Somewhere in Venice

Somewhere has won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice film festival (and I think I'll go and see it as soon as I can). Written and directed by Academy Award Winner Sofia Coppola, the daughter of The Godfather (1972) director Francis Ford Coppola, Somewhere tells the story of a movie star, played by Stephen Dorff, who comes to see the emptiness of his existence through the eyes of his 11-year-old daughter, played by Elle Fanning.

“This film enchanted us from its first screening,” said director Quentin Tarantino, who headed the jury which unanimously chose Coppola’s film as the best movie at the 11-day annual festival. Much of the story takes place in hotels, and Coppola, when presenting the film, reminisced that she and her family spent a lot of time growing up in hotels where her director father was out on location while filming. Here is the official trailer for the film:

9 Years Ago Today - We Will Never Forget

George W. Bush: Bullhorn Speech to Emergency Rescue Workers at 9/11 Ground Zero, New York, delivered September 14 2001. Read the complete transcript here.
Via Gateway Pundit. See also Remembrance 9/11 at The Metaphysical Peregrine.

The New York Hamasque and the Bigoted Media

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

The Mosque at “Ground Zero” is the big controversy in the US. It’s 600 feet from where the Twin Towers used to stand. The building it was to replace had part of a landing gear lodged in it, so one could say it also was part of “ground zero”.

Muslims build mosques to make statements of triumph over their enemies. If you’re not a Muslim, you are an enemy.  The first mosque in Medina marks Mohammed’s triumph against the Medians and their allied tribes. The second mosque, The Grand Mosque at Kaaba, is the triumphal mosque of the conquering of the remaining Arab tribes, where, according to legend, he cleansed them of their many pagan gods, finalizing his conquering of the land and people. Following with all the military triumphs throughout the Middle East, mosques were built, even going into Egypt. Al-Aqsa Mosque built on Temple Mount, the most holy of Jewish sites, where Jews had been for about 1700 years before Mohammed showed up. Grand Mosque of Damascus used to be a Catholic Church. The Hagia Sophia used to be a Christian Church, now a mosque. The Babri Masjid was built on a holy Hindu site. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was a statement marking the conquering of Spain. Originally the New York mosque was to be called Cordoba, but that became an embarrassment when the link was made, so its name was changed to Park51.

A poem recited by the current Prime Minister of Turkey:

The mosques are our barracks,

The domes our helmets,

The minarets our bayonets,

And the faithful our soldiers.  

Then it turns out that the face of the mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, who talks about being a “bridge builder” between faiths, is anything but. Islam says it’s okay to lie to infidels but you have to speak the truth to other believers in the Koran and Sharia Law. In Australia, 2006, he said:

"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims. You may remember that the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This had been documented by the United Nations." He went on to say: "The West needs to see themselves through the eyes of the Arab and Muslim world, and when you do, you will see the predicament that exists within the Muslim community."

After a little digging, bloggers, not the Leftist Jurassic Press, started finding all kinds of statements like that, slamming Western Democracy, Jews and Christians. He’s also refused to label Hamas as a terrorist organization. Then it turns out, which he of course denies, to have ties with front groups to the Muslim Brotherhood. He has a book with two titles, one for the West and one for his Islamic audience,  What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America, but outside America it's title is A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post 9/11. A "dawa" is a stealth jihad; an aggressive promotion and marketing of Islam with the goal of conquering America.

Then there’s the question of how the $100 million project is going to get financed. Big secret.  Willing to make any bets that a lot of it will come from the number one Islamic terror exporter in the world, the Wahabi Saudi Arabia?   

Liberals and their propagandists in the Jurassic Press all say the Muslims have a right to build there, what with freedom of religion we have here. Reciprocity anyone? How about a Christian Church and a Jewish Synagogue in Mecca? 70% of New Yorkers and 70% of Americans are against this project just because it’s in poor taste, and a poke in the eye of America. If Feisal Rauf were truly a “bridge builder” he would see this for the insult that it is, and withdraw the project. There are about 100 mosques in New York, and about 30 in the city, mostly with small attendance.

Of course, if one is against this, then you’re “Islamaphobic”. The cover of the most recent “Time” magazine is titled “Is America Islamophobic?” At least they put a question mark at the end. The rest of the Jurassic Media just say the opponents are. That’s the way they, Liberals, the Democratic Party, Statists all, deal with any issue, ad hominem attacks. If you’re for traditional marriage between a man and a woman, you’re homophobic. Against Obama’s high tax high deficit spending, you’re a racist. For enforcement of border law and for stopping illegal immigration, you’re a racist, nativist, xenophobe.  That makes about 70% of American citizens’ racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes.

Because of all the blowback, the revealed lies, the financial skullduggery that would need to be another blog altogether, including the fact a portion of the block/building site is not owned by the Islamic tax dodger that owns “Park51”, and a host of numerous other issues, the New York Mosque of Triumph looks like it’s going down to defeat thanks to American citizens finally waking up to the threat to freedom that Islam is.  

Take note Liberals, Democrats, fascists, Statists…If this does go down in defeat, it will have been done by the will of the American Citizens, without writing laws that force people to comply with their viewpoint, beliefs and values. It will have succeeded because it has the force of morality.  

G. K. Chesterton Vs the “black legend” of the Crusades

Every now and then I feel like paying tribute to the Crusades (click here to read all my posts about this subject), one of the most controversial and misinterpreted issues—mostly because of the shadow cast on them by the Enlightenment circles to use them as a weapon in their anti-religious campaigns—in Western intellectual, religious, and political history. So here is yet another blow to the “black legend” of the Crusades, worshipped by almost every sworn enemy of the West and its Judeo-Christian values and heritage. This time it is G. K. Chesterton’s turn to be the Advocate of the Christian Cause. Here is an excerpt from his 1920 The New Jerusalem (CHAPTER XI, THE MEANING OF THE CRUSADE) :

The critic of the Crusade talks as if it had sought out some inoffensive tribe or temple in the interior of Thibet, which was never discovered until it was invaded. They seem entirely to forget that long before the Crusaders had dreamed of riding to Jerusalem, the Moslems had almost ridden into Paris. They seem to forget that if the Crusaders nearly conquered Palestine, it was but a return upon the Moslems who had nearly conquered Europe. There was no need for them to argue by an appeal to reason, as I have argued above, that a religious division must make a difference; it had already made a difference. The difference stared them in the face in the startling transformation of Roman Barbary and of Roman Spain. In short it was something which must happen in theory and which did happen in practice; all expectation suggested that it would be so and all experience said it was so. Having thought it out theoretically and experienced it practically, they proceeded to deal with it equally practically. The first division involved every principle of the science of thought; and the last developments followed out every principle of the science of war. The Crusade was the counter-attack. It was the defensive army taking the offensive in its turn, and driving back the enemy to his base. And it is this process, reasonable from its first axiom to its last act, that Mr. Pound actually selects as a sort of automatic wandering of an animal. But a man so intelligent would not have made a mistake so extraordinary but for another error which it is here very essential to consider. To suggest that men engaged, rightly or wrongly, in so logical a military and political operation were only migrating like birds or swarming like bees is as ridiculous as to say that the Prohibition campaign in America was only an animal reversion towards lapping as the dog lappeth, or Rowland Hill's introduction of postage stamps an animal taste for licking as the cat licks. Why should we provide other people with a remote reason for their own actions, when they themselves are ready to tell us the reason, and it is a perfectly reasonable reason?
I have compared this pompous imposture of scientific history to the pompous and clumsy building of the scientific Germans on the Mount of Olives, because it substitutes in the same way a modern stupidity for the medieval simplicity. But just as the German Hospice after all stands on a fine site, and might have been a fine building, so there is after all another truth, somewhat analogous, which the German historians of the Folk-Wanderings might possibly have meant, as distinct from all that they have actually said. There is indeed one respect in which the case of the Crusade does differ very much from modern political cases like prohibition or the penny post. I do not refer to such incidental peculiarities as the fact that Prohibition could only have succeeded through the enormous power of modern plutocracy, or that even the convenience of the postage goes along with an extreme coercion by the police. It is a somewhat deeper difference that I mean; and it may possibly be what these critics mean. But the difference is not in the evolutionary, but rather the revolutionary spirit.
The First Crusade was not a racial migration; it was something much more intellectual and dignified; a riot. In order to understand this religious war we must class it, not so much with the wars of history as with the revolutions of history. As I shall try to show briefly on a later page, it not only had all the peculiar good and the peculiar evil of things like the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution, but it was a more purely popular revolution than either of them. The truly modern mind will of course regard the contention that it was popular as tantamount to a confession that it was animal. In these days when papers and speeches are full of words like democracy and self-determination, anything really resembling the movement of a mass of angry men is regarded as no better than a stampede of bulls or a scurry of rats. The new sociologists call it the herd instinct, just as the old reactionaries called it the many-headed beast. But both agree in implying that it is hardly worth while to count how many head there are of such cattle. In face of such fashionable comparisons it will seem comparatively mild to talk of migration as it occurs among birds or insects. Nevertheless we may venture to state with some confidence that both the sociologists and the reactionaries are wrong. It does not follow that human beings become less than human because their ideas appeal to more and more of humanity. Nor can we deduce that men are mindless solely from the fact that they are all of one mind. In plain fact the virtues of a mob cannot be found in a herd of bulls or a pack of wolves, any more than the crimes of a mob can be committed by a flock of sheep or a shoal of herrings. Birds have never been known to besiege and capture an empty cage of an aviary, on a point of principle, merely because it had kept a few other birds in captivity, as the mob besieged and captured the almost empty Bastille, merely because it was the fortress of a historic tyranny. And rats have never been known to die by thousands merely in order to visit a particular trap in which a particular rat had perished, as the poor peasants of the First Crusade died in thousands for a far-off sight of the Sepulchre or a fragment of the true cross. In this sense indeed the Crusade was not rationalistic, if the rat is the only rationalist. But it will seem more truly rational to point out that the inspiration of such a crowd is not in such instincts as we share with the animals, but precisely in such ideas as the animals never (with all their virtues) understand.

What is peculiar about the First Crusade is that it was in quite a new and abnormal sense a popular movement. I might almost say it was the only popular movement there ever was in the world. For it was not a thing which the populace followed; it was actually a thing which the populace led. It was not only essentially a revolution, but it was the only revolution I know of in which the masses began by acting alone, and practically without any support from any of the classes. When they had acted, the classes came in; and it is perfectly true, and indeed only natural, that the masses alone failed where the two together succeeded. But it was the uneducated who educated the educated. The case of the Crusade is emphatically not a case in which certain ideas were first suggested by a few philosophers, and then preached by demagogues to the democracy. This was to a great extent true of the French Revolution; it was probably yet more true of the Russian Revolution; and we need not here pause upon the fine shade of difference that Rousseau was right and Karl Marx was wrong. In the First Crusade it was the ordinary man who was right or wrong. He came out in a fury at the insult to his own domestic poker or private carving-knife. He was not armed with new weapons of wit and logic served round from the arsenal of an academy. There was any amount of wit and logic in the academies of the Middle Ages; but the typical leader of the Crusade was not Abelard or Aquinas but Peter the Hermit, who can hardly be called even a popular leader, but rather a popular flag. And it was his army, or rather his enormous rabble, that first marched across the world to die for the deliverance of Jerusalem.

~ First written for The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

In defense of the new Missal

The Roman Missal

And so the long-awaited new English translation of the Roman Missal was approved by the Vatican and will be implemented throughout the United States starting Advent 2011 (here is the new web site prepared to help the faithful prepare for the transition). However, while the order and structure of the Mass will not change, there will be some changes in the wording of prayers and responses. Of course, this new translation is not without controversy, but in my honest/humble opinion it is a welcome and much needed change. Here is what Father George W. Rutler, pastor of the Church of Our Saviour in New York City, has to say in defence of this “reform of the reform”:

Publicly owned corporations are more accountable to their shareholders than tenured bureaucracies, which may explain why it took the Ford Motor Company only two years to cancel its Edsel, and not much longer for Coca Cola to restore its “classic” brand, while the Catholic Church has taken more than a generation of unstopped attrition to try to correct the mistakes of overheated liturgists. The dawning of the Age of Aquarius is now in its sunset repose and the bright young things who seem to be cropping up now all over the place with new information from Fortescue and Ratzinger, may either be the professional mourners for a lost civilization, or the sparks of a looming golden age.

One thing is certain to a pastor: the only parishioners fighting the old battles are old themselves, their felt banners frayed and their guitar strings broken, while a young battalion is rising, with no animus against the atrophied adolescence of their parents, and only eager to engage a real spiritual combat in a culture of death. They usually are ignorant, but bright, for ignorance is not stupidity.

Our Lord warned enough about the experts of his day who loved long tassels, and who swore by the gold of the temple rather than the temple, to stay us from placing too much hope in ritual and texts to save lives. Neglect of the aesthetics of worship is not remedied by the worship of aesthetics. A pastor will sometimes observe an over-reaction to the corruption of the Liturgy, so that ritual becomes theatre and Andrei Rubleyev yields to Aubrey Beardsley. Any group or religious community that is too deliberate about external form sows in itself the seeds of decadence.

Liturgy should be chantable, reverent, and expressive of the highest culture we know, without self-consciousness. Ars est celare artem. In tandem with Ovid, for whom it is art to conceal art, Evelyn Waugh said that Anthony Eden was not a gentleman because he dressed too well. It is typical of some schismatic sects that the more they lapse into heresy, the more ritualistic they become. So one will see pictures of a woman claiming to be a bishop, vested like Pius X on his jubilee. [...]

Fr. Philip Neri Powell is right: go read the full post and give thanks to God!

The burning of charity, the cry of the heart

“ Let your desire be before Him; and the Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you. (Matthew 6:6) For it is your heart's desire that is your prayer; and if your desire continues uninterrupted, your prayer continues also. For not without a meaning did the Apostle say, Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Are we to be without ceasing bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands, that he says, Pray without ceasing? Or if it is in this sense that we say that we pray, this, I believe, we cannot do without ceasing. There is another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart. Whatever else you are doing, if you do but long for that Sabbath, you do not cease to pray. If you would never cease to pray, never cease to long after it. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. You will be ceasing to speak, if you cease to long for it. Who are those who have ceased to speak? They of whom it is said, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12) The freezing of charity is the silence of the heart; the burning of charity is the cry of the heart. If love continues still you are still lifting up your voice; if you are always lifting up your voice, you are always longing after something; if always longing for something absent, you are calling the Sabbath rest to remembrance. ”

~ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 38 (13).
Translated by J.E. Tweed. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.

The last of the Romans

Time for another post about books. But this time the subject is more an author and his work in general than a specific book. And this just because I can’t think of one of this author’s books without thinking of the others too. Not that I have read them all …, actually only four : Empire of Dragons, Ides of March, Akropolis. La grande epopea di Atene (which is not translated in English), and The Last Legion, that was sold to a major film production in the US—the homonymous film, starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley, was released in 2007 (see Wikipedia). I’m talking about Valerio Massimo Manfredi (website).

Manfredi is an Italian historian and archaeologist who since 1978 has spent his time teaching in several European and American universities, digging ruins in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, and writing novels, including the enormously successful Alexander trilogy, published in thirty-six languages in fifty-five countries. His wife, Christine Fedderson Manfredi, translates his published works from Italian to English. Manfredi was voted Man of the Year 1999 by the American Biographical Institute.

Of course, most of Manfredi’s novels are historical fiction, and that’s just the reason why I started reading them—I love history much more than literature (especially fiction) per se. The first novel I read by Manfredi, a couple of years ago, was The Last Legion. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It exceeded my (not so high) expectations in several ways: well written, fascinating, never boring, the kind of “books that give you emotions and enrich your soul with values and ideas,” as Manfredi himself said in an interview. The story is set in the 5th century, notably at the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire under its last Emperor, Romulus Augustus. This is coupled with other facts and legends from the history of Britain and fantastic elements from the legend of King Arthur. Enough to make me stop reading … in other circumstances, but not in this one.

Obviously, as Professor of Classical Archaeology, Manfredi has extensive knowledge about the classical world, which helps him enormously when he writes about the age in which the story is set, but asked “how much research is still involved when he writes a new book,” he answered that

technical knowledge is just grammar, basic elements on which one recreates a credible environment from which also the story and the characters take credibility. Language, mentality, gestures, costumes, landscape, food, climate, everything must be impeccably authentic and has to be recreated in the most natural way. Yes, sometimes you have to check some detail in the sources because you can't remember everything by heart but the real task is to blow passion and feelings in the dramatis personae and in their actions. You have to recognize what part of those men and women survives in you as a modern man, how deep your roots go in the ground.

But then again, although in Manfredi’s own words, “It’s only a question of quality, intensity, visionary capacity,” his “technical knowledge”—or, better still, both his “technical knowledge” of and his genuine passion for the classical world (and the combination of the two)—is one of the reasons, if not the main reason, why I am tempted to say that he is a unique case in the recent history of world literature. Another reason is his sense of mystery. Again in Manfredi’s own words,

In an overpopulated world, in a swarm that loves the reflectors and kills the mystery, people need to dream. When I was a child and lived in the country, you could perceive the unknown just going out in the night. Trees’ branches like giants, the owl’s cry, everything was big, magic, frightening. Nowadays they’re WWF’s affairs...

However, in the case of The Last Legion, the mystery is intriguing—one of the main characters is a certain Ambrosinus, whose real (Druid) name is Merlin…—but not the main object of the novel, but rather it is the relations between Romans and barbarians: an extraordinarily well-crafted piece of European and Western history that should be read in schools.

In the case of Empire of Dragons, instead, the main object is not, despite the appearances to the contrary, the extraordinary Chinese adventures of Marcus Metellus Aquila—legate of the Second Augusta Legion, hero of the empire—but rather it is the ancient Roman concept of virtus, which included strength and courage, poverty and frugality (“so highly and continuously honored”). Fides, constantia, dignitas ... the virtues of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the famed farmer-soldier who saved the state of Rome from the Sabines …

What a great history lesson, and what a wave of nostalgia.

In Memoriam: Francesco Cossiga

Former Italian president Francesco Cossiga has died. A man with sharp intelligence and a biting sense of humor, he was a veteran politician and a leading figure in the Christian Democrat party that ruled Italy for most of the post-war period before collapsing in disgrace in the early 1990s. He was also a staunch backer of the US during the Cold War, and remained such until his death.

He once described himself as a “wildcat that it is better not to scratch,” and possibly he was right. But he was, first and foremost, a gentleman and an old-fashioned Christian. As president from 1985 to 1992, he used the largely ceremonial, head-of-state role to publicly lambaste—through legendary and fiery interviews and speeches that earned him the nickname of the “picconatore” (literally somebody wielding a pickaxe)—parliament and the judiciary in what the best part of public opinion saw as an effort to spur reform in an increasingly inefficient, moribund postwar system of revolving door coalition governments. Thus he paved the way for the new conservative governments of Italy, but he also became a point of reference for the Italian “riformisti” (the moderates of the Left, unfortunately a species threatened with extinction …).

Emblematic of both his sense of humor and his anti-leftism, commenting in 2007 on the September 11 attacks and on a video attributed to Osama Bin Laden, he wrote on the Corriere della Sera newspaper that “all of the democratic circles of America and of Europe, especially those of the Italian center-left, now know well that the disastrous attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world in order to place the blame on Arabic Countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Many will miss him, including myself, here in Italy. Rest in peace, Mr. President, and thank you for all you have done. We will never forget you.

The Seven Storey Mountain

A few notes on one of my summer reads, The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. I had read some other books by the same author in the past, i.e., New Seeds of Contemplation and The Silent Life, but had never taken the time to read Thomas Merton’s breakthrough autobiography. It has been an unexpected discovery under many points of view—both positive and negative, if I may say so. What is certain is that it has been an interesting, worthwhile read.

Who says, “My life is mine and mine alone” should have a read of The Seven Storey Mountain, a book which tells the story of a young man who, from no religion at all, became a Catholic and entered the Order of Cistercian of the Strict Observance—the Trappists—at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. A story that demonstrates, perhaps once and for all, that no one is the master of his own destiny, that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10: 23). That we must have access to God and His nature if we will ever live the right way, the way He lives. That we must recognize God’s will as more important than our own desires. As the famous Prayer of Thomas Merton goes (Thoughts in Solitude),

My God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

And as the closing words of the book read:

But you shall taste the true solitude of My anguish and My poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of My joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end, and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi and St Bonaventure to the Cistercian abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani: that you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men. Sit finis libri, non finis quaerendi.

At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, the whole of Merton’s life is such an American story, in an Emersonian sense: “All life is an experiment. The more experiment you make the better” (“Experience”). By the way, this might also be, in my very humble opinion, the meaning of those Latin words, Sit finis libri, non finis quaerendi (Let this be the end of the book, but not of the search). As a matter of fact, Merton’s “complexities” manifested themselves in many ways previous and following Seven Storey Mountain’s publication, e.g. in his various attempts to leave the Trappist Order for the Carthusian and Camaldolese eremitical orders—in the mid-1950s he tried to obtain an authorized transfer from the Abbey of Gethsemani to the Sacro Eremo (the hermit village) of the Monastery of Camaldoli in Italy, a wonderful place that I know very well, si parva licet …. And above all, as author and Thomas Merton expert Mark Shaw discovered through seven volumes of Merton’s private journals, released in the mid-1990s, there existed a more human side to Merton causing one of the most important spiritual writers of the twentieth century to suffer and admit, “The depressions are deeper, more frequent. I am near fifty. People think I am happy.” After all, it has been said that the essence of Merton’s spirituality itself is the “humanity” of it. And at the beginning of 1966 he wrote in his journals that he yearned to love, but there was no woman to love, and obviously monastic rules forbade it. But later on, while recovering in a hospital from back surgery, a student nurse half his age named Margie Smith soothed his pain with a sponge bath and it was love at first sight ... but it was an unconsummated “love affair.” Eighteen months later, he had to choose between Margie, the woman he called, “a miracle in my life,” or the God who had saved his soul. When he finally chose, says Mark Shaw, Merton emerged renewed: stronger and surer than he would have been without being tested by such a shattering conflict.

Well, this may not be exactly what one could call an example of monastic discipline and conduct, but to be honest, after reading The Seven Storey Mountain, it would be inexact to say that I was surprised by that discovery … If ever, what surprises me most is that such a man as the young Thomas Merton could have become what he eventually became. And this is the real miracle, this is what I was talking about when I said, along with Jeremiah, that this story demonstrates that “the way of man is not in himself.” We are all in the hands of God.

What else? Well, I have loved his profound and insightful thoughts on a subject that is very dear to me, the Gregorian chant:

How mighty they are, those hymns and those antiphons of the Easter office! Gregorian chant that should, by rights, be monotonous, because it has absolutely none of the tricks and resources of modern music, is full of a variety infinitely rich because it is subtle and spiritual and deep, and lies rooted far beyond the shallow level of virtuosity and 'technique,' even in the abysses of the spirit, and of the human soul. Those Easter 'alleluias,' without leaving the narrow range prescribed by the eight Gregorian modes, have discovered color and warmth and meaning and gladness that no other music possesses. Like everything else Cistercian—like the monks themselves—these antiphons, by submitting to the rigor of a Rule that would seem to destroy individuality, have actually acquired a character that is unique, unparalleled.
[…]
But the cold stones of the Abbey church ring with a chant that glows with living flame, with a clean, profound desire. It is an austere warmth, the warmth of Gregorian chant. It is deep beyond ordinary emotion, and that is one reason why you never get tired of it. It never wears you out by making a lot of cheap demands on your sensibilities. Instead of drawing you out into the open field of feelings where your enemies, the devil and your own imagination and the inherent vulgarity of your own corrupted nature can get at you with their blades and cut you to pieces, it draws you within, where you are lulled in peace and recollection and where you find God.

Isn’t that absolutely amazing? It would be enough to make me a lifelong fan of Thomas Merton. But there is more. Much more. Take this, for instance:

Not all men are called to be hermits, but all men need enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard at least occasionally. When that inner voice is not heard, when man cannot attain to the spiritual peace that comes from being perfectly at one with his own true self, his life is always miserable and exhausting.” [The Silent Life]

No real news here...

A quick update on the recent developments in Italian politics. Well, nothing has really happened (so far), don’t let you fool by appearances. In fact, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung puts it, “Sie [Die Italiener] haben sich, Staatspräsident Napolitano vorneweg, in die Ferien verabschiedet” (The Italians have gone on holiday, with President Napolitano at the top of the list) … An excellent article indeed.

Sorry for the long silence

Sorry for the long silence from me. I‘m still on vacation—ah the long holidays of teachers …—and I had been having unexpected problems with accessing the Internet in the past two weeks, in the mountain valleys of Tuscany (as far as compensation I had been reading a lot). Where I am now it’s much better, and I plan to be more regular with posting. See you soon!

The Sacrifice for Liberty, The Threat of Tyranny

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

Today, July 4th, we celebrate the birth of our nation, now 234 years old. We face the same issue now, as we did then. Do we want to live under tyranny or with liberty? We now have in power in this country people that believe in tyranny, and have the power to enforce it, and are. At the founding of our county, many sacrificed their wealth, families, and in many cases, their lives, to set the foundation for the “American Experiment”, where people decide on their own how to live their lives. Those sacrifices are in danger of being for naught.

Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, had two sons in the officer corps. They were captured and put on a British prison ship where they were beaten and starved, more than most, because of whose sons they were. Eleven thousand men died on the horrible ship. Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, the British told Abraham Clark that if he would recant his support of the Revolution, say he supported the King, his sons would be set free. He said “No”, and this should break everyone’s heart to this day.

Another signer, Thomas Nelson, had a huge estate that was used as headquarters by British General Charles Cornwallis. The reason Cornwallis was there, was because he was driven from Yorktown by heavy cannon fire from American forces. All around the estate, everything was in shambles, the town in ruins. The estate though, remained standing, untouched. Nelson arrived at the battle front and was enraged at what he saw. He turned to the gunners and yelled, "Why do you spare my home?". The gunners said, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson yelled back, "Give me the cannon!", and turned it on his own house. The story doesn’t end there. He had raised $2 million dollars (this is 1776 dollars, what is that value now?) by backing loans with his estates. The Congress after the war did not honor him by helping him out when the loans came due. He died losing everything, a few years after the war, at age 50.

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nine died of wounds, disease, and any number of horrible things. One lost all 13 of his children. Two had their wives brutally beaten. All were driven from their homes, and twelve of those had their homes burned down. Seventeen lost everything they owned. That’s not all the horrible things that happened to them, but not one of them changed from their dedication to liberty and freedom. Not one became a traitor.

This Declaration is not just for what is says for America, it’s for all mankind. For the 5,000 years of civilization prior to this Declaration, men had lived under the tyranny of the few that thought they knew better how others should live their lives. Thomas Jefferson: "The Declaration of Independence [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man." Yet again today, we face tyranny that so many gave so much to stop, and set men free.

Having won, and what our yearly celebration is founded upon, is from John Adams:

“Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among men. You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man. ... It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Day's Transaction.”

(July 3, 1776)

So we have our fireworks, and parties, and church services commemorating this event, and I pray to God, that Freedom will forever triumph in my country.

The last thing John Adams said in pubic was, “Independence forever!”. May this be prophetic.

Obama's war on the traditional family

I know I am contradicting myself here—only two posts ago I was talking about “light blogging” and “vacation time” … But this Washington Times editorial is a must read :

President Obama has wasted little time in using his executive branch power to give the country a leftward shove. In just the past few weeks, the administration has ramped up programs intended to reshape conceptions of the family. When it comes to moral values, it is clear that radical leftists are driving the agenda.
[…]
Mr. Obama's policies are undermining the foundation of the family itself. For the long-term good of the country, members of Congress should take note of what's happening and act to undo the radical social agenda.

Read the rest. Thanks: Sandra Kennedy.

Expats in Florence

Perhaps not everyone knows that for a long time Florence has been, and remains, home to many expats: those who have longed to live there, those who have found love and moved there, and those who have gone to Florence and felt immediately at home there. “Many people,” says Melinda Gallo, a writer and blogger who has been living in Florence for seven years, “arrive here at a point in their lives when they seek to redefine themselves: whether they were not completely happy, were searching for something new, or were looking for love, it seems that those who come to Florence are reborn.” Of course this is, or should be, no surprise to those who have already experienced the special atmosphere that makes Florence such a unique city (and Tuscany such a magical place).

However, whether you have an idea of what I’m talking about, or not, here Melinda tells the story of one of those expats, Natasha Garland, an American young woman whose initial one-year adventure has now become an eight-year stint in a place she continues to delight in.

Blogging will be light – Vacation time!

Hello dear readers, I always appreciate your time and comments, but blogging will be light over the next few weeks. Until then, you might want to check out some of my favorite blogs (look on the right side of this page). Have a great summer!

See you soon, Italy!

Poor lads, don't go too hard on them, after all they did what they could do... Arrivederci Italia!

Immoral moralists?

There is a quote I came across some time ago that says, “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, X, 16, AD 167). It fits well to a lot of people, except, at least to a certain extent, moralist philosophers—but Marcus Aurelius was one of them …—and theologians, but it certainly fits perfectly with politicians who play the moralist, such as, here in Italy, Antonio Di Pietro.

Why do I say this? Well, just a moment, for those who don’t know Di Pietro, he is the head of a small opposition party (“Italy of Values”) and a former prosecutor who leapt to national prominence in the days of Mani pulite (“clean hands”), the nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s, which led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Needless to say, he is a huge moralist, but … at the same time he might not be as immaculate as one might expect. In fact, he is accused of having embezzled funds related to European elections in 2004. The funds, which were supposed to be for his party, were allegedly diverted to a private organisation of the same name. The allegations were made by a former Italy of Values member, Elio Veltri.

Of course Di Pietro (as anyone else) is innocent until proven guilty. But it was he who had always maintained that politicians must be above suspicion. It was he who had always despised  reactions such as the following one (à la Berlusconi): “There are people who have not accepted political defeat and continue to sling mud at other people.” But, this time, guess who said it …

Habermas and secularisation (part I)

By Angelo

Many thanks to Rob who has invited me to contribute to this blog.


Last week Jürgen Habermas visited Ireland and received a prize from University College Dublin, where I teach philosophy to adult classes.
Habermas is considered the most important European living philosopher and belongs to the second generation of the 'Frankfurt School'. This is a group of philosophers and sociologist based in Frankfurt who, in the middle of last century, presented a criticism of capitalism (but also of Soviet socialism) often called 'critical theory'. It was an attempt to update the thought of Karl Marx taking inspiration from psychoanalysis and sociology.
Habermas philosophy is a ongoing response to the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists.

In this short note I want to concentrate on a particular idea that Habermas, who is now 81, has presented in the last years. He maintains that in the past it was commonly accepted that modernity and secularization proceed together. The more a nation embraces the principles of democracy, rights and participation, the more it becomes secular in the sense that religious ideas have less relevance in the public life. The core of the process of secularization is the separation of church and state. Habermas, who is a secular thinker, doesn't deny the importance of this separation but criticises the assumption that history goes necessarily in that direction and religion is destined to become irrelevant in the public square.
He shows that if religion has lost its traditional power in Europe, especially in terms of its ability to have a strong influence on the masses, this is not always the case in other modern western societies such as the United States and it is even less the case in the non-western world. We witness an on-growing role of religions on the world scale, a role that was not expected by theorists of the previous generation. They considered religion as a configuration of the past, which was destined to become more and more irrelevant. But Habermas reckons the continuing existence and relevance of religious traditions even in societies which are largely secularised. Europe seems to be the exception rather than the norm in this apparent coincidence of modernisation and secularisation but what will the future be like? It seems that also in Europe things are going in unexpected directions.


Here is an extract from an interview that appeared on The Irish Times:

Journalist: I used the expression “post-secular” to describe a shift in public consciousness in such predominantly secular countries as Canada, Australia, New Zealand or western Europe. Here the resurgence of religion that we are observing in other global regions has unsettled a dominant but unspoken presumption. In these countries it is no longer a cultural commonplace that religion is outdated, that it is destined to disappear with the advance of modernisation. All are now coming to the realisation that religious communities are destined to remain with us, even as the surrounding environment becomes increasingly secular.

Habermas: I associate this sociological observation with a diagnosis of a more philosophical kind. Secularly minded people should recognise religion as a contemporary intellectual formation. Over the past two millennia, western philosophy has repeatedly borrowed images, meanings and concepts from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and has translated them into its own secular language. We cannot tell whether this process of appropriation has run its course or whether, on the contrary, other semantic potentials remain untapped. Of course, such a receptive and dialogical relation is only possible towards non-fundamentalist traditions that do not close themselves off from the modern world.

I am glad to inform you ...

I am pleased to welcome a new contributor to this blog, Angelo Bottone. Angelo is an associate lecturer at the School of Arts of the Dublin Business School, where he teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Theories of Knowledge and Philosophy of Science. He holds a PhD in philosophy at University College Dublin. He has published three books on John Henry Newman and several articles on Paul Ricoeur, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Multiculturalism, and Philosophy of Religion. He also translated Newman’s The Idea of a University into Italian. He blogs at botblog and is, from time immemorial, a good friend of WRH.

He will keep us informed and up-to-date on philosophical, religious and cultural issues. What will his first post here be about? Well, I don’t pretend to be a prophet, but something tells me that it will be about Germany’s foremost philosopher and critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, who received the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin last week...

Good News / Bad News (from Italy)

The good news for Italy, today, is that British bank Barclays is not worried about Italy’s public finances and will continue to invest in the euro zone country. Barclays chief executive John Varley told Il Sole-24 Ore newspaper,

We had strong growth in Italy in the last 10 years. We continue to consider it a strategic country in which to invest following our guidelines: in retail and wealth, and in corporate and investment banking. The high level of debt compared to GDP is not new, while the low level of household debt is particularly reassuring.

The bad news is that Gianluigi Buffon, the starting goalkeeper for world champion Italy, Wednesday was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his back and might not be able to play again in the World Cup (he will definitely not be available for Sunday’s game against New Zealand and most probably will miss the third game of the first round, against Slovakia). “Gigi has charisma. He gives strength to others.” said Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. And it’s the plain truth.