St. Brigid is a parish in Westbury, New York, which, following the Irish custom of dedicating water wells to St. Brigid, became a well for people to gather around. Expanding on his 16-month series of reports on this Catholic parish, Newsday writer/editor Keeler offers a blueprint for what a parish “community” can really become. Keeler traces the history of the parish under two pastors with distinctive styles, also detailing the growth of an ordained staff who serve over 23,000 Catholics from diverse backgrounds. Starting in the post-Vatican II era, Father Fred Schaefer reshaped the parish, with community input. In 1989, he was replaced by Father Francis Xavier Gaeta, who continued the idea of living the gospel and making people feel welcome. In addition to engaging interviews with individuals whose lives were enriched by their involvement in the parish, there is a separate chapter on what parishioners can do in their own parishes nationwide. Recommended for all collections.
“A Medical Mission Sister, Winter . . . writes on Czech-born Ludmila Javorova (b. 1932), a Catholic who ministered to the underground church in Czechoslovakia under communism. During the long, complex process of spiritual survival, Javorova was ordained in December 1970 by a friend of her family, Bishop Felix Davidek (1921-88), himself clandestinely consecrated. A scholar and physician, he served a large hidden network of believers, despite his imprisonments and illnesses, and ordained several unnamed women and some married men. The book combines Winter’s own commentary, lengthy texts from her taped interviews with Javorova, and the story of controversial Bishop Davidek. An official Vatican statement in February 2000 declared the ordinations invalid while compassionately recognizing the severe circumstances under which they occurred. The humble Javorova never celebrated mass publicly and accepts official church teaching. This informative personal record of suppression of basic human rights is recommended for academic and public libraries.
“‘If we wait for a man to approve this, it will never happen, so we must go ahead without it.’ Felix Davidek spoke these urgent words in 1970 before secretly ordaining Ludmila Javorova, his trusted aide and a woman, as a Roman Catholic priest in Czechoslovakia’s underground church. Winter, a Medical Mission Sister in the United States, tells Javorova’s full story for the first time in this compelling chronicle of the Koinotes, the fellowship that Davidek, in partnership with Javorova, formed in the 1960s while Czechoslovakia was under harsh Communist rule. Winter’s account of Koinotes is disjointed and clumsy in places, but its essential facts are so intriguing as to cover even a multitude of literary sins. Though told in Javorova’s voice, the story reaches beyond her extraordinary ordination to embrace the man who made it possible: Davidek, the passion-filled priest who was consecrated a bishop in the underground church in 1967. Davidek died in 1988, before the fall of Communism in 1989 and before his protégé’s clandestine ordination became widely known. Although she is barred by the Vatican from functioning as a priest, Javorova has emerged as a heroine of the women’s ordination movement, particularly in the American Catholic Church. Proponents of the cause will applaud her courage, and even opponents will find it difficult to not be impressed with her spirituality and humility.”
Open Mind, Faithful Heart contains the texts of 48 meetings Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio had with priests in Argentina. While the contents of the book, replete with Scripture references, were meant primarily for the clergy, the laity can certainly gain insights from them. Some of those insights, however, may be unwelcome initially — because they involve conquering our own pride.
The person who does not connect in some way with Open Mind, Faithful Heart is either spiritually blind or a veritable saint. Readers will be relentlessly but lovingly challenged throughout the book, now available in English, to remove all barriers between themselves and the sacred humanity of Christ. Three common barriers are impatience, unfaithfulness and lack of surrender in prayer.
Regarding impatience, Cardinal Bergoglio taught priests in Buenos Aires the following: “In attempting to skip over stages of growth, the impatient heart ceases to be a creature; it becomes, instead, a creator of shallow projects of protest that are inherently self-seeking.”
So what’s the answer? Christian hope: “In [Christ] we learn that God is great above all, that sin is ephemeral and that patience and constancy are born of hope.” This is why, the cardinal explained, the kingdom of God does not come about suddenly, but is slowly realized until the final coming of Christ.
Regarding unfaithfulness, Cardinal Bergoglio pointed out: “When we are unfaithful, we usually betray not just ideas, but concrete persons.”
“Joy is the sign that our hearts have found what is good for them. But the ultimate good for our hearts does not consist in our domination of any situation,” he stated. “Our ultimate good lies in our love for concrete persons: for our neighbors, for Our Lady, for [the] Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Over and above these concrete persons, there exists no ideal realm of values that merits our zealous efforts.”
Behind unfaithfulness, impatience or any other failing is a lack of surrender in prayer, he said. We should heed the advice in Open Mind, Faithful Heart: “Our ability to seek out, discover, define and orient our mission — and be obedient to it — comes to us and grows in us only through prayer.” The fulfillment of this destiny takes a mind open to the truth of God and a heart faithful to that truth, as Cardinal Bergoglio well reminds readers.