THE TAOS TATLER.

. . . but only if it’s done right.

From the Catholic News Agency:

The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music said this week it is launching its “Let’s Sing with the Pope” initiative as a series of “short educational video tutorials” to make Gregorian music accessible to everyone.

“Done right,” meaning more than simply announcing the program and hoping parishes might adopt it. Instead, this admirable project must be promoted heavily, emphasizing that chant is an integral part of Catholic worship going back to the earliest days of the Church.

The title of the series, Let’s Sing with the Pope, initially struck your Tatler as somewhat namby-pamby, as well absurd, for it presumably was conceived during the reign of the late Pope Francis. The notion of chanting with him, for some, might have had as much appeal as singing along with a surly detention officer.

Pope Leo, however, at this admitedly early juncture, not only seems to be well-familiar with chant,  but also gives indication of being one of the most popular popes in a long time. If the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music can somehow arrange an endorsement from Leo of their worthy project, it might result in Let’s Sing with the Pope becoming much in demand. And, in hopeful speculation by this writer, it just might generate interest in the original context of where Catholic chant was sung, Usus Antiquior.

h/t Fr Peter West

This piece might have you believe it.

From For What it’s Worth

I’d seen a few cautiously optimistic reactions to the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision requiring individual “due process hearings” for each person who came across the border these past 4 years, with or without official permission, but “Legal Insurrection’s Professor William Jacobson shares my own dire view: we’re screwed.

***

The decision goes far beyond whether these people can be removed using a novel method of applying the Aliens and Sedition Act — as the court notes “[T] he Government may remove the named plaintiffs or putative class members under other lawful authorities” but those are meaningless words when coupled with the requirement that government conduct individual hearings for each and every one of them.

Biden let in so many illegals that it will be simply impossible to process them as per the Supreme Court decision. They are here to stay, including the gang members, rapists, drug dealers, and all the rest. To those who argue the majority of illegals have no criminal records, President Trump has rightly pointed out they are already law breakers being here illegally. They are hardly the wholesome types their supporters might insist.

The Left is hell-bent on turning the United States into a third-world country. The vast majority of the populace will suffer hugely should they succeed, but with the mental blinkers firmly in place, they reject that possibility and heap abuse on those who argue it. The only comfort, albeit small, is that leaders of revolutions, other than ours, are quickly destroyed themselves afterward.

By no means should we be claiming a belated victory. None of those aiding and abetting media clowns have pleaded mea culpa. Instead, they’re cranking out book$ claiming they were duped. By whom, we ask?

In his column today, Kruiser covers the above complaint and the degree of damage done by Biden’s henchmen. An excerpt is below.

There is no sweetness with this vindication, however. Being right doesn’t erase all that went on leading up to having it be proven. The damage done to the Republic while it was being run by a drooling moron and his commie handlers is going to be difficult to undo. President Trump is doing his best, but the Biden puppet presidency was an absolute wrecking ball. 

Christ’s peace is not the silence of the tomb after a conflict, and it is not the result of subjugation. Peace is a gift that gazes at others and renews their lives. Let us pray for this peace, which is reconciliation, forgiveness, and courage to turn the page and start again.

Two thoughts:

1) A lovely, if a tad idealistic, sentiment and certainly one for which must strive.

2) What a joy to read English from the Holy Father that isn’t  translated.

Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.

Your Tatler, heartened to note that Royal’s feelings about Leo XIV are essentially the same as his own, naturally felt it necessary to share them, though only with excerpts, so that you would feel compelled to read his entire essay. It’s longish, but well worth the effort.

LEO XIV: LITURGY, THE HEART, AND THE POST MODERN CITY

The world is still a bit giddy over what happened in Rome the past few weeks. I’ve been present in the Urbs Aeterna over decades, for a couple of conclaves, and many Vatican events. As I recently confessed (here), these past dozen years I’ve felt great weariness and distaste, for obvious reasons, at all that Church business. But I have to record that the emotion that greeted Leo XIV when he stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s was – in both intensity and quality (whoever expected to hear Italians shouting il papa americano!) – like nothing I’ve ever seen. I felt it myself, deeply, too.

***

One of the things that many of us have noticed about Pope Leo is the way he seems grounded – “based” in the current slang – in his spiritual formation as an Augustinian and in what seems a manly and genuine serenity. One Chicagoan who knows him a bit told me, “At least he’s not crazy.” That is probably setting too low a bar for the successor to Pope Francis, but we’re right to expect some great things given the more traditional way Leo has conducted himself – his traditional vestments on the loggia, his careful celebrations of the liturgies, and his well thought-out and delivered remarks at every event to date.

***

Several commentators have expressed the hope that he will bring back Pope Benedict XVI’s openness to the Traditional Latin Mass, which there’s reason to think he might. Given the calmness he seems to be deliberately cultivating – not an artificial media strategy but something that seems to radiate from his basic personality.

It’s good that he emphasized peace towards all in his first public words as pope. Catholics shouldn’t get too agitated if he continues to push immigration and climate concerns. These are “issues” that don’t go to the heart of what the Faith needs to be mid-21st century. But he’s going to need a more robust philosophical and theological framework for that effort – especially in trying to think through the promise and peril of AI – as Leo XIII did in his revival of Thomism. It will be interesting – and indicative – to see who is selected to help in that effort.

Again, read it all, especially as Royal makes interesting comparisons between XIII and XIV.

It will be quite the battle.

Your Tatler wrote a screed not long ago that, among other things, suggested the Catholic Church should steal back from the Church of England its Book of Common Prayer, to supplant the lame, mediocre English used in vernacular masses. After all, the C of E was Catholic once, and so were the compilers of the Prayer Book.

Another theft, desperately needed, is the C of E’s musical tradition, famed worldwide for its beauty and suitability to each occasion. Not so in most Catholic churches, despite a musical heritage going back to the Middle Ages. Instead, on Sundays throughout the land, you’ll hear badly performed tripe like “On Eagles’ Wings,” or “I am the Bread of Life” at all times of the year, because that’s all the well-intentioned volunteer music director, whose knowledge of harmony is limited to the tonic, dominant, and subdominate, can play on an amplified guitar, and shriek into an equally amplified microphone.

So, before we swipe the Anglican choral tradition, we will somehow have to jetison “Gather Us In” before implementing chant, Palistrina, Victoria, Mozart, Haydn and countless other greats. A nearly impossible task, but your Tatler, sensing Pope Leo might care about this more than previous pontiffs, will somehow in his enormous agenda of reforming the Reform, squeeze deplorable music in the Mass into it. It will be an extraordinarily difficult task, but God and his holy angels will be with him all the way, as will Catholic music lovers.

Never mind stopping it, Governor. How did it get so far?

From Leading Report.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has announced that the state has halted the construction of EPIC City, a proposed 402-acre Muslim-centric residential development.

Even with DEI poisoning our society, now being remedied, it fairly boggles the mind that such an absurd project made it as far as it did. How far, for example, would a restricted project of this sort, but for Jews or Catholics, have survived zoning boards or public opinion, let alone the law?

Nor is it comprehensible why the excellent governor of Texas took as long as he did to quash this project. However, he must have had his reasons, and at last, quash it he did. Further, the developers of the absurdly named Epic City (East Plano Islamic Center) are now under several investigations concerning financial irregularities of the project, so it’s likely Epic City is done for, Deo gratias.

h/t Anita

From the General.

BREAKING:

Chinese officials told the Trump administration they disregarded their trade commitments under Biden, believing he was too weak to enforce them.

Of course, this is not news to the leaders of the Democratic Party nor the major news media. They moved heaven and earth to persuade the voters otherwise. Not all voters, only Democrats, most of whom were fooled or allowed themselves to be. As long as they were a majority, it didn’t matter if others were not fooled; the news media and celebrity elites would take care of the problem.

Once Democrats began to suspect their president was a non-entity, party leaders knew the show was over, and the sock puppet got the hook.

Since an earlier report in this space about things looking hopeful for Britain, but only in a small way, things have changed.  TCW’s Matt Goodwin reports, with regard to Britain’s Nigel Farage and the Reform Party,

We are, in short, witnessing a full-blown political revolution against the establishment. In the latest poll by YouGov, one of the most reliable pollsters, Reform is on 29 per cent, Labour is on 22 per cent, the Tories are languishing on 17 per cent, their lowest share of the vote since the party’s dark days of 2019, while the Liberal Democrats are on 16 per cent.

This not only puts Reform firmly in the lead and well outside the margin of error, but also points to a commanding Reform majority at the next general election

The number one reason, as reported before, Reform is doing so well should be familiar to most Americans, unchecked immigration. In the closing paragraphs of his detailed report, a report that ought to be read in full by all Anglophiles and others too, Goodwin repeats the bold statements above.

Nigel Farage and Reform are now seriously emerging as the main opposition to Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour government, while the political system is undergoing the most significant change since the rise of Labour in the early twentieth century.

A political revolution is now under way, and much like the rise of that embryonic Labour movement it looks likely to transform our politics and country.