A retired Monsignor of our Archdiocese sent the following comment to our website.
Congratulations on your web site and blog. I received word of it by the periodic Google listing of church matters. Great idea – the priest’s diary. I must try to be more faithful to my blog. You can see from some of my posts that I share your concern about Vat II being reversed both by JPII and B16, while at the same time they keep praising it. I share your concerns about B16 and his heavy handed approach to our Jewish brothers and sisters. Keep up the good work. I will mention your blog in mine to help expand your audience. All the best. Monsignor Harry J. Byrne.
Gracious and encouraging words. What is interesting is that Google automatically picked our website as being something worthy of notice.
– You know of my esteem & love for Archbishop Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador and how much it chagrins me that there are forces against his official recognition in the Church. Well I read somewhere that the President of El Salvador has offered apologies to the Catholic Church for the injustices, misdeeds and crimes committed by the government during the civil war. Maybe such contrition will remove hindrances and hasten the day when the beloved Archbishop will be duly honored by the Church. The humble people of Salvador already treat him and pray to him as a saint. In the same vein, I was edified, to read that Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Haiti, killed by the earthquake, an Haitian himself, was known as a humble man who was close to the poor in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince. About Haiti’s disaster. Look at the ironies. Sometimes it pays to be poor. One of the terrible lessons of this earthquake is that the rich died and the poor survived. Those living in huts, cardboard boxes and makeshift structures seemed to have survived unscathed, while the rich, powerful like the diplomats, government and business people, lots of foreigners, Canadians, English, Italians, anyone living in palaces and big stone buildings, they all perished. 90 percent of all buildings collapsed, including the Government residence, the Catholic Cathedral. Do you know that more than 5000 Americans are missing (more than 9/11)? I hope they are found unharmed, but it is a frightening prospect. They could be buried under the debris. Worse, they may never be found as thousands of bodies were disposed anonymously in mass graves. It gives you an idea of the colossal calamity that befell that poorest of nations. God have mercy on their souls.
– Let’s move on. We have had a respite from the glacial temperatures of December and early January. The good weather has brought me out of my winter funk. Well 2010 will be the year of the Census.
It will also be the year of another historical event, which takes place every ten years. I had forgotten it until I saw in my inbox a nice picture of the Oberammergau Passion in Germany. It stirred up deep memories. I was there for 10 days in 1990 as a Catholic chaplain receiving the buses carrying the pilgrims from all over the world. I remember a lot of Americans. I saw the play once; it lasts 6 full hours. It’s all due to a vow made by the villagers long ago. If God delivered them from plague the Passion Play would be performed in perpetuity. Certainly thus far. It has made the town world famous.
This is mountainous forested scenic affluent Bavaria. Pope’s Benedict’s country. I went for long walks, visited everything that could be visited. Churches, castles, museums. I fell in love with Germany. The picturesque villages, so neat and orderly, the geraniums on the window sills and balconies, the costumes, the hats, the frescos on walls, neat, tidy, expensive. All soaked in homemade music. Everything revolves around the Play. The part of the Christ and who gets it is a big deal. The actors, the musicians, the orchestra. I am sure it is one of the biggest open air productions in the world. The scene of Palm Sunday has over 600 people on the stage not including horses. Interspersed throughout the play those gorgeous tableaus. Scenes that look like depicted, like a colorful montage, yet are made up of real actors that don’t move, stay fixed like statues while chorus and solos illustrate & comment on it. Senator Nunn was there the same day I saw it.
– And now to wrap up this page. There is no question that Massachusetts was a shocker. How else can you see it other than a rejection/rebuke by the American people of President Obama’s policies? But why did they elect him only 14 months ago? I am confused. I like the President a lot as you know. However his detached coolness is beginning to get on my nerves. Too professorial, messianic & dispassionate, never gets angry. Too cagey, too circumspect, too polite for my taste which can disguise a lack of convictions. Clearly America does not want to become Europe. They think he’s swung the country too far to the left. Statements like Coakley saying that Catholics do not belong in the emergency room give a leftist impression. It will be interesting to sit back now and watch how this President supposedly very smart reacts to this Rubicon.
