Shusaku Endo's book, Silence, now a movie

The Japanese Graham Greene's novel, Silence (Jap. 沈黙, 'Chinmoku'), is now a movie Directed by Martin Scorsese. Coming soon to a theater near you. I hope Scorsese keeps faith with the well-known novel.


[Hat tip to B.E.]

Related: "'Silence' = the antithesis of 'A Man for All Seasons'" (Rorate Cali, November 30, 2016).

"The one thing, the first thing, the only thing that matters for the Church is to save souls!"

Bishop Fellay in a recently released 45-minute frank interview on the status of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X under the pontificates of Benedict and Francis (in French with English subtitles), via Adfero at Rorate, March 21, 2016:

Pope Emeritus Benedict breaks silence, speaks of 'deep crisis' facing post-Vatican II Church

I was surprised to suddenly see this everywhere -- reports of Pope Emeritus breaking his silence in an interview, originally given in German last October and now reported by an Italian journal, "Cos’è la fede? Ecco le parole di Benedetto XVI" (Avvenire, March 16, 2016).

Here's what Maike Hickson reported at LifeSiteNews yesterday:

March 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info.

Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell:

The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the Faith loses its foundation.

He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change of dogma has led, in the pope's eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church – “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.”

Pope Benedict asks the piercing question that arose after this palpable change of attitude of the Church: “Why should you try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?”

As to the other consequences of this new attitude in the Church, Catholics themselves, in Benedict's eyes, are less attached to their Faith: If there are those who can save their souls with other means, “why should the Christian be bound to the necessity of the Christian Faith and its morality?” asked the pope. And he concludes: “But if Faith and Salvation are not any more interdependent, even Faith becomes less motivating.”

Pope Benedict also refutes both the idea of the “anonymous Christian” as developed by Karl Rahner, as well as the indifferentist idea that all religions are equally valuable and helpful to attain eternal life.

“Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic theories of religion, for which all religions, each in its own way, would be ways of salvation and, in this sense, must be considered equivalent in their effects,” he said. In this context, he also touches upon the exploratory ideas of the now-deceased Jesuit Cardinal, Henri de Lubac, about Christ's putatively “vicarious substitutions” which have to be now again “further reflected upon.”

With regard to man's relation to technology and to love, Pope Benedict reminds us of the importance of human affection, saying that man still yearns in his heart “that the Good Samaritan come to his aid.”

He continues: “In the harshness of the world of technology – in which feelings do not count anymore – the hope for a saving love grows, a love which would be given freely and generously.”

Benedict also reminds his audience that: “The Church is not self-made, it was created by God and is continuously formed by Him. This finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but with the help of this Sacrament.” Benedict also insists that, always, “we need Grace and forgiveness.” [emphasis added]

Also reported in

• Maike Hickson, "Benedict XVI Gives Rare Interview ... Says The Church Has Lost Missionary Zeal" (The Wanderer, March 16, 2016)
• Steve Skojec, "Pope Benedict Breaks His Silence On 'Deep Crisis'" (One Peter Five, March 16, 2016)
• Louie Verrecchio, "Benedict's Avvenire interview: A man of the Council speaks" (aka Catholic, March 17, 2016), who raises some questions about the translation presented at LifeSiteNews.
• Christopher A. Ferrara, "Benedict Breaks His silence ... with Another Leaky Lifeboat" (Remnant, March 17, 2017), knowing Italian, offers his own translations of the text and concludes that the upshot of the interview is more devastating than Benedict's own damning diagnosis of the problem -- a continued lack of clear rationale or incentive for the missionary mandate.
• Father Z, "New interview with Benedict XVI in Avvenire" (Fr. Z's Blog, March 16, 2016), who offers an interesting liturgical inference.
• Robert Royal, "Benedict Breaks Silence" (The Catholic Thing, March 17, 2017)

SEE FULL TEXT HERE: Elizabeth Scalia, "The Christian Faith Is Not An Idea But A Life" (Aleteia, March 17, 2017); and AND HERE: "Full text of Benedict XVI's recent, rare, and lengthy interview" (Catholic World Report, March 17, 2016).

"Has the Church Effectively Abandoned the Great Commission?" - The Mark Shea and Christopher Ferrara debate (video)

The monthly men's Argument of the Month Club (AOTM), hosted in the basement of St. Augustine's Catholic Church in St. Paul, MN, regularly draws huge crowds. Crowds of men. Certainly part of the draw is the ample food (lots of barbecue) and beer. But the more significant fact is that men are drawn to serious intellectual questions concerning the Church and the Catholic Faith.

Recently AOTM hosted a debate between Christopher Ferrara (right) and Mark Shea (left) on the hot-button question "Has the Church Effectively Abandoned the Great Commission?" And AOTM has decided, for the first time ever, to publish a video of the debate: HERE it is, with a brief introduction by Kent Wuchterl, the President of AOTM, who is just a regular guy who likes to shoot some of his videos in his garage (not to worry: the garage wasn't the venue for the debate). Enjoy. And DONATE something, if you feel so led. It's a good cause.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

A well-written, humble, inspiring book

I just finished reading this book with our daughter. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, it's not. But it has every bit the adventure of my mother's stories about her life as a missionary in China, to which she travelled alone by freighter to Hong Kong, making her way inland to Chendgu, Sichuan, where she served as a medical mission nurse until my father arrived, they were married, they tried to stay after the Maoist revolution and after I came crashing into their lives. Perhaps this disposed me empathetically to the story about Sr. Theophane in Selfless.


From the publisher:

Selfless is the story of Sister Theophane, a passionate, driven nun dedicated to serving the poor around the world.

Discover the inspiring story of how a precocious young girl from upstate New York became a servant and apostle to the poor in the jungle missions of Papua New Guinea, and, eventually, a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.

Selfless: The Story of Sr. Theophane's Missionary Life in the Jungles of Papua New Guinea was written in 1946 by a fellow sister of the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters [Sr. Immolata Reida, SSpS], but it is just now being published for the first time.

Long held in anonymity, Sr. Theophane's amazing life of service and apostolic zeal is now finally being revealed to the world. Her story is a breathtaking tale that will inspire a new generation of Catholics to heed the call of service to Christ and others.

Our daughter was touched by Theophane's love of animals from when she was a child, through her horse-riding adventures in the mountain passes of Papua New Guinea. I was touched by her quiet heroism, her unflagging selfless zeal, and her untimely death as a casualty of the Pacific War (WWII). The ending is particularly moving, if you follow the threat of hear life throughout the whole narrative.

Pray for a renewal of the missionary spirit among Catholic women religious. Lord knows we need it.

Safe masturbation and other Salesian myths for corrupting the young and the restless

Poor St. Francis de Sales! The order that takes its name from him has now been exposed for promoting abortifacient contraceptions, masturbation, and condoms in mirror image of all that the heathen New Dark Ages have embraced with delight since the collapse of Church influence in the West. Chalk up another one for the Lepanto Institute.

Related (a comprehensive discussion of the topic): Boniface, "Why is Masturbation a Sin?" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam).

When did the Church learn to evangelize? After Vatican II?

One of the more persistent annoyances in the contemporary Catholic world is the proud declaration that now we finally know that we’re supposed to evangelize and go forth and go out and not sit smugly inside the church walls! Finally!

Thus begins a recent post by Amy Welborn, who, in the context of discussing a book called The Blind Sisters of St. Paul, nails to the wall one of our own pet peeves of this era of the "New Evangelization" ... She continues:

It’s not all the fault of the Francis Moment. Since the Second Vatican Council, that idea: that the pre-Vatican II Church was closed-off, and we’re all about the openness, energy and evangelization now – exists in the Catholic Atmosphere somewhere between assumption and dogma.

But how odd, then, that when we dig out examples to inspire us in our current efforts to take the Gospel into the world, to be energetic and creative and engaged, we tell each other that we need to be more like…

Francis de Sales!

Catherine of Siena!

Frederic Ozanam!

Maximilian Kolbe!

Alphonsus Liguori!

Francis of Assisi!

Dominic!

or today’s saint: Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher!

Who all, it seems, managed to understand Jesus’ call pretty well, despite having to live rigidly with access only to the ©TLM.

Just think what they could have accomplished with more freedom and the right to actively participate!

Guy Noir, who sent us this linked article, highlighted Wellborn's frank observation:

(My take has always been that what Vatican II unleashed, even as it was called in order to enable the Church to offer the Gospel to the world with more vigor and understanding, was mostly decades and decades of self-involved naval-gazing and infighting as the energy to go out was redirected into endless meetings trying to figure out new structures and mission statements and what we’re all about and for, a massive waste of time and misdirection that we’re seeing reach its natural climax in #Synod15.)

Whether you wish to take that cum grano salis (or not), I think you will agree that there are a growing number of pretty frustrated people out there. God bless! -- Catholic and enjoying it, +PP

On disadvantages of the Novus Ordo Mass in Africa

Joseph Shaw, "The Extraordinary Form and Sub-Saharan Africa" (Position Paper No. 25) (Fœderatio Internationalis Una Voce, April, 2015), via Rorate Caeli:

Catholics of the older generation often tell me that at the time of the introduction of the reformed liturgy, it was frequently justified as being necessary for 'the missions'. This paper points to a number of difficulties with the idea that the reformed liturgy is particularly suited to Africa.

Shaw also addresses the problem of inculturation on his own blog in a post entitled, "The Traditional Mass and Africa" (LMS Chairman, April 25, 2015):

[O]bviously, the Novus Ordo is bound to be more suited to the cultural conditions of Africa... right?

Wrong. The reality is that, unfortunatly, the Novus Ordo looks very much like ... aspects of modern European culture which have been arriving in Africa since colonial times, which are not respectful of authentic African culture. Alongside Hollywood films and consumerism, the Novus Ordo reflects the passage through European thinking of Rationalism and Romanticism. Insofar as one can see it as a good response to the cultural situation of modern Europe - and this is presumably the idea - then its attempt to make Catholicism less shocking and uncomfortable for people who don't understand the concept of the supernatural and instinctively reject the idea of tradition, it is addressing a situation totally removed from the situation in Africa. For most African Catholics, it is an answer to a question which is not being asked....

What the Church needs, in fact, is a form of worship which is clearly not pagan, but which still answers the spiritual needs of people who feel the pull of paganism. A liturgy which creates a sense of the sacred, of entering into the mysterium tremendum. What can too easily happen is just the opposite: a 'banal on-the-spot-product' (as Pope Benedict described it) with pagan ceremonies inserted into it at intervals, as we have all seen with Papal liturgies. African Catholics could be forgiven for thinking, in a liturgy like that, that it is the pagan stuff which is powerful, which connects with the transcendant, with the spirit world, and not the Christian stuff. That, obviously, is a disaster, even leaving aside the whole question of liturgical abuses.

What I would like to emphasise finally is that, however narrow-minded some of the missionary priests of old might have been (and by no means all of them were narrow-minded), having a totally Catholic but spiritually impressive liturgy like the Traditional Mass can today give priests and people the confidence to incorporate African customs into the life of the Church, without exposing themselves to the polemics of the Evangelicals or to any kind of syncretism. It is a great sadness that Africans should feel they have the abandon their indiginous names, music, or art, in order to become Christian: this is something Pope Paul VI spoke firmly against in 1967: 'an African man, when initiated into the Christian religion, is by no means forced to repudiate himself'. Cultural self-repudiation has never been the Church's demand of converts. The Traditional Mass is not part of the problem with inculturation, but part of the solution.

Support the work of the LMS by becoming an 'Anniversary Supporter'.

The Una Voce Position Paper (first referenced above) is actually the much more substantial article of the two, so please don't neglect to read it, if the subject interests you.

One recalls the massive success in Africa of the Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, from 1932 until he ran afoul of Rome after Vatican II.


In 1948 he was appointed by Pope Pius XII as his Apostolic Delegate of Dakar, he oversaw the Catholic Church in 18 African countries. By 1959, his territory of apostolic work had expanded to 12 archdioceses, 36 dioceses, and 13 Italian Apostolic Prefectures including Morrocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Central African Republic, Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia, Cote d'Ivorie, Benin, Togo, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Madagascar, Le Reunion. One can find more on his testimony of the Catholic Faith's effect in Africa here [disclaimer: Rules 7-9]; and all of this took place well before the advent of the Novus Ordo in 1970.

Question: What will the "New Evangelization" yield?

The question comes to us from the undercover correspondent we keep on retainer, Guy Noir - Private Eye, who asks, even more starkly: "Will the 'New Evangelism" ever produce recognizable faith?"

That may sound a bit bleak, given the fact that a fairly large swath will likely be claimed for the "New Evangelizaton," which includes the likes of the significant numbers of those who would attest that their lives have been impacted in a positive way by what is largely termed the "renewal" of the last few decades (happening places like Steubenville, for example).

But I'm not sure that's exactly what Noir has in mind. I'm guessing that he's thinking of the virtual collapse of Catholic overseas missions since the mid-20th century and erosion of the zeal that animated those efforts since the early years of the Church right down through St. Francis Xavier's time -- namely, the conviction that the unevangelized in all probability cannot be saved apart from the Gospel. Here's what Noir was thinking about: David G. Bonagura, Jr.'s article, "Can Faith Survive in the 'first world'?" (The Catholic Thing, March 22, 2015). Excerpts:

... history shows that Catholics have had massive success evangelizing whole peoples when they were compelled by two deeply held beliefs: a profound love of Christ to the point of martyrdom, and an understanding that those they encounter cannot be saved unless they accept the Gospel.

Our Lord promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church, but that was not a guarantee to keep souls within her. A distressing number of first world residents have heard of the Gospel [heard hear suggests understood, gotten it] but have not listened to it.

Noir comments: "This is rather shocking in how it makes quiet assertions seemingly oblivious to the example of reigning clerics who seem to deny them by pastoral example. The bolded lines, what leaders even believe these things?"

Hard words.

This also reminds me of what John Lamont wrote (New Blackfriars, Vol. 88, 2007) concerning a missing element in Vatican II:

The trouble with the Council's approach to mission is that although it stresses that Catholics must seek to convert unbelievers, it gives no adequate reason for doing this. It does give Christ's command to evangelize as a reason, but it gives no proper explanation of why that command is given, or of the good that the commandment is supposed to promote. This, of course, means that the command is unlikely to be followed; and it has in fact been largely disregarded since the Council.

In other words, Lamont writes: "[The Council] made no reference at all to unbelief rendering salvation doubtful." Or, in still other words: completely missing was a sense of urgency about the possible damnation of the unevangelized.

Again, hard words. Do we still believe them?

Cardinal Kasper on how Pope Francis sees the Church

Walter Kasper, "How Pope Francis Sees the Church" (Commonweal, March 13, 2015).

No surprises here. I can't help remembering the question that arises when reading Plato: Is Plato merely reporting what Socrates said, or is Socrates a mouthpiece for the projected opinions of Plato?

Either way, it's interesting: Kasper dies state, however, that the Pope's "pastoral" style is more than "good-natured folsiness" or "cheap populism." Behind it stands an "entire theology," he says. It's deliberate.

What are its elements? The Church, as the people of God, "transcends every institutional expression." It is rooted in God's mercy. It eschews every form of clericalism ("Laypeople are ... the vast majority of the people of God"). It recognizes the indispensable contribution of women. It recognizes the importance of young people and recognizes their difficulties. It puts a premium on the sensus fidei. It seeks "a magisterium that listens." In terms of the Sacraments, the Church is viewed as "a merciful mother with an open heart for all," seeking to reconcile those in irregular relationships. It regards as wrong an attitude that stays fixated on "hot potatoes." It seeks to grow, not by proselytism but by attracting. "God is a God of the journey ..." It wants to "touch Christ ... in the poor." Its "paradigm shift" takes as its model the Good Samaritan. The "guiding star of evangelization and of this kind of pastoral care is Mary, Jesus mother -- and our mother." It's magna carta is Evangelii gaudium, in which Pope Francis writes:

... I would like to remind you that “pastoral care” is nothing other than the exercise of the church’s motherhood. She gives birth, breastfeeds, lets grow, corrects, nourishes, leads by the hand.... There is need therefore for a church that is capable of rediscovering the womb of mercy. Without mercy it is scarcely possible today to penetrate into a world of the “injured,” who need understanding, forgiveness, and love.

Ann Coulter, Missionaries, and Archbishop Lefebvre

Our underground correspondent in an eastern seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, just sent me the link to the following article by Albert Mohler, "Are Christian Missionaries Narcissistic Idiots? — A Response to Ann Coulter" (AlbertMohler.com, August 7, 2014), in which Mohler responds to some wild-eyed remarks by the indomitable Ann Coulter about an Ebola doctor who was flown back to the United States (“Ebola Doc’s Condition Downgraded to ‘Idiotic.”).

Noir commented: "I am not sure what I think of this: I tend to think both all three have points. I also think Coulter is always hysterical.

"But it also raises the larger question, is there still such a thing as Catholic missionaries? I really don't think so. Also makes me think of this rather moving trailer."

The video he linked to was this:


[Hat tip to JM]