Puttering in the Study

The Fisherman's Tomb: The True Story of the Vatican's Secret Search - John O'Neill

I had this book recommended to me during a recent St. Thomas More Society meeting as a good recent book about the Scavi excavations for Peter's tomb under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  It was a good addition to what I already had, and told more of the story of how the excavation was funded and the internal politics surrounding both the excavations and how what came out of them was treated.  It's a very, very interesting subject.

Last Knights of Columbus Fall-out in Old Regalia at St. Josephs

We celebrated the 110th anniversary of the Marshall Knights of Columbus chapter this evening with a mass celebrated by Bishop Strickland. It was bittersweet because tonight was also the last time our Assembly will fall out in the regalia we've worn for over 70 years, and I've had the privilege of wearing for the last 27.

A couple of years ago National decided to update the 4th degree's official "color guard" uniform from the traditional capes which have been worn with tux and chapeaux since 1940, and were worn for decades before that with white tie, tailcoat and top hats.  The new look is navy blazers and neckties with dark gray slacks and a black beret.

It was a good time to get a final picture with Mom & Pop's window in the sacristy with my sword, which was Pop's back when he was wearing the tails and top hat in Waco in the 1910s and 1920s.  The baldric (diagonal sash which holds the sword) and sword may still be used with the new uniforms, but we don't know for sure if they will as a matter of course yet.

I actually wore Pop's tail coat as well, which was still in the attic in the early '70s in a school play as the Mad Hatter (the top hat was not original).

The tree behind me has a bit of family history as well - here's Mom and Pop helping Mother past it on her way into the church for her wedding in 1957.

Anyway, as soon as we got home from the event, instead of putting my chapeaux back in its bag I put it up on the religion shelves in the study. (You can tell they're the religion shelves because there's a trompe l'oeil medallion of St. John Paul II over it).

I know the change is bothering a lot of Knights, but not me.  It's what we do and stand for that's important - not what we're wearing.

The Bones of St. Peter - John Evangelist Walsh

I picked this book up in a souvenir store just off St. Peter's Square in Rome in July since when our last trip to Rome we had been on Scavi tour of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica, including St. Peter's tomb.  The book was everything that I had hoped for – a thorough, heavily illustrated and diagrammed history of the excavations under the church. It explained the fall starts regarding what had been found, and what is known today – or more properly what was known 30 years ago when this book was released – about the bones that were found in the recess of the wall adjacent to the original grave.

I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the subject. 

Popes and the Papacy: A History

By a wide margin, this is my favorite course by The Learning Company so far.  In 24 lectures, Prof. Thomas F. X. Noble of the University of Notre Dame goes through the history of the papacy from its origins to the present.  He's by far the best presenter I have yet seen in these lectures, and I found myself repeatedly just enthralled by the stories he was telling about a particular period or individual.  (It may also have had something to do with watching a number of them in the study late at night fortified with a good glass of wine).
It's obvious that I learned a great deal, of course, but I also enjoyed it immensely.