"The great Father Zed, Archiblogopoios"
-
Fr. John Hunwicke
"Some 2 bit novus ordo cleric"
- Anonymous
"Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned."
- Kractivism
"Father John Zuhlsdorf is a crank"
"Father Zuhlsdorf drives me crazy"
"the hate-filled Father John Zuhlsford" [sic]
"Father John Zuhlsdorf, the right wing priest who has a penchant for referring to NCR as the 'fishwrap'"
"Zuhlsdorf is an eccentric with no real consequences" -
HERE
- Michael Sean Winters
"Fr Z is a true phenomenon of the information age: a power blogger and a priest."
- Anna Arco
“Given that Rorate Coeli and Shea are mad at Fr. Z, I think it proves Fr. Z knows what he is doing and he is right.”
- Comment
"Let me be clear. Fr. Z is a shock jock, mostly. His readership is vast and touchy. They like to be provoked and react with speed and fury."
- Sam Rocha
"Father Z’s Blog is a bright star on a cloudy night."
- Comment
"A cross between Kung Fu Panda and Wolverine."
- Anonymous
Fr. Z is officially a hybrid of Gandalf and Obi-Wan XD
- Comment
Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a scrappy blogger popular with the Catholic right.
- America Magazine
RC integralist who prays like an evangelical fundamentalist.
-Austen Ivereigh on
Twitter
[T]he even more mainline Catholic Fr. Z. blog.
-
Deus Ex Machina
“For me the saddest thing about Father Z’s blog is how cruel it is.... It’s astonishing to me that a priest could traffic in such cruelty and hatred.”
- Jesuit homosexualist James Martin to BuzzFeed
"Fr. Z's is one of the more cheerful blogs out there and he is careful about keeping the crazies out of his commboxes"
- Paul in comment at
1 Peter 5
"I am a Roman Catholic, in no small part, because of your blog.
I am a TLM-going Catholic, in no small part, because of your blog.
And I am in a state of grace today, in no small part, because of your blog."
- Tom in
comment
"Thank you for the delightful and edifying omnibus that is your blog."-
Reader comment.
"Fr. Z disgraces his priesthood as a grifter, a liar, and a bully. -
- Mark Shea
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Dear Father Z, can it really be ( LOL I didn’t mean for that to rhyme )? Are we really on the verge of turning the corner in the RIGHT direction regarding the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass? Has the Lord thus heard the cry of the Liturgically poor?
I, for one, am hopeful. My only fear is that if Rome is unwilling/unable to deal with recalcitrant bishops, what are we to do?
Thanks for your update, and for all your efforts at maintaining this blog to keep us informed of what is happening. Truly, this site has been most helpful, and has given–me–a greater sense of focus as to reality and rumor regarding the Tridentine Mass and its universal indult.
Please remember all of us at Mass and in your prayers.
Merry Christmas!!
–Matt Q
Let’s hope the Pontifical Commission will not keep us in suspence too long!
Even the comments at the bottom, in Italian, are positive! “You are great, Pope Benedict! We’re right with you, especially the young people!” “We’re right behind you!” “He is going in the right direction!”
Ok let me make sure I am hearing this right? The forthcoming document concerning Summorum Pontificum is going to positively state that mass ad orientem is preferred because it shows the unity of the two rites? Or will it actually mandate the ad orientem posture?!! Please don\’t get my hopes up just to be dashed.
Merry Christmas to all!!
I just now also read on another website what Pope Benedict XVI plans to wear for Christmas Midnight Mass, and the return of the Papal throne with seven steps leading up to it for the occasion. On Christmas Day, the Pope is going to wear a cope that originally was John XXIII\’s….so that means probably it\’s one of the huge Papal copes…and not the little ones that just come down below the knee (you know, the type JP II favored).
I also read of alot more ornamentation, and magnificent crosses etc. being used. Even rumors of a campaign in Rome and elsewhere among Catholics pressuring for a return of the Sedia Gestatoria!!!! Can you believe it!! Mostly all young people who want everything back!!!
More and more, I have the feeling that past popes of recent years (I won\’t name names), tried to appeal to the people with theatrics, and though this stirred their emotions, it didn\’t stir their spirits. Benedict XVI brought back a tiny bit of the glory of the Papacy, and suddendly in Rome and elsewhere they\’re clamoring for more!!! Despite Franco Zefferilli\’s comment that the Pope shoud dress down (like Paul VI and his successors), the popele seem to love all the Papal magnificence Benedict\’s re-introducing. It\’s bringing people back in touch with Catholic traditions forgotton for 40+ years.
I read that the Tridentine Latin Mass is really, really popular in Europe, and is growing rapidly…especially among the young. It\’s a tsunami of devotion that the liberals did not expect….and very much resent.
I advise everyone to watch/tape the Pope\’s Mass of Midnight on EWTN. From what I read, there will be some additions which will have everyone who loved Catholic tradition and the liturgical traditions of the Papacy cheering, both today for Midnight Mass, and tomorrow for the \”Urbi et Orbi\” blessing.
Comment by Fr. John: “The forthcoming document concerning Summorum Pontificum is going to positively state that mass ad orientem is preferred because it shows the unity of the two rites?”
Really?!?
Here’s the issue, folks. Like the present General Instruction of the Novus Ordo Missal, there are all kinds of “preferreds,” “shoulds,” “encourageds,” etc. Unless there is a “must,” “shall,” “will,” or “cannots,” there won’t be any motivation on the part of the prideful to change their Messy Mass ways and plough the correct Liturgical row. It will continue to be status quo for the Liturgically oppressed Faithful.
I certainly do wish that Pope Benedict XVI would declare thru the Ecclesiaa Dei Commission or on his own authority that “ad orientam” is the preferred way to celebrate Mass. Just think of it. If it is ordered to celebrate Mass “ad orientam” as the general rule, then we can get rid of all the horrid little wooden table or marble slab “versus populum” altars and start using the magnificent Catholic high altars again. It would be wonderful to think of the majectic altars in all the great Catherdrals and Basilicas of Europe, and all the parishes everywhere using the beautiful altars again, and discarding the terrible table altars (which looked 100% Protestant).
Whoa , Man I must be tired! What an awful misread on my part! Boy do I feel stupid, have mercy on a zonked priest.
Merry Christmas
Fr. John
Matthew Mattingly wrote:
“I certainly do wish that Pope Benedict XVI would declare thru the Ecclesiaa Dei Commission or on his own authority that “ad orientem” is the preferred way to celebrate Mass. Just think of it. If it is ordered to celebrate Mass “ad orientem” as the general rule, then we can get rid of all the horrid little wooden table or marble slab “versus populum” altars and start using the magnificent Catholic high altars again. It would be wonderful to think of the majestic altars in all the great Cathedrals and Basilicas of Europe, and all the parishes everywhere using the beautiful altars again, and discarding the terrible table altars (which looked 100% Protestant).”
Truth be told, Matthew, I refer you to the reply I gave above. A mere “it is preferred” from the Pope is merely leaves in the wind. Nobody cares.
Regarding altars, some of the mainline Protestants were putting on their “face the people” worship shows long before the Buggernini got a hold of ours. He even included Protestants to help him tinker the Novus Ordo together. I think there were a couple of others types on his commission because a lot of the arrangements of the Novus Ordo “worship space” look so much like a Masonic Lodge. Isn’t that such an “interesting coincidence?”
There’s a sermon I sometimes give (for years now) with the point that sometimes some people like to see the priest facing them for Mass, if that’s what they think he is doing, for the reason that they can then start to put him up on a pedastal in their own minds. The priest is then tempted to make himself into a showboat, and he is encouraged. Then, when they are giving their adoration to him, and he sins, even by taking in their adoration, they then have the right to sin according to the rationalization that since he is up on a pedastal and yet he sins, well then, we can sin too. It’s kind of a reverse pelagianism.
Instead, when everyone is ad orientem, facing the Sacrifice who Is the rising Son, none of this goes on. This makes such people uncomfortable, for they are bereft of an “excuse” to sin.
This dynamic, if you will, has everything to do with why some people and some priests must ever so emotionally insist on versus populum.
To bring up an old subject: ad orientem only leaves the priest “lonely” only inasmuch as he may more easily come to know Christ’s abandonment on the Cross, an exterior and only seeming abandonment. What an intense prayer of communion with the Father: “My God! My God!” Yet, in all of that, the priest should have a strong sense of presenting the whole Church to God the Father. Hardly lonely. For those who are with the priest, that is, the congregation, they will not feel abandoned by the priest if they also know that he is presenting them to God the Father. The priest does this when he acts in Persona Christi. And that is when the people are not left behind, but are following Christ (a commandment of His).
Such following of Christ, ad orientem, can be difficult, for this involves carrying the cross. Think of it by way of analogy, like an “extreme sport” (I’m not trying to be blasphemous here…), in the sense that the active participation, the superintense, graced openness to reception of the blessing of God is precisely the greatness of ad orientem. If it is true that it is the “little old ladies” (a phrase used disparagingly by those who know nothing) who carried the day, every day, for these past decades, then know that only they are brave enough for such an “extreme sport”. Now the young people think, “If granny can do it, so can I.” Well, yes, with the grace of God, so can we all.
Happy, Holy Christmas to all.
“Now the young people think, ‘If granny can do it, so can I.'”
Finally, granny gets her due. ;-)
The great irony is that so many Catholics could believe there is nothing for them in the old Mass and thus have no curiosity about it. Or as one person put it: “The new Mass seems to have no mystery about it; the old Mass has too much.”
That old saw about “participation” may be revealed as nothing more than laziness on our part.
I am thankful for the gift of Pope Benedict! I am thankful for
the gift of the extra ordinary form of the Roman Rite! I am
also thankful that we can finally talk in public about loving
Mass ad orientem!