September 11, 2007
Remembering 9/11
(Jimmy Akin)
The following is an e-mail I got today from Suzanne Greydanus (who gave me permission to post it and said it was okay to use her name, though I offered to omit it). Her brother, David, died earlier this year of sudden-onset leukemia and at a very young age. In the wake of 9/11 there was a lot of concern about rescue workers breathing in toxic dust from the collapse of the towers, but less attention devoted to the health effects it might have had on others who were there . . . like Suzanne's brother.
Here's what she wrote:
My brother was one of the first to get pictures up of the 9/11 attacks -- he did it that day. He got about a zillion hits on this little slide show in the weeks following. I believe that the leukemia that killed him back in May was a result of him breathing in the toxic dust that day. So I think about 9/11 in a new way this year.
(Also, I look at all these other folks pictured here and I wonder about their health too.)
Suz
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May 17, 2007
Sinister Secret Societies?
(Jimmy Akin)
WHO DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THOSE?
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (28)
May 15, 2007
Another Theory On Who Jack The Ripper Was
(Jimmy Akin)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (23)
February 23, 2007
Coverage Of The New JFK Film
(Jimmy Akin)
Make of it what you will.
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September 01, 2006
The Telling Of The Beads
(Michelle Arnold)
Rosaries have a long and interesting history. They have evolved over the centuries from the earliest days when people used a bowl of loose pebbles to count their prayers to the form in which we have them today. While doing some research on the rosary, I found some interesting links on the history of the rosary.
(For more links than it is possible to include here, I recommend going to Google and searching on key words such as "history rosary.")
A few years ago after John Paul II promulgated the luminous mysteries of the rosary, I wrote an article on the subject titled "Light for the World." It is now online at Catholic Answers' web site.
AND THE SIDEBAR (which has some information on the history of the rosary).
While the rosary is not one of my favorite personal devotions, as a history buff I am fascinated by its history as both a prayer and an art form.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (29)
August 23, 2006
A Meme Of Noble Descent
(Michelle Arnold)
Have you ever been jealous when some friend or acquaintance bragged to you about all the famous and/or noble people he had found hanging from his family tree (so to speak)? No need. Odds are, you too have a notable ancestor hiding among the foliage of your family tree! After all, if it could be true for Brooke Shields, it could be true for anyone.
"Actress Brooke Shields has a pretty impressive pedigree -- hanging from her family tree are Catherine de Medici and Lucrezia Borgia, Charlemagne and El Cid, William the Conqueror and King Harold II, vanquished by William at the Battle of Hastings.
"Shields also descends from five popes, a whole mess of early New England settlers, and the royal houses of virtually every European country. She counts Renaissance pundit Niccolo Machiavelli and conquistador Hernando Cortes as ancestors.
What is it about Brooke Shields? Well, nothing special -- at least genealogically.
"Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say, the odds are virtually 100 percent that every person on Earth is descended from one royal personage or another."
(Nod to E-Skojec.com for the link.)
How cool! This, I think, calls for My First Meme:
1. Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from? Pope John Paul II (collaterally, of course). Hey, if Brooke Shields can be descended from five popes, then I can have one of the greatest among them as an indirect ancestor.
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from? Brigham Young. Although with some fifty wives and over fifty known children (source), he's likely to have a multitude of direct and collateral descendants here in the U.S.
3. If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why? Dan Brown. It would give me the chance to make sure there was some decent Christian catechesis in the family that might have molded him into not writing The Da Vinci Code (or, failing that, at least not writing it as it ended up being written).
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be? Direct and collateral ancestors who fought on both sides of the American Civil War. The old adage that that war tore apart families is quite literally true.
5. Tag five others: My sister, Jimmy, Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B., the Curt Jester, Ten Reasons, and anyone else who wants to play on their own blogs or in the combox.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (24)
August 10, 2006
George Washington Vs. Guy Fawkes Day
(Jimmy Akin)
Arthur of the Ancient and Illuminated Seers of Bavaria writes:
Being the incredible history geek that I am, I have recently started reading George Washington's headquarters correspondence (there are advantages to working at a university).
And I ws struck by something from his General Orders for November 5, 1775 (and Nov. 5 being Guy Fawkes Day in England):
"As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of the ridiculous and chidish custom of burning the Efficgy of the pope - He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at the Huncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Cirumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offereng the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada."
(Writings of Washington, Vol 4 Oct. 1775-Apr, 1776, page 65, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1931)
Now a cynic might point out this order is just a political ploy to insure the support of the French Canadian Catholic population of Quebec and there may be some justice to that. But given the vehemence with which this order is worded, I for one, get the impression that Washington really had no truck with anti-Catholic sentiment despite the fact ath he was personally a high church Anglican as well as a Freemason.
Thought you might find it interesting.
Indeed. Thanks for passing it along!
I'm not one to underestimate the role that the necessities of wartime could play in such a declaration, but it is phrased with a vehemence suggesting that there is more here than cynical calculation in play. A general does not lightly refer to his own embattled troops' behavior as "ridiculous," "childish," and "monstrous."
Washington also extended good will toward persons of other religions, writing affectiveto the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island that in America
All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy [SOURCE].
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (29)
July 06, 2006
The Sailing Monks
(Michelle Arnold)
What do you do with a World War II Nazi landing ship? Uh, well, you could convert it to other shipping purposes.... You could create a WWII museum.... You could turn it into scrap metal....
Too tame. Let's think outside the box (or the ship, as the case may be).
How about turning it into a floating monastery? Sort of.
"Croatia's defense ministry has donated a World War II Nazi ship to a local Roman Catholic monastery, which will turn it into a sailing church, the Jutarnji List daily newspaper reported Tuesday.
"The landing ship DTM-219 was used by Nazi Germany to transport tanks and infantry. It was given to communist Yugoslavia after 1945 as part of war compensation, [the newspaper] said.
[...]
"It will be used as sailing church for the young, who will be able to sail the Adriatic, pray and meditate as part of church-sponsored religious cruises, the daily said."
Of course, I must warn the monks that, in Catholic Answers' experience, not everyone will be keen on the idea of religious cruises.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (9)
June 27, 2006
Hawthorne Family Reunion
(Michelle Arnold)
When an order of nuns could no longer maintain the graves of two of the deceased in their care, they decided to rebury them elsewhere. But the decision wasn't solely based on the bottom line of economics, but on the bottom line of love. They decided to bring the relatives home to the family plot.
"[Nathaniel] Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, died in New Hampshire in 1864. His wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, moved to England with their three children and died there six years later. She and their daughter Una were buried at Kensal Green cemetery in London.
[...]
"But when cemetery officials told the nuns that the grave site needed costly repairs, the order arranged to have remains reburied in Concord instead.
"On Monday, one modern casket containing the remains of mother and daughter was put on a horse-drawn 1860 wooden hearse and carried from a local funeral home through the town center to a church for the memorial service. About 40 family members and a group of nuns from the order followed the hearse in a procession."
Why were the nuns so concerned about the disposition of the Hawthorne family remains? They are the Hawthorne Dominicans, and their foundress was Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter, Catholic convert and saint-in-the-making Rose Hawthorne Lathrop.
Some might think Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's conversion to Catholicism surprising, but I doubt her father, the great American literary artist, would have thought so.
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. --Nathaniel Hawthorne
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 30, 2006
Happy Birthday, Gilbert!
(Jimmy Akin)
Yesterday was the day that G. K. Chesterton turned 132 year old!
(Not counting the time he was alive in the uterus.)
(And not counting the fact that he happens to be dead at the moment--which I'm sure he would say is immaterial [PUN!].)
Fortunately, his birthday has not gone unnoticed, and some folks in the blogosphere are having a multi-day celebration of it.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (13)
February 28, 2006
Raiders Of The Lost Sun Temple
(Michelle Arnold)
A large sun temple of the Egyptian pharaohs has been dug up under an outdoor market in Cairo:
"The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis -- the center of pharaonic sun worship -- was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.
"Among the artifacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features 'resemble those of Ramses II,' said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities."
<tongue in cheek>
Don't these archaeologists remember what is commonly believed to have happened to the raiders of King Tut's tomb? Not to mention to the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
</tongue in cheek>
JIMMY ADDS: It's always nice to hear from our old friend Zahi Hawass. Nice to know he's keeping busy.
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February 02, 2006
No More Telegrams. Stop.
(Michelle Arnold)
It took many, many years -- some 145 of them -- but the Pony Express has finally seen sweet justice served to the technology that rang its death knell. As of January 27, 2006, Western Union ended its telegram services.
"On the company's web site, if you click on 'Telegrams' in the left-side navigation bar [sic; it's on the right side], you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:
"'Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.'
"The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn't help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin."
Somehow I don't think that the telegram will inspire as much fond sentiment in the centuries to come as did the Pony Express, which continues to fascinate students of the Old West to this day.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
Eternal Berlin
(Michelle Arnold)
Adolf Hitler, who according to popular myth had Pope Pius XII on his payroll, [heavy sarcasm]loved the Catholic Church and "his pope" so much[/heavy sarcasm] that he wanted to build a new St. Peter's Basilica in Berlin and had chief architect Albert Speer working up plans for the project:
"Speer built a scale model of how he planned to recreate the columns of St Peter's Square, which encircle the piazza in front of the Basilica.
"The Moscow museum's director, David Sarkisian, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'The plan was for the new Berlin to be ready in 1950 after Nazi Germany had defeated the Allies.
"'Hitler would declare Germany the ruler of a world empire and at the centre of its capital Berlin was to be a recreation of St Peter's Square in the Vatican.
"'Speer's plans included the columns from the square and at the centre instead of a fountain as in Rome there would be a huge statue of Benito Mussolini.
"'Hitler considered the Eternal City [Rome] to be the only city in the world to rival Berlin so he wanted to better it in every way possible.' Speer's documents show that Hitler took a great interest in the plans and was delighted with the architect's model."
As a side note, for those interested in a thorough refutation of the Catholic urban legend that Pius XII was "Hitler's Pope," I highly recommend Rabbi David G. Dalin's The Myth of Hitler's Pope.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 19, 2006
Irish Adam
(Michelle Arnold)
Ireland has its very own Adam, an Irish warlord named Niall of the Nine Hostages -- wonder how he got that name! -- who is estimated to have more than three million male descendants. (Because of the manner in which the study was conducted, female descendants were not counted.)
"The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.
"His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.
"'It's another link between profligacy and power,' Bradley told Reuters. 'We're the first generation on the planet where if you're successful you don't (always) have more children.'"
"We're the first generation on the planet where if you're successful you don't (always) have more children."
Right. That's because modern man has convinced himself that children stand in the way of success. As ancient man well knew but modern man has forgotten, children contribute to a person's success, they don't inhibit it.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 04, 2006
In Search Of The Historical Mozart
(Michelle Arnold)
Catholicism is probably the only religion that so perfectly fits human nature. You might say that if God hadn't given it to us, we might have had to invent it. I say this because so much of Catholic sensibilities and customs are mirrored in secular life, often by those who would be horrified to be considered crypto-Catholics.
For example, there are rumors that relic-hunting scientists in Austria have found the skull of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and will reveal the results of DNA testing in an Austrian television documentary commemorating Mozart's 250th birthday:
"In a documentary entitled Mozart: The Search for Evidence, researchers will reveal the conclusions of tests carried out on the skull at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck last year. DNA from shavings from the skull was compared with genetic material from the thigh bones of Mozart’s maternal grandmother and niece.
"Until now, tests on the skull, which belongs to the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, have proved inconclusive, but today Dr. Walther Parson, the forensic pathologist who led the analysis said his team had 'succeeded in getting a clear result.'
"Dr. Parson said the result had been '100 percent verified' by a US Army laboratory but declined to elaborate."
By the way, anyone planning a birthday party for Mozart should consider sending an invitation to Pope Benedict, who is known to be a great admirer of the composer and once said of Mozart's music, "His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence."
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
December 29, 2005
"Pope Joan"
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
On Thursday there will be a Diane Sawyer special about the evidence for a female Pope Joan. Are there any holes in the historical record that could account for this or is it a completely rediculous claim? Where could I find some information on this?
I normally recommend J. N. D. Kelly's book The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, because Kelly is a Protestant historian and he has an appendix in this book that totally slams the Pope Joan myth.
Unfortunately, most couldn't consult this book before the broadcast, so I suggest these sources:
THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA ON POPE JOAN.
The fact that ABC is dumping this story on Thursday in the week between Christmas and New Years (a LOW viewership time) suggests that they don't have confidence in it, which only increases their culpability in broadcasting it.
OUTRAGE MAY BE EXPRESSED HERE.
Incidentally, a number of years ago I was at my desk at Catholic Answers when I was routed a call from a major Hollywood producer (who shall remain nameless, but who was quite famous and had a lot of credits to his name) who wanted to ask me about sources for Pope Joan to help his upcoming TV/movie project on her.
He was quite alarmed when I told him that Pope Joan was a myth, and he indicated that he was going to go back to the people who had pitched the idea to press them about this fact.
The project never got made.
I wish all producers had as much integrity as this guy did!
Unfortunately, they don't, and there is a Pope Joan movie coming out of Germany next year.
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December 23, 2005
International Man Of Mystery
(Jimmy Akin)
"Who wrote Shakespeare's plays?" has a much more controversial answer than "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?"
In fact, numerous facts about the Bard continue to be hotly disputed, almost three hundred years after his death.
One of the controversies is whether Shakespeare himself may have been a Catholic.
In his day English Protestants were putting tremendous pressure on Catholics to accept the newly imposed faith, and laws were passed against those who would refuse to attend Protestant services (known as "recusants").
The result was that many people hid their Catholicism but continued to consider themselves Catholic and, when possible, to practice Catholicism in secret (e.g., by aiding and hiding priests who would covertly say Mass and hear confessions).
Others were more bold and openly declared their Catholicism.
Among those were Shakespeare's father and his daughter, both of whom recused themselves from Protestant services.
In fact, Shakespeare was in the middle of a hotbed of secret and not-so-secret Catholics.
HERE'S AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW BY AN AUTHOR ARGUING THAT SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS CONTAIN COVERT CATHOLIC MESSAGES.
HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN BUY HER BOOK.
HERE'S SOME ADDITIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE QUESTION FROM WIKIPEDIA.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
November 24, 2005
They Held Their Noses And Ate
(Jimmy Akin)
What a great history of Thanksgiving food the NYT has today!
EXCERPTS:
The native American food that the Pilgrims supposedly enjoyed would have offended the palate of any self-respecting English colonist - the colonial minister Charles Woodmason called it "exceedingly filthy and most execrable." Our comfort food, in short, was the bane of the settlers' culinary existence.
The reason is fairly simple. Hale and her fellow writers seem to have forgotten that their Puritan forebears migrated to New England with strict notions about food production and preparation. Proper notions of English husbandry generally demanded that flesh be domesticated, grain neatly planted and fruit and vegetables cultivated in gardens and orchards.
Given these expectations, English migrants recoiled upon discovering that the native inhabitants hunted their game, grew their grain haphazardly and foraged for fruit and vegetables. Squash, corn, turkey and ripe cranberries might have tasted perfectly fine to the English settlers. But that was beside the point. What really mattered was that the English deemed the native manner of acquiring these goods nothing short of barbaric. Indeed, the colonists saw it as the essence of savagery.
No matter how hard [the colonists] tried, no matter how carefully they tended their crops and repaired their fences and fattened their cattle and furrowed their fields, colonial Americans failed to replicate European husbandry practices. Geography alone wouldn't allow it.
The adaptation of Indian agricultural techniques not only sent colonists deep into the woods galloping after game and grubbing corn from unbound, ashen fields, it also provoked severe cultural insecurity. This insecurity turned to conspicuous dread when the colonists were mocked by their metropolitan cousins as living, in the words of one haughty Englishman, "in a state of ignorance and barbarism, not much superior to those of the native Indians."
This hurt. And under the circumstances no status-minded English colonist would have possibly highlighted his adherence to native American victuals - even if the early Thanksgiving holiday had been a genuine culinary event. Indeed, it wasn't until after the Revolution, when the new nation was seeking ways to differentiate itself from the Old World, that these foods became celebrated as a reflection of emerging ideals like simplicity, manifest destiny and rugged individualism.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
Christmas Peace Veteran Dies
(Michelle Arnold)
In Europe in 1914, when Christmas was still considered to be a holy day and an occasion for peace rather than an excuse to party, the combatants of World War I observed a truce in honor of the holiday. The last surviving Allied veteran to witness the 1914 Christmas Peace has died at the age of 109.
"Alfred Anderson was the oldest man in Scotland and the last known surviving Scottish veteran of the war.
"'I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence,' he was quoted as saying in the Observer newspaper last year, describing the day-long Christmas Truce of 1914, which began spontaneously when German soldiers sang carols in the trenches, and British soldiers responded in English.
"'All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning across the land as far as you could see.'
"'We shouted "Merry Christmas" even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again.'"
May Mr. Anderson and all of the witnesses of that Christmas Peace finally be reunited this holiday season to witness the everlasting peace of heaven.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 19, 2005
RIP: WWI Veteran
(Michelle Arnold)
One of the last remaining Australian veterans of World War I died on Monday, October 17. He was just 14 when he left to defend his country; he was 106 when he died.
"William Evan Allan enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy at the outbreak of the war when he was just 14. He served as a seaman on the HMAS Encounter from 1915 to 1918.
"'With his passing, we have lost an entire generation who left Australia to defend our nation, the British Empire and other nations in the cause of freedom and democracy,' Veteran Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly said in a statement.
"'Mr. Allan was just a boy when he went to war, much younger than most. His sacrifice is remembered and we honor him for his service,' she said.
"Allan, born in the southeastern town of Bega in July 1899 and a resident of Melbourne, also was Australia's sole surviving veteran of both world wars. In World War II, Allan served on an armed merchant cruiser and as pier master of a naval base."
Maybe it's just me, but I find it amazingly uplifting and hopeful that in a day and age where parents kick out freeloading adult children on a "reality-TV" series that we are still within living memory of an era when young people, now considered minors, were mature enough to take on the adult responsibility of serving their country with honor. Perhaps we can still reclaim that heritage of raising self-sufficient and heroically-inclined children (although, of course, we should wait until they are eighteen before calling them up for war).
May William Evan Allan and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace through the mercy of God.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
The Templars
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
Putting aside all the paranoid conspiracy nonsense, what is the modern church's view on the supression of the Templars? Especially since we now know that confessions made under torture are essentially useless. Let's be honest this is not one of the shining moments in church history, if for no other reason than Pope Clement V's moral cowardice in the face of King Philip's bullying.
The Church doesn't really have an official view on historical incidents like this--at least not usually. Normally the Church leaves the evaluation of particular historical incidents to the conscience of the individual and to historians.
It does, however, comment in a general way on historical events that raise the considerations that the Church would bring to bear on the question if it were to comment on particular events (as it does on some occasions).
Some of the principles that the Church brings to bear in evaluating historical events are spelled out in the document
MEMORY AND RECONCILATION: THE CHURCH AND THE FAULTS OF THE PAST.
In general, the Church tries to acknowledge objectively wrong moral behavior but it also tries to evaluate the behavior against the character of the time and not hastily condemn individuals whose consciences, ultimately, are known to God alone. It thus tries to hold in tension the need to acknowledge the moral truth about particular behaviors alongside the need to acknowledge the historical factors affecting individuals and the fact that we cannot know their hearts.
One can see these being played out in the following passage from the Catechism, which addresses the subject of torture:
Respect for bodily integrity
2297 . . . Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. . . .
2298 In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.
This establishes the Church's general take on such historical realities without juding particular cases (in which individuals may have been more culpable or less culpable). It would be up to historians and private individuals to apply these principles to particular cases like what happened with the Templars and see how they stand up.
For an informed Catholic indivual's attempt to do just that, SEE THIS ARTICLE. It was written almost a hundred years ago, and the author has a very negative view of what happened to the Templars (including the torture). I doubt if very many today would take a positive view of the situation.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
Found: Ancient Egyptian Church
(Michelle Arnold)
An ancient Christian church, possibly dating to the founding of Christian monasticism, has been found near the Red Sea:
"Workers from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities found the ruins while restoring the foundations of the Apostles Church at St. Anthony's Monastery. The remains are about 2 or 2 1/2 yards underground, said the head of the council, Zahi Hawass.
"The monastery, which is in the desert west of the Red Sea, was founded by disciples of St. Anthony, a hermit who died in A.D. 356 and is regarded as the father of Christian monasticism. A colony of hermits settled around him and he led them in a community.
"The remains include the column bases of a mud-brick church and two-room hermitages."
Stories like this remind me of an observation made by the tour-guide priest during a pilgrimage I went on to the Holy Land in the Jubilee Year 2000. He noted that visiting the Christian sites in the Holy Land is a visible testimony to the antiquity of the Church. All of the major Christian sites in the Holy Land are claimed either by the Catholic Church or by Orthodox churches whose ancient communities in the Holy Land broke off communion with the Catholic Church. On the other hand, the Protestant presence at Christian sites in the Holy Land is negligible because Protestantism didn't enter the scene until over a millennium-and-a-half after the founding of Christianity. While this isn't "proof" against the claims of Protestantism, it is a historical reminder that Protestantism is a Johnny-come-lately phenomenon.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2005
Happy Internet Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, August 6, back in 1991, was the day the first web page went online.
The World Wide Web was the brainchild of Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, who proposed it back in 1980.
That was presumably sometime after Al Gore invented the Internet.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack
Hiroshima: 60 Years Later
(Michelle Arnold)
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Sixty years later, Hiroshima remembers the atrocity:
"Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving city of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war, the anniversary underscores its ongoing tragedy.
"Officials estimate about 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its payload over the city, which then had a population of about 350,000.
[...]
"The true toll on Hiroshima is hard to gauge, however.
"Including those initially listed as missing or who died afterward from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 237,062.
"This year, about 5,000 names are being added to the list."
On August 9, Japan will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on another Japanese city, Nagasaki, which has been the epicenter for Catholicism in that country. For a Catholic perspective on the atomic bombings of Japan, see this e-letter by Karl Keating, written to commemorate the anniversary last year. For an overview of Catholic principles of just war, see Catholic Answers' Answer Guide: Just War Doctrine.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBack
August 04, 2005
Hitler's Mufti
(Jimmy Akin)
Rabbi David G. Dalin writes:
Many readers of the New York Times no doubt believe that Pope Pius XII was “Hitler’s Pope.” John Cornwell’s bestselling book told them that, and it’s been reaffirmed by Garry Wills, Daniel Goldhagen and other writers since. It’s been said so often in fact that most well-read liberals know it for a certainty. The only trouble is: it isn’t true.
Not only does it contradict the words of Holocaust survivors, the founders of Israel, and the contemporary record of the New York Times, but even John Cornwell, the originator of the phrase “Hitler’s pope,” has recanted it saying that he was wrong to have ascribed evil motives to Pius and now found it “impossible to judge” the wartime pope.
But there’s something else that has been ignored nearly all together. Precisely at the moment when Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Rome (and throughout Europe) was saving thousands of Jewish lives, Hitler had a cleric broadcasting from Berlin who called for the extermination of the Jews.
He was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the viciously anti-Semitic grand mufti of Jerusalem, who resided in Berlin as a welcome guest and ally of the Nazis throughout the years of the Holocaust.
GET THE STORY.
(CHT to Thomas Woods for e-mailing!)
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July 20, 2005
Happy Lunar Landing Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
Today--July 20th--back in 1969 was the day man first walked on the moon. (Unless you're one of those folks who thinks it was all fake, like in that thar Capricorn One movie.)
Neil Armstrong was supposed to say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," but as the tapes reveal, he actually said "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"--which makes no sense.
It's always been a comfort to me that the first words spoken by a human being on another celestial body were a blown line.
Should help keep us humble in the face of such achievements.
Y'know . . . I've always thought that a Saturn V rocket looks rather a lot like a tower. Now where have I heard something about towers to heavens and confusion of tongues before . . . ?
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July 15, 2005
Happy Rosetta Stone Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
The chunk o'rock to the left is The Rosetta Stone (Dum! Dum! Dum!).
It was found today--July 15--back yonder in the year 1799 by Napoleon DynamiteBonaparte--well, actually by one of his men.
Now, thing is: The Rosetta Stone was instrumental in helping us figure out how to read Egyptian. Jean-Francois Champollion (an old, dead French dude who was then a young, alive French dude) deciphered hieroglyphics using help from the stone.
He was able to do this because the rock contains engravings of the same text in Greek, demotic script (the kind of script used by ordinary Egyptian folks in ancient times), and hieroglyphics (the more sacred way the Egyptian language was written). Since Greek was a known language, it was possible to figure out what the text as a whole said in the other two scripts.
YEE-HAW!
Ain't linguistic discovery a hoot!
So anyway, now that the Rosetta Stone has been cracked (no pun intended, though look at the edges), if you want to learn hieroglyphics yourself, SEE HERE.
Also, GET THE STORY.
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July 03, 2005
Happy Roswell Incident Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, July 3 in 1947, Rancher Mack Brazel of New Mexico (left) was out riding with a neighbor kid and ran across a large amount of debris littering one of the fields on the Foster Ranch, where he was foreman.
A couple of days later, Brazel was in the little, nearby town of Corona where he reported his find to the sheriff.
Thus began a series of events that are now known as the "Roswell Incident."
The name Roswell got involved because Roswell is the nearest "big" town near Corona. It was also the location of an important Army Air Field that became important to the story. And there was a second debris field found near Roswell itself.
Strange things happened during this incident, including the detention of Mac Brazel for several days, following which he changed elements of his story.
He wasn't the only one.
The Army initially put out a press release saying that they'd found the wreckage of a "flying saucer." Yes! That's right! The Army really did claim to have found a flying saucer.
Of course, this was only two weeks after pilot Kenneth Arnold's sighting that gave us the term "flying saucer." It wasn't yet a fixed part of saucer mythology that they were from other worlds. At the time, many might reasonably have thought they were classified aircraft we or the Germans or someone had come up with in or immediately after WWII.
On the right is the front page of the Roswell Daily Record for July 8, 1947, with the lead story based on the Army press release. HERE'S A LINK TO THE TEXT.
The story was also carried by numerous papers around the world, including THE TIMES OF LONDON.
The saucer story was the government's first account of what happened at Roswell.
But they immediately changed their story.
The government's second story was that it was a weather balloon that had crashed. In Ft. Worth, Texas Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey (left) displayed alleged wreckage from the weather balloon.
The third story came out in 1994, when the government conceded that what crashed wasn't a weather balloon. They still claimed it was a balloon, though--part of PROJECT MOGUL--a covert Cold War project using high-altitude balloons in an attempt to monitor distant nuclear tests being done by Russia.
GET THAT VERSION OF THE STORY.
That didn't explain the "alien bodies" people reported seeing at Roswell, though.
Enter the fourth story: In 1997 the government issued a report, which claimed that the alleged alien bodies were really crash test dummies like the one pictured on the right, which was donated to and is on display at the Roswell UFO Museum.
Problem is: These dummies weren't in use in 1947. They were in use something like ten years later. The Air Force has countered that the alleged witnesses' memories suffer from "time compression"--that is, they're misremembering when they saw dummies by almost a decade.
There are some fascinating theories about what happened at Roswell, including some that have nothing to do with aliens. One is really shaking up the UFO community right now. I'll mention more about that in the near future.
In the meantime, the Roswell Incident continues to be debated and continues to have a strong presence in popular culture through countless movies, films, and books.
The real explanation for what happened is the stuff of which debates are made.
Fortunately, I happen to know what the Truth behind Roswell is.
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July 02, 2005
Boom Today
(Jimmy Akin)
The other day we noted the anniversary of the mysterious explosion that was the Tunguska Event of 1908.
Tonight, July 2 is the anniversary of another mysterious crash or explosion that was heard by witnesses and led, the next day, to events that are still widely discussed.
Story tomorrow.
No story today. Story tomorrow.
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July 01, 2005
Shelby Foote: RIP
(Jimmy Akin)
I'm a few days late with this, but famed American writer and historian Shelby Foote has gone to meet his Maker.
He was 88 years old.
Following an early career as a novelist, Foote turned to history, writing extensively about the Civil War, which he described as America's equivalent to the Illiad.
He was a keystone interviewee in Ken Burns' 11-hour documentary The Civil War, which made him nationally famous.
Foote was the best friend of fellow-novelist Walker Percy, and once the two went to visit William Faulkner. Percy was too shy to enter Faulkner's dwelling. Foote knocked on the door, entered, and spent several hours there while Percy waited in the car.
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Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell!
(Jimmy Akin)
Yesterday, June 30, Thomas Sowell turned 75.
Normally I'd put a birthday listing in the "Current Events" category, but I decided to put this one in history because Sowell chose to celebrate his birthday by writing a column in which he reflects on the seventy-five years he's been alive and all that's happened in them.
They form one third of the time the United States has been around, and a lot has happened, both here and abroad.
His conclusion?
There is much to complain about today and to fear for the future of our children and our country. But despair? Not yet.
We have all come through too much for that.
NOTE: I make a conscious point of listening to my elders, and for a very simple reason: They know stuff that I don't. I recommend the policy generally, and it's a treat to have someone like Sowell reflect on the events of his life--so far!
Many happy returns, Dr. Sowell!
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June 30, 2005
Happy Tunguska Event Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, June 30, in the year 1908 was the day something really mysterious happened over the Tunguska region of Siberia. It also flattened a lot of trees in the area.
Folks in the region saw a fireball streaking across the sky, following which there was a huge explosion and half the sky lit up. Then there was a shockwave that knocked them off their feet and broke window panes 400 miles away from the explosion.
The sky didn't get dark that night in Europe. There were "skyglows" for several nights, and on the first people said it was so bright that you could read newspapers without artificial light.
Nobody knows what caused this--not for sure, anyway. When folks finally got around to investigating the site (20 years later!), they didn't find any obvious impact crater, suggesting an airburst event fairly high up in the atmosphere.
Leading theories are that it was a meteorite that exploded in the air--or a comet fragment.
More exotic (and less likely) theories include a chunk of antimatter or a small black hole or an alien spaceship.
ALSO TODAY IN HISTORY:
- Albert Einstein published his paper in 1905 that proposed the theory of special relativity, and
- Adolph Hitler in 1934 staged the Night of the Long Knives.
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June 26, 2005
"I Am A Jelly Donut"?
(Jimmy Akin)
Also today, June 26, but in 1963--mere months before he was shot dead in Dallas--President John F. Kennedy uttere the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner."
By this he meant "I am a Berliner," and he said it as an expression of solidarity with the people of West Berlin, who were under dire threat from the Communist puppet state of East Germany and its Soviet masters.
The Berliners loved it. Wild cheers all round.
Now: Turns out that many folks today argue that Kennedy didn't really say "I am a Berliner" in German. They claim that, instead, what he actually said was more like "I am a jelly donut." It wasn't that he didn't say the words "Ich bin ein Berliner" correctly. He said them right (albeit with his thick Boston accent). It's that the words themselves are wrong.
According to this claim, in German the word "Berliner" is a reference to a kind of jelly donut. And it is. But not so much in Berlin, where Kennedy was speaking.
The "I am a jelly donut" thesis is reportedly an urban legend that started in the 1980s.
Not convinced? Well . . .
HERE'S AN ARTICLE FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION.
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And Then There Were Three
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, June 26, in 1409 the Western Schism got 100% worse.
The reason? The Church now had 300% of the requisitie number of popes.
Now, in truth, it only had one real pope--ever. But there were at this time two additional "popes," or antipopes as they would be properly called, also running (or strolling or sitting) around Europe causing havoc.
On June 26, 1409 the second antipope, Alexander V, was "elected" by the Council of Pisa. (Not an ecumenical council.)
He wouldn't last long.
Ten months later, he'd be dead, though he did have a successor.
Ultimately the Western Schism was sorted out in 1417, when the Council of Constance deposed the two antipopes, accepted the resignation of the true pope, and elected a new true pope, the way for one thus being cleared. The result being Pope Martin V.
Though the Western Schism was over, the damage it did to the fabric of Western Christendom was horrendous. The experience of having two--and then three--popes vying for power left severe questions in the minds of many folks, and the perception of the Church was gravely weakened.
This is thought by many historians to have been one of the reasons leading to the Protestant Reformation.
I'd love to give you a link where you could spit on the grave of Alexander V, but I don't have one, so you'll have to settle for
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June 25, 2005
The Big Little Man
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, June 25, in 1875, they fit the battle of Little Big Horn, resuting in the death of one of the biggest little men of the 19th century.
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer made his last stand against the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Sitting Bull didn't do a lot of sitting that day, though, and Crazy Horse didn't prove too crazy, for Custer was shuffled off this mortal coil in a battle that lasted about two hours.
Vain and ambitious in life, Custer found the fame he was looking for in death.
So at least he got something out of the battle.
MORE ON THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN.
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June 24, 2005
Happy Flying Saucer Day!
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, June 24, back in 1947 was the day which led to the coining of the term "flying saucer."
Pilot Kenneth Arnold saw what appeared to him to be a series of fast flying objects that he afterwards described as skipping on the air like a saucer being skipped across the water.
He was misquoted by the press, though, as having said that he saw "flying saucers." Arnold tried to correct the impression, saying that he didn't say that the craft were saucer shaped but that they moved like a someone skipping a saucer on the water.
His actual description was: "They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. ...they looked like a big flat disk." What he thus described as more like a "flying wing" aircraft design (something we puny humans had actually already built). Nertheless, the term (and the shape) stuck.
He also didn't say anything about them being from outer space. In 1947, hot on the heels of WWII and all the weapons and aviation research it involved (including what we were retrieving from the Nazis via classified projects like Operation Paperclip), might have made a more terrestrial explanation plausible.
But that didn't stick either.
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June 20, 2005
St. Catherine's Library
(Jimmy Akin)
St. Catherine's Monastery (left), also known as the Monastery of the Transfiguration, is the world's oldest monastery.
Built in the 6th century at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt (or at least the traditional location of Mt. Sinai, since we're not sure of its exact location), the monastery houses the largest collection of ancient Christian manuscripts besides the collection belonging to the Vatican.
Now the monks there are using hi-tech means to try to read some of the more faded manuscripts in its collection.
The monastery's librarian, Fr. Jusin (a fellow Texan! Yee-haw!) has been digitizing manuscripts with a camera capable of 72 megapixel resolution. Many will be online later this year.
The process holds out the prospects of helping us better understand the history of the text of the Bible (including potential new evidence regarding the original reading of uncertain passages) and may even turn up previously unknown texts, as at Oxyrhynchus.
MORE ON ST. CATHERINE'S MONASTERY.
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June 18, 2005
"They Just Whooped The Hell Out Of Him"--Parte Dieux
(Jimmy Akin)
Today, June 18, in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte went to his Waterloo.
Literally!
And I don't mean a waterslide theme park!
The Battle of Waterloo took place today in Waterloo, Belgium, where the ornery French dictator (is there any other kind?) was defeated by a valiant alliance of non-French persons, bringing his reign of obnoxiousness and tyranny to an end forever.
No word on whether the victors celebrated their victory by victoriously eating Freedom Fries afterward.