Bede There, Done That Lilia and Jake Masters

Episode 10: The Bombing of Nagasaki & the Catholics of Urakami
Brief Chronology:
1549 - St. Francis Xavier arrives in Japan; Nagasaki eventually becomes heartland of Japanese Christianity
1587 - Persecution of Japanese Christians begins.
1865 - Hidden Christians reveal themselves at Nagasaki and are promptly persecuted.
1925 - Original Immaculate Conception Cathedral finished in Urakami
1930 - 1936 - St. Maximilian Kolbe in Nagasaki
1933 - Japanese takeover of Manchuria
1934 - Conversion of Takashi Nagai after living with Moriyama family, descendants of leaders of the Hidden Christians of Nagasaki
1937 - Beginning of Sino-Japanese War
1941 - Aug. 14 - St. Maximilan Kolbe dies at Auschwitz; Dec. 7 - Japanese attack on Pear Harbor leading to U.S. entry into WWII
1945



Night of March 9-10: Firebombing of Tokyo, killing approx. 80 to 100,000
May 8 - Germany surrenders
Aug. 6: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing approx. 70,000
Aug. 9, 11:02 AM: Second atomic bomb dropped on Urakami valley area of Nagasaki, killing approx. 30,000
Aug. 15: Japan surrenders
1951 - Death of Takashi Nagai
1958 - Reconstruction of cathedral in Urakami
1981 - Pope John Paul II visits Japan


Summary:
We discussed the story of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the historic Catholic area of Urakami in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 AM. The bomb exploded extremely close to the area where the Immaculate Conception Cathedral stood, and where Catholics were gathered in preparation for the upcoming Feast of the Assumption. The cathedral was reduced to ruins which burned through the night. Catholic priests and nuns, as well as about two thirds (about 8,000) of the city's Catholics perished in the bombing, in which approximately 30,000 people total were killed instantly. Ironically, the commander and pilot of the B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb was an American Catholic, Major Charles Sweeney (then only 25 years old), who professed to never regret the bombing.


Those who survived faced many struggles - they were stigmatized as irradiated persons, called hibakusha; they faced local pressure to leave the devastated cathedral in ruins as a peace memorial; they experienced "survivor guilt"; and struggled with traumatic memories of losing family and homes.


Although the writings of Dr. Takashi Nagai explained the bombings as providential, many Catholics felt dissatisfied with his views . These different perspectives began to be shared after Pope St. John Paul II's 1981 visit to Japan, in which he spoke of the evils of atomic warfare and stated at Hiroshima, "War is the work of humanity; war is destruction of human life; war is death." (Dangerous Memory, p. 75). Survivors took this message to mean they did not need to accept uncritically Nagai's sacrificial theory of the bombing.


Among the survivors we discussed were:
• Dr. Takashi Nagai - He was a radiologist working in a hospital at the time of the bombing. He was diagnosed with leukemia shortly before the bombing due to his exposure to radiation in his work and nearly died of his injuries after rallying the survivors from the hospital to help the wounded in and around Nagasaki. He eventually returned to Urakami with his two young children to live in a hut where he wrote the first book allowed to be published providing an eyewitness account of the bombing, The Bells of Nagasaki. Nagai used proceeds from the book to plan cherry trees throughout the city. He is controversial for his theory that the bombing of Nagasaki was providential and provided an acceptable burnt offering of the good and innocent to God for the sins of mankind in waging World War II. He has been designated a "Servant of God," meaning he has an open sainthood cause.
• Brother Ozaki Tomei (Tagawa Koichi) - A Franciscan monk who was working in an underground factory at the time of the bombing. He was haunted by his turning away from helping others in the immediate aftermath of the bombing as he desperately

*Episode 9: The Virgin of Guadalupe & St. Juan Diego *


Brief Chronology:
Early 1300s - Marian apparition and founding of shrine for Virgin of Guadalupe of Extremadura in Spain
1474 - Cuauhtlatoatzin ("Eagle that Speaks"), later known as Juan Diego, is born at Cuautitlan in the Texcoco Kingdom.
1521 - Conclusion of Spanish conquest of the Mexica ("Aztec") empire in central Mexico
1531 - December 9th through 12th - Apparitions of Blessed Virgin Mary to Juan Diego; appearance of image of Virgin of Guadalupe on Juan Diego's tilma on December 12.
1545-48 - The Nican Mopohua, recounting the apparition story in the native language Nahuatl, likely written.
1548 - Juan Diego dies.
1666 - Formal investigation of the tilma and apparition story by the Church
1795 - Acid spilled accidentally on the tilma during cleaning of its frame.
1810 - Image of the Virgin of Guadalupe used as banner of the Hidalgo rebellion.
1921 - Bomb explodes in flower display in front of the tilma, but does not harm the image.
2002 - Canonization of St. Juan Diego on July 31.


(Based mainly on Appendix B of Our Lady of Guadalupe, cited below).


Summary:
We discuss the Virgin of Guadalupe (Feast say December 12) and St. Juan Diego (Feast day December 9).


Just as millions of northern and western Europeans left the Catholic Church as a result of the Protestant Reformation(s), millions of Native Americans entered the Catholic Church. One witness reported that by his count as many as nine million baptisms occurred in Mexico in the space of about 15 years in the early 16th century. The flood of conversions came after the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the cloak (the "tilma") of an Indian named Eagle that Speaks, baptized as "Juan Diego."


Over time the image has become iconic and ubiquitous in Mexican Catholicism. But hasn't modern science probably debunked the "miraculous" image on the tilma by now? Listen to our discussion of this vivid, unique Marian apparition and why it is something you need to know about. We also discuss how the Church generally evaluates Marian apparitions and private revelation.


Sources and Further Reading:


• Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez (Image, 2009) - Includes the Nican Mopohua in an appendix.
• Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition Across Five Centuries by D.A. Brading (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1993).
• A Still, Small Voice: A Practical Guide on Reported Revelations by Fr. Benedict Groeschel (Ignatius Press, 1993).


Documentary:


Guadalupe: A Living Image (2009)


Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!

Show Notes :


Image Credit: "Nick Black Elk" by Jake.


Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!
Episode 8: Nicholas Black Elk, Lakota Mystic and Servant of God


Brief Chronology:
1863 - Black Elk born.
1865 - End of U.S. Civil War.
1866 - Battle of the Hundred Slain / the Fetterman Massacre, in which Black Elk's father is wounded.
1872 - Around this time, at about age 9, Black Elk experiences his great vision.
1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn; Black Elk, about age 12, kills a soldier.
1877 - Crazy Horse killed.
1886 - 1889 - Travels to Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
1890 - Sitting Bull killed; Massacre at Wounded Knee on Dec. 29.
1892 - Black Elk marries Katie War Bonnet
1899 - Birth of son Benjamin Black Elk, who will become important for interpreting Nicholas Black Elk's legacy.
1904 - Conversion to Roman Catholicism; he is baptized Dec. 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas.
1906 - Marriage to Anna Brings White, mother to Lucy Looks Twice
1907 - Black Elk begins travelling as a catechist.
1930 - Interviews with John G. Neihardt which will become the basis of Black Elk Speaks, published in 1932.
1936 - Black Elk begins managing Duhamel Indian Pageant.
1945-46 - Interviews with Joseph Epes Brown which will become basis for The Sacred Pipe, published in 1953, after Black Elk has died.
1950 - Death of Nicholas Black Elk on Aug. 17, followed by a vivid display of the northern lights.


Summary:


In this episode we discuss a modern candidate for sainthood, Nicholas Black Elk (ca. 1863-1950). Black Elk was a Lakota Sioux medicine man whose journey took him from traditional Lakota religion and the Ghost Dance movement to Roman Catholicism.


He was probably born in 1863, at a time when his people, the Lakota, still lived independently hunting buffalo on the Northern Great Plains, in what is now the Dakotas and Montana. He relates the story of the first few decades of his life in Black Elk Speaks, a book written by and formed out of a series of conversations with a Nebraskan poet, John G. Neihardt in the early 1930s. Included in the book are his memories of Crazy Horse, the battle of Little Big Horn, meeting Queen Victoria as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the Ghost Dance movement, and witnessing the tragic massacre of Lakota civilians at Wounded Knee. And that was only the first part of his long life.


Black Elk's life was full of prayer and intense religious questioning. He experienced visions from a young age and eventually became a medicine man. After marrying a Catholic, he eventually converted and became a catechist and missionary, travelling and speaking across the country. At the same time, he passed on Lakota traditions by sharing his life experiences and knowledge with Neihardt (Black Elk Speaks) and anthropologist Joseph Epes Brown (author of The Sacred Pipe), as well as performing traditional dances for tourists.


His legacy and claims about his personal religious beliefs remain controversial. Scholars continue to debate whether he continued to believe traditional Lakota religion alongside Christianity, was a sincere orthodox Catholic who rejected the traditional past, and how he reconciled different belief systems and chapters of his life.


Two clarifications/corrections to the episode - We checked again on the Two Roads chart and are still unclear on the exact story of its origins, but you can learn more about it in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala by Steltenkamp. Also, the speech by Benjamin Black Ellk and separate comments by Benjamin Black Elk's nephew concerning the practice of Christianity alongside traditional religion were connected in the retelling in our conversation, but would best be understood (and parsed out) by reading/listening to them in context in the sources below, the documentary Walking the Good Red Road and the first chapter of Black Elk Lives.


Finally, a disclaimer: this episo

*Image Credit: *"Marriage," Detail from a 14th century manuscript originating in Catalonia, Spain, available online from the British Library, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. (Public Domain)


Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!


Episode 7: Celibacy - Summary:


In this episode we discussed the history of celibacy in the Church, from Jewish roots in 1st century Palestine up to the Second Lateran Council in the high middle ages.


Celibacy in some form seems to exist in the apostolic and early church. So too did the ordination of married men. The debates are what the situation looked like: was celibacy required for all priests after ordination, even married ones? Did married priests separate from their wives, live Josephite marriage with them, or continue to have sexual relations with them? How did it come to the point that different parts of the Church developed different practices?


The Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient historians show that some members of the Jewish sect known as the Essenes practiced celibacy. The Levitical priesthood also abstained from sexual relations with their wives during their service in the temple. The New Testament must be understood in this context, where sexual continence and even a more monastic form of celibate life were already known.


As we stated in the episode, we tried to carefully limit our theological discussion. But for your reference, here are some of the key Bible passages to be aware of:
• 1 Samuel 21:4-5- David and his men eat the bread of the presence, having assured Ahimelek the priest that they have "kept themselves from women."
• Luke 4:38-39 - Jesus heals Simon Peter's mother in law. This episode indicates Peter was married at some point, but it is unknown if he was a widower or still married.
• Matthew 19:12 - "For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others--and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."
• Matthew 19:29 - "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."
• Philippians 4:3 - Paul asks his "yoke mate," to help resolve a conflict between some Christian women named in the letter to the Philippians. Some see this as a reference to Paul's wife.
• 1 Corinthians 7:8 - "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."
• 1 Timothy 4:3 - Paul tells Timothy that prohibiting people from getting married is a sign of false teachers.
• 1 Timothy 3:1-2 - Paul tells Timothy that overseers (bishops) should be, "husband of one wife." Some church fathers see this as a negative criteria; in other words, bishops must not be husband of more than one wife, since remarrying may have suggested a lack of sexual self-discipline in their culture.


Celibacy in the early Church seems to have been connected with the Eucharistic celebration, not the ascetic ideals of monasticism which emerged a little later. This being the case, the practice may ultimately be traceable back to the Jewish roots of Christianity and is not as likely to be derived from sects that were against marriage or despised the body. Church fathers drew parallels between the Old Testament high priests, priests and Levites, and the bishops, presbyters, and deacons of the New Testament.


That said, we have to largely infer the practice of the early church in the 2nd and 3rd centuries indirectly. Based on the statements of local councils in the 4th century, as Jesuit scholar Christian Cochini explains, it seems that the likely expected practice was for priests t

Episode 6: Holy Dirt, Posadas, and More Catholic Customs - Show Notes


Image Credit: "Vow Gift to the Virgin of the Candelaria '[the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos], Image and license info available at the website of the National Museum van Wereldculturen and Wereldmuseum, The Netherlands. (image dimensions modified).


Episode Summary:


We revisit the topic of holy dirt from our Bede episode again and have a more informal conversation on the history of some Catholic customs. Some of these customs are backed by solid tradition, while others are more controversial. We discuss the interplay of fact and legend, the possible pre-Christian roots of some traditions, and whether any of these cross the line into superstition. We are sure there is much more to learn and understand about each of these traditions, so please take our speculations with at least a small grain of salt this time around. For example, one correction to the episode: the Virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos is a statue/figurine and was not originally connected with an apparition per se, but rather a famous healing credited to the Blessed Virgin Mary.


All that said, we hope this discussion is thought provoking. Here are some customs and beliefs we discussed:


• Posadas and devotions to baby Jesus in Mexican culture
• Food, such as obleas (Latin American candy based on communion wafers)
• Devotion to St. Christopher, patron saint of safe travels
• Burying a St. Joseph statute to sell a house and possible origins (for example, St. Andre Bessette)
• More sacred dirt - eating the dust from San Juan de los Lagos; St. Helena's use of dirt from Jerusalem at Santa Croce in Rome; and the story of Naaman from the Old Testament (see 2 Kings 5:17).


Sources
Books:
• A History of the Church in 100 Objects by Mike Aquilina and Grace Aquilina (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2017).
• The Catholic All Year Compendium: Living Liturgically for Real Life _by Kendra Tierney (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2018).
• _The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Vroagine - Includes the traditional story of St. Christopher and many, many other saints. (Available online from Fordham University).


Articles Online:
• "Night Adoration Growing among Hispanics" (Denver Catholic, Dec. 7, 2013)
• "Geofagia: por que hay gente que no puede parar de comer tierra" by Josh Gabbatiss (BBC News Mundo, July. 13, 2016)
• "El Bable: Geofagia: La 'tierrita' de San Juan y la extrana costumbre de comer tierra" (El Bable, Jun. 12, 2013).
• "Mexican Christmas Traditions" by Dante Arias (Xcaret Blog, Dec. 21, 2016).
• "St. Christopher" (New Advent Catholic Encylcopedia)
• "Whatever Happened to St. Christopher? Is He Still a Saint?" (Catholic Straight Answers)
• "Did the Church declare that St. Christopher is a myth?" (Catholic Answers)
• "The Sellers' Saint" (Washington Post, Oct. 6, 1990)
• "Saint André Bessette: Montreal’s Miracle Worker" by Brother Andre Marie (Catholicism.org, Oct. 25, 2004)


Intro Music Credit:
*Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!

Episode 5: The Venerable Bede - Show Notes


Image Credit: Folio 5r from the Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatinus 1), Ezra the scribe. [Public Domain] Available at Wikimedia Commons.


Brief Chronology (most dates are approximate):
• 410 - Goths sack Rome
• 431 - Mission of Palladius to Ireland (probably close in time to Patrick's mission)
• 449 - Vortigern invites Angles and Saxons to Britain as mercenaries
• 563 - Columba reaches Iona in Scotland
• 597 - Augustine reaches Kent, beginning mission to the English
• 604 - Death of Pope Gregory the Great
• 627 - Conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria
• 664 - Synod of Whitby
• 673 - Bede's birth near Jarrow in Northumbria
• 674 - Wearmouth (St. Peter's) founded by Benedict Biscop
• 680 - Bede becomes oblate at Wearmouth
• 681 - Jarrow (St. Paul's) founded
• 692 - Bede ordained a deacon at age 19
• 702 - Bede ordained a priest at age 30
• 703 - Bede writes his first works
• 710 - Ceolfrith's letter to the Picts concerning Easter
• 716 - Ceolfrith leaves Jarrow for Rome with the Codex Amiatinus
• 731 - Bede completes his Ecclesiastical History of the English People
• 734 - Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert, dated Nov. 4
• 735 - Bede's death on May 25
• 794 - Vikings attack Jarrow
• 1899 - Bede is declared a Doctor of the Church


Summary:


As discussed in our St. Patrick episode, Britain struggled after the Roman military left. Germanic tribes called the Angles and Saxons soon took advantage of the situation, perhaps after originally being invited as mercenaries to protect the Britons left behind by the Romans. The Pagan Angles and Saxons forced the Christian Britons toward the western side of Britain (Wales and Cornwall now) and carved out several new kingdoms for themselves in the south-eastern part of Britain, such as Kent, Mercia, and Northumbria, to name only a few. The conversion of the newcomers did not get well underway for another century and a half, which is the story Bede tells in his Ecclesiastical History.


Although Anglo-Saxon England seems to have been unstable and often violent, Bede himself lived a quiet life as a priest and scholar at the monastery of Jarrow from a young age until his death. He was probably born about 673 close to Jarrow, located in the northern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. He was sent to Wearmouth at age 7 to be educated. The monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth had been founded relatively recently by a nobleman named Benedict Biscop, the community's first abbot, who travelled to Rome several times in his life and was enthusiastic about implementing what he learned there. Probably Bede left Wearmouth with Ceolfrith and others when the associated monastery of St. Paul was founded at Jarrow.


A plague seems to have swept the community at some point in Bede's childhood, leaving only the abbot Ceolfrith and a child (possibly Bede himself) well enough to chant the Psalter. Later in life, when Ceolfrith left Jarrow for a pilgrimage to Rome, Bede compared Ceolfrith to Eli, the priest to whom Hannah entrusted her child Samuel (Bede in this analogy). Ceolfrith died on the journey, but his gift to the pope, the Codex Amiatinus, survives to the present day. It was a rare single-volume version of the Bible created by Bede and his fellow monks.


Bede was ordained a deacon at the age of 19, then a priest at 30. He may never have ventured outside of his native Northumbria. (Ward, Give Love and Receive the Kingdom, ch. 2). He seems to have corresponded with people throughout Britain, gathering local information for his history of the English church.


Bede left behind a numerous books, including his landmark Ecclesiastical History of the English People, as well as other historical works and Biblical commentaries. In his Ecclesiastical History, completed in 731, he tells the story of how Roman Britain became Anglo-Saxon England, then how the Anglo-Saxons came to b