Preview: The 420th Anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot

Why do people in England still "Remember, remember, the fifth of November?" Why do they still shoot off fireworks and light up bonfires? This year is the 420th anniversary of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot--that's almost 14 generations ago! We'll discuss these issues in our 2025 Anniversary Series on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, November 17. 

I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Of course, it was a fiendish, horrible, and murderous plot! Blow up Parliament with King James VI and his family and the members of Parliament, kidnap the Princess Elizabeth to make her a figurehead monarch, orchestrate a violent uprising to overthrow the government! Who knows how horrible it could have been? Well, we do know as the French Revolution offers us an example. So yes, in some way there is "no reason/Why the Gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot!"

One of the lessons, however, of the context of the Gunpowder Plot was highlighted by Father Paolo Molinari, S.J., postulator of the cause of 40 Martyrs of England and Wales 55 years ago: the government of England was forcing religious compliance and church attendance: it was violating its subjects' freedom of conscience. How many bonfire night celebrators in England on November Fifth today accept that? Even in Lewes and other parts of Sussex, where there are still wild celebrations of Bonfire Night?

Until 1859 the Church of England remembered the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, expressed as God's protection of the Church of England against the "Church of Rome"! The Act establishing the commemoration required attendance:

II. Be it therefore enacted by the King’s most excellent majesty, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all and singular ministers in every cathedral and parish church, or other usual place for common prayer, within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon the fifth day of November say morning prayer, and give unto Almighty God thanks for this most happy deliverance: (2) and that all and every person and persons inhabiting within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon that day diligently and faithfully resort to the parish church or chapel accustomed, or to some usual church or chapel where the said morning prayer, preaching, or other service of God shall be used, and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said prayers, preaching, or other service of God there to be used and ministred.

III. And because all and every person may be put in mind of this duty, and be then better prepared to the said holy service, be it enacted by authority aforesaid, That every minister shall give warning to his parishioners publickly in the church at morning prayer, the Sunday before every such fifth day of November, for the due observation of the said day; and that after morning prayer or preaching upon the said fifth day of November, they read publickly, distinctly and plainly this present act.

There were no penalties, however, for not attending, because the remembrance did not replace the regularly scheduled Sunday liturgy, when there were penalties.

Since like some other holidays, officially recognized or not, some of the cultural, historical, and religious significance of the Fifth of November/Bonfire Night has deteriorated and in most parts of the country it's just a party with fireworks--with concerns every year about dogs being scared or humans with PTSD being affected--what about the tradition of burning the Pope (Saint Paul V) in effigy--or any living or dead figure? 

The BBC reported some of the trouble at this year's Bonfire Night in Lewes (Loo-is) with the comment: "Sussex Police said the Lewes Bonfire event was "both unique and challenging"." With 40,000 people in the streets, bonfires and torches being lit, etc., only seven going to hospital and a few arrests isn't that bad. 

But there's a spirit of disorder and anarchy in the celebration even in Lewes which not only recalls the discovery of Guy Fawkes checking on the explosives under Parliament and the Protestant martyrs executed there during the reign of Mary I, as this commentary notes: "Elsewhere, people might say it’s a tricky occasion to parse from the outside: full of fire and hollering, vaguely Pagan, expansively anti-establishment, sometimes intimidating in press photos — more so than it is in real life" and still very anti-Catholic, because "(Pope Paul V, the leader of the Catholic church during the Gunpowder Plot, remains a popular effigy today, and gets blown up in Lewes most years; some bonfire societies still march beneath signs reading ‘No Popery’)"! At least the Lewes Bonfire nights remain a localized celebration: "trains from London won’t stop at the stations nearest to Lewes, and roads in the vicinity will close" every year.

Can you imagine Catholics marching on May 4 near the site of Tyburn Tree burning Henry VIII, the head and governor of the Church of England at the time, in effigy while remembering the protomartyrs of 1535? Or, even more congruently, of James VI while remembering Saint Nicholas Owen, tortured to death, Saint Thomas Garnet, and Blesseds Edward Oldcorne and Ralph Ashley, martyred in 1606 and 1607? Of course you can't. Catholics in England wouldn't do it and shouldn't do it. As Father Paolo Molinari, S.J also emphasized in his article about the Canonization of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales: "Right from the first announcement of the Re-opening of the Cause of the 40 Martyrs, decreed by Pope John XXIII on 24 May 1961, the Hierarchy of England and Wales let it be clearly understood that nothing was further from the intentions of the Bishops than to stir up bad feelings and quarrels of the past."

I wonder what it's like to be a Catholic in Lewes on Bonfire Night. Here's a story about how the consecration of Saint Pancras Catholic Church was greeted in the 19th century (not well!):

When the Church was opened, there was a crowd estimated at between 2000 and 3000, reaching some distance above Ireland’s Lane and down below The Pelham Arms, the pavements and road being completely lined with people who were singing bonfire songs, howling and jeering. Then some of the bonfire boys were let out of a window of The Pelham Arms into the passage between the latter and the Church, and made such a disturbance that scarcely anything could be heard, and the service was brought to a rather abrupt conclusion. . . .

As a result of the disturbance in the passage, eight persons were arrested and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment each, the Magistrates threatening to take away the licence of The Pelham Arms, which used to be the meeting place of the Borough Bonfire Society, which is now the Brewers’ Arms. After this came a comparative calm, only the door now and then being sharply rapped and the windows in the front of the Church broken by stones until they were covered by wire . . .

These are just some reflections on how we remember history and how we commemorate or celebrate certain events. I look forward to discussing them with Matt or Anna on Monday and of learning what you think about them!

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us!

Holy Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!

Preview: 55th Anniversary of the English and Welsh Martyrs' Canonization

As we wind down these 2025 Anniversaries before we start an Advent series on the Son Rise Morning Show, we can't skip the 55th anniversary of the canonization of the Forty (40) Martyrs of England and Wales on October 25, 1970. So on Monday, November 10 I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

The Catholic Answers on-line Magazine updated a previous article of mine about this event:

[October 25] was the fifty-fifth anniversary of the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope St. Paul VI, more than 435 years after the first martyrs suffered on May 4, 1535.

Why such a delay? And what do the martyrs teach us today about the Reformation era and the modern ecumenical era? Looking back at the history of their martyrdoms and the progress of their cause for canonization provides some answers.

The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, canonized on October 25, 1970, are a group of men and women, priests and laity, who suffered and died for the Catholic faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1535-1679). . . .

As you, dear readers of this blog surely know, Anna and/or Matt (and Brian Patrick, years ago) and I have discussed so many of these martyrs' stories in the past 15 years on the Son Rise Morning Show! Continuing to quote myself:

None of the martyrs of the English Reformation era—not even Thomas More and John Fisher—was even beatified until late in the nineteenth century. The first cause did not begin until 1874, almost a quarter-century after the hierarchy was re-established in England by Pope Pius IX. His successor Pope Leo XIII beatified fifty-four in 1886 and nine more in 1895. Pope Pius XI beatified 136 more in 1929 and canonized Fisher and More on May 19, 1935.

The selection of the Forty Martyrs was presented in 1960 and approved in 1961: they were chosen on the basis of their popularity and the devotion shown to them in England and Wales. Miracles attributed to their intercession were investigated and documented (Pius XI had canonized More and Fisher equipollently without verification of medical miracles); their canonization was announced by Pope Paul VI and approved by the hierarchy present at the consistory of May 18, 1970. . . .

This EWTN story by the postulator for the cause, Paolo Molinari, S.J., quotes Pope Saint Paul VI's words on May 18:

We greatly rejoice that unanimously you have asked that these blessed Martyrs of England and Wales be canonized; this is also our desire. It is our intention to enroll them among the saints and to declare them worthy of the honours that the Church attributes to those holy persons who have obtained their heavenly reward. With God's help, we will do this on the twenty-fifth day of October of this year in the Vatican Basilica.

That story also provides details about the miracles attributed to the intercession of these martyrs, and brief sketches of their efforts, sufferings, and deaths. The martyrs (13 priests of the secular clergy, 3 Benedictines, 3 Carthusians, 1 Brigittine, 2 Franciscans, 1 Augustinian, 10 Jesuits and 7 members of the laity, including 3 mothers) canonized on October 25, 1970 are:

Saint John Almond
Saint Edmund Arrowsmith, S.J.
Saint Ambrose Barlow, O.S.B.
Saint John Boste
Saint Alexander Briant, S.J.
Saint Edmund Campion, S.J.
Saint Margaret Clitherow
Saint Philip Evans, S.J.
Saint Thomas Garnet, S.J.
Saint Edmund Gennings
Saint Richard Gwyn
Saint John Houghton, O.Cart.
Saint Philip Howard
Saint John Jones, O.F.M.
Saint John Kemble
Saint Luke Kirby
Saint Robert Lawrence, O.Cart.
Saint David Lewis, S.J.
Saint Anne Line
Saint John Lloyd
Saint Cuthbert Mayne
Saint Henry Morse, S.J.
Saint Nicholas Owen, S.J.
Saint John Payne
Saint Polydore Plasden
Saint John Plessington
Saint Richard Reynolds, O.Ss.S.
Saint John Rigby
Saint John Roberts, O.S.B.
Saint Alban Roe, O.S.B.
Saint Ralph Sherwin
Saint Robert Southwell, S.J.
Saint John Southworth
Saint John Stone, O.E.S.A.
Saint John Wall, O.F.M.
Saint Henry Walpole, S.J.
Saint Margaret Ward
Saint Augustine Webster, O.Cart.
Saint Swithun Wells
Saint Eustace White

The three Carthusians and one Brigittine are the protomartyrs and the date of their executions in 1535 is the now the Feast of the Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales (May 4) in England. In Wales, October 25 is the Feast of the Welsh Martyrs [St Richard Gwyn (1537–1584), St John Jones (1530–1598), St John Roberts (1577–1610), St Philip Evans (1645–1679), St John Lloyd (1645–1679) and St David Lewis (1616–1679)] and their English companions.

On October 25, 1970, Paul VI summarized the sacrifice and greatness of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales:

To all those who are filled with admiration in reading the records of these martyrs, it is perfectly clear that they are worthy to stand alongside the greatest martyrs of the past; and this is not merely because of their fearless faith and marvellous constancy, but by reason of their humility, simplicity and serenity, and above all the spiritual joy and that wonderously radiant love with which they accepted their condemnation and death.

The high tragedy in the lives of these martyrs was that their honest and genuine loyalty came into conflict with their fidelity to God and the dictates of their conscience illumined by the Catholic faith.

Faced with the choice of remaining steadfast in their faith and of dying for it, or of saving their lives by denying that faith, without a moment’s hesitation and with a truly supernatural strength they stood for God and joyfully confronted martyrdom.

At the same time such was the greatness of their spirit that many of them died with prayers on their lips for the country they loved so much, for the King or Queen, and not least for those directly responsible for their capture, their sufferings, and the degradation and ignominy of their cruel deaths.

May our thanksgiving go up to God who, in his providential goodness, saw fit to raise up these martyrs.

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!

Preview: 75th Anniversary of "Munificentissimus Deus"

Pope Pius XII issued the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus on November 1, 1950, defining the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, making it one of the four essential doctrines of the Catholic Church regarding Mary as 1) Immaculately conceived; 2) the Mother of God; 3) perpetually a Virgin; and 4) Assumed into Heaven body and soul. 

Therefore, we'll reflect on this 75th anniversary on the Son Rise Morning Show in our 2025 Anniversary series on Monday, November 3--I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

As Pope Pius IX had done before he infallibly defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, Pope Pius XII had requested input from the bishops throughout the world. He wrote an encyclical in 1946, Deiparae Virginis Mariae (ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XIION THE POSSIBILITY OF DEFINING THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AS A DOGMA OF FAITH TO THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,  ARCHBISHOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES AT PEACE AND IN COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE)!

When he had received their affirmative response to his request to let him know " . . . if you, Venerable Brethren, with your learning and prudence consider that the bodily Assumption of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith, and whether in addition to your own wishes this is desired by your clergy and people," he proceeded with the proclamation of the dogma in the Apostolic Constitution defining the Dogma of the Assumption.

Also like his predecessor in 1854, Pius XII offered examples of the Fathers of the Church to support this definition, especially Saint John Damascene,

an outstanding herald of this traditional truth, [who] spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and privileges. "It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God's Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God." (Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genetricis Semperque Virginis Mariae, Hom. II, n. 14)

And he also surveyed the "scholastic" theologians and Doctors of the Church, including Saints Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Bernardine of Siena, and others, before concluding:

For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.

There's a film available from 1950 of the proclamation, with the procession of the Salus Populi Romani from Ara Coeli Church to St. Peters on the evening of October 31, and Pope Pius XII's Latin definition of the dogma the next day via British Pathé! The proclamation was the highlight of the Holy Year of 1950, according to narrator.

An excellent book on this dogma, in my opinion, is Matthew Levering's Mary's Bodily Assumption, which I purchased, read, and reviewed in 2019. One of reasons I appreciated the book was Levering's citation of Saint John Henry Newman's explanation of this teaching (101 years before it was infallibly defined!), when he referred to Newman's "The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son" and "The Fitness of the Glories of Mary" from the Discourses to Mixed Congregations published in 1849. 

In that second discourse, Doctor Newman (by the time Anna or Matt and I talk Monday morning) states:

It was surely fitting then, it was becoming, that she {371} should be taken up into heaven and not lie in the grave till Christ's second coming, who had passed a life of sanctity and of miracle such as hers. All the works of God are in a beautiful harmony; they are carried on to the end as they begin. This is the difficulty which men of the world find in believing miracles at all; they think these break the order and consistency of God's visible word, not knowing that they do but subserve a higher order of things, and introduce a supernatural perfection. But at least, my brethren, when one miracle is wrought, it may be expected to draw others after it for the completion of what is begun. Miracles must be wrought for some great end; and if the course of things fell back again into a natural order before its termination, how could we but feel a disappointment? and if we were told that this certainly was to be, how could we but judge the information improbable and difficult to believe? Now this applies to the history of our Lady. I say, it would be a greater miracle if, her life being what it was, her death was like that of other men, than if it were such as to correspond to her life. Who can conceive, my brethren, that God should so repay the debt, which He condescended to owe to His Mother, for the elements of His human body, as to allow the flesh and blood from which it was taken to moulder in the grave? Do the sons of men thus deal with their mothers? do they not nourish and sustain them in their feebleness, and keep them in life while they are able? Or who can conceive that that virginal frame, which never sinned, was to undergo the death of a sinner? Why should {372} she share the curse of Adam, who had no share in his fall? "Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return," was the sentence upon sin; she then, who was not a sinner, fitly never saw corruption.

As I concluded my 2019 book review:

The late, great Monsignor William Carr always told us at the Newman Center that Mary's Assumption was the great sign for us of the victory over Death that Jesus Christ has won for us. As she represents the Church in Heaven, she represents our hope for eternal life with the Holy Trinity. Levering echoes this: "Each August 15, then, the Church liturgically celebrates the wondrous truth that, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Mary has become the first to receive the promise that we are to be "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . . (Romans 8:17)"

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Assumed into Heaven, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Image Credit (Public Domain) The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Titian (1515–1518), the main altarpiece of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.

Preview: 25th Anniversary of St. Thomas More as Patron Saint of Politicians

Twenty-five years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed Saint Thomas More the Patron Saint of Politicians and Statesmen, so we will remember this 2025 anniversary on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, October 27. I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Pope John Paul II acted quickly after he received the petition for this action, "begun by former President of Italy Francesco Cossiga and signed by leaders from around the world" according to The Center for Thomas More Studies. The “Petition for Sir Thomas More as Patron of Statesmen,” is dated September 25, 2000, and by the end of October that year, the Pope issued his Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter "Proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians".

The petition highlighted and connected several attributes of More's life: "as [a] humanist, apologist, judge, legislator, diplomat and statesman" because he personified "the idea that holiness is the fulness of humanity". It also emphasized the connections between More and the laity and between More's lay holiness and the Pope's own ideas about holiness among the laity:

Precisely among the laity, the growing appeal of this extraordinary man speaks to us of one whose presence becomes, with the passing of time, ever more vivid, more striking, and more permanently timely.

He shines forth as an example of that unity of life which Your Holiness has called a characteristic of lay holiness: "The laity's unity of life is enormously important: for, indeed, they must sanctify themselves in their ordinary professional and social life. In order to be able to respond to their calling, then, the laity should look upon the activity of daily life as an opportunity for union with God and the fulfillment of His will and for service of their fellow man." (Christifideles laici, n. 17). In Saint Thomas More, there was no sign of that split between faith and culture, between timeless principles and daily life, which the Second Vatican Council laments as "among of the gravest errors of our time" (Gaudium et spes, n. 43)

The petition also emphasized More's service to his country as judge and statesmen for higher purposes:

Politics was not, for him, a matter of personal advantage, but rather an often difficult form of service, for which he had prepared himself not only through the study of the history, laws and culture of his own country, but also and especially through the examination of human nature, its grandeur and weaknesses, and of the ever-imperfect conditions of social life. For him, politics was the overflow of a tremendous effort of comprehension. As a consequence, he was able to show the proper hierarchy of ends to be pursued by government, in the light of the primacy of Truth over power and Goodness over utility. He always acted from the perspective of final ends, those which the shifting sands of historical circumstance can never nullify. Hence the strength which sustained him in the face of martyrdom.

In the conclusion the petitioners presented More's life and death as a model for service and integrity:

the lesson of flight from success and easy compromises in the name of fidelity to irrevocable principles, upon which depend the dignity of man and the justice of civil society — a lesson truly inspiring for all who, on the threshold of the new Millennium, feel themselves called to expose and eradicate the snares laid by new and hidden tyrannies. 

Therefore, certain that we act for the good of future society and trusting that our petition will find a benevolent welcome with Your Holiness, we ask that Sir Thomas More, Saint and Martyr, faithful servant of the King, but God's first, be proclaimed "Patron of Statesmen."

In response, Pope Saint John Paul II issued his proclamation, recounting aspects of More's life and concurring throughout with much that the petitioners had argued--even echoing their citation of his Christifideles laici!

He concurred with the petitioners and even found more pertinent contemporary reasons for granting their request:

There are many reasons for proclaiming Thomas More Patron of statesmen and people in public life. Among these is the need felt by the world of politics and public administration for credible role models able to indicate the path of truth at a time in history when difficult challenges and crucial responsibilities are increasing. Today in fact strongly innovative economic forces are reshaping social structures; on the other hand, scientific achievements in the area of biotechnology underline the need to defend human life at all its different stages, while the promises of a new society — successfully presented to a bewildered public opinion — urgently demand clear political decisions in favour of the family, young people, the elderly and the marginalized.

In this context, it is helpful to turn to the example of Saint Thomas More, who distinguished himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was vigorously committed to favouring and defending the family; he supported the all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honours and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgement rooted in faith: these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it had been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbour.

We're not the only ones remembering this anniversary: the Center for Thomas More Studies will launch an online video course on Friday ,October 31, “Thomas More: Leading Citizen,” for the 25th Anniversary of Thomas More as “Patron of Statesmen”. So check it out.

A question for us today might be: have many Catholic politicians and statesmen and -women responded to this patronage and conformed to St. Thomas More's model in the last 25 years?

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Saint John Paul II, pray for us!

The picture at the top and this picture are of the bas-relief of Saint Thomas More in the Basilica of Saint Clothilde in the Seventh Arrondisement of Paris, taken in 2012.

Preview: 100th Anniversary of "Quas Primas" and the Feast of Christ the King

On the 11th of December in 1925 Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical Quas Primas explaining the reasons for establishing the Feast of Christ the King. Since some liturgical calendars still mark the feast on the last Sunday of October, before the feasts of All Saint and All Souls--and Advent isn't as far off as we might think, as parishes and publishers are planning for meditations for that season (since the feast is celebrated on the Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent)--we'll look at the 100th anniversary of Quas Primas on Monday, October 20. I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show at my usual time, about  7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

The first words of this encyclical refer to the first encyclical Pope Pius XI issued, Ubi arcano Dei consilio ("When in the inscrutable designs of God" he was elected the Vicar of Christ!) at the end of December in 1923. The theme of Ubi arcano was "On the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ". Although the First World War had ended, he noted that "the nations of the earth have not as yet found true peace" (paragraph 7) and there was a "dense fog of mutual hatreds and grievances" (11) separating people and nations" influencing the spiritual lives of Christians negatively and preventing them from knowing "the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding" (Philippians iv, 7) fully (38). In paragraph 48, Pope Pius XI highlights "the Kingdom of Christ." 

In Quas Primas he expands upon that theme:

Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord. We were led in the meantime to indulge the hope of a brighter future at the sight of a more widespread and keener interest evinced in Christ and his Church, the one Source of Salvation, a sign that men who had formerly spurned the rule of our Redeemer and had exiled themselves from his kingdom were preparing, and even hastening, to return to the duty of obedience.

Since the Church had been celebrating a Jubilee Year for the 1600th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea Pope Pius XI wanted to "enhance the glory of the kingdom of Christ" further by establishing a new liturgical feast. And on that new liturgical feast Pope Pius wanted Catholics to renew their dedication "of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus".

When I read this encyclical--remember that Pope Pius XI would also reflect on Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum during his pontificate with Quadragesimo anno--I noticed how carefully Pius aligned the spiritual kingdom of Christ with the Church's practical concerns with worldly affairs regarding moral and spiritual matters (marriage and family for example and religious freedom for another) for "the reconstruction of the social order." One practical result of this effort are the various Concordats negotiated between the Holy See and different countries to assure the Church could celebrate the Sacraments freely, etc.

He referenced Leo's Annum Sacrum for this connection between the acknowledgement of Christ as King and devotion to His merciful Sacred Heart--and I presume we could now see the further connection to the devotion to His Divine Mercy.

So as we prepare for the celebration of this feast, either in October or November, and as we celebrate the centenary of its introduction to the liturgical calendar, it's timely and fitting to read it!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Book Review: Blessed Germain Gardiner on John Frith

The editor of this book, Boone W. Larson, contacted me and offered to send me a copy to read and review, because I have posted in the past about the author of the letter, Blessed Germain Gardiner.

Book description:

The Folly of Heresy was first published in 1534. It was written in response to the trial and supposed martyrdom of John Frith, who famously denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The author, Blessed Germain Gardiner—himself martyred in 1544 for denying King Henry's religious supremacy—saw in Frith's case a dangerous occasion for confusion and scandal among England's Catholics. How could they, he asked, honor a man who denied so important a doctrine of the faith? The work (which first bore a verbose title beginning with A letter of a yonge gentylman...) is not only a Scriptural-Patristic defense of the Real Presence but also a brief chronicle of Blessed Germain's personal interviews of Frith before the latter's sentencing. His account, beyond being valuable to Christians interested in Sacramental and Eucharistic theology, is in fact of extraordinary value to scholars of Henrician religious history. Despite its value, it has remained out of print since it was first issued almost five hundred years ago.

The present edition has been thoroughly revised: archaic and unintelligible spellings and grammar have been adjusted, many explanatory notes have been added, and the originally very lengthy paragraphs have been divided up for easier digestion. An introduction, textual-critical endnotes, an appendix, and indices have also been created for this edition by the editor. These editorial supplements will serve to make an otherwise inaccessible piece of English history not only approchable [sic] but enjoyable for the modern reader, whether his interest be casual or scholarly.

(No artificial intelligence was used in the creation or editing of any part of this book.)

I can also assure you that no artificial intelligence was used in this review, either!

It's great to see an independent scholar like Mr. Larson pursuing his enthusiasm in English recusant history and literature. He has already edited the Rev. Paul M. Kimball's translation of On the Just Punishment of Heretics by Alfonso de Castro, O.F.M. published by Dolorosa Press, 2024. He is preparing another important book by the Catholic exile and controversialist Thomas Stapleton, S.T.D., A Fortress of the Faith and other Works of English Recusant Theology. That will be a very important publication.

In this letter Blessed Germain Gardiner describes his attempts to reason with John Frith who would not be persuaded to renounce his heretical stance against the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This indeed was a doctrine that Henry VIII insisted upon as Supreme Head and Governor of the Church of England, that Jesus is really present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in Holy Communion; in agreement with his master at the time, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury did too, although he would later change his mind.

Gardiner brings evidence and texts of the interpretation of Scripture and Church doctrine from the Fathers of the Church to reason with Frith, but finds him not just obstinate but changeable. He requires one standard of proof but once it's been given, changes the requirement. Gardiner notes that William Tyndale had written from the Continent advising Frith not to proceed with this line of argument--he wasn't ready for it himself.

I have to admit that--and this was true even when I read some of Saint Thomas More's apologetic/argumentative works--this kind of back-and-forth narrative of the conversations between Gardiner and Frith is not as "enjoyable" for me as promised in the book description above (from Amazon.com). Note More had exchanged arguments with John Frith too (in 1532) on the doctrine of the Real Presence. Gardiner's letter is dated August 1, 1534; More had been imprisoned in the Tower of London since April 17 of that year.

But the introduction and footnotes (often providing extended quotations from the Fathers, etc.) certainly make the work accessible. Blessed Germain Gardiner's concern for John Frith and his great efforts to reconcile him with the Eucharistic teaching of the Catholic Church certainly shine through. It's an important document and the editor is to be commended for his diligence and excellent work.

Preview: 120th Anniversary of R.H. Benson's "The King's Achievement"

The King's Achievement, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson's historical novel about the Dissolution of the Monasteries, was published in 1905, 120 years ago. It was one of those books I read years before I started studying the English Reformation in depth before writing my book, so I've selected it for our next Son Rise Morning Show 2025 anniversary on Monday, October 13, Columbus Day! I'll be on the air at my usual time, 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Like its sequel, By What Authority?, which was published in 1904, The King's Achievement is a family drama, as Benson shows the divisions caused in two families by the English Reformation during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. One link between the two novels, for example, is the former nun, Margaret Torridon, taken from her convent by her own brother in The King's Achievement, living years later in the Catholic household of her brother-in-law and sister Mary in By What Authority?

Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson was a convert to Catholicism, the youngest son of Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896, and his wife, Mary. Robert's older brothers, E.F. (Edward Frederick) and A.C. (Arthur Christopher) were also authors: E.F. wrote the "Mapp and Lucia" novels and A.C. contributed to Elgar's Coronation Ode written for Edward VII in 1902 and "Land of Hope and Glory"; he was also Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Their sister Margaret was an Egyptologist.

After his conversion to Catholicism in 1903, Robert Hugh Benson was ordained a priest the next year. 

He wrote several novels, historical and contemporary, and consulted with Don Bede Camm, another Catholic convert, who studied the English Reformation martyrs, on his historical novels. He acknowledges Dom Bede Camm's assistance in both By What Authority? and The King's Achievement. 

Dom Bede Camm was inspired by the stories of the English Catholic martyrs beatified by Pope Leo XIII and published a two-volume book about them in 1904, Lives of the English Martyrs. He also helped the Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre who had established a convent near the former site of Tyburn Tree, where many martyrs suffered.

So Camm was a good resource for Benson, but the characters and the dramas Benson created are fictional--although Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and other historical people appear in The King's Achievement. 

Ralph, the elder son of the Torridon family, works for Thomas Cromwell and he goes to visit More at his Chelsea home in Chapter V, "Master More":

It was a wonderfully pleasant house, Ralph thought, as his wherry came up to the foot of the garden stairs that led down from the lawn to the river. It stood well back in its own grounds, divided from the river by a wall with a wicket gate in it. There was a little grove of trees on either side of it ; a flock of pigeons were wheeling about the bell-turret 'that rose into the clear blue sky, and from which came a stroke or two, announcing the approach of dinner-time as he went up the steps.

There was a figure lying on its face in the shadow by the house, as Ralph came up the path, and a small dog, that seemed to be trying to dig the head out from the hands in which it was buried, ceased his excavations and set up a shrill barking. The figure rolled over, and sat up ; the pleasant brown face was all creased with laughter ; small pieces of grass were clinging to the long hair, and Ralph, to his amazement, recognised the ex- Lord Chancellor of England.

In the plot of The King's Achievement, the crucial issue is Ralph's corruption and cruelty as he does Cromwell's will, closing the monasteries and nunneries, leaving the practice of his family's Catholic faith, and even preparing to betray even his master Cromwell when his fall comes, after having betrayed Thomas More by pretending to help him. Beatrice, a young lady from More's household, loves Ralph and trusts him until he demonstrates his cruelty to More and his own family. 

It's an old fashioned novel, but Benson demonstrates great insight into Ralph's character, as he continues to serve Cromwell as he believes he is serving Henry VIII, betraying his own father, his brother Chris a monk at Lewes, and his sisters. There are some dramatic scenes of family conflict and estrangement, especially in the chapters "Father and Son" and "A Nun's Defiance", when Ralph "visits" his sister Margaret's convent to cast her out because she is underage. Benson depicts the corruption of Cromwell's visitors of the monasteries and the convents, and even as Ralph sees it himself, he accepts it as part of his duty to his master and his king. 

The twist of the novel is that the great concern of Beatrice and Chris is the redemption of the souls of Ralph and his mother, who also become cold and skeptical toward both family and Church. Beatrice and Chris work together to reconcile both of them in spite of all the suffering they've endured.

The significance of this book is that, while Dom Bede Camm was studying the English martyrs and writing individual stories about their sufferings, and at the same time helping the Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre establish their monastery shrine near Tyburn, Monsignor Benson was offering this historical novel. 

Thus he could show what these divisions, disruptions, and sufferings meant to families, to the relationships between husband and wife, father and son, sister and brother, brother and brother, and even a man and a woman who were beginning to love each other perhaps toward being married. As dramatic as the martyrdoms of Thomas More, the three Carthusians, and Bishop John Fisher were--and Benson does not neglect them--readers can sympathize and even empathize with what the families suffered.

That's what fiction or drama can do. And Benson does it very well.

Preview: The 180th Anniversary of Newman's Conversion

Next Thursday, October 9, is Saint John Henry Newman's Feast Day, celebrated as a Feast at Masses in England and as an Obligatory Memorial here in the USA in the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, so naturally the anniversary of his conversion to Catholicism is the next 2025 Anniversary to celebrate on the Son Rise Morning Show! 

I'll be on the air Monday, October 6 at my usual time 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Newman had been living in Littlemore outside of Oxford with several followers since April 19, 1842. He had preached his last sermon as an Anglican minister, "The Parting of Friends" on September 25, 1843, and had gradually been cutting his ties to Oxford--especially since he'd moved all his books to Littlemore! The impetus for his final decision to become a Roman Catholic was the coming of the Passionist priest (now Blessed) Dominic Barberi to Littlemore. One of his biographers, William Ward, demonstrates how Newman proceeded once he knew of the opportunity:

On October 3 he addressed a letter to the Provost of Oriel resigning his Fellowship. On the same day he wrote to Pusey informing him of this act, and adding, 'anything may happen to me now any day.'

On October 5 he notes in his diary, 'I kept indoors all day preparing for general confession.' [Edward] Oakeley was with W. G. Ward at Rose Hill, and dined with Newman that evening. On October 7 [Ambrose] St. John returned to Littlemore, and Newman had with him when he took the great and solemn step the one disciple to whom he habitually opened his whole mind. On this day he wrote thus to Henry Wilberforce [who hoped that Newman would delay any final action until Advent or Christmas]:

Littlemore: October 7, 1845.
'My dearest H. W.,—Father Dominic the Passionist is passing this way, on his way from Aston in Staffordshire to Belgium, where a chapter of his Order is to be held at this time. He is to come to Littlemore for the night as a guest of one of us [William Dalgairns] whom he has admitted at Aston. He does not know of my intentions, but I shall ask of him admission into the One true Fold of the Redeemer. I shall keep this back till after it is all over. . . .

'Father Dominic has had his thoughts turned to England from a youth, in a distinct and remarkable way. For thirty years he has expected to be sent to England, and about three years since was sent without any act of his own by his superior. . . . It is an accident his coming here, and I had no thoughts of applying to him till quite lately, nor should, I suppose, but for this accident.
'With all affectionate thoughts to your wife and children and to yourself,
I am, my dear H. W.,
Tuus usque ad cineres,
J. H. N.'

Newman refers to Father Barberi's visit to Littlemore as "an accident"; we might associate the word "accident" with a catastrophic event, like a car wreck or a fall, and the most common synonyms for accident reflect that (disaster, mishap, catastrophe, etc.), even though that is its secondary meaning.

Newman means "accident" as the word derives from Latin: "accident-, accidens "chance event, contingent attribute", according to Merriam-Webster. He had wanted to make his final decision after his study of Church History in the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine was published, so that his actions would have some explanation. But since Father Barberi was coming to Littlemore, Newman prepared to be received into the Catholic Church.

As Ward explains:

On the evening of October 8 Father Dominic was expected, and almost at the same time [Richard] Stanton, who had been absent for a few weeks, returned. Father Dominic was to arrive at Oxford by the coach in the afternoon. Up to the very day itself Newman did not speak to the community at Littlemore of his intention. Dalgairns and St. John were to meet the Passionist Father in Oxford. The former has left the following account of what passed:

'At that time all of us except St. John, though we did not doubt Newman would become a Catholic, were anxious and ignorant of his intentions in detail. About 3 o'clock I went to take my hat and stick and walk across the fields to the Oxford "Angel" where the coach stopped. As I was taking my stick Newman said to me in a very low and quiet {94} tone: "When you see your friend, will you tell him that I wish him to receive me into the Church of Christ?" I said: "Yes" and no more. I told Fr. Dominic as he was dismounting from the top of the coach. He said: "God be praised," and neither of us spoke again till we reached Littlemore.'

And note that others took advantage of this happy accident of Father Barberi stopping in Littlemore on his way to Belgium:

It was then pouring with rain. Newman made his general confession that night, and was afterwards quite prostrate. Ambrose St. John and Stanton helped him out of the little Oratory. On the morrow his diary has this record: 'admitted into the Catholic Church with [Frederick] Bowles and Stanton.' Next day Newman made his first communion in the Oratory at Littlemore, in which Mass was said for the first time, and Father Dominic received Mr. and Mrs. Woodmason and their two daughters. Newman walked into Oxford in the afternoon with St. John to see Mr. Newsham, the Catholic priest. On the eleventh Father Dominic left. On the same day Newman paid a visit to W. G. Ward at Rose Hill, and Charles Marriott came to see him at Littlemore [Note 9].

Thus very quietly and without parade took place the great event dreamt of for so many years—with dread at first, in hope at last.

When I visited the Newman Centre at Littlemore in 2010, our guide, one of the Sisters of the Spiritual Family the Work, showed us the letters Newman wrote to his sisters and others on October 9, 1845 telling them of this "great event" and also a stole of Blessed Dominic Barberi's in a glass case. The Littlemore Newman Centre and the Birmingham Oratory are the major shrines to Newman in England, and I'm glad I went to at least one of them, perhaps the most important because of the date of his conversion, his feast day. He died in Birmingham on April 11, 1890, Saint Clare of Assisi's feast day.

Blessed Dominic Barberi, pray for us!

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Preview: The Restoration of the Hierarchy/the Gorham Judgment/Anglican Difficulties: 1850

One hundred and seventy five years ago, three events in England now offer some context to the history of religion in England for us to consider: 

1. On September 29, 1850 Blessed Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy in England, an act of "Papal Aggression" according to the Queen and her Parliament;

2. The Gorham Judgment on March 8, 1850 led several more Tractarians to "Cross the Tiber";

3. Oratorian Father John Henry Newman reached out to those Tractarians with his public Lectures on Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Submitting to the Catholic Church, starting in July 1850.

So on Monday, September 29, the feast of the Archangels, we'll consider these 2025 Anniversaries in our Son Rise Morning Show series by focusing on the Gorham Judgment, which, like later decisions in the Church of England, led some on the edge of conversion to "submit" to the Catholic Church. I'll be on the air at my usual time around 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

The Reverend George Cornelius Gorham (1787-1857) was appointed to a "living" (a pastoral position) at the vicarage in Bramford Speke in Exeter. The Anglican bishop of that diocese--the appointment was made by the Lord Chancellor, Charles Christopher Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham--Henry Phillpotts, refused to install Gorham in the living because Gorham's views on Baptism weren't orthodox according to Church of England doctrine. He did not believe in the Sacramental Grace of Baptism to be salvific but as conditional. Gorham appealed to the Anglican Bishops Court of Arches and lost on appeal. So Gorham took his cause to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a secular authority, who overruled the Bishops Court.

To those who'd remained in the Tractarian/Oxford Movement, this was a real blow. Henry Manning, the Archdeacon particularly felt the blow. Newman's "defection" and the bishops' action against the Movement had been bad enough, but here was more proof that the Church of England was an Erastian church, under the control of the secular state which presumed to determine what the Church believed. The Privy Council, not the Court of Arches, had interpreted the Thirty-Nine Articles--this was a real crisis.

Manning and others, including William Gladstone, made an appeal to the bishops to undo this Privy Council action. When that was ignored, Manning and others--but not Gladstone--made the great decision to convert to Catholicism. Among those who joined Manning: Thomas William Allies, William Wilberforce, Jr. and his brothers Robert and Henry Wilberforce, sons of "The Great Emancipator", William Wilberforce, Sr.; John Hungerford Pollen, William Dodsworth, James Hope-Scott, and Edward Badeley.

The context of those conversions, taking place even as Queen Victoria and Parliament felt threatened by Pope Pius IX appointing Catholic bishops to organize Catholic dioceses in England, was momentous. Newman saw the opportunity to reach out to Manning and others, using arguments to answer the kind of difficulties he'd encountered along the way to his conversion, and therefore offered a lecture series in London on those Anglican Difficulties. 

In the wake of the Gorham Judgment, he emphasized the Erastian nature of the Established Church. In the first lecture "On the Relation of the National Church to the Nation" he warned them:

I have said all this, my brethren, not in declamation, but to bring out clearly to you, why I cannot feel interest of any kind in the National Church, nor put any trust in it at all from its past history, as if it were, in however narrow a sense, a guardian of orthodoxy. It is as little bound by what it said or did formerly, as this morning's newspaper by its former numbers, except as it is bound by the Law; and while it is upheld by the Law, it will not be weakened by the subtraction of individuals, nor fortified by their continuance. Its life is an Act of Parliament. It will not be able to resist the Arian, Sabellian, or Unitarian heresies now, because Bull or Waterland resisted them a century or two before; nor on the other hand would it be unable to resist them, though its more orthodox theologians were presently to leave it. It will be able to resist them while the State gives the word; it would be unable, when the State forbids it. Elizabeth boasted that she "tuned her pulpits;" Charles forbade discussions on predestination; George on the Holy Trinity; Victoria allows differences on Holy Baptism. While the nation wishes an Establishment, it will remain, whatever individuals are for it or against it; and that which determines its existence will determine its voice. Of course {9} the presence or departure of individuals will be one out of various disturbing causes, which may delay or accelerate by a certain number of years a change in its teaching: but, after all, the change itself depends on events broader and deeper than these; it depends on changes in the nation. As the nation changes its political, so may it change its religious views; the causes which carried the Reform Bill and Free Trade may make short work with orthodoxy.

He was warning them that the Erastian Church of England would follow the spirit of the age and the interests of the establishment and that "changes in the nation" would be the source of church teaching, not those "Truths divinely revealed, developed, and explained by men of genius in the past . . ."

After 1850, there have been other decisions made in the Church of England that have incited Anglican pastors and laymen to become Catholic, like ordaining women as priests and bishops. Pope Saint John Paul II, with the Pastoral Provision, and Pope Benedict XVI, with the creation of the Anglican Ordinariate, acknowledged the impact of such decisions by welcoming Episcopalian and Anglican clergy to the Catholic priesthood, even if married after their conversions, if they felt the call.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Blessed Pius IX, pray for us!

Image Credit (Public Domain): Portrait of the Reverend George Cornelius Gorham 

Book Review: "Weep, Shudder, Die" by Dana Gioia

I enjoy listening to, watching, and reading about opera. When I was little my grandparents--and later my parents--had the two volume Lincoln Library of Essential Information (not sure what edition) and it contained a section with synopses of all the major operas and I nearly memorized them. The plot to Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots shocked me and then I had to read about the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre! Probably in the Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia.

I've attended eight or so operatic performances, but I've watched many more on television and listened to them on the radio (especially the Met's Saturday Matinee broadcasts!), records, compact discs, and now YouTube. So when I saw this book recommended on an OperaAmerica video, I had to read it: Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry, by Dana Gioia.

According to the publisher, Paul Dry Books:

Weep, Shudder, Die explores opera from the perspective by which the art was originally created, as the most intense form of poetic drama. The great operas have an essential connection to poetry, song, and the primal power of the human voice. The aim of opera is irrational enchantment, the unleashing of emotions and visionary imagination.

Gioia rejects the conventional view of opera which assumes that great operas can be built on execrable texts. He insists that in opera, words matter. Operas begin as words; strong words inspire composers, weak words burden them. Ultimately, singers embody the words to give the music a human form for the audience.

Weep, Shudder, Die is a poet’s book about opera. To some, that statement will suggest writing that is airy, impressionistic, and unreliable, but a poet also brings a practical sense of how words animate opera, lend life to imaginary characters, and give human shape to music. Written from a lifelong devotion to the art, Gioia’s book is for anyone who has wept in the dark of an opera house.

Or laughed.

I appreciated the autobiographical background of Gioia's boyhood, college days, and travels to Europe. He describes his discovery of opera, classical music, and literature, and how they set him apart from his classmates. 

His encyclopedic and detailed analysis of the great librettists of the core of the standard repertoire is helpful: 24 of the 50 most performed operas have librettos written by eight poets:

Lorenzo Da Ponte

Felice Romani 

Francisco Maria Piave 

Salvadore Cammarano

Arrigo Boito

Luigi Illica

Hugo von Hoffmansthal

Richard Wagner

Gioia also selects "stellar teams":

Mozart with Da Ponte 

Bellini with Romani

Verdi with Piave 

Verdi with Boito

Puccini with Illica

Strauss with Hoffmansthal

Wagner with Wagner (he wrote his own "poems")

[Cammarano wrote the libretto for Verdi's Il Trovatore]

He also highlights Pietro Metastasio, whose librettos inspired Vivaldi, Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, and Donizetti, even after his death, especially for the opera seria style.

Although Gioia argues that opera is an incredibly collaborative art of the theatre, he focuses mostly on the composer and the librettist and even notes that he will not--except for one slip--talk about the singers who sing the words and music, even though he admits later in the book that each singer will interpret the words and music differently. He mentions singers he heard in Vienna, with Cesare Siepi, Sena Jurinac, Gundula Janowitz, and Wilma Lipp--so a long time ago. He mentions Leontyne Price, William Warfield, and others, including Leyla Gencer, but the index doesn't tell me where; she was a great bel canto soprano but did not make many commercial recordings; I think she was called "the queen of the bootlegs"! He briefly mentions the system of "fach"; on page 151 he states: "Opera exists only through the skill and artistry of singers. I didn't understand opera until I saw great singers perform it." He also does not write much about the conductors of opera. His focus is on the libretto as it inspires the composer to compose the music the conductor, the orchestra, and the singers will perform.

Chapters on individual opera librettists and composers in the USA from Menotti and Floyd to Bernstein and Sondheim are discerning and fascinating and then in last chapters he gets into his own experience writing opera librettos and how much it differed from his work as a poet, expressing himself, not the characters in the operas, etc. Crucially, he also discusses the relationship between opera in the USA and our musical theater--what American works are operas and which are musical theater pieces? Porgy and Bess? Sweeney Todd? A Little Night Music? Candide?

Gioia also discusses the state of opera in the USA: there's a dwindling market but it's passionate and devoted. The OperaAmerica video I watched (in which this book was recommended) highlighted the great quality of the singers prepared and trained in the USA and their limited opportunities: the interviewee said he was encouraging singers to go the European houses (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) where they can become "house singers" and practice and perform their repertoire. That is certainly going to affect the opportunities for librettists and composers in the USA. It's a fascinating book.

I found Leyla Gencer! Page 99 not page 211 as it's listed in the index.

Preview: Henriëtte Bosmans and "Lead, Kindly Light" in 1945

I had never heard of Henriëtte Bosmans until earlier this month! And I certainly did not know that she had composed a work for soprano and either piano or orchestra based on Saint John Henry Newman's poem "Lead, Kindly Light"--and that it had premiered in 1945, thus 80 years ago. With that date, however, I knew this was a topic for our Son Rise Morning Show 2025 Anniversary series. 

Therefore, on Monday, September 22, I'll be on the air at my usual time around 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its background. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Bosmans was born in Amsterdam on December 6, 1895 (130 years ago); her father was Catholic and her mother was Jewish--and her father died when she was six months old. It was a musical family as her father had been the principal cellist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and her mother, Sarah Benedicts, was a piano teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Henriëtte studied piano with her mother and other instructors at the Conservatory and taught piano herself; then she began her concert and composing careers as this website explains:

Bosmans debuted as a concert pianist in 1915 in Utrecht. She performed throughout Europe with among others Pierre Monteux, Willem Mengelberg and Ernest Ansermet. She gave 22 concerts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra alone between 1929 and 1949. She played one of her own compositions at a concert in Geneva in 1929. In 1940, one of her compositions was performed in concert by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with Ruth Posselt as the soloist. In 1941, Posselt again performed work by Bosmans, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The BBC Music Magazine recounts a terrible event in her life even as she was forbidden from publishing or performing her works because her mother Jewish and because Henriette refused to cooperate with the Nazi cultural authorities in occupied Netherlands:

One day, in a climate of constant threat, the worst happened: Sara was arrested by the Gestapo. Taken to the Westerbork transit camp, the last stop for many before they were deported and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor, her fate seemed sealed.

Bosmans went to the Gestapo HQ in Amsterdam to plea for her mother’s life, apparently confronting the officers. She also turned to Willem Mengelberg, conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, to ask his help. Astonishingly, five days after arriving at Westerbork, Sara was freed and sent back to Amsterdam.

The same article explains how she turned from composing for the piano, cello, and other stringed instruments after the end of World War II and to composing for the voice, including Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light":

Her creative spirit was rekindled by the end of the war. ‘Oppression is crushed and freedom begins,’ cries her liberation song Daar Komen de Canadezen (Here come the Canadians). She dedicated both this and Gebed (Prayer) to Jo Vincent, a famous Dutch soprano who had appeared at the Proms [in England]. In 1945, Vincent appeared in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw and Sir Adrian Boult to sing Lead, kindly light, Bosmans’s setting of a hopeful English text by Cardinal Newman.

The date of that concert was November 3, 1945, just six months after the liberation of The Netherlands on May 5 when the Germans officially surrendered at the demand of the Royal Canadian Regiment (thus the song about the Canadians coming!). 

Unlike the hymn settings by John Bacchus Dykes (Lux Benigna), William Henry Harris (Alberta), David Evans (Bonifacio), Charles H. Purday (Sandon), or Arthur Sullivan (Lux in Tenebris), this is a work for a professional vocalist with either orchestral or piano accompaniment. The piano score is marked throughout as "Adagio sostenuto" for the keyboard and either "piu tranquillo" or "poco animato" for the soprano soloist, so it is delicate and subdued, in spite of its hopeful ending.

Henriëtte died on July 2, 1952. May she rest in the peace of that Kindly Light.

Saint John Henry, pray for us!

Image Source (Public Domain): Photograph of Henriëtte Bosmans (1917) by Jacob Merkelbach (1877-1942)

Preview: Fifteen Years Ago, Newman's Beatification

Earlier this month, King Charles III visited the Birmingham Oratory in honor of Saint John Henry Newman being named a Doctor of the Catholic Church. You might recall that as the Prince of Wales he attended Newman's canonization in 2019. 

Fifteen years ago this month, Pope Benedict XVI came to Scotland and England on a State Visit and beatified Newman in Cofton Park outside Birmingham. So on Monday, September 15--very appropriately, since Pope Benedict arrived in Scotland on September 16, 2010--we'll remember this anniversary on the Son Rise Morning Show, at my usual time (6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern); please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

You can still find details about that State Visit here! Just some highlights:

Thursday, September 16, 2010: Queen Elizabeth II met Pope Benedict XVI at the airport and offered some remarks:

. . .Your Holiness, in recent times you have said that ‘religions can never become vehicles of hatred, that never by invoking the name of God can evil and violence be justified’. Today, in this country, we stand united in that conviction. We hold that freedom to worship is at the core of our tolerant and democratic society.

On behalf of the people of the United Kingdom I wish you a most fruitful and memorable visit.

Pope Benedict responded by remembering another anniversary, the end of World War II:

. . . As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a "reductive vision of the person and his destiny" (Caritas in Veritate, 29).

Sixty-five years ago, Britain played an essential role in forging the post-war international consensus which favoured the establishment of the United Nations and ushered in a hitherto unknown period of peace and prosperity in Europe. . . .

He participated in a parade honoring Saint Ninian after an official visit with the Queen and Prince Philip at Holyroodhouse, and then celebrated Mass in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park, where Saint John Paul II celebrated Mass in 1982.

Friday, September 17, 2010: After leaving Scotland for England, the pope attended several events in London, met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and then spoke at Westminster Hall to politicians and other government officials, where he highlighted another great Englishman and saint:

As I speak to you in this historic setting, I think of the countless men and women down the centuries who have played their part in the momentous events that have taken place within these walls and have shaped the lives of many generations of Britons, and others besides. In particular, I recall the figure of Saint Thomas More, the great English scholar and statesman, who is admired by believers and non-believers alike for the integrity with which he followed his conscience, even at the cost of displeasing the sovereign whose “good servant” he was, because he chose to serve God first. The dilemma which faced More in those difficult times, the perennial question of the relationship between what is owed to Caesar and what is owed to God, allows me the opportunity to reflect with you briefly on the proper place of religious belief within the political process. . . .

Later that evening he prayed Evensong in Westminster Abbey with the Archbishop of Canterbury and other church dignitaries.

Saturday, September 18, 2010: This day was dedicated to Catholic Westminster: the Cardinal Archbishop, Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and Eucharistic Adoration that night in Hyde Park, where Pope Benedict talked about Newman and alluded to other English martyrs:

Newman’s life also teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves; it calls for testimony, it begs to be heard, and in the end its convincing power comes from itself and not from the human eloquence or arguments in which it may be couched. Not far from here, at Tyburn, great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith; the witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord. In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.

Finally, Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this, and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity. . . .

And finally, Sunday, September 19, 2010: The day of the Beatification Mass at Cofton Park. Pope Benedict had admired Newman since he was a young man and he certainly knew the depths of Newman's intellectual, historical, and rhetorical brilliance but he emphasized a different aspect at the end of his homily:

While it is John Henry Newman’s intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: “Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you” (“Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel”, Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church’s solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:

Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!

After visiting the Birmingham Oratory and other meetings, Pope Benedict received a farewell from David Cameron the Prime Minister as this had been a State Visit:

. . . Your Holiness, your presence here has been a great honour for our country. Now you are leaving us – and I hope with strong memories. When you think of our country, think of it as one that not only cherishes faith, but one that is deeply, but quietly, compassionate. I see it in the incredible response to the floods in Pakistan. I see it in the spirit of community that drives countless good deeds done for friends and neighbours every day. And in my own life, I have seen it in the many, many kind messages that I have had as I have cradled a new daughter and said goodbye to a wonderful father. . . .

Those comments seem quite heartfelt.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!