People of St. Patrick

Trying not to be more Catholic than the pope

03/14/2023

Mt 18:21-35 Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

Have you ever heard the phrase, “more Catholic than the pope”? That refers to Catholics who are super strict in following Church teaching, that even if the pope himself were to allow certain exceptions to specific rules, they would not avail themselves of it. Now, I have to admit when I was younger I tried to be “more Catholic than the pope” by following the letter of the law, no exceptions. But now that I’m older (but probably not any wiser) I feel that if the pope allows certain exceptions, then I am going to take full advantage of them. I don’t know if that indicates that I’m lazy or maybe I’ve gained some common sense, or maybe both.

One example of being “more Catholic than the pope” is how we treat the Sundays of Lent. Do you practice your Lenten sacrifices on Sundays: giving up chocolate, or TV, or social media, etc.? Some Catholics do. I remember Fr. Tom Elliott used to say: “Jesus did not come out of the desert every six days to take a break from his fasting.”

But if you count the Sundays of Lent as sacrificial days, you end up with 46 days of Lent. Why is that? Well, because every Sunday is considered a mini-Easter. And just like we will not fast but rather feast on Easter Sunday, so every Sunday of the year, including the Sundays of Lent, are days of feasting and not fasting. How you treat the Sundays of Lent, therefore, is an example of being “more Catholic than the pope.”

Let me give you another example a little closer to home, and this applies only to the good people of Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith, AR. One of the 1752 canons of the Code of Canon Law that governs the Catholic Church is canon 1251. That canon reads: “Abstinence from meat…is to be observed on all Fridays unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.” Did you catch that: a solemnity that fell on a Friday would provide an exception to the rule of not eating meat on Fridays of Lent.

But besides the Code of Canon Law, there is also a set of rules for the celebration of the sacraments (baptisms, funerals, Masses, etc.) called the GIRM, an acronym that stands for General Instruction on the Roman Missal. There we read this: “Every parish should celebrate as a solemnity its patronal feast (who it is dedicated to) and the anniversary of its dedication.” Now, before our parish was called “Immaculate Conception” it was called St. Patrick. St. Patrick is therefore our parish’s patron saint.

And the feast of St. Patrick falls on March 17, which this year happens to be a Friday. And when a feast is celebrated as a solemnity it means you treat it as if it were a Sunday. So, just like we are not required to fast and do other sacrifices on the Sundays of Lent, so parishioners of St. Patrick’s are not required to abstain from meat when March 17, our patronal feast day, falls on a Friday. Or, are you “more Catholic than the pope”?

Now, some of you might be wondering how and why our church’s name changed from St. Patrick’s to Immaculate Conception. According to the 150th anniversary book, From the Foundation Up: The Story of a Frontier Parish, it happened in a very unorthodox way. In the 1860’s, the pastor of St. Patrick (as we were called then), Fr. Lawrence Smyth visited Rome and had the chance to meet the pope, the very intimidating Pope Pius IX.

His name in Italian was “Pio Nono” which was very appropriate because he usually said, “No No” to any exceptions to Catholic teachings. Well, as the pope was greeting people in line, Fr. Lawrence Smyth was anxiously waiting his turn, understandably very nervous. When the pope stood before my predecessor, the Vicar of Christ asked him, “My son, what is the name of your parish?” The poor pastor of St. Patrick’s went completely blank, and could not remember the name.

But he had a little Irish luck and suddenly he blurted out: “It is the Church of the Immaculate Conception.” And Pio Nono smiled broadly and said approvingly: “Yes, yes.” Clearly the pope was pleased. Now, why had that answer been so lucky? Well, in 1854 the same Pio Nono (Pius IX) had written an infallible papal decree called Inefffabilis Deus, where he solemnly declared that Mary was immaculately conceived. In other words, Fr. Smyth gave a very politically and spiritually astute answer to the pope. He was saying, in effect, I am not more Catholic than the pope. If he declares or teaches something, then that’s good enough for me.

So, this coming Friday, the parishioners of Immaculate Conception, the parish formerly known as St. Patrick’s, will be put to the test. We must all ask ourselves: am I more Catholic than the pope? And I will be answering that question while cutting into a juicy steak on Friday night.

Praised be Jesus Christ!