Developing Skills

The children are each working on developing some important new skills these days. Edmund has figured out how to stand up, but he is still working up the courage to take more than a step at a time. His sword swallowing abilities are coming along as well. Thomas has been putting in hours in the batting cages to improve his pitch to contact ratio. He has also developed a bit more pop in his bat. Maria took it into her head to try out her friend Eli's bike this afternoon, and before you knew it she was breezing around the courtyard like you wouldn't believe.

An Idea for a University in London

This looks interesting: The Benedictus Trust brings us 'A Proposal for Liberal Arts Education' based on the principles of Blessed John Henry Newman's Idea of a University.

From their website: "We seek to establish in this country a course of learning at foundation and undergraduate level, a return to true liberal education with the study of the traditional liberal arts, encompassing what are usually known as the humanities and mathematics, to be studied alongside philosophy and theology, using as texts the greatest works of the European tradition. This study will be fully integrated with courses on the history, arts, culture and languages of Europe."

... a University, taken in its bare idea ... has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture; ... it educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it. (The Idea of a University, Discourse VI, I)

Video from Otto von Habsburg's Funeral and Burial

Update: Here is what people are saying about H.I.R.H. Archduke Otto von Habsburg:

• New Liturgical Movement
• Sancrucensis
• What Does the Prayer Really Say? (Fr. Z.)
• Unam Sanctam Catholicam
• Crisis Magazine (J. Zmirak)

The Habsburger Burial Ritual

You can watch the funeral and burial of His Imperial Royal Highness Archduke Otto von Habsburg live on Austrian television at ORF. It is an historic event, and I hope you are able to witness at least a part of it.

Almost 2 billion people (that's the reported number, although it may be a bit hard to believe) watched the funeral and burial of H.I.R.H. Kaiserin Zita von Bourbon-Parma (wife of Blessed Kaiser Karl) in 1989. Below is some brief video footage of that historic day, in which you can also see the moving Habsburger burial ritual.

When the procession arrives from the Stephansdom, where the funeral Mass was held, at the doors of the Kapuzinerkirche, where members of the royal family are traditionally entombed in the crypt, the herald knocks on the door three times with his staff. From within a Capuchin friar asks: Who seeks entrance? The response: Zita, Her Majesty the Empress and Queen. The friar says: We don't know her. He knocks again. Who seeks entrance? This time the herald answers: Zita, a mortal, sinful woman. Friar: Then come in.

In the clip below you can see a more dramatic enactment of the same ritual from an Austrian television series which in one scene portrays the burial of Crown Prince and Archduke Rudolf von Habsburg of 1889. Here the dialogue is even more impressive, as it truly was, since the Empire was still a living reality.

Capuchin friar: Who is there?

Imperial herald: His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince of Austria, Kingly Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, of Lombardy and Venetia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, and Illyria; Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece; General Inspector of the Imperial Infantry; Archduke Rudolf von Habsburg.

Capuchin friar: We don't know him. [The herald knocks again...] Who is there?

Imperial herald: Archduke Rudolf von Habsburg!

Capuchin friar: We don't know him! [The herald knocks again...] Who is there?

Imperial herald: Rudolf, a poor sinner.

Greatest Video Ever

What do you think? Does he have a future in the big leagues?

Paying My Respects

I had the tremendous opportunity to pay my respects, with thousands of others, to Otto von Habsburg as he lay in state next to his wife in the Kapuzinerkirche in Vienna. The coffins are draped with the black and yellow of the Habsburg arms. (They are laying in the same side chapel where Edmund was baptized almost a year ago.)

You can also watch a brief news spot with footage from inside the Kapuzinerkirche.

Otto von Habsburg, RIP

Otto von Habsburg, Crown Prince and Archduke of Austria, eldest son of Blessed Kaiser Karl I, the last emperor of Austria and of Christendom, died on July 4, 2011, at the age of 98. This morning a requiem Mass was sung for his soul at the Kapuzinerkirche in Vienna where his body lies in state next to that of his wife. It is truly the end of an era, the end of an era which began more than 1,200 years ago with the coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas day, 800. It is the end of an era that has been ending since 1789, that ended again in 1806, and again in 1917. 2011 is the end of the end of an era; it is the end of the end of Christendom. And we mourn its passing.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat ei.

Requiescat in pace.

ITI Promo Video

Our beloved Institute has released a new promotional video which features a number of brief appearances by various members of the family.

Pictures from Italy

We're just back from our two weeks in Italy, and have uploaded most of our pictures from the trip onto a web album for you.

Walking the old streets of Norcia

We took an overnight train from Vienna to Rome, spent a few hours in Rome trying (and failing) to get inside St. Peter's Basilica for Mass, and then headed for Norcia by train and bus with others from our group whom we met there.

Our studies in Sacramental Theology were in full swing over the next few days, until Thursday (Corpus Christi) we headed back to Rome by bus to attend the papal Mass and Eucharistic procession. We had lunch at Dino & Tony's (delicious!), went into St. Peter's Basilica for a little bit, and then headed for St. John Lateran for Mass with the Holy Father.

The next day we bailed out and headed back for Norcia on account of the children even though the others all stayed another day.

Then on Sunday, halfway through our trip, the chicken pox struck. First Edmund and then Thomas came down with them, and the next few days in Norcia were pretty rough. No sleep at night for the boys (or the parents), and then no playing at the park in the day for Maria. I had to take plates of dinner up from the dining room to Lisa and the quarantined children. No fun at all.

By Thursday or so they were well on the mend, though, and we were able to enjoy our last few days there, before heading back to Rome for another day, and then embarking on another overnight train ride to Vienna - without air-conditioning.

It's good to be back home.

Very Special Happy Birthdays!

Well, we are back from two weeks in Norcia, Italy, where John and a classmate put on summer program focusing on the Sacraments. More about that shortly. First things first though, while we were in Italy my Papou (my kids call him "big Papou" celebrated his 80th birthday, and in just a few days, my Yia-Yia will celebrate her 80th birthday! We wish you all the best, and many happy returns of the day!

A few pictures of the birthday boy and girl, with a couple of their many (!) descendents:

A couple of papers

Following up my last post about this semester's classes, here are two of the papers I wrote this semester. You can also find them with all my other papers at the Academic Essays page linked above.

Pastoral Aspects of Marriage and Family.

Marriage and Family: A Proposal for a Pastoral Approach.

The most important pastoral issues facing the Church in the United States today with regard to marriage and the family include the problems of divorce and re-marriage, contraception, abortion, pre-marital co-habitation, and homosexuality. In the first part of this paper I present an overview of the development of these issues in the United States and of the Church’s response to them. In the second part, I then propose a pastoral approach to these issues based on the Church’s current Code of Canon Law (1983)... (continue reading)

History of Byzantium.

The Coronation of Charlemagne.

On Christmas Day, in the year of our Lord 800, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, knelt in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and was crowned as Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III. There can be no doubt that this was an important moment in the history of Western Europe, but how was it viewed in the East? According to Runciman, "Constantinople inevitably saw it as an act of treachery." He says that "the coronation made it impossible for the Imperial Government to trust the Papacy any further." And on account of this, he describes it as "an act of great political unwisdom" on the part of the Pope. Similarly, Magdalino asserts that, amidst the many open questions surrounding the coronation, such as whose idea it was, and who benefitted most from the new arrangement, one thing that there can be no question about is that "Byzantium was seriously offended." We may still ask, however, why this should be so. Of course, a reigning monarch would always be offended by another man claiming his crown and title; but this had long become commonplace in the Roman Empire. In fact, it had only been three years since the currently reigning Empress Irene had herself seized the throne and crown by violence from her own son Constantine VI, whose eyes she had put out "in the same purple chamber where she had given birth to him twenty-six years earlier." Now there can little doubt that Constantine himself saw this as 'an act of treachery' and was 'seriously offended' by it, but the same does not seem to be true of Constantinople as such. Was there then something more than the usual palace intrigues at work in the case of Charlemagne? Something which made it more particularly and uniquely offensive? (continue reading)

Last Day of Classes

Today marks the end of another semester's worth - in fact another year's worth - of classes here for us. The next few days are free for last minute cramming before exams begin on Friday, and then continue on into next week. It was a productive and enjoyable semester. In case you missed it, and in no particular order, I've been studying:

1. The History of Byzantium - A romp through the final 1200 years of Roman history, from the transference of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 to the fall of New Rome to the Turks in 1453 (the anniversary of which was yesterday, by the way). Especially interesting here, of course, is the insight which one can gain into the beliefs and practices of our separated brethren of the Eastern dissident churches. I wrote a paper on the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope St. Leo III, which occurred in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on Christmas Day, 800. A terribly Western topic, I know, but it had some relation to Byzantium, or at least so I feebly tried to argue.

2. Pastoral Aspects of Marriage and the Family - This was the obligatory course for all Licentiate students, and it was basically just a summation of the basics, based on Blessed John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio (1981). Basically, we need good marriage preparation programs, contraception is bad, so is divorce, fornication, adultery, etc., etc. In this one I wrote a paper on why people should be denied Communion or even formally excommunicated way more often than they are. Dietrich von Hildebrand called it the Charitable Anathema.

3. Theology of the 20th Century: Nature and Grace - We began with St. Thomas and the school of Thomists which followed him and interpreted his thought up until the early twentieth century, looking at the precise question of man's natural desire to see the essence of God (i.e. for the beatific vision). St. Thomas basically says that there is such a thing, that every natural potency for something is able to be fulfilled by a natural cause, and that the beatific vision is (obviously) not able to be fulfilled by any natural cause, but only a supernatural one - God. Thus did he kick off eight centuries of argument, kicked off anew in the early twentieth century by historian / theologian Henri De Lubac, S.J. This topic thus became the main theological debate of the whole twentieth century. Perhaps unsurprisingly to many of you, I regard De Lubac's position, which is the one that by now dominates almost the entire field, to be in error both as regards the interpretation of Aquinas and as regards the truth of the matter. No paper here, but a comprehensive examination next week.

4. Jesus of Nazareth - Here we read both volumes of Papa Ratzinger's recent private publications, the second volume of which conveniently came out midway through the semester. Ratzinger's treatment is by and large very good and certainly an important contribution to the field of biblical studies. If you haven't read any of the present Holy Father's private writings, these are good ones to begin with: challenging, to be sure, but more accessible than many of his works. We had our full share of criticisms in class, though, both of his methods and conclusions in some places, and my paper was written disputing his dating of the Last Supper, which he thinks was not a Passover Meal at all, or at least was not held on the feast day of the Passover. I still prefer to think otherwise.

5. Latin Liturgy - A particular interest of mine, of course. This was an intensive course packed into about two and a half weeks just after Easter. We dug into some of the historical sources from the earliest times to see what can be known about how the liturgy was being celebrated in various times and places. The Roman Rite in particular was the focus, though, and we traced its development from the point of its emergence from the mists of time in the fourth and fifth centuries right up through the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century to the Liturgical Movement of the twentieth century. We looked briefly at the New Order of Mass which replaced it in 1970. There was an interesting comparison at the end between Romano Guardini's book The Spirit of the Liturgy (1918), which served as something of a charter for the Liturgical Movement, and Joseph Ratzinger's book by the same name (2000), which is already being looked upon as something of a charter for a New Liturgical Movement.