Gregg’s: Are we becoming Europe?

Posted on 19 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Click to buy. UK and Canada, copy title and paste into one of the search boxes at the bottom of the blog.

At Acton University (follow tweets #ActonU) we are having a “blogger luncheon” and Samuel Gregg is addressing us.

Gregg is making brief remarks and answering questions about his recent book Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future, as well as a range of related issues.

I highly recommend the book.  I would tell you more about it, but I am, literally, also eating lunch.

Just buy it.  High sales of this book will annoy liberals at the National Schismatic Reporter almost as much as your reading the book before writing or talking about it!

A note: When religion disappears culture changes and our economic and political landscape change dramatically.  We have choices to make.

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By the way, there could be signs of hope in some European countries: Hungarian constitution, marriage marches in Paris, economic policy changes in Sweden, etc.

Is it too late for us in the USA?  No, I don’t think it it too late, but we are in serious trouble.  We are making disastrous choices.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

2nd miracle for John Paul II takes another step forward

Posted on 19 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

One news source I saw this morning says that the theologians who are consultants for the Congregation for Causes of Saints have put their stamp of approval on a second miracle for Bl. John Paul II.

Without going into details (you can read the story I saw HERE), the process for a claimed miracle has to get experts in to study the claim that what happened (a cure, protection from harm, etc) is truly beyond our ability to explain in merely material, natural terms.  Another panel needs to study the claim that the miracle was worked through the intercession of Bl. X, Y or Z.

You will notice when you get cards or communications from a cause for a beatification, that there is a prayer precisely worded to focus on the servant of God or blessed.  If you are praying to Bl. X, but also to Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the saints, etc., you “muddy” the claim that X interceded.  This is one reason why I will sometimes ask people to ask for miracle through the intercession of a specific Venerable, such as Pauline Jaricot, and I correct those who say, “HEY, Also pray to A, B, and C!  They are great too!” The idea is to invoke a certain blessed, asking for intercession, in such a way that a potential miracle could be part of a process and cause.

So, you can find the details about the miracle elsewhere, but I thought you might be interested in those distinction.  Meanwhile, the second miracle still needs a couple more steps, including approval by members of the Congregation, presentation to the Pope, and promulgation by the Pope.  Then canonization can go forward.

I have little doubt that this is being jammed through fast.  After all those involved in the cause are very well organized.

Hmmm… since I was ordained by John Paul, would I become a 3rd class relic or something? Since it is I, perhaps a 4th or 5th.

Finally, if you don’t ask for miracles they will not be given.

Ask for miracles.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Our Catholic Identity, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Acton U 2013: Day 1 (with UPDATES)

Posted on 19 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am once again participating in Acton University. This is a wonderful few days.

There are swarms of people this year, I think last night the announcer said 1300 people from 85 countries.

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Fr. Robert Sirico gave the opening address.

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Over the years I have made some friends among the Action staff and some of the regular participants. It is great to see everyone again. Here is one fellow you might know: Michael Voris. I will be working to convert him away from his dependance on Richard McBrien (you remember my exclusive super double top secret investigative report deep into the secrets of Church Militant, right? HERE).

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Kidding aside, Michael is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and his coworkers are outstanding.

This morning we have Mass scheduled for 7:15 in the Extraordinary Form. Then breakfast. Then the work begins. (Before someone asks, yes, they have Ordinary Form too.)

I’ll post some notes during the day as time permits.

UPDATE:

First lecture was on Newman as a liberal and as a conservative in politics and economics.

UPDATE:

The candy store is open!

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The venue is across the river from the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. Interesting visit!

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UPDATE:

Next lecture: Origins of Economics: The Scriptures and Early Church Fathers on Wealth and Poverty

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UPDATE:

Class on the school of Salamanca, then Why Augustine matters?

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UPDATE

Our speaker is Marina Nemat.

Look her up.

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Posted in Just Too Cool, On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

“Better to die honorably in the field than ignominiously hang upon the gallows.”

Posted on 18 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I subscribe to Bill Bennett’s radio program and I get regular daily emails as an kind an American history almanac.  Today I had one that stuck me, and thus I share it.

Abigail Adams to John Adams, June 18, 1775

Shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Abigail Adams wrote one of the many letters she penned to her husband, John, then in Philadelphia serving in the Second Continental Congress. On a hill near her farm with her young son, Johnny, she had watched the smoke of the battle rising above Charlestown. She wrote partly to tell her husband that their friend Dr. Joseph Warren had been killed in the fight.

Dearest Friend, The Day, perhaps the decisive Day is come on which the fate of America depends. My bursting heart must find vent at my pen. I have just heard that our dear friend Dr. Warren is no more but fell gloriously fighting for his country—saying better to die honorably in the field than ignominiously hang upon the gallows. Great is our loss. He has distinguished himself in every engagement, by his courage and fortitude, by animating the soldiers and leading them on by his own example. . . .

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Trust in him at all times, ye people pour out your hearts before him. God is a refuge for us—Charleston is laid in ashes. . . .

How [many ha]ve fallen we know not—the constant roar of the cannon is so [distre]ssing that we can not eat, drink, or sleep. May we be supported and sustained in the dreadful conflict. I shall tarry here till tis thought unsafe by my friends, and then I have secured myself a retreat at your brother’s, who has kindly offered me part of his house. I cannot compose myself to write any further at present. I will add more as I hear further.

American History Parade

1812 The United States declares war against Britain in the War of 1812.
1873 Suffragist Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for trying to vote in the 1872 presidential election (a fine she refuses to pay).
1928 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, as a passenger on a flight piloted by Wilmer Stultz (she later becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic).
1948 Columbia Records unveils the latest in audio technology: a long-playing, 33? rpm phonograph record.
1983 Sally Ride becomes America’s first woman in space when she blasts off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

 

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged , | 18 Comments

ACTION ITEM! ST. JOSEPH’s name NOW in Eucharistic Prayers II, III, IV

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Have you seen the news? Decades after John XXIII placed the name of Joseph in the Roman Canon, it seems that the name of the great Patron of the Dying, Terror of Demons, will be in the Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV in the 3rd edition of the Missale Romanum.

I received a copy of a document from the USCCB which communicates the decree – Paternas vices (Prot. N. 215/11/L) – of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

The Latin shall be:

II: “ut cum beáta Dei Genetríce Vírgine María, beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, beátis Apóstolis”
III: “cum beatissíma Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum beátis Apóstolis”
IV: “cum beáta Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum Apóstolis”

The English:

II:
that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
with Blessed Joseph, her Spouse,
with the blessed Apostles

III:
with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
with blessed Joseph, her Spouse,
with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs

IV:
with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
with blessed Joseph, her Spouse,
and with your Apostles

The Spanish:

II:
con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y…

III:
con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y los mártires…

IV:
con María, la Vigen Madre de Dios, con su esposo san José, con los apóstoles y los santos…

The language of the decree says “henceforth” and in:

“… by virtue of the faculties granted by the Supreme Pontiff FRANCIS, is pleased to decree that the name of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary is henceforth to be added to Eucharistic Prayers II, III, IV, ….”

That means that those of you who celebrate the Novus Ordo tomorrow – or tonight – can and indeed must add the name of Joseph.

UPDATE

Be sure to look at comments, below, about implementation.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Pope Francis | Tagged , , | 70 Comments

“When ‘Guitar Masses’ became a chew toy between traditionalists and progressives

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is a smart and well-written article at The American Spectator on liturgical music by Patrick O’Hannigan, whom I have mentioned before.

The piece is longish, so here are a few bits to whet your appetite.

Can Liturgical Music Be Saved?

By PATRICK O’HANNIGAN on 6.17.13 @ 6:07AM

Reassessing the quarrel between the power ballad and the hymn.

Remember the power ballad? It was a subgenre of rock music pioneered by Boston in 1976 and Styx a year later. From near-symphonic beginnings in “More Than a Feeling” and “Come Sail Away,” the power ballad elbowed its way to prominence in the early Eighties.
Tom Scholz of Boston and Dennis DeYoung of Styx welded songwriting craftsmanship to imaginative orchestration and “wall of sound” microphone placements, mixing electric and acoustic guitars in tunes that did more than build to crescendos. Artists like Bonnie Tyler and REO Speedwagon then parlayed their own examples of the form into successful recording careers.
Power ballad pioneers play now in places like state fairs. But when the power ballad fell out of fashion, it found a home among the “praise bands” of “Christian Rock.” Where power ballads go, praise bands follow. [!] That unabashedly Christian lyrics can be heard on FM radio is a good thing, but that power ballads also enabled praise bands to displace so many church choirs ought to give us pause. [Along with headaches and indigestion.] Power ballads are not hymns. That is precisely the problem with singing them during church services, even — perhaps especially— services aimed at younger people. [GRRR]
Praise bands replaced many traditional choirs in part because church musicians were not always conscious of their own assumptions. They listened to car radios while driving to rehearsals. Like everyone else, they smiled at the playful grunge of “Spirit in the Sky” and the crypto-Christian bonhomie of “Get Together.” Hook-laden songs on the FM dial were more fun to play than old-timey hymns that required little or no instrumental accompaniment, and so garage bands at every conceivable talent level reasoned that only cranks would be critical of Sunday services enlivened by rock, jazz, and reggae rhythms.

[... See where he is going? ... I skip here...]

Praise bands took longer to find acceptance in Catholic parishes, but find it they did, when “Guitar Masses” became a chew toy in the perennial argument between traditionalists and progressives. [Great image.] The praise band influence might have been more decisive in the pews had it not been for a pair of distinctively Catholic attributes: First, the doctrine of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist emphasizes reverence in Catholic worship to a greater degree than is usually cultivated by Protestant assemblies. Second (and also by design), the Catholic Church is incapable of rapid change. Despite those constraints, praise band and power ballad influence made itself felt.
People who never used works like “immanence” and “transcendence” nevertheless realized that Jesus-among-us thinking had outpaced Jesus-beyond-us thinking, [I think I'll steal that line.] and composers smitten with concepts like “inculturation” and the “spirit of Vatican II” did what they could to shoehorn new music into the liturgy of the church, with decidedly mixed results. What Anthony Esolen once called “the necessary hypocrisy of small talk” was raised to the status of a liturgical act. Meanwhile, among Christians of all confessions, advances in technology spawned by arena rock also created cheap amplifiers that could fill a room with sound.
Architecture was part of the same populist impulse.

[... must skip more...]

Motivation for excellence has seldom been phrased so pithily. [Guess who that would be?] Following that example and the pope’s ringing July 2007 reaffirmation of the continuing validity of the Mass in Latin, [Ooops. He put his foot slightly wrong here.  It isn't just an affirmation of Mass in Latin, it is affirmation of a form of Mass that is in Latin.] Catholic writers are more willing to question the songs on Sunday morning playlists. Jeffrey Tucker wrote about the dangers of catering to musical fads. Marc Barnes regaled readers of his column with “Five Reasons to Kill Christian Music,” by which he meant not the work of Palestrina, but the power ballad dragooned into worship duty. The first reason that Barnes offered was all but unassailable in its logic: writing “Christian” songs has the regrettable effect of reducing Christianity to a modifying adjective. [!] Barnes was also caustic enough to say that “If your music is bad, and you’re praying that God will do something great with it, stop praying and make better music.” On an academic note, the University of Saint Anselmo created a master’s-level course in liturgical music, complete with kind words for Gregorian chant, earlier this year.

[...]

He even name-dropped the right people… with one notable omission, of course.

Fr Z Kudos.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Pres. Obama sticks his nose into Catholic education in IRELAND

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Another example of what this man wants: total isolation of any religious values in the private sphere alone. Pres. Obama is working either to intimidate or legislate or even TAX religious freedom out of the public square.

From the Scottish Catholic Observer!

US president undermines Catholic schools after Vatican Prefect praised them
The US President has made an alarming call for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland in spite of the fact that Archbishop Gerhard Müller told Scots that Catholic education was ‘a critical component of the Church.’

President Barack Obama (above), repeated the oft disproved claim that Catholic education increases division in front of an audience of 2000 young people, including many Catholics, at Belfast’s Waterfront hall when he arrived in the country this morning.

“If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” the US president said.  [And this is his business... how?  Trick question.  It isn't.  It is part of an agenda he has for the public square in the USA.  He is trying to destroy conservative institutions.]

The US politician made the unfounded claim despite a top Vatican official spelling out the undeniable good done by Catholic education in a speech in Glasgow on Saturday and in his homily at Mass on Friday.

Archbishop Gerhard Müller , prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, told an audience in Scotland that Catholic education provided a rare place where ‘intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together’ while giving the presitigous Cardinal Winning Lecture on Saturday to officially launch the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic teacher education at Glasgow University. [Did Müller manage to give his talk without a teleprompter?] During Mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, on Friday night he said that ‘the Catholic school is vitally important … a critical component of the Church,’ adding that Catholic education provides young people with a wonderful opportunity to ‘grow up with Jesus.’

Mr Obama is in Northern Ireland to take part in the two day G8 Summit at the Lough Erne resort in Enneskillen.

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a foreign visit to a Islamic nation where he told people on his arrival that they shouldn’t have madrasas.  Can you?

Did he when visiting, say, Israel, say “You Jews shouldn’t have synagogue schools and you muslims shouldn’t have mosque schools.”  I can’t remember.  Did he?

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Pò sì jiù, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, What are they REALLY saying? | Tagged , , , , , , | 63 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What there a good point or two from your Sunday sermon that you heard?

Let’s us know what it is!

Remember the sermon? o{];¬)

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | 14 Comments

What is your good news?

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have good news for the readers?

For my part, I have gotten a lot of work done in the last few days.

I had a good breakthrough on an ongoing project.

A seminarian is coming by in the mornings to learn to serve Mass (TLM of course). He does a great job. Latin through High School. What an advantage to have Latin before moving to the next step?

My car issues are resolved. That ’92 TC was a great ride. Addio!

There have been some good donations for my Rome trip and I am more confident that everything will work. The clerical places I usually stay at are full, so I contacted a short term apartment service. That’s often the best way to go in Rome, by the way. They wind up being cheaper than most hotels, especially if you are splitting costs, and you can make some meals for yourselves which saves a LOT of money in a city like Rome.

PS: Keep the donations coming! Help me unclench. When I see even a small donation I think “Breakfast!” or “A couple apartment hours paid for!”.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | 55 Comments

QUAERITUR: Wouldn’t audible prayers in the Extraordinary Form be better?

Posted on 16 June 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I was born during Vatican II and until recently, had no exposure whatsoever to Mass in the Extraordinary Form. At the invitation of a friend, I have been visiting a local parish that offers the EF and I am baffled by the fact that many (if not most) of the priest’s prayers are inaudible to the congregation. Why is this? Wouldn’t saying or chanting the prayers aloud make it much easier for the congregation to follow the liturgy and comprehend the glorious mystery and majesty of what is being said and celebrated in the liturgy? Please enlighten me.

Comprehend the mystery?  Really?  We can have a glimpse, an encounter with mystery, which may wind up being both frightening and alluring.  Comprehend?

It seems to me that for decades, our liturgical worship has been turned into a didactic moment, or a self-enclosed group grope, or a period of distraction or entertainment.  All manner of noise and explanations and singing every word and constant amplified chatter from the sanctuary (if there is a sanctuary) has conditioned people to think that they have to see and hear everything and be doing something all the time.  Our sense of “active participation” has been twisted.

Here are a few quick reasons – few and quick because Father’s tired – to get you started in your own thinking about the great advantages of having some of the priest’s prayers inaudible.

Firstly, however, remember that some of the priest’s prayers in the post-Conciliar, Novus Ordo are silent.

That said, very often during Mass Father is not talking to you!  The prayers are addressed to God.

Moreover, the denial of certain senses is helpful in establishing an environment and moment in which you can encounter mystery.  Mass cannot, must not, be easy.  You have to strive even in the gaps of your perceptions for what is really going on.   In the Eastern Rites this is accomplished by denial of the view of a great deal of what is going on.  There is a screen with doors, which at a certain point are closed, thus shutting of your view of things in a more complete way.  You can hear everything, but not see.  What’s more, in the early Church in Rome, curtains were hung about the altar to obscure the view.

Denial of the senses is important.  Constant noise won’t let you do that.

In addition, the silent prayers aid…well… silence.   We need silence in our rites.  Silence itself can be difficult for many people today.  To that I say “good”!  Mass should not be easy.  After all we are trying to join the earthly and the heavenly, the mortal and the eternal, the human and the divine.  How is that easy?  No.  We should avoid the trap of trying to dumb our rites down.

Finally, it is part of our tradition to pray in this manner.  This is how Catholics do things. Celebration of Mass did not begin in 1970, after all.

So, at the end of a long day, those are a few quick reasons for why in the Extraordinary Form many of the priest’s prayers are not audible to you.  They are, however, audible to God and the Holy Angels.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged , | 63 Comments