"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
From the latter, a small sampling, still resonant, to delight the campus skeptic:
The essential difficulty of pedagogy lies in the impossibility of inducing a sufficiency of superior men and women to become pedagogues. Children, and especially boys, have sharp eyes for the weaknesses of the adults set over them. It is impossible to make boys take seriously the teaching of men they hold in contempt.
When the American pedagogue became a professional, and began to acquire a huge armamentarium of technic, the trade of teaching declined, for only inferior men were willing to undergo a long training in obvious balderdash.
But in English even the higher ranks of professors tend to be inferior to those of any other faculty. The papers printed in [the journals] seldom show any professional competence or contribute anything worth knowing to the subject. For the most part they consist wholly of dull pedantries--attempts to establish the dates of some forgotten poet, investigations of the stealings of one obscure author from another, elaborate statistical inquiries into weak endings, and so on and so on. The standards of professional research and writings in the United States are anything but high, but it would certainly be unusual to find any similar rubbish in a journal of chemistry, astronomy or zoology, or even in a medical journal. The men who actually know something always know the difference between something and nothing, but the professors of English seem to be largely unaware of it. ...they devote themselves ardently to irrelevant trivia about the writers of the past, many of them existing today only as flies embalmed in the amber of text-books.
He might have amassed as extensive a warehouse as this firm, which bills itself as the world's largest devoted to the sale of complete interiors from churches, monasteries and castles.
It's a sad commentary that so many objects have been removed from holy places to be bought and sold, but at least the objects have been preserved. Don't know what a high altar fetches on the antique market. But if your church is looking to restore a lost sense of glory, this dealer might be a contact: It certainly would be preferable that these items be returned to active use rather than relegated to a collector's showroom.
The Battersea Townswomen's Guild + Scott Ritter + Lady Godiva = This splendidly incongruous kookiness from Johnny Walker Lindh Land.
Sure, everyone else has posted this already, but it's hard to resist the lunacy factor of Marin County women stripping to their birthday suits to demonstrate solidarity with the Iraqi people.
"Women from all ages and walks of life took off their clothes, not because they are exhibitionists but because they felt it was imperative to do so," the organizers added. "They wanted to unveil the truth about the horrors of war, to commune in their nudity with the vulnerability of Iraqi innocents, and to shock a seemingly indifferent Bush Administration into paying attention." The coordinators, who came up with the idea only a day earlier, said that the coming together of this group on short notice was a testament to the seriousness with which the women view the threat of war with Iraq.
Marshall resident Donna Sheehan, who organized the group called "Unreasonable Women" for the photo, said she’s been pondering for four years a way women can "be heard on a very deep level."
Image via CTAC, which also presents this shot of the Church of the Holy Trinity, in Vienna, the site's "choice for worship space most perfectly reflecting the spirit of Vatican II."
Tractarian Contrarian: Patrick Rothwell offers several posts of interest to those with an appreciation for Anglo-Catholicism, including a report on an address by Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, on ecumenical dialogue with Anglicans; a thought-provoking post warning of the impact a ban on gay priests would have on efforts to restore beauty to liturgy, and the inspiring obituary of an Anglo-Catholic churchman.
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Friday, November 15, 2002 Oh, Father Berrigan? Absolutely, Mister Sheen!
US Marines with Sandino's flag, 1932
Yes, it’s the annual Picket the School of the Americas weekend: Re-live the glories of Sandino! Indict the United States as the source of all evil in the world! Buy a tee-shirt!
Former military chaplain Bill Cork offers a useful perspective on the annual Fort Benning protests led by Rev. Roy Bourgeois.
The Rev. Bourgeois (see second item), a stalwart of the anti-American Left, is a fixture on the campus lecture circuit. His speaker's bureau also books Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky, while his fellow members of the advisory council of the Columbia Support Network include Messrs. Chomsky & Zinn, Bishop Gumbleton and the wonderfully-named Medea Benjamin, described here.
At any rate, as protesters this weekend invoke the memory of a selected few martyrs to discredit Reagan-era US foreign policy, take a moment to consider the full range of 20th-century Catholic martyrs, more than 13,000 of them, two-thirds of them from Europe and the nations of the former Soviet Empire.
A Common Reader offers the children's classic Ferdinand the Bull -- in Latin. (The Grinch and the Cat in the Hat, too.) Meantime, Spain's premier Catholic blogger holds forth on bullfighting.
Not from The Onion: This exercise in self-parody among the red-diaper brigade. Way to brainwash the little comrades, Mom and Dad. (Via All But Dissertation)
Thursday, November 14, 2002 Bracing words from the Pope
When the impious Mohammedan power, trusting in its powerful fleet and war-hardened armies, threatened the peoples of Europe with ruin and slavery, then--upon the suggestion of the Sovereign Pontiff--the protection of the heavenly Mother was fervently implored and the enemy was defeated and his ships sunk. Thus the Faithful of every age, both in public misfortune and in private need, turn in supplication to Mary, the benignant, so that she may come to their aid and grant help and remedy against sorrows of body and soul. And never was her most powerful aid hoped for in vain by those who besought it with pious and trustful prayer.
How inspiring it would be if the current Pope, so instrumental in bringing down the Iron Curtain, were to speak as forthrightly in invoking Our Lady of Victory in the defense of Christendom and God's chosen people against the forces of Islamist barbarism.
Perhaps in an indirect way the Pope is offering a prescription for the defense of the West: Have more children, and pray the newly augmented Rosary. But it should be noted: Before Our Lady could intercede at Lepanto, it was necessary for Don John of Austria to launch a navy.
In a bid to reassert their authority as moral guides to the nation after a year of internal crisis, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops yesterday urged President George W. Bush and other world leaders to "find the will and the ways to step back from the brink of war with Iraq."
In return for allowing worshippers to fill Baghdad's Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Deliverance, Saddam expects the Church to defend his regime robustly.
By extending freedom of worship to Iraq's million Christians, two thirds of whom are Catholics, he tries to guarantee their loyalty.
Judging by one of the pictures displayed on the wall of Matti Shaba Matoka, the current Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, Saddam has succeeded. It shows a deferential archbishop shaking his leader firmly by the hand.
Archbishop Matoka confirmed that prayers were said for Saddam in all four of Baghdad's Catholic churches on the occasion of his 65th birthday last Sunday. When asked about America's policy towards Iraq, he was quick to repeat the official line.
"Americans are criminals," he said. "Their attitude to us the Iraqi people is not human. Why these sanctions? All the world asks that the sanctions be lifted. The result of this embargo is poverty and disease."
Archbishop Matoka readily defended Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which triggered the imposition of the American-led embargo.
"Kuwait was stealing our petrol. I think Iraq was right to invade," he said.
Joseph Kassab at Chaldeans Online writes: The still surviving ancient Christians of the Middle East have undergone a terrible experience of almost unrelieved loss and suffering since the Muslim conquest their land, then ruled, discriminated, and persecuted them. It is time for the true democracy and the rule of law to cast a ray of hope on the land of the world's best religions and great civilizations.More
The little boy died with the two pacifiers he liked to take to bed, one to suck on, one to hold.
The Globe's Jeff Jacoby on the latest Palestinian outrage and the mythical pretense of fighting Israeli "occupation":
He began by shooting Tirtza Damari, 42, who was out for a walk with her boyfriend. Then he killed Yitzhak Drori, the head of the kibbutz secretariat, who had heard the first gunshots and rushed over to help. Next he kicked in the door of the Ohayon home, where 34-year-old Revital Ohayon had been reading a bedtime story to her sons Noam, 4, and Matan, 5. He killed her first, riddling her body with bullets as she tried desperately to block the doorway to the children's bedroom. Then he fired at Noam and Matan, shooting them dead as they cowered in their beds. Matan died with the two pacifiers he liked to take to bed, one to suck on, one to hold.
For its part, the official Voice of Palestine Radio aired a report hailing the ''operation'' in Kibbutz Metzer, which it described as ''a colony north of Tulkarm,'' an Arab city on the West Bank.
But Metzer isn't a ''colony'' or a ''settlement,'' and it isn't in the West Bank. Nor is it populated by hawkish Israeli hard-liners. Founded nearly 50 years ago by left-wing immigrants from Argentina, Metzer is located inside Israel proper. It is as well known for its dovish politics as for its friendly ties with neighboring Arabs, many of whom streamed into the kibbutz on Monday to offer condolences. In recent months, Metzer residents had even lobbied against a proposed government security fence out of concern that it would cut through olive groves owned by a nearby Arab village.
It was no accident that the terrorists' statement identified Metzer as a ''settlement.'' To Fatah and the Tanzim, to Arafat and Hamas, every Jewish community in Israel is a ''settlement,'' not just those located in the territories Israel seized in self-defense during the 1967 Six Day War. When the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in 1964, it was not in order to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, which were then occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively. The PLO's mission, then as now, was to ''liberate'' all of Israel, expel the Jews, and replace it with a new Arab state called Palestine.
A poll on an al-Fatah Web site, www.fatehorg.org, asks visitors whether they favor ''martyrdom attacks'' - that is, terror attacks - (a) within Israel proper, (b) within the 1967 territories only, (c) within both, or (d) not at all. As of midday Wednesday, 6.9 percent of respondents had chosen (a), 12.5 percent (b), and 69.1 percent (c). Only 11.6 percent favored an end to anti-Israel terrorism altogether. (Translation courtesy of the Israel Resource News Agency.)
How to classify Nancy Pelosi, the "latte liberal" Democratic congresswoman from San Francisco expected to become House minority leader? Well, if truth-in-packaging laws applied to politics, the answer would be: Socialist.
The Progressive Caucus used to have a page, complete with socialist red rose backdrop, at the DSA site, but now is hosted at the site of Vermont independent Congressman Bernie Sanders, who's at least up front about being a socialist.
A Washington Timescolumnist has now raised the issue of Pelosi's affiliation with the Progressive Caucus. Conservative radio-host Chuck Morse has previously sounded an alarm.
The leadership of the Progressive Caucus includes Barbara Lee (vice-chairwoman) and Cynthia McKinney, while members include Baghdad Boys Bonior & McDermott and my own congressman, Havana Jim McGovern, Cuba's champion, who it galls me to say was re-elected earlier this month without opposition. Is there no one in Central Massachusetts capable of giving Worcester's Fidelista a race?
It can be hard to tell the Socialists without a scorecard. For aid in distinguishing between the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea (or the non-Python equivalents thereof), consult this useful, though soon to be discontinued, online Red Encyclopedia.
On a more serious note, be sure to read his thoughtful two-part post on the issue of "choice." #
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Speaking of true-blue Toryism:
Who at the networks decided on the color scheme of red & blue states that had the Republican states red and the Democratic states blue? That's backwards. Note this etymology of the term "true blue":
It meant: 'faithful, staunch and unwavering in one's faith, principles, etc.; genuine, real' (OED). Thus, in 1663, Butler writes in Hudibras: 'For his Religion it was fit To match his Learning and his Wit; 'Twas Presbyterian true Blew'. The phrase was subsequently taken up by various political parties in England before it became the distinctive term for the Conservative party and meant 'staunchly Tory'. Hence Trollope in Framley Parsonage (1860): 'There was no portion of the county more decidedly true blue'. And this is one of the two senses it still has in England - `true blue adjective extremely loyal or orthodox; Conservative; noun such a person, especially a Conservative' (The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 1995).*
In America, the term "true blue" has come to mean politically sound. The color red, meantime, has other, readily apparent, political connotations.
The map of the American heartland – flyover country, Bush country in the 2000 election – should be colored true blue.
Recall, it was the daughter of one of the two greatest Republican presidents for whom the shade was named. And any excuse is worthwhile to recall Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who had her personal motto embroidered on a sofa pillow: "If you haven't got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me.''
Katharine Graham recalled her mother, Agnes Meyer, as "always ambivalent about Mrs. Longworth," despairing at her "brilliant but sterile mind."
"After one party they both attended early in 1920, my mother described Alice as having been in a very carnal sort of mood," Graham wrote. "She ate three chops, told shady stories and finally sang in a deep bass voice: Nobody cultivates me, I'm wild, I'm wild."
By the standards of Washington early in the 20th century, Alice Roosevelt had been wild indeed. Her father, the president, said famously that he could manage the government or manage Alice -- but couldn't possibly do both at once.
Attracting enormous publicity, she smoked, drove her own car, plunged fully clothed into a swimming pool, placed a bet at a race track, was seen in public wearing a boa constrictor around her neck, set off firecrackers and shot at telegraph poles from a train; she was universally dubbed "Princess Alice" after she christened the yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm's brother.
From the Silence of Time, Time’s Silence borrow.
In the heart of To-day is the word of To-morrow.
The Builders of Joy are the Children of Sorrow. William Sharp (1856-1902)
This verse and others are to be found at a page of poetry EL Core has assembled to commemorate Veterans Day.
Photos from the Great War can be found here, and posters here. They don't make posters like this one anymore.
Wild Geese Today offers a salute to Ireland's Tommies, while the Fighting 69th and Father Duffy are recalled in photos here, and by General Douglas MacArthur here. Last, some parting words from a fallen poet of the 69th:
Prayer of a Soldier in France
My shoulders ache beneath my pack
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).
I march with feet that burn and smart
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).
Men shout at me who may not speak
(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).
I may not lift a hand to clear
My eyes of salty drops that sear.
(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy Agony of Bloody Sweat?)
My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).
Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land and sea.
So let me render back again
This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.
So engrossed was I in reading the Globe's compelling new Ideas section this past Sunday that I strayed into territory normally avoided for reasons of blood pressure.
I refer to the Letters to the Editor section. On Sunday, less than a week after voters gave the president's party both houses of Congress, the governor's office in Massachusetts, and a 53-47 edge in balloting nationwide, the section featured one letter indicting American military policy as terrorist; another attacking Republicans as war-mongering polluters and plutocrats; and another heaping ad hominems on George W. Bush as a drunk-driving draft-evader guilty of physical cowardice on Sept. 11.
A fourth simply offered internecine criticism of state and national Democratic Party leadership for last week's election losses.
That's out of five letters. My question:
Are the majority of letters the Globe receives penned by anti-war activists; sundry Greens, Quakers and Unitarians; and commissars of the Revolutionary Workers Party? Or only the majority of letters the Globe chooses to run?
Sunday's sampling was indicative of a trend in the Letters section, which seems to serve as a scrappy radical auxiliary to the left-liberal sounding boards of the Editorial and Op-Ed Pages, but with the varnish off. The letters that predominate clearly don't represent the mainstream of public opinion, and I can't imagine they reflect the mainstream of Globe readership.
The tone of the section made its most distinct mark on me in the immediate aftermath of 9.11, when a significant percentage of the letters run were either of the America-had-it-coming variety or the America-please-don't-retaliate school.
I have largely avoided the Letters to the Editor section – and the Editorial and Op-Ed pages in general – ever since. But I ask: Is an effort made in the Letters section to reflect a range of opinion – or only that range of opinion found in an Amherst coffeehouse?
Such a contrast is offered by the new Ideas section: It's sharp, thought-provoking and unpredictable, evocative of the Arts & Letters Daily website, and unsurprisingly, of the old Lingua Franca journal its editor once ran. Each Sunday it has featured articles that provoke debate or discussion and are worth revisiting: Yesterday's engrossing article on the legacy of William Dean Howells comes to mind, as do past articles on Pat Buchanan and the isolationist tradition, and the mythology surrounding the Irish famine.
Would it be too much to ask for the Globe Op-Ed pages, at least, to offer similarly engaging fare, to appeal to thoughtful readers across the political spectrum and not just on the knee-jerk Left? The cranks who have been given the Letters section for use as a private Hyde Park soapbox might not applaud, but I suspect most readers would.
Years from Now, They'll Call It "Payback Tuesday:"Michael Moore, remarkably prescient, 11.3.02.
Dear Friends,
Well, folks, Tuesday is the day! The day that George W. gets taught a long overdue lesson. The day that we, the MAJORITY -- the 52% who never elected him -- get our chance to reclaim a bit of our former democracy (back when ALL the votes used to be counted).
What if, on Tuesday, all of us, regardless of our political stripe, and just for the fun of it, decided to serve one big-ass eviction notice that said, you have two years to remove yourself from the premises-and you had better not damage anything on your way out?
I think we can give Bush the Mother of all Shellackings on Tuesday…
Meantime, at the Doonesbury site, visiting Garry Trudeau fans apparently would prefer to pretend this week's nationwide GOP sweep never happened. The most popular response to a straw poll on the meaning of the election: "Voting is a many-faceted mystery. I feel no irresistible urge to define the Big Picture when the victory margins are so slim. A GOP win here, a Dem win there -- this is hardly a defining moment. Carry on."
Remember Jeezum Jim Jeffords?James Taranto at Opinion Journal does, and ponders the cost to the Yankee sell-out "voice of conscience" for 15 minutes of fame – now ended. Also answered: What politician has now lost an election in every single state of the Union?
At NRO, Dinesh D'Souza offers a Jonathan Swiftian prescription for renewed Democratic health:
Many on the political Left are blaming the leadership of the Democratic party for moving to the center, accommodating President Bush's agenda, and thus producing the catastrophic losses of Tuesday's election. "Let us stop playing Republican wannabe," these leftists say, "and start standing up for something."
These critics are right. The Democrats could improve their political fortunes by unequivocally embracing the three central principles of the political Left: anti-Americanism, economic piracy, and moral degeneracy.
Indeed the Democrats could become the Party of the Seven Deadly Sins. The political advantage of this approach is that the Seven Deadly Sins are immensely popular. Imagine the political opportunities if all vices were associated with the Democratic party!
Wednesday, November 06, 2002 For the Left, a resounding electoral thwack
Certainly had enough steam yesterday
Random thoughts the day after:
Had there been no clerical abuse scandal in Massachusetts, it is unlikely Mitt Romney would have been elected governor. Mormonism remains foreign to the culture of the Bay State, but Catholics are no longer in a position to be judgmental.
Tim Russert deserves an Unsung Hero award for his role in turning the gubernatorial election in Massachusetts. His sharp interrogation of the candidates, particularly on the question of age of consent for an abortion, drove the Herald debate last week that sank Shannon O'Brien.
Emily's List, which backs Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights, is a good indicator of who not to support in a given race. They can't be pleased with the results on the tote board today. The record of their endorsees in races spotlighted on their main page: Senate, 0-for-3; House, 2-for-9; Governor, 3-for-9.
Boston journalist-blogger Jay Fitzgerald at Hub Blog has been providing fine reporting on the election in Massachusetts. Meantime, some of the best – and only – regular coverage of the Bay State Republican Party has come from a local gadfly with a web site at NewtonGOP.com.
Also from Massachusetts: Election coverage from the Globe and from the Herald, including reflections on the unbecoming Shannon O'Brien by Howie Carr.
EL Core notes the grave state of Peter Jennings' kisser as the returns poured in, and also asks the question: Which party elected two black lieutenant-governors last night? Hint: It wasn't the Democrats.
Meantime, visit Democrats.com and see the best they can do today. Hmmm. Too Stupid to be President doesn't appear to have been updated either. (The angel-winged Bobby Kennedy appears to be announcing a car for the late Sen. Wellstone. Limousine liberalism, even in heaven?)
Et c*m spiritu tuo: At Catholic Light, an account of liturgical Latin in e-mail blocked by an anti-porn filter. For a sense of the problem, note this Google search on the offending phrase, and the paid "sponsoring link" generated on the right. (The same disconnect between subject matter and sponsoring link appears in a Google search on a common graduation honor.)
Circumstances like these call for innovation. At Fenway Park, a bleacher tradition begun with Roger Clemens and continued with Pedro Martinez is to hang a 'K' for each strikeout. What to do at three strikeouts? How to avoid any mistaken impression that a white-sheeted Klavern has gathered in deep center? At No. 3, a backward 'K' is hung.
Sanctus bells: An interesting exchange in the Letters section of Adoremus Bulletin on the ringing of bells at the Consecration.
The editors comment: Most people who take pains to emphasize the "seamlessness" of the Eucharistic Prayer do not believe that the miraculous transformation takes place at the moment that the words of Consecration are spoken by the priest. In their opinion, it is not this action of the priest, but the participation of the entire congregation that effects "Eucharist"…
The effect of this tinkering is to de-sacralize the Mass. It reflects a desire to tame the supernatural, to collapse the transcendent into our own time, and to "domesticate" God by making Him a partner in our cause.
You've heard of the UnCola? Well, this is the un-sanctuary. And here is an interview with the guiding light behind this liturgical black hole. All I can say is, some kind of penance must be involved in writing for the LA archdiocesan house organ, especially these days.
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Monday, November 04, 2002 Election Eve
Corner of Washington & Pleasant, Marblehead, Mass.
Marblehead at the Millennium offers a portrait of daily life in a New England town – and of what we uphold when we go to the polls.
I have never been able to understand where people got the idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition. It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record. The man who quotes some German historian against the tradition of the Catholic Church, for instance, is strictly appealing to aristocracy. He is appealing to the superiority of one expert against the awful authority of a mob. It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully than a book of history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad. Those who urge against tradition that men in the past were ignorant may go and urge it at the Carlton Club, along with the statement that voters in the slums are ignorant. It will not do for us. If we attach great importance to the opinion of ordinary men in great unanimity when we are dealing with daily matters, there is no reason why we should disregard it when we are dealing with history or fable. Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils. The ancient Greeks voted by stones; these shall vote by tombstones. It is all quite regular and official, for most tombstones, like most ballot papers, are marked with a cross.
I have first to say, therefore, that if I have had a bias, it was always a bias in favour of democracy, and therefore of tradition. Before we come to any theoretic or logical beginnings I am content to allow for that personal equation; I have always been more inclined to believe the ruck of hard-working people than to believe that special and troublesome literary class to which I belong. I prefer even the fancies and prejudices of the people who see life from the inside to the clearest demonstrations of the people who see life from the outside. I would always trust the old wives' fables against the old maids' facts. As long as wit is mother wit it can be as wild as it pleases.
Inside a side chapel at the cathedral of San Frediano in Lucca, Italy, bouquets of lilies and orchids perfume the air with the sweet fragrance of sanctity. A respectful hush descends over the curious and faithful alike as they gaze up at a reliquary of gold and glass. Lying on a bed of brocade is one of Roman Catholics' most beloved icons, Saint Zita. Born in 1218 in the village of Monte Sagrati, Zita led a life of singular virtue. Raised in abject poverty, she was sent out to work as a child in the home of a wealthy merchant in nearby Lucca, where her kindnesses were legion. She gave up her bed to homeless women and dispensed her own meals to the poor. When she died at around the age of 60, her body was laid to rest in a burial vault in San Frediano. Memories of her holiness remained vivid, however, and people pressed the Church to declare her a saint. When ecclesiastical officials exhumed the humble servant nearly 300 years after her death, one of the miraculous signs of sainthood was immediately apparent: Zita was whole and intact, her body resistant to the decay reserved for ordinary humans. And so she has remained through another 400 and more years. Crowned with a ring of dried pink roses and wearing a gown of soft green velvet, she lies on her bier virtually untouched by time. Her gaunt face is dark but smooth. Her hands are soft and supple looking. Her lustrous nails gleam.
Saint Zita is one of the Incorruptibles -- the name given by medieval Catholic clergy to the astonishingly preserved bodies of saints, martyrs, and beati, the blesseds on the road to canonization…100 or so Incorruptibles…are known to exist… From "The Incorruptibles," by Heather Pringle, originally published in Discover, June 2001 (scroll down for text).
For more on the phenomenon of incorruptible bodies of saints, see "Saints Preserve Us," a fascinating article in Fortean Times. (That would appear to be the head of St. Catherine of Siena preserved in the ornate reliquary.)
An excerpt: Because there have been many impeccable accounts of incorruptibility, many presumed saints were exhumed and re-interred. It soon became the custom to exhume all candidates for beatification or canonisation. Throughout the Middle Ages, churches vied for possession of incorrupt bodies, as they were a proven magnet for pilgrims (who, of course, brought offerings and donations). Despite its damp climate, mediæval Britain has nurtured a good number of saintly characters whose bodies didn’t decay, including Cuthbert, Werburgh, Waltheof and Guthlac. Amongst them were two royal sisters (Etheldreda and Withburga), a king (Edward the Confessor), a bishop (Hugh of Lincoln) and an archbishop of Canterbury (Alphege). At the Reformation, all their shrines were destroyed and the incorrupt body parts dispersed. When her shrine at Ely Cathedral was destroyed, the saintly Queen Etheldreda’s hand was preserved by a devout Catholic family. The still incorrupt hand was enshrined, some 400 years later, when a little Catholic Church was re-established in Ely. An apocryphal story relates how the present Queen, on a tour of the cathedral, met the crusty Irish priest of the little Catholic Church. She asked him if it wouldn’t be a ‘nice gesture’ to return the hand of St Etheldreda to the cathedral; he replied that it would be a nice gesture for her to return the cathedral to the Catholic church.
See also this site devoted to images of the incorrupt bodies of saints. (Includes music, so you may wish to hit mute before visiting).
"To those who do not believe, no explanation is possible. To those who believe, no explanation is necessary."
In keeping with the day's theme: The film Song of Bernadette can't be recommended enough, for viewing this All Saints Day, or any day. A recent posting at Catholic Light was reminiscent of the scene in the film in which the young man Bernadette would have married bids her farewell on her way to the convent. Other powerful scenes: When the older nun who has been persecuting her realizes the extent of Bernadette's suffering, and when Vincent Price's cynical skeptic, terminally ill, appeals to the Blessed Virgin for solace. Jennifer Jones deservedly won the Oscar for Best Actress. The movie is available here.
For all its stated devotion to tolerance, the secular faith in which progressive politics composes the sacraments has a fundamentalist cast that is anything but ecumenical in spirit. Imagine asking a Republican vice-president – the vice-president of the United States! – not to attend a memorial service for a late Democratic senator lest the Republican VP's presence upset the worshipers. Imagine singling out GOP dignitaries who have come to pay their respects, and urging them to join in granting the late senator's seat to a Democrat by acclamation. Altar calls, anyone?
The political wake has a long and proud tradition, but as a complement to a proper funeral. How sad that Sen. Wellstone, his wife and daughter, tragically lost, were sent to their rest with rites so partisan, and lacking in grace.
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan and Peggy Noonan describe how the political trumped the humane at the Wellstone service. (Meantime, James Lileks takes up –and sets down – Walter Mondale.)
ALSO: TS O'Rama sounds a similar chord on the Wellstone rites: Suddenly it became clear - this is their religion!
For all your tattooed-Jesus-art requirements,this is the place. Here's something for fans of the sweet science. What do you think? The Galilee Kid over the Crusher in two rounds?
The Oct. 28 edition of National Review features a review of Anne Hendershott's The Politics of Deviance by Carol Iannone, who writes:
A play about a man in love with a goat wins the Tony award. A prime-time TV game show features a totally naked woman throwing a little football at a large screen. A mainline Protestant church encourages homeless people to live in cardboard boxes on its steps. College students consume and create pornography for credit. Such is little more than an average week's news in the blandly decadent America of the 21st century, and, as each new wave of bizarreness unfurls, practically the only condemnation we hear is against those who dare to be offended.
Hendershott -- a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego -- explains how the act of defining deviant behavior was once seen as a staple of sociological study, and also an ordinary and necessary aspect of a sound society.
But with the rise of the "radical egalitarianism of the 1960s," and the "growing reluctance to judge the behavior of others," all discussion of deviance became "obsolete." Social scientists convinced themselves that the sociology of deviance was actually the "construction of deviance," i.e., "the imposition of selective censure by the dominant elements of society".
This has consequences. Calling a behavior deviant can help lead to some specific solution; denying the very reality of deviance precludes any remedy. The older approach respected the humanity of a troubled individual even as it addressed his dysfunctional behavior; under the new dispensation, the individual becomes a victim, his problem an open-ended claim of entitlement and the very source of his identity...
Thus we have the Homeless Guy blog, whose seemingly articulate and computer-savvy creator is able to maintain an attractive web site, but not, he says, a job or a place to live for 20 years. Why not Hobo.com? Tramp.com? How about Bum.com?
Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail describes the soft-focus lens through which the local media has viewed a Toronto squatters' camp:
"Over at the Toronto Star, they also waxed outraged and romantic. They even printed a seven-page special section to commemorate the people of Tent City, as if they were brave soldiers or Olympic athletes. 'It took Dave, the squatter, four months to build his dream home,' the special section began. Like Tent City's other free spirits, he longed to escape the conventions of bourgeois society. His dream home was just a shack made out of rubbish, but he 'lived like a pioneer.' Proving that not all journalists are as gullible as the ones at the CBC, the story also reported that Dave's live-in girlfriend, Donna, keeps a nearby subsidized apartment with a balcony and hot running water, just in case.
"In fact, everyone at Tent City had some place else to sleep, even if it was only a city shelter. They just didn't want to sleep there. And although the shortage of cheap housing is a pressing social problem in this city, one thing I can say for sure: Tent City is not a story about homelessness in an uncaring society.
"It's a story about defining deviancy down.
"This useful phrase was coined by the formidable social thinker Daniel Patrick Moynihan to describe how a culture comes to accept and tolerate (and reward) destructive behaviour. Then we congratulate ourselves for being so compassionate."
By the time [Moynihan] summed up the disaster in his famous phrase, Iannone writes, we were casually and daily countenancing things that would have driven our ancestors to take out the pitchforks.
In Tuesday's dispiriting gubernatorial debate in Massachusetts, the candidates of the two major parties vied to prove their commitment to a woman's "right to choose." Shannon O'Brien, the "Catholic" candidate, touted her "impassioned defense" of abortion rights and her endorsements by Emily's List and NARAL, and her support for lowering from 18 to 16 the age at which a teenage girl can procure an abortion without parental notification. Mitt Romney, the candidate of conservatives, pledged to mount no challenge of any kind to the abortion license, while hailing the courage of his mother as a 1970 political candidate advocating legalized abortion.
Iannone: Conservatives as well as liberals have subscribed to what can be called the normalization of deviance. A few years ago a friend of mine had dinner with several conservative Episcopalians, higher-ups at a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parish that preserves an all-male priesthood, and was shocked to hear them stoutly defend unisex bathrooms in college dorms. Somehow one doubts that decades ago these solid citizens sat in church mulling over the necessity for a young female college student to step out of the shower and find a strange young man standing at the toilet. Yet despite their liturgical traditionalism, they had obviously imbibed from the larger society the prevailing egalitarianism that finds sexual differentiation unacceptable.
And so, at a time the traditional family is under siege, a Catholic argument that carries weight is missing from the electoral dialogue in Massachusetts. A Catholic voice is absent from the political debate in one of the most political and Catholic states in the nation.
And Lake Street is in no position to advance a countering vision. That is one of the great shames of the clerical abuse scandal, and all the more reason for a thorough changing of the guard in the Brighton chancery.
Wednesday, October 30, 2002 Welcome, visitors from Israpundit, which has featured Ad Orientem among its Sites of the Week. L'Chaim!
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Useful idiocy as an article of faith
Left-wing activism has become as much a badge of office as the staff and the miter in Massachusetts' Episcopal Diocese, which has become more or less the Green Party at prayer. Pictures of cassocked bishops leading peace demonstrations on the steps of the cathedral in Boston are highlighted at the diocesan website, which is touting an anti-war rally Nov. 3 on Boston Common that is being mounted by the usual suspects.
Any sense that Bishop Thomas Shaw is preaching to anyone but the choir is readily dismissed by a reading of his latest column in the diocesan house organ.
As our country moves closer to war with Iraq, I am hearing an uncharacteristic unanimity in the Episcopal parishes I visit in eastern Massachusetts. I have not heard anyone say, "It's time to strike. We ought to be supporting our President." Instead, what people most often express is a sense of unease with the talk of war. There is a feeling that as a nation we ought to be more concerned about our negative image in the world. We ought to ask what we might do with our power and wealth besides wage war.
The bishop needs to get out more. The most recent Pew Forum poll has six in 10 Americans supporting military action on Iraq.
There is no doubt that the Iraqi leader is a brutal dictator who has murdered his own people and threatened the security of the Middle East. We must remember, however, that we supported and armed him during the Iraq-Iran war. And, according to the authoritative oil journal Middle East Economic Survey, as much as 90 percent of Iraq's estimated 1.8 million barrels of oil per day is purchased by U.S. Gulf coast refineries.
Our national addiction to oil continues to support Hussein's regime. That same addiction is driving the Bush administration toward war. We are part of the problem.
The "war for oil" canard is dispatched by David Frum in this column in the Telegraph. And for kicking the pins out from under the whole jerry-rigged claptrap of arguments the fellow-traveling Left raises against war in Iraq, it is hard to surpass Christopher Hitchens.
But something even more fundamental is going on in the escalating rhetoric of war in this country. What is really leading us into war is anxiety, fear, an overwhelming need for security.
Well, jetliners used as missiles to kill thousands of Americans would spark concerns for security. Same for suicide bombings, hostage-takings, intelligence of planned biological attacks... Here's one Saddam scholar's prognosis: Unless Saddam experiences ''a total personality metamorphosis,'' once he has nuclear weapons the world will face a ''100 percent'' chance of catastrophe.
But back to Bishop Shaw:
Saddam Hussein has replaced Osama bin Ladin as our demon. The Bush administration tells us that eliminating him will make us safe, and our way of life will go on as it did before September 11. Our wealth and power will be intact. We may continue to consume the world's resources at will with little consideration for poorer nations. A more likely outcome of war will be devastation to Arab nations and Israel-and more terrorism. The people of the world who have little will continue to hate us.
Yes, we're just fat, coddled children being told bedtime stories by the president. And Saddam and Osama are either phantoms of our own devising, or heroes of the poverty-stricken who have been stirred to act by our oppression.
If the twentieth century taught us anything, I would think, it was that war solves no fundamental problems. World War I was a cause of World War II, which was a cause of the Cold War, and so forth. A compelling argument has been made that strategic nonviolent action is a far stronger response to brutality and aggression than violence.
Actually, the exact opposite has been the lesson of the 20th century. Or did the Neville Chamberlain Brigade, copies of the Kellogg-Briand Pact at the ready, bring down Hitler, and a legion of origami-folding Quakers, the Iron Curtain?
War against Iraq is about us, not about changing regimes.
Our militaristic response to the tragedy of September 11 has not brought increased security, nor has our rush to curtail civil liberties and target "foreigners" for investigation and detention. War against Iraq will also fail to restore our faith in ourselves.
Faith in ourselves can only be restored by a new national inquiry into who we are and what our obligations to the world are. I believe that we are called in these days to spiritual renewal, which begins (and has already begun) in our diverse communities of faith and fellowship, not in lashing out against enemies.
The surest self-defense: Navel-gazing. After all, if they hate us, it must have been something we've done.
Let us have a national conversation on the United States as an agent of reconciliation in the world. Let us begin it by refusing to go to war against Iraq or anything else.
Let us refuse to go to war against anything. Contrast these words in time of crisis with Churchill's: "[W]e shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…"
Or with Lincoln's: "It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Or with John Kennedy's: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
To Bishop Shaw, nothing is worth fighting for.
This is moral idiocy – and for the enemies of this nation, useful idiocy.
340: That's how many Jesuits were martyred in the course of the 20th century, from the Boxer Rebellion in June 1900 through the unrest in East Timor in September 1999.
Not 6: Six is how many Jesuits were slain by right-wing militia at the University of Central America in San Salvador in 1989. But a recent graduate of a Jesuit college or university might easily have formed the impression those six represented the sum total of Jesuit martyrs.
Because for all the annual Jesuit campus commemorations of the 1989 martyrdom of the six Salvadoran Jesuits, and all the attendant marches on the School of the Americas, correspondingly little mention is made of the other Jesuits who lost their lives over the past century.
Not to mention all the Jesuits in the previous four centuries who died for their faith, such as St. Edmund Campion and nine Jesuit companions among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, memorialized Oct. 25, or St. Isaac Jogues and the North American Martyrs, Oct 19.
A Google search on the word "martyrs" among the web pages of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities returns but one document.
This is not to diminish the deaths of the six Salvadoran Jesuit martyrs of 1989. But to emphasize only their loss, to advance the causes of liberation theology and a blinkered, anachronistic anti-Americanism, diminishes the deaths of hundreds of other Jesuits across the globe similarly martyred under conditions of war or persecution.
What these "peace-and-justice" activists, seemingly caught in amber during the Contra protests of the Reagan era, actually are doing is delivering an annual indictment of the United States as the source of evil in the world.
They use the six Salvadoran Jesuit martyrs of 1989 to advance a leftist political agenda that has more to do with Marxist-inspired liberation theology, vestigial Sandinista worship and contempt for the United States than it does with "social justice."
Want to plant crosses to commemorate Jesuits who gave their lives for the faith? How about laying aside a patch of grass for those killed in the Spanish Civil War? It had better be a large section of lawn, though. Here's a list:
Fr José María Alegre Jiménez (1865-1936) 10-11-1936: Madrid
Fr Bartolomeo Arbona Estades (1862-1936) 29-11-1936: Barcelona
Br Juan Bautista Arconada Pérez (1890-1934) 7-10-1934: Oviedo
Fr Ramón Artigues Sirvent (1902-1936) 20-7-1936: Lérida
Fr Francisco Audí Cid (1872-1936) 3-11-1936: Tortosa
Fr Jesús Ballesta Tejero (1903-1936) 8-8-1936: Madrid
Fr Narciso Basté Basté (1866-1936) 15-10-1936: Valencia
Fr Luis Boguñá Porta (1893-1936) 14-8-1936: Gerona
Fr Pablo Bori Puig (1864-1936) 29-9-1936: Valencia
Fr Constantino Carbonell Sempere (1866-1936) 23-8-1936: Gandía
Fr Andrés Carrió Bertrán (1876-1936) 26-8-1936: Alicante
Fr Manuel De La Cerda y De Las Bárcenas (1900-1936) 4-12-1936: Madrid
Fr Olegario Corral García (1871-1936) 28-12-1936: Santander
Fr Fé1ix Cots Oliveras (1895-1936) 21-7-1936: Barcelona
Br José Ignacio Elduayen Larrañaga (1884-1936) 7-8-1936: Madrid
Fr Juan Bautista Ferreres Boluda (1861-1936) 29-12-1936: Valencia
Br Pedro Gelabert Amer (1887-1936) 23-8-1936: Gandía
Fr Juan Gómez Hellín (1899-1936) 2-10-1936: Madrid
Fr Manuel González Hernández (1889-1936) 8-9-1936: Ciudad Real
Br Ramón Grimaltos Monllor (1861-1936) 23-8-1936: Gandia
Fr Darío Hernández Morató (1880-1936) 29-9-1936: Valencia
Br Domingo Ibarlucea Iregui (1906-1936) 8-9-1936: Ciudad Real
Br Felipe Iriondo Amundaráin (1869-1936) 21-7-1936: Barcelona
Br Lorenzo Isla Sanz (1865-1936) 25-7-1936: Tarragona
Fr Manuel Luque Fontanilla (1856-1936) 29-8-1936: Almería
Br José Llatje Blanc (1893-1936) 5-9-1936: Tortosa
Br Constantino March Batlles (1877-1937) 16-3-1937: Barcelona
Fr Emilio Martínez Martínez (1893-1934) 7-10-1934: Oviedo
Fr Braulio Martínez Simón (1852-1936) 25-7-1936: Tarragona
Fr Marcial Mayorga Paredes (1902-1936) 15-10-1936: Santander
Fr Miguel Mendoza Reig (1889-1936) 1-9-1936: Barcelona
Fr José Muñoz Albiol (1904-1936) 15-10-1936: Barcelona
Fr Jaime Noguera Baró (1901-1937) 14-2-1937: Barcelona
Fr Alfonso Payán Pérez (1877-1936) 30-8-1936: Almería
Fr Manuel Peypoch Sala (1870-1936) 29-7-1936: Manresa
Fr José Romá Carreres (1895-1936) 21-7-1936: Barcelona
Fr Juan Rovira Oriandis (1877-1936) 3-11-1936: Tortosa
Br Pascual Ruiz Ramírez (1901-1936) 7-8-1936: Madrid
Br Vicente Sales Genovés (1888-1936) 29-9-1936: Valencia
Br José Sampol Escalas (1899-1936) 27-8-1936: Barcelona
Fr José SAnchez Oliva (1891-1936) 9-9-1936: Ciudad Real
Br Antonio Sanchiz Martínez (1906-1936) 9-9-1936: Ciudad Real
Fr Martín Santaella Gutiérrez (1873-1936) 26-8-1936: Almería
Fr Alfredo Simón Colomina (1877-1936) 29-11-1936: Valencia
Fr Tomás Sioar Fortiá (1866-1936) 19-8-1936: Gandía
Br José Tarrats Comaposada (1876-1936) 28-9-1936: Valencia
Fr Francisco Javier Tena Colom (1863-1936) 26-8-1936: Barcelona
Fr Ricardo Tena Montero De Espinosa (1877- 1936) 8-9-1936: Azuaga
Fr Joaquín María Valentí De Marti (1884- 1936) 14-8-1936: Gerona
Fr Ignacio de Velasco Nieto (1890-1936) 24-9-1936: Madrid
Fr José Vergés De Trias (1898-1936) 14-8-1936: Gerona
Fr Demetrio Zurbitu Recalde (1886-1936) 20-10-1936: Barcelona
Br Catarino Abril Marín (1881-1936) 23-8-1936: Valencia
Fr Ismael Accensi Cid (1894-1936) 3-8-1936: Tortosa
Br Diego Aguilera (1912-1938) 29-3-1938: Córdoba
Br Juan Bautista Andrada Salvador (1898-1936) 25-10-1936: Valencia
Fr José del Arco (1889-1936) 27-12-1936: Santander
Br José Manuel Arín Dorronsoro (1887-1936) 26-11-1936: Madrid
Fr Angel Armiñana Silvestre (1902-1936) 3-10-1936: Alicante
Fr Leopoldo Barba Caballero (1870-1936) 18-9-1936: Málaga
Fr Juan ● Fr Beamonte García (1895-1936) 7-8-1936: Valencia
Fr Manuel Berdún (1879-1937) 15-3-1937: Barcelona
Fr Paulino Bertrán Sempere (1874-1936) 10-8-1936: Manresa
Br Tomás Boix Almiñana (1866-1936) 24-8-1936: Barcelona
Fr Baldomero Bonilla Fernández (1865-1936) 15-10-1936: Murcia
Fr Ignacio Casanovas Camprubí (1865-1936) 21-8-1936: Barcelona
Br Ramón Codina Alier (1869-1936) 25-7-1936: Barcelona
Br José Conti Sala (1865-1936) 9-8-1936: Valencia
Br Manuel Darder Palahi (1862-1936) 15-10-1936: Valencia
Br Agustín Díaz y Zapata (1869-1936) 27-7-1936: Toledo
Br José Fabregat Verdú (1893-1936) 8-9-1936: Valencia
Fr Agustín Fernández Hernández (1904-1936) 14-8-1936: Gijón
Fr Manuel Fernández Díaz-Masa (1904-1936) 30-11-1936: Madrid
Fr José F. Ferragut Sbert (1889-1936) 21-9-1936: Barcelona
Br Vicente Fonfría Geri (1891-1936) 29-10-1936: Valencia
Br Tomás Frasno Peñarrocha (1866-1936) 29-7-1936: Barcelona
Fr Narciso Fuentes Ruiz-Delgado (1875- 1936) 12-8-1936: Valencia
Br José Gabarrón Pérez (1868-1936) 13-10-1936: Málaga
Br José García Molina (1911-1936) 14-8-1936: Málaga
Fr Zacarías García Villada (1879-1936) 1-10-1936: Madrid
Fr Nemesio Gonzalez Alonso (1866-1936) 14-8-1936: Gijdn
Fr Luis Gordillo Díaz (1898-1936) 23-7-1936: Málaga
Fr Vicente Guimerá Roca (1869-1936) 30-9-1936: Valencia
Fr Joaquín Hernández López (1881-1936) 7-8-1936: Madrid
Br Antonio Jiménez Blázquez (1885-1936) 13-10-1936: Málaga
Fr José Juan Martínez (1867-1936) 26-9-1936: Valencia
Fr Martín Juste García (1863-1936) 27-7-1936: Toledo
Fr Florentino Laria Sampedro (1866-1936) 5-11-1936: Madrid
Fr Manuel de Larragan Alfaro (1884-1936) 15-10-1936: Madrid
Fr Manuel Mañes Bosch (1887-1936) 25-7-1936: Barcelona
Fr Juan Martínez García (1902-1936) 19-9-1936: Madrid
Fr Jesús Martínez Hernández (1903-1936) 7-11-1936: Madrid
Fr Valentino Mayordomo González (1878- 1937) 18-3-1937: Santander
Br José Mendizdbal Tolosa (1881-1937) 18-5-1937: Santander
Br Angel Mercader Vatero (1889-1936) 14-8-1936: Valencia
Fr Pedro Miró De Mesa (1901-1936) 20-11-1936: Barcelona
Fr Ramón Molina (1904-1938) 19-3-1938 Andorra
Br Carlos Moncho Montaner (1868-1936) 3-9-1936: Tortosa
Fr Jesús Montero Carrión (1887-1936) 10-8-1936: Madrid
Fr Inocencio Muñoz Aguilera (1895-1936) 14-8-1936: Málaga
Br Joaquín Noguera Martínez (1873-1936) 22-8-1936: Madrid
Mr José Oortiz Calvo (1911-1936) 8-11-1936: Madrid
Fr José Palacio Molina (1865-1936) 19-8-1936: Alcalahí
Br Félix Palacios (1877-1936) 27-7-1936: Toledo
Fr Miguel Pardo De Donlebún (1881-1936) 9-8-1936: Barcelona
Fr Luis Perera Canogia (1865-1936) 4-10-1936: Valencia
Fr José Pedromingo Cotayna (1904-1936) 6-12-1936: Guadalajara
Br José Rallo Pascual (1863-1936) 24-8-1936: Barcelona
Fr José Rodríguez De La Torre (1877-1936) 5-10-1936: Málaga
Mr Gregorio Ruiz Rodríguez (1911-1936) 5-9-1936: Santander
Fr José Ruiz Goyo (1897-1936) 5-9-1936: Santander
Fr José Ruiz Pimentel (1887-1936) 15-10-1936: Málaga
Mr Nicolás Serrano Fernández (1910-1936) 5-9-1936: Santander
Br José Serres Borrás (1890-1936) 17-9-1936: Barcelona
Br José Simón Cascales (1873-19:36) 14-8-1936: Valencia
Fr Pedro Trullás Claramunt (1867-1936) 25-7-1936: Barcelona
Br José María Valiente Trigueros (1894-1936) 8-11-1936: Madrid
Fr Ramón Vendrell Vives (1865-1936) 7-8-1936: Tarragona
Br Ignacio Vila March (1858-1936) 26-9-1936: Barcelona
Fr José María Vives Castellet (1882-1936) 3-10-1936: Tarragona
Br Francisco Vives Masses (1898-1936) 15-9-1936: Barcelona
Fr José Antonio Yáñez González (1870-1936) 14-8-1936: Gijón
Of course, the Spanish Jesuits – many on the side of Franco – killed in the 1930s by the anti-clerical Left don't fit conveniently into the "peace and justice" morality play. Neither do those who died at the hands of Communists in Europe and Asia. Here's a list of them:
Fr Daniel Dajani (1906-1946) 4-3-1946: Albania
Fr Giovanni Fausti (1899-1946) 4-3-1946: Albania
Br Gjon Pantaljia (1887-1947) 31-1--1947: Albania
Fr Ndoc (Antonio) Saraci (1875-1947) 3-5-1947: Albania
Fr Zef Saraci (1884-1954) 16-9-1954: Albania
Fr Antonín Zgarbíik (1913-1965) 22-1-1965: Bohemia
Mr Izidor Bistrovic (1949-1969) 4-12-1969: Croatia
Fr Franjo Bortas (1903-1947) 7-6-1947: Croatia
Fr Josip Müller (1893-1945) 28-11-1945: Croatia
Fr Peter Perica (1881-1944) 25-10-1944: Croatia
Fr Joze Bric (1907-1945) 21-11-1945: Slovenia
Bp Lambert Ehrlich (1878-1942) 26-5-1942: Slovenia
Fr Martin Meglik (1871-1945) 22-2-1945: Slovenia
Fr Benjamin Jakab (1903-1950) 5-7-1950: Hungary
Fr Ferenc Kajdi (1884- 1945?) ?-?-1945: Hungary
Fr Antal Laskay (1909-1945?) ?-?-1945?
Fr Józef Vid (1898-1952) 18-10-1952: Hungary
Fr Benediktas Andruska (1884-1951) ?-?-1941: Lithuania
Fr Joannes Peeperkorn (1898-1947?) ?-?-1947: Lithuania
Fr Jazeps Püdans (1903-1942) 15-6-1942: Lithuania
Fr Tadeusz Chabrowski (1909-1941) 9-1-1941: Poland
Fr Alfons Czyzewski (1897-1953) 16-11-1953: Poland
Br Kajetan Górski (1879-1942) ?-?-1942: Poland
Fr Antoni Grzybowski (1904-1943) 20-10-1943: Poland
Fr Jan Haniewski (1873-1942) ?-2-1942: Poland
Br Jakub Jagusz (1872-1942) ?-7-1942: Poland
Fr Kazimierz Konopka (1879-1941) 26-6-1941: Poland
Fr Mariusz Skibniewski (1881-1939) 28-9-1939: Poland
Fr Stanislaw Wnek (1859-1944) 27-4-1944: Poland
Fr Waclaw Zaborowski (1904-1958) 14-5-1958: Poland
Fr Cornel Chira (1904-1953) 20-8-1953: Romania
Mr Xavier Robert (1912-?) ?-?-?: China
Fr Beda Chang (Tsan-) Cheng-Min (1905-1951) 11-11-1951: China
Fr Joseph Hu Shih-Chao (1908-?) ?-?-?: China
Fr Andrés Li Shu-Pei (1913-?) ?-?-?: China
Fr Peter T'Ang Kai-Shan (1906-1957) ?-?-1957: China
Fr Louis Téteau (1874-1952) 4-5-1952: China
Fr Antony Wang Che(1912-1953) 17-9-1953: China
Br Laurentius Chin Lin-Shen (1915-?) ?-?-?: China
Fr Chrysostomus Chang Szu-Ch'Ien (1910-1961?) ?-?-1961?: China
Fr Petrus Chang Chin-Shan (1903-1967) ?-?-1967: China
Fr Stephanus Chou Ju-Yüe (1901-1966?) ?-?-1966?: China
Fr Aloysius Chu Kuang-Chung (1906-1968) ?-?-1968: China
Fr Paulus Cheng Wei-Hsien (1903-1970?) ?-?-1970? : China
Fr Francis-Xavier Chu Shu-Teh (1913-1983) 28-12-1983: China
Fr Josephus Hsü Ching-Fang (1914-?) ?-?-?: China
Br Laurentius Ts'Ao Chin-Teh (1893-?) China
Any accounting of Jesuit martyrs of the 20th century would note the scores who died in Dachau and Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.
And a balanced and thorough list would note among the victims of dictatorial regimes not only the six who tragically gave their lives in El Salvador in 1989, but dozens slain across Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Here's a list:
Fr Luis Espinal Camps (1932-1980) 22-3-1980: Bolivia
Fr João Bosco Penido Burnier (1917-1976) 12-10-1976: Brazil
Br Vicente Cañas Costa (1939-1987) 6-4-1987: Brazil
Fr Sergio Restrepo Jaramillo (1939-1989) 1-6-1989: Colombia
Fr Rutilio Grande García (1928-1977) 12-3-1977: El Salvador
Fr Ignacio Ellacuría Beascoechea (1930-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Amando López Quintana (1936-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Joaquín López y López (1918-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Ignacio Martín Baró (1942-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Segundo Montes Mozo (1933-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Juan Ramón Moreno Pardo (1933-1989) 16-11-1989: El Salvador
Fr Carlos Pérez Alonso (1936-1981?) 2-8-1981?: Guatemala
Fr Bernard Darke (1925-1979) 14-7-1979: Guyana
Fr Godofredo Atingal (1922-1981) 13-4-1981: Philippines
Br Nicolas De Glos (1911-1976) 23-5-1976: Chad
Br Alfredo Pérez Lobato (1937-1973) 1-12-1973: Chad
Br John Joseph Conway (1920-1977) 6-2-1977: Zimbabwe
Fr Desmond Donovan (1927-1978?) 15?-1?-1978? : Zimbabwe
Br Bernhard Lisson (1909-1978) 27-6-1978: Zimbabwe
Fr Gerhard Pieper (1940-1978) 26-12-1978: Zimbabwe
Fr Gregor Richert (1930-1978) 27-6-1978: Zimbabwe
Fr Christopher Shepherd-Smith (1943-1977) 6-2-1977: Zimbabwe
Fr Martin Thomas (1932-1977) 6-2-1977: Zimbabwe
Fr Silvio Alvés Moreira (1941-1985) 30-10-1985: Mozambique
Fr João de Deus Gonçalves Kamtedza (1930-1985) 30-10-1985: Mozambique
Fr Raymond A. Adams (1935-1989) 12-11-1989: Ghana
Fr Jean de Boisséson (1910-1988) 29-5-1988: Madagascar
Fr Patrick Gahizi (1946-1994) 7-4-1994: Rwanda
Fr Chrysologue Mahame (1927-1994) 7-4-1994: Rwanda
Fr Innocent Rutagambwa (1948-1994) 7-4-1994: Rwanda
Bp Christophe Munzihirwa Mwene Ngabo (1926-1996) 29-10-1996: Zaire
Fr Alban De Jerphanion (1901-1976) 14-3-1976: Lebanon
Fr Louis Dumas (1901-1975) 25-10-1975: Lebanon
Fr Nicolas Kluiters (1940-1985) 14-3-1985: Lebanon
Fr André Masse (1940-1987) 24-9-1987: Lebanon
Mr Richard Michael Fernando (1970-1996) 17-10-1996: Cambodia
Fr Thomas Anchanikal (1951-1997) 27-10-1997: India
Fr Thomas E. Gafney (1932-1997) 14-12-1997: India
Fr Mathew Mannaparambil (1938-1980) 7-3-1980: India
Fr Francis Louis Martinsek (1912-1979) 24-3-1979: India
Fr Herman Rasschaert (1922-1964) 24-3-1964: India
Fr Eugene John Hebert (1923-1990) 15-8-1990: Sri Lanka
Fr Tarcisio Dewanto 1965-1999 9-9-99: Dili, East Timor
Fr Karl Albrecht 1929-1999 11-9-99: East Timor
We should remember all the Jesuits who have died, in the words of Company magazine, "for love of God and their fellow human beings." The sacrifice of so many should not be forgotten so ideologues of the Left can exploit the memories of a few.
Friday, October 25, 2002 Fowl play from the Democrats
Democratic rooster – or chickenhawk?
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the United States into the Second World War after the nation came under unprovoked attack in 1941. But because, as a young man, he had not deferred his Harvard education to serve with the American military in the Boxer Rebellion or in the Philippines, the greatest of Democratic presidents was, in fact, a chickenhawk.
The same could be said of another celebrated Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, who led the United States into the First World War on a "crusade for democracy," but who in his younger years didn't volunteer for the Indian Wars.
Yes, they were chickenhawks – at least according to the political classification system used by today's purported stewards of the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian tradition at Democrats.com, who gleefully hang the term on anyone in the opposing party who did not serve in the military but today supports an armed defense against terror.
Such is what passes today for the "loyal" opposition. If the partisan Copperheads who tried to undermine the Union in the Civil War were transported to the present day, this would be their web site. If you respect the keen political savvy of Michael Moore or Barbra Streisand, you'll lap it up with a spoon.
But for many of the rest of us, Democrats.com offers further proof of what's now called the Dowd Rule: No one who thinks George W. Bush is stupid is as smart as George W. Bush.
The "quintessential Boston Bruin," Terry O'Reilly, has his Number 24 raised to the rafters at the Vault on Causeway Street tonight. Fine tribute coverage at the Globe, at the Herald and at the Bruins site. Here's a tally of his greatest brawls. Writes the Globe's incomparable hockey writer Kevin Paul Dupont:
OK, we are not talking about a league posterboy here for manners and sportsmanship (witness his 2,430 career penalty minutes). But that's just the point. It is what everyone here in the Hub of Hockey loved about the guy. He was what he was: a challenged skater with very limited playing skills who mixed equal and bountiful parts work ethic and passion to become the sport's orneriest, most steel-willed, nail-spittin', upper-cuttin' winger of his time.
None of that got his name on the Stanley Cup or won him a Hart Trophy, a scoring championship or so much as an afternoon tea at the Ritz (O'Reilly and fine china?), but it endeared him to a generation of blue-collar hockey fans who saw a lot of themselves in him, and only dreamed that they saw a lot of him in themselves.
There are no statistics that truly reflect caring, will, determination, practice, hard work, loyalty, stubborness or, maybe the biggest one of all, pain inflicted from defeat.
O'Reilly wasn't about the numbers. He was about the trying, caring, making the moment, every moment, matter. To appreciate that, you had to see him play, game to game, shift to shift, the heart underneath that spoked-B as obvious as the number on his back. Tonight's salute is not to greatness, but rather a celebration of turning the ordinary into something great.
How sweet the sound: Bagpiper John at The Inn at the End of World notes his services are in demand at funerals to play Amazing Grace – but only Amazing Grace. "It's such a shame," he writes. "There are all those beautiful traditional tunes written precisely for pipes to play at funerals and all anyone ever wants is A/G."
An aside to Angel fan John: Rally monkeys and Thunder Sticks are well and good, but the Angels once had one of the most distinctive toppers in baseball. Bring back the Halo!
Al Qaeda playbook – Chechen-style:If the developing pattern holds, hundreds more Americans or Europeans may be hostages or victims of another suicidal jihadist attack along the lines of the Moscow event. Like the jihadists' 1994 plans to crash planes into the Eiffel Tower or CIA headquarters, the Moscow-theater attack may portend the shape of looming evil.More #
Duck, duck, noose: The sniper's cryptic reference to "a duck with his head in a noose" apparently stems from a Cherokee folk tale about a rabbit hunting for prey who wasn't as clever as he thought. Another telling is here.
Now the Rabbit did not have anywhere near the ability in water that the Otter had. And it was a struggle for him to reach the ducks un-noticed, but he managed to do so and came up among the remaining six ducks. He quickly fastened his noose around the neck of the closest duck. Startled, the duck began to struggle to get away and finally took of on his wings and dragged the Rabbit out of the water after him...
He held on to the noose and was taken high into the air. Higher and higher he went. All of a sudden, he lost his grip on the noose and down he fell into the middle of a old hollow Sycamore tree with out a hole in the bottom to get out. Now the Rabbit was in a fix. He stayed in there so long that he had to start eating his own fur, as rabbits still do to this day when they are starved.
Looks like the rabbit -- or Moose -- in this case may have the last laugh. Here's hoping.
Sniper-case investigators search alleged training camp for Islamic militants in Alabama:
From Fox News: The FBI is searching a location near Marion, Ala., known as Camp Ground Zero USA — a place known to train militia groups. FBI sources told Fox News "they are not at liberty to comment" on the investigation and cannot confirm or deny their agents are investigating Camp Ground Zero USA.
Odds are, about halfway through "Holy is the Temple," you're going to be ready for a departure. Here's a rousing one in the form of an essay by Michael Inman, "A Liturgical Guitarist Reformed":
About a week before I sat down to write this I was cleaning out a bookshelf and came across my old "Glory & Praise" hymnals. I thought to myself, "I'm not just going to throw these away. No, this hideous collection of Barney Songs deserves to be burned!" Actually, I apologize to the Barney Show. Their songs are much better. So we rolled the 55 gallon drum away from the garage, tossed in the old Christmas tree that was laying behind the garage, and set 'er ablaze. Tearing off a few pages at a time Janet and I read aloud the song titles with exaggerated groans and expressions of disgust as we threw them in to their proper fate. The "performance notes" were the funniest. One suggested that, for "movement", the performing ensemble could circle the altar holding hands during the singing of a particular "Lamb of God". While singing the notes gave a suggested dance step involving sliding one foot and bringing the other over in slow steps while the group circled round the altar. It was truly a pleasure watching the purging fire consume the scourge of Catholic hymnody worldwide…
...After the fourth or fifth day of combat came Sunday. A flat field was found next to the sea, surrounded by green jungled hills. Hundreds of dirty men knelt down. Mud was on their clothes, perhaps blood on their hands. The musty smell of the tropics and of the dead was in the breeze. Everything was rotten. Many men had seen close friends killed. All had gone through too much already. Some leaned on their rifles. Others had laid their pieces carefully beside them. Most of the mussed heads were bowed, but when they lifted, they saw what they needed to see and felt inside what they needed to feel. The only clean thing on the island was the sparkling purity of the altar cloth and chasuble. They knew that despite their experience, the part of their soul that was God's would be white. That was comfort.
Perhaps the simile is sacrilegious, but that first Mass seemed more like taking a bath than anything else. For those who had not been able to go to confession, this was our first real strong contact with the living God. Living, that was it. God was alive, had been alive, would be alive, alive, alive…More
-- From "A Marine Speaks," by an unnamed veteran of Guadalcanal, for the Advent Papers, Church of the Advent, Boston
Tuesday, October 22, 2002 The Traditional Mass returns to Lourdes
At 5.30am the candlelit procession made its way through the cold and deserted streets towards the Grotto of Massabielle for an event, at least officially, unprecedented since the Second Vatican Council: the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass at Lourdes...More from the Latin Mass Society.
And The Inn at the End of the World doesn't disappoint. Throw in Chesterton, liturgical Latin and Scottish reels, and you've got a most convivial cyber-stop. Slainte!
Rush Limbaugh today raised a good point: Where is the sympathy for the Washington sniper? After all, we must have done something to make him to shoot at us. Our society must be to blame for his murderous spree. What are the root causes of his rage? Won't police efforts to stop him make him angry and trigger more attacks?
Surely it can't be long before campus protesters and the Hollywood Left are heard in chorus: Not in our name, Chief Moose! Not in our name!
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