Yit'gadal v'yit'kadash sh'mei raba (Cong: Amein).*

I've started to say the Mourner's Kaddish at services lately, which is weird for me. I was taught as a kid that one only says kaddish for immediate family, usually a deceased parent or, God forbid, a child. Others were taught this as well. As a teenager, I distinctly remember a friend of mine at a B'nai Brith Youth Organization convention service in a slight agony because she felt she couldn't participate in a communal rising and saying of the kaddish there. "It would be like I was already considering my parents to be dead," she said, sitting uncomfortably as most everyone around us rose to say it. I understood; it was how we'd both been taught.

I am now a member of a congregation that communally rises at each service to say this memorial prayer. Up until a month ago, I would rise, but I would not say it, meeting the purpose halfway. There are many, many reasons for a Jewish congregation to do a communal version of this prayer now. Outcry for those who have passed away and left nobody behind in their blood descendants to speak for them here on earth. In memory of those who died in the Shoah perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators. Former Soviet Union refuseniks who died in the USSR having constantly been denied an immigration visa, an act that was part of the living persecution of Jews within the Socialist Republics.

Many, many other reasons.

Before this past month, I have said this prayer only for my departed Jewish great-grandmother and for my departed non-Jewish grandmother...but I found the words coming to me in services for reasons other than the ones I have stated. I feel that I have seen too many people die in my lifetime for me not to tell God that I am here, bearing witness. And though I found myself last night wanting to scream a kaddish to the heavens for a man I once knew that was more reminiscent of Allen Ginsberg than traditional Aramaic, I said the prayer with the congregation.

For mourners, the kaddish must be said each day for a year after a loved one's death. And it cannot be said alone - one must have at least a minyan, a gathering of ten, in order to say it. Communality in prayer is important in my tradition...which is why I read this yesterday (via Poppy Z.) and had to share the following, in the hopes that those who also value communality in their lives, no matter what form it takes, will send opinions to the address that follows, or flood the phone lines:

RUMOR MILL IN OVERDRIVE...BUT THIS HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED BY SEVERAL SOURCES.

Word is leaking out that Archbishop Hughes will be informing dozens of parishes on April 9 that they will cease to exist by the end of 2008...even though many of these parishes, including Our Lady of Good Counsel Church and St. Henry's Church, are vibrant, self-sufficient communities.

BUT BE WARNED...Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. Henry's are not the only churches slated for closure. Yours could be too. And the Archbishop and his chief architects of this plan, including Fr. Michael Jacques, are refusing to meet with parishoners to explain their rationale for the ax they intend to wield on April 9.

THE EXCUSE OF A PRIEST SHORTAGE IS A RUSE. Most of these parishes are self-sufficient and have adequate staffing for masses. Most of these parishes have active ministries. But Archbishop Hughes is not just moving to close these churches, but also petitioning Rome that they cease to be recognized as communities. Our Lady of Good Counsel has existed since the 1800s. Your church may be just as old.

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. Contact:
Archbishop Alfred Hughes
7887 Walmsley Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70125
504.861-9521

DON'T SIT IDLY BY. Your church belongs to you!

No, I haven't converted to Catholicism, folks! But I cannot help but think that this is yet another way to shrink this city and demoralize its residents in the face of that green bottom line. This is already killing folks like Poppy Z., who just recently joined Our Lady of Good Counsel:

...I have no intention of relinquishing my relationship to the Church. However, that relationship is centered around God, the saints, and my church community, not fealty to the Church hierarchy. The importance of the Church vs. the church fails to address the fact that I am not going to go to Mass and listen to some priest harangue me about the evils of homosexuality and abortion. I have no particular reason to think the pastor at St. Stephen's will do that -- in fact, I've never heard any priest in New Orleans aside from William Maestri do that -- but when I lose Father Pat and OLGC, I am going to lose two very important relationships, and I don't feel that the archdiocese is acknowledging that at all. Catholics are fetishists; it's unreasonable not to expect us to have deep attachments to our church buildings, our statues, our places. The idea of OLCG being sold gives me a sickness in the pit of my stomach, something like the way I felt when I saw the shitty "Mexican" restaurant that had taken over the building where Marisol was. If they take these things away from me, they challenge my faith just when I had finally found the courage to proclaim it. I am curious to talk to some cradle Catholics from my parish and see what they think of all this.

In other words, let these people continue to bear witness in places in which they feel a real connection to others, a connection that has been built over time. Islam has now surpassed Catholicism as the dominant world religion - and moves such as this are not going to help the folks in Rome and their representatives maintain what they have, let alone gain new members.

The thing about communality in prayer is that it can reassure us that we are not alone in our struggles. It can give us the strength to take on the world again, in ways great and small. It is one of the reasons why mourners say the kaddish, which outwardly looks like another version of praising God, but it ends with wishes and hopes for peace.

May there be abundant peace from Heaven and life upon us and upon all Israel.
He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace, upon us and upon all Israel.

Amen

____________________

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Head to Maitri's to see some Gambit Weekly tributes to Ashley.

A beautiful, beautiful remembrance of the departed from Ray.

*May God's great Name grow exalted and sanctified (Amen).