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{]:¬)

Of processions, flower girls, quzzing altar boys, and the use of the biretta outside

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In some places it is customary to have a procession for the Feast of Christ the King. In the older, traditional, Roman calendar, this Sunday (the last of October) is the Feast of Christ the King.

Our friends at Romanitas Press have an interesting piece about the Christ the King procession.

There is also an article about little girls dropping flower petals in processions. (Hint: NO! Females may not be in liturgical processions. The lovely little creatures with their pretty flower petals can go in front of the procession, of course, but they shouldn’t be in the procession.

There is also a new chapter of Peregrinus Gasolinus available about the all important wearing of the biretta by priests in public outside of church! (HINT: Yes, we can use it as a regular hat, out-of-doors, when going about on our business while dressed in the cassock.)

Also, I note that there is a sheet useful for when you quiz altar boys in preparation for service at the altar! HERE. One of these days I must really get resurrect that site wherein I did the Latin, slowly, in bits and pieces so that it could be more easily memorized. I shall look into that again.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged biretta, Christ the King, flower girls, Mass responses, petals, Romanitas Press
22 Comments

Archbp. Chaput: “We are Catholics before we are Americans”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Card. Burke’s contribution at the Synod of Bishops: “antinomianism …infected post-Council ecclesial life”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

His Eminence Raymond Card. Burke, distinguished canonist and head of the Church’s “Supreme Court” gave his contribution to the Synod of Bishops. The theme he touched on, all too briefly, alas, was topic also examined at a canon law conference I attended a a few years ago, an annual conference now which Card. Burke organizes at the Shrine in LaCrosse, WI.

– H. Em. Rev. Card. Raymond Leo BURKE, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (VATICAN CITY)

The Instrumentum Laboris reminds us that witness to the Christian faith is a valid response to the pressing problems of life in every age and culture, especially because that witness overcomes the false separation existing between the Gospel and life (cf. no. 118). However, so that witness to the faith will have a place, which today’s world urgently needs, cohesion is needed within the Church between life and faith. [We must be coherent. We must live our Catholic identity at all times, not just in private or in worship.]
Among the most serious wounds of society today is the separation of legal culture from its metaphysical objective, which is moral law. [BINGO. Think of this also in terms of the virtue of religion.] In recent times this separation has been much accentuated, manifesting itself as a real antinomianism, which claims [in error] to render actions which are intrinsically evil as legal, for example, abortion on demand, artificial conception of human life with the aim of carrying out experimentation on the life of a human embryo, the so-called euthanasia of those who have the right to our preferential assistance, legal recognition of same-sex unions as marriage, and the negation of the fundamental right to conscience and religious liberty. [Have you ever heard a Catholic politician defend abortion because its “legal”?]
This antinomianism embedded in civil society has unfortunately infected post-Council ecclesial life, [NB: “post-Council”] associating itself, regrettably, with so-called cultural novelties. Excitement following the Council, linked to the establishment of a new Church which teaches freedom and love, has strongly encouraged an attitude of indifference towards Church discipline, if not even hostility. The reforms of ecclesial life which were hoped for by the Council Fathers were therefore, in a certain sense, hindered, if not betrayed.
Devoted to present-day new evangelization, we have the task of laying the foundation for awareness of the disciplinary tradition of the Church and respect of the law in the Church. An interest in [NB] the discipline of the Church is not to be equated with an idea contrary to the mission of the Church in the world, but to a correct attention to cohesively witnessing to faith in the world. This service, certainly humble, of Church Canon Law is also absolutely necessary. How indeed will we be able to witness our faith in the world if we ignore or neglect the demands of justice within the Church? Salvation of the soul, the primary goal of a new evangelization, must also always be in the Church “the supreme law” (can. 1752).

Fr Z kudos to Card. Burke.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Emanations from Penumbras, Fr. Z KUDOS, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, Vatican II, Year of Faith | Tagged antinomianism, Card. Burke
12 Comments

“years of concerts being interrupted by the Mass”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the fun Eye of the Tiber:

Yonkers, NY––Blake Jennings, lead guitarist at St. Therese Parish in Yonkers, New York is outraged over what he calls “years of concerts being interrupted by the Mass.” The 56-year-old accountant and father of three has played with his band at the 9:30 Folk Mass since 2009. “Our fans love us,” Jennings said, after Sunday Mass. “You can see it in their eyes…the way they droop down, lazily closing as we play…as if their entering into some kind of ecstasy. Or the way some in the parish are so moved they just can’t stand another moment of joy, and simply walk out…presumably to get some air.” But according to Jennings, many in the band have been becoming ever frustrated with the frequent interruptions to their concerts. “Father’s always interrupting…always trying to upstage us. First it’s a gospel, then a homily, eventually the words of consecration…there’s always something with this guy.” Jennings has recently begun a petition, and hopes to get 2,000 signatures to send to the diocese.

An unstable group.

Seriously, who hasn’t experienced this?

Posted in Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged liturgical abuse, liturgical music
46 Comments

Archbp. Chaput: “Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion”

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It seems to me that His Excellency Most Rev. Charles Chaput of Philadelphia is probably the heavy-hitter of the US episcopal conference right now.

CNA has this:

Archbishop Chaput: Be Catholic before you are Democrat or Republican
By Carl Bunderson and Matthew A. Rarey

Rome, Italy, Oct 25, 2012 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the country approaches election day in two weeks, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is encouraging Catholic voters to place their faith above their allegiance to political parties.

“I’m always encouraging our people minimally to vote, maximally to run for political office, and make sure that they’re Catholic prior to being Democrat or Republican and that they put that into practice politically,” he told CNA in Rome on Oct. 22.

Archbishop Chaput echoed the calls of other American bishops to have their flocks consider their faith in the voting booth.

“We do believe in the separation of church and state, but we don’t believe in the separation of faith from our political life,” he said.

“It’s very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That’s a lot different from different economic policies” that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop explained.

His remarks come as an Oct. 22 Gallup poll shows the “economy in general” is the issue rated most important by Americans as the election nears.

“But people who are practicing Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion,” he stated. “Such foundational issues have a huge impact and it’s important that Catholics make those distinctions.”

“A person (candidate) might be right on a lot of secondary issues but wrong on the foundational issues. And if that’s the case, it would be very difficult for a Catholic to vote for someone who, for example, favors unlimited access to abortion … undermines the meaning of marriage or supports policies that really undermine the foundation of our culture.”

[…]

Read the rest there.

I will remind you also of this post from some time ago. Take time to review it. Archbp. Chaput’s HOMERUN in Houston!

Also, learn from these posts how to talk with your friends and relatives about these burning issues and about voting. I don’t post these things simply so that people who are already convinced can nod and, from a distance, agree. Get out there and change some minds and hearts and also get out the vote.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Emanations from Penumbras, Linking Back, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, Archbp. Chaput, Catholic identity, November 2012
12 Comments

BIRRA NURSIA!

Posted on 25 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here’s one for the Just Too Cool file.

The Benedictines in Norcia (ancient Nursia), whom I mention with some frequency here (they post their chanted monastic hours online), have inaugurated their new beer. A friend who is involved with them told me that they are aiming at a top shelf product, not your average brewsky.

Their beer site is HERE.

I note that their motto is “Ut laetificet cor“. The reference is obviously to the biblical “vinum quod laetificat cor hominis“.

Alas, you can only get it in Italy right now.

There is a nice video about the beer:

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Hopefully someday they will be able to export. Until then, we’ll just have to organize pilgrimages.

Let the New Evangelization thrive!

Beer by beer!

And let their entrepreneurship succeed! Where monastic communities do well, local populations and their markets do well.

PS: In the video when the local bishop (formerly a Vatican official who organized JPII’s trips) blesses the brewery, he actually blesses it. Thus, he is not using a text from De Benedictionibus. I must admit that events like this would be just about the only reason I would like to be a bishop.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Lighter fare, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged beer, Benedictines, Norcia
9 Comments

Forget Big Bird! Now it’s Horses and Bayonets!

Posted on 24 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here’s a fun image that just seems to… fit.

Posted in Lighter fare | Tagged Horses and Bayonets, The First Gay President
14 Comments

UPDATED: Bp. Sample’s (D. Marquette) sermon for Call To Holiness Conference

Posted on 24 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

UPDATE: I added a lower resolution version of the video. It should be easier to download.
UPDATE: I added an AUDIO ONLY version of the video. See the players below.

ORIGINAL POST 15 October 2012

Here is Bp. Sample’s sermon for the Pontifical Mass today.

He has some interesting things to say about the Year of Faith, the New Evangelization, the Sacred Liturgy and the Extraordinary Form.

The first version (top) is a really big file. It’ll take a while. There is a lower resolution version below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Posted in Benedict XVI, Brick by Brick, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, PODCAzT, Priests and Priesthood, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Drill, The future and our choices, Vatican II, What Fr. Z is up to, Year of Faith | Tagged Assumption Grotto, Bp. Sample, Call To Holiness, D. Marquette
10 Comments

SSPX formally expelled Bp. Williamson

Posted on 24 October 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Communiqué of the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X (October 24, 2012)

24-10-2012

Bishop Richard Williamson, having distanced himself from the management and the government of the SSPX for several years, and refusing to show due respect and obedience to his lawful superiors, was declared excluded from the SSPX by decision of the Superior General and its Council, on October 4th, 2012. A final deadline had been granted to him to declare his submission, after which he announced the publication of an “open letter” asking the Superior General to resign.

This painful decision has become necessary by concern for the common good of the Society of Saint Pius X and its good government, according to what Archbishop Lefebvre denounced: “This is the destruction of authority. How authority can be exercised if it needs to ask all members to participate in the exercise of authority? “(Ecône, June 29, 1987)

Menzingen, October 24th, 2012

Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity.