tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89403640934508375492012-01-29T21:08:29.118ZFr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.comBlogger13641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-37275786279966024462011-12-25T01:05:00.001Z2011-12-25T01:05:00.447Z

In a patristic lection offered by the Liturgy of the Hours, S Ambrose reminds us that the first thing our blessed Lady did after the Annunciation was to hurry into the hill country to visit Elizabeth; and asks, rhetorically, 'For whither, now Full of God [plena Deo], should she hurry if not to higher places?' Pace Fr Zed, the greatest of the Roman poets was not Horace, but Publius Ovidius Naso,

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-66932599538454536572011-11-21T10:37:00.002Z2011-11-21T10:37:00.156Z

On the Feast of the Presentation of our Lady, November 21 1924, in the little Anglo-Catholic village of S Hilary in Cornwall, where Fr Bernard Walke so heroically worked and suffered to establish the Faith, one of his collaborators had a remarkable vision. Mother Theresa, Foundress of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus and Mary (the community now at Posbury S Francis in Devon), describes it: "We

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-58907352986735931032011-11-21T09:32:00.001Z2011-11-21T09:32:00.754Z

It is possible for right-thinking people to feel a trifle awkward about the fact that the Byzantine Tradition and the Latin look just a weeny bit out of kilter on the question of our Lady's Immaculate Conception. Prescinding from detail, I find a lot of comfort in comparing the underlying logic of the Immaculate Conception with that of our Lady's Presentation in the Temple (Nov 21). In each case,

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-1894151730988852972011-10-27T16:19:00.006+01:002011-10-27T16:56:40.463+01:00

In January, I posted the following, after the Superior of the SSPX had spoken, in my view most disrespectfully, about the present pope's intention to have a new 'Assisi Event' for peace: I'm not sure that I agree - despite having some sympathy with him - with Bishop Fellay's views on the New Assisi which is planned. Considering Papa Ratzinger's subtlety and his views on the necessarily coherent,

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-15160528271565456222011-10-23T09:34:00.000+01:002011-10-23T09:34:53.456+01:00

My old email address, at the thomasthemartyr domain, has now expired with the domain being closed down for the duration of the interregnum at S Thomas's. My telephone number remains the same as when I was at S Thomas's and my address remains as it has been since we moved out of John Coombes House in July. I invite people who wish to send me emails and do not know my new email address to get in

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-1364469314736881492011-10-10T12:48:00.000+01:002011-10-10T12:48:21.939+01:00

 ... those whose messages I have been tardy in replying to ... and to friends who hoped to run into me at the Ordinariate reception. We have been on holiday in Cornwall.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-57296394071165197152011-08-30T22:52:00.000+01:002011-08-27T22:58:28.857+01:00

In case there is anybody still visiting this piece of ancient History ... ... Here is a series I posted in April. I am thinking of working it up for publication. I welcome any points which are not already in the threads. In particular, I would welcome an identification of the two quotations from Ratzinger in Part 2 ... which I have mislaid.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-67627231152259540592011-08-29T10:02:00.000+01:002011-08-27T22:47:24.035+01:00

Continues Chad Glendinning quotes A S Sanchez-Gil as feeling that the Roman Missal, along with other liturgical books, cannot be reduced to a collection of liturgical laws. This is along the right lines, but does not, I feel, go nearly far enough. The great Anglican liturgist, Prebendary Michael Moreton, now striding eruditely through his nineties, sees the Canon Romanus - if I understood him

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-24956978280947169852011-08-28T10:28:00.000+01:002011-08-29T16:10:57.712+01:00

While looking through the library of the late and learned and very lamented Fr Michael Melrose, Successor Martyris as Vicar of S Giles, Reading, I spotted an unusual little volume (well, there were plenty of those: what a Library!): very slender, published in 1912, it gave the Psalter as rearranged by S Pius X. In other words, you didn't have to buy a new Breviary; you bought the Slender Volume

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-51857667691701692722011-08-28T10:19:00.000+01:002011-08-27T22:48:24.112+01:00

Continues. In 1999 Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: "Rites ... are forms of the Apostolic Tradition and of its unfolding in the great places of the Tradition." ... He had in the same book previously observed that these places, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, all are "connected with Petrine traditions" ... it is not only in Rome that Peter speaks in the Paradosis. He goes on: "The liturgy cannot be

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-67807013404226111042011-08-27T10:23:00.001+01:002011-08-29T14:00:12.187+01:00

Continues Sometimes a parallel is suggested between S Pius V, revising the Roman Rite after and by mandate of the Council of Trent, and Paul VI, revising it after and by mandate of Vatican II. This is, I believe, a gross misunderstanding (i) of what S Pius was about, as he describes his own actions in Quo primum; and (ii) of the considerable differences between those two events. S Pius has been

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-75963476489721724952011-08-26T09:21:00.000+01:002011-08-27T22:45:11.180+01:00

Continues. I believe that Cardinal Ratzinger, the first Anglo-Catholic Cardinal, pioneered a new approach to the concept of what is, liturgically, licit. It is an attitude which has strong links with the views of Anglican liturgists such as Dom Gregory Dix and Prebendary Michael Moreton, with the attitude to liturgical liceity which was held by the grat Anglo-Papalist priests such as

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-14417936755958045182011-08-25T09:22:00.000+01:002011-08-27T22:42:49.641+01:00

A valued and learned friend has copied to me a paper in the January 2011 number of Worship, by a North American canonist called Chad Glendinning. Because I believe that (a) it summarises lucidly and usefully the current state of opinion among experts about the subject with which it deals; and that (b) its conclusions completely misunderstand that same subject, I plan ... most unwisely, because I

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-38021329717005979752011-07-25T14:15:00.002+01:002011-07-25T15:26:04.889+01:00

Apologies because only yesterday was I able to get back into my computer. I am still working through the immense backlog of emails and other business.And thanks to those who gave me such a warm welcome in Texas ... Fr Allan and Jose again, with their congregation, in Arlington; Craig and Terry Southard, my hospitable hosts there for a second year. And Mikayla, who eats the ice-creams I can't

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-57098972465419607122011-07-05T12:57:00.002+01:002011-07-05T12:59:49.169+01:00

Imminently, we are moving house and I am spending some time in Texas. So I don't know when next I shall look at emails, let alone answer them. If you can, hold off until I post something here.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-51523448515820940632011-07-01T10:50:00.002+01:002011-07-01T10:59:15.453+01:00

I am touched by all those - rather a lot - who have been in touch with me, by various means, to urge the continuation of this blog in a private forum with a controlled and confidential group. It would be imprudent of me to spell out why I cannot do this; but I can't. It is not because I do not trust my friends to be discrete.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-59931073051910551952011-06-09T08:40:00.001+01:002011-06-09T08:40:00.113+01:00

I think I had better share with my friends the distressing news that my ordination within the Catholic Church has been "deferred".I think there has been some misunderstanding about the content of my blog, which I regret. Regular readers of the blog will be aware that its main characteristic is that of total submission to the Church's Magisterium, and of profound admiration for the person and

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The most interesting aspect of the legislation involved in these documents is that they establish a culture of liturgical pluriformity and, indeed, give it legal protection. The entrenchment of this principle by SP, an exercise of the principle of subsidiarity, is strikingly confirmed in UE. A newly ordained curate does not even need the agreement of his parish priest, let alone his bishop, to

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-74543058585976846802011-06-08T10:17:00.002+01:002011-06-08T10:17:00.295+01:00

This continues my series (see June 1 and June 5) about the background of the imminent new English translation of the Mass.We have seen that the old 1970s translation of the Missal was regarded by all, at each end of the 'political' spectrum, as Unfit for Purpose. This is worth emphasising because there has recently been a tendency among those most radically opposed to Pope Benedict's liturgical

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-32785632237208988872011-06-07T10:00:00.001+01:002011-06-07T20:51:13.394+01:00

The Catholic Ecumenical Directory deals sensibly and straightforwardly withe the question of sacramental sharing between Catholics and non-Catholics. I do not propose to look at the norms concerning such sharing between Catholics and members of those Churches whose sacraments are accepted as valid by the Church. Nor at the rules concerning Catholics and the sacramental celebrations of ecclesial

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-73842994035848690132011-06-05T09:34:00.001+01:002011-06-05T09:34:00.249+01:00

Lord, Holy Father, Almighty Eternal God. I wrote recently about the problems with the old, 1970s, translation of the Mass. Indeed, the problems with that translation were widely recognised very soon after it came into use. I will quote the words (2002) of a man who cannot be accused of any sympathy with Traditionalism: Archbishop Rembert Weakland, a "Spirit of Vatican II" prelate whose antipathy

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-1323587015014777542011-06-04T09:20:00.000+01:002011-06-04T09:20:00.604+01:00

Intellectually, academically, the most exciting thing about Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae is that they establish a level playing field in discussion about the relative merits of any conflicting provisions in the OF and the EF. Perhaps this is one of the things the Holy Father had in mind when he spoke about mutual enrichment. Previously, as enactment after enactment emerged from the

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-29735762271224110552011-06-03T09:50:00.000+01:002011-06-03T09:50:00.670+01:00

Liturgia Horarum, Friday in Week II: Ad Horam mediam. Psalm 58(vg) = 59(MT) is traditionally regarded as referring to David, when Saul had his house watched so that he could kill him.This psalm is printed with (Neovulgate) verses 6-9 and 12-16 (= RSV 5-8 and 11-15) removed.That deceived and mis-guided pontiff Paul VI, or whoever wrote the words he signed, explains why: "A few harsher verses are

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-58738784769013525962011-06-02T10:18:00.000+01:002011-06-02T10:18:00.063+01:00

So which Collect will be used on Ascension Day in the OF next year?At the Vigil Mass and at the First Vespers, the Editio tertia Missalis Romani of 2002 offers a new Collect, which will be used in after this year in the new Translation.And moreover, for the Day itself, the Third Edition gives the alternative of yet another new Collect: except that in this case it isn't new, it's the ancient Roman

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-55496396057661223412011-06-01T08:02:00.000+01:002011-06-01T08:02:00.061+01:00

What a good thing, last Sunday, that for family reasons (my turn to look after a particular grandson) I went to Mass with the Oratorians at Alyoggers (rather than to the Oxford Ordinariate Vigil Mass which we have in Pusey House at 6.30). So I had the opportunity to hear the Pastoral Letter from the hierarchy of England and Wales on the new translsation of the Missal.As parish priests - we gather

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-46863025548916326132011-05-31T10:14:00.002+01:002011-05-31T10:14:00.739+01:00

There is little point in reading this if you have not read Part 1Pickstock, drawing heavily upon Bossy, emphatically demanded a positive answer to Luther's typically late medieval and individualistic question Can my eating slake your hunger? She demonstrated the profound authenticity of a corporate understanding of Christianity in which what we do does affect our fellow-members of the Body of

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Martin Luther notoriously, and polemically, asserted "As you massmongers cannot be baptised nor believe for someone else, similarly you are unable to receive the Sacrament for someone else. As every man is baptised for himself, so he has to eat and drink for himself. Can my eating slake your hunger? No more can your eating of this Sacrament do me good". Two late twentieth century writers

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IGMR (edition tertia) para 85, citing documents of 1967 and 1973, describes it as valde optandum that the faithful should be communicated with hosts consecrated in the same Mass. As far as my experience goes, this 'hope' is widely disregarded, both in the more traditionalist churches and in the less traditionalist RC churches, for reasons of manifest convenience; one does not have to guess at

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-64704116017594949192011-05-28T09:47:00.006+01:002011-05-28T09:47:00.274+01:00

I referred not long ago to the amusingly delicate way in which UE referred to the scandal that for more than a generation those being formed for the priesthood were - in flagrant disregard of CIC 249 - not made fluent in Latin (I am assured that things are better now).As long ago as 1933, C S ('Patrimony') Lewis advanced the suggestion that the attacks - even then - upon the position of Latin and

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-28423000857715910522011-05-27T09:59:00.000+01:002011-05-27T09:59:00.231+01:00

The text of the hymns in the post-conciliar breviary is a great deal better than in the 1962 breviary; the texts have been restored to what they were before Urban VIII classicised them in the 1620s (thus bringing them into line with the Sarum and Benedictine usages of the Roman Rite). They are, many of them, in their original forms. But the coetus which redacted them in 1968 did make some

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-19907605827582469272011-05-26T21:52:00.001+01:002011-05-26T21:52:00.234+01:00

... on Tuesday, our Lady Auxilium Christianorum, commemorating the return of the Holy Father from Napoleonic Captivity. Does anybody know anything about the Brandimarte who, according to the Google links, wrote the delightfully, exuberantly, Baroque Office Hymns for this feast? The Sapphic metre does fit this sort of thing rather well, doesn't it? Does anyone know why the Feast was in the old

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-73801729279052044902011-05-26T09:50:00.000+01:002011-05-26T09:50:00.538+01:00

If you are accustomed to the Liturgia Horarum, and you look in a 1961 Breviary, you will get a shock when you got to the Office Hymn for Vespers during Eastertide. Instead of Ad cenam agni providi you will find Ad regias agni dapes. This text is the piece of elegant Renaissance Latinity which Urban VIII substituted for the the fifth century text previously in use. The problem Pope Urban had with

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-7884072219129369972011-05-25T10:03:00.000+01:002011-05-25T10:03:00.530+01:00

"The thought of Mary and of the Eucharist easily unite; they are connected with each other, so to speak, and are convertible terms. It is Mary who offers us the Divine Infant of Bethlehem; at the foot of the cross she presents us with the dead body of Jesus swathed in its shroud; at the Altar she gives it to us again enveloped in the Eucharistic linens."Is this not what the Church of God is

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para 1 Universae Ecclesiae One might have expected Universali Ecclesiae; the normal term for "the Universal Church". Universae seems to me deliberately to avoid the formulaic expectation so as to emphasise per variationem that it really is the (yes!) entire Church which is to have a richer appropriation of the Roman Rite. (I take this literally. Just as Latins would have their spirituality

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-46213262318247925092011-05-23T12:40:00.003+01:002011-05-23T12:40:00.690+01:00

I feel uneasy about the suggestion that UA would have been better or stronger if it had embraced the Ambrosian, and other, Latin rites. Subject always to correction, my view is that this would have been improper and an improper exercise of papal authority.The Bishop of Rome necessarily and logically determines what the Roman Rite is. The Bishop of Milan, Successor of S Ambrose, determines what

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-15186726165923885852011-05-22T12:20:00.002+01:002011-05-22T12:20:00.067+01:00

If you want to engage seriously with today's point, you would be well advised to reread what I wrote, just before Universae Ecclesiae came out (honest, nobody broke the embargo by sending me an early copy; nobody ever does; I just have to rely upon my telepathic understanding of the Holy Father's mind), on April 27, the third piece of my Ratzinger-and-liturgical -law series. I was concerned to

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... has again written a fine piece, this time about the Toowoomba business. With a sound ecclesiological instinct based upon the ancient traditional praxis of both East and West, Father points out that the first steps in dealing with an heretical bishop should be taken by his corporate Presbyterium; if that fails, by his comprovinciales. Only on the rarest occasions, when this has all manifestly

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Immediately UE emerged, I went via a link on Fr Zed's blog to the Latin text and printed it off. As one does, I instantly noticed that the last sentence of paragraph 15 in the Latin text is missing in the English version. It occurred to me today to see whether the other translations omit it ... so I went to the Vatican website and discovered that they did. While I was there, I had another look at

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I like paragraph 19, ordering the pro-EF Faithful not to "help or give their name to" bodies which impugn the validity or legitimacy of the OF, or are hostile to the Roman Pontiff. This does not, of course, in any way refer to bodies which, while deeming the OF to be both unquestionably valid and canonically legitimate, consider it to be an inferior form of the one Roman Rite. The Ecclesia Dei

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-20854347266358263682011-05-18T20:16:00.002+01:002011-05-18T21:09:39.089+01:00

Well, I seem to have made some inroads into the backlog, and find myself revisiting my own blog. Do you think that those of you who see this ... and are well-disposed ... could spread the word that I have Resumed? Numbers of course have, during the Vacation since the start of the month, plummetted, and I'd like this not to be a waste of my time but to be read by somebody. By the way: perhaps

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-35250861436787610242011-05-02T10:35:00.001+01:002011-05-02T10:35:00.287+01:00

Throughout history, Mary comes to us as the Immaculate Conception; the one whom God preserved from Original Sin so that she could be the perfect and flawless Mother of God the Divine Son; so that she could give God back his own gift to her by giving him a perfect and flawless humanity to unite inseparably with his Divinity. And Mary comes to us as our Mother too, as well as the Mother of Jesus.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-71897715921428105172011-05-01T10:12:00.001+01:002011-05-01T10:12:00.202+01:00

I don't think Jesus changes; our Saviour God, Scripture tells us, is the same yesterday, today, and always. And I know Mary must be the same, yesterday, today, and always. I was privileged - together with the Archbishop of Canterbury and several hundred other Church of England people - to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes in the year of the 150th anniversary of the Appearances of the Mother of God to S

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As I made a bonfire of old homilies, I decided to give this one a last outing on the blog.In lots of places, in the old days, there was a custom of fixing a card to the Paschal Candle giving some dates and times. This year the 'Charta' would have told you that it was the 1978th year since the Lord's Death and Resurrection; the 2011th since his Birth; and also the 2025th since the Birth of the

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I wish all the joy of Christ to those who read this blog; to the friends who have written comments since it began and to those who have arrived more recently; to those who have prayed for me and said Masses on my behalf.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-85808158236235279302011-04-24T00:01:00.000+01:002011-04-24T00:01:01.062+01:00

The most stupendous event in the history of the cosmos - the most terrible wonder in the elapse of time betwen the initial and final big bangs - is never actually described. The Lord's Resurrection is, as it were, wrapped in veils. Jesus burial may be described; lightning and earthquakes may be mentioned; women and men meet the mysterious stranger in the garden or on the road to Emmaus; but no

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-54951181695654003432011-04-23T12:25:00.002+01:002011-04-23T13:02:15.338+01:00

I nearly binned the envelope that bore the message OPEN AT ONCE DO NOT DELAY, assuming that it contained another unmissable offer from Readers' Digest. But no: it was my voting paper for the Referendum: do we keep our first-past-the-post voting system, or replace it with a ballot paper listing candidates whom we number in order of preference?I was at a loss. In the first place, I care less than a

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-40170556384607331622011-04-23T10:14:00.002+01:002011-04-23T10:14:00.467+01:00

In medieval England, before Mattins on Easter morning, the Host and Crucifix which on Good Friday had been 'buried' in the 'Easter Sepulchre' were taken in procession, the former to the High Altar, the latter to a side altar. Antiphons were sung; the versicle and responseV The Lord hath risen from the graveR Who hung for us upon the Cross.were followed by a collect.Around 1000ish, on Easter

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-67730290622678050532011-04-22T19:25:00.002+01:002011-04-22T20:05:00.683+01:00

Well, attending the Westminster Chrism Mass. Not so much the Mass itself - it was certainly well enough done but former Ebbsfleet clergy have been somewhat spoiled in this respect - as the scene beforehand outside: the Association of Catholic Women with posters and little cards to hand out saying We Love Our Priests. I would have liked to kiss them all. What a lovely lot. Catholic Women are

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-57472717226220237362011-04-22T10:36:00.001+01:002011-04-22T10:36:00.568+01:00

Still sometimes heard in the the Church of England, although not nearly as much as it was a generation ago, is Mgr R A Knox's rendering into Anglican liturgical English of Holy Week texts. My own view is that we should treat them as part of the Patrimony.Here is a section of his Exsultet:The night is come, wherein, when our fathers, the children of Israel, were led forth from Egypt, thou

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-2807250978529749172011-04-21T10:19:00.000+01:002011-04-21T10:19:00.703+01:00

It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, almighty everlasting God, through Christ our Lord. Whom, almighty Father, thou didst will ineffably to be born, that he might loose the debt of Adam to thee the eternal Father, and destroy our death by his own, and carry our wounds in his own body, and wash away

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-76987828037705089692011-04-20T10:30:00.003+01:002011-04-20T10:30:00.558+01:00

I trust that no-one will have been deceived by the mannered frivolity of my last post into thinking that I am anything but horrifed at the sight of the Camerons of this world defining for all of us the markers of common 'British' national identity. The fact is that the dominant culture of this country is now not so much non-Christian as anti-Christian. Increasingly, definitions of the 'tolerant'

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-59372225240006694052011-04-19T22:26:00.001+01:002011-04-19T22:27:51.799+01:00

I give notice that, on May 3, this blog will enter upon a Summer Vacation. There are some academic pieces that I need the leisure to complete.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-91627129113405046402011-04-19T09:31:00.002+01:002011-04-19T09:31:00.088+01:00

Mr Cameron doesn't please everybody when he argues that 'immigrants' into Britain should be able to speak English. I, however, warmly and wholeheartedly agree with him. But I think his views should be ... er ... nuanced just a trifle.English is not our only historic and native language in the Three Kingdoms. There is Welsh; there is Cornish, the language that Pam and I dip into together during

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-42722824774024179402011-04-18T11:16:00.002+01:002011-04-18T12:08:10.133+01:00

"The Lord has reigned from the Tree".As Neale translates this stanza of the Vexilla Regis:Fulfilled is all that David toldIn true prophetic song of old;Amidst the nations, God, saith he,Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree.You will not find the words from the tree [literally, wood] in any version of the psalter that reposes upon your bookshelves ... nor in any translation ... unless you are

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-71651300984518595222011-04-18T09:53:00.000+01:002011-04-18T09:53:00.539+01:00

Launceston is a small, pleasant, but not terribly remarkable town in Cornwall; well, just on the boundary of Cornwall. We lived nearby for six years. It was for long - anachronism coming up - the Capital of Cornwall, at a time when Capitals might not be in the middle of an area but on its edge, so that Crown officials could enter the territory upon their circuit. (Thus the President of the

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-59301181426052939162011-04-17T10:00:00.003+01:002011-04-17T10:00:04.625+01:00

... gloriosi; and how glorious Venantius' hymn is. And how admirable that Dom Lentini's boys gave us back, in the Liturgia Horarum, something approaching the authentic text. The nominative (or accusative) absolute in Lustra sex ... peracta even survives: cleverly promoted to the licit status of a praedicativum obiecti!But I am a bit disappointed by the survival of the old emendation ferre saecli

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-54993783737708991402011-04-16T09:01:00.004+01:002011-04-16T09:01:00.180+01:00

While I do not make a habit of questioning the judgement of Roman Pontiffs, I have never concealed my feeling that John Paul II's Assisi Event would not lose any of its value if it were given just a little clarification. Similarly his action in kissing a copy of the Koran. The ill-disposed could so easily misinterpret these events as giving some sort of cover for syncretism or religious

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-85827819119136906132011-04-15T23:31:00.002+01:002011-04-15T23:44:27.088+01:00

Since Fr Blake's tiscali machine refused to accept a comment I tried to put onto his (most admirable) blog, I repeat here the message which modern technology bounced back to me.When disposing of old Altar Books, always keep the tabs and ribbons; they can be most useful when renovating and bringing back to use old EF Missals.Some people might find it useful to remove from old ICEL volumes the

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-72535543745439886162011-04-15T10:00:00.001+01:002011-04-15T13:24:19.075+01:00

Continues from the Hemming posts.Not long ago, turning the pages in the Liturgia Horarum, I noticed in the 'Patristic' reading some words of Vatican II, taken from the Pastoral Constitution de Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis. These were the opening words of the passage selected* for the reading: "Mundus hodiernus ...". How long, I asked myself, is hoc hodiernum tempus* to be deemed to last?A few

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-65842590406332234782011-04-14T20:23:00.000+01:002011-04-14T20:23:00.970+01:00

Oh dear! I gather he was the most exciting, charismatic, of the Belgian bishops.Peter Ball was undoubtedly the most exciting and charismatic of the English bishops. And, across the sea in Ireland, Eamonn Casey, aka Mr Annie Murphy, wowed the folk of Kerry and then of Galway. Kerry is still filled with the aging, embarrassing, Modern churches he built. He vandalised Killarney Cathedral in an

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-6479530294552726512011-04-14T09:49:00.001+01:002011-04-15T20:22:07.459+01:00

Continues from the last post.Hemming sees the fly in the o******t as being actuosa participatio, as the phrase is understood in 'Enlightenment' liturgical fashions ... that is, by the liturgical apparatchiks who still act as the guardians of what they see as the Pure Spirit of Vatican II; the same jokers who for decades sneered so nastily at Joseph Ratzinger's contributions to liturgical

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-47617221176350863222011-04-13T17:18:00.002+01:002011-04-13T22:58:36.963+01:00

VIS seems to indicate that a lot of new Provinces are being created all over theplace. What might be the ecclesial or ecclesiological significance of this?

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-65458838136638679662011-04-13T09:51:00.001+01:002011-04-13T09:51:00.583+01:00

In 2008, Laurence Hemming published his Worship as a Revelation. It has now lost its status as a 'new' book and will have a few decades to go before it becomes a Revived Classic. In the betweentime I thought I would remind you of this (uneven but) extremely important book. Not least of its importance is the fact that it reminds us of how close many of the instincts of the 'unreformed' Roman Rite

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-30483125428112273522011-04-12T10:09:00.001+01:002011-04-12T10:09:00.425+01:00

The common ancient tradition of the Universal Church was, until recently, to offer the Holy Eucharist facing towards the rising sun understood as as an an Ikon or Type of the rising Lord, the one who comes to us from the Beyond to give us his daily gift of newness. East and West have commonly interpreted psalm 19(MT)=18(Vg & LXX) verses 4-6, referring to the sun, as giving an image of our Lord as

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-84669306245525393912011-04-11T10:30:00.000+01:002011-04-11T10:30:01.151+01:00

The words introducing the Lord's prayer were translated by Cranmer, felicitously, as ' ...we are bold to say'. New ICEL with equal accuracy renders '...we dare to say'. But surely we should be 'happy' to say or 'cosy' to say or at least 'confident' to say? Old ICEL, indeed, prayed 'with confidence', and the equally corrupt Common Worship translation totally skives the question of how to render '

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-14156923274522830112011-04-10T10:12:00.001+01:002011-04-10T10:12:00.055+01:00

I here repeat, together with its very interesting thread, a post from 2009. I would not put everything in the same way if I wrote now; but I think the issues aare no less pressing than they were then. It is not surprising that the Spirit of Bugnini struck, proleptically, when Pius XII published the first revision of the Holy Week Rites. They were an easy target; very few laypeople attended them

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-35431797354688053332011-04-09T10:25:00.001+01:002011-04-09T10:25:00.369+01:00

How about acquiring a new habit as your special discipline this Passiontide; I mean, getting into a habit you haven't been in before and then continuing it for the rest of your life.Here is a possibility: get into the way of bowing your head reverently at the Holy Name of Jesus (and another name as well: vide infra). My apologies to those of you who do this already; but my impression is that very

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-39772874129365435162011-04-08T09:28:00.000+01:002011-04-08T09:28:00.770+01:00

Those familiar with Vespers of the Dead (Old Rite) and the old propers for the Departed; and with the EF commune Sacerdotes tui, may have shared my puzzlements. The first set me thinking about all those texts which ask that the departed be delivered from Hell. Such texts do not, I think survive into the postconciliar texts, because of the assumption that, immediately after death, the eternal

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-29432771235622296772011-04-07T10:49:00.001+01:002011-04-07T10:49:00.213+01:00

The new translation of the Sanctus is a fine example of why the new English Mass is necessary; and of how translation should be done.The original Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Domine Deus Sabaoth comes from Isaiah 6. Readers will not need to be reminded that Domine translates YHWH, the unutterable Name of the Jewish God ... that is to say, our God, for we ought never to forget that (as Pius XI said in

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-11182757381831036022011-04-06T10:12:00.000+01:002011-04-06T10:12:00.245+01:00

A sunny day last week; I went to look at the mid 1630s, an interesting decade when the Ordinariate very nearly happened ahead of its time. There appeared to be exciting ecumenical possibilities between England and Rome, partly helped by Charles I's laudably uxorious infatuation with Queen Henrietta Maria. First stop, to contemplate the glass in Magdalen Chapel; 1632 and a baroque reinterpretation

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-65555950138877082642011-04-05T18:32:00.002+01:002011-04-06T16:36:48.088+01:00

A very satisfactory session at Allen Hall yesterday; what, I gather, is known as Twenty-four Hour Pork. My goodness me, how tasty, how succulent.As a brother priest murmured, what an excellent thing it is that modern Roman Catholics have a ... er ... nuanced view of Lent.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-87684219475913813922011-04-05T10:01:00.000+01:002011-04-05T10:01:00.528+01:00

I heard, on the wireless, a young woman with an exotically, positively rococo, East End accent say that 'Mel C'* was her "me:er". I'm fairly sure that this is Estuary English for "Mentor". Not very Hellenic ...*I think 'Mel C' may have been one of the "Spice Girls". I was still in teaching when these phenomena were live, so I had them explained to me. No? ... ah, well ...

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-89499305793506273692011-04-04T10:05:00.002+01:002011-04-04T10:05:00.339+01:00

For those who use the Liturgia Horarum: today's readings are important. I'm not going to expound them in detail because I think anybody can work the business out for themselves, and I hope they will do so. Just a pointer.Home in on Leviticus 16: 13-14. Compare the translation of this in the Biblical Reading, as offered you in LH Second Edition (it comes from the Neo-Vulgate), with the translation

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-16552732391728713362011-04-03T19:33:00.005+01:002011-04-03T20:59:34.700+01:00

His hebdomadis in quibus ingrata et infausta prohibitione obstringimur quin sacrosanctum Missae Sacrificium offeramus, nonulla occasio oritur in qua pastorali cura motus desiderio haud parvo offerendi afficior pro salute vel pro bono statu alicuius viri seu mulieris, aegrotantis fortasse seu dolentis.Rogo confratres caros compresbyteros meos ut sua benevolentia velint litare pro intentione et ad

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-45688181345777342412011-04-03T10:10:00.000+01:002011-04-03T10:10:00.102+01:00

I gather that the eldest grandson of the Head of State is to be married in the Octave of Easter; and that he has favoured the public sheets with the intelligence that he will not be wearing a wedding ring. There was a little debate on the Home Service a day or two ago between two opposing 'celebrities' (of neither of whom I had heard); the one who deplored the young man's decision and who upheld

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-63123719170307459172011-04-02T10:35:00.004+01:002011-04-03T20:55:37.142+01:00

So people are busy fishing out rose vestments for 'Mothering Sunday'; although I'm unclear why next Lord's Day is so observed by those who do not follow either the Tridentine Rite or the Prayer Book. The theme of the old Roman Mass is (Galatians 4) of our Mother the heavenly Jerusalem; but in the modern rite, the Roman Pontiff is not instructed to have a statio at the basilica of Holy Cross in

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-29663012031823840312011-04-01T10:21:00.001+01:002011-04-01T10:21:00.910+01:00

The central purpose of the Mass ... even before the 'Supper' aspect ... is sacrifice. Or so I claimed in a recent post. Even if you wanted to agree, you may have noticed a couple of little doubts lurking on the outskirts of your mind.Doubt 1: Why did S Paul call the Eucharist the Lord's Supper (kyriakon deipnon)? But this is, surprisingly to us, sacrificial language. In the Greco-Roman world,

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In the past, I have - on, I think three occasions - deleted comments which I considered offensive. Today I have deleted a comment which simply invited readers to transfer to the writer's own blog in order to get the Real McCoy on something. If the writer concerned wishes to give his substantive reasons for disagreeing with me and is prepared to write it on the thread of my blog, I assure him that

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-2089657391663151052011-03-31T10:15:00.002+01:002011-03-31T10:50:36.852+01:00

I was reading some time ago an article in an American Orthodox periodical about whether the Eucharistic Prayer should be audible or silent. It is sometimes illuminating to see how our Western scene looks from the other side of the Eastern wall. Frankly ... I hate to interfere in the religion of others, but I feel strongly about this ... in my view, Byzantine Christians should stick to their

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Since maniples are in the news again, I recycle this post from last July. I fail to understand why some fairly traditional clergy regard the maniple with abhorrence, but use burses and veils. Sadly, at the Anglican Shrine in Walsingham, maniples, burses and veils were all - I have been assured in the Sacristy - destroyed in the 1960s.Moi, I am a pedant. I always take my maniple off before saying

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-69629743712404523822011-03-30T10:25:00.002+01:002011-03-30T10:25:00.375+01:00

Continues.By the kindess of a friend, I regularly read the newsletter of an American church of the Ukrainian diaspora. And what constantly strikes me is the determination of the Ukrainian Church to maintain and, if necessary, to restore, its own authentically Byzantine traditions; and to emphasise to its people that they are not 'Roman' Catholics. Reading between the lines, I suspect that there

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-56430256749922257602011-03-29T09:51:00.002+01:002011-03-29T09:51:00.189+01:00

... gives a wonderful opportunity of savouring the enthronement of the new Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Church. Since my Ukrainian is frail, I will simply have to fall back on Eis polla ete, Despota.As I do so, I express my hope that valued Orthodox friends will not be too cross with me. I do know that things are not all as simple as the "Patriarchate Now" lobby believe. And, while the new

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-26552176067384700252011-03-28T10:02:00.002+01:002011-03-28T10:02:00.101+01:00

In the first half of this piece, I pointed out that in declaring the CCC the doctrinal standard of Ordinariates, the Sovereign Pontiff did not intend to impose either a heavier or a lighter burden of doctrinal belief upon members of Ordinariates than upon other Catholics. I now go on to enquire what exactly the doctrinal standing of CCC is.The highest form of legislation in the Roman Magisterium

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-30049499605114182872011-03-27T09:54:00.001+01:002011-03-27T09:54:00.057+01:00

The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus says the the CCC will be the doctrinal standard of the Ordinariates. Naturally, therefore, it is being used in the 'formation' of Ordinariate clergy. I know of no other grouping within the Roman Unity which, apparently, has its own doctrinal standard; not even the 'uniate' Churches with their sense of a distinct theological - as well as liturgical

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-41118661949259844962011-03-26T10:02:00.004Z2011-03-27T16:31:05.736+01:00

The ancient Collect for Lent III, with bold for the padding which Cranmer added to the Latin original:We beseech thee, almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants: and stretch forth the right hand of thy majesty to be our defence against all our enemies.Like last Sunday's collect, this comes from the Missal which Pope Hadrian sent to Charlemagne at the emperor's request;

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-21438117719281755032011-03-25T19:02:00.003Z2011-03-25T19:08:40.287Z

... to say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.I do not think that every choice he made was the right one ... particularly his unwillingness at a crucial moment to trust Cardinal Ratzinger. But he tried to discern and to follow God's will for him as best he could. I doubt whether the Benedictine Restoration would be where it is now without the witness of Marcel

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-55477455327575200112011-03-25T10:26:00.003Z2011-03-25T10:26:00.821Z

Another splendid day at Cardinal Allen's Foundation, now long departed from Douay and lodged on the site of S Thomas More's house in Chelsea. Allen Hall is well equipped with portraits recalling its distinguished past; upon seeing them, my undisciplined memory jumped to a House in County Kerry, Derrynane, ancestral residence of Daniel O'Connell the Liberator. There the portraits of bewhiskered

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-30997691037467819592011-03-24T09:59:00.003Z2011-03-24T09:59:00.166Z

Continued from the previous two posts.The Blessed Sacrament became a focus for devotion, not surprisingly, around the same time as personal devotion to Jesus became common; the revolution by which public liturgical prayer in the Latin Church continued, in the classical formulae, to be to the Father through the Son, but was accompanied by a vivid devotion of the individual directly to the Son.

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Continues:Bishop, however, exaggerates when he talks about the cult of the Blessed Sacrament as absent through the whole middle ages. The thirteenth century shows a dawning awareness of something more profound. A 1260 ordinarium from Zurich finds it necessary to explain that it is "contrary to reason ... altogether absurd" that "the Eucharist, which is the true living Body of Christ, should

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-86177473081733089732011-03-22T08:23:00.002Z2011-03-22T08:46:12.967Z

A spring stroll through Addison's Walk and the Fellows' Garden at Magdalen ... the fritillaries are starting to appear! ... to have a look at the lovely Mosque built in their back garden. It is still unfinished, so, lamentably, not yet is the Cry of the Muezzin heard over the water meadows of the Cherwell. Then along Mesopotamia to the forelorn, desecrated, site of Parsons' Pleasure ... memories,

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... of an episode when I still taught GCSE. A paper asked the question "In Christian worship, what symbolises Christ?" My candidates, of course, wrote "The Altar", but the correct answer was deemed to be "Bread".Next time round, there was a picture of an Anglican clergyman standing at an Eagle lectern, with the question "Name the garment he is wearing". My candidates had not been taught much

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-60785852553360948672011-03-20T10:01:00.000Z2011-03-20T10:01:01.007Z

It must be allowed that during the whole middle ages ... the Blessed Sacrament reserved was commonly treated with a kind of indifference which at present would be considered to be of the nature of 'irreverence', I will not say indignity.Thus wrote that Prince of Liturgists, the lay Roman Catholic Edmund Bishop. Dix, also, observed that, in the first millennium, he could recall no instance

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-70429956821133008452011-03-19T17:40:00.003Z2011-03-20T11:35:20.725Z

So Geza Vermes has written a predictable review of Professor Ratzinger's volume II ... how terribly predictable. Predictably, it's in the Grauniad. A collaboration between mutually back-scratching and predictable has-beens. It will be much more interesting if Jacob Neusner [corrected spelling], an American Jewish scholar of immensely greater stature, first century rabbinic knowledge, and

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-60170754568079163232011-03-19T10:10:00.002Z2011-03-19T10:10:00.561Z

It is well-known that Elizabeth Tudor had a strong prejudice against married clergy: which is why the Lords Spiritual in her parliaments had wives who, unlike the wives of her Lords Temporal, did not share in their husbands' dignity. Poor Mrs Parker. Well, up to a point.But the Catholic Church has no history of such misogyny. So will the wives of the new batch of Monsignori be Monsignore?

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-65352260775286796992011-03-19T10:05:00.002Z2011-03-19T10:07:47.950Z

Any who were interested by my recent post on this subject will find a superb example of the phenomenon in the Transalpine Redemptorists' blog ... in their Life of S Clement Mary Hofbauer.

Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-40110166385354381762011-03-18T10:18:00.000Z2011-03-18T10:22:40.826Z

As soon as you've unravelled all the complicated mysteryAbout what the Holy Office does, the Rota, the Consistory;When you've studied more theology, and don't get quite so drowsy onAttending learned lectures which discuss the Homoousion;When you've somehow put behind you (with your poor command of French) a listOf authors whose philosophy is known as Existentialist -When your learning on a

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As I looked at the latest revision of the bumf for the meetings at Allen Hall, I spotted a proposal for a clergy-and-families Mass and lunch. I mentioned this to Pam, who of course instantly gave me a crisp and accurate wifely definition of our joint attitude to the idea of struggling into London in early May for a clerical bunfight.She went on, as wives so commonly do, to make a very good point

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I am grateful for all the comments - unfavourable as well as favourable - appended to my series on Councils. Although it was my intention to follow closely the trajectory of thought on this subject in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger - which I have been avidly reading for at least two decades - I am of course neither a theologian nor a historian; when I intrude into these fields I welcome

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Continues ...Vatican II was a validly convoked Ecumenical Council, a Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Whole Church. If it had chosen to do so, it could have defined dogmas de fide to which any and every Catholic would have been obliged to give the complete assent of Divine Faith. Laws, canons, which it enacted ... if it did ... bind the faithful for a long as they remain unrepealed by lawful

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... on the internet; where there are pictures of the two rather different churches in England allegedly respectively on offer(i) to Fr Wach and the blue birettas; and(ii) to Fr Newton and the black birettas.But the answer immediately strikes me: a property in central London must be quite valuable; the Ordinariate could flog it to a developer and use the money to get something better. I somehow

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