Petro et Paulo round up

A bit late, but I had to wait until after June 19th ended around the world.

Alleluia verse: Matt. 16:18
Alleluia, alleluia. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church. Alleluia.

Amy Welborn has the Pope's address after the Angelus

Rocco Palmo has a post with pics here and here.

In simple terms for the non-Catholics out there, the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul on June 29 is when the newly installed archbishops around the world gather in Rome to receive the pallium, a symbol of the archbishop's authority and unity with the pope.

From Second Vespers:
This day Simon Peter ascended the gibbet of the cross, alleluia. This day the key-bearer of heaven went on his way to Christ with joy. This day the apostle Paul, the light of the world, bowing his head for the name of Christ, was crowned with martyrdom, alleluia.

The Ordination of Fr. Michael McCaffrey FSSP

It was the ordination of the year in the Archdiocese of Adelaide and I believe the only ordination sceduled for the year. Archbishop Philip Wilson did a good job of the Solemn Mass in what was his first Tridentine Mass ever. There was not, however, any hand kissing or gloves (on the request of His Grace), only just enough room for the prostration (due to the altar not being able to be moved back) and the throne was not to be moved to where it should have been.

It was the Feast of the Birthday of Saint John the Baptist and attendance is estimated to be around 600 with many travelling from interstate.

A number of FSSP priests and seminarians were there from US and were involved in the liturgy (there was two practices that went for over 2hours each!). The ordination itself went for nearly 3 hours.

Fr. McCaffrey celebrated his first Mass the following day in the presence of His Grace. A Solemn High Mass with some of the most beautiful vestments I have seen.

Michael prostrate during the Litany of Saints (click for larger image)

The Gospel (click for a larger image)

These were the only pics I could get my hands on, however I will post a link if anymore photos appear on the WWW. I may write more on the ordination if I find the time and urge to.

Just War - not just war

This is worthwhile readying on Just War Theory. Titled Toward a Proper Understanding of the Just War Tradition.

CIEL 2006

I'm plugging this conference at the request of The New Liturgical Movement. They have asked bloggers to help advertise. It's by the International Centre for Liturgical Studies and the website is with more information is here.

Exams finished yesterday. I hope all went well. Beer never tasted so good!!

Blog for you

Te Deum laudamus is an interesting blog with lots of pics on ad orientem Novus Ordo. There is a very beautiful altar and canopy! But, as I always ask, what not go "all-the-way" and do the Tridentine??

In Communion with Kerry

The American Papist has a post on pro-abortion Catholics and Holy Communion here. Seems that Kerry and Kennedy chose the instalation of Archbishop Wuerl in DC to be present and some fear that it was a kind of statement. American Papist also points out Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles by Joseph Ratzinger.

5. Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

6. When "these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible," and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, "the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it."

Seems straight to me!

Weigel on China

George Weigel writes in the Denver Catholic Register on The China Syndrome.

The recent decision by China’s government-sponsored Patriotic Catholic Association (PCA) to ordain and install bishops whose nominations had not been approved by the Pope has, according to press reports, put the possibility of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Beijing into the deep freeze. Why, though, did anyone think a real thaw was underway in the first place?
More...

Requies in pacem...

At about 3am Australian Central Standard Time the Socceroos were knocked out of the World Cup by the referee. While the Australians probably should have scored in the later part of the 2nd half, surely many can sympathise with a "we was robbed" mentality. The first pic, below, shows the "foul" by Neale in the square and the second the winning penalty. The campaign is over but Australia salutes you Guus!!

Ordination?

From the Curt Jester...
This is a bit different from the ordination I attended on Saturday morning!! I will write a longer post on the ordination of Fr. Michael McCaffrey FSSP when I get some pictures but I can say that it was AWESOME and Archbishop Wilson did a superb job in his first ever Latin Mass. (The visiting priests and seminarians were also very funny!)

Go! Aussie Go!

Australia is through to the round of 16 in the World Cup, Germany 2006!!! Australia needed a draw with Croatia to go through and despite some terrible goal keeping from, Zeljko Kalac, the replacement for Mark Schwarzer and some poor decisions from the English ref managed to equalise in the last 15 mintues.

We now play Italy on Tuesday morning Australian Central Standard Time. Readers must remember that this is only Australia's second appearance in the World Cup Finals and the first Cup that we have scored a goal let alone won a game!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!! Oi. Oi. Oi!

Ad Orientem Anyone?

The New Liturgical Movement has a post today on Ad orientem and Versus Populum: re-thinking our terminology to reflect sacred realities.

Exam update

Two exams down and three to go. Latin went exceptionally well on Monday
morning with only two tricky bits translating from English into Latin but I
saw them and was prepared. Heat Transfer on the other hand nearly killed me.
My grade will not be a High Distinction however it is definitely a Pass.

Now I have Ancient Greek, Mechatronics and Engineering and the Environment to go, but after Heat Transfer, I feel as if I'm on the home stretch.

I will now be able to pay a little attention once again to the promotion of Fr. Joseph Fessio SJ's visit to Melbourne and the Inaugural Archbishop Daniel Mannix Memorial Dinner & Address to be delivered by Archbishop of Perth, Most Rev. Barry Hickey. Click here for more details.

I also have to read up on the liturgy of an ordination for Saturday.

The Force has entered the Seminary

A certain friend of mine from Cassiciacum has always threatened to preach on Star Wars for many years (C: May the Force with you. S:And with Thy Spirit).

I heard a sermon at the Cathedral a month or so a ago where the priest DID preach Star Wars (he preached on Bono the following week).

Now these seminarians have made it!

Dual of the Seminarians

Ordination in Adelaide this weekend

Deacon Michael McCaffrey FSSP will be ordained to the priesthood in Adelaide, South Australia this Saturday at 10am local time.

He will be ordained for the Priesty Fraternity of St. Peter by His Grace Most Rev. Philip Wilson, Archbishop of Adelaide.

Michael is originally from Adelaide where he studied Medicine. He has spent the last number of months preparing him self in Canberra. It will be the first ordination at the Cathedral in a few years and the first in the Tridentine Rite in many more!

Tradional leaning priests and clergy will be flying in from around the country (and indeed the world) for the "gig".

On a personal note an examination clashed with the ordination but I will be there, having been granted a supplementary after Deacon McCaffrey wrote to the faculty on my behalf!

I will report more on the ordination, and indeed on the rubrics of the bishop in question (which should be interesting) as I will be serving at ceremony as an Acolyte.

Michael's first Mass will be celebrated at Holy Name Church, St. Peter's the following day -- a Solemn High Mass in the presence of a higher prelate to be exact.

Liturgical Dancing

Liturgical Dance at its best!

This guy actually has had nearly 50,000 people view his youtube video.

Corpus Christi

Discussions yesterday and today about the Corpus Christi have prompted this post.

Your opinion is sought on when the feast of Corpus Christi should be celebrated? On the Thursday or the Sunday following (ie. the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost)?

The Vatican of course celebrated the great feast on the Thursday, as we see here (thanks to American Papist), but in many countries the feast was celebrated (as well as the procession) on the Sunday even prior to 1962.



There are 3 options I think:
1) Both the Mass of Corpus Christi and Procession on Thursday
2) Mass of Corpus Christi on Thursday an Procession on Sunday
3) Both the Mass and Procession on Sunday

Then there is also the argument whether Corpus Christi is a Holy Day of Obligation still and whether if you are normally a Tridentine Rite Mass goer and miss the Thursday Corpus Christi, should you attend the Novus Ordo on the Sunday to ensure you attend a Corpus Christi Mass...

The Abbey

Thanks to Amy Welborn for the heads for something in my backyard.

The ABC have a new "reality" television show which is called The Abbey. This is what their webiste had to say about the show:

Imagine a world offering peace and tranquillity, and you're there to contemplate the deeper side of life....no blaring phones, no family dramas, no frustrating work… just you and your desire to discover life's meaning.

Sounds too good to be true? Welcome to The Abbey.

ABC TV is looking for five women for a new 3 part series. Take up the challenge to live the life of a contemplative nun for 33 days and nights - one day for every year of Christ's life.

You will leave behind the hurly-burly of modern life to embark upon a search for meaning, spirituality and self behind the walls of an enclosed order.

Immerse yourself in the world of The Abbey and live by The Rule of Silence and Obedience. Take a leap of faith and discover things about yourself and life that you never knew. Learn what the spirit of community living is all about as you share the nuns daily routine of prayer, farm work, craft and domestic tasks. Throughout the challenge of living in this other world, you will have a Sister-mentor to listen, support and guide you.

Will this life hold any relevance to you as a contemporary Australian woman? Will spiritual contemplation and prayer have the power to transform your life or will you find it too hard a cross to bear?

What the producers are looking for:

We are looking for all sorts of women, who are questioning the meaning of life and are willing to put their beliefs and lifestyle to the test. You must be over 18 years old and an Australian Resident, but you don't have to be religious or Christian. You may be a spiritual seeker, or simply curious about another very different way of life. You may just want time out from your life!

Ohhh... spooky... imagine... Big Brother meets The Abbey... maybe some of you don't have to!!

Any aussie girls interested? In fact I think it's actually quite stupid. It's the spiritual life that draws a girl into the monastic life, not the chance to be on TV. So infact if you are contemplating the life of a nun, why not check out these ones instead.

Moniales are Dominican nuns in New Jersey which also have a proper webiste here.

Essays and Exams - it's that time of the year

Ah, my darn essay is over. It was for the subject Modern France: From Revolution to Resistance. I wrote 3800 words on the situation of Catholics and the Church during the twentieth century under the Third Republic up until 1940.

Now, all I have left for the semester is five exams.

Latin: Shouldn't be too hard. It's an introductory course and was mostly revision of the Latin Dominicanus tried to teach me 7 years ago (I was an indolent student). Looks at 1) the present, future, imperfect and perfect tenses 2) masculine, feminine and neuter nouns 3) pronouns 4) questions, commands and clauses 5) relative pronouns and demonstrative pronouns. The vocab list is about 80 words long.

Heat Transfer: I'm down on my knees about this one already. It will take every ounce of knowledge out of me and will beta me to an inch of my life. It's the day after Latin and I'll probably spend the better half of the time I have left between now and next Monday studying it. I won't go into much detail but it generally looks at heat transfer through convection, radiation and conduction (we'll that's the simplified version).

Engineering & the Environment: I should be sitting this exam now, but I'm hoping to be granted a supplementary exam so I can serve at the Ordination of a friend in the Tridentine Rite. (I will post on that shortly).

Ancient Greek: Again an introductory course and for the content see above for Latin (but replace perfect tense with aorist and add definite articles). I'll probably spend a bit more time on this one than Latin as the vocab is harder to grasp because of the alphabet.

Mechatronics II: Even more boring for readers than Heat Transfer. This is basically programming Logic Controllers to do stuff – like sorting and plotting. I'm not very good at programming, but the lecturer is a champ and I should scrape through.

Ahhh, life... From the 1st of July I can look forward to a short break, the National Catholic Students Conference, and lots of beers and drinks... maybe some gin and tonic (with lime not lemon).

Vatican gossip

Amy Welborn posts on the growing rumour in the Italian Press that there will be a new Vatican Secretary of State. Is this like the rumour of the Universal Indult on Maundy Thursday? Or is it part of the long march through the institutions?

Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa, will be Benedict XVI’s new Secretary of State. Sources at the Vatican said this was "90% sure" and that the announcement could be made on June 29, feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

In the intricate course of deciding the successor to Angelo Sodano, who is 3 years overdue for retirement, this is a triumph for the 70-year-old Bertone, who served for years as second in command to Cardinal Ratzinger at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [and his good friend and next-door neighbor at Piazza della Citta Leonina, 1].

A native of Vercelli (halfway between Milan and Turin), tall and distinguished-looking, Bertone is a canon law expert who is very prepared and equally strict on doctrine, capable of dealing with complex questions in a clear and decisive way. In short, he is not a diplomat, but will be a good executor of decisions that come from the Papal apartments.

It is well-known that the Pope and Sodano have little love lost between them. Sodano, who was Apostolic Nuncio to Chile in Pinochet’s regime, son of a Christian Democrat who was a member of the Italian Parliament, and who is said to have harbored papal ambitions in the last conclave, was at odds with Ratzinger even during John Paul II’s Papacy.

The German was too strict, the Italian too diplomatic. Among other things, under Papa Wojtyla, Sodano defended Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who has been accused of sexual offenses and was recently sanctioned by the Vatican without holding a canonical trial because of his age and poor health.

And now, Benedict XVI, after starting to reassign certain prominent personalities from the Curia(like Cardinal Dziwisz, now Archbishop of Cracow, or Cardinal Cresencio Sepe, assigned to Naples), is proceeding with his Curial reform. First, with the men in charge, and next with legislative action that will incorporate pontifical councils with similar functions and thus help reduce administrative personnel at the Vatican.

Pius X

Pius X, the pope not the society, is an interesting feature of study. I’m currently writing an essay for History of Modern France on Catholics in the Third Republic. More specifically, this essay is on the changes between 1900 and 1940.

Everyone knows that Pius X was a saint – a holy man with a spiritual outlook. However, historians, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, are scathing of the Holy Father’s actions (or inaction). Many blame him and his Secretary of State Merry del Val for the harsh treatment of the Church during his papacy and one or two blame him for the Separation of Church and State (I don’t agree with them, however).

Does anyone else have a view on this? The papacy of St. Pius X was obviously a stark contrast to Leo XIII and his Ralliement, but was he really to blame for the failings of the French Church and the Masonic and secular policies of the Republic?

St. Ephraem

Feast of St. Ephraem of Syria

Dominicanus, I may have missed your feast day in the Old Calendar, but at least I remembered the in the new:

The Prayer of St. Ephr[a]em:

Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings, You have power over life and death.
You know what is secret and hidden, and neither our thoughts nor our feelings are concealed from You.
Cure me of duplicity; I have done evil before You.
Now my life declines from day to day and my sins increase.
O Lord, God of souls and bodies, You know the extreme frailty of my soul and my flesh.
Grant me strength in my weakness, O Lord, and sustain me in my misery.
Give me a grateful soul that I may never cease to recall Your benefits, O Lord most bountiful.
Be not mindful of my many sins, but forgive me all my misdeeds.
O Lord, disdain not my prayer - the prayer of a wretched sinner;
sustain me with Your grace until the end, that it may protect me as in the past.
It is Your grace which has taught me wisdom; blessed are they who follow her ways,
for they shall receive the crown of glory.
In spite of my unworthiness, I praise You and I glorify You,
O Lord, for Your mercy to me is without limit.
You have been my help and my protection.
May the name of Your majesty be praised forever.
To you, our God, be glory.
Amen

Thomas More

Address by George Cardinal Pell at the unveiling of the Statue of St. Thomas More in the Speakers Garden of NSW Parliament.

I'm not 100% sure if this is the exact words that came out of his mouth as there were inital reports of Pell being a little harsh on the legislatures!

I have to mention this part however,

More was a man of his times and the title of saint does not imply life long perfection. He regarded heretics as small “l” liberals today regard racists, while going further so that during his time as chancellor six Protestants were executed. We thank God that we have moved past such excesses.

Maybe we should reconsider our treatment of heretics and small 'l' liberals... and hang them all!

Text of the New English Translation

Very interesting… Rocco has a scoop on the texts of the New English Translation Missal.

I took particular note of this part of the Canon:

Be pleased to look upon them
with a serene and kindly gaze
and to accept them,
as you were pleased to accept
the gifts of your just servant Abel,
the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith,
and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek,
a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

By why does the inclusive language remain in the Confiteor?

Priest: Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins,
that we may be ready to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

(Silence)

All: I confess to almighty God,
and to you my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned greatly
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and what I have failed to do,
(striking their breast, they say)
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault.

(Then they continue)
Therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Priest: May almighty God have mercy on us
and lead us, with our sins forgiven,
into eternal life.

ACSA update

I may be in 'essay writing mode' then 'exam-mode' but that hasn't stopped me from being incredibly excited about the National Catholic Students Conferece.

Check out this for a flyer and bunch of speakers names...