The latest views on the Franciscans of the Immaculate

I know from my blog statistics that many readers respond to any coverage of the ongoing situation around the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Here, in case you have missed them, are the two most recent posts from Rorate Caeli on the FFI:

Totalitarian Dictatorship in the Franciscans of the Immaculate: Pontifical Commissioner Illegally Suspends Without Due Process Six Friars Who Sought Shelter

"Friars of the Immaculate in peace: the Peace of the Cemeteries" And Tosatti connects the dots: is this why the Friars are so loathed now?

I have no personal knowledge of the inner workings of this investigation, and New Catholic on Rorate Caeli has a definite stance on the situation. The souces cited appear to be well informed. Others may have different views. What is clear is that this crisis for the Order is doing nothing but harm to the wider aims of the Church and Papacy amongst a considerable number of the faithful. Ending this running sore quickly can at least clarify what is going on, and make it possible for people to assess the realities of the issues raised in this visitation.

Some of the comments on Fr Blake's recent post Investigatons  do, perhaps, provide one hermeneutic of interpretation of the situation.

 

 

 

The Forty Hours Devotion at the Oxford Oratory - October 17th -19th

In a fortnight's time the Oxford Oratory will hold its annual Forty Hours Devotion. Given the current state of the world, we will offer the special intentions of Peace, and prayer in union with persecuted Christians. 

Image: Oxford Oratory

Friday 17th October: The Forty Hours will commence with Solemn High Mass of Exposition at 6pm, followed by Exposition,and at 11pm there will be Compline and Benediction - Compline will be sung by the Dominican Friars of Oxford Blackfriars
Vigil before the Blessed Sacrament through the night with recitation of the rosary - refreshments available in the parish centre
Saturday 18th October: 5am{ Mattins and Lauds of the Blessed Sacrament with the  Sisters of the Work from Littlemore

6am: Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form
Exposition continues until 10am Low Mass and then until 6.30pm Mass for Peace with hymns
12 midnight: Blessed Sacrament is reposed
Sunday 19th October: 8am Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form, 9.30am Parish Mass, 11am Solemn Mass of the Sacred Heart
The Blessed Sacrament then remains exprosed until  5pm: Solemn Vespers, Procession and Benediction.

The Inaugural Mass at St Walburge's Preston

Yesterday the New Liturgical Movement website had an article about the inaugural High Mass last Saturday at St Walburge's Preston for its new role as a shrine for Eucharistic Adoration under the care of ICKSP.

The Mass was celebrated in the presence of the Bishop of Lancaster, who preached, and the whole occasions appears to have been both splendid (in all senses of the word) and also well-attended, which bodes well for this initiative.

The NLM report, which has a link to a set of sumptuous photographs of the whole day, can be seen at News from the ICKSP in England.

I really want to visit Preston - and that is something I would never have imagined myself saying hitherto (notwithstanding the presence of second cousins in the town).

Neil MacGregor on German History

Continuing the German theme of the last two posts this one is to encourage readers to listen to Neil MacGregor's excellent series on German history which is being broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and can be found on the Radio 4 website at Germany: Memories of a Nation.

I missed the first one - on the Brandenburg gate - but the second and third, dealing respectively with the Berlin Wall and its legacy and with those great German cities of Prague (with the oldest German University and former seat of government of the Holy Roman Empire) and Königsberg (the ceremonial capital of Prussia and home of Kant) which are no longer German, were excellent, and provided fifteen minutes of erudition and insight to keep you thinking long afterwards.

For those who want more there is an online article, with links to other pieces on the cathedral and other features, about Königsberg here, and another article about current discussion of plans to rebuild the city centre at Architectural Competition Held to Rebuild Königsberg City Center.

The reconstruction of the Royal Palace in Berlin

Continuing the theme of my previous post about restoration work in Berlin the friend who sent me the link to the odd idea of gothicising St Pauls in London which I posted earlier in the week, and who is assiduous in sharing such online discoveries, sent me a link a while ago to a piece about the progress in the rebuilding work on the Berlin Royal Palace. I have been meaning to post it, but have only now got round to it. It can be seen here.

I wrote about this project in Rebuilding the Berlin Stadtschloss

Both the Palace rebuilding and the plan to reorder St Hedwig's Cathedral point to the wealth of modern Germany, but in both cases the disinclination to put back completely what was there before the destruction occurred is, in my opinion, to say the least unfortunate, and as indeed I indicated in the post linked to above.

 

The German Imperial Arms after 1871

Image: Wikipedia

The Cathedrals of Berlin

Last week the New Liturgical Movement had a post about the latest plans to re-order the interior of the Catholic Cathedral of St Hedwig in Berlin. The post, Re-Wreckovating the Cathedral of Berlin, is not impressed with either what is there now nor with that which is proposed to replace it. On the basis of the post and its illustrations I agree with the writer in this matter. The interior looked infinitely better in the photograph from 1886.

Tellingly the post concludes by contrasting the design with the Wilhelmine splendours of the Evangelischekirke equivalent in Berlin, completed in 1905, and restored after wartime bombing, as can be seen in the photographs and link provided to an account of its history.

Newman Night Walk - October 8th

A week tonight the annual Newman Night Walk from Oxford to Littlemore will take place on Wednesday October 8th.

A bronze relief in the Catholic church in Littlemore 

depicting the meeting of Bl. John Henry and Bl Dominic 

The evening begins at the Oxford Oratory with a short meditation at 7.45, followed by the walk to Littlemore, stopping at places associated with Bl.John Henry Newman and Bl.Dominic Barberi.

At 9.39 there begins the candlelit procession from 89 Rose Hill to the church of Bl.Dominic Barberi in Littlemore where from 10.00 there is a Holy Hour concluding Benediction. Confessions will be heard in the church during this Holy Hour.

The evening concludes with the procession reforming and going to the College where the two beati met on October 8th 1845 and the evening ends with a thanksgiving in the chapel there.

The Chapel where Newman was received and made his first Catholic communion

Participants are invited to join the events at any stage, and light refreshments will be provided afterwards at the College by the Sisters of the Work.

The Library at the College

This is always a most enjoyable as well as prayerful evening, a suitable way in which to reflect upon Bl.John Henry's conversion and reception into "the one true fold of the Redeemer ".

Newman's writing desk

“… as I made Littlemore a place of retirement for myself, so did I offer it to others…”

(Apologia pro vita sua, 160).

Images: newmanfriendsinternational

October

Image: Wikipedia

This calendar page in the Très Riches Heures of John Duke of Berry is attributed to Paul Limbourg, with possible additions by Jean Colombe in the 1480s

The scene in the foreground is winter sowing and harrowing, with crows and magpies eating some of the seeds. The harrow is shown as horse drawn rather than by oxen. Beyond there is an archery in the middle ground with pollarded willows on the river bank. Meanwhile in the background people walk by the Seine, across which small boats ply. Once again this is a tranquil, reassuring scene of agricultural harmony. This is an idealised view as the building which dominates the scene is the palace of the Louvre, then at the western end of Paris, but the foreground would have been built up as it would be part of the Ile de la Cite or the left bank of the Seine.

The Louvre was originally built by King Philip II (1180-1223)  - the impressive foundations of his fortress are once again visible in the basement of the museum complex - but the Louvre as depicted was the result of its  remodelling as a residence by Duke John's elder brother, King Charles V, after his accession to the throne in 1364. As at Saumur in last month's illustration the palace fortress is decorated with elaborate finials and the chimneys point to domestic comfort inside the royal residence.