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Showing posts with the label Social Teaching

Blog: The Catholic Whistle

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Father of three, Paul Mallinder, writes a blog called Catholic Whistle devoted especially to Catholic Social Teaching. Recently he asked an interesting question about the relationship between Liturgy and Catholic Social teaching. You might want to pop over and offer your own pearls of wisdom in the combox...
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Opuscula

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If you are interested in social teaching, and in particular, the question of continuity-rupture in this context, you will be interested in Opuscula , the blog written by K Gurries. For example, his post On Globalization and Political Authority analyses the concept of globalisation in Caritas in Veritate and concludes with a survey of papal statements on International Order, asking the question "Rupture or Continuity?" More recently, there is a post on The Intervention of Mgr. Dupanloup (Part I) looking at how the great Bishop of Orleans defended the encyclical letter of Blessed Pius IX Quanta Cura in the face of fierce hostility in the press.
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A magnificent encyclical in a great tradition

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The Holy Father’s new encyclical Caritas in Veritate is typical of his writing generally. Each individual sentence is perfectly lucid and yet taken as a whole it is a dense read, demanding full attention and often requiring the reader to go back again to take in the full impact of the powerful ideas expounded. My personal reaction after finishing it was that this is a superb exposition of the Church’s social teaching, tailored expertly to our present time. As well as being magisterial in the theological sense, it is a fine example of the work of our “ papa professore ”. Beginning in a way that reflects the best quality of the Holy Father’s German academic background, an orderly and logical approach to complex topics, the introduction offers an exposition of the mutual relationship between charity and truth, explaining that truth must be sought and expressed within the “economy” of charity but that charity in its turn must be “understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth” ...
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Caritas in veritate

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Pope Benedict's encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate is now published. I have downloaded it ready for reading later after a meeting about the Jubilee celebrations, Mass, and the Union of Catholic Mothers' Barbecue. (Here's how Fr Z was reading it earlier.) Oh, well, just one quotation: It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new . It is one thing to draw attention to the particular characteristics of one Encyclical or another, of the teaching of one Pope or another, but quite another to lose sight of the coherence of the overall doctrinal corpus. Coherence does not mean a closed system: on the contrary, it means dynamic faithfulness to a light received. Some useful links : Text of the encyclical Various e-book formats prepared by the Curt Jester Order a printed copy from the CTS (£2.95) Vatican Press conf...
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Popular posts from this blog

Baptism water rosary photo

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This photo is doing the rounds at the moment. Here is the accompanying text: This was taken at the baptism of Valentino Mora, son of Erica, a single mom of 21 who asked the photographer to take a picture of her son for free. The photo of the baptism of Valentino Mora is sweeping the Internet, because at the time the priest pours the Holy water over his head, the water flows in the shape of a rosary. This story began at the Parish of the Assumption of Our Lady in Cordova, Spain, where the baptism of a one month baby took place. At the time that Valentino came to the baptismal font for the sacrament of baptism, Erica asked the photographer Maria Silvana Salles, who was hired by other parents baptizing their babies, to take a photo of her son as a favor, since the young mother had no way of paying for it. The photographer, moved by Erica's request, agreed to take a photo of Valentino. Maria Silvana works with a traditional camera and had to send the film to be developed to a shop in ...
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Is your alb back to front?

Fr Z has initiated a roaring discussion by asking the simple question whether maniples can be used in the Novus Ordo Mass. ( What Does The Prayer Really Say?: Maniples ) One commenter has referred to an important source for the question that has proved popular among modern liturgists. An answer in Notitiae of 1978 said: "When the rubrics of the Missal of Paul VI say nothing or say little on particulars in some places, it is not to be inferred that the former rite should be observed. Therefore, the multiple and complex gestures for incensation as prescribed in the former Missal are not to be resumed." This is, of course, a strange answer. Saying that it must not be inferred that a rite should be used does not imply that it must not be used. We need to check the Latin of this text. (If anyone with access to a library can check it, I have seen the reference given elsewhere as Notitiae 14 (1978) 301-302, no. 2) Let us in any case take the more restrictive interpretation, bel...
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Saint Gabriel

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The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
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1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
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The blessing of a chariot

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When I studied Latin in Rome with Fr Reginald Foster, he used to suggest that a good word for a car was autorhaeda , a word in fact used in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis of 1965 when speaking of a visit made by Pope Paul VI to the Basilica of St Chrysogonus in Trastevere. The word raeda (without the "h") was used by Caesar, Cicero and Horace for a travelling wagon with four wheels and the addition of "auto" does not make for too awful a neologism. In the Rituale Romanum , the blessing for a motor vehicle is the Benedictio vehiculi seu currus . The word currus is normally translated as chariot and reflects the way that people often view their car. Since one's motor vehicle is more likely to be the locus of one's death or injury than many other artefacts, it does make sense to have it blessed. Above you can see us striding purposefully past the Georgian houses of Victoria Road and here is the blessing of the classic mini: The blessing given in the ...
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