Joseph-Médard Émard

To continue my little series on Canadian prelates, here are some photos of Joseph-Médard Émard, Archbishop of Ottawa, from the day of his installation in 1922.

When Cardinals pass through...

... it is (or was) a big deal! Norman Thomas Cardinal Gilroy (Sydney) and Bernard Cardinal Griffin (Westminster) came to Quebec in 1947 on their way to who-knows-where and a special mass was held to honor their stay in the city. Here are two photos of that event.

L'Affaire du Collier de la Reine

In this 1946 movie by French director Marcel L'Herbier you can see one of the more credible representations of an "on screen" cappa magna. Maurice Escande plays the Cardinal de Rohan, one of the major characters in the scandal that damaged the French Monarchy and especially the reputation of Marie Antoinette four years before the outbreak of the revolution. Marion Dorian plays Marie-Antoinette and Jean Hébey is Louis XVI.



This movie is more of a documentation and almost has the feel of a stage play about it. Still it is far better than Charles Shyer's "Affair of the Necklace", a 2001 pile of steaming dung, which - I admit - is a half-decent piece of eye-candy but still defiles not only the historical persons of Marie Antoinette and Louis Cardinal de Rohan but also the actors playing them, Hilary Swank and Johnathan Pierce, who both helplessly stumble through a script that is about as much fun as a toothache on your wedding day. I'd love to see this episode of French history done well in a monumental kind of way with one million actors and extras, a 200 million budget, a faithful reenactment of the court at Versailles and actors who at least approximately resemble their historical counterparts. I am sick of Marie Antoinette looking like a tramp, Louis XVI looking like a supermodel or an idiot and the Cardinal de Rohan looking like a bookkeeper in scarlet silk.

Maurice Cardinal Roy

He served as bishop of Trois Rivières from 1946 to 1947 and as archbishop of Quebec from 1947 to 1981. The photo shows him entering St Peters to receive his red hat on Feb 25th 1965.


Thanks are due - again - to reader and busy sender-inner Charles!

FYI

I am back in Rome, which means that posting will become more frequent again. I wasn't lazy during the past three months. Apart from keeping this blog kind of alive, I also went out and got some pretty awesome new photos, all of which will eventually be posted here. So keep your eyes peeled for more happy prelates, catholic crowds and cappae magnae that go from here to Wyoming and back!

Los Curas

Photos of Spanish priests from the first decades of the 20th century:

Tranquility


Determination


Dignity


Ease


Revelry


Longing


All of the above

A little help please...

Charles, who already sent in the two great pictures of Cardinal Villeneuve, asked me if I knew this prelate. I don't. So I pass the question on to my faithful and learned readers...

Any idea?

More Cardinal Villeneuve

Since Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Cardinal Villeneuve already had the two previous posts, here are some more photos of this prelate (most of which are rather small, sorry).

Another photo of Cardinal Villeneuve

Here you can see that His Eminence is actually wearing two sashes

Thanks again to sender-inner Charles who also explains that the bishop on the left might be Archbishop Alexandre Vachon of Ottawa who had once been Rector of Laval University in Québec City.

Thanks Charles!

A nice photo of Cardinal Villeneuve

Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Cardinal Villeneuve, OMI (1883 - 1947) served as Archbishop of Quebec from 1931 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1933. This is an interesting photo I got via eMail. Thanks to sender-inner Charles, who describes the pic for us:

The picture was taken during the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City in June 1938. The Cardinal is Rodrigue Villeneuve. He was no doubt a Prince Palatine since he wore the watered silk simar. He was decorated with numerous orders which I have not been able to identify. He wears two saches under his mozetta.

Alright. Thanks again, Charles! And keep those photos coming! The more you guys send, the more "The Far Sight" will be able to show!

Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes, 1914

“Jesus Christ, past, in the historical truth of the evening in the Upper Room, to which every celebration of holy Mass leads us back.

Jesus Christ, present, because he said to us: ‘Take and eat of this, all of you, this is my body, this is my blood’. ‘This is', in the present, here and now, as in every here and now throughout human history. The real presence, the presence which surpasses our poor lips, our poor hearts, our poor thoughts. The presence offered for us to gaze upon as we do here, this evening, close to the grotto where Mary revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception.

The Eucharist is also Jesus Christ, future, Jesus Christ to come.

When we contemplate the sacred host, his glorious transfigured and risen Body, we contemplate what we shall contemplate in eternity, where we shall discover that the whole world has been carried by its Creator during every second of its history. Each time we consume him, but also each time we contemplate him, we proclaim him until he comes again, donec veniat. That is why we receive him with infinite respect.”

Benedict XVI, September 14th 2008, Lourdes

Some photos from Malta

1913: Procession in Mdina on the occasion of the 24th International Eucharistic Congress held in Malta


1914: The solemn consecration of auxiliary bishop Angelo Cortelli OP at St. John's Co-Cathedral


1915: The entry of Mauris Caruana, bishop of Malta, in Mdina


1944: Archbishop Michael Gonzi with the Dominican community of Rabat on the eve of his solemn entry as bishop of Malta


1953: Archbishop Gonzi with two Monsignori wearing dalmatics and mitres in Floriana


1955: Federico Cardinal Tedeschini crowning the painting of the Immaculate Conception of Cospicua with twelve stars.

Too hot!

This photo was taken during the International Eucharistic Congress in Munich, 1960. It can get quite hot there in the summer, so people have to resort to all kinds of means to keep the sun from burning their heads and faces, as you can see.

Charles de Saint-Albin

Born in 1698, he became bishop of Laon in 1721. Wow! Can you imagine a twenty-three year old bishop? In 1723 he became archbishop of Cambrai. Wower! An archbishop with 25! He held that office until his death in 1764. Wowest! An archbishop for 41 years!

I love this painting. The ermine looks so fluffy and the silk seems so real that I can almost hear it rustle.

Long time no see...

My buddy, Fernando Cardinal Quiroga-Palacios, hasn't been around for a while. Here's a nice photo showing him with a first-communion girl.

Sigismund Felix Baron Ow-Felldorf

He was the bishop of the very beautiful German city of Passau from 1906 to 1936. He consecrated an average of one new parish a year during his term, raised the number of priests from 570 to 730 and founded the diocesan newspaper.



I once had the chance to visit an organ-concert in the cathedral of Passau, which is the largest organ in Europe and the largest cathedral organ in the world. I actually felt the first note that was played during the concert before I heard it. The pews in the cathedral began to vibrate and only two or three seconds afterwards did you hear a sound. Wicked.

Never forget

With the Protestants it was "Down with Rome!"

With the philosophers from the enlightenment it was "Down with Christ!"

With the atheists it was "Down with God!"

Today - after putting man in God's place - they are busy working on "Down with man!"


Here's a look back into the glorious achievements of those who want to give us liberty, equality and fraternity. Anybody ever wondered why "justice" never was part of the slogan?

"In 1792, the radical Jacobins determined to punish with death not only the aristocrats, but clergy who had refused the oath.

The “non-jurors” - those who had refused the oath - were arrested en masse in August, 1792, and herded into several Parisian monasteries out of which the resident monks had been driven. These prisoners were priests, bishops and religious from many dioceses. Then on September 2, a band of violent armed men, perhaps 150 in number, was sent by the “Committee of Vigilance” to one after the other of these temporary prisons. One detail arrived at the Abbey of St. Germain just when a number of prisoners got there, transferred from other places of detention. The executioners shot them down in cold blood. Then they went to the old Carmelite monastery, where another group of cutthroats joined them. They ordered all the prisoners to come out into the garden, even the oldest and most disabled. The clerics had already discussed once more the question of taking the oath, and all had agreed they could not and would not subscribe to it.

Now the gang fell upon the first priests they met and cut them down. Then they called out, “The Archbishop of Arles!” Archbishop John du Lau of Arles was praying in the chapel. When summoned, he came out and he said, “I am he whom you seek.” Thereupon, they cracked his skull, stabbed him and trampled him underfoot. Then the leader set up a “tribunal” before which the imprisoned were herded and ordered to take the oath. All refused; so, as they passed down the stairway, they were hacked to pieces by the murderers. The bishop of Beauvais had earlier been wounded in the leg. When summoned, he answered, “I do not refuse to die with the others, but I cannot walk. I beg you to have the kindness to carry me where you wish me to go.” For a moment, his courtesy silenced the assassins. But, when he, too, refused the oath, he was killed like the rest.

Later on the purge was carried out elsewhere in France. Some 200 clergymen fell that September, and they were only a small percentage of the 1500 clergy, laymen and laywomen who were massacred in 1792 alone.

Pope Pius XI beatified 191 of the priest martyrs, in 1926, assigning to them the title of “Blessed John du Lau and Companions, Martyrs.”

They had been the helpless victims of wild revolutionary ideology. As usual, however, their heroism in the defense of the papacy was remembered long after the names of their blood-thirsty executioners had been forgotten. They saved the reputation of France as “eldest daughter of the Church.”

Fr. Robert F. McNamara

The French Revolution was rich in atrocities, but what happened on September 2nd and 3rd in 1792 shows the scum from its most despicable side. Let us never forget, that every instance to push our Holy Catholic Religion from the public sphere has always been and will always be just the preparation for something bigger and bloodier.





Blessed Jean-Marie Du Lau D’Alleman, Blessed Francois-Joseph De La Rochefoucauld-Maumont, Blessed Pierre-Louis De La Rochefoucauld-Bayers, Blessed 188 Companion Martyrs, PRAY FOR US!