A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!

Friday 29 April 2011

Catholic? Canadian? Read this.

Consider for a moment what the Pope whom liberals love to quote wrote in 1961:

34. Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism. The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production, it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority.

Now, how are you voting on Monday?


Thursday 28 April 2011

Father Ted Colleton, Requiescat in pace

Father Ted Colleton, Catholic priest, Spiritan Father, pro-life giant has died at the age of 97.




The Reverend Ted Colleton, 1914-2011




Requiem aeternam donna eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votam in Jerusalem: exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem aeternam donna eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.




See here at LifeSiteNews.

See here at Milites Veritatis.

See here at The Interim.



Sit back and watch this lovely testament to a live well lived in His service:



Tuesday 26 April 2011

“The better the liturgy, the better the prayer, the better the Catholic.”

Vox was interviewed by Charlie Lewis. Here is the article which appeared in the National Post on Good Friday.

David Domet, another Toronto choirmaster who has worked with several parishes, said Catholics have been so disconnected from sacred music that they no longer understand the richness of their own tradition.

“Gregorian chant as we have it today is the closest thing we know to what Jesus would have sung and heard himself in the Temple in Jerusalem,” he said.

The appeal of Gregorian chant is undeniable. During a service, it adheres itself to the mass — moving with it hand in hand in perfect harmony.

Mr. Domet said what is truly amazing is that the music was memorized and passed along orally. It was only in the 10th century that a Benedictine monk, Guido d’Arezzo, put the form on paper using a system of square notes — the same notation that is used today.

“It’s the same man who came up with do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti. So the man responsible for writing down Gregorian chant is also inadvertently responsible for ‘Doe A Deer’ from The Sound of Music,” Mr. Domet said.

“The better the liturgy, the better the prayer, the better the Catholic.”

Monday 25 April 2011

Friday 22 April 2011

Salvator mundi, salva nos!

And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And saying this, he gave up the ghost.

Thursday 21 April 2011

Mandatum novum

Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini Nostri Jesu Christi: in quo est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra per quem salvati et liberati sumus.

Sunday 17 April 2011

Hosanna, filio David

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in excelsis.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Send Kat to Rome!

I know a cute little Catholic who needs our help!


We are strong and supportive community of Catholic bloggers and Rome has taken notice. This is wonderful opportunity for us all. Katrina R. Fernadez of The Crescat has been invited to be amongst the 150 bloggers at the Vatican BlogMeeting. She'll be staying the next day for the "Other" blognic too.


Let's help get Kat to Rome.




Congratulations Kat!


Enjoy your time with the two ladies from Toronto. (Can't wait to see what you and Seraphic do to Hilary's hair.)

Happy Birthday Papa Ratzinger

Ad multos annos!





A very happy birthday today to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and may the LORD keep you strong and healthy for many, many, many, many, many, many more years.

Thursday 14 April 2011

Ecclesiastical Karaoke

From Joseph Cullen, Director of the London Symphony Chorus comes this little gem:

"The misuse of one booming voice behind a microphone, an ecclesiastical karaoke, seems to have killed off unified congregational singing.”


Yeah, that and carpet!

Saturday 9 April 2011

Friday 8 April 2011

To Rome with Vox

Special thanks to Father Finegan for the translation!

You know, I really don't like to fly and I don't have a passport, but as my friend Dennis in the bucolic countryside north of Hogtown said to me on Facebook, I could have a really great seat mate and the possibility is just too hard to resist, so...application sent (not that I have any serious expectation of it being accepted...)

Oh, pay attention to the quote below from Paolo Rodari; sort of explains a few things...



The Pontifical Council for Social Communications gives the official information in Italian. Here is my own unoffical translation:
Information on the meeting in the Vatican for Bloggers
St Pius X Auditorium, 2 May 2011


A meeting of bloggers will take place on the afternoon of 2 May. The event, organized by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Communications, aims to enable a dialogue between bloggers and representatives of the Church, to share the experiences of those working in this field and to better understand the needs of that community. The meeting will also present some of the initiatives that the Church is putting in place in the world of new media, whether in Rome or at the local level.

In the two planned sessions, various speakers will present some key points to open a discussion open to all the participants. In the first, five bloggers, representing the different language areas, will address specific issues of general importance. In the second, there will be accounts from people involved in the communication strategies of the Church, who will present their experiences of working with new media, as well as initiatives for an effective meeting between the Church and the world of bloggers.

Participants will include Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Archbishop Claudio Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and Father Federico Lombardi, Director of the Press Office of the Holy See and of Vatican Radio. An important aspect of the meeting will be that of offering the opportunity for new contacts, informal exchanges among participants, and to open new avenues of interaction.

L’incontro si svolge il giorno dopo la Beatificazione di Giovanni Paolo II, per questo si prevede la presenza a Roma di numerosi bloggers. L’invito è aperto a tutti, ma, per partecipare, bisogna inviare un email a blogmeet@pccs.it con un link al proprio blog. Dato che lo spazio è limitato a 150 posti, e c’è il desiderio di avere una rappresentanza di tutta la blogosfera, i pass e i dettagli per l’evento saranno assegnati secondo criteri linguistici e geografici, la tipologia del blog (istituzionale, privato, multiautore o personale), le tematiche e la tempestività dell’iscrizione.

The meeting will be held the day after the beatification of John Paul II: the presence of numerous bloggers in Rome is expected for this event. The invitation is open to all, but to participate, please send an email to blogmeet@pccs.it with a link to your blog. Given that space is limited to 150 seats, and it is desires to have a representation of the entire blogosphere, passes and details for the event will be assigned according to geographic and linguistic criteria, the type of blog (institutional, private, multi-author or personal), the basic themes, and the timeliness of registration.

A simultaneous translation service will be provided in the following languages: Italian, Spanish, French, Polish and English.

The venue is the St Pius X Auditorium, Via della Conciliazione, No 5 (entrance on the Via dell’Ospedale.)
H/T Paolo Rodari who introduces his article with these observations:
For some time, bloggers on religious matters have been an important voice on the web. Their blogs are read in the Vatican. They influence opinions. I would say more: they influence decisions on the upper floors.

Welcome to the fight, we knew you never really left it!


W
hereas the Catholic Register's editorial states that Development & Peace is "guilty of either appalling poor judgment or blatant incompetence;" and

Whereas the same Catholic Register in the same editorial commentary states "Two years ago his (Mexican priest Father Luis Arriaga) organization was cited in an investigation by LifeSiteNews.com as one of five D&P Mexican partners with ties to pro-abortion groups;" and

Whereas the same editorial asks "How D&P, his own staff, fellow bishops and the priest himself, Fr. Luis Arriaga, (could) put the Archbishop in such an awkward position" and

Whereas LifeSiteNews initially broke the story about D&P funding pro-abortion groups in the third world with your money from ShareLife or ShareLent; and

Whereas certain persons who shall remain nameless here out of deference to their position have referred to LifeSiteNews as "extremist" for their position in this regard; and

Whereas LifeSiteNews' investigative reporting and evidence in this regard has been upheld by the Archbishop of Ottawa, His Grace, Terence Prendergast, S.J. and the wise action of Bishop Mulhall of Pembroke and Archbishop Collins of Toronto; and

Whereas the Catholic Register in Toronto has reported on this truth as first reported in LifeSiteNews;

Now therefore, let it be known that as surely as 1 + 1 = 2, the obvious explanation is that the Catholic Register has become extremist (except for JBM of course!)

Not in the same way as Vox Cantoris mind you.

But nearly.


Blow-Back Blogging

Courtesy of the combox at Seraphic in Scotland which should be on your daily list, comes this salient commentary on the issues this week in Canada regarding Catholics' blogs:

The blogosphere/internet is a Revolution comparable to Gutenberg. But I would emphasize that it is not technology per se that is wholly responsible for all the blow-back now occurring. The internet is just a more efficient and quicker means of communication over more expansive distances. Between words printed on paper and words posted on a blog is only a difference in degree, not kind. So the question that the cleric under scrutiny in your post (including the bishops, theologians, Catholic MSM etc.) that constitute the "professional Catholic" class in Canada have to ask themselves is this: Why is there even blow-back at all? That is the question.

If there were no apostate bishops, if there were no Baum's composing Marxist-inspired tracts, if RCIA directors had been properly catechizing, if school kids were not politicized by baby-booming "Catholic" teachers enraptured by whatever trendy cause, if homilies were not exclusively devoted to "God is love", if nuns weren't worshiping the rain forests, if power hungry parish tyrants would understand that they are not consecrated priests ... if these (and more) had not occurred over the last 4 to 5 decades, I will confidently say that there would not have been any blow-back from the Catholic blogosphere in the modern day. Support and a defense thereof from the secular world would have been the mainstays. If there was a sufficient degree of faithfulness to the Magisterium in the first place, there would be no need to revolt.

When for decades you have a very select group of "professional Catholics" running the show, leftist and skewed to heterodoxy in approach and viewpoint, when for years letters to the editor are ignored, when time after time you have qualified and knowledgeable people (academics, writers, etc., not just the "plebeian" types you mention) continually shut out from the newspapers, journals, publishers and other educational/apologetic programs because they are too "orthodox" or "judgmental" or "uncharitable"... and then when the blogosphere emerges, you at last have an outlet slay the dragon.

The current situation of the "professional Catholic" class in Canada can be analogized with Hugh Hefner as he exists today: a fossilizing, self-absorbed, smelly old man wandering around a mansion in a gaudy smoking jacket, stupid enough to think that the chicks are still attracted to him.


The comment comes from TH2 and hits the nail on the head, especially the point about Hugh Hefner.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Poking the Protests out of the Printing Press


Poking the Protests out of the Printing Press

Anonymous

Lyons—The printing press is not all that it’s cracked up to be, and sometimes the truth can slip through those cracks.

That’s the message Father Bonaventure Aveugle, OFM, CEO of Superior Sheepskins, passed on about the wild frontier of print when he gave a talk to 65 priests from the diocese of Paris. Father Aveugle was visiting the diocese of Lyons from Paris to give a number of talks. His clergy lecture was on March 22, 1491.

Father Aveugle focussed on new challenges to the Church in the areas of books, newspapers and pamphlets. “These are really important areas, so much so that a big part of the last meetings I was heavily involved in myself, the last two rounds, has been spent on this,” he said. “The printing press is an international phenomenon.”

There are serious ethical questions that must be addressed by the Church and by individuals, he continued, making sure to distance the concept “Church” from the concept of “individuals”, e.g. ordinary parish priests and laypeople. These include issues of the dissemination of information the laity ought not to know, and “frank criticism of shepherds by sheep.”

“The printing press is not only a source of problems, it is a source of great benefits to the human race when used properly,” he said. “The benefits can be fully realized if only the right people have access to it.”

He said the three main issues are: the destruction of the privilege of the very few to control information, the challenge of mass literacy, and the lack of accountability which permits laypeople to comment on Church life without getting punished for it.

He discussed the importance of assessing content found in the print media, and not believing any of it. Father Aveugle used the example of a priest he knows who takes homilies from books and preaches them at Mass without reading them first.

“There are some things that are being proclaimed from the pulpits that are questionable,” he said. “Discernment is required in what you take from print books. It’s no substitute for texts carefully written on sheepskin.”

Print materials, he said, are becoming a major topic of discussion amongst scribes as well as at the Vatican. He said they were useful for disseminating news and such doctrines as ordinary folk can handle.

A relatively tiny number of people read his own newspaper every week, he noted. “We use it as a teaching tool,” he noted. “Thousands of priests rip off our stuff to write their homilies, and that’s fine with us.”

However, since anyone—not just Superior Sheepskins—can set up a printing press, readers must be wary.

“I have rules for my scribes,” said Father Aveugle. “We don’t say anything that defames anybody except LifePrintNews, other newspapers, pamphleteers, other sheepskin suppliers and other utilizers of the printing press.”

Father Aveugle said that a study of Catholic print materials involving Catholics and heretics looking at Catholic print materials found they were filled with “filth, hate, conjecture, and innuendo.” The printers try to look official by including woodcuts of their favourite popes and saints.

Many of these printers say nasty, negative things, he said, citing rival LifePrintNews as a notorious sinner.

“I don’t care how many people at LifePrintNews are Catholics or how many of their readers are Catholics or how much they write about Catholics,” he said. “It’s not a Catholic blog. It has no authority, unlike me. It is causing division in the English Church, not just in France.”

He cited how upset unnamed English bishops are by LifePrintNews. One English Cardinal assumed LifePrintNews had its own glittering fortress in Paris. “I said, non, non, monsieur. They operate out of someone’s parent’s root cellar in Rouen. And may I say how much I have admired you all these years?”

LifePrintNews and other print materials are dangerous when clerics and laypeople read them more than they hear the Scriptures or Vatican documents proclaimed. He said people were citing print materials more often than those teachings selectively chosen by Superior Sheepskins for dissemination.

Some print materials have muddied the waters of Catholic dialogue in past years, said Father Aveugle. “The anti-Borgia pamphlets, the anti-infanticide pamphlets which are, indeed, anti-infanticide but too critical of those prelates who aren’t as concerned as they are about infanticide, the pamphlets criticizing me criticizing the pamphleteers—ooh, it makes me crazy.”

He added that powerful and influential heretics read these materials, which give skewed vision of what the Church—by which he meant the authoritative, clerical bit—is about.

"If we judged our identity on certain printed materials, Christians and Catholics would be known as the people who stand against everything and against everyone," he said. "If anything we should be known as the people who are for something."

There was a startled silence as his audience wondered what he meant by Christians AND Catholics.

Despite these issues with printing, Father Aveugle said mass publishing has its place. He said it has linked the Church between continents much more closely, but we also need to be wary of how mass literacy can erode and cheapen personal relationships.

"Writing letters makes some kinds of communication easier, because it is not tied to geography, or governed by social norms, therefore writers can communicate whatever and whenever they want," he said. "While many of us can get back in touch with our friends via letters, there is a danger that print interactions can hurt our real-life friendships."

Writing, Father Aveugle explained, can encourage a "new form of narcissism." He said people reveal in their letters—especially those Christmas ones that go out to the entire Chrismas list—the most intimate details about themselves to the world and "we can't take it back."

He said print is an important tool for evangelization, but it also reinforces a belief that every mundane detail of our lives is worth publicizing.

"People are not just living in the moment, but they are publicizing the moment. This may lead to the spread of novels, poetry and heaven knows what else."

Father Aveugle said these new forms of communication can hurt the "art and language of friendship."

Though these technologies are supposed to better connect us, he said, there is an increase in reports of loneliness and distance between people. Instead of talking and visiting all the time, they read and write in isolation.

Father Aveugle talked about a woman he had met after Mass who said she received 20 letters a day from her granddaughter in the fields. She invited her to see her, because they lived in the same town, but the granddaughter doesn’t make the time.

"With letters, you don't see people. You see letters," he said. “A, B, C….”

"Without friends, human beings, to connect with, what are we doing?" he asked. “Writing? Our faith is about the Good Shepherd, and the sheep should know to trust his shepherds and the doctrine and news we see fit to give them, like the fine quality information carefully selected by Superior Sheepskins.”




As much as Vox would like to credit for this wonderful satire, alas, I cannot. It was our old friend Anonymous whom I abundantly thank for permitting me the honour of its publication. Oh, in case you missed the motivation.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Salt + Light C.E.O. slags LifeSiteNews

Once again, the head of Salt + Light, Your Catholic Channel of Hope has found it necessary to harshly criticise the good people, Catholic and non-Catholic at LifeSiteNews. This time in the B.C. Catholic:
"...American bishops are upset about the division it has caused in the Church. "One of the American cardinals asked me where the headquarters was and I said, `It's somebody's basement in the Ottawa Valley.' He thought it was a tower in downtown Toronto, so it's extremely deceiving."

"...a study of Catholic blogs involving non-Catholics and non-Christians looking at Catholic blogs found they were filled with "filth, hate, conjecture, and innuendo." He added some blogs attempt to claim they are official, using the Vatican crest or a picture of the Pope."

"...American bishops are upset about the division it has caused in the Church. "One of the American cardinals asked me where the headquarters was and I said, `It's somebody's basement in the Ottawa Valley.' He thought it was a tower in downtown Toronto, so it's extremely deceiving."

"Some blogs have coarsened Catholic dialogue in the past years: the anti-Obama Catholic blogs; the so-called pro-life blogs, that may be advocating pro-life, but they are decimating persons and reputations..."
You're a grown-up Catholic.

Read it all yourself.

You decide. d

CCCB distorts comment by Archbishop Prendergast

Here is the Archbishop's statement. Here's the story on Socon. Here's the salient point in the combox.


According to this CCCB spin memo, Archbishop Prendergast has cancelled the speaker’s engagements based on allegations and the fear of “prayer protests”. That is a gross misrepresentation of what the Archbishop stated in his letter on Fr. Arriaga.


According to the statement he published (on the archdiocese website), the Archbishop was not at all manipulated by allegations and the fear of public opinion (prayer protests). Rather, he followed a very evangelical course of action in dealing with this controversy (see Matthew 18:15-17).


From the Archbishop’s statement :


“The Archbishop met with Father Luis Arriaga, director of the Miguel Pro Centre for Human Rights (PRODH) on his arrival in Ottawa and discussed with him, and with representatives of Development and Peace, the Centre’s support of groups espousing abortion.”


He met directly with Fr. Arriaga, asked questions and then concluded that he could not endorse this speaker’s engagements in his archdiocese. That’s not basing a decision on allegations and the fear of protests.


That may be the modus operandi of the career cathlics at the CCCB, but that is not how a true Shepherd of the Church behaves. Thank you Archbishop, for being a good shepherd.




You're a grown-up Catholic.


Read it for yourself.


You decide.

Update: Hat-tip to Mike: Does D & P not get it? Written by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza Tuesday, 05 April 2011

Saturday 2 April 2011

Roman Missal Recognitio: Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

Finally, weeks after the news here on Vox Cantoris, and a day after it was published on Vox with a hat-tip here, three weeks after it was in the church bulletins in the Diocese of Hamilton and two week after the Archdiocese of Toronto announced the beginning of a training session, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has finally announced the recognitio of the new Roman Missal for Canada.

Thank you CCCB for your excellent communication!

For superior information please click the picture below:

Thank you Archbishop Prendergast and LifeSiteNews!

Grateful prayers of thanks and acknowledgement and blessing to Archbishop Terence Prendergast, S.J. of Ottawa for his statement and banning of a priest of Mexico from speaking engagements in the name of the Church promoted from Development & Peace where funds were directed to abortion.

Notwithstanding the unjust, vitriolic accusations by some who consistently blame LifeSiteNews "for stirring up 'division, destruction, hatred, vitriol, judgment and violence' " LifeSiteNews once again has scored another victory for justice and truth and the unborn by exposing the rot at Development and Peace and those in the Church in Canada and the CCCB who continue to whitewash the funding of your collection money to groups in Mexico and other countries who fund the murder of children in the wombs of their mothers.

This is the power of the Internet, the new media and bloggers. As I've stated previously in the last two weeks, they don't like it and they continue still to issue personal attacks by email unbecoming of their state. (I am sure that this will provoke another). The truth will be told and they will convict themselves by their actions and public comments.