Author: Richard Chonak

Myth! Oh, myth!
No, no, I don’t have a speech impediment.
I’m just ticked to see a formerly respectable writer fall for an old anti-conservative canard. Over on the HMS blog, everybody’s favorite Catholic radio shrink Greg Popcak is engaged in a dispute about Bp. Gregory’s cautiously anti-war letter.
Here Greg responds with an erroneous example to one of his co-bloggers’ statements:

#1. The bishops made a prudential judgement. We are free to disagree with it by making our own prudential judgement.
Here is my struggle with this statement. The “prudential judgement” argument is overused, mostly by liberals, to disagree with everything that they don’t like about what the Church says. Conservatives use it this way too (Bill Buckley’s famous article, “Mater Si, Magistra, No!” for example), usually about Capital punishment, but there are other issues, and when they do, they lose any and all credibility–with me at least. [sic]

Before Greg goes layin’ a rap on the credibility of Catholic conservatives, he should check out his own sources. That “famous article” of Bill Buckley manifesting a clear dissent against Bl. Pope John’s encyclical never happened.
This myth has been floating around for a long time, and the original quip has been inflated beyond all reality. It appeared 12 August 1961 in National Review as an unsigned item:

Going the rounds in conservative circles: ‘Mater si, magistra no’.

Clearly a joke, not a headline, not a manifesto. Not even Buckley’s own words. Some people credit them to Garry Wills, who also wrote for NR.
Greg, you know you can’t believe all the stuff liberals say about us Catholics.

Interview: Why Latin?
Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung interviewed retired bishop Max Ziegelbauer, 79, who calls in his new book Die alte Kirche ist mir lieber (“I like the old Church better”) for the return of the Latin language in divine worship. Fittingly, the interview was conducted in Latin. The following English translation is rather free, and any errors are mine.

SZ: In this era, when nobody speaks Latin any more, why do you claim that the Church should appreciate this ancient language more and restore its dignity?
Ziegelbauer: First of all, because the Second Vatican Council declared that the Latin rite should be celebrated in Latin; also, the International Union of Church Musicians has deplored the abolition of Latin as insane. If something has been handed on happily for centuries, you can’t throw it away rashly without causing harm.
SZ: So do you consider the modern languages as not suited to communicate the Mystery of the Cross?
Ziegelbauer: By all means, they are suitable, but somehow the use of Latin in worship seems more appropriate for the august mysteries, because in this earthly age the mystery of our salvation must necessarily be clothed and as it were veiled in signs, images, and words.
SZ: In your book, where you say you prefer the Church as she used to be, you recommend that church services be mainly about God and reproach the Second Vatican Council for giving too much place to man. I wonder why you see it that way.
Ziegelbauer: Some people who want to support their own opinions with the authority of Vatican II, do, without a doubt, make too much of man. That’s why we should hesitate when man and all things human are being venerated as holy, but they may diminish the majesty of God himself. See what happened when they turned the church altars around versus populum: Although this was never approved by the Council, this practice was imposed everywhere, even on unwilling people, as if by force. The Pastoral Council wasn’t to blame, but rather those who abused the Council’s decrees in many cases afterward.

Sincere thanks to our correspondent in Germany Benedikt Nyger for the tip! (Incidentally, Benedikt has recently relocated his weblog Zeit und Ewigkeit.)

I’m in with the ‘in’ crowd…
I had no idea how fashionable this site was becoming! But apparently Pete Vere, the revert author of works fictional and canonical, and advisor to Gen Y, is asking where to send his application.
John, do we have any policy to handle this sort of thing? I presume you know where he’s from. Maybe it’s just part of his insidious plan.

Jihad group “disbands”
Will Christians in Indonesia get some relief from their persecution by Jihad fanatics? Maybe so. One group has decided to skip town:

JAKARTA — Laskar Jihad, Indonesia’s most violent Muslim extremist group which is blamed for the slaughter of thousands of Christians in a sectarian conflict in the Maluku islands, has disbanded, the group’s legal adviser announced on Tuesday.
The claim, which could not immediately be confirmed, appeared to be the first sign that Indonesia was getting serious about cracking down on Muslim extremism in the wake of Saturday’s bombing in Bali.
Efforts to contact Jafaar Umar Thalib, the group leader in Ambon — the capital of Maluku province about 2,600 km east of Jakarta — were unsuccessful. He is currently on trial for inciting violence in Maluku.
Mr Achmad Michdan, the group’s legal adviser, said that the move was not connected to Saturday’s blast.
He said: ‘It has nothing to do with the bombs. There was no pressure on us from military.
‘It is an internal matter. The clerics in Indonesia and in the Middle East have disagreed with Jafaar Umar Thalib’s teachings and have asked him to disband the group,’ he said.

Thanks, guys.