The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Suor Lella at the Papa Ratzinger Forum provides a summary of a recent interview given by Cardinal Bertone to La Repubblica . One quote (my own translation): Pope Ratzinger is preparing a document on bioethics, on biogenetics, and in particular on the protection of the embryo. The Pope intends to forbid any manipulation of the embryo because not all that is technically possible' is morally admissible. Pope Benedict has, according to the article, mandated the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to study the particular questions by means of a meeting of experts. Bertone said that Pope John Paul had proposed an encyclical on natural law and that the idea was still fruitful. He also referred to the instruction Donum Vitae , issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger in 1987. The report continues: The cardinal declared that it is not yet decided whether to write a document ex novo or to draw up an appendix to Donum Vitae .

On the official site for the 5th World Meeting for Families has this wonderful blurb on the English page for "Fair": The Fair the International of the Families will be celebrated within the framework of the V World-wide Encounter of the Families. The Church not only expresses the conceptual frame, “the theory” about the marriage and of the family, but that, mainly, wants to show what “it makes” anywhere in the world in order to join and to spread to the gift of the family like community of life and love and source of human happiness. One is to offer the opportunity of which the Associations, Organizations and Organizations that work for the family, anywhere in the world, to have a place to show their identity, activities, projects and experience. In the same way and to all those that wish to visit the contest, there is a unique space where they will be able to enjoy, to play , to learn and to amuse themselves at any moment. A playful zone with authentic proposals so that in...

And what a headbutt! A somewhat lacklustre world cup final was enlivened in the closing minutes of extra time by what must surely be one of the all time classic sending-off offences at this level of the competition. Minutes later, with two of France's key penalty takers out of the game, the Italians went on to stamp their authority on the shoot-out. There was some speculation about who Pope Benedict would have been supporting in the Germany v Italy semi-final. It is worth recalling his report in Milestones of how, during his youth, the Party changed the curriculum in German schools. The study of Greek was abolished and the time allocated to Latin was much reduced. He observed: Not one of the professors of classical studies who belonged to the old guard had joined the Party, despite the considerable pressure exerted on government employees. Soon after I arrived at the gymnasium , the second headmaster was removed from his post because he did not bend to the new masters. In retrospe...

OK so there are some great videos promoting priestly vocations. Here's one for women, promoting the vocation to consecrated life within the Regnum Christi movement. I found the closing punchline really quite moving. Here's the hosting site if you want to play it in realplayer or windows media player.

I suppose you Americans have seen it ages ago but visiting The Moral Highground , I just got the link for this awesome vocations video from the Archdiocese of New York. The theme is a Blessed Sacrament Procession through the streets of NY; it includes CFRs, Missionaries of Charity and a voice-over of Pope John Paul. You can go to the hosting site if you want to play it in realplayer or windows media player.

Hat tip to Ma Ward for this one. Anyone any idea where it is from? Even better, anyone know of a full-length video of High Mass from the 40s or 50s?

Sorry, yes, I know I should grow up - just couldn't resist it. Hat tip to Fr Nick Schofield whose Tridentine Mass for Dummies put me on to the Sign Generator site.

Today is the first anniversary of the 7 July 2005 London bombings which killed 52 people. Please remember the victims in your prayers. Immediately after the attacks, the website We're not afraid was launched. In their own words: "We’re not afraid is an outlet for the global community to speak out against the acts of terror that have struck London, Madrid, New York, Baghdad, Basra, Tikrit, Gaza, Tel-Aviv, Afghanistan, Bali, and against the atrocities occurring in cities around the world each and every day. It is a worldwide action for people not willing to be cowed by terrorism and fear mongering. The historical response to these types of attacks has been a show of deadly force; we believe that there is a better way. We refuse to respond to aggression and hatred in kind. Instead, we who are not afraid will continue to live our lives the best way we know how. We will work, we will play, we will laugh, we will live. We will not waste one moment, nor sacrifice one bit of our fre...

Having made some remarks on Comments on blogs in general , I want to give some information on how I deal with comments on this blog. Given the nature of a blog, as outlined, I do not have to do so. I could zap all comments, pick only the ones that do not contain grammatical errors, reject any that begin with the letter R or whatever. I choose to share a few thoughts on the subject because I think it is a nice thing to do. Comments are moderated on this blog. That means I see them before they are posted and I can publish them or reject them. I started doing this because some inflammatory and/or slanderous comments appeared and were on the internet for a while before I saw them and deleted them. I don’t yet use “Word Verification” but if I start getting spam comments, I will have to turn it on. (If you don’t know what “Word Verification” is, you can look it up on Blogger .) I will usually reject Comments that insult or slander other people. Comments that include vulgarity, blasphemy etc....

First an introductory remark or two on what a blog is and is not. A blog is where an author posts items that may be of interest to others. If nobody read the blog, it would be rather pointless and it would be better to write a diary or something. The author takes time to write the stuff and therefore “owns” the blog. It is a great medium for free and democratic publishing and is becoming more influential. Some popular blogs can be subversive of vested interests and powerful institutions. A blog is not a discussion forum or a message board. Blogs can be used for those purposes just as a knife can be used as a screwdriver but it is better to use the correct tool. Comments on a blog may be unmoderated, or moderated in various ways. Most people do not allow abusive or spam comments. On a blog with comment moderation, these will be rejected before they are posted. On a blog without moderation, they will be deleted as soon as they are found. Some blogs have lively discussions in the comment ...

Enjoyed a challenging and enlightening discussion this evening about this blog. In consequence, I have posted on the sidebar a link to the first post on this blog which explains the title. Near the bottom of the sidebar, there is a partly tongue-in-cheek "Disclaimer (of sorts)". I accept that including a site on the blogroll does imply some sort of endorsement. However, I do need to make it clear that I don't necessarily agree with everything on the blogs that I have linked to. Similarly, as I have chosen to moderate comments, I have to accept some responsibility for the comments that do get published. However, again, I don't necessarily agree with the content or tone of all of them. What I need to do next is to post something indicating how I decide which comments to publish or reject. I've had something prepared for a while so it is just a question of editing it a bit. The trouble is: once you start editing the template, it is easy to get carried away. So I hav...