
Thursday, August 31, 2006
From the mystical climate of Catholic Europe...
Ever invite someone (i.e. a Catholic) to a Mass in Latin? They will look at you like you just asked them to spend the night in a haunted house! This is a weakness underlying the American Catholic culture of today. A sad flaw of my generation is the establishment of a veritable cult of continuing change (almost everybody has come to expect all things to just keep on changing without end). We must be "patient in tribulation" as Saint Paul counseled (Romans 12:12).

Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Orange trees from this Spaniard...?
The mighty "galero rosso" with its 30 tassels!

The galero was presented (until the updating era of the 1960s) in public consistory to every new cardinal. When the cardinal would die, it was carried before his coffin and then placed at the base of his bier during the funeral rites. Then, it was hung from his cathedral ceiling to denote that once a cardinal (now dead) once had jurisdiction there. The joke was that as soon as the hat would eventually drop to the floor some day, then the prelate would enter the heavenly kingdom!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Forays of today: more concrete and brick monolith?

To be a bride of the Christ...
So, has the Catholic Church really been so unfair to women?
Sometimes we forget that the Catholic sisters wielded more power than any other block of women in the history of our nation. They were a backbone of the nation in establishing and maintaining hundreds of primary and secondary schools, universities, orpanages, hospitals, clinics, conservatories of music, etc. Our sisters were the most educated block of women in the nation. They met the educational standards of the state and they gave. The Master is here and He calleth thee? See: http://www.cjd.cc/aboutus.htm.

Saturday, August 26, 2006
My kind of cornerstone: in Latin!

I've always been a fan of the book, The Seven Storey Mountain, by Merton. I'd like to share this one line from the book: "How does it happen that even today a couple of ordinary French stonemasons, or a carpenter and his apprentice, can put up a dove-cote or a barn that has more architectural perfection than the piles of eclectic stupidity that grow up at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the campuses of American universities?"
Why be Catholic in the Europe of today...?

Where did this phenomenon arrive from? Why this self-appointed task of Martin Luther (an archetype) to break from the one (Christ)endom? He felt bound by no corpus of history or the collective wisdom of the past or of the legacy of tradition. For him, the prescriptive codes of ancestral experience existed to be selectively followed or wholly rejected entirely - subject to his whim. On what grounds can this mortal, like the so many others, suddenly refashion the existing order?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The American Catholic Centre...

When I see this building in Washington, D.C. I get so excited that I can almost hear in my head that music that we all love that's used to announce the Fox movietone!
Welcome to the Catholica Universitas Americae! This is the Centrum Nationale Culturae Catholicae! Caldwell Hall is where so many American theologians, philosophers and canonists have received their education!
Chinese Catholics...

My thoughts and prayers are always with the persecuted Church in China. Imagine being a faithful Catholic under the Communist fist? See the Kung Foundation: www.cardinalkungfoundation.org. I have met both Joseph and Agnes Kung and they are stellar warriors for Christ! May Cardinal Kung pray for us all!
To waltz over the cobblestones of Rome...!
Monday, August 21, 2006
Today is Pivs X...my Confirmation saint!

Today I feel rather proud as it's the Feast of Pope Saint Pius X, my Confirmation saint! When I was confirmed in A.D. 1992 by His Grace Robert Carlson, Auxiliary to the Archbishop of Saint Paul, I recall his delight in having a Pius X in the bunch! FYI: www.totuspius.blogspot.com.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Before the culinary delight - first make a catch!

Because Italy is surrounded by the sea, except in the North, and where, in that region there are large lakes and rivers, fish make up an important part of the diet, and the fish section of the menu offers a wide and varying array of fish and seafood dishes throughout the country! Renowned seafood can be caught and cooked by yourself once you have locals show you the ropes!
La vita Italiana...frutti di mare!

The fruits of our hunting in the sea near Rome!
Well, this is it! Each morning we hunted for octopi and then we'd eat it for cena! La Magda made us this lovely June meal and we dined together on my terrace as the sun was beginning to set! The vino was from the Cantina Cerveteri north of Rome and the Republica de Cuba cigar was nice, too (Habanos!)!

Roman tailored - only the best!
It is such an honor for me while in Rome to lay out the sacred vestments for the sacred ministers of the altar! Each item is so holy as each is blessed and so used in the rites! I place each vestment down in the order in which they are donned. Do you like how I layered the cord cincture (hint: it's in the form of an "M" for Maria)?! The Church has given us so much!

You study in Rome?

Priests...nuns...laity!

Everyone is a link in the chain! Remember the great quote from John Henry Cardinal Newman: "God created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another...I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught."
American altar boy carries the torch in Rome...!

Conflagration between the Church and Her enemies!

Today as with yesterday, one can still see the tension seen between morals and party platforms. Of course our job is to seek the Catholic moral framework when we vote in America as in Italy!
Once I heard an American eulogizing the Lodges of the Freemasons and so my reply was: "Well Jerry, look at the mighty Masonic holds in the Italy of today!" The doctrinaire constancy, anti-Catholic furies, reckless affections and chimerical plots of the Masons makes me want to barf! An Italian once pointed out to me that their dogmatic teaching can reasonably be called their own "theology."
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Study the legends...!
March for Christ...!

Have you ever been on a pilgrimage!? They're great! My Canadian friend asked me to invite all on the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Notre-Dame-du-Quebec (September 2, 3, 4, 2006: www.st-clementottawa.ca). This is a 62 mile trek to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Cape which will start in Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie (a town on the St. Lawrence River east of Montreal, near the place where St. Isaac Jogues and his companions fell into the hands of the Iroquois in a.D. 1642). Pilgrims follow in the footsteps of saints and martyrs in prayer, contemplation and cameraderie!
The menace of Islam...

In Rome I got to know a Lebanese Christian really well. He was born in Beruit and now he's a seminarian living in Rome who has read the Qur'an and now with fright he often explains it. He shared this line with me: "Fight and slay the unbelievers wherever ye find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war." -Qur'an, Sura 9:5
Monday, August 14, 2006
Two German angels...

Awe yeah: tomorrow is here!

They guard the Pope!
The Sistine Choral Ensemble...live from the Vatican!

Saturday, August 12, 2006
Congratulations to Rachel and parents...
My former neighbor, Michelle, just had a baby yesterday! It's her first and a new girl! Hearty congrats to her, her spouse and family! Prayers are requested for the new little soul, Rachel. If we were Italians, this little girl could call me zio (uncle), because everyone has a million uncles in Italy! Many thanks!
La dolce vita...?

Welcome to the Italian spa world! Lucky for me I had connections at this resort, si? Here I am trying to be cool in my new 100% linen beach shirt that I bought from a vendor on the beach selling coconut! All that was on my mind at this pool was how soon I could take a ride on a "ketch" again (a fore-and-aft rigged vessel with mainmast and mizzenamst, etc.)...
La bandiera Italiana...
Rowboat from the Sea...
Shipwreck near to Rome?
Hawaii or Italy...?
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Enjoy the hinterland...

Every pilgrim or tourist to Italy does a lot of walking. But those who know me know of my marathon walks along the coast. When I'm bored, I sometimes walk for hours along the sea. With their being so little real estate development in Italy, one can enjoy the natural seashore even with cropland often bordering it!
Aqua fortis...

Wow, cool motorboat! Do you seen the light on the back? The old guys take these boats out before dawn to catch fish!
An aqueous life in Italy is such a blessing! I was always aquatic as a kid while spending summers at our cabin in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. But, the sometimes transparent bluish green of the sea is better than any Wisconsin lake!
Aqua vitae...
Deus benedicat te!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Minnesota in Italy and the world...
An Italian: Christopher Columbus!

Might of Mother Russia's Catholics...in Rome!
Zeal...ardor...fervor: meet our Russian Catholic brothers and sisters in the Faith! The Soviet milieu, ever engaged in warfare, was all about assuring the most effective mobilization and utilization of the national manpower to destroy Christianity. Always under seige, but never taken, a city set atop a hill, the Church survived and today we see the new generation of Russian Catholics who now seek solidarity with us (www.vladmission.org)!

Antica e Nuova...ma e Roma!
Pope J.P. II lived here while a student in Rome!

Nice Roman palazzo, eh? This is where the young Father Wojtyla lived from 1946 - 1948. He arrived at Rome's famed Stazione Termini on the train from Poland in the autumn of '46. The war had just ended and it was his first trip outside of Poland. Through the train windows he saw the war destruction even as Poland lay in ruins. So, while in Rome, he was a guest priest here at the Belgian College!
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Homemade hair style?
Rich Roman damask...glorious!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Old world Italy...
Hunting in the sunny Tyrrhenian Sea!
Eminent in the wisdom of the sea: it's Pino!
Ulcerate in gli Stati Uniti?

Like I sometimes quip to my parents: "Either I can make money and pursue an ulcer back home or vacation in Italy while earning myself a degree!" Their reply: "Is the beach an infringement on your studies?" I laugh: "I attend a preeminent Pontifical University of renown (I just hope I can get a job after!)!"
Mediterranean world!
Military splendor of a bygone era!
Nice epitaph of a Cardinal!
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