This really upset me.  They have decided recently to “restore” Chartres Cathedral; what this means is that they have been removing the grime from the last 8 centuries, but also painting over the stones and guilding the bosses and the capitals of the columns have been painted a brilliant white (this is not Gothic as we have come to know it).  This has been the deconstruction of the mystery and allure of Chartres Cathedral, which made it the most enthralling and enchanting of Cathedrals in the world.  It is the white-washing of Chartres’ maturity.  Henry Adams would be outraged!

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/featured/7836868/restoration-tragedy.thtml

Alasdair Palmer questions the ill-conceived makeover of Chartres cathedral which robs us of the sense of passing time that is part of its fascination and mystery

A Draught of Vintage

I’ve been away for a bit, so here’s a quick update on what is going on.

1. I went to graduation over this past weekend at the University of Dallas to see my sister, Mary, graduate.  It was a great weekend, full of joyous times.  I got to see old friends, make new ones, visit with beloved professors, and drink in all of the goodness of that place.  While I was at the Collegium’s ‘Music and Meditation’ service, I happened upon this quote, which comes from the song they sing called Salve Festa Dies.

Hail thee, festival day! Blest day that art hallowed forever; day whereon Christ arose, breaking forth the kingdom of death.  Lo, the fair beauty of earth, from the death of winter arising! Every good gift of the year now with his Master returns: He who was nailed to the cross is Lord and the ruler of all men; all things created on earth sing to the glory of God.

Two parts of this struck me as particularly poignant for the weekend.  ”Hail thee, festival day” (festa dies).  The feast day, according to Joseph Pieper, is a sacred and hallowed thing.  I love that this song unites this idea of feasting to Christ’s cross and resurrection.  The second thing is the line: “all things created on earth sing to the glory of God.”  It must be the case that the feast is connected with singing.  Singing is this natural outpouring of the joy that is germane to a feast.  Singing is also harmonious and lovely.  It can also be somewhat tribal and uncontrolled (or at least, it should be because it is not calculated: it is this thing that simply arises out of the mere fact of being created).  This uncalculated uncontrolled aspect of song and joy is something that I have been thinking a lot about.

2. I have a bunch of news that I can’t share just yet (some of you know about it already).

3. Gregory the great Academy is going along smoothly: all things are good including the numbers, thanks be to God.  Please keep praying and spreading the good news about our work there.

4. I have hidden a small wooden art mannequin on campus named Jerry Junior.  It acts something like the chicken game at St. Gregory’s Academy.  Here’s how it works.  If you find Jerry Jr. your class has the honor, the power, and the glory (kleos).  You must hide Jerry Jr. and present him once a month to show that you indeed have him.  You cannot hide Jerry Jr. off campus and it must be in a public area.  There has been a bit of buzz about Jerry Jr. lately.  Right now, the faculty are in possession of Jerry Jr..

5. I’m hoping to host a Coffee House/Open-Mic Night/Art Show at my house in June.  This is sort of inspired by the coffee houses at the Quincy House in Washington DC.  I always enjoyed going to those so much, so this will be an opportunity to bring a great idea to Phoenix, to bring people together and share the wealth of song, joy, and art.  Plans will be forthcoming.

That’s all for now.

Regards,

Peter Hilaire

A Draught of Vintage

Here is a bit of press about Fr. Eric Bergman of Scranton, PA, who will be the acting chaplain of Gregory the Great Academy next year.  From everything that I have heard, he is an excellent priest, and he will be a boon to the Academy as it continues.  St. Gregory the Great, pray for us!

From: Susan Gibbs

Date: May 9, 2012
Subject: American Ordinariate Gets Its First Priest – Fr. Bergman of
Scranton, PA

American Ordinariate Gets Its First Priest
Fr. Eric Bergman of Scranton Joins Ordinariate; Church Purchased for New Parish

The new U.S. ordinariate for Anglican groups entering the
Catholic Church achieved a milestone on May 8, 2012 when THE Reverend
Eric Bergman of Scranton, PA became its first priest. The Ordinariate
of the Chair of St. Peter was established by Pope Benedict XVI on
January 1 in response to repeated requests by Anglican groups and
clergy who were seeking to become Catholic. The ordinariate is similar
to a diocese, though national in scope.

Fr. Bergman, 41, is a former Episcopal priest who was
ordained a Catholic priest five years ago for the Diocese of Scranton.
Since that time, he has been chaplain to the 150-member St. Thomas
More Anglican Use Society.

The group will become St. Thomas More Parish at St. Joseph
Church and will be located at the former St. Joseph property in
Scranton’s Providence neighborhood starting in late August. The
ordinariate purchased the property from the Diocese of Scranton for
$254,000, with $200,000 of that amount raised by the St. Thomas More
community during a three-week period this spring.

“This is a significant moment in the young history of the
ordinariate. I am grateful to Bishop Joseph Bambera and to the Diocese
of Scranton for their support,” said Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson,
the Ordinary. “The incardination of Fr. Bergman, and the reception of
several Anglican communities across the United States and Canada over
the past few months, are tangible signs of Christ at work in this new
undertaking.”

Approximately 60 current or former Anglican priests are
preparing to be ordained Catholic priests for the ordinariate, with 30
ordinations expected in the next few months. Ordinariate parishes will
be fully Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage
and traditions, including liturgical traditions.

Fr. Bergman noted, “I am particularly grateful to Bishop
Bambera, and to Msgr. William Feldcamp, pastor of St. Paul’s Parish
and St. Clare’s Church, who has been instrumental in the maintenance
of our ministry over the years. St. Thomas More has thrived, and we
look forward to our future as an ordinariate parish.”

Underscoring the historic nature of this announcement,
Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, commented, “I was
pleased to be able to cooperate with Monsignor Steenson in order to
help facilitate Father Bergman’s incardination process. For the past
five years, Father Bergman has faithfully supported the Diocese of
Scranton. We are grateful for his service and wish him continued
blessings in his ministry.”

           Fr. Bergman, a native of Bethlehem, PA, graduated from James Madison University before obtaining a Master of Divinity degree from Yale. He became an Episcopal clergyman in 1997, and served in Scranton as curate at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and as rector of the
Church of the Good Shepherd. He was received into the Catholic Church in 2005 and was ordained priest in 2007. In addition to serving as chaplain to the Anglican Use Society, he has been chaplain at Holy Cross High School in Dunmore, PA and at Mercy Hospital in Scranton. He and his wife, Kristina, have seven children ages 6 months to 10 years.

St. Joseph was established as a Lithuanian-language parish in 1895 and is a former home of Venerable Maria Kaupas, foundress of
the Sisters of St. Casimir, who was a housekeeper at the parish in the
late 19th century. A miracle attributed to her intercession is before
the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that, if approved, will lead
to her beatification. The parish property includes a church, parish
hall, rectory, convent, school, parking lot and four garages.

Online:
Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter: www.usordinariate.org
St. Thomas More: www.stmscranton.org

Media Contacts:
Susan Gibbs, U.S. Ordinariate, 202-525-9554 and media@usordinariate.org
THE Rev. Eric Bergman, St. Thomas More, 570-343-0634
William Genello, Diocese of Scranton, 570-207-2229

A Draught of Vintage

Dr. Moran made some interesting comments yesterday, a propos UD’s recent/upcoming fundraising effort. While most of the content was stock, I had some questions.

1. “Moneybomb.” Who came up with this name? Imagine Louise Cowan has been away for several years and you’re giving her an update about the school. You aregoing to flinch and get really quiet when you come to the word “Moneybomb.” And she’s going to look at you like you’re crazy. Because whoever came up with that name is.
2. Also, “utilize aggressive peer-to-peer marketing”? What fraction of this sounds like something I want to be a part of? I thought UD has been concentrating on marketing lately. Isn’t the president du joura marketing expert? I’m no marketer but I can tell from here, halfway across the state, that UD has their priorities all wrong.

3. It’s no secret that an embarrassingly low percentage of UD alumni donate to the school.

   Certainly, secrets and common knowledge are different (I did not know about this embarrassment that UD had to wake up to every morning). But I’m curious now. How low is “embarrassingly” low? And compared to what, churchgoers? Without numbers, where numbers are due, adverbs are just fluff.

4. If the numbers are indeed significantly statistically lower than other schools with less alma-mater-shaming alumni, perhaps there is a reason. My hypothesis is that, controlling for relative familial unit income, UD alumni give as much as other self-respecting are less embarrassing alumni at other schools. Let’s say that the average family from U Chicago (who is far less likely than a UD to have a large household) makes $150K. They have one kid, and each parent works. The average family from UD probably makes something more like $70K, they have 2+ kids, and the mom either doesn’t work or subs at a school for less than $20K / year.
5. This is just me making stuff up and piling on the stereotypes. This is also precisely the sort of thing that the alumni department at UD (or whatever they call it) should be researching intently. If you don’t have numbers, you’re going to make bad judgments.

6. Alumni know that they’ve received an outstanding education, and yet many have not supported the University for a variety of reasons.

   Moran treats a few of these “variety of reasons.” But of course, not all, and not in depth.

   I’m not pleased with everything that has gone on either, but so what? Your support does not mean that you endorse every person and program at UD. It does mean that you endorse our academic mission and the work of the faculty and students, and it does allow you to express gratitude for the education you received, including gratitude to favorite professors. [emphasis added]

   My reason is that I can’t donate to one cause, something I do care about. I can only donate (as far as I know) to the university, which goes in part (in large part) toward misappropriation of funds. My support “does not mean that [I] endorse” everything I disagree with at the school. But my support means that I support everything at the school. You can make the distinction between endorsement and support, but you cannot say there’s no conflict. So I must support even the stupid things: the president juggling, the pharmacy school, the MBA push, the core degradation. So there was a big rumpus not too long ago about Planned Parenthood getting government money. This was because pro-Life taxpayers were having to give their money to an organization that killed babies! In some very small and tiny way, certainly, but they finally realized that money is fungible and that some of their taxes were winding their insidious way into the pockets of Planned Parenthood’s baby-killing doctors. (I forget how this ended up. Politics depress me, so I try not to read the news very much.) In the same way, part of any donation I make is going to the core-killing politicians who work out of Carpenter (now Catherine?) that never went to UD and now rule it. The Walker-firing, pharmacy school-mustering, mo’ undergrads mo’ better-thinking administration. That’s a problem.

7. … liberal arts colleges are traditionally not fully self-supporting and are instead dependent on the gift economy.

   If a university like UD is really driven by the gift economy, why not introduce a little democracy into alumni support. I only care about UD insofar as I feel that the UD of now is the UD of yore (when I was there), and if it departs from where I think it should be, I feel as if it has estranged me just as much as I have it. I’m just four years out now; seven from my freshman year. I already feel that UD has changed, so much. Let me donate to the ideals that I remember and cherish, not the cruft and mildew that’s accumulated since I left.

8. Also, while I appreciate the idea, I feel that this support model and UD’s goal are a paradox. UD teaches students to think straight, keep humble (meek, at least—it certainly didn’t teach us aspiration), get married (it doubles as a dating service) and have kids. This is not your target demographic when looking for donors. If you’re expecting a sizable proportion of your future operating costs to be paid by your alumni, you should act a little more like a venture capitalist, and consider scholarships a sort of investment in students. That is, one of the most important things you can do to this end is to put considerable effort into making sure that students are well equipped to be successful by popular standards and make money in the outside world. (I see that UD’s career services has totally new people, and two, now, instead of three. There should more like 10, they should deserve $80K+ / year salaries [Harriet Cousins didn't even come close], and they should force themselves on students. Like, require one credit every year to be devoted to making yourself marketable, professional, and a money-maker. [I just wanna say that I think this my best idea from this entire post.])

9. If alumni don’t give gifts, who will?

   Other alumni. I bet if you look at the stats at other schools, gifts follow a typical power law: 20% of the alumni contribute 80% of the donations. Correct me if I’m wrong. With numbers.

10. The list of “circumstances” that excuse less than generous giving, “a gaggle of children, gambling debts, a costly drug habit” made me laugh. But you gotta be careful of flippancy when you’re asking for money from people who are struggling with very real circumstances, e.g. $10K+ of tuition debt owed to Fannie Mae at 10% APR, no income due to being in a seminary/convent (and debt on top of that), or a countable number of children who get sick just about every couple of months and take so much care that one of the parents can barely leave the house.
11. What I want is the ability to donate to current or future professors (a CS department needs CS faculty). It’s the professors that I care about. I know that they haven’t changed, at least. Until then, I will feel very conflicted about giving back to the mottled, amorphous, university that I left so recently.

I numbered this list to encourage discussion. Few will agree with my points. I hope more will argue with them.

A Draught of Vintage

Here’s a read for you; this article presents some data that sort of shocked me.  Thanks to Douglas M. for the recommendation!

Today we worry about the social effects of the Internet. A century ago, it was the telephone that threatened to reinvent society.
In 2009, the United States crossed a digital Rubicon: For the first time, the amount of data sent with mobile devices exceeded the sum of transmitted voice data. The shift was heralded in tech circles with prophetic fury: “The phone call is dead,” pronounced a blogger at the Web site TechCrunch. Writing in Wired, journalist Clive Thompson observed, “This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social network messaging.” And the online news network True/Slant declared a paradox: “We’re well on our way to becoming an incredibly disconnected connected society.”

Read the rest here at the Wilson Quarterly.

A Draught of Vintage

Paul Spring‘s new eponymous album is available on iTunes.  The music is excellent all around!  It has top notch production quality.  The lyrics walk the line between universal and particular, and the chord progressions with wailing harmonies are the backbone of the sound: they really set the tone of the whole album.  This is most pronounced in the song “The Night.”  But the album offers more; Spring demonstrates his musical ability: “Lake Louise” has a kind of maturity and bitter-sweet sentiment to it, but then he is able to present something with as much levity and ‘spring’ as “Jackson Pollock.”  There are sweet guitar solos, beautiful ballads, spine-tingling coming of age songs, poetic references (Wallace Stevens!), and groovy drum and bass beats.  Paul Spring has sprung.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/paul-spring/id521142070 - GET IT!

Paul Spring Song Superlatives

Best to drive to: The Night, Plum Street

Most Beautiful: Stormy Sea, Thin Veil

Most Bone-Chilling: Lake Louise

Most Different (in a good way): Mind of Winter, Into the Water

Enjoy,

-PB

A Draught of Vintage