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Latin as I please

Gary Scarrabelotti — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:14:56 +0000

“Did the Romans really speak like this?”

By David Daintree^*

Now let’s consider Latin as a spoken language. I must begin, though, with a sort of disclaimer. I was brought up (like most of my readers, I imagine) in the Anglo-Celtic educational tradition that has not generally used Latin as a means of spoken communication for nearly two centuries. Other speech communities – the Vatican, of course, and some of the smaller European states – have done better than we in maintaining spoken Latin, but we have let it slide. For us Latin has been a written language only. We have lost the continuity of the oral tradition.

Being human in an Age of Unbelief

Gary Scarrabelotti — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:31:56 +0000

Without a right to life, all other rights are contingent.

by Charles J. Chaput^* | The Witherspoon Institute | November 8, 2011

Most of my sources in this essay are not Catholic. That shouldn’t be surprising. Catholics have no monopoly on respect for human dignity. Catholics do have a very long tradition of thinking about the nature of the human person and society, but I’d like to begin by setting the proper framework for our discussion.

Last year I had the good fortune to read Eric Metaxas’s wonderful book, Bonhoeffer. It’s a biography of the great Lutheran theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I’ve quoted Bonhoeffer’s work many times over the years. The reason is simple. I admire him. He could have been a professor. Instead he chose to be a pastor. He could have had a sterling academic career of lecturing about his ideas and his faith. Instead he chose to put them into action and to immerse himself in people’s lives. He was a man not of “values” in the meager modern sense, but of virtues in the classical and religious sense—the virtues of justice, courage, and love, all grounded in the deep virtue of faith in a loving God.

Cardinal Castrillo Hoyos decries liturgical abuses

Gary Scarrabelotti — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:37:05 +0000

Third pontifical TLM celebrated in Saint Peter’s since 2009

By Alberto Carosa | La Stampa | November 12, 2001

If the frequency of celebrations of solemn pontificals in the extraordinary or Gregorian rite in St. Peter’s basilica is anything to go by to assess any progress of the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum” implementation, then the situation would appear somewhat rosy.

Catholics and the American future

Gary Scarrabelotti — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:12:39 +0000

“Without the restraints of a common moral consensus animated and defended by a living religious community, the freedom of the individual easily becomes a license for selfishness. The meaning of right and wrong becomes privatized …”

Charles J. Chaput | First Things| November 11, 2011

Paris Cardinal, several other bishops defend anti-Christian play

Gary Scarrabelotti — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:05:41 +0000

By Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent | LifeSiteNews.com | November 7, 2011

Since On the Concept of the Face of the Son of God opened in Paris on October 20th, young French Catholics have peacefully but relentlessly organized nightly prayer vigils in front of the two theatres showing what they consider to be a grossly blasphemous play. Several hundred people, mostly young adults, have participated every night, with many arrested and taken into 48-hour or even 72-hour custody.