Winterpeg or Bust

Two professional hockey teams have migrated from my old home of Atlanta to the land of the Canucks.
* The Flames, now in Calgary, were the home team when I was a youngster.
* A few years ago the Thrashers flew north and become the Jets when they landed in Winnipeg.

A recent conversation with an awesome Ottawa pilgrim friend brought to mind the one substantial trip I’ve ever made across the Canadian border (plane changes in Toronto count as visits, to be sure, but they don’t really give you a flavor for the locale).
 
My multi-day trip was to Winnipeg for a friend’s wedding, which was a Sung Mass in the Latin. It was a delightful time, and the big day for my friends was a joyful one for all of us.
 
I also did a little site-seeing while I was in Winnipeg, driving my Rubicon jeep around the city. Flowing through Winnipeg are two rivers, the Assiniboine and the Red. I traversed the Red River a couple of times in my Rubicon, and perhaps because the wedding Mass had been a Latin experience, my mind turned to things Roman during one of the crossings. “When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, the fields of Rome ran red with the blood of civil war,” I thought. “And now here I am crossing the Red River in my Rubicon Jeep.”
 
My geek credentials thus firmly established, I hummed a Gloria Patri and continued on my way.

Pray for the SSPX-Rome Meeting Today

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Pray for a successful outcome to the SSPX-Rome meeting that is taking place today.

On August 15, while at the Universite d'Ete de la FSSPX held at St-Malo, France, the SSPX’s Superior General, Bp. Bernard Fellay, confirmed the news that he and his two Assistants have been invited to meet with Cardinal William Levada, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (and the Ecclesia Dei Commission) in Rome on September 14.

On June 17, during his sermon for the priestly ordinations held at Winona, MN, Bp. Fellay stated:

"The truth is that Cardinal Levada has called me to Rome and it appears that it will be around the middle of September. That’s the only thing I know. It’s about the discussions we had with Rome. After these discussions, it had been said that 'the documents will be given to the higher authorities.' These are the exact words..."

According to the agenda given to the Superior General, the purpose of this meeting is to give a final evaluation of the doctrinal discussions between Rome and the SSPX which have occurred since October 2009.

Prayer
"O God Who, for the defense of the Catholic faith and the restoration of all things in Christ, filled St. Pius, the Supreme Pontiff, with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fearlessness, mercifully grant that, by following his teachings and examples, we may receive Your eternal rewards. Through the same Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen."

- Collect from the Mass of St. Pius X, September 3

New Ugly Modernist Statue for Rome

A 16' tall bronze statue of Pope John Paul II has been erected at Rome's Termini train station. Dedicated on May 18, the ugly and pointless structure was immediately loathed by a staggering majority of Romans.

Deformed Statue of Pope John Paul II

The head of John Paul II appears on top of a large empty box. Though hideous, it is an accurate representation of a head at the summit of a large, empty Church body, with a dwindling clergy and deserted sanctuaries. It's the modern Church in miniature!

Vatican Bans Scantily Clad Tourists

Source

Check out the scare quotes in this one:

The ban had previously applied only to St Peter's Basilica but guards manning the official entry point into the tiny, walled state begun pulling visitors aside overnight for sporting "inappropriate" attire...

If you attend a wedding, you put on a nice outfit, out of affection for the happy couple; you don't show up in a tank-top and flip-flops.

If you go to a funeral, you suit up in a nice outfit, out of respect for the deceased; you don't go in a miniskirt or muscle shirt.

If you have an audience with a head of state, show up at a job interview, or host a late-night TV show, there's no question that a coat and tie is readily recognized as a top fashion pick.

Ah, but walk into the one place on earth that is home to an entire city established for the adoration of the Almighty, the Author of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, infinite in dignity and majesty -- do that, and suddenly what is "appropriate" attire becomes a head-scratcher.

"Most [locals] are accustomed to treating the Vatican like any other part of Rome..." In fact, they seem to be treating it worse than a number of other places in the Eternal City.

Ut sementem feceris, ita metes.

Living Tradition

Monsignor Brunero Gherardini has worked for the Vatican for over 40 years, being a professor at the Lateran Pontifical University in Rome. Author of hundreds of books and many hundreds of articles in a variety of fields, his latest offering -- published last summer and already re-printed twice -- will soon be translated into English. Titled The Ecumenical Vatican Council II: A Much Needed Discussion, the work assesses changes in the Catholic Church resulting from the pastoral council of 1962-1965.

Here are snippets of insights gleaned from the book about the modern notion of "living tradition" (translated from the French at DICI).

Living Tradition
The expression "living tradition," which has been all the rage of the modernized Church, is a radical departure from what the Church has historically done and taught.

Further, "living tradition" is too unspecific, too generic, and has ended by allowing anything to be attempted in the name of tradition except what has traditionally been done.

It is "radically irreconcilable with its past," and fostered the notion during and after the council that "only what was new appeared to be true."

"The truth is...that we speak of living Tradition only to rubber stamp any innovation presented as the natural development of truths officially handed down and received, even if the innovation has nothing in common with the said truths and is something far removed from a new shoot out of the old trunk."

"The present call to living Tradition can be summed up as a genuine danger for the faith of each Christian and of the Christian community as a whole."

=======

Assessment
Tradition is essentially immutable.

Does this mean that the phrase "living tradition" is contradictory or nonsensical?

As the moderns use the term, yes, absolutely.

What Monsignor Gherardini reminds his readers is that the living character of Tradition is manifested "by the fact that it initiates a transition from an implicit to an explicit statements of the contents." Thus, Tradition is not evolutionary in the sense of becoming something different, and it can never contradict itself: it is the same at all times in all places in every circumstance.

Read more on the correct meaning of Tradition here.

360 View of St. John Lateran

See St. John Lateran's Cathedral in Rome in 360 view at http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/index-en.html

The Cathedral is the Pope's "home" basilica. St. Peter's is the most famous basilica in Rome (and in the world), but the Lateran is where the Pope rules as bishop of the Eternal City: it the place where the Pope's throne resides, and it serves as the mother church of all the churches in the world.

I recommend starting with the exterior eastern view and working your way in from there.

Mirabantur omnes de his, quæ procedebant de ore Dei.

Holy Stairs Refurbished

Source

The Scala Santa, or Holy Stairs, in Rome have been cleaned up. View a slide show at the link above.

The Scala Sancta are 28 marble steps that led to the praetorium in Jerusalem where Pontius Pilate interviewed our Lord during His Passion. The stairs were brought to Rome by St. Helena in the Fourth Century. Pilgrims for centuries have practiced the devotion of ascending the steps on their knees; yours truly made the climb in August 2000.

More Masses by SSPX Priests in St. Peter's

The blog "An Honor and a Responsibility" provided a bit of news from an Italian site about the SSPX doctrinal discussions with Rome.

http://honresp-catholicblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/vatican-sspx-talks-are-being-filmed.html

The events unfolding in Rome will be made public one day, and I don't want to speculate on what's happening; for now I commend the matter to prayer.

What I thought was of interest on the blog was this little nugget:

Since all the altars at the Domus are already booked for Masses, the SSPX’s Masses are celebrated in St Peter’s Basilica.

I think it's delightful.

SSPX Priest Celebrates Mass in St. Peter's

Source (in German)

Fr. Marcus Jasny, prior of the SSPX House of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in Germany, celebrated a series of early-morning Masses at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

St. Peter's Basilica - Early Morning

The Masses were celebrated during an August 24-September 2 pilgrimage to Rome of graduates of the Schöneberg High School for Girls.

Lucky girls.

The Sistine's Maestro Perpetuo

Source

Original in Italian

Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci, the Sistine's Maestro Perpetuo, is asked questions about the old and new Mass.

From the interview:

"The reform was done by arid people, arid, arid, I repeat it. And I knew them."

“How come that we make liturgists who know nothing about theology?”

"The voices that raised themselves to defend the two thousand year old Tradition of the Church, were cleverly hushed."

"The young generations of priests are maybe better than those who came before them, they do not have the ideological fury of an iconoclastic ideology, they are full of good feelings..."

"The liturgy with a big 'L' is the one that comes to us from centuries back, it is the reference, it is not the debased liturgy which holds so many compromises 'that make God sad and the enemy happy' ('a Dio spiacenti e a l’inimici sui')"

"In front of our liturgy of many centuries we should contemplate it and venerate it and remember that in our mania for 'improvements', we only risk doing great damage."

"There persists a certain blindness, almost a complacency for all that is vulgar, coarse, in bad taste and also doctrinally temerarious."

"The liturgical problem is serious, do not listen to the voices of those persons who do not love the Church and who oppose the Pope and if you want to cure the sick then remember that the merciful doctor makes the wound purulent (fa la piaga purulenta)."

Roman Obelisk

Sean in Rome - August, 2005

The obelisk in the background is in the middle of the plaza outside St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It was an ancient Roman war monument, brought home among the spoils of war from Egypt. St. Peter was martyred in the gardens of the Emperor Nero at the base of the Vatican Hill, crucified upside down not far from the spot of this obelisk.

Chariot Racing, circa 2009

Winner of a Roman Chariot Race

A move is afoot to revive chariot racing in Rome's Circus Maximus.

In 2009 the three days of races will begin on the traditional starting date of October 17. As the Circus Maximus is not up to code for seating 35,000 fans, cameras and remote viewing screens are to be installed.

Sources:
* http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-07-15_115220566.html
* http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=3e1cc3e7-4548-4731-8b61-13daaea660c5

The Shush Man

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

On my first trip to Rome in August, 2000, one of the ports of call where I put in was the Sistine Chapel. Everyone, I think, hears about the chapel's ceiling, but somehow I had managed to miss the news that the walls themselves are covered with eye-popping art -- which is odd to me, in that most people who were in the chapel at the time treated the place as more of a museum or art gallery than a church.

On that note, there was a recording (in English, curiously) piped in over a loud speaker reminding everyone to observe silence. The reminder was necessary: most of the visitors carried on like they were at an amusement park or a museum. The only time they actually quieted down is when the little Italian man sitting in the corner let out a prolonged "SHHHHHHH!" His talent was much in demand -- I actually timed the guy -- because within 60 seconds of a given shush he was on to the next shush: the crowd, it turned out, would quiet down for just a few moments, but slowly, consistently, predictably, the whispers would give way to talking and then return to an excited din.

I didn't know what the man in the corner's official title was, so I dubbed him The Shush Man; perhaps his role is filed under some sub-category of librarian. I also wondered if the chap acquired his job through appointment, or whether it was inherited; I can imagine how he might thus declare " I am a Shush Man, my father was a Shush Man, and his father was a Shush Man..."