Culture – Page 22

Ralph McInerny (1929-2010)

Ralph McInerny died this morning. He was 80. McInerny for those not familiar with his name, was a prominent commentator on culture and a faithful Catholic. He was a Third Order Dominican (a member of the Dominican laity). Since 1955, McInerny was a professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and a prolific author. He was known for his studies in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Father Dowling Mysteries. With Michael Novak he founded Crisis Magazine, now called InsideCatholic.

Over at First Things J. Bottum has pulled a few things together on Dr. McInerny.

May his memory be eternal.

Professor McInerny captured the voice of millions as he said:

“By inviting Barack Obama as commencement speaker, Notre Dame is telling the nation that the teaching of the Catholic church on this fundamental matter can be ignored. Lip service may be paid to the teaching on abortion, but it is no impediment to upward mobility, to the truly vulgar lust to be welcomed into secular society, whether on the part of individuals or institutions.”

Prayers for Ralph McInerny requested

Dr. Ralph McInerny‘s condition is not good, but it is far better than rumors have had it. He is in ICU at the new St. Joseph Medical Center in Mishawaka, IN, on oxygen with an intravenous feeding tube. He’s weak and has lost a lot of weight, and he sleeps much of the time.

He is one of the great ones!

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes

… sing to the tune of “What a difference a day makes“

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain

My yesterday was blue, dear
Today I’m part of you, dear
My lonely nights are through, dear
Since you said you were mine

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes
There’s a rainbow before me
Skies above can’t be stormy
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss

It’s heaven when you find Latin on your menu

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes
And the difference is you

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes
There’s a rainbow before me
Skies above can’t be stormy
Since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss

It’s heaven when you find Latin on your menu

What a difference a Motu Proprio makes
And the difference is you

Thanks to MEL for making this available.

What News This Bitter Night?

What news, what news this bitter night,

When all is
shuttered in the gloom?

No news except a baby born,

Who finds within an ox’s
stall his narrow room.

What men are these who hurry past?

What wonder do they
run to see?

Shepherds who heart the herald song,

Who haste in stable to adore
the mystery.

What child is this who, sleeping, makes

The manger throne his
resting place?

None but the King of heaven high,

Born into dying to redeem our
fallen race!

What shall I bring to honor Him?

What homage pay, what poor gift
give?

Naught but your heard which, dead in sin,

Finds in this Child redeeming
love—and strength to live!

The
poem is by the late Dr. Henry Letterman, longtime professor of English at
Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, IL. Dr. Richard Hillert, of the same institution, put this poem to music for Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, IL. It was recorded by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s in the Loop in 1992.

Harlem Boys Choir died

The New York Times reports today that famed and decorated Harlem Boys Choir died. Founded by Dr. Walter Turnball in 1968, the choir had a pretty good run by singing for presidents, foreign and domestic and for Pope John Paul II. Dr. Turnbull died in 2007 and with so did the choir but apparently few people knew this fact outside a select group. Read the obit.

Can’t we find a group of benefactors to keep the choir running???

The Church and aliens, ETs, that is

Every so often something interesting happens in the brutish lives we live. Tuesday night
was one of those times, at a seminary no less, that we had an interesting conversation about something many of us knew nothing about: stars, aliens and the connection with faith. We had a visit from Jesuit
Father David Brown whose work is at the Vatican’s Observatory. Funny that David and I are classmates but our journeys took us in different directions. Of course, he went up…that is, he studies the stars and I just went…

As a
coinky-dinky, Stephen Colbert chatted with the Vatican astronomer, Jesuit
Brother Guy Consolmagno, about extraterrestrial life. Who would have thought
that the seminary and Mr. Colbert were doing the same stuff: thinking about life beyond
the present moment.

Watch the interview here…

9 Lessons & Carols: St. Catherine of Siena Church NYC on December 12

Join the Dominican Friars of Saint Catherine of Siena Church
& Priory for a Candlelight Lessons and Carols, featuring the Master Singers
of Archmere Academy and the Choir of the Church of the Holy Child Jesus. David
J. Ikfovits will conduct the choirs. The organist will be Father Jordan
Kelly, O.P.

The Lessons and Carols will be held on December 12, 2009 at 7:00 pm
at the Church of Saint Catherine of Siena (411 East 68th Street, New York
City). The favor of your reply is requested on or before December 7.
Please call 212-988-8300, or email
your reply.

CS Lewis: gone 46 years

Today is Clive Sterns Lewis’s 46th anniversary of death.

Eternal memory

Flannery O’Connor: the only great Christian writer in the US

Encountering the grace through the literature is a sufficient way of knowing Christ and the fruitfulness of the Gospel. For many, myself included, Mary Flannery O’Connor is wonderful entree into the Mystery of God. Watch the story, I think you’d surprised by what you’d learn.

Flannery O’Connor’s stories were instrumental in at least one conversion to Catholicism that I am aware of. And she seems to have introduced him to Saint Thomas Aquinas who then led him eventually to the acceptance of a vocation in the Catholic priesthood. Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White talks about O’Connor’s influence in his life.

Be sure to read the extended interviews of the people interviewed in the centerpiece.

An interview on this topic will be broadcast on PBS’s “Religion and Ethics Weekly” on Sunday, 22 November (look for local listings).

The Flannery O’Connor Collection

The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Flannery O’Connor

The Black Nobility and the Pope

Bet you didn’t know the Church had black nobility. Do you know the difference between the white and the black nobility? Not many good Catholics can anymore. AND certainly not many on this side of the pond. For most Americans the idea of nobility is foolish. Especially given our history of rejecting the monarchy. American interest in things monarchical is kept to a quiet interest in Britain’s queen and perhaps to one or two other royal personages of northern Europe. And if you watch 60 Minutes you’d be familiar with the Sultan in Bahrain.

Few would recall the “nobility” of Italy these days much less nobility of the Holy See. A few years ago the Bachelor show featured a “prince” looking for a bride. In reality the guy wasn’t a “real” prince but “royal” figure created by the papacy for the Borghese family, most of whom now live in the US, and some here in NY.

UK’s Catholic Herald ran Edward Pentin’s piece today, “The Black Nobility Still Serves St Peter,” on the ancient, now past, noble servants of the pope.

Popery can be so much fun, fun, fun…