At The Catholic Thing today, my friend Dr. Robert Royal asks the elephantine – nay, rather, mastodontic question: Is there something wrong in Rome? The obvious answer is YES. Only a fool or fanatical ideologue (in the real sense) would … Read More →
At CWR, Carl Olson took on some words of Francis to Portuguese Jesuits – we saw something about that elsewhere – published in La Civiltà Cattolica especially about US “backwardists” and we poor benighted American’s and “ideology”. Thus, he demonstrates … Read More →
If you were worried that, with all the talk about synodality {“walking together-ty”) the world’s real pressing matters weren’t being addressed, never fear! From ANSA: Il Papa sta scrivendo una seconda parte della Laudato si’ Io sto scrivendo una seconda … Read More →
Francis has said some puzzling things over the years. Recently, he has peppered the Church with a few more of his insights, whose depths defy easy exploration. One of them prompted Anthony Esolen (who has a new translation of Augustine’s Confessions coming … Read More →
Ed Pentin, surely Rome’s best English language commentator on Church matters these days, has an interview with Dr. John Rist, a professor at Cambridge and also in Rome at my school, the Patristic Instititute Augustinianum. I had several courses from … Read More →
May I recommend reading this from Andrea Gagliarducci, puts out am internet column every Monday on things “Vatican”? This week he covers the removal of Archbp. Georg Gaenswein from the Vatican. Pope Francis, a break with the past Sample… Pope … Read More →
Two things. First, Swiss Bishop Vitus Huonder has released the third in a series of videos about the undeniable crisis in the Church. It is in German with subtitles. Put down or put aside other things. Click. Fold your hands and watch this … Read More →
From a reader… QUAERITUR: I have read your blog on and off for years but recently began reading regularly. I always find your writing edifying and informative. I will try to keep my question/concern short and to the point. I … Read More →
Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences. Sometimes they aren’t. Yesterday, 1 September, on the anniversary of a very creepy thing, two very creepy things happened. 1- Francis gave a speech to the world’s bishops, more an more reduced to “branch managers” … Read More →
Church news, especially having to do with the papacy, has lately become a hybrid between a long-delayed forensic autopsy and Fawlty Towers, sickeningly hilarious. Yesterday, I saw this tweet from Damian Thompson. Crazy rumour in Rome that at his August … Read More →
UPDATE: NB: After the The Great Roman™ saw this he offered: That I recall it was not included in the Franciscan Sources and it is believed to have been written at the time of Boniface VIII who suppressed a Franciscan … Read More →
SERIOUS PREAMBLE No demon has a real name. That’s part of their punishment. They really want a name and identity. Invocation of a false god or spirit allows demons to step up and be recognized, take the name and get … Read More →
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE… I urge those of you who are on the “trad” side of things (whether “mad, sad or glad”) not to run around with your hair on fire over this Letter which will – unsurprisingly – contain some … Read More →
It strikes me that relative newcomer around the Holy See Press sector, listed as CNA‘s “senior Rome correspondent” – which as I get older strikes me as amusing – Hannah Brockhaus should rethink her priorities. Francis had an audience with … Read More →
From Vatican News: “Pope to Sicilian priests: ‘Embrace bitterness with tenderness’” Do they hear themselves? No. They are the masters of shouting down a well. Francis spoke to Sicilian priests. He said… I am not making this up… I don’t … Read More →
Above… Aeneas rescuing his family (not so much his wife) and household gods from the sack of Troy. Leonello Spada Who was Vincent of Lérins? He was a Gaul and writer who died about 445. His work Commonitorium is a … Read More →
UPDATE 25 March 2022: The consecration took place today in St. Peter’s Basilica. Below, I wondered if the puzzling aspects of the text were intended to separate this act from the requestion of Our Lady of Fatima, to make it … Read More →
Somewhere out there in the interwebs I remember seeing a site that chronicled the “events” of the Francis era. This isn’t quite on that scale, but it is … illuminating. Seeing bits and pieces over time is one thing. Seeing … Read More →
I read first at Rorate that a 57 year old bishop of the Diocese of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, was summarily removed from the diocese by Francis the Merciful, first of his name. He was asked to resign. He refused. He … Read More →
Fr. John Hunwicke’s blog is a constant source of fascinating details, amusing invective, and inverting insight. Those first two may be obvious, but what do I mean by “inverting insight”? I mean that Fr. H has a keen ability to … 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
I'm finishing up a batch of Mass intentions right now. I'll have room in my register for more while I am in Rome. Also, I regularly say Mass for my regular benefactors and special Roman Sojourn Donors. HERE for the form I use.
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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