At Santiago de Compostela, they knew how to keep an anniversary...

As these photos at Inter vestibulum et altare demonstrate. The compostelanos celebrated Pius XII's coronation anniversary with a procession that substituted boys for the actors in the rite commemorated; that Pope had instituted the world missionary Sunday of the Divine Childhood in 1950, evidently, which I know nothing about. Am supposing it had to do with this sort of apostolate.

The story is that King Juan Carlos 'sought the authorisation' of the Roman Pontiff...

Before he signed the law that inaugurated the current abortion regime in Spain; thus Francisco José Fernández de la Cigoña. Don Francisco quite wickedly has placed a photograph of his present Catholic Majesty making an address in the presence of el Caudillo presumably to make a point about the moral courage of the monarch; and he notes that the noble fellow who made the claim, Ildefonso 'Alfonso' Ussía, ought not to be entirely relied upon-- he has been a journalist for far too many years, perhaps.  My own suspicion is that, were the Sovereign Pontiff in fact consulted, his Holiness would have suggested that the supplicant already knew in his heart what he should do (Baudouin, Roi des Belges, requiescat in pace...), and that he would compel him no more than Our Blessed Lord before Pontius Pilate compelled him. But it is all in any event yet another scandal; and am not going even to touch the rest of the esteemed Spaniard's post which is mainly about decline and corruption all around him and the scurrilous character of certain high ecclesiastics in Spain and elsewhere.   

For my sins, I work at a non-profit that relies for part of its income...

On nightly celebrations of bingo.  This lovely post at Senza Peli sulla Lingua points out a playfully intriguing aspect of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona; the Wikipedia entry on 'magic squares' is here. The images of number combinations are in fact depictions of bingo wins, are they not?  Seriously, the Barnabite blogger notes that he's read that there are supposed to be 33 combinations of sections (the four numbers of each section total 33, Our Lord's age at his Passion and Death) but that he and his students have only been able to find 32.  I sure as heck can't find another. 

The Spanish Left is making what policy 'advances' it can...

Whilst it's in power; nothing surprising about that, given Spain's modern history. Father Finnegan's worthy post on the Valle de los Caidos and the Zapatero government's present offensiveness puts perspective to the situation; the Spanish are now murdering infants in the womb left and right and so I doubt that even a permanent closure of the memorial will ignite any fires on the Right.

Update on Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 11:59 by Marc

So hundreds of people went to Valle de los Caidos to hear Mass Sunday morning? we shall see; a thousand people won't move the Socialists. The ABC article is here, with a few photographs.

Update on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 18:19 by Marc

The Benedictines at Valle de los Caidos will be allowed to resume the celebration of Holy Mass inside their basilica in the week prior to Christmas, which perhaps amounts to a defeat for the Socialists; more plausibly, the government were testing the waters, so to say, and will return to the campaign with new stratagems before much longer.

The poor Austrian Muslims were only trying to vindicate their claim that the Cathedral...

Of Córdoba is actually also a mosque; pft. The original LifeSiteNews article is here.  Next time I'm in Constantinople with a few dozen fellow pilgrims, perhaps we'll try that stunt at the Hagia Sophia and see if we each get only a five lira fine.

"In a certain sense the high point of the history of this land of Catalonia..."

From the Roman Pontiff's homily at the Dedication of the new Basilica of the Holy Family in Barcelona, here:

... What do we do when we dedicate this church? In the heart of the world, placed before God and mankind, with a humble and joyful act of faith, we raise up this massive material structure, fruit of nature and an immense achievement of human intelligence which gave birth to this work of art. It stands as a visible sign of the invisible God, to whose glory these spires rise like arrows pointing towards absolute light and to the One who is Light, Height and Beauty itself.

In this place, Gaudí desired to unify that inspiration which came to him from the three books which nourished him as a man, as a believer and as an architect: the book of nature, the book of sacred Scripture and the book of the liturgy. In this way he brought together the reality of the world and the history of salvation, as recounted in the Bible and made present in the liturgy. He made stones, trees and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in praise of God, but at the same time he brought the sacred images outside so as to place before people the mystery of God revealed in the birth, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this way, he brilliantly helped to build our human consciousness, anchored in the world yet open to God, enlightened and sanctified by Christ. In this he accomplished one of the most important tasks of our times: overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty. Antoni Gaudí did this not with words but with stones, lines, planes, and points. Indeed, beauty is one of mankind’s greatest needs; it is the root from which the branches of our peace and the fruits of our hope come forth. Beauty also reveals God because, like him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us away from selfishness....

It would be quite instructive to read an essay examining the points of difference between Antoni Gaudi's magnum opus and (... alas, I don't know the name of the architect) the new cathedral in Los Angeles.

Update on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 10:21 by Marc

Video of the Most Holy Father at Santiago de Compostela yesterday, and of the beginning of the Mass of Dedication today.

Update on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 15:27 by Marc

I know Austen Ivereigh principally through his critics, so am trying to read the man in America's group blog; we'll see how long this experiment lasts.  On the Dedication of the new Basilica of the Holy Family in Barcelona, he's good, although who knows what his suggestion that not many prayed the Angelus is about... if it was in Latin, he may be obliquely criticising the Roman Pontiff's insistence on the use of that language, perhaps he really did perceive that many of the thousands in attendance were mere spectators. Perhaps the level of religious education in Catalonia and the rest of Spain is as woefully depressed as it is in most parts of North America and the United Kingdom and all those nominal Catholics just don't know their prayers.

"How can it be that there is public silence with regard to the first and essential reality of human life?"

The Roman Pontiff's homily at Santiago de Compostela is here.

... From this place, as a messenger of the Gospel sealed by the blood of Peter and James, I raise my eyes to the Europe that came in pilgrimage to Compostela. What are its great needs, fears and hopes? What is the specific and fundamental contribution of the Church to that Europe which for half a century has been moving towards new forms and projects? Her contribution is centred on a simple and decisive reality: God exists and he has given us life. He alone is absolute, faithful and unfailing love, that infinite goal that is glimpsed behind the good, the true and the beautiful things of this world, admirable indeed, but insufficient for the human heart. Saint Teresa of Jesus understood this when she wrote: “God alone suffices”.....

"Ego Iesus misi angelum meum testificari vobis haec super ecclesiis. Ego sum radix et genus David, stella splendida matutina”. Et Spiritus et sponsa dicunt: “Veni!”. Et, qui audit, dicat: “Veni!". Et, qui sitit, veniat; qui vult, accipiat aquam vitae gratis.

The Catalans have banned bullfighting...

Thereby burnishing their Euro credentials; Gerald Warner notes certain inconsistencies of spirit, and that the English don't throw donkeys from church spires (which must refer to some event or practice the well-informed people know about...).  @Londiniensis g. a.

What is the Holy Father, of venerable memory, wearing?

It must be an article of decoration or devotion for the use of pilgrims to St James at Compostella, I suppose; doubt that it is a proper liturgical or episcopal vestment?  La Buhardilla de Jerónimo g. a.

Oldest member of Opus Dei dies in Spain...

At the age of 93.  José Manuel Casas Torres was professor of geography at both Zaragosa and the Complutense and is credited with "modernising" the practice of Spanish geography and cartography, not that I know quite what that means.  He joined the Work in  July of 1939 and was an acquaintance of St Josemaria. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. @prensaopusdei g a.

Jihad in the Cathedral...

Of Our Lady's Assumption in Cordoba in Spain?  I noticed that Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs posted on this yesterday (with a typically provocative title--although I do agree that the Hagia Sophia ought to be returned to the Patriarch of Constantinople) but it being Good Friday I had better things to do than this.  The only major media site I checked--the Guardian's; the article being written by Giles Tremlett)--is as much concerned with not repressing the Cordoban jihadis' right to be quoted on major media sites and mocking the Catholic religion as with anything else.

... Yesterday's incident coincided with the city's famous Easter Week celebrations, where groups of nazarenos (penitents) dressed in long robes and tall conical hats carry statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary from local churches around the streets....

As Matthew Balan at the NewsBusters site points out, none of the major media corporations in the United States reported any of this themselves, although there was an AP story on the wires.

Update on Sunday, April 4, 2010 at 11:27 by Marc

Religion Clause is the invaluable site where Professor Howard Friedman posts links to almost every religion-and-law story that appears in US English; he notes this today.

Mons Barrio is received by the Roman Pontiff...

Along with his suite. I wonder if they are in fact settling arrangements for (or, perhaps, lobbying for) a papal visit to Santiago de Compostela in this holy year?

Update on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 6:04 by Marc

The Holy Father is indeed to Compostela, on the 6th and 7th November.