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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Especially for St. Therese and Pope Pius XII fans

....right at the start of this clip is some footage from the visit of Pius XII to Lisieux and the basilica dedicated to St. Therese.





St. Therese (besides the Blessed Mother) is my favorite female saint....and Pope Pius XII is also a favorite of mine. I like him more and more the more I read his encyclicals.

4 comments:

PJA said...

Pope Pius was a much misunderstood man. Happily, things are being corrected on the front.

I was taken by the comparison between the arrangements made for the Eucharistic Congress featured in the film and the one held recently in Quebec City. Of course, it’s a matter of externals and I’ve no doubt that many graces flowed from the recent Congress; but, when Canada builds an altar and lectern out of matchsticks, it doesn’t compare well with the magnificent reproduction of the Petrine basilica’s baldacchino provided for Pius XII’s Mass. Still, at least nobody jumped up and danced around the Monstrance, as in your earlier video.

gemoftheocean said...

I'm with you. I've been rereading Jungmann's book The Mass of the Roman Rite. 2 vols., several hundred pages each. Early on he made reference to Pius XII's (a pope I've long admired BTW) encyclical Mediator Dei, and that really set the stage for Vatican II. Pius XII was head and shoulders over his contemporaries, doing most of the heavy lifting himself. I wish he'd lived longer. It was very apparent from the encyclical that he saw that more understanding of the Mass and participation by the people was necessary - but I think he'd have known not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. John XXIII was a sweet man, but hardly an intellectual. Paul VI was a right hand man of Pius XII, but really couldn't hold a candle to him, I think. I've long admired the groundwork for modern Catholic bible study that Pius XII built with DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU.

PJA said...

… and let’s not forget that he WAS a hero during the war, saving many more people from the Nazi machine than history gives him credit for – God knows, though!

gemoftheocean said...

You betcha. It was that Hochhuth[sp!] guy who wrote the scurrilous play "The Deputy" that started all this bleep. Turns out that gee, the author was not exactly friendly to Catholics.

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