Fr. Z's Blog

I slept in this morning, so I was not aware of the sunrise at 07:24.  I will surely see the sunset at 17:22.

I won’t hear the Ave Maria Bell, which should ring at 17:45 in this cycle. It changed.

However, The Parish™ is – I think – ringing it at the precise time for the Ave Maria, rather than at a fixed time in a cycle.  I should be there in the evening and I will listen for it.

Yesterday I went to visit St. Philip Neri, to thank him for his intercession and favors and to ask for a few more things.

A dim Chiesa Nuova in the late afternoon.  The decorative drapery is up.

The chess guys were out, bundled up, but playing and vigorously kibbitzing.  When I walked up they were just beginning what turned into a QDA, which is a little odd.  The black player got into trouble trying to defend his pawn, right on schedule.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

BTW… if you like the photos, thank long-time reader DM who provided the upgraded phone last year.  Thanks DM.

I don’t know what this is, but my first thought was… I’d rather not write it.

Please put on a cassock, learn to genuflect for Jesus Christ, and put down the microphone.

We are Catholic!
pic.twitter.com/e5w5m5w9KY

— Dr Taylor Marshall™? (@TaylorRMarshall) January 27, 2025

UPDATE: Apparently the emeritus of Washington was there. THAT figures. Studied liturgy in Rome at the worst place at the worst time. Couple that with nearly limitless power and no accountability and you get this sort of B as in B, S as in S. I don’t want to be rash, but I suspect the poor guys (maybe seminarians?) dragooned into this wished they were elsewhere. They are free to write to tell me, “Hell, yeah! I loved that! It was grooooovy!” But in Washington, seminarians have been “dragooned” in the past.

There were once men…

#OTD in 1967, a fire during a launch rehearsal for Apollo 1 killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. During an official portrait session prior to the rehearsal, NASA took this photo of the crew praying over a miniature of their command module. The crew had… pic.twitter.com/3Ofmk7NkTv

— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) January 27, 2025

Card. Pell, pray for us!

Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter above the Sydney Opera House pic.twitter.com/JpnioCjgyK

— Space 8K (@uhd2020) January 27, 2025

This is interesting from Larry Chapp with Mat Fradd. He touches on the hyper-papalism of the papalatrous and also Taurina cacata.

Meanwhile, the great Card. Zen asked a good question:

Does it make sense to have a mascot for the Jubilee? Or would it not have been better to choose a Patron Saint?

(This short article was intended for my blog which is mainly in Chinese, but, for fear that zealous people will make some less faithful translation, as has often… pic.twitter.com/60ZVI1JqU1

— Joseph Zen (@CardJosephZen) January 28, 2025

In chessy news…

White to move and mate in 3.

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

From chess.com:

German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, the head of Freestyle Chess, has fired back at the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE) threats of legal action, labeling it “blackmail,” and alleging that FIDE demanded $500,000 for the rights to use the world championship title. He says he’s ready to take the case to court.

The conflict between FIDE and Freestyle Chess, which has five high-level Chess960/Fischer-Random tournaments scheduled in 2025, is heating up. On Tuesday, the chess world governing body released a statement threatening legal action if the tour planned to crown a ‘world champion’ without FIDE’s approval.

The Roman day with sunlight began at 07:25 which will significantly dwindle after 17:21.

Our Ave Maria Bell: still in the 17:30 cycle, according to this calendar.

I think it should have changed today to 17:45.   We will check this tomorrow.

Being up with the sun has some benefits.   The walk to church and the still drowsy Piazza Farnese.

Here is an “Ivy Report”.   You might remember them from past visits.  This is the same spot as before.   And it is really a “creeper” rather than an “ivy”.  Or so I am told.

Breakfast. I’ve been eating more protein in the mornings, but you have to have a cornetto in Rome once in a while.

In the “You Had ONE Job!” Report.   Internet installation took another step forward.  I received a text to confirm that I wanted an technician appointment.  CLICK.  Someone is supposed to come on Thursday morning.   Keep your fingers crossed and ask St. Isidore to smooth things down.

This is pretty crazy…

How can this be real? https://t.co/n5V4TZQo8q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2025

In churchy news….

VP Vance is not impressed with the US Bishops regarding immigration. HERE

Neither is this guy in Austin, TX. HERE Blistering.

Catholic Charities Coaching Illegals on How to Evade Immigration Authorities?
HERE

In chessy news…

Black to mate in 2. How fast?

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

From Chess.com (I’m an affiliate – HERE)

GMs Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi kept alive their hopes of winning a second Tata Steel Chess Masters title with late wins with Black to move within a point of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Caruana pounced on a time-trouble mistake by GM Vincent Keymer, while Wei overcame GM Max Warmerdam only deep into the second session of play. The remaining games were drawn.From chess.com (I’m an affiliate)

Today the sun was up by 07:26 and it was down by 17:20.  Getting longer.  Last I was here, they were getting shorter.   The Ave Maria Bell, back in November, was also in the 17:30 cycle.   It is now, too.    But unless you are in a special place, you won’t hear it.

It is the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.  The Vatican Curia calendar indicates that this is the “Domenica della Parola di Dio”.  Frankly, I think every Sundays is the Sunday of the Word of God.  At least I treat them that way, at 1 Peter 5.

Today I celebrated Holy Mass for my Benefactors who sent donations for this trip.   I won’t forget the rest of you!

An action shot of don Dimitri incensing the Evangelarium,

After Mass one of the members of the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims and Convalescents (founded by St. Philip Neri … I’m the first priest member in maybe a century…) hosted a little reception for the occasion of her onomastico, which is Agnes (so, it’s like the octave of Agnes, Romans are flexible with time).   She made some of the best lasagne I’ve had in a long time.

It’s so nice to be with these great people.  The Archconfraternity is doing well.  Today, The Great Roman™ and the Get It Done Pastor™ were talking about the interview TGR did with EWTN.   Moreover, the Archon is in a book published about the Jubilee (get it?  Rome and Pilgrims?).  HERE

Everything was boxed up when I was last here.  Look.  How beautiful.

In honor of the Palazzo Farnese being cleaned, watch a video of the end of the 2nd act of Tosca, when she stabs Scarpia in the throat with a pair of scissors and then taunts him as he chokes on his blood.  Never gets old.   This is where the 2nd Act of that oh-so-Roman opera takes place.

The production at the Met a few years ago with Sonya Yoncheva was spectacular. Here’s the part where Tosca get’s her revenge. The Napoleanic governor of Rome, the evil Scarpia, is holding Tosca’s main squeeze prisoner. He’s gonna die if she doesn’t give in to his obsessed lascivious demands. She has other ideas. If you have a chance watch the whole opera, in segments. It’s the best Tosca I have ever seen.

“What’s wrong? Are you choking on your blood? Die, damned! Die! DIE!”

Maria Callas.

Tosca is the perfect opera for the beginner and the “in-operable”. It’s short, it has famous arias, and everybody dies.

A while back, there was a broadcast production of Tosca from the real sites of the action, Chiese Sant’Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese and Castel Sant’ Angelo. I’d like to find that, but I’m tired.

A street I walk down.

This is too cool not to share.

I captured the entire “Planetary Parade” using my 11″ telescope, and combined everything into one composite photo that stayed true to the angular scale of these objects.

Made entirely with real photos, I hope this composite helps illustrate the scale of these things! pic.twitter.com/T2SP4sxaKw

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) January 25, 2025

Let it be said.

Episcopalianism: pic.twitter.com/6KaEFPVp4n

— Mark (@sitsio) January 25, 2025

There’s some B asn in B, S as in S at Fishwrap – what a disaster! Please God snuff it OUT – but Hazell does the lifting.

It should also be noted that the chap who wrote this risible article is a Latin Rite Catholic who attends Eastern Divine Liturgy for what could be considered “aesthetic and ideological tastes”. Projection much? https://t.co/qwxSxW1hJ3 pic.twitter.com/dGMAPHJpmn

— Matthew Hazell (@M_P_Hazell) January 26, 2025

The Fishwrap piece is deeeeeeply stupid. HERE

As much as dismissing trad Catholicism as a mere LARP (“live action role-playing game”) or fringe internet identity category would be unfair, there’s something to be said about the fact that it has flourished in spaces like Reddit, Tumblr and X (formerly Twitter), which have also served as a breeding ground for gamer communities, fandoms and new gender and sexual identities.

Yeah… right.   Scorn.

US high schools and this.  Compare and contrast.  HERE

VP Vance has things to say about the US Bishops.  HERE (Fishwrap had a spittle-flecked nutty)

Chessy news…

Mate in 4.  White’s move.

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

Today in Rome the sun rose at 0727 and it set at 1719 and the Ave Maria Bell was to ring at1730.

It is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  I’m and convert, and I converted in St. Paul.

I also have a 1st class relic of St. Paul… not with me, however.

WELCOME REGISTRANT:

Cici

It has been a productive day.

The Great Roman™ found me at the airport and gave me a lift, bless him.   Then we went to do internet installation things.  That’s my one task on this trip.  Anything else is gravy.

Internet installation seems easy to do.  BUT… this is Rome and you never know.

You can see how dark the dome of San Pietro is becoming.  Can’t they outsource this?  Surely someone will foot the bill since the Holy See has self-destructed financially.

We parked near the Ponte Sisto, which is destined to by a significant signpost in my life.

First, the very first time I was in Rome I stayed in the street leading into it, which runs by The Parish™.   Then I walked across it for my first meal in Rome in that year, early 80s.  I wasn’t Catholic yet.  Now it is in the middle of where I have been for years.  Also, I remember Fr. Foster torture a Harvard Latin prof with the inscription by the bridge.  That memory is every green.

After some time in the Vodafone store getting internet sorted, we had to regain our strength.

Pizza bianca and mortadella with black truffle.

Which panino is mine?  (Okay, this one might not be very hard.)

It’s a short trip and a trial run, a learning venture.  I see there are still quite a few things to get, but the MAIN thing is getting internet.

QUAERITUR: Should I get a toaster oven?  There’s no microwave.  No toaster either.

In chessy news… I understand Tata Steel is getting spicy.  I, however, am busy.

That said, for part of the flight I used the inseat games and played chess against the Thing, at the highest level.  Even experimenting, I cleaned its clock.  I had a memory that it was harder.  Am I getting better?

Black to move and mate in 4.  Look at those scary bishops… and not for the usual churchy reason.

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

This is not all that sophisticated, as in knowing all the lines to 10 moves of the QGD, but it is apt these days for this blog. At Aletheia

How chess explains the vital role of the Virgin Mary

The writer might not be a chess player, given the mix up of terminology.  The queen, on the board, is a piece, not a player, though the queen plays a major role (until it doesn’t).

Anyway, it’s short.

In Queens… really good cheeseburger. I usually have one of these when I come back from Italy. Why wait?

Bun: buttered and grilled, as God intended.   Salad instead of starches, although my dining companion shared an some of his onion rings.  Cheese: pepper jack.  Salad dressing: Balsamic vinaigrette.

Life doesn’t have to be complicated all the time.

This is something uncomplicated too… not as good as a cheeseburger photo, but something you should know about.

Cardinal Robert McElroy was told in detail about Theodore McCarrick’s predatory activities and said nothing publicly. His appointment to Washington is a disgrace. Me in this week’s Spectator: pic.twitter.com/EkFuUw4FLk

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) January 24, 2025

I’m all for saving the environment, aren’t you?

The real danger for humanity today, Cardinal Müller said, “consists in the greenhouse gases of sin, the global warming of unbelief and the trans-humanist decay of morality, when no one any longer knows or teaches the difference between good and evil.” @NCRegister https://t.co/lLtkSHlpgH pic.twitter.com/qZmRbpKe29

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) January 23, 2025

This is too cool not to post. Elon announced that soon we will have mobile/cellphone to Starlink satellite service. HERE We live in amazing times.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

If only…

It’s official, guys.

Time to learn your Latin, padres. pic.twitter.com/dOGhVbKyuX

— Eric Sammons (@EricRSammons) January 24, 2025

In chessy news… Tata Steel Chess Tournament is taking place from 18 January until 2 February in Wijk aan Zee, but – to your great disappointment, I’m too busy to write about it because I have an international flight in a few hours and I have stuff to do, like find a work-around for the portable monitor delivered today: it doesn’t work with any port but USB C which is my power-IN port! See the problem? This laptop always struggles in Rome with cooling, etc., and I think it may be it’s last trip so that I can dedicate it to the live daily Mass stream from the Chapel of the Two Trinities.

Time yourself.

Black to move and mate in 2.   Can you get it in under 30 sec?   (Me? 2)

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]

Where I am the sun rose at 7:12 and it will set at 17:02.

If you were in Rome, after seeing the sunrise at 7:28 you could venerate the relics of St. Emerentiana at the Basilica of St. Agnes on the Via Nomentana and then later observe the sunset at 17:16 to be followed by the Ave Maria Bell, theoretically at 17:30.

WELCOME REGISTRANT:

jp60

HEY ri****nd@att.net – My note to you was kicked back.  NEW EMAIL?

Last night priest friends and I went to a favored Chinese place for supper.   We started with xiao long bao (not shown) and moved on to other delights.

This was the cumin lamb.

I had to move fast because one our gang practically lunged at the food as it came out of the kitchen.

Shrimp in mayonnaise with walnuts and pineapple.  For those of you in Columbia Heights, yes, that’s broccoli.

Eggplant in garlic sauce.

Dry Pepper Chicken. Quite spicy.

Mixed Vegetables.

Another thing not shown here is the Beef in Hot Sauce. I know I took a photo, but this morning it isn’t in the album. Strange. It was a medium-sized bowl with a stew of beef, garlic, Chinese cabbage and lots of hot peppers with a touch of peppercorns. At this point even our lunging companion had to slow down. Good conversation. Good food. Hard to beat. It’s a pretty simple place. Nothing fancy about it at all, kind of a long marrow hole in the wall, but nice people and good food. We keep going back. I’ve slowly but surely been working out way through the menu, but something are absolutely necessary, like xiao long bao. They are not the best I’ve had, but they are pretty good. But they need bigger spoons! (Note to self. Bring spoon.)

In churchy news, I already posted about the great article on the Catholic teaching concerning “deportation”. HERE

After Chinese, when there was perhaps a little cigar smoke wafting, I saw a video for the first time of the decidedly stupid speech given by the bishopette aimed at 47 and colleagues. The reactions in the pews were great and quite restrained given the obvious insult. However, I saw this interesting tweet. HERE As we saw, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was in charge of the inaugural doings. As it turns out, that “bishopette” was in Minneapolis for a while, which was ground zero for women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church. So, Amy got her dig in, and used her position for a personal jab. But, hey, I grew up in Minneapolis where the Klobuchar name was familiar. Her father was a long time newspaper columnist, which is surely how she made her way: name recognition (not rare).

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

In chessy news…. nah.

White to move and win. Win, not mate. There’s a move that wraps it up.

[NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.]