Cacciaguida

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

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


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

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

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

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

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

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

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


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Monday, February 23, 2009
 
New Archbishop of New York is present Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Dolan was sent into Milwaukee to clean up after Rembert Weakland when the latter was as close to fired as a bishop can get. As I recall, Dolan's record in Milwaukee, though not a 100% turnaround, has been good.

The Catholic League has sent out a press release of delight.

John Allen's typically informative one-hand-other-hand piece is here.

I just watched Dolan's press conference, and he handles the media brilliantly. Asked about declining numbers of faithful in the Church (allow me to piece this together fresh from memory), he replied:
Well, we bishops do have to be realistic about that. I don't know if you saw the recent Pew study -- all religions, not just the Catholic Church. But yes, we have to be realistic. Now, there's also growth, thanks be to God; the Cardinal was telling me about the RCIA programs, the new parishes, the new schools that have to be built here in the Archdiocese. But yes, there are problems, and there have been -- it's the Church historian in me -- there've been problems going back to the age of the Acts of the Apostles, since right after Our Lord went back to rejoin His Heavenly Father. It's something all bishops are concerned about.
Sounds like his mind runs on the right track.

Now, then -- a vacancy in Milwaukee. Say, isn't that where Bruskewitz is from, before he was made a bishop and sent to Lincoln, NE? Who better to complete the post-Weakland turnaround? As for Lincoln, surely one of its own senior priests is ready to take over as bishop?




Sunday, February 22, 2009
 
Heath wins!




Thursday, February 19, 2009
 
GM eliminating brands

New nameplates for GM:

Cadiac
Bel-Out (anyone remember the Chevy Bel-Air?)
Vlad the Impala
Pluto (Saturn's not a car any more)
Sob
Bummer
Ruick
Algorado
Obamsmobile
Pelosiac




Saturday, February 14, 2009
 
Foucault's Spendulus passes with "buy American" clauses intact -- trade war looms -- get ready for recession to become depression.




Monday, February 09, 2009
 
Exception to Anti-NYT Rule Day: I must say, they've done a rather good article on the resurgence of indulgences. Given numerous opportunities to misunderstand the issue and pass along its misunderstanding to its readers, as it usually does in Catholic matters, the Times here takes very few of them. Read this:
“Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world.”

Like the Latin Mass and meatless Fridays, the indulgence was one of the traditions decoupled from mainstream Catholic practice in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, the gathering of bishops that set a new tone of simplicity and informality for the church. Its revival has been viewed as part of a conservative resurgence that has brought some quiet changes and some highly controversial ones, like Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decision to lift the excommunications of four schismatic bishops who reject the council’s reforms."
Decoupled from mainstream Catholic practice" -- that's a good periphrasis for the more predictable, and utterly inaccurate, "suppressed." Also, the whole article gives a nice sense of "the old stuff's comin' back, and despite bumps in the road, there's nothin' you can do about it."

I also note that the Archdiocese of Manhattan's only indulgence church just happens to be the parish church of the Metropolitan Opera! (St. Paul's also has fantastic cathedral-like acoustics, for which reason it has often been chosen as recording site for medieval music groups.)




Sunday, February 08, 2009
 
Williamson sacked as seminary rector -- maybe.




Tuesday, February 03, 2009
 
The case of Angela Merkel, via Rome's Il Giornale:

MERKEL: Pope needs to clarify.
VATICAN: He already has.
CACCIAGUIDA (actually, this bit is not in Il Giornale): Mme. Bundeskanzler, for at least 23 years during the incumbency of the criminal East German Communist regime, while it was Lives-of-Others-ing away, you were happily studying physics and enjoying the patronage of that state. So please go make sauermagen with your morality lessons. Oh and do lose the election, so that when we once again have a guy as Bundeskanzler, I can tell him what I really think when he mouths off at the Pope. Gutdankwiedsehn.




 
Williamson back-pedals a teeny, tiny bit, on his own blog. Yes, he has one. You'll get no link to it from me, on principle, but the operative text of his post reads:
Amidst this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks of mine on Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is properly respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself and to the Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems.

For me, all that matters is the Truth Incarnate, and the interests of His one true Church, through which alone we can save our souls and give eternal glory, in our little way, to Almighty God. So I have only one comment, from the prophet Jonas, I, 12:

"Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."
Interesting, the way he deploys the Jonah text. If I were the Holy Father I would totally take him up on it. Save the whales -- feed them rad-trad sushi!




 
RS McCain on the fall of Culture11. Heh.




 
Cardinal O'Malley explains what the Holy Father is doing re the SSPX bishops. Follow the link to his blog by all means, but this one is good enough, and important enough, for me to republish whole. I hope Cardinal O'Malley won't mind: I think he rather hopes it will get around.
Hello to you all!

The Vatican announced this week that the Holy Father has lifted the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. I was pleased with the news which shows, once again, the Holy Father’s concern for unity and reconciliation in the Church.

In 1988 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was critical of some elements of the Second Vatican Council, ordained four bishops without the approval of the Holy Father, incurring in automatic excommunication on himself and the four bishops he ordained.

This action follows the publication of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum a year and a half ago, in which the Holy Father lifted previous restrictions on the celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Missal, commonly known as the Tridentine Mass.

Just before the publication of the Apostolic Letter, I was privileged to be a part of a meeting of cardinals and bishops with the Holy Father in which he expressed his hope that his action would help convince those disaffected Catholics to return to full union with the Catholic Church.

So, his outreach to the communities who follow these bishops is just one more manifestation of his ardent desire to bring these people (which some estimate to be as many as 1.5 million) back into the fold. We know that these are generally people who practice their faith and try to live a Christian life seriously but, unfortunately, I believe that they have been misled by their leadership.

Of course, lifting the excommunications was a first step; it does not regularize these bishops or the Society of St. Pius X, but it opens the way for a dialogue. This step was in response to a letter in which they professed their desire for full participation in the life of the Church.

It was tragic that one of the four bishops, Bishop Richard Williamson, had made outrageous statements about the Holocaust and about the September 11 attacks on the United States. It certainly raises questions as to the caliber of the leadership that the Society has. Additionally, as terrible as the comments were, it underscores the importance for the Holy Father to have increasing influence over those communities.

We are very sorry that the people in the Jewish community have been so pained and outraged by Bishop Williamson’s statements. I think the Holy Father’s statements and those of Cardinal Walter Kasper, chairman of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, have been very clear to dissociate the Catholic Church from those kinds of sentiments. I was pleased that the head of the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, also repudiated the statements of Bishop Williamson.

It is very important for us to always remember the Holocaust so that such an atrocity could never take place again. I recall the words of the Holy Father this week: “May the Shoah be for everyone an admonition against oblivion, negation and reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all.”





Monday, February 02, 2009
 
Personal prelature for traditional Anglicans? Sorry, old boy, won't work.