Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire: Ian Mitchell Was Replaced by Jon Bruno

It's always interesting to follow the various artists that grace this blog.  One of them, Ian Mitchell of American Folk Mass fame, was featured a little while ago when I discovered that the L.A. Times reported on Halloween 1985 that he had been given the boot at St. Athanasius Episcopal Church.  That took place because …

Sylvia Dunlap: Someone Like Me

Oblate OBLP 1001 (1981) Followers of this blog know that, if an album combines "Texas" and "Catholic," I'm generally interested.  This album, which is a little later than most of the albums on this site, goes against the grain of where Christian music was going in the early 1980's (and that's also somewhat true of …

St. Pius X Seminary Choir: Each One Heard In His Own Language About The Marvels Of God

Century 30441 1968 One of those early, pre-NOM works, it was led by Rev. Nicholas Freund.  The best way to describe this album is "eclectic."  It has some of the "space age" effects of Leo Nestor's Sons of the Morning, but doesn't venture into the refined realms of that work.  It explores the combination of …

Broken Windows and Spiritual Warfare: An Ash Wednesday Reflection

We're starting yet again another Lenten season.  The streets of New Orléans (and doubtless other cities which go out for Mardi Gras and Carnival in a big way) are full of trash but quiet.  If you're not Roman Catholic and on fast and abstinence, it's a great time to eat in the French Quarter. But …

Crimea, the Place Where the West Goes Nuts

Crimea is back in the news; the Russians have basically taken the place over again and the Ukrainians--along with their friends in the West--aren't sure what to do.  There's a lot of bluster out there; comparisons to the Sudetenland and even the Rhineland abound, the Cold War is being reignited by the neocons, etc.  Barack …

Maybe I'm in the Catholic Blogosphere Too

I spend a great deal of time on the Anglican/Episcopal world, to the extent that I'm listed in Anglican blogs such as StandFirm, Anglican Curmudgeon, and Locusts and Wild Honey (and for these listings I am grateful, their links are in the blogroll). Evidently the Roman Catholics are starting to find a kindred spirit, as …

Rev. Ian Mitchell: What a Difference Thirty Years Make

One of the more interesting albums I posted (or more accurately reposted) is Ian Mitchell's American Folk Song Mass.  At the time he was living in Chicago.  Listening to the album, it doesn't take a genius to figure out which side of the political spectrum Mitchell was coming from.  But I've always taken an open …

Academic Freedom: Nice While It Lasted

But the Ivy Leaguers are hard at work to change that: Yet the liberal obsession with “academic freedom” seems a bit misplaced to me. After all, no one ever has “full freedom” in research and publication. Which research proposals receive funding and what papers are accepted for publication are always contingent on political priorities. The words …

The Big Differences Between Pope Francis and the Prosperity Charismatics

The greeting video that Pope Francis sent to Kenneth Copeland's conference has created a stir.  There are the usual Protestant vs. Catholic kinds of issues being brought up, and of course the obvious one: why a Pope who has pushed Catholic social teaching back to the forefront--to the discomfort of American conservatives--would even give a …

Robert Munday's Doing It Over Again, and a Note on Systematic Theology

Former Nashotah House Dean Robert Munday's "If I had to do it over again..." is an excellent response to a sorry episode.  I know it's hard for someone who has put his life into a work which others delight in unravelling to watch that take place. Some comments on what he had to say: To …

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