QUAERITUR: Priesthood ordination customs

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a seminarian:

As ordination season is fast approaching, I am hoping you can enlighten me concerning a custom relating to priestly ordinations which has become a topic of discussion among seminarians of late. Specifically, I am wondering whether you know how long the custom of a newly-ordained priest giving his mother the maniturgium [manutergium] (or other cloth) with the oils from his consecrated hands, AND how long the custom of giving to his father the stole used to hear his “first” Confession, have existed. Any information would be most helpful and appreciative.

I never had the chance to do these things.

However, I will open this up for responses and comments especially from priests and bishops.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged , , , ,
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ACTION ITEM! The “Soap Sisters” have a new Store: The Cloister Shoppe

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Dominican Nuns in Summit, NJ, the “Soap Sisters” (they have a lot more than just soap) have set up a new store.

They depend in great part in the sales of their products.  Therefore, when you buy soap and other things from them, you are helping them.

Click the image below to go to their new store.

Dominican Nuns Store

They have samplers, books, postcards and prints, and – this could be pretty useful – gift certificates.

Furthermore, they now have an affiliate program. When you help the nuns by buying their stuff, you are also helping me. This is a similar model to that used by the Carmelite men in Wyoming, with their Mystic Monk Coffee.

I had a note from Sister after I posted here their classy note to me (here).  Sister wrote:

Dear Fr. Z,

Pax Christi!

When our little store suddenly gets a lot of orders I get suspicious.
I know this is hard to take but I don’t read your blog everyday! [REPENT!]
(There are quite a few OP Nun followers, btw!) Sure enough you posted a really lovely entry about our soap and more importantly about our life. THANK YOU!
It was posted for all the Sisters to read! It encouraged the novices who are the soap nuns and gave a little “push” to our prayer for you!

Bottom line… when you have gifts to give or hands to wash or faces to be shaved, remember the Dominican Nuns in Summit, NJ who need your help.

Encourage them in their new initiative by a sudden influx of orders!  Boost their moral!

I am going to send something to my mother.

UPDATE: 17:27 GMT:

I completed an order.  It is a tiny bit clunky if you are using paypal.  If you get into a jam, just clear everything, add  it again, and take another run at it.  It’ll work.  If you have any comments or questions in the order process, there is a comment box.

Also, I see that their top seller is “Caribbean Coconut Shea Butter & Glycerin Soap”… though that is not what I bought my mother.

UPDATE 14 Jan 01:28 GMT:

As a commentator added below,

“And they’re quick!”

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged , ,
4 Comments

QUAERITUR: Should priests with effeminate manners work to correct them?

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I hope you will not take this the wrong way but given certain sad realities of our time, do you think priests who are unusually effeminate in manner (e.g. speech) should work to minimize this aspect of their personality? Just the other day my wife’s friend told her she’s fairly certain her pastor is homosexual, but I have known of him for a number a years and am certain he is a holy, orthodox, priest. In fact, she also related how he alienated a good number of parishioners when he first came to their typically-liberal parish, which I take as a sign of his faithfulness.

Yes.

Alas, I think very few people have a clear understanding of their own quirks of manners and ways.  And this would be an extremely difficult, delicate, dangerous work of fraternal correction, for a priest friend or other to point out these traits.

This is also complicated by the fact that the entertainment industry has relentlessly tried to run down priests and the priesthood, to distort the very concept of priest in the minds of… well… everyone who watches movies and television.

But, yes.  I think a priest who comes to realize that people may be thinking he is homosexual because of his manners and traits of speech should undertake the arduous work to correct them.

I’ll leave the combox closed. People can email comments to me and I will consider them as it may be opportune.

UPDATE 14 Jan:

I’ll make it possible to post comments, but they will all be filtered through the moderation queue. I will probably release only a few, and those well-thought and not repetitive.

Posted in Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged ,
6 Comments

Democrat Catholic Governor of Washington State now supports contrary to nature “marriage”

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at CatholicVote I saw that yet another Catholic Democrat has abandoned her Catholic identity on what will be the bitterest, and eventually violent, issue of the war on morals and religion in the public square and attacks on the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Democrat Governor of the State of Washington has caved on “same-sex marriage”.

Washington state’s Governor Christine Gregoire, a Catholic and a Democrat, has been talking about her decision to support same-sex marriage marriage as a journey. “I’ve been on my own personal journey with this issue and I think the state has been as well,” she said in a recent interview with Seattle’s PBS station. You can watch the interview here: [A good example of what I call Sin by Struggle.  If you “Struggle” with something, you are exonerated when you go ahead and do what you know is wrong.]

A notable comment from Gregoire:

I’ve sorted out, for me, what was a religious barrier, [The operative word is probably “out”…] to come to understand [What wisdom will she reveal?] as a former attorney general now governor, and a religious person, that I can respect and honor the religious freedom of all the faiths in Washington state to decide whether they want to marry someone or not, but what I cannot accept and promote or tolerate is the state of Washington refusing to issue a license to a couple simply because of their sexual orientation … the journey is over for me, I feel better than I’ve felt in seven years, to be honest with you.  [Well… it’s all about how good you feel about yourself, Governor Gregoire.]

[…]

Gregoire’s journey included a conversation with Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, a conversation she called “very good, very respectful, and very appropriate.” Very interesting timing, too. That the chat took place the day before Gregoire’s announcement speaks volumes about its purpose. She wasn’t looking for input or help with discernment; it was an “FYI” call, and nothing more.

[She continues…] I have talked to the Archbishop, I called him the day before I made the announcement, and I’ve talked to my own priest. I have sorted my way through this. I can honor the religious beliefs of my faith [Note that she says “honor”, not “believe”.] and all faiths in Washington state, but as government, as the state, we cannot be in the business of discrimination. [She abandons natural law and her Faith and morphs this into a civil rights issue.]

Gregoire is either oblivious to her obligation as a Catholic holding public office, or she has performed some incredible feats of mental gymnastics to conclude that supporting same-sex marriage doesn’t defy her religious beliefs.

[…]

Read the rest of the vile business over there.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , , ,
39 Comments

“FREEEDOOOOOM!”

Posted on 13 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For the Just Too Cool file, I read on The History Blog that the only surviving documents connected to William Wallace are returning to Scotland.

Included is the Lübeck Letter and is the only surviving document we have that was written by William Wallace himself and it has his personal seal.

Read more over there.

Posted in Just Too Cool | Tagged ,
9 Comments

Will the NeoCat liturgy obtain papal approval?

Posted on 12 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sandro Magister reports:

“Placet” or “Non placet”? The wager of Carmen and Kiko

The founders of the Neocatechumenal Way aim to obtain definitive Vatican approval for their “convivial” way of celebrating the Mass. The document is ready. But it could be modified or blocked in extremis. The verdict on January 20

[…]

Read the rest there.

*sigh*

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged
60 Comments

Nigeria: More Christians killed, probably by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram

Posted on 12 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From CWN:

Gunmen kill 4 Nigerian Christians

Gunmen on the outskirts of Potiskum, a northeastern Nigerian city of 200,000, have killed four Christians who were fleeing the area in the wake of previous attacks. The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the latest attack.

Posted in Modern Martyrs, The future and our choices | Tagged , , , ,
19 Comments

QUAERITUR: Pastor says he can waive requirement of regularizing marital situation.

Posted on 12 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I am in the process of converting from the Anglican tradition to the
Catholic Church. The priest of the church where I am taking RCIA has told me that he has the pastoral prerogative to waive the requirement to regularize my marriage to a divorced man. I think this is incorrect, but how do I respectfully disagree with him without seeming priggish and ungrateful? I’m far from an expert on Canon law, but I feel that he is allowing me to sneak into the Church. I want to be
faithful and obedient, and I am not looking for loopholes. Am I being
overly-scrupulous, as my Catholic friends say? Should I start over
with RCIA in the other church in the parish, while simultaneously
submitting to the Tribunal? Or should I continue to attend Mass in
this church but tactfully say “I’m not ready to enter this Easter;
I’ll wait for a declaration of nullity before formal entry into the
Church”. I don’t want to come across as “holier than thou”, but my
conscience is troubled.

Your conscience is rightly troubled.  At the same time you are to be commended for wanting to do the right thing.

There is no “prerogative” that permits a priest to dispense from constitutive law (c. 86), and “one spouse at a time” is certainly constitutive of marriage!

I suggest that you make phone call to the diocesan tribunal and ask for a canonist. Don’t just talk about this with the receptionist.  State that you are planning on becoming Catholic, that your husband was married previously, and that your pastor informed you that he has the prerogative to waive the requirement of regularizing your marital situation.  Tell the canonist of the tribunal that you can’t find any evidence of that in your reading of canon law. That should be sufficient to get the ball rolling.

You are not being uppity to expect the pastor to abide by the law of the Church.

Your actions may also prevent other people – perhaps of less sensitive conscience as you – from being duped.

Be prepared for the possibility that your husband’s prior marriage may not be able to be declared null.

That would be a huge cross to bear, but the truth of the matter is worth knowing as you make your way home to the Catholic Church.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
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Green ‘stations’ of the… earth?

Posted on 12 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Secularists will eventually make environmentalism a key component of their religion.

Do we have to help them? Even as we erode our own Catholic identity?

I read this on the site of the best Catholic weekly in the UK, The Catholic Herald.

Students visit green ‘stations’

Students at a school in West Yorkshire embark on a climate change walk designed with 11 “Stations of the Environment”

Over the past few years, students and staff from St Mary’s Catholic High School in Menston, West Yorkshire, have been involved in a project aiming to raise awareness about the effects of climate change on the world’s poorest people and the impact our lifestyles have on the environment.

To help the campaign, Francis McCrickard of the Myddelton Grange team and Shelagh Fawcett, co-ordinator of Leeds diocese Justice and Peace Commission, came up with the idea of a climate change walk of “Stations of the Environment” about the land surrounding Myddelton Grange Centre.

The result is 11 “stations”, or stopping points, each with a beautifully designed board containing local and global information as well as spiritual reflections. The walk takes people not only on a journey through the extensive woodland and farmland of Myddelton but also on a much deeper journey. Each station gives information about its location but also makes connections with the global reality of climate change and invites a spiritual reflection.

St Mary’s pupils and staff have been involved in the project from the outset. Commenting on the student involvement Shelagh Fawcett said: “It is great to see our young people so passionate about creating a more just world and to witness their creativity in encouraging us all to recognise what we can do to make a difference.”

The climate change walk was officially opened by Kris Hopkins, MP for Keighley and Ilkley, who said: “It was a wonderful privilege to be asked to officially open the walk. The fact that more than 8,000 trees have been planted thus far is a remarkable achievement. They will serve as a great legacy for generations to come and, of course, have a positive impact on the local environment. It was particularly fitting that the opening was timed to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban. I am proud that the current Government has committed itself to supporting international development at levels greater than any of its predecessors and, working alongside agencies such as Cafod, much good work is being done.

“I look forward to visiting the walk again in the future and would like to congratulate everyone at Myddelton Grange for what they have achieved.”

It seems to me that using the model of “Stations of the Cross” this was introduces a confusing element in our Catholic identity.

Am I wrong?

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , ,
46 Comments

Wherein the reader is directed to click a link and be edified.

Posted on 11 January 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A reader forwarded me something which was forwarded to him which was reposted by NLM which was from the St. Louis Dispatch, about a church renovation Memphis… Tennessee, not Egypt.

Apart from obvious merits of my sender, or the esteemed talents of his sender, or the praiseworthy characteristics of NLM or the professional achievements of the paper, the curiosity this startling news should arouse in you will be rewarded, should you determine that the aforementioned article is not to be bypassed in favour of any other pressing though ephemeral distraction, with the reading of a succinct paragraph which includes an unlikely triplet of words that could only have been penned by one such as that bicentenarian wordsmith Charles Dickens, perhaps as the introductory title of a chapter:

The pastor, Msgr. John McArthur was very instrumental in the redesign. Victor Buchholz, of the firm of Looney Ricks Kiss in Memphis, was the principal architect.

Believe me when I say that I remain, dear readers, your most humble, devoted, etc.

Posted in Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 | Tagged
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