THAT phrase is being reported around the world, and locally: RP Catholic Church ready to hold Latin masses. As the religion to which most Filipinos, at least statistically, belong, goings-on in the Roman Catholic Church are always interesting -and relevant. What the present Pope, Benedict XVI, has decreed, Motu Proprio, that is, on his own initiative, is that many of the old limitations on celebrating the old Tridentine Rite of the Mass, have been removed. The Weight of Glory has a roundup of Catholic blogger reactions. See also The Byzantine Dominican, and First Things, which calls the Pope’s decree a “liberal document.” Incidentally, in Ad Orientem, there’s an entry from some time back, on why the Eastern Orthodox care about the Latin Mass. Since reunification with the Eastern Churches is a particular interest of the present Pope, his new decree might have fringe benefits not readily seen in terms of Christian unity.

Whispers in the Loggia is a blog I’ve mentioned before, it’s a good guide to goings-on in the R.C. Church, and it reports on what the Pope hoped to achieve by issuing his latest decree (it is, he says, “this pontificate’s most significant text”). Dr. Robert Moynihan is a well-known “Vaticanologist,” and his “Inside the Vatican”  Magazine and newsletter often give the inside scoop on the workings of the oldest government on earth. His report, The Old Mass Returns, gives the political and theological inside story on the Pope’s decision.

The Pope’s decree is already known as Summorum Pontificum (most Papal documents get their titles from the first few words in the definitive Latin text of those documents): see the English translation and other relevant texts. The Pope also issued a letter to the bishops of the Catholic world, explaining the reasons behind, and the objectives of, his decree.

Catholics pining for the old rite will be happy; most Catholics born since the 1960’s have no idea how the Mass used to be celebrated, and probably wouldn’t care for the rituals of the old rite. But around the world, there’s a growing number of young Catholics (including priests) unhappy with the jazz guitar masses and general relaxing of the old discipline of the Catholic church, and they might just be attracted to the old rituals. On the whole, it’s a sign that the Catholic Church, institutionally, is slowly backing away from its 60’s style activism and returning to a more traditional understanding and expression of the faith. Or, as the Pope put it, of “arbitrary deformations of the liturgy.” He was the one, after all, who columnist Maureen Dowd praised on his election, saying, “The cafteria is closed,” referring to the idea of  “cafeteria Catholics”.

May 28 began our flag days, which ends with Independence Day on June 12. Personally, it makes me happy and sad to see so many flags on display. Happy, because it shows how we love our country. Sad, because the end result will be disrespect for the flag.

But here’s something that’s bothered me for a long time. Why do people insist on putting invocations before the national anthem? This is a recent thing, and it’s something that the older generation would have found completely wrong.

The national anthem should always be first. It’s our country, its constitution, the nation our flag and anthem represents, that guarantees us the freedom to worship or not worship: but whether we worship or not, it’s the country that ties us together.

I see that an old friend of the Philippines is up to his “old tricks” again —- and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Archbishop Antonio Franco, now the papal nuncio to Israel (and Cyprus), has figured in another religious/political controversy.

John Allen writes:

Archbishop Antonio Franco, the Vatican’s nuncio in Israel, has announced that he will attend the annual Holocaust Memorial day event at Yad Vashem, Israel’s main Holocaust museum, after the museum indicated it is willing to reconsider a caption of Pope Pius XII that Franco found offensive.

Avner Shalev, President of Yad Vashem, sent a letter to Franco late in the week stating that the museum will “reconsider the way in which Pius XII is presented.” In response, Franco indicated that he will be present for the events Sunday evening.

Apparently, Franco did not only find the caption offensive; he backed it up with one of the more potent weapons in diplomacy’s limited armory: he threatened to stage a boycott.

Filipinos may remember Franco, who served in the Philippines for over six years, as the man who allegedly gave the Philippine bishops a tongue-lashing in July 2005 —- a warning against politicized action that allegedly led to the bishops’ tempered statement on the Garcillano crisis.

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THE dictionary defines Holocaust as follows:

holocaust |ˈhäləˌkôst; ˈhōlə-| noun 1 destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, esp. caused by fire or nuclear war : a nuclear holocaust | the threat of imminent holocaust. • ( the Holocaust) the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1941–45. More than 6 million European Jews, as well as members of other persecuted groups, such as gypsies and homosexuals, were murdered at concentration camps such as Auschwitz. 2 historical a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned completely on an altar. ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French holocauste, via late Latin from Greek holokauston, from holos ‘whole’ + kaustos ‘burned’ (from kaiein ‘burn’ ).

The mass murder of students at Virginia Tech in the USA was subsequently reported by two Filipino students (hat tip to Philippine Politics 04). Filipino-American blogger goodboi points out two eyewitness accounts of what happened at icantread01 and ntcoolfool and that media left comments on their blogs, requesting interviews. Also, another blogger was apparently the victim of a rumor that he was the killer, to the extent that,

apparently to him all the attention was all fun and games until he started getting angry phone calls and e-mails - death threats too. Michelle Malkin and the Drudge Report have written stuff about him.

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ACTUALLY, this entire week is a light one, as far as most people are concerned. Politicians are looking forward to this week as the last stretch of R&R they’re going to have until the elections in May. The same goes for media and the public.

I noticed unusually heavy traffic here in Metro Manila last Friday, so I assume the Holy Week holiday’s begun for many people: it’s a nice stretch of vacation time this year, since the President’s holiday economics (more thoroughly planned in recent years, because of complaints from businessmen) means the Holy Week vacation includes Bataan Day this year.

The whole holiday period of course has a religious purpose -the commemoration of Holy Week. Since not much else is going on, I thought I’d focus on some interesting things concerning Easter. This year marks one of the fairly rare occasions when the two oldest branches of Christianity, the Roman Catholic and the Easter Orthodox, will be celebrating Easter on the same date (all of Western Christianity, of course, follows the calendar and the liturgical year, followed by Catholics).

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