Criticism is Not Disloyalty

Fr. Hunwicke, a Church of England clergyman on his way to Rome, has announced his ordination into the Holy Catholic Church has been "deferred," apparently over "misunderstanding" concerning his blog, a must-read for thoughtful traditionalists on both sides of the Tiber. He announces he is closing the blog down "with immediate effect" and is deleting "comments on it (or emails sent to me) which are in any way whatsoever critical of the Catholic Church."

Hunwicke has been critical, often sharply, of many of the post-Vatican II reforms that caused so much damage to the Church. He may have touched a nerve of someone in the English Church's hierarchy, someone for whom criticism of contemporary liturgical practices is tantamount to disloyalty. Most certainly that is not the case for this good and pious cleric. Let us pray the matter is quickly resolved. The Church could use a priest of Hunwicke's intelligence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Criticism is Not Disloyalty

Fr. Hunwicke, a Church of England clergyman on his way to Rome, has announced his ordination into the Holy Catholic Church has been "deferred," apparently over "misunderstanding" concerning his blog, a must-read for thoughtful traditionalists on both sides of the Tiber. He announces he is closing the blog down "with immediate effect" and is deleting "comments on it (or emails sent to me) which are in any way whatsoever critical of the Catholic Church."

Hunwicke has been critical, often sharply, of many of the post-Vatican II reforms that caused so much damage to the Church. He may have touched a nerve of someone in the English Church's hierarchy, someone for whom criticism of contemporary liturgical practices is tantamount to disloyalty. Most certainly that is not the case for this good and pious cleric. Let us pray the matter is quickly resolved. The Church could use a priest of Hunwicke's intelligence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Worthiest Art Thou at All Times to Be Sung

Comes word of welcome early fruits of Anglicanorum Coetibus:

Solemn Evensong & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament will be celebrated by the Oxford Ordinariate Group at Blackfriars, Oxford, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 15 June, by kind permission of the Prior and Community.

For those not aware Evensong is an Anglican institution, an amalgam of Compline and Vespers, that dates back over 500 years and is perhaps the loveliest service in the Anglican provenance. It may now be celebrated in the Catholic Church and that is happy news. If you are fortunate enough to have taken in Evensong at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (Episcopal) in Manhattan you surely understand why. If you not, you may do so at the church's website (click here to hear a recent celebration). The Anglican musical tradition is unlike any other; "ascetic opulence" might best describe it, glorious and soaring but without a trace of sentimentality or excess (some might even say it's chilly), unlike that heard all too frequently (though less so these days) in St. Peter's Basilica.

Couldn't possibly happen, of course, but how pleasant to imagine St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue becoming an Anglican Use parish.

h/t Inigo Hicks

Worthiest Art Thou at All Times to Be Sung

Comes word of welcome early fruits of Anglicanorum Coetibus:

Solemn Evensong & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament will be celebrated by the Oxford Ordinariate Group at Blackfriars, Oxford, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 15 June, by kind permission of the Prior and Community.

For those not aware Evensong is an Anglican institution, an amalgam of Compline and Vespers, that dates back over 500 years and is perhaps the loveliest service in the Anglican provenance. It may now be celebrated in the Catholic Church and that is happy news. If you are fortunate enough to have taken in Evensong at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (Episcopal) in Manhattan you surely understand why. If you not, you may do so at the church's website (click here to hear a recent celebration). The Anglican musical tradition is unlike any other; "ascetic opulence" might best describe it, glorious and soaring but without a trace of sentimentality or excess (some might even say it's chilly), unlike that heard all too frequently (though less so these days) in St. Peter's Basilica.

Couldn't possibly happen, of course, but how pleasant to imagine St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue becoming an Anglican Use parish.

h/t Inigo Hicks

Anodyne Atrocities

Tony Woodlief, writing in Image, about Bad Christian Art:

I’m convinced that bad art derives, like bad literary theory, from bad theology. To know God falsely is to write and paint and sculpt and cook and dance Him falsely. Perhaps it’s not poor artistic skill that yields bad Christian art, in other words, but poor Christianity. 

[snip]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warning against cheap grace comes to mind, a recognition that our redemption was bought with a price, as redemption always is. The writer who gives us sentimentality is akin to the painter Thomas Kinkade, who explicitly aims to paint the world without the Fall, which is not really the world at all, but a cheap, maudlin, knock-off of the world, a world without suffering and desperate faith and Christ Himself, which is not really a world worth painting, or writing about, or redeeming.

Read it all. Extending Woodlief's analogy, is there any doubt the music-product perpetrated against worshipers in most Catholic churches these days is the sonic equivalent of Thomas Kinkade paintings?

h/t Conservative Blog for Peace

Anodyne Atrocities

Tony Woodlief, writing in Image, about Bad Christian Art:

I’m convinced that bad art derives, like bad literary theory, from bad theology. To know God falsely is to write and paint and sculpt and cook and dance Him falsely. Perhaps it’s not poor artistic skill that yields bad Christian art, in other words, but poor Christianity. 

[snip]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warning against cheap grace comes to mind, a recognition that our redemption was bought with a price, as redemption always is. The writer who gives us sentimentality is akin to the painter Thomas Kinkade, who explicitly aims to paint the world without the Fall, which is not really the world at all, but a cheap, maudlin, knock-off of the world, a world without suffering and desperate faith and Christ Himself, which is not really a world worth painting, or writing about, or redeeming.

Read it all. Extending Woodlief's analogy, is there any doubt the music-product perpetrated against worshipers in most Catholic churches these days is the sonic equivalent of Thomas Kinkade paintings?

h/t Conservative Blog for Peace

Don't be Too Quick to Answer

Read the following, which I found on the website of St. Luke's (Episcopal) Parish, Bladensburg, MD, soon to be departing for Rome.

Our Liturgy

"The Eucharist is above all else a sacrifice' (Dominicae Cenae, 9). It is one and the same sacrifice as that of Calvary; each day the priest stands on Golgotha as he offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf. John Paul II, Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, 1988, passim). This sacrifice of Calvary, which is permanent and definitive, the eternal source of man's Redemption, is perennially re-presented through the ministry of priests in a sacramental unbloody manner at the Mass. Thus Christ's definitive act of self-donation as Victim for our sins is made present to the faithful that they may offer themselves ever more perfectly in union with Christ the Mediator between God and man." -Rev. Augustine Mary Hedderman M.V.A.

Therefore, we can truly say with St. Thomas Aquinas, "The celebration of Holy Mass is as valuable as the death of Jesus on the cross."

I wish every Catholic pastor would read that declaration then ask himself the following:

1) Do I agree with it?

2) If the answer is yes, do the Masses celebrated in my parish live up to it?

Don't be Too Quick to Answer

Read the following, which I found on the website of St. Luke's (Episcopal) Parish, Bladensburg, MD, soon to be departing for Rome.

Our Liturgy

"The Eucharist is above all else a sacrifice' (Dominicae Cenae, 9). It is one and the same sacrifice as that of Calvary; each day the priest stands on Golgotha as he offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf. John Paul II, Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, 1988, passim). This sacrifice of Calvary, which is permanent and definitive, the eternal source of man's Redemption, is perennially re-presented through the ministry of priests in a sacramental unbloody manner at the Mass. Thus Christ's definitive act of self-donation as Victim for our sins is made present to the faithful that they may offer themselves ever more perfectly in union with Christ the Mediator between God and man." -Rev. Augustine Mary Hedderman M.V.A.

Therefore, we can truly say with St. Thomas Aquinas, "The celebration of Holy Mass is as valuable as the death of Jesus on the cross."

I wish every Catholic pastor would read that declaration then ask himself the following:

1) Do I agree with it?

2) If the answer is yes, do the Masses celebrated in my parish live up to it?

"We are Ordinariate Bound!"

St Luke's Parish, Bladensburg, Maryland is taking the swim.

It is with great joy St. Luke's announces its intention to join the Personal Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. We have been discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit since the Holy Father's announcement of Anglicanorum coetibus in October of 2009. Since that time we have been in close dialogue with both the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and the Archdiocese Washington.

This is a case of letting the cat out of the cellophane bag; St. Luke's Bladensburg is a long-time stalwart of orthodox Anglo-Catholicism. Given the state of the Episcopal Church these days, it would have been astonishing if the parish had elected not to encamp for Rome. Still, it is good news indeed for liturgy loving Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington.

UPDATE: I misspelled "Bladensburg." Who knew it wasn't spelled with an "h" at the end? I've corrected it.

UPDATE 2: Kudos to the Rt. Reverend John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who has shown uncommon grace handling the departure of this parish from his flock. Not only is he not suing them over their property, he has reached an agreement with them that they may lease it with an option to purchase. Whether or not one believes, as Episcopal Church does, parish properties belong to their dioceses (I think they do not), Bishop Chane has handled this matter in a gentlemanly and Christian manner and deserves great credit for it.

"We are Ordinariate Bound!"

St Luke's Parish, Bladensburg, Maryland is taking the swim.

It is with great joy St. Luke's announces its intention to join the Personal Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. We have been discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit since the Holy Father's announcement of Anglicanorum coetibus in October of 2009. Since that time we have been in close dialogue with both the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and the Archdiocese Washington.

This is a case of letting the cat out of the cellophane bag; St. Luke's Bladensburg is a long-time stalwart of orthodox Anglo-Catholicism. Given the state of the Episcopal Church these days, it would have been astonishing if the parish had elected not to encamp for Rome. Still, it is good news indeed for liturgy loving Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington.

UPDATE: I misspelled "Bladensburg." Who knew it wasn't spelled with an "h" at the end? I've corrected it.

UPDATE 2: Kudos to the Rt. Reverend John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who has shown uncommon grace handling the departure of this parish from his flock. Not only is he not suing them over their property, he has reached an agreement with them that they may lease it with an option to purchase. Whether or not one believes, as Episcopal Church does, parish properties belong to their dioceses (I think they do not), Bishop Chane has handled this matter in a gentlemanly and Christian manner and deserves great credit for it.

Blind Item

Which popular and erudite Catholic priest, a convert from the Episcopal Church, is rumored to be near or at the top of the Vatican's short list of ordinaries for the first personal ordinariate in the United States? His bishop is said to be leaning on him to accept.

We could know by the end of the month.

Blind Item

Which popular and erudite Catholic priest, a convert from the Episcopal Church, is rumored to be near or at the top of the Vatican's short list of ordinaries for the first personal ordinariate in the United States? His bishop is said to be leaning on him to accept.

We could know by the end of the month.

A Very Good Question

The ever-wise Inigo Hicks, countering the suggestion by the Anchoress that the entertainment industry is so powerful Christians cannot ignore it but should engage it somehow, asks: "Isn't boycott a mode of engagement?"

Yes it is, without question. Still, I'm with the Anchoress on this one: my preferred mode of engagement with the entertainment industry is to grind their wretched product under my heels or smash it to bits with a sledge hammer; it's more tactile.

A Very Good Question

The ever-wise Inigo Hicks, countering the suggestion by the Anchoress that the entertainment industry is so powerful Christians cannot ignore it but should engage it somehow, asks: "Isn't boycott a mode of engagement?"

Yes it is, without question. Still, I'm with the Anchoress on this one: my preferred mode of engagement with the entertainment industry is to grind their wretched product under my heels or smash it to bits with a sledge hammer; it's more tactile.

The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer

The Rt. Rev. Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church in America, has decided the ACA cannot accept Pope Benedict's offer, via Anglicanorum Coetibus, of an ordinariate wherein Anglicans may be received into the Catholic Church but still preserve much of their worship tradition. The reason for rejection of this remarkable offer from the Pope, it seems, is His Grace's horrifying discovery that when one is received into the Catholic Church one becomes (brace yourself) Catholic. Nobody told him, I guess.


Bishop Marsh is also chagrined when one joins the Catholic Church one must subscribe to, in entirety, the Catechism of the Catholic Church; the Book of Common Prayer will not obtain in the ordinariate. I can empathize with His Grace: the BCP (the good one, from 1928, or 1662) is not only prayerful (naturally) but also contain some of the most beautiful English ever written; to this day I keep an old and battered 1928 BCP, presented to me at my confirmation, at hand. Bishop Marsh, however, ought to have another look at a key component found in the BCP, the Articles of Religion, then ask himself if it is really that great a mystery or injustice that the Prayer Book is unacceptable to the Holy Catholic Church. Article X on free-will or Article XXII on purgatory should by themselves be sufficient to that purpose.


I find myself increasingly dismayed by Anglicans who call themselves catholics yet nevertheless find numerous objections to their becoming Catholics, despite there now being a generous provision encouraging them to do so. Organizations like the Anglican Church in America, and its nearly countless alphabet soup counterparts, are where they are today because the Episcopal Church whence they come lacked magisterium to fend off the corrupting influence of our contemporary culture. They can fight the good fight on their own, of course, and  I wish them well, but it seems unlikely, regardless their fervent espousal of Prayer Book and Branch Theory, they can prevail against an enemy even the mighty Catholic Church must struggle valiantly against. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.

The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer

The Rt. Rev. Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church in America, has decided the ACA cannot accept Pope Benedict's offer, via Anglicanorum Coetibus, of an ordinariate wherein Anglicans may be received into the Catholic Church but still preserve much of their worship tradition. The reason for rejection of this remarkable offer from the Pope, it seems, is His Grace's horrifying discovery that when one is received into the Catholic Church one becomes (brace yourself) Catholic. Nobody told him, I guess.


Bishop Marsh is also chagrined when one joins the Catholic Church one must subscribe to, in entirety, the Catechism of the Catholic Church; the Book of Common Prayer will not obtain in the ordinariate. I can empathize with His Grace: the BCP (the good one, from 1928, or 1662) is not only prayerful (naturally) but also contain some of the most beautiful English ever written; to this day I keep an old and battered 1928 BCP, presented to me at my confirmation, at hand. Bishop Marsh, however, ought to have another look at a key component found in the BCP, the Articles of Religion, then ask himself if it is really that great a mystery or injustice that the Prayer Book is unacceptable to the Holy Catholic Church. Article X on free-will or Article XXII on purgatory should by themselves be sufficient to that purpose.


I find myself increasingly dismayed by Anglicans who call themselves catholics yet nevertheless find numerous objections to their becoming Catholics, despite there now being a generous provision encouraging them to do so. Organizations like the Anglican Church in America, and its nearly countless alphabet soup counterparts, are where they are today because the Episcopal Church whence they come lacked magisterium to fend off the corrupting influence of our contemporary culture. They can fight the good fight on their own, of course, and  I wish them well, but it seems unlikely, regardless their fervent espousal of Prayer Book and Branch Theory, they can prevail against an enemy even the mighty Catholic Church must struggle valiantly against. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.

Change of Pace

Vespers-Divine Liturgy (Mass) in celebration of the Ascension of the Lord, celebrated at St Michael's Chapel (Russian Catholic of the Byzantine Rite). St Michaels is situated in a building on the grounds of the Old St Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan, in a former nunnery, I believe. I assume I will fulfill my obligation by attending this service but will consult with Professor William Tighe (with whom I am attending) about it. I understand he is rather knowledgeable on matters like these.

I have attended Russian rites before (both Orthodox and Catholic) and my experience was like those who first experienced it centuries ago: "we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth."

Change of Pace

Vespers-Divine Liturgy (Mass) in celebration of the Ascension of the Lord, celebrated at St Michael's Chapel (Russian Catholic of the Byzantine Rite). St Michaels is situated in a building on the grounds of the Old St Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan, in a former nunnery, I believe. I assume I will fulfill my obligation by attending this service but will consult with Professor William Tighe (with whom I am attending) about it. I understand he is rather knowledgeable on matters like these.

I have attended Russian rites before (both Orthodox and Catholic) and my experience was like those who first experienced it centuries ago: "we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth."

You Would Swear There was a Certain Fascination to It

Another person smarter than I has taken up this silly blogging business. A warm razzing, if you please, for Bonaventura, the exclusive proprietor of Breviloquia.

You Would Swear There was a Certain Fascination to It

Another person smarter than I has taken up this silly blogging business. A warm razzing, if you please, for Bonaventura, the exclusive proprietor of Breviloquia.