Not Quite St. Patrick's Day

Monday during Holy Week
Saint Patrick's Day (though it was officially translated to the 15th)

You know anyone who's gotten drunk yet? It's fifteen minutes to ten in the morning here and I am logged in somewhere where a fine young gentleman from another time zone has already gotten a start and is quite drunk on 'Irish' brew... Of course, those who are more likely to go out and have a rip-roaring good time with their mates are also less likely to notice the fact that the sanctioning body that made Saint Patrick's Day what it is (the Holy Catholic Church!) moved it to March 15th this year...

In any case, I like to take a more sober approach to the day given it is the anniversary of my entry into the Catholic Church as well as this year falling during Holy Week.

I'm still considering what I want to do next Sunday for Easter. The Church commands us to receive Holy Communion at least once a year at Easter and I haven't since before my surgery last year. But swallowing even little particles is hard and I doubt they'd left me use a plastic straw if I brought one. I should email Father and ask what he thinks...

Here's a toast to all my Harrah and Henry kin.
Wear your green and say a prayer.

Palm Sunday

Or is it Passion Sunday?

All I know is that palms are given out, so it's Palm Sunday to me. :)

In any case, I went out to the communal penance service yesterday and was heard by a priest whom I did not recognize. He was friendly enough and offered a few words which I really didn't get before he moved on to to the absolution and that was that.

Then later in the day, I went to the Saturday evening Mass and sat in the balcony. Due to circumstances, I was just sitting up there reading along on my own and then we reached to Gospel. We all stood and again I was reading along, not exactly sure if they were doing the long form or the short form. Whatever. Then suddenly everyone knelt and I figured out where we were.

John Zmirak's mother

One Dead, One Wounded

My grandfather had all kinds of pro-life bumper stickers. One of them went along the lines of 'One dead, one wounded.' I guess in this case, it would be 'Three dead, period.'

Telegraph.co.uk: Artist hanged herself after aborting her twins

An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: "I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum."

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day - her 31st birthday.
[...]

Emma was happy to find out she was pregnant, but Emma's boyfriend wasn't happy. Emma had a history of depression. When she finally got to the hospital after missing a few appointments as she struggled, a certified counselor was not to be found... They gave her a number to call because everyone was off on holiday leave.

Welcome, my friends, to the NHS.

Her suicide note read: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does."

...

Requiescat in pace.

Remember This?

Less Than A Million... with the BBC story about how the number of worldwide religious had fallen below a million?

Magister as always presents for us the bright side:

But there are many of these. Some, although not very well known, are astonishing.

One of these, for example, is the Institute of the Incarnate Word.

Founded by Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela in 1984 in Argentina, in the city of San Rafael in the province of Mendoza, after just a quarter century it counts today, in its men's branch, 302 priests, 21 deacons, 195 seminarians studying philosophy and theology, 51 novices, and 95 students in the minor seminary.

Its generalate house and its center of formation are in Segni, 40 miles east of Rome, in the empty buildings of the diocesan seminary. The bishop of Segni, with the approval of the Holy See, recognized it in 2004 as an institute of diocesan right. But it is also present in 32 countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, China, Tajikistan, and Greenland.

Its women's branch, named the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matarà, counts 226 religious under perpetual vows, 251 under temporary vows, and as many novices and postulants. It is headed by a young Dutch sister, Maria de Anima Christi Van Eijk, and is present in 22 countries. A Dutch bishop is also a close friend of the institute, Johannes Baptist Gjisen, who is now in Iceland as head of the diocese of Reykjavik.

Furthermore, there is a burgeoning third order composed of laypeople, under vows and not, with various degrees of membership.
[...]

t's spirituality is founded upon the Incarnation of the Word, and is expressed in both a strong missionary impulse and in the "evangelization of culture."

The central feature of formation in the institute is the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas, mediated by one of the greatest Thomist philosophers of the 20th century, Fr. Cornelio Fabro.
[...]

The bolding and the link in the article are mine. Another example here in the US is the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist up in Michigan. I've gotten letters from them several times asking for funds to enlarge their mother house because as the cute form letter puts it, they are undergoing a 'vocations crisis' of a different sort. Then there are the Carmelites out in Wyoming, etc. Unless they are all misrepresenting their numbers and orthodoxy, I don't think the state of the religious life as put out there by the BBC is quite so stark.

The Future of Europe?

Spengler's essay posted today needs to be read.

Salient points:

Europe’s Man of Destiny is Geert Wilders, the 35-year-old leader of Holland’s tiny Freedom Party. He has provoked the world Muslim community in order to draw the violent jihadists out of the tall grass, and he seems to be succeeding. Call what Wilders has done nasty but necessary, and blame Europe’s so-called mainstream leaders for abandoning their posts, and leaving the standard in the hands of a young man with the courage to grasp it. At the moment the Dutch government is quaking over the consequences of a 10-minute film that Wilders plans to release in April denouncing the Koran.
[...]

Thus far, the authorities of Europe have made clear that they will do nothing to prevent the murder of a prominent citizen. If Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose plea to the European Parliament made headlines, can expect no help from the authorities when her life is at imminent risk, what succor can the anonymous victims of Islamist violence expect?

I am ashamed to say that it did not become clear to me that Wilders has taken the only appropriate course of action until I read carefully the Archbishop of Canterbury’s now-infamous "sharia" speech. Stripped of casuistry, he proposed that Muslim women subject to forced marriages, genital mutilation, or domestic violence should be handed over to Muslim religious courts, rather than be offered the protection of English Common Law. To my knowledge, this is the first time that one of Europe’s spiritual leaders has proposed to abandon innocent victims to their fate.

Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, to be sure, has a point. But he should have stated plainly what he really thinks. What he wanted to say is more or less: "To protect a few hundred or a few thousand colored ladies, the English state will have to put its big boots on, kick down the doors of Muslim homes, trample through Muslim living rooms, tear up the fabric of Muslim communities, and disrupt the social order. Why not turn such cases over to religious courts and wash our hands of them?" I reiterate: this is satanic hypocrisy.

If decent and well-meaning men like Dr Williams are so afraid of communal violence as to abandon the founding principles of common law and Judeo-Christian ethics, it is long past time to debate the fine points. Blessed are the pre-emptors, for they will get on with it.
[...]

The man must be batty?

Almost a thousand years of slow and steady legal evolution that has defined the rights of Englishmen...

Dr. Williams thinks we all can't get along without separate courts:

An approach to law which simply said - there's one law for everybody - I think that's a bit of a danger...

You, sir, are the danger!

On second thought, maybe he agrees with Irene's friend that imposing one's creed upon another is 'a damned cheek'?

The Good Friday Prayer, Continued

Ruth Gledhill quotes a blogger named Irene who in turn quotes a friend who commented about the revision of the Good Friday prayer:

Irene, who is currently refreshing her knowledge of Latin at Haifa uni, says: This text would not be acceptable to the majority of the Jewish people, for whom any attempt to get us to convert to belief in Jesus as Messiah goes against the tenets of Judaism. This prayer would appear to be on a par with those evangelical Christians (not all, of course) who wish all Jews to emigrate to Israel, in order to hasten to second coming of Christ.

'I have an Anglican friend staying with me at present and I read it to her and she wasn’t very amused and thought it a damned cheek, actually.

'She said. ‘It implies that if you don’t recognize Jesus Christ, you won’t be saved’. In Judaism you can be ‘saved’, or at least be worthy of heaven without being a Jew. This would appear to be the main difference between the Jewish and Catholic approaches.'

It is difficult not to conclude that this represents a re-emergence of supercessionism. A discussion of the Pope's views when he was still Joseph Ratzinger shows that the former Pope clearly regarded the 'new covenant' as the fulfilment of the covenant of Sinai.

Bolding of Irene's friend's comment is mine. A damned cheek indeed. But then of course, Jesus is only the Son of God...

The Good Friday Prayer

RORATE CAELI has the new version of the prayer in Latin and an unofficial translation.

Doctor Alcuin Reid:

Roma locuta est: causa finita est. This traditional maxim of Catholic life needs to be remembered. It refers to the right of the Holy See – and most specifically of the Sovereign Pontiff – to decide on matters of discipline and governance of the Church. Once the arguments have been duly heard and the Supreme Authority decides, loyal Catholics obey: even if they personally disagree about the prudence or otherwise of a decision.
[...]

Less Than A Million...

The number of members, predominantly women, some engaged only in constant prayer, others working as teachers, health workers and missionaries, fell 94,790 to 945,210.

Of the total, 753,400 members were women, while 191,810 were men, including 136,171 priests and 532 permanent deacons.

The figures were published next to a report of Pope Benedict XVI's meeting with nuns, monks and priests from many countries gathered in St Peter's Basilica in Rome last weekend.

The BBC's David Willey in the Italian capital says the accelerating downward trend must have caused concern to the Pope.

The Roman Catholic Church has an aging and diminishing number of parish and diocesan clergy and this latest fall is quite dramatic, our correspondent says.

The number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by about a quarter during the reign of Pope John Paul, and this further drop shows that new recruits are failing to replace those nuns who die, or decide to abandon their vows, he adds.

Is this for real? The old orders are getting grey and dying off along with the rest of the post-war boom. Welcome to global demographics.

A History Lesson, Part I

No, I do not think 'an history lesson' makes any sense when you say it.

Read this at RORATE CAELI on the events of 1988, a period of church history I never learned about during my formative years (we didn't learn much church history, period).

Father-General Nicolás

Last Call for the Society of Jesus – To Obedience (with the homily of Cardinal Rodé

Reaction at RORATE CAELI of the election of Father Adolfo Nicolás

Magister's thoughts snd excerpts from Christianity in Crisis: Asia by Father Nicolás

On Death

Many people commented on the importance of the funeral Mass and the Catholic tradition of prayer. I know that readers of this blog will offer their own prayers as well. Thank God for the Church, for the parish, and for our Catholic faith at a time such as this.

--Father Tim Finigan

Australians, I need your help

Given the ever greater pace we are seeing in the Holy Father's reform efforts, from the MP to crosses and candles on the altar to outright facing 'east' in the Sistine Chapel, I've love to know what the situation is with the renovation plans for Cardinal Pell's cathedral. Are they still going forward with the new freestanding altar? If anyone has news, please comment.

EDIT: Here's the original post at Shrine of the Holy Whapping.

The "La Sapienza" Affair

I've been busy... But on to business.

Catching up on Father Z this morning, I read his piece on the Holy Father's canceled visit to "La Sapienza" University in Italy because professors and students were protesting madly and his security and dignity could not be guaranteed.

I was referred then to Zadok, who has all the details on the ground:

Pope to Visit the Sapienza University

Gah! It's not about Galileo!

Credit where credit is due

They're worse than I thought...

Ruini - Show support for the Pope on Sunday!
I don't have much to add to this myself beyond what Father Z and Zadok have to say. In the comments to the various quotes, a lot of biblical verses are quoted to support His Holiness. Dusting yourself off after being thrown out is a good one, as is the story of Peter turning back to Rome after Jesus asks him where he's going.

Birthday

Vigil of the Epiphany; Commemoration of St. Telesphorus, pope and martyr
Feria; St. John Neumann

Day off. See you all tomorrow.

More on Saint Telesphorus and Saint John Neumann from last year.

When the Church Attacks

Octave of the Holy Innocents, martyrs
Feria

From the National Secular Society (of the UK):

The Government and the Catholic Church are at loggerheads again in Spain following a mass demonstration in Madrid over the New Year. The rally, organised by the Church, was supposed to be “in defence of the family” but was, in fact, an attack on the Spanish Government’s legalisation of gay marriage, its new fast-track divorce law and a new civics course that parents can choose for their children instead of religious indoctrination in schools. The Pope made an appearance via a video link to cheer on the bigots. The Church claimed that two million people had taken part in the rally, but an independent count by El Pais newspaper put the number at less than 160,000. Even they had to be bussed in from all over the country, and some even from Portugal.
[...]

My bolding. It goes on like that. It's funny how they phrase that. I bolded the attack words in the article. But they criticize the rally because it was claimed that it was in support of the family while they rattle off a list of criticisms of government policy. But if they bothered to think through their argument, maybe they'd realize that support of something usually means support of something against something else, namely the policies listed of the Spanish government.

I got through the first paragraph and stopped. If anyone else has the fortitude to go on, feel free.

Catholic World News:

Madrid, Jan. 3, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Spanish government leaders have asked the country's Catholic bishops to apologize for the massive pro-family rally held in Madrid on December 30, Vatican Radio reports.

Leaders of the Socialist governing party have charged that the Church intervened in partisan political affairs with the rally, which drew nearly 2 million participants. (The government is reporting that only 160,000 took part in the demonstration.) The government has asked the bishops' conference for an apology.

Although 40 bishops took part in the pro-family event, and the hierarchy gave clear support to the event, the rally was organized primarily by lay Catholic activists. The organizers have consistently argued that the rally was not intended as a partisan political event, but as a public expression of support for the traditional family founded on Christian marriage.

One part of the Secular Society's bit that I didn't quote was the part on numbers. There's some dispute over if the rally's attendance was six digits or seven. Note the distinction given between clerical and lay organization of the rally.

Quinceanera

Update #2: Picture restored.


From www.commodoreevents.com

DENVER (AP) — On the day she is to become a woman, Monica Reyes sits in front of the church for Mass. Her white dress — sewn in her mother's Mexican hometown — spills over her chair like an oversized lampshade.

The priest urges her to live as a daughter of God. Her parents give her a gold ring shaped like the number 15. Near the end of the service, Reyes lays a bouquet of roses before a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Then she steps through the worn, wooden doors of St. Joseph's, a Roman Catholic parish for generations of poor, Hispanic immigrants, and into a 20-seat white Hummer limo that rents for $150 an hour.

Read the entire piece. A couple of points...

Matovina said the Denver archdiocese's efforts will resonate with some families and be ignored by others, much like couples who go through the motions of marriage preparation classes to get a church wedding.
[...]

At the same time, the ritual is a point of tension with the Catholic church because Catholic families want their faith to be part of the celebration yet it isn't a sacrament, like marriage.

The Reyes family does not attend Mass regularly, but would never consider the Quinceanera legitimate without the blessing of a priest. A portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe watches over the living room of the family's apartment.

"The reason to have the Mass is to be blessed, and to say thanks to God," said Monica's mother, Luz.

The article makes much of the industry that surrounds the entire thing. I am at once intrigued, but also repelled by the expense of the entire thing. I've read in different places about the thoughts of Confirmation devolving into a 'coming of age' sacrament and I wonder how that plays into the event with these girls and all the trappings of their Church-sanctioned events. Food for thought.

The Deaf Church

Ed Peters talks today about deafness and its place in the Church and how the Church ministers to those who are deaf. He quotes from and responds to an article in Zenit from the 1st where a priest was interviewed on the issues facing deaf Catholics such as sign language, participation in Mass and vocations.

I'm not going to rehash the good doctor's remarks, but I'll make a few points of my own. To start off, I am a deaf Catholic. I was not deaf from birth, rather I lost my hearing over time and only reached complete deafness as a young adult. I don't necessarily identify with the 'Deaf' community and at this point, my sign language skills are rather meager.

On participation in Mass:
I go to Mass with hearing people in a parish that does not provide any kind of services. And that's fine for me. I have my missal for the readings, I follow along based on what Father is doing, I have continuous silence in which to contemplate the Divine. I miss singing, both singing myself and listening to it, but it's not something that bothers me too much anymore. Mostly my problem is staying focused thanks to the fact that it's just me and my silence, but we all have our crosses to bear.

Personally, if I had the option of an on-site closed captioning service, I would consider it. Dr. Peters makes a point about how reading closed captions does not necessarily fit in with 'active participation', but having used captioning throughout my later years of university that it can be quite useful and does not hamper at all 'active participation' if you consider what goes on in the usual university classroom.

On the other Sacraments:
I take along a notepad to Confession. I usually write out what I have to confess beforehand simply because it's speedy and leaves the priest time to write down whatever he wants regarding penance and absolution. Even if it was available, I wouldn't think to take in with me a translator of some kind. Being out there in the world beyond hearing, but not having much contact with the wider Deaf community, that kind of personal contact is always welcomed.

On Vocations:
On this issue, I cannot necessarily speak with clarity. While discerning a vocation, I emailed the vocations director of the diocese (who is now vice-rector of NAC in Rome I believe) and he was quite helpful, even providing me with some info on deaf priests in other dioceses. Later, I met with the director of vocations for the local Jesuit province and after a cordial conversation where we discussed my various health issues, we came away with a conclusion that the priesthood wasn't right for me, but not because of any issue with my deafness per se.

Anyway, that's just a few of my thoughts, not very well formed, in response to Dr. Peters' comments. It's not something Dr. Peters addressed directly, but I would posit that while ministering to the deaf is important, simply because of my situation, I think that ministering to those who once had hearing and then don't is a ministry of its own that overlaps with but is not the same as a ministry for the deaf in general.

Pick your prelate!

Octave of St. John Apostle and Evangelist
The Most Holy Name of Jesus (optional)

Damian Thompson: Who should succeed Cardinal Cormac? I don't know enough about the English hierarchy to propose anyone myself and I doubt anyone from outside is going to be brought in in this day and age. Perhaps a Pole? I see that my favorite UK blogger, Father Tim Finigan, has been proposed. Perhaps I should second him? Of course, choosing a prelate for such the archbishopric ought not be a popularity contest. We'll see though what the results are of Mr. Thompson's polling of his readers.

On a more practical note, tonight are the Iowa Caucuses. If anyone wants to advise me on who to throw in with in either party, leave a comment. ;)