A little baseball wrap up

First of all... congrats to the Boston Red Sox. They won the big enchilada, and they deserved it. Given the choice in this year's World Series I rooted for Boston mainly because I am from the East Coast (though I currently live in California). But neither team had any real emotional pull for me. Boston snapped its dry spell back in '04 and that was when my sympathy cheer expired. Boston is now the new baseball dynasty team replacing the fragmenting Yankees. Speaking of which...

Alex Rodriguez (aka Pay-Rod) opted out of his $252 million contract tonight. He did not wait for the Yankees to present their offer. I confess to a certain amount of surprise in this move. I kinda expected him to opt out. But I figured he and his agent Scott Boras would wait until close to the end of the deadline to do it. The timing here is a clue to motives. It kinda says to me that Alex was not really happy in pinstripes. In which case his moving on is probably a win win situation. (It certainly is a huge win for the Texas Rangers who are now relieved of their obligation for $21 million they would have had to pay the Yankees had the Bronx Bombers kept him.) My reason for suspecting this is that he is unlikely to get a much better offer from any other clubs. The Angels and the Giants would be strapped to come up with his money without gutting the rest of their payroll. The Mets don't want him. The left side of our infield is set thank you very much. I think realistically we are left with Boston and the Cubs. Since the Cubs were for sale last I heard that could make negotiating with them for a hefty contract problematic. Boston may or may not be interested in him. They can certainly afford him. But do they really need him? And do they need the baggage that would come with him?

If this was done for money, I think it will be recorded as a really bad business decision. If on the other hand it was because he is not happy in NY and wants a change in scenery even at the expense of a modest pay cut, then I am happy for him and wish him the best. My guess is that this is the real story. Alex already has more money than the Federal Reserve Bank. Whatever faults he may have, he never struck me as being all about the money. If he liked playing in New York I think he would have waited to at least give the Yankee's offer a show of consideration. He had nothing to loose from that. This basically is Alex shaking the dust of the Bronx from his sandals.

Oh well, five months and four days til opening day. :-)

Benedict XVI &The Spirit of Assisi

It's hard not to notice when the Pope shows up. And you can sometimes say the same when he doesn't. Last fall, Pope Benedict XVI was a notable no-show at a September ceremony to mark 20 years since John Paul II had hosted a groundbreaking gathering of world religious leaders in Assisi, Italy. Some viewed the Pope's absence as a slap to those working for inter-faith dialogue, both inside and outside the Catholic Church,. On Sunday, however, Benedict will be center stage at the most lavish, and well-attended inter-religious ceremony of his papacy, organized by the same Sant'Egidio community that helped launch Assisi. What has changed? Why is Benedict marking 21 years since "the spirit of Assisi" was uncorked, after skipping out on the 20th anniversary?

Read the rest here.
(Hat tip to T-19)

On a practical level I understand why he is doing this. But I really do wish he wouldn't. Unfortunately I have read too much about the history of Islam and the way it works to entertain any serious hope for an understanding. My feeling is that we should extend to them the same level of tolerance that they extend to Christians in predominantly Muslim countries, except for the killing them part. I do draw the line there. Beyond that I think they should stay in their part of the world until they learn to play and get along well with others.

With respect to discussions within Christendom, I think my feeling is what is the point? Protestants are Protestants and are not gong to change. The only exception might at one time have been the Anglicans but they reached a fork in the road back in the 70's. Their choice was go Catholic or Protestant. They have clearly made that choice, and they are realistically way past the point of no return. The dream of Anglican-Catholic reunion is dead (with the possible and intriguing exception of the TAC). The sooner Rome grasps this, the better for all concerned. Among Christians the only ones Rome really has any business holding serious talks with are the Orthodox.

The Christian world is fast dividing into two camps, the apostolic churches on one hand and the theological flavor of the moment groups on the other. Sorry if that offends some readers. But from the Roman / Orthodox perspective that’s really what it comes down to. I am perfectly OK with talking to other groups in order to promote improved understanding and mutual tolerance (which I do think is extremely important). But ecumenism for the sake of getting that cheap warm fuzzy is not a good idea. There has been enough dilution of truth. I have something less than zero use for groups like the NCC and the WCC. My profound albeit respectful theological disagreements with the Roman Church notwithstanding I think B-16 is the best thing to hit their side of the Tiber in a LONNNGGG time. The man calls it like he sees it. I may not agree with him all the time. But I have never failed to respect him. Truth is NOT relative.

Banning God from (religious) schools?

(Swedish)Education Minister Jan Bjorklund told a Swedish newspaper that new rules being drafted by the government would ban religious elements in subjects other than religion, such as biology. He said, "Students must be protected from every form of fundamentalism."

Bjorkland's spokeswoman says, "A student shouldn't be able to pass a natural science test by answering that God created the world. We don't think that's OK."

She said the new rules, which need parliamentary approval, would be introduced in 2009.

From One News Now.

Take this job and...

Breaking News:
Joe Torre declined a 1 year $5 M contract offer (with bonuses based on playoff performance) offered by the New York Yankees. This officially ends his 12 years as manager of the club. During his tenure the Yankees went to the playoffs every year, and the world series six times. They won the World Series four of those six. Torre is universally recognized as one of the classiest men in baseball (unlike his employer). I suspect that all of the polite statements aside he may have finally had enough of Mr. Steinbrenner. Those of us who are not Yankee fans are going to have some mixed emotions to sort through over this. Clearly this is great news for the rest of the baseball world. But it is also the end of an era. I wish Joe the best in his future. But I somehow doubt he will remain unemployed for very long (unless he decides to go lie on a beach somewhere for a year).

Ecumenical Sand Castles

Over at the excellent Sacramentum Vitae Mike Liccione has posted his thoughts on recent developments in the world of ecumenism. His report on the developments with the TAC was very interesting (and not terribly surprising). I wish them luck in their efforts since Rome is a vast improvement over being a splinter sect of the fast disintegrating Anglican Communion. However that is not the subject of tonight’s post. I wish to address very briefly Mike's suggestion of a compromise that he feels might help us Orthodox get around Vatican I. Those who have read some of my earlier posts know that I generally see the decrees of that council as quite likely the single greatest obstacle to eventual restoration of communion.

Before proceeding let me begin by noting that I abhor the schism dividing the Latin Church from Orthodoxy. It is an open wound in Christendom that has been aggravated by all too often petty and self interested parties on both sides of the great chasm. And I have no patience for knee jerk anti-Catholics who seem too often more possessed of small minded prejudice than Christian agape. But my great concern is that any restoration of communion be based on a mutual understanding of Truth in the great issues which have separated us. Anything less than that is like trying to build a castle out of sand. It may look pretty, but what is its life expectancy when the tide comes in?

Now let me present Mike's views and idea in his own words.

"...But there is hope nonetheless, and action motivated by such hope. Constantinople and Athens remain closely involved in the current panel discussions. My optimism about the Orthodox stems from the fact that they have held no council, of a kind even they would consider ecumenical, committing Orthodoxy dogmatically to rejecting the Roman communion as one of true, particular churches. There seem to be many Orthodox who take the view that "we know where the Church is, but we don't know where she isn't." Not all Orthodox take the view of the Athonites that popery is a diabolical scourge of Christendom and that Rome doesn't even have a canonical bishop. That actually allows many Orthodox to consider the Latin Church a church with true sacraments, even if she's gone off the rails somewhat about doctrine. Imagine that. But what, realistically, could talks on primacy yield?

Taking their cue from the generation-old Ratzinger proposal made in his book Principles of Catholic Theology, some Eastern Catholics seem to take the view that Vatican I's decrees about papal authority would hold only in the West, not in the East, within a reunited Church. That's a non-starter. If the pope is what Vatican I says he is, then he is that in the East as well as the West. The Orthodox should not expect Rome to retract anything she considers dogma any more than Rome should, or does, expect the Orthodox to retract anything they consider dogma. The real room for compromise is on the level of the exercise of jurisdiction. And that's where theology can help.

The compromise might look like this: to end the schism, the Orthodox patriarchs would defer to Rome on matters not resolved otherwise, and Rome would confine her interventions in those patriarchates to matters not resolved otherwise. The theoretical basis for such an arrangement exists in nuce in the work of Ratzinger on communio and of Zizioulas on eucharistic ecclesiology. I for one believe this is how one aspect of the Ratzinger proposal can be worked out: the one where he says that Rome can require no more of the East than was "held in common during the first millennium." To be sure, views about what was thus held in common diverge, and often diverge sharply. Getting agreement on the point will require consensus about what general form the development of doctrine may take. I think that's where the hard work remains to be done. But it's far from hopeless. I've encountered a good number of Orthodox authors who, while averse to the phrase "development of doctrine" as smacking of addition to the faith-once-delivered, admit what amounts to development in a sense not irreconcilably different from what Newman and Vatican II meant."

First let me restate that I think many Catholics put way too much stock in the lack of a council anathematizing any of the various dogmas of the Latin Church. Councils are not generally held to discuss something which is not controversial. And the decrees of Vatican I relating to Papal Infallibility and Universal Jurisdiction are simply not controversial over on our side of the fence. That’s not to say that we accept them. Rather it’s to say that we are more or less of one mind on the subject. And since we can’t even agree on what day it is, that’s pretty impressive. In the minds of even the most ecumenically minded Orthodox, the decrees of Vatican I are heretical (though many are too polite to say it). Those few who don't see it as heresy either have swum the Tiber or they probably should as a matter of personal honesty.

Having said all this, Mike’s suggestion for getting around the problem of Universal Jurisdiction is an interesting one. But it has a fairly major flaw. This compromise lasts only for as long as Rome chooses to adhere to it. In other words it is a compromise of choice for Rome not of obligation. The decrees of Vatican I remain fully in place. The lack of papal intervention in the Churches of the East is based on restraint, not a lack of authority. And the Pope could at any time choose to set aside that compromise if he deemed it proper to do so. Living under an absolute monarch who chooses to exercise restraint in the use of his powers is not the same thing as having rights which he is bound to respect. However benevolent or restrained the current Pope may be, what guarantee is there for the next, or the one after that?

I am not going to get into all of the theological arguments since that’s a horse that has been beaten to death. But the bottom line is this… If Vatican I is not heresy, we Orthodox have no business doing anything other than kneeling in front of the Pope and kissing his ring. And the Pope has no need or legitimate reason for not exercising his universal jurisdiction throughout The Church. If God gave him the authority it was not done with a view to only using it in the West. And if Vatican I is heresy, then Orthodoxy must never ever under any circumstances compromise with it. Whatever failings I have (and they are legion) I am not a relativist. Any attempted compromise in a matter of Truth is a recipe for disaster. It is the foundation for another Florence. As Owen the Ochlophobist once observed in one of his more memorable quotes (I paraphrase) 'In order for communion between Rome and Orthodoxy to be restored, one or the other must cease to exist.' Either Rome is right or we are.

Those are not comfortable words. But there it is.

Quote of the day...

...It is an officer’s duty to disagree in private with civilian authority if he believes that an egregious mistake has been made. Then, if the order is not changed, it is that officer’s duty to resign, to throw his stars down on the table and to publicly condemn the policy in question.

It makes me sick that our generals did not have the guts or the courage to condemn Mr. Rumsfeld’s poor planning. Instead, they allowed thousands of our troops to die needlessly.

- Debra A. Ciamaccia (former Captain USMC)
From a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times

Apologia Contra Letum

This year the Supreme Court will address the constitutionality of certain aspects of the death penalty (DP). At one time I was a strong supporter of the DP. However as Winston Churchill once observed when asked why he was reversing his position on a policy, "I absolutely reserve the right to be smarter today, than I was yesterday." Today I am opposed to capital punishment. My opposition is not based on the issue of cruelty or justice. The truth is that some of those on death row deserve a level of punishment that we as a civilized nation can not impose. My reasons for opposing the DP are...

1. It has no proven deterrent value. Indeed the overwhelming body of evidence indicates the DP has no statistically significant deterrent effect.

2. There are no uniform standards for effective legal council. In some states if the defense attorney has a pulse and is not CURRENTLY disbarred he will do. Examples of some who have passed muster in the courts as adequate legal council in capital trials include lawyers who had no experience trying criminal cases (one was a tax lawyer who had never even tried a traffic ticket), drunks, a lawyer who slept through most of the trial, lawyers who called no witnesses for the defense and did not cross examine any prosecution witnesses, attorneys who have been previously suspended or disbarred and so on. It is not surprising that those states with the higher rates of executions tend to be the ones with the lowest (or no) standards for effective council.

3. Both in capital and non-capital cases there have been a disturbingly high number of wrongful convictions which have been brought to light in recent years. There are also at least two post Furman cases (one in Texas and one in Missouri) where available evidence indicates an overwhelming likelihood that innocent persons were put to death.

4. The appeals process is excruciatingly long and so expensive that it is generally cheaper to incarcerate someone for their natural life than pursue a death sentence.

5. Some states have severely limited the right of appeal in order to reduce expenses and speed up the rate of executions. In some of those states this even extends to prohibiting the introduction of exculpatory evidence discovered after the conviction! This greatly increases what I believe to be an already unacceptable risk of miscarriage of justice.

6. Statistics show that cases where the defendants were able to afford good legal council prosecutors rarely seek the death penalty even when the vital circumstances of the crime are demonstrably the same as other cases where the defendants could not afford top notch lawyers and the death penalty was sought. Translation: Those that got the capital, don't get the punishment.

7. States that do (or did in New York's case) have high standards for competent legal defense in death penalty cases see few capital sentences and very few or no executions.

New York had the highest standards for capital defense lawyers in the country during the roughly ten years the death penalty was on the books. Of the seventy-two capital cases prosecuted in New York between 1995 and 2005, sixty-three resulted in First Degree Murder convictions, fifty-one of those resulted in Natural Life sentences, eleven in death sentences and one died before being sentenced. Of the nine not convicted of First Degree Murder, seven were convicted of lesser charges and two were acquitted.

Of the eleven sentenced to death over that ten year period, in 2005 five were still on death row, six had had their sentences overturned on appeal and none had been executed. Shortly thereafter New York's Court of Appeals overturned part of the death penalty law. Subsequently the state legislature declined to amend the law to restore capital punishment to the state. The cost to the taxpayers over that ten year period exceeded $100 million (!) dollars. (Exact figures were not available from my primary sources since several counties had not reported their total expenses. The aforementioned figure is therefore conservative.)

8. There have been numerous documented instances of prosecutorial and police misconduct in capital cases. Those who question if this really ever happens should take a look at the recent case in Durham NC where a prosecutor attempted to railroad three young students from Duke University for a crime he knew never happened. It is likely the only reason they were not packed off to prison is that they came from families with the means to hire outstanding criminal defense teams.

9. Although the United States is a sovereign country, and we are within our rights to order our justice system as we see fit, I think that when virtually the entire of the developed world has abolished capital punishment and we have not, that should be cause for reassessing our position. When we stand alone in the developed world in defense of an institution that has been uniformly rejected, to not ask ourselves some very tough questions is perhaps tending towards the sin of pride and hubris. Why are we so isolated on this matter?

10. The argument for the death penalty as a form of societal self defense against irreformably violent offenders has been effectively nullified by the introduction of natural life sentences (life without parole). Yes, there are violent inmates in prisons. However, once identified they can be isolated in so called "super-max" security facilities and neutralized as a danger without killing them.

More clergy kidnapped in Iraq

Via Rocco Palmo there are reports that two Eastern Rite Catholic priests have been abducted in Iraq. A one million dollar ransom is being demanded by their captors. According to the reports this figure is quite beyond the resources of the local church. Christian Clergy and laity alike are routinely being abducted or just simply murdered outright by Islamo-fascists and terrorists there. Please pray for their safety and for the relief of the persecuted Christian faithful of that tragic country.

The Crisis in the OCA

Back in May I opined that the OCA was moving into a situation where the continued leadership of Met. +Herman might well be openly challenged. In that post I sharply criticized some of the actions His Beatitude had taken in regards the recent scandals in the central administration. With a view to his suspension of the special committee investigating those scandals (from which all but two of its members subsequently resigned in protest), I suggested that a possible response might include a formal vote of "No Confidence" by the Metropolitan Council.

In the last few weeks the Diocese of the Midwest whose Archbishop (+Job) has been at the forefront of the demands for full disclosure, actually did in fact pass a No Confidence resolution, among others. This weekend the Diocese of Western Pennsylvania followed with their own vote calling for +Herman to be replaced. Both dioceses also have now voted to withhold vital funds from the central administration of the church pending sweeping reforms.

I will refrain from making any judgments beyond what I have posted elsewhere. However it is now clear that what was a scandal is becoming a moderately serious crisis in the OCA. There are at present two dioceses that have openly declared their lack of trust in the leadership of our primate. These sentiments are almost certainly felt in many other quarters of the OCA where diocesan conventions are not currently meeting. This is the situation which confronts the Holy Synod as it prepares to meet this week.

Setting aside for now all of the questions which have been raised about +Herman's actions in response to the scandals, the most serious issue is whether or not the Metropolitan can continue to effectively lead a church which is increasingly and openly hostile to his primacy. The central administration is in something close to extremis financially. You have two diocese withholding funds. At least one hierarch (+Job) has openly called for +Herman to resign and the same two dioceses have passed No Confidence resolutions. Of course as I noted in my earlier post suggesting this course of action, we are not a democracy. The Holy Synod makes these decisions. But the bishops must be aware that it is one thing to say "we accept him as our primate." It is an entirely different matter to govern the church effectively when the faithful do not also accept him as their primate.

How can the Holy Synod force people to send money to Syosset? How can they prevent next years All American meeting of the OCA from becoming a highly contentious event? The answer may well be learned at the conclusion of this weeks meeting of the Holy Synod. As I said before I will make no judgments in this matter beyond my previously expressed concern over some of the decisions made by Met. +Herman in dealing with the scandals. I hold no office of responsibility beyond a seat on my parish council so it is not my place to pass judgments (for which I thank God). But I feel that events may be moving at long last to some sort of decisive moment in the life of the church. Frankly I would not be terribly surprised if His Beatitude announced his retirement at this meeting. There have been some hints that the Synod may have concluded that the time has come for a change.

Should this in fact happen we must take great care to avoid the sin of triumphalism. This is especially true for those of us who in the past have been critical of the central administration and the Primate's handling of things. The issues confronting our church will not vanish with the departure of any hierarch. And I think we should also all be deeply mindful of our own shortcomings and failings before judging someone who has born the heavy cross of office like Met. +Herman.

In closing I ask all who may have occasion to read these words for your prayers for the OCA and its Synod. These are challenging times and it is doubtful that there has been a meeting of the Holy Synod since receiving autocephaly that has been faced with decisions of such moment. Let us all pray that God will grant to our bishops the wisdom to discern right from wrong, and the strength to act for the right.

An Orthodox Europe?

+Alexei II Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

From a fascinating article over at Yahoo (originally published by the Christian Science Monitor)...

For decades, many social scientists had pretty much two things to say about Eastern Orthodox Christianity: 1) that like all religions, it was disappearing with the advance of modern civilization; 2) that it derived most of its support from the reactionary tides of authoritarianism and nationalism.

Those pronouncements are being proved wrong. Today, as in the parable of the prodigal son, throughout Eastern Europe people are returning to the Orthodox Church in droves, and the effect in the public sphere, contrary to most expectations, is quite benign.

Though historically viewed with suspicion by Catholic and Protestant Europe, Orthodox Christianity can actually help bridge the Russia-West gap.

At the heart of much of the miscommunication between Russia and Europe today lies the unacknowledged and untapped longing of Orthodox Christians to be recognized as part of a common European cultural family again. The latest effort to bridge this divide was Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II's remarks in France, where he spoke poignantly of how the Christian identity Europeans historically share should promote dialogue on issues like human rights and peace, even with atheists and members of other faiths...

...Western suspicion of Eastern Orthodoxy can be traced back to before the Great Schism that divided the Christian Church in 1054. One hundred and fifty years later, it fueled the Crusaders' zeal for the sacking of Constantinople. In the 18th century, it became a main theme of Edward Gibbon's influential interpretation of the Roman Empire, which was later echoed in the writings of Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee. And in modern times, Samuel Huntington, among others, has warned direly of the potential for clashes between "Slavic-Orthodox" civilization and the Catholic-Protestant West.

With the exception of Greece, this sad legacy has made Western Europeans notoriously slow to accept countries with large Orthodox populations into pan-European institutions. In the current expansion eastward, however, it is inevitable that the values and mores of European institutions and alliances will be shaped more and more by the traditionalist views of Orthodox Christian believers and less and less by the modern, secularized Protestant assumptions of Western European democracies. Orthodox believers already far outnumber Protestants across Europe, and by some estimates they may eventually even surpass Roman Catholics. If 21st-century Europe ever develops a religious complexion, it will be predominantly Eastern Orthodox.

In the long run, therefore, while the greatest challenge to Europe's cultural and political identity may come from the growth of Islam, its more immediate challenge is how to deal with some 40 million to 140 million Orthodox Christians who, when given a voice in European policymaking, will argue that churches should have a more prominent voice than heretofore in the shaping of social policy.

Read the entire article here.

Mass in San Francisco

Read this first. WARNING: Some of the pictures are disturbing.

I saw the pictures before I read the text of the report. (I refuse to post them on this website.) My first thought was "nothing new here, just the Episcopalians doing their thing." Then I read the report and I have to confess my astonishment. Yes. It is well known that the Roman Church has some bishops who are a little sketchy in terms of their adherence to what comes from Rome. But this is beyond the pale. I really don't want to sound like I am picking on my former co-religionists. The overwhelming majority of RCC bishops (even most of the sketchy ones) would not be OK with this. But still...

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

I mean really... What was the man thinking? I know that one of the Latin Church's alleged advantages I am repeatedly reminded of is that they have the Pope to maintain some sort of discipline. I will be very interested to see what comes of this sacrilege. In Orthodoxy we don't have the centralized chain of command that exists in the Western Church and yes we have our share of problems. But I can tell you that it is inconceivable that something like this could happen in an Orthodox church. In the unimaginable circumstance that a bishop did do something like this; I think he would be called on the carpet very quickly by the Holy Synod.

Forget the Pope in Rome. I will be most interested in any reaction from his fellow bishops here in America. Is that the sound of crickets I hear?

On a related note this sort of thing does not help the ongoing efforts by Pope +Benedict XVI aimed at restoring communion with Orthodoxy. Ignoring for the moment the very real theological issues dividing us, most Orthodox see this and shudder. 'What further evidence do we require, that the time has not yet come to restore communion with the Latins?' It is a stark reminder of all the baggage that would necessarily come with the Roman Catholic Church in the event of restored communion. And frankly it is baggage no one over here feels we need.

More on Salvation in The Church

At the risk of being seen as a cheering section for Fr. Stephen (I have been accused of worse things); I draw to the reader's attention another excellent post following up on his discussion of salvation and The Church. This one is a home run.

A Hierarchical Liturgy

Scenes and music from a hierarchical liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Who should be saving whom?

Find out by reading this excellent essay by Fr. Stephen Freeman. My first reaction was that this was must reading for Episcopalians. (I still think they would do well to read it.) But then after reading it a second time, I began to realize this is must reading for everyone in the Orthodox Church in America. And then after reading it a third time I realized that this was must reading for everyone in my home parish. And after reading it for the fourth time, I realized he was talking to me.

Picking up the pieces

Well… we lost. That’s it in a nutshell. Now how did we get here? With 17 games left in the regular season the Mets enjoyed a comfortable 7 game lead in NL East. And it was confidently noted that no team with such a lead and 17 games left had ever blown it. Ummm…yea.

Being on the left coast I was spared actually witnessing the collapse (we don’t usually get east coast games out here). But reading it in the papers was enough to get the gist. The New York papers and for that matter all of the talking heads on the various sports shows are now trying to dissect what went wrong. I am not going to get into all of the numbers or who did (or did not) do what. Others are doing that quite well enough thank you. My diagnosis is simple.

We lost because we deserved to. Somewhere in the early part of September the team essentially went on auto-pilot and just figured the season was over in all but name. Thus we have the bizarre numbers alluded to above. Some players were acting as though they were entitled to the division pennant. I have heard more than a few people observe that the Mets essentially stopped playing serious ball. That’s probably a fair assessment.

But it is not the whole story. I have heard some people say that the Mets essentially gave the pennant away. That is not fair. The Phillies won the pennant. It was not given to them. While the Mets went on paid vacation for the last several weeks of the season the Phillies never gave up. If it had just been a case of the Mets folding in the last few weeks they would still have won. But the Phillies never gave in to despair. They were hungry and they played like their lives depended on the outcome of each game. In short the Phillies deserved to win as much as the Mets deserved to loose. And while I don’t like loosing; I tip my hat to Philadelphia. They proved in many ways that they were the better team.

As one might expect there is a lot of talk about hubris and humble pie going around. I can confirm that I have been taking a lot of not so gentle ribbing from various (cough cough) friends. Most of these are fans of the other team from New York (the name escapes me). And I must say that it’s not fun. One can only imagine what the guys on the team are feeling right now. I can think of some words that probably are good descriptives like pain, humiliation, guilt and anger. And that is all for the good.

Frankly I hope that they are getting their noses rubbed in it. Not just because they deserve it. Rather, because they need to remember how they felt Sunday afternoon for the rest of their lives. What happened over the last few weeks was unprofessional and inexcusable for players who are being paid as much as them. They were playing like the keystone cops in baseball uniforms. And if they are smarting from their own failure then again, that’s a good thing. They need to dine on some crow and get razzed and suffer with being the laughingstock of the National League. And they need to remember Sunday afternoon every day between now and April, and thereafter every time they stand in the batters box or play in the field.

David Wright (one of my favorite players and one of the few who honestly bears little blame for the collapse) observed a couple days before the end that he did not want this on his resume. Well sadly it’s there. If any member of this team died tomorrow somewhere in the first paragraph of his obituary would be something to the effect of “blank was a member of the 2007 New York Mets who suffered the most spectacular late season collapse in the history of major league baseball.” Nothing any of them can do will ever completely remove that line from their resume or obituary. But what they do in the future can help determine where that line fits in their resume, i.e. at the top or buried somewhere underneath a long list of remarkable accomplishments. For the Mets the long road to redemption (and maybe a little good old fashioned revenge) needs to start today. For the Mets, today needs to be treated like the first day of April.

Alexei II: Meeting with Pope likely in a year or two

This via the traditionalist Roman Catholic website Rorate Caeli; Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow indicated in an interview with the French paper Le Figaro that he expects to meet with Pope Bendict XVI in the next year or two. Assuming the accuracy of the story, this is a significant development. It would be the first explicit declaration by Moscow that there will be a meeting with the Pope of Rome. The Russian Church has been very cool towards Rome for years and has resisted attempts by the Vatican to arrange a meeting with the Pope. This was especially true under the previous pontificate. However since the election of B-16 there has been a noticeable warming in relations between the world's largest Orthodox church and the Holy See. Read the details here.

A miserable day

To borrow a worn cliché, I have had better days. I felt ill going to bed last night and sure enough this morning I woke with the distinct aches, chills and hot flashes that announce the flu. Everyone in the house except for one is also sick. Hoping for some saving grace in my day; I dragged myself from bed a while ago to check the scores of the critical ballgames in the NL East only to see that the Mets were routed by Florida and Philly beat Washington. Thus the Mets complete the worst late season meltdown in baseball history. There is no joy in mudville tonight, and that is a pain for which no pill has yet been invented. I am too sick (literally) and disgusted to comment further.

Remember the Maine!!!

John Maine pitching the game of his life today at Shea Stadium

With 17 games left in the regular season the Mets enjoyed a very comfortable 7 game lead in the NL East. Last night they hit a new low in one of the most spectacular late season collapses in baseball history when they lost to Florida and Philadelphia won against Washington thus loosing for the first time since May their fist place in the division. Today with two games(!) left in the regular season and trailing the suddenly resurgent Phillies by one game the Mets annihilated the Marlin 13-0 and came within 4 outs of the club's first ever no hitter. John Maine pitched what must be recorded as the game of his life and one that will be remembered for years if the Mets can actually turn things around.

For now they remain alive and waiting for the results of the Philly-Wash game where at this writing the score is 1-0 Wash going into the top of the 4th. If Philly looses then the division will be tied again with one game left for each team. If Philly wins there remains at least the possibility that the Mets could win tomorrow and if Philly looses their game then there would be a sudden death tie breaker on Monday in Philadelphia.

If that is not complicated enough for you, the question of the NL wild card has not been resolved! I would try to explain that one but I already have a headache and it's hard to type when I am in the processes of removing my fingernails one at a time as I monitor the Philly - Wash game.

GO METS!!!!

Remembering the other war

I respectfully commend to the reader this remarkable piece from the New York Times...

IT'S strange that a military graveyard should be so lovely, but lovely is the only way to describe the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, 26 miles northwest of Verdun. As exquisite as any French park or chateau grounds, the cemetery is a formal garden of perfectly clipped trees, immaculate lawns, fountains and roses and long white rows of grave markers. Given its beauty, it's also strange how empty the place is — and stranger still since this is the largest American military cemetery in Europe, the burial site of 14,246 United States service members who died in the war to end all wars.

When we Americans think of travel inspired by world war, Normandy is what springs to mind, and in fact each year more than a million visitors crowd the Normandy Cemetery and the nearby Pointe du Hoc and Utah Beach Monuments. Yet the countryside north and east of Paris is rich in memories — and monuments — of United States involvement in the other world war. Twenty-six years before D-Day, more than two million American soldiers were in France fighting in battles whose names now sound as archaic as jousting sites — Oise-Aisne, Château-Thierry, Aisne-Marne, St.-Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne. What's astonishing when you travel to these battlegrounds is how much remains on, or just below, the surface and how few people there are looking for it.

Read the rest here.

Profoundly embarrassed

As a lifelong Republican I am appalled and embarrassed at the insulting snub delivered by the four leading candidates for the GOP nomination in next years presidential elections. The top four all sent their regrets due to "scheduling conflicts" when invited to a debate at Morgan State University, an historically African American college in Maryland. Of course no one in or out of the party is buying it. It is certainly being seen as a slap in the face by black Americans, and rightly so. You are not going to get people to vote for you if you won't ask them to. The fact that blacks vote disproportionately for Democrats is not an excuse for insulting them. Our failure to engage them with honest discussion and explain where we stand and why, while inviting their input can only be seen as a contributing factor to this trend.

The simple and unpleasant truth is that the GOP can not continue to play the race card (which it has occasionally and shamefully done) and hope to win elections in an increasingly pluralistic America. Beyond the obvious immorality of such tactics it is a recipe for political suicide. Jack Kemp (former cabinet member and Republican VP nominee) succinctly summed it up when asked about the matter. He responded by wondering aloud if we are going to hold our meetings in some suburban country club in the future. Abraham Lincoln must be turning in his grave.

Three Queens

The original Queen Mary with the Normandie and three other unidentified liners in New York circa 1930's

Taking a short break from all of the depressing news in the world today, I take pleasure in noting a forthcoming historical moment. On January 13th 2008 New York will play host to royalty. For the first time probably since the early 1960's and quite possibly for the last time ever, there will be three active service transatlantic ocean liners (as distinct from cruise ships*)in New York Harbor at the same time. The venerable Queen Elizabeth 2, the massive Queen Mary 2 and the brand new Queen Victoria will all be pier side at the same time. The Cunard White Star Line is currently fitting out the new Queen Victoria in preparation for her maiden voyage.

For many New Yorkers this will be like a trip down memory lane. There was a time when the presence of three liners would have been noteworthy primarily due to the absence of more. New York has always been the primary transportation hub of the East Coast. Back before the nightmare of air travel dozens of oceangoing passenger ships entered and left the harbor daily. It may cause some nostalgia for an age when scores of reporters daily crowded the piers of the lower west side waiting to see who was arriving or departing on such oceanic leviathans as the Normandie, the original Queen Mary, the SS United States, Aquitania, Olympic, Berengaria, Majestic, Mauritania and scores of others. They were the pride of nations and great companies now mostly forgotten in history, like the French Line, the Hamburg Amerika Line, the Canadian Pacific Line and the tragic White Star Line (merged with Cunard during the depression). (Photo is the palm court on RMS Aquitania.)

To some this will seem like a throwback to another era. And indeed it is. From the moment Charles Lindbergh few the Atlantic back in 1927 the days of the ocean liner were numbered. Though it would be several more decades before the jet airplane sealed their fate, by the 1960's most of the great liners were being removed from service with fewer and fewer passengers willing to spend four to six days crossing an ocean that could now be bridged in about as many hours. Most of these ships of state wound up suffering ignominious ends in the scrap yards. (Photo is a first class bedroom suite on the SS Paris)

When Cunard launched the QE2 in the late 1960's as a replacement for the original Queen Mary**, there were not a few people who laughed at the folly of building a new transatlantic liner in the modern age. And it was more or less universally accepted until a little over 10 years ago that she would be the last of her breed. No one would ever build another ship primarily for commercial transatlantic passenger service. The 1970's and the first part of the 1980's seemed to support this view. The QE2 struggled financially and even turned to pleasure cruising during the winter months to break even. There was little serious discussion of replacing her on the North Atlantic run when she eventually would be decommissioned. (Photo is of the first class lounge on the Empress of Britain.)

Then something odd happened. Business began to pick up. It was generally assumed for years that those sailing on the QE2 fell into one of three categories. Old and nostalgic people, those terrified of flying, or those who (like myself) while not being afraid of flying nonetheless detest it as the most barbarous form of transportation invented since the slave galley. Whatever the reasons there was a noticeable uptick in business beginning in the late 80's and this trend continued into the 90's. Then came the Titanic. Cruise lines and shipping companies were buried in the wake of the blockbuster movie about the doomed White Star liner. And the rest as they say, is history.

The Queen Mary 2 was launched a few years ago and has been a huge hit. The brand new Queen Victoria is presently fitting out in preparation for her maiden voyage. The sad note to all of this is that the QE2 is about to bow off stage. After 40 years of service her time has finally come. But it is a testament to the flame kept alive by her and the Cunard Line that there will be not one but two liners in service to replace her. On a bright note it appears she will escape the breakers yard, the fate of so many of her great predecessors. Plans are afoot to have her converted into a 5 star resort. Not a bad retirement for the grand old lady.

In the meantime there remains, at least for the foreseeable future, a pleasant alternative to the horror of modern air travel for those going to or from Europe.

*Setting aside the various forensic differences, one apt observer noted the difference between a cruise ship and an ocean liner was the difference between a night club and a 5 star grand hotel.

**She was spared the fate of most her contemporaries being permanently moored in Long Beach CA as a floating hotel and museum.

The Queen Mary 2

Rediscovering Confession

It would appear that confession is making something of a comeback among certain faith groups. Some like the Roman Catholic Church are not hugely surprising. But the revival of confession (albeit often without a sacramental understanding) among Protestants is I think a rather interesting phenomena. This from the Wall Street Journal...

This February at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI instructed priests to make confession a top priority. U.S. bishops have begun promoting it in diocesan newspapers, mass mailings and even billboard ads. And in a dramatic turnaround, some Protestant churches are following suit. This summer, the second-largest North American branch of the Lutheran Church passed a resolution supporting the rite, which it had all but ignored for more than 100 years...

...Several factors are feeding the resurgence. Aggressive marketing by churches has helped reinvent confession as a form of self-improvement rather than a punitive rite. Technology is also creating new avenues for redemption. Some Protestants now air their sins on videos that are shared on YouTube and iTunes or are played to entire congregations. And the appetite for introspection has been buoyed by the broad acceptance of psychotherapy and the emphasis on self-analysis typified by daytime talk television.

"Every day on Jerry Springer we see people confessing their sins in public, and certainly the confessional is a lot healthier than Jerry Springer," says Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski, who last March sent out 190,000 pamphlets calling on Catholics to confess.

Scholars also say the return to confession is part of a larger theological shift in which some Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals are returning to a traditional view of churches as moral enforcers. Catholic leaders have sought to make the tradition less onerous to keep it from dying, while Protestants are embracing it as a way to offer discipline to their flocks. Several Protestant pastors said they felt their churches had become too soft on sinners, citing the rise of suburban megachurches that seek converts with feel-good sermons, Starbucks coffee and rock-concert-like services, but rarely issue calls to repent.

I am not very comfortable with the theology behind a lot of this. But it is certainly an interesting development. From a more Orthodox point of view I would post the comment of Kolokotronis from over at Free Republic (in response to a Roman Catholic posting the Latin Church's formula for absolution as an affirmation of the theology of the priest acting in persona Christi).

"For your information and discussion"
Ok, the article says this: "The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament:..."

"God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

You see, this is one of those examples of the truly vast difference between the Latin and Orthodox Churches; its that post 11th century atonement theory rearing its head again. Couple that with the notion that it is the priest doing the absolving and we see in rather stark relief the differing phronemai of the Churches.

As Fr. Deacon John Chryssavgis noted in an article on the sacrament of confession, "It is the reduction of sin to a punishable legal crime, an act of law­breaking inviting a penalty that is almost wholly absent in patristic literature." He goes on to say, "The word for "confess" in Greek (ἐξομολογοῦμαι, ὁμολογῶ) does not bear the contemporary meaning peculiar to it. When we say "confess" we imply that we accept, recognize or witness an event or fact. But this is not the original mean­ing. The point is not of admitting, more or less reluctantly, a hitherto "unrecognized" sin, but an acceptance of and sub­mission to the divine Logos (exomologesis) beyond and above the nature and condition of man. It is this Logos, the Word of God, that man seeks to regain, or rather to com­mune with. To confess is not so much to recognize and ex­pose a failure as to go forward and upward, to respond from within to the calling of God. Created in the image and likeness of God, man bears before himself and in himself that image and likeness. In repenting he does not so much look forward as reflects and reacts to what lies before and beyond him."

In Holy Orthodoxy The Church teaches her children "Have you committed a sin? Then enter the Church and repent of your sin ... For here is the Physician, not the judge; here one is not investigated but receives remission of sins." +John Chrysostomos.

Finally, the idea that the priest is anything more than a witness on behalf of the Christian community is completely unknown to patristic authors and the notion that the priest in any way "absolves" the penitent is seen only in Russian Orthodoxy as a result of later Western influences on that particular church. Even there the notion is increasingly condemned, especially outside of Russia proper.

Food for thought.

Old Links

Just a quick note to let the reader know that some of the links in older posts that had stopped working may now be up. The New York Times had until recently limited its free online access to news articles posted within the last week while restricting access to its archives and many of its columnists for subscribers. Thus any links to NY Times articles that were over a week old were not good unless you wanted to pay for the article. However as of yesterday the Times has opened up its archives back to 1987 for free. Also all areas of the Times web site that were restricted to subscribers are also now free.

Vechnaya Pamyat (Eternal Memory)

In honor of the New Martyrs of Russia

Recreational Tourism Monasteries and Death Camps

They are by all accounts a magnificent corner of Northern Russia, still in a near wilderness state. Indeed until recently you would be hard pressed to find a lot of evidence of human habitation in the Solovetsky Islands. There is the ancient monastery and of course the remnants of one of the Soviet Union's first concentration camps, complete with mass graves.

Today however it appears that some are trying to turn this place where untold thousands were murdered, many of them martyrs, into a sort of recreational park for tourists.

...The islands, also known as Solovki, are one of the holiest sites in Russian Orthodox Christianity, and the 40 or so monks who reside here consider the land their own. Their predecessors settled here in the 15th century, creating a monastic dynasty that lasted nearly 500 years. They built the white-walled Transfiguration Cathedral, capped with silver cupolas, and enclosed it in fortress-thick walls of granite. An intricate canal system linking dozens of lakes still supplies fresh water to the islands’ 1,000 inhabitants.

Fiercely opposed to religion, the Soviets imprisoned or killed most of the clergy members and lopped off the cupolas. Having only recently returned after a banishment of nearly 70 years, many of the monks are now alarmed by the efforts of entrepreneurs like Ms. Smirnova to open the islands to tourists.

...Buried beneath the wild blueberry fields and gangly forests of knotted dancing birches are the bones of thousands of inmates who perished at one of the first and most notorious Soviet prison camps: the Solovetsky Camp of Special Purpose, described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as the harbinger of the gulag.

Through the camp’s 20-year history, hundreds of thousands of prisoners — aristocrats, clergymen, intelligentsia, common criminals — toiled through brutal winters and mosquito-plagued summers, succumbing to disease, starvation and execution. Prison officials experimented with methods of torture that were later refined at prison camps throughout the Soviet Union. The horrors that occurred here remained an official secret even after the camp closed in 1939.

Sounds like my idea of an awesome vacation get away. While we are at it, does anyone know if there are any good roller coasters near Auschwitz? [/sarcasm]

Read the story here.

An Anglican Bishop Writes About The Epsicopal Church

Bp. Harold Miller of the Diocese of Down & Dromore (Church of Ireland) has written a piece on the theological and liturgical trends in the American branch of the Anglican Communion. I very rarely post Protestant writings, but this is just so dead on that it needs to be read by anyone who is seeking to understand the current crisis confronting our brothers and sisters in The Episcopal Church (TEC). I am not going to post excerpts. But I strongly encourage everyone to read his post.

Via Kendall Harmon.

A couple of plugs

A couple of quick recommendations for the reader... First if you are not already a regular reader of Fr. Stephen's blog and have any interest in icons, I strongly encourage you to check out his recent series of posts on the subject. I believe they started on or around September 1. Secondly there is a nice recap of the recent conference hosted by Fordham University on the subject of St. Augustine from an Orthodox perspective by Dr. William Tighe in the current edition of Touchstone Magazine. I regretted not being able to attend the conference at the time, and that regret has been greatly magnified after reading Dr. Tighe's report. I do not believe the article is currently on the WEB so if your not a subscriber you might have to visit your local library.

O Joyous Day!

The Motu Proprio takes effect at midnight.

The Holy and Life-Giving Cross

Troparion - Tone 1

O Lord, save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
Over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your Cross,
Preserve Your habitation.

Kontakion - Tone 4

As You were voluntarily raised upon the cross for our sake,
Grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God;
Make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power,
Granting them victories over their adversaries,
By bestowing on them the Invincible trophy, Your weapon of Peace.

Many Years!

To Met. +Daniel Ciubotea of Moldava who has been elected to be the sixth Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. +Daniel is widely seen as a member of the progressive (a relative term in Orthodoxy) wing of the hierarchy. He is an academic with a strong background in theology and has been the leading representative of the Romanian Church in ecumenical discussions with other religious confessions, notably the Roman Catholic Church. Some observers are opining that his election represents a defeat for the "old guard." The Romanian Orthodox Church is the worlds second largest Orthodox jurisdiction with about 20 million members (after the Russian Church with over 100 million).

Read the story here

And a Roman Catholic perspective here.

Memory Eternal: 9-11

Lest we forget...

BECOMING INVISIBLE AND SUDDENLY APPEARING

I didn't know yet, my Lord, that you exist, you who made me from clay and gave me all these goods. I didn’t know yet, that you yourself was my un-proud God and Lord. Because I had not received yet the grace to hear your voice in order to know you; you had not yet come and said mystically to me that ‘I am’. I was unworthy and unclean, still having the ears of my soul obstructed by the clay of sin, and my eyes under the command of disbelief and of the sense and fog of the passions. And I was seeing thus you my God, but without knowing, not having first believed that God, as much as possible being seen, he is being seen by some, I could not discern that God or God’s glory is this, which, sometimes thus, sometimes otherwise, is revealed, but the miracle being unusual astonished me and filled the whole of my soul and of my heart with joy, so that I was seeing even my very body partake of that ineffable grace. But I didn’t know yet clearly who you are, whom I was seeing. I started to see more often the light, sometimes inside, when my soul enjoyed serenity and peace, sometimes outside somewhere far away appeared to me or it was wholly hiding itself and hidden it was bringing sadness unbearable to me, because I was thinking it will no more in any way be revealed. And while I was mourning and weeping and showing all kinds of strangeness, obedience and humility, it was revealing itself upon me just like the sun, that cuts the fatness of the cloud and little by little appears friendly in the shape of a sphere. This way then you, the ineffable, the invisible, the untouchable, the immovable, the everywhere forever and in everything present and filling everything, at all times, to say so, in day and night being seen and hidden, going away and coming, becoming invisible and suddenly appearing, little by little you drove away the darkness inside me, you drove away the cloud, you made thinner my fatness, the dirt of my spiritual eyes you cleaned perfectly, removed the obstacles from the ears of my mind and you opened them, you surrounded and removed the covering of insensitivity, and besides these, all passion and all carnal pleasure you drove to perfect sleep and perfectly you exiled it away from me. ...

These are God’s wonders towards us, brothers! And while we are elevated to a greater perfection, no more like before without shape or form the shapeless and formless comes, or the presence and arrival of His light in silence works in us - but how? In some form, yet God’s form. God is revealed not in a shape or outline, but in incomprehensible, wonderful and formless light formed is revealed simple - nothing more can we say or express - , He starts to be revealed clearly and to be known in a great familiarity and to be seen much clearly, the invisible, invisibly speaks and hears and, as if a friend to a friend, face to face, who is by his nature the God speaks with them who have been born from Him by grace Gods, and as a father loves and by his sons He is loved in a great warmth and He becomes for them a strange vision and a more terrific sound, without being able either to be spoken by them worthily, or to be neglected, covered in silence. Because by the yearning for Him they always are lit up and mystically by Him resound.

Speech 35

Christ does not bless those who just teach, but those who have already worked His commands and received the Grace to see above and look in themselves the Light and the Thunders of the Spirit, thus having understood in a real vision, knowledge and energy of the Light, all that are going also to say and teach to the others. This is how, as we said, must rise those who try to teach others, so that they won’t talk about things they don’t know, deceiving and dooming themselves and those who believe their words.

Who is blind to the One, is completely blind to all. Who sees the One, has vision of all - and at any rate is removed from their vision, and in the vision of all becomes, and outside of all he is. Inside the One he sees everything, and while being in everything nothing of any thing does he see.

Whoever sees in the One through the One, sees clearly himself and all men and all things, and hidden inside the One, he doesn't see anything of any thing.

Who has not worn the Image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly man and God, inside his mind and spiritual man, sensing well and knowing Him, is just blood so far and flesh, the sense of spiritual glory unable by words to receive, just as who are born blind, unable are to know the light of the sun by words alone.

Practical and Theological Chapters 4 & 51-53

- St Symeon the New Theologian

Hat tip to Kolokotronis

A Noteworthy Roman Anniversary

Pope (St.) Pius X

Today (September 8th) is the centennial anniversary of the Papal Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis of Pope Pius X. It was the culminating moment of the Roman Catholic Church's resistance to the world of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Marxism/Socialism and pretty much everything that came with it that touched the Western Church. In his encyclical +Pius X condemned what was loosely termed modernism. It would be followed by a syllabus of errors connected to modernism and by a decree requiring all clergy and eventually anyone holding any position of trust within the church to swear an oath against modernism, which remained in force until the late 1960's.

The ripple effect of Pascendi can still be felt today. Although not as well known as many others, it remains one of the most important papal documents published in the last couple of centuries. It was the primary wall that Rome constructed in its steadfast resistance to the intrusions of the modern world on an ecclesiastical mindset that had not substantially changed since the medieval period of Western Europe. And it took an ecumenical (from the Roman POV) council to break free of that mindset. Today it is the cornerstone on which much of the resistance to Vatican II has been built.

Depending on whom one asks this period in church history (roughly 1907-1965) evokes differing responses. To many who live in the modern (post conciliar) church it is not something they want to go back to. It was a period where orthodoxy was enforced so strictly that priests were actively discouraged from discussing matters of theology. Seminary instruction placed a very heavy emphasis on scholastic theology. Each diocese had committees that were responsible for monitoring their clergy for the slightest hint of "modernist" sympathies. All published works by clergy (and a remarkable number by layman that were not even religious in nature) were subject to review by the Holy Office and strictly censored. It has been widely noted that the first half of the twentieth century did not seem to produce the usual flow of heavy duty theological works that emanated from the Latin Church (not saying there were none). Often those that did appear seemed oriented to restoring the status quo ante. And it was a period when the church seemed in some quarters to support dubious causes including anti-semitism (the Dreyfus Affair) as also various right wing politics ranging from monarchists (notably in France) to fascist dictators (Spain & Italy).*

Others however see the same period as a sort of golden age. Religious orders proliferated. There was no shortage of clergy and the missionary spirit was alive and well. In the United States catholic schools were full and parents were warned of the dire danger to their souls if they permitted their children to attend public schools. Abortion was illegal and the prohibition of divorce was not yet quietly circumvented by annulments. There were long lines for confession on Saturday nights (instead of the vigil masses for those who don't like getting up on Sunday mornings). On Sundays the reverence for Holy Communion was such that most of those who had been in line for confession the night before would still not receive and many people communed only once a year at Easter.** Women wore hats and gloves to church and men a coat and tie. In Rome the Pope was still carried around on the sedei with ostrich feathered fans and he wore the jeweled triple tiara symbolizing his absolute universal jurisdiction over the church and the world. And of course, everything was still in Latin.

It is to this world that many traditionalists desperately wish to return. For them Pascendi is like quoting scripture. Lefebvrists and others of a similar world view see modernism as the "smoke of Satan" that +Paul VI once famously opined had invaded the church. How, they ask, can Pascendi have been right and Vatican II also? Again depending on whom you ask you will get differing responses. Pope +Benedict XVI has been making a case against the hermenuetic of rupture. In this he has been joined by many thoughtful conservative Catholics who are usually strong supporters of Doctrinal Development. But both those on the right and the left have a simpler answer in which they concur on one point. Both Pascendi and Vatican II cannot be correct. They are mutually exclusive. Those on the left will tell you that Pacendi was a desperate attempt by a reactionary Pope to stick his finger in the damn as it was preparing to burst. Effectively a shout of "stop the world I want to get off!" And those on the right will tell you that Vatican II was the triumph of modernism and a heavy blow against the church. In support of which they will cite the compelling evidence of the chaos that has reigned in the Roman Church post Vatican II. Who is right?

Its a bit dangerous for an Orthodox Christian to tread here since we would of course argue that they have all missed the proverbial bus. Thus I will restrict my opinions somewhat. Broadly speaking the defenders of the hermaneutic of continuity are probably closest to an accurate position especially in matters of dogma. But it simply can not I think be argued that, especially in terms of church discipline, that which +Pius X condemned so vociferously has not in fact been at the heart of much that has gone wrong in the Western Church since 1965. Further almost all of the bizarre theological ideas and heretical nonsense that has cropped up post Vatican II can logically be tied to modernism. Indeed the very term has crept into widespread usage outside of the Roman Church. It is often heard in Orthodox circles (and with the same negative imputation assigned by +Pius X).

All in all it is an anniversary worth taking note of and a document deserving of far more attention than it has gotten.

*It is widely and falsely claimed that the Roman Church supported the Nazis. It did not. However despite condemnations of Fascism by Pius +XI the church remained closely tied to the Fascist regimes in both Spain and Italy. Similar charges could of course be laid at the door of the Orthodox Church in other times and places. For a brief examination of the Dreyfus Affair I recommend Barbara Tuchman's treatment in The Proud Tower.

** This was another issue that +Pius X addressed by encouraging more frequent communion. The results were mixed as many clung to the idea of communion being their "Easter Duty." It must also be noted that this mindset still exists in some quarters within Orthodoxy. Today of course the reverse situation now exists in the Latin Church with long lines for communion on Sundays and few for confession. More than one Catholic has expressed concern that there is a danger of becoming a church of six sacraments.

An update on the Orama comments

Canon Kendall Harmon over at T-19 is reporting that he has received an email from a spokesman for Bp. +Orama denying the remarks previously quoted by the UPI and various places on the internet including here. I have not seen this email, however I doubt Kendall would have posted anything about it if he did not recognize the source. The spokesman also (again via Kendall) claims that a formal retraction from the press will be forthcoming. If this should occur I will of course take note of it here.

An Amplification: Saturday 09-08-07
Pending further credible information one way or another as to the veracity of the original news story I do not know with certainty whether or not the quoted comments were actually made. However no retraction that I am aware of has been issued by the press as of this writing, and the denial has not been repeated by any other source including the bishop himself. For these reasons frankly I am compelled to opine that it remains quite possible and perhaps even likely that the original story was accurate. I sincerely I hope that I am wrong and will gladly post a retraction if the evidence warrants it. If anyone has new information on this from a credible source please drop me a line or a comment. Until then I stand by my earlier post on this subject.

Memory Eternal: Il Maestro (Luciano Pavarotti)

The English language is simply inadequate to convey the loss. May his memory be eternal!

The Choir of Valaam Monastery

The below is a video with background music provided by the choir of Valaam Monastery. I regret that I don't know which hymns they are singing since it's in Slavonic. But its quite beautiful.

An outrageous comment

According to the UPI the below remarks were made by the Nigerian (Anglican) Bishop +Isaac Orama of Uyo.

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Uyo, Sept. 2, 2007 (NAN) The Anglican Bishop of Uyo, Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, has condemned the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, and described those engaged in them as "insane people''. "It is scaring that any one should be involved in a thing like that and I want to say that they will not escape the wrath of God,'' he said. Orama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today in Uyo, that the practice, which has worsened over the years, was "unbiblical and against God's purpose for creating man''. Homosexuals - 2 "Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God's purpose for man,'' the Bishop said. He noted that the Anglican Church in Nigeria had continued to lead the fight against the practice especially in the US where it led the opposition to same sex marriages. "The aim of such fight is to provide a safe place for those who want to remain faithful Anglicans and Biblical Christians,'' he explained.(NAN) NS/IFY/ETS

This prompted me to take the unusual step of posting the below comment over at Fr. Jake's site (yes, that Fr. Jake) where +Orama's comments were receiving much attention.

Bp +Orama's comments are repulsive and shock the conscience. I condemn them unreservedly. The only thing that is satanic here is whatever could impel a servant of God to make such remarks about any of God's children.

Whatever one's opinions regarding the current problems in many of the mainline Protestant sects and their alarming departure from Christian orthodoxy, this clearly is way over the top. I am not normally in the habit of advising other churches about matters of internal discipline, but Bp. +Orama needs to be called on the carpet for this . No one who calls themselves a Christian and wishes to be so recognized by any decent person should feel anything other than revulsion and yes, anger over these comments.