Ches tagged me

I normally hate these things, or I don't have time to do them, but Ches, Mr Bond, hasn't asked before and as it is reasonably simple: 7 things I like, or give pleasure. Here goes:

1. High Mass


2. Good food with good company


3. 17th/18th century Opera well performed (a connection with 1.? Probably!)


4. Walking the streets of a foreign city with a friend


5. Talking to people who have discovered God loves them


6. Watching a real craftsmen at work, even the waitress in the local Chinese Reastuarant boning a fish/ handling something beautifully made- anything a lute, a vestment, an axe


7. Seeing kindness and tenderness.

The next part is naming 7 people, to do this themselves, well you can either do it on your own blog or post 7 things in the combox. If you criticise anyone's you won't be published.

Shopping around

I was talking recently to what the media might describe as "a leading Catholic layman". He was concerned about one or two things that might be presented at the Ad Limina visit of our bishops to Rome, which he said was to take place in January. I must say I have heard nothing. Foremost, he suggested, was an attack on Summorum Pontificum which he said was going to be presented as

• It is not wanted, that there is no demand for the TLM.


• That Summorum Pontificum is divisive.

There is no demand for the TLM
I think that there might be a bit of mileage in SP not being wanted, but then one has to ask who doesn't want it. Plainly the Pope does, plainly most of those around the Pope do. Despite the huge numbers who attended the Mass celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon de Hoyos last year, one argue that the TLM is not the choice of most people on a Sunday.
I think that is missing point, the issue is that the TLM is a sign of the hermeneutic of continuation, not just of the Mass but of a style of worship that is specifically Catholic, it is about our roots. I am sure the Holy Father regards what he has chosen to call the Extraordinary Form as a sort of gadfly to "annoy" what have become preconceptions of liturgy and theology in short those things we call the "Sprit of Vatican II".

Summorum Pontificum is divisive
Yes it is. It is the gadfly effect. It is also about union and communion with the past, as well as those who adhere to -and have discovered- the older form, I am surprised by the number of young men who attend our weekly Mass.
Creative Minority deals with the division between older and younger priests, it quote s from an article by Andrew Hamilton who says:

...three out of the four priests ordained for the Sydney Archdiocese celebrated their first Mass in Latin. Given the place of the first Mass as a symbolic statement of how a priest views his ministry, this majority choice is of some significance. The concerted choice of Latin suggests that many young priests share a distinctive vision of the Church, of priesthood and of pastoral priorities that older priests would not share.

I don't see much evidence of new priests choosing to celebrate Mass in Latin but I do see that younger priests of the John Paul and now of the Bendictine pontificate are different, but then I think there was a tension when I was ordained 25 years ago between priest ordained before and after Vat II. There often are tensions between older and younger men, whether they are priests or not.
Hamilton goes on to say:

It seems inevitable that the unity of priests under the local bishop will be put under pressure if there are substantial divisions between them about the desirable form of worship, the pastoral needs of their people, their ways of relating to Catholics and the broader society, and about what it means in practice to be a priest. When they gathered around their bishop they would be facing in opposite directions, just as they might do when celebrating the Eucharist.

....

Will congregations be subjected to the conflicting styles and preferences of priests who succeed one another? Will there be a settlement by which individual congregations are reserved to Latinophile or Anglophile priests? Will Catholics be encouraged to shop around to find priests and congregations that offer congenial brands of Catholic life and worship?

In England and Wales, it strikes me, that our Bishops are justifiably frightened of a division, in imition of Anglicanism, of High and Low Church, but old men have always been crying "Eheu, O tempores, O mores", over 40, it has ever been.

In a city where there are twelve churches within a space of four or five square miles, "shopping around" has been a feature of Brighton Catholicism from time immemorial. People look for a funny, short, English, Irish, traditional, contemporary, youth/child oriented Masses or priests, even a warmer or cooler church.

In recent years, without the rigid rubricism, and legalism of the past Bishops of course have always done their best to ensure there is a "standard product", either by insisting on strict adherence to their own "diocesan" policies or invented rubrics, or simply by moving priests around every few years. Despite this people still "shop". In fact moving priests encourages both shopping and lapsation.

If my "leading Catholic layman" is right, then our bishops will certainly receive a sympathetic ear from those around the Pope because ensuring unity and cohesion is a Benedictine priority but the answer may not be quite what is expected. Summorum Pontificum identifies the role of the bishop clearly: the bishop is to ensure priest's celebrate Mass according to the proper rites. Benedict's policy is "say the black, do the red", whether it is antiquior or recentior. Giving priests the freedom to choose between the newer or older form is actually medicinal, two ends of a liturgical spectrum working on one another, it reflects Benedicts "both and" theology.

There is a danger for us older men in seeing things in "either or" terms, like the bishop who apparently refused to give over a large crumbling church to one of the new movements, saying, reportedly, to his clergy, that he "did not want is a cathedral to traditionalism in his diocese". It is sad if one's care fo souls appears to be narrowed by a refusal to think outside of a narrow box.

The dreadful thing is today we are all shoppers, the wide variety of new movements in the Church reflect our diverse needs, or if you want to be disparaging, our diverse tastes.

In England we have been more than cagey about the new movements, the Friars of the Immaculate had real difficulty not just finding a suitable parish but a suitable bishop, the same can be said about the FSSP, the Institute of Chist the King, Opus Dei, the Neo-Catechumenate, the Legionaries of Christ.

In Memoriam

I feel a little embarrassed by posting this, especially when the parish could have done with the cash. But my father died late last year and in memory of him this set of vestments arrived on my doorstep last week. Someone, an adherant of the Traditional Mass and a one time friend of his, noticed we had to borrow a red set of vestments to celebrate my silver jubilee, a very kind gesture.

Without being too ungracious, re-pointing a section of wall might have been more his style. That being said this is truly an elegant set of vestments, simple and noble at the same time. It is presumably from the 1930's, though there is an element of the Puginesque about the fabric, maybe it is Pugin but it is enhanced by the simple braid decoration.

Apparently the vestments belonged to the Servites in Bognor Regis before they were sold.

If anyone wants to borrow a red High Mass set in the south east...

Persecution in Pakistan

A boy sleeps in the narrow streets of a Christian community in Gojra town Punjab province August 3, 2009.
Pakistani missionary schools closed on Monday for three days to mourn the deaths of seven Christians burnt alive in clashes with majority Muslims, and Pope Benedict said he was "deeply grieved" by the killings. Four women and a child were among those killed in the violence that broke out in Gojra on Saturday, after Muslims torched Christians' homes following unsubstantiated allegations some of them had desecrated the Koran.

Pakistan’s parliament has unanimously condemned the attacks against Christians as an inquiry gets underway to quickly find the culprits. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari announces a compensation package for victims’ families. In spite of all of this Pakistani Christians continue to endure violence and discrimination as the death toll in Gojra rose to eight. For human rights activists and minority leaders blasphemy laws are the cause of the problem.

read more at AsiaNews

Linovale

Farewell lino!

It took about two and half hours to get rid of the lino and pull up the nails. Thanks to Christine, Frances, Liz, Gloria, Peter, John, John, Jack, Laurence, Des, Peter and Robert, I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. They worked like Trojans.

The worst part of the floor was by the main door where it was heavily worn. I would love to put a hardwood floor on top of the pine boards but we simply can't afford it, I dread the dust that it is going to create. I have to speak to the organ builder to see what steps can be taken to protect the pipes and mechanism from dust and I suppose it is going to make the cobwebs in the vaulting of the roof visible for a few years. We'll carry on praying for the conversion of Bill Gates, and a large cheque in the post - God is good!

It is quite fascinating, archaeologically, you can see traces of an interior porch, the foundations of the font and pulpit and even holes for the original lighting system, gasoleers, which would have emerged from the floor. I wish we had more original pictures of these things. There are one or two metal plates around that would have had a purpose which is now forgotten.

Newman's Catholicism Divisive

The excellent official website for the cause of Cardinal Newman responds to the editorial in last weeks Tablet:

In The Tablet’s opinion, Newman’s Catholicism is a potentially divisive issue, both ecumenically and in the nation as a whole, and his Beatification should therefore not accord it pride of place. Equally important, according to The Tablet, should be Newman’s ‘Englishness’, around which the whole nation can unite.

Since the invention of fire

The greatest change that has effected mankind in the whole of its history, greater even than the discovery of fire, is the contraceptive pill. It has changed what we are, fundamentally. No longer is parenthood inevitable. Now men and women no longer see themselves in terms of a relationship that is at the service of their offspring and future generations. There is denial of one of the most significant aspects of being human, the beggetting and raising of children.

We are not prepared for this drastic change in our "evolution". I suspect that one of the most significant reasons for a lack of a sense of fulfillment that so many human beings have today comes from a childless anthropology. An anthropology that is essentially self centred not other centred. I suspect in part this accounts for the current rise in atheism, belief in God, or even god, is essentially a demonstration of a meaning beyond self to "another".

No longer is it obvious that a man or woman will be a parent and united for life in a loving relationship, for the upbringing of children. I suspect this is one of the reasons for a deep inner loneliness. There is an expectation now that relationships will be for the most part sterile, hence for most people there is little or no difference between a homosexual civil partnership and marriage, although one is of its nature sterile and the other should be fruitful with children.

This step in "evolution" has resulted in a change in how we educate our children, in our expectations of friendship, in how we view work, in how we regard gender and in fundamental attitudes to such abstract values as goodness and hope.

I wonder if it is against this background that we opught to regard Archbishop Nichols comments on the young people and the use of e-communications. It is certainly there in the recent words of Cardinal Pell:

Some young adults today are afraid of having children, uncertain of the benefits or uncertain of their capacity to cope as parents.
Many reasons are proposed for this, but underneath lies a lack of confidence in the goodness of life, a lack of hope. The baby boom after the Second World War, when fifty million people were killed, was an unexpected explosion of hope. I remember being in Cambodia not long after Pol Pot was defeated and there were youngsters everywhere.
The widening of educational opportunity for women as well as men is a blessing and most young women today hope for a career or at least useful employment as well as marriage and children. But this is always hard work and every woman has to give priority to one option or the other at different times.
Not much can be said to those (mercifully few) who don't want children for purely selfish reasons, such as cost or limits to their life style; except to ask them to think again.
But young adults have often suffered the effects of their parents' divorce, or seen such damage in their extended family and don't want to inflict this on their own children.
Sometimes they doubt their own capacity to be good parents, to cope with the lifelong demands of their children as they grow up. In most cases, the awareness of such a possible problem is evidence that they would be able to manage, even if special help and regular prayer were needed.

h/t Life Site News