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Alternative reaction to Rowan Williams

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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?
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A treat for all the family

I just read Hilary's post reminding us to ask her why Christmas should be banned, especially in Britain ( Orwell's Picnic: Grinch Chronicles ) and thought "What the hell is she going on about?" Now I understand. Here is an excerpt from a London Dungeon Press Release : [...] the London Dungeon will be spreading ill-will amongst all men in an alternative 'Satan's grotto', from 13th to 26th December. Elves impaled on spikes and robins roasting over an open fire will greet visitors to the Tooley Street attraction, whilst Santa gently boils in a witch's cauldron. Only the naughtiest of children can perch on the knee of the sprawling red-cloaked prince of darkness before confessing their secret desires … but beware wishes often come true! The London Dungeon FAQ states that the attraction is accessible to the disabled and they welcome school parties. I bet they use low energy light bulbs, recycle their cardboard, and offer healthy snacks in the gift shop, too...
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Calling a spade a handled instrument for turning earth

Earlier this week, there was a report ( The Press: Ambushed ) of two men being ambushed and beaten up in Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire by a group of thirty youths. The local police commander, Chief Inspector Jon Carter said that he believed that a local group called the Ravy Terror Squad was responsible. He also said that he had a lead and intended to lock them up. Since then, several have been arrested in early morning raids. It was amusing, however, to see how careful he had to be to avoid using inflammatory language when describing the group: "This is not a gang as such, more a peer group which has got involved in crime and anti-social behaviour" Not a gang at all, nothing like that, no. H/T to Laban: Ravensthorpe Ravers whose article offers customary sensible comment on the whole story and its context.
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The therapeutic mentality and liturgy

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James Hitchcock wrote The Recovery of the Sacred in 1974 and, dusting off my copy of the first edition, I see that I read it in 1977. A year later, I read his earlier (1972) book "The Decline and Fall of Radical Catholicism". Hitchcock has a flair for bringing sociological and anthropological analysis to bear on matters of liturgy with devastating effectiveness. In the latest issue of Adoremus , which arrived here yesterday, he has an article discussing "how the therapeutic mentality affects the culture and Catholic worship." He draws from the work of the Jewish sociologist Philip Rieff whom Hitchcock describes as "not friendly to the Catholic Church overall" although he likes such things as the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins and Bach's B Minor Mass. Hitchcock applies Rieff's description of cultural change to the Liturgy, and specifically to the change that took place in the Liturgy in many places after the Second Vatican Council. Thus, before the...
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Comic book Catholics

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There has recently been some discussion of the use of Manga comic characters to promote vocations at the website Called Today . Adherents.com gathers information about adherents of different religions. One section has the Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters . They found a catholic priest making a cameo appearance in Batman: Dark Night Returns They also do a list of famous Catholics . Some of these are a bit obvious: I think I knew that GK Chesterton, Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo were Catholics - but I didn't know about James Cagney, Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery.
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Glastonbury - what really happened

The papers have made much of the supposed Catholic intimidation of witches at Glastonbury during the Youth 2000 festival. Fr Stephen has a sensible account at his post Glastonbury & Youth 2000 . It is an example of how our police have become straight-jacketed by political correctness, bureacracy and the fear of investigation. Quis custodit ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guards?) is not the question now in Britain but Quis custodit custodes custodum? (Who guards the guards' guards?). Answer: our political masters.
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Bernini's elephant Inscription

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Here's the elephant. (That's the Pantheon in the background.) And here is the inscription: It reads: SAPIENTIS AEGYPTI INSCULPTAS OBELISCO FIGURAS AB ELEPHANTO BELLUARUM FORTISSIMA GESTARI QUISQUIS HIC VIDES DOCUMENTUM INTELLIGE ROBUSTAE MENTIS ESSE SOLIDAM SAPIENTIAM SUSTINERE Which is to say "Whoever sees here that the symbols of the Egyptian sage, inscribed on the obelisk, are carried by the elephant, the strongest of the beasts: understand that it is a proof of a robust mind to sustain solid wisdom." I first read this inscription on a tour of the twelve obelisks of Rome, led by the incomparable Fr Reginald ("Reggie") Foster. He was the best teacher of anything that I ever knew and I always try to call in at the beginning of his class. 25 years on, he teaches at the same time, in the same room, with the same dry sense of humour and the same passionate love of Latin. The obelisk is outside the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva where St Catherine of Sien...
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Hippolytus and Eucharistic Prayer II

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When I was a student in Rome, I remember going with a priest for Mass in one of the ancient Churches. The priest said that he was going to use Eucharistic Prayer II because it was the most ancient of all the prayers and was specifically Roman, composed by Hippolytus. This was the standard view at that time (early 1980s) but has since been called into question. A number of people have recently mentioned the matter to me and so here are a few notes for you. In the 19th century, a number of ancient texts were discovered that were similar to the "Apostolic Constitutions", (of which the first modern edition was published in 1563). Among these texts was a document which came to be referred to as the “Egyptian Church Order”. In addition, the Canons of Hippolytus and the Testamentum Domini were discovered. The scholarly consensus in the early 20th century on the dependence of these documents was that the “Egyptian Church Order” was in fact the "Apostolic Tradition" of Hipp...
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CD 275: Paying cash for work done

A handyman who does work for me prefers for me to pay him in cash. Am I committing a sin if I agree to do so? It is fascinating to see how virtually the whole country has become engaged in the intricacies of moral debate on this issue, including the complex question of material or formal co-operation in evil. The broad consensus is correct according to Catholic moral teaching: there is absolutely nothing wrong in itself with paying somebody using cash, which is, after all, legal tender. However if we pay cash because of an explicit offer to reduce the cost of the work, and because this reduction is due to the evasion of income tax or VAT, then we are formally co-operating in evil, and committing a sin (probably a venial sin given the amount of tax normally involved.) If we simply have a suspicion that cash is requested in order to avoid tax, then we ought (within reason) to ask whether this is the case or not. The costs that small businesses incur with bank charges, credit card me...
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How to make an act of perfect contrition

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How can you go from imperfect to perfect contrition? Gabriella D from Australia asked me this on Twitter today and I want to give an answer because I think that many people misunderstand what we mean when we talk about “perfect contrition.” Perfect contrition is sorrow and detestation of sin arising out of the love of God. One way of exciting this contrition in our hearts is by considering the passion of Jesus Christ and making acts of love for Him. We can also think of the infinite love which God has for us, and express sorrow in our heart in the presence of this great love which we have offended. Imperfect contrition is sorrow and detestation for sin arising from a consideration of the ugliness of sin or out of the fear of hell. Disgust at the ugliness of sin is more common today than fear of hell. That is because we do not preach enough, or with sufficient conviction about the four last things. If a person commits an act of impurity, for example, perhaps by deliberately ...
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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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