Remember the ivy (creeper) last spring?
Thanks to DM who helped me to upgrade my phone with the improved camera. If you like my Rome photos, stop and say an Ave for him!
I do enjoy the Mondezzaro signs, the 18th c. “no dumping” signs posted by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Monsignor President of the Streets promising massive fines and dire corporal punishments. There’s one directly outside the sacristy door at The Parish.
I could describe what I might do to the nasty little wall piddlers were I the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Monsignor President of the Streets.
I brought my register, “Missarum Diarium et Onera” with me for writing down Mass intentions when they come in. An extra weight in the bag but… meh! Red pen is used for writing the date of completion of the intention.
The first pages have the canons of the 1983 Code that cover Mass stipends. Just to be clear about what we are doing.
The nominative of the Latin word for “stipend” would be stips, but it doesn’t occur in the wild in classical works. It seems to come from a root meaning “heaped” or “compressed”, like coins in a heap. So it means “gift, donation, contribution”. Here is a shot of a page (sorry a little fuzzy after praising the camera… shooter error). You can see this is for an institution which would receive many intentions, far far more than I. It even breaks it down into what church, which altar, the city! And… the spaces are TINY, perhaps because this merely refers to a larger register. Anyway, I’ve been using multiple lines for each one and I write what I want where I want… which sort of defeats the format. BUT.. the books says the right thin on the cover.
I thought I might come up with a new format for a register while I am here, print the pages, and then have it bound by my bookbinder. That could be a good project. No? Format the page according to my own needs. Hmmmm.
Here’s a lovely little chapel in the church across the way. Look at the beautiful marbles.
In churchy news… NO FEMALE DIACONATE. AGAIN. Will the repetition do any good? I doubt it. I am tempted to feel a little sorry for those who are wasting their efforts on this. It can’t happen for the simple reason that, in modern times, the Second Vatican Council in Lumen gentium said that the Sacrament of Holy Orders is one sacrament, not three, and it is conferred in three orders, two of which are priestly (bishop and priest) and one diaconal. However, it is one sacrament, not three. If the first two orders of the one sacrament can only be conferred on men, then all three can only be conferred on men. It’s one sacrament of Orders, not a Sacrament of Priesthood and a Sacrament of Diaconate.
The Vatican’s Doctrinal Office today on the female diaconate: “the Dicastery judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the Magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Holy Father… pic.twitter.com/X8jAiXsacx
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) October 2, 2024
Also, a friend texted in our fun text group yesterday that the first session of “walking together about walking togetherity” was being streamed LIVE on Youtube and that we could watch it… if we had a need to cure insomnia. I can’t think of much worse to watch.
Also, and this could be big, it seems that a previously unknown manuscript of Benedict XVI has been published, The Christian Image of Man. The Pope wanted it to be published after his death. HERE
The retired pontiff wrote it between Christmas and Epiphany 2019-2020, entrusting it to Fr. Livio Melina, former head of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
In the introduction to the newly published text of Pope Benedict, Fr. Melina writes that the late Pontiff “considered that measure unjust and unacceptable, and sought by various means to get those responsible to reconsider.”
Between August 2019 and January 2020, the emeritus Pope met with Fr. Melina seven times in his residence within the Vatican to discuss the Veritas Amoris Project, which seeks to continue something of what was originally envisioned for the Institute for Marriage and Family.
You can see where this is going.
In chessy news… HERE
Hey Fathers! How about a clerical Guayabera shirt?
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The Global Chess League will be in London from 3-12 October organized by Tech Mahindra Global and FIDE. Six teams, each made up of male and female players will duke it out for $1 million in prize money. STRONG teams, too!
Something spearheaded by Magnus is back, “Freestyle” or 960 or Fischer Random with some big bucks. The first dates for the new Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025, 7-14 February in Weissenhaus in northern Germany. Then 17-24 July in the USA. Then 1-8 December 2025, in South Africa. The future of chess?
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
White to move and mate in 2.
I have a chess.com affiliate. If… when you sign up, I’ll get the credit.
Related: during the Holy Father’s visit to Belgium, Luc Sels, the Rector of the “Catholic” University of Leuven urged for the opening of the priesthood to women, in the Pope’s presence. Clearly someone didn’t read Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
Glad to see this. However, perhaps I am (mercifully) unacquainted with the complexities and nuance of Vatican-speak, but the phrase “there is still no room for a positive decision” seems to be an invitation to continue to try and “find room” for a future positive decision, unless accompanied (!) by something like: “and never will be, for the matter is closed.”
I also hope that the list of women mentioned in the latter part of that document are not co-opted and retconned into being proto-feminists, although the framing of them as exercising “power and authority” within (what seems to me) the presuppositions of feminism and a latent marxist reading of such matters does not fill me with great confidence.
And perhaps this is the manner of writing these types of the things, but I found it interesting that some of the women (e.g., Joan of Arc, Hildegard of Bingen, etc.) who are saints are not prefixed with “St.” but rather listed among the others who are not saints, which seems to level their status to their contributions or impact as seen on the human level rather than for their heroic charity. Not that such contributions are not important, but it strikes me as too close to assuming modern feminist and marxist readings of history and power and authority, especially when things like sanctity are left out, which is the greatest “contribution” any Catholic can make.
“Missarum Diarium et Onera” with me… An extra weight in the bag”
Hehehe.
The suggested cost of Mass stipends recently increased in my diocese from $10 to $20. “Bidenomics” even in the Church!
Mass Stipends – $20
Funerals – $75
Marriages – $100
Quinceañeras – $10?0