Denver Newsroom, Sep 22, 2020 / 03:01 am (CNA).- When Thomas Earnest Bradley wrote and edited The Lamp, a 19th century British Catholic periodical, he did so largely from his cell in debtors’ prison, “that horrible institution that existed in those days.”
Bradley sold his magazine for a penny, a fifth of the price of his competitors, and his definition of Catholic was broad.
“It ran articles on themes that were not always, in a narrow or straightforward sense, Catholic topics,” Matthew Walther told CNA.
“They would run a story about some new scientific innovation or about a book or a play, that was not by a Catholic or didn’t have in any ostensible way a Catholic theme.”
That version of The Lamp has been defunct for years. But it was, in part, the inspiration for a new Catholic magazine by the same name, with the same logo.
Walther, a journalist, and his friend William Borman (friends call him Billy), founded The Lamp magazine in the United States this past year with similar goals in mind: “a magazine that was sort of witty and urbane, in a way that was not shrill or grating to read, that tried to speak to the full range of what the Church teaches,” Walther said.
“We’re operating under the assumption that anything that is good, true and beautiful falls within the purview of what should be in a good Catholic magazine,” he said.
Borman added that it is not a carbon-copy of the original Lamp magazine, which was “basically a working class daily magazine,” with a penchant for “scientific articles, almost like a Popular Science.”
But the use of similar aesthetics, along with an equally-broad idea of what kinds of topics qualify as Catholic, gives the magazine “a throwback flavor. A little picture of the oil lamp burning on the cover is the same picture (as the original), with a slight modern twist,” Borman said.
Some Catholics may protest that such a truly Catholic magazine already exists. There are, after all, several periodicals in the United States that label themselves as Catholic magazines.
But Walther and Borman would argue that it does not already exist. Not in the way they envision.
“(T)here really is no such thing, in an otherwise pretty wide and diverse landscape of Catholic media in the English-speaking world, something that is actually a magazine as opposed to a website or a newswire or what have you that is orthodox, without naming any names,” Walther said.
That’s what The Lamp hopes to be. A magazine faithful to the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church that covers all manner of things from a Catholic point of view. It will cover politics – though only broader political ideas, and not so much the “shrill horse-race” of particular elections. It will cover goings-on in the Church, but not in the way of “Can you believe this bishop did this? Oh my goodness,” Walther said. No pope-bashing, and no ultramontanism either.
So what kinds of stories is the new Lamp magazine interested in?
“We wanted something that would also tell people interesting (we hope), and at times encouraging or moving stories about parts of Catholic life that are ordinary, but also, not talked about very much. Things like the history of rural parish churches, or the lives of someone like the man in the first issue who served several decades of an unjust prison sentence.”
The latter is told in the first issue of The Lamp, in which author Brandon McGinley tells the story of Jeff Cristina, who served a 40 year sentence for a wrongful conviction of murder as a juvenile. Cristina, nominally Catholic when his sentence began, returned to the sacraments and brought many others with him during his years behind bars.
“The story had been on my desk for a while and I didn’t have a home for it,” McGinley told CNA. But when Walther and Borman, friends of McGinley’s, started The Lamp, “they were really kind to offer it a home.”
McGinley is a Catholic speaker, and author of The Prodigal Church as well as a contributing editor to Plough Quarterly. Like the founders of The Lamp, McGinley believes that the magazine is filling a previously empty niche in Catholic media – a niche for longform journalism that is “broad both in the kind of content, the topics that they cover, and in terms of the specific points of view that they’re bringing in (while) still being faithfully and integrally and genuinely Catholic.”
“And it’s fun,” McGinley added. “In the opening section, the ‘feuilleton’ (a French word for the opening section of a magazine with short, light literature), Matthew is just hilarious. They have fun with this, it’s not joyless.” As an example, one of the sample articles on The Lamp’s website is “The Bull Against Open Letters” (or, The Open Letter Against Open Letters), which the author declares are the “most revolting, foul, noxious, poisonous, blasphemous, vicious, wicked, deceitful, covinous, Brummagem, catch-penny Pamphlets…offensive to to men, women, holy priests, deacons, sub-deacons, porters, lectors, exorcists, acolytes, virgins, wives, sons, daughters, suckling babes, lawyers, practitioners after physick, and others, we hereby declare anathema these selfsame base cullions, rascals, apes, dogs, shoes, &c. who have addressed themselves to the baptized under the supposed appellation of ‘Open Letters.’”
The aforementioned letter, as well as a handful of other sample articles, appear on The Lamp’s website – but not much else does, as the publication is primarily a print magazine, a decision Borman and Walther are well aware was a risky one in a digital age.
“We’d heard (that print was dead), but we are both unfortunately terrible book collectors,” Borman said. “And so we’re maybe just in the habit of thinking that print is superior to online or to digital.”
“That costs money, but we found people have been plenty willing to pay it,” Borman said. They’ve thus far had successful fundraisers – some online, due to the pandemic – and have attracted readers, primarily between the ages of 25-45, from all over the world, from “New York and Washington to London, Australia, and India.”
The first issue of the bi-monthly magazine came out in Easter, at the height of the global coronavirus lockdowns, an unforeseen challenge when the idea for The Lamp was conceived, Borman said. It delayed their first issue and caused some shipping snafus, but otherwise did not have too big of an impact.
Besides having an affinity for physical copies, a print magazine also helps further the goals of The Lamp, Walther said – it’s a beautiful object people can hold in their hands that prompts them to slow down and enjoy what they’re reading, something that they’d want to save and display on their coffee table or bookshelf. Borrowing a phrase from Cardinal Robert Sarah, Walther said a print magazine helps elevate The Lamp above the “culture of noise.”
“The great upside in online journalism is that now people, no matter where they are, if they have access to an internet connection, they can read as much as they want from as many different voices or perspectives as possible, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Walther said.
“And the downside of online journalism is all of those things, because it becomes this cycle in which you get caught up in and you can lose sight of more important things when you’re immersed in not even day-to-day, but hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute-cycle in journalism,” he said.
“We wanted to create something that will allow people to step away from the computer for an hour or two, put their feet up, and have a drink and immerse themselves in something very different, something slower, and, we hope, maybe a little bit more thoughtful, and less animated by the kinds of concerns that prevail in the online media infrastructure,” he said.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Evening plans now that issue #2 arrived <a href=”https://twitter.com/thelampmagazine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@thelampmagazine</a> <a href=”https://t.co/jMVvSYhPHU”>pic.twitter.com/jMVvSYhPHU</a></p>— Cullen (@CullenETB) <a href=”https://twitter.com/CullenETB/status/1298055746907774976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The desire to rise above divisiveness is key to The Lamp’s identity, Borman added.
“I think that people today more than ever are growing tired with the constant outrage and the relentless attention to partisan (politics) sometimes at the expense of the faith,” he said.
“We are attempting to be a kind of an anomaly in an age of a barrage of constant information – where we publish six times a year and we print very few illustrations in here,” he said.
“I think that people are really hungry for it, and the response we’ve gotten has confirmed this for us. They’re hungry for an approach to life in the light of the faith that takes its reader seriously and gives them serious ideas to think about.”
McGinley agreed that The Lamp is “breaking the mold” of the deeply-entrenched partisan rhetoric that can be found on social media today.
“It’s not on a team, that’s the first thing I think about it,” McGinley said.
“The content you’re going to find in this magazine, in this journal, is not going to be easily identifiable with any currently existing alliance in Catholic politics and politics generally,” he said, noting that thus far the magazine has included pieces from a Jewish Marxist alongside those of Catholic scholars.
So far, Borman and Walther have found contributors to the magazine from among their friends and connections, but they also accept cold submissions. They’re looking for pieces that are entertaining, edifying, moving, and thought-provoking.
“Apart from the obvious goals that any magazine would have, which is producing something that readers will enjoy, I think what we really want is to encourage people to lay aside secular prejudices and really think through what it means to approach our political and cultural issues with the mind of the Church,” Walther said.
Ultimately, he said, “we just want people to try to think like Catholics.”
[…]
Well, at least the cardinal proposes that Catholics should “stand” for something…
And, now since “we all have benefited from the renewal of the Church ushered in by the Second Vatican Council”–and everyone and even the notorious Pelosi and Biden et al now files up for Communion as a prelude to coffee and donuts–why shouldn’t this be characterized as just another “procession?”
Talk about a cardinal “drawing attention to oneself…”
As a former member of the archdiocese the only comment i can make is “how dare you Cardinal” tell the faithful that they MUST stand receiving the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Apparently the cardinal does not believe bowing or kneeling before the King is appropriate, rather, stand there and just reach out your hands to receive Him. Seriously, this cardinal needs to be removed by the Pope while I pray that he comes to his senses and a true Catholic shepherd.
Didn’t someone once say, “Every knee shall bow”? . . . Oh, yes! St. Paul, but he was, no doubt, one of those rigid backwardists.
Es importante recibir la comunión de rodillas y en la boca y no de pie y no en la mano,las partículas que se desprenden contienen el cuerpo completo de nuestro Señor,el modernismo o la forma no implica ningún avance en la evangelización al contrario ,promueve una falta de respeto muy grave que recae en el sacerdote y en los fieles,y claro el que está impedido físicamente debe permanecer de pie pero no recibir en la mano la santa comunión este fondo es importante y no lo que bruscamente opine el sacerdote conciliar
That certainly won’t happen in this pontificate. The Pope only has his knives out for liturgical traditionalists.
Unfortunately, Cupich and Francis are of one mind in this.
Or lack therif!
Cardinal Cupich seems to have a need to make a pronouncement every once in a while to remind us he’s still around.
About processions and positions and such, the cardinal’s timing (Dec. 11) almost seems intended to distract American attention from further antics by the puppet masters in Rome, to improve the position, so to speak, of the LGBTQ lobby–with a Jubilee 2025 networking celebration of their own in the Church of the Gesu (also reported on Dec. 11):
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260989/organizers-and-supporters-reluctant-to-discuss-planned-lgbt-jubilee-day-in-rome
My lay comment is that this is not an outstanding comment if it’s in regards to kneeling. When I see someone kneel, which I’ve never seen take more than a few extra seconds for the able bodied, it does not appear to be drawing attention to the Communicant but to the Risen Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. (that person is not afraid to acknowledge the Savior)
Perhaps the most charitable response to reception of our beloved Jesus in Holy Communion is to follow his commandment – love God and love others. At a chapel I often attend, those who wish to receive Holy Communion while kneeling move to the front pews and kneel down signaling to the priest that there is a kneeling communion line, and the remainder of communicants form a communion line by standing. It seems to work, and honors both.
I can’t kneel due to knee issues, and I must choose to stand in line. At other churches, I’ve had several instances of almost toppling over the person in front of me as they unexpectedly kneel down. Since my knees are not the nimblest I’ve had to make a quick step back so as not to step on the kneeling person, causing me stress and pain in my knees and interrupting my prayer just before reception. Since I can’t kneel, it makes me embarrassed that others think I choose not to kneel since the person in front of me just did so (i.e., my depth of reverence is less than the one before me).
Again, there are many ways to show our deepest adoration of God, but we need to do so also being mindful of those around us. Surely, we can find a path that honors both.
Good points Sir, but don’t worry about what others think at this apex of the mass. As far as I’m concerned, they can dim the church lights and shine them only on the Eucharist reception area during communion.
The last will be first.
You don’t need to kneel because the person in front of you kneeled. It’s not being done to make a personal comment on you and the other communicants. In general, people aren’t paying as much attention to us as we imagine.
As far as the knee problems, quite a few people develop knee and/or back problems by the time they are middle-aged, and younger people who are active in sports or dance can have them too, so I would not feel too self-conscious about that. It’s a good idea to allow a little extra space in front of yourself when moving forward in a line.
When I find myself feeling self-conscious about what the people around me at Mass may be thinking about whatever I am doing–and those moments do happen– I remind myself to redirect my attention to the Lord and whether I am pleasing Him. Now, it could be that when you see someone kneeling before receiving the Eucharist, you feel inspired to make an extra sign of devotion too, although kneeling on the floor won’t work for you, so a reverent bow or slight genuflection is better. That is common at the Masses I attend.
When the hand to mouth option came along, we were taught to do as you said, bow as you near or genuflect, then step to the side, face the crucifix and eat the host, make the sign and move along.
The problem of people in front of you unexpectedly kneeling is a very good reason to provide kneelers. They aren’t particularly expensive, they allow people who are older or in poor health to kneel if they desire, and most churches already have them.
They also make it clear what the person is about to do so that the tendency to leave only a foot or less between the person ahead of you in a line is naturally reduced. You don’t have to think very hard to refrain from crowding a kneeler. It also clearly signals to everyone, priest included, that kneeling is going to happen, without the people who intend to kneel needing to remember to segregate themselves.
I’ve seen this done, and it seemed quite effective.
Of course he did. He’s a Protestant who obviously doesn’t believe in the Real Presence. God save us from wolves…..in wolves clothing.
In my youth in the 1950’s we knelt and received on the tongue from the priest’s consecrated hands. Belief in the real presence was near universal.
We now have what one priest commentator called “grab and go.” Belief in the real presence is less than 50%.
Actions have consequences.
Yes, especially the VII liturgical reform that Cardinal Cupich so endlessly idolizes.
Once again the diminutive Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago seized the opportunity to remind everyone of how truly insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things.
I’m just thinking about the insensitivity of current hierarchy figures pronouncing controversial statements during the Advent/Christmas season when people and families don’t need more stress but peace. It was also last year the Vatican came out with the homosexual blessing thing during this time. Come on! I wish they be more sensitive and consider their timing, they know what things are going to stir controversy.
I don’t understand the Cardinal’s argument
about not drawing attention to yourself or not impeding the flow of the procession.
In the local parishes I attend, some people kneel and some stand to receive Holy
Communion. So, where is the problem? It works smoothly this way. If I may speculate,
from what I observe, many who kneel are very devout and traditional – the very people the
Vatican targets. Could this be another attempt not only to wipe out the Latin Mass, but
any practice which has been associated with it?
Another fuhrerbefel from the windy city! Wonder how the Magi would feel, given that they did the right thing: They presented their gifts and knelt before Him in adoration!
The reform called for by Vatican II was to take place by everyone being more deeply educated about The Mass and other parts of the Church’s Liturgy. We have the education provided by Scripture, Tradition, and the Saints…and then everyone else all over the place. Teachings by JPII, Benedict XVI, Mother Teresa are obviously authentic, while this red-hat-wearing walks and “leads” in the way of the world, hostile to God.
It brings to mind the great words of Mother Angelica, speaking against another very worldly creature, when she said to the world, “My obedience in the diocese would be absolute zero,” (properly understood – “Do what they say, not what they do”).
She paid the price for her loyalty to our Saviour. But God Himself showed who spoke His Truth, and spoke for His Son authentically, sending the All Holy Virgin to perform the miracle of her healing before all the world.
He spoke very loudly, but few if any of our “leaders” listened.
Do what they say. But, as our Dear Savior continued, “…do NOT do what they do.”
They (may) receive the greater condemnation, teaching as doctrines the mere precepts of men…
I think this is the first salvo of the “liturgical reform” of “synodality” for a “participatory church” yada yada yada…. The closing document opened this door but left it undefined. I think Cupich is trying to fill in the lines. In other words, more Bugnini-type “liturgy from above” imposed as supposedly the will of the people and of the Spirit (with little evidence of either)
No priest or bishop can deny a person Communion if said person chooses to kneel. Roman Rite Catholics (should) have the option to do both, kneeling or standing. In the Byzantine Rite though, standing is the norm when receiving the Eucharist. Kneeling is gently discouraged. Some people might interpret it as Romans kneeling before the Cross, and Byzantines standing with the Risen Christ.
When in Byzantium, do as the Byzantines. When in Rome, do as the Romans. Standing is not our tradition, and while I always appreciate hearing and seeing what the other Churches do, I rather object to their traditions being used as an argument against ours. (I know you did not do this).
When meeting the Risen Christ, St. Mary Magdalen is typically portrayed (at least in the Latin tradition) as kneeling, often holding on to His feet. The meaning of kneeling is not restricted to penitential or sorrowful themes for us.
Cardinal Cupich long ago became a caricature of the sixties priest. Its a new century with ample ecclesial experience under our belts. Time to release youthful deceptions.
Jesus Christ is Lord and we provide Him all praise, honor, glory and joyful submission. No one with any faith or perception need provide any impediment.
Do you all realize how ironic Bishop Cupich’s Advent Declaration is? He castigates those who have the temerity to kneel while receiving the Body and Blood of Christ because by doing so they call attention to themselves. Yet, in Bishop Cupich’s Declaration he has done just that – called attention to himself. He always seems to stir the ecclesial pot with some stupid and unnecessary statement that gets him all the attention he seems to crave. I’d describe him as ‘puerile.’ Time for the episcopal nursing home.
Cardinal Cupich turned 75 earlier this year, and formally sent his mandatory letter of resignation to Pope Francis, so hopefully the Chicago archdiocese will have a better shepherd soon.
In our small parish (Liverpool diocese in England) almost one in ten choose to receive kneeling, and some more standing on the tongue, disturbance to the flow is negligible. Much more delay is caused by the two people who need low gluten hosts. I cause most problem because I currently have a balance problem and have to clutch the arm of someone else, delaying them and having to stand there while they receive. Also, as we have a narrow centre aisle obstructing the flow all the while I approach and return.
CLAPTRAP or Gobble-de-gook if you prefer!
Cupich is just another petty tyrant promoted way beyond his skill and abilities by a Pope hellbent on imposing his will on the “backwardist” and “rigid” Catholics.