ACTION ITEM! Pontifical Vestments Fund Raising UPDATED!

Posted on 14 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

action-item-buttonUPDATE: The fabric has been delivered, thanks to a clerical intermediary, to Gammarelli in Rome.  On Monday I will send in the order, directions of what to do, and get back the estimate of costs.

So… you need to step up now!  Please help us bring the fundraiser to a successful close.

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______

The Tridentine Mass Society of the Diocese of Madison – 501(c)(3) – is at it again.  Of course it’s at it again: I’m the president and the tank has only one gear.

To find our GoFundMe campaign…

>>HERE<<

This time we must raise funds for a full set of Pontifical in WHITE.  (See update, below.)

We have to take some pressure off our beautiful gold set, which is silk.  We have to use it more sparingly, but we are having Pontifical Masses pretty often!   It’s a good problem to have, right?

I found some beautiful and durable and affordable while jacquard damask. We will buy the fabric ourselves and take it to Gammarelli in Rome.

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A full Pontifical Set typically includes:

  • Chasuble with stole, maniple, burse, veil
  • Three dalmatics with 1 deacon’s stole and maniples.
  • Two tunics with a maniple.
  • Humeral veil
  • Cope and stole
  • Antependium
  • Gremial
  • Pontifical dalmatic and tunic
  • Pontifical gloves
  • Buskins

We will also get fabric and trim for tabernacle veil.  These vestments can also be used for Solemn Masses with priest, deacon and subdeacon.

Down the line we will have a new Black set made (the one we have now… meh…) and a Rose set!   Of course, I continue to harbor hope for the approval of liturgical blue.

Please help us?   Donate now.  The dollar is strong against the Euro now.  I’d like to get this project started at the first of the year.

Here are some action shots of our vestments.

YOU helped to make these!

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UPDATE:

After consultation with veeps, I have decided to raise the target amount.

“But Father! But Father!”, some of you acolytes of Judas are squeaking, “All these vestments are too lavish and … and … they should be sold and money given to the poor!  Pope Francis hates you trads because YOU HATE VATICAN II!”

Au contraire.  Pope Francis loves all of us equally.  How can you say such a thing?

Moreover, because the Second Vatican Council decided to include a section specifically about the Blessed Virgin Mary in their Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, we are going to honor Mary by having a sent of Pontifical Vestments made in BLUE.

BLUE VESTMENTS in addition to the WHITE VESTMENTS.

That’s not blue and white vestments, or even white and blue vestments.

Rather, that’s a set of WHITE vestments and a set of BLUE vestments.

Just think… the sets will have capes with silver chains!

So, please donate lavishly and quickly.

We will use, probably, the cerulean on the right, but maybe not in that pattern.

IMG_9325

There’s this:

turquise blue and gold jacquard

 

 

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, ACTION ITEM!, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged ,
28 Comments

14 January: Happy Feast of the Ass!

Posted on 14 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Rev. Mr. Greg Kandra reminds us that today is the Feast of the Ass.  Wikipedia HERE

I wrote about this back in 2012 HERE

There are medieval liturgical rites which ought to be revived… not just on this day but whenever we need to underscore some asinine move from some ecclesial ass.  From Wiki, for speed:

[…]

At Beauvais the Ass may have continued his minor role of enlivening the long procession of Prophets. On the January 14, however, he discharged an important function in that city’s festivities. On the feast of the Flight into Egypt the most beautiful girl in the town, with a pretty child in her arms, was placed on a richly draped ass, and conducted with religious gravity to St. Stephen’s Church. The Ass (possibly a wooden figure) was stationed at the right of the altar, and the Mass was begun. After the Introit a Latin prose was sung.[4]

The first stanza and its French refrain may serve as a specimen of the nine that follow:

Orientis partibus
Adventavit Asinus
Pulcher et fortissimus
Sarcinis aptissimus.
Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez,
Belle bouche rechignez,
Vous aurez du foin assez
Et de l’avoine a plantez.

(From the Eastern lands the Ass is come, beautiful and very brave, well fitted to bear burdens. Up! Sir Ass, and sing. Open your pretty mouth. Hay will be yours in plenty, and oats in abundance.)

Mass was continued, and at its end, apparently without awakening the least consciousness of its impropriety, the following direction (in Latin) was observed:

In fine Missae sacerdos, versus ad populum, vice ‘Ite, Missa est’, ter hinhannabit: populus vero, vice ‘Deo Gratias’, ter respondebit, ‘Hinham, hinham, hinham.’

(At the end of Mass, the priest, having turned to the people, in lieu of saying the ‘Ite missa est’, will bray thrice; the people instead of replying ‘Deo Gratias’ say, ‘Hinham, hinham, hinham.’)

Possible greeting cards…

14 January: Happy Feast of the Ass!

14 January: Happy Feast of the Ass!

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged
9 Comments

Ninevah 90 starts 13 February

Posted on 14 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friend Fr. Richard Heilman has an initiative which you should all know about.

It starts one month from TODAY so this is time sensitive.

It is called Ninevah 90.

HERE

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Posted in Semper Paratus, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged
8 Comments

RECENT POSTS and THANKS to readers, benefactors

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I made a change to the sharing buttons plugin.  I think the blog loads a little faster now.  Perhaps you could make greater use of the buttons? Pretty please?

I am deeply grateful to all of you benefactors who donate regularly, occasionally, or who send items from my wish lists. I will say Holy Mass for my benefactors again on Tuesday, 17 January.  Always included are, of course, DY and GS.

Remember to use the YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS post.  To post, you need to be registered and approved. HERE

The main page has been changing rapidly.  Here are some recent posts.

First…

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Italian Archbishop: “In 10 years we will all be Muslims because of our stupidity.”

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Meanwhile, an Italian bishop had something interesting to say.

I hope the Maltese read this after the way their bishops went to the zoo.  HERE

This is an Emeritus Archbishop… so no one can do anything to him, if you get my drift.

At Express:

‘Everyone will be Muslim because of our stupidity’ Catholic leader blasts ‘WEAK’ church

A PROMINENT figure in the Catholic church has controversially suggested that everyone will “soon be Muslim” because Italy lives in an increasingly secular society amid rapidly growing migration figures.

Monsignor Carlo Liberati, an Italian Archbishop, [Emeritus of Pompei and of the Marian Sanctuary] gave the warning after observing the growing number of detention centres opening up in Europe, suggesting it was a sure fire way to have the Islamic faith become mainstream.

He said: “In 10 years we will all be Muslims because of our stupidity. Italy and Europe live in a pagan and atheist way, they make laws that go against God and they have traditions that are proper of paganism.

“All of this moral and religious decadence favours Islam.”

He added: “We have a weak Christian faith. The Church nowadays does not work well and seminaries are empty.

“Parishes are the only thing still standing. We need a true Christian life. All this paves the way to Islam. In addition to this, they have children and we do not. We are in full decline.”

[…]

Thanks be to God for this Archbishop.  He is saying what needs to be said.

Years ago, I asked an American bishop what he thought about the state of the Church. “TERRIBLE!”, he rumbled. “What”, I asked, “should we do about it?” “The first thing we have to do is stop blowing happy gas at everyone!”… or words to that effect.

Right now it seems that only retired will stand up.

The moderation queue is ON.  Of course.

Posted in Fr. Z KUDOS, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Religion of Peace | Tagged
20 Comments

Maltese Bishops Go To The ‘Amoris laetitia’ Zoo: Disaster… inexcusable nonsense… green-lighting sacrilege

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE:

aka – The Maltese Fiasco

___

Earlier today I had a great misfortune to read a statement from the Bishops of Malta which is a complete disaster.  I was going to post about it tomorrow, but canonist Ed Peters beat me to it and… he nails it with his usual amazing skill.   For the document in the official English version supplied by the Bishops of Malta from their website: HERE

Peters doesn’t have a combox, but I do… and the moderation queue is ON.

The Maltese disaster

The bishops of Malta, in a document that can only be called disastrous, repeatedly invoking Pope Francis’ Amoris laetitia,have directly approved divorced and remarried Catholics taking holy Communion provided they feel “at peace with God”. [As he said… disaster.] Unlike, say, the Argentine document on Amoris which, one could argue, left just enough room for an orthodox reading, however widely it also left the doors open for abuse by others, the Maltese bishops in their document come straight out and say it: holy Communion is for any Catholic who feels “at peace with God” and the Church’s ministers may not say No to such requests. [Did you get that?] In my view the Maltese bishops have effectively invited the Catholics entrusted to them (lay faithful and clergy alike!) to commit a number of objectively gravely evil acts. That their document was, moreover, published in L’Osservatore Romano, exacerbates matters for it deprives Vatican representatives of the ‘plausible deniability’ that they could have claimed (and might soon enough wish they could claim), as it becomes known that the Maltese bishops went beyond what even Amoris, if interpreted narrowly, seemed to permit.

For now, I make just a few points.

1. The Maltese bishops have fallen completely for the canonically and ecclesiologically false view that an individual’s assessment of his or her own readiness to receive holy Communion (see c. 916) controls a minister’s decision to administer the sacrament (see c. 915). In Malta now, anyone who approaches for the sacraments should be recognized as being “at peace with God”. Objective evidence to the contrary is simply no longer relevant. Canon 916 is thus eviscerated, Canon 915 is effectively repudiated.  [These bishops are in serious danger of eternal perdition because of what they have done.]

2. The Maltese bishops do not seem to know what the word “conjugal” means. They think that non-married people can practice “conjugal” virtues and that they can decide about whether to engage in “conjugal” acts. Nonsense and, coming from bishops, inexcusable nonsense at that. Non-married people can have sex, of course, but Catholic pastoral integrity does not hold such sexual acts on par with the physically identical, but truly conjugal, acts as performed by married persons.

3. The Maltese bishops, by extending their document to the sacrament of Reconciliation, have basically instructed their priests not to withhold absolution from a divorced-and-remarried Catholics who refuse to repent of their “public and permanent adultery” (CCC 2384) even to the point of abstaining from sexual (nb: sexual not “conjugal”) relations. Incredibly, such a directive raises the specter of green-lighting sacrilegious confessions and the commission of solicitation in confession. No priest should want either on his conscience, let alone both.  [No bishop in the world could compel me to do that.  I hope the priests of Malta do not imperil their souls.]

4. The Maltese bishops even managed to take swipes at Baptism and Confirmation by opening the door to divorced-and-remarried Catholics serving as godparents contrary to the expectations of Canon 874 § 1, 3º. See CLSA New Comm (2001) 1062-1063.

There are other serious problems with the Maltese document but the above should suffice to show why it is, quite simply, a disaster.

If you read that rubbish document, note the juxtaposition of “situations” and “ideals”.

This is going to turn into a war if not worse.  Different countries different practices.

What will become of the unity of the Church if in one country any unrepentant sinner with the official blessing of the bishop and, when you cross the border into another country, you still need a firm purpose of amendment to be absolved and public scandal must be avoided.

Does that sound like two different Churches?

UPDATE 14 January:

My friend Fr. Martin Fox, a frequent commentator here, has observations at his blog Bonfire of the Vanities.

Posted in One Man & One Woman | Tagged , , ,
71 Comments

FOLLOW UP: Paul Ehrlich to speak at the VATICAN?

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 9 Feb:

From LifeSite:

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Pro-abort population controller ‘thrilled’ with direction Francis is taking Church

February 9, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The undisputed father of the modern, pro-abortion population control movement told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive interview that he is “thrilled” with the direction Pope Francis is taking the Catholic Church.

“I’m thrilled with the new pope moving the Church in the right direction,” Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of the 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, told LifeSiteNews in a back-and-forth email exchange this week.

[…]

He denounced Catholicism as “dangerous” in a January 2013 article (two months prior to Francis’ election) for its opposition to contraception.

[…]

Read the rest there.  It is pretty interesting.

___ Originally Published on: Jan 13, 2017 ___

You can’t make some things up.

LifeSite reports that Paul Ehrlich has been invited to speak at an event sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Paul Ehrlich, perhaps the most famous advocate and promoter of abortion for the sake of population control, has been invited to speak.  Compulsory abortions… sex-selection abortions… infanticide.

PAUL EHRLICH?  Author of the Population Bomb?  THAT PAUL EHRLICH?

Asking Paul Ehrlich to speak at a Vatican event is like asking…

… Sweeny Todd to cater your luncheon.

… Jenna Jameson to preface your book on sacramental marriage.

… Nero to head up the fire department.

… Anthony Wiener to manage your social media.

… Godfried Danneels to head your commission on abuse.

It’s like….

 

 

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, You must be joking! | Tagged
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ASK FATHER: Diluting Holy Salty Water… Salty Holy Water… just plain Holy Water

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

aspersoriumFrom a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Hello Fr Z! Our pastor puts a lot of salt in the holy water. So much so that a MASSIVE crust forms on our font at home. Is it OK to dilute the holy water a bit with regular tap water to bring down the concentration of salt? I don’t know if diluting would remove the priestly blessing. I think it is awesome that our priest blesses the water with blessed salt but am worried about the effects of the salt on our clothes since we use it at home a lot. Thanks!

It is great that your priest is using the exorcised and blessed salt.  That suggests to me that he is using the older, traditional form which is the ONLY way that this priest will ever use.

Everyone… USE Holy Water.  The Devil really hates it.  As St. Teresa of Avila wrote:

“I know by frequent experience that there is nothing which puts the devils to flight like Holy water.”

The simple solution (pun intended) is cheerfully to show your priest a photo of the crust that forms from the great amount of salt.

I suppose you could add a little… a very little bit of water to your Holy Water.

But this brings us to the issue of dilution of Holy Water for the sake of extending it.

Please, don’t do that.  Get more Holy Water.

It is possible, in a pinch, to add a small amount of water to Holy Water or Baptismal Water if there isn’t a sufficient quality for the task for which it is needed. However, that should not be the usual practice and only a small amount, proportionally, should be added.  And, frankly, I can’t think of many circumstances in which you would urgently need a lot more.  I can conjure some… I guess, if I try.

It is better simply to ask Father to bless more Holy Water and make sure it is in sufficient supply.

It doesn’t take much time to bless Holy Water, even with the older rite in the traditional Rituale Romanum (which is the only rite which I have ever used or which I would even consider using… in case I didn’t mention that earlier).

Your priest clearly is willing to bless Holy Water.  However, if other priests out there are too lazy to do even what the Novus Ordo indicates… well… shame on them.  Someone should kick their reverend backsides. However, it is far more likely that this problem doesn’t occur to him, because he is not asked to bless Holy Water. Thus, he doesn’t think about it.

HINT TO PRIESTS AND SACRISTANS:

A good practice is for every sacristy to have a large card with the words “BLESS” and “BLESSED” on opposing sides. Prop up that card with the “BLESS” side displayed near the water containers (I’ve done several buckets at a time, no problemo) and the page-marked book and the stole and the salt.  A good deal of salt can be blessed ahead of time, by the way.  You just start with the exorcism and blessing of the water that way.  When the priest is done, he turns the card over to “BLESSED”.  Bada bing.  Holy Water!

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged
18 Comments

Never underestimate the power of an invitation

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I incessantly tell congregations never to underestimate the power of an invitation.   By that I mean that people should be inviting to others to go with them to Holy Mass or to church for confession and other events.  Invitations can be grace-filled, pivotal moments.

From an unlikely source I found an interesting story about a movie actor.  It came to my secondary email, sandwiched in between ammo deals and Friday Torah explanations, I think because I signed up for “rewards” for the movie theater down the street (Tuesdays: $5 all movies all day and free popcorn!).

From Movie Guide:

A Stranger Introduced Chris Pratt to Jesus. . . What Happened Next Is Beautiful
The TV star who quickly became one of Hollywood’s most wanted actors due to his breakout success in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and JURASSIC WORLD recently opened up in a Vanity Fair cover story about the moment he turned to Jesus. Pratt frequently tweets Bible verses, and last Easter posted an Instagram picture of him and some buddies building a giant steel cross and mounting it on a hill. Now, Pratt says it all began with a man in Hawaii coming up to him telling him that ‘Jesus told me to talk to you.’

[…]

I would like to invite Mr. Pratt to attend Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Just Too Cool, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged ,
5 Comments

Pope Francis, Freemasonry, 2017

Posted on 13 January 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I had a bit of a “WHOA!” moment.

First, let me say that I really like what Nick Donnelly is doing at the UK wing of EWTN online.

Next, let me say that we must not underestimate the evil influence in the Church of true Freemasonry.  In these USA we have club-like offshoots of Freemasonry which are not like their European counterparts.  Also, Catholics are specifically forbidden to belong to any masonic sect or group or offshoot, what have you.  FORBIDDEN.  A prime objective of Freemasonry is destruction of the Catholic Church.  Holy Church explicitly imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons (cf 1917 Code of Canon Law can. 2335).  The 1983 Code can. 1374 doesn’t explicitly mention Freemasonry or excommunication, but it clearly means that Catholics cannot join such groups: “Can. 1374 – A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict.”  However, on 26 November 1983, just before the promulgation of the 1983 revision of the Code, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement with a clear indication: “The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”  HERE

Now, back to something Donnelly published at EWTN UK.  Read this and get to the place where I had my “WHOA!” moment.  Meanwhile, my emphases:

Pope ordered Card. Burke to clean out Freemasons from the Knights of Malta

It has emerged that during a meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Burke in November about the scandal of the Knights of Malta distributing condoms and oral contraceptives in Africa, the Holy Father instructed Cardinal Burke to “clean out” Freemasonry from the order. [This is great, if true, but it isn’t the WHOA! yet.] The Holy Father gave this order to Cardinal Burke in his role as patron of the Knights of Malta by papal appointment.

The Vatican journalist Edward Pentin revealed details of Pope Francis’s concerns about the influence of the Freemasons on the Knights of Malta:

Hopes that the contraceptive scandal would be addressed came on Nov. 10, when Cardinal Burke was received in private audience by Pope Francis. During that meeting, the Register has learned, the Pope was “deeply disturbed” by what the cardinal told him about the contraceptive distribution. The Pope also made it clear to Cardinal Burke that he wanted Freemasonry “cleaned out” from the order, and he demanded appropriate action. The concern was followed up by a Dec. 1 letter to Cardinal Burke, in which the Register has learned that the Holy Father underlined the cardinal’s constitutional duty to promote the spiritual interests of the order and remove any affiliation with groups or practices that run contrary to the moral law.

Edward Pentin reports that Pope Francis was “deeply disturbed”[Pentin is the best working English language vaticanista these days.] by the evidence concerning Malteser International’s distribution of condoms and oral contraceptives in the Far East and Africa during the tenure of Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, a German Knight of Malta.  Boeselager was dismissed as grand chancellor following an internal investigation by the Knights of Malta. It is not clear why Pope Francis specifically identified Freemasonry as a problem in his response to the evidence presented by Cardinal Burke during the November meeting.

Pope Francis has previously criticized the destructive influence of the Freemasons and their hostility towards the Church. During his address to young people during his apostolic visit to Turin the Holy Father [Francis… not B16 or JP2…] spoke about “Masonic, hardcore anticlericals and Satanists“:

At the end of the 19th century there were the worst conditions for young people’s development: freemasonry was in full swing, not even the Church could do anything, there were priest haters, there were also Satanists…. It was one of the worst moments and one of the worst places in the history of Italy. However, if you would like to do a nice homework assignment, go and find out how many men and women saints were born during that time. Why? Because they realized that they had to go against the tide with respect to the culture, to that lifestyle. [I wonder if  that will result for the children born into our times and through what hellish crucible they will have to pass.]

It was during his in-flight press interview in July 2013 that Pope Francis first expressed his concerns about the influence of Freemasons on the Church:

“The problem is not having this [homosexual] orientation. No, we must be brothers and sisters. The problem is lobbying for this orientation, or lobbies of greed, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the most serious problem for me.”

Comment

2017 marks the 300th anniversary of the foundation of Freemasonry with the establishment of the first Grand Lodge in London. [WHOA!]

[…]

How many portent-laden anniversaries is that for 2017?

In retrospect, I knew that date for the foundation of modern Freemasonry in England, but it hadn’t bubbled up to the surface until now.

The moderation queue is ON.

Posted in Hard-Identity Catholicism, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
33 Comments