IRS bullying of conservatives and pro-lifers

Biretta tip to the pro-life blog of Jill Stanek (who recently linked to me, so I am returning the favor!).

As you know, the IRS has been targeting and harassing conservatives. I wouldn’t be surprised if this came from the Oval Office, but we don’t have proof of that… yet. Here is a video of testimony about the Obama Administration’s bullying of one group.

The IRS required this group not to picket Planned Parenthood.

Just one example.

Remember: The IRS will be dealing with Obamacare.

This is the same Administration, the OBAMA Administration, that required Verizon to turn over their phone call logs.

From Hell’s Bible:

U.S. Is Secretly Collecting Records of Verizon Calls

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night.

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” to the National Security Agency all call logs “between the United States and abroad” or “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

Even The Fishwrap seems upset. HERE

Do you remember Pres. Obama’s call for a domestic security force? HERE

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

1st Friday: Feast of the Sacred Heart – Note for NYC! Great spiritual opportunity!

Tomorrow, a First Friday, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  That doesn’t happen all that often!

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is, I believe, the only Feast that Our Lord Himself requested!

I hope your parish will have special Masses.

Those of you in NYC or environs will want to go to the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan for Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum.  The music will be Gregorian chant for the day and some motets.

The Mass is follow by their usual 1st Friday Vigil, for example:

  • 6 pm – Solemn Mass (TLM)
  • Exposition after Mass till 5 am
  • Recitation of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
  • Stations of the Cross
  • 9 pm – Vespers and Compline
  • through the night recitation of approved Litanies
  • through the night Scriptural Rosary
  • 3 am – Divine Mercy Chaplet
  • 5 am – Sung Mass, Votive of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Holy Innocents in on 37th (between 7th Ave and Broadway – near Herald Square).

 

Posted in SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged | 12 Comments

Ass. of Catholic Priests formed to push passé liberal agenda

The National Schismatic Reporter has an online piece about a new group for ultra-liberal priests called the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests. The group is comprised of self-described “Vatican II priests”. In 2012, 240 people showed up for a meeting and they have, it is reported, some 950 members.  I wonder if that included reps from the LCWR.

I am guessing that most of the members are over 65.

What are they up to?  They want to “build bridges” and “hold hands with the laity and at the same time with the bishops”

I looked at their resolutions HERE. They include such old liberal favs as:

  • promotion of the ordination of women to diaconate and priesthood
  • election of bishops by lay people
  • support for labor unions (I assume that means SEIU, the NEA, and anything that Geore Soros might back)
  • restoration of general absolution where it has been ended
  • obtain permission from Pope Francis to use the obsolete 1973 translation for Mass
  • try to end the annual collection for the Archdiocese for Military Services
  • promotion of Cardinal Bernardin’s Common Ground Initiative

The rest of their proposals for the Ass. of Catholic Priests group are pretty much blah blah about collegiality and consensus and running down anything they don’t like in Lumen gentium 18-25.

Nothing much will come of this, of course. The Biological Solution will take care of most of the members in near future. Still, it is interesting to see how dying embers can be fanned up into a little flame of hope for a ’70′s liberal agenda.

I am tempted to get a whole bunch of like-minded priests together to join the group and then hijack their meeting.  Heh heh.

You can bet that the NSR (the newspaper of record for heresy and schism) will have people at that meeting so we can read all about how wonderful and forward-looking they were.

UPDATE:

I direct the readership’s attention to a blog post by one of our frequent contributors here, Fr. Martin Fox, over at Bonfire of the Vanities.

He asks:

Is there a single word for what I’m describing? Something that is sad, ironic, and yet curiously funny, all at the same time?

You might go over there and read his comments and answer his question.

Fr. Fox pretty much blasts them to tiny shreds.

Gelastic?  Quizzical?  Risible?

UPDATE

Quite a while back, I happily posted a link to the Archdiocese for Military Services on the side bar of this blog to send donations.  I hope you will use it.

Posted in Liberals, Pò sì jiù, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged , | 66 Comments

Fr Z’s Kitchen: prepper food edition

Click

I recently put on the side bar of this blog a widget with a link to some freeze-dried ready meals. Add boiling water to the package, seal, wait, eat. I ordered some.

Today I got out my little stove and gave one a whirl.

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Optimus Crux Lite Stove With Terra Cook Set

It took about 4 minutes to heat the water.

Tear open the bag and take out the desiccator.  It ain’t a flavor pack.

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Before.

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Add your 2 cups of hot water.

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Give it a good mix around to distribute the water evenly.  Seal the bag with its ziplock. Wait about 15 minutes.

Another company has one that takes the same amount of water but takes 8 minutes.

Ready to eat!  Sorry, photo didn’t turn out.

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Let’s be clear about something.  The Chile/Mac was not “gourmet” food.  But it wasn’t awful.  This is probably going to be my summary of the different meals.

The pouch provided 2 servings totaling 340 cal.  The sodium was pretty high, but if you are in a situation where you are working and sweating a lot, you would need it.  They will store of a long time.

The packs are pretty light at 193g (6.8 oz).  You could have a few in a go bag.

I think people should make preparations for … problems.    Even if you are not prepping for … events, having a few of these around could be handy.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z's Kitchen, Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Semper Paratus, TEOTWAWKI | Tagged , | 18 Comments

Z-Swag “in the wild”!

A reader sent a shot of some Z-Swag!

This driver has excellent taste.

Posted in In The Wild | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

QUAERITUR: Does registering in a parish mean anything?

From a reader:

What does canon law say about becoming a member of a parish outside of the geographical jurisdiction of the parish closest to you? For example: Joining another parish farther away from you, but in your diocese, because the Mass is more reverent/you receive spiritual direction from that pastor/you fit in culturally with the people at that parish, etc.?

Canon law says nothing about ”joining” a parish. “Joining a parish” is a concept foreign to the canonical system.

You become a member of a parish by virtue of where you live.

If you belong to an ethnic or national group, there may also be a personal parish to which you belong.

Recently, bishops have erected “personal parishes” based on factors other than ethnicity.  For example, they may establish parishes for the deaf, for those devoted to the Extraordinary Form, for members of the charismatic movement, etc.  It is therefore possible for one person to ”belong” to several parishes as in the case of a hearing-impaired traditionalist-charismatic Wendish-Laotian.

In North America parishes about 80 years ago began developing this concept of “registering”. As a “registered” member, you get envelopes and other mailings from the parish office, you are listed on the books for easy reference (handy in parishes of 1000 families or more where it’s unlikely that the pastor personally gets to know everyone … especially when the pastor is transferred every six years… but that’s another vat of borscht).

Registering does not in itself allow one to acquire any canonical rights at the parish where one registers. Registering at one parish does not it cause one to lose any rights they have at their proper parish.

Remember: there are rights and duties, too.

Catholics are no longer obliged to attend Mass regularly at their proper parish’s church. They may freely choose to attend a parish across town, in another village, even a parish of another ritual Church (e.g., you are a Latin Church Catholic but you like to attend the Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Church). You may attend a different church every Sunday if you wish.

That said, in North America there are good reasons for registering at a parish.  For example, you might have a pastor at your proper parish who doesn’t understand canon law and who refuses to offer sacramental or liturgical service to those folks who are not registered. He, of course, would be entirely in the wrong, but trying to argue over the matter as grandma is dying in the hospital is inconvenient at best.

Canon law doesn’t have anything to say about registering in a parish that is not one’s proper parish.  Therefore there is nothing wrong with doing so and it may be of advantage.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , , , | 51 Comments

QUAERITUR: Are gold vestments permitted?

From a reader:

Is gold a licit primary color for chasubles? I’ve seen it for many Eucharist-themed vestments, but I don’t know if that’s allowed or recommended.

Yes.  Gold is allowed in the Latin Church as a primary color for vestments.  Gold, as a matter of fact, like white, can substitute for other liturgical colors.

Here is a detail of the fabric of one of my nicer chasubles.

Posted in ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Please use the sharing buttons!  Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand.  We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below. You have to be registered here to be able to post.

Finally, I have a serious personal petition.

 

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged | 46 Comments

QUAERITUR: Mass during space travel

From a reader:

Could you hypothetically foresee Rome allowing Masses to
be celebrated extra-terrestrially? While it might seem more possible on the Moon or a planet, what about zero-gravity where things can’t be poured and other difficulties would arise?

We apply the analogy of Masses said aboard ships.

Initially, only bishops and cardinals were permitted to offer Mass on ships or other moving vehicles. The fear of the ship tilting and rocking, and the danger of spilling the sacred species, or other vagaries of motion, prevented widespread application of this which, in those times when an Atlantic crossing would take weeks, meant that sailors were deprived of Holy Mass, often for a considerable period of time.

In the 20th century, this permission was gradually extended, on a case by case basis, to certain chaplains, making sure that they were aware of the dangers and would take steps to prevent them – by waiting until the seas were relatively calm for Mass, etc.

In space, we have to worry about fluids wandering around.  Thus, the “chalice” would have to be enclosed, a tiny amount of water could be injected at the right moment, and so forth.  I don’t think there is any problem with Hosts.  They can be consecrated even if the ciborum or pyx is not open.  Care will have to be taken to avoid fragments floating away.  Hosts would have to have well sealed edges.  Perhaps even with some neutral coating approved by the Holy See?

I suspect that Mass in space won’t happen until large numbers of people are aboard some crafts.  By then space-going vessels will have some sort of gravity generated in the habitable portions.

And if there are abuses, Father can go out the airlock!

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged | 35 Comments

“Get on with the work we ourselves have to do”!

At Vatican Insider there is a piece that concerns the conference I want to go to in Rome (click the flag).  The interview with a mover and shaker for the conference, Bishop Dominque Rey of Fréjus-Toulon is worth your time.

One paragraph in particular caught my eye. As I have been saying all along…

“Yet, the Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, Dominique Rey, wants to reassure those Catholics who think that the moment for “liturgical renewal” – a shorthand definition for a return to a more solemn style of celebration hopefully ushered in by Benedict’s legalization of the pre-Second Vatican Council Latin Mass – is now over.

“Instead of anxiously wondering what Pope Francis personally thinks about every liturgical detail, we would do better to get on with the work we ourselves have to do,” he said in a recent interview with Vatican Insider.”

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Pope Francis, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, Year of Faith | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments