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Vatican team chosen for fixture with SSPX?

Rorate Caeli has picked up a rumour of the names chosen for the Vatican team to be involved in doctrinal discussions with the SSPX. I was especially interested to see the name of Fr Karl Becker SJ included since I did his course many years ago at the Gregorian University. For those who read French or don't mind hacking through a google translation, there is an interesting article at Disputationes by Abbé Claude Barthe discussing the possible direction of the talks. See: Discussions Rome / FSSPX : un point de vue théologique .
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Birmingham to boil

Dizzy Thinks has uncovered an alarming notice from the Department of Energy and Climate Change telling us that "by 2080 the temperature for the hottest day of the year in the West Midlands could increase by a scorching 100 C" As he points out, the Brummies will no longer need a kettle to make a cup of tea so that should help out a bit with the climate. The DECC have removed a nought now but you can see the original at: Miliband predicts Birmingham population will boil to death by 2080 H/T @edwestonline at Twitter.
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Southwark Vocations website update

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The Southwark Vocations website has had a makeover with some good photos (including some of my parishioners on one page) and the blog integrated into the website. (When looking at people's website, I often check the page source to see whether any particular tool was used to build it, what the html is like and so on. This one has clean, valid markup and was generated by iWeb-Build so I had a look on google to see what that was. Then, of course, I remembered that Fr Langridge is a Mac man!)
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Rosary and Benediction at Blackfen

Mulier Fortis has been making video slide shows of the various services that form a regular part of our liturgical schedule at Blackfen. I intend to put these on the parish website to illustrate the programme that we have here. Here is the slide show for our Thursday evening Rosary and Benediction. Look at the macmclernon channel on YouTube for other videos.
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Who should be denied a Catholic funeral?

An amusing and pertinent post by Diogenes: Reading Comprehension
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Is it raining?

In England, of course, we don't usually need to imitate rain... H/T The Deacons's Bench
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Participatio Actuosa

Fr Ray Blake has an amusing story about Gladstone's sister's enthusiastic but inappropriate effort at active participation in the Liturgy.
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Patriarch Twal visiting London

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Aid to the Church in Need are welcoming His Beatitude, Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem next Tuesday 8th September 1009. After celebrating and preaching at the 5.30pm Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the Patriarch will be giving a speech in Westminster Cathedral Hall. Drinks, canapés and other light refreshments will be available and entry is free of charge. His Beatitude has recently been encouraged by the visit of Pope Benedict to the Holy Land; nevertheless, the declining Christian population in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, caused principally by emigration, has posed considerable problems for the Church's work in the region.
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Abstinence? Don't even touch!

Creative Minority Report has a good piece on the advice given to students at schools in Long Island, New York. Apparently the danger of swine flu has prompted officials to advise youngsters not to touch each other. Strange, given the politically correct skepticism about abstinence programmes! (See: I Thought Abstinence Was Unrealistic .) CMR has better advice, surely: As studies (not shown here or even available anywhere) have clearly indicated, children are going to touch each other no matter what those in authority tell them, so it's best to simply protect the children so that they touch each other in the safest manner possible. Perhaps even full body condoms are the way to go. So we agree? Let's keep our kids safe.
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Solidarity with Vietnamese blogger

A catechumen of the Archdiocese of Hanoi, Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, which means “Wind Trader” has been arrested and detained for criticising the Vietnamese government's distortion of the Pope's speech to the Vietnamese Bishops at their Ad Limina visit. I humbly encourage bloggers to post on this injustice. The Wind Trader needs our support and the Vietnamese government needs to know that its distortion of the Holy Father's message is open to scrutiny from the rest of the world. VietCatholic news: Pope's speech distorted, catechumen, dissident bloggers arrested See also the CNA article Vietnamese blogger arrested for challenging media distortions of Pope's speech
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Which doctrine is most important?

Condemnation of abortion or condemnation of white supremacism? LifeSite news has a thought-provoking article from Fr Brian Harrison at the Oblates of Wisdom Study Center, St Louis, Missouri. See: Priest: Imagine the Funeral if Kennedy was an Anti-Semite Rather Than Pro-Abortion . Quite so! This is a very good article setting out the double standards that operate so easily in the Church's participation in public life. This is not a new problem but it is one over which we need to be constantly vigilant.
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Popular posts from this blog

Congratulations to Paul and Catherine

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Married today at Our Lady of the Rosary Father, keep them always true to your commandments. Keep them faithful in marriage, and let them be living examples of Christian life. Give them the strength which comes from the gospel so that they may be witnesses of Christ to others. Bless them with children and help them to be good parents. May they live to see their children's children. And, after a happy old age, grant them fulness of life with the saints in the kingdom of heaven. from the Nuptial Blessing
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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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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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Original thought

St Josemaria Escriva said that we are called to the heroism of finishing each particular task. I fail on this in the matter of reading books - there always seem to be half a dozen in progress. My aim is to have just two - one for spiritual reading and one for educational reading. The book for spiritual reading does not have to be finished if it turns out that something else is appropriate. For example, I have recently begun again to read St Therese's "Story of a Soul." At Parkminster today, I explained to the Novice Master that this was my latest enthusiasm. He told me that one of the Fathers had spent decades on the study of St Therese; in doing so he had reached conclusions that went contrary to those of many other scholars of the little flower. This made me chuckle and I certainly want to find out what he has said. Since he is Spanish, this would give me a chance to improve my knowledge of that important language. I recalled a story that Fr Holloway once told of an eld...
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