The Commonplace Book of Zadok the Roman

Pop over to the Cnytr

2010-07-13T19:24:00.001+02:00

... to congratulate her on her marriage and to encourage her to start a Jap-Cath-Navy blog.

In Our Time

2010-02-24T21:39:00.003+01:00

BBC Radio 4's In Our Time is one of my favourite radio programmes. If you're interested in the history of ideas, it's always worth a listen. They've just launched a new website with an archive of all their past episodes.

The Deaths of the Saints

2010-02-03T13:38:00.004+01:00

Not for the Faint-Hearted
I was browsing for images of St Blaise today, and stumbled across this surprsing image of the saint. Now, it's not pious iconography, but I'm sure that at least some of my readership will enjoy the Deaths of the Saints blog. (Maybe this comes under the Punk Catholic heading...) If you're not squeamish, you should probably check out St Agatha, St Theobald and St Bartholomew.

St Joan of Arc
More in tune with the Hermeneutic of Continuity, the excellent Matt Alderman has recently completed two images of St Joan of Arc - here and here.

Pope to English & Welsh Bishops: Look to Newman

2010-02-01T14:49:00.004+01:00

In this morning's Bolletino we have the Holy Father's address to the Bishops of England and Wales. (The Scots have their own episcopal conference, and the whole of Ireland has a single hierarchy, in case you were wondering.) Damian Thompson has his own take on what the Pope had to say. (Little praise, plenty of coded warnings.) However, I prefer to focus on what the Pope says about Newman:

Make it your concern, then, to draw on the considerable gifts of the lay faithful in England and Wales and see that they are equipped to hand on the faith to new generations comprehensively, accurately, and with a keen awareness that in so doing they are playing their part in the Church’s mission. In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free. Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that "kindly light" wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost. Great writers and communicators of his stature and integrity are needed in the Church today, and it is my hope that devotion to him will inspire many to follow in his footsteps.
Much attention has rightly been given to Newman’s scholarship and to his extensive writings, but it is important to remember that he saw himself first and foremost as a priest. In this Annus Sacerdotalis, I urge you to hold up to your priests his example of dedication to prayer, pastoral sensitivity towards the needs of his flock, and passion for preaching the Gospel. You yourselves should set a similar example. Be close to your priests, and rekindle their sense of the enormous privilege and joy of standing among the people of God as alter Christus. In Newman’s words, "Christ’s priests have no priesthood but His … what they do, He does; when they baptize, He is baptizing; when they bless, He is blessing" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, VI 242). Indeed, since the priest plays an irreplaceable role in the life of the Church, spare no effort in encouraging priestly vocations and emphasizing to the faithful the true meaning and necessity of the priesthood. Encourage the lay faithful to express their appreciation of the priests who serve them, and to recognize the difficulties they sometimes face on account of their declining numbers and increasing pressures. The support and understanding of the faithful is particularly necessary when parishes have to be merged or Mass times adjusted. Help them to avoid any temptation to view the clergy as mere functionaries but rather to rejoice in the gift of priestly ministry, a gift that can never be taken for granted.

Round Up...

2010-01-27T22:57:00.002+01:00

Cnytr has twisted my arm, and made me remind you all that she's blogging again. Pester her and persuade her to post more about her trip to Rome, her forthcoming wedding and her new puppy.

Incidentally, she and Deirdre seemed to have had a most excellent time when they met up in Rome. I'm thrilled that Deirdre has promoted me to the rank of 'Interesting Person'. I love Rome 'blogs, so I'm also adding her friend Elizabeth to my Blogroll. I presume they both have examinations at the moment, so I'm expecting both of them to do a lot of blogging as I always did when I had examinations. ;)

Matthew of the Holy Whapping posts the funniest thing I've read so far this year. He shows that quite apart from being a fine rubricist, Fortesque offers tips on semantics, airlibe travel and anger management.

Finally, I have been following the Blessed Columba Marmion Novena over at Vultus Christi. Marmion is the Summa of St Thomas, converted into spiritual theology, along with a dash of St Paul. I'm a huge fan of his Christ: The Ideal of the Priest and have just started his Christ in His Mysteries.

Having issues and the defining issues?

2010-01-27T19:36:00.003+01:00

I stumbled across the following article and something struck me. The author says:

How come the deciding issues of whether one is a member of the church or not always seems to come down to issues concerning sexuality.
The usual suspects, gay marriage, abortion, etc are always and ever the issues that we are told are the defining issues as to whether or not we are catholic.
Has anyone ever heard of a bishop saying that tax fraud barred one from being a catholic? Has ever a bishop clearly and unambiguously spoken so strongly against the evil of poverty - one in six of the world's population are starving?

The author's point of view is not uncommon these days, and demonstrates how the media filters people's perceptions of the Church. You'll note that he mentions abortion as being one of those issues 'concerning sexuality' which is a defining issue. I would argue that the question of abortion primarily concerns the value of life - the 5th commandment rather than the 6th commandment - and that the author neglects to mention the Church's resistance to euthanasia.

Yes, the meaning of sexuality is one of those areas where the teaching of the Church meets most resistance in the modern world. But it's not something which the Church obsesses about. It's the media who are sex-obsessed. It seems to me that papal and episcopal statements are combed by the media for passing references to sexual morality, these are then cherry-picked and reported, and the rest of what the Church has to teach is neglected. When the Church speaks out against poverty or on environmental issues or against greed, it simply doesn't make headlines. Why? Because it doesn't really titillate the head-line makers. It doesn't attract the attention of the sub-editors. A fair reading of the speeches and messages of any of the recent Pontiffs - they're all available on the Vatican website - will show that the Church speaks out on a whole gamut of issues and offers a radically challenging and uplifting vision of the human person.

Meanwhile, the author of that article presents the following as his parting shot:

Also, is there not something unusual about bishops going on and on in such solemn tones on matters of sexuality while they adorn themselves with chains, crosses, rings and long frocks?
Is one ever struck by the visual appearance of so many bishops?

Again, it seems to me that the problem is with the imagination of the author... Normal episcopal regalia becomes chains, crosses, rings and long frocks... And if he's talking about Irish Bishops, he should be very well aware that they normally present themselves for public consumption in a clerical suit.

Long time, no blog...

2010-01-21T18:13:00.003+01:00

I'm afraid it's been much too long since I've blogged regularly. I sometimes feel like posting a rant in the key of St Bernard or St Gregory the Great about how the cares of the world and the pastoral life are keeping me from 'blogging. Of course, they complained that their activity was keeping them from contemplation, which is much more worthy and noble, so I guess I'll just keep quiet.
Anyway, Fr Z has dug some interesting stuff out of my archives in order to mark today's feast of St Agnes. The Vatican's Youtube channel has some great footage of the traditional blessing of the lambs.

Since I last blogged, Jane & Lizzy have updated their template, so we look forward to hearing more from them. *Hint-hint*

I should also give a 'shout-out' to Seraphic whose book is being launched shortly.

What else? Deirdre has an excellent post for those who might be considering studying in Rome. The Irish Catholic has a new website. And Cardinal Newman is going to be beatified! (I've long been a fan.)

As I often do when stuck for original content, I'll conclude with an except from one of his Parochial and Plain Sermons. This was written when he was an Anglican, but it certainly has something to say to us as we celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

[L]et me remind you, my brethren, how nearly the whole doctrine of ecclesiastical order is connected with personal obedience to God's will. Obedience to the rule of order is every where enjoined in Scripture; obedience to it is an act of faith. Were there ten thousand objections to it, yet, supposing unity were clearly and expressly enjoined by Christ, faith would obey in spite of them. But in matter of fact there are no such objections, nor any difficulty of any moment in the way of observing it. What, then, is to be said to the very serious circumstance, that, in spite of the absence of such impediments, vast numbers of men conceive that they may dispense with it at their good pleasure. In all the controversies of fifteen hundred years, the duty of continuing in order and in quietness was professed on all sides, as one of the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. But now multitudes, both in and without the Church, have set it up on high as a great discovery, and glory in it as a great principle, that forms are worth nothing. They allow themselves to wander about from one communion to another, or from church to meeting-house, and make it a boast that they belong to no party and are above all parties; and argue, that provided men agree in some principal doctrines of the Gospel, it matters little whether they agree in any thing besides.

But those who boast of belonging to no party, and think themselves enlightened in this same confident boasting, I would, in all charity, remind that our Saviour Himself constituted what they must, on their principles, admit to be a party; that the Christian Church is simply and literally a party or society instituted by Christ. He bade us keep together. Fellowship with each other, mutual sympathy, and what spectators from without call party-spirit, all this is a prescribed duty; and the sin and the mischief arise, not from having a party, but in having many parties, in separating from that one body or party which He has appointed; for when men split the one Church of Christ into fragments, they are doing their part to destroy it altogether.

But while the Church of Christ is literally what the world calls a party, it is something far higher also. It is not an institution of man, not a mere political establishment, not a creature of the state, depending on the state's breath, made and unmade at its will, but it is a Divine society, a great work of God, a true relic of Christ and His Apostles, as Elijah's mantle upon Elisha, a bequest which He has left us, and which we must keep for His sake; a holy treasure which, like the ark of Israel, looks like a thing of earth, and is exposed to the ill-usage and contempt of the world, but which in its own time, and according to the decree of Him who gave it, displays today, and tomorrow, and the third day, its miracles, as of mercy so of judgment, "lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail."

'Mentioned in the Murphy Report'

2009-12-28T01:31:00.001+01:00

This news report is worth reading. It deals with the pressure on Bishop Martin Drennan to resign. The key sentence - to my mind - is:

The bishop has been under mounting media pressure since four of his colleagues mentioned in the Murphy report on how allegations of child sex abuse were handled in the Dublin archdiocese have tendered resignations.

Firstly, the 'story' here is about media pressure. This pressure which the media applies is one which doesn't come under near enough scrutiny. What is the motivation behind this pressure and who sees that it is applied responsibly?

Secondly, it seems to me that the only accusation leveled against Bishop Drennan is that he is 'mentioned in the Murphy Report'. This phrase seems to have taken on a voodoo-like power. It portends all kinds of wrong-doing and suggests imminent disaster for the one 'mentioned'.

What worries me in this case is that Bishop Drennan is merely 'mentioned' in the Murphy Report. He's not criticised in the Murphy Report. His behaviour wasn't found to be inadequate or harmful in the Murphy Report. No, he was 'mentioned' in the Murphy Report, and therefore there is 'Media Pressure' for him to resign. What is this? Some form of McCarthyism? What if one were to point out that Archbishop Martin is also 'mentioned' in the Murphy Report? Will there be media pressure for his resignation? Indeed, TV and Radio personality Gay Byrne is, if you want to be technical about it, also 'mentioned' in the Report. I guess he's lucky that he's already retired or he might have to face pressure as well.

To my mind, the targeting of Bishop Drennan shows that the line has been crossed between the media acting in the public interest and the media stoking up a witch hunt. Bishop Drennan has been accused of no crime or negligence. He was made Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 - at a time when it seems that the handling of abuse cases was being put right. Anyone who has taken the time to actually read and digest the Murphy Report will find nothing even mildly critical of him.

What then is his crime? Guilt-by-association with Cardinal Connell? Being in the wrong place several years after the wrong time? Or is it simply the case of someone wanting an episcopal scalp?

On the Dublin Report

2009-11-28T02:11:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure what can fittingly be said about the Dublin Report. I guess that I'd suggest reading the report itself rather than relying on media accounts or analysis. It's a fair report. It lays blame justly without having an axe to grind. The details of the abuse - and the realisation that much of it could have been prevented had senior clergymen acted decisively and with spine is sickening.
A Humbler Church?
There have been calls for a 'humbler' Church. I'm a young man. I don't have any real memory of a time when the Church 'ran' everything in society, so some of those calls don't make a whole lot of sense to me. They seem to be aimed at the realities of an Ireland which is almost dead. Likewise, the cliché of rich senior prelates living the high-life and a culture of unquestioning obedience doesn't really relate to anything I've seen in modern Ireland. Yes, our Bishops may live in historic buildings, but the few bishops I know live very modestly behind those walls. I freely admit that no priest in Ireland is going to be living on the breadline, but many of the priests I know gave up very prestigious careers and livelihoods in the secular arena for a life which pays significantly less and brings its own demands and pressures. They're not asking applause for that. However, I think that they do, however, deserve the presumption of sincerity.
Whose humility?
If there needs to be a humbler Church, it seems to me that we need to strive for a holy humility. It sometimes seems to me that when people talk about a 'humbler Church', they really mean a Church who doesn't really believe in anything any more and a faith which doesn't make any moral demands. I sometimes suspect that what is being asked for is a Church which dispenses spirituality, affirmation and pretty ceremonies without upsetting anyone by actually preaching the Gospel. That's not the kind of humility we need. Reading about the abuse, one has to wonder whether the men who did had any kind of belief in Christ or judgement or perdition or charity or kindness?
I think we need to look towards the holy and zealous humility of St Francis of Assisi and St John Vianney. We clergy have a particular responsibility within the Church. We need to be humble before the teaching of the Church and do our best to teach it by word and example. We need to believe and preach more fervently. We need to cleave more firmly to the Truth who is Christ. Our humility can't be a going quietly into the night, but a growing submission to the demands of our priesthood. "Holiness rather than peace, " as Newman used to say. The unholiness uncovered by the Dublin Report can only be atoned for by a holy humility. That holy humility must also include a burning zeal for justice. The laxity which led senior clerics to hurt so many people by not dealing firmly and aggressively with abuse can never be repeated. We mustn't be afraid to hold ourselves to the highest standards of probity in all matters. We should not resent the idea of bishops having a bit of spine in dealing with priests who step out of line.
Continuing to be a Priest
Despite the report, I'm still happy to be a priest. Indeed, because it's a fair and just report, I'm somewhat relieved that it's finally out there. Anyone who's been following the news for the past few years would have known what kind of horrors were going to be published, and no one within the Church can object to an uncovering of the truth an a fair judgement. Having read the report, I know that what's in it has made it much more difficult to be a priest in Ireland. However, it's also made it so very clear how much the Church and the World need Christ. He is the only one who can bring healing, reconciliation, liberation and salvation. If I didn't believe that, I'd be as well off hanging up my collar. That's not to say that I can proffer Him as an easy answer. Using Him as a glib slogan is not an option. That path toward healing isn't going to be an easy one for our society and it's not at all clear how it's going to come about. It's going to place huge demands on all sincere Catholics, and on clergy in particular. There may be times when it may seem as though the game mightn't be worth the candle, but as we approach the end of one Church year and face into the hopeful penitence of Advent, we should remind ourselves that He is with us always, even until the end of time.

(Incidentally, Seraphic posts with her usual common sense and compassion.)

A Priest in Love?

2009-11-18T13:20:00.004+01:00

There's been quite an amount of coverage of the case of an Irish priest who announced at Mass this weekend that he's leaving ministry because of "loving, beautiful and life-giving relationship" with a woman. Needless to say, the spin that the media are putting on it is aimed at abolishing clerical celibacy. The Irish Independent headlines its account with Church cheers as priest admits that he's in love. This is - I think - the only media account which speaks about cheering. I can believe a popular priest receiving a round of applause in recognition of his work following a decision to leave the ministy, but the thought of a congregation cheering him in such circumstances strikes me as grotesque and implausible.

Now, the priest in question has been lauded for his honesty. After all, he told his congregation that because celibacy was "integral to the priesthood" he could no longer remain a priest. Fair enough. Stepping down was a more honourable action than leading the kind of double-life which has brought shame and disgrace to the ministry.

However, this doesn't change the fact that this priest is having a relationship with a married mother of two. And so, whilst he did the right thing in resigning the ministry, the truly honourable thing would have been to admit peccavi - I have sinned - rather than talking about a "loving, beautiful and life-giving relationship". Now, my heart goes out to this man. He's fallen into an adulterous relationship, a situation of serious sin. Sin being what it is, he may well be able to justify this situation to himself. Romantic love can cloud the thinking part of our brains. He may well believe that this is something postive and good in his life. Our prayers should be with him. He deserves our pity.

Less deserving of our pity, however, are those who are trying to make him some kind of poster-boy argument in favour of abolishing priestly celibacy. He is no such thing. He's an unfortunate man who proved unfaithful to the promise he took at ordination, and who failed to respect the marriage vows of his new partner. Such sin isn't an argument in favour of anything. The fact that men and women commit adultery isn't an argument in favour of making marriage a more 'open' and less permanent relationship. Would we cheer and applaud a married clergyman who was unfaithful to his wife?

This is a sad, sad, situation. But this is a time for the Church to speak clearly about the meaning of marriage and celibacy. Fidelity to marriage vows and promises of celibacy have an especial value these days. Normally, I think that situations like Fr McKenna's should be passed over with a discreet and charitable silence. Self-righteousness is ugly and none of us are without our own sins. However, when his case is being used disingenuously to undermine the value of priestly celibacy, I think that it's only right to say bluntly what is really happening.

New Motu Proprio

2009-07-08T15:49:00.004+02:00

The Holy Father has issued a new motu proprio dealing with the whole SSPX situation. It's called Ecclesiae Unitatem (The Unity of the Church) and has been issued in Latin and Italian.

What does it say? The meat of the letter is the transfer of the Commission Ecclesia Dei from the Congregation of Divine Worship to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. This commission used to have as its ambit the usage of the 1962 Missal in the Church. Now, however, its remit has a more theological aspect. The President of the Commission will henceforth be the prefect of the CDF and will focus on securing agreement with the SSPX on points of doctrine. This is a very significant step in the direction of reconciling the SSPX.

Newman Miracle Approved

2009-07-03T14:44:00.002+02:00

There have been whispers about this for months, but the Bolletino finally announces:

- un miracolo, attribuito all'intercessione del Venerabile Servo di Dio Giovanni Enrico Newman, Cardinale e Fondatore degli Oratori di San Filippo Neri in Inghilterra; nato a Londra (Inghilterra) il 21 aprile 1801 e morto a Edgbaston (Inghilterra) l'11 agosto 1890;
- a miracle, attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God John Henry Newman, Cardinal and Founder of the Oratories of St Philip Neri in England; born in London (England) 21 April 1801 and died in Edgebaston (England) 11 August 1890

Followers of the 'blog will know that I have a devotion to Newman and am delighted that his beatification is imminent.
The big question is - will it be held in England or in Rome? Pope Benedict has had a policy of not celebrating beatification ceremonies himself, but rather delegating them and having them celebrated in the local Churches or countries of the Beati. However, Newman has been a significant influence on Pope Benedict and, given his historical and theological stature, the beatification may happen in Rome. We'll wait and see.

Apostolic Visitation of the Legion

2009-03-31T19:30:00.003+02:00

Via Zenit (itself a Legionary operation) the text of a letter from Cardinal Bertone:

The Holy Father is aware of the noble ideals that inspire you and the fortitude and prayerful spirit with which you are facing the current vicissitudes, and he encourages you to continue seeking the good of the Church and society by means of your own distinctive initiatives and institutions. In this regard, you can always count on the help of the Holy See, so that with truth and transparency, in a climate of fraternal and constructive dialogue, you will overcome the present difficulties. In this respect, the Holy Father has decided to carry out an Apostolic Visitation to the institutions of the Legionaries of Christ through a team of Prelates.

The Legion webpage shows that the letter was sent on the 10th of March. The General Director of the Legionaries has written a letter - available at the same webpage - and there's a rather coy FAQ:

Why is this Apostolic Visitation taking place?
The Holy Father has decided to help us to overcome our difficulties through an Apostolic Visitation.
Father Álvaro Corcuera has been in constant dialogue with the Holy See, asking for help and guidance.

Coyness aside, at least the rhetoric of the Legion is more palatable than the ranting of Sr Sandra Schneiders who is less than pleased at the fact that American female religious are also receiving a visitation.

Check it out!

2009-03-19T20:28:00.002+01:00

The ever-interesting Cnytr has started blogging again. Lots of St Jospehy goodness posted today... check it out!

Amy has Moved

2009-03-14T17:23:00.002+01:00

I should have blogged about this some time ago. Amy Welborn's blog has moved to http://blog.beliefnet.com/viamedia/
Don't forget to update your bookmarks and rss feeds.

SSPX Bishops - No Longer Excommunicate

2009-01-24T13:47:00.004+01:00

From the Vatican's Bolletino I read that the Holy Father has lifted the excommunications imposed on Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta. This is geared towards the reconciliation of their community with the Church.
The Congregation of Bishops explains that this is aimed at strengthening relationships with the Society and is intended to lead to a regularization of their relationship with the Holy See.

Personally, I think that this is a very generous act of the Holy Father, and I hope that no one would doubt his good will and sincerity. It will attract criticism, no doubt, but it's important to understand precisely what this gesture means. It's a gesture of mercy because the excommunications were justly imposed. It's a concrete sign that the Holy Father wants to bring the Society back into communion. However, my understanding of this (and I admit that I'm not a canonist) is that this is simply a starting point. Bishops Fellay et al still lack jurisdiction within the Church and the Society cannot be said to have been restored into full communion. Bishop Fellay and the clergy of the Society are still canonically irregular and do not have faculties to exercise their ministry. Whilst not excommunicate because of their irregular consecration, the Bishops of the Society are not properly members of the Catholic Hierarchy. Membership of the College of Bishops depends, not only on valid episcopal consecration, but also on hierarchal communion with the Bishop of Rome and the other Bishops.

It should also be noted that there is a lot of theological ground which needs to be covered, especially in the area of religious liberty, the authority of the Second Vatican Council and the newer liturgy. The clergy of the SSPX will need to undergo a severe examination of conscience regarding some of the things they have said over the past few years. However, with charity and the work of the Holy Spirit, wounds can be healed.

Edited to add: Amy Welborn does a wonderful job of gathering the commentary on this event together and explaining what's going on. She's also kind enough to link to me. ;)

RIP - Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ

2008-12-12T15:43:00.004+01:00

Rocco is reporting the death of Cardinal Dulles:

Word from New York brings the sad news that Avery Dulles SJ -- the celebrated convert, teacher, prolific author and first American theologian elevated to the College of Cardinals, a giant of the age -- passed to his reward overnight.

May he rest in peace.

Another Album

2008-11-24T15:03:00.003+01:00

I've decided to repeat this meme.

Check out Jane's, also.

Fun!

2008-11-22T23:09:00.004+01:00

A really cool meme - via the Shrine:

Just click each link and put the results together:
1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link
2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)
3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)

I enjoyed this meme so much, I did it twice.

Misc (Mainly Marital...)

2008-11-16T22:32:00.002+01:00

Seraphic announces an engagement (hers, to him) and tells the story.

One of my favourite podcasts is Jawbone Radio. It's like eavesdropping on the evening conversation of Len and Nora who celebrated 15 years of marriage recently. (6 kids!) Anyway, their latest podcast includes Nora's tips on how to ruin a marriage - a typically ironic way of marking the big occasion.

Finally, Rocco reports on a recent lecture by James Cardinal Stafford at CUA. Stafford's an interesting guy... I've heard him speak a number of times in Rome and found one homily of his in recent times very interesting. He was very critical of certain aspects of the American national outlook, government and society when contrasted with the demands of our faith. It wasn't an ill-informed or lefty critique of America, but I suspected that some (please note that I said some!) of the guys at the NAC might have heard it as such because it wasn't 'The Holy Gospel according to the Republican Party.' It was interesting, therefore, to read his criticisms of the incoming administration:

James Francis Cardinal Stafford criticized President-elect Barack Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,“ and said he campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” Thursday night in Keane Auditorium during his lecture “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul.“
“Because man is a sacred element of secular life,” Stafford remarked, “man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”
"For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”
Cardinal Stafford said Catholics must deal with the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” by beginning a new sentiment where one is “with Jesus, sick because of love.”
(snip)
“If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said Stafford, an American Cardinal and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See. “In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.”
This destruction and America’s decline is largely in part due to the Supreme Court’s decisions in the life-issue cases of 1973, specifically Roe v. Wade. Stafford asserted these cases undermined respect for human life in the United States.
“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic,” said Stafford.

First Pregnant RC Priest?

2008-11-03T19:14:00.002+01:00

Via Ruth Gledhill:

Congratulations to Jessica Rowley, who has achieved distinction by becoming the world's first pregnant Catholic priest.
RiverFrontTimes reports:
'A little over a year ago, 26-year-old Jessica Rowley shattered the stained-glass ceiling, so to speak, by being ordained a Catholic priest. Now the St. Louisan is on the verge of giving birth to her first child, and a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for women’s ordination says that makes Rowley the world’s first pregnant Catholic priest.

Well, I hardly need explain to my readers that Ms Rowley is not a Catholic priest... but it will be interesting to see how many of her supporters will trumpet her as being the 'First Pregnant RC Priest'. I suppose this means that they don't really believe their claims that there were tons of female priests in the 1st Millennium... Or maybe they're presuming that all these previous Womenpriests were celibate.
Interestingly, the original news item has the following:

Rowley says her congregation cheered when she told them she and her husband, a minister for the United Church of Christ, were expecting.
So what church – the ECC or the UCC -- will Rowley’s baby boy join?
"That's a good question," says Rowley, with a laugh. "It's a topic of conversation in our home a lot. We're going to baptize him in both churches. But eventually he'll be able to make a decision for himself."

Repetition of baptism is, of course, a very serious sacrilege.

One thing I fail to understand about the liturgical reform...

2008-10-28T12:35:00.001+01:00

is why they took this bit of coolness out of the Rite for the Consecration of a Church.

The Atheist Objection to Harry Potter

2008-10-25T14:08:00.002+02:00

I'm sure we've all come across Christians of various stripes who object to the Harry Potter books, but I was amused to see that prominent atheist Richard Dawkins also finds them objectionable:

Outspoken atheist Professor Richard Dawkins is to warn children of the dangers in believing "anti-scientific" fairytales such as Harry Potter.
Prof Dawkins will write a book aimed at youngsters where he will discuss whether stories like the successful JK Rowling series have a "pernicious" effect on children.
The 67-year-old, who recently resigned from his position at Oxford University, says he intends to look at the effects of "bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards".
'I think it is anti-scientific – whether that has a pernicious effect, I don't know,' he told More4 News.
'Looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research.'
However, the outspoken atheist said he hadn't even read Harry Potter and admitted he "didn't know what to think about magic and fairytales".

Now, in fairness to Professor Dawkins, it does seem as though the journalist is exaggerating his objections to Harry Potter and fairy stories and so on... However, it's interesting that Dawkins seems to be entertaining the suspicion that the stories he heard as a child might have had a negative effect on his rationality.

More Mafia News...

2008-10-24T12:30:00.001+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

A small-time mafia gang have been branded "idiots" after sending a donkey's head to a shopkeeper in an ill-conceived stunt apparently lifted from The Godfather.
The gang's target, a local bread shop owner who had refused to pay protection money, was so puzzled by the confused threat that he presumed it was a practical joke.
In Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film, mafia boss Don Corleone uses the "gift" of a severed horse's head to intimate film producer Jack Woltz into giving his godson a part.
Woltz woke up one morning to find the bloody head lying next to him in his bed, and immediately consented to the request made by the Don, played by Marlon Brando.
But while that threat made sense – the head was of Woltz's prized thoroughbred stallion - there was no such context for the donkey.
"The man didn't know the donkey, he didn't own the donkey, he doesn't care about donkeys. It didn't make sense. It was the work of idiots," a police spokesman in Villafranca Padovana, northern Italy, said.

QE1 Portrait Discovered...

2008-10-20T11:14:00.001+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

A lost portrait of a young Elizabeth I that was discovered in the attic of a country house has intrigued historians after X-rays revealed that it was painted over an earlier picture of the monarch.
The painting, which had lain unnoticed in the dirty loft for more than a century, depicts the Queen as a pale, pious and austere young woman, and is one of the few pictures to show the 16th century royal in the early years of her reign.
Elizabeth, who is dressed in simple black clothes and clutches a Bible, was believed to have been around 26 when the portrait was painted.
But X-ray scans of the canvas have uncovered an earlier portrait of the monarch, in which she was drawn without the Bible and with a more ostentatious ruff.
"The assumption is that the artist – and we do not know who he is - did an intitial portrait, and either he or the Queen did not like it," said Philip Mould, the London art dealer who owns the work.

Roman nun votes - aged 106

2008-10-16T16:28:00.002+02:00

I don't normally do American politics on this 'blog, but this caught my eye:

The last time Mother Cecelia Gaudette voted, Dwight Eisenhower won the race for the White House.
Now, 56 years after she cast her last presidential ballot, the 106-year-old nun has decided this election is too monumental to miss.
"I think it's very important," she said. Mother Cecelia, who resides in Rome, may be the oldest voter to cast an absentee ballot this election. She reads the paper daily and watches the evening news to keep up with current events.
She asked fellow nun 78-year-old Mother Mary to help her get an overseas ballot. The problem was that on the U.S. election Web site the birth years for potential voters only goes back to 1905 — three years after Mother Cecelia was born.

And her political opinions?

And while the last time she voted Mother Cecelia sided with the Republican candidate, this year she decided to go with the Democrat.
"[Barack] Obama. I think he's the man, really. I think so," she said.

Tagged...

2008-09-08T19:10:00.004+02:00

Seraphic has tagged me... So, instead of doing something productive, I'm answering these questions (originally posed to Yves Saint-Laurent:

What is your chief characteristic?

High-functioning Mediocrity

What is your principal fault?

Inertia

What is your favourite quality in a man?

Personal integrity

And in a woman?

Compassion

Who is your favourite historical figure?

Horatio Hornblower... Oh, you mean outside of fiction? Probably Cardinal Newman

Who are your living heroes?

Persecuted Christians

Who would you like to be, if you could?

A scholarly and saintly Benedictine (Even thought I know I'm not called to be a monk)

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

A steak dinner and a good book

What is your idea of misery?

Losing the ability to think and communicate

Where would you like to live?

An Italian monastery... with a pied à terre in the middle of Rome

What talent would you like to have?

Fluency in several languages

For what fault do you have the most toleration?

Arrogance

Who are your favourite painters?

El Greco, Fra Angelico, Caravaggio

Who are your favourite composers?

Is Tom Lehrer a composer?

What is your favourite colour?

Black

Of all things, what do you most detest?

Betrayal of trust

Have you got a motto?

No... anyone want to suggest one for me?

What would you like to do right now?

Say a few prayers from my breviary

Marcus Aurelius Statue in Asia Minor

2008-08-26T15:53:00.003+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

The 15-foot statue was originally located in the frigidarium, the coldest and largest room in the Roman baths at Sagalassos, where two other statues have already been found.
Archaeologists now believe the frigidarium contained a gallery of large imperial statues running around its long walls, offering a treasure trove of antique images.
Marcus Aurelius, who was portrayed by Richard Harris in the 2000 film Gladiator, ruled from 161AD to 180AD and won fame for his standing as a Stoic philosopher, as well as for his wise governance of the empire.
Sagalassos, high in the western Toros mountains in the south of the country, was destroyed by an earthquake between 540AD and 620AD, bringing down the baths and filling the cross-shaped frigidarium with rubble.
The large fragments of the statue began to be uncovered on 20 August, when a pair of giant marble legs, broken above the knee and clad in army boots of lion skin, tendrils and Amazon shields, emerged from the debris.
A delicately carved three-foot head, with bulging eyes and ruffled beard, was uncovered next, followed by a five-foot-long right arm bearing a globe.

Meanwhile, in Rome, Fr Philip is settling in and waiting for his medication (!) to arrive from the States:

I noted my disappointment to the current vicar of the house, and he said in a bored tone, "Oh, well, the postman said we had too much mail stacked up, so he will deliver it a little each day." I was just a little stunned at this. . .yes, I'm slowly learning that efficiency and customer service in Italy are not high priorities. I said, "I wonder if the post office could give our postman a larger truck." The vicar, a veteran of Italian living, replied, "No need. He will bring a piece or two at a time." I wondered aloud if I could go to the post office and claim my mail. This caused some gnarled faces at the table. I could almost see their brains trying to wrap themselves around the idea of direct action. The conclusion: "No. Where would you go? They would not give it to you."

Literary/Historical Question

2008-08-24T00:02:00.003+02:00

I was re-reading on of CS Forester's Hornblower novels (The Happy Return) when I came across the following passage:

But Hornblower could give no vent to the flood of protest which was welling up within him. His cautious mind told him that a mad-man in a ship as small as the lugger must of necessity be chained to the deck, and his conscience reminded him uneasily of the torments he had seen el Supremo inflict without expostulation. This Spanish way of making a show out of insanity and greatness was repulsive cnough, but could be paralleled often enough in English history. One of the greatest writers of the English language, and a dignitary of the Church to boot, had once been shown in his dotage for a fee. There was only one line of argument which he could adopt.
'You are going to hang him, mad as he is?' he asked. *With no chance of making his peace with God?'
The Spaniard shrugged.
'Mad or sane, rebels must hang. Your Excellency must know that as well as I do.'

Who was this writer and 'dignatary of the Church' who comes to Hornblower's mind? I know that Jonathan Swift was a writer and clergyman, and that his mind went in old age, but I've never heard of him being 'shown in his dotage for a fee'. Was it someone else?

Mary as the Pattern of the Church in its Perfection

2008-08-15T12:31:00.004+02:00

I take a certain (possibly perverse) pride in the fact that my library contains more books by Hugo Rahner SJ than his more famous brother Karl. On this feast day I always draw upon the former's Our Lady and the Church because the feast of the Assumption seems to me the clearest proof of his maxim that 'what is said in the widest sense of the Virgin Mother the Church, is said in a special sense of the Virgin Mary. And what is spoken of the Virgin Mother Mary in a personal way can rightly be applied in a general way to the Virgin Mother the Church.' The Preface of the Feast Day reminds us that by being taken up into Heaven, Mary is the 'beginning and pattern of the Church in its perfection.' It therefore seems apt to post the quotation from Pseudo-Caesarius with which Rahner closes his book:

Let the Church of Christ rejoice, for she like Mary has been graced by the power of the Holy Spirit and has become the mother of a divine child. Let us once more compare these two mothers: each of them through giving birth strengthens our faith in the child of the other.
Upon Mary came in mysterious stillness the shadow of the Holy Spirit, and the Church becomes a mother through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at baptism.
Mary without blemish gave birth to her son, and the Church washes away every blemish in those she brings to birth.
Of Mary was born He who was from the beginning, of the Church is reborn that which from the beginning was nothing."

Frog Chorus!

2008-08-12T11:24:00.000+02:00

Wonderful, no?

The priest as vampire...

2008-08-07T23:38:00.002+02:00

I'm not sure if there's anyone around still reading this - I've been on somewhat of an extended hiatus - but Seraphic's written something that I must link to:

I think the Church is full of priests, seminarians and men-who-want-to-be-priests who are emotional vampires. I think there are dozens (if not hundreds, if not thousands) of men in orders who, having "given up" women subsequently latch onto women for tea and sympathy. And this is fine if those women have busy, happy lives and--dare I say it--more important men in those lives. The women who get into emotional trouble are the Single women who are delighted, absolutely delighted at the male attention. A lot can go wrong.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-clerical. And when I die, I hope I am reciting the Nicene Creed. But I have been dealing, on an adult level, with priests since I was 14 years old and the idiot associate pastor of my parish dissolved my youth group. And, come to think of it, I have been dealing with self-absorbed young Catholic men just as long. On my Confirmation Day, when the Archbishop clapped his heavy hand on my shoulder (a nice subsitute for the traditional reminder-of-martyrdom slap of the old days), he might have been saying, "Tough row to hoe, Seraphic. Get tore in."

Please read the whole thing, as it's hard to do justice to this piece with a brief quotation. It all makes very interesting reading for priests and layfolk alike.

Annoying Take on Newman Beatification Moves...

2008-07-20T21:52:00.002+02:00

It;s disappointing that the Telegraph has put the following spin on Newman's proposed exhumation.

The final request of Britain's most famous Roman Catholic convert, Cardinal Newman, is to be overriden as the Vatican prepares to make him a saint.
It was Cardinal Newman's dying wish that he be buried with his closest friend in the grounds of the house they had shared as priests.
But now, nearly 120 years after his death, Britain's most famous convert to Roman Catholicism is to be reinterred in a sarcophagus in preparation for his becoming a saint, leaving the remains of his friend behind.
The decision to separate the remains of John Henry Newman and Ambrose St John has upset figures in the Church and led some to question whether it is embarrassed about their relationship.
[snip]
Martin Prendergast, a homosexual campaigner in the Catholic Church, claimed the Cardinal's relationship had caused misgivings in the Vatican and slowed his path to beatification. "I don't think they can just pretend the relationship didn't exist," he said.
"We shouldn't be afraid of acknowledging that he had his trials and torments yet was able to deal with these in a positive manner, without compromising his commitment to celibacy."

That's a most unfair reading...

Oh dear...

2008-07-19T11:44:00.003+02:00

One of the things which are capable of pulling me out of seclusion is an article such as this about the forthcoming Brideshead film. It makes for depressing reading. For example, the scriptwriter says:

"Although the book is set in the rarefied world of the aristocracy between the wars, it still speaks directly to many of the issues that count as 'current' - religious fundamentalism, class, sexual tolerance, the pursuit of individualism. For those reasons, I didn't feel I had to worry about the TV series and, as I wrote, I felt that more and more."

Religious fundamentalism in the novel Brideshead Revisited? I really can't understand what character's religious outlook could be so described.

Hiatus

2008-07-03T14:32:00.002+02:00

Hi folks,

Life is hectic at the moment. Being dropped from Seraphic's list of daily reads (because it's not been daily for quite some time) reminds me that I should apologise for this indefinite period of absence.

More of the same...

2008-06-12T16:09:00.002+02:00

From the Telegraph:

Thousands of leading Roman Catholics including Lord Patten and Baroness Williams are calling on the Church to allow women and married men into the priesthood.
Senior clergy are also among the 2,000 who have so far signed a petition demanding that action be taken to tackle the "major crisis" of dwindling numbers of Catholic priests.

One wonders about the author's definition of 'leading Roman Catholics' when coupled with the word 'thousands'. Are there 'thousands of leading Roman Catholics' in the UK? Also, one wonders why the report is so shy in naming the supposed 'senior clergy' who have signed the petition. If they were chuchmen of any note, then I'm sure their names would have been part of the report.
Looking at the online petition, I note that the wording is as follows:
We, the undersigned Catholics, wish to express our support for our bishops who are preparing the Catholic Church in England and Wales for new forms of ministry and leadership. We request the Catholic Bishop Conference to place the following items on the agenda for their next plenary meeting.

We ask that the bishops:
1.Acknowledge that there is a major crisis in ministry within the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
2.Acknowledge that there is no doctrinal or theological barrier to the ordination of married men. Our Church has already ordained married former Anglical priests.
3. Take practical steps towards ordaining suitably qualified married men.
4. Encourage a wide-ranging discussion of the role of women in ministry and in the authority structures of the church, including the question of women's ordination.
5. Establish appropriate scriptural, theological and pastoral training programs [campus, distance and on-line]to prepare suitable women and men for ministry. These candidates should have the recommendation of their parishes and communities, and should participate in mentored pastoral work.
6.Invite priests who have left the ministry to return to , subject to negotiation with the local bishop active priesthood.

Needless to say, it muddies the water significantly when the issued of married priests is linked to that of women priests. One also notes the vague talk about 'ministry' and 'authority structures'.
Point 6 is interesting - it's not unknown for priests who have left ministry to return. However, calling for some kind of general invitation to them and talk about 'negotiation with the local bishop' doesn't do justice to the delicate issue surrounding such a return. In general, the decision to leave active ministry is not taken lightly and there usually are serious issues at question.
Is there a crisis in ministry in much of the Western Church? Certainly. However, I suspect that Pope Benedict has a better awareness of what the real issues are. Let's be frank - if the life of the Church as a whole was healthy, then there would probably be no shortage of vocations. The fact that the organizers of this petition think that the question of women's ordination needs to be looked at again shows that their understanding of the faith is defective. They may be sincere and holy people, but that's a theological non-starter. Benedict said the following to the American bishops:

Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a local Church. There is no room for complacency in this regard. God continues to call young people; it is up to all of us to to encourage a generous and free response to that call. On the other hand, none of us can take this grace for granted.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer - the unum necessarium - is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue!

Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord's will for our lives.

One needn't be in thrall to an exalted idea of 'authority' to recognize the simple good sense in what the Pope is saying.

And in other news...
Seraphic frequently blogs on free speech and religion issues in Canada. Today is no exception and she points to an article by a priest who is starting to worry. She (Seraphic, not the priest... see above) writes:

When I was 19 and heavily into the Canadian pro-life movement, my friends and I indulged in a little fantasy about persecution and the end times. I remember one adult pro-lifer who was allegedly told by police that if he didn't stop his kids from chaining themselves to clinic furniture, they'd be taken away from him. And there was some post-rosary conversation about demonic persecution or whatnot. One day there would be a big persecution of Christians, it was in Revelations, etc., etc.

I didn't really listen. Searching Revelations for references to current events is not really a Catholic thing anyway. Yes, I thought that eventually--at the end of the world--things would get really tough for Christians. But not any time soon. Even the pro-choice activists screaming hate and blasphemy couldn't make me believe that. I mean, this is Canada.

Well, well, well. Was I wrong?

When the "Catholic" Prime Minister Paul Martin shoved gay marriage down the throats of his cabinet, I wrote my frantic letter to my MP. After I finished it, I thought the man would write me off as a weirdo. Gay marriage, I said, would open Christians (and orthodox Jews, and observant Muslims) to all kinds of persecution. I found my own letter paranoid. But it sure looks like I was right after all.

Rapture-ready?

2008-06-12T09:17:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

A new internet service allows Christian subscribers to send emails to non-believing friends and relatives after they have died.
Youvebeenleftbehind.com offers users a facility to store emails and documents that are sent to up to 63 email addresses six days after the sender and fellow believers have been transported to Heaven.
(snip)
Youvebeenleftbehind.com was created by Mark Heard, a 49-year-old supermarket shelf-stacker from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
He said he got the idea in 1999 while trading in shares online. It suddenly occurred to him that he would not be able to send his trading password to his wife if the Rapture suddenly took him, he said.
(snip)
Recognising when the Rapture has actually happened is obviously an issue for the email server.
The service will be triggered if any three of Mr Heard's five employees fail to log on to their work accounts for six days.
"We don't want these things to go out early," said Mr Heard.

And from the website itself:

We all have family and friends who have failed to receive the Good News of the Gospel.
The unsaved will be 'left behind' on earth to go through the "tribulation period" after the "Rapture". You remember how, for a short time, after (9/11/01) people were open to spiritual things and answers. (We are still singing "God Bless America" at baseballs' seventh inning stretch.) Imagine how taken back they will be by the millions of missing Christians and devastation at the rapture. They will know it was true and that they have blown it. There will be a small window of time where they might be reached for the Kingdom of God. We have made it possible for you to send them a letter of love and a plea to receive Christ one last time. You can also send information based on scripture as to what will happen next. Each fulfilled prophecy will cause your letter and plea to be remembered and a decision to be made.

"WHY" is one last chance to bring them to Christ and snatch them from the flames!

A farewell!

2008-06-11T22:27:00.005+02:00

It's often a pity when a blog closes down, but I think that in this case we also have cause to rejoice. Mary Gibson, aka The Roaming Roman, entered Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Kansas City MO.
I invite my readers to say a prayer for Mary as she seeks the Lord's will by trying her vocation in the cloister. Whilst her entering is the work of the Holy Spirit, I think that it's also fair to applaud the courage of a young woman who discerns a call to the contemplative life. Wherever the Lord leads her, I pray that Mary's warm personality and her enthusiasm for faith, truth and holiness will bear witness to His love, and that she will never lack for His presence.

Pray too on this memoria of St Barnabas that young people everywhere will listen attentively to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Miss Headscarf 2008

2008-06-11T14:10:00.003+02:00

Via The Telegraph, this slightly surreal offering:

Denmark is facing a renewed bout of Muslim protests after a television station chose an Iraqi woman to be Miss Headscarf 2008.
The television programme reviewed videos posted online by 46 woman wearing the veil prescribed by Islamic ideals of modesty before choosing 18-year-old Huda Falah.
But there was a furious reaction from some members of the Islamic community which is already antagonised by the Scandanavian nation's role in a cartoon scandal involving the Prophet Mohammad.
"The whole point of the headscarf is that it's a symbol of chastity," said spokeswoman Bettina Meisner. "We don't wish young women to expose themselves as objects."
Public broadcaster DR1 declared Falah the winner with a commentary that attempted to avoid inflammatory commentary on her looks. Falah was chosen because the light blue Islamic headscarf was "a fantastic and shocking colour," said Uffe Buchhardt, one of the judges.
The Iraqi victory lives in Denmark and in the tradition of beauty contest winners said she had come forward in the noble hope of promoting understanding between the country's youth. She was insistent that a headscarf is a girls best friend.
She said: "The woman is like a diamond and you don't show it to everyone."
The contest highlights a continuing debate over Islamic traditions in Denmark, which drew world attention in 2006 when Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests in Muslim countries.
Denmark's embassy in Islamabad was bombed by al-Qa'eda last month, an attack that fulfilled Osama bin Laden's promise to avenge reprinting in Danish papers of a cartoon depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
Organisers of the month-long television competition said they started it as "an alternative way of encouraging young people to participate in the debate, by addressing them on their terms," DR1 said, adding it was a fashion – not a beauty – contest.
First prize in the contest included an iPod, a headscarf designed by a Danish fashion boutique and a one-year subscription to the English-language Muslim Girl Magazine.
She said by participating in the contest she hoped to help remove barriers between young Muslims and Danes "who don't talk easily because of the image [of Muslims] created by the media."
The contest has sparked little debate in Denmark where the government has said it will introduce laws to bar judges in court from wearing religious attire or insignia, including Islamic head scarves, crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans.
But the Islamic Faith Community, a small Copenhagen-based Muslim organisation, had advised young women not to participate in the contest.

I'm sure that Miss Mantilla can't be far behind!

UK Catholic Adoption Agency to Stand Firm

2008-06-08T15:16:00.002+02:00

Via the Daily Mail:

A Roman Catholic adoption agency headed by Britain's most senior Catholic churchman is to defy the Government over its controversial gay equality laws.

The Westminster Catholic Children's Society, whose president is Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, will ignore new rules that require it to place children with same-sex couples.

While other Catholic adoption agencies are caving in to the legislation by severing their ties with the Church or even closing, the Westminster Society will continue its policy of placing children only with married heterosexuals and single people.

Its stance will set the Cardinal - who welcomed Tony Blair into the Catholic Church last December - on a collision course with New Labour and the gay rights lobby.
It is a high-risk strategy that could provoke a costly and bruising test case in the courts, with campaigners determined to see the Society closed down.

But advisers to the Cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, believe they have found a legal loophole that could allow the Society to remain open and loyal to Catholic teaching, which opposes gay marriage and adoption by gay couples.

(snip)
The Society, which was founded in 1764, has been advised by lawyers that if it amended its constitution it could comply with the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which take effect next year and aim to end discrimination against gays by businesses.

At the moment, the constitution simply refers to helping couples who wish to adopt. However, a quirk in the wording of the regulations means that the Society may be able to protect itself by amending its constitution to refer directly to married heterosexual couples.

The Cardinal said yesterday: 'I fully support the decision of the trustees in their endeavours to continue the valuable work of the Society.'

His defiance could influence Catholic agencies that are still considering their fate, although some have already thrown in the towel.

And it will be welcomed by London's Catholics, who raise thousands of pounds each year for the Society. In 2001 the comedian Frank Skinner donated £125,000 he won on ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Italianate

2008-06-05T09:35:00.002+02:00

Shelly of At Home in Rome is back with a post about some very Italian concerns:

1. Air conditioning “fa male.” It’s just generally “bad for you.”

How did I live nearly three years in Phoenix, Arizona, without dying? (Italians are so attached to this one, I’ve no doubt I’ll get at least a few angry comments telling me that it does “FA MALE” and explaining all the reasons why. I give up.)

2. Sweating.

There’s a whole encyclopedia of italianate on sweating. If you sweat, you have to change clothes before it evaporates or you can get pneumonia. Don’t stand in front of a fan if you’ve been sweating. God forbid the air conditioner.

3. Wet hair.

Not using a hair dryer can cause any number of ailments, not the least of which is a migraine in the exact spot where you neglected to dry your hair. However, for example, when my husband didn’t dry his hair thoroughly the other day and I pointed out this grave error, he merely laughed and said, “But it’s summer, that’s different.” Doh!

There's more... and her readers remind her about the Italian obsession with the fegato (liver).

The times we live in...

2008-06-03T21:44:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

Emma and Michael Wing from Plymouth were astonished to learn that they were expecting four babies.
"We weren't actually trying for a baby," said Mr Wing, 22, a Gunner with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery. "But we didn't mind if one came along."
Mr and Mrs Wing had vague hopes for a girl to complete their family of two sons Mason, 3, and Callum,10 months.
Instead, a scan revealed that their brood is about to treble in size.
Mrs Wing, 23, is only 12 weeks pregnant, but is already suffering from the strain of carrying four babies.
[Snip: Pregnancy details]
The hospital has offered them a selective reduction, removing one or more of the foetuses to increase the others' chances of surviving. But the couple are determined to let Nature take its course.
"Both of us are against abortion," Mr Wing said. "We decided to take the risk. Selective reduction results in a five times greater risk of total miscarriage.
"We wanted a girl so how would we feel if we had selective reduction and found out that the ones we selected were girls? Anyway, we didn't want to say, 'Right; you can live and you can die'.
"It was horrible even when the consultant was talking to us about it."

"Selective reduction"... another chilling euphemism.

"I cannot shut God's house"

2008-06-03T21:23:00.003+02:00

A year after the killing of the Chaldean Catholic priest Fr Ragheed Ganni,

Asianews publishes this account:Damascus (AsiaNews) - He could have run away, saved himself, but he went to meet his destiny without fear. Fr Ragheed Gani, killed one year ago in Iraq, died because up until the very end he remained convinced that Christians should not be afraid, that "God's house cannot be closed!". On the first anniversary of the "martyrdom", the only witness to it is speaking out: Bayan Adam Bella, wife of one of the three subdeacons murdered in cold blood together with their pastor on June 3, 2007, in Mosul. This is the same diocese that last March lost its bishop, Faraj Rahho, also a victim of terrorism.
The woman, interviewed by Ankawa.com, is now a refugee in Syria together with her four children. They live with her brother-in-law's family. She suffers greatly and is full of questions over a fate that she is still not able to understand, and over her continuing difficulties in obtaining a visa. But now, twelve months later, she finally has the strength to give a more complete account of those tragic moments. After celebrating the Eucharist in his parish, the Church of the Holy Spirit, Fr Ragheed had departed by car together with one of the deacons, his cousin Basman Yousef Daud. Bayan was in a car behind them, together with her husband, Wahid Hanna Isho, and the other deacon, Gassan Isam Bidawed. Recently the three had begun to accompany the priest wherever he went in an effort to protect him after repeated death threats.
"At a certain point", the woman recounts, "the car was stopped by armed men. Fr Ragheed could have fled, but he did not want to, because he knew they were looking for him. They forced us to get out of the car, and led me away. Then one of the killers screamed at Ragheed, 'I told you to close the church, why didn't you do it? Why are you still here?'. And he simply responded, 'How can I close the house of God?' They immediately pushed him to the ground, and Ragheed had only enough time to gesture to me with his head that I should run away. Then they opened fire and killed all four of them". At this point, Bayan fainted. In the hours immediately after the killing, the bodies remained abandoned on the road because no one dared to get close to them. They were all buried in Karamles.
Bayan has many questions: "Why did they make me a widow, why did they tear the word 'papa' from the mouths of my children? What did we do wrong? What did my husband do?", she asks, addressing the terrorists. In August of 2007, she asked the UNHCR for humanitarian asylum in the West, but the difficulties are enormous. "At first no one believed my story. How can they shut the door in the face of such suffering?". In January of 2008, she met again with UN staff. Now she is waiting for nothing more than to start life over for herself and her children.
Ceremonies commemorating the four martyrs were held in northern Iraq. In Rome, the Pontifical Irish College organised a conference last May 31 entitled "Witnesses to Christ, Past and Present", to recall the sacrifice of Ragheed, a former student of the college. Cardinal Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and Monsignor Parolin, undersecretary for relations with states, participated in the event.

Laodicea has an account of the Ugandan Martyrs who are commemorated today.

Desperate and needy...

2008-06-03T17:48:00.003+02:00

That's what this proposal sounds like:

The August bank holiday should become the UK's "national day" as part of a drive to promote a common British identity, the immigration minister is to say.
Liam Byrne will argue that a national day should become the focal point of a campaign for "stronger shared standards" and a cultural code to which immigrants should be expected to adhere.
"Britishness Day" should be a "celebration of what we like and love about living in this country", Mr Byrne will say in a speech to the think tank, Progress.

Trying to build up a national celebration around something as abstract as 'Britishness' is not going to work, and sounds like something a Communist government would try to do.
All the best national holidays seem to be based around a concrete event or person. We therefore have Independence Day which marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence, St Patrick's Day, Bastille Day and so on... Even Canada Day (anniversary of quasi-independence) isn't 'Canadianess Day'.
The problem is, of course, that Mr Byrne can't come up with a single event or person that reflects 'Britishness' and that isn't liable to offend some section of the British population or (more importantly!) his own New Labour political sensibilities. The obvious thing for the British to do would be to make a bigger deal of the Queen's Birthday. That, however, would be politically unacceptable for a Labour government.
Of course the trade unions know what's really important:

Some, including trade unions, have argued that any national day should be on a new bank holiday, giving workers an extra day off each year.

Most Unfortunate Medjugorje Article

2008-06-02T08:58:00.005+02:00

I'm decidedly skeptical about Medjugorje, and with all due respect for the sincere and holy devotees to this place, I don't mind folk knowing that I doubt the authenticity of the visions and have grave reservations about the seers and the Franciscans of that place. However, I realise that this is a personal conclusion, albeit one founded on what I believe to be solid reasoning, and recognise that other Catholics of good will could reach the opposite conclusion.
That's why I find this article by the Daily Mail most objectionable:

Vatican denounces group's claim of seeing the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times as 'work of the devil'
The Vatican has denounced a group who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary more than 40,000 times in the past 27 years.
The six Bosnian 'seers' attract five million pilgrims a year to their home town of Medjugorje, providing a lucrative trade for local businesses.
Hundreds of thousands travel there each year from Britain alone.
But now one of the most respected voices in the Roman Catholic church has accused the visionaries of perpetuating a 'diabolical deceit'.
Andrea Gemma, 77, a bishop and once the Vatican's top exorcist, told a magazine in Italy: 'In Medjugorje everything happens in function of money: Pilgrimages, lodging houses, sale of trinkets.
'This whole sham is the work of the Devil. It is a scandal.' He said the Vatican would soon crack down on the group.
The Medjugorje phenomenon began on June 25, 1981, when six children told a priest they had seen the Virgin on a hillside near their town.
A church investigation dismissed the vision, and the Vatican banned pilgrimages to the site in 1985. But many Catholics ignored the ban.
Today, the seers own smart houses with security gates and tennis courts and expensive cars. One is married to a former U.S. beauty queen.
Catholic officials in the U.S. have recently banned the group from speaking on church property during their world tours, on which they allegedly take the Virgin with them.

It's the usual media blunder - a retired Italian bishop says something, and the press present it as being an authoritative Church or Papal statement. Whenever the press reports 'The Vatican' saying or doing something, one needs to ask the question, who really said this, and in what context? Are we dealing with a Papal encyclical or (as we see in this case) a magazine interview with a retired bishop. Of course, what will happen is that many sincere and devout Catholics will be very shaken by this article. It will raise in them a genuine distrust of the Holy See. It may be that in the future the Church will formally say some very negative things about the alleged visions - then devotees of Medjugorje may have a difficult time accepting this, but I'm sure the vast majority have a love for the Holy Father and will listen to the voice of Peter. However, the Holy See has not decided that that Medjugorje is a diabolical deceit, and this article will be the source of much upset and confusion.

Edited to add:
Here's what seems to be the original interview
- in Italian. I don't have time to translate, but Bishop Gemma certainly doesn't pull any punches.

What nonsense!

2008-05-31T00:48:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, the head of Britain's top private schools organisation has predicted.
Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said "Matrix-style" technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.
He told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge."
Mr Parry, a former Rear Admiral, spent three years determining the future strategic context for the military in a senior role at the Ministry of Defence.
He is now preparing the ISC's 1,300 private schools, which collectively teach half a million children, for a high-tech future.
He told the TES that the Keanu Reeves thriller may not look like science fiction in 30 years' time.
"Within 30 years, sitting down and learning something will be a thing of the past," Mr Parry said.
"I think people will be able to directly access, Matrix-style, all the vocabulary you need for a foreign language, leaving you just to clear up the grammar."

Statements like this were made in the early days of computing and robotics. When the calculational potential of strings of ones and zeroes was discovered and then implemented electronically, it was presumed that the brain:computer analogy was very strong, and it was only a matter of time before computers could think themselves or that humans could think in a manner assisted very directly by machines. Mr Parry's assertion is slightly different - he seems to think that wireless technology can enable the fast and permanent transfer of information from the computer to the brain. However, he doesn't seem to appreciate how different human knowing is from the storage of information on a computer. Setting aside the philosophical question of the human soul and its role in human knowing, I think his presumption that somehow foreign language vocabulary could be transferred from computer to brain, in such a way that it links up with the student's knowledge of his native language (or alternatively with the student's knowledge of the world around him) is nonsensical. Additionally, why he thinks that this might be possible, but that grammar would not be portable in this manner suggests that he knows very little about languages, computers and brains.

Varia...

2008-05-30T16:00:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

A homeless woman has been arrested after living undetected for almost a year in a tiny cupboard in a man's house in Japan.
The woman, identified as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found by police searching the home of the man, who believed he lived alone in Fukuoka.
The resident of the house, who has not been named, became suspicious that he was the victim of repeat burglaries after he noticed food was going missing from his refrigerator.
The man decided to install security cameras linked to his mobile phone and on Wednesday caught images of a woman walking around the house while he was out.
Believing he had detected the burglar, the man contacted police and, after an exhaustive search of the property, officers found the woman hiding in the top of a built-in cupboard designed to store bedding and mattresses.
Behind the sliding door, she had laid out a thin futon and had several plastic drinks bottles, police said. There was just enough room for her to lay down, they added.

Gosh!
And the Shroud of Turin is going on display...

The Turin Shroud is to go on public display for the first time in a decade, the Vatican has announced, coinciding with a new set of tests on its age.
The Vatican keeps the 14ft by 4ft piece of linen, believed by some to be the death shroud of Jesus, in an aluminium case built by an Italian aerospace company to shut out all light, air and humidity.
The case is filled with Argon gas in order to prevent bacteria from eating the material.
However, the success of the exhibition of Padre Pio’s remains in Puglia has convinced the Vatican to bring forward the next public showing of the shroud from 2025 to the year after next.
The linen has only been put on display five times in the last century and the last time it was exhibited, in 2000, over half a million visitors arrived in Turin in two months.
The exhibition will coincide with a new set of scientific tests on the Shroud in order to verify its age. Professor Christopher Ramsey, the head of Oxford University’s Radiocarbon Accelerator unit, first dated the Shroud to between 1260 and 1390 in tests conducted 20 years ago.

Even though the Shroud is kept in Turin Cathedral, I understand that it is owned by the Holy See rather than the Archdiocese of Turin, so this time, it seems as though the newspaper is not wrong in attributing everything to 'The Vatican'.

Extraordinary Twin Reunion

2008-05-28T12:43:00.001+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

Spanish twins who were separated at birth due to a hospital mix-up have met by chance 28 years later.
The two Spanish women, who have yet to reveal their identities, were born in a hospital in Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, where one of them was switched by mistake with the baby of another family.
(snip)
Sebastian Socorro, the lawyer for the separated twin, told the Cadena Ser radio station that the encounter was thanks to a friend of one of the women.
"It happened by chance," he said. "The friend was working in a shopping centre. The other twin came in one day to buy clothes. The sales assistant tried to greet her with a kiss thinking that she was her friend, but the customer refused.
"The surprised sales assistant then called her friend who assured her that she had not been in to the shop."
When the other twin came back to the shop a few days later, a meeting was arranged between the two sisters.

300 BC Cup

2008-05-27T23:11:00.003+02:00

I love found artifact stories - and this one is exceptional:

The grandson of a rag and bone man who acquired a small metal cup is in line for a windfall after discovering it is a pure gold vessel dating back to the third or fourth century BC.
The piece could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The 5½ in cup, believed to be from the Achaemenid empire, has two female faces looking in opposite directions, their foreheads decorated with a snake motif.
Experts were baffled by the piece, but laboratory analysis of the gold put it in the third or fourth century BC. The Achaemenid empire was based around Persia, but at its height stretched from Iran to Libya. It was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330BC.

There's a picture on the Telegraph's website.

Today's Gospel

2008-05-26T20:21:00.002+02:00

Mark 10: 17-27

Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days'. Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, 'There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' They were more astonished than ever. 'In that case' they said to one another 'who can be saved?' Jesus gazed at them. 'For men' he said 'it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.'

One could write an awful lot about that gospel, but what strikes me as especially suggestive is that when Jesus examines this man on the commandments, he leaves out those commandments which have to do with God directly. When one considers the fact that at the root of the commandments is the first commandment which prohibits idolatry and the worship of any one or any thing apart from the One God of Israel, this omission is very thought-provoking, especially when put alongside Christ's question, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Perhaps Christ realised that despite the seeming virtue of this man, that virtue was hollow at heart because he didn't 'do God'. Combine that with the instruction to the Apostles concerning how to enter heaven (It is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God), and you have a decent starting point if you want to explore the relationship between the Pauline doctrine of grace and the synoptic Gospels, to say nothing of the question of the relationship between theology and morality.

Update on CoE Conversion Row

2008-05-26T20:14:00.003+02:00

The Telegraph reports that things have gone surreal:

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, accused the Church of failing in its duty to "welcome people of other faiths" ahead of a motion at July's General Synod in York urging a strategy for evangelising Muslims.
However, his comments were condemned by senior figures within the Church. The Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, the former Bishop of Hulme and the newly appointed Bishop of Urban Life and Faith, said: "Both the Bishop of Rochester's reported comments and the synod private members' motion show no sensitivity to the need for good inter-faith relations. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are learning to respect one another's paths to God and to live in harmony. This demand for the evangelisation of people of other faiths contributes nothing to our communities."
A Church of England spokesman added: "We have a mission-focused Christian presence in every community, including those where there are a large number of Muslims. That engagement is based on the provisions of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for freedom of thought, conscience and religion."

Has the European Convention on Human Rights superseded Matthew 28:19?

I don't have time to read these...

2008-05-26T14:56:00.003+02:00

But the Times points to this interesting series of short essays on the topic Does science make belief in God obsolete? Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, O.P answers with an interesting No, and Yes:

No, as a matter of reason and truth. The knowledge we have gained through modern science makes belief in an Intelligence behind the cosmos more reasonable than ever.
Yes, as a matter of mood, sensibility, and sentiment. Not science itself but a reductive "scientific mentality" that often accompanies it, along with the power, control, comfort, and convenience provided by modern technology, has helped to push the concept of God into the hazy twilight of agnosticism.

I don't recall precisely where, but I think that Newman justly worried that about the effect that science would have on people's imagination.

It has always been thus...

2008-05-25T14:20:00.003+02:00

It seems there was a Laodicean presence in Rome this weekend, and it sometimes seems that pretty much all serious Catholics (if I might use that term...) know someone in Rome. With modern means of communication, this is not surprising. What's interesting is that if you look at the closing of St Paul's Letter to the Romans, you read the following:

I commend our sister Phoebe to you; she has devoted her services to the church at Cenchrae. Make her welcome in the Lord as saints should, and help her in any business where she needs your help; she has been a good friend to many, myself among them.

My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, who have worked at my side in the service of Christ Jesus, and put their heads on the block to save my life; not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles have reason to be grateful to them. My greetings, also, to the congregation which meets at their house; to my dear Epaenetus, the first offering Asia made to Christ, and to Mary, who has spent so much labour on you. My greetings to Andronicus and Junias, kinsmen and fellow-prisoners of mine, who have won repute among the apostles that were in Christ's service before me. My greetings to Amplias, whom I love so well in the Lord; to Urbanus, who helped our work in Christ's cause, and to my dear Stachys; to Apelles, a man tried in Christ's service; and those of Aristobulus' household; to my kinsman Herodion, and to such of Narcissus' household as belong to the Lord. My greetings to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked for the Lord so well; and dear Persis, too; she has been long in the Lord's service. My greetings to Rufus, a chosen servant of the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me; to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them; to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympias, and all the saints who are of their company. Greet one another with the kiss of saints; all the churches of Christ send you their greeting.

Even though he didn't found the Church in Rome, and had not yet visited it, St Paul had a friend (Phoebe) who was traveling to Rome and was willing to bring his letter with her, where she would find a whole slew of people who already knew Paul. Just shows that in some ways, things haven't changed at all.

Convert Muslims says Bishop

2008-05-25T12:48:00.003+02:00

The UK's Daily Mail reports on one of the Church of England's more sensible bishops reminding his colleagues of the obvious:

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said Church leaders had rightly shown sensitivity towards Muslims as part of efforts to welcome minority faiths.
But he said: ‘I think it may have gone too far and what we need now is to recover our nerve.’
Dr Nazir-Ali, who faced death threats earlier this year after saying that some parts of the country had become ‘no-go areas’ for non-Muslims, said that it was important for faiths to talk to one another without diluting their core beliefs.
‘Our nation is rooted in the Christian faith, and that is the basis for welcoming people of other faiths,’ he said. ‘You cannot have an honest conversation on the basis of fudge.’

Quite! And that really is how evangelization must be done. Speak honestly and respectfully to those of other religions, but without obscuring the basics of our own faith. To do otherwise is dishonest. Why would we not want to let people know about Christ? Keeping silent about Him suggests to others that we don't really care about Him.

The Pakistani-born bishop, who in 2002 was tipped to become Archbishop of Canterbury before Dr Rowan Williams took over from Dr George Carey, was echoing concerns that many Church leaders are abandoning attempts to spread Christianity among Muslims out of fear of a backlash.
Members of the Church’s ‘parliament’ have now forced the highly sensitive issue on to the agenda of this summer’s General Synod – despite the efforts of liberal bishops to warn them off.
A private members’ motion calling on the bishops to clarify their strategy has gathered so many signatures of support from Synod members that it has leapt over others in the queue for the July meeting in York.
Synod member Paul Eddy, who tabled the motion, said that the active recruitment of non-believers and adherents of other faiths had always been a Biblical injunction on Christians, commanded by Christ himself.But he claimed that many bishops were downplaying the missionary role of the Church and official documents often glossed over the requirement to convert Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or followers of other religions.He warned that the central role of Christianity in Britain was being eroded, and by ‘allowing the rise of another religion in our country, all that Britain stands for is up for grabs’.

Lovely...

2008-05-23T14:37:00.001+02:00

Via the AP:

A man holds a plastic figure depicting Pope Benedict XVI at the 97th German Katholikentag, or Catholic Church assembly, in Osnabrueck, northern Germany, on Friday, May 23, 2008. The figures are meant to be fixed in the car. The traditional gathering of German Catholics that takes place every two years in different cities is expected to attract some 34,000 people.
(AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

A Kontakion of St Romanus

2008-05-21T21:14:00.002+02:00

There are many more here:

Lo, our King, meek and gentle, seated upon an ass
With haste hurries to suffer and to cut suffering --
The Word upon the dumb, willing it that rational beings be redeemed.
And it was possible to behold the One on the back of the ass
Who is on the shoulders of the Cherubim,
The One Who once translated Elijah in a fiery chariot,
The One Who is poor of His own will, but rich in His nature,
The One Who is voluntarily weak, yet granting power
To all of those who cry out to Him: "Thou art the blessed One Who comes to call up Adam."

I guess I'm not as smart as the Pope...

2008-05-21T20:47:00.002+02:00

... in today's Wednesday audience (held indoors due to the unseasonable rain), the Holy Father spoke about St Romanus the Melodist. I must confess, I'd never heard of this guy before.
Anyway, what does Wikipedia have to say about him?

Romanos (or Romanus), also known as Saint Romanos the Melodist or Roman the Hymnographer, was one of the greatest of Greek hymnographers, called "the Pindar of rhythmic poetry". He flourished during the sixth century, which is considered to be the "Golden Age" of Byzantine hymnography.
The main source of information about the life of Romanos comes from the Menaion for October. Beyond this, his name is mentioned by only two other ancient sources. One in the eighth-century poet St. Germanos, and once in the Souda (s. v. anaklomenon), where he is called "Romanos the melodist". From this scanty evidence we learn that he was born to a Jewish family in either Emesa (modern-day Homs) or Damascus in Syria. He was baptized as a young boy (though whether or not his parents also converted is uncertain). Having moved to Berytus (Beirut), he was ordained a deacon in the Church of the Resurrection there.
He later moved to Constantinople during the reign of the emperor Anastasius—on the question whether Anastasius I (491-518) or Anastasius II (713-716) is meant, the renowed byzantinologist, Prof. Karl Krumbacher favours the earlier date.[1] There he served as sacristan in the "Great Church" (Hagia Sophia), residing to the end of his life at the Monastery of Kyros, where he was buried along with his disciple St. Ananias.

There's also the wonderful account of how he started off:

According to legend, Romanus was not at first considered to be either a talented reader or singer. He was, however, loved by the Patriarch of Constantinople because of his great humility. Once, around the year 518, while serving in the Church of the Panagia at Blachernae, during the All-Night Vigil for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, he was assigned to read the kathisma verses from the Psalter. He read so poorly that another reader had to take his place. Some of the lesser clergy ridiculed Romanus for this, and being humilitated he sat down in one of the choir stalls. Overcome by weariness and sorrow, he soon fell asleep. As he slept, the Theotokos (Mother of God) appeared to him with a scroll in her hand. She commanded him to eat the scroll, and as soon as he did so, he awoke. He immediately received a blessing from the Patriarch, mounted the ambo (pulpit), and chanted extemporaneously his famous Kontakion of the Nativity, "Today the Virgin gives birth to Him Who is above all being…." The emperor, the patriarch, the clergy, and the entire congregation were amazed at both the profound theology of the hymn and Romanos' clear, sonorous voice as he sang. According to tradition, this was the very first kontakion ever sung. The Greek word "kontakion" (κοντάκιον) refers to the shaft on which a scroll is wound, hence the significance of the Theotokos' command for him to swallow a scroll, indicating that his compositions were by divine inspiration.

Quite...

2008-05-20T22:15:00.001+02:00

Via the Telegraph, concerning the abominations made legal in the UK's Embryology Bill:

Mr Leigh grew serious again, contended that "we cannot and should not be spliced together with the animal kingdom", and ended with the pitiful words given by Mary Shelley to Frankenstein's monster: "I the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on."

To our delight, Sir Gerald Kaufman (Lab, Manchester Gorton) joined Mr Leigh in warning the House it was on a slippery slope.

"If you permit the creation of a hybrid embryo now what will you permit next time?" he asked.

But Dawn Primarolo, a health minister, was soon putting the case for "a pragmatic solution" and the vote went the Government's way, in favour of hybrid embryos.

One could not help being reminded of Dean Inge's remark about the Gadarene swine: "No doubt they thought the going was good for the first half of the way."

Brideshead Redisovered?

2008-05-18T12:48:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

The inspiration for Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is detailed in a new book showing how closely the author based his fictional characters on a family with whom he spent long periods in the 1930s.
It shows how the character of the flamboyant, teddy bear-owning aristocrat Sebastian Flyte was inspired by an Oxford contemporary with whom Waugh was infatuated and who, like his fictional counterpart, was a tortured alcoholic who died young.
Both 1981's acclaimed television adaptation of the novel, and a Hollywood film due out this year use Castle Howard, the extravagant North Yorkshire country pile, as the setting for Brideshead, the stately home of the Flyte family.
But the real inspiration, according to the work by Jane Mulvagh, was provided by Madresfield, a moated house in the Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire.
For almost 1,000 years, the property has been the home of the Lygons, the family of the Earls Beauchamp. In her history of the building and its owners – Madresfield, The Real Brideshead – Mrs Mulvagh has spoken to the family, including some of those who knew Waugh, studied his letters to them and explored the property.

The article goes on to outline some of the similarities between the characters in Brideshead Revisited and the members of the Lygon family.

Trinity Sunday

2008-05-18T12:28:00.003+02:00

Andrea del Sarto's Disputation on the Holy Trinity. The saints shown are Sts Augustine, Laurence, Peter Martyr, Francis, Mary Magdalen and Sebastian.

From the conclusion of St Augustine's De Trinitate:

O Lord our God, we believe in You, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the Truth would not say, Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, unless You were a Trinity. Nor would you, O Lord God, bid us to be baptized in the name of Him who is not the Lord God. Nor would the divine voice have said, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God, unless You were so a Trinity as to be one Lord God. And if You, O God, were Yourself the Father, and were Yourself the Son, Your Word Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit your gift, we should not read in the book of truth, God sent His Son; nor would You, O Only-begotten, say of the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name; and, Whom I will send to you from the Father. Directing my purpose by this rule of faith, so far as I have been able, so far as You have made me to be able, I have sought You, and have desired to see with my understanding what I believed; and I have argued and labored much. O Lord my God, my one hope, hearken to me, lest through weariness I be unwilling to seek You, but that I may always ardently seek Your face. Do Thou give strength to seek, who has made me find You, and has given the hope of finding You more and more. My strength and my infirmity are in Your sight: preserve the one, and heal the other. My knowledge and my ignorance are in Your sight; where You have opened to me, receive me as I enter; where You have closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember You, understand You, love You. Increase these things in me, until You renew me wholly. I know it is written, In the multitude of speech, you shall not escape sin. But O that I might speak only in preaching Your word, and in praising You! Not only should I so flee from sin, but I should earn good desert, however much I so spoke. For a man blessed of You would not enjoin a sin upon his own true son in the faith, to whom he wrote, Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season. Are we to say that he has not spoken much, who was not silent about Your word, O Lord, not only in season, but out of season? But therefore it was not much, because it was only what was necessary. Set me free, O God, from that multitude of speech which I suffer inwardly in my soul, wretched as it is in Your sight, and flying for refuge to Your mercy; for I am not silent in thoughts, even when silent in words. And if, indeed, I thought of nothing save what pleased You, certainly I would not ask You to set me free from such multitude of speech. But many are my thoughts, such as You know, thoughts of man, since they are vain. Grant to me not to consent to them; and if ever they delight me, nevertheless to condemn them, and not to dwell in them, as though I slumbered. Nor let them so prevail in me, as that anything in my acts should proceed from them; but at least let my opinions, let my conscience, be safe from them, under Your protection. When the wise man spoke of You in his book, which is now called by the special name of Ecclesiasticus, We speak, he said, much, and yet come short; and in sum of words, He is all. When, therefore, we shall have come to You, these very many things that we speak, and yet come short, will cease; and You, as One, wilt remain all in all. And we shall say one thing without end, in praising You in One, ourselves also made one in You. O Lord the one God, God the Trinity, whatever I have said in these books that is of Yours, may they acknowledge who are Yours; if anything of my own, may it be pardoned both by You and by those who are Yours. Amen.

Gandalf?

2008-05-17T20:30:00.001+02:00

Love it for the filth?

2008-05-14T17:11:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

Claudio Velardi, 53, took the job of luring tourists to Italy's dirtiest and most criminal city at a time when Neapolitans are rioting over the mountains of rubbish lying in the streets.
The crisis, which arose after the city's dumps became full and collections halted, continues to worsen.
Last week, piles of rubbish reappeared on the streets of the city and the European Commission threatened to take court action against Naples for failing to resolve the matter.
The images of burning rubbish, together with the city's crime problems, have led to a steep drop in tourism, with some hotels reporting a 30 per cent fall in bookings.
Mr Velardi, a public relations expert, has outlined a strategy to sell the city without gloss.
"Naples has never been a clean city," he said. "It has always been a hotbed of viral diseases, of hepatitis. I am better off than many Neapolitans, but even I have a bad liver because I had hepatitis as a child."
Mr Velardi said tourists should love Naples for the unexpected pleasure of finding beauty and filth crammed together.
He added: "If I go to Rio de Janeiro, I know there are favelas (slums). This city is also chaotic, but is beautiful and characterful.
"We have no intention of turning Naples into Frankfurt. What is more, the hoteliers say that no one complains about Naples when they come to leave the city. It provides happy memories.

The unexpected pleasure of finding beauty and filth crammed together?

Women - Know Your Limits!

2008-05-14T00:00:00.000+02:00

Seraphic offers advice for women who wonder why they are still single.
Seems as though the Brits figured the answer to that one decades ago:

Oxymoron?

2008-05-13T22:38:00.003+02:00

Section heading from a theology book that I'm consulting:

The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity: Details

Eh? ;)

Pentecost at the Pantheon

2008-05-11T18:52:00.004+02:00

Fr Z has a better camera than I do, so I'll link to his shots of Pentecost at the Pantheon rather than post my own.

Interestingly, Mass this morning was celebrated by a Syriac Catholic Bishop who works at the Vatican. He wore his own rite's (pretty nifty looking) vestments despite celebrating according to the Roman Rite.

Pentecost Icon and a Question...

2008-05-10T00:05:00.004+02:00

This is the traditional Eastern Icon of Pentecost. A theologian of my acquaintance gets annoyed by depictions which show the Mother of God in this context. Why? Not because he doubts her presence, but rather because he sees it as a duplication of symbols. Our Lady represents the whole Church, as do the Apostles gathered together. Thus, showing the Apostles with Our Lady would present two different and distinct symbols of the Church.
The guy at the bottom of the icon represents the whole world which is about to receive the teaching of the Twelve Apostles.

A Question
The second verse of the Pentecost Sequence goes as follows:

Veni, pater pauperum,
veni, dator munerum
veni, lumen cordium.

I've never quite understood why the Holy Spirit is called the Father of the Poor. That would seem to be a more fitting title for God the Father. Anyone got any ideas?

I note that in some very early Christian texts, Jesus Christ is sometimes referred to in paternal terms. For obvious reasons, that particular usage didn't persevere for long.
(For example, see the Epistle to Diognetes which says of Christ: Having then in the former time demonstrated the inability of our nature to obtain life, and having now revealed a Saviour able to save even creatures which have no ability, He willed that for both reasons we should believe in His goodness and should regard Him as nurse, father, teacher, counsellor, physician, mind, light, honour, glory, strength and life without concerning ourselves about clothes and food. )

On the nature of the Gospels and Christian Art...

2008-05-09T16:20:00.003+02:00

This just popped into my head, and I'm wondering whether there's any value in the insight that Christian art should take its cues from the manner in which Christ is remembered in the Church.

The fullness of Divine Revelation is a concrete individual man - Jesus of Nazareth. He is the concrete universal, true God and true man, disclosing the truth about about God and about man.

Therefore:

Since God's revelation to us literally 'took flesh', Christian art should not, as a rule, tend towards the abstract.

How is Christ's life made known to us?

Through the Scriptures, and in particular the Gospels, which we understand through the lens of tradition.
Despite being historically truthful, the Gospels are not footnoted biographies which meet the standards of modern historiography. Christ did not appear in a time and place which permitted him to be captured on film. Consequently, there are many details concerning 'how things actually happened' which we are not told. We do not even know what Christ looked like, what his voice sounded like, etc, etc...

Therefore, the Gospel accounts of the doings of Christ do not impose historical details on the mind of the believer. Listening to an account of the Last Supper, for example, the details of how the Jews of the 1st Century decorated their rooms and arranged their tables are not imposed on the mind's eye of the believer. Whilst our understanding of the Gospel is certainly deepened by historical research, the true meaning of the Gospel accounts can just as easily be grasped by the ordinary believer who has no idea what the blind man of Jerico might have historically worn. His imagining a beggar of his own time, or some vaguely undefined time in the past does not fundamentally compromise his grasp of the meaning of the miraculous healing.

Consequently, Christian art should not feel bound by hyper-realism or an obsession with historical accuracy.

Eh?

2008-05-09T11:36:00.002+02:00

I've heard of little kids who like to dress up and play at being a priest. However, I've never seen anything like this before. What mom doesn't want her son looking like the Supreme Pontiff on his baptism day?

HV 40

2008-05-09T11:08:00.002+02:00

The 40th Anniversary of Humane Vitae is coming up and I've been asked to put up a link to this conference in Oakland CA. It will be preceded by a banquet at which the distinguished Catholic philosopher and novelist Prof Ralph McInery will be speaking. The speakers at the conference itself will include Archbishop Raymond Burke and Professor Janet Smith. Sounds good!

Clerics and seminarians will also be interested in the website of Humane Vitae priests and might want to sign up for their mailing list.

Interesting... Pentecost Indoors...

2008-05-07T14:22:00.002+02:00

From the Bolletino:

L’11 maggio 2008, Domenica di Pentecoste, alle ore 10, il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI celebrerà nella Basilica Vaticana la Santa Messa della Solennità.
Alla Celebrazione sono invitati i fedeli della diocesi di Roma e i pellegrini presenti in città.

It seems as though this year's Pentecost Sunday Mass will be celebrated by the Holy Father inside St Peter's rather than in the Square as has been done in previous years.
I'm not one of those people who think that the Holy Father should never celebrate Mass in St Peter's Square, but I do think that it is fitting that St Peter's itself be used more often for Papal Masses.

FSSP Parish in Rome

2008-05-07T13:59:00.002+02:00

Via The New Liturgical Movement:

It is with great joy that the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter announces the opening of a personal parish in the Diocese of Rome. The decree of erection of the parish, which is dated Easter day of 2008, states that in conformity with art. 10 of Summorum Pontificum, “and after having received the proposal of the Cardinal Vicar, the Holy Father has established that in the central sector of the Diocese of Rome, in the 1st District, and in a fitting place of worship, namely, the Church of Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini . . . should be erected a personal parish, in order to guarantee proper pastoral care for the entire community of Traditionalist faithful residing in the same Diocese.

The Fraternity of St. Peter is deeply grateful to the Holy Father and his Vicar, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, to be entrusted with this parish in the See of Peter. Of the many dioceses where it serves, this is the tenth apostolate which has been erected as a full personal parish, and the first in Europe. It is hoped that this particular parish will serve not only the local parishioners, but that it will also provide a fine example of the beauty and solemnity of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite to the many pilgrims and students in Rome. Rev. Joseph Kramer, FSSP, has been appointed as the first pastor of the parish Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini, Rector of the venerable Archconfraternity of the same name, and Rector of the church.

The installation of Fr. Kramer as pastor, and official opening Mass of the parish will take place on June 8, 2008. The Fraternity of St. Peter asks for your prayers in carrying out these new duties towards the faithful, and the Diocese of Rome.

St Dominic (Abbot) vs the Snakes

2008-05-03T16:29:00.000+02:00

Testamints...

2008-05-03T14:33:00.001+02:00

... and other religious candies.

Sanity, blessed sanity...

2008-05-02T15:39:00.003+02:00

Amy Welborn has an excellent and thought-provoking post based on her stumbling across a 1960 book written by one of the leading members of the American Liturgical Movement. She does a nice job of identifying the aims of the movement, as well as picking out the strengths and weaknesses of their approach.
My favourite bit (it made me laugh out loud):

So you’ve got two factors working here - connect the laity more consciously to Christ in the Eucharist - and take a look at the structure of the Mass from various perspectives.

Notice the absence of Freemasons.

Needless to say, with hindsight about the less desirable fruits of the liturgical reform Amy can ask the obvious question:

The book ultimately left me with a feeling of “What were they thinking?” Easy for me to say, again, with the convenience of hindsight.

I mean…think of it this way. How could anyone think that taking an ancient form of the Mass and totally reforming it in a matter of less than a decade would not turn out to be problematic? Reinhold refers to it as a “thorough reconstruction.” How could they not see that taking what Catholics had been taught was the “Mass of the Ages” and that in some way represented truths about their faith, not just in the content, but in the fact of its antiquity and universality and what those qualities expressed about the antiquity, solidity and universality of the faith itself…and then saying, “Oh, here’s a new one..” - how could they not see that as disruptive and a recipe for confusion?

Read the whole thing, and you'll find it shot through with Amy's characteristic sanity.

Personally, I think the Church needs to engage with a number of issues. The question of a liturgical spirituality amongst the priests and the faithful needs to be tacked - the best way of avoiding the excesses (coming from both ends of the left/right spectrum) of archeologist, activism, hyper-traditionalism (Angry-Trad Syndrome), rubricism, anti-rubrisicm, etc... etc... is the nurturing of an authentic liturgical spirituality. Such a spirituality respects the liturgy and is formed by the liturgy, but is not blind to the social aspect of worship and the reciprocal relationship between the liturgy and the broader life of the Church.

Secondly, we have Marini's account of how Bugnini et al 'won' the post-conciliar battle concerning the liturgical reform. We also have a number of strong critiques of the resultant liturgy. The missing part of the equation is an analysis of how the 'traditionalists' (for want of a better word) lost the battle against Bugnini. Objectively speaking, because they lost, we know that there was some political or intellectual or spiritual flaw in the case which they advanced or in the manner in which they pressed their case. An appreciation of the weaknesses and tactical failures which helped determine the course of events is essential if a New Liturgical Movement is to be built on a solid foundation.

Concluding Postscript
Some of the Comment Box 'discussion' in some of the liturgy websites is driving me freaking crazy. Even sympathetic readers grow tired when certain points are raised again and again and again, often on only the slimmest of pretexts. Additionally, some of the intemperate language used about the Second Vatican Council, various Popes and bishops rarely does little more than alienate people. Even legitimate criticism loses its weight when it's clothed in the garments of hysteria, outrage or just plain grumpiness.

1 Cor 1:23

2008-05-02T15:24:00.001+02:00

Some trouble at the Wailing Wall:

The leaders of Ireland's four main Christian Churches have accepted an apology from the Israeli government after a Jewish settler prevented them from praying for peace at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Holocaust Memorial Day.
The enraged settler blocked the way to Judaism's holy place because three of the men, including Cardinal Sean Brady, were wearing crucifixes which he took exception to as a symbol of Christ's death by Jews.

One wonders whether that last sentence is an accurate reflection of the settler's views, or journalistic speculation.

This incident took place after an Israeli security guard agreed that the Irish church leaders, who are on a five-day peace mission to the Holy Land, could wear their crosses going through the checkpoint.
The local Lutheran Bishop, Munib Younan, who was accompanying Cardinal Brady; the Church of Ireland Primate, Alan Harper; the Presbyterian Moderator, John Findlay and Methodist President Roy Cooper, said that an angry settler threatened to stop them.
To avoid a confrontation that would have had serious diplomatic repercussions, the churchmen did not proceed with their visit.

It should be noted that the officials at the Wailing Wall seemingly weren't the ones causing hassle - however, given the general atmosphere in Jerusalem, it's understandable the things would get quite tense when this settler raised his objection.

After seven or eight minutes of consultations in Hebrew between the Israeli guard and Bishop Younan, Cardinal Brady decided that the Irish delegation would have to move on to keep an appointment at the Israeli ministry for foreign affairs.
Last night a spokesman for the Irish church leaders was at pains to explain that they had not been turned away, and that the incident was "a storm in a tea-cup".
Cardinal Brady revealed that after visiting the famous Al-Aqsa mosque they had decided to pay an unscheduled visit to the Western Wall and had not had the opportunity to coordinate the visit with the Israeli authorities.
"We encountered some difficulty in gaining access to the wall and the difficulty arose over our wearing crosses.
A security guard promised to bring some senior officers to resolve the matter," the Cardinal said. "But we were under constraints of time to be at another meeting scheduled in the ministry for foreign affairs."
The Cardinal said that later on during a visit to the ministry for social affairs, minister Isaac Hertzog, whose grandfather, Yitzhak Hertzog, was the first Grand Chief Rabbi of Ireland graciously conveyed an apology, which was accepted.

The Widow... Well worth a read...

2008-05-02T00:45:00.003+02:00

Anyway, I've finished reading Seraphic's latest The Widow of Saint-Pierre, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The Widow is, of course, the relict of The Tragical Tale of Aelianus of England, but Seraphic brings on an engaging crew of new characters to populate the Island of Saint-Pierre. What's it about? Romance, opera, seaplanes and policemen. It's a touch more serious (in the good sense of the word) than her first novella (which you need not have read to enjoy this book), but that doesn't mean it's any less funny. If you enjoy Seraphic's insights and her prose, then you're going to enjoy this book. It's a rattling good tale.

Rome's New Mayor...

2008-05-01T10:34:00.003+02:00

The Telegraph reports on the first Right-wing Mayor in Rome since the War:

Gianni Alemanno, 50, a firebrand neo-fascist and the first Right-wing mayor of the city since the Second World War, vowed to make Rome "secure" as he was sworn into office after his election at the weekend.
(snip)
The new mayor said that his first action would be to begin "immediate expulsions" of the 20,000 immigrants in the city with criminal records.
"We cannot welcome them without discipline," he said. "We will chase out the delinquents. There are 85 abusive nomad camps to destroy."
He added that he would visit the widower of Giovanna Reggiani, a 47-year-old woman who was beaten, raped and killed by a Romanian immigrant who lived at a such a camp last November. "I want to promise him that what happened to his wife would never happen again," he said.
Walter Veltroni, his Left-wing predecessor, was widely criticised for paying more attention to ancient monuments and film festivals than to problems with the city's infrastructure and security.
(snip)
Mr Alemanno has promised to tear down a £12 million museum around the Ara Pacis, an altar to the Emperor Augustus.
The sleek modernist building, designed by US architect Richard Meier, took more than a decade to build but was immediately labelled by one critic as resembling a "pizzeria".

Knowing the way things are run here in Italy, I can confidently predict that the expulsions will be minimal or non-existent, and the museum at the Ara Pacis will not be demolished.

What I'm reading at the moment...

2008-04-30T15:10:00.004+02:00

... or spot the difference.

I just happened to lay the two novels I'm reading at the moment side-by-side, and was struck by a certain similarity. Well, first impressions tell me that despite the surreal edge to her work, Seraphic's Catholic Quasi-Canadians are an awful lot more normal than Flannery's Protestants of the Deep South.

But why am I promoting Seraphic's new book so assiduously? That's an easy question to answer.

Blackmail.

If she can't earn her crust writing, then Seraphic will be forced into a life of gold-digging and will allow her standards to slip to such an extent that she'll start dating Protestants and even seminarians!

Therefore, in order to save the souls of all involved, I'm shilling for Seraphic!

The Widow is...

2008-04-29T12:43:00.002+02:00

... how you say, arrived?

The Augustinian Influence...

2008-04-27T12:43:00.003+02:00

I wish that some bright theologian would write a substantial article or book on the theme of The Augustinianism of Joseph Ratzinger because one frequently comes across ideas and insights in his preaching and writing which have a distinct Augustinian stamp. Take the following little snippet from his homily at today's priestly ordinations:

Cari Ordinandi, in futuro dovrete sempre ritornare a questo momento, a questo gesto che non ha nulla di magico, eppure è così ricco di mistero, perché qui è l’origine della vostra nuova missione. In quella preghiera silenziosa avviene l’incontro tra due libertà: la libertà di Dio, operante mediante lo Spirito Santo, e la libertà dell’uomo. L’imposizione delle mani esprime plasticamente la specifica modalità di questo incontro: la Chiesa, impersonata dal Vescovo in piedi con le mani protese, prega lo Spirito Santo di consacrare il candidato; il diacono, in ginocchio, riceve l’imposizione della mani e si affida a tale mediazione. L’insieme dei gesti è importante, ma infinitamente più importante è il movimento spirituale, invisibile, che esso esprime; movimento ben evocato dal sacro silenzio, che tutto avvolge all’interno e all’esterno.

[Those who read Italian will note that my translation is a little less than literal in places - some Italian concepts don't translate exactly into English]

Dear Ordinandi, in future, you must always return to this moment, to this gesture which has nothing magical about it, but rather is so rich in mystery, because it is at the origin of your new mission. In this silent prayer there comes about the meeting of two freedoms: the freedom of God, operating by means of the Holy Spirit and the freedom of man. The imposition of the hands expresses the specific form of of this encounter: the Church, 'in-personated' by the bishop, standing up with hands outstretched, prays the Holy Spirit to consecrate the candidate; the deacon, kneeling, received the imposition of the hands and entrusts himself to that mediation. The overall significance of the gestures is important, but infinitely more important is the invisible spiritual movement, well evoked by the sacred silence which encloses everything, interiorly and exteriorly.

The symbolic reading of the gestures of ordination, along with the emphasis on the more important spiritual/interior action of the sacrament (which is both concealed and revealed by the external gestures) is frightfully Augustinian. In his treatment of the liturgical sacraments and the mysteries of the faith, Augustine frequently treated the external significance of the visible as the door to a deeper and more significant spiritual meaning, which in turn renews man 'from the inside' and enables him to make real that which is symbolized externally. Likewise, Benedict is pointing out that the new service of the priest is symbolized by the gestures of the ordination rite. However, beneath these gestures is a deeper spiritual change which makes it possible for the priest to fulfill the new mission of service. Without this deeper sacramental aspect, the exterior sign would lack efficacy.
Similarily, the emphasis on memory (always return to this moment) and the relationship between human and divine freedoms were themes which occupied Augustine greatly.

More distinctively 'Benedictine' is his reference to Sacred Silence. This ties into his overall liturgical vision which emphasizes an interior and exterior silence, which allows those who participate in the Sacred Liturgy to grasp the deeper meaning we've already mentioned.

Judith and Holofernes...

2008-04-27T12:19:00.006+02:00

I was chatting with Cnytr recently, about the manner in which Judith slaying Holofernes is usually painted. Knowing her prejudices about the religious art of the Renaissance, I proposed that it normally wasn't painted as religious art at all, but served as a particularly dramatic scene from scripture which gave the artist a chance to show their mettle. For instance, I argued, this painting of Artemisia Gentileschi has nothing particularly religious or devotional about it at all.

In fact, I added, it could just as easily be from the director's cut of a 21st Century Version of Pride and Prejudice - Jane and Lizzy getting revenge on that cad Wickham.
The Cnytr disagreed. She suggested I search for some illustrated manuscripts in order to see the Slaying of Holofernes presented in a devotional form. So, I did a bit of googling and found the following extraordinary comparison.

I've read a fair bit of patristic and some medieval exegesis, and so I'm fairly familiar with the typological parallels between the Old and New Testament. However, I'd never come across this one before. Judith slaying Holofernes is presented as a prefigurement of the Virgin Mary defeating the Devil by giving birth to Christ.
Pretty cool, no?

Wailing Wall in Danger

2008-04-27T12:15:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

For thousands of years it has withstood fires, floods and earthquakes. But now a portion of one of Judaism's holiest sites, Jerusalem's Western Wall, is crumbling.
The rabbi charged with watching over the structure, which the faith believes to be the last remnants of a retaining wall from the ancient Second Temple, has warned that a section repaired more than a century ago is again at risk of falling.
Because the weakened stonework is high on the 60ft wall, the danger from any falling fragment to the crowds who pray at its foot each day is particularly acute.
"We found that the stones at the bottom of the wall, the stones from the Second Temple period, were strong and stable," said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. "However, we discovered that there are problems with the smaller stones, those at the top of the wall."
(snip)
The damage was discovered just before Passover as religious leaders cleared thousands of written prayers tucked into the stones of the wall, according to Jewish tradition. Twice a year, thousands of such entreaties, which also arrive by email and post, are gathered and buried on the Mount of Olives so as not to desecrate the contents.
The Western Wall is believed to date from 20BC, when King Herod the Great first ordered the construction of the Second Temple, a project that took 46 years to complete. Roman legions razed the temple in AD70, and today the wall that remains is thought to be the only surviving portion of Judaism's holiest site.
Along with the massive stones commissioned by Herod, the wall contains stones placed by the Umayyad dynasty in an eighth?century restoration. But the section crumbling is at the very top, where a series of smaller, uniformly sized stones were added in the 1800s under the financing and supervision of British financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Restoration experts say the more modern cement used as mortar to hold those stones together has been eroded more quickly by wind and rain than the ancient preparations used on the lower levels. The result is that several are now poised to fall.
(snip)
"We know it is old stone and we have some crumbling," said Raanan Kislev, head of the conservation at the authority. The repair will be a delicate operation: Jewish religious law forbids the removing of any stone from the wall, and rabbis are divided over who is even permitted to carry out such work.
Traditionally, Jews are forbidden to set foot on the ancient site of what they believe to be the Temple Mount, so the rabbi said much of the work would have to be conducted using cranes rather than scaffolding. Jewish workers on the project will also have to undergo ritual baths.

And she's back...

2008-04-25T23:00:00.000+02:00

... and Still Seraphic.

Seraphic Goes to Ground... But will be back

2008-04-25T17:54:00.003+02:00

I know that some of my readers have (understandably) become fans of the Seraphic Single. Alas, those clicking the hyperlink will be disappointed to see that Seraphic's blog has gone. Due to ungentlemanly male behavior she's had to close down temporarily. However, she will be back with a new blog tomorrow.
Needless to say, Seraphic herself is as disconsolate as her readers... buying one of her books would cheer her up and satisfy your craving for her prose. Support Canada's No 1 Single Female Author of Humourous Catholic Fiction.
(My copy of The Widow of Saint-Pierre is on its way... I can hardly wait.)

Dying for Art...

2008-04-22T15:56:00.002+02:00

Interesting news story:

German artist Gregor Schneider has come up with the idea of putting dying people on exhibition as a way of normalizing the issue of death.
"Unfortunately today, death and the road to death are about suffering. Coming to terms with death as I plan it can take away the pain of dying for us," said the country's most controversial artist.
"I want to display a person dying naturally in the piece or somebody who has just died," he said, claiming this way a taboo could be done away with.
Justifying the bizarre proposal, he added an artist can contribute something to this issue by building places where people can die with dignity.
The artist achieved prominence at the 2001 Biennale Venice Film Festival where he received the Golden Lion award for his "totes Haus ur" or "Dead House Ur", a complex of 22 rooms and dead-end paths, and is of domestic and international renown for his morbid interior installations.

Setting aside the whole voyeuristic aspect, what's especially thought-provoking about this story is that it's a symptom of modern society's desire to hide death. Assuming this guy is sincere (rather than simply sensationalistic), he's certainly reacting against a tendency to deny the reality of death.
Of course, despite this, his approach is fundamentally unsatisfactory - his attempt to normalize death misses one of the central Christian insights about death. It's a scandal. We're not supposed to die. Death is linked directly to sin. Therefore, we can never truly understand it as something we can be neutral towards, something we can treat as fully natural. However, because of Christ's death on the Cross, we can understand the evil of death as being an evil which can be turned to a good end. Meditating on our mortality puts life in its proper perspective; facing the evil of death with hope, confidence and resignation to God's will has ever been the Christian path from this life to the next.

St Anselm of Canterbury/Aosta/Bec

2008-04-21T15:38:00.003+02:00

Today is also the feast of St Anselm. I can be a little slow, so I've never really grasped the so-called Ontological Argument, but I highly recommend an attentive reading of his Cur Deus homo - translated here in two PDF files.

I suspect that St Anselm doesn't get a fair hearing these days - his masterly exposition of the theology of Satisfaction is frequently confused with Protestant Substitution theories. (I also suspect that his 'juridical' interpretation of the Redemption has more scriptural and patristic support than his critics might concede.) Additionally, he's sometimes accused of being a rationalist - although if one takes the opening paragraphs of Cur Deus homo seriously, he's quite clear that reason does not at all supplant faith or grace. Rather, the possession of theological truths by means of reason should be understood as subsequent, supplementary and complementary to their acceptance by faith. Our faith is rational - so a grace-enlivened reason may understand the logic of what we believe and thereby grasp more profitably the truths of the faith. Reason deepens our faith rather than replaces it.

Happy birthday...

2008-04-21T12:51:00.002+02:00

... Rome.

Founded on the 21st of April, 753 BC.

RIP - Fr Jean Galot SJ

2008-04-21T07:15:00.002+02:00

News has just reached me that the Jesuit theologian Fr Jean Galot has passed from this life.
May this prayer of his to the Sacred Heart remind us to pray that he has passed into that perfect union of hearts in heaven:

Take me, O Heart of Christ!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, in all that I am,
take me in all that I have and that I do,
in all that I think and all that I love!

Take me in my spirit, that it may cling to Thee;
take me in my willing, that it will but Thee;
take the depth of my heart, that it love only Thee!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, in my secret desires
so that you be my dream and only goal,
my one affection and my complete happiness!

Take me for the work of Thy great mission,
for a complete gift toward my neighbor's salvation,
and for every sacrifice in service of your people!

Take me, O Heart of Christ, without limits, without end;
take even what I've failed to offer Thee;
and never give back to me what you have taken in hand!

Take for eternity all that is in me,
that one day I may, O Heart, possess Thee,
in the embrace of Heaven take Thee and keep Thee!
--by Jean Galot, S.J.

Oh happy day!

2008-04-19T13:44:00.004+02:00

Three Years Ago Today
Will we ever forget?

Everyone wanted a view. Seemingly out of nowhere materialized the Carabineri band, a detachement of the Italian military and the Swiss guards - all ready to pay their respects to the new Pontiff.
After waiting about 20 minutes there was definite activity on the balcony. Someone emerged and released the red curtains which had been tied back either side of the great window. The crowd gasped. And then Cardinal Estevez emerged and with much sssshing the crowd fell silent.
'Cari fratelli e sorelle,' (Dear brothers and sisters) he began. The crowd began to ask why he was not speaking Latin. Then he repeated the same words in Spanish (have they elected a Latin American?), and then in German, French and English. The crowd held its breath.

'Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum'
(And one could feel a wave of Great Joy sweep through the Square)
'Habemus papam'
(Applause and rejoicing - I must confess to being on the verge of tears)
'Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum'
(Yes, yes...)
'Dominum'
(Yes...)
'Dominum'
(Nerves well and truly wracked
'Iosephum'
(And I cannot resist shouting 'Ratzinger' as Cardinal Estevez pauses for a mischievous smile)
'Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem'
(Get on with it!)
'Ratzinger.'
(The square explodes with joy!)
'Qui sibi nomen imposuit...'
(Ssssssh! )
'Benedictum XVI'
Immediately the chant went up - 'Benedetto! Benedetto!'
The Senior Cardinal deacon withdrew and Vatican staff emerged to hang the traditional tapestry with the arms of the previous Pope over the balcony.

After that they withdrew and the Cardinal electors began to appear at the balconies either side of the central one. They jostled each other for a good view and one or two began waving their birettas like schoolboys.

And then the processional cross was brought out onto the balcony by one of the Vatican MCs followed by the man himself! Benedict the 16th - Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. He looked overwhelmed - he gave his shy smile and began waving to the crowd. Not a natural showman like his predecessor he looked ill-at-ease, but for a second (and several people have said this to me) he looked just like John Paul II. A microphone was produced and he gave his message.

Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Lord Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.
I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficent instruments and I particularly entrust myself to your prayers.
In the joy of the Risen Lord, trusting in His constant help, we move ahead. May the Lord help us and and may His Mother be at our side. Thank you.

Long may he reign, and may the Lord sustain him in his service.

Plus - Interesting Rumour over at NLM's Shawn Tribe:

News has come to the NLM that we may see the venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman beatified very shortly now. It is said that this announcement may be made by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in approximately two weeks time.
The NLM has also been told that the beatification ceremony will likely take place in Rome in October and that the Holy Father will beatify Cardinal Newman himself.
This will be a glorious day for Catholics of the English speaking world if so. Speaking personally, I have one entire shelf of my personal library dedicated to the great Cardinal's writings.
Please pray for the Cardinal's cause in your daily prayers and upcoming Masses.

Because of the Holy Father's regard for Newman, I can well understand him wanting to do this beatification himself. Obviously, this is just speculation at this stage, but I'm already excited about the prospect of an October Beatification.

To my American readers...

2008-04-18T13:07:00.000+02:00

I understand that my bishop is visiting your country. (Please take good care of him.) That's why I'm going to leave the Pope-'blogging to you guys and will instead share this story of a hard-core Russian vodka-drinker:

A Russian man was struggling to remember a night of heavy drinking after waking to find a knife in his back.
Vodka drinker Yuri Lyalin, 53, was woken by his wife the next morning with not only a hangover but a six-inch blade between his shoulders.
Mr Lyalin managed to take a bus home, eat his breakfast and then fall into a deep sleep without realising he had been stabbed by his drinking partner.
It wasn't until his wife spotted the protruding handle and woke him, that an ambulance was called and he was taken to casualty.
Mr Lyalin, an electrician, had reportedly been drinking with a watchman at a factory in Vologda where he works.
It appears that the pair had an argument at some point before Mr Lyalin passed out.
The next morning when Mr Lyalin tried to resume his duties he was sent home for being inebriated.
None of his co-workers noticed the knife.
He then took a meandering course home, stopping to eat some sausage from his fridge before sleeping it off, according to Russian newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda and Gazeta.
His doctor, Victor Belov, said the knife "went into soft tissue and by pure luck did not touch any vital organs," Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
Mr Lyalin himself was philosophical about the incident.
"We got drunk together," he said. "Things happen when you drink."

Serabook
Oh, and Seraphic has published another book. I really enjoyed her first, but will wait a little while until I ~~pretend to~~ have read it before showering it with praise. ;)

Grave Matter
Both the Cranky Professor and Fr Tim Finigan visited one of my favourite places in Rome yesterday - the Campo Verano Cemetery.

It's the hat...

2008-04-15T08:26:00.002+02:00

Via the Telegraph:

A hat company has broken a German taboo by advertising its products using an image of Adolf Hitler.
The campaign for the Hut Weber company places the iconic hair and moustache of the Nazi leader next to a bowler-hatted sketch of Charlie Chaplin, star of The Great Dictator, with the caption in English: "It's the hat."
Created by the Serviceplan agency, the advertisement is groundbreaking because the taboo of using Hitler in any other context but a historical one would have been unthinkable until now.
(snip)
Germany has taken great steps in the past to ensure Hitler-related material does not go on sale in the country.
Two years ago it sought the help of the Italian government in stopping the importation of "Hitler Wine", which featured a picture of the dictator giving his infamous salute.

Unfortunate Papal Headline Contest...

2008-04-12T18:59:00.003+02:00

The Telegraph does well:

Pope will pray for terrorists at Ground Zero

I do hope that he doesn't pray for them in the same way that one might pray for rain. ;)

Anyway, the article explains:

The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week.
The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: "Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.
"God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance".
The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy's most high-profile Muslims, at Easter.
Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of trying to provoke "a new crusade" against Islam.

One has to wonder why the emphasis seems to be on exaggerating the extent to which the Pope's actions might anger the Muslim world. Furthermore, I don't see that there's anything in the prayer that'd upset a Muslim... unless said Muslim was already a supporter of those terrorists... and consequently probably doesn't need much motive to work up a lather of hatred and aggression.

Earthquake...

2008-04-12T10:26:00.002+02:00

Gosh! Two small earthquakes here this morning - enough to wake me up at about quarter to 8. The news report tells me that the epicentre was in the Castelli Romani, the first measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale, the second measuring 2.2.

Brief emergence from hiatus...

2008-04-11T14:14:00.004+02:00

Just a few things that caught my attention.

1. This post of Seraphic's is gold. Young Catholic women, please take note:

Nobody should waste their youth dreaming of men who have no interest in them. Thus, we Catholic girls should hear "I'm discerning a vocation to the priesthood" and translate it into "I'm just not that into you." And at this point, we should drop the discerner like a hot potato. After all, he is thinking of foreswearing the greatest sweets of human love, so we should give him a hint of that loss pronto. Once he's actually in the seminary, we can be nice to him again. But not too nice. And if he doesn't go into the seminary (for so few of them do) we should cold-shoulder him until he shows up, weeping, with flowers, at our door. (Incidentally, make sure a discerner really is discerning before shunning him. There are a lot of mums and priests out there who hint to pretty girls of their darlings' precious vocations when these vocations exist only in the minds of the mums and the priests.)

2. The Roving Medievalist has changed address.

3. Amy Welborn is part of the NY Times team which is 'blogging the Pope's visit to the States. It's great to see one of the top Catholic 'bloggers getting a little extra exposure in the secular sphere.

4. The Cranky Professor tells us of a major archaeological discovery near the Colosseum. He also 'blogs about his visit to the Museum of Purgatory:

And in the Sacristy, the Museum of the Souls in Purgatory! They have a number of things like prayer books and night caps showing scorch marks from fingers of souls returning from the fires of Purgatory to ask for Masses to be said - or reproaching relatives for not having the Masses said that the suffering soul provided for in his or her will!.

5. Over at the Shrine, it's been Disturbing Relics Week. Scroll down and learn all about Cloister Work. (Not for the squeamish!)

6. Since they've recently celebrated their 200th Episode, it seems apt to plug one of my favourite podcasts. Probably the best description of Jawbone Radio is that it's like eavesdropping on Len and Nora as they discuss anything and everything about raising a family, computer games, the annoyances of everyday life and... well, pretty much everything.

7. RIP Fr Servais Pinckaers, O.P.: 1925-2008

8. I must admit to a certain delight at the manner in which the Olympic Torch relay is backfiring on the Chinese Government. Of course, we know that there are many other reasons apart from Tibet that the Chinese Government should be treated as pariahs by the international community.

Hiatus Sustained...

2008-04-04T10:55:00.003+02:00

Folks,
Life is busy - albeit not in a bad way - so don't expect to see me around here for the next few weeks. I'll probably be back some time in May.

What does that mean?

2008-03-26T22:35:00.003+01:00

Via the Telegraph:

Teenagers should be given the right to medically assisted suicide and the parents of terminally ill younger children should be able to choose euthanasia under proposals from members of Belgium's coalition government.
The plans to extend rules allowing doctors to perform euthanasia on terminally ill people suffering "constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain" comes amid heated Belgian debate on the issue.
Under existing Belgian laws, in place since 2002, patients, other than newborn babies, must be over 18 to qualify for assisted suicide, a situation that Bart Tommelein, leader of Belgium Liberals, wants changed.
Mr Tommelein, whose party is a key member of Belgium's coalition government, has pledged to bring forward new legislative proposals extending euthanasia to children and old people suffering from such severe dementia that they are unable to choose for themselves.

Presumably in this latter case, someone else would have to make the decision on behalf of those who 'are unable to choose for themselves'. I'm pretty sure we have a name for that already...
Shockingly, I also read:

There are more than 39 cases of euthanasia declared by doctors in Belgium every month, but the true figure is thought to be double that.
Euthanasia is currently permitted on infants and more than half of the Belgian babies who die before they are 12 months old have been killed by deliberate medical intervention.
In 16 per cent of cases parental consent was not considered.

Surrexit Cristus hodie

2008-03-23T01:32:00.003+01:00

Easter Greetings to my much-neglected readers.
Will be bloggging regularly again in a few weeks.

Caritas in Veritate

2008-03-15T12:12:00.002+01:00

Reports have been circulating that the Holy Father's next encyclical will be entitled Caritas in Veritate and it's supposed to deal with social doctrine. The strange thing is that the suggested title doesn't immediately seem to square up with the reported contents. Deus Caritas Est was about the particularly Christian sort of love which is 'Caritas' in Latin. Spe Salvi was about hope and salvation. However, Caritas in Veritate would seem to suggest an encyclical dealing with the relationship between truth and Christian love.

What's going on?

My guess is that this 'social encyclical' is going to draw on a theme that's very close to the centre of the Holy Father's thoughts. He's consistently argued that the praxis of Christian charity and social reform must be preceded by confronting the question of the truth about God and man... namely in the contemplation of Jesus Christ. Ratzinger has been arguing this for decades. In fact, I think that this is where his fundamental objection to Liberation Theology lies - the huge problem with this movement in was in its prioritising of action over the question of truth. Ratzinger rejects such an approach as failing to respect human dignity and a betrayal of the concrete nature of God's revelation in and through the person of Jesus Christ, Truth-incarnate.

Applause in the Alexandrian Church

2008-03-15T11:29:00.005+01:00

It was a longstanding custom for the congregation to applaud in church, or to shout out signs of their disapproval, when bishops preached to them. There are several indications in the fifth century patristic homilies of the bishops strugling for control over their audience. In the Alexandrian cathedral one of Cyril's avid followers, the lay professor Hierax, had the function of leading the applause during Cyril's sermons. Hierax was a well-known figure, a prominent Christian and a highly visible member of Cyril's entourage. - pp 10-11, St Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy, John Mc Guckin

New Augustine Sermons?

2008-03-15T09:11:00.004+01:00

Via Fr Z:

I just got word that some new sermons of St. Augustine have been discovered in Vienna.
I don’t have details yet.

How is this possible, you might ask? Well, there are thousands of manuscripts scattered about in monasteries and libraries throughout Europe. It's quite a task to compare the contents of these books with each other for variant readings, etc... Every now and again, scholars discover previously unknown works in these manuscripts.

In recent times, perhaps the most significant finds in the Augustinian field have been the Dolbeau sermons and the Divjak letters:

The prolonged peace of Europe, combined with the phenomenal development of computer technology, encouraged scholars to examine the manuscripts stored in the libraries of Europe more intensively than ever previously. In 1975, Johannes Divjak of Vienna (on mission from the Austrian Academy, to catalogue all manuscripts of Augustine in European libraries) found a mid-fifteenth century manuscript in the Bibliothèque Municipale of Marseilles. Produced in around 1440 for King René of Anjou, a rich but unfortunate monarch, the author of a courtly novel in the best late medieval manner, The Story of a Heart Caught by Love, the manuscript had been known, but had not been closely examined. It was assumed that an elegant late medieval manuscript could hardly contain any new work of an author as frequently copied as was Augustine. Hence the surprise of Johannes Divjak when, on examining the text, he found that it contained, added to a standard collection of Augustine’s letters, twenty nine other letters, of which twenty seven (many of them very long) were utterly unknown. Known now as the Divjak Letters, these twenty nine letters tell us in great detail about hitherto unknown events and about the activities of Augustine as a bishop in Roman North Africa in the last decades of his life: the longest and most vivid of them range from between 419 and 428.
Yet again, in 1990, François Dolbeau perceived that an apparently uninteresting, badly-copied manuscript of the late fifteenth century, recently catalogued in the Stadtbibliothek of Mainz, contained groups of sermons known previously only through titles in Possidius’ Indiculum and through Carolingian library lists of sermons and a few, short extracts. They were first announced to the learned world as the Mayence Sermons (from the French word for Mainz, the place of their discovery) and are now known as the Dolbeau Sermons, from their discoverer. One cluster of these sermons represents Augustine’s preaching at Carthage in the spring and summer of 397—that is, in the crucial year of the beginning of his career as a bishop, at a time when the Confessions were already forming in his mind. The other group of sermons takes us to Carthage and the little towns outside Carthage in the late winter and spring of 403-404, at a time of urgent reform in Catholic worship combined with new Catholic aggression against pagans and Donatists.

Can you imagine the excitement a scholar must feel in making such a find?