Wednesday, July 10, 2024

A New Collection of Historical Catholic Films

Thanks to Peter for bringing to my attention a new YouTube channel called Catholic Archive (https://www.youtube.com/@CatholicArchive/videos), which has only existed for a few weeks, but has already posted quite a lot of very interesting historical videos of liturgical celebrations and other events of Catholic interest. Here are a few examples.

The priestly ordination of Father (and future Cardinal) Avery Dulles, SJ, in 1956; he got his own newsreel because his father, John Foster Dulles, was Secretary of State. (His uncle Allen Dulles was at the same time head of the CIA; this fact is not mentioned.)

Mass celebrated in the ruins of the cathedral of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1949; the cathedral, which is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, is located less than a third of a mile from ground zero of the atomic bomb that was dropped on the city in 1945. (no soundtrack.)
Pope Pius XI proclaims the Extraordinary Jubilee of Human Redemption in 1933; His Holiness, one of the most politically astute men to sit on the throne of Peter in modern times, had no illusions as to whether the War to End All Wars had really done so, and the Jubilee was also proclaimed “that God most merciful might bring it about that the Holy Year ... may bring back peace to souls, due liberty to the Church in all places, and true harmony and prosperity to all peoples.” (from the Apostolic Constitution Quod nuper, the indiction of the Jubilee.)
The canonization of St Pius X, by Pius XII in 1954, the first canonization of a pope since that of Pius V over 240 years previous, with footage of a grand procession held through Rome on the following day.
Footage of the Holy Land taken at Christmastide of 1930, including Bethlehem, Nazareth and the River Jordan.

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