Anthony Buono is online at avemariasingles.com.

Mike Aquilina is online at fathersofthechurch.com.


Scott Bloch, co-editor of "The Essential Belloc"


Danielle Bean is online at faithandfamilylive.com.


Steven Greydanus is online at decentfilms.com.

Tony Beshara is online at thejobsearchsolution.com.

Fr Greg Friedman is online at franciscanradio.org.

Patrick Coffin's latest book is "Sex Au Naturel"


Fr Michael Manning is online at wordnet.tv.


Info on this weekend's showings of "The 13th Day" at the Parkland Theatre is online at parklandtheatre.com.

Dr. Louis Del Greco's new film is online at thesurgeonandthesaint.com.

Cheryl Dickow is online at bezalelbooks.com.

Guests for Thursday, 5/6/2010

Fr Phillip DeVous is online at acton.org.

Elizabeth Ficocelli's new book is "Bleeding Hands, Weeping Stone"


Marybeth Hicks is online at marybethhicks.com.


Send your questions for Catholic counselor Kevin Prendergast to sonrise@sacredheartradio.com.

Dr Marcellino D'Ambrosio is online at dritaly.com.


Rita Heikenfeld is online at abouteating.com.

Dan Egan is online at bibletidbits.blogspot.com.

Scott Bloch, co-editor of "The Essential Belloc"


Darren Scanlon and Emerge IT Solutions are online at emergeits.com.

Catch Alicia Baehr at tonight's Theology on Tap- visit totcincinnati.org. For more information on Pregnancy Center East, call 513-321-3100.

Michael D. O'Brien's latest novel is "Theophilos."


Patrick Coffin's new book is called "Sex Au Naturel"

Guests for Wednesday, 5/5/10

Paula Westwood blogs at createdorder.blogspot.com.

Bill Donaghy is online at missionmoment.org.

Bishop Thomas Tobin, author of "Effective Faith"


Mark Hart, author of "The 'R' Father"


Anthony Buono is online at avemariasingles.com.

Mike Aquilina is online at fathersofthechurch.com.


Chris Countryman's guide, "Getting Internet Pornography Out Of Your Life" is online at directactionbooks.com.


Fr Phillip DeVous is online at acton.org.

Bernadette McCarver Snyder, author of "110 Fun Facts About God's Creation"


Elizabeth Ficocelli, author of "Bleeding Hands, Weeping Stone"


Marybeth Hicks is online at marybethhicks.com.


Dr Marcellino D'Ambrosio is online at dritaly.com.


Eric Sammons is online at ericsammons.com.

If then someone asks of what we spoke today...

In my last post, I made the same error as the writer I criticized -- talking about a big red cape instead of the pontifical solemn mass itself.

In part, that's because I didn't see it. A DVD of the mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, in honor of the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate will come out sometime soon, but in the meantime, read Bishop Slattery's amazing homily.

Read it. Read it now. Read. It. Now.

Guests for Tuesday, 5/4/2010

Dr Kevin Vost is online at drvost.com.


Rich Leonardi blogs at richleonardi.blogspot.com.

Randy Hain is online at integratedcatholiclife.com.

Msgr Stanley Deptula and the new film on Bishop Sheen are online at sheenfilm.org.

Bill Donaghy is online at missionmoment.org and twistedmystics.blogspot.com.

Kevin Schmiesing is online at catholichistory.net.

Paula Westwood is online at createdorder.blogspot.com.

Send your questions for Catholic counselor Kevin Prendergast to sonrise@sacredheartradio.com.

Stephanie Mann is online at supremacyandsurvival.com and supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com.


Danielle Bean is online at faithandfamilylive.com.


Msgr Peter Vaghi, author of "The Sacraments we Celebrate"


For information on the incredible lineup at this year's May Festival, and to get tickets, visit mayfestival.com.

Fr James Kubicki is online at apostleshipofprayer.org.

A Big Red Cape

In my last post, on the preserved head of St. Catherine of Siena, I opined that American Catholics are used to a sort of "bargain basement Church" stripped of everything but the essentials.

Even though I meant it, I secretly thought that might be putting it a bit harshly. But reality intervened to show me that I was, if anything, putting it kindly.

At least one Catholic writer has nearly gone into apoplexy over a long red cape that Bishop Slattery of Tulsa, OK, wore before he celebrated a special mass two weeks ago.

It was a "pontifical solemn mass" in the Extraordinary Form -- in other words, not the mass that we have been used to for the last 40 years, but the 1962 mass in Latin. Bishop Slattery processed in to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, wearing a red velvet cappa magna ("big cape") that he then took off for mass.

Bryan Cones called it a "ridiculous mountain of red silk" in U.S. Catholic magazine. He said it didn't embody the noble simplicity proper to the Roman rite (red capes aren't noble or simple?) but was instead "frippery" that did nothing to glorify God.

Hmmm. One might ask what, in itself, is wrong with a big red cape? (Mr. Cones has obviously never heard the bridal term "cathedral length train" -- see the procession for yourself here and you'll figure out why it's so long.) Polyester chasubles are supposed to be examples of noble simplicity? Really? Or could it be.... something more is going unsaid?

Now is a good time to take a moment to remember who is generally enraged at the sight of a red cape. And it's not a creature generally known for calm discourse.

Funny how a long piece of fabric can symbolize everything someone hates. But Bryan Cones had better be clear about exactly what he hates, because it might not mean what he thinks it does. Velvet capes and chant or polyester vestments and guitar music; Latin or the vernacular; 1962 missal or the new missal coming out next year: It's the same mass.

The Pope says so. The Church says so. And if you don't think so, then it's time to consider the possibility that you might be wrong. The Church is bigger than you! And you'll just have to put up with some big capes from time to time.

Guests for Monday, 5/3/2010

Kevin Schmiesing is online at catholichistory.net.

Tony Beshara is online at thejobsearchsolution.com.

Dr Bradley Birzer, author of "American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll"


Sr Mary Beth Lloyd's ESPN article is online at espn.com. You can support her efforts at fillipiniusa.org. Donate to her cause at runhope.com.

Teresa Tomeo is online at teresatomeo.com.


Fr James Kubicki is online at apostleshipofprayer.org.

Rebecca Taylor is online at marymeetsdolly.com.

Rich Leonardi is online at richleonardi.blogspot.com.

Dr Kevin Vost is online at drvost.com.


Steven Greydanus is online at decentfilms.com.

For more information on the Mommy and Me High Fashion High Tea, visit covingtoncharities.org

For more information on the Mission Office in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, call 513-421-3131.

I Did Not Need to See That

In honor of St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast day was last week, I present this photo of her mummified head (courtesy The Crescat and photographer Tristan Savatier).

You can see it in person Basilica of San Domenico in Siena -- where, apparently, her finger (kept in a reliquary that looks like a big lamp) is also brought out from time to time.

St. Catherine's preserved head is the kind of thing you don't see much of in the American Church -- along with processions of penitents in masks and robes, statues dressed up in real clothes, roadside shrines, and paintings of Mary encrusted with jewels. In some areas of the world, Catholics go in for these things in a big way. Most American Catholics, now used to a sort of bargain basement, back-to-basics sort of Church stripped of everything but the essentials, regard these things with either fascination or revulsion.

I confess to a little of both. My first thought on viewing it was, "I did not need to see that!" And my second was, "Who cuts off the head of a saint?"

Fortunately, there's an answer to that one. According to the basilica's web site, three years after St. Catherine died in Rome, her spiritual director secretly sent her head back to Siena, "knowing how much it would have pleased the people" for her to have been buried there. Crypt conditions in Rome were such that it was "quite easy to disattach the head from the rest of the body without violence."

So nobody had to decapitate her -- which brings me a great deal of relief. The web site doesn't say what the people of Rome thought or did when they discovered the head was missing, or whether the finger made its way to Siena at that time or later on. But people have been going to Siena to see them ever since -- evidently, pleased indeed to have at least part of the saint buried there.

Now, preserved heads and fingers may not be your cup of tea. But to my mind, they are an example of something wonderful about our Church. We've got it all -- from hermits who never leave their cells to popes who travel the world, from daily mass for a handful of people in a tiny chapel to yearly parades and processions for tens of thousands. Whether you're the kind of person who likes to contemplate God in the bare, space-age architecture of the new Los Angeles cathedral, or the kind of person who likes to be reminded of sanctity by visiting St. Catherine's head in one city and the rest of her body in another, we've got a place for you.