Tea at Trianon: The Validity of a Marriage

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

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Validity of a Marriage

Theology of the Body and canon law. There is nothing so helpful as having learned and holy priests weigh in on matters of controversy. More HERE. To quote Fr. Angelo in the comments section:

What I believe many of you really need to think about is that holy modesty is not an option to be only taught to the sheltered and overly pious. It is part and parcel of the virtue of chastity. It is reverence for a mystery. And if a mystery is not treated with the appropriate reverence it is profaned. This is not an abstract argument. The culture needs to be evangelized, but we should be careful not to confuse enthusiasm, as valuable as it may be, with deep transformation. Until many in the TOB crowd learn this, they will continue to undermine the very values that in other ways they so strenuously attempt to defend.

Enbrethiliel said...: +JMJ+

The strange (to use the most charitable term that comes to mind!) ideas that come out of the TOB crowd never fail to surprise me. That sacramental grace isn't conferred until a couple consummates the marriage certainly elevates sex to the level of a sacrament, ex opere operato and all. It may be heady and romantic, but it's really nowhere in Tradition or in the Magisterium.

What truly threw me, though, was the anonymous commenter's flippant disrespect of Father Angelo's teaching authority as a priest, on Father's own blog! Yes, it's true that priests have been mistaken before . . . but the assured attitude of the laity that they must be right is something else that is very new.; February 23, 2010 at 9:18:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I have also found this blatant, public disrespect of priests on the part of Catholic lay people to be astonishing and shocking.; February 23, 2010 at 9:40:00 AM EST
Dymphna said...: I'll be be happy when this whole TOB fad passes by.; February 23, 2010 at 10:10:00 PM EST