Category Archives: ecumenism

2013/04/08 · 08:27

Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Magisterium on the anniversary of THE Counter-Reformation Statement: Sacrosancta (8 April 1546)

Image (c) 2007 George David Byers -- all international rights reserved -- all publishing by any means whatsoever forbidden

Image (c) 2007 George David Byers — all international rights reserved — all publishing by any means whatsoever forbidden

I have always recommended in my Fundamental Theology and Introduction to Sacred Scripture courses that all the seminarians (who should be studying Latin) translate –without the aid of other translations — the first and dogmatic decree issued by the Council of Trent on 8 April 1546. There are some referents of verbs which one has to search out as the very long first sentence continues with its refined nuances of the relationship of Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Magisterium. If you do this exercise honestly, without looking at other translations, you will get the gist of what Sacred Tradition is all about, as well as Cardinal Siri in his book Gethsemane, and that’s saying quite a bit. You’ll know more than almost all Catholic theologians today. But do the translation yourself. It will force you to be surrounded by all the fine points. I’ve included the translation below for those who don’t know Latin. But don’t look at that!

Sacrosancta oecumenica et generalis Tridentina synodus, in Spiritu sancto legitime congregata, praesidentibus in ea eisdem tribus apostolicae sedis legatis, hoc sibi perpetuo ante oculos proponens, ut sublatis erroribus puritas ipsa evangelii in ecclesia conservetur quod promissum ante per prophetas in scripturis sanctis dominus noster Iesus Christus Dei Filius proprio ore primum promulgavit, deinde per suos apostolos tamquam fontem omnis et salutaris veritatis et morum disciplinae omni creaturae praedicari iussit; perspiciensque, hanc veritatem et disciplinam contineri in libris scriptis et sine scripto traditionibus, quae ab ipsius Christi ore ab apostolis acceptae, aut ab ipsis apostolis Spiritu sancto dictante quasi per manus traditae ad nos usque pervenerunt orthodoxorum patrum exempla secuta, omnes libros tam veteris quam novi testamenti, cum utriusque unus Deus sit auctor, nec non traditiones ipsas, tum ad fidem, tum ad mores pertinentes, tamquam vel oretenus a Christo, vel a Spiritu sancto dictatas et continua successione in ecclesia catholica conservatas, pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia suscipit et veneratur. Sacrorum vero Librorum indicem huic decreto adscribendum censuit, ne cui dubitatio suboriri possit, quinam sint, qui ab ipsa Synodo suscipiuntur. Sunt vero infrascripti. Testamenti Veteris: Quinque Moysis, id est Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri, Deuteronomium; Iosue, Iudicum, Ruth, quattuor Regum, duo Paralipomenon, Esdrae primus et secundus, qui dicitur Nehemias, Tobias, Iudith, Esther, Iob, Psalterium Davidicum centum quinquaginta psalmorum, Parabolae, Ecclesiastes, Canticum Canticorum, Sapientia, Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, Ieremias cum Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, duodecim prophetae minores, id est: Osea, Ioel, Amos, Abdias, Ionas, Michaeas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias; duo Maccabaeorum, primus et secundus. Testamenti Novi: Quattuor Evangelia, secundum Matthaeum, Marcum, Lucam, Ioannem; Actus Apostolorum a Luca Evangelista conscripti; quattuordecim epistulae Pauli Apostoli: ad Romanos, duae ad Corinthios, ad Galatas, ad Ephesios, ad Philippenses, ad Colossenses, duae ad Thessalonicenses, duae ad Timotheum, ad Titum, ad Philemonem, ad Hebraeos; Petri Apostoli duae; Ioannis Apostoli tres; Iacobi Apostoli una; Iudae Apostoli una et Apocalypsis Ioannis Apostoli. Si quis autem libros ipsos integros cum omnibus suis partibus, prout in ecclesia catholica legi consueverunt et in veteri vulgata latina editione habentur, pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit, et traditiones praedictas sciens et prudens contempserit: anathema sit.

Sacred Tradition is the necessarily univocal revelation of the Most Holy Trinity to our souls by way of the sanctifying grace of the supernatural theological virtue of infused faith. There’s much more to it — what with Christ’s own words and all — but that’s the root of it all. This is misunderstood by almost all. Pay attention to the phrase quasi per manus. Sacred Tradition is not about a mere recitation of certain manifestations of that Tradition, such as can be had with various Ecumenical Council and ex-Cathedra statements. Those are manifestations. Sacred Tradition is certainly not to be defined with mere psychological inculcation or the so-called dynamic world-views of a Lonergan. And yet, that kind of dumbing-down of all that is good and holy is what we have today with so many because of zero understanding of this great decree of the Council of Trent. I have much to say about all this in regard to the Mystical Body of Christ. Another day. There is already enough here to fill one’s thoughts for months!

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2013/03/24 · 11:12

[Saint] Alexamenos [Confessor Martyr] and Jesus as *The Donkey* on this Palm Sunday [and Pope Francis Regensburg]

This is a picture of the third century Roman graffito, etchings which are almost invisible in the original wall, which is surely why the graffito has lasted for so many centuries. Archaeological remains can be seen on Monte Palatino, Rome, Italy. The graffito was on part of a wall which had been salvaged from the Imperial School for slave boys on the south-western slope of the Palatine Hill during the 1800s. I took many pictures of this graffito.

Greek words had been scratched into the wall along with a drawing of Christ as a crucified jackass, and as the recipient of the worship of a boy named Alexámenos. The graffito dates to the persecution of Catholics by the Romans in the mid-third century. The words ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ ΣΕΒΕΤΕ ΘΕΟΝ, meant Alexámenos says ‘Worship ye God!’ or, because of the artist’s poor orthography, Alexámenos worships God, so that he wanted to write ΣΕΒΕΤΑΙ ΘΕΟΝ.

Alexámenos – the name means Defender (The One Who Is Defending)– may have been a Jewish slave, who became a Christian, and who was evangelizing his fellow slaves. He risked his life by telling the others to worship Christ, at least with his own example. The response of one of the slaves — drawing such a graffito — shows that Alexámenos may well have been put to death for this evangelization, as were so many at the time, one after the other. It is even most probable that he is a martyr, perhaps put to death by the Emperor Valerian. Rome’s Palatine Hill overlooks the Colosseum, built by Jewish slaves, the Circus Maximus, which directly faces the Imperial School, and the Roman Forums.

It’s unknown what happened to the artist, but mockery arising from fear, or later, grief, can be an occasion when God’s mercy works conversion. The blood of the martyrs waters the seed bed of the Faith. It’s good to be a fool for Christ’s sake, a jackass in the eyes of the world, the off-scouring of the earth, as Saint Paul says. After all, did not Jesus become a Jackass for us, taking on such abuse so as to redeem all us, who truly are such jackasses? Yes, He did.

For all these reasons, Alexámenos is a hero of Holy Souls Hermitage, and why a detail of this graffito makes up the header for http://holysoulshermitage.com I have a special appreciation for all those held to be fools for Christ’s sake, for those who are kicked in the face for Christ, for those who are condemned by friend and foe alike for Christ’s sake, for those who are marginalized for Christ’s sake.

He is especially a hero because I know I would not be a worthy jackass for the sake of Christ, but I know I can count on his most worthy intercession for me, for all of us. Thanks for witnessing to the Lord, Alexámenos! Way to be a jackass for the Lord of all!

N.B. I mention that he might have been a Jewish convert. I say that because Jews were nicknamed as jackasses by all the gentiles since time immemorial. I’ve written much on jackasses and on Alexámenos, who is a hero in a perhaps too tightly scripted ecclesiastical thriller novel I wrote a while back of some 750 pages.

B.T.W., are not jackasses intimate members of the Holy Family? From Nazareth to Bethlehem, at the crib, from Bethlehem to Egypt, from Egypt all the way to Nazareth, at the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem… Jackasses are intelligent, they can sing, and… and… not being in the least stubborn (as mules are), jackasses only do what they understand (very smart, that).

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I’ve previously put up some snippets from that novel — Jackass for the Hour — on this blog. Here’s another, for your edification, I hope! Just some braying here. These scenes take place towards the end of the novel. There are some Islamicists who are storming into Vatican Gardens from inside Saint Peter’s Basilica soon after the Easter Vigil. Meanwhile, the Holy Father, in a certain monastery in Vatican Gardens, is finishing and signing a document that he is writing in haste immediately after the Easter Vigil, knowing that he has only minutes to live… ///

It was just now becoming apparent that a large number of the crowd inside the Basilica – upwards, it seemed, of a thousand people – were pressing toward the exit that wound its way underneath Bernini’s sculpture of Pope Alexander VII. The Swiss Guards became suspicious, but wasted the few seconds they had in trying to be polite with the diplomats whom they were moving away from the multiple sets of doors of the passageway, attempting to seal the exit to Vatican Gardens. But then the Muslims acted as one man with one voice, stampeding under the image of the skeleton holding the hourglass of the passage of time and down into the short tunnel, fatally trampling a thousand times over diplomats and guards alike. Their death chant was thunderous:

takbir“The blasphemy will not be forgotten! Burn the jackass! The hour has come!” A Papal Knight, watching in horror, said, “Tempus fugit; memento mori… Time flies; remember death!” allahu akbarHe also noted how one of the Muslims betrayed his provenance by screaming, “La France a l’Algérie! La France a l’Algérie!” He shouted, “Takbīr!”; the others replied: “Allāhu akbar!”

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“Si quis traditiones prædictas sciens et prudens contempserit: anathema sit,” said the Holy Father, writing the last words of the Apostolic Constitution. “The Easter Candle,” he continued, “would be appropriate for the needed flame. Alexámenos!”

Father Alexámenos went to get the Easter Candle which the Sisters lit when they returned from the Easter Vigil. While he was away, the Pontiff signed the bulla, writing, “Ego Tsur-Ēzer, Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopus, ita definiendo subscripsi.” He then punched some holes in the velum with the pen and laced the scarlet cord through it.

Father Alexámenos returned as he finished. The Pope took it from him and gave him the pen. “You too Emet… Fidèle…”, he said.

When they read it, amazed at its content, they all signed it. Padre Emet commented on the wisdom of adding that the bulla did not have to be published in the Acta Apostolicæ Sedis in order to be authentic, and that it was promulgated by the very act of its being signed and sealed with the Ring of the Fisherman. It was an ex-cathedra statement.

The Pope held the sealing lead over the flame of the Easter Candle, letting it pool over the cord. He then impressed the image of the Ring of the Fisherman into the congealed lead.

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The stampede had moved from the Basilica, around and over the cars waiting for the diplomats just outside in Piazza Santa Marta [...]

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In putting this bit up, these paragraphs, I am recalling what I mentioned immediately after the publication of the address of Pope Francis to the Diplomatic Corps, saying that it is strikingly, incisively, starkly similar to the most important points of the address of Pope Benedict XVI to the crowd at Regensburg: Pope Francis // Pope Benedict. If you want some essentially important continuity, here it is.

Pope Francis, the Pope of interreligious dialogue, is treated as an imbecile by even supposedly devout Catholic pundits. He is, instead, one of the most brilliant and believing gentlemen ever to grace the See of Rome.

Pope Francis continues to draw deep lines in the sand blasted with insults off himself, the Rock, daring all peoples to cross those lines and be converted to the goodness and kindness of Jesus. I just love it.

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2013/03/18 · 19:42

A Call for the Twenty Second Ecumenical Council // The Third Vatican Council // Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew

ecumenical patriarch bartholomew googled image

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be the first Orthodox Patriarch in just under a thousand years to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass inaugurating the Pontificate of the Bishop of Rome. This is a gesture which recognizes the ecumenical interests of His Holiness, the Supreme Pontiff, gloriously reigning, Pope Francis. This is a great sign of hope. The Patriarch has suffered much criticism for this gesture. He is to be commended and thanked profusely.

pope francis

There has been a suggestion made, in fact, for the celebration of an Ecumenical Council in which the Orthodox are very heavily represented, an Orthodox-Catholic Ecumenical Council, as it were.

This suggestion comes from someone who is intimately aware of all the circumstances, past and present, under which relations between the Orthodox and Catholics labor, someone who was delegated by the Holy See to be available to facilitate the unity of East and West, to ready himself for this dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, someone who was suggested for this role by those leading and analyzing discussions on behalf of the Holy See. His concluding sentence to the proposal is this:

Father Christiaan KappesIf Pope Francis has, indeed, a mandate from Christ: “Rebuild my Church”, there can be no thought of excluding the traditional means of sewing the torn seamless garment of the Church of Christ, i.e., a Council between East and West to remove scandal among Christians and reaffirm the age-old faith according to formulas for which both Eastern and Western Fathers would gladly shed their blood.

I am preparing a post on this, the article written by this great scholar, my good friend, Father Christiaan Kappes for http://holysoulshermitage.com We share many mutual friends. His article, I must say, is spectacular. I’m just now adding some formatting and illustrations. Stay tuned…  HERE

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2013/03/02 · 19:55

Ad Orientem Snow and Lutheranorum Coetibus

ad orientem snow

A fresh cover of snow cloaking Holy Souls Mountain in glistening, sparkling, crystalline waters, gently cascading from on high, the forested evergreen canopy no barrier to the darting bright and most pure sparks of heaven’s fire of love. The scene on 2nd March 2013. Early morning.

There are a few Lutherans speaking about a possible Lutheranorum Coetibus, following upon Anglicanorum Coetibus. Few means precisely 151 hits for “lutheranorum coetibus” in google search — everything all told since Anglicanorum Coetibus – some of those hits being occasioned by Lutherans. If even just two or three of the Lutheran mentions are positive, we might have hope for some true dialogue as sparked by the Emeritus Pope of Christian Unity, Benedict XVI, and this always with an eye to Jesus, who is Truth, not compromised truth, but Him who is Truth.

Unfortunately, the discussion is often immediately and unnecessarily glued to the 1999 JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church.

I was in Rome at the time this “paper” was being developed and then signed, not by the Catholic Church, as the rather brave title would suggest, but by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, which does not — it has to be said — represent the specifically Papal Magisterium, however much it is a Pontifical Council. I followed the progress of the discussions and was able to make some unofficial and yet effective interventions. And yet…

The overall result was very disappointing to me. I was not alone in this either on the Catholic or Lutheran side. The document seems to be nothing more than a rationalization for Luther’s preface for Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, though all the hype on this has it that we’ve all moved beyond the early days of the “Reformation”. Though there are many who went along with this “paper”, quite a few did not, and quite a few did so only under protest, even saying quite flatly that they disagreed with fundamental parts of the declaration, calling them misrepresentations and errors of fact and theology.

We can do better, and that was later admitted quite openly. So, lets not be fundamentalists regarding this document. Let’s see if we can move beyond it by digging the foundations in understanding all the more deeply. I hate building on things that so obviously have to be knocked down in order to produce something more substantial. Most people despise being thrown out of complacent mode and told that their work of a life-time needs revision, even though they’ve boldly proclaimed that revision is what it is all about. But, again, this needs more than revision. We need to ask some tough questions. And we don’t need to go into protectionist fear mode.

martin lutherLuther, in his re-write of Romans 3,28, is consistent with what he writes in the preface for that Letter of Saint Paul. He is so taken by protesting that his unwitting misunderstanding of all that is Catholic and of the true faith, that instead of explicating what is in Saint Paul, he falls into the very error which he is condemning. He would have the works of faith be a consequence of the faith, though ever so very much united to the faith as “burning and shining from fire.” That sounds effervescent and all very nice, ever so attractive, though it is the root of all “Reformation” heresies, ironically placing an emphasis on works of the law instead of on justification, ultimately putting pressure on souls to prove they’ve been saved, an engine driving Protestant depression or rationalization for sin, the old predestination no-matter-what knee-jerk reaction to error, answering error with more error.

Here’s the truth of the matter, by which the heresy is obviated: Justification in faith provides a lived charity by which, with one and the self-same supernatural action, one loves God and neighbor simultaneously, loving Jesus, the Head of the Mystical Body as well as the members of that Mystical Body, not one before, the other after, but at the same time, with the same act of love, for the Body of Christ, Head and members, is not to be divided into a before and after, first a decapitated head and only afterward the flailing members. That would be rather grotesque, no? Did not Jesus say that what you have done to the least of these you have done to me? Did not Jesus ask Saul (not yet Paul): “Why are you persecuting me?”

The Joint Declaration has this: “By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” That doesn’t cut it. That’s as sharply Martin Luther of the early days of the “Reformation” as it possibly could be. This very sentence was singled out, mind you, years later, by both the new head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the Luther Federation. This very sentence is the greatest work of their lives.

In fact, one head of that Council said that when he goes to heaven and our Lord asks him what he’s done in life, he will proudly say that he signed this declaration to say this. Our Lord might sigh. You remember the old story of Saint Jerome wanting to give Jesus his newly refurbished Vulgate Bible, and Jesus responded that He didn’t want that as a gift, but rather that Jerome confess his sins.

That’s what we can do, by the grace of Jesus, truth be told, and that’s a perfect gift to Jesus. It’s the only way He can forgive us and drag us into heaven, so roughly, mind you, that we will loose hold of all that we thought were… you know… good works. The supernaturally given charity of the supernaturally given faith justifies. Jesus is just that good and just that kind.

dung heap covered by snow martin luther

Dung heap covered by snow on Holy Souls Mountain 2 March 2013

Another difficult question I should like to ask my Lutheran friends (and my paternal grandmother was Lutheran, by the way), is how it is that Luther could possibly say that our souls are like a steaming dung heap, even in heaven, so that we are never truly redeemed, truly sanctified, but are simply declared sanctified — in all Islamicist Ottoman Empire fashion of Reformation times — all very external, juridical, as cold as the snow-like cloak that Luther says covers that dung heap of our souls in heaven, dung covered by Jesus’ declaration, so that our Heavenly Father only sees glistening, bright snow, so very nice, but all a lie.

saint augustine donkey jackass

A great reader had an Orthodox fellow paint this for me, Augustine on a jackass, holding his restless heart until it rests in God. Saint Augustine used to say: “Asinus es, sed Christum portas” (You are a jackass, but you carry Christ).

Luther couldn’t wrap his mind around the effects of original sin, weakness of mind and will, emotions all over the place, sickness, death. It was all too much for him. He thought that temptation was itself a sin. How depressing. What a way to throw oneself into despair. The only way for Him to continue, he thought, was to insult the effectiveness of our Lord’s redemption.

Of course, everyone but everyone goes through such a phase, hopefully passing through this, you know, getting all worried that because of temptation of any kind, be it sexual, be it with impatience, whatever… getting all worried that because of that temptation, one is not making any progress in the spiritual life, but is instead falling away, far away from Christ Jesus.

But Jesus didn’t save us by making us stronger in this life. In justice we have to suffer through the freely chosen effects of the freely chosen original sin. But these nasty things will fall away in heaven. Our strength in this world must be Jesus Himself, our union with Him, which He provides. His strength is perfected, is manifested in our weakness. His grace is sufficient for us.

It is in receiving this grace with humility, in seeing how much He has done for us, that we instantly see how much He has loved all of us, how He is drawing us to Himself. We are then in humble thanksgiving, loving Him and our neighbor so loved by Him, all with the same act of love, no before or after, but simultaneously, for there is only one Body of Christ to love, Head and members.

How sad that the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, is lost to the Lutherans, who rejected Holy Orders, who rejected the Sacrifice of the Mass. We must be in anguish until our brothers come back to the fold. Even if they do not call us brothers, we call them brothers. So said Saint Augustine about the heretics of his day, and so must we all say today. Don’t forget, Luther was a one-time Catholic priest, who married a nun, but who had been an Augustinian.

We pray for our priests today, that they do not repeat Luther’s mistakes. We pray for the Lutherans to demand Lutheranorum Coetibus.

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papsteselLuther liked to throw insults round about, using animals, as the German speaking crowd are wont to do. He called the Pope a Papstesel, Pope-Jackass. “Papstesel mit langen Eselsohren und verdammtem Lügenmaul. (Pope-Jackass with long donkey ears and damned lies.

Yes, well, just remember, Benedict XVI called himself that Jackass, in such humility. Perhaps our Lutheran friends will stop laughing when they realize that donkeys are always right in there with the Holy Family. Always. A good place to be. And if Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is proud to be a Pope-Jackass now Emeritus, now a hermit, this simple priest, now a hermit, is also happy to be a papist Jackass. Perhaps we are all wont to be Jackasses, who, as Augustine says, carry Christ. Perhaps we are all happy to have that blanket of snow cover us, but also purify us inside out, so that we are no longer dung heaps, but rather truly the beloved of Jesus and our Heavenly Father, on fire with the love of the Holy Spirit. I think so. Call it ad orientem snow.

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2012/10/09 · 06:42

Father Christiaan Kappes got married! Guess the name of the Bride!

Father Christian Kappes got married. What’s the name of the Spouse, you ask? That would be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You can read about such things regarding Catholic priests in the rather ferocious priestly celibacy series on the sidebar of the blog, which includes these posts so far:

  • The Biblical Foundation of Priestly Celibacy by Father Ignace de la Potterie, S.J. This is one of the more visited posts of the blog. Father Ignace was a good friend. A confidant. I used this in a course on priestly celibacy that I gave at the Pontifical College Josephinum. I was very pleased that so many of the seminarians were extremely well read, and were, indeed, on the cutting edge of research involving Scripture, Canon Law, Patristics, Church History, Ecumenical Relations, particularly with the Orthodox, the prudence in regard to Anglicanorum Coetibus, the for the moment the ignoring of matters regarding the permanent diaconate, etc. Some were planning on doing doctoral theses on the subject. All were 1000% in favor of strict priestly (and diaconal!) celibacy. My heart rejoiced each class. People, you have to know that we have very, very excellent priests coming up. Some of those I’m talking about were just ordained in the last couple of weeks. (Spring of 2012). Also know — Yikes! — that is is because of this very article (among some others), that Father de la Potterie was so very bitterly hated by some few, who could not provide an answer to what he said, so well did he say it.
  • Continence — C.W. fanatics will not like the reference to JPII in this very short post. Oh well. The definition of continence might surprise quite a few readers. The definition of terms is important! and enthralling! I wrote these notes up for a course given to the seminarians of the Good Shephard Seminary of the Archdiocese of Sydney. The Rector at the time wanted me to innoculate the seminarians from the heresy that they would be getting in their classes at a certain Catholic institute where they were attending lectures at the time. Yikes!
  • Chastity — Another brief, important article with an in your face, perhaps rather unexpected definition. Knowing the definitions introduces us also to the spiritual life, as to why chastity is a gift of grace, bringing us into friendship with the Lord.
  • Celibacy — Another in your face, perhaps unexpected definition that we need to know. This and other terms are bandied about with few knowing what they are saying. Bonus: a video of the great Irish singer, John McCormack, in reference to the priest who addressed Pope JPII during, I think it was, his first trip to the U.S.A. Hah!
  • Virginity — Another in your face, perhaps unespected definition that we need to know. I’ve added a rant on the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother of God, and also commented on topics such as consecrated virgins, rape, “spiritual virginity”, etc.
  • Eunuch – Part I — This is, in my opinion super important commentary. I always get the remark from seminarians and priests that they’ve never seen anything like this before. Indeed, I haven’t seen this anywhere else. This is all about the depth of Christ’s love for His Immaculate Bride, the Church. That charity, in which we participate, is awesome indeed. You are dead wrong if you think you already know what a eunuch is. Dead. Wrong. Behold, something truly awesome about the love of God for us.
  • Eunuch – Part II –  A necessary follow-up and continuation of Part I, with lots of scriptural references in both Old and New Testaments. You’ll never think of these passages in the same way. This is so important for priests to understand what they are doing as priests, especially when they offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and absolve sin and such. Priests are married to the Church by the Sacrifice they offer! Priests must know this or they will find themselves in touble. In knowing just how they are married to the Church, they will rejoice. It is just this which will bring much healing to the priesthood.
  • LUST & angels — This is a refreshing anecdote from the life of Saint Jerome when he went further off into the desert to be a hermit. Instructive and bringing us right before Jesus. Totally cool.
  • Repression idiocy — This is a rather severe critique of the hell of repression and doubled over concealed and especially for that reason very dangerous repression that was foisted upon seminarians for decades and is, I fear, still foisted upon them in some places. The kind of repression idiocy which I critique has been hailed as “Catholic” and “orthodox” by “conservative” Catholic seminaries and universities and colleges. It’s anything but that. If you want to risk going straight to hell, do up some of this kind of oppression. If you want to be on your way to heaven, be at ease with weakness, in all chasity, in all honesty, before Jesus, and He will show you the way to rejoicing in holy purity. It’s not about mind games. It’s about knowing the wholeness and holiness of our Lord and Savior.
  • Wounded Healer idiocy — The Wounded Healer idiocy is perhaps one of the most evil dynamics there is. Ever hear of it? Know who wrote popularized it? This is the method of “nice” and “caring” psychology, but is really just a horrific projection of the “Wounded Healer.” This is a necessary read just because you will surely run across this kind of thing. Blech!
  • Impure, lustful thoughts — This is very much a favorite post on HSH blog. I have very often also directed people to it. It seems it is very useful indeed.
  • My experience with porn — This post generated by far the most heartfelt emails and comments on the blog. Porn is a huge problem in the USA and increasing around the world. This post speaks to that catastrophy. Yikes!
  • AD CINGULUM! — This is from the series on the Vesting Prayers for priests for Holy Mass. However, I think all will be able to rejoice in what they read here, and will know more about the priesthood of Jesus among us, and what priestly celibacy is all about. Awesome!

But a tiny handful of commenters on some other sites have other things to say about Father Christiaan…

But Father! But Father! That’s not news! Tell us something salacious, lecherous even, ’cause that’s where I’m at and I like to project my idiocy onto other people to kick them, especially when they are, like, defenseless and in fear for their lives and not paying attention to me and stuff, ’cause, like, I’m a coward and just like to make myself look better than others in my own eyes in front of other people when it’s safe to do and stuff like that there. Lasciviousness is what we want. Sex, sex, sex!

Some, of course, sincerely dismiss clerical celibacy as some pious piffle and rejoice in the idea of Father Kappes dismissing clerical celibacy as well (not that he has!), and they make their idea known, thinking out loud, you know, to save his life if he really was in any danger as he tries to go on a secret honeymoon. Such lateral thinking, they reckon, could offer some clues. But they just cannot see the idiocy of thinking that a secret honeymoon is best prepared by drawing the attention of the world. Such people are invited to rejoice that their projections of themselves onto others are not the way things are, and that they can repent of such foolishness. I’m sure Father Kappes not only would not hold anything against them, but would instantly offer them absolution in confession. Isn’t it great that we have great priests? I think it is.

But Father! But Father! [-- the knuckleheads exclaim --] I don’t get the priestly marriage with no wife thing. What does religion have to do with marriage? You write too much about it in those posts and I don’t have time.

But you have time to slander others, right? Sigh. Just read the posts I’ve linked to above. I double dare you. I guess that means you have to do it. The response is predictable:

But Father! But Father! You’re not ecumenical with our Orthodox separated brethren! They get married all the time.

Sigh. Just read the articles.

Furthermore, I’m not so sure that “separated brethren” is any way to speak of the Orthodox. Are we to forget the mutual lifting of any excommunications? When there is no ex- in the communion, there is just communion, right? Sure, there are some discussions that need to take place, but, hey, that’s what Father Christiaan Kappes is getting involved in, right? I rejoice in that very, very much.

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2012/10/07 · 11:56

The more I find out about Father Christiaan Kappes, the more I think that he is…

The more I find out about Father Christiaan Kappes, the more I think that he’s a great priest.

  • He’s willing to go to the heart of relations between the Greek Orthodox and the Holy See, knowing how to do this, using Saint Thomas Aquinas, who made a superb study about this very topic, introducing the Orthodox to their own tradition, which is, surprise, surprise, that of Catholic Rome. While 99.99% of all other ecumenists sweep difficulties under the carpet, creating greater problems in future times, Father Christiaan goes where others don’t dare to tread. They want niceness. Father wants charity in all truth. I love that. Good on him.
  • He’s willing to go to Greece to do this. I backed away from this some years ago, thinking that the Lord had a different trajectory for my life. I had been invited, insistently, to go to a particular House of Studies near Athens to do some post-doctoral studies on the Church Fathers, something which always has incisive ecumenical impact, something which can change the face of nations. Being deep in history is to be Catholic, after all. I almost jumped on the plane, and had even started to get hold of the various modern Greek pronunciations (having had years of Koine), but instead became a chaplain in Lourdes before teaching at the Pontifical College Josephinum. Father Christiaan, however, threw himself into this particular project. Good on him.
  • He was willing to get to know his own tradition first, learning the extraordinary form of the liturgy, the other half, if you will, of the Roman Rite. This demonstrates once again his sensititivity to the flow of history, of reverence before the Lord of History. The Orthodox love that. Good on him.
  • I could go on, but you get the idea.

And what about his present situation? Good on him! We pray for his safety. I think we’ll be hearing about a bit of heroism on his part in times to come. The Emergency chaplet to the Immaculate Conception would not be out of place in this case.

Of course, as always, the foxhole saying of “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!” is appropriate here as well. I intend to make some further verification phone calls in these next days. Some things have come my way that make for a scenario which answers questions about what happened at the airport and embassy.

A field agent for this case strongly encouraged the continued use of social media to put pressure on concerned parties. I’m going to be a bit more liberal, if you will, in letting comments through the moderation queue. Say whatever you please.

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2012/09/18 · 04:00

More from Father Byers’ Jackass Trilogy: some snippets on the deadly politics of interreligious dialogue (Nostra aetate and Islam)

I’m happy that the Holy Father has returned to Rome safely. This trip was incredibly dangerous. I’m very surprised that he wasn’t martyred.

A “spooky friend” was telling me of the internal intelligence reports about Iran (meaning Syria, meaning Lebanon), that those those reports about nefarious terrorist activities being planned had increased to unprecedented levels, that is, exponentially so, that is, alarmingly so, but that, very, very suprisingly, these reports were not being acted upon. This was then coupled with reports that His Holiness would not be guaranteed safety, nor would anyone else (that is, ambassadors, etc.).

And then… and then… when the USA was attacked by terrorists in the person of the American Ambassador, Obama, surprise, surprise, was quick to apologize for the USA being the USA, throwing all diplomats and all citizens under the bus, having it that if anyone, anywhere, at any time insults Islam, all Muslims are innocent of the violence they wreck on anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Obama blamed an obscure youtube filmette that no one, including 99.99999999999999999% of Muslims ever heard about, even now, and in this way gave Islam the right to kill Americans. Instead, no Muslim could care less about a stupid youtube filmette. What happened with the violence was all planned before. Choosing a symbolic stupidity is mere afterthought of convenience. Obama still thinks he can blame the film, but, you know, our people on the ground at the embassy say that there was absolutely no disturbance of any kind at the embassy before the killings took place. And how could there be? That would jack up the security measures to no end, right? Obama is not saying it as it was. We now have a president who is out of control, praising Islam for violence against the USA. How Congress tolerates him is beyond me. He’s not only un-American, but anti-America.

More than this — and it gets worse — intelligence reports had it that all Catholic Churches in the USA are under severe threat from terrorist attacks. Get that? That, I think, it gratuitous, and gives knuckleheads ideas, permission, if you will, from the president. Perhaps I’m exaggerating, but I think that there is a connection with this Catholic Churches in the USA thing and the Pope going to Lebanon. Hey! Let’s blame the Catholics for al-Qaeda attacks! Obama already has another war going on with the Catholic Church in the USA over religious freedom. The HHS Secretary went so far as to say that the Catholic Church in the USA wants to shut down the American government in that it doesn’t want to support Planned Parenthood (thus equating Planned Parenthood and the government). Honestly, this has all gone too far.

* * *

I am reminded of a passage in the Jackass Trilogy, a little piece on Nostra aetate, that little document in Vatican II about interreligious dialogue, which is so very misunderstood because of poor translations. Pope Benedict has been complaining about those translations for decades. I take on the most important sentence herein.

We are about three quarters of the way through this novel, this ecclesiastical thriller. We are now in the midst of the trial of our hero, young Father Alexamenos, who is being interrogated concerning the uproar he unintentionally made when speaking privately of the violence of sura 37:100-113, of the Qur’an. The trial is taking place in the Paul VI Audience Hall next to the Holy Office in Vatican City. The trial could not but be televised live.

Archbishop Ahan changed his questions, asking, “Have you never read where it is written, ‘Ecclesia cum aestimatione quoque muslimos respicit qui unicum Deum adorant, viventem et subsistentem, misericordem et omnipotentem, creatorem caeli et terrae, homines allocutum’?”

Father Alexámenos replied, “If it is said in the simple declaration, Nostra ætate, of the Second Vatican Council, that ‘the Church also looks with respect to Muslims who adore the One God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who has spoken to man,’ this is not to say that Qur’anic Islam represents what each Muslim actually holds. The declaration speaks not of the doctrine of Islam, but of the assent of individual Muslims to what those particular individuals hold, if they hold that God is One, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who has spoken to man.’ The Council Fathers were making a distinction between the true God and a make pretend god, Allah.”

“What! How can you see that in that sentence?” demanded the Archbishop, worried that he had read the declaration in Latin. “Translations are good enough! Who do you think you are?”

“Although these same Muslims mistakenly, though sincerely, call the true God ‘Allah’,” continued Father Alexámenos, “these particular Muslims esteemed by the Council Fathers do not accept all of what is written in the Qur’an. The Council Fathers speak of ‘merciful’ as an attribute of the true God, but this being ‘merciful’ contradicts much of what is written in the Qur’an, especially in regard to child-sacrifice. Besides, it is not the Qur’an to which the declaration refers when it says that Muslims believe that God has spoken to man, for the Qur’an itself constantly refers to the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures, holding Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, to be…”

“But you must be mentally incompetent! That is not what the sentence in Nostra ætate says,” asserted the Archbishop. “You are reading your own, narrowminded meanness into that sentence.”

“Ah yes, that sentence… I always suspected that that was the problem. That sentence we are talking about actually continues with no full-stop, no semi-colon, no colon, no dashes or ellipses. False translations cited by the 38 attackers of the Pope add those things. I’ve been commenting on the whole sentence, not just the first half you recited. Did you not know, your Grace, that half-truths are more dangerous than blatant lies, more misleading, more hurtful of dialogue and unity, suppressing both Truth and Charity? Do you really love our Muslim brothers, your Grace?”

“Damn you!” exclaimed the Archbishop. “Can’t you understand that differences in belief are not to be done away with so that we have unity in one big super-religion. We make valid contributions by working for the good of a super-society. We respect not only religious minded people, but also their religions. We don’t want one religion! This is how we avoid relativism and syncretism. It is we who have a clear voice. This is the patrimony of our Cardinal, may he rest in peace. But you! You destroy all that we’ve worked for, what we’ve spent our lives promoting!”

“And what is that, your Grace, yourself instead of Christ Jesus?”

“Damn you!” he repeated, sputtering.

“I’m sure that’s the reason why you would Continue reading →

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2012/08/01 · 23:33

Hackers using stumbleupon to break into — wait for it — Holy Soul’s Hermitage’s ~Aeternus ille caelestium~

A while back, So And So emailed me asking access to the locked post on AEternus ille caelestium. I declined, saying that the post was not yet ready to publish, and needed quite a bit of commentary. Well, someone was impatient today and tried to break in to that locked post about a zillion times by way of the servers at stumbleupon. Whatever. Even if it’s been hacked and copied, it won’t be understood, guaranteed. It needs commentary! But, just to whet your appetite, here’s a random sentence from that non-document, translated and with an initial interlinear fisking, but without the necessary commentary. Remember, there are only two copies in the world. All the rest were burned by Saint Robert Bellarmine and the rest of the Cardinals of Holy Mother Church. It is by far the most important non-document of the Catholic Counter-Reformation.

14 AETERNUS ILLE CAELESTIUM

Verum quia nihil profuisset huius editionis auctoritatem grauissimo sanxisse decreto, si illius quæ germana esset lectio nesciretur, sacerq. textus ita disputantium pateret arbitrio, vt is, qui aduersus perfidum hostem, tamquam validissimus mucro distri- ctus fuerat, idem & clypeus fieri posset, quo debilitati iam, cæsiq. hostis latera tegerentur.

Even so, since nothing had been done to ratify the authority of this edition by a most weighty decree, so if there were anyone who was ignorant of the genuine reading, then the Sacred Text would be open to the judgement of those disputing, so that he, fighting against a faithless enemy, would have lost the strongest edge which would become a shield, for him who is already weakened, to cover his flanks from the blows of the enemy.

In other words:

Even so, since nothing had been done [since 8 April 1546] to ratify the authority of this edition [of the true, textual critical Vulgate as desired by Trent in the first dogmatic decree of the fourth session (Sacrosancta), with Sixtus V thinking that he has that edition in hand, an opinion that would cost him his life] by a most weighty decree [which AEternus ille caelestium sets out to be with multiple threats of excommunications for those who do not accept its contents], so if there were anyone who was ignorant of the genuine reading [of that edition put together according to that decree of Trent (Sacrosancta)], then the Sacred Text [even in the original languages] would be open to the judgement of those disputing [a Catholic with one of the new Protestants], so that he [the Catholic], fighting against a faithless enemy [the new Protestant], would have lost the strongest edge (of the sword) [as would be provided by just such a textually critically sound text, approved by the Supreme Magisterium], which would [have] become a shield for him who is already weakened [because of the unmitigated violence of the "Reformation"], to cover his flanks from the blows of the enemy.

Sixtus V, a hero of mine, for whom I’ve prayed (he’s not even a “Servant of God” as far as I know) and from whom I’ve asked intercession (since, whether in heaven or still in purgatory, he can still pray for all of us), understood the difficulty if not the best solution. I would often find myself before his tomb in the Sistine Chapel of Saint Mary Major’s through my years in Rome. Both Sixtus V and Robert Bellarmine are very significant, influential figures for this hermit of yours.

The commentary just on the significance of this sentence would go about 250 pages. In fact, it has. That was when I had a learned Cardinal as a second reader for yet another thesis… and that was all just chapter one, but I digress. Hacker knuckleheads, if successful, will only find an unfinished product (minus all commentary) which they will not be able to finish or interpret. Any efforts of theirs will only help my cause to publicize — later, please God — a popular and correct interpretation of what is actually going on with this document.

Warning to hackers: Really, what I say is true. The only people who have understood this document to date are Sixtus V, Bellarmine (later), the Pope in the last part of Bellarmine’s life, also Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X and a not so well known Italian priest. That’s it. Oh… me too. Oh, and the Cardinal who was second reader… But that’s another story altogether.

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2012/05/07 · 09:14

You think Paul VI was prophetic in Humanae vitae on 25 July 1968? Try Paul Harvey 3 April 1965. Yikes!

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2012/04/16 · 09:41

To hell with that damn Catholic Mass: “No, you don’t have permission to offer Mass aboard the Titanic!”

In a post on this blog on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the famous poem about this was reprinted, along with the stories of four martyr priests aboard the Titanic.

Today, I’d like to draw your attention to another priest, who, unlike his four brother priests, actually asked permission to offer Holy Mass aboard the ship. He was denied. Silly boy. You don’t ask permission for such things from anti-Catholic bigots. You just do it!

However, this is what he did. So, he didn’t go along for the trip. He cancelled and stayed behind. My dear readers of this lowly blog, I know you know that our dear Lord works with irony. Did you know that it was this very priest who was the one to offer Holy Mass for those who met their death on this voyage. Wow.

I see this kind of thing happen… All. The. Time.

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2012/04/07 · 14:01

The Good Friday prayer for the Jews: This hermit repents…

Before beginning this post in earnest, I’d just like to mention something about the above picture. It depicts Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, which overlooks the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That’s where I also went to school in my umpteen years of post-graduate studies. It’s situated in the West Bank. I used to walk through the West Bank to get there and back, being on a first name basis with the Palestinians. But now there’s a wall. I find it all so very sad. This makes my proposed book on the would-be sacrifice of Abraham’s son all the more pressing for me. Anyway…

As time goes on, I discover, to my joy, what an idiot I’ve been, that is, because such a recognition only comes about because of seeing a bit more clearly Him who is Truth and Charity. There is, after all, quite a contrast!

(1) One of the ways I’ve been an idiot has been to wonder about the appropriateness of the apologies expressed by Blessed Pope John Paul II. You can read about my rather fortuitous conversion to the deeper realities of the Church and the economy of salvation regarding those apologies in what I wrote in a post I could easily re-title as YIKES! In my humble opinion, that post is well worth the read, again, not because I’m so briliant, but because, before the Lord, I found our how stupid I was. If you read that post, you’ll quickly find out that what I say is not liberal drivel, but instead is a rather intense traditional Catholic evangelization.

(2) Another way in which I’ve discovered just how much of an idiot I’ve been regards the Good Friday prayer for the Jews.

  • I’ve been a ferocious defender of the old prayer for the Jews in the Missale Romanum pre-dating Blessed John XXIII’s intervention. The reason for this is my rather freakish desire to know what words meant back when they were first used, so that perfideous referred, way back in the day, many centuries ago, merely to a lack of faith in Jesus.
  • I’ve also been a ferocious defender of the Blessed John XXIII’s intervention, what was presented in the 1962 Missale Romanum. O.K.!
  • I’ve also been, quite consistently I might add, a ferocious defender of Pope Benedict XVI’s revised prayer for the Jews for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

Here’s Father Z’s comparison of the last two versions back in 2008 (read the rest there):

MR62 Latin MR62 English Revised ‘62 Latin Revised ‘62 English
Oremus et pro Iudaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum. …   Let us also pray for the Jews: that our Lord and God take away the veil from their hearts; that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ to be our Lord.  Oremus et pro Iudaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum. Let us also pray for the Jews: that our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.
Omnipotens sempiternae Deus, qui Iudaeos etiam a tua misericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eundem Dominum. Almighty eternal God, who also does not repell the Jews from Your mercy: graciously hear the prayers which we are conveying on behalf of the blindness of that people; so that once the light of Your Truth has been recognized, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their darkness. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Your Church, all Israel may be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

I could go on forever about how incisive the new prayer is for the Extraodinary Form of the Mass, perhaps much more so than the old (against unthinking reactionaries), but I’ll let that go until another day. You can read, if you like, a conference on a study by Benjamin Leven, which he presented to Boston College back in 2010. Benjamin’s an old friend. We spoke much of this topic: Pro iudaeis - On liturgical change. He also spoke of the Novus Ordo, but I would like to add some of my own comments on the validity[!] of the Novus Ordo prayer in this post.

I’ve always been less than enthusiastic about this version of the prayer. It’s not that I’ve changed my mind about anything I’ve ever always thought. It’s just that I’ve more recently applied what I already knew about Catholic-Jewish relations to this prayer in a rather in-your-face manner. That’s a good thing, and, if you read the rest of this post, you’ll find out that what I have to say is not ambiguous liberal drivel, but instead is a rather intense traditional Catholic evangelization…

Here’s the Novus Ordo version:

Oremus et pro Iudaeis, ut ad quos prius locutus est Dominus Deus noster, eis tribuat in sui nominis amore et in sui foederis fidelitate proficere.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui promissiones tuas Abrahae eiusque semini contulisti, Ecclesiae tuae preces clementer exaudi, ut populus acquisitionis prioris ad redemptionis mereatur plenitudinem pervenire.

Here’s the new ICEL translation:

[1] Let us pray also for the Jewish people, [2] to whom the Lord our God spoke first, [3] that He may grant them [4] to advance in love of His Name, and [5] in faithfulness to His Covenant.

[6] Almighty ever-living God, who bestowed your promises on Abraham and his descendants, [7] graciously hear the prayers of your Church, [8] that the people you first made your own [9] may attain the fullness of redemption. [10] Through Christ our Lord.

[1] Just to say, praying for the Jewish people is not an act of hatred, like we don’t want them to exist anymore just because we want to share with them the greatest love in our lives! This isn’t a threat. It’s a manifestation of our love, and even an invitation. It’s a good willed intercession with our Lord.

[2] “Spoke first”, though not differently, in the sense that the Jews proclaimed the coming of the Messiah whom we accept as the Jewish Messiah. First Jews, then Gentiles. Fine. But, it’s always about Jesus.

[3] “Grant them…”tribuat… This doesn’t mean that the Lord isn’t doing anything. He is the One, after all, who is supplying the grace with the granting. This is what lifts the veil to that the faith, already having been provided, might be seen. This “grant them” bit simply recognizes that we also have free will.

[4] “To advance in love of His Name.” This name is Yahweh, He who is, He who causes to be. That is always an apt Name of the Most High. I’ve written a great deal on this elsewhere, but that comment suffices here. There is no bid here for the Jews to remain non-Christian. But, just to say, if “Name” has its reference in “Jesus”, which name means Savior, who is identified with the Messiah, then the prayer is more explicitly for conversion to the Savior we have already accepted has come among us. That Savior and Yahweh are identified. Indeed, in the New Testament citations of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, references to Yahweh are consistently translated with Kurios, that is, Lord, the usual title of Jesus, as in: the Lord Jesus (Yahweh Jesus).

[5] Most of the controversy about this prayer is over the covenant mentioned here. The advance is wrought by the action of the Lord’s grant of grace, which, in turn, is provided according to the prayer being offered. (Sorry, B.L.!) The idea of advancing in faithfulness to a covenant does not speak of multiple covenants, but of a new covenant which fulfills the old. We are not saying that there is a covenant for the Jews, just as valid today as it ever was, and a covenant for Catholics, that New and Eternal Covenant in the Blood of the Lamb, which however, excludes all Jews, and accuses them of not being faithful even to the first covenant they had. No, not that. Instead, the old covenant is fulfilled in the new. The essential nature of the old was to be fulfilled in the new. When the new arrived, the old ceased to exist outside of its being fulfilled in the new. Any advance in faithfulness would mean converting to the fulfillment of the old in the new. If there are two covenants, both active, both efficacious, then there are no covenants at all, for the two cancel each other out. That is just how much the old is essentially fulfilled in the new.   

[6] “Almighty ever-living God, who bestowed your promises on Abraham and his descendants…” We are all descendants of our Father in Faith. He looked forward to the Messiah, to Jesus. In this sense, Catholics are fulfilled Jews.

[7] “Graciously hear the prayers of your Church…” Again, it isn’t evil to pray for others that they might know the greatest love of one’s own life.

[8] “That the people you first made your own…” Again, we are that people by way of faith. Also in the Jewish Scriptures, one could become Jewish by way of faith. Being Jewish is not tied absolutely to physical descendency, nor is the prayer trying to say that. It is speaking about those who looked forward to the Messiah before Jesus came.

[9] ”May attain the fullness of redemption…” Everyone is redeemed. Some of those who are redeemed are also saved. An important distinction. We pray that all Jews might know salvation, which is the “fullness of redemption.”

[10] ”Through Christ our Lord.” Just in case anyone was wondering what kind of prayer this was. This phrase proclaims that this is all the will of Christ, our Lord. Amen!

I don’t agree with the reasoning of the promoter of the changes, but the stands on its own apart from him. Having said that, here’s what he said:

Click to enlarge. Careful of the column changes from bottom all the way to the top!

I’m not getting more liberal! Just a bit calmer! That’s a good thing!

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2011/11/15 · 10:56

Vanderbuilt University: Catholics are too reasonable, too faithful

Vanderbilt Catholic at Vanderbilt UniversityH/T to Vincenzo at SanctePater

Bishop, USCCB oppose Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy

(Catholic World News) Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the United States Conference of  Catholic Bishops, has joined Bishop David Choby of Nashville and  Vanderbilt University chaplain Father John Sims Baker in opposing  Vanderbilt University’s proposal to apply its nondiscrimination policy  to student religious organizations. Under the policy, a Catholic student  organization would be guilty of discrimination if it required its  leaders to be Catholic.Catholic students held a Rosary novena ahead of a university board of  trustee meeting in an effort to prevent the implementation of the  policy. The trustee meeting concluded November 12, but as of the  following day the university had not announced the board’s decision in  the matter.

HSH COMMENT: Vanderbuilt University (of Methodist/Episcopal history) is just a bit nervous since the great Father Baker (awesome Catholic trivia player, as I found out) is getting more converts to the Catholic faith from the student population and more vocations for the priesthood and religious life than anyone else in the region. Go Father Baker! Go Father Baker! Go Father Baker! The University officials will just have to wake up and die right, becoming Catholics with enthusiasm!

Now, click on the picture above to see Father Baker’s ever so Catholic evangelization page!

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2011/11/14 · 13:13

Thanks, Holy Father! Thanks Rev. —! Some eternal fruits of Anglicanorum Coetibus

Thanks go to the Reverend —, for his contribution to Holy Souls Hermitage. He’s a minister in the (Anglican/Episcopal) Church of Ireland, in Northern Ireland, but on his way into the Catholic Church.

I know that this is a huge thing for he and his family on so many, many levels. I know something of the situation he would have lived through for many decades. Emotions for all involved must be rather raucous, to say the least. I hesitate to put up his initials!

But this is about our Lord Jesus, the Eternal High Priest, who draws us to Himself with such goodness, with such kindness. Apostolic succession, the sacraments, the history of it all, both recently, during the “Reformation”, and that history back in the day in which we notice, with the Fathers of the Church, that to be deep in history is to be Catholic. Yikes!

I don’t think, however, that our Rev. will be swimming any Tiber River soon. Instead, it seems to me, he will walking on water, as it should be. He is proving that he is doing this already, with his wonderful family.

What a great family they must be, looking to our Lord Jesus together with Pope Benedict, who by his office is established by our Lord to be the sign of unity.

Thank you, Father, for your courageous witness to our Lord in your circumstances. Thanks to your family. What witness they give with you to their friends and neighbors!

May the Lord continue to bless you according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception.

And, yes, of course, you have the promise of my prayers and blessings. With enthusiasm and thanksgiving.

Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, is, in fact, the Pope of Christian Unity.

What a great day brightener!

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