Silver linings

Well, just when we seemed to be plunged into a bleaker January than usual - unemployment still rising, TD's claiming Independents' allowence despite no longer being Independents, Israel murdering civilians in Gaza, Bush refusing to condemn Israel's murder of civilians in Gaza, Waterford Crystal tottering on the edge of collapse - in the midst of all that, two faint glimmers of hope.

First, the news that the US has called for an immediate Israeli ceasefire. Only 720 or so Palestinians had to die before the Bush administration figured out that, on the whole, the random murder of besieged civilians was not, really, a very good thing. They certainly took their time. But the news is certainly welcome. Let's hope to God they're serious about it and that Israel let supplies in.

Then something even more unexpected: the news that Cardinal Archibishop Vingt-Trois of Paris has celebrated Mass in the extraordinary form - for the second time in two months. Remarkable, given that His Eminence was not seen as being friendly towards the old rite, and the liberalism of the French episcopacy generally. Who could have imagined this ten years ago? Bishop Fellay said that if Catholics were free to choose between the traditional rite and the new rite, they would eventually all choose the traditional; the new rite would simply "wither away." He said this by way of predicting that the French bishops would oppose making the old rite available tooth and nail. Well, it seems, Deo gratias, that they are not so hostile to the traditional rite as many of us imagined.

How wonderful it is to watch history in the making like this. The return of Tradition is well and truly afoot!