The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq. Mgr Paulos Faraj Rahho, was kidnapped while leaving a Church after he finished leading the Stations of the Cross. Three men who were with him in the car, including the driver, were killed.
Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, urgently asks our prayers for the Archbishop's safety.
See CWN: Kidnappers take Iraqi archbishop, kill his three companions
More evidence of the Pope John Paul generation and the Benedict effect in the Church. At the end of August, there is to be a week long summer camp with talks on the faith especially for those who feel that they have not received proper catechesis during their youth and want some catechesis "with a little more kick". The camp also includes Mass (including the TLM), divine office and exposition.
Now, you might think this is nothing unusual - these things happen all over the place nowadays. But this one is in Holland! I have been invited to go and give one of the talks and I am looking forward to being a part of this most heartening development.
See Puella Paschalis: Bootcamp
Following last year's success, the Latin Mass Society is putting on a residential training conference for priests wishing to learn the Traditional Latin Rite at Merton College, Oxford, Monday 28 July to Friday 1 August 2008. This year's conference has an extra day to allow more time for practical training.
Many priests I spoke to last year spoke of their appreciation for the opportunity to meet other priests from around the country and spend time together at a conference focussing on the Holy Mass which is at the heart of our priestly life.
The LMS offers this list of the main features of this year’s conference:
“The LMS’s aim is to ensure that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is freely available in all the dioceses. To this end we will step up our training of priests, seminarians, choirs and servers. We will liaise closely with the bishops and seminary rectors to ensure that all who wish to learn and worship in the Traditional Rite are able to do so.”For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or James Murphy, LMS Office Manager, on 020 7404 7284; or email thelatinmasssociety@snmail.co.uk
My brother-in-law, Orlando, husband of Jane, of the now famous "Jane's Notes" over at Catholic Mom of 10, is working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He is one of 2000 physicists from all over the world who are working on this project. When it is built, they will send protons through the proton synchrotron booster, then into the proton synchrotron itself and finally into the super proton synchrotron before being whipped into the main accelerator for their sixteen and a half mile journey (which will take them about 90 microseconds.) At the end of this, they smash into each other with a great deal of force. The experiment is A Large Ion Collider Experiment or ALICE for short. There is some souvenir merchandise - I got the calendar last year and an engraved bookmark this year.
The hope is that when these particles collide, the result will give evidence of the Higgs boson, and possibly other novel particles such as strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and supersymmetric particles.
If you are wondering what use all this is, do bear in mind that some years ago, the team needed a way of sending stuff around to different universities, regardless of what operating system people were using. So they just invented the world wide web over coffee one morning. That is a slight exaggeration but only slight. The World Wide Web is a spin-off from this work.
We do not know what practical benefits will flow from this research. Thank God pure research can still be done and especially thank God that it is not governed by the pragmatic concerns of the English. Actually, we don't always get the pragmatism right, either. As Charles Babbage, the far-sighted inventor of the Difference Engine, a 19th century forerunner of the computer once said:
Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.(Physicists of the world - apologies if I have got anything wrong in the above. It is a while since I did Physics A-level.)
This Press Release put out today by mediawatch-uk
Fr John Boyle has returned from a few days away in Solesmes. On his post Snaps of Solesmes, he has some great photos of the Abbey. This photo shows the Rue Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Yesterday, Zenit carried an interview with Matthew Hanley headed AIDS in Africa: abstinence works. Matthew Hanley is the technical advisor for Catholic Relief Services, the international relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the US. He says:
When we conducted training recently with five dioceses in Ethiopia, one of the participants, a wife and a mother, spoke for the group by saying how much she appreciated the emphasis on fidelity and related human values such as respect and communication. She was puzzled as to why such basic themes are not more routinely promoted in the context of HIV prevention, adding: "Why hasn't anyone explained it like this before?"He has some interesting figures:
[...] researchers have noted that in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV transmission rates have remained high despite a considerable increase in condom use. For example, condom sales in Botswana increased from 1 million in 1993 to 3 million in 2001, while HIV prevalence among pregnant urban women increased from 27% to 45%. In Cameroon, during the same period, condom sales rose from 6 million to 15 million, while HIV prevalence increased from 3% to 9%.And just one more quotation:
Since the primary approach of condoms, voluntary counseling and testing and treatment of other sexually transmitted infections, has not produced the intended results, in terms of achieving reductions in HIV prevalence, it would be difficult to avoid concluding that these interventions maintain their privileged position not because of empirically observed scientific excellence, but at least in part because of the desire of their proponents to cling to an underlying vision of the human person, freedom and sexuality.See also his article Battling the AIDS Pandemic.
Yet it is the Church that is routinely characterized as being opposed to science, or "dogmatic."
China's "Population Control Minister" (shouldn't that title itself put you on your guard just a little?) has been reported as indicating that China might scrap its one child policy. Since his actual comments said nothing of the sort, the spin doctors must have been working hard. See Anthony Ozimic's comments: One-child policy misinformation being planted in Western media. See also John Smeaton's post today on one-child policy propaganda.
As the late Dr John S. Aird, former senior China specialist at the U.S. Bureau for the Census (a world expert on China's one-child policy), said five years ago:
"The Chinese family planning authorities are continuing their old trick of talking tough to their own people while giving a gentle image to the gullible foreigners. It is a clumsy, transparently obvious trick, but it still works as it has in the past. That is why the Chinese authorities still use it! When will the foreigners wise up?"
For a reminder of the sensitive way that the Chinese communist authorities have promoted the one child policy, see my post from last year: Your home will be destroyed and your cows taken away if you don't abort. Other wall writing included "Better blood flowing like a river than one extra birth." and "One excess birth, whole village sterilized!"
I received details by email of an International Liturgical Conference with the title “Benedict XVI and The Sacred Liturgy” to be held on Saturday 12 July 2008 at Fota Island, about nine miles east of Cork City, Ireland. Speakers include Professor Manfred Hauke, Prof Vincent Twomey, Dr Alcuin Reid, and Dr Michael Lang.
There are some details at the NLM.
I have a wedding on that day. Let me choose my words carefully: this is most fortunate for the happy couple but unfortunate for me only in the particular respect of having to miss this excellent conference.
The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration have flourished in recent years, particularly through the inspiration of Mother Angelica, the founder of EWTN who was Abbess of the house in Birmingham, Alabama, from which a daughter house near Phoenix, Arizona, was founded.
Atonement online reports that permission has been granted for a new house in San Antonio, Texas. This will be associated with the parish of Our Lady of the Atonement, the largest Anglican-use parish in the US.
Jackie, Catholic Mom of 10, has posted my sister Jane's notes on Mr James Caffery's talk to parents on The Impact of Sex Education in Catholic Education. A retired headmaster, Mr Caffery offers wise and practical advice for parents and teachers.
Of your kindness, pray for the repose of the soul of Fra Bertie, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
I received the following news :
The Requiem Mass for HMEmH Fra Andrew Bertie has been put forward to 5.00 pm on 7 March, and will take place at the Church of San Alessio instead of the basilica of S. Paolo.
The "World's Women" are apparently descending upon Rome to stage demonstrations at each of the four great Roman Basilicas in favour of a woman's "right" to abort her unborn children. As this will cause chaos and the police cannot guarantee the safety of the Cardinals, Ambassadors, three Presidents (Italy, Austria and I think Slovenia), and royals attending it has been re-scheduled.
A couple of people asked where they could get Holy Water blessed as I described in the post "A surprise for Screwtape". It's very simple: get hold of a copy of the older ritual and ask your local priest. It will take him about five minutes. If that seems like a lot of trouble after Mass, you could perhaps invite the priest round to bless your house and ask him if he would bless some Holy Water in the old rite while he is there. Though it is normally blessed in the Church or in the Sacristy, it is quite valid to bless it in someone's home. While he is there, ask him to bless your children as well. There is a lovely blessing in the old ritual which I always use when blessing houses if children are present.
If you can't get hold of a copy of the ritual, you can download one from this page at Laudate Dominum. Go for the "Small Roman Ritual." It is a 659kb pdf file so the best thing is to right click and save it to your computer rather than try to open it in a browser window.
The Blessing of Holy Water is on pages 123-125 so you could just print those pages out. If the priest would like an English translation, you could cut and paste the text from Mulier Fortis: More about holy water. Blessing of infants is page 147-148 with English translation in parallel columns.
It is a while since I posted any "milestone" statistics. Today seems a worthwhile occasion. We reached half a million visitors at lunchtime. Here is the Site Meter log of visitor 500,000 who logged in from Strathclyde University.
Bloggers usually count visitors rather than "hits" since it is a more sensible statistic for a blog. For what it's worth, we will get to a million hits some time in March at the present rate.
Many thanks to all of you for your interest and encouragement. To think that I started this in a whimsical moment... :-0
John Smeaton has a sensible post commenting on David Cameron's foray into pro-life politics, supporting the idea of a time-limit proposal. (see abortion amendments at best a distraction).
It is important for both MPs and the public to be aware first of all of the appaling proposals in the HFE bill itself.
Last Sunday, the Mulier Fortis quite properly gave away the remains of our holy water to a lady who came with a large container. She then arranged things in the sacristy for the blessing of a new supply while the altar servers were all still there after the Latin Mass.
In this post Summorum Pontificum era, there is no longer any need for scruples about using the older form of the blessing. Mac has the translation at her post.
I wonder mischievously whether this holy water might cause a surprise to complacent demons. Having got reasonably used to the water blessed in the spirit of "let's remember salvation", it is amusing to think of the shock when a family take home and scatter around some exorcised salt 'n water mix over which has been invoked the name of "Him Who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire."
Run, Wormwood, RUN!
Damien Thompson has an interesting post on the lecture scheduled today as part of "Islamic Awareness Week" which supposedly recounts "The collapse of the evolutionary theory". The very muted reaction to this reflects a "kid gloves" approach to Islam that would certainly not be afforded a Christian group expressing the same views.
I agree with Damien's take on this and his impatience with pseudoscience. His website Counterknowledge is well worth a look.
As Catholics, we should remember that the natural sciences are a profoundly Catholic project, beginning in the High Middle Ages as a result of a Christian view of the world and prospering because of the Christian concern for truth, objectivity and the goodness of the natural world. As Fr Jaki and other explained, the natural sciences had a promising start in Islam but foundered because of a rejection of the importance of secondary causes.
Secularist relativism is also fatal for the natural sciences as we are beginning to see with the Government's interference in the science curriculum. See the excellent Civitas book "The Corruption of the Curriculum" for further information.
In the combox, Elizabeth told me of the excellent website Prenatal Partners for Life. this offers:
Support information & encouragement for carrying to term with an adverse prenatal diagnosis and support for raising your child with special needs after birthThere is a good video on the homepage "Down the Road of Bittersweet". I have emailed to ask if it is posted anywhere in a form that can be embedded here.
The Government is to undertake a review of sex and relationship education delivery. Here is the official announcement from the Department for Children, Schools and Families which also details the make-up of the "steering group."
The Brook and the FPA are represented, as is the Terence Higgins Trust, the Sex Education Forum, a school nurse manager, and the chair and three other members of the TPIAG. (TPIAG stands for Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group. The ten strong membership of this "independent" group which was "set up to advise the Government" includes the Chief Executive of Brook and the Chief Executive of the Family Planning Association.)
The cosmetic "balance" on the steering group is supplied by an Anglican minister and a Methodist minister, the Director of the Catholic Education Service, and an equalities advisor from Brighton who represents Muslim interests. Consultation with young people is an advertised feature of the review, to be achieved by including three members of the UK Youth Parliament.
There is, of course, no representation for any pro-life group, for Family and Youth Concern, or for any other pro-family group.
The Daily Mail has reported on this: Sex education could be made compulsory for five-year-olds. They at least had the sense to consult Norman Wells of Family and Youth Concern.
A correspondent kindly reminded me of Pope Benedict's letter to Romans on education which is a good antidote to the nonsense of our Department for Citizenship Facilities, Parenting Units, and Nappies, or whatever the Ministry of Education is called this month.
In reality, what is in question is not only the personal responsibilities of adults or young people - which nevertheless exist and must not be hidden - but a growing atmosphere, a mentality and a form of culture that lead to doubting the value of the human person, the significance itself of truth and of the good, in the final analysis, the goodness of life. It becomes difficult, then, to hand on from one generation to the next, something valid and certain, rules of conduct, credible objectives around which to build one's life.
Over recent years, I have noticed several cases where people have agreed to, or co-operated with, abortion in response to dire warnings from doctors about a baby who will be born with significant disabilities. The doctors describe these disabilities in the most chilling terms, together with assurances that the baby will not live more than a few hours or days. This has a significant influence on people's attitudes ("What else could we do?") The psychological trauma of being faced with this decision, presented gravely by those who are seen as experts, causes people to repudiate their faith and consider the Church callous and heartless for her opposition to abortion.
Over the same period, I have also come across several cases where a mother (often accompanied by a decent and supportive husband or "partner") has stood firm, refused a "termination" and heroically opted to give birth - only to find subsequently that the predictions turned out to be exaggerated or even wholly false.
A story reported last month by Channel 4 (Joy for mother advised to abort) is typical. Doctors predict: baby will only survive for a few hours, will be "profoundly disabled"; condition deteriorating; advise "termination". Mother and father refuse; go through "absolute torture"; baby is born perfectly healthy; nothing wrong after all. The most inspiring line of the story is where mother Becky Weatherall told the Western Mail newspaper that "if he was going to die, she wanted it to be in the arms of his parents."
There are two questions to raise here. The first is to ask just how common this sort of thing is. I would be interested to know whether research has been done on how accurate are these predictions of disability and whether indeed some are made without sufficient evidence.
The second and deeper question is why the very weakest and most vulnerable children are deemed to be the most unworthy of life. Surely in a civilised society, the weakest should be those afforded the greatest protection by the strong? Remind me: why was it that my father's generation fought the second world war?
Many thanks to Sober Inebriation for this superb interview with Fr Fessio. After his well considered comments on Summorum Pontificum and the reform of the reform, Fr Fessio also offers some wise considerations related to education. I very much agree with his analysis of why there is such resistance to the Motu Proprio:
But why is there such hostility toward Latin and the Mass celebrated facing East? I believe that there are people who thought the Council was a call to massive change from a sclerotic church, and they think that if you restore the old Mass, or say the new Mass facing east, you're repudiating the Council. But this is completely false. However, these people have spent the last 30-40 years of their lives committed to this vision of the Council which is not a vision of continuity but a vision of rupture. Their whole lives are being called into question. So, there's enormous resistance to this (the motu proprio). This is the reason why the pope had to do the motu proprio. It's quite possible to say the Novus Ordo in ways that are very traditional, but today, it's simply taboo.
So, the pope has said that people have a right to worship in this form (traditionally) and therefore we'll take this and make it more widespread and take it out of the hands of individual bishops. It's now in the hands of the faithful- if they want this, they are to be given it.
For keen seminarians and priests in Rome, Lent is a great opportunity to visit many Churches of the City for the daily Station Masses. In some cases, the Churches are not easy to visit on weekdays and they are shown off well at these major annual celebrations.
Fr Avram, a priest from the diocese of Sacramento, studying in Rome, writes a blog called Peregrinus and has been posting regularly with some great photos. Here is one of the interior of San Vitale, St John Fisher's titular Church:
Fr David Barrett at Hilariter has some photos of his own. He has one of the interior of SS Marcellinus and Peter which features the suitcase in which he brought the requisites for Mass. That he had to bring things tells you that this is one of those countless gems in Rome that is scarcely used. [Zadok corrected me here. The Church is well-used. Those organising the station Masses bring the requisites each day.] Since the photo was posted in high resolution, I hope he won't mind that I have chopped out most of the suitcase and enhanced the photo a little:
Thanks to LifeSite for picking up the story about the draft constitution for Kosovo which opens the way for abortion and same sex unions by carefully engineering key phrases in the text.
See Radical Kosovo Constitution Removes all Protection for the Unborn and Traditional Family
There used to be Brodie's notes for Shakespeare. Now we have Jane's notes for the excellent series of talks at the Birmingham Oratory promoting chastity. The latest is for "Hot Topics" by Dr Greg Gardner. Dr Gardner is a GP and writes widely in the local press in Birmingham about pro-life and pro-family topics.
One interesting topic from the discussion was that of values clarification, in which young people are encouraged to clarify their own values through peer group discussion. This replaces the teaching of objective virtue.
William Coulson, a pioneer with Carl Rogers of this approach in the 1960s, later repented and wrote powerfully about the harm that such groups can do by allowing the strongest voices to prevail against those who are weaker and more easily influenced. Young people who have been instructed in virtue at home can be confused and misled by these discussions.
It is worth noting that Dr Gardner is an evangelical Christian. In our common love for the family, "ecumenical" co-operation comes quite naturally.
Every week at Blackfen, our Mass on Saturday morning at 10.30am is celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass). The Mass is normally a Low Mass but on the first Saturday of each month, a small Schola of men kindly comes to us so that the Mass can be sung with the chants from the Roman Gradual.
The next occasion will be this coming Saturday, 1 March.
All are welcome. Here is a link for Directions to the Church.
The BBC has an article asking Has China's one-child policy worked?
Worked?!
It seems that the answer is "yes" if the purpose was to reduce the population. However, along with Western Europe, China is now facing its own demographic time bomb.
I am glad that the article does actually mention the practice of forced abortion which is an atrocity that has often been denied by politicians in the West; but even without this appalling abuse of human life and dignity, the use of government coercion to prevent parents from having children should be deplored by any civilised country.
Last month, I reported on the Bishop of Lancaster's excellent "Fit for Mission - Schools" document which encourages Catholic schools to teach the Catholic faith. Nothing terribly controversial there, you might think, but the Independent reports today (MPs investigate Catholic influence on schools) that Barry "as long as people are not that serious about their faith" Sheerman, chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Committee thinks otherwise. The committee
... is to investigate evidence that the Roman Catholic Church is pursuing a more fundamentalist approach towards religion in its schools.There's that "F" word beloved of the secularists everywhere, conjuring up images of suicide bombers, blown-up buses and women in burkhas. The Independent helpfully gives us an example of the heinous thought-crime from the Bishop of Lancaster himself:
"The secular view on sex outside marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and Aids, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information."The message is clear: if Catholic schools present abortion as anything other than "neutral", they are "Fundamentalist". Apparently, Sheerman also said that
there was evidence from other areas of the country of Catholic schools being told to adopt a more fundamentalist line.Please do tell - it would give great solace to my readers.
"A lot of taxpayers' money is going into church schools and I think we should tease out what is happening here,"Let's be clear about this. Catholics also pay tax. The money does not belong to the Government, it belongs to us and is given to the Government in trust for use for our benefit. If Catholic children are not educated in Catholic schools, they will be educated in community schools at the expense of the state anyway. By his emotive appeal, Sheerman is attacking the historic agreement of 1944 with little less subtlety than the "No Rome on the Rates" campaigns of a former era.
"the official spokesmen for the Catholic Church often peddled a softer line."and,
"We seem to have a shift in emphasis on the ground despite what the reasonable voices of the leadership are saying."This gives a clear and important message. It does not matter how reasonable the "leadership" presents itself. Let just one Bishop poke his head above the parapet and issue a gentle, mildly-worded document encouraging sound Catholic teaching in a moderate way: this will be enough to engender cries of "Fundamentalist!" from the secularist high-priesthood. These people will not be appeased.
A sad story in yesterday's Telegraph reported on the mother who was pregnant with twins and hanged herself after giving in to pressure from her boyfriend who "reacted badly" to her pregnancy. (Artist hanged herself after aborting her twins) The counselling she was offered amounted to the telephone number of a counselling service.
At the inquest, the doctor concerned said that this was "normal practice". The boss at her clinic said:
"The time that can be given to a woman by a counsellor is limited in a busy hospital. [...] I am satisfied everything was done to make sure Emma was consenting to surgery. I don't feel there was any gap in the counselling service."Let me get this right: a woman with a history of anxiety and depression presents for an abortion. She is given a phone number to talk to someone. She has the abortion and then commits suicide. But there is no gap in the counselling service.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Dr Carlyon said: "It is clear that a termination can have a profound effect on a woman's life.So that's all right then.
"But I am reassured by the evidence of the doctors here."
The other day, courtesy of a kind reader, I received a copy of the book "Culture of Life - Culture of Death", edited by Luke Gormally and published by the Linacre Centre. The book is a collection of 22 articles on various aspects of the subject. In the page about the book from the Linacre Centre you can see a list of the articles and some quotations from reviews of the book.
My correspondent particularly wanted me to read Sr Miram Duggan's article "Combating the spread of AIDS". Sr Miriam is a gynaecologist and was (at least at the time of publication in 2002) Superior General of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa. She has worked as a missionary doctor in Africa for 30 years. She describes a practical and down-to-earth approach to behaviour change, working especially through the "Youth Alive" workshops which promote sound spiritual, moral and cultural values among the young and offer character-building to help them to live these values. She also offers evidence from Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia showing the success of this approach in significantly reducing the spread of the virus.
She is also very concerned to reduce the stigma so that a supportive response is given to those living with HIV/AIDS and encouragement given to them also to be part of the change of attitude that leads to effective reduction of infection.
In part of her conculding section, she says:
"If society addressed the root causes for the spread of the virus and returned to the values of no pre-marital sex and faithfulness in marriage AIDS could be drastically reduced. if the millions invested in Latex rubber as a prophylactic were instead invested in addressing the root causes I think the outcome would be much more beneficial to society."Sewn paperback, 352 pages, £17.95 (excellent value for such a collection.) There are ordering details at the Linacre Centre website.
Many thanks to Vocation Station for this video from Gloria TV, introducing the Fraternité St Vincent Ferreir, at the Priory of St Thomas-Aquinas, Chémeré-le-Roi, in Mayenne, France. The community follows the traditional Dominican liturgy and their doctrinal formation is "resolutely Thomist" according to the Una Voce summary. Although separate and distinct from the Order of Preachers, although it has presented a request for affiliation with the Dominican family.
A while back, Fr Julian Large sent publicity of the next meeting of "Call to Youth" (for 18-35 year olds) which is this Thursday 28 February at 8pm, in St Wilfrid's Hall, Refreshments to follow.
The speaker will be Michael Schutzer-Weissmann, who will be talking about Evelyn Waugh, convert & Catholic writer.
Sorry to be so late publicising it here.
(To find St Wilfrid's Hall, go into the courtyard to the left of the Oratory Church. Enter the doorway on the left. St Wilfrid's Hall is upstairs.)
During Lent (only), in addition to the public 8am Mass (Mon-Sat) in the Traditional Form, there is also a Mass at 5.15pm in the Traditional Form. Also on Fridays in Lent at 6.30pm the Oratory has Stations of the Cross (also done in the traditional way).
The Diogenes column at Catholic World news is always worth reading. Yesterday there was a piece called Weigel on the Jesuits about an article by George Weigel looking at the ("Questions for Father General")
Weigel quotes the new General, Fr Nicolas, as saying that the Jesuits "want to collaborate with the Holy See and to obey the Holy Father," and that "That has not changed and it will not change." He then raises the question of public dissent by Jesuits from papal teaching with a number of obvious examples.
Diogenes offers this comment:
We're told that today the Pope will receive the delegates to the Jesuit General Congregation in private audience. It's reasonable to expect that the Holy Father will communicate to the delegates his hopes for their work that remains. Being Benedict, he almost certainly will not dwell on the history of conflict but will emphasize the Jesuits' positive contributions to the post-conciliar Church, such as those in selenography. As for the questions posed by Weigel, we'll learn a lot about the answers Jesuit leaders would tender in reply by the picture of the audience they want the rest of the Church to have.
The Bevans family have started a new blog - called BevansInc., it brings together a number of talented family members. Gary Bevans is the one who painted the reproduction of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Church of the English Martyrs in Goring-by-Sea
Love & Responsibility
Theological Lecture Series 2008
St Patrick's, Soho Square
Due to the success of "Catholicism for the Curious" and "Theology of the Body", the School of Evangelisation will be hosting a third series of lectures this year, commencing on Wednesday 27th February at supper & welcome at 6.15pm with talk starting at 7pm.
A series of high profile talks to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae. These talks will present a life changing message for a lifestyle of chastity that brings freedom, respect, peace and romance without regret. The talks will seek to unpack and explain the Church’s teaching on the truth and meaning of human sexuality in a way that is challenging, entertaining, encouraging and healing. The speakers will cover an abundance of compelling and uplifting reasons for embracing the virtues of chastity.
The first talk will be on Wednesday 27th February and then most Wednesdays until June (see schedule below or download here). If you would like more information then please call 020 7437 2010 or email info@stpatricksoho.org.
Wednesday 27th February - Fr Anthony Doe
Call to Holiness & Communion with the Lord
Wednesday 12th March - Fr Stephen Langridge
Aids, Condoms and the Catholic Church
Wednesday 2nd April - Fr Tim Finigan
Humanae Vitae – A Challenge to the Culture
Wednesday 9th April - Fr Anthony Doe
The Gift of Life & Christian Discipleship
Wednesday 16th April - Edmund Adamus
The Genesis of Humanae Vitae – Memory & Healing
Wednesday 23rd April - Fr Richard Aladics
Building the Civilisation of Love in a Media-Driven World
Wednesday 30th April - Bishop Alan Hopes
Searching for Teaching Authority
Wednesday 14th May - Tommy Hughes
Theology of the Body in a Glasgow Secondary School
Wednesday 21st May - James Parker
Truths about Homosexuality & Contraception
Wednesday 28th May - Dr Jacqueline Laing
The Reproductive Revolution
Wednesday 4th June - Nicole Parker
A Practical Response: Natural Family Planning
Wednesday 11th June - Anne Hill
The Gift of Life as a Woman and a Mother
Wednesday 18th June - William Newton
Humanae Vitae & Contraception: Two Irreconcilable Concepts of the Human Person
The Italian news site Petrus carries interview with Archbishop Ranjith recently conducted by Bruno Volpe. Gregor Kollmorgen at NLM has a translation of the interview
Here are two key points that the Archbishop makes regarding the manner of receiving Holy Communion, first regarding Holy Communion on the hand:
We need to recover the sense of the sacred. I speak only for myself, but I am convinced of the urgency of reviewing the practice of Communion given in the hand, returning to giving the particle to the faithful directly in the mouth, without them touching it, reinforcing thereby that in the Eucharist there is really Jesus and that everyone must receive Him with devotion, love and respect.and secondly regarding kneeling for Holy Communion.
Beyond the office I occupy in the Vatican, as a Catholic I ask myself and wonder: why be ashamed of God? Kneeling at Communion would be an act of humility and recognition of our nature as children of God.
Jeffrey Tucker has an excellent post entitled "Ditch the Great Amen". I must confess that this has been a subliminal annoyance to which I have not paid all that much attention. He quotes Gavin at Musica Sacra who says:
Nothing in the GIRM, rubrics, or tradition (that I know of) requires the congregation to sing "Amen" more than once at any point in the Mass. Yet today every Catholic pewsitter knows that the IMPORTANT part of the Mass ISN'T the words "This is My Body" but when you have four chords and sing "A-A-MEN, A-A-MEN, A-A-A-MENNNN" and then repeat it. I've even heard catechists say that THAT is the point where the bread becomes the Body. Oh, and the scores for these "Great Amens" always have FFF as the closing dynamic. This HORRIBLY imbalances the Mass!Sorry to be corny, but I just have to say "Amen" to that. It is true - the "Great Amen" is not de fide definita, it's prominence in many modern sung Masses is entirely due to the particular views of some liturgists. It is perfectly OK to ditch it and just sing a little "Amen".
So when your priest sings "Through him, with him, in him" to the simple tone, just respond on the same note he used as the reciting tone: "Amen." If he uses the solemn tone (with the slurs on some syllables), respond according to the pitch he ends on "A-me-" and then move up a whole tone "-en." It's all so simple, no one can object to it if it's done routinely, and it makes SUCH a difference in how the Mass is perceived by the congregation.
Many thanks to Matt Doyle of Lacrimarum Valle for his report on the "Blogging and the Church" Colloquium held last Friday in Oxford. I was very sorry to miss this but I had an important meeting to address in the parish where I was spoke to the parents of the first Communion class about the sacrament of Penance.
The picture above is from Matt's blog and there are more at the post Rubbing shoulders with the great.
Thanks to a Facebook friend for this link to an article by Fr Raymond De Souza, originally published in the Canada National Post Palestinian Christians live in constant fear.
He tells of a YMCA centre in Gaza which is open to Muslims and includes a school, sports club and community hall, and does not engage in Christian proselytism. It was blown up by militants last week, destroying a library of 8,000 books. Apparently this was in response to the reprinting of the Muhammed cartoons in Denmark last week.
As Fr De Souza points out, it is not only the fact of the attack that is significant but also its insignificance in the eyes of the world's media. There is no free press in Gaza, and Christians are so intimidated that they dare not tell independent reporters anything except that they have excellent relations with their Muslim neighbours. To be fair, the BBC does carry a report on the attack.
The other day, I spent a very pleasant evening visiting old friends on the way back from Wonersh. The husband is a local authority IT advisor and so for a while, we got to discussing various nerdy matters. He is keen on the use of Google Docs as a means of distributing content within an organisation so that it does not matter what platform the user's computer is tied to. As long as you have an internet browser, you can see the documents from a Windows box, an Apple, or a Linux machine.
Just by way of experiment, I have published the notes from my talk a thte 2004 Faith Summer Session on Contraception, Abortion and IVF - the Destruction of Life and Love. In its present form, you should be able to see the document but not edit it. (If you find you can edit it, do please let me know!) The alternative is to publish a document that can be edited by others, offering a quick and easy route to co-operative projects.
Then there is Google pages - a quick and easy way to get several web pages going with a minimum of effort. I have always done my own html and am proud of the tightly-written, standards-compliant, fast-loading website for Our Lady of the Rosary. However this takes time and it will be interesting to see whether Google's new foray into content management will prove to be a "great leap forward" for web publishing. (Google pages is still in beta and you need to have a gmail address to get it.)
So far, I have put up a "finigan pages" homepage, a paste of my CV, and a "dump" of my bookmarks from Firefox. These were all done quite quickly and if I were to use this stuff more extensively, I would probably play around with the html rather more and make it as much like the style of the blog as possible.
The nagging doubt with all of this is the placing of all one's stuff into the hands of google. I'd be interested in comments on this, especially from anyone who has used these new things.
A petition was recently launched on the important question of allowing a free vote on the HFE Bill which is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation to come before Parliament in recent years.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow free votes on the embryology and fathers components of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill when considered by the House of Commons.Further information:
There is a tradition when dealing with matters of conscience that MPs are not whipped. This is particularly true when it comes to human embryos. When the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was considered by Parliament the (then) government allowed free votes on all matters up until the final vote.Sign the Petition
The joint committee on the draft Human Tissues and Embryos bill recommended that this approach be adopted for questions over embryology and the role of fathers, but the Brown government has said that free votes will only be allowed on abortion.
This decision suggests that there is no room for conscience and conscientious objection in our politics. If the government is genuinely concerned about voter apathy and alienation it should demonstrate that British politics caters for conscience and conscientious objection through free votes.
Mark at Rise and Pray has an interesting post on a recent retreat at Pluscarden given by Fr John Emerson of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. He has some great photos - I won't pinch them: you can go over and have a look ;-)
One of the participants at the Faith Theological Symposium gave me a leaflet about the Dominicans in Ireland. Their excellent website has a wealth of information about vocation, the Dominican life, prayer and study. It is good to see the Dominicans are obviously thriving in Ireland. Here is a photo from the Diaconate ordinations last month.
Next month, I will be visiting the diocese of Portsmouth for two events organised by the Latin Mass Society.
On Friday 14 March, I will be saying Mass at 5pm, followed by Benediction, at the beautiful Church of St Mary's Ryde, pictured above. in the morning, I will cross the Solent on the catermeran with members of the Latin Mass Society which is thriving on the Island, to visit St John's Cathedral at Portsmouth to preach a Day of Recollection for the Society. Here is the programme, from the Portsmouth section of the LMS website:
Annual Lenten Day of Recollection 2008
Saturday 15th March 2008 with Father Tim Finigan on the theme: In union with Christ the Victim for our Salvation.
Programme:
11.00am Welcome & first part of talk
12.15pm Latin Mass (Tridentine Rite)
1.00pm Break for lunch
1.45pm Second part of talk
2.30pm Stations of the Cross
3.15pm Exposition (with Confessions)
4.00pm Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
The day is expected to finish around 4.15pm. Please attend what you can manage if not the whole day. Some refreshments / sandwiches available, or bring your own lunch. There is no charge to attend - only a collection during the Mass itself.
I am very happy to publicise this excellent initiative for Catholic medics. Here are the details. There is a link to a poster which could go in Church porches.
A chance for junior healthcare professionals and students (medics, nurses, pharmacists etc. are welcome!) to explore and discuss Catholic healthcare ethics. Each month a senior practitioner or other expert will be invited to give a 30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The aim will be to understand the Church’s teaching, and explore ways in which we can present it sympathetically to patients, colleagues and managers.Thanks to New Liturgical Movement for the link to this fascinating pamphlet from 1904: Our Position. A Word in Reference to the Plain Chant Question (pdf) by Dom Raphael Molitor OSB, of Beuron Abbey who explains:
In the following pages you will find, dear reader, a brief reply to the most important questions in regard to plain chant raised by the Motu proprio of our Holy Father, Pius X ... The booklet has been written for your enlightenment and to calm your mind.Dom Raphael patiently demonstrated why a single edition of the proposed Vatican Edition of the Gradual was necessary, argued that the melodies were not too difficult for parish choirs, given the right motivation, and that the Holy Father was not insisting on any sudden change or that Gregorian chant should be used exclusively but was insisting that the ancient chant should be used and that is was proper to obey him.
Thanks to Redtabby in the combox for posting a link to audio files and CDs of talks by Janet Smith. You can buy them individually or pay $24.49 for the collection of 12 mp3s.
Have a look at this interesting project in progress: Demographic Winter. The trailer is worth looking at but you may need to pause it and leave it to load while you read a few blogs. Unfortunately the snazzy effects don't allow for cut & paste so I can only suggest looking at the tab "The Film" which gives a synopsis.
One of my parishioners has commented on the post "Lent Fast Day". I am happy to post her comment in full:
Fr I believe you are treating Dermot O’Leary in a very harsh fashion, and have seriously misrepresented him.I'm happy to quote that in the interests of a balanced picture. I think it brings us to a deeper question regarding our culture. That picture with Davina McCall is not justified by the desired end of promoting breast cancer awareness. We once installed a disabled toilet in the parish Hall. The press photographer asked me if I would have a photograph sitting (clothed) on the toilet. I refused because it would inevitably have trivialised the issue of providing proper facilities for the disabled and would be used to denigrate the priesthood.
Dermot is a person that does very good charitable work, he believes in helping others less fortunate than himself and using his talents to achieve this. Misrepresenting Dermot as a shallow TV presenter is unfair, he comes from a serious journalistic background his family were regional newspaper proprietors in Ireland and he has done extremely well in his career in the British media.
I respect Dermot’s involvement with Charity; he has tackled difficult health campaigns such as Male Testicular Cancer with charity Everyman. The picture of Davina McCall and Dermot, on your blog, is actually originally from a photo shoot taken as a promotion for Breast Cancer Awareness – another difficult health awareness promotion, asking women to undertake regular self-examinations.
Alongside national charities, Dermot has enthusiastically supported small community charities that have little PR value for himself, such as Southwark Irish Pensioners Forum and Irish in Greenwich.
Along with his family, Dermot has supported Catholic charities all his life. How many other people in the British Media support Catholic Charities – it is hardly a fashion statement. Dermot is exemplary in getting young people interested in Charities, Sports and good works.
Dermot’s comment about being “cleansed from sin” was obviously made tongue in cheek in an interview situation.
I have meet Dermot’s parents at a charity function and I know that they would be so upset to see their son misrepresented in this way. Dermot is a person who is genuinely interested in people’s welfare, young and old, and has shown great respect for people as individuals in his work. I think it is very important to present a balanced view of individual especially when we are broadcasting over the World Wide Web.
Just some of charities Dermot supports:
Southwark Irish Pensioners Forum – works with most disadvantaged and isolated people in London http://www.irishinlondon.org/volunteer.htm
Everyman: - UK Male Cancer Campaign - http://www.icr.ac.uk/everyman/
NSPCC http://nspcc.org.uk/
Dermot has worked on London St Patrick Parade Organising Committee.
"I do get it in the neck from some Catholics who say I am a 'buffet Catholic', picking and choosing the bits I like or don't like. But if I thought - and this is going to sound anti-Catholic - that there was this one true religion and that anyone who didn't follow it would be damned, firstly I'd be mad, and secondly I'd put myself in a position where I could be shot down.This kind of statement is irritating and misleading. Catholics do not believe that all non-Catholics are damned. Never mind Vatican II - there is a long tradition of theological study and magisterial teaching examining just how non-Catholics can be saved. The widely vilified document Dominus Iesus is perhaps the best recent examination of the whole matter. It explains not only why Catholics do accept that many non-Catholics may be saved, but also why this does not imply that there is no difference between Catholic teaching on God and the teaching of other faiths. Foundational to this is faith in Christ as truly God made man and therefore the acceptance of his teaching - part of which is that we should proclaim his teaching "from the rooftops".
"I'm not interested in preaching from the rooftops. All I do is show in public my own faith. I was brought up with it and I still practise, but I don't think that my God is any more worthy than that of a friend of mine who happens to follow Allah."
Many thanks to Vocation Station for passing on this video clip of an interview with Fr Giles, a monk of Pluscarden Abbey.
(During the first 21 seconds, the picture is unclear.)
Vocation Station is a blog worth watching - they collect videos on the religious life and the site would e helpful for someone who is discerning a vocation to the consecrated life. I have just added it to the blogroll.
After Mass this evening, I was at a party to celebrate the 50th birthday of Fr John Boyle (South Ashford Priest). There were one or two other priests there and a few friends from various apostolates but the majority of those present were Fr John's parishioners from St Simon Stock, South Ashford. It was good to see the genuine warmth of feeling that there is between them and their parish priest. After a presentation to him from the parish, Fr John took the opportunity to say a few words about the parish being the family of the priest in addition to his natural family.
Among the guests was Fr Stephen Boyle, John's brother, who is parish priest at the Good Shepherd in New Addington. Fr Stephen does not have a blog but feels that his lack of labour in this regard is compensated for if he appears on other blogs. Unfortunately, I forgot about this and neglected to take a photo this evening. Nevertheless, there is always something in the archives and so you can see him to the left.
There were lots of children present and I guess that some of them thought that a birthday is not complete without a badge saying how old you are. Fr John gallantly wore them as you can see from this photo of him cutting the cake prepared for the occasion.
This all reminds me that I am 50 this year on 1 July - a day famous as the beginning of various battles: the Boyne, Gettysburg and the Somme, for example. I share my birthday with Indiana Jones, Pamela Anderson and Princess Diana. It was the day of the death of the wicked emperor Decius and the last of the martyrs of Tyburn, St Oliver Plunkett. In these parts, St Oliver Plunkett is an optional memorial but of course it is likely that I will celebrate Mass that day in the extraordinary form, observing the feast day on which I was born, that of the Precious Blood.
I just received information about these two occasions when Janet Smith (see Janet Smith - venues) will be speaking in Scotland:
Tuesday 26th February, 7pm to 9pm
Catholic Chaplaincy,
University of Glasgow,
13-15 Southpark Terrace
Glasgow
Tel: 0141 339 4315
Email: rcchaplaincy@gla.ac.uk
Saturday 1st March, from 9.30am to 1.30pm
Fertility Care Conference
GTG Conference Centre
1330 South St
Glasgow
Tel: 0141 221 0858
Email: info@fertilitycare.org.uk
Some time ago, towards the end of the post Civil Partnerships and the Church. II Practice, I gave a brief summary of some of the problems that I have with CAFOD, the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. These concerns are serious enough for me to refuse in conscience to support the agency until there is a clear change in policy. I arrange instead for money to be collected either for Aid to the Church in need or for the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.
In Lent, we used to be asked to observe "Family Fast Day". Some time ago, it became "CAFOD Fast Day". Now it is called "Lent Fast Day". Dermot O'Leary has recently been engaged by CAFOD to promote the initiative which this year focusses on climate change and "going green". O'Leary is a television presenter who has apparently been involved in a number of variants on the "Big Brother" theme, the X-Factor and a breakfast TV programme called "Morning Glory."
In a Telegraph interview (Dermot O'Leary: The real Dermot stands up) he describes his work for CAFOD as his "John the Baptist moment." Leaning back in his chair, he says, "This is me washing away my iniquities and cleansing myself of my sins." (Actually, Dermot, we ask the Lord to do that for us - on his terms. Cf Psalm 50.)
In 2004, he presented a documentary entitled "Some of my best friends are Catholics". The article explains:
In the course of the programme, he made it clear, though, that his was not an unquestioning allegiance. He lives with his TV producer girlfriend, Dee Koppang, cheerfully admits to using contraceptives [...]Last year, I posted an article about Channel 4 sex propaganda, which took the form of a programme called "Lets Talk Sex", presented by Davina McCall, promoting compulsory sex education. I summarised:
Davina will take you (and your children) on a visit to a Dutch sex education class where children as young as four are taught about homosexuality and shown cartoons of various sex acts. Also featured is that tried and trusted method of preventing teenage pregnancy: unrolling a condom over a prosthetic sex aid.At the end of the post, I featured a picture of Davina McCall, saying that I hoped that it would help parents to decide whether this woman was a good person to trust to give advice to their teenage daughters.
(Feel free to list other good charities in the combox.)Diogenes reports on a review by Fr George Rutler of Archbishop Marini's "A Challenging Reform" (the liturgist's lament) Unfortunately, the First Things website seems not to be working.
The Wikipedia article on the Abbé Jacques Paul Migne says,
Migne had become convinced of the power of the press and the sheer value of raw information widely distributed.One can imagine how much he would have contributed to the internet!
Many thanks to Embajador en el Infierno for the link to this list of attacks on the Church by the Socialist party in Spain during the past four years. The list has been put together by the Carlist Traditionalist Communion.
I mentioned Janet Smith's talk yesterday. Together with a reminder that I think she is the best speaker I have heard on Humanae Vitae, here is a reminder of the details:
Contraception: Why not?I have just added my signature to the very sensible International Declaration in Support of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI published by the Remnant newspaper. The declaration expresses support for the Holy Father's revised version of the prayer for the Jews on Good Friday. Many traditionalist might have been expected oppose the revision of the prayer but different groups have united in expressing their filial obedience to the successor of St Peter. A quotation from the letter:
By reformulating the traditional prayer without compromising its doctrinal integrity, Your Holiness has reminded the world that the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an infinite ocean of love, contains all peoples, especially that people from which Our Lord Himself is descended.
A young mother from Cambridge who was attending the Symposium asked me if I could give her and baby a lift to Ampleforth. Fortunately, the baby was young enough to have fairly simple requirements to meet the law - the carry cot has lugs which retain the rear seatbelt. I couldn't resist giving this photo a speech bubble:
Unfortunately, it is against the law (and not a good idea anyway at 70mph) to take the baby out of the cot while the car is moving. So for a while she told us loudly and in no uncertain terms "I . AM . NOT . HAPPY!!!" The baby's godfather was with us on the journey and gently encouraged her to be reasonable. Sadly this met with no notable success.
When we managed to stop at a service station, the complaint was expanded to "My nappy needs changing, I didn't get enough milk last time, I'm a bit tired, I'm fed up with sitting in this stupid contraption, and anyway, just AAAARGH!" Mum pointed out that this was the first time that she had changed a baby's nappy in a priest's car. It was in fact the first time that anyone has changed a baby's nappy in my car.
When we got to Cambridge, baby had calmed down a little, and I met her older brother whom I have not seen since just after he was born. He needed (but did not want) to go to bed and in the meantime, dad (who is on the last leg of his Cambridge doctorate) cooked up a delicious thai green curry and gave me some top grade advice on various combinations of mobile computing, open-source software and 3G internet access.
As I sometimes point out when speaking about celibacy, there are joys and trials in any vocation - it is good for me as a priest to spend even a little time with a young family managing the ordinary daily ups and downs of life with young children.
Just received this notice via Facebook. I am sorry that I cannot be there but I have a meeting with the first communion parents in my parish. I look forward to hearing how it went - it should be a good session.
To discuss the issue of blogs as a social force, the Newman Society is having a small colloquium on Friday, 15th February from 6-830pm in the Meeting Room of the Catholic Chaplaincy, Rose Place,St Aldates, Oxford (location) with a number of prominent bloggers.
This event will be quite informal and interactive and will discuss the nature of blogs--who read them and why; why are they written; do the bloggers have a social responsibility; and should we even care about them?
Speakers are:
Rev’d Fr John T Zuhlsdorf, author of ‘What does the Prayer Really Say?’
Rev’d Fr John Hunwicke, author of ‘Fr Hunwicke’s Liturgical Notes’
Br Lawrence Lew OP, ‘The New Liturgical Movement’ and ‘Godzdogz’
Matthew Doyle, author of ‘Lacrimarum Valle’
Yesterday evening, Fr David Barrett spoke on the topic of how our humanity is related to the humanity of Christ. Fr Barrett is currently working on a doctoral thesis in Rome, on the theology of St Hilary of Poitiers. We share an interest in this great Church Father who was a bridge between East and West on account of his exile for the faith. Many years ago, I wrote my "tesina" (mini thesis) for the Theology Licence degree in Rome on St Hilary's exegesis of Psalm 2.
After supper, we spent some time together before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Crypt, finishing with Benediction. This is always a very welcome pause in the fairly full timetable of the Symposium.
This morning, Fr Hugh gave his paper on "A non idealistic defence of objective universality". This was a follow-up to his paper last year, incorporating clarifications and further material from various discussions on the topic. Fr Hugh is passionate about philosophy and is able to speak with great clarity about subjects that people often shy away from. I'll be reading his paper through again and will post on some of the content when I get a chance.
Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero is to see the Papal Nuncio, Mgr Manuel Monteiro de Castro, to ask him to intervene to stop the Spanish Bishops "campaigning" as he sees it, in the forthcoming elections, according to an article in today's Times. (Vatican told to stop bishops ‘meddling’ in Spain’s election)
In a paper setting out "moral guidance", the Bishops have criticised various policies of the present Government, including the legalisation of gay marriage, the liberalisation of divorce and the introduction of citizenship classes in schools. The Times article summarises the Bishops' paper by saying that "they effectively directed Spaniards to vote against the Government and in favour of the conservative Popular Party."
You could just as well say that by introducing such policies, the Government has indicated that it does not wish to have the support of Catholics. By drawing the attention of their flock to the implications of these policies, the Bishops are doing their duty before God. They appear quite prepared to accept the consequences.
Air Maria is the official blog of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The have a post on the Day with Mary at Blackfen which includes links to further information about the Day with Mary and the apostolate of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.
John Smeaton posts today on Why Humanae Vitae was right about contraception. He refers to the visit of Janet Smith who will be speaking at Westminster Hall on 6 March.
He also quotes from a presentation he gave in Warsaw last year, in the course of which he told how the prophetic words of Pope Paul VI were being fulfilled in Britain. He also mentioned the Mulier Fortis who spoke out about sex education in the Catholic school where she was teaching.
Fr Stephen Dingley's lecture yesterday afternoon on the consciousness of Christ was, as expected, most engaging and followed by a lengthy discussion ranging over subjects such as the christological definitions and fundamental epistomology. This morning, Fr Luiz Ruscillo looked at the priesthood of Christ, especially in Hebrews 8-9.
I just have access to a live connection for a few minutes before lunch so I'll check the comments now and get back later.
I was more than a little suspicious of the feeding frenzy in the media over the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent lecture: Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective. I printed off his lecture and read it quickly. My first impression was that this was a serious attempt to address a genuine problem of post-enlightenment positivism in law, and that it could have important implications for Catholics as well as Muslims. There certainly seemed to be little justification for the tabloid headlines.
I am not a canon lawyer so I thought I would leave it alone until I had a chance to chat with Fr John Boyle about it. When he arrived at Ampleforth, he said that the train had wifi and so he was able to read the lecture and write about it on the journey up.
His post is a common sense appraisal of the issue and I agree with him. See Bishop Burkha or Williams the Wise?
The journey up to Ampleforth was uneventful part from some heavy fog on the M25 and a rather nasty looking accident on the clockwise side. Say a prayer for anyone who was injured.
The first speaker at the Faith Symposium was Fr Michael John Galbraith who gave a thought-provoking paper raising various questions about the use of the terms "prosopon", "ousia" and "hypostasis" as applied to Jesus Christ. One particular query raised afterwards in questions was whether there has been a good study written recently on the use of these terms before the Chalcedonian settlement and particularly in non-Christian writers.
The received view is that the Greek words only received a fixed meaning as a result of the Christological controversies but one priest who had done his doctorate on the concept of personhood suggested that this might be open to challenge. If anyone knows of any good recent works on this subject, I would be grateful for a reference in the combox.
This morning, Frs John Boyle and I served each others' Masses in the Crypt. Many others concelebrated at the Conventual Mass later on. After that, Fr Dominic Rolls gave a paper on the divinity of Christ in the scriptures, and particularly the use of particular texts by the Fathers and especially St Athanasius. This afternoon, Fr Stephen Dingley will be addressing the controversial but important topic of the self-consciousness of Christ. The papers from the Symposium will be published in the Faith Magazine in due course.
I am currently sitting in the Arabica Coffee house in Thirsk. There is no wifi in the guest house at Ampleforth and I have yet to discover if I can log on to the wifi in the school somewhere. I had to come into town for a couple of things anyway so bought the laptop and enquired at the Tourist Information Office who were able to point me in the right direction.
The nonsense, made-up, article in the Scottish Daily Record (see Inventing Quotes and News) has made its way onto the Asia News International (or is it the other way round? And anyway, who gives a monkey's?) As a result, the same invented quotations have been attributed to me by Daily India, Mumbai Mirror, Medical Health Articles, OneIndia, SmasHits, India4u. Some of the sites claim that the copyright rests with ANI. Well I piously hope that the Scottish Daily Record and ANI might have fun fighting over that. I will not be claiming any rights to be the author of the quotations; but that "Vatican spokesman" bit - I like that - maybe I could just let it run... :-)
Interesting, isn't it? Some people are terribly worried about the new media - blogs and the like. They assume that the old mainstream paper news is trustworthy and accurate. With the internet on the other hand, they fear because anyone can write anything they like: all sorts of inaccuracies can abound.
The truth is that the old media often shows itself to be unreliable, ill-disciplined and unwilling to carry out even the most elementary research to find out the truth. Blogs, forums and other internet publishing media have commenters who will hold them to account. To retain credibility they must be open to correction, ready to admit mistakes and correct them. They stand far more accountable to the public, reducing rather than increasing viral nonsense.
In the morning, I will be driving up to North Yorkshire for the annual Faith Theological Symposium at Ampleforth Abbey. The letures this year focus mainly on Christology and the concepts of person and nature. Fr Hugh MacKenzie is branching out on the last day into "A non idealistic defence of objective universality".
As ever, this is a holiday for me because I find the freedom from daily parish concerns and the opportunity to celebrate Mass privately each morning very relaxing. The company of good priests and lay people interested in theology makes for a very good few days. I'm hoping that there will be some wifi access somewhere around the place but if there are no posts for a couple of days, you will know that my efforts to get online have failed. (A reminder for new readers: comments on this blog are moderated so your comments won't appear until I do get online.)
To the left, you can see a frightening picture of an elf that is in danger. On the instructions of the Archdiocese, I welcomed a chap last week to check over the Church and the Halls to make sure that the elves on our premises would not be subject to any unnecessary or avoidable danger. There have been rumours of lawsuits, insurance requirements and personal liability so I presume that Rivendell has become litigious in these dark times.
I haven't personally seen any orcs or uruk' hai around but I felt it was just as well that he give the place a thorough inspection. He was particularly concerned about our fire extinguishers, some of which need such a comprehensive service that it is cheaper to replace them. More about that later. Anyway, with all sort of equipment, he tested this, tapped that, and wrote things down on a clipboard to prepare a comprehensive report for me with various policies and procedures; this will arrive in a few weeks. After that, he has to come over every six months or so to keep things up to date. I was relieved when he told me that we were pretty good and, apart from a few recommendations that he would make, we passed quite well for ...
... Elfin Safety.
The out of date fire extinguishers have all been replaced with brand new shiny ones all painted in the right colour. I therefore thought that I should find out just what happens when you let off a CO2 extinguisher. And good fun it was, too.
It struck me that the altar servers might well be our first line of defence in case of an attack from Mordor so I felt that if fire extinguishers played such a pivotal role in Elfin Safety, they should learn how to use them too. After much pleading and cajoling, they reluctantly agreed that if Father really wanted them to let off the fire extinguishers then they would do it, just to keep him happy.
BTW - handy tip from the Elfin Safety man: when letting off a CO2 extinguisher, don't hold the metal pipe or the horn. They get very cold and people have been known to end up with a fire extinguisher welded to their palm.
Many thanks to Mac for the photos: Mulier Fortis: boys and their toys
It is easy to miss delightful places on your own doorstep. Today, after Mass, two families from the parish went over to Avery Hill Park and suggested I join them for half an hour or so. The mansion at Avery Hill, once home to Colonel John North, is now occupied by Greenwich University. It is just across the eastern border of my parish, about a mile and a half from the presbytery. I did not know that they had a large Victorian greenhouse, home to a Winter Garden, open free of charge to the public.
Before getting to the greenhouse, however, there was that irresistible tree that could be climbed by young children:
Inside the Winter Garden, there was plenty to see, and a broom to play with...
Back home, I looked up some information about the greenhouse and found that it was the Winter Garden created by Colonel John North in 1890 as somewhere for his family to exercise in inclement weather. There are three rooms: a temperate house, a cool house and a tropical house. There are more photos at this entry on the Growing on the Edge Forum.
One of the people who looks after the plants told me that sadly the heating had broken down in mid 2006 and that it would cost about £1 million to fix it - Greenwich Council are trying to find funding for this. Many of the plants have died during the winter but if there is plenty of sunshine, many of them could still survive for a while.
In one room, there is a pond with a reclining statue of Galatea. A good place, of course, for little people to push and pull each other towards the water.
Sadly, the park has had its share of troubles from the breakdown of "social cohesion" in England. While waiting for the families, I had a cup of tea and a burger at the small café by the children's playground. Run by a very friendly chap, the café had information notices of various kinds, including the sad news that the present "building" (something like a freight container) replaced the former large building that had been constantly vandalised and finally burnt down in an arson attack.
In this week's Denver Catholic Register, George Weigel takes a critical look at Archbishop Piero Marini's "A Challenging Reform" and says that if you want an insight into the ideas that shaped the new liturgy, you need to look elsewhere.
Marini’s tale is bureaucratic rather than substantive – a lumbering walk through the maneuvers by which the “Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” (an entity created by Pope Paul VI) wrested control of the reform process from the Curia’s Congregation for Rites and held the bit in its teeth for a crucial five-year period, 1964-1969.See Archbishop Marini on the liturgy wars
Many thanks to Doug Barry, one of The Radix Guys on YouTube for this video which is about much more than Holy Water - it is a powerful encouragement to Catholic men to take up their rightful role within their families.
Let them know that you, as a father, as a husband, will fight for them, defend them spiritually, that you are all over this battlefield, and you're not going to put your sword down
Gloria TV ("the more Catholic the better") has this information on the video clip embedded below:
The Resurrection of a church
The originally beautiful church of the Holy Rosary in Vienna was erected in 1909 in the neo-romanic style.
In the aftermath of a restoration in the fifties, the interior of the church was completely destroyed. Statues, stucco work and other debris were thrown into a basement.
Today, the church is a symbol of destruction and desolation.
But now, students of the Technical University in Vienna have provided for an unexpected resurrection of the old beauty.
Today was the best attended Day with Mary that we have had in the parish; the Church was full for most of the day. During the tea break in the afternoon, a few people remained in the Church to watch before the Blessed Sacrament exposed (see above).
Others were in the parish hall, for a short break, browsing the piety stall with its array of medals, rosaries and books.
And here is a photo of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate who sang the propers of the Mass. One sister gave me a USB stick for various files that I had promised. I loaded up pdfs of the Kyriale (Vatican and Solesmes editions), the 1961 Graduale, and the 1962 Missale Romanum. If you are looking for these, I think I found all of them via the sidebar (or links therefrom) of the New Liturgical Movement which I recommend to you.
Mac, the Mulier Fortis, has also posted some photos. See Shattered and The Afternoon Sessions...
Today is one of the best days of the year for the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen - the Day with Mary. This morning, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was brought into the Church and solemnly crowned, after which we had a procession of Our Lady through the streets that go round the site of the Church.
This was followed by a Missa Cantata with the propers sung by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. I was proud that Blackfen parish had the honour of being the first parish to celebrate Mass in the Classical Roman Rite for the Day with Mary. I reflected that this is a significant development whereby the movement for the Classical Roman rite was able to unite with one of the most spiritually effective movements for the new evangelisation: a moving example of the unity that Pope Benedict wished to bring to the Church.
After Mass, I renewed the consecration of the parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and then gratefully took some food with the Friars and Sisters of the Immaculate together with the indefatigable band of lay men and women who organise these days throughout the year. The group allow the parish priest to take books from the superb bookstall as a gift for his help (I should be giving them gifts for coming!) I got the Autobiography of St Margaret Mary, "Martin of Tours, Soldier, Bishop, Saint" by Régine Pernoud, and St Robert Bellarmine's "The Art of Dying Well" published by the Sophia Institute Press. The ladies at the "medals and rosaries" end of hte stall gave me a "Seven Dolours" rosary and a booklet of Devotions to the Sorrowful Mother.
In the first part of the afternoon, I took a little time out to prepare things for the parish Sunday Masses while Fr Agnellus FI exposed the Blessed Sacrament and led a procession, again round the streets, with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. This year I had the presence of mind to grab my camera as the procession was returning, to take some shots from the first floor of the presbytery. Above you can see the heart of the procession, Our Lord being carried amid clouds of incense. Here is the front of the procession as it returns to the Church:
And in this picture, you can just see the canopy at the end (click to enlarge):
Later, I will give another sermon - this time specifically about Our Lady. After Benediction there will be enrolment in the brown scapular, conferral of the miraculous medal and the blessing of all the pious books and objects that people have brought with them or purchased during the day.
Gregor Kollmorgen at NLM has an interesting post on the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Msgr. Reinhard Marx. The above picture is from his post and there are several other good photographs of this major event, together with some helpful explanations and commentary. (NLM: New Archbishop of Munich III - the Enthronement)
Gregor comments:
As for liturgical aspects of the Mass, while not perfect from a reform-of-the-reform point of view (which was hardly to be expected), there were some notable positive elementsthe last of these is:
[...] at communion, he made the sign of the Cross with the Host and the Chalice before consuming the Sacred Species.Clearly, Archbishop Marx needs a trained English Liturgist to go over there and explain that this is just not allowed ;-)
My dear Australian readers, I am sorry for being late again with my greetings to you for Australia Day. I just thought of this and checked with YouTube for Sam Kekovich's inspiring annual broadcast. This year, he has called for Australia Day to be abolished - and replaced with Australia Week! Here is Sam oozing that sensitivity and empathetic outreach for which he is rightly famous:
As a campaigner for human rights in Burma, James Mawdsley was imprisoned for over a year in 2000-2001 after taking part in a pro-democracy protest in Rangoon. His recently started blog Ecce Mater Tua has three principal themes at the service of the purpose of his blog:
- renewal of the Church through a return to Traditional liturgy
(for the greater glory of God)
- the evangelization of Asia
(for the salvation of souls)
- Jewish-Catholic reconciliation
(for the coming of His Kingdom).
The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales has issed a press release regarding the revised prayer for the Jewish people in the Liturgy of Good Friday according to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. The press release quotes the prayer and a translation and says:
I agree with John Medlin's sensible suggestion. This would be an example of the mutual enrichment that Pope Benedict called for in Summorum Pontificum. The "new old form" could be allowed as an option where the Liturgy of Good Friday is celebrated in the old newer form of the Roman rite.The new prayer was written by Pope Benedict himself and keeps the key idea of conversion to Christ. It situates the Jewish people as one group among all the groups of humankind who are offered conversion and salvation through Christ.
Although the Good Friday Prayer for the Jews had previously been revised by Blessed Pope John XXIII, some still found a hint in it that it was offered at rather than for the Jews. This possible ambiguity has now been removed.
Although some might wonder if there was indeed a pressing need to rewrite the prayer, nevertheless the Latin Mass Society in loyalty to the Holy Father’s clear wish will use the new prayer in all Good Friday services organised under its auspices.
John Medlin, General Manager of the LMS, expressed a personal opinion and said: ‘The new Good Friday Prayer for the Jews is self-evidently more concise and unambiguous than the current Prayer for the Jewish People in the 1970 Missal of Paul VI. I wonder if consideration might be given to introducing the new prayer into the 1970 Missal.’
I am happy to publish this statement from Alcuin Reid which admirably exemplifies the religiosum obsequium owed to the decisions of the Supreme Pontiff:
Reading through a little devotional book on the Guardian Angels, published by TAN, I came across this cracking story illustrating the importance of reverence and attention in Church.
It is related of St Catherine of Siena, who was also favoured with the visible presence of her Guardian Angel, that once while praying in the church she turned her head slightly to gratify her curiosity. Her Guardian Angel gave her so severe a look for her disrespect in the presence of the Most Holy that for several days St Catherine was inconsolable and performed severe penance in atonement.
UPDATE: In response to Mark's requst: the booklet was originally published in 1956 by the Benedictine convent of Perpetual Adoration, Clyde Missouri under the title "Our Heavenly Companions". It was republished by TAN books 1996 as "The Guardian Angels our Heavenly Companions" (64pp) ISBN 0-89555-537-9. I got my copy from the Padre Pio Bookshop in Victoria for about £3.
Many thanks to a kind commenter for the link to this video tribute to Pluscarden Abbey which was posted at Vocation Station. I haven't got time to watch it all at the moment but I did like the opening "Google earth" type zoom in. That's a good idea. The video is hosted at Gloria TV "the more Catholic the better"
The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano this week carried full colour on the front page for the first time. This change in appearance accompanies some important changes in policy at the paper, thanks to the editor, Gian Maria Vian who may turn out to be one of Pope Benedict's more important appointments.
John Allen has a good article on various changes that Vian has brought in, such as Q&A interviews, more articles by women, generally a more competent and influential style of journalism. (See John Allen: New look the latest stage of revolution at pope's newspaper)
Allen also reports on plans to publish the full edition online and in many languages. That would enable L'Osservatore to have considerably greater influence worldwide.
I would suggest also that Vian is very much Pope Benedict's man and that his modernising approach at L'Osservatore is at the service of the Holy Father's call to be co-workers of the truth, and to emphasise the continuity of the Church in her own tradition.
Normally I go to the seminary on Sunday night and stay over to teach on Monday morning, returning in the afternoon. This week I stayed an extra night to join the community for the celebration of the transferred feast of St John the Evangelist, the patron of the Seminary.
This is a major occasion in the calendar: today Bishop Paul Hendricks was the principal celebrant. We were in the same year at Rome, and Paul was ordained priest the day after me, on the 29th of July 1984. Also concelebrating were Bishop Hollis (of Portsmouth), Bishop Walmsley, (Bishop of the Armed Forces), Bishop Tripp (emeritus auxiliary of Southwark), the Abbots of Worth and Douai, several silver and golden jubilarians, together with assorted staff and alumni. The ceremonies were competently directed by Philip Smith MC and the schola enhanced the dignity of the occasion with well-chosen motets.
Fr Leo Mooney, a golden jubilarian, preached an engaging sermon in which he took us through his own vocational discernment and his experience of priestly ministry. He told us of his wonder as a boy visiting St George's Cathedral and seeing Bishop Amigo enter in Cappa Magna. He said that it seemed that the Bishop genuflected at the high Altar while the Cappa was still coming through the door of the Cathedral. We also heard of many other elements of the life of the Church of the 40s and 50s. It was fascinating to hear of his experience as a student in Rome of Cardinal Cicognani announcing the election of Pope John XXIII. Fr Mooney taught moral theology at Wonersh for many years, including the year I was a student there from 1976-1977 before going off to university and then to Rome. Since his time at the seminary, he has spent many years as a kindly and effective parish priest.
After Mass, there was a festal lunch. Before this, we prayed the traditional prayer for the Holy Father and sang the O Roma Felix which I always find very moving. Following the grace after meals, we sang a verse of the hymn to St John:
O beate mi IoannesAs after-dinner speaker, Fr Tony Lovegrove, another Golden Jubilarian, spoke warmly of his experiences, as a priest, with several amusing stories of life as a curate. The Seminary Rector, Mgr Jeremy Garrett, concluded with an entertaining speech in the course of which he referred to some of Fr Mooney's recollections, noting that the traditional liturgy which had been done away with had now been allowed again by Pope Benedict.
Sic pro me ad Filium Dei
Cum Maria preces funde
Ut per vos sim placens ei.
(O my blessed John, pour out your prayers with Mary for me to the Son of God in such a way that through you both I may be pleasing to Him.)
Fr Sean Coyle, a member of the Missionary Society of St Columban, has started a new blog called Bangor to Bobbio. Fr Coyle is editor of Misyon and writes with down-to-earth experience of the mission of the Church.
Thanks to Catholic Mom of 10 for the link to the Daily Mail article detailing how former Anglican vicar, Chris Bryant MP (who posed in his underpants on a gay dating website) has called for condoms to be given out in schools. (See: 'Captain Underpants' MP who posed on gay dating site wants children as young as nine to be given sex advice)
No I'm not posting the picture here!
I met Fr Peter Damien Fehlner FI (Franciscans of the Immaculate) when I was giving a lecture to the Co-Redemption Conference on the Immaculate Conception in England in the middle ages. Fr Fehlner has been teaching theology from a Scotist perspective for over 40 years and I was awed by his comprehensive knowledge and subtlety as befits a devotee of the Doctor Subtilis.
Fr Fehlner has been suffering from eye ailments for a while and is to undergo some major surgery. Helen has posted some Novena prayers which can be said for Fr Fehlner and indeed for the canonisation of Blessed John Duns Scotus. I would particularly encourage undergraduates and Masters of Oxford university in this and especially members of Merton College - also devotees of Fr Faber, the Faith Movement, and keen Scotists everywhere. (Castle of the Immaculate: Novena in honor of Bl. Duns Scotus)
Last Friday, 1 February, the Holy Father visited the Pontificio Seminario Romano Maggiore, Rome's Major Seminary, on the occasion of the Seminary's patronal feast day: that of the Madonna della Fiducia, Our Lady, "Mother of Trust". In the picture above, the Holy Father is presiding at Vespers in the main seminary chapel. I think I have got it right when I say that the picture there of the Madonna della Fiducia is a large copy of the small icon which is in the chapel of St Nicholas which the Holy Father also visited:
In his homily at Vespers, the Holy Father spoke not only to the seminarians present but also to their parents, encouraging them to accompany their sons on the adventure of the priestly calling. 
He spoke of how the seminary should be a place of calm and quiet in order to hear the Lord's "still small voice", and he highlighted the importance of formation in community, anticipating the sacramental fraternity that should characterise the diocesan priesthood. He concluded as follows [my translation]:
"All this reminds us that God calls you to be saints, that sanctity is the secret of the true success of your priestly ministry. From now on, sanctity must constitute the objective of every choice and decision that you make. Entrust this desire and this commitment daily to Mary, Mother of Trust! This title which is so gentle, corresponds to the repeated evangelical invitation "Do not be afraid", addressed by the Angel to the Virgin (Cf Lk 1.29) and then many times by Jesus to the disciples. "Do not be afraid, for I am with you", says the Lord. In the icon of the Mother of Trust, where the Baby Jesus points to his Mother, it seems that Jesus is adding "Look at your Mother and do not be afraid". Dear seminarians, walk through the journey of the seminary with the soul open to the truth, to transparency, to dialogue with those who guide you and this will allow you to respond in a simple and humble way to Him who calls you, liberating you from the risk of realising a project that is just a personal thing of your own."J P Sonnen visited the seminary on Sunday and has some great photos. See his post Roman Major Seminary and several others posted on 3 February with the same title. (Hint - click on his photos for the massive version!)
Thanks to Fr Ray Blake for pointing out the Sunday Times article (Monk tipped to be archbishop) which discusses the possibility of Abbot Hugh Gilbert of Pluscarden being considered as a possible Archbishop of Westminster.
Talking of Abbot Gilbert gives me the excuse to post one of my nice photos of Pluscarden from my visit last summer. Here, have another one!
The Anaphora of Addai and Mari in its present form does not include the words of institution which our Lord spoke at the Last Supper (... this is my body ... this is my blood...) In 2001, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity published Guidelines for admission to communion between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East. These Guidelines affirmed the validity of the anaphora of Addai and Mari, even without the words of instutition. The question matters because the Anaphora of Addai and Mari is sometimes used to support the view that there is no actual moment of consecration in the Mass.
Last March I mentioned that Fr Michael Lang had written on this question in 2004 in the journal Divinitas and was intending to publish the material more widely. He has edited a collection of articles which has now been published by Nova et Vetera: Die Anaphora von Addai und Mari – Studien zu Eucharistie und Einsetzungsworten (The Anaphora of Addai and Mari - Studies on the Eucharist and the Institution Narrative).
Rorate Caeli has posted some extracts from one of the articles: "Historical and Theological Argumentation in Favour Of Anaphoras without Institution Narrative: A Critical Appraisal" by Ansgar Santogrossi OSB. This calls into question the historical and theological basis for the decision made by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and particularly the status of the guidelines issued. Santogrossi argues that they were not an authentic act of "magisterium" as such.
In a follow-up post, Rorate Caeli adds a further extract from the article describing Propaganda Fide's reaction to the discovery in the late 19th century that some manuscripts of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari lacked the institution narrative.
It was at this time that an instruction of the Holy See’s Congregatio de Propaganda Fide to Catholic missionaries in the Near East instructed them to uproot the “incredible abuse” of Mass without the words of consecration and to instruct about the true form of the sacrament of the Eucharist.The question of competence and magisterium is only one of the areas of research related to the Anaphora of Addai and Mari. There are versions of this Anaphora that do have the words of institution. Another area of disagreement is whether the version without the words of institution is in fact a corrupt version of an earlier prayer.
Here is the photo that Fr Z took of me pouring a drink for someone behind the bar. So far, I have gone along with the story that this is "real ale". 
Of course, it was really a more Papally favoured tipple:
Here is the "video" I promised. As usual, it is really a slideshow with some background music. Sorry about the random transitions - it is microsoft's auto selection because there are over a hundred photos in the "movie" and I didn't have time to do all the transitions individually. The music is one of Vivaldi's wind and string concertos - because I happen to have it on my hard drive. Just a way of showing you lots of photos all at once.
It really was a most enjoyable day - about a hundred people came which was very good for us on a Saturday. With the procession, Mass and Benediction, we were in Church for two hours. The mother of one of our servers came with her younger daughter who is preparing for her first Holy Communion. Mum brought a book along in case it was all a bit much for her. In fact, she did not look at the book all the way through but was fascinated to watch all the ceremonies.
After Benediction, schola, servers, sacristy team and clerics repaired to the parish Hall. At my request, the Social Club got in some real ale for the schola and senior servers. This was served at room temperature - unlike the cold lager which Jonathan Hague described as "Novus Ordo Eurofizz" - a name which has stuck. Trisha who runs our lunch club cooked up plenty of burgers, hot dogs and chips so that people could stay around for a while.
Here's something I left in draft and forgot to post - and it's nearly a week! Karen at Gem of the Ocean has given my blog an "Excellent" award. I'm very grateful and apologise for not saying "Thank You" earlier. My late Auntie Stella, an old-fashioned nun, would give me one of those kindly-but-disappointed looks that would make me want to hide under the chair.
The condition of accepting the award is that you have to pass it on to ten other people. If you accept the award, you have to give it to ten other bloggers. Karen's list is fun reading because halfway through it becomes the plot for a Father Brown murder mystery involving various priest bloggers. (See. I love it when they grade on the curve!)
For my list of awards, I have chosen some excellent blogs that I haven't linked to recently:
Fr Zuhlsdorf is currently staying with me at Blackfen. He has some photos up from yesterday's Missa Cantata for Candlemas and our gathering afterwards. (See Candle-Mass) I handed Mulier Fortis my camera before Mass and so there are plenty of other photos. I'll make these up into a "video" for YouTube when I get a moment.
Fr Z kindly said the evening Mass for me but then upbraided me afterwards for giving him a Missal with the dreaded ICEL prayers in it. In fact, I have a spare copy of the hand-missal sized NLC Missal which is still legitimate in England and Wales and have given him this for his interest. In the evening we went through the prayers and found that although the NLC is vastly better than ICEL, it still leaves something to be desired. It has an aversion to relative clauses and I seem to remember that this was policy at the time.
I'm off round to Wonersh tonight and will be there for the "St John's Day" celebrations on Tuesday so I should have some time tomorrow afternoon to post a few things that are of interest. I have just had a live show of Fr Z fisking an article by Richard McBrien. (Richard McBrien praises Archbp. Marini’s book: the usual cliches)
A commenter sent me a link to this article in the Scots paper "Daily Record". It's a fine example of how to get some original material for a story to make it more interesting for readers. Research? Contacts? Don't be silly, just make it up as you go along! Saves so much effort :-)
Pope Is Secret Fanta Fan
THE Pope has been revealed as a secret Fanta drinker [it's not a secret - everyone in Rome knows this] after a trip to the Vatican by Archbishop of York John Sentamu.
He took Pope Benedict XVI a case of Holy Grail beer, brewed in Yorkshire, but was in turn handed a glass of the fizzy orange drink. [No he wasn't. This is completely invented.]
Aides [who?] say the German-born Pope is addicted to Fanta [no they don't] and guzzles down four cans a day [really?] - which adds up to 1460 cans a year. [Well yes 4 x 365=1460. congratulations for getting that right!]
Vatican spokesman Father Tim Finigan [Well thanks! But actually that's invented too.] said: "The Holy Father shuns booze and tries to convert all his guests to the benefits of pop. ["Fr Tim, why say such a daft thing?" Well, as you might have guessed, I didn't.]
"He prefers Fanta. I'm not really sure why, perhaps because it was originally created in Germany.
"But he goes through at least three or four cans a day and always has it with his evening meal." [Nope. didn't say that either.]
In 2002, the Benedictine Community of nuns decided that they would move from their Monastery, Stanbrook Abbey. Here is the announcement made at the time on the website of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales: Stanbrook Abbey to move.
About a year ago, the Daily Telegraph reported offers were being invited in the region of £6 million (sterling). I have just heard that the sale of Stanbrook Abbey has fallen through and that the whole property is up for sale again.
It would be wonderful if this property were to remain in Catholic hands - what a splendid setting it would be for a Catholic educational establishment, for example. The most likely alternative fate for the beautiful Abbey and Church is that it will fall into the hands of a property developer to be converted into luxury retirement flats: the fate of several other former monasteries.
Stanbrook is near to the M5 motorway and close to both Birmingham and Cheltenham. Included in the deal is 21.5 acres of land and the Abbey Church, designed by Edward Welby Pugin.
The Stanbrook Abbey website has more pictures and there are some good black and white photos at Powick parish's page for Stanbrook Abbey. Here is the advertisement from the website of Andrew Grant Estate Agents:
By Direction of the Benedictine Community
MONASTERY & ASSOCIATED BUILDINGS REDEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY. APPROXIMATELY 21.5 ACRES
Victorian Abbey approx: 49,000 sq ft.
Magnificent Grade II Listed Church - approx: 6,000 sq ft (ground floor).
The Old House approx: 10,000 sq ft.
The Presbytery (Stanbrook Hall) approx: 5,000 sq ft.
St Mary's House, Victorian and later approx: 7,000 sq ft.
Market Hall in need of refurbishment approx: 2,000 sq ft.
For further information please contact Country Homes Department 01905 734735 or country.homes@andrew-grant.co.uk
Über-blogger Fr Zuhlsdorf of What Does the Prayer Really Say arrived on schedule in England this morning. We took a light lunch before I went over to St Thomas More School to assist at Mass celebrated by Bishop Patrick Lynch for Amy Curran and Georgina Fox. Please continue to remember them and their families in your prayers.
After I had finished various parish duties we repaired to the friendly Spanish restaurant Los Parrales at the Oval for a reasonably early supper of seafood paella, and some conversation about liturgy, history, and theology. After a visit to Rome next week, Fr Z will be speaking to the Oxford Newman Society on Friday 15 Feb and taking part in a blogfest on Saturday 16th. He's now in bed recovering from a day and a half's travel from Minnesota and will be joining us in the morning for the Candlemas Missa Cantata.
We'll get some photos sometime tomorrow - probably involving spoons and Fanta and suchlike...
The truth that contraception does not reliably prevent pregnancy has been known to pro-lifers for a long time. Groups such as the Good Counsel Network and the Sisters of the Gospel of Life will tell you that most of the women that come for help in a crisis pregnancy have been using one or more forms of contraception. (Midwives I have spoken to also affirm that a significant proportion of the women whom they help in giving birth have also been using contraceptives.)
It is nevertheless interesting to see that Marie Stopes International is now willing to admit this truth: British Abortion Business Admits Birth Control Doesn't Prevent Pregnancy. Of course, their answer is to call for more education about birth control. (That is, the birth control that they admit is not actually stopping pregnancy.)
This received the other day:
A couple of weeks ago, I posted an item about the St Gregory's Academy promotional video. The full 24 minute video is now available to view at the Academy's website.
A moving video of the destruction of a Church in the 1930s under Stalin's communist regime:
Here is the text accompanying the video: lest we forget:
Persecution of Christians in Atheist Soviet Union
The most oppressive and human-killing regime's have been when Atheists have taken over governments. Nevertheless, atheists claim that people of faith are to blame for mass amounts of people's lives being taken. This is not based on facts. In the past century, Atheism forced its beliefs on people of faith or simply slaughtered hundreds of millions of them.
Russian Atheist Government Atrocities:
The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly all of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited.
The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools.
Actions against Orthodox priests and believers along with execution included torture being sent to prison camps, labour camps or mental hospitals. Christians were also subjected to psychological punishment or torture and mind control experimentation in order to force them give up their religious convictions.
Many Christian believers in the Soviet Union were imprisoned for no other reason than believing in God. Many have recently been canonized as saints following their death at the hands of Soviet authorities.
An intense ideological anti-Christian campaign was carried out throughout the history of the Soviet Union. An extensive education and propaganda campaign was undertaken to convince people, especially the children and youth, not to become believers. The role of the Christian religion and the Church was painted in black colors in school textbooks
School students were encouraged to taunt and use peer pressure against classmates wearing crosses or otherwise professing their faith. In the 1920s there were many "anti-God" publications and social clubs sponsored by the government, most notably the scathingly satirical "Godless at the Workbench" (безбожник).
Criticism of atheism in the Soviet Union was strictly forbidden and could lead to imprisonment. Anti-religious propaganda was openly sponsored and encouraged by the government, which the Church was not given an opportunity to publicly respond to. The government youth organization, the Komsomol, encouraged its members to vandalize Orthodox Churches and harass worshippers. Source: Википедия
Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen
The first post on this blog gives an introduction to the concept of the hermeneutic of reform and continuity in the words of Pope Benedict XVI.
Yes, but please give me a link, and please credit people that I have credited. For details, see the licence below:
Parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen
Trustee of The Faith Movement
Founder of the Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life
Visiting lecturer in Sacramental Theology at St John's Seminary, Wonersh
Uncle to 10 nephews and 7 nieces, and great-uncle to 2 great nieces and a great nephew
Bible version - Clementine Vulgate
Spiritual Classic - Introduction to the Devout Life
Church Father - St Hilary of Poitiers
Theologian - Blessed John Duns Scotus
Period - The Counter Reformation
English Martyr - St John Fisher
Mass setting - Lux et Origo
The television
ICEL "translations"
The hermeneutic of discontinuity
Anti-life, anti-family policy masquerading as "equality"
Creative liturgy
Ceterum autem censeo Tabulam esse delendam
The "Links" and "Blogroll" sections of the sidebar contain links to sites that the author has found interesting or useful and thinks may be interesting or useful to readers of this blog. However, no responsibility can be accepted for the content of any external webiste and a link to an external website does not of itself imply that the author agrees with any or all of the contents of the website to which the link refers. Contrariis quibuslibet minime obstantibus
Furthermore, this blog is a purely personal endeavour: the thoughts and opinions expresed are those of the author and should not be construed as representing the policy of his parish, the Archdiocese of Southwark, the Vatican, the Holy Spirit or anyone else. To quote Fr Jim Tucker, "All of this should go without saying, but common sense is surprisingly uncommon."
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