A speculative calculus on the future of traditional and non-traditional priests in France

"Traditional priests in France until 2050" (Centurio, July 6, 2014). Conclusion?

... if the Roman Catholic faith will be saved from secularism in France, it will be the achievement of the traditional groups of priests celebrating the Traditional Mass such as FSSPX, FSSP and ICRSS.

Wishful thinking? Do the math, adjust the variables, see what alternatives you come up with. The wild card, of course, is a possible geo-political event of historic magnitude. Short of that, things will more or less continue in their current trajectory. It's true, the TLM may be available daily in no more than 75 places nationwide, as a reader observed, and aside from a few bishops like Cordileone and Morlino, the majority remain disinterested or downright unfriendly. But the trajectory in question spells, mutatis mutandis, the exponential collapse of the churches spawned in the 1960s; and if Centurio's calculations are even half-right, they spell a much greater leadership role for traditional priests in the future of France.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

"Breaking: Chaldean Patriarchate's Appeal for Urgent Help S.O.S"

1924: Chaldean priests and the orphans under their care in Mosul (Nineveh), Iraq

• "BREAKING: CHALDEAN PATRIARCHATE'S APPEAL FOR URGENT HELP S.O.S." (RC, August 7, 2014)
  
• "Editorial: Qaraqosh falls: A greater punishment is ready for the more mighty" (RC, August 7, 2014)
  
• Joseph Shaw, "Does Islam need the 'Enlightenment'? Op-Ed" (RC, August 7, 2014)
  
• "An Urgent Letter of the Chaldean Patriarch" (RC, August 6, 2014)
  
• "Goodbye, Mosul!" (RC, August 5, 2014)
  
• "A Brave Open Letter, by the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul: Do not give in to alarm or fatalism: Jesus has conquered the world." (RC, July 31, 2014)

When prayer gets as sentimentalized as "Thinking of you!"

Boniface, "Our Greatest Lie" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam, 2014):

If you are a Catholic striving after sanctity, you make a sincere effort to avoid all mortal sin and even venial sin. You certainly value truthfulness as a basic requirement for living a vibrant spiritual life and never intentionally tell lies or deceive others. Yet even so, there is one lie I have learned that Catholics, even very pious, faithful Catholics, are guilty of telling. And they tell it time and time again, sometimes every day. We go on deceiving others with this lie, and then tell the same lie again, sometimes to the same people. Most likely it is not intentional; we do not set out to be untruthful - but we become untruthful nonetheless. And this untruthfulness is not harmless; it is an untruth that can do grave harm to our own spiritual life and deprives those we lie to of very necessary graces. If not rectified, this habitual lie can lead to a devastating habit of spiritual neglect. And yet, even then, even knowing this, we continue to do it.

Have you figured out what lie I am talking about, what untruth we habitually tell other people? Is it clear yet? What lie am I talking about?

"I'll pray for you."

Read more >>

Guy Noir comments: "I have thought this about myself countless times. And I think, though this is written about Catholics, it is wildly true in Evangelical circles as well. "I'll say a prayer about that" is up there with "I'll be thinking of you" as both rather meaningless and misleading unless it is very consciously true. Don't say it as a consolation prize -- it just trivializes it. Besides, it is actually a substantial commitment. So say it less and mean it more: that's a good approach."

[Hat tip to JM]

Ebola Obama

Guy Somerset, "The End, of Something Like It" (Taki's Magazine, August 6, 2014):

On August 2, 2014, the Obama Administration allowed the first of two American health care workers who had contracted the Ebola virus back into the U.S. There is no logical reason to have done this; in fact its illogic is so great as regards possible spread of the epidemic that this act borders on madness.

For those who question the degree of alarm this return of infected parties to native soil engenders, of the 1,440 people so far afflicted, over 100 have been medical professionals. In total 887 (and rising daily) have perished. Or in layman’s terms, even those with the most experience and best protective equipment, and who have taken every precaution to avoid exposure, have succumbed. This, for a pathogen with a 50% mortality rate on the low end and 90% on the high. There is no vaccine and there is no cure.

... It could very well be this is but one more exemplar of the addled thought processes prevalent in contemporary man. One should never discount abject stupidity as the modus operandi for anything, especially in politics. Given that Obama managed to single-handedly crash Wall Street last week with an announcement of wholly ineffective “sanctions” on Russia, this may be more evidence of exactly the level of intelligence with which we are dealing.

Much omitted here: Read more >>

Why porn matters

Carl R. Trueman, "The Purpose of Pornography" (First Things, August 5, 2014), concludes:

Perhaps our obsession with sex is not really an obsession with sex at all. Perhaps it is really an obsession with death, to be avoided by remaining perpetually young or by tricking ourselves by sexual athletics into thinking that we do so. Yet whatever the aesthetics, sexual activity as a means for preserving the myth of eternal youth is always going to involve the law of diminishing returns and thus ironically prove a powerful witness to its own falsehood. It really does not matter how many orgasms you have, or how intense they are, you are still going to die.

[Hat tip to JM]

"The Truth About Priestly Continence and Celibacy in the Early Church"

"The Truth About Priestly Continence and Celibacy in the Early Church" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam), another thoroughgoing treatment such as we've come to expect from Boniface.

[Hat tip to L.S.]

Mainstreamed madness since V2: Can you handle the truth?

More papally-induced anxiety (PIA) syndrome?

First, as Guy Noir says, "this prolix but rather pointless bit of counsel from the normally helpful [Fr. Dwight Longenecker]": "Ten Things to Remember if Pope Francis Upsets You" (Patheos, July 15, 2014)

"And then," he continues, "there is, incredibly and depressingly, THIS, from none other than William Oddie, Defender and Explain-Wayer of all things Roman. The fact that he feels this way is something, the fact that he would actually PRINT it ... It comes close to silencing even me": William Oddie, "Is There Growing Confusion over Church Teaching?" (Crisis, July 11, 2014).

[Hat tip to JM]

"So Heavenly Minded You're No Earthly Good"?

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity:

A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.

It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

John Piper adds:

Yes, I know. It is possible to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use. My problem is: I’ve never met one of those people. And I suspect, if I met one, the problem would not be that his mind is full of the glories of heaven, but that his mind is empty and his mouth is full of platitudes.

I suspect that for every professing believer who is useless in this world because of other-worldliness, there are a hundred who are useless because of this-worldliness.

[Hat tip to JM]

"The impoverishment of the Church’s liturgical culture is a major problem for the remarried"

William Oddie offers some surprising ruminations on the question "If they can’t receive Communion, what is left for them to be part of?" -- surprising because of their liturgical implications (and vice versa):

The fact that for most of the Church’s history frequent reception was not the normal practice may bear a little reflection. To begin with, it is surely the case that automatic reception of Holy Communion is in itself undesirable: it was supposed to be part of the heightened sense of “participation” in the celebration that post-conciliar liturgists went on about: what it has actually led to in practice is a huge loss of reverence for the sacraments in general (the growth of automatic reception was mirrored at every stage by a corresponding decline in recourse to sacramental confession), and in a loss of reverence for the sacrament of the altar in particular.

This, and much more >>

[Hat tip to JM]

Just for fun: How to ruin a good round of love-making?

Certainly that's what this typically-detached analysis by St. Thomas Aquinas will probably suggest to nearly everyone. It will doubtless provide some food for thought, however, for those who read between the lines of his all-too-spare prose. Here it is, from his Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 7, p. 329:

-- Hence it should be noted that the conjugal act is sometimes meritorious and without any mortal or venial sin, as when it is directed to the good of procreation and education of a child for the worship of God; for then it is an act of religion; or when it is performed for the sake of rendering the debt, it is an act of justice. But every virtuous act is meritorious, if it is performed with charity. But sometimes it is accompanied with venial sin, namely, when one is excited to the matrimonial act by concupiscence, which nevertheless stays within the limits of the marriage, namely, that he is content with his wife only. But sometimes it is performed with mortal sin, as when concupiscence is carried beyond the limits of the marriage; for example, when the husband approaches the wife with the idea that he would just as gladly or more gladly approach another woman. In the first way, therefore, the act of marriage requires no concession; in the second way it obtains a concession, inasmuch as someone consenting to concupiscence toward the wife is not guilty of mortal sin; in the third way there is absolutely no concession.

For further discussion, see "Friday Linkage: Virtuous Sex Edition" (Darwin Catholic, May 25, 2012). To be clear, I'm not necessarily endorsing what we find on the Darwin Catholic blog, but I do think it helps to provoke the right sort of discussion or reflection that may be needed.

Many contemporary Catholics don't realize it, but St. John Paul II has a passage in an essay somewhere, where he's discussing treating spouses as ends rather than means in the context of sexual intercourse, and he suggests, in effect, that it would be sinful for a husband to approach his wife with a predatory attitude.

There you go. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. What do you think? Are Christians killjoys? Are they not? What are the possibilities of reciprocal pleasure in acts of mutual self-donation? Or has the contemporary Catholic focus on the goodness of sex overlooked something?

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

Extraordinary Community News: Tridentine Mass-Inclusive Bus Tours to EWTN and the American South and to Historic Shrines of Eastern Canada

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (August 3, 2014):

On the heels of last week’s announcement of the September 4 bus tour to Carey, Ohio’s Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, Mike Semaan’s Prayer Pilgrimages bus tour operation has announced that Tridentine Masses will be a part of two additional bus tours taking place over the coming weeks. Each tour includes daily Mass, sacred music concerts, meals, hotels, ample free time, as well as stops at major secular sights worth seeing.

Flyers with details about all three bus tours are available at the back of the church. To register for the tours or for further information, visit www.prayerpilgrimages.com or call (248) 250-6005.

Sunday-Friday, August 24-29, a five-day tour to the American South will visit:

Alabama: EWTN’s studios in Birmingham, including seating in the audience for a broadcast of EWTN Live; Mother Angelica’s Our Lady of the Angels Monastery and Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville (with Tridentine Mass in the Lower Church); and St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman

Atlanta, Georgia: Cathedral of Christ the King; Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (with Tridentine High Mass tentatively scheduled as of press time) [pictured below]; and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception


Nashville, Tennessee: St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows Church; Cathedral of the Incarnation

Cincinnati, Ohio: Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains

Kentucky: Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption; Church of the Mother of God; and the Fathers of Mercy Chapel (a traditionally-designed church, opened in 2008, pictured below)


Sunday-Friday, September 7-12, a five-day tour to the Historic Shrines of Eastern Canada will visit:

Quebec: Basilica of Notre Dame du Cap de la Madeleine; Basilica of Sainte Anne de Beaupré (with evening candlelight procession)

Quebec City: Notre Dame de Québec Cathedral Basilica (special Jubilee Year Indulgence), Notre Dame des Victoires Church; Ursuline Convent

Montreal: St. Joseph’s Basilica Oratory; Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral Basilica; St. Patrick’s Basilica; Notre Dame Basilica [pictured below]; Notre Dame de Bon Secours Chapel; Gesu Church


Ottawa: Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica; St. Patrick’s Basilica; Blessed Sacrament Church; St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Shrine

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 08/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph (St. Dominic, Confessor)
• Tue. 08/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for August 3, 2014. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

Tridentine Masses coming to the Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan area this week

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Sun. 08/03 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/03 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/03 9:45 AM: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/03 12:30 PM: High Mass at Immaculate Conception, Lapeer (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/03 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor, Canada (Seventh Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/03 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass at All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Mon. 08/04 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Dominic, Confessor)
• Mon. 08/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (St. Dominic, Confessor)
• Mon. 08/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Dominic, Confessor)
• Tue. 08/05 7:30 AM High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)
• Tue. 08/05 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor, Canada (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)
• Tue. 08/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major)
• Wed. 08/06 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Transfiguration of our Lord, 2nd class)
• Wed. 08/06 7:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Transfiguration of our Lord, 2nd class)
• Thu. 08/07 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Cajetan, Confessor, Founder of the theatines)
• Thu. 08/07 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Cajetan, Confessor, Founder of the theatines)
• Fri. 08/08 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor, 3rd class) [First Friday]
• Fri. 08/08 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor, 3rd class) [First Friday]
• Fri. 08/08 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor, 3rd class) [First Friday]
• Sat. 08/09 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Vigil of St. Lawrence, 3rd class)
• Sun. 08/10 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 9:45 AM: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 12:30 PM: High Mass at Old St. Patrick's, Ann Arbor (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 12:30 PM: High Mass at Immaculate Conception, Lapeer (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor, Canada (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)
• Sun. 08/10 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass at All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (Ninth Sunday After Pentecost)

Renewed Prayer Request

Please continue to pray for my previously-stated intention regarding our home back in NC. If you knew how often and repeatedly new problems keep erupting, you might agree that there is something uncanny if not diabolical about the situation.

At least some relief has come in the form of the insurance company agreeing to cover a bit of the remediation for water damage (about 1/5 of that cost); but the other problems -- septic, reconstruction, etc., still loom as very large challenges. Thanks, PB

Brazilian fog machine

"Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.'" (RC, July 30, 2014):

Do you all remember Cardinal Hummes? Yes, the Pope's greatest friend in the College of Cardinals, the Franciscan who inspired the papal name "Francis", the man who was right by the Pope's side in the loggia in the memorable evening of his election. As an emeritus, his influence is obviously a more understated one.

Anyway, he granted an extensive interview days ago (July 27) to a paper in his native Brazil, and the answers are just remarkable, particularly this one, on same-sex "marriages":

If Jesus were alive today, would he be in favor of gay marriage?

I don't know, I formulate no hypothesis on this. Who must answer this is the Church in its entirety. We must take care not to raise issues individually, because this ends up creating more difficulties for us to reach a valid conclusion. I think we must get together, listen to people, those who have an interest, the bishops. It is the Church that must indicate the ways, and there must be a way for all.

Perfectly clear.

Our underground correspondent in an eastern seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, remarks:

Because the opposition to gay marriage from the word go has been one of "marriage is between a man and a woman" with the defining caveat "since its purpose is children" and not any reference to the objection to homosexuality itself, the way this may easily play out over the decades is quite clear. Marriage can't be redefined at the moment, but civil partnerships can be allowed. Which is launching change by papering over a technicality. From there, things can quite easily graduate into allowing gay marriages if the intent from the start is to adopt...

Another example of the truism: Answers that are not simple are not answers, and yet they are: they most always also mean exactly what you suspect they mean.

[Hat tip to JM]