From Cardinal Timothy Dolan

In Memoriam: Nelson Mandela

Today I learned that Nelson Mandela, former South African president and a hero to all, had passed away. Here is the statement that I released to the press:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 5, 2013

STATEMENT OF CARDINAL DOLAN ON THE PASSING OF NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Mandela was a hero to the world. His bravery in defending human rights against the great evil of apartheid made him a symbol of courage and dignity, as well as an inspiration to people everywhere. As Blessed Pope John Paul II noted during his visit to South Africa in 1995, Nelson Mandela was for many years, “a silent and suffering ‘witness’ of your people’s yearning for true liberation,” who, as President of South Africa, had to then “shoulder the burden of inspiring and challenging everyone to succeed in the task of national reconciliation and reconstruction.” In succeeding in these crucial and difficult tasks, Nelson Mandela truly made the world a better place.

May he rest in peace.

Abortion? Schmabortion! What does it matter so long as you are a hero to the world?

On the Obscurity of Human Perception

Pudor de la Putrefacció del Fetge, a long-forgotten Catalan dadaist poet of the 1920s wrote this haunting epigram on the obscurity of human perception in 1923.

Mentre jo era a casa del psiquiatre, el meu cul va caure. Vaig pensar que era gangrena,
Però ell em va dir que era el meu inseguretat fonamental.

While I was at the psychiatrist's, my posterior fell off. I thought it was gangrene,
But he told me it was my fundamental insecurity.

(My translation)

Brunhilde von Kartoffel zu Kohl: 1900-1937

Brunhilde von Kartoffel zu Kohl was an influential, though now little known, poetess of the Weimar Republic in Germany, and a strong influence on such unsurpassed geniuses as Brecht and Weill.

Her premature suicide deprived the world of a great and very individual talent which would surely have come to full flower in the 1960s.

Here she paints a tragic picture of German womanhood of the 1930s, crushed by male brutality and insensitivity.

Romanze in fünf Stufen

Als wir uns trafen, war ich die Treppe herunter
Und Sie nannten mich die Treppe hinunter Mädchen.
Ich übersprang in den Park,
Und für dich Ich war das Überspringen Mädchen
Später regnete es, und mein Haar war nass
Und Sie nannte mir die nassen Haare Mädchen.
Und dann haben wir zu Mittag gegessen, und Sie nannten mich die brattwurst Mädchen.
Auf der Straße trat ich in einigen Pferdemist
Und Sie nannten mich den Pferdemist Mädchen.

Romance in Five Stages

When we met, I was coming down the stairs
And you called me the downstairs girl.
I skipped in the park,
And for you I was the skipping girl.
Later it rained, and my hair was wet
And you called me the wet hair girl.
And then we had lunch and you called me the brattwurst girl.
In the street I stepped in some horse dung
And you called me the horse dung girl.

(My translation)