May 2007 Archives

Some law firm in Texas sends Regain the following "cease and desist" letter.

I have a questions about this legal threat:

1) Since Regain's membership is mostly made up of Catholics, did the Legion attempted to resolve this issue through the canonical courts prior to threatening civil action?

2) Aren't Regain and ExLegionaries' two distinct (and separate) organizations/websites? Therefore how can one be held responsible for the other?

3) Aren' the Legions' constitutions a public document?

"What's the least I have to believe and do to feel good about myself?"

That's the fundamental question modern religious seekers seem to be asking. For many contemporary Americans, religion is like a scented candle: The purpose of its light is to provide a comforting psychological ambience. But for a small, growing minority - for whom religion, properly understood, exists to illuminate the challenging path to truth and holiness - there is an alternative: tradition. ...full article

Francis Beckworth will not be getting a lifetime achievement award from the Evangelical Theological Society.

Have you been surprised by the hostility of some of the reactions to your reversion?

Some of the hostility was not surprising, for some of it came from well-meaning Protestants who simply do not have a good grounding in Christian history or the Catholic Catechism. Many of these well-meaning folks, unfortunately, have sat under the teachings of less-than-careful Bible-church preachers and pastors who approach Catholicism with a cluster of flawed categories that make even a charitable reading of the Catechism almost impossible.

From Mother Nature to Europe with love.

Sudbury woman 'ordained' priest; Marie Bouclin took vows not sanctioned by Catholic church

This would make your dog turn it's head sideways if you were reading to it and it could understand english:

The standing-room-only crowd of a couple of hundred people

And here's your dose of bad writing:

Bouclin, who was ordained a deacon in a secret service last year, was literally beaming after Sunday's two-and-a-half hour ordination. If she had any doubts before that rank-and-file Roman Catholics support the ordination of women and married men as priests, they flew out the stained-glass windows of West Hill United Church.

Is it me, or does this sound like a high-school break-up note?

"Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.

I don't think so.

Not enough time to deconstruct the entire piece, but here's a silly quote from Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington:

"Of 150,000 people in the Washington DC area who attend Mass each week, less than 500 choose the Tridentine Mass," which has been available in the city since 1985. Accessibility isn't an issue, since the rite is already offered in three locations scattered across the city and suburbs.

Already offered in three locations scattered across the city and suburbs. Makes it sound like you can just get up and walk over to a Tridentine Mass any given Sunday. Here are the three parishes that celebrate the Tridentine Mass. That's exactly the same number of parishes that celebrate the Mass in French and Tagalog. The Tridentine Mass is celebrated at only one downtown parish and two in Maryland. And as you can see - DC is a pretty big place. And yet the spokeperson for the diocese can say - geez, only 500 show up for it.

And here's the most ignorant thing I've read in 2007:

In addition to the Latin prayers, which are different from those used in the modern liturgy, Tridentine priests face the altar, so that he is seen as leading the faithful in prayer. The rank and file don't participate actively in the service.

Sounds like the author interviewed a renegade DRE for this article.

Thanks, McPaper! You have proven worthy for use only in the smallest room in my house.

Want to know why many people are skeptical of "comprehensive immigration reform?"

Let's hear from a 27 year veteran of the Border Patrol who helped oversee the '86 amnesty.

I'm surprised it's taken this long for court cases to be brought against parishes in Italy.

My brother Steve, who is a seminarian for the Diocese of Arlington and
entering Third Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, has a bunch
of interesting photos posted on his flickr site.
There are quite a lot of photos of events at the seminary, but a
couple of photos and sets are worth a look:

Mary Immaculate Center and the Queen of All Saints Chapel

John Paul II

And last but not least, a beautiful photo he took a few years ago of
my wife Teresa.

Check back often - he adds new photos with some frequency!

Short, sweet, and likely to get Michael Moore's goat.

Sometimes people invent substitute rituals to use in place of conventional Christian funeral ceremonies: probably because they have little faith in Christ or have not been instructed well so as to appreciate the gift of His Resurrection. But some of the rituals people propose don't quite make sense to me yet.

As a case in point, I can understand people wanting to have their bodily remains shot into space, into the sun or wherever, as a Romantic gesture of oneness with the universe. That's a statement of belief -- belief of some sort. But now it turns out that the customers of the first space-shot "burial" didn't even get that for their ticket price. They only ended up taking what the travel biz calls a Cruise to Nowhere: go out, ride around, but don't stop anywhere: just go back - back home, back where you started.

So their rocket came back to earth after 4 minutes and parachuted into the mountains of New Mexico. Uh, was there a point to all that?

If I remember right, the Rev. William Lowe has long been friendly with Catholic thought and as rector of an Episcopalian parish, welcomed Catholic speakers there (e.g., Peter Kreeft). Now he has entered into full communion with the Church and has been ordained by Cdl. Mahony for service in the Los Angeles archdiocese. God grant him many happy years!

There must be something malfunctioning over at the Rorate Coeli blog. I posted a comment there yesterday, but today it's gone.

The story "New Catholic" posted is a typical bit of fodder for the disgruntled: show a picture of a bishop at some event sponsored by a non-Christian religion, use the caption to put some words into his mouth, and accuse him of committing idolatry.

Now, as with most of these scandal-stories, there's less to it than meets the eye, so we shouldn't exaggerate it. The event wasn't a religious rite, it was an award ceremony, and it wasn't held at a Hindu temple, but at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in DC. And whatever Abp. Sambi meant to do by lighting some lamp, you can be confident that he had no intention of offering adoration to some non-Christian god.

That's what my comment on the story said, but it's disappeared now. I do hope it wasn't censored for casting cold water on the overheated mood of the other readers.

Defeated [French] Socialists search for scapegoats

According to a Pew survey, 1/3 of Latinos in American prefer "to be involved in churches where an enthusiastic, hand-clapping, arms-raised style of worship and prayer is typical."

Couple that with the inroads that the pentecostal movement is making in Brazil and what do you have?

Proof that many people will trade sound theology for a highly-charged emotional experience and promises an easy path to salvation. Not to over-simplify the situation too much of course.

Whole article pasted for your enjoyment.

Soccer Game for Priests, Imams Canceled
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A soccer game between Muslim imams and Christian priests at the end of a conference to promote interfaith dialogue was canceled Saturday because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part.

Church of Norway spokesman Olav Fykse Tveit said the imams refused to play against a mixed-gender team of priests because it would have gone against their beliefs in avoiding close physical contact with strange women.

The church decided to drop its female players and the priests' team captain walked out in protest.

Hours before the game was to end the daylong "Shoulder to Shoulder" conference in Oslo, the church released a statement saying it had called off the match because it was sending the wrong signal.

"Because we thought it would be a nice conclusion of the conference we didn't want to call it off, so we decided to stage an all-mens team game instead," Tveit said. "We realize now that it will be wrong to have a priest team without women."

For people like Eric who used to know my dad as "Captain Grim" this picture might be a surprise. Click for larger view.

Some readers may know I've directed a choir at a parish in northern Virginia for over 12 years. It's been a real joy for me: it's how I met my wife, it keeps me involved in music-making on a weekly basis and gives me plenty of opportunities to revive the use of chant and motets at our Mass.

Our parish has over 100 volunteers in the music program spread over four Masses. The parish repertoire ranges from some common latin chants and latin motets to guitars & banjos. My response to folks that have asked why we don't have guitars at our Mass at 10am on Sunday is - pick the one before or after if that's what you want. Or drive another 5 minutes to another parish where every Mass has "contemporary" music.

Enough bits have been recorded related to the problems with contemporary music, and the fact chant and polyphonic choral music needs a revival. I'm going to start posting some practical advice for choir directors who want to work toward making chant and motets common practice in their parishes - even if for the one Mass that has a choir.

First - you don't need paid soloists and/or section leaders to do more advanced music. I've had only a few paid section leaders over the years and while they helped alot, they aren't crucial to learning and performing the treasures of the Church.

The minimum requirements are - 1) you need an excellent accompanist who can play through parts with confidence and clarify. 2) You need at least one or two singers in each section who are strong music readers and can help the rest of the section learn their parts. They don't need loud voices - they need to be able to sing in tune and have the confidence to help lead the section.

Next item is: start simple. There are plenty of four part motets that have lots of step-wise motion and common intervals. Here are a couple of collections that are a good place to start:

Four-part Palestrina Motets This has the classic "O Rex Gloriae" for Ascension Sunday, "Benedicta Sit Sancta Trinitas" for Trinity Sunday. The parts are pretty straight forward and the score includes a piano reduction. The only drawback with the score is the printing is a little small.

A few other options for starters:
Christmas is incomplete with the Victoria "O Magnum Mysterium"
The Aichinger "Regina Caeli" is a relatively easy four part motet that's perfect for Easter.
Victoria's "Miserere Mei" is a very straight forward motet for Lent.

Now some might say those pieces are too difficult. I'd love to hear about motets that you think are easier since I'm sure my knowledge of the repertiore is incomplete. But - even in the world of four part motets you could do much worse.

Examples: this Easter season my choir is learning the Mouton "Alleluia, Confitemini Domino." It looked relatively straight forward on the Internet. But the parts aren't as clear as in some of the other motets I referenced. The voices cross in many places. The intervals aren't as common as other motets of the period. And the rhythms are pretty adventurous and are harder to count. No piano reduction meant we had to make one for our accompanist - which is not only a drag but didn't help much because of the part crossing. Even the piano score is harder to play.

One last thought on learning music like this:
Make the choir sight read the piece all the way through without stopping at least 3 times. Obviously the accompanist needs to play along and needs to be confident. It's a terrible thing to just start pounding separate parts without giving choir members a chance to read them. Divided sectionals can come later if needed (and we still need them from time to time.) Part pounding with the full choir is a recipe for slow learning and boredom. The time you have the basses learning one part is time the tenors, altos and sopranos are getting bored and frustrated. Give folks a chance to try to learn by reading and over time they will get better and better at reading.

Next up: overcoming singing problems in volunteer choirs.

Musicians unlock mystery melody in Scottish chapel

Stuart Mitchell said he and his father were intrigued by 13 intricately carved angel musicians on the arches of the chapel and by 213 carved cubes depicting geometric-type patterns.

"They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here," he told Reuters.

Years of research led the Mitchells to an ancient musical system called cymatics, or Chladni patterns, which are formed by sound waves at specific pitches.

And here in the US - 15 years from now someone will find this inscription on the concrete of Marty Haugen's patio.

Mass of Creation Rules!