Today is the anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, in 2005.

CHRISTMAS (or any) 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
Fr. Z’s Podcasts RSS Feed
YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
JabbaPapa on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: ““One of them insists that the ordination of the deacon is ” ad ministerium ,” not ” ad sacerdotium “”…”
ProfessorCover on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “@TheCavalierHatherly and R2D Perhaps the Church should require all Catholic blogposts and comments to be written in Latin or Greek.…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “@R2D They should be forced to speak Latin. If they can’t, they shouldn’t say anything. This would greatly reduce the…”
gothic serpent on Daily Rome Shot 1499: “Synodality: Listening to a vocal minority of elite homosexual Germans hostile to the Catholic faith.”
Fr. Reader on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “Sorry fr, the unicode link did not work for me”
R2D on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “@ TheCavalierHatherly: eh, if you have a choice between Italian and English for writing international documents, just about nobody would…”
Not on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “Before Vatican II You took vows as a Sub Deacon. Then a Deacon . Then an Ordained Priest. No “Lay…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “@R2D Hoc disputo. Est lingua prolix mendaxque. Discendum est clericis dilucide cogitare.”
Bryan D. Boyle on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “The chin wagging and word salads will continue, as a previous commenter noted, until someone somewhere wearies of the constant…”
Geoffrey on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “Now if only “Spiritus Domini” (2021) would be reversed…”
ProfessorCover on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “This is more of a question than a comment. What sort of woman, do you suppose, advocates of women priests…”
R2D on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “The untold great gift of the current pontificate is the expansion of English as an acceptable business language by the…”
EAW on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “Like that old bishop our reverend host often quotes, I think more talk is not what we need, but there…”
Chicagiensis_Indianapolitana on Daily Rome Shot 1498 – URGENT VIDEO WHICH FIGHTS AGAINST BOTH *STUPID* AND *HERESY*: “I was a church organist and choir director for a number of years. Every year, without fail a visitor would…”
Fr. Reader on Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate: “They will continue pushing until the end of time with this. Sooner or later they will get something like: Diaconate…”
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
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
Loading ...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.
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
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
-
Recent Posts
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 07 – Saturday 1st Week of Advent
- Daily Rome Shot 1499
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 06 – Friday 1st Week of Advent
- Daily Rome Shot 1498 – URGENT VIDEO WHICH FIGHTS AGAINST BOTH *STUPID* AND *HERESY*
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 05– Thursday 1st Week of Advent
- Final Considerations of the 2nd Study Commission on the Female Diaconate
- ASK FATHER: Does a communicant have the right to receive communion from a cleric?
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 04 – Wednesday 1st Week of Advent
- Daily Rome Shot 1497 – Kneeling in Charlotte….
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 03 – Tuesday 1st Week of Advent
- Daily Rome Shot 1496
- “It was in these cataclysmic days that the people chose a certain Roman Deacon Gregory to be their new Bishop.”
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 02 – Monday 1st Week of Advent
- Daily Rome Shot 1495 – Happy Feast of St. Andrew…. also!
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 1st Sunday of Advent – 2025
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 01 – 1st Sunday of Advent
- ADVENTCAzT 2025 – 00 – Saturday 24th and Last Week after Pentecost
- Daily Rome Shot 1494
- Daily Rome Shot 1493
- MUST READ for those interested in the title Co-redemptrix and the recent DDF document
- Daily Rome Shot 1492
- Diocese of Knoxville: Because… communion and unity… and Peter and Paul… and the Holy Spirit!
- HERESY from Pope Leo!
- 25 November – St. Catherine and mystical marriage
- Daily Rome Shot 1491
- The new “General Regulations of the Roman Curia” and Latin
- POLL: Which is scarier?
- Daily Rome Shot 1490
- WDTPRS – 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost: Like lightning in the East
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: Christ The King) 2025
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?
Loading ...WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Great WINE USE COUPON CODE: fatherz10























Long live Benedict XVI!
God bless him. Perhaps someday he will be a saint, maybe a Doctor of the Church. The mainstream media and his fellow Catholics have given him many things to offer up to God.
This has to be one of the worst articles that I’ve read about him recently:
http://news.msn.com/in-depth/the-pope-in-the-attic-benedict-in-the-time-of-francis-1
“Dopo il grande Papa Giovanni Paolo II, e signori Cardinale sono eletto a mei, sempre uno lavoratore nella vignia della Signore”
Oh Santita, what a happy day in the life of the Church. One cannot forget the wonderful peace we felt after J.P.II…How many times did you mention John Paul II at least one year into your Pontificate….
How you started to straighten out the problems from within ….and all those wolves came after you.Pope Benedict even though Mons. Guido Marini is still M.C. we Miss Your Chanting the Mass….or singing….its just not the same…..
One cannot help but think all you wanted to accomplish during your Pontificate was left undone.
i.e. the Reform of the Reform. Thank YOU so much for giving us Sum.Pont. in 2007, but truthfully it is met with alot of resistance still….in particular now you are no longer on the Chair of St. Peter…..We pray the Priests who love the Mass In the E.F. will continue on, in particular the YOUNG newly Ordained.
As Chantgirl said “someday he will be a saint” there is no DOUBT in my mind that that will happen. In the Mean time we Pray GOD grants you more time to be with us….even in the quiet of your life now.
Please GOD protect our Dear POPE E. Benedict and grant him many more years and let him FEEL the LOVE we have for him!
Santita, Bouna Pasqua
I remember this anniversary post used to elicit “where were you?” stories from readers, myself included. Now the memory is horribly bittersweet. Still worth marking the day and being grateful, but I suspect people have less of an appetite for reminiscence.
I prayed for my hero, Benedict XVI very much today.
Even though he was 78 years old when he was elected Pope, Joseph Ratzinger looked physically very strong and much younger than 78 years old.
Benedict seemed to age so much in 2011 and 2012. There is such a contrast between the photos of him in 2005 and 2013.
It saddens me to see how much being Pope cost him health-wise.
I too hope that he will one day be named a Doctor of the Church. I believe that he is a Saint.
I miss him very much.
Be at peace, Thomas S. I still remember with joy that day when I was in the Denver airport, hoping the new pope would appear before I had to catch my flight. When the Cardinal took his time getting though all the titles – Dominum Cardinalem Sanctae Ecclesiae Romae – I was ready to pop! Then he said “Josephum” and I pumped my fist and said loudly “Yes!” Everyone turned and looked at me in puzzlement. I hardly needed the plane to fly to my next stop.
May God continue to bless and keep our Pope Benedict and guide and protect Pope Francis.
“I hardly needed the plane to fly to my next stop.”
Nice! And I know the feeling.
Tomorrow we are visiting a nearby parish for a noon TLM. This parish in Northern VA lives the vision Benedict wished for the Church.
May God bless him!!
Happy Easter Holy Father Emeritus.
We had your wise guidance for eight wonderful years. Summorum Pontificum is taking hold in the United States and from here, and a few other countries, the liturgy will be preserved for the Church. Tonight it is off to EF Easter Vigil for us. Thank you for this great gift.
I remember that day so well. Although JPI and JPII had been elected during my lifetime, I was just one at the time. This was the first Conclave I had a chance to watch and remember. I wanted to see Cardinal Ratzinger win and I was so happy when he did. He opened the TLM to generations who had never known it and that genie can’t be put back in the bottle!
I often thank God how bless I am for having known PJPII and him … His wisdom, knowledge, fortitude in adversity and unbelievable obedience amazes me … how can he take everything in silence with a joyful outlook? … just amazing …
He is a wonderful gift to me …
May our good Lord continue to bless him and his papal household …
I am so grateful to Pope Benedict XVI for what he did to improve the liturgy and its celebration and for his many, many outstanding theological writings. Happy anniversary.
I will never forget it. I was on vacation in Portland, Oregon with my family and I saw the newspaper headlines. I laughed out loud with joy.
What a beautiful day that was! I’ve known my dear Holy Grandpapa since college and when he was elected, how my heart flew! I pray he will be declared a Saint and Doctor of the Church.
Michaelus says: Michaelus speaking of Portland, Or. My Family and I were there two Sunday’s ago and attended 9 a.m at Holy Rosary Parish.Sunday Mass. It was the N.O. for the most part in English, except the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei…….ALL PRAISE TO THE PRIESTS IN THAT PARISH!
The Mass was so reverent, I had to pinch myself to realize it was not the Mass in the E.F. Father used a maniple, fiddle back Chasuble, biretta, and NO Extra ordinary ministers! Holy Communion at the Communion Rail..etc.etc.etc.
Spoke with Father after Mass and mentioned how the parish has taken the reform of the reform by our Sweet Pope Benedict to HEART!
GOD BLESS YOU DOMINICANS at HOLY ROSARY PARISH and making the N.O. so Beautiful!
Thank YOU again Pope Benedict!
P.S. MOST of the Mass (Fathers Parts were Chanted) Again Beautiful!
God bless our dear, sweet, Benedict XVI. May he have many more healthy, joyful years praying for the Church. May his influence grow on Pope Francis, his collaborators and the faithful, and may the seeds he sowed continue to bear fruit.
And a perfect time to be thankful for His Holiness’s provision in Summorum Pontificum allowing for a second Triduum in the same parish to acommodate both forms. We probably would not have had the traditional Triduum otherwise.
Ad multos annos, Papa Emeritus!
I miss God’s Rottweiler.
I certainly wish him happiness, health, and more years to be granted to him.
Nonetheless, I cannot let that induce me to stick my head in the sand. A careful reading of his 50+ years of writings and addresses shows certain very disturbing liberalisms in his theology. This is not something to praise and admire, whatever other positive traits he exhibited as churchman and pope.
What a happy day that was. The best news we could have hoped for.