“The Borgias …” The name alone conjures up dark images, with nothing further needing to be said. But … how did that situation come about?

At 7: 30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4th (in the Aula Maxima of St. Bonaventure’s College) Br. J.B. Darcy, CFC, will speak about Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) and his family.

The presentation was sparked by the recent TV series (Showcase / Bravo / CTV) The Borgias : The Original Crime Family, which perpetuates one of the Black Legends about the Roman Catholic Church and its saints-and-sinners sons and daughters.

Since History is written by the “winners,” the casual observer never gets the opportunity to hear the other side of the story. To those who know NO History, there is a natural (if careless) human tendency to accept and believe the first version one hears.

Br. Darcy will correct that. The TV series is not “History” but entertainment, and may easily mislead viewers into thinking they now know all about “the original crime family”. But Showcase / Bravo / CTV are far from being institutions of Higher Learning.

Br. Darcy’s presentation will be based largely upon Msgr. Peter De Roo’s 5-volume history called Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, His Relatives and His Time, a copy of which is in Br. Darcy’s possession.

This massive piece of research has been ignored almost to the point where we might say it has been suppressed. Perhaps it has been ignored because it refutes many of the libels against Pope Alexander VI.

No public library in Newfoundland possesses a copy of Msgr. De Roo’s work. Search the internet and you’ll discover the nearest copy is in the library at the Universite de Laval.

(There may be a copy IN the Laval library … but that’s likely where it stays – no-one checking it out. Easier to accept the legend than hear what the dissenters have to say, which might require a re-thinking of received opinion. Never a comfortable exercise.)

This promises to be a very stimulating evening, and we are fortunate to have a scholar of Br. Darcy’s calibre lay out for us the case made by Msgr. De Roo. Be sure to attend if you can. (No admission charge, plenty of parking.)

Here is a mock-up of what the final product will look like (click the image for a larger view) :

The cuff-links will look very much like this

The construction is of base metal, gold finish and enamelled, and both lapel pin and cuff-links would be 1.7 cm. diameter. Here is a mocked-up illustration of the lapel pin (note the clasp-type; as above, click the image for a larger view) :

Approximation of final appearance, lapel pin

As you can see, the initials FIUV of Una Voce International stand for the Latin : Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce.

We’ve referred to a ‘mock-up’ and ‘approximation’ of appearance because the initial order is just now being sent to the manufacturer in England. (You’ll be the proud owner of the first batch off the assembly line!)

St. Oliver’s is making these available at $5 for the lapel pin, and $10 for the cuff-links. Please let us know by Wednesday, June 9th if you wish to order one, or the other, or both.

You can view it here, or at YouTube … and can comment either here, or there.

If the embedded version of the video does not appear here (or if you simply prefer to view it AT YouTube) you can click on the link below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqvYjwTr8C0

We want to thank Steve for his efforts and offer our congratulations on the great job he did.  There are some splendid shots here – beautiful colour and clarity – and some very pertinent comments by those interviewed in the video.

Viewers may be glad to know that you can get your own copy of this video on a DVD, a wonderful keepsake. Just contact any of the St. Oliver’s organizers after Mass. (Steve says he is working to combine all 5 camera angles which he shot from, to produce a full-length video of the entire Mass – and we hope to make that available, too, at a later date. We’ll let you know when it’s ready.)

Steve has also posted a 4-part video at YouTube of the footage he shot at the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday at the Basilica in St. John’s, where the homilist was retired Archbishop William Aquin Carew.

Of course not — but in 1966 he starred in the movie Cast a Giant Shadow, in which there was a very brief scene sure to fascinate us — but which everyone else would overlook as just an insignificant oddity, having no bearing on the plot of the movie. (And it didn’t.)

Douglas played the role of Col. Mickey Marcus, a Jewish-American veteran of W.W. II recruited circa 1947 by Israelis to help them train an army for Israel.

Now just before seeing this movie your editor had read (concerning the manner of reception of Holy Communion) that it was a common practice of social etiquette in the ancient Near East for the host of a banquet to place the first morsel of the banquet directly into the mouths of his guests … thus asserting his position as the host.

But in Cast a Giant Shadow (set in 1947-48) American Col. Marcus (Douglas) with a young native Israeli adjutant visit the tent of an Arab chieftain sympathetic to the Jews. The moment they’re seated the Arab takes a date from a basket, reaches across and places it directly into the mouth of the young Israeli … who receives it in this way without the slightest indication of surprise. But if you blinked, you’d have missed it. It was a fleeting shot, of no relevance to the story-line.

The scene was a “throw-away,” lasting perhaps two seconds, included simply to add local colour and authenticity to the movie, but it suggested this “custom of the ancient Near East” survives to this day … or had survived at least into the late 1940s. (We don’t think the producers of the movie moonlighted with part-time jobs as liturgists!) Very interesting.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.