When the Sign of the Cross is dismissed by the Rev. Thomas Quinlan as a "meaningless action," it is worth recalling the sacrifice of the Jesuit brother St. Rene Goupil, proto-martyr of North America, tomahawked for teaching a child to cross himself.

Or consider this account of the martyr St. Isaac Jogues from the Jesuit Relations, circa 1646:

"...Father Jogues blessed the food and himself with the Sign of the Cross. 'Stop that', the old [Iroquois] chief snapped at him. 'That gesture is no good. The Dutchmen have told us of it....They hate these ceremonies of yours, and we hate them also. It is the making of that sign which caused the death of your comrade [St. Rene Goupil]; and it will be the cause of your death if you continue to form it among us.'

'That doesn't make any difference to me,' Jogues answered. 'I shall continue to form this Sign of the Cross, since the Author of our lives commands it. Let the people do whatever they please about it.'"

(Via Antoninus at Free Republic)

For more on the North American Martyrs, see:

Accounts of miracles and relics at the Martyrs Shrine in Ontario;

Biographical sketches of the Jesuit martyrs of New France here and here and here (midpage);

A reflection on the North American Martyrs by Jesuit iconographer Rev. William Hart McNichols;

A 17th-century print, Torture of the Jesuit Martyrs.

From the 1913 Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt:

On the other hand, there were certain crimes where requests for leniency merely made me angry. Such crimes were, for instance, rape, or the circulation of indecent literature, or anything connected with what would now be called the "white slave" traffic, or wife murder, or gross cruelty to women and children, or seduction and abandonment, or the action of some man in getting a girl whom he had seduced to commit abortion. I am speaking in each instance of cases that actually came before me, either while I was Governor or while I was President. In an astonishing number of these cases men of high standing signed petitions or wrote letters asking me to show leniency to the criminal. In two or three of the cases—one where some young roughs had committed rape on a helpless immigrant girl, and another in which a physician of wealth and high standing had seduced a girl and then induced her to commit abortion—I rather lost my temper, and wrote to the individuals who had asked for the pardon, saying that I extremely regretted that it was not in my power to increase the sentence. I then let the facts be made public, for I thought that my petitioners deserved public censure. Whether they received this public censure or not I did not know, but that my action made them very angry I do know, and their anger gave me real satisfaction. The list of these petitioners was a fairly long one, and included two United States Senators, a Governor of a State, two judges, an editor, and some eminent lawyers and business men.

The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois, Fortunino Matania, 1915

"I go further up -- near the trenches and bid goodbye to all. So Sad!!" An excerpt from the First World War diary of Chaplain Francis Gleeson and an account of his administering of general absolution to the troops before battle are included in a web site devoted to the Royal Munster Fusiliers, one of the old Irish regiments of the British regular army.

College Republicans jeer anti-war protesters, Washington, D.C. Photo by Declan McCullagh. This one neatly summarizes the leftist argument.

Bill Cork and E.L. Core have been providing the definitive St. Blog's roundup on A.N.S.W.E.R., the hard-line Marxist, pro-Saddam, pro-North Korea front group that has been a driving force behind recent "peace" demonstrations.

Writes Bill Cork: I cannot fathom how any Catholic, in the name of "peace," could march alongside and under the direction of Stalinists. These are truly "useful idiots."

A clever graphic captures A.N.S.W.E.R. in a nutshell.

TQ and his flock, Feast of St. Francis, Church of the Holy Family, Virginia Beach, Va. See also here.


"We do not have souls.

"Transubstantiation is not a teaching of the Catholic Church.

"Every baptized Christian is a priest."

All this according to the Rev. Thomas J. Quinlan, pastor of the Church of the Holy Family in Virginia Beach, Va., in a letter of response to a visitor from Texas who had complained of "heresy" in one of the pastor's sermons.

If I thought you were a heretic, I would recommend that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Texas tie you to a cactus and burn you on the prairie, Fr. Quinlan writes his critic in the June 21, 2002, letter, cc'ed to the Richmond bishop and the apostolic pronuncio, and reprinted in the parish bulletin.

But have no fear. You’re just too out of it!

May the Holy Spirit within you prompt you to overcome your ignorance and aid you in vanquishing your arrogance.

Arrogance is a quality with which Fr. Quinlan – "TQ" to his parishioners – is familiar.

He gives a breathtaking display of it in this parish-bulletin essay instructing Mass-goers in proper comportment:

1. Everyone in this parish should receive a piece of the consecrated Bread, and drink from the common cup. Jesus (not the Church) instituted the Mass in ratione coenae (in the nature of a meal), not in the form of a snack. Nine hundred years of host ("What’s that?" Jesus would say.) history does not excuse us from the twofold facet of communing as Jesus intended and the Bible handed on.

2. People who enter the building, which their presence in Faith will make into a church, should reach into the Baptismal Font and bless themselves, educating their children to do the same. This applies to the innumerable latecomers. Incidentally, if you are ten minutes late (look at your watch in the parking lot), go to another Mass. Missing the three Bible readings manifests your misunderstanding of what Mass is: Word and Meal.

3. Do not leave early. The priest should always be the first one out of the church. If you have prescheduled appointments, reschedule your Mass. Last week I confronted three people leaving early. And one of them, to add insult to injury, had blessed herself on the way out–a meaningless, pietistic gesture.

4. Do not bring any games, toys, Cheerios, etc., to the church building. Little children belong in the nursery, and younger children at the Liturgy of the Word. If you have uncontrollable children, consult psychiatrist listings, or arrange with your life-sharing spouse to go to separate Liturgies until control is restored in the family (which is usually the problem). There are a few exceptions–autistic children, et similia, who are more than welcome.

5. When the cantor introduces the service, answer the "Good Morning" or "Good Evening". That’s the cue to stop conversation. In our parish, the older people seem to be the chief offenders. When the cantor leads the singing, or the lector is reading, they are presiding at that part of the Mass. Look at them and pay attention to them. The overall presider is the presbyter (Priest), but not the only one. Notice that when the cantor is leading the Hallelujah how the priest turns and faces him/her, an acknowledgement of presidency.

6. When there is a lull, it is not a signal to start chattering. I have noticed it before the first reading, at the presentation of gifts, and even during Holy Communion! However, the chattering, laughing, howling, and conversation before the cantor signals the beginning of the service is highly encouraged.

7. When it is time to sing, everyone sing. When it is time to be silent, everyone should be quiet. The Mass has ups and downs built into it. You should have ups and downs in your moods, singing, and actions.

8. Do not be a hostgrabber. Put both hands out for the Eucharistic minister (ordained or not) to place in your hand. Say "amen" loudly so all around you can hear. Look at the Body and Blood as you receive it. No looking at the priest, or closing your eyes, and certainly not making the sign of the Cross, genuflecting, or other meaningless actions. You blessed yourself in the Baptismal Font at the beginning of Mass, and before the opening Prayer–that's enough.

Be sure to visit the accompanying discussion forum to read the comments.

Meantime, what in the Sam Hill is going on at the parish children's Mass? Is it a raid? Are the tykes being rousted? Or imploring the deity to send rain?

(Via Bill Cork)

Go here for all your warmongering graphics needs.

At Pamplona Ignatius was struck by a cannonball

Television writer Karen Hall, who knows from liturgical horror, maintains a useful page of Jesuit links, including one to a magnificently illustrated page on St. Ignatius Loyola. (Via Catholic Light)

From the archive: A remarkable account of Juana of Austria, 16th-century Spanish princess of the house of Hapsburg, and woman Jesuit.

Mark Steyn is at his scathing best in this takedown of jaw-dropping pro-Ted Kennedy puffery in the Globe.

Meantime, while Amy Welborn, writing on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, laments the brutal treatment of the most defenseless, six presidential candidates from the supposed Party of the Poor and Weak outdo each other fawning before NARAL.

From Cox and Forkum’s collection "Black and White World."

Scott Ritter, we hardly knew ye. It's all about the children, indeed. More from Little Green Footballs.

"New anti-war 'movement' PC, shallow, elitist," Boston journalist Jon Keller writes in the local edition of the free paper Metro, apparently riling its readership among Somerville and Cambridge T-station musicians, to judge from the online comment box. Go and vote in the reader poll and carry the day for common sense!

A profile of ANSWER, the group that organizes all these "popular" rallies against the war, reveals the group as a front for the Workers World Party, a small political sect that years ago split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The party advocates socialist revolution and abolishing private property. It is a fan of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, and it hails North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il for preserving his country’s “socialist system,” which, according to the party’s newspaper, has kept North Korea “from falling under the sway of the transnational banks and corporations that dictate to most of the world.” The WWP has campaigned against the war-crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. A recent Workers World editorial declared, “Iraq has done absolutely nothing wrong.” More from LGF.

For your all-around peace-rally-coverage needs, see:

Little Green Footballs, with bonus Marin Valley Moonbats.

Instapundit. (Here, too, and here.)

E. L. Core here and here.

The OCP octopus hugs the Barque of Peter

From the archive: A link to an outstanding article that details the OCP monopoly, "The Hidden Hand Behind Bad Catholic Music," and an appeal to Bust the Trust in liturgical music.

Meantime:

At Catholic Light, Richard Chonak offers "Here I Am, Lord," translated in Latin.

Any Latinists out there willing to provide similar renderings from the Liturgists' Songbook?

The Problem We All Live With, Norman Rockwell, 1964

Listen to a clip from Martin Luther King's 1963 speech here.

Which obsolete team from the Arch City do you prefer?

The St. Louis Browns?

Or the St. Louis Jesuits?

I have to go with the Brownies. There was an appealing honesty regarding their merits. They were pretty much horrible and nobody made any bones about it.

Not so with the Jesuits who gave us the St. Louis Sound in folk Mass hymnody, and who still are upheld as trendsetters in parish music ministries across the land.

Check out the site of "Sing a New Song" and "Here I Am, Lord" composer Dan Schutte, the former Jesuit responsible for the Lamb of God you hear at just about every local parish (and probably many of the other hymns, besides).

Give a listen to "Meadows and Mountains." Then sample "Join in the Dance."

It's as if Bernie and friends from Room 222 had cut short a rap session with Mr. Dixon to try their hands at sacred music.

Shades of Love, American Style! Shades of New Zoo Revue!

Why, 30 years after 1972, after Godspell and bell-bottoms have gone out and in and out of style again, is this sort of peppy Aquarianism still the musical standard in as many parishes as it is?

UPDATE: Dan Schutte is no longer a Jesuit, having left the order. The post has been corrected accordingly.

The Globe's Dan Shaughnessy, a Crusader at both Groton-Dunstable Regional and Holy Cross, writes of a campaign launched at his high-school alma mater to replace the mascot one Jewish parent finds offensive.

From the Lowell Sun (via Tongue Tied):

Some are calling for a quick death to the legacy of the Crusader, the mascot for the Groton Dunstable school district. They claim the armored figure evokes images of holy war and genocide.

…Leslie Lathrop, leader of the battle, decided that the transition from the current high school to the newly constructed building, scheduled for next fall, was a perfect opportunity to leave that legacy behind.

"It was the first genocide. It laid the groundwork for the Holocaust," she said of the Crusades.

Here's a cached version of an earlier Globe report on the Crusader debate, such that it is.

Two years ago, Wheaton College in Illinois announced its teams would no longer be named for Crusaders but after an amorphous meteorological phenomenon. The Christianity Today weblog commented:

Wheaton College has announced its new, inoffensive replacement for its Crusader mascot. The evangelical school will now play as the Wheaton Thunder. The college's Web site says that more than 1,300 nominations were considered and were assessed by the following criteria: "1) graphically representable, 2) teams could rally behind it and be inspired by it, 3) gender neutral, 4) cheer-able, 5) stand the test [of] time, 6) heroic, representative of strength and determination, 7) unique, and 8) constituents could easily identify with it." And, if you think about it, thunder is one of the few things that's scary but doesn't kill people. Only one problem with that list, however: if being graphically representable is your number one criterion, how are you going to graphically represent thunder? Sound waves? As sophomore Megan Cheng tells the Chicago Sun-Times, "It's very hard to visualize, but I really do like the name." College President Duane Litfin tells the Chicago Tribune that Wheaton is in no rush to finalize its depiction of thunder.

The weblog later posted a follow-up:

'Wheaton's New Mascot Ridiculed by Other Crusaders.'…The Los Angeles Times asks for reaction from Holy Cross in Massachusetts, which still uses a Crusader mascot. "Maybe weather symbols are the way to go," says James F. Powers, a history professor at the school. "Weather is an impersonal force of nature," so it can't be called bigoted. Indeed, it thunders on the just and the unjust. But Powers suggests that the Wind or Breeze or Drizzle may not be mascots of the future.

In the end, it's hard to top the following tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Crusader from the place that pioneered the mascot war. Take it away, Dartmouth College Marching Band:

From the halftime performance at the Dartmouth-HC game of Sept. 25, 1993:

The DCMB would like to welcome the boys in mauve, the Holy Cross Children's Crusaders, to the Hanover plain. Two years ago two DCMB members were arrested for attempting to temporarily remove the Holy Cross bench flag. Just to show that there are no hard feelings, the DCMB would like to challenge the Holy Cross band to steal our mascot! Go ahead! Try! We dare you!

Speaking of mascots, what kind of mascot is a Crusader anyway? The color of holy cross is purple, so we at the DCMB have come up with the top 10 new purple mascots for Holy Cross:

10) Grimace
9) A Grape Slushy
8) Prince
7) Prunes
6) Bruises on the Holy Cross football team!
5) The purple cow... oh Williams already took that one.
4) We regret to inform you that #4 has been declared the intellectual property of NBC.
3) The lovely, delicate pansy
2) The bunch of grapes guy on the Fruit of the Loom commercials.

And the number one new purple mascot for Holy Cross,
1) Barney the purple dinosaur

And from the band's halftime show at the Dartmouth-HC game on Oct. 14, 2000:

The DCMB was shocked and appalled to learn that the Holy Cross mascot is the “Crusader.” We are deeply offended by this thoughtless, insensitive, backward-looking mascot choice. This stereotypical icon belittles the noble image of the Crusaders, and mocks their cultural heritage of honorable holy conquest. That such an outrage could occur in this age of tolerance and understanding is incomprehensible. We hope our opponents can learn from Dartmouth’s shining example, with our own un-offensive ambiguous concept mascot: the “Big Green.” Watch now as the band holds a candle light vigil on the Green in an effort to reform the last Crusaders.

[Band forms the letters “PC” and plays Raiders March]

They don't make program covers like this one anymore

From a 17th-century print: 'The souldiers in their passage to York turn into reformers pull down Popish pictures, break down rayles, turn altars into tables.' Today Catholic bishops themselves are among the Roundheads warring on reverence and traditional devotions.

What if your bishop decreed all attending Mass must say the "Our Father" with palms lifted, as the priest's, in the orans position. Would you?

What if your bishop ruled you must also hold hands in the orans position for the opening prayer, the prayer over the gifts and the prayer after Communion?

What if your bishop banned kneeling after the Agnus Dei?

And forget kneeling for Communion – what if your bishop forbade you to kneel after taking Communion until all in the assembly had received?

These aren't hypothetical – they're actual rulings by Monterey Bishop Sylvester Ryan (see also here).

Would you comply?

I'd be interested to hear from any members of the We-Are-Sheep-and-the-Bishop-is-Our-Shepherd-to-be-Obeyed School (er, Flock).

It is sad to contemplate philistinism imposed in the land of Junipero Serra, and the mandating of irreverent flummery in beautiful old mission churches such as this one in Carmel.

Unfortunately Bishop Sylvester Donovan Ryan (somewhere, one hopes, Hibernian ancestors roll in their graves) has been a bellwether: He's president of the California Bishops Conference.

Next door in the San Jose Diocese, Bishop Patrick McGrath in 2000 initially approved a funeral Mass in the Tridentine rite for the late and long-persecuted Cardinal Kung of Shanghai with one proviso – that it be offered facing the congregation.

San Jose Bishop Emeritus Pierre DuMaine shared this antipathy for the traditional Latin Mass, describing it as intended only for a dying generation: "The Holy Father's intent was to give comfort to those who grew up with the old forms (as I did) and remain deeply attached to them. The intent was not to introduce a new generation of Catholics to forms now disallowed, except by indult."

Meantime, the Roundheads pictured above could hardly have done as thorough a job of eradicating any sense of the sacred as the designers of the un-sanctuary of the new LA cathedral.

Fire god to whom the ancients sacrificed children and others for the good of society. (Image from the 1914 Italian silent film Cabiria.)

This is a child in the womb.

And this is an African-American slave.

At times in our history, the expendability of each has been held by enlightened opinion to be central to liberty and to the progress of civilization.

From Rod Dreher at The Corner:

This notice appears in the current edition of the community newspaper in my corner of Brooklyn: "January 23, 1973, is a landmark in the history of women's struggle for freedom and equality. On January 19, 2003, the Women's Alliance of the First Unitarian Congregational Society will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that was handed down on January 22, 1973. The celebratory worship service, officiated at by the Reverend Carlton Veazey, will begin at 11 a.m. at the First Unitarian Church, located at 50 Monroe Place, on the corner of Pierrepont Street and Monroe Place. The Women's Alliance presents a Reproductive Choice Sunday worship service every year in January." (Via E. L. Core and Dale Price)

In the same spirit, an editorial in the Boston Globe, April 7, 2002:

WHY ABORTION MATTERS

In the 30 years since Roe v Wade - and before that, the 1965 Griswold v Connecticut ruling legalizing contraception - opportunities for women to become full members of society have steadily widened. The decisions whether and when to marry, have a career, pursue higher education, even whether to run for elective office - these are the real freedoms that reproductive rights confer on American women. In 2002, the phrase "abortion rights" is not so much about abortion as it is about rights.

Many women understand this almost instinctively. Abortion has become a kind of plebiscite issue, a marker for a candidate's essential view of women's roles in society. It is an issue that supports a wider philosophy about the role of government in regulating private behavior, about civil liberties and religious pluralism.

There are exceptions, of course, but most genuinely pro-choice candidates can also be counted on to support equal opportunity, affirmative action, pay equity, quality day care, and gay rights and to be be skeptical of government schemes to promote marriage, religious values, or sexual abstinence.

For many Americans, connecting these dots has become lost in increasingly trivialized gender wars. Overseas, interestingly, the connections are much clearer. The United Nations and foreign aid agencies consistently find that in developing countries where women are fuller participants - with access to education, family planning, and the right to delay marriage - societies are healthier, more economically secure, even safer from war or revolution.

It is not too sweeping to say that Roe v. Wade is one part of a century-long struggle for women's rights that started with winning the vote. Abortion rights - and all that they contain, including the right of a woman not to have an abortion and to raise children fully supported by society - are necessary for the continued emancipation of women.

"It's not about the act of abortion," Kate Michelman, director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said in an interview. "Really it's so much bigger than that. It goes to the very core question of a woman's right to dominion over her own life."

…Politicians can hedge about being "personally opposed" to abortion - no one welcomes the actual procedure. But candidates should expect to have their sincerity examined on the issue. What voters are really asking when they ask about abortion is whether a candidate trusts women to make their own decisions, to participate fully in the economic and social fabric of society. Even women who are deeply ambivalent about abortion should know that closing the door on one essential right directly threatens the others.

Compare to this 1858 speech by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond which describes the slave caste as the needed "mud-sill" upon which Southern white civilization rests:

In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political government; and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air, as to build either the one or the other, except on this mud-sill.

Or these writings by antebellum South Carolina Chancellor William Harper (1790-1847), who presents slavery as vital to the cotton industry (fourth item):

The first and most obvious effect [of abolition], would be to put an end to the cultivation of our great Southern staple…

A distinguished citizen of our own State, than whom none can be better qualified to form an opinion, has lately stated that our great staple, cotton, has contributed more than anything else of later times to the progress of civilization. By enabling the poor to obtain cheap and becoming clothing, it has inspired a taste for comfort, the first stimulus to civilization. Does not self-defense, then, demand of us steadily to resist the abrogation of that which is productive of so much good? It is more than self-defense. IT is to defend millions of human beings, who are far removed from us, from the intensest suffering, if not from being struck out of existence. It is the defense of human civilization.

And in a glowing review of a pro-slavery tract by William & Mary President Thomas Roderick Dew, vital to civilization itself:

President Dew has shown that slavery is the principal cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can be more evident than that it is the sole cause.

Today's pro-choicers in the Unitarian pulpits and on the Globe editorial page have a good deal in common with the genteel slavers of the Palmetto State of a century and a half ago.

They've tied liberty and progress – their own liberty and progress – to the subjective devaluation of a whole other class of people.

And declared it a blow for humanity.

Altarpiece of the Church Fathers: Vision of St Sigisbert, Michael Pacher, c. 1483

The Dec. 20 edition of Commonweal features a cover review by Lawrence Cunningham of what the Notre Dame theologian calls "as stunning a book of art" as he has seen, Great Altarpieces: Gothic and Renaissance, by Caterina Limentani Virdis and Mari Pietrogiovanna (Vendome, $150, 421 pp.).

What end did these altarpieces serve? Cunningham writes. Some, to be sure, gave glory to the patrons who paid for them: their portraits appear not infrequently in the central or side panel, usually in an attitude of prayer. But like so much Christian art, altarpieces were meant, simultaneously, to raise the mind and heart of the worshiper to the mysteries of the faith and to enhance the beauty of the setting for the liturgy. Since the interior panels of the altarpieces were shown only on special occasions, they assumed a certain revelatory character. When the exterior doors were pulled back, the interior panels gave the viewer a glimpse of the beauty of the world of heaven.

For most people today altarpieces are simply great art, and many of them adorn the walls of museums. Yet they were meant to be seen in a church setting, illuminated by the unsteady light of candles and lamps andwhatever natural light filtered in through stained-glass windows. It is only in their intended setting, I think, where we can properly gaze as opposed to look, that we can really appreciate how powerful these works are. That said, there is still merit in a careful perusal of a book as beautiful as this: as Saint Bonaventure notes in the opening chapter of the Itinerarium, "whoever is not enlightened by such splendor of created things is blind."

More on altarpieces from The Guardian.

Boston Common at Twilight, Childe Hassam, 1885-86


Maureen Mullarkey on the eating habits of tenured art appreciators, the oiliness of Degas, and when a cigar, docent notwithstanding, is just a cigar:

The current issue of the College Art Association’s newsletter carries the NAEA’s solicitation which lists, in earnest alphabetical order, a catalogue of suggested topics. Herewith, the wall chart:

archetype
agency
author / artist / authority bricolage
camouflage
caricature
carnival
cognitive dissonance
colonialism
commercial art
common sense
connoisseurship
content and context
curiosity
cliché
desire
diversity
forgery
gaze and glance
greatness
hegemony
icon / index / symbol
ideology
illusion
intolerance
metaphor
mysticism
parody
pedagogy
power
prejudice
taboo, or values and ethics

One look at this curry of buzzwords and the eating habits of tenured art appreciators are clearer than Perrier. The menu signals that all academic dietary laws will be observed. No artminds will be put off their feed. Feminists can sink their capped teeth into "gaze," that evilly male phenomenon. Multiculturists will gnaw on "colonialism." Donnish radicals get to jab their forks into "pedagogy" and "power."

There’s only a single H, the predictable "hegemony." But that is enough to keep the taps open until closing time. The entire faculty, in concord and beery unanimity, can raise a pint to, say, manifestations of gendered power in headress iconography. Or, the æsthetics of post colonial politics. Listen while everybody cocks a snook at the bourgeois bogey of delectation that lurks in that word "ideology."

The most depressing item here is "common sense." It is offered as a specimen under scrutiny, like a fly in amber, indicating its rarity as an inherent component of the discipline. Orderly alphabetizing lends an aura of rationality to what is , at heart, a mad endeavor: the compulsion to reduce the pleasure of art to zero. Educators scenting a foundation grant with this kind of beady-eyed erudition have no more interest in art than a hamster. They are pushers of a self-blinding intellectualism that projects upon art formulæ that fit their chosen blinkers.

It gets even better. Go read the whole thing.

The Pilgrims Meet the Pope, Vittore Carpaccio, c. 1492



I love the way they balance the reverence with the indigenous. Raymond Arroyo, EWTN, commenting on Aztec tom-toms at a papal Mass in Mexico City.

"WOW, I did not know so many could have their lives changed by seeing the Pope. If they can be changed, I can too!" Delilah, 15, on the 'Real World'-meets-World Youth Day video Don't Turn Back.

Several respondents to a previous post have commented here and elsewhere that the personal charisma and holiness of Pope John Paul II have a stirring effect, and have led many in his presence to spiritual conversion. No doubt in many cases this has been true.

Pious devotion, the thrill of seeing the Pope, the pride of being present for the making of history at a papal Mass: all play roles in the excitement surrounding appearances of JPII.

But between the Wotylapalooza atmosphere of World Youth Day and the censing of the Pope by vestal Aztecs at Mexico City, other phenomena also have been present in the hyper-emotionalism and pop mentality that have marked recent papal galas.

The Pope warrants three cheers, certainly, but not Lady Di bathos.

I can understand teenagers screaming for the Rolling Stones. But to paraphrase that great barnyard theologian Foghorn Leghorn, there is something kind of yeeeeeeh about the idea of "Christian Rock." I can't imagine a red-blooded teen listening to it – or for that matter, squealing at the sight of the aged pontiff, "John Paul Two, We Love You!"

World Youth Day has seen the confluence of a multicultural-extravaganza-loving Vatican liturgical celebrations office, described here by Mark Cameron, with what might be called the Ned Flanders elements in Catholic evangelical outreach, for whom revivalism and "relevance" are all. Hello, LifeTeen. Hello, Rapping Friar. And now Don't Turn Back, the video (as seen on EWTN!) that makes the Catholic faith as relevant to teens as MTV!

But Billy Graham Creep isn't the worry here.

What is: The prevalence at World Youth Day and other papal mass-rallies of certain groups whose stocks-in-trade are psychological manipulation and the personality cult – and who encourage a fervent devotion to the Pope whose endorsement insulates them from criticism. From 2000:

100,000 YOUTHS DEFY COLD AND RAIN TO SEE THE HOLY FATHER

JERUSALEM, MAR 24 (ZENIT.org).- Last night, thousands of youths spent the night in the rain and cold in order to be able to celebrate Mass with the Holy Father today…Some estimates say there were as many as 120,000 present, and even the most conservative guesses stand at 90,000…

While they waited for the Pope, Kiko Argüello, founder of the Neo-Catechumenal Way, sang and played the guitar along with a group of youths, who also sang and played musical instruments. Groups of boys and girls danced in a circle…

Half of them, about 50,000, were members of Neo-Catechumenal communities from around the world…The other half came from other movements and ecclesial institutions, such as Communion and Liberation, the Focolares, Opus Dei, as well as parishes and dioceses from different parts of the world. *

Similar reports here and here.

This account of a Neo-Cat altar call smacks not of renewal but of the Moonies.

From these particular fruits of the new evangelization, I'd rather not bite.

The authority of the Church, personified by a heroic and saintly JPII, has a strong appeal for Catholic conservatives. Some seem to regard JPII as the embodiment of the Church (or at least, the post-conciliar status quo they have embraced) and as such, beyond criticism, to be given the benefit of every doubt.

And indeed, the Pope and his Office are worthy of respect and admiration. But Rome is not above criticism on fronts liturgical and political, particularly today, given its non-handling of the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

Meantime, the current pontiff is frail and ailing. My thought at Christmas was that he looked worse than the photos of FDR at Yalta. I found it painful – not inspiring – to watch the poor man put through seemingly endless ceremonials.

Why is he? So he can be venerated as a living relic?

Beatlemania


Mr. Frank Sinatra, an amiable young singer of popular songs, is inspiring extraordinary personal devotion on the part of many thousands of young people, and particularly young girls between the ages of, say, twelve and eighteen. The adulation bestowed upon him is similar to that lavished upon Colonel Lindbergh fifteen years ago, Rudolph Valentino a few years earlier, or Admiral Dewey, the hero of Manila Bay, at the turn of the century…

One difficulty was that multitudes of the admirers of "The Voice" as Mr. Sinatra is popularly called, refused to leave after having seen one complete performance in a non-stop programme which went on every day from nine in the morning until after midnight. Of 3,500 spectators only about 250 left at the end of the first performance. One young woman is known to have sat through 56 consecutive performances, which means about eight consecutive days. Some of the youngsters faint with hunger and fatigue after sitting six or eight hours without food, but still refuse to leave until they are bodily removed by the attendants.

-- From "Frank Sinatra and the 'bobby-soxers,'" the Guardian Jan. 10, 1945


Sinatra's fans are overwhelmingly young women. Their versions of the effect he has on them are, on the whole, more daintily phrased than the callous judgments of the psychologists.

"I shiver all the way up and down my spine when you sing, just like I did when I had scarlet fever."

"After the fourth time I fell out of a chair and bumped my head, so I decided to sit on the floor in the beginning when I listen to you."

"I love you so bad it hurts. Do you think I should see a doctor?"

A radio station conducted a "Why I Like Frank Sinatra" contest. Among the fifteen hundred essays submitted was one that read:

"I think he is one of the greatest things that ever happened to Teen Age America. We were the kids that never got much attention, but he's made us feel like we're something. He has given us understanding. Something we need. Most adults think we don't need any consideration. We're really human and Frank realizes that. He gives us sincerity in return for our faithfulness."

-- From "The Slaves of Sinatra," by E. J. Kahn Jr., The New Yorker, November 1946.


"I love you, Papa!" screamed a hoarse male voice, while nearby, another young woman collapsed onto a friend's shoulder weeping and shouting, "There's the Pope!"

Miguel Garcia, 14, from California, blasted off three long hoots on a red plastic trumpet -- not something he'll do when the Popemobile rolls past the nearby chain-link fence, he said.

"He's been shot twice, so we won't do it then. . . . But I'm happy, I'm so happy. I might even cry."

…The buzzing descent of the helicopter shortly after 3:30 p.m. snapped everyone to attention. Soon great hordes raced back and forth across the pavement, the slightest suggestion of a papal sighting enough to trigger a stampede.

Finally, the Pope began his slow journey to the main stage, riding in the Popemobile down a long corridor marked by chain-link fences, the crowd pressed dozens deep on either side.

Some waved crosses or flags, while others chanted fervently "John Paul II, we love you! John Paul II, we love you!"

Pat Hain from Delaware, in her late 40s, leaned against the wire long after the procession had moved on, quivering with emotion.

"He's our shepherd, he's our great shepherd. . . . This is the greatest experience I've ever had."

Robyn Ferguson, 18, from Ottawa, was one of the many pilgrims who perched on a friend's shoulders, snapping photographs from less than three metres away.

"It was really enlightening to be able to see him. Wow! Wow!"

As the Pope finally began to speak, the masses grew silent, some clustered around radios and others intently watching the video screens that were peppered throughout the site, cheering whenever he paused. Many in the crowd wept openly.

Emmanuel Arches, 33, a Filipino who works in New Jersey, wore a hip plaid hat and a wooden cross flung nonchalantly over his shoulders. But as the Pope's words rolled over the crowd, he pressed palms together and wiped tears from his eyes.

"When you see him, you cannot help but pray, pray for myself, pray for my loved ones, pray for him also. . . . It's the closest I can be to God."

Goosebumps broke out spontaneously up Jennifer O'Connell's arms as she recalled her first glimpse of the Pope, back in 1984 while he was boating in Ottawa.

"I swear, he looked right at me and smiled, full of love. . . . Seeing him, I get goosebumps. Today, I'm going to cry tears of joy and happiness."

Gloria Puruntatame, 25, patted her stomach -- three months pregnant, but she hasn't felt a kick or cramp since she began her journey from northern Australia to see the Pope.

"Since I travelled, I haven't felt anything . . . no pain, none at all. I pray to him . . . and he protects my baby."

Even as some pilgrims swooned with excitement, others were dropping from heat exhaustion, dehydration, allergic reactions and other maladies.

Captain Rob Bygrave, on patrol with a cart full of water bottles for the Toronto Fire Services, said not many people needed medical assistance until after the Pope arrived.

"It's going nuts -- we've got hundreds of people lined up at the hospital," he said. "A lot of the kids wanted front-row seats and they wouldn't leave them for food, they wouldn't leave them for water."

-- From "Young People Wait All Day for the Pope," Toronto Globe and Mail, July 26, 2002


In that moment of recognition as the Popemobile passed through Exhibition Place, they laughed or wept or bowed their heads in prayer. Some fell into each another's arms.

"Papa John is in the house," a young voice cried out.

While many shrieked with delight, others sat silently, a rosary in one hand and a tissue in the other to wipe away tears.

…Nicolas Pappalardo, who's from Toronto and works for World Youth Day, thanked the Pope. "You are a compass when we need guidance. You are our luminous beacon of hope in a world of darkness."

…Peter Richards, from Halifax, broke down in tears when the Popemobile passed a few metres in front of him. "I'm just so overcome with the power of his presence," he explained.

…Pawel Zuchniewicz, a Polish journalist, recalls meeting John Paul at World Youth Day in Denver in 1993. "He was very robust. I remember his grip, which was very strong, and I was weeping like a small child."

-- From "World's Youth Greet Pontiff with Smiles," Toronto Star, July 26, 2002


I went to the Vatican expecting a solemn affair. It felt more like a rowdy World Cup soccer crowd. Mexican and Russian delegations held up national flags as they waited for His Holiness. Other groups waved matching colored scarves. The Americans were most boisterous. A group of about 200 college students chanted and clapped in unison as they unfurled a large spray-painted banner. "John Paul Two, we love you!" they cried, hoping to lure the Pope out on stage.

I was five feet from the center aisle, where in moments, one of the world's most influential people would walk by. I just wanted one good photo. As the time grew closer, people began shoving – Pope hooligans.

…I was busy protecting my own vantage point. There was a shove from behind, and as I stumbled off my chair, I watched another man's video camera crash down. I had seen tamer crowds at Pearl Jam concerts.

Finally, the Pope entered. Everyone gasped. Just as I snapped my photo, a rugby match broke out, in which the guy behind me attempted to get closer to God by flinging himself over the crowd to fondle the Pope's robe. The Pope, a man who usually radiates inner peace, looked perturbed as his follower tried to grope him. -- Dave Fox, "Don't Grope the Pope"


This is progress?