The indefatigable Berenike of Laodicea

The above mentioned Berenike of Laodicea was kind enough to point out, à propos of these entries on Migne, that his work is available here as well. (Although she rather unkindly calls them my "Migning posts" ...) Anyway, Migne's Patrologiae is available at that link but it downloads in a different format to the links I highlighted. Hopefully they'll be of use to penurious scholars trawling th'interweb.

Canon Law & the Recife Case revisited

I blogged last week about the heartbreaking Recife Case that was so spectacularly mishandled by Archbishop Fisichella. Well, now there is a little good news. While Fisichella has not been publicly reprimanded nor has he been dismissed, at least his manifest errors have been corrected in that august organ L'Osservatore Romano!

God bless the Holy Father for acting and may God preserve him and give him strength for many years yet.

(NB If you haven't already, I urge you to bookmark Dr Ed Peters blog and to sign up for the incomparable Chiesa service provided by Sandro Magister and La Repubblica in four languages!)

Canon Law & the Recife Case

The Archbishop of Recife (in Brazil) recently had to excommunicate an abortionist for killing the twin babies of a 9 year old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her own father. Mgr Cardoso Sobrinho (who has since retired having reached the age of 75) explained to anyone who would listen that he had stayed close to the girl and her family and tried to bring comfort to all the innocent victims concerned. Apparently he didn't explain loudly enough for Salvatore (aka Rino) Fisichella; this individual explained in a newspaper op-ed that excommunication was not the way to go and that instead "closeness" to the girl and "compassion" was the way forward. This "compassion" includes NOT condemning the doctors who performed the abortions. So far, so journalistic boilerplate.

Except Mr Fisichella isn't Mr, he's Mgr. Actually he's His Excellency Salvatore Fisichella, Titular Archbishop of Vicohabentia and President of the Pontifical Academy for Life! His comments were hailed by Frances Kissling the infamous pro-abortion "Catholic" as allowing "that there are some cases officially acknowledged where individuals can choose abortion and have a calm conscience". The paper in which Fisichella penned these incoherent ramblings?

L'Osservatore Romano.

That's right, the newspaper owned by the Pope.

Well God bless Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho for not taking this lying down. He demanded a right of reply in L'Osservatore but was ignored. So he has circulated a dossier outlining his complaint to approximately 100 Curial officials. He's hoping that this will spark an appropriate response but in the event that it doesn't he's prepared, according to reports, to lodge a formal denunciation of Mgr Fisichella which will require some sort of formal resolution.

Two other interesting responses: The first came from the redoubtable Mgr Michel Schooyans and can be found here. He suggests that only Fisichella's resignation on foot of a strong statement from the Holy Father can now salvage the situation. His piece on Lifesite News is worth reading in its entirety but there is a handy little summary at the top if you want to see just the main points. Secondly, I (like many others no doubt) was waiting to see what Dr Ed Peters would have to say.

Dr Peters is a canon lawyer, a serious Catholic and a man who expends considerable effort explaining to anyone who wants to read his blog how canon law works. He is also a calm measured sort of man who doesn't blast off denunciations on a whim but instead offers useful, practical solutions. Here's his summary and analysis of the Recife case which includes links to all the main public documents and comments. It's well worth examining and In the Light of the Law is well worth bookmarking.

What the Holy Father or his curial collaborators will do is anyone's guess. What the poor girl and her dead babies need is lots of prayer. Please God, Archbishop Cardoso will persevere in seeking justice and Archbishop Fisichella will come to see the error of his ways. Oremus.

In the old days we had a joke ...

What's the difference between the United States and the Irish Republic? They have Bob Hope and Johnny Cash, whereas we have no hope and no cash!

In these straitened times things are different. We, once again, have no hope and no cash but neither do they. Well, maybe they have a hope'n'change kind of hope being peddled by "The One" but here's what Bob has to say about them.

Honduras: I haven't been sure what to think ...

On the one hand, President Zelaya is a bosom buddy of Hugo Chavez, a wannabe totalitarian dictator who is close to achieving his dream. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of a military coup even if is carried out by those who are otherwise on the right side of the law, Zelaya having violated the Constitution and broken the law. So I was mightily relieved to find this post at the Dawn Patrol linking to this post at Witnessing Hope which makes things much clearer. Sadly it doesn't seem that Zelaya will face trial at this stage, as he ought to but we live in hope.

A last dose of the Fathers, this time in translation

While on my peregrinations through the text section of the Internet Archive, I found some of the CUA Press translations of the Church Fathers, edited by Ludwig Schopp & then Roy J. Deferrari and published between the mid 1940s and the late 1960s. Here are the links to online versions and PDFs. For those who want to rummage easily through the text collections follow this link to download a Firefox add-on which will run in your search-bar.

1 - The Apostolic Fathers

2 - Writings of St Augustine, Volume 4

4 - Writings of Saint Augustine, Volume 2

5 - Writings of St Augustine, Volume 1

7 - Niceta of Remesiana, Silpicius Severus, Vincent of Lerins & Prosper of Aquitaine

8 - St Augustine The City Of God Books I-VII

9 - St Basil Ascetical Works

11 - St Augustine Commentary On The Lord's Sermon On The Mount & 17 Related Sermons

13 - Saint Basil Letters

17 - St Peter Chrysologus Selected Sermons & St Valerian Homilies

18 - St Augustine's Works Vol 10, Letters Volume II

19 - Eusebius Ecclesiastical History

20 - St Augustine Volume 11, Letters Volume III

22 - Funeral Orations

23 - Clement Of Alexandria, Christ The Educator

26 - St Ambrose, Letters

27 - St Augustine on Marriage and other subjects, (volume 15)

30 - St Augustine's Letters IV (volume 12)

31 - St Caesarius Of Arles, Sermons

32 - St Augustine's Letters V (volume 13)

35 - St Augustine Against Julian (volume 16)

36 - St Cyprian Treatises

37 - St John of Damascus Writings

38 - St Augustine, Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons

39 - St Gregory the Great, Dialogues

40 - Tertullian, Disciplinary Moral & Ascetical Works

41 - St John Chrysostom' Commentary on St John

42 - St Ambrose Hexameron, Paradise, Cain & Abel

43 - The Poems of Prudentius

44 - St Ambrose, Theological And Dogmatic Works

45 - St Augustine, The Trinity (volume 18)

46 - St Basil, Exegetic Homilies