The Daily Telegraph reports that Pope Benedict recently celebrated Mass facing East in the Sistine Chapel. Shawn Tribe has a picture and more scholarly comment. Fr Ray has more photos and comment. It makes a lot of sense to me. There are certain parts of the Mass that are clearly the priest’s prayer and offering to God on behalf of the people, and certain parts of the Mass where the priest is addressing the people. In those parts where the... Read more

In your conversations with conservative Evangelical Christians, has anyone else ever noticed a strange double think? It is a common tactic for Conservative Evangelical Christians to find some abuse of liberal Catholics and beat all Catholics with that abuse. Let us say that the conservative Evangelical discovers that Catholics do not believe in healing miracles, or a liberal Catholic has denied the historicity of the gospels, or a liberal Catholic nun ministers to lesbians or most Catholic priests do not... Read more

Damian Thompson reports the imminent beatification of Fr. Newman….that would be J.Henry, not J.Scott…. Read more

Our ex Catholic friend in the combox criticizes Catholics for indulging in a theology of suffering. Didn’t the Master say we must ‘take up our cross and follow him’ if we would be his disciple? Now what could that possibly mean except that we ought not only expect, but accept the suffering that comes to us? Would our critical friend like to quarrel with the verses that not only predict persecution and suffering but also tell us to “Rejoice when... Read more

Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (who’s family immigrated to Britain, who’s father converted from Islam to Catholicism and who is a convert from Catholicism to Anglicanism) warns that certain parts of Britain are being taken over by extremist elements of the predominantly Muslim population, making these parts of Britain dangerous for Christians. When will liberal Christians realize that while there are many peaceful and tolerant Muslims, Islam is not essentially a religion of tolerance and peace? Those who blame the Catholic... Read more

In conversation with a young seminarian last week we were discussing the problems within the Catholic Church. My own opinion is that the problems have little to do with all the external things we focus on: choice of hymns, type of liturgy, church architecture, preaching styles, etc. etc. etc. All these things are important, but more often than not they are symptoms, not causes. The real underlying problem in the Catholic Church (and Western Christianity) is that it has lost... Read more

A commenter notes about Benedict XVI’s more exalted taste in regalia that he doesn’t think Peter the fisherman would be comfortable in such outfits. This is a commonplace argument when faced with the glories of Catholic regalia, liturgy, music or architecture. “What!” says the tourist when faced with an Austrian baroque church, “this is hardly the sort of temple one would expect for one born in a stable.” Another similar argument protests that such rich finery and opulent temples are... Read more

More recent photographs of the papal regalia. h/t Roving Medievalist. Read more

Last year the attendance for the Mass for the Solemnity of the Mother of God was poor so the parish pastor decided to have just one Mass today. Happily the church was packed. Our splendid choir sang, there were seventeen perfectly drilled young male servers. Fr Michael Cassabon–our newly ordained priest was home from Rome for the holidays. He was our principal celebrant with Fr. Newman, Fr Bart (resplendent in blue Maronite vestments) and myself concelebrating. We were also joined... Read more

One of the regular commentators on this blog is a British fellow who was brought up a Catholic and has left the Catholic Church for charismatic Protestantism. It’s great to have him here because his questions and comments are always lively and, although sometimes punchy, are always put with good humor and a charitable spirit. I can certainly understand why some people would leave the Catholic Church for charismatic Protestantism. Maybe within Catholicism they had a genuinely bad experience at... Read more