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I think that this vestment is very, very cool. The fact that it is worn by only four bishops in the world only adds to its lustre, in my mind. I wonder why the new Archbishop of Krakow decided it would be a fitting addition to his episcopal wardrobe? Maybe he felt a little short-changed after his time in Rome when Marini wouldn’t let his boss wear any cool vestments? Just a guess. My thanks to Dappled Photos for the pictures of the rationale.
Archive for November, 2005
The Rationale
Those with spark will be saved
According to a ZENIT report, at his general audience address on Wednesday, the Holy Father overturned the dogma of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, declaring that those with the spark and a commitment to peace and social justice will be saved. Okay, okay, that’s an unfair paraphrase, but come on, look at the ZENIT story yourself, which carries this headline: “Nonbelievers Too Can Be Saved, Says Pope.”
I don’t think, however, that the ZENIT report is entirely accurate about the import of the pope’s words. You can read the text of his address here. Instead of saying that nonbelievers can be saved, I think that the Holy Father is pointing towards a teaching of the Church which Blessed Pope Pius IX nicely expressed more than a century ago. Continue reading
Catena Aurea: the Parable of the Unjust Steward Explained
Its that time again boys and girls, its time for a bible study with the church fathers. We are concerned about the passages of Luke ch 16 verses 1-8. Here is what the fathers have to say about it from the Catena Aurea compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas:
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM: There is a certain erroneous opinion inherent in mankind, which increases evil and lessens good. It is the feeling that all the good things we possess in the course of our life we possess as lords over them, and accordingly we seize them as our especial goods. But it is quite the contrary. For we are placed in this life not as lords in our own house but as guests and strangers, led whither we would not, and a time we think not of. He who is now rich, suddenly becomes a beggar. Therefore whoever thou are, know thyself to be a dispenser of the things of others, and that the privileges granted thee are for a brief and passing use. Cast away then from thy soul the pride of power , and put on the humility and modesty of a steward.
Continue reading
Novena before the Immaculate Conception
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
Et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Ierusalem,
Tu laetitia Israel,
Tu honorificentia populi nostri,
Tu advocata peccatorum.
O Maria,
O Maria,
Virgo prudentissima,
Mater clementissima,
Ora pro nobis,
Intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Iesum Christum.
For those who are interested Continue reading
Canopy and Cappa Magna: just par for the course
No one knows how to do it quite like the Institute of Christ the King. (I wish that one of their liturgical directors would take over for Archbishop Marini; then we’d have a show!) Here, His Grace, the Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Leo Burke, is seen entering St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis, his first official visit to the same, for the purpose of conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation. Just look at that canopy! Whose ever seen such a thing!
“Lady, not at my Mass,” Thomas says
Since I’ve only been a Catholic for a short time, I often don’t know when I’ve come across something which would strike others as new and interesting. I think many would agree with me, though, that there is a whole lot more in the Summa Theologica than at first one would guess.
While watching a little movie last night, I heard the following section of the Summa referenced, and I was impressed by what I read. So if this material is old hat for our visitors, I apologize, but it is certainly new for the Catholic students at Cornell University.
Whether dispensing of the Blessed Sacrament belongs to a priest alone? Continue reading
Under the great baldacchino
Pope Pius XII saying Mass in his private chapel, St. Peter’s. (This photo is from the Catholic Monarchist, who has several other nice ones.) Notice how, though he is facing the people (as is the tradition of the Roman basilicas), he is also facing the crucifix which is planted squarely between him and the people. Cardinal Ratzinger discusses this very thing in The Spirit of the Liturgy and counsels a return to it. We are waiting, papa!
Consequences of Veterum Sapientia Abandoned
While attending an inane Novus Ordo Mass at Immaculate Conception (the pictures at the link tell you all you need to know) in Ithaca, NY this morning, and all the while praying the Penitential Psalms from the Breviarium Romanum in reparation for the abuses there against the Blessed Sacrament, my mind turned to reflect again on Veterum Sapientia, the unenforced Apostolic Constitution of Blessed Pope John XXIII.
At the eve of the Second Vatican Council, Veterum Sapientia, a document with the highest authority, called for the restoration and reinvigoration of Latin studies throughout the Church. In particular, it mandated that seminary instruction take place in the Latin language. For this to be practicable, the seminarians themselves would have to be competent Latinists. Continue reading
Primary and Secondary Goods of Marriage
To continue a discussion which we were having here, and because Iacobus and I don’t post nearly often enough about Romano Amerio, that genius of Iota Unum fame, I have excerpted here some sections from Amerio’s chapter on the Sacrament of Matrimony. This might also be a good time to put out a public plea on the web: Would someone please translate for us Romano Amerio’s Stat Veritas? (Stat Veritas is Amerio’s commentary on Pope John Paul II’s Tertio Millenio Adveniente.)
Chapter XXXIX
The Sacrament of Matrimony
–New Concept of conjugal love and marriage Continue reading
St. Alphonsus Liguori on Obedience
“It is certain that he who lives in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer without any will of his own, is able to say and to hope, that whatever he does, whether he studies, or prays, or hears confessions, or goes to the refectory, or to recreation, or to bed, he is pleasing Almighty God. For in the Congregation there is not a step or a movement which does not spring from obedience either to the rules or to the Superiors.
Continue reading
First Vespers of Advent
The papal wardrobe for the First Vespers of Advent, courtesy of Archbishop Piero Marini. Ugly? Yay or nay? One thing is for sure: that mitre is way too short for the Supreme Pontiff and Patriarch of the West. Why hasn’t he been fired already?
Catholic contraception?
While reading this brief news story at ZENIT, I was reminded of a discussion which the members of the Cornell Society for a Good Time have had in the past about the circumstances under which it is licit to use natural family planning to avoid having children. For some of us have a vague impression that NFP has become, for some Catholics, “Catholic contraception”, just like annulments, after the Council, were mocked as “Catholic divorce”. To put the matter simplistically, though using NFP (and continuing to have sex) to avoid children requires more self-discipline than using contraception, yet the end may still be to avoid the trouble of children, or more children, as the case may be.
Further, I think that there is an impression among good, John Paul II Catholics that NFP is just what one does when one gets married. But this isn’t the case at all, right? Why use NFP at all? To avoid having children. And why get married in the first place, if must immediately avoid the primary end of marriage, namely having children? There are so many questions in this neighborhood, and I have only raised a very few of them.
I should like to advance the following thesis and then see what others have to say:
The medical knowledge surrounding NFP has done far more good helping infertile couples than it has helping those who may become pregnant with ease because it has presented to the latter group a putatively moral way to avoid having as many children as God would otherwise send if nature were allowed to take its course.
This is all building to a little story from the biography of the Cure d’Ars which I am continuing to read. I originally posted about it here and there is so much more from it which I hope to post later. I quote from the chapter about the Cure as spiritual director:
“Married people were shown the nobility of their calling, and he exhorted them to fulfil holily its duties. A lady of the name of Ruet, of Ouroux, in the departement of the Rhone, had already a large family, and was about to become a mother once more. She came to Ars in order to seek courage at the feet of its holy Cure. She had not long to wait, for M. Vianney summoned her from amid the crowd.
” ‘You look very sad, my child,’ he said, when she was on her knees in his confessional.
” ‘Oh! I am so advanced in years, Father!’
” ‘Be comforted, my child. . . . If you only knew the women who will go to hell because they did not bring into the world the children they should have given to it!’
” ‘Come now, my little one,’ he said with fatherly kindness, ‘do not be alarmed at your burden; our Lord carries it with you. The good God does well all that He does: when He gives many children to a young mother it is that He deems her worthy to rear them. It is a mark of confidence on His part.’”
Thoughts on the old rite from Cardinal Medina Estevez
I found some interesting material in a recent interview with Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez. Here are some of the intriguing bits:
“There are some who advocate a greater liberty in the Church, but who, to my great astonishment, do not want to allow a greater survival of the old form of the Roman Rite. It’s curious that they tolerate, willingly or unwillingly abuses in the celebration of the recent form of the Roman Rite. For my part I energetically wish that the Holy Father would make a declaration in favor of allowing a greater freedom in the use of the old Roman Rite.” Continue reading
Schismatic warriors
If only we could get these guys fighting for the right team! Their gusto is just what we need after years of effeminization among the human elements of the Church.
To read about the fisticuffs between monks on Mount Athos in Greece, see here.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,