German revolt against CDF

Reuters Religion Editor, Tom Heneghan, in "Theologians say Vatican doctrine office needs overhaul" (May 25, 2007), says that Pope Benedict is coming under mounting criticism from his former German theologian colleagues, "one likening the Catholic Church's doctrinal office, that the pontiff once headed, to a 19th century censorship bureau." What do these folks think the CDF ought to be, a March of Dimes appeal?

Castrillón in Aparecida: Pope wishes to make 1962 books available to Latin Church

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos in Aparecida, addressing Latin American bishops, May 16, 2007:

The Holy Father, who was for some years a member of this Commission, wishes it to become an organ of the Holy See with the proper and distinct end of preserving and maintaining the worth of the Traditional Latin Liturgy. Yet it must be said with all clarity that it is not a turning back, a return to the time before the 1970 reform. It is, instead, a generous offer of the Vicar of Christ who, as an expression of his pastoral will, wishes to put at the disposal of the whole Church all the treasures of the Latin Liturgy which for centuries has nourished the spiritual life of so many generations of Catholic faithful.The Holy Father wishes to preserve the immense spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic treasures linked to the Ancient Liturgy.

... For these reasons, the Holy Father has the intention of extending to the entire Latin Church the possibility of celebrating Holy Mass and the Sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962. There is today a new and renewed interest for this liturgy, which has never been abolished and which, as we have said, is considered a treasure, and also for this reason [the interest] the Holy Father believes that the time has come to ease, as the first Cardinalatial Commission of 1986 had wished to do, the access to this liturgy, making it an extraordinary form of the one Roman Rite.

"Aparecida Notes: Castrillón to Bishops of Latin America Pope wishes to 'extend the possible use of the 1962 books to all Latin Church'" (Rorate Caeli, May 17, 2007). According to Rorate Caeli (May 19, 2007), the Italian Press has been filled with articles on the liberalization of the Traditional Roman Rite for the past two days as a result of Castrillón's address.

Hackneyed moronic logic

Barely had the Holy Father left South America and Bishop Celso Queiros, one of the members of the Fifth General Assembly of the Latin American bishops said this (in Portuguese, from the official website of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference):

"The Pope recognized that the Church has a certain debt to women. We know that, at this time, the dialogue on the possible ordination of women is closed in the Church. Which does not mean that it cannot be opened."

With all due respect: write that out in symbolic logic, put it in your pipe, and try smoking it.

[Hat tip to Rorate Caeli, "Aparecida Notes: Latin American bishop says 'Women's ordination is not a closed matter'"]

Is our problem with the New Mass psychological?

Back a couple of weeks ago, Jimmy Akin posted an article by Tim Jones to his blog entitled "Cognitive Dissonance and the New Mass" (JimmyAkin.Org, May 2, 2007). Some of you may have read it. Jones is a thoughtful convert with an outlook generally appreciative of things historical and traditional. He imagines the cognitive dissonance many Catholics must have felt when they experienced the liturgical revolution but where told by their pastors that this was Mass -- the NEW Mass. He then writes:

"But," you might ask, "what about the Old Mass? Can't I go to the Old Mass?"

And that's the kicker. I doubt, really, that most of these "Rad-Trad" folks would have had that big a problem with the mere existence of the Novus Ordo mass, had the Old Mass been allowed to continue alongside it. The problem - perhaps - wasn't so much the introduction of the New Mass as the fact that the beloved Old Mass was, for all practical purposes, swept away to make room for it. If those strongly attached to the TLM still had access to such a mass in their own parish (or nearby) I doubt we would see the level of anger and the veiled - or explicit - charges that the Novus Ordo is invalid and a tool of the devil.

Do you think that the true?

Pope Benedict XVI

• "Pope shows more signs of swinging to the right in public" (International Harold Tribune, May 14, 2007).
  
  
• See also "Aparecida Notes: The Pope in Brazil - IV: A Remarkable Speech" (Rorate Caeli, May 11, 2007):

  Not even the setting (the beautiful and vast Metropolitan Cathedral of São Paulo), the music (some tasteful polyphonic pieces and an aesthetically deficient, yet dignified, use of plainchant for the psalms and hymns of Vespers -- unfortunately, in the vernacular), nor the overall attentive mood of those who were present at the event could possibly have prepared the largest episcopate in the world for the remarkable speech of the Holy Father to the Bishops of Brazil.
  
  The Holy Father delivered a precise diagnosis of the deep crisis of the Catholic Church in Brazil - extensive to many other nations: all important topics were covered by the Pope, from liturgical disobedience to attentiveness to the sexual maturity of seminarians, from a condemnation of the use of the Church as a field for ideological confrontation to the need to be clear in all ecumenical settings that the only Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church presided by the Successor of Peter.
  
  In our modest opinion, this remarkable speech (in English - called a "homily" in the Official Program, due to its liturgical setting, but not particularly homiletic) is one of the most important of the Pontificate, along with the Christmas Address of 2005 and the Regensburg Address of 2006. The true question is, however: will the bishops of the world understand and take heed of this Papal reprimand? (Note: see also Rorate Caeli's own translation of excerpts from the Portuguese at the above-linked page.)

Update on kidnapping in Portugal

Half a million pilgrims in Fatima pray for missing British girl (EUX.TV, May 13, 2007).

(See our post, Kidnapped in Portugal, May 9, 2007.)

[Hat tip to J.W.]

Mother's Day Quiz

Test your Bible knowledge. Match the mother (1-14) with the child (a-n) below:

1. Hagar
2. Bathsheba
3. Jochebed
4. Hannah
5. Eve
6. Sarah
7. Ruth
8. Eunice
9. Lois
10. Rebekah
11. Naomi
12. Rahab
13. Mary
14. Elizabeth


a. Obed
b. Jacob
c. Jesus
d. Solomon
e. Timothy
f. Moses
g. John the Baptist
h. Ishmael
i. Boaz
j. Cain
k. Isaac
l. Samuel
m. Eunice
n. Mahlon

Commentary on our times?

A friend of mine recently returned from a ten-day business trip to Europe, during which he spent several days in Zurich, Switzerland, and Mainz, Germany. We talked about how a-religious Europe had become over the last decades, and I was dismayed to hear him say how disgustingly open the pornography had become in cities like Zurich in my ancestral homeland of Switzerland.

While in Zurich, he said, he had sought the opportunity for sacramental confession before Mass, but was told a priest was unavailable. Disappointed, he chalked the matter up to bad scheduling on his part, and moved on to his business appointments in Mainz, Germany -- only to run into the same difficulty there: no priests available for confession! Finally, he told me, he spotted a priest in the middle of a busy street, got his attention, and managed to communicate to him his story about how he had been unable for several days to find a priest to hear his confession. This priest drew him aside adjascent to a kiosk vending tournist articles and heard his confession then and there. O tempore!

Canon law question

I should know this, but don't want to rely on my memory at the moment to answer for a certainty: A reader asks whether, when attending the TLM today, one is subject to the law of fasting under the old code of canon law or that under the new. Can anyone confirm the correct answer?

Off-color . . .

Don't read this if you're offended by off-color scatological humor, but if you've the stomach for a bit of earthy ribald humor for the weekend, here's one for the road: Our two-year-old daughter, Hannah, last night passed wind in her sleep of such magnitude and audible explosiveness that she woke herself up and started crying of fright. Her mother and father couldn't stop laughing for a full five or ten minutes -- crass philistines that they are.

Jewish Olympic swimmer

"... and in lane 4, Obediah Klinghoffer takes the lead, with his personal trainer, Moses Steinberg, cheering him on with his famous gesture of the "Raised Rod!" "

Passing of a friend

Alexander Nikolaevich Shalfeieff died of a massive heart attack sustained while driving on the expressway, Sunday March 25, 2007, in Sapporo, Japan. No other cars or people were injured. Alex, or Sasha, was a childhood friend of mine. I remember his parents being called "White Russians," distinguishing them from the "Reds." They had escaped Communist Russia through China and come to Japan where they started over even though they were never able to establish citizenship. Their three sons, however, did acquire Japanese citizenship, which yielded some remarkable ironies, as when, speaking impeccable Japanese, they would try to pick fights with their fellow Japanese classmates in school by telling them that they were actually Koreans!

Alex was in my 8th and 9th grade classes at the Hokkaido International School in Sapporo several 'lifetimes' ago. He was a little older than the rest of us, much taller, and won many basketball games for us. Back in those days, most of the students attending the school were missionary kids, although there were some with parents in business and the diplomatic corps. Our home room teacher was a wonderful Missouri-Synod Lutheran gentleman (now deceased) by the name of Mr. Kempf. I remember Alex and I getting into trouble a couple of times with poor Mr. Kempf. Now the school has many more native Japanese students enrolled in order to improve their English proficiency for later study abroad.

My memories of the Shalfeieff family are both happy and sad. The happy memories include visits to their Sapporo home where Mrs. Ariadna Shalfeieff would fix us wonderful Russian meals, complete with piping hot hand-made peroshiki, which were about as good as anything you could imagine eating. They had a wonderful house with big cats dozing on the mantle and big hunting dogs they occasionally let into the living quarters. I also remember their home being open to all. On one occasion at dinner we had, as I recall, a Russian Orthodox family (the Shalfeieff's) hosting several Protestants, a Muslim, and, I think, a Jew. (Any Japanese visitor might have been simultaneously a Buddhist, Shintoist, and, in some sense, a Confucianist as well.) They were large-hearted folk who lived generously. To this day, Mrs. Shalfeieff sends my father an exquisite fruitcake every Christmas.

The sad memories include the progressive deaths of members of the Shalfeieff family. The father, Nikolai, died of a heart attack many years ago. Then, when the boys were in college, Andrei, the youngest of the three, suddenly and unexpectedly committed suicide, gassing himself to death in his Tokyo apartment. And now Alex, the eldest son, has died of a heart attack, leaving Peter, the middle son, to tend to his grieving mother. My friend, John Bell, whose daughter was received into the Church in Atlanta this Easter, also knew Alex. In fact, his family roomed and boarded the Shalfeieff boys during their high school years in Tokyo. He is still in shock over Alex's passing, as am I.

Over the years I have received many beautiful Christmas cards from Mrs. Shalfeieff, written in a magnificent hand, catching me up on family news and always asking for prayer for Andrei, the youngest son. I have prayed, in my poor fashion, as I have remembered to do so. Here I ask any of you willing to join us in remembering in your prayers the entire Shalfeieff family, the deceased (Nikolai, the father; Alex, the eldest son; Andrei, the youngest son), and those who survive them, the living (Ariadna, the mother; Peter, the middle son; and Alex's wife, Kay, and their children). May God be with them and be gracious to them, look kindly upon them, and give them peace.

Pope: abortion "incompatible with communion"

Philip Pullella, "Pope warns Catholic politicians who back abortion" (Reuters, May 9, 2007):

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Wednesday warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion....

The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

West Palm parents graduate um ... "Parent University"

WEST PALM BEACH--Pearl Boo Doo gives thumbs up her daughters Kirena (left), 6, and Kristina (right), 7, after watching a video presentation by students congratulating parents on their graduation from "Parent University" at Benoist Farms Elementary School. Parents attended free workshops presented by the Parenting Center of West Palm Beach for seven months. (Allen Eyestone/ The Post)

See: Don Jordan, "Program ties relationships, student performance" (PalmBeachPost.com, May 9, 2007).

[Hat tip to Sun and Wine]

Time admits critics of 'gay' rights decision were right

"Court ruling does support incest, polygamy" (WorldNetDaily.com, May 8, 2007):

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas prohibition on homosexual sodomy, leaders including then-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., warned the decision would be used in support of incest, adultery and polygamy. While Santorum got "holy hell" for his prediction, a media leader of no less influence than Time magazine now admits that he was right.

"It turns out the critics were right," the magazine said in a recent article addressing the use of the precedent in a series of other cases. "Plaintiffs have made the decision the centerpiece of attempts to defeat state bans on the sale of sex toys in Alabama, polygamy in Utah and adoptions by gay couples in Florida."

Also, in Ohio, a man's conviction of incest for having sex with his 22-year-old stepdaughter also is being challenged based on the Lawrence vs. Texas decision, the magazine said.

And there's much more where that came from ...

[Hat tip to M.F.]