I love this stuff from Blighty, among the once Anglicans now Romans. From another world, Oxford and all that.

Refers to “Blessed John Henry,” meaning Newman, without further explanation, his predecessor in the line of highly literate converts who read themselves into the Church.

In this item, He drops pregnant mentions right and left, offering a rich display in a few lines.

“Off in the sunshine,” he writes, beginning his day . . .

. . . to the Chrism Mass, celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio, a cheerful American lad called Edward Adams. [The man is 74 years old, but it’s a case for American readers of  being separated by a common language, hence “a man with whom you are friendly” and whom you respect.]

We had the Spatzenmesse [Sparrow mass] by one Mozart … I did try to spot the Masonic bits, but not being a music buff I failed. [Chrism mass not on Holy Thursday, as of  2017 revision, FYI.]

It is always a pleasure to be at Warwick Street, however, because of the historical connection with my Lord the Marquis of Pombal. Our Principal Church was not founded by the diocese or even by the Vicars Apostolic: it was the Portuguese embassy Chapel when his lordship was the Portuguese ambassador.

All this seems to give the place a whiff of independence … and there is the fact that my Father was a Freemason. However, there wasn’t much of the Enlightenment (a Freemasonry trademark) about today’s liturgical event, thank goodness. Very much the Patrimony rather than Pistoia. [Where in the late 18th century the duke, later emperor, was promoting Enlightenment principles vs. traditional Roman Catholic practice, apparently “the Patrimony” here.].

All in all, quite informal, breezy report, bespeaking the spirit of the man, offering here a sort of journal entry, which is part of what blogs are for, right?

He is more than this, to be sure, cited and quoted already in this blog on weighty issues with learned, sometimes also witty commentary. Find him here.

Greg Hinz on two sides of the Lightfoot/Lincoln Yards question has this in middle of very good summary:

Though I had and still have reservations about the size of the Lincoln Yards project, a city can only have one mayor at a time. Our current mayor negotiated two enormous deals that may in the end yield $10 billion or more in private investment here. What message would it send to other potential investors if we walked away from the deal?

A discouraging one, of course.

Similarly, I think the progressives really are way, way off base in much of their opposition. The $2 billion-plus in subsidies mostly is for transportation infrastructure, the type of thing government generally pays for. And that money won’t “come from” public schools, however much the CTU screams. It will come from property taxes paid by the developers. With few exceptions, the schools will get that money back by raising their property tax rate a little higher on landowners not located in the TIF districts

Well. Should but won’t quiet the protestors.

What a nice balance to what we of the 40th (and other wards) heard by rote from runoff candidates. The progressive five on the council, including our giant-slayer Andre Vasquez, should take note.

Early in John Kass’s scintillating review of our chief prosecutor in our beloved County of Cook, he identifies the linguistic atrocity she committed in her round of self-exculpation:

At Rainbow/PUSH the other day, Foxx prattled on about how she recused herself because of these conflicts, but that’s nonsense. In reality she did no such thing. Her office admitted her so-called “recusal” was only in “the colloquial sense.”

She was KIDDING! How did such an unserious person get to be our chief prosecutor?!

The atrocity? She utterly misused language. First, who except after a few shooters at a party with a smirk or even friendly smile lips will talk about recusing himself from, say, some jocular debate that has ensued in the course of alcoholic jocularity?

Words MEAN SOMETHING, my old speech teacher would tell us young Jesuits. You say what you mean and mean what you say, honoring all the possible twists and turn of nuance, sardonic remarks, saying one thing OBVIOUSLY meaning another, for effect, you know, to get a laugh?

Answer is nobody.

That gotten off chest, this writer refers you back to Kass and his serious analysis of the old vs. new aspects of the Rainbow outburst of this Saturday.

A subject worthy of careful consideration.

After several decades of liturgy wars, few are unaware of the turbulent history of the post-conciliar liturgy since the New Order of Mass (Novus Ordo Missae) was promulgated 50 years ago, on April 3, 1969, by Pope Paul VI with his apostolic constitution, Missale Romanum.

The Novus Ordo was produced in a mere five dizzying years by a committee of bishops, guided by an assemblage of experts. The process itself was a novelty, starkly contrasting with the gradual and organic growth (over more than 1,500 years) of the liturgy it replaced.

Yes indeed, it was a revolution, when the few decided what was good for the many and got their way.

Did the excellent Fran Spielman make a mistake by writing this sentence in the middle of this article?

Wouldn’t it have been wiser to let Mayor Rahm Emanuel bear the burden of those record subsidies, while Lightfoot tries to extract her pound of flesh on the back end?

Pound of flesh? On the back end? I get a really gross image out of that one!

Newsies the world over, or at least the country coast to coast, should be filled with admiration for this legal bulldog and his Judicial Watch organization.

Not notably the case, however. Thing is, he’s going after the wrong people in their view, or the view of most of them, sad to say. Does not fit the dominant narrative.