Flags at half staff In Washington after Tucson shooting
What’s the lesson of the heated debate—often rancorous and occasionally defamatory—that ensued over the Tucson shooting? Well, that there is much to admire about political discourse in the U.S. And this is precisely what Americans take for granted, but also the first thing that strikes a visitor:
[T]his is a country where fundamental questions are constantly aired, argued and litigated over - the size of government and the limits of its power, the meaning of equality under the law, when life begins, you name it. It is hardly surprising in this protean atmosphere that there should be a good deal of rancour. But it's unique and invigorating too. It is in fact a breath of fresh air after the soggy centralist consensus that usually prevails in Britain and much of Western Europe.
Was the reading of the U.S. Constitution in the House the other day “uncalled for?” Well, yes, of course it was, in a world turned upside down … [Thanks: Sandra Kennedy Schimmelpfennig]
Giotto, The Baptism of the Lord, Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padua
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This brings to an end the blissful season of Christmas. The Church recalls Our Lord’s second manifestation or epiphany—the first is the adoration of Jesus by the Magi, and the third is the changing water into wine at Cana of Galilee—which occurred just when He was baptized by John, the Precursor, in the Jordan River. Here is a little bit of help—from Fr. John Zuhlsdorf—to understand the underlying meaning of what we celebrate today:
John the Baptist helped us into our Advent preparation for Christmas by reminding us to straighten the paths of our lives for the coming of the Lord. We fittingly meet the Baptist again at the end of the Christmas season. He announced the coming of the Messiah and now he points us to the Messiah. This was when the Baptist told his disciples to follow Jesus, saying “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).
In His baptism by John, Christ foreshadows what He would do later: He descends into the waters of the Jordan (death and the tomb) and rises out of them again (resurrection).
Christ had no need of John’s baptism. Being perfect and sinless Jesus had nothing to repent. Instead, His submission to baptism shows all humanity the way to our salvation. Christ’s baptism reveals how we must die and rise to our sins in the sacrament He instituted at the Jordan. By receiving John’s baptism the Lord was solemnly revealed to be divine by the Father’s voice and the descent of the Holy Spirit, and He sanctified the waters for our baptisms. Baptism in the starting point of all saving and actual graces we receive as Christians. Baptism confers on us an indelible character, almost like a branding mark of Christ’s Lordship in and over us. This is the foundation of our spiritual lives. Christ’s humility orients us in the right direction for our lives as baptized Christians.
You won’t believe it, but visitors to Italy will find less anarchy in 2011. That’s what you’ll discover by reading this report in MSNBC Today Show. Take Rome, for example, where the Colosseum is being cleaned from top to bottom and given permanent lighting.
Or take Florence, where the streets around the Duomo have recently been pedestrianized, and the Uffizi Gallery is undergoing a renovation, scheduled for completion this summer, while the Galileo Science Museum will open after significant renovation later this spring. Or take Pisa, where the Leaning Tower is now open late on summer evenings, making it possible to tour the landmark and survey the Field of Miracles from above after dark, and Milan, where the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana will host an important special exhibit from now through 2015, displaying 22 pages from Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus, or Venice with its new museum, The Punta della Dogana, housed in the former Customs House at the end of the Canal Grande…
An uplifting reading—always welcome!—in time of scarcity.
-----
UPDATE - January 9, 2011, 9:00 am
An article in the New York Times has selected Milan, where “a reborn cathedral joins fashion-forward galleries and hotels,” as the number five place to go in 2011. According to Ingrid K. Williams, “Compared with the Italian troika of tourism—Florence, Venice and Rome—Milan is often an afterthought. But with novel, eye-catching design emerging around the city, that should soon change.”
“ The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only be may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. ”
~ George Graham Vest (1830-1904), United States Senator from Missouri from 1879 to 1903. Closing arguments from the trial in which damages were sought for the killing of a dog named Old Drum on Oct 18, 1869 [Thanks: Sandra Kennedy Schimmelpfennig]
There was a highly symbolic moment at the opening of the House of Representatives yesterday with a reading of the Constitution. This had never been done before. Why? Perhaps, as Charles Krauthammer puts it in today’s Washington Post, for the simple reason that it had never been so needed. And as a matter of fact, after fighting for decades over “who owns the American flag,” now the core of the debate between Democrats and Republicans is over “who owns the Constitution.” A healthier debate, says Krauthammer, because flags might be seen as pure symbolism, while Constitution defines concretely the nature of a country’s social contract.
Americans are in the midst of a great national debate over the power, scope and reach of the government established by that document. The debate was sparked by the current administration's bold push for government expansion - a massive fiscal stimulus, Obamacare, financial regulation and various attempts at controlling the energy economy. This engendered a popular reaction, identified with the Tea Party but in reality far more widespread, calling for a more restrictive vision of government more consistent with the Founders' intent.
Call it constitutionalism.
Constitutionalism. Namely, “the intellectual counterpart and spiritual progeny” of the originalism movement in jurisprudence. And, like the latter, the former will require careful and thoughtful development. “But its wide appeal and philosophical depth make it a promising first step to a conservative future.”
A great, “pedagogical” piece, indeed. It reminds me a quote by Margaret Thatcher, “Europe was created by history, America was created by philosophy.” What a profoundly true statement! Both America and the American Constitution are a philosophy, no matter if that philosophy itself has deep European roots. Call it American exceptionalism or whatever else, it’s something to preserve and protect, and something to fight for, too. [Thanks: Candice Miles]
The attack of a suicide bomber that took place in Alexandria, Egypt, as worshippers were gathering for a service shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve marks a watershed event in the history of Christianity. And this not so much for its brutality or its catastrophic effects—21 people killed—as for the fact that this time, unlike the many other times, the international news media coverage is quite good and comprehensive. This is, at any rate, the biggest news, also because, unfortunately, the murders of Christians are no news at all (see here for a brief summary of how things stand in this respect).
The other news is that, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Egyptian analysts said that al-Qaeda, which has had little impact locally in the past, appeared to be “announcing its presence.” Last, but not least, while preparing for their traditional Christmas on Friday, Coptic Christians worldwide are on high alert and their churches in Europe and Egypt are receiving extra law enforcement protection. Also highly alarming, more precisely, is that
[t]he Mujahidin Network has threatened more attacks against Christian Copts in Egypt. The warning was addresses directly at the Copt Pope Shenouda III, announcing an “imminent attack.” Threats were published on the ‘al-Shumukh’ website, the same on which on December 2nd a list of 50 targeted Coptic churches had been published, including the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria attacked on New Year’s Eve.
Which is also no surprise, since Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, after condemning on Saturday the attack to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria—he spoke of “atrocious act prohibited by Islam”—had the nerve to criticize on Sunday the call of Pope Benedict XVI to the world leaders to protect the Christians, saying it was an “unacceptable interference” in Egyptian affairs—something one couldn’t ever imagine, beyond any level of tolerance. This man seems, or pretends, not to know what he should be well aware of, namely, that—as a recent study (pdf) by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows—64 nations and nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8 billion people have high or very high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which often falls on religious minorities, and that the Middle East-North Africa is the part of the world which has the highest government and social restrictions on religion. The worst nations include Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Pakistan. And it is no accident that four of the five are Islamic.
Yet, as I said above, a new awareness is emerging. Well, more in the media than at a policy level, but one-third of something is better than a half of nothing. Those 21 victims won’t be the last, but their sacrifice was not in vain.
Economist and political commentator Thomas Sowell has a very good commentary for the quietly chilling (and somewhat long) article in the NRO by historian and columnist Victor Davis Hanson about the disturbing decline of rural California. An article which “ought to be read by every American who is concerned about where this country is headed,” because “California is leading the way, but what is happening in California is happening elsewhere.”
Yet this was not the only significant event of the day. In fact, this was also the day 5 thousand “little singers,” namely the boys and girls of the International Pueri Cantores Federation, lifted spirits in the Vatican with the pure notes of Christmas carols, delighting Pope Benedict XVI who in turn greeted them in eight languages in the Paul VI audience hall. And the brief speech was actually very significant in many respects, including the role of music in the Catholic liturgy—an issue that I am very interested in, as both a staunch advocate of Gregorian chant and one who firmly believes that realbeauty—in music and in the arts in general—draws us back to the Creator, who is the very source and essence of beauty, back to the deep core of things. Here is what Pope Benedict said:
Dear young members of the Pueri Cantores Federation,
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to welcome you today as you celebrate your thirty-sixth International Congress here in Rome and I thank you for the commitment you have shown to the apostolate of choral singing in the liturgy. In Saint Augustine’s words: “singing is an expression of joy and … love” (Sermo 34:1). As you use your talents and your faith to sing God’s praises, you give voice to the natural desire of every human being to glorify him, with songs of love. It is hard to find words to convey the sheer joy of the soul’s loving encounter with God, indeed the great mystics could only remain silent before the mystery. Yet beautiful music is able to express something of the mystery of God’s love for us and ours for him, as we are reminded by the theme chosen for your Congress, Deus Caritas Est.
Always remember that your singing is a service. Firstly, it is a service to God, a way of giving him the praise that is due. It is also a service to your fellow worshippers, helping them to raise their hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer. And it is a service to the whole Church, offering a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy that is the goal of all true worship, when the choirs of angels and saints unite in one unending song of love and praise.
I greet especially the groups present today from the United States, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia and South Korea. I encourage you to persevere in your good work, I assure you of my prayers, and I gladly invoke upon you God’s abundant blessings.
Time to take stock of the year! I guess all of you know The Heritage Foundation, a think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Well, here are three lists you might be interested in. From The Heritage Foundation’s blog The Foundry:
Proponents of discretionary fiscal stimulus—most prominent among them Paul Krugman of Princeton University and The New York Times—emphasize the Keynesian multiplier effect that implies that additional government spending would induce an increase in private spending and therefore a greater than one-for-one effect on aggregate GDP. Yet, as shown in a recent ECB (European Central Bank) working paper by Tobias Cwik of Goethe University, Frankfurt, and Volker Wieland of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, this theory is, to say the least, not as good as its supporters claim. In fact, after investigating whether the spending package announced by Euro area governments for 2009 and 2010 is likely to have such a multiplicative effect on euro area GDP, Tobias Cwik and Volker Wieland came to a conclusion that … Read the full paper here (pdf). Thanks: www.chicago-blog (in Italian).
“Suppose someone says that from reading Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, he or she learned something useful which they then applied to their own marriage(s), […] whereas someone else professes to have had no help at all from reading assorted novels by Anne Tyler, George Eliot, William Maxwell and Anita Brookner […]. Supposing all this, or some variant of it—are we then to say that the second someone’s reading has been a total waste of time?”
See here how Norman Geras—in response to this piece by Alain de Botton in The Wall Street Journal—answers the question.
Just about two years ago I referred to the wonderful story of Silent Night in a short post, which in the meanwhile has become one of the most visited on this blog—this makes me very, very happy... you have no idea how much i love that song! So this year same song, different singer and video (they are both wonderful), but above all, Merry Christmas!
Enzo Bearzot, the legendary coach who led the Italian soccer team to its third World Cup victory in 1982, died yesterday at 83. I guess you don’t need to be a soccer fanatic or even a fan to mourn him, being a normal Italian, or otherwise a non-Italian who loves soccer, would do just fine. He has certainly been one of the most beloved Italians of his time, and this, at least in my eyes, not just because of his success as a coach, but also, if not above all, because of his human qualities: his sobriety, fortitude, integrity, and courage.
In his essay “Courage,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that there are three qualities which “conspicuously attract the wonder and reverence of mankind”–disinterestedness, “as shown in indifference to the ordinary bribes and influences of conduct—a purpose so sincere and generous that it cannot be tempted aside by any prospects of wealth or other private advantage,” practical power, “one who, seeing the wishes of men, knows how to come at their end; whispers to this friend, argues down that adversary, moulds society to his purpose, and looks at all men as wax for his hands; takes command of them (…) as the man that knows more does of the man that knows less, and leads them in glad surprise to the very point where they would be,” and courage, “the perfect will, which no terrors can shake, which is attracted by frowns or threats or hostile armies, nay, needs these to awake and fan its reserved energies into a pure flame, and is never quite itself until the hazard is extreme; then it is serene and fertile, and all its powers play well.”
That’s just how I’d describe Enzo Bearzot’s character. And that’s also how those who had the privilege of knowing him well are actually describing him in these sad hours of mourning (see here, here, here, and here).
The following recollection is only one of a number of examples of his philosophy of life:
Bearzot will be remembered for the undying belief he showed in his players and his tactics, qualities he admirably demonstrated in Spain.
Bearzot took tremendous flack for selecting out-of-form forward Paolo Rossi at the start of the 1982 tournament. The criticisms only grew louder as a lethargic Italy stumbled to draws against Poland, Peru and Cameroon in the first round, and only managed to qualify for the knockout stages by the skin of its teeth.
Rossi had failed to score in all three matches, and when he was substituted in Italy's next game against Argentina, again without scoring, Italian journalists were calling for the manager's head.
But Bearzot had faith in Rossi and he was duly rewarded. Rossi recorded a marvelous hat trick against Brazil in Italy's next match scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Poland in semifinals and netted the opener in a 3-1 win over West Germany in the final. With six goals, Rossi finished as the tournament’s top scorer and was named the competition's MVP.
“Enzo Bearzot was one of Italy’s greatest figures in the 20th century,” Paolo Rossi told the Italian news agency ANSA. “He was like a father to me and without him I would never have achieved what I did.”
As Jeff Powell, sports columnist who covered Bearzot during the ‘82 World Cup, writes in today’s Daily Mail,
The morning after that triumph Bearzot walked into the press conference, poured champagne for all the journalists who had vilified him and invited them to join him in a toast: Forza Italia.
This product of the Italian FA coaching regime had inspired a new mentality which generated a subsequent World Cup victory in Germany 2006 and which injected ambition, energy and adventure into Serie A.
My friend Enzo - who died on Tuesday aged 83 - was pure class.
Rest in peace, dear old man, we will always miss you.
Fra Angelico, Nativity, Convento di San Marco, Florence
It’s really true that, as Pablo Picasso once said, with age, art and life become one and the same. I mean, as you grow older you learn to understand life a little better, but since art and life are inseparable, then if you understand one you understand the other, and therefore you become aware of how much of your life is … art! Ars vivendi, of course, and not only this, but also art per se, that is an endless search for beauty.
But what is beauty? Well, it’s not an easy question to answer, so let’s start more modestly with the meaning of the word itself. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term beauty indicates “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” But, apart from the effects of beauty (“gives pleasure,” etc.), what is beauty in itself? This is clearly a philosophical question, and a very wide one, indeed. A bit too wide for a blog post! So, let’s just simplify and say that Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates were the first at attempting to define beauty. They thought of objects or nature as being inherently beautiful: beauty is inside us and all around us. In their attempt to define characteristics of a beautiful thing they focused on “simplicity” and “symmetry.” Their concrete and simple concept of beauty was enlarged by Plotinus, according to which beauty cannot be described as just symmetry, but rather as a quality that “irradiates” and moves us. Let’s also say that, in general, according to the traditional Western thought, beauty is a supreme value and a constitutive element of the cosmos, associated with order, harmony, truth, goodness, love, being, and the divine. Modern philosophy, in turn, shifted the study of beauty from ontology to the sphere of human faculties. Hence the “emancipation” of art from traditional religious and social bonds, namely from the constraints and the burden of demonstrating a moral truth or of bearing a moral message, as it was used in the Middle Ages, until just before the Renaissance. And finally the arts themselves were separated from the traditional concept of beauty (but in the Twentieth Century metaphysical discussions of beauty were revived by German philosophers Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer).
Yet, with all due respect for philosophy (and Aesthetics, which is the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty), for us believers one thing is certain: there is no real beauty but that which God has bestowed around us and upon our lives. As it is written, “He hath made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccles. 3:11). That’s why beauty draws us back to the Creator, who is the very source and essence of beauty, back to the deep core of things. This beauty emanates from the self-giving love of God, love that pours out of the heart of God into ordinary, everyday people and relationships and circumstances.
Unfortunately, in our time beauty has become reduced, both at the popular level and among elites, to being fit or young or rich and glamorous—not to mention other and far worse perversions and aberrations. Thus, beauty leads to lifestyles that are, in the best cases, vain, self-centered, wasteful, and personally destructive in the worst. Thus, art has sometimes become synonymous with corruption and artist with “decadent”—morbidity is a characteristic of the so-called Decadent movement... That’s not the kind of art I was talking about at the beginning of this post. So, what is art for me? Well, art is for me one of the most straightforward and effective ways of worshipping God, showing our gratitude for His gifts, and at the same time of experiencing His presence.
That’s why I have a predilection for the kind of art of which the following video is a precious example. This is also my way of reminding you that the Fourth Sunday of Advent is quickly approaching…
The Family Research Council’s Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) defines an intact family as “a biological mother and father who remain legally married to one another from the time of their child’s birth.” Well, according to a survey—the first annual Index of Belonging and Rejection—produced by the above mentioned institute and advocacy group, only 45 percent of American children have spent their childhood in an intact family. This means a majority of American teenagers’ parents have rejected each other, either through divorce, separation or choosing not to marry.
Now, considering that providing children with intact families holds immeasurable benefits—including financial, educational, legislative, legal and judicial gains—for children, adults and society in general, we may conclude, along with Pat Fagan, director of the Marriage & Religion Research Institute, that “American society is dysfunctional, characterized by a faulty understanding of the male-female relationship,” and that its culture “needs a compass correction, learning again how to belong to each other when we have begotten children together.”
I must confess I’d be tempted to add that I feel sorry for America, but unfortunately I don’t think Europe is in any better shape. [Via CnsNews.com]
So yesterday Berlusconi narrowly won a confidence vote in the lower house of Parliament—his government received only three votes more than its opponents—soon after rather easily winning the vote in the Senate. To me (and many others) it was no great surprise, though. Of course, it’s true that there was much uncertainty about the outcome of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies, unlike that in the Senate: everybody knew it would be a photo-finish. But in the end common sense prevailed, 314-311.
The no-confidence motion was put forward by opponents who argued that Berlusconi’s scandal-ridden private life, his alleged attempts to head off investigations into his business dealings and the lackluster state of the economy made his continued tenure as prime minister impossible. And all of this is true to a degree, but this is only half of the truth, one of the two sides of the coin, the other of which is the nature itself of the opposition, made up of a jumble of left-wing, centrist and center-right political parties, without a clear leader and with little common ground other than the will to get rid of Berlusconi—enough to seriously undermine the government’s ability to work effectively, too little to present themselves as a reliable, alternative government. And that’s perhaps the real trouble with Italy, or, depending on your point of view, the greatest luck: with such an opposition, Berlusconi’s only opponents are the formidable problems of the country. But the ideal would be a decent government and a decent opposition—and, if I don’t expect too much, less severe problems for the country …
Be it as it may, the worst was avoided: a crisis without any foreseeable solutions. And now? Speaking at the presentation of a book in Rome, soon after winning the vote of confidence, Berlusconi said it was possible he might expand his parliamentary majority. He also said Italy did not need to have elections now but that he was sure his party would win them if they were held. And this is not an unlikely scenario, nor the worst nightmare. Yeah, there’s always something worse, and in life, you need to know how to make do with what you have. After all, aren’t we in the age of Kali Yuga?
Olli Rehn, EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, speaking at a press conference in Rome alongside Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti: Italy is “coping well” with the eurozone crisis and its financial position has deteriorated less than others thanks to its prudent fiscal policy and despite high levels of public sector debt. So sorry for the many international and (above all) domestic cassandras writing off the country’s economy—but, if you want to see the glass half empty, it’s also true that, as Rome-based national statistics agency Istat said last Friday, Italy’s industrial production fell 0.1 percent in October after a 2.1 percent drop in September...
Italy’s Central Bank governor, Mario Draghi, in an interview with the Financial Times (article and video): The euro is not in question, and “Europe is moving in the right direction of creating the rules and institutions to address future crisis in a systemic and comprehensive way.” But the large-scale purchases of government bonds could threaten the ECB’s freedom to act without political interference and break European Union rules.
“Suppose someone says that from reading 
