Cacciaguida

2011-12-26T20:14:00.000-05:00

Now burn, new born to the world,

Double-naturèdname,

The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed,maiden-furled

Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,

Mid-numberèd He in three of thethunder-throne!

Hopkins

2011-12-24T18:33:00.001-05:00

St. Francis and Saint Benedight

Bless this house from wicked wight;

From the night-mare and the goblin,

That is hight good fellow Robin;

Keep it from all evil spirits,

Fairies, weazles, rats, and ferrets:

From curfew time

To the next prime.

Cartwright

2011-12-24T18:28:00.002-05:00

Christmas Anguish

The dad of a close friend of mine died about a week ago. (Permit me for a moment to write as myself and not as a 12th century warrior.)

I've been developing a theory since my own father died on Dec. 18, 2007 (25th anniv of my reception into the Church, & don't think that didn't hurt) that Christmas - if it isn't actually about grief - at least has a lot of grief built into it. St. Joseph must have been anticipating how he would welcome the Child, & he must have been sick, sick, that when it came to it he couldn't protect his family from being jostled by the authorities, and could find no better spot for the birth than a cave or stable. He didn't have any concept of posing for Christmas cards, though of course we do when we think of him.

The legitimate role of decorating homes and buying presents is to console the Holy Family for the deprivation that hung about the first Christmas. And sometimes, on particular Christmases, we get called not to mitigate that deprivation but to share it.

2011-09-11T21:13:00.002-04:00

President Bush's speech at Shanksville PA (United 93 site) speech

9/11 ten years on

2011-09-11T16:05:00.000-04:00

Here's the tenth anniversary. 9/11 was the reason blogging itself took off when it did: people needed a new way to keep in touch and to get behind the anodyne news coverage.

It was also the reason this blog, named after a crusader, was founded. However, this blog has both expanded and contracted its interests over the years. One reason I started it -- excuse me, one reason I came down from the Heaven of Mars to start blogging terrestrially -- was that I feared the topic of radical Islam and the danger it poses would not be adequately covered.

I need not have worried. Other blogs have sprung up, devoted (unlike this one) to nothing else. Questions have been raised on occasion about their accuracy, and people with no basis of knowledge have held forth on these bloggers' motivations. This much is clear: ten years ago, one never heard the term "Islamophobia"; it may not even have existed. Today it is routinely hurled -- and accept as damning -- at anyone who points out (more than, say, once) that violent strains of thought exist within modern and perhaps classic Islam and that these have real-world consequences. Blow up planes and buildings, kill nearly 3000 people -- and become a protected class. Pretty smooth.

That said, I have refrained getting eyebrow-deep into the transatlantic anti-Islamic culture (though perchance I have some links that may take one there if one is not careful: a link is not "eyebrow-deep," imo). That culture's apparent (perhaps not real) ties to renascent European fascism are a little too close for my moral comfort.

In saying so, I do not mean to pile onto Geert Wilders, who I do not think is a fascist. But I note that -- well, perhaps you've heard of Nigel Farage, and his UK Independence Party? It's the fourth largest party in Britain today, after the Liberal Democrats (and the LDs are part of the governing coalition). I remain a Thatcherite Tory, but I admit to being a bit "Ukippy" (in Tory MEP Dan Hannan's wonderful expression). UKIP "reject[s] the 'blood and soil' nationalism of extremist parties," a clear dig at the unspeakable British Nationalist Party. UKIP's platform also calls for "requir[ing] UK schools to teach Britain's contribution to the world, including British inventions and Britain's role in fighting slavery and Nazism." Emphasis added. Apart from my greater preference for schools setting their own curricula, official UKIP's non-racist and anti-Nazi credentials are clearly in order.

I mention all this because it gives context to a recent Tweet by Mr. Farage, to the effect that that not all the northern European rightwing parties are "friends of UKIP." He singles out one, the True Finns, that is. Others, we are to infer, are too dodgy for UKIP. And what's too dodgy for UKIP is too dodgy for me. (Farage doesn't mention them by name, but I infer the "Sweden Democrats" come under the ban.)

Today's European far right is divided not only by degrees of "extremity," but also by its stance on Islam. The most extreme among them see radical Islam not as the problem but as the solution, because they all agree that real enemy is the you-know-whews. That the Mufti of Jerusalem, an influential figure in the launching of modern today's Islamism, spent the War years in Berlin should not be, and no longer is, seen as a coincidence (though the debate continues as to whether he was made anti-semitic by the Nazis, or whether he sought refuge with the Nazis because they were anti-semitic.) Take-away for today: if you want to shake a hand on the European not-so-center right, have a care for what's at the other end. Make some sort of noise about the need to combat Islamic terrorism, and judge if their reaction is real or pro-forma. Or whether, ahem, they don't even agree.

But that's enough from me. He's what you really want to read: a column by Prof. Richard Landes, a medievalist (another theme of this blog!) at Boston University, specializing in millennialist and apocalyptic movements: "By reacting to 9/11 with self-recrimination, the Western elites have strengthened the hand of brutal Islamism."

P.S. Re comments: Yes, comments are disabled at the moment. That is temporary, I hope. Haloscan has ceased to function as I remembered it from the old, four-posts-a-day, 12-comments-per-post heyday of this blog (who know? We may go there again), so I deleted the Haloscan code and am looking for a new commenting format. I'm also getting used to Blogger's new dashboard. So give me time: comments will return. In the meantime, I'll check paradisoxv at hotmail dot com from time to time.

2011-08-25T14:41:00.001-04:00

CATHOLIC BIBLES IN ENGLISH

GOOD MODERN ONES

Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (RSVCE): result of 1950s collaboration between Catholic Bishops of England and the RSV Committee in the U.S. For a long time available only in Britain, but published in U.S. since late ‘80s.

Ignatius Bible: exactly the same as RSVCE; this title is used by one of the RSVCE’s American publishers, Ignatius Press; it is also published in the U.S. by Scepter Publishers.

Second Catholic Edition RSV: Similar to RSVCE but with “thou” and “thee” changed to “I” and “you” and similar minor changes. Continues to reject so-called “inclusive language,” as does the RSVCE. This version is used in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, a version heavily annotated by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch.

The Jerusalem Bible (1966 edition): In print again by popular demand, despite publication and temporary popularity of the New Jerusalem Bible (see below). Has one problem though (see New CTS Catholic Study Bible, just below):

New CTS Catholic Study Bible: The CTS is the Catholic Truth Society, in London. This version had its origin in the fact that many people like the 1966 Jerusalem Bible except for its tendency to use the Name of God (“Y____h,” but spelled out) when other versions use “the Lord.” When Pope Benedict expressed the same view, the CTS obtained the necessary copyright and brought out this version, which is the 1966 Jerusalem Bible but with “the Lord” instead of “Y____h,” and using the Psalms from The Grail Psalter. Not in U.S. bookstores; may be ordered from www.cts-online.org.uk/

CLASSIC ONES

Douay-Rheims: Contemporary with the King James; the work of English refugees at seminaries in northern Europe. So faithful to the Clementine Vulgate Latin version that its English reproduces Latin sentence-structure, making it awkward to read, especially out loud. Still, good to have around, b/c occasionally it has a reading that cuts the Gordian knot of difficult passages in other versions.

Knox: When Oxford classics scholar Ronald Knox became a Catholic in 1917 (and a priest in 1919), the English bishops didn’t know quite what to do with him, so basically they told him to sit tight at Oxford and translate the Bible, between intervals of counseling students (and writing mystery novels in his spare time). His version often sounds like one Oxford don talking to another. He turns some of the Psalms into acrostics. Out of print, but a precious find if you can get one.

BAD ONES

New American Bible: The “official” Bible of the Catholic Church in the United States. Tin-eared use of English, with notes that reflect the worst of modernist theology. Clearly sent as punishment. (Do not confuse with the New American Standard Bible, a version published by Protestant Fundamentalists but admirable for its accuracy and literalism. Of course the NASB is missing the Deuterocanonical books.)

New Jerusalem Bible: “I will make of you fishers of persons.” Better idea: make of it recycled paper for the New Roman Missal.

2011-08-15T23:36:00.005-04:00

ASSUMPTION -- what a day to start blogging again!

Today's reflection is going to be about choices of liturgical readings for the Feast, old compared to new.

The Ordinary (newer) and Extraordinary (Tridentine) Forms of the Mass exhibit differences not only in text, calendar (in some cases), and (in most cases) language, but also in selection of Scripture readings. Not across the board; but when such changes occur, they reveal a change of ethos.

Most of you who went to Mass today, in polite defiance of the U.S. Bishops' assumption (pardon the expression) that we're wimps who can't be expected to attend Mass two days in a row and that the obligation that usually attends the Feast of the Assumption had to be lifted, probably attended Mass in the Ordinary Form, and therefore encountered, as your first reading, Apocalypse (Revelation) 11:19-12:1. This is indeed a very important passage for the Assumption, since it identifies Mary as the Ark of the Covenant and as the "great sign" that "appeared in heaven."

Does the Extraordinary Form lectionary ignore this reading? No -- the mulier amicta sole passage forms the Antiphon, the first prayer spoken by the priest (at Low Mass) or sung by the choir (at Sung Mass) after the Prayers Before the Altar. (The EF'S Antiphon corresponds roughly to the OF's "Entrance Antiphon," but the latter is usually skipped in favor of some goshawful hymn.)

So then, what does the EF lectionary offer as the first reading for this Feast? Selections from the Book of Judith: 13:17-20 and 15:9 (numberings acc. to the RSVCE and the New CTS Catholc Bible; Douay may differ: it likes to). And what is this about? You don't know? It's about Judith saving her people, the Jews, by decapitating Holofernes, leader of the Assyrians, and receiving for this heroism the praise of her people as "the glory of Jerusalem" and "the honor of our people."

This is the Extraordinary Form's first reading for the Feast of Mary's Assumption into Heaven, for which the Gospel reading, in both forms of the Mass, is Mary's visit to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, in Luke 1. This is of course a gentle, somewhat conventionally "feminine" scene: older relative is preggers, younger relative goes to be nurturing, etc. But Judith? Judith, whether this shocks us or not, whether it fits our perfectly irrelevant little template for how God ought to act or not, is a precursor, or "type," typos in the Bib-crit sense, of Mary. So is Jael, the woman who saved the Hebrews from the hostile band led by Sisera, during the Judgeship of Deborah, by pounding a tent peg through his head with a mallet (Judges 4).

Does it surprise you that these are typoi of Mary? It shouldn't, if you've read carefully and taken seriously Genesis 3:15. The enmity between "the serpent" and "the woman" is serious. From her first appearance in history as Eve to her most exalted one as the foreseen but still free-choosing yes-sayer of the Annunciation, the serpent is scared crapless of what "the woman" signifies for his ultimate fate, and with good reason.

Oh but, post 1960s, some of us in Church middle management don't want to bother parishioners with all that do we? First, Judith is a deuterocanonical book -- Protestants don't have it in their Bibles -- and aren't we annoying them enough by celebrating the Assumption anyway? (No -- where'd you get a stupid idea like that? The good ones respect us even where they disagree; the kind who get annoyed about it can't get possibly get annoyed enough.) Second, making people learn that much Bible-y stuff -- it's so complicated. Today's parishioners are more educated, and so -- oops, wrong talking points, never mind. Third and most important, it's violent. We don't want to make today's parishioner's read violent stuff. Don't you know about Vietnam? Today's Church is about peace....

Well yes, the Church always desires peace, prays for it, and works towards it. But Christ's peace comes via Christ's suffering. And if you can affirm that, see if you can go the next step: the most apparently "peaceful" thing to do in a given situation may not be thing that most conduces to peace. This is not "situation ethics" or "consequentialism," which I repudiate just as the Church does. But -- Judith was not imprisoned as a war criminal for beheading Holofernes: she was praised as "the glory of Jerusalem and the honor of our people."

Clearly, Sisera and Holofernes were enemy combatants lawfully killed in a just war. Just as clearly, Jael and Judith were typoi of the "woman" of Genesis 3:15 whose enmity with the "serpent" is perpetual and radical. And clearly, Christians who forget this are on the way to being wimps. Which seems to be just what some people want.

Today's OF-only parishioners read about Mary as the Apocalypse's Ark of the Covenant (in the old days parishioners with hand-missals read about this too, in the Antiphon; and don't tell me today's parishioners listen to the vernacular readings with more attention than those of yesteryear followed with hand-missals; attention to readings is abysmal at all times, but there's no reason to think it was worse then than now); but they read nothing about Mary as the serpent's-head-crushing heiress of Judith. Because we've decided they shouldn't. Because middle management decided the ideal Catholic is either an ex-nun smiling as she balls her fist at the first sign of neo-orthodoxy, or a pony-tailed hermaphrodite who chairs his local chapter of the United Nations Association and gives rides to the polls for SEIU on Election Day.

Except -- where old knights still read old books, and worship the way the knights did, seeing what "the old knights saw from their tombs...."

Holy Mary, Our Hope, Seat of Wisdom, Assumed Into Heaven, Pray For Us.

Epilogue: The following prayer, Tota Pulchra, is part of Vespers for the Immaculate Conception. It has been set by several Catholic composers, including Bruckner, Durufle, and Gorecki. Note how praise of Mary is interwoven with lines from Judith 15:9!

Tota pulchra es, Maria,

et macula originalis non est in te.

Tu gloria Jerusalem,

tu laetitia Israel,

tu honorificentia populi nostri.

tu advocata peccatorum.

O Maria, Virgo prudentissima,

mater clementissima,

Ora pro nobis.

Intercede pro nobis

Ad Dominum Jesum Christum.

2011-03-13T22:29:00.014-04:00

Feast of the Restoration of Icons

Aka Feast of Orthodoxy. First and foremost, a feast that, though not part of the Latin Rite calendar (either Ordinary or Extraordinary Form), we ought to be more aware of -- because of the importance of what it represents, the suppression of the heresy known as iconoclasm. If you don't understand why this is a heresy, and why its suppression is worth celebrating, then you don't understand the Incarnation, simple as that. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are as one on this, afaik.

(Btw, why do people keep saying that "Catholic" means "universal"? It doesn't: it means "kata holon," i.e. "according to the entirety," "in union with The Whole Thing," rejecting by-ways, rabbit-trails, and heresies. What does mean universal is "Roman"! As Msgr. Knox observed, a spiritual pilgrimage isn't an Odyssey, it's an Aeneid: your home base flames out, so you pick up what's best of your household "gods," in search of a pre-ordained destination, which is Rome. The lives of St. Peter and St. Paul are eerily close to this model. "Household gods" = Jewish roots. Trojan War = Pharisaical persecution followed by Roman-Jewish war. How does the book of Acts end, anyway? They finally return to Jerusalem? No.... They finally arrive at Byzantion/ Constantinople? No.... Luke turns to narrating the adventures of St. Andrew? No....)

No question, the Feast of Orthodoxy is good name for the feast commemorating the restoration of icons. But there might be others; e.g., Feast of Getting Your Chestnuts Pulled From the Fire by Rome Yet Again.

From the 1911 (pre-higher-criticism, pre-ritual-Catholic-self-denigration, and therefore reliable) Catholic Encyclopedia:

Iconoclasm (Eikonoklasmos, "Image-breaking") is the name of the heresy that in the eighth and ninth centuries disturbed the peace of the Eastern Church, caused the last of the many breaches with Rome that prepared the way for the schism of Photius, and was echoed on a smaller scale in the Frankish kingdom in the West. The story in the East is divided into two separate persecutions of the Catholics, at the end of each of which stands the figure of an image-worshipping Empress (Irene and Theodora).

Yes, twice during the 8th and 9th centuries, Byzantine Emperors -- abetted by compliant, state-appointed patriarchs -- decided that the tradition of veneration (not "worship": Catholics and Orthodox have always been as one on that point too, I think) of religious images, already ancient in both eastern and western Christendom, was a heresy (just like the next-door Muslims said it was -- what a coincidence), and set about deposing and torturing priests, monks and laymen who kept the ancient faith on this point.

Both times, the Bishop of Rome asked wtf was going on and demanded that the aforesaid emperors cease persecuting Orthodox Catholic believers (no distinction needed to be made in those days) and suggested that they work harder on running their empire, of which they were making quite enough of a nonsense, and make themselves scarcer in what concerns the Church exclusively. (Of course, as the 10th century would show, the Roman hierarchy needed no help in making a near-nonsense of the Church. That's why the Papal Reform of the 11th and 12th centuries was so important. Pope Gregory VII: that's the man!)

Returning to our story, and quoting again from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The pope at that time was Gregory II (713-31). [We ran through Gregories betw. the 8th and 11th cents., didn't we?] Even before he had received the appeal of Germanus [a Patriarch of Constantinople and early hero of iconodule polemics] a letter came from the emperor [Leo the Isaurian, iconoclast] commanding him to accept the [iconoclast] edict, destroy images at Rome, and summon a general council to forbid their use. Gregory answered, in 727, by a long defense of the pictures. He explains the difference between them and idols, with some surprise that Leo does not already understand it. He describes the lawful use of, and reverence paid to, pictures by Christians. He blames the emperor's interference in ecclesiastical matters and his persecution of image-worshipers. A council is not wanted; all Leo has to do is to stop disturbing the peace of the Church.

The Second Council of Nicaea, 787, ruled authoritatively against iconoclasm. But in the East, it broke out again, thanks to that reliable symposium of learned theologians, the Byzantine army, and its levers of control (as in west-Roman Imperial times) over who the emperor would be. Patriarch Nicephorus ("Victory Bearer"?) courageously defended icons -- also arguing that he didn't need to defend them, b/c the issue had been settled by Nicaea II (I do like lawyerly argumentation!) -- and for his trouble got deposed, exiled, and replaced w/o fuss by an imperial appointee.

(Over in the West, not even an Emperor Henry IV, a Frederick II, or a Philip the Fair could have done that to a Pope, tho' they would have liked to. Emperor Henry would sometimes take it into his head that he had deposed "Hildebrand" -- Gregory VII -- but as I recall he didn't even claim to have appointed his successor, much less do so successfully.)

Meanwhile, back in the 9th century, the Orthodox/Catholic faithful of Constantinople appealed to Pope Paschal I, who denounced the new iconoclast emperor. Beyond that, he was not as effective in solving the crisis as Gregory II before him had been. Nonetheless, the second iconoclast outbreak produced the last and strongest affirmations of Roman primacy to emerge from Byzantine sources. The Catholic Encyclopedia, as might be expected, stresses this, but also acknowledges that, second time around, the solution came from with the East, albeit slowly, and with the help of palace coups, many sufferings by Orthodox/Catholics in Byzantium, and finally, the accession of a Orthodox/Catholic regent, Theodora:

In the same year (842) a synod at Constantinople approved of [iconoclast Patriarch] John VII's deposition, renewed the decree of the Second Council of Nicaea and excommunicated Iconoclasts. This is the last act in the story of this heresy. On the first Sunday of Lent (19 February, 842) the icons were brought back to the churches in solemn procession. That day (the first Sunday of Lent) was made into a perpetual memory of the triumph of orthodoxy at the end of the long Iconoclast persecution. It is the "Feast of Orthodoxy" of the Byzantine Church still kept very solemnly by both Uniates [sic: the term is accurate enough but out of favor, as it tends to sideline both the Catholicism and the small-o-orthodoxy of those so described] and Orthodox.

Emphasis added. Nicaea II, 787, was of course critical in putting down the dreadful heresy that was iconoclasm, a heresy that misunderstands and ultimately destroys the fundamental change in the spirit/matter, God/man relationship wrought by the Incarnation. But the Feast of Orthodoxy/Feast of Rome Saving Our Ass does not literally commemorate Nicaea II: it commemorates the physical restoration of the icons in Constantinople on the first Sunday of Lent, 842. But ultimately, does it matter? Both are eminently worth commemorating.

2011-01-06T23:14:00.001-05:00

Epiphany

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. I don't care what you did in your parish last Sunday, Epiphany is January 6, and not only in the Extraordinary Form: the Holy Father celebrated it today.

The wise and wealthy of the Nations, as well as the poor sheep-herders of Israel, visit the Child and recognize king (gold), God (frankincense), and sacrifice unto death (myrrh). HAPPY EPIPHANY!

2010-12-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

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!

-- Gerald Manley Hopkins SJ

2010-12-24T18:17:00.013-05:00

Christmas anguish

Hello - it's Christmas Eve, and I'm back.

More Catholic bloggers than just myself (I know from Twitter) have picked up on the idea of "the terror of Christmas" (variously phrased).

Of course, Christmas is (along with Easter) the most festive part of the Christian calendar, and in the northern hemisphere its festive spirit has drawn from secular, even pagan, markings of the need to bring joy and light into the darkest time of year. Festivity: family reunions, mostly happy; kids, same; lights; presents; Snoopy winning the decoration contest even while Linus reminds us of the real meaning of Christmas. All true.

So why then do so many of us, especially as we grow older, experience unique anxiety, even grief, at Christmas? If we have lost family, the answer is obvious. But if we haven't -- God be blessed -- we worry about whether we're "putting on" a good enough Christmas for them; or, if we're guests, about whether we're pulling our weight, treading on toes, etc. If we have good memories of Christmases Past, it concerns us that Christmas Present (in the Dickensian, not the commercial, sense) may fall far short of them -- and you know, maybe it will.

So is there something wrong with us?

Let's start with St. Joseph -- about whom, incidentally, a Catholic politician in England, formerly leader of that nation's Conservative Party (but never given by it a chance to fight a general election) recently wrote a moving article in the Daily Mail. For Joseph, the "first Christmas" was a huge Fail. Pushed around by distant bureaucrats who left him powerless to protect his young family against the cruel obligation to transport his near-term-pregnant wife from Nazareth to Bethlehem to do Roman paperwork, he couldn't even find lodging there, in those pre-Super8, pre-online-reservations day. He found -- a stable, a filthy corner where animals were stored.

He couldn't have known how later eras would beautify the Manger Scene in religious art. For him, this must have felt like abject failure, if he was capable of such a pride-based sentiment. No wonder that a few days later, when the Magi arrive, we find the Holy Family no longer in that manger but (according to Matthew) in a "house." By then the census crowds would have abated, more rooms would have opened up, and Joseph certainly wasn't going to keep his family in that stable posing for Christmas cards.

But the testimonies to Christmas anguish go on. There's the medieval lyric "Als I Lay on Yoolis Night," about the Virgin and Child in conversation, she re-telling to Him the story of the Annunciation. The framing device for this narrative -- already a story-within-a-story -- is a meta-meta-narrative about a dreamer who dreams the scene of the Virgin-Child conversation, while "alone in my longing." Who is he, and, more to the point, why is he alone, and on Yule night, of all times? We never find out. (Click here for the definitive recording.)

Dickens wrote the most famous post-Biblical Christmas story of all time, and it's full of ghosts. If it's no longer exactly scary, that's with familiarity. There are other Christmas ghost stories too, and not all by Dickens. Even Washington Irving's delightful if twee chapters about spending Christmas at the ancestral seat of a time-defying squire in Yorkshire makes frequent references to spirits and fairies.

And (as one of Twitter friends pointed out), Charlie Brown, who at any time of year is never far from awareness of his anxieties, at Christmas time discovers he has "pantophobia" -- fear of everything!

Now, Charlie Brown's pantophobia disappears as a plot element almost as soon as it appears, so the focus can shift to the search for the tree, Linus's Luke 2 recitation (in memoriam, Christopher Shea, voice of Linus, 1958-2010), then back to the tree for the rebirth symbolism it can bear. But I can tell you this: after my father died on December 18 (a week before Christmas) in 2007, I came to know what pantophobia might be. I would choose one end of the couch to sit on -- and become afraid of the other. And so on and on. One gets better, but -- and this, not personal sharing, is my point -- Christmas tends naturally to bring it out, along with the joy that it also brings out.

A carol sings about "the hopes and fears of all the years" being met tonight in Bethlehem. The reference is primarily the hopes and fears of the Jews of ancient times (and not only ancient, imo), but everyone's hopes and fears are met there, because the whole world was waiting, knowingly or not, for the overturning of all earthly expectations epitomized by the Power That Made The World being born as one of us in the humblest circumstances human insouciance could have imposed.

The hopes and fears were, first of all, those that Judah and Israel enjoyed and endured during the Messianic preparation. Then they are those that the Holy Father talked about on his BBC4 talk earlier today. And finally they are our hopes that something of our best (usually long past) Christmases can be recaptured, our fears (probably well-founded) that they cannot be, and our hopes (a manifestation of Hope as cardinal virtue) that those best Christmases -- so much "better," in every material sense, than His own "first" Christmas! -- were stand-ins, down payments, signs, premonitions, epiphanies, supernatural-to-natural break-in, of the Divine family gathering and banquet to which we are all invited, where there will be no family "baggage," missed flights, overeating, underdrinking, departures, or heartbreaks, "for the former things are past away."

For now -- for want of this -- we are in temporary anguish, which with grace and a little effort we can temper with love. Merry Christmas!

I'll end with my traditional Christmas Eve poem, an oldie from some Olde Englishe guy called Cartwright, which I found used as an epigraph to the Christmas Eve chapter in the Washington Irving "Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" narratives that I referred to earlier. (Note, btw, "Cartwright"'s Catholic recidivism. When did he write? 1680s or so? Age of crypto-Catholic Charles II? Openly Catholic James II? That's the era of most of the "old" poetry Irving quotes in these "essays.")

Saint Francis and Saint Benedight
Bless this house from wicket wight;
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good fellow Robin;
Keep it from all evil spirits,
Fairies, weazles, rats, and ferrets:

From curfew-time
To the next prime.

2010-09-18T23:02:00.002-04:00

Pope in UK - 1: weird protestors

Lots of good stuff, but before I get to it, let's take a look at that "protest," the one that was the only news of the Holy Father's visit, according to some news sources. The Daily Telegraph (not similarly guilty at all) offers this, along with several more edifying clips.

Here's what I want to know. You can clearly hear in this clip a guy with an Arabic accent leading the (quite anemic) chants of "Gay rights are human rights," "Condoms save lives," and "Faith schools indoctrinate." Now, I may be way behind on my stereotypology, and even if not, social reality sometimes thows us curve balls. That said, I still have to wonder: don't most Arabic-accented Londoners have other things to chant -- things like, "In Talibanistan we burn poofters," "Every Muslim man gets ten sons per wife," and "Government-funded madrassas now or we start a car-b-que?"

Did Peter Tatchell have to save his voice for the media mikes? Did the chant organizers have to get their bullhorn-artistes from casting agencies, which these days have a surplus of Musliform personel in their rent-a-mob line?

A puzzlement.

2010-09-14T10:01:00.004-04:00

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Iesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo. - Gal. 6:14 (Introit of today's Mass, both Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms)

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia (the reliable one, not the one from 1970):

The Feast of the Cross like so many other liturgical feasts, had its origin at Jerusalem, and is connected with the commemoration of the Finding of the Cross and the building, by Constantine, of churches upon the sites of the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary. In 335 the dedication of these churches was celebrated with great solemnity by the bishops who had assisted at the Council of Tyre, and a great number of other bishops. This dedication took place on the 13th and 14th of September. This feast of the dedication, which was known by the name of the Encnia, was most solemn; it was on an equal footing with those of the Epiphany and Easter. The description of it should be read in the "Peregrinatio", which is of great value upon this subject of liturgical origins. This solemnity attracted to Jerusalem a great number of monks, from Mesopotamia, from Syria, from Egypt, from the Thebaïd, and from other provinces, besides laity of both sexes. Not fewer than forty or fifty bishops would journey from their dioceses to be present at Jerusalem for the event. The feast was considered as of obligation, "and he thinks himself guilty of a grave sin who during this period does not attend the great solemnity". It lasted eight days. In Jerusalem, then, this feast bore an entirely local character. It passed, like so many other feasts, to Constantinople and thence to Rome. There was also an endeavour to give it a local feeling, and the church of "The Holy Cross in Jerusalem" as intended, as its name indicates, to recall the memory of the church at Jerusalem bearing the same dedication.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross sprang into existence at Rome at the end of the seventh century. Allusion is made to it during the pontificate of Sergius I (687-701) but, as Dom Bäumer observes, the very terms of the text (Lib. Pontif., I, 374, 378) show that the feast already existed. It is, then, inexact, as has often been pointed out, to attribute the introduction of it to this pope. The Gallican churches, which, at the period here referred to, do not yet know of this feast of the 14th September, have another on the 3rd of May of the same signification. It seems to have been introduced there in the seventh century, for ancient Gallican documents, such as the Lectionary of Luxeuil, do not mention it; Gregory of Tours also seems to ignore it. According to Mgr. Duchesne, the date seems to have been borrowed from the legend of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Lib. Pontif., I, p. cviii). Later, when the Gallican and Roman Liturgies were combined, a distinct character was given to each feast, so as to avoid sacrificing either. The 3rd of May was called the feast of the Invention of the Cross, and it commemorated in a special manner Saint Helena's discovery of the sacred wood of the Cross; the 14th of September, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, commemorated above all the circumstances in which Heraclius recovered from the Persians the True Cross, which they had carried off. Nevertheless, it appears from the history of the two feasts, which we have just examined, that that of the 13th and 14th of September is the older, and that the commemoration of the Finding of the Cross was at first combined with it.

2010-09-11T12:42:00.004-04:00

Made by one of my students

2010-06-18T23:01:00.002-04:00

Developments on this blog

Hello!

The fact that I haven't posted in a while does not mean this blog is going out of service. When you have a blog that started in 2002 -- back when people still said "A blog? What's that?" -- you don't pull the plug on it lightly. And I really have no reason to pull the plug on it at all.

So why the light posting? Basically, it's that I've been doing a lot of writing under other names in other fora. The 'net has expanded so as to create such opportunities.

Though I started this blog to be about pretty much everything I'm interested in, I will probably refocus it on its core competencies, which I see as being Catholicism (including Catholic history and current Church matters), and Medieval Studies.

I am also considering bringing on co-bloggers: both fictional (like me) and real. I've been in conversation with a fictional character inspired by Alberich in Act II of Wagner's SIEGFRIED, called Anders Alsdummeriesen. He's not the most soothing individual, but I think you'll be amused by his candor and wry humor. As for the realies -- it's hard to get them to work with you when you're fictional, but there are some possibilities.

Another unresolved issue: physical layout. At the beginning, it was my greatest pride that on arriving at this blog, readers would notice that it bore a physical resemblance to Eve Tushnet's. I'm still proud of that, and for that reason, I may not change it at all. Otoh, Blogger is making template-fussing easier these days, so who knows.

Many of you may have fallen out of the habit of checking this blog "manually," but I take it the technology of the blogosphere has developed since I founded it -- RSS feeds, Google Reader, etc. -- so I may hope that the mere fact that I've posted something will alert some of you to the fact that I've posted something.

If so, then do comment. Knowing you're out there will make a difference in how much time I, Anders, and andere Leute will put into it.

2010-05-11T16:17:00.001-04:00

David Cameron is Prime Minister.

2010-04-06T22:46:00.002-04:00

The miserable case of the Legionaries, and (link tucked inside) that of Cardinal Groer: Ratzinger/Benedict is the only reason the sexual and financial corruption ever got tackled, in the face of curial protectors (and poor Ven. John Paul II's refusal to believe ill of priests, probably based on his experiences of state-sponsored slanders of the clergy in Nazi- and Communist-occupied Poland): Damian Thompson purveys a Nat'l Catholic Reporter story, with suitable comments and reservations.

2010-04-05T18:10:00.000-04:00

Expert sounds warning on rogue psychotherapists

2010-04-03T17:57:00.005-04:00

Fr. Cantalessa's homily

Been away for a while again, but I thought I'd step down again to reflect on this particular aspect of the Satanically-originated trials our beloved Holy Father is currently going through, which are part of the Church's Long Lent, and which will purify and strengthen the Church and also (in ways I may get a chance to explain) strengthen ties with living and fruitful albeit schismatic branches such as the Eastern Orthodox (e.g. did you see this? or this?), while helping to cut off deadwood such as the Anglicans.

Anyway, about the Cantalamessa homily. (The name means "sing the Mass," not that that's helpful.)

The Vatican can distance itself from his Good Friday homily if it wants to, but it seems to me the reasons it should aren't the reasons why it is. Perhaps it should b/c of some passages in it that seem to cast doubt on the sacrificial nature of Christ's death. Cantalamessa has more than once shown himself slightly dodgy as a theologian, and might be a better fit in the CDF's in-box than in the Pope's pulpit.

That said, however, you might want to read the entire homily text here, with the "offending" parts about Jews near the end, in boldface. These passages are obviously, uncontroversially, a gesture of outreach and solidarity towards Jews, and an attempt to convey to them good wishes for Passover. Also included were remarks, including a quote from a letter Cantalemessa said he had received from a Jewish friend, likening the phenomenon of mass slander directed against the Pope to similar slanders directed against the Jews.

No good deed goes unpunished. First came reactions from, e.g., Germany's Central Council of Jews. The only charitable interpretation of this group's reaction is that they had not read the homily and felt a duty to be at the head of the newswheel with comments, and hostile ones at that. If they stand by their comments after reading it, they must be either haters tout court, or examples of invincible ignorance.

The excuse of commenting w/o reading must also serve for certain conservative Catholic blogs, which interpreted Cantalamessa as having compared current attacks on the Pope to the Holocaust. That would indeed have been outrageous, but in fact, he did no such thing. In his own words, and in the words of the Jewish friend whose letter he read from, he made the point (I'm elaborating only a little) that problems that are local, and possibly resolvable among individuals, or (in the case of crimes such as sex with under-age persons) between individuals and civil law enforcement, can grow into worldwide group libels with alarming speed.

Perhaps what went through the minds of the Council of Jews, over in Germany, was that the Church's abuse scandal is based on real events, whereas anti-Semitism is based on complete fiction from the ground up, so analogies between the etiologies of hatred in the two cases, no matter how otherwise precise, are pernicious.

Let us grant that assumption for the sake of argument -- the assumption, that is, that no Jew, any where, at any time, ever did anything that might have given a Christian neighbor even the slightest grounds for complaint. Even on that assumption, the similarities between the etiologies of hatred cannot be ignored. Groups are put through the group-libel ringer for reasons having little or nothing to do with what they have, in the common man's parlance, "done."

As far as sexual abuse of minors, we know for sure that the Catholic Church is pikers compared to, oh, the American public school system. Except, the American public school system happens not to stand for the pro-life cause, traditional marriage, and chastity -- somewhat the opposite, so far as I know. The Church -- and Ratzinger/Benedict -- does. So guess who gets The Treatment.

Church, Jews -- both get persecuted, when they do, not for their faults, but for their virtues. (Jews are ineluctable witnesses to the reality of the Old Testament, alone among the ancient religious books that have come down to us. It has long been my view that this is a major basis for anti-Semitism in its modern form, tho' I acknowledge the issue is far more complex.)

This brings me to my final point about what Fr. Cantalemessa may have been saying. If he wasn't saying it, then someone should.

Myths of sexual insatiability -- such as the vast majority of parish priests and male religious who are abstemious and faithful have to put up with every day -- are the stock in trade of mass hatreds. They played a huge role in lynchings in the South (and in the "electronic lynching" that was attempted in 1991), and Julius Streicher of "Der Stuermer" constantly stirred up (mostly through scabrous cartoons) fears about dangers to "pure" German maidenhood from the Jewish men he labelled and libelled as unnaturally libidinous. There's no large-scale hate campaign w/o the "protect our women/children from these priapic monsters" factor.

I don't know if Cantalamessa meant all that; he pretty clearly did not mean that hate campaigns against the Pope and against the Jews are in all respects identical; he very clearly did not mean that what the Church is undergoing now is like the Holocaust. He said, very clearly, the people who have been targets of artificially inflated mass hatred have that as a common bond, and on the basis of that bond, he offered the Jews friendly greeting. Which some of them, affecting to be spokesmen, have flung in his face.

Very likely Cantalamessa should be (without undue haste) removed from the papal-theologian billet -- but because of his unCatholic views on the Atonement, not because of his rejected overtures of friendship to Jews.

2010-03-03T19:33:00.004-05:00

The excellent blog Hermeutic of Continuity reports and dismisses some interesting liturgical rumors here.

But, H of C continues, there is better-founded good news: that a forthcoming clarification of Summorum Pontificum will hold that priest may schedule an EF miss with or without a request from the faithful, and that such Mass is allowed to take the place of normally scheduled OF parish Sunday Mass.

2010-02-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

John Allen's informed speculation: new cardinals in 2010?

2010-01-27T00:02:00.003-05:00

My Church Unity Octave

Hi. Now, I'm not gone. Here I am, bringing you news of -- an expected influx of American "traditional Anglicans" making use of the Holy Father's new canonical provisional for Anglicans looking for a nice post to pope.

"The expectation is that our general synod will accept the Holy Father's offer," said Christian Campbell, senior warden of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando, Fla., and a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church in America's Diocese of the Eastern United States. "It is not so much a question of whether or not we desire to avail ourselves of the offer - inasmuch as it is a direct and generous response to our appeal to the Holy See. The question now is how the apostolic constitution is to be implemented. We have practical concerns, and we are presently working with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to resolve any outstanding questions."

Campbell said that the first Traditional Anglican Communion provinces will be entering the Catholic Church within the next six months.

The rest.

2009-12-25T23:16:00.002-05:00

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"

2009-12-25T03:09:00.002-05:00

Saint Francis and Saint Benedight
Bless this house from wicked wight;
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good-fellow Robin;
Keep it from all evil spirits,
Fairies, weazles, rats, and ferrets'

From curfew-time
To the next prime.

- "Cartwright" (quoted in the Christmas Eve chapter from Washington Irving's Sketchbook)

2009-12-20T01:15:00.001-05:00

Pope Benedict signs heroic virtue decrees (part of the beatification process) for John Paul II -- and for Pius XII!

2009-12-18T17:26:00.001-05:00

Ready for some serious scholarship on early Scotland?

James E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795, New Edinburgh History of Scotland I, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2009. Pp. xii + 436; illus. Paperback ISBN 9780748612321, £19.99. Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba 789–1070, New Edinburgh History of Scotland II, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Pp. xv + 384; illus. Paperback ISBN 9780748612345, £19.99.

First page of an academic review can be viewed here.

2009-12-16T00:58:00.004-05:00

UK judge issues arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister for pursuing foreign policy someone in UK doesn't like

Only one way to stop this kind of "universal jurisdiction"/"human rights" horseshit: Israel can issue a warrant for the judge who issued the warrant. And drop a hint that Israel, unlike the airhead rest of the world, actually knows something about extraterritorial enforcement.

UPDATE: "UK ponders law change after Tzipi Livni arrest warrant." Jolly good and about bloody time. Don't miss the Livni video statement in this link.

2009-12-13T22:11:00.001-05:00

Eve on why "all that matters is that you get to Heaven" can't possibly be right from a sound-and-orthodox Catholic viewpoint: here.

2009-12-12T23:46:00.004-05:00

"William V." Start practicing saying it?

2009-11-30T13:07:00.000-05:00

That reminds me -- today is the first day of the Novena of the Immaculate Conception. Let's pray to Our Lady for many favors needed, including the conversion of the Muslims.

2009-11-30T12:59:00.004-05:00

Switzerland Defends Ban on Mosque Minarets.

Wtf is the fuss? Height restrictions are one of the most common forms of land-use regulation known to man.

No, this one is not religion-neutral -- but then, Switzerland doesn't have a First Amendment. On the contrary, it specifically designates each of its cantons "Protestant" (most of them) or "Catholic" (fewer, but man, they're really Catholic). None is designated "Muslim," which I guess in time will itself become defined as a human rights violation, but in the meantime, kwitcherbitchin.

More places in Europe -- especially Rome, ahem ahem -- should have done this long ago.

2009-11-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

Pager Messages Sent During WTC Attacks Posted Online

2009-11-24T00:11:00.001-05:00

Headline Win, from Catholic News Agency: Pope and Anglican Primate meet for 20 minutes, say dialogue will continue

2009-11-23T22:37:00.002-05:00

Elsewhere in the Journal, the indispensible Reuel Marc Gerecht writes:

A concern for not giving offense to Muslims would never prevent the French internal-security service, the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST), which deploys a large number of Muslim officers, from aggressively trying to pre-empt terrorism. As Maj. Hasan's case shows, this is not true in the United States. The American military and especially the Federal Bureau of Investigation were in great part inattentive because they were too sensitive.

The rest

2009-11-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

Top Wall Street Journal headline today: Health Haggling Heats Up. Murdoch much?

2009-11-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

'Obama Pride' Official Starts 'Church Outing' Website to Expose (or Smear) Catholic Priests

The Church in D.C. has opposed the legalization of same-sex "marriage" there, you see, so it's drawn down the wrath.

2009-11-21T19:53:00.002-05:00

Russian Priest Gunned Down in Church

A Russian Orthodox priest known for his missionary work among Muslims was gunned down in his Moscow church, Russian officials said Friday.

People attend a memorial service for the Rev. Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest, in St. Thomas Church in south Moscow, where Sysoyev was shot and killed.

Thirty-four-year-old Daniil Sysoyev was shot at least four times at in the head and chest in the Church of St. Thomas by a masked gunman Thursday night, according to the Prosecutor General's Investigative Committee. The assailant also wounded the church's choirmaster, Vladimir Strelbitsky.

Sysoyev died on the way to the hospital. Strelbitsky is in critical condition.

"The main theory is that religious motives are behind the crime," a prosecutor's office spokesman told reporters.

Sysoyev routinely denounced Islam and actively reached out to Muslims and various religious sects to convert them. In a recent interview with a Russian newspaper, Sysoyev boasted that he had baptized 80 Muslims....

2009-11-15T23:44:00.001-05:00

Miley Cyrus slips "you're gay:" does she deserve a break? I don't know. Are you gay?

2009-11-12T11:51:00.000-05:00

When a group of key officials gathered in the spring of 2008 for their monthly meeting in a Bethesda, Md., office, one of the leading — and most perplexing — items on their agenda was: What should we do about Hasan?…

2009-11-06T23:15:00.001-05:00

Fort Hood's 9/11

By RALPH PETERS

Last Updated: 2:50 PM, November 6, 2009

Posted: 1:36 PM, November 6, 2009

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting "Allahu Akbar!" committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.

What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.

This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.

When the terrorist posts anti-American hate-speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as "Palestinian" in a Muslim spouse-matching program, and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit — well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an "Islamist terrorist."

But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as "Islamist terrorism" in ObamaWorld.

And the Army won’t. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political correctness that pandering to America-haters is safer than calling terrorism "terrorism."

And the media won’t. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our troops — despite their crocodile tears.

Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan planned this terrorist attack and executed it in cold blood. The resulting massacre was the first tragedy. The second was that he wasn’t killed on the spot.

Hasan survived. Now the rest of us will have to foot his massive medical bills. Activist lawyers will get involved, claiming "harassment" drove him temporarily insane. There’ll be no end of trial delays. At best, taxpayer dollars will fund his prison lifestyle for decades to come, since our politically correct Army leadership wouldn’t dare pursue or carry out the death penalty.

Maj. Hasan will be a hero to Islamist terrorists abroad and their sympathizers here. While US Muslim organizations decry his acts publicly, Hasan will be praised privately. And he’ll have the last laugh.

But Hasan isn’t the sole guilty party. The US Army’s unforgivable political correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Ft. Hood.

Given the myriad warning signs, it’s appalling that no action was taken against a man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy. But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or at Ft. Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor.

Had Hasan been a Lutheran or a Methodist, he would’ve been gone with the simoon. But officers fear charges of discrimination when faced with misconduct among protected minorities.

Now 12 soldiers and a security guard lie dead. 31 soldiers were wounded, 28 of them seriously. If heads don’t roll in this maggot’s chain of command, the Army will have shamed itself beyond moral redemption.

There’s another important issue, too. How could the Army allow an obviously incompetent and dysfunctional psychiatrist to treat our troubled soldiers returning from war? An Islamist whacko is counseled for arguing with veterans who’ve been assigned to his care? And he’s not removed from duty? What planet does the Army live on?

For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I’m ashamed of its dereliction of duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him.

Get ready for the apologias. We’ve already heard from the terrorist’s family that "he’s a good American." In their world, maybe he is.

But when do we, the American public, knock off the PC nonsense?

A disgruntled Muslim soldier murdered his officers way back in 2003, in Kuwait, on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Recently? An American mullah shoots it out with the feds in Detroit. A Muslim fanatic attacks an Arkansas recruiting station. A Muslim media owner, after playing the peace card, beheads his wife. A Muslim father runs over his daughter because she’s becoming too Westernized.

Muslim terrorist wannabes are busted again and again. And we’re assured that "Islam’s a religion of peace."

I guarantee you that the Obama administration’s non-response to the Ft. Hood attack will mock the memory of our dead.

--------

The above was written by Col. Ralph Peters, USA Ret., for the New York, which holds the copyright thereto.

2009-11-06T13:28:00.004-05:00

OK, I wasn't going to say anything about the name and/or religion of the principal Fort Hood shooter. I might have pointed out that these appear to have been coordinated shootings, which is not what typically happens in a "he just snapped" situation, which tend to be solo performances. But nope, I wasn't going to say anything about the main gunman being a Muslim.

Until this, from UK's The Independent:

Army spokesman Lieutenant General Bob Cone said witnesses heard Major Nidal Malik Hasan cry "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - before opening fire at the Fort Hood complex.

EDITED TO ADD: Newsmax (credible? You tell me) adds:

His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

2009-11-01T00:05:00.001-04:00

Influenza cure (via tasteful blog An Affordable Wardrobe)

2009-10-31T21:40:00.002-04:00

"Right Wins a Battle": Up in NY's far-north 23rd Congressional District, left vacant by long-time pro-life Republican James McHugh's agreement to become Secretary of the Army, and where local Republicans chose left-0f-Obama state Senator Dede Scozzafava as the GOP candidate to fill the seat in a special election next week, some dramatic news: it appears that Scozzafava has now dropped out, leaving the way clear for regular Republican voters to support Doug Hoffman, who was already mounting a strong campaign on the Conservative Party line.

2009-10-27T17:04:00.005-04:00

Cardinal Peter Turkson, Bishop of Ghana

Phil Lawler says "Cardinal Turkson: one to watch." In the good sense, that is. (I mean, Cardinal Kasper is "one to watch" too -- with a listening device and a butterfly net.) And John Allen says "Ghanaian cardinal destined to be an ecclesiastical star."

God grant Pope Benedict many years -- fifteen more wouldn't be too much to ask -- but a Next Pope is gonna happen sometime, and it may as well be a dynamically orthodox African! (And no, Arinze is way too old, and besides, while he was for counter-reforming the O.F., I don't get the impression he ever gave two hoots about the E.F.)

2009-10-27T15:21:00.003-04:00

An American Eastern Orthodox writer objects to the current Ecumenical Patriarch's equivocal stance on abortion. "Equivocal" is the charitable way to put it; "pro-choice" might be more accurate.

2009-10-26T21:36:00.002-04:00

see more Epic Fails

2009-10-21T17:40:00.005-04:00

Vatican in Bold Bid to Attract Anglicans!

Ignatius Insight explains the "personal ordinariate" concept. Apparently this will be "like the military vicariates" (and therefore not -- in case anyone was wondering -- the second personal prelature).

Commentary: Fr. Dwight Longenecker (ex-Ang); Damien Thompson, of The Daily Telegraph: Pope Opens Gates of Rome to Disaffected Anglicans; The Times (London): Anglican clergy in London and Yorkshire queuing up. John Allen catches Cardinal Kasper saying, pre-announcement, "We are not fishing in the Anglican lake." Nice being in the loop, isn't it, Friendly Ghost? The "bishop" of something called ANiC (Anglican Network in Canada; no, I haven't heard of it either) says: "I need not become a Roman Catholic to be a Catholic Christian. As an Anglican, I am a Catholic Christian." And I'm a tree; have fun. Fr. Z. posts, and comments on, the estimable ex-Anglican Fr. Rutler's commentary.

Robert Moynihan, fellow Yale grad student and indefatigable Inside the Vatican editor, explains it all, tempting your appetite with:

Rome is hoping to reunite with all those elements of the Anglican Church which still feel a deep connection with Rome and with the Catholic faith -- and is willing to take considerable pains to make those Anglicans feel comfortable when they "come over to Rome."
That is what is happening.
And quite a few people don't want that to happen....

And finally, an editorial page writer in Kansas City:

Seems as though it may be just as likely that the move to pack the Catholic church with even more conservatives just might send more liberal members of the flock looking for the nearest Episcopal sanctuary.

Ya think?

2009-10-14T21:02:00.002-04:00

Latest SSPX non-news: iPope still iNtransigent. I still say the Holy Father is way too patient with these people (though obviously some of the fruits of the effort have been worthwhile, Summorum Pontificium-wise). Wake me whenever.

2009-10-14T20:54:00.002-04:00

CAIR (you know who they are) placing interns to spy in Hill offices?

2009-10-13T17:58:00.001-04:00

Notre Dame student-activity fund dispenses $$ for students to participate in DC gay rights march. "They haven't always been supportive of us in the past, but we're thrilled."

2009-10-08T11:23:00.001-04:00

Phantom sequel? I'm not optimistic. Please, Lord L.W., prove me wrong. (And please, Your Majesty, ixnay these life peerages for figures from the entertainment world: knighthoods are quite enough, and "Sir Andrew" was much more fitting that "Lord Lloyd Webber.")

2009-09-11T00:16:00.001-04:00

Forgetting? I'm not forgetting. You forgetting?

2009-09-09T23:15:00.002-04:00

Oh great: now Bible-carriers and trinitarian believers get added to the terrorist profile....

2009-09-05T19:50:00.001-04:00

Also on Sept. 25 (see post immediately infra): Alasdair MacIntyre will lecture at CUA on the topic "Ends and Endings."

2009-09-05T17:52:00.002-04:00

Gregorian "chant camp" (as we say in my family) at the JPII Center in Washington. Suitable for beginners. Closing event is Solemn High Mass, Extraordinary Form, with chant, celebrated by Fr. McAfee. $110. Registration deadline is Sept. 14.

Sponsoring organization is the Church Music Association of America, which also offers plainsong settings for the New ICEL translation of the Mass ordinary.

2009-08-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

Upcoming changes in the English version of the Ordinary Form -- almost too good to be true...!

2009-08-19T10:46:00.003-04:00

Daniel Hannan, MEP, rising Conservative (UK) star so outspoken, he sometimes annoys party leader and presumptive next PM David Cameron, writes from summer holiday: The Middle Ages were far from dark. Eh now, Cacciaguida, he always say....

2009-08-18T12:51:00.004-04:00

Robert Novak, 1931-2009

Hard-hitting conservative reporter and columnist, also Catholic convert.

2009-08-13T17:31:00.001-04:00

Netherlands: Minister for Youth and Families attends pro-life/pro-marriage/pro-natalist conference; gets slammed for "legitimizing" a "right-wing religious gathering."

Is there any gratitude? Then Rouvoet for EU President, if we have to have one.

2009-08-12T13:12:00.001-04:00

Santorum dips toes in 2012 Iowa waters

Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates.

POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before the sort of conservative activists who dominate the state GOP’s key presidential caucuses....

2009-07-08T21:02:00.004-04:00

Media are overplaying the "Holocaust denial flap" angle, naturally -- but it is one of the angles to the story, and, on the whole, I think it's a good idea to bring the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as the Holy Father has now done.

For one thing, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, though a devoted and energetic friend of the re-mainstreaming of the Extraordinary Form, was also a little bit like a 13-year-old boy with a laser-blaster. More than once he articulated the status of SSPX-adherents as more legit than it actually is, and if he wasn't actually responsible for the under-vetted action in re Williamson (the fact that no one in the Curia of the rank of archbishop or higher is aware of Google, or else thinks it's a number, probably had more to do with it), he sure didn't do backflips of regret over it.

Also he's 80. Five years past retirement age.

The CDF under Cardinal Levada has been doing a good job (contrary to some people's fears when this, Pope Benedict's first appointment, was made). Time to let CDF supervise PCED.

2009-07-06T01:38:00.002-04:00

USA Today says: Top Republicans puzzled by Palin's abrupt resignation.

You know somethng? Top Republicans puzzle easily.

Besides that, the article simply doesn't back up its hedder. It devotes its second and third grafs to Sen. Chuck Grassley -- who has been puzzling top Republicans since he first took his Senate seat in 1979. After that, it cites various Republicans who are backing Palin up and seeking her out as a campaigner.

Only at the end does the piece find three Republicans whom it can quote as something other than Palin backers. Only one of them -- Karl Rove -- is credible, as speaking from a detached point of view (he hasn't been hired by any other candidate yet, has he?) The other two are Mike Huckabee, Palin's obvious bitter rival for the Evangelical vote, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a scratch-your-eyes-out Palin-hater ever since Palin beat Murkowski's daddy in a gubernatorial primary.

But of course, we sophisticates all know to laugh when Sarah blames the media....

2009-06-24T15:59:00.002-04:00

Great Catholic conspiracies maybe you missed, from Shrine of the Holy Whapping:

I've always had a soft spot for tacky Church consiracy novels, what I call "Cathsploitation." For once, the Church gets to be secretive, majestic, powerful, arcane, and something other than felt banners and Marty Haugen....

And so on, proceeding to a list of suggested overlooked conspiracies. Highly recommended!

2009-06-23T00:37:00.004-04:00

These Eastern Orthodox, man -- there's no talking to them. All I did was say to this one Oriental Schismatic priest online -- and he was, like, totally patronizing me: assuming, since I had been writing candidly about weaknesses I perceived on my own side as well on his, that what I wanted most in the world was for some kindly O.S. priest with a twelve-foot beard to take me under his wing and explain the "problems" with the Filioque to me. He even suggested the Church should change its creed -- "again"!

Well I mean really. All I did was point out that we don't change our creeds to suit factious sectaries animated by the schismatic spirit of Photius and Cerularius -- we don't, right? -- and they start going all Rikios Rikardos on me! What can you do with such people?!

A few months ago I asked my spiritual director: who's doing for Eastern Orthodoxy what Catholic Answers, Envoy, et al are doing for Protestant Fundamentalism? He said -- no one is, b/c we're cultivating good relations with the E.Os.

That won't do. Yes, I know there are high-level ecumenical talks and events, and even the occasional minor breakthrough. But at street level, Easterners -- many of whom are Protestant Fundamentists, only now they've got a few icons in their pockets (seriously: an ex-Prot E.O. I once met, a blazing anti-Catholic bigot, told me he liked Orthodoxy b/c it's "Fundamentalism with pictures") -- are out there sheep-stealing just as hard as Jack Chick, Christians Evangelizing Catholics, and all the other folks that Karl Keating et al, God bless them, have done so much to teach us about and arm us against.

So we need an Eastern-directed Catholic Answers. "Envoy to Constantinople." "Focus on the Photius." "Sail Beyond the Sunset." "When You Care Enough to Send the Very West." "1204 'n' More." I don't now, you pick the name. But somebody's got to do it.

2009-06-22T00:23:00.002-04:00

DOJ seeks to dismiss Geronimo descendants' lawsuit against Yale

...even though, as the article notes, Skull and Bones (which allegedly filched some of G's remains to decorate its clubhouse) is "not affiliated with the university."

Now that's interesting. The Pythagorean Brotherhood is no more "affiliated with the university" than Skull & Bones is, yet somehow, if we had bits of a dead Indian lying around (not to mention dung or the M4 Motorway), I don't think either Yale or the U.S. government would be as solicitous.

Ah, but that is because we've had just a few decades less in which to infiltrate Yale and the U.S. government....

2009-06-18T20:00:00.005-04:00

Vatican: Lefebvrists Exercise No "Legitimate Ministry." (Link now fixed. Also permalinked in margin as "SSPX suxx.")

2009-06-18T17:56:00.004-04:00

WSJ announces: Barbarians in Bankruptcy Court. As an old medievalist, this really got me thinking.

Svend the Spent
Skald the Skint
Attila the Munny
Broke Burgundians
Alemanni outta money
Clovis, King without Francs
Visa-Goths
Hedge funds? No, hedge rows
No-mun invasion
Magyar-card
Citicorpinopolis
GMosticism
Viking Voyage Investments
Too-Late Antiquity
Bankrupcy Code of Justinian
All Rhine, no rhino

2009-06-11T16:42:00.001-04:00

Jesuit University of San Francisco President Defends Condom Use for Virus Prevention Yep, during flu season just place securely over nose and mouth and breathe normally....

2009-06-10T22:56:00.003-04:00

Palin versus Letterman

One of the few things our sick society is still appropriately uptight about is sex across the age line (currently set at 18), and even jokes about same.

Now, there's plenty of room to ask whether Letterman was over the line or not when he made that off-color Alex Rodriguez joke involving the Palin daughter whom he may have thought was 18-year-old single mom Bristol. Turns out, though, it was actually 14-year-old very-much-non-mom Willow.

Oops.

No Number Three: Writer sending out resumes. But what about Dave?

2009-06-10T13:08:00.002-04:00

SkyNews: French security agency links radical Muslim names to AF447

CounterterrorismBlog: Hack-jet: airborne cyberterrorism in a networked world?

A systemic software corruption may account for the mysterious absence of a Mayday call - the communications system may have been offline. Designing airport and aviation security to keep lethal code off civilian aircraft would in the short-term, be beyond any government civil security regime.

2009-06-08T00:04:00.002-04:00

UK Europe elections:

Good news: Labour Party humiliated, place third in popular vote behind Conservaties -- and anti-EU fringe party UKIP.

Bad news: even fringier, racist BNP picks up one, maybe two EU Parliament seats. Voter turnout is low. Apathy is dangerous, as anti-BNP Tweaters are pointing out.

As John Redwood points out: when British voters can focus on the Euro-federalism issue (and, one must add, can be motivated to vote), they vote overwhelmingly against further rule from Brussels.

2009-06-02T22:35:00.003-04:00

From London: imminent Cabinet re-shuffle, announced through embarrassing leaks.

But the only re-shuffle the electorate is interested in is one that moves Labour from "Government" over to "Opposition." Actually, even that might be stroke of luck for the Labour Party, as one recent poll has it trailing the Liberal Democrats.

Note that one suspected leakeuse is Hazel Blears, a Blairite widely thought to have been the model for Dolores Umbridge. (J.K. likes, and Hazel hates, Gordon Brown.)

2009-05-31T18:56:00.000-04:00

Tiller the Killer killed. NEMESIS.

2009-05-28T13:21:00.003-04:00

Robby George v. Doug Kmiec

At 5 p.m. this afternoon, American Papist will be liveblogging a debate between noted natural law champion Prof. Robert George and noted apostate Prof. Douglas Kmiec, moderated by Harvard Law prof, former U.S. Vatican Ambassador, and noted saint-in-the-making Mary Ann Glendon.

The topic is "The Obama Administration and the Sanctity of Human Life." Since there's no verb in there, I'll assume the implication is "Two great tastes that go great together," with Kmiec in the "aff" and George in the "neg."

2009-05-28T12:43:00.002-04:00

Here, a pro-abortion blogger endorses the Sotomayor nomination with reservations. But it's the comments that are really wild....

2009-05-26T12:46:00.001-04:00

Today's news, very briefly: North Korea detonates first Hispanic gay marriage.

Been busy; back with more soon.

2009-05-13T17:51:00.001-04:00

Queen's Trinity Cross honour deemed unlawful by Privy Council

An honour established by the Queen has been declared unlawful after Muslims and Hindus complained that its Christian name and cross insignia were offensive.

2009-05-03T11:01:00.002-04:00

JACK KEMP, 1935-2009. Footballer, congressman, pro-lifer, tax-cutter, idea-politician, presidential hopeful who achieved more than some presidents do.

2009-05-01T17:17:00.001-04:00

Gordon Brown has lost it, say ministers

2009-05-01T17:10:00.002-04:00

Specter: I did warn you. (Ignore Emperor and scroll down to April 22, 2004.) Well, Pat Toomey's on the move again....

2009-04-27T13:27:00.001-04:00

GLENDON!

2009-04-21T11:25:00.002-04:00

New Archbishop of St. Louis is Robert J. Carlson, who did so much as Bp. of Saginaw to clean up after the egregious (modern sense, not the sense in which the e.f. liturgy calls today's saint, Anselm, "doctor egregius") "Ken" Untener.

Pope Benedict's bishop-picking operation continues to prove more of a science and less of an art!

2009-04-15T22:06:00.002-04:00

The Economist on England's Archbishop Nichols: Time for Bruiser

2009-04-15T14:32:00.002-04:00

In New York, Archbisop Dolan installed today. From the New York Post:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan today promised to oppose Gov. Paterson's same-sex marriage [bill], just one day before it will hit the floor of the Legislature.
"You can bet I would be active and present and, I hope, articulate in this particular position," Dolan told reporters.

The question - one of many the new archbishop took from reporters at his first news conference in Midtown - came as state lawmakers prepared to begin debating the controversial issue.

Paterson to Push Gay Marriage Bill

"The topic you raise - other topics that are controversial that the church has a message to give - you'll find that I don't shy away from those things and I wouldn't sidestep them," said Dolan.

The new archbishop - who will be installed during a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral later today that will feature Mayor Bloomberg - spoke of the need for the church to embrace immigrants and to continue the process of reform that began after the sexual-abuse scandals that rocked the church a few years ago.

"The most sacred responsibility that a bishop has is to pass on the faith that remains changeless and has for 2,000 years," he said. "So in substance, in the quality, no, I couldn't change things if I wanted, because they're not mine to change."

2009-04-13T18:13:00.002-04:00

Vatican diplomats have quietly blocked several proposed U.S. ambassadors to the Holy See with pro-abort views, the latest being Caroline Kennedy.

First a Senate appointment, now this. There's a show-biz expression for the fix Caroline is in: she "can't get arrested."

2009-04-13T17:08:00.003-04:00

Pirates Killed, Captain Saved -- w00t!!

There is a tradition received from Roman law into the early modern yet Christian-influenced tradition of Grotuis and Vattel, a tradition towards which we should only with the greatest caution indulge a sense of superiority, that regarded pirates -- because of the self-expulsion from the civilized human community that knows the rule of law -- as latrunculi (a contemptuous diminutive of "thieves"), hostis humani generis (enemies of the human race), and eligible for summary execution.

The sagacious Prof. Mackubin Owens explains here.

2009-04-12T23:03:00.001-04:00

From Pope Easter homily:

The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his "Passover", his "passage", that has opened a "new way" between heaven and earth (cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb....

"...it is the answer to the recurring question of the sceptics, that we also find in the book of Ecclesiastes: "Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’?" (Ec 1:10). We answer, yes: on Easter morning, everything was renewed. "Mors et vita, duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus – Death and life have come face to face in a tremendous duel: the Lord of life was dead, but now he lives triumphant." This is what is new! A newness that changes the lives of those who accept it, as in the case of the saints....

2009-04-08T14:34:00.000-04:00

"Twitter in Hell"

The exercise “Twitter in Hell” was handed to some lucky seniors at University Laboratory High School at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, after reading the classic tome. Their mission? To write 140-character tweets describing each level in hell as if they were Dante writing to his beloved Beatrice.

2009-04-08T11:46:00.002-04:00

Consciensce clause issue

A website that helps you participate in the notice-and-comment process on Obama's rescission of the conscience clause protecting the rights of pro-life medical professionals: http://www.adoctorsright.com/.

Deadline for comments is tomorrow (April 9). The site sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, and kudos to them for it.

2009-04-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

Toomey vs. Specter: the saga continues

2009-04-04T17:22:00.003-04:00

Archbishop Vincent Nichols will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, UK. Damian Thompson, the Daily Torygraph's Catholic blogger and in-house Tridhead, who is hard to please, is for the most part -- quite pleased. The worst choice would have been Bishop Arthur Roche (as Damian made clear when he posted, mere days ago, that he thought Roche had it in the bag). The best would have been the other Nichols, Fr. Adrian Nichols, OP, but -- dream on.

As Thompson cogently remarks of V. Nichols in the comment section: "[T]he people who have wrecked the Church in this country [i.e. Britain] didn't want him to get the job."

P.S. (1) I am not Damian Thompson. If I had my own blog at The Daily Telegraph, would I write this? (2) I don't think whatever Damian Thompson tells me to think. I just find that I never disagree with him, and that he says things the way I wish I had said them. (Anglo just called: it wants its philia back.)

2009-04-01T17:16:00.001-04:00

Compared to W, new Prez's press operation is unprofessional and addicted to secrecy. Thanks to them, American TV viewers saw a day-full of violent protestors in London, instead of a day-full of a U.S. President doing presidential stuff. (Ida know, maybe that's political gold....)

2009-03-31T10:59:00.001-04:00

Vatican press spokesman to resign following PR disasters, say reports

No shit, Sherlock.

2009-03-31T10:50:00.000-04:00

Anglican creed -- heh!

2009-03-30T18:34:00.001-04:00

Christian Science Monitor op-ed: The Coming Evangelical Collapse. Of note:

Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

2009-03-30T13:40:00.001-04:00

Mets' new Citi Field makes debut, hosting college game. Note external resemblance to Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field. Mets are the new Dodgers. Always were.

2009-03-26T14:22:00.001-04:00

Gingrich to be received into Church at Easter. Previous marriages? Archdiocese of Washington spokeswoman says Gingrich is "in proper standing with the Catholic Church" and "any obstacles to joining the Church have been resolved."

2009-03-20T14:50:00.001-04:00

From an interview with the author of Stuff White People Like:

Q. What does going to law school represent?
A. It's what you do when you finish with your liberal arts degree, and you start to panic about realizing that the careers available for someone who knows a lot about Proust are very limited, and you realize that you still want money.

2009-03-20T13:12:00.003-04:00

Sorry I didn't post about the Feast of St. Joseph. I was on the road, celebrating the Feast of St. Joseph.

All right now:

Q. Could anything make me think the Pope is wrong about condoms and Africa?
A. How about if Harvard says he's right?

Seriously, folks -- via K-Lo at NRO: Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, says “The pope is correct, or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments."

2009-03-18T14:23:00.002-04:00

Times of London:

My imam father came after me with an axe: Hannah Shah had been raped by her father and faced a forced marriage. She fled, became a Christian and now fears for her life

We are all too familiar with the persecution of Christians in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet sitting in front of me is a British woman whose life has been threatened in this country solely because she is a Christian....

And this in England.