You just can't make this stuff up

"Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks ‘Who painted it?’" (Catholic News Service, March 27, 2009):

Mexico City, Mexico. During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

... After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction. [In other words... she had heard at least once before about the image.... the sort of story people tend to remember.]

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “You have a marvelous virgin!” (emphasis added) [This is why she is our Secretary of State!] [Comments in brown from Fr. Zuhlsdorf]

"You have a marvelous virgin!

"Who painted it?"

Wow ...

[Hat tip to J.M.]

The Easter Triduum in the Extraordinary Form

Tridentine Community News (March 29, 2009):

This year marks the first time that our readers will be able to attend Holy Week services according to the Tridentine Form. The Latin term Tríduum, or three days, refers to the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before Easter Sunday, the most sacred days of the Liturgical Year.

Your browser may not support display of this image.Because the liturgies of Holy Week were reformed in 1955, hand missals published prior to 1955 will be of limited use. Examples of hand missals currently in print that follow the 1962 Holy Week are the Marian, Baronius Press, and Angelus Press Missals. If you have an older missal, please use the Propers Handouts we will supply to follow the liturgies.

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday with the Procession with Palms and the chanting of the Passion of St. Matthew.

Holy Thursday

The Mass on Holy Thursday evening commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper. At the end of Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is transferred to the Altar of Repose, and the high altar is stripped of all decorations, to symbolize the desolation when Christ is not present.

Mass for Holy Thursday will be held at 7:00 PM at St. Josaphat Church.

Good Friday

On Good Friday, the Passion of St. John is chanted; the Great Intercessions are sung; the ceremony of Adoration of the Cross is conducted; and Holy Communion is distributed.

For several years, Tridentine Good Friday services have been celebrated in Windsor, which many from Detroit have attended. This year, you will have the choice of attending Good Friday services at St. Josaphat at 1:30 PM, or at Assumption Church-Windsor at 5:30 PM. The same service and same music program will be offered at both locations.

The Easter Vigil

The Mass on Holy Saturday marks the discovery of the empty tomb and proclaims the Resurrection of our Lord. The Easter Fire and Paschal Candle are blessed; the Exúltet and the Litany of the Saints are chanted; the Baptismal Water is blessed; and the congregation renews their Baptismal Promises.

The Easter Vigil Mass will be held at 8:00 PM at St. Josaphat Church.

Easter Sunday and Low Sunday (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Easter Sunday Masses will be held as usual: 9:30 AM at St. Josaphat and 2:00 PM at Assumption-Windsor.

The first Sunday after Easter is known as Low Sunday on the Extraordinary Form calendar, so named to distinguish it from the most solemn of feasts the Sunday prior. In recent years, Low Sunday has become better known as Divine Mercy Sunday, after the Vatican sanctioned the popular devotion held on that day.

St. Josaphat will hold its Tridentine Mass at 9:30 AM as usual on Low Sunday. Assumption-Windsor will move its Tridentine Mass to 1:00 PM, to accommodate Divine Mercy devotions held in the church that afternoon. St. Joseph Church in Detroit will hold a special Tridentine Mass at 3:15 PM in conjunction with its own Divine Mercy devotions. As many of our readers may recall, St. Joseph was the first church in the Archdiocese of Detroit to hold Divine Mercy devotions, starting in the early 1980s. Full-page ads were taken out on the back cover of the Michigan Catholic to acquaint the faithful with the story of Sr. Faustina and invite them to St. Joseph.

Progress on the Confirmations Front

In a conversation with Fr. Borkowski, Archbishop Vigneron agreed to celebrate Confirmations at St. Josaphat according to the Extraordinary Form. Formal scheduling is the next step.

St. John Cantius Takes Interest in Chant Sheets

The FSSP is no longer alone. Chicago’s St. John Cantius Church, a major Tridentine Mass center in North America, has taken note of Michel Ozorak’s Chant Sheets on the Assumption Tridentine Mass Community’s web site, www.windsorlatinmass.org. They have asked Michel to prepare a third setting of the Gospels, in the Tonus Evangélii, which are being posted on the web site. St. John Cantius is considering posting the Chant Sheets on their www.sanctamissa.org web site of resources for the Extraordinary Form, as well.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for March 29, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]

Ever feel like ... kids are in charge?

Don't have enough money? That's okay. Let's just print some. And don't worry, we'll print lots and lots. And what's the media talking about? How cool it is that everyone can submit questions at the White House website for the President's ONLINE town hall meeting. Is that just not just so personal?

Hitting one of the nails squarely on the head, Karen Hall writes in "Our Teen Prez" (Some Have Hats, March 27, 2009):

One of the major reasons for the current insanity is that our president is mind-numbingly immature.

That's why my college-aged children love him so much. He's exactly the same age they are. He cares about the same things -- saving the world based on feelings with no regard to reality and no concern about either history or the future. A vision of utopia that most people have realized, by age thirty or so, cannot co-exist with human nature. And mostly, the thrill of the PAR-TAY!

The man cannot be parted from his crackberry, even in the interest of national security. (In other words, screw the rest of us.) Just like a 16 year-old kid, he lectures us about saving the planet while asking for gas money to go to the mall. (Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of Airforce One since January 20th?) He wants to hang with celebrities -- which is even scarier when you realize that Simon Cowell is his idea of a celebrity. The country is falling down around us, and he's trying to schedule a dinner with Simon Cowell?????????? (If any of his admirers would like to defend that, the combox is all yours.)

... So now, while the country is falling down around us and there are about fifty fires that would be front page news (if we still had front pages) that our (for lack of a better term) representatives should be dropping everything and fixing immediately, he has them trying to fix the BCS.

WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING A GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE DOING EVEN IF IT WEREN'T RIDICULOUS!

What's next, an senate hearing on the NASCAR race-to-the-chase? A congressional oversight committee for the PGA tournament? And what is going to take precedence in the mind of the Juvenile-in-Chief, the North Korean missile crisis or the Final Four?

Democracy (not that it's possible without a free press, so it's effectively gone) is a lovely thing, until the majority of the voters are so clueless, they would trade freedom and security for a chance to have a prez who would be just so darned cool to have a beer with.

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Wants Hindu concepts in Vatican Good Friday prayers

Jacinta D Souza, "Concepts of 'ahimsa,' 'nishkam karma' to resonate at Vatican" (Press Trust of India, 2009):

Bangalore,Mar 28(PTI) Mahatma Gandhi's concept of 'ahimsa' and Bhagvad Gita's essence of 'nishkam karma' would resonate at the Vatican during Good Friday prayers next month as an Indian Archbishop, bestowed with a rare honour by the Pope to prepare the prayers, would incorporate the two messages.

72-year-old Archbishop of Guwahati of Salesian Order Thomas Menamparampil has been asked by Pope Benedict XVI to prepare the meditation prayers for Way of the Cross, which the Papal Head himself will lead on Good Friday on April 10 at the Roman Colosseum.

He is the first Indian and second Asian to prepare the meditation prayers for the 'Way of the Cross', where '14 stages' of Jesus Christ are meditated upon.

Thomas, a native of Kerala, would give an Indian touch by blending the concepts of Mahatma's ahimsa and nishkama karma in the prayers for Way of the Cross, which reflects on Christ's journey to Mount Calvary before his crucifixion.

"Without using the words ahimsa and nishkama karma, I have woven these concepts into the prayers in a language that will be understood by all globally," Thomas, who is also the Chairman of Catholics Bishops Conference, told PTI over phone.

"In my prayers I have tried to be perfectly Christian and also perfectly Indian and Asian," said the Archbishop, who has written on sufferings of Dalits and been engaged in conflict resolutions in restoring peace among warring ethnic groups of North-East for over 12 years.

[Hat tip to N.B.]

How lucky (or unlucky) can you get?

Mari Yamaguchi, "Japanese Man Certified as Double A-Bomb Victim" (Yahoo News, March 24, 2009):

TOKYO – A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday....

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

[Hat tip to J.S.]

Three from Twain

• No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
  
  
• Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself.
  
  
• The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
  

  --Mark Twain

Varieties of intolerance: Cardinal Pell at his best

Pell starts with Barack Obama, California's Proposition 8, the vociferous attacks on Mormon temples by same-sex supporters, the ways in which militant Mohammedanism seeks to cow the West into submission (which, after all, is the meaning of "Islam"), and much, much more.

• George Cardinal Pell, "Varieties of Intolerance: Religious and Secular" (Catholic Culture, © Oxford University Newman Society).
  
• Bill Muehlenberg, "George Pell on intolerance" (Culture Watch, March 13, 2009) -- a brief summary.

[Hat tip to E.E.]

Liturgical news notes

Tridentine Community News (March 22, 2009):

St. Josaphat Makes the Front Page of the Detroit News

On Friday, March 13, the Detroit News ran a story on its front page about Traditional Catholic worship. The paper had sent a reporter, photographer, and videographer to our Masses on the previous two Sundays. If you didn’t see the newspaper, the story is available for (paid) viewing on-line at www.detnews.com. Search for “Josephat” [sic – the writer misspelled it]. Be sure to watch the video and look at the additional photos.

Following the press coverage that Assumption-Windsor received in November in the Windsor Star newspaper and on CBC Radio, this marks the third time that mainstream media outlets have recently covered our local Tridentine Mass scene.

Tridentine Mass Presentation at Orchard Lake Seminary

Orchard Lake’s Ss. Cyril & Methodius Seminary has followed in the footsteps of London, Ontario’s St. Peter’s Seminary in exposing their seminarians to the Classic Liturgy: Last Monday, March 16, Seminary Vice Rector Fr. Miroslaw Król invited a team from St. Josaphat to give a presentation on the Extraordinary Form of Holy Mass to his Liturgy class. Seminarians heard a brief talk on the resurgence of the Tridentine Mass. An explanatory walk-through of the Mass was then conducted at the high altar of the Shrine Chapel.

Presentations such as this help to dispel the myth that the Extraordinary Form is intimidating. With a little guidance, celebrating the Tridentine Mass is no more complicated than driving a car. Seminarians should be made aware that they may very well be asked to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in their parish assignments, in accordance with the terms of our Holy Father’s Motu Proprio, Summórum Pontíficum.

Shrine Mass Instructive to Many

This past Wednesday, March 18, Royal Oak’s National Shrine of the Little Flower held an historic Solemn High Tridentine Mass as part of their Lenten Wednesday Liturgy series. Readers of this column who attended the Mass felt quite at home: Msgr. George Browne, Deacon Richard Bloomfield, and Fr. Peter Hrytsyk were at the altar, assisted by a joint group of St. Josaphat and Assumption-Windsor’s altar servers and choir members.

Over 500 people attended, attracted in part, no doubt, by the article that Shrine pastor Msgr. William Easton wrote in the March 15 edition of their parish bulletin, available on-line at www.shrinechurch.com. Fifteen Red Missals were sold, and the choir received several compliments, both encouraging signs of newfound interest in the Traditional Liturgy.

A story and additional photos were posted on The New Liturgical Movement blog, at: www.newliturgicalmovement.org, and positive reactions were posted on Catholic Answers’ Forum. It was an honor for our communities to be invited to participate in such an event.

Special Tridentine Mass this Wednesday, March 25

As part of Fr. Borkowski’s plan to hold sung Tridentine Masses on First Class Feasts, St. Josaphat Church will have a Missa Cantata this Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 PM for the Feast of the Annunciation. Attending this and upcoming Masses will help integrate the liturgical calendar of Holy Mother Church more closely into our thinking and daily lives.

Attention: Pioneers From Villa Maria Days

A side note to those of our readers who attended metro Detroit’s only Tridentine Mass at Windsor’s Villa Maria Nursing Home Chapel up through 2003: Remember when there were only about 15 of us? Could anyone have predicted the level of interest in the Traditional Mass that we are now witnessing? Our region has truly been blessed with remarkable growth.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for March 22, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]

The news you may have missed

William Lajeunesse, "Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American" (Fox New, March 18, 2009): "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is 'un-American.'"

[Hat tip to S.K.]

Telegraph: UK "stands on precipice"

Iain Martin, "Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy" (Telegraph, March 21, 2009):

hey don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.

Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

The political impact will be seismic ...

Update

• Josh Painter, "Barack Obama’s Bankrupt States of America" (RS, March 22, 2009): "Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) knows more than a little about sound fiscal policy... Appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program with John King, Gregg said:

  The practical implications of this is bankruptcy for the United States. There’s no other way around it. If we maintain the proposals that are in this budget over the ten-year period that this budget covers, this country will go bankrupt. People will not buy our debt, our dollar will become devalued. It is a very severe situation.
  
  “It is as if you were flying an airplane and the gas light came on and it said ‘you [have] 15 minutes of gas left’ and the pilot said ‘we’re not going to worry about that, we’re going to fly for another two hours.’ Well, the plane crashes and our country will crash and we’ll pass on to our kids a country that’s not affordable."

  The Senator’s choice of metaphor drives home the seriousness of what the Obamunists are doing to the nation."

[Hat tip to S.K.]

Estimated 550-600 attend EF Mass at Shrine of the Little Flower

Shawn Tribe, "Solemn Mass at the Shrine of the Little Flower" (New Liturgical Movement, March 19, 2009): "Yesterday, a solemm Mass in the usus antiquior was offered in the Shrine of the Little Flower, near Detroit, Michigan. The Mass was celebrated by Msgr. George Browne as part of the Shrine's 'Lenten Presentations on Catholic Ritual Liturgies.'" Another source informs me that a star soprano, Melinda Enns, flew in from Montreal for the occasion. Below is a picture of the Msgr. George Browne with the liturgical team (photo courtesy of Shawn Tribe). More photos of the event are available at the New Liturgical Movement website.

Obama to deliver Notre Dame Commencement address

This announcement from Univ. of Notre Dame Office of News & Information (March 20, 2009):

President Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 164th University Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. May 17 (Sunday) in the Joyce Center on campus.

And this immediate reaction: "Help Stop the Scandal at Our Lady's University" (The Cardinal Newman Society, March 20, 2009): "Sign the petition to Fr. Jenkins:

Dear Father Jenkins:

It has come to our attention that the University of Notre Dame will honor President Barack Obama as its commencement speaker on May 17.

It is an outrage and a scandal that “Our Lady’s University,” one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage.

This nation has many thousands of accomplished leaders in the Catholic Church, in business, in law, in education, in politics, in medicine, in social services, and in many other fields who would be far more appropriate choices to receive such an honor from the University of Notre Dame.

Instead Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality. Whatever may be President Obama’s admirable qualities, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos.

The honor also comes amid great concern among Catholics nationwide about President Obama’s future impact on American society, the family, and the Catholic Church on issues such as traditional marriage, conscience protections for Catholic doctors and nurses, and expansion of abortion “rights.”

This honor is clearly a direct violation of the U.S. bishops’ 2004 mandate in “Catholics in Political Life”: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

We prayerfully implore you to halt this travesty immediately. We do so with the hope that Catholics nationwide will likewise call on you to uphold the sacred mission of your Catholic university. May God grant you the courage and wisdom to do what is right.

Hermeneutics: Constitution as model for Vatican II?

'Original intent' vs. 'making it up'

A reader writes: "Given all of the conversations lately about interpreting a Living Tradition and [Vatican II documents], and continuity vs contraction, I thought this blog post from Justin Taylor suggested Catholic concerns.

Interesting also that [Supreme Court Judge Clarence] Thomas, who would be called an Originalist wanting a "dead" document, yet defines his idea in non-incendiary words suggesting an appreciation for the document's intent at conception:

"there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — Try to discern as best we can what the framers intended OR make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers ...

Justin Taylor, "Interpreting the Constitution" (Between two worlds, March 17, 2009):

Peter Robinson has interviewed Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on the video program "Uncommon Knowledge," and they are posting them in chapters throughout the week.

The one for today is on interpreting the Constitution. Justice Scalia argues for a "dead" Constitution, not a "living" one. It's about 8 minutes in length and is worth your time. After admitting that "originalism" is not perfect and that there are some difficult issues, he also says:

The originalist has easy answers for many things, especially the most controversial things in modern times. [Does] the equal protection clause require that states permit same sex marriage? That is not a hard question for an originalist. Nobody ever thought that is what the equal protection clause meant. . . .[Is there] a right to abortion? For Pete’s sake, it was criminal in every state for 200 years. . . . So I have easy answers to a lot of stuff. Whereas, for the "living constitutionalist," there are no answers.

(For more on this, readers might be interested in a blog interview I did a few years ago with Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett, where we covered things like defining “originalism,” “strict constructionism, ” and “the living Constitution”).

Also relevant is a lecture delivered by Clarence Thomas on these issues:

Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores. To be sure, even the most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed, as all methodologies and human institutions are; but at least originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and, I might add, impartial.

Finally, if you want a well-researched, conservative guide to the Constitution, it's probably hard to improve upon The Heritage Guide to the Constitution.

Update: For any lawyers out there, this new book looks like a good one: Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, by Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner (author of the famous reference work Garner's Modern American Usage--a new edition comes out in August).

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Statistics: Condoms not stemming tide of African AIDS pandemic

Kathryn Jean Lopez, "From Saint Peter’s Square to Harvard Square: Media coverage of papal comments on AIDS in Africa is March madness" (NRO, March 19, 2009):

We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”

So notes Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, in response to papal press comments en route to Africa this week.

Benedict XVI said, in response to a French reporter’s question asking him to defend the Church’s position on fighting the spread of AIDS, characterized by the reporter as “frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective”:

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

“The pope is correct,” Green told National Review Online Wednesday, “or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. He stresses that “condoms have been proven to not be effective at the ‘level of population.’”

[Hat tip to E.E.]

Dignitatis Humanae

In the wake of our recent posts on the interpretive principles concerning the hermeneutics of continuity and hermeneutics of rupture, you may be interested to find available online a very good analysis of the interpretive principles of the crucially controversial Vatican II document, Dignitatis Humanae by Peter A. Kwasniewski. The article, "Dignitatis Humanae: The Interpretive Principles," (Scripture and Catholic Tradition, March 14, 2009) is a long but -- as usual with Kwasniewski -- a rewarding study. Here I excerpt only his closing recommendations for sources for better understanding and some closing reflections, but do read the entire article. It's very good. The original contains the needed footnotes and nuanced qualifications:

When all is said and done, Dignitatis Humanae remains a problematic document if only because its own scope and method are left unclear to the reader and, as a result, its interpretation has been terribly, but predictably, vexed. It has given rise to acrimonious debate, intense partisanship, and even to real or emergent schism: leaders of the Society of Saint Pius X have pointed above all to Dignitatis Humanae as undeniable proof of the doctrinal discontinuity that justifies skepticism about the Second Vatican Council. It little helps most of us who are neither proficient in French nor have leisure for vast amounts of reading that a learned monk of the traditional Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux, Dom Basile Valuet, O.S.B., has published a 3,000-page definitive study of Dignitatis Humanae, responding to both Lefebrvist and liberal/modernist interpretations by documenting and defending the doctrinal continuity of Dignitatis Humanae with the entire preceding Catholic tradition. It is true that Dom Basile prepared a one-volume synopsis, which he personally told me he wishes to see translated into other languages than French, but to my knowledge, an English edition has not yet appeared.

Still, there are many good readings that shed light on the quetion of the interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae. I highly recommend the following.

1. Thomas Storck has taken up the Dignitatis Humanae question three times: first, with an article in Faith & Reason, then with an article in Homiletic & Pastoral Review, and most recently with a chapter and appendix in his book Foundations of a Catholic Political Order. This last treatment is the best short treatment I know of.

2. For historical background and common sense textual analysis, see Russell Hittinger's "Dignitatis Humanae, Religious Liberty, and Ecclesiastical Self-Government," a chapter in his book The First Grace (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2003). Related articles by the same author are "What Kind of Caesar?"; "The Pope and the Liberal State"; and "Making Sense of the Civilization of Love: John Paul II's Contribution to Catholic Social Thought." Although I am not completely convinced by some of Hittinger's arguments, I find his approach refreshingly uncluttered and certainly much better than interpretations that do not pay sufficient attention to historical context.

3. A goldmine of background and documentary information is contained in Michael Davies' The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty. Davies' approach is handicapped by methodological flaws that make it impossible for him to avoid drawing an unacceptable conclusion, namely, that Dignitatis Humanae fundamentally conflicts with the prior Magisterium of the Church. A review by Father Brian Harrison, O.P., exposes these flaws quite clearly, while praising aspects of Davies' work in other respects. It is important to aquire a good grasp of the nineteenth-century historical situation and the way in which the papal teaching on State and society was precipitated and influenced by the fierce battle waged against the Church by rampant liberalism. Again, while not endorsing all their views, I recommend E.E.Y. Hales' Pio Nono, especially the chapter on the Syllabus of Errors, and Canon Roger Aubert's essay, "Religious Liberty from Mirari Vos to the Syllabus."

At the Second Vatican Council, the idea of a state that aimed to give public honor to God by privileging the Catholic religion was called into question. Some were saying: "We can't retain a double-faced policy (thesis/hypothesis) such that, if you are in power, you must grant freedom to us, but if we're in power, we don't need to grant freedom to you. How illogical!" In truth, this is no counter-argument at all; it is symptomatic, rather, of a sociologically eviscerated notion of "religion" that fails to give due primacy to the fullness of truth revealed by God and entrusted to the Catholic Church. Of course the Church has unique rights over civil society, even as she has a unique right to interpret the natural law without error. She is unique, period. The Catholic Faith is not one religion among many but the one true religion, of which all others (excepting, in a certain sense, the Jewish religion) are partial and groping images that arise principally from man and are inherently non-salvific. Hence a common political theory of the relationship between religion and civil society -- one that would take in the Catholic religion on equal terms with all other religions and treat them as if politically indistinguishable -- is impossible in principle, and so cannot be applied in practice.

In the end, there are two mutually exclusive political paradigms and paths, one of which must be taken while the other is left behind: Leonine Thomism and Lockean-Murrayite secularism. According to the first, the civil and ecclesiastical or kingly and sacerdotal powers are intended by God, their Creator and Redeemer, to stand in the correct hierarchical relationship, so much so that the very well-being of society and of culture depends intimately on the concrete realization of this relationship; according to the second, the two powers have no formal relationship at all, at best a tenuous material one. The contrast is like that between a marriage intended and sanctified by God, open to the gift of new life in the synergetic activity of procreation, and a couple without vows, living together for mutual convenience. In spite of superficial similarities, which may even include offspring, these avenues tend to go in opposite directions and, barring perversion or conversion, will end in opposite destinies.