Views from the Choir Loft

How a Priest Saved Thousands in WW2

Veronica Brandt · November 14, 2015 ·

HE SCARLET AND THE BLACK stars Gregory Peck and Christopher Plummer. You’ll probably recognise Plummer from his role as the Captain in The Sound of Music. This time, instead of tearing up swastikas, he is proudly wearing them. The situation is grim and this is why this particular DVD stayed up on the shelf for so long in my house, until yesterday.

But now I am very glad to have watched it and to have been so caught up in the story as to be shouting at the screen towards the end – a really phenomenal ending.

It does contain Gregorian chant (some rather mournful alleluias – maybe underlying the paradox of the glories of martyrdom?), but much of the soundtrack really reveals the movie’s proximity to the 1970s. If you can bear with that, then you will enjoy the acting and the fact that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Pope Pius XII is portrayed maybe as well as he could have been at the time. His role in the war still being revealed today. There have been some more recent films about Pius XII. Maybe one of them will feature in our next movie night.

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.

A quote from Fr. Valentine

Speaking of “nihil solliciti estis,” Fr. Valentine recently said: “I’ll bet that most people, including myself, have suffered more from things that never happened than from things that actually did happen.” Wise words!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Circle is complete

This is interesting! We have made it all the way around the liturgical year for Vespers organ accompaniments—which means all we have to do now is fill in the “holes,” such as Candlemas.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Fr. Valentine is very sick

I beg you to pray for Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, who I am told is dying (or may possibly have died already). He’s one of the most faithful & generous priests I know. There would be no CCWatershed without Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Discussion on Facebook

Giovanni Doni is known for having changed the name of note “Ut,” renaming it “Do.” He convinced his contemporaries to make the change by arguing that 1) “Do” is easier to pronounce than “Ut,” and 2) “Do” is an abbreviation for “Dominus,” the Latin word for the Lord, Who is the tonic and root of the world. There is much academic speculation that Giovanni Doni also wanted to imprint himself into musical canon in perpetuity because “Do” is also ulteriorly an abbreviation for his family name.

— Giovanni Battista Doni died in 1647AD