Many years ago, the late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, went to the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, where a friend of mine was rector. The rector, was traditionally inclined and was also a papal MC himself. Therefore, he dug into the treasures of the basilica and made sure laid out for the Holy Father were the proper vestments of his office as Roman Pontiff…. including the papal fanon.
I believe this is the only time John Paul II wore the fanon.
The seriously p.o.’d papal Master of Ceremonies at the time, the unhappy fellow in the photo behind the Pope, was then Msgr. Magee.
From today’s bolletino we read:
Il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale della diocesi di Cloyne (Irlanda), presentata da S.E. Mons. John Magee, in conformità al can. 401 § 2 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.
Most Rev. John Magee, Bp. of Cloyne (Cork) has resigned after apologizing for any part he may have played in the suffering of victims of abuse by priests during his tenure.
On a happier note relating to Cork, there will be Tenebrae during the Triduum at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul with musical settings by De Victoria.
Maundy Thursday 1st april 2010 at 10am
Good Friday 2nd april 2010 at 10am
Holy Saturday 3rd april 2010 at 10amFOR FURTHER DETAILS TELEPHONE
Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork City, 021-4276573
Brick by brick.
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I’ve seen that picture for years and thought how beautiful it is to see the Pope look like the Pope. Thank you to the rector of St. Cecilia in Trastevere.
Here’s hoping that he is just the first of many. Cardinal Mahoney has to go if there is to any hope for the Irish Church to recover.
That would actually be Cardinal Brady.
TC: “Cardinal Mahoney has to go if there is to any hope for the Irish Church to recover. … That would actually be Cardinal Brady.”
Hmmmm …. your Freudian slip is showing. (smile)
–ghp
Aye, Fr., brick by brick … :)
The fanon is beautiful.
I remember seeing that picture years ago and noticing how grim Bishop (then Msgr.) Magee looks. Now we know why. Unfortunately, he’s got much more important things than a fanon to be grim about now.
Has anyone else notice a possible connection between the sexual abuse crisis and the crisis in the liturgy the past 40 years?
Actually, we in Madison, WI will be having tenabrae on Wednesday of Holy Week (a week from today) at 7:30 at St. Patrick’s on 404 E. Main, Madison, WI, if anybody wants to come. The choir is awesome, and so is the bishop. I’ll be MCing, so give me a heads up after if you saw this!
http://isthmuscatholic.org/index.cfm?load=page&page=362
Bishop Magee was the first Irish bishop to celebrate the old Mass after Summorum Pontificum…ironically in the same Cathedral (Cobh) he once attempted to wreckovate. His ‘re-ordering’ plan was stopped in the courts. Humiliatingly, he was forced to release a letter from Cardinal Ratzinger attesting that the Second Vatican Council did not require a reordering of sanctuaries.
If only someone were to present the Holy Father with the gift of a fanon…
Perhaps then he would use it, at least once (as JPII did), or perhaps more than once.
If someone were to order it, would Gammarelli tailor a fanon?
The Pope could sack every bishop and we’d still have priests like this.
From today’s Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2010/0324/1224266935783.html
Madam, – From my particular point of view the Pope’s letter contains some disturbing aspects.
In recent years Pope Benedict has been showing increasing signs of wanting to bring the church back to the era before the Second Vatican Council. The liturgical changes he is promoting are a good illustration of this. As one person said to me, calling on us to do our Friday penances and spending time before the Blessed Sacrament has a ring of the 1950s about it.
His condemnation of the bishops, without any admission of the Vatican’s, and indeed his own, part in the problems is also ominous. It serves to further weaken what is already a very ineffective leadership of the Irish church. In the context of an emasculated hierarchy, the idea of a Vatican visitation does not give me much hope.
If the Vatican visitations in other countries in recent years, especially the current one to the female religious in the US, are anything to go by, this one will focus on restoring the old-style, authoritarian church, and clamping down on all “dissent”. An almost non-existent leadership at local level will make that work much easier for the visitors.
In my view anyone who believes that restoring a more traditional church with greater Vatican control will solve our problems is missing some crucial points.
Unless we begin to examine our understanding of authority, obedience, and our teaching on sexuality, we will be only scratching the surface of the problem. I see no indication that the Vatican will allow any of this type of questioning to happen.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has shown some leadership in dealing with the child abuse issue in Dublin. Will he now surprise me by becoming a voice that challenges the Vatican agenda, and facilitates a real discussion among all people in the Irish church? Such a discussion might go some way towards bringing about a church that is more independent of the Vatican, and one in which people can feel that they belong, because they have a real voice. – Yours, etc,
Fr TONY FLANNERY,
Esker,
Athenry, Co Galway.
Isn’t he the same John Magee who was private secretary to Popes Paul VI and John Paul I and who claimed to have found the dead body of Papa Luciani when it was in fact found by the nun who brought the Pope breakfast?
Maybe they can chant the Popule meus on Good Friday as well. The Congregation for Divine Worship would do well to make it a mandatory chant again.
Yes. The Vatican deemed it more approriate for the pope to be ‘found’ by a priest. As he explainted to the press: “I did find the body of His Holiness. I just didn’t find it first.”
+JMJ+
“Such a discussion might go some way towards bringing about a church that is more independent of the Vatican, and one in which people can feel that they belong, because they have a real voice.”
This says it all, now doesn’t it? This is what the progressives,
the modernists, the humanists want. A reformation. Away from the
True Church of Jesus Christ – the Roman Catholic Church… towards
a more ecumenical, independent, non-denominational, non-Christian
social reform movement.
We may be seeing the beginnings of a second reformation. It will only
get worse. Tough love needs to come from the Holy See very soon, very
swiftly.
iHs
Father Tony Flannery writes: “…calling on us to do our Friday penances and spending time before the Blessed Sacrament has a ring of the 1950s about it.”
Ohhhh, so penance and spending time before the Blessed Sacrament isn’t the “in thing” NOW? If I were a bishop, I remove this guy from his parish immediately just for being unintelligent.
Maybe they can chant the Popule meus on Good Friday as well. The Congregation for Divine Worship would do well to make it a mandatory chant again.
Isn’t it already mandatory?
Even in this liturgically devastated Archdiocese where I live, Popule meus is always sung on Good Friday, although in almost all parishes this is done in the vernacular (but the translation is a good one).
So, I always tought that it was mandatory.
“spending time before the Blessed Sacrament has a ring of the 1950s about ”
Eucharistic adoration in addition to being a wonderful and graceful practice also makes a fairly reliable litmus test. When you hear someone gainsaying the practice, it’s a safe bet you are dealing with a Usual Suspect. There are several theories why, but I’ll save that for another thread.
P.S. Hi Rich M.! Look at me, I’m commenting! :)
This story saddens me greatly. Bishop Magee is the uncle of a friend of mine. I had the good pleasure to meet Bishop John Magee in 2003. To me, he seemed to be a humble, and, from what I can tell, holy servant of God. I know he was no fan of liberalism. I don’t know where to begin doing penance for those poor souls who have been tortured and terrorized by the demonic abusers; nor do I know where to begin penance for the abusers themselves and the great scandal they have causes the Body of Christ.
Oh, this is terrible….I remember seeing pictures of Msgr. McGee at the side of John Paul II in the early years of his pontificate. I had no idea that he resigned.
@Prof. Basto: The Popule meus may be technically mandatory, but I had not even heard it in the vernacular in years until I heard the latin chanted at my parish Good Friday FSSP TLM. Of course, that may be a result of having grown up in a small parish, and very few people show up for GF service, so they truncate things. I do recall one of my priests singing Were you there? which is no doubt a very moving piece, but it’s still no Popule meus which we all (here anyway) know is the proper chant for reverencing the Holy Cross.
What a commanding presence Pope John Paul II has in this picture.
Even the wardrobe folks at MGM had the good sense to put a fanon on Anthony Quinn for the big scene in The Shoes of the Fisherman. Even the pagans know as much!!
Someone, or perhaps a group of people, should commission a fanon and then present it to Pope Benedict as a gift. I believe he would wear it, at least out of courtesy. After all, he wore hideous vestments in Switzerland.
If someone were to order a papal fanon at Gammarelli with a view to presenting it to the pope as a gift, would they make one?
An outspoken Irish priest has called for a radical rethink on relationships saying it is time the rigid connection between sexual activity and marriage is severed. Fr Tony Flannery, believes the Roman Catholic Church should change its attitude on sex before marriage, artificial contraception and the rules regarding re-marriage.
“With the advent of various ways of preventing conception, sex is no longer necessarily connected with pregnancy. For the past half century or more, the Church has lamented this, and fought against the use of any form of artificial contraception with all its might — freely available contraception is part of the new reality within which our Church teaching has got to make some sense,” he writes in a new book, Responding to the Ryan Report.
He argues: “Church teaching has officially conceded now that sex has a purpose other than procreation, namely to nourish and develop a relationship of love between two people.” He advocates, that the Church “break the rigid connection between sexual activity and marriage, allowing for appropriate sexual relationships between people who are not married, when the quality of the relationship merits it”.
And on it goes . . . .
Published on The Independent.ie website September 20, 2009
Poor betrayed Ireland.
Genna,
This priest MUST be fired.
He is an object of scandal for all the Church.
What is his bihop doing? Is he afraid to expell him?
Bishops in Ireland are dropping like flies these days. Within the next twelve months, and including Bishop Magee, 11 Irish bishops will either retire or will be required to submit their resignation to the Pope, having reached the age of 75. Of the remaining 11, nine are 70+. It now seems likely that Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland will also submit his resignation. It’s possible that he could also go to jail. IMHO they are victims of a media-driven witch-hunt, but the Irish hierarchy is a self-perpetuating mediocracy and it needs a thoroughly good cleaning out anyway. But I have no expectation that their replacements will be any more competent. Deckstairs on the Titanic springs to mind. Politicians are currently considering undertaking an enquiry into every diocese on the island; there is also pressure to investigate the Magdalene Laundaries. The revelations will be horrific. They will increase alienation from the Church and shatter what’s left of priestly morale, thereby accentuating the already acute vocations catastrophe. Unless the Pope takes very drastic measures, and there is no reason to think he will, I think the Catholic Church in Ireland may soon have to consider turning the lights out.
No Ireland wont be turning the lights out. It needs to do an examination of its soul. Im praying a novena to St Patrick that Ireland will be renewed
I remember this photo as being one of the best of Pope John Paul II. The fanon as part of the Pope’s formal vestments should be seen once in a while. Why isn’t it worn? How does not waring it fit into that Hermeneutic of Continuity? I am curious too, if presented as a gift would the Pope use it and if not, why?
Shane wrote: “Bishops in Ireland are dropping like flies these days. Within the next twelve months, and including Bishop Magee, 11 Irish bishops will either retire or will be required to submit their resignation to the Pope, having reached the age of 75. Of the remaining 11, nine are 70+.”
One of the most notoriously bizarre bishops that is due to retire soon is Bishop Willie Walsh of the Diocese of Killaloe, which encompasses the “heart of Ireland”: parts of Counties Limerick, Clare, Galway, Tipperary, Offaly, and Laois.
How Rome has allowed this guy to continue is beyond me. You’ve got to see this to believe it.
http://www.killaloediocese.ie/bishop-willie-walsh-statements
One small point, on language.
Magee did not ‘find the body’ . He discovered that the Pope had died. The pope was always in his bedroom that night in 1978.
Incidentally, I was in the piazza that night around 11pm and I remember looking up at the end windows of the palace with a priest friend of mine and we both commented that the pope was up late (JPI). It would be interesting to know if the lights were on all night should he have had his heart attack while reading in bed.
But I still remember going down to breakfast next morning and friend said the pope had died. I said yes, in August (Paul VI) – but it was the smiling pope luciani.
Second point – the Irish Church is in a real mess and there is much pressure on Brady to go now since so many other bishops allegedly covered up matters on victims. You can’t have one or two going for the same mistake and the cardinal remaining.
Best if he made a dignified exit and went like Law to Rome or the missions and Martin was made a cardinal.
Surely this rumbling on going mess has to be cleared up – the scandal rocking the Church is tearing the very fabric of the Church in Germany, Austria and Ireland.
I still think some public penance by bishops and offending priests would be best.
When was the last time a bishop was excommunicated?
Anyone know?
Damien Thompson wrote an entry about this yesterday. His entry is, as always, an interesting read, but not nearly as much as the comments posted after.
It’s a mixed bag that I find a bit confusing: “Traditionalists” seem to be claiming that the scandal surrounding Magee’s resignation is just another attempt by the liberal media to hollow out the Catholic Church and render it helpless and irrelevant; others hail him as having been a champion of the restoration of the TLM to the diocese; still others make it sound like it was only just and proper that Magee be sent packing.
Read Thompson’s commentary and the comments to it here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100031256/pope-accepts-bishop-john-magees-resignation-will-cardinal-sean-brady-be-next/
Meanwhile, today’s Daily Telegraph features another “hit piece” against the Holy Father, with more allegations of his participation in paedophelia scandal cover-ups:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7519110/Church-documents-show-Pope-failed-to-defrock-priest-who-abused-200-boys.html
Surely this rumbling on going mess has to be cleared up – the scandal rocking the Church is tearing the very fabric of the Church in Germany, Austria and Ireland.
I still think some public penance by bishops and offending priests would be best.
When was the last time a bishop was excommunicated?
Anyone know?
Comment by puma19
Public penance is fine, but it is no substitute for the necessary action–reforming the seminaries, priesthood, and liturgy.
This hit piece in the UK Times Online is even worse, right down to its use of an at best unflattering picture of His Holiness.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7075237.ece
We need more than ever to pray for our Pope and our Church, because clearly we’re witnessing the opening salvos of a Great Battle.
Prayers to St. Michael are clearly needed.
Well, on a hopefull note, I know three or four potential candidates for episcopal appointments in Ireland (if It was Our Lords Will) and they are all very orthoodox, very faithful and very holy,who would make fantastic Bishops and lead Ireland back in the right direction.
Oh and incidentally they are al sympathetic or dare I say enthusiastic, about the extraordinary form.