October 7, 2010 – 11:58 am
On 7 October 1571, the fleet of the Holy League of Spain, Venice, Genoa, Savoy, the Papacy and others, with 206 galleys and 6 galleasses and commanded by Don Juan de Austria, defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire, 222 war galleys and 56 galliots, at the Battle of Lepanto. But the chief advantage of the Holy League was its superiority in the number of guns and cannon and the proficiency of the Spanish infantry.
During the battle, the Ottoman Janissaries ran out of weapons and threw oranges and lemons at the Holy League soldiers.
The decisive victory gave the Holy League control over the Mediterranean and stopped the Ottoman advance into Europe. The Holy League considered the victory as a sign of the future downfall of the Ottoman Empire and credited the victory to the Virgin Mary. Pope Pius V would institute the Feast of Our Lady of Victory to commemorate the battle, now known as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Conflicts among the Holy League’s membership prevented further attacks and six months later the Ottoman Empire again controlled the Mediterranean. Still, the Ottoman Empire was never able to regain the strength it had before the battle and its dominance at sea was at an end.
G. K. Chesterton’s Lepanto
October 6, 2010 – 10:38 am
On 6 October 1979, Pope John Paul became the first pope to visit the White House when he met with President Jimmy Carter. The Pope and President met privately for about an hour where they discussed the importance of human rights as the “compelling idea of our times”.
Pope John Paul II and President Carter discussed many issues and President Carter particularly wanted the pope to speak about the situation in Israel. For his part, Pope John Paul II asked the president to work to safeguard human rights, dignity and peace in the world. Pope John Paul II gave a silver sculpture with the words “Peace Unto Thee” to the president but a parchment copy of his first encyclical letter to the President’s mother, Lillian.
Photo of the meeting between President Carter and Pope John Paul II and President Carter’s notes about the meeting.
October 5, 2010 – 2:44 pm
Teresa of Ávila died just as the Gregorian Calendar was being adopted near midnight of 4th of October 1582 or early the next morning on the 15th of October 1582. Her feast day is presently celebrated on the 15th of October because there was no 5th of October 1582 in those countries which adopted the Gregorian calendar reform.
Her last words were: “My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O My Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another.”
October 4, 2010 – 9:23 am
On 4 October 1582, the Gregorian Calendar reform took effect and the next day was 15 October 1582.
Pope Gregory XIII in his bull Inter Gravisimus on 24 February 1582 issued his decision to implement a calendar reform. He wanted a calendar that was more scientifically accurate and which placed the celebration of Easter more closely to the vernal equinox from which it had been drifting ever since the Council of Nicea in 325.
The decision to implement the new calendar on October 4 was because there were not as many days dedicated to saints in the period between the 4th and the 15th. Those saints whose days were skipped were celebrated after the 15th.
While most of the Catholic Countries adopted the new calendar, many Protestants objected believing that to accept the Gregorian calendar would be akin to accepting the authority of the papacy. Protestant countries would later use the calculations of Kepler to justify their change to the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is still not accepted by many Orthodox Christians who continue to use the Julian calendar.
October 3, 2010 – 1:33 pm
On 3 October 1992, while appearing on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest and singing a version of Bob Marley’s “War”, Sinéad O’Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while saying “Fight the real enemy” and threw the pieces of the picture toward the camera. She intended her action as a sign of protest against the problem of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Saturday Night Live was not aware of O’Connor’s plan and continues to decline to rebroadcast the O’Connor’s protest with a few exceptions.
The audience reacted with amazement and NBC received 4,484 angry complaints. Frank Sinatra said he wanted to punch O’Connor “right in the mouth”. NBC was fined $2.5 million by the FCC. When O’Connor returned to the US to perform a concert for Bob Dylan, she was greeted with boos and would later permanently retire from the “pop” entertainment industry.
On 22 September 1997, in an interview with the Italian weekly newspaper Vita, O’Connor asked Pope John Paul II to forgive her, claiming that what she had done was “a ridiculous act, the gesture of a girl rebel.” However in 2002, Sinéad said that she wouldn’t have changed anything about what she had done. She has left the Catholic Church to join the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church.
October 2, 2010 – 12:20 pm
On 2 October 1928, while on a retreat, St. Josemaría Escrivá would receive what he called a divine inspiration to establish what would become the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. He saw people of all types seeking God amidst their ordinary life – everyone living so as to become a saint. He said, “I was 26, had God’s grace and good humor and nothing else. And I had to do Opus Dei.” Opus Dei was approved in 1950 by Pope Pius XII and established as a personal prelature in 1982. It contains today almost 100,000 people in more than 90 countries.
There is an upcoming film about St. Josemaría Escrivá called There Be Dragons.
On October 2, 1928, the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels – by now nearly forty years have gone by – the Lord willed that Opus Dei might be, a mobilization of Christians disposed to sacrifice themselves with joy for others, to render divine all ways of man on earth, sanctifying every upright work, every honest labor, every earthly occupation. – St. Josemaría Escrivá
October 1, 2010 – 1:53 pm
On 1 October 1961, Roger Maris hit is 61st home run during the fourth inning of a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The stress of breaking Babe Ruth’s record was enormous and many baseball fans were not happy. Later, Maris wondered if he should have tried to break the record at all. When a reporter asked him why he was hitting so many home runs, he responded, “I don’t know. Why is the Pope Catholic?”
Still, he received the Catholic Athlete of the Year Award in 1961, which he appreciated more than any of his other honors. When Roger Maris died in December 1985, eight hundred people attended his funeral Mass in the largest Catholic Church in North Dakota. One of the pall bearers was Mickey Mantle.
September 29, 2010 – 1:49 pm
On 30 September 1925, Dr. Anna Dengel, Dr. Johanna Lyons, Evelyn Flieger, RN and Marie Ulbrich, R.N. the “First Four” founded the Medical Mission Sisters in Washington DC. The women were not yet professed sisters because the Catholic Church did not yet approve of sisters working in health care, that would not take place until 1935. Still, they lived as a community and grew as they worked to serve in the field of medicine and other related areas.
The Medical Mission Sisters was the inspiration of Dr. Anna Dengel who wanted to begin a religious community to meet the needs of the poor, who were “to live for God…to dedicate themselves to the service of the sick for the love of God and …to be properly trained according to the knowledge and standards of the time in order to practice medicine in its fill scope, to which the Sisters were to dedicate their lives.”
They will be the first Roman Catholic Congregation to provide surgeons and obstetricians for missionary work.
There is an earlier CUTH podcast on Anna Dengel
September 29, 2010 – 5:44 am
On 29 September 1850, Pope Pius IX re-established the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in Britain with the bull Universalis Ecclesiae.
Ever since the death of the last Roman Catholic bishop during the reign of Elizabeth I, the Catholic hierarchy had gone underground and been replaced by Apostolic Vicars. With Universalis Ecclesiae, thirteen dioceses were established under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Westminister.
The new bishops in England did not occupy the traditional dioceses which had been taken over by the Anglican church but rather new dioceses were created. So, there was no Archbishop of Canterbury but rather the Archbishop of Westminster. However, the Archbishop of Westminster was seen as the successor of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In Scotland, where the established church did not have an episcopate, the earlier dioceses were re-established.
September 28, 2010 – 11:31 am
On 28 September 1586, the obelisk known as “The Witness” was blessed in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The obelisk, originally taken from Rome and erected at the Circus of Nero in 37 AD, was the second largest standing obelisk at 130 ft including the base and the cross and weighing 330 tons. Pope Sixtus V wanted the obelisk moved and so arranged a competition among three hundred architects, engineers and others. Domenico Fontana won the competition and spent seven months gathering supplies and building a ramp and on April 30, the project of transporting the obelisk began with 907 men, 70 winches and 145 horses. However, as the obelisk was being raised disaster almost struck when the ropes holding the obelisk started smoking from the friction. A voice cried out “Acqua alle funi!” or “Water the ropes!. Fontana followed the advice and the daylong process of raising the obelisk and lowering onto the platform for moving was completed successfully.
The man who cried out was a sailor from Bordighera and in gratitude Pope Sixtus granted Bordighera the perpetual privilege of providing the palms to St Peter’s for Palm Sunday.
Due to the summer heat of Rome, the obelisk remained on its side and on the morning of September 10th the obelisk was raised in St. Peter’s square. Domenico Fontana was made Cavalier della Guglia – or Knight of the Obelisk. On the 28th the scaffolding of the obelisk was removed and Pope Sixtus blessed the obelisk.
It is said that Fontana had horses prepared for a quick escape should the transport have failed.
catholicunderthehood.com 