Over the years I've lost interest in the ins and outs of the Italian episcopal scene. This article from Magister telling of the choosing of Bishop Francesco Moraglia as the new patriarch of Venice by the Holy Father though caught my eye.
Moraglia as Magister tells it is respected in various quarters. He was ordained by Cardinal Siri of Genoa. Moraglia's resume is impressive, though I am always interested in what these officials of the various institutes and offices in Italy actually do with their days besides shuffle paper.
Magister sums up with this:
With the appointment of Moraglia – who will be made a cardinal at the
first consistory after the one that will be celebrated in February – the
influence of the ecclesiastical disciples of Siri is growing, although
with different sensibilities. In addition to Moraglia, in fact, others
who were ordained to the priesthood by Siri are cardinals Bagnasco and
Piacenza, and the newly created cardinal Domenico Calcagno. Without
counting the apostolic nuncio Antonio Guido Filipazzi and the French
bishop Marc Aillet. The current master of pontifical ceremonies, Guido
Marini, was the last "train-bearer" deacon of Cardinal Siri, while the
Vatican deputy foreign minister, Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, although
incardinated in the diocese of Rome, was also born and raised in
"Sirian" Genoa.
The old-timers of the curia recount that once
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, the powerful prefect of the congregation for
bishops during the last phase of the pontificate of Paul VI and at the
beginning of that of John Paul II, criticized Cardinal Siri for training
his seminarians and priests as if on an island separate from the
Italian Church. And because of this, they were not taken into
consideration to be made bishops.
"Yes, it is true," Siri is said
to have replied, "we are on an island, but I have taught mine to swim."
And to swim well, it could be added today.
On Friday I watched most of the film Doubt from 2008. I missed the last twenty minutes or so because I had to leave for 5:30 Mass, but I checked out the ending at Wikipedia. The film stars Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, Amy Adams as Sister James, and Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller. The basic plot: in 1964, a black boy, Donald Miller, attends a Bronx parochial school where the student body is exclusively Irish and Italian (i.e. white). Donald is taken under the wing of Father Flynn who is determined to help the boy survive. However, doubt is cast on Father Flynn's motives in the minds of Sister Aloysius, the school principal, and Sister James, Donald's teacher.
All four of the lead actors are convincing in their roles. I am always impressed with how Philip Seymour Hoffman has morphed from the weak George in Scent of a Woman and the manic Dusty in Twister to his mature roles in the last decade. I never saw that coming. Meryl Streep is always fine in her roles, though I admit I am not completely enamored with her like so many others. Amy Adams as young Sister James and Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller, the mother of the boy, both did fine in their supporting roles. The children who acted in the film were very believable. I have no firsthand experience of teaching sisters and priests; I have read that some felt that Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman were not entirely convincing in their roles. But I thought they did fine in that regard.
I enjoyed the location shooting. The use of schools that evoked that time period really gave the film heft. When certain films are trying to create an atmosphere, I think shooting in the autumn does a lot to help that effort and it shows in Doubt. As events proceed in the film and the tension builds, several scenes involve the tilting of the camera so that the frame is not level. This only adds to the tension, especially in the scenes with Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn.
Doubt came out about three years ago, so I am not going to hold back on the plot here. If you haven't seen it and have read this far and don't want spoilers, don't read on.
The film is about suspicion and doubt on many levels. Most obviously, Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn of abusing the black boy Donald Miller. Sister sees things and has things reported to her by the young and naive Sister James that leads her to suspect, but she has no proof and Father Flynn when confronted adamantly denies any wrongdoing. In the past when such issues came up, Sister Aloysius went through back channels to allies in the priesthood who handled the issue quietly, but in the case of Father Flynn, she has no one to whom she can turn with her suspicion. In the end Father Flynn resigns and is reassigned; nothing is resolved.
On a deeper level, the movie examines the tide of change within the Church in 1964. Vatican II is underway and Father Flynn and his attitudes represent that change to a kinder, friendlier Church. Sister Aloysius represents the old ways that are now in doubt. I wonder if the writer/director John Patrick Shanley realized the irony of Sister Aloysius when he was writing her given that she is determined to instill in her students and the sister-teachers under her the sense of hierarchy that she herself fights in dealing with Father Flynn. Even the arrival of a black family in an Irish and Italian neighborhood foretells the upheavals that are to come with urban renewal and white flight to the suburbs.
Is the film anti-Catholic? I wouldn't say so, no. It certainly relies upon the Catholic milieu of the time and place in which it is set to tell its story and I can't fault it for that. It tells a story well, its characters are not caricatures as far as I could tell. I'll give it four out of five stars.
Here in Iowa winter has finally arrived. Earlier this month there were record breaking high temperatures; a few days there the high during the day was in the upper fifties. But it did not last and the mercury bottomed out this last week at the same time as a few rounds of snow have covered up the faded greens and browns.
For those of you who are interested in such things, a consistory has been announced and with it the list of cardinals-to-be. It's a pretty underwhelming list of names even when considered in the best light.
More recently, the Vatican approved certain 'celebrations' of the Neocatechumenal Way (Wiki link). Again, that is looking at it in the best light in that 'celebration' does not mean the infamous form of Mass to which the Way subscribes. On the other hand, many are of the opinion that it is an outright approval and even if it is not, the devotees of the Way will view this Vatican approval as general vindication, ignoring the subtleties of it.
Finally, this morning it is being reported by various sources that former Penn State football head coach Joe Paterno is dead. There were erroneous reports that he died last night. Earlier this autumn, Paterno was fired after being caught up in the Sandusky sexual abuse case. The former coach, a Catholic, received the Last Rites. Requiescat in pace.
Merry Christmas! Happy Epiphany! Happy birthday to the Maid of France!
Tonight I saw an interesting commercial on the US cable channel TNT. It was for CatholicsComeHome.org, a website with a rather self-evident mission. The commercial I saw was the US national spot that can be viewed by running the cursor over the 'About' button on the main page, then clicking on 'Commercials' which should bring up a page with the commercials. Effective? It looked okay to me, but I'm sure sound would add a lot to the message.
There is a new movie in theaters now in the US, The Devil Inside. I caught the TV teaser for the very first time today, despite the fact the movie opens today. It claims to be a documentary with actual forbidden footage of exorcisms. This documentary style for horror films is in the grand style of The Blair Witch Project. The teaser for The Devil Inside had all the Hollywood trappings for the Catholic Church: priests in cassocks, sisters in habits, a priest genuflecting before a main altar (against the wall).
CatholicsComeHome.org might want to take notes: the visual trappings of traditional Catholicism sell.
This morning, The Drudge Report's headline is "Pope Health Concerns." The actual article makes no claim that HH is suffering from any health problems besides fatigue from a grueling schedule and advacing years. Which is natural and as intended.
The article mentions that in the past, HH ha indicated resignation is preferable when one is physically, mentally or spiritually unable to discharge their duties. Also mentioned are potential downsides of resignation, such as setting a precedent that future Pope's might be pressured follow or perhaps causing fissures by the existance of two living Popes at the same time.
These are legitimate concerns, to be sure. But I am more concerned with simple continuity. There is so much work to be done. And I believe the present Holy Father is the best man to do it. Please, pray for the Holy Father, that God strengthen him to continue to do his work.
A blogging colleague contacted me this morning with the following:
Good morning everyone.
Sorry for the mass email but I'd appreciate you taking a look at this and putting it on your blog, writing about it or, simply, emailing it around if you don't have a blog or paper to write for.
These pics show something I feel is simply incredible for so many reasons -- the Traditional Latin Mass being prayed in Afghanistan.
Please consider doing anything you can to tell this story. It's one that deserves to be told:
Afpak of course refers to the Afghanistan-Pakistahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn theater of operations. Click on the link and check it out. Be sure to pray for the Pour Souls of the Society.
A couple of days ago, Father Z posted about a story by the Italian Vatican watcher Andrea Tornielli at the Italian daily La Stampa.
Tornielli's story is about excerpts from a diary supposedly written during the 2005 conclave in which Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope, the excerpts published in the Italian journal Limes.
I am not going to recapitulate the details of Tornielli's story given Father Z has already done so. Reading Father Z's post, I was instantly reminded of something I had read a number of years ago about Limes publishing a diary recording the very same event, the 2005 conclave. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that I cited Limes' original story in the past in the sidebar in my list of papabili. I couldn't find anything in my archive, so I checked out Sandro Magister and found his original story on the subject from 2005, "The Vatican Codes: This Is How I Rewrite My Conclave". I'm not going to rehash what Magister wrote back then beyond his point that the diary had too many inaccuracies to have come from a true-blue cardinal.
So we have Tornielli's recent story of Limes publishing excerpts from a diary on the conclave and we have my remembrances and Magister's analysis of Limes publishing excerpts from a diary on the conclave. Comparing the details of what the diary said in Tornielli's story to those from Magister make it clear to me that the Limes diary cited by Tornielli is the same as the one from long ago.
Why is Andrea Tornielli bringing up an article from six years ago about a diary that one of the most eminent of his colleagues showed to be most likely fake, a clumsy attempt to undermine the new pope's support?
Magister has this article up today about Cardinal Bertone's efforts to secure control of two hospitals in Italy to build a Catholic medical hub. One of them is already controlled by the Italian bishops' conference and is basically a turf war over who gets to be on the board.
The other hospital, the San Raffaele, Magister describes as follows:
The San Raffaele is a massive, cutting-edge medical center, founded and headed in Milan by a priest, Luigi Maria Verzé, which does not, however, have anything in its statutes binding it to the Church, nor much that is Catholic in what it does.
Suffice it to say that artificial fertilization, which is condemned by the Church, is practiced there, and that in its highly modern laboratories experiments are conducted without any regard for the ethical criteria affirmed by the magisterium.
Not only that. In the connected Università Vita-Salute, dedicated to humanistic studies, philosophy, theology and scientific subjects are taught by professors who are in glaring contrast with the Catholic vision, from Emanuele Severino to Massimo Cacciari, from Roberta De Monticelli to Vito Mancuso, from Edoardo Boncinelli to Luca Cavalli-Sforza.
Fr. Verzé himself has repeatedly worried the Catholic hierarchy, with statements that could be taken as supporting euthanasia or the use of embryos.
Bertone's offer to take the San Raffaele, which is on the brink of bankruptcy thanks to its massive debt to the tune of a billion euros:
The IOR said that it was ready to provide 200 million euros immediately, while one billion over 3-5 years would be guaranteed by an international "charity" still shrouded in mystery (the financier George Soros has denied being part of the deal).
In exchange, Cardinal Bertone has demanded seats on the administrative board of the Mount Tabor Foundation, which governs the entire complex, of four of his proteges...
I am going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that the "charity" to be named is the holding company of the Legion of Christ with its billions now under the control of a papal delegate.
The head priest Fr. Verzé is willing to accept the offer as long as he can expand the board and appoint two of his own men who will counter Bertone's people.
Magister says that it will all be decided in the next few days. He also notes that the character of the San Raffaele was only discussed for the first time a few days ago!
What he conceived of as an "epochal revolution" thus threatens, if not stopped in time, to turn into a costly and disastrous boomerang.
Because rebuilding from the ground up, on Catholic foundations, a complex like the San Raffaele, which has never been Catholihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifc, is simply an impossible undertaking.
Now this story of Bertone's adventures in taking control of hospitals is interesting in itself to me. What makes it more interesting is that the secretary of state is willing to spend 200 million on a hospital and university in Italy right now.
Read here: "Hopeless, But Not Serious: Once Again", by David Goldman. He has a nice graph of population in a key demographic for several southern European countries including Italy.
The present crisis can and will be papered over, because there is no reason not to paper it over, and for the moment, there is plenty of fat to be cut from European government budgets. In ten or fifteen years, the budget knife will cut bone. Italy’s population is on the cusp of a tumble.
My conclusion: there is no reason to panic over the present kerfluffle, but there is no reason to own any exposure to southern Europe. Ever again.
Goldman's assessment rings true to me. Its lesson and the fact pointed out at the very end of Magister's article go well together: Bertone is on a fool's errand for more reasons than one.
This last Thursday, we took off for a day trip up to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Thursday ended up being an excellent day to go as it was cloudy, breezy, and cool. The high was 75 degrees for the day. We made it to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The shrine was founded in the mid to late 90s by His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke back when he was bishop of La Crosse. After turning off the main highway, we followed the road to the entrance drive to the shrine and on to the parking lot next to the visitors center. Going inside, we looked around and after obtaining a map of the complex, we decided to ride up to the top rather thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhan walk it as it would have been a good hike, taking time we didn't have. So we and I think another person got on the golf cart with the driver and took off.
From the parking lot, one can see the visitors center and above it the candle chapel. The cart took us up the path, which was out in the open up through the first switchback and then to the chapel. We picked up another man there and then went on our way up as the path became shrouded in trees. Along the way were memorials and benches for resting, but our cart kept going up to the shrine church.
The inside of the church is pretty impressive. Here are a couple of pictures to get an idea.
The sanctuary
Down the nave
After that, we decided to hike back down the hill since a ride back down required four and we were only three. Along the way, we stopped at the candle chapel and then the visitors center before heading back home. An interesting coincidence is that we headed south and ended up driving past the Dickeyville Grotto. It will have to wait for another trip.
TUESDAY, 24 MAY, IS dedicated to the liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai: the whole Church joins in prayer with the Church in China. There, as elsewhere, Christ is living out his passion. While the number of those who accept him as their Lord is increasing, there are others who reject Christ, who ignore him or persecute him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). The Church in China, especially at this time, needs the prayers of the universal Church. In the first place, therefore, I invite all Chinese Catholics to continue and to deepen their own prayers, especially to Mary, the powerful Virgin. At the same time all Catholics throughout the world have a duty to pray for the Church in China: those members of the faithful have a right to our prayers, they need our prayers.
CHINA YESTERDAY CALLED FOR “concrete actions” from the Vatican to help improve relations, after Pope Benedict XVI urged Chinese bishops to resist pressure from Beijing and stay true to Rome.
“We hope that the Vatican can be clearly awhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifare of the fact that China practises freedom of religious belief and of the continuous development of China’s Catholic Church,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
Ms Jiang added that Beijing hoped the Vatican would “create conditions for the development of China-Vatican relations through concrete actions”.
WHILE THE CULTURE COMMISSION of the Vatican originally approved sketches of the sculpture, it is now arguing that the "mantle almost looks like a sentry box, topped by a head of a pope which comes off too roundish." L'Osservatore Romana, the main Vatican newspaper, described the statue as looking like it had been exploded by a "violent gash, like a bomb" had struck. According to the Associated Press, various passersby have even noted that the Rainaldi's artwork rather resembles Italy's former dictator, Benitohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Mussolini.
Tonight it was announced by the president that Osama bin Laden met his end today thanks to US special forces who tracked him down to a mansion not far from the capital city of Pakistan.
VATICAN CITY, 30 APR 2011 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for May is: "That those working in communication media may respect the truth, solidarity, and dignity of all people ".
His mission intention is: "That the Lord may help the Church in China persevere in fidelity to the Gospel and grow in unity".
Happy Divine Mercy Sunday. It's still Saturday here in the central United States, but over in Rome, it's dark and the ceremonies will be getting underway in a few hours. In checking Wikipedia to make sure I am spelling 'beatification' right, I see that the Holy Father's article has already been updated, granting him the title of 'blessed'!
Tomorrow the Holy Father will be beatified and will be only one step away from sainthood. The cause for the canonization of the Holy Father has been a contentious one and especially so now that the penultimate step is here. The five-year waiting period before any cause could begin was waived in his case, this beginning early what was already a shortened process due to the reforms instituted by John Paul himself.
Stipulating John Paul's personal holiness, the question boils down to what is the vocation of the supreme pontiff? Is it to be a teacher? An administrator? A combination of the two? This blog is of course about the Vatican and the business of governing the Church, right or wrong. With that viewpoint in mind, it's hard to ignore John Paul's deficiencies as an administrator. I do agree with those who say that electing bishops can be a crap shoot and that the Holy Father did as well as he could in promoting better men over time to help right the Church. At the same time though, his choices for his personal assistants in Rome cannot be ignored. First and foremost, there was Ratzinger. Much can be forgiven thanks to the astute choice of the German as prefect of CDF. On the other hand, there is Cardinal Sodano at the Secretariat of State and others like him who are not so easy wave off as outliers.
The wide acclamation following John Paul's death is not to be ignored, but at the same time, would five years of waiting have hurt his cause if it was truly meant to be? There is much out there waiting to see a final resolution that bears heavily upon John Paul II's legacy as the vicar of Christ. I don't doubt that John Paul II walks with the angels, but for us men and women on earth, prudence is a virtue.
Sandro Magister's latest piece talks about the recent events in the People's Republic of China and the new secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Archbishop Savio Hon Taifai. Magister includes a translated interview of the archbishop with Avvenire.
The two sides are manned principally by Father Jerome Heyndrickx and Cardinal Zen. The former takes a compromising approach and the later not so much. Magister sees Hon as occupying a position that is much closer to that of the cardinal's than Heyndricks, though Archbishop Hon is not in lockstep with Zen. Reading the interview provided, Archbishop Hon's answers are on the whole prudent and level-headed.
This is an interesting blog post by David Goldman, also known as Spengler of Asia Times Online.
He has a quote from Bloomberg News on how Iran is beaming Azeri-language programming to its neighbor in a bid to destabilize the pro-western government. Goldman mentions as well the fault lines of Azeri society and how they reflect the larger lines in the Middle East. Two-thirds of Azeris are Shi'ites, like Iran, and Azerbaijan has historically been known as northern Persia. But Azeris are ethnically Turkic and are viewed by Sunni Turkey as its own ancestral backyard.
At the political current events blog I read, Hot Air, a lot has been made lately of Turkey's drift towards Islamism and Iran. But in his blog post, Goldman sees rather that Azerbaijan is the wedge between the two and Turkey is moving into alignment with the likes of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in a bid to counter Iranian ambitions.
Goldman's conclusion is rather pessimistic:
But it is not surprising that the oil price should keep rising. The United States government is in the hands of a clique of amateurs like Samantha Power and Susan Rice, human-rights romantics without a clue about the real power relationships, while the ground has shifted under the regimes of the Middle East. Iran’s ambitions are the main concern in Riyadh and Ankara, and the weakness of the Assad regime in Syria–Iran’s main regional ally–make the situation very tippy indeed.
Aside from the usual local stories, the pastoral columns, and the national and international news (along with the opinion page that I hardly ever read), my diocesan newspaper carries the question and answer column by Father John Dietzen.
I got my newspaper today in the mail today and saw on the back page the CNS obituary of Father Dietzen, who passed away on March 27.
I like to pretend I'm up on the Catholic faith, but even when I don't agree with points of his answers, he always has interesting and educational points and his column is one of the principal features of the paper I look forward to each week. Hopefully CNS has a few more to run and hopefully Father's replacement will be as informative.
"Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his souls and the souls of all the Faithful departed rest in peace. Amen."
VATICAN CITY, 31 MAR 2011 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for April is: "That through its compelling preaching of the Gospel, the Church may give young people new reasons for life and hope".
His mission intention is: "That by proclamation of the Gospel and the witness of their lives, missionaries may bring Christ to those who do not yet know Him". BXVI-PRAYER INTENTIONS/ VIS 20110331 (70)
In case you didn't know, in Iowa at the midterm elections of 2010 the portion of justices who were up on the ballot for retention were voted out. Normally in Iowa, the vote is just a formality and justices are kept on, but in this case, the Iowa Supreme Court had legalized homosexual marriage in the state, an unpopular move that generated a campaign to vote no for retention.
In the days after the election, many arguments were made about Iowa voters interfering with the Court, politicizing the bench, and taking away judicial independence. The obvious reply is that if voters aren't supposed to have any say on keeping or sending off justices, why does the Iowa Constitution give them that right?
So today I got my copy of the local diocesan paper in the mail. In it was the usual column by Father McBrien and his subject was Archbishop Dolan being elected to the presidency of the USCCB instead of the vice president, Bishop Kicanas. It's costumary for the vice president to succeed, so Dolan's election was a break with tradition. Father McBrien drew parallels between the rise of the Tea Party in US politics and the slow conservative drift of the US episcopal conference and then the world at large.
McBrien obviously has his opinion on where the Church is headed and he's entitled to it. I just want to reply: if the bishops weren't supposed to choose anyone else except the vice present, why bother having the vote?
This past Sunday I joined the Knights of Columbus. I had been thinking about it for a number of years. Several years ago, I received an application form during a previous recruitment drive, but for various reasons didn't get around to going any further. At Mass the previous few weeks, a gentleman spoke after Communion and information was handed out after the Dismissal. An email address was provided as a point of contact for interested parties and that more than anything helped me follow through this time around.
That was last week. I met with my point of contact last week and received information on how things would work given my disability (booklets were provided for me to read through and a helper helped me keep my place). The gentleman was very friendly and helpful and this put me at ease.
Sunday came around; I got up early and got ready to go, dressing in my suit. My brother drove me out to the family center of the parish council and I was ushered into a front office where I waited with several other gentlemen who there to be inducted with me. All were friendly and while others talked, I got a chance to look at some of the religious prints on the office walls. One of the knights came in and explained a few things to us (I followed along in one of the provided booklets). Then it was time to go inside for the 1st Degree exemplification.
After it was over, pizza was served and I met a few of my fellows. Then it was time to go. I met my brother in the parking lot and we set out for a nearby church where the 2nd and 3rd Degree exemplifications were slated to take place. Once we got there, I went inside and was vouched for by one of my fellows from my council. Then I went to wait with even more men who were from the different parishes of the city. Once more, things got under way and afterward food was served.
I learned a lot and I'm looking forward to helping my fellows and getting to know them better while helping my parish and community with other practical Catholic men.
VATICAN CITY, 1 MAR 2011 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for March is: "That the nations of Latin America may walk in fidelity to the Gospel and progress in justice and peace".
His mission intention is: "That the Holy Spirit may give light and strength to those in many regions of the world who are persecuted and discriminated against because of the Gospel".
VATICAN CITY, 1 FEB 2011 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for February is: "That all may respect the family and recognise it for its unmatched contribution to the advancement of society".
His mission intention is: "That Christian communities may witness to the presence of Christ in serving those who suffer from disease in those mission territories where the fight against disease is most urgent".
It's in the previous post, but I'll embed it here again for those who find this individual post through searching.
From the only review at Amazon.com, by a C. Weinstein of Los Angeles:
If this DVD represents the documentary "Sapporo Winter Olympics" by Masahiroo Shinoda, it is probably one of the best that came out of Japan in the 1970's. Extremely difficult to find on video, this film is as much about a meditation on discipline and on pure atmosphere as it is a coverage of the 1972 winter games. Each section has its own rhythm and flows effortlessly into subsequent scenes. Narration is almost completely absent for most of the film, the director preferring you to experience the feeling of cold weather that practically chills you from the screen and the determination on the part of many entrants gunning for a chance to make their mark.
If you like pure atmosphere in a film or are just looking for a good documentary about the 1972 Sapporo Olympics I highly recommend finding a copy of this.
The clip is all of three minutes and thirty-five seconds, but it is amazing how it captures all the points listed in Mr. Weinstein's review. It is absolutely atmospheric and a meditation. When I first watched it yesterday, I thought to myself at first that it was some kind of extremely stylistic film portraying fictional characters, starting with the opening shot showing the lone building against a bleak, empty sky and then moving on to the bird's-eye view of the skater alone on the ice and going from there. The katakana characters only added to the feeling of foreignness. Only during my reading of the commets at YouTube did I discover that the clip is from the documentary by the noted Japanese director.
The clip has that quality that so often is found in photos and films of that period that is hard to describe. It's detailed and focused, yet subdued. without the rich colors one today associates with digital film.
The action is simple, three different ladies skating around and judges judging the figures left behind. I think only a Japanese director, with his attention to nuance and unspoken expression, could capture with such detail the emotions evident. The first skater is calm, collected, disciplined and confident. The second skater is uncertain and hesitant. Shinoda captures this by showing both her facial expression and her posture before starting as she stands there before beginning her figure. The crowd looks nervous. She begins tentatively and looks wobbly. This is followed by close-ups of two of the judges, judging, watching, commenting as they examine everything.
Like I said, it's barely over three and a half minutes, but it is captivating. It reminded me immediately of Tarkovsky's Solaris, especially the prewiew shot of the second skater, standing there with her short blond hair. It looks surreal.
In the world of traditional Catholics, the loss of what is now known as the Extraordinary Form was keenly felt in a Church gone crazy as it threw aside the old ways in favor of the new.
In the last half of the twentieth century, that phenomenon was not restricted solely to the Church. Even in the world of sports, things changed, not necessarily for the better. In baseball, the mound was lowered and the designated hitter was introduced. In basketball, the skilled teamwork of bygone eras was replaced by a more free-flowing style that was perhaps more entertaining, but at the expense of basic fundamentals.
So it went in the world of figure skating. Figure skating had for a long time been composed of two elements, the compulsory figures and the free skate. The free skate is of course what we see on television today, men and women skating around at various speeds, performing jumps and spins throughout. Compulsory figures was a portion of the competition that involved the drawing of figures on the ice with the edges of the blades of one's skates. The figures' exactness in terms of how they were made and their shape were judged and marks were given. Watch the video below, a clip from coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada for more information along with interviews on the change going on in the sport as the idea of removing compulsory figures from international events was first considered.
Over time, the figure skating changed as the free skate gained in importance, especially with the advent of television coverage of premiere events. Compulsory figures did not translate well in the medium as the above clip demonstrates (though by the late eighties, much had been done to make it as appealing as possible); audiences watched the jumps and spins of the free skate and then were left confused by the compulsory figures and the winners of competitions who excelled at the latter and beat the favorite of the general public who watched for the skaters who excelled at jumping and spinning.
The clip below from a documentary on the 1972 Winter Olympics at Sapporo, Japan happens to document not just the games themselves, but the turning point for the sport of figure skating. The first skater shown, Beatrix Schuba of Austria, is considered to be one of the greatest compulsory figure skaters ever. The second skater shown, Janet Lynn of the United States, was known to American audiences for her free skating ability.
Schuba received a 5.0 for her figures, a high mark that was what I have read extremely rare at senior international events and placed first. Lynn was tentative as the clip shows so well (more on the second video later) and placed fourth. The situation was reversed though for the free skate as Lynn placed first and Schuba seventh. Due to the weight given compulsory figures, Schuba won the gold medal and Lynn the bronze. After that result, a new short program was introduced and the weight of compulsory figures was slowly reduced over the years until in 1990 they were removed from international competitions altogether.
Today, compulsory figures have been largely forgotten by the viewing public and in the skating community at large as well, though there is debate in some circles as modern skaters are seen by some as having lost the skills needed for fundamental footwork that even the mediocre compulsory figure skaters of yesteryear displayed in their jumps and spins due to their training in the discipline. Whether this is actually true, I cannot say, not being an expert myself, but it stands to reason that something has been lost.
Having started to watch curling during the Winter Olympics a few olympiads ago and having watched the clips above, could there be an audience for compulsory figures, if not as a component, then as a sport unto itself? Certain people are willing to sit through curling, thought by others to be exceedingly boring, not because they are well versed on the ins and outs of the sport, but due to the human drama unfolding on the ice. Especially on television with the close-ups of the participants, viewers can get a very good sense of the tension of the back-and-forth match of wits and skill. The second clip above demonstrates that there certainly was tension in compulsory figures. With high-definition televisions and modern technology demonstrating the sport, I would suggest that the viewing experience today would be far different from all those years ago.
This obviously isn't a blog dedicated to the sport of figure skating and this post is pretty much for me alone, but it's something I have thought about and wanted to share. Make of it what you will.
Right now, the demonstrations are not against Christians. Patriarch Shenouda has called for calm. But many Christians and non-Christians told him, that this is not the time for calm, because Christians are also affected by the crisis. In fact, for Christians the crisis is even worse because they suffer discrimination and have a hard time finding jobs. In case of promotions, they are passed over in favour younger Muslim employees. If a Christian opens a shop, fewer people buy from him.
Another interesting aspect is that this project of reform of Islam was published Jan. 24, one day before the outbreak of demonstrations in Egypt. These protests have economic and political roots. This means that in addition to current politics, there is an intellectual current that is fed up with the Islam that has spread in the last 30 years in the country, an "externalized" Islam that puts the emphasis on external things (clothing, beard, veil, etc. ..). This shows that there is a global movement - both spiritual and political - in Egypt that wants to transform the country. And since it is a leading country in the Middle Eastern world, one can expect that the changes in act in Cairo will spread throughout the region. Perhaps the same demonstrations that are taking place on the streets of the capital will have an influence on this "externalized" Islam.
He then goes on to examine several of the points of the article, including interaction between the sexes, jihad and its classical limits, and externalization of piety at the expense of personal responsibility.
I discovered this book by way of a book review in an issue of New Oxford Review last year. As much as I want to say that it's a military history due to the great part of its subject-matter, I can't quite bring myself to do it. It does recount the history of the Papal Zouaves and recounts their various actions both in service to the Pope and afterward. But I've found it to be more a description of the time and those who lived during it.
To wit: the main strength of the book is Coulombe's attention to individuals and their stories. He details their entry into and exit from the story, interweaving the accounts of the various volunteers into that of the larger regiment and the wars in which it fought. However, the flurry of names, particularly at the beginning as the first volunteers are introduced, is daunting. It's clear though that Coulombe must have sifted through a mountain of material, personal accounts and so on, to bring so much to the narrative.
The main drawback of the book is the lack of maps, which is one of the reasons why I don't qualify it as a military history. Battles and skirmishes are described (some in great detail), lines of march are given, but without maps to show the way, it is hard to follow.
The conclusion of the book does a very good job of bringing together all the threads as Coulombe recounts the final dissolution of the regiment and the endeavors of the veterans and then talks of their legacies, both personally and collectively. The Papal Zouaves and the ideals they embodied represent a facet of the Catholic identity that has been lost due not only to the encroachment of a secular, industrialized world, but also due to changes in the Church's view on war itself after two world wars.
Coulombe quotes Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro's homily at the annual Zouave requiem in 2007, "These soldiers had received from the Church, their reason for living and this is why they were ready to sacrifice their own life for her. We are sons of the Church, too, and for her we have to fight the good battle of our time." The author then remarks that whatever response may be made to the story of the Zouaves, it had better be made quickly as time is urgent.
Baltimore, Md., Jan 4, 2011 / 05:53 am (CNA).- Sudan's Catholic bishops say their country “will never be the same again,” once a January 2011 referendum that could split Africa's largest country in two takes place. Leading up to the vote, the Sudanese Catholic Church is playing a central role in preparing the country for the vote and its possible consequences.
The article talks about how the Church is taking the lead in preparing the people for the vote on independence on January 9 due to the lack of strong civil institutions and due to the trust in the Church thanks to its ability to cross tribal lines. Of course, it's what the Church has done for a thousand years and more since the fall of Rome.
This is sobering:
At worst, the referendum's results could prompt a third Sudanese civil war– “far more lethal” than the first two, in Griffin's estimation, and “just as targeted against civilians.” Such a war, he predicted, would involve not only Sudan's north and south, but the nine neighboring countries, in what “could be the largest conventional war on the African continent.”
That result, in turn, could de-stabilize large portions of East Africa, immersing other countries in “proxy wars that are ignited and played out across Sudan.” This “worst-case scenario,” according to Griffin, “would make Somalia and Yemen look manageable by comparison.”
So far, the Coptic patriarch says he will celebrate Christmas Mass, but he may yet cancel it. Security stepped up in churches throughout the country. The violence of young Copts, a sign of no confidence in the Egyptian system. Discrimination against Christians: to repair a toilet in a church, a decree from the provincial governor is needed; Muslims can build mosques freely, receiving construction materials for free. Attack on the church of Alexandria has opened "a new and more cruel style." In Sydney Christmas celebrations canceled. Security measures in France, Canada, Germany.
The reference to the toilet is telling. I'm assuming the priest means it takes getting a decree in order call up a plumber... Uh huh... That's either hyperbolic or just plain pathetic. The Coptic pope will have his hands full in calming the youth. Otherwise it could turn into a bloodbath.
The attack on the Church of Saints in Alexandria has even aroused the condemnation of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: "In all likelihood - says the priest - the source of the terrorist act is elsewhere, al Qaeda, perhaps in Iraq. What is certain is that we are faced with a newer and crueler style than before. It is the first time there has been an attack of such a violent level in Egypt, using explosives inside a church. So far there had been clashes, but between people, individuals, perhaps with a gun, but certainly not with lethal explosives".
Civil authorities in several European nations are providing police protection for Coptic Orthodox churches following threats by Islamists. A Coptic Orthodox priest in France described “threats made on the Internet by Islamic mujahideen who announced other attacks in Europe and in France in particular, and who mention our church.”
At least the Copts in Europe stand a chance with real security provided by the police, not just hired hands armed with a pistol and a cell phone like in Egypt.
Rome, 3 Jan. (AKI) - A religious edict signed by a Mauritanian cleric linked to Al-Qaeda' s late leader in Iraq and posted to jihadist websites appears to legitimise the deadly New Year's Eve attack on a church in northern Egypt. The edict, signed last month by Abu al-Mandhar al-Shanqiti, urges Muslims to avenge the alleged imprisonment in a convent of two Egyptian women after they converted to Islam.
Al-Shanqiti is close to the Jordanian sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the mentor of Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US raid there in 2006.
"How should Sharia (Islamic) law view Coptic priests and Christians who proselytise in our country and kidnap our women?" said al-Shanquiti's message, cited by jihadist website Al-Tawed.
And farther down:
"These Christians who don't hand over Muslims and who have kidnapped those two women have violated the accord under which they are afforded protection. We have no obligations towards them," said al-Shanquit.
Bolding my own. I like how he proclaims it to be their country, though as I recall, it was ours first. And note the clear statement regarding dhimmitude: those not of Islam are afforded protection, those who do not do as they should are owed nothing. Nice, huh?
Absurd accusations against the Coptic community of keeping two women who converted to Islam captive. The psychosis of a country that prohibits changing of religion. Islamic attacks against Shenouda, the criticism of the imam of Al-Azhar against Benedict XVI. Europe must open up channels for cultural dialogue with Islamic countries, rejecting secularism and fundamentalism. Just like the pope said.
The article after the rider given above goes through the various points in depth. The part I found most informative was the explanation of the "absurd accusations" that the Copts are holding captive two women who supposed converted to Islam from Christianity. The article mentions that the attack against Iraqi Christians last October was also motivated by these accusations. Samir goes to great length in explaining the situation and how even the late imam of Al-Azhar decreed that there was no evidence that the two women had become Muslims.
I read yesterday that Israel's Mossad secret service is also being blamed for the attack as some kind of provocation. Samir mentions that rumor as well.
The Holy Father intends to hold an ecumenical meeting in Assisi this year in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of John Paul II's infamous gathering. I think I can guess what will be one of the first agenda items.
VATICAN CITY, 30 DEC 2010 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for January 2011 is: "That young people may learn to use modern means of social communication for their personal growth and to better prepare themselves to serve society".
His mission intention is: "That every believer in Christ may be conscious that unity among all Christians is a condition for more effective proclamation of the Gospel".
VATICAN CITY, 30 NOV 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI's general prayer intention for December is: "That our personal experience of suffering may be an occasion for better understanding the situation of unease and pain which is the lot of many people who are alone, sick or aged, and stir us all to give them generous help".
His mission intention is: "That the peoples of the earth may open their doors to Christ and to His Gospel of peace, brotherhood and justice".
Technically it's the same war. In 1953, an armistice was signed, ending hostilities. Over time, there were incidents, but the armistice held. A few years ago, North Korea (Norks) unilaterally pulled out of the armistice. Several months ago, a South Korean (ROK) ship was sunk, most likely by a Nork submarine. Today, if you haven't seen the news, the Norks fired about 200 artillery shells at an ROK island close to the maritime border and the ROK retaliated with 80 shells of its own. Two ROK marines died and others were wounded. The ROK has stated that any further provocation would be met with retaliation. Japan is on alert.
Let us pray for those who've died and for those still alive on the front lines. Let us ask that the leaders on both sides be given wisdom that they may avoid a deadly and costly confrontation.
The Condom Drama is in the past. Welcome to the real world.
For a summary up until now of what this latest bit of media hype is all about, I recommend Damian Thompson here, here, and here. I don't agree with all of it, but the three posts together are good for catching up.
In his third post, Mr. Thompson quotes with his bolding the relevant paasages of the new book coming out, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, based on 20 hours of interviews conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald:
There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralisation, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants …
And then:
[Question:] Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?
[Answer by the Pope:] She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.
Father Z is still jet-lagged from travel, but he has a post up on this. It doesn't say much, but I recommend reading through the comments for an 'on the ground' response to this, especially Prof. Basto here, here, and here. He has some excellent points and analysis in the three comments I have linked to here that deserve to be read for a better understanding of the context here.
The battlefield now truly is Europe where the question is if the European states (for example, Germany and Merkel's recent statement that multiculturalism has failed) will be able to rouse themselves soon enough to hold off the tide or if the Muslims will take control of a decayed secular Europe just in time for their own implosion.
I was watching EWTN's rerun of the Pope consecrating Sagrada Família today (it happened live early this morning when I was assleep). Off to the side were seated a man and a woman whom I assumed were the king and queen of Spain (the lady had on white). The king didn't receive communion from the Pope, but the queen did.
1. A kneeler was right in front of her, but she chose to awkwardly bend her knees and bend forward since she was on this step up from the Pope. 2. Then she stuck out her hand.
VATICAN CITY, 29 OCT 2010 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for November is: "That victims of drugs or of other dependence may, thanks to the support of the Christian community, find in the power of our saving God strength for a radical life-change".
His mission intention is: "That the Churches of Latin America may move ahead with the continent-wide mission proposed by their bishops, making it part of the universal missionary task of the People of God".
This blog post at Hot Air quotes a Melkite Greek bishop from Lebanon, Cyril Salim Bustros:
The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands… We Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land’ as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people… Even if the head of the Israeli state is Jewish, the future is based on democracy… The Palestinian refugees will eventually come back and this problem will have to be solved.
The blogger, a protestant, then goes on to discuss the uproar over the quote and talk about about the Catholic Church's position. Go read it all. But this is an interesting paragraph where the blogger puts together some information on the Melkite Church:
Readers may remember that the Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church was the individual issuing blessings for the “all-woman” flotilla planned throughout the summer to depart from Lebanon for a bout of anti-Israel blockade-busting. The Patriarch himself is located in Antioch, but there has been a very troubling trend of anti-Israel politicization in the recent appointments in Beirut and Galilee as well. Bustros’ selection for the metropolitan position in Beirut this year followed the selection in 2006 of Archbishop Elias Chacour for the diocesan seat in Galilee. As this French writer recounts (I apologize that this is only available in French), the 2006 choice amounted to a referendum within the Melkite Greek Catholic episcopate on the question of whether to promote clerics who take political stands against Israel, or to affirm that the church’s future lies with less politicized leaders who are more devoted to ministry, reconciliation, and service. The ultimate choice of Chacour produced a tireless campaigner for the active and urgent repudiation of Israel’s state policies by American and European churches.
Links are all from the original. In the very next paragraph, the blogger, Mr. Dyer, throws out this admonishment:
The Catholic Church’s high profile in much of the Middle East, and its organized connections with Middle Eastern Christians, give its policies a unique significance in defining the posture and role of Christianity there. The Church, of all entities, should be the first and most insistent in affirming that – at the very least – political opposition to Israel is not a condition of loving our neighbors as ourselves. No nation on earth is a principal in such a repellent contingency; singling out Israel in this regard is awful darn particular and obviously motivated by obsession.
The apostolic exhortation will most likely as the blogger hopes avoid any hostile statements toward Israel. The Williamson affair will ensure that (we hope). But it should always be remembered the... dislike the Secretariat of State has for Israel on the Palestinian issue. The Melkite hierarchy isn't alone in its thinking in Rome.
The delegate overseeing the Legion of Christ has sent a letter. Magister in his piece recounts the stalling of Garza Medina, one of the senior superiors who is refusing to step down.
It will be difficult, if not impossible, for the superiors of the Legion to overturn these guidelines. But not to impede them. And in the absence of rapid steps forward in the journey of renewal, other priests will leave, not "hotheads" as their superiors say, but some of the best, in addition to those who have already left and been incardinated into the diocesan clergy. The new vocations will disappear, and are already drying up more or less everywhere, for example in Italy, where only one novice entered this year.
Given this situation, if there is the intention to bring trust and courage to the healthy portion of the Legion of Christ, only one urgent signal of transformation can be given: the removal of those leaders, at least the highest ranking, all of whom owe their power to the man who both founded and capsized it. And they still continue to keep it in prison.
Magister has analysis from Gianni Cardinale, a noted Italian analyst of the Vatican. Mostly it's a breakdown of where the twenty-four cardinal-designates are from and how their appointments are more due to curial precedent than anything else. Little is given in way of describing the soon-to-be cardinals' character, positions or personality.
Angelo Amato (Saints), Fortunato Baldelli (Apostolic Penitentiary), Raymond Leo Burke (Signatura), Velasio de Paolis (Economic Affairs), Francesco Monterisi (Archpriest of Saint Paul), Kurt Koch (Christian Unity), Gianfranco Ravasi (Culture), Paolo Sardi, Robert Sarah (Cor Unum), Mauro Piacenza (Clergy).
Residential Archbishops:
Antonios Naguib, Alexandria (Egypt); Paolo Romeo, Palermo (Italy); Reinhrad Marx, Munich and Freising (Germany); Kazimierz Nycz, Warsaw (Poland); Donald William Wuerl, Washington (USA); Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Kinshasa (Congo): Medardo Joseph Mazombwe, Lusaka (Zambia); Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patanbendige Don, Colombo (Sri Lanka); Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, Quito (Ecuador); Raymundo Damasceno Assis, Aparecida (Brazil).
Over 80 (without voting rights):
Elio Sgreccia (Italy), José Manuel Estepa Llaurens (Spain), Walter Brandmuller (Germany), Domenico Bartolucci (Italy).
The consistory is set for November 20, the Feast of Christ the King. On that day, barring any deaths, cardinal-electors will still number 101. Twenty new cardinal-electors will be one too many, but only until December 3 when Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi turns 80.
Amato was the last secretary under Ratzinger at CDF before Ratzinger was elected. He follows in the footsteps of former Ratzinger secretary Bertone.
Wuerl will be getting a red hat, but not Nichols of Westminster; the difference, Wuerl's predecessor turned 80 earlier this year and Nichols' won't until 2012.
The word out there on various blogs (Father Z, Rocco, etc.) is that tomorrow at noon Rome time, the Pope is going to announce the names of those who will be made cardinals at the next consistory. The thinking is that if a consistory is announced, it will take place on the Feast of Christ the King in November.
I won't throw out any names because a list would just be a rehash of everyone else's.
The following is a comment left at TitusOneNine in reply to a query left by me for more information, as I know that the commenter, John-Ad Orientem is well informed on Orthodox matters:
Re #5 Vatican Watcher We are (finally) taking steps to resolve the jurisdictional chaos within the Orthodox Church here in N. America. I expect that the forthcoming Great and Holy Pan-Orthodox Synod (which some are suggesting could be received as an OEcumenical Council) will take steps to end the scandalous situation here. That said I do not see autocephaly in the cards.
Too many of the old country churches have too much at stake here (money), especially the Ecumenical Patriarchate which presides over a church of no more than a few thousand believers in Turkey thanks to the aggressive ethnic cleaning by that country over the last century. At a recent meeting to prepare the agenda of the Great Synod, guidelines were agreed to for the granting of autocephaly to new churches, which require the EP’s blessing. This was likely in part a response to the situation with the Orthodox Church in America (the former Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church), which was granted autocephaly by Moscow in 1970. At present the Russian Church is really the only one who has recognized that claim. Most of the other Orthodox churches view the OCA as an essentially ultra-autonomous church but maintain communion with her.
For the EP the churches in the “diaspora” (a term I really dislike) also represent a cash cow and a means to claim some relevance beyond the canonical primacy of honor which the First Throne holds in the Orthodox Church. He has been vigorously pressing claims to canonical jurisdiction over all of the churches in the “barbarian” lands (canon 28 of the Fourth OEcumenical Council).
If I had to take a guess at what the future holds, it would be a somewhat more unified American Orthodox church that would maintain its current quasi ethnic jurisdictional arrangements within the broader framework of the newly established Episcopal Assembly, chaired by a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate that would function as a sort of super synod.
All of this however is purely speculative and at most an educated guess.
Beyond that; the forthcoming council will be tackling a number of issues that have been a bit thorny over the last century or so. Among those would be the calendar, the fasting rules in the modern world (they haven’t changed in about 1500 years and are often fudged or simply ignored by the laity), the manner of receiving converts and relations with the non-Orthodox in general. It is possible the Synod may also issue some decrees dealing with contemporary issues of a moral nature such as birth control (there is some diversity of opinion on that subject), the sanctity of marriage and reaffirming the Church’s stand that abortion is murder. Given the EP’s personal attachment to environmental issues I would be mildly surprised if some sort of general “take care of the Earth” statement was not also issued.
The EP and some of the other churches have made strenuous efforts to keep this thing tightly scripted. However there are no guarantees as to what will happen once you get all of the world’s Orthodox bishops (or at least most of them) gathered in the same place for the first time in probably a thousand years or more. We don’t have a Pope (the EP’s occasional pretensions notwithstanding) to impose an agenda so things could get very interesting.
The one thing I do NOT expect are any major doctrinal pronouncements. There are at present no serious theological or doctrinally based issues dividing The Church. Church doctrine is largely settled and any attempt to add to or meddle with it would be foolish and almost certainly end badly.
Jacob already linked to this here. I return to it because I find the idea of Catholic and Orthodox reuniting to be a fascinating subject.
Since then, the discussion on controversial points has advanced at an accelerated pace. And it has started to examine, above all, how the Churches of East and West interpreted the role of the bishop of Rome during the first millennium, when they were still united.
I wonder if the great thinkers who apart of the dialogue have already informally teased out among themselves an ideal relationship between Catholic and Orthodox. How will it work? What will the relationships be? Will the laypeople on either side know a difference when it does happen?
VIS has a post at its blog with the standard announcement of Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops beginning on Sunday. It's mostly just who's going to be there and what areas will be represented along with bits of demographic data. The second-to-last paragraph:
"The aims of the Special Assembly for the Middle East are mainly of a pastoral nature" and can be divided into two main points: "reviving communion between the venerable 'sui iuris' Eastern Catholic Churches that they may offer an authentic, joyful and attractive witness of Christian life", and "strengthening Christian identity through the Word of God and the celebration of the Sacraments".
My bolding. I read awhile ago in a post I cannot find now a quote by a Middle Eastern bishop on how the sacraments could use modernizing. The poster and comments to the post voiced concerns at such language, concerns that hopefully will not be proven true.
- Appointed Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, as prefect of the same congregation. He succeeds Cardinal Claudio Hummes O.F.M., whose resignation from the same office the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
- Appointed Archbishop Robert Sarah, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum". He succeeds Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, whose resignation from the same office the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
Of course, replacing the two due to the age limit was expected, so no news there. But I am wondering about Archbishop Piacenza taking over Clergy for Hummes.
Those familiar with the Curia may remember that Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith was in a lot of circles the favorite to take over the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments due to his orthodoxy and friendliness to tradition snd the present Pope's program of reform, but was not seen as realistic for many reasons including the fact he was already the secretary of CDW and secretaries are not normally directly promoted from secretary to prefect of their dicasteries.
But here we see Piacenza moving straight up to take over for Hummes.
EDIT: Rorate Caeli and Father Finigan have links to a few of Archbishop Piacenza's articles and letters for those interested in his views.
As a result, the Russian delegation asked and obtained that the text from Crete [historical examples of the Bishop of Rome exercising his office in the first millennium] not be included among the official documents of the commission, not bear the signature of any of its members, and be used simply as working material for a new rewriting of the working outline. A rewriting more attentive to the theological dimensions of the question.
In effect, at the end of the talks in Vienna, the participants agreed to set up "a sub-commission to begin consideration of the theological and ecclesiological aspects of primacy in its relation to synodality."
Next year the sub-commission will present the new text to the coordinating committee of the commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. So that the following year, 2012, the commission will be able to revisit and continue – on the basis of the new outline – the discussion begun in Cyprus and Vienna. [...]
But as can be seen, the question is certainly a thorny one, with no solution in sight.
So yeah. Actually, I found the first paragraph after the lead to be the most interesting.
While the Eastern Churches are slowly approaching the convocation of the pan-Orthodox "Great and Holy Council" that should finally unite them in a single assembly after centuries of incomplete "synodality," the other journey of reconciliation, which sees the East in dialogue with the Church of Rome, is also taking small steps forward.
Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for October [2010] is: "That Catholic universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel, it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason".
His mission intention is: "That World Mission Day may afford an occasion for understanding that the task of proclaiming Christ is an absolutely necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of humanity".
Announcement: Rorate Caeli to begin New Purgatorial Society
Last week, my aunt lost her battle with cancer, and went to her eternal reward. When I received the sudden news, I prayed to Our Lady that her reward be Heaven, and then I quickly took to Twitter and Facebook to ask friends and family to pray for the repose of her soul.
When I was finished, I thought about how difficult it is to get people to pray for deceased loved ones, especially in today's society when even most Catholics wrongly believe everyone outside of murderers and rapists are automatically going to Heaven and thus are not in need of prayers. And I thought how wonderful it would be if there was a Purgatorial Society to turn to -- a free one as well.
I am now happy to announce the official launch of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society!
Details on how to submit deceased loved ones and who is being accepted for inclusion follow in the rest of the post.
We applaud Mr. Paulitz's efforts and will be taking part.
My parish puts out a pamphlet to its members now and then in addition to the usual Sunday bulletins. The pamphlet I received in August had the following that I was surprised to read due to its clarity. It's probably not new at all and has been in previous pamphlets, but I don't remember it.
Which church would you most like to see your children choose for their adult life?
Or do you feel that that they should have no real worries about religion until they're settling perhaps into their second marriage?
In our increasingly secular and even anti-religious culture, we and our children are being persuaded that all religions are at best equally valid, and at worst, of no real value at all. Our culture disregards the guidance of the Church in favor of an ever changing set of secular values.
Are you able to tell your children why the Catholic church is The Church, the only church that Christ founded? Can you help your children to resist being drawn into another faith or living with no faith? Or have you been persuaded that Christ founded thousands of churches that are equally good and that it's okay to choose whatever feels best from among this myriad of options?
The choice of religion or the absence of religion in your life determines how you live your life and most likely how your children will live theirs.
You need to know how the roots of your Catholic faith began with Adam and Eve, grew with Moses and the Jewish people, has been completed in Christ and will be carried on through you and your family. Scripture from Old Testament to New Testament, The Church and Catholic Tradition are your history. This history from ancient times to the Catholic Church today offers a foundation and guidance to your life that no other faith and no secular institution can provide.
You need to know your history. You need to teach your children.
Magister writes today about Vietnam. The Vatican got to appoint a representative to the country, but it seems the quid pro quo required entailed the archbishop of Hanoi resigning for some fake reason, but really because he wasn't docile enough for the Vietnamese government. There are eight million Catholics in Vietnam out of a population of 84 million and they are growing. They are also politically active with peaceful demonstrations and marches. But of course, the secretary of state is playing a role; from Magister: "In 2008, cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone wrote to the bishop of Hanoi to keep his faithful in check, in order to avoid harming "the dialogue with the authorities.""
Included is an essay by Lorenzo Fazzini entitled, "Rome and Hanoi Closer to Each Other? The Steps of Patience" which goes into more depth.
For those interested, Southeast Asia is once again getting hot. The Spratly Islands claimed by just about everyone along the South China Sea have come up again in the contest of maritime rights and of late the Vietnamese have been purchasing submarines from Russia. Into such a mire the Vatican wades with its new representative...
Last night on EWTN, I watched the last half of a program called Holy Roman Spies. The title sensationalized the subject-matter, as the 'spies' of the program were rather missionaries to the Soviet Union by way of Ukraine during World War II. They were all trained at the Collegium Russicum in Rome. The program also included accounts of the college's possible infiltration by the Soviet KGB, though most of the the interviewees from the college couldn't figure out why the Soviets would have been interested in such an institution. Right...
This morning, I was directed by an email to this article by Sandro Magister discussing the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and its relationship with the Orthodox of Russia. Long time readers will remember that when we last left the two sides, there was much hostility, not only between the Catholics and the Orthodox, but between various Orthodox factions fighting for legitimacy.
Magister's article today discusses the thawing of relations between Rome and the East and how this has affected things in Ukraine. The primary reason is that Benedict himself is German and not Polish, the ethnicity of John Paul II being one of the major wedge issues of the past due to the historic tension between Russia and Poland with Ukraine in the middle. One of the secondary reasons is that Benedict has dropped all efforts to establish the Ukrainian Greek Catholic patriarchate and has focused instead on cooperation with the Orthodox in evangelizing the larger segment of the Ukrainian population that is outside the Christian Church.
Though tensions in one sphere have eased, Magister points to another where the Greek Catholics have come under attack through pressure by the pro-Russian Ukrainian government through subtle oppression by the security services and lack of formal legal recognition or state monies, which instead go to the Orthodox Church.
Before getting started, a note on the honorific of monsignor. Since in Italy it's used as a courtesy, I am leaving it out, though most news sources use it for Bishop Padovese. No disrespect is intended.
This article is badly translated into English, so I won't quote from it extensively. But from what I gather, the Latin archbishop of Smyrna/Izmir is familiar with the murder Murat Altun and thinks that the murder was one of political motivation rather than religious. The Islamic elements of the crime are mere red herrings to throw off the investigation and confuse the public. Archbishop Franceschini completely discounts in the interview what he sees as the lies regarding Murat Altun's alleged depressed state. I'll throw this out there from the summary at the beginning of the article:
Mgr Franceschini hypothesizes that the assassination was planned with precision, the killer for well trained, and the authors aim to destabilize the country and distance Turkey from Europe.
That would seem to go with what I have read about Murat Altun's alleged involvement with the organization known as the "deep state". Al Jazeera has a timeline.
UPDATE (10:01):Father Z posted on this story as well this morning and has this quote from a news article from EWTN/CNA:
Analyst Fr. Fillippo di Giacomo, who writes for publications such as L’Unitá and La Stampa, revealed that “hours before Padovese was killed, the Turkish Government called him to say that his driver, who they themselves had put in his service four years before, had gotten out of hand. That is to say, he had embraced the fundamentalist cause.”
Because of this, Padovese canceled his trip to prevent his driver from having access to the Holy Father. Also be sure to read the comments on Father Z's post for info on the expulsion of Christian missionaries from Morocco.
Original post:
From Asia News is this summary and following story from the day before yesterday on the brutal murder that occurred just before the Holy Father's trip to Cyprus.
The summary:
The bishop was stabbed in the house and beheaded outside. He cried help before he died. The murderer shouted "Allah Akbar!". The alleged insanity of the murderer is now to be excluded. There is no medical certificate to prove it. Murat Altun accuses the dead bishop of being a homosexual. Turkish minister of justice condemns the murder and promises to shed light on the incident.
The concluding paragraph of the story with my bolding:
But according to experts of the Turkish world, the killing of Mgr. Padovese shows an evolution of organizations of the "Deep State" being the first time they aim so high. So far they had targeted ordinary priests, but now they have attacked the head of the Turkish Church (Mgr Padovese was president of the Episcopal Conference of Turkey). At the same time, their actions are becoming more sophisticated, less crude than before. There not only limit their defence to claims of “insanity”, already used for the murder of Father Santoro [covered here in 2006], but offer more explanation to confuse public opinion nationally and internationally.
Just as the developing story of Murat Altun's murder of the bishop gained steam, the Pope traveled to Cyprus and Sandro Magister has his usual report on the journey and its results. After recounting the ecumenical nature of Benedict's visit to the island, Magister recounts this meeting between the Pope and a Muslim which I give here in full:
On Saturday, June 5, on his way to the Mass at the Catholic church of the Holy Cross in Nicosia – right on the border of the part of the island occupied by the Turks – Benedict XVI came across an elderly Sufi sheikh, Mohammed Nazim Abil Al-Haqqani. They greeted one another, and promised to pray for each other. They exchanged little gifts: Muslim prayer beads, a plaque with words of peace in Arabic, a pontifical medallion.
So instead of the expected meeting with the mufti of Cyprus, Yusuf Suicmez, the highest Muslim authority on the island, there was the encounter of the pope with a Sufi master, an exponent of a mystical form of Islam, a form of Islam that "presumably through Christian influence stresses the love of God for man and of man for God," instead of an inaccessible God "among whose 99 names that of Father is missing."
The words just quoted are from Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar for Anatolia and president of the Catholic episcopal conference of Turkey, killed in Iskenderun on June 3, the eve of the pope's trip to Cyprus, in which he was supposed to have participated.
Magister then goes on to condemn the official Vatican response Padovese's murder, which he characterizes as "submissive and counterproductive".
Despite this, Benedict addressed the situation in Cyprus with two steps, decrying the situation of the division of Cyprus and the forcing out of Christians from the Turk occupied areas, and calling upon Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, because "for them, and for the great Islamic and Christian philosophers who followed in their footsteps, the practice of virtue consisted in acting in accordance with right reason, in the pursuit of all that is true, good and beautiful," starting with that "natural law proper to our common humanity."
Before departing for Rome, the Pope offered these words while visiting a church dedicated to the Cross:
[It] offers them hope that God can transform their suffering into joy, their death into life. [...] And if, in accordance with what we have deserved, we should have some share in Christ’s sufferings, let us rejoice because we will enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.
Prayers are asked for my grandfather who died yesterday evening. He was eighty-seven.
Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace.
Today, my brother and I drove home and after meeting up with our dad, we went to see our grandmother. While there visiting, we saw various old family pictures. My grandmother had two women religious in her family besides the one I already knew about, I think. I will have to investigate that more.
