A good friend of the blog wrote to me yesterday as follows:

As I was driving home from St. Joseph, MO this afternoon I decided out of sheer boredom to listen to Catholic Talk 1090 AM. It had been quite a while since I last listened to the station. I love when Archbishop Sheen is on. I sometimes can handle Fr. Corapi. But most everything else smacks of conciliar triumphalism. One of the last times I listened, Catholic Answers Live had Bishop Vasa as a guest. Bishop Vasa told a caller that his dying Jewish father-in-law should refer his questions about Jesus and Christianity to his rabbi rather than attempt to convert his father-in-law.

Anyway, today’s Catholic Answers Live was about Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was the common Catholic Answer’s format. The Jehovah’s Witness convert to Catholicism was hawking a book outlining the tactics, techniques, and procedures for dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come to your door. She detailed the tact to take; where the main errors in their theology are; and how to go about refuting their errors.

As I was listening to this I wondered why these programs always deal with these relatively fringe religious groups or cults: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, New Agers, etc.

Have you ever heard Catholic Answers, or EWTN, or any neo-Catholic organ giving advice on “How to refute your Orthodox neighbor” or “Three easy steps to covert Jews to the Catholic Faith” or “How to save your family from Evangelical Protestantism”?

Is it just me or have I missed those episodes on the radio/TV and overlooked books with these titles in the neo-Catholic bookstores?

I would guess that something of the issue here is that these groups with fringe theology yet display a sort of evangelical fervor, peddling their heresies door-to-door. Your average ELCA Lutheran hasn’t been by and knocked for a long time! On the other hand, did they ever? The protestant groups, even from the beginning, so quickly fractured that I don’t imagine that most of them came to think that only their particular sect, in some corner of Germany, was going to be saved. Luther thought that Catholics could be saved, for Catholics certainly had the “Word of God”, even though it was buried under all sorts of fanciful accretions. So among the mainline protestant sects, there doesn’t seem to be a great motivation for seeking to convert either other protestants or even Catholics.

Lo and behold, new religions come along, like Mormonism, and like the very “successful” heresy of Mohammedanism, they claim to have the last or the latest or the best revelation of God. If their claims were true, we’d understand their fervor. Since their claims are false, and yet they go about as deceived deceivers, we need tactics and tacts and manuals of refutation. Most protestants, I think, just never got into this business because they didn’t think themselves the recipients of another revelation.

And this says something about the Catholic situation. Not only are we encouraging dying father-in-laws to go to their rabbis, we have little of the evangelical fervor which some of these other groups display. We are in a position legitimately to act in such a way, but this is hard to do when we think, in the words of Pius IX’s Syllabus Errorum, “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.”

I’m not suggesting Catholics should take up the door-to-door approach, because that method may do more harm than good, but we at least need to re-learn or realize that such effort and zeal is rightly exercised by us when we share the Faith.

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I would imagine that most of the people who regularly read this blog are familiar with the Raccolta or A Manual of Indulgences: Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences. (It always sounds to me like “enriched with vitamins and minerals.”) I myself only discoved the Raccolta last year and at that time, I thought it was the coolest thing that I had ever found. In fact, though I tend to be fickle in my loves, one book and then another capturing my heart, the Raccolta on my shelf is well-worn and it comes with us nearly every Sunday on the road to Scranton.

Before our road trips, for example, we use #665, a prayer for those who are undertaking a journey or a walk. It’s sort of a shortened form of the prayers before travel which appear in the old Roman Breviary. (I also made my usual Sunday companions, Clara, Robertus, and Iacobus learn, in Latin, the prayers from the Roman Breviary, which are surpassing beautiful in both content and form. But since praying those prayers, because of the langauge barrier, as it were, takes us nearly the two full hours to Scranton, we generally go with the much shorter, though still beautiful, poem, versicle and prayer in honor of St. Raphael the Archangel. You see, though we give some of the four hours (there and back) to prayer, much of the time Robertus and I listen while we give Iacobus and Clara free reign to declaim (and dispute) any topic which strikes their fancy.

This past Sunday, my companions (particulary Iacobus) demonstrated their erudition by translating, without first having seen it, and only by hearing it, this sweet little prayer of St. Bonaventure. This is another great advantage of the Raccolta: it is fine collection of Latin prayers and poetry which are not online and which one would hardly know where to find elsewhere. Perhaps this little prayer is somewhere in St. Bonaventure’s Opera Omnia, or perhaps not, I don’t know. It was indulgenced by Pius IX, rescript in his own hand, on April 11, 1874. It is as follows:

Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus, propter tuam largitatem et Filii tui, qui pro me sustinuit passionem et mortem, et Matris eius excellentissimam sanctitatem, atque omnium Sanctorum merita, concede mihi peccatori, et omni tuo beneficio indigno, ut te solum diligam, tuum amorem semper sitiam, beneficium passionis continuo in corde habeam, meam miseriam recognoscam, et ab omnibus conculcari et contemni cupiam; nihil me contristet nisi culpa.

There, St. Bonaventure has said all that needs to be said in a few words. The Latin of the prayer exudes the simplicity of sanctity.

If you do not yet own a copy of the Raccolta, I highly recommend the purchase of it. And it makes a great gift, especially for the Novus Ordo Catholic. The prayers in the Raccolta are almost exclusively from the time of Pius XII and earlier: no sissy, modernist, “O Divine Gift-giver, I stand beneath the endless waterfall of your abundant gifts to me,” sorts of prayers. In fact, the Raccolta contains any number of prayers which are far, far from political and ecumenical correctness.

I bought my Raccolta last year from St. Athanasius Press and the Angelus Press has a nicer, hard cover version (with the same text).

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Our most noble and learned President, having duly examined all relevant aspects of the 24th annual Pentecost Pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres, and finding them to be consistent with the Constitutions of the Cornell Society for a Good Time, has most graciously permitted a humble contingent of pilgrims, consisting of Adamus, Iacobus, Iosephus and Robertus, to represent our august Society in this noble endeavor. The quartet is set to arrive in Paris on the morning of Thursday, June 1st.

While on our field trip to Ithaca College last weekend, Iacobus and I found a lovely informational pamphlet prepared by the Diocese of Rochester and written by a “contemplative nun”: Talking with your 6-8 year old about HIV/AIDS. Why the Chaplaincy at Ithaca College offers this particular pamphlet, I have no idea – but Iacobus and I were both horrified.

Apparently, the State of New York mandates an HIV/AIDS “education” for each grade. The pamphlet explains: “In grades K-3, a public school AIDS/HIV curriculum would not differ greatly from a Catholic perspective. Emphasis is on developing attitudes, knowledge and behavior that contribute to self-worth, respect for the body and good decision-making skills.” That’s wonderful.

The pamphlet also has suggestions of “activities/strategies for the home”. My favorite is the first:

Using wrapping paper, trace the outline of your child’s body to create “The Wonderful Paper Me.” Invite your child to label various parts of the body and what they can do with that part. Display the “Wonderful Paper Me” as a reminder that God has given us our bodies to enjoy life by using our gifts and giving our love to help others.

Rarely does the Diocese of Rochester fail to impress me. We also found there a prayer card for the Ithaca College Catholic Community, with some modernist image of a sun and dove on it, which begins thus: “O Divine Gift-giver, I stand beneath the endless waterfall of your abundant gifts to me. . . .” Doubtless, they looked long and hard for one with the gift of poetry to write that line.

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This has been my week in terms of finding delightful interfaith initiatives around the world. First, I posted about the imam in Paris who had sound advice for the French episcopate. Now, thanks to a forward from a friend in Oxford with a special love of Russia, I’ve come across this delightful article from last week about initiatives between the Russian Orthodox and Russian Muslims. If that doesn’t sound like a match made in heaven . . . these two found out just how much they had in common when some sodomites tried to have a parade. This was probably my favorite passage from the article (except for every other part of the article which was also my favorite):

Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia’s Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead.

“If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that – Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike . . .”

The cleric said the Koran taught that homosexuals should be killed because their lifestyle spells the extinction of the human race and said that gays had no human rights.

Somebody needs to remind the Chief Mufti about the language of tolerance and compassion! By the looks of it, though, the Chief Mufti and the Russian Orthodox episcopate can do the tolerance training course together. It would seem that the Russian Orthodox have yet to see that very powerful movie, Brokeback Mountain. I’m sure that if they saw two beautiful man-lovers on screen, they would drop all of these harsh, hurtful words:

The Russian Orthodox Church has called [the parade of the sodomites] “the propaganda of sin.” Bishop Daniil of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk yesterday condemned the plans as a “cynical mockery” and likened homosexuality to leprosy.

Last I checked, saying things like this was an imprisonable offense in England. When half the “episcopate” and “clergy” of the Church of England would deserve to be flogged, I can understand why.

As crazy as Russia is, doesn’t she yet give us some hope for civilization? In any case, it’s clear that they have a flair for good hats in Russia.

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After the appointments for the coming consistory were announced, we knew that there were no great surprises among the new cardinals, though there were some notable absences, namely the Archbishop of Paris and the Archbishop of Dublin. My attention, however, was on the fine ecclesial dress of the Cardinal-elect of Bologna, Italy, Carlo Caffarra.

Not only does Archbishop Caffara know a good mantelleta when he sees one, but he also appears to know how to pray the Rosary. If he can spare the time, we’d be delighted to have him here at Cornell to lead our nightly Rosary.

A quick look at Catholic Hierarchy seems to indicate that Carlo Caffarra went straight from being a priest to being the Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio. That is very cool, and very old school. Today it seems mandatory that one work up through all the different levels, one by one: priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal. But in the bad old days, if one were good, one could become an archbishop straight from the priesthood. Case in point: His Holiness, Leo XIII, was first priest then later made archbishop as Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium. Which was a little awkward when he was recalled to Italy and assigned to a diocese rather than an archdiocese, and so was the Bishop – Archbishop of Perugia.

This modernist archbishop, on the other hand, looks to me something like Lord of the Druids, what with his non-triumphalist wooden crozier, very non-triumphalist miny mitre, and eco-friendly (albeit religious) facial hair:

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Fr. Dan McMullin is not through his first year at Cornell, yet he has already brought about something we students have only dreamed of: firing Phil Fiadino and Theresa Miller — both lay “chaplains” –from the Chaplaincy’s staff. His motives, however, were presumably not to eradicate heresy nor to end the confusion of having laymen acting as “chaplains” in violation of an oft-neglected Doctrinal Note. Father Daniel is, rather, facing up to economic reality: despite an Ivy League alumni base, the Cornell Catholic Community is going broke.

I’ll lay out the numbers, helpfully provided by Fr. Daniel’s Musings column from February 8th. The CCC projected expenditures of $413, 000 year versus income of $365, 000 — a $48,000, or 9%, deficit. Their income breakdown is as follows: $105,000 from interest (implying an endowment of at least $1.5-2 million), $50,000 in Sunday collections, and $155,000 from two appeals to alumni. The rest comes from unsolicited gifts.

The most sigificant cost is $300,000 for staff, or about $50,000 per employee in salary and benefits. We expect, then, that cutting both Phil and Theresa will cover the gap and then some. But how pathetic is it that they cannot raise more money than this from alumni? Pathetic, but unsurprising: who wants to contribute to a liberal and pointless chaplaincy that lacks vigor, orthodoxy, or a truly distinctive mission? Little that the CCC does is not done better by others, including by lightly-funded Catholic student groups. And the cutting of two chaplains signals something other than optimism: they clearly do not see themselves pulling out of this particular death spiral soon. Nor will they until they actually stop whoring after some phony notion of secular relevance and get down to the business of preaching the Gospel.

Removing Theresa is the most obvious move, for though many of us would sooner have seen Sr. Donna go, Fr. Dan must retain some notion of respect for the Religious, even in their most denuded state. Theresa’s attention to the Cornell liturgical and musical life will not be missed by any who are attached to truly Catholic worship, but she was the only member of the chaplaincy who seemed to think it worthwhile to argue points with annoyed students by citing official Church documents, albeit in a scattershot way. Nor will many regret the departure of her modest skill in illicit lay homiletics: imprinted in my mind is her decision to sing an emotive song in lieu of a homily on one of the Sundays assigned to her. We wish her well, and hope she will find some job that does not involve crafting liturgies or making new felt banners.

The ouster of Phil Fiadino, on the other hand, is more surprising. The most enterprising and truly liberal — in both the antique and modern senses of that overburdened word — of the chaplains, his work as “chaplain” most closely resembles a true “ministry” of sorts. Don’t get me wrong. Phil is not a particular friend of orthodoxy, nor do I think such men as he — non-ordained, freelance, hyper-tolerant, loosey-liberal semi-intellectuals — should be encouraged as a model for chaplaincy service. But if you’re going to have a goofy, ineffectual, Truth-denying Peace-and-Justice chaplaincy, then Phil is your man! An old hand at weaving the seamless garment and protesting the Industrial-Military complex, far along the so-called Path to Pacifism as espoused by such great minds as Bishop Gumbleton, Phil is currently even playing informal sponsor to the newly-formed Cornell Interfaith Socialist Alliance. Yet the man can get along with just about anybody, illicitly preaches with far more skill and flair than any of his peers, and has even found common ground, as it were, with our august Society on issues like traditional music and high liturgical form, which he favors, albeit in his slightly eccentric, overthinking liturgist-y, middle-aged-man-carrying-an-incence-pot kind of way. Corrupter of minds and souls or no, he will be missed.

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This is awesome! While as usual Benedict greeted the pilgrims at Wednesday’s General Audience in many different languages, for the first time in a long time, there was also a greeting in a very old language – for those Latin speakers present! Okay, so it wasn’t really for the Latin speakers present, but for a particular group of scholars who were in the audience. If someone knows the last time a greeting to a group was given in Latin, I’d be very interested to know about it. This was what the Holy Father said:

“Facultatis Litterarum Christianarum et Classicarum placet salutare participes, qui huc advenerunt pontificia summi momenti documenta Veterum Sapientia necnon Studia Latinitatis commemoraturi. Iure meritoque Decessores Nostri permagni duxerunt Romani sermonis cognitionem, ut uberrimam doctrinam penitus adipisci possint qui in humanis ecclesiasticisque disciplinis versantur. Eosdem ideo incitamus ad studiose operam dandam, ut quam plurimi ad hunc thesaurum accedant eiusdemque percipiant praestantiam.”

It means: “It pleases Us to greet the members of the Faculty of Christian and Classical Letters, who have come here to commemorate pontifical documents of the highest importance: Veterum Sapientia and Studia Latinitatis. Rightly and deservedly did Our great predecessors encourage the knowledge of the Roman language so that, those who are engaged in fields of study, humane and ecclesiastical, may completely attain the richest knowledge. Therefore We urge the participants to labor zealously so that as many as approach this treasure house may receive the excellence of it.”

Okay, so my translation isn’t too pretty, but I wouldn’t want my work to detract from the beauty of the Latin. ; ) I can only imagine that Reggie was delighted to write up something like this for Benedict’s General Audience address, if Reggie was, in fact, the one who wrote it.

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A good friend of this blog has passed on to me something sure to cheer the hearts of our loyal readers: a prayer, in English and Latin, for advancing the cause of Raphael Cardinal Merry del Val. For those of you unfamiliar with this great man, Cardinal Merry del Val was Secretary of State to Pope St. Pius X. This is not the first time (see here and here) he has received posthumous praise on this blog, though this is the first time that we can credit another traditionalist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, FSSP, with bringing honor to this saintly soul. Not only did Fr. Ripperger write this prayer, but he also had it approved by His Excellency, Fabian Bruskewitz. (As a sidenote, this would be a good place to say that if this rumor is true, we here at Cornell would throw a party only somewhat smaller than the one we’d throw for a universal indult.)

Here it is:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriam tuam manifestas per humilitatem, et exemplum integritatis religionis, per odium modernismi et per castigationem mortificationemque carnis servi tui Raphaelis Merry del Val, praesta, quaesumus, si conforme voluntati tuae sit, ut eum intercessione eius in terra glorifices per beneficium ………… quod ferventer imploramus per Cor Sacratissimum pro gloria tua et gloria Matris Mariae doloris quam piissime diligebat. Amen.

Credo. Pater Noster. 7 Ave Maria.

Almighty everlasting God, Who manifests Thy glory through the humility, example of integrity of religion, the hatred of the heresy of modernism, and by the castigation and mortification of the flesh of Thine servant Raphael Merry Del Val, grant, we beseech Thee, if it be in conformity with Thy Will, that Thou may glorify him on earth through his intercession by the favor of ………… which we fervently implore through Thy Sacred Heart for Thy glory and the glory of Mary the Sorrowful Mother, whom he devoutly loved. Amen.

Creed. Our Father. 7 Hail Marys.

And no less than 7 Ave’s attached to this prayer! That’s classy. Truly, there has to be something a little bit different about Merry del Val: how many Cardinals have prayers, written by them, even ejaculatory prayers, which appear in the Raccolta? Gems such as these:

“O merciful Lord, Thou art never weary of speaking to my poor heart; grant me grace that, if today I hear Thy voice, my heart may not be hardened.” (An indulgence of 300 days, June 8, 1949.)

“Lord, I am nothing, but, although nothing, I adore Thee.” (An indulgence of 300 days, June 8, 1949.)

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