He spoiled our party: or how to get yourself a libel suit

VATICAN CITY (ANSA) - Swiss Guards Commander Elmar Theodore Maeder has denied reports that his attempts to stifle the corps' New Year celebrations caused unrest. The colonel said the reports of friction in the ranks published by British daily The Independent were "all false".

The Independent quoted an anonymous Guard, who complained Maeder imposed a midnight curfew on festivities and confiscated 20 bottles of wine.

The source even suggested the commander then used the wine at his own private end-of-year bash.

"No orders were given for New Year's Eve, apart from the one extending the time of return to the barracks," Maeder said in a statement.

The commander threatened to take legal action against "those who have spread this false news that damages the good name of the Swiss Guards".
[...]

Bolding is mine of course. This kind of story is just so easy to confirm unless they're all living under a code of silence. It's funny how the press comes up with stuff like this. The anonymous guard should either come out or shut up (if he even exists). He's volunteered for the position he is in and that includes taking orders.

Sorting out the agendas and a radical theory

ROME (ANSA) - The mysterious biblical figure of Mary Magdalene has become an icon not only for some feminists but also for many theorists interested in playing up the importance of women, according to a new book.

Written by the scholar Mario Arturo Iannaccone, the book says that in recent times Magdalene has come to be seen as the embodiment of "the sacred feminine and the spirituality of the goddess".
[...]

Iannaccone's attempt to demolish more recent views of her appealed to Italian bishops' daily Avvenire so much that it devoted a whole page this week to a discussion of the ideas in his book. The headline was Hands off Mary Magdalene.

Although Iannaccone makes no reference to Dan Brown, the new Magdalen he refers to is clearly present in the recent bestseller The Da Vinci Code in which it is suggested that Magdalene was Jesus's wife.
[...]

According to some theologians, one reason Mary Magdalene has attracted so much attention is that very little is said about her in the Bible. With nothing concrete to go on, the imagination can run wild.

But one of the latest theories to emerge about Magdalene has nothing political to it and is being taken very seriously by experts. According to Australian biblical expert Elizabeth Fletcher, Magdalene was in fact a Jewish businesswoman able to offer financial support to a roving rabbi called Jesus of Nazareth.

Fletcher maintains that the woman often depicted naked in art was involved in trading dried fish and wool dyes, two products which were important in the economy of the town of Magdala.

The book is interesting. But this last theory is even more interesting. I am wondering how a biblical scholar could get that kind of a theory out of what's in the Bible. One never really thinks of Jesus as having patrons per se and having Mary Magdalene as the primary patron of Jesus' ministry is rather novel.

That's nice

Octave of the Holy Innocents
General: Feria
USA: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

AKI cites a story today in La Repubblica on a new book coming out by Father Leonardo Sapienza, the head of protocol at the Prefecture of the Pontifical House. The book, Pro-vocations - Aphorisms for an anticonformist Christianity, "lists about a thousand of the author's most famous aphorisms - such as 'I can resist everything except temptation' - along with those of a less famous and equally provocative writer, Nicolas Gomez Davila, a Colombian Christian who died in 1994."

The article is short and there's probably more in La Repubblica on how exactly this book is a rehabilitation. After all, a priest could publish a book of some of the wittier aphorisms of Nietzsche, but that wouldn't necessarily be a rehabilitation of Mr. 'God is dead'.

Ugh

I usually wake up around seven. I come out to my computer and I sort through the various news stories that I find. I blog on what I find interesting. Today, I came out to my computer and found once again that the cable internet was not working. I messed around on other things and finally it connected again at about 9:00. Unfortunately by then, I am not so in the mood to blog. ;)

We'll see about tomorrow.

And now the news

Octave of St. Stephen the Protomartyr
Memorial of Ss. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

The Holy See announced today the erection of a new eparcy of the 'MAVELIKARA DEI SIRO-MALANKARESI' and includes information on the man chosen to be the first bishop of the eparchy.

The Ethiopians in Somalia intend to leave in two weeks, but the Somali government wants them to stick around for awhile (BBC). Ethiopia needs to pull out as soon as possible. A protracted struggle between the UIC and Ethiopia is bad for both Ethiopia and Somalia in general.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Octave of Christmas
Circumcision of the Lord
Mary, Mother of God

Per my usual tradition, I went to bed at 10:30-11:00. I could justify such a tradition by saying that the year started with Advent or that Christmas is the true beginning for all Christians with the incarnation of the Lord, but actually... I simply have nothing better to do. Going out costs money and a lot of my friends have moved away. January 1st is just another day (aside from its liturgical significance). The sun is already rising earlier. Christmas Day has already arrived. My birthday is only a few days away. New Year's is nothing to get the heart pumping when it comes to festivities. :) Unless the ladies out there like to swoon over Dick Clark while guzzling their champagne?

If you all are recovering, I wish you well in your efforts. Enjoy the day off. I know I will. There is a nice blue sky outside. It should be almost 40 here today. News and commentary will resume tomorrow.

Finally, one reader commented and recommended the Baronius version of the 1962 Missal. Unless anyone wishes to object and comment in favor of another version, I will probably go with that. Thanks to the reader for chiming in and also to Louis for the very informative link.

St. Thomas Becket

On his feast day in the cold northern winter, let us look to spring and a merry literary jaunt to visit the hooly blisful martir.

Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury.

1 Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote,
2 The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
3 And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
4 Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
5 Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
6 Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
7 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
8 Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
9 And smale foweles maken melodye,
10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
11 So priketh hem Nature in hir corages-
12 Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
13 And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
14 To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
15 And specially, from every shires ende
16 Of Engelond, to Caunturbury they wende,
17 The hooly blisful martir for the seke
18 That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

Recommendations still needed

*points down to his Recommendations needed post*

Thank you to long-time reader Louis for sending a helpful link. If you have any thoughts, please email or leave a comment. Thank you.

This is funny

From Daily Southtown (bolding mine):

At the center of it is the figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe, once perhaps a pagan goddess, but now unquestionably the patron of the Mexican peon with whom she identifies. I tell students that if they want to understand what Catholicism was like before the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, they should look at Mexican popular Catholicism and read the plays of Shakespeare. The "religion of the border" (as my colleague James "Big Jim" Griffith calls it) does not need, for example, the approval of the Congregation for the Making of Saints to proclaim their saints -- just as Catholics did for a thousand years.

Sometimes these saints disturb us Celts. I have in my possession (but never wear) a medallion of San Juan Malverde, the patron of the narcotrafficantes. In Perez-Reverte's great novel "The Queen of the South," the protagonist prays fervently to both Malverde and Guadalupe without any sense that there might be an inconsistency in such devotions.

Go figure.

The article written by Andrew Greeley and describes his thoughts on the Council of Trent and its effect in the Americas.

Let's talk about Somalia

This will be one of my off-topic posts, so if you're here exclusively for the selected Vatican news items I usually post, I'm sorry.

Somalia is one of those places that has gained such an image in the wider world that it is hard to really figure out what the best course of action is to help the country and its people. Out of anarchy has been born the Union of Islamic Courts and the Provisional Transitional Government backed by Ethiopia. These two factions spar in a land that is poor, starving and all around the very definition of 'Third World'.

My own view of Somalia over the last few years has been increasingly altered by reading about the northern region of Somalia. More specifically, I've been reading about the Republic of Somaliland.

From Wiki:

In 1991, after the collapse of the central government in Somalia, the territory asserted its independence as the Republic of Somaliland. It regarded itself as the successor state to the briefly-independent State of Somaliland but did not receive any international diplomatic recognition.

The news weekly Somaliland Times is a handy way of keeping up to date on the unrecognized state's efforts at gaining international recognition.

As one academic whose writing is featured at the Somaliland Times website pointed out, Somaliland is a victim of its own success. As a democratic state that enjoys basic levels of the rule of law and a stable, if terribly underdeveloped economy, Somaliland is not very interesting for the West. The academic noted that Somaliland would be far more likely to be recognized as a functioning sovereign state only after it allows itself to descend into anarchy and becoming a training ground of al-Qaeda. There are a number of issues facing Somaliland in its bid for recognition internationally that are outlined and refuted by the same academic. The final conclusion is that the US in particular is waiting for the African Union, but the AU seems to be invested in the transitional government in the south fighting the Union of Islamic Courts while ignoring the democratic and stable northlands.

This is pretty much a public service announcement on Somaliland and why it ought to be recognized. It's democratic, it's stable, it has a strong community both at home and abroad through its diaspora. Its legality is clear under international law. The world is fixated on the Somali theater of the War on Terror and Mogadishu that it completely overlooks a democratic Muslim state in the north. It's time for this tunnel vision to stop.

Thanks for reading.

Recommendations needed

Dear readers,

As the motu proprio draws closer and closer, I have been considering investing in a 1962 Missal for my personal edification and use should I ever make it an indult/post-motu proprio Mass. Having looked around, I have been comparing different missals on the market from Angelus and Baronius as well as used missals and the like.

I ask my readers who have personal knowledge of the different missals out there to offer counsel on which they think would be most edifying and easy to use. I do not intend to spend more than US$60, so please, do not leave any links to antique missals being sold on Ebay or at ABE or Loomis. I would prefer to get something brand new, but if there is used copy to be had that is exceptional, I would consider it as well as long as it's within my price range.

I look forward to your help and advice.

The calendar biz

The Holy Innocents

New Twist To Annual Calendar Frenzy | ANSA.it

ROME (ANSA) - The New Year is on its way and Italy's news stands and book stores are bristling with the usual steamy array of calendars of naked and semi-naked women models.

The pin-ups, however, are facing increasingly stiff competition here from a range of more politically correct alternatives.

Bolding is mine. I find it interesting that the papal calendar is deemed PC. It does sort of make sense, but in a counter-intuitive way. One would think that 'politically correct' would be reserved for the usual European secular scruples...

Reciprocity

We'll let you pray in the Cordoba Cathedral when you convince your coreligionists in Turkey to grant certain privileges to our brethren in Turkey.

And I return

St. John the Evangelist

In the grand tradition of this blog, I am leaving all that I missed to the past, as there is too much to really sort through and by which to be overwhelmed. So onward and forward.

Homily at Midnight Mass

Urbi et Orbi message on Christmas Day

It's that time again

Travel for Christmas begins later today. Have a blessed Christmas season.

Ruini's address

Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for your prayers. I am okay for now.

Magister has Ruini's address from December 14th where the Cardinal-Vicar General of Rome spoke to the priests "on the “heart” of Ratzinger’s teaching."

No need for excerpts, Magister has his own breakdown and commentary as well as the full text of the cardinal's essay. Read it all.

Absence today

I have an appointment today for an MRI and then to see my oto doctor to discuss my tumor and how soon it needs to be removed. Thus, I will not be posting today.

Let's hope it doesn't need to come out immediately or else I may have to solicit some donations. :)

For now, I only ask that you all pray for me. Thank you.

A few blogs worth checking out

Nothing in the news is jumping out at me this morning. So here are a few blogs that I've added to the blogroll down the left this last week.

Embajador en el Infierno
It's in Spanish, but the blogger linked to me in a post. I will return the favor.

The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen
I keep thinking 'Captain Caveman'...



Vir Ecclesiasticus
Stay-at-home dad who blogs on a variety of things.

John Three Sixteen
Incisive commentary on Scripture.

Disclaimer: If you go to those blogs and read something you don't like... Tough luck for you. :)

Show your support

Read this.

If you agree, send an email here: lettere@ilfoglio.it

Subject: Appello di Antonio Socci

Text:
“Esprimiamo il nostro plauso per la decisione di Benedetto XVI di cancellare la proibizione dell’antica messa in latino secondo il messale di san Pio V, grande patrimonio della nostra cultura da salvare e riscoprire”. [English: "We express our praise for the decision of Benedict XVI to cancel the prohibition of the ancient Mass in Latin according to the Missal of Saint Pius V, a great legacy of our culture, which must be saved and rediscovered."]

Sign: Name, Profession (optional), City (optional) and Country of Residence