Dying Indults

Over the past couple of days, news has reached me of the impending death of two different Indult Mass locations: San Fernando Mission (L.A. Archdiocese) and Prince of Peace (Greenville, SC). Sad news indeed.

These two Mass locations have different reasons for cutting back (or closing). The SC location's priest has lost support of another priest who covered for him during the 5 p.m. Indult slot. He will only be able to offer the Indult once per month. The L.A. location is now closed by its Ordinary. (ahemm ...)

Yes, I know about the rumors of the Motu Proprio, and I will believe it when I see it. There have been too many rumors over the past 6 years.

However, the closings/cut-backs described above lends some credibility to the rumors. The lines are being drawn. The players are picking their team. The fighters are choosing a corner.

The circumstances are being arranged in such a way that those true Indult locations (not FSSP or ICR) will have a very difficult time satisfactorily justifying their existence to their Ordinary. Whether it is fear of the M.P. or vindication, these Ordinaries are cutting any and all ties to Tradition.

If/When the M.P. is issued, it will be the beginning of the war for Catholicism, not the end.

The Grindstone

Alas, I am back at Blogger.

I just couldn't stand having to delete the crazy Trackbacks that kept popping up ... less than savory subject matter.

In the meantime, I have the first draft of a Monastic Diurnal in the works. Right now, it contains Prime and Compline, and most of the Kalendar. It is a side project to support the liturgical prayer life of Benedictine Oblates.

Let me know if you want a copy. I will also send out regular updates.

Day of the Ninja

Today is the Day of the Ninja.

You can take the ninja quiz here.

Are_You_a_Ninja

You are ninja. Sign up at NinjaBurger.com immediately. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Because I said so ...

Per The New Liturgical Movement blog, the Archdiocese of Genoa has issued as statement regarding the impending motu proprio.

I take issue with the last two items:

9) two valid expressions of the same Catholic faith -- that of St. Pius V and that of Paul VI -- cannot be presented as "expressing opposite views" and, thus, as mutually irreconcilable;

10) In liturgical ambit, the decisions and deeds of Popes - namely John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI - and of Councils - Tridentine and Vatican II - cannot be presented in a conflictual way and, even less, as alternative to one another.

As for #9, why cannot the missals be presented as "expressing opposite views"? (or at least "opposing" views)? Just because one says a thing, does not make it true.

In #10, the decisions and deeds of post-V2 popes -- and the decisions and deeds of Trent and V2 -- cannot be presented in a conflictual way. Once again, why not? Because one says it cannot?

We are now Thinking Catholics. If two things, whether two missals or two councils, seem to be opposed, Thinking Catholics need good reasons as to why they are not.

"Because I said so." is not an acceptable answer.

Should Catholics Blog? ... Sure!

Below is an article from the Oriens Journal. Normally, Oriens is a good read. This article is the exception. I have woven in my own commentary (mostly to point out inconsistencies).

...

Should Catholics blog?

These days almost every second Catholic appears to blog compulsively. R. J. Stove, who lives in Melbourne and is Executive Editor of Oriens, explores blogging’s intellectual and moral perils.

Blogging. By now every Catholic, even if he leads as hermetic an existence as did Saint Bruno, must know about it. Blogs – short, of course, for "weblogs" – have now become the preferred method for communication among Catholics in the English-speaking world, more especially in America. It seems every second Catholic one meets has a blog, from the staunchest traditionalist to the most oafish lesbian eucharistic minister.

Amy Welborn's blog (the work of a mildly conservative Novus Ordo wife, mother and debunker of The Da Vinci Code) is these days probably the most famous blog by any Catholic in the world. Some traditionalist blogs are Radtrad.blogspot.com, Distributism.blogspot.com, Inillotempore.com/blog, and Confiteminidomino.blogspot.com. This last is unusual in two respects: its founder is (a) Australian and (b) a priest, the Dominican Father Ephraem Chifley. Lay Americans run the overwhelming majority of Catholic blogs.

[JtH -- Not bad! Two Evil Traditionalists made it on to the short list. I will be using the list of blogs provided here as the measuring stick by which to judge the below arguments. As an aside, most of the Catholics with whom I assist Mass weekly know little to nothing about the blog phenom. And they really do not care.

And why does everyone like Amy Welborn? I don't get it.]

Allied to the blogging phenomenon is the Internet discussion group phenomenon, which is not quite the same thing, but which overlaps sufficiently with blogging per se to be discussed alongside it. (A great many members of Catholic discussion groups submit commentary to blogs.) Perhaps the most prominent of traditionalist Internet discussion groups is Angelqueen.org. Another, less acerbic in general spirit, is the Laudate Dominum forum. Distributism.blogspot.com exists specifically to uphold – and apply to modern political crises – the Chesterbelloc tradition.

[JtH -- The topic switches to online fora, which will be considered as part of the blogging craze. I am a member of the AngelQueen forum, and follow some of the more interesting threads. Per the top post of Laudate Dominum Forum, it is no longer active. As this article was penned in the Spring of 2006 (Australia time?), and L.D. Forum closed in September 2006, there might be some overlap.

Why is Distributism mentioned again in this paragraph? I thought we were talking about fora.]

Amid all this activity, much of it by Catholics who are personally estimable, the question arises. Should Catholics be blogging at all?

This essay argues that, for the most part, they should not; that blogs (and I include here Internet discussion groups as well as blogs proper) actually represent a graver objective peril to the Catholic soul than does the television set, which at least seldom presents even the façade of interactivity; and above all, that however noble specific bloggers' intentions are, far too much blogging is incompatible with a sensus Catholicus. The reasons for such apparently bizarre conclusions are explained below.

Pro-blog to anti-blog

At the risk of obscene self-indulgence, perhaps an autobiographical note is in order. I used to be among blogs' most enthusiastic defenders, for the same general reasons that I refused to weep, wail, and rend the raiment at the Internet’s arrival. The mainstream print media's intellectual and moral sleaze would in itself have inclined me towards defences of blogging, even if so many good Catholics had not become part-time or full-time bloggers themselves. I rejoiced at the speed with which blogs could transmit Vatican media releases and official traditionalist pronouncements halfway around the world before the conventional Fourth Estate's secular-humanist ignoramuses even got their boots on.

[JtH -- In other words, the author likes blogs/fora becuase bloggers pick up news and disseminate it.]

Furthermore, unlike many of my fellow right-wing Catholics, I lack in my temperament even the smallest particle of the Luddite. To be a Luddite, I soon realised, is to be a Manichean. Not on the agenda. We are called upon to be Catholics; we are not called upon to be the Amish. For these reasons I would occasionally submit a comment upon others’ blogs (primarily but not always Catholic), though I had not the faintest desire to be a blogger myself.

[JtH -- I agree. Technology is cool. Science is cool.]

These days I consider my former lenience regarding Catholic blogs to be spiritually and ethically unconscionable. Why has my attitude changed? Because Catholic blogs have become as prone as any other postlapsarian human endeavour to laws of unintended consequences. I shall continue to consult a very few even-tempered Catholic blogs, notably Distributism.blogspot.com, for international news information which I cannot get elsewhere (but which I need). Concerning the rest, I can only pray that most of them – including blogs by traditionalists – will close down, and that those responsible for them will direct their energies to more sensible fields.

[JtH -- The author had a change of heart. Blogs/fora are bad because of 'unintended consequences'. The real nugget of this paragraph is in the next sentence. "... continue to consult a very few even-tempered Catholic blogs ..."

Ahh! The author does not like the rough-and-tumble, calls-'em-likes-I-sees-'em attitude of nearly every single blog in existence. Sometimes pompacity is necessary to bring a topic to light. This will be highlighted later with the author's own remarks.

For the record, I do not hope that blogs shut down. The Vox Populi must be heard. The traditionalists are some of the few who are standing up for truth and beauty. If they are silenced, whither does truth and beauty go?]

Blogging as vice

Barring a miracle, there would seem to be five factors now at work to corrupt any hopes that the average Catholic can be a good Catholic and a diligent blogger. One could argue that these factors are mere undesirable accretions to blogging, rather than intrinsic to the blog genre; but in practice most bloggers can no more avoid them than most Communists can avoid mass murder. The factors are:

[JtH -- Despite the author's future protestations, there is an implied comparison between bloggers and Communists.]

i. Addiction, with all its dangers;

ii. Pseudonymity, with all its dangers;

iii. Encouraging smart-aleck soundbites rather than hard, detailed, historically scrupulous reasoning;

iv. Related to (iii), a general degrading of language, and of the writer’s role as language’s custodian (not to say as breadwinner);

v. De facto anticlericalism.

Let us take (i) first.

The Internet’s capacity for creating addicts is something that even the stupidest Panglossian social worker no longer attempts to deny. Every conscientious priest is aware of it; many a priest worries about it; some priests actually issue warnings to their flock about it. More priests should do so.

Without the smallest effort, and even when one leads a life otherwise reasonably replete with interesting activities, one can spend ten or twelve hours on the Net per day. What honest Catholic would tolerate similar appeasement of the Great God Television? No honest Catholic on the face of this earth, we must devoutly hope. Nevertheless, and very unfortunately, those traditionalists who understand with bitter precision TV’s menaces, usually appear entirely oblivious to the menaces of cyberspace, unless those menaces take such blatant forms as downloading porn. (That is a problem beyond this article’s scope.) We who have known what it is like to be an Internet addict – waiting with cold sweats, and with something like frenzy, for new developments on our preferred blog – wish to beg others: "Don’t go down that path. We’ve wasted months of our lives. We’ve committed the sin of sloth, which, as Evelyn Waugh once pointed out, is perfectly compatible with authorial profusion. Don’t you make the same error."

[JtH -- I agree with the whole addiction thing. But I take umbrage with the "slam the Trads" technique.

"traditionalists ... usually appear entirely oblivious to the menaces of cyberspace" is an incredible generalization. In fact, Traditionalists are acutely aware of the [hidden] menaces of cyberspace.

I am familiar with most Traditionalists blogs. Each author with whom I have spoken struggles with minimizing online time. Forum moderators are subject to the same addictions and struggles. The successful blogs/fora are those that have found the balance between online-time and real-world-time.]

Pseudonymous invective

But if only addiction’s problems were the sole, or even the worst, blogging hazards! Alas, they are among the least: which brings us to (ii). Every reader conversant with blogs’ comment sections – let alone with non-blog discussion fora – soon detects one fact above all that fills him, or that certainly should fill him, with dread. It is this: for every comment that comes from someone with the courage to sign his name, there are 100 that have been submitted under pseudonyms. If such deification of pseudonymity is not a coward’s charter, it is hard to think of what else it might be.

[JtH -- Real names are sometimes dangerous. Trads are NOT "entirely oblivious to the menaces of cyberspace". By using my real name, anyone is then able to find out where I live, work, and worship. One may find my wife and children. There are serious personal consequences to real names.]

Screwtape himself could scarcely hope to devise a more effective method of instilling mutual hate than what blogs and discussion fora provide: an orgy of ad hominem invective where each participant is fighting in the dark against fellow guerrillas.

[JtH -- Yes, the bad ones are bad. Thus are the effects of Original Sin. But of the blogs/fora listed above, the invective is kept to a minimum. Caveat emptor: Don't read that schtuff.]

Absent a full-time blog or forum moderator who will rigorously exclude such invective, and you can almost smell the witless malice oozing forth from your computer screen.

[JtH -- Was that just the afore-condemned invective?]

When, moreover, flame wars break out online between those participants who simply want to be better Catholics, and those (they are invariably male) who want to turn every last discussion group into the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Fan Club, or the League For Calumniating Women Who Were Seen To Wear Trousers For One Day In 1959, the overwhelming temptation is to burst out “Enough already”.

[JtH -- Indeed it is. And I have done as such. But are men not allowed to have opinions about the propriety of ladies' fashion? Most often, we are the ones who are the victims of said fashion. The Protocols and such are quickly becoming verboten on most blogs/fora because of the invective that ensues, as is the topic of ladies' dress. Although, the topic of post-modern fashion should be regularly evaluated and addressed according to Catholic principles.]

Dumbing-down prose

From (ii), and to a lesser extent from (i), it will be clear that most blogging, by its very nature, sins against the intellect. Regrettably, an additional sin (or, if we want to be super-generous, potential sin) arises from the typical Internet text itself. As anyone knows who has striven to write it, Internet-specific prose does two things, and only two things, very well. It simplifies, thanks to hyperlinks, the sourcing of allegations; and it encourages the aphoristic. Even on the best screens, such prose is physically tiring to read. Long paragraphs are incomparably harder to understand onscreen than they are on the printed page.

[JtH -- ... and so are terms such as aphoristic, Panglossian, & Luddite. Are Journals immune to the above criticisms?]

The constant temptation, then – as mentioned in point (iii) – is to dumb-down everything. Away with the subordinate clause. Hurl nuances into the rubbish-dump. Delete everything which requires reflection. Cultivate, at any price, the wisecrack. Sustained arguments are just too hard. Hit-and-run attacks are much more satisfying to arrange. As for correct spelling and grammar, well, who needs those? Write what you feel, baby. The egalitarian, democratic, and (therefore) deeply anti-Catholic implications of this are, or at any rate they should be, obvious. Which makes it all the more shameful that one needs to spell them out; but even the better Catholic blogs and online fora tend to abound in orthography (to say nothing of syntax) which three decades ago would have disgraced a ten-year-old.

[JtH -- I agree. Fortunately, those who suffer from such grammatical challenges are quickly called to task. Those blogs which persist in ignorance are seldom read and eventually fall away.

And where, in all this, does the unlucky Catholic author – alluded to in (iv) – happen to fit? An author, that is, who does his best to proclaim orthodox dogma;

[JtH -- Is there another kind of dogma?]

who writes as well as he can; who has a track record of publication in sane periodicals; and who hopes (however optimistically) to earn enough by magazine-writing to prevent the telephone and the hot water from being cut off? It is plain that for any such author, the blogosphere means unmitigated calamity. Who will pay for his output, when the output of every self-educated pseudo-Catholic freak can be read online for nothing? Or was Rerum Novarum never meant to apply to the scribbling set? No-one is suggesting that the Catholic author, or any author, should be cosseted; we know from the Soviet Writers’ Union and similar rackets the hazards of such totalitarian seclusion. But does the concept of a living wage for honest work mean anything at all, or was Leo XIII on a magic-mushroom trip when he said that it did?

[JtH -- Another ahah! moment. Only those 'authors' who fit the Egalitarian definition should be writing. Since everyone else is writing, opining, and pontificating for free, the Egalitarain author is severely deprived of providing a means by which to live. Amateur writers should get out of the way of the real writers.

The last part of the paragraph regarding Soviets and Leo XIII is just a disclaimer, "I'm not saying what I just said." Even though he just said it.]

Hatred of clergy

Leo XIII. Ah yes, popes. Always a sticky subject when two or three bloggers are gathered together (One Angelqueen.org participant has memorably described the present Holy Father as “that S.O.B.”).

[JtH -- As of this writing, there are over 1750 registered users on AngelQueen. One participant spoils the whole bunch? Should we apply the same standards to Bishops? Oh, wait, we are getting to that ...]

There are a few conspicuous and welcome exceptions, but the blogosphere’s overall level of anticlericalism must be experienced to be believed.

[JtH -- In general, this is because we are sheep without shepherds willing to lead. We are in a horrible crisis, and those who post to blogs/fora are fighting to keep their own faith. The clerics are not feeding us, despite Our Lord's admonition to "Feed my sheep."]

If some sadistic prelate wanted to make a case for the laity never being allowed to do anything, he need merely refer to many a traditionalist – to say nothing of many a conservative Novus Ordo – blog. (See the recent Oprah-like blog whining of one columnist, who is so upset by America’s Catholic sacerdotalscandals that he thinks he’ll join the Eastern Orthodox Church, so there.)

[JtH -- Sadistic prelates are already doing as such. They deny the Indult to groups because of what they perceive traditionalists to be. Blogs are merely the symptom, not the cause.

I will pray for the columnist who is leaving for Orthodoxy.]

Any Martian reading such blogs would assume that tarring and feathering the entire clergy for sexual abuse was not only the most important task facing a Catholic in 2006, but also the most important task that has ever faced a Catholic anywhere at any time. Those who attempt to point out the sheer self-destructive fatuity of such antics – and their repulsive resemblance to Ku Klux Klan guttersniping, circa 1924, about satyriatic priests and nuns – will merely have their comments deleted without explanation.

[JtH -- So those who spoke out against the scandals are akin to the KKK? Who, again, is guttersniping? Only non-Catholics and anti-Catholics "tarr[ed] and feather[ed] the entire clergy". Hurt and anger, as displayed by Catholics, are reasonable emotional reactions to the scandals.]

Some of us know whereof we speak. Blogs’ Americocentric nature merely exacerbates the problem. It is impossible to imagine a more effective, or pernicious, method than these blogs of spreading, among foreigners, the false but understandable belief that American Catholics are merely American Calvinists who get drunk.

[JtH -- Bad Americans! Is 'American' the newest international dirty word?

Americans have had a voice for over 200 years. We speak out against perceived grievances. To do less would be negligence.]

There might, of course, be a virtue in the blogosphere which, unmentioned in the foregoing, counteracts the above list of palpable evils.

I know of no such virtue.

[JtH -- Any blog/forum mentioned above can provide a list of participants who reverted/converted to the Catholic faith because of the information provided by said blog/forum. That is reason enough.]

Me Pirate Name ... ARRGH!

My pirate name is:

Mad Jimmy Flint

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Remember, Remember ...

In memory of Guy Fawkes Day:

Remember, Remember
The Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
I see of no reason,
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!

Penny for the Guy?

1961 Graduale Romanum

Jeffrey Tucker at The New Liturgical Movement has done a great service for Traditionalists everywhere. He has scanned a 1961 Graduale Romanum, and provided free of charge the fruits of his labor.

I am currently grabbing every file he has provided and will use them to support our local FSSP Chapel Gregorian Chant choir.

May God bless Jeffrey Tucker for his labor of love.

Chant Propers for Christ the King

I have put together a short document containing the Traditional plainchant propers for today, the Feast of Christ the King. I was hoping to have a more substantive post for this Feast of Feasts. Maybe this afternoon ...

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want ..

Dom and Amy have some thoughts on the Liturgy. Here is what Dom has to say:

• The Tridentine Mass should be given a universal indult because it was never suppressed.


• I have no real desire to make the Tridentine Mass part of my worship life. I am quite content to attend my Novus Ordo parish where I have to put up with banal music and--from certain priests, but not my pastor--banal homilies and the occasional liturgical wackiness.


• I would like a whole lot more Latin in the Mass up to and including everything but the readings and homily, especially when non-English speakers and English speakers are praying together. (I would add that I’d also like the Roman Canon to be said more often than not; come on, how much more time does it take really?)


• I’m sick of liturgists who think innovation and copying the secular culture (or worse, the secular culture of 1972) are signs of a healthy spirituality.


• The post-Vatican II changes that put the priest and his personality at the center of attention has been disastrous, not the least to the priests themselves.


• I’d like to replace 90 percent of hymns with simple chant.

So, what he really wants is a car with a Ferrari body, wheels, sound-system, and exhaust -- but not a Ferrari. The general argument is that I want orthodoxy, but only as long as it is on MY terms, and doesn't challenge me TOO much.

Unfiltered, unmitigated, uncompromising orthodoxy and orthopraxis will always be too much for some people.

Irish Festival

I will be at the Weston Irish Fest in Weston, MO this weekend visiting family and "taste-testing" the local brews.

During this time, my place of residence is within crawling distance of the event.

I will be the one with a pint in one hand, the wife holding the other, and 7 kids trying to keep up.

My favorite performers: Connie Dover, Eddie Delahunt, Bob Reeder, and Brigid's Cross.

A good time will be had by all.

Arrrh!

Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day

#1: "Arrr, I have made note of yer demands and I have but one question for ye: Will ye be wantin' slivers o' potato fried in the popular French style with that?"

My Inner-Geek is Showing

The BSD Test Delivery Survey is now available at:
BSD Certification

I think it would be great to take the Certification Exam, but I tend to agree with the reasons given by those who say they will not take the exam. The kinds of companies for which I work are not Certification hounds. (And if they were, I wouldn't have worked there.) This also tends to beg the question ... "Is certification valuable?"

I'm not convinced that it is.

A new Traditional Institute

Of course, Rorate Coeli has broken this story, which is currently only available in French. It looks like the name will be "Good Shepherd" -- 'Bon pasteur'. It will be headed by Fr. Philippe Laguérie, and subject to the Ecclesia Dei Commission.

Here is the Babelfish translation:

Rome has set up a new traditionalist fraternity to accomodate the former priests and seminarians of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X.

On September 8, 2006, the Congregation for the Clergy established a new religious institute, 'the Good Shepherd', centered around former priests and seminarians of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, separated from Rome since 1988, according to information collected by I.MEDIA. The seat of this new Fraternity will be in Bordeaux (France) at the church of Saint Eligius. The priests will exclusively celebrate according to the traditional liturgical rites of Saint Pius V.

On the morning of September 8, 2006, the feastday of the Nativity of the Virgin, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and charged with the EcclesiaDei Commission, signed the decree of erection of the institute of pontifical right of the 'Good Shepherd'. The Institute is an apostolic company of life dependant upon the Ecclesia Dei Commission, the Congregation for the Institute of Consecrated Life and the Society of Apostolic Life. In this decree, Cardinal Hoyos approved the statutes of the new institute,whose Superior General is a priest expelled from the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Abbé Philippe Laguérie.

Vatican sources indicate that "Benedict XVI himself wished this step" in which "the traditional missal of Saint Pius V is not a separate missal, but an extraordinary form of the single Roman rite". In the Vatican, and among the members of the new institute, it is said that "this agreement corresponds to the requests made formerly by Mgr. Lefebvre", separated from Rome in 1988.

Among the numbers of the new fraternity, there are five priests and several seminarians, who will arrive soon. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos committed himself celebrating these first ordinations. The persons in charge of the new fraternity also count on the fact that priests of Fraternity of Saint Pius X will choose to join them and that they will be able to found in various dioceses within 'personal parishes'. In Bordeaux, Paris and elsewhere, these priests are followed by a certain number of faithful attached to the missal of Saint Pius V, the liturgical rite liturgical in force before the liturgical reforms of 1969.

With this new institute, Rome chose to negotiate with those excluded from the Fraternity founded by Mgr. Lefebvre, rather than with the Fraternity itself. The reception of former integrist priests will not occur without in the Church of France. The Fraternity of St. Peter, founded in 1988 to accomodate faithful priests and seminarians wanting to remain attached to Rome in respect of liturgical tradition, could also suffer from this new creation. Even more so as some of its members seem ready to join 'the Institute of the Good Shepherd'.

Cardinal Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux, Member of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, might accept Saint Eligius Church as the seat of the Institute of Good Shepherd. It 'recussitates' a church of the diocese of Bordeaux occupied since January 2002 by Abbé Laguérie, then holy member of Fraternity Saint Pius X, with the support of the city council.

The reception by Rome of priests excluded from Fraternity Saint Pius X takes place as several bishops consecrated by Mgr Lefebvre into 1988 continue to harden the tone vis-a-vis with the Holy See. Mgr. Bernard Fellay, who was received by Benedict XVI in August 2005 at Castel Gandolfo, and was confirmed last July as the head of the Fraternity of Saint X, requested as a precondition to any negotiation with Rome "full freedom without conditions of the Tridentine Mass, and the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication of the four bishops" consecrated in 1988 by Mgr. Lefebvre. Since then, it has launched an initiative called "Million Rosary Bouquet" with which it invites the faithful to request "to obtain from Heaven the courage necessary for Benedict XVI to release the mass known as that of Saint Pius V".

In March 2006, Abbé Philippe Laguérie declared that an "agreement with Rome" was "an obvious choice, such that one wonders how it could leave the head of anyone" because "it is the constitution of the Church which requires it". This agreement, as written, initially does not have "the precondition, levelled all the doctrinal difficulties". It also invites its faithful "to read the signs, the demonstrations, the possibilities of the goodwill of the Romans to deal with someof delirious doctrinal errors and scandals of the years 1960-2000". It asks for "a total freedom of the liturgy, and for basic reasons, as well as total freedom to accept the Council for what it is", noting that "the document of the Pope to the curia (December 22) (...) indicates well that the spirit of the Council is bad".

In April 2006 at Lourdes, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard declared in front of all of the bishops of France that "the question of the relationship of Fraternity of Saint Pius X" deserved "a particular treatment". "We know that Pope Benedict XVI carries the concern from there", he explained, adding that, "in the weeks or the months ahead, it should give directives to facilitate the way towards a possible return to a full communion". "We will accomodate them in the faith and will accurately put them in?uvre" [?? - JtH], announced the Cardinal Ricard to the bishops.

Among the priests that make up the new traditional institute that were in turn expelled from Fraternity of Saint Piis X is Abbé Paul Aulagnier, a long time Fraternity Superior General in France (1976-1994), who was expelled in 2003 for defending the agreements known as 'of Campos'. In 2002, the Holy See had allowed the Brazilian Fraternity of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney to celebrate the Mass according to the Tridentine Missal with the proviso of recognizing the Vatican Council II interpreted "in the light of the tradition", and recognizing the validity of the Missal of Paul VI. Paul Aulagnier was authorized to exercise in the diocese of Clermont, without receiving particular mission in 2004. He also founded a house of reception in the diocese of Chartres.

Drawing media attention, Abbé Philippe Laguérie was expelled in August 2004 after having affirmed that Fraternity of Saint Pius X encountered serious problems related to a discouragement of priestly vocations in its various seminaries. He was subjected to an assignment in Mexico, a sanction which he refused before being expelled. Before that, within the Fraternity founded by Mgr Lefebvre, he had laid claim to the Parisian church of Saint Nicolas's Day of-Hanging-post, occupied by the faithful traditionalists since 1977. In 1993, he had tried to occupy another Parisian church, Saint-Germain-the resident of Auxerre. His work was successful in Bordeaux in obtaining Saint Eligius church in January 2002 with the support of the City Council, but not of the Archbishop.

Abbé Christophe Héry was expelled for having supported Abbé Laguérie, as well as Abbé Guillaume de Tanoüarn. The last founded the Association of Saint Marcel and Saint Paul in Paris. A fifth priest, stationed in Bordeaux, Abbé Henri Forestier, is one of the first members of the institute, with a deacon, soon to be ordained priest, Abbé Claude Prieur.

The Ecclesia Dei Commission was founded instituted by John Paul II in July 1988, and was created in order to "facilitate the full communion with the church those priests, the seminarians, the religious communities or the individual monks having had until now of the bonds with the fraternity founded by Mgr Lefebvre and who wish to remain with the successor of Peter in the Catholic Church by preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions".

Slap the Trads

It seems that the Powers-That-Be know that "for all" is an incorrect translation of the Latin "pro multis", but the Bishops are playing the partisan card, rather than pursuing Truth.

From The Remnant:

"For All" v. "For Many"

Bishops Fear Correct Translation Might be "Giving In" to "Lefebvrites"

Fr. Brian Harrison, O.S.

(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) Have you seen in the June proceedings of the US Bishops' Conference, on the authority of Cardinal George, no less, that the main reason our shepherds are refusing to go back to "for many" instead of "for all" in translating the words of consecration of the chalice "pro multis" is precisely to slap traditionalists in the face?

Far from showing any pastoral concern to bring back traditionalists who have gone into sedevacantism and/or at least material schism over this issue, their attitude seems solely self-righteous and self-serving.

I had long thought that maybe their unwillingness to restore "for many" was based on their ignorance of just how much "for all" has scandalized traditional Catholics. I'm afraid it's much worse than that: they are well aware of this widespread traditionalist anguish, but don't care!

They don't even bother to pretend that the translation decision now depends on objective linguistic scholarship. No, Cardinal George assures us that the main reason the key committee has opted to stay with "for all" is that going back to "for many" at this stage might seem like giving in to the "Lefebvrites" and other traditionalists who claim "for all" invalidates the Mass!

Whatever happened to our bishops' awareness of St. Paul's teaching in I Corinthians 10: 23-29 about charitable concern for the over-sensitive or scrupulous consciences of Christians scandalized by the practice of eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols? In itself, the practice is not wrong, says Paul, because those idols are objectively nothing; but you don't eat such meat under circumstances where you are going to shock and scandalize other brethren who sincerely see things differently. Likewise, the "for all" translation is not objectively invalid, but going back to "for many" would not only be in line with Tradition (and all the published Scripture versions of Jesus' words at the Last Supper!), it would overcome a major obstacle that many over-scrupulous Catholics find in accepting the validity of the vernacular Mass.

But among our gentle and loving Shepherds of Christ's flock, a petulant (childish?) insistence on "not giving in" - not even yielding one inch! - to the despised traditionalists evidently takes priority over even that reconciliation and Church "unity" which, in the 'ecumenical' context, justifies (in the sight of most modern bishops) any number of unheard-of novelties.

Oremus!

Fr. Brian Harrison, O.S.

Stand down, Rosa, you are not needed anymore

Do the Catholic kids get to ride the normal bus with the Protties, or do they have to ride the short bus?

Catholic children to be allowed use Protestant bus service
29/08/2006 - 09:44:40

The row over the provision of seats on a state-funded school bus service in Limerick appears to have been resolved.

The mother of two Catholic pupils who were refused permission to use the bus because of their religion had threatened legal action against Limerick City VEC unless it changed its stance.

The children are students at the mainly Protestant Villiers school on the North Circular
Road, which is served by the bus at the centre of the dispute.

The VEC said the service was only available to Protestant children who lived more than three miles from their nearest Protestant school.

A solicitor for the mother of the Catholic children says they have now received two passes in the post.

It is unclear who sanctioned the passes, but solicitor John Devane said the family were happy with the outcome and feel that they have been vindicated.

Where is Rosa Parks when you need her?

Catholic bus ban takes new turn
24 August 2006
By Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

THE ban on Catholic students travelling on a new bus to a Protestant school in Limerick took a new twist yesterday when it emerged that there are still seats available on the bus.

A Catholic couple, whose son and daughter attend the school were refused passes. Transport liaison officer, Deirdre Frawley, told Bernadette and Harry Gleeson that only children of Protestant denominations have an entitlement to transport on the bus, which will travel from Adare to Villiers School on the North Circular Road.

Ms Frawley disclosed yesterday that places on the bus had not been fully subscribed yet as that process was still ongoing.

She said there is provision in Department of Education guidelines to make concessions if the bus is not fully subscribed.

This could enable Catholic children travel on the bus if there are places.

She said that she will be writing to the Gleesons, who live at Caher Road, Mungret, shortly.

Ms Frawley said: "It would be inappropriate for me to comment on this letter as it has to be cleared by our legal advisers."

She said the Department sets out guidelines on who is entitled to travel on school buses.

Ms Frawley said: "It is my job to determine eligibility."

The Gleesons have instructed Limerick solicitor John Devane over the refusal to give passes to their children.

NFP Revisited

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is in the Colorado Springs Catholic News (again!). Since His Excellency has instituted new Marriage Preparation guidelines, two points have come to the forefront: the length of time for the preparation (one year), and the NFP requirement. The Bishop's article on the use of NFP is a bit lengthy for a blog post, but I think that it raises some interesting questions.

From the article:

The reason why NFP education will be required is that this is the truly viable and moral alternative to artificial contraception and the growing contraceptive mentality ...

But for what do 90% of Catholics use NFP? Ummm ... that would be 'avoiding a pregnancy'. They are seeking not to conceive. Can someone explain to me again how NFP is an alternative to the contraceptive mentality?

The next part of the article expounds on Catholic teaching of artificial contraception. However, I do take issue with the following statement.

Contraception is immoral for this simple reason: it violates the dignity of the human person as well as the divinely instituted meaning of marriage.

Here we see the standard Conservative Catholic catch-phrase 'dignity of the human person'. I have a couple of degrees from a good (decent) Liberal Arts Catholic College. But I have yet to get a succinct definition of 'dignity of the human person'. In the Psalter, David (as a figure of Christ), says that he is but a worm. So much for dignity.

But we also have a bigger problem. The human dignity card seems to trump the God-Creator card. Contraception is immoral (nay, evil) because Man is placed above God in the order and timeliness of creation. Contraception says, "No thanks, God, We know better than you. We know that you want to act through us in order to create an immortal soul, but we don't have time for that right now."

His Excellency seems to get the point, but for some reason places the above 'human dignity' before the offense of God. Later on, he identifies the incredible gift which God has given couples to participate in Creation ...

God, in fact, invites married couples to a unique participation in the power of creation.

... but still does not actively recognize the sin of contraception is first and primarily a shunting of God's creative power.

Next comes the phrase that makes my blood boil:

While the church teaches that artificial contraception is always sinful, the church also teaches the necessity of responsible parenthood. Part of what it means to be responsible parents can involve the spacing of children in a family.

Did you catch that? Responsible parenthood. It's all well and good to preach responsible parenthood, but what are the guidelines of such? What IS responsible parenthood? I want a positive definition, not one of those definitions that tell me what it is not. My wife and I have 7 (seven) children, ages 10 and younger. Are we responsible parents? We go to Mass with many other families with just as many children. Are any of them responsible parents?

From my rant below:

There is a logical question that flows from the above. Am I somehow an irresponsible parent if I do not use NFP? Why is it necessary, as a citizen of a First World Country, to plan a family? [Disclaimer: Grave matter and/or circumstances trump my objections.]
Every time a friend or family member throws the spitball of "responsible parenthood" in my direction, I whack a line-drive back at his head with the above questions. And invariably, he ends up with a goose-egg swelling over the left-eye. The teaching of NFP also instills a contraceptive mentality, which forms the grave intent required for mortal sins. Remember, Our Lord said that if you even look at a woman
lustfully, you are guilty of adultery. So what does that say about those who use the tool of NFP as a contraceptive? [Disclaimer as above.]

Next, His Excellency gets into the concept of periodic abstinence.

When a couple conscientiously and for just cause decides that the conception of a child ought to be delayed, the couple may refrain from
sexual intercourse during the days of the woman's fertile period.

Good. He mentioned just cause. I think it should more along the lines of serious or grave, but at least he is qualifying the use of NFP. But you know what? If you have just reason for delaying the conception of a child, then stop with the lovin' for 6 months, not the two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off garbage. If you don't have a serious enough cause to give it up for 6 months, then you shouldn't be using NFP in the first place.

His Excellency then says about NFP,

it has absolutely proved itself to be a boon to marriages.

I have seen this statement a gazillion times. (And, yes, 'gazillion' is a word. Look it up.) My reply to this 'boon' is, "Show me the money!"

How has it been a boon? I call B.S. Every man that I have talked to about NFP gives lip-service to the "closeness" and "increased intimacy" mantra. The fact is, I am the man of my house, and I am letting some chart tell me how and when I can love my wife. It is frustrating, demeaning, and turns the man or woman into a begging dog 3 out of every 4 months. What was that about the 'dignity of the human person' again? Platitudes are nice. But reality is that NFP does nothing for the average marriage, but is a monthly point of contention for man and wife.

If you seriously need to avoid a pregnancy, then don't have sex, and flee from the near occasions. Hey, you did it for the year before you got married in Colorado and Kentucky-- you can do it again.

I am a Providentialist. (Hey! Don't look at me like I just used a dirty word.) I happen to take Our Lord at His Word, (or at least try to)

31 Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?
32 For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
33 Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

His Excellency echoes this in his letter:

We must trust that God will not let us down. He will transform the counterfeit into something better and more fulfilling than we ever imagined.

I just hope and pray that the use NFP does not become another measuring stick for orthodoxy. I have a feeling it already has.

Always a Joyous Occasion, Part II

Congratulations to Der Tommissar (and the Missus, of course) on the birth of Quarta.

Also notice that DT now uses a tiny little picture of a pint of Guinness as the site icon (which shows up in the address bar).

Cheers to you and yours, Tom:

Peeve of the Day: Word Usage

I have seen this word used enough that I am beginning to think that it will become part of the dictionary.

The word is orientated.

People! For all that is good and holy! The word is ORIENT!

Let's look at an example:

I want to become more orientated to God.

NO! It should read: I want to become more oriented to God. See the difference?

The problem people have is taking the verb form of a word (to orient), making it a noun (orientation), and then using the noun form to cobble together a verb (orientated). Why do that? The verb form already exists!

So, please, all yous half-literate, I-can-post-shtuff-on-the-internet-now-and-have-a-voice bloggers -- do us all a favor. Keep an Oxford English Dictionary next to your computer and look up everyword before you type it.

But that will take too much time, Jimmy, and I will never be able to post a blog entry.

My point exactly. I stop reading your blog when I see the word 'orientated', anyway. And really, my standards aren't that high. After all, I am a member of The League.

Lebanon: Catholic Action Needed

[guest post by the founder of Angelqueen.org, John Grasmeier -- JtH]

Lebanon: Catholic Action Needed
By John Grasmeier
July, 2006

Link & comments: http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8635
"For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." - St. Paul to the Ephesians

The situation as it stands now

Lebanon is a country that was just beginning to recover from decades of suffering and civil war. Tourism, commerce and industry had finally begun to return to a war-ravaged nation. Instead of constant suffering and war, peace and relative security was beginning to gain a marked toe-hold.

After only a few weeks time, the dream of Lebanon's recovery has come to an abrupt and very tragic halt.

After Hezbollah guerillas captured 2 Israeli soldiers in an ambush, Israel implemented a pre-planned “plug and play” military operation that is now destroying crucial infrastructure and wreaking unholy havoc on a helpless and lamenting civilian population. In a virtual instant, dreams of any recovery have been dashed for now and for years to come.

As of the time of this article, hundreds of civilians have been killed - mostly women and children - while few Hezbollah guerilla (the supposed targets) deaths have been recorded. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are without homes. Thousands have been injured and nearly all business activity has ground to a halt. Transportation assets and housing has been reduced to rubble. What was once a recovering and modernizing society in the mostly devolved Middle East has been set back decades. In fact it may not recover at all. Even if Lebanon were rebuilt tomorrow (as opposed to taking many years), tourists will no longer see it as a travel destination and foreigners will be loathe to invest in its economy.

What a fine catastrophe to be created over two captured soldiers.

Holy Mother Church in Lebanon

Although it goes without saying that properly formed Catholics are always prayerful and concerned with such grave matters as war and human suffering, such a situation would not under normal circumstances be specifically to related to the faith or dealt with directly by most Catholic media outlets such as this one.

These however, are not normal circumstances.

Lebanon is the absolute last nation in the Mideast where there still exists substantial Christian population, or what’s left of one. Approximately 36% of Lebanese citizens are Maronite Eastern rite Catholics. If Lebanon continues to be destabilized or devolves into further chaos, there exists the distinct possibility that the Christians living there will once again begin to flee en masse, as they did during the scourging of previous tribulations when their numbers comprised over 80% of the population. We should be ever mindful that once this final bastion of Catholicism is vanquished, the Middle East will then (save for a few tiny remnants) be tragically devoid of any noticeable Catholic or even Christian society.

Our Holy Father, through communications released by the Holy See, has properly expressed righteous indignation over this human tragedy. All good Catholics should share his outrage, and thus far most have. Traditional, contemporary, Orthodox and other Catholic websites and publications have realized that our Eastern brethren and their families, who are mere victims trapped in this enormous tragedy, need our avocations, our support and our prayers.

Although many of us are Western Catholics who generally tend to hold many conservative political views (as does this author), you should not succumb to the prevalent groupthink that is currently infecting the “Israel can do no wrong” American/Western right. This flawed and dangerous mindset is being driven by factions that possess varying motivational inspirations, but shared goals. Two of the more prominent of these factions that immediately come to mind are the neoconservatives (who have largely hijacked and debilitated Western conservatism) and dispensational Protestants who adhere to the theologically absurd “rapture” heresy. Know that the neoconservatives are not your friends, and that the dispensational Protestant lemmings (and useful idiots of the Israelis)
would madly have a human disaster beyond all comprehension if they – God forbid – ever were to achieve their “end is nigh” unholy dream.

Although taking a proper Catholic position may cause us become somewhat isolated from many of our otherwise political and functional alliances, we are called first to engage the world as members of Christ's universal Church. This is not optional or voluntary. We are compelled by our faith to propagate Christian ideals, speak to injustice and condemn evil regardless of any worldly concerns or potential condemnations. Our faith is sacrificial by its very nature, and has been since its inception when Our Lord died on the cross.

What can be done?

Catholics are historicly a creative and dynamic bunch, who certainly don't need to rely on an article such as this for ideas to affect change. That being said, here are just a few suggestions:

· As our Holy Father recently implored, we must sacrifice, fast and pray not only for the victims, but for their "know not" victimizers as well.

· One of the first casualties of war is truth, so become well informed. Do not believe everything you're told by the media.

· If you're a writer, you should write. Bloggers should blog, speakers should speak and preachers should preach. We must gently but firmly insist to others that there is nothing goodly or Godly about the current evil metastasizing in Lebanon.

· If you have the means and you'd like to contribute financially to help ameliorate the human suffering in Lebanon, the Vatican website has set up a fund to accommodate such.

· If you are in a leadership position or have some other type of influence, use it. If you're a Catholic politician, do not follow the shameful example of some of your counterparts, who are too fearful, compromised or ignorant to speak out against clear evil. Do not throw your lot in with your spiritually-vacant and faithless colleagues such as Rick Santorum, who while attending a "Christians United For Israel" (CUFI) event threw his full support behind Israel's wrathful temper tantrum while standing under a giant ceiling to floor Israeli flag. If you are a politician or leader who is unwilling to work towards bringing about a providential solution to this horror, then please just keep quiet. Uselessness or weakness is preferential to sinfully exacerbating an already bad situation.

· If you are none of the above and all you have to offer is prayer, then please pray - and pray hard. Our Lord answers the righteous prayers of His children.

· Come together. Although we often argue amongst ourselves and our faith cuts across many walks of life, there certain times when we truly must be as universal and one as possible.

Whatever you do, don't just stand there looking uncatechized. Our Lord, Holy Mother Church, the world and most particularly our Catholic brothers and sisters in Lebanon need your help.

© Copyright 2006, angelqueen.org. This information may be reproduced at will providing the content remains intact and a link is provided to the original.

Whatever you do, don't just stand there looking uncatechized. Our Lord, Holy Mother Church, the world and most particularly our Catholic brothers and sisters in Lebanon need your help.

Always a Joyous Occasion

Congratulations to W of Traditio in Radice and his wife Monika on the birth of their first-born son, Marcel Baldwin. Apparently, mom and baby are doing well, and were due back home on Sunday.

My closet Feeneyite tendencies want to know, "Is he baptised yet?"

( I know the answer, of course. It has only been 3 days. But being a true Evil Trad, W will have him baptised as soon as possible.)

May Almighty God bless the W family

Colorado Springs Marriage Prep

Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs has recently published a quick intro to the changes which he will be implementing regarding Marriage Preparation within the diocese.

In general, Bishop Sheridan is a pretty straight shot, but he misses the mark on a couple things. First, the good stuff:

1. The new policies call for a full year to be devoted to preparation for marriage. The reason for this change (from six months to one year) is to accommodate the increase in the amount of preparation that is called for. In our culture, marriage is attacked from every quarter. What may have sufficed as adequate preparation a generation ago simply does not suffice any longer.

One year of spiritual preparation is not unreasonable when you consider that most couples begin their "secular" preparations (securing the reception hall, planning menus, attire, etc.) at least a year in advance of the marriage. That is the time to meet with the parish priest (or deacon) to begin the more important preparation — preparation to enter into and live out a life-long commitment that is grounded in the bond that is created when a couple exchanges vows.

One year to prepare? Despite complaints from some in the diocese, I agree with the Bishop. I have previously spent 4 years within the diocesan-sanctioned Marriage Prep program. Frankly, it was abysmal. Marriage Prep was an afterthought for most couples, and then it was only an item on the list to cross-off so that they could have sex licitly. Spending one whole year preparing to receive a Sacrament that will shape the rest of your life is most prudent.

2. In addition to ensuring that the bride and groom are compatible with each other, a renewed emphasis on the sacramentality and indissolubility of marriage will occupy a prominent place in marriage preparation. Especially helpful will be instruction in Pope John Paul II’s "theology of the body." Our late beloved Holy Father has left the church the great gift of these instructions on the meaning human sexuality and marriage. We want all candidates for marriage to be exposed to this beautiful teaching.

I agree with the first sentence, the rest is just the Neo-Con party line that Theology of the Body is the greatest thing since sliced white bread. Every other teaching of the Church can be summed up in one or two phrases. "Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully Human." And, "By a singular grace, Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin at conception." Easy, right? So what is ToB? Can someone sum it up for me without referring me to a 400-page tome? And again, why should I base the rest of my life on it?

3. While some pastors have required couples to become familiar with a program of Natural Family Planning, this has not been consistent throughout the diocese. Mandatory instruction in Natural Family Planning will constitute a very important part of our new marriage preparation policies.

Yawn. Learn how not to have babies, the Catholic Way!

Among the threats to marriage in our culture, there is none greater than the contraceptive mentality that has become almost commonplace in the marriages of non-Catholics and Catholics alike. Forty-five years ago, when the oral contraceptive became readily available, it was touted as the answer to all the problems of married life. Now we know that contraception, far from being the panacea that was promised, has been a factor in the disintegration of countless marriages.

Agree completely. I got your back on that one, Your Excellency. But I have a problem with the next part ...

It is essential that married couples adopt a program of family planning and responsible parenthood that is in accord with the teaching of the church. Natural Family Planning is just such a program.

There is a logical question that flows from the above. Am I somehow an irresponsible parent if I do not use NFP? Why is it necessary, as a citizen of a First World Country, to plan a family? [Disclaimer: Grave matter and/or circumstances trump my objections.]

Every time a friend or family member throws the spitball of "responsible parenthood" in my direction, I whack a line-drive back at his head with the above questions. And invariably, he ends up with a goose-egg swelling over the left-eye. The teaching of NFP also instills a contraceptive mentality, which forms the grave intent required for mortal sins. Remember, Our Lord said that if you even look at a woman lustfully, you are guilty of adultery. So what does that say about those who use the tool of NFP as a contraceptive? [Disclaimer as above.]

The rest of the article is good Bishop-ing.

There is much more to marriage preparation than what has been highlighted here. Soon, when the new policies are promulgated, brochures outlining all the steps of preparation will available from your parish priest or director.

Sometimes couples preparing for marriage ask why the church demands so much preparation of them. The answer is simple. It is not because the church wants to place more hurdles for couples to jump. Rather, the reason why so much is demanded is because the church treasures marriage and family life so much.

If the church did not hold the holy state of marriage in such high esteem, she would care very little if couples were prepared for marriage or not.

It has been said by many people, and I agree completely: The authentic renewal of the church and then of our society and culture will derive from the renewal of marriage and family life. The family is the primary building block of any society or civilization. When marriage and families are strong, nations are strong. This renewal will come about when a new sense of commitment to the vows of marriage by our Catholic people and others of good will becomes a reality. Solid preparation for marriage will go a long way toward promoting that renewal.

I ask all couples who will be looking forward to marriage, as well as their parents and friends who want only the best married life for the couple, to see in these new marriage preparation policies the opportunity to ground their marriage in the rock-solid teaching of the Catholic Church.

May God bless abundantly all married couples and all those who are contemplating marriage.

Amen.

But I feel sorry for the Trad that wants to get married in our diocese. NFP? ToB? No thanks.

SSPX Superior General

Bishop Fellay has been re-elected.

Original is here:
http://www.laportelatine.org/accueil/accueil.php

(I haven't been able to access the site. It's not like I read French, anyway).

The Pope has BMs ?

From Athanasius Contra Mundum:

Instead ripping their [Conservatives -- JtH] hair out become[sic] some evil Traditionalists like ourselves (and we are usually termed neo-protestants because we don't believe that every BM the Pope makes is inspired by the Spirit) dare to suggest that their liturgy created by a team of liturgists is inferior to the Traditional Mass.

The rest of the post is the typical Trad rant justifying the existence of the Classical Roman Rite prior to the Second Vatican Council.

Yawn.

p.s. Is ACM allowed to use the term "Evil Traditionalist"? I thought these guys had a corner on the market.

FSSP Superior General

According to the word on the street, the new Superior General for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is Fr. John Berg.

American

Does being a trad or rad-trad mean you have to be anti-American?

(anti-Americanist, yes. anti-United States of America? NO!)

Regular Guy

Brian is a Regular Guy. Posts on regular stuff.

Since the latest craze in Trad Blog circles is the modesty card and women wearing pants, I thought I would post the regular guy's view on women wearing bifurcated garments. Basically, women in pants is a big PITA. I will let him explain his completely secular, modernist, insert-slur-for-non-Catholic-here point-of-view.

By the way, the Regular Guy Column is an entertaining read. Just ignore all of the soccer stuff.

Because I'm Irish ...

3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.

142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.

58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.

31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.

19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate.

British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker pulling accidents. (http://www.christmascrackershop.com  click tradition of crackers on the left)

101 people since 1999 have had broken parts of plastic toys pulled out of the soles of their feet.

18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.

A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E (is that the ER? -- JtH) in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.

5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of control Scalextric cars.  (model cars)

and finally...

In 2000 eight Brits cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.

Kreuz

Man! I wish I could read German. These guys look like fun. Almost like the Slashdot of Trads.

And, yes, I know they have an English section, but it just ain't as cool as the original. Why don't you thoughtful, mouthy, debating types head over there and start representin' for us ego-centric Americans.

Heretic ... no wait, Heathen!

Tom has blogged on this earlier, but I am having my own little run-in with Mrs. Lovric of The Winnepeg Sun over at Angelqueen.

Lydia: Our baby is full of original sin. That's right. Not yet eight months old, our daughter has yet to be baptized and will therefore never grace the gates of heaven. Some will no doubt rebuke our decision to turn away from the Catholic church. That's fine. But reading the latest edict issued by the Vatican, my husband and I feel further justified in our resolve to raise a heretic.

JtH: Lydia, just for the record, you're an idiot. Five minutes of research would have shown you that you are raising a heathen, not a heretic. YOU, dear lady, are the heretic (and an apostate, for that matter). Having been baptized, you are dissenting from the Church
on a matter of faith and morals. Your statement is a textbook example of heresy.

Lydia: Sorry to disappoint you J, but I did not use the term "heretic" incorrectly.
The Oxford English Dictionary describes heresy as the following:

• noun (pl. heresies) 1 belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine. 2 opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.

So, we are indeed raising or planning to raise a heretic.

JtH: Silly me! Understanding heresy in a Catholic sense! According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (and St. Thomas Aquinas), heresy is

"a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas"

The Encyclopedia goes on to explain:

"There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be ignorance of the true creed, erroneous judgment, imperfect apprehension and comprehension of dogmas ..."

So your daughter cannot be a heretic, since she has not professed faith in Christ. I know the headline sounds so much cooler with the term "Heretic", but until she is baptized, she is a heathen.

Heathens don't sell copy, though.

Shmodesty

As has been noted elsewhere, the issue of Modesty has become a hot topic amongst Traditionalist blogs (and blogs) and fora (and here, too).

One interesting observation is made by Fr. MacDonald, an SSPX priest posting on the Angelqueen forum:

Tee-shirts are of course underwear. They are supposed to be worn under a shirt. For non-Americans, the tee-shirt is specifically American men's underwear. We generally do not wear "singlets." They used to only come in plain white, without any writing or logos.

The first big revolution was the V neck tee-shirt which allowed one to leave the top button on his shirt unbuttoned. It was very uncool in the 70s to button the top button of your shirt. With the shirt open you also could not wear a tie.

The revolutionaries then started to colour their own tee-shirts, tie die was all the fad, leading the manufacturers to make the modern
coloured logo-splattered tee shirts.

They are underwear and should revert to being underwear.

I have a book with photos of people enjoying an afternoon at a Perth beach. They are all fully dressed. It was a Sunday so the men are wearing jackets and ties. Probably many of them are Protestants. We must not forget that the entire Sunday belongs to God. We should wear our Sunday clothes all day out of respect for our Lord. This is as we go about keeping the day holy, especially by participating in the liturgy and performing the works of mercy.

Remember: To abstain from servile work and assist at Mass is only the minimum required to avoid mortal sin.

So, according to Fr. MacDonald, tee-shirts are properly undergarments. That makes sense. When shopping for tee-shirts for men, one would normally look amidst the undergarment area of the men's section. By displaying such garments in said area, the Western secular world (not only America) recognizes that tee-shirts are undergarments. (Is the horse dead yet?)

And again, Fr. MacDonald implies that not remaining in one's Sunday best throughout all of Sunday is proximate to mortal sin.

How do we explain this (original), then? An undergarment is on prominent display. The perfectly-functional button-down shirt is wide open. Is it ever acceptable for one (whether male or female) to have one's undergarments on display? Is this not flagrant disregard for the virtue of modesty? Are those who display tee-shirts "revolutionaries" as Father outlines above?

Breviary Reprint Rumor

Rumor has it that a reprint of the Latin/English 1962-1964 Roman Breviary will be available from Angelus Press on July 4, 2006. (Although there is no mention of it on the site.)

Baronius Press is also working on an Breviary reprint, to be available sometime this year.

Baronius and Angelus currently have 1962 Missal reprints available. Ahh, the sweet smell of competition.

Fr. Solanus Casey's Cause

Fr. Benignus of Sant' Ilario writes of his great admiration for Fr. Casey:

Fr. Solanus was certainly an extraordinary man, a replica of St. Francis, a real Capuchin. The wonderful spontaneous tribute paid to him by Catholic and non-Catholic alike is surely an ample proof that our traditional spirituality is still very much capable of winning the people among whom we work to a realization of the primacy of the spiritual and Catholic outlook on life. May he still continue to do much good from heaven, bringing many souls nearer to God and inspiring his own Capuchin brothers with something of his humble spirit.

-- Document III, Fr. Benignus of Sant' Ilario, 12 February 1958, Positio (I), 292.

Fr. Solanus Casey was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II with the promulgation of the Decree of Heroic Virtue on July 11, 1995. Should he be canonized (Deo volente), he will be the first man born in the United States to be so.

Quote of the Day

When Jesus sends crosses and trials into our life, He is inviting us to help Him save the world.

-- Fr. Solanus Casey, OFM, Cap.

The 95 Theses of "Fr." Matthew Fox

Mmmmm ... I love the smell of heretics after lighting themselves on fire. I wonder, how far will this spread? Maybe Fox is on to something! The League of Evil Traditionalists need a "Traditionalist Manifesto", written under the name of Gazpacho Marx.

Everything below this line is sic.

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Here is the offical St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church report on the event in full.

Come join us for the ceremonial nailing of the theses in the doors of all the Churches in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

For more information about this sanctioned and sponsored event, contact Father Dubrycker directly at:
"Father Debruycker" jdebruycker471@mac.com or jdebruycker@stjoan.com,

By phone

office: 612.823-8205
home 612 825-5811

Matthew Fox walked into the church at St. Joan of Arc on the evening of April 28th and nailed 95 Theses to a door in the church. His action was reminiscent of Martin Luther’s nailing his Theses to the church door at Wittenberg, German over 500 years ago. Don’t expect to see the Fox Theses nailed to THE door of the church. Out of respect for his venue and so that all of the 300 or so people gathered to hear his lecture could witness the event, Fox brought his own door!

Fox greeted the St. Joan of Arc community with the words “I love this church.” In fact when Fox scheduled several lectures in Minneapolis, he called St. Joan’s and inquired if he could also speak here. The theme of his lecture was “A New Reformation” which is also the title of his newest book whose subtitle is “Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity.”

Fox wrote the 95 Theses shortly after the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to Pope. By coincidence he had been invited to speak on Pentecost Sunday at the Bad Herrenalb Healing Center in Frankfurt, Germany. As he states in his book “Given these circumstances, I could not in conscience speak on the Pentecost of rebirth of the church.” He awoke early one morning and the 95 theses poured from his pen. The Theses flow from Fox’s life and “practicing religion and spirituality.” Fox described the process of obtaining a permit to post the Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, a permission that Martin Luther most likely did not need. The current rules require that one to stay 50 feet away from the door so that the view tourists have is not impeded. Fox thought the 50 foot distance was not conducive to reenacting Luther’s actions. So with persistence he obtained permission to post his Theses at the door itself.

Fox told his audience that he finds many parallels between Luther’s time and the present era. According to Fox, Luther’s Reformation was a product of a number of forces including the invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, corruption of the Catholic Church at the highest levels and the rise of an educated elite. Fox contends that the forces at work today that contribute to a new reformation are the electronic revolution, the waning of nation-states and the rise of multinational, global corporations, the corruption and ineffectiveness of western religion and an awakened scholarship. Fox did not mince his words in characterizing the current state of the Catholic and Protestant churches. In the Catholic Church Fox said he sees “corruption at the top” and in the Protestant Church he sees “apathy”.

After describing the genesis for his Theses, Fox addressed the second theme of his book, “Two Christianities: Time for a Divorce”. According to Fox, today’s Catholic Church does not want theology, it wants ideology. Fox believes this is one cause of the priest pedophile crisis. Fox surmised that in the business environment, a CEO under whom such actions occurred would be gone the next day. Not so with the bishops said Fox. The Boston Cardinal was left in place several years before resigning and then transferred to a position in Rome. At the same time Fox noted that the three most read theologians were expelled from the church, an effort Fox said to dumb down the church.

Fox contended that the issue of homosexuality was splitting the church. He compared the issue to Galileo three centuries ago being tried and convicted of heresy for teaching that the sun was the center of the solar system. Both the nature of the universe in Galileo’s time and homosexuality now are scientific issues, said Fox. Fox noted that when Pope John Paul reinstated Galileo he said it was a lesson that religion should listen to science. When Cardinal Ratzinger spoke out against homosexuality, Fox said there was not one reference to science. Fox believes there are far more important issues to deal with than homosexuality, issues such as racism and economic imbalance. Why, he questions, do we let this issue of homosexuality take such energy.

Fox said he sees mainstream Christianity as a sleeping giant. “My work”, he said, “is to kick the ecclesiastical cadaver to see if there is any life in it.” According to Fox there is life after Roman Catholicism. But you don’t leave the bus voluntarily he said, just as Rosa Parks did not exit the bus over 50 years ago. But if you stay, Fox said, you should make some noise. Fox encouraged his audience to go out on Pentecost Sunday and pound his Theses on doors all around the city and to bring the media. Conservatives learned how to use the media, Fox says, while liberals were feeding the poor and looking at footnotes.

MATHEW FOX's 95 THESES to be nailed on Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Church doors on Pentecost Sunday!

Like Luther, I present 95 theses or in my case, 95 faith observations drawn from my 64 years of living and practicing religion and spirituality. I trust I am not alone in recognizing these truths. For me they represent a return to our origins, a return to the spirit and the teaching of Jesus and his prophetic ancestors, and of the Christ which was a spirit that Jesus’ presence and teaching unleashed.

1. God is both Mother and Father.

2. At this time in history, God is more Mother than Father because the feminine is most missing and it is important to bring gender balance back.

3. God is always new, always young and always “in the beginning.”

4. God the Punitive Father is not a God worth honoring but a false god and an idol that serves empire-builders. The notion of a punitive, all-male God, is contrary to the full nature of the Godhead who is as much female and motherly as it is masculine and fatherly.

5. “All the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.” (Eckhart) Thus people who worship a punitive father are themselves punitive.

6. Theism (the idea that God is ‘out there’ or above and beyond the universe) is false. All things are in God and God is in all things (panentheism).

7. Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive.

8. All are called to be prophets which is to interfere with injustice.

9. Wisdom is Love of Life (See the Book of Wisdom: “This is wisdom: to love life” and Christ in John’s Gospel: “I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance.”)

10. God loves all of creation and science can help us more deeply penetrate and appreciate the mysteries and wisdom of God in creation. Science is no enemy of true religion.

11. Religion is not necessary but spirituality is.

12. “Jesus does not call us to a new religion but to life.” (Bonhoeffer) Spirituality is living life at a depth of newness and gratitude, courage and creativity, trust and letting go, compassion and justice.

13. Spirituality and religion are not the same thing any more than education and learning, law and justice, or commerce and stewardship are the same thing.

14. Christians must distinguish between God (masculine and history, liberation and salvation) and Godhead (feminine and mystery, being and non-action).

15. Christians must distinguish between Jesus (an historical figure) and Christ (the experience of God-in-all-things).

16. Christians must distinguish between Jesus and Paul.

17. Jesus, not unlike many spiritual teachers, taught us that we are sons and daughters of God and are to act accordingly by becoming instruments of divine compassion.

18. Ecojustice is a necessity for planetary survival and human ethics and without it we are crucifying the Christ all over again in the form of destruction of forests, waters, species, air and soil.

19. Sustainability is another word for justice, for what is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not.

20. A preferential option for the poor, as found in the base community movement, is far closer to the teaching and spirit of Jesus than is a preferential option for the rich and powerful as found in, for example, Opus Dei.

21. Economic Justice requires the work of creativity to birth a system of economics that is global, respectful of the health and wealth of the earth systems and that works for all.

22. Celebration and worship are key to human community and survival and such reminders of joy deserve new forms that speak in the language of the twenty-first century.

23. Sexuality is a sacred act and a spiritual experience, a theophany (revelation of the Divine), a mystical experience. It is holy and deserves to be honored as such.

24. Creativity is both humanity’s greatest gift and its most powerful weapon for evil and so it ought to be both encouraged and steered to humanity’s most God-like activity which all religions agree is: Compassion.

25. There is a priesthood of all workers (all who are doing good work are midwives of grace and therefore priests) and this priesthood ought to be honored as sacred and workers should be instructed in spirituality in order to carry on their ministry effectively.

26. Empire-building is incompatible with Jesus’ life and teaching and with Paul’s life and teaching and with the teaching of holy religions.

27. Ideology is not theology and ideology endangers the faith because it replaces thinking with obedience, and distracts from the responsibility of theology to adapt the wisdom of the past to today’s needs. Instead of theology it demands loyalty oaths to the past.

28. Loyalty is not a sufficient criterion for ecclesial office—intelligence and proven conscience is.

29. No matter how much the television media fawn over the pope and papacy because it makes good theater, the pope is not the church but has a ministry within the church. Papalolotry is a contemporary form of idolatry and must be resisted by all believers.

30. Creating a church of Sycophants is not a holy thing. Sycophants (Webster’s dictionary defines them as “servile self-seeking flatterers”) are not spiritual people for their only virtue is obedience. A Society of Sycophants — sycophant clergy, sycophant seminarians, sycophant bishops, sycophant cardinals, sycophant religious orders of Opus Dei, Legioneers of Christ and Communion and Liberation, and the sycophant press--do not represent in any way the teachings or the person of the historical Jesus who chose to stand up to power rather than amassing it.

31. Vows of pontifical secrecy are a certain way to corruption and cover-up in the church as in any human organization.

32. Original sin is an ultimate expression of a punitive father God and is not a Biblical teaching. But original blessing (goodness and grace) is biblical.

33. The term “original wound” better describes the separation humans experience on leaving the womb and entering the world, a world that is often unjust and unwelcoming than does the term “original sin.”

34. Fascism and the compulsion to control is not the path of peace or compassion and those who practice fascism are not fitting models for sainthood. The seizing of the apparatus of canonization to canonize fascists is a stain on the church.

35. The Spirit of Jesus and other prophets calls people to simple life styles in order that “the people may live.”

36. Dancing, whose root meaning in many indigenous cultures is the same as breath or spirit, is a very ancient and appropriate form in which to pray.

37. To honor the ancestors and celebrate the communion of saints does not mean putting heroes on pedestals but rather honoring them by living out lives of imagination, courage and compassion in our own time, culture and historical moment as they did in theirs.

38. A diversity of interpretation of the Jesus event and the Christ experience is altogether expected and welcomed as it was in the earliest days of the church.

39. Therefore unity of church does not mean conformity. There is unity in diversity. Coerced unity is not unity.

40. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of working through participatory democracy in church structures and hierarchical modes of being can indeed interfere with the work of the Spirit.

41. The body is an awe-filled sacred Temple of God and this does not mean it is untouchable but rather that all its dimensions, well named by the seven charkas, are as holy as the others.

42. Thus our connection with the earth (first chakra) is holy; and our sexuality (second chakra) is holy; and our moral outrage (third chakra) is holy; and our love that stands up to fear (fourth chakra) is holy; and our prophetic voice that speaks out is holy (fifth chakra); and our intuition and intelligence (sixth chakra) are holy; and our gifts we extend to the community of light beings and ancestors (seventh chakra) are holy.

43. The prejudice of rationalism and left-brain located in the head must be balanced by attention to the lower charkas as equal places for wisdom and truth and Spirit to act.

44. The central chakra, compassion, is the test of the health of all the others which are meant to serve it for “by their fruits you will know them” (Jesus).

45. “Joy is the human’s noblest act.” (Aquinas) Is our culture and its professions, education and religion, promoting joy?

46. The human psyche is made for the cosmos and will not be satisfied until the two are re-united and awe, the beginning of wisdom, results from this reunion.

47. The four paths named in the creation spiritual tradition more fully name the mystical/prophetic spiritual journey of Jesus and the Jewish tradition than do the three paths of purgation, illumination and union which do not derive from the Jewish and Biblical tradition.

48. Thus it can be said that God is experienced in experiences of ecstasy, joy, wonder and delight (via positiva).

49. God is experienced in darkness, chaos, nothingness, suffering, silence and in learning to let go and let be (via negativa).

50. God is experienced in acts of creativity and co-creation (via creativa).

51. All people are born creative. It is spirituality’s task to encourage holy imagination for all are born in the “image and likeness” of the Creative One and “the fierce power of imagination is a gift from God.” (Kaballah)

52. If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance; if you can talk you are an artist. (African proverb and Native American saying)

53. God is experienced in our struggle for justice, healing, compassion and celebration (via transformativa).

54. The Holy Spirit works through all cultures and all spiritual traditions and blows “where it wills” and is not the exclusive domain of any one tradition and never has been.

55. God speaks today as in the past through all religions and all cultures and all faith traditions none of which is perfect and an exclusive avenue to truth but all of which can learn from each other.

56. Therefore Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism are a necessary part of spiritual praxis and awareness in our time.

57. Since the “number one obstacle to interfaith is a bad relationship with one’s own faith,” (the Dalai Lama) it is important that Christians know their own mystical and prophetic tradition, one that is larger than a religion of empire and its punitive father images of God.

58. The cosmos is God’s holy Temple and our holy home.

59. Fourteen billion years of evolution and unfolding of the universe bespeak the intimate sacredness of all that is.

60. All that is is holy and all that is is related for all being in our universe began as one being just before the fireball erupted.

61. Interconnectivity is not only a law of physics and of nature but also forms the basis of community and of compassion. Compassion is the working out of our shared interconnectivity both as to our shared joy and our shared suffering and struggle for justice.

62. The universe does not suffer from a shortage of grace and no religious institution is to see its task as rationing grace. Grace is abundant in God’s universe.

63. Creation, Incarnation and Resurrection are continuously happening on a cosmic as well as a personal scale. So too are Life, Death and Resurrection (regeneration and reincarnation) happening on a cosmic scale as well as a personal one.

64. Biophilia or Love of Life is everyone’s daily task.

65.Necrophilia or love of death is to be opposed in self and society in all its forms.

66. Evil can happen through every people, every nation, every tribe, and every individual human and so vigilance and self-criticism and institutional criticism are always called for.

67. Not all who call themselves “Christian” deserve that name just as “not all who say ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Jesus).

68. Pedophilia is a terrible wrong but its cover-up by hierarchy is even more despicable.

69. Loyalty and obedience are never a greater virtue than conscience and justice.

70. Jesus said nothing about condoms, birth control or homosexuality.

71. A church that is more preoccupied with sexual wrongs than with wrongs of injustice is itself sick.

72. Since homosexuality is found among 464 species and in 8 percent of any given human population, it is altogether natural for those who are born that way and is a gift from God and nature to the greater community.

73. Homophobia in any form is a serious sin against love of neighbor, a sin of ignorance of the richness and diversity of God’s creation as well as a sin of exclusion.

74. Racism, Sexism and militarism are also serious sins.

75. Poverty for the many and luxury for the few is not right or sustainable.

76. Consumerism is today’s version of gluttony and needs to be confronted by creating an economic system that works for all peoples and all earth’s creatures.

77. Seminaries as we know them, with their excessive emphasis on left-brain work, often kill and corrupt the mystical soul of the young instead of encouraging the mysticism and prophetic consciousness that is there. They should be replaced by wisdom schools.

78. Inner work is required of us all. Therefore spiritual practices of meditation should be available to all and this helps in calming the reptilian brain. Silence or contemplation and learning to be still can and ought to be taught to all children and adults.

79. Outer work needs to flow from our inner work just as action flows from non-action and true action from being.

80. A wise test of right action is this: What is the effect of this action on people seven generations from today?

81. Another test of right action is this: Is what I am doing, is what we are doing, beautiful or not?

82. Eros, the passion for living, is a virtue that combats acedia or the lack of energy to begin new things and is also expressed as depression, cynicism or sloth (also known as “couchpotatoitis”).

83. The Dark Night of the Soul descends on us all and the proper response is not addiction such as shopping, alcohol, drugs, TV, sex or religion but rather to be with the darkness and learn from it.

84.The Dark Night of the Soul is a learning place of great depth. Stillness is required.

85. Not only is there a Dark Night of the Soul but also a Dark Night of Society and a Dark Night of our Species.

86. Chaos is a friend and a teacher and an integral part or prelude to new birth. Therefore it is not to be feared or compulsively controlled.

87. Authentic science can and must be one of humanity’s sources of wisdom for it is a source of sacred awe, of childlike wonder, and of truth.

88. When science teaches that matter is “frozen light” (physicist David Bohm) it is freeing human thought from scapegoating flesh as something evil and instead reassuring us that all things are light. This same teaching is found in the Christian Gospels (Christ is the light in all things) and in Buddhist teaching (the Buddha nature is in all things). Therefore, flesh does not sin; it is our choices that are
sometimes off center.

89. The proper objects of the human heart are truth and justice (Aquinas) and all people have a right to these through healthy education and healthy government.

90. "God” is only one name for the Divine One and there are an infinite number of names for God and Godhead and still God “has no name and will never be given a name.” (Eckhart)

91. Three highways into the heart are silence and love and grief.

92. The grief in the human heart needs to be attended to by rituals and practices that, when practiced, will lessen anger and allow creativity to flow anew.

93. Two highways out of the heart are creativity and acts of justice and compassion.

94. Since angels learn exclusively by intuition, when we develop our powers of intuition we can expect to meet angels along the way.

95. True intelligence includes feeling, sensitivity, beauty, the gift of nourishment and humor which is a gift of the Spirit, paradox, being its sister.