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

 
Remember the meme a few months back about "five things you've done that your readers probably haven't"? I have one to add:

* Had the same doctor as King Idris of Libya.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:39 PM

 
Roman Catholic Blog, by "Ultromontane," notes:

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI says his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," is inspired in part by Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy.

The Pope revealed that today when he met with the participants in a congress organized by the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum." He said that the vision of the great Italian poet (1265-1321), was decisive in trying to recover the true meaning of the word "love."

In particular, the Bishop of Rome feels indebted to Dante's vision in the last canto of "Paradise," in which the poet leads the reader through a cosmic excursion, which "ends before the everlasting Light that is God himself, before that Light which at the same time is the love 'which moves the sun and the other stars.'"

More

Hat-tip: Zorak.

Io era tra color che son sospesi,
e donna mi chiamò beata e bella,
tal che di comandare io la richiesi.

Lucevan li occhi suoi più che la stella;
e cominciommi a dir soave e piana,
con angelica voce, in sua favella.

-- Inferno II 52-57

posted by Cacciaguida at 12:31 PM

 
Un Ballo in Mosquera: Iraq the Model says Baghdad is calm today after reciprocal mosque-bombings (Sunni v. Shia). The folks at Threatwatch say the situation is still tense, given the heavy and partisan Shi'ite majority in the Iraqi Security Forces -- an imbalance for which the Sunnis are largely at fault, since so many of them declined the invitation to join the ISF and joined the insurgency instead:

It is no surprise that the same ideological thugs who wailed against American forces for disrespecting Islam whenever an armored vehicle rumbled past a mosque or shot at an insurgent sniper taking nested shots from atop a minaret are now the ones who completely destroyed one of Shi’ite Islam’s most sacred mosques. To be sure, it was expected.

Meanwhile, Bill Roggio is back at Fourth Rail, and reports here.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:59 AM

 
New cardinals: yeah yeah O'Malley, yeah yeah Levada, yadda yadda yadda. The interesting ones are Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, a champion of the Rome-faithful underground Church in China; Krakow Archbishop StanislawDziwisz, JPII's long-time right-hand man; and Genoa Archbishop Carlo Caffarra, a leading moral theologian former rector of the JPII Institute on Marriage and Family.

Not on the list is Archbisop Michael Fitzgerald, formerly president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, "who recently called for a panel of Vatican and Muslim scholars to examine the legacy of the Christian-Muslim conflict to build historical consensus." Whatever became of him? Oh yes -- he's been sent to Eeeeee-gypt!
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:25 PM

 
French government report rejects ssm.
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:24 PM

 
Jonathan Lee in Operation Bullshark, last month:


posted by Cacciaguida at 10:56 PM

 
Blogger has occasionally been deleting my former top post whenever I put up a new one. That's how the one with the Jesuit jokes in the comment boxes disappeared. This one is by way of a test. If the one on mezzo-sopranos and last Saturday's Met AIDA disappears, I'll know the problem is still going on.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:07 PM

 
"...dis opera gon' be called AMNERIS!"

Well I think that happened on the Met broadcast of AIDA today. Andrea Gruber, as Aida, sounded fine most of the afternoon, but her high C in "O Patria Mia" was gosh-awful. To borrow a metaphor, her program was elegant but she didn't land the quadruple-Axel. Meanwhile, Olga Borodina, as Amneris, ruled in every sense.

What's more, in one of the intermission features, Borodina gave a brief interview about the character of Amneris. For most of it she spoke through an interpreter, but at the end she switched from her native Russian to English and said, "I vunder, vy did Verdi not call dees awpra AMNERIS?"

Mezzo madness -- catch it!
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:33 PM

 
In Britain's Literary Review, historian Michael Burleigh praises two books defending Pope Pius XII, and also lobs some barbs at Daniel Goldhagen and The New Republic ("bizarrely venemous anti-Catholic rant"). The books under review are those by Rabbi David Dalin and Prof. Ronald Rychlak.

Among Burleigh's observations:

Soviet attempts to smear Pius had actually commenced as soon as the Red Army crossed into Catholic Poland. To be precise, they hired a militantly anti-religious propagandist, Mikhail Markovich Sheinmann, to write a series of tracts claiming there had been a ‘secret’ pact between Hitler and the Vatican to enable ‘Jesuits’ to proselytise in the wake of Operation Barbarossa.

Note the way this slander blends traditional western-Enlightenment anti-Catholicism with distinctly Russian forms: over there, they're always on about Jesuit plots. E.g., the unintentionally comic portrayal of the "Jesuit Rangoni" in Mussorgsky's wonderful opera BORIS GODUNOV.

The historical Rangoni was the papal nuncio to Poland in Boris's time; he was based in Krakow, had nothing to do with the politicized romance between Marina Mnisczek and the False Dimitri, and was, as far as I can determine, not a Jesuit. In the early 17th century, Jesuits were too busy evangelizing the Far East and dying in England to serve as papal nuncios. But for the Russians, all promoters of Catholicism must be scheming Jesuits.

Michael Burleigh's own principal oeuvres are these.

What about The Literary Review? It looks good. Besides Burleigh, it also publishes Paul Johnson. Is it like, I dunno, conservative or something?
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:36 PM

 
Should a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates be hired to manage most of the major seaports on the east and Gulf coasts of the United States? The Bush administration thinks so, giving me my first opportunity since Harriet Miers to maintain that the Bush administration occasionally has sand for brains.

Also concerned is national security poohbah Frank Gaffney, who writes in the New York Sun (the City's out-of-my-way new daily):

[I]s it because the U.S. government views - and is determined to portray - the United Arab Emirates as a vital ally in this war for the Free World? A similar determination has long caused Washington to treat Saudi Arabia as a valued friend, even as the Saudis continue playing a double game whereby they work simultaneously to repress terrorism at home and abet it abroad.

An ideologically diverse gaggle of Congressmen has Expressed Concern, but it will take more than that to change the decision. The executive branch wins this one unless the legislative branch legislates. So, which is it? -- Express Concern, so you can tell inquiring constituents that you Did Something; or pass a law, which is your constitutional role? Oh I know, passing laws is a lot like work, and besides, some people could get mad....
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:44 PM

 
Jonathan Lee update

One the the 1stSgts writes to the parents (edited for blog purposes):

The weather has warmed up some for us over the past few days so that has been good. We have been somewhat busy over the past week or so. We have conducted a couple of support operations with the Army and with Weapons Company. We are doing some training with the Army in giving classes to them. We are also conducting some firing on the ranges and continue to do training on weapons conditions and handling. We had a couple of convoys to go to Al Asad [the air base nearest to the Haditha Dam -- there's an ATM there] to have some repairs done on the boats. And then we have our normal security patrols to ensure the security of the dam. I am working with the Career planner with a couple of Marines who are looking to re-enlist and one who is thinking about the Officer Program.

So far, I don't know any more than you do whether Jonathan Lee is the "one" mentioned in the last line. Nor do I know what he's doing on missions away from the Dam. He has always dispensed information on a "need to know" basis -- and that was before he became a Marine! When he was very little you had to pump him for news about how his teddy-bears were getting on in their never-ending battle against the "bad guys."

Maybe we'll find out more, maybe not. If Iran's nuclear reactor mysteriously blows up, we're prepared to say "Jonathan Lee -- he is naughty!"

The date for return to Camp Lejeune is not yet fixed, but the 1stSgt affirms that nothing has happened to dislodge it from its presumptive April window. A "return briefing" for the parents is being organized. I must say I like the sound of that.
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:28 PM

 
...Only one thing,
Music, could ever give me pleasant hours.
I went sometimes to a great singer's house,
He was by name Casella,
And there were met many of gentle birth,
Among them Guido Cavalcanti, and these
Were wont to make rhymes in the vulgar tongue;
And there was Ser Brunetto,
Returned from Paris, wise
With rhetoric of the schools,
Also a youth
Of the Alighieri, Dante was his name,
And I much loved this youth, he was so full
Of thoughts of love and sorrow,
So burning and so loverlike for song.
And something like a healing influence passed
Out of his heart to mine,
That seemed shut up in me; for the exceeding
And too much sweetness hid
Sometimes within the song moved him to weep
Silently, silent tears,
And seeing his weeping, I too wept with him.

-- Gabriele D'Annunzio, Francesca da Rimini (tr. Arthur Symons)
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:05 AM

 
Feb. 10 (CWNews.com) - A cause for the beatification of Father Andrea Santoro, the Italian missionary slain in Turkey last Sunday, will be opened as soon as possible, Cardinal Camillo Ruini announced at the priest's funeral.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:13 AM

 
Bella/Cacciadelia when she was about a month old
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:39 PM

 
Olympic sports of the Global War on Terrorism

Crusade triathlon (equestrian, lance, sword)

Iranian nuke luge

Cross-country telephone intercepts

Downhill polling

IED hockey

Figure-fudging

Danish thin-ice dancing

Synchronized rioting

Pairs cartooning

Allahu akhba'bsled

SURC racing

Ski'ites
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:31 PM

 
The Holy Father has announced a plenary indulgence for tomorrow, to mark Bella's birthday. Well, the last part may not be accurate, but there is a plenary indulgence, and it is available tomorrow (Feb. 11, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes). (Also, it is Bella's birthday on 2/11.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:07 PM

 
Sharia, ma chérie! Dimmi, che dhimmi! -- EU mulls media code after cartoon protests. Related: In the New York Post, Amir Taheri explains how "rent-a-riot" works. (Registration req'd; PowerLine comments, with extensive quotes and no registr. req'd, here.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:54 PM

 
Some recent searches

kirov ring cycle met 2007 traditional -- Not really; the Met's own production is, not the Kirov's, which will tour at the Met in the summer of '07. I suspect a trial balloon. The Met's RING is one of its few reliable ticket-sellers -- and a principal target of those for whom traditional Wagnerian stagings are anathema.

effects of Catholicism in our personality -- I'm a sweety-pie, everyone knows that!

pre-1988 gay marriage -- Time to trade up, wouldn't you say?

koran written in syriac -- Quite a few hits on this, interestingly.

photos of Tridentine Mass in Hawaii -- High or low? Or a-low-high?

francesca da rimini d'annunzio -- Portami nella stanza....

debbie voigt -- Ah, a true fan. Your newbie would have searched for "Deborah Voigt" -- and probably found more hits.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:02 PM

 
AP: Islamic Groups Call for End to Riots. Sceptical though I am about "moderate" Islam, let it never be said that its spokesmen can't get the time of day on this blog.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:38 PM

 


Danish: it's not just for breakfast any more!

First, the whole thing may be an orchestrated p.r.-coup-plus-casus-belli initiated by Moslem leaders. Some of the cartoons were fabricated -- they never ran in Jyllands Posten or anywhere else -- and the planning involved some heavy hitters of the Saracen world, according to CounterTerrorism blog. (Hat-tip to Thomas Lifson of American Thinker, who comments here.)

But now let's assume Jyllands Posten was the "aggressor," as the so-far-standard narrative would have it.

If Christians are expected to sit tight and be good-humored and/or esthetically toney when our symbols are desecrated with general public approval -- as they manifestly have been from time to time, sometimes with government funding, even here in supposedly hyper-religious America -- then the followers of Mahound living in similarly Spinozified societies should take their medicine too. But of course they won't, because religious liberty, for them, is not so much something they oppose as something they literally cannot conceive of. They think dhimmitude is a huge concession for which Jews and Christians should be grateful.

An informal rule barring religious mockery would in theory be a very pleasant thing, but I am unable to think of a way to articulate it so that it would be even remotely administrable. Tony Blair's Parliament refused to back him on an effort along these lines, and I would say, rightly.

Meanwhile, this "growing global crisis" should settle the debate as to whether there was any truth behind the cartoons, at any rate the one of Mahomet with a Bugs Bunny dynamite stick in his turban. (Eeeeah, what's umma, doc?) And Europe may be figuring a few things out that it seems to have forgotten since Lepanto and Vienna, as Victor Davis Hanson notes here.




Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark:

Danish.com
DanishExporters.dk
End the Boycott ("Can't We All Get Along. Have Some Havarti.")
Some place where there's cheeeeeeeeez! (Sorry, it's a Wallace & Gromit thing.)
Have some Blue with your Bloom? Danish cheese at Amazon.com.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:18 PM

 
My friends Joan and Keith

Deaon Keith Fournier has resigned from TCRNews. The latter is perhaps best described as a right-pacificist Catholic blog. Mix FSSP liturgy with Pax Christi politics, stir, serve. Its opposition to the U.S. war effort in Iraq is at the mouth-foaming level, with the close question being the possibility of salvation for those who aren't opposed to it, a debate in which the negative appears to have the upper hand. Chris Blosser profiles the site here. Deacon Keith's statement is here.

What provoked Deacon Keith's resignation is TCRNews's call for the impeachment of President Bush and his senior staff for war crimes. Keith, who is indisputably one of my teachers, is living proof that theologically serious Catholics can oppose the war -- and also oppose conventional political categories -- rationally. The folks at TCRNews tend rather to undermine that case.

One TCRNews contributor, Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, is plainly uncomfortable that the Church ever canonized Joan of Arc, and wants you to be really, really clear that her canonization had absolutely nothing to do with the battles to which she dedicated her short life. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not.

For reference:

Replies to Frequent A__hole Questions about Joan

The Catholic Encyclopedia on canonization:

Canonization, generally speaking, is a decree regarding the public ecclesiastical veneration of an individual. Such veneration, however, may be permissive or preceptive, may be universal or local. If the decree contains a precept, and is universal in the sense that it binds the whole Church, it is a decree of canonization; if it only permits such worship, or if it binds under precept, but not with regard to the whole Church, it is a decree of beatification.

The Catholic Encyclopedia on Joan's "voices" (written pre-canonization):

It was at first simply a voice, as if someone had spoken quite close to her, but it seems also clear that a blaze of light accompanied it, and that later on she clearly discerned in some way the appearance of those who spoke to her, recognizing them individually as St. Michael (who was accompanied by other angels), St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others.

Ah yes, St. Michael, the famous peace activist....

(Just for the record, I'm jiggy with the beatification of Dorothy Day, and I even have a holy card of her in my Missal. But the basis there, besides her unswerving devotion to the Church's Magisterium, is what she did, namely, helped poor people a lot. Just as Joan of Arc, also faithful to the Church's Magisterium, helped her own people, a lot.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:19 PM

 
Jonathan Lee turns 20 today! In case you feel like sending him an e-note, the e-mail address that he makes available to Morristown readers is this. (Note on the picture: it was taken at boot camp graduation, when he was a Private. To update, add to the collar-points the single chevron and crossed rifles of a Lance Corporal.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:33 PM

 
Blogroll adjustment: Pejman's blog is now called A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days. I have altered the link, and moved it to "Conservative blogs."
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:29 PM