blog

Latin Mass and talks schedule for Eucharistic Congress

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:50:29 +0100

In principle I support the Mass in the Extraordinary Form (or TLM as many followers call it but that also stands for The Leprosy Mission so probably not a good idea, though since many bishops continue to treat them like lepers maybe the coincidence is a happy one). The problem is I get so far with the Mass and then something like the photograph above happens and I think, "no, that's just silly - there is no reason whatsoever for the rubric requiring the chausable to be held out in this manner. It doesn't help the priest with the elevation, in fact it may well distract him. It's a vestige from a time of different vestments and yet it's still done. And don't get me started about the paten. Hidden under the corporal, wrapped up by the sub-deacon. What's that all about? In days of yore when there was a Carmelite Rite all sorts of peculiar things happened with the paten:

The subdeacon kneels, and gives the paten uncovered to the deacon, together with the veil, after the 'Sed libera nos a malo' in the Lord's prayer. The embolism, which follows, has certain ceremonies peculiar to that rite. The deacon kisses the shoulder of the celebrant and hands him the paten before the words 'da propitius'. The priest kisses the paten, and continues with the prayer... the kissing of the paten cannot be an act of devotion to the vessel on which the sacred Host will be laid, as the Host is never placed on the paten in the Carmelite rite, unless some ceremony ... has disappeared. Perhaps, however, sufficient reason may be found from the fact that the paten is placed on the altar 'seorsum ad corporale'. At the words 'Ope misericordiae, the celebrant touches his left eye with the paten, and at 'Et a peccato simus liberi', his right eye. Finally at 'Ab omni perturbatione, he signs himself with the paten, and replaces it on the altar near the corporal.

Anyway, that's just me being ornery. The purpose of my post was to give the schedule for the Extraordinary Form for the Eucharistic Congress. Some interesting talks and it shows there's more to the congress than gathering, bells and being nice to Protestants.

Sunday 10th June: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

10.30 a.m. High Mass (Music by St Kevin’s Schola)

3.30 p.m. Blessed Sacrament Procession and Solemn Benediction

Monday 11th June: St Barnabas

9.30 a.m. Solemn Pontifical Mass. Celebrant: The Most Rev. Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa

(The Lassus Scholars will sing Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli)

7.30 p.m. Evening Devotions: Rosary, Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, and Benediction.

8.15 p.m. Talk in the Parish Hall: “Apostle of the Trenches: The Life and Spirituality of Fr William Doyle, SJ”

Speaker: Mr Patrick Kenny, Editor of fatherdoyle.com

Tuesday 12th June: St John of San Facundo

8.00 a.m. & 8.30 a.m. Low Masses

11.30 a.m. Conference in the Parish Hall: “The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist”

Speaker: Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

7.00 p.m. High Mass. Celebrant: Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

(The Lassus Scholars will sing Palestrina’s Missa Brevis)

8.15 p.m. Talk in the Parish Hall: “Prayers and Religious Folktales from the Irish Oral Tradition”

Speaker: Dr Pádraig de Paor, Dept. of Irish and Celtic Languages, Trinity College Dublin.

Wednesday 13th June: St Anthony of Padua

8.00 a.m. & 8.30 a.m. Low Masses

11.30 a.m. Conference in the Parish Hall: “Understanding Transubstantiation”

Speaker: Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

[7.30 p.m. In the RDS: Blessed Sacrament Procession]

Thursday 14th June: St Basil the Great

8.00 a.m. & 8.30 a.m. Low Masses

[10.00 a.m. In the RDS: Confessions]

7.00 p.m. High Mass. Celebrant: Fr Gerard Deighan, Adm., Chaplain to the Dublin Latin Mass Community

(The Lassus Scholars will sing Victoria’s Missa O Quam Gloriosum)

8.15 p.m. Talk in Parish Hall: “Beauty and the Sacred” Speaker: Dr Mark Dooley, Philosopher and Author

Friday 15th June: Sacred Heart of Jesus

8.00 a.m. & 8.30 a.m. Low Masses

11.30 a.m. Conference in the Parish Hall: “The Mass as Sacrifice: Old Testament Perspectives”

Speaker: Fr Gerard Deighan, LSS

7.00 p.m. High Mass and Solemn Benediction. Celebrant: Dom Mark Kirby, OSB, Prior of Silverstream Priory, Stamullen

(Music by St Kevin’s Schola)

8.15 p.m. Talk in Parish Hall: “Eucharistic Spirituality”. Speaker: Dom Mark Kirby, OSB

Saturday 16th June: Saturday of Our Lady

9.00 a.m. Low Mass (Confessions before/during Mass)

10.30 a.m. – 5.45 p.m. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

4.45 p.m. – 5.45 p.m. Holy Hour and Solemn Benediction with Confessions throughout the hour

(Music by Piccolo Lasso)

Sunday 17th June: 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

10.30 a.m. High Mass

(The Lassus Scholars will sing Lassus’ Missa Bell’ Amfitrit’ altera)

[2.00 p.m. In Croke Park: Statio Orbis]

If only priests would wear the amice, we wouldn't have to look at their dog collars.

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:19:43 +0100

Fr. William Holtzinger plays the "Good Shepherd" during Mass with his poodle Benny at St. Anne's Parish, Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, 29th April, 2012.

"and it's yours and it's yours and it's yours"

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:55:10 +0100

At Mass in County Down on Sunday morning. The priest said Mass reverently and preached well, I thought. But there constant running around. There was a sacristan and her minions who all seemed to be patrolling relentlessly. There was a children's liturgy, which meant the children had to parade out, receiving a large bible as they went. Then they paraded in again, and four of them explained what the gospel had been about. There was a gospel procession. And an offertory procession. And they were fine but the church was round and the procession had a sort of bogus air you get when you process from one place to another that's right beside where you started. We had many extraordinary ministers of holy communion, all crowded round the altar, far too close, and far too early in the proceedings (why do they have to come up before the priest's communion?). And then it was badly organised with not enough communion in each "bowl" with the result that EMHCs were returing to base and helping themselves to more. Not well done. There was a decent enough folky choir. But the highlight was the offertory "hymn". It was "The Life that I Have", a poem much beloved by a dean of Maynooth. And entirely inappropriate for Mass. The words are:

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

On the face of it, it sounds okay in a St Louis Jesuity sort of way, that is unless you know the origin of the poem.

Most of us will have heard it read at the end of Carve Her Name With Pride, a war film about Violette Szabo, a British/French spy, captured and tortured by the Nazis. So it suggests a martyr theme. And while Violette was undoubtedly an extraordinarily brave women who was fighting on the right side in a mostly righteous cause, she wasn't a martyr.

That said, the poem isn't even about her life offering - it's a secret code poem. It was written by a British code expert, Leo Marks, and given to Violette to help her code and decode messages. Little did he know it would be being sung at Mass in a Down church some 70 years later.

Cardinal Rule: Have your cake, but don't eat it

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:35:36 +0100

The Daily Mail is reporting that the first ever slice of cake from the wedding of Kate and William has attracted bids of almost £1,500 as fans of the royal two vie to get their hands on the royal memorabilia.

With two weeks still to go on the auction, the bidding stands at £1,453 - but as is customary, the auction house expect a flurry of last-minute bids to push the value much higher by the time bidding closes on 24 May.

The boxed fruit cake, supplied to online auction house PFC Auctions by an anonymous seller, was among 650 pieces of wedding cake given to guests at the afternoon reception of the royal wedding held at Buckingham Palace last April.

Now who do we know who was at the royal wedding and might be needing a bit of extra money to fund his early retirement?

For those who take an interest in such matters (you know who you are), the Guest List for the royal wedding has a peculiar order. The order of precedence seems to be ignored, or is there some secret list that places the Prince of the Asturias above the King of Norway:

The Prince and Princess of the Asturias
The Crown Prince of Bahrain
Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium
The Sultan of Brunei and Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha
King Simeon II and Queen Margarita of the Bulgarian
The Queen of Denmark
King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes
Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Prince Constantine of Greece
Sheikh Ahmad Hmoud Al-Sabah of Kuwait
Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso and Princess Mabereng Seeiso of Lesotho
The Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Raja Permaisuri Agong of Malaysia
Prince Albert II of Monaco and Miss Charlene Wittstock
Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco
The Crown Prince and Princess of The Netherlands
The King and Queen of Norway
Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said of Oman
The Emir of The State of Qatar and Sheika Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned
King Michael I of Romania and Crown Princess Margarita
Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and Princess Fadwa bint Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman
The Queen of Spain
The King of Swaziland
The Crown Princess of Sweden and The Duke of Västergötland
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand
The King of Tonga
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia
The Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

[Editor: I think you'll find they're in alphabetical order]. Oh, yes. Hardly the done thing for royalty though, is it?

And why does the Most Reverend Gregorious, Archbishop of the Greek Archdiocese of Thysteira and Great Britain come before the the Archbishop of Canterbury?

I would have no hesitation in putting you on the radio at any time if you were not such a right ...

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:44:13 +0100

Some listener feedback I received after my first EWTN radio appearance last week:

I was impressed by your dispassionate tone, as well as your easy command of the facts, (killing off the retired abbot notwithstanding). Not sure where the empathy issue came up for whoever. I think you would find it easier in studio rather than on the phone. I would have no hesitation in putting you on the radio at any time if you were not such a right wing nut job! It was a longer interview than I expected but I think that it will have informed rather than inflamed which seems out of character for a crazed right wing ‘bloggist (sic).

---
I really thought the interview was excellent. Your approach was cool, reasonable, informative and very much dragnet- “just the facts” I think the contrast between Kenny et al’s inaccurate unfounded rant is worth noting. I also think you have to do it like that as the media would not give you an easy ride, like they gave Kenny.

I thought you made several excellent points- poor church management, priest from orders able to roam free, why the kid had to swear the oath etc.

On the point of empathy I thought you were a little too cool when describing the kid who was interviewed by Cardinal but I think you corrected that as you got into your stride. Specifically you could have referred to the “brave child/kid” rather than “the child”. I think Kathy’s gushy approach made you seem cooler than you were. Is she always like that or did she feel the need to compensate for you? Don’t know.

I read your self-criticism on the blog. All your points were rubbish you have a nice conversational style and you came across well.

Do more of this. The Church needs apologists and you were great.

---
I thought the interview was brilliant.

---
You did exceptionally well, a natural...this won't do much for your humility but you were really good. No fluffing your words or sentences. Well done...more work coming your way, I'm sure.

---
You said is as it is without making more or less of what happened. You spoke well. I was impressed. You spoke intelligently and simply.

---
Finally got to hear your invertview - excellent!

No we can't

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:57:59 +0100

The Left Hand of Darkness has kicked off his re-election campaign with a somewhat underwhelming rally in Ohio Stat e University, Toledo (birthplace of Katie Holmes and Jamie Farr "Corporal Klinger").

Remember those huge rallies from four years ago, the crowds spilling out, the standing room only, the "yes we can". Seems we can't anymore. The hall holds about 20,000. The organisers got people out of their seats to fill the arena floor but not before the first photos leaked.

He's also decided to gamble on gay "marriage" - a risky strategy indeed - must show how desparate the advisers are getting. Presumably he thinks it will galvanize his liberal base and get them out to support and vote. Perhaps. But it's more likely to galvanize his conservative opponents and get them out to support Romney who can now get the double bonus of being against gay "marriage" and in favour of States Rights. It is also likely to divide the black vote. The evangelical black voters who gave him a bye the first time are unlikely to do it again.

"His life was like lightning"

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:58:11 +0100

Fr Martin Henry has an interesting letter in tomorrow's Irish Catholic:

In the current tug of war on the fate of Cardinal Sean Brady, it is frequently stated that he is now suffering from what is termed a “loss of moral credibility”. As I understand it – or maybe misunderstand it – Christianity teaches, albeit dogmatically, that only one human being has “moral credibility”, namely the Sinless One, Jesus Christ. Or as Friedrich Nietzsche put it: ”In reality there has been only one Christian, and he dies on the Cross.” It seems to me that Catholic Christianity tries, rightly or wrongly and however inadequately, to do justice to this belief by distinguishing, where members of its clergy are concerned, between the office and the person, in terms of where true authority lies. It lies with the former, not the latter. Beyond the intense personal suffering al all those involved for almost the past 40 years n this never ending nightmare, the present debate appears to have a wider significance. What is at stake is the Catholic distinction between office and person. It may well finally be decided to abandon this distinction. At which point, one should perhaps send in the receivers.

Yours etc,

Rev. Dr Martin Henry,
Lecturer in Dogmatic Theology,
St Patrick’s College,
Maynooth, Co. Kildare.

I do get his point and I think it has some merit. But I would make a distinction between "having authority", a more objective thing, and "teaching with authority", which is more subjective.

In the time of Christ, the scribes had authority, but Jesus taught with authority and was seen to do so. It is interesting that the same Greek word, 'exousia', which is translated 'authority' in Mark 1:22 and 27 also occurs in 1 Cor 8:9, where it is translated as 'liberty'. Perhaps this gives us a way in to a distinction. For there is no doubt that Sean Brady has the full authority of a bishop. It's just that, in recent times, Irish bishops have been poor in using their authority. Sean Brady has authority, but has he the liberty to teach?

Teaching is not like other sacramental activities which work ex opere operato; its truthfulness may be guaranteed by the office (one hopes) but not it's impact or efficacy.

May what St. Gregory Nazianzen said of St. Basil the Great be said of all bishops (priests and deacons): “A sermon of Basil’s was like thunder, because his life was like lightening.” (Orat. 20)

My EWTN debut

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:43:27 +0100

When a man's an empty kettle

He should be on his mettle

And yet I'm torn apart

Just because I'm presumin'

That I could be a human

If I only had a heart

I'd be tender, I'd be gentle

And awful sentimental

Regarding love and art

I'd be friends with the sparrows

And the boy that shoots the arrows

If I only had a heart

Picture me a balcony

Above a voice sings low

(Snow White)

Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

(Tin Man)

I hear a beat, how sweet!

Just to register emotion, jealousy, devotion

And really feel the part

I could stay young and chipper

And I'd lock it with a zipper

If I only had a heart.

I made my debut last week as an official Catholic Commentator and Bloggist on EWTN Radio - a programme called Celtic Connections hosted by Kathy Sinnott. I was speaking about the BBC programme on Cardinal Brady and the reaction to it, as well as the censuring of Fr Brian D'Arcy. It was a little nerve wracking particularly as I was doing it by telephone while my children wondered in and out of the kitchen looking for last food before bedtime. But I thought it went well enough. Of course one spots one's repeated phrases such as "I suppose" and a ghastly moment when I began by saying "there are two sides to this", but could only remember one. And a factual error when I said the Abbot of Kilnacrott from Brendan Smyth's day was dead and he's in fact very much alive, aged 81 and calling for Cardinal Brady to resign.

Anyway, the cartoon and song above. A listener contacted me after the show in an attempt to burst my bubble of debutorial delight to say that I lacked empathy - it seems I stated the facts coldly and rationally and was emotionally uninvolved.

Thank you very much, says I - that's what I was going for. You can listen for yourself here - my bit starts about two minutes in.

Church should keep it simple - report any abuse concerns to the HSE and Garda

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:52:47 +0100

At the risk of labouring the point, the recent Brady affair must seriously call into question the whole approach to child abuse reporting adopted by the Church.

My parish in Drogheda has a Parish Safeguarding Representative to whom one reports abuse. He or she forwards any complaints they receive to Diocesan Designated Liaision Person. He then forwards complaints to An Garda and/or the HSE. He is assisted by the Advisory Case Management Committee.

The State document, Children First, suggest members of the public with concerns about a child should contact the Children and Family Service of the HSE. If that's not possible, or the danger is more immediate, they should contact An Garda.

I really think the Church should consider retaining its new child protection structure for training and advice purposes, but be crystal clear that they have no role in receiving reports of abuse. It's much cleaner and safer for the Church. The public go to the HSE (or Garda) and the HSE can contact the Diocesan Designated Person.

Under the current Church procedures, a person who raises an issue of concern has no way of knowing if the issue passes through the various Church stages and is passed on to the HSE/Garda. Will the public have sympathy if a priest in ten years time says "I told the parish safeguarding representative all my concerns about the Parish Priest; it's not my fault she did nothing about it"?

Irish Catholic, under new ownership

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:12:49 +0100

So, as predicted, Garry O'Sullivan, managing editor of the Irish Catholic, has now bought the publication from the Agricultural Trust (Irish Farmer). Not sure if it's himself alone or with other backer. The new address is "St Mary's, Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 4". Lots of people are based there already - CORI, Progressio Ireland, Catholic Ireland.net

There is a little history between us, but I wish him well. It's not easy risking your own money. The Irish Catholic has good points and bad, but I think it's better to have it than not. In the current media market, if it goes under it will not be replaced by something better, that's for sure.

I wonder will the mission statement change:

“To truthfully present and promote the Catholic Faith and highlight in a thought provoking manner the religious, social and moral issues of the day that affect our readers and the broader faith community.”