Fr Hunwicke's First Mass

It was in the traditional Roman Rite, a.k.a., the Extraordinary Form.

More here at the weblog of the Transalpine Redemptorists.

Some Piping for the Weekend

Sean Moloney playing a cracking set of Irish tunes. The ones I recognized are Tripping up Stairs, Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife, The Jolly Beggarman, and Paddy McGinty's Goat. There are two or three more in the mix that I don't know.

1931? Really?

"A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter."
-G.K. Chesterton in the Illustrated London News May 25 1931

Does the Chief Justice ever read Chesterton?


(Found at the G.K.Chesterton quotation site.)

The "Venerable" Fulton J Sheen

As of this morning the Servant of God Fulton J Sheen is now the Venerable Fulton J Sheen.

On the Vatican site here (a little more than half way down the list).

Also here: Whispers in the Loggia

Uh-oh

Doom and gloom on the traditionalist front.

That's more like it. Traditionalists don't do optimism very well. After half a century doom-and-gloom is the background music of our existence. When things start looking up we get all light-headed and dizzy. This will ground us in a well-founded grump and put balance and stability back in our lives.

Is the Carrier Safer in a "Concealed Carry" state?

It looks like it. And so's almost everyone else.

In 1987, my home state of Florida enacted a “shall issue” law that has become the model for other states. Anti-gun groups, politicians and the news media predicted the new law would lead to vigilante justice and “Wild West” shootouts on every corner.

But since adopting a concealed carry law Florida’s total violent crime rate has dropped 32% and its homicide rate has dropped 58%. Floridians, except for criminals, are safer due to this law. And Florida is not alone. Texas’ violent crime rate has dropped 20% and homicide rate has dropped 31%, since enactment of its 1996 carry law.

Meanwhile, here in California I can't take my penknife - the one with the 1¼" blade - into the local courthouse.

Fr John Hunwicke's Ordination

It was yesterday.

There are pictures here and here.

(There has been a link to his blog in the left-hand column lo these many years.)

On Voting for a Republican President in Order to Get a Decent Supreme Court

Hardly worth bothering.

Chesterton died in 1936. . . .

. . .so it's probably worse now.

When it comes to anything like a strain on the intellect as such, I think that most modern people are much stupider than those in the age of my father, and probably very much stupider than those in the age of my grandfather. I have reasons for my belief, but it illustrates my point that the modern reader would hardly listen to a long process of reasoning. I believe I could even prove it, if people now were patient enough to listen to proof.

-G.K. Chesterton in All is Grist

And Hilary's written about it more than once.

"Supreme Court saves Obamacare. . . .until November"

From Tim Stanley in the Daily Telegraph:

President Obama has just earned himself a cigarette. After a nail biting morning waiting for a decision by the Supreme Court on Obamacare, the Court announced at 10am that the administration’s radical overhaul of the healthcare system is constitutional. Crucially, it had to redefine it to save it. The Court has redefined the controversial “individual mandate” as a tax rather than an "order to buy." The Court decided that it was unconstitutional to compel an American to purchase a private service, but it is within Congress’s powers to impose a tax. Thus, the Court has saved Obama’s bacon with a dash of legal voodoo. . . . .

. . . . And there’s every chance it will still be defeated. For the other big winner of today is Mitt Romney.

If Obamacare had been struck down completely by the Court, Romney would have no big issue with which to galvanise conservatives in November. But hatred for the mandate is so hot on the Right (and among a number of independents) that he now has an issue to really hit Obama with. Moreover, by redefining it as a tax the Court has basically sent a warning to many Americans that their tax bill is about to go up. While voters who stand to benefit from Obamacare will doubtless stick with the President in November, others will possibly resent the new costs. Times are tough. Many people can’t afford this.

Encouraging. But. . .it isn't up to Romney. If there's any repealing to be done, it's up to Congress. That's where the political spade-work needs to happen. Not, of course, in my district. Thanks to edicts from the Sacramento Home for the Criminally Insane, only the top two vote-getters in the primary will be on our ballot. That means I will have my choice of two Democrats. (Elsewhere, there are districts in which Democrats will be overjoyed to find they have a choice of two Republicans.)

On the other hand, if the president can overturn legislation by executive order, maybe Mr Romney can do it all himself. Just executive order everyone not to enforce Obamacare. It's happening elsewhere without effective opposition.

(Constitution? What is this "constitution" of which you speak?)

Roses Reaching for the Sky

The front garden roses still think it's springtime. Some of them are roof-level and above. I'll have to locate the step ladder to get the deadheads.

Sir Thomas More - On Trial Again

But this time only in print. No actual beheading possible this time.

This short defense of St Thomas by a scholar of his period is well-worth a read particularly in light of the current novel which demonizes him.

Tip of the balmoral to Tea at Trianon for the reference.

Fun with the Eightsome

Found this while looking for examples of a different dance entirely. These folks are having great fun with the eightsome reel, including several nifty variations on a simple two-hand turn.

Some Piping for the Weekend. . . .

The St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band of Dublin playing their winning medley at the 2010 World Championships in Glasgow. (The intro shows the announcement of the winners; it's less than a minute long.)

The Healing Waters of Lourdes

A positive story about the Lourdes shrine in the secular press. And on the front page, no less.

Yes, it is the OC Register and not the ghastly LA Times. But still. It's not the sort of thing you see every day even in the Register.

June 22 - St Thomas More, knight & martyr, and St John Fisher, bishop & martyr

Today is the feast day of Ss Thomas More and John Fisher in the calendars of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, the Pauline Rite, and some local calendars of the old Roman Rite.

ST JOHN FISHER'S reply to Bishops Stokesley, Gardiner and Tunstal, who were sent to the Tower by Thomas Cromwell to persuade Fisher to submit to the King:

Methinks it had been rather our parts to stick together in repressing these violent and unlawful intrusions and injuries dayly offered to our common mother, the holy Church of Christ, than by any manner of persuasions to help or set forward the same.

And we ought rather to seek by all means the temporal destruction of the so ravenous wolves, that daily go about worrying and devouring everlastingly, the flock that Christ committed to our charge, and the flock that Himself died for, than to suffer them thus to range abroad.

But (alas) seeing we do it not, you see in what peril the Christian state now standeth: We are besieged on all sides, and can hardly escape the danger of our enemy. And seeing that judgment is begone at the house of God, what hope is there left (if we fall) that the rest shall stand!

The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it. And therefore seeing the matter is thus begun, and so faintly resisted on our parts, I fear that we be not the men that shall see the end of the misery.

Wherefore, seeing I am an old man and look not long to live, I mind not by the help of God to trouble my conscience in pleasing the king this way whatsoever become of me, but rather here to spend out the remnant of my old days in praying to God for him.

This from St Thomas More's "Apology" put into (relatively) modern English by E.E. Reynolds in "The Heart of Thomas More":

I will advise you therefore good readers for the true taking of the old faith and for the discerning thereof from all new, to stand to the common well known belief of the common known Catholic Church of all Christian people such faith as by yourself and your fathers and your grandfathers you have known to be believed and have over that heard by them that the contrary was in the times of their fathers and their grandfathers also taken ever more for heresy. And also ye that read but even in English books shall in many things perceive the same by stories five times as far afore that. We must also for the perceiving of the old faith from the new, stand to the writings of the old holy doctors and saints by whose expositions we see what points are expressed in the Scripture and what points the Catholic Church of Christ hath beside the Scripture received and kept by the Spirit of God and traditions of his apostles. And specially must we also stand in this matter of faith to the determinations of Christ's Catholic Church.

1st Amendment Stuff

There has been quite a bit on the web and elsewhere about the federal government's velvet gloved (so far) persecution of Catholics. At the moment it's the order to pay for abortions and contraceptives that's in the news. But there's also this. I'm sure you don't need The Inn to tell you about it.

But you may have missed some of the response. The lawsuits have been in the news. But the calls to prayer less so. Here's something from the bishops of the United States. One of our local parishes - St Peter Chanel - is having a holy hour with the Rosary tonight to begin the fortnight. Perhaps there is something in your area. Prayer is our most powerful response. And perhaps our Lords Temporal in Washington may take note that we are not all the Judases and Talleyrands that they would wish.

Here is an old collect, my suggestion for a daily prayer. It seems to be asking for a miracle under the circumstances. But that's all right; the church is familiar with miracles.

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to the President of the United States, the Governor of this State, and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Some Piping for the Weekend

In this week's clip the Prince Charles Charles Pipe Band of San Francisco play their medley at last month's Costa Mesa Highland Games (a.k.a. "Scotsfest"). A well-played and melodic selection here, only one tune of which I recognized: La Boum, the slow air. Oh, yes and the march off tune is Glendaruel Highlanders.

If it's Thursday. . . .

. . . .it must be better than Wednesday:

"An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays."
--G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

From the GKC quote page.

Prescience in a letter received this morning from the Chesterton Society

"We are no longer in a world in which it is thought normal to be moderate or even necessary to be normal. Most men now are not so much rushing to extremes as merely sliding to extremes; and even reaching the most violent extremes by being almost entirely passive. . . We can no longer trust even the normal man to value and guard his own normality."

-G.K. Chesterton, America, January 4, 1936

Habemus Diaconum

The future Blessed John Henry Newman Catholic Church of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter now has a deacon. Yesterday at 9:00 a.m. in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles (yes, that one) the Rev Mr Andrew Bartus was ordained to the sacred order of deacons. We weren't allowed to take pictures (we will ignore the fact that we forgot to bring a camera anyway) so we have no pictures to show you. And there doesn't seem to be anything else up on the web to link you to. There is mention on the website of The Tidings of the diaconal ordinations but our deacon isn't mentioned as he was something of a last minute addition and being ordained for another jurisdiction.

In sum, it looks like for the time being you'll have to take my word for it that we now have a fully-authorized RC deacon. No doubt someone more reliable than your servant will be along soon to confirm.

ADDENDUM: Oh, bother. Of course I forgot: I have documentary evidence. I was there. And if they're not quite legible in your browser, you can click on them to make them bigger.

Herewith:





Yes, I know the programme says "Permanent Deacons". But our candidate is an exception. The plan is for him to be Fr Bartus again in July, God willing.

ADDENDUM #2: Pictures!

Point of View Adjustment Dept

"You don't have a soul; you are a soul. You have a body."

-from the C.S.Lewis daily quotation site.

June 4 -- Saint Petroc

St Petroc was a Welsh saint who studied in Ireland and became patron of Devon and one of the patrons of Cornwall. "Catholic Online" summarizes St Petroc thusly:

Petroc was born in Wales, possibly the son of a Welsh king. He became a monk and with some of his friends, went to Ireland to study. They immigrated to Cornwall in England and settled at Lanwethinoc (Padstow). After thirty years there, he made a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, at which time he is also reputed to have reached the Indian ocean where he lived for some time as a hermit on an island. He then returned to Cornwall, built a chapel at Little Petherick near Padstow, established a community of his followers, and then became a hermit at Bodmir Moor, where he again attracted followers and was known for his miracles. He died between Nanceventon and Lanwethinoc while visiting some of his disciples there. His feast day is June 4th.

You'll find a more devotional life, complete with the wonderful, extravagant details that our ancestors were so fond of, here. E.g.:

After 30 years as abbot, Petroc made a pilgrimage to Rome, Italy. On his return, just as he reached Newton Saint Petroc, it began to rain. Petroc predicted it would soon stop, but it rained for three days. In penance for presuming to predict God‘s weather, Petroc returned to Rome, then to Jerusalem, then to India where he lived seven years on an island in the Indian Ocean.

Petroc returned to Britain with a wolf companion he had met in India.

". . . we can do little more now than snatch the fingernail of a saint. . . ."

That in a nutshell was Whittaker Chambers's view of the future of the west.

And now the relics are being pilfered, too:

THIEVES PRISED OPEN LOCKS TO STEAL PRICELESS SHRINE

THIEVES who stole a priceless 12th-century shrine from behind an alarmed bulletproof glass panel in a church were able to prise the locks open with a screwdriver or their fingers.

The richly ornate St Manchan's Shrine was taken from Boher Church in Co Offaly by two culprits in broad daylight on Friday.

Read the rest here.

Too Much Monarchy Today?

Well, not for me, of course. But the Memsahib, proud daughter of the Republic of Ireland that she is, has been known to look ever so slightly askance at the post below and assorted other of my, um, enthusiasms.

So for her, herewith a video of the 90th anniversary celebration of the raising of the Irish tricolour at the Curragh.

The Diamond Jubilee

The U.K. and the commonwealth countries are celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 60th year on the throne this year. There is an enormous amount on the web on her Diamond Jubilee. The Thames river pageant was held today and was streamed live this morning. Alas, we had early Mass today so I missed it all. But there is a fair bit of video coverage up already. The BBC has a report with highlights up here. They don't permit embedding so you'll have to follow the link. Tea at Trianon has a post here.

And then there's this from Damian Thompson on Elizabeth the Christian queen.

There's a great little two-part polka for the pipes called "Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee" which I had hoped to post here but it seems nobody has ever recorded it on line. The internet, it would appear, is not yet complete. It would've made a good piping-for-the-weekend post.

Trinity Sunday

It's 6:15 p.m PDT on Trinity Sunday. If you haven't performed your Easter Duty yet, you've got 5 hours and 45 minutes left.

It wasn't so very long ago that the old Athanasian Creed appeared regularly in the liturgy in the office of Prime. On the eve of the late Council it was only recited once, on Trinity Sunday. Then the post conciliar Liturgia Horarum did away with the office of Prime, so you're unlikely to see the Athanasian Creed unless you go looking for it.

We wouldn't want to put you to all that trouble. So "as is our custom" on Trinity Sunday, we give you the Athanasian Creed which gives as neat a summary of the doctrine of the Trinity as you're likely to find:

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Reading between the lines, I'd say there's a good chance the author thinks it a good idea to be a Catholic. The translation is the Marquis of Bute's as it appears in the good old Catholic Encyclopædia here.