This is the final installment of our review of Abbot Gabriel’s book. (Click Here for Part I / Click Here for Part II) The “Regularization.” When Abbot Gabriel told me that there would be things Brother Francis would not agree … Continue reading
Category: «Ad Rem» A Fortnightly Email Message from the Prior
«Ad Rem» is our Prior’s fortnightly email message offering news and commentary regarding the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Crusade of St. Benedict Center, and issues affecting the universal Church. Each number offers brief, ad rem (“to the point”) commentary on timely or otherwise important matters. Click here to subscribe to our email list and receive the «Ad Rem» each time it’s published.
Part II of the Review of ‘Harvard to Harvard’
In the last edition, I mentioned that my review of Abbot Gabriel’s book would cover both its positive and its negative aspects. I also mentioned that, should the parts we view as less favorable get more attention, it is not … Continue reading
Review of ‘Harvard to Harvard’ by Abbot Gabriel Gibbs (Part I)
The Abbot of St. Benedict Abbey in Still River has made an important contribution to the historical literature on Father Feeney and his Crusade, Harvard to Harvard. Abbot Gabriel Gibbs, O.S.B., one of the early members of the Slaves of … Continue reading
A Tale of Two Monasteries
The Australian-based CathNews web site has been reviewing the major news stories of 2006. Two of those stories side-by-side made for an alarming study in ecclesiastical confusion. The first covered the unconventional conversion of Frere Roger of Taize, the ecumenical … Continue reading
Christmas and the Battle
The Holy Father’s Angelus Address on the Feast of St. Stephen reminded us of some thoughts of Father Feeney’s in Bread of Life, namely, that the Christ Child came into an evil world and was very soon surrounded by violence. … Continue reading
False Ecumenism: An Old Error, On Hanukkah and Christmas
What we call today, ecumenism, is not a new thing. (Neither, for that matter, is its cousin, syncretism, or its twin sister, indifferentism. Error is very old.) The not-very-venerable antiquity of ecumenism struck me the other day as I was … Continue reading
St. Joseph and ‘the Holidays’
With Thanksgiving now behind us, Americans are now in the thick of the “Holiday Season,” you know, the annual public pretense that puts Kwanzaa and Hanukkah on a par with the Birth of God in time. (Not that I dismiss … Continue reading
Saint Josaphat and Church Unity
With the Holy Father getting ready to meet Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey, there is much talk of Catholic-Orthodox unity (e.g., Meeting between Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew will not be a meeting of heads of two universal Churches – Moscow … Continue reading
Ecumenism and Fatima Reconsidered
Lately, there are some mainstream conservative thinkers who have gone on record critical of ecumenical endeavors. Lately, too, there is a mainstream and respected journalist who has done a major course correction vis-a-vis Fatima. The two issues are very much … Continue reading
The Boston Globe Style Book
With all the reading of news sites I have to do to prepare the «Ad Rem» — and given our own publishing apostolate — I decided to invest in a Boston Globe style book. This an important tool used by … Continue reading
The Nativity Story and the Virgin Birth
Last week, I made mention of the fact that the “Holiday Season” inundates us with an anti-Christian media blitz. I said that the popular culture could provide us with some subjects for Advent «Ad Rems». Here is one. While it … Continue reading
Cardinal Danneels on the Mass, Bishop Bruskewitz on the New Springtime
Godfried Cardinal Danneels, the putatively “moderate” prelate from Belgium, has joined in the anti-Traditional Mass chorus begun by five bishops of France and twenty five French priests. The cardinal said this in a Reuters story: “The (Tridentine Latin) rite is … Continue reading
Wider Use of Traditional Mass and ‘The Ecclesiology, Stupid!’
It appears certain that the Holy Father is soon to come out with a motu proprio (a legal document “on his own authority”) allowing a wider use of the Traditional Mass. What is not certain are the exact conditions of … Continue reading
Pro Multis
Cardinal Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, has just affirmed that pro multis means “for many” and not “for all.” It’s a sad commentary on the state of ecclesiastical affairs that such a statement of the obvious … Continue reading
False Ecumenism vs. Christ the King
As we pointed out in our first «Ad Rem», a group of traditionalists have been officially told by the Holy See that they may engage in “a serious and constructive critique” of the Second Vatican Council. As part of our … Continue reading
