The Loneliness Industry – “’What do loneliness and transhumanism have in common? They are built from the same foundation.” ”The loneliness industrial complex: How transhumanism profits from our isolation (Refine)
Selective Synodality – “Why is it that those who vociferously praise and promote the post-2015 version of synodality—supposedly marked by listening, accompaniment, walking together, dialogue, diversity, and experience—seem to demonstrate little to no interest in those actual characteristics in their words and actions?” The Future of Synodality (What We Need Now – Substack)
Tolkien & Literary Creation – “Much has already been written about the author of Lord of the Rings trilogy, but little on his creative process. As we’ll see, there’s always more to learn.” J.R.R Tolkien: Writing as Discovery (Acton Institute)
Accusations and Tensions in Detroit – “A leaked faculty letter is accusing Detroit’s archbishop of violating the seminary handbook, and even of breaking civil law. Faculty are also noting a ‘climate of fear and uncertainty’ at the seminary.” Leaked Letter Accuses Detroit Archbishop of Breaking Civil Law (Stella Maris Media)
Mimetic Desire and Life Behind Bars – “I had no idea my work had made its way behind prison walls—let alone that it had touched someone’s life so deeply, and that he’d taken such bold action to pursue the ideas.” I’m Going to Prison (Luke Burgis)
Balthasar Diagnoses the Spirit of the Age: – ” An incarnational anthropology which attends to the messy and gritty details of life (perhaps ironically) distinguishes human intelligence from artificial intelligence.” Balthasar and the Machine (New Polity)
China’s Relentless March Against Christianity – “One old Shanghai Catholic told me that they had a new ‘god’ in China. I knew what he meant: that god is Xi. And this was a man whose life had been forever marked by contemporary China’s other god: Mao.” China’s Divided Church Under Pope Francis (Church Life Journal)
Art as Longing – “Cosmic Loneliness is an inexplicable longing for companionship that can’t be satisfied by even the closest human friendship or the most intense romance.” The World Is Not Enough, Part V: Cosmic Loneliness in Modern Art (Magis Center)
Students’ First Teacher – “Step inside St. Benedict Classical Academy, an ambitious project — which ultimately cost $20 million — to create a new pre-K-to-grade 8 school building.” Beauty and Order: New England Catholic School Uses Classical Architecture to Form Students (National Catholic Register)
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Bergoglio’s papal approval of Communist dictatorship and repression of TLM is a forever crime against humanity.
And his deconstrution of witness for immutable moral law before the whole world.
On Art as longing. Friedrich, great stuff! In the US, Andrew Wyeth (who said “you have to be selfish to paint”) located solitude and yearning beyond the terrestrial. Even when the figure is not in the frame.
Perhaps one has to be selfish to be a *good* painter, jst.
🙂
I know a less gifted artist who is a lovely, caring person. I’ve had the thought that perhaps those two things were connected. Some of the more talented artists I’ve known have been very self absorbed & unawares of other’s needs. Even the needs of their own families. But perhaps that gives them more mental space to create. I don’t know.
I’m sure there are other artists who find a better balance.
The only thing I could draw in art class was flies. That might explain the social isolation.
knowall , I really enjoy your comments because they’re unexpected.
🙂
A simpleton’s comments sometimes can be humorous.
Our first good rain in almost a month yesterday – Thanksgiving to above.
@ Accusations and Tensions in Detroit
Greater scandal is the inaction of a Roman pontiff who announced his primary mission is unity within the Church. Response? Nothing. Whereas Abp Weisenburger is no nothingburger. He’s got teeth and claws and he uses them viciously. Expect more torn bodies.
What if a conservative Catholic bishop did the same as Weisenburger? Would Pope Leo not respond? That’s the less than heroic saga continuing to unfold. Fr James Martin SJ invited to a pontifical tete a tete left glowing and effusive. Cdl Burke’s personal request for return to Summorum Pontificum left silent. Was it a pat on the head now go home and be a good boy?
@ China’s Relentless March Against Christianity
Xi’s “Sinicization of Chinese religion” is aimed at total fealty. Not simply to the communist state. Rather to the claim of divine suzerainty. Emperor or leader worship is a Sino Asian phenomenon also seen in N Korea.
The longer the Vatican continues with a policy of accommodation the greater the accruement of power and impunity of Xi. Leo XIV is indebted to take strong action in affirming the absolute independence of the Christian revelation. It’s better to die as a faithful servant than a cowardly subservient.
Just to be fair to East Asia, worship of leaders is a recurring feature in human civilizations everywhere, notably in Egypt and Rome, and to perhaps a slightly lesser level in Mesopotamia and Japan and even some Greek cities (where the leader was believed to be descended from gods). Hitler would be a more recent version in the West, at least from a practical point of view.
In the end, any government ends up either claiming to serve God or claiming to BE God. Having the Mandate of Heaven is cheaper and safer than bribes and threats.
I think it got worse when we started printing money.
I’m distantly descended from a counterfeiter. Printed bills made that crime possible. I guess one could mint bogus coins but it takes more time and skill.
My great xxxxx’s grandma obviously wasn’t too skilled because she was caught immediately.
A commenter here has accused anyone who supports Trump an idolater. That we worship him. There is a cultic aspect to any popular political figure. Although we need to be accurate with our use of terms. For example with the N Korean dynasty believed to have been divinely instituted, seen in the forms of public worship of the current leader – people running into the ocean arms raised crying out as the great leader pulls away in his craft. Thankfully we have yet to see that with Trump.
I’m somewhat concerned about the Swifties; not sure what that’s all about, and don’t think she should be so revered by the young.
Karen Carpenter had one of the best (commercial) voices ever, in my opinion.
@ Art as Longing
Herman Melville came to mind in Der Mönch am Meer by Caspar David Friedrich. A New Yorker he often stood by the sea meditating on the mystery, or mysteries beyond.
Eventually he sailed on New England whalers intent on figuratively killing the God he associated with the white whale. How he got there was his inability to reconcile a good God who allowed men to be torn in a bloodied sea on a brilliant day fit for a nuptial. That took him to become a close associate of the believer American author Nathaniel Hawthorne [see exchange of letters].
Fr Spitzer touches on the dynamic of Cosmic Loneliness. There is something to that which many of us have experienced. Personally, I cannot exactly in kind because I had a sense of something pristine beyond the shapes and colors, smells of the sea.
I think there’s a point of departure from an unknown longing from God to Nature as deity perceived among urban refugees to Sedona AZ. Which is why the Chapel of the Holy Cross,a work of religious art conducive to contemplation funded by a wealthy New Yorker has a prominent place in the spectrum of experiences visitors have.
“I’m Going to Prison
Discovering Girard in a Maximum-Security World”
*****
This article is mostly over my head but I congratulate the author on visiting those behind bars & practicing a corporal work of mercy.
HBO is currently offering a very moving series about a UK men’s prison: “Time”. It’s a fictional story about atonement & redemption. It’s amazing to me that the BBC produced something so deeply Catholic in tone & with such a strong Christian message. I guess it’s a sign that there’s always hope. Even at the BBC.
Note to the Detroit archbishop: Even Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino knew “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away and know when to run.” (With credit to Kenny Rogers)
God bless Kenny Rogers.
I use that song analogy pretty often.
🙂
It’s official: Pope Francis has died. RIP synodaling.
Wish that were true. The majority of those cardinals at the conclave wanted a whishy washy Francis II, and they got him.
Synodaling means nothing in the daily practice of the Faith of Catholics. NOTHING. I only wish that the Vatican realized this.
I wish this were true. It seems synodaling began with most Catholics rejecting Humanae Vitae.
Well-chosen lede, China’s Relentless March Against Christianity.
It’s arguable that the McCarrick shuttle diplomacy very slowly assisted the situation becoming what it is today -irrespective of McCarrick’s “flawed sexuality” etc. It could be that it lacked a grounded realism and fell short in discerning things objectively.
What happened in Shanghai as recounted by Mariani, took place subsequent to the consecration as bishop of Yue Fusheng 2012.
From Mariani:
‘ By 2015, Therese Xie, an old friend of Bishop Jin, visited her native Shanghai and discovered the following. Bishop Ma was under house arrest, and the clergy and religious sisters were subject to incessant indoctrination. Further, without a functioning bishop, the diocese was run by a team of five priests. But the real power seemed to be with an official of the CCPA and an official of the Shanghai RAB. There was always some graft in the Shanghai church. But, after Ma was detained, large sums of money went from one bank to another under the direction of corrupt officials. Some of Jin’s landmark institutions, such as Sheshan seminary and Guangqi Press, were gutted. It was clear that some were taking advantage of the power vacuum in the absence of Jin’s formidable presence. ….. The tightening further accelerated with the global pandemic. By shutting down a city like Shanghai, the government has a good idea of how far people can be pushed in their experiments of social control. Many foreigners have left China. It is sometimes hard to get into China and sometimes hard to leave. Churches have been closed, and entry to Sheshan has been barred. The regulations at the gates there are simply signed by the Diocese of Shanghai. No bishop is named. Christians are not the only ones to criticize the current state of affairs in China. ‘
So naturally these questions would arise: 1. Is the Provisional Agreement even a realistic approach to dialogue? 2. What is it producing? 3. Does Holy See have sound fact-based insight into the situations and a right understanding of them? 4. If the Agreement is reasonable, is Holy See going to act other than with dialoguing?
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2012/07/10/vatican-rev-yue-fusheng-has-automatically-incurred-latae-sententiae-excommunication/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Zemin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_clique