A 26-year-old woman was at the helm of the South Korean ferry that sank last week with 476 passengers aboard. Park Han-gyeol had been with the company that owned the Sewol for only six months when she was navigating the most difficult passageway of the trip to the island of Jeju. Aside from her inexperience, it is reasonable to ask whether the mere fact that she was a woman contributed to the loss of so many lives. Women are less adept at spatial skills than men and are by nature less suited to maneuvering large vessels. Eighty-seven people are confirmed dead and 215 are still missing. The captain of the ship, who abandoned the ferry before it sunk, faces criminal charges. [UPDATE: A reader with naval experience states in the comments below that it is unlikely her inexperience made much of a difference.]

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  HOLY SATURDAY is traditionally reserved to honor Our Lady. At Tradition in Action, there is a beautiful version of the hymn Stabat Mater with this description: Stabat Mater is a tragic song that meditates on the sorrow of Our Lady as she stood at the foot of the Cross during the crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The song embodies the lament of Mary, for as she watches the agony of her Son she also sees the suffering of her God. As foretold by the Prophet Simeon, her heart was pierced by a sword of sorrow. This particular version of Stabat Mater was composed by the Italian musician Giovanni Maria Nanino (1543-1607). It was adopted into the book of Gregorian Chant, the Liber Usualis, and is here sung by the Benedictine monks of the Abbaye Saint Maurice et Saint Maur de Clervaux, Luxembourg.  

AS Lent comes to a close, many of you will be eagerly indulging in pizza delicacies once again. Truly, there is never a dull moment in the Pizza Industrial Complex, which employs tireless, brilliantly inventive engineers, so while you were away, things have been happening. In our Brave New Pizza World, time never stands still.

Boston Pizza, a Canadian chain, is floating the idea of a five-layer pizza cake and so far has received enthusiastic responses from consumers, as one would expect. This seems like a perfect party item.

Domino’s is also moving into a new frontier, having recently unveiled its chicken-crust pizza, which for a few days last week swept the airwaves, surpassing all other breaking news on the planet, as one would expect. Russell Weiner, chief marketing officer for Domino’s, announced the news. “Our new Specialty Chicken is one of the most creative, innovative menu items we have ever had. Our pizza chefs have taken chicken to a whole new level, using our unique ingredients to create these four bold flavors. There’s nothing quite like Domino’s Specialty Chicken on the market today.”

Creativity has always been Domino’s strong point.

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  VIEW a live broadcast of the Traditional Good Friday Mass of the Pre-Sanctified and Tre Ore devotions at the website of St. Gertrude the Great in Cincinnati here. It begins at 12:15 p.m. (Eastern Time), but a recording can also be viewed later.

NEW YORK CITY becomes more and more congenial to Islam by the day. The Police Department recently announced that it will disband a surveillance unit that sent undercover detectives into Muslim neighborhoods for the purpose of identifying potential terrorists. The program, started in the wake of 9-11, was dropped in response to civil rights complaints, including civil rights complaints by Muslims.

And, Bill de Blasio continues to pledge to put Muslims  holidays on the school calendar. According to one estimate, ten percent of New York public school students are Muslim.

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CHRIS KINNEY writes:

I thought you might be interested in the presentation featured here. The themes of black dysfunction and the destruction of the church are related on a metaphysical level. The presentation is by a Long Island police detective who explains how the Satanic popular culture, loss of the Mass, and rising crime are tied together.  The post-Vatican-II church of man promoted by the disastrous John Paul II is directly responsible for the inability of the State to competently dispatch justice. Lawrence Auster ably diagnosed the problems with John Paul II here.

Instead of attempting to save the souls of feral black criminals before their execution, the church of man endlessly prattles on about the inherent injustice of the death penalty.

Imagine what a difference it would make if the Archbishop of Indianapolis called for Simeon Adams to be executed, along with all the other black criminals who prey on the flock, black and white, with which he has been entrusted. Simeon Adams is going to go to Hell, absent some sort of miracle. The current so-called justice system merely enables him to continue in his sins and live off those he terrorized for the past seven years, and does nothing to save his soul. It is not charity, but Satanic narcissism that leads the current crop of bishops to ignore such injustices.

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FROM the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, 11. 20-32, which is the Epistle for Holy Thursday in the Traditional Latin Mass, Paul criticizes those who treated the Eucharist with irreverence and those who did not recognize the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine:

Brethren: When you come therefore together into one place, it is not now to eat the Lord’ s supper. For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk. What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me.  (more…)

IN the wake of the Nathan Trapuzzano murder, a woman whose husband was also recently murdered by black teens in Indianapolis (not that it’s a trend or anything) has called on men to mentor young black boys to prevent brutal crimes, reports The Daily Mail.

Sgt. First Class Jim Vester, 32, of the Indiana National Guard was killed in Indianapolis in December after arranging to buy an iPad via Craigslist. His body was left in a parking lot. Vester had a one-year-old son and was married.

His wife, Jamie, told Fox News this week:

“I’m really calling out to the males to get out there and mentor those boys and maybe we could prevent some of this violence. Every single person could use somebody to love them and be there for them.”

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WANDA SHERRATT writes:

The top news in our city this week is a murder case which seems to draw together a lot of themes that I frequently read about on your blog. This awful murder story in Ottawa is a stew of multiculturalism, infidelity, religion, physical appearance and women’s work outside the home.

A Sikh woman, Jagtar Gill, 43, was murdered in her home on January 29th. It was quite a gruesome murder; she was bludgeoned and then slashed to death. Her two younger children were in school at the time, and her husband and 15-year-old daughter had just gone out to buy cake and flowers, because it was the couple’s wedding anniversary.  (The daughter discovered the body when she and her father returned home.) (more…)

THE Consortium Vocale Oslo sings Crux Fidelis (Faithful Cross), from its CD of Gregorian chants for Lent and Holy Week, Exaudium Eum. Crux Fidelis is sung as a hymn on Good Friday during the Adoration of the Cross and in the Liturgy of the Hours during Holy Week. It is part of a larger sixth-century composition by Saint Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus which begins Pange lingua (‘Sing, my tongue’). It was originally composed for a procession that brought a portion of the true Cross to Queen Radegunda in 570, wife of the Frankish king Clotaire I.

Here is one English translation:

Faithful cross, above all other,
One and only noble tree:
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee!

Gregorian chant is prayer and song, biblical exegesis and meditation. The chants, which have their musical origins in the ancient Jewish synagogue service, once brought the Old Testament Psalms, in a perfect blending of text and music, to a world without books. Albert Schweitzer, of the vocal group, writes:

What makes Gregorian chant so popular today is its religious power that appeals to the deeper levels of the human heart; its spiritual and transcendental dimensions. (more…)

KADIE writes:

Recently, we received something in the mail called the American Community Survey.  Initially, I thought it was junk mail due to the fact that is was addressed to “Resident.” But, upon further investigation, I realized it was legitimate.  In asking around among family and friends, no one had ever heard of it.  So, I Googled it to find plenty!

It is a long form of the Census sent to a few million people per year.  It is 28 pages long and their estimated time to complete it is 40 minutes.  So, I began to peruse it before tackling the job.  It began with the usual questions you’d expect to find on the census and other questions whose answers can be obtained from the IRS, banks, employers, etc.  But then, to my shock and horror, the questions became increasingly personal and invasive. (more…)

ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

“In India, Politics is Criminal.” According to The Diplomat:

In total, one-third of all of the MPs in India’s current parliament, elected in 2009, are accused of crimes ranging from electoral misconduct and rape to murder. Despite the seriousness of these charges few, if any, will ever face a judge or jury.

 And the other two-thirds haven’t been charged yet. They’re obviously keeping up with their bribe payments.

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THE Resurrection of Christ is most often thought of as a religious event, but it was first and foremost an historic event. Here is a brief summary of what we know from the New Testament accounts, which were consciously written as history and have as much authenticity as most universally accepted (by professional historians and laymen) ancient documents; from general knowledge of that era and from elementary interpretation of all this:

*Eyewitnesses described the crucifixion of Jesus in detail. John said that he saw blood and water pour forth from Christ’s lanced heart right before his death. (Jn 19:34-35)

*Roman soldiers faced the death penalty if they did not successfully execute someone condemned to death.

*Jesus’s body was handled and wrapped in cloth. Eyewitnesses testified that it was placed in a tomb covered with a boulder. Roman soldiers guarded the tomb. They would have faced severe penalty if they left it unguarded.

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THIS excerpt is taken from a sermon on Our Lord’s Resurrection by Pope Leo I, also known as St. Leo the Great, who died in 461 and whose feast day was traditionally observed today. Pope Leo is famous for having persuaded Attila the Hun in 452 to turn back from his invasion of Italy.

The whole of the Easter mystery, dearly-beloved, has been brought before us in the Gospel narrative, and the ears of the mind have been so reached through the ear of flesh that none of you can fail to have a picture of the events: for the text of the Divinely-inspired story has clearly shown the treachery of the Lord Jesus Christ’s betrayal, the judgment by which He was condemned, the barbarity of His crucifixion, and glory of His resurrection. But a sermon is still required of us, that the priests’ exhortation may be added to the solemn reading of Holy Writ, as I am sure you are with pious expectation demanding of us as your accustomed due. Because therefore there is no place for ignorance in faithful ears, the seed of the Word which consists of the preaching of the Gospel, ought to grow in the soil of your heart, so that, when choking thorns and thistles have been removed, the plants of holy thoughts and the buds of right desires may spring up freely into fruit.  (more…)