Sunday, October 08, 2017

On the "Latin Mass" ...

St. Josemaría Escriva offering Holy Mass.

Two recent pieces by Matthew Schmitz of First Things that are worth a glance: One in the UK Catholic Herald, and another in the NYT, (what? In the NYT???) on what is colloquially called the "Latin Mass," more formally, the "Extraordinary Form" or the "usus antiquior" or less technically correct, the "Tridentine Mass."
What I find fascinating is the absolute horror, vehement opposition, and worse, that the ancient Mass elicits amongst the clergy, particularly older clergy. I've seen this first hand.

Monday, July 03, 2017

St. Thomas and India

The large 16th century monolithic granite cross at Kaduthuruthy Palli

I'm in India on the patronal Feast of St. Thomas. (St. Francis Xavier is the other Patron ... ). The gift travel writer (and historian and author), William Dalrymple had a neat account of the historicity of the claim that St. Thomas founded the Church in India, in a piece in The Guardian dating from 2000.
The more you investigate the evidence, the more irresistible is the conclusion that whether or not St Thomas himself came to India, he certainly could have. And if he didn't make the journey, it seems certain that some other very early Christian missionary did, for there is certainly evidence for a substantial Christian population in India by at least the third century.
And if there is no documentary proof to clinch the case, there is at least a very good reason for its absence: for the entire historical documentation of the St Thomas Christians was reduced to ashes in the 16th century - not by Muslims or Hindus, but by a newly arrived European Christian power: the Portuguese. As far as the Portuguese colonial authorities were concerned, the St Thomas Christians were heretics, an idea confirmed by their belief in astrology and reincarnation, and the Hindu-style sculptures of elephants and dancing girls found carved on their crosses.
It's absolutely worth a read.

Church Father expert extraordinaire, author, and friend, Mike Aquilina also has a helpful blog post on St. Thomas ... I've no idea why I've not taken up his suggested reading list so far ...
Some critical scholars (of course) dismiss the accounts of Thomas in India. But India’s historians have subjected the evidence to rigorous scrutiny in recent years, and even many Hindus have come to affirm its possibility and even probability. I’m definitely with them, and I hope to write a book on the subject in the not too distant future. I invite you to read a couple of books and study the matter for yourself. They’re not available in the United States, so you have to order them from India. (For such purchases I have received the best service from Merging Currents, a U.S.-based import company.) The books are A.M. Mundadan’s History of Christianity in India (Volume 1: From the Beginning up to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century) and George Menachery’s massive collection The Nazranies.
In 2010, I made my first (and to date only) visit to Kerala, where St. Thomas first arrived. This included a sanctuary in Kodungallur (Cranganore), where St. Thomas first landed .. .

Reliquary containing the bones of the arm of St. Thomas, Kodungaullur (Cranganore)
Mar Thoma Gate, Kodungallur
St. Thomas shrine, Kodungallur ...

... as well as the fascinating church at Kaduthuruthy (Kadhuthuruthy Valiya Palli). There's been a church on this site since at least the 4th century. The big granite cross dates from the 16h century, at the time of increasing Portuguese influence and interference. One can see pre-European Indian Christian motifs in the artwork at the base of the cross, as well as Babylonian/Chaldean motifs on the facade of the current church. What the Portuguese did to the cultural and religious heritage of the Thomas Christians was truly criminal ...


Virgin and child, Kaduthuruthy cross

Indian motifs, Kaduthuruthy cross 
Altar

Facade, with Chaldean motifs

Friday, June 30, 2017

A curiosity

My nephew found some old letters and papers lying around at my folks' place - old letters my father had sent to my mother, other correspondence from half a lifetime ago. [There were also some letters addressed to me -- two in Russian from friends in Kazakhstan (that'll be another blog post!) and letters a friend from my pre-teen years had written after she'd moved away. I'd completely forgotten about those, and had no idea I'd saved them!]

Then there was this:


It is addressed to my great-grandfather, my father's grandfather, who was, we know, a lawyer. The only address given, in fact is his title, "Vakil" (lawyer), and the name of the town. It was enough for the post office, apparently ...

It seems to be a letter detailing currency notes that were being sent from the Imperial Bank of India in Bombay to him. It also seems that several of these were being sent in halves. Upon acknowledgment of  receipt of the first  dispatch, the remaining halves would be sent on. Presumably this was a way to ensure security. I'd never heard of this, but a brief Google search revealed that this was not an unknown practice .... Of course, we have no idea what my pardada was doing receive the sum of rupees five hundred and fifty three and three annas in such an exotic manner. Rs. 553-5-0 in 1931 would be somewhere near Rs. 1,20,000 today (~1850 USD today), no small amount. (Nor, for that matter, can we figure out what this transaction is. Or why eighteen annas are to be given as postage due to the Public Debt Office ... so many questions!)

The Imperial Bank of India doesn't exist anymore. It became the State Bank of India in 1955, five years after the Republic of India came into existence.

In April, 1931, my late father was 1 year old. I had no idea he'd preserved this curious letter. I suspect  its curiosity is what motivated him to keep it, to be discovered by his grandson, four generations and eighty six years after my great grandfather received it. 

Monday, May 29, 2017

"Zeal for thy house will consume me"

St. Paul at the Areopagus (Raphael, c. 1515)
[Homily preached at St. Andrew's Catholic Church on May 24, 2017, at a Mass in honor of the transitional deacon candidates of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.]

“Almighty God …
You grant that the Church, his body,
adorned with manifold heavenly graces,
drawn together in the diversity of its members,
and united by a wondrous bond through the Holy Spirit, should grow and spread forth
to build up a new temple
and, as once you chose the sons of Levi
to minister in the former tabernacle,
so now you establish three ranks of ministers
in their sacred offices to serve in your name.”

This is from the Prayer of Consecration of the Rite of Ordination of a Deacon, which Archbishop Gregory will be praying over y’all, brothers, in just a few days.  

The triple rank of Holy Orders in the New Covenant is foreshadowed by the choosing of the sons of Levi to minister in the tabernacle of the old Covenant. Deacons are often referred to as Levites in the liturgical books … for instance in the Easter proclamation, the Exsultet, which perhaps some of you might be chanting next year, he calls himself an unworthy member of the tribe of Levi.
So this got me thinking – what is it about the tribe of Levi that it received this particular honor and blessing? There was already a priesthood, from Aaron … why the Levites? In Deuteronomy, when Moses is blessing the twelve tribes, of Levi he says, "Give to Levi thy Thummim, and thy Urim to thy godly one, whom thou didst test at Massah, with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Mer'ibah; who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he disowned his brothers, and ignored his children. For they observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.” (Deut. 33:8)

Levi, who regarded not his father and his mother, and disowned his brothers and ignored his children.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

One Week, Three Airlines: Southwest


I'm a happy Medallion flier with Delta. However, this year's post-Holy Week/Easter time away required a reasonably priced one-way ticket up to Washington Dulles on Easter Monday morning. Delta was exorbitant. Southwest was about half the cost, for an 8:50 am departure. So, I signed up for a Rapid Rewards account and purchased the ticket ...

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Creeping persecution in India

[My first post in 2017, and my first since September of 2016! A very blessed Holy Thursday to all, especially all my brother priests, and a very blessed Triduum to all.]

This is from an email I sent to brother priests in the United States:

If you would keep the Church in India in your prayers over these holy days, I would be grateful. Intimidation, threats, violence and  persecution break out in more remote parts of the country periodically against the Christian minority. Recently, the ruling Hindu-nationalist coalition (several member parties have public manifestos decrying Christianity as alien to India, and even conducting forcible "re-conversion" campaigns in some parts of the country) won key state elections which has emboldened their anti-Christian stance. Now there are reports of anti-Catholic incidents even in the financial center and megapolis of Bombay (Mumbai). This Holy Week there is a tense atmosphere and increasing fear among the Catholic population of Bombay. 

While this is nothing at all compared to the horrors being faced by our Christian brethren in Syria and Egypt and in the Muslim world, the increasing power of the Hindu nationalist government, and their more radical fringe elements, is of great concern. Your prayers in this holy Triduum are most appreciated. 

A recent Times of India report on the vandalization of a Cross in the suburb of Santa Cruz (named, ironically, for a shrine of the Holy Cross which dates from the Portuguese days in the 16th century):


A message being circulated by a pastor of another suburban Bombay Church. 

"Message from Fr. Clifton, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Orlem 👇
Please pray in a special way for persecution of all kinds in India, these three days? Lets give it ALL to Jesus.... lets not be distracted by the commercalism of Easter. This morning they put a sandal on the ancient cross in front of Mother Teresa's home in Santa Cruz. The place gets its name "Holy Cross" santa cruz from this cross. And broke the windscreens of cars that had Christian images- statues, rosaries, crucifixes .... its nearer to home now - and we need to intensify our prayers. I am gonna tell everyone to say a Rosary each day for this intention."