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.


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Tomorrow is the Feast of Becket. I can't promise that your local parish will observe it. It's listed as, at best, an optional memorial in U.S.-published Novus Ordo missals, and as "in England and Wales" in the 1962 Missal. That marvelous prayer-helper Fr. Francisco Fernandez omits it entirely in both of the volumes of In Conversation With God where it might be expected to appear, Advent-Christmas and Special Feasts July-December.

All of which just shows that a lot of people need their Becket consciousness raised.

This is the sign of the Church always,
The sign of blood. Blood for blood.
His blood given to buy my life,
My blood given to pay for his death,
My death for His death.

-- T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

I will be in New York for a few days, so blogging may be light. 'Meantime, there've been some eminently commentable posts here since Dec. 23 that haven't drawn many comments yet, so scroll down and go wild.

posted by Cacciaguida at 9:57 PM

 
From BORIS GODUNOV, the opera for Childermass, from the scene outside St. Basil's Cathedral:

THE HOLY FOOL: Boris, ah Boris, those wicked boys are nasty to me. They took my only coin away. Why don't you have them killed, just like you killed our Tsarevich?
PRINCE SHUISKY: Silence, fool! Arrest the stupid fool!
TSAR BORIS: Leave him alone. -- Pray for me, holy man.
HOLY FOOL: No, Boris. I cannot pray for you. I must not pray for a child's murderer. I must not pray for Tsar Herod. Do not pray for him, says the Mother of God.

(General shock. Boris clutches his chest and moves on.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:31 PM

 
Childermass (Feast of the Holy Innocents). Some on-point news items: Archive Sheds Light on Nazi Death Camp (via The Rat):

The "pyramid" ranged from death camps such as Auschwitz at the top, to secondary and tertiary detention centers. There were 500 brothels, where foreign women were put at the disposal of German officers, and more than 100 "child care facilities" where women in labor camps were forced to undergo abortions or had their newborns taken away and killed — usually by starvation — so the mothers could quickly return to work.

And: Ukraine babies in stem cell probe. Congrats to the BBC for investigating this, and to Drudge for posting it:

Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in Ukraine to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells, evidence obtained by the BBC suggests.

Disturbing video footage of post-mortem examinations on dismembered tiny bodies raises serious questions about what happened to them.

Ukraine has become the self-styled stem cell capital of the world.

There is a trade in stem cells from aborted foetuses, amid unproven claims they can help fight many diseases.

But now there are claims that stem cells are also being harvested from live babies.

The Weekly Standard is on it too: it's more than even the BBC found. (One wonders, btw, whether in the case of those who die by partial-birth or other late-term abortion, the Beeb is equally eager to "raise serious questions about what happens to them.")

According to the Standard, serious questions about what happens to them need to be asked as well about vanishing newborns in Europe: "The Council of Europe 'describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate.' "

It's as Robby George predicted: fetal stem cells aren't all that useful, but stem cells from seven-month-olds may be. These can be obtained through clone harvesting, as permitted by new laws in New Jersey and Missouri (the latter sold to the public as "anti-cloning" because it requires the killing of the baby once it's been tapped for cells), or simply by stealing newborns and letting them ripen until use.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:57 PM

 
Can any good thing come out of Cornell? Could be. Hat-tip: Philokalia Republic.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:59 AM

 
Conversation chez Cacciaguida: inspiration

ELINOR: I've just realized something.
CACCIAGUIDA: Happens to us all.
ELINOR: I'll give ya such a pinch.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:52 AM

 
The great feasts within the Octave of Christmas: St. Stephen (today), St. John the Apostle (Dec. 27), Childermass (Dec. 28), St. Thomas Becket (Dec. 29).
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:52 PM

 
Now burn, new born to the world,
Double-natured name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!

-- Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, The Wreck of the Deutschland, 34
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:17 PM

 
Fourth Sunday of Advent meditation from Catholics in the Military:

....I've taken the trouble to go over these very particular conditions [for just war] to make it clear to any open-minded reader that there is--at the very least--a clear argument for holding that the present war in Iraq is a just war. Consequently, those who hold that it is not just (such as those bloggers, clerical and otherwise, that I mentioned) are simply stating their opinion. Unfortunately, they do not ever seem to make it clear that the view they hold is just that: merely an opinion. Indeed their opinion is (in classical Catholic morality) the less probable opinion. I say this because, in the widely-regarded moral system of St Alphonsus of Liguori, if something is established by the law (in this case the declaration of war and statement of causes for declaring war), it has the presumption of being the more probably correct opinion.....

So, how does all this tie in to what we said about Advent, Christmas, and peace? Our presumptions concerning our Catholic faithful in the military should be that they are in good faith (since "charity believes all things"); they are engaged, often enough amid great hardship and sacrifice, in a just war to protect one of our greatest natural goods, the safety and prosperity of the nation. In other words, these Catholics (including their priest-chaplains) most certainly are to be considered in union with, and serving under, the Prince of Peace, who desires that the tranquillity of order (as St Augustine defines "peace") should reign everywhere, even where violent men violently resist it. If, therefore, you ever had doubts about the war and those who help to wage it--especially our fellow members of the "household of the faith"--cast them aside! And pray for the safety and salvation of all those who have done so much, risked so much, and continue to endure much for the sake of things very dear to the Heart of the Saviour. To all of you and yours, a most blessed and holy Advent and Christmas!

Also, Christmas posts from Mike the Marine and from Mudville Gazette. Jonathan Lee is with us this year; pray for, and thank, those who are over there.


posted by Cacciaguida at 4:46 PM

 


I don't recall where I found out about it, but this year's new (to me) English children's-dark-fantasy Christmas book is John Masefield's The Box of Delights. (Find a used copy here, or order it new from England here.) Enjoy -- and don't get scrobbled!
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:16 PM

 
The title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book has been announced:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hm. Hm. A "hallow" is a saint, but there's no particular reason to expect JK to use it that way. How have author British fantasy authors used this word? Any Charles Williams fans out there care to help us out?

At first glance I'd say this title neither indicates nor excludes what some of us have been suggesting is the way-coolest possible ending: that the successful struggle against Voldemort entails the end of the entire magical world. It strengthens marginally my conviction that Harry is going to be the one who pops his clogs (or will be among those who pop theirs).
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:33 PM

 
Gen. Abizaid, head of CENTCOM, to retire. Good: he sucks. Details here.

And anyway, why can't the President have exactly the generals he wants? People argue about what exactly the "Commander in Chief" power extends to, but the hiring and firing of military commanders at will should be an easy case.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:08 AM

 
Ember Days. Tomorrow is one (for winter); so was last Wednesday, and this Saturday will be as well.

For years I've seen that mysterious term, "Ember Days," on Tridentine calendars. Now I understand it a little better. Ember Days are days of moderate penance (or, if occurring during Advent or Lent, of moderately more penance). As part of our centuries-long campaign to affirm the goodness of God's creation, convert reasonable pagan practices to Christian uses, and freak out those crypto-dualists in the Protestant camp, the Ember Days are brazenly seasonal and agriculturally based:

The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy. The immediate occasion was the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding; hence their feriae sementivae, feriae messis, and feri vindimiales. The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose.

And so, after evolving from 4th century origins:

[t]hey were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after 13 December (S. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after 14 September (Exaltation of the Cross).

I'm sorry to learn that the actual words "Ember Days" are a "corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times...." I had visions of Catholic hearths -- in the middle of the huts of the poor, in the grand fireplaces of the rich -- dwindling down to embers, whose greyness reminded us that all created goods pass, but whose enduring heat reminds us that God's love and grace await us beneath the apparent ashes of daily life and of our own failings. In fact I think I will retain that vision, now that I have rediscovered (such treasures Holy Mother Church placed in her attic back in the '60s!) the Ember Days.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:44 AM

 
Rep. Virgil Goode, whoo hoo! Actually, in a better world, I would criticize him for using the Islamic threat to bolster the anti-immigration views that he seems to hold on other grounds. However, mega-snaps to him for flipping the bird to CAIR, as he has so far, and long will, Deus volt.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:55 PM

 
Lord Mowbray, RIP. The rest of this post is from the Telegraph's obit (emphases are mine):

Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, who died on Tuesday aged 83, was the premier baron of England and the head of one of the oldest Roman Catholic families in the country.

A cheerful, Wodehousian figure, known for his piratical eyepatch, Lord Mowbray was well-liked in the Upper House and, during his 40 years on the Conservative benches, seemed to progress almost seamlessly from Bertie Wooster to Lord Emsworth, contributing a mixture of geniality and erudition to House of Lords proceedings....

...[H]e served as a Tory Whip for 13 years and as a Government spokesman on the Environment in both the Heath and Thatcher administrations....

...Lord Mowbray was a Tory loyalist who seldom deviated from the party line. A rare exception occurred in 1986 when he teased the government for its backing for the centenary celebrations of the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, when James II was ousted from the throne in favour of William of Orange. In announcing his intention to "boycott" the event, Lord Mowbray said: "I have no intention of celebrating Dutch William's accession to the throne. I think the whole thing should be called off." The so-called Glorious Revolution, he pointed out, had deprived his family, as Roman Catholics, of their right to sit in Parliament, a right which was restored only with Catholic emancipation in 1829....

The baronies of Mowbray and Segrave were created in 1283 by writ of summons to Parliament by Edward I. The Barony of Stourton was created in 1448 for a Treasurer of the Household under Henry VI. Geoffrey de Mowbray, Bishop of Coutances, from whose brother Charles Stourton was directly descended, was a companion, and one of the chief advisers, of William the Conqueror. Another ancestor, William de Mowbray, a landowner in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, was one of the barons who confronted King John at Runnymede in 1215. The family's ancestral home is Allerton Park, near Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Allerton Castle is regarded as the most important Gothic Revival stately home in England.

Charles was educated at Ampleforth and at Christ Church, Oxford. During the Second World War he saw active service in France as a lieutenant in the 2nd Armoured Battalion of the Grenadier Guards but, after being wounded at Caen in 1944, he lost an eye and was invalided out the following year. His old friend, Sir Iain Moncrieffe of that Ilk, recalled that, when his brother officers urgently called for a doctor to treat their badly wounded comrade, Charles Stourton demanded that a priest be summoned instead — an indication of priorities to which he remained unshakeably committed throughout his life.....

...Lord Mowbray was vice-president and longest-serving Knight of the British Association of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta. He was also chairman of English Catholic Ancestor, a society which aims to acquire and disseminate knowledge of the history of English Catholic families....

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:35 PM

 
Truro Church, Falls Church, et al.: not "anti-gay" but pro-marriage? Has anyone noticed that the entity these parishes are joining, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, has the initials CANA, as prominently displayed in this picture of the Truro and Falls pastors?
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:07 PM

 
The Scotsman notes that Sen. Johnson "continued to improve after brain surgery." I daresay many Democrats would.

Seriously, you must admire my avoiding the ghoulish yet emintently Washingtonian swoop into treating a man's life-threatening illness in terms of its impact on Senate politics.

Well, now that we've broken that ice, here's the deal:

1. Johnson need not resign as long as he's alive.

2. If he -- ahem -- resigns, watch for Democrats to argue that the "organization" adopted by each in-coming Senate is binding for the term of that Senate. It is, unless the minority party raises an objection to that particular rule, as the Democrats did early in 2001 (can anyone say "Jeffords"?). One hopes, and expects, that under Mitch McConnell's leadership, and with the possibility of a Lieberman switch or a Johnson, um, resignation, the Republicans will raise the appropriate objection next month.

3. Now I'm going to get ghoulish. What if Johnson goes onto life support, and left a clear "living will" asking that the tubes be yanked in such a case? Better start downloading all those Democrat speeches and press releases on Terri Schiavo....
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:46 PM

 
Foucault's Pendulum: and gnow, to gnegate gnefarious gnosticism

The character of Lia in this novel is not major in terms of her "screen time," but she is so in terms of her symbolism. She is the earthy and very-much-attained love of our narrator, Casaubon. She is contrasted with Lorenza, the unattained (and airheaded) love of the main hero, Jacopo Belbo. Lorenza says things like "Once you've freed yourself from the flesh, you're beyond good and evil." She's being fed lines like that by this really sketch guy who calls her "Sophia," after a gnostic deity.

In contrast, Lia, who doesn't have the faith but can see through gnostic esotericism, tries to talk sense into Casaubon, whose child she is joyfully (because reproduction is good) carrying. Casaubon and his two friends are drawing themselves into a world in which nothing ever means just itself, where everything is an arcane symbol of something else, some great secret. Similar symbols are found over continents and millennia, so "obviously" they have a unifying, esoteric signifance; they are guarding a secret.

For Lia, on the other hand, the world is indeed full of symbols, but they are symbols of the everyday, the ordinary, the bodily. Much of her language is raw (not inappropriately, because she's making an argument that has earthiness as its essence), but I'll try to quote around that:

"...and if we put these two together, a new thing is made, and we become three. So you don't have to be a university professor or use a computer to discover that all cultures on earth have ternary structures, trinities.

"...Or, if you like, take the anatomy of your menhir, which your authors are always talking about. Standing up during the day, lying down at night -- your thing, too. No, don't tell me what it does at night. The fact is that erect it works and prone it rests. So the vertical position is life, pointing sunwards, and obelisks stand as trees stand, while the horizontal position and night are sleep, death. All cultures worship menhirs, monoliths, pyramids, columns, but nobody bows down to balconies and railings. Did you ever hear of an archaic cult of the sacred bannister?...

"...Anyway, that's how we're put together, all of us, and that's how we work out the same symbols millions of kilometers apart, and naturally they all resemble one another. Thus you see people with a brain in their head, if they're shown an alchemist's oven, all shut up and warm inside, think of the belly of the mama making a baby, and only your Diabolicals think that the Madonna about to have the Child is a reference to the alchemist's oven. They spent thousands of years looking for a message, and it was there all the time: they just had to look at themselves in the mirror."

As narrator, Casaubon remarks:

I should have listened to Lia. She spoke with wisdom of life and birth. Venturing into the underground passages of Agarttha, into the pyramid of Isis Unveiled, we had entered Gevurah, the Sefira of fear, the moment at which wrath manifests itself in the world....

And much later, he adds:

Lia was right. We should have talked about it earlier. But I wouldn't have believed her, all the same. I had experienced the creation of the Plan like the movement of Tiferet, the heart of the sefirotic body, the harmony of Rule and Freedom. Diotallevi had told me that Moses Cordovero had warned: "He who because of his Torah becomes proud over the ignorant, that is, over the whole people of Y____h, leads Tiferet to be proud over Malkhut." But what Malkhut is, the kingdom of this earth, in its dazzling simplicity, is something I understand only now -- in time to grasp the truth; perhaps too late to survive the truth.

Lia, I don't know if I will see you again. If not, the last image I have of you is half-asleep, under the blankets, a few days ago. I kissed you that morning, and hesitated before I left.

That abrupt transition, from cabalistic speculation to hard and fast experiences of human intimacy, is a perfect symbol of Casaubon's plight. (Oh but yikes -- did I just say "symbol"??)

FP is not about the cabalistic sefirot, but rather uses them as a narrative template. One thing seems clear, though: it is gnostic -- and therefore dangerous and wrong -- to exalt Tiferet over Malkhut.

Next time we'll hear more from Diotallevi.
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:40 PM

 


create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Via Jonathan Lee

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:48 PM

 
Foucault's Pendulum: More posts coming, but real quick:

* I loved it. Haven't had that much fun with a novel since The Secret History, though Declare, with which it has an affinity or two (re: postulating a hidden history of our times), comes close.

* It's cross-genre: mystery/suspense, dark fantasy, and elements of Bildungsroman.

* Lia throughout, and Diotallevi in his last scene, are absolutely blazing spokesmen against gnosticism and esotericism, the more so because neither is a Catholic, so neither can make specifically Catholic arguments.

Note: I've finished the book, and I think the end -- the very end -- reinforces the anti-gnostic theme. Notice that I have not written any spoilers here. If your comments contain spoilers, include warnings as well (e.g. "SPOILER ALERT").
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:44 PM

 
They say there may be life there after all, and water may have flowed there within the past five years. But enough about Twentynine Palms...!
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:51 PM

 
Lufthansa orders 20 more 747s from Boeing. I didn't even know they were still making 747s!

The 747 (whether the "8" stretch version or not) is the most beautiful airplane ever built, and (I hear indirectly from pilots) the airworthiest. It was the very first widebody, beating out McDonnell-Douglas's disastrous DC-10 and entering commercial fleets in the early '70s. Its four-engine configuration, instead of the two-monster-engine configuration that is standard on more recent widebodies, makes it safer, and more flexible on transoceanic routes.

The 747 can be spotted by its distinctive and graceful "dolphin head" bulge on its prow, marking the second floor of the first-class cabin.


Even as a cargo plane, the 747's
"brow" stands out handsomely

I don't get to go upstairs when I'm in economy class, but I'd still rather fly a 747 for a long haul than any other plane. Korean Air uses them for the Atlanta-Seoul route, and they are fleet staples for other airlines with trans-Pacific routes, such as Singapore and Qantas. But it's getting hard to find them on coast-to-coast or even trans-Atlantic routes. Good on Lufthansa.


Super-fantastic!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:02 PM

 
First the Flying Imams, now a Gym Gyhad: using civil rights law to Islamoform American life?

Btw -- Detroit Catholic church becomes a mosque; and first Muslim congressman to take office in January.

"Emperor Constantine 'XI' Dragazes, last Byzantine Emperor, reached for comment, remarked: 'At least with you they're taking it slow.'"

I'm just sayin'.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:46 PM

 
Bishop Loverde's pastoral letter against pornography
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:15 PM

 
British Airways can't catch a break. Today, this. OK, all together now: HOW COULD THEY TELL?
posted by Cacciaguida at 7:28 PM

 
The Daily Telegraph reports Britain is crawling with Russian spies and a "shadowy," Okhrana-esque society of nationalistic ex-KGBers called "Dignity and Honor."
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:38 AM

 
It is just coincidence, is it not, that as I near the end of Foucault's Pendulum, I read in an Indian paper's take on the Litvinenko investigation that Mario Scaramella, who allegedly delivered sensitive documents to Litvinenko on the day of the poisoning, and who himself shows "significant" but not immediately dangerous levels of polonium-210, is "a mysterious Italian posing as an 'academic' with claimed links to an Indian university"?

There are coincidences, aren't there?
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:11 PM

 
The Toronto Star credits the Holy Father with a successful "charm offensive" in Turkey. (And is there really something called "Bilge University" in Constantinople?)
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:31 PM