English as she is spoken in Italy

I was browsing through this guide aimed at assisting Italian students with the essay-writing section of their school-leaving examinations, and was very amused to come across a list of 'English Terms in use in the Italian Language.' Amused? Yes, because some of these supposed English terms mean something quite different in Italian. Some of them I've never even heard in English.

For example, whilst studying in Rome I knew that the English word 'badge' was used to denote what we'd call an ID Card. I also knew that a Pullman was neither an atheist writer nor a a railway sleeping car, but meant a motor coach. The list on the linked document allows me to add the following:

Big mo - Short for 'big momentum' or popular enthusiasm
Big one - A $1,000 bill
Boomerang - An adult who returns home to live with parents
Boxie - A bottle blonde. (A loxie is a natural blonde, apparently.)
Buzz book - A book which has created quite a stir
Gadget - A marketing term meaning homage/tribute (Really? This seems to make very little sense)
Mooch - One susceptable to being defrauded (An easy mark?)
Muppie - A Middle-aged Urban Professinal (Older than a yuppie)
Pumpkin time - A Cinderella reference... the time when the fairytale comes to an end, and things return to normal
Shout show - The kind of chat-show where guests shout at each other

Now, maybe one or two of those terms are used occasionally by real English speakers, but most of them just make me wonder how these supposed English language terms worked their way into Italian.

Palm Sunday Homily

Could there be a greater contrast between the two gospels we hear today? In the first, Christ is welcomed joyfully into Jerusalem as Messiah; in the second, he is hauled outside the city to be crucified as a common criminal. And in that second Gospel – the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St Luke – practically every sort of human weakness is to be seen.

We see:

• The apostles bickering at the table of the Last Supper
• The proud boasting of Peter
• The drowsiness of the Apostles who would not watch with Christ
• The traitor Judas betraying his beloved Master with a kiss.

We see:

• The disciples strike out with violence
• The rough treatment given by the guards
• The three-fold denial of Christ by Peter
• The cruel teasing of the soldiers
• The vengeance of the Chief Priests
• The cowardice of Pilate who passes Christ off as someone else’s problem.

We see:

• The mockery of Herod
• The refusal of Pilate to give an honest judgement
• The blood-thirsty fickleness of the mob, a crowd of ordinary people like you or me
• The callousness of the executioners as they go about their work and as they toss dice for Christ’s clothes
• The taunting of the thief who hung alongside Jesus.

And so Christ dies.

And yet, all is not darkness. We also see the compassion of the women of Jesusalem, the repentance of the Good Thief and the conversion of the Centurion. We see the courage of Joseph of Arimathea who claims Christ’s body and the tenderness of the women who lay Him in the tomb.

In the midst of all the darkness, Christ’s will is not broken, and he inspires some few to keep following Him. As the suffering servant foretold by Isaiah, He makes no resistance, but in fidelity to the Father carries out His mission to the end. And by carrying out this mission He offers healing. Christ first heals the ear of the High Priest’s servant. Christ inspires the women of Jerusalem to compassion at a time when the public mood is still baying for His blood. His sufferings bring conversion to the Good Thief and to the Centurion and after His death, Joseph of Arimathea steps forward with courage and the women remain faithful to Him by honouring His dead body.
Christ endured all manner of darkness, all manner of punishment and violence in order to heal us of that same darkness and in order to draw some goodness out of us. We read and re-read the Gospels so that our hearts may be softened by His grace, His teaching and His example. We ask Him, by His Passion and Death, to make us humble and faithful to His saving words.

This week is the most important week of the year. During our Holy Week and Easter ceremonies we walk with Christ step-by-step, hour-by-hour through the events which bring us salvation. We enter Jerusalem with joy, we share a meal with Him at the Last Supper, we follow Him to the Cross with our own burdens and struggles and then we wait at the tomb with hope, awaiting the victory of His Resurrection.

I ask you to do this with minds and hearts fully prepared. I appeal to each and every one of you to make the most of this week by making a good confession. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been away for a long time. It doesn’t matter whether you have something big on your conscience or if it’s just that there are lots of small things which have built up over a while. There’s no good reason to put it off Christ’s forgiveness, and every reason to make a good Holy Week. May Christ, by His Passion and Death, lead us to the Glory of His Resurrection, Amen.

Dolan on the Lord's Day

The Church Ladies publish a nice and punchy St Patrick's Day letter from Archbishop Dolan of New York about keeping the Lord's Day holy.

Many of you reading this St. Patrick’s Day message already are keeping the Lord’s Day holy. Keep it up.

How about giving this message to someone who no longer does, especially if he or she has stopped going to Sunday Mass? Get ready for the excuses:

– “Sunday is our only free time together.” (Great, what better way to spend that time than by praying together at Mass).

– “I pray my own way.” (Nice idea. But, odds are, you don’t).

– “The sermon is boring.” (You may have a point).

– “I hate all the changes at Mass.” (see below)

– “I want more changes at Mass.” (see above)

– “Until the church makes some changes in its teaching, I’m staying away.” (But, don’t we go to Mass to ask God to change us, not to tell God how we want Him and His Church to change to suit us?)

– “Everybody there is a hypocrite and always judging me.” (Who’s judging whom here?)

. . . and the list goes on.

And the simple fact remains: the Eucharist is the most beautiful, powerful prayer that we have. To miss it is to miss Jesus — His Word, His people, His presence, His Body and Blood.

Pope's Letter to the Catholics of Ireland

Full text available here.

To be quite honest, apart from welcoming it whole-heartedly and repeating the Pope's own request that Irish Catholics read it themselves, I think that too much comment is superfluous. Just let it be read prayerfully, seriously and repeatedly. It would be naive to think that the problems of the past and present can be sorted out within the space of a few short media cycles. However, that's not the impression one gets when watching the news or reading the papers. There seems to be an assumption that problems can be dealt with swiftly - a hurried resignation here, a statement of apology there, and then mission accomplished. Not so! Any meaningful kind of healing, purification or renewal is going to be a long and deliberate process, and if we claim to be Christians, then the healing process must involve a turning back to Christ and a willingness to offer penance.

Press Release from Catholic Communications Office

This useful note clarifies what happened in 1975 and the then Fr Brady's role in the investigation into the activities of Fr Brendan Smyth.

Note from the Catholic Communications Office to clarify media reporting on Cardinal Seán Brady – 16 March 2010

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The State’s first Child Abuse Guidelines came into effect in 1987 and the Church’s first guidelines Child Sexual Abuse: Framework for a Church Response, were published in 1996.
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In late March 1975, Fr Seán Brady was asked by his bishop, Bishop Francis McKiernan, to conduct a canonical enquiry into an allegation of child sexual abuse which was made by a boy in Dundalk, concerning a Norbertine priest, Fr Brendan Smyth.
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Fr Brady was then a full-time teacher at St Patrick’s College, Cavan. Because he held a doctorate in Canon Law, Fr Brady was asked to conduct this canonical enquiry; however he had no decision-making powers regarding the outcome of the enquiry. Bishop McKiernan held this responsibility.
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On 29 March 1975, Fr Brady and two other priests interviewed a boy (14) in Dundalk. Fr Brady’s role was to take notes. On 4 April 1975, Fr Brady interviewed a second boy (15) in the Parochial House in Ballyjamesduff. On this occasion Fr Brady conducted the inquiry by himself and took notes.
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At the end of both interviews, the boys were asked to confirm by oath the truthfulness of their statements and that they would preserve the confidentiality of the interview process. The intention of this oath was to avoid potential collusion in the gathering of the inquiry’s evidence and to ensure that the process was robust enough to withstand challenge by the perpetrator, Fr Brendan Smyth.
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A week later Fr Brady passed his findings to Bishop McKiernan for his immediate action.
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Eight days later, on 12 April 1975, Bishop McKiernan reported the findings to Fr Smyth’s Religious Superior, the Abbot of Kilnacrott. The specific responsibility for the supervision of Fr Smith’s activities was, at all times, with his Religious Superiors. Bishop McKiernan withdrew Brendan Smyth’s priestly faculties and advised psychiatric intervention.

Raidió na Gaeltachta Mass Campaign

Colleages of mine working in the Gaeltacht have been campaigning to secure the return of weekly Mass on Raidió na Gaeltachta.

De Iustitia

The Holy Father has issued his annual Lenten message, focusing on justice. It's interesting that he concludes his brief reflection with a lesson in basic Christology:

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: "But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).

What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that "expiation" flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man so as to give in return the "blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his "due"? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from "what is mine," to give me gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the "greatest" justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected.

I say this is interesting because it's typical of Pope Benedict to bring the message back to Christ. Likewise, he likes to link dogma to the other areas of theology. Staying at the level of moral theology or social ethics when discussing justice isn't sufficent. If we believe that all is revealed in Christ and that He transforms things utterly, then we should say so. If we can't link what we believe about Him to our overall outlook on life, then our faith is deficient.