At LifeSite there is a a superb opinion piece (frankly, most of LifeSite is opinion) by Kevin Wells, author of The Priests We Need to Save the Church. Wells describes a program that some men are undertaking, a kind of … Read More →
You will hear a great deal in the next few days about the early death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, who seems to have been a practicing Catholic. It might even bump some impeachment coverage off the waves. A death … Read More →
Edward Pentin has posted at the National Catholic Register a summary of the FACTS surrounding the controversial new book from Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI. HERE As you know, as soon as the book was announced the attacks began … Read More →
Robert Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI have collaborated on a new book. They respond to certain aspects of The Present Crisis.™ From the Depths of our Hearts The dedication of the book says it all. En hommage aux prêtres … Read More →
I lived in Rome for a long time. I have a good feel for this place, since over many years I left a lot of blood, sweat and tears here. Since I’ve been back on this trip – the last … Read More →
My pal Fr. Gerald Murray has a combination of cri de coeur and parrhesia at The Catholic Thing. Deftly, he closes the jaws of reason, using Francis own words, around his inaction in the matter of addressing burning issues. Father is earnest, … Read More →
I spent a lot of my youth in squad cars, police stations and jails. Before, you libs nod and sputter, “That explains a lot. That’s why you HATE VATICAN II!” My folks were cops. I grew up surrounded by cops, … Read More →
Devastating. At NRO there is something from John Hirschauer (William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute) about the huge percentage of Catholics who don’t believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. We shouldn’t be … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Dear Father, I feel [unsafe] going to Church, which I unfortunately cannot bring myself to do. I firmly believe in the Catholic Faith and all of its traditional teachings. However, going to Mass anywhere has proved … Read More →
There is a good piece at La Bussola Quotidiana (in Italian) about the Sacrament of Penance. I’ll give you a sample, but I don’t have the energy to translate the whole thing. Prelude: Apparently there was recently something called “Earth … Read More →
Benedict XVI has released a three part essay address, firstly, it seems, to the clergy of Germany. It is a scolding. However, it is also clearly for the whole watching world. The MSM will be excited about the title: The … Read More →
I was sitting in an airport one day, waiting for a flight. A young family approached the gate area. A youngster, seeing an empty place, jumped into it. It was next to me. Mom pulled the kid by an arm … Read More →
Open Letter From Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Brandmüller to Conferences of Bishops My emphases and comments: Open Letter to the Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops Dear Brothers, Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops, We turn to you with deep … Read More →
On the brink of the commencement of the sex abuse “summit”, which is organized to speak to a dreadful problem in the Church, but is designed to avoid the root cause, I received this morning a video produced by the … Read More →
You’ve probably heard that a book is timed to be released simultaneously in several languages at the beginning of the Roman episcopal “sex summit”. Bishops from around the world are to meet to discuss important problems that scandalize and wound … Read More →
Back in August 2018 I posted one of the hardest things I’ve ever written for this blog. HERE This just came from a reader. I’ve anonymized it a little. Dear Fr. Z., I hope these days find you better in … Read More →
I received a note from a friend, a recommendation about a sacred music “disc”. “Great”, quoth I, “Yet another recording of the Requiem Mass,” or some such. No. This is a little different. Here is a beautifully chanted cri de coeur. … Read More →
I have now read Philip Lawler’s recent book The Smoke of Satan: How Corrupt and Cowardly Bishops Betrayed Christ, His Church, and the Faithful . . . and What Can Be Done About It. US HERE – UK HERE Here … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: Father, I’ll get straight to the point: I’m having difficulty believing that the Pope is the head of the Church. I know that regarding the past heresies Popes were often negligent in carrying out their duty to oppose error, … Read More →
Even as I stared at the title of the piece I am about to recommend, this passage from Luke about millstones came to mind. I had the image of a bishop sinking head downward…. sinking… sinking… clawing at the … Read More →
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“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
An Old Historian on WDTPRS – Spy Wednesday: The final prayers: “Father: Every Paragraph, Sentence, and Word is Majestic, Meaningful, Uplifting, Promising, Humbling, and it all provides a full measure of…”
Sportsfan on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: “From the video it looked like Rapport smelled blood in the water but deliberately slowed down to either twist the…”
Sid Cundiff in NC on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: ““Last night ossobuco at humble but reliably good place which hasn’t ever disappointed” Where? Name?”
grateful on ROME 24/3– Day 6: Quiet Day: “It looks like that is loaded with healthy food… hope there are no potholes in Rome.”
teomatteo on ROME 24/3– Day 7: Oooops!: ““…Full moon over Campo De’Fiori” and in a half of moon cycle it will be the New moon over Richmond,…”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
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
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“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.”
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Books which you must have.
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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.
“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.”
“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
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As 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
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.
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.
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