Thursday, September 27, 2007

Housekeeping II

We turn away from our constant vigil of all things Roman to note some new links down the left column.

The Joyful Eunuch is a new blog meant for young people. I had a nice conversation with its blogger and got a chance to talk shop for a little while the other night.

Fumare is a Catholic legal blog that has recently turned to coverage of the Ave Maria School of Law debacle. AveWatch covers the same issue. For those who may be unfamiliar with the situation, several years ago, the former head of Domino's Pizza funded the founding of the new Ave Maria School of Law up in Michigan. Then, with the founding of his new university complex in Florida, he and the dean of the school decided the law school would relocate. Faculty were not consulted and recently, three dissenters were given the boot based on trumped up charges. Very bad all around.

Vatican Watcher rating: I wouldn't send my kid to Ave Maria.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Housekeeping

The custom links remain the same, but the Blogrolling list got cleaned up. If you read and you find your blog is missing, leave a comment and an updated URL.

Huh?

Times (of London) Online has a story on how once of John Paul II's cassocks has been cut up into a hundred thousand pieces to meet demand from the Faithful. All well and good. But in the story there is this quote:

But the scheme has caused disquiet in the Vatican, which is anxious to discourage the veneration of relics, seen as a medieval practice with no place in the modern church. “Wars were fought over the hunt for relics in the Middle Ages,” said Bishop Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s top judicial body.

Someone doesn't like all the 'superstitious mumbo-jumbo'... Wars were fought over Transubstantiation as well. Maybe we should just label the entire Mass as 'medieval' too.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Braveheart

The thing in 'Braveheart' where English lords get to sleep with the new wifes of Scottish men in order to 'breed out the Scots'...

Wallace is a big time Catholic who's been to Rome. He's pious and all that. We all know Mel is personally into the entire traditional scene...

So why in the hell wasn't Longshanks in the movie worried in the least bit by promulgating a law that broke several commandments, namely adultery and coveting one's neighbor's wife, not to mention violating sizable chunks of canon law, etc?

I think such a law would be grounds for interdict and excommunication, don't you?

But hey, great battle scenes. :D

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Links and Comment

RORATE CAELI discusses an Italian newspaper's comments on if the MP is even in effect yet. A commenter named David says that since it's not in the AAS along with other details, it's not in effect, despite RC's assertions to the contrary. Yet David never mentions whether or not the MP has or has not been published in the L'Osservatore Romano which he himself asserts is an official newspaper of record by which documents such as the MP may be promulgated. Nice try, but if you want to point out it's not been printed in the AAS but never point out if it's been printed in the L'Osservatore Romano, you're not going to sell it to me.

Father Z posts an interview of a confrere of his back in Minnesota with the traditionalist The Remnant. Good points are made all around. The comment about how people tend to buy into the 'restoration' idea is a great one since people always love to restore things (unless you were just so into the 1970s renewal that you were positively in love with Urban Renewal as well and took delight in turning America's downtowns into blocky architectural wastelands). The good Father of the interview and the The Remnant interviewer brought up an impending persecution of Catholics and the possibility that we are living in the End Times. I left a comment:

Re: The End Times and Catholic persecution

Certainly when you reach out, you’ll find those of the O’Brien frame of mind, to reference to Michael O’Brien and his book ‘Father Elijah’. Personally, I tend to be more of the ‘The Name of the Rose’ sort who views predictions and feelings of the impending arrival of the End Times with a grain of salt as so many past predictions have come to naught.

I’m of the opinion that the MP and the renewal of the 1962 Missal are too easy a temporal landmark to base ideas of an impending crisis. The End Times will come in God’s good time and not with any kind of prelude like the MP: it’s just way too obvious.
Comment by Jacob — 22 September 2007 @ 5:29 pm

For those of you who are interested in secular politics and the upcoming US presidential election, I found this post at 'Suitably Flip' to be quite interesting regarding the campaign contributions made by the Hsu guy donated millions for himself and others, all while on the run from an outstanding warrant for his arrest in the great state of California.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The MP II

The MP went into effect on the 14th. I guessed in the last post that there would be something in the next issue of the weekly newspaper. It arrived today and...

ZIPPO!

Must be hard work spelling out in your own words what the Pope spelled out in his own words. Of course, HE the Bishop could be using his Latin skills as a former teacher to actually come up with a decent translation since the Holy See has dropped the ball there. We'll wait and see, but HE is on borrowed time right now.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The MP

My bishop has promised some kind of guidelines for the implementation of the MP here in the diocese by tomorrow. I would assume that they will be published in the next edition of the newspaper. HE is a former Latin teacher, so I am hoping that he has some interest in the 'Latin Mass' and will support it here at home, but we'll see.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The Salzburg Catholic Theme Park

Last night on TV was The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (who reportedly said of working with Andrews that it was like being hit over the head by Valentine's Day everyday). Of course, Fraulein (I have heard from a German that 'fraulein' is now not used for 'miss', it's viewed as impolite) Maria leaves the abbey and goes off to serve as governess of the von Trapp children and promptly turns them into great singers and so on.

On top of the singing and the lyrics that I totally remembered and even the hand gestures of Max (:D), last night I was paying attention to the churches and the abbey in particular during those parts. Robert Wise's montages of the local ecclesiastical architecture, first forwards as Maria goes out into the world and then backwards when she retreats to the abbey, was quite impressive.

I wonder about how much of all that survived post-Vatican II and the modern world?