Culture – Page 16

Peter J. Gomes, minister, dead at 68

The very colorful minister, the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, who served at Harvard for more than 40 years, died last evening. Reverend Gomes oversaw the ministries of Memorial Church and delivered a rousing Easter sermon each year. He was an accomplished and stimulating writer, teacher and preacher.

Peter Gomes’ name is clearly connect with the Christian presence at Harvard. Any serious Christian aware of the landscape at Harvard had to negotiate the personality of Peter J. Gomes.

Peter Gomes would not be confused for his orthodox faith but he preached Christ. He appreciated the efforts of others to make Christ known and loved.

May God have mercy on Peter J. Gomes and embrace him with love. Let’s pray for his eternal rest.

Asma al-Assad on St John the Baptist

Syria should be on your radar screen if you have an interest in the life of the Church. It’s openness to
Christianity today is startling bad. Freedom of religion and human rights lack;
political oppression and basic needs are always in question. The current regime
very likely nervous given the recent wave of political take-back. John Juliet
Buck’s Vogue magazine article on the Syrian First Lady, Asma al-Assad, “A Rose in
the Desert” speaks to many issues in Syria, not least is religion. Thoughts of
St John the Baptist’s tomb hearken back to when in 2001 Pope John Paul II visited Syria
and prayed at the tomb of the Baptist.

At first thought Ms al-Assad’s deference to the importance of the Baptist is impressive but there’s something that strikes me as false given recent history of her husband’s family’s rule of Syria viz. religious freedom. Plus, her interest in Christianity in Syria is not because the gospel is true, good and beautiful; her interest in the Church is cultural. The gospel in this context has been reduced to a system of culture and ethics –exactly what it’s not. Syria is Indeed, many religions have passed through those lands and one seems fairly certain that the current regime wants religions like Christianity to leave Syria and not turn back. Historically, Christianity has been in Syria since St Paul visited the country. It is the place, as we know, where the followers of Jesus were first called “Christians.” Christians in Syria comprise 10% of the population with the largest group being the Greek Orthodox Church.

For me here’s the relevant paragraph in the article:

Back in the car, Buck was answered about
his investigation “what religion the orphans are?” “It’s not relevant,” says
Asma al-Assad. “Let me try to explain it to you. That church is a part of my
heritage because it’s a Syrian church. The Umayyad Mosque is the
third-most-important holy Muslim site, but within the mosque is the tomb of
Saint John the Baptist. We all kneel in the mosque in front of the tomb of
Saint John the Baptist. That’s how religions live together in Syria–a way that
I have never seen anywhere else in the world. We live side by side, and have
historically. All the religions and cultures that have passed through these
lands–the Armenians, Islam, Christianity, the Umayyads, the Ottomans–make up
who I am.”

Three Faiths exhibit at the NY Public Library

I recommend visiting the NY Public Library before February 27 to take-in the exhibit “Three Faiths.”

It is interesting and well done. I think the exhibit is done more for the cultural point of view but it does give a good sense of the major themes in specific theologies and worldviews.

Beatification ceremonies for John Paul II are FREE

The Prefecture of the Papal Household, having been
informed of the existence of unauthorised offers by some Tour Operators,
especially on internet, of assistance in procuring tickets, with a service
charge, for General Audiences and Papal ceremonies, particularly for the
Beatification of the Servant of God John Paul II on Sunday, May 1, wishes to
make it clear that:

1) For the Beatification Mass of Pope John Paul II, as made
clear from the outset, no tickets are required.

2) The tickets provided by the
Prefecture of the Papal Household for General Audiences and Papal ceremonies
are always issued FREE of charge and no person or organization can request any
kind of payment.

The Thought of Henri Bremond

In the current
issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro wrote an
interesting essay, “The Thought of Henri Bremond.” Matters pertaining to faith
and reason, faith and culture interest me perhaps you. At least that’s what I
hope if you are a frequent reader of the Communio blog. Henri Bremond
(1865-1933) is a former a Jesuit priest, literary scholar and was in the middle
of the Modernist crisis. His literary output was terrific. Bremond was a member
of the illustrious Académie Française succeedingm(elected in 1923 holding seat
number 36). France also awarded the Lé d’honneur. The summary:

An attempt to
overcome the gap between faith and culture – In the years that saw the rise of
surrealism, of Freudian thought and of the modernist crisis, Henri Bremond
captured the separation that was growing between theology and culture
sanctioned by the Enlightenment. Bremond suffered in trying to find a
compromise in terms of language, seeking to show to a cultured audience the
best results of a religious sensibility and sought to show to his Catholic
readers the religious value of «profane» literature. Seeing the similarities
between a mystical and a poetic inspiration, he concluded that “it is up to the
mystic to explain the poet,” reversing a common axiom. The article, on the
occasion of the reissue of his Prayer and poetry, absent from Italian
bookstores for three decades, presents the main insights of the priest,
academician of France.

New tools… [for] new forms of consciousness: Vatican Radio at 80

February 12, 1931, Vatican Radio began its social networking capabilities for Pope Pius XI who had a particular interest in evangelization, especially in the foreign lands. Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), the physics Nobel Prize laureate became the father of wireless communication. Quoting Marconi, the Vatican Press Director Jesuit Father Frederico Lombardi recalled, “My inventions are to save humanity, not to destroy it.”

Read a few ideas on the founding of Vatican Radio.

Pope Pius XI exhorted his first listeners said, “Listen and hear, O Peoples of distant lands.”

Continue reading New tools… [for] new forms of consciousness: Vatican Radio at 80

Witches face jail time if spells fail

Romanian witches are soon to be licensed. Why, you
ask. So when their spells fail to provide the desired results, the government
can jail them. There’s a bill on parliament’s desk. On January 1, Romania
changed its laws witchcraft requiring receipts and prohibiting them from
exercising their craft near churches and schools.

Reno new editor of First Things

The Chairman of the Board of First Things, Robert Louis Wilken, announced that Russell R. Reno is the new editor of First Things.

RR Reno is the sometime professor of theological ethics at Creighton University. He earned a doctorate from Yale University.

Reno recently published Fighting the Noonday Devil and Other Essays Personal and Theological (Eerdmans, 2011).

The appointment is effective April 1.

RR Reno’s the second successor to Father Richard John Neuhaus. Jody Bottum left the editorship a few months ago.

Four Chaplains Day

Besides being Saint Blase Day, today is also known as “Four
Chaplains Day.” The US Congress designated today to honor the 4 US Army chaplains who
were serving on the USAT Dorchester during World War II.

Father John P. Washington
(Roman Catholic priest), Rev. Clark V. Poling (Dutch reformed), Rev. George L. Fox
(Methodist), and Rabbi Alexander D. Goode sacrificed their lives as their ship
went down. 672 of 902 men died.

All of the chaplains held the rank of lieutenant.

The Episcopal Church has designated February 3 a liturgical memorial for these chaplains.

St Matthew’s Passion to be presented by St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in NYC Feb. 7

The St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers,
NY) will present a setting of the St. Matthew Passion.

The musical setting of Passion of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew is an exquisite
interplay of soloists, choir, and orchestra. This concert will be the U.S.
English-language premiere of the piece by Russian Orthodox Christian composer
and churchman Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev.

Performers will include The Salomé
Chamber Orchestra, famed soloists soprano Mary Mackenzie, mezzo-soprano Ana Mihanovic,
tenor Blake Friedman, and bass Aaron Theno, and the New York Virtuoso Singers
prepared by Harold Rosenbaum.

The concert will take place at 7:30 pm in the
Church of the Saint Paul the Apostle (at the corner of Columbus Avenue & West 60th Street, NY 10019).

Please click HERE for more
information and to purchase tickets.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, 46, is the Russian born Oxford and Paris educated theologian and musician. He’s wonderfully talented in many areas. Last May it was a pleasure of mine to see him and hear his work in Rome at a concert he organized for Pope Benedict XVI.