I am experimenting with themes to try to solve some problems.
SHOPPING ONLINE? Please, come here first!
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Recent Comments
Season After Pentecost on Ratzinger in 1976 on the “old Missal” and “new Missal”: “The only way forward is to go back. We’re liturgically lost, and we can talk all we want about making…”
Charivari Rob on VINTAGE RECTORY BATHROOM TILES: 05: “A former near-to-city parish of mine had a moderately substantial brick pile of a rectory of some age. Main floor…”
Venerator Sti Lot on Ratzinger in 1976 on the “old Missal” and “new Missal”: “I wonder just what he means by – and therewith what his basis is for – “der in Wirklichkeit ganz…”
Woody on 22 July: Feast of St. Mary Magdalene – A rocky history. Like the saint herself?: “But in Eastern Catholicism and in Orthodoxy, she is given the title Equal to the Apostles. See today’s kontakia, troparia…”
Jon on 22 July: Feast of St. Mary Magdalene – A rocky history. Like the saint herself?: “At exactly one month old, I was baptized on this date, 64 years ago, Sunday, July 22nd, 1962, into the…”
jhogan on Daily Rome Shot 1663 – Happy International Chess Day!: “It is sad what has happened to Jesuits as well as other orders and societies since V2. One of the…”
Joe in Canada on Would a marriage impediment apply in this case: ““a girl who used to babysit my brothers and I got married”. This is a case where the case of…”
revueltos67 on Daily Rome Shot 1664 – quick: “Black to move and mate in 4 1. …. Rh2+ 2. Kg4 {forced} h5+ 3. Kf4 {or Kf3} Be3+ 4.…”
-
Recent Posts
- Ratzinger in 1976 on the “old Missal” and “new Missal”
- 22 July: Feast of St. Mary Magdalene – A rocky history. Like the saint herself?
- Daily Rome Shot 1664 – quick
- VINTAGE RECTORY BATHROOM TILES: 05
- 20 July – St. Elijah, Prophet of the Old Testament
- Would a marriage impediment apply in this case
- Daily Rome Shot 1663 – Happy International Chess Day!
- ASK FATHER: public veneration of relics
- Daily Rome Shot 1662
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 8th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 16th Ordinary) 2026
- ASK FATHER: Cut off from my beloved SSPX chapel, suffering.
- A Cardinal accidently gets it right!
- Daily Rome Shot 1661
- WDTPRS – 16th (Novus Ordo) Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wherein Fr. Z rants.
- WDTPRS – 8th Sunday after Pentecost – living right
- Daily Rome Shot 1660 – A day that will live in INFAMY
- Daily Rome Shot 1659 – GO TO CONFESSION (says the Jesuit)
- ALERT: The SSPX appeals against the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Mass this afternoon – Unity of the Church… differently
- Daily Rome Shot 1658
- My View For Awhile: homeward – CONCLUSION
- From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-06-23 – Toupee or not toupee
- Archbp. of Milwaukee reacts to the SSPX consecrations. Fr Z comments.
- WDTPRS – 7th Sunday after Pentecost: God can neither deceive nor be deceived
- Daily Rome Shot 1657 – new life
- Daily Rome Shot 1656 – different stuff
- WDTPRS – 15th Ordinary Sunday (N.O.): Too far right or too far left, we wind up in the ditch in the dark
- ASK FATHER: Can I be godparent of the child of a Lutheran couple?
- Day 3 & 4 Conference for Priests: St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
- FOR PRIESTS: Wherein, prompted by this conference, Fr. Z posts something for CONFESSION
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
Fr. Z’s Podcasts RSS Feed
Federated Computer… your safe and private alternative to big biz corporations that hate us while taking our money and mining our data. Have an online presence large or small? Catholic DIOCESE? Cottage industry? See what Federated has to offer. Save money and gain peace of mind.
“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
- Prosper of Aquitaine (+c.455), De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio contra Collatorem 22.61
Do you want to show some appreciation?
Polls
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
- The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
Your support is important. Thanks in advance.
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT comDonate using VENMO
GREAT BEER from Traditional Benedictine Monks in Italy
Good coffee and tea. Help monks.
I use this when I travel both in these USA and abroad. Very useful. Fast enough for Zoom. I connect my DMR (ham radio) through it. If you use my link, they give me more data. A GREAT back up.
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”- Fulton Sheen
Therefore, ACTIVATE YOUR CONFIRMATION and get to work!
Send Snail Mail to Fr. Z
Fr John Zuhlsdorf
Tridentine Mass Society of Madison
733 Struck St.
PO BOX 44603
Madison, WI 53744-4603
For email HERE
- “The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
To donate monthly I prefer Zelle because it doesn't extract fees. Use
frz AT wdtprs DOT comAs for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
WDTPRS POLL





















EXCELLENT picture. Very timely.
Personally I think this newer theme is a significant improvement! Not that it was bad before, but now it is easier on the eyes.
Perhaps if you added a lightening bolt it would cheer things up.
I like the picture! The new theme is alright. However, I don’t like having to click through to the post’s page to read the whole entry.
This theme loads on my computer better. The one that you had last week, Fr Z, kept throwing my computer offline. I would come onto the site, a whole lot of things would load, and then the computer would just bog down and disconnect. I wasn’t even able to read the blog, even with several tries. I finally gave up and went elsewhere.
PS. I have, in the past, had to go into my browser and disable pictures from loading too. When you have a lot of pictures of birds and things sometimes they don’t want to load without booting me out. I probably should check some old threads, but do you put them up as JPGs or BMPs or do you use some other format?
Wow, what a difference a few hours make!
When I first came online this morning and went on the blog, it still had the ‘old’ heading on top of the home page.
Now I find this new one-I like it, Father Z!
I’ve had some problems lately when I come on; for some reason, it took forever to download. Drove me nuts, especially after I submitted a comment and pressed ‘post’.
Great photo on top….rather spooky-looking!
I prefer the new Graphic Spanner as well.
The new image is very good.
I like the white theme. But I’d like to see an image of a biretta at the top so I know where I am. :) Maybe an animated graphic of a spinning biretta with Christmas lights on it.
LOVE the new header picture.
Fr. Z:
I would like to recommend that you take a look at WooThemes (woothemes.com) if you haven’t already. I’ve begun to use them with a few sites and am very impressed with their ease of use, and their taking many of the frustrations out of WordPress. They’re pretty affordable, come loaded with features, are fully supported, and receive updates often. You might also be interested to check out their eCommerce platform “WooCommerce”. I just felt compelled to share this for your interest.
Best regards,
Adam Bartlett
I have a couple themes from WooThemes.
This is just a minor thing for me, but if there were a border around each individual posts it would make me happy.
Please… don’t get into the weeds with tiny cosmetic adjustments.
I am ready to pull the plug as it is.
I like it
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS AND STORMS
I like it – It’s realy nice and clear, easy to read! Great photo too! Was a bit of suprise though!!
Father, this needs a poll. I always like a nice poll. I like this header if you don’t do a poll.
I vote for the thunderstorm
I love it!! Easier to load and much easier for me to read. Thanks.
I really like this one, but got such a shock when I opened the site!
Whatever you do, don’t pull the plug.
I like this particular blog flag. (I also liked the ‘thunderstorm’ one you featured earlier today.)
I might check back more often, Father, if you’re going to change them hourly. ;-)
Excellent! And as an added bonus, this template no longer crashes Safari on the iPod Touch, which means I can switch to desktop view (versus having to read via the web app) which means the font size is bigger in the combox. My 55-year old eyes are rejoicing tonight at the ease with which I can read comments! Being a care giver for my mom, I rarely get to the lap top anymore and read the blog in the wee hours in bed on the Touch. Please know your blog and podcasts have gotten me through many a long, sleepless night and kept my spirits up and soul fed. Be assured of my continued prayers for all your intentions, and those of others who comment here, even though I can rarely chime in.
Catherine B.
Two thumbs up. It loads faster and is easier on the eyes. What’s not to like? Thank you.
I like the new banner across the top of the blog. The picture is awesome. I don’t like the white theme, though – for some reason this version is really hard on my eyes.
I like the ‘newest new’ picture at the top of the page, Father Z! The image of St. Peter’s Basilica all lighted up in the midst of the darkness of a Roman dusk is VERY COOL!
You’re thinking of ‘pulling the plug’ on the blog? Oh, please, don’t do that! What would we do without our daily ‘Father Z fix’?
You’re part of my daily Internet routine!
Father, Like your new photo, you are a light in the darkness for many of us. Please don’t leave. We need you – and each other.
Father, I agree with Angie Mcs. It is a very powerful image. The Church is the bright Light of hope in the gathering darkness.
Fr. Z: your comment about “ready to pull the plug as it is” reminds me of how long it took to build the temple versus how long it would take to destroy it. I amuse myself.
But my vote is: I never liked the “old” look at all. I went for substance over style, however, as all your readers do. But it shouldn’t be a choice! It’s BOTH/AND!!
Like St. Thérèse, I CHOOSE ALL!!
Thanks. I feel better now. Nice theme.
Wow. It’s really white! I personally like the old theme better, but hey, I still <3 this blog! I'll get used to it in no time!
PS- My sister is glad that Basil is still there! :)