Tea at Trianon: Cleaning House

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Cleaning House

It sounds like the new Archbishop of Baltimore is cleaning house. (Via Pewsitter) Having grown up in that archdiocese, I think I experienced every kind of liturgical innovation, while hearing any number of colorful heresies preached from the pulpit. (That is one of the reasons that I frequented a monastic chapel rather than parish churches while living in my hometown of Frederick, Maryland.) Many of the liturgical faux pas are just the tip of the ice berg. It is not that there are not any fervent priests in the Baltimore archdiocese; there are many. If Archbishop O'Brien is insisting on obedience to canon law and Church teaching, then it is a good thing. More HERE and HERE. (Thanks to Spirit Daily and A Conservative Blog for Peace) Share

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Thanks be to God that another bishop is cleaning up a mess.

I pray that our Holy Father gives us more faithful bishops who will continue this much needed purging.; November 11, 2007 at 6:22:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, I hope this is all part of a trend.; November 11, 2007 at 6:43:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: I grew up in the Archdiocese of Baltimore as well-- in a suburb of Baltimore.
May God bless the new Archbishop!; November 12, 2007 at 8:33:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: So then you know what I'm talking about!!; November 12, 2007 at 9:05:00 AM EST