Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


E-mail me

 
Otto has the same favorite moment in The Passion of the Christ as I do: "Behold, I make all things new!" He says, at the point in the story that Catholics know as the Fourth Station of the Cross.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:41 PM

 
Oi gevalt. I used to live in "Manassas" (Hellenized form of "Manasseh"); that's the only way I can explain it....


Which Old Testament Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:34 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida

Elinor: Dinner time.

Cacciaguida: Wait, I'm about to find out which Old Testament character I am.

Elinor: Is there a nervous prophet?

Cacciaguida: Well, Jeremiah was keenly aware of how many people wanted to kill him.

Elinor: Elijah took a nap.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:33 PM

 
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

New York Times's culture editor, Steven Erlanger, spills the beans in an interview about his paper's weekly Book Review: "To be honest, there's so much shit. Most of the things we praise aren't very good." And, then, my dear, such a fracas...!

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:13 PM

 
The sex abuse reports: the chicken-hawks come home to roost

Guess I can't avoid posting on this. Just a few comments:

* Four percent is a skyhook figure as long as we have no basis for comparison with other groups. But with what or whom should comparisons be made? All Protestants -- or should we disaggregate the Fundies and the Vanillas? All Jewish congregations -- or should we disaggregate the three "denominations"? And what about secular organizations? I'd love to see how the public schools would fare under the kind of scrutiny the Catholic Church has gotten. What about the Boy Scouts, who are being marginalized and sued to death for the responsible steps they are taking, and have always taken (not always successfully) to prevent ephebophilia in their ranks?

Consider this report from FloridaToday.com:

In fact, the report said "The sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and deacons is part of a larger problem of sexual abuse in the United States." ...

The Catholic League, a religious and civil rights organization based in New York City, said while sexual abuse takes place in protestant churches and Jewish synagogues, the church has become an easy target.

"By and large the major media organs are fair in their coverage," said Joseph DeFeo, spokesman for the Catholic League. "It is a lot harder to make a bigger story about protestant churches because there is no hierarchy that you can point to and claim a cover-up."

Those thoughts were echoed by Caroline Kempf, a practicing Catholic from Indian Harbour Beach. She said the church's record-keeping abilities and connection to a diocese make accusations and incidents easier to track than other churches....

Added Loretta Allewelt of Melbourne: "I think it happens in other churches just as much. People's prejudices against the Catholic Church are being brought to the forefront."

Back up and freeze frame on that point: the Catholic Church's hierarchical structure makes it uniquely vulnerable, and uniquely accountable.

* As Eve points out, the reports found that the rate of accusations peaked with the class of 1970. I'm not sure what Eve derives from this, but here's the signficance I see: 1970 was, of course, also the approximate peak of the anything-goes, if-it-feels-good-do-it movement in the general culture, and of the everything-before-1962-was-wrong, gotta-swing-with-the-times culture within the clergy and the religious orders. Dissent from the Church's unchanging sexual morality went unpunished; adherence to it led to assignments to hospital and prison ministry, or to rejection from the seminary for being too "rigid"; the proven props of sexual restraint, like prayer and modesty, were dissed. And then, when the predictable result actually happens, we get all surprised. I'll retire to bedlam.

* Some are saying the 4% figure is too low due to underreporting. Well, maybe there are Catholic families so far gone in clericalism that they would themselves assist in the cover-up, or victims too afraid to tell even their parents. All I can say is, those categories include none of the seven Catholics, ages 9 through 46, who live in my house.

Let's also remember that the 4% figure represents accusations, not proven or even founded accusations. What -- no one would ever falsely accuse a priest? No, nobody in the U.S. harbors any deep, narcissistic beefs against the Church; there are no self-absorbed professional victims in our land; and what would anyone do with all that settlement money anyway?

* Ooops, almost forgot, silly me -- 81% of the accused priests were gay. (Link via Zorak.)

Nothing in the foregoing should be construed to suggest that priests who sexually abuse children or teenagers deserve anything less than garrotting, or that one can be anything other than anguished at the stain on the reputations of bishops who, in other respects, were and are staunch defenders of the faith.



posted by Cacciaguida at 6:14 PM

 
Today's Passion roundup

* Peter Steinfels is surprisingly supportive, stressing how aspects of the film that are drawing criticism would be considered "transgressive" -- which is praise -- if not for the movie's Catholic content. He adds:

The intense, almost obsessive focus on Jesus' suffering, on his lacerated body and flowing blood, on his pierced hands, feet and side, is an undeniable part of Christian tradition.

This Passion-centered spirituality arose in the late Middle Ages and is therefore all too easily dismissed as medieval. It was kept alive in the hymns and devotions of some strands of Protestantism but especially in the mystical fervor and visual imagery of Counter-Reformation Catholicism.

* Time Magazine columnist Richard Corliss (a self-confessed "liberal", for whatever relevance that may have) rounds up a bunch of Passion-bashers -- and fisks the crap out of them!

(There I go again: forgetting that when Our Lord was on the Cross, he did not say "Father, fisk the crap out of them!" I need to see the movie again. I mean, I need to meditate on the Gospels' Passion narratives again -- but the movie helps me do that, which is the point.)

* For more on the Mel-schismatic problem, see the comments under this post.

* And now the lighter side:

Letterman says: ”The Passion of The Christ” opened up today. There’s lots of controversy over it. People are shocked, they weep, they run out of theater – it’s a lot like seeing this show.

And Leno (on whose show Mel appeared as a guest and got a standing ovation) says:

The big story of course is Mel Gibson’s film "The Passion” opened yesterday. We saw it, tremendous film. Don’t make the same mistake I did. I saw it at a double feature with "Welcome to Mooseport” and it kind of took some of the effect away.

Kev and I saw it Tuesday night at a theater and boy a strange thing happened, I went up to the concession stand, they only had one small bag of popcorn yet it was enough to feed entire crowd.

It’s the third biggest Wednesday opening in history – it made $26 million yesterday. It did so big – there is now talk of turning it into a book.

(All late-night lines via Newsmax.)


posted by Cacciaguida at 5:35 PM

 
Harry Potter Spells, or Psychotropic Medications? (Via Zorak.)

Easy. The ones I don't know are Harry Potter spells!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:51 PM

 
Two new blogs

First, I found this at the top of Blogger's ever-shifting "recently updated" heap: My Catholic Journey, by a convert named Rob. Just started; watch it grow.

Next, if you're tired of all the moderation and wishy-washiness here at Cacciaguida, go visit two young priests who blog at Catholic Ragemonkey.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:11 PM

 
Bill-paying time. MBNA America is a very easy credit card company to work with. There is no truth -- none whatsoever -- to the rumor that their name stands for "My Bankruptcy Now Approacheth".
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:38 PM

 
Magis fiskus de inimicis pelliculae Passionis

“Ha, ha, Mel’s going to lose his shirt.” That’s what movie moguls said a year ago.

“Ha, ha, Mel only did it for the money.” That’s what I guess they’ll have to say now that Gibson has recouped nearly his entire investment on the first day.

(Btw, Mel's still a schismatic, as far as anyone knows. I feel the need to mention this every once in a while, lest I appear to consider it a trivial issue. Let's pray that the graces called down by the movie will include his coming into the Church. Journalists who lazily describe him as a "traditional Catholic," as though this were some kind of denomination, do a great deal of harm to the public's understanding of Church unity, and Mel is not helping on this score.)

The Washington Times's redoutable Julia Duin reports here on the movie's impact in its first 48 hours. Among her findings:

Hollywood film company Dreamworks also backed away from remarks published in yesterday's New York Times suggesting that Hollywood producers will blacklist Mr. Gibson....

A spokeswoman for Dreamworks founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen released this statement:

"Neither one of us has seen the movie yet, and as such, we have not yet formed an opinion, but we respect Mel Gibson's rights as an artist to express his views," it said. "After all, this is America."

Mark Joseph, an entertainment executive in Los Angeles...said the film industry is in shock.

"This town is rocking," he said, "wondering what it all means. This is the film everyone deemed unreleasable."

In view of Hollywood's total non-support for this project from the get-go, its on-again-off-again threats of "blacklisting" are really kind of funny. Mel needs Hollywood -- why? They should be worrying about whether Mel will blacklist them.

The aforementioned Mark Joseph, in collaboration with Ralph Winter, producer of the X-Men movies, writes at NRO:

When the dust settles after March 1, many of the rules of the filmmaking business may need revisions. For the first time, the industry will realize the profits that have been forfeited over the years by creating films that were out of sync with the interests of the citizens of the red states....

Meanwhile, what's been happening in the field? Any sign yet of Cossacks, or of Catholic peasants with firebrands?

Well, there was this bizarre incident (from the Wash.Times story quoted supra):

A Denver pastor, the Rev. Maurice Gordon, displayed the message, "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus," in front of Lovingway [!] United Pentecostal Church Wednesday.

The sign outraged Jewish and Christian passers-by. One bystander brought a ladder and removed the word "Jews." Church members removed the rest.

Pentecostals are usually highy philo-semitic, so this is doubly weird. Once the first word went down, the remaining message was probably taken by passers-by to mean that Lovingway United Pentecostal Church killed Jesus, and I can live with that. Anyway the whole episode was over in a day, and the only injury was to Lovingway United Pentecostal Church.

Anyway, that's it so far. So far, the only street action has been in New York -- by a small group of Jews demonstrating against the movie.

And that's it -- but of course every day will bring continued apprehensions, and continued expressions of concern from professional concern-expressers. Sooner or later some hooligan who would have done it anyway, or some Muslim suicide bomber who thinks Christianity (especially the doctrine of the Trinity, or, in Islamic parlance, "setting up partners in worship with Allah") is blasphemy, will kill someone, most likely Jews, and manage somehow to attribute his act to the movie. Then, by an inevitable media-driven extension, the blame will spread to those who find that the movie tells the truth of Christ's Passion as they understand it.

"Wednesday the Jews go on trial again," said a writer in Ha'aretz earlier this week. With respect, sir, I believe you're mistaken as to who's on trial.

On a lighter note, I contacted the Cossack Anti-Defamation League today and found out that they are not concerned about the current Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. (That puts them in the minority, because all the critics have panned it.)

And yes, the previous paragraph is a joke -- except for the part about the bad reviews the new Fiddler is getting. Shame, too, 'cause it's a dear old show -- both an American and a Jewish classic. Christendom College staged it a couple of years ago; probably did a better job than Broadway.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:45 PM

 
Elinor on long experience with giving things up for Lent. Mark Shea has given up blogging -- just for Lent, thank Heaven. I've given up listening to FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, but I know I'll have to do more than that. Obviously I'm not giving up blogging. Under the influence of my first viewing of The Passion I was thinking of giving up fisking ("Forgive them -- they don't know --"), but I think that will last about another five minutes.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:38 PM

 
"To Play the King" at the U.N. Gotta love it.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:15 AM

 
Well, well. Not bad for someone who'll celebrate his millennium scarcely more than a century from now. Must be the Crusader thing.

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:45 PM

 
Worthwhile Passion post by Barbara Nicolosi here. Excerpts:

The Passion of the Christ reconnects us to that essential thread of our identity: We are a People of suffering, who follow the Man of Sorrows through this current 'Valley of Tears.' The Church is supposed to be "The Fellowship" that gets us through this sojourn, but our Sign is inescapably the Cross. The Cross is foolishness to the Diane Sawyers of human history and fury to the Dominic Crossans. And so are we who claim it as our standard.

....Beyond even the film's fundamental message of "Behold the Wood of the Cross - Come Let us Worship," the film doesn't seem to have any artistic context. It's like it just plopped out of nowhere. After forty years in the Catholic Church (and, Lord knows, four hundred years in Protestantism) of focused iconoclasm and the exaltation of sterility and even ugliness, from where does this lush imaging of our most defining story come? It's like, imagine if, after all these years of architectural weirdness, some Bishop showed up in your local diocese and then, well, built Notre Dame. It doesn't seem possible.

And more.


posted by Cacciaguida at 4:33 PM

 
Just back from my first viewing of The Passion of the Christ. It's great. (Here's a review that I mostly agree with.)

If one must play the blame-game (and I think the film actively discourages it), then I think there's a shift in "blame-laying" roughly half-way through the picture: heavy on "the Jews" in the first half, heavy on "the Romans" in the second. (I use quote-marks because every participant is an individual: a Jewish leader denounces the proceedings right in Caiaphas's face; a Roman soldier shows kindness to Our Lady even while his confreres are whipping Our Lord up the Via Dolorosa.)

The turning point between these two "blame-halves" (assuming, without conceding, that that is what they are) is Pilate's cowardice. For much of the first half, we see a Pilate more introspective and conscientious than we expect; but then his conscience -- if that's what it was to begin with -- collapses when he faces the likelihood of another riot, and with it, a third and career-ending reprimand from Caesar.

After that, there are almost as many Jewish crowd-members showing sympathy for Jesus as showing hatred; especially Simon of Cyrene, a very "Jewish-looking" character who goes from not wanting to get involved to shouting at the Romans to stop. During the much-discussed scourging scene, even the high priests (who are not stereotyipcally Jewish-looking, btw) seem from their expressions to be having second thoughts.

In any event, the most painful moments -- the driving in of the nails -- are accompanied by Jesus repeatedly calling out "Forgive them" and "They don't know! They don't know!"

Final note 1: "His blood be on us...." was not in the version I just saw, and I don't think the dramatic impact required that it be there.

Final note 2: Aramaic and Latin are beautiful spoken languages!

Final note 3: Read this essay at NRO by a fellow Jewish Catholic (who is not me). I endorse it without reservation.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:12 AM

 
So, Bishop Sheen and Mae West were introduced to each other at a party, and they talked for a while, see, and then Mae said, as she so often did, "Come up and see me sometime!"

The Bishop was flustered, and said, "Well I can't, you know, it's -- it's -- it's Lent!"

Mae: "Well, when you get it back, come up and see me sometime!"
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:06 PM

 
Elinor has had a Lenten day: four and a half hours to get the minivan inspected. Go leave her a cheery message at Mommentary.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:40 PM

 
* Pope's message for Lent

* Fr. Jim on ashes: smear v. sprinkle
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:03 AM

 
Zorak's first post of the Lenten season is about lingerie. Do I have great friends or what? (Of course, the same could be said about my first Lenten post, now that I've written this....)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:00 AM

 
Jerusalem Post: 'Passion' divides Jewish leaders

A backlash has developed among some Jewish leaders against criticism by other Jewish leaders to Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ, which is opening Wednesday at more than 2,000 US movie theaters....

Rabbi Harvey Fields, a veteran Los Angeles interfaith leader, specifically criticized Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, according to a front-page article in Monday's Los Angeles Times.

Fields said that the two men had used the issue of anti-Semitism to attract attention to themselves and their organizations....

Howard I. Friedman, board chairman of the Skirball Cultural Center and a former national president of the American Jewish Committee, observed that, "Thoughtful and committed Christians are entitled to give their version of the Gospel. I am not afraid of that at all." He added that, "Among Christians, I just don't see much evidence of anti-Semitism and I see a great deal of goodwill."


More. A must-read.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:47 PM

 
Wow, what an increase in posting-velocity over at Ninomania!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:08 PM

 
How to tell if you're from northern Virginia. Via Dappled Things.

¡Albricias, Alvar Fañez, ca echados somos de tierra,
Mas a gran honra tornaremos a Castilla!

-- Cantar de mio Cid

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:42 PM

 
Francescamania

Looks like composers really were going massively Rimini around the turn of the last century (see comment boxes under this post); must have been those pre-Raphaelites. I've just discovered a composer even I had never heard of -- Alberto Cagnoni -- who also wrote a FRANCESCA opera around that time.

And of course Gilbert & Sullivan, in Patience, making fun of literary poseurs, have their poseur-in-chief, Bunthorne (= "pain in the ass", no? Bun? Thorn?) relish being seen as:

A Japanese young man--
A blue-and-white young man--
Francesca da Rimini, niminy-piminy,
Je-ne-sais-quoi young man!

Btw, did I once say that this recording is not all that good? I take it back -- it's fantastic. Kabaivanska and Domingo sing like angels, and conductor Eve Queler (who has made a career of leading concert performances of obscure operas) bars no holds in this late-romantic-decadent pulse-fest.

And speaking of barring no holds, here's the end of Act III, from D'Annunzio's libretto:

FRANCESCA
(leggendo)
"Certamente, dice essa, io gli prometto;
Ma che egli sia mio et io tutta sua,
E che emendate sien tutte le cose
Mal fatte . . . " Basta, Paolo.

PAOLO
No! No! Leggete ancora. Continuate!

(I loro volti pallidi sono chini sul libro,
così che le guance quasi si sfiorano.)

FRANCESCA
(seguitando soffacatamente.)
"E la reina vede il cavaliere
Che non ardisce di fare di più.
Tra le braccia lo serra e lungamente
Lo bacia in bocca . . ."

(Egli fa quell'atto istesso verso la cognata, e la bacia.
Quando le bocche si disgiungono,
Francesca vacilla e s'abbandona sui guanciali.)

TUTTE
(lontanissime)
Primavera!

PAOLO
Francesca!

FRANCESCA
(con la voce spenta.)
No, Paolo!


"...la voce spenta." That's the bravura touch, Mr. D'. That, plus the offstage girls' chorus singing "Primavera..." ("spring"). And Dante's Francesca, in the Second Circle of Hell, adds: "That day we read no further." (Inferno V 138, tr. Musa). The negative analogy to the moment of Augustine's conversion in the Confessions is probably not a coincidence.

And so we observe Mardi Gras and approach Lent....

posted by Cacciaguida at 3:59 PM

 
And now for something completely different

I swear, it's a joke site, and a good one. It's called "International Jewish Conspiracy." Rotating subheads include: "Like the Rotary, but Jewish", "From the people who brought you banking", "Community, industry, deli", and "Call your mother". Headlines include: "Plots so Evil, You'll Plotz!" Plus T-shirts, coffee mugs, the works ("So let's shop"). Go, enjoy.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:00 AM

 
Try Googling "fundamental-baptist" and "mel-gibson". Loads of fun for the whole family. Here's one who totally forgot to take his medication. (A hat-tip to him, though, for including some links to views opposite to his own at the very end).
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:47 PM

 
Blog discovery: Conservative Teen Angst, a Canadian Catholic fella named Colin. Via Mark Shea.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:18 PM

 
Wuss-Catholicism

Or at any rate, wuss-Christianity. One Bill Muller writes in The Arizona Republic: "Maybe it's better if we just learn about Jesus in Sunday school. Left in the hands of Mel Gibson and his The Passion of the Christ, the basic message of Christianity - love your brother - is obscured under torrents of blood to the point of benumbing the audience."

So that's all it is -- just "love your brother"! So all that "redemptive sacrifice" stuff must have been made up later by a sadistic, anti-semitic, child-abusing clergy to prop up its own power, right? Let's stick to Sunday School with those felt banners of Jesus amid the daisies being nice to children!

Must. Control. Fist. Of. Death....
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:12 PM

 
The Caliph has Declared your Independence. Hear and obey.

A project to translate American classics into Arabic. (Via Eve.) Great idea, and I wish it the best -- but do the relevant concepts translate into Arabic? What's Arabic for "separation of powers"? "separation of church and state"? "enumerated powers"? "individual rights"? "freedom"? "human dignity"?
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:50 PM

 
Rimini me

Well, somebody at Opera News has my number. In the March issue (not on-line yet), there's a review of a performance in Rome of one of my favorite non-standard-repertory works, Zandonai's FRANCESCA DA RIMINI.

Critic Stephen Hastings, after comparing FRANCESCA unfavorably to Wagner's TRISTAN, notes that it does have a certain decadent charm, which derives from the combination of overripe scoring, telling vocal turns of phrase (particularly in the Act III love duet) and a sultrily suggestive libretto by Gabriele D'Annunzio.... Donato Renzetti is perhaps too emotionally stable a conductor to feel totally at ease in this decadent work. His conducting was competent, and he breathed well with the singers, but on November 29, at least, he was clearly not in the mood to make the orchestral players savor the deliciously poisoned atmosphere of Zandonai's most memorable score.

Maybe not -- but with "decadent charm", "overripe scoring", "a sultrily suggestive libretto", and a "deliciously poisoned atmosphere", any performance is better than none. Perhaps "emotionally stable" conductors should just go elsewhere (it's not like there's a shortage of the other kind).
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:32 PM

 
I sponsored the best years of Richard Wagner's composing career:


Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:30 PM

 
Spotted on Democratic Underground by the ever-vigilant Little Green Footballs: The Neocons have been fretting that their global business cartel has been stymied. If we “capture” Bin Laden now, that clears the way for the Syrian invasion.

Deus lo volt, dude!

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:38 PM

 
Fisking Hutton Gibson

Ordinarily it wouldn't be cricket to fisk an 85-year-old guy who obviously hasn't had a lucid day in a long, long time. But since I'm carrying water for the son's movie, and since I think it would be wrong for the son to denounce the father, and unreasonable to demand that he do so, I figure the job falls in part to me. So here are some gems from Gibson pere, in boldface; me in regular type. (Here is my source for the interview.)

They claimed that there were 6.2 million in Poland before the war and after the war there were 200,000; therefore he (Hitler) must have killed six million of them. They simply got up and left! They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney and Los Angeles.

And they've been doing what since the War, hiding? Mr. G., six million would mean more delis than you can count, no matter how many may have seemed to you to be opening up. Also, ever heard of a ship called the St. Louis? And Catholic convert Dr. Karl Stern discusses in The Pillar of Fire (available from Remnant of Israel) how hard it was for German Jews to get permits to enter Britain, as he did, in the late '30s. The U.S. was not much better by that time.

For instance the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz would not do the job.

So what were they built for (since you seem to admit they existed)? Disciplining wayward SS men?

Do you know what it takes to get rid of a dead body? To cremate it? It takes a liter of petrol and 20 minutes - now six million of them? They (the Germans) did not have the gas to do it. That's why they lost the war.

Well, if you burn them individually, maybe so. But you know, Mr. G., the story as told both by the survivors and by the Allied officers who liberated the camps is that the bodies were burned in large numbers at a time. Save a lot of time and petrol that way. The krauts were nothing if not thrifty.

Regarding the gas chamber, the gas was going the wrong way. You see it was going down instead of up.

I'm no physicist, but I have the distinction impression that things that naturally go up can be made to down, and vice versa (e.g. rocket ships), with sufficient pressure. And gas doesn't need much pressure to be pushed in the designated direction. (I'll leave the physical analysis to the Old Oligarch.)

Came the war (WWII) and I knew my Roosevelt. I knew he would get us into it. So I volunteered.

Ya did, huh? Even though you "knew" your "Roosevelt" and (as you explain further on) it was all just his selfish and willful war?

During WWII they were giving us this jazz. They said we were attacked. Well alright but we didn't realize that at that time the attack was a put up job by "the man" - I am talking about our beloved FDR who had practically forced the Japanese to attack and destroy the entire Pacific Fleet. They knew they were coming in Washington. FDR pushed us into the war.

It was FDR's own private war. He went there for money. The money power that runs this country. The Fed Reserve and those foreign bankers who own our currency and charge us for it. The foreign bankers who run the international reserve like the Rothschilds and their allies in this country like the Rockefellers who were Jews and others who own the money.

Has anyone besides me noticed how similar this is to the current Democratic Party line on Bush II and Operation Iraqi Freedom?

They're great pencil pushers, they are the superior people and therefore they are entitled to the top jobs, supervisory stuff and so on, because they hire each other. They have so much influence in the banks for instance. They all look out for one another you got to give them that.

That's not the Jews, you fool, that's Opus Dei! (KIDDDD-ing!!) (My point being: there's a structural similarity to conspiracy theories no matter where they come from or whom they attack.)

They will chase down people like [John] Demjanjuk [cleared in Israel of charges of being a Nazi guard]. They almost got him killed and eventually it was proved innocent of all charges. Yeah, Ivan the Terrible, they said.

Look, just 'cause you (and some others against whom the anti-Semitism charge has been less fairly levelled) were right on that one, doesn't mean there were no sadistic Nazi guards. Oh and btw, you seem to have missed the significance of that "almost". The Israeli justice system worked in the long run: it made an error, and it corrected it. Let's see that happen in any Muslim or Arab country.

Is the Jew still actively anti-Christian - He is, for by being a Jew, he is anti everyone else.

Actually, the Jews were the first to discover (with God's help, of course) the idea that tribalism isn't everything, that people outside one's own group are also made in the image of God. That's why Solomon made the Temple not just the national temple of a tribal god, but a place where (observing proper liturgical manners, of course), people could come from all over to worship the one true God. The circle-the-wagons approach that you see their leaders taking in the 1st century A.D. is a tragic exception to their own tradition (and an understandable one in light of their then-recent experience of being conquered, first by the Seleucids, then by the Romans).

There's more, but who needs it. Hutton needs to go out and see a good movie about Christ's sacrificial love.

posted by Cacciaguida at 8:24 PM

 
"I felt like, OH-MY-GOD," Gomez, 39, said yesterday. So says one of a pair "applicants" (to borrow San Francisco's romantic term, with thanks to Zorak for the link to David Morrison's timely send-up) who went to SF and got a marriage license, a ceremony, "I do", everything; batteries sold separately.

Something about that "I felt like, OH-MY-GOD" line. Does a 39-year-old talking like a 14-year-old have anything to do with one of the theories of the etiology of sexual inversion? Something to do with arrested adolescence?

Six copies of the certificate, eh? That way, each "applicant" can have one to keep after the "divorce", and with the remaining four, they can freak out each of the parents individually. Teen heaven.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:48 AM

 


Happy birthday, Nadine Conner, 1907-2003.
Because a little boy never forgets his first Susanna.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:18 PM

 
Homeschooling blog
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:34 PM

 
Harold and the Wolf. Oi gevalt. OK, my real quick analysis: Harold Bloom rules, Naomi Wolf su--, er, honks. My reasons: Brilliant people I know, of the female persuasion and quite attractive, have studied with Bloom and liked doing so; such of his criticism as I've read, I like very much. If you click on the link, be sure the catch the Paglia quotes.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:06 PM

 
I don't think I'm breaking my pledge to lay off the movie subject for a few days if I pause here to note that there's a guy named Hutton Gibson who's seriously nuts. I think it's unreasonable to expect any of his close relatives to say so, but there's no reason why I can't. (However: was his recent interview an ambush?)
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:45 PM

 
Always good to be distinguished from other psychoanalysts. We didn't have many in 12th century Florence. Psychoanalysts, I mean.


You are Jacques Lacan! Arguably the most important
psychoanalyst since Freud, you never wrote
anything down, and the only works of yours are
transcriptions of your lectures. You are
notoriously difficult to understand, but at
least you didn't talk about the penis as much
as other psychoanalysts. You died in 1981.


What 20th Century Theorist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

posted by Cacciaguida at 1:20 PM

 
U.S. official: Uranium enrichment parts found in Iran I don't claim to know exactly what a P-2 centrifuge is, but I gather that, when found in Iran, it's not good news for non-Muslims who prefer to stay un-nuked.
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:19 PM

 
Click here to watch the Old Oligarch meet the opposition, cook him up rare, slice him thin, and serve him with sauce béarnaise.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:58 PM

 
Otto has discovered the real issue behind The Passion -- it's about the children! Duh! Why didn't I see it? Goyische Kopf!

OK, I know I've gotta give this subject a rest for a while. My next post about it (in a few days) will argue that if there's an "enemy" is the controversy over this movie, it's not Abe Foxman or Marvin Hier, and certainly not Jews as such (Foxman and Hier have no more authority to speak for all Jews than did Caiaphas or Annas, imo) -- it's wuss-Catholicism: the kind that's always sing-songing about how we're an "Easter people" because it finds Good Friday to be an embarrassment. The kind that refuses to allow the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus to wear their swords even on occasions that call for full regalia. (I am not making that up.)

"Christianity, a Religion of Violence" -- coming soon to a Cacciaguida near you. In the meantime, brush up on your René Girard. And you'll find me, as ever, in the Heaven of Mars (Paradiso XIV 85-139 and, of course, canto XV passim).
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:23 AM

 
Note bene de pellicula Passionis

If you do happen to click on the Passion website at some point, be sure to visit the Latin-language section. There, under "Saepe interrogatus" (FAQ), we find:

Quaestio: Estne Passio antisemitica?

Responsio: Nuntius "Societatis contra calumnias", audito coetu quodam ad hoc composito ex Judaeis Christianisque, declarat pelliculam posse aliquot sensus antisemiticos excitare. Gibson respondit illam declarationem in quadam scenarum actione praematura furtimque acquisita fundatam esse et nullo modo ad versionem finalem pelliculae pertinere.

That's what I always say.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:07 PM

 
"A nastly little document"

In case anyone wonders why I'm getting a little hot under the collar over The Passion, it's because ever since Abe Foxman decided that the risk that the movie would revive anti-semitism was worth the risk that his anti-Passion activism would do so, I have suspected that some people would actually like to prevent publication of the New Testament, only they can't, so they draw the line where they think they can.

Then, just as the doctor ordered, I find this. Excerpts:

Naomi Seidman, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, has not seen the movie and is not looking forward to it. But her worries have less to do with Gibson's treatment of the trial and crucifixion of the Christian savior and more to do with the original script -- the Bible.

"This movie is a representation of the New Testament, which is a nasty little document,'' Seidman says. "It's hard for Jews to read.''...

"You can't just reproduce the hateful atmosphere in which the Gospels were written,'' Seidman said. "You have to understand the polemics of the time. Angry people say nasty, hurtful things. The New Testament arises out of that environment.''

To put the most charitable spin on Ms. Seidman's remarks, she no doubt means that the religious polemics of the 1st century A.D. were gloves-off. So they were: religious argument was a blood-sport. And both sides -- all sides -- were in the game. Fair enough. So why do "interfaith" manners in the 21st century A.D. require that Christians, and only Christians, be wusses? I hold no brief for Mel Gibson's schismatic affiliations, but I don't see the fight over The Passion as being about that: I see it as being about Christians getting uppity -- at long last.


posted by Cacciaguida at 9:44 PM

 
Kvetchmeister General explains Church's teaching to Church; is politely escorted to airport for flight to Brussels.

Excerpts:

"His film is an attack on Christian teaching. It is a revision, if you will, of 'Nostra Aetate,'" Foxman said. "I believe the church has a responsibility to stand up to defend its own teaching."...

Foxman, who has been outspoken in his concerns about the impression created by Gibson's film, met this week with [Vatican communications pooh-bah Archbishop John] Foley as well as the Rev. Norbert Hofmann, secretary of the Vatican's commission for religious relations with Jews. He heads now to an anti-Semitism seminar in Brussels.

In an interview, Foley said he had told Foxman that he had found nothing in the film that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. "Certainly there are some Jews who call for punishment for Jesus," Foley said. But he said the Romans too were depicted harshly.

"I had absolutely no thought regarding any responsibility on the part of the Jews," Foley said. "I took it as a meditation on the Passion of Jesus, and my own responsibility and the responsibility of all of us for the suffering and death of Jesus."
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:43 PM

 
A cry from the heart:

"My home church is enormous and they offer intellectually-provocative seminars about any subject imaginable -- the Jesus Seminar, T.S. Eliot, the Gospel of John, Christian/Islam dialogue (mediated by a Jesuit priest), you name it. They are ready to explore anything. Except the possibility that Scripture is literally true.

"Now I'm not saying that it is. I'm saying someone (with a brain) needs to explore that possibility.

"My church doesn't stand in visible opposition to anything at all and it seems to me that this is a time for opposition to a lot of things. Like abortion, for starters. Cloning, euthanasia and all forms of self-worship also come to mind. Luther's not here to throw a fit about these things and the ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] needs to wake up."

That's by Twylah, who blogs at Lutheran in a Tipi. Elsewhere on her blog, she describes her family's travails in moving from Presbyterian to ELCA to (possibly) the Lutheran Church/Missouri Synod. My advice: take it all in one step (oh ok, one compact series of steps)!
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:32 PM

 
Abe Foxman is making at least as huge a draw-down on good will between Jews and Christians as Mel Gibson is. That's not only my opinion (though it is my opinion); it's also that of Rabbi Lapin, of Toward Tradition.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:37 AM

 
Headline from early edition of today's Washington Post, before the Wisconsin results were fully in: Kerry, Edwards in Tight Battle.

No contest. Ever seen Edwards tight? Kerry can drink him under the table.
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:08 AM

 
The Rabbi and the Unknown Prince

The autobiography of Rabbi Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome during World War II who became a Catholic after the war, is being published in Italy for the first time in half a century. (Zenit, via Zorak.)

It's been available in the U.S. for some time, thanks to Remnant of Israel. Unfortunately, ROI's first edition gave it the lame title "Why I Became a Catholic." Later it remedied this outrage, by slipping onto subsequent copies a new dustjacket with the correct title, Before the Dawn.

The Zenit link above points out that the Italian for "Before the Dawn" is Prima dell'Alba. Now, there's something about this phrase that almost no American would pick up, but which almost no Italian could miss: it's a crucial phrase from Puccini's TURANDOT. It's when Calaf, the Unknown Prince, who is wooing the ice-princess Turandot at the risk of his life, promises that if she can find out his name "before the dawn", he will yield up his life.

Not only that -- this moment, at the end of the second of three acts, features the first iteration of what in Act III will become the famous Nessun Dorma theme (known to some as the World Cup Song). Any Italian worth his salt knows Nessun Dorma. On a proper Straussian reading (Leo this time, not Richard), the Rabbi, by giving his autobiography this title, must have been making his own the famous proclamation of the Unknown Prince at the end of Nessun Dorma: Vincerò -- vincerò! ("I shall win -- I shall win!")


posted by Cacciaguida at 5:19 PM

 
Austentatious: a Jane Austen blog
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:27 PM

 
The SALOME "argument scene"

Here is the text, taken directly from Wilde with only minor cuts. The thing to remember is that, while it reads like a theological debate, Strauss set it to music as a raucous shouting match, with most of the Jews being character-tenors screeching at each other. The cacaphony continues (over a repeated four-note theme in the lower strings that seems to echo Herodias's view of the matter) until suddenly the voice of Iokanaan -- John the Baptist -- is heard from the cistern where he is imprisoned, and musically, all is serene again.

HEROD: Enough on this subject. I have already given you my answer. I will not deliver him into your hands. He is a holy man. He is a man who has seen God.

A JEW: That cannot be. There is no man who hath seen God since the prophet Elias. He is the last man who saw God face to face. In these days God cloth not show Himself. God hideth Himself. Therefore great evils have come upon the land.

ANOTHER JEW: Verily, no man knoweth if Elias the prophet did indeed see God. Peradventure it was but the shadow of God that he saw.

A THIRD JEW: God is at no times hidden. He showeth Himself at all times and in all places. God is in what is evil even as He is in what is good.

A FOURTH JEW: Thou shouldst not say that. It is a very dangerous doctrine. It is a doctrine that cometh from Alexandria, where men teach the philosophy of the Greeks. And the Greeks are Gentiles. They are not even circumcised.

A FIFTH JEW: No man can tell how God worketh. His ways are very dark. It may be that the things which we call evil are good, and the things which we call good are evil. There is no knowledge of anything. We can but bow our heads to His will, for God is very strong. He breaketh in pieces the strong together with the weak, for He regardeth not any man.

FIRST JEW: Thou speakest truly. Verily, God is terrible. He breaketh in pieces the strong and the weak as men break corn in a mortar. But as for this man, he hath never seen God. No man hath seen God since the prophet Elias.

HERODIAS: Make them be silent. They weary me.

HEROD: But I have heard it said that Iokanaan is in very truth your prophet Elias.

THE JEW: That cannot be. It is more than three hundred years since the days of the prophet Elias.

HEROD: There be some who say that man is Elias the prophet.

A NAZARENE: I am sure that he is Elias the prophet.

THE JEW: Nay, but he is not Elias the prophet.

THE VOICE OF IOKANAAN: Behold the day is at hand, the day of the Lord, and I hear upon the mountains the feet of Him who shall be the Saviour of the world.



posted by Cacciaguida at 9:05 PM

 
Characters called First Jew, Second Jew, etc.

I wonder how it is those who watch out for anti-Semitism are so worked up about The Passion, but have given the "argument scene" from Richard Strauss's SALOME a pass for almost a century now. (SAL-o-may, please, not sa-LOH-mee.)

That thought occurred to me as I was listening to that scene; now we've moved on to the Dance of the Seven Veils, and I'm reminded of another story. I was on retreat once, and during a designated free period, a bunch of us headed downtown to check out used book stores. On the way the guy driving turned on the radio, which was tuned to the classical station, which in turn was playing the terpsichorian number aforementioned.

"Cool," I shouted, "the Dance of the Seven Veils!"

At least I didn't go home with a reputation for excessive holiness.

(This is the recording I'm listening to. Caballé is a surprisingly good Salome, and Leinsdorf is doing cool things with the Dance.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:43 PM

 
Daniel Pipes's latest encounter with the Religion of Peace®. Via Mark Shea.
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:24 PM

 
A regular reader says that his priest has already seen The Passion: "He said what you take away from it, if you already love Jesus, is the sense that you never want to sin again."

That's an eloquent summary of what I've been hearing and reading from just about every Christian who has seen it.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:24 PM

 
Human Events Online: Palestinian Christians: Victims, not Partners. Robert Spencer, of Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch (see Crusaders' Corner in my blogroll), interviews an ex-Jihadist, now a Christian.

Shoebat says that when he and his fellow Muslims were engaging in this "dialogue for life," they never really saw Christians as equals: "As Muslims...it was a good idea to make peace with Christians and work hand-in-hand in order to gain our goal: to liberate the land from the Jews. Yet it was sacrilege to sell land to Christians when Muslim customers were available...."

Even more ominously, the Muslims wanted ultimately to restore dhimmitude: the institutionalized second-class status that Islamic law, Sharia, mandates for Christians as well as Jews. "In religious study in school or mosque," he recounts, it was normal for Muslim teachers to refer to Christians as "ahlu-dhimma -- protected people -- who would be subjects under an Islamic Khilafa [caliphate] which can demand taxation from Christians -- jizya." He says that Islamic leaders envisioned the Christians as subject people from whom this "protection sum" would be collected yearly; "but without the Khilafa the time for this injunction is not yet."

posted by Cacciaguida at 11:41 AM

 
Passion update

Notwithstanding Barbara Nicolosi's apprehensions about Mel the Mouth, his interview with Diane Sawyer seems to have gone pretty well.

The Knights of Columbus are on board, devoting the cover story of the February issue of Columbia magazine to Mel and The Passion. Included are a brief interview with Mel, another brief interview with Fr. Augustine di Noia OP, and some remarks by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. The latter adds at the end: "We must always remember that the Second Vatican Council repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus. Regardless of what some Jewish leaders did during the last hours of our Lord's life on earth, as Christians we know that even had they done nothing, Christ would have still suffered terribly and died for our sins."

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:15 PM

 
The website of Christian Order magazine carries this announcement for The Passion:

Actor, Productor, Moderator Mel Gibson nuper confecit pelliculam cui nomen est Passionem. Est ecphrasis cinematographica ultimarum duodecim horarum vitae Jesu Christi, cum actore Americano Jacobo Caviezel qui partem Iesu agit et actrice Italiana Monica Bellucci, quae agit partem Magdalenae [et quae partem Persephonae in pelliculis Matricae agebat -- Cacciaguida]. si plus de pellicula cognoscere velis, visita situm interrretialem.

Potes fragmenta observare, imagines videre, nuntios accipere de pellicula. Adiuva demum ut theatrum prope te ostendatur implendo sectionem "Adiuva Passionem" huius situs.

posted by Cacciaguida at 10:26 PM

 
Just so you know

This appeared in London's Daily Telegraph, which does not ordinarily traffic in urban legends or wartime horror-rumors. Via CruxNews.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:17 PM

 
Infidelity, class, and an opera with a happy ending

As I discussed earlier today, upper-class men have nearly always thought they had certain privileges. To step into a world where upper-class girls and lower-class couples were willing to gang up to stop them, I recommend Mozart's LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (The Marriage of Figaro).

Links: synopsis; libretto (Italian only); a good recording; another good recording; and another; a DVD that's probably pretty good; and another.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:06 PM

 
Seattle Times: Local soldier accused of trying to give al-Qaida info

By Rebecca Cook
The Associated Press

FORT LEWIS — Since his conversion to Islam, a National Guardsman developed an extremist ideology that led him to try to share military information with al-Qaida, defense officials say.

Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, was arrested Thursday at this Army base south of Tacoma, just days before he was to leave for duty in Iraq. He was being held at the Fort Lewis Regional Corrections Facility "pending criminal charges of aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network," Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger said.

Anderson, from Lynnwood, north of Seattle, became a Muslim during the last five years, defense officials said.

[Emphasis added -- duh]

more


posted by Cacciaguida at 5:54 PM

 
CNN PRESENTS: Infidelity
Is it okay to cheat? Surveys show a rise in infidelity -- and the taboos against it seem to be fading away. CNN Presents examines the front lines of society's shifting sexual mores.

That's what CNN says. And I swear -- I swear -- that I had not yet seen that when I wrote the post immediately below.

posted by Cacciaguida at 5:45 PM

 
Kerry and the bimbonic plague

The Kerry "bimbo eruption" is getting unimpeachably mainstream play in Britain. Kerry has now denied the accusation, which most likely means either it's actually not true (hey, stranger things have happened), or he has considered and rejected the option of using it as a resume-enhancer. Seriously, do you think we can be far off from a time when aspiring presidents will have affairs more or less openly, just to show they're cool and desirable?

Who shopped the story, and why? Click here for Rush reprinting Congressional Quarterly reporter Craig Crawford's story to the effect that the leaker was Chris Lehane, a former Gore staffer said (by Rush and others) to be part of the Clinton apparat within the party.

My thought was that the clearest beneficiaries of any Kerry implosion would be either Edwards or Dean, and so that's where to look for the leaker. But Rush's take here is that "someone in the Democrat camp is trying to take out front runners. First it was Dean, now this. " He means someone in the Clinton camp: Hilary is not ready to run for Pres now, but she'll be too old in 2012, so her chances hinge on the Dems not having an incumbent to renominate in 2008. She needs her party to lose this year. (Either that, or she needs chaos by convention time, leading to her being drafted to run this year.)

A few basic parameters for weighing this development.

1. Adultery is wrong, and it's a sign of lingering moral health if it can damage a candidacy.

2. Divorce and remarriage are also wrong (I'm not getting into comparative wrongness here), and Kerry has done them, but nobody cares because they're completely mainstream. So will adultery be, soon.

3. Adultery (though not divorce) has been considered a perk of powerful men from time immemorial; as far as I can see, Christianity did much to discredit this custom, but actually stopping it is something else.

4. Mass pop-culture has democratized the oligarchy, such that most men now consider themselves entitled to the perk that used to be reserved to the powerful. The Kerry rumor, if true, may actually pump up Kerry's alpha status among them. Women by and large continue to discountenance adultery, but they also continue to love a man who is desired by other women. So maybe the leaker is actually -- Kerry!!
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:34 PM

 
Desperately mulling Mel

Catholic blogger Bill Cork gives us here some details about The Passion of the Christ, some good, some less-so, some plainly biblical, others only-dubiously-so. Here, however, Bill "accentuates the positive" and lists the movie's strengths.

I would keep in mind that details described by words and in isolation from the film may give a worse impression than the same details experienced in the context of watching it. ("How's that new opera Aïda?" "Sucks -- neither the mezzo nor the baritone has an aria -- can you believe it?" "How are van Gogh's new paintings?" "Way too much paint." etc.)

SecretAgentMan is left bemused: "It's difficult to see how The Passion can be as bad as Bill says it is and as good as he says it is at the same time."

This review from CanadianChristianity.com questions the level of violence in the movie, but also makes this interesting point: While Gibson has been accused of showing the Jewish followers of Jesus as the only "good" Jews, this criticism misses the fact that he stresses those converts' Jewishness.

Says the review: "The first time we see his mother and Mary Magdalene, they recite a key passage from the Passover seder about being set free from slavery; and when the Roman soldiers force Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus' cross, one practically spits the word 'Jew' at him. While Gibson could have gone further with this than he did, he never lets us forget that the Jews at this time were the victims of oppression."
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:26 PM

 
KERRY SCANDAL?

Drudge is reporting: Kerry fights off media probe of recent alleged infidelity; rivals predict ruin. Several mainstream news organizations are said to be working on the story. Also, this is why Dean is still in the race; in fact, he is said to have reversed an earlier decision to pull out. (Sorry, but everything's a damn double entendre when sex enters politics.)

More

posted by Cacciaguida at 2:44 PM

 
After a visit to la blog-famille Oligarch, I had a look at this quiz on '80s song lyrics, but I only got two of the questions: the one on Devo, and the one on that Beach Boys favorite -- how does it go? "I wish they all could be Carolina girls" -- something like that.

Tune in to the Texaco Opera Quiz one of these days, why dontcha. Time's been, I yell the answer so loud, the panelists hear me through the radio.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:43 PM

 
The SSM movement has its own flag?
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:25 PM

 
Humans cloned; world ending, one hopes.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:24 PM

 
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes...




...and Cacciadelia's 9th birthday!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:47 PM

 
Hmm. I love Ephesians, but it looks like I'll have to work on being more traditional....


You are Ephesians.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla



posted by Cacciaguida at 6:45 PM

 
Blog discovery: Quenta Nârwenion, by Nârwen, secular Oratorian and Tolkien nut. Welcome!
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:37 AM

 
SecretAgentMan reports here on how offensive the physical reality of Christ's death is to scoffers -- and even to certain of our Oriental Schismatic friends. Via Mark Shea.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:50 PM

 
The road to Mel is paved with good intentions

I too have great hopes that The Passion of the Christ will produce many conversions and much deepening of faith among the already-Christian. And I too have had it up to Hier, so to speak, with Jewish spokesmen who find "antisemitic" any retelling of the Passion story that doesn't advance some cockamamie theory about how it was all the Romans' fault (Romans? Get it? Romans?) and that Christians only made the Jews the villains later because, because -- well because that's what Christians do.

More about all that soon enough. For now, I just want to suggest, as Elinor has already done more forcefully, that we not give Gibson a complete free ride on the schism issue.

First, that he is schismatic is not seriously in question. I got a good ROTFLMAO from the dingbat who accused Elinor of "calumny". Right, and it's "calumny" to say Ted Kennedy has a pro-abortion voting record, or that Andrew Sullivan is gay, or that some blog-commenters need an extra heapin'-helpin' from the clue-box. Some things are just matters of public record. Gibson has in the past spoken freely about his enthusiasm for the SSPX, and has not retracted those statements. He is not stressing his SSPX affiliations currently; he may have any number of reasons for this reticence, and we are free to indulge (optimistically) most charitable explanation for it: that, as part of the examination of conscience that led him to make The Passion, he is considering returning to the Church. But as for abandoning his schismatic stance -- he has not claimed this for himself, so why would anyone claim it for him?

Second, he is getting a free ride. The Gruner analogy is instructive. Imagine that Fr. Nicholas Gruner -- the "Fatima priest" who needs an army of canon lawyers to show that he may, just may, be incardinated somewhere (check out this article on his status as suspended a divinis, written by canon lawyer and one-time blogger Pete Vere and reprinted from that notorious leftwing shill The Wanderer) -- imagine, I say, that Fr. Gruner had amassed a fortune, hired a great director, and made a movie about the Passion that's at least as good as Gibson's. Would we shun it? Elinor probably would; I probably would not, and most Catholics probably would not -- but neither would we ignore the canonically dodgy status of the producer. We'd at least mention it once in a while, so as not to allow the prestige accruing from the film attach itself to schism itself.

I know of no principle of theology or canon law that says schism is OK as long as you make a great Biblical movie. Luther could have written a really great Passion play, but that wouldn't have made him a Catholic again.

So why will you probably be reading praise for the film and attacks on its critics here soon? In part, because I adhere to the T.S. Eliot/New Criticism view that whatever a work of art is, it is not an extension of the artist of a manifestation of his self-expression. The self-expressive theory of art seems to me to reek of decadent romanticism, and I reject it. (That is, I reject decadent-romantic aesthetic theory. Decadent-romantic works of art can be yummy!)

Let's get maximum spiritual benefit from Mel's Passion, for ourselves and for others, but let's not accidentally canonize Mel in the process. For that to happen, he'd have to become Catholic.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:19 PM

 
SC-O-O-O-O-O-RE!!

You are Lord Brideshead. You do your duty and do
it faithfully. People think you're dull, but
you manage to enjoy yourself.


What Brideshead Revisited character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


I stuck to my guns on the Bond St. thing. (I'm sorry, but I'm not going to "patronize a Catholic business" if it doesn't make good clothes.) But I changed the hunting answer from "Rather!" to "Hunting Clothes are Smashing" (They are! Check out Simon Jones as Lord Brideshead here!) and I changed the evening clothes answer from "What else does one wear?" (I have, after all, worn mere "business attire" after five -- I wonder which cornice of Purgatory punishes that?) to the one about not wanting to "slight the hosts' hospitality".

But you know, hon, there's more to Bridey than dullness and duty. He's very apostolic in his own way. Cordelia, on the whole, is more so, but would Fr. Mackay even have entered the picture if not for Bridey?
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:30 PM

 
Just took the Brideshead quiz again, changing one or two answers to try to get closer to being Bridey (=Lord Brideshead). I got Lord Marchmain!

It's probably that Bond St. clothiers thing. I figure Bond St. is the closest thing to J. Press within the options Elinor offers in that question, and I've been sticking to it. (No, I can't afford to get all my clothes at J. Press, but I would if I could, and in the meantime, I come as close as possible via annual sales, Joseph A. Bank, L.L. Bean, and Land's End. And for button-down shirts, definitely Brooks Brothers if at all possible.)

Zorak came up Bridey on the first try, and she hasn't even read Brideshead!

One of my female readers also got Bridey. Elinor, are you sure the Bond St. thing doesn't give grrrrlz an advantage in the pursuit of Lord Brideshead-dom?
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:08 PM

 
From today's second reading:

After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. I Cor. 15:6

Not only that -- let me tell you about the homily...!
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:59 PM

 
I take my first step into discussing THE PASSION...

...by quoting Mark Shea:

One of the happy facts of our time is that secular hostility to the Faith is creating the means for the reunion of Christendom. Imagine, for example, a huge Baptist campaign to promote a film that is stuffed full of Marian devotion and Catholic Eucharistic piety. What was unthinkable a generation ago is eagerly pursued today, and all as the result of the work of a filmmaker who is, at best, highly dubious of the Second Vatican Council's ecumenical designs. God writes straight with crooked lines.

Amen and thank you, Mark!
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:11 PM

 
Today's blog discovery: Southern Appeal: The Random Musings of a Southern Catholic Federalist and his Co-Conspirators.

Great blog! Just one suggestion: lose the term "co-conspirator". It's redundant, like "co-colleague" or "co-cooperator." (Unless one is exhaling chocolate, in which case one might be a "cocoa-spirator".)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:04 PM

 
Elinor has written a Quizilla: What Brideshead Revisited character are you?

You are Lady Marchmain. You make some people
uncomfortable, but you do your best to help
people in unfortunate circumstances, personal
or spiritual.


What Brideshead Revisited character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Must be right. I took it twice and got Lady Marchmain both times, even though I changed one or two answers the second time so as to be less Lady-Marchmainy.

What does it take to be Bridey?

posted by Cacciaguida at 2:35 PM

 
Visited states

OK, here's my map. Academic conferences have greatly expanded it (e.g. Drake U. in Iowa, St. Louis U. in Missouri, BYU in Utah, AALS in New Orleans). Later this spring I will add Washington State (Medieval Academy conference in Seattle).

I have included states that I have merely driven through (Kentucky, West Virginia), but not states that I have merely ridden a train through (that would add Kansas, New Mexico, and South Carolina, as I have done both the N.Y.-L.A. and N.Y.-Miami routes by train), unless I got out of the train and had a look-round, as I did at Flagstaff, Arizona.

I included Nevada because I once changed planes in Vegas on my way to San Francisco. Watching a nun play the slot machines in the lounge, I feel I sampled more than enough of the local culture to include the state among my visited ones.

Tennessee, South Carolina, and Maine are lacunae that I lament and hope to fill.



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:02 PM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: Dashwood whack-a-mole

Cacciaguida (finding Elinor at the computer): Blogging?

Elinor: No, arguing with someone.

Later (and she's still there):

Cacciaguida: Isn't that person flattened yet?

Elinor: I'm doing someone else now.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:09 PM

 
I have a fine brother-in-law -- several, actually, but only one is profiled here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:32 AM

 
EXPLODE THE CODE -- still more

Several historians of religion and art are quoted against The Da Vinci Code's claims here. Note, too, the evidence of people taking the novel as fact.

(Btw, the friends who urged me to take on this topic were my young friends at Yale, with whom I spent last weekend.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:20 AM

 
EXPLODE THE CODE -- more

Envoy Magazine, an excellent Catholic apologetics publication, is doing a three-part series, of which the first two have appeared so far. They are thorough, and include links and bibliography.

Part I

Part II
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:10 AM

 
Fr. Jim explains Candlemas, which was yesterday, and which (as he notes) is the real end of the Christmas season. (The "traditional though not the official end", he explains -- which I will interpret as "the real end" until the Church says I can't.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:08 PM

 
DA VINCI CODE take-downs

Some friends asked me to post again on this, and I'm glad to oblige. The influence of this book is pervasive. If I had any doubts on that point, they were erased when I visited the El Greco exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last month, and, in the midst of a room featuring some of the great proto-Mannerist's depictions of Our Lord and Our Lady, I heard a middle-aged lady lean conspiratorially into her partner and ask, "Have you read The Da Vinci Code?"

(I have,actually -- in about ten minutes, standing in an aisle at Barnes & Noble, and reshelving the book when finished. That's way above my normal reading speed, but as everyone agrees, author Dan Brown is adept at the "page-turner" technique, whatever his deficiencies as a theologian and Church historian.)

OK, here goes.

First, Sandra Meisel, in this article reprinted from Crisis.

Next, this piece by Knight-Ridder reporter Alyson Ward, coming to you from the Sun-Herald of south Mississippi. (And when you're in south Mississippi, man, you are south!) Just one obvious correction to Ms. Ward's piece: It was of course the founder of Opus Dei, Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, who was canonized in 2002, not Opus Dei as such, because it's individuals, not organizations, that are eligible for canonization. However, if Ms. Ward merely meant to underline the Church's affection for Opus Dei, her point is well taken: St. Josemaria would have been an unlikely candidate for canonization if the thing he devoted his entire life to founding and building were not at least pretty cool from a Catholic point of view.

Next, a statement from Opus Dei itself.

Want a Jewish DVC take-down? Opus Dei helpfully links to this one from the Jerusalem daily Haaretz.

More to come as needed.


posted by Cacciaguida at 1:48 PM