Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

CQ CQ CQ #HamRadio Saturday: Summer Field Day – UPDATED

Posted on 25 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It is Field Day today. Alas, I am not out there. I my try to get out to my usual outdoor spot, the cemetery on the hill above the parish. It is really high and the denizens don’t mind. And it is lovely. Also, last fall I left a 40 dipole strung up in the trees. It should still be there and in good shape.

Because I had to move from the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue to the Cupboard Under the Stairs, I don’t have a place for my rig or, rather importantly, an antenna. I haven’t figured out a work around yet.

I am doubly frustrated right now, because I had intended to take the Extra exam this month. It simply didn’t work out. I have been in the wrong place and the right time, or the right place at the wrong time. Therefore, no joy.

Never give up! Never surrender!

I’ll get it done this summer.

Anyway, I wish my fellow hams, especially clerical hams, a successful Field Day!

If you are involved with Field Day, send some photos!

I created a page for the List of YOUR callsigns. HERE Chime in or drop me a note if your call doesn’t appear in the list.

UPDATE:

So here’s what happened next.

I had asked my local Elmer to shake the tree a little to see if any VEs could administer an exam before the end of the month. He made some calls and subsequently assured me that it would be pretty hard to pull off. For that reason I was a bit bummed.

Then, lo and behold, I had a phone call – actually VM – from a local VE. I returned the call today and reached her as she was involved in … wait for it … Field Day. It happened that that the place where they were set up was lousy with VEs! She asked around and we set up an appointment for my exam for Thursday.

I was so inspired that I got my radio and other stuff out of storage, went to the parish cemetery – where the aforementioned dipole is strung up – and made some contacts. At first I seemed not to be getting through the chaos, so I swapped cables and – BAMMO – I got some contacts before I shut down.

I also had a lovely Oriole come to visit, too. That was a bonus, since now I can’t have feeders.

Alas… with my phone alone:

But wait! The inspiration continued.

I decided that I would find the hams who were holding their Field Day. Using the interwebs I deciphered their location and off I went. Eureka.

Since I had never seen any sort of Field Day set up, I was pretty impressed.

They had several antenna up, of course. One is an end feed wire antenna that several hams were using simultaneously through a multiplexer.

Yes, friends, hams get to use bad-ass words like multiplexer.

I met the VEs who will meet at my place on Thursday to put me to the test. Nice people.

Therefore, I feel like I am back into it again, after a forced hiatus.

Meanwhile, after the good fortune of the day, and after having earlier written what I wrote, I may just dub my radio The Omega 13.

Posted in Ham Radio | Tagged CQ, Field Day, Ham radio, Never give up! Never Surrender!
12 Comments

A priest’s plea: “Please, Holy Father: Enough”

Posted on 25 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friend Msgr. Charles Pope has a piece at the National Catholic Register which echoes what I have heard and read from many priests. He is as vexed as many priests about some off-the-cuff remarks made by His Holiness the Pope about priests. Francis seems to have an extremely dim view of priests. He constantly talks about them in a derogatory way.

In the same occasion when he made off the cuff remarks about the “majority” of marriages being invalid – which the Press Office attempted to walk back after the fact – the Holy Father said that priests should not be “putting our noses into the moral life of other people.” This is, of course, inconsistent with exactly what priest ought to do, must do if they are to help people avoid hell get to heaven!

Read the whole thing there, but this is Msgr. Pope’s peroration:

Thus even the “spun” remarks are unhelpful at best and divisive at worst. His emphasis:

Please, Holy Father: Enough of these ad hoc, off-the-cuff, impromptu sessions, whether at thirty thousand feet or at ground level. Much harm through confusion has been caused by these latest remarks on marriage, cohabitation, baptism, confession, and pastoral practice. Simply cleaning the record in the official transcript is not enough; this is an era of instant reportage and lots of recording devices, tweets, and Instagrams.

Just this priest’s perspective. But I can assure you, dear reader, that the impact hits priests hard, and I cannot deny a certain weariness and discouragement at this point. I realize that such remarks of the Pope are not doctrinal, but just try and tell that to gleeful dissenters and the morally confused or misled in this world.

Let us pray for our Holy Father and for the universal Church.

I also want to direct the readership’s attention back to a post about the initiative of another priest friend, Fr. Byers. HERE He asks that people pray for His Holiness in a coordinated way to protect him from diabolical attacks.

May I add a request that you pray for priests? Especially for the priests you know? Especially for me?

Posted in Cri de Coeur, Francis, Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged Fr. George Byers, Msgr. Charles Pope
21 Comments

A black hole shreds a star

Posted on 25 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

[1] Unto the end, for the presses [gittith]: a psalm of David. [2] O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens. [3] Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger. [4] For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. [5] What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? [6] Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: [7] And hast set him over the works of thy hands. [8] Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields. [9] The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea. [10] O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!

Scientists observe huge black hole shred a star, emit x-rays

They’re known as tidal disruption events: when a black hole consumes a nearby star.

And now, scientists have observed a dramatic tidal disruption event in a galaxy nearly 4 billion light years away, involving a black hole that’s approximately a million times as massive as our sun. The matter that this supermassive black hole swallowed created what’s called an accretion disk around the black hole.

The supermassive black hole, called Swift J1644+57, was dormant— as 90 percent of black holes are— until it sucked in the star, shredding it. That event allowed scientists to observe the black hole.

“Tidal disruption events offer us this rare view at the most common kind of supermassive black hole in the universe— these so-called dormant supermassive black holes,” Erin Kara, a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland, said in a video explaining the discovery. “Tidal disruption events, where the stellar debris causes the formation of a temporary accretion disk, offers us a way to probe this population of supermassive black holes.”

What’s more, that accretion disk amplified x-ray flares— and the location of where those x-rays are coming was surprising.

“Previously, astronomers had thought that the x-ray emission is coming from far out in a jet,” Kara said. “But what we’re finding with these observations, is that the x-ray emission is coming from flares very close to the supermassive black hole. And we can use these observations to probe properties of the black hole itself.”

“For instance, we found that the mass of the black hole is something on the order of a million times the mass of the sun,” she added.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged black holes
2 Comments

New Star Trek series for TV in 2017

Posted on 24 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Who knew about this? I didn’t.

This seems symptomatic of a lot of screen entertainment these days: revivals and sequels, not much that is wholly new. I suppose the flicks are so expensive to produce now that they don’t want to risk a flop; they pick something that had previous success.

I suspect that instead of less-than emotional Vulcans or androids, they’ll fill the gaps with “gays”. No… wait… “gay” (I detest the twisting of that word) is running its course now. They’re boring (or Islamic terrorists).

They’ll be transgender! Or transspecies! No, transspecies was pretty much what all the non-Earthlings were, right? It’ll have to be trans.

Moreover, since networks now produce shows with the intent of changing societal mores, this series will have to have an aberrant character that helps to push the envelope. The other day I was talking to a friend who actually forces himself to follow TV for the sake of watching how it has been used to twist morals and minds. He has even watched shows like Modern Family and New Normal… blech.. and now Transparent. He said that he had tuned into an old episode of Will and Grace. Even he was surprised how far and how quickly things have been twisted. What was edgy and awful just a few years ago, after the constant onslaught, seems pretty tame now. He added that it is as if they – the show-makers – mapped out a plan ahead of time and then patiently executed it over decades to move society to where we are now.

So now is “space the final frontier”? Gender-morphing atheists hurtling around in really cool looking ships fighting lizard-guys/gals/questioning! And at least one of the enemies will be religious in some way.

Still, bad, social-reengineering Star Trek might be better than no Star Trek.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged Star Trek
31 Comments

An imaginary dialogue of US nuns and Vatican officials

Posted on 24 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As the number of leaders of groups of US women religious being summoned to Rome has been growing, an expert on the status quaesitionis of the same US groups, Ann Carey, offers some insights in the form of a dialogue. You all will want to see her book Sisters in Crisis (UK HERE).

At CWR. Here is the first part:

The Dispatch: More from CWR

Vatican and American Sisters in Conversation: A Creative Summary

This is an imaginary yet likely conversation between Vatican officials and the leader of one of the several religious orders who recently have been summoned to Rome to discuss “areas of concern” coming out of the Apostolic Visitation of United States Women Religious conducted by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life CICLSAL).

The Sisters of Justice and Peace (JP) are an imaginary religious order, but all the positions voiced by its leadership in this conversation are approximations of actual statements or writings by U.S. women religious in recent years.

Vatican: Welcome, Sister Mary. We appreciate you coming for this serene conversation.

Sister Mary, JP: We always are happy to cooperate with requests from CICLSAL and to be in dialogue with our brother bishops. [“brother bishops”… remember: Magisterium of Nuns] And we welcome the opportunity to tell you about the mission and commitment of our order.

Vatican: Oh yes, we have heard many wonderful things about your order and all the good works your sisters are doing. That is why it is difficult for us to believe reports that some of your members have publicly dissented from church teachings by supporting “gay marriage,” promoting access to abortion, and directly countering the U.S. Bishops’ efforts to protect conscience rights. Surely, this is not true, is it?

Sister Mary, JP: Well, the hierarchy often interprets things as dissent that really aren’t dissent, you see. What these sisters are doing is standing in solidarity with oppressed and marginalized people, a Gospel value that we embrace. When the church does not understand the necessity for women to be able to control their own bodies, some sisters feel called to support these women. And when the church calls illicit the genuine love between two sincere people, some sisters feel they must work for the rights of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. As for so-called conscience rights, some sisters feel that the right of poor people to receive the full range of reproductive services outweighs the right of others to object to such services.

Vatican: Well, your empathy with marginalized people is certainly laudable, and we share your concern for them. , but how can your sisters support behavior that clearly is immoral?

Sister Mary, JP: Since women are marginalized and face injustice within the church and are not given positions of power and authority in the church, we feel especially empowered to raise our voices against injustice and to continue to fight for systemic change on behalf of all oppressed peoples.

Vatican: My apologies for our confusion, but have you told these sisters that under their vow of obedience, they must cease this activity?

Sister Mary, JP: Oh, goodness, no. As a Gospel-based faith community, we believe we must not stifle our members’ freedom of conscience, for they are adult women who claim and embrace the right to make their own moral decisions. Besides, we Americans have a different view of the vow of obedience than do those of you sequestered in the Vatican. For us, obedience is discerning well and then responding to the Spirit.

Vatican: How then, do you perceive a sister’s obligation to her vows of poverty and chastity?

Sister Mary, JP: Poverty can mean many things to us, including making oneself available to other people, engaging in dialogue, working for redistribution of wealth, caring for the earth, and divesting our order’s institutes, buildings and properties. Chastity means for us to be in right relationships with people.

Vatican (growing less serene): We see. These are certainly very creative and innovative interpretations of the vows. Could you help us understand how your order implements the spiritual and community life of your congregation, for we are having trouble comprehending how your way of life resonates with the Church’s definition of apostolic religious life.

Sister Mary, JP: Well, we believe there are different understandings of religious life: The European understanding, the hierarchal understanding and the understanding that U.S. sisters have evolved. In fact, we U.S. sisters are constantly birthing new forms of religious life, and our order is on the cutting edge of this prophetic vision. After all, your congregation approved our constitutions.

Vatican: Oh, yes, we were very happy to approve the language of your constitutions. But we are confused by reports from some sisters in your order that your actual manner of living religious life does not conform to what your constitutions say.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Fr. Z kudos to Ann Carey.

Posted in Women Religious | Tagged Ann Carey, LCWR, magisterium of nuns, women religious
8 Comments

Pope Francis’ ‘Armeniam Visit” [sic]

Posted on 24 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When world leaders visit each other, they generally exchange gifts. Sometimes they get the spelling right, too.

At least in photo given to reporters, #PopeFrancis gift to prez has typo. (Been there done that.) “Armeniam” pic.twitter.com/07l834e0BI

— Cindy Wooden (@Cindy_Wooden) June 24, 2016

Let’s just say that some of the mandarins in the Curia are not so great with the modern lingua franca, the language that dominates the world, the single modern foreign language one must know in addition to one’s native tongue … and Latin.

Latin…? Wait a just a cotton pickin’ minute!

Visit could be 3rd singular perfect indicative active of viso, visi, visum, “to look at attentively, to view, behold, survey”, or, “to go or come in order to look at, to see to, look after; constr. with acc., a rel.-clause, or ad”.

So, ARMENIAM VISIT could be Latin for “He came to see/visit Armenia”.

If it’s Latin, that is. The date on the medal seems to be Latin. Otherwise, it’s just wrong.

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged Armenia
10 Comments

A Litany to Sr. Joan Chittister (… no… really!)

Posted on 24 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

You’ve seen the recent stories about leaders of US women religious being summoned to Rome for to explain the situation.

On the heals of another such story today (HERE) comes this, which I spotted at Church Militant.

Apparently the US weird sisters are now praying TO – not for – our old pal Sr. Joan D. Chittister, O.S.B. Perhaps it was her Triumph in Tahir Square that put them over the edge. Or could it have been the Zoom to Zuccotti Park?

The Self-absorbed Promethean Neopelagians of Sr. Joan’s community thinks very highly of her, it seems.

[…]

But this “Vortex” isn’t really about her directly; it’s about something that was sent in to us about the group of women religious — the Benedictine community in Erie, Pennsylvania of which she has been prioress — that — are you sitting down? — actually composed a prayer to Sr. Joan.

Not for Sr. Joan, not about Sr. Joan — but to her.

We have the whole text available down below, but here’s a sample: “Joan, a life ablaze, an illuminated life, a heart of flesh, who made the great lights, sun and moon for God’s steadfast love endures forever.”

Or how about this one?” Joan, a high spiritual season, a gift of years, a wind of change, by understanding made the heavens for God’s steadfast love endures forever.”

In other parts, she is credited for and prayed to for leading the people through the wilderness, for being a living liturgy, for spreading out the earth on the waters — which, when you stop to think about it, is really small potatoes if she made the sun and the moon. I mean, c’mon. If you can make the sun and the moon, what’s especially praiseworthy about spreading the earth upon the waters?

This prayer is used communally, as can easily be seen on the sheet asking for “participants” to respond. It is a reworking (a bastardization is more like it) of Psalm 136, renamed as a “litany” to Joan.

We aren’t making this stuff up, folks. Honest to Heavens, it’s right there. We’ve attached it down below, gotten straight from the New Age foundry, er, I mean, convent.

The prayer is HERE. WARNING – Put down your Mystic Monk coffee.

You can’t make this stuff up.

That reminds me… I have to get my application in again to attend the LCWR annual meeting.

Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare, Self-absorbed Promethean Neopelagians, Women Religious, You must be joking! | Tagged Joan Chittister, LCWR, women religious
28 Comments

More US women religious summoned to Rome: Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet

Posted on 24 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The leaders of the Sisters of Loreto were called to Rome to talk about issues of doctrine and morals.

Then the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were called.

Now I read at panicky Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are next.

A copy of the subsequent letter sent by leadership to Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sisters was obtained by Global Sisters Report. It says that all CSJ Province Leadership Teams received the same letter from CICLSAL and quotes from it on five matters “voicing the following concerns“:

• Your desire to help bring about an ’emerging new form of religious life’;

• Your Congregation’s policy regarding members of the community who are known to hold positions of dissent from the Church’s moral teaching or approved liturgical practice;

• We also urge you to evaluate your efforts to promote ‘communion with creation‘, especially in light of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si, a comprehensive presentation on the responsible care of creation, in view of integrating its principles enunciated in the encyclical into your current efforts in this area. [I think this means that they should stop venerating the earth mother goddess.]

The congregation’s statement said the letter was presented as a follow-up to the on-site visit to the order in St. Paul, Minnesota, in late 2010. The congregation’s leadership team discussed whether to accept or decline the summons, but decided the “benefits outweigh the challenges of expense and some inconvenience.” [Uh huh… go ahead and pretend that you are the mistresses of your fate.]

I’m from St. Paul and Minneapolis. They are really strange.

Posted in Women Religious | Tagged Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, women religious
14 Comments

BREXIT!

Posted on 23 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

____

I’m watching the results of BREXIT. So far London is still not counted, but right now it is looking like OUT will win.

The Pound is getting slammed. Today it started at $1.50.

Whew…

The bookies are now saying 94% OUT.

I’m making popcorn.

UPDATE:

I think I’ll go see the new Independence Day movie tomorrow/today. After all, we fought a war so that we wouldn’t be … you know… Canadian.

We will now see the EU unravel. I wish this could happen to the UN.

UPDATE:

ITV, BBC, SKY have predicted OUT will triumph.

UPDATE:

When the DOW opens in about 9 hours it will open down over 700, as of this writing. Oil is down. Gold is soaring. The Euro and GBP are dying. Asian markets are way down.

UPDATE:

Breitbart: U.K. Declares Independence from E.U. Globalist Elite

UPDATE:

And now that BREXIT is EXIT, comes FREXIT. Marine Le Pen is calling for a referendum in France. HERE

UPDATE:

We are all hanging out waiting for a reaction from 10 Downing Street.

UPDATE:

And Il tempo: Salvini – “Ora tocca a noi!”

UPDATE:

I am sure you were wondering how Gibraltar voted…. Remain: 19,322 IN 823 OUT.

UPDATE 24 June:

From my text messages…

“Slogan of the Day: Last country out of EU gets Greece!”

UPDATE:

Remember… The Wyoming Mystic Monks also have TEA. TEA… get it?

Posted in The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged BREXIT. UK, EU
37 Comments

ASK FATHER: Can a Catholic help children with dyslexia through a Masonic organization?

Posted on 23 June 2016 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest…

QUAERITUR:

I have a parishioner who wants to help children with dyslexia and has found an opportunity with the Children’s Dyslexia Center in ___.

It is affiliated with the Scottish Rite Freemasons. My parishioner wants to know if he, a Catholic, is permitted to affiliate with Freemasonry in this way. He’s not joining them, but I am uncertain on how I should guide him. Please help.

Catholics cannot be Freemasons. Period.

Freemasonry is not just an organization of civic minded gentlemen (and ladies, these days) who wear cute outfits and do nice things for the community.

While many Freemason groups (especially in North America) do indeed do good things for the community, the organization as a whole is ordered against orthodox Christian belief, and against the Catholic Church in particular. Freemasonry in it’s most serious form is an enemy of the Catholic Church.

Now many good and reasonable non-Catholic folks join the Freemasons without ascribing to (or even understanding) the profoundly anti-Christian, anti-Catholic basis of Freemasonry itself. They remain good people, with generally good hearts.

In many places in North America, where Freemasonry doesn’t usually manifest in its more virulent forms (as it does in Europe), the Masons do many laudable things, things that might even cause a Catholic to wish to support.

Catholics, while forbidden to join the Freemasons, are not forbidden by Church law to associate with Freemasons. One may have Freemason neighbors. One may invite them to dinner and go over to their houses for dinner. If the Freemasons are helping to build a neighbor’s barn, one may even cooperate closely by handing the mason nails, holding up a post, or providing delicious lemonade to the thirsty mason builders. Prudence is needed.

There are many hospitals and other care facilities, as well as schools and educational institutions founded and operated by Freemasons. The “Shriners” are a type of Freemasonry. They have excellent children’s hospitals. That said, all things being equal, if there are also available a similar Catholic facilities, a Catholic should be inclined to support “our own”. Right?

That not being the case in this situation, one can – prudently – work with the Freemasons on a good work, such as assisting children with dyslexia.

The intention is to help children, not to help Masonry.

It is good, before doing so, that this person has consulted his pastor. I encourage that conversation to continue. If, while working for the Freemasonic charity, there begins to be evidence of pressure to join the Masons, or any dastardly events, one’s cooperation with the Freemasons should be reconsidered. It would be a good idea constantly to review the content of the Faith by using a good catechism in order to instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish the sinner, etc. Prudence is needed.

Wearing a scapular, a Miraculous Medal, or St. Benedict Medal whilst engaged in work with the Masons would also be a good idea.