Off the Track

This month's The Tablet, an international progressive Catholic weekly published in London since 1840, includes a small, three-paragraph piece from Rome on the end of the Tridentine Rite.

The Tablet reports that Fr. Reginald Foster, a top Latin scholar at the Vatican, saod that fans of the Tridentine Rite were doing harm to the Church. If Pope Benedict XVI, says Fr. Foster, continues to encourage such Latin-loving groups, a schism could ensue. "It's not the Latin, it's the mentality. These people think things were better before the [Second Vatican] Council," he told The Tablet. How alarmist and how uncharitable toweards those who love the old rite!

In fairness to Fr. Foster, he did conclude his comments by saying that it was a shame that so many young priests today could neither read nor understand and translate Latin. Priests, he said, should receive training in the "mindset that goes on from the Vulgate and Augustine and Jerome all the way to this present age."

Does the 68-year-old priest not see a connection between the Church's official retreat from the Tridentine Rite and the inability of younger priests to understand Latin? He seems confused, his comments sound somewhat contradictory, and frankly, he doesn;t seem to be doing such a good job as the Vatican's foremost scholar of Latin. One would think that such a position would necessarily entail a stalwart defense of Latin and its continued use in the Tridentine Rite that more than a few kooks on the Right appreciate and enjoy. (Here is a list of religious communities for men and for women that still use traditionalist Missals.)

The Tridentine Mass, by the way, was the Mass liturgy of the Roman Rite until the Second Vatican Council of 1962. It is called Tridentine because it refers to the Council of Trent (1545-63) which laboriously stipulated Church doctrine on the Sacraments and the nature of salvation, and which standardized the liturgy of the Mass, eliminating local and regional variations.

Things Fall Apart

I know I've been absent for a while. But there is so much going on in the world that I have to come out of hibernation. I have to transmit to you the kinds fo news stories, information, and experiences that I come across every day. Trust me: Some of this news is outrageous enough to scream about; the rest is simply depressing.

On the BBC World Service (on-line edition), sometime during the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 6, they had a report on a crime wave afflicting, of all places, Acapulco. Here is my paraphrase of the report:

There were two attacks, apparently, sometime in the last day or two, at two different government office buildings. In both, security guards and a secretary were shot by masked gunmen believed to have been members of rival drug gangs linked to coastal smuggling groups. There have been other such incidents and Mexican officials even speak of entire "lawless regions" in other parts of the country.

The incidents affect tourists as well. On Saturday, the BBC reported that two Canadian tourists were grazed by bullets shot at their hotel.

Despite a government crack down, in the month of January alone there were 190 deaths in Mexico.

No comments at the moment. I just shake my head and sigh.

NIBs 2

Emerging Markets

• Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said, in an interview with the FT , that the neo-liberal model had failed and that a strong, developmental state – in order to correct market failures -- was what countries like Ethiopia needed. Although Mr Zenawi has liberalized agricultural markets, he has been reluctant to privatize airlines or telecommunications. (William Wallis, Financial Times, Feb. 6, p.5)

Energy

• China and the UN are planning to establish the developing world’s first carbon trading exchange in Beijing, in order to compete with existing private sector exchanges in Europe and the US on which nearly $ 3 bln in carbon credits from developing countries were traded during the first three quarters of 2006. (Mure Dickey & Fiona Harvey, FT, Feb.6, p.1)

• Norway’s offshore oil drilling have become increasingly alluring as European countries grow increasingly concerned about the continent’s dependency on Russian gas and the erratic flow over the past year through Ukraine. Though most do not realize it, Norway is the world’s third largest exporter of oil and gas. (David Ibison, FT, Feb. 6, p.13)

Islamic Finance

• London has become the world’s first secondary market for trading sharia-compliant bonds (called sukuk) which are structured to pay profits from an underlying business rather than from interest banned under Islamic law (the creation of money from money is considered sinful). (David Oakley & Gillian Tett, FT, Feb.6, p.3)

News In Brief (NIBs) 1

China

• China launched its first navigation satellite on Saturday as part of the country’s continuing plans to develop a global positioning system that will rival the US’s GPS and Europe’s Galileo systems. (Mure Dickie, Financial Times, Feb.5, p.6).
  

• Cheap investments in Africa have resulted in a flood of cheap Chinese labour and products, sparking resentment and anger among locals in places like Zambia and opening the Chinese government to accusations of exploitation and neo-colonialism. (Chris McGreal, Guardian, Feb.5, p. 21).

Emerging Markets

• The German government is expected to propose at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers an initiative to strengthen the bond markets of emerging markets, which are seen as cushions against financial shocks and swings in exchange rates. (Ralph Atkin et al, FT, Feb.5, p.8).

Energy

• The sudden consensus on climate change of late raises concerns that the “clamour for action will stifle debate about solutions.” Ill-conceived regulations must be avoided in order not to stifle growth. (Rick Haythornthwaite, FT, Feb.5, p.17).

• French energy group Total, the world’s fifth-largest listed international energy group, is expected to diversify into nuclear power under the leadership of incoming CEO, Christophe de Margerie. Officials point to opportunities like China’s planned construction of 30 new reactors worth $50 bln before 2020. (Carola Hoyos & Rebecca Bream, FT, Feb.5, p.24).

Middle East

• Goldman Sachs has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with the state-owned National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Arabia’s biggest lender. Goldman will take a minority stake in NCB and thus becomes the latest US investment bank to look to the oil-rich Middle East. (Peter Thal Larsen, FT, Feb.5, p.23).

• Dubai increasingly symbolizes the changes, transformation and financial revolution that is hitting the Arab world. The country’s small size, its lack of an ethnic, linguistic, religious or political majority, and its reliance on an expatriate workforce make it the ideal society that capitalism built. (Faisal Devji, FT, Feb.5, p.17).

HAPPY NEW YEAR