I don’t follow the news much, but I have been paying just a bit of attention to the British Columbia Human Rights Commission’s tribunal to determine whether Mark Steyn’s writing is in violation of their hate crime laws. I like Mark Steyn. He is both very perceptive and very funny, and is willing to say things that other people won’t say. I like him particularly because one of his central themes is also a deep concern of mine: the spinelessness of people in the West today. Mark Steyn has correctly observed that people in the west today are mainly a lot of pampered, chicken-hearted wimps, which fact explains much about the political agendas of liberals. But this isn’t something most people like to hear about themselves, so unsurprisingly the Canadians now want to shut him up. It’s an important moment for them, though they themselves might not fully appreciate it. It may be a watershed case for determining how much control the Human Rights Commissions will have over Canadian speech.

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A small Summorum pontificum miracle occurred at the parish of St. James the Moor Slayer in Trumansburg, NY this morning. Fr. John Tokaz, O.F.M. Cap. offered the octave day Mass of Christmas according to the missal of Blessed John XXIII. Contrary to my expectation, Fr. John was far from alone: a more or less full house was in attendance.

This was not what used to be called an “indult” Mass - there were very few of those in the Diocese of Rochester and we traditionalists at Cornell had long ago despaired of having one in our neighborhood. Instead, we drove two hours to Scranton or an hour, as we’ve done lately, up to Syracuse. As Fr. John said to me today, this Mass was waiting on the universal permission granted by Summorum pontificum.

As of today, there are not fixed plans for a regular Tridentine Mass at St. James. Fr. John did say, however, that he would take the matter before the parish council and that he hoped to have a Tridentine at St. James on a monthly basis. Hopefully this plan will go through. It would be a tremendous service to many students at Cornell University if we were to have such a Mass on all holy days. I only wish that we still had among us the vocalists that we once did - Fr. John also asked about whether the Cornell contingent could produce a schola for the Mass.

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I might as well call this post “Cornell Catholic Community on Summorum pontificum” since it’s unlikely that they’ll ever address the matter publicly at greater length. Otherwise, this is Msgr. Robert Smith - a.k.a. Fr. Bob - meditating on the theme: ex pluribus unum (everything in bold or bolded is mine - the paragraph in italics is his):

I suppose everyone will recognize the English translation of the epigram on the Great Seal of the United States (the goal of unity in plurality). [Highly unlikely. It was at a Mass at the CCC a few years ago that a damsel, provocatively dressed, stood at the lectern and announced "a reading from the Book of job", as in, "looking for a job", "can't find a job", etc. I don't know if his parenthesis is meant to be a gloss on the Latin, which in any case does not mean "the goal of unity in plurality".] What originally referred to the forming of one nation from many independent states has come, over time, to apply to our experience of forming one American culture from the many traditions brought here by immigrants [which is, of course, precisely what the Founding Founders envisioned]; to forming one common future from many histories, etc. [Pay attention now:] The phrase can also express one of the most important developments in contemporary religious life: the recognition that differences in religious faith and religious experience need not be the source of hostility, separation and violence, but can be a challenge to deepening each of the traditions while forming a common human society. [Indeed. This is a development in contemporary religious life? Obviously, the formation of a common human society is our ultimate goal, in fact, was the goal of Christ when He founded the Church and gave the Apostles the mission of converting and baptizing all nations, saying, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; and who does not believe will be damned."] We know that implementing this recognition is an enormously complex and challenging task. [True, although the Freemasons have been remarkably successful to date.]

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From last week’s bulletin of the Cornell Catholic Community. I thought this was too rich not to pass on for appreciation by a wider audience. Fr. Daniel McMullin asks:

What is your personal experience of the Mass? A comforting routine? A weekly obligation? A ritual of challenge or consolation? I’m sure it is all of this and much more. Our celebration of the Eucharist here at Cornell has the idiosyncracies of a particular diocese, particular priests, and particular community, each with characteristics that inspire as well as irritate. That, however, is the genius of the Incarnation: Jesus Christ is embodied in this local, human community and made explicitly present in the liturgy of the Mass.

So am I getting this right - the genius of the Incarnation is that some of us all of the time are ticked off about the way Mass is celebrated in the Diocese of Rochester, in our particular faith community, on the campus of Cornell University?

As for this “ritual of challenge” nonsense, Franciscus and I play darts at the Chapter House every Wednesday night after Rosary - that’s what I call a ritual of challenge.

And won’t he be welcome in a place like Ithaca! Here we welcome all faiths and belief communities, especially those faiths and belief communities whose sole raison d’etre is the welcoming of all faiths and belief communities. Fr. Robert Smith of the Cornell Catholic Community has been eloquent in praise of Taize. During my first year here, though he never joined us in praying the Rosary, Fr. Bob led a “Taize prayer” meeting one night a week at the same time as we met to pray the Rosary. It never occurred to me until now to ask why it died out, but it did; it didn’t last beyond that year.

When I was studying at Oxford, and even before I was received into the Church, I met a Polish girl who was also keen on the Taize scene. She also appeared, such as my knowledge was then, to be a devout, sincere Catholic. I remember one day that she praised the works of one Fr. Jacques Dupuis, S.J. It sounded suspicious, and lo and behold, when I googled his name, among the first results was a link to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to a document noting Fr. Dupuis’ doctrinal deviations - if the CDF ever gets as far as that, you know it must be bad!

These are the kind of folks who go in for Taize. I further illustrate with the following. Fr. Bob made at least one disciple here, a David Herman. He writes in this week’s bulletin from the Cornell Catholic Community:

The beauty of Taizé is that it is a place of real doubt, real searching, and real sincerity, and most of the people who go there are down-to-earth and… dare I say it… normal, like you or me. There isn’t a sense of ulterior motives or proselytizing that I think we sometimes detect and mistrust from religion, especially in America. Even if you don’t view yourself as extremely religious (and even if you do), but you like the idea of meeting people from all over the world and are open to talking about religious-themed questions, I recommend that you go — you won’t regret it. The act in itself wi