Wednesday, August 3, 1910. The last of the Anti Catholic Acts Repealed.

The 1672 Royal Act of Indulgence was repealed.  It had stated:

Charles Rex.

Our care and endeavours for the preservation of the rights and interests of the church, have been sufficiently manifested to the world, by the whole course of our government since our happy restoration, and by the many and frequent ways of coercion that we have used for reducing all erring or dissenting persons, and for composing the unhappy differences in matters of religion, which we found among our subjects upon our return; but it being evident by the sad experience of twelve years, that there is very little fruit of all these forcible courses, we think ourselves obliged to make use of that supreme power in ecclesiastical matters, which is not only inherent in us, but hath been declared and recognised to be so, by several statutes and acts of Parliament; and therefore we do now accordingly issue this our declaration, as well for the quieting of our good subjects in these points, as for inviting strangers in this conjecture to come and live under us ; and for the better encouragement of all to a cheerful following of their trades and callings, from whence we hope, by the blessing of God, to have many good and happy advantages to our government; as also for preventing for the future the danger that might otherwise arise from private meetings and seditious conventicles.

And in the first place, we declare our express resolution, meaning and intention to be, that the Church of England be preserved, and remain entire in its doctrine, discipline and government, as now it stands established by law ; and that this be taken to be, as it is, the basis, rule, and standard of the general and public worship of God, and that the orthodox conformable clergy do receive and enjoy the revenues belonging thereunto, and that no person, though of a different opinion and persuasion, shall be exempt from paying his tithes or dues whatsoever. And further we declare, that no person shall be capable of holding any benefice, living, or ecclesiastical dignity or preferment of any kind, in this our kingdom of England, who is not exactly conformable.

We do in the next place declare our will and pleasure to be, that the execution of all, and all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical, against whatsoever sort of nonconformists or recusants, be immediately suspended, and they are hereby suspended ; and all judges, judges of assize and gaol delivery, sheriffs, justices of peace, mayors, bailiffs and other officers whatsoever, whether ecclesiastical or civil, are to take notice of it, and pay due obedience thereto.

And that there may be no pretence for any of our subjects to continue their illegal meetings and conventicles, we do declare, that we shall from time to time allow a sufficient number of places as they shall be desired, in all parts of this our kingdom, for the use of such as do not conform to the church of England, to meet and assemble in order to their public worship and devotion, which places shall be open and free to all persons.

But to prevent such disorders and inconveniences as may happen by this our indulgence, if not duly regulated ; and that they may be the better protected by the civil magistrate ; our express will and pleasure is, that none of our subjects do presume to meet in any place, until such places be allowed, and the teacher of that congregation be approved by us.

And lest any should apprehend that this restriction should make our said allowance and approbation difficult to be obtained, we do further declare, that this our indulgence as to the allowance of the public places of worship, and approbation of the preachers, shall extend to all sorts of nonconformists and recusants, except the recusants of the Roman Catholic religion, to whom we shall in no wise allow public places of worship, but only indulge them their share in the common exemption from the penal laws, and the exercise of their worship in their private houses only.

And if after this our clemency and indulgence any of our subjects shall pretend to abuse this liberty, and shall preach seditiously, or to the derogation of the doctrine, discipline or government, of the established church, or shall meet in places not allowed by us, we do hereby give them warning, and declare we will proceed against them with all imaginable severity. And we will let them see, we can be as severe to punish such offenders when so justly provoked, as we are indulgent to truly tender consciences.

Given at our court at Whitehall this 15th day of March, in the four and twentieth year of our reign.

The act had bee aimed at general religious tolerance for Protestants who where not part of the Church of England, but as the text shows, was much less accommodating to Catholics, which is somewhat ironic in that he was personally sympathetic to the Church.  Indeed, he became a Catholic on his deathbed, assuming that he had not silently converted to the Church some time prior to that.

Last edition:

Thursday August 2, 1900 and Tuesday, August 2, 1910. Odd racist coincidence.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 1910, 1910s, law, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Racism

Wednesday, July 29, 1925. Traffic stop.

New York, July 29, 1925.

L'Osservatore Romano printed a long list of Fascist offenses against Catholics.

Italy announced a new law providing that any newspaper publishing attacks on the government that were "too strong and too frequent" would receive two warnings, after which the paper would no longer be recognized.

Mikis Theodorakis (Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης), Greek composer known for Zorba the Greek's score, was born.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 28, 1925. Léon Augustin Lhermitte

Labels: 1880s, 1887, 1920s, 1925, Agrarianism, Art, France, Women

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori on the practice of law.

My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: As Yourself

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: As Yourself: See yourself in someone else.            https://youtu.be/dtVwIdNdC5Q         

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Kingdom of Heaven

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Kingdom of Heaven: Live for the next world and this world will make sense.            https://youtu.be/rhz-RAJxQ4k         

Monday, July 13, 1925. Pregnant lady.

Archbishop Vasileios Georgiadis was elected by his peers as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

A figurine of a pregnant woman was unearthed in Czechoslovakia that is believed to be 31,000 years old, one of the oldest examples of the same.

Walt Disney married Lillian Bounds in Idaho.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 11, 1925. Spain and Morocco agree to cooperate.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Norman Rockwell, Rif War, Sports, Teenagers, Women

Saturday, July 7, 1945. Japanese killings.

The Japanese carried out the Kalagong massacre, killing villagers in the area after they failed to provide any information about guerrillas in the area.

Peter to Rot.

The Japanese also murdered Peter To Rot, a Catholic from New Guinea, in a bizarre incidence demonstrating the severe Japanese anti Western view and, frankly, the Japanese debasement of the period, which not only reflected itself in murder, but in a chattel slavery view of women and sex.  He was executed for defending a woman whom another planned to kidnap and force into a plural marriage, with the Japanese supporting plural marriages in New Guinea (they were not legal in Japan).  He was arrested and then later murdered on this day.  He will be canonized this October.

Japanese rocket propelled fighter the Mitsubishi J8M made its first flight under it's own power.  The test flight was not really a success as the engine stalled. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Toyohiko Inuzuka, was able to glide the power into a landing, but the plane hit a building.  He died the following day.

The plane was intended as a licensed copy of the ME 163.  Only seven were built.

"First American Red Cross workers to leave Europe for duty in the Pacific are these girls shown waiting to board their transport: L-R: Brownie Thain, Waukomis, Okla.; Jean Fiegel, 7021 Hollywood Bvd., Hollywood, Cal., and Mildred Blandford, 1735 Chichester St., Louisville, Kentucky. Marseille, France. 7 July, 1945. Photographer: Cpl. Becker."

Heloísa Pinheiro (Helô Pinheiro), who inspired The Girl from Ipanema, was born.

Last edition:  

Friday, July 6, 1945. Norway declares war, a parade in Berlin, an award for King Michael, the US establishes an award, Operation Overcast, Nicaragua ratifies, Chennault resigns, and the mystery of Madelen Mason.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Harry S. Truman, It was because of World War Two, Operation Overcast, Post WWII Occupation of Germany, Romania, USSR, Women, World War Two

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 94th edition. Portents? The problem of Evil.

 

Halley's comet depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, showing how big of event it was and how it was viewed, particularly after the events of 1066.

In ancient times, some things were seen as portents  A warning of things to come.  Sometimes, of course, that was appreciated retrospectively.

A terrible flood has resulted in loss of life in Texas, most tragically at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.

It'll seem odd noting it, but this is right after the codification of Trump's agenda in the Big Ugly Bill, which took an axe to solar and wind electricity support.

In Wyoming it's been popular to criticize those project.  It likely has been in Texas too, and everywhere in the US in which petroleum has been a major economic factor.  In those areas, the climate change is a fib line of reasoning has been popular, mostly based on the thesis that what's good for my wallet can't be bad for anything.

The weather recently has been weird.

Some will likely point out that flooding in Texas isn't a new thing.  Indeed, the great Stevie Ray Vaughan put out an lp called Texas Flood which featured the great blues number It's Flooding Down In Texas.

 

All of which is quite true.

And none of which demonstrates that the weather has been normal.  It hasn't been.

I read once, years ago, a comment by a Catholic monk pertaining to the problem of evil, "why does God allow bad things to happen?"  I've seen various explanations over the years, but he related he had actually asked that question, directed as a petition (prayer) to God.  He received an answer, that being "Why do you?"

Indeed, why do we?

Here's one we can avoid, and even reverse.  It's our duty to do so.

One thing I'd also note.  The Big Ugly takes money from things like NOAA and from weather prediction.  One of the thing that's being complained of in Texas is the lack of weather warnings before the terrible storm.

We're going to see a lot more of that.

So again, why do we?

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 93d Edition. Porn industry retstricted, Supreme Court weigh in as Wyoming requires age verification on adult sites, Dudes in the lady room, and on women's teams, Trump helping where no law or help was needed.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Post Mortem, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, children, flap de jour, law, Populism, pornography, Teenagers, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

Blog Mirror: Rome's Christian Founders

 

Rome's Christian Founders

Blog Mirror: High School Memories

 

High School Memories

Bonne Saint-Jean-Baptiste!

Cellmate of Boethius: IVF and a Half-Cath | June 11, 2025

Cellmate of Boethius: IVF and a Half-Cath | June 11, 2025

IVF and a Half-Cath | June 11, 2025

Wednesday, June 10, 1925. Creation of the United Church of Canada.

Canada's largest protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada, was created by the merger of the Methodist Church, Canada and the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, as well as most of the congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Association of Local Union Churches.  The union is surprising in that the base churches had real theological differences.

The Catholic Church is the largest church in Canada overall.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 7, 1925. The Death of St. Max Talbot.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Alcohol, Blog Mirror, Dominion of Newfoundland, Health, Ireland, It was because of World War One, Mental Health, Newfoundland, Personalities, Second Battle of the Somme

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 88th Edition, Additional Label Appendix.

Blog Mirror: FRENCH PRAIRIE – CATHOLISCISM COMES TO THE OREGON COUNTRY

 

FRENCH PRAIRIE – CATHOLISCISM COMES TO THE OREGON COUNTRY

Thursday, May 20, 325. The opening of the Council of Nicea.

Well, at least probably.  

It seems fairly clear that the Council convened on this day, and that Emperor Constantine arrived to observe, not to participate, fourteen days later.  He had sought the council, however, given the Arian Heresy, which had an extremely widespread following in the Church. 

The president of the council seems to have been Hosius of Cordova, assisted by the pope’s legates, Victor and Vincentius.

The creed:

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,

and rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Tuesday, May 19, 1925. Birthdays and a last game.

This is the birthday of Malcolm Little, known to history as Malcolm X.

I've discussed him to some extent here on this blog before, but I had neglected to enter him as a topic category until today.  An extremely intelligent man and the son of a Baptist lay minister, he had undergone a continuing religious evolution and was a Muslim at the time of his murder.  I suspect that, had he lived, he would have returned to Christianity.

It is also the birthday of Pol Pot

Pol Pot has featured on this blog a lot recently.  Born Saloth Sâr the Cambodian Communist leader would go down in history as one of the greatest mass murderers of all time.  Quite well educated, he became a Communist while studying in France after World War Two.  He died in exile in 1998.

Casey Stengel played his last major league game.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 17, 1925. The canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux

Labels: 1920s, 1925, baseball, Catholic, Christianity, Personalities, religion

A Sunday Morning look at the Vietnamese Diaspora.

 

This is probably a coincidence.  This particular church has an associate pastor who is from Vietnam.  Indeed, he's the second Vietnamese priest to serve in the parish.  But this particular Mass comes up just after the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

Prior to the Vietnam War, very view Vietnamese lived anywhere other than Vietnam.  Some lived in France, due to the French colonial association with the country.  When the French Indochinese War ended, some Vietnamese in fact relocated to France, with a small number of actually being Vietnamese who were in the French armed forces.  It wasn't a large number, however, like it would come to be with Algerians.

The end of the Vietnam War however was different.

Many Vietnamese fled because they legitimately feared Communism, putting the lie to the often stated proposition that the South Vietnamese didn't really care how the war ended.  Thousands did, and of those who did, most didn't make it out of Vietnam.

Over 2,000,000 Vietnamese now live in the US, with 60% of those having been born in Vietnam.  37% of them report themselves as being Buddhist, 36%  Christian and 23% aren’t affiliated with any religion. Vietnamese Americans are more than three times as likely as Asian Americans overall to identify as Buddhist (37% vs. 11%), but with Buddhism being the "native" religion of the country in American eyes, that numbers if surprisingly low.

Indeed, it gives some credibility to Dr. Geoffrey Shaw's assertion in his biography of murdered South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm that at the time of the his assassination Buddhism was in significant decline.

However it would also reflect that the American understanding isn't really all that correct.  While some regard Christianity as "introduced", the fact is that Buddhism is as a well, with it being Indian in origin.  Vietnam also has a folk religion which shares many common elements of other Asian "folk" religions, including devotion to ancestors.

Today in Vietnam Buddhists make a 13.3% of the total population, and Christians a declared 7.6% with 6.6% being Catholic.  Hoahao Buddhists  make up 1.4%, Caodaism followers 1% and followers of other religions including Hinduism, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith, representing less than 0.2% of the population. Folk religion has experienced a revival since the 1980s, and it's widely believed that the official 7.6% of the population being Christian is in error, and actually over 10% of the population is Catholic.  The Catholic faith in Vietnam is so vibrant that it now supplies Priests to the United States, as the nation has a surplus of Priests itself.  Looked at this way, Buddhists and Christians are overrepresented in the United States in comparison to Vietnam, but it might actually present a more accurate make up of the Vietnamese religious makeup.

Or perhaps not.  One of the groups that most feared a Communist takeover in Vietnam were Catholics, and for good reasons.  Catholicism has always been antithetical to Communism and in many instances it was credited with being the only effective force on the Globe opposing it. Elsewhere in the same general region of the world, some credibly credit the CAtholic  Church for preventing mid 20th Century Australia from falling into Communism, something the far left in that country still strongly resents.  Catholics were well represented in the South Vietnamese government and military, and interestingly some of the leaders of its military converted to teh Faith during the war or even after it.  

Buddhism was introduced to Vietnam in the 2nd or 3d centuries BC, so its presence there is very old.  Christianity in Vietnam is mostly the story of Catholicism there, and was introduced by the Portuguese, not the French as is so commonly assumed.  Vietnam was never part of the Portuguese Empire, but its influence was very long, and very significant. The Vietnamese alphabet was developed by the Portuguese.

The Communist Vietnamese government has always been  hostile to religion in general and openly repressive against some. Catholic have notably been oppressed, and the native Cao Đài religion, which originated as late as 1926, was oppressed by both the Republic of Vietnam and Communist Vietnam.

France did of course have all sorts of influences on Vietnam due to its conquest of Indochina which commenced in 1858 and ran to 1885.  The very first Vietnamese refugees I met in the US spoke French as well and their native language, reflecting that they had been educated during the French colonial period. Today that number has dropped way off, with their being no need for French in daily life.  A much higher percentage of Vietnamese in Vietnam speak English today than French.  One of the very first refugees I met, who had been an engineer in  Vietnam, but who worked as a city mechanic in the US, struggled with English, but spoke French fluently.

At one time the Vietnamese Diaspora retained a close cultural connection with the defeated Republic of Vietnam and in some places, they still do.  Republic of Vietnam flags were prominent in some locations this past month in areas with large Vietnamese populations and they were displayed during commemorations of the fall of Saigon.  However, there are a not insignificant number of Vietnamese now who are post war immigrants, and whose association is not as strong or there at all.  The Republic of Vietnam itself is officially detested in Vietnam, and often open views about the Republic reflect the same.

Vietnamese in the US often express the hope that someday the separated people can be united somehow, something that's common for diaspora people.  But it won't come to be so.  As time moves on, the Vietnamese in the US will become more and more American, like Italian Americans are and Irish Americans, and less Vietnamese.  Part of that will occur through intermarriage, which is occuring in the US but which interestingly was not a common occurrence during the French occupation of Vietnam or the Vietnam War, with the cultural differences at the time simply being to vast for it to arise frequently.

Thursday, May 17, 1945. The emerging post war world.

The 43d Infantry Division captured the Ipoh Dam near Manila. 100,000 gallons of napalm were used in the American effort.

There was hard fighting again on Okinawa.

 Aircraft from the USS Ticonderoga attacked targets on Taroa and the Maleolap atoll, encountering limited resistance.

Dutch troops landed on Tarakan Island, reinforcing the Australian forces.

Denmark severed relations with Japan.

French forces landed in Beirut to reassert control of Lebanon.

A British white paper addressed post war independence for Burma.

Archbishop Stepinac of Croatia was arrested for the first time by the incoming Communists in Yugoslavia.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 16, 1945. The Haguro sunk, U-boats surrender.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Armor, Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of the Malacca Strait, Channel Islands, German Kriegsmarine, Imperial Japanese Army, Japan, Manhattan Project, Okinawa, Weapons, World War Two

Sunday, May 17, 1925. The canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized. She had died in 1897, making her canonization remarkably quick.

Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians became the fifth baseball player to accomplish the feat of making 3,000 hits in his career.

Baseball pitcher Buster Ross of the Boston Red Sox set a still standing record, of committing four errors in a single game.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 16, 1925.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Norman Rockwell