The Ordinariate as the Church’s front porch

It is perhaps a bit premature, but I’ve been thinking for years that a new Anglican body within the Catholic Church will bring with it to Peter’s barque more than tasteful vestments and glorious formal hymnody and a sense for the  quaint and antiquated. It will bring fishers of men.

 

That has been my hope and it seems to be confirmed here and there that evangelization will be its mission.  Catholicism in English speaking lands

On Priesthood…

We are the imposters

who speak the truth.

The unknown men

whom all men know.

Dying

we live on.

Disciplined by suffering

we are done to death.

In our sorrow

we have always cause for joy.

Poor ourselves

we bring wealth to many.

Penniless

we own the world.

–Fr. James Burtchael, CSC

First Holy Cross Saint Announced: Brother Andre Bessette, The Miracle Man of Montreal

Long beloved in Canada, Brother Andre will soon become a favorite in America, too!!

His story is incredible in so many ways.  Thousands of miraculous physical healings were granted

An evening in the neighborhood: “Blessed are you when they curse you and utter every evil against you on account of me.”

Okay.  Despite the photo, I don’t want to get all dramatic here.  But, I was reminded last night as I often am here in Portland, OR, that there are some facts we Christians have to face.  And we will have to help our children face them, too.

I read in the paper a few weeks ago about a Socrates Cafe that has just started here in my neighborhood.  SC is a kind of loose discussion among folks from different walks of life of philosophical questions.  Having an otherwise useless BA in philo but a mind that is hard wired to the field I just had to get to this groovy little bar/cafe and see what it was all about.

The place was packed last night with about 30 folks who wanted to get philosophical.  I had been working all day and was in my clerics.  I figured I wouldn’t show my hand right away so I shifted my white collar tab to the side and out of sight.  Everybody wears black, so no big deal, I thought.

Our conversation was on the question, “What is the distinction between rights and priviledges?”  Cool topic, I thought.   It was going fine and I tried to help it along with some occasional comments–not dominating, just participating.

A couple of guys on the other side were very sharp and were clearly coming from a socialist point of view with many comments focused on exploitation, class tensions, injustices and conflicts.  All fair enough and worthy points.  Then suddenly the mood changed and there began a stream of caustic references to abusive Catholic

A Hearty Welcome Home to Another Former Anglican Bishop

The former assistant Bishop of Newcastle, Paul Richardson, has been received into full communion with the Holy See, I am pleased to reveal. Richardson – also a former Anglican bishop in Papua New Guinea and diocesan bishop of Wangaratta in Australia – was received into the Church at the chaplaincy at Durham University last month.

He tells me that

Forward in Faith Australia votes to join Ordinariate!

 

A Special General Meeting of Members of Forward in Faith Australia Inc. was held on Saturday 13 February at All Saints Kooyong in Melbourne to consider the following recommendations from the National Council regarding the future direction of the Association.

1. That this Special General Meeting of FiFA receives with great gratitude the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” of Pope Benedict XV1

Dale Fushek officially excommunicated today

PHOENIX (AP) – The Phoenix Catholic Diocese announced Tuesday that former Monsignor Dale Fushek has been defrocked. The Vatican removed Fushek from his right to exercise the functions of the priesthood.

The Diocese said the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted received a “Decree of Dismissal” from the Vatican in which the Bishop was notified that the penalty of dismissal has been imposed on Fushek.

The Diocese said the penalty was imposed by order of Pope Benedict and the decision is not open to appeal.

Once the second highest official in the Phoenix Diocese, Fushek is charged with one count each of assault and indecent exposure, and five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Fushek issued a statement Tuesday saying he chose not to participate or defend himself in the process, adding he is at peace and free to pursue God’s will.

From KSWT

The former Msgr. Fushek was once the most famous and pastorally successful priest in the Diocese of Phoenix.  He had started a national youth ministry movement known as Lifeteen which touched

Vatican Archive Disclosures won’t Disclose the Whole Story

 

The Vatican’s newspaper announced the plan, saying it will “render service to the historic truth,” and officials said Tuesday the material will be accessible soon.

However a panel of Jewish and Catholic scholars who examined the 11 volumes of material a decade ago concluded that more information was required to decide whether Pius did everything he could to head off the Nazis’ efforts to exterminate European Jews.

Some Jews and others contend Pius should have done more, and are angered by Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decision to move Pius closer to sainthood.

The Vatican’s daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said Gary Krup, an American who heads the Pave the Way Foundation, which seeks to strengthen Catholic-Jewish relations, was behind the online initiative. It quoted him as saying that the Pius XII papacy “has become a source of friction.”

Benedict sparked renewed outrage among Jewish groups in December when he signed a decree on Pius’ heroic virtues, paving the way for him to be beatified once a miracle attributed to his intercession is confirmed.

From the AP

Of course the secular press and the most critical Jewish organizations have ignored the countless heroic acts of Catholic clergy and religious who risked their lives to hide Jews in their rectories, monasteries, hospitals,

Because your kiss is on my list…: Catholic/Orthodox Dialogue

Things appear to be on schedule for a return to Communion with the East by 2054.

Catholics out there, get used to the world “Protos.”

From Chiesa:

The dialogue remained frozen until, in 2005, the German Joseph Ratzinger ascended to the throne of Peter, a pope highly appreciated in the East for the same reason he prompts criticisms in the West: for his attachment to the great Tradition.

First in Belgrade in 2006, and then in Ravenna in 2007, the international mixed commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches started meeting again.

And what rose to the top of the discussion was precisely the question that most divides East and West: the primacy of the

The Queen’s Peeved

5 bob to Opinionated Catholic.

In a surprising departure from protocol, the Queen has sent the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official of the Royal Household, to see Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, to discuss Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to Anglicans wanting to convert to Rome en masse.

“Martyrial Ecumenism” Hmmm…

America magazine recently gave it’s Campion Award to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.  St. Edmund Campion is one of the great and courageous English Jesuit martyrs, himself hanged in the 16th century by the Archbishop’s Anglican forebears.  His feast is observed by both churches.  In receiving the award, the Archbishop referred to a concept of Pope John Paul II, martyrial ecumenism by which Christians of various bodies honor one another’s martyrs as heroic witnesses for Christ, particularly when they died at the hands of other Christians.  He pointed to St. Paul as the first to honor the sacredness of his own victims:

Healthcare Reform, Catholic Style: Immigrants, Subsidiarity, Distributism

Having her own high moral principles as well as practical ones, it is impossible to peg the Catholic Church’s teachings as conventionally liberal or conservative in the American political lexicon.  This is no less true in the struggle for healthcare reform.  Principles such as Subsidiarity and Distributism  stand above party politics and have the potential of breaking the current political impasse.  The Catholic voice is one the US can ill afford to ignore if we want to get these major reforms right. 

Todd Sentell’s Tribute to Flannery O’Connor: I WENT DOWN TO THE INTERSECTION OF PICK-UP TRUCKS AND HOLY WATER

From the National Book Award page.

Concerning the dedication of your Georgia historical marker under the hot Milledgeville sun

Dear Flannery,

Forty-three years after you died too young, a Georgia historical marker was stuck in the ground across the highway from the end of Andalusia’s driveway. On a boiling morning in July, in the long shadow of a big Badcock & More furniture store sign, just before the dedication ceremony started, a suntanned fellow in a red pick-up truck drove past and honked his horn. For an instant, I thought Parker was back.

The mayor of Milledgeville spoke about you in his Milledgeville accent. And then, a priest with an Irish name in a big white robe from your old church got up in front of everybody and waved his hands around and read some things from out of that book that’s not exactly the Bible. He said some things that a few of your fellow Catholics repeated with him, and then the priest flicked the historical marker, while it was still covered with an official Georgia historical marker blue cover, with holy water. He flicked his wood water wand six times. I counted.

Friday’s Flannery: A Stroke of Good Fortune, by Flannery O’Connor

William Blake’s Jacob’s Ladder

Friday’s Flannery is a series of posts on Flannery O’Connor’s short stories.

A Stroke of Good Fortune is a masterful little story.  By no means Flannery’s most popular, it strikes at the heart of post War American aspirations and the spiritual challenges that accompany them.  Ruby Hill is another of Flannery’s tortured souls.  As with most of her sorry characters, Ruby’s miseries are  produced by a bad interaction between her state in life and her refusal to understand and accept it gracefully.  Her ambitions are patently American and modern rather than specifically Southern.  Ruby is caught up in self pity over her daily routine of walking eight blocks each way for groceries and having to carry them up four flights.  In her head spin aspirations of one-storied suburban life, a novelty in 1949.  She pines for the “good life,” desperately seeking to avoid the miseries of her mother who bore eight children and lost several along the way.  She is proud of having mastered her fertility which in her mind is both wise and progressive.

Progress and Sin

Many of Flannery’s stories address the idea of progress and contrast it with eternal verities.  In A View of the Woods, she contrasts the pursuit of money and power represented by progress with the values of family and the beauty of nature.  Some of her characters dismiss Catholicism as medieval and backward.  Flannery almost always presents the modern and the progressive as instances of certain deadly sins including Greed, Jealousy, Gluttony and Pride.   In A Stroke of Good Fortune, we

To the Lions!

Fed to the Lions !!

From the Spectator:

The Equality Bill currently going through Parliament is the latest and potentially most oppressive attempt to impose politically acceptable attitudes and drive out any that fall foul of these criteria. Since the attitudes being imposed constitute an ideological agenda to destroy Britain’s foundational ethical principles and replace them by a nihilistic values and lifestyle free-for-all, they represent a direct onslaught on the Judeo-Christian morality underpinning British society.

The most neuralgic of these issues is gay rights. This is because the tolerance of homosexuality that a liberal society should properly show has long been hijacked by an agenda which aims at destroying the very idea of normative sexuality altogether – and does so by smearing it as prejudice. The true liberal position, that it is right and just to tolerate behaviour that deviates from the norm as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, is deemed to be rank prejudice on the grounds that homosexuality is not ‘deviancy’ but normal. ‘Normality’ is thus rendered incoherent and absurd and accordingly destroyed altogether.  The agenda is therefore not liberal tolerance but illiberal coercion against mainstream moral values, on the basis that the very idea of having normative moral principles at all is an expression of bigotry. So anyone who speaks out against gay rights is immediately vilified as a ‘homophobe’ and treated as a social and professional pariah.

I Live yet do not Live in Me, by St. John of the Cross

I live yet do not live in me,
am waiting as my life goes by,
and die because I do not die.

No longer do I live in me,
and without God I cannot live;
to him or me I cannot give
my self, so what can living be?
A thousand deaths my agony
waiting as my life goes by,
dying because I do not die.

This life I live alone I view
as robbery of life, and so
it is a constant death — with no
way out until I live with you.
God, hear me, what I say is true:
I do not want this life of mine,
and die because I do not die.

Friday’s Flannery: Parker’s Back by Flannery O’Connor

Friday’s Flannery is an occasional series of commentary from a Catholic point of view on the short stories of Flannery O’Connor.

In her last work, completed shortly before her death, Flannery O’Connor depicts the great clash of the two principles of Creation: the Spirit and the Flesh and their only resolution in the Incarnation represented by an icon.

Sarah Ruth is the epitome of the iconoclastic tendencies of a puritanical Calvinism. She negates the body, pleasure, the material, and every attempt to represent God who is as she says, “pure spirit.” Preoccupied with the wrath of God on Judgment Day, she is a cold and fearsome character–lean, gaunt, colorless, with piercing eyes:

“She was plain, plain. And the skin on her face was thin and drawn tight like the skin on an onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two ice picks.”

Parker, on the other hand, is a man of the flesh, made graphic in his pursuit of body art. He is a man of lust attracted to women with plenty of meat on them. He is a denier of God and seeks to live fully in the material world.

There are forces stirring in Parker. The twin forces of wonder and sacrifice began with seeing the tattooed man at the circus and the day of his first tattoo:

Friday’s Flannery: The Life You Save May Be Your Own, by Flannery O’Connor

One of a series of occasional commentaries on the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, Friday’s Flannery.

This is one tough story, but it cracks open fresh like a newly laid egg when read with an eye for classic Catholic imagery which surrounded Flannery O’Connor and which, as a devout Catholic, inhabited her soul.

Summary

It begins with a scene under the setting sun.  Lucynell, the mother, sitting on her front porch with Lucynell her deaf-mute daughter, sizes up a character coming up her long dusty farm drive.  Mr. Shiftlet is a drifter;  he’s one-armed and harmless.  He admires the setting sun and says he’d like to stay in a place that had such a vista every night.  She assured him her place did, every night.

Among their introductory small talk, he asks about an old jalopy in the yard.  She explains it hadn’t run in years, since her husband died.  He, trying to make agreeable small talk and sound profound at the same time, gives a little lecture on a doctor in Atlanta who had removed and held in his hand a human heart.  Mr. Shiftlet declares that no matter how a doctor may cut up a human heart he would not know more about it than he or the old woman did.  She agreed.  He assured her he was a man of moral intelligence, but she is less than convinced at this point.

Friday’s Flannery: A Late Encounter with the Enemy by Flannery O’Connor

After a long hiatus, I have decided to take up again Friday’s Flannery, beginning with the wonderfully odd story of the “General” whose death is told in “A Late Encounter with the Enemy.”

Flannery’s stories often concern death. She herself was slowly dying throughout most of her writing career owing to a case of lupus which at an earlier age she had watched as it inevitably, painfully took her father’s life. Flannery was long and intimately familiar with death and its impending visitation.

The “General” was no general at all. At 104 most of his life he had already forgotten. Memory having failed him and his body as well, he had little to look forward to other than brief moments when he had his picture taken with festival parade queens and some Hollywood models. He had little to look back upon, little to look forward to except the brief occasions when he served as a prop recalling a fading collective memory of a South long since past and quickly losing its significance in the modern world except as a subject for movies. It was not the Confederate Army, nor the Federal Army that had made him a General, but Hollywood.

Meditation on a Meditation: At the Foot of the Cross

At the foot of the cross, we were so much the object of thought of both mother and Son that the Savior looking down on her with love as he was dying spoke to her a last time. He spoke, not of himself, nor of her, but of us only. … He presented us all to Mary in the person of John as he said to her: “Woman, behold your son.” — Blessed Basil Moreau (JTC p. 129, Sermons)

It is a common wisdom that at times of physical or emotional suffering there is a kind of relief that comes when we focus on the suffering of another—when we minister to others in need. The Works of Mercy are offered for the sake of another but also have the effect of lessening our own suffering.

There are several devotions which help focus this sympathetic response in us. I first experienced the power of these meditations while on a day-long Stations of the Cross which passed through the neighborhoods of Canto Grande, Peru. Arriving at the fourth station where Jesus meets his mother, an image of Mary was brought out to meet our traveling image of Christ crucified. An outbreak of tears throughout the crowd released countless burdens as the people witnessed the power of a mother’s sorrow at the suffering of her son.

In my own life, the contemplation of Mary’s sorrows at the foot of the cross has many times relieved blinding physical pain no medication could touch.

Cardinal Arinze on the Freedom to Kneel, Receive on the Tongue

5 bob to Unam Sanctam

Chesterton Quote on the Church

It is me or does it seem that Catholic blog comboxes have recently become more civil, thoughtful and sometimes as rich as the OP.

I found this nugget which explains so much so well and felt the urge to share:

Neruda’s Socks: Only a Catholic Could Write Like He Did

The Catholic imagination is sacramental.  That is, the Catholic is poised to see the supernatural working through the natural.  The world is shot through with God’s grace and every simple moment is an occasion of his presence.

I give you Neruda’s socks:

“Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda
(translated by Robert Bly)

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them

Farewell Avery Cardinal Dulles, stalwart defender of the faith

It is a sad day.  Cardinal Dulles, the only Catholic convert among his leading American family, he was a formidable pioneer of Catholic orthodoxy through an era of theological and liturgical chaos.  Among his Jesuit confreres, he was an unflinching defender of the faith in every way the spirit of the age challenged her. 

4 Theories on the Date of Christmas

Contrary to the popular belief that Christmas was set on Dec. 25 simply to rival a pagan feast, there are at least 4 theories explaining the date from a Christian perspective.  All of them may be true.

Theory 1: Day of Creation and the Conception of Jesus.

David Bennett at Per Christum has an excellent article beginning with this explanation:

The main reason early Christians chose December 25th for the date of Christmas relates to the date of the creation of the world. Jewish thought had placed the date of creation on March 25th, and it was early Christian writer Sextus Julius Africanus who suggested that Christ became incarnate on that date (it makes great symbolic sense!).

According to Sextus Julius, since Christ became incarnate from the moment of his conception, this means that, after 9 months in the Virgin Mary’s womb, Jesus was born on December 25. While the scope of Julius’ influence is unknown, nonetheless, we encounter a Jewish reason why the date of December 25th was chosen for the birth date of Jesus.

Celebrate Advent, Question Christmas

This year may be the best one in a long time for all Christians to re-examine Christmas and take Advent to heart.  A bad economy and a Walmart stampede which gave new meaning to “Black Friday,” offer us good occassion to reflect on the inanity of the American “Christmas” Season.

For years I have been deeply disturbed by the grand materialistic orgy that is the gringo Xmas.  The Lord who came to us in humble human vesture, in utter simplicity and taught us to find our serenity in the goods of heaven rather than the goods of this world has become hopelessly lost in a sea of Santa’s hocking gadgets which rob us of time and mental energy to reflect upon and deepen our spiritual lives.

Big News: Episcopal Bishop ‘Skip’ Adams: Christianity is NOT a Religion

Episcopalian Bishop “Skip” Adams of the Diocese of Central New York also informs the world that morality is an obstacle to God.  With “Bishops” like this, the Episcopal “Church” is showing that it has broken from Christianity in more ways that one…er, six…er, 12:

If this faith of ours is going to be a living one, we have to let go of the idea of Christianity as religion, which I understand to be a system of rules and regulations to get people to behave a certain way that we have deemed acceptable. To say it another way, to make Christian faith primarily about being moral and good. By the way, I believe that this approach has direct import on the struggles we have in being and becoming an Anglican Communion. Stay tuned on that one.

There have been differing moral codes associated with Christianity throughout history. Christian faith, in itself, is not a moral code, however. It is a response in faith to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. It was the theologian Jacque Ellul who said in The Subversion of Christianity, “When I say that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is against morality, I am not trying to say that it replaces one form of morality with another…Revelation is an attack on all morality, as is wonderfully shown by the parables of the kingdom of heaven, that of the prodigal son, that of the talents, that of the eleventh hour laborers, that of the unfaithful steward, and many others (I would add Zacchaeus in the tree). In all the parables the person who serves as an example has not lived a moral life. The one who is rejected is the one who has lived a moral life. Naturally this does not mean that we are counseled to become robbers, murderers, adulterers, etc. On the contrary, the behavior to which we are summoned surpasses morality, all morality, which is shown to be an obstacle to encounter with God.”

De Profundis

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication:

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.

I trust in the Lord;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the Lord;

For with the Lord is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.  Ps. 130

Friday’s Flannery: Revelation by Flannery O’Connor

Friday’s Flannery is a series of posts on Flannery O’Connor’s short stories.

Revelation is perhaps Flannery O’Connor’s most popular short story republished regularly in college writing course primers. Not surprisingly, it is one of her most accessible stories for new readers coming as it does to a more or less easily recognizable resolution. It is common for Catholics to speculate that some of her stories are efforts at associating particular church doctrines with everyday life. If this is true, if it is even possible or desirable to reduce a work of fiction to a single point, I would consider Revelation to be an enfleshing of the doctrine of Purgatory. This is, of course, a religious reading of her stories not shared by many literary critics. Still, if her stories are anything like gospel parables, their deeper meanings should be apparent to the Christian disciple while remaining hidden from the non-believer.

Mrs. Turpin is a classic O’Connor character, a southern white Christian woman seemingly pleasant and well mannered on the outside but bearing in her soul the unspoken thoughts of her class and race and time—thoughts which to her seem like innocent and objective observations are  jarring and offensive to everyone else including the reader. She is a women who is utterly unself-reflective and believes passionately her own P.R. Mrs. Turpin holds-in her darkest thoughts in order not to betray her small venial spirit without realizing that what she thinks acceptable is virtually as dark. Revelation’s opening scene sets up the crucial lines:

“Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people. On the bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been one, but most of them; then next to them—not above, just away from were

Friday’s Flannery: The Short Stories of Flannery O’Connor

Introducing a new series on the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, a perennial favorite among Catholic American authors, this series of posts will look at each of her short stories from a Catholic point of view.

Flannery is one of the most misunderstood American authors, so it will be helpful to look at some aspects of her writing and biography which are keys to her work.

Biographical

It is important to note that Flannery at age 16 watched her father die of the terrible disease lupus.  As a still young woman she learned she would share his fate.  She regarded her miseries as a mysterious gift, a preparation for heaven which may explain to some degree her fascination with suffering and death not as morbid but as a window into the purging beatific vision.

She who had left the south to live in New York among the literary set was forced to return home where her mother cared for her.  She wrote most of her stories from this home in rural Georgia which may illumine several of her stories in which a young son superior in knowledge and sophistication is trapped by circumstance or temperament living with his old fashioned and socially crude mother.

Southern Gothic

Three words are often applied to Flannery’s writing which she did not entirely appreciate, gratuitous, grotesque and Gothic. Her stories are replete with unsympathetic characters, hideous details and often end in violence. In a radio program broadcast from the University of Chicago, Flannery addresses these descriptions with an explanation of her literary aim, which is “to make people who do not want to see, see.” See what? The movement of the Holy Spirit.

Modernity

Flannery considered the modern world with its many distractions and constant obsession with the material, to be such an obstacle to the spiritual life that often spiritual breakthroughs only happen when one is faced with a crisis, particularly death. Like a callous which renders the skin insensitive, the spiritual indifference engendered by modernity needs to be shed, often by force, to expose one’s soul to divine action.  This is certainly true of her characters, but she also believed it to be true of her readers as well,  who needed to be shocked into insight.  In other words her readers whether southern or not, inhabit the same world and are inflicted with the same spiritual sicknesses as her characters.  The violence and strangeness of her stories was as necessary to reach her readers as they were to bring her stubborn characters to conversion.

Meet St. Gianna a new patroness for LIFE

St. Gianna

This is a movie dedicated to a new Catholic saint. She sacrificed her life to save her unborn baby girl.  Gianna Jessen has taken her name.  Watch for references to St. Gianna to sweep the culture as she embodies the boldness and moral courage so sorely lacking among us in modern life.

From the Vatican website:

While working in the field of medicine-which she considered a “mission” and practiced as such-she increased her generous service to Catholic Action, especially among the “very young” and, at the same time, expressed her joie de vivre and love of creation through skiing and mountaineering. Through her prayers and those of others, she reflected upon her vocation, which she also considered a gift from God. Having chosen the vocation of marriage, she embraced it with complete enthusiasm and wholly dedicated herself “to forming a truly Christian family”.

The Most Potent Culture War Video I Have Ever Seen

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5: 10-12)

Bishop: English Church has Lost its Way

Soon to retire Bishop of Lancaster Patrick O’Donoghue issues landmark document on the English Church, the Catholic Herald reported today.

The Church in England and Wales is losing its Catholic identity, a senior bishop said this week.

Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue of Lancaster made the claim in a 92-page document highly critical of the direction of the Church in the past 40 years The document, described by several parish priests as “dynamite”, addresses declining vocations, falling Mass attendance and the future of the Church.

Memories of Good Shepherd Parish, circa 1970-75, Part I

A Short Series recording my childhood memories of the most avant garde Catholic parish in the nation.

Part I: Confetti and Streamers

About the same time the new Roman sacramentary came out, there was in the Washington, D.C. area an enormous and dynamic movement among Catholics to put into motion the Spirit of Vatican II which was then sweeping the globe with promises of great radical changes. The Charismatic Movement was sweeping through at the same time.

One such movement was the Mass People movement in the District which set up liturgies in various public places around the city, in parks, community centers, at national monuments, anywhere on the city streets. The radical idea these liturgies embodied with the new erradication of the divide between the sacred and the profane. With the elimination of the communion rail and the sanctuary open to all, there could no longer be a real separation between the holy and the ordinary. This was a liturgical embodiment of the the Spirit of Gaudium et Spes, as well, the joys and hopes of the world becoming the joys and hopes of the Catholic Church.

* * *

Born in 1965, my first memory of going to church was walking there when we lived on an Army base in 1969. At four, somehow was etched in my psyche a church with blue curtains (military chapel), the men in their uniforms and the boys, like me, in shirt and ties.

My next memory was at our new parish when we moved to Northern Virginia, Good Shepherd Catholic Church. I remember my mother taking me over to the statue of the Virgin Mary to the left of the altar and explaining to me that I should light a candle with her and say a prayer for my sister who had died and needed my prayers. It was a sweet memory. I knew my prayer was important and that it made my sister and God happy. That was the last truly traditional Catholic experience I would have for many, many years. Our new parish had a new pastor…

Liturgical Reforms Arrive in Bangladesh

First Communion at Holy Cross College, Dhaka,

run by the Congregation of Holy Cross

HH Benedict XVI’s call to reform the practice of the liturgy takes root in Bangladesh. I am personally pleased to see that Holy Cross is taking a leading role in liturgical reform.

BANGLADESH Church Tries To Protect Traditional Hymns, End Loud Singing

DHAKA (UCAN) — Bangladeshi Catholic hymns are “out of control,” sometimes sung too loudly or performed by pop-style bands, so much so that some claim the deep spirituality the music is meant to inspire gets lost.The Episcopal Commission for Liturgy and Prayer (ECLP) has responded to the problem by trying to bring order to the chaos and restore a level of uniformity and a proper atmosphere for Bangla-language hymns. It did so in a six-day training program for liturgical music experts and performers that was conducted July 13-18 at the Holy Spirit Major Seminary in Dhaka.

Soren Keirkegaard in a Quote

I have seen the ending of this quote many times, but never this full paragraph. Stunning. Convicting.

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any word in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.

Benedict to Beijing?

Benedict the Re-Gatherer may strike again soon–in China!

According to the AP:

ROME (AP) — The Beijing bishop appointed by China’s state-controlled Catholic Church said in an interview Wednesday that he hopes Pope Benedict XVI will visit his country and that relations with the Vatican are improving.

“We strongly hope that Benedict XVI will make a trip to China,” Joseph Li Shan told Italy’s RAI state TV. “Relations with the Vatican are constantly improving. We can say that there are big developments.”

TheCall: Evangelicals March on Washington

USAToday reports on TheCall, a movement of Evangelical religious and political rallies held in cities across the US and abroad to draw attention to moral issues and to offer prayer and fasting.

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians converged on the National Mall here Saturday to highlight moral issues before the fall presidential election with a day of fasting, prayer and music.

Organizers of TheCall DC said 70,000 people turned out for the event, though that number could not be confirmed independently by the National Park Service.

Ex-Muslim Wafa Sultan Tells it Like it is

What is Wrong with Post Modern Religion in 2 minutes 39 seconds

“I think it is up for each one of us to interpret what God wants.”

Post modernism is the direct fruit of Sola Scriptura, by which everyone can just come up with their own interpretation of revelation.

Telegraph: ‘Substantial number’ of clergy will leave over plans for women bishops

Here is the bombshell:

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Relgious Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:19PM BST 13 Aug 2008

A group of 14 traditionalist bishops claim that there are “irreconcilable differences” over historic reforms that would introduce women as bishops without giving proper concessions to oponents of the move.

In a letter to 1,400 clergy who have indicated that they are considering defecting from the Church of England, they are highly critical of a decision by the General Synod – the Church’s parliament – to ignore proposals for a compromise over the divisive issue.

Anglican Bitterness over Converts to Rome

It’s all over the net. All kinds of talk about Anglicans swimming, put on swim trunks, taking the plunge, testing the waters, dipping the toe, crossing over, etc. It will be a wonder if the Tiber can handle the traffic as well as it handles the copious references to the metaphor … if they all come.

Those who do come are deserving of a hearty welcome from those of us standing along the shore. They certainly will have paid a hefty price in strained and even lost friendships as they have made a momentous and meaningful journey to the Catholic Church.

As an Anglican watcher I have noticed a distinct pattern on most Anglican blogs. Whenever something positive about the Catholic Church is posted there is a strong and bitter reaction among many of the commenters. Antipathy toward the Catholic Church is deeply ingrained in the minds of Anglicans and protestants from an early age. So it erupts almost without reflection whenever the moment calls for it. It has been particularly heavy in the wake of word of talks between some Diocese of Fort Worth Episcopal clergy and the local Catholic bishop.

Here is an example of the kind of visceral bitterness that has surfaced at blogs like the Continuum:

Tiber Crossings, Anglican Mass Conversion in Fort Worth?

5 Bob to: Midwest Conservative Journal:

Will the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth make the ultimate jump?

A delegation of Episcopal priests from Fort Worth paid a visit to Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann earlier this summer, asking for guidance on how their highly conservative diocese might come into “full communion” with the Catholic Church.

Whether that portends a serious move to turn Fort Worth Episcopalians and their churches into Catholics and Catholic churches is a matter of dispute.

The Rev. William Crary, senior rector of the Fort Worth diocese, confirmed that on June 16 he and three other priests met with Bishop Vann, leader of the Fort Worth Catholic diocese, and presented him a document that is highly critical of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The document states that the overwhelming majority of Episcopal clergy in the Fort Worth diocese favor pursuing an “active plan” to bring the diocese into full communion with the Catholic Church.

While declining to specify what that might mean, Mr. Crary said it likely would not mean “absorption” by the Catholic Church.

He cast the initiative as following Anglican and Catholic leaders in longstanding efforts to bring the two groups into greater cooperation, with the ultimate goal of honoring Jesus’ call in John 17:21 for Christian unity.

“These discussions between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have been going on for 42 years,” he said. “We would like to bring these down to the local level.”

But other local Episcopalians interpret the meeting and document differently.

“There’s a very serious attempt on the part of Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Forth Worth to petition Rome for some kind of recognition,” said the Rev. Courtland Moore, who is retired as rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arlington.

“They make it clear that they no longer believe there is truth in the Anglican Communion, and the only way they can find truth is reunion with Rome.”

Mr. Moore is co-chairman of Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians, a group that wants the Fort Worth diocese to remain in the Episcopal Church. He obtained a copy of the document the priests gave to Bishop Vann and made it available to reporters.

Map: Largest Non-Catholic Denominations by State

It’s not all surprising, but some of this is shocking. This map from Adherents.com, shows us the largest denominations in each state after the Catholic Church is excluded. Catholicism which comprises about 25% of the US population is the largest single church in the country, that is, the Catholic Church has the largest plurality.

St. Peter Claver

For those convinced that the Catholic Church was forcing conversions in New Spain, let me introduce you to St. Peter Claver.

A native of Catalonia, Spain, Peter Claver spent all his adult life in Cartagena, Colombia, the center of the slave trade in the new world. Appalled at the dehumanization of the whole dirty business of slave trading, he made a personal vow in addition to those of his religious profession as a Jesuit–that until his death, he would serve and advocate on behalf of the Africans sold into slavery.

While the commonly regarded among Europeans as little more than advanced animals, he insisted that they were truly equal in worth and dignity to the Europeans. In his lifetime Peter Claver ministered to over 300,000 Africans brought to South America as slaves. Despite the contempt for him among the merchant and landed classes, his work was supported by the Jesuit Order and he was canonized a saint by Pope Leo XIII in 1888. His work and writings along with others such as Bartolome de las Casas, while broadly rejected in his time laid the foundation for the eventual rejection of the institution of slavery by the Catholic Church and the European powers by the early 19th Century.

An exerpt from one of his letters:

5 Transalpine Redemptorist – Now Known As Sons Of The Most Holy Redeemer Seminarians to study in the US

It’s a long way from the windswept shores of Papa Stronsay, Northern Scotland to the plains of Nebraska. The robust traditionalist community, the Transalpine Redemptorists, having restored its relationship with Rome, it will now send 5 of its youngest members to study theology at the Society of Saint Peter’s seminary, in Denton, Nebraska.

Vatican ‘Surprised’ at Plan to Move Parish into Anglican church

Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Wirral, to be abandoned

No, it’s not a case of Church swapping.  They are going to live together.  Ignoring all recent developments to the contrary, some “ecumenists” will not be deterred from their plans to blur the important distinctions between Anglicanism and Catholicism.  Apparently, this wacky idea includes the dumping of a grand Depression-era basilica style Catholic church building.

Inca Processional Hymn from 1631

“Hanacpachap cussicuinin” is processional hymn in the Quechua language of Peru (Inca), this piece was most likely written by a native composer and later published by the Franciscan scholar Juan Pérez Bocanegra in 1631, thus becoming the first example of polyphony printed in the Americas.

Fr. Joseph Gelineau, SJ, dead at 87

If you are Catholic, over 60 and into liturgical music, you will know his name and remember his psalm tones which were all the rage in the early 60′s. His psalm tones were much influenced by Gregorian chant, had simple, poignant phrasing typically in a minor tone conveying an often sad-sweet, sublime mood appropriate to the ancient liturgy but also modern. His later chants written for the Taize community were much brighter in spirit and reached several generations of European youth seeking access to the contemplative through music.

HLI Video: Pro-Life Counselors Homosexually Assaulted

Abortionists hire thugs to homosexually assault sidewalk counselors:

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