Hofmannsthal's habit

Charles Rosen's essay Radical, Modern Hofmannsthal in The New York Review of Books ($) includes this.

Hofmannsthal himself held back from radical modernism, not for lack of sympathy, as his remarks in the 1920s on Rimbaud and Mallarmé show, but he could not bring himself to go as far as they had ventured. His social philosophy became very conservative, although his views had basically an aesthetic cast; he was buried, at his request, costumed as a Franciscan friar. Nevertheless, as editor of a literary magazine, he was the first to publish a major essay by Walter Benjamin, who aroused his enthusiasm.

Though I have not seen anything indicating Hofmannsthal was a Third Order Franciscan, "costumed" does not quite capture the circumstances described in Hofmannsthal's Wikipedia entry.

His later plays revealed a growing interest in religious, particularly Roman Catholic, themes. Among his writings was a screenplay for a film version of Der Rosenkavalier (1925) directed by Robert Wiene.

On July 13, 1929, his son Franz committed suicide. Two days later, Hofmannsthal himself died of a stroke at Rodaun (now part of Liesing). He was buried wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, as he had requested.

'What’s Wrong With the World' at 100

The Kirk Center is pleased to join the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture to co-sponsor a conference on the theme of “What’s Wrong With the World,” a centenary celebration of the publication of G. K. Chesterton’s book. The conference will be held in Mecosta, Michigan on Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12, 2010 with speakers including Fr. Ian Boyd, C.S.B., President of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and Editor of The Chesterton Review; Dr. Dermot Quinn, professor of history at Seton Hall University and Associate Editor of The Chesterton Review, Gerald Russello, Editor of The University Bookman, and Senior Fellow Vigen Guroian.

More information and contact information at The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal

Linker on Hobbes, Locke, and Rand Paul

What makes Rand Paul’s position (as he originally expressed it on the Maddow show) noteworthy is that it’s a pure, unadulterated expression of Lockean anti-statism with little admixture of Hobbesian sentiments at all. Paul, like many libertarians and Tea Party activists, is so obsessed with the possibility that the state might commit an injustice that he’s indifferent to the reality of actually existing injustice at the hands of private citizens. As far as these radical Lockeans are concerned, the former is tyranny, pure and simple, while the latter is just life: yeah, it’s sometimes unfair, but freedom requires that we (or rather, in this case, blacks living under Jim Crow in the South) get over it.

Rand Paul's Principled Absurdity, by Damon Linker, at The New Republic (via Althouse)

Gopnik on the search for the historical Jesus

The view that the search for the historical Jesus is like the search for the historical Superman—that there’s nothing there but a hopeful story and a girlfriend with an alliterative name—has by now been marginalized from the seminaries to the Internet... .

What Did Jesus Do? Reading and unreading the Gospels, by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

All for the best in the best of all possible councils

Our pastor's bulletin column for Pentecost includes remarks on Vatican II.

When Blessed John XXIII called the Vatican Council together, he spoke often of a NEW Pentecost. His hope was that the spirit of renewal might sweep through the church. He hoped that "closed windows of minds and practice" might be opened to a new grace-filled age.

One example of Blessed John so saying is reported in this Prayer for the Ecumenical Council. That it has not worked as hoped might be symbolized by post-conciliar church architecture; what windows there now are cannot be opened at all.

Some say that spirit has been lost today, and others say there are those who would want to deny the work of the Council guided by the Holy Spirit. I say that even if there are "set backs," the work of the Holy Spirit will prevail. That is why Pentecost is not just a historical commemoration but a recognition of the Holy Spirit at work today. We pray "Come Holy Spirit, Come."

Even at our self-described progressive parish, I have heard decades-old reform defended on the basis that any other course would have been "even worse". That is the sound of a dispirited progressivism.

One can believe the Holy Spirit was at work in the Council, is at work today, will ultimately prevail, and still believe the Council was not a success. Of course, I am assuming we are free to believe, for example, that the Council of Florence (1438-1445) failed when it did not reunite the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Or that we are free to believe that the the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) failed to meet the schismatic challenges of the time.

The Second Vatican Council has been burdened by the spins put on it. Reading The General Councils of the Church (1959), by John L. Murphy, I was struck by how the author made a point of noting how many past councils were more concerned with reform than with doctrine. The then-upcoming Council was thus another in a long line of reform councils. By contrast, when I taught Church history to eighth graders in our parish Christian Formation program, the chapter on Vatican II called it "A different kind of council". Given the track record of reform councils, maybe the Holy Spirit was trying at Vatican II to tell us an ecumenical council is not an effective means for reform.

Or the Holy Spirit might have been trying to tell us, or remind us, of some even more basic things. All the previous councils involved hundreds of bishops. The number was within what is now generally thought the desirable limit to the size of a deliberative body. As A.A. Gill wrote in this New York Times op-ed,

The [House of] Commons isn’t much better [than the Lords]; it has some 650 elected members. Everyone agrees that’s too many.

When Blessed John announced he was calling a council of all the bishops, no one thought to raise the question whether a council could just be scaled-up that way. A meeting of 2,100 to 2,300 attendees is a convention.

That Vatican II was a bishops' convention might explain why, as I hear it, the book-length Vatican II documents alone are half the size of the documents of the previous twenty councils put together. It might further explain why they tend to be referred to in general terms, much like the reference to "the platform" produced by a political convention. Much like a political platform, they are generally left unread, and it's common to hear that little or no weight should be given to specific provisions when found inconvenient.

So I, for one, am hoping for some inspired tweaking before a decision to call the next ecumenical council.

Faith In Our Future Closing Liturgy Celebration

Our Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced that for the May 23, 2010 celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost

A press conference will be held at the cathedral (specific location details TBA) at 1 p.m. Ed and Diane Zore, general chairs of the FIOF [Faith In Our Future] campaign, and other FIOF leaders will join Archbishop Listecki at the press conference when the campaign's grand total is announced.

A Mass follows at 2:00 p.m..

Kneel obstat

In yesterday's first reading, Paul has called the presbyters from Ephesus to a meeting at Miletus.

When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all. (Acts 20:36)

Who's buyin'?

Ron Rolheiser OMI's column on Living with our own Anger manages to spare us the variation that all but changes The Prodigal Son into a parable on personality rather than morality, the Prodigal supposedly being more fun at parties than his brother.

Bonus: plot summary of The Shack by William Young.

(via Milwaukee Catholic Herald)

On the moral point, here's Rudy Tomjanovich, "resentment is like taking poison and expecting it to hurt the other person."

The second coming of liability

The New York Times editorializes on what it calls Justice for Child Abuse Victims, including retroactively reinstating liability for claims already barred by the statute of limitations.

While legislation can't be written to literally say so, things have developed to a point that the editorialists don't even bother to pretend the pending bill isn't meant to target the Catholic Church.

Marquette U. caught with fake ID?

At Marquette Warrior, a faculty member writes, or tries to, on the O'Brien hiring controversy (see below). He begins,

I find myself obligated to express my disappointment, though not my surprise, at seeing that the resolution passed today by the University Academic Senate fails to mention, let alone to declare support for, the Catholic character and mission of Marquette University. Just as unsurprising is the fact that, in some of the exchanges relating to this resolution, the expression “Catholic Identity” appears in quotation marks and is not too subtly referred to as an outmoded thing.

It's already been quite a while since it was first observed that many Catholic colleges and universities tend to treat Catholic identity like a wedding ring in a singles bar.

But perhaps the current situation at MU is still relatively good. When I say relatively I'm recalling freshman theology there. The two semesters included the instructor regularly telling us one of his colleagues had "proved the Holy Spirit does not exist".

(via Right On)

The Pope at Bay

This New York Review of Books tabloid-style cover blurb on the May 27, 2010 issue was a phrase in the article, but not its theme. In The Pope and the Hedgehog ($) Anthony Grafton begins

it’s worth stepping back for a moment and remembering that Benedict is probably the greatest scholar to rule the Church since Innocent III, the brilliant jurist who served from 1198 to 1216.

He goes on to treat sympathetically the Pope's explanation of the revived Tridentine Mass and his earlier handling, as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, of dissident theologians. Beyond the firewall, he concludes

History matters to the Pope, and that gives some reason to hope that he is not looking for another Dominic, since he himself has played that role so effectively, and that he too will recognize the Francis or the Angela Merici of our time when he or she appears before him.

Update: Joseph A. Komonchak with more from behind the firewall at dotCommonweal

Wild lesbian reaction

Reacting to Marquette on hot seat for rescinding job offer to lesbian, Marquette University's Reverend Robert Wild, S.J., announced

that he would prioritize promoting inclusion and diversity during his remaining time as Marquette's president.

Update: Christopher Wolfe in Tuesday's paper, Marquette's Decision: Move just a symptom of flight from reason

Update 2: Did Archbishop Listecki lead MU to dump gay dean? by Matt Hrodey, Milwaukee NewsBuzz

Update 3: Listecki raised alarm over Marquette hiring, by Annysa Johnson, Sharif Durhams and Katelyn Ferral, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

All rail roads lead to Kenosha

Yesterday's Milwaukeee Journal Sentinel reported that for the planned revival of Milwaukee to Madison passenger rail service, Madison rail station to be at Monona Terrace. It describes the service this way.

The six daily round trips between Madison and Milwaukee - with stops in Brookfield, Oconomowoc and Watertown - would operate as an extension of Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line, allowing passengers to ride from Madison to Chicago without changing trains.

One-train service somehow became unimportant for the proposed KRM commuter rail service, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had reported as a New route for commuter rail.

For years, the proposed rail line has been described as a Metra extension. But the new version would be a separate system connecting with Metra at Kenosha or Waukegan.

Metra, an Illinois governmental agency, has said it could not provide service to another state. The Union Pacific railroad pays for service between the state line and Kenosha because that is less expensive than building a new facility for trains to turn around at the border.

Sounds like there could have been an extension of the Metra service if it was paid for from Wisconsin.

Motorcycle Blessing

May 10, 2010 10:00 a.m.

Harley Riders are invited to bring their bikes to the Harley-Davidson Museum for a special blessing by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki.

Unconfirmed reports

Our pastor in his column in this coming Sunday's St. Al's bulletin says,

I did a bit of research about how many of those who graduated from either our parish day school or our Christian Formation program were recently confirmed. I was happy to learn that it was about 95%. This is a tribute to the faith of our families.

It would, though, be interesting to also see how the actual number of 2010 Confirmations compares to past years. It varied from 69 to 99 in the 1993 through 2005 statistics I have. There also had been a past pattern of significant declines between the number of First Communions by 2nd graders and the number of Confirmations of 11th graders nine years later. In 2001 there were 163 First Communions. If there was a substantial decline from that to the number confirmed this year, that would be another reason to remain concerned about trends.

Looking for a locking latch

Andrew Spillane at the Marquette Law Faculty blog on Challenging Wisconsin’s Proposed Windows Legislation, referring to proposals to retroactively repeal statutes of limitations which had already run on claims of sexual abuse of minors.

Papers please

You've probably heard Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles blogged on Arizona's recently enacted immigration law.

We have built a huge wall along our southern border, and have posted in effect two signs next to each other. One reads, "No Trespassing," and the other reads "Help Wanted."

Rather like our Archdiocese of Milwaukee where, we have been told, International priests, sisters are a blessing, but "we usually only accept one or two priests a year".