“Pope (LAST NAME HERE)”

Head-silhouette-with-question-mark Many years ago, when I was first starting to work in apologetics, I was reading an article by an Italian journalist—I think it may have been Andrea Tornielli—who referred in passing to “Pope Wojtyla,” meaning John Paul II.

“How disrespectful!” I thought.

At the time, I was only used to referring to popes by their regnal name (the one they choose when they become pope) either preceded by the word “Pope” (i.e., “Pope John Paul”) or followed by their regnal number (i.e., “John Paul II”) or both (i.e., “Pope John Paul II”).

And that was only if there was a name involved at all. More generic designations were also possible—like “the holy father” or simply “the pope”—but not other combinations involving names.

It still strikes me as being overly familiar with the high pontiff to just haul off and refer simply to “John Paul” or “Benedict” without at least first getting in a reference to “John Paul II” or “Pope Benedict.”

It can be a little tempting to ask, “So . . . how long have you and his holiness been on a first name basis?”

After the first reference in an article has paid homage to the pope’s position, though, I fully understand using just the regnal name to avoid undue repetition.

But to reach back before his papacy and grab a name that he went by before he acquired the authority of the successor of Peter—as in “Pope Wojtyla”—that seemed to me to be the height of impertinence.

I imagine it strikes a lot of Americans that way when they first encounter the usage, because here in America we don’t commonly refer to popes this way.

But in Europe they do. It’s much more common there to use the “Pope (Last Name)” construction, and it isn’t considered disrespectful.

An interesting proof of that is that if you read enough Vatican documents, you find that this usage isn’t confined to the European press. The Holy See itself uses it. In fact, the popes themselves do.

For example, in an address Pope Benedict gave last May on the 50th anniversary of John XXIII’s encyclical Mater et Magistra, the current holy father said:

Still valid, too, in addition, are the instructions that Pope Roncalli offered on a legitimate pluralism among Catholics in the implementation of the social doctrine. He wrote, in fact, that in this context “differences of opinion in the application of principles can sometimes arise even among sincere Catholics. When this happens, they should be careful not to lose their respect and esteem for each other. Instead, they should strive to find points of agreement for effective and quick action, and not wear themselves out in interminable arguments, and, under pretext of the better or the best, omit to do the good that is possible and therefore obligatory” (n. 238).

Pope Benedict obviously isn’t dissing his predecessor here. His reference to “Pope Roncalli” isn’t intended to be disrespectful. If anything, it’s meant to be affectionate.

And this is not the only such reference you’ll find in Vatican documents.

If you do some quick Googling of vatican.va (using the “site:vatican.va” tag on Google), you find multiple results of this kind for recent popes:

“Pope Roncalli” (John XXIII) . . . 3 results
“Pope Montini” (Paul VI) . . . 19 results
“Pope Luciani” (John Paul I) . . . 8 results
“Pope Wojtyla” (John Paul II) . . . 6 results

The dataset is too small to draw any conclusions about trends regarding the usage (and too small a set of the Vatican’s documents are as yet online), but it does show that this is an established usage—blessed by Vatican and even papal practice—even if it’s somewhat unfamiliar to American ears.

What are your thoughts?

PODCAST EPISODE 013 Podcasts & Copyrights; What Did the Early Christians Believe About the Millennium?

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SHOW NOTES: 

JIMMY AKIN PODCAST EPISODE 013 (9/26/11) 

 

* Joe S. from Minneapolis asks about listening to podcasts that may include unlicensed audio clips.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

2408 The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to put at one's disposal and use the property of others.

 

* Craig from Bristow, VA asks about Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Premillennialism. 

DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO THE JEW (ch. 80-81)

http://newadvent.org/fathers/0128.htm

AGAINST HERESIES (book 5)

http://newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm

 

WHAT'S YOUR QUESTION? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO ASK?

Call me at 512-222-3389!

jimmyakinpodcast@gmail.com

www.jimmyakinpodcast.com

 

Today’s Music: New Life Today (JewelBeat.Com)

Copyright © 2011 by Jimmy Akin

 

VIDEO: Why Are the Words of Consecration Changing?


 

There are several ways you can order Jimmy Akin's best-selling new book, Mass Revision: How the Liturgy Is Changing and What It Means for You. You can:

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*Very* Cool FRINGE Video

Here's a neat video that was made by fans of the TV show FRINGE. Coordinating the elements of the video through social networking (specifically, Twitter), fans across the world visually asked the question that is on all their minds.

The video gets more impressive as it goes.

One note: Though it goes by quick, you may notice that at the site of a Roman aqueduct in Europe the question is asked in a tile mosaic in Latin. How cool is that?

The producers of the show–Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinker–didn't know about the video until it was done. Here's what they had to say afterwards:

JW: Me personally, I was so floored. And it felt so incredible to see how much the fans love the show and what they’re willing to do and their commitment. It was really moving.

JP: It’s stunning. They played it in a Fox departmental meeting yesterday. That’s not the kind of thing that happens. I’ve never heard of such a thing. And it was a surprise to both of us! Speaking about spoiling, neither one of us had any idea such a thing existed or was in the works until it was presented to us over the weekend. And as I tweeted, at the risk of sounding soft, it choked me up. It was amazing.

And what was kind of amazing about it — or what was additionally amazing about it — is it wasn’t designed as a save the show campaign. It was just a gesture of love, not for us, but for Peter and the actors and the production. It was amazing.

Here's the vid:


 

Since the fourth season of FRINGE starts tonight (that's why all the shots of the number 4 appear in the video), we may soon start getting answers to the question–though in keeping with the rules of good drama, of course, they can't answer it immediately. It'll take a few episodes as we build toward the reveal.

MORE (SPOILERS AHOY!)

One extra note: I didn't know about the video when it was being made, but if I had, I would have suggested–at the end of the video–posing the question in large, 3-D floating letters and then pushing the perspective of the shot through them, just like they do with location-identifiers on the show.

Catholic New Media Conference 2011

Cnmclogo_blue I want to give a shout-out to the folks who are putting on this year's Catholic New Media Conference (the 4th annual one!), coming up September 30-October 2 in Kansas City.

In case you're wondering, the "new media" covers things like web pages, blogging, podcasting, and social networking. Since they have a guy from Vatican Radio speaking, it also apparently includes radio, so everything since Marconi is in! (Sorry, newspapers; you're out. Anything radio, television, Internet, mobile device, or other telecommunications, though, you're good!)

I'm afraid that I won't be there (this year . . . cue ominous music), but the organizers are really good people who are trying to employ the latest tools that technology has made available for Pope Benedict and Blessed John Paul II's call for a new evangelization.

If you at all can, I hope you'll attend the conference and find it an immensely enriching experience!

MORE INFO HERE!

 

 

California Follies–Part MMCCLVIII

So the California state fire marshall has decreed that a certain kind of gas pump handle latch can no longer be used and, instead of allowing the stations that use it to have time to get replacements, they must all remove them at once!

This is, in theory, supposed to be for safety reasons and prevent gas spills or something.

Personally, I suspect that this will actually result in a more dangerous situation as people try improvised solutions to the problem.

Like this one . . .

Photo

Doctor Who: Night Terrors & The Girl Who Waited

Some years ago, back when Babylon 5 was on the air, I began to notice a pattern in how episodes in television programs are aired. Some episodes are naturally more powerful than others. For those shows that have ongoing storylines (where the "reset button" isn't hit at the end of each episode), the more powerful eps are sequenced in a particular way.

There's a rhythm to them. And it's a deliberate rhythm. The show producers schedule them so that they come in bursts, with the less powerful episodes between them. Joe Straczynski talked about this openly at the time, referring to the way you want "breather" episodes sequenced between the "wham!" episodes to let the audience catch their breath before you hit them with something big.

(Otherwise the whole show becomes emotionally overwrought and loses some of its potential; cf. the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, which I said at the time was well done but would not age well, as it's got the emotion meter cranked up to 11 all the time–or at least for long stretches.)

The result is if you're watching the "shape" of a season as it unfolds, you can predict  in advance which episodes are more likely to be the more memorable ones. 

In this season of Dr. Who, I noticed that–after the arc-driving, two-part opener (The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)–we got The Curse of the Black Spot, which was one of the weakest episodes in some time. The next week, though, we got The Doctor's Wife, which was an extremely strong episode. Penned by Neil Gaiman, the episode reinterprets a major piece of Doctor Who mythology. After that episode, the audience can never look at the Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS the same way again.

That fits with the way you'd want to schedule episodes: After the big "arc" episodes, you'd want a down episode, then an up episode to sustain the audience's attention. (Multiple down episodes in a row = lose your audience).

As I said in my review of A Good Man Goes to War/Let's Kill Hitler, I thought this two-part, arc-driving story stumbled. While it had much to be admired, Moffatt didn't do his best work on it, though he was trying to make these both up episodes.

So I thought, "I bet the next episode–Night Terrors–will be a down episode, but the one after that–The Girl Who Waited–may be an up."

I was right.

Nightterrors Night Terrors was an episode that, like Curse of the Black Spot, had some strong points (the creepy wooden dolls were particularly effective), but it also had significant flaws.

As before, the key flaw dealt with the emotional core of the episode, the way the characters relate to each other; in particular: the way the dad in the episode relates to the little boy.

The ostensibly heartrending, emotional climax–where the father embraces the boy as his son–does not work the way it should. The father has just discovered that his son is only slightly less sinister than the Midwich Cuckoos (or the kids in "Village of the Damned," to use the move version's name).

He's discovered that his and his wife's memories, perceptions, and most intimate, personal, and painful feelings have been profoundly violated in the service of an alien biological agenda.

Despite the years he's spent with the boy, that has to create an emotional separation between him and the child, the kind of separation that will force him to reevaluate his relationship with the boy. Imagine finding out that your son was not actually your son but another man's, and your had been the victim of an elaborate emotional betrayal by his true parents.

While that kind of situation can be overcome and a full filial relationship restored, it would take time (cf. seasons 1-3 of FRINGE and the ups and downs of Walter and Peter's relationship). It will not happen in mere moments.

And thus the ostensibly heartfelt reconciliation moment in Night Terrors rings false emotionally.

Bad climax. Flawed episode. However much good stuff it also had in it.

(BTW, I'd like to mention in passing something that I've noticed happing in multiple episodes of Doctor Who recently: Very important information is often blurted out in rapidfire dialogue during a crisis. It may just be because I have an American accent and my ear is not fully attuned to rapidfire British speech, but I find it difficult to process some of these lines as they whiz past. The Doctor's explanation of what the boy is, for example, just goes by way too quickly. If I didn't happen to catch the word "cuckoo," and know that they are brood parasites, I might not have caught what the Doctor was saying without rewinding and watching the line again. I wish they'd stop doing that!)

So if Night Terrors was okay but flawed–a down episode–was it followed by an up episode?

WOW!!!

The Girl Who Waited was one of the best episodes in I don't know how long! This may be the best episode of the whole season.

Girlwhowaited It's the inverse of Night Terrors. While the former episode has nice window dressing (e.g., the wooden dolls) but a flawed emotional core, The Girl Who Waited's flaws are all on the tinsel level (e.g., scientific implausibilities/non sequiturs, which are par for the course on this show) but it's emotional core is rock solid.

Notice that one of the things that makes it so powerful is that it's about the relationships of the main characters–people we've known and bonded with, not just one-episode walk-ons or suddenly introduced people. This episode focuses on the emotional triangle that the Doctor, Amy, and Rory form, and it puts their relationships to the test in big ways.

It's also a fully activated relationship, with each leg of the triangle under stress: there is drama between the Doctor and Amy, between Amy and Rory, and between Rory and the Doctor.

As in the previous episodes, Rory gets some of the best lines ("I don't want to travel with you!" "It's not fair! You're turning me into you!"), and I think there's a reason for that.

Rory is, perhaps, the most misunderestimated of companions. He seems to be a really mild, unimpressive guy. Not exotic companion material. It's almost like he's just along for the ride (dramatically speaking; literally he–like Amy–is just along for the ride).

But what's really happened is that he has supplanted Amy as the main viewpoint character–the one the audience can identify with and experience the world of the program. He's the everyman character, and as much as I like Amy, I find I identify with Rory and his non-exotic, ordinary responses to the extraordinary situations he finds himself in.

That, in a way, makes Rory a much more important character than he appears to be. Though he's Mr. Ordinary (as far as any time-travelling nurse can be Mr. Ordinary), he finds himself in close proximity to the core of the story and thus in position to get some of the best lines.

This episode also does something that is the flipside of Night Terrors, with its artificial "I accept you as my son and that resolves the plot" moment: It doesn't take the easy way out.

Occasionally on programs there are situations where friends get into life-or-death duels. Almost invariably the writers of the show take the easy way out, and a means of not killing one of the friends is found. How many times have we seen that happen on Star Trek and other shows?

And then Babylon 5 came along and put Londo in a to-the-death duel with a friend of his, and JMS did not take the easy way out, and Londo ended up having to kill his friend. Definite writing points for that.

Well, that's what we have in this episode. 

Only here it works even better because the friend, unlike the one-episode walk-on friend in Babylon 5, is one of the core elements of the show; someone we've spent time with and bonded with. 

Once the central plot problem of the episode had become clear, I could see several ways out that would effectively be "the easy way," and I was really hoping they wouldn't go down one of those paths. And they didn't! The episode thus had a really powerful emotional WHAM! in the last act. It was agonizing, and it was wonderful.

Amy's unanswered question in the last moments of the show is also an awesome stinger to go out on.

Notice also that this episode plays on long-established themes on the show. Amy has been The Girl Who Waited since she very first met the Doctor, just as Rory was the Last Centurion, the Boy Who Waited. This is the second time Amy has had to deal with abandonment issues by the Doctor. And the episode explores one of the staples of time travel stories; it's own version of Einstein's twin paradox. These all help give the show added weight.

There are, certainly, things about the episode that could be improved, but overall this was an outstandingly successful episode, and I am so glad they told this story.

I'll be interested to see if they can top it in what's left of the season.

P.S. One other thing the episode did that was permanently take some of the stupid off of the Doctor's soning "screwdriver." Amy finally said the obvious: It is a sonic probe. He just calls it a screwdriver as a bit of whimsy. (Okay, and can't do everything it does sonically, but that's something that can be resolved in another episode.) Come to think of it, they also partially rehabilitated the sonic screwdriver in Let's Kill Hitler, when Rory explained that it has a point-and-think psychic interface, which definitely explains its observed behavior. (Of course, it's really just a magic wand, and we've had those in stories for a long time.) 

VIDEO RECIPE: Low Carb Wiener Schnitzel!

A while back I posted a picture of some low carb Wiener schnitzel (i.e., "Viennese cutlet" in English), along with a low carb equivalent of one of the traditional accompaniments of this dish: potato salad (with a soon-to-be-unveiled mystery vegetable used in place of potato).

Here's the picture again:

Schnitzel

Since the recipe (or the core of the recipe) is not something I came up with, though, I meant to post it. (Original recipes I'm saving for my forthcoming low carb cookbook[s].) I got busy, though, and that didn't happen at the time.

So here it is.

I'd been meaning to do Wiener schnitzel for a while, but it was Kent Altena's recipe that finally moved me to do it. Like any cook, I made a few modifications of my own. Instead of parmesan cheese as the inner lining, I used almond flour. And instead of deep frying the schnitzels, I baked them (not because I have a problem with deep frying–deep frying is no problem on a low carb, fat-burning diet–but just because I don't have a deep fryer!).

If you're interested in low carb cooking, I hope you'll check out this recipe, as well as Kent's other awesome low carb videos!


 

Podcast Fixed

Okay, folks, I think I've gotten the problem with Episode 012 of the podcast ironed out. According to LibSyn there was something weird about the original mp3 file and their system wouldn't recognize all the metadata from it, preventing it from propagating to iTunes, etc.

So I remade the mp3 from the original source file, reapplied the metadata (making sure to run it through a procedure that would strip out any accidental code that could have confused LibSyn), and reuploaded the file.

Now the RSS LibSyn is generating looks correct, and it should propagate to Feedburner and then iTunes in short order.

(If not, I'll be severely annoyed.)

You can also listen to the episode by downloading the file directly, HERE.

Happy listening!

UPDATE! Episode 012 now on iTunes!