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Rinunce e nomine

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Most days I take a look at the Vatican Bollettino which gives news of " Rinunce e nomine " (resignations and appointments), forthcoming press conferences, a list of who has been given an audience, and the text of addresses by the Holy Father. It usually goes out around midday Italian time so 11am-ish for us in England. It is not often exciting: I don't usually know anything about the people who have resigned or been given office, although it is always of interest to read the potted biography of a new Bishop who has been appointed. Today, the Rinunce e nomine is rather more spectacular than usual. First, the widely-rumoured appointment of Archbishop Ranjith to the Diocese of Colombo has been announced. I had the pleasure of meeting His Grace once or twice and found him to be a man of unfailing courtesy and humility; as we know from his many public statements bearing on controversial liturgical matters, these qualities are coupled with courage and an absence of careerism....
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Sacred Heart: Mass at St Raphael's, Surbiton

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A Low Mass in the usus antiquior will be celebrated St Raphael's, Surbiton (Portsmouth Road KT6 4EL) for the Feast of the Sacred Heart this Friday at 7.30pm, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament to celebrate the beginning of the 'Year of the Priesthood' called by Pope Benedict XVI. Surbiton is the other side of Southwark Diocese from me so I hope that this information will be useful to those of you over that way. The Church is a magnificent Italianate Church designed by Charles Parker and built in 1846; it is well worth visiting. Here is a photo from the parish website of the altar prepared for Benediction:
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Blessed Sacrament Procession, Toledo

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Each year, at Toledo, there are two Blessed Sacrament Processions, one on the feast day and another on the following Sunday. These are major occasions, with any people travelling specially. The Cathedral is packed for both processions. During the procession, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in the " Custodia de Arfe ", the monstrance crafted by Enrique de Arfe who was in fact German, (from near Cologne). It is constructed in silver (presumably gilt) and houses a smaller inner monstrance made of gold, which belonged to Isabella of Castile. The work was completed in 1524. Many thanks to a correspondent in Spain for sending some information about this year's processions, and links to some YouTube clips. In the first video, you can see a part of the procession which includes a ceremonial armed guard: The second video is shown towards the end of the procession as the Blessed Sacrament is carried towards the High Altar. The Sunday procession was also chosen by Cardinal Cañizare...
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OFCOM consultation

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The UK Communications Regulator, OFCOM , has launched a consultation on their broadcasting code. Thre is more information on this at the Mediawatch-uk website. In the Plain English Campaign approved "Short Guide to what we do", OFCOM states that one of its legal duties is to ensure that: people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material This makes it clear that the "on-off" switch is not an adequate answer to harmful and offensive broadcast material. Here are some links for the consultation: Press announcement of the Code review Summary consultation paper Full consultation documents Online Response Form Mediawatch-uk commented: A news release issued today says: “Ofcom has in place a number of rules relating to offensive language and the watershed. Our rules are applied on the basis of Ofcom’s understanding of the attitudes of viewers and listeners, and this is underpinned by audience research”. In a pre consulta...
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Prayer and fasting for life

Each month, the Good Counsel Network invites people to a National Day of Prayer & Fasting for Life. This month, the day is Tuesday 23rd June, Vigil of the Birth of St John the Baptist. The intention is simple: to pray and fast for the end of abortion and euthanasia.
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Little Oratory Children's Pilgrimage

The family group at London's Little Oratory will be having a pilgrimage on Saturday 27 June at St Edmund's College in Hertfordshire. There will be Mass at 10.30am, followed by a picnic and the pilgrimage itself in the surrounding countryside. Children and pushchairs are most welcome. Father Nicolas du Chaxel, will be taking part, so that talks and confessions can be in both French and English. There will be a beautiful Mass, lots of chant and singing, the Rosary, a wonderful walk, a delicious picnic and plenty of children running all around so do go along for a lovely day. The next Traditional Sunday Mass for children in the Little Oratory will be on Sunday 21 June at the usual time of 11.15 am. At this Mass, there will be five first communions from the French community. At Mass, the children and their parents are warmly encouraged to join in with the hymns, chant and responses and even to sing twice in French! Exceptionally, there will be no rehearsal of the Communion hymn in...
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Blessed Sacrament Procession

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Each year, the deaneries of Bexley and Greenwich have a Blessed Sacrament Procession at the ruins of the Lesnes Abbey at Abbey Wood. Today, Bishop Pat Lynch carried the Blessed Sacrament, assisted by Rev Michael Baldry, a permanent Deacon from Blackfen parish. There seemed to be more people than ever this year, on a gloriously sunny afternoon. This photo shows just a small part of the procession: The first Communion children are invited to take a special place in the procession. Here is one of the children from my parish with Bishop Lynch and proud Mum and Dad:
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Borrowed vestments

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This is the chasuble that we used for the feast of Corpus Christi on Thursday and for our usus antiquior Mass today. They are kindly loaned by the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians in Folkestone. The chasuble has a representation of the Last Supper and of the four evangelists. (Sorry for the differences in colour. The top photo better conveys the colour of the chasuble.)
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Liturgy wars

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I started a friendly fight with St Mary Magdalen's, Brighton the other day over the provision of good liturgy. Above you can see our Mass for Corpus Christi with the peculiarity that the second ablution is carried out just by the corporal rather than at the epistle side of the altar, on account of the Blessed Sacrament having just been exposed. Here you can see the incensation of the Blessed Sacrament just before we begin the Procession. Note the second thurifer in action on the gospel side: St Mary Magdalen's had High Mass with some magnificent vestments. Fr Sean Finnegan was celebrant, Dr Alcuin Reid Deacon, and Fr Ray Blake (parish priest) subdeacon. Fr Ray comments in his post ( Corpus Christi at SMM ) on his own mistakes but these are magnified when you are ministering alongside the author of the latest revision of "The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described" and I'm sure Fr Ray did well. He throws down another gauntlet in saying that they had more doctorate...
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Force-fed Catholic media

An article by Louie Verrecchio in Catholic Exchange highlights some problems that have been perceived with the Catholic News Service by a number of people, including Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, who called for a "new direction". (See: Catholic Media Mutiny ) One issue is the syndication of articles by Douglas Kmiec to Catholic publications worldwide. Kmiec applauded the nomination of pro-abortion Catholic Kathleen Sebelius to head the US Department of Health and Human Services and offered praise for the President’s decision to overturn the “Mexico City Policy” thereby forcing American taxpayers to fund overseas abortions.
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Two articles on the use of Latin

Athanasius, who writes the blog Suffering World , is an Oxford D.Phil student researching ancient Greek literature. He has a very good post on the use of Latin in the Liturgy, correcting along the way, the misconception that Latin was introduced into the Liturgy because it was easier for the people to understand. See: Is there anything special about Latin? . A few months ago, he also had an article on the resurgence of interest in Latin among young people. See: The language of all ages .
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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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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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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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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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