Did the Vatican let Benedict XVI take the rap for the child abuse scandal in order to protect the memory of John Paul II?

Father Malachi Martin, the famous ex-Jesuit and Hebrew Scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls once said that John Paul II was surrounded by men who despised him. Now that he is dead, many are rushing to coopt and protect his legacy. It's only fitting since the late Pope had been a real sign of contradiction, so much so that he frequently contradicted himself in public pronouncments.

One thing hasn't changed, if what Father Malachi said is true (and there's plenty of evidence around to suggest it is): it's not just the media that hates Benedict XVI and the Papacy, but it's the Vatican itself, like a familiar disease whose immune defense system attacks the body it is supposed to defend.

Damian Thompson's analysis is correct here, as usual.

Did the Vatican let Benedict XVI take the rap for the child abuse scandal in order to protect the memory of John Paul II?

FBI Arrests Two Clinic Protesters

You'd better come quietly. Note the punishment for these "crimes" being meted out by the American Sodom.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced that RICHARD R. DUGAN and THEODORE A. PUCKETT were found guilty yesterday, following a one-day bench trial before United States District Judge ROBERT W. SWEET in Manhattan federal court, of unlawfully obstructing the entrances to a Planned Parenthood clinic, thereby interfering with clinic staff and patients, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

According to the Information and evidence presented at the bench trial before Judge SWEET:

On December 12, 2009, DUGAN and PUCKETT obstructed the entrances to a Planned Parenthood clinic in lower Manhattan. Specifically, both DUGAN and PUCKETT positioned themselves in front of the clinic entrances and prevented ingress to or egress from the clinic by physically blocking the entrances with their bodies. DUGAN and PUCKETT also prevented clinic staff and patients from entering the clinic. They continued their obstruction of the clinic entrances even after New York City police officers arrived and asked them to move away from the clinic. They only ceased their actions after the officers arrested them and removed them from the scene. In addition, DUGAN and PUCKETT made clear through their actions and statements that they acted in order to prevent clinic staff from providing, and clinic patients from obtaining, reproductive health services.

DUGAN, 48, of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and PUCKETT, 58, of Normandy, Tennessee were each found guilty of one count of violating the FACE Act. They each face a maximum potential sentence of six months in prison, as well as a maximum fine of $10,000. They are scheduled to be sentenced on June 10, 2010, by Judge SWEET.

Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department. He also thanked Planned Parenthood of New York City for their cooperation and assistance in this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys ALVIN BRAGG and ROSS E. MORRISON are in charge of the prosecution.

Link to original...

image: www.annyas.com

New Missal Translation is Coming

(28 Apr 10 – RV) Pope Benedict XVI today welcomed the news of the imminent publication of the English translation of the New Roman Missal. The Pope made the announcement during lunch today with "Vox Clara" Committee members

Set up in 2002, shortly after the publication of the New Roman Missal in Latin, the main task of Vox Clara has been to aid the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in overseeing the English language translation of the Missal.

The Commission includes bishops from America, Britain, Africa, India and Oceania who have met at regular intervals with officials at the Congregation to present them with the advise of biblical and liturgical scholars from the English speaking world.

Eight years later, it seems, this task has finally come to an end. At lunch with the bishops on Wednesday, Pope Benedict welcomed the news that “the English translation of the Roman Missal will soon be ready for publication”.

Thanking the bishops for their ‘great labour’ the Pope however pointed out that while the task of translation has come to an end, another equally demanding task now begins, that of preparing Catholics in the English speaking world, for the new translation.

“Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation” he said. “The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity”.

The Pope went on to point out that in order to avoid the risk of confusion or bewilderment, the introduction of the new translation must be accompanied by in depth catechesis. He told the bishops that they need to firmly grasp this as an opportunity for “a renewal and a deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world”.

Link to original...

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Ambulance called as graduate begs, 'Lord, have mercy.'

As an ambulance is called to help a woman crying out, "Lord have mercy", Ruth Gledhill echoes Richard Dawkin's question about mental health and religiosity.

If we were to apply an inverse Turing Test to Dawkins, would we be able to distinguish him from a computer?


Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Ambulance called as graduate begs, 'Lord, have mercy.'

Aussie Lady Refuses to Sell Home to Muslims

Former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson would be breaking the law if she refused to sell her home to a Muslim buyer on religious grounds, the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission says.

Ms Hanson, who is selling her home in Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, before she moves to Britain, told Seven's Sunrise program she would not accept any offers from Islamic buyers.

"Because I don't believe that they are compatible with our way of life, our culture," she said.

Link to article with photos of the house and a poll, here.

Roman Priest-Predator says, "I'm not a monster!"

Some people were scandalized that there ever were ecclesiastical prisons, others are scandalized that they, along with the Holy Inquisition, were ever done away with.

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- A priest accused of child abuse denied the charges Tuesday in a high-profile trial taking place in the shadow of the Vatican.

"I am not a monster. I am innocent," the Rev. Ruggero Conti said in court.

Conti is accused of molesting seven young boys at the Nativita di Santa Maria Santissima parish in Rome. He faces charges of committing sexual violence and prostitution.

Bill Donahue on continuing attacks by Pinch Sulzberg's scandal sheet, here.


image: onlygoodmovies.com

Hospital apologizes to nurses over abortion decision

April 27, 2010 By SID CASSESE sid.cassese@newsday.com


Nassau University Medical Center president Arthur Gianelli has rescinded sanctions against eight nurses who refused to take part in an abortion and has apologized to some of them, saying they "did nothing wrong."

The hospital's admission of mistakes stemmed from a March 31 incident in which a pregnant patient's water broke before the 14-week-old fetus was viable. A doctor told her she faced...

Link to submission offer...and source.

h/t: pewsitter

FOXNews.com - Chile Catholic church hit by abuse claims, bomb

These claims are nothing new, but it's useful to talk about them in an exaggerated way because there's an agenda behind them.

FOXNews.com - Chile Catholic church hit by abuse claims, bomb

Posted using ShareThis

What is the Anglican Patrimony spoken of by Pope Benedict? Part I

As an anglophile who has the highest hopes for the Personal Ordinariates envisioned by the Pope for the salvaging of all that’s good in Anglicanism and replanting it within the Roman Communion, a question keeps recurring among those Anglicans who are seriously contemplating taking the Holy Father up on his offer. In his Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, Pope Benedict calls “the Anglican Patrimony” a “treasure to be shared” with the entire Church.(1) The difficulty for Anglicans, however, is that most are unsure what precisely “the Anglican Patrimony” (henceforth AP) is. Having discussed the matter at some lengths with some of the Anglicans and Episcopalians that I respect and having listened to the recordings of the latest conference on this subject that recently convened at Oxford University,(2) I would like to bring to your attention four possible, mutually enriching answers to this question. I encourage all of you who would like to pursue the matter further, to listen to the recordings of the conference in full to hear learned men with really posh accents bringing forth their answers to this question. In the meantime, here are the answers that seem to me to have the most validity:
1. The AP is a distinctive way of celebrating the liturgy which draws on The Book of Common Prayer for its inspiration and texts.
2. Closely connected to #1, the AP is the rich Anglican tradition of choral music.
3. The AP is a predominantly married clergy.
4. The AP is that position of privilege Anglicanism enjoys in England to re-evanglize and minister to society at large, afforded by establishment.
In my next few articles, I shall take up and analyze these answers in order. But do notice something astonishing first: Most Anglicans today are unsure what their patrimony is! Secondly, we should note that whatever answers we bring to the question, the Holy Father certainly has in mind elements of Anglican identity and practice that are compatible with Catholic (i.e. Roman) doctrine. Whatever is explicitly heretical in that identity and practice must be rejected, whatever is orthodox may be imported, and whatever floats in-between must be analyzed by our theologians with a fine-toothed comb.
-------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes:
(1) Complementary Norms, Article 10, §1, §2; Anglicanorum Coetibus, III, VI §5.
(2) Available at http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/04/anglicanorum-coetibus-conference-presentations/

Influence and the UK Memo.

Revealed: Oxford graduate who sent offensive memo about Pope will keep his job as civil servant: Guardian

The whole thing looks like a diversionary tactic.

Look at the graph and notice how Susan Boyle is listed as influential while rabid atheist, Dawkins is not great. There's some kind of lesson in this.

It's also fun to see the influential vs. non-influential compared with each other on the cartesian graph. Whoever wrote it doesn't think that Aidan Nichols is influential. Is he?

One person the graph forgot to mention was mentioned by a churchman:

A senior Vatican source said: 'There are clearly dark forces within the British Government.

Read more: here.

NEW YORK TIMES PROTECTS WEAKLAND

CDL

April 26, 2010

Clark Hoyt, the public editor of the New York Times, had a piece in yesterday's newspaper that sought to defend the paper against Catholics unhappy with recent coverage of the pope. In particular, he defended Laurie Goodstein's story on Fr. Lawrence Murphy, the Wisconsin priest who molested deaf boys extending back to the 1950s.

Hoyt writes, "In 1996, more than 20 years after Murphy moved away, the archbishop of Milwaukee, Rembert Weakland, wrote to Ratzinger [now the pope], saying he had just learned that the priest had solicited sex in the confessional while at the school, a particularly grievous offense, and asked how he should proceed." (My italics.) Weakland became Milwaukee archbishop in 1977.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue isn't persuaded:

Link to original...

More Catholics Worldwide, More Bishops

VATICAN – Worldwide there are more Catholics, more bishops and more priestsThe Statistical Yearbook of the Church records that there are 1.166 billion Catholics on the planet with a growth rate slightly ahead of that of the global population. 5,002 bishops and 409,166 priests. The vitality of Catholicism in Asia, where all data is positive.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Worldwide-there-are-more-Catholics,-more-bishops-and-more-priests-18253.html
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

New York Times Gives Favoreable Report of Benedict's Handling of Sex Abuse

VIENNA — As Pope Benedict XVI has come under scrutiny for his handling of sexual abuse cases, both his supporters and his critics have paid fresh attention to the way he responded to a sexual abuse scandal in Austria in the 1990s, one of the most damaging to confront the church in Europe.

Defenders of Benedict cite his role in dealing with Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna as evidence that he moved assertively, if quietly, against abusers. They point to the fact that Cardinal Groër left office six months after accusations against him of molesting boys first appeared in the Austrian news media in 1995. The future pope, they say, favored a full canonical investigation, only to be blocked by other ranking officials in the Vatican.

A detailed look at the rise and fall of the clergyman, who died in 2003, and the involvement of Benedict, a Bavarian theologian with many connections to German-speaking Austria, paints a more complex picture.

Read further...

The Nazis Attacked Catholic Schools As Well

Even at that Time there was Special treatment of the Church

The 'Völkischer Beobachter': "What sensible, responsible parents could still be accountable, who give their boys and girls over to an organization, where more than one thousand men are sex criminals?" Von Hubert Hecker

[kreuz.net] In 1937 the National Socialist Courts convicted more than 9,000 persons of homosexual offenses.

Really, Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (+ 1945) allotted the press these cases only in short reports -- some for the purpose of shock effect reporting especially severe punishments.

Thisis tet one other manner of proceeding against about 250 condemnations of homosexual failings in the ecclesiastical realm. The media would then broadly and maliciously portray an "animalistic bawdiness" in the clergy.

The press also attacked the Church's trust and ability to educate in trials where protected classes or minors under 21 years were concerned.

The Sexual Aberrations of the Catholic Clergy

Goebbels clearly explained these points in his notorious diatribe of 28th of May 1937 -- as always with numerous exaggerations:

The Church causes "the planned moral destruction of thousands of children and sick." and indeed, "innumerable cases of the shameless corruption of our youth."

The "sexual aberrations of the Catholic clergy" was the "physical and spiritual menace to a healthy harvest of German youth."

The NS-Paper 'Völkischer Beobachter’ [people's observer] echoed Goebel's tirades:

"What sensible, responsible parents could still be accountable, who give their boys and girls over to an organization where more than one thousand men are sex criminals?"

NS- War against Catholic Youth Organizations

The NS-attack against the moral integrity of the Catholic Education served not least of all, served to cover and conceal the degenerate sexual morality in the National Socialist youth organizations.

From the year 1936 these sexual-anarchic Organization "Jungvolk', 'Hitlerjugend' and 'Bund Deutscher Mädel' - were declared "State Youth".

With the threat of a double membership and other harassment the National Socialists attempted to pressure the Catholic youth organizations.

They were finally completely forbidden at the end of 1937.

The NS-Strike against Catholic Schools

The Goebbels' Kulturkampf drove the Church from school and home.

The National Socialists wanted to establish socialistic national schools. For that reason all Catholic public and private schools were dissolved.

Then, the NS-Authorities were left to suppress the denominational schools. In 1935 a quarter of all the Community Schools (Volksschulen) anyway, were closed.

From 1936 the Schools run by Religious Communities were generally oppressed, harrassed and punished by having their assets taken away.

The Reichsminister for Education, Bernard Rust ( + 1945), forbid all officials in 1937 to send their children to ecclesiastical private schools.

The Nazi-State drove the Catholic Sisters from Kindergarten, in order so that even the smallest could be indoctrinated in National Socialist ideology.

The Catholic must give way to the National Socialist Person

The National Socialists promoted the "Unity of education on the basis of national- socialist Community Education."

All public educational jurisdictions promote the "Unity of Education on the foundation of national-socialist Community Education."

All public educational jurisdictions like Kindergarten, 'Jungvolk and Hitlerjugend, Community School (Volkschule) and higher schools like School Home (Schulerheime)should "form the National Socialist person".

In early 1939 the National Socialialist regime in the struck the last blow against the still remaining ecclesiastical schools and institutions.

With the start of 1st February "School Homes" and Convents may only be staffed with National-Socialist direction.

For the school town Hadamar in Westerwald that meant that the closing as well of the episcopal convent and the Franciscan House of Study.

Even the state Upper School for boys in Hadamar was dissolved on the 31st of March 1939 and reestablished as a national socialist girls school in a suburb of Limburg.

Liquidation of Catholic Schools

On March 23 the Community of the Dernbacher Sisters to the foundation of the Limburg Marien School with 460 students was displaced. The school buildings were sold.

In the course of 1939 the NS-Authorities had the School of the Oblates of the Abbey of Marienstatt closed.

Then it struck the Oberschule (Finishing School) of the English Lady in Wiesbaden and a Middle School of the Dernbacher Sisters in Oberlahnstein.

The renowned Oberschule of the Ursulines in Frankfurt Geisenheim and Koenigstein were only operating until Easter of 1940.

The Bishop trusted Talk

Bishop Antonius Hilfrich († 1947) of Limburg spoke on St. George's feast-day, 23 April 1939, at the Cross Celebration of Limburger Cathedral about the school closing and theft of Church property.

About 3,000 young men were present, who supported the bishop with high spirited interjections.

The NS-public prosecutor's office reacted immediately with a preliminary investigation against the Bishop.

Link to original...

Popular Galt Pastor Mary Sanders leaves after church votes to secede from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Having women pastors but objecting to homosexuals doesn't make a lot of sense -- which is the case here -- but a growing number of Lutherans are leaving the ELCA over this issue.

A second Lutheran church in the Lodi-Galt area has voted to leave its parent organization over the liberalization of gay rights.

The congregation at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church voted 49-12 on April 18 to part ways with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The vote resulted in Pastor Mary Sanders leaving the Galt church because of her desire to remain with the ELCA. The issue came to a head when the ELCA national convention voted on Aug. 21 to allow gays in committed relationships to be pastors and deacons. However, no church would be forced to accept a gay religious leader. Convention delegates, in their vote last year, didn't vote to allow gay marriage.

Shepherd of the Valley became the second local Lutheran church to opt out of the ELCA. Pending a final vote on June 13, Emanuel Lutheran Church in Lodi, known as a theologically conservative church, stands to leave the organization as well. Emanuel's congregation voted 162-32 on Feb. 21 to leave the ELCA, though organizational bylaws require a final vote in June, said Alice Reimche, president of Emanuel's church council.

Popular Galt Pastor Mary Sanders leaves after church votes to secede from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Belgian Cardinal Accused of Ignoring Abuse Reports

BY JOHN W. MILLER
BRUSSELS—One of Europe's most respected clerics was accused over the weekend of ignoring reports of sexual abuse by the bishop of Bruges, who resigned last week over the scandal.

Belgium's Godfried Danneels, a retired cardinal who was once a contender for the papacy, was allegedly informed in the 1990s that Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, now 73, had molested a young man. Monsignor Vangheluwe admitted to the abuse last week, and Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation Friday.

The Dutch-language daily De Standaard reported on Friday that two former priests had personally informed Cardinal Danneels, 77, about Bishop Vangheluwe's abuse several times ...

Read further...Wall Street Journal.

Canadian leader axes controversial sex-ed curriculum in response to backlash :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

First today the Portuguese Prime Minister is vetoing a piece of nasty legislation and now this Ontario Premier is "turning back the clock".

Canadian leader axes controversial sex-ed curriculum in response to backlash :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Prayer, Magic, Superstition and the Mediaeval Liturgy

by Jonathan Bennett

The usual modern critique of mediaeval religion is of a clerical and scholarly elite attempting to enforce a rigid doctrinal orthodoxy on the vast mass of unlearned laity whose faith is superstitious and theologically dubious at best and pagan at the worst. Necessary to this view is an internal conflict within the mediaeval Church- between the clergy and the laity, orthodoxy and "popular religion", liturgical prayer and lay devotion- a conflict which in fact did not exist. Mediaeval lay devotion was not superstitious- much less was it pagan- but firmly founded on the official liturgy of the Church which formed its core, indeed the center and highpoint of all culture and art of the period. More than that, the faith was made physically manifest in the liturgical rites of the Church- in the words of the seventeenth century English jurist John Selden, "To know what was generally believed in all ages the way is to consult the liturgies".

The liturgy, the embodiment of the Christian faith, was the means through which the laity came into the very presence of God. For the common people this was no theological profundity- it was a simple fact of life as sure, or surer, than the rising of the sun every morning. As the rituals of the Church were holy and possessed of supernatural power anything associated with the sacraments partook of their holiness. The very words of the liturgy, spoken or written, were endowed with power in their own right, regardless of whether or not the Latin was understood; Latin itself, the principal tongue of the liturgy, was a sacred language. The most basic prayers and the forms they took in private- even the simple acts of kneeling and making the sign of the cross- were taken straight from the liturgy. Examined in this light lay devotion was sacramental, it's power and legitimacy derived from the sacraments. The private prayer of the faithful, far from being an act of defiance in the face of the liturgical prayer of the clergy, sought to imitate and extend the august rites of the Church. Popular piety, in it's turn, exerted an influence on the liturgy by bringing new cults of devotions and saints under the protection of the Church through a demand for their inclusion in the liturgical calendar.

The chief object of lay devotion in the late middle ages was the primer (rhymes with thinner) or horae- the book of hours. Its origin was in the practice of some monastics to supplement the singing of the Divine Office with various "little offices" (particularly that of the Blessed Virgin, which would eventually become obligatory for all clergy and religious and then abandoned by the Council of Trent). These were patterned after the Great Office with psalms, antiphons, lessons and collects arranged into the seven (or, if Matins and Lauds are treated separately, eight) liturgical hours, but in much simplified and abbreviated form. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, composed of the most popular psalms, provided an ideal means for pious laymen to emulate religious devotion, and that the text remained constant day by day (excepting a few, minor seasonal variations) meant that it could easily be bound into a single light volume or even committed to memory. In the hands of the faithful these books added to the Little Office the Office of the Dead, devotions for Mass, an assortment of prayers, litanies and hymns for all occasions, iconography to induce contemplation and the most popular Gospel passages- the opening of the S. John's Gospel, the Annunciation from S. Luke, the story of the Magi from S. Matthew and the closing chapter of S. Mark- complete with rubrics, markings for the sign of the cross, and prefaces granting indulgences. In 1496 a secretary to the Venetian embassy to England wrote of the English faithful, "They all hear Mass everyday and say many Paternosters in public... and whoever is at all able to read carries with him the Little Office of Our Lady; and they recite it in church with some companion in a low voice, verse by verse, after the manner of Religious". Thus did the public liturgical prayer of the Church set the standard for the private prayer of the laity.

Ranging from the cheap and unadorned tomes of the lower classes to great illuminated volumes, slavishly illustrated, gilt and inset with precious stones after the manner of liturgical books, the many extant primers provide a fascinating insight into the "popular religion". Besides providing the essentials for lay prayer the primers were considered as sacramentals themselves- as noted previously, that which drew on the liturgy or had an association with the sacred mysterious became holy, itself an object of veneration. For this reason laymen often swore oaths on their primers, and many contain business contracts and wills alongside the birth, marriage and death records they accumulated as family heirlooms. Literacy being far more widespread in the middle ages than is often thought, it became the standard grammar text for children- most layman, and even women, could read and grasp basic Latin due to the study of their primer. Even those who could not read, let alone understand the Latin, found spiritual benefit in the very presence of the holy words of the text, to which their more learned neighbors were accustomed to append their own prayers and annotations to the margins. The rather simple primer which accompanied S. Thomas More to the Tower- and survives to this day- became filled with marginal notes and Latin commentary on the psalms (his psalter being bound at the back) with his famous prayer "Gyve me thy grace good Lord / To sett the world at nought" scrawled in English across the pages of the Little Office. It is perhaps this very same volume which More, in the style of many of his contemporaries, holds as a prop in his famous painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Alongside the more "mainstream" devotions of the primers- the fifteen O antiphons of St. Brigid, the seven penitential psalms, the gradual psalms, the Hours of the Cross, devotions to the Holy Name and the Five Wounds, ect.- one finds, in both the marginal additions and in the actual print itself, an array of texts that- to the modern mind- would at first seem more magical than devotional. Myriad prayers, invocations and litanies of this quality were prefaced by- sometimes elaborate- spiritual and temporal promises. A particularly popular example is the so-called "Charlemagne prayer", which the accompanying legend claims was given to the emperor either by the pope or from Heaven by an angel. The promises made to those who devoutly kept the prayer- which takes the form of an invocation of the Holy Cross punctuated by multiple signs of the Cross- on their person and recited it at need vary greatly from purely spiritual benefits to such temporal effects as the vanquishing of one's enemies (both human and demonic), safety in battle and from thieves, protection from sickness, the curing of epilepsy and ensuring the lives of new-born infants long enough for baptism to be administered. Even the more conventional devotions were accompanied by the same sort of promises alongside the usual indulgences.

Admittedly many of the primer prayers offer a hazy distinction between devotion and magic, but this is far from an indication of superstition or underlying remnants of pagan religion. Rather these echo a worldview lost in the Reformation and Enlightenment which drove a wedge between the spiritual and temporal worlds so closely interlinked in the age of faith. The concepts of grace and providence and the activity of angels and demons were not the vague theological abstractions they seem today. To the contrary, spiritual matters often had quite tangible consequences, the scope of the supernatural embracing the visible world as well as the invisible. No man would doubt the possibility of angelic powers out of Heaven, shades of purgatorian souls or demons from Hell moving about this world, particularly at times and in places of liminality or ambiguity (such as noon, midnight, the solstices or equinoxes, at crossroads, thresholds, in churches or on the boundaries of parishes), or that sin and spiritual decay could cause ill health and the decay of the body. The mediaeval liturgy was the most prominent point of contact between the temporal and the spiritual, an immense and complex pageant of ritual drama culminating in the descent of God Himself upon the altars and the commerce of man with the Divine. As the faith took physical form in the liturgy, Christ- the center of the faith- assumed physical form in the Mass- the heart of the liturgy. It is hardly surprising that the faithful would regard the great theurgic act of the sacring- the consecration of the Blessed Sacrament- as magic in it's highest degree.

The Ambrosian priest Francesco Maria Guazzo, writing from Milan in the early years of the seventeenth century, provides us with an excellent definition of magic which he divides into two basic kinds- natural magic and artificial magic. Of the first we are to understand it was "a gift from God to Adam" and "a more exact knowledge of the secrets of nature": that is to say all manner of lore regarding flora and fauna, medicines and poisons, the bodily humors, precious stones and minerals, the observation of the celestial spheres known to us as astrology and such things. Of the second type, artificial magic, Fra' Guazzo makes a further distinction between mathematical and prestidigital magic: the former, involving the manipulation of "the principles of Geometry, Arithmetic or Astronomy" with the help of natural causes, is what we would know as technology; the latter is "ludicrous and illusory", tricks performed (as they still are) by both entertainers and conmen. Though it would no doubt surprise those of us accustomed to the more puritanical view of the protestants on these matters, Fra' Guazzo makes no attempt to dismiss magic as inherently evil: "Now thaumaturgy and natural magic are in themselves good and lawful, as any art is of itself good. But it may happen to become unlawful: first, when it is done for an evil purpose; second, when it gives rise to scandal; third, when it involves any spiritual or bodily danger to the conjurer or the spectators". Like any tool, it's virtue was dependant on the intent of whomever wielded it- a medicine, in different doses, may be used to deliberately poison a man just as easily as it may be used to cure him- and a distinction was kept between this magic and maleficium, witchcraft (itself a subject far too immense to expound upon here).

To mediaeval man the Devil was all too real and demonic activity unhindered by a rationalistic scientific doctrine, making the whole of the earth a spiritual battleground for his soul. Demons could generate pestilence, raise tempests, assume physical form, attack and even possess the bodies of men. For defense the faithful had recourse to rites of the Church, the liturgy- the domain of God- providing the surest bulwark against Hell's onslaught. Blessings, if not exorcisms in themselves, were very often accompanied by them. The best example to offer here are the rites surrounding the sacrament of baptism. These practically amount to a lengthy exorcism intended to remove the demonic influence attached to the stain of original sin, an effect of the ritual emphasized in the middle ages by the opening of the "Devil's door"- an otherwise unused passage located on the north side of the porch of the church, near the font- during the baptism. The Rogationtide processions constituted an exorcism of the entire parish and, in England, these often featured a banner depicting a dragon at their commencement, borne aloft around the parish boundaries with a long streaming tail; on the last day the dragon standard, shorn of it's tail, was dragged through the dirt. For common use, the liturgy gave many potent articles of spiritual defense into the hands of the faithful. Holy water, blessed salt, blessed icons and candles, the sign of the cross, the Holy Name and the like were so valued because they originated in the liturgy. Many prayers were in imitation of exorcistic rites (though never of the calibre of those used by the priest-exorcist), but any words or forms drawn from the liturgy or based upon it could be effectual if used devoutly- reading the prologue of St. John's Gospel, in Latin, was a popular means of countering demonic activity (among other uses), as were the various scriptural passages where Christ expels demons and grants the apostles authority to do so in His Name.

The Holy Name itself provides a fascinating example of mediaeval devotion. The liturgical rubrics commanded the clergy to bow in reverence at every utterance of the Holy Name, an act of course adopted by the laity and taken beyond the doors of the church where it became the greatest ejaculation, the most binding of oaths, and had (by the very promise of Christ Himself) the power to cast out demons and, by extension, disease, pestilence and misfortune. Such was the devotion to the Holy Name that it was granted a feast (January 2nd) in the 1480s. Certain late mediaeval and Renaissance philosophers, in "Christianizing" the Jewish Cabala (and agreeing with St. Jerome), would conclude that the Holy Name was bound up with the mystery of the Incarnation in completing the Tetragrammaton, the unutterable name of God, by making it utterable and audible- the Word quite literally made flesh. The Tetragrammaton, along with other scriptural and apocryphal names of God, received similar devotion and use, though never to the same extent as the Holy Name.

All this considered, where then may the line be drawn between such lay devotions and superstition? The thirteenth century Dominican inquisitors of Germany, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, offer a clear definition of this boundary, along with a multitude of examples, in the Malleus Maleficarum: superstition is that "which human tradition, without higher authority, has caused to usurp the name of religion" and "undisciplined religion... religion observed with defective methods in evil circumstances". It is clear that mediaeval superstition finds it's origins- like Guazzo's natural magic- in legitimate and pious practice, yet is degraded through ignorant and ungodly use. The faithful would find themselves at odds with the clergy not in the practice of these devotions, but in the abuse of them, their use in a superstitious and unwary manner- no doubt tantamount to sacrilege! However in their devout use, few orthodox clerics would find any disagreement. Even such spiritual writings as The Cloud of Unknowing, so popular amongst the late mediaeval laity, originated in monastic spirituality as supplementary to the liturgy. Again it is difficult- impossible almost- to see any conflict, any distinction between popular and orthodox religion.

Such was the regard of the liturgical rites- that is, as the point of commerce between Heaven and Earth, the embodiment of the faith- that even the most simple of laymen, though separated socially, spiritually and symbolically from the clergy, sought to shadow in his own private prayer the public prayer of the Church. Well then did he understand that at the heart of this lay the great supernatural act in which God descends to man so that man might ascend to God. The reformation undid this mindset, stripping the liturgy of its sacramental power and place at the threshold of Heaven and Earth. External splendor, internal mystery and hierarchical distinctions at once metaphysical, cosmological and social were reduced to the most common of forms and banal of meanings. Beauty and art were denied their highest function. God surrendered His part in the great ritual drama to man. In the Catholic world this work was completed by the Enlightenment and the revolution, which did not wholly destroy the liturgy but degraded it to the status of ritual wallpaper, devoid of any real meaning to the rationalistic mind, and thereafter subject to clerical whim and lay ignorance. Quite simply, a chasm was opened separating God and man which, by his own efforts and through his own tradition, man can never hope to bridge either in his soul or in his culture. Only by reaching back to the ideal which pervaded the Church through the age of faith for an understanding of the liturgy will any truly Catholic worldview be possible.

Posted on the Feast of Ss. Cletus and Marcellinus, MMX

Bibliography:

Compendium Maleficarum, trans. A.E. Ashwin, reprint, London 1988

Duffy, Eamon, Marking the Hours Yale University, New Haven 2006

Duffy, Eamon The Stripping of the Altars Yale University, New Haven 1992

Gueranger, Dom Prosper The Holy Mass Baronius Press, London 2005

Lindahl, C. and McNamara, J. (eds) Medieval Folklore, Oxford University, Oxford 2002

Malleus Maleficarum, trans. Montague Summers, reprint, London 1971

Muir, Edward Ritual in Early Modern Europe Cambridge University, Cambridge 1997

Summers, Montague, The History of Witchcraft and Demonology reprint, New York 2007

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary Baronius Press, London 2008

Yates, Frances The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age Routledge, London 1979

New York Times Defends itself

J'accuse!

The paper's ombudsman, or "public editor," Clark Hoyt offered some thoughts this Sunday about how the paper had covered the scandals in the Church. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the paper came out very well.

After dissecting a couple key stories -- including the notorious coverage of Fr. Lawrence Murphy -- Hoyt concludes...

Deacon's Bench...

h/t: pewsitter

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva will veto a gay marriage bill approved by lawmakers in February

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva will veto a gay marriage bill approved by lawmakers in February, 'Radio Renascenca' reported.

Cavaco Silva will veto the bill soon after Pope Benedict's arrival on May 11.

Last month, the president, a Roman Catholic and a member of the PSD party, groups which oppose the legalization of gay marriage, forwarded four out of five of the bill's articles to the country's Constitutional Court, setting aside a measure that prohibits gay adoption. He said he did so because he doubted the bill's constitutionality, but refused to say why he did not include the article on adoption.

Link to original...