Genesis 2.0

Fr. Paul Mariani, SJ on the China Situation

The Extremely High Stakes of the China-Vatican Deal

Orthodox Music in America

The Icon of the Nativity

Mark Bauerlein and Sanjay Samuel on Ivan Illich

First Things: Ivan Illich and the "Powerlessness of the Church"

Something Non-Latin Apostolic Christians Can Agree With?

Fr. Hunwicke: Father Aidan Nichols on Hyperultrapapalism

First in a 6-Part Series

Church Life: A Revisionist Account of Natural Law and Natural Right by John Milbank

A Treasure of the Early Church in Japan

NHK: Centuries-old Christian painting found in Japan (via Tea at Trianon)

In Other Words, Dependent Rational Animals

Church Life: The Advent Corrective to Locke’s Lonely Liberalism by Sofia Carozza

Fr. Joseph Marquis on St. Nicholas

Not Forgotten

How goes the reform of the Legionaries of Christ?

More on Human Dignity

Disgraceful

By What Competence?

Sandro Magister: Francis, Absolute Monarch. Behind the Scenes of the New Italian “Our Father”

Meanwhile, as of December 5, in his Wednesday general audiences the pope has begun a cycle of catecheses precisely on the “Our Father.’ It will be interesting to listen to him when he gets to the petition he wanted to have retranslated.

Feast of St. Nicholas

Holy Nicholas, Pray for Us!

A New Book from Ed Feser

Coming Soon: Aristotle's Revenge: "My new book Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science will be out early next year from Editiones Scholasticae."

Annibale Bugnini Reformer of the Liturgy by YVES CHIRON

English translation now available from Angelico Press.

NCReg: Archbishop Viganò Addresses Dispute With Brother Over Family Inheritance by Edward Pentin
In a statement issued through his lawyers, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States and recent whistleblower calls reports accusing him of “fraud,” “theft” or misappropriation of funds “unfounded.”

"No Comment"

Eastern Catholic Patriarchs Meeting in Baghdad

Crux: Middle East Catholic leaders: Bear witness in turbulent world

NCReg: Confronting Troubling Questions Ahead of February Bishops’ Meeting
EDITORIAL: Time is short for concrete actions and authentic reforms. We cannot afford another missed opportunity.
The Editors

Mixed Marriage

OCA: “Mixed Marriage: An Orthodox History” offers fascinating study of marriage and the Church
(via Byz, TX)

Another Book by a Latin on the Papacy

Of course it is another Protestant convert who is one of the authors...

CWR: New book clarifies beliefs and corrects misunderstandings about the papacy by CWR Staff
“Very few know the biblical foundation for the office of pope,” says Stephen K. Ray, co-author of The Papacy: What the Pope Does and Why It Matters, “or the manner in which a pope is elected. What is his job? Can he ever be challenged or corrected?”

“Armastus Maksimos Usutunnistaja ja Gregorios Palamase teoses. Kuidas mõjutab armastus pedagoogikat”

Related:

Metropolitan Hilarion

source: FB

CWR: Cardinal Müller’s seeks to thread the needle, but misses the canonical mark by Christopher R. Altieri
The idea that airing dirty laundry is what harms the credibility of the Church is part of the problem. Arguably, it is the problem.

Philip Lawler on World Over

full episode

«Άγιος Ανδρέας: ο Πρωτόκλητος Απόστολος, σε δύο αναγνώσεις» 14-9-2018

Holy Andrew, pray for us!

Old School is Better than New School

CWR: Memorization and Catechesis: What really works? by Nicholas Senz
Too many catechists have neglected to teach the meaning of the key words of our faith, only to lament that the children do not understand them, and then declare that they must be set aside.

Reflecting the Dominant Latin Ecclesiology Regarding the Role of the Bishop of Rome...

CWR Dispatch: Cupich and Scicluna hit their talking points, but are silent on key problems by Christopher R. Altieri

Throughout recent interviews, both Cardinal Cupich and Archbishop Scicluna convey a persistent attitude of denial regarding the role of the bishops in the ongoing crisis.

What Would He Say About the Modern Roman Canonization Process?

John Henry Newman, conversion, and the papacy by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille

Symbol of the Western Captivity?

Is that how the Russian Orthodox view Solovyov/Soloviev?

Church Life: Solovyov’s Russia and the Catholic Church by Andrew Kuiper

But Cupich must be OK since the "American Church" doesn't like him!

So let's have him be on the organizing committee!

CWR Dispatch: The Vatican obfuscates even while preparing for February meeting on abuse by Christopher R. Altieri
One would have to be blind not to see the infiltration of clerical ranks — even in the episcopate, even in the Roman Curia — by active homosexuals for whom their collars are little more than cover.

Where's the Official English Translation?

CWR: The Youth Synod and the birth of the Synodal Church by Thomas R. Ascik
The Synod of Bishops concluded a month ago, but the final document—in which “synodality” is by far the major and most clearly laid out theme—has still not been translated.

Confusing an Ecclesial Issue with a Political One

If those in east Ukraine wish to secede, why force them to stay through violence?

CWR Dispatch: Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and Post-truth: An Orthodox Perspective by Fr. Cyril Hovorun
Right from the start of the 2014 events, we in Ukraine experienced the Russian version of post-truth. And over time, we developed some expertise in discerning where truth stops and post-truth begins.

Fr. Rutler on the China Situation

Crisis: A Nursery Rhyme Pope Francis Would Do Well to Read by FR. GEORGE W. RUTLER

More on the Reform of the Roman Rite

Crisis: 50 Years of Effete and Infertile Liturgical Culture Is Enough BY ANTHONY ESOLEN
Last Sunday I was away from home; this normally means trouble. It means I do not attend Mass at the chapel of Saint Thomas More College, which is where I teach, [...]

Eternal Memory.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller with Raymond Arroyo

full episode

More Potential Pastoral Problems?

In connection with this post.

If the sacraments of initiation are limited to those infants whose parents are ready and willing to bear the responsibility of educating them, then will the children of those who have not been initiated be left out? Will their parents be judged by their brethren as being inadequate Christians? In order to avoid this problem, should the sacraments of initiation therefore be given to all infants, even if the parents are less than able to provide a proper formation for their children? Or should they be delayed for all children until they attain the age of reason, or after that point, when they are able to choose the faith and profess it? The question of "maturity" or intentionality in faith and how the sacraments of initiation are related to it is perhaps one that needs to be asked not only by those in the patriarchate of Rome but by the members of the other patriarchates as well.

Hart on Translating the NT Greek

Church Life: Spirits, Souls… Tunics? by David Bentley Hart
I do not pretend to have any firm conviction regarding the argument I intend to advance here; but I do find myself haunted by a curious suspicion I find...

Theology of Baptism

and theology of the authority of the Church...

Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Vatican II and Crisis in the Theology of Baptism" by Thomas Pink (via Peter Kwasniewski)

Re: the importance or necessity of exorcism -- is the accompanying theology of "sovereignty" of the devil over the unbaptized an established part of the Faith, or is it just a theological opinion? And how should it be understood?

Aidan Hart Video

Shut Theology Deparments Down...

Church Life: The Crisis of Catholic Moral Theology by Charles C. Camosy

More on the Consilium

Liturgical Notes on the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Creating a Better Lord's Prayer

Sandro Magister: “And Do Not Abandon Us To Temptation.” A Critical Commentary

Holy Edmund, Pray for Us!

Pravoslavie: ON THE FEAST OF ST. EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR
Commemorated November 20/December 3

They took the corpse and head, set them in a hastily-built hut-chapel and immediately miracles began. A light was seen over the tomb, the blind and the sick were healed. Miraculously the head became joined to the body, with only a red scar marking the place of the cruel cut between torso and head. Local people came as pilgrims to venerate Edmund's relics, which remained intact and incorrupt.

CNA: Russian icons, spiritual masterpieces on display at Vatican

Introduction to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

The Funeral of Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ

Orientale Lumen TV:






via Byz, TX

A Good Start?

First Things: GETTING FORMATION RIGHT by Rev. Thomas V. Berg

But where will Latins find men to form men?

More Conspiracy Theories...

Rorate Caeli: For the Record: Msgr. Bux questions Ratzinger's resignation, Bergoglio's legitimacy

Lifesite News
the original interview

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Debunks Space Myths

First Things: THE VATICAN INTERVENTION IN BALTIMORE by Philip Lawler

Shameless

CNA/CWR: Cupich and Wuerl collaborated on alternative sex abuse proposal

Georges Lemaître's Science, Faith, and Why "Hubble's Law" Ought to be Renamed

Vatican I: Loss and Gain with Papal Governance of the Catholic Church

A panel discussion featuring John W. O'Malley, SJ (Georgetown University), Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa), and Joseph Mueller, SJ (Marquette University), held on October 13, 2018 at the University of Chicago.

Sandro Magister: Synodality Up in Smoke. Exercises of Pontifical Monarchy in the United States and China

A Coup? Sounds like Fake News.

Rorate Caeli: De Mattei: The “Viganò case” and the “impasse” of Pope Francis

The Institution Is the Problem

Because it does not live like a community with mutual responsibility and accountability among its members.

The Smoke of Satan provides clear, concise analysis of the episcopal crisis by Gregory J. Sullivan
Philip Lawler ably depicts the tumult that has brought us to this point and he provides a larger context for the collapse of episcopal authority.

What Are Legitimate Responses to Transgressions of the Limits of Authority?

Or if there is no legitimate authority to begin with? This essay does not address those questions.

Church Life: Why Is Christian Citizenship a Paradox? by Émilie Tardivel-Schick

Youth Ministry?

Church Life: Discipleship Isn’t as Exciting as Youth Ministry Makes It Seem by Timothy O'Malley

My adaptation of Fr. Giussani’s method of education involves three dimensions: provocation, hypothesis, and verification. This method of catechesis depends on the authority of a teacher who knows his or her students, who is capable of serving as an authentic source of authority and love. It is an approach that is long-term, requiring the building of a relationship over years.

The first dimension of this method is provocation. Provocation is not equivalent to getting someone’s attention. Too often, the large events discussed above, get someone’s attention. They provoke an experience of social solidarity that is unparalleled. But the “event” fails to provoke additional questions—it stands as an experience apart from life.

Giussani’s understanding of provocation is different. The human being has been made to ask ultimate questions. What is the meaning of life? What is love? What is authentic friendship? For Giussani, each human being has this religious sense, this orientation to the ultimate that sin has not destroyed.

But, the human person also has been taught to not ask such questions. We embrace ideologies that make it impossible to wonder, to ask questions that matter. We do not ask about the meaning of life, about the nature of love, or what constitutes real friendship. Instead, we simply live our day-to-day lives, a kind of practical atheism whereby only the visible and tangible matter.

The goal of provocation is to reawaken the young person to asking questions. A good teacher provokes not through emotional manipulation but daring to ask the ultimate questions to the student. Students want to talk about the nature of love. They want to discuss friendship. They want to be provoked.

Big events can be aids to provocation. They may allow the student to enter into the kind of liminal space where they do ask the big questions. But, it is not the “event” that is the telos of such formation. It is the moment of provocation, the moment in which the student asks, “What is the meaning of life?”

Christian provocation has two key dimensions. First, provocation is always grounded in the scriptures. It is Jesus Christ who is the answer to the human heart’s deepest longings. It is the God-man, fully human and fully divine, who provokes in us the ultimate question: What does it mean to be human, now that God has dwelt among us? A “big event” approach to ministry cannot attend to the one-on-one conversations that are necessary for good provocation.

Second, provocation emphasizes beauty, silence, and contemplation. Provocation is an inward awakening, for every person has to ask the ultimate questions on his or her own. Too often, big events in ministry overwhelm the young Christian, functioning almost as a saturated phenomenon, taking away all capacity for wonder. We need to allow space for the young person to work on his or her inner life, to encounter the ultimate questions that are always present in the human heart, if only we listened. Who am I? What is my destiny? Learning to attend to these questions is not simply a task of the young adult but an essential task of Christian maturity.

Blueprint by Robert Plomin

The MIT Press

Nature’s Egg and Seed Plan by James Thompson
ggose: generalist genes of small effect

The Proper of Time in the Post-Vatican II Liturgical Reforms

Sacrifice?

OrthoChristian: JEWISH EVANGELISM: THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL AS PREPARATORY, NOT FINAL by Fr. Lawrence Farley

This difference is difficult to exaggerate. The religion described in the Hebrew Bible took it for granted that God’s presence, forgiveness, and blessing were accessed through the offering of sacrifice, at first on the altar which was part of the portable shrine carried by the Levites, and then at the immovable Temple built in Jerusalem.

Not Sola Scriptura

Pravmir: Why Do Orthodox Christians Need Holy Fathers? Isn't the Bible Enough?

The Public Face of the NuChurch

another vid

LifeSite: Fr. James Martin: Pope appoints ‘gay-friendly’ bishops, cardinals to change Church on LGBT

More Polemics?

THE IRON STANCE OF ST. JOB OF POCHAEV by Stanislav Minakov

But St. Job of Pochaev, the abbot of the Pochaev Lavra, stood unwavering in the faith, and with iron steadfastness struggled against the Uniates who had left Orthodoxy for the protection of the Roman pope. St. Job was strong in spirit and faith, and it is not in vain that such multitudes of people from all over the world come today to his holy relics, which lie in a reliquary near the cave where he prayed on the Pochaev hill.

And as for the Uniates (Greek Catholics), it’s the same now as it was four hundred or so years ago—don’t trust them any further than you can throw them.[1] As if it were not not enough that they raided and seized the churches and parishes of our canonical Church, which after the far-reaching Bishops’ Council in Kharkov of 1992 began to be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, but in an unprecedented act, the first in history, under Ukrainian president Yushchenko, they built their cathedral church on the left bank of the Dniepr, in Darnitsa. During the “Euro-Maidan” revolution they actively carried out their “prayer protest” in the Maidan square, to the point that certain Uniate “priests” called for the murder of “Moskals” [anyone associated with Moscow, i.e., Russians], Communists, and others. Apparently the Greek Catholics took part in a neo-Nazi, neo-Banderite [followers of Stepan Bandera] coupe in Ukraine as if the whole country belonged to them, allowing them to sharply increase their expansion into Eastern Ukraine, to the canonical territory of Orthodoxy, where they had previously been only during the German fascist occupation.

More on Liberalism and Integralism

Semiduplex: The Legends of Liberalism

What would Malachi Martin say?

Sandro Magister: From Martini To Bergoglio. Toward a Vatican Council III

Stuff for St. Martin of Tours

What Are the Consequences of This Bad Latin Pastoral Practice?

Namely, delaying Confirmation until after First Communion...

What are the consequences of administering Confirmation to non-adults after they have already received "First Eucharist" years earlier and have been receiving Eucharist regularly up to the point of receiving Confirmation? There were bishops who were aware of this problem and raised the alarm in the 19th ce according to Maxwell Johnson, but it seems little has been done to address this problem.

First, it does seem incongruous for Christians who have not completed Christian initiation to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if they have already been receiving the Holy Spirit through the Eucharist (assuming that it is correct to characterize one of the effects of the sacrament thusly). Moreover, that also assumes that it is possible for those who have not received Confirmation to nonetheless derive the full benefit from receiving from the Eucharist. But is there any evidence that God "compensates" for what is lacking in the Catholic Christian who has not been fully initiated, so that the Eucharist is fully efficacious for the Christian? Or is the reception of Eucharist for a Catholic Christian who has not been fully-initiated fruitless, as it would be for someone in the state of mortal sin or a non-believer? Is it the case that the Church does not actually have the authority to admit a Christian who has not been fully initiated to (the reception of) the Eucharist? That is to say, that not only is it sacramentally not possible for someone not fully initiated to receive the Eucharist, but there is actually a Divine Law that only one who has been fully initiated cannot receive the Eucharist? Or is this merely a Ecclesial Law (of Apostolic origin)? Or if a Divine Law, is it possible for it to be mitigated or abrogated by the (actions of the) Church? Does God Himself dispense from the necessity of the first two sacraments of initiation to make the reception of the Eucharist fruitful? (If He does, has he revealed this to the Church?)

Let's bring up another concrete example from Latin pastoral practice: Would a dying non-Christian be allowed to receive the Eucharist by a Latin priest before being baptized? I don't think so; if there is only sufficient time for one sacrament, I would think that the preference would be given to Baptism rather than the Eucharist. Couldn't the dying non-Christian just be given the Eucharist if it simply conveys the same grace (e.g. life in Christ) of Baptism? (That they convey the same grace but in different modalities or instantiations or moments of salvation history is is an assumption with which Latin theologians would disagree.) It would seem from Latin pastoral practice that no, a dying non-Christian would not receive the Eucharist unless he had been first baptized. If that is the case, then why should Confirmation be skipped over, except because of Latin custom? The question is whether this is legitimte or not.

What sort of Latin view?

CWR: The Conversion of the Papacy and the Present Church Crisis by Dr. Douglas Farrow
The reform we need is in the direction of simplicity, transparency, and integrity – what many thought we were getting in Francis, before discovering otherwise – and whatever does not serve directly the task of the successor of Peter should be marginalized or eliminated.

The author lists seven features of the current crisis, including:

seventh, a deliberate plan to use the papacy to dissolve what is left of the centralized, authoritarian Tridentine Church and to overcome the synthesis of Vatican I and II that was attempted, with limited success, by the previous four popes – that is, to generate a decentralized, morally and doctrinally flexible, post-modern Church that is open both to Protestant and to pagan elements, with a vast and welcoming Courtyard of the Gentiles.

The author also responds to Roberto de Mattei. Farrow's view of the papacy appears to be more balanced than De Mattei's (or that of many ultramontanists and Tridentine Roman Catholics) but he nevertheless accepts the definitions of the Council of Florence as dogma, and the status of the Council of Florence as an ecumenical council.

Exactly

Chastek on Feser's defense of retribution

John Allen on Fr. Taft

Church’s leading scholar on the East was, from beginning to end, his own man by John L. Allen Jr.

Center for Ethics and Culture 2018 Fall Conference Closing Colloquy: "Higher Powers: Catholicism and the American Project"

(via MoJ)

Related:
Gelasian Dyarchy at Notre Dame by Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist.

Who Among the USCCB Will Heed This?

First Things: TO THE BISHOPS, BEFORE THEIR GENERAL ASSEMBLY by Jayd Henricks

CNA: Pope and Assyrian Patriarch: Blood of Middle East martyrs is ‘seed Christian unity’

Agni Parthene

Holy Nektarios of Aegina, pray for us!

Adam DeVille Reviews Ecumenism of Blood

CWR Dispatch: Ecumenism of Blood skillfully addresses questions about martyrs-saints, Western-Eastern relations by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
Hugh Somerville Knapman, OP, takes on complicated ecumenical issues, while also tracing Catholic understandings of martyrdom, canonization, and Christology.

Church Life: Benedict XVI Beyond the Liturgy Wars by Carolyn Pirtle

For Ratzinger, this process of “rediscovering ourselves” necessitates a setting aside the battles of the current liturgy wars surrounding liturgical music and the discussions it has generated—scholarly and otherwise. Doing so will facilitate a return to “the original source” in exploring connection between faith and music, as well as the role of music in worship: the Bible. In turning to the Psalms in particular, Ratzinger establishes a theology of liturgical music in one verse: “Sing hymns of praise” (Ps 47:8). True to his roots as a theologian who takes the biblical narrative seriously, Ratzinger engages this text in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in order to arrive at a richer translation. Suffice it to say that singing hymns of praise well entails more than making pleasant-sounding music.

For the psalmist, offering sung praise to God entails singing with an understanding that surpasses mere rationality and transcends into the realm of sapientia, or wisdom, which “denotes an integration of the entire person who not only understands and is understandable from the perspective of pure thought, but with all the dimensions of his or her existence” (Ibid., 98). Ratzinger goes on to say that “there is an affinity between wisdom and music, since in it such an integration of humanness occurs and the entire person becomes a being in accordance with logos [with “reason”]” (Ibid.). It is in singing that the senses and the spirit are integrated into one being, and in singing to God that the being is incorporated into logos.

Christianity takes this understanding one step farther by understanding the Psalms not merely as hymns written by King David, but as hymns that “had risen from the heart of the real David, Christ” (Ibid., 97). Thus, singing “hymns of praise” not only harmonizes the senses with the spirit, but when Christians understand those hymns as having their source in Christ, they are also drawn out of themselves into harmony with the Logos, the Word-made-flesh, as they offer sung praise in and through Christ himself. With this mindset, “Christ himself becomes the choir director who teaches us the new song and gives the Church the tone and way in which she can praise God appropriately and blend into the heavenly liturgy” (Ibid.). In order to offer fitting praise, one must conform one’s song to that of Christ, “who did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped; rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2:6–7).

Metropolitan Seraphim of Glastonbury: Pharaisaical Legalism alive and well in contemporary Orthodoxy

(via Byz Tx)

From abuse to freedom. Sectarian tendencies within the Church. Testimonies and reflections

Sandro Magister: Jesuits Against Focolarini. The Beatification of Chiara Lubich in Doubt

French edition

Two Articles on Gregorian Chant

If true...

what sort of leadership is this? Sounds like high school.

Long-time Vaticanista Marco Tosatti recently claimed (Eng. trans.here) that word has been passed down by papal representatives to bishops not to invite Raymond Cdl. Burke to their dioceses and that, should Burke appear at an event in their churches, they should not even appear with him.

A note on the other kind of schism by Edward N. Peters
Like Catholics admonished to avoid sin and even near occasions of sin so prelates should avoid schism and even actions suggestive of schismatic attitudes.

original

Or, that Christianity might not be discredited?

Titus 2:3-5 (RSVCE)

Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited.

ίνα μη λόγος του θεού βλασφημήται

Revd Prof Andrew Louth on 'The Icon and the beginnings of modernism in the Arts'

Fr. Taft's Berakah Award Acceptance Speech

Pray Tell: Robert Taft Acceptance Speech: Berakah Award

Fr Nicholas Gregoris Continues His Series

A deeper look at the Final Synod Document raises questions about sources, analysis, emphasis by Fr Nicholas Gregoris
Why so few references to the writings of St. Pope John Paul II? Why no consideration of liturgical abuses? How prevalent is “paternalism”? What does it mean to say young people are “theological fonts”?

The Patriarchate of Rome will refuse to condemn all forms of feminism, and as a result will continue to lose men as members.

Sandro Magister: Gomorrah in the 21st Century. The Appeal of a Cardinal and Church Historian

John O'Malley on Vatican I

Church Life: Vatican I: Loss and Gain in the Governance of the Catholic Church by John W. O’Malley

The Imaginative Conservative: Great Books, Higher Education, and the Logos by Michael Jordan

Fr. Taft, "Liturgy: Model of Prayer, Icon of Life"

The first part of a series.



Book available from ECP

A New English Gradual... for the Anglican Ordinariate

Also available: Sunday Divine Worship Missal

Addressing the Mechanical Reception of the Eucharist

and lukewarmness among children.

Even if the traditional Christian initiation for infants is adopted/restored in the West (Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist), what should be done by parents to catechize their children? Should there be a "coming-of-age" ceremony, with first confession and a special rite for Eucharist for children, so that they can renew their promises and show their rational acceptance of faith? This idea does not sound right, but I wouldn't be surprised if some were to advocate it.

What then? Those who do have their children initiated have a special responsibility to catechize their children well, and thus they have the burden to make sure that they themselves are properly catechized, rather than relying on others to catechize their children for them. Catechesis through the liturgy should probably be the primary way for doing this, and parents should explain the importance of a feast before Divine Liturgy, or after if necessary. They should be modelling prayer in the temple and at home. And if they do not have the requisite knowledge or prayer life to model for their children? Maybe they shouldn't have their children initiated, unless in danger of death.

"Who's Primus?"

Can Orthodoxy Exist Without the Ecumenical Patriarchate