What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

I am in Norfolk, VA right now.  I came to give a talk to the local chapter of Una Voce.   One of the wonderful things about coming to a place like this is the chance to have a tour of an aicraft carrier, this time, the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT.



It is hard to get a grip on the size of these amazing ships until you are standing near one.



With my host here, a Navy Commander, we went with the priest in charge of the St. Benedict chapel here, Fr. Willis, and met the chaplain of the TR, Fr. Johnson, and another chaplain Fr. Cusick who is also a columnist with The Wanderer.  We had a great tour of the ship and had lunch in the ward room.  I was very pleased to see that Fr. Johnson’s sacristy had everything necessary for celebrations of the TLM.  And he chapel is oriented very properly.



Out on the breezy flight deck there is on the tower an item I wanted especially post for a friend of mine in Italy.



The flight deck is over 4 acres.



However, for my readers in the UK, I want you to know I was thinking of you too.

Right next to the TR is HMS ARK ROYAL, an aircraft carrier.



You can see the "ski jump" sticking on their flight deck for the Harriers.





Here are the four priests on the flight deck of #71, USS TR:

Fr. Willis, Fr. Z, Fr. Cusick, Fr. Johnson.

ORIGINALLY POSTED 8 April

I am bumping this back to the top today: 12 April.  Read the comments for how many signatures they have collected.

____

At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where so many questionable things have happened, there is an effort being made to obtain celebrations of the older form of Holy Mass.

I was alerted to this:

Petition drive launched to have Latin Mass celebrated on campus

A petition drive has been started to ask that the traditional Latin Mass (called the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) be celebrated at the University of St. Thomas.

The petition is located in Sitzmann Hall, home of the Center for Catholic Studies. The hall is located on the northeast corner of Summit and Cleveland avenues.

Students, staff and faculty are invited to sign the petition, which will be submitted to Campus Ministry.  

First, I want to thank the WDTPRSers who helped prayer that "A" get that highly desired job. 

He got it.

He didn’t only get it, but the circumstances were remarkable.  After meeting with various managers etc up the chain, it happened that one of the big cheeses was in town and he got to meet face to face instead of merely do a phone interview.  They had the face to face and A was told he would get some response in a week or so.
They called him back the same day and not only gave him the job, but with a higher salary than he went in for.

So, I thank you all.  You can pray for me anytime!

Also, I would ask you to pray for "C", the wife of a good friend of mine in Italy.  She is due to deliver their. fourth child right about now, but was told there is some danger of a ruptured uterus.

Please, please, friends, say some prayers for her and this good, solid Catholic family.

UPDATE:

I received an SMS from my friend in Italy, who informs me that their new baby has been delivered and all are well. 

Thanks ever so much for your prayers. 

When I first started looking at blogs I found Cacciaguida.  I think I must have been looking up things on Dante when I stumbled on it.  I met Cacciaguida yesterday evening after I talk I gave in Norfolk, VA.

He blogged about my talk and our chat aftwards.

You should check him out!

The Curt Jester has paged me!

Paging Father Z

Remember the reporter who confused "crows ear" with crozier? Well here is a pretty funny one.

VOA’s Jeff Swicord drew an admittedly crummy assignment: reporting on the latest shenanigans put on by the "woman priest" crowd. But what should have been a routine serving of empty drivel went l.o.l. funny when Swicord attributed to an Opus Dei priest the following comment on the maleness and the priesthood: "’The church teaches that he [the priest] does this in what is called insomnia nomini Christa, that he does this in the name and the person of Jesus,’ says [Fr. Arne] Panula. Jesus was male."

A priest acts "insomnia nomini Christa"? That is screamingly funny. It doesn’t mean a thing, folks. The closest I can get is "lack of sleep to/for the name Christina"

But apparently it’s not just Opus Dei priests who don’t know Latin, it’s lady priestettes too: Writes Swicord: "Meehan disagrees. ‘A priest is suppose to be in personi Christa,’ she says. ‘That does not mean taking on male identity.’"

Okay, maybe Father Bridget Mary meant to say "in gobbledy-gook Christina" but I’ll bet she didn’t; she knows the Latin phrase here is "in persona Christi", which correctly translates as "in the person of Christ."

Here is an interesting story from The Australian sent by kind reader:

THE Pope has decided he will not wear the vestments specially designed for World Youth Day and billed as "chic clergy couture" on the WYD website.

The "earthy-red" coloured vestments feature the Southern Cross constellation on the front and an indigenous feature titled "Marjorie’s Bird" on the back.  [So, they offered the Pope the bird.]

The snub [why must it be called a snub?] may be the first of many in the clash of cultures between the liturgically and theologically conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the exuberance of the youth day.  [Note the false conflict.  How do "conservative" and "exuberance" conflict?  The writer is clearly confused.]

Held over six days in Sydney in July, the day has a strong youth festival element, including music, performing arts, visual art exhibitions, debate, [?] film, community gatherings, street performers, workshops and a vocations expo. But Tracey Rowland, author of a recently published book about the Pope titled Ratzinger’s Faith, said Benedict was totally opposed to what he called "utility" music in the liturgy.  [What is going on here.  The idea of "utility music", or music having a utilitarian function in liturgy is contrary the the nature of liturgical action and active participation in the deepest sense.  Sacred music cannot be seen as merely "useful", as in useful to get people sing, get people involved.  Sacred music is really prayer.  It is pars integrans, an integral and integrating part of liturgy.  It is liturgy.  When you have the correct view of active participation as being first and foremost interior receptivity to what is being offered by the Actor of the sacred action, your choices in sacred music follow suit.  For this reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually we don’t see – rather hear – changes in the direction of the Sistine Chapel choir.]

The Pope believes applause in church "was completely liturgically wrong", Dr Rowland said.  [He won’t be rigid about this, because of his experience of Italy.  But this is essentially true.  He would not favor it.  But he would never put things in such brutal terms as the writer did.]

Dr Rowland said she had not seen the WYD vestments, but the Pope would think it was very important that any symbols featured on the clothing were "explicitly and unequivocally Christian".  [Gosh!  imagine that as being a criterion for sacred vestments intend for Holy Mass to be worn by the Vicar of Christ.  Let’s get some perspective!]

WYD spokesman Jim Hanna said he had not heard of any difficulties arising from the Pope’s conservative preferences. "I have seen no evidence of controversy brewing about the liturgy," he said.

"We are in regular contact with the bishops’ conferences in most of the main countries – we check the numbers they give us all the time," he said. "What they’re telling us at the moment is that the number of 125,000 is about right."

Rorate has tipped us off to something in Italia Oggi (Italy Today) about the possibility that H.E. Archbp. Amato will be moving to the Congregation for Divine Worship, which would mean also

My emphases and comments.

Curie e Curiali: Ranjith goes, but he could return

    by Andrea Bevilacqua

    The probable, if by now not yet certain, nomination of Archbishop Angelo Amato, number two of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (that which was once headed by Cardinal Ratzinger, and today by Cardinal William Levada), as new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the position of Cardinal Francis Arinze, has considerably angered the one who is today the number two of this same congregation guided by Arinze: Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith. The latter, called a couple of years ago to Divine Worship with the promise to afterwards replace Arinze at the helm of the dicastery, having been almost certainly bypassed by Amato in the prestigious position of Prefect of one of the nine Vatican Congregations (the position also foresees the Cardinalatial birretta), seems to have asked Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone to leave the Roman Curia and return to his homeland (Sri Lanka), to become Archbishop of an important diocese and thus, afterwards, a Cardinal. All [of these events], if predictions are confirmed, should take place when the Pope returns from the United States … .  [A couple things here.  First, there is a claim that Archbp. Ranjith was "angered".  I have met with Archbp. Ranjith a couple times.  First, he is a level headed fellow who strikes me as being pretty humble.  I don’t think he would have that reaction, frankly.  Also, he is smart enough not to express it so that it would be put out in the press.  Italian articles often dress up the circumstances.]
    ...

    Ranjith probably pays [the price] [No doubt of that!] for having exposed himself with great emphasis (interviews, declarations, publication of articles) in favor of the papal Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", with which the Mass in Latin according to the ancient rite revised by Pope John XXIII in 1962 was liberalized. It seems that, due to his repeated interventions, part of the Roman Curia [You see… statements like this really undermine an article making these claims of such insider knowledge as how Archbp. Ranjith is "feeling".] may have explicitly asked Bertone, by way of a letter, that he should not become Prefect of a Congregation with such delicate tasks. And Bertone, [after] the due calculations were made, seems to have endorsed the signers of the letter. Signers who, two years ago, when Ranjith was nominated Secretary of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, did not accept well his arrival and the subsequent removal of Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino [previous Secretary] to the diocese of Assisi. The tally, however, must still be closed by Benedict XVI.  [There is some true to this.  There is a real war in the CDW between factions.  You can guess how they are lined up.]

    Ranjith was one of his first nominations once he became Pope. When Ranjith, a few years before, was displaced by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, where he was Adjunct Secretary, Ratzinger (who was then Prefect of the former Holy Office) did not take it well, so much so that, once he became the Pontiff, promptly wished to show his own affection and esteem for Ranjith by calling him back to Rome and putting him in Sorrentino’s place. Today, the pressures against Ranjith in the Roman Curia are not small. Bertone seems to have surrendered. Benedict XVI is not so predictable as to do the same.

Honestly… there are times when one can also have nostalgia for the days of Card. Sodano.

Folks… this a fairly typical Italian article about the Curia.   Take it cum grano salis.