Canadians in arms pt 2
Shown here about to enter Campobasso’s Holy Rosary Church are Roman Catholic personnel of three Canadian infantry units. Fresh from the Italian front, where they had been relieved by soldiers of other units, they celebrated Mass conducted by Capt. A. J. Barker of Saskatoon. Pipe Band of the 48th Highlanders of Canada, shown in the foreground, piped the men to church while applauding and cheering Italians lined the route.
Frank Sheed, from The Church and I
Doubleday and Company, Inc. Garden City, New York: 1974.
Cardinal Hinsley never tried to rid himself of his Yorkshire burr. We hear of a scene in an officers’ mess. When the Cardinal came on, the others began by leaving the chair near the radio for the Catholic chaplain: in no time they were all listening in utter stillness. At the end he said “And now, on your knees.” And on their knees they all went, as he prayed (p 249).
As brave a thing as any recorded in the war was done by Captain Fogarty Fegen. He was in command of Jervis Bay, an armed merchantman, convoying a group of ships. A German warship appeared. Fegen headed for it, firing with his pathetic handful of guns. His ship was sunk, of course. But the delay gave time for the convoy to scatter and in the end the raider sank only four out of the thirty-eight. The ship we were on picked up some of the crew of one of these. I remember an old sailor particularly—he had clung to a raft for two days and nights in the Atlantic in winter. He looked very hale and sounded very hearty. I mention this incident because on a visit afterwards to Halifax I met a priest who knew Fegen and learned that he had been a daily communicant and had spent a long time praying before the Blessed Sacrament before going on board for his last journey. I found myself thinking of a comment Newman made soon after he joined the Church: “This is a religion!” (p 246).
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→
Three Easter Musical Gems: Bach, Palestrina and Byrd
A very blessed and glorious Easter! Christus surrexit vere, alleluia! As we begin this Easter Octave with the great Solemnity of Easter, music to lift the soul would be one of Bach’s Easter cantatas, composed during his time at Leipzig in the early 1700’s, for the six Sundays of this festive season, leading up to[…]Continue reading→
Good Friday and Suffering
Evil and pain is always a mystery, that whole mysterium iniquitatis, of which Saint Paul writes (2 Thess 2:7). In 1984, Pope Saint John Paul II penned an Apostolic Letter on the nature and purpose of human suffering, Salvifici Doloris (curiously, now looking back, the same year he made his first apostolic journey to Canada).[…]Continue reading→