TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Among the Catholics seeking religious freedom in America were the Carrolls of Maryland, who arrived in 1649 from Ireland via England. Charles Carroll, born in Annapolis in 1737, was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Inde-pendence, and was the longest-surviving signer. As was the custom for English Catholics, he attended English schools in Belgium and later…
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Catholic Tradition (Page 4)
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Imagine the frustration of bishops who work strenuously over their ad limina reports, directing study committees, assembling data, honing the texts, traveling to Rome “to the threshold,” only to have it all collapse into a fifteen-minute group meeting with the pope. More than a few have grumbled at the weight of this “treasure” from our tradition, yet from…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION This month, parishes around the country will conduct the “October count,” a measure of attendance at Sunday Mass. The measure has been taken for many centuries, and in some European dioceses it is possible to measure the level of engagement in worship by the population over the course of many centuries. Long ago, it was also the custom…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Sometimes, this “Treasures” column can seem to be a species of crib-notes for Catholic Jeopardy. Indeed, you may never know when knowledge of our particular vocabulary may come in handy. Such is the case with papal bulls, which conjure up all sorts of images, but are actually not what you might expect. A bull is a papal letter on a matter of…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION In recent decades, attention has shifted away from headgear as a symbol of a bishop’s authority to a more substantial symbol: the chair, called the cathedra. The word comes from the Latin word for a chair with armrests. It is exactly the reason why dining room sets were marketed in this country a few years…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Long ago, a signet ring was an essential part of the wardrobe of influential people. A letter or document would be sealed with hot wax, and a signet ring pressed into the wax would affirm the origin of the document. In the case of the pope, at least from the thirteenth century, the ring was used to seal public documents with hot…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION Sometimes the treasures of art can provide us with clues about traditions. Take, for example, the miter, the conical hat with lappets, or back-flaps that fall to the shoulders. This cap is worn by bishops in the Catholic West. Eastern Catholics favor a crown, but we have this curious headpiece. In Greek, the word means “turban.” Old paintings…
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION It’s almost midsummer day! One of the great hidden treasures of our liturgical calendar occurs this week. There are only three “nativity” feasts on our calendar: for the Lord, the Blessed Mother (September 8), and the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist on June 24. Friday’s date is anchored by the Annunciation (March 25), when Mary learns not only of her own child’s…