Motu improprio?

Guest blog from Richard Owen.

Readers of The Times may recall my article from Rome recently on Coca Cola taking legal action on the eve of Good Friday to stop an Italian film showing Jesus Christ drinking from a can of Coke - even though the Pope apparently had seen the footage and voiced no objection. I can report a happy ending: the film, which was withdrawn in haste because of the objection, will now be released on 4 May, largely - according to the director and producers - thanks to The Times. The film "Seven Kilometres from Jerusalem", directed by Claudio Malaponti, revolves around a 43-year-old Milan advertising executive who travels to Jerusalem to escape from a mid life crisis and encounters Jesus in the desert near Emmaus.

He offers Christ a lift in his jeep, and as He gets in, the executive hands Him a can of Coca Cola, which the thirsty Jesus drinks with obvious enjoyment. "My God - what a testimonial!" the excited executive exclaims.

Originally Coca Cola said this use of its brand image was "unacceptable", and demanded that the offending scene be cut, even though the Vatican Secretariat of State had sent Malaponti a letter saying that Pope Benedict XVI (who had been sent the DVD in advance) hoped the film would "increase love for Jesus the Son of God and awareness of the richness of his message".

The advertising man is transformed by his encounter with Christ and rediscovers the meaning of his life. The controversy followed a similar contretemps over the latest film by the veteran director Ermanno Olmi, "A Hundred Nails", which also depicts a latter day Christ figure in the form of a professor of religious philosophy who turns his back on established Christianity in disgust and sets up his own community on the banks of the River Po.

Malaponti and the producers of "Seven Kilometres from Jerusalem", Graziano Prota and Angelo Sconda, now tell me Coca Cola have withdrawn their objection, accepting that the reference to Coke  "did not appear to be offensive" and genuinely arose from the director's "creative and artistic needs". "We believe the Times article substantially contributed to this change of heart", the producers tell me. They say that on 20 May lawyers and academics are to hold a seminar on "the use of brand names in works of art" - in other words, product placement.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict prayed at the tomb of St Augustine of Hippo in Pavia last weekend. Augustine (354-430 AD), born in North Africa and educated in Rome, is of course a father of the early Church, but is especially important to the former Joseph Ratzinger, whose doctoral thesis in 1953 was entitled "The People and the House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church". Augustine is also the patron saint of printers and theologians - and brewers, appropriately enough, given that Benedict was given 80 bottles of Bavarian beer for his 80th birthday.

The visit to Pavia and Vigevano was the Pope's first official trip outside Rome this year. In Vigevano - noted for its shoemakers - he was given 15,000 pairs of shoes, which excited some media comment. However they were all to be distributed to the poor and needy, except for an additional pair of red kangaroo hide slippers made for the Pope. The ones he normally wears are supposedly made by Prada, although this has never been confirmed either by Prada or by the Vatican - which has not stopped it being repeated endlessly as fact.

Benedict looked in good form on his north Italian trip, and indeed in the film footage of his daily life in the papal apartment released by CTV, Vatican Television, to mark his eightieth birthday. In my assessment of his first two years on 14 April I wrote that the Pope faced a heavy schedule at 80 and looked "exhausted", a remark which the sub editors duly highlighted, but by which I simply meant that the long Easter celebrations had taken their toll (as they do on every Pope). On the whole he seems remarkably robust, thankfully, even though he himself is said to have told the cardinals who elected him that his would be "a short reign" and observed more recently that being Pope is "really tiring".

Many of us in Rome as well as elsewhere are still waiting for the Pope's long expected but mysteriously delayed "motu proprio" reviving the Latin mass - but there are Jewish concerns that the liturgy will include "anti Semitic" passages, especially since Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the Pope's personal "preacher", has referred in recent sermons to Jewish "blame" for the death of Jesus, which was specifically rejected by the Second Vatican Council. "It is obvious that a return of the Tridentine missal would cause a lasting disruption to the Catholic-Jewish dialogue that began so hopefully at the Second Vatican Council," the Central Committee of German Catholics said this week. Meanwhile the cash dispensers inside the Vatican have anticipated the Pope by issuing instructions in Latin, with customers told: "Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem."

Finally, limbo. I was rounded on by religious bloggers for predicting a year and a half ago that limbo would be quietly dropped ("Pope consigns Limbo to history books", 30 November 2005), and again last October, when the International Theological Commission submitted its findings to Benedict, on the grounds that the Commission was only an advisory body. In case readers missed the latest twist, see the article I wrote yesterday. The Commission is of course an advisory body - but when the Pope approves its findings they acquire papal authority. I am also well aware that limbo was never part of Catholic doctrine. I hope that clears that up.

Comments

[Londiniensis]

If Mr Appel regards the Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim as merely "our stories" then perhaps he should relinquish his proprietary feelings towards them in favour of practising Jews and Christians, who regard them as part of God's revelation to man.

[Martin]

"what you suggest will inevitably lead to murder of Jews for killing your Saviour.

That is why it is important to listen to Jewish views on this subject, in order to avoid needless killing"

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. The inclusion of a prayer, in Latin, in the Good Friday liturgy calling for the conversion of the Jews is hardly likely to turn Tridentine Catholics in a pogrom oriented mob.

Now, frankly, butt out of internal Catholic affairs. Your interference in the debate over matters which are only relevant to practising Catholics is unwelcome. You have no right to express an opinion, and I will not tolerate the interference of outsiders in matters such as the liturgy.

[Christopher Gillibrand]

Attempts to develop a Christianity free of the Old Testament stories have been tried but by the sort of people that Mr Appel would want to bite, as would I.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear All,

Mr. Gillibrand states "If original sin does not exist, then we are all immaculately conceived from our natural parents".

Now sir, that is the silliest conclusion from a bad premise. Billions have been conceived and will continue to be very "maculately" conceived.

Adam and Eve never had you or the doctors of the Church in mind when they did their thing. I'd wager neither did God. It's the highest hutzpah ( Heb. arrogance) to take our stories for your methods of domination over human beings. Make up your own.

[Christopher Gillibrand]

If original sin does not exist, then we are all immaculately conceived from our natural parents.

Now that I can't believe.

It only becomes just an inclusion ritual, when the doctrine of original sin is rejected, as baptism is the real remedy for this sin.

Mohammed, it is alleged got his religion from a Nestorian monk.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Re the "fate of the unbaptized", the "necessity of baptism" and "original sin"

Now, Mr Gillibrand, the amount of citations are impressive but it's similar to the amount of time a gambling addict spends studying the ins and outs of poker and the slot machines in Vegas.
This nonsense has poisoned the West for the last 2000 years and its variant, Islam, the Semitic world.

Billions of people were born and died before criminals who pushed this nonsense ever saw the light of day. God never abandoned them and I spit on this idea.

"Original Sin" my backside! You wouldn't even have the idea except you took the creation story of the Jews and used it to place a huge guilt trip on people in order to control them.

"Baptism" is nothing more than the inclusion ritual for a Religious Empire follow up to the Roman Empire. It's nothing more than the old Pontifex Maximus transformed into Emperor with two lines intersecting instead of the eagle as its symbol.

The ideologues for this Empire in the West spent countless hours dreaming of excuses to slaughter people if they didn't comply. These madmen were supported by images of scribes sitting in their little rooms and Gregorian chants filling our ears as if these were innocent ideas.

Mohammed checked out the Byzantines and just copied their methods, that 's all.

The goal is the same - world domination and uniformity with Latin as the official means of religious expression ( Vulgate) or Arabic in the Semitic world (Koran).

[Geoffrey Smith]

a letter from Europe

Dear Mr Appel,

I'm sorry to hear you don't mind being a thief. But don't worry, I'm not an anti-Semite. I wont start thinking that all Jews must be thieves because Mr Appel is a thief.
I can't see it in the future, either.
Not when the President of Israel visits the Vatican to talk with P-p- B-n-d-ct. Gutless? Aw, come on, now. You gotta be kiddin'.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Emanuel

I think so, if I understand you. You can post a comment.

By the way, did you know that Ruth has nominated my blog for the Best Religion Blog and Best Political Blog categories of the Blogger's Choice Awards.

You can even vote for us both if you want.

See her latest blog on this subject

[Gillibrand]

I have just put this text on the traditional Catholic teaching on the Fate of the unbaptised on my blog, which people may find useful.

And see also The Necessity of Baptism although the Commission asserts that they do not want to discourage parents from seeking the baptism of their children.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

To Irene,

I've seen your personal blog but are you able to respond to comments through that medium?

To Geoffrey

I'm sorry your attention span is so short you can't follow my thread. I was referring to the disposition of Churches in the land of Israel. I 'd think that any Ebay revenues would go directly to the Israeli treasury. Well, of course, since the present leadership is made up of gutless wonders, I don't envision it in the near future but it's a thought.

[Geoffrey Smith]

Would someone please explain to me what that doggerel in Mr Appel's posting is all about?

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Not exactly, Emmanuel. That's not how things work here.

The tourist board here are very interested in all my views and want to attract more tourists, but don't seem to be able to get their act together, because it would mean admitting that they might possibly have been wrong in the past.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear all,

The Queen seems satisfied inspecting the "settler state" that her predecessor enabled in 1609.

Dear Dr. Irene,

Understood but you are really an employee at best or a translator that they're hiring by the hour no different from a Portuguese or Romanian. The light will go on eventually.

Dear Martin and Geoffrey,

Re my proposal re the disposal of Roman property in the land of Israel -

It's only "nationalization" which has occurred around the world everywhere that you've bumped into Islam or Communism. Those are the people the Church is most anxious to please and have "dialogues" with. So, "thug" and "thief" are labels I'd be proud to wear. It's better than what Israel has achieved so far.

Dear Martin,

I don't know which points you wnat me address but let me say that your theological offers are as welcome as the offers of a leg prosthesis to a healthy man. Drop it.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Martin, what you suggest will inevitably lead to murder of Jews for killing your Saviour.

That is why it is important to listen to Jewish views on this subject, in order to avoid needless killing, and thus keep to at least one of the tenets contained in the Ten Commandments which you believe.

However, not only did you advocate something that will inevitably lead to unecessary bloodshed, but compounded your lack of insight by then moving to a totally different subject, that of the Jews in Israel during the Mandate period and the bad treatment (in your view - many would beg to differ) by Jews of Palestinians and Lebanese.

I mean, how many Palestinians and Lebanese have I blown up lately?

I fail to see what the subject of the Jews and Israel has in common with the alleged deicide of Jesus, except in the minds of some who seem to have a prejudiced view of the Jewish people altogether.

Which is a pity, because I think that if Jesus were alive right now,he would quite like it in Haifa, especially in the Bahai Gardens.

Mind you, he might find the ubiquitous Russian a bit hard to fathom!

[Martin]

"Well, Martin, you have certainly shown yourself up for what you really are."

That's right, ignore the points raised completely and fail to respond to the issues I put forward. Just resort to personal invective, that'll win you the argument.

Pathetic.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

I will answer Emanuel first. I totally agree with you, but as they say in Hebrew 'savlanut, savlanut'.

Have you ever tried being a female immigrant in a strange land after a war and working for an organisation who needs your skills whilst knowing that they are boss?

To change their mind-set about what attracts people to Haifa would be a minor miracle, nearly as miraculous as finding that Hamas and Hezbollah were really cuddly teddy bears after all and that it was all a bad dream.

For this is the Middle East, not Maidstone City Council, if such a thing exists.

About tolerant Christians, I would say the following: the NT was written partly as a means of denigrating the old religion, Judaism (although it is true that Judaism itself was in a state of flux at the time) and trying to please the Romans, who were after all the brutal conquerors of the area. Just look what they did with the Second Temple and the cruel punishments they inflicted.

So the new movement/sect/religion of Christianity found it very easy to blame the Jews for all society's ills. Surely, this sounds familiar?

So, it is all the more remarkable that some in the Churches have realised that their problem with Judaism has had a great many ghastly effects through the ages, and are at last trying to do something about this.

The Diocese of Greater Manchester, where I lived and taught for 10 years, is one such place. And all credit to the clergy in that area who are trying to come to psychological terms with certain passages in the NT, which have caused death and destruction of Jews and Jewish communities throughout the ages.

[Geoffrey Smith]

"All Vatican property in the land of Israel (specifically Roman Catholic churches owned by whoever) should be nationalized and sold on EBAY"(sic).
- Emanuel Appel, 3 May 2007

This would require an enormous sum to be paid in compensation to the Catholic authorities in Israel. Otherwise, the transfer of the property would be theft.
Are you seriously suggesting that the people of Israel should actually give money to the Pope's sycophants, Mr Appel?
Why, they might even use it to finance the canonisation of Pope Pius XII, and that would never do, would it?
You really should reconsider that demand, and advise the Israeli government to spend the money on some other, more nondiscriminatory venture, such as rocketing civilian dwellings in Beirut or Tripoli. Much more conducive to Israeli
security, don't you think?

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear Dr. Irene,

By being thankful for "tolerant Christians" you put your family and all of Israel in a weak and vulnerable state. By what stretch of the imagination do they have a right to be "tolerant"? We've done nothing to them, just the opposite. We deserve common courtesy and thanking others for it put us at a disadvantage when discussing anything.

RE the lack of info on the various religious Jewish communities in the Haifa website - one argument I would use with the "boss" is the economic one, that is, that it would encourage Jewish overseas tourism.

[Geoffrey Smith]

As one of the Pope's sycophants, coming out of the woodwork during the full moon, I would like to thank Dr Lancaster for her gracious comment. In warning her of the
danger of becoming a pathetic sycophant, I would ask her to be careful in her choice of tolerant Christian. While professing an admiration for Judaism, some of them can be quite nasty in their attitude to the Catholic Church. Even toleration has its limits, you know, Dr Lancaster.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Most Hindus and Buddhists I know really don't understand the attitude of some Christians and Moslems towards the Jewish community, because for them we are much of a muchness with our worship of one God.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Well, Martin, you have certainly shown yourself up for what you really are.

And so has Geoffrey Smith.

My goodness, they are coming out of the woodwork, aren't they.

Thank goodness for tolerant Christians, who appreciate their relationship with Judaism: that's all I can say.

[Christopher]

Certainly I would be pleased to discuss matters with you Martin and have asked Ruth to forward mt email to you.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America,

Dear all and Dr. Irene

Oh dear, the Pope's sycophants are out in force during the full moon.

For those with a Jew fixation, who grow tumescent at the idea of the Pope's greatest triumph, the conquest of Israel, be careful as to what you ask for. How long would it take us to "take over" the Vatican with our own Pope? The rule re unmarried priesthood and infallibility would be the first to go.

Seriously, I see no point in Israel/ Vatican relations. Those Jews who pursue it are pathetic sycophants. All Vatican property in the land of Israel (specifically Roman Catholic churches owned by whoever) should be nationalized and sold on EBAY.

Dr. Irene,

I read the "Jew in the Lotus" years ago and found it interesting. It lead to my exploration of Asia, not physically but electronically.

I didn't have the time or funds to copy V. S. Naipaul's "Among the Believers" but I did travel using newsgroups from Morocco to Indonesia. The results were very sobering.

I came to two conclusions. One, there is no commonality between the Jewish mind and the Moslem mind since we operate on different principles. Two, Asia, east of India, is where our natural allies
are.

As you can tell, an exchange of religious views here is like a game of ping pong. It's always "Jesus yes" or "Jesus no" with some exceptions. It gets very repetitive and the only way to get juices flowing is to be outrageous.

The first time in my life that I was able to transcend the whole Jesus thing and be viewed as a Man among Men with my own valid nationality was among the Hindus and Buddhists of east Asia. They didn't need to put me down, to humiliate me, to prove themselves Right religiously in order to be themselves. Rather, they saw me as a curious variety of religion.

I had to explain to them that we are the Mother Religion from which Christianity and Islam come. I had to apologize for the crimes committed by our cancerous outgrowths and expound how Israel's ideal is to lead by example, not the sword.

Of all the Indian religions, Buddhism was the most attractive in that it was the most abstract. The least attractive were the idol centric ones but we, Israel, must make the leap to understand them. The various weird Gods, the elephant with the human body, the other ones, are metaphors for godly qualities. Once one understands that, then we can suppress our historic distaste for idols as the symbols of evil.

The knowledgeable Hindu is a very good and sophisticated person with whom to discuss universals.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

You're certainly right about not ignoring the role of religion, Emanuel.

It is of paramount importance in this region and is ignored at one's peril.

[Geoffrey Smith]

"The Bishop at Rome (sic) heads an organization whose members have a lot to answer for at Judgement".
- Emanuel Appel, 30 April 2007

Like converting those 3000 Jews in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost? Right from Day One, the Christian gospel has been too much for Jews to counter.
No way are you going to beat us, Mr Appel, so why not join us? A nation of Hebrew Catholics, centered on Palestine, would be incomparably stronger than it is now, and
far more capable of resisting its sworn enemies in that part of the world.

[Martin]

"The crypt church which was all that was completes by the time Upson died is now the abbey church, so he never got his white cappa magna."

Shame. It won't be the abbey church for much longer: they are moving back to the old manor house. I like Prinknash, but I am not convinced it has a future, alas, unless its former daughters decide to rescue it. It just doesn't seem to be able to keep novices.

Re the cappa magna: to my knowledge the last time it was worn in London was late last year when Cardinal Zen wore one at the Oratory :) I wish I could have seen it, but I had left London by then, which was a shame.

Thank you for all of the information, Christopher - you are a very interesting man and I'd quite like to chat to you more sometime actually. If I may ask - and if you'd prefer not to say on here, then perhaps ask Ruth for my email address - which monastery were you in?

I knew that the practice before Paul VI was that cardinals dressed in the colour of their religious order rather than automatically in scarlet - for example when the future Gregory XVI was elevated to the purple everyone knew who was to be created cardinal as he was a Camaldolese monk and the robes prepared were in the appropriate colour for that order.

[Martin]

PS this whole debate about the prayer for the Jews is in any case irrelevant as it is about restoring the use of the 1962 missal by which time the reference to perfidious Jews had been excised.

[Martin]

"it does matter what Jews think about anti-Jewish rites, because the Catholic Church has admitted that if not for teachings such as the one which has been cited, the Holocaust would probably not have happened"

The prayers are for the conversion of Jews. They are not "anti-Jewish". Nor is it remotely the business of any outsider what is contained in the rites used by the Church.

"In addition, if the prayers are as bad as they sound, they might fall foul of the race relations act, or the more recent religions act, in which whole groups in society cannot be attacked through the hatred and prejudice of others"

I don't think a prayer for conversion would fall under those laws, and in any case the state has no business whatsoever interfering in the Church's liturgy.

For your information, Irene, I do not "hate Jews": I just will not tolerate outsiders interfering in the Church's affairs, I will not tolerate unjust Jewish criticism of the late Pius XII, and I abhor the many crimes of the Israeli state towards the British (at its inception) and towards Palestinians and Lebanese (ever since).

[Martin]

"It is perfectly reasonable for Yad Vashem to question the silence of the Pope during the Holocaust"

Then it is also perfectly reasonable for the Vatican's nuncio to boycott the ceremonies at Yad Vashem, and I wish he had stuck to his guns.

The Vatican is a micro-state and was at the time completely surrounded by Mussolini's Italy. What do you think the consequences would have been of open criticism of the Nazis? Besides, Pius XII, like Benedict XV in the previous war, was anxious to maintain the Vatican's neutrality so as not to damage the positions of Catholics in the countries of either alliance.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America,

Dear Dr. Irene,

RE Mel Gibson and William Wallace
"in vino veritas"

Mel is 100% correct when ( to paraphrase him )stating that Jews are the cause of all the world's problems. His world of course, a Catholic Imperial world. But look, how could it be otherwise if we had the cheek to say "No" to Pharaoh and Caligula?

One should separate the artist's work from his personal life as distasteful as it is sometimes. William Wallace is one model of leadership that can be used to teach the young as well as David the King.

"Braveheart" is an artistic work that can serve as a model as to how to write an epic properly. You focus on the protagonist's strong point and you give the Enemy zilch in your portrait. You don't focus on Edward Longshank's pathos or agonies as he sends his "boys" into battle. Similarly, you don't spend too much time psychoanalyzing the Arab mind for plays or films. It just weakens the home front.

Re the English "anti intellectual" tradition

I can't say, you're closer to them. I can say this - in America, Universities looked to Britain and Germany for inspiration and training in the 19th and 20th centuries. As a matter of fact, emigre German Jewish and some non Jewish scholars were a godsend for the flood of Nobel work that you see even today.

The low church Protestants were responsible for the establishment of American universities rather than sending their children to Oxbridge. Also, the remarkable establishment of primary schools everywhere had to do with the need to read the Bible for oneself.

Now, if by "anti intellectual" you mean relying on common sense rather than bowing to the expertise of the Mandarin class with a Degree, then America is "anti intellectual" too. The Left elite in Britain and America worships the Professsor if he can be harnessed to propagandize.

No, the work of turning Israel into a normal nation still goes on.
Besides the technical training that one has to give the young, one needs to give up the idea the Left loves, that by ignoring religion, the life of the nation against Arab enemies will be secure. Just the opposite.

[Christopher]

Martin

a footnote on the cappa magna* which may be of interest to you: as far as I am aware the last time it was worn at Westminster cathedral in its intact form was when the then bishop of London visited the newly appointed cardinal Hume. He arrived at the West door to be greeted by the canons and to the dismay of the MC was dressed in full cope and mitre (that pair with the scenes of London river embroidered on them). Apparently it is a liturgical gaffe to arrive at someone else's cathedral, unless you are their metropolitan, wearing a cope and mitre. The cardinal was waiting to enter dressed in his simple monk's habit. The MC tore upstairs to the chest where the scarlet watered silk cappa magna that had belonged to cardinal Hinsley was kept. It was still intact with the extra 6 feet of train on it that pope John XXIII had ordered to be shortened from cappa magnas of bishops and cardinals as a sign of the coming aggiornamento. The MC threw this over the head of the protesting cardinal Hume, saying "You must. You must. The Bishop of London has arrived in cope and mitre!" I was told this story by canon Alfonso de Zulueta, parish priest of Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, Chelsea, affectionately known to the parishioners as Fr Zu. You would have liked him, Martin, he was a spanish count in his own right and a wonderful fund of entertaining ecclestiastical stories.

*Wikipedia entry: Cappa magna
Upper part of the winter version of the cappa magna
The Cappa magna (literally, "great cape"), a form of the cope, is a voluminous ecclesiastical but not liturgical vestment with a long train, proper to cardinals, bishops, and certain other honorary prelates. It is now rarely used, since the 1969 Instruction on the dress, titles and coat-of-arms of Cardinals, Bishops and Lesser Prelates http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/instruction69.htm lays down that:
The cappa magna, always without ermine, is no longer obligatory; it can be used only outside of Rome, in circumstances of very special solemnity.
The cappa magna is not strictly a liturgical vestment, but only a glorified cappa choralis, or choir cope. Its colour for cardinals is ordinarily red, and for bishops violet. It is ample in volume and provided with a long train and a disproportionately large hood, the lining of which last used to be of ermine in winter and silk in summer, and was made to show like a tippet across the breast.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Emanuel I totally agree with you re the Pope. I also didn't know about the conversion and it doens't really bother me. There are converts to Judaism too.

I certainly don't worship Yad Vashem, and don't agree with all their pedagogical methods either.

But as for Wallace, isn't that Mel Gibson? So then we are back to reactionary Catholics again, whose father carries on denying the Holocaust, whilst his son slanders us in his films and makes a fortune out of slandering us, then blames us not just for the death of a fellow-Jew, but for all the world's ills as well.

I also think that Israel worships professors too much. The fact I have a PhD has meant that they won't let me teach in schools - far too clever (and expensive?) you see.

However, I have got into translation and editing instead, and it isn't half good for the Hebrew (and French and German), whilst keeping up the English and arranging the day according to how you want it.

Funnily enough, my daughter went to school in your home town of San Franciso, or nearby, when she was 10 and staying with her aunt, who lives there.

She learned a great deal there and they nearly all had doctorates, which means they were clever as well as good with kids.

Luckily, the British are actually anti-intellectual, so my doctorate was always regarded as a bit of an embarrassment and they let me teach in schools despite, and not because of, it - if you can call it teaching, more like manning the barricades whilst being forbidden to take physical preventative actions against the little dears, even if they used violence.

I did start on a higher salary than most but that was, believe it or not, because I had been a mother. That I do find unusual.

Coming back to Israel, it certainly needs political leadership, but also fewer people who have been tops in the army in sinecures. The guy who runs the Tourist Board in Haifa is one of these. As I was translating their website recently, I realised that nothing had been written about Haifa's synagogues or Jewish communities. Talk about doing yourself down, when all its other religions are mentioned in spades!

But you can't argue with people like that. They are always right.

I attended my women's Gemera shiur on Sunday night and the rabbi's wife who runs it had brought in a car sticker, which read in Hebrew (and I thought I had made a mistake at first, but no):

Politicians are like nappies. They need changing quite often and for the same reason.

Somehow - and I don't quite know why - this made me think of Ruth's blog. Present company excepted, of course.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear Dr. Irene,

I love and respect your scholarship but I disagree re the conclusion re the ability of all nations to perpetrate a Holocaust. There are certain cultures that relish bloodshed and cruelty. They like mass killings. The only thing is that they get tired and bored after a while.

Not so the German. No, his proverbial "thoroughness", his excellent planning skills, his ability to follow orders were necessary. Few other nations could pull it off. How many people could we kill with a machete?

More important, I feel that Yad Vashem as a teaching organization, has had a bad psychological effect on Israel. It has placed in the minds of young children the idea that we're losers, that we should be "ethical" in the battlefield, that we should be on the defensive. That is not how nations behave.

Israel is high on scholarship but short on statecraft. What we need is not more professors to analyze our past agonies but Talleyrands and William Wallaces to lead the people. We had them before the destruction of the Temple. It's time to rebuild it to fix the past.

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear Geoffrey Smith,

You are a very funny fellow akin to Peter Sellers and Ian Carmichael.

I simply couldn't stop laughing at your fantasy re the conversion of Israel Zolli as the source of my animus. There are plenty of reasons for my hostility to the religious organization based in Rome. It's connection with God is tenuous at best.

No, my animus is based on its historical relations for the last 2000 years with Isreal, the people. It hasn 't been good. If you, like an abusive husband, cause your woman to weep all the time, it's small comfort to publicly buy her a dress. The Bishop at Rome heads an organization whose members have a lot to answer for at Judgment.

[Christopher]

"I know a Benedictine who wears it - not secular I know, but still. Is it actually forbidden to secular clergy? I doubt that, given that it is still an intrinsic part of the dress of a cardinal, for example."

Martin, the only time I have seen Benedictine monks wearing the biretta was when as abbots they wore 'prelatical' dress instead of the habit. This is the choir dress of bishops or those of episcopal rank but in the colour of the order. So at Prinknash where the habit is white Dom Wilfred Upson OSB used to wear white prelatical dress when he presided at the organ on Feasts of the Second Class. On Feasts of the First Class he used to preside in pontificalia (mitre and chasuble, dalmatic and tunicle, etc) as the celebrant at mass, cope and mite as the officiant at First Vespers, Gospel at Vigils (in the Benedictine rite it is sung after the second nocturn on Sundays and, if my memory serves me right, at the greater Feasts - the abbot of Quarr used to sing this with an organ accompaniment. It was actually forbidden to have organ accompaniment to the epistles, gospels and celebrant's parts of the mass so we novices thought this divinely decadent. Then again at Lauds, Terce before Mass (at Quarr with procession round the cloisters in which the male members of the congregation could join) and Second Vespers. At Prinknash the abbot wore a white biretta (but not skull cap for obvious reasons) and white soutane. The abbot of Quarr wore a black biretta, skull cap and soutane and on the great feasts the monks would assemble outside the abbatial appartments on the first floor instead of at the station in the cloister. As novices, dressed in albs with bugia and book we attended the abbot who said prayers before assuming pontifical socks and slippers. Before the mass the monks assembled and the deacon and subdeacon of the mass together with the subdeacon and deacon of honour would enter the abbatial apartments and lead the abbot out. The community when then process to the church and seat the abbot on his throne. The vestments were laid out on the altar and while the deacons vested the abbot the organ played and the monks reclined on their misericords with their hoods up.

At Buckfast where the abbot Anscar Vonier had been given the privilege of wearing the cappa magna, a robe with a shoulder cape in ermine and long train carried by a server, worn by bishops and cardinals, it was black. The abbot of Prinknash told me with a gleam in his eye that Vonier got this for building Buckfast. Upson had great plans for an abbatial church on the hills above Gloucester that would have dwarfed the mediaeval cathedral in the city below but alas they ran out of money and it never got completed. The crypt church which was all that was completes by the time Upson died is now the abbey church, so he never got his white cappa magna.

Bishops and cardinal still wear the biretta - it is not part of the choir dress for priests and deacons any more. The minor orders which used to wear it (post tonsure) have been expunged. Only in spikey high anglican places like the shrine at Walsingham will you see non-Roman priests wearing the biretta as they process in to mass but I doubt it is worn in the catholic parishes.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

It is perfectly reasonable for Yad Vashem to question the silence of the Pope during the Holocaust. In addition, when Hitler started his gassing experiments, he started them on Catholic invalids first and when the Pope did not intervene at the time, then extended it to others, including Jews.

Whatever Hitler did, he took soundings and sought PR advice. It was the lack of reaction that led to his self confidence. It is obvious that he never thought he would be able to go as far as he dared.

Having said that, I would like to point out that Yad Vashem has excellent education courses for people teaching the subject at whatever level, for diplomats and other interested parties.

One of the best things to come out of these sessions is the fact that whole peoples, races and religions are not blamed. Rather, it is pointed out that any one of us could behave in that way, given half a chance.

The best lecturer on the course I was invited to attend in 2003 was a Catholic nun from the USA, who is on their permanent staff.

Come to think of it, I must look her up now that I am living here.

As for Martin, it does matter what Jews think about anti-Jewish rites, because the Catholic Church has admitted that if not for teachings such as the one which has been cited, the Holocaust would probably not have happened.

In addition, if the prayers are as bad as they sound, they might fall foul of the race relations act, or the more recent religions act, in which whole groups in society cannot be attacked through the hatred and prejudice of others.

Tell me, Martin, is it possible to love God without hating his people?

If not, I really do think you have a lot of psycho-analysis to go through, not to mention soul-searching.

Just think, Martin, Jesus was Jewish with Jewish parents, or at least a Jewish step-father.

[Geoffrey Smith]

Like most Jews, Mr Appel has never forgiven Pope Pius XII for being the inspiration behind the conversion to the Catholic Church of the Chief Rabbi of Italy, Israel Zolli, in 1946. At his reception into the Church, Zolli took the baptismal name of Eugenio, in honour of Pope Pius, for the enormous, and dangerous, efforts the Pope made for the rescue of Italian Jews from the Nazis. Just a small detail of Italian history, but a reality I have yet to see Mr Appel acknowledge. Perhaps he would be good enough to do so and then go from there?

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America,

Dear Kate and Martin

I never intend to forbid anyone from holding a position. It may be that writing from another culture ( either America or Israel's) gives me a different tone during an exchange of views.

To Martin,

I think I should clarify my views re the Papacy that your are so loyal to. If the organization is key to your morality, God be with you.

From my perspective, the organization and its head took the place of the Roman Empire in the West. It has little to do with God.
The quality of its leadership is open to chance and it's used to being obeyed like the Roman Senate and Emperor.

It's main goal towards Israel for the last 2000 years has been either our conversion, destruction or subjection and humiliation.

Jewish children after WWII that were baptized were not returned to the surviving parents or, for the majority, to the various Jewish orphan organizations. This was due to the orders of Pius XII.

There are some Jews who like to scold because this one or that one failed to shelter us. I'm past that. I expect zero from you. What I do expect is for reality to be acknowledged and go from there.

[Londiniensis]

To your correspondent who wrote that the Jews "bear a special culpability for the death of Christ" I would indicate Part 4 of the Church's Declaration "Nostrae Aetate" of 1965 which, inter alia, states:

" ... True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ. ... "

[Martin]

"However, the truth is that Pius XII showed great cruelty by kidnapping Jewish children from their parents and Nation. Those that had been hidden in Catholic institutions during WWII and baptized were never returned"

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. First you accuse the Pope of failing to act to save Jews during WWII, and then you say that actually he did save some, but you term it "kidnap" and you make the extraordinary claim that they were baptised (if this did happen, I daresay it was voluntary, after the case during the reign of Pius IX which led to the ending of the practice of forcible education (of baptised Jewish children who had been baptised when in danger of death) by the papal state) and "not returned". What are you suggesting happened, that they were locked up?!

Quite bizarre.

[Kate]

Emanuel: "You expect me to be quiet about that?"

Adamantly NOT. I am not quiet about any of it. Your argument is valid. I accord you the absolute right to hold your position. I would just like to be allowed to hold mine!

[Martin]

"The biretta is part of the habit of the oratorians, premonstatensian canons and other clerks regular and therefore still worn, but it is not supposed to worn by secular clergy any longer."

I know a Benedictine who wears it - not secular I know, but still. Is it actually forbidden to secular clergy? I doubt that, given that it is still an intrinsic part of the dress of a cardinal, for example.

"I was thinking of the liturgical use of the humeral veil by the subdeacon at high mass. Since the order of subdeacon has been abolished, I wonder how its use is to be properly revived and not simply adapted to a second deacon."

Ah yes, well of course many communities which have permission to celebrate the Tridentine Rite have informally revived the subdiaconate. In many cases the MC is pressed into service.

[Christopher]

"I know many priests who still wear the biretta, and as for the humeral veil, it is an absolute necessity when handling the Blessed Sacrament and it is still very widely used."

The biretta is part of the habit of the oratorians, premonstatensian canons and other clerks regular and therefore still worn, but it is not supposed to worn by secular clergy any longer.

Martin, I was thinking of the litrugical use of the humeral veil by the subdeacon at high mass. Since the order of subdeacon has been abolished, I wonder how its use is to be properly revived and not simply adapted to a second deacon. Isn't Benediction an extra-liturgical devotion, except perhaps at the end of the prossession on the Feast of Corpus Christi?

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

To Kate et al,

Everyone's logic is flawless until disproved. It's not about me being Right. It's about stating past facts and making meaning out of it.

The Left takes umbrage at the fact of privacy. Therefore, all tragedies have to be "shared". They don't. I have no right to attend your family weddings or funerals unless invited. The same applies to the Holocaust or to a Mass.

Now, there are some here whose loyalty to the Papacy and to ancient Roman rituals is deep. Great if that works for you. However, the truth is that Pius XII showed great cruelty by kidnapping Jewish children from their parents and Nation. Those that had been hidden in Catholic institutions during WWII and baptized were never returned. You expect me to be quiet about that?

Those Jews who want to "reform" the Vatican are craven fools who'd try to interest hyenas into an all vegetarian diet. Please.

[Martin]

"Because Jewish concerns about the Good Friday liturgy in the 1962 Editio Typica of the Roman Missal are being used as ammunition by the wholesale opponents of the Motu Proprio, it does not make them any less real, and I trust that the responsible bodies are dealing with these issues sensitively."

I really do not see any problem with the rite as it stands. We are praying for the conversion of a people who reject Christ, and of the people who bear a special culpability for the death of Christ - which, given that they demanded that Pilate act as he did, it is clear that they do. This is not anti-Semitism - it is what the historical account in the Gospels tells us happened.

Besides, what business is it of the Jews what is and what is not included in the liturgy? How many Jews are at the Good Friday liturgies? None. We should not allow non-Catholics to dictate the practices of the Church. This has been going on since Vatican II and it's high time it stopped.

[Londiniensis]

To return to the very first point: Because Jewish concerns about the Good Friday liturgy in the 1962 Editio Typica of the Roman Missal are being used as ammunition by the wholesale opponents of the Motu Proprio, it does not make them any less real, and I trust that the responsible bodies are dealing with these issues sensitively.

As for the French episcopate, I too plead guilty to irritation at their stance, but it should perhaps be remembered in their defence that the French Lefebvrists are closely identified with that element of the French Catholic Church which during Vichy stood foursquare behind Pétain and Laval, and thus any accommodation with them is viewed with a certain amount of antipathy, issues of liturgy notwithstanding.

[Martin]

"No, let Yad Vashem be for Jews only."

Perhaps if Yad Vashem took more care to ensure that its exhibits were not libellous to the memory of the late great Pope Pius XII then it would be worth going to. Using a memorial to peddle propaganda is shameful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6558447.stm

[Martin]

In fact the local monastery even still uses the vimpa :)

[Martin]

"There they wear birettas...and humeral veils and all the other trappings of true religion"

Are you suggesting that other priests do not? I know many priests who still wear the biretta, and as for the humeral veil, it is an absolute necessity when handling the Blessed Sacrament and it is still very widely used.

[Martin]

"You are clearly a very ultra-montane young man who should make haste to the seminary at Ecône."

If they ever return to communion with the Roman See, I may well. Until that time, I will make do with the Oratory!