"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
Yeah, isn’t that odd…
My pastor preached about confession at every pre-sanctified liturgy during Lent. This was very successful.
I think this is one of my most cherished things. I feel really bad for people who don’t have confession. Being the screw up that I am, it’s comforting to know that I’m just one confession away from regaining spiritual peace and trying again.
During lent our priests gave four 45 minute talks on the Four Last Things, but I don’t recall hearing confession preached about for several months now. I think it was last August.
I’ve been fighting this problem for the last 4 years. My immediate predecessor, and likely several of his predecessors, preached the “feel-good gospel” and almost completely neglected the Sacrament of Confession. Now, many Catholics here don’t believe that Confession is necessary or even worth doing. I’ve been preaching the necessity of Confession, and had some success in convincing a small number, but it’s hard to overcome 20+ years of basically being told (as the comic shows) that you’re all good and Confession isn’t necessary.
Last time I went to confession, I was told that what I had confessed was not a sin, and not for the first time. I don’t suffer from scrupulosity, but the older I get, the more I sense the sin in the small things of my life. I find it disheartening to have a priest laugh when something troubles me so deeply. With the greatest respect to these priests, it seems that they focus on sins in full bloom and are not so helpful with when we are trying to pull up bits of the roots. I still go, for the Sacramental grace and because I know that Jesus knows my heart, but it can be so difficult when you almost feel like apologising to the priest that you don’t have something more “significant” to confess. Any advice from priests on how to approach this would be appreciated here!
We need to pray and fast for our priests!
@Martlet
Remember, mortal sin consists of grave matter, full knowledge, and full consent of the will. I have been guilty of confessing non-sins as well. In any case, I agree, the Priest should never laugh at you for something confessed. I actually find laughter to be a very odd response. If ever there was a time to be pastoral, it is during confession, and I hope this Priest was just having a bad day. Don’t let it deter you from frequent confession.
@Martlet, I agree with you in the wish for more discussion of confession of “insignificant” sin. Early on in my life as a Catholic I worried about being chided in the confessional for taking up the priest’s time with minor matters. That has never happened to me, fortunately, and I’ve learned that there are others at our parish who make such “confessions of devotion.” All seem to be welcome.
There is a book called Frequent Confession on this subject (first English edition published in 1959), which cites Pope Pius XII as refuting the idea that “little importance should be given to the frequent confession of venial sins.”
Yes, “Fr. Happy Face” is what we’d had in our parish for the last 10 years before this most recent Pastor arrived. He preaches more about how he’s worried about himself and hasn’t really preached Confession, BUT he has made himself available for Confession for an hour on Saturday afternoon (we hadn’t seen regularly scheduled Confession for the previous 6 years) and is available for about 30 minutes before each Mass.
We had one previous Pastor cancel the regularly scheduled Confession “because nobody comes and I’m not wasting my time sitting in an empty Reconciliation Room, I’ve got better things to do.” I really wanted to ask, “Are you surprised when you preach each week that Jesus loves us no matter what horrible things we do and that he forgives us everything? Never once have you said we have to regret our sins and confess them to be absolved.”