Assumpta Est Maria

Motet, "Assumpta Est Maria", by Palestrina


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Feast of the Assumption - 15 August

St. Martin and the Beggar, El Greco

A New Play About the Founder of the Knights of Columbus

From the blog of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph:

The Knights of Columbus recently asked Father Peter John Cameron O.P., to direct a play about their founder, Father Michael J. McGivney. The Catholic Transcript interviews Father Cameron about his own vocation.

"Author, editor, journalist, playwright, theatrical artistic director, professor of homiletics, preacher, retreat master - the list of Father Cameron's titles, interests and vocational activities is extensive. The common thread is his vocation. "My priesthood and my evangelizing ... my preaching is first," he said in an interview with The Catholic Transcript. "I'm a priest so that others can meet Jesus Christ," he said. "I met him and I realized that life doesn't make sense without him. Every need and longing of our heart has an answer, and he's the answer. When Christ gazes at you, your life changes. His gaze is on everyone, just waiting for our answer.""

Read the full article here.

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Father Michael J. McGivney: A Saint for America

Decree on Heroic Virtues of Fr. Michael McGivney, Founder of Knights of Columbus

News of Obama Administration's Use of NEA and Your Tax Dollars to Co-Opt Art Community Into Propaganda Machine Breaks Big [UPDATED]

Big Hollywood has the story:

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”:

On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!”

The email invite came directly from Yosi Sergant, then-Director of Communications at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and it advised this hand-picked group that the call was about laying “a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.

***
Within 48 hours of this phone call, 21 arts organizations endorsed President Obama’s health-care reform plan. Within days, Rock the Vote started an all out blitz that included a “health care design contest.”

***
On September 6th, columnist George Will brought the story into the mainstream media when, on “This Week,” he wondered aloud just how many laws the August 10th conference call had broken.

On September 10th, the Washington Times followed the money trail and published the explosive news that of the 21 arts organizations who endorsed President Obama’s health care reform plan…

***
September 10th was a rough day for the NEA. The same day the troubling money trail was revealed, Yosi Sergant was “reassigned.” The NEA has yet to explain why Sergant was “reassigned.” ...

[Read the whole thing]

Big Hollywood promises even more explosive revelations at Noon today.


UPDATE
Ed Morrissey has more details, including the additional new revelations mentioned above:

The White House has tried to campaign hard for its health-care overhaul, but now allegations have arisen that the Obama administration abused its power by pushing the National Endowment for the Arts into campaigning for it as well. Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood publishes today the transcript of a conference call hosted by the NEA in which they push grant recipients to speak out on behalf of Obama’s top domestic-policy agenda item. If true, the White House may have substantiated one of the arguments conservatives use for the abolition of the NEA as well as abused its power — and they have the audio to prove it...

***
The NEA supposedly is “dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education,” according to its website. It has nothing at all to do with health care, tax policy, or the environment. Nor should it; if it belongs in government at all, it should restrict itself to its area of expertise, not abuse taxpayer patronage by becoming a propaganda arm of the current administration.

Does this break the law? That’s questionable, but it certainly breaks the trust of the American taxpayer. We do not fund the NEA for it to produce Leni Riefenstahl-type art. If the NEA wants to go into policy activism, then it should become a private foundation with private funding, and Congress should cut it loose.

The NEA was bad enough when it was using tax dollars to fund such memorable art as placing a crucifix in a jar of urine. Congress should completely defund the NEA at this juncture and tell the Obama administration to end its attempts to build propaganda machines in the executive branch.

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
National Endowment for the Arts Recruiting Artists to Create Propaganda on Behalf of Obama Administration? [UPDATED]

National Endowment for the Arts Recruiting Artists to Create Propaganda on Behalf of Obama Administration? [UPDATED]

Big Hollywood reports:

... I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda - health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

***
Backed by the full weight of President Barack Obama’s call to service and the institutional weight of the NEA, the conference call was billed as an opportunity for those in the art community to inspire service in four key categories, and at the top of the list were “health care” and “energy and environment.” The service was to be attached to the President’s United We Serve campaign, a nationwide federal initiative to make service a way of life for all Americans.

It sounded, how should I phrase it…unusual, that the NEA would invite the art community to a meeting to discuss issues currently under vehement national debate. I decided to call in, and what I heard concerned me.

***
Discussed throughout the conference call was a hope that this group would be one that would carry on past the United We Serve campaign to support the President’s initiatives and those issues for which the group was passionate. The making of a machine appeared to be in its infancy, initiated by the NEA, to corral artists to address specific issues. This function was not the original intention for creating the National Endowment for the Arts.

A machine that the NEA helped to create could potentially be wielded by the state to push policy. Through providing guidelines to the art community on what topics to discuss and providing them a step-by-step instruction to apply their art form to these issues, the “nation’s largest annual funder of the arts” is attempting to direct imagery, songs, films, and literature that could create the illusion of a national consensus. This is what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent.”

[More]

Your tax dollars at work ... building a propaganda machine for Obama. The GOP will probably soon come to regret that they didn't kill the NEA - as they promised they would do back in 1994 in the Contract With America - when they had the chance.


UPDATE
Here's the horrified reaction of a former deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities:

... Basically, the Obama appointees were trying to enlist the arts community as an army to promote the administration’s domestic agenda, starting with the health-care wars. They’d been “selected for a reason,” the arts types were told: in part, because they know how to “make a stink.” Perhaps these are the folks Obama hopes will defend his health-care plan from the attacks regular Americans have been launching against it at town halls. You sort of have to shake off how pathetic this is in order to see how appalling it is.

***
... the horrible lack of ethics: in implying in any way to potential applicants for taxpayer-funded grants that they must promote the president’s agenda ...

***
What these appointees have done is over the top. During my tenure as deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities — the NEA’s sister agency — during the George W. Bush administration, any action resembling this call would have triggered immediate dismissal. But saying things like the following was simply unfathomable: “This is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally? . . . Bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely . . .” Yet this is precisely what an Obama NEA appointee told the arts leaders on this call.

Courrielche asks: “Is the hair on your arms standing up yet?” Mine’s up.

(emphasis added)

This reaction is muted compared to the indignant outrage and hysteria that such an effort by the Bush Aministration ... say, in favor of the War on Terror ... would have (rightly) engendered among not only those on the left and their media sycophants, but a significant number of conservatives and libertarians as well.

Pope Hope I (a.k.a. "The Great")

(Hat tip: Chris Blosser)

A new portrait of President Obama, no doubt commissioned by the folks at Catholic Democrats, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Catholics United, (insert other Soros-funded "Catholic" groups here), etc., etc.:



I understand that the President sat for this portrait while in President Jenkins' office on the campus of Notre Dame, and that the portrait will be placed in the main lobby of the Hesburgh Library.

/sarcasm


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Pope Greets "Hope"?

President Obama to Visit Vatican

Sarah Palin Artwork

A couple of items from Zach Brissett of In Toon with the World:

Tour of Catholic Churches in Seneca County, Ohio

Photo by Jeffrey Smith, Catholic Toledo
Today, I participated in a tour of Catholic churches in Seneca County, Ohio. In addition to seeing some beautiful churches, I had the pleasure of spending some delightful hours with some equally delightful people.

Today's event provided me with the opportunity to meet, among others, Fr. Eric Schild (who I was actually meeting for the 2nd time), Fr. Adam Hertzfeld (the director of vocations for the Toledo Diocese), and 3 gentlemen from one of my favorites, the Catholic Toledo blog - Kyle Gase, Kevin Hammer, and Jeffrey Smith (also of The Roving Medievalist).

Jeffrey has posted some photos from today's tour at Catholic Toledo, and I'm sure there will be more to come (I hope to upload some photos of my own and post them here in the days ahead).

I had a wonderful time today, and hope to participate in any future church tours of this sort (I believe Jeffrey mentioned the possibility of a tour of Catholic churches in the city of Toledo in the future). I'd encourage others in this area to participate in future events of this sort as well.

Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu, Sung by The Choirboys

Jean posted this at Catholic Fire a couple of days ago:


Here is another version (featuring Lloyd Webber's ex, Sarah Brightman).

And a particularly tearjerking version from Britain's Got Talent.

I fell in love with Andrew Lloyd Webber's beautiful Pie Jesu the very first time I heard it (sung as a soprano duet in, of all places, a Sunday morning worship service in a Southern Baptist church).

This one's definitely on the funeral program whenever I happen to kick the bucket. It's really not that difficult a piece for a couple of halfway decent sopranos.

"The Wisdom of Judas Iscariot"

Notwithstanding my criticism of the tone of one of Mark's posts yesterday, I am usually in general agreement with him. And Mark's description of those who decry the alleged "wealth" of the Catholic Church is dead on accurate:

... I've never quite gotten the whole "The Catholic Church is rolling in dough" thing. Where exactly? Every parish I know is always scrambling to pay the light bill. From all I can tell, the Church operates on a shoestring.

Dorothy Day, not exactly a friend of the GOP fatcat type thought one of the dumbest things her fellow lefties wanted to do was demand that the Church "sell off her treasures" because churches were one of the only places that the poor could experience beauty. All that plan would result in would be a modest boost in revenue that would almost instantly evaporate (what with the Church being the largest charitable institution on the face of the earth) and the world greatest art would hencefort and forever be the inaccessible property of a few rich people. The whole "Why were these things not sold?" deal is the wisdom of Judas Iscariot. It's most often heard in the countries, like the US and Canada, that have vast sums of wealth dwarfing the rest of the world. It's the complaint of greedy people.

If the Church were to "sell off her treasures", things like this would be impossible.

Yesterday, I Saw the Vatican Splendors Exhibition

IMAGE OF CHRIST "The Mandylion of Edessa,"
the earliest known icon of Jesus, is on display
at the Western Reserve Historical Society as part of "Vatican Splendors,"
an exhibit featuring 200 priceless and rare items from the Vatican.
I took yesterday afternoon off from work in order to drive to Cleveland to see the Vatican Splendors Exhibition at the museum of The Western Reserve Historical Society. It was quite a rewarding experience

Included among the objects in the exhibit were a reliquary containing bones of Saint Peter, Bust of An Angel - a colorful mosaic attributed to the great 14th century painter Giotto, and the earliest representation of the face of Jesus, the Mandylion of Edessa (dating to circa 200-400 AD).

There was much, much more, with galleries organized thematically as follows: "Foundations of the Church"; "500 Years of the Vatican"; "The Work of the Pope"; and "Stories of the Popes".

As we were walking out of the museum, I told Sarah's aunt - who had accompanied me to see the exhibition - that the exhibition was one of the best ads for the Catholic Church that I had seen in a long time. If you live within a few hours drive of Cleveland, I highly recommend that you try to see Vatican Splendors.

Madonna del Sassoferrato, oil on copper,a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvi (known as il Sassoferrato),has never been displayed outside the Vatican.
Craig Litten / AP


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Reminder: Rare Vatican Treasures in Cleveland

Cleveland to Host Vatican Art Treasures

Reminder: Rare Vatican Treasures in Cleveland

IMAGE OF CHRIST "The Mandylion of Edessa,"
one of the earliest known icons of Jesus, will be on display
at the Western Reserve Historical Society as part of "Vatican Splendors,"
an exhibit featuring 200 priceless and rare items from the Vatican.
A collection of rare Vatican treasures will be coming to Cleveland later this month:

CLEVELAND The Western Reserve Historical Society's upcoming exhibit, "Vatican Splendors from St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums and the Swiss Guard," may be the closest many people will come to the Vatican's priceless collection of treasures.

The exhibit will run from May 31 to Sept. 7 and will showcase more than 200 artistic and historical objects.

It commemorates the 500th anniversary of St. Peter's Basilica, the founding of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican Museums and the painting of the Sistine Chapel.

Museum president Gainor Davis said the historical society was one of three U.S. venues chosen in part because of its success with a previous exhibit: A collection of gowns worn by the late Princes Diana. It drew 85,000 visitors.

COMMUNITY TIES

"It came to us because of the Diana show," she explained. "Somebody who has worked with us on Diana was approached, and they said to consider the historical society (as) a venue. We were approached about it, and we did do some thinking as to whether this was an appropriate thing for us to do.

"Our mission is focused on regional history, so there was some discussion about, 'Is this outside of the mission?' But we felt after some discussion, it focused on the roots of Catholicism.

"In Northeast Ohio, it's the tradition of a large group of people who live within our boundaries. We are a public history and community-oriented organization, and we decided this was something people in Northeast Ohio should have the opportunity to see."

Davis noted that 40 percent of Northeast Ohioans have some tie to Catholicism and estimates that 140,000 people will visit the Vatican exhibit.

[More]

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
I find it interesting how a museum devoted to the regional history of this part of Ohio decided that an exhibit of Vatican treasures meets its mission. And, by the way, I am in complete agreement with the museum's thinking in that regard, especially since it means I'll be able to go see these items from the Church's history.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Cleveland to Host Vatican Art Treasures

London: Plans Unveiled for Memorial to Pre-Reformation Shrines [UPDATED]

(Hat tip: Jeffrey at The Roving Medievalist and Fr. Ray Blake)


Final plans have been unveiled for the memorial to the pre-Reformation English shrines that I first blogged about here:

Plans for a memorial to the medieval shrines destroyed during the Reformation, were unveiled yesterday at Charterhouse.

The sculpture by Paul Day, commissioned by the Art and Reconciliation Trust, (ART) will be placed close to the site of Chelsea Manor, once home of St Thomas More and his family. After More was executed for his faith in 1535, his house was given to the Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Sandys. In 1538 Sir Thomas Cromwell moved there in order to avoid the plague that was raging in central London. Cromwell was masterminding the dissolution of the monasteries and destruction of monastic churches and shrines at that time. In order to make sure that all the looted statues were destroyed, Cromwell ordered that they should all be brought to Chelsea Manor and burnt in a huge bonfire that he could personally witness. Among the statues lost was Our Lady of Walsingham, a shrine which ranked fourth after Rome. Jerusalem and Compostella, the Black Madonna of Willesden and Our Lady of Grace of Ipswich.

***
The unveiling of the memorial is due to take place on 13 October 2009, the feast of Edward the Confessor. This will be preceded by an ecumenical service in Westminster Cathedral.

For more information, or to make a donation, visit: www.artandreconcliation.org.

[More]

My Comments:
The full artwork for the memorial (above), along with some very interesting details about the project, can also be viewed in the downloadable Arts and Reconciliation brochure (pdf).

It seems the final plans for the monument have changed somewhat from the original rendering (below), but the basic concept is still there.


Unfortunately, the Walsingham aspect and medieval iconography seem to have been de-emphasized in favor of

"simplifying the overall form of the sculpture thus emphasising the universal nature of its theme through the use of a recognisable contemporary setting".

My own opinion is that the changes to the artwork deprive the memorial of its historical context and make it more of a multi-cultural statement on religious persecution in general. The Art and Reconciliation brochure concedes as much:

It is this design that ART proposes to reproduce in twelve countries where similar persecution has taken place.

I personally think it unfortunate that they didn't stick with the original plans, and that the memorial won't even be unique to either England or to the English Reformation.

Nevertheless, it's still a beautiful monument, and the mere fact that this memorial is getting done is itself a near miracle and quite wonderful news.


UPDATE
Joanna Bogle was there for yesterday's launch of the project.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
A Memorial in Chelsea to the Marian Shrines Destroyed in the English Reformation

The Audacity of Pope

I love it! It sure beats the original.

Illustrated by Michael Ian Weinfeld

(Hat tip: The Curt Jester)

Abortion as "Art"

(Hat tip: Feddie)

There are no words for this kind of evil:

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock — saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

***
The "fabricators," or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.

Shvarts declined to specify the number of sperm donors she used, as well as the number of times she inseminated herself.

***
"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts said. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."

The display of Schvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts' self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room...

My Review of Masterpiece's Adaptation of Sense and Sensibility

Once again calling into question my Manly Man™ credentials, here is my review of the PBS Masterpiece adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

I thought it would be hard to top the Ang Lee / Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility that appeared a little over a decade ago (despite that adaptation's serious flaws, among which were Emma Thompson's being too old for the part of Elinor Dashwood and Hugh Grant's mealy-mouthed portrayal of Edward Ferrars), but the updated version that I watched over the last 2 weeks on PBS accomplishes that feat. Part of the reason is that a 2-part television adaptation has more time to work with the plot than a 2-hour screen adaptation. That extra couple of hours has made a world of difference, in my opinion.

Charity Wakefield's Marianne Dashwood is the equal of (if not better than) the Kate Winslet performance in that role - Miss Wakefield definitely has stolen the show. And while Hattie Morahan's Elinor Dashwood lacks much of the heart that Emma Thompson gave to the role, Miss Morahan is nevertheless superb, and surpasses Thompson in the emotional climax of the movie in which Edward confesses his devotion to her. Dan Stevens doesn't have to work too hard to outdo Hugh Grant in playing the part of Edward Ferrars. Notwithstanding the lowered expectations of the role brought on by Grant's forgettable 1995 performance, Mr. Stevens redeems the part of the put-upon Edward by his fine portrayal.

The hero of the piece is Colonel Brandon. Now, I was quite taken with Alan Rickman's stellar job in the role back in 1995. David Morrisey, however, manages to top it. Morrisey's more age-appropriate Brandon is much more believable as a possible match for the youthful Marianne than was Rickman's. [ED.: Colonel Brandon is supposed to be "on the wrong side of five-and-thirty" years old to Marianne's approximately 16 years. Alan Rickman was 50 when he played the role; David Morrisey is 43, but looks younger.]

The one glaring shortcoming compared to the 1995 screen adaptation is Dominic Cooper's Willoughby. Not that Mr. Cooper doesn't do a fine job in the role; in fact, he is very good. It's just that, in the eyes of many, the role of Willoughby will forever be linked to Greg Wise's performance on the big screen (much like every Darcy will forever suffer by comparison to the part as played by Colin Firth).

The supporting roles in the Masterpiece adaptation are variably better or not as good as those in the screen adaptation, but none really stand out as excelling or suffering by comparison, with one exception. The role of Mr. Palmer is given almost no play (only a few lines in a couple of brief appearances) in the Masterpiece version, whereas Hugh Laurie's portrayal of Mr. Palmer in 1995 stole every scene in which he appeared.

The Masterpiece screenplay was written by Andrew Davies, who also wrote the screenplay for the definitive BBC / A&E adaption of Pride and Prejudice, and slightly bests Emma Thompson's screenplay.

All in all, I prefer the updated television version of Sense and Sensibility to the 1995 screen adaptation, although I would highly recommend both.


UPDATE
Now that the entire PBS Masterpiece "Complete Jane Austen" series has run its full course, I'm going to compare the Masterpiece adaptations to other recent TV and big screen adaptations of Jane Austen's works:

Persuasion
The Masterpiece version, while very good, is not in my view as good as the 1995 adaptation starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.

Northanger Abbey
The Masterpiece version is better in my view than the 1986 television adaptation of the novel.

Mansfield Park
The Masterpiece version is not nearly as good as the 1999 big screen adaption (despite that particular adaptation's HUGE liberties with the plot and character portrayals, which include slavery and miscegenation, as well as homoerotic and incestuous undertones).

Pride and Prejudice
The Masterpiece version is actually the 1995 BBC / A&E miniseries, which I have already described above as "definitive". All previous and subsequent adaptions of Miss Austen's most enduring novel will suffer by comparison. The 2005 big screen version starring Keira Knightly in the lead role of Elizabeth Bennet, while very good, doesn't even come close.

Emma
The Masterpiece version is actually the 1996 BBC / A&E adaptation starring Kate Beckinsale in the title role. It is a good production, but is lacking compared to the excellent 1996 big screen adaption starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, and Ewan McGregor.

Sense and Sensibility
See review above.

UPDATE #2 (8 April)
Darwin points out a version of Pride and Prejudice that I failed to mention in my comparison - the 1980 BBC adaptation. It is a very fine version that is perhaps closer to the spirit of the novel than any other.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, the production values of the 1995 adaptation make it superlative. And Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth and Colin Firth's Darcy, while perhaps not as true to Austen's characters as they might have been, were iconic portrayals.

Top 5 Reasons to Watch IFC (Independent Film Channel)

Here are the top 5 reasons to watch the Independent Film Channel:

(5) You can make yourself sound smart, cultured, and/or edgy by discussing the latest film you've watched while sitting in the Lone Star Steak House with a couple of other bloggers who know waaaaay more about movies than you do.

(4) To laugh at the inaneness and predictability of the left-wing political commentary of Henry Rollins, who, if he really wanted to be as "edgy" as he pretends to be, wouldn't adopt the same political positions and ranting schtick as virtually every other Hollywood leftist political commentator (see, e.g., Bill Maher, Al Franken, etc.).

(3) Because it's not porn if they're speaking French; it's "art".

(2) R. Kelly doing hip-hop opera.

(1) The Whitest Kids U Know. Freakin' hilarious.

Early and Mediaeval Irish Ecclesiastical Art

See Shawn Tribe's post on the subject at The New Liturgical Movement.

(Hat tip: Thomas Fitzpatrick at Recta Ratio)

The Curt Jester: "Liturgical Dancing with the Stars"

If you haven't already, you simply must see the post on "Liturgical Dancing with the Stars" over at The Curt Jester.


Prominently featured in Jeff's post is Br. Angel Mendez, OP, pictured above (be sure to click on the photo to get the full effect).

I know Br. Angel! He used to be at the University of Virginia, where he was doing PhD work in philosophical theology or some such. When Sarah and I were going through RCIA at the Dominican parish in Charlottesville, Br. Angel taught the session on the Gospels.

When I happened to disagree with his take that the Gospels were written a couple of centuries after Christ, and I suggested instead that the Gospels might actually have been authored by those to whom the Church had always credited them, he branded my view as "fundamentalist".

Cathedral of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Toledo, OH

(Hat tip: Jeffrey Smith at The Roving Medievalist)

This video about the Diocese of Toledo's beautiful Cathedral of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary is definitely worth watching.

Photo Source: Toledo Museum of Art