Tea at Trianon: God Bless Monsignor Charles Pope

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

Thursday, August 6, 2020

God Bless Monsignor Charles Pope

I link to Monsignor's articles a lot on this blog and am sorry to hear His Reverence is ill. From The Federalist:

His homilies, which are nearly three times as long as the average American Catholic homily, are locally famous, attracting Christians of many sects and traditions to the historically black church he served from 1993-1999, then led starting in 2007. While New England Catholics like myself had never seen a gospel-music Mass with clapping choirs and applause and dancing in the pews, the parish embraces us with the same warmth they have for Msgr. Pope, and which he has for them.

In 1993, Capitol Hill was a dangerous environment, polluted with drugs and beset by violence. Gay and straight prostitutes worked openly, side-by-side with dealers in beautiful Lincoln Park, gangs murdered each other with little fear of authority, and the doors and windows of many homes were guarded with prison-like metal bars. The monsignor embraced his community, teaching the faithful and challenging them, himself, and those around them to be better Catholics. (Read more.)