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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- on Kudos to the Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston: “One swallow does not a summer make, but given one particular piece of the puzzle it is possible that something…”
- on ASK FATHER: Is the priesthood dominated by men who are varsity-level players or 3rd and 4th stringers?: “Another thing that should not be equated as humility is: plainness. What happens with plainness in things like the priest’s…”
- on Kudos to the Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston: “The mere fact of appointing such “delegates” for different regions of the diocese is a hopeful sign: if the object…”
- on ASK FATHER: Is the priesthood dominated by men who are varsity-level players or 3rd and 4th stringers?: “I heard, ages ago from some forgotten wise soul: a priest can deliver great homilies without himself being brilliant: he…”
- on ASK FATHER: Is the priesthood dominated by men who are varsity-level players or 3rd and 4th stringers?: “The “celebrity priest” trend is a cancer in the Church. When we live in a social media culture in which…”
- on ASK FATHER: Is the priesthood dominated by men who are varsity-level players or 3rd and 4th stringers?: “There are a lot of different kinds of priests, the intellectual, the charismatic, the practical, the fiery, the calm, the…”
- on ASK FATHER: Is the priesthood dominated by men who are varsity-level players or 3rd and 4th stringers?: “I think it unwise to “classify” priests. I have found from experience that a good priest is not necessarily a…”
- on 29 August – The Beheading of John the Baptist: Corruption exposed and the “brass ring” revealed: “To whom should I go to ask for advice? This is always an important question, whether we are seeking guidance…”
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From Gulliver’s travels:
“That about forty years ago, certain persons went up to Laputa, either upon business or diversion, and, after five months continuance, came back with a very little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot. To this end, they procured a royal patent for erecting an academy of projectors in Lagado; and the humour prevailed so strongly among the people, that there is not a town of any consequence in the kingdom without such an academy. In these colleges the professors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture and building, and new instruments, and tools for all trades and manufactures; whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. All the fruits of the earth shall come to maturity at whatever season we think fit to choose, and increase a hundred fold more than they do at present; with innumerable other happy proposals. The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair: that as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit, he was content to go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as they did, in every part of life, without innovation: that some few other persons of quality and gentry had done the same, but were looked on with an eye of contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill common-wealth’s men, preferring their own ease and sloth before the general improvement of their country.”
Where and/or how does someone develop the brain power like that within this man?
Great! Now I have to remember to use the phrase “that than which there is no whicher “! Thank you for sharing.
Something we might want to re-read carefully from the Documents of Vatican II: “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.” Side by side with something coming from the Council of Trent: “if anyone says that the Mass ought to be celebrated in vernacular languages only, let him be …” (You know: vernacular only means “not Latin”).
On road trips, when one of the kids would ask, “Are we there yet?” I’d always respond, “Yeah, we’re there!” Usually, silence ensued.
No one likes Vatican II.
The progressives keep doing what it doesn’t say in the name of it saying it says _____ (fill in the blanks).
The neocons keep saying it says things it didn’t say and don’t say things it does say, claiming it’s all in line with Tradition.
The Trads reject some of what it says.
And non-effeminate Catholics don’t like how it says what it says.
A new teaching of Vatican II. I don’t know if this is a bad thing if it represents an authentic teaching of Vatican II. A council that encourages chant. A council that demands the faithful be able to make all the Latin responses. A council that stated that the liturgy of the hours must be preserved and prayed in Latin by clerics.
To me the last 60 years reflect the time after nicea. After the Nicean creed was established all the bishops pretty much put that entire council on the shelf for 60 years.
Things got a lot worse after Nicea leading to the Nike (blasphemy) creed of 359 which was for a time the official creed of the church. It was then the lay faithful. Not the priests and bishops that stood against heresy and refused the creed. In 381 in Constantinople we got the creed as we mostly know it now when people went back and decided to read the previous council and ask, what did they really say there?
I like to think we are nearing the same moment in Vatican II. Largely the lay faithful who are still coming to Mass and under the age of 75 reject the “new springtime” they desire the Mass of the ages. They desire Latin and chant. I think now is the time to actually teach Vatican II especially in respect to liturgy. Which will probably involve the redo of the reform of the Mass. Not a reform of the reform.
Yes, I take the point that attempts to rediscover or to understand, this time correctly, the teachings of Vatican II are misguided. Of course, it is also misguided to blame all present problems on Vatican II. While I like doing counterfactual policy simulations, for example, assessing how would Spain have fared during the crisis of 2008 if there had not been a Euro Area, I cannot imagine dong any counterfactual assessment of how things would be today if Vatican II never happened. Our leaders should focus on the hear and now of the Church, rather than trying to reinterpret, once more, what happened between 1962-65.
I had an interesting conversation with a younger DRE a little while ago. The gist was that I was making a point that the younger generations seem to want to sidestep the whole Vatican II issue and not deal with the hermeneutic of continuity vs. spirit of Vatican II^tm issues. They have their own lives and are not interested in fighting the battles of their fathers. The DRE would be on board with thinking that doing another round of catechesis for VII would be a good thing, not because they are on one side or another, but because, it seems to me, that they think there is some middle way– that, if we just read it right, we would find it.
The problem with Vatican II is that if you are well-versed in history and Catholic theology, you read Vatican II differently than if you are not. VII doesn’t really have a singular voice, but one tends to hear the voice in VII that most closely corresponds to what one brings to the documents.
I also want to say that, if we are really going to do another round of VII catechesis, please get yourselves into a position in your local parishes where you can be a part of the catechical program and teach in a way that lets us move beyond VII instead of conscripting the younger generations to perpetuate these battles of the dead and dying.
(to the tune of “Immortal, invisible, God only wise”)
Important, illustrious Vatican II!
Its brilliance yet somehow still hidden from view
Six decades of springtime it brought us, and yet
We fear that its promises are still unmet
Superlative council, so weighty and vast
Eclipsing all others, replacing the past
The clearest expression of all that is good
Someday its true meaning might be understood