Msgr. Marini, the papal MC, celebrated Mass ad orientem in Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major this past Sunday, the Solemnity of the Ascension. Yes, Italy transferred the Ascension to Sunday too! At any rate, this is an Ordinary Form Mass celebrated at an altar that only allows for Ad Orientem celebrations. They didn't put a faux altar in front of it so that Msgr. Marini could celebrate facing the people. There are many who would say celebrating the Mass this way is turning the clock back. Many priests today, including me, were taught that facing the people is the most historic way to celebrate Mass. But the Benedictine, Fr. Nathanael Hauser has the most historic perspective on the politics of facing the people that reformers after Vatican II (not during) were able to pull off. Fr. Nathanael writes, "For instance, [many progressive liturgists ask today] 'Will the priestly role of mediation be reinforced by praying at the altar with the priest's back to the assembly?' The question itself reveals the implied response and gives no credit to the past fifty years of scholarly attention that has been given to the question of the orientation of the altar. This question is not about scholarship, or of turning back the clock, but of what the progressive prefers. Indeed, that there is no real scholarship behind the turning of the altars was admitted as early as 1959 in an article by John H. Miller, (“Altar facing the People: Fact or Fable” Worship 33. 2. 83-91) in which he says that given the scholarship of the day “… advocates of the altar “versus populum” base their cause on other reasons BESIDES historical ones. We invoke two theological reasons: a deeper consciousness of the reality of sacramental priesthood and a valued appraisal of the Mass as a banquet in format. To this we add a valid psychological motive: the people can see better the actions of the priest and understand them as, at least partially, directed towards themselves.”
So what do you like about ad orientem and what do you like about ad populum?
In the future, this style of the OF Mass of the one Roman Rite will be replaced by the ones that follow, four forms of the one Roman Rite, OF, EF, AU, and AUEF--read further! EF MASS AU MASS AUEF MASS (read further) I was reading an article on the "New Liturgical Movement" blog that an Anglican priest, Fr. John Hunuicke, SSC who plans to cross the Tiber and come over to Rome is hoping that the Anglican Use Liturgy, AU for short, like EF and OF, should be a liturgy that will be very close to the Latin Rite's OF Mass but with Anglican style English and the customs that are generally now allowed in the Anglican Liturgy.
But Fr. John is also suggesting that Rome issue an Anglican Use Tridentine Mass! What that means is a true Tridentine Mass according to the 1962 missal, but with the laity's parts, heard and spoken, in Cranmerian English. Fr. John thus says that in doing so, the one Rome Rite would have four forms, the OF, EF, AU and AUEF. AUEF, AUEF, I love it! What do you think?
See the laity's parts for the new English translation of the Mass here--print it out for future reference. Should be implemented in about a year. NEW ENGLISH MASS TRANSLATION
The woman on the far right, how odd, is the second "gay,partnered" Episcopal Bishop in the country. What do you think, but be nice, we are ecumenical and this is their business. Read the story here: Episcopalians
St. Mary Seminary and University, my seminary, Baltimore, Maryland Cross Keys Shopping Center where I worked during my seminary years Let me preface what I am writing by stating up front that my years at St. Mary Seminary and University in Baltimore between 1976 and 1980 were the best years of my life that prepared me for the priesthood of the 1980's until this day. But with 20/20 hindsight, I can critique some of what happened while in no way throwing the seminary under the bus for what was happening throughout the Church of that period.
What precipitates this essay is a conversation I had last night with the retired pastor of my parish while driving back from a 50th anniversary celebration of one of our diocesan priests in Americus, GA, near that famous place called Plains, GA. Let me tell you later about the time I had lunch with Miss Lillian back in the early 80's, but I digress.
Both Msgr. Cuddy and I were trained by Sulpician priests in Baltimore, but in entirely different eras of the Church. His seminary training was very strict, structured and disciplined. It was a monastic experience. The bell rang to get up and it rang to go to bed and after grand silence you couldn't leave your room legally for anything, not even the bathroom down the hall. Young men in their 20's were treated like children, needing permission for everything and living by the schedule and the bell and the threat of expulsion if they misbehaved and broke seminary rules.
By 1970, the Sulpicians had experienced a seminarian uprising in Baltimore and elsewhere. Seminarians were demanding of all things a pay coke machine in the seminary! But they wanted all kinds of other freedoms too. So within the course of an overnight meltdown, centuries of seminarian discipline came to a screeching halt. By the time I got there, within the course of six or seven short years everything had changed. But at 22 years old, I thought six or seven years ago was ancient history.
So what was it like for me in the seminary in the late 1970's?
Well, at 22 years old, I had more freedom than I had ever had in my whole life. I had gone to a secular college full time, lived at home and had a nearly full-time job working my way through college. I didn't have much time for fun and games. My parents had rules that I had to abide by if I was to live under their roof and their roof was cheap!I didn't pay anything.
So when I got to the seminary, I didn't have a full time job and yes, no money! But I had freedom. I could come and go as I pleased with my seminarian buddies. There was no such thing as grand silence. We'd go out to eat, to the movies, visit Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA and get back to the seminary around 3:00 AM in the morning--no questions asked. I loved it. But they still had a very strict academic regimen, but not working a full time allowed me to devote my new found time to my academics.
We didn't have a dress code. I can remember guys wearing bib overalls, without a shirt mind you, shorts, t-shirts and flip flops to class. And yes, I smoked like a chimney and all of us would smoke in class including the priest-professors. It would be like a fog in the classrooms there was so much smoke. We called the priests including the rector by their first name. We had whatever food or drink we wanted in our rooms, with tvs, stereos, refrigerators, beer, wine and booze. No problema!
We could have visitors to our rooms of either sex. No problema.
By my second year, I was desperate for money since I didn't have a full time job, so I got a job while in the seminary.I didn't bother to tell my bishop because heck other seminarians were working jobs too with their bishop's permission. I was 23 years old, had worked since I was 14 and I wasn't going to ask someone for permission to work! I worked at a local drug store, Cross Keys Shopping center, sold condoms,other birth control, Playboys and Hustlers at the cashier, delivered drugs to little old rich Jewish people in a rather swanky Jewish part of Baltimore. I loved it.
In my third year I had a field placement in a parish in Baltimore, St. Isaac Jogues. Our classes at the seminary always ceased by 12 noon on Friday. So I'd depart soon thereafter, go to the parish and stay through Sunday night. It was great!
I loved it. My close friends and I were from secular colleges, worked in the real world and knew how to handle our freedom. But there were others who took advantage of it and did not fare as well as we did and their priesthood sometimes ended in shambles.
Today, things are a bit more disciplined, but adult men in their 20's are not treated like children and that is good. I think the seminaries today are much healthier than they were in the pre-Vatican II times and certainly more healthy than they were in the chaos of the 1960's and 1970's. But by the grace of God, I survived and prospered and got a very good liberal Catholic seminary education there and that has helped me immensely over the years. Thank you St. Mary Seminary and the Sulpicians and other faculty members there.
Pray for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, he has many enemies! I haven't seen or read this story in the main stream press, but I came across it on the Rorate Caeli Blog this morning, but it is dated May 13th, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Italy: Deported Moroccans 'plotted to kill Pope'
Rome, 13 May (AKI) - Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April.
"Hlal wanted to kill the Vatican's head of state (the pope), saying he was ready to assassinate him and gain his place in paradise," Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni wrote in the expulsion order authorising Hlal and Ahmed's deportations, cited by Panorama.
Anti-terror police in Perugia intercepted Hlal discussing his plans to carry out attacks and readiness to obtain explosives for the attacks during a series of tapped telephone conversations, according to Panorama.
Moroccan authorities on 6 May released Hlal and Ahmed, who had been receiving legal assistance from a local human rights association.
The pair have denied any wrongdoing and said they intend to challenge their expulsions in the administrative tribunal in Italy's Lazio region surrounding Rome.
In a media statement issued at the time of their expulsion, the Italian interior ministry described the men as "dangerous" and a "threat to national security".
The interior ministry claimed they had links to an international network of Islamist miliists and were prepared to carry out "extremist acts".
Hlal and Ahmed's deportation followed a probe begun by anti-terrorism police in October 2009 into a group of radical Muslim foreign students in Italy, most of whom came from the Moroccan city of Fez. Several were studying at Perugia.
The interior ministry said Hlal and Ahmed belonged to this group.
If you press on the link below, it will bring you to an article in the Augusta Chronicle this morning concerning a concert in Sacred Heart Cultural Center. There is a brief video of Dr. William Toole conducting a rehearsal of the Augusta Collegium Musicum. Sacred Heart Catholic Church was closed in 1970 and purchased in 1986 by a Methodist philanthropist who restored it as a cultural center. It is used for weddings (although Catholics are not permitted to have weddings there!) for receptions, which Catholic do have there, and other civic and cultural events and many non-cultural events that don't seem appropriate in this setting, but I digress.
The late Peter Knox, and his wife restored the building basically as it was, although the pews are removed for flexibility in usage. But it could easily host the celebration of the Mass tomorrow if we were so inclined. The color scheme is not to my liking. This church was built by the same Jesuit brother who built St.Joseph here in Macon, Sacred Heart in Tampa and the hurricane destroyed Sacred Heart in Galveston, Texas. The destroyed one in Texas was an exact duplicate of the one in Augusta. Sacred Heart, Galveston: Sacred Heart Church, Augusta
Dr. William Toole belongs to St. Paul Episcopal Church in Augusta, but has had a very cordial working relationship with The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta and would fill in for us as organist and music director when we were in need. He also traveled with our choir to Italy in 1999 and assisted our then music director and organist, Mr. John Cargile by directing the choir for us. Dr. Toole has been very kind to me over the years.
There are a few special interest groups in the Church who are exploiting the "old news" of how bishops managed priests who abused children and recycled them into parish ministry in order to advance a "call to action" from the "voice of the faithful" to bring about a new reform that is really the old "spirit of Vatican II" in disguise.
The same is true of those who boarder on the schismatic in terms of their disdain not only for the "spirit of Vatican II" but also for Vatican II. I think of the Society of Pope Pius X that Pope Benedict is trying to reconcile to the Church, but there are other "far right" groups opposed to Vatican II altogether and blame the sex abuse scandal on lax discipline and an "anything goes" mentality that the "spirit of Vatican II" actually did promote. But to blame Vatican II on that would be absurd.
So on the left side of the boat we have those: --who want married clergy, women priests and bishops elected by the laity --a liturgy that is contempervent --a morality that allows for pre-marital sex, post marital sex, no marital sex, same sex pre marital sex, post marital same sex sex, no same sex marital sex and polygamy and bestiality only if you are oriented that way, because God made you that way. --the right to abortion, condoms, the pill, the morning after pill and the iud
On the right side of the boat we have those: --who want Vatican II done away with --EF Mass only --Rigid excommunication of anyone one who suggests Vatican II has legitimacy --women sent into exile who are pregnant outside of marriage --arrest of all, heterosexual or homosexual who commit sodomy in one form or another --laws against divorce and remarriage --imprisonment of women who have abortions including the abortionist
In the middle we have those: --who want Vatican II observed, not some silly spirit of Vatican II known only to gnostics --who want the Church to listen to the teachings of the pope whether in season or out of season and respect these teachings as being on a higher plane than their own divergent personal opinion --Who want the liturgy celebrated by the book either OF, EF or AU, read the black, do the red --who want the guidance of the Holy Spirit as it regards the selection of popes, bishops, priests, deacons and religious men and women --who want Catholic, laity and clergy to submit in humble obedience to the will of God in the areas of faith and morals revealed in the Deposit of Faith and to be obedient to Canon Law
Which group do you belong to and what suggestions do you have?
The Pentecost Novena is the first of all novenas, nine days of prayer. After Jesus' Ascension into heaven, He commanded His disciples to come together in the upper room to devote themselves to constant prayer (Acts 1:14). They prayed for nine days before receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
On May 4, 1897, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed: "We decree and command that throughout the whole Catholic Church, this year and in every subsequent year, a novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday (Pentecost), in all parish churches." It has been reported that Pope Leo XIII was inspired to mandate the Pentecost novena because of a letter from a housewife in Italy. Pope John Paul II has reiterated Pope Leo XIII's command for a worldwide Pentecost novena, although the novena can be prayed at any time — not only before Pentecost.
Try to go to Mass daily throughout the novena. Go to Confession during the novena. Make visits to church to adore the Eucharistic Jesus throughout the novena. The Church has not written any official prayers for the novena. The following prayers are suggested. Day 1 - Friday after the Ascension
(Where the Ascension is celebrated on Thursday)
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read: The daily Eucharistic readings:
Acts 18:9-18 John 16:20-23
(for a teaching on the daily Eucharistic readings see: One Bread, One Body)
Be silent
Pray: Father, as a mother carries her child in her womb nine months, so I choose to suffer for love of You during these nine days of the novena. Through my redemptive sufferings, may the Church receive the fullness of life in the Spirit. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Day 2 - Saturday after the Ascension
(Where the Ascension is celebrated on Thursday)
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 18:23-28 John 16:23-28
Be silent
Pray: Father, make me docile to the Holy Spirit as Apollos, Cornelius (Acts 10), and Mary were (Luke 1:38). As in the home of Priscilla and Aquila, may several people be filled with the Holy Spirit in my home. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Day 3 - Sunday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Year A Acts 1:12-14 1 Peter 4:13-16 John 17:1-11
Year B Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 1 John 4:11-16 John 17:11-19
Year C Acts 7:55-60 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 John 17:20-26
Be silent
Pray: Father, make us one in the Spirit. As You have forgiven me, may I accept Your grace to forgive immediately all who have sinned against me. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Day 4 - Monday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 19:1-8 John 16:29-33
Be silent
Pray: Father, may the Holy Spirit come down on me so that I will speak in tongues and utter prophecies. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
(For teaching on this, order our pamphlets: Speaking in Tongues and Seek Prophecy.)
Day 5 - Tuesday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 20:17-27 John 17:1-11
Be silent
Pray: Father, send the Holy Spirit to give me the power to be a witness for Jesus. May I not be ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Day 6 - Wednesday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 20:28-38 John 17:11-19
Be silent
Pray: Spirit of truth, consecrate me by means of truth. By obedience to the truth may I be purified for a genuine love of my brothers and sisters (1 Peter 1:22). I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Day 7 - Thursday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 John 17:20-26
Be silent:
Pray: Jesus, baptize me, that is, immerse me in the Holy Spirit and in the fire of purification (Matthew 3:11).
Day 8 - Friday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 25:13-21 John 21:15-19
Be silent
Pray: Holy Spirit, produce in me Your fruit: love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Day 9 - Saturday before Pentecost
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created,
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of Your faithful, grant that by that same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read:
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31 John 21:20-25
Be silent
Pray: Father, renew my Baptism and Confirmation. Stir into flame the gifts of the Spirit in my life (see 2 Timothy 1:6-7).
The outside of our lovely church will remain the same, but the interior will be transformed to accommodate my new way of doing liturgy and being relevant--private revelations are great, helping me to ascend to great creativity!!! I can't wait, view video below! I've decided to be a relevant priest after all these years, because the following video spoke to my heart, gave me a private revelation and changed my life and so beginning this Sunday, Mass will never be the same again at St. Joseph Catholic Church. It will be modeled on this video and make us into a super mega Catholic Church! We'll ascend to great heights! Life will never be the same! And you can purchase copies of my worship service videoed each week in our book store or on this blog. Tax deductible contribution of course!
I have to admit, she's still beautiful after all these years! But her comments on the sexual revolution of which she was an important part are rather striking. Also her comments on what is happening to many teenage girls today is down right shocking and rated X. What she says has been well documented on other secular news stories concerning teenage girls. So much for women's lib! I suspect she is approaching this purely from a sociological point of view and not a religious one, but who knows how God's grace works in a person. While it is not a ringing endorsement of Humanae Vitae, she's comes pretty darn close! I wonder if she is thinking about becoming Catholic, or perhaps she is rediscovering her faith? Does anyone know?
Aging Sex Icon Raquel Welch: Contraceptives Shattered Marriage, the 'Cornerstone of Civilization'
By Kathleen Gilbert
May 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Once hailed as the female sex symbol Playboy deemed the "Most Desired Woman" of the 1970s, actress Raquel Welch has now taken a more critical look at the contraceptive revolution during which she shot to stardom. In a recent column for CNN, Welch rejoices in the experience of pregnancy, and laments the havoc that the free-sex ethos has wreaked on marriage and family life.
Welch opens her column by noting that, after Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger opened America's first "family-planning clinic" in 1916," "nothing would be the same again."
"Since then the growing proliferation of birth control methods has had an awesome effect on both sexes and led to a sea change in moral values," she wrote. "And as I've grown older over the past five decades -- from 1960 to 2010 -- and lived through this revolutionary period in female sexuality, I've seen how it has altered American society -- for better or worse."
Welch counters the notion that career-minded women must avoid pregnancy at all cost, reflecting favorably on her decision to keep her children - and crediting the pregnancy experience for helping her "realize that this process was not about me." "I was just a spectator to the metamorphosis that was happening inside my womb so that another life could be born. It came down to an act of self-sacrifice, especially for me, as a woman."
While Welch praises the morning-after poll for allowing women to delay childbearing until after establishing a career, she criticizes its separation of sex from its natural consequence - the responsibility of childbearing.
"These days, nobody seems able to 'keep it in their pants' or honor a commitment!" Welch laments - which, as she points out, has led some to question whether marriage is still a "viable option."
In response, says the former Playboy covergirl: "I'm ashamed to admit that I myself have been married four times, and yet I still feel that it is the cornerstone of civilization, an essential institution that stabilizes society, provides a sanctuary for children and saves us from anarchy.
"In stark contrast, a lack of sexual inhibitions, or as some call it, 'sexual freedom,' has taken the caution and discernment out of choosing a sexual partner, which used to be the equivalent of choosing a life partner," she continues. "Without a commitment, the trust and loyalty between couples of childbearing age is missing, and obviously leads to incidents of infidelity. No one seems immune."
Welch describes the horror of her fellow members of the free-sex generation who, now parents themselves, realized the consequences that the contraceptive culture had brought upon the next generation - including rampant oral sex among middle-school-aged children. "The 13-year-old daughter of one such friend freely admitted to performing fellatio on several boys at school on a regular basis," she recounted. "'Aw come on, Mom. It's no big deal. Everyone is doing it,' she said."
Welch concludes: "Seriously, folks, if an aging sex symbol like me starts waving the red flag of caution over how low moral standards have plummeted, you know it's gotta be pretty bad. In fact, it's precisely because of the sexy image I've had that it's important for me to speak up and say: Come on girls! Time to pull up our socks! We're capable of so much better."
As a pastor, I have to attend many meetings derived from structures that have been put in place since the Second Vatican Council. Some of these are the Pastoral Council, with its myriad of committees, the School Board, the Finance Council, the Stewardship Committee and now a new structure for our future Capital Campaign which eventually will become all-consuming, sidelining some of the other meetings that I should attend. There's not a night that doesn't go by that I shouldn't be attending some meeting.
Yet Pope Benedict in his homily yesterday stated that the strength of the Church is not in her structures, but in her saints. While I haven't had the benefit to read the homily I would like to offer a few suggestions on the Holy Father's very insightful teaching.
1. What if every Catholic decided to make their home truly the Church in Miniature? 2. What if they prayed in the home every day and made the Rosary the foundation of that daily prayer, not to mention some aspects of the Liturgy of the Hours? 3. What if they attended Mass every Sunday and had a grand Sunday dinner following Mass, a formal one with their better tableware? 4. What if they tried to attend daily Mass? 5. What if they had family discussion daily during or after a sit-down supper about some aspect of Church teaching or some reflection on the saint of the day?
Hot off the press, from John Allen and the National Catholic Reporter:
Sex abuse crisis 'terrifying,' pope says Created May 11, 2010
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. Lisbon, Portugal
En route to a May 11-14 visit to Portugal, Benedict XVI called the reality of the sexual abuse crisis “terrifying” and said that the greatest persecution of the church comes not from external attacks but from sin within the church.
Benedict's insistence that the real problem is internal rather than outside attacks seemed to distance the pope from other senior Vatican officials, who in recent weeks have blamed the media and other parties for unjust criticism of the Catholic church.
While those comments came in response to a question, the questions were submitted to the Vatican by reporters covering the trip several days in advance – suggesting that Benedict wanted to address the crisis and chose his words carefully, rather than being caught off guard.
Benedict also said that while forgiveness must be part of the church’s response to the crisis, that must not come at the expense of justice.
In total, the pope’s session with the press this morning lasted approximately 16 minutes. Beyond the sexual abuse crisis, Benedict also touched upon the relationship between secularism and religious faith as well as Europe's current economic turmoil.
The following is a rush transcript of Benedict’s comments aboard the papal plane. The pope spoke in Italian; what follows is an NCR translation.
What concerns and feelings do you bring with you regarding the situation of the church in Portugal? In the past it was a deeply Catholic country that carried the faith throughout the world, but now it’s undergoing profound secularization both in daily life and on the political/legal level. How can the faith be announced in a context which is indifferent, and sometimes hostile, to the church?
First of all, good morning to all of you. I hope we all have a good trip, despite the famous ash cloud which we’re above right now.
In terms of Portugal, first of all I have feelings of joy and gratitude for everything this country has done and is doing in the world and in history, the deep humanity of this people which I’ve been able to know through a visit and so many Portuguese friends. I would say it’s true that Portugal has been a great force for the Catholic faith, and it’s carried that faith in every part of the world … a courageous, intelligent, creative faith. It’s created great cultures, which we see in Brazil, in Portugal itself, but also the presence of the Portuguese spirit in Africa and Asia.
On the other hand, this presence of secularism isn’t entirely new. The dialectic between secularism and faith in Portugal has a long history. By the seventeenth century, there was already a strong current of the Enlightenment … it’s enough to think of names such as Pombal. In these centuries, Portugal lived in this dialectic which today naturally has been radicalized and is reflected in all aspects. This seems to me a challenge, but also a great possibility. In these centuries, the dialectic among the Enlightenment, secularism and faith always had people who wanted to build bridges and to create a dialogue. Unfortunately, the dominant tendency was to see a contradiction and to see one as excluding the other. Today we can see this is false. We have to find a synthesis and be able to dialogue. In the multi-cultural situation we’re all in, it’s clear that a European culture which would be solely rationalist, which would not have any sense of the transcendent dimension, would not be in a position to dialogue with the other great cultures of humanity – all of which have this sense of the transcendent dimension, which is a dimension of the human person. To think that there’s a pure reason, even a historic reason, which exists entirely in itself, is an error, and we discover that more and more. It touches only a part of the human person expressed in a given historic situation, and is not reason as such. Reason as such is open to transcendence, and only in the meeting between transcendent reality, faith and history is human life fully realized.
I think the mission of Europe in this situation is to find a path to this dialogue, to integrate faith, rationality, and modernity in a single anthropological vision of the concrete human person and render that vision for the future of humanity.
For that reason, the presence of secularism is something normal, but a separation of cult from life, a separation of secularism from cult and faith, is anomalous and must be overcome. The great challenge is for the two to meet and to discover their true identity … this, as I said, is a mission for Europe and a human necessity in our time.
Thank you, Holy Father. Continuing on the theme of Europe, the economic crisis was recently aggravated in Europe, especially in Portugal. Some European leaders think the future of the EU is at risk. What lesson should we learn from this crisis, including at the ethical and moral level? What are the keys for consolidating the unity and cooperation of the European states in the future?
I would say that this economic crisis, with its moral component, is a case of application and making concrete what I said before: two separate cultural currents must meet, otherwise we won’t find the path to the future. Here, too, I believe there’s a false dualism. There’s an economic positivism that thinks it’s possible to realize itself without an ethical component … a market that regulates itself, by exclusively economic impulses and positivistic reason. Ethics would be something different, something extraneous. In reality, we can see today that a pure economic pragmatism which ignores the reality of the human person, who is inherently ethical, inevitably creates problems. This is a moment to recognize that ethics is not something exterior, but rather interior to all forms of rationality, including economic reason.
On the other hand, we also have to confess the Catholic-Christian faith often has been overly individualistic. It left the concrete things of the economy to the world, thinking only of individual salvation and religious acts, without recognizing that these things imply a global responsibility and a responsibility for the world. We have to enter into a concrete dialogue, as I tried to do in my encyclical Caritas in Veritate, and the whole tradition of the social teaching of the church moves in this sense … broadening the ethical aspect of the faith from the individual to a responsibility for the world.
The latest events in the market show that the ethical dimension is an interior part of economic life because the human person is one. It’s a matter of a healthy anthropology, and only in this way can we solve the problem, only in this way can Europe realize its mission.
Thank you. Now we look to Fatima, which will be the spiritual culmination of this trip. What meaning do the apparitions of Fatima have for us today? When you presented the Third Secret of Fatima in a press conference at the Vatican Press Office in June 2000, you were asked if the message of the secret could be extended beyond the assassination attempt against John Paul II to other sufferings of the popes. Could it also be extended to put the suffering of the church today in the context of that vision, including the sins of the sexual abuse of minors?
First of all, I want to express my joy to go to Fatima, to pray before the Madonna of Fatima, and to experience the presence of the faith there, where from the little ones a new force of the faith was born. It’s not limited to the little ones, but has a message for the whole world and all epochs of history, it illuminates this history. As I said in the presentation, there is a supernatural impulse which doesn’t come simply from someone’s imagination but from the supernatural reality of the Virgin Mary. That impulse enters into a subject, and is expressed according to the possibilities of the subject, who is determined by his or her historic situation. The supernatural impulse is translated, so to speak, according to the subject’s possibilities for imagining it and expressing it. In this expression formed by the subject, there are always hidden possibilities to go beyond, to go deeper. Only with time can we see all the depth which was, so to speak, dressed in this vision, which was possible for the concrete person.
With regard to this great vision of the suffering of the popes, beyond the circumstances of John Paul II, other realities are indicated which over time will develop and become clear. Thus it’s true that beyond the moment indicated in the vision, one speaks about and sees the necessity of suffering by the church. It’s focused on the person of the pope, but the pope stands for the church, and therefore sufferings of the church are announced. The church will always be suffering in various ways, up to the end of the world. The important point is that the message of Fatima in its substance is not addressed to particular situations, but a fundamental response: permanent conversion, penance, prayer, and the three cardinal virtues: faith, hope and charity. One sees there the true, fundamental response the church must give, which each of us individually must give, in this situation.
In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church. The suffering of the church also comes from within the church, because sin exists in the church. This too has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way. The greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside, but is born in sin within the church. The church thus has a deep need to re-learn penance, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice. Forgiveness does not exclude justice. We have to re-learn the essentials: conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues. That’s how we respond, and we can be realistic in expecting that evil will always launch attacks from within and from outside, but the forces of good are also always present, and finally the Lord is stronger than evil. The Madonna for us is the visible maternal guarantee that the will of God is always the last word in history.
By the grace of God and the maternal protection of the Blessed Mother, no one was critically injured and no one was killed. At the time I post this, about 5:30 AM this morning, two years ago, Tornado sirens were screaming throughout the city alerting citizens to the impending disaster. The weather was wicked, hot, muggy and stifling. The wind was wicked, the lightening unbelievable and the thunder downright apocalyptic. Downtown was jostled but left relatively unscathed, but for a few minutes I thought I'd be like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, finding myself not in Macon anymore, but somewhere else. I prayed my Act of Contrition hoping that the somewhere else wouldn't be hell! We didn't cancel any of our Masses that Mother's Day morning although Maconites were ordered to stay off the roads that day. We had a respectable showing for Mass although certainly curtailed in comparison to a normal Mother's Day turnout.
In my opinion, the best screen depiction of the Blessed Mother from the "Passion of Christ" More of Mel Gibson's Mother of Sorrows
My homily for Mother's Day, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, or the Fifth Sunday after Easter depending on your ordinary or extraordinary outlook on liturgical calendars!
Introduction: This coming Thursday, is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Pope Benedict will travel to Fatima, Portugal this Thursday to honor Our Blessed Mother under that title and to recall that Twenty-nine years ago on this coming Thursday, May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot at St. Peter’s square and narrowly escaped death. After his miraculous recovery, Pope John Paul II attributed the sparing of his life to the Blessed Mother, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima. Cardinal Sadona commenting on the Pope’s escape from death said, “It appeared evident to His Holiness that it was a motherly hand, which guided the bullet’s path, enabling the dying Pope to halt at the threshold of death.”
Topic Statement: The motherly care of the Blessed Mother has protected the Body of Christ, the Church, throughout the ages by guiding the evil that is inflicted upon the Church in a way that will not be fatal.
1. The Blessed Mother is an image of what the Church is and thus we refer to the Church as Holy Mother Church.
A. “Somebody said” A mother is an unskilled laborer. Somebody never gave a squirmy infant a bath. …You know how to be a mother by instinct. Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping. …That “good” mothers never yell at their kids. Somebody’s child never sent a baseball through a neighbor’s picture window. …A mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in books. Somebody never had a child stuff beans up their nose. …A mother adores her children. Somebody never tried to comfort a colicky baby at 3 A.M. …A mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. Somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies into a cookie-selling brigade. …The hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery. Somebody never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten. …Your mother knows you love her, so you don’t have to tell her. Somebody isn’t a mother.
B. The vocation of motherhood mirrors the demanding love of Christ—love that is total and selfless, love that has neither limits nor conditions, love that is given freely without any expectation of return. Motherhood points to the Holy Mother Church carrying the love God and nurturing this love amongst God’s children. Mothers are models for us of what it means to be authentic disciples of Jesus. As we honor our mothers today, let us embrace the spirit of hard, demanding, suffering love that is a mother’s gift to her children, the Blessed Mother’s love for her Son and His Church, the same spirit of love that is of the Risen Lord.
2. The role of our Mothers in the life of the Church can have an equally profound impact upon guiding children to know, love and serve Jesus Christ through the Church.
A. One of the greatest saints and theologians of the Church was Saint Augustine of Hippo. However, his early life was not at all holy. He lived a life of debauchery and scandal. However, through the example and persistent prayers of his mother, Saint Monica, St. Augustine eventually returned to the practice of the faith, became a priest and finally a bishop and one of the early Church’s greatest teachers of truth. Perhaps his own Mother’s love for him enabled him to enunciate a very important truth about the Church’s understanding of love. “What does love look like?” Love has the hands to help others; It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others. That’s what love looks like.” I suspect St. Augustine’s Mother Monica fit this description as well as was the inspiration for his teaching. Perhaps Augustine saw himself as the one loved.
B. In Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus issues his challenge to love one another as He had loved them. Jesus himself embodied love and through the Blessed Mother’s willingness to give birth to Jesus and to nurture him as He grew, Jesus makes tangible in a very human way the love that all of us should imitate. The Church like a good mother cares for our soul as we experience the Lord’s spirit and the love that nurtured Him, His mother’s love.
Conclusion: As we celebrate the loving sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross at this Mass and receive the sign of His love, His body and blood, may our love for His Holy Mother and for Holy Mother Church increase our love for Jesus Christ. Through the Church, His Bride and our mother, He has conceived us by Water and the Holy Spirit and given us the promise of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete and of eternal life.
Our Lord thinks it is hilarious that He has to ascend into heaven twice, once on Ascension Thursday then again when the miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becomes Ascension Thursday, but only in some parts of the country! Jesus' ascension on Ascension Thursday, but like the space shuttle, He'll have to return in the Flesh to do it again on the miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becoming Ascension Thursday! Jesus is befuddled about ascending to heaven twice in one week and is also befuddled by the miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becoming Ascension Thursday, but only in some places! The Solemnity of the Ascension
Please note that in our part of the country, Macon, Georgia, the Solemnity of the Ascension has been transferred from the traditional 40 days after Easter, which would be this Thursday, to the following Sunday. So this Thursday is not Ascension Thursday, unless you live somewhere where it is Ascension Thursday. Next Sunday is not the 7th Sunday of Easter, but rather Ascension Thursday unless you live in a place which does not have the miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becoming Ascension Thursday.
So the continuing conundrum our bishops have created in their disunity is the following: If you travel to the northeast this Thursday where it is still Ascension Thursday, and you intentionally miss Mass on that day, you commit a mortal sin, but not if you had stayed in good old Macon, because here it is not Ascension Thursday. Now if you live in the northeast and attend Mass on Ascension Thursday, but then travel to Macon for next Sunday’s Mass, you’ll be celebrating Ascension Thursday again with us next Sunday, thus the miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becoming Ascension Thursday and you getting a double dose of the solemnity only by the grace of God, or should I say, the disunity of our American bishops, whichever you prefer.
But if you live in the northeast and travel here on Ascension Thursday, it won’t be Ascension Thursday and if you go back to the northeast for Sunday Mass, it won’t be Ascension Thursday on Sunday but the 7th Sunday of Easter. So you would have missed Ascension Thursday altogether through no fault of your own, but through the fault of our bishops. It’s fun being Catholic, isn’t it?
Why couldn't the bishops in those parts of the country who felt it was just such a terrible burden for priests and laity to celebrate Ascension Thursday and thus have to attend Mass under the penalty of mortal sin and to have multiple Masses, simply to remove the "obligation" to attend and leave it on Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter, rather than make a useless miracle of the 7th Sunday of Easter becoming Ascension Thursday for expediency's sake? Seems to me to go against natural law making Sunday a Thursday, after all Sunday is suppose to be the Lord's Day, not Ascension Thursday!
On various blog sites that deal with the abuse scandal, many who leave comments decry that any Catholic would dare criticize the reporting of the New York Times on this horrible story. They say that the liberal news media has done us a favor by exposing this scandal and bringing the bishops' "cover-up" to light. They say we should give the news media glory, praise and thanks.
In one way I do agree with them. It was through the reporting of the National Catholic Reporter, beginning in the early 1980's, as a result of a priest who abused children in Louisiana, that many Catholics realized for the first time that this one story was just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately the National Catholic Reporter had so compromised itself and still does by being so left leaning and promoting dissent in the Church that many saw the NCR as the source of the problem not its solution. As a young priest it was the first time I had ever read such disgusting things about what a priest did to children. I thought the NCR was exaggerating. Many of my peers in the priesthood and those older too had never heard of these things done by a priest. Unfortunately because the NCR is such a left-leaning, dissenting rag, many people did not take them seriously at the time.
Then in 2002 the Boston Globe zeroed in on the Catholic Church exclusively, because they really couldn't do it for other institutions, and unveiled horror story after horror story. It was this reporting and the outcry that ensued that finally caused the bishops of this country to act in a more decisive way to bring about much needed reform in their management of priests. Unfortunately the universal Church did not follow the lead of the American bishops in creating a reform movement throughout the world. Not until this year with a similar kind of expose in the media occurring in Europe did Pope Benedict and European bishops begin to create universal policies for the Church in order to limit mismanagement of priests by bishops in the future.
But in America, the reporting of the New York Times in the current round of this scandal has truly been abysmal, shocking, abusive and downright nasty. Associated Press and NBC have also shown similar non-professionalism and yellow journalism. Except for bloggers and brave commentators, there are no reporters doing scrutiny on the likes of the owners of the New York Times, their reporters and their political agenda against the Catholic Church. And unfortunately a secular clericalism has supported these nasty villains by declaring criticism of them off limits. Some Catholics have embraced the New York Times in order to assert their own fowl vision of the Catholic Church based on dissent and mirroring what the Anglican Church has become.
Fortunately, the new media on the internet has called the New York Times, AP and NBC for what they are, anti-Catholic, bigoted and political anarchists desiring to make the Catholic Church like the Anglican Church and thus no threat to the godless, secular, political positions which these media monsters promote.
The lecture below is another good example of the truth being told about the media:
A Holy Father
by Kathryn Jean Lopez
It was Holy Week. It was Holy Week and everywhere I turned – or so it seemed to this news junkie -- I heard calls for the pope’s resignation. He would step down, pundits on MSNBC could have had you believing, as if it were a foregone conclusion and absolutely necessity. The veritable end of the Catholic Church – or at least the Vatican -- if you were to believe some writing for the New York Times, was both imminent and welcome.
Of course, at the same time you had churches in the sophisticated metropolises of New York and Washington, D.C., between which I divide my time, overflowing. As clear as the palpability of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist is for me – a gift I wish for everyone – was the reality of what was going on. This is no end but a beginning. The story of redemption, yet again. The Cross conquers the sin and evil that we are known to succumb to.
A few months ago while he was in New York promoting his book, The Difference God Makes, I asked Francis Cardinal George of Chicago if the Church, right now, were undergoing a renewal. The story of Christianity is a continual story of renewal, he told me. The Church is always undergoing a renewal.
It’s the story of men and each one of our souls. It’s why I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read the author of God Is Not Great declare that “here is an ancient Christian church that deals in awful certainties when it comes to outright condemnation of sins like divorce, abortion, contraception, and homosexuality between consenting adults. For these offenses there is no forgiveness.” There is always forgiveness! To miss that, is to miss it all!
Pope Benedict was recently in Turin, Italy. “I am here as Successor of Peter, and I carry in my heart the whole Church, indeed, all of humanity,” he said. He confessed to being drawn to the Shroud of Turin as so many others have been because there is a “light” in the “darkness” there. There is “victory” there. There is a glimpse of “the death of Jesus, but glimpse his resurrection [too]; in the heart of death there now beats life, inasmuch as love lives there.” Here Christ “takes upon himself man’s passion of every time and every place, even our passion, our suffering, our difficulties, our sins – ‘Passio Christi. Passio hominis’ -- from this moment there emanates a solemn majesty, a paradoxical lordship.”
I thought of Benedict’s words while at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral for the tenth anniversary of the death of John Cardinal O’Connor earlier this week. Ecumenically, we gathered to celebrate. Former New York mayor Ed Koch was there, remembering the man who, he said, changed his life through his loving friendship. Walking distance from the New York Times headquarters, I thought of one of the paper’s columnists and his campaign to convince the world that the ceremony is all remnants of a false and failing Church as I looked at Archbishop Timothy Dolan with his elaborate staff and miter as we celebrated Mass. He would go on to talk about the oblative power of the priesthood. And I couldn’t help to see the edifying beauty in it all – the Church’s beautiful spiritual and corporal works that gain the admiration of even those who don’t believe. But the bells and smells and discipline and traditions are not problems. Christ is the heart of the Church. A lack of fidelity, a rejection of Truth are the problems.
The doors of the cathedral were open that evening. On one side I could almost see the consulate of the Venezuelan regime. On another side I saw Saks Fifth Avenue, where I not-too-long-ago encountered an in-your-face “Want It!” campaign that might have been an excellent way to encourage shopping but probably didn’t reflect the best of us. The world needs this solemn majesty. Every man and woman outside and inside needs it. Sinners on and off the altar, all. Secular Jews, too.
Koch recently defended the Catholic Church against the attacks of the New York Times and others. He saw what others wouldn’t: that the pile-on has an agenda behind it.
There are so many sins. There have always been and there always will be. But the Church today is reacting and protecting differently today than it once did. In part because we just know what we once didn’t. In part because there is more transparency. And in no small part because, especially here in the U.S., we have strict norms that won’t tolerate abuse and make laxity and cover-up near to impossible.
One of those sinful, deeply shameful and hurtful stories is the still-unfolding story of the Legionaries of Christ. The Vatican recently released a clear and direct statement on the investigation five bishops conducted on the religious order. This statement outlines the multilayered role of the pope and other members of the hierarchy of the Church: to be teacher, to be father, and yes, to be enforcer. No tolerance for abuse. No question about what the heart of the Church is. There is compassion. There are no excuses and punishment, too.
If a heart can weep, I have watched this pope’s, as he speaks of scandal and meets with victims of abuse at the hands of priests who rejected their calling. They rejected their calling when they abused our Lord’s children. When his heart weeps, it’s united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is as real as the Real Presence. And as the pope weeps, he must feel the pain of our Lord on the cross as we rejected him – rejected him as a priest did when he was not being a priest, who was not being Catholic, when he abused a child.
He weeps, too, because of all the priests and Catholics who walk around with a cloud above them, or who are confused and angry and hurt because of what a minority have done. He knows that there are men and women who are in grave danger of losing their faith because of others who have lacked the courage of integrity.
While MSNBC waits for the pope’s resignation, he, every day, leads a renewal. In our hearts and in the structure of the Church. I think even the New York Times realizes it. It’s why they grasp at old stories, trying to obscure what’s happening now. And even as they do that, they have to admit, as they recently did, that “there are indications that Benedict had a lower tolerance for sexual misconduct by elite clergy members than other top Vatican officials.”
Reading the statement on the Legion out of the Vatican, I’d conclude no tolerance. If it hadn’t been firm and had teeth, frankly, it would have been a bigger news story. The fact is that Benedict is a leader of renewal, a solution to the problem. He has been and continues to be. And that’s why, while trying to do the opposite, the “Paper of Record” couldn’t help but admit it. At a paper that has a libertine interest in the collapse of the institution that offers something radically counter-cultural, that has to be bad news. But it’s the news all the same, thanks be to God, working, in part, through our Holy Father today.
Pray. Listen. Be true. Fidelity to the faith, to our vocations, to our Lord, these are the answers to sin and scandal. Pray the Holy Father continues to be lead by the Spirit in this renewal, and each and every member of the Body of Christ.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com) and a nationally syndicated columnist.
A HUMBLE MODEST PROPOSAL BELOW THE PHOTOS, FROM YOURS TRULY! Don't go crazy! I'm not doing this, just suggesting it to the Holy Father in the most humble and non-egotistical way possible. What about a vernacular EF Mass that still preserves some of our Latin heritage? If I hear from the Holy Father about this, rest assured this blog would come to a conclusion!
It seems to me that the next logical step in Summorum Pontificum is for the Holy Father to allow the Extraordinary Form in the vernacular. I know he wants to preserve the Latin and I think he could if he mandated that in the Extraordinary Form only the Roman Canon be used and prayed in Latin. Perhaps the quiet prayers of the priest could remain in Latin, but I personally would like the option of English.
Again, I go back to the 1965 Roman Missal which allowed all the parts of the people, their spoken and heard responses to be in English and only the quiet unchanging parts of the priest in Latin only. Of course some might object to the simplification of the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar in this missal, psalm 42 is omitted, but it is omitted anyway in Requiem Masses and Passiontide. The Per Ipsum was changed to what we do in the OF now. I think placing the Paten under the corporal cloth until after the Pater Noster was eliminated, thus the ritual of placing the host on the Paten. As well, the Last Gospel was dropped. But these are really minor changes and simplifications what I believe Sacrosanctum Concilium really had in mind in terms of "noble simplicity" and allowing for the vernacular but also maintaining the Latin. I still contend that we could have the EF Mass in the vernacular using all of the changing prayers of the OF Mass today, the OF calendar and the OF lectionary and celebrating the Liturgy of the Word or the Mass of Catechumens in the OF manner, with lay readers, male or female.
Of course the 1962 missal in Latin would still be an option for those who want it. But doing it my way would really present a golden opportunity for more people to be exposed to the riches of the 1962 missal. The vernacular would be in continuity with what almost two generations of Catholics know and have experienced. It would be using the "hermeneutic of continuity" so popular today.There would be post-Vatican II "active participation" and the laity involved in the official ministry of reader. What do you think?
Finally, no one need point out to me that the song, "I Did It My Way" by Frank Sinatra is the theme song of hell.
I just came across this video on the EF Mass celebrated in Rome recently. What I love about it the most is the commentator speaking in Italian. He must be from Tuscano because I can understand his Italian very well. I grew up in the south hearing only my mother and her Italian friends speaking Italian. I seldom heard men speaking it. Therefore I understand women speaking Italian better then men speaking Italian. Men speak it fast and seem to speak as though they have food in their mouths. But not this commentator. I understood almost every word. I love Italian, it is such a beautiful language! Now, why can I understand it so well, but speak it so poorly, although I can get by! I need a psycholinguist to help me understand how one brain can handle more than one language and understand one better than speak it.
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