Notes: Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A fashion industry czar with an interesting business philosophy

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/prince-of-the-soft-sell/story-e6frg8k6-1225874158825

Here's an interesting excerpt from an article in today's edition of The Australian:

In 1987 [Brunello] Cucinelli ["king of cashmere"!] moved his business into the castle and slowly began to acquire neighbouring properties to create the type of business at which people of all ages would be proud to work.

Now 20 per cent of the company's revenue goes towards restoring and developing Solomeo. Cucinelli has constructed a magnificent 240-seat theatre, a sports centre and invested in impressive staff facilities.

"The theatre is an important part of my mission," Cucinelli says. "It is part of what I have tried to do by following the teachings of St Francis and St Benedict: to improve mankind through things such as the arts."

The teachings of St Benedict are always on the tip of Cucinelli's tongue as he strives to create a humanist business model. Other companies and institutions are keeping a close eye on his ethical improvements. In 2006, the business started a research and exchange program with students from Harvard University.

Dr. Wiltshire and Mr. Muehlenberg on English and History, respectively, under the new national schools curriculum

Dr. Wiltshire:

UNDER the new national schools curriculum students studying English as a Second Language will apparently study more literature than those studying Essential English.

The bulk of our students will encounter only a smattering of literature texts in something described as "functional English", while the true enjoyment of reading literature will be the preserve of just an elite few. This is hardly in line with true educational principles or Australia's egalitarian foundations.
[bold type in the original,
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/dumbing-down-english-teaching/story-e6frg6zo-1225874203101]

Mr. Muehlenberg:

Recent announcements about a new draft national history curriculum for Australian schools may result in even more parents making the move out of the public education system. A number of historians have warned that this curriculum appears to be yet more leftist propaganda masquerading as education.

Here is how one press account introduces the story: “Historians say the new national modern history curriculum for schools reads like a Marxist manifesto that ignores popular aspects of our past and neglects Australia’s role in world politics and war. The course, designed for years 11 and 12, is heavily focused on revolutionary struggles, colonial oppression and women’s struggle for equality.
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/05/31/history-wars/]

CathPews poster 'John' and Coo-ees's 'Hound of Heaven' on Fr. Kelly's latest CathNews piece

Here's John's nice rebuttal of that piece:

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1275354860.html

And here's Hound of Heaven:

http://coo-eesfromthecloister.blogspot.com/2010/06/veiled-secrets-of-cathnews.html

where I've left the following comment:

Cardinal Pole said...

"Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered disgraces his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered disgraces her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. ..."
1Cor11:4-6

June 02, 2010 4:48 AM
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Msgr. Scicluna and Fr. Zuhlsdorf on the sin of scandal

A timely reminder of the seriousness of the sin of scandal ('scandal' in the proper sense of the word--unreasonably giving someone else an occasion of sin):

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/05/the-bitterness-of-hell-amplified-by-those-whom-the-damned-has-caused-to-fall/#comments

Msgr. Scicluna:

Referring back to the “terrible” words written by St. Mark, Msgr. Scicluna quoted St. Gregory the Great who said that any person who, having made vows to holiness, "destroys others through word or example" would have been better off having died of their misdeeds in a secular position, "rather than, through their holy office, being imposed as an example for others in their faults.

"Without a doubt, if they were to fall on their own, their torment in Hell would be easier to bear."

Fr. Zuhlsdorf:

The torments of everlasting Hell are surely proportioned to the sins one committed. But would they not also be proportioned to the number of people one causes to sin and therefore also lose the happiness of heaven? How might the bitterness, despair, fury, woe of eternal separation from God by amplified by the knowledge of your part in their fall as well as in their presence… and their cries.

Egyptian State-Church clash over divorce and re-marriage (a foretaste of what's to come in countries which legislate for so-called gay marriage?)

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31888

Here's an excerpt from an item posted at AQ:

Egypt's highest court has ruled that the Coptic Orthodox Church must allow divorce and remarriage.

The Supreme Administrative Court, siding with a lower court decision, rejected an appeal by Coptic Pope Shenouda II. The court said that "the right to family formation is a constitutional right."

In Egypt all marriages must be solemnized in a religious ceremony. The court ruled that the Christians who make up 10% of the country's population have the same right to marriage and remarriage as their Muslim neighbors, and Christian churches, regardless of their religious doctrines, must allow divorced people to remarry. The decision cannot be appealed.

Mr. Obama again proclaims June to be "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31887

Blog comments by me

At Joshua's blog:

Cardinal Pole said...

"(Unfortunately, there are two exceptions ... to the virtue of the Don: he was quite anti-Catholic, and was suspected of shonky dealings in his career as a stockbroker.)"

Make that three exceptions (though this third one is inseparable from the first): Sir Donald was a Freemason (source).

Wednesday, 02 June, 2010
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[http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/06/cootamundra-young-cowra.html]

At Mr. Schütz's blog:

"There is no social reign of the one who said his kingdom is not of this world."

If I had a dollar for every time someone said something like that as an objection to the dogma of the Social Kingship of Christ ...

Quas Primas really is a magnificent document, by the way.

"That is a self-justifying fantasy of state churches"

I've never heard of any Protestant State church arguing for the continuation of their establishment on the basis of the Social Kingship of Christ. Presumably they would argue for it on the basis of the high proportion of the populace belonging at least nominally to that church. Maybe I should check with, say, Denmark's Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
[http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/simon-shama-on-the-snares-of-history-for-the-secular-humanist/#comment-15050]

At Terra's blog:

[I accidentally posted the final version of the following comment without saving it, but there should be only one small difference, so I'll publish this earlier draft and correct it when and if Terra posts it]

"1. While sexual purity is certainly highly desirable for the celebration of the sacraments it is not necessary - the sacraments are still valid."

Of course, Terra--that's why I made sure to say "worthily"! (And to pre-empt the objection which someone else raised to me saying that in the past: I speak of worthiness in the same sense in which we speak of receiving Holy Communion worthily or unworthily.)

"2. There remains the problem of married clergy in the Eastern Catholic rites, ex-Anglicans etc."

I don't see how that's a problem for my argument; as Msgr. Lefebvre noted in his Open Letter to Confused Catholics, clerical marriage in the Eastern Catholic Churches is something which is tolerated, not something to be encouraged, and where the Eastern Patriarchs fail to enforce continence for priests who are married, that is indefensible except, again, insofar as it is a question of tolerating a lesser evil in order to avert a greater evil. The latter holds with respect to ex-Protestants too.

"Its a reminder that we shouldn't think of priests as sacrament producing machines."

Fair enough, but nevertheless, the priesthood is primarily about the celebration of the Mass, and hence the primary reason for celibacy naturally will be connnected to that.

"[You] don't personally think Fr Blake's argument is the only one for clerical celibacy, or that he is suggesting that it is, just that it is a good one."

But clearly he goes much further than just saying that his argument is a good one--he says that it is of "supreme importance".

"There is nothing impure about a married man having sex with his wife, however, so there is nothing wrong per se about a married priest offering Mass."

Louise, you're comparing apples and oranges there--you go from talking about impurity to talking about wrongness. It is not wrong for a married man not to be in the state of Levitical purity, but it is wrong for a priest not to be. And on the contrary to what you said at the start: It is impure, by definition, (but not wrong in se, of course) for a married layman to have conjugal relations. The Roman Catechism teaches, where it deals with the preparation for Holy Communion in the section on the Sacraments, that

"The dignity of so great a Sacrament also demands that married persons abstain from the marriage debt for some days previous to Communion. This observance is recommended by the example of David, who, when about to receive the show-bread from the hands of the priest, declared that he and his servants had been clean from women for three days."
[http://www.catecheticsonline.com/Trent2.php]

(And hence obviously this holds a fortiori for the one who not just receives the Sacrament, but confects it.)

"If you want to argue that celibacy is a higher good (which it is) and that therefore a priest should be celibate, then that's reasonable."

I am arguing here not that clerical celibacy and non-celibacy are two goods, the greater of which is the former, but that clerical celibacy is a good--indeed mandatory--and that clerical non-celibacy (at least where the cleric in question is not continent) is an evil.
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[http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2010/05/church-and-mission-2-importance-of.html]

Cardinal Pole said...
You're welcome, Terra!

(P.S. (off-topic) You might be interested in the following article:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/prince-of-the-soft-sell/story-e6frg8k6-1225874158825

Excerpt:

"In 1987 [Brunello] Cucinelli ["king of cashmere"!] moved his business into the castle and slowly began to acquire neighbouring properties to create the type of business at which people of all ages would be proud to work.

"Now 20 per cent of the company's revenue goes towards restoring and developing Solomeo. Cucinelli has constructed a magnificent 240-seat theatre, a sports centre and invested in impressive staff facilities.

""The theatre is an important part of my mission," Cucinelli says. "It is part of what I have tried to do by following the teachings of St Francis and St Benedict: to improve mankind through things such as the arts."

"The teachings of St Benedict are always on the tip of Cucinelli's tongue as he strives to create a humanist business model. Other companies and institutions are keeping a close eye on his ethical improvements. In 2006, the business started a research and exchange program with students from Harvard University."

June 2, 2010 5:41 AM
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[http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-judging.html]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Ss. Peter and Marcellinus, Martyrs, A.D. 2010