated on September 12, the actual feast day, and of which the actual name of the feast is "The Holy Name of Mary".

It might come as a surprise for some Agana parishioners to know that they were celebrating the defeat of the Muslims at the Battle of Vienna on September 12, 1683. But surprise or not, this is the reason for the feast. The feast had been celebrated in various countries and within various religious communities and on various days since 1513.

However, upon the defeat of the "Turks" (the medieval name for Muslims) by the forces assembled by King John Sobieski of Poland, Pope Innocent XI moved the feast of The Holy Name of Mary, under whose banner Sobieski had fought, to September 12 and extended the feast to the Universal Church.

This wasn't the first time a Pope had instituted a feast in honor of a Muslim defeat in the name of Mary. October 7 is the Feast of the Holy Rosary and indeed October has come to be known as the "Month of the Rosary" because of the Christian defeat of the Turkish navy at the Battle of Lepanto in 1517, a date honored with a feast instituted by Pius V and extended to the Universal Church.

To read more see: http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/marys-name.htm and http://www.thefreelibrary.com/We+go+way+back:+the+history+of+Muslim-Catholic+relations+is+one+of...-a0158388374

Polygamy, Cordoba House, and the President

Note: Many of my personal friends are “moderate Muslims” who are often better examples of Christianity than some Christians. And on some issues (e.g. contraception) I, as a Catholic, am more on the same page as my Muslim friends than most Christians...including Catholics. However, the Koran says what the Koran says. Thus the following personal observation:

More good news for those who advocate polygamy for religious reasons (Mormons, Muslims, some Jewish sects, Bedouins, some African cults, etc.)