Notes: Tuesday, July 17-Tuesday, July 31, 2012

1. A couple of points of interest from "Partnership of dioceses leads to witness in schools", by Tracey Edstein, on p. 6 of the June 2012 issue (No. 114) of Aurora, the magazine of The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

(It's available from that Diocese's website, and came to my attention via the version published under the headline "Catholic, Anglican bishops renew tri-diocesan pact" on p. 21 in the "Regional Round-up" section of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4624, June 3, 2012.)

1.1 An amusing definition of ecumenism

by The Lord Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle (though His Lordship disagrees with it):

Our ecumenical people meet with your ecumenical people and we have a lovely time together!

Labels: ecumenism

1.2 Msgr. Wright's "message of Christian care and service rather than a message of belief or conversion"

This is the last paragraph of that article:

A feature of the Service of Worship was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, giving expression to the Covenant through a pastoral care partnership. This partnership sponsors and supports Chaplains/Pastoral Care Workers in the schools of the regions served by the three dioceses. Bishop Bill said, "It is our prayer that through this ministry, students, their families and school staffs will come to experience the loving compassion of Jesus Christ: a message of Christian care and service rather than a message of belief or conversion."

Labels: Bill Wright

2. Some links to reports which contain recent Papal mentions of the Second Vatican Council or its Catechism or both

http://www.news.va/en/news/presentation-of-the-year-of-faith

http://www.news.va/en/news/papal-message-closes-fiftieth-international-euchar

http://www.news.va/en/news/blessed-are-the-peacemakers

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-church-must-preach-truth-and-justice

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-recalls-time-as-conciliar-expert-in-nemi

Labels: C.E.C., Vatican II

3. "Obama admin video tells Pentagon ‘Being gay isn’t about sex; it’s about life’"

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-admin-video-tells-pentagon-being-gay-isnt-about-sex-its-about-life

(That article came to my attention via this AQ post of it.)

I log that quotation in relation to the observation by the Australian Gay activist Prof. Dennis Altman that

The greatest single victory of the gay movement over the past decade has been to shift the debate from behavior to identity, thus forcing opponents into a position where they can be seen as attacking the civil rights of homosexual citizens rather than attacking specific and (as they see it) antisocial behavior.
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/05/01/on-relationship-recognition/]

Labels: Dennis Altman, G.L.B.T.

4. On some recent developments regarding 'family planning'

4.1 "the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, said Australia would double its overseas aid for family planning programs to more than $50 million a year by 2016"; "[a]t least $70 million over the next four years will go to the United Nations Population Fund to promote equitable access to family planning", and "[a]n extra $10 million will be given to the International Planned Parenthood Federation program to ensure people caught in disasters can gain access to reproductive health services." Furthermore, a "London conference, organised by the British government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is set to refocus on the issue and garner $2 billion in pledges by 2020."

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/focus-on-family-planning-as-carr-doubles-foreign-aid-20120711-21wdw.html?skin=text-only

See also "Abortion aid 'won't help save lives of mothers in childbirth'", by Damir Govorcin, p. 7, the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4631, July 22, 2012, apparently available on-line, but behind a paywall, here; the following is my transcription:

Mr[ Paul] Hanrahan[, executive director of Family Life International, "Australia's largest Catholic pro-life org-anisation"] said the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Brazil recently failed to deliver what the population controllers wanted - a univer-sal 'right' to abortion.
"Obviously, the 'major fam-ily planning summit' in Lon-don which Mr Carr will at-tend, is a pathetic attempt to carry out the Rio + 20 agenda by a circuitous route, via friendly diplomats and gov-ernments, mainly in the West-ern world," he said.

Labels: contraception

4.2 "The British government is pledging to double its efforts on family planning, raising its spending from £90 million ($137 million) a year to £180 million."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/faith-in-contraception-puts-gates-on-collision-course-with-the-vatican-20120712-21yx7.html?skin=text-only

Labels: contraception

5. "The 2011 annual surveillance report into HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia, compiled by The Kirby Institute at the University of NSW" says that while "HIV transmission primarily occurred through sexual contact between men, about 25 per cent occurred through heterosexual contact."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/hiv-no-longer-means-certain-death-20120714-222rn.html?skin=text-only

Labels: G.L.B.T., H.I.V./A.I.D.S.

6. The text of an interview with Msgr. Di Noia

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/society-of-st-pius-x-di-noia-16482/

(That came to my attention via this AQ post of it.)

Labels: Augustine Di Noia

7. Mr. Copland—"the political editor of ACT queer magazine FUSE" and "the convenor of the ACT Greens"—on "an ongoing problem with the queer movement where people[ such as polyamorists] who don’t fit into the mainstream queer mould are being excluded from the debate, with claims that they are ruining our chances to reach equality"

http://www.starobserver.com.au/opinion/soapbox-opinion/2012/06/14/we-need-to-return-to-our-liberation-roots/79005

(That came to my attention via this Australian article.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., polyamory

8. The Statement, given at Ecône, on July 14, 2012, of the General Chapter of The Society of St. Pius X. to Rome

http://www.dici.org/en/news/society-of-st-pius-x-general-chapter-statement/

The Statement has also been posted on the "Announcements" page of the S.S.P.X.'s District of Australia website.

Labels: S.S.P.X.

9. Dr. Feser on, among other things, how he "came to see that existing naturalistic accounts of language and meaning were no good"

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/road-from-atheism.html

See also this interview with Dr. Feser, which came to my attention via the version published as "New Atheism 'is devoid of moral, intellectual merit'", "A conversation with Dr Edward Feser, university professor, author, philosopher and former atheist", by Damir Govorcin, on pp. 11 f. in the "Connections" section of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4631, July 22, 2012.

Labels: languages

10. "Men work twice as long as women in paid employment; women work twice as long as men in unpaid employment at home."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/statistics-confirm-its-still-a-mans-world-20120727-22zki.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version published as "Statistics confirm it's still a man's world", by Tim Colebatch "with Andrew Stevenson", p. 10, "News" section, The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, July 28-29, 2012, No. 54542, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Presuambly the source for the quotation in that headline is ultimately the "Engagement in work (employment related and unpaid)" page at the website of The Australian Bureau of Statistics (A.B.S.), where it says that

While in 2006 males spent nearly twice as long as females on employment related activities, females on average spent nearly double the time spent by males on primary activities associated with unpaid work.

and proximately the A.B.S.'s media release "Men fare worse than women in education, health and crime", July 27, 2012, which has a link to the "Gender Indicators" page, which in turn has a link to a "Time use" page (in the context of "Work and Family Balance"), where there is a link to the ultimate source.

Labels: work

11. Mr. Creighton on the intentions of the Federal Government's childcare policies:

JUDGED by its intentions, the Australian government's childcare policies are superb.

"Gone are the days when this sector was considered a babysitting service," trumpeted Childcare Minister Kate Ellis this week, as she foreshadowed $22.3 billion of spending on early childhood services over the next four years.

[… ]According to the federal government, that money aims to ensure "nurturing, culturally appropriate, safe and socially inclusive" care for children in "approved childcare services", whose parents in turn enjoy "workforce participation choices".
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/broken-puzzle-of-childcare/story-fn59niix-1226431226541]

(That article came to my attention via its publication under the same headline ("Broken puzzle of childcare"), by the same author (Adam Creighton), on p. 15 in the "Inquirer" section of The Weekend Australian, Second Edition, No. 14866, ISSN 1038-8761, July 21-22, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: childcare

12. Mr. Unwin on historical Masonic influence in Manitoba, Canada:

I spend my final evening creeping through the corridors of the Manitoba Legislative Building. Built between 1913 and 1920 by British architect Frank Worthington Simon, this grand edifice is the ultimate monument to Winnipeg's good times. My guide is local author Frank Albo, whose bestselling Hermetic Code unlocks a world of occult mystery smuggled into the architecture.

"Everything is hidden in plain view," he tells our wide-eyed tour group as he reveals Masonic codes, hieroglyphic inscriptions and an intriguing hotchpotch of Christian and pagan symbolism.

Manitoba's legislators (all Freemasons, it turns out) believed they were reconstructing nothing less than Solomon's Temple amid the prairies. It's gripping stuff. But what really catches my eye are the two magnificent stone bison either side of the great marble steps to the upper chamber - a Manitoban take on the totemic wild boars of classical temples.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/holiday-at-the-heart/story-e6frg8rf-1226430230929]

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the same headline ("Holiday at the heart"), by the same author (Mike Unwin), on p. 8 of the "Travel & Indulgence" supplement of The Weekend Australian, Second Edition, No. 14866, ISSN 1038-8761, July 21-22, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: Freemasons

13. "A study published in medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine found mums and dads were 52 per cent less likely to catch a cold compared to those couples without children", "[a]nd the bigger the family, the better mum and dad's odds of staying healthy, research by Carnegie Mellon University found."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/parents-less-likely-to-catch-their-childs-cold/story-e6freuy9-1226422949125

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the same headline ("Parents less likely to catch their child's cold"), by the same authors (Lisa Power and Samantha Malagre), on p. 07 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Vol. 1, No. 2589, ISSN 1038-8745, Wednesday, July 11, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: families, health

14. "Secret minutes of a meeting on June 30 also revealed that the leadership of the Australian Young Greens party wanted to push for a public debate on polyamorous marriage, which allows people to have several wives or husbands."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/greens-caught-recruiting-youth-on-refugee-issue/story-fnejm6bt-1226423536728

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the headline "Greens use refugees as lure", by the same author (Simon Benson), on p. 11 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Vol. 1, No. 2589, ISSN 1038-8745, Wednesday, July 11, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: Greens, polyamory

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor, A.D. 2012

Notes: Thursday, September 15-Monday, September 26, 2011

1. Some figures on abortion in South Australia

According to the latest figures released by the South Australian government, abortion rates dipped slightly in 2009.

The number of abortions fell to 15.3 per 100,000 women of childbearing age from 16 a year earlier.

The highest abortion rates were among women aged 20 to 24 (30 per cent) followed by those aged 25-29 (22 per cent) and under 19s (18 per cent).
[http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abortions-unlikely-to-rise-due-to-ru486-20110922-1kmuz.html?skin=text-only]

Labels: abortion, S.A.

2. In 2010, "a joint commission was set up, with experts of the commission “Ecclesia Dei” and of the congregation for divine worship, for the “updating” of the commemorations of the saints and the “possible insertion of new prefaces” into the preconciliar Roman missal of 1962", according to The activity of the Holy See for 2010, printed by Libreria Editrice Vaticana

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/09/revising-and-updating-the-1962-missale-romanum/

Labels: liturgy, Roman Curia, T.L.M.

3. "Despite reports, Ireland not backing down on forcing priests to break seal of confession"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38947

Labels: Ireland

4. On the latest development in Vatican-S.S.P.X. relations

"COMMUNIQUE CONCERNING THE SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X"
OP/ VIS 20110914 (450)

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/09/sspx-bp-fellay-interviewed-after-cdf-meeting-today/

Also, AQ has had several threads on the matter.

Labels: Roman Curia, S.S.P.X., T.L.M., theology, Vatican II

5. "ADL Urges Vatican To Ensure Anti-Jewish Sect Accepts Teachings Of Vatican II Before They Are Welcomed Back"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38957

Keep in mind the relationship between the A.D.L. and B'nai B'rith, and the relationship between B'nai B'rith and the Vatican (see here and item 3.2 here); there might also be a direct relationship between the A.D.L. and the Vatican.

Labels: A.D.L., B'nai B'rith, Freemasons, Jews, S.S.P.X., Vatican II

6. H.H. The Pope on religion as a basis for social coexistence

From a recent edition of the Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin:

POPE HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY [...]

... "We are witnessing a growing indifference to religion in society, which considers the issue of truth as something of an obstacle in its decision-making, and instead gives priority to utilitarian considerations.

"All the same", he added, "a binding basis for our coexistence is needed; otherwise people live in a purely individualistic way. Religion is one of these foundations for a successful social life. 'Just as religion has need of freedom, so also freedom has need of religion'. These words of the great bishop and social reformer Wilhelm von Ketteler, the second centenary of whose birth is being celebrated this year, remain timely.
[...] PV-GERMANY/ VIS 20110922 (630)

I agree with the comment by Mr. Keener in the combox at Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog post on that Papal address.

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Confessional State

7. An interesting "CathBlog" and combox comments on metaphysics (or, perhaps more precisely, Natural, and Dogmatic, Theology)

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=28012

Labels: philosophy, theology

8. The latest, and presumably most controversial, installment in Catholica's serialisation of Fr. Dresser's God is Big. Real Big!

http://www.catholica.com.au/gc0/pd/008_pd_240911.php

That's the chapter in which one reads, among other things, that "[n]o human being can ever be God. And Jesus was a human being. It is as simple as that!"

Labels: Peter Dresser, theology

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, August 17-Tuesday, August 23, 2011

1. "53 per cent of Australian Christians support same-sex marriage"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/a-year-older-but-no-wiser-as-mps-sign-on-again-20110816-1iwao.html?skin=text-only

http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/wp/a-majority-of-christians-support-marriage-equality/

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/08/18/rebellion-deception-and-the-hallmarks-of-our-condition/

Labels: G.L.B.T., marriage

2. "A man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple will have his name stripped from their child's birth certificate after a successful legal bid by the birth mother's ex-partner"

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fathers-name-stripped-from-birth-certificate-20110817-1ix2m.html?skin=text-only

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sperm-donors-who-helped-lesbian-couple-has-name-stripped-from-birth-certificate/story-e6frg6nf-1226116649813

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/08/17/on-learning-how-to-think-perhaps-for-the-very-first-time/

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/jacobs-lesson-act-now-to-fix-our-hospitals-20110818-1j0b9.html?skin=text-only
(under the heading "Birth certificates must include biological detail")

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/socialise-dogs-thats-the-key-to-living-together-20110819-1j2n9.html?skin=text-only
(under the heading "Birth certificates")

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-best-interests-of-no-one-at-all-20110818-1j00s.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/birth-certificates-fail-to-tell-us-the-whole-story-20110818-1izjr.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-birth-certificate-is-a-factual-document-not-a-rewrite-of-history-20110818-1izq4.html?skin=text-only

Labels: birth certificates, G.L.B.T.

3. "Why the Gender [pay] Gap Won’t Go Away. Ever."

http://city-journal.org/2011/21_3_gender-gap.html

Labels: economics, gender differences, work

4. "in 2004 the Howard government amended the 1961 Marriage Act to ensure legally married same-sex couples overseas would not receive legal recognition here in Australia"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gays-denied-human-rights/story-e6frg6zo-1226118404188

Labels: G.L.B.T., law, marriage

5. "General Superior of the SSPX Called to Rome"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38614

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38619
(note: In the third-last paragraph (counting "Kyrie eleison" as a paragraph) of Msgr. Williamson's column, the words "on the SSPX's own" were underlined in the e-mailed version (or at least, they were in the one which I received) but have not been in the version to which I link above this parenthesis.)

Labels: Roman Curia, S.S.P.X.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Philip Benizi, Confessor, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, May 17-Monday, May 23, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

4. Text of the C.D.F. response to Msgr. Lefebvre's Dubia about religious liberty/Dignitatis humanæ?

In a recent Sandro Magister article posted at AQ, there was a reference to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's (C.D.F.'s) response to the Dubia which Msgr. Lefebvre submitted to it about Dignitatis humanæ. In that article, the response's title is given as "Liberté religieuse. Réponse aux 'dubia' présentés par S.E. Mgr. Lefebvre" (March 9, 1987). I Googled this, and the search led me to the footnotes of this blog post (in Italian), some of which refer to something called "La Crise intégriste". This in turn led me to the French blog "La crise intégriste", which purports, apparently, to have the text of the C.D.F. response. I face three problems, the last two of which follow from the first:

4.1 The document is in French, and I can't speak French (and the document is not so formatted that I can simply run it through a translator).

4.2 I don't know whether the document is authentic.

4.3 Even if it's authentic, I don't know whether it has been published ethically.

Could any French speakers help me out here?

Labels: Dignitatis Humanæ, Marcel Lefebvre, morality, religious liberty, Roman Curia

5. The S.S.P.X.'s The Problem of the Liturgical Reform is available, for free, on-line

I knew that it was available on-line somewhere, and this comment at Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog gives its U.R.L. One can also find it via one of the items in the "Articles Index" at the website of the U.S. District of the S.S.P.X.

Labels: liturgy, modernism, N.O.M., S.S.P.X., T.L.M., theology, Vatican II

6. Here we go again: In South Australia, "wide-ranging reforms aimed at providing greater legal protection for children of same-sex parents [were] recommended to Parliament [last week]"

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Kids-with-two-mums-are-Weet-Bix-kids-too/

Labels: families, G.L.B.T., parenthood, S.A.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
23.V.2011

Msgr. Fellay announces new Rosary Crusade

"[F]or the intention that the Church may be delivered from the evils that oppress her or threaten her in the near future, that Russia may be consecrated and that the Triumph of the Immaculata may come soon."

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36920

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36919

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in Holy Week, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, April 12-Monday, April 18, 2011

1. Latest American figures on sexual abuse by Catholic priests

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1302558767.html

http://www.catholicleague.org/nytstraighttalk.php

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36834

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=25812

Labels: sexual abuse

2. Dr. Gates on the G.L.B.T. proportion of the population

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/gay-equality-doesnt-add-up-until-we-do-the-numbers-20110412-1dcit.html?skin=text-only

Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.

3. Cardinal Pell with some facts about events in the post-Conciliar era

Pope Paul VI appointed no bishops who were opposed to the ethos of Vatican II, ...

[...] Incidentally it is a matter of historical record that at the 1971 Synod of Bishops, Pope Paul offered to the bishops the option of ordaining married men to the priesthood and the bishops declined to accept this.

[...] In Pope John Paul’s 27 years of pontificate 24 individuals were disciplined for their theological views, including eight who were silenced or removed, in the worldwide Catholic community of more than one billion believers.
[http://theswag.org.au/2011/04/some-gaudium-and-no-spes/]

His Eminence also asserts in that letter that "the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X ... are still in schism", which is not only false, even from Rome's perspective, but illogical for him given that in the same section of the letter he says that their putative excommunications were lifted.

Labels: celibacy, George Pell, John Paul II. Wojtyla, Paul VI. Montini, S.S.P.X., Vatican II

4. "Ethnic federation calls on PM to bolster multicultural policy"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/ethnic-federation-calls-on-pm-to-bolster-multicultural-policy/story-fn59niix-1226039379342

Labels: multiculturalism

5. Discussion thread on the pre-1955 Holy Week liturgical schedule

Mainly of interest to me for the references to the present and past practice of the S.S.P.X. in that connection:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36891

Labels: liturgy, S.S.P.X., T.L.M.

6. Figures on the use of contraception by American Catholics

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36893

Labels: contraception

7. Two items regarding John Paul II.

7.1 Review of a biography of John Paul II.

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36884

Labels: John Paul II. Wojtyla

7.2 List of quotations from John Paul II. regarding Islam

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=404020#404020

Labels: Islam, John Paul II. Wojtyla

8. Note regarding possible new admissions to the Order of the Garter

This Saturday, April 23 (which is usually St. George's Day), is Holy Saturday. Apparently,

This year 2011, St Georges Day will be officially celebrated on May 2nd. This is because Easter falls late this year and April 23rd is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Under the rules of the Church of England, if St Georges Day falls within a week of Easter then Easter has precedence and St Georges Day is moved to after Easter. This will the first Monday in May, May Day Bank Holiday, ...
[http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/StGeorge.htm]

Now there are currently three vacancies in the Order of the Garter (judging by the list at H.M. The Queen's website, one would think that there were only two, but that list has not been updated to take into account the death of His late Grace The Duke of Grafton). If Her Majesty intends to fill some or all of those vacancies this year, I wonder whether the announcement will be made on Holy Saturday, or on May 2? Delaying any announcement till the latter date would be convenient in that The Queen could also announce Miss Middleton's admission to the Order as one of its Royal Ladies.

Labels: Order of the Garter

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Monday in Holy Week, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, March 8-Tuesday, March 15, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

6. "MEDIUM and large businesses will be spot checked, forced to report on the number of women employed and face fines for non-compliance"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/firms-to-report-on-gender-ratios/story-e6frg6nf-1226018663645

Labels: feminism, work

7. Cardinal Burke supports 'separation of Church and State'?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/against-the-high-tide-of-secularism/story-e6frg6zo-1226019646515

The Weekend Australian reported the following about His Eminence:

European nations that fail to reverse the population collapse, he says, are at risk of becoming Islamic states in the long term, losing the benefits that flow from the separation of church and state in democracies with Christian roots.

He regards that separation as vital, but wants religious leaders to play a vigorous role in the national conversation, as Thomas More, one of his heroes, did in Tudor England.

But I cannot find the full transcript of the speech in which His Eminence reportedly said those things. Does anyone know where to find it?

Labels: Church and State, Raymond Burke

8. A good comment on the 'methodology' of (at least some) detractors of the S.S.P.X.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/03/sensible-examination-of-sspxrome-talks/#comment-259501

Labels: Magisterium, S.S.P.X.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
15.III.2011

Notes: Tuesday, February 22-Wednesday, February 23, 2011

1. "54 Answers from Bishop Fellay"

http://sspx.org/superior_generals_ltrs/54_answers_from_bishop_fellay_feb_2011/54_answers_bp_fellay1.htm

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36104
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36131

In one of the interview web-pages, there is a hyperlink to an English translation of the Twenty-Four Thomistic Theses, which theses the Sacred Congregation of Studies approved in the early twentieth century:

http://sspx.org/miscellaneous/24_thomistic_theses.htm

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Bernard Fellay, philosophy, S.S.P.X., St. Thomas Aquinas, theology, Traditional Latin Mass, Vatican II

2. R.I.P. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the former abortionist and National Abortion Rights Action League co-founder who became pro-life and, later, Catholic

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36142
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36147

Labels: abortion, Bernard Nathanson

3. Interesting AQ thread on the motive for the Incarnation

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36137

Labels: theology

4. Excerpt from a blog comment on the relationship between abortion and contraception:

... A recent study of around 2000 women found that 1 in 2 had an unplanned pregnancy and 60% of those were using contraception at the time. More than half of women who have abortions report they were using contraception at the time. Also if you multiply 99% by the number of women on the pill you will come out with a number of failures that is completely unacceptable if you intend to kill ‘failures’.

http://www.mariestopes.org.au/research/australia/australia-real-choices-key-findings
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/21/pro-aborts-say-the-dumbest-things/#comments]

Labels: abortion, contraception

5. What's this all about?

I don't remember seeing anything like this in, if I recall correctly, almost four years of reading the Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin:

HOLY FATHER TO CANONISE THREE BLESSEDS ON 23 OCTOBER

VATICAN CITY, 21 FEB 2011 (VIS) - In the Consistory Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace at midday today, the Holy Father presided at an ordinary public consistory for the canonisation of the following blesseds:

[...] A number of cardinals then expressed to the Pope their desire to pass from the order of deacons to the order of priests:

- At the request of Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, the diaconate of the Holy Guardian Angels at Citta Giardino has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

- At the request of Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, the diaconate of St. Eustace has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

- At the request of Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the diaconate of St. Nicholas in Carcere has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

- At the request of Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, the diaconate of St. Jerome of Charity has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

- At the request of Cardinal Walter Kasper, the diaconate of All Saints on the New Appian Way has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

- At the request of Cardinal Roberto Tucci S.J., the diaconate of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campo Marzio has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal. [...]
OCL/ VIS 20110221 (390)

And the question in the title of this Notes item is not rhetorical.

Labels: College of Cardinals

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 2011

Notes: Thursday, December 23, 2010

1. "Bishop Williamson appoints new lawyer"

http://www.sspx.org/bishop_williamson_lawyer_update.htm
(brought to my attention by this AQ thread)

2. A new website against 'Communion in the hand'

http://www.communion-in-the-hand.org/index.html
(brought to my attention by this AQ thread)

3. An interesting AQ comment by "Amemus Athanasium"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=391844#391844

Interesting chiefly for mention of how

dissident patriarch Bartholomew I, while being a schismatic, received his theological doctorate and primary formation in the (Uniate) Russian College 'Russicum' in Rome. It is now a sadly ecumenist and dogmatically relativist institute, but it was once a great theological institute of the united Russian Byzantine Rite Catholic Church (or 'Russian Orthodox Church in communion with Rome').

4. Mr. Donohue with the names of those who have "theorized ["pedophilia"] as something fully in conformity with man and even with children"

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1293010728.html

Reginaldvs Cantvar
23.XII.2010

Notes: Friday, December 17, 2010

1. Vatican Information Service (V.I.S.) daily e-mail bulletin item on a press conference for H.H. The Pope's Message for the 2011 World Day of Peace

Full text, including hyperlink in the last sentence:

WORLD DAY OF PEACE: "RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. THE PATH TO PEACE"

VATICAN CITY, 16 DEC 2010 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office at midday today, a press conference was held to present the Pope's Message for the forty-fourth World Day of Peace. The Day falls on 1 January 2011 and has as its theme: "Religious Freedom. The Path to Peace".

Participating in today's press conference were Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Bishop Mario Toso, S.D.B., Msgr. Anthony Frontiero and Tommaso De Ruzza, respectively president, secretary and officials of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Cardinal Turkson, speaking English, explained how this year's Message is made up of "an introductory reference to the attack on Christians in Iraq, the main body of the text which presents the meaning of religious freedom and the various ways in which it fashions peace and experiences of peace, and a concluding reflection on peace as a gift of God and as the work of men and women of goodwill, especially of believers.

"Religious freedom", he added, "is the theme of the Pope's Message for the World Day of Peace not only because that subject matter is central to Catholic social doctrine, but also because the experience of religious freedom - a basic vocation of man and a fundamental, inalienable and universal human right, and key to peace - has come under great stress and threat: From raging secularism, which is intolerant of God and of any form of expression of religion. From religious fundamentalism, the politicisation of religion and the establishment of State religions. From the growing cultural and religious pluralism that is becoming ever more present and pressing in our day".

"The Holy Father", the cardinal said, "sees the safeguarding of religious freedom in our multi-cultural, multi-religious and secularised world as one of the ways to safeguard peace".

"One of the important tasks that our world set for itself following World War II was the formulation, adoption and promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights", said the president of the pontifical council. Benedict XVI, he said, "is also worried about the increasing instances of the denial of the universality of these rights in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks".

"Religious freedom is not a right granted by a State", it "is derived, ... from natural law and from the dignity of the person, which are rooted in creation. Rather, the State and other public institutions, ... need to recognise it as intrinsic to the human person, as indispensable for integrity and peace".

Cardinal Turkson went on: "Religious freedom is a duty of public authority" but "it is not an unlimited right. ... Religious freedom refers primarily to man's freedom to express his being 'capax Dei': his freedom to respond to the truth of his nature as created by God and created for life with God without coercion or impediments. It is in this that man finds his peace, and from there becomes an instrument of peace".

"Religious freedom does not imply that all religions are equal. Nor is it a reason for religious relativism or indifferentism. Religious freedom is compatible with defence of one's religious identity against relativism, syncretism and fundamentalism, which are all abused forms of religious freedom".

After then highlighting how "religious freedom is not limited to the free exercise of worship", the cardinal pointed out that "there is a public dimension to it, which grants believers the chance of making their contribution to building the social order".

"Denying the right to profess one's religion in public and the right to bring the truth of faith to bear upon public life has negative consequences for true development", he said.

"The exercise of the right of religious freedom as a way to peace thus implies the recognition of the harmony that must exist between the two areas and forms of life: private and public, individual and community, person and society. ... Accordingly, the development and the exercise of one's religious freedom, is also the task of one's community".

Referring then to the relationship between religious freedom and the State, Cardinal Turkson affirmed that, "although religious freedom is not established by the State, it (the State) nevertheless needs to recognise it as intrinsic to the human person and his public and communitarian expressions. Recognition of religious freedom and respect for the innate dignity of every person also imply the principle of the responsibility to protect on the part of the community, society and the State".

"The Church's appeals for religious freedom are not based on a claim of reciprocity, whereby one group respects the rights of others only if the latter respect their rights. Rather, appeals for religious freedom are based on the dignity of persons. We respect the rights of others because it is the right thing to do, not in exchange for its equivalent or for a favour granted. At the same time, when others suffer persecution because of their faith and religious practice, we offer them compassion and solidarity".

Cardinal Turkson concluded his observations by noting that "all proclamation of the Gospel ... is an effort to awaken the (religious) freedom of man to desire and to embrace the truth of the Gospel. This truth of the Gospel, however, is unique, because it is truth that saves. ... Evangelisation and the carrying out of the missionary charge, then, do not contradict and oppose the sense of religious freedom".

For his part, Bishop Toso affirmed that Benedict XVI's Message "invites us particularly to examine the truth of the right to religious freedom; in other words, its anthropological, ethical, juridical, political, civil and religious implications. ... Over and above mere tolerance, religious freedom is the marrow bone of all morality and freedom, of reciprocal respect, of peace".

"The Message reserves the same criticism for fanaticism, fundamentalism and laicism, because they all overlook the essence of religious freedom, which is the free and common search for transcendent truth".

"For the Church", the bishop concluded, "dialogue between followers of different religions is an important stimulus to collaborate with all religious communities for the promotion of peace. In this way - in a globalised world characterised by increasingly multi-ethnic and multi-confessional societies - the great religions can represent not a problem but a resource, an important factor of unity and harmony".

To read the text of the Holy Father's Message click here.
AC/ VIS 20101216 (1070)

2. "Irish abortion ban violates womens' rights: European Court of Human Rights"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/irish-abortion-ban-violates-womens-rights-european-court-of-human-rights/story-fn3dxity-1225972470404
http://www.smh.com.au/world/europe-rules-against-irish-abortion-law-20101217-18zsw.html?skin=text-only

3. Mr. Ackland on child sexual assault and child pornography in Australia

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/getting-away-with-child-abuse-20101216-18zik.html?skin=text-only

4. "JOIN THE SSPX.ORG UPDATES LIST"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35145

5. Mr. Haddad on the consequences of the recent changes to the CathNews comments policy

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24542
(first comment there)

6. "Terra" on the A.C.B.C.'s preoccupation with refugees

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2010/12/bishops-are-very-worried-about.html

7. Mr. Muehlenberg on what a family is

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2004/11/20/so-what-is-a-family/
(brought to my attention by one of Mr. Muehlenberg's comments here)

8. Mr. Skinner with a possible reason why most heterosexuals don't kick up a stink about the advance of 'gay rights'

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/12/14/defending-marriage-now-means-being-%e2%80%98hateful%e2%80%99/
(comment of 16.12.10 / 8pm)

Reginaldvs Cantvar

17.XII.2010

Notes: Saturday-Monday, October 16-25, 2010 (part 1 of 2)

1. Some recent media items on abortion

1.1 "Abortion legalised [in Queensland] by pair's acquittal"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/abortion-legalised-by-pairs-acquittal/story-e6frg97x-1225939895811

1.2 "Anti-abortion while remaining firmly pro-choice"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/anti-abortion-while-remaining-firmly-pro-choice/story-e6frg6zo-1225939077008

1.3 A little snapshot from Australia's abortion culture

From time to time one hears reported that some certain huge proportion of women will have an abortion at some point in their respective lives or that some similarly huge proportion of pregnancies will end in abortion, but such figures, appalling yet abstract and impersonal as they are, perhaps don't sink in in such a way as for us to understand the culture of abortion which they involve (and perpetuate). The following paragraph in a recent news/opinion article helps to 'personalise' one's understanding of Australia's squalid but widespread abortion culture:

[Tegan Leach] turned to boyfriend Sergie Brennan, now 23. They agreed to abort. Together they told their parents. Both had sisters who’d been through a suction curette and told them, if a little bluntly, “it gets sucked out and scraped out’’.
[http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/this-abortion-trial-should-never-be-repeated/]

1.4 Mr. Schütz contra Ms O'Brien on abortion

A mostly good fisking of some pro-abortion nonsense published in the Melbourne Herald Sun:

http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/truth-is-dispensible-if-it-makes-you-feel-guilty/

1.5 Dr. Durie (Anglican minister) on late-term abortions in Victoria

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34355

2. Msgr. Fellay on, among other things, Vatican policy on the S.S.P.X as a policy of "contradictions"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34323http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34323

See also

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34360

3. Interesting series of items in the Herald regarding Catholic womenpriests

The first was a letter published, with other letters, under the heading "Lapses - and laps - of Catholic faith":

I think many Catholics saw the irony of the Mary MacKillop celebrations in a church in which women are still excluded from full participation. As I said at Mass last Sunday: "Today we celebrate a woman's canonisation; hopefully it won't be too long before we celebrate a woman's ordination."

Father John CrothersSt Declan's Church, Penshurst
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/settlement-of-djs-case-doesnt-ease-the-tension-20101019-16sfb.html?skin=text-only]

Then came a response published, with other letters, under the heading "Where science meets miracles" the next day:

Father John Crothers (Letters, October 20) will rejoice if women are ordained priests. Frankly I will celebrate when, as a Catholic priest ought, he upholds definitive Catholic teaching on non-ordination of women, instead of encouraging dissent and scandalous confusion.

Father John George Randwick
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/ten-more-years-floundering-in-afghanistan-20101020-16u65.html?skin=text-only]

The day after that came two (or three) more letters, published, with one other, unrelated letter, under the heading "Grassroots Catholics ready for change":

Thank you, Father John George (Letters, October 21), for reminding me how fortunate I am to be a parishioner of St Declan's, Penshurst. Father John Crothers understands we can think for ourselves and, far from encouraging dissent, I expect he reflects the views of most Catholics in the universal church, practising and non-practising. That is why his church is packed every Sunday, many people travelling from other parishes because their own parish priests express views such as those of Father George.

Mary Lawson Mortdale

No good deed goes unpunished, it seems. According to Father John George, Father John Crothers, by advocating the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, is spreading ''dissent and scandalous confusion''. Some said Our Lord spread a bit of dissent in his time, too.

Hugh Sturgess Balmain

Apparently it is not just atheists who find diversity of opinion discomforting. The letters page is full of Christians who seem to find diversity of opinion among other Christians discomforting. Maybe we all need to be a bit more relaxed about what other people believe.

Robin Herbert Hornsby
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/absence-reveals-leaders-contempt-for-debate-20101021-16vwc.html?skin=text-only]

On the same day, the Herald also published an opinion piece, brought to my attention by a post by Terra, by Dr. Laura Beth Bugg:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/catholic-women-need-to-challenge-hierarchy-for-good-of-the-church-20101021-16vxh.html?skin=text-only

Interesting how the Herald has facilitated the debate.

4. New tactic for ethics classes advocates to neutralise opposition

[...] The Australian Christian Lobby called for more consultation with the government following Ms Firth's announcement.

Its NSW director, David Hutt, said nothing in the report allayed fears of church groups that having ethics classes at the same time as scripture classes would mean that scripture students ''will be forced to forgo ethics teaching''.

However, Ms Firth said ethics course material would be made available to scripture teachers.

Simon Longstaff, the executive director of the St James Ethics Centre, which ran the trial, said providing the material would ''help ensure that no child is drawn away from scripture simply to explore material provided in the ethics course''.
[my emphasis,
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/lock-in-ethics-classes-say-greens-20101020-16ud8.html?skin=text-only]

Quite clever, from a P.R. perspective, but it still fails to invalidate the (in my opinion cleverer, again from a P.R. perspective) objection of ethics class opponents that pupils and their respective parents will be forced to choose between S.R.E. and the ethics classes, because the same trade-off between S.R.E. content or ethics class content remains.

5. Latest figures on Australian popular support for so-called gay marriage

MORE than three-quarters of Australians support a conscience vote on same-sex marriage and an increased majority want gay and lesbian couples to be able to marry.

Findings from a new poll of 1050 respondents came as the independent MP Andrew Wilkie called on the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to move on the issue, saying she was ''out of step with the people''.

[...] The Galaxy poll showed support for same-sex marriage increased from 60 per cent of respondents in 2009 to 62 per cent this year.

The survey, which was conducted over two days earlier this month, showed uniform support for a conscience vote across party lines with 80 per cent of Labor and 75 per cent of Liberal voters agreeing to the idea.

While supporting a conscience vote, Liberal voters were much less likely to agree to allow same-sex couples to marry, with less than half supporting the change. Nearly three-quarters of Labor voters and four out of five Greens voters support same-sex marriage.

The survey also shows that younger Australians are more likely (80 per cent) to support same-sex marriage than those aged over 50 years (46 per cent). [...]
[http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/pm-should-let-the-people-vote-on-gay-marriage-20101022-16xx8.html?from=watoday_ft?skin=text-only]

6. Impending naming-and-shaming of insufficiently pro-G.L.B.T. businesses by a new initiative of the Sodomites' League

One can't even read the careers section of a newspaper these days without finding gay propaganda. An article on page three in the public sector section of The Weekend Australian's "Weekend Professional" supplement last Saturday entitled "'Homophobia keeps employees in closet'" (apparently not available on-line) brought an interesting new initiative to the attention of readers:

The Pride in Diversity program was created by community-based LGBT health and HIV/AIDS group ACON , in partnership with Diversity Council Australia and Stonewall, a London-based LGBT advocacy group. Since being launched in February, a broad range of employers have signed up as foundation members, including the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Defence, Telstra, KPMG and IBM.

So KPMG goes LGBT. A double serving of alphabet soup.

[...] Pride in Diversity will launch the first workplace equality index in November, whereby employers will be able to measure how inclusive their workplace is of LGBT staff.

Something to look forward to.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria, Martyrs, A.D. 2010

Notes: Saturday-Tuesday, September 18-21, 2010

"Bishop Fellay Sends Bouquet of Rosaries to His Holiness for the Consecration of Russia on June 24th 2010 Feast of Saint John the Baptist"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33771

Mr. Carlton on a bygone era

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/godbothers-go-to-war-with-ofarrell-caught-in-the-middle-20100917-15g4f.html?skin=text-only
(the second of the three items at the web-page to which that link leads)

Prof. Bagaric on euthanasia

Interesting to see Prof. Bagaric's reasons for his opposition to its legalisation here, given that he thinks that "from the perspective of the parties directly involved in euthanasia (the patient and health worker), the practice is not inherently objectionable":

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/dont-encourage-the-grim-reaper/story-e6frg6zo-1225926991462

(Interesting to see that The Sydney Morning Herald is opposed too, though the three letters on the matter which it has published today are all supportive. Check those letters out if you want to refresh your memory of the standard arguments for it so that you can be ready to refute both their logic and their rhetoric.)

Interesting books reviewed in the weekend papers

Just one this week (and a brief review at that):

"Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity
"Andrew Robinson, ed.
"Palazzo, 256pp, $29.99"
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/the-good-oil-on-energy/story-e6frg8nf-1225922358888

Two interesting speeches by politicians

Mentioned by Mr. Phillip Adams in his column in last Saturday's edition of The Weekend Australian Magazine (apparently not available on-line, so my transcript of the excerpt follows):

I remember Billy McMahon delivering the speech of his life, supporting a woman's right to choose abortion. Ditto Edward Heath in the Commons denouncing capital punishment.
["Spare the whip", The Weekend Australian Magazine, September 18-19 2010, p. 3]

I would be interested to read the text of those speeches.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist, A.D. 2010

Notes: Wednesday-Thursday, September 15-16, 2010

Herald article on increasing enrolments in religious schools

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/islamic-and-christian-schools-on-the-rise-despite-decline-in-religion-20100915-15crv.html?skin=text-only

Particularly interesting excerpt:

Graduates of independent schools were more likely to hold socially liberal views on gay marriage, abortion, IVF and foreign aid than graduates of public or Catholic schools. Non-government school graduates were more likely to be tolerant of free speech by religious extremists, while government school graduates were more likely to be in favour of reducing immigration.

Graduates of independent schools were more likely to have participated in a demonstration, attended a political rally, and donated money or raised funds for a social or political activity than graduates of government or Catholic schools. Graduates of independent schools were also more likely to be members of environmental groups and aid organisations.

Madness: Moves to end the banning of practising male homosexuals and practising male bisexuals from donating blood

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/gay-blood-donor-ban-harks-back-to-days-of-myth-20100914-15a8y.html?skin=text-only

That brings to mind an opinion piece by Mr. Piers Akerman some years ago, unfortunately apparently not available on-line, on why they were banned in the first place; the success of 'gay rights' activists in initially keeping sodomites eligible to give blood back in, if I'm not mistaken, the early '80s on the grounds of 'equal rights' had disastrous consequences.

Msgr. Williamson on doctrine and the possible regularisation of the S.S.P.X.

Copied and pasted from the e-mail:

ELEISON COMMENTS CLXV (Sept.11, 2010) : DOCTRINE -- WHY ?

Why is doctrine in general so important to Catholics ? And why in particular does the Society of St. Pius X, following Archbishop Lefebvre and now Bishop Fellay, insist that agreement on doctrine must precede any other kind of agreement with Conciliar Rome ? Why can the SSPX not accept to be regularized by Rome now, and leave the doctrinal differences to be worked out later ? Here are two connected but different questions. Let us start with the general question.

The word "doctrine" comes from the Latin doceo, docere, meaning, to teach. Doctrine is a teaching. In our liberal world where everybody wants to think and talk just as he likes, the word "indoctrination" has become a dirty word. Yet to put an end to indoctrination, one would have to close down all schools, because wherever a school is open, indoctrination is going on. Even if a teacher is teaching that all doctrine is nonsense, that is still a doctrine !

However, everyone in fact agrees on the need for doctrine. For instance, who ever would climb into an aeroplane about which he was told beforehand that its designer had defied the classic doctrine of aerodynamics, and turned the wings upside down ? Nobody ! Aerodynamic doctrine which is true, for instance, that wings must taper downwards at the back and not upwards, is not just words being spoken or written out of the blue, it is life and death reality. If a plane is to fly and not to crash, true aerodynamic doctrine, in fine detail, is essential to its design.

Similarly if a soul is to fly to Heaven and not crash into Hell, Catholic doctrine, teaching it what to believe and how to act, is essential. "God exists", "All human beings have an immortal soul", "Heaven and Hell are eternal", "I must be baptized to be saved", are not just words being imposed on souls to believe, they are life and death realities, but of eternal life and eternal death. St. Paul tells Timothy to teach these truths of salvation in or out of season (II Tim. IV, 2), and for himself he says, "Woe to me if I do not teach the Gospel" (I Cor. IX, 16). Woe to the Catholic priest who does not indoctrinate souls with the Church's infallible doctrine !

But the question remains: surely the SSPX, to obtain from Rome that precious regularization which Rome alone has the authority to grant, could come to a practical agreement by which no Catholic doctrine would be denied, but by which the doctrinal differences between Rome and the SSPX would merely be bracketed out for the moment ? Surely there need be here no betrayal of those great truths of salvation mentioned above ? Bishop Fellay himself answered that question briefly in an interview which he gave to Brian Mershon in May of this year, published in the "Remnant". Here are his words: "It is very clear that whatever practical solution would happen without a sound doctrinal foundation would lead directly to disaster... We have all these examples in front of us - the Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King and all of the others are totally blocked on the level of doctrine because they first accepted the practical agreement." But need that be so ? Interesting question...

Kyrie eleison.

"Russian Orthodox official blasts liberal developments in Anglicanism" (and does so in the very presence of the pretender Archbishop of Canterbury)

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33685

See also

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/09/orthodox-bishop-to-anglicans-you-are-doomed-if-you-dont-stop/

Particularly interesting was that Russian official's talk of "the possibility of establishing an Orthodox-Catholic alliance in Europe for defending the traditional values of Christianity". When the Consecration of Russia is done there will be something much better than a mere strategic alliance between us and them.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Cornelius, Pope, Martyr, and St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyr, and of St. Euphemia and Companions, Martyrs, A.D. 2010

Notes: Saturday-Tuesday, August 21-24, 2010

Msgr. Williamson on the Vatican-S.S.P.X. doctrinal discussions

An important piece from His Lordship, which I quote in full here (copied and pasted from the e-mail):

ELEISON COMMENTS CLXII (Aug.21, 2010) : DISCUSSIONS BLIND-SIDED ?

While the Rome-Society of St Pius X discussions are, by accounts from both sides, running into a doctrinal brick wall, reports from France and Germany together with a rumour from Rome spell danger for Catholics. That danger is a political deal which would simply go round the side of the doctrinal blockage. Politics threaten to circumvent doctrine.

From France and Germany, I was told me a few weeks ago that a large proportion of Catholics attending SSPX Mass centres are only hoping and waiting for some agreement to come out of the discussions. If - repeat, if -- this is true, it is very serious. Such Catholics may get full marks for wishing not to be cut off from what appears to be Rome, but they get low marks for not grasping that as long as the discussions remain doctrinal, there is no way in which the neo-modernist teaching of Vatican II can be reconciled with the Catholic doctrine of the true Church. Such Catholics may venerate and love Archbishop Lefebvre as they see him, but they have not understood what he was all about. They had best wake up if they are not in one way or another to fall into the arms of the neo-modernist Romans.

Agreement in front of doctrine means politics before religion, unity before truth, man before God. God before man means truth before unity, religion before politics and doctrine being more important than any non-doctrinal agreement. Only dreamers could not foresee the Rome-SSPX discussions running into a doctrinal brick wall. Only politicians can wish for any non-doctrinal agreement to come out of them.

Alas, to all appearances Benedict XVI sincerely believes in the Newchurch of Vatican II which is to unite in its bosom all men absolutely, regardless of whether they believe or not in the one true doctrine of the Faith. Therefore he sincerely wishes to gather in the SSPX as well - and he does not normally have too much longer to live ! So the blockage of doctrinal discussions should not unduly worry him. He must be looking to cut a political deal with the SSPX, in order to unite it with the rest of the Newchurch. It follows that he must ask of the SSPX neither too much, or it would refuse the deal, nor too little, because then the rest of the Newchurch would rise up in protest.

The rumour from Rome is precisely that he is thinking of a "Motu Proprio" which would accept the SSPX "back into the Church" once and for all, yet require from the SSPX no explicit acceptance of Vatican II or the New Mass, but only, for instance, the acceptance of John-Paul II's 1992 "Catechism of the Catholic Church", which is substantially modernist but in a quiet way. Thus the SSPX would not appear to its followers to be accepting the Council or the New Mass, yet it would be softly, softly, beginning to go along with the substance of neo-modernism.

Thus all seekers of unity would be content. Only not believers in Catholic doctrine.

DANGER !

Kyrie eleison.

See also here and here for discussion on these matters.

Democratic Labor Party (D.L.P.) candidate to become Victorian Senator?

I was interested to read the following in Mr. Malcolm Farr's column in yesterday's Sydney Daily Telegraph:

The word extraordinary is not out of place to describe an election which it seems will put a member of the Democratic Labor Party (revived version) into the Senate for the first time in more than 40 years. The emergence of Tony Abbott and the DLP - it seems fitting to many.
[http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/malcolmfarr/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/voters_will_soon_realise_nothing_has_been_resolved/]

Further investigation found a news report of August 22nd referring to the possibility of a D.L.P. win as an "outside chance":

But the DLP remained an outside chance of creating a huge upset.

"If the DLP get knocked out before us the preferences will go to us and we'll win, but if we get knocked out before the DLP our preferences will go to them and they're a very good chance of getting up," the spokesman said.

At the close of counting early on Sunday, Family First had 65,423 votes, or 2.69 per cent of the votes cast, while the DLP had secured 54,490, or 2.24 per cent.

Mr Madigan, a Ballarat blacksmith, would be the first DLP senator since Vince Gair in 1974 if he secures he wins.
[http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/dlp-an-outside-chance-for-senate-20100822-13ako.html]

while a report of the 23rd had the following to say:

But the Victorian [Sen. Steve Fielding] may be replaced by a philosophically like-minded newcomer in John Madigan from the socially and economically conservative Democratic Labor Party.

Mr Madigan, a blacksmith from Ballarat in Victoria, is tipped to take the final Senate seat even though he received only 2.2 per cent of the vote. The Greens will now hold the balance of power in the Senate, with new senators expected to be elected in Victoria, South Australia, NSW and Queensland.

But their ACT candidate, Lyn Hatfield Dodds, fell short of a seat, with ACT voters sticking with traditional voting habits to re-elect Liberal senator Gary Humphries.

The new Senate will not be formed until July but at this early stage, it appears there will be 34 Coalition senators, 31 from Labor, nine Greens, the South Australian independent Nick Xenophon and possibly the DLP senator.
[http://www.news.com.au/features/federal-election/greens-to-be-senate-go-to-party-to-the-power-of-nine/story-e6frfllr-1225908694201]

(Interesting that Mr. Madigan is a blacksmith, after last week's report that there was "not a single tradesperson among ["today's federal parliamentarians"]".) The most recent mainstream media news item I found referring to this possibility (dated the 24th) mentioned the following:

At presstime it looked like [Anthony Thow] had been pipped for a seat by a Ballarat blacksmith representing the Democratic Labor Party, ...
[http://www.investmenttechnology.com.au/i-t-news/another-fund-for-dr-don]

The A.B.C.'s website listed Mr. Madigan as one of the "Elected Candidates" for the Victorian Senate (apparently the only elected candidate not to come from Labor, the Coalition, or The Greens, judging by the "Senate Results - Summary" page and inspection of the results for all the States and Territories).

Dr. Feser and Mr. Muehlenberg on 'legislating morality'

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33298

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/23/on-legislating-morality/

"Growing trend against church weddings"

From the Geelong Advertiser (brought to my attention by CathNews):

A recent survey by Australian Marriage Celebrants found just one in four Australians tying the knot go for a traditional church wedding.
[http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/08/21/203365_news.html]

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle, A.D. 2010

Notes: Friday-Tuesday, July 9-13, 2010

Mrs. Shanahan and Mr. Curtis on the Democratic Labor Party and Communists in the A.L.P.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/opinion/catholics-led-charge-against-communists/story-e6frgd0x-1225889696978
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/the-labor-in-dlp/story-fn558imw-1225890473052

Anglican General Synod rejects proposed safeguards for objectors to ladybishops

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/church-of-england-left-stunned-by-verdict/story-e6frg6so-1225890466306
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32464

American university lecturer fired, apparently for openly agreeing with Catholic/natural-law morality

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32452
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/07/11/coming-soon-to-a-gulag-near-you/

Mr. Magister on recently-published books by Prof. Amerio and Msgr. Gherardini and H.H. The Pope's expected attitude towards them

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32467

Msgr. Williamson on the Vatican-S.S.P.X. doctrinal discussions

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32459

More on G.L.B.T. aged care

http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-people-agedcare-operators-overlook-20100711-105pw.html?skin=text-only

I'm still trying to work out what all these 'gay-specific ageing issues' are which require this extra funding and attention. I checked out the provided U.R.L. for the GLBTI Retirement Association but I'm still none the wiser.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
13.VII.2010

Mr. Magister, Fr. Zuhlsdorf, and others on the Vatican-S.S.P.X. doctrinal discussions

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31916
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/06/benedict-xvi-pope-of-christian-unity-criticized-for-openness-to-the-sspx/

Some very interesting reading there.

Mr. Magister notes that

In his commentary, [Prof. Eberhard] Schockenhoff correctly writes that the real disagreement between the Church of Rome and the Lefebvrists does not concern the Mass in Latin, but the teaching of Vatican II, especially on ecclesiology and on freedom of conscience and religion.

I'm not sure what Prof. Schockenhoff means by "the Mass in Latin"; if he's referring simply to the language in which the Old or New Masses are celebrated then he's right to say that the "real disagreement" is elsewhere, but the biggest problem is still the Novus Ordo Missæ, even when it is celebrated in as superficially 'Tridentine' a manner as possible. As bad as Dignitatis humanæ is it, it is only a single Act of the Ordinary (but certainly not the universal) Magisterium, whereas every time the New Mass is celebrated we have another Magisterial Act (at least when celebrated by a Bishop) propagating the Modernist, Protestant, humanist and Judaising influences which pervade the N.O.M.

Mr. Magister goes on:

But [Prof. Schockenhoff] also writes that Rome is wrong to whip up restrictive interpretations of the conciliar texts to offer to the Lefebvrists in the hope that these will be accepted by them. Because in Schockenhoff's view, this is exactly what is happening in the closed-door meetings organized by "Ecclesia Dei."

That is interesting. The problem with most of the Second Vatican Council's output is not that it is erroneous, but that it is ambiguous. As such, most of the documents could be rectified by the Pope promulgating 'Preliminary Notes of Explanation' like the one attached to Lumen gentium. But I fear that this would not work for Dignitatis humanæ.

Fr. Zuhlsdorf says in his post that

It seems to me that if a basic foundation of a common interpretation can be formed between the Holy See and the SSPX, then the issue of religious liberty shouldn’t have to be a deal breaker.

Now defenders of the Traditional doctrine on the proper relations between the State and 1. Christ the King, 2. Christ's Church, and 3. offenders of the Catholic religion could certainly share "a basic foundation of a common interpretation" of Dignitatis humanæ. But we can never interpret a document in such a way as to contradict its literal and grammatical sense (except, obviously, where figures of speech are used, but that is not relevant here), and that document teaches quite clearly that the criterion by which the State should judge whether or not to repress offenders of the Catholic religion is not the common good in all its elements, but only the subset of those elements which make up what it calls "public order" (see the last paragraph of its section 7.). And how is it even possible to talk of a 'right not to be restrained' from committing offences against the Catholic religion, regardless of whatever 'due limits' are involved, when the object of a true and proper right can only ever be what is true and good, never that which is opposed to truth and goodness?

As for the extract from the (rightly or wrongly) celebrated 'hermeneutic of continuity' speech by the Holy Father which Mr. Magister appends to his article, see my comment here.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of Corpus Christi, A.D. 2010

Msgr. Tissier on the theology of H.H. The Pope

http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2010/03/bishop-bernard-tissier-de-mallerais.html

The Rt. Rev. Bernard Tissier de Mallerais F.S.S.P.X. has written a treatise, published originally in Le Sel de la terre, no. 69, (Northern) Summer 2009 and now available in English on-line at Mr. Stephen Heiner's True Restoration blog or in a hard copy from True Restoration Press, entitled Faith Imperiled by Reason: Benedict XVI’s Hermeneutics. The following section from Chapter 1 was of particular interest to me and, presumably, will be to readers of this blog, too, and should whet your appetite for what would make fine weekend reading:

When hermeneutics begins to distort history

If only Benedict XVI would allow me to protest this distortion of history! The popes of the 19th century have condemned religious liberty, not only on account of the indifferentism of its promoters, but in itself:

— because it is not a natural right of man: Pius IX said that it is not a ‘proprium cujuscumque hominis jus,’[22] and Leo XIII said that it is not one of the ‘jura quae homini natura dederit.’[23]
— and because it proceeds from ‘an altogether distorted idea of the State,’[24] the idea of a State which would rather not have the duty of protecting the true religion against the expansion of religious error.

These two motives for condemnation are absolutely general; they follow from the truth of Christ and of his Church, from the duty of the State to recognize it, and from its indirect duty to promote the eternal salvation of the citizens, not, indeed, by constraining them to believe in spite of themselves, but by protecting them against the influence of socially professed error, all things taught by Pius IX and Leo XIII.

If today, circumstances having changed, religious plurality demands, in the name of political prudence, civil measures for tolerance even of legal equality between diverse cults, religious liberty as a natural right of the person, in the name of justice, should not be invoked. It remains a condemned error. The doctrine of the faith is immutable, even if its complete application is impeded by the malice of the times. And on the day when circumstances return to normal, to those of Christianity, the same practical application of repression of false cults must be made, as in the time of the Syllabus. Let’s remember that circumstance which change application (consequent circumstances) do not affect the content of doctrine.

We must say the same thing concerning circumstances which prompt the magisterium to intervene (antecedent circumstances). That religious liberty had in 1965 a personalist context, very different from the context of aggressiveness that it had a hundred years earlier in 1864, at the time of the Syllabus, does not change its intrinsic malice. The circumstances of 1864 certainly caused Pius IX to act, but they did not affect the content of the condemnation that he set down for religious liberty. Should a new Luther arise in 2017, even without his attaching as in 1517 his 95 theses to the door of the collegial church of Wittenberg, he would be condemned in the very terms of 500 years before.[25] Let us reject then the equivocation between ‘circumstantial’ decision and prudential, provisional, fallible, reformable, correctible decision in matters of doctrine.

[...]
[22] “A right proper to each man’: Pius IX, encyclical Quanta cura, Dz 1690.
[23] ‘Rights which nature has given to man’: Leo XIII, encyclical Libertas, Dz 1932.
[24] Pius IX, encyclical Quanta cura, Dz 1690.
[25] See: Fr. François Knittel, “Benedict XVI: debate concerning Vatican II,’ in Courrier de Rome, Si si no no, # 290, June 2006, p. 6
[http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2010/03/bishop-bernard-tissier-de-mallerais.html]

The sources (in English) for footnotes 22-24 are available here and here. For discussion on Faith Imperiled by Reason, go hither (though of course you're welcome to discuss it here, too).

Reginaldvs Cantvar
5.III.2010