Pres. Obama to Catholic Church: “You may kiss my…”

I picked this up from the young Peters, who has been doing a great job of keeping track of developments.

A cartoon by Michael Ramirez:

And then there’s:

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Triumph in Miami

On 2 February, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there was a Pontifical Mass in Miami, celebrated by His Excellency Most Rev. Thomas Wenski.

Before I get to the liturgical eye-candy and some commentary on the meaning of this Mass, Archbp. Wenski said in his sermon:

Today, the witness of the Church on behalf of the dignity and right to life of the human person from the first moment of conception till natural death is itself a “sign that will be contradicted” – and is in fact contradicted in the present mandate of the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate to deny a religious exemption to Catholic institutions and thus force us to violate our consciences and to make us accomplices in evil.

WDTPRS kudos!

A couple shots from the website of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Archbp. Wenski

And

Archdiocese of Miami

On the Archdiocesan website, there is some commentary from Father Chris Marino, pastor of St. Michael Church in Miami. Among the helpful things he said is this:

“What’s happening tonight should give us an indication of what should be happening in our parishes every Sunday — the dignity, the solemnity, the pageantry, if you will. But it’s not about entertaining people, it’s about worshiping God, along with the tradition and continuity of the faith throughout the ages.”

Spot on.

In a “liturgical aid” issued to clerics participating “in choir” there is an interesting note which touches on something I have been talking about ever since Summorum Pontificum was issued in 2007.

“”All priests are welcome to attend. This wonderful celebration is an opportunity to experience beautiful music in its intended spiritual setting, but also to be immersed in the rich symbolism of the Tridentine Mass. It is the Archbishop’s hope that this event will serve as a means for “mutual enrichment,” as Pope Benedict XVI has noted, between the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite. By becoming more familiar with and deeply rooted in the Mass of the 1962 Missale Romanum, we can better understand the Missale Romanum of Pope Paul VI and its accompanying ars celebrandi.

The provisions of Summorum Pontificum are needed today not just to promote the wide-spread use of the pre-Conciliar forms, but also to teach those who use mainly the Novus Ordo something about a proper ars celebrandi consistent with our Roman tradition, our Catholic identity.

In other words, as one of my correspondents put it, “the last sentence (in the quote above) crystallizes Pope Benedict’s primary reason Summorum Pontificum — to rescue the Mass of Paul VI from the ‘deformations’ to which it has almost universally been subjected.”

For a video of the Mass go HERE.

Play
Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Brick by Brick, Fr. Z KUDOS, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
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Sunday Breakfast

I like to have a big breakfast once in a while, usually Saturday.

Here is one with a few nice features.

First, I have Mystic Monk Coffee in a “Save The Liturgy Save The World” mug. I used a “French Press“, in honor of my English friends where these gizmos seem to be the preferred method of making coffee.

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Also, I have two eggs in a coddler. You coat the inside with butter and add your seasoning together with the eggs (which I got from a nearby farm) and then, after screwing the cap onto the porcelain coddler, it is placed in simmering water. This is a slow method, which allows you to do some other things, such as fry your bacon and toast your English muffin. It seems to me that coddlers, since they are a slow prep method and keep the contents warm, would be ideal for a breakfast tray. I have written about this thing before.

I usually slam breakfast down in a hurry and not rarely even skip it. It is nice once in a while to take your time.

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Movie night

I am settling in for a movie and supper.  Tonight I’ll watch an old favorite, the 1998 Les Miserables with Geoffrey Rush as Javert and Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean.  No movie would get everything that Victor Hugo pressed into his pages (it is one of the only full novels I have ever read in French – I also read Notre-Dame de Paris and it was like torture, the French was so much harder), and there are lots of changes to the novel for its filmification.

Hugos’s digression about Waterloo in Les Miserables (not in the film) is amazing, up there with the mighty digression about the plague in Milan in I promessi sposi.  But I digress.

There are pathetic moments in Les Miserables, in the sense of pathos, and the film captures the social conditions of the time, the tenuous nature of women in the era, the extremities of justice without mercy versus human and Christian mercy and compassion.  And of course there is tale to be told here about what happens where there is hierarchy for the sake of hierarchy based on wrong notions entirely.

Great film.  Geoffrey Rush is, as usual, brilliant.  He captures rigid obsession with frightening impact.

Here is an excerpt of a pivotal moment when the old bishop ransoms Valjean’s soul from bitterness and ultimate despair.

Valjean, a convict of 19 years of hard labor for stealing and just paroled, is taken in for a night by the bishop of a place.  Valjean steals the bishop’s silver and knocks the bishop out when he comes to investigate. He flees.

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BTW… later in the movie there are some liturgically incorrect (absurd) scenes of Mass and a clothing of postulants.  And the actors/clergy sure ain’t French.  You can tell that the people who made the film had no historical sense when it came to the Church.  Thus, we see that pagans think the Church doesn’t change things very much over time and therefore the way we do things now must be the way they did things in the early 19th century.  And thus, enters Claire Danes to replace the sweet little girl who played Cosette.

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1st Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday

We have come to 1st Vespers of Septugesima Sunday already.  It seems like just the day before yesterday that the Christmas cycle ended.

No.  Wait… it did.

Here is something for the brethren if they need to fulfill their obligation and are weary.

This is the last time we hear the “Alleluia” for a while.  The “Alleluia” is effectively buried after 1st Vespers of Septuagesima.  Tomorrow we will say the “Laus tibi Domine” instead.

Posted in PRAYERCAzT: What Does The (Latin) Prayer Really Sound L |
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QUAERITUR: Priest changes “many” to “all” in the consecration.

From a priest:

I was concelebrating a Mass last week (N.O., in English) and the principal celebrant substituted the word ‘all’ for ‘many’ at the consecration. I gather he does this at every Mass he offers. Does that change render the Mass invalid and/or illicit?

See how annoying concelebration can be? Concelebration should be safe, legal and rare.

Ad rem: No, his illicit and abusive changing of the words of consecration did not in this case invalidate the consecration.  Furthermore, it was a concelebration.

However, if the priest does this all the time, his pastor (if he is an assistant) and the local bishop should be informed. It could be useful to send a copy to the Congregation for Divine Worship.

The issue of pro multis was and still is very controversial. If a priest were during the Gloria to make a substitution and say “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to MEN of good will” instead of the dopey choice made by ICEL and the Holy See for “on earth peace to PEOPLE of good will”, that would be wrong, but it wouldn’t be as bad as changing the words of consecration. BTW… my objection to “people of good will” is that the two-syllable word destroys the flow of the sentence. They really needed a one syllable word, but I digress.

Priests are bound to stick to the texts in the books.

However, it is still possible that, even after a few months, a priest will slip and use the obsolete ICEL texts from memory. We shouldn’t be worried about a slip here and there.   But if a priest is regularly changing the words of consecration – especially after all the controversy over that very point – he has stepped over the line. He must stop what he is doing or be stopped by proper authority.

Finally, may I suggest that you send Father a gift of one of my Say The Black Do The Red “New Translation” edition coffee mugs?  Maybe he needs a reminder that there is now a new translation. Perhaps with some Mystic Monk Coffee?

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests | Tagged , ,
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Nix

The webcam pointed at St. Peter’s Square in Rome shows something I only saw a couple times in all my years in Rome.

San Pietro

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Catholic Military Archdiocese and Chaplains interfered with last Sunday by Pres. Obama’s Administration

Pres. Obama is at war with the Catholic Church.

On NRO, I read this:

Army Silenced Chaplains Last Sunday
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
February 3, 2012 4:58 P.M.

In Catholic churches across the country, parishioners were read letters from the pulpit this weekend from bishops in their diocese about the mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services giving Catholics a year before they’ll be required to start violating their consciences on insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. But not in the Army.

A statement released this afternoon — which happens to be the 67th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Dorchester, on which four chaplains lost their lives – from the Archdiocese for Military Services explains:

On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels. The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.

The Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains subsequently sent an email to senior chaplains advising them that the Archbishop’s letter was not coordinated with that office and asked that it not be read from the pulpit. The Chief’s office directed that the letter was to be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed in printed form in the back of the chapel.

Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.

Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop’s letter. Additionally, the line: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law” was removed by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.

The AMS did not receive any objections to the reading of Archbishop Broglio’s statement from the other branches of service. [Just the Army.]

So not only were chaplains told not to read the letter, but an Obama administration official edited a pastoral letter . . . with church buy-in?

Didn’t people flee across an ocean-sized pond to be free of this kind of thing?

Lopez also had an update:

An update on the silencing of the chaplains post from earlier: A spokesman for the Army tells National Review Online:

the Army became aware of the Archbishop’s letter last Friday (Jan. 27) and was concerned that the letter contained language that might be misunderstood in a military setting. The Army asked that the letter not be read from the pulpit. Instead, the letter would have been referenced in announcements and made available in the back of the chapel for the faithful, if they wished, as they departed after the Mass. The Army greatly appreciates the Archbishop’s consideration of the military’s perspective and is satisfied with the resolution upon which they agreed.

I’ll grant that a call to disobedience in the military is not good.

However, why just the Army?

What is there about the Army’s culture that is different?

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Priests and Priesthood, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , , , ,
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Hugh Hewitt interviewed Sen. Santorum about Pres. Obama’s attack on the Church. Santorum scores big.

I like radio guy Hugh Hewitt (whom I listen to on 1280 AM “The Patriot”).  On Wednesday I heard him interview Rick Santorum.  The issue of Pres. Obama’s attack on the Catholic Church and 1st Amendment came up and Santorum hit a home run.

Mr. Hewitt has a transcript.  Please go there to read the whole thing and spike his stats.  And tell him Fr. Z sent you. (I really would appreciate it if you would, too.  He links to WDTPRS on his side bar under the “Friends and Allies of Rome” rubric! Fun!)

Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

[…]

RS: I talked about it in every speech I’ve given today. And here’s what I said, though, Hugh. I said that I took issue with the Catholic Bishops Conference, because Hugh, you may remember, they embraced Obamacare.

HH: Yes.

RS: They embraced it and said…here’s what I said to them. Be careful when you have government saying that they can give you rights, that you have a right to health care, and government’s going to give you something, because once you are now dependant on government, they, not only can they take that right away, they can tell you how to exercise that right, and you can either like it or not. And that’s the problem. That’s what the Catholic Bishops Conference didn’t get, that there’s no free lunch here, folks. If you’re going to give people secular power, then they’re going to use it in a secular fashion. And that’s why, you know, I hate to say it, but you know, you had it coming. And it’s time to wake up and realize that government isn’t the answer to the social ills. It’s people of faith, and it’s families, and it’s communities, and it’s charities that need to do this as it has in America so successfully for so long.

HH: Rick Santorum, what do you advise Catholic hospitals, Catholic colleges, Catholic…the centers of poverty assistance, the adoption agencies? What do you advise them to do in the face of, as Archbishop Olmstead said, we cannot comply with this unjust law?

RS: Civil disobedience. This will not stand. There’s no way they can make this stand. The Supreme Court, eventually, this thing’s going to get to the Supreme Court just like the ministerial hiring issue that was just decided by the Supreme Court the other day. And it was a 9-0 decision that said the Obama administration can’t roll over people of faith when it comes to hiring. Yet in the face of that decision, this radical, secular government of Barack Obama continues to have faith be the least important of the 1st Amendment. And I just think they fight. They fight in the courts, and they fight by civil disobedience, and go to war with the federal government over this one.
[…]

Posted in Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , ,
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Pres. Obama “breakfast theologian”

Pres. Obama says he is a Christian.  Okay.  He spent a long time listening to Black Liberation Theology.  I think everyone should be familiar with Black Liberation Theology.  It might help you understand the President.

In any event, Pres. Obama spoke at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.  The transcript and video.  HERE.

The President’s desire to redistribute your money is so strong that he tried to make a theological argument based on a citation of Scripture.  He said:

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.” It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.

He quoted Luke 12:48, which is in the Lord’s followup to His parable about the faithful, vigilant servant who is ready when the master comes home. I am so glad that he did not have the temerity to quote the next line: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (And speaking of Kindle…. HERE.)

POTUS wants to make this into an argument for higher taxes.

What the President seems not to have grasped is that the one doing the giving and the requiring is GOD. The context is the Second Coming of the Lord at the end of the world or our own death when we meet the Judge.

May I suggest you take a moment to read all of …

Luke 12:

And when great multitudes stood about him, so that they trod one upon another, he began to say to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers, shall be preached on the housetops.

And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows.

And I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but to him that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they shall bring you into the synagogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say; For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you must say.

And one of the multitude said to him: Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him: Man, who hath appointed me judge, or divider, over you? And he said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth.

And he spoke a similitude to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer. But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. And he said to his disciples: Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. Now if God clothe in this manner the grass that is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more you, O ye of little faith? And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.

And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?

And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk: The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers. And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more. I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And he said also to the multitudes: When you see a cloud rising from the west, presently you say: A shower is coming: and so it happeneth: And when ye see the south wind blow, you say: There will be heat: and it cometh to pass. You hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the heaven and of the earth: but how is it that you do not discern this time? And why even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just? And when thou goest with thy adversary to the prince, whilst thou art in the way, endeavour to be delivered from him: lest perhaps he draw thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the exacter, and the exacter cast thee into prison. I say to thee, thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite.

The next parable the Lord tells is about the wise and foolish virgins.

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