Shocking JFK Revelation

A RECENT NEWS article reveals a rather shocking and previous unknown side of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). In October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war over Soviet missiles being placed in communist Cuba — missiles that could easily destroy cities in the southeastern U.S. According to a confidant:

...he confided to her during his standoff with the Soviet Union that “I’d rather my children red than dead.”

Or in other words, it seems that Kennedy would rather have surrendered the United States to communist rule than to risk war. If this lack of resolve was known by his Soviet adversaries, things could have gone very badly for our nation. Instead, the crisis was resolved peacefully, with both sides backing down to the status quo.

That quote was taken from this news article: JFK intern Mimi Alford discusses affair with the president. This is simply more evidence that sin can make you stupid.

Saint Thomas Aquinas Confounds Averroës

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS was my patron for my confirmation; his feast was celebrated a few days ago in the new calendar.



A painting, St. Thomas Aquinas Confounding Averroës by Giovanni di Paolo, ca. 1445-50, at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Saint Thomas is famed as the 13^th century scholar who, along with his master Saint Albert the Great, harmonized the teachings of Aristotle with Christianity. Saint Thomas was a great man of faith and a mystic; he also fiercely separated that which was true in Aristotle with that which is false and incompatible with the Faith. This separation, which was not done easily or without controversy, led to a flourishing of both theology and modern science.

Many of Saint Thomas' contemporaries either became overly slavish followers of that ancient pagan philosopher, similar to the Islamic scholar Averroës — as depicted in the painting above — or rejected everything in Aristotle, eventually leading to a nearly complete skepticism. These two diverging trends are still found with us today, as is a renewed study of Saint Thomas is in the Church.

There are two main philosophical approaches to knowledge in the West. Top-down or deductive reasoning, which goes from general principles to specific instances, is associated with the Greek philosopher Plato, and is most commonly found in mathematics. Bottom-up, or inductive reasoning, takes individual instances of things, and seeks to generalize these individuals into species and genera; this is common most especially in the biological sciences, and is associated with the philosophy of Aristotle.

Both of these approaches are popular, as well as the skeptical approach which denies any certain knowledge, but unfortunately, a unified philosophy is rather rare — intellectually, you must be on one side of the fence or the other, although many do sit on one side or the other depending on the question asked. Aquinas has been often depicted in the 20^th century as being a complete Aristotelian, and this had great impact on the Church this past century — to her detriment, in my opinion.

If we start with the assumption that all that we can know is what we directly sense — this is considered rather progressive in some circles — then a theology based only on this will be centered on the human person and his experiences. We have seen this in catechesis — children are gathered around in a circle, and the facilitator asks them “What does Jesus means to you?” — instead of the teacher teaching the doctrine of the Church regarding the Person of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man. Likewise, we are told that the holy water found in the baptismal pool at the front of the church is a reminder of our baptism; since we cannot see the prayers imposed on the water by the priest, other useful characteristics of holy water are not mentioned, such as its use in exorcism and blessing. This theology implies that Catholicism is simply one of many man-made roads “up the mountain” and so is ultimately destructive to the faith.



“I feel that the Holy Spirit is the ghost of a bird. And the bird is on fire,” says the child. “Very good,” says the facilitator, “Thank you for sharing.”

This seemingly Aristotelian, or bottom-up understanding of knowledge led to the old hippie slogan of the 1960s: “Question Authority.” I recall my public school education — perhaps around the fourth grade — when we were taught to distrust explicitly the authority of commercial advertising, and implicitly to distrust the authority of religion, most especially Christianity. But then we were told that we had to trust our teacher about the plight of the whales, which according to her authority, were in great decline and therefore had to be saved via political action. When these hippies came into power — or reached ‘empowerment’ — they did not like their authority being questioned.

This bottom-up thinking also was strongly involved in the acceptance of modern art in the Church. Jacques Maritain’s book Art and Scholasticism turned away from the Platonic hierarchical view of beauty and instead embraced the more muddled idea of “everything is beautiful, in its own way.” This is nice and tolerant but isn’t helpful at all in separating the wheat from the chaff in the arts — and can be even destructive when the nihilism of sin is denied and is given equal dignity with everything else.

A pure bottom-up approach to knowledge is considered to be progressive. One geometry curriculum has children (sitting in circles and assisted by a facilitator) attempting to determine the rules of geometry by cutting out shapes from cardboard and measuring the length of the sides. The crucial top-down axiomatic propositions and logical proofs leading to theorems, found in Euclidean geometry, are removed from the curriculum.



By creating laws of geometry that are true for himself, a student learns to question the authority of Euclid.

But this bottom-up preference is not only found in progressive circles, but also in elite conservative opinion. This conservatism has an extreme hatred of Plato — usually due to his notion of the ‘philosopher king’ found in The Republic and Plato's dislike of wealth. This conservatism strongly promotes realism in the arts — which is undoubtably bottom-up — while neglecting (or rejecting as barbarous) the Iconographic tradition of the Church, which is rather more top-down in emphasis.

There are some philosophies of science that are rigorously bottom up, but these come to the conclusion that there is no cause and effect — things just happen. But this isn’t science at all, and is simultaneously useless, ugly, and untrue. That much of the social sciences and academic pedagogy are based on these philosophies means that the results of these are likely to be wrong, and very wrong.

So bottom-up philosophy is assumed to be avant-garde or elite. But ironically, this same attitude can be attributed to the most backward and ignorant peasant. I’ve recently read that a surprising large fraction of the population believes that the sun orbits around the earth. But if you raise children to question authority, and to only take direct sense-experience as being true, then geocentrism is the falsely logical conclusion: certainly the sun appears to rotate around the earth, and nothing but the authority of highly detailed observations and advanced mathematics can prove it otherwise. So contemporary philosophy keeps people chained deep inside of Plato’s cave: and perhaps as a consequence they wear other, more worldly chains as well, forged by the powerful. (Moderns tend to forget that it was Catholics — along with the patronage and imprimatur of the Pope — who showed that geocentrism was not correct: Galileo’s fault was that he was arrogant and claimed too much.)

This does not mean that a top-down Platonic understanding is no longer used. The trouble is, that you can only use Platonism well if you go “all the way up” to God as the first principle, the Source, the One, the Supreme Being, the Font of all that is good, true, and beautiful. The German Idealists (as far as I can tell) did their philosophy top-down, but their Source of all Good was very much a lesser god: usually something like the State, the Constitution, the Proletariat, the Party, the Environment, or the Race became the idols of their worship. This inevitably leads to competing and destructive ideologies.

It is from this notion of a lesser god that we get the emphasis on  ‘the community’ or the congregation in ‘spirit of Vatican 2’ ecclesiology. But just what is this ‘spirit’? Certainly not the Holy Spirit, but rather one of these lesser gods of a truncated top-down philosophy.

This kind of top-down approach was also used in mathematics, which was reduced entirely to set theory. In the United States this was imposed on the schools in the “New Math” curriculum. New Math was supposed to help the country train more engineers to compete with the Soviet Union in aerospace technology, but it precisely had the opposite effect. Geometry in particular, when taught with a set-theoretical approach, is incredibly obtuse. Actually, set theory is not necessarily a good foundation for mathematics — it is controversial — because it does not go far enough up, and makes some problematical ontological assumptions. Whenever mathematicians disagree on anything, there is usually a philosophical error somewhere, and so they are arguing about higher metaphysics and not mathematics.

Bad top-down ideologies harm human knowledge. The Communists banned the study of ‘bourgeois’ cybernetics — an early synthesis of computers, robotics, and telecommunications — to its detriment, as did the National Socialists when disparaging the ‘Jewish’ sciences of mathematics and physics. And I might add that the ideology of sola scriptura harms the physical sciences, as the ideology of pure materialism harms the psychological sciences.

I was trained in theoretical physics, and this field of natural philosophy weds Platonic mathematics with purely observational measurements: and this marriage of top-down and bottom-up discovery is quite fecund. Computer science is also an incredibly fertile field, and it too marries top-down mathematics with bottom-up electrical engineering, and it has even become poetical as artists use the technology to make things more harmonious and beautiful. The geometry of Euclid has a unified top-down and bottom-up method, with its use of propositional logic and manual construction of shapes with a compass and straightedge. It proved to be successful throughout thousands of years, finding favor with pagans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists, until the new ideologies abandoned it in the 1960s: architecture and the minds of children have suffered ever since.

Aquinas himself was not a pure bottom-up Aristotelian, for the philosophical writings he quotes the most are top-down Platonic. Theologies that are “more Thomistic than Thomas” and do not take this into account are bound to lead to gravely wrong conclusions. Instead, in Catholicism and the other sciences, a unified approach works best. We cannot take the human experience and split it off from ultimate reality, nor can we simply work on general principles while ignoring the human person.

The divorce between faith and reason — first found in the universities after Saint Thomas, and later accepted by the Reformation — is near the root of the modern problem. A unified, catholic, both/and approach which is simultaneously top-down and bottom-up is best. Catholicism is worthless if it is purely intellectual without practice, and it is ignorant if it practices without belief. The same goes for all fields of endeavor.

A NEW POSTING, over on my photography blog: Composition, Part 1 - the Frame.

There, I am attempting to discover a solid foundation for composition of photos:

“I am not so naïve to believe that all I need to do is to learn rules of composition, which will automatically produce pleasing images. But neither am I satisfied the advice that I ought to simply adjust my image until it looks good to me. What if all my adjustments are unsatisfactory? Why are they not satisfactory?”

The most certain and most objective compositional element of a photograph is the frame. Is it tall, wide, narrow, or square? Each of these has its own strengths and weaknesses. The article, working from that observation, attempts to delve into various theories of the photo frame.

On the one hand, we have to avoid the extreme skepticism that tells us that composition doesn’t matter at all. On the other hand, we have to avoid numerology — often found in artistic and conspiratorial discussions of the Golden Ratio, or φ (which is found in the terrible but popular book The Da Vinci Code). Then I discuss the Rule of Thirds, a common compositional tool, and discuss how it is only a very small part of the classical harmonies; the vast variety of harmonies are more like design guidelines rather than immutable laws.

Composition, Part 1 - the Frame

Newsletter from the Oratory

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES ORATORY EMAIL NEWSLETTER 2653 Ohio Avenue Saint Louis, Missouri 63118 www.institute-christ-king.org www.TraditionForTomorrow.com 314-771-3100 January 26, 2012 VISIT OF CARDINAL BURKE - CONFIRMATION 2012 FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES PARISH HISTORY - SHOP WITH SCRIP - UPCOMING LITURGICAL EVENTS MYSTERY PHOTO Dear Faithful and Friends of St. Francis de Sales Oratory, VISIT OF CARDINAL BURKE TO THE ORATORY ON JANUARY 31, 2012 His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke Next Tuesday, January 31, 2012, the Institute of Christ the King and the entire community at St. Francis de Sales Oratory will have the great honor and pleasure of welcoming Raymond Cardinal Burke to the Oratory. His Eminence will be the celebrant of a Solemn Benediction at 5:00 PM. Following the liturgical ceremony, there will be a reception in honor of Cardinal Burke in the Oratory Hall. Everyone is welcome and cordially invited to greet His Eminence on this joyful occasion. Bishop Rice (left), Cardinal Burke (center), Archbishop Carlson (right) at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis 2011. It was nearly one year ago, on January 8, 2011, that Cardinal Burke celebrated with us a Solemn Te Deum in thanksgiving for His Eminence’ elevation to the College of Cardinals by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. We are grateful for this opportunity to renew our pledge of prayers for the Cardinal as we unite our hearts in Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. CONFIRMATION 2012 Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Rice With joyful anticipation, the Oratory announces that the conferral of the Sacrament of Confirmation at St. Francis de Sales Oratory has been scheduled for Saturday, October 20, 2010 at 10:30 AM. With Archbishop Robert Carlson’s gracious permission, the Most Reverend Edward M. Rice, Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis, will administer the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form, and offer a Pontifical High Mass. Confirmation 2010 We are most grateful to Bishop Rice for his fatherly care on the occasion of this important milestone in the lives of the faithful of the Oratory. It will be a highlight in the liturgical life of the Oratory community! FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES Saint Francis de Sales This coming Sunday we will celebrate the feast of our holy patron, Saint Francis de Sales. The Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Universal Church, patron of writers and journalists, patron of the deaf, Doctor of Charity is one of the co-patrons of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. Saint Francis is an inexhaustible source of the treasures of divine grace. He preaches to us in a loving and fatherly way, with the mild voice of a wise and forgiving teacher who knows how to guide us to the high mountains of heavenly happiness. Read this “Pledge of a Soul”, the “hearty protest made with the object of confirming the soul’s resolution to serve God, as a conclusion to its acts of penitence”. Who would deny our patron saint to follow him in this strong vow to love God above all things? A hearty Protest made with the object of confirming the Soul’s resolution to serve God, as a conclusion to its acts of Penitence: I, THE undersigned,—in the Presence of God and of all the company of Heaven, having considered the Infinite Mercy of His Heavenly Goodness towards me, a most miserable, unworthy creature, whom He has created, preserved, sustained, delivered from so many dangers, and filled with so many blessings: having above all considered the incomprehensible mercy and loving-kindness with which this most Good God has borne with me in my sinfulness, leading me so tenderly to repentance, and waiting so patiently for me till this—(present) year of my life, notwithstanding all my ingratitude, disloyalty and faithlessness, by which I have delayed turning to Him, and despising His Grace, have offended Him anew: and further, remembering that in my Baptism I was solemnly and happily dedicated to God as His child, and that in defiance of the profession then made in my name, I have so often miserably profaned my gifts, turning them against God’s Divine Majesty:—I, now coming to myself prostrate in heart and soul before the Throne of His Justice, acknowledge and confess that I am duly accused and convicted of treason against His Majesty, and guilty of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ, by reason of the sins I have committed, for which He died, bearing the reproach of the Cross; so that I deserve nothing else save eternal damnation. But turning to the Throne of Infinite Mercy of this Eternal God, detesting the sins of my past life with all my heart and all my strength, I humbly desire and ask grace, pardon, and mercy, with entire absolution from my sin, in virtue of the Death and Passion of that same Lord and Redeemer, on Whom I lean as the only ground of my hope. I renew the sacred promise of faithfulness to God made in my name at my Baptism; renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, abhorring their accursed suggestions, vanities and lusts, now and for all eternity. And turning to a Loving and Pitiful God, I desire, intend, and deliberately resolve to serve and love Him now and eternally, devoting my mind and all its faculties, my soul and all its powers, my heart and all its affections, my body and all its senses, to His Will. I resolve never to misuse any part of my being by opposing His Divine Will and Sovereign Majesty, to which I wholly immolate myself in intention, vowing ever to be His loyal, obedient and faithful servant without any change or recall. But if unhappily, through the promptings of the enemy, or human infirmity, I should in anywise fail in this my resolution and dedication, I do most earnestly resolve by the grace of the Holy Spirit to rise up again so soon as I shall perceive my fall, and turn anew, without any delay, to seek His Divine Mercy. This is my firm will and intention,—my inviolable, irrevocable resolution, which I make and confirm without any reserve, in the Holy Presence of God, in the sight of the Church triumphant, and before the Church militant, which is my mother, who accepts this my declaration, in the person of him who, as her representative, hears me make it. Be pleased, O Eternal, All-Powerful, and All-Loving God,—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to confirm me in this my resolution, and accept my hearty and willing offering. And inasmuch as Thou hast been pleased to inspire me with the will to make it, give me also the needful strength and grace to keep it. O God, Thou art my God, the God of my heart, my soul, and spirit, and as such I acknowledge and adore Thee, now and for all eternity. Glory be to Jesus. Amen. HISTORY OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES PARISH, 1869-1888 Reverend Peter J. Lotz, Pastor of St. Francis de Sales, 1878-1903 The new parish began to grow rapidly and in the year 1869 it included not only a church and a rectory but even a new school. Differences however, between the pastor and his parishioners soon began to grow and make themselves felt, so that Father Lay resigned his pastorate in the summer of 1869, and accepted a parish in the diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. After his departure, the Franciscan Fathers of St. Anthony's parish in south St. Louis administered our parish until the following September. The second pastor, Reverend Father Peter Wigger, was then assigned to St. Francis de Sales. He had at that time just recent1y arrived from Germany. Despite the poor financial situation of the parish, he saw the need for a larger school building to take care of the great increase in the number of school children. He purchased the property on Ohio Avenue bordering the church, and a three story school building was erected in 1872. It contained a residence for the Sisters, four large classrooms and a spacious hall. The school building was erected at the cost of $10,520.00. The first assistant pastor came to St. Francis de Sales in 1875 in the person of Father Joseph Schroeder. The second assistant was Father J, W. Guenther, who was succeeded by Father John Peter Lotz in June 1876. The “Girls’ Grade School” building, now known as the “1888 Building" Father Wigger's health worsened seriously in those days, so much so that on March 11, 1878 he passed away. Father Lotz, who was Assistant Pastor at the time, immediately took charge of the parish and became eventually the third pastor. His first energies were directed toward the paying off of the debt of $30,000.00, created by building the new school. Five years later in 1883, he decided to enlarge the old church by adding a new sanctuary and a bell tower. Again five years later new demands for more school accommodations for the ever-growing parish were made. Father Lotz answered these pressing requests by building in 1888 our present grade school building. The cornerstone of this school was laid on June 10, 1888 by Archbishop Peter Kenrick, and on its completion it was designated as the "Girls' School." In the course of time this school building also served for a number of years as the high school and then again in recent years [1960s] as the parish grade school. SHOP WITH SCRIP Mrs. Gretchen Clinton, responsible for the "Scrip-Program" at Saint Francis de Sales Oratory shares with the following recent news: Thank you so very much to all of the people who are making the new scrip program a fundraising success! The Oratory has scrip available for immediate purchase at the rectory or after both Sunday Masses from the following retailers: Dierbergs - Shop-n-Save - Starbuck's - St. Louis Bread Company JCPenny -Walmart/Sam's Club - Macy's - Land's End -LLBean Lowe’s - Burger King - Walgreen's - CVS - Bob Evans - JoAnn Fabric Little Ceaser's - Shell - Payless Shoes - American Express Gift cards Subway - Taco Bell - Bob Evans and many others By shopping with Scrip at the retailers you already frequent, a percentage of the money you spend is contributed to the Oratory. Here are some answers to a few frequently asked scrip questions: 1. Exactly how does the Oratory make money from this program? Through the Great Lakes Scrip Company, the Oratory purchases these cards at a reduced rate. For example: Shop n Save offers percent 4% rebate. The Oratory buys the card for only $96. You pay $100 (you were going to spend it anyway!). The Oratory instantly earns $4.00. Think of the rebate percentage like an instant cash coupon that goes directly to the Oratory. 2. When is this program going to end? It will not end. It is a year-round, ongoing fundraiser. Many other churches and organizations have had this program going for many years. The more participation equals more revenue. 3. Some of the retailers offer such a small percentage, why bother? If you shop at Walmart and they handed you $2.00 for the Oratory every time you spent $100 there, would you refuse it? Certainly not! As soon as you purchase a scrip card to Walmart, the Oratory has earned that $2.00 from Walmart. The gas station is the same. Every dollar adds up. 100 families earning only $1.00 over the course of a year is $1,200. The potential is incredible. 4. What if I shop somewhere that is not on the list? The American Express Gift Card is available. It is taken at Trader Joe's, QT, the commissary (for you military folks), and at many other locations. 5. But the American Express Gift Card only offers 1.5% back! Why should I use it? Please see QUESTION #3 and buy some American Express gift cards for all of those other places! You can also use it at Schnucks to have even greater rewards! To purchase or for questions about the program, please contact Mrs. Gretchen Clinton atsfdsscrip@gmail.com and (573) 241-5259 or the Oratory at (314) 771-3100. Scrip order forms are available at rectory, church basement after Sunday Mass and in the bulletins. You may also place an order online at www.shopwithscrip.com The Oratory’s code is7B6B613B29666 UPCOMING LITURGICAL EVENTS Here is the calendar of liturgical events for the coming weeks. With the beginning of February we will approach the seasons of Septuagesima and Lent, well prepared by the celebration of the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin (Candlemas): Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary Thursday, February 2 - Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8am Low Mass and 6:30pm High Mass with blessing of the candles and procession Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, in his "Liturgical Year": “The mystery of today's ceremony has frequently been explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century. According to Ivo of Chartres, the wax, which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, always considered as the emblem of virginity, signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by His conception or His birth, the spotless purity of His Blessed Mother. The same holy bishop would have us see, in the flame of our Candle, a symbol of Jesus who came to enlighten our darkness. St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking on the same mystery, bids us consider three things in the blessed Candle: the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on top, is His divinity.” Friday, February 3 - St. Blaise blessing of throats after both 8am and 6:30pm Masses. February 5 to March 25 - Sermons in Lent: The Beatitudes Between February 5 (Septuagesima), and March 25 (Passion-Sunday) we will again offer sermons which are meant to be of help in our spiritual preparation for the great feast of Easter. This year Canon Avis, Father Herman and I intend to cover the Beatitudes as they are mentioned by Our Lord in the sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). The beatitudes are not only pronouncements of future perfections, but expressions of a state of the soul in unity with divine life. This year’s sermon schedule is as follows: February 5: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." February 12: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth." February 19: "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." February 26: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied." March 4: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." March 11: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." March 18: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." March 25: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Wednesday, February 22 - Ash-Wednesday MYSTERY PHOTO Photo Credit: Mr. Phil Roussin The mystery photo for this week shows a dove you have seen at church, likely many times. As a symbol of the Holy Ghost, the placement of this decoration inside the church is significant. In the Gospels, the dove is a typical symbol of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the form of a dove. In Christian art, the dove is often used to portray the Holy Ghost, as in the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Where have you seen this particular dove at St. Francis de Sales? Tell us where this dove can be found by visiting our restoration website, www.TraditionForTomorrow.com, and enter your answer in theblog combox. With the assurance of my grateful prayers in Christ the King, Canon Michael K. WienerRector, Saint Francis de Sales Oratory

The Hanley House

IN 1876, the City of Saint Louis divested itself of the largely rural and remote Saint Louis County. Seeing the need for a new county seat, two local property owners, Ralph Clayton and Martin Hanley, donated land for the new courthouse.

Hanley's house is still standing and is now a museum. Here are two photos of the interior of the house:





Much of the furniture in the house is from the Hanley family.