Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Wherein Fr. Z responds cordially to a non-provocation and writes about Hard-Identity Catholicism

Posted on 8 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at his facebook page, my friend Fr. Richard Heilman (very cool priest) of the Diocese of Madison, has posted something that absolutely demands a response.

He caught my attention by sharing a pic with the caption “Daily Battle Strategy”.

Oh yah?

Respondeo dicendum:

By the way, Fr. Heilman had the Rosaries you see in the photo made in signifcant numbers and, I think, they are obtainable. While I do not want you to forget about the beautiful Queen of Peace Rosaries (HERE), these are faithful copies of the rosaries that were issued by the U.S. government to the troops serving in WWI and WWII. “Service Rosaries”. They are made from steel pull-chain. You can find out more at churchmilitant.com

If that were not enough, Fr. Heilman was able to touch many of these Rosaries to over 160 relics of saints which another friend, Fr. Carlos Martins recently brought to the Madison area in his Treasures of the Church initiative. The Enemy must really writhe when someone uses one of these.

You may remember that I posted about how Fr. Heilman returned his parish to ad orientem worship and then moved the table altar into the rectory to create a chapel. Then he created, in the entrance vestibule of the rectory, a confession window in the door to his office directly across from the chapel and set up a electronic entrance switch for the door to the outside so that, pretty 24/7 (so long as Father is around the place), people would be able to visit the Blessed Sacrament and GO TO CONFESSION. He then created a smart phone app so that people could see his availability. HERE Since I first posted about it, many news outlets picked up on the story.

Friends, this is HARD-IDENTITY CATHOLICISM and it is exactly what we need in this soft-identity Church.

But because Fr. Heilman is supposed to be learning the older form of Mass and is supposed to be learning his prayers and rubrics, I thought I post this as some encouragement to him and to other priests out there: HARD-IDENTITY CATHOLICISM, men!

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Just Too Cool, Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood, The future and our choices | Tagged Fr. Heilman, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Holy Rosary, no-risk conservatism, Soft-Identity Catholicism
32 Comments

Pope Francis’ new Motu Proprio

Posted on 8 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

His Holiness Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio “For the Prevention and Countering of Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

I am delighted that the Holy See is not going to be involved with Weapons of Mass Destruction. Someone finally had to rein in the liturgists.

Posted in Francis, Lighter fare | Tagged Pope Francis, Weapons of Mass Destruction
22 Comments

Question for GERMAN clergy/lay people and a FAVOR

Posted on 7 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A worthy old priest I know wants a complete set of the post-Conciliar, German language, “breviary” or Studenbuch – for the entire Liturgy of the Hours, “Die Feier des Stundengebetes”.

First, is there someone out there who has one which he or she would be willing to part with and send to this worthy old priest?

Second, is there someone out there who actually understands the overly-complicated, bizarre German “solution” for the Stundengebetes who could be of help?

Please… I implore you… don’t tell me “Well, Father, you could look on amazon and …. “, because I might ban you permanently from the blog.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged Liturgy of the Hours, Studengebetes, Stundenbuch
13 Comments

QUAERITUR: Something that should be heard in every sacristy in the world.

Posted on 7 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I’ve been having a friendly disagreement with a priest that I know, and maybe you can give me an answer: at the end of Mass, the priest will say the word “Prosit,” and the servers respond “Pro omnibus et singulis.” I was taught to say it thus, but the priest I know contends that that way makes no sense, and it should be “pro singulis et omnibus.” (Singulis and omnibus are switched) Do you have a resource that I could refer to for the history of this small prayer? Or even access to a book about the Mass that would have it recorded, so that I can settle this in my own mind?

A fine custom which should be revived everywhere.

First, I have always heard “omnibus et singulis“, not the other way around. Also, you really don’t need the “pro“, although it doesn’t hurt anyone severely. The verb prosit would have a dative “object” (though it isn’t really an object).

I have also heard in places a simple “tibi quoque” or “vobis quoque“.

In any event, one of the servers could also add, as he kneels, “Iube, Domne, benedicere!”, by which he asks for the priest’s blessing for the servers (or for himself alone as the case may be).

The paring of “omnibus et singulis” isn’t all that common in ancient texts. You find them, of course, but not usually quite like this. I suspect this is a later, juridical common phrase.

In any event, it should today be a daily common phrase, heard in every sacristy in the world.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged altar boys, Altar servers, blessing after mass, Catholic customs, omnibus et singulis, prosit
21 Comments

QUAERITUR: Do martyrs killed in the state of mortal sin go to Heaven?

Posted on 7 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I know that the Church teaches that people that die in a state of mortal sin cannot go to Heaven. However, can martyrs killed in a state of mortal sin still go to Heaven?

Excellent question, and one that should remind people to GO TO CONFESSION. We don’t know when our turn is going to come. It could be today. If you know yourself to be out of sync with God and doubt or know that you are not in the state of grace… there is a solution for you. You know what it is.

Ad rem: Holy Church holds that when a person dies with “voluntary suffering or sustaining of death for the faith or another virtue related to God” and also that the person was killed “out of hate for the faith or for a virtue prescribed by the faith”, then – provided both of these elements can be ascertained through clear proofs and not just conjectures or guesses – he died the death of a “martyr”.

Moreover, the person must voluntarily accept the death that is inflicted for the sake of the faith. This acceptance can be long-standing and habitual or it can be of shorter duration, but it has to last until their last moment of earthly life. Even in the act of dying, they have to accept death for the sake of Christ and faith in Him.

Just because you were willing to die a martyrs death and you were killed longing to be a martyr, those elements don’t make you truly a Christian martyr. Just because someone kills you from hatred of the faith, you are not necessarily a martyr. The different elements must converge. Voluntary death for love of Christ and death from hatred of Christ.

In that supreme moment of dying, we hold that all the virtues are present in the person in a heroic way. It is as if there is a fiery cleansing of burning charity coursing through the martyr’s soul. This is a rather poetic way to put it, of course. In a sense, this true martyrdom can substitute for a sacramental confession of sins.

It would not, however, in the case of non-martyrs.

We all are called to foster virtue in a heroic measure (be mindful of the sense of “heroic” here, as understood by the Church in these causes of canonization, etc.). We are summoned by Christ and the Church to persevere in the life of virtue to the end. True martyrdom, however, is a special case of intense Christian living and Christian dying.

It is paradoxical that blood is what makes the Church grow (cf. Tertullian). It was Christ’s overwhelming “defeat” on the Cross that was the greatest victory of human history. Martyrs hold a special place in the album of the saints precisely because their blood was and is now the seed of the Church’s fruitful growth.

This does not mean that we cannot try to avoid death. We don’t have to invite death. We can try to flee or hide or defend ourselves and loved ones and the innocent with us. However, when the moment comes when we are brought to death as lovers of Christ, His Church and the virtues that Christian life requires, then as martyrs we (please God!) abandon ourselves to His will in charity, hope and faith, with accepting perseverance to our last breath.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, GO TO CONFESSION, Modern Martyrs, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Saints: Stories & Symbols, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged causes of saints, heroic virtue, martyrdom, mortal sin, Tertullian, virtue
17 Comments

Your yellow Sun is about to flip out!

Posted on 6 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Every 11 years your Earth’s yellow sun flips out.

The Sun has an 11 cycle of building activity and then BAM its magnetic field flips places.

From NASA:

August 5, 2013: Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip.
“It looks like we’re no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal,” says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. “This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.”

The sun’s magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun’s inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of ‘Solar Max’ will be behind us, with half yet to come.
Hoeksema is the director of Stanford’s Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitor the sun’s polar magnetic fields. The poles are a herald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet’s polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physicists do the same thing for the sun. Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun’s polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand reversals—with a fourth in the offing.

Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: “The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.”
A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the “heliosphere”) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.
When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals, their conversation often centers on the “current sheet.” The current sheet is a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun’s equator where the sun’s slowly-rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current. The current itself is small, only one ten-billionth of an amp per square meter (0.0000000001 amps/m2), but there’s a lot of it: the amperage flows through a region 10,000 km thick and billions of kilometers wide. Electrically speaking, the entire heliosphere is organized around this enormous sheet.
During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. Scherrer likens the undulations to the seams on a baseball. As Earth orbits the sun, we dip in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet.

Cosmic rays are also affected. These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy. Cosmic rays are a danger to astronauts and space probes, and some researchers say they might affect the cloudiness and climate of Earth. The current sheet acts as a barrier to cosmic rays, deflecting them as they attempt to penetrate the inner solar system. A wavy, crinkly sheet acts as a better shield against these energetic particles from deep space.
As the field reversal approaches, data from Wilcox show that the sun’s two hemispheres are out of synch.
“The sun’s north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up,” says Scherrer. “Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be underway.”
When that happens, Hoeksema and Scherrer will share the news with their colleagues and the public.
Stay tuned to Science@NASA for updates.

Posted in Global Killer Asteroid Questions, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged magnetic field, sun
19 Comments

More on the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the Vetus Ordo (TLM)

Posted on 6 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Inside the Vatican (my emphases):

Minority within Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate wanted to scrap the Old Mass

ANDREA TORNIELLI

VATICAN CITY

The decision to appoint a commissioner to oversee the Congregation of Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the need for the order to obtain authorisation before it can celebrate Mass according to the Old Rite has sparked a heated debate. Traditionalist blogs and websites have voiced disagreements over this. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi says the decision does not go against Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio but is exclusively to do with existing tensions within the Institute. Vatican Insider asked Fr. Alessandro Apollonio, the Procurator General of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate to answer some questions regarding the decision. [As I understand it, he is the “spokesman” for the FFIs.]

Why did the Vatican decide to send an apostolic visitor to your Institute?

“Because a few of the friars who don’t agree with the founding Father and Minister general’s style asked for it. They also disagree with his eagerness to promote the Vetus Ordo within the Institute, alongside the Novus Ordo, in accordance with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae.”

To what extent did the issue of the use of the old missal influence the decision to send an apostolic visitor?

“It had a big influence on the decision because the group of friars I mentioned before accused the founding Father of imposing the Vetus Ordo on the whole Institute. Although the accusation is completely unfounded, people believed it and our attempts to prove it was false proved futile. This false accusation [GET THAT? “false accusation”] has spread like an oil slick, with various newspapers and news agencies passing it on. This has seriously harmed the good name of the Institute’s founding Father.”

Traditionalist blogs and websites have reacted to this news – and to the decision that prior authorisation will have to be obtained before the Institute can celebrate Mass according to the Old Rite – by saying that these decisions disavow Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio. Do you agree with this interpretation? What can you say about these decisions?

“Fr. Lombardi has clearly stated that the decisions taken regarding our Institute are not a disavowal of the Motu Proprio. However, we are still waiting for an authentic interpretation of the Holy See’s liturgical provisions for our Institute. For example, it is still unclear who exactly the “competent authorities” who will give the aforementioned authorization, are. Will it be the commissioner, the Congregation for Religious, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, the local ordinary, one of these or all of these? We hope this is just a temporary disciplinary provision and that we will soon be given authorisation to celebrate according to the Vetus Ordo also, as we have always done. Without all the current restrictions which – unless a better reason can be given – deprive us of the universal right granted to us in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae.”

Have any members of your Institute played a role in spreading the above interpretation?

“No.”

When you have asked for clarifications regarding some of our articles, you have always stressed that you did not only use the old missal and that all decisions were taken bearing in mind the provisions of the Motu Proprio. Is it true that before the apostolic visit, the “Ecclesia Dei” commission had cautioned the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate to be prudent in their use of the old missal?

“Yes, we tried to be as prudent and discreet as possible in exercising our special right which gives the General Chapter in session “supreme authority in the Institute”, in accordance with the Constitutions (§ 81). The last General Chapter held in 2008, established that the General Council (that is, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli and his five advisors) was to draft a protocol for the Vetus Ordo to be introduced in our communities. This was done in the form of a letter sent on 21 November 2011. The Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” considered this letter carefully, taking account Benedict XVI’s thinking, but this official judgement was not taken into consideration during the developments in our case. We do not understand why and are greatly saddened by this. We entrust our cause to Our Lady Queen of the Seraphic Order.”

Posted in Francis, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill | Tagged FFI, Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Pope Francis, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM
35 Comments

WYD: Holy Communion from disposable plastic cups at Mega-Mass

Posted on 6 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have deep misgivings about mega-Masses. Leaving aside the obvious problem of the effective range of a priest’s consecration, and leaving aside the problem of too many Hosts being consecrated, how can, I muse, Holy Communion be distributed to so many in any way that even slightly resembles “reverent”?

What signal do we send through this experience of Communion?

My solution would be, if Masses like this are necessary (and Popes seem to think they are) that there would be no distribution of Communion beyond the immediate ministers for Mass.

Now that I have that off my chest, here are some photos of distribution of Holy Communion during the last big mega-Mass in Rio during World Youth Day. I picked these up from the Italian blog Messa in latino (more there).

Disposable plastic cups, my friends. That’s what they used for distribution of Holy Communion. Disposable plastic cups.

Really?

A quick poll about this.

In the combox, do NOT make this into a referendum on World Youth Day. That’s not the point here.

UPDATE 7 August:

I received the following by email. I also invited the sender to post it as a comment.

I don’t post comments usually, but as a youth who attended WYD in Rio, I have to say that the event was stereotyped by your blog. I have no doubts that what you said in your blog is true and I understand people’s frustration with Masses that large. However, your blog post does not have an accurate representation of WYD from an individual’s perspective. [? Oh?] In the area where I was, though the Eucharist was not in precious metal as He should be, He instead was held in a ceramic bowl which is better than plastic disposable cups. People waited patiently in line for a long time to receive Holy Communion and a man was holding a sign saying that pilgrims could ONLY receive on the tongue.

People generally knelt to receive Him and no one jostled each other to get in line or be first. So while the majority of people may have been disrespectful, I just wanted to give you a little hope.

Fine. But this doesn’t change the fact of distribution of the Blessed Sacrament from disposable plastic cups.

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged Holy Communion, mega-Masses, WYD
151 Comments

UPDATE on Franciscans Friar of the Immaculate

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is an update about the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. As you know, the Holy See engaged in a “take over” of the group after there was some division over liturgical matters. HERE

At a site of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, HERE.

Here is the first part:

On 02 August 2013, the website vaticaninsider.lastampa.it published an article entitled «Lombardi: “Sulla Messa in latino il Papa non contraddice Ratzinger“» (Lombardi: on the Latin Mass the Pope does not contradict Ratzinger), signed “editorial staff”. [translator’s note: since this Italian article was not published with an English translation, the translations of it are ours.]
This article, after reporting the statements of Fr. Lombardi, who takes the same line we already had, contains calumnious statements against our Founder, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, statements that we feel the duty to reject. In the same article there is also untrue or imprecise information to which we wish to draw attention.
1) In regard to the assignment of a Commissioner for our Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, the anonymous journalist writes (our bold):
“The decision of Pope Bergoglio—against which some traditionalist groups rose up, and which the religious instead immediately accepted—was motivated by the fact that the founder and general superior, Fr. Stefano Manelli, had imposed on all the communities of the Franciscans of the Immaculate the exclusive use of the extraordinary form of the liturgy, i.e., the old rite.”
The phrase we have highlighted in bold does not at all correspond to the truth.
It is our duty to respond, with knowledge and in conscience, that in reality, Fr. Stefano not only has never imposed on all the F.I. communities the use—much less the exclusive use—of the Vetus Ordo, but he does not even want it to become the exclusive use, and he has personally given the example, celebrating everywhere according to the one and the other Ordo.
It is well to know that before, during, and after the Apostolic Visit (July 2012–July 2013), as well as at present, the exclusive orprioritized use of the greater part of the F.F.I. Communities is the Novus Ordo (Holy Mass and Breviary).
Fr. Stefano Manelli, as Minister General, together with his General Council, legitimately undertook an effort to promote the Vetus Ordo, respecting the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007), respecting the decisions of our General Chapter of 2008, and respecting the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011).
With a letter, Prot. 77/2011, dated 21 Nov 2011, our General Secretary, in the name of our General Council, sent all the F.F.I. Marian Houses (Friaries), some indicative (not preceptive!) norms regarding the use of the Vetus Ordo and the harmony between the Vetus Ordo and the Novus Ordo in our Communities and our Institute.
After this letter, various communities peacefully continued to give pride of place to the Vetus or the Novus Ordo. So there was no imposition on the part of Fr. Manelli.
Some Friars, however, contested the aforesaid letter. Therefore, we consulted the Pontificial Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, which with a R e s c r i p t of 14 Apr 2012, Prot. 39/2011L, found conformity between this letter (Prot. 77/2011) and the “mens” of Holy Father Benedict XVI, expressed in the already-mentioned Instruction Universae Ecclesiae, n° 8a.

And there is this from Mary Victrix:

Having learned of the online petition organized by the website of the Association “Corrispondenza Romana” in order to gather signatures to be presented to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life against the Decree of 11 July 2013 (Prot. 52741/2012), after having already expressed its position several times and after having released the official communication of its Father Founder, the Religious Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate REAFFIRMS its obedience to the dispositions of the Holy Father, DECLARES that it will have NOTHING TO DO with the initiative of the aforesaid website or any like initiative, past or future, REJECTS any attempt to use a matter internal to the Institute to attack the Pope and the Catholic Hierarchy, and APPEALS TO ALL to maintain SILENCE, RESPECT AND PRAYER regarding the matter, in order to allow the competent authorities to carry out their task in peace for the good of the Church and of the Institute.

In Corde Matris
Fr. Rosario M. Sammarco, fi
Encharged of the Institutional Website of the Franciscans Friars of the Immaculate

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Benedict XVI, Francis, Linking Back | Tagged Fr. Stefano Manelli, Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, PCED, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, Vetus Ordo
27 Comments

Catastrophically large solar flare narrowly missed the Earth two weeks ago

Posted on 5 August 2013 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In 1859 the Earth was struck by a massive solar storm called the Carrington Event. Life was not affected much at that time, because so little used electricity. Were such a storm to strike the Earth now, however, most if not all non-hardened or protected electronic devices would be fried. The globe would be plunged into the 19th century again, with catastrophic results for most of the the world’s population.

I saw this story in the Washington Examiner:

Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided
BY PAUL BEDARD

The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an “electromagnetic pulse” so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth’s typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

“The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,” said Henry Cooper, who led strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

“There had been a near miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

“Basically this is a Russian roulette thing,” added Pry. “We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster.”

Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation’s electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy’s nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation “for a long time.”

But Washington is giving them the cold shoulder, especially the administration. [Would that be the Obama Administration? Of course! A Carrington Event would be best thing that could ever happen for them!] Woolsey told Secrets that some in Congress are interested in the issue, but the administration is just in the “beginnings” of paying attention.

Woolsey said that Air Force One and aircraft used by the Strategic Air Command to control nuclear-tipped missiles are hardened against an EMP.

The EMP effect is not rare. One occurred in Canada in 1989, knocking out Quebec’s electric transmission system. And North Korea is reportedly testing a device to attack the U.S. with an EMP attack.

The trio appeared at an event in Washington this week, but Pry said getting the nation’s leaders interested in the issue is difficult and educating the public about EMP hard too. “The education curve isn’t going up fast enough,” he said.

At the event, Cooper suggested that North Korea might already have the capability to launch an EMP against the United States. He said in December, North Korea tested its so-called Space Launch Vehicle which could deliver a stealthy nuclear attack on the United States by orbiting a nuclear weapon over the South Pole where the U.S. has no radar or missile interceptors facing south. North Korea, he said, apparently orbited a satellite over the south polar region on a trajectory and altitude consistent with making a surprise nuclear EMP attack against the United States.

Woolsey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are the honorary co-chairs of a new EMP Coalition pushing for protections to the electric grid, national security, and civilian infrastructures.