The irony has become very old and tiresome by now, but it isn’t that often that it’s illustrated by someone as high-profile as Mark Shea, in a forum like InsideCatholic.com. So, one of the most frequently heard criticisms of traditional Catholics is that they’re angry, bitter and uncharitable. It’s by no means a totally unfounded complaint. But, for my money, I think the angriest of the angry trads are at least matched in unreasoned bitterness by the angry, bitter anti-trads. Shea has always been prone to bitter outbursts; it’s just one of his foibles. But his recent piece on “Angry Traditionalists” was really over the top, the kind of hateful, offensive language for which he ought to apologize, if only to salvage his own credibility. Like I say, what’s really absurd is the irony: his main contention is that Trads are scaring people away from the Church by their bitter, angry attitudes, but the piece itself is exactly the sort of rhetoric to make me think that “I wouldn’t touch the faith with a barge pole” if I thought that were at all representative of what the Catholic church is like.

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I tend to lose track of the dates during these summer months. In the dentist’s office yesterday morning, I was filling out forms and hazarded a guess that it was sometime around August 9. I was slightly startled, therefore, when my computer calendar informed me later in the evening that it was in fact August twelfth, which means that 1) I had missed the feast day of my patroness, and 2) it was my mother’s birthday. So, although this is a bit belated, I wanted to pay a tribute to them both.

St. Clare is a somewhat retiring figure compared to her colorful male counterpart. She seems to make her reputation largely as St. Francis’ sidekick, famous mostly for her inclusion in the Assisi crowd but far behind Francis when it comes to colorful stories and amazing miracles. There is, of course, the famous monstrance story, but where Francis wandered around, preached to birds, stripped naked for beggars, tamed violent animals, traveled to the Middle East, etc etc, Clare seems mainly to have settled down in Assisi, gathered her Poor Ladies around her, and quietly assumed the mantle of responsibility. It was the custom of the Poor Ladies (they assumed the name “Poor Clares” only on her death) to keep silence most of the time, to hold their eyes downcast, and, of course, to live always in great poverty. And behind that mantle of silence and poverty, St. Clare largely vanishes. The impact of her firm and loving leadership can be seen in the order she established, which gathered scores of women in her lifetime (including her own mother and sister) and continued into the centuries afterwards. But in the drama of Assisi, she remains largely a background figure, always present but usually taken for granted.

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I’ve been considering the question this week since we had the Good Samaritan story as a Gospel reading on Sunday. The most common interpretation of this passage (which is more or less what we got in the homily) is that the answer to the lawyer’s question (”Who is my neighbor?”) was: everyone. I’m not sure that’s quite right, or, at any rate, it seems to me that it’s missing some critical points in the story.

Now, obviously, there is some rhyme and reason to this standard answer. The man who was robbed and left on the road was a Jew. Of the three men who walked by, the one who stopped to help was the least likely one, the one who seemingly would have had the least reason to stop and help the wounded man. This is surely not an accidental feature of the story, and it seems that we can at least conclude that, contrary to what some might like to think, everyone is potentially a neighbor. Nobody can be automatically screened out on the basis of superficial external characteristics.

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Woohoo! The Holy See has granted a recognitio to the improved English translation of the Mass, and we can now peruse it in all its glory! Cardinal Arinze’s letter makes clear that this translation is now fixed as the one to be implemented in the new English missal for the Novus Ordo Missae. That is a very good thing, both because it means that the process can now move forward (though no doubt more slowly than we would like) and also because this new translation is so much better!

Take a look for yourself. I’ll just point out a few of the highlights.

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Perhaps I just wasn’t so well informed before, but it seems, doesn’t it, that we’ve been seeing an upswing recently in the number of women pretending to be ordained? Fr. Z has mentioned several lately, and in his most recent post asked for suggestions about what one might say in a chance encounter with a woman who believed that she had been ordained to the priesthood. I find that a difficult question to answer in the abstract. There would be a mountain of issues to tackle with such an individual, about the nature of the priesthood, authority, obedience and the differences between men and women… well, I’m not one to shy away from engaging people in debate, but I think I might have to play that one by ear a little. A woman who has actually been (pretend) ordained and subsequently excommunicated, is pretty far gone already.

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Apologies for being MIA the last week and a half. I was down South visiting family… and since returning my brain has been in that mode where I feel like starting lots of things, but can’t seem to finish any of them. Anyway, I was thumbing through my alumni magazine yesterday evening and was annoyed to see that they’d marked the anniversary of Humanae Vitae by publishing this story by E.J. Dionne, a visiting professor in the journalism department last year. I had the idea that his name looked vaguely familiar, and when I glanced at the bio I figured out why; he’s the author of one of those sleazy political books that you see on the front tables as you’re walking into Barnes and Noble — the kind with blunt, hit-you-upside-the-head titles and the obvious intention to snag those lefties in a panic about the evil conservatives and all the havoc they’re wreaking in America. His particular title? Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. Cute.

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If you haven’t read this yet, you should definitely do so. It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile.

It’s the resolution passed by the city council of San Francisco two years ago, venting their spleen against the Vatican and Cardinal Levada in particular. It’s being reviewed by the ninth circuit this week to see whether it violates the Establishment clause in virtue of being “hostile” towards religion. I hadn’t heard anything about it until a few days ago, but I couldn’t stop laughing as I read through it.

Yes, okay, I know these are serious matters, that the Church has been publicly insulted, and that this is just another sign of a coming war that’s likely to be ugly. Trust me, I understand all that. Given how my family is enmeshed in the Academy, we’re in a particularly vulnerable position. Academics these days are unlikely to get in trouble merely for believing the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. But we’re already to the point where publicly espousing those views (even, sometimes, if it’s done very politely and compassionately) can be dangerous. Given the direction things are going, it’s certainly conceivable that secular universities could start taking more aggressive steps to weed out “homophobes” within the span of our careers. So really, I don’t take this stuff lightly. But still, we might as well enjoy a little humor where we can, no? And this one really is hysterical. So angry and juvenile! It’s like something you’d see published in a high school newspaper! When I got to the Inquisition reference at the end… well, that is truly priceless. It’s like the liberal equivalent of calling Cardinal Levada a poopyhead.

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This is cool. From Stella Borealis, a report on an increasing source of frustration for Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups: a lack of qualified doctors. Not wanting to be saddled with the burden of answering to pro-life groups, it seems most medical schools stay away from abortion these days, and doctors usually have to find their own training from outside sources. Assuming they want to, that is. Even if they don’t have moral objections to the practice, it can be difficult for doctors to get institutional approval and malpractice coverage, and then there’s the fact that being an abortion doctor just isn’t the pleasantest of jobs. The author of the article is obviously strongly pro-abortion and doesn’t mention it, but you’ve got to think that killing multiple unborn babies in a week starts to make a person feel pretty bad about himself after awhile. But even if he doesn’t, he still has to deal with all the protesters, the bad reputation, and sometimes even safety concerns. Most people would rather just be an orthodontist (or, if you really like babies, how about a pediatrician or an OBGYN?)

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It’s late, and I’ve got to get this up quickly or else I’ll end up posting it on the Seraphic Doctor’s Novus feast day! Of course Iosephus has already put up a post in honor of St. Bonaventure, but I’m sure he won’t mind if I make a little contribution as well. This is from Gilson’s Philosophy of St. Bonaventure. I will not include such a long quote as I posted on St. Francis’ feast day, but hopefully this succinct quote will still capture something of the excitement of studying the philosophy of this great saint.

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I’m sure everyone knows by now about the no-hard-words camp winning the day in the USCCB’s vote over the new missal. Depressing stuff, but here’s the part that fascinates me. We’ve all seen the news stories quoting Shirley what’s-her-name and other “John and Mary” Catholics who want the more “accessible” language in the Mass. Now, what kind of person do you have to be to want to go on record as being too stupid or lazy to look up a word?

“English is such a hard language! Please keep words small for dim-witted people like me who can’t keep up!” It’s just sort of hard to figure why you’d want to be the poster child for that campaign, isn’t it? Did they pay them, perhaps?