Priest: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another.
People: Thanks be to God and one another.
August 2007 Archives
The CMAA has produced a video from this year's Sacred Music Colloquium, to inspire you to attend next year's edition in Chicago.
Along with comments from participants, the video has some nice footage of Fr. Keyes celebrating a requiem Mass in the Basilica during the colloquium week, and even a cameo of my handsome face at (-06:55) -- for some reason, YouTube videos display on my system with a time countdown instead of an ascending time counter.
A crime, covered up in New Orleans? 
I suppose it's no surprise in that city, notorious for official corruption.
CNN reports that five medical experts judged mysterious deaths in a New Orleans hospital to be homicide, but the grand jury convened to review the case never saw their reports.
In a decision that puzzled the five experts hired by the state, New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan never called them to testify before the grand jury. What remains unclear, because of grand jury secrecy laws, is whether the grand jury even saw the experts' written reports.
"They weren't interested in presenting those facts to the grand jury," said Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former coroner of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and a past president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists.
"The hard scientific facts are those from five leading experts, [the patients died] from massive lethal doses of morphine and Versed. As far as I know the toxicological findings were not presented to the grand jury and certainly not with quantitative analysis."
Well this has nothing to do with Catholicism. But I'm going to mention it anyway.
You can put a Nazi uniform, officer cap and eye patch on Tom Cruise and he is still a pretty boy.
Das ist alles.
85 years ago, the atheistic Soviet state confiscated the bells of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, and offered them for sale as scrap bronze. An American industrialist bought the bells and gave them to Harvard to prevent their destruction; since then they have hung in the tower of Lowell House, ringing to celebrate football victories and commencements. Soon they will go back to Russia and ring for the glory of God.
More at Harvard Gazette.
The music director at our new church is a good pianist and sight-reader, but isn't all that familiar with the music of the Catholic liturgical tradition. Tonight, while she was working with the ladies of the Preces Cantatae choir on a setting of the Magnificat, she looked at the Latin text and asked, "By the way, what does this mean?"
Genevieve Kineke, the Catholic writer on authentic femininity, has news about a noteworthy anniversary for Catholic lay life:
It is our great joy to learn that the Pontifical Council for the Laity is encouraging the faithful worldwide to observe the 20th anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem in the coming year. This Apostolic Letter (signed August 15th, 1988) was written by John Paul II to encourage women in their vocations, to highlight the essential feminine genius that they provide to the world, and to restore spiritual and physical motherhood to a culture that was quickly losing sight of the very meaning of nuptial love.
The Catholics of North America have been asked in particular to consider the document in light of one overarching theme: The Dignity of Women in a Technological and Consumeristic Society. To that effect, a website has been created in order to provide a comprehensive resource for those looking for ways to reflect on this timely anniversary. Dignityofwomen.com will point to books, speakers, study guides, and other initiatives that will bring the beauty of this document to as many people as possible, while constantly integrating suggestions, additions, and a bulletin board of events for women to access over the coming year.
Your help would be greatly appreciated in spreading the word, contacting the appropriate persons at the parish and diocesan level to alert them to this anniversary, fostering the publication of articles on the topic for various periodicals, encouraging local women to gather and discuss the theme in various settings, and to pray for the message in Mulieris Dignitatem to be studied and lived. This is also a marvelous opportunity to reach out to women of good will in other denominations and faiths, inviting them to prayerfully consider its themes and to see if common ground could be found. We invite qualified speakers to submit a request, and thereby add their names to the site. Similarly, relevant books and organizations are welcome to provide their links.
The timeliness of this observance cannot be overestimated. With debates raging over the nature of marriage, the sanctity of human life, the needs of children, and how the gifts of women are best promoted, what better way to form ourselves than by returning to the foundational questions of who women are and why the divine plan hinges on their cooperation.
Kindly help us share this good news with as many as you can and please pray with us for a fruitful observance. Any questions, suggestions, or submissions of resources should be sent to gskineke at feminine-genius.com. May Our Lady, in whose fidelity the entire world rejoices, bless this coming year and all our efforts to understand the richness of the feminine vocation.
[addendum: I will be discussing this with Teresa Tomeo Wednesday morning on EWTN Radio at 9:45 EST]
Happy Assumption Day!
Fr. Jeff Keyes of the Rifugio San Gaspare blog is vacationing in Connecticut this week, and Fr. Mark Kirby, author of Vultus Christi, is back in the States after his time in Rome, so we three met today for Mass at the Benedictine convent where Fr. Mark serves as chaplain.
We sang the Gregorian ordinary (Mass XII), and a couple of the propers for the martyrs SS. Pontian and Hippolytus: the beautiful introit Salus autem and the Alleluia Te martyrum. The Sisters and the lay congregation did a fine job of singing the ordinary parts and even the tune of the Alleluia -- a tune which you may hear for yourself this week, since it is also used in the Mass of Assumption Day.
Fr. Mark's homily reminded us of Pope Pontian and the priest Hippolytus, who became his opponent and even fell into schism; yet when the Empire swept both of them into exile and hard labor, Hippolytus was reconciled with the Church and died a martyr as did Pontian: it is an encouraging example of the triumph of Christ's love over division, and a proof that "even dissidents can be converted".
Here are a couple of snapshots from the Mass:
After Mass, we had lunch at an Italian caffe in New Haven, chatted there for most of the afternoon, and attended Vespers at the Dominican nuns' monastery in North Guilford.
As always, it was a joy to enter into the company of two such faithful men of God.
How is that not different from this?
Bare on the beach is OK with God, Catholic says
"Certainly the Garden of Eden story, which most people know from Genesis, does not suggest that the crime or the sin of Adam and Eve was being unclothed," said Rapoport. "It was disobeying a higher power."Of course that's true. But that doesn't mean it's ok to romp around nude playing volleyball. Goodness - that's just awful.
This inspiring song by Pakistani pop singers has become a way for Muslims to express their rejection of terrorism and say, "This is not us". The song has appeared on the net for some months, but was only officially released in mid-July. Since then, it has gained a boost of Western press attention. Congratulations to the artists on this good work!
The producer of the song has started an NGO to advance the idea, and there is at least one fan web site devoted to the project.
(A hat tip to peacenik Julianne Wiley for the info.)
Hitler's Music Collection Turns Up in Dead Russian Soldier's Attic
The most astonishing fact about the records — essentially Hitler’s “Best of . . .” collections — is the presence of Jewish performers. Among the recordings is a Tchaikovsky concerto performed by the virtuoso Polish Jewish violinist Bronislaw Huberman. Hitler would have been aware, while listening to Huberman’s playing, that he had founded the Palestine Orchestra in 1936 (which went on to be the foundation of today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) and that he was living in enforced exile.The Austrian Jewish pianist Artur Schnabel, whose mother was killed by the Nazis, also had his work included in Hitler’s personal collection. It is not known which records in the collection were listened to most frequently, nor have they been formally catalogued.
“I’m not terribly surprised by Hitler’s record choices,” said James Kennaway, of Stanford University. “Nazi music policy was pretty incoherent. Stravinsky was played in the Third Reich because he was known to have right-wing views, Bartok because Hungary was a German ally.” Dr Kennaway, a leading musicologist who specialises in the Nazi period, added: “The only real point of consistency in Nazi policy was antiSemitism, so the Schnabel and Huberman recordings do stand out.”
