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Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 1 THE A CATHOLIC FUTURE Apostle to the Germans - Boniface, the Success in the City - FSSP’s Growing English Monk Congregation in In This Issue A Story from the Dark Ages: The English Benedicamus Domino Princess Who Converted The Germans - California Dreamin - The Spiritual St. Walburga Exercises of an Expatriate German Hildegard the Polymath: Catholic An Atheist in GERMANY’S BEST In the Footsteps of Saint Edith Stein A Young German Reclaims His Catholic Zita, Catholic Empress in Excile Heritage KEPT CATHOLIC Queen Kunigunde BEAUTIFUL, CATHOLIC, GERMANY SECRETS Bavaria: On Wandering in a Catholic THE LITURGY Landscape Practicing In the Timeless Presence of The Second - Christian Trier in God Germany Bringing the Latin Mass to a German If the Vines Could Talk Village 26 Fantastic Flammkuchen! How the Latin Mass Returned to Roman The Modernists’ Nightmare - A New Trier CATHOLIC Renaissance in High Sacred Art Midsummer on the Moselle for a Latin KNIGHTS Mass Wedding 34 A CATHOLIC PAST True Grit - An Update on the Germany’s Grand Catholic Knights Latin Mass in Germany German , Inc. A Funny Thing Happened on The Great German King Who Sleeps until the Way to the Council Christendeom’s Hour of Need The Young Germans who Spoke Truth to Power The Protagonist

A LATIN MASS 72 WEDDING

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER THE RHINE 44 ALLIANCE 78 REGINA From the Editor Editor: Beverly De Soto The Secret Catholic Insider Guide to Contributors: Translators: Germany Beverly De Soto Gordon Broxton-Price Ed Masters Teresa Schilling oday, Germany is a world-beater. Beautiful cars, sculpted Mariella Hunt Fr. Bartels landscapes, sparkling clean cities, a social welfare system Teresa Limjoco, MD Franz Schönberger that provides for all -- Germany, the pariah of the world Meghan Ferrara after World War II, was in 2013 voted the most admired Christoph Pitsch nationT on the planet. Durnan Donna Sue Berry Layout/Graphic Designer: Such amazing success is heady stuff indeed for the three generations since Alexander Niessen Phil Roussin Hitler who have rebuilt this war-torn land with a traumatized population and Christoph Pitsch a Marshall plan. Tamara Isabell Photography: Paul Dahnen Harry Stevens and Harry Stevens Migdalia Mass Germans and their culture are often misunderstood, perhaps due to their Susanne Michels Tamara Isabell difficult language and idiosyncratic culture. Linguists have long noted that the Stefan Schilling, MD Paul Dahnen German language allows for precision in a way almost impossible to imagine Karen Scheuer in English or the Romance languages. For this reason, in the 18th and 19th Roger Dekeyser centuries, German was considered to be the ‘best’ scientific language. (Full Associate Editor disclosure: Although I am a New Yorker, I speak German fluently, having Rosa Kaspar Webmaster: been raised with it as my first language.) Jim Bryant The German language is also key to understanding the Germans’ love of ideas -- good, bad or indifferent. From Luther to Marx to Freud, from Heidegger to Nietzsche to Hitler, Germany’s history is full of men of ideas Interested in Advertising? who have vastly influenced the world. Ideas of course often quickly lead to For details on advertising your business in Regina Magazine -- the Nazis amply demonstrated the destructive power of an contact Mr. Phil Roussin at [email protected] for more ideology fervently embraced. information. This leads us to the question of the German’s idiosyncratic culture. Many have asked how such a modern, forward-thinking nation as 19th century Germany could turn into the war machine of the early 20th century -- and the purveyor of death and destruction of the Shoah. This is a troubling question, particularly for the generations who have come afterwards. REGINA Magazine is a quarterly Catholic review Modernizing the Germans published electronically on www.reginamag.com. Since the last War, German social engineers have endeavored to instill REGINA draws together extraordinary Catholic writers anti-conformism in a culture with a several-thousand year history of strict conformity to authority. They have succeeded mainly in making Germany’s with a vibrant faith, and wide-ranging interests. We’re young people conform in their enthusiasm for consumerism, internet-fueled interested in everything under the Catholic sun — from trends and exotic vacationing. work and family to religious and eternal life. One thing that most young Germans are not doing is getting married and A LATIN MASS having children. Despite government subsidies for each child, under the We seek the Good, the Beautiful and the True – in our burden of mass derision for the traditional ‘hausfrau’ role, families are simply WEDDING Tradition and with our God-given Reason. We really do failing to form. Anecdotal evidence from a few German young families believe in one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. We reveals strangers lecturing parents with more than two children about their are joyfully loyal to the Magisterium. We proudly celebrate ‘anti-social’ tendencies; having a family in Germany is decidedly not ‘cool.’ our literary and artistic heritage and seek to live and teach Today, we see these cultural forces -- ideology, conformism and materialism the authentic Faith. -- at play once again in Germany’s Catholics. According to the German bishops’ own statistics, the Catholic Church is Germany is in imminent Today we place REGINA under the patronage of Our danger -- Catholics are leaving in droves and the vast majority of those who Lady, Mary Most Holy. We pray that she lays our humble remain in the Church do not attend Mass. (For more about why people are leaving, see here.) work at the feet of her Son, and that His Will be done. Mass-goers are inevitably over age seventy; they sit passively while gray- There is no charge for REGINA. Inquiries should be haired priests harangue them about politics. (Afterwards, when asked about directed to “Regina Magazine” on Facebook or the Editor the content of the homily, most will shrug merrily and admit they were not 78 at [email protected]. paying attention. At all.) Younger people will only darken the door of a The German Post-War Catholic Avant-Garde Church for the rare family wedding, first Holy Communion or . There is a German word that has found its way into English -- ‘ersatz’ Funerals in this aging country are so common, however, that priests in meaning something used as a substitute for the real thing. Here, in the some dioceses can’t be spared for them. Catholics are often cremated and homeland of ideology, there is a kind of ‘ersatz’ Arian catholicism which interred -- or their ashes spread over forest floors -- without benefit of is firmly in control of the Catholic Church’s multi-billion euro revenues. clergy. In many parishes, a once-a-month Requiem Mass is celebrated for anyone in the parish who has died; these are sparsely attended. In the 20th century, Germany has been ground zero for the ideology of Modernism. Post-World War II, an avant-garde of German theologians were pretty much responsible for pushing ill-defined liturgical and sartorial Fabulously Rich & Famously Liberal changes through the Second Vatican Council. Josef Ratzinger was among this group, though his later about-face earned him the everlasting enmity What’s going on? The Church in Germany is fabulously rich -- the of former friends in German church circles such as Karl Lehmann, beneficiary of a financial system which routes 9% of the income tax paid powerful Cardinal of Mainz and ‘free-thinking’ theologian Hans Kung. by Catholics into the Church’s coffers. (To be clear, if Catholics do not pay (In a presumably unrelated development, Dr Kung has just announced his this, they will not receive the Sacraments.) The German bishops live and intention to commit suicide to the world’s press.) act like CEOs, which of course they are -- as the Church employs 650,000 Germans, making it the second largest employer after the German , more than six times the size of Mercedes Benz. Modernist innovations have been zealously applied over the past few decades, not least in art and architecture. Tourists accustomed to the beauty The German Church is also famously liberal -- with bishops and theologians of English and French windows are often disappointed in regularly issuing public demands that Rome abandon its ‘out-dated’ ideas Germany. Ancient church windows bomb-blasted out were dutifully replaced and ‘get with by stained glass the program’ of of two varieties: modern times. To the dull and cheap outsiders, such or the ugly and arrogance may be expensive. As breathtaking, but for the medieval it is important to and understand the saints, they were context for this. stripped out of German churches and placed in The bishops’ diocesan museums, broadsides aimed where they can at Rome are be appreciated an attempt to by culturati -- as pander to the opposed to Mass- sensibilities of goers. the German elites and media. The German bishops Churches stripped do a tremendous bare of piety are amount of talking de facto evidence about helping those of iconoclasm less fortunate, (in German because that is the ‘bildersturm’ or ‘storm about single role that Altarpiece, Beuron Abbey, Germany most Germans will pictures’) which willingly accord fits nicely with the Church. On the ersatz matters of morals, they are expected to tow the secular line -- which they “catholicism’ propounded by today’s well-paid German theologians. It’s a do. kind of by another name -- they have pretty much decided that any intelligent person should be able to see that Jesus of Nazareth was nothing more than a particularly effective social reformer. In Germany, this Accustomed to luxurious prelates and the high politics of Church and is ‘normal’ Catholicism. State, ordinary German Catholics are blase about such verbal pyrotechnics. They know that for centuries ferocious power struggles between the State and Church -- not to mention between Protestants and Catholics -- have A Crippling Shortage of Priests cut a broad swathe of destruction across Germany’s tragic history. The diaspora of Germans across the New World, Eastern and Russia Predictably, a course of study about a nice guy in Jerusalem 2000 years ago have all resulted from the wars and famines induced by conflict. (So, if your draws few students; hence, Germany has few seminarians.This state of family came from Germany, this is probably why.) affairs has been the status quo for decades, and the priest shortage here is acute. Most German parishes must share; in some formerly Catholic areas there is only one priest for every 5-6 parishes. Clerics who rebel against Rome are old news, here. The shortfall is partly made up by priests ‘borrowed’ from poorer countries. Their paychecks are very much needed in their home diocese, and their lack of German language proficiency and vulnerable status insures that they will not rock the boat. (Any attempts to beg funds for their desperately On the Cover: poor folks back home are coldly rebuffed.) Church of St Paulinus This is not to say that Germany does not have some stellar priests. These Trier, Germany by Harry Stevens few, faithful men work very hard indeed, in a country where wearing a A Future for a Thoroughly Modern Church? Roman collar has not been ‘done’ for decades. (Those who dare risk hostile stares, if not outright aggression from Germans, in public.) They must If the real Faith does not prevail in Germany, most Germans now accept administer the Sacraments in parishes run by clueless laypeople who want that the State takeover of Church properties is inevitable, probably to serve coffee and cake during Mass, show Powerpoint presentations in within two decades. This will be because the nearly 650,000 employees lieu of homilies -- or indeed, during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Church cannot be sustained by 9% of the income tax paid by dead -- or stage children’s plays in the midst of the Mass. (We have personally Catholics. It’s a demographic cliff that is looming. witnessed each of these; the term ‘liturgical abuse’ is not known here.) Why is this country so important for Catholics outside Germany? In German laypeople are not wholly to blame, however, as the lack of basic short, because its wealth makes it politically powerful; it remains the catechesis is everywhere evident. Almost no one goes to Confession. driving economic force of the European Union. Influence accompanies Few genuflect before entering pews in German churches. Most Catholics wealth, of course -- this is as true in the Vatican as it is in Congress, have no clue about the Real Presence in the Tabernacle, which is often Parliament or the Bundestag. a strangely-decorated box set oddly to one side of an elevated platform. But what of the future of Catholicism in a country with a declining Priests and layfolk alike in most parishes are loath to be quoted, too. population, no seminarians, disbelief in dogma -- which is openly This is because some Germans pay close -- and vocal -- attention to antagonistic to the Faith? Church matters, odd for a people who are such professed agnostics. In a notorious recent case, the Bishop of Limburg was publicly humiliated, ostensibly for lavish spending. In a astounding display of group-think, Thanks be to God, it is not as bleak as it seems. this scion of a famous noble family was painfully crucified in the media, and forced to step down. More than a few priests have privately confided This is because -- unknown to most ‘educated’ Germans today - that the Bishop’s crime did not involve money at all, but rather his efforts Catholicism formed their civilization, beginning with an English monk to instill orthodoxy in a diocese out of control. (The Limburg diocese has who found his way to Mainz in the 500s. And it continues today, with since been quietly dissolved.) brave German Catholics risking ostracism from both their culture and their Church in order to pass the Faith on. German Church Slaps a Stigma on the Latin Mass Our story begins with Boniface -- and “The Secret Catholic Insider Guide Clown Masses, ‘masses’ presided over by women, masses with liturgies to Germany” goes on to show how St. Peter’s Barque remains afloat in made up on the fly -- according to many Catholics, the Latin Mass is the the stormiest of ideological seas. one innovation that the power structure of the German Church is loath to permit. For a country that is avowedly uninterested in ecclesiastical Because even in Germany, the Faith will not die. matters, online articles about the Latin Mass draw an astonishing amount of ire from commenters who assert that they are ‘normal’ Catholics. Unsurprisingly, Catholics who attend the Latin Mass will often not discuss In Christ, this with their family or neighbors for fear of being ostracized. Beverly De Soto Wiesbaden, Germany Outsiders can be forgiven if they observe that this strange social stigma is March 2014 redolent of an earlier, nastier era when opposition to Nazi ideology was similarly dealt with. (For more about what happened to those who resisted the zeitgeist during Nazi times, see here.) Fascinatingly, this smear on the Mass of Ages seems to stem from an apparently invented connection with .

Who made this odd connection? What is its nature? Diligent investigations for any proven historical evidence for this have led us precisely nowhere. The most we’ve been able to uncover is a distaste for tradition and an almost complete lack of historical perspective rooted in the counter- culture movement of the 1960s, which period in Germany has now assumed a halo of righteousness.

The greying ‘68-er’ generation here -- university students in the pivotal year of 1968 -- continue to be revered for their ‘brave’ stance in opposing their parents’ Nazi past. Their tastes and ideas dominate everything in Germany; it may or may not be merely coincidental that their children are failing to form families. One thing is certain: the imminent passing of this 68-er generation will go unmarked by Last Rites, and they will not be mourned at Requiem Masses.

But it is possible that the stigma surrounding the Latin Mass is merely evidence of the Arian power structure’s terror of being supplanted. After all, there are only two forces which such a thoroughly modern Church has to fear: secularization (when the State grabs the Church’s assets) or the influence of the Faith, itself.

The real thing, that is. by Michael Durnan f you are German- Ispeaking or descend from German Boniface emigrants and you call your- self a ‘Chris- the English Monk tian,’ you owe The Life of a Brilliant Scholar this fact to Boniface, an Eng- lish monk who lived in the 8th Wynfrid entered the monastic life century. The first archbishop when he was around seven years of age, attracted by the monastic ideal of Mainz, Boniface is known and the opportunity for a first-class as the “Apostle to the Ger- education. The monks discerned his mans.” He also is the patron academic and intellectual ability, and he seemed destined for the life of a saint of Germany, and is cred- brilliant scholar. ited with conceiving the idea of the Christmas tree. He became a teacher of Latin gram- mar, wrote several treatises, and also composed Latin poetry. Eventu- St. Boniface was born in the year 675 ally, Wynfrid’s talent was rewarded AD in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom when he was made head of the ab- of Wessex, and given the baptismal bey school. Wynfrid’s reputation as name Wynfrid. Wessex occupied the an outstanding teacher and scholar, far west and south of modern-day coupled with his personal popular- England. By the seventh century, St. ity amongst his students, meant that and Lindis- many travelled great distances for farne monks St. Aidan and St. Cuth- the chance to study under his tute- bert had converted the Anglo-Saxons lage. to . Wynfrid was to be one of the beneficiaries of this flowering of Bonifazius by Martin Bahmann / CC BY-SA-3.0 At about the age of thirty, Wynfrid early Christian culture and learning. was ordained priest. Although he loved teaching his young students, The Anglo-Saxons were a Germanic warrior people who arrived from he also felt called to travel as a mis- Northern Europe after the Romans left Britannia in 410 AD. Christianity sionary amongst the pagan German- transformed them by calming and pacifying the wilder aspects of their pa- ic tribes of mainland Europe and to gan culture, and by appealing to their noble and virtuous qualities. Culture bring them the light of Christ, mind- and learning flourished in Christian Anglo-Saxon England under the guid- ful that only 100 years earlier his ance and patronage of the newly converted Christian kings and the monks forebears had lived in pagan dark- of Lindisfarne and Jarrow. ness.

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In 716 AD Abbot Winbert granted him permission to With his tireless efforts, persistence, and gift for organ- travel, and he set forth to Frisia in the . isation, Boniface achieved remarkable results converting Upon his arrival he met with great opposition from the the pagans he encountered. The rewarded Boniface local chieftain, so his mission to bring the Gospel of by consecrating him a regional bishop of the entire Ger- Christ failed. He returned to Wessex, but did not lose manic lands. heart. He continued his apostolic efforts with the same dedica- What the Pope Told Boniface tion and commitment, and extended his mission to the land of the Gauls. Pope Gregory II’s successor, Gregory III, appointed him Archbishop of all the Germanic Two years later he made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he Tribes. Archbishop Boniface also founded abbeys for had an audience with Pope Gregory II (715 – 731). monks and to be beacons of learning and culture throughout the Germanic lands, as they had in his native In a letter to his disciples, Wynfrid wrote that Pope Anglo-Saxon England. The Monastery of Fulda, founded Gregory had received him with “a smile and look of full in 743 AD, was the heart and epicentre of outreach for of kindliness,” and had held long, important conversa- religious spirituality and culture. tions with him during the following days, conferring upon him his new name, Boniface, and assigning him, in official letters the mission of preaching the Gospel to the The Death of Boniface German peoples. At the age of about 80, with 52 monks, Boniface wrote to Encouraged, inspired, and comforted by the Pope’s sup- Bishop Lull of Mainz, as he set forth to renew his failed port and wise counsel, Boniface journeyed to the Ger- mission to Frisia: manic lands, preaching and campaigning against pagan worship and practices, such as human sacrifice to the “I wish to bring to a conclusion the purpose of this jour- Norse gods, Odin and Thor, as well as teaching and rein- ney; in no way can I renounce my desire to set out. The forcing the foundations of Christian morality and ethics. day of my end is near and the time of my death is ap- proaching; having shed my mortal body, I shall rise to When Archbishop Boniface returned to Germany from the eternal reward. May you, my dear son, ceaselessly Rome, for Christmas 723, he discovered the Germans call the people from the maze of error, complete the had turned back to their pagan ways and were getting building of the Basilica of Fulda that has already been ready to celebrate the winter solstice by sacrificing a begun, and in it lay my body, worn out by the long years young person under Odin’s sacred oak. Archbishop Bon- of life.” iface felled the oak, thus demonstrating the victory of Christianity over the pagan gods. This historically docu- On 5 June 754 AD, Boniface started the celebration of mented story eventually gave rise to the legend of the Mass in a place called Dokkum in the present-day Neth- first Christmas tree. According to the legend, St. Boni- erlands, when a gang of pagans attacked him. Forbid- face replaced the felled oak with a spruce he found grow- ding his fellow monks to retaliate, he exclaimed: ing amidst the tangle of oak branches. “Cease, my sons, from fighting, give up warfare, for the ‘We Are Not Mute Dogs’ witness of Scripture recommends that we do not give an eye for an eye but rather good for evil. Here is the long awaited day, the time of our end has now come; courage With a profound sense of duty and commitment, Boni- in the Lord!” face wrote in one of his letters, These were his last words before his assailants struck “We are united in the fight on The Lord’s day because him down. days of affliction and wretchedness have come….We are not mute dogs or taciturn observers or mercenaries flee- His remains were taken to the Monastery of Fulda, ing from wolves! On the contrary, we are diligent pastors where he was given a burial fitting for a and who watch over Christ’s flock, who proclaim God’s will saint. Since then, St. Boniface has been known as “The to the leaders and ordinary folk, to the rich and the poor, Apostle to The Germans.” in season and out of season.”

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 7 hen the mists covering that faraway Wtime blow aside for an instant, we get a tantalizing glimpse of life in the ‘dark A Story ages,’ when Walburga was born into a royal family of saints. from the Daughter of St. Richard, King of Wessex, and his wife, Queen Winna (sister of St. Boniface), Princess Walburga, along with Dark Ages her uncle and two brothers, Willibald and Winnebald, made enormous contributions to the conversion of the Germanic peoples The English Princess Who to Christianity in the eighth century AD. On departing Wessex for Rome on a pilgrimage, King Converted The Germans Richard entrusted his 11-year-old daughter to the care by Michael Durnan of the abbess of Wimborne, whilst he journeyed to Rome with Walburga’s two brothers. After her first year in the abbey, Walburga received the devastating news of In 776 AD, Walburga fell ill and Willibald assisted her father’s death in Lucca, Italy. her in her last moments. She was buried next to her deceased brother, St. Winibald, and many wonders and The abbey nuns educated Walburga, and she later miracles were wrought at both tombs. St. Willibald lived joined the community as a sister. During the twenty-six another ten years. After his death, devotion to Walburga years Walburga lived in the abbey, her uncle, Boniface, declined and her tomb was neglected. was engaged in his great mission to convert the pagan Germanic tribes. (For more about St Boniface, see here.)

Such was the magnitude of this undertaking that St. Boniface realised the long-term success of his mission would require as much help and support as he could muster. Boniface was one of the first missionaries to call women to missionary work, and Walburga, along with a large group of nuns, was sent from Wessex to assist him.

On the sea voyage to the continent the weather the ship was caught in a fierce storm. Walburga knelt down on the deck and prayed for the storm to end, and for the KLOSTER OF SAINT WALBURGA TODAY in Eichstadt, where she safe passage of the ship. At once the storm abated and is the Patroness. the sea became calm. On disembarking, the sailors In 870 AD, Oktar, Bishop of Eichstadt, set out to restore proclaimed they had witnessed a miracle. As a result, her tomb and the monastery where she was buried. Walburga was received with joy and veneration. Whilst the restoration work was being undertaken, workmen desecrated her tomb. She appeared one night Upon arriving in Mainz, she was welcomed by her to the bishop, reproaching him. This episode led to the uncle, Boniface, and her brother, Willibald. She then translation of her remains to Eichstadt, where they were departed to Wurttemburg and Franconia to assist in the placed in the Church of the Holy Cross, now renamed conversion of the Germans. after her.

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Meister von Meßkirch (1500–1543) In 893 her tomb was opened to extract relics and it was found that her remains were immersed in precious oil that since then has continued to flow. Portions of her relics have been taken to Cologne and Antwerp, as well as to places.

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Heidenheim am Hahhenkahm: Of the nuns there, mid-19th century French apologist and writer Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam wrote in his Etudes Germaniques (‘Germanic Studies’): “Silence and humil- ity have veiled the labours of the nuns from the eyes of the world, but history has assigned them their place at the very beginning of German civilization: Providence has placed women at every cradle side.”[i]

In the Roman her feast is listed as 1 May, and in Germany the previous evening is known as Walpurgis Night. Because Walburga was canonized on 1 May (ca. 870), she became associated with May Day festivities, especially in the Finnish and Swedish calendars.

Patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Groningen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, sailors also invoke St Walburga’s intercession against storms.

[i] Quoted in The Catholic Encyclopaedia, New Advent: 1917

Editor’s Note: Michael Durnan’s home, Preston, Lancashire, in northwest England, boasts a beautiful Catholic Church dating from the 19th century, dedicated to the Saint as patroness.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 9 Photo: Matthias Zepper, Creative Commons BY SA

Catholic Saint

Hildegard the Polymathby Ed Masters In the year of Our Lord 1098, Hildegard was born of noble parents in Bockelheim on the Nahe river in southwestern Germany. She grew up to become a polymath —a prophetess, writer, composer, philosopher, abbess, and visionary – famous as “the Sybil of the Rhine.”

ildegard would have been a remarkable woman me. Frequently, in my conversation, I would relate future in any day or age.Tradition has it that Hildegard things, which I saw as if present, but, noting the amazement was the youngest of ten children born to Mechtilde of my listeners, I became more reticent.” (Matilda) and Hildebert; she was weak and prone to illness. St. Hildegard’s parents were interested Hildegard had little formal education: She learned the Psalter in worldly affairs, yet they entrusted their eight- in Latin but never mastered the Latin language. Nevertheless, year-old daughter to the monastery of Mount Saint Disibode, following God’s command, she wrote down everything she was Hunder the care of a relative, Jutta -- a holy, devout and sister shown in her visions. Hildegard herself described it thus: to Count Stephen II of Spanheim. And it came to pass…when I was 42 years and 7 months old, From an early age Hildegard experienced visions: that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my “Up to my fifteenth year I saw much, and related some of the whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming… things seen to others, who would inquire with astonishment, and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the whence such things might come. I also wondered and during books… my sickness I asked one of my nurses whether she also saw similar things. When she answered no, a great fear befell

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Feeling unworthy and unqualified for such a task, she was reticent the last of these works when she was in her 70s. about God’s command, and wrote: Hildegard also had some interesting observations about the But although I heard and saw these things, because of doubt and earth and the universe regarding its elements and function.In low opinion of myself and because of diverse sayings of men, I the interior of the earth, she believed, are two vast spaces shaped refused for a long time a call to write, not out of stubbornness like truncated cones, where punishment was endured, and from but out of humility, until weighed down by a scourge of God, I fell whence great evil came forth. She thought the earth itself was onto a bed of sickness. composed of the four elements that are represented as being curiously unequal in proportion and shape. Their arrangement, Hildegard knew her visions were of Divine origin, but she yearned she believed, is not orderly, and this very disorder illustrates one for them to be approved by the Church. Beset by this dilemma, she of Hildegard’s fundamental doctrines regarding the relation of wrote to St. , who notified Pope Eugene III this world to the universe: Before man’s fall, the elements were (1145-1153) of the situation. The Pontiff encouraged her to the task united in an harmonious combination, and earth was paradise; God commanded. Knowing she now had papal approval, after that catastrophe, the harmony of the universe was the immediate result of her first recorded visions was her disturbed, with the center of all the trouble on this planet book (‘Know the Ways of the Lord’) and her fame which has ever since remained in its now familiar state of spread throughout Europe. chaotic confusion or mistio, as Hildegard’s age called it.

Hildegard the Abbess

After Jutta’s death in 1136, Hildegard became the The Real Hildegard superior of the convent that had grown up around the anchorage where people devoted themselves Hildegard had no use for schismatics and heretics to a solitary life of penance and prayer. As this such as the Cathars, who thrived in southern France convent grew in numbers Hildegard decided to go and northern Italy at the time. She preached against elsewhere, encouraged by a Divine command. She them her entire life, rebuking them severely. settled in Rupertsburg near Bingen on the left bank of the Rhine. Hildegard, like her friend St. Bernard of Clairvaux, also supported the Second Crusade. When Philip of Having been granted permission by Count Bernard Flanders arrived in the Holy Land in 1176 AD to lend of Hildesheim, she stayed in her new home with support to the and the leper eighteen sisters from 1150, until she founded another King Baldwin IV, he was supported by Hildegard’s convent in 1165 at Eibingen on the right side of the mandate: “If the time shall come when the infidels Rhine. During these years, she was privileged to seek to destroy the fountain of faith, then fight them meet with the Emperor Frederick and to correspond as hard as, with God’s help, you may be able to do.” with Eugene III, Anastasius IV, Adrian IV, and Alexander III, as well as the Emperors Conrad In what was to be her final year of her earthly sojourn III and Fredrick I. Hildegard was forced to go through a grim test. In a cemetery next to her convent, an excommunicated Luminaries as well common people asked young man had been buried. The Church authorities Hildegard for advice, Biblical interpretations, in Mainz demanded that she remove his body, and explanations of the divine mysteries. She which she refused to do, because the young man had made predictions for the -- received the Last Rites and had been reconciled to the which he confirmed came to pass -- as well as Church. Her convent was placed under interdict by predictions for the future that have yet to be Christian Buch, Bishop of Mainz. After notifying fulfilled. Rome of her predicament, she was successful at having the unjust interdict removed. She died a Against Abuses of the Clergy peaceful, holy death in 1179 AD.

Of interest to modern-day Germans, Hildegard strongly Hildegard Today condemned venal priests and prelates for their luxurious lifestyles, sexual immorality, and other abuses. On one There has been a renewal of interest in Hildegard’s life in recent occasion a prior asked her to pray for him as he was praying years, especially after her fellow countryman, Pope Benedict for her; Hildegard chided him for having a pagan outlook on XVI, made her a in 2012. (Editor’s Note: prayer. Hildegard also left many written works and a number Unfortunately, various New Age groups within and outside of of prophecies about the future of the Church and of Europe that Catholicism have hijacked some of that interest. No doubt St. have yet to come to pass. Hildegard would have had as much use for them as she had for the Cathars.) She wrote a variety of musical compositions for use in the liturgy; the musical morality play ; sermons, which Hildegard was beatified by Pope John XXII on August 26, 1326 and she preached in the and 1170s; two volumes on natural formally canonized after almost seven centuries by Pope Benedict medicines and cures, Physica and Causaeet Curae, (including XVI. a cure for the then-dread disease of leprosy). In addition, she invented a language called “”; wrote a Gospel commentary and two works of hagiography; in addition to ABOVE PHOTO: Relic of St Hildegard in Liber Vitae Meritorum (‘The Book of Life’s Rewards’) and Liber Madonna statue, Abbey of St. Hildegard Divonorum Operum (‘Book of Divine Works’). She completed Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 11 PD-US Eyewitness to Death

Edith later entered to a nursing program, though, and soon found herself in an Austrian field hospital in the midst of the typhus epidemic of the First World War. She assisted in an operating theater and witnessed young people dying. It was too much for her.

Even before the war ended, she fled the battlefield, following Husserl to the University at Freiburg, and in 1917 gaining her summa cum laude on “The Problem of .” In her dissertation she wrote: “There have been people who believed that a sudden change had occurred within them and that this was a result of God’s grace.”

At the Frankfurt Cathedral one day, Edith was astounded to see a simple woman with a shopping basket kneel for a brief prayer. “This was something totally new to me,” she wrote. “In the synagogues and Protestant churches I had visited people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation. It was something I never forgot.”

Converting to Catholicism

The next step to her conversion came when Edith visited her In the Footsteps of friend Mrs. Reinach, a young, grieving war widow. “This was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it ... it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me - Saint Edith Stein Christ in the mystery of the Cross.”

Though she had a doctorate, Edith was not permitted to teach She was an intellectual German at the university level because she was a woman. Years later, Jew and a Carmelite nun. She was when women were professors, she was denied because she was a Jew. With no employment options, she returned to home murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. to Breslau, where in the next few months she read the New Today, she is a Catholic saint. But who Testament, Kierkegaard and ’s Spiritual Exercises. In the summer of 1921, Edith happened upon the was this astounding woman, really? autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. She stayed up all night reading.

by Beverly De Soto “When I had finished the book, I said to myself: This is the truth,” she wrote. On January 1, 1922, at age 31, Edith Stein he story of Edith Stein begins on Yom Kippur, was baptized. She spent a great deal of time at remote Beuron the Day of Atonement, 1891 when she was born Abbey, studying under the tutelage of the Benedictine Abbot the youngest of eleven children of a Jewish there. Later, she was confirmed by the Bishop of Speyer in timber merchant in Breslau, Germany. By the his private chapel and for almost ten years afterwards she time she was two her father died, leaving her taught German and history at the Dominican Sisters’ college devout, hard-working mother to struggle alone. in Speyer. In 1932, she lectured under Catholic auspices at the The prevailing secularism in German intellectual culture in University of Munster. Tthe early 20th Century, however, meant that the young Edith and her siblings would lose their mother’s faith in God. Though she wanted to join a Carmelite convent, the Bishop dissuaded her. “During the time immediately before and At the age of 14 “I consciously decided, of my own volition, to quite some time after my conversion I ... thought that leading give up praying,” Edith wrote, years later. Later, as a brilliant a religious life meant giving up all earthly things and having university student and a radical suffragette with a keen interest one’s mind fixed on divine things only. Gradually, however, in philosophy, Edith studied at Gottingen University under I learned that other things are expected of us in this world... the renowned Professor . Husserl denied I even believe that the deeper someone is drawn to God, the Kant’s assertion that all reality is subjective; his view had the more he has to `get beyond himself’ in this sense, that is, go unintended effect of leading many of his pupils to Christianity. into the world and carry divine life into it.”

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High Altar at the Benedictine Abbey at Beuron, where Edith Stein took instruction from the Abbot in the 1920s photo by Harry Stevens Stein was a prolific translator and writer. She translated the in the Netherlands. There, Edith wrote “The Church’s Teacher letters and diaries of Cardinal Newman from his pre-Catholic of and the Father of the , John of the period as well as the Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate of St Cross, on the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of His Birth, . She wrote Potency and Act, a study of the 1542-1942.” central concepts developed by Aquinas. Arrested by the In 1933, Hitler came to power. The Nazis made it impossible for Edith to continue teaching. “I had heard of severe measures Edith Stein was arrested by the Gestapo on August 2, 1942, against before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid while in the chapel with the sisters. She was given five minutes his hand heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these to leave, together with her sister Rosa, another nun. Her last people would also be mine,” she wrote. “If I can’t go on here, words there were addressed to Rosa: “Come, we are going for then there are no longer any opportunities for me in Germany. our people.” I had become a stranger in the world.” Their arrest – along with other Jewish Christians -- was a Entering Carmel Nazi act of retaliation against a letter of protest by the Dutch Catholic Bishops on the pogroms and deportations of Jews. On She resolved to enter the Carmelite Convent in Cologne. In August 7, 1942, early in the morning, 987 Jews were deported 1938 Edith Stein, now known as Sister Teresa, Blessed of the to Auschwitz. Records indicate that it was probably on August Cross wrote: “I understood the cross as the destiny of God’s 9 that Edith and Rosa were gassed to death. people, which was beginning to be apparent at the time (1933). I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take The Miracle for Her it upon themselves on everybody’s behalf. Of course, I know better now what it means to be wedded to the Lord in the sign of the cross. However, one can never comprehend it, because it is a mystery.”

“Those who join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone,” she wrote on October 31, 1938. “I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is great comfort.”

Photo by p. schmelzle / CC BY-SA 3.0

RELIQUARY OF SAINT EDITH STEIN

The miracle which was the basis for her canonization was the cure of Teresa Benedicta McCarthy, a little girl who had swallowed a large amount of acetaminophen which causes hepatic necrosis. Her father, Reverend Emmanuel Charles Mc Carthy, a priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and her entire family prayed for Stein’s intercession. Shortly thereafter the nurses in the intensive care unit saw her sit up completely healthy. Dr. Ronald Kleinman, a pediatric specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who treated Teresa Benedicta, testified about her recovery to Church tribunals, stating “I was willing to say that it was miraculous.” Photo by Siehe Lizenz / CC BY-SA 3.0 MEMORIAL PLAQUE TO EDITH STEIN IN COLOGNE, GERMANY on the Saint Edith Stein was beatified in Cologne in 1987 and canonized occasion of her there. in 1998. Blessed Pope John Paul II said that the Church “bowed down before a daughter of Israel who, as a Catholic during Nazi persecution, remained faithful to the crucified Lord Jesus Ten days later, the violent persecution of German Jews went Christ and, as a Jew, to her people in loving faithfulness.” into overdrive, and Edith’s Prioress worked desperately to smuggle her across the border to a Carmelite Convent in Echt, page 14 www.reginamag.com Discover & Rediscover G.K. Chesterton

ere is something strange: A writer who takes the trouble to defend what is normal. 100 years ago he saw that civilization was Hstarting to fall apart because people were no longing desiring normal things. And what did he say those normal things were? Normal marriage, nor- mal ownership, normal worship, and a normal appreciation of life itself. He saw the broken world that we now live in. He saw the coming chaos in education, economics, politics, art, and religion. But he did not just see the problems; he saw the solutions. He was one of the most important writers of his own time, but he may also be one of the most important writers of our time. He may be one of the greatest of modern prophets. He may be a saint. We need G.K. Chesterton’s profound insight and refresh-

Photo by p. schmelzle / CC BY-SA 3.0 ing common sense today. Join the American Chesterton Society. Members receive 8 issues of Gilbert, the best magazine in the world, and a 20% discount on the marvelous books and merchandise available from the American Chesterton Society.        

 

 







 “The American Chesterton Society exists, believe it or not, to make known to Americans the .  . work of Chesterton, who is one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived.”     —Dr. , author of Socrates Meets Jesus 4117 Pebblebrook Circle Minneapolis, MN 55437 “How would Christ solve modern problems if He were on earth today? For those of (800) 831-3096 [email protected] my faith there is only one answer. Christ is on earth today; alive on a thousand altars.” www.chesterton.org —G.K. Chesterton

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 15 ZITA Catholic Empress in Exile by Meghan Ferrara

of all the Austro-Hungarian 2014 marks 100 years since the beginning of the Great territories. By the end of the War, which tore European civilization asunder in ways that “War to End All Wars,” they we are only now beginning to grasp. In this look back at would be deposed from the Imperial throne, and exiled that turbulent era, Meghan Ferrara turns the spotlight on from Austria. an enduring Catholic marriage, which just happened to take place at the pinnacle of European society -- on the Their reign, though brief, and their legacy would ancient Throne of the Holy Roman Empire. make an indelible mark on modern history. Their deep n their wedding photos, they are so young, in commitment to the Faith manifested itself in all areas those far-off days before ripped of their lives. Today, both Charles and Zita are in the into their lives. She, in particular, is luminous. process of canonization – a rare and remarkable feat in It is difficult to believe, observing the smile of modern times. the joyful bride, that she and her husband were destined to be at the center of one of the major conflicts of the twentieth century. From a very young age, both Charles and Zita held I great reverence for the Faith. Attending daily Mass and receiving the Sacraments on a regular basis were In the midst of World War I -- which Pope Benedict XV established routines in both Charles’s and Zita’s failed to prevent despite all his efforts -- and through childhoods; they continued this practice with their own a series of extraordinary events, Charles and Zita von children. In addition, they both developed a special Hapsburg ascended the Imperial throne of Austria- devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Hungary. Upon the death of Emperor Franz-Joseph in Heart of Mary, and the Eucharist. November 1916, they became Emperor and Empress

page 16 www.reginamag.com TheThe SaintsSaints

An integral part of Charles and Zita’s Catholic education As a soldier, Charles witnessed firsthand the devastation was a keen awareness of the weakest and most vulnerable caused by the war. When he ascended the throne, his of society and the desire to help them. They each donated most ardent desire was for peace, earning him the money, clothes and other necessities to those in need. nickname, “the peace emperor.” However, there were Despite their royal rank, the Faith taught Charles and few who shared Charles’ vision, and this isolation cost Zita to maintain a servant’s heart towards those less him dearly. His advisers blocked his efforts and even, fortunate. in some cases, betrayed him. In addition to his quest to end the war, Charles, inspired by the papal encyclical Princess Zita of Bourbon- Rerum Novarum, put into Parma was born Zita practice many innovative Maria delle Grazie social reforms to help his Adelgonda Micaela people, such as social security Raffaela Gabriella and social welfare systems. Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese on May 9, Zita worked in tandem with 1892 in Parma, Italy. She her husband, frequently first met Charles when visiting nursing homes and they were children, and hospitals, volunteering for the they played together Red Cross and traveling with quite happily. Their him when possible. As rulers, friendship quickly the imperial couple always put rekindled when they met service to their people above again as young adults. everything else, in accordance While the marriage was with their coronation oaths dynastic, their union was and the principle of Catholic also a true love match. kingship. This adherence to Charles and Zita were service endured long after their devoted to each other exile following the war and and they continued remains an important aspect to support and love of the family’s life today. each other despite the difficulties they faced. Charles died in exile on the island of Madeira in 1922. For Charles and Zita, Shortly before his death, their marriage was Charles promised Zita, “We a sacramental union will always be together in the By the end of that War, Charles and Zita would blessed by God with Sacred Heart of Jesus.” be deposed from the Imperial throne, and special graces. The day exiled from Austria. Their reign, though brief, before their wedding, The last words Charles ever and their legacy would make an indelible Charles remarked to Zita, spoke were, “Jesus, my Jesus,” “Now we must help each mark on modern history. as he kissed his crucifix. other to reach heaven.” The courage that Charles demonstrated in accepting This observation formed the basis for their marriage his death and that Zita displayed in assuming a future and family life, as they raised their eight children with without her husband reflected their profound trust in the same love of Christ and the Catholic Church that God’s providence. Even when faced with widowhood, they shared. When their eldest son, Otto, received his the education of her children and the protection of the First Communion, Charles dedicated his family to the Hapsburg legacy, the empress never wavered in her Sacred Heart of Jesus. Often, Charles and Zita taught confidence in Christ. Zita remained devoted to her family, the children their Catechism lessons personally and Zita her people and her Faith for rest of her life. continued this tradition with their grandchildren. Zita lived to be almost 100 years old; she died on 14 Charles followed Catholic teaching in all areas of his life, March 1989. Today, the Cause for Canonization of including his political activities. Though he had been well Blessed Emperor Charles and Servant of God Empress prepared for the Imperial throne, Charles’s political life Zita of Austria is only the next stage in the was fraught with extreme difficulties and danger. journey of this holy couple.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 17 Bavaria On Wandering in a Catholic Landscape

St. Bartholomew’s Church, Berchtesgaden / KonigSee Monastery by Matei Domnita / CC By 2.0

he German word for hiking is ‘wandern,’ of dark and thorny wildness, but in Bavaria one which brings to mind the cheerful act does not encounter such trials. Bavarian land is of wandering and the serendipity of blessed with gentle slopes, curving streams, and discovery. Pope Benedict has called his a verdant glow of health. native Bavaria “a land so beautiful that Tit is easy to recognize The Bavarians, over that God is good and the eons, have fitted be happy.” To wander themselves into this in such a lovely, well- by Tamara Isabell benevolent order and ordered landscape is story photos by Migdalia Mass have developed the to inevitably encounter virtues to preserve God. and enhance the land. Villages are To think of a natural tucked discreetly into the landscape as “well- particular dales where ordered” might seem they ought to go, with strange to Americans, no urban sprawl. Artful as our forests loom forest management with a particular sort has rendered the

page 18 www.reginamag.com Beautiful, Catholic, Germany

What more perfect setting for Catholicism to flourish in? We know the Faith takes hold everywhere, but one gets the sense it is bound to happen in such a place where the material world so clearly reaches out for and testifies to, His glory.

We can imagine and his early encounters with the roving Germanic tribes in that land. Were the forests themselves a bit darker and more unruly in those pagan times? Nevertheless, woodland hospitable to humans and wild Boniface recognized it as a land which wanted creatures alike. Everywhere one sees evidence only a bit of industriousness on the part of man of man having been inspired by God’s bountiful in service of God to perfect it. So he took out Providence, and his respect and deference to his axe, hewing oaks into churches, allowing the that Providence. grace of God to hew pagans into Christians.

And the fruits of their efforts have endured.

Today’s Bavarians are the heirs of this Catholic landscape, created by God but embellished by the devout sweat of their ancestors. One can hardly round a bend in a Bavarian road without finding a roadside chapel, a crucifix, or a statue honoring Our Lady or a saint.

page 19 Religious murals adorning Bavaria’s charming Fachwerk architecture. The world-famous Passion Play in Oberammergau has been running steadily for almost 400 years, with every sign of running for the next 400, as well. Annual festivals continuously revolve around harvest and religious events with an almost liturgical rhythm, celebrating everything from the humble asparagus to regional wines with a distinctly Christian joy for the simple and natural.

Whereas the Deutsche Bischofskonference reports a falling away from the Church in Germany as a whole (Editor’s Note: Today, under 30% of Germans identify themselves as “Catholic” – see here for the reasons) Bavaria maintains a strong 55%. This is because the region is so tied to the Catholicism of its forefathers that it is impossible to imagine that bond ever being completely undone. The Bavarians won’t stop calling themselves Catholic any more than they will stop calling themselves Bavarian, and for the same reason: it is their honorable and historical identity. To be Bavarian is to be Catholic, and both qualities spring from the same soil.

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Just as God allows the fallen- away Catholic to stray a bit before calling him back to that which he has forgotten, the Bavarian will always be summoned by a rediscovery of the natural beauty all around him. The patterns of life that have been built into that natural order form a rhythm that harkens to God.

In a land so reflective of God’s own beauty, one can only wander so far. All Bavarian paths wind their way back to their Creator -- and the wanderer joyfully discovers that He is good.

The fierce independence of the Bavarian is connected to the cycles of his natural environment, and his Catholicism is a product and a reflection of that same environment. Although Europe’s postmodern secularism has infected Germany as a whole, it has not and will not gain the same ground in Bavaria.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 21 The Second Rome Christian Trier in Germany by Christoph Pitsch

rier is an ancient German city The Real near the Luxembourg and French History of Trier borders. At the 2002 inauguration Mass of then-Bishop Marx at How much of Trier,* Bishop Kamphaus of this is true? In LimburgT brought something special with him fact, according – ‘the crozier of St. Peter.’ The metropolitan to the medieval Archbishop of Cologne ceremonially presented episcopal lists, this to Bishop Marx “as a visible symbol of the was the communion of the church of Trier to St. Peter actual first bishop and his successors.“ of Trier in the The Legend of ‘St. Peter’s 200s. Valerius is Crozier’ listed as the second. Maternus, who was the first bishop of Cologne (Roman ‘Colonnia’) is Of course, Peter lived hundreds mentioned as the third bishop of years before croziers became of Trier. But these sources also ecclesiastical paraphernalia, but state that there was Christian life the secret behind this crozier is in Trier before these three holy a fascinating bishops. legend about the According to this legend, Augusta foundation of St. Eucharius and St. the Church in Treverorum Trier (Roman Valerius, disciples of (Trier) was ‘Treverus’— St. Peter, together with founded in from which 30 BC as St. Maternus, left Rome an imperial the Christian to preach the Gospel name ‘Trevor’ residence of comes). north of the Alps. Other the Roman legends say they were Emperor and capital of Upon reaching sent as priest, deacon and the province present- subdeacon respectively. of Gallia day - Belgica. It Lorraine, was the most Maternus died from exhaustion. important city north the Alps; Eucharius and Valerius, even today Trier is filled with discouraged, returned to Rome. buildings of amazing antiquity – There, St. Peter gave them Roman baths, arenas, even wine his crosier and sent them to warehouses that date back to Maternus again, where they ancient Roman times. (Editor’s Built on the Foundations resurrected him using St. Peter’s Note: One of Germany’s best- crosier. Then, Eucharius and kept secrets is the unbelievable of Saint Helena’s Palace Valerius proceeded to Trier to scope and breadth of ancient found a Christian community Roman ruins at Trier -- Trier’s ancient Cathedral and Maternus did the same in unrivaled anywhere in Europe Cologne. besides Rome itself.) stands next to the Church of Our Lady

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Trier was also the site of one of the most notorious a beautiful Gothic church in the shape of a rose, dedicated slaughterings of Christians, when during the persecutions to Our Lady -- the oldest Gothic church in Germany. of Emperor Diocletian the Trier governor Rictiovarus carried out the atrocities. When soldiers of his own The Benedictine Abbey of St Matthias at Trier houses Roman Legion refused to renounce Christ, they were the only remains of an Apostle north of the Alps. The put to death by the sword on the Roman bridge over the Abbey itself was built on land belonging to a Roman Moselle River, which still stands. Senator from Trier. In recent decades, a stupendous archaeological find Local legends say there revealed the the Moselle ‘ran bones of hundreds red with the blood of Christians of the ’ surrounding a Roman for miles -- and sarcophagus buried that Christians deep under the Abbey downstream grounds for many collected the centuries. remains and buried them. These St Helena and the remains are today Holy Robe under the churches of St. Paulinus, St. Legend has it that Maximian and St Helena found the Matthias. (In 1990, Cross and the Robe excavations for the of Christ during regional museum her pilgrimage to uncovered the Jerusalem. She was a remains of 1300 at lady much advanced the church of St. in years when she Maxmian -- now visited the Holy Land, in State hands -- and both the Church alone.) of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Early Christian Church of the Nativity Trier in Bethlehem were built on Helena’s After the orders. promulgation of the Edict of Milan Today the Holy Robe under emperor (“Heilige Rock’) of Constantine, Christ is kept in the Christianity was no Cathedral of Trier longer illegal. By – one of the most then, Constantine’s important relics of mother, Helena, our Lord. had retired to Trier. (Some say she founded a convent ROMAN RUINS TOWER OVER HUMAN SCALE showing the grandeur there.) Then came of Imperial Rome in Trier more than 2000 years later. the so-called ‘Constantinian Shift,’ when the Empire became Christian.

So, where to build the first Christian basilica on German Why do Catholics venerate soil? Literally, on the foundations of the palace of St. relics? Helena. See Here: Holy or Macabre? Relics and From this ancient basilica the present double – church complex of the ‘Cathedral’ (in Latin, ‘seat’) of the Bishop Incorrupt Saints of Trier developed. Today, the Roman basilica sits beside

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 23 Beautiful, Catholic, Germany

ROMAN RUINS the most extensive in Europe, north of the Alps at Trier, Germany.

Trier in the Center of the Storm he was exiled from Trier to Turkey, The Second Rome where he died. This was a time of stormy We can see that the Church of Trier church-political and theological What role did Trier play? After the played a very important role in controversies. A man named Arius in council, in which the teachings of defending and preaching the Faith Egypt preached that the Son of God Arius were rejected and the Nicene in history – literally a second Rome. did not always exist, but was created Creed agreed upon by the bishops, The immense ruins of the ancient by – and is therefore distinct from Athanasius fell into disfavor with Roman civilization surround us at – God the Father. This was the first Emperor Constantine and was Trier, and the literal handing-on of heresy to rock Christianity, which it banished to Trier, where Paulinus that civilization through the Faith did to its very roots. was the bishop. to us in the present day is apparent with every step through the old City. (Arianism is actually a debate we At the same time, another Church can see today as well, when people Father participated in the dispute All these Trier symbols, relics and ask ‘Is Jesus Christ ‘God’ or was he with Arius – the great of legends have one thing in common: simply a social reformer?’) Milan. He is known as the composer they demonstrate to the faithful of the Catholic hymn the Te Deum what our origins are. We in Trier This controversy assumed even and as the one who baptized St. were the first Christians on German greater dimensions and only finally Augustine. Another legend says that soil. This is our pride, and our ended in the First Council of Nicaea as Augustine was being baptized, he responsibility. (325 A.D.), from whence we get intoned the first line of this hymn the Nicene Creed which we recite and that Ambrose answered. Today (Editor’s Note: Marx is now at every Mass. Two of the leading the Te Deum is sung at the end of cardinal and archbishop of bishops against Arius were Father every year in every Catholic church and a member of the group of eight – one of in the world. cardinals advising Pope Francis.) the four Great Doctors of the church -- and Bishop Paulinus. St. Paulinus Ambrose was born in Trier, the son was at one time the only bishop who of a Roman prefect. would not conform to the rampant Arian heresy that swept through the Church. For his faithful witness,

page 24 www.reginamag.com REGINA Magazine readers:

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Gordon H. Broxton-Price Communications Translating & Interpreting Tel.: 0049-931-26454 E-mail: [email protected] www.price-uebersetzungen.de Germany’s Best Kept Catholic Secret Forget the scandal of the bishops. Ignore the empty churches. Look, instead, at the land itself, and the story of the Catholic Church in Germany will reveal itself to you.

bypage Beverly 26 De Soto www.reginamag.com hey are everywhere. Vineyards, stretching for miles – on scalloped Tterraces rising over the winding Moselle River, ranging across the wide-open spaces in Franconia and the , enveloping the mighty Rhine.

“How many of you were raised here?” I recently asked a class of German teens. Ninety percent of the 16 year-olds raised their hands. “Okay, so who created these vineyards?”

Stumping the German Students

I gestured out the window to the vines covering miles of gentle slopes down to the Rhine. The students exchanged glances, shrugging.

“The Romans?” ventured one brave boy whose family farms the vineyards here.

“Nope,” I said. “Let’s try this again. Who f The cut down the trees, hauled away the stumps and prepared all these kilometers of land to grow grapes? I’ll give you a hint. It happened way before electricity and the Vines combustion engine…” No idea.

“Who built the wine presses? Developed Could the science of wine-making? “ The class was stumped.

“It was the Church,” I told them finally, grinning. They looked at the priest whose Talk class I was teaching, utterly flummoxed. Could this be true?

“I can’t believe it,“ the observing German lay teacher was mildly embarrassed. “How can you not know this?” she asked them, shaking her head.

How can this be? The answer, of course, is that they haven’t been taught this. No one – I not their parents, nor the Catholic schools they attend -- apparently ever bothers to teach what is glaringly apparent.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 27 A Civilization Created by the Church Did the people felt any kinder towards the Hessian government? Nevertheless, facts are facts. Unbeknownst to them, these teenagers inhabit a civilization that was created by “Ach, they weren’t any better. You know those Hessian the Church. And it wasn’t just vines, or the wine-making. soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War?” The Church brought engineering, medicine, education he asked. “The ones who George Washington’s troops – all the blessings of civilization -- to Germany. And the murdered in their sleep on Christmas Eve after crossing Rheingau today is living proof of this. the Delaware?

This 20-mile stretch along the Rhine (‘gau’ is German “They were Rheingau farm boys, and they were forced for ‘coast’) is a landscape painstakingly carved out of off these vineyards – sold like cattle for money --to the wilderness by generations of monks. Ancient abbeys the British by the local princes to fight in their bloody crown the hilltops. Tiny chapels, still lovingly maintained wars in America. They never had a chance, those poor by anonymous hands, dot the hills. bastards. The lucky ones ran away from the Redcoats. They deserted, found work and wives and became World-famous Rieslings – a light white grape – were Americans.” created by the Church’s viniculture here, centuries before Martin Luther ever saw the light of day. The wall- And the Church didn’t raise its voice in protest against enclosed vineyard of Kloster Eberbach (the ‘Steinberg’) this outrage? is said to produce one of the most sought-after white wines in the world today. “The government was Protestant,” he shrugged. “Very easy to sell the Catholics’ sons to the Protestant British. All of this is the patient work of centuries. The And what could the Church do, anyway? Pray?” were the land-shapers, and their handiwork is visible everywhere. Where once only mosquito-infested An Unknown Past swamps thrived, streams flow merrily straight downhill between orderly rows of vines, into the Rhine. Why are the local Germans so ignorant of their own history? In addition to their impressive wine-making skills, the Benedictines celebrated the ancient liturgy. Carmelites “Because we are only taught about the 20th century,” were the contemplatives. Ursuline nuns taught the the innkeeper explained, shaking his head. “The terrible children. Here in the Rheingau, even the famously years. The hunger. World War I. The Nazi terror. World austere Jesuits kept vineyards. War II. The bombings. The death. And then the rebuilding, the great accomplishments of the generations after the But they are all gone, now, except for the Benedictine War. nuns in St. Hildegard’s Abbey. And all of this is unknown to the weekenders from Frankfurt for wine tastings, or to “We learn almost nothing of the years before the 20th the tourists who enjoy the Rhine river cruises. century. It is as if it never existed. Though, as you see, we live in the middle of it, surrounded by the physical Even the people of the Rheingau, justly proud of their evidence of a past that we barely know anything about. land, are in the dark about their own history. “We think we are so smart, we Germans. But we are Why is this? ignorant of who we are.”

Kidnapping Catholic Boys Germany’s best kept Catholic secret is the country’s own Catholic history. And therein lies, perhaps, the greatest “The Church was hated,” insisted one innkeeper with mystery of all to modern Germans. an amateur interest in local history. We were cozily ensconced in his Michelin-rated restaurant in a 16th And that is the question of who they actually are. century building. “They were rich, and lordly. The people were forced to tithe to them.”

page 28 www.reginamag.com regina eats!

What You Will Need Fantastic Flammkuchen! • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour plus more for handling It’s called a “tarte flambée” just across the French border, and like all deli- • 1/2 tsp salt • 1 package of yeast cious Catholic food, it originated in the kitchens of the ordinary people -- • 1 tbsp olive oil farmers from Alsace, Baden or the Palatinate. (Tarte flambée is French and • 1 cup crème fraiche* • 2 oz heavy cream Flammkuchen is German for “cake baked in the flames.”) • fine sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg to taste • 3 ounces finely chopped pancetta (or bacon or ham) Housewives used to bake bread once a week and use a tarte flambée to test • 3 red onions, finely sliced • Chives, chopped the heat of their wood-fired ovens. At peak temperature, the oven would be ideal to bake a tarte flambée, which would bake in the embers in minutes. For the Dough Add flour and salt to a large bowl, mix briefly and make a well in the center. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water, pour into the well and add Impress your friends with real European home cooking at its best – and the olive oil. this recipe makes two trays of flammkuchen, which you can devour hot or Knead well, either by hand or with a machine for 5 minutes (medium lukewarm. speed). The dough should come together nicely. (Too sticky? Add more flour until it cleans the sides of the bowl all by itself.) Serve with a crisp dry Riesling or a Grauburgunder (Pinot Grigio) and a Shape into a ball, cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for about 45 green salad. minutes at a warm and sheltered place. After the dough has risen, punch it down, divide it into 2 equally sized portions, shape them into neat balls and let them rise again under a kitchen towel for 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 480°F or as hot as your oven permits and place an oiled baking tray on the bottom level, so it gets preheated, too.

For the Topping Mix crème fraîche and heavy cream with spices (salt, pepper and nutmeg) to taste. Cut red onions into thin semi-rings. Chop the chives finely. Roll out the dough thinly, using extra flour to prevent sticking. Transfer to hot baking sheet. Spread crème fraîche mix on top, cover with pancetta/bacon/ham and sliced onions. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes. It should be golden-brown color. * No creme fraiche around? No worries. It’s really easy to make: Mix one cup heavy cream with two table- spoons buttermilk. Combine well in glass container and cover. Let stand at room temperature for 8-24 hours, or until thickened. Stir well and refrigerate. Use within 10 days.

Flammekueche by Lulu Durand / CC By 2.0 The high art of wood carving is everywhere in evidence in traditional German churches — inspired, many say, by the country’s vast forests. Sadly, in the 20th century — mostly in the years post-Vatican II – iconoclasm swept through the German Church. The Modernists’ Nightmare A New Renaissance in High Sacred Art

Interview by Donna Sue Berry Edited by Rosa Kaspar Photography by the Stuflesser family

In a spasm of runaway clericalism, many churches were denuded The Stuflessers create all their woodcarvings in their of their sacred art. Even today, this work is often sneered at by the workshops in Ortisei, Italy, German elites, though secretly beloved by the people. where they use raw materials of But even ideology and iconoclasm slowly die away. This interview the highest quality. Their work features altars and hand-carved by Donna Sue Berry is one clear sign of this salutary trend -- the statues in wood, bronze, and story of an Italian family business with German roots experiencing an marble. uptick in demand for their astonishingly beautiful work. Fifth-generation Stuflessers, fter 140 years and five generations, the Ferdinand brothers Filip and Dr.Dr. Stuflesser family continues to create exquisite Robert Stuflesser are prized by their customers Achurch restorations, believing that dignified art throughout the world for their state- of-the-art inspires praying. Their customers include the Vatican, as craftsmanship, assurance of superior quality, and their well as cathedrals and churches throughout the world. continuing dedication to improve.

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Robert, have you noticed a growing interest in statues Qfrom people looking for a more traditional decoration in their churches? Can you tell me what they are wanting? Yes, during these last years I have noticed that people are coming back to more traditional statues and interiors. Some like a more modern style, but the trend is going clearly towards a more traditional style. Some also like combining a modern architecture with traditional carvings. Have you built any Qtraditional altars lately? Yes, we had the opportunity to realize different altars during these last years. None of them was modern; they all were constructed in a traditional style. One of the high altars we realized was a copy of an altar destroyed during war. Its height was 27 feet and it was created for Vukovar, Croatia. Another altar was for Scotland, and it was actually a reconstruction of an altar we received from the Vatican. We also constructed one for a church in Burleson, Texas. Our long experience and knowledge passed on from generation to generation for approximately 140 years allows us to form our creations with all the ancient techniques used a century ago. Naturally, these techniques are refined with modern instruments. All projects are custom-made, which allows us to adapt each realization to the rest of the interior perfectly.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 31 “Ferdinand Stuflesser 1875” statues and also a high altar What is the most popular that was constructed and donated from our workshops. Qstatue that people want from Is there a ‘special’ project that you? Qyou are working on or that you would like to do in the future? This is difficult to tell, for we realize traditional and new At the moment we are working on an statues, but maybe the most interesting project. We are restoring requested statues are the a Gothic high altar, which we bought Christ figure, St. Joseph, some time ago. We are adapting it to the Our Lady in different specific needs of a church in Holland: The representations, as well existing parts will be completed by new as , parts to fill the space harmonically. (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta), St. Francis (of Assisi), and St. My dream for the future? A lot Antony (of Padua). of custom carvings of each sort, which will make a lot Your family of people happy and history is maybe one for Pope Q Francis. so interesting! Does your Do you family have Qhave a favourite a precious church that you go to? Have you carved treasure from the earlier generations the statuary there? carved by Ferdinand Stuflesser I or II or Johann Stuflesser? Since we all are living in Ortisei, where our workshops are located, our preferred church is our local parish Yes, there are some beautiful pieces that we all church. We are not far away from this very beautiful particularly love: A Pieta statue (above) a St. Ann figure church, which is full of carved art. Yes, there are some and a Christ figure. These are my favourites. Robert, if there is anything Qyou would like to add to these questions, please tell us. To add: I thank all the people who love our carvings and pray to them. I also want to say thank you to our precious Facebook followers who see so many of our new statues. To tell: I love to communicate with so many people all around the world and there is one thing that bonds us: Our Catholic Faith!

page 32 ABOVE: In 1906, the stuflesser family created this altar still in use at their parish church in Ortisei, Italy. RIGHT: Robert and Filip Stuflesser with their recent art work. BELOW: High altar created for a Catholic Church in Croatia for the Stuflesser studio. Readers may see the Stuflessers’ work at www.stuflesser.com/en/ and Ferdinand Stuflesser on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ FerdinandStuflesser1875

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. In the summer of 1991 I spent two weeks touring . Panorama of , Żuławy region, Poland by DerHexer / CC BY-SA 3.0 One of the most impressive places on my sightseeing itinerary was the medieval castle of Malbork located in Pomerania east of Gdansk on the River Nogat. This massive building is the largest castle by surface area in the world and the largest building made of brick in Europe. Why was this massive fortress constructed and by whom? by Michael Durnan albork castle was built on the orders of the Teutonic Knights, or to give them their full and Mproper title, the ‘Order of Brothers of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem.’ (In German, ‘Orden der Bruder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem.’)

The Knights were one of the military religious orders established in Catholic Europe during medieval times. Other leading military religious orders of the time included the and the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. The Teutonic Knights, and the other military religious orders, were founded to give aid, assistance, and protection to Christian pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land, as well origins go back to the year 1143 when Pope Celestine to establish and run hospitals. II ordered the of St. John to take over the running and management of a hospital that The German Travelers in the Holy accommodated countless German-speaking pilgrims Land and crusaders who spoke neither the local language, nor Old French, nor Latin. They were founded at the end of the 12th century in Acre, in the Holy Land, or as that Although the hospital belonged to the Knights region was known, the Levant. The Order’s Hospitaller, the pope commanded that the Prior and page 34 www.reginamag.com A Catholic Past

Germany’s Grand Catholic Knights the brothers of the Domus Theutonicorum, (‘House formally recognized in 1192 by Pope Celestine III. of Germans’) always should be German speakers. Thus the tradition of a German-led institution was Becoming a Military Order established in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. At first its brothers followed the Augustinian Rule, After the loss of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, some but in 1198 it developed into a fully-fledged military merchants from Lubeck and Bremen took up the religious order based on the Knights Templar, with idea of a field hospital during the siege of Acre. This its head known as the ‘Grand Master.’ The Order was field hospital became the nucleus of the future Order granted papal orders to participate in crusades to retake Jerusalem as well as to defend the Holy Land The Decline Sets In from attacks by Muslim Saracens. Under Grand Master Hermann von Salza, the order made the In 1410, after the Knights were defeated at the Battle final transition from being a hospice brotherhood of Grunewald by a combined Polish-Lithuanian for pilgrims to being primarily a military order. army, the went into decline, losing lands, military strength, and power. Eventually the Emperor Frederick II raised his friend, von Salza, Teutonic Order was expelled from after a war to the rank of Reichfurst, or Prince of the Empire. with Poland and Lithuania. In 1525 Grand Master When Frederick was crowned King of Jerusalem Albert of Brandenburg converted to Lutheranism in 1225, the Teutonic Knights provided his escort and secularized the remaining Prussian territories. in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In spite of The Teutonic Order suffered further losses of its this honour and recognition, the Teutonic Knights lands that remained in the Holy Roman Empire. In never became as influential in the Holy Land as 1555, after the Peace of Ausberg, the Teutonic Order the Templars and the Hospitallers. Events nearer allowed its first Lutheran members, though it still home would provide a new crusade and role for the remained largely Catholic. Teutonic Knights and would shift their focus to the Baltic and Eastern Europe. The military history of the Teutonic Knights ended in 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its The Knights in the Baltic dissolution, giving its secular holdings to his own vassals and allies. The Knights continued to exist in This new opportunity came in 1226 in north-eastern Austria, out of Napoleon’s grasp. In 1929 the Order Poland, when Duke of Masovia, Konrad I, appealed was transformed into a purely spiritual Catholic to the Knights for military assistance to defend his religious order and renamed the Deutscher Orden, borders from attack and to subdue the pagan Baltic or German Order. Prussians. During the next fifty years the Teutonic Knights engaged in a fierce and bloody crusade to Teutonic Knights in Modern Times conquer Prussia and to subjugate, kill, or expel any native Prussians who remained unbaptized. The Hitler was not a fan of the Knights. After Austria’s Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor issued charters annexation by the Nazis in 1938, the Order was granting the knights Prussia as a sovereign monastic suppressed throughout his Greater German Reich, state, similar to that of the Knights Hospitallers on although it continued to function in Italy. With Malta. the defeat of the Nazis in 1945, the Order was reconstituted in Austria and Germany. The Knights encouraged immigration from the Holy Roman Empire to boost the population, which The Teutonic Knights are divided into three branches, had been reduced severely by the war. The settlers one Catholic and two Protestant. The Protestant established new towns on the site of Old Prussian branches are based in Utrecht, The Netherlands and ones and the knights built several castles from which in Brandenburg, Germany. The Catholic branch of they could defend attacks by . the Teutonic Knights now includes 1,000 associates, including 100 priests, 200 nuns, and 700 associates, Having conquered Prussia, the Knights turned their with the priests providing spiritual guidance and the attention to pagan Lithuania, and it took 200 years nuns caring for the sick and aged. The associates are before they conquered and converted Lithuania active in Belgium, Austria, Germany, Italy, and the to Christianity. Other conquests included the city Czech Republic. of Danzig, (in Polish, ‘Gdansk’) and the region of Pomeralia along the Baltic which provided a land Many of the Order’s priests provide pastoral care bridge to the Holy Roman Empire. The capture of for German speakers outside of German-speaking Danzig in 1307 marked a new phase in the Knights’ lands, especially in Italy and Slovenia. In this way development, and it was after this they moved their the Teutonic Order has returned to its original headquarters from Venice to Malbork Castle. spiritual roots of providing aid and assistance to German speakers outside of their homelands.

page 36 www.reginamag.com A Catholic Past German Catholic Church, Inc.by Harry Stevens After years of public complaints, articles In Germany, Catholics are leaving the Church in droves, as an in Der Spiegel and a rebuke from average of 140,000 formally abandon the Faith annually.* This Pope Benedict,** the German bishops’ conference finally announced that they is easy to track, because numbers are publicly reported in a had sold the company. Many believed the system where Germans pay 8-9% of their income tax to receive bishops’ shares were liquidated in 2011. the Sacraments. The church tax is administered by the State on As of November 2013, however, it was still being reported that the Diocese of behalf of the Church through a payroll deduction, for a lucrative Augsburg, and the Archdioceses of Munich 2-3% processing fee. and Freiberg still owned parts of Weltbild. On January 19, 2014, parts of the company nd there is no tax relief. This was clarified charitable and tax-exempt and guaranteed filed for insolvency.*** Aat the highest levels when a Catholic by the German constitution. canonist asked for relief of his Church tax Profiting from Abortion in 2007. In response, the German bishops’ Also, unlike other public corporations like conference issued a decree stating that those universities, the Church is not subject to any After German reunification in 1989, new who have declared to a government registry state supervision of its finances. laws came into effect stating that abortion office that they are no longer members of would be legal within the first twelve weeks Catholic Church, Inc. the Catholic Church will no longer be able to of pregnancy, but only after the woman actively participate This all means received counseling on her decision. in Church life “It is the glory of vain men a tremendous Naturally, counseling would be well- nor receive the never to yield to truth. Such amount of Sacraments. Period. compensated, paid for by the German State. money in The Catholic Bishops promptly organized vainglory is a deadly passion the German Why are Germans a counseling service, which for a decade for those it dominates. It bishops’ abandoning received state moneys for issuing certificates hands. The the Faith? The is a disease that, in spite of which permitted women to have abortions. Catholic proximate causes every effort, is never cured- Church and range from well- On January 26, 1998 Pope John Paul II -not because the doctor is the Lutheran publicized sex abuse asked the German bishops to withdraw Church scandals (touched inept, but because the patient from this lucrative side business. Cardinal combined are off at a prominent Ratzinger, as prefect of the Congregation for is incurable.” the second Jesuit boys’ high the Faith, was given the task of carrying out largest school in Berlin) the Pope’s instructions. employers in to a simple lack ‘City of God’ by Saint Germany, with More than a year later, the German bishops of faith. Largely the Catholic finally responded, unanimously rejecting un-catechized Church the Pope’s demand. On November 20, 1999, and uninterested, employing 650,000 people, plus another JPII specifically instructed the German German Catholics would rather save the 600,000 volunteers. In 2011 (the latest date bishops in a letter that in the future pregnant money, it seems. available) the Church spent 129 million women should no longer be issued any But that’s not all there is to the story. Euro in its dioceses. certificates by the counseling service of the Closer inspection reveals a German Church German Bishops. The Catholic Church provides many social which is extremely wealthy and completely services for the elderly, infirm, and youth It wasn’t until March 8, 2002 – four years unregulated. Digging a little deeper reveals through organizations such as Caritas later -- that the German bishops finally some questionable activities, mostly having (‘Catholic Charities’ in the USA). Through removed themselves from this counseling to do with profiting from pornography and these channels, the bishops’ influence business in all dioceses. **** abortion. reaches far and wide within the German The Root of All Evil Follow the Euros Catholic community of 24 million. (Though only a tiny fraction -- 2.8 million -- actually Reviewing these facts, it is easy to conclude Money is pivotal to this discussion. In 2013, attend weekly Mass.) that the Bible is correct; the love of money the German Catholic Church collected a The Publishing Business may well be the root of all evil. Bearing this whopping 5.2 billion euro in church tax, in mind, perhaps there is a bit more to the in addition to 100-200 million euros per While it might seem that the German Church steady exodus of German Catholics from year in State subsidies from a still-valid has more than enough revenue, apparently the Church than what the German media 1803 agreement. Other income was derived this has not been the case. Weltbild was reports. from multiple sources, including Church the second largest bookselling company in ownership of no less than ten banks, several Germany in 2011, with annual sales of $2.1 For, in addition to the fact that Catholics are breweries, a mineral water company, and billion. Until that year, it was 100% owned getting very little for their money, there are multiple insurance companies. by the German bishops’ conference. very serious ethical questions indeed about how it is being used by the German Church. Unlike the beleaguered German taxpayer, In addition to a lucrative pornographic book the Church does not pay tax on Church publishing company that carried some 2,500 property. Nor does it pay corporate or titles, Weltbild also sold books promoting Source information may be capital gains taxes. Everything it does as a satanism, the occult, esotericism, and anti- found here public corporation in Germany is considered Christian atheist propaganda. Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 37 A GREAT, TALL MAN: The skull of Charles the Great is preserved in this reliquary in the Treasury of the great Cathedral built in his capital, today’s Aachen, Germany (Aix-La-Chapelle in French). From his remains, we know he was heavily built, sturdy, and of considerable stature. He had a round head, large and lively eyes, and a slightly larger nose than usual. His hair was prematurely white and he bore a characteristically bright and cheerful expression. He enjoyed good health. Charles the Great stood 1.84 meters (slightly more than 6 feet) making him a very tall person for his time.

The Great German King

Who Sleeps Until Christendom’s Hour of Need page 38 www.reginamag.com Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 & GFDL

WHO IS THAT KING? Poised on his charger, his hand raised in a warning or a salute -- this is Charlemagne, one of Christendom’s great heroes. A Frank -- forerunners of today’s Germans and French -- Charlemagne died 1200 years ago, in 814 AD. His name in Latin was Carolus Magnus. For the Germans, he is ‘Karl Der Grosse;’ ‘Charles the Great’ in

Inspiring.English Intelligent. and Catholic. ‘Carlo Magno’ in Spanish. page 39 'CAROLUS PRINCEPS' Latin for 'Charles the Prince,' inlaid in marble in Aachen Cathedral. His father was the Frankish leader Pepin the Short, mayor of the palace under the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings. His grandfather was Charles Martel, aka ‘Charles the Hammer.’ (In Germany today, people still use ‘Der Hammer’ to describe a man they admire.)

CROWNED EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS BY POPE LEO III ON CHRISTMAS DAY in A.D. 800 and ruled until his death in January, 814 at the age of 71. He started the custom whereby Christmas Day became a traditional day of crowning Emperors and Kings. It took 32 years before Charlemagne completely conquered the Saxons from 772 to 804 AD. He also conquered the Bavarians, Slavs and Avars and obliged them to pay him tribute and also defeated and ruled the Lombards of Italy in 773 and northern part of in 778 AD.

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THE EMPIRE THAT CHARLEMAGNE built included almost all of western and central Europe. He presided over the cultural and legal revival of the West known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Modern- day France and Germany emerged from Charlemagne’s empire, the former as West Francia and the latter as East Francia.

CHARLEMAGNE INVITED THE MONK OF YORK, ENGLAND to his capital at Aix-la-Chapelle (today Aachen, Germany) to set up the first Christian Cathedral School. Though he was illiterate, Charlemagne recognized the great power of education, and ordered bishops and abbots to set up schools for the training of monks and other clerics throughout the Empire. Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 41 WORTH MORE THAN $100 MILLION, (top left) this coronation cross was made for Charlemagne and carried at every Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor for almost a thousand years. His warrior-king image was the inspiration for all subsequent empire builders in Europe during the Middle Ages. The word for “king” in several modern Slavic languages such as Krol in Polish and Kral in Czech are based upon the German name of Charlemagne, Karl. CATHEDRAL WINDOW AT CHARLEMAGNE’S TOMB (top right) He made Latin the standard written and spoken language in his huge empire of several languages and dialects, thus making it possible for Europeans to communicate across cultures. Charlemagne also played a key role in preserving much of the literary heritage of ancient Rome. CHARLEMAGNE’S FIRST TOMB (below) After a funeral Mass, he was buried the same day he died, in this stone sarcophagus. According to medieval legend, Charlemagne was said to have risen from the dead to fight in the Crusades.

page 42 www.reginamag.com book review

A Young Person’s Review

by Mariella Hunt

hese days it’s difficult to find Young Adult (YA) literature that even mentions the living arrangements of most people T– that is, in families. Popular YA novels often mention parents only in passing and in many, main characters don’t actually have parents—they’re orphaned, or runaways. This is a marketing mistake, because today’s youth is looking for books where the family matters. In this category, The Book Thief is a great choice. Hailed as a modern-day classic, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a force to be reckoned with. Set in , it walks us down a place called Himmel ( “Heaven” ) Street. Death is a person for 500 pages, who relates the story of a girl named Liesel. Though it lacks a “proper” plot, the characters steal your heart at once. Liesel’s adopted Mama and Papa have endearing personalities. Hans Hubermann is a patient man who teaches Liesel to read her first book— one she stole called The Gravedigger’s Handbook. His wife Rosa has the mouth of a sailor and thick enough skin to overcome the hard times.

Rosa rocked back and forth, ever so gently. “Liesel,” she whispered, “come here.” She held the girl from behind, tightening her grip. She sang a song, but it was so quiet that Liesel could not make it out. The notes were born on her breath and they died at her lips.”(Page 374)

All of the characters in this book are memorable. We have a In trying times, evil can be easier to see than good. Death admits shopkeeper who demands her customers say “heil, Hitler” when he’s scared of us—then notes the small, beautiful things people do they enter. Liesel’s neighbor is a troublemaker named Rudy who to bring light to the darkest places. has skill in stealing food. Then there’s the character of Death, our surprisingly human storyteller. History is handled masterfully in this novel, which was also adapted into a film. It’s gathered a strong fan base for a reason: Injustice and heartbreak haunt these characters—such as the The Book Thief deserves every bit of this praise. It will make you neighbor whose son died in battle, and the Jews marched through shed a tear, and smile because hope isn’t lost. Beautiful writing town to concentration camps. Even as hope appears to vanish, and vivid characters make it a story you won’t forget. Death sees kind gestures done in secret. Hope is restored in the act of a brave soul feeding emaciated Jews. Available for purchase at a special As her eyes scanned the paper, Liesel could see through Regina discount at: the punched letter holes to the wooden table. Words like compulsory and duty were beaten into the page. Saliva was triggered. It was the urge to vomit. (Page 416) use code REGINA14 at checkout

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 43 The Young Who Spoke TRUTH to POWER Bypage Teresa 44 Limjoco, MD www.reginamag.com ne used his Faith Oas a shield in the face of brutal Gestapo interrogation; he did not talk. Another converted on his way to the guillotine. All were inspired by the heroic resistance of one Catholic bishop.

Today, they would be regarded as very odd, indeed. What would modern Germans think of university students with strong Christian beliefs -- many sustained by a deep attachment to Catholicism -- defying the government? It is almost unheard of.

In this look back at the heroic young Germans who died defying the Nazi terror, Teresa Limjoco reveals the truth about where their strength came from.

Photo: Movement Public Memorial - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat - Munich - Germany Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. Photographer: Adam Jones, Ph.D./Wikimedia Commons Personal website: adamjones.freeservers.compage 45 Their weapon? the 1930s, they were young, middle class and Leaflets. The well-educated. They discussed philosophy, sang first, in mid- in a Bach choir, enjoyed music, poetry, art, and 1942 incited books. They could easily have continued with Germans to passively resist such lives, but their consciences were awakened as they the Nazis, Inwatched 1930’s Germany succumb to Nazi barbarism. whom they termed ‘an irresponsible Moving beyond the passive ‘inner emigration’ clique that has most intellectuals resorted to, these University of yielded to base Munich students formed the 'White Rose' ('Die instinct.’1 Weisse Rose'), a resistance movement which dared to speak truth to power. In eight months, they distributed six leaflets. Their bravery would be short-lived, however; It would cost them their lives. the Scholls and Probst were soon arrested. The White Rose was mercilessly crushed.

Speaking Truth to Power Their sixth and last leaflet was Enthusiastic Hitler Youth members as sent out between teens, siblings Hans and grew February 16 disillusioned when the anti-Jewish hooliganism and 18, 1943, of Kristallnacht in 1938 revealed the ugly, an especially ruthless face of Nazism. Disillusion would turn dangerous to outrage as they learned of ever-escalating time. After the heinous Nazi attacks on defenseless Jews. disastrous defeat of the Wehrmacht In 1941, Hans in Stalingrad, heard of a homily Propaganda preached by von Minister Josef Galen, the Roman Goebbels gave Catholic bishop of a 'scorched- Munster, who bravely earth' speech denounced Nazi on February 18 at the Sportpalast that called euthanasia of the for ‘total war’. (Coincidentally, Sophie’s disabled and mentally correspondent-boyfriend, Lt. Fritz Hartnagel, ill. In this, Hans - a was assigned to Stalingrad). medical student who had served as a medic As glimpses of their vulnerability surfaced, the on the Eastern front - Domkapitular Gustav Nazis ramped up their brutality. More death Albers († 1957) found his inspiration. sentences were meted out to dissidents. Yet the need to oppose such a malevolent entity trumped With medical students Christel Probst and Willi fear. Hans and Sophie knew the risk of their Graf, and their friend Alexander Schmorell, fateful decision to distribute those leaflets in the Hans formed the ‘White Rose’, one of the only university. They were quickly reported. groups that ever dared to voice opposition in Hitler’s Germany. His sister Sophie and The Nazis prosecuted and executed the three on Professor Kurt Huber joined them.

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February 22, 1943 with unusual swiftness and Christel’s Story stealth, fearing they would become martyrs. Their sentences would serve as an example. After Like many Germans today, 'Christel' Probst a sham 'trial', they were condemned to death by grew up with no religion. As a young adult, guillotine for 'high treason' by Hitler's 'hanging however, he’d felt a closeness to the Catholic judge,’ Roland Freisler. Church. News of the Nazi euthanasia program and persecution of the Jews outraged him. As What They Believed he wrote his sister Angelika, ‘...it was not given to any human being, under any circumstance, to While their incredible courage has made them make judgments that are reserved to God alone. latter-day film heroes, most people today have ... Every individual’s life is priceless. We are all no idea that the extraordinary acts of the Scholls, dear to God.’3 Christel Probst, and Willi Graf were grounded in a firm belief in God. Their fourth leaflet boldly Evidence linking Christel to a draft for the called Hitler the Anti-Christ, and declared that seventh leaflet led to his arrest by the Nazis. ‘[o]nly religion can reawaken Europe, establish He asked to be received into the Roman the rights of the peoples, and install Christianity Catholic Church on the day he was to die. He in new splendor visibly on earth in its office as was baptized and received First Communion, guarantor of peace.’1, 2, 6 after which he said, ‘Now my death will be easy and joyful’.3 He left behind a wife, two young The Scholls’ mother, Magdalena, was a children, and a newborn baby. Lutheran deaconess who taught her children the Bible. Her son Hans also found guidance Willi’s Story in Catholic works such as St Augustine’s Confessions and Paul Claudel’s writings.3, 6 (St Augustine’s City of God (Civitas Dei) would even find mention in the third leaflet. 2) Sophie kept a well-worn copy of Confessions in the concentration camp. One line in particular resonated with her: ‘Thou hast created for us Thyself, and our heart cannot be quieted till it find repose in Thee.‘ 2

German historians Jakob Knab and Guenther Biemer believe today that Cardinal ’s writings influenced Hans and Sophie’s moral, spiritual, and intellectual formation -- including the Christian As a Roman Catholic, Willi Graf felt deeply the understanding of conscience. 2 Nazi persecution of his Church. While serving as a medic during the invasion of Poland and Professor Carl Muth had introduced them to St Russia, Willi was horrified by the atrocities Augustine's works, and also to Cardinal Newman's committed by the Wehrmacht there. He could work through his friend, Theodor Haecker. not but reject a system that went against his Haecker was a Catholic convert who had translated deepest beliefs. He would help write the leaflets, Newman's writings into German. ' [C]onscience,' but it was July 1943 when the Gestapo finally Newman wrote, 'is the voice of God....’5 Sophie caught up with him. apparently valued Newman's ideas enough to share them with Fritz Hartnagel, giving him two volumes He was executed in October following Gestapo of the Cardinal’s sermons in 1942. 2, 4, 7 efforts to extract more information from him.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 47 His Faith gave him strength to withstand brutal interrogations without compromising his friends. 2

On his last day, he wrote to his family, ‘On this day I’m leaving this life and entering eternity. ... strength and comfort you’ll find with God and that is what I am praying for till the last moment ... Hold each other and stand together with love and trust.... God’s blessing on us, in Him we are and we live ...’.6

Sophie Calmly Faces Nazi Photo: Paul Simpson Torture and Death Memorial to the White Rose Movement - Munich All who witnessed their last days were struck by their ‘Seelenkraft,' their 'strength of soul.’3 References Sophie’s calm fortitude so impressed her interrogator, Robert Mohr, that he actually 1 Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich, 1942- offered her a way out: that she admit to having 1943. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, misunderstood what National Socialism meant 1983. [NOTE: Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and and must regret what she did. Sophie. The book was originally written in 1970, and a new Introduction by Dorothee Soelle is included in the “Not at all,” Sophie defied him. “It is not I, 1983 edition.] but you, Herr Mohr, who have the wrong Weltanschauung ('world view'). I would do the 2 McDonough, Frank. Sophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman Who Defied Hitler, Stroud, Gloucestershire: same again.”3 History Press, 2009.

The executioner himself, a veteran of thousands *Note 13 in Chapter Three mentions Jakob Knab’s of such tasks, said that he had never seen anyone findings on the Cardinal Newman influence. meet her fate so calmly as Sophie Scholl did. She was 21 years old. [NOTE: The latest, with a few additional tidbits that have not been mentioned in previous publications. ]

Not ideology, but Faith sustained 3 Hanser, Richard. A Noble Treason: The Story of Sophie them Scholl and the White Rose Revolt Against Hitler. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1979. [NOTE: Excellently Seventy years after their deaths, the exceptional written, hard to put down.] moral courage of these young people remains astounding. It was not a political agenda nor 4 Cardinal John Henry Newman and the Scholls http:// newmaninspiredresistance.blogspot.com an ideology but basic human decency and life- affirming beliefs based on strong religious 5 Quotation from Cardinal Newman. convictions that inspired and sustained the White Rose martyrs. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newman-norfolk. asp#Conscience Hans was 24, Sophie was 21, Christel was 23, and Willi was 25 years old when their brave 6 Dumbach, Annete and Newborn, Jud. Sophie Scholl young lives were extinguished. and the White Rose. Oxford, England: Oneworld, 2006. [NOTE: Another fine and credible source.] Would that their heroism live on to inspire 7 Excerpts from Fritz Harnagel’s letters to Sophie Scholl. more bravery in us all. http://pedrokolbe.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/john- henry-cardinal-newman-and-the-white-rose/ page 48 www.reginamag.com he history of the Catholic Church has taught us that real Trenewal movements start small and they come from the ground up. The latest example comes to us from St. Louis, where Veils By Lily, an enterprise producing traditional Catholic veils is inspiring a deeper love for the Holy Eucharist and a strengthening of family life. Veils by Lily Mantilla-Style Chapel Veils

Lily Beck Wilson is a cradle Catholic who had a “reversion” that it seeks to honor and proclaim? Maybe more women experience five years ago. “I was lukewarm…” she admitted. would feel as Lily did and think “I could wear that.” She put up “I received the Eucharist as if it were something trivial.” Dur- a website and started to sell her own homemade veils. ing her reversion, Lily studied Catholic doctrine on Christ’s Real Presence. “My husband is Protestant, and I had to think about The business came in quickly, but there were challenges, what I believed and why”, she recalled. “I was blown away by including one pretty big hurdle before she ever went public- John Chapter 6—how literal and forceful Jesus was.” -Lily didn’t know how to sew. But she taught herself to use a sewing machine and the orders came in fast enough that it The truth of the Real Presence was overwhelming to Lily—“the replaced her part-time job. God of the universe wants to be personally united to us—to me.” Lily added that in a world where all of us long to be loved, Giving up the part-time job led to another fruit of her venture it is in the Holy Eucharist that Jesus Christ Himself wants to and it was more time near her husband and what was then give us all that love and more. three children. When she worked part-time she was starting work as her husband was coming home. “Family life was non- Lily wanted to acknowledge Our Lord’s love—“to shout it from existent” she said. Now they could eat dinner as a family and the rooftops”, as she put it. The veil became her way of meta- rest on Sunday. phorically doing just that. It wasn’t easy—there were few, if any, at her parish who wore the veil, and wearing one had the Those good fruits extended to the families of others. Business disadvantage of bringing unwanted attention. When Lily saw a increased to the point where Lily hired a seamstress and a beautiful veil and thought “I could wear that”, the inspiration shipping assistant, who each work part-time, along with sev- for her business took hold. eral freelancers who cut veils. “It’s flexible work with flexible schedules, and we ask everyone not to work on Sunday,” Lily What if the veil could be made told Regina. “If I need something on Tuesday, it can wait until truly beautiful—a garment Wednesday if it means taking Sunday off. Family comes first.” whose physical beauty would be Lily’s family-first policy is a demonstration of a trulyCatholic a small reflection business, one that is Catholic at its soul, not just its exterior, of the Divine and something that can be emulated whether one sells veils or Beauty widgets. Lily’s husband is now in the RCIA program and preparing to enter the Church at Easter Vigil, and the couple had two addi- tional children since the starting of the business. It was those births that showed her the need to hire help. When she needed office space to store the lace, she found it in the same building as Liguori Publications. The office has been blessed by a priest from The Institute of Christ The King. The building has a chapel, with the Blessed Sacrament. It seems quite appropriate for a venture encouraging Catholic women to take their faith in the Real Presence and shout it from the rooftops.

www.veilsbylily.com

Lily withInspiring. Seamstress Intelligent. Diane Catholic. and Baby Rose page 49 This is a special paid advertisement section of Regina Magazine The Protagonist f you were the Devil, and you wanted to disrupt a European Catholic church which was growing and strong, spreading its wings after disastrous decades of unspeakable Iwar, what would you do?

I speak of the time of the 1950s. If you were the Devil, how would you go about this? (I am assuming here for a moment that you are so unenlightened so as to believe that the Prince of Lies exists, of course.)

Well, since you are only a spirit, you need a human being to do your work, so I shall call him the Protagonist. Someone reliable, someone whose fortunes you could improve over the course of his life. Someone young, highly influencible, someone who was hungry for fame and riches, underneath a pious exterior.

The Protagonist would have to have a pious exterior of course because he would have to be a member of the Church. And he could not be identified with any of the clearly Satanic forces that you had so successfully unleashed in the 20th century. Not a Marxist. Not a Communist. Not a Nazi.

Someone wholly reasonable. Someone who cared about the poor, the environment and the marginalized.

Of course you would have to give him the resources he needed to spread the destruction far and wide. Money. Useful idiots. These things could be used to take advantage of the spectacular increases in technology and communications that would ensue in the wake of World War II. And of course very little oversight would be needed, in order to give him free rein. Of course, your Protagonist would have to be eminently corruptible. A weakness for luxuries perhaps? Or sins of Now, it would be important to shield the Protagonist the flesh? from having to spend all of his time tediously communicating your destructive messages. This work And he would get his appetites satisfied. Oh yes, you can be done by mouthpieces. Professors of theology, for would see to that. example, whose daily bread is dependent on the good will of the Protagonist. They can be trusted to work The Protagonist’s financial base would have to be assiduously for the intellectual undermining of the assured. You couldn’t have him too distracted with Church and her position – all from the safety of their money problems. A good move would be to tie his jobs inside the Church. They can demand that Rome income to a growing concern. And his success or failure dismantle her morals, her catechism. They can disdain in his ostensible ‘job’ should not be tied to his income. the queries from the faithful as ‘uninformed’ and/or That should be something quite separate. The money ‘uneducated.’ needs to flow in regardless of whether he is doing his ‘job.’

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They will for sure be applauded by the secular Finally, the killer sin. Pride. He must be a proud media. They will be heroes. man. And he must link his personal pride deeply with your satanic cause. He must believe that what No, the Protagonist would have to be deployed he is doing is furthering the cause of Christ on in using his natural gifts, like his talent for earth. management. He will naturally see that the Church’s ‘customers’ – ie the faithful – are nothing Until it is too late, of course. That’s when you will but a nuisance. The fewer of them to take up his grant him the full view – the supreme vision—so time, the better. So, his priests must be trained he can see the destruction he has been the agent of, to believe that the nonsense emanating from the the countless souls lost. But you will make sure he theologians was actually their religion. will see this only in his last, tortured hours on this earth, maybe even in his last breath. Which is to say no theology at all. The old, Scholastic ‘theology’ must be ridiculed and derided. By then it will be much too late, and he will only The ‘Sacraments’ must be administered grudgingly, see the devils, your minions, swarming around and in their most diminished form. him. Exactly like the folktales about the death of one of your other great European success stories, Of course of all this will discourage vocations, Napoleon Bonaparte. which is a delightful prospect. The few faithful left can be served by imported priests from India and Of course, once he dies, he will leave behind Africa, grateful for the pittance they are paid to be precisely the kind of Church which the people sent back to their desperately poor dioceses. Barely will hate most. Swollen with riches. Rife with conversant in the language, they will make no corruption. Riddled with proud clerics grasping for trouble. the reins from the dead Protagonist’s hands.

The Protagonist will be in a position to dispense Perfect for secularization. Again. gifts and favors to his enormous native workforce, of course. This will minimize the occasions when It would be important to give the Protagonist he will have to use his primary talent for bullying. cover, of course, from criticism. Probably best to locate him in a society where people have for Of course, when the occasion merits it, he will not centuries been trained not to resist the will of great hesitate to bully, Mafia-style. It will be salutary for and powerful princes. his henchmen to see a victim every once in a while. Someplace like Germany, perhaps? Perhaps a Bishop from a wealthy family, dismembered and shamed before the entire nation?

But I digress.

Inspiring.page 51 Intelligent. Catholic. www.reginamag.compage 51 Success in the City by Beverly De Soto FSSP’s Growing Congregation in Cologne religion plays virtually Since the foundation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) no role in the lives of in the Fall of 1988 in Germany, the Fraternity has established most inhabitants. Like numerous houses around the world. With an average age of most German cities, 38 among its more than 400 priests, this thriving Fraternity is families are small, now active in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, splintered or failing to France, Great Britain, Italy, México, Netherlands, Nigeria, form at all in Cologne. Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the USA. Unlike New York, Paris and London, however, which enjoy enthusiastically-supported venues he Fraternity’s Maria Hilf (“Mary, for the Traditional Latin Mass, Cologne did not Helper”) parish is located in an Cologne have a church dedicated to the the TLM until urban neighborhood rebuilt after the 2004. devastating bombing of World War II. TThe church building has a stripped-down facade Intriguingly, with the support of Una Voce, and 1950s modernistic stained glass windows. the Fraternity has been able to build a growing Only in recent years have confessionals have been congregation in the last ten years. Dr. Johann added. von Behr of Una Voce Cologne agreed to talk with Regina Magazine about their experience there. Where religion plays virtually no role “From our first year in Maria Hilf, about 10 years Although Cologne is the largest Catholic diocese, ago, we have found a numerous and still growing the success of Maria Hilf must be understood congregation, especially at our Sunday Masses,” in the context of a modern German city where said Dr Von Behr. “Since it was the decision of page 52 www.reginamag.com A Catholic Future our archbishop, Joachim Cardinal Meisner, to give us this church with a renting contract of at least 25 years, we did not encounter much resistance from our neighbors.” Ten years of significant growth Maria Hilf has experienced significant growth since 2004. “When we started, our faithful were perhaps 50 parishioners every Sunday, with of course much less during the week,” Dr Von Behr estimates. “Today, we normally have least twice that at each Mass.” Like many Latin Mass parishes, a dedicated music program has been key to this growth. “At present we are happy to have three different Gregorian scholas and choirs singing regularly the liturgy on all Sundays and feasts,” said Dr. Von Behr. “One of them is the well-known Schola Cantorum Coloniensis with about 20 singers, founded more than 30 years ago at the Musicological Institute of the Cologne University. The organ music and singing of all liturgical services is conducted by three renowned professional musicians.” Parish families are keen to have their sons serve as altar servers. “We have about 6 to 8 altar servers each Sunday, children between the ages of about eight to fifteen years. They are all very enthusiastic and come Father Miguel Stegmaier, FSSP outside Maria Hilf in Cologne, Germany. regularly to assist at the Sunday Masses. Beside them we have another array of four to six adults who Frequent confessions and religious vocations are also able to do the altar service.” The newly-built confessionals at Maria Hilf stand out Traveling for the Mass against the manifest general tendency of Catholics in Cologne has a substantial international community, Germany to avoid this Sacrament. but “the parishioners of our church are nearly “The Extraordinary Form of the Mass and Confession exclusively Germans, many of them inhabitants belong very close together,” Dr. Von Behr explains. of Cologne, but also many who come from outside “So we have many opportunities for Confession Cologne. For a couple of years we had a French family in our church, which are very well attended. Our that came every Sunday, with two children who also parishioners and others often take advantage of the helped as altar servers.” Sacrament.” Again, like most Latin Mass parishes, the pattern of Finally, Maria Hilf seems to be following a similar growth includes attracting young families. pattern for most TLM parishes of producing religious “There are more and more young people and young vocations. families that come to Maria Hilf,” according to Dr. “Personally, I know of one vocation in our parish Von Behr, “We presume that the word about the of a young man who entered into a traditional Extraordinary Form of the holy Mass is getting monastery,” Dr. Von Behr said. “But there may have around between them after they seem to have turned been more vocations which I am unaware away from the ordinary form.” of.”

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 53 Benedicamus Domino A Short Story

by Beverly De Soto Still, I didn’t become despondent until I his was outrageous enough, but it was learned about his new, Norwegian wife, the later conversation with my 37-year “The most important thing is and the child she was carrying. Andreas old sister that put me over the edge. had never even spoken of marriage. I She had had way too much to drink. not to end up like my mother,” had always taken it for granted that I was telling my therapist Dr we would be together wholly of our “You think because I’m a teacher, that Becker, who nodded at me in a own choosing. Marriage seemed I’m pretty boring, don’t you?” she slightly disapproving way. She unnecessary, really. asked me, in a drunken, challenging disapproved, I knew, because sort of way. Everyone else had gone to And now he was beginning a brave new sleep. Sabina lives in Wiesbaden; she it is not healthy for a woman to life. And I was alone. I felt so old. has a good position, an excellent salary not identify with her mother. and no man since her last relationship My family was not very much help in disintegrated. “Well, I think you might Also, because there is nothing so all of this. My mother shrugged, tossed be a little surprised at how much fun I wrong with my mother; she is like her long gray hair and tried to look do manage to have.” every other woman of her generation in sympathetic. She does not hold men Germany. They are called ‘the 68-ers,’ to very high standards. She has had Before I could stop her, it all came out. the university students of 1968 who too much experience. My father was How she’s ‘registered’ with an online rebelled against the Establishment and one of her serial relationships; growing website that sets her up with ‘hot’ dates. ushered in the modern Germany, leader up, I saw him twice a year when her It’s all perfectly proper, she assured me. of Europe. Here in Mittel Europa, at the current lover would drive me and my The men are all attractive, and she never beginning of the 21st century, the 68ers sister Sabine to Munich for a brief visit. has to do anything against her will. reign supreme. Though a brilliant mathematician, he was a pot-head, pure and simple -- and “I’ve come to understand that I have a I am seeing a therapist because, at as soon as he could he buggered off very strong sex drive,” she told me in age 32 and a successful gynecologist, for a decrepit farmhouse in Portugal, a sly, confidential whisper that made I am despondent. You see, my partner where he lives now, painting abstracts my skin crawl. “It’s probably inherited, Andreas has left me. We had been and smoking weed. don’t you agree?” together since university, in the early, wonderful, warm and giddy days when Our half-brother is ten years younger All of this sent me to Dr. Becker’s office, we brought our sweet Otto home. He than me, an East German truck driver, where I blubbered for hours into the was a lovely puppy; our child, really. like his father before him. And like his tissues she had discretely placed near When he died of old age twelve years dad, he is blunt-spoken and hard- the low-slung, Bauhaus-style leather later, our grief spilled over in a black working. My mother is still living with chair I occupied once a week. She was pool, flooding our bedroom and the his dad, though I know it’s just because kind, but she didn’t understand why I of our life together. she dreads being alone. He is not at could not accept any of these things. all what she, a retired teacher, would Even though I am a trained physician, It was not long afterwards that Andreas have expected for herself. As for me, fully cognizant of how modern people told me that he had accepted another I respect both my step-father and my live, I still could not help but wishing for, position, a significant promotion at the half-brother, but we do not agree on dreaming of, something better. Uniklinik in Hamburg, 500 kilometers many things. from the university town where we “So what is it that will make you happy, have lived together since our student “You’re like all the other German women,” do you think?” Dr Becker asked. “You days. He said that it would make no Stefan said, quaffing his Bitburger beer. are not like your mother, or your siblings. to our relationship, and that It was Christmas Eve, at our parents’ You have worked hard through medical the promotion was too good to pass up. apartment. “You think you’re too good school. You are a professional, used to for German men. That’s why German setting goals. Where do you want to I have known him too long to be deceived men are marrying foreigners. All of you be in five years? What do you envision by his lying. He gradually eased himself women have no real interest in having a your life to be like?” out of my life, and I let him go reluctantly, family. Feminism has ruined you.” feeling helpless all the while.

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The single answer that hunched against the early Andreas’s desertion, had herself in the clinic by going came immediately to my spring wind. “Most of them made Dr. Becker’s brisk on record in a very public mind was embarrassing are over 35 and not married. suggestion that I simply way against this practice. in its directness: I wanted Why should I wait that go to the sperm bank very After that, no one at the children. I wanted to be long?” attractive. clinic trusted her; she was a mother. What’s more, I seen as a religious fanatic. wanted to be successful in I could talk to Jennifer “Not a good idea. Look at She became marginalized, a way that my mother never that way because we are these women,” Jennifer almost invisible in the has been. I want a forever friends. I say this with all due responded with emotion. “I clinic. Such marginalization husband. I want a forever respect to every European see them in my practice, all would have almost killed a family.Where did I get such who thinks that Americans grim and stressed out. Man- German in her professional ideas? are incorrigibly shallow, and less, or between lovers. Their shoes, but Jennifer is an incapable of true friendship. kids alternately cling to them American. Though she found my ideas When Andreas moved out or berate them, depending distasteful and unbelievably of the apartment, I was on whether their current “I have lots of friends,” she naive, Doctor Becker is virtually immobile with grief man is in the picture or not. shrugged, grinning at me a good therapist, and a for days. Jennifer patiently I am telling you, this is not a disarmingly. “I really don’t practical woman. “Some of stayed by me, sleeping on good idea. This whole way need to be popular with that is under your control. my couch and cooking me of life – the contraception, people at this clinic.” So, what is the problem, simple meals, talking to me the abortions, the artificial then?” endlessly about her God, inseminations…it is all Something about her spirit and how He would help me playing God. Women made me like her, and we The problem, of course, if I would just ask. deserve better than that. became friends - which is You deserve better than is that I have “You’re like all the other how I wound up sobbing in no man. And that.” the back of an 18th century I know that German women,” Stefan chapel in an old folks’ home finding a man to said, quaffing his Bitburger The tears that evening. Tears rolling marry and have beer. It was Christmas Eve, suddenly down my face, I children with is at our parents’ apartment. sprung to my eyes, followed numbly as pretty nearly an unbidden. I swallowed, hard. Jennifer led the short impossible goal “You think you’re too good I really don’t understand way to the Catholic these days in for German men. That’s why, but suddenly all I could chapel where she Germany. But why German men are think of was the abortions. attends the Latin Mass that is not what marrying foreigners. All of Not even the panicked young every night, after Dr. Becker was girls coming into our clinic, work. referring to. you women have no real sometimes accompanied interest in having a family. by their grim-faced She had invited “Don’t do it,” Feminism has ruined you.” mothers. (Almost never by me before, said Jennifer, for their boyfriends, o f telling me the umpteenth time. She is While I appreciated the course.) No, what about the an American, a pediatrician sentiment, it fell on deaf I was thinking of was group of who trained at Mainz. Like ears. Perhaps it is because I the selective abortions, young me, she is youngish and do not come from a religious when too many babies are single. Unlike me, she is family. My mother’s idea conceived by artificial religious. “You do not need of religion lies somewhere insemination. And to live like these people. It is between Celtic earth one – or more a dead end street. There is goddesses and the Tarot. – must be a better way to live. There is My siblings and I acquired aborted. hope.” good German skepticism about these things in our When she “Probably half the German education; in this, we arrived women in our maternity ward are like most Europeans. three are pregnant by artificial To be perfectly honest, years ago, insemination,” I replied, talk of religion makes me Jennifer trying to sound rational as uncomfortable. And my made a we walked through town, Christmas experience, name for coming so soon after

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. Catholics that followed the I listened, transported, as “Did you like it?” the priest laughter and good red Latin Mass, but as I said, I the centuries fell away. said, a pleased grin lighting wine.’” am not a religious person. up his face. “Was it your first (To be honest, I’d pictured I was in a trance when the time, then?” “’At least I’ve always found some intolerable nerds Mass ended. All I wanted it so…’” continued Josef, following a ghoulish priest -- to do was stay there, “Y-yes,” I admitted. “I-I had his arm around Jennifer. though of course I wouldn’t and breathe the incense- no idea…” tell her that.) scented air. Jennifer stood “’…Benedicamus domino,’” up, though, as the priest and “…I’ve been trying to bring finished Father, smiling at However, when I dried my two of the men approached her here, Father,” Jennifer me. The group laughed. tears, I found this old chapel us, smiling. said, grinning. to be oddly comforting. It was “W-what is this?” I asked, very quiet. Aside from the I saw immediately that one “But she is no doubt a very amused but perplexed. spring evening light filtering of the singers was enamored busy person at the clinic, through the stained glass of her. Jennifer returned no?” said the priest, still “A very clever Catholic windows, a single, stout his admiring glance with a smiling. Englishman wrote that,” beeswax candle glowed radiant smile and introduced Jennifer explained, grinning. before a bank of radiant him as ‘Josef;’ he shook my “I-I am,” I faltered, not sure “A man named Hilaire pink hydrangeas adorning hand earnestly. Then she of what to say. Belloc.” a Pieta of surprising beauty presented me to the priest, and power. who welcomed me. The “Perhaps you will join us for “A mere Englishman,” said other singer stood quietly supper?” he said cordially. Josef teasingly, winking at Soon, the door opened and a by. Jennifer. youngish priest in a cassock “N-now?” I said, somewhat strode in, followed by three “And this is Christoph,” nonplussed. “A genius!” exclaimed men. The priest nodded at whispered Jennifer, and we Father, laughing. us with a smile, and vanished shook hands. He was a tall, into an anteroom with one calm man with aristocratic “Yes, now,” said Christoph, of the men. The other two bearing. I suddenly thought with a teasing smile. I liked As we walked together grinned at us wordlessly, of my tear-stained cheeks, his dark eyes. “Your Jennifer through the old streets, a and took up their places at and wished I had a lipstick. has taught us her casual strange, giddy feeling came the rear of the chapel. American ways. Nowadays over me. I looked up at the we often will simply go and tall, grave Christoph walking eat something together, beside me and returned his after Mass.” smile.

“And a glass of wine is I began to feel younger, for mandatory,” said Josef, some reason. laughing. “Shall we go?” Lighter than air, actually. As we filed out of the empty church, I watched as each of my companions genuflected briefly, then crossed themselves, eyes on the altar. Once outside, we shivered in the cold night “So very pleased to meet air. A few minutes later, a golden you,” he said, in the correct bell rang. The priest and altar manner that Germans “’Wherever the Catholic sun server emerged. The small always know indicates good doth shine…’” Jennifer said, group of worshipers who family background. But his in English. had quietly assembled got smile was genuine, and his to their feet. As the evening grip was warm. Christoph light slowly died, the two took up the men lifted their voices in an “This was beautiful,” I said refrain, smiling ancient Gregorian chant. to the priest, sotto voce and broadly. “’… somewhat abashed. there’s always page 56 I must admit that for the first several minutes profitably watch, but especially in the home- War of the Vendée (2011) of the film I wasn’t sure what I was watching. school, especially in the home-church. As is one of the most arresting films I’ve seen in You see, every single member of the cast is a the Vendéan hero Cathelineau proclaims in quite a while. Everyone knows about the ten child. No one is older than their teens, even the another place in the film, the enemies we fight month long Reign of Terror in Paris instigated lead actors and actresses. Little children are against, as Catholics, are ancient, and they by the Jacobins, led by Robespierre and Marat. the extras: soldiers, rebels, townspeople. At keep returning in new forms, but the truly But The War of the Vendée is a mystery, says first the viewer wonders, and then is charmed, faithful are forever young and thus we triumph. Director Jim Morlino in his introductory and then becomes involved in a well told and commentary. It isn’t even taught in French important story, a tragic story about the brutal by Peter Gallaher schools! The French historian Reynald Secher suppression of Freedom and Truth by ideology. has called the systematic neglect, the cover-up, indeed the virtual black-out of this war, which And that is what the issue is, really. The Vendée lasted for more than five years between 1793 cannot be allowed to exist because the people and 1799, a “memoricide.” Another critic has there do not recognize the State as the source called it “the first ideological genocide.” This of Truth, nor do they believe their freedom is a civil war broke out in the southwest region gift from the state. The fact that mere children of France under the leadership of Catholic are before you on the screen never disappears peasants who quite simply had had enough of from consciousness, but somehow their very the anti-Catholic policies of the new Republic presence makes the story they tell even more in Paris. Engaging the help of local royalist compelling, more affecting and effective. nobility, they rose up, formed an army, and within several months had driven all Republican There are two scenes near the end of the film forces from the region. The film ends, though, which particularly illustrate this. One takes place as the Republic begins its return in force. just before a decisive battle showing the rebel soldiers, children all, dressing for war in exact Though the whole story is not portrayed, it is sync with their priest as he vests to celebrate certainly forecast. The end for the Vendéan the Holy Mass before their final fight. The other rebels was the almost total destruction of depicts the martyrdom of a group of Carmelite everything: land, livestock, homes, villages, nuns who offer themselves as a sacrifice for men, women and children. The end for peace, sixteen pure new martyrs joining several France as a whole, on the other hand, was full hundred thousand earlier Vendéan ones. restoration of religious liberty under Napoleon. As one of the characters, Jacques Cathelineau, “The War of the Vendée” was awarded the 2012 the peasant who became the Vendéan General, prize for the Best Film for Young Audiences says to another real life hero Henri de La at the Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Rochejaquelin, “When faith is discarded, Film Festival in Rome. Tenderly and with Henri, those who rely on reason alone for justice great restraint Navis Pictures has crafted, will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.” in this picture, a film anyone of any age can

REGINA readers can save an additional 14% at The Christian Book Corner in 2014 by using promotional This is a special advertisement section of code REGINA14 at Regina Magazine paid for by: checkout! Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 57 Here in California, we have the opportunity Where do I begin? How is it that I ‘m surrounded simply to change our religion until we arrive by all these men who do not talk to each other? at the one that says “Do not worry, everything is Instead, they listen attentively to a man with a good.”

strong French accent who lectures us on primary Really? I think many have lost both their responsibility and the basis of human life. inner harmony and am a German their awareness of their expatriate living transgressions -- both in California, given to us by God. a lay Catholic These feelings can be who grew up ‘worked out’ in so many in the 70’s and ways today. You can 80’s -- ‘Generation X,’ start drinking, go to a II suspect -- and I have psychologist, fitness- never heard of these train like crazy or just go things. shopping.

What is ‘Sin’? I think that many who still believe in God today think that He is a God There’s something in of great love, and that your heart of hearts they’ll ‘be fine’ with that screams that God. They think that you’re doing something their lives are not bad – fundamentally wrong they keep more or less to with your life. It the law - and that at the seems like it is human end of their lives God nature. Theologians will be waiting for them would call this the in heaven and welcome “Moral Law.” them into His Heavenly spa. First, it’s a small discomfort that you can But these people still easily ignore, like probably will have a spider’s web that you difficulties with the simply wipe away. But assumption that it always comes back, everything will be OK. this discomfort and it is They are grounding their growing every day, until hope in the faith that you finally realize that this God of great love what is bothering you will say, “Well, I accept is not a discomfort but, California Dreamin’ that things did not work ‘sin.’ The Spiritual Exercises of an Expatriate German out so good with you; by Alexander Niessen | photo by Harry Stevens but anyway, that was Sin. Every morning reasonably good.” you wake up with the We moderns have a motto: Everything feeling. It was not there before in your is Possible. Just carry on everything as But if God is pure love, I do not think life and now it troubles you every day. usual. Only do not be disturbing, it is that there is ‘reasonably’ a chance for us Many people in Germany or indeed all better for you and your fellow man. to be in His presence and not connect over the western world are perhaps not 100 % with him and emulate His infinite even aware of this damage – the small Difficulties on the Way to the love. Can we ever reach this goal? I and large scratches on your once so-pure Heavenly Spa would say “no” simply because we are soul. human -- but we can try to aim as close But how should I deal with my own as possible. We do not talk about sin in the Western guilt? Where should I look for help? My world. Sin is medieval. Sin is in the past. wife? My friends from football at my Perhaps a driving metaphor will work Sin cannot harm us; we know everything favorite pub? Maybe I should just buy a for both Germans and Californians, who -- science and vague feelings keep our glass pyramid or get a tattoo. Maybe that love their cars. If you drive away from lives in balance and so can explain would help restore my inner harmony. the light, you cannot see the dirt on the everything and make life bearable.

page 58 www.reginamag.com A Catholic Future windshield. Only when you drive towards the light is it very After each three-hour class, we returned to our wooded obvious that you have accumulated a lot of dirt on your cabins. Mine, which was wonderfully situated in the forest, glass. was called ‘Cecilia,’ for the Saint of Music. Here, I began with a prayer and then reflected undisturbed about what I’d At this point in a person’s life, everyone must determine learned. for himself. It may be earlier for some; later for others. For some, it may never happen. Fortunately, I was brought up After 25 minutes, there is a bell announcing the beginning Catholic. By the grace of my parents, I was baptized into the of the next session. After the second meeting, the day is then One, Holy, Roman Catholic Church. interrupted for a silent lunch and then we continue with the sessions three and four in the afternoon. When the time came where I could no longer live under this burden of guilt, I had to put my whole conduct in question. After dinner, there was Mass. All Masses are in Latin and I soon discovered that I was far away from my so-beautiful, so bring Christians to respect the Sacrifice of Christ far original baptismal purity. So I decided to align my life more than the normal Mass. A gorgeous liturgy which has anew. I never left the Church, though I was a typical “gray survived, luckily for all of us. Catholic.” But now I felt the need to change my life. So the days go by fast and each day is divided into specific The Spiritual Exercises of a 16th Century Basque aspects of life and work of Jesus. Saint On the first day, I found myself setting myself apart from The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola have since my personal sin and its consequence - namely hell for my the 16th century brought peace and healing to generations soul. But here there is not the slightest impression that of Catholics. I set out to search for them as all moderns everything is OK. would – on the Internet. By American standards, the place was not so far away. For Europeans the ride was certainly On the second day, we covered and very long, as was my own way back to Christ. intimate knowledge of how God is working through Jesus. On the third day, the saving grace of God, through the death When I saw the house for the first time, I felt very of Jesus on the cross for all sinners who believe in Him. On uncomfortable. It was early in the morning, gray and rain- the fourth day, we had contemplation on the joyful mysteries driven. A big house, a little run down. I sat there in the rain of Jesus in life. On day five, we followed up on the Apostles on the large gravel parking lot surrounded by wooded hills. after they went out into the world to spread the Good News. Fog lay over the whole area and I felt like I was in a Stephen King book. On all days, the priests used concrete examples. How would you behave – would you even sit with Jesus at the table of Should I really go inside and introduce myself? I still have the Last Supper? What would you do if you could be with time to say goodbye to the whole project. But I am by nature Jesus before his arrest in the Garden? one of those people who once I have begun, I work very hard and perform to an end. So I walked into in the house. Crying in the Confessional

A nice older nun has greeted me warmly. She then asked if On the third day was the time of confession. The priest this was my first Ignatian Exercise; it was. So we went over whom I liked the most heard my confession. Wow, I cried. the rules: no talking during the whole retreat, no cell phone Not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy about the special grace and no computer. One can only talk with the priest during of God which was given to me. the Exercises. Let the Holy Spirit work in you. What a blessing these retreats are. The experience has No Talking, Please changed my life and the lives of the people with whom I share my life. Now I know what the main responsibility and OK, simple enough, I thought, though somewhat to my foundations are in a human life. surprise these rules turned out to be in earnest. No “good morning” for breakfast. If you would like salt and pepper, What is my primary responsibility? What is my earthly you must indicate this by gesture only. In the event you goal? First, to save my soul. Man is created to honor and need something urgently, you must write it on a piece of serve God, and so his soul can go back to God. Second, all paper and give it to the nice nun, who will then address your other things on the face of the earth are created for man concern. For me, this is not a big problem. I’m okay without to serve him in achieving this task. One can make use of conversation. them, insofar as they help one to attain one’s heavenly goal. Otherwise you have to renounce them, insofar as they We began at noon on the first day, and I was surprised. represent an obstacle in the way of this. First, we had lectures about God by a Jesuit who is very holy and passionate. The classes are divided into two sections. Unfortunately, many people in Germany and in the Western The first phase explains the doctrinal viewpoint and its world no longer know what the goal of human life is. But implication for human life and the second section is then there is a 16th Century Basque who can tell them. the life and actions of Jesus Christ. These two classes are in harmony.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 59 An Atheist in Germany

Story and Photos by Tamara Isabell

At the age of seventeen, I stumbled upon the idea his earliest Kindergarten days and of moral relativity. At that age, the concepts of entered the Grundschule at the age of six. My life centered around his school ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ seemed to be self-evidently and play schedule, the mothers of his pure abstractions. This almost immediately-- playmates becoming my dear friends. probably inevitably -- led me to atheism. Most of those years were spent in or near Wuerzburg, “The City of Churches” in the Franconian wine t was 1989 and I was the in every archway and cobblestone, a region. My daily errands were run only atheist I knew. I was history so lacking in our own American in the midst of the most impressive ridiculously enamored of my own landscape. architecture. I loved to stop in philosophizing and fancied myself the gaudy Hofkirche chapel of the Ibold and daring in my Godlessness. We wound up living in Germany Residenz, letting my eye follow the almost fifteen years. Two of our three gilded swirls of Baroque exuberance, Ten years later, I was the wife of an children were born there. I became ever upward to the domed ceiling. I Army Aviation Officer, assigned to ever more fluent in German over the regularly passed the 900 year old Dom Germany. I fell in love with German years, immersing myself by stages in (cathedral), hastening my steps past culture from the beginning, fascinated community life, primarily through my the looming skeletons above the side by their rich artisanal history displayed eldest son, who spoke German from entrance.

page 60 www.reginamag.com A Catholic Future

Though my everyday horizons were What were they all about? reasoned arguments for Catholicism dominated by church domes and and encouragement to convert steeples, and my days were measured Of course, like art enthusiasts amongst my American acquaintances. by church bells, I remained an atheist. before and after me, I initially My German friends seemed clueless. I regarded it all with the academic explained such symbols in terms of curiosity of a museum-stroller, mythology. I did this for many years, absorbing the beauty of the Christian but those explanations ultimately world around me for its aesthetic could not satisfy because of the one value alone, never considering there overwhelming theme in Christian art, might be more. found nowhere else.

Almost all my German friends at this I refer here to the theme of suffering. time were ‘Catholic.’ I found myself Indeed, why does that stone saint swept along in their customs, helping hold his head in his hands? Why will my son keep his candle lit against persist in offering up her the wind in the children’s Laternezug gouged eyes on a golden plate? And honoring Saint Martin, allowing my what about Christ on the cross? I’ll never forget that first shy inquiry house to be marked with a chalk I made to a German about going to blessing by neighbors dressed in Magi I slowly started getting a sense of Mass -- and my shock when she told costumes on Three Kings Day. voices from the medieval past; it was me they weren’t going to Mass that as if they were trying to communicate Sunday or pretty much any Sunday Through it all, I maintained a with me through the paintings and after that. Most of my German stubborn intellectual detachment. statues they’d left behind. I began friends who’d appeared so very I observed and participated with to wonder if the structures they’d Catholic to me in their customs only pleasure, but made a point to find erected stood as a testimony to attended Mass on holidays, or for it all very fascinating in a strictly something, perhaps something other and other sacramental rites. anthropological sense. I was still than the patriarchal Church-state an atheist, still proud to stand in I’d always disdained. I developed a I had to go to my American Catholic opposition to religion in all its nagging sense that evil could not be friends to find unabashed, joyful backward manifestations. the creator of such beauty. evangelization. Still, the seeds of my conversion were planted amidst the Then a strange thing happened. At this point, God remnants of truth radiating through As the years went by and my injected Himself the beauty of German Catholic appreciation for German culture pointedly into my culture. I will be forever grateful to deepened, I somehow found it harder life, revealing His that country and its people for to hold it at an academic arm’s length. truth through striking the spark that ultimately conversations illuminated my life though Gaze long enough at a statue of Saint with devout Christ. Denis, and you find yourself asking Catholics and why he happens to be holding his the writings head in his hands. Surrounded by so of long-dead much Christian art, I began to focus Saints. Sadly, I on recurrent themes and symbols. could only find important)-sisters- enriched my life and helped me in so many sitting-around-a-table- difficulties. and-thinking-about- how-we-can-help-the- When my father died two years ago, it was a poor-children-in-Africa- hard time, but the Faith helped me. The hope while-we-are-holding- of eternal life makes those sad things much hands.“ easier to carry. And that’s not only a promise, but reality. For sure, we have to minister to the poor But the most important thing is, that I have a (Pope Francis is doing it relationship to God. We humans belong to God right), but what’s going and it’s great to come home, after a long journey. on in the most parishes I found God, and that’s what I was searching for. is finally only a cheap attempt to salve the I can say, despite the fact that less and less conscience. people accept Catholicism in Germany, in a Christian country (what Germany for sure is) Sitting in a circle and living the faith is easy. In the region where I talking about “Who am come from there are lots of beautiful churches I?“ is another example. and chapels. You can find crosses everywhere; That’s what we did in we have a lot of priests. Young German religious classes. Or guitar-masses. Now, that I’m living in Japan, it is much more Reclaims His difficult. It is not an Christian environment. As What I experienced was only 1% of the Japanese are Christian, you will a Church that set man in be lucky if you find ONE Catholic church in a Catholic Heritage the center and not God. town. Q. How old are you? What do you do for a And that’s not what I was living? Where do you live? searching for. It can be easy to forget the Faith, if you don’t A take care. This has taught me the importance of I’m 26 years old and was born in Trier, the Q. When and why did you return? religious symbols. oldest city in Germany, which has a rich Catholic tradition. Now, I’m studying Japanese studies/ A. That’s a good question. I read a book “Inside Q. What advice would you offer to economics and I was living in Japan. the Vatican: The Politics and Organisation of someone who has left the Church? the Catholic Church“ written by Thomas Reese Q. How old were you when you left the S.J. Often people are going to leave the church church? because they had bad experiences and didn’t I found it fascinating. Then, I researched the really know the Catholic faith. That’s the point! I can’t pinpoint a specific year; it was rather Vatican, the Roman Curia and – with the Faith! a process of moving away from the Church Catholic Faith. About that same time Blessed and Christianity. I was baptized as a baby, John Paul II was dying and – I don’t know why If someone doesn’t believe in God – and received Holy Communion at the age of 9, and – I felt the urge to pray for him. I had never in Germany most young people do NOT – went to Confirmation with 14, as it is tradition prayed before that time. objectively it makes no sense to stay. So, they in Germany. Of course, at my first Holy leave the Church. Communion I didn’t think about religion in a In an Italian magazine my mother read, was deep way, but in retrospect I cannot say, that a poster pictures of the pope and on the back But in most cases, the bad experiences (such as I had a relationship to God either. And to be side psalms were written. So, every evening I guitar masses, a humanistic view of God, etc) – honest, I only wanted to get confirmed for the prayed these psalms (i cannot speak Italian!), these things are not really Catholic. money. and it was an important time for me. I started speaking with God! If your parish has only these types of things and As a teenager I was fascinated by Zen-Buddhism, you are searching for God and the Sacred, my but didn’t practice it. So until I was 17, I had my Then, the bishop of Trier celebrated a requiem advice is as follows: 1) Read the Bible, 2) Learn own one world outlook peppered with a bit of and it was the first time in years that I sawa the Catechism and 3) Find a good, Catholic Buddhism. church from the inside – and I was ‘caught.’ parish with a good, Catholic priest. Talk to him I felt so great and excited, that I decided to go and to the parish people. Try to get to know the Q. Why did you leave the church? regularly to Holy Mass. For sure, that was the Church from another perspective. work of the Holy Spirit. There are a lot of reasons, which I understand Learning about the faith and living it is difficult, now, but didn’t understand at that time. Over the years my parish changed, and now the if you don’t have someone to learn from. I’m a person, who really like thinking about masses are dignified and beautiful, so I found a philosophy and I love spiritual places. When place where I can find God. And I discovered the If you have the chance to attend a Mass according my friends in our “wild-years“ went to party, I Latin Mass. So my view on the church changed, the Extraordinary Form (Latin Mass), DO IT. preferred to take our dog for a long walk in the as I read further books about the Faith, talked You will be overwhelmed by the beauty of this forest. to priests and prayed a lot. When a German old rite. Cardinal was elected pope, this pushed my I think that’s the key to understanding why decision trying to follow Christ. And last, but not least: PRAY. Ask God to show I turned my back on the Church. At that time you the way back home. He surely does! I couldn’t find spiritual nourishment there. I And now I can say, it was not a mistake to re- cannot relate to sentimental, pseudo-religious start my Catholic life. The belief in Jesus Christ If you do these four things: reading, learning, stuff like, “we-are-all-brothers-and (most talking, and praying — your life will change.

page 62 www.reginamag.com Tonight on the parapet I stand feeling alone. You’re My Knight Not just from the night, But the hard castle stone. Tonight The message was clear, The Crusade was now done. You were headed for home As the battle was won. “I’m waiting my love, As I promised I would. Waiting for kisses As only you could. Awaiting your love With your lips upon mine, Awaiting your warmth like The rush from red wine.” Road weary and worn You appear o’re the hill. Tired from the fighting, But my hero still. In your armor you ride With your shield and your sword. Loyal men by your side, With peace your reward. You’ve finally come home, Tis’ a welcoming sight. No more leaving for you; No more back to the fight! I race down the stairs, My dress dusting the ground, You shout out my name, And my heart starts to pound! You bolt up toward me, When I come into sight. My hero, my husband, You’re my Knight tonight! ***** ***** ***** Donna Sue Berry February 5th, 2013 They rise at 3:00 am for Mass. They work and study and pray. They are vegetarians.

photos by Harry Stevens & Roger Dekeyser Practicing In the Timeless Presence of God he Cistercian Rule is considered one of the strictest in the Church, and the Order has T left their mark on Germany for centuries. The Abbey at Mariawald was established in 1486, six years before Christopher Columbus set sail for America. The monastery is picturesquely located among rolling green fields and forests near Germany’s French and Belgian borders.

Here, the strict rule of the is once again in effect, by special permission of Pope Benedict XVI. The monks celebrate the traditional Latin Mass in their ancient Rite.

In February, Abbot Josef Vollberg OCSO of Mariawald sat down to talk with Regina Magazine about his Abbey, their strict Rule, and how today German Catholics are turning up at the monks’ door seeking Confession, the Mass and the life of a Cistercian monk. page 64 www.reginamag.com The Liturgy

he first Cistercians Tcame here to Abbot Mariawald (‘Mary’s Forest’) on 4 April 1486. Josef, tell us There was a pilgrimage movement here for the veneration of a famous about your Pietà. The monks were forced to leave monastery. the monastery three times in its history. First, for almost 60 years as a result of the , then again in the Kulturkampf under Bismarck in the 19th century and finally they were forced out by the Nazis. But again and again God granted a fresh start. In its heyday around 1900, there were about 100 monks in here in the monastery. myself have been a What is Imonk in Mariawald since 1986; that is, the Abbey’s exactly 500 years after its founding. Currently situation our Community is comprised of 14 monks. Eleven live today? here in Mariawald, two live outside as hermits, and one has worked as a priest in the Sisters’ Abbey "Maria Peace." After a private audience in the summer of 2008, Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI granted permission for the return of the abbey to the older rules of the Order and to the celebration of Holy Mass in the Usus antiquior. To implement these reforms it took some time of course, because something lost cannot be immediately restored. Since 2009, we celebrate the Holy Mass regularly with the books that were he , which is the name of this in effect in 1963. Since then, we have been Tbeautiful mountain area in which How have you contacted again and again by men who want our abbey is located, was originally a to get to know our way and who want to take Catholic area. It is not difficult to have been received possible steps towards profession. Ten of contact with Catholics and Mariawald these were accepted after a long examination; is known for our reform far beyond by your that is an average of two per year. However, the region. The High Mass on Sunday is usually well attended, although the seven of these left the monastery, after a monastery is situated in a very lonely neighbors? shorter or longer time. The reason was often - spot. Of course, in the nearby towns in contrast to what we saw in their assessment and villages, there is the opportunity to participate in worship, – that they did feel they could grow naturally in the Novus Ordo Mass. There are obviously a consid- sufficiently in order to meet the requirements erable number of believers who appreciate the traditional rite so of our strict rule. Of the remaining three, one much that they take a long journey to Mariawald for this Mass. has already taken the final profession.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 65 he day of a monk in Mariawald begins at 2:30 in the morning, because at 3:00 am Can you Twe have Mass. The prayer penetrates the darkness, leading out of the night to the light of the returning Christ. After the vigils -- the first prayer times -- follow Lauds and describe a day Prime, and the days’ times, Terce, Sext, and Nones , and finally and Compline at 19.15 clock, the night prayer. The highlight of day is the morning celebration of the in the life of Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The monk is offered with Christ to the Heavenly Father as a victim, he fulfills his vow, and at the same time, the monk provides through this sac- a monk at rifice and his prayer a service for the whole world. The time between these services, a Trappist spends with mental and physical labor, such as studying, , Mariawald? gardening or housework. In addition to possible mid-day rest time, monks only have just under seven hours for sleep at night. The food is simple and meatless.

Mariawald Abbey by Roger Dekeyser / Used with permission The Liturgy

s a boy, I was indeed an altar server, but I never Athought to go later to a monastery -- moreover, to the ince we are not par- strict Trappists who get up in the middle of the night to Do Catholics Sish, we are limited to pray. I was more interested in television and fitness train- providing the sacraments ing and many other things. I thought maybe I would be a visit your of Eucharist and Confes- pilot or sailor. I had thoughts sion. It's amazing how of emigrating to Canada. What monastery many people, especially How did you a contrast to my current life men, come to Mariawald behind high convent walls! A to confess. Therefore, become a rather unpleasant experience for the in addition to our regu- during my time as a soldier larly scheduled confes- monk? of the Bundeswehr (German Sacraments? sion times every week, Army) led me to want to learn Catholics may almost more about our Catholic faith. While at a soldier’s Mass always ask for the Prior to hear their confessions. I one of my colleagues made fun of the sacred celebration. believe that our worshipers reflect the structure of the And though my faith was very nearby population, perhaps more than is usually the weak at that time, I felt injured at case otherwise in the communities. In Mariawald, our his mockery. I began to concern worshipers are not only the elderly and they are not myself more with spiritual things. almost exclusively women. Here we also have men Throughout my studies, I then between 20 and 40, and even a few children. Why realized that my chosen subject do they all come? Maybe they see that the reverence – business studies – didn’t really towards God, and participation in the mystery of the interest me. I turned to psycholo- sacrificial victim of Jesus and salvation can be experi- gy and philosophy and eventually enced with greater propriety here than in some forms read literature about the Bible of error of the Novus Ordo. These people do not want and the Catholic Church. I began to be distracted by entertainment; they subjectively to regularly attend Mass and go to love the withdrawn severity of the rite. They treasure confession, which was not previ- the full withdrawing in silence and immersion in the ously the case. Finally, I stopped rhythm of the Gregorian devotion. my studies at the university. After two years of searching, prayer and struggle, I finally found my way in 1986 to Mariawald. Twelve years later, I began the study of theology, which I completed in 2005 at the University of the Cistercians of the Holy Cross (Austria). In 2006 I was ordained a priest, and two years later was elected as Abbot of Mariawald. I trust that it was part of my voca- tion to inquire in that same year of Pope Benedict for the privilege of placing the Abbey at Mari- awald again under the traditional rule of the Cistercians and to be able to celebrate the liturgy in their time-honored form. The mockery of my soldier comrades may have all this set in motion. And who knows what my path would have been, had not my grandmother always prayed that one of her descendants should be called to the priesthood? Morning Prayer by Roger Dekeyser / Used with permission Notes from the Field Bringing the Latin Mass to a German Village by Paul Dahnen

t. Lambertus in Bliesheim, where I He selected the Parish Church of St. First Latin Mass in live, is a 19th century neo-Romantic Martinus in Pingsheim. To measure the 40 Years Schurch by Cologne regional architect site, I visited with Father Fuisting (FSSP). Robert Ferdinand Cremer. The 1844 Romanesque church is landmark- About 70 believers found protected and was first established in 1022. their way to Pingsheim St. Lambertus is also very beautiful, and It’s also very beautiful, with a 19th Century for a weekday Mass, for perfect for the Old Rite. There is still an high altar and a cemetery with grave crosses that first time. It had elaborate high altar by the Cologne Master from the 17th through the 19th Century. been more than 40 years Muschard, who in 1927 carved it from since the last time the Westphalian stone. The columns of the high altar are made of German marble; the images are Italian marble, of Christ on the Mount of Olives and on Tabor. The church even preserves some valuable historical 19th Century copes and chasubles.

Unfortunately, all this was at first too good to be true. Not long after I inquired, I received from Pastor Hoffsümmer the answer that the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Rite was prohibited in this church. This, he said, was on the instruction of his superior, Pastor Jansen from Erftstadt –Liblar. When I telephoned Pastor Jansen, I was given a terse reply and not much of a foundation for the decision.

Not So Quickly Discouraged Very Welcome in A Beautiful, Old Mass was celebrated Architectural Gem in that beautiful church. But I was not to be so quickly discouraged; where there’s a will, there’s a way. St. Martinus is much smaller than St Since then, we celebrate Another childhood friend of mine, also a Lambertus but nonetheless a gem in the Mass at Pingsheim native of Bliesheim, Pastor Willi–Josef terms of both the furnishings and the every three weeks, Platz, is the responsible minister for the construction; it was of course created for and slowly people are parish community Erftstadt-Borde. (He the Old Rite. In Pingsheim, we were even beginning to know this, is responsible, as many priests are in very welcome-- there was strong support and believers are finding Germany for many parishes – a total of six by the Church Council and the Sexton. their way there to the in his case.) beautiful Mass. We fixed on date for 15 April, the Friday The author is a Catholic who I spoke to him to ask whether we can after the first Passion Sunday. So, we stumbled upon the Latin Mass use one of his churches, and I received a rehearsed the proper chorales for this with after the Motu Proprio of 2007. prompt commitment, as well as a disarming our lay Schola. Father Fuisting celebrated Well-catechized in his childhood, answer: “If the Holy Father has allowed the the Mass, supported by a group of young he wanted his children to grow up Old Rite, then why should we not allow it?” altar servers from Wesseling. with the Mass of the Ages. So he set out to try to make this happen in his small German village, today a suburb of Cologne, Germany.

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the wake of the Vatican Council. A German medical doctor relates how he fell in love After school, I was active in the with the traditional liturgy – and how he became Catholic Boy Scouts, where we were encouraged to ‘use our embroiled in a decade-long struggle to win permission creativity,’ inventing our own for the Mass to be celebrated in the ancient city of liturgies in loose-leaf notebooks. No one ever questioned the “new” Trier, founded by the Roman Emperor Augustus and liturgy, neither my family nor Catholic since the time of Constantine. anyone in my social environment. There was simply no other s I was born in 1963 -- during the convocation liturgical variant. of the Second Vatican Council -- I never actually experienced the traditional liturgy By the time I was slightly older, however, I began during my childhood. I grew up in a good increasingly to question this liturgy I had grown up CatholicA family in a modern suburban community with. It seemed to me that the new rite was less about outside Mainz (a small city in central western Germany). worship, and more about featuring the priest at center In my parents’ house and in our local parish, we stage, along with the lay people who were ‘selected’ to followed the new, post-conciliar liturgy of Paul VI. participate in the liturgy.

During the 1960s, our suburb was a newly built post- In fact, it seemed to me that in the new rite the proper war settlement, and we had no church building for focus on the major events of Holy Mass had been lost many years. Instead, we long ago. We were afforded used a local rectory for hardly a moment for our Mass and for Carnival own silent prayer, or to events. There was no await that inner peace so sacred space for our essential for worship. In village. In the rectory, How the Latin the new rite in Germany, we had only chairs, no every moment had to be benches – and of course filled with action. no way to kneel. We Mass Returned were told that there was Together with other no money available for to Roman Trier students, then, I became building churches in the increasingly interested in Mainz diocese. by Stefan Schilling, MD experiencing the quieter, more predictable, “real” In the late 1970s, I worship found in the old attended our diocesan high school in Mainz, and I can’t Mass, where people’s actions were in the background remember anyone ever expressing any critical thoughts and God was brought back to His rightful place -- in the regarding the huge liturgical upheaval that followed in center of the action, so to speak.

Now and again we students would drive to a parish in Kiedrich, a picturesque medieval town amidst the vineyards along the Rhine. In this simple country parish, the church had maintained a special schola cantorum for many years. Saints’ days and feasts were celebrated with due solemnity.

At about this time I decided I would no longer receive Communion in the hand. My belief in the Real Presence was too powerful for me to countenance the numerous abuses I had observed in the practice of giving Communion Standing room only for Mass with Cardinal in the hand. Brandmuller as thousands of Germans flood the Basilica of St Maximian for a Latin Mass for At the suggestion of a friend, I attended the the Holy Robe in 2012 Holy Mass in the traditional rite for the first

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 69 time in a parish near Frankfurt. I watched joyfully as Finally, there was plenty of silence, especially in the the celebrant handled the Body of Christ in a reverent, central part of the Mass where we are called really to convincing and consistent manner. His careful use of pray with the celebrant. I was also delighted to find that the corporal, the closed hold of his fingers on the Host my private prayer was no longer seemingly an affront from conversion to purification, on the paten and in to others – something to be “talked to death.“ The Holy administering Holy Eucharist in the mouth -- here, One was the focus of this Mass, not the person of the it was clear that no one needed to explain the Real priest, nor the performances of amateur liturgists. Presence. From these many gestures and signs, that the Body of Christ was really and truly in the Host was Here, I felt spiritually secure and at home. Over time, I abundantly clear to anyone attending this Mass. came to love the liturgy more and more, despite the fact that traditional Masses at that time were hard to find I remember thinking that the form followed the content for me, and indeed for anyone in Germany. For me, this of our Faith totally in these actions. Only much later did liturgy touches my interior life, something I can hardly I come across the concept of lex orandi lex credendi; put into words. Perhaps it is the experience of what we that is, the notion that “the law of prayer determines the call “grace.“ law of faith“ and therefore that one’s external actions shape one’s inner attitude. Over the years, I often wondered why Catholics were not permitted to attend both liturgies. The de facto I was equally impressed by the Traditional Rite’s ban on the traditional rite irritated me, the more so common orientation in prayer. That is, the traditional because pretty much everything else in what one could rite does not make the priest the center of the action -- term liturgical “peculiarity“ was allowed and indeed though to be fair there are many priests who do not seek encouraged. this center stage. Instead, his place is almost akin to that of the head of a procession in a village feast.

Trier Bishop Ackermann watches as thousands of Germans The Mass for the Holy Robe was conducted on a makeshift flood the Basilica of St Maximian for a Latin Mass for the Holy stage before thousands of German Catholics by the Fraternity Robe in 2012 of St. Peter. page 70 www.reginamag.com The Liturgy

For example, I’m somewhat chagrined to report that For many years we had to drive many miles to do this. the seminary of the diocese of Trier – an important Catholic community since the time of the Romans – When the new Bishop (now Cardinal Marx) of organized what was billed as a “techno worship“ to Trier was installed in 2002, I began asking him celebrate the Millenium Year 2000. The concluding for permission to celebrate the Holy Mass in the “hymn“ of this “Mass“ was a German Idol hit for that traditional rite in our diocese. During our subsequent year entitled “No Angels,” performed in the presence correspondence, I collected about 300 signatures of the Bishop and diocesan clergy. (You will forgive me to support my request. After over two years of if I use an American phrase here: “You can’t make this painstaking correspondence with the Diocese’s stuff up.“) Consultancy Department, permission was finally granted at the end of 2004 for a single Indultmesse Liturgically speaking, in Germany everything to be celebrated on Sundays and holidays in Trier. seemed possible. The single exception to this rule Permission was conditional, however, on the was any request to allow the traditional liturgy. observation of many restrictions regarding place, time, This was treated as if it were indecent and, indeed, inter alia, etc. reprehensible. This was eleven years after my first request to the I learned this after I graduated from my medical bishop of Trier. studies, and established my family in Trier in 1993. This was when I first approached the now- In spite of the limitations established, I’m happy to deceased Bishop of Trier with a request to permit report that the response to the Old Mass has been an “Indultmesse” here. A need was not seen by the such that the diocese has agreed to provide a separate bishop. priest for pastoral care in the extraordinary rite in the Trier jurisdiction. Of course, we greatly rejoiced Thank God for the good priests and even over the long-prayed-for Motu Proprio from the municipalities in Trier that we found that offered a Holy Father regarding the traditional liturgy. In the respectful form of the liturgy of Paul VI “ordinary” Diocese of Trier, we hope and expect for a future of Mass. Our family found such a community, and there “normality“ in the usus antiquior of the one Roman our three daughters were baptized. For these many rite. years, our family has lived with both forms of the Roman rite - the ordinary and the extraordinary form.

Throngs of German Catholics wait in the cold rain for the Holy Robe procession in the Extraordinary Rite to begin.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 71 ens and I were engaged one year before Some of our guests knew the TLM from their childhood our wedding; he is 27 and I am 24 years or early adulthood, but had not been able to attend one since, amongst them were my grandparents. My Jold. We live in Mainz during the week, grandfather gave me his Missal when he heard that I had where we both went to university and where started hearing the Mass in the old Rite with Jens – he I work part-time. Every weekend we return was very pleased when we told him about the wedding and he keeps saying that he enjoyed it very much. to our hometown Cochem to see our families and Jens works there as a piano teacher. Others had been introduced to the TLM later in their lives – they were very happy to have the opportunity to Jens was the attend a Solemn Mass (Missa one to introduce Solemnis). me to the Latin Jens and Susanne very much wanted Mass in 2008. I Not so weird or boring had heard about to be married in the Extraordinary Rite a priest in the neighboring in their beautiful hometown of Cochem Most of our guests though - town who had on the Moselle, a river which winds especially friends and family been saying the members our age --had early morning through vineyards between Germany, never been to a TLM. Some mass in the Old were curious, others rather Rite for quite Luxembourg and France. In this article, skeptical. The latter seemed some time, but surprised that the Mass didn’t I knew too little Susanne recounts the extraordinary turn out as “weird“ or boring about it and events around their TLM wedding as they had thought. had never been there. Only a in mid-summer 2013 for Regina In the end the responses were couple of days very positive: almost all our after we started Magazine. by Susanne Michels photos by Karen Scheuer guests found it very solemn dating Jens and moving. invited me to join him. Perfect motivation to learn the Mass

Amazed at the solemnity and silence We soon had to learn that there are people (even within the Church) who strongly dislike the thought of the Latin I remember that at first I was amazed at the solemnity Mass being held. and the silence. I felt that, probably for the first time in my life, I was truly able to pray. Soon I began to learn Knowing this, we are even more thankful for all the more about the traditional Latin Mass and I’m still support we had during the process of planning the learning new things all the time. wedding and now as a married couple. There was the priest, Jens’ former lecturer at university who lives in I don’t think our families were too surprised when we Brasil and who started teaching himself the TLM when told them what we had planned for our wedding, because we told him we would get married and asked him to do we had been going to the TLM regularly for a long time. the ceremony. He had always wanted to learn the TLM Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 73 and this was the perfect motivation. How could we ever We were warmly welcomed by the most lovely thank him enough for everything he did for us? community and a wonderful, warm- hearted priest. We very much felt like we finally found a new home after the Then there was the old friend from university – he and priest who held the old mass near Cochem took up a new Jens had been studying together (Jens parish in Switzerland. will be a school teacher, the friend became a priest). He was the deacon in the Mass. He was ordained in the The altar boys from Trier agreed to help out at our Extraordinary Form, thus very experienced, and could wedding and they even made time to practise beforehand help all of us and with the priest. Their guide us. He would families made the effort also remind us that to come to our wedding, we’d only need to too, and so did many trust whenever we other members of the struggled with all the community, which we stress and he heard are very grateful to them our confessions on for. the morning of the wedding day.

Filling in on short Many churches, or notice vestries today are unfortunately missing the equipment for the The third priest, who Extraordinary Rite, was the sub-deacon such as garments for in the Mass, filled in a Solemn High Mass. for somebody else Again, we had to rely on outside help, which we received. on short notice. We first went to his church in Trier on Palm Sunday in 2013, because they had needed someone Since not many organists have enough experience with to play the organ - we’ve been going there almost every old Masses, we had to improvise. One of our witnesses, Sunday ever since. Jens ‘ friend and former piano teacher was of course during the ceremony itself not sitting at the beauty of the Mass in the Extraordinary Rite, organ. We were so grateful that he was willing a dignified and solemn mass will be in honor to arrange for another organist to accompany of God. the first part of the Mass. What would we have done without all of them? How many people have never had the chance to attend such a Mass? Those who are allowed Recognizing the profound truth in the to experience it once, recognize the profound Mass truth in it.

Of course, today there are not always and everywhere the perfect conditions for a TLM. With the necessary trust in God and the many dear people who have already discovered the TRUE GRIT An Update on the Latin Mass in Germany a Regina Q&A

onika Rheinschmitt is the Stuttgart-based Director of Pro Even though the numbers of Missa Tridentina, one of the most active organizations on Mass-goers and Catholics continue to drop precipitously the planet to practically support the Latin Mass. Since 1990 in these countries, there seems Mshe has been the editor and publisher of a traditional newsletter, to be little awareness on the in 2010 upgraded to the magazine “Dominus vobiscum”, which part of Church leadership of is published twice a year and avidly read in Germany, Alsace, the significant power of the Extraordinary Form to attract Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Belgium and the Netherlands. converts and indeed to bring Hers is not an easy job, not the least because in these Catholics home again. countries the Latin Mass faces an unimaginable uphill battle. In Germany and its neighboring lands, secular Against this background, the gains that the Latin Mass attitudes range from indifferent to hostile about the has made are a testimony to the true grit of Catholics, idea of religion itself. Within the Church, both traditional laity and clergy alike. In this exclusive interview with teachings and the traditional rite are often suppressed, Regina Magazine, Monika gives us a view into her ignored or ridiculed in ways that might astonish world. outsiders.

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ell us about Pro Missa Tridentina. When was it 150 TLMs in Germany -- and 36 in Austria, 37 in Tfounded, and by whom? Pro Missa Tridentina Switzerland, 4 in Liechtenstein, 4 in Alsace, 1 in was founded in Stuttgart in Spring 1990 as an Luxembourg, 4 in the South Tyrol, 17 in Belgium and association of laypeople dedicated to the care of the 12 in the Netherlands. Of course, these Masses are Traditional Latin Rite of the Catholic Mass. We work not always regularly scheduled on Sundays. to promote this “Vetus Ordo” by supporting Catholic laity who wish to be able to assist at this beautiful hat is significant growth! How has this been rite. That includes the organization of trainings for Taccomplished? A lot of hard work on the part of priests, altar servers and choirs as well as practical many, many laypersons and priests. Most have had help finding locations for the Mass – and from to face a real struggle to find a church where the Rite writing letters to the local bishop to preparing the can be celebrated and a priest who was willing to be first celebration of a Traditional Latin Mass. trained and to offer the Mass. Then of course many bishops will forbid the advertisement of the Mass, so hat progress do you see being made, the only way the faithful can learn of it is through Wsay, since the Motu Proprio of 2007 in word of mouth – or through the use of the Internet. Germany? Immediately after the 2007 Motu Proprio, there was a significant jump in the number For many years Pro Missa Tridentina has maintained of Latin Masses available around Germany. From a website (http://www.pro-missa-tridentina.org/ Regina Magazine’s reports on England and America ) which supplies not only information about the I see that there has been an impressive growth since Traditional Latin Mass but also lists of locations for 2007 as well. What is remarkable about Germany is many countries and several maps. that there was an immediate increase – more than threefold the number of Masses in 2008, followed by his impediment seems counter-productive in a very quick leveling-off. Ta Church which is rapidly losing membership, either through natural attrition (death) or through hat do you attribute this to? I believe the Catholics simply deciding not to pay their Church Wslang phrase is ‘clamp-down’ in American tax. Yes, it seems so to me and to quite a few others. English. The German bishops moved quickly to But this doesn’t seem to be a rational decision; in fact suppress the Mass, though officially of course this it is much more ideological in nature, this resistance was forbidden by the Motu Proprio. on the part of these older clerics.

ow would you characterize the growth in hat of the future? A. Since many years we Hthe TLM in Germany? When we started in Ware seeing a lot of youth and young families 1990, there were exactly four TLMs available in all becoming in-terested in the Mass, and their Faith is of Germany. Today there are now approximately being strengthened. Most have not been catechized; they don’t know their Faith, but they are AFTER THE 2007 MOTU PROPRIO there was an immediate increase in Latin attracted by the beauty and reverence of Masses in Germany– more than threefold the number of Masses in 2008 -- followed this ancient Rite. by a very quick leveling-off. They are insisting on the other sacraments 160 as well: from Weddings to Baptism, from First Holy Communion to the Anointing 140 of the Sick, Catholics in Germany continue to plead to receive the abundance of 120 graces of their new spiritual home – the Traditional Latin Mass. 100

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0 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Council

The Rhine Alliance and Vatican II 3.0 / CC BY-SA Council by Lothar Wolleh Second Vatican by Harry Stevens t was huge news in 1965: the Catholic Mass Unchanged Since 600 AD Catholic Mass would finally be Up until the 1960s, the Roman Rite Mass had ‘modernized.’ By 1970 the Pope remained essentially unchanged --except for minor Paul VI Missal was in place, setting local variances -- from the time of St Pope Gregory the off a chain-reaction of liturgical Great (590-604). The Council of Trent (1545-1563) innovation which decreed that the Mass was to I be celebrated uniformly and shook the Catholic "Those therefore who after the manner so St in 1570 world to its core. of wicked heretics dare to set aside published a revised missal by the Bull Quo Primum. Today, almost 50 years Ecclesiastical Traditions, and to invent any later, many Catholics kind of novelty, or to reject any of those things The Missal of Pius V are beginning to ask why entrusted to the Church, or who wrongfully continued in use with very and indeed whether such and outrageously devise the destruction minor changes until the drastic liturgical changes John XXIII Missal of 1962. were ordered by the of any of those Traditions enshrined in Council. These are serious the Catholic Church, are to be punished The Roots of Change questions. Now that the thus: if they are bishops, we order them to actual Council documents be deposed; but if they are monks or lay A torrent of questions are available online for all remain basically to peruse, it is painfully persons, we command them to be excluded from the community." unanswered. What led to clear that many of these the revolutionary changes in liturgical changes -- the Mass, post-Vatican II? now in practice around ------Second Council of Nicaea 787 A.D. Why have the priest face the the world – were never people? Why term the priest actually specified by the no longer a ‘celebrant’ but a Council. ‘president’? Why change all the ancient prayers to the vernacular? Why delete the One thing is clear: those that were, were spearheaded prayers at the foot of the altar? Did all of this really by a group of liturgists and theologians from the start at Vatican II, as many believe? Or did it actually Rhine Valley. start earlier?

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Some say these liturgical changes began with St on November 22, 1903 with his motu propio ‘Tra le sollecitudini’

“It being our ardent desire to see the true Christian spirit restored in every respect and preserved by all the faithful, we deem it necessary to provide before everything else for the sanctity and dignity of the temple, in which the faithful assemble for the object of acquiring this spirit from its indispensable fount, which is the active participation in the holy mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church.”

Tra le sollecitudini, in short, ’S DURING THE VATICAN COUNCIL Curious onlookers -- mainly lay people -- watch helped reform liturgical music the clergy process. with active participation of the Annibale Bugnini, was responsible for changes in some faithful. Pius X’s reform energized others to action. Holy Week rites.

Father , an Italian by birth who Today, there are questions about whether Pius XII was was raised in southern Germany, may have been the really kept informed about the activities of Bugnini’s genesis for what later became known as the ‘liturgical commission, which implemented the first major movement.’ This was an effort to enhance the changes to the Pius V Missal since 1570. Some of appreciation and experience of worship with one goal: these changes directly affected the rite of the Mass: the to enable the active participation of the faithful in the suppression of the prayers at the foot of the altar and liturgy. last gospel on certain occasions and the celebrant not himself reading parts of the Mass. Guardini’s liturgical movement spread to the Rhine. Concentrated mostly in France and Germany, this The overall effect was to begin a watering-down of pre-World War I liturgical movement was made up of the Rite. Today, questions are still unanswered. Was academics, scholars, monks, priests and visionaries. this a trial run for the reforms that came later from There was little in the way of representation from the the Council? Was there an overall Italian plan led by laity in the pews. Bugnini for the Council? And what about the Rhine countries during this time? Even the century before, Dom Guéranger from Solesmes, France, was an early visionary with the Post War Along the Rhine The Rhine Alliance, as reform of Gregorian chant. Later, Benedictines in it came to be known, included clerics from Germany, France and Germany were pioneers in the liturgical Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and movement: Abbott Anselm Schott (who edited a Latin- Belgium. In the wake of World War II, these were German Missal); Dom Odo Casel, Dom Beauduin, Dom at the center of a push for modernization across Maurice Festugière, Dom Ildelfons Herwegen, Dom European society. Both the secular and religious Virgil Michel, and Dom Pius Parsch. intelligentsia were keen to be rid of “tradition.”

Pius XII’s Post World War II Commission Apparently this trend did not escape the note of Pope John XXIII. Eight months before the Council, he Forward to 1948 and back to Italy, when the next phase wrote,” of liturgical reform began. Pope Pius XII – expressly stating his wishes that the liturgy be kept within the In France, the alliance of most of the conservative spirit of Pius X – formed a liturgical commission. bishops with the Vichy government resulted in their In November 1955, this commission, under Father complete discredit and removal from office. The Rhine

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 79 contingent to the Second Vatican Council was composed A High-Jacked Reform of men who had been bishops during the war, many of whom were cardinals by the 1960s. They brought with From whence came all of this unprecedented change? them younger advisors -- the so-called ‘periti’ -- whose By the 1960s, opposition to the Vietnam War and names since have become well-known to Catholics: Cold War balance of power politics prompted the US Congar, de Lubac, Ratzinger, Rahner, Schillebeeckx and peace movement. In Germany and France, the ‘68er’ Küng. These young men brought their various ideas and movement of student protest, activism and rebellion schools of thought to Vatican II, with a view towards seemed to shadow America’s experience. But did the modernization and ecumenicism. turmoil in society necessarily have to affect the Church so much – and for so long? In the years since, well-regarded observers have posed different explanations for what happened at the Council. In the decades since this tumultuous era, various observers and authors have offered their comments. Some have reported that it was the powerful Rhine Michael Davies famously opined that the liturgical alliance – with reluctant Italians in tow -- and more movement was ‘high-jacked’ and contended that a specifically, Father (later Archbishop) Bugnini that ‘pseudo liturgical renewal’ developed afterwards. led the revolution. Father Wiltgen, who reported on the Council for the news media, described a struggle Of this same influence Benedict XVI later reported, “I between the Italian and German contingents. Cardinal was not able to foresee that the negative sides of the Ratzinger, in his 1988 book, ‘Milestones’ described liturgical movement would afterward reemerge with ‘German arrogance’ as a key factor. redouble strength, almost to the point of pushing the liturgy towards its own self-destruction.” Furthermore, The Council Unfolds he stated unequivocally that the Council Fathers ‘never intended many of the changes that took place.’ The Second Vatican Council opened in October 1962, and closed three years later. In terms of liturgy, several How then did this all happen? changes set a precedent for further change early in the Council’s meetings. These included permanently Outright rebellion against the Council omitting Judica me (prayers at the foot of the Altar), the Last Gospel, the Confiteor and the Absolution before In the final analysis, it appears that fifty years later we Communion. can say with certainty that it was outright rebellion on the part of some European and American bishops and In December 1962 Pope John XXIII changed the Canon priests that led to institutionalizing practices such as by adding St Joseph’s name immediately after the name of the Most Holy . This was the first change to the Canon of the Mass in the entire history of the Church – an unexpected move which surprised many.

Also, early in the Council, missionary bishops assigned to Asia and Africa sought liturgical reform and practices, hoping that languages other than Latin would bring a richer and more vital liturgy to their faithful. There were a few calls for changes such as shortening prayers at the foot of the altar, ending the Mass at Ite, missa est, making the priest facing the people, and developing an ecumenical Mass.

The vast majority of the Council Fathers, however, did not call for any liturgical change. Undaunted by this lack of enthusiasm, however, the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy approved three distinct Mass formulas, specifying that the Canon was to be said aloud, in the vernacular, and with the priest facing the people.

One can say things moved quickly in just three years. Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh / CC BY-SA 3.0 page 80 www.reginamag.com The Liturgy

Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh / CC BY-SA 3.0 Communion received standing and in the hand, and priests no longer celebrating Mass ad orientum.

Furthermore, this same group unleashed a storm of iconoclasm never imagined by the Council Fathers, destroying the work of centuries in beautiful art -- high altars, stained glass, and statuary in Catholic churches all over the world.

Tragically, the damage wrought by the so-called ‘Spirit of Vatican II’ did not end there. The catechesis of Catholics was seriously damaged. Traditional Orders quickly lost their bearings -- and most of their members. As religious vocations plummeted, abuses rapidly crept in to the Church -- in seminaries, in parishes and in Orders. Today, many observers point to the fact that two generations of un-catechized Catholics have meant mass apostasy in most of the Western world.

The damage that has been done to the Church is Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh / CC BY-SA 3.0 only now starting be assessed by a new generation of unbiased Catholic and secular scholars alike. What References Davies, Michael. Liturgical Revolution, Volumes really happened at Vatican II may in fact take another I, II, III, Angeles Press Fortescue, Adrian. The Mass, A Study of fifty years to understand. The Roman Liturgy, University Press, Longmans, Green and Co, Ltd 1955. Guardini, Romano. The Spirit of the Liturgy. Sheed & Ward, London 1930; Ratzinger, Joseph. Milestones Memoirs Editor’s Note: This short essay is but an introduction 1927-1977, Ignatius Wiltgen, Ralph. The Rhine Flows into the to and some thoughts on the liturgical movement, Tiber, The Unknown Council, Hawthorne Books, Inc the Rhine alliance and Vatican II. See the Reference list and their bibliographies for further reading.

Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic. page 81 Inspiring. Intelligent. Catholic.