Erin Manning: November 2007 Archives

Of course, in one sense I'm not really saying goodbye. You won't be rid of me that easily; tomorrow, I suppose, or later tonight if my willpower is even less than I expect it to be, I'll turn up in the comment boxes again, ready to engage in discussions with Franklin and Susan and M_David and Larry and Harvey and all of you who know who you are (and who know that if it weren't for the need to write this post before midnight I'd keep writing all of your names).

When I wrote my first post on this blog, I said something about how worthwhile the blog, and what we do here, is. After some time spent on the other side of the comment boxes, that impression has only been strengthened. There's enough polarization and partisanship in this world of ours; there's enough of the habit of fitting people into tidy little boxes and rejecting what they have to say out of hand, because we're not really listening, just judging rapidly and moving on. If we can manage in the course of a discussion thread here on this blog to reach an appreciation for each other's points of view; if we can find an opportunity to find agreement on one thing with someone with whom we generally disagree; if we can reach out hands of friendliness and trust to people we ordinarily might not even encounter, we've done something amazing--and it happens here every day.

I've learned so much from this opportunity Rod so kindly gave me. One of the things I'm still marveling about is how much time and effort it can take to write and post multiple blog entries in the course of a day, to say nothing of keeping an eye on the comment boxes and entering the discussion threads from time to time. Rod does all of this in addition to his full-time job at the Dallas Morning News and the other writing projects he takes on, and still manages to be present to the people he interacts with here, entering into multiple blog "conversations" and keeping things flowing smoothly. The generosity of spirit behind his willingness to share so much of himself out here every day is a rare quality, and it's one that I know I've frequently taken for granted.

But as much as I couldn't really have guessed at the scope or nature of the work involved in writing this blog, I also couldn't have guessed at the fun of it. Being challenged on a daily basis to write well, to find interesting news and essays to comment on, to try to come up with a fresh perspective or unusual angle that would be worth a blog post, was, in perfect truth, one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. If I felt a little overwhelmed by the end of the first day, that feeling didn't last; soon I was having to tear myself away from the computer at night, and at least once I reluctantly decided to save something for the next day instead of posting it well after midnight. To be fair, Rod did warn me about how addictive this blog could be; I knew it at one level as a long-time regular commenter, but can assure you that the addictive quality is exponentially increased from over here.

And that addiction wouldn't be possible without all of you, the people who read, who comment, who change what could be a static essay into a dynamic experience. I've enjoyed having the chance to spend a little more time than I otherwise can reading and following the comment box conversations; I feel as though I've learned a lot from, and about, all of you.

Over the course of the next few days I know I'm going to miss this. It has been such an incredible opportunity, and I have a feeling it will be several days before I stop hearing or reading some item on the news and reflexively beginning to shape a Crunchy Con blog post around it. (If I end up spending far too much time in the comment boxes between now and Christmas you'll know why!)

American humorist Helen Rowland once said, "A man never knows how to say goodbye; a woman never knows when to say it." That's true; it has taken me far longer to get these words down than it ought to have taken, and I'm finding myself reluctant to bring this to an end. I appreciate so much the kindness you've all shown me while I've been posting here, and I especially appreciate Rod's kindness in giving me the chance to do so in the first place.

Goodbye, God bless, and see you back in the comment boxes!

This recent Catholic News service story reports that part of Pope Benedict XVI's decision to make the Tridentine Mass more widely available did indeed have to do with a lack of respect for the norms of the liturgy. Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, had this to say:

"For years the liturgy suffered too many abuses and many bishops ignored them" despite the efforts of Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Ranjith said.

"So the problem was not requests for the Tridentine Mass as much as an unlimited abuse of the nobility and dignity of the eucharistic celebration," he said.

Archbishop Ranjith said that although the church's liturgy has developed and changed over the centuries "we must recognize that the liturgy has a particular 'conservative' characteristic" because it is a part of the church's heritage that must be preserved.

"This is a central aspect: We are called to be faithful to something that does not belong to us, but is given to us," he said.

So we can fix the problem of widespread liturgical abuse by cracking down on the abuses, by instilling in the faithful a greater appreciation for the liturgy, and by celebrating the Mass with reverence, dignity, solemnity, and an appreciation for the liturgical history and traditions of this supreme act of worship. As part of the plan to do this, the Pope has allowed the Tridentine Mass to be more widely available; possibly to demonstrate to Catholics long wearied by the problem of the deficiencies of liturgical vision I mentioned below what a reverent and dignified liturgy looks like, and what beauty it is possible to achieve.

I've been reading with great interest this essay in America by Hieromonk Maximos Davies, a monk who belongs to an Eastern Church that is united with Rome, about some of the complex realities of the division between Orthodoxy and Catholicism (hat tip: Creative Minority Report). One of the main areas the author identifies as being a source of division between Catholics and the Orthodox is the attitude toward liturgy:

Two major cultural differences can be detected in the way Orthodox and Catholics live out their visions of Christianity. The first includes attitudes toward liturgy, an area where differences are surprisingly difficult to define, because they go far beyond ritual variance. A common misunderstanding is that Orthodox value “reverence” more highly than Catholics in the contemporary West, but this is not necessarily true; a clown Mass is also reverent in its own way. It matters, though, precisely what is revered. We move closer to the truth if we say that the Orthodox see liturgy as the primary work of Christians, from which every other activity flows. Catholics, on the other hand, tend to see liturgy as one of many Christian labors; it is important and obligatory, but exists among many important works. While it is impossible to make such statements without employing massive generalizations, this difference between the two traditions is nevertheless a source of alienation.

I would quarrel with one point, here. Catholics who have a proper understanding of the liturgy do indeed place it as the highest act of Christian life; consider, for instance, the opening words of Pope John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharista:

The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.

The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. “For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men”. Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.

The Catholic Church has never abandoned the wisdom of the ages as to the central importance of the sacred liturgy; but many Catholics have forgotten this teaching, or were never taught it at all.

I think this gets to the heart of why it matters whether we emphasize ritual and tradition in liturgy, or jettison those things in favor of innovation and novelty. It isn't that some people are snobbier or more elitist than others; it is, simply, that it matters how we conduct ourselves, what our visions and goals are during the solemn Holy Sacrifice, the chief liturgy of the Church, and the source of our sacramental life as Christians.

If we see the Mass primarily as a gathering of the community for the sake of communal identity, the celebration of our own lives and individuality, and the partaking of a shared meal, then our liturgical vision is deficient, no matter how sincere it may be.

If we understand that the Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice on Calvary, the worship of our God made Man Who suffered, died, and rose from the dead for us, and Who now becomes present in the Blessed Sacrament by the words and actions of the ordained priest who stands in persona Christi before the altar; if we realize that we are not present to celebrate ourselves but to give glory to God; if we recognize that the sacramental graces we receive come not from gathering as a community or sharing a meal but from receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament under the appearances of bread and wine, then our liturgical vision is not deficient, and will lead us toward a greater appreciation of the need for holy ritual and adherence to the liturgical norms of the Church.

As Hieromonk Maximos Davies says, at every liturgy we are revering something. We are either revering God, or we are revering humanity. How we conduct our liturgies will reveal which of these is the object of our reverence.

And if we ever hope to heal the ancient breach between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, it matters very much which understanding of liturgy prevails.

It must be so discouraging for the architects and groupies of "the spirit of Vatican II," particularly those still ensconced in chanceries in the United States and maintaining a death-grip on the various offices of liturgy and worship, to read stories like this.

They tried so hard, you know, to make sure that those of us under forty or so would fall in line with the new vision of Church, that we would use the word "celebrate" in every liturgical sentence, that we would feel ourselves affirmed by the growing practice of liturgy--as--therapeutics, that we would absorb the word "special" until it became one with the felt banners and clay chalices and changed forever how we viewed the notion of worship.

It must be physically painful for some of them to read this:

"It's the opposite of the cacophony that comes with the [modern] Mass," said Ken Wolfe, 34, a federal government worker who goes to up to four Latin Masses a week in the Washington area. "There's no guitars and handshaking and breaks in the Mass where people talk to each other. It's a very serious liturgy."

And it is a hit with younger priests and their parishioners.

Attendance at the Sunday noon Mass at St. John the Beloved in McLean has doubled to 400 people since it began celebrating in Latin. Most of the worshipers are under 40, said the Rev. Franklyn McAfee.

Younger parishioners "are more reflective," McAfee said. "They want something uplifting when they go to church. They don't want something they can get outside."

The graying liturgical innovators and Church-as-circus types must be sobbing. Wherever did they go wrong? They built new "churches" that looked more like druid temples; they smashed statues and replaced stained-glass windows of saints with stained-glass patterns that were supposed to evoke vague spiritual emotions, and generally only succeeded in evoking either bewilderment or anger. They insisted that parishioners join hands during the Pater Noster; they hid the tabernacles away in dusty closets, and sneered at the rosary. And most of all, they rooted out the Latin, not only in prayers, but even in songs.

And yet, they failed. Speaking as a (slightly) under-forty Catholic myself, I love the richness of liturgical Latin; I admire beautiful old stained glass windows with images of the saints caught up in scintillation when the sun illuminates the images, as Christ illumined their lives. I felt joy when the tabernacle in our parish was relocated to the place of honor behind the altar; I am always happy when our choir sings Ubi Caritas or O Sanctissima.

And as the Washington Post article makes clear, I'm far from being alone.

Paul Davies is not a creationist.

In fact, he's a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, who is currently working in the relatively new field of astrobiology, a branch of science that intends to research and discover more about the origin and evolution of life.

And in this New York Times op-ed, Paul Davies tackles an uncomfortable question that many scientists would prefer to ignore:

The problem with this neat separation into “non-overlapping magisteria,” as Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion, is that science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. You couldn’t be a scientist if you thought the universe was a meaningless jumble of odds and ends haphazardly juxtaposed. When physicists probe to a deeper level of subatomic structure, or astronomers extend the reach of their instruments, they expect to encounter additional elegant mathematical order. And so far this faith has been justified.

The most refined expression of the rational intelligibility of the cosmos is found in the laws of physics, the fundamental rules on which nature runs. The laws of gravitation and electromagnetism, the laws that regulate the world within the atom, the laws of motion — all are expressed as tidy mathematical relationships. But where do these laws come from? And why do they have the form that they do?

This is one of those questions that people who do believe in God sometimes ask of people who don't, and my experience in asking this question is that those asked it see even the asking of it as an attempt to slant the discussion toward creationism. The laws governing the physical world simply are, they say; we've observed them, and that is enough. But it's not enough for Davies:

Over the years I have often asked my physicist colleagues why the laws of physics are what they are. The answers vary from “that’s not a scientific question” to “nobody knows.” The favorite reply is, “There is no reason they are what they are — they just are.” The idea that the laws exist reasonlessly is deeply anti-rational. After all, the very essence of a scientific explanation of some phenomenon is that the world is ordered logically and that there are reasons things are as they are. If one traces these reasons all the way down to the bedrock of reality — the laws of physics — only to find that reason then deserts us, it makes a mockery of science.

To be honest, I'm not a "creationist" in the strict sense. While I do believe that God made the universe and everything in it, I have no particular opinion about how He chose to do so, and have no quarrel with science when it tries to discover the mechanisms of creation. My only argument tends to be with those who seem to think that science somehow disproves faith, when science can't really address the question of faith; Davies seems to believe that science itself is accepting too much on faith, and relying on the physical universe to remain observably predictable and orderly without questioning the "why?" behind the predictability and the order.

And to Davies, science shouldn't have to accept that order, the rationality of the laws of the universe, with either an appeal to religion or to an appeal to the "religion" of science:

It seems to me there is no hope of ever explaining why the physical universe is as it is so long as we are fixated on immutable laws or meta-laws that exist reasonlessly or are imposed by divine providence. The alternative is to regard the laws of physics and the universe they govern as part and parcel of a unitary system, and to be incorporated together within a common explanatory scheme.

In other words, the laws should have an explanation from within the universe and not involve appealing to an external agency. The specifics of that explanation are a matter for future research. But until science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the universe, its claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus.

It would seem that attempting to uncover a scientific explanation for the reasons behind the laws of the universe would be something to applaud, even for a person of faith like me. It may be that science will never fully uncover the answers; but it's a good start to ask the question.

Fred Thompson, campaigning in New Hampshire, took aim Friday at Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani on the issue of gun control. Though I'm not a fan of Thompson and don't believe he has much of a chance of securing the nomination,...

What do you do when you don't agree with your uncle's way of life? If you're members of al Qaeda, you kill him, and his wife, while his children watch. If he's committing crimes as serious as wearing Western-style clothing...

This story (via Drudge) is pretty amazing, and highlights one of the main reasons why I see a problem in trying to forge a consensus between crunchy conservatives and environmentalists. How do people who see having children as a form...

Today's Black Friday, the day that Americans kick off the massive consumption that precedes Christmas every year. I was going to try to say something clever about the whole notion of a day set aside to shop like never before,...

You've heard of social advertising campaigns, right? An online dictionary of marketing terms defines social advertising as "The advertising designed to educate or motivate target audiences to undertake socially desirable actions." This means that instead of setting up one of...

I'm sitting around a long table with my husband and children, my brother, sister-in-law, and their children, enjoying my sister-in-law's wonderful cooking and the peace and joy of the day. And it just started to snow. Life just doesn't get...

In the comments below the post I wrote about the first Thanksgiving, reader Susan writes about an aspect of holidays that is affecting more and more American families: I'm the general in charge of the Thanksgiving holiday around here, although...

Every year at this time the Thanksgiving debunkers start to turn up. Articles in the newspaper, perky segments on the television news, even a cornucopia of websites flourish, telling Americans how little is really known about the first Thanksgiving, and...

I recall that last year on Thanksgiving Rod had posted one of his joie de vrie posts about the food, the cooking, the spirit of it all. I also recall a comment from an anonymous, but frustrated, woman whose cooking...

Some towns in France have come up with a not-quite-novel idea to help them solve such problems as the rising price of fuel and the tendency of commercial drivers to go on strike: Olivier Linot, who heads the project, said...

I found this opinion piece by CBS's Andrew Cohen to be an interesting read, right up until the very end. In the essay Cohen describes how two new books on America's policies of torture during the Iraq war are likely...

How are we going to stop stories like this one from being so depressingly common? A man of thirty-two. A husband, a father. A firefighter who was, the article's headline says, an "example to all who knew him." Until his...

From the New York Times comes the exciting news that we may not need embryonic stem cells after all. The news that human skin cells can be turned into cells that behave rather like embryonic stem cells should be good...

Ah, the day before Thanksgiving. Time to settle back, put the finishing touches on your menu plans, and begin preparing some of the desserts or baked goods for tomorrow's feast. Unless, of course, you're buying the whole thing pre-made. Don't...

In the monster thread below the post about ECUSA and the fight over which view of homosexual activity is going to prevail several interesting points have come up, along with a request by some of the posters to have a...

Is Amazon's new Kindle digital book reader a good idea or a bad one? Well, let's see. If you regularly pay full price for a book, then paying almost four hundred dollars for the device, and then about ten dollars...

I want to preface this post by saying that nothing in it should be construed as being critical or negative toward families who have made less traditional choices than the ones many crunchy cons may make. Just as some of...

As you've probably heard by now, the city of San Francisco has the interesting honor of becoming the first city in the United States to pass a ban on petroleum-based plastic bags at grocery stores. From now on, shoppers in...

In one of my posts yesterday, I used Pope Benedict XVI's phrase, "the dictatorship of relativism." Today's news out of Pakistan gives us a look at the other kind of dictatorship--the one that involves the kind of leader who handles...

What do you do when you're a major news organization and one of your prize-winning photographers is going to be charged with unspecified crimes having to do with a connection to Iraqi insurgency? If you're the Associated Press, apparently what...

...but back here in the comments beneath this post, Rebecca T. shares some news! Congratulations! Prayers are on the way, and my parents could attest to the truth of the old proverb about each baby arriving with a loaf of...

I couldn't resist commenting on this USA Today story (via Drudge) about the latest nanny-state suggestions to travelers this busy Thanksgiving week. The new suggestions, dubbed "SimpliFly," remind passengers to pack their carry-ons neatly, and make detailed recommendations as to...

At their convention this past weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth took the first steps necessary to allow them to withdraw from the national church, in a split motivated in part by the ECUSA's teachings on the morality of...

Are Americans, especially American children, spending enough time reading? According to a new report issued by the National Endowment for the Arts, the answer is no. Criticized for their 2004 report which claimed a serious decline in the amount of...

...and because Mark Shea has already done the only part of blogging I ever find tedious myself, the link assortment, I'm sending you here to click Mark's links and read Larison's excellent piece on Bush's recent speech to the Federalist...

This past weekend my husband was finally able to do something he's been wanting to do for a while: buy one of these. (I think what caused the balance scale to tip toward making this decision was the information that...

As of last week, Hillary Clinton had received the endorsement of Congress's two openly gay members, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Both members of Congress expressed the belief that despite her opposition to gay marriage, Senator...

As human beings enter the third millennium since the birth of Christ, more and more people are beginning to believe that this sort of thing makes sense. To be honest, I can understand it when people who don't share my...

For the first time in over four decades a fleet of four ships sailed this morning from Japan with the intention of hunting and killing up to fifty humpback whales (among an estimated total of about a thousand whales). The...

The list below reminds me of a "toy" commercial I saw recently--except that it wasn't really a commercial for a toy. Instead, it's a commercial showing a man giving his wife and children each a high-end cell phone, before revealing...

Just in time for the upcoming holiday (no, not Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving and all of its Major Shopping Events) comes this list of the ten worst toys to buy for your child this Christmas. This year's list may...

The Reverend John H. Cross, Jr., former pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, died yesterday at the age of 82. It was the Reverend Cross who was in charge the night of September 15, 1963, when...

...Rod does, that is. This blog, I mean. I'm just sayin'....

We've talked a lot, on this blog, about clerical sexual abuse of children, particularly about the Scandal in the Catholic Church. I don't think anyone would categorize me as an apologist for priests who abused children or bishops who failed...

In the penultimate Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton slipped and stumbled on the answer to a question involving the granting of driver's licenses to illegal aliens. She was promptly sandbagged by the other candidates, particularly her most serious challengers, Barack...

I've been following today's news out of Maryland, where frustrated parents in Prince George's County are upset with the latest ultimatum over school vaccine requirements: vaccinate your children, or go to jail. The two shots most of the Maryland children...

As a Catholic, I'm quite exited that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United States next April. Although I won't be able to visit the major metropolitan centers on the pope's itinerary, there's no denying that for many of us...

Creative lawmakers in Illinois say they weren't attempting to mandate school prayer with a new law, the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act, which requires schools to set aside a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day....

To start with, I have to thank Rod for this amazing and wonderful opportunity to fill in for him while he and his family are enjoying a much-needed break. This blog has, for some time now, been the first and...