Nuns of the Sisters of Loretto and the Abbey of Gethsemani Resisting Gas Pipeline

Defiant nuns and monks refuse to give up Kentucky land for gas pipeline by David Ferguson

Padraig Purcell Remembers Fr. Serge Keleher

Serge Keleher, larger than life (this was also published at Risu)

Fr. Serge loved and knew the Divine liturgies of all the Churches, East and West, in great detail. He believed totally in the Divine Liturgy and he strongly defended it against those who sought to change or dilute it. Publicly, Fr. Serge offered the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and Basil. In private, in his latter years, he preferred the Old Latin Rite. He was also involved in the restoration of the Old Latin Liturgy (at the highest levels) because he saw no reason or evidence that this Rite was ever, or could ever be, abrogated. He was vindicated and there was glee in the tone of his mail to me in 2006 that Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, had publicly declared this. Recent statements by Pope Benedict XVI have also copper fastened this.

I don't have much to say about the recent news regarding the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate - you can find commentary over at Rorate Caeli, Fr. Z's blog, and the Mary Victrix. There has been some consternation among traditionalists, and I am posting this piece by Roberto de Mattei, published at The Eponymous Flower, as he may be the best spokesman for the traditionalist concerns and viewpoint: Roberto de Mattei: Franciscans of the Immaculata Models in Situation of Liturgical, Theological and Moral Anarchy.

The Vatican and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate by Michael J. Miller
Francis Has Not Contradicted Benedict’s Reforms, Say Franciscans of the Immaculate

The Order of Preachers General Chapter Homily by Fr. Augustine Thompson

Text

A Warranted Ecumenical Gesture?

Been doing some cleaning, and was flipping through the Winter 1997/98 issue of Company. From the article "Gospel First," By Fr. Keith Pecklers, SJ:

During the archbishop of Canterbury's visit to the Vatican in 1996, the press chose to make women's ordination the hot issue between the pope and the archbishop. This was not the case. What was the case was a visible, tangible warmth between the two, evident in the pope's unexpected invitation to Dr. George Carey and his wife, Eileen, to join him for lunch in his apartment.

The press also missed the symbolic significance of the exchange of gifts between the two Church leaders. The archbishop presented the Holy Father with a communion box engraved with the cross of Canterbury, while the pope presented the archbishop with a gold bishop's cross--the same presented to Roman Catholic archbishops during their Ad Limina Apostolorum visits. He gave other Anglican bishops the same silver cross he gives to Roman Catholic bishops.

At the ecumenical Evening Prayer held at the Church of San Gregorio, the archbishop of Canterbury was prepared to wear tradition choir dress--cassock and surplice--as his predecessors had done, so as not to upstage the pope dressed in mitre and cope. (The former is the arched hat worn by bishops and abbots; the latter the cape worn over alb and stole.) Instead, the Vatican sent word that Dr. Carey was to vest in mitre and cope and that his wife was to walk in the processions. In a city where nothing is without symbolic significance, these acts on the part of the Vatican were extraordinary.

A complementary perspective offered by a Roman-rite priest to the article by Fr. Maximos: Do Homosexuals Exist? Or, Where Do We Go From Here? by Fr. Hugh Barbour

Related:
A REQUIEM FOR FRIENDSHIP by Anthony Esolen
Why Boys Will Not Be Boys & Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution

First Things: Celibacy in Context by Maximos Davies

It seems that the one thing everyone knows about the Eastern Churches is that “they have married priests.” Unfortunately, this often seems to be the only thing many people know about Eastern Christianity. What does not seem to be widely understood is that the Eastern Churches have very distinct theological, liturgical, and spiritual cultures in which the practice of ordaining married men to the priesthood (but not to the episcopate) must be understood. If Western Catholics want to use the example of the Eastern Churches as a guide for their own situation it is imperative that they understand how a married clergy fits into this unique Church culture.

Rome Reports: Pope celebrates Mass in Rome to honor St. Ignatius of Loyola


Edit. The text of his homily.
Pope Francis: Once a Jesuit, Always a Jesuit
Pope highlights “the centrality” of Christ and of the Church for all Jesuits

Catholic World Report: World Youth Day, Liturgy, and the New Evangelization by Leroy Huizenga
Well-formed disciples are shaped and taught through good liturgy: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi

(via Insight Scoop)

Risu: VIKTOR YELENSKY: ‘STATE PROGRAM OF CELEBRATIONS OF 1025TH ANNIVERSARY IS A HUMILIATION FOR MILLIONS OF UKRAINIAN CHRISTIANS AND IT FURTHER DIVIDES THE COUNTRY’

Related:
Thanksgiving Celebrated on St. Vladimir's Hill in Kiev
The Day of St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles marked by Divine Liturgy celebrated by heads and and hierarchs of local Orthodox churches at Kiev Monastery of the Caves
Homily delivered by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in Kiev Laura of the Caves on the Commemoration Day of St. Vladimir Equal to the Apostles
Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchates to Unite

First Things: The Thomistic Institute Presents the Art of the Beautiful

Now available: A Service of Love: Papal Primacy, the Eucharist, and Church Unity by Paul McPartlan

Byzantine Beauty by Joseph Pronechen, Staff Writer
Eastern-Rite Churches Reflect Eternal Truths of Heaven and Earth

Both Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk and Bishop Borys Gudziak will be unable to attend the Napa Institute Conference. I hope they will be able to visit the Bay Area some time, though the Ukrainian Catholic presence here is not so big.

Byzantine Rite - Good Guys Wear Black: Minor Orders: Subdeacon

Putin visits Ukraine to mark region's conversion to Christianity

Vatican Insider: Those words Pope Luciani pronounced about Lefebvre

Picture of the Day: The Pope's Chotki by Greg Kandra (cross-posted at his blog)

Mystagogy: The Theotokos and Ancestral Sin

One Orthodox perspective?

Related:
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AS PERCEIVED FROM THE CHRISTIAN EAST
Four Things We Lost in the Fall Besides Sanctity

Time: Revealed: How Mars Lost Its Atmosphere by Jeffrey Kluger

The Red Planet lost its protective blanket of air billions of years ago. Now astronomers are certain why