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{]:¬)

Italian bishop forbids people to receive sacraments from SSPX

Posted on 27 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

At L’Espresso I saw this, in Italian:

Pope Francis forbids Lefevbrite priests from saying Mass
The follows of the ultra traditionalist French bishop, already excommunicated, are now in Bergoglio’s crosshairs. Through one of his most faithful men he has forbidden them to celebrate Mass and administrate the sacraments. Whoever follows them risks excommunication.

In essence the article says that “new beatings with a stick” have come from “pastor of mercy and forgiveness”.

The Bishop of Albano, Marcello Semeraro, has forbidden the SSPX priests – who have their Italian HQ in Albano, a stone’s throw from Castel Gandolfo and two stone throws from Rome – from administering the sacraments. He also forbade the faithful from receiving the sacraments from the SSPX priests saying that they run the risk of excommunication. This was issued in the form of a notification signed by Bp. Semeraro, who happens to be the secretary of the Gang of Nine assembled by Pope Francis… Cards. Marx, O’Malley, Rodriguez Maradiaga, etc.

The notification was apparently published in no less than the official daily of the Italian Bishops Conference, Avvenire. It seems that he had received numerous requests about the celebration of sacraments by the SSPX. He wrote that “it isn’t an institution… of the Catholic Church”.

The article mentions that the SSPX has 15000 followers in Italy. Given the state of the Church in some places, that’s not nothing.

I didn’t find the Notification in the online version of Avvenire, but that’s no surprise. It would be interesting to see the actual wording. Did Bp. Semararo raise the specter of excommunication for Catholics in the Diocese of Albano who seek sacraments from the SSPX?

Just lately the Prefect of the CDF, Card. Muller, had a meeting with SSPX leadership which seemed to betoken something positive. This is more than a little chilling, don’t you think?

It also seems as if there is a lack of coordination or of vision on this topic, indeed, a lack of guidance.

UPDATE:

An alert priest reader sent a link to a PDF at the site of the CEI. HERE

Posted in SSPX, The Drill | Tagged Bp. Semeraro, D. Albano, SSPX
53 Comments

Rome – Day 7: Umbrian Edition

Posted on 27 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We had Mass this morning, with the pilgrims, a votive Mass of the Holy Trinity, at Ss Trinità dei Pelegrini, which seemed fitting.

Then we found our bus for Orvieto!

My View For Awhile:

UPDATE

Samples.

I’ve been here quite a few times, but it always makes my heart beat faster to approach the cathedral from this side street, to see the view grow.

Okay… the photos posted out of order, but we can pretend that this is a Quentin Tarantino film.

An assortment of antipasti… various things smeared on bread (mushrooms, lentils, liver, tomatoes) and in the center panzanella.

No, we did not dash out for a view of the cathedral during the antipasti.

This glorious thing is probably the most beautiful cathedral in Italy. The reliefs on the facade make this a must visit.

They depict the history of salvation, from the creation to the final judgment.

The fall of Man. Notice the very wicked grinning snake! Notice how they hide from God!

Lorenzo Maitani, et al., deserve a place in heaven for these reliefs.

And just look at that. I was so pleased that we had a glorious blue sky.

In the Cathedral, you find the corporal upon which the Host miraculously bled, which inspired the Feast of Corpus Christi and also this building. In the chapel we knelt and prayed for bishops and priests whose faith is weak. Across from that chapel, is the chapel in which you find the finest work of Luca Signorelli, including his harrowing scene of Hell and the Preaching the Antichrist, in which the Devil embraces a figure who looks just like the Lord, but whose eyes are crossed as he listens to the Devil’s lies whispered in his ear. The panel I find the most interesting is the Resurrection. Angels blow trumpets and figures begin to pull themselves, draw themselves forth from a perfectly flat white plain, which seems to me to represent Prime Matter. As their forms are infused they take shape and gain flesh. Some of the newly risen help others up out of the formless matter. They are all 33 years old, the years of Christ, and perfect.

I saw this advertisement on a shop window. Gratifying.

Back to food. I ate Peter Cottontail in a sauce of herbs. He was very tender.

Tender… nice. I didn’t even have to snap his backbone and bit through the fur, though I was just about hungry enough.

A slightly better view. Yes, the wine was a Sagrantino di Montefalco. Yum.

Meanwhile, I learned a new Italian word today. Who knows what they sell there… hmmmm…

A lovely statue of Our Lady of Sorrows in a small church in Orvieto. This is in the church where the Extraordinary Form was offered on Sunday.

It’s the electric lights around her that do it for me.

And the pilgrims returned home, not too tired, well fed physically and spiritually, and happy.

Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to |
11 Comments

Pope Francis doesn’t have to “break the Church”

Posted on 26 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Last summer during Acton University I had the chance to get to talk at length with Russ Douthat of Hell’s Bible (aka The New York Times… echo chamber of record for the liberal snob elite). Douthat is a voice of sanity in a dry place.

He has a piece about the recent Synod, which you ought to read. He got it right.

The Pope and the Precipice

[…]

SUCH a reversal would put the church on the brink of a precipice. Of course it would be welcomed by some progressive Catholics and hailed by the secular press. But it would leave many of the church’s bishops and theologians in an untenable position, and it would sow confusion among the church’s orthodox adherents — encouraging doubt and defections, apocalypticism and paranoia (remember there is another pope still living!) and eventually even a real schism.

Those adherents are, yes, a minority — sometimes a small minority — among self-identified Catholics in the West. But they are the people who have done the most to keep the church vital in an age of institutional decline: who have given their energy and time and money in an era when the church is stained by scandal, who have struggled to raise families and live up to demanding teachings, who have joined the priesthood and religious life in an age when those vocations are not honored as they once were. They have kept the faith amid moral betrayals by their leaders; they do not deserve a theological betrayal.

Which is why this pope has incentives to step back from the brink — as his closing remarks to the synod, which aimed for a middle way between the church’s factions, were perhaps designed to do.

Francis is charismatic, popular, widely beloved. He has, until this point, faced strong criticism only from the church’s traditionalist fringe, and managed to unite most Catholics in admiration for his ministry. There are ways that he can shape the church without calling doctrine into question, and avenues he can explore (annulment reform, in particular) that would bring more people back to the sacraments without a crisis. He can be, as he clearly wishes to be, a progressive pope, a pope of social justice — and he does not have to break the church to do it.

[…]

What a refreshing point of view… and prose style. After all the smarmy rubbish I’ve read about the Synod from the catholic Left and the spittle-flecked zany stuff from the extreme right, this is a great cleansing of the palate.

There’s more. Read and engage. I don’t go with everything he wrote, by the way. I am simply refreshed by a clear-eyed, well-written view.

And, in the balance, he got it right.

Posted in Francis, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged divorce and remarriage, Pope Francis, Russ Douthat, Synod of Bishops
28 Comments

Rome – Day 6: “FALL BACK!” Edition – REQUEST FOR PRAYERS

Posted on 26 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In Rome, where I am right now, we set our clocks back now, 25/26 October.

Therefore, I get an extra hour of sleep which I am obviously not having, because I am posting this.

This “fall back” change isn’t such a big deal for us who have Mass to attend. If we screw up we are an hour early for Mass.

In the USA, however, the time change will be Sunday Nov 2 (All Souls).

Perhaps later in the day, if I am walking around, I might find some Roman “clock” stuff. It has been a while since I have seen, for example, the sun clock in Santa Maria deli Angeli, built into the remains of the huge Baths of Diocletian.

At SM degli Angeli there is a tiny hole in the roof which, creating a pin-hole camera, allows a beam of sunlight, an image of the solar disk, to strike the floor below. Your Earth’s yellow sun’s image moves across the floor of the basilica. At solar noon it crosses the meridian point. This served as Rome’s official clock for a long time. At noon, a flag would go up from the roof and a canon on the Gianicolo Hill would boom out to mark the day. It memory serves, noon was the real mark of a day because it could be more easily identified than midnight, for obvious reasons. Thus also, the nautical day began at noon, as Capt. Aubrey would surely explain were he here. There is, at SM degli Angeli another pin-hole camera set up for the the star Polaris, though I am not sure how that worked.

If you keep your eyes open when walking around in Rome, you will start spotting everywhere sundials of one type or other. Off the top of my head I can picture one built into the wall of what was once the Jesuit Collegio Romano. At P.za Montecitorio there is one built into the pavement with one of the 13 ancient obelisks as the gnomon (shadow caster). That obelisk had actually been the gnomon of August Caesar’s sundial. The obelisk of St. Peter’s Square casts a shadow on a large clock/calendar in the pavement. There are lots of others, as well.

More later.

UPDATE:

Another shot from yesterday.

Some were wondering about the path of the procession. We left San Lorenzo in Damaso and went toward the Tiber on the…

Appropriate!

We passed by this (though I shot the photo today). This is an ancient pomerium stone from the time of the Emperor Claudius. You can see another across the river at the Basilica of St. Cecilia.

The pomerium stones marked the border of the inner city beyond which a man with imperium as a provincial governor or a general of an army was unable to pass without losing his mandate. Thus, anything he would have done would have been illegal. That was supposed to prevent men such as Julius Caesar from entering the city center with an army. The pomerium was a theoretical boundary, rather than a wall, with religious overtones.

Meanwhile, my view from my seat in choro yesterday.

I enjoyed watching this little kid serve the Pontifical Mass. He was the only one near his age and size and the only other one in bright red other than Card. Levada.

UPDATE:

I didn’t go to look for Roman clocks, as I thought I would. Instead, I decided to get sick. I spent many years in Rome, and I was often ill. There’s something about this place, I guess. Why should that change for this trip? Oh well. Anyway, I did sally forth for supper.

I went to a Tuscan place nearby, which I used to take friends to in the past. They have the same owners, which isn’t as common as one might think in Rome these days. The restaurant scene here is, with a few exceptions, now a moving target. Once upon a time, it was nearly impossible to find a bad meal. That’s not the case anymore, and it hasn’t been for years. This is not just my more refined Italian palate talking, either. You can get really bad food here now. But if that’s the case, it is also possible to get food that is far better than anything that was available in yesterday, in the 80’s and 90’s. You have to develop the eye for the restaurant, find the clues, engage your “sense ragno”, which I have in spades when it comes to restaurants. I digress.

Tonight, I had one lightening fast glance at the menu at this Tuscan place I know and the choice was made.

Coniglio in umido.

Just what I guy who has felt the way I felt today needed. We all have our comfort foods. It is interesting that I have different comfort foods in Rome than I have at home. Which raises the question: Where’s home?

I guess the medicine is getting to me.

Anyway… as a side, cicoria in padella and a puré di fave. Did you know that “padella” is Roman slang for the Roman hat that clerics wear? Another word is “saturno”, for obvious reasons.

I actually swiped my bread around the plate after this, which I am not so often moved to do these days.

You would say: Ho fatto la scarpetta. That’s an idiom for wipe the plate with a piece of bread.

On the way out of the risto, I spotted this sign in a nearby bookseller’s joint. I love the free market. These folks are enterprising, and they have a good sense of humor.

Just a shot up an narrow way which reminded me of the atmosphere of the novel I have on the workbench.

Tomorrow, if I am still alive…

ORVIETO!

Pray for me and the swift intervention of St. Raphael. Please. I feel dreadful.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky!, On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged analemma, daylight savings time, meridian, Santa Maria degli Angeli
11 Comments

Robin Hooders saving people from parking fines

Posted on 26 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw this at the Free Thought Project:

Parking Meter Activists Under Fire After Saving Drivers $80,000 in Fines

Stepping in between the State and their revenue stream can be quite hazardous.

Activists in Keene, New Hampshire have adopted a charitable strategy in dealing with unacceptable parking policies that the local government has in place.

For years, groups of Keene residents known as “Robin Hooders” have walked the streets filling expired parking meters with their own money, in order to save people from getting parking tickets.

Occasionally, when they encounter an angry parking enforcer, they are prepared to film the situation with their smart phones.

When the Robin Hooders come across a car that already has a ticket on it, they will place some information on the person’s windshield, which provides tips on how to beat the ticket in court.

Robin Hood activist and radio show host Ian Freeman estimates that they prevented at least 8,000 tickets in 2013, saving Keene motorists an estimated $80,000 in that year alone. These savings have not gone unnoticed by the local government, who have become concerned about the revenue that they are missing out on.

In 2013, an amusing rivalry between the Robin Hood activists and city employees turned into a legal battle, when parking enforcers claimed that they felt “threatened”, and the city government filed a pair of lawsuits against six Keene activists accused of organizing many of the Robin Hood efforts.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Have you ever done this? I have.

Posted in Be The Maquis, Lighter fare | Tagged parking meters
20 Comments

Benedict XVI to Juventutem for Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage

Posted on 25 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

During the Mass last night at Ss. Trinità and today at San Pietro, a little bit of Benedict XVI’s message was read to the pilgrims. The message was more or less complete depending on the language of translation.

However, no reading was complete.

Namely….

I finally have time to thank you for your letter of last 21 August. I am glad that the Usus Antiquior now lives in full peace in the Church, also for young people, supported and celebrated by great Cardinals.

I will be with you spiritually. My state as “monk in secluded enclosure” does not permit also an external presence. I go out of my enclosure only in special cases, invited personally by the Pope.

In communion of prayer and of friendship,

Posted in Benedict XVI, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged Benedict XVI, Juventutem, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM
16 Comments

Father’s job is to say “No.”

Posted on 25 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I have been saying for a very long time now that the Pope’s first job is to say “No.”

The job of bishops, priests, fathers in general, is to say “No.”

Whether your children are plotting to make a go-cart that should be able to sail off the roof or your children are plotting to confuse the people of God with aberrant notions about the two natures of Christ (or Communion for the… well…), Father’s job is to say “No.” And as the erring children insist more loudly, Father’s response becomes more firm.

Sometimes I have been in situations wherein I have been challenged to perform liturgical abuses. At first, I give short answers: “No.” As the ex-nun liturgy coordinatrix continues to insist that that’s-how-they-do-it-here, I lengthen my explanation to “Noooooooo!”

And so I turn to Fr Hunwicke (whose prose is delightful). He has a great piece today wherein he riffs on Pope Francis’s now famous “Who am I to judge?” HERE

Here is a sample:

I have no problem with the idea of a pope who keeps anathemas under his camauro. A pontiff who issues a Syllabus of Errors seems to me a pontiff who is earning his paycheck. When Pio Nono, with the assent of Vatican I, issued his admirable negative, “The Holy Spirit was not promised to the Successors of Peter so that by his revelation they should reveal new teaching”, I would have applauded. Three cheers for the author of Pascendi Dominici gregis. Cardinal Ratzinger’s insistence that the Pope is but the humble servant of Tradition had me raising my glass to drink his toast. (Indeed, during his Pontificate I was rarely sober.)

I really wanted to post the whole thing, but I also want to force you over to his place to read the rest.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Francis, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged Fr. Hunwicke
18 Comments

Rome – Day 5: Procession, Pontifical Mass at St Peter’s #SumPont2014

Posted on 25 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage continues today with the procession to San Pietro from San Lorenzo in Damaso.

Follow on Twitter #SumPont2014

Some images.

Card. Burke did show, today. He did not have even the slightest hint of flu, Argentinian or other.

Before Mass, messages were read from Benedict XVI and from the Secretary of State on behalf of Pope Francis. Benedict’s was essentially what we heard before, namely, that he was with us spiritually. However, that’s all we heard in English and French. The Italian version was a little different. It included a paragraph about his monastic life, which didn’t allow for him to go out from the convent where he resides. I found that interesting. Yesterday evening, someone mentioned to me that Benedict doesn’t leave his place unless specifically invited by the Pope.

After Mass Card. Burke was pretty much mobbed.

Just for nice: one of my favorite altars in St. Peter’s.

UPDATE

Time for a quick supper at a favorite place, happily near where I am staying.

Posted in Benedict XVI, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, On the road, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, What Fr. Z is up to |
28 Comments

USArmy: Ebola virus can go airborne in low temperatures

Posted on 25 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Not good news from info wars.

U.S. ARMY: EBOLA GOES AIRBORNE ONCE TEMPERATURE DROPS
Ebola can go airborne but hasn’t in West Africa because it’s too warm, researchers conclude

Ebola can spread by air in cold, dry weather common to the U.S. but not West Africa, presenting a “possible, serious threat” to the public, according to two studies by U.S. Army scientists.

After successfully exposing monkeys to airborne Ebola, which “caused a rapidly fatal disease in 4-5 days,” scientists with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) concluded Ebola can spread through air but likely hasn’t in Equatorial Africa because the region is too warm, with temperatures rarely dropping below 65°F.

“We… demonstrated aerosol transmission of Ebola virus at lower temperature and humidity than that normally present in sub-Saharan Africa,” the 1995 study entitled Lethal Experimental Infections of Rhesus Monkeys by Aerosolized Ebola Virus reported. “Ebola virus sensitivity to the high temperatures and humidity in the thatched, mud, and wattle huts shared by infected family members in southern Sudan and northern Zaire may have been a factor limiting aerosol transmission of Ebola virus in the African epidemics.”

“Both elevated temperature and relative humidity have been shown to reduce the aerosol stability of viruses.”

The study also referred to the 1989 Ebola outbreak at a primate quarantine facility in Reston, Va., in which the virus rapidly spread between unconnected rooms.

“While infections in adjacent cages may have occurred by droplet contact, infections in distant cages suggests aerosol transmission, as evidence of direct physical contact with an infected source could not be established,” the study added.

It is interesting to note this outbreak occurred in December 1989, when temperatures in Reston were usually below freezing, and it’s unlikely the indoor temperature in the vast quarantine facility was much higher.

A 2012 study also by the USAMRIID, which exposed monkeys to an airborne filovirus similar to Ebola, reached a similar conclusion to the 1995 study.

“There is no strong evidence of secondary transmission by the aerosol route in African filovirus outbreaks; however, aerosol transmission is thought to be possible and may occur in conditions of lower temperature and humidity which may not have been factors in outbreaks in warmer climates,” the study entitled A Characterization of Aerosolized Sudan Virus Infection in African Green Monkeys, Cynomologus Macaques and Rhesus Macaques stated.

The study pointed out that filoviruses, which include Ebola and the Sudan virus used in this particular study, have stability in aerosol form comparable to influenza.

“Filoviruses in aerosol form are therefore considered a possible, serious threat to the health and safety of the public,” it added.

And the Pentagon took this threat of airborne filoviruses so seriously that it organized a Filovirus Medical Countermeasures Workshop with the Department of Health and Human Services in 2013.

“The DoD seeks a trivalent filovirus vaccine that is effective against aerosol exposure and protective against filovirus disease for at least one year,” the executive summary of the workshop stated.

The Pentagon’s concern with airborne Ebola runs contrary to health officials who claim the disease can’t spread through coughing and sneezing, but according to the Army studies, that may only be true in tropical climates.

“How much airborne transmission will occur will be a function of how well Ebola induces coughing and sneezing in its victims in cold weather climates,” the web site potrblog.com suggested. “Coughing and nasal bleeding are both reported symptoms in Africa, so the worst should be expected.”

More there.

If we do not ask for miracles, God will not grant them.

GO TO CONFESSION.

Be an intercessor.

Ask God to avert this terrible disease and the consequences it will bring.

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Pray For A Miracle, Semper Paratus, TEOTWAWKI, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged Ebola
25 Comments

What Archbp. Chaput really said about the Synod

Posted on 25 October 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This First Things piece is a must. It has many good points, so I urge you also to visit First Things and explore their combox, once some discussion gets underway there as well.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia spoke a prophetic word on Monday night at the 2014 Erasmus Lecture in New York. Actually, he spoke several prophetic words. The most powerful, the one that bears mentioning before I turn to the one that immediately concerns us here, was about our duty to the poor:

If we ignore the poor, we will go to hell. If we blind ourselves to their suffering, we will go to hell. If we do nothing to ease their burdens; then we will go to hell. Ignoring the needs of the poor among us is the surest way to dig a chasm of heartlessness between ourselves and God, and ourselves and our neighbors. [Pretty clear.]

This searing spiritual challenge was the heart of Chaput’s talk, but because our press is less concerned with the poor’s suffering than the rich’s interminable debates over sex, these words weren’t highlighted. Instead, attention centered on Chaput’s comments on the recent Synod on the Family in Rome.

David Gibson of Religion News Service [which to me seems rarely to read events in the Church with an objective stance] wrote an article that suggested Chaput had denounced the Synod in unequivocal terms as “of the devil.” The headline, likely not picked by Gibson but certainly reflecting the tone of his article, said that Chaput had “blasted” the Synod.

In fact, Chaput denounced its public image while saying he would need to hear more from his brother bishops who actually attended before forming a firm opinion. As I told David O’Reilly of the Philadelphia Inquirer, there was no criticism of Pope Francis. Chaput did, however, offer the deliciously prophetic warning alluded to at the beginning of this post. His words?

“To get your information from the press is a mistake.” [This is also why I think the Catholic blogosphere, though flawed and limited, is vital, now more than ever. We have an alternate information stream.]

* * *

Below is the full text of Chaput’s remarks on the Synod (watch the video here; relevant portion begins at 56:00).

Audience member: Thank you for your splendid lecture. I would be very grateful for your comments on the recent Synod on the Family in Rome.

Chaput: Well, first of all, I wasn’t there. That’s very significant, because to claim you know what really happened when you weren’t there is foolish. To get your information from the press is a mistake because they don’t know well enough how to understand it so they can tell people what happened. I don’t think the press deliberately distorts, they just don’t have any background to be able to evaluate things. In some cases they’re certainly the enemy and they want to distort the Church.

Now, having said all that, I was very disturbed by what happened. I think confusion is of the devil, and I think the public image that came across was of confusion. Now, I don’t think that was the real thing there. I’m anxious to hear from Bishop Kurtz. Bishop Kurtz and the Byzantine bishop of Pittsburgh were the two Americans who were our delegates there. Cardinal Dolan was there and Cardinal Wuerl because they’re part of the organization body of the Synod. But every country’s president of the bishop’s conference attended, and then they have representatives from the Eastern Church. That’s why Bishop Skurla was there from Pittsburgh.

I want to hear from them. Then you can ask me the question and I can give you a better answer. Now, I read about it in the same blogs you do. There’s no doubt that the Church has a clear position: on what marriage means and that you don’t receive communion unless you’re in communion with the teachings of Christ, that gay marriage is not a possibility in God’s plan and therefore can’t be a reality in our lives. There’s no doubt about any of that. I think when it’s all said we have to be charitable toward people who disagree with us and we certainly welcome into the Church sinners. I’m one, and they usually welcome me when I come to the parishes.

I think we have to be better at reaching out to divorced Catholics so they don’t think that they’re immediately excluded from the Church because they’ve been divorced and remarried. Some people think that even when they get a divorce they’re not welcome in the Church. So I think we need to work on that.

We have deep respect for people with same-sex attraction, but we can’t pretend that they’re welcome on their own terms. None of us are welcome on our own terms in the Church; we’re welcome on Jesus’ terms. That’s what it means to be a Christian—you submit yourself to Jesus and his teaching, you don’t recreate your own body of spirituality.

I’m not fundamentally worried because I believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church. The last report at the end was certainly much better than the interim listing of the topics that were talked about.