Hello, is it all over?

I'm sure Mauyen Keane will forgive me for borrowing the title of her book for this unworthy cause.

Vatican II - in prospect

Click for larger image
I was looking for something else when I found this loose in my old Leabhar Aifrinn (1958 edition). It is the official prayer for the faithful for the then forthcoming Vatican Council.

In retrospect there are many ironies.

It envisaged a central role for the Holy Spirit, but not quite the one that turned out. The whole tone is one of assertion of traditional teaching rather than the revolution that nearly came off.

I'm not quite sure, had the outcome been known in advance, that John Charles would have so readily subscribed to the admonition to "humbly and sincerely accept and loyally fulfil whatever the Council may enact". Of course, in the event, they didn't.

There was also the expectation that the Council would in some way bring the separated brethern back into the fold and under Papal authority.

And, finally, Pope John XXIII had attached a hefty ten year indulgence to the prayer, so there must have been a fair expectation that it would deliver the goods.

Get thee behind me Satan

Thank you Linda. Thank you Gabriele. Between you, you have me smiling all morning.

Many, many years ago Linda Blair scared the shit out of me. But I recovered under my own steam. Some of those who went to see the film, The Exorcist, probably did not. But they had been catered for in advance, as the cinema queue was worked by a local evangelical group (name and address supplied) who were offering post-film counselling to those who might feel in need of it in the wake of the green vomit. Great film.

Then shortly after his election, Pope Benedict XVI discovered that the Devil had been busier than anyone had realised and he decided to beef up the Satan Squad under the able leadership of the then 82 year old Gabriele Amorth, his Exorcist in Chief. The Devil, apparently, was everywhere, frantically recruiting more fuel for the eternal fires.

Now that the Pope is leaving the stage, Gabriele has come forward in public to thank him for his cooperation and to remind his successor that the Devil is still busier than ever and that there should, therefore, be no question of any cutbacks in that Department of the Curial Bureaucracy.

Nice one Gabriele, age cannot wither you ...

Vote early, vote often

I have updated my original ballot paper for the forthcoming conclave (above).
Go here if you want to play the full game.

VENITE TRITTILEMUS

[Note: Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the consequent archiving of his Tweets, some links in this post have had to be reconfigured.]

The Pope left it very late in his pontificate to start tweeting, and he clearly did not leave himself enough time to get the proper hang of it. His tweets were all bland aphorisms in a number of languages including Latin. You can see the latin versions by clicking that language option in the link above.

However, even in this obscure linguistic cul de sac, the medium rose to the message as the papal tweet below and the response of one of the "faithful" show.

On Sunday, 27 January 2013, Holocaust Memorial Day, he tweeted:

Dominica tandem dies quid nobis importat? Propria quidem domi focique est dies. Atqui pertinet in primis ad Ipsum.

In effect:

What does Sunday, the day of the Lord, mean for us? It is a day for rest and for family, but first of all a day for Him.

Reply is quick, in (bog) Latin, from Brother Salvatore:

Benedicte Magnificentissime! Hodie memoranda est dies holocausti judaeorum, homosexalium antinazisticumque gentium. Tu taces?

In effect:

Benedict the Magnificent! Today is a day for remembering the the vicitims of the holocaust, Jews, homosexuals and anti-nazis. You are silent?

This is Brother Salvatore who describes himself as an illiterate Benedictine monk. [Since posting this, Br. Salvatore's Twitter account seems to have vanished.]

You can view the actual exchange in Twitter here. This is no longer possible due to the archiving of Benedict XVI's tweets, but you can view the Pope's tweet here and Brother Salvator's response here.

You really can't be too careful who you tangle with on Twitter.

Happy Tweeting.

Pope Vincent I

Fr. Twomey has been very quiet of late. I had almost come to the conclusion that he had finally thrown in the towel. And then it struck me. It all came together.

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation is part of a planned two-step. He is deftly handing over the baton to his former pupil and greatest fan, Fr. Vincent.

I should have seen it coming. Fr. Vincent was not made a bishop so he remained untainted by the current whiff of sulphur surrounding the hierarchy. He was not made Nuncio. That was given to Ratzinger's Rottweiler, Charlie Brown, who would continue to be around to whip the Irish church into shape at the coalface.

He has been held in waiting, all this while, to be produced like a rabbit out of the hat when the conclave finally hangs.

All those qualities that I had listed as qualifying him for the lesser offices. I should have seen it. They all add up to one big thing - papabile.

Unfortunately I don't expect an invitation to the coronation. Burned my boats I have. Ah well.

Top Gear

Nice gear if you can afford it. These were the vestments specially designed for the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in June 2012. There was a holy sea of them to be seen when the bishops turned out for the major formal occasions.

While they may have been pleasing to the eye and, to an extent, conveyed the image of a church triumphant or at least a colourful communion, they did, in no uncertain terms answer a question posed by Fr. Tony Flannery in October 2011 and reported on this blog.

Of the proposed final Congress mass in Croke Park, he said:

... it should be penitential in character. Rather than ceremonial dress, we ask for some modern, imaginative equivalent of the ‘sackcloth and ashes’ of the Old Testament, so that the celebration would be simple and humble, asking forgiveness not just for the abuse of children, but for the other abuses of power perpetrated by Church people in the past.

I know where he was coming from. I have always said myself that I will allow that the Roman Catholic Church might have something to offer when I see a Pope Mendicant rather than the current Emperor (with his new clothes) surrounded by lackeys who would effortlessly grace any catwalk in the world.

Perhaps it was this justifiable barb from Fr. Tony that broke the cross-dressing camels' backs, so annoying them that they immediately set the thought police after him.

Well, they have now found him wanting and stripped him of his ministry. Condemned without a trial in incense filled rooms. They have deprived him of not just his living but of his life. No doubt they, and their merry band of adherents here, would be happy to see him join the "heretics" in one of the local Protestant Churches on the grounds that if you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.

But they have clearly got the wrong man if this is what they expect to happen. Fr. Tony loves his church, hijacked and all as it has been post Vatican 2, and he has no intention of leaving despite continued spiritual waterboarding by the CDF.

Listen to his recent interview with Canadian radio and then make up your mind who are the real heretics here.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

Thought for the Day

Mother of Divine Grace Church, Raheny, Dublin 5
My great grandfather was Joseph the Carpenter. He too married Mary. None of his children was called Jesus but he was their biological father.

d. 16 March 1875

O'er his own cross
did death prevail.
A wanton loss.
A rusty nail?

RIP

Silence of the Lambs

With apologies to Brendan Hoban and to the Lady Herself
I know Brendan is not far from here and my own great grandfather was involved in investigating Our Lady's original visit. He was RIC stationed in Kiltimagh at the time. I am still awaiting his report.

Meanwhile, you might like to read Fr. Hoban's book Where do we go from here? - The Crisis in Irish Catholicism and/or sign the petition to those rotters in the CDF to have Fr. Tony Flannery ungagged and restored to ministry.