Olympics Day 4-5: Fired Up

Posted on 10 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last night, having avoided all Olympic news during the day, I summoned from the genie cave of my DVR the videos of the events.   I watched, of course, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky win gold medals.  He was pretty fired up after the 200m butterfly.

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I also watched the gymnastics gals from these USA crush the opposition.

Today I’ve enjoyed a little Rugby, which I’m still working on grasping.  There are a few fine points of turn overs that I don’t quite get.

I also saw the nail biting defeat of the US men’s team by Italy in Volleyball.

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There was more women’s sabre today.  The field is getting culled.

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The really interesting winner today was Fehaid Al-Deehani of the Independent Olympic Athletes team “refugees” who marched in under the Olympic flag.  6th time in the Olympics for him.  He is an officer in the Kuwaiti military.  Kuwait was suspended from the Olympics for some reason.  He refused to carry the Olympic flag, because he is an officer.  He picked up shooting from his sister, who was a world-level competitor.  My experience is that women are often better shots than men, depending on the type of shooting.  They can keep very still and they often don’t have the same sort of ego in it.

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He bested Italy’s Marco Innocenti in the double trap final to win the first gold medal for the IOC team.   The double trap shooting is incredibly fast.  I’ve done some trap and it’s tough enough with one, but two so quickly is amazing.

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Your Good News

Posted on 10 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have good news to share with the readership?

Let us know.

For my part, I addressed seminarians of the diocese this morning.  They spend a week plus each summer together and with the bishop.  In the past, as this summer, you readers have supplied them with books and birettas.  Thanks!

The vocation direction was asked me to talk about priesthood and Eucharist.  I spoke about the priest as pardoned sinner and as simultaneously priest, who offers sacrifice, and victim who is sacrificed.

Then, for lunch, we had food from Chick-fil-a!

It was a good morning.

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LESBIANS! UNITE AGAINST OPPRESSION!

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This entry has a convoluted origin, but here goes…

I saw a story at Stream about a lesbian couple who are suing New Jersey, which is oppressing them.  Get this…

Erin and Marianne Krupa, a lesbian couple struggling to get pregnant due to infertility, [first of all… a “couple” getting pregnant is goofy, but a couple of women?] are suing the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, reportsThe New York Times. The couple’s lawsuit alleges the healthcare mandate is discriminating against their sexual orientation.  [They want to have the fertility treatments paid for by someone else.]

Erin, the one who is going to carry the child, was determined to be infertile after a doctor diagnosed her with benign cysts on her uterus and Stage 3 endometriosis. The couple’s healthcare provider, Horizon Blue Cross Shield, said that it would not provide coverage for Erin’s fertility treatments. They referred to a state insurance mandate that said that most women under 35 have to prove they are infertile by having unprotected sex for two years.  [The State of NJ is oppressing them!]

The couple, along with two other women, are suing the commissioner because they say the mandate is discriminating against them.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that because the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges[abomination] that the 14th Amendment guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry, [wait for it…] it also protects their right to reproduce.  [They have a RIGHT!]

[…]

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs ask for damages associated with having to pay for their own fertility treatments

Obergefell v. Hodges, ladies and gentlemen… and other or … both.  The gift that keeps on giving.

I saw that Rod Dreher also wrote about this sob-provoking, state oppression of poor infertile lesbians.  HERE

Then someone in my email inbox reminded me of this, from the really funny (but sometimes blasphemous) Monty Python movie Life of Brian. Stan wants to be a women!  Transcript below if you have a hard time getting it all.

Play video

JUDITH: I do feel, Reg, that any Anti-Imperialist group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power-base.
REG: Agreed. Francis?
FRANCIS: Yeah. I think Judith’s point of view is very valid, Reg, provided the Movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man–
STAN: Or woman.
FRANCIS: Or woman… to rid himself–
STAN: Or herself.
FRANCIS: Or herself.
REG: Agreed.
FRANCIS: Thank you, brother.
STAN: Or sister.
FRANCIS: Or sister. Where was I?
REG: I think you’d finished.
FRANCIS: Oh. Right.
REG: Furthermore, it is the birthright of every man–
STAN: Or woman.
REG: Why don’t you shut up about women, Stan. You’re putting us off.
STAN: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me ‘Loretta’.
REG: What?!
LORETTA: It’s my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But… you can’t have babies.
LORETTA: Don’t you oppress me.
REG: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb! Where’s the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: crying
JUDITH: Here! I– I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans’, but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What’s the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can’t have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.

Posted in Pò sì jiù, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Throwing a Nutty, You must be joking! | Tagged ,
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Why Fr. Z harasses you to GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

You are going along… doodee doodee dooo… and you glimpse something in the corner of y-

BAM!

Watch to the end.  It is short.

Play video

These people had a close call.  It could have gone otherwise.

Friends, examine your consciences daily and go to confession regularly.

We are going to get God’s justice whether we want it or not.  But, while we are still alive, His mercy is for the asking.

You do not know at what moment you may be called by the Lord, the Just Judge, the King of Fearful Majesty, to account for your life.

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Linking Back | Tagged ,
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Desecrated church reconcilied in Missouri

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There are sacred places, things and persons.  Mistreatment of a sacred place, thing or person is the sin of sacrilege.

By blessings and consecrations, places, things and persons are taken from the secular, temporal, profane realm and given to the sacred.

Sometimes sacred places, such as churches or cemeteries, are mistreated to the point of being desecrated.   These churches must then be put back into sacred order before they can be used again.  As we read in the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church:

Can. 1211 Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books.

In the older, traditional way of doing things, a church or cemetery could be “reconciled” after profanation by a bishop or a priest with (at least) presumed permission.  You can see the traditional rite HERE.  I especially like this prayer:

Almighty and merciful God, who conferred on your priests above all others this great grace, that whatever they do worthily and exactly in your name, is regarded as being done by you; we pray that in your kindness you may be present wherever we are present and may bless + whatever we bless. And at our lowly coming, through the merits of your saints, may demons flee and the angel of peace be at hand; through Christ our Lord.

I just read a story of the “reconciliation” of a desecrated church in Missouri.  HERE  The Bishop of Jefferson City, Most Rev. John R. Gaydos, carried out the rite.

“Christ restored completely what Satan had taken from us,” Fr. Peckman, pastor of St. Clement Parish, said. “It was as if the sun was breaking over the horizon to let us know that the Light of Christ conquers the darkest sorrow the devil can inflict.”

The Devil hates sacred places, things and persons.  His agents will attack them constantly.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged , ,
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Olympics Day 2-3: Maxed

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have my DVR recording multiple channels so that I can pick and choose which things to watch without commercials and skipping the sports that don’t interest me.  The DVR/TV system is so maxed out that I can’t change channels!  It gives me a message that I have to stop recording something before I can switch.  I also have events streaming to one of my monitors and on my laptop.

Over the last couple days, …

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I did, however, watch the live Trump economic speech in Detroit.  That’s a kind of sport… isn’t it?

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The trap shooting events have a few police officers competing, two, I think from Italy and a woman from London… if I understood the commentary correctly.  Meanwhile, these gals hit targets that are no bigger than a pencil point.
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The sabre competition is always great.  I was into this for some time.  Very fast.

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Right now, men’s rugby!  I didn’t bother with the women’s rugby.

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“Gather Us In” made (almost) acceptable!

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When life gives you challenges like lemons, make lemonade.  Right?

When liturgists give you dreck like “Gather Us In”, make… toccatas.

Play video

Remember: The Second Vatican Council gives pride of place to the pipe organ over all other instruments.

Fr. Z kudos to the organist, Don VerKuilen.

Posted in Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged
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Proponents of deaconettes use “dialogue” as a distraction

Posted on 8 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At the fine Crisis there is a good analysis piece which looks into what the pro-women’s ordination crowd do to push their agenda: dialogue.

I think we’ve all seen how this works: libs demand something – authority says “No” – they violate the law and keep demanding dialogue – authority says “No” – the violations of law continue and they keep badgering about dialogue – authority listens and then says “No” – libs demand more dialogue – and so on and so on and, in many cases, authority caves in enough to keep the defiance and hectoring demands going.

Now to the Crisis piece with my legendary emphases and comments:

When Dialogue is a Distraction
NICHOLAS SENZ

[…]

But dialogue is not itself the goal, for history shows us, in faith and in politics, that those of A Certain Mindset use dialogue as a diversion. It generally happens this way: they want some new action to be taken or position to be adopted, so they repeatedly call for dialogue, openness, “continuing the conversation.” Then they push for a power play—a Supreme Court decision or papal decree—which decides the question apart from and outside of the “dialogue” that had been granted. When objections are raised, those of A Certain Mindset declare the matter closed and decided, forever and in perpetuity: settled law, stare decisis, Roma locuta est, and so on. Suddenly, the relativist hardens into the dogmatist.

Those of A Certain Mindset do not truly want dialogue; they want a distraction while they work to achieve their ends. It’s not about seeking the truth, but grasping power and effecting their will. That’s why an article in the National Catholic Reporter[aka Fishwrap aka National Schismatic Reporter] recently called for Pope Francis to issue decrees solidifying his reforms (not sure which, exactly—how many has he truly made, rather than those people think he wants?) lest a future pope attempt to roll them back. They want the matter closed. (Nevermind that no pope could bind a future pope via legislation, since the pope by virtue of his office is the supreme legislator of the Church.) These same often decry alleged legalism and Pharisaism, but are happy to employ it when it suits their ends. [Scratch a liberal and find a Nazi underneath.]

It is disingenuous, akin to the calls for tolerance that result in tolerance only for certain positions—a phenomenon we have seen all too often in recent years, and for which examples abound. This is not a call to Socratic dialogue, a search for wisdom on a deep (and unresolved) question. This is a lawyer continuing to say “Objection!” when the judge has already ruled on the point.

To the original example: [NB] it does not appear that Pope Francis wishes to introduce ordained female deacons into the Church. He stated that reports to that effect angered him, because they did not reflect his words or intentions, and he has stated categorically that female ordination is a closed matter. (A cursory glance at reportage on the commission will find the same phenomenon, encouraged by the usual suspects in the Catholic commentariat.) [Zig and Zag through their nutty commentary and you’l see quickly who those usual suspects are.] Yet the adherents to the cult of perpetual dialogue see no matter as closed—until they declare it so.

Well done.

Posted in Liberals, Pò sì jiù | Tagged ,
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In honor of St. Dominic…

Posted on 8 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In the Ordinary Form calendar today is the Feast of St. Dominic.  You might check out the site of the wonderful Summit Dominicans, the great “Soap Sisters” in New Jersey.  I think that, today, they have some things on sale in their online shop today, in honor of their great founder, who took care of business with the Albigensians.

HERE

The sisters need to build.  They are crammed into convent that is too small for the numbers of women who would like to join them.  Give them all the support you can!

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 7 August 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point or two in the sermon at the Sunday Obligation Mass you heard?

Let us know.

For my part, I reflected on the Olympic motto citius, altius, fortius and its implications for the Christian life.

After Mass I was privileged to meet some folks from Idaho, who brought me a jar of sour cherry preserves and a QSO card!  I blessed some rosaries for them.

Thanks and 73!

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