• CU

The Catholic Underground

Marxism is not as fashionable today of course as it once was. No one reads Capital anymore, and I’m not saying that the makers of this film are communists. But it does seem like the underlying theory of social movements within Marxism has been applied here to liturgical studies. And that’s not surprising given how prominent liberation theology has been in Catholic circles. It might have made inroads to liturgical studies as well. In this instance, instead of capital vs. labor as the conflict-lens through which to view history, we get the people vs. the clerical class and their intellectual defenders.

Marxism is not as fashionable today of course as it once was. No one reads Capital anymore, and I’m not saying that the makers of this film are communists. But it does seem like the underlying theory of social movements within Marxism has been applied here to liturgical studies. And that’s not surprising given how prominent liberation theology has been in Catholic circles. It might have made inroads to liturgical studies as well. In this instance, instead of capital vs. labor as the conflict-lens through which to view history, we get the people vs. the clerical class and their intellectual defenders.
Sean Tribe from The New Liturgical Movement on a LTP movie entitled “A History of the Mass”

Episode 34: Definitely Not Episode 33

In this episode we talk about the supreme court’s decision on partial-birth abortions, the backlash of the culture of death with all of that, we talk about a new Vatican-okay’d TV organization, and we take a look at some listener mail.

Episode 34: Shownotes

Planned Parenthood Marketing Tactics

Partial Birth Abortion Ban Upheld

(CAUTION: the following sites contain graphic material)
Safe Sex Guardian Angel Ad
Teenwire.com

H2O News

H20 News
Disciples with Microphones
Salt + Light TV
International Congress for Catholic Television – not whatever Deacon Chris said it is!
Current.TV

EuCon 2007

Feedback

Episode 26: My Dead Motherboard for more info about Podcasting.
Gear Media Tech

Our Prayers as well as the Holy Father’s are with the Families, Friends, and Victims from the Virgina Tech Massacre.

A link to the below mentioned blog.

A link to the below mentioned blog.

Medi-Evil?

Stolen directly from Dennis’ blog:

Bishop Arthur: Old woman!?

Dennis: Man!

Arthur: Old man. Sorry. What Abbot lives in that Abbey over there?

Dennis: I’m thirty-seven.

Arthur: I… what?

Dennis: I’m thirty-seven. I’m not old.

Arthur: Well, I can’t just call you ‘Man’.

Dennis: Well, you could say ‘Dennis’.

Arthur: Well, I didn’t know you were called ‘Dennis’.

Dennis: Well, you didn’t bother to find out, did you?

Arthur: I did say ‘sorry’ about the ‘old woman’, but from the behind you looked–

Dennis: What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!

Arthur: Well, I am Bishop!

Dennis: Oh, Bishop, eh, very nice. And how d’ya get that, eh? By exploiting the laity! By hanging on to outdated papist and apostolic dogma which perpetuates the religious and spiritual differences in our society. If there’s ever going to be any progress with the–

Old Woman: Dennis, there’s some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d’ya do?

Arthur: How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, Bishop of this Diocese. Whose Abbey is that?

Woman: Bishop of the who?

Arthur: This Diocese.

Woman: Oh, you got a disease?

Arthur: No, no, no! Di-oh-cese

Woman: What’s a Diocese?

Arthur: Well, we are a diocese. It is our local community as part of the universal Church. We are all Catholics, and I am your Bishop.

Woman: I didn’t know we had a Bishop. I thought we were an autonomous faith community.

Dennis: You’re fooling yourself. We’re living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes–

Woman: Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.

Dennis: That’s what it’s all about. If only people would hear of–

Arthur: Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that abbey?

Woman: No one lives there.

Arthur: Then who is your abbot?

Woman: Oh, we dropped the habits years ago!

Arthur: Not habit, abbot, ABBOT!

Woman: We don’t have an abbot.

Arthur: What?

Dennis: I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week…

Arthur: Yes.

Dennis: …but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting…

Arthur: Yes, I see.

Dennis: …by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs…

Arthur: Be quiet!

Dennis: …but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major–

Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!

Woman: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.

Arthur: I am your Bishop!

Woman: Well, I didn’t vote for you.

Arthur: You don’t vote for Bishops.

Woman: Well, how did you become Bishop, then?

Arthur: The Vicar of Christ, the Successor of St. Peter, the Bishop of Rome…

[Angels singing.]

…clad in the purest shimmering white watered-silk sash, was enlightened by the Holy Spirit, signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to fulfill the apostolic succession in this diocese.

[Singing stops.]

That is why I am your Bishop!

Dennis: Listen. Albino pigeons swooping out of the air and hovering over an old man in an Italian Baroque Museum is no basis for an ecclesial hierarchy. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical pneumatic ceremony.

Arthur: Be quiet!

Dennis: Well, you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some guy in Italy heard voices come from a tongue of fire?

Arthur: Shut up!

Dennis: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because my uncle Vito in Rome gave me a hot pink hat, a hot pink sash, one of those robes from The Matrix but with red piping and a big gold ring, they’d put me away!

Arthur: Shut up, will you? Shut up!

Dennis: Ah, now we see the abuse inherent in the Church!

Arthur: Shut up!

Dennis: Oh! Come and see the abuse inherent in the Church! Help! Help! I’m being oppressed!

Arthur: Ruddy layman!

Dennis: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about. Did you see him oppressing me? You saw it, didn’t you?

Western legal systems “are a secular residue of religious attitudes and assumptions which historically found expression first in the liturgy and rituals and doctrine of the church and thereafter in the institutions and concepts and values of the law.  When these historical roots are not understood, many parts of the law appear to lack any underlying source of validity.

Western legal systems “are a secular residue of religious attitudes and assumptions which historically found expression first in the liturgy and rituals and doctrine of the church and thereafter in the institutions and concepts and values of the law.  When these historical roots are not understood, many parts of the law appear to lack any underlying source of validity.
Professor Harold Berman quoted in How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

15 days of school. I’m almost crazy.

I sit here in Puccino’s (a close runner up to CC’s) trying to concentrate and type out an outline of the last for chapters of this book, which is rather good. The problem is, everything within me is checking out! And quickly! Other countdowns to note:

39 days until priestly ordination.

61 days until we depart for a Roman holiday.

yet none of these events can occur soon enough as I plod along these last two weeks!

Episode 33: Quick! To the PaschCave!

We talk about the Easter Vigil, pastoral tattooing, coming into the Church via RCIA, Prayers before dialing up, our periodical blog faves, and we look at some listener mail.