"Whatever did happen to Catholic England?"

Enjoy historian Simon Schama's answer to this question on YouTube. Someone has taken an hour-long segment from his "A History of Britain" series for the BBC and broken it up into six videos. It begins with a trip to a parish church whose high ceilings and overall architecture reveal it to be a former abbey. The church's original rood screens have been restored to reflect depictions of saints; during the Protestant upheaval they were covered over with verses from a prayerbook. Schama, a Jew, rejects the whiggish point of view that the break with Rome was inevitable, and a la Eamon Duffy calls Catholicism on the eve of the Reformation "vibrant, popular, and very much alive." Video one is here, and you can access 2-6 via the "More from ..." box along the right bumper.

Second and fourth Fridays

The Reform of the Reform comes to Cincinnati's East side. From the bulletin for St. Cecilia Church in the Oakley neighborhood:

Latin Mass
Recently I was approached by the Dean of Academics at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary, and my good friend, Fr. Earl Fernandes to see if St. Cecilia was interested in allowing him to celebrate a daily mass in Latin. It was decided that Fr. Fernandes will celebrate the Mass in Latin (in the ordinary form-facing the people) on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month at the 9AM Mass. The readings and the homily will be in English. Altogether, I am excited about this opportunity to offer Mass in Latin; I believe it further opens us to realize that great richness of our Catholic faith. We will offer the Latin Mass in January and February, and then evaluate its continued offering at our parish. Fr. Jamie

Kudos to Fr. Jamie Weber, the parish's new pastor. I do hope he gives it ample time to take root, especially since a 9 am weekday Mass won't be able to attract many day workers. You can find a hand missal with the Latin text for Mass in the ordinary form here.

Mass of the (few) shepherds

Note to the Rochester press corps:

The next time you want to film a Catholic church full of worshipers on Christmas morning, drive your camera truck to Pleasant Street, not Flower City Park.

He made Himself a child

He made Himself a child [...] to enable you to become a perfect man; He was wrapped in swaddling clothes to free you from the bonds of death [...]. He came down on earth to enable you to rise up to Heaven; He had no place in the inn so that you might have many mansions in Heaven. He, being rich, became poor for our sake -- St. Paul says (2 Corinthians 8:9) -- so as to enrich us with His poverty [...]. The tears of this crying child purify men, they wash away my sins.

-- St. Ambrose, Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc., as quoted in the Navarre Bible commentaries for St. Luke's Gospel.

Luke 2 meets Matthew 25

We assisted at Mass this evening at Guardian Angels, my sister-in-law's parish. I've been told by friends that it has undergone a renaissance of sorts under its current pastor, Fr. Tom King. It certainly seems so. Fr. Earl Fernandes, an instructor at nearby Mt. Saint Mary Seminary, was the celebrant. He chanted virtually the entire Mass in the vernacular and lent a dignity to a liturgy that on this day often resembles a circus. (But for a handful of statues and rhombus-themed stained-glass windows, the church interior resembles a conference center, which makes Fr. Fernandes's ars celebrandi all the more noteworthy.) Assisted by an able deacon, he incensed the altar, the lectionary, and the people. His homily, while not exceptional, was solid and practical, explaining how we should welcome Jesus into our hearts and lives. Think Luke 2 meets Matthew 25. A packed congregation calls for Eucharistic Prayer II to move things along, right? Nope. It was the Roman Canon, in all its litany-filled glory. Fr. Fernandes is quite possibly the fastest Minister of Holy Communion I have ever seen; he practically poked my tonsils with the host. After a full-throated rendition of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing for the recessional, we ... recessed to my sister-in-law's home for dinner, drinks, and bingo with the kids. All in all, it was a near-perfect Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas, everyone.

A Christmas Poem

From Rochester 'blogger Lee Strong:

Oh, to have been a shepherd or a king
and to have heard those angels sing
or to have seen that star so bright
upon that holy Christmas night.

But Christmas transcends both time and place
and we can share in that night’s grace
when like those humble ones back then
we heed God’s call and proclaim, “Amen.”

The ecology of a press-driven controversy

In case any of you are looking for a good, straightforward synopsis of Pope Benedict's call for an "ecology of man" in his curial speech this past Monday, Zenit has one:

The Pope spoke today of what he termed an "ecology of man" during his traditional exchange of Christmas greetings with prelates and members of the Roman Curia.

"Given that faith in the Creator is an essential element of the Christian creed, the Church can not and should not limit itself to transmitting to the faithful only the message of salvation," he affirmed. "It also has a responsibility with creation, and it has to fulfill this responsibility in public."

The Pontiff added that while the Church needs to "defend the earth, water, air, as gifts of the creation that belongs to all of us [... ], it must also protect the human being from his own destruction."

"It is necessary that there be something such as an ecology of man, understood in the proper manner," he said.

This human ecology, he affirmed, is based on respecting the nature of the person, and the two genders of masculine and feminine.

Always current

"It is not outmoded metaphysics," Benedict XVI affirmed, "when Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected."

He said it has more to do with "faith in the Creator and listening to the language of creation, the contempt of which will lead to the self destruction of humanity."

The Pope warned against the manipulation that takes place in national and international forums when the term "gender" is altered.

"What is often expressed and understood by the term 'gender,' is definitively resolved in the self-emancipation of the human being from creation and the Creator," he warned. "Man wants to create himself, and to decide always and exclusively on his own about what concerns him."

The Pontiff said this is man living "against truth, against the creating Spirit."

"The rain forests certainly deserve our protection, but man as creature indeed deserves no less," he added.

Benedict XVI explained that great theologians have "qualified marriage, that is to say, the link for life between man and woman, as a sacrament of creation, instituted by the Creator."

"This forms part of the announcement that the Church should offer," he concluded, "in favor of the creating Spirit present in all of nature, and in a special way in the nature of man created in the image of God."

Other than suggesting that human nature is a tad more important than jungles, a proposition that could have been taken for granted for most of human history, is there anything here that Pope Benedict and his predecessors haven't said before? Matt Swaim has a roundup of hysterical press headlines that have greeted the speech. My favorite? "Pope Says Gays Could End Human Race."

Word up

Until a couple of years ago, I subscribed to an online service that sent the text of the Navarre Bible via email for the day's Mass readings. At some point it inexplicably stopped. I've since learned that the texts are available at the "Daily Word" Google group. Here is note 23 to chapter 1 of St. Matthew's Gospel, the focus of tomorrow evening's Vigil of Christmas:

23. "Emmanuel": the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, quoted in this verse, foretold about 700 years in advance that God's salvation would be marked by the extraordinary event of virgin giving birth to a son. The Gospel here, therefore, reveals two truths.

First, that Jesus is in fact the God-with-us foretold by the prophet. This is how Christian tradition has always understood it. Indeed the Church has officially condemned an interpretation denying the messianic sense of the Isaiah text (cf. Pius VI, Brief, "Divina", 1779). Christ is truly God-with-us, therefore, not only because of His God-given mission but because He is God made man (cf. John 1:14).

This does not mean that Jesus should normally be called Emmanuel, for this name refers more directly to the mystery of His being the Incarnate Word. At the Annunciation the angel said that He should be called Jesus, that is, Savior. And that was the name St. Joseph gave Him.

The second truth revealed to us by the sacred text is that Mary, in whom the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 is fulfilled, was a virgin before and during the birth itself. The miraculous sign given by God that salvation had arrived was precisely that a woman would be a virgin and a mother at the same time.

"Jesus Christ came forth from His mother's womb without injury to her maternal virginity. This immaculate and perpetual virginity forms, therefore, the just theme of our eulogy. Such was the work of the Holy Spirit, who at the conception and birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother as to impart fruitfulness to her while preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 4, 8).

Oddly, note 25, which contains excellent apologetic material on the perpetual virginity of Mary, is not included. (I have the individual volume.)

Potemkin images

A video Christmas card from my college alma mater, the University of Dayton, just arrived. Entitled "Images of Faith", it includes pictures of Marian statues, references to the school's proud Catholic tradition, and expressions of the importance of faith. One image toward the end is of a priest elevating a host during the consecration at Mass. It closes with a fund-raising pitch. There is no mention of the university distributing "Gay? I'm cool with that." t-shirts on campus, the recent visit by pro-abortion rights politician Mario Cuomo, the school's (abandoned) plan to remove the chapel dome from its logo, the fact that the word "Marianist" doesn't appear until page 65 of the "viewbook" it sends to prospective students, or the hiring of a former Planned Parenthood official to serve as executive director for the office of the university president.

If you live in the area ...

RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH ST. PAUL!

Since the beginning of the Year of St. Paul in July of 2008, Pope Benedict has delivered a series of brief talks on the role of St. Paul in salvation history and the life of the Church. These talks are simply written and very accessible, covering key aspects of the Faith like the sacraments, the cross, faith and works, and the Redemption. Beginning Monday, January 5, the Monday morning catechism group will review one of these talks per week. The first is focused on St. Paul and his religious and cultural environment, from a talk Pope Benedict gave on 2 July 2008. Join Rich Leonardi ... and many other friends and parishioners each Monday at 6:30 am ...

The talks may be found at the following link: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/index_en.htm

Going national

This weekend's Cincinnati Enquirer announces "a star is born":

We'll soon have a new national radio star in our midst.

Brian Patrick's "Son Rise" morning show on Sacred Heart Radio (WNOP-AM, 740) will be broadcast to 130 EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network stations and Sirius satellite Channel 160 starting Jan. 5.

Only the 7 a.m. hour of Patrick's 6-9 a.m. show on the Catholic radio station (www.sacredheartradio.com) will be heard nationally.

"We'll have the best of both worlds. We can do a national show, but we won't lose the local flavor," says Patrick, a former Channel 9 weekend anchor. "Son Rise" debuted in September 2007.

Patrick and station manager Bill Levitt pitched the idea in April to EWTN, when Patrick began taping the "Crossing the Goal" talk show at EWTN's Alabama headquarters. It airs 6:30 p.m. today and 9 p.m. Fridays.

ETWN radio has been broadcasting reruns at 7 a.m. "This really fills a void they have," Levitt says.

Congratulations to Brian, Bill, and Matt -- it's going to be a great year.