Someone recently said that popes should resign more often and new ones elected because it has been a publicity coup for the Church and the new Pope, who calls himself Francis, has captured the imagination of the world because of his simplicity now as pope, but given his stark simplicity as Cardinal in Argentina.
We've had all kinds of publicity in Macon and from unexpected sources. And, yesterday, Easter Sunday, yours truly and Saint Joseph Church made the front page of our local newspaper for our Easter Vigil on Saturday. His Holiness, Pope Francis only made the second page!
This is a good interview with His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan on Face the Nation:
1 comment:
I noticed that HE spoke of a "sense of revolution" (which he quickly changed to "resolution". I hope that this was not a Freudian slip.
There is no publicity coup. Most people, including Catholics, don't even know what a mozzetta is, and the brief media interest when a pope is elected quickly evaporates.
As for simplicity, 19 out of 20 Mass-going Anglophone Catholics, if plonked down in St Peter's for a papal liturgy wouldn't have a clue what was going on, since they never encounter a word of Latin or a neume of Chant, and would be up in arms if anyone tried to introduce either into their parishes (clergy not excepted).
Twenty years ago I was in Prague for Holy Week. Hardly anyone there spoke English, but since they all knew German, this wasn't a problem. The two churches I attended (St Thomas's in the Mala Strana and St James's in the Old Town) used mostly Latin and since my previous experience of the Triduum was at the London Oratory I was on very familiar ground.
St James's Church boasted a large choir and a full symphony orchestra, and the Sung Latin Mass on Easter Sunday featured Dvorak in D (all movements). The same composer's Stabat Mater was performed after the Good Friday liturgy.
At St Thomas's the night before I experienced an Easter Vigil entirely in Gregorian Chant (except for the Scripture readings which were in Czech), sung by a visiting schola of Dutch students who were outstandingly good.
I was recounting this to a colleague who was a staunch Methodist. He couldn't understand why anyone would need to pray or sing in Latin. I pointed out that there was a Methodist church in Prague, but unless he knew Czech he would hardly be able to understand, much less participate in, its services.
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