The Remnant Speaks
Letters to the Editor: The Remnant Speaks P.O. Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025, Editor@RemnantNewspaper.com Father Michael Rodriguez on True Unity
Dear Mr. Michael Matt,
Blessed be Jesus Christ and His most pure Mother! Just a quick note to thank you for the message you conveyed in Remnant TV Episode 8, "The 2014 Grammys and a SSPX Leak." Keep it up, because we need a lot more of the same. I think one of the most urgent tasks we face at present is to bring greater unity and solidarity among tradition-minded Catholics, and to cease all the in-fighting that continues to take place between, for example, the SSPX and the FSSP. I am very interested in fostering greater respect and friendship among all traditionminded Catholics regardless of whether they see themselves affiliated with the SSPX, FSSP, Institute of Christ the King, Diocesan Latin Mass community, independent, etc.
Ad Iesum per Mariam,
Fr. Michael Rodríguez
Lay Cardinals
Editor, The Remnant: The statement by your columnists Chris Jackson posted online 11/9/13 that "there has never been even a lay cardinal in the 2,000 years of the Church," is simply factually wrong.
Traditionalists of all people should be the first to check their facts before making historically false statement. Not doing so, leaves traditionalists open to ridicule.
Ferdinando I de’ Medici was a lay cardinal for twenty-six years. Even after he succeeded his brother Francesco I de’ Medici as Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587, he nevertheless remained a cardinal until he married Christina of Lorraine two years later. Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, 1st Duke of Lerma was created cardinal by Pope Paul V on March 26, 1618, a title that protected him from prosecution, after he was banished from power on October 4, 1618. Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria was a lay cardinal for about 20 years from 1620 (about age 10) to his death in 1641. Teodolfo Mertel, a lawyer and layman, was named cardinal by Pope Pius IX as recently as 1858. He was not a lay cardinal for long, as he received ordination to the diaconate the same year. When he died in 1899 he was the last non-priest cardinal. Giacomo Antonelli, who died in 1876 as Pius IX’s Cardinal Secretary of State, remained a deacon when named cardinal in 1847. And in 1968 Pope Paul VI seriously considered appointing the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain a lay cardinal.
Most famously, Cardinal Pole, whose mother was martyred by Henry VIII, was a layman when he sat in parliament as the Pope’s legate and formally lifted the excommunication of the English Crown. He was still a layman when he put in place what was probably the best hierarchy the English had ever had, an hierarchy that had the courage and integrity to resign as one man when Elizabeth 1 came to the throne. Sadly Cardinal Pole died the same day as Queen Mary, the queen who had fought valiantly to restore the ancient faith. There is a movement among British traditionalists to have Cardinal Pole canonised. Indeed, it was not until 1917 that the Code of Canon Law decreed that from then on only those who were priests or bishops could be chosen as cardinals, thus officially closing the historical period in which some cardinals could be laymen.
Graham Moorhouse England Mr. Jackson’s Response
The term "layman" properly refers to a man who is not in the clerical state.
Before 1972, a man became a cleric (and thus no longer a layman) at first tonsure.
All of the so-called "lay-cardinals" you point out were not technically laymen, but clerics as they had received not only first tonsure, but also minor orders. In 1972, Pope Paul VI did away with the minor orders, meaning that since 1972 a man first enters the clerical state when ordained a deacon (at least in the Novus Ordo). Thus, in modern times, we have come to equate any man who is not ordained a priest or deacon as a "layman."
This distinction is important as it demonstrates that the position of cardinal was always meant to accompany the clerical state and be closely tied with ordination. This is confirmed by Pope Sixtus V’s apostolic constitution Postquam, issued in 1586, which likened cardinals to the apostles due to their role in assisting the pope govern the Church. Thus Tradition prohibits women (and laymen for that matter) from becoming Cardinals. If a Pope were to appoint women or a layman as a cardinal, it would be a tragic and unprecedented novelty. CJ Viva the Amish!
Editor, The Remnant: Hello- I really enjoyed your continuing response in the latest issue of The Remnant regarding popular music. Viva the Amish! I completely agree. I live among and my husband works with old order Amish. I am always perplexed when conservative Catholics hold such a prejudice toward them, yet give worldlings plenty of excuses and accept their ways. I have been told that my style of dressing and way of life (country living, woodstove cooking, "simple" life) drives people away from Traditional Catholicism.
So, it would be better if I put on an Aeropostale sweat shirt and some bu’huggin jeans and crank the tunes to draw in the crowds to the Traditional Church?
Sorry, I’ll stick to praying my prayers in the quiet country before feeding my pigs (while wearing a scandalous long skirt) in imitation of the Amish. All the while joyfully shunning the garbage that is cranked out for us to consume that is called modern popular "music" Thank you for continuing to be a loud voice of true counter-culturalism in our mushy modern Catholic world!
God Bless you, Stacia B It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll
Editor, The Remnant: " The Remnant" editor, Michael Matt, said in his "Cultural Chastisement" article (1/31/14) that he hesitated to write more about the musical "cultural sewage" in our society because he finds it difficult to believe that Traditional Catholics would need further guidance in this area.
However, "The Remnant" is committed to writing the truth; and Mr. Matt is very good at it. Matt’s book "Gods of Wasteland" and his years-ago articles on The Beatles should be re-published.
[I retained these, but only recall Mark Alessio’s 12/15/2002 article " George Harrison…Brainwashed?" as I write this.] Like the Catholic Faith (John 14:2), music also has "many mansions." I am 22 years into Tradition and still learn more each week. "Remnant" readers are not a clique; articles touching on aspects of music, art, plays, movies, books, etc.
are certainly welcomed. Just as our Faith should keep growing, so should our cultural knowledge.
In his "Cultural Chastisement" Mr.
Matt responded to online comments by "Traddie Trent" mentioning "a lot of amazing pop music out there…" He sounds like me at a younger age. Perhaps no one has seriously shown "Trent" truly good music. Despite classical music’s rewards, it remains difficult to tune out familiar songs from one’s youth which play ad nauseam in our society—even within Novus Ordo churches at funerals.
It was only after my first week-long Ignatian Retreat in 1999 that I realized the "loudness" of our world. I was always one who immediately turned on the radio in my car—No longer.
Previous " Remnant" articles have indeed pointed to musical areas for readers to explore: such as Irish Folk music. I encourage future articles in this vein. Explaining good music to those mostly exposed only to "cultural sewage" is akin to trying to explain the Latin Mass to someone unfamiliar with it without showing them the verbiage— side-by-side—of the Latin Mass versus the Novus Ordo changes; or having that person actually attend the Mass to reach one’s own conclusion. Many people simply think: "So it’s in English, rather than in a ‘dead language.’" Yet, for those who understand there is so much more— and that is the crux of it.
Many, including younger people, have the cultural odds stacked against them. Their musical expectations are probably the ill-informed, "bumpersticker" answers prevalent in much of today’s "thinking." Throw in a catchy beat, light show, videos, etc., and the snares are set. One of the kindest things parents can do for their children is to disconnect the cable "sewer pipe" connected to their living rooms, spewing filth all over their families via channels such as MTV and VH1 just to mention two. [This analogy was my Dad’s and is one I neither appreciated, nor understood, when I was a teenager.
Decades beyond cable and years beyond television, I regret the time squandered watching TV—books being one alternative.] One solution might be to direct musical interest toward better alternatives. What would "Traddie Trent" replace "Mumford & Sons" with if he had no real knowledge of better options? It is not enough to know the names "Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart."
Dr. Andrew Childs wrote an article "The List" which appeared in the November 2008 Angelus magazine which should be re-published as well
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Letters to the Editor
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(with permission in "The Remnant"?: Hint, hint!) [Also available at "The Angelus Online" at http://www.
angelusonline.org/index.php?section=art icles& subsection=show_article& article_ id=2807 ] Dr. Child’s required-reading article listed his "The 100 Greatest Pieces of Music Ever Composed."
Six years into this list, I have yet to exhaust it and it has become my source document for exploring better music.
Yes, my government school played some classical music, but at the time I countered with the Rolling Stones "Hot Rocks." I was also told I was not suited to play a musical instrument; this was before I taught myself to play and compose on guitar, mandolin, piano, and the harmonica—sadly mostly in rock, country rock, and blues musical styles.
"The List" is an excellent beginning for those seeking to improve their musical enjoyment. I have yet to be disappointed in Andrew Childs’ selections.
For a "connoisseur" of "Rock-NRoll" and "Blues" (and who retains this knowledge), it was a difficult thing to begin to jettison the familiar and to ascend to better things—nearly everything in our culture works to prevent such improvement. Fortunately, I also enjoyed all good music including Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, etc. My first concert featured Louis Armstrong.
As a former aficionado of Aerosmith, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and others; starting with Dr. Childs’ prescription of Modest Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition" was "just what the doctor ordered." (Sorry, Ted Nugent.) You have not "rocked" until you’ve listened to Mussorgsky. Listening to this piece, one cannot help but feel embarrassment at ever having listened to Deep Purple’s "Smoke on the Water" more than once.(Duh, Duh, Duh…Duh, Duh, DUH, Duhhh…) Those seeking more complex themes, such as the work by Pink Floyd, will feel like they have just discovered the Novel after having only previously known about comic books. Listening to Beethoven’s "Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 in D Minor" or Bach’s "Brandenburg Concertos" in their entireties easily illustrates this point.
"The List" includes both the familiar and unfamiliar. For me, discovering Mussorgsky, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Johann David Heinichen, St. Hildegard von Bingen, and others was literally a Godsend for improving my listening habits with a vast wealth of music. This includes unknown (to me) pieces by familiar composers such as: Edvard Grieg’s "Piano Concerto", Frederic Chopin’s "Ballades for Solo Piano", Robert Schumann’s "Piano Concerto", and Johann Sebastian Bach’s "Mass in B-minor."
Combining titles such as those found above with modern-day search conveniences such as Amazon.com’s "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" feature has resulted in rewards such as Martha Argerich (Chopin, Rachmaninoff), Ingrid Fliter (Chopin, Beethoven) , Evgeny Kissin (everything), and many others.
My own "required" listening suggestions would include: Les Arts Florissants’/ William Christie’s "Vespro Della Beata Vergine" (Monteverde); the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s "Brahms: Double Concerto Op. 102 / Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto Op. 62" featuring Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma; and Arvo Pärt’s " Te Deum" (It stuns me to know that such a composer lives within my lifetime—Palestrina lives!) One could supplement these titles with others such as "Chant Compendium Volume 1" from the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary.
Is the cultural argument against "rock music" unnecessary? Are there other forces promoted within such music? From personal experience, there is always more to the story if one looks. Sitting behind the stage at Paul McCartney’s 2002 tour, I saw what must have been a type of Hindu religious setup with burning incense and what I recall was a Hindu elephant "god" (Ganesha: "Lord of Success"?) Hidden from most attendees, the incense wafted over the unsuspecting audience throughout the concert. If one views McCartney’s "Back in the U.S.
Concert Film" of the 2002 tour; one sees guitarist, Brian Ray, and drummer, Abe Laboriel, Jr., sporting what appears to be black ash Hindu "Tilaks" on their foreheads during the encore songs "Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "The End." [An historical note: Ash Wednesday fell on Feb. 13th that year.
The concert footage was recorded in April and May.] Violating the First Commandment is not benign stuff.
Do I infrequently falter and turn on a "classic rock" station in shades of 2 St. Peter 2:22? Yes, but then I think better of it and move on to more rewarding classical alternatives.
Whereas Led Zeppelin nicked and sang Willie Dixon’s "You Shook Me"; Michael Matt and his staff shook me from my former complacency regarding the detrimental effect of some music. As a father, I can now help to set a better example for my children while guiding them within this cultural "fishbowl" we call society. Please stay in the ring on this issue, Michael! You’re up to the challenge. I value The Remnant’s input not only on Faith, but on culture as well.
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini, qui fecit caelum et terram. (Psalm 123:8.) Robert G. Dwyer West Bend, WI The Remnant at the Beach
Dear Mr. Matt,
The Remnant can, and should be, read anywhere! Yours truly by the Pacific at the Playa Blanca Beach Resort, Panama (picture taken by my wife).
Keep up the good work! Med vänliga hälsningar/Best regards Ferdinand Hellers Sweden
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