Easter of 2006: Rome mixer...

To celebrate the Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord all of us students in Rome got together for a big party. When you're at such a party with all students of theology and philosophy and bioethics you never know what great conversations you'll have!

Ladies are asked to bring the food (no chips!) whild the gentlemen are asked to bring the drinks (no water!) and then the great conversations start...

With one student we chatted about the letter in which Pope Pius XI wrote in 1929 to all seminarians, "especially our Jesuit sons," inviting them to Rome to study at the "Russicum" for possible future work in Russia. The Russicum still stands and so does Russia. Visit a Latin rite mission in Russia today, see here how you can help: http://www.vladmission.org/ .

Buried in his biretta...

Both my grandfathers were altar boys in the 1920s in the City of Saint Paul. My one grandfather, Louis, used to tell me stories about his days as a youth serving at the altar for this old Austrian, Father Leopold Haas. In fact, my grandpa played the organ at this funeral in 1935. See here for a larger image of this photo and notice the preaching stole on the table: :http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=154075&Page=1&Keywords=Leopold%20Haas&SearchType=Basic

Gothic in Russia: the splendid lives...

Emanation...such an aura! It's a little different from the traditional Gothic without the usual "FINIAL" look of Notre Dame, but isn't it great!?

Many thanks to the talented and dutiful junior architect, Matthew Alderman, from the Shrine (http://www.holywhapping.blogspot.com/) for his stellar talent, valuable time and thorough wisdom which he benevolently gave pro bono toward this effort in Vladivostok, Russia.

The burgeoning Catholic community in the Far East of Russia will enjoy this sanctuary for many generations. The typical mission parish is all too aware of its own crudities, but here we see it proven that even on the other side of the world we can have a nice, faithful church renovation project carried to completion with a Catholic ethos.

The chief architect, Matthew, through a sustained and methodical study of the exterior of this late Polish neo-Gothic, Latin rite parish church (which survived the Revolution in Russia) and which was constructed in 1908 was then able to so design in an appropriate manner the new interior look. Thus he, the American pastor and the Russians together so ventured and proved it could be done. Please support this cause and be generous today: http://www.vladmission.org/.

Academia Religionis Catholicae: homeschooling...

Homeschooling seems the answer in the changing world that we live in today. Christian parents, protect your nest and so save yourselves and your kids.

After living in Italy now these past years I find myself shocked when I visit America each summer. Everything on the radio/television/movies is all about "butt" and "boobs" and "sex" and "gays," and "farts," etc.

Awake, don't be numb, and keep your kids free and safe in the protected Christian homestead. Happiness consists in the life of virtue, not pleasure. Give to them the Faith (stat promissa Fides).

Buona festa: Pio X...

Today on the liturgical calendar we celebrate the life of Pope St. Pius X. Non videbis annos Petri proved true and so he died August 20, 1914.

He was born in Riese, a little town just north of Padova. So the next time you're in Venice, take the train to Padova and then a bus just north to Riese to see his birthplace which is now a little museum.

His body is incorrupt and millions see it every year in the Vatican Basilica. Today I'm reading a great book entitled, Life of Pope Pius X, published by Benzinger Brothers in 1904 and I wish everybody could get a copy and read it.

Addition to the blogosphere...

My roommate, an eminent son of Canada, now has his own great blog. See: http://www.piuslad.blogspot.com/ .

In the photo you can see him with some Castelli Romani rosso while reading his daily Butler's Lives of the Saints. Parents, read the same to your kids each evening...

My employment this summer...

This summer I've been employed by this remodeling/building/construction firm. They are a company of standing and distinction. They have demonstrated by independent work an industry and a maturity that merits promotion. Their employees labor with great skill and comradeship. The remodeling project is a citadel to be stormed and captured so if you live in the Twin Cities and want some work done, then call them today!

A missioner from Russia...

When one thinks of a missioner they might think of a cleric in the South Seas with his soutane darned while living in a bamboo hut. But in the world of today it's a little different.

Soliciting funds and seeking recruits is a necessary part of opearating a Latin rite parish in the Far East of Russia. After many years of unalloyed happiness, our two missioners return Stateside each year for mission preaching assignments.

A missioner from Russia...

This is a photo of an American priest who has been living in Russia since 1992. He is a saintly man and his confrere there, another American priest, is a masterful organizer. Together, they make a great team. Thier regimen is difficult, so please give today (see: www.vladmission.org).

Warriors of the past: inspire us...

There are always hints at the proximity of saints in our midst. May this wife, mother and grandmother, champion of the Church, pray for us...

Warriors of the past: inspire us...

When you see a venerable old gentleman in tails, white tie, black waistcoat with his decorations/ribbons in a procession, then you'll know he's likely a papal count!

Warriors of the past: inspire us...

The good thing about being a papal knight is that you don't have to pay dues (once in Bethlehem I met a Knight of Malta who told me that his annual dues are $25,000). Anyways, it sure would be nice to have this carved on anybody's gravestone!

When you visit Rome visit here...

http://www.fsspinurbe.blogspot.com/

Where I was born on the globe...

I've always loved the American Upper Midwest. Frederick Jackson Turner had a hypothesis that the upper Mississippi Valley produced this country's most creative citizens. Anyways, it was here that I was born on the upper banks of the mighty Mississippi River.

Today, as I stand in downtown Saint Paul overlooking the steep sandstone bluffs atop the river, I think of this hospital that was founded in 1853 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet (the town they came from in Missouri). I remain indepted to these same CSJ sisters who were so kind to me during my later visits to the hospital to visit my mother who had been a nurse there since 1963. May they be rewarded (Lord grant them holy vocations!).

The return of the papal throne...

This pic will make a good screensaver for you. Last seen in 1978 with Papa Luciani, here it is again after twenty-eight years. Pope John Paul opted not to use a throne and so it sat in storage and then in the Lateran Palace museum until last December of 2006 when it was brought back into papal use. (Photo courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano).

France: eldest daughter of the Church...

Their proudest heritage is not Vercingetorix, Richelieu and Napoleon, but of their great saints: St. Rémi, St. Martin, St. Louis, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Joan of Arc, St. Bernadette, St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Hillary Clinton our next president...?

Now that I'm back in the New World for summer I hear all the news about election year now.

When our new Holy Father wrote his first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, he wrote some really nice things about politics. Read section 28. Here he gives the ancient Greek definition of politics:

"Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics. Politics is more than a mere mechanism for defining the rules of public life: its origin and its goal are found in justice, which by its very nature has to do with ethics."

With ethics and justice in mind, let's vote pro-life, fellow Christians. Abortion: one dead and one wounded.

To fish near Rome...

At dawn, with all the fishermen along the coastline, I found myself in deep meditation on these words from Vatican Council I:

"...the Church Herself, with Her marvellous propagation, eminent holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything good, Her Catholic unity and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefutable witness of Her divine mission."

To vacation near Rome...

I was just thinking to myself: "Why since the 1960s do so many institutions no longer have a crest or cartouche (scroll-like tablet used to provide space for an inscription) on their letter head/insignia anymore?" Every parish or univerisity or such institution should have a crest - it says who you are - even with a pun on words as is often the case in Italy.

Only in Italy: carved on your hotel facade...

When my sister came to visit me I put her and her husband up at this hotel on the Tyrrhenaian. I love these old 1920s hotels in Italy especially when there's Latin carved in the plaster!

Civitavecchia: old port of the papal navy...

Many Italians joke that if you see a lizard it will bring you good luck! One sees lots of them in and around Rome in gardens. They don't bite and they can even lose their own scaly tails.

One Sunday morning I was on my way visiting every chapel in the port of Rome, Civitavecchia. In this church the elderly porter pointed this lizard out and explained that the artist used it as his signature on his work!

Wild flowers off the seashore near Rome...

There are many reasons why Saint Peter chose Rome as the seat of his See. There are many reasons why the Caesars chose Rome, too. All I can say is that the beauty found there in Lazio is of mythical proportions.

Summer near Rome: cactaceae...

Here's me going native in Lazio near Rome with some edible fruit. The red part of this cactus is eaten and it's sweet, full of seeds and really tasty (made me feel like an ancient, parched Roman or Etruscan as I ate them in this arid region)!

To promote vocations...

Is it just me or does this guy look like Jack Kennedy?

Insomma, it's always good to promote vocations. You never know who might go on all the way. Makes me think of the Roman dictator Sulla, for instance, who foretold the greatness of Julius Caesar while the latter was still no more than a youth.

Mass in different languages...

They're just fine with a Mass in Spanish, but as soon as you ask for one in Latin they look at you like you just asked them to spend the night in a haunted house!

Anyways, I love to worship in Latin as did my ancestors and here's some footage of me as an acolyte at the F.S.S.P. parish in Rome where we worship in the Classical Rite. Also, you can see our chaplain as well as my roommate being interviewed about the most recent motu proprio in the same clip:

See: http://151.1.143.193/index.php?lnk=750&id=378

In Rome: study sacred music...

My pastor studied here in the 1950s. He joked that his ordinary, Archbishop John Gregory Murray, quipped ironically that it's the place where, "Altar boys go to learn how to play the piano."

Holy Rome: centre of tourism...

The Rome of today is a blast. Here's some summertime fun on the stinky Tiber River. Tourism, anyone?

In Rome: home of a saint...

The papal lawyer, Don Filippo Pacelli and his lovely wife, Virginia, lived in this flat in Rome on the Via della Vetrina. It was here that little Eugenio (Eugene) Maria (Mary) Giuseppe (Joseph) Giovanni (John) Pacelli grew up. Many years later, on his birthday, he was elected pope and chose the name, Pius XII.

Heartland of America: Nebraska...

Even in the New World we can be proud of our well-built churches and always of our fine clergymen. Proud, too, am I that I've had the pleasure to meet all three of these happy warriors. Fr. F. and Fr. B. and His Grace are all saints. See below for more pics of this sung Pontifical Mass.

Heartland America...

These photos were taken this past July 16 in celebration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The Mass was sung by the bishop of Lincoln, Most Rev. F. Bruskewitz, at the convent chapel of the Carmelite Sisters (OCD) at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on Agnew Road in Valparaiso, Nebraska.

Heartland America...

Nice to see that a portable episcopal throne can so easily be put up and great to see the assistant priest being a monsignor, too...

Heartland America...

The bishop preaches the sermon. The acclamation of the multitudes is for this prelate. In fact, his greatness is overwhelming.

He was a student in Rome in the 1950s. He was there to see the old processions with the "bussolanti" in scarlet and behind them the Grand Almoner, flanked by the two Swiss Guards, ...chamberlains of honor, chamberlains "with mantle and sword," all in black, with stiff white ruffs, the auditors of the papal courts and the masters of the Apostolic palaces; one more auditor, in a long white robe, carrying the papal cross, with seven acolytes, carrying bronze candelabra; the door-keepers in red, the penitentiaries of St. Peter in white chasubles; mitred abbots, then bishops, then archbishops and patriarchs and cardinals...ah, the good old days!

Heartland America...

After the recessional the bishop pronounced his blessing in the cortile upon those who assisted at the altar.

We remind ourselves that the rites are to stimulate the faithful to a greater desire for virtue and for that exemplary holiness of life which should characterize Catholic youth and others.

Heartland America...

After Mass all posed for a group photo in front of the new convent chapel. Great to see such a new/modern chapel built with more taste...(proof it can be done)...

From the treasury...

Here we get a glimpse into the never seen papal sacristy. In this photo one can see the Eastern pallium of Pope Benedict as well as his goofy cross and one of those of Pope John Paul II.

These objects are never seen by the tourist. The closest thing to this is the treasury museum open to the public attached to the sacristy of the Basilica of St. Peter.

Many thanks to my Hungarian confrere, Fr. Ervin Kovács, who actually took these photos. He was a student at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute and so their professor, Mons. Marini, gave his class a private tour.

From the treasury...

From the treasury...

You never know what nice tiaras you might see in the papal sacristy...to go where no tourist has ever gone!

From the treasury: pontificalia...

Papal rings anyone? If you have the right of pontificalia you wear such a glorious rock. The Pope? It is said that he might generally have a cameo, emerald or ruby (cardinals a sapphire, bishops and abbots an amethyst).

From the treasury...

In the papal sacristy one spots things that they might never see anywhere else such as the papal fistula, fanon, etc.

I think that these objects on top are mini tabernacles - one of which would be placed on the papal high altar for papal Masses in the Vatican Basilica, but I'll have to ask my confrere Greg.

From the treasury...

Here we can see old papal altar cards used in the Vatican Basilica as well as an assortment of the small candlestick known as the "bugia" which was used on the altar for a papal low Mass as well as at solemn functions in which a pope assisted (its use is conceded to others such as abbots, prelates, too).

From the treasury...

God bless the papal sacristy and those lucky ones who get inside of it!

From the treasury...

Imagine being pope and picking which chalice you'd like to use...

From the treasury...

In the papal sacristy we see here all of the many chalices used by popes over the centuries.

From the treasury...

Today most vestments are made by a mechanical contrivance. In the "good old days" it was all made by the hands of the lovely sisters who labored in grace and prayer as His brides for His kingdom.

From the treasury: Leo XIII...

Wow, looks like something Arthur Ramsey would have worn as Archbishop of Canterbury!

From the treasury: Pius X...

If you ever want to see old apparel of a pope, visit his birthplace or the treasury in the Vatican Basilica...

From the treasury: Pius X...

Ah, the old episcopal sandals! Here we can see the embroidered silk slippers worn over the buskins by the popes when singing a High Mass as well as the every-day pair of red sandals (on our left) the likes of which popes can wear for daily use.

When writing the popes just sign-off with these words: "Kissing the sacred slipper..."

From the treasury...

On the far left you see the old pectoral cross that Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory, used to wear between 1958 - 2005.

From the treasury...

It's great to see this old crosier collection of the guys that went on to become popes. I've always liked the crosier because of its symbolism signifying "his duty to rule and guard the faithful as a shepherd would his flock."

From the treasury: Benedict XV...

So 1920s to see a mirtre this glorious. Just wish our prelates still wore them this nice...

From the treasury: Pius IX...

Nothing like a nineteenth century tiara...

Summorum Pontificum...

I have always enjoyed this site and I recommend it for information on the newest motu proprio of the Pope: www.unavoce.org .