Christmas break
I'll be back on December 30!

Traditional Catholic
The incomparable Peter Vere and Shawn McElhinney say pretty much what I mean in "What makes us Catholic traditionalists".

Fifth, Traditional Catholics worship according to a rite of Mass permitted by the Bishop of Rome. Some of the more common approved liturgies within the Latin Church are Pope Paul VI’s reformed usage of the Roman Missal, the 1962 Indult permitted by Pope John Paul II, and the Anglican Usage in the Roman Liturgy. As Traditional Catholics we do not impugn any of the Church’s approved liturgies. Rather, in keeping with Catholic Tradition, we adhere to the seventh canon on the Sacrifice of the Mass from the Council of Trent.

TCR

Alas, TCR is no more. I've read them almost daily for a couple of years now. I, of course, didn't agree with every jot and tittle, but they will be missed by those of us who were committed to orthodoxy, and not just conformity. Besides, Hand gave me publicity! :)

An exception to the rule
I usually don't do the "See this great post on so and so blog" type entry, but this one on the difference between conformity and orthodoxy is so good, I can't resist.

God is love, and since we are trying to bring people to God, we must bring them to Love. This is quite a different task than conquering someone in an argument.

This one may only be of interest to Packer fans
Here's a new one: Gotcher posting on SPORTS!

I get tired of the "I hate Bill Schroeder" crowd. He just another typical, mouthy [insert vulgar epithet] NFL player as far as I can tell. So he was kind of lippy and a little undisciplined in his play. Which would have been okay, of course, if he were a better receiver. No one would mistake him for pro-bowl status, but he WAS a walk-on, for heavens sake! I think the problems he had with the Pack say as much about the immaturity of Favre and the jerkiness of Holmgren than anything. Favre doesn't have the class of Montana. He flips people off after the game, etc. Montana (ND '78) would never do that. And Holmgren isn't dead last in the poll for favorite NFL coach for nothin'. Maybe I should replace Steve "The Homer" True on WISN radio. I like Duke Tomato, too, or at least did in the 1970s when he was with the All-Star Frogs.

The Two Towers
Even though I saw The Fellowship of the Rings I don't plan to see this one. I like the books too much. This is too bad because my kids are all gaga about the films (they are going tonight) so I miss out on an opportunity to share the fun. Well, I'll see the video when my daughter gets it. Maybe.

On the other hand, I disagree with Steven Greydanus when he says:

By almost any standard, The Two Towers is an immensely accomplished film; but the standard this film must be judged by is first of all Tolkien’s book....

As far as I'm concerned any film adaptation is an artistic reinterpretation of the original story and so is an opportunity for the director to put his own voice, his own values into the story. Kind of like how Virgil and Homer dealt with the Trojan War from slightly different perspectives. So, these films ought to be judged on their own artistic and interpretive merits, not on how accurately they reflect the ethos of the books. If Jackson wants to change Faramir, more power to him, but lets see what he does with him, whether it improves the story, or reflects important or true values.

The reason I don't want to see the film is not because it is not a slavish reproduction of the books, but because I don't agree with some of the new (Jacksonian) values that the films present. For one thing, he somewhat feministizes it, esp. concerning Arwen and Aragorn (Why can't we just have a strong, unangstridden hero in a film that women are supposed to enjoy?). Also, I REALLY think the Marian allusions in Galadrial are important in the original and making her into a witch was an interpretive mistake (especially since one the important aspects in the original was the discovery that the belief on the part of some characters that she was a witch was mistaken). From what I read of Greydanus' review, I don't think I'd be any more happy with the Two Towers.

Popcak's true colors
That cuts it! I've just bought two of Greg's books. Now I'll have to tear them up and throw them away. Or burn them. Or give them to E.O. Wilson. Or something. Next thing I know he'll be saying he doesn't like Star Trek!

Grrrrrr!

At LEAST they could have criticized the text itself
Kevin Miller says,

Funny how the correspondent doesn’t actually take the trouble to identify any of the current missal’s alleged “theological problems.” It’s all a guilt-by-association screed.

And while I haven’t read Cranmer’s order, I’m somewhat skeptical that it denied that worship is “not a worship of God.”

The Missal of Pope Paul VI
After blogging about Buchanan I got a very strongly worded critique of Vatican II and the new missal, including the following:

the novus ordo Mass was designed by a "fifth columnist", Msgr. Annibale Bugnini, who in fact was a freemason, and when this fact was found out Pope Paul VI shipped him out to Iran to be the papal nuncio to the Shah. Bugnini was assisted by six protestants, representing Anglicanism, Lutheranism, the World Council of Churches (a front group for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, by the way) and Taize. I invite you to compare the traditional Latin Mass (i.e., "tridentine" rite") with Cranmer's Godly Order, the heretical Anglican Mass formulated circa 1552, and today's novus ordo "liturgy". You will find that there are even bigger theological problems with the novus ordo than there were in Cranmer's Godly Order, which openly took the view that Anglican worship was a "meal" and a "memorial", not a "propitiatory sacrifice", and that worship was an "assembly of the people", not a worship of God.

I get so tired about all this carping about the defects of the new Missal. Whatever I might think about how the new Missal might have been composed (and I have lots of opinions about it), what we have is THIS one. And it is in its own way quite rich and deserving of our sustained meditation. The scripture readings are from the Word of God, for heaven's sakes! And so are the antiphons! We would all benefit from stopping all the carping and spending some time just quietly reflecting upon the ordinary, propers of the seasons and the commons of the Mass. Believe me, you can get every bit as deep a spiritual sustenance from these texts as you did from the old texts. So, I thought about spending a little time going through the new Missal (in Latin, because of the widely acknowledged defects in the ICEL translation), and try to plumb its depths. But I'm too lazy and I have a lot of obligations. So, I'll just settle for telling you all to QUIT CARPING AND BEGIN THE MORE BENEFICIAL TASK OF REFLECTING UPON THE LITURGY THAT DIVINE PROVIDENCE HAS GIVEN THE ROMAN CHURCH IN THE WAKE OF VATICAN II!

There! I feel much better.