Audiences

I don't normally post these unless it's someone interesting. An archbishop from India isn't too out of the ordinary, but his name sure is:

VATICAN CITY, OCT 26, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, India.

Someone named after my patron saint! How splendid. :D

Cardinal Biffi in his own words

Sandro Magister has a run-down of Cardinal Biffi of Bologna with extracts from His Eminence's new memoirs, published now as he reaches the age of eighty and thus passes from the electorate of the College of Cardinals. The entire piece is worth reading, but a section in particular stands out (my bolding):

"4. Finally, I would like to point out to the new pope the incredible phenomenon of 'Dominus Iesus': a document explicitly endorsed and publicly approved by John Paul II; a document for which I am pleased to express my vibrant gratitude to Cardinal Ratzinger. That Jesus is the only necessary Savior of all is a truth that for over twenty centuries - beginning with Peter's discourse after Pentecost - it was never felt necessity to restate. This truth is, so to speak, the minimum threshold of the faith; it is the primordial certitude, it is among believers the simple and most essential fact. In two thousand years this has never been brought into doubt, not even during the crisis of Arianism, and not even during the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation. The fact of needing to issue a reminder of this in our time tells us the extent of the gravity of the current situation. And yet this document, which recalls the most basic, most simple, most essential certitude, has been called into question. It has been contested at all levels: at all levels of pastoral action, of theological instruction, of the hierarchy.

"5. A good Catholic told me about asking his pastor to let him make a presentation of 'Dominus Iesus' to the parish community. The pastor (an otherwise excellent and well-intentioned priest) replied to him: 'Let it go. That's a document that divides.' What a discovery! Jesus himself said: 'I have come to bring division' (Luke 12:51). But too many of Jesus' words are today censured among Christians; or at least among the most vocal of them."

Catholic Education

Aside from the larger places like Notre Dame, Boston College or Georgetown, I've always been interested in the status of the smaller places that advertise themselves as 'traditional' and all the other adjectives.

Father Z has a long post with various quotes from parents, students, alumni and even an official response to one allegation from Franciscan U. of Steubenville in Ohio. It's a fascinating look at 'Charismatic' orthodoxy meeting 'traditional' orthodoxy, if you all will permit me the use of such broad and non-specific terms.

Have a look.

Because now I'll never hear it anyway...

1
Day of wrath and terror looming!
Heaven and earth to ash consuming,
David's word and Sibyl's truth foredooming!

2
What horror must invade the mind,
when the approaching judge shall find,
and sift the deeds of all mankind.

3
The trumpet casts a wondrous sound,
through the tombs of all around,
making them the throne surround.

4
Death is struck and nature quaking,
all creation is awaking,
to its judge an answer making.

5
The written book shall be brought forth,
in which is contained all
from which the world is to be judged.

6
So when the Judge shall sit,
whatever is hidden shall be seen,
nothing shall remain unpunished.

7
What am I, wretched one, to say,
What protector implore,
when (even) a just person will scarcely be confident?

8
King of tremendous majesty,
you who save gratuitously those to be saved,
save me, fount of pity.

9
Remember, gracious Jesus,
that I am the cause of your journey;
do not let me be lost on that day.

10
Seeking me, you sat exhausted;
you redeemed me by undergoing the Cross;
let so much toil not be in vain.

11
Just judge of vengeance,
grant the gift of forgiveness,
before the day of reckoning'.

12
I groan, as one guilty;
my face is red with shame;
spare, O God, a supplicant.

13
You who forgave Mary [Magdalen],
and heard the plea of the thief [Dismas]
have given hope to me also.

14
My prayers are unworthy;
but you, the Good, show me favour,
that I may not be consumed by eternal fire.

15
Grant me a place among the sheep,
and separate me from the goats,
placing me at your right hand.

16
When the wicked are confounded,
doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
call me with Thy Saints surrounded.

17
Low I kneel, with heart submission!
See, like ashes my contrition!
Help me in my last condition!

Liturgical Doings

Though we do look at our own diocese and its liturgical doings at times, we don't stray too often into the larger currents of the 'reform of the reform' and the 'extraordinary form' except as they are referenced by the Holy Father.

However, Dan at the Holy Whapping has a post and then a clarification that sets out his thoughts on one 'methodology' as championed by the New Liturgical Movement; Shawn Tribe of the NLM responds to Dan's initial post at the NLM.

Liturgy used to be something I was interested in, but not so much now. However, the ongoing discussion is interesting in and of itself.

Mixed Feelings

With the news of the consistory and the list of the soon-to-be cardinals made know, we have before us the prospect that Archbishop DiNardo will be the only US bishop who will be receiving the red hat. The archbishop is of course the ordinary of the of Houston-Galveston archdiocese down in the great state of Texas and his cardination (or however it's spelled) will be the first for the US South.

All congratulations to the archbishop certainly. But as a former resident of the diocese of Sioux City during HE's tenure there, I am left to wonder if western Iowa is somehow unworthy of greatness and must only be a stepping stone for prelates on their way up.

But ignore my flyover-country inferiority complex.

As for the rest of the list... Archbishop Comastri will soon get his red hat. Does that merit him a higher place on the List of Papabili? Only time will tell.