Sauce For The Goose...

Several bloggers have already commented on the letter by the chairman of Brentwood’s Diocesan Commission for Liturgy which called for the corrected translation of the Missal to be rejected. Fr. Butler sent his letter to The Bitter Pill, which (unsurprisingly) published it, and he also sent it to priests in Brentwood, encouraging them to acts of disobedience in refusing to use the revised Missal.

Ben Trovato, the Countercultural Father, has published the full letter (it was shortened for publication - too strong even for The Bitter Pill?) and he also fisked it most thoroughly. The charming and erudite Fr. Hunwicke* has written three posts about the deeper meaning behind this attack, and I strongly encourage you all to read Liturgists 1: Open Warfare, Liturgists 2: Burying Ratzinger, and Liturgists 3: Nice Old Gentlemen.

The next stage in the attack has been reported by Deacon Nick Donnelly of Protect the Pope - apparently A Call to Action (ACTA) has escalated its campaign to get the bishops of England and Wales to drop the revised translation of the Roman Missal.

According to Fr. Butler, several priests have had serious difficulties with the revised translation. He maintains that they have even gone so far as to change or avoid words and phrases that they find difficult to say with meaning.

Readers of this blog will realise that I have a personal preference for the TLM. But I have never refused to attend the Novus Ordo or questioned its validity. And while I cannot compete with the inimitable Fr. Z in identifying what the prayers actually say (see this week's translation for a taster), even I could recognise that "Et cum Spiritu tuo" doesn't actually translate as "And also with you!" So I'm a strong proponent of the revised (corrected) translation.

But I do think Fr. Butler's letter raises an interesting point.

Before a priest can say Mass in the Extraordinary Form, he is required to be idoneus - that means that he must be able to pronounce the words correctly and understand their meaning.

It seems, from Fr. Butler's letter, that this standard has not been adhered to in priests who say the Novus Ordo.

Does this mean that these priests should be prevented from saying the Novus Ordo Mass until they too are judged to be idoneus?

After all, what's sauce for the goose...

(*Fr. Hunwicke claims to have been training as an Extremely Unpleasant Old Bloke for many years - but, having met him, I can attest to his complete failure to achieve this status!)

Suffering For Christ...

Fr. Stephen Brown doesn't blog, but he posted the following to his Facebook Page, and I found it extremely moving. Christians are suffering for their faith right now, and the mainstream media are silent. Fr. Brown wrote:

"Here is my (amateurish) attempt to raise awareness of what our fellow Christians are undergoing in so many places. This video is not intended to arouse hatred or resentment, but to motivate people to do what they can to help. It is very gory in places, since this is the reality of things. Don't watch it if you're squeamish."

But actually, squeamishness can't be allowed to excuse silence on this issue any more - I think that the more people are made to realise that this brutality is going on, the better.

Things are difficult for Christians (and especially Catholics) in the West (and getting more so) but nothing like this... yet. Pray for our fellow Christians around the world.

Not About Cats...

I've been having a few problems uploading to Flickr. I tried changing the size of photos, the number of photos... I reset my broadband, and even tried to use the old-fashioned cable... Eventually I decided to try Flickr's troubleshooter. Within 30 seconds I realised that it was my anti-virus program causing the glitch.

I have therefore finally managed to upload my photos from Candlemas - taken on my super-snazzy new Galaxy Note 3.

I shall blog about my phone shortly... after a few more cat posts.

And Yet Another Post About Cats...

I received a concerned email from Delia asking whether everything was ok with Miaowrini. Looking at the blog, I realised that I'd actually allowed two whole weeks to elapse since my last update... In fact I've been putting up lots of mini updates on Twitter and Facebook, and hadn't realised that I'd neglected to post on the blog.

Thanks to the further kind intervention of Annie Elizabeth, who borrowed it from a friend of hers on my behalf, I managed to get a larger cage for Miaowrini, and bought a smaller litter tray to fit in it, which made life easier for Miaowrini, Furretti and me. Miaowrini can use the litter whenever she wants, Furretti is no longer locked out of the sitting room and I can relax without worrying that the cat needs to pee.

I took Miaowrini for her first check up at the end of the first week. The vet was justifiably pleased with the way that surgery had gone, and was even more pleased by the state of Miaowrini's leg after the first few days - there was good circulation, the wound was healing, and the cat was able to move her paw. I was shown the x-rays and the need for enforced cage rest was stressed in no uncertain terms. I was given some more painkillers (for the cat) and told that the stitches would be taken out after a further fortnight, but that the collar was no longer needed.

The knee before surgery (you can't see that the cartilage on top of the tibia has completely sheared off, and the ligaments are trashed.)

And here is the leg after surgery...

I then went out and bought the cats some catnip toy treats (and I thought Furretti would appreciate some extra attention.) However, Miaowrini tried rolling over and over in her cage, kicking at the mouse toy in her ecstasy, and I thought it wasn't a good idea, so confiscated her mouse. Furretti enjoyed her mouse toy very much...

I am more convinced than ever that catnip ought to be a controlled substance.

In the past few days, Miaowrini has been getting more and more fractious and has made several breaks for freedom. The last one involved some duplicity on her part: she scooped up all the litter to one end of the box and started crying as if it needed changing. Now it isn't pleasant to be stuck right next to a used litter box, and that is without the feline sense of smell and general fastidiousness. I opened the cage to get the box, and as I reached over, she scooted under my arms and jumped down to the floor.

I went after her, but had omitted to close the sitting room door. Out through it she hobbled... and I hobbled after her (the damp weather has made my knee play up) but I couldn't catch her. She made a mad leap for the kitchen counter (by the cat flap) and I had visions (nightmares) of her escaping into the wild outdoors, but she didn't have enough strength in her back leg to sustain the leap, and slithered down the side of the cupboard. I promptly grabbed her and stuffed her back in her cage. Again.

My main concern is that leaping about will put strain on her newly-reconstructed knee. It's only held together with nylon threads as artificial ligaments until enough scar tissue can form to stabilise the knee. Even so, there is no guarantee that the operation will work - the vet was careful to warn me about this, hence the strict cage rest regime.

We go back to have the next checkup on Friday - and hopefully the stitches will be removed. What happens after that is anyone's guess. I shall let you know how it goes...