What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Anyone out there in the UK with fast internet and a Slingbox hooked up to a DVR? 

Drop me a line!

There is rumors of curial changes afoot.  Check the blog of Andrea Tornielli:

The change of the guard foreseen at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican’s "liturgy ministry": Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze (who turned 75 last November) could soon leave his post, and in his post could arrive (and the conditional is important) the Salesian Archbishop Angelo Amato, 70 next June, presently Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  The later’s post would be freed up for Bishop Rino Fisichella, the well-regarded Rector of the Lateran University.  For a while it has been known that Amato, who took the place left by Bertone in 2003, was a candidate for a post usually filled by a Cardinal.  But his arrival at Worship would be a surprise, given that until today his name has been bandied about for the Congregation for Causes of Saints or Catholic Education.  Many, in fact, hold that the "natural" candidate to succeed Arinze would be the present Secretary of the Congregation, the Sri Lankan Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige don, who was already in the Roman Curia as the number two to Cardinal Sepe at Propaganda Fide, and who was then sent to Indonesia as Apostolic Nuncio, and was then recalled to Rome by Benedict XVI who named him to Divine Worship, a ket discastery in Papa Ratzinger’s vision.  Ranjith has never kept his ideas a mystery: about the Motu Proprio which derestricted the Tridentine Mass, about dialogue with Lefevbrites, about litrugical abuses which must be combatted. It is also true that in the usual curial practice only in rare cases does the number two man become Prefect of the same dicastery and that Ranjith has just turned 60.  If this hypothesis winds up happening, Fisichella could be the successor of Amato as number two in the ex-Holy Office.  A crucial and high-profile role.

Some of this stuff has been floating around for a while. 

I mentioned some of it last October (... one of the best "insider blogs", remember?).

WDTPRS profoundly hopes that Archbp. Ranjith becomes the Prefect.

A few of you have recently use the donation button on the left side bar, or perhaps on the entries for the PODCAzTs and PRAYERCAzTs. 

Thank you very much! 

I try to send an individual thank you back by e-mail as I am alerted to the donation, but recently someone sent me a note which gave me to believe that my own thanks had been perhaps caught in his spam filter.   So, just in case you didn’t hear back from me, I am deeply grateful and you might double check your spam folders or filters.

Also, a kind soul picked something out for me from my Amazon wish list.  This is a very good and useful book by Hubertus R. Drobner, The Fathers of the Church: a comprehensive introduction. 

Fr. Drobner, who teaches at Paderborn and my own school the Augustinianum is one of the best working patristicists out there.  This book would be of some value in the classroom, certainly, but also for those who want to put their toes in.  It isn’t a full manual (it isn’t complete for scientific purposes), but it is not a text book for student either (it is not very engaging just to sit and read).  It tries to be both manual and textbook, perhaps.  But there is no question that it is useful.  It would be a nice start for someone who has no strict obligation to study theology, but wants a reference for information about the important Fathers that doesn’t get into the depth of a full patristic manual.

Thanks, CJ of MS for sending me that book!