TIA,

I strongly object to the Catholic funeral given to Luciano Pavarotti. That such an honor should be given in a Catholic Cathedral is outrageous and a disgrace. And what were non-Catholics doing in the Cathedral. They have no right to be there. And the clapping and applause and the immodest dress worn by some women? It reflects the pit into which the Roman Catholic Church has sunk into; starting form the very top. He should have been denied a Catholic burial. He deserved to have been excommunicated for his divorce and the affair with another. Catholics do not and cannot get divorced.

The Catholic Hierarchy is simply sending out the wrong message. Imagine even the Pope sends a message of condolence. Don't they know that one's material talents won't necessarily lead one to Heaven. You need to be a good Catholic to get there. With few exceptions, the members of the Hierarchy from the very top have once again showed themselves to be the most unworthy of successors of the Apostles. The message they send out is this: you can do just about anything in life and get away with it... one of lack of accountability. And off course they'll happily give you the phony Novus Ordo "sacrament of anointing".

     Dr. N.R. - India

TIA,

I'm just writing to let you know how I appreciate your website and think that it can help foster the restoration of the Church.

Curiously, while your policy seems to be to acknowledge the validity of the post-conciliar occupants of the Holy See, the effect on me reading your site has been to solidify my conviction that these men don't even have the Catholic Faith. Were they to dissent on a few teachings of the Church it would be bad enough, but there certainly seems to be evidence of outright Modernism (i.e., apostasy).

In any case, I'm writing you for I know you've put up a number of photos of JPII hugging and kissing women and I came across one that if you haven't posted already, certainly qualifies as one of the more egregious such. It is here (see the second photo down). There are also a couple of other strange shots there: JPII with the dove and a spotlight shining on a priest carrying an eye-in-the-triangle monstrance.

Again thanks for your website. I hope my observations will be of help.

     K.F.

Dear Sirs,

I am a professor of French literature in Germany at the University of Wuppertal. This coming weekend I am going to a small colloquium to be held in Eguisheim, Alsace, where the general topic is Fox in the Vineyard (Renard dans les vignes), and I will be speaking about the possible theological meanings of the tavern in medieval French literature. I was looking for a picture of a medieval tavern and came across the picture at your website and I wanted to ask you if you could tell me where the illustration comes from. I thought it would be fun to show the other colleagues.

Just to show you that in fact there is a possible theological meaning for the tavern, here is one of the quotations I will be using from Peter the Venerable, who was once the Abbot of Cluny:

"Christians do not need to be in sacred places to pray, because either in the tavern or in the church, in the forum or in the temple, facing an altar or a stable, God hears those who invoke Him and assists those who deserve" (Contra Petrobrusianos haereticos epistula, cap. 5, l. 1).

Thanks for your help.

     Sincerely yours,

     J.R. - Germany

TIA,

I am a deeply spiritual and devout Catholic. I am also a Clinical Counselor and a trained Bharata Natyam dancer. I have spent time volunteering with Mother Teresa's nuns in Bombay and was privileged to meet Mother Teresa herself. As Catholics, we are part of a global Church. I understand that this does not mean adopting other cultural beliefs in lieu of our own as Catholics, and I also understand a concern about sacred gesture as being self-serving for the individual who dances it.

However, I found your write-up to be cruel and uninformed.

Mother Teresa herself adopted spiritual practice of the Hindu society of praying on one's knees on the ground. Is this backwards or primitive? Not in my experience.

In regard the problem of dance in the church. Well, priests do sacred gesture throughout every Mass in order to pray with their whole self and to offer the prayers of the congregation "through his hands."

Bharata Natyam has the same intention. Sure, it is very ornate, but so are the garments of our priests. The garments and make-up has spiritual significance aimed to help the dancer transcend her/his self in order to dance more purely for God. Bharata Natyam was originally danced privately for God in the inner sanctuary of the Hindu temple. Therefore, it has no ego-centric beginning and is meant to be watched with eyes of people who are praying themselves.

I feel your harsh labeling the priest who prayed this dance was driven by a focus on rules and judgment and not on an openness to the loving grace of God in global society and in our lives.

     Your Sister in Christ,

     S.P.



TIA responds:

Sister S.P.,

It seems to us that the point you are missing in your defense is that the Hindu deities to whom these dances originally were offered have nothing to do with the true God, as you wrongly affirm.

Holy Scriptures clearly state: "All the gods of the Gentiles are devils" (Ps 95:5). This applies directly to the Hindu deities that inspired the dances you claim can be performed in the Catholic liturgy.

Accordingly, rejection is the only correct attitude to assume in face of any form of such worship. Any complacence with it signifies complicity with the sin of idolatry. What you defend is, deep down, an attempt to bring the practices of idolatry inside the Catholic Church.

It is better to see the reality now, even if it could seem hard and cruel, than remain for all eternity regretting the error.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

Dear TIA,

I was reading through your Comments from Readers section, and came across one comment that I would like to address:

"If all this sounds too "Sirist", I will say this: The Sirists have the burden of verifying historical accounts; the sede-vacantists have the burden of saying that the Holy Ghost could error in validly electing a Pope who would then not be infallible; and the non Sirist/non sede-vacantists traditionalists have the burden of a situation were their valid Popes teach error when speaking infallibly." [My emphasis].

I would ask the reader who posted this comment to point out one instance in which the modern Popes (or any Pope) have taught error when speaking infallibly. It is a mark of the modern Popes that they do not make use of this prerogative of the Papacy. They promote error, true, but I know of no instance when they have done so while speaking ex cathedra. Even when confirming the work of the Second Vatican Council, the Pope took special care not to invoke his prerogative of infallibility. The documents from that Council were not confirmed as being infallible.

In these times of confusion, Catholics must take care not to confuse the private opinions of the Popes, put forth in a public manner, with the infallible pronouncements of the Pope which must follow certain rules. As a private individual, the Pope may be as mistaken as any other man in his opinions. It is only when he invokes his awesome power of infallibility and speaks ex cathedra that his teaching is guaranteed to be free from error.

     Sincerely in Christ,

     P.P.

Dearest TIA,

I can't agree more with your website. I am a Catholic myself, and 17 years of age. I am also studying to enter the seminary and become a priest in 10 years time, however. Certain comments you have about Pope John Paul II are not nice, I know he was very humble and at times too humble but we can't correct the Pope can we? through obedience.

I agree with you that the Pope should be crowned in the Papal Tiara and use the Sedia gestatoria. However we can't do anything, can we?

The Latin Mass is also beautiful, however I can't imagine going every day and hearing the Mass in Tridentine rite. I do serve a Latin Mass, however it is Novus Ordo and I really enjoy it's beauty. I don't know what is going in this world today. The behavior of some people is very impertinent. Church attendance is at an all time low.

The situation today is that people don't want to have the Church we had 50 years ago, preaching on eternal damnation and discipline! However when the Church modernize for the people, instead of Church attendance rising, it flunked! With many churches facing debts and lack of priests all over the world.

     Z.P.

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