I had to give up daily Mass because of my school schedule (no evening Masses in the area at all and morning Masses are too late). Ironic Catholic gives us some interesting reasons why we should go to Mass everyday.

So I´m sitting in Barcelona typing this post. I´m on a school trip with a bunch of seniors and we´ve been touring Barcelona for a few days and tomorrow night we´re taking a train to Paris.

A couple of churchy notes: we saw the beautiful Barcelona cathedral yesterday. The choir stalls are right in the middle of the Church and it has about a dozen beautiful side chapels. One of them has the body of Saint Raymond of Penafort. Did anyone know he was in Barcelona... because I didn´t! I took the opportunity to pray for two canon law students while I was there: Fr. Jeff and Fr. Ray. Saint Eulalia, one of the patrons of Barcelona is also there but I need to do some reading up on her.

We also visited Sagrada Familia. I can´t say everything I want to say about this right now. It´s been under construction for 127 years. Nothing is done on the inside but they´re currently working on the outside. The shell is finished and several of the towers. They also have some façades finished. To say it´s amazing would be an understatement. Google it right now. I can´t wait to come back when I´m 80 years old... maybe they´ll get it done by then.

Today we went to Montserrat. It was my first time attending Mass in Catalan. We got to hear the boys choir sing (the oldest boys choir in Europe). The only thing more beautiful than the music was the spectacular view from the mountain. The basilica itself was gorgeous and we saw the Black Madonna from afar (I don´t have time right now so Google it). There are few words to describe the view. You could even see the snow-capped Pyrenees.

This is my first time online since we left Thursday afternoon. The internet at the hotel is not free but an hour is a reasonable 4 euros (for those of us addicts, it´s well worth it). The Spanish keyboard is a bit tricky to navigate and there are so many restrictions that I´m having difficulties accessing my email. The ones I can access I can´t respond to. How frustrating. We have a free day in the city tomorrow then it´s an overnight train to Paris. I´ll try to post an update within a few days.

I am not wasting my precious time proofreading this so forgive the mess. Post comments!

All you apologists out there: take some tips from this guy... he's out there evangelizing the culture!!

As an aside: I laughed out loud when I watched this. [h/t to Happy Catholic]

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From the America blog:

The bishop-turned-president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, has joined a long line of Latin-American presidents in confessing to having fathered a child out of wedlock.

He admitted Monday to being the father of a two-year-old boy, conceived while he was still Bishop of San Pedro.

He ceased his active ministry in 2006 to dedicate himself to politics, although the Vatican did not reduce him to the lay state until August last year when he won the presidential election in an historic landslide election (my posts here and here).

"It is true that there was a relationship with Vviana Carrillo," President Lugo said, adding that he would assume all the responsibilities, including recognising the child's paternity.

Before he made the announcement, a newspaper asked him if he believed in celibacy. "Yes," he answered.

"Have you respected it?" he was asked.

"That is an imperfect question," Lugo answered. "In traditional theology, God alone is perfect. Everything that we human beings do is in the category of imperfection. The human race is imperfect and we can have weaknesses, make mistakes and leave to one side for a moment our convictions".

Asked if he thought creating a child was a "sin" or a "blessing", he answered: "When life appears, God blesses it."

Update: Curt Jester has more.

Two sets of interesting statistics. The first is a Marist poll sponsored by the Knights:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) and three-quarters of Catholic Americans (74%) plan to observe Easter by attending Church services according to a newly released Knights of Columbus-Marist poll.

Of Americans who celebrate Easter, 70% identified it as the most important, or one of the most important religious holidays. 71% of Catholics and 80% of practicing Catholics said the same.
The poll also found that 86% of Americans and 89% of Catholic Americans correctly identify Easter as the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

In addition, many Americans are preparing for Easter by observing the solemn season of Lent – the traditional forty days of penance and reflection leading up to Easter Sunday. 34% of Americans ,and 63% of Catholic Americans (including 77% of practicing Catholics) said they are observing the season of Lent this year.

Secondly, a Dutch survey:

A recent survey of Dutch nationals has revealed a profound ignorance in the Netherlands of the meaning of Good Friday and Easter. 45% are unaware that Easter is a Christian holiday, and only 15% know that Good Friday is a memorial of Christ’s crucifixion.

From the AP:

The Vatican is denying that it has rejected several candidates for U.S. ambassador to the Holy See because of their support for abortion rights.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Friday that he checked the reports in the American and Italian media and there is no truth to them.

He also told the U.S. Catholic News Service that no names of proposed ambassadors had reached the Vatican from Washington.

The reports underline possible tensions between the Vatican and the government of President Barack Obama because of its support for abortion rights and stem cell research, a reversal the policies of the George W. Bush administration.

Just a thought: would the Obama administration be foolish enough to propose a pro-abortion ambassador? This administration is so concerned about image... why would they even stir that pot? So much gossip could be avoided by simple common sense.

From Hunter Baker at Touchstone's Mere Comments:

I recently received a request from a reporter to respond to the recent spate of studies and stories positing a decline in American Christianity. Here's how I answered:

Broadly speaking, it is silly to think of secularization as a linear process. The prominence of the Christian faith waxes and wanes during different historical periods. As Rodney Stark has pointed out, the old golden age of faith picture of antiquity is not nearly as strong as many believe. There is, however, always a solid and motivated core.

What differs over time is the overall number of people who want to associate themselves with the basic project of the church. Sometimes, that seems advantageous and people do it for reasons of social respectability or advancement. At other times there is little to be gained from it and many turn to spending Sundays on the golf course or with the New York Times.

We happen to be in one of the periods when there is not a lot of social prestige or other benefit to being in the church and thus nominal members are dropping out. They have no desire to meet even modest demands of the church when they see no compensatory benefit.

The drop off in the number of nominal Christians also results from the ascendancy of conservative Christianity in the United States. The more intensely the church stands for something, the less likely it is that people with low commitment will associate themselves with the church. This has always been the church's dilemma. Should it be a comprehensive church that baptizes babies and includes everyone in a Christendom model? Or should it concentrate on voluntary, adult decisions for a strict faith that actively excludes those not with the program. While mega-churches are often criticized for trying to be all things to all people, doctrinally speaking they are actually pretty orthodox and tilt more in the direction of believers with some commitment.

What has happened in the last fifty years is that the mainline churches which had seemed to prevail during the fundamentalist-modernist controversy actually lost by becoming increasingly liberal. They became so liberal that their membership had nothing to attach themselves too other than being against conservative Christianity. They can do that just as easily on their own as they can in a liberal church. They end up in the "other" or "none" category when religionists are counted.

In summary, the disappearance of the middle option of a semi-orthodox mainline Protestantism and the corresponding rise of conservative Protestantism is the best explanation for the results we see in the ARIS survey and other observances which claim a future of religious decline.

This is for a friend... you know who you are. [h/t to IC]

The Vigil went quite well tonight. It's nice to be back working in a parish again. Despite the obvious rubrical violations, it was prayerful and beautiful, coming in just under two hours. We did three readings, baptized one, and welcomed five others into the Church.

My music program:

Psalms for readings 1, 3, 7
Gloria from Mass of the Bells (C.A. Peloquin)
Alleluia (chant)
Litany of Saints (chant; I led)
Baptized in Water ("Morning Has Broken" tune) during the sprinkling
Jesus Christ Has Risen Today at the preparation
Mass of Redemption
O Sons and Daughters at communion, then "The Holy City"... can't remember who wrote it, but it's a choir favorite, though I don't much care for it.
All You On Earth for a recessional

Overall it went incredibly well and the choir sang quite nicely. I hope you all had a nice Vigil as well.

HE IS RISEN!

Every parish website should link to this... it's called "The Princess, the Priest, and the War for the Perfect Wedding." The inaugural episode is below and I'm looking forward to the different ways they answer questions and try to bridge the great divide between Bridezilla and the Church. As a parish organist, I agree with Father... I'd rather do a dozen funerals than one wedding! [h/t America]



As an aside: one of my many summer projects is drawing up a list of appropriate wedding music for use in my parish. If there's time, I hope to make a CD of the music for the priests to give out when couples come in for meetings. This page from Saint Patrick's in New York is very helpful.

Trying to catch up once again, here's my class presentation on Cardinal Umberto Betti, OFM who died last week.