"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
I assume the koala should wear the superpelliceum then.
Koalas are not venomous (cf. platypus) but they do carry a strain of chlamydia. The koala is a marsupial and is incorrectly referred to as a bear. Koalas (dead, alive, stuffed or otherwise) have no known liturgical role in the Catholic church, no mention in the rubrics or in Fortescue and were never mentioned by the Australian Church fathers. Further, they did not have religious significance to the Australian aborigines but were a prized food source. Male koalas are territorial and fight each other over females mates. “Koala” means ” no drink”, their only source of moisture is eucalyptus leaves. Koalas smell bad and are not soft and cuddly. They are nocturnal. Perhaps this koala was looking on the altar for a beach ball to play with.
Well, yes, Reverend Father, but isn’t it also true that on Saint Laurentius (Lawrence) day, the stuffed koala is to be burned, one side after the other (never rotating! One side should be done before the other) and then deposited wholesale into the sacrarium?
Of course Fr Z is correct as the Gospel side would be reserved for the kangaroo.
The koala is not poisonous. They are normally slow moving. They do have big claws and I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a scratch
The male platypus has spines in his back legs that can deliver some venom. They are very shy creatures so getting spurred would require you to go out of your way …
Oh come on, can we give the poor bear a break? He deserves the benefit of the doubt. He clearly thought it was a Euchalyptic celebration…
It’d go along side the beach-ball, yeah?
Just koala, not koala bear :)
As a side note, here is a video promoting Australia’s many attractions should you decide to visit – koala included:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy_TB6onHVE
O Polycarped, splendid !
In all likelihood this koala encountered on the altar between the two Masses was serving as a transitional object in order to foster a continuity between those being weaned from the milk of the Novus Ordo to the meat of the Extraordinary Form…
This was not made clear. I see three options for this object…
1. Was it “stuffed” as in having once been alive and undergone the services of a taxidermist?
2. Was it “stuffed” as in an object made to look like a koala, fashioned of synthetic material filled with more synthetic material (or possibly natural material, but that’s doubtful)?
3. Was it “stuffed” as in the vernacular of its native land and in reality a live koala that had imbibed a bit too much?
Still, it’s placement would probably be the same in whatever case, wouldn’t it?
I say that we put the koala to the Question…. to see if we can uncover the identity of the person(s) who put him there in the first place
I think it would depend on whether it was a liturgical or a processional koala. The liturgical koala (from the Latin colare, to purify) would likely be prepared by the subdeacon and presented by the deacon to the celebrant immediately before the Lavabo. The processional koala (from the Latin cola, strainer) would accompany the apergilium during the Asperges.
Neither Fortescue nor the Caeremoniale Romanum, unfortunately, foresee its use during the Absolutions following a Requiem.
In Christ,
I suspect it was left by a child. So the question is whether it’s more like an oblation or an oblate.
Latin Mass Type,
The third option, obviously.
The Sacred Congregation already ruled that lacking explicit abrogation that altar decorations were subject to the discretion of the Ordinary. Fortescue said such was not at Rome, though the advent of stuffed marsupials as a relatively modern innovation would preclude claims of immemorial custom and indult of the Australian Bishops Conference would seem in order.
Or something. jk.
The (obvious) third-class relic of an Australian saint should be returned decorously to a place of suitable repose. A collection should be taken up forthwith for a suitable reliquary.
The Latin for koala is Phascolarctos cinereus. Obviously, the cinereus refers to its ashen colour. So, to establish the proper location, we need to look at a range of liturgical sources. In the Ordinary form, the koalas are blessed at a table in front of the altar before being placed on the foreheads of the faithful. This is also true of the Extraordinary form when it is celebrated in its present form. Not so long ago, the Extraordinary form saw the koalas being blessed on the Epistle side of the altar (note that it the Ordinary was celebrating the Mass of Ash Wednesday, the subdeacon of the Mass “goes to the altar, and with the prescribed reverences takes the vessel of koalas, carries it with both hands to the throne, where he kneels at the right of the bishop” to enable the bishop to bless the koalas at the throne). The koalas are never placed on the Gospel side of the altar in the roman rite.
There is a dispensation for a special formulary for the imposition of koalas on the foreheads of unwelcome itinerant Australians: “Remember Mate, you’re from a dustbowl, and to that dustbowl you shall return”.
Polycarped, that was just brilliant!!!
In the Byzantine Rite, the koala is to remain in the narthex until the Little Entrance, whereupon he shall be placed on the Prothesis; he shall remain there until the Great Entrance, where he is then processed around the church, and then placed before the icon of the Theotokos. The faithful, having received the Eucharist, will then receive the Eucalyptus.
Palm Sunday (being in Lent) is even more elaborate, with several prostrations being performed after a procession around the outside of the church.
Some within the Church have felt the need to change the koala to a blow-up koala, rather than use the stuffed one, even though the Canons of the First Council of Sydney clearly condemned any koala not soft. Indeed, the Creed clearly says ‘He who him soft and cuddly’, not ‘He who made him of helium’. But such is the heresy of the day, I suppose.