How true it is that one picture is worth a thousand words. Here we see some of the august members of the U.S. hierarchy at the ordination of their newest brother bishop. What a happy bunch! There isn't one among them who actually looks like he believes the Gospel contains news that is good! But, I forgot, ours is a mirthless faith and we're supposed to look serious all the time because that looks more holy.
On May 17 the eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth II married Canadian Autumn Kelly at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He is the first born son of Anne, the Princess Royal and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. I found this part of the report most interesting:
"The new Mrs Phillips gave up her Catholic faith and converted to the Church of England, enabling Mr Phillips to retain his right to the throne. Since 1701, heirs to the throne marrying Catholics cannot become sovereigns."
He's eleventh in line to the throne! That was worth protecting? Is there someone who thinks that the ten other people ahead of him are suddenly going to die? She didn't have to give up the Church in order to marry this man and all he would have been giving up is the very remote chance to inherit a throne that he will never...EVER sit upon.
Oh yes...but she had to do it.
For those of you whose Welsh is a little bit on the rusty side that's "Welcome to Wales" to you. This blog has been rather quiet for the last few days, gang, because your intrepid blogger has once again been off across the pond. This time I was invited to preach for the principal mass on Pentecost Sunday in the lovely town of Abergavenny in the parish of Our Ladye & St. Michael (left). This beautiful church is staffed by the Benedictines of Belmont Abbey in England and contains a gorgeous stone reredos. In addition, the parish is home to several antique vestments dating from the XVI Century. In fact, on Pentecost Sunday the parish priest, Dom Thomas Regan, OSB wore a simply beautiful red chasuble from the parish's medieval collection. It was donated by Henry VII, having been embroidered in 1498 by Robynett, his court embroiderer. It was already 150 years old when worn by the Abergavenny martyrs St. David Lewis (pastor there for 31 years) and St. Philip Evans (assistant there for 5 years) until his martyrdom in 1679. In addition, for those of you who didn't catch it, this vestment was was made only six years after America was even discovered! Many want these vestments to be museum pieces but Fr. Tom disagrees and feels that as long as they are holding up well they should be used for their intended purpose: the worship of Almighty God. I couldn't agree more. When not in use these vestments are carefully stored in special drawers so as to preserve them as best as possible. They are brought out only on special occasions and it was a privilege to see them in use for the liturgy.
...I am too. But, that's another story. The Easter season having ended yesterday at vespers the Holy Father was seen today in the usual red papal mozetta. In addition, since "liturgical summer" also began yesterday (in the liturgy there is only winter from All Saints' Day until Pentecost and summer from Pentecost to All Saints' Day) the Pope is in the lighter summer version of the mozetta.
This is great. AP is carrying this story about a group of Religious Sisters who couldn't vote yesterday in Indiana because they lacked proper I.D. The best part is that the one who turned them away was another Sister! (emphases added)
About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow sister because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow members of Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.
The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway. "One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.
The convent will make "a very concerted effort" to get proper identification for the nuns in time for the general election. "We're going to take from now until November to get them out and get this done. "You can't do this like school kids on a bus," she said. "I wish we could."
Late Tuesday, Secretary of State Todd Rokita was unapologetic.
"Indiana's Voter ID Law applies to everyone. From all accounts that we've heard, the sisters were aware of the photo ID requirements and chose not to follow them," he said in a statement released by his office.
Rules are rules...even for you, Sister!
In heraldry the coat of arms of an abbot (see image at left) contains certain external ornaments that clearly mark the coat of arms as immediately recognizable as those of an abbot. In addition to the black ecclesiastical hat, called a galero, with its twelve tassels the heraldic achievement of an abbot includes a crozier placed behind the shield. This crozier always has a veil, called a sudarium, attached at the node where the crook meets the staff. In the Middle Ages when abbots were first granted the privilege of using pontifical insignia they were not permitted, as was customary at that time, to wear pontifical gloves. So the veil served the very functional role of protecting the staff, sometimes made of precious metals, from the perspiration on the hands of the abbot. Eventually, abbots did begin to use pontifical gloves and the sudarium became superfluous. Even later, after the use of pontifical gloves became optional (as it is today) which really meant that they fell into disuse the sudarium made no comeback but remained a historical curiosity. Interestingly, the sudarium remained a heraldic emblem even after they ceased actually to be used. This made some sense in the days prior to 1969 when the crozier was included in the coats of arms of bishops and archbishops.It served the very useful role of distinguishing an abbatial crozier from an episcopal crozier especially when a coat of arms was emblazoned only in black and white and the color of the galero was not immediately evident. Today, after the use of gloves or not is a moot point and croziers are no longer included in the coats of arms of bishops and archbishops by papal directive this veiled crozier is an external ornament specific to abbatial heraldry.
Here in the northeast of the USA we still celebrate the Ascension on the traditional Thursday. In fact, we are very much in the minority. At present only the provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Omaha still do this. That represents some 35 dioceses and archdioceses. Everybody else has moved it to Sunday. So begins yet another week when the phone rings off the hook here at the rectory with people calling to find out the mass schedule for the holy day. Fair enough. With all the ridiculous changes the bishops of the U.S. have made regarding the observance of holy days it's no wonder folks are confused. In addition, with personnel changes in so many parishes as priests become more and more scarce it frequently happens that mass schedules for each holy day are different.
