Amidst all the adulation surrounding the elevation of Jorge Bergoglio to become Pope Francis I, there is one thing that many overlook: that he started out his academic career as a chemist. New Atheists would have us believe that scientific education will make us like them. But this is only true when we make science …
Sebastian Temple: Sing! People of God, Sing!
St. Francis SFPS-2 (1967) Up to now the early post-Vatican II albums have come from the U.S. But there was activity in this field in the U.K. also, and probably the best known artist/song writer to get things started was Sebastian Temple. Born in South Africa, he emigrated to the UK, where he spent many …
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Sister Germaine: Songs of Salvation
FEL 810F-6242 (1966) One of the early "sensations" of the post-Vatican II Catholic music world was the young nun Sister Germaine Habjan, who produced this album of songs and narrative (Episcopal ministers Ian Mitchell and Frederick Gere also included narrative) based on Scripture and other sources. By later standards it's a plain album, but it's …
Peter Scholtes: They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love
FEL S-252 (1968) Anyone who has rummaged (physically or virtually) through the discography of the "Jesus Music" era usually has strong ideas about which albums and artists affected them personally, and which ones changed the course of the life of the church. For Evangelicals, artists such as Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy or the Second Chapter …
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The 10:15: Making Tracks
no label 2345 (1970) Some people will find the connection between "folk music" and "the Bronx" akin to salsa coming from New York City, but here it is anyway. This album, produced right about the time the Novus Ordo Missae was made official, is a rambling folk album whose style is, in many ways, more …
Wendy Vickers: Sow a Seed
Epoch VII WV01 (1974) Most people associate post-Vatican II Catholic music with the folk Mass type music that's featured regularly on this blog. But there were some exceptions, and this album--and artist--was one of them. This is a very good, straightforward folk album, more like (as Ken Scott points out in Archivist) Maranatha artists Karen …
When Lent Became the "Saddest Season"
It wasn't always so, at least not as we understand it. In discussing Leo the Great, Hughes Oliphant Old's The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 2: The Patristic Age has this to say: Lent has usually been explained as a period of forty days during which …
Pope Benedict XVI: Another Great Refusal Leads to Another Great Nailbiter
This came as something of a shock: Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign on February 28 -- the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years -- setting the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March. A Vatican official said the Holy See hopes …
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In Defence–Really Praise–of Scholasticism
In a recent comment on my page Think Before You Convert "KYCath" (I assume that means Kentucky Catholic) there was the following: In short, Wills exposes how the original infrastructures of the Catholic Church morphed and transformed over the ages, so that original dogmas–and the understanding of their meaning thereof–changed to the point where the …
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The Christmas Story, from the Cofraternity Version
Now it came to pass in those days, that a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken. This first census took place while Cyrinius was governor of Syria. And all were going, each to his own town, to register. And Joseph also went from Galilee out …
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Positive Infinity 