The National Catholic Reporter, which Americans sometimes portray as their equivalent of the Tablet, comes out this week with an astonishing attack on Cardinal Rodé which covers a sideswipe at the Pontificate of Pope Benedict. Fr Z has a fisk on the article, describing it as a "nutty" - which seems fair. It's actually quite funny as well. Here's the purple passage:
Or is he upset that most do not prefer, as he does, dressing up in the trappings of royalty, the yards of silk in the cappa magna, the canopies and throne chairs and all the rest -- being attended by his minions, younger priests in lacy surplices, birettas and old-fashioned vestments encrusted with gold thread and jewels -- all the while speaking in a dead language, facing a wall, his back to the people?This asinine description of Mass celebrated ad orientem in the timeless language of the Church, with dignified vestments, will doubtless be quoted by young traddies over pints of beer and guffaws of laughter for some time to come. As you wipe off the flecks of virtual spittle shooting out from the NCR, consider that the "nostalgia" most evident in articles such as this is for the mid-1970s, the era of glam rock, AcrilanTM, and the eight track stereo. I was there. I share the fond memories; but as they say, it is time to move forwards, not backwards.
12 comments:
GEEZ, you ought to put a warning on that post, the eyes can not unsee that which has been seen. [Who grabbed the red hot poker? I need it for my eyes! At least the Nehru jackets were gone by then.]
Someone wake me when the last hippy is dead and buried -- we'll dance in the streets together.
That picture - priest, deacon and subdeacon vested for an NCR in-house 'Mass' ca 1970, right?
I can see it now: multicoloured candles on a little coffee table, jos-sticks, guitars and flutes playing "We shall overcome", ceramic 'cup and plate', finest Guatemalan fairtrade shiraz and wholemeal hosts, the faint whiff of cannabis in the air.....
I do not find the NCR's sarcastic comments funny; I find them disgusting. They remind me of Bertrand Russell.
I am, BTW, an Anglican.
"fond memories"???!!!
If you remember the 60s, you weren't there, man. If you remember the 70s fondly, may I recommend a week at the Priory.
Dead language? Rubbish! If you take religion out of the picture, Latin is used by biologists all over the world, and by medicine. When I was training to be a psychiatric nurse, our lesson on the anatomy of the brain was preceeded by a whistlestop Latin lesson; and the phrase "angor animi" describes perfectly and economically the sense of dread of something you can't quite put your finger on that can accompany some heart conditions.
So Latin's alive and well. But put religion back into the picture, and you'll see it's both thriving and beautiful. Ask anybody who's ever bought a Gregorian Chant CD.
It's the Barry Bucknell generation. Anyone remember him? The first telly DIY man, probably about the same time as the Council: 'We'll soon rip out that nasty Georgian fireplace and put in a lovely piece of Formica', etc., etc. Clearly, they're still around.
The National catholic [sic] Reporter is in rear-guard overdrive these days in the number of articles that they daily publish that are opposed to the teachings of the Pope and the Magisterium.
I can't believe that any but their aging current subscribers are bothering to read those articles with the intention of believing them.
Dear Father Finigan
"Jam lucis orto sidere" were the words that Christ said to me in a big dream when I was living in Our Lady of the Rosary's Parish, Blackfen.
I am very much alive, and so is new centre of excellence for Latin RC worship in England!
"Getting to Blackfen" https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=25543378&postID=6136529598118761581
At the next General Election former Met Police Inspector Michael Barnbrook, the malevolent neo-Nazi BNP Police Spokesman, will be standing as a candidate for MP in Our Lady of the Rosary's Parish, Blackfen, which is in the late Sir Edward Heath's Old Bexley & Sidcup constituency.
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Yours sincerely
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More silk, more canopies, more birettas pleeease!
I didn't find the article at all amusing. That a supposedly Catholic paper would dare to attack a Cardinal of the Church is outrageous. Can't the bishop of the diocese in which the paper has its headquarters do something about this?
The article and comments seem like somthing out of a "Reformation Sunday" sermon. We have really lived thru a second Protestant Reformation, once again with the acquiescence of many Bishops and clergy.
One can almost feel the hatred in the remarks about vestments of "cloth of gold" and the Pontificale Romanum.
I think "Humanae Vitae" is one cause for their bitterness.
After reading this article a second time, I am reminded of the boast of Leon Trotsky, "Gone forever is the Russia of the Icons and cockroaches".
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