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The Pope’s new Butler

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

There has been a lot of media attention regarding VatiLeaks and the conviction of the “Pope’s Butler.”  Just being able to use the words “Pope’s Butler” is a lot of fun for the media or really for everyone.  Though I always wonder what he duties actually were and if his duties really came down to being the Pope’s Valet.  But of course “Popes Valet” doesn’t have the same spin for use.

Now I also wonder does the Pope now have someone else filling the position? I ask this being a great fan of P.G. Wodehouse and the Bertie and Jeeves novels.  What if Pope Benedict XVI hired a Jeeves type character? Though the Pope is pretty much the antithesis of a Bertie Wooster.  Still I can imagine a semi Bertie-Jeeves conversation with Jeeves cast as a more progressive figure.  A kind of Bertie-Jeeves reversal.

“Pardon me, sir, but are you  proposing to enter Saint Peter Square in that mitre?”
I knew that the time had come when Benedict must show that iron resolution of his which has been so widely publicized. In the matter of head-joy Jeeves is not in tune with past liturgical thought, his attitude being best described, perhaps, as progressive experimentalist, and right from the start I had been asking myself what his reaction would be to the a mitre of Pope Benedict XV with delicate gold embroidery which I had found in his absence. Now I knew I could see at a glance that he wanted no piece of it. I, on the other hand, was all for this traditional lid. I was prepared to concede that it would have been more suitable for formal announcement wear, but against this had to be set the fact that it unquestionably lent a refinement to my appearance. In my voice, therefore, as I replied, there was a touch of steel. Yes, Jeeves, that, in a nutshell, is what I am proposing to do. Dont you like this mitre?
“No, sir.”
If you really want to know Jeeves, several fellows in the Curio asked me where I had got it.
“No doubt with a view to avoiding your hatter, sir.”
Well, I do like it, I replied rather cleverly, and went out with it straightened exactly which makes all the difference.
“Sir well if you must, but could I persuade you to substitute that crozier with something much simpler perhaps compose of a long branch?”
I saw that nothing was to be gained by bandying words. I turned the conversation to a pleasanter and less controversial subject like talking about the weather.
* Pieces lifted from “Stiff Upper Lip” by P.G. Wodehouse
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eBook

Inoculating yourself against the Spirit of Vatican II

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The start of “The Year of Faith” coincides purposely with the start of the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago.  Much has been said about the false “Spirit of Vatican II” which was a purposeful misdirection to the texts of Vatican II.  While I have read some of the documents and parts of others I haven’t read through all of them.  So I figured this was an opportune time to correct that.

Today the Pope said “I have often insisted on the need to return, as it were, to the ‘letter’ of the Council — that is to its texts — also to draw from them its authentic spirit, and (it is) why I have repeated that the true legacy of Vatican II is to be found in them,”

So I have put together an ebook containing all the Councilar Documents which I will read this year and make available for others.

ePub

Kindle

Reading these documents in context of the faith of the Church  is a good way to inoculate yourself against the false spirit of Vatican II.

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Link

Read the Catechism in a year

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

For this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict has encouraged you to study and reflect on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Well, here’s an easy way to do it. Simply enter your email address and – starting October 11, 2012 – you’ll start getting a little bit of the Catechism emailed to you every morning. Read that little bit every day and you’ll read the whole catechism in a year. Cool, right?

Great idea for the year of faith.

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Liturgy

Liturgical News

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Jimmy Akin has an update regarding the uses of modified Agnus Dei in the  liturgy. He now has the bulletin from the USCCB himself and he posted (bolding is his):

This alteration is effective immediately, and affects all existing and future musical settings of the Lamb of God.

The relevant paragraph [of the bishops’ document Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship] now reads (new text in underline):

188. The supplicatory chant Agnus Dei accompanies the Fraction Rite. It is, “asa rule, sung by the choir or cantor with the congregation responding; or it is, at least, recited aloud. This invocation accompanies the fraction and, for this reason, may be repeated as many times as necessary until the rite has reached its conclusion, the last time ending woth the word dona nobis pacem (grant us peace)” (GIRM, no. 83). The Agnus Dei should not be prolonged unnecessarily (see GIRM, no. 83) nor may other texts be added to this chant.

In other liturgical news Rorate Caeli has a letter from the CDW in response to a question from the Philippines.

“The liturgical law of the Roman Rite does not foresee the use of dance or drama within the Sacred Liturgy, unless particular legislation has been enacted by the Bishops’ Conference and confirmed by the Holy See. Any other practice is to be considered an abuse.”

Hey another step to reducing the leotardation of the liturgy.

On the humorous side “Eye of the Tiber” strikes gold again with SSPX Acolyte Stumbles During Offertory; Mass Deemed Invalid.

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Book Review

One Body, Many Blogs

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Brandon Vogt provides the info on a new book where the proceeds all go to charity.

When T.J. Burdick launched his blog back in 2010, one question puzzled him: how do you become an effective Catholic blogger?

Two years and many blog posts later, T.J. had few answers so he began searching for help. He emailed a number of blogging friends and asked, “in your opinion, what are the ‘ten commandments’ that Christian bloggers should keep in mind?”

Ten Catholic bloggers responded with a diversity of answers. Some were deep, some pithy; some were practical, some spiritual. But together they provided T.J. a solid foundation for Catholic blogging.

Wanting to help others, T.J. decided to package all of this wisdom into a short, $1.99 eBook titled One Body, Many Blogs: A Guide for Christian Bloggers (eBook, 52 pages).

The eBook includes contributions from:

Brandon also provides more information and quotes from the book.

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Parody

Priesthood Fairness

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

JERUSALEM 20 B.C. — Today a breakaway group ordained a member of the  Tribe of Benjamin at the 1st Community Temple. The Non-Aaronite Ordination Conference NAOC has lately been raising awareness concerning the disparity in the treatment of the twelve tribes of Israel.  The newly ordained priest wore the traditional vestments consisting of a breastplate, ephod, robe, tunic, cap, sash and in a odd break from tradition a purple stole. NAOC President Samuel bar Jonah told us “Restricting the priesthood to the Tribe of Levi is totally unfair to the other eleven tribes. Are the men of the tribe of Levi better than men of the tribe of Benjamin, Dan, Issachar, or any of the other fine tribes? How can we share equally in the Temple worship if we are also not allowed to offer sacrifices to the Lord? Besides I think there was a bit of nepotism involved in Moses appointing his brother Arron and establishing the Aaronic priesthood. The official church does not seem to recognize that all tribes are equal in dignity and justice demands equal treatment!”

Small groups of protests involving various tribes have broken out across the city demanding justice.

Protesters are upset  about the injustice and tribal discrimination.  One man who spoke anonymously for fear of Temple reprisals and being excluded from Temple sacrifice told us “The temple also uses an all-Levi priesthood as the norm when it proclaims that other tribes do not image the Aaronic priesthood and therefore only ordained men from the Tribe of Levi can adequately represent the sacrificial nature of the priesthood .  This is simply false considering that even before Aaron scripture recognized other priests like Melchizedek who was good enough for Abraham and should be good enough for us.”

One Temple priest how agreed to talk with us said “Being a priest isn’t all it is cracked up to be.  For one you don’t own your own property and are totally dependent on the tithe of others. Plus all the work in quality control makes it rather difficult.  I can tell you stories of animals that were brought to me supposedly ‘devoid of defect” and actually having a defect or two.  Plus grain sacrifices can get pretty old pretty fast.”

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Saints

New Doctors of the Church

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I was thinking about this aspect today, but Michael Flynn puts it perfect.

1. What does the Catholic Church call a medieval woman

who was a herbalist and wrote books about it?

A Doctor of the Church: 

TOF mentions this because of the persistent delusion that herb women were persecuted for some reason or other in the Middle Ages.  She was not only into medicine, but also music.  And could write in admonition to a king.

Though I am sure those who look for a cloud in every silver lining will gripe that there are more declared male Doctors of the Church. Considering St. Catherine, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Hildegard the Catholic Church only elevate tame women as Doctors of the Church – oh wait.

Today St. John of Avila was also made a Doctor of the Church.  I previously made an ebook of some of his writings.

Letters of Blessed John of Avila Source  ePub,  Kindle
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The Weekly Benedict

The Weekly Benedict eBook – Volume 33

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Weekly Benedict

This is the 33rd volume of The Weekly Benedict ebook which is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I pull from Jimmy Akin’s The Weekly Benedict. This volume covers material released during the last week for 20 September, 2012 – 7 October 2012.

The ebook contains a table of contents and the material is arranged in sections such as Angelus, Speeches, etc in date order. The full index is listed on Jimmy’s site.

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 33 – ePub (supports most readers)

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 33 – Kindle

There is an archive for all of The Weekly Benedict eBook volumes.  This page is available via the header of this blog or from here.

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Link

The purpose of education

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

SF Signal asks several SF authors for recommended stories for English Lit class. John C. Wright starts to answer by by saying:

The question is frankly a very difficult one. Let us analyze it.

The purpose of education is to teach the youth the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and, as they grow, to teach either a trade or to train them in the liberal arts (Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy). Additionally, education must instruct the youth in the Christian faith and classical virtues (fortitude, temperance, justice, prudence), as well as teaching enough Civics and history to allow them to be productive and honest citizens of this Republic, able to serve as jurors, voters, or soldiers, wisely and bravely, as the need demands.

Unfortunately, the Progressives of over a century ago usurped the educational industry, and created an establishment similar to the Established Church of England, in that the schools became the primary conduit not of education, but of indoctrination in progressive dogmas, and, later, various lunatic dogmas of the Politically Correct, communism, feminism, sexual liberation, environmentalism, and most of all the doctrine that all philosophy is meaningless and all ethics relative, and human life not sacred.

Given this, when I am asked what science fiction and fantasy I would recommend to educate and instruct the youth, I take the question as being akin to asking what superhero comic books or fairy princess Disney cartoons I would recommend to educate and instruct the youth. But the purpose of science fiction and fantasy is to entertain, not to instruct. When art becomes didactic and pedagogical, it often loses its savor

He then goes with several lists of recommended reading:

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Humor

Eye of the Tiber

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

“Eye of the Tiber” is a fairly new Catholic humor blog and this is going in my RSS feed immediately. Very funny and today’s post is classic.

San Fransisco, CA––The new Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, said Thursday after his installation, that he was overjoyed to see that the city had such a devotion to God’s covenant with Noah. “Who knew there could be so many rainbows in one place?” he said, happily, to reporters that had gathered after Mass. The 56 year old Archbishop who was recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to replace George Niederauer, hopes to work with San Franciscans and all those devoted to the Old Testament pre-deluge patriarch in the ceasing California’s gay marriage initiative.

Hat tip to Fr. Erik Richtsteig via Facebook

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