A Tentative Thought About A Translation

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What does actuosa participatio mean? If it is the battleground on which part of the fight about what Vatican II and what followed it actually means, wouldn't it be a good idea to agree on what the words mean?

Musing on something written by Pope St Pius X on "How to hear Mass", I thought I caught a glimpse of what liturgical reform was trying to lead to, and the way in which we are caught in a trap, constructed by people who aren't translators, who are trying to translate.

What the Pope was saying, and what the liturgical reforms from the middle of the 19th Century onwards seem to be aiming at until they were hijacked by people with a different agenda, was that Mass wasn't a point in time at which the faithful were obliged to be present in Church, but the greatest of prayers, which they were enjoined to follow as near as possible word by word, praying the same prayers as the priest was saying to be as close as possible to Christ the Priest and Victim as he became Man on the altar.

Even as late as the 1950s "communion" could often mean going to an altar after Mass and receiving Communion in a separate ceremony, from hosts consecrated at a different Mass: only the priest communicated during Mass itself. The liturgical reform meant everybody focusing on the Mass as a unity.

The problem with the Latin expression "actuosa participatio" comes because people try to translate it in English words, one of which begins with "act" and the other which becomes "participation". It is a poor way to go about translating anything.

What the expression really seems to mean in this context is something like "conscious engagement": "I am uniting myself with the action of the priest at the altar"; not a prescription about what anybody, other than the priest and the server, each of whom has things to do, should be doing. I am here because I am at Mass, not because I have to be at Church.

Just a thought.
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CAFOD And Ministerial Sleaze

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According to today's Daily Telegraph, Paul Goggins, the Northern Ireland Minister, shares his London flat, for which he claims £600 per month, with Chris Bain, a friend of his, who happens to be the Director of CAFOD.

According to CAFOD's latest accounts for the year up to 31 March 2008:

"In the year, the Director of CAFOD received remuneration of £71,258 plus an employer's contribution towards a money purchase pension scheme of £7,125." So he might be able to stretch to something a bit better than a bedsit in Catford out of his own pocket.

The story points out that Mr Bain used to pay rent from 1998 to 2003 - until Mr Goggins started to claim for the flat. In other words, once the taxpayer could take care of the rent, the Director of CAFOD lived rent free. Now that this has been discovered, they have decided that it is "inappropriate", and that they will repay a large amount.

If you can be bothered to read it, the story gets even messier but ends with a wonderful statement from the Minister:

“I do not have an extravagant lifestyle but I do have reasonable standards”, he said.

If anybody sees how the Tablet reports this, can they let us all know.

Thoughts About The Installation

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Archbishop Nichols is in charge, isn't he! His authority was stamped all over the liturgical action. Agressively Ordinary Form, aggressively rubrically accurate. Not much cheer for Hans Kung, and precious little for the SSPX either; does anyone know if Cardinal Mahony enjoyed it? Whose idea was the odd arrangement of candles: big six plus a pontifical seventh, but all behind the altar? And wasn't the music good!

This wasn't farewell and thank-you to Cormac; nor was it the inauguration of some great ecumenical initiative; Archbishop Nichols became Archbishop of Westmister and, whatever Canon Law might say, head Catholic honcho in England and Wales.

I was only seriously irritated by one thing: why were the Orthodox guests seated among the rest of the congregation while the Anglicans and what I assume was a Salvation Army woman got to sit in choro?

***UPDATE***

Excellent comment from Fr Greg. Perhaps the Orthodox guests had been invited but didn't want to join in. Thanks, Father.

May Feelings

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You may remember "50 reasons for saying the Rosary" which I put up here last year and do so again.



Well, hat tip to HJMW, here's this year's offering.

Prayers Please

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The mother of a friend died yesterday. Born in New Zealand in 1919, she had come to the UK to study, and, when war broke out, joined the RAF. She stayed in this country and has lived to a great age.

The e-mail I received asked for prayers for her and for all the Holy Souls, and included this:

"Departed this life this day 16th May 2009 fortified by the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church. At home, surrounded by family, and amidst prayers, psalms, hymns, fully compos mentis throughout after decline in hospital following her latest stroke on 18th April."

O si sic omnes.

Is It Just Me?

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Courtesy largely of Rorate Caeli, I follow the Pope and read the speeches he makes, and am becoming increasing spellbound by the wondrous three dimensional exposition of Catholicsm he makes.

This is my religion, and, for the first time in many years, this man is expounding it to me.

The Archbishop's New Vestments

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Damian has blogged here about the new vestments commissioned for Archbishop Nichols' installation at Westminster.

They look really good. They also look really Byzantine.

That's good, as Westminster Cathedral is Byzantine in inspiration, so the new vestments will "go", in a way that new vestments have probably not "gone" in any Catholic Cathedral in England and Wales these many years.

There is also, however, a gentle hint from the Archbishop that he is aligning himself with the Pope's version of ecumenism: that our closeness to the Orthodox, whatever the snipings and shoutings of the last thousand years or so, is so much more real than any possible description of any sort of relationship with any of the Protestant churches.

It is very unlikely that anybody will like everything that Archbishop Nichols does, but this is a good sign. On behalf of "The Catholic Association of Catholic Catholics for Catholic Catholicsm", I renew my request for plentiful prayers for His Grace as he takes on this charge, and offer as the toast the motto of The Catholic Association of Catholic Catholics for Catholic Catholicsm: "more power to his elbow".

(Dull rumour of chairs scraping along the floor as men stand. Just about pick out: "The Queen"; "The Duke of Lancaster"; "More Power to his Elbow"; "Gentlemen, you may now smoke"; dull rumour of chairs scraping along the floor as men sit.)

Retreat For Young Catholic Adults

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I don't know how young "young Catholic adults" are, but I guess they are much younger than me.

In spite of the fact that I don't like the fact that everything, from the Daily Telegraph to Radio 2 is aimed at the young these days, I have been asked to advertise a retreat for them..

The retreat will take place at Douai Abbey during the weekend of the 18-20 September 2009. Young Catholic Adults was founded in February 2004 at Oxford in the UK. It is a national lay movement that actively engages in rebuilding the Church and restoring all things in Christ. YCA are loyal to the Magisterium and faithful to John Paul II's teaching with regard to Ecclesia Dei (1988). In 2007 YCA joined the international Juventutem Federation http://www.juventutem.org/pages/en/home.php

I could make a point about learning how to link using a tag, or of putting two spaces after a full stop, but what do I know?

The Bishops' Conference: How It Spends Our Money

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I have had a go at the accounts of the Bishops' Conference and it makes interesting reading.

Six dioceses pay more than £100K towards its work: Hexham and Newcastle £107K; Salford £123K; Liverpool £125K; Birmingham £142K; Southwark £152K; and Westminster £265K. Special thanks to our friends in Greater London for bearing this burden. And congratulations to the chief accountant of the Diocese of Menevia who has contrived things so that he pays a total of £350. Not £350K; £350.

Some of the grants are fascinating: £22K to the National Board of Catholic Women; "£11K to the National Council of Priests; and under £3K to the Union of Catholic Mothers. Ho ho ho.

At least ecumenism is alive and well: £159K to fund ecumenical organisations, and £96K to support the Bishops' own ecumenical activity.

International Catholic activity: £7.5K to the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, and £6.7K to the Commission od the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union.

And £212K on the Catholic Communications Network. That's why the Church's message is ringing so clearly through the highways and byways of this great country of ours.

They spent nearly £4M, and this is on top of anything our Dioceses spent: none of this has gone on Churches or Cathedrals or Schools.

Dioceses, Emoluments, Prudence

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Damian Thompson set a hare running about the sort of expense claims that are signed off for Magic Circlists and wondered what diocesan accounts might show. So I had a look at the latest diocesan accounts as posted by the Charities Commission on its website. It is quite interesting. Most dioceses seem to be trying to store up surpluses, presumably against difficult times ahead. Trying to separate out what individual dioceses allow or don't allow as an expense was beyond me, though there is a clear statement for each diocese saying whether trustees are or aren't paid an allowance.

There is a different measure of preudence I decided to chase up: the number of employees who are paid more than £60,000 a year. It is a condition of a charity's having its accounts accepted that it lists the number of people to whom it pays more than £60K, more than £70K, more than £80K, and no doubt, decades beyond that. The good news is that no diocese pays anyone more than £80K. The odd news is that there is such a variation between dioceses which employ nobody at this sort of rate, and those which do.

Diocese £60-70K £70-80K
Arundel & Brighton 5 0
Birmingham 0 0
Brentwood 1 0
Cardiff 0 0
Clifton 0 0
East Anglia 0 0
Hallam 0 0
Hexham and Newcastle 0 0
Lancaster 0 0
Liverpool 1 0
Menevia 0 0
Middlesborough 0 0
Northampton 0 0
Nottingham 1 0
Plymouth 1 1
Portsmouth 0 1
Salford 1 2
Shrewsbury 2 0
Southwark 0 1
Westminster 1 0
Wrexham 0 0

I have to say that for a large diocese, especially in the south-east of England, to employ a senior administrator at a rate of £60-£70K a year does not seem excessive to me. To manage without doing so seems to be very well done indeed. One or two dioceses catch the eye, however.

But let's finish off with some good news: Eccleston Square - I assume the Catholic Trust for England and Wales is Eccleston Square - has gone from having one employee earning £80K-£90K, and one earning beteen £60K-£70K, to having just one earning £70K-£80K. It only employs 38 FTEs, who only cost us £1.3M per year. These accounts might get a closer look!

Greedy Politicians And New Vestments

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According to his installation blog, Archbishop Nichols will be wearing new vestments which will become the normal ones for his use at Westminster on high days and holy days.

That's good news. It's odd, though, that none of the big guns in the Catholic blogosphere seems to have noticed it or thought it worthy of comment.

Even odder, though, is that nobody seems to think that the mire of filth in which the Palace of Westminster is engulfed seems worthy of comment. Perhaps the mire is beginning to drown out any other thought.

I have thought for a long time - since May 1997 as it happens - that the great "gift" of NuLabour to the United Kingdom would be the promotion of meretriciousness: the showily flashy: to the greatest of virtues, and I think I'm right.

The particular story being unveiled by the Telegraph comes from the fact that Whips seem to have told MPs since 1997 that salaries could not be seen to rise, but that "legitimate expenses" (nudge, nude, wink, wink) could be exploited to compensate. And, our MPs, who are our representatives, and who share the moral compass of the immense majority of those whom they represent, have engaged in claiming expenses purely because the money is available "within the rules".

I said "meretricious" above, because I get the feeling that those who have been set in authority over us couldn't give a toss. How come Mandelson got yet another chance, except for the fact that Brown guessed rightly that the number of people capable of being morally outraged in the UK these days has diminished sufficiently to let him do what he wants, and then claim the moral high ground for doing it.

Another metaphor: perhaps we ought to stay beneath our stones, and hope that nobody lifts them, and leave the vile, monstrous, slimy, inhabitants of the depths to wander through the world for the ruin of souls, leaving St Michael to deal with them.

I cannot remember ever feeling such a foreigner in my own country.

Reformation And Iconoclasm In An English Village

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The village church sits outside the village, in the place where a church has sat for over a thousand years.

It has witnessed the destruction of the castle, which was built next to it, in 1322.

And, of course, it witnessed the Reformation, and the terrible iconoclasm of the Commonwealth.

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During the Commonwealth, the altar of this church was ripped out, and was replaced by a table. The other fittings of the church which had survived the Tudor Reformation here, as in so many other places, were ripped out. But for the altar there was nothing but scorn. The mensa was dragged out and was used as part of a stile, so that anybody who wanted to use a particular path had to trample on the altar.

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The mensa was identified for what it was less that forty years ago, and was replaced in the church. The then vicar constructed what he called a "chantry chapel" in the crossing (just at the left in the picture above), with a squint from which the high altar (high table?) can be seen.

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If you look carefully, you can see two of the crosses carved into the altar at its consecration.

Never underestimate just how much some people hate us, and the lengths they will go to to humiliate us and destroy the things we care about.

Thin Pickings Here

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One of the things about being a non-specialist civil servant is that we change jobs every two or three years. This is a good idea, because it makes sure that you, the public who pay my wages, have people with an ever greater breadth of experience making decisions that might affect your life.

I'm at the start of a new job at the moment, and am too tired most evenings, just from having had to spend time learning vast chunks of new things, to blog much.

And the world doesn't help: imagine having to go to Mass on a Saturday evening, and then coming out to put 5 Live on and hear that United were two down to Spurs! At least normal service was resumed subsequently.

Catholic Blogging

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I suppose that The Tablet's downer on Catholic bloggers stems from two sources: first, that most Catholic blogs aren't on the same message as The Tablet; and second, that the multiplicity of sources of information challenges The Tablet's ability to set the agenda. (They must get quite cheesed off at Damian Thompson's relentless teasing as well!)

I have twice written about the trust which owns The Tablet (here and here) and suggested that it was hard to see that it supported the trust's stated aims, which are:

a) to advance the Christian religion
b) to promote, present, and disseminate the teachings of the Christian religion and to promote understanding of the Roman Catholic faith, value and principles
c) to advance the education of the public
d) to pursue such other charitable objectives as shall not be inconsistent with the objects hereunto before set out.

This is my response to Fr Tim's request for "a polite explanation of why the Tablet should not be sold in our Cathedrals or parish Churches (with examples and quotations)": I can see no evidence in it for aim b), and little for aims a) and c) (though there is strong evidence for aim d), even if the objective might not be one that I particularly favour myself).

Welcome to Saudi Arabia

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When a 47 year old man marries an 8 year old girl, and the country's legal system says everything is fine, does that not feel like the sort of country before whose Head of State you'd want your Head of State to bow low?

The Tablet ...

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Fr Michael Brown posted an interesting comment from The Tablet's Rome correspondent:

... it is extraordinary that ordained ministers can find so much free time and energy to "feed a blog". Is it possible that they have no housebound, hospitalised or imprisoned parishioners in need of their presence and ministry? It is also extraordinary that their bishops allow this. But then again we are living in extraordinary times.

I realised that some attempts of mine at humour were a waste of time when I found a YouTube video of a man whose hobby was jumping on eggs without breaking them: nature was wierder than art.

But this is beyond parody. This is The Tablet disappearing into a very odd place indeed.

Standing In For The Far Sight

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As Leo from The Far Sight is on an extended Easter break, it falls to me to tip people off to a forum in which anybody insterested in the canonical vestments of the Dioceses of Spain can be examined at leisure.

If, like me, you are the sort of person who likes to know what robes the Cathedral Canons of Almería wear, and rejoice that they have both summer and winter versions, then this forum might well suit you too.

The two Canons in the picture are taking part in the annual procession which celebrates the liberation of Almería from Moorish rule by the Catholic Monarchs in 1489, just three years before the Conquest of Granada saw the end of Moorish rule in any part of Spain.

Supporting Archbishop Nichols

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I proposed this elsewhere but it received little support.

In order to provide Archbishop Nichols with the best possible support, I have set up an organisation caled "The Catholic Association of Catholic Catholics for Catholic Catholicsm". There are no officers, no membership fees, no meetings. The only condition for membership is to feel able to support Archbishop Nichols in as many of these three ways as possible:

1. Prayer: pray for him every day, or when you can, or at least when you remember. But pray for him.

2. Support him: when he asks Catholic Catholics to get involved in Catholic things, then get involved in them. Write to your MP complaining about the prospect of arbortion factories being allowed to advertise; write to your local newspaper; to the BBC: if you are reading this on-line, then dashing off a quick e-mail isn't too difficult.

3. Get out there for him: if you hear that Archbishop Nichols is going to appear somewhere, then be outside cheering him on, and all the louder if he is wearing decent vestments to process the relics of St Chad, or concelebrating Mass with young priests learning the EF of the Mass, for example.

We shall be Vinsmen and Vinswomen; we will decide that from the start, and ad multos annos, we will thank our Pope for the Archbishop he has sent to us by supporting him in every way we know how, surrounding him in love and prayer so that, properly supported, he can lead us.

New Toy

The old Internet radio died, so I had to buy a new one. This one is nice: apart from being an Internet radio, it's also a DAB radio and an FM radio. It streams music from the PC as well. And it streams from the mp3 player too. Those are the tricks I've worked out so far. It's really satisfying that it comes with no manual - there's presumably one on-line somewhere. But who cares!

A Grudging Spring

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I took these earlier this afternoon.

Spring isn't working hard to come. It is reluctant.

But it will come, and these trees will be green.

Until the autumn ...

Spain Is Different

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The Legion, salutes Christ of the Good Death. The ceremony begins as the assembled soldiers salute one of their Kings with the national anthem. At the end, the legionaries march off at their normal pace.

This really is very different, and not what I would ever expect to see at Aldershot or Catterick.

Not Just Austria: The Sad State Of The Portuguese Episcopate

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H/t to J Sarto at A Casa de Sarto.

The Portuguese episcopate is in a state of heresy and practical schism.

If anybody was still in doubt, their doubts were dispelled by the recent statements of several Portuguese Bishops, which began to be made with an almost ordered regularity after the Pope's trip to Africa: most of the national episcopate is in state of heresy, of effective schism and has broken with the traditional teaching of the Church. I have not invented this: to get details and see the facts compiled objectively by Miguel Alfonso, go to A Tribuna. Some examples:

- D. Ilídio Pinto do Amaral, Bishop of Viseu, defended the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of Aids and stated that, at least in cases of family violence, marriage can be dissolved by divorce;

- D. Januário Torgal Ferreira, Bishop of the Armed Forces, has been an advocate for the use of condoms to prevent Aids, as well as for the ordination of women;

- D. Carlos Azeredo, Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, pointed out that Catholics vote for parties which support the legalization of homosexual "marriage", maintained that the teaching of the Church about the use of contraception has to evolve, and expressed his "concern" about the content of the letter that he received from the Pope about the lifting of the excommunications of the SSPX bishops;

- D. Manuel Clement, Bishop of Oporto, said that the use of condoms to prevent the spread of Aids is permissible in exceptional cases.

What can one say? The first three of these bishops deliberately showed that they wished to differ from and contradict the Pope and the teaching of the Church in matters of faith and morals. D. Ilídio even joked about this aspect, saying that he doesn't believe that the Vatican will fine him for the positions he has taken publicly.

For my part, I believe the Vatican has no other alternative than that of "fining" these bishops, reproving them for their erroneous teachings, and demanding the withdrawal of their statements because of the public scandal they have caused. And if they won't, then the time will have arrived to conclude that they are no longer able to carry out their episcopal duties publicly and remove them from office. This would at least be coherent with Rome's reaction to the case of Bishop Williamson ...

MP3s Of Michael Davies Talks

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I was asked elsewhere if I could provide a link for people to download mp3 versions of the "cassette tapes" of Michael Davies' talks.

It's here.

These talks are great for a bus journey. They are wonderful catechetical aids. They give you all the ammunition you need to take on sandalistas. They are of their time, and while we owe an immense debt to those who kept organisations like Pro Fide and the LMS going through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we have to remember that the world has moved on.

But what a good speaker!
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Amy Winehouse

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Amy Winehouse has brought out a new range of shampoo.

It's called "Go and Wash".

Archbishop Nichols Needs Our Prayers

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Courtesy of Brother James, we discover that the new Archbishop's vocation is to accompany those who seem to be beyond hope as they travel through life.

Apparently the Archbishop spoke on 5 Live and:

Inevitably ended by tying in his allegiance to Liverpool F.C. and how he would be at their Champions League game against Chelsea on Weds.

He needs our prayers: he is with those who have only known affliction and whose reaction to it is not pretty; who will not recognise the rightful order of things; who live in an unnatural state. He is with them even though he is no longer of them. He is with them even though he has been raised to higher things.

Some say that he has only known London and Birmingham in this country, apart from Liverpool: but to his intense credit he chose Manchester to study his MA and in an act of the profoundest resignation refused to allow the allure of either of the cornerstones of Mancunian glory (Utd and Utd Reserves) to deflect him from his mission to the fallen.

We salute our new leader and applaud his refusal to be deflected from his role as Minister and Pastor, not to those who have everything to lose, but to those who have lost everything.

"Adult" Films

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They aren't adult films. If you have to categorise them by human development, they're adolescent films.

But really, they're porn. The Home Secretary's husband pays money for porn.

Clout Casting Imminent

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The mayflower will be out this week.

Eyes Front!

A pleasant enough baroque church?

Yes. This is the Cathedral of the Spanish Archbishop of the Armed Forces.

It was elevated as such in 1985.

There is a side chapel in which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved for worship.

I wonder what the Cathedral Church of the Bishop to the Armed Forces in England and Wales looks like: not quite like this, I imagine.

Another Spring Day

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Yesterday, cherry trees framed very old cedars and everybody was in shirtsleeves.

Today, it has turned really, really, cold*, and tomorrow I'm up at the crack of dawn to go away for a couple of days.

This is what I'll remember, though.

* "Really, really, cold" if you're living in 21st Century England: just 2 or 3 degrees centigrade.

Apocalypse? Now?

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Something has been nagging away at me, all the more so this week as Cardinals have started to speak out against the Church's teaching on abortion.

The answer to what it was is a recent post by Rita which has been busily fermenting in my subconscious as I try to get my mind around it. She looks at the message about the state of the seven Churches that God dictates to St John at the start of the Apocalypse, compares it to the state of the Catholic Church today, and suggests that as sinners, each of us shares a degree of responsibility for what is happening, and that this passage might help us pray and concentrate on what we ought to be doing.

Give it a go.

For Ches: The Royle Family

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He wants cheering up.

The day after my mother died I had to go to where she lived to occupy the house, as, if it was left empty, it would be raided as soon as her death notice appeared in the Manchester Evening News.

It was a good time for my siblings to retreat into their own families: they had discovered her body; and I was happy to be left alone pottering, finding what needed to be secured and starting to sort the house out before visitors started dropping in.

After a hard day of it, and listening to drug dealers shooting at each other, I decided to stop for the evening. I rang home and spoke to my own wife and children, and then went to see what was in the freezer and cooked something for dinner, got a bottle of wine out of the garage and settled down in front of the TV to fill my mind with whatever rubbish happened to be on.

But there wasn't any rubbish on: there was an episode of the Royle Family. Only a few days before I'd told someone at work that I could barely hear a sentence on that programme that I couldn't imagine hearing at home from one member or another of my family. So I watched and laughed.

About ten minutes in the 'phone rang. It was an Auntie (actually the widow of a second cousin once removed, but that counts as Auntie) who was ringing to offer condolences. If you can remember Phyllis off Coronation Street you can imagine the voice, but this Aunt had got through more Park Drives and gin than Phyllis ever had.

I'd turned the television down, and the first thing she said coincided exactly with Nana saying something on the programme, completely inaudibly to me, because of the nicotine- and alcohol-induced rasp in Auntie's voice. And she stopped just as Jim Royle asked: "What is the stupid old bugger going on about now?"

Imagine that you are talking to your godfather's widow: she is as hard as nails; in spite of that she is cut up; and you start killing yourself laughing. How do you get out of that?

The Catholic Press

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I have been following Fr Clifton's fisking of the writings of a Mgr Basil Loftus and am becoming more and more bemused that the man is allowed to peddle heresy in a newspaper which is sold in Catholic Churches.

I feel at a bit of a loss where this is concerned: once you bought the Universe (Catholic Daily Mirror), the Catholic Herald (Catholic Broadsheet), the Tablet (Catholic Staggers) or Ireland's Own (Catholic People's Friend) at Church, confident that you would never read a word which couldn't have been praised by any Pope currently or formerly gloriously reigning, and that you were contributing income to the parish.

Today I can buy the same as before, plus the Catholic Times and the Irish Times, but have no idea at all what level of virtue or theological exactitude they might contain, nor, given the quantities that seem to lie about, what the financial model on which their contribution to parish income is based.

(We can't expect our clergy to read through all of the Catholic press each week to be able to ensure that it provides fit reading for their parishioners, but it might help if they either established a top shelf for the Tablet and Catholic Times, or just decided that Catholics might be able to do without.)

I can't read the Tablet; the Universe is turning into parody; I thought the Catholic Times was just an anti-Herald spoiler but begin to wonder what it's really all about and if it's much worse than that; and the Herald, while mainly OK is nevertheless happy to feature all sorts of ne'er-do-wells, and Fr Rolheiser every week.

After twenty-something years, I haven't renewed my Spectator subscription when it fell due last month: I'm in the market for something weekly, challenging, intelligent, topical and Catholic. Any ideas?

Interesting Statistics

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The new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, was, until recently, Archbishop of Toldeo.

Toledo has a poulation of 700,000 people. It has 78 seminarians. 16 priests were ordained last year. 71 were ordained between 2002 and 2007.

Does anybody else get the idea that he knows what he's doing? And that the Pope knows what he's doing?

H/t to La Cigüeña De La Torre whose figures about other Spanish Dioceses are worth thinking about.

The Cardinal Pell Effect

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He was here last week. He talked to people, sniffed the air, took the temperature, read the newspapers ...

... and this week, we have no announcement of a new Archbishop of Westminster; we have Birmingham and Liverpool outdoing each other to do things that say "Not me!"; we have the Bishops' Conference statement on the Pope's letter to Bishops; and we have the latest rumour which says "not before Easter".

Pellism: forcing liberals to show themselves as they are.

Where did His Eminence stop over on his way back to Oz?

The Last Thing I Would Have Expected!

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You see, I make all sorts of assumptions about things I really don't have the first idea about. I try to hold my tongue (and pen, and fingers) but sometimes I end up making a statement about something based entirely on prejudice.

Now, private education in France is something I really don't have the first idea about; and private education in France in schools run by the SSPX, Archbishop Lefebvre's lot, is a book even more firmly closed. But if you'd asked about sport in such schools, I would have opined that it wouldn't be a particularly high priority, and that it would have been based on field sports. Why? Ignorance! Complete ignorance.

Just look at the advert for a rugby competition which I found here!

Interviewed And Turned Into A Roman Numeral!

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I had a surprise e-mail - a request by somebody who interviews bloggers to be interviewed. I can only wonder how many people on the list ahead of me had said "No". If anybody is interested, the interview is here, on Paul Burgin's blog.

Dreadfully Sad

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I never joined the LMS for many of the same reasons that I have never attended an SSPX Mass: I have never been half so sure of anything as some of the chaps in charge of those organisations seem to be of everything. Latin seemed to be not just a shibboleth, but a fetish. And, as Michael Davies once pointed out, but the LMS never seemed to acknowledge, there really was a need for a reform of the celebration of Liturgical practise at Vatican II: most Catholics only ever attended Low Mass, almost never heard Gregorian Chant, almost never participated in celebration of the Divine Office.

Old Nick must have the equivalent of a satisfied grin on his face at the moment: Williamson has separated any hope that the SSPX might swiftly be reconciled to Rome; the South African Bishops seem to have mangled the introduction of a translation into real English of the Roman Rite (instead of the translation into Trite that we have endured for 40 years); and now the LMS seems singlehandedly to have offered "liberal" "Catholics" a major weapon with which to attack Tradition in England and Wales, just as they were losing the argument.

"O God, who bringest wars to nought and shieldest by Thy power all who hope in Thee, overthrowing those who assail them; help Thy servants who implore Thy mercy; so that the fierce might of their enemies may be brought low, and we may never cease to praise and thank Thee."

Eighteen Months In - Eighteen Months To Go

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I was reminded by a French site here that Summorum Pontificum said that Bishops should report to the Vatican after three years and say what had happened.

SP was issued on 7 July 2007, which means that we are half way through the three year period. Would anybody agree with me that it might be helpful to our Bishops if we made them an offer to help them prepare their report in eighteen months' time with a parish by parish report of what has happened since the Motu Proprio?

Light Blogging

Blogging is very light at the moment, due to an invasion of real life. Some big family things have hit just as work has demanded a lot of travel. More to come.

The weather's good, too!

Musing

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In this week's Catholic Herald I read, in the Schoolboard column an article which began by reiterating that the Church teaches that raising children is a three way partnership between family, school and parish. This has been niggling away at me for a few hours until I finally realised why: what happens if there is a fourth party, who is pulling two of the others in a bad direction.

There is nothing wrong with most Catholic schools; quite the reverse: most are excellent. But who specifies their RE syllabus and what does it contain?

There is nothing wrong with most parishes, but there is, throughout England and Wales systematic if low level abuse of the rubrics; stuff like invented prayers, unscripted interpolations, ad lib variations on litugical forms, lay people purifying communion vessels; I could go on! Who is responsible for maintaining the standard of the liturgy in the country?

Cardinal Pell, in another context, got it spot on:

"I have long been disappointed by The Tablet's persistent subversions of some Catholic teaching and mystified by the inability of the English bishops to nudge it towards a more productive line of witness"

What do our Bishops actually stand for? I know they are very busy dealing with poverty in the Third World, global warming, and the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, but, in their spare time, what sort of Catholicsm do they believe in? What sort of Catholicsm do they want to foster in the young? Is what we've got what they want and what they've worked for?

Perhaps he ought not to be so mystified.

Spring Is Sprung

The front garden, a couple of minutes ago. (I am a bad gardener who encourages daisies.) I can't believe after the winter we had, and it was cold before Christmas, remember, as well as afterwards) that the daffs are out for St David's Day.

Submarines!

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How To Be A Traditional Catholic

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Over at the Universe, Moretben defined the "traditional Catholic". Not the Traditionalist, or the Trad, or the neo-Trad, or the member of the People's Liberation Front of Judaea. But somebody who anybody over 50 will recognise, or at least dimly remember.

This could be an epitaph for my father or my mother, for many of my uncles and aunts, and for the parents of most of my friends. It won't be for my generation, or for my children's generation, but I begin to hope that the Benedictine revolution might make it an unselfconscious reality in my grandchildren's.

A traditional Catholic would typically:

- be faithful to prayer.
- fast quite a bit.
- remember the poor.
- be un-selfconsciously immersed in the invisible world
- be deeply formed by the ancient liturgy - its feasts, fasts, seasons, familiar rites and ceremonies, though to a lesser extent, perhaps, its texts.
- go to Holy Communion quite infrequently by modern standards, and never without confession, preparatory fasting and prayer.
- maintain a rather arid understanding of sacramental and liturgical theology.
- have a serious attitude to theology, while remaining content nevertheless with the Penny Catechism.
- have a great devotion to the saints - especially the very ancient (even semi-legendary) ones.
- be spontaneously "orthodox"
- have a profound reverence for Rome and the Pope, taking for granted the teaching of his Church, but having little interest in Vatican politics or personalities.
- think the expression "loyal to the Magisterium" a very odd, if not actually alien and ideologial way of describing or thinking about his faith.
- far rather tell his beads than read an encyclical.
- understand instinctively that everything tending to disrupt the peace of the Church - violent controversies, revolutionary discontinuities, incongruous innovations - is from the Devil.
- know that in the presence of his fathers, it would be him that looked the bloody eejit.
- Have an acute sense of original sin and a corresponding scepticism, if not outright pessimism, about all human affairs.
- be profoundly distrustful therefore - if not contemptuous - of ideologies of every stripe, knowing that in every age and under every kind of regime, the saints have been few, and usually persecuted; be politically pragmatic, placing little trust in princes, but dutifully praying for them nevertheless and trying hard to be a good neighbour.
- be unafraid of natural or historical science.
- be devoted to the episcopate and the clergy generally, while maintianing a realistic view of human frailty, and the just limits of clerical competence.

- be faithful to prayer.
- fast quite a bit.
- remember the poor.

The Tablet Article: And Finally ...

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I am still haunted by three sentences.

'Several said their adult children vowed never to go to the church again, such was their unhappiness with the liturgy. “People who have been away from church come back at Christmas and Easter and are totally put off. It is so sad,” said Mrs X.'

The understanding of what the Church is for portrayed here is plainly defective: the adult children mentioned have clearly vowed never to go to Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, again (or at least consule Fr Tim), but as they are Christmas and Easter attenders only (rather than practising Catholics), then their views don't really count: they're not parishioners in any real sense, though their parents are and their sadness should be treated with sensitivity.

What I don't understand is how a Catholic writer in a Catholic magazine would put this proposition up as an example of Fr Tim's iniquity. (I'm assuming that the writer isn't making a cheap shot at Mrs X.) This isn't Catholicsm: it's Vicar of Dibley religious infantilism.

And There's More! The Tablet's Other Half

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The Tablet Trust publishes two magazines (and pays two big salaries - to the editors?): the Tablet and Pastoral Review. According to the Pastoral Review's website, this is the editorial staff:

Rev Dr Michael Hayes was appointed to take over editorship of (...) The Pastoral Review in the autumn of 2004. Michael brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge, from parish through to university chaplaincy ministry as well as teaching theology and spirituality. He is also a psychotherapist.

Educated at Maynooth, Ireland and at Heythrop, Britain by the Jesuits, Michael is an experienced author having edited eight books to date. He is currently a Vice Principal of St Mary's University College, Twickenham.

To support Michael Hayes in his role, Dr Anthony Towey was appointed as Assiociate Editor of The Pastoral Review in 2005. An ordained priest and former economist graduating from the LSE, Dr Towey is currently Head of the School of Theology, Philosophy, and History at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham. With his wide-ranging experience, qualifications and network Anthony has proven an invaluable aid in his support role as well as providing well-written articles and research for the journal to date.

And in April 2006, and Editorial Administrator, Stephanie Bennett was recruited to look after the day-to-day editorial needs of the journal, which is fast becoming the most popular resource tool amongst those involved in active Pastoral Ministry in the Catholic Church.

Further changes in 2006 also include new Book Review Editor, Peter Tyler. Currently Director of Sarum College’s Christian Spirituality Programme, Peter studied philosophy, theology and psychology at Oxford, London and Middlesex Universities and is a qualified psychotherapist. He has lived and worked with three major religious communities - the Jesuits, based in Birmingham; the Benedictine Monastery of Christ the King, Cockfosters, North London and the L’Arche community, Liverpool. He has long worked with marginalised people such as the St Botolph’s Project for street homeless people in the East End of London.

It worries me a bit that only one of the three chaps is actually declared to be an ordained priest, though he prefwers the title "Dr" to "Fr". It's hard to tell whether the other two are priests or not: they seem to have had priestly formation but there is no clue as to their status.

The website allows you to read some of the aricles they were publishing up to 1999 in the magazine's previous incarnation: and you can read the Contents for each issue here.

Does anybody who reads it believe it to be faithful to the Tablet Trust's stated aims?

a) to advance the Christian religion
b) to promote, present, and disseminate the teachings of the Christian religion and to promote understanding of the Roman Catholic faith, value and principles
c) to advance the education of the public
d) to pursue such other charitable objectives as shall not be inconsistent with the objects hereunto before set out.

Complaining To The Tablet's Owners

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I pointed out last November here that the Tablet is owned by a charitable trust, the aims of which are:

a) to advance the Christian religion
b) to promote, present, and disseminate the teachings of the Christian religion and to promote understanding of the Roman Catholic faith, value and principles
c) to advance the education of the public
d) to pursue such other charitable objectives as shall not be inconsistent with the objects hereunto before set out.

And two of the people who work for the Tablet, earn very large salaries (one over £80K, one over £90K), presumably because of their responsibility for delivering the aims of the Tablet Trust.

If you think that Ms Curti's article about Fr Tim does not meet the aims of the charitable trust, it might be worth writing to its Chairman, Sir Michael Quinlan, at its registered address:

The Tablet Trust
1 King Street Cloisters
Clifton Walk
London
W6 0QZ

Good News And Bad News: Comment From Spain

From La Cigüeña De La Torre:

The Bishop of Regensburg, Bishop Müller, is, together with the Archbishop of Munich, at the heart of Benedict XVI's attempt to reorient a church that, since Cardinal Lehman's leadership, has been drifting.

One consequence of this recent past, which is still too influential in the German Church, has been the criticism of the Pope by a large number of theologians for the recent lifting of the excommunication of the SSPX Bishops. Three of them are priests of the Regensburg diocese and Bishop Müller has given them an ultimatum: either retract or face the consequences. Among the potential consequences may be their prohibition from teaching in Catholic institutions.

It is about time we saw a Bishop who thinks a crozier is not purely ornamental. Let's see if others imitate him. Either you are a Catholic and you behave like one, or you aren't: end of story. And here's hoping for a reinstatement of the principle that Rome does not pay traitors.

On the other hand, events in the Austrian Church, over which the enigmatic Cardinal Schönborn presides, have been awful. The Pope has had to give up on an episcopal appointment. The person he had named as Auxiliary Bishop of Linz has had to offer his resignation before his rejection became inevitable because of the objections raised by progressives at his appointment. I think this news is appalling and a defeat for the Pope: a defeat in which Catholic Bishops were at the head of the enemy armies.

The Past Is A Foreign Country

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They do things differently there. I have started to play with the archives of photos from Life magazine, now available from Google. This is Mass in Westminster Cathedral in 1939.

More Important Than News From Rome

What looks, on the face of it, like a grave injustice is about to happen. An asylum seeker who hasn't made any fuss, hasn't threatened any of us, and who has been housed by one of us, is about to be deported.

"One of Us", in this context, is Fiorella. And "one of us" means desperately hoping that a fraction of the merit that comes from her goodness might flow out to the rest of those of us in the Catholic Blogosphere in the UK who like to talk: Fiorella talks, but she does, as well; Works, as well as Faith.

Please pray for Tabi/Hannah, and please e-mail appropriate authorities like mad.

But please pray for Fiorella too.

Another Way Of Praying For The Pope

A Spanish blog, SODALITIVM INTERNATIONALE PASTOR ANGELICVS, run by a group dedicated to making better known the life and works of Pope Pius XII has proposed a structured means by which we can offer prayers in reparation for the attacks on the Pope and on the Church.

It suggests:

a. that Priests should offer a Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart ad mentem Romani Pontificis and with the Commemorations pro Papa; and that during Eucharistic Adoration they should add (if they don't already) the prayers pro Romano Pontifice.

b. Lay people should offer Holy Communion for the health, intentions and safety of the Holy Father; should attend Eucharistic Adoration and join the prayers for the Pope; and offer a full Rosary for the Holy Father.

c. If possible, we should all recite in public (or at least in private) the Penitential Psalms and the Litany of the Saints in reparation for the attacks on Pope Benedict and our Holy Mother the Church.