Archive for February, 2012
I know I’ve been silent too long regarding my promise to speak about the big plans for the John Paul I centenary — but finally I have good news — A conference is in the works! It is tentatively called “The Real John Paul I.” The date is Fri-Sat. October 12-13, 2012. I hope to secure the exact location shortly.
The loveliest news from my point of view that John Paul I’s niece, Pia Luciani,has agreed to come speak, and assures me she has put the date on her calendar. She does speak some English.
It’s also very likely that Stefania Falasca, who is also an expert on Papa Luciani, will also speak. She has written the Positio, i.e. position paper for his beatification, which is due to be turned in shortly to the Holy See (see here). So far we have three English-speaking scholars, one British and two American, who will also speak - I happen to be one of them
I have had a warm letter of support from Cardinal Dolan of New York. Now that he’s a cardinal, I hope he’s not too busy to return my letters! His help will certainly be useful. I am hoping to have an official liturgical commemoration of John Paul I in the Archdiocese on September 28, the anniversary of his death.
I am seeking sponsorship from EWTN and other organizations.
I have just set up a website for the centenary:
www.jpicentenary.org
It has details of the conference, the call for papers, a partial list of speakers, the prayer for the centenary, links to news items and more. There is also a short biography of John Paul I, adapted from one a did a long time back for Humilitas.
Now here is how you can help. The conference is going to take money. In a short time, as soon as the exact place, time and other details are set, people will be able to register and pay the fees for the conference on the website.
But even if you can’t attend, you can still contribute. You can use the Donate button on our site to send us a donation using a credit card or Paypal. We do expect to videotape the conference, and will make it available to donors.
Another way to help is by clicking from our website when you want to shop on Amazon. I have put up links to some good books on John Paul I on Amazon. Keep in mind that anything you buy from them on clicking on the link from our site, not just these books, delivers us a small commission.
You can also help by clicking on the link and buying items from the Mystic Monks — more technically known as the Carmelite monks of Wyoming. They offer a wide variety of delicious blends of roast coffee and special seasonal teas, as well as, naturally, mugs. They also sell exotic treats like chocolate-covered espresso beans and their own special variety of chocolate-covered cherries. They also have a chant CD for sale, along with rosaries, medals, books and other
religious items. We get a generous commission on everything sold. They ship all over the world.
In time, I plan to offer some commemorative items for the centenary - right now I am thinking of journals with John Paul I’s picture and the centenary date on the cover.
I am also planning to put out a book containing some of Papa Luciani’s writings a little later this year. It will be called “Living the Year of Faith with John Paul I.” It will include some of his writings during the original Year of Faith in 1967-68, as well as a variety of his other writings on the faith. The conference in October will actually coincide with the beginning of the upcoming Year of Faith proclaimed by Benedict XVI. This is a great way to tie the conference and the centenary with some high profile events. It will earn money too! In fact, I may be able to put out some commemorative journals with Papa Luciani’s picture and quotes from him on the faith, that would be very very suitable for the Year of Faith.
In other words, a lot is happening! I will have more updates very soon.
Update March 8: We still don’t have a venue and will need some money to secure it, since other sponsorship still hasn’t materialized. Please donate if you can!
Filed under: Archbishop Dolan, Pope John Paul I | |No Comments
If this proves to be authentic, it is really an amazing find:
A New Testament professor is setting the world of Bible scholarship on fire with his claim that newly discovered fragments of early Christian writings could include a first-century version of the Gospel of Mark, from the same century in which Jesus and the apostles lived.
Daniel B. Wallace of the Dallas Theological Seminary made the stunning announcement during a Feb. 1 debate with Bart Ehrman at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on whether we have the wording of the original New Testament today.
“If this Mark fragment is confirmed as from the first century, what a thrill it will be to have a manuscript that is dated within the lifetime of many of the original followers of Jesus!” Wallace said. “Not only this, but this manuscript would have been written before the New Testament was completed.”
Wallace says seven New Testament fragments written on papyrus had recently been discovered – six of them probably from the second century and one of them probably from the first. He expects further details to be published “in about a year.”
“These manuscripts now increase our holdings as follows: we have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts (all fragmentary, more or less) from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 40 percent of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment.
“It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. Up until now, no one has discovered any first-century manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest manuscript of the New Testament has been P52, a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century. It was discovered in 1934.”
Wallace’s interest is focused on the portion from Mark’s Gospel.
“Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century. This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years.”
Craig A. Evans, professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College, says the find may indeed be of very great importance.
“If authenticity and early date are confirmed, this fragment of the Gospel of Mark could be very significant and show how well preserved the text of the New Testament really is. We all await its publication,” Evans told the Christian Post.
You can read the rest here.
Some people may remember the discovery some years ago, of the Qumran fragment 7Q5, from one of the caves containing the Dead Sea Scrolls, a first-century manuscript which was widely hailed as being the text of Mark 6:52-53, and just as widely dismissed by others.
To be more exact, the fragment which can be dated to 50 A.D. at latest, includes parts of several words, including what could be “Gennesaret,” a name which is of quite rare occurrence and is in the Marcan passage in question. However, the fragment is still very tiny, thirteen letters or so in all, not all of them completely legible, and the identity of some letters has been disputed. This text was a disappointment for those who hoped for a first-century text of Mark, one that would take us as close as possible to what the evangelist actually wrote.
All this makes the name of the scholar who announced the new discovery of particular interest. Daniel B. Wallace is one of the most respected textual scholars of the N.T., and and has also been critical of the identification of the Qumran fragment with Mark. So the new fragment is likely to be on firmer ground textually than 7Q5.
What can such a text tell us? Well it may convince some people that the Gospels are not late inventions and that they really were written in the first century. None of these people are likely to be actual scholars though.
Some people, overly impressed by the physical sciences, will claim that there is no evidence of the date of the Gospels unless there is a physical manuscript, preferably with the evangelist’s own signature on it. This isn’t the way textual scholarship works though. Scholars learn and accept a great many things about ancient writings by their internal characteristics. The language, the details about society, the underlying Aramaic and Hebrew characteristics of the New Testament writings, their obvious basis in eyewitness reports, are all ample evidence of when and by what kind of people they were written.
Methods based on internal evidence, and supporting external testimony is how we find out most of what we know about Homer or any other ancient writer and their works. That’s because for most ancient writers, the earliest manuscripts we can work with are hundreds, sometimes thousands of years later than the events recorded in them. With the Gospels we are extraordinarily lucky. We already have the John Rylands papyrus (P52) of John’s Gospel mentioned above, which brings us within 30-40 years of when John might have written. For other Gospels our earliest copies come from some 200 years after the events. With this new manuscript we may come within 10-20 years of the writing of the actual original manuscript.
The new manuscript won’t necessarily help us date Mark’s Gospel any more closely than we can right now. Usually paleographers give a range of dates. For instance the one working with the new manuscript might say the manuscript was written sometime between A.D. 50-100, this might not be of great help except to confirm what scholars of long thought from internal evidence and external supporting evidence about the date of Mark. And the date of the manuscript it will only tell us the latest date at which the Gospel could have been written.
The manuscript’s greatest value will lie in bringing us as close to the original text of Mark as possible. This means that we can correct the errors that have crept in through centuries of copying. And yet even these errors are not that great so far as we can trace from the latest ms. to about 200 A.D. when our papyrus copies begin. But it will likely clear up murky areas of the text and contested readings. Above all can provide one more confirmation of the general truth and accuracy of the New Testament.
I can’t wait to learn more about it.
Filed under: Gospels, History | |No Comments
I just ran across this article from last fall, from what appears to be an Italian wire service. So a step ahead is soon in store - it could even be taking place right now — in Papa Luciani’s beatification process. I must, however register my opinion contrary to that of the postulator, about the venue for the beatification ceremony - no beatification ceremony for a Pope should be held anywhere but in Rome, and it should be presided over by the Pope! This is what was done for Pope John XXIII and for John Paul II. John Paul I deserves no less. It seems rather unlikely that Pope Benedict, who knew Luciani personally and has a strong devotion to him, will survive long enough to preside - he’ll be 88 or 89 - but we can always hope.
Tuesday October 11, 2011
PAPA LUCIANI’S POSTULATOR: BEATIFICATION AT LEAST FOUR YEARS AWAY
(AGI) – Citta del Vaticano, October.
It will take “at least four or five years,” but John Paul I will follow in the wake of his predecessor and will rise to the honors of the altars as a blessed. In the coming months, in fact, Monsignor Enrico dal Covolo, postulator of the cause for beatification for Albino Luciani, the cardinal patriarch of Venice, who in August 1978 was elected Pope after Paul VI but reigned for only 33 days, thus opening the way for the election of a non-Italian after 500 years – will hand in the “Positio” to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, which will now have to examine it and subject it to the approval of the theologians and of its members, and then propose to the reigning Pope the decree on the heroic nature of his virtues.
Named rector of the Lateran University by Benedict XVI and consecrated bishop by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the Salesian Enrico dal Covolo has been able to keep the cause of the Pope from the Veneto precisely because it has now almost reached port. “We also have,” he confided to AGI, “a miracle that could be proposed to the Congregation and the Medical Commission, in as much as the previous study put forward by the Postulator’s office has had a favorable outcome.” It will be the Pope then, obviously, who decides where the rite of beatification will take place, but,” Dal Covolo anticipates, “it is probably that the choice will fall on Belluno, Luciani’s home diocese, where the preliminary process was experienced with great passion by the faithful.”
Among the many processes that he followed up to last year as postulator general of the Salesians, along with the cause of Luciani, Msgr. Dal Covolo has been able to preserve only one other, the one for the Polish layman Jan Leopold Tyranowski, who had a fundamental role in the formation of Karol Wojtyla. “He moved in Salesian circles, very much tied to the spirtuality of Don Bosco,” explains the prelate, who recalls how, though without forcing the time of the canonical cause that had been introduced, John Paul II, as a former disciple of this extraordinary teacher of spirituality, wanted to define Tyranowski “a true saint.”
Here’s a link to the Italian original.
Filed under: Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII | |No Comments
Comment has been piling up thick and fast in the HHS contraception mandate case. Over 90% of U.S. Bishops have now protested the decision and sent letters to their flocks urging action.
Some of the MSM’s leftist pundits - even Chris Matthews! — are catching on to the fact that this case isn’t just about contraception; they are beginning to realize that the President of the United States just trashed the First Amendment to the Constitution. (How is that honorary law degree look to you now, Fr. Jenkins? Still think it was deserved?)
This is an immensely important moment for the religious freedom of Catholics in this country. We need to fight on this ground for all we’re worth. But I think it’s also important for people not to lose sight of the wider ramifications of the contraception /sterilization mandate - which also includes abortifacient drugs — as a whole and what it says about the whole concept of healthcare in this administration.
The first curious thing is that contraception, sterilization and abortifacients are included and mandated not as “reproductive health care” or something like that, but as “preventative care.” They are considered to be along the same lines as testing for AIDS and other STD’s, cancer screenings, etc. But what exactly is the dire disease that contraception, sterilization, and after the fact abortion pills prevent? There is none. They prevent pregnancy, but pregnancy is not a disease, but a normal, healthy state of a woman’s body. What then do they prevent?
In a word, they prevent people. They make sure that as many as possible of the coming generation is never conceived, or if they are, that their lives are snuffed out as efficiently as possible in the womb before birth.
Now why is this mandate considered important? Beyond the obviously ridiculous blathering about how contraception protects women’s “health” (ridiculous to anyone who has ever read the long list of dire complications included in the packaging of the Pill), HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her minions have made the very clear declaration that these provisions “save money.” Whose money? Well women do save money by taking a pill instead having a baby, but that’s not what they really mean.
Democrats, Nancy Pelosi I think was the first, spelled it all out very clearly when the health care bill was being passed. Contraception saves taxpayers’ money. Because the fewer people born in the next generation, the fewer who will be in line for healthcare, welfare, and government dollars in general, thus leaving more for the rest of us. Let’s not forget that health care is a “limited” resource.”
So then, “the rest of us” means those who need cancer treatments and heart surgery and kidney transplants and other useful things like that - you know, actual health care? Well, not so fast. Certain people will get those things, yes. But let’s not forget President Obama’s words:
The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here … there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.
Yes, an independent group, totally outside the democratic process that works in secrecy until we learn the results. You might remember the flap a couple of months ago, when a caller to a conservative talk radio show claimed that he’d had an advance peek at the HHS regulations for stroke patients - and that they said that those who have strokes over the age of 70 won’t get treatment for their stroke, just palliative care? The HHS issued all kinds of denials. And yes, it’s probably too outrageous to be true, but not by much. Because this is the general philosophy those in the Obama administration live by.
Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, one of the architects of ObamaCare, believes that health care should be rationed according to individuals’ contribution to society, not their intrinsic worth as human beings. Isn’t it discriminatory to deny 65-year-olds the health care that 25-year-olds get? Not at all! “Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination,” he says. “Every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years.” In other words - quite griping - you already had your chance!
So the mandate on contraception /sterilization / abortion is more than just an attack on the Catholic Church. It is one step in a vast program of social engineering.
Toward what goal? For enlightenment in this are I’d advise everyone to read the famous and amazingly prescient novel by Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, published exactly 80 years ago this year. Much of it reflects today.
In the A.D. 2540 time period of the book, the world’s population is carefully controlled. There is no such thing as a family. Everyone is conceived and born artificially in test tubes and petri dishes. Scientific engineering controls everything from the individual’s intelligence to how long he lives. Most ordinary workers are deliberately created with lower intelligence. The upper castes have normal intelligence. All work for the state, but the State assures that they are anything but unhappy.
Not only family, but religion and morality have been done away with. “Mother” and “father” are regarded as obscene words. Everyone is encouraged to be as sexually promiscuous as possible, starting in kindergarten, where those who don’t engage in sexual play are looked on as “abnormal.” Those few women who are allowed to remain fertile (in order to have a steady source of eggs to draw on for reproduction), engage in their “Malthusian drill” and automatically pop the regulation contraceptives provided by the state. The pink-towered Abortion Centre takes care of any failures. The worlds first bad-effect-free recreational drug, soma, is also provided to all. The purpose is for the productive members of society to be kept happy and, as far as possible, without any responsibilities outside of work. They are the world’s happiest consumers, and their consumption makes the state prosperous.
Oh, and after sixty years or so of perpetual youth, they quickly get old and die in nursing home wards, where their bodies are incinerated and spread on the fields in order to keep on being useful for society. No one lingers unduly or is ever a burden. The messiness of euthanasia is apparently eliminated, but this society would certainly be ready to engage in it if necessary.
A perfectly happy world that is in fact, abominable. (Of course, not everyone is happy, or there wouldn’t be a plot to the novel - but more about that in another installment).
Compare this to the ideal world of Obamacare: happy consumers between 18 and 49 will get all the birth control they want; they will get the major share of the health care, will largely be free of responsibility for raising the next generation, and can continue to be the world’s happiest consumers supporting the state that gave them this largesse. Unfortunately no one has found a way to eliminate old age ills and euthanasia yet. Or abortion. And oh yes, religion will be effectively silenced. The ugly little secrets of a perfect world.
Doesn’t this seem to be what Obamacare has in mind?
There’s so much more I could say about this novel, and I will if I get a chance this year.
Filed under: Abortion, Life Issues, Obama administration, health care reform | |2 Comments
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