Rhabanus

@Praxiteles wrote:

On the subject of Latin, I am afraid its decline in the present degenerate state of the Church in Ireland is plane and evident for every one to see in the recent habit of doing inscriptions in demotic English. Even the bIblical texts so inscribed are taken from the lowest grade Englist texts that certainly are rather distant from the sense of the Sacra Pagina.

On the other hand, just to show that not all is goom in the garden, try this treat:

http://frcoulter.com/leo/index.html

Is there no bishop in the Emerald Isle who so values classical learning and the access which it affords to the teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church that he would establish a school or institute to transmit this inestimable patrimony to the next generations?

Too much preoccupation with cosmetic changes in church fabric and insufficient attention to the inculcation and preservation of authentic Catholic culture.

Although such dilettantism is deplorable, it is probably better, all things considered, that they not stick their oar into the enterprise of real education. Imagine, if you will, the mindset that wrecked the Catholic cathedral of Armagh set loose in the classroom or the lecture hall. Fabric at least can be salvaged; not so the human soul when entrusted to the tutelage of such destructive beggars.

Thanks for the link, Prax. I am confident that the good readers of this thread will recognise something truly worthwhile in the many good things offered by Fr Coulter and his associates.

One of the blessings of high technology is that people in the cultural and religious wasteland can enjoy access to the blessings of education, culture, and the spiritual life through electronic contacts.

@samuel j wrote:

The amazon xmas wishlist….. must drop hints to the kids….. would beat the usual presents of socks

Excellent idea! Wheelock wrote his Latin Grammar for American GIs returning to studies after action in WW2, hence a Latin grammar designed for adult learners rather than for high-school-age boys. Wheelock’s daughters assisted him in the compilation of his text.

Richard LaFleur of the University of Georgia took the fourth edition in hand to produce the fifth, and then the sixth edition. He added a number of silly jokes supposedly to lighten the tone of the text and to raise the spirits of his students.

It’s not a bad start. It takes a distinctly grammatical approach to the language. It is VASTLY superior to O’Collins’ A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin, a product of defective pedagogy.

Real lovers of Latin grammar will be sure to secure their own copy of “Bradley’s Arnold” or Latin Composition by the famous Dr Arnold and revised by Bradley, one of his former students.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Yes, by the looks of things and the Franciscans who compiled the Annals of the Four Masters lie buried in the cloister in graves whose markers were desecrated by Napoleone! Such is Irish “culture”!!

Sic transit gloria mundi!

@Praxiteles wrote:

It looks as though Irish vandalism and ignorance are now being exported. While looking for a photograph of the Chapel of the Irish College in Louvain to illustrate the arrangement of a sanctuary with three altars – a feature of churches built by Br. M.A. O’Riordan – I was aghast to find that the 17th. century interior of the chapel of St. Anthony’s College in Louvain has only recently been compkletely demolished by the governments of Northern Ireland and of the Irish Republic to provide a 200 seater auditorium for an Irish “cultural” centre in Louvain. Can you credit that?

So St Anthony’s is now a Theatre, rather than a chapel. Would you call it Theatre of the Absurd or Theatre of Cruelty?

It actually reminds me of an insane asylum. Perhaps a fitting denouement after all. All you need to start an asylum is a big room and the right kind of people ….

@samuel j wrote:

Perhaps the bold Bishop had his laptop with him when he met the Pontiff running their “The hi tech computer display which allows visitors a 3D view of what the new interior will look like”

or perhaps the whole discussion too was only virtual reality….

“only virtual reality”

Now that beats even “disingenuous”! So the Pope virtually approved the virtual plans for the virtual renovation of St Colman’s.

Does virtual retirement ever arise in virtual conversations?

@descamps wrote:

Descamps was in Cork to-day and quite unexpectedly ran into a group of clergy from the diocese of Cloyne who were having a liturgy meeting with Fr. Danny Murphy, Fr. Sean Terry, Fr. Denis Reidy and architect Alex White. Bishop Magee was also there and spoke to the group.

He told them that he had been to Rome and had spoken to the Pope. He said that he had shown a new set of plans and photographs for Cobh Cathedral to the Pope. He insinuated that the Pope told him to go ahead with them – though he allowed himself sufficient room to back out of this should awkward questions be asked at a later date (Readers will remember that at the Midleton hearing he was badly caught telling fibbs on a similar heading).

More interestingly, he said that when he had spoken to the Local Planning Authority (Cobh Town Council) and he was given to understand that they would be “cooperative” and try to help in any way possible with whatever he might want to do. They told him to bring back a new set of plans to them, he said.

The driving force in this initiative seems to be Fr. Denny Reidy of Carrigtwohill. Curiously, there was no sign of Tom Cavanagh from Fermoy who was a staunch supporter of the last project.

The bold bishop announced that he was going ahead with another reordering scheme to gut the interior of Cobh Cathedral no matter what the people of Cobh or the diocese of Cloyne think.

Has the FOSCC heard of this?

Can’t answer the last question. No news either about the Archangel, though it shouldn’t surprise me if he were lying bound and gagged in the bowels of a secret liturgical depot, wriggling between the remains of a dismantled rood screen and an oil painting of the Fifth Station of the Cross.

So … a clandestine meeting of the Sanhedrin, is it? Good work on the qui vive, descamps! Non praevalebunt! Note the usual schemes and feints at work. [Rather cliche, if you asked me.] Claim, or at least imply that you have had intense negotiations with the Pope and that the very plans themselves were blessed by the hand of His Holiness. The appeal to papal authority in this case is risible. As if the Holy Father in Rome has nothing better to do with either his time or energy than meddle in the business of the Planning Board of Cork and redecorate a Pugin-Ashlin masterpiece. As if the Pope tinkers with any of the multifarious churches in his very own Eternal City. I hope HH doesn’t lose much sleep rethinking the lighting system in St Colman’s or considering how to go about the most cost-effective way of tearing up the mosaic floor of the nave.

Quite a sight, that: His Lordship and His Holiness spending a good afternoon’s merenda in the Apostolic Palace sipping tea and dunking biscotti over THE NEWLY REVISED PLANS FOR ST COLMAN”S. (‘If at first you don’t succeed, run with your tail between your legs to the Pope, and everything will be resolved!”) Do you think the Pope favours pastels over primary colours? Hmmmmmmm. I really don’t know how His Holiness can tear himself away from such a gripping dilemma for the sake of an approaching apostolic visit to Istanbul.

Never mind. It may serve bishops and other CEOs well to consider Julius II’s grandiose scheme to make his tomb the centrepiece of the new St Peter’s-in-the-Vatican. Great plans! Poor Julius, though, lost so much money on his campaigns of war, that he could not afford to pay for his magnificent project. The central part of the tomb is now in the Roman church of S. Pietro-in-Vincoli, and a few slaves unfinished by Michelngelo are in the Accademia in Florence. The body of Julius, however, lies neither in S. Pietro-in-Vincoli nor in the Accademia, but in an obscure spot beneath St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican while a small brass inscription, hidden by barricades and stacks of chairs near the organ in the north transept, indicates this fact. Sic transit gloria mundi!

@samuel j wrote:

Ah lads you’re making it very hard for us…… I’m mininmising and maximising windows here to beat the band trying to get translations….. not my fault the wise owls took Latin off the curiculum 2 years before I went to secondary school……

Standard Translation:

“To know you is to love you.
We all love you, Praxiteles.
Many years to you!”
______

Cranmerian translation:

“To know Thee is to love Thee.
Thee we love, O Praxiteles!
Long life!”

ICEL translation [following the principle of dynamic equivalence advocated by Comme le prevoit]:

“Hey, Prax, you’re the dude;
cool man! real cool!
High five, dude!”
At this point the interlocutor does The Splits, then turns about three times whilst thrusting the palms of his hands into the air in the general direction of Praxiteles. It helps considerably if strobe lights are used during this greeting.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Well, I would not be too inclined to take Guido Reni’s attitute as typical towards an undoubtedly great patron. Take for instance the the case of El Greco and Philip II of Spain. Philip II did not like El Greco’s work and he systematically excluded him from the decoration of the Escorial preferring oftertimes third rate Genovese painters instead. Clearly, El Greco did not like Philip II’s attitude to his work. But that did not prevent his including Philip among the Apostles in Heaven in his great work: the Burial of the Count of Orgaz in the church of San Tomé in Toledo:

Is it an honour to appear in any painting by El Greco (whether in heaven or in hell)?

@Praxiteles wrote:

Here is the man himself: Leo X with his nephews Giuglio de’ Medici (the future Clement VII) and Giovanni Rosi painted in 1518 by Raphael, who had become the architect for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s following the death of Bramante in 1514. Here we see the myopic Leo X with his magnifying glass as he reads from the opening page of St. John’s Gospel -an oblique reference to his own baptismal name, Giovanni. The bronze bell in the foreground is quite exquisite and a hint at the troubled times of his reign is to be seen in the distorted image on the ball of the chair-back. It should not be missed that both of his nephews are placed behind the throne indicating their influence on the pontificate.

This portrait of aphael’s set the iconographic scheme for all subsequent papal portraiture. Some PR man that!

Note that Pope Benedict XVI has revived the camauro (the papal red cap trimmed in fur) and the velvet mozetta likewise trimmed in ermine. Leo’s tailor did a better job than the current papal haberdasher – observe that the items actually fit the sixteenth-century pontiff.

Again, churchmen do well to patronise worthy artists and artisans, as well as competent tailors and craftsmen.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Oh! I think you do Leo X an injustice. Have you never seen the frescos on the ceiling of the Sala Leonina in the Vatican Library depicting him, among other things, as the castagator hereticorum?

Self-praise is no recommendation. I suppose, too, that the current episcopate of Ireland think they are on the cutting edge of all things theological and liturgical. When you pay your diocesan news staff, as Leo paid Raphael, you tend to get the desired result rather than the unvarnished truth.

Leo’s motto was: “God has granted Us the papacy – and We intend to enjoy it.” Had the Lutheran fracas erupted in the pontificate of Alexander VI (no rose of budding virtue by any means, but not one to suffer fools gladly), Luther would likely have ended up as Savonarola did – a crackly crisp dipped into the Arno.

Leo bears his share of responsibility for the reformation through sheer insouciance and lack of zeal for the honour of God and the good of the Church.

My point remains. WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY??