"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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Two words…
Childhood Vaccination.
Bordetella pertussis is an infectious organism that is becoming more prevalent again for several reasons: waning immunity among middle-aged and older individuals AND immigration of un-vaccinated individuals into our communities. Vaccination programs have the greatest success when they accomplish ‘herd immunity’ where a sufficient number of people are vaccinated so that there ceases to be a reservoir of infected people altogether. With immigration and waxing immunity, there is developing a reservoir of pertussis-infected individuals. And with pertussis you are infectious PRIOR to developing the pathognonomic “paroxysmal cough”. My mother (in her mid-50s at the time) developed pertussis a few years ago. It is important for people to discuss their vaccination history with their primary care physician. Everyone should be getting a Td (Tetanus & diphtheria) booster every 10yrs and recent recommendations recommend all adults get a Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, & Pertussis) as replacement for one of their Td boosters. There is a reason efforts were made to develop and widely vaccinate against Tetanus, Diphtheria, & Pertussis as the diseases are associated with a great deal of morbidity and even mortality. Kudos to Fr. Z for using his blog to bring attention to this.
Last winter there was an outbreak here in California. It is very important for anyone who is around small children, especially infants, to get vaccinated so you don’t spread the disease. It can be fatal in children under 1 year old. Listen up, grandparents!
The Pertussis vaccine caused a severe allergic reaction in one of my children. The doctor said that it would be far better for him to go without the vaccine than have it again. Bummer.
As a physician, I agree with the above comments about the importance of childhood vaccination. Unfortunately, when I attended an annual Catholic Medical Association meeting a year ago, there seemed to be a fair contingent of individuals (attendees, not necessarily the leadership of the organization) who were anti-vaccination. While there can be legitimate concerns of the source of some vaccines from fetal tissues, there was unfortunately also a strong anti-establishment sentiment against vaccines largely hinging debunked studies regarding vaccines and autism. My sense is that our Catholic identity leads us to often be counter-cultural (“a sign of contradiction”) but we need to wary of buying into every conspiracy theory.
I was vaccinated as a child, and the last time I was checked, I was still good and not in need of a booster for Whooping Cough, just something else, no clue what, though.
@ Mellie:
Reactions occasionally occur with any vaccine and a reaction can be a contraindication to further vaccination attempts. But as I mentioned above, waning herd immunity places your child at greater risk of becoming infected with pertussis in the absence of effective vaccination.
And, in my medical opinion (having gone through medical school and really looked into the issue), I do not believe there is a causal relationship between vaccination and autism.
My friend’s unvaccinated kids got whooping cough several years ago. They got it from her vaccinated teenagers. I’m not so sure about vaccines. I go back and forth.
We had an outbreak in south central Montana in early November.
Thank you for reminding people about this. Vaccinations are so important! Please keep your family up to date on all vaccines, if not for yourself then for those who are too young or weak to receive them and at a much higher risk of dying from the disease.
Indeed vaccination as children is important, however it should be noted, just because you were vaccinated as a child, does not mean you still make the antibodies. It also costs a great deal to test whether you still make the antibodies. When women get pregnant, they get tested. I got my bill before medicaid kicked in, and it was $1,500 for all the labs. It was found that I no longer was immune to rubella (which is dangerous to the baby in utero if contracted). Luckily the booster stuck for the next time around, but I was told, that it is it is not uncommon for people to not make the rubella antibodies at all.
I believe it may have been whooping cough which took me out of work for months with what was called a “paroxysmal cough”. I would go into coughing fits several times per hour, lasting 1-2 minutes. They were so violent that, among other things I won’t mention, I fractured a rib. Started out as a cold and a week or two later BANG!
Adults don’t usually get the violent cough. In fact, many think it’s just the flu or it’s after effects.
I never did find out if adults can get a violent cough from it for months as I did.
Incidentally, I was in my early 40’s. I’m sure my childhood vaccine had worn off and it had been decades since I had a DPT shot.
Ask for the TDAP (“tee-dap”) vaccine!
Been there, done that! Had whooping cough last year.
Here’s what happened (and those of you who think childhood vaccinations are enough, listen up!) The pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine is generally given as part of the tetanus booster. Tetanus is needed only every 10 years or so, and it’s a pretty stiff one – some local pain & swelling, temperature afterwards, etc. so they don’t encourage you to get it more frequently. But the immunity from the pertussis booster doesn’t last nearly as long – maybe 5 years if you’re lucky.
I got caught in the window between when my pertussis immunity dropped and when I was due for another tetanus booster. Didn’t break any ribs but I coughed like a horse for six weeks.
Individual bad reactions to various immunizations are one thing, but refusal of all vaccines on the basis of supposedly causing autism or some sort of conspiracy between doctors and Big Pharma is a really, really stupid idea. Those of us old enough to remember measles & polio epidemics, or who have travelled to places where various nasty diseases are still rife, appreciate modern medicine.
The man who did the original study linking vaccines & autism was disciplined for falsifying his data, his medical license was revoked, and the article was withdrawn from the Lancet.
Very interesting…going to be discussing with our doctor. BTW, our doctor spread the vaccines out so he can see if there is a bad reaction and to which vaccine it is to. I don’t know if other doctors do this, but I appreciate it. I would have thought we were up-to-date since they all have the Tetanus, but I thought we had ten years. Hmmm…
We don’t do every vaccine but we do vaccinate our kids for whooping cough. So glad we do too. So far we haven’t had any severe reactions but I definitely understand parental concern regarding vaccinations.
From the article:
“The majority of the students who have been infected with whooping cough had been immunized, which health officials said may account for their milder illness.”
It really is too bad that “modern medicine” can’t develop a better pertussis vaccine. It is the least effective, and has the most side effects (well, IDK if the MMR is worse…..)
And trusting Big Pharma? That went out the window when they developed a vaccine for a STD and are trying to market it as a cancer vaccine. Or maybe it was when the Rotavirus vaccine got recalled. Please. I think I’ll do my own research and pick what I want my kids vaccinated against, and they can try to con somebody else into the ridiculous amount of shots “required” nowadays.
I made sure all my kids got the diphtheria-tetanus, what they call dip-tet. They need dip-tet boosters yearly, or they develop lockjaw and night vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc2xEMfLcgQ
Sorry, couldn’t resist putting in a reference to one of the best movies, ever. Or my name ain’t Nathan Arizona.
As a heads up, some vaccines are made from aborted fetal cell lines. Sometimes alternatives are available. Info is here on The National Catholic Bioethics Center website
Whooping Cough has returned to Australia also. My friend, a primary [elementary] school teacher caught it from one of her students and one night coughed so badly that she began to choke and luckily her med student son was home and knew what to do.
Folks: Since I am not a physician check with your physicians, your doctors, about whether or not you should be vaccinated.