Pope to Archbishop of Canterbury at their recent meeting in the Vatican:

Snippet at the end of their 20 minute conversation:
(Of course, it didn't happen. Just another of my flights of fancy.)


Pope: (having listened with the utmost patience and courtesy) Today, I only have time to correct you on one thing my dear friend.

Cantuar: Pray do tell.

Pope: In the Vatican these days, the only things we attempt to poach are 'Eggs Benedict'.

Cantuar: Is that supposed to be some sort of yolk? Ha! Ha!

Pope: Not at all. It's actually quite a hard-boiled statement of fact.

Cantuar: But when the raising agent is trying to egg the pudding, what can we do....?

Pope: As I have indicated there isn't time to enter into matters of such theological moment. I am happy to tread on the eggshells the Lord has sent me. I pray for you as you tread on the ones you have chosen.

Cantuar: (Sadly missing the point) Well I think it's time I scrambled.

Pope: Yes, un oeuf is un oeuf. (Aside to Georg) Please see him out. And be kind and gentle, I don't think he realises he has egg all over his beard.

VIPs visit: Ten days to go!

I've already posted about this impending visit and matters have now reached the stage where blogging HAS to take a back seat. Therefore between now and the end of the month posts here will be brief and probably infrequent. After that I hope to be back to 'normal'. I promise a full report on 'the visit' (DV) during the first week in Advent. When you read that report you will understand my discretion up until its publication.

I have not forgotten the Una Voce Report, and Patricius, nor have I shelved that little 'roman business'! However, in the coming days, the demands of the ironing board and the need for rather a lot of metal to be polished, must take precedence over etymology, semantics and socio-linguistics.

God bless all here. Please pray for me.

News from the Edinburgh Schola

In Scotland, the Edinburgh Schola (founded this year, with the specific aims of rendering praise unto God, preserving the music of the Church, and promoting the use of Chant throughout the St Andrews and Edinburgh Archdiocese), goes from strength to strength. The Schola has sung Latin Vespers (Extraordinary Form) in St Mary's Cathedral on eight occasions. This has now become a monthly event, always accompanied by Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament - an unexpected blessing from Our Lord.

Members of the Schola also sang at recent Una Voce Scotland Masses at Seton Collegiate Church, the ruins of Cambuskenneth Abbey, and also at various Requiem Masses this month. Yesterday also saw the first Mass at Torphichen Preceptory, the ancient seat of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (Knights of Malta), since the Reformation - again organised by Una Voce Scotland.

Upcoming "Dates for your Diary" include:

• Monday, 16 November, Vespers for St Margaret;
• Monday 30 November, Vespers for St Andrew; and
• Thursday 17 December, the first of the Great Antiphons: "O Sapientia" (Vespers).
  

All liturgies will start at 6:45pm in St Mary's Cathedral, Broughton Street, Edinburgh. It is also hoped to arrange extra Vespers in Glasgow at some point during Advent. Another commitment of the Schola is to regular Deanery Masses in the Ordinary Form (with the Ordinary sung in Latin Chant), which will be progressed in the New Year.

The Schola hopes to continue to swell its numbers, and all interested are invited to browse the Schola "blog" at edinburghschola.blogspot.com or email edinburghschola at gmail.com .

For 'Patricius': Apologies.

Running to stand still here. Will try to catch up over the weekend. Have a good one!

J

Una Voce International Federation : 2009 Report on the implementation of "Summorum Pontificum" [updated]

Rorate Caeli is a very useful site, but I do wish that when they published extracts from this report last week that they had not interspersed it with commentary. As much as I wanted to read the report, I did not want someone else's interpretation. Let me read a thing first and look at the interpretations of others afterwards. For this reason I was extremely grateful to Mark for sending me the 14 out of the 95 pages of the report that are on public release, although not readily available. These 14 pages, I have now studied twice. I will record my reactions here as soon as possible.

Even before reading a word of it, one thing struck me forcibly about this year's report, and that is the way it was publicly presented to the Holy Father, compared with the rather low key almost secretive manner that characterised last year's presentation. This I suspected may have been due to personages within the Vatican itself, and certainly not to Una Voce whose delegation I understood was in Rome for a fortnight. At the time, I asked Zenit news agency if they had any reports on the 2008 presentation, and if memory serves correctly, offered my own translation which appeared on this blog in the days immediately following, but they never replied.

The way the first Una Voce report was handled, not by Una Voce, but possibly by the Vatican, left me with an uneasy feeling that maybe it never reached the Holy Father. He was supposed to have received it and we were told that it had gone to Ecclesia Dei and some of the dicasteries. Which ones?...... we were never told. At least with this second report we know the Pope did receive it. Leo Darroch gave it into his hands with the cameras on them both and a verbal report explaining what was happening.. One can only hope that Mgr Gänswein spirited the document away and locked it in the papal safe until such time as the Holy Father requests that it be brought to his desk. One thing that the public nature of this year's presentation suggests to me, is that Una Voce and all who support Pope Benedict's efforts towards the 'reform of the reform' are more confident than they were 12 months ago. And it is possible that it is the pro-Benedict Vatican personages who feel the most increase in such confidence.

Nevertheless, an upsetting statement in the Una Voce 2009 report (supported by 'naming of names and places' detail which the Holy Father will see in the report's unpublished Part III) appears at the beginning of its second paragraph:

"Perhaps the greatest reason for the current crisis in the Church is that too many people in the Church, particularly in senior positions, no longer accept the authority of the Pope."

It is quite right that this Part III remains unpublished. We, as ordinary faithful, do not want, nor do we need, to know its contents. But we, and particularly those of us who suffer in places where the bishop is opposed to 'Summorum Pontificum', yearn for the assurance that the Holy Father is able to know the truth of the situation. Seeing the report given into his hands is the nearest thing we can get to such an assurance, and it inspired a vastly more positive hope that he now has that ability, than it was possible to feel at this time last year.

Profound thanks are due to Una Voce and particularly to Leo Darroch, for all their hard work and devoted commitment. The International Una Voce Federation is the largest international voice of traditional lay faithful in the world. All who wish to see the proper implementation of Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio should support Una Voce and pray for its officers and their work.

Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle!

Lord, uphold and strengthen Your chief shepherd, Benedict and have mercy on us all.

The English and Welsh Bishops show their colours in the UK Guardian

I was going to post fully tonight on the Una Voce Report but I came back at 7pm from shopping to find Laurence England's post about the Bishops' job advert in the Guardian, supposedly a quality newspaper, but certainly one of the most anti-catholic organs in the British 'print'. Damian Thompson has now picked it up on Holy Smoke. But to my mind, Laurence's post shows more genuine fire in the Catholic belly. See his blog 'That the bones you have crushed may thrill'.

I was appalled by the bishops' latest move. Laurence says most of the things I would say about this, but there is something else. The advert was published two days before the Aposolic Constitution on provision for the Anglicans. Was that a coicidence? I think perhaps not. In spite of the present chairmanship of Archbishop Nichols, thought to be more pro-Benedict than the body over which he presides, and in spite of some urbane remarks from the Cardinal emeritus Murphy-O'Connor, one cannot but imagine that perhaps this was part of a deliberate ploy to scare off the Traditional Anglicans. (I mean, they wouldn't want to join us would they, when this is how we run things?) The last thing wanted by the liberal leadership of the Catholic Church in England and Wales (note they seem to have dropped the word 'Roman'), is an influx of traditional Catholics, loyal to the Pope, and it hurts me to have to say it, but the majority in this Conference can not be counted loyal to him. One only has to look at the way they ignored and/or misrepresented the 'Summorum Pontificum'. (We come back to that chilling remark from the Una Voce report mentioned at the end of my last post on the matter.)

The terrible thing for traditional priests and laity, is that in many places all over the world it is no longer possible to do that most Catholic of things, namely to obey your bishop and the Pope at the same time. But one has to ask, who is preventing that most Catholic of responses? Certainly not the Pope. This represents a tension that rips me apart as day succeeds day. Nevertheless, it is possible, because the Internet ensures that Pope Benedict's every word is almost immediately available, to cling to our chief shepherd, to love him, to pray for him, to drink in his wisdom, and be inspired to love Jesus Christ as he does, and as the Lord whom he most humbly represents on earth. As long as he breathes, we will listen to him and benefit from his words and actions. At the same time we will pray for our bishops, particularly those who apparently have no ears to hear.

St. Romain: Two VIPs coming to spend the weekend with us at the end of this month...

And I assure you, they are VERY VIPs but I'm not yet at liberty to reveal who they are. However, preparations for their arrival, which, in spite of all the roof problems, have been in train for some time, must now take precedence. Therefore during the next three weeks, posts on this blog will only appear every other day.


God bless all here.

Jane