Does it take "guts" to admit, "“Il Papa ha sbagliato”?.... or Grace?

Interesting, interesting interview with the German novelist, (and sometime liturgist, and certainly liturgical theologian,) Martin Mosebach, regarding Amoris Laetitia, the dubia, and papal duty.

It occurs, with who-knows-who turning their attention to and getting their mitts on the current Missal and its translation, I know he's an Extraordinay Form guy, but perhaps Mosebach would consider a sequel to Heresy of Formlessness?

Or even a contemporary papal history, The Papacy of Formlessness?

Hagen formlessness!

("Hagen falta de forma?")

Remember When I Stepped on That Rusty Nail at the Beach When We Were Kids, and My Foot Swelled Up and Got Infected and They Were Afraid It Was Blood Poisoning and I Had To Get a Tetanus Shot and It Kinda Ruined the Family's Vacation?

Good times, good times....
Ya know something? that's exactly 40 years ago, this summer!

I gotta great idea, LET'S HAVE A PARTY TO CELEBRATE THAT!!!!

"Did you really just ask that?" 

"Um, I'm gonna say .... NO!"

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?
Also not taken in by the derangement that leads to such suggestions.

The German cardinal said in a new book-length interview: “We Catholics have no reason to celebrate October 31, 1517, the date that is considered the beginning of the Reformation that would lead to the rupture of Western Christianity....
“If we are convinced that divine revelation is preserved whole and unchanged through Scripture and Tradition, in the doctrine of the Faith, in the sacraments, in the hierarchical constitution of the Church by divine right, founded on the sacrament of holy orders, we cannot accept that there exist sufficient reasons to separate from the Church.”

"Did you really just ask that?"

"Um, I'm gonna say .... NO!"

Requiescat in Pace, Cardinal Cottier

The theologian Swiss Cardinal Archbishop Georges Marie Martin Cottier O.P. has died.
May perpetual light shine upon him...
He was an eloquent foe of the "soft heresies" that sidle up next to the Truth such as a false ecumenism.
For instance:

"If the Church has set out guidelines for admission to the Eucharist of non-Catholic Christians and if she rejects inter-communion, it is because Eucharistic communion is not a starting point, [emphasis supplied] but because it expresses and brings to perfection a communion that presupposes in its entirety: communion in the teaching of the apostles, in the sacraments and in communion with the Apostolic College which Peter is the head.
Sometimes that position, not being understood, seems to our Protestant brothers unjustly harsh. It is a fraternal duty, therefore, that the Church says it does not recognize the right to dispose at will of what is a gift received from her Lord. His attitude is adoration, praise, and obedience."

Which promises to be an important truth to hold on to this week.

Scelata said to him, “Can anything good come out of Michigan?” Jeffrey said to her, “Come and see.”

Good from Michigan? Well, there is the Tuba Museum, and Frankenmuth, and the antique ring from the Wooden Skate with which our troth was plighted, and those signs that say, "Beware, Entering Waffle Country," and Greek Town in Detroit, and...
Okay, lots that's good comes from Michigan.
That said, I was just making a joke, and I really am grateful to the folks at CCWatershed for this article.
Since I've no control over anything, sometimes it's less painful to pay no attention to what is going on, or should be going on, so, yeah, notice of the goings on in Marquette escaped me, this instuction is from January.
But sing  Te Deum and Non Nobis in thanksgiving for the Lord's Providence in granting his people a shepherd like Bishop John Doerfler!

1. All parishes and schools will learn to chant the Ordinary parts of the Mass in English that are found in the Roman Missal, and they will be sung by the congregation some of the time throughout the year.
2. All parishes and schools will learn to chant the KYRIE, SANCTUS and AGNUS DEI from the Missa lubilate Deo, and they will be sung by the congregation some of the time throughout the year.
3. All parishes and schools will learn to chant the Communion Antiphon in English to a very simple tone that everyone can sing, and the Communion Antiphon will be sung at every Sunday Mass. A hymn may be sung after the Communion Antiphon while the congregation is receiving the Blessed Sacrament.
4. A Diocesan Hymnal will be used to ensure the musical quality and doctrinal integrity of the Sacred Music. The hymnal will include a broad repertoire of hymns from classical to contemporary. 
5. The Diocesan Director of Sacred Music will provide annual, regional workshops for parish musicians to assist them in the implementation of these directives. He will also assist music teachers in Catholic schools to implement Sacred Music in the school curriculum and at school Masses. Finally, he stands at the service of parishes upon request to help implement Sacred Music in other ways.

The directive about the hymnal is actually longer, so read it there if it interests you.
It seems to me that such a hymnal, assuming the standards are well set, is something that could be of immense value to the Catholics of the nation as a whole - The  Petrus Hymnal, perhaps, after the diocesan patronal saint?
And the amzaing thing, if only the NPM types would understand it, is that, withe the exception of creating a hymnal, (which is something on which someone else is doing the heavy lifting, so it is no burden on them,) these directives are EASY.
Do-able by anyone, in any parish, with any resources.

We have a guest priest just now, so, no authority to implement any long lasting change, no ability to direct employees, and yet in less than two weeks great changes have been wrought, changes for the good, tiny and yet remarkable. It is a reminder, if one were needed, how much depends on the priest -  
God send us priests; God, send us many, holy priests!
By the way, since I do enough complaining, let me say that I know how blest I am - my dear pastor may make me crazy, so wedded to liturgical convenience is he, but I never, never need have any qualms about validity, and I am very grateful to him.

Denying People the Eucharist Because They Defy Their Bishop's Notions of Morality Is WRONG! ... Right?

Or is it?

New Primer from Minister of Education in Alberta

(I should 'fess up, up front - I DETEST the phrase, "best practices." I can see the pursed lips of a facilitator pretending her orders are merely advice before we break up into small discussion groups, every time I hear it.)

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water,
Jill decided she's a boy,
Jack claims to be your daughter.

No, I kid...
What the M of E actually issued was a set of protocols? suggestions?
Best practices.
Mandatory guidelines for enabling the mental illness that is currently most fashionable.

 

 "Time to make the donuts peace with the insanity"

 

The Catholic bishop of Calgary's having none of it.
 Bully for him.

"Jesus Betrays His People"

(I know this is grossly out of date, blame Facebook's algorithms, which somehow decided this should be linked to something current I was reading today.)

As the Lord concludes his meeting with His apostles this week, He reveals Himself as grossly out of touch with both grassroots Judaism and with the Sanhedrin. While there were certainly some who objected, He set forth an agenda that has little to do with the Huffington Post's wishes, and is opposed by the majority of Huffington Pot's readers.

I realize poor Miss Duddy-Burke supports certain sins, perhaps because she herself is unable to resist their temptation, or from mistaken notions of mercy toward others who are drawn to them.
And it is undoubtedly true that many sins are almost universally committed.
But where would anyone with even the most tenuous grasp of what Jesus and His Bride teach get the idea that the morality or immorality of an act or attitude,  of, yes, its fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus, is determined by majority vote?
Most people lie, for instance - is that evidence that it isn't wrong?

What about that survey, (probably deeply flawed and inaccurate,) that purported to show that one third of college men would commit rape given a consequence-free opportunity?
HAD the number been higher - would that have somehow made rape a morally permissible choice, and signal a "betrayal" by those who were still ag'n' it?

Use your brains, people, if you won't use your souls, at least use your brains!

New, Improved, "GendrLite"? Not So Much, With a Rudolf to the Rescue Again

Not sure if the German Bishops' Conference had considered the catchy trademark, I think "GendrLite" would have attracted the yoof, 'cause, you know. Misspelling and missing vowels.

GendrLite

Doncha think? But a spoilsport in their midst has played the reality card.
A bishop, in bishop's clothing, as it were.

Celebrating the feast of St. Wolfgang, who was Bishop of Regensburg from 972 to 994, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer taught in an Oct. 31 homily that gender theory – the idea of separating biological sex from gender – does not contribute to equality, and is ultimately a denial of nature and the goodness of creation. It puts at stake the essence of man and woman, denying their nature as potential fatherhood and motherhood.
A bishop's pastoral ministry, he said, “includes the duty and the responsibility to act as a guardian, to raise his voice, as necessary, to draw attention to discrepancies or errors, however convenient or inconvenient this may be.”
“Recently, just such a necessity has again arisen.”
Bishop Voderholzer noted that the German bishops' conference published a flyer in late October which “was written to declare these theories as being basically compatible with Catholic belief, in contrast to an extreme form of gender mainstream, and it claims to be formulating the Catholic position on this issue.”
“In my opinion, the former appears impossible – finally, there is no such thing as 'gender light'. The concept lowers the drawbridge and opens the gate to positions irreconcilable with the Christian faith. And the flyer not only fails to present the Catholic position, it leaves it out completely.”
The bishop also noted that the publication “was released in the name of the Conference of Bishops, of which I am a member, without my having previously seen its content, much less having approved it.”

Rudolf helping save Christmas Christian thought, (not to mention credibility.)

Praise be St Wolfgang, and St Rudolph. I'll have to look up who they are.

"Letting the Fly Out of the Bottle"

If you haven't already, go and read every word of Bishop Barron's piece at Catholic World Report.
It treats of the role of women, of the fatherhood of the priest, of the misconceptions those who do not see with the eyes of the Faith have about the Church, (even those, Chris Matthews, who are members thereof,) and the unrealized dream of the Second Vatican II regarding the role of the laity IN THE WORLD.

My only quibble is that Barron asks, How can women find more power? a question I find wholly inappropriate.
One of the greatest wounds on the Body of Christ, IMO, is wrought by individuals seeking power. In the episcopacy and the Curia it take the form of that careerism that the Holy Father has so soundly condemned.
In parish councils and committees across this country the knife is wielded by puffed-up little demi-clerics.
The situation is not that anyone needs to "find" power, but that each person needs to see, and understand, and utilize the power he, or she has.
Barron of course knows this, and points to saints - Thérèse of Lisieux, Bernadette of Lourdes, Mother Katharine Drexel, Mother Cabrini, Mother Teresa, and Edith Stein all wielded more real power than 99% of the priests and bishops of their time. If we move our attention away from the priesthood and toward sainthood, we let the fly out of the fly bottle.
More felicitous examples than that the Pope Francis was taken to task for using - so many times priests end up under the authority of their housekeepers - no?
(I might add Bishop Barron to the list, not of saints, but of people who have more power than their bosses.)

Priests, I explained, have families. I then indicated the ring that I received upon being ordained a bishop and I said, "That's a wedding ring, and we are explicitly told never to take it off, for it symbolizes our marriage to the people we serve."
Then I quoted my mentor, the late Cardinal Francis George: "Priests are not bachelors; they are married men, and they have spiritual children." Celibacy should never be understood in a purely negative way, as though it amounts simply to the denial of something. The no to marriage and children in the ordinary sense is in service of a far greater yes, the yes to a wider, more inclusive, and more abiding form of marriage and procreation. In point of fact, the very familial implication of the celibate commitment is precisely what makes priests uniquely positioned to help and advise families. Once again, the teaching of Vatican II is apposite. Celibacy and marriage are ordered to one another, since both are ultimately in service of the sanctification of the world.  

(I'll use this in discussing the "Sacraments of Service" with my school kids.)

So, Wittgenstein, eh? Who knew...
(I suppose everyone who paid attention in Philosophy 101. Me? I was spouting heresy and receiving compliments for it....)

Dear, Dear, and Right After I Was Whining About People Overusing the Word "Attack"

Here is Steve Skojec reporting on a rather ignorant-of-the-subject-on-which-he-wishes-to-pontificate academic ATTACKING the wonderful Cardinal Burke by unjustly accusing the Cardinal of ATTACKING the Pope's actions.
(Actually, more than merely unjust, it seems like deliberate and knowingly false calumny.)

I think the academic might be the inadvertent Crocodile Dundee of religious Poppycockery reporting.....

"THAT's not an attack...

... now, THIS is an attack.

Does Newsweek Even make a Pretense of Honest Journalism Anymore?

A really strange piece on Pope Francis in the no-longer-available-in-paper Newsweek..
To objections to his actions or criticisms of him,

Francis has not offered a counterargument but, rather, a dazzling show of faith that obviates the need for arguments over what, precisely, he believes.

But, the writer opines, Pope Francis might still be Catholic, since he,

vigorously backs Vatican [sic] positions on abortion, gay marriage, the ordination of women and other major issues,

We also are treated the revelation that not many people wear Benedict t-shirts, and to blathering and moaning about the churchman he really can't stand because that guy doesn't allow there to be any confusion as to what he stands for and what the Church teaches, part of the last named being what the write calls an "antediluvian morality code."

That's the real point of the piece, that one pope insisted on appointing, and another has not embraced the wisdom of 100 really, really important Catholics and yanked, Salvatore Cordileone, the bishop in question.

"This was done as a real insult to San Francisco,” a gay Catholic told me when I visited the city, which had been accustomed to archbishops who tempered [shut up about?] their views on homosexuality with an awareness of the city’s history as a gay refuge [refuge, meaning, "place that tries to silence those who won't get on board with gay activists' agendae"].

At least the author admits that, "Cordileone has been as thoroughly demonized," although he adds a little to that demonization in describing the "severe,"  "grim canon lawyer."
And he shows in one little word that he really is clueless about the Catholic ethos, in recalling how

[Codileone] knows the church [where he works in a soup kitchen sometimes,] is home to gay Catholics, yet everyone I spoke to said he takes great pleasure in the event.

Did you guess which word I meant?
Why, it's, it's... it's almost as if Christianity is not about hating the sin and hating the sinner even more!
I have to sit down....

He also take the time to whinge about Fr Fessio, SJ, because he follows sports and is not always upbeat. Evidence of his falling short in the cheerful/buoyant department?
Fessio had the temerity to say “Don't ask us to change our church.”

But what is all boils down to, is that under the cuddly surface, Francis is the same as all those meanies, he is cut from the same cloth.

There is one San Franciscan, formerly Catholic, with a solid grounding in theology, who is quoted extensively, who "had come to feel the church was excessively occupied with sex."

Let me understand this - you once belonged to, and presumably believed what was taught by an institution that claims to authoritatively teach who God was, how God operates, what God has said to mankind, and how God wishes us to live our lives, and how we can best attain eternal life and joy in the presence of God.

And then you left it because there was something more important to you.

And that was your sexual identity, the sexual activity in which you wanted to engage..

But it's the Church that is "excessively occupied with sex."

'Zat about right?

So, there you have it. Jorge Bergoglio, after all these years is still Catholic.
Amazing.

More Misunderstandings of the Holy Father By Those In the MSM

The Washington Post asks, What has Pope Francis actually accomplished?, and then answers it by telling us about things the Holy Father has said, acknowledging as much themselves, " by giving us "8 of Pope Francis’s most liberal statements."
I dunno -- you'd think a newspaper that operates in D.C, around people who are, er... politicians, might understand in the words of the immortal Po'k,

Sayin' ain't doin'...

(I don't know if Po'k actually said that, but Himself quotes the man's aphorisms extensively when expressing dubiety.)
That said, at least two of the items enumerated are actual accomplishments, actions - the embrace of the surgically altered woman, (no one should be called "the devil's daughter,") and the issuing of the 2 motu proprio altering the way decrees of nullity may be granted.
Other matters are range from nothing new, (nothing new aside from the media taking notice of something - many of Francis's words, once unpacked, reiterate what has long been the case, or long been taught,) or yet to accomplish what they, hopefully, adumbrate.
Frankly, the writer would do well to read his own article, and heed the words of the Scary Red Robed Church Monster ©, (the bogeyman who inhabits their nightmares, the very thought of whom so delights Church regressives that like children at a horror movie, they can't help peeking at him again and again and again, through their fingers held tightly to their eyes, to enjoy the chills and thrills even as they lose control of their bladders.)

For the Dread Cardinal Burke ©, has said,

“One must be very attentive regarding the power of the pope [which] is not absolute.”

The horror!

Um.... boo?

But the Pope said.....

There you have it. In the minds of some who know not the mind of the Church, The Pope Said closes the conversation.

(It's kinda like, "But the bell rang!", the definitive, not to be gainsaid, unrebuttable answer to anything, anyone ever said, about anything. In the Code of Canon Law, expressed campana resonata, causa finita est.)

Well, I suppose it may indeed be sort of raining spiritually, only I am too sinful to see it.

Catholic Schools Promoting Catholic Teaching - the Unmitigaged Gall !!!!

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield IL seems to be under the impression that those schools in his purview are for the creation of virtuous persons!

Oh, my God, is there no end to the wickedness of Papists?

He seems not to understand that his Church is just a collection of arbitrary rules and suggestions, that have no place in the making of moral and ethical decisions!
How dare he foist his opinions and his beliefs on people who are just looking for a cheap alternative to prep schools, (as indicated by the way, according to stats provided by one of the secular news outlets that has its panties in a bunch the percentage of non-Catholic attending Catholic school in the diocese jumps from elementary to high school,)?

And if parents of a child in the school are publicly flouting what those wacky Catholic Christians is mandated by God's law or by natural law he's, oh my God, I can hardly bring myself to type this --- he's insisting that they dialogue!
Yes, that's right, you're not seeing things, he wants them to come in for a [shudder] MEETING.

Because, you know, the Worship of God and Salvation of Souls.

Oh the humanity!

[/snarcasm]
Do you suppose the Catholic parents of a child in an evangelical protestant school are within their rights to insist that when the kiddies are doing art projects, or working on memorization that utilize scripture, that they not use the KJV, or NLT or NIV,  little Mary Bernadette will use the NAB, thank you very much?
Or is it only Catholics who provoke these diatribes when they promote a way of life that's, um, Catholic?

Can you imagine if an Islamic school in the US told the owner of a liquor distributor who wished to enroll his kids in a madrassa to be prepared, that the were not going to avoid  the Muslim teaching on alcohol just to please him?
Or a Christian Scientist, (or do I mean Jehovah's Witnesses?) school agreed never to mention their attitude toward blood transfusions?
Or a group that engaged in ecstatic dancing promised a parent of a denom that forbade dancing that they would water down or gloss over  their religion for him?

Or any religion whose teachings included any stances that were counter-cultural which ran a school?

Would the State Journal-Register be whinging about that?
Dubious.

Here's the document for Springfield that parents are asked to sign.
Oh, you're not Catholic? Who is forcing you to enroll your kids there?

There's an old saying in community theatre that too many star wannabes and drive-by members of the organization don't realize that it's more about "community" that "theatre."

Well, many parents, Catholic and non-, and of course the secular media, don't understand that Catholic Schools are and should be more about Catholicism than Scholarship. The latter is an accidental, and its purpose is to reinforce the former.

The money thing, the tithing?
I don't know about any of the parochial and high schools in Springfield, but in any other diocese of which I've had any knowledge even the out-of-parish, out of the Faith tuition didn't begin to cover the actual costs per student.

The sacrifices made by the teachers, (most could get much better money elsewhere,) and the average PIP, (most of whom, childless or not, do not have children in the schools in question,) are to build up the Faith, to build up the Church, to produce good Catholic, to - I can hardly believe this needs saying and I know when it is said it is roundly mocked - TO SAVE SOULS.

Here endeth the rant.

"Little Ships" Failing In Their Duty To the Fleet

I have never been a true "Traditionalist" in the current Catholic meaning of the term.
For a long time, I was pretty unaware of the sectarianism among those who call themselves Catholic, unaware to the point of obtuseness I now know.
I was a secular musician, and nomadic enough to attend an enormous number of different parishes, chapels, monasteries since I never failed to fulfill my "obligation," (and in fact, was devout enough in a detached way, to attend weekday Masses as well,) -- and I thought the vast differences I observed were mostly due to aesthetics and the taste, or lack thereof, of the priest and music director.

If it was available to me, I was glad to go to a Mass in Latin but this was simply because the music that one heard with Latin lyrics was almost invariably better music than the music one might encounter sung in English or Spanish.
I don't think I was actually aware that there was an "old rite" and a "new rite" and if I was, I would have said that the essential difference was the language in which it was offered.

My impression from childhood was that the Mass changed a whole lot every few months anyway - Oh, new laminated "pew cards" this week, different words for the Creed now.
Oh, Father is coming down and walking around  in the aisles during his sermon now.
Oh, a woman is doing the readings now.
Oh, the other priests don't come over from the rectory now to distribute communion, one of them just stands there and we move past him rather than him moving past us.
Oh, the servers just sit around doing nothing during Mass now.

You know, like that.
So as I heard Mass in a multiplicity of venues, the differences I encountered at first just seemed more of them same. Gradually, I realized that the idiosyncrasies observed were not a result of changes the Church, big "c", had made, but  peculiarities of this church, little "c", this parish, this priest, this part of the country.
So that Latin Mass I had attended? it not just wasn't the same Mass, it wasn't the same Church, there were "Catholics" who were not in communion with Rome, or were in communion with Rome by their own reckoning but wasn't it a shame? there wasn't a real Pope in Rome at the moment.

But wait - this chapel, this other one, did recognize the same Pope as I - but the Church doesn't recognize them?

As I said, as I came to understand exactly what had been occurring in Catholicism, I wasn't really a Trad because - well,  I think A reform was necessary. It just wasn't THE reform that we got.

And I also began to love the old form, but without hating the new one, (I did hate the new theology that many of its supporters incorrectly believed was at its heart and was necessary.)

But Lordie, it was hard to keep track of! who ARE these people? where do THEY stand?
And of course, it wasn't black and white, there were profoundly orthodox people with a laissez faire attitude toward liturgy, there were preservationists who would do anything to support truly Catholic sacred music who were more or less atheists...
I actually made myself a kind of "scorecard", showing the continuum of players in the game, from right-wing crazies with their own Pope Skippy in Arkansas to leftist loonies who thought Gaia and Yahweh were the power couple of the cosmos , so I could remember, as I read, where, judging from their alliances, (yeah, guilt by association,) they were coming from, since even stopped clocks are right twice a day, and even an idiot may teach you something profound and true.

What a scandal, this lack of unity.

I confess I find it somewhat more difficult to suss out the positions of those on the right flank of Catholicism's host, the Ecclesia Militans, (have to use the Latin so no one thinks I'm referring to a particualr media-savvy faction,) because of the heat, even anger I think I see there.

So I am grateful to Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who always seems able to respond to others with both charity and precision, (I love that in our Pope Emeritus as well, and wish, wish, wish, wish that dear Francis, so gifted in the former seems incapable of the latter.)

The current situation of the Church is similar to that of the Arian Crisis in the 4th century: there is a naval battle in the night, where the enemies of the Church attack vehemently the big ship of the Church, whereas in the same time little ships of several true Catholic groups attacks one another, instead of make a common defense against the enemies.

(And that, dear reader, is as good a defense as you are likely to find, for us all to, um... face the same way.)

Cardinal Sarah on the Liturgy

Many thanks to Jeff Ostrowski for this round-up of wisdom and insight from the head of the CDW.
And since Jeff's title evokes a Lettermanesque approach to things, I will asnwer a rhetorical question of Fulton Sheen which appears in the email heralding this article - They say this.  They say that.  WHO ARE «THEY» ? - in viewer mail one night  Dave supplied the answer to this very question. In reply to the query, when they say "you know what they say" who's the "they" they mean? Dave told us. "The Van Pattens."

"You know what I say..."

Incidentally, I think he might be Catholic.
Van Patten, not Letterman.
I digress.

Anway, this was my favorite thing he, (Ostrowski, not Van Pattan,) said that he, (Sarah, not Letterman) said -

"When the Holy Father, Pope Francis, asked me to accept the ministry of Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, I asked: ‘Your Holiness, how do you want me to exercise this ministry? What do you want me to do as Prefect of this Congregation?’ The Holy Father's reply was clear. ‘I want you to continue to implement the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council,’ he said, ‘and I want you to continue the good work in the liturgy begun by Pope Benedict XVI.'”

"The Tradition That Unites Us To Christ"

A very nice testimonial, essentially, from the Canons Regular of St John Cantius, to the great Francis Cardinal George, of happy memory.

The Liturgy, along with Sacred Scripture, is the primary carrier of the tradition that unites us to Christ.

(From an interview His Eminence gave last October.) 

I hadn't read the interview at the time - George rightly calls the interviewer, (albeit gently,) for phrasing a question in a way that presumes, and therefore helps spread, an untruth.
And he pulls no punches on the translation the current Missal translation replaced, (after graciously admitting that his opinion is perforce biased):

...the first full translation of the missal of Paul VI was ideologically charged..... the loss of the theology of grace, the domestication of God, the paraphrasing that deliberately omitted nuances of understanding, the deliberate omission of biblical references in the liturgical text itself, etc. left the church for forty years without a way of worship that adequately expressed our faith. This was clear for those of us who used the Roman missal in Spanish during those years; their translation was far more adequate. The bishops had the obligation to see that the translation into English of the third edition of the Roman Missal was faithful and also able to be used communally. I believe it has been well done.

And,

Some of the expressions in the Prefaces are a bit “clunky,” but the collects are truly beautiful if a priest takes the time to interiorize the structure of  dependent clauses and use his voice so that the prayer is comprehensible to the faithful. Normally, people paid little attention to the collect; they couldn’t tell you what the priest said as soon as they sat down. Hopefully, a more deliberate style of declamation with a more adequate text will help draw people into a climate of worship and prepare them to hear the Word of God in Scripture.

Amen and amen.
I've said it more than anyone cares to hear, in so many cases, the phrasing, the orator's rhetorical techniques utilized in the, ordering of the words acts like stage lighting, or a singer's expressive breaths to draw attention to key words, emphasize parallels, highlight the center of the prayer -- time after time I find myself turning over a phrase I'd never noticed before for hours after morning Mass, sometimes days.
If unacustommed to the syntax or vocabulary, a celebrant finds that he needs to focus, to pause, to slow down, TO SPEAK WITH GREATER CARE THAN USUAL - is that not all to the good?

(Full disclosure, I am a member of the flock of a shepherd who says Mass as if a meter is about to run out, and a parking ticket will mean financial ruin for us all...)

“A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within”

I look forward to Cardinal George's final book.
He was a great, thoughtful man.

And not incidentally, I have been remiss in not crediting a terrific feature of the UK's Catholic Herald, "Morning Catholic must-reads."
The careful treading of the "middle way," the forbearing of polemic -- Catholic Herald is invaluable, even if you're NOT interested in British politics, (civil and ecclesiastical ;oD)

“The only thing we take with us when we die is what we have given away.”

Thus Abp Sartain quoted the man himself in his homily for Cdl George.

If this seems familiar, it should, Oscar Hammerstein said, (through Maria Rainer,) pretty much the same thing - "love isn't love 'til you give it away."

And, as long as we're quoting, the great theological team of Lennon and McCartney told us, "all you need is love."

Am I mocking any of them? I am not.

Because as John told the recipients of his first letter,  and Benedict reminded us in his first encyclical, "God is love."

And isn't He Whose very Self is Love all we need?

And we will be called to account, on the Last Day for what we did with what He gave_

The one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’
His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant!* So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?

Great truths always permit of many different expressions.

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Lie Them

A friend, who is not Catholic, and not particularly sympathetic to anything that smacks of conservatism, in politics or the arts, was listening to the news, (can't recall whether it was network or cable,) with me and reference was made to the joy with which the crowd in St Peter's square greeted the news of Francis's election in contrast to the grim reaction to Benedict's.
Wha??!?#?$?? he asked, I watched that on television, they showed it over and over, the crowds at the announcement of Benedict reacted the way they ALWAYS do, jubilantly, there were nuns jumping up and down, seminarians wave flags and cheering, why in the world would they say --

Slow your roll, Mike, I demurred, that is the accepted version of the MSM and the dissenting Catholic press, that's what everyone always claims now.

And whether you heard it from a Republican strategist, ("perception IS reality!"), or a Nazi, (a lie of sufficient enormity to convince everyone, since NO one could have "the impudence to distort the truth so infamously"), you all know how it works.
They couldn't say it on those Interwebs if it weren't true, right? And my boyfriend is a French model....

There are some matters that one never looks into, everyone says it so....

All this is prelude to another story of lies and the lying liars who've been lying them.
The National Catholic Register's having actually looked in to something.
You know, the way actual news organization do, well, are supposed to pretend to.
Recall the matter of the evil, hated California priest who has left acrimony in his wake, and stirred things up, and wounded all and sundry at his new parish... NOT.

As the signatories [of a newspaper ad clling for their bishop's removal] framed Father Illo’s appointment as another blot on the [Cordileone's] legacy in the city, the situation on the ground at Star of the Sea remains far more nuanced — and far less grim — than the harsh claims would suggest.
“The old-timers are delighted that Father Illo has come because he is ‘breathing new life into the parish,’” Vivian Dudro, a new parishioner and mother of four who returned almost two decades after her youngest child was baptized at Star of the Sea, told the Register.
“The parish is attracting new people who want to go to the liturgies and public prayer open to the public. My husband went to the men’s prayer, and a high-school student was there who had shown up on his own for prayer.”
“If that’s not evidence of new life,” Dudro said, “I don’t know what is.”
Indeed, those who attended the retirement party for Carmel Tickler, the parish's operations manager since 1991, said Tigler's farewell speech noted that there had never been more pastoral activity during her tenure than at the present time, under Father Illo's leadership.....
he pastor made the decision to focus on training altar boys back in November. Two months later, he said, “the day before the 2015 Walk for Life, the local CBS affiliate arrived with cameras to do a story” on the only all-boy altar-server program in the diocese.
When he watched the story on the news, the pastor recalled his surprise at the “the grim way it was treated, as if there was some kind of catastrophe or scandal in San Francisco.”...
Father Illo explained the rationale behind his decision to the parish-school community....

‘Popular’ Pastor in Stockton
Finally, the priest strongly disputed the claim that he had a troubled history in the Diocese of Stockton before his arrival at Star of the Sea.
Media reports have already noted that Father Illo created a stir in Modesto when he told parishioners that it was wrong to vote for a candidate who supported abortion rights even if his or her other positions were good.
However, The Modesto Bee described Father Illo as a “popular” pastor. And the priest told the Register that he ran a large parish with “5,500 families — about 19,000 members. We had more men in the seminary than any other parish and one of the highest levels of Mass attendance.”
These details were absent from the Chronicle ad. Also missing was information that contradicted the portrait of Star of the Sea’s new pastor as an unmitigated disaster.
Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, the founder of Ignatius Press, which is located in San Francisco, has known Joseph Illo since before he entered the seminary and dismissed the allegation that he had a “troubled” history in Stockton.
“When we have the annual Walk for Life, there are several busloads of people from Modesto, where he is hugely popular,” said Father Fessio, who nonetheless agreed that the priest had stumbled somewhat during his first year at Star of the Sea — and taken responsibility for it.

New Initiatives
When Father Illo arrived at Star of the Sea last August, he took up residence in a diverse but fading parish with an aging population and weak finances.
He planned to establish an oratory of St. Philip Neri at the parish, after obtaining Archbishop Cordileone’s agreement to a plan that seemed like an ideal path for revitalizing Star of the Sea.
An oratory, he explained, is a “community of priests and brothers who are committed to a life of common prayer and apostolic work.”
“Usually, the oratories enhance the parish and school because they provide a stable body of priests that stay with the parish for the rest of their lives,” Father Illo explained.
At present, one other priest has already joined the oratory. Star of the Sea has 1,200 parishioners, mostly elderly couples and single people.
Father Illo hopes to attract many more Catholics and already sees signs of hope, with a 60% increase in parish revenue since he arrived and much higher numbers at this year’s Triduum services.
“We assume we will be here for the duration, and we are putting in programs and improving the church lighting and sound system.”
“New initiatives include Bible study and men and women’s support groups,” he said.
... Father Illo...believes his parish and the city of San Francisco desperately need hope to overcome the challenges ahead.... But if Father Illo and his oratory have actually lit the flame of hope at Star of the Sea, why has the pastor become a target of angry critics?
As Father Illo sees it, part of the problem is that Star of the Sea School is only 40% Catholic, and the school community has become separated from the parish.
Thus, even as parishioner Vivian Dudro celebrates the increase in Mass attendance, along with the new Bible study class and parish barbecues, last month also featured an angry meeting of school parents who aired a host of grievances about the priest’s policies.
Father Illo hopes he can build bridges with the school, and his immediate goal is to move from monthly to weekly Masses for students and also teach a religion class. [ed. note- a Catholic school that only offers a school Mass once a month????]
But even as he labors to stabilize his parish school, there is little sign that the fury against Archbishop Cordileone will abate, and that means this new pastor could face further trouble.

Pray for San Francisco, and pray for the city's Catholics and non-Catholics, and pray for Fr Illo and pray for Archbishop Cordileone.