THE TAOS TATLER.

From the Free Press:

Last Thursday, as Israel expanded its military campaign, Iranian authorities at the Fordow nuclear complex in the country’s northwest dispatched 16 cargo trucks to the underground site’s primary tunnel entrance. These vehicles proceeded, over the next 24 hours, to move unidentified equipment a kilometer away, while working to fortify the mountain-covered crown jewel in the Islamic Republic’s atomic program . . .

***

“I wish the Israelis had moved quicker to disable Fordow,” David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector, told me in the aftermath of the American bombing campaign of the facility. “It’s still a mystery exactly what was in those trucks. But any highly enriched uranium at Fordow was likely gone before the attack.”

The Free Press and Jay Solomon are generally on our side, but these purported concerns strike this writer as hog wash. Haven’t events of late shown us Israeli and US military intelligence have such such a thorough knowledge of the Iranian military that they likely know what kind of toothpaste each one of them uses; that our spooks, and Israel’s, know  in copious detail what is in every one of the 16 boxes “snuck” out of Fordow?

Even releasing the precise number of 16 boxes, suggests that our side knows a lot more about them then related, but because no Democrats  involved in this operation (thus can’t leak information to the New York Times and MSNBC), there is a tight lid kept on details like these.

If there had been even the remotest possibility there was bad stuff in those boxes, the US and Israel would have blown them, and those toting them, to smithereens. Not for an instant would Trump have “held off,” as reported by the media, thus risk the success of the mission.

La Cappella e la Musica dei Papi, Massimo Polombella, Director, Deutsche Gramophone DG 479 6131

Many years ago, your Tatler, before being received into the Church, heard over the radio a short take of an Eastertide performance of the Sistine Chapel Choir. It was, (one could say) excruciating. The men’s vibrato was plain embarrassing, and the boys were shrieking, not singing. [Update: a friend who lived in Rome for a time informs me the choir were called the “Sistine Screamers.”] Neither boys nor men seemed terribly concerned about being at least approximately on pitch. I remember marveling at the time that the music of the mighty Catholic Church could be so appallingly bad (it wasn’t until my conversion that I learned Holy Church took a top-to-bottom approach in that regard).

While looking for a recording of a particular choir today, I mistakenly streamed one that, to my great surprise, turned out to be of the Sistine Chapel Choir. It was gorgeous. Since the recording, shown above, was made ten years ago, I can only surmise some time after my first hearing of the group and the making of this recording, someone in the Vatican carefully listened to the choir and promptly hired a real musician, (director Massimo Polombello, perhaps?) to clean up the mess. [Note 2: the same friend advises Pope Benedict had a hand in improving the choir.]

The choir, much improved as it is, still isn’t quite up to the standards of the finest Anglican choirs. There is still a tad too much vibrato for a Renaissance group, but the Choir may have improved even more since this recording, their first (on the Deutsche Gramophone label, no less), was made. Further investigation will be necessary. Another complaint is with the miking. The antiphonal choir is so softly mixed in that you can barely hear it in the vast acoustic. The program, though, is wonderful, a fine sampling of motets and chants by Renaissance composers.

Recommended.

Listen to the Sistine Chapel Choir on Qobuz https://open.qobuz.com/track/26467198

Encouraging words from Cardinal Raymond Burke.

From the Catholic News Agency:

Cardinal Raymond Burke said he has asked Pope Leo XIV to remove measures restricting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in dioceses. 

Burke spoke at a London conference organized by The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, telling attendees that he hopes the new pontiff will “put an end to the persecution” of Catholic faithful who want to celebrate Mass using the “more ancient usage” — “usus antiquior”  — of the Roman liturgy. 

This is can’t be the first time His Eminence has urged restoration of usus antiquior to a pontiff, but the last one probably stuck his fingers in his ears, singing in no particular key, la la la, I can’t heeeeear you while His Eminence was making his suggestion. Or, put a tad more seriously, his suggestion was not well received.

Pope Leo appears to be more receptive to the Latin Mass. Most TLM-ers would agree even if he only revokes Pope Francis’s moto proprio, Traditiones Custodis, and the further restrictions later on, making celebration of the Latin Mass difficult to impossible, it would win, His Holiness their grateful thanks.

h/t John Beeler

Fr John Zuhlsdorf offers a quote from Pope Leo XIV on Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the greatest composer of the Renaissance. It should gladden the hearts of Catholic music lovers everywhere, especially those dismayed at the present offerings in many of their churches.

Perhaps it’s overly optimistic, but if the Holy Father were to offer a few words stressing the importance of the people hearing a least a small sampling of the rich heritage of Catholic music, it might give impetuous to parishes to improve their music of the mass.

“His compositions, solemn and austere, inspired by Gregorian chant, closely unite music and liturgy, both giving prayer a sweeter expression and encouraging unanimity, and enriching the sacred rites with greater solemnity.”

To be sure, much of the music of Palestrina and other greats may be beyond the reach of the typical small, amateur choir, but there is much superb music available that is suitable for smaller forces (music composed for Anglican church choirs can be a valuable resource).

Bad news for, “Pride” organizations, GLAAD, and others. Good news for the children.

From PJ Media:

BREAKING: Supreme Court Delivers a Crushing Blow to Trans Agenda

In a resounding victory for parental rights and child protection, the Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 decision Wednesday that upholds Tennessee’s ban on so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors. This landmark ruling represents a triumph of common sense over radical gender ideology that has been targeting America’s children for far too long.

It’s beyond the poor powers of this blogger, understanding how the alleged proponents of equal rights for all, particularly tran-sexuals, can sincerely believe young, pre-adolescent children have the ability to decide what sex they are, as well the “right” to undergo surgery and harsh medication to alter their themselves permanently. It brings to mind Dr Josef Mengele and his staff’s brutal experiments on imprisoned Jews in Hitler’s Germany. The sadistic perpetrators of those unspeakable acts had nary a concern for their victims’s rights. Their 21st-century equivalents get around that charge by applying their own grotesque beliefs onto young children to justify their mutilation of them.

The fact that opponents of these hideous acts had to go to the highest court in the land to allow states to ban them (not all states have), and that even three of the nine justices opposed it, speaks volumes concerning the collapse of morals in our country.

Additionally, today’s Supreme Court’s ruling does not mean the end of “gender-affirming care,” a euphemism for the ages, in the US. The mutilation of young children to satisfy the whims of their demented elders is still with us and will be for some time. As PJ news puts it,

Of course, the fight isn’t over. The radical left won’t give up its crusade to confuse and mutilate America’s children just because the Supreme Court dealt them a major blow. There are still battles to fight in schools, sports, and countless other institutions that this gender ideology has infected

Still, there is at least some hope that opponents of so-called “gender-affirming care,” who greatly outnumber supporters of it, will eventually see true justice for all to prevail. Pray that it is so. Amen.

Moment of Israeli strike on Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB offices in Tehran

Bring the children!

h/t CCF

But 80 of them are far too many. Furtwängler, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, like many conductors, had ambitions of being a composer, but his conducting talent took away from him the time needed to put pen to manuscript.

Eventually, though, Furtwängler did have enough time for composing, plenty of it. Unfortunately, that was owing to losing all his conducting engagements, post-war, because of his refusal to leave his beloved Germany for the entire war. His critics said he was too cozy with the Nazi government and aquiescing to their murderous regime. Not so, says BBC music critic Stephen Johnson, in his excellent and detailed booklet notes. There were many instances of Furtwängler saving the lives of Jews and others from the Nazi slaughter, making him an enemy of the regime, which he despised. Nevertheless, he served as a status symbol for the Nazis and was left alone on that account. By staying in his beloved Germany instead of getting out, though, Furtwängler destroyed his career, though it did recover somewhat in the recording studio before his death.

So, how does Furtwängler’s Second Symphony hold up? Not too well. As alluded to above, it is simply too long, though length is not necessarily a drawback, as Mahler, a great admirer of Furtwängler, proves. The problem is what happens between that first and 80th minute. Furtwängler gives us some lovely themes, but too often lets them run on, as if the composer feared to come to a cadence, lest he be unable to imagine any more ideas. Happily for the composer, less so, the listener, he does, but all too plentifully.

It’s a pity, though. There is much good music in this symphony, and if  Furtwängler or someone else had managed to edit it down to half its present length, it would be a far more viable composition. In those 80 minutes, there is a fine symphony lurking.

The excellent Neeme Järvi does his level best to hold the work together, but despite his superb conducting, is unable to do so.

In the end, Furtwängler was wise to keep his daytime job.

A pleasant surprise, though, in this recording is the excellent playing of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, not well known to this writer, though the orchestra celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Let up hope there will be more recordings forthcoming from this ensemble and Chief Conductor Järvi, on Chandos, if possible, which provides its usual superb sound.

Furtwängler (1886-1954): Symphony No. 2 in E Minor

Neemi Järvi, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

Chandos Records Ltd 2025 CHAN20373

https://open.qobuz.com/label/752550

God of healing and mercy,  we pray for those who have perished and that your presence will be felt by those who are grieving. Amen.

This time, it’s Lutherans heading toward oblivion, but it’s more complicated than the Church of England’s collapse.

There isn’t only one Lutheran Church; in fact, there are dozens of them, resulting from schism after schism, and other reasons. There are, however, three main branches, and one of them, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA), is the faltering branch. Students of churches heading to the dustbin of history should have no trouble guessing why. The venerable commentator Bill Donahue, President of the Catholic League, explains it to those who have yet to guess it.

As we have noted many times before, the more “progressive” a religious organization is, the less members it tends to have. This is certainly true of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). It was formed in 1988 when three Lutheran denominations merged amidst disagreements with more traditional-minded Lutheran denominations.

To say that the ECLA is not “traditional-minded” is a whopping understatement. Mr Donahue provides the savory details concerning the beliefs of the ECLA.

The ELCA rejects the Christian definition of marriage, namely the union of a man and a woman. Instead, it believes in gay marriage, the union of two people of the same sex who are barred by nature from creating a family. It also rejects what science teaches about the sexes, which is that sex in binary—one is either a man or a woman. Instead, it believes the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable.

Hoo, boy! That’s quite a curriculum those swingin’ Lutherans offer. You have to wonder how their creed is worded, if they have one. Getting down to the numbers below will obviate any further explications concerning the soon-to-be late Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In 1988, when the ELCA was born, it had 5,251,534 members. In 2020, the figure was 3,142,777. Its own Office of Research and Evaluation determined in 2022 that it will have fewer than 16,000 worshippers left on an average Sunday by 2041. This is happening despite a desperate attempt to be “proactive in evangelism and outreach.” This led one Lutheran observer to conclude that “according to current trend’s, the church will basically cease to exist within the next generation.

Many Protestant churches in America are likely to share a fate similar to the ECLA, but not all of them. Conservative and evangelical churches will likely be with us for some time. It is all but certain though, that mainstream Protestant denominations professing liberal or left-wing beliefs, including the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Methodist Church, are likely over time to see their worshipers dwindle to insignificance, leading to their church going extinct. Liberalism simply doesn’t sell.

h/t GWR and WJT