I learned from my friend Fr. Ray Blake, mighty p.p. in Brighton, that the Belgian liturgical goods maker Slabbinck is now making – I am not making this up – Roman vestments.
Their stuff has never been my cup of tea, and these aren’t true “Roman” vestments.
The fact that Slabbinck has added these to their catalogue is the sign of the times.
And they have black!
Here is the graphic Rich Santorum mentioned in his “victory speech”.
The graphic represents the size and composition of the entourages of the GOP candidates in Iowa.
Santorum’s campaign is at the bottom…. of the graphic, that is.
From my phone from off the very page:
Before going on… I wonder what this scenario means for the National catholic Reporter.
___
The Canonical Defender, Dr. Ed Peters doesn’t have a combox at his excellent canon law blog, In The Light of the Law. Background here and here.
Dr. Peters has chimed in with observations about the situation brewing between Michael Voris of RealCatholic TV (key word “Catholic”) and the Archdiocese of Detroit.
My emphases and comments.
The first thing to understand about the AOD vs. Voris/RCTV dispute
January 3, 2012The first thing to understand about the dispute between the Archdiocese of Detroit and Michael Voris and/or RealCatholicTV is that the dispute turns essentially on canon law. As a canonical dispute, it will not be decided by seeing who musters more or louder supporters in the blogosphere; it will be decided by recognizing what Church law says about such matters and then abiding by that finding.
With this being firmly understood, however, we may still use the dispute to set out some aspects of Church discipline for those wishing to understand such things better. I comment here not as an advisor to the AOD, but as an established observer on public canonical issues, and I reiterate what is noted to the right of every ILOTL post, namely, that this blog represents my opinions only. [Noted.]
Canon 216 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law contains two sentences, the first of which is not at issue: “Since they participate in the mission of the Church, all the Christian faithful have the right to promote or sustain apostolic action even by their own undertakings, according to their own state and condition.” As far as this part of c. 216 is concerned, Voris/RCTV may disseminate whatever they want, whenever they wish, about whatever they please. Whether Voris/RCTV speak correctly or mistakenly on a given matter, or whether they show appropriate prudence and charity in expressing their positions, is their responsibility. Catholics are free to reach differing opinions about those questions.
But sentence two of Canon 216 is another matter: “Nevertheless, no undertaking is to claim the name ‘Catholic’ without the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority.” The plain text of this canon unquestionably puts the burden on those behind an undertaking to secure consent from the competent ecclesiastical authority before claiming the name “Catholic” for their project(s). Voris/RCTV expressly (indeed, pervasively) use the word “Catholic” to name their undertakings. They repeatedly proclaim that theirs is “Real Catholic TV”, that theirs is a “Catholic Investigative Agency”, and that theirs is “The Catholic Critic”.
The Archdiocese of Detroit demurs, whence the dispute.
Let me suggest an analogy.
Say that I’m a pretty smart lawyer, that my legal advice is usually right, that it secures for folks a better situation than they had before, and that it saves them lots of time and tons of money. All of this would mean zilch if, along the way, I held myself out to be licensed for the practice of law in some state where I was not authorized to practice. The state would not have to prove that I don’t have a law degree (in fact I do) or that my advice was unsound (it might be sound or not, depending on the issue) or that I am profiting by my work (perhaps I don’t). The state would simply have to show that I am claiming to be something I am not, namely, someone authorized to act as an attorney. I would be lucky if I got-off with just a Cease-and-Desist order.
Similarly, the AOD does not have to prove that Voris does not have a degree in theology (in fact he does), and/or that Real Catholic TV, and/or the Catholic Investigative Agency, and/or The Catholic Critic, etc., is wrong about something they said (frankly, much of what they say is sound), and so on; instead, the AOD simply has to show that one or more Voris/RCTV undertakings claim the title “Catholic” without having secured canonical authorization to make that claim.
Some people apparently don’t like how Canon 216 reads; they are free (per c. 212 § 3 no less) to make their complaints to the competent ecclesiastical authority (postage for first class letters to Rome starts at 98 cents). [ROFL!] I can even think of some arguments they might offer (just as I can think of some counter-arguments they would need to anticipate) but, in the meantime, Canon 216 means what it plainly says: as long as Voris/RCTV claim for their undertakings the title “Catholic”, Canon 216 is applicable; but drop appropriation of the name “Catholic” for these undertakings, and Canon 216 has nothing more to say.
Surveying the blogosphere, I see a number of secondary or tangential issues (some reasonable, and some ridiculous) being raised in this matter. Most of these, however, seem resolvable by looking at what Canon 216 actually says—and doesn’t say. Perhaps I will address these issues in another post.
For now, I simply encourage Catholics to do here what I have encouraged them to do in many other contexts: pay attention to what canon law actually says when what is at issue is the operation of canon law.
My question to Dr. Peters would be this.
Can 212 § 2 says: “Nevertheless, no undertaking is to claim the name ‘Catholic’ without the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority.”
His lectis, quaeritur: Who is the competent authority from whom consent should be/ought to have been sought?
UPDATE: 5 Jan 18:54 GMT:
Rorate has a comment.
From CBS with my emphases and comments:
SNAP’s David Clohessy Could Face Jail Time
ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–The director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says he may faces fines or jail time for refusing to obey a judge’s order to release information on clergy abuse victims.
The usually confident, sometimes strident, David Clohessy appeared shaken and teary-eyed by what he says is the worst legal problem the group has faced in 23 years.
“Church defense lawyers will likely ask that we be found in contempt of court and possibly fined or possibly jailed,” Clohessy said. [Get that? Not just “defense” lawyers. “Church” defense lawyers.]
Earlier, Clohessy refused to cooperate during a deposition in a Kansas City area abuse case. SNAP has sought help from the Missouri Supreme Court, but it refused to intervene.
“I refused to answer many, many many questions that were all designed to find out the identities and experiences of victims and those who help victims,” Clohessy said. [Perhaps the questions were more about with whom Mr. C had shared certain information he is now refusing to turn over. Am I wrong?]
Defense lawyers wanted the documents as evidence that an attorney for an alleged victim violated a gag order by giving details of the case to SNAP.
Last week, a Kansas City area judge ordered SNAP to turn over records that could include years of emails with victims, journalists and others. The order is tied to a sex abuse lawsuit against the Rev. Michael Tierney and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
When asked if he is prepared to go to jail, rather than turn over documents, Clohessy said he’ll “cross that bridge when he comes to it.”
Transparency?
We shall have to keep an eye on this.
I have had a couple notes today from readers who report that the blog is hanging or crashing.
Anyone having problems? Lemme know what’s going on.
From Space Weather:
FIRST METEOR SHOWER OF 2012: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday morning, Jan. 4th, when Earth passes through a narrow stream of debris from a comet thought to have broken apart some 500 years ago. The shower is expected to be strong (as many as 100 meteors per hour), but elusive, with a peak that lasts no longer than a couple of hours. The shower’s radiant near Polaris favors observers in the northern hemisphere. Images, live audio from a meteor radar, and more information are available on today’s edition of http://spaceweather.com.
Polaris is, of course, the “North Star”. Pretty easy to find if the sky is clear!
Sometime I get feedback from a reader saying that something I wrote prompted him to return to the sacrament of penance or moved her to get her marriage straightened out. Those notes help me keep this blog going.
This is from a priest, about something I posted here:
Thank you for the post on the invalid matter (wheatless hosts).
Ziegler’s has a store in ___. I e-mailed it to several priests in the diocese and at least one had purchased it and was going to use it (the box is now thrown away). Also, I love reading you blog. Again Thank You!
That’s great! And you are welcome. Good work, Father!
Everyone, keep in mind that Ziegler’s is a store. They do not make the wheatless hosts themselves. They just sell them. I am sure they have many perfectly sound hosts useful for Mass.
Therefore, as always, the priest and the person doing the purchasing for a parish or chapel, needs to exercise careful oversight about the matter used for the Eucharist.
For your Just Too Cool file.
A reader sent me a link to an article about the integration of fetal cells into the mother’s body and vice versa. The content of the article is excerpted from a book called Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?: The Surprising Science of Pregnancy by Jena Pinctott, who also did the aforementioned excerpting.
Here is a portion with my emphases and comments.. I love the title of the article, which is a riff on an old scripture of the feminist movement’s canon:
Our Selves, Other Cells
By Jena Pincott at 6:00 am Tuesday, Jan 3Living With Someone Else’s Cells
Is it any solace to sentimental mothers that their babies will always be part of them?
[…]
Of course, we nosy mothers would like to know exactly what our children’s cells are up to while they hang out in us. Are they just biding time in our bodies? Are they mother’s little helpers? Or are they baby rebels, planning an insurgency? [Is that the argument of some of the pro-abortion advocates? That the baby is an an “invader” whom a woman has a right to fight off?]
It turns out that when fetal cells are good, they are very, very good. They may protect mothers from some forms of cancer. Fetal cells show up significantly more often in the breast tissue of women who don’t have breast cancer than in women who do (43 versus 14 percent). Why is this? Fetal cells are foreign to the mother because they contain DNA from the baby’s father. One theory is that this “otherness” stimulates the mother’s immune system just enough to help keep malignant cells in check. The more fetal cells there are in a woman’s body, the less active are autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. These conditions improve during pregnancy and for some time afterward — suggesting that the mother’s immune system is more focused on attacking the “other,” not herself. There’s also tantalizing evidence that fetal cells may offer the mother increased resistance to certain diseases, thanks to the presence of the father’s immune system genes. These are new weapons in the war chest.
Some fetal cells have the potential to grow up and be anything. While many of the cells that enter the mother are immune system cells, some are stem cells. [Sounds like the only legitimate form of embryonic stem cell therapy. I wouldn’t push that analogy, however, since therapy implies an illness. Pregnancy is NOT an illness, which is an argument of the pro-abortion people.] Stem cells have magical properties: they can morph into other types of cells (a process called differentiation), like liver, heart, or brain cells, and become part of those organs. Fetal stem cells migrate to injury sites—for instance, they’ve been found in diseased thyroid and liver tissue and have turned themselves into thyroid and liver cells respectively. At the triage sites of wounds they accelerate healing, reducing scars after pregnancy and restoring the normal structure of the skin. It’s striking, the evidence that a fetus’s cells repair and rejuvenate moms. Of course, evolutionarily speaking, the baby has its own interests in mind. It needs a healthy mom.
Then there’s baby on the brain. This is the truly startling stuff. Researchers working with mice have found evidence that cells from the fetus can cross a mother’s brain-blood barrier and generate new neurons. If this happens in humans—and there’s reason to believe it does—then it means, in a very real sense, that our babies integrate themselves into the circuitry of our minds. Could this help explain the remarkable finding that new mothers grow new gray matter in their prefrontal cortex (goals and social control), hypothalamus (hormonal regulation), and other areas of the brain?
[…]
You can read the rest there.
Very cool stuff.
Today in Houston there was a presser with Card. DiNardo of Houston-Galveston and Msgr. Steenson the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Peter.
Both men has good Patristic credentials.
Card. DiNardo is an alumus of my school, the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum”.
Msgr. Steenson did his DPhil in Oxford in Patristics.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
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