Trees

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

--Alfred Joyce Kilmer, 1886-1918

The Trout Inn

In my opinion, the best fish and chips in Oxford are to be found, well, just a few kilometers outside the shire, in Lower Wolvercote, at The Trout Inn. One can easily get there by car, but those of us without such transportation went by foot through wild fields along the Isis. It's a bit of a walk, but a scenic one, and what is better than breathing in the brisk air of a British summer's day with the sun beating warmly on one's back and one's feet tramping lightly over grassy paths, the stomach rumbling with the anticipation of an imminent hot repast and cold drink?



From the city, one need only find the Thames Footpath. As you start to leave Oxford behind, you'll come across a boatyard and the red Medley Footbridge, from whose small height you can look down into the shallow greenish water with algae-covered pebbles beneath. Behind is the narrow, tree-lined Thames (or Isis, as it is called flowing through Oxfordshire), and stretching forward, where one's future lies, the river broadens out onto flat, grassy plains overhung with cloudless skies: Port Meadow beckons.


Aerial view of Port Meadow

One can tramp for the next mile or so in silence, encountering nothing more than trees, hedges, blackberry bushes, and the occasional grazing cow or wild horse. At the right time of year, one can purple one's hands and fill one's basket with mounds of ripening blackberries, to be brought home and made into a tart berry cobbler (Devonshire clotted cream optional, though recommended).



After some pleasant meanderings, one soon approaches signs of civilization in the form of Godstow Lock, the last electrically-operated lock on the Thames, and a welcome portent indicating the coming approach of one's destination. But patience! Distances remain to be trod and sights yet remain to be seen.



Passing the lock and continuing on the footpath, all becomes lonely and grassy again. It's easy to fall into the temptation of looking down as one walks and observing the yellow pebbles, wildflowers, and white dust of the path; but if one lifts up one's head, one will begin to see, slowly, slowly, in the foreground, rising from the tangled green lawn, a heap of stones arranged in a disheveled quad, with fragmented walls trailing off into turf. These are the remains of Godstow Abbey, built in 1133, home to Benedectine nuns for four hundred years, and suppressed--as so many other convents and monasteries throughout England, Wales, and Ireland--in 1539. The claims are that the abbey had a reputation for license and self-indulgence, but considering the manifold lies propagated by Henry VIII to justify his mass seizure of Church property (and all its riches), one wonders whether the rumors bear any truth.


The triangular wall of St. Leonard's Chapel juts high above the crumbling mass, its windows intact.

As one wanders the desolate grounds, looking on the tumbling masonry and the rocky partitions overgrown with moss, one will perhaps think of the many lives that passed through these walls, that lived, worshipped, and died here; walking through the chapel that is no more, one might imagine the rustic choir stalls where once the nuns knelt to pray matins on bitterly cold mornings, or gathered at dusk to entreat their Lord on the King's behalf. Standing beneath the east window, one might imagine the stone Altar where previously stood some venerable priest to offer the Holy Sacrifice again and again, or the roughly paved floor where knelt the habited sisters to receive the Sacred Host on their tongue. One might consider the place where once rested the golden Tabernacle housing Our Lord, and the presence lamp casting dim shadows on the cold chapel walls, a flame kept burning daily and nightly for centuries--until the King's men arrived on that dreaded day in the year 1539 to tell the Abbess and the sixteen women in her charge that this was their home no longer. Driven out, with meager pensions, to make their own way in the world as laypersons, one might also consider this scene played hundreds of times over all over that venerable isle made sacred by the blood of past martyrs--and once more incarnadined by the blood that would flow at York, Dorchester, and Tyburn. And one might perhaps recall the words of that resolute Jesuit to his monarch and executioner:

Many innocent hands are lifted up to heaven for you daily by those English students, whose posterity shall never die, which beyond seas, gathering virtue and sufficient knowledge for the purpose, are determined never to give you over, but either to win you heaven, or to die upon your pikes. And touching our Society, be it known to you that we have made a league—all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must overreach all the practice of England—cheerfully to carry the cross you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your recovery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be racked with your torments, or consumed with your prisons. The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored!

Returning from our pious reveries, we will recall that here is buried Rosamind Clifford (Fair Rosamund), longtime mistress to King Henry II. She retired to the nunnery shortly before death and was buried here directly (and scandalously) before the altar; a later visiting bishop ordered the "harlot" be moved outside to the grounds.



The Abbey was burnt to the ground in 1645 when the Roundheads laid seige against the city and surrounded Charles I; the Cavaliers had it destroyed to prevent their enemies' shelter here. One naturally sympathizes with the royalists, but it's a shame this ancient edifice was razed, even if at the time it no longer served its holy purpose.



Fastforward some centuries to return to the present, and, walking further along the footpath, we encounter more fields, more fauna, until we see a little bridge crossing the Isis. There, fellow travelers, is the last leg of our brief journey. Traverse the wooden span and one sees across the way the fenced terrace of the Trout Inn, where peacocks wander amidst the legs of dining patrons and the rush of water sounds against the stone embankment. After ordering a pint inside (although the women tend to like the sweet alcoholic cider), one can go back into the sunshine, rest one's weary legs, and await the coming meal.


Cheers!

The Turf

It's difficult to choose my favorites among Oxford's pubs, but The Turf Tavern ranks among them. Tucked away in the very heart of the University, walking down New College Lane, one can miss its entryway if one blinks the eyes. In fact, I stumbled upon it entirely by accident one day while I was exploring the twisting and ancient sidestreets and alleyways between New College and All Souls. If one is fortunate enough to find narrow St. Helen's Passage (formerly Hell Passage!) and peek down the way, one will see the familiar dark green sign with gold lettering welcoming the hungry (and thirsty) to sup.



The easiest way to find St. Helen's Passage is to look for the famous Bridge of Sighs (so named because of its similarity to the eponymously named bridge in Venice) linking the buildings of Hertford College, and which stands as an indeliberate marker for the spot.



Coming out from the brisk cold of an Oxford winter, you'll find a cozy, warmly lit, bustling interior, with low beamed ceilings and all manner of nooks and crannies in which to wedge oneself and one's chums, eating and drinking to each other's health. The beer garden in the back terrace, with its row of umbrella'd wooden benches and braziers, is another place to fill the stomach with fish and chips or bangers and mash while looking on the old city walls. Rumor has it a poor soul in the form of a grey lady wanders the terrace only to disappear into the stone ramparts...

Because it was once the site of illegal gambling, the public house was built just outside the walls to evade the colleges' legal jurisdiction. Having rehabilitated its image after a century or so (with the help of a name change--it was originally called the Spotted Cow, but renamed Turf Tavern to rid it of its unsavory associations), it once again became infamous, thanks to a certain United States president who allegedly "did not inhale" on its premises.



Inspector Morse's favorite pub, the Turf plays regular host to Rhodes Scholars along with other students from both Oxford and Oxford-Brookes (not to mention the odd tourist or two).


The Taps of Turf Tavern, boasting twelve real ales and draught cider

Papa Spy

From the Catholic Herald:

The Tablet editor who was a spy of genius

Papa Spy is an exciting story with a strong Catholic angle, enjoyably complex because it is set in the world of wartime espionage. Its subject, Tom Burns, was a publisher in the Thirties who signed up early works by Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, but who made his own mark in the cauldron of Anglo-Spanish relations during the early years of the Franco regime. He later became editor of the Catholic weekly the Tablet until his retirement.

This unofficial biography is by way of a salute by his son Jimmy Burns, a former Financial Times writer, who as a youngster discovered a German pistol and miniature spy camera in his father's London study - a discovery which ignited a fascination with his secretive double life as a diplomat in the operations of both British Catholicism and the British Secret Service in the crenellated buildings and alliances of Madrid during the Second World War.

He shouldered a difficult assignment because Papa, very much a professional operator, left very few clues, taking most of his secrets to the grave. Indeed, the author has had a long five-year trail to follow, interviewing survivors of the period and digging deep into government and university archives in Britain, Spain and America.

The rest is here.

Support the Biggerstaffian Initiative

From what I understand, "Know Popery" is still being offered by the good father in Lewes...

A Tale of Two Wheels

Shortly before we left Dijon to return to the United States, I noticed the city installing here and there bicycle racks, which were soon filled row on row with shiny new expensive vélos. It was the new Vélib' system, first implemented in Paris: the government provides the bikes, you rent them for a small fee, ride around anywhere you like for as long as you like, then park them back at any Vélib' station in town. The point, one presumes, is to reduce carbon emissions (and perhaps promote physical fitness on the side). But for all the government's good intentions, things don't seem to be working out so well.

Jared Taylor gives the details:

Alas, the people who set up what’s known as the Vélib’ system forgot that Paris is not all yuppies and tourists. Certain Parisians, for example, burn cars for sport. July 14th, Bastille Day, is a favorite day for it, and this year, despite stepped-up patrols and 240 arrests, immigrant “youths” reduced 317 cars to cinders—a new record. New Year’s Eve is another time for burnt offerings, and the national total in January was 1,147—a few percent off the all-time record but still up by eight percent.

With even just a few of these “youth” about, you can be sure that sturdy, $3,500 bicycles that you can rent with the swipe of a stolen credit card are not always going to come back. About 40 percent of the initial fleet of 20,600 bikes have been stolen and another 40 percent have been burned or busted beyond repair. Bikes are showing up in Eastern Europe and even back home in North Africa, and the company that operates Vélib’ has to fix 1,500 smashed up bikes every day.

No one even pretends not to know who is doing the smashing. Bruno Marzloff, reported to be a sociologist of transportation, concedes that most of the thieves and vandals are angry African immigrants. “It is an outcry, a form of rebellion; this violence is not gratuitous,” he says. It’s no doubt all in the spirit of that favorite graffito of the immigrant suburbs, Nique la France (F*** France).

Restive youths engaging in a wholesome and productive pastime

If my calculations are correct, 40% would work out to a little under $29 million. Zut alors! The French are surely pleased to know their tax dollars are funding the vandalism of these hooligans.

Venice of the Savoie

Annecy jail

Annecy, perhaps the most ancient settlement in the Northern Alps, and known as the Venice of Savoie, is bidding to hold the 2018 Winter Olympics. If it wins its bid, it will be the fourth French city to do so, following Chamonix (1924), Grenoble (1968), and Albertville (1992). Annecy is also home to the relics of St. François de Sales and Ste Jeanne de Chantal.


Lac d'Annecy




Chateau d'Annecy, home to the counts of Geneva in the 13th century


Annecy at night, with the 16th-century Dominican Église St. Maurice and its tower rising in the midst

In our tome, we report in some detail on the once-legendary Clubland guerrilla war between on-again, off-again friends Evelyn Waugh and Randolph Churchill. In order to avoid running into Churchill at White’s, Waugh frequently went to the St. James’ Club instead (which later merged with Brooks’s). Waugh wrote: “I have taken refuge here from White’s which has become uninhabitable since the budget — all the men who to my certain knowledge have not £100 in the world yelling themselves hoarse (and I think sincerely believing) that they are ruined and the dozen or so really rich men smoking quietly in corners having made themselves registered companies in Costa Rica years ago”.

The rest here.

When once Churchill asked Waugh what he thought of his father's biography of Marlborough, Waugh responded, "As history, it is beneath contempt, the special pleading of a defense lawyer. As literature it is worthless. It is written in a sham Augustan prose which could only have been achieved by a man who thought always in terms of public speech, and the antitheses clang like hammers in an arsenal."

Randolph retorted, "Have you ever noticed that it is always the people who are most religious who are most mean and cruel?"

To which Waugh responded, with some vigor, "But my dear Randolph, you have no idea what I should be like if I wasn’t."

And on a more familiar personage this side of the pond, Waugh's private correspondence to friend Tom Driburg on William F. Buckley's importunings to guest-column at the nascent National Review reveals his general attitude towards Americans:

Can you tell me: did you in your researches come across the name Wm F. Buckley, Jr., editor of a New York, neo-McCarthy magazine named National Review? He has been showing me great and unsought attention lately and your article made me curious. Has he been supernaturally "guided" to bore me? It would explain him.

On further solicitations from Mr. Buckley, Waugh responded, "Until you get much richer (which I hope will be soon) or I get much poorer (which I fear may be sooner) I am unable to accept." Apparently, Buckley got richer (or Waugh got poorer), and he eventually capitulated.

Another piece of Waugh-related trivia: If WF Buckley idolized Waugh, then Waugh (as so many other prominent British Catholic intellectuals of the time) idolized Hilaire Belloc.

Incidentally, the rugby team for Oxfordshire--the Oxford Cavaliers--takes its name after the royalist forces that took up arms for Charles I in the English Civil War. The fact that the less civilized side won need not bode ill for the athletic team, which has made a fair showing in the fourteen or so years since its inception...

My Life in France: Memoirs of Julia Child

At 5:45 A.M. November 3, 1948, Julia Child--thirty-six years old and newly married--awoke to see lights twinkling in the early dawn from the shores of Le Havre, France. Disembarking from the SS America, she stepped onto that Gallic soil for the first time, and would be forever changed.

***

The rest of my entry at Patum Peperium is here.

Mozart's Requiem Mass, so well-known to all, remains one of the most powerful and sublime among those ever composed (Fauré's a close second). Most apt music on this Hallow's Eve. My recommendation: as dusk descends and the wind rises and all becomes cold without, light the tealight in your jack-o-lantern, start a crackling hearthfire, and play the work at full volume while meditating on your mortality between sips of hot mulled wine.

Today begins the first of Hallowtide, three days devoted to the dead, and in particular, devoted to meditating on the perils of hell and how to avoid it. Certain souls in more fundamentalist circles like to object that Halloween is a pagan festival--which is, of course, an impossibility, as All Hallow's Eve is as Catholic a holiday as it gets. And the claim that Halloween stems from the Celtic celebration Samhain has about as much relevance as the claim that Christmas stems from the Druids' Yule. Some unfortunate, misled souls, of course, use the first of Hallowtide to practice abominations (thus precipitating themselves headlong into the inferno), while even more greatly misled souls use it as a day to celebrate the catalyst for the greatest religious schism in all of history.

All that nonsense aside, my dear Catholics, use this day to indulge in hearty repasts, imbibe refreshing tonics, and in general, to make merry--and for goodness' sake, don't hand out pencils or scapulars or the like when the children come knocking; give them nice fistfuls of candy while wishing them, in your cheeriest tones, a happy Halloween!

A Mirror of Shalott

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Appropriate to the holiday, I shall be indulging in tales of the supernatural written and compiled by Fr. Robert Hugh Benson. A Mirror of Shalott is, as far as I know, the only work of tales of horror written by a Catholic priest (which will, naturally, ensure they will be especially frightening). If my readers know of others, I'd be interested in hearing about them.

When was the last time you heard of a college consecrating itself to the Sacred Heart?

This past week an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was enthroned in the crowded Chapel of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and the College was consecrated to the Sacred Heart.
...
“It was important that my first year as president begin with this clear display of devotion,” said Dr. William Fahey, President of Thomas More College....It seems natural that our College, which is so focused on the humanities, should have this as a central liturgical moment in its academic year.”

The Mass celebrated was that of the Sacred Heart. Professor John Zmirak noted that the celebration took place on the eve of the 16th—exactly between the current and traditional dates of the Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque—perhaps the greatest proponent of the devotion. “That is consoling and interesting given the emphasis that is now being made by the Holy Father on finding links and points of continuity between the long Catholic tradition and the Church’s recent developments and changes,” said Zmirak.
...
Faculty, staff, and students joined first in praying the ancient “Litany of the Sacred Heart” and then in offering the traditional prayer, pledging to the Sacred Heart to strive in “person…life…actions…pains, and sufferings… to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing what is displeasing to Him.”
...
Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whole states consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart, including Ireland, Poland, Spain, Portugal, and Ecuador. In the United States certain schools and colleges, religious communities, and families would enthrone the Sacred Heart and make the act of consecration.

In 1943, one day in Chicago alone, 125,000 people made the act of consecration. In 1953, the Catholic University of America enthroned the Sacred Heart and consecrated itself to it. A large painting of the Sacred Heart once faced all those who entered the University’s central building, McMahon Hall.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart has nearly disappeared among Catholic academic institutions and the images have largely been moved or taken down.
...
After Mass, the College retired to the dining hall and enjoyed a feast of seafood and wine.

Un Endroit Isolé

Santa Cova

Santa Cova is nestled 4,000 feet up in the Montserrat mountains, the fabled place where the miraculous Black Virgin, carved by St. Luke, was found.

A funicular takes one halfway up to Santa Cova; the rest of the way must be made on foot. Along the path one passes the gorgeously done Stations of the Cross.



Further up the mountain is the Monastery of Montserrat and the Basilica, which houses the Black Virgin and is visited by millions of pilgrims each year.

Superficial Preaching: Catholics Are Tired of It

The Vatican opens its arms to Anglicans – and tightens its grip

Excellent summary by Damian Thompson:

"The faces of many Church of England bishops have turned as purple as their cassocks," said one commentator. They knew nothing about this Apostolic Constitution in advance: the first official notification was a letter from Dr Williams published yesterday, in which he apologised for the short notice but explained that "I was informed of the planned announcement at a very late stage".

This anger is widely shared by Catholic bishops of England and Wales – and not just because they feel that the Anglicans have been insulted by the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI decided not to consult the English Catholic bishops about his dramatic offer. Indeed, the Vatican's own professional ecumenists in the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity were also kept out of the picture until "a very late stage".

But it is precisely the exclusion of liberal Catholic bishops that has delighted traditionalist Anglicans. It helps explain why, yesterday, Forward in Faith, the umbrella group for conservative Anglo-Catholics, welcomed the Pope's decision effusively.
...
At a conservative estimate, about 1,000 of the Church of England's 12,000 serving priests have seriously contemplated conversion to Rome. (Many years ago, before he was ordained, Rowan Williams flirted with the idea himself.) When you ask them why they have not taken the plunge, the most common response is: "The English Catholic bishops are more wishy-washy and liberal than our lot."

If they become "Romans", they have reasoned, they will no longer be able to worship God with the solemnity He deserves. On the south coast of England, in particular, Catholic bishops treat their own traditionalists with snooty disdain, and an influx of ex-Anglicans with similar tastes is the last thing they want.

Which is why Pope Benedict has effectively cut his bishops out of the picture. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he made friends with High Church Anglicans; he is the first Pope in history to understand their concerns. He watched in dismay as liberal Catholics and liberal Anglicans engaged in ecumenical dialogue that led nowhere: the Church of England voted to ordain women priests in 1992, and now seems certain to ordain women bishops, too.

The rest is here.

The Privilege of Being a Man

The Catholic Church makes men . . . Of such she may also someday make soldiers. — Hilaire Belloc

By Mitchell Kalpakgian

...
A man discovers a great cause, feels moved by a noble ideal, falls in love, or desires a great good that appeals to him. St. Benedict acts and founds his illustrious, enduring rule and monastic order that preserved Western civilization; he takes the first step that begins a chain of events that God and nature assist as a small mustard seed grows into a great plant.
...
A second privilege of being a man is a physical and mental strength to accomplish difficult things and to endure heavy crosses that demand patience, perseverance, and endurance. Yes, there are weak, ignoble, and cowardly men, but that is not the true mark of masculinity. Strong men depend on themselves — on their own will power and hard work, on their intelligence and resourcefulness, and on their self-reliance and imagination to manage their affairs or to carry the burdens and responsibilities of others who need their protection.
...
Strong men do not beg for slaves to do their work or whine about doing their duty. They value the privilege to serve women and children and others who depend upon them.
...
Men possess an enormous sense of humor, laugh easily at themselves and at the folly of others, and enjoy teasing and being teased with a light touch.... What great comedians and wits we have in witty men like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson, and G.K. Chesterton! Chaucer is unafraid of ridiculing hypocritical, avaricious and lustful priests. In "The General Prologue" he satirizes the friar: "He knew the taverns well in every town, and cared more for every innkeeper and barmaid than for a leper or a beggar." Shakespeare mocks silly conventions like courtly love and grimly grave characters like Malvolio ("Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"). Dr. Johnson unmasks pretentious language and exaggeration he calls "cant." In response to David Hume and Samuel Foote who boasted they were not afraid of death, Johnson remarked, "it is not true, Sir. Hold a pistol to Foote's breast, or to Hume's breast, and threaten to kill them, and you'll see how they behave." Chesterton makes the famous remark that "Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly."

You can read the rest here.

Oxford Newman Society Has a New Blog

The first Speaker Meeting of term got off to a cracking start with around fifty people packing the Blue Room to hear Fr. Thomas Crean OP speak on the subject of ‘Incoherencies of Atheism’. Fr. Crean is an Oxford alumnus and is well know for his stance against Prof. Dawkin’s celebrated book ‘The God Delusion’. In his talk Fr. Crean identified a number of philosophical inconsistencies in modern atheistic thought. Belief in God, he said, provides us with the answer. Those wishing to find out more should read his book ‘A Catholic Replies to Professor Dawkins’, which is available from Family Publications. Some of Fr. Crean's sermons can be read here.

Among those attending the talk it was good to meet two old friends of the society, Fr. Marcus Holden and Fr. Andrew Pinsent, the co-authors of the Catholic Truth Society’s excellent catechetical project ‘Evangelium’. Fr. Marcus is a Past-President of the Newman Society (the picture from his term as President hangs in the Chaplaincy’s Meeting Room) who is now serving as a curate in the Southwark diocese. Fr. Andrew, another old member of the society, has recently taken up a position as Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Religion and Science at Oxford University.

In other news, HRH the Duchess of Kent has agreed to become patron of the Society. The Duchess was received into the Church in 1994, which attracted national attention as she was the first senior Royal to do so publicly since the Act of Settlement of 1701. In a graceful swipe at the Anglican Church, she said during a BBC interview, "I do love guidelines and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines."

In certain (rather more intimate) social circles, she prefers to go by the moniker, "Poor Mad Kate Kent" (making light of her diagnosis of depression).

Pope Benedict opens door to Anglicans

The new canonical structure will allow former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Church while “preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony,” said Cardinal Levada. Addressing the status of married clergy, the cardinal said that married Anglican clergy would be allowed to be ordained as Catholic priests just as takes place in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Similarly, following the same tradition, those priests will not be allowed to be ordained bishops.

These ‘Personal Ordinariates’ will be formed, “as needed, in consultation with local Conferences of Bishops, and their structure will be similar in some ways to that of the Military Ordinariates which have been established in most countries to provide pastoral care for members of the armed forces and their dependents throughout the world,” the cardinal prefect said.
...
Technical details still need to be worked out, and these Personal Ordinariates may vary in their final form, Archbishop DiNoia said. Full details of the Apostolic Constitution will be released in a few weeks but today’s press conference went ahead because it had been planned sometime ago.

Fr. Jenkins Re-elected

In a resolution issued Friday, the Fellows of the University said Father Jenkins has “combined courageous leadership with the kind of priestly dedication, pastoral concern and inspiration that we have come to expect of a President of Notre Dame.”

Cue the laughter. Fr. Weslin is surely having a good guffaw.

You can add your name to the petition to drop charges against the Notre Dame pro-life protesters here.

"Notre Dame’s treatment of Fr. Weslin is a despicable disgrace, the responsibility for which falls directly and personally upon yourself"

A law professor from my old stomping grounds has strong words for Notre Dame University President Fr. John Jenkins for refusing to drop criminal trespass charges against 88 peaceful pro-life activists who protested Obama's visit earlier this year. Among the trespassers was 79-year-old priest Fr. Norman Weslin, handcuffed and dragged away while singing "Immaculate Mary."



From the letter:

Such treatment of such a priest may be the lowest point in the entire history of Notre Dame. You would profit from knowing Fr. Weslin. Notre Dame should give Fr. Weslin the Laetare Medal rather than throw him in jail. Norman Weslin, born to poor Finnish immigrants in upper Michigan, finished high school at age 17 and joined the Army. He converted from the Lutheran to the Catholic faith and married shortly after earning his commission. He became a paratrooper and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 82nd Airborne Division, obtaining his college degree enroute. After a distinguished career, he retired in 1968. As the legalization of abortion intensified, he and his wife, Mary Lou, became active pro-lifers in Colorado. In 1980, Mary Lou was killed by a drunk driver. Norman personally forgave the young driver. Norman Weslin was later ordained as a Catholic priest, worked with Mother Teresa in New York and devoted himself to the rescue of unborn children through nonviolent, prayerful direct action at abortuaries.
...
Please permit me to speak bluntly about your announced purpose to participate in the March for Life and to “invite other members of the Notre Dame Family to join me.” Notre Dame should have had an official presence at every March for Life since 1973. But until now it never has. ... To put it candidly, it would be a mockery for you to present yourself now at the March, even at the invitation of Notre Dame students, as a pro-life advocate while, in practical effect, you continue to be the jailer, as common criminals, of those persons who were authentic pro-life witnesses at Notre Dame. When the pictures of Fr. Weslin’s humiliation and arrest by your campus police was flashed around the world it did an incalculable damage to Notre Dame that can be partially undone only by your public and insistent request, as President of Notre Dame, that the charges be dropped.
...
If you appear at the March as the continuing criminalizer of those pro-life witnesses, you predictably will earn not approbation but scorn—a scorn which will surely be directed toward Notre Dame as well.
...
In conclusion, this letter is not written in a spirit of contention. It is written rather in the mutual concern we share for Notre Dame—and for her university. I hope you will reconsider your positions on these matters. Our family prays for you by name every night. And we wish you success in the performance of your obligations to the University and all concerned.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Rice
Professor Emeritus
Notre Dame Law School

The full letter is here.

Musical Birds

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Thomas More College: A Well-Rounded Catholic Education

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is a small Catholic college tucked away in the woods of Merrimack, New Hampshire. Not only does it provide an education faithful to the Magisterium, it is affordable, and situated in a lovely area of New England.

I should also add that it provides an Oxford program via the Oxford Center for Faith and Culture, directed by Stratford Caldecott, who has written beautifully on reawakening the imagination in higher education (and who also happens to manage G.K. Chesterton's private library).

The following press release was sent to me by Charlie McKinney:



MERRIMACK – With one of the largest incoming classes in its history, Thomas More College’s faculty and incoming freshmen spent two days hiking New Hampshire’s White Mountains and discussing the essential role a liberal arts education will play throughout their lives.



After a blessing by the College’s chaplain, Fr. William Ventura, the new students climbed the Mt. Willard trail to have lunch on the ledge overlooking Crawford Notch and the Willey Slide—the bare land on Mt. Willey marking the spot of the deadly avalanche recounted by Nathanial Hawthorne in his short story “The Ambitious Guest,” which the students read as their first homework assignment at the College.



After descending Mt. Willard, the group crossed the rugged Jefferson Notch Road, where deserters of Roger’s Rangers, fleeing with loot from their raid against the Indian settlement of St. Francis, lost their way and were destroyed by the elements and the retaliating Indians. Amongst the treasures lost was the “Silver Virgin,” a statue beloved by the Abenaki Indians, based on an image of Our Lord and Lady from the cathedral of Chartes in France.



Upon arriving at their “base camp,” the Horton Center on Pine Mountain, students enjoyed a dinner of hamburgers and hotdogs grilled over the campfire and a fireside chat on the virtues necessary for the academic life rounded out the day. Morning prayer and evening Mass were offered on the heights looking out toward Mount Washington, providing the liturgical frame of each day.



Dawn on Day Two revealed Mt. Madison standing out amidst a cloudless sky and inviting the students and faculty to take to the heights. The students chose expeditions according to their level of athleticism, with some trekking into Mt. Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine to relax by the shore of tiny Hermit Lake, while others joined the Fahey in the assault of the Boott Spur, one of the high ridges of Mt. Washington. A final group tackled Mt. Adams, the 2nd highest peak in the White Mountains, ascending the celebrated trail known as the “Chemin-des-Dames”—named it seems in homage to the site of several battles during World War I that left many women bereft of husbands.



After a pasta dinner, the students were treated to another campfire chat, as Dr. Fahey expounded the medieval notion of a “Collegium,” as both a society of those who read together and of those bound together in the common pursuit of truth. Well exercised in body and in mind, and with friendships fast forming, the new Thomas More College students returned to campus full of enthusiasm for their first year of studies.



The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is a four-year college that provides the rising generation with an education that forms them intellectually and spiritually within the Catholic intellectual tradition and with full fidelity to the Magisterium. Additionally, the College has launched entrepreneurial new centers that seek to advance the teachings of the Catholic Church beyond the confines of its campus. These centers include the Vatican Studies Center , the Center for New England Politics and Culture, and the Center for Faith and Culture in Oxford , England.

Sainte Baume

Grotto of St. Mary Magdalene and the Dominican Abbey chiseled into the rock-face, with the chapel of St. Pilon at the top

Tradition has it that, after the death of Our Lord, St. Mary Magdalene traveled to Provence, France, and there spent the last thirty years of her life as a solitary in a mountain cave on the plain of the Plan D'Aups, overlooking the Massif de la Sainte-Baume. Thousands of pigrims have come to this holy site over the centuries, including eight popes and eighteen kings.


Massif de la Sainte Baume


The Chemin des Roys: an hour-long journey up this "path of kings" ends at the Grotto. Eighteen kings made pilgrimages to the Holy Grotto via this path, some in penance on their knees.


Procession of Dominicans on the Chemin des Roys


The otherworldly Forêt Domaniale de la Sainte Baume, with its centuries-old yews and wild appletrees, beeches, elms, and maples

From Adventure Guide to Provence and the Cote D'azur:

The forest itself is extremely ancient, filled with the kind of moisture-dependent flora and fauna that is relatively rare in Provence. It harbors very old trees--some yew trees are nearly a thousand years old. The forest has been protected since the early Middle Ages, through papal bulls and royal decrees. In modern times, it came under the protection of the French National Forestry Office (ONF) and remains an environmentally protected site.

Stairway to the Grotto




Sainte Baume from without


Interior of the Grotto


Another view of the interior


Ste Marie-Madeleine, priez pour nous!

For information on pilgrimages to the grotto, visit the website of L'Hôtellerie de la Sainte-Baume.

"This is indeed a miracle baby and I have seen nothing like it in my 27 years of practice."

A few years old, but no less worthy a read:

Parents' ‘Last Good Bye’ Saved Their Baby’s Life

Sometimes a preemie doesn’t need to be hooked up to 10 different machines to be given the chance to survive.
When Carolyn Isbister put her 20oz baby on her chest for a cuddle, she thought that it would be the only chance she would ever have to hold her. Doctors had told the parents that baby Rachel only had only minutes to live because her heart was beating once every ten seconds and she was not breathing.

Mrs. Isbister remembers saying:

“I didn’t want her to die being cold. So I lifted her out of her blanket and put her against my skin to warm her up. Her feet were so cold.

“It was the only cuddle I was going to have with her, so I wanted to remember the moment.” Then something remarkable happened. The warmth of her mother’s skin kick started Rachael’s heart into beating properly, which allowed her to take little breaths of her own."

You can read the rest here.

(via Fr. Mercer)

PLUIE DE ROSES

St. Thérèse of Lisieux was named by Pope Pius XII secondary patron of all of France, after Mary. Though we're all familiar with her Story of a Soul, which some unfortunately interpret as revealing a saccharinely sweet, tender, and weak saint, we are less familiar with the fiery aspect of her soul, the one that longed to "die in a battlefield, arms in hand.” St. Joan of Arc as her model, St. Thérèse had a burning desire to literally go to war for Christ:

Oh no, I would not fear going to war. With what joy, for example, at the time of the Crusades, I would have gone to combat heretics. Yes! I would not have been afraid to be shot; I would not have feared the fire!

And later,

When I think I’m dying in bed! I would want to die in an arena!

Those who knew her testified, "Under a suave and gracious aspect [she] revealed at every instant, in her actions, a strong character and a manly soul." Pope Pius XI even called her “a manly soul, a great man.” This iron resolve was channeled into conquering sin and striving with her utmost toward sanctity, offering herself as a victim soul to suffer and atone for others' sins.

Her wish to do battle, however, was fulfilled, but only after her martyrdom. She prophetically dreamed once:

I went to sleep for a few moments during prayer. I dreamt there were not enough soldiers for a war against the Prussians. You [Mother Agnes] said: We need to send Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. I answered that I agreed, but that I would prefer to fight at a holy war. But finally I went all the same.

Well known to the French, there were numerous reported apparitions of St. Thérèse on the French battlefield during WWI. All of them were recorded in the little book PLUIE DE ROSES: Interventions de Sr Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus pendant la guerre in 1920, before her canonization. As far as I know, there is no English translation, but for those who can read French, the accounts are online and prove fascinating and inspiring reading.

In 1914, when the First World War breaks out, Saint Thérèse appears some forty times in various battlefields, at times holding a cross in her hand, at times a saber! The soldiers see her; she speaks to them matter-of-factly, resolves their doubts, overcomes their temptations and calms their fears. She protects, consoles and converts them.

French soldiers would invoke her as “my little sister of the trenches,” “my war patroness,” “the shield of soldiers,” “the angel of battles” and “my dear little Captain.” A soldier wrote, “In fact, that gentle Saint will be the great heroine of this war.” Another commented, “I think of her when the cannon thunders with great roar.”

Countless were the artillery pieces and planes named after Sister Thérèse; whole regiments were consecrated to her. Countless relics of the saint that miraculously stopped rifle bullets like real shields, saving the lives of the soldiers who carried them, are in her convent of Lisieux, a testimony to the great prodigies of the one who, in fact, “died with arms in her hand.”

Novena to St. Thérèse

La Messe dans la forme extraordinaire à Lisieux

For those making a pilgrimage to St. Thérèse's hometown, Mass in the extraordinary form will be offered in the adoration chapel in the crypt of the Basilica Sunday, August 30, 2009, at 9 a.m.

*******

La Messe sera célébrée dans la forme extraordinaire du rite romain, le dimanche 30 août à 9h, à la Chapelle de l'Adoration dans la Crypte de la Basilique de Lisieux.

Merci de vous associer très nombreux par vos prières ou votre présence à cette célébration.

A Saint's Mother

Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile in 1223, Miniature from Les Grandes Chroniques de France


Today is the feast day of King St. Louis IX of France, who embodied all that a king ought to be: he ruled with justice, integrity, generosity, and holiness. He and Queen Margaret of Provence bore eleven children, their line reigning over France until the French Revolution put an end to it. (As the guillotine fell onto the neck of King Louis XVI, Abbé Edgeworth, his confessor, cried, Le fils de St-Louis, montez au paradis!)

It was St. Louis' mother who left the deepest impression on his faith. She told him often as a child, Je t'aime, mon cher fils, autant qu'une mère peut aimer son enfant; mais j'aime mieux que tu soit mort à mes pieds que tu commettes un péché mortel. ("I love you my dear son, as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should commit a mortal sin.")

Many years later, St. Louis would write in a letter to his eldest son, Phillip III, "You should, with all your strength, shun everything which you believe to be displeasing to Him. And you ought especially to be resolved not to commit mortal sin, no matter what may happen and should permit all your limbs to be hewn off, and suffer every manner of torment , rather than fall knowingly into mortal sin."

Quel saint! Quelle mère!

Obama's Friends

In spite of the left's best efforts to defend Science Czar John Holdren from attack, his writings are simply indefensible. Read them for yourself (all quotations are taken from the book he co-authored with overpopulation terrormonger Paul Erlich, Ecoscience):

Why should the law not be able to prevent a person from having more than two children?" -p. 838

"Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." -p. 837

"One way to carry out this disapproval might be to insist that all illegitimate babies be put up for adoption—especially those born to minors, who generally are not capable of caring properly for a child alone." -p. 786

"The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births." -p. 787

"Perhaps those agencies, combined with UNEP and the United Nations population agencies, might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime—sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment.... The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits." -p. 942-3

Lest readers complain these passages are taken out of context, you may read the entire pages quoted at this website; you will find that there is no context to change the meaning of the above passages, and that they mean exactly what they appear to mean.

Pope Pius XII's Meditations on the Large Family

"[A]s long as there is no sincere determination to let the Creator carry on His work as He chooses, then human selfishness will always find new sophistries and excuses to still the voice of conscience (to the extent it can), and to carry on abuses.
...
[O]verpopulation is not a valid reason for spreading illicit birth control practices. It is simply a pretext used by those who would justify avarice and selfishness — by those nations, for instance, who fear that the expansion of others will pose a danger to their own political position and cause a lowering of the general standard of living, or by individuals, especially those who are better off, who prefer the greatest possible enjoyment of earthly goods to the praise and merit of bringing new lives into existence. The final result is that they break the fixed and certain laws of the Creator under the pretext of correcting supposed errors on the part of His Providence.
...
As for you, parents and children of large families, keep on giving a serene and firm testimony of your trust in divine Providence, and be assured that He will not fail to repay you with the testimony of His daily help and, whenever necessary, with those extraordinary helps that many of you have been happy to experience already.
...
The joy that comes from the plentiful blessings of God breaks out in a thousand different ways and there is no fear that it will end. The brows of these fathers and mothers may be burdened with cares, but there is never a trace of that inner shadow that betrays anxiety of conscience or fear of an irreparable return to loneliness, Their youth never seems to fade away, as long as the sweet fragrance of a crib remains in the home, as long as the walls of the house echo to the silvery voices of children and grandchildren.

Their heavy labors multiplied many times over, their redoubled sacrifices and their renunciation of costly amusements are generously rewarded even here below by the inexhaustible treasury of affection and tender hopes that dwell in their hearts without ever tiring them or bothering them.
...
With good reason, it has often been pointed out that large families have been in the forefront as the cradles of saints. We might cite, among others, the family of St. Louis, the King of France, made up of ten children, that of St. Catherine of Siena who came from a family of twenty-five, St. Robert Bellarmine from a family of twelve, and St. Pius X from a family of ten.

Every vocation is a secret of Providence; but these cases prove that a large number of children does not prevent parents from giving them an outstanding and perfect upbringing; and they show that the number does not work out to the disadvantage of their quality, with regard to either physical or spiritual values."

--Pope Pius XII, The Large Family.

Effective Writing

It is a good exercise to try for once in a way to express any opinion one holds in words of one syllable. If you say "The social utility of the indeterminate sentence is recognized by all criminologists as a part of our sociological evolution towards a more humane and scientific view of punishment," you can go on talking like that for hours with hardly a movement of the gray matter inside your skull. But if you begin "I wish Jones to go to gaol and Brown to say when Jones shall come out," you will discover, with a thrill of horror, that you are obliged to think. The long words are not the hard words, it is the short words that are hard. There is much more metaphysical subtlety in the word "damn" than in the word "degeneration."
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, VIII

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
William Strunk, The Elements of Style, III.13

Prefer the short word to the long.
Henry Fowler, The King's English, Ch. I

If ever you start feeling sorry for yourself...

If ever you start feeling sorry for yourself for hardships you're enduring, think of Mary Queen of Scots, and count your blessings. Here was a woman who:

was widowed by the age of nineteen;

inherited a throne of a people who did not want her because she was "foreign" and Catholic;

married a man who plotted to overthrow and imprison her while she was pregnant with his child;

was forced to marry her third husband, after her second husband's untimely death, because he had allegedly taken her by force;

was betrayed by her closest advisors in an uprising, and deposed;

when seeking refuge in England under her cousin Queen Elizabeth, was imprisoned unjustly instead;

languished in prison for nineteen years, much of that time suffering from gastric disorders that occasioned bouts of vomiting and fever, only to be told by her jailers she was faking it;

was betrayed by her only son (raised a Puritan in Scotland) when he secured an alliance with Queen Elizabeth;

was lured into the Babington plot by the machinations of Walsingham, and beheaded for it;

and whose last wishes, including a Catholic burial, were never honored by Queen Elizabeth.

When they arrested her shortly before her execution, Mary cried, "I desire neither goods, honours, power nor worldly sovereignty, but only the honor of His Holy Name and His Glory and the liberty of His Church and of the Christian people." Queen Mary died with the courage of a martyr, and Pope Benedict XIV noted that nothing stood in the way of declaring her a martyr for the faith except for lingering historical doubts about her second husband Darnley's death. Mary's confessor, however, proclaimed her absolute innocence in the matter.

Maria Regina Scotorum, ora pro nobis.

Section 1233 Written by Proponents of Assisted Suicide

Update: Section 1233 has been dropped.
*******
Jill Stanek has a full report.

Compassion & Choices has worked tirelessly with supportive members of congress to include in proposed reform legislation a provision requiring Medicare to cover patient consultation with their doctors about end-of-life choice (section 1233 of House Bill 3200).

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer wrote of section 1233, "Actually, I know a little bit about this section because it's a bill that I wrote which was incorporated into the overall legislation." Blumenauer wrote an amicus brief in favor of assisted suicide in the major Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006). Of the amicus brief, he writes, "The amicus brief I have filed with other members of the delegation supports the Court's decision to uphold Oregon's Death with Dignity law."

Our Lady of Guadalupe ‘completely beyond' scientific explanation

From Catholic News Agency:

Researcher and physicist Dr. Aldofo Orozco told participants at the International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe that there is no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation.

Dr. Orozco began his talk by confirming that the conservation of the Tilma, the cloak of St. Juan Diego on which Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared 478 years ago, “is completely beyond any scientific explanation.”

“All the cloths similar to the Tilma that have been placed in the salty and humid environment around the Basilica have lasted no more than ten years,” he explained. One painting of the miraculous image, created in 1789, was on display in a church near the basilica where the Tilma was placed. “This painting was made with the best techniques of its time, the copy was beautiful and made with a fabric very similar to that of the Tilma. Also, the image was protected with a glass since it was first placed there.”

However, eight years later, the copy of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was thrown away because the colors were fading and threads were breaking. In contrast, Orozco said, “the original Tilma was exposed for approximately 116 years without any kind of protection, receiving all the infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the tens of thousands of candles near it and exposed to the humid and salty air around the temple.”

Much more here.

(via Fr. Mercer)

August 6, 1945

Nagasaki followed three days later. One witness remembers:

[T]he bomb instead of hitting at the heart of Japanese religion, struck the Catholic district of Nagasaki, the most numerous and important center for the Church in the Far East. The Catholic community then had more than 12,000 faithful. Almost all perished. The epicenter of the explosion was the cathedral which, among other things, at that time was crowded with the faithful in the queue in front of the confessional to prepare for the Feast of the Assumption.
...
When [Professor Nagai, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Nagasaki] was able to return [to the church] he found only ashes and bones. As an expert radiologist he had no difficulty in identifying the remains of his wife, Midori. Among the bones of the hand shone something: it was a circle of the rosary and a crucifix. He placed everything into a bucket and sad but not depressed, he made his way towards the graveyard. In the jingle of the rosary and crucifix he seemed to hear the voice of his bride giving him hope.

Remains of the Virgin Mary of Nagasaki, bombed in Urakami Cathedral

A small chapel has been completed to enshrine a part of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary that was destroyed in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, to stand as a symbol for peace on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing.
...
In the cathedral, two priests hearing confessions and some 30 parishioners were killed by the atomic bomb, which exploded at 11:02 a.m.
...
Fragments of the head of the statue, whose face was badly burned on the right side, were found by Kaemon Noguchi, a monk at the Trappist Monastery in Hakodate, Hokkaido, while he was searching through the rubble during a visit to Nagasaki after World War II.

Noguchi took the head back to his monastery as a memento, but after learning that the church was looking for relics that survived the atomic bombing, he returned it to Nagasaki in 1975.

Feast of St. John Marie Vianney

A little trip down memory lane...

Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education, by Stratford Caldecott

In this age of technological advance and overinformation, of the steady proliferation of college degrees (for the qualified and the unqualified alike), higher education has lost something, a certain quality difficult to pinpoint. Stratford Caldecott, in his book Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education, illuminates on this score:

[S]tudents come to a college education expecting nothing more than a set of paper qualifications that will enable them to earn a decent salary. The idea that they might be there to grow as human beings, to be inducted into an ancient culture, to become somehow more than they are already, is alien to them. They expect instant answers, but they have no deep questions. The great questions have not yet been woken in them. The process of education requires us to become open, receptive, curious, and humble in the face of what we do not know. The world is a fabric woven of mysteries, and a mystery is a provocation to our humanity that cannot be dissolved by googling a few more bits of information.

That is precisely the way the modern student approaches his college education—arriving to class, he expects to acquire “a few more bits of information” to add to the storehouse of data he has already gleaned along the way toward the coveted degree, the profession, the salary. And the modern professor obliges. Instead of teaching the arts and sciences as a meaningful whole, the modern mindset splinters them into separate categories made to appear in opposition to each other, so that the yearning for the divine awakened by study of the humanities—of music, philosophy, and the arts—is quashed under the thumb of the scientific hand. This is not as it should be.

Caldecott’s book is, as he confesses, a manifesto of sorts, a guide to rescuing the liberal arts from the deadening grip of postmodernism (essentially heir to the old nominalism of Roscelin and Ockham), which would rather fracture and divide than unify. Recalling the Trivium and Quadrivium of the ancients, he proposes these as inspiration. He also suggests awakening the poetic imagination with regard to science and mathematics, those two subjects of inquiry most often made (by modern man) the enemy of the divine.

But even more than this he offers a more certain way of taking back education from its postmodern captors: the liturgy.

The truly authentic man is the man united to God through prayer and worship. This union extends to his fellow man in one communion of prayer.

Catholic liturgy takes us even deeper than that. It takes us to the source of the cosmos itself, into the sacred precincts of the Holy Trinity where all things begin and end (whether they know it or not), and to the source of all artistic and scientific inspiration, of all culture…. [C]reation, through its very being, gives a kind of liturgical praise to God.

Encountering this one Source, then—and awakening the desire in students to do the same by reminding them of the divine source of all knowledge—is the key to taking back the liberal arts from their captors, and to the re-enchantment of education.

Caldecott’s book may be purchased here.

How the Rosary Stopped a Rampage

Domenico Bettinelli recounts his memories of the late Monsignor Kerr:

Kevin told us the story Msgr. Kerr told him about that awful night in Gainesville Tallahassee, Florida, in 1978. He said Kerr got the call from the police in the middle of the night to rush out to the sorority house. When he arrived he was told that all but one of the girls in the house were dead or near death, killed by a serial killer who was later to be known to the world as Ted Bundy. After giving those last rites to the dying college girl, then-Fr. Kerr was asked by the police on the scene to talk to the girl who survived unscathed. They wanted to know how she survived the brutal attacks, because Bundy had stopped right inside the door to her room, dropped his weapon, and left without touching her. But the girl would talk to no one but a priest.

When Fr. Kerr approached the near-catatonic girl, she told him that her mother had made her promise before going off to college for the first time that she would pray the Rosary every night before bed for protection; even if she fell asleep praying the Rosary, which she had that night so that when Bundy came into her room with murder on his mind, the beads were still clutched in her hands.

Later, Bundy would tell Monsignor that when he entered the girl’s room, he just couldn’t go on, he dropped his weapon, and he fled. Such is the power of our Mother’s protective mantle.

Vietnamese Catholics Heavily Fined under Revived Communist Two-Child Policy

LifeSiteNews.com reports:

The communist government of Viet Nam is punishing couples with more than two children, a local Catholic news agency reports. Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province told the Union of Catholic Asian News they are being fined for having more than two children under a revived government two-child policy.

Catherine Pham Thi Thanh, 44, told the service that since 1996, she has been fined a total of 3,800 kilograms of rice for having six children. This represents a significant loss for the family which makes an annual profit of only 700 kilograms of rice from their 1,000 square-meter farm.

Despite the fact that Viet Nam now has a below-replacement rate of fertility - 1.83 children born per woman - the communist government in the early 1960s imposed a 2-child limit for couples. The UN's leading population control group, the UNFPA, has been active in contraception and abortion campaigns in the country since 1997.

In 2000, the BBC lauded the policy for having reduced the overall fertility rate from 3.8 children per woman to 2.3, but admitted that a "degree of coercion" was used to ensure compliance. This included fines, expulsion from the communist party and confiscation of land. The original policy was scrapped in 2003 but revived in 2008 after a 10 percent spike in the birth rate alarmed officials who never stopped "encouraging" couples to have only small families.

But even the UNFPA was reportedly "puzzled" by the revival. "In Vietnam now life expectancy is rising, the fertility rate is decreasing and in the next 20 years many people will be in the senior group," said Tran Thi Van, of UNFPA. "If there's not a sufficient labor force as the population is ageing, the country will face a lot of problems."

Viet Nam is following China and India on the path of demographic imbalance. The combination of ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the child plus abortion to favor boys, has forced the male to female ratio of the population to climb to 112-100 in 2007.

The Union of Catholic Asian News spoke to the local parish priest, Fr Joseph Nguyen Van Chanh, who confirmed that 90 percent of his 1,200 parishioners have agreed to pay fines as a way to be faithful to Church teaching and said that Catholics are taught natural family planning methods during marriage preparation courses.

Some local Catholics, said Father Chanh, are asking for donations from benefactors to support local people with large families.