The Tridentine Mass gets a boost

I'm really enjoying RealCatholicTV.com these days. This is their latest, about the irrational opposition still being met from bishops and many lay persons to the Tridentine Mass.

Getting our attention

Christianity, not just Catholicism, has been plagued with a sometimes-effeminate expression of the Gospel -- one that emphasizes forgiveness and complacency, and de-emphasizes anything that smacks of the difficult or demanding.

Men, however, are stirred by sterner demands. I wish that at the end of every good, orthodox homily, we could hear these words, from the conclusion of Jack Aubrey's commission from the Admiralty which he reads to the crew of HMS Surprise at the beginning of Master and Commander:

Hereof nor you nor any of you may fail as you will answer the contrary at your peril.

The child speaks -- and eloquently

Though I've been reading pro-life books, periodicals, and blogs for quite some time, I had never yet encountered this poem by G. K. Chesterton, until I was browsing through a little anthology of his writings on the family that I picked up almost by accident at a used book sale. Which is surprising, since it's a moving and aesthetically appealing rebuttal to the pro-choice arguments that "I don't want to bring a child into this terrible world" and "Think of the abusive / impoverished / etc. conditions this child will be brought up in. He's better off dead."

And it's all the more effective because you only gradually understand, as you read, that the speaker is a child in the womb.

By the Babe Unborn
G. K. Chesterton

If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,

If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.

In dark I lie: dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.

Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.

I think that if they gave me leave
Within the world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.

They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.

"Let them have their cards back!"

One never knows, really, how accurate stories like this one are, but the retort from the Bishop's father is priceless:

In a diocesan magazine column, Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine recounts that a social worker threatened to take away the family’s benefit cards during the Great Depression if his mother-- an Italian immigrant with a third-grade education-- did not abort her fourth child. The future bishop’s father responded, “Let them have their cards back! The Lord will provide.”

Learning how to argue for the unborn

This video is from the Life Training Institute. I've just become aware of the site via Jill Stanek's blog, but if you're looking for guidance about how to defend unborn children effectively through discussion with pro-choice people, this looks like a great place to spend some time.

Today at St. Thomas

Sung by the St. Ann Choir at St. Thomas Aquinas today:

Lassus, Domine, labia mea aperies
Palestrina, Domine, quando veneris

In contrast to all the other my other earlier posts listing the Choir's selections, I'm now reporting from behind the scenes: I joined the Choir this week! It's a challenge, I have to say, since it's been many years since I've sung Renaissance music and I'm not as familiar with its harmonic patterns as I once was; and I can tell that reading Gregorian Chant is going to take plenty of getting used to. But this first outing was mighty nice, nonetheless.

Quare via impiorum prosperatur?

In the L.A. Archdiocese's newspaper The Tidings appears this column by Nancy Pelosi's bishop, George Niederauer, finally pointing out that, contrary to Ms. Pelosi's assertions on national television, Catholics are actually not free to shield their moral defiance of the Church's teachings behind a bogus claim of "freedom of conscience".

Yet her defiance and her complicity in the grave evil of abortion on demand have been going on for years, and we seem to be no closer to the day when her bishop will say: "Nancy, on peril of your immortal soul, change your ways before it's too late."

h/t the redoubtable Karen Hall.

Update: I've removed the link to Karen's wonderful blog Some Have Hats, since it doesn't appear to be available anymore. Makes me sad.

The Tebow ads

Personally, I was disappointed with the Tim Tebow ads aired during the SuperBowl yesterday. Since their intended anti-abortion message had already become so public, I was dismayed that all we heard from Pam Tebow during the ads themselves was a curious circumlocution about how she "almost lost" her son. Not a whisper of the "A word", or of the dramatic story of the choice for life that she made for her son.

Yes, if you went to Focus on the Family's website and listened to the entire 7-minute video interview with the Tebows, right at the end came some very clear, strong statements, and the direct plea "please don't kill your baby".

But how many of those who watched the ads dug that far to hear that message?

And it was such a simple, straightforward story: they told me to abort my baby because I took some drugs that might have caused severe birth defects. I didn't. Instead of a burden, I -- and the nation -- got an exceptional quarterback and a fine person. That story, told simply and shortly, had the power to change anyone's heart, regardless of their faith or lack of it.

A great opportunity was missed.

And now that an "opinion" ad has been allowed to air during the SuperBowl, look for the pro-abortion lobby to submit their own ads in abundance next year.

Gloria.tv -- Dialogues of the Carmelites

I had often heard of this opera by the 20th-century French composer François Poulenc, but had never seen a performance. This video, from the Catholic-oriented video site Gloria.tv, gives you the final eight minutes of a splendid production. Absolutely gripping. Overwhelming, really.

The person who posted this clip has given an excellent summary of the historical facts on which the opera is based in the comments section beneath the video (where you'll also find a comment of mine, praising it).

Today at St. Thomas

Sung by the St. Ann Choir at today's 'Gregorian' Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas:

Heinrich Isaac, Amen dico vobis
Orlandus Lassus, Eripe me
Isaac, Misereris omnium

Texts can be found here.

Just gotta love this... ya know?

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

She might have had a gun

Some random woman, reportedly "deranged", shoved Pope Benedict to the floor of St. Peter's tonight just before Mass. The Pope was unhurt, thank God. But she might have had a gun, and then the Enemy would have landed another haymaker on this Christmas Eve, added to the Senate passage of abortion-funding "health care" legislation.

Let's be thankful for Pope Benedict while we have him. Media vita in morte sumus.

Gotta hand it to ya, Catholics for Obama!

If 54% of my fellow Catholics hadn't voted for Barack Obama, maybe ornaments like this wouldn't be hanging from this year's White House Christmas -- oops, "Holiday" tree.

h/t SHH.

A rather slanted magazine rack

I visited our parish's offices a couple of weeks ago for a meeting, and the staff magazine rack caught my eye. Quite a few publications that tend to be full of dissent from Catholic doctrine: Sojourners, Commonweal, NCR. Some lukewarm ones like U. S. Catholic.

Fortunately also the Knights of Columbus' Columbia mag -- I'm guessing it's there because the Knights are making sure it's there.

But nothing else of substance on the orthodox side: no First Things, no Our Sunday Visitor, no Touchstone.

ClimateGate

The smoking gun of climate change flummery-- if the emails are authenticated.

Send more like this one!

Bishop Tobin: Pro-Abortion Catholic Pols Should Worry About Their Souls, Not Job
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island, who has been involved in an exchange on abortion and communion with pro-abortion Congressman Patrick Kennedy, gave an interview this week to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. On the program, he said pro-abortion Catholic politicians need to be more worried about their souls than their jobs. "The most important commitment we can make is our faith, because that defines our relationship with God. Nothing is more important than that. And if your job, your profession, your vocation gets in the way of that, you have to quit your job and save your soul," Tobin said. Tobin also said on the show that his 2007 decision to ask Kennedy to voluntarily stop receiving communion because of his pro-abortion stance was not a "punishment." "Every Catholic has certain obligations, it means something to say you are a Catholic. No one is forced to be a Catholic," he said. "If you choose freely to be a Catholic it means you do certain things, and you believe certain things, and I think all I'm trying to say to Congressman Kennedy and others who might be involved, say: if you're a Catholic, live up to your faith. Understand what the Church teaches, accept those teachings, and live that faith. If the church, not just the Catholic Church, but the religious community - if we don't bring these values, this spiritual vision to these discussions, who else will do that?"

Oh, good.

Sometime in the next few days, I hope to write a bit about the goings-on described in this article. As soon as I get my teeth to stop gnashing.

A Pope on the rights of Indians, 1537

The anti-Catholic propaganda of Protestantism, which has now morphed into the anti-Catholic propaganda of militant secularism, has long maintained that the Catholic Church did nothing to fight for the natural rights of the native inhabitants of the New World, and actually abetted their cruel treatment at the hands of Spanish and Portuguese explorers.

Well, OK, let's start at the top; let's start with the Pope. What did Pope Paul III write in 1537, just 18 years after Cortez landed in Mexico, and only eight years after Pizarro invaded Peru? "Nice going, guys, those heathens sure deserved to be exploited to the hilt for your enrichment?"

Not exactly.

From the encyclical Sublimus Dei:

... notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.

Read the whole thing (it's short) here.

Obama economic advisor Robert Reich does us all a favor:

I will actually give you a speech made up entirely almost at the spur of the moment of what a candidate for president would say if that candidate did not care about becoming president. In other words, this is what the truth is and a candidate will never say, but what candidates should say if we were in a kind of democracy where citizens were honored.

...

I'm so glad to see you, and I would like to be president. Let me tell you a few things on healthcare. Look, we are we have the only healthcare system in the world that is designed to avoid sick people. That's true.

...

And by the way, we are going to have to, if you are very old, we're not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It's too expensive. So we're going to let you die.


Catholics who voted for Obama should ponder Mr. Reich's words. Is this what you wanted? If not, what are you doing about it? Remember, Reich isn't some unknown kook or talk show host; he's a former governor and Secretary of Labor, and Obama picked him as an advisor.

Listen to the complete audio of this 2007 speech at Berkeley here.

"Is there no virtue among us?"

I believe our Church took a terribly wrong turn when, beginning after Vatican II, it de-emphasized the cultivation of individual virtue (as an expression of the love of Christ) and threw all its attention upon cultivation of the Corporal Works of Mercy (i.e., feeding the hungry, relieving poverty), but in a very peculiar way -- by cultivating the power of the government to coerce from unwilling donors the counterfeit of Christian charity via taxation and redistribution -- that is, socialist solutions to societal problems.

So I guess I'm agreeing with James Madison, who said in 1788:

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government -- can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea...

Had the Church concentrated on its immemorial task, bringing individuals to a love of Christ which would express itself in sacrificial love of neighbor, we would have a much healthier nation now, and ironically, the conditions of social justice which are so often prayed for would be far closer to realization -- through the virtue of sacred Charity in millions of ordinary people.