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

WDTPRS has learned that the inaugural Mass for the brand spankin’ new personal parish for use of the pre-conciliar books for Mass and all sacraments, yes parish, at Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini, will be a Solemn Mass at 10 a.m. on Sunday 8 June. 

H.E. Most Rev. Ernesto Mandara, auxiliary bishop for the Centro Storico of Rome, will be in choir. 

I urge all Roman readers to attend, clerics and seminarians in proper choir dress.

Would that I could make it!

And, no, there will not be concelebration.

(I couldn’t resist.)

Here is an amusing story from the newsie site for BYU:

Good, accurate historical records are hard to come by; especially those with names. Thanks to linguistic evolutions, military conflicts and numerous other factors, some periods of history have full, rich accounts while others have splotchy accounts at best. But even in the best of times, finding the names of the king and family is easy. Finding several generations of tenants or farmers can be near impossible.

Fortunately for historians and researchers, the Catholic Church has kept detailed membership registries for over 1,000 years, giving us the names, parents and birthplaces of every church member in society: princes, priests and peasants. In fact, these records have endured as one of the hallmarks of the Catholic clergy. These records have been a valuable asset to scholars, historians and even individuals doing personal research. These documents were of particular interest to Latter-day Saints trying to chart their own genealogy.  [Genealogy!  Okay!  So that’s what they’re doing!]

But not anymore. As of Monday, the Vatican has ordered all Catholic dioceses worldwide to cease showing membership records and registries to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Catholic officials say the order was an effort to prevent Mormons from baptizing by proxy their Catholic ancestors.

Catholic Church members and officials have spit out lots of good reasons and support for this decree. Catholic author Hugh McNichol said that giving out such records could be exposing embarrassing circumstances like a child born out of wedlock or of an unknown father.  [Well… yah!  People have a right to privacy, after all.] McNichol went on to say that this is private information, and "should be considered privileged information by all members of the [Catholic] Church."

If it’s private information, then why would it be issued to arbitrary scholars [What’s an "arbitrary scholar"?   Is this someone who just studies any old thing?  Someone who draws conclusions for no particular reason?] or historians over direct family descendants, if those descendants happen to be LDS? The idea of protecting family secrets is a fair one, but family secrets stay in the family, not the Church. They’re to be preserved only to immediate family lines, not released to Church selected and approved audiences.

Those wishing to access the documents must now prove a "legitimate reason to view these sensitive snippets of a person’s theological history," McNichol wrote. [That sounds reasonable.  Any research library or archive would ask the same.] What more legitimate reason can you get than keeping a continuing documentation of "a person’s theological history"? [A person’s "theological" history…] Or perhaps a better reason is needed before a private institution will release information about an individual to members of their own family.

McNichol even goes as far as to say Mormons taking these names to do baptisms for the dead is "comparable with piracy of a person’s free will and soul as well."

If they really are trying to protect the dead from "piracy of the soul," indulgences might be a better place to start than baptisms.
  [Hardly the same issue, really.]
But the heart of the issue of the Catholic Church’s belief that LDS baptisms for the dead are a "detrimental" practice. Therefore the record keepers are "not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."  [Sounds about right to me.]

Smells like fear.  [Try sound common sense.]

If the Mormon Church is true, then part of LDS Church doctrine says that no one who has proxy baptisms done in their behalf is forced to accept the Mormon faith.  [Ehem… so what?] In a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, President Gordon B. Hinckley said that the baptismal rite is only offered to individuals in the afterlife, not required. "So, there’s no injury done to anybody," he said. So what’s the point of preventing baptisms by withholding names if the proxy baptisms don’t harm the individuals? 

And if the Mormon Church isn’t true – as the Catholics assert – and the practice of baptisms for the dead is false doctrine, then why hide the names? Wouldn’t that be like stopping a child from talking to an imaginary friend? Humor the kid; he and his friend aren’t hurting you. And he might have an imaginary army to back him up.  [Because Catholics would believe that to participate in such a thing, to cooperate materially in such a process, would be to cooperate in a rite of a false religion.]

This editorial represents the opinion of The Daily Universe editorial board. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of BYU, its administration or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Are there any priests reading from Atlanta, GA?  Drop me an e-mail.

There is a beautiful tradition for this day, at 1200 noon.  Once upon a time one could obtain this day a plenary indulgence by reciting the Supplication to the Madonna of Pompeii.  The other day for this is the first Sunday of October. 

With the changes to the concessions for indulgences, according to the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, there is no longer any plenary indulgence for this prayer, notwithstanding anything you might see in some old book or on a website.  For example, if you see something about Pope Leo XIII granting an indulgence, etc., that is null and void now.

However, the new Enchiridion says with concession #17, §3 that Marian prayers obtain a partial indulgence under the condition that the prayer is approved by competent authority and that it is recited with fervor in the state of grace (you don’t need confession and Communion within 8 days, nor must you recite the prayers for the Roman Pontiffs intentions for a partial indulgence). You can receive a partial indulgence, by maintaining this beautiful custom of the Supplication today. 

I called the office of the Apostolic Penitentiary in May 2007 to confirm this.

The text of the prayer to recite is below (in English).  The language may seem florid to 21st century ears and tongues but it is vigorous, serious, and super Catholic.  We need more unabashedly fervent prayers like this, friends.  If you have a hard time reciting this, you can listen.  I attached an audio file of the prayer to this entry.

Brief background: This devotion was started by Bl. Bartolo Longo, who had once been a Satanist "priest".  He converted, did penance, and became a lay Dominican. In 1872, Longo, a lawyer, went to Pompeii see to the affairs of Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco. He started there a Confraternity of the Rosary.  They obtained a picture of the Blessed Virgin from a monastery, which before that was in a second hand store, before which they could recite the Rosary every day.  It showed Mary with Sts. Dominic and Catherine of Siena.  In 1875 Longo received permission to build a church.  Miracles were reported and pilgrimages began.  The picture has been restored several times since then.  Longo also saw tot he building of complex for works of mercy with orphans and prisoners.  Pope John Paul II beatified Bartolo Longo in 1980.  Some of his writings form the basis of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.

You reach the sanctuary easily by walking just a few minutes out the back gate of the ancient ruins of Pompeii, famously destroyed  by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

Here is the prayer to be recited (twice during the year).  It obtains, under the usual conditions, a partial indulgence. 

 

 Supplication to the Madonna of Pompeii, 8 May and 1st Sunday of October [8:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PETITION TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY OF POMPEII

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I.
O august Queen of victories, Virgin who reignest in paradise, whose mighty name causes heaven to rejoice and hell to tremble, o glorious Queen of the most holy Rosary, we, thy happy children chosen by thy goodness in this century to build thee a temple at Pompeii, kneeling at thy feet on this solemn