Things I'm Thankful For

Plus Updates on the Syro-Malabar Church and Synodality in the U.S. and Germany

Today in my introduction to theology class, we were talking about prayer, including the different types of prayer: adoration, petition, lamentation, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. I reminded them that one of the daily Gospel readings from last week was the story from Luke in which ten lepers cried out, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” But after all ten were healed, only one returned and “fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” (Lk. 17:11-19). I pointed out that it was probably also the case that for every nine times we ask God for something, we give God thanks only one time, if that.

So, since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be good to write about some of the things I am thankful for. Then afterwards I have a round-up of recent Catholic news.

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First of all, I am thankful for you, the readers of this newsletter. In recent weeks, I have been to meetings where people have out of the blue told me that morning’s newsletter was really helpful for them. I’ve received emails from subscribers sharing their own professional journeys, as I’ve been sharing mine through the newsletter. Others have reached out to me to let me know that my coverage of the recent Synod has been insightful. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that the Window Light newsletter is helping people make sense of what’s going on in this Church of ours and assisting them in their own professional and spiritual journeys.

I’m also thankful that the readership of the newsletter is growing. Since the beginning of October, right before the Synod began, the number of subscribers to the newsletter has grown by almost 20 percent. And the number of paid subscribers has grown by 40 percent! Readership is a bit harder to track because it often comes in spurts—my post on salvation outside the Church from back in May has been by far the most popular article to date—but the number of readers for a typical post does seem to be growing, as well.

But regardless, thank you for taking the time to subscribe to and read the newsletter. Thanks for thoughtfully digesting my humble writings and reaching out to me with your responses. Thanks for sharing articles, recommending the newsletter to others, and even giving people gift subscriptions. You all make this journey worthwhile.

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Second, I am thankful that I have found full-time employment that is compatible with, even if distinct from, my vocation as a theologian. I launched the newsletter with an article on the spiritual struggle of the job search and the recognition that my vocation as a theologian would likely no longer be tied to being a professor of theology. I announced a couple of weeks ago that in December, I will start working full-time as an administrator at the University of Iowa, in particular working on assessment for the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (I started working part-time last month).

Of course, many theologians have moved into higher ed administration, although I imagine it is fairly unusual to do so at a public university! While one could fairly easily integrate helping to lead or administer at a Catholic university with the vocation of a theologian, the fact that I will be working at a secular institution reinforces that, for me, the two vocations will be mostly separate. I think we’ll need to wait and see exactly what that means!

In my essay on the vocation of a theologian, I noted that a theologian not working as a professor faces some real challenges in carrying out that vocation. I am thankful that, by working at a major university, one of those challenges—maintaining access to scholarly publications—won’t be an obstacle. Of course, I still think it’s important for us to find creative ways to provide access to theologians working in other professions who don’t have the full resources of a university library ready to hand (speaking of which, the Journal of Moral Theology, which has from its beginning been an open access journal, was just recently added to SCOPUS, an international journal of open access journals across many disciplines, making it easier for readers to access the JMT’s articles).

The other challenge I mentioned for theologians outside of the professoriate was maintaining their participation in the scholarly community of theologians, particularly, although not exclusively, by attending conferences. Here, I am not so lucky, since I won’t have access to funding or time off to attend theology conferences. Whatever participation I can muster will depend on my own resources and be done on my own time. Still, I have to be thankful that I will have full-time employment that will provide me with the resources to even make that a possibility, and I’m also thankful that professional societies and event organizers are increasingly exploring online options for conferences and other events.

(Photo: Meritt Thomas, Unsplash)

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Finally, I am thankful that not only do I have full-time employment, but that for the first time in a long while, my wife and I will both be living in the same house with stable, full-time employment. In my essay on my job search and vocation as a theologian, I mentioned that for a long time while I was working at Marymount University in Virginia, my wife and I were living and working in two different states, victims of the “two-body problem.” I was able to work virtually from Iowa for a few semesters beginning in 2020, after the outbreak of COVID-19, but always with the underlying anxiety that I would need to return to Virginia or find employment here in Iowa. When I finally left Marymount, I came back to Iowa to stay, but without employment. This entire process has been extremely stressful and spiritually challenging.

I always imagined that when I finally found a job, I would throw a big party and invite everyone from here in Iowa who had supported me in the search (and everyone else who’s been supporting me would be present in spirit!). The other day, however, I was thinking that, now that what I had been working towards has actually happened, I feel more like Noah when he found dry land and came out of the ark. Noah made an offering to God (Gen. 8:20), was blessed by God (9:1) and received God’s covenant (9:2-17), and then proceeded to plant a vineyard, get drunk, and pass out naked in his tent (9:20-21). It’s certainly possible to conclude that Noah was innocently unaware of alcohol’s effects—the story tells us that “Noah . . . was the first to plant a vineyard” (9:20). But it’s also possible to interpret Noah’s behavior as a response to the trauma of witnessing most of life on earth wiped out and of the ensuing survivor’s guilt. I’m of course exaggerating by comparing myself to Noah, but the experience of finally overcoming the trauma of being separated from my spouse and having to leave behind my career of almost 17 years has been a mixture of joy and disorientation, as well as exhaustion that hasn’t left much room for celebration. And there’s definitely a bit of survivor’s guilt since I know some who have left behind, or been forced out of, academia haven’t had as soft a landing. Maybe the holidays will provide an opportunity to finally relax and celebrate the future. And maybe some day I can have that party.

Thank you for reading, and “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in all circumstances give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Giovanni Bellini, Drunkenness of Noah, ca. 1515

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Of Interest…

• An update on a story I have been following off and on in the newsletter: In the Archeparchy of Ernakulam–Angamaly, the episcopal see of the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India, there has been a long-running dispute over the liturgy. In 1599, the Eastern Rite Christians who had reunited with Rome just decades earlier were placed under the jurisdiction of the Latin Archdiocese of Goa, leading a long period of “Latinization” of the liturgy lasting into the twentieth century, when the Vatican began encouraging the restoration of more traditional Eastern liturgical practices (and restored the autonomy of the Syro-Malabar Church in 1923). Even so, after Vatican II, the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly adopted the practice of the priest facing the people during the liturgy, in contrast to the more traditional practice of facing the altar, leading to a diversity of practice within the Syro-Malabar Church. In 1999, the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church developed a compromise liturgy in which the priest would face the altar during the consecration but face the people during other parts of the Church. In 2021, the Synod voted to make this compromise liturgy mandatory throughout the Church. The majority of priests in Ernakulam-Angamaly have never accepted this compromise, however, insisting on celebrating the entire liturgy facing the people. In recent years, the Vatican has become involved, with Pope Francis giving his approval to the Synod compromise, but to no avail—in 2022, the priests even burned effigies of Archbishop George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Leonardo Sandri, the then-Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Eastern Churches. This past August, a commission of bishops formed to resolve the controversy had made a deal with the priests of the archeparchy that appeared to resolve the issue. That deal has now broken down. The deal would have ensured that the synodal form of the liturgy was celebrated at the cathedral, at the minor seminary, and at an important pilgrimage site, but that otherwise priests could celebrate in the manner of their choice. Priests would also have to swear their loyalty to Pope Francis and the leaders of the Syro-Malabar Church. The first sign of trouble came in September, when the pope’s delegate sent to mediate the conflict, Slovakian Archbishop Cyril Vasil, rejected the agreement and continued to insist on the mandatory implementation of the synodal liturgy. Now the priests of the archeparchy have threatened to withdraw from the agreement, ironically pointing out that the Vatican and the archeparchy’s leadership have not been acting in a synodal way. Of course, burning effigies is not very synodal, either.

• At America, Bill McCormick, S.J. has an important reflection on one of the major challenges for the Catholic Church in the United States in the decades to come: the theological and political divide between a more conservative clergy and an increasingly progressive laity. McCormick helpfully argues that rather than seeing this trend as a victory or a defeat, depending on one’s perspective, we see this as a challenge that will make us all losers unless we engage in dialogue with one another. He sees the ongoing synodal process, particularly the conversations on the Synod’s final document that should take place in the following year, as an opportunity to begin this dialogue. McCormick does point a significant problem with this proposal: many members of the clergy have been skeptical of the synodal process. Yet, he continues, it will be to the advantage of these pastors and future pastors for them to listen to their congregants.

• Back in September, I wrote that the European continental assembly held in preparation for October’s Synod was really defined by differing views on the Germany Synodal Way (or Synodal Path), a series of conferences held by the German bishops and lay leaders from 2019 through 2023, organized to discuss the pressing issues facing the Church in Germany. The Synodal Way proposed a handful of controversial recommendations, like a revision of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality in the Catechism, approval for the blessing of same-sex unions, and a reexamination of the ordination of women. A committee formed to carry out the Synodal Way’s recommendations has also begun work on establishing a permanent Synodal Council that would have some authority over Germany’s bishops. The Vatican has already stated that such a council is inconsistent with the Church’s structures, and now Pope Francis himself has weighed in, as well, rejecting the idea of a Synodal Council in a letter published on Tuesday. Pope Francis had already expressed reservations about the Synodal Way in 2019 and earlier this year, criticizing it for working in a “top-down” manner.