Thursday, January 25, 2007

Cappa-Canons

Now that's amazing!

The regular canons of Paterno in Sicily did not only have the privilege to wear the Cappa Magna. Once a year, on Holy Friday, they also made a procession through the city with the trains of the cappae trailing behind them. Now that must have been a sight! Needless to say that this custom was quickly abandoned in the 60ies.

Here are some photos (of minor quality, sorry). The first one is a shot of the actul event, the others show the cappae as they are exhibited today in the citie's Church and Castle:









I think...

... I'm going to be sick.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Tradenfreude!

How do you call the feeling you get when you hear Latin in Church, when you see a priest with biretta, fiddleback and maniple celebrating a mass, when you see a cardinal in cappa magna, when you hear sacred polyphony, when you think of the possibility of the motu proprio being promulgated any time soon?

That's right, it is...



You are not only allowed to download this jpg and put it on your webpage. I also ask you to encourage everybody you think might be interested to do the same.

Let's be tradenfroh!

Free at last!

That is the title of the conversion story of Daniel Ali. From the page of Tate Publishing:
    "He cites the verses of the Koran by which the Holy Spirit will convict the Muslim of sin, the Muslim's inability to remove it, and thus the Muslim's great need for a savior. The author reveals the Gospel, as it has been ignored and hidden in pages of the Koran. He offers the courageous Muslim a choice between opposing Suras and opposing theologies, found within the Koran. The Holy Spirit is capable of leading the Muslim, repentant, to the feet of Christ. "

Here you can find an essay by Daniel Ali in which he describes his journey from being a Kurdistan Muslim who marries an American Christian, moves to America in 1993, is baptized into the Body of Christ in 1995, goes through countless hours of Bible studies and evengalizing and is finally received into the Catholic Church in 1998. He also mentions the general danger of aggressive "evangelization" by Muslims and talks about his ways of countering that.

Thank you, Daniel! I will pray for you and your work.

Where else but in the Netherlands...

Via Reuters:
    Amsterdam's red-light district will soon get a new attraction: a statue to honor prostitutes around the world.

    The statue, designed by artist Els Rijerse, will likely be unveiled at the end of March, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

    "In many countries, prostitutes struggle and people have no respect for them whatsoever. The statue is meant to give all those men and women strength," Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who commissioned the statue, told ANP.

    ANP said the statue, made of bronze, shows a woman who confidently looks out into the world.

I can just hear a little girl ask her mother in the Europe of 2055: "Mom, what does "Christian" mean?" And mom is gonna answer through the veil: "Oh, that was before both of us were born. That was in a Europe screaming in pain because of its sins, begging for moral authorities. Funny thing is: These authorities were already there. But they were ignored. I guess the sins were too tempting after all. Well, what we got instead was Burqas and Minarets."

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Lorenz Cardinal Jäger

Lorenz Jäger (1892-1975) was installed as archbishop of Paderborn in Germany in 1941. He became a cardinal in 1965. On the following photographs you see him during the welcome given by the city of Paderborn after the return of the new cardinal from Rome.







Sunday, January 14, 2007

Baroque Catafalques

Three nice etchings of Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire, each one lying on his lectus funeralis:


Franz Christoph Reichsfreiherr von Hutten zum Stolzenberg, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1720 to 1729



Amand von Buseck, Prince-Abbot of Fulda from 1737 to 1756. Fulda was rased to en Episcopal see in 1752 by Pope Benedict XIV.



Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein, Archbishop and Elector of Mainz from 1743 to 1763 and Prince-Bishop of Worm from 1956 to 1763.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus





Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Funniest page ever!

I bet most of you already know "Why won't God heal amputees?". But I just want to assure that everybody out there gets a chance to check out this wonderful and hilarious satire on atheism, so I provide the link and urge you to go there NOW if you don't know it.

I am really grateful and happy that there are some people out there who devote so much of their time and energy to reveal to the world what a sad bunch these "logical and rational scientists and atheists" are. Kudos, dudes!

Monday, January 08, 2007

New Year, Old Pains

A couple of weeks ago I got a nice hate-comment on last year’s “Brokeback Mountain” post from some gay person that obviously was shocked by the fact that there are those of us out here that refuse to let themselves force into mindlessly celebrating this “lifestyle”. So I counter-commented to see if this guy just wanted to let me know or if vanity would drive him back to the scene of the crime to check if there is an answer of mine that deserves some more semantics. Of course the latter was the case and a day later I received an email. The ususal: “You like cappa magna, so you gay. You catholic, so you not allowed to be gay. You twisted inside, so you project self-hate. There are gay priests, so Church bad or (interchangeably) homosexuality good.” You know, the works. Prejudices, intolerance, logic based on enthymemes instead of syllogisms, conclusions that do not follow.

Then via Ken
I read some nice things about our alleged future according to some “thinkers”:
    The web magazine Edge asked more than 150 scientists and intellectuals: "What are you optimistic about?"

    Philosopher Daniel Denett believes that within 25 years religion will command little of the awe it seems to instill today. The spread of information through the internet and mobile phones will "gently, irresistibly, undermine the mindsets requisite for religious fanaticism and intolerance".

    Biologist Richard Dawkins said that physicists would give religion another problem: a theory of everything that would complete Albert Einstein's dream of unifying the fundamental laws of physics. "This final scientific enlightenment will deal an overdue death blow to religion and other juvenile superstitions."

    Part of that final theory will be formulated by scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator at Cern in Geneva, which is to be switched on this year. It will smash protons together to help scientists understand what makes up the most fundamental bits of the universe.
I mean, what is this? Are we supposed to sit idly by and pick our nose while sulking spoiled little brats are taking over with their hubris, their self-righteousness, their prejudices, their lack of tolerance (unless it’s the one they want for themselves) and their general misconception of all things immaterial? I know that especially in our times it is easy to blame the Church, Christianity, religion for pretty much anything that went wrong and goes wrong. And, sure, the use of pretty much every scientific discovery for warfare and destruction really encourages turning a blind eye to the problems that science caused, right? And has there ever been a higher body-count than under those regimes that proudly sported the label “atheist”? Of course, as long as those people know that on the one hand they will get their fifteen minutes of fame by just passing on the same old lies (Religion equals violence, fanaticism and intolerance) and that on the other hand looking at some documents (Catechism, Deus Caritas Est, Fides et Ratio, to name but three) might actually force them to think outside of the box, this will not change. Or, as the hate-mailer put it: “This is the end of my correspondence, because you and your poisonous ilk simply aren't worth my time" (I got twenty bucks that say Mister Righteous Indignation will be back after reading this). Right on! Refuse dialogue; threaten alleged homosexuals who are not kissing your feet with “outing” them; give your opponents a bad name in the press by calling them “homophobe” (one of the meanest and greatest tricks of that bunch: turning the disapproval of homosexuality into something that sounds like a disease); bully around; scream down the opposition; use a bit of violence where needed (St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, December 1989) and impress the populace with great and colorful parades. Pretty soon the difference to 1930’s Germany will be but a slim one.

Interesting post scriptum to the scenario in New York: One ACT-UP member screamed at Cardinal O’Connor “You bigot, you are killing us!” because the Cardinal did not approve of the use and distribution of condoms. Gay logic: Its not the sexually transmitted virus but the Church that kills. Or am I to infer that people who trample the host underfoot, disturb a Catholic mass and preach homosexuality are on the other hand so Catholic that they will not be able to use a condom, just because O’Connor said so? Bigot? Look who’s talking!

But back to the scientists: Can you imagine the sad sight of these kids sitting in their ivory tower at Cern/Geneva, waiting for God to say “Yeah, you got me all figured out. I don’t exist.”?

I think the 20th century has shown us enough of the horrors of atheist humanism, materialism and moral-free scientific progress. You guys want more of the same, you go ahead. And if God slaps you on the fingers again, I don’t might you come back crying as long as you don’t mind me saying “Told you so!”

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Back again!

Happy New Year To Everybody!

I hope you had a nice break and some good and relaxing times with whoever is most important to you (right after Christ, I mean). Have fun working on your new year's resolutions and - if you want - join Ken and me and some others praying for the conversion of the Muslims.

Ciao,
Leo