The Sheepcat

Those Tasty Wafers--Setting the Record Straight

In 2005 I innocently picked up a story fromThe Globe and Mail about snack food resembling communion wafers, and from here it circulated around St Blog's, along the way generating some sputtering about how Quebeckers were flirting with blasphemy, and a remark about secularization in the province being a reaction to "centuries of caesaropapism." So it's only right that I should link back to Fr Thomas Dowd's fine essay setting the record straight about the history of Church-State relations in Quebec, and explaining that retailles d’hosties have in fact been around for a long time. His post isn't new; I just happened to read it long after it first went up.

David Suzuki--Who Knew?

Alice the Camel asks, "When did David Suzuki become Catholic?"

Disordered Desire

On the perversion that leads to foie gras.

Day 3. Budapest (Part 2)

We visited the huge fruit market,

… and at lunch a few of us tried a remarkable dessert called turogomboc. Roughly the size of a softball, it's a sort of steamed dumpling made with cheese and wheat meal, garnished with fruity custard and ground nuts.

In the afternoon, we went to the cathedral …

… named after St Stephen of Hungary,

where we had Mass at the in the lovely side chapel that holds his relics.

Then we took a quick look at the main sanctuary …

… before heading off to the airport.

Day 2. Budapest

Update (25 May): I've reinserted the photos at a size that allows you to see the detail without clicking on a thumbnail, and done a little clean-up of the layout.

We arrived at the Budapest airport just after noon

and were taken by coach to our hotel

on the Buda side of the river--the city is divided by the Danube, with the hills on the west side and plains ("Pest") on the east.

I walked a few blocks to find an ATM and bought bottled water. Along the way, I enjoyed the urban atmosphere

with the old buildings,

and I passed by the historic church where we would go for mass later in the afternoon.

Nap time then!

I'm bound to get some of these details about the church wrong, as my early notes are sketchy, and I was a little dazed still. The church was, uh, named after St Stephen, the first Christian king of the Hungarians.[Nope, that was the next day's--this was the Krisztina Church.]

These two on the front facade of the church are saints, I presume. (How's that for classy travel commentary!) [And now I can say that the older, bearded one is indeed St Stephen of Hungary--I knew he had some connection to this church.]

I've got some church interiors that'll have to be Photoshopped once I'm home, as they're a little dark. [Update: and here they are!]

Did I mention that we've been well fed? (Despite the placement of the label, the "rice soufflé" is actually something else, not pictured--sort of like rice pudding, only much lighter. These triangular goodies were a bit like brownies or Nanaimo bars, as I recall.)

Okay, it's an early morning for us tomorrow, so I'd better wrap this up for now.

Imitation Bread of Life, Aisle 4

As a new Catholic I can't help but be struck when elements of Catholicism have gotten chucked out by the culture at large and then brought in again by the back door. The confessional is largely gone, and in its place we have a huge therapy industry (Foucault was way wrong about a whole lot of things, but in identifying Freudian analysis as a substitute for the confessional he was definitely on to something). Now  I read that (unconsecrated!) communion-style wafers are being sold  in Quebec as a salt-free, fat-free snack food. In Canada's most secularized province, it's said, the wafers appeal to people's nostalgia.

The Real Presence--accept no substitutes!

Update (28 Dec): Some interesting comments at the Curt Jester, which picked up this item via Sed Contra.