Archdeacons galore

Quite close to Mrs Fletcher in Dorchester Abbey under the stones of the Abbey, is the memorial tablet to Michel Desvalpons (ob March 1798). He was archdeacon and Vicar General of Dol in Brittany; he is buried in Dorchester because he was a refugee in flight from the Revolution. The local Davey family, of Overy Manor within the same parish, were Catholics, which is one reason why that exquisite little church by the river, lovingly restored by Fr John Osman, is where it is and the way it is.
I have run into refugee French Archdeacons before, in the quiet little convent graveyard at Lanherne in Cornwall. Apparently, Bath was awash with them, and sometimes they did duty in convents.
Can anybody think of a reason why refugee French clergy never ... I think ... get into the pages of Jane Austen? Maria Edgeworth wasn't afraid to introduce an occasional expatriate Catholic, was she?

dagelijksestandaard.nl

-Cultuur onder Vuur- ‘Massamigratie gaat niet om mensen helpen, maar om nationale identiteit te vernietigen’

S Agatha's Church, Landport, Portsmouth, and its special (papal?) hymn (2)

Our hymn begins by reminding us that S Agatha is doubly crowned: and this is not meaningless floridity. Et diadema duplex decorat (Riley: Double diadem she weareth). It is a common motif of early Christian writings that a Virgin Martyr wears a Crown of Martyrdom and a Crown of Virginity. I wish to emphasise the high significance which this pervasive Christian culture attributes to Virginity.
It is my view that pretty well every modern novel, pretty well every daily newspaper ... even the 'intellectual' journals ... which one picks up, will tell you about sex ... sex and the young; sex and the very old ... having it or not having it .... But this is not the culture of Christian antiquity, it is not the culture which our Christian sources commend to us as being characteristically Christian. If this be the universal motif of the cultures which surround us ... why should we be surprised? Why should the Church preserve her rules of Abstinence and Celibacy?
The Hymn continues with Agatha's …

The Consecration/Sanctus candle

"Candle Mass" ... Like me, I expect that many readers have been intrigued by medieval illustrations showing the Server, "clerk", at Low Mass lifting up two candles.
Jungmann does not notice that the custom was, at least in England, to raise two candles. He writes: "The consecration candle, from which in many places the Sanctus candle developed, was originally intended to be lighted and lifted aloft by the deacon or the Mass-server at the early Mass, when it was still dark, ut corpus Christi ... possit videri. It was lit at Hanc igitur or sooner, or extinguished after Communion. Hence it turned into an expression of veneration for the Blessesd Sacrament."
It is interesting to recall problems which could exist before modern lighting and heating became general. At Lancing, the inventories listed a pomme, silver and apple-shaped with a screw-on top, into which hot water could be poured, so that a celebrant could keep his hands from going numb on the coldest mornings.

Saintly Stuarts, from blessed Charles to Blessed Maria Christina

This is a post from 2014. Apart from its obvious topicality, I thought readers today might enjoy the thread. BTW: how does one celebrate Blessed Maria Christina on January 31? Last time I checked the Calendars, there seemed to be a Bosco in the way ... do we have a well-informed Neapolitan reader???
A sunny day, as I strolled down the High, past the University Church, past what is perhaps the oldest statue of our Blessed Lady, crowned as Queen, to have been erected in public in England since the Reformation. Nobody ought to pass that without an Ave. Or without a murmured beate Carole, ora pro nobis. Because it was in the reign of King Charles I that the statue was erected, at the instigation of his Archbishop, William Laud, who lost his head to a puritan indictment citing this very statue. You might almost be strolling past a church in Rome, given the great, baroque, 'salomonic' pillars, like those in S Peter's, above which the Deipara stands. (Lovely word, Deipara; it is used of …

Digging into the psalms of the Divine Office (3)

Christ Jesus, who , though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the Name which is above every Name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father."
I have taken a liberty here, both with the text S Paul wrote to the Philippians and with you, dear reader: I have written LORD in capitals, although S Paul is writing in Greek ... so this can't be an example of an Anglican seventeenth translator expressing the Hebrew Tetragrammaton by English typographical conventions.
Christian devotion has often naturally assumed that, by the phrase Name which is above every Name, S Paul …

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Dutch bishops release careful statement in rejection of Fiducia Supplicans - LifeSite

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Azonnali hatállyal kiutasították a Szent István-bazilika főoltárán nemi szervét mutogató nigériai férfit - PestiSrácok

A PestiSrácok.hu értesülései szerint az Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság azonnali hatállyal kiutasította Magyarország területéről azt a 19 éves nigériai férfit, aki kedden a budapesti Szent István-bazilika főoltárán meztelenül a nemi szervét lóbálva közbotrányt okozott. Portálunk úgy tudja, a nigériai férfi jelenleg a nyírbátori Menekültügyi Őrzött Befogadó Központban tartózkodik, ahonnan fizikailag is végrehajtják majd a kitoloncolást. Pedig egyetemre […]
Gondolom Ön is ismeri a közmondást: “a pokol kapui sem fognak diadalmaskodni rajta.” A diadalmas egyház nem tűnik el. Eredete a mennyben van. Oda is fog visszatérni, hogy Krisztussal együtt ítélje a hitetleneket. Feltehetően majd Önt is. Nem kell oda szentbeszéd.
“Vagy nem tudjátok, hogy a szentek a világ felett fognak ítélkezni?” (1Korinthus 6,2a)
Gondolt már erre?! Na ott nem lesz pampogás, mint a kommentfalakon .
Az egyház feje Krisztus, aki előtt minden ember térdet fog hajtani. Még akkor is, ha dirib …

Doubly tearful (2)

Did Mr Cheesemeadow, the great Victorian architect, ever stray from Barsetshire into the Diocese of Oxford? Mgr R A Knox would know ... but I am pretty sure he did. The High Altar of Dorchester Abbey bears all the signs of his attentions. Behind the mensa there are the words Ecce panis Angelorum Factus cibus viatorum. I suspect that these words will be familiar to most readers.
I wonder why it is that Lauda Sion can move me almost to tears. Perhaps it has something to do with the way, towards its end, that the stanzas become each a line longer ... almost as if Holy Mother Church plangently and clamantly piles on more rhymes and more rhetoric as she hurries to her conclusion.
So I could not but notice that, to the North and to the South of the Altar, there are some more words from the same sublime Sequence: to the left, Bone Pastor, Panis vere; and to right, the South, Iesu nostri miserere. But then I stopped. Quite apart from their context within the hymn, I have seen these lines …

Democratic appointments

We have been having a lot of news about questionable goings-on in our British Post Office. Private Eye reports that
"Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells is an ordained priest in the Church of England. Until April 2021 she was non-stipendiary assistant minister in charge of St. Owen's Church, Bromham, in the diocese of St Albans.
"She was also on the shortlist to be the Bishop of London in 2017 -- an extraordinary step for a person who had never actually been employed by the church. Vennells missed out on becoming a bishop ..."
Is such a story conceivable?
I began by thinking No. But I do find myself imagining this following scenario:
As the London vacancy drew closer, I can imagine the Great and the Good putting their heads together. "We'd better make sure we take this opportunity of putting a woman into the Church's top management. But it had better be a woman with a proven record of managing a nation-wide institution ..."
Which, of course, might help to explain why Dame Mullarkey …

A truly terrible pope

Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, otherwise known as Pope Paul VI, did the churches of this Kingdom of England no favours.
When Queen Mary I, and Reginald Cardinal Pole, both died, the former was in state of war with the Pope, and the latter was stripped of his legatine powers and summoned to Rome on charges of heresy. Caraffa appears to have referred to Pole's "Lutheran household"; the jolly little 1958 CTS pamphlet THE POPES From St Peter to Pius XII, usually a trifle nervous about being too critical of those who have occupied the papal throne, summarises his "ferocious character. He was actuated by a violent hatred of Spanish influence in Italy and an over-mastering dread of concessions to the Reformers".
It is argued that Bloody Bess, "Elizabeth I", found it all the easier to subject this poor Kingdom again to heresy because Caraffa, deliberately, had left so many English sees unfilled.
Caraffa himself died in August of the following year, 1559, when news was beginning spread of Elizabeth's …

Canonisation 'by Acclamation'

Who canonised S Brendan? Or S Colman moccu Loigse? I can tell you: S Columba. Supernaturally enlightened, he ordered extra ordinem a celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, and, in the case of S Colman, ordered the chanters during the actual celebration itself to include the newly-departed Holy One.
During the first Christian millennium, the custom arose of seeking Papal agency in canonisations; my impression is that this was mostly in order to enhance the solemnity of the procedings ... and hence, of the Saint ... and hence, of a sponsoring political entity.
But Canonisation by popular acclaim never quite disappeared. I have on several occasions drawn your attention to King Henry VI (obiit 1471), and the shrines and pilgrimages associated with this never-canonised Saint; and Michael Hodges's magnificent recent The Golden Legend brings together information and raises new questions.
In 'East Anglia', Hodges lists eight paintings of Henry VI; of those, two have readable inscriptions,…

Die duivelse ambiguïteit (2)

Fiducia Supplicans - de omstreden Verklaring van het Dicasterie van de Geloofsleer - is vooral een laf document. Het weigert homo-praktijken als intrinsiek kwaad te benoemen.Het is inmiddels duidelijk dat Fiducia Supplicans niet gaat over een uitbreiding van de betekenis zegeningen, maar van een bewuste wijziging van wat zonde is. Bezwaren van talrijke bisschoppen, ja zelfs bisschoppenconferenties, honderden priesters en gelovigen worden arrogant weggewuifd.
FD legt ‘zegeningen’ zo uit dat het geen duidelijke betekenis meer heeft. Dat gebeurt vaker onder dit pontificaat. Als begrippen inhoudsloos worden laten ze zich gemakkelijk manipuleren. Noem een kind in de moederschoot geen kind, maar een klomp cellen, en je kunt ermee doen wat je wilt. Dan is abortus geen moord, maar een chirurgische ingreep. Geef ‘zegening’ een nieuwe betekenis, en je kunt er van alles mee doen. Het toverwoord dat dan gemakkelijk van stal wordt gehaald is ‘pastoraal’. Een formele zegen is niet toegestaan, aldus …

The Miraculous medal, S John Henry Newman, and the Anglican Patrimony

In our Ordinariate Church of our Lady Assumpta and S Gregory in Warwick street, there is a statue of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. See below for an account of S John Henry's devotion to the MM. I do not believe in coincidences. I think that this devotion ought to be more vividly understood as part of the Ordinariate's patrimonial, God-given, devotional inheritance.
On Saturday 27 November 1830, a young French nun, (S) Catherine Laboure, beheld her second and third visions of the Mother of God in the Sanctuary of her Convent Chapel in the Rue du Bac in Paris. Our Lady appeared to her, radiant, standing on a globe, and with her arms stretched out in a compassionate gesture. From her fingers rays of light fell upon the globe at her feet. An oval frame then formed around her with gold lettering that read: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Our Lady promised great graces to those who wore this design with confidence; she showed the Saint the design …

firstthings.com

“Contextual” Theology and Fiducia Supplicans

The Magisterium of Pio Nono ... three queries

In Mr Hodges' magnificent new version of the Guide To and History of the Church of our Lady of the Assumption and S Gregory in Warwick Street, there is a splendid text (do I rightly assume that it is a translation?) of a decree of Bl Pius IX, granting multiple indulgences, many plenary but some whopping great Partial Indulgences (Seven Years!) as well, to those performing certain exercises in that Church.
At the end of the Decree, the Blessed Pontiff writes: "These Presents to be valid in perpetuity, notwithstanding whatsoever may be done to the contary."
Remember that I am only a poor ignorant convert, unlearned in Canon Law. Once again, I need help.
My questions: (1) What does 'valid in perpetuity?' mean ?
(2) What does 'notwithstanding whatsoever may be done to the contrary' mean?
(3) How does this legislation marry up with the rules issued by S Paul VI?

acninternational.org

Dozens of priests arrested in 2023 as authoritarian regimes crack down on Church

onepeterfive.com

More Erotic Musings from Vatican Head of Doctrine - OnePeterFive

Phos aprositon

"At the voice of him that cried out in the desert Prepare ye the way of the Lord! thou didst come, O Lord! taking to thyself the likeness of a servant, and, thou that knowest not sin, asking for Baptism! The waters saw thee, and trembled. The Precursor trembled, and exclaimed: 'how shall the lamp give light to the Light? How shall the servant impose his hands on his Lord? O Saviour! that takest way the sins of the world, sanctify me and the waters.'
"His right hand trembled, for, though Precursor, and Baptist, and Prophet greater than all prophets, he saw before him the Lamb of God that washes away the sins of the world: oppressed with anxious doubt, he exclaimed:"O Word! I dare not put my hand upon thy head: do thou sanctify and enlighten me, O merciful One! for thou art the life, and Light, and peace of the world'
"... Thou didst bend thine Head to thy Precursor; thou didst crush the heads of the serpents. Thou didst enlighten all things that they might glorify thee, O Saviour, thou …

The Glories of Mary

When the End comes, we may finally hear the full tally of the graces received in the Universal Church through the Ministry of S Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, including the prayers of his Sons. Not least shall we know what, in our own dark days, the Community on Papa Stronsay have done for us all by their prayers, sufferings, and good works.
The Sons published, some years ago, the first part of The Glories of Mary, which is a beautifully rich commentary on the Salve Regina. This work of S Alphonsus is far from modern! But be instructed by C S Lewis, who, in his essay on Reading Old Books, points out the advantages of reading the writings of ages not our own. It is not, argues Lewis, that another age will have been infallible, but at least any errors will not be the same mistakes as we, in our age, make. This is alone capable of validating Old Books.
If this is true of the merely secular literature of which Lewis writes, how much more true will it be true of the devotional labours of as …