From a priest:
In the [d]iocese of ___ we are expected to do more Catechesis on the Mass. I want to do this using bulletin inserts. … Any group or website or publishing company that you might recommend for this? My people need to hear the truth, but presented in a way they can handle after many years of bad catechesis.
Thanks so much for your time in advance.
Readers!
Can you help Father?
The day before The Big Letter™ comes out (aka the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetita), I received this meme from a reader:
A couple notes in advance of its release.
First and foremost, tens of people will ever read the whole thing. I don’t think the people who wrote it read the whole thing.
I will not violate the embargo by quoting specific texts, but I can say that the document is not a theological disaster, as some have predicted. We have dodged a bullet, at least dodged a round to center mass.
Taken as a whole, The Big Letter™ doesn’t have to be a pastoral disaster either.
However, some will not want to take the whole of The Big Letter™ into consideration. They will focus only on the last parts. Just watch.
You are going to need a great deal of this coffee to get through the whole Letter!
As most papal and curial documents these days, it goes on and on. It’s repetitive. Some parts are vintage Francis. Others are obviously not. This Letter also has paragraphs wherein you can’t ferret out about whom he is talking (which might be purposeful). It shifts from one group to another, which will produce some confusion. It is, alas, really vague toward the end. This vagueness, so characteristic of our era, could allow some pastors (especially of a certain age, leaning, or membership in the Society of Jesus) to channel their inner Jeremiah 23:1 and seriously misguide their sheep (see the meme, above).
But they would do that anyway, regardless of what Amoris laetitia says, wouldn’t they.
Tomorrow I will watch with interest how certain unnamed liberal writers (go look at the National Schismatic Reporter) who have built up the importance of Amoris laetitia as if it were the new iteration of the … I don’t even know what, because they don’t adhere to truly important magisterial documents … will do when they actually read the thing.
No wait… they won’t read the whole thing. They will ignore 90.3077% of it (I picked that percentage for a reason).
They are not going to like some bits at all. Thus, they will ignore those bits.
Also, some on the other end of the spectrum, the more traditional and conservative side, will not be able to indulge fully in their descent into grand mal Schadenfreude. There are some good bits in it.
No… wait … what am I saying?!? Yes, they will.
Yes yes… I know… if it also has vague stuff in it then the world has truly come to an end. Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
When you get your own copy, perhaps you might wind up being one of the tens of people who make through the whole thing, but you are going to have to have serious quantities of Mystic Monk Coffee (or TEA!).
Try not to freak out when you reach the end.
Finally, I am trying to obtain the Latin of the first sentence of The Big Letter™ (which gives the document its title). Judging from the English of the first sentence and paragraph, as well as the general content, the admittedly ill-sounding, ill-advised title Amoris laetitia probably shouldn’t be – pace some of my friends – translated into English as “The Joy of Sex”.
Until you get to the end… maybe.
The combox is CLOSED.
While some wags have been saying that the Latin title of the upcoming (tomorrow, as I write) Apostolic Exhortation – Amoris laetitia – means “The Joy of Sex” or perhaps “The Pleasure of Lust” (and it can, if you don’t have the whole sentence)*, more “sex” appears in Laudato si‘… in a manner of speaking.
From a reader…
In paragraph 21 of the Latin version of Laudato Si’, the Holy Father
says: “sescentae tonnae eiectamentorum” but in the English and Italian, it’s “hundreds of millions of tons.” What gives? Thanks.
Just so you know, sescentae is sex-centae which is “six-hundred”. It literally says, “six hundred tons of garbage”, which can describe even a lot of documents of … I digress.
First, it is not easy to find the Latin of Laudato si’, given that it isn’t linked at the Vatican site from the ENGLISH page (which is where you will default to if you are coming from an IP in an English-speaking country, I guess).
However, if you go to the Latin language index… yes, there is such a thing… for the encyclicals of Francis… yes… I know… you will find it.
CLICK
That said…
In ancient times, our forebears had a hard time getting their heads around really large numbers…. unlike the Obama Administration and dem candidates which think that trillions of dollars of debt is mere chump change.
In classical Latin “600” – sex-centum or sescentum – was a huge number. And thus, something like “there was 600 of them” would be like us saying “there were zillions of them”.
That’s what’s going on in the Latin you cited. 600 tons, in Latin, can indeed mean “hundreds of millions”.
Thus endeth your Latin lesson for the day.
*The first sentence of the Apostolic Exhortation in English reads: “The Joy of Love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church.” I’ve seen the English. I haven’t see the Latin.
My in box is replete with notes about what would be an amusing story, but which really isn’t that amusing after all.
One of my correspondents writes:
Proof That Colleges Are Making People Stupid
At U Indiana in Bloomington, a co-ed thought she spotted a KKK Klansman with a… wait for it… whip! She did what all alert university scholars do today… she tweeted about the KKK guy to the whole world!
It got worse… HERE
The deadly Klansman was Dominican priest, in his white habit, which has… wait for it… a Rosary.
Breitbart HERE
BUT WAIT! There’s more.
Since Dominicans are teachers, one Friar (another word for what Dominicans are) posted (on Twitter… where else do students get their information) a helpful field guide to white people dressed in white to help that girl in Indiana. HERE
I am sure that the students of UofI are really on edge after that scary scare. Surely there are some official university counselors available to help them.
On a more serious note, … we are in trouble.
MEANWHILE….
Over at discarding images I spotted this…
From … Le livre de Lancelot du Lac and other Arthurian Romances, Northern France ca. 1275-1300 (Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, MS 229, fol. 100v)
For those of you at U of I, a woman jousting with a friar.
UPDATE:
One email sender made a connection between KKK and the three-fold Kyrie.
For those of you who go to U of I or perhaps still haven’t gone to what I call with increasing frequency the “Adult” Form of the Roman Rite, might not know that the Kyrie Eleison of the Mass has a three-fold, not two-fold, repetition. Three-fold means you sing or say it thrice. Thrice means three times. That’s like having your tweet retweeted by two other people… two people… because 1+2=3. 1+2 equals 3 only at your local Starbucks when you want accurate change back. It doesn’t have to come out to 3 in your college classes… if you don’t want it to.
To go North I must first go East, rather like starting Mass ad orientem so that you can sing the Gospel to the liturgical north.
I thought my native Minnesota was flat!
Had I greater presence of mind I could have shot some photos of very spiffy black helecopters lined up as we entered the airport, which had been an old Air Force Base. You know the type, like the ones that circle over my building and follow me in my car.
I’ve been to some pretty laid back airports but this place takes the étouffée. TSA wasn’t even open for biz until a few minutes ago. How will they reach their quota of nail clippers, coffee cups, and water bottles?
UPDATE
And so it begins…
MEANWHILE…
As I sit here helplessly, a prisoner of Late Delta, I am receiving photos from Rome of the presentation of Msgr Nicola Bux new book.
Con i sacramenti non si scherza!
(You don’t fool around with sacraments!)
Cardinals Burke and Sarah are in attendance.
Comments and quotes from the presentation are coming in:
UPDATE
I would much rather be at that book presentation than on this incredibly late, extremely uncomfortable flight.
UPDATE
Some one behind me is on the phone saying “inshallah” kind of a lot.
See you all around.
MEANWHILE
Priest friends in Chicago are learning the traditional Mass!
UPDATE
I barely made a connection.
Fantastic notes are coming from The Great Roman™.
For example
It seems that Natchitoches is famous for meat pies. So, I had to have one.
And what would a trip to these parts be without an enormous bowl of gumbo.
I am still not sure what gumbo is, but it was pretty tasty.
This town was established in 1715. Apparently missionaries came down the river from my native place and worked first in the northern part of Louisiana.
The river front. It isn’t actually a river. It is a lake that is formed from the extremely long “ox bow” cut off from a nearby river.
During the stay, I turned some mushrooms and onions and spinach and cheese and a few other things not shown,…
We made due with a not perfect cut of meat that had to be … adapted by force. No skewers or string, so I split some chopsticks.
… into these.
The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, once the Cathedral of this now-titular diocese.
And, just for fun.
And….
No, I don’t think I will.
It’s off to the north for me today.
When you are tempted to think that Notre Dame University can’t sink any lower…
From Adam Wilson of the Cardinal Newman Society (check their feed on my right side bar) to my email:
This is outrageous, and I wanted to make sure you saw it. Notre Dame sponsored a talk on campus by pro-abortion former Texas Senator Wendy Davis yesterday. In it, she talked up the supposed necessity of abortion and praised Planned Parenthood (and a Notre Dame department sponsored this event!).
Would you be able to share?
Wendy Davis Hypes Abortion at Notre Dame on Feast of the Annunciation
If you read Italian, there is a fascinating piece at La Stampa by Marco Tosatti (who is not one of the traitorous Italian Vaticanisti) about SSPX Bp. Alfonso de Galarreta’s view of Pope Francis’ view of the SSPX.
First, note that Bp. de Galarreta, though born in Spain, grew up in Argentina. From everything that I have learned from S. American friends, it takes an Argentinian to understand an Argentinian.
Bp. de Galarreta thinks that Pope Francis is going to recognize the SSPX unilaterally, apart from doctrinal and canonical considerations. My translation:
[T]his Pope says to whomever wants to listen that we are Catholics, [he] says and repeats that the Fraternity (SSPX) is Catholic, that we are Catholics, that he will never condemn us, and that it is necessary ‘to regulate our affair’. I think that he has started in this direction, that when he will see that there isn’t an understanding with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I think that he will breeze past every doctrinal, theoretical, and practical condition, whatever it might be…. He will do it on his own, in the sense of a recognition of the Fraternity. He has stared, and he will simply continue. I am not talking about what I want; I’m talking about what I foresee. I predict, I think, that the Pope will go in the direction of a unilateral recognition of the Fraternity, and he’ll do this more though the “de facto” route than through the legal, canonical law.“
This is fascinating.
Consider how Pope Francis just sort of gave ghost faculties to the SSPX priests validly to absolve sins in sacramental confession for the Year of Mercy. HERE The Pope didn’t write a specific document, in proper juridical form, clearly indicating that he granted faculties to those priests. No, he just sort of “did it”. He said that if people go to them for confession, they are validly absolved. He didn’t say that they have faculties. Lemme tell you something… all the rest of the priests of the Catholic church have to have faculties! He just sort of did it. How, I am not sure, but the Pope’s intention is clear.
I wonder if that is not what de Galaretta is talking about: de facto not de iure.
The other day Bp. Fellay said there isn’t any rush. He had a meeting with Pope Francis and it was clarified that they are going to take there time.
So… what will that look like in, say, five years?
Will we be seeing some “cross over” or cooperation with SSPX priests in dioceses? It’ll just… happen?
Scenario: Msgr. Zuhlsdorf (clearly a fictional character) at St. Ipsidipsy in Tall Tree Circle is ill over a weekend. After Monsignor Z’s call to the local Bishop of Black Duck, who gives his unwritten okey-dokey, the nearby Fr. Rocco Firm of the SSPX Chapel of St. Joseph Terror of Demons comes over to St. Ipsidipsy to lend a hand with both Mass and confessions. Is that how this is going to play out?
After this works out for a weekend and some weekdays, Fr. Rocco winds up as a semi-regular sort of assistant to Msgr. Z and the two communities, diocesan and SSPX, merge together. The Episcopus Atra Anataria seems pleased, and comes for supper when the priests dine together, especially if the newly welcomed Fr. Joe Włotrzewiszczykowycki is around. Fr. Rocco gets a parking spot by the sacristy door and a name plate on the confessional on the Epistle side of church. Meanwhile, Fr. Rocco, formally a member of the SSPX, is still, technically, suspended a divinis, except that… I guess he isn’t…. is he?
Friends, if this is what the Pope wants to do, well… okay. I’ll do my part. It would help if he made me a Monsignor first.
UPDATE:
After some time ad experimentum, Msgr. Z will suggest to the local Bishop of Black Duck that if his parish must be merged together with the SSPX Chapel, the resulting entity might be called the “Through My Fault My Fault My Most Grievous Fault Catholic Community”. Thus they will stick it in the eye of the neighboring Bishop of Libville, Most Rev. Fatty McButterpants, who just named two merged clusters the “Sing A New Faith Community Into Being Faith Community” and the “Engendering Togetherness Community of Welcome”.
Alternate names for Black Duck included “Mournful Mother Weeping” and “Loaded Down With Opprobrium”.
UPDATE:
I wrote, above: “It would help if he made me a Monsignor first.”
What am I thinking? I’ll become a Monsignor de facto rather than de iure!
Run, don’t walk, to read Sam Gregg’s latest at Catholic World Report.
Gregg writes about Benedict XVI’s amazing Regensburg Address, 10 years later. He also examines the implications/results of the loss of reason across various sectors of the West.
Teachers: Absorb this, copy it, and go through it with your students.
Regensburg Revisited: Ten Years Later, A West Still in Denial
Irrationality not only manifests itself in violence but also in an inability to apply authentic reason to the many pressing challenges of our age.
Take away: We are sooooo in trouble.
Sam Gregg is involved with ACTON INSTITUTE.
I read this refreshing piece directly after reading an extended bit of tediously enervating rubbish on the last two Synods (“walking together”) from last November’s La Civiltà Cattolica by Antonio Spadaro, SJ. Spadaro, by the way, has a strong interest in the works of Pier Vittorio Tondelli.
Talk about whiplash.
To get rid of the nasty, shower-inducing sense from the later, you might consider picking up James Schall’s helpful book about the Regensburg Address.
Do me a favor… go to the Amazon page for the book and scroll down and click to tell the publisher (St Augustine Press) that you want this book on Kindle.
The often amusing Eye Of The Tiber has a review of the new movie:
‘Benedict V Francis: Dawn Of Mercy
New DC Comics ‘Benedict V Francis: Dawn Of Mercy’ Film Getting Terrible Reviews
It’s been three years since Benedict’s colossal battle with the Roman Curia devastated Vatican City. The loss of spiritual life and collateral damage left many Catholics feeling angry and helpless about the Church hierarchy, including corruption-fighting Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. Convinced that members of the hierarchy surrounding Benedict is now a threat to Holy Mother Church, Bergoglio embarks on a personal vendetta to end their reign at the Vatican, while the conniving Walter Kasper launches his own crusade against ‘God’s Rottweiler’.
Benedict v Francis: Dawn of Mercy is out and reviews for the latest movie from DC/Vatican Cinematic Universe are not impressive. [Neither is my review of the new Superman v Batman, but I digress.]
Although the film, which currently has only a 29 percent rating on Catholic movie review site Decent Films, has been universally panned by critics, it’s opening weekend brought in an estimated $70.1 dollars in the Vatican alone. [Tens of dollars!]
The superpapal showdown, which cost nearly $1,000 dollars to make, is DC/Vatican Cinematic Universe studio’s bid to kick-start a Catholic movie universe to rival the protestant’s massively successful movie empire that has produced multi-hundred dollar cash cows, God Is Not Dead, God Is Not Dead 2, and the upcoming God is Still Not Dead.
But although critics have panned the movie, audiences have given the film a 65 percent rating, which suggests that many moviegoers don’t necessarily agree with critics.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” one viewer told EOTT after seeing the movie. “I mean, some weird choices, that’s for sure, like how Benedict and Francis stop fighting once they find out they both love Jesus. [Who knew?] Francis has Benedict on the ground, you know, cause Benedict’s old, and before he delivers the final blow, Benedict calls out to Jesus for mercy, and Francis is all like, ‘WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME! WHY DID YOU SAY JESUS!’ and they realize they both love Jesus and stop fighting.”
Another viewer told EOTT that the movie was decent until the tension really began to pick up toward the latter half of the film.
“Yeah, that’s when it started getting pretty interesting. The bad guy Walter Kasper [Lex Luthor] unleashes this monster he calls Synod, [Doomsday] and the both Benedict and Francis have to fight together to defeat it. [But what about Wonder Woman? Perhaps that would be … Fernandez?]Benedict v Francis is the fourth biggest opening for a comic book adaptation, behind three protestant films, The Reformers, Ex-Catholic-Men, [Or perhaps in this confused age, simply Ex-men.] and The Dark Night of the Soul Rises.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
ProfessorCover on Germans… “for many” in the Consecration formula, rather than “for all”: ““The problem is… as I see it… the approval of translation of sacramental forms is reserved to the Roman Pontiff…”
on CQ CQ CQ – EWTN shut down its shortwave radio service on 31 October. Understandable, but I have some reservations.: “That is sad, because shortwave may be the only thing to survive a major emergency.”
on WDTPRS – 5 November: Feast of the Holy Relics. These bones shall live again. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “We were so fortunate to visit and venerate St Jude’s arm when it was brought round by Fr Martins a…”
on WDTPRS – 5 November: Feast of the Holy Relics. These bones shall live again. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “Years ago I taught a high-school level CCD class. One of the kids asked me if there were any relics…”
on Germans… “for many” in the Consecration formula, rather than “for all”: “I find it curious that the German bishops are apparently not considered in schism for changing the actual form (words)…”
on ROME 26/10-11 – Day 35: Penultimate: “White to move and mate in 4. 1. Rc5 Rg2 {or Ra2,Rb1,Rc2-Rh2,b3,c2,g5} 2. Rh5+ gxh5 forced 3. g5+ Rxg5 forced…”
on ROME 26/10-11 – Day 33: All Souls: “Like many others I have some family members that I disagree with on several issues. However, one thing a few…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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