Photo by Bree Dail.
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
PLEASE donate using VENMO!
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Do you have a faithful Catholic website that needs competent and reliable tech support?
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265YOUR RECENT COMMENTS
on Challenge coin news and questions: “The link AA Cunningham thoughtfully provided has an email address for Fr. Kapaun prayer cards, which would fit handily in…”
on ASK FATHER: “What’s the deal with tarot cards?” : “There is a video on YouTube where Demonologist Adam Blai goes into a real world case of tarot card reading…”
on ASK FATHER: “What’s the deal with tarot cards?” : “Father, didn’t Hans Urs von Balthasar write a preface to a book called ‘Meditations on the Tarot’? Link: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/scaldecott_hubtarot_apr07.asp Having…”
on “The constant negativity directed to us priests by…” Wherein Fr. Z relates, reacts, reflects and rants.: “Fr. Z’s and Fr. Stravinskas’ experience of changing from reading the pope’s reflections with eager benefit (under JPII and Benedict)…”
on “The constant negativity directed to us priests by…” Wherein Fr. Z relates, reacts, reflects and rants.: “I think the nastiness towards our priests is part of a strategy. Keep up a negative barrage at the male…”
on Video: WE ARE OUR RITES: “Kids soak up what they see and take part in, like a sponge. This is living proof. I had to…”
on Challenge coin news and questions: “I see that there is a challenge coin for ARRL members who are VECs – volunteer administers of examinations for…”
on Video: WE ARE OUR RITES: “The mom in the video is singing the Hymn of Resurrection from Matins: Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let…”
on Video: WE ARE OUR RITES: “I can remember my brothers and I used the piano bench as an altar and a vase as the chalice.…”
on “The constant negativity directed to us priests by…” Wherein Fr. Z relates, reacts, reflects and rants.: “A large percentage of young priests and seminarians now days were homeschooled. These men are used to being poked in…”
on “The constant negativity directed to us priests by…” Wherein Fr. Z relates, reacts, reflects and rants.: “…none of the bishops [Father S.] queried could report a single diocesan seminarian inspired to pursue priestly life by the…”
on “The constant negativity directed to us priests by…” Wherein Fr. Z relates, reacts, reflects and rants.: “As a layman, I am unaware of this negativity towards priests unless someone brings it to my attention. This not…”
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.
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful.
That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically 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...
Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…
Be a “Zed-Head”!
CHALLENGE COINS!
My "challenge coin" for my 25th anniversary of ordination in 2016.
Want one? I do exchanges with military and LEOs, etc.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...This is really useful when travelling… and also when you aren’t and you need backup internet NOW! I use this for my DMR “Zednet” hotspot when I’m mobile. It’s a ham radio thing.
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
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!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
Can’t wait to read what ThePapalCount has to say on this picture. Yes, yes I can look it up online but it’s not the same as hearing about the backstory and such.
This is the Roman Planetarium. It was one of Europe’s oldest planetaria and is located a distance from central Rome. Few visitors make it there. In fact, I confess, I’ve never been to it. Others have said that it needs an updating and a technical face-lift. I do know that in such a place you are able to stand or sit and look up the stars and the sky projected on the ceiling. However, in Rome I prefer to look up and study the ceilings in the churches I visit. The handiwork of God through the artists of the day, who created such magnificent ceilings, show to me the creativity and majesty of God as much as the ceiling of a planetarium could ever do. That might make for a good Roman “coffee-table book” — “The Ceilings of Rome”. The ceilings of so many of the churches tell us remarkable stories of things Divine. They’re statements of Faith. So, in Rome, I urge us all to keep looking up ….at the ceilings.
I’ll add a few relevant and irrelevant details.
This was the Octagonal Hall of the Baths of Diocletian, which were the largest of the ancient Roman baths. Some of the ruins house the Church Santa Maria degli Angeli, which has touches of Michelangelo and a great long solar clock that was used to mark official noon in Rome. I’ve written about that elsewhere.
This building was indeed a planetarium. There are digs, and you can see foundations, etc.
The last time I was in there, a long time ago, I walked in to find the incredible ancient bronze Boxer, who has since both travelled and relocated. I’ve seen him a couple times in other locations, once I think in LA at the Getty and once at the Met. It is stunning, and the tale of its discovery is dramatic. I think it’s home is the Palazzo Massimo near these ruins of the Baths of Diocletian.
The Plantarium is not to be confused with the Septizodium (seven planets) built by the Emperor Septimius Severus near the Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill. That place eventually went to ruin and was demolished. BUT… not before it was used as place of a forced conclave to elect Pope Celestine IV (Castiglione) in the 13th c, in the time of Frederick II, Hohenstaufen who tried to capture cardinals going to the conclave. In a nasty hot rainy August in 1241 cardinals gathered and were gridlocked for two months. The troops of the governor of Rome at the time, Matteo Orsini – a personal friend of Francis of Assisi, were urinating on the roof tiles, which leaked into the palace with the heat and rain. Celestine IV died 17 days after his election, but not before excommunicating Orsini. Orsini’s son eventually became Nicholas III. Only one Pope had a shorter reign, Urban VII in the 16th c.
In all humility I fall before Fr Z on my sword. I was way off. I was talking about the modern Roman planetarium — which I have never visited. But this PLANETARIO is of course near the Termini station. I confess I had not ever been struck by this entry way. I was lost. Yes, Father Z ,these are the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian and the most beautiful and frequently visited church – St Mary of the Angels and Martyrs is attached. And it does contain the great solar clock that determines Roman time. It’s a magnificent church. I apologize to readers for misleading them to Rome’s more modern but technically challenged, I am told, planetarium in the EUR district.
I grovel before genius.