Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

10-13 August PERSEID METEOR SHOWER and SUPERMOON

Posted on 9 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Are you ready for the “Tears of St. Lawrence”? This is a nickname for the Perseid Meteor Shower. Each year your Earth passes in its orbit around your Yellow Sun through dust and debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that the Perseid Meteors are called the “Tears of St. Lawrence” just because they coincided with the Feast of St. Lawrence. With that hyphenated name, this comet is surely a liberal comet, which is why it makes St. Lawrence cry… see? You knew there was a better explanation. But I digress.

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower is upon us. From SpaceWeather:

PERSEID METEOR UPDATE The Perseid meteor shower is underway as Earth moves into the debris stream of parent comet Swift-Tuttle. According to the International Meteor Organization, the constellation Perseus is now spitting out meteors at a rate of about 20 per hour. In a normal year, those rates would increase 4- or 5-fold as the shower reaches its peak on August 12-13. But this is no normal year. In 2014, the glare of a supermoon will interfere with Perseid visibility, capping visible meteor rates at no more than ~30 per hour.

Now for the good news: The Perseids are rich in fireballs, and many of those extra-bright meteors can be seen in spite of the lunar glare.

But this year we have also a Supermoon. The moon will be at perigee, some 14% larger and 30% brighter. Not great for meteor watching, but this is very cool. There are several Supermoons this year.

Here is a video to watch with your kids. Get them interested in the sky!

And Supermoon and the Perseids:

Watching the great show of the night sky can plant powerful lifetime-lasting memories. Don’t underestimate the power of a moment of rousing up sleepy children to go out and see something in the night sky!

My own memories include, as a boy, going out onto a frozen lake in the dead of winter where there was almost zero ambient light to sully the velvet backdrop and seeing a comet for the first time. I watched the Perseids with my mother a few years ago when she came to visit at the ol’ Sabine Farm. Once I lay upon my back on a terrace overlooking the amphiteatre of ancient Cumae and counted the Lagrime di San Lorenzo.

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! | Tagged "Supermoon", moon illusion, perigee, Perseids
4 Comments

Why Fr. Z harasses you to GO TO CONFESSION!

Posted on 9 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Friends, examine your consciences daily and go to confession regularly.

We are going to get God’s justice whether we want it or not. But, while we still live, His mercy is for the asking.

You are going along… doodee doodee dooo… and you catch a glimpse of something from the corner of y

BAM!

You do not know at what moment you may be called by the Lord, the Just Judge, the King of Fearful Majesty, to account for your life.

Watch to the end. It is short.

These people had a close call. It could have gone otherwise.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Four Last Things, GO TO CONFESSION | Tagged confession, Four Last Things, sacrament of penance
4 Comments

Number of American Nuns plunging

Posted on 9 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I saw this at the Pew Research Center:

U.S. nuns face shrinking numbers and tensions with the Vatican

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which includes representation from more than 80% of American nuns, [The key is “from”. The LCWR is only comprised of “leaders”, not of the individual members of different communities.] is set to hold its annual assembly next week in Nashville. [They denied me credentials.] The meeting comes as the organization continues to draw scrutiny from the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, and also at a time when there has been a steep decline in the number of nuns. [Huge losses in numbers. And the average age is soaring, such that the graph will soon look like the trajectory of an anvil dropped from an airplane.]

The Vatican first began taking a hard look at some organizations of U.S. nuns about five years ago, eventually ordering an investigation and a “doctrinal assessment” of the LCWR – and a plan for organizational reform. [That assessment is not concerned with whether or not sisters live in apartments or wear habits, and such. It concerns doctrine, formation.]

While the church’s specific concerns with the nuns are complex, a few major areas were highlighted in a 2012 Vatican document, which said the LCWR was “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death” and that Roman Catholic views on the family and human sexuality “are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.” The document also raised concerns about “radical feminist themes” at programs sponsored by the LCWR, and cited addresses at LCWR assemblies that “manifest problematic statements and serious theological, even doctrinal errors.” [Look at the speakers the LCWR has had over the last few years.]

More recently, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, criticized the LCWR in an April address before a meeting with the organization and reiterated the Vatican’s intention to require approval for speakers and awardees at LCWR events. [The LCWR ignored the Congregation this year. That didn’t go over well.]

In addition to Vatican scrutiny, nuns also face a big challenge in their dwindling ranks. The total number of nuns, also called religious sisters, in the United States has fallen from roughly 180,000 in 1965 to about 50,000 in 2014 – a 72% drop over those 50 years – according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. While the total number of priests (diocesan and religious) also has fallen over that period, it has done so at a much slower rate (from about 59,000 to 38,000, a 35% drop).

Globally, the number of nuns also is declining, but not nearly as fast as it is in the U.S. [What, then, are the sisters in these USA doing wrong… or rather, wronger?] In 1970, U.S. nuns represented about 16% of the world’s religious sisters; now, American nuns are about 7% of the global total (just over 700,000), also according to CARA.

A 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that U.S. Catholics were widely satisfied with the leadership of American nuns and sisters. Half of the Catholics surveyed (50%) said they were “very satisfied,” while an additional 33% said they were “somewhat satisfied” with nuns’ leadership. Only 4% said they were “very dissatisfied.” [Denial is not just a river in Egypt.]

A separate survey we conducted in 2013 asked U.S. Catholics, in an open-ended question, to name the most important way the church helps society: helping the poor – part of the core mission of the LCWR – or other charitable works, was by far the most popular answer (27%).

So, their groups are dying off. Pretty sad.

And, this year, they have decided to hide behind closed door.

Posted in Liberals, The Drill, The future and our choices, Women Religious | Tagged CARA, LCWR, Pew Research, women religious
27 Comments

Are you annoyed by webpages that play videos automatically? Solution!

Posted on 9 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A happy tip of the biretta to one of the smartest talk radio show personalities in these USA, Vicki McKenna for the following. Thank you! Thank you!

I pick this up from one of her tweets:

ANNOYED by websites that AUTOPLAY videos? Here’s how to disable the feature on most browsers. http://t.co/c5tc95Sg1t

— Vicki Mckenna (@VickiMcKenna) August 8, 2014

Click HERE

Also, you can follow me on Twitter… I’m just sayin’…

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Fr. Z KUDOS | Tagged autoplay, Vicki McKenna, videos, webpages
10 Comments

IRAQ: Watching with horror, prayers, concern.

Posted on 8 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

First, I am convinced that what is going on in Iraq is going to have dangerous consequences for us here in these USA and for Western Europe. Prepare your minds and gird yourselves.

Pres. Obama flippantly called these heavily-armed and successfully murdering savages the “JV team”. JV TEAM?

I have followed quite a few stories about the horrific actions of ISIS or whatever its called this week. Islamic terrorists killing people. Pewsitter has been a good source for links about the plight of Christians. I also give props to Rorate for a few important items.

Tonight a priest friend sent this, which I hadn’t seen elsewhere:

Anglican Vicar of Baghdad: ‘Child I baptized cut in half by ISIS’

[Anglican Communion News Service] The five-year-old son of a founding member of Baghdad’s Anglican church was cut in half during an attack by the Islamic State on the Christian town of Qaraqosh.
In an interview Aug. 8, an emotional Canon Andrew White told ACNS that he christened the boy several years ago, and that the child’s parents had named the lad Andrew after him.
“I’m almost in tears because I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half,” he said. “I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me – he was called Andrew.”
The fact that Andrew’s brother was named George after St George’s Anglican Church in Iraq’s capital demonstrates the strong ties the family had to the church there. The boy’s father had been a founder member of the church back in 1998 when the Canon had first come to Baghdad. White added, “This man, before he retired north to join his family was the caretaker of the Anglican church.”
Baghdad is part of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, which is included in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, a member church of the Anglican Communion.
Though the move north should have proved safer for the Iraqi Christian family, the Islamic State made sure that it became a place of terror. “This town of Qaraqosh is a Christian village so they knew everybody there was part of their target group,” said White. “They [the Islamic State] attacked the whole of the town. They bombed it, they shot at people.”
The Islamic State group captured Qaraqosh overnight Aug. 6/7 after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.

[…]

The world is getting crazy dangerous, folks. I don’t know about you, but we are going to see terrible things here, in the aftermath of what is happening there.

Pray for these poor people.

Meanwhile… more from the Religion of Peace HERE:

ISIS Sets Up Sex Slave Market to Sell Hundreds of Christian Women

[…]

Witnesses reported that, of the 500 Christian women abducted from Mosul alone, the ones who were deemed attractive were taken to ISIS princes to be their personal sex slaves.

Shoebat.com translated a statement from Red Crescent spokesman Mohammad Khuzai:

“Elements of ISIS kidnapped women from the Yezidis and Christian as Sabaya (war booty slaves), and subjected them to be sold.”

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

Posted in Mail from priests, Modern Martyrs, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, The Religion of Peace, Urgent Prayer Requests | Tagged Iraq, ISIS, Islam, Islamic State, Religion of Peace, Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, terrorists
16 Comments

Stunning unexpected support for Fr. Z’s request for LCWR credentials!

Posted on 8 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

As you know, I was recently crushed by the LCWR’s second rejection.

I had reached out in hope. I had applied, again, for media credentials for the upcoming LCWR assembly in Nashville. They have rebuffed, again, my application.

“Where’s their prophetic spirit?”, I cried, more from hurt than from surprise. “What are they afraid of?” You read of my anguish HERE.

Today, I found that my pain is shared, and by an unexpected corner.

Tom Fox of the National Schismatic Reporter (aka Fishwrap) stands with me.

He wrote, HERE:

A group that once prided itself on fearless leadership and modeling transparency is now more media restrictive than most other Catholic organizations, including the U.S. bishops.

WHOA! More than the bishops. That’s pretty bad!

Even Fishwrap’s Sr Joan Chitister, fairly quiet since her Triumph in Tahir, and her sister sister, Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, have felt my pain. They, too, decry the LCWR’s timidity, which has manifested in their acting out, their straight-arm against those who only seek to dialogue.

Sr. Joan and Sr. Mary Lou think that the LCWR sisters should cry out!

Dearest Sisters [of the LCWR], you have done nothing wrong. It is your obligation as religious to ask the questions that need to be voiced. It is the holy responsibility of religious to stand with those who are most bereft. Be proud of the questions you have asked, the speakers you invited to your assemblies, the statements you issued, the liturgies you celebrated. Go to the microphone and say: We believe in feminist theology and in women’s ordination; we believe in the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender population and we will continue to speak aloud on these issues.

They want the assembled sisters to be prophetic.

But HOW? HOW can they be prophetic when they shut off access to people who can bring their message to the world?

This is so hard. It’s like… like… the stitches in the deep would I endured the other day have been ripped. Again, I bleed and wonder about what might have been.

What might have been….

Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare, Linking Back, Magisterium of Nuns, Women Religious | Tagged Fishwrap, LCWR, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sr. Joan Chittister, Tom Fox
13 Comments

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 8 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Many requests are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below. You have to be registered here to be able to post.

I still have a pressing personal petition. Actually… two.

Especially… pray for the poor suffering Christians in Iraq!

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged Sts. Nunilo and Alodia
56 Comments

ASK FATHER: Concert in a church… appropriate?

Posted on 8 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

Dear Father, a pastor of one of our Catholic Churches is allowing a symphony concert to be held in church if it gets rained out. The symphony is going to play show tunes, patriotic songs, lively marches, Stars and Stripes, 1812 overture, with vendors outside the church selling food, drinks, etc. It is usually held on the grounds of a replica of a Fort which is right next to the church. Many people who will attend are not Catholic and I think it isn’t a good example for Non-Catholics or Catholics alike. I think it is very disrespectful, irreverent and inappropriate. Would like to hear your views. Thank you and God Bless.

Can. 1210 provides us with the parameters:

“In a sacred place only those things are to be permitted which serve to exercise or promote worship, piety and religion. Anything out of harmony with the holiness of the place is forbidden. The Ordinary may, however, for individual cases, permit other uses, provided they are not contrary to the sacred character of the place.”

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1987 issued additional clarifications about concerts in church, published HERE.

Keep in mind that the “Ordinary” would be the local diocesan bishop, the vicar general, an auxiliary bishop, an episcopal vicar, or, if this is a church owned by a religious order, a religious major superior). The Ordinary would have to give permission for something like this, not the pastor. The Ordinary may have determined that there are legitimate reasons for hosting this event in a church.

Praying for good weather, so that this possibility does not become a reality, is highly to be recommended. Though we already nearly a month after St. Swithun’s Day, asking his intercession for good weather would not be too pushy. Besides, he may be on a break right now, and just waiting for someone to ask him to intercede.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged can. 1210, Concerts in Churches, St. Swithun
5 Comments

ASK FATHER: Having a hard time at a TLM church.

Posted on 8 August 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

I’ve been attending the TLM for about 5 years now. I came across it unintentionally as a revert and never intended on making it a regular thing, but I was awe-struck by the beauty and reverence it was celebrated with and couldn’t let it go. Furthermore, there was a very holy priest who was there, whose joy, happiness, humility, and strong conviction in preaching (both through words and actions) the need for us to become saints who really inspired the desire in me to become a saint in this life, which I’ve been striving for.

However, that priest was transferred and the priests who were sent to us don’t seem to have that same conviction that we need to become saints now and instead are very critical of priests in general who celebrate Mass in the Ordinary Form, as well as the Ordinary Form in general, etc. What’s worse, many parishioners have taken this as a licence to follow in like behaviour and are openly bashing Diocesan priests and making assumptions about the internal state of their soul.

This hurts me and I can’t stand it anymore. I used to just pray for our priests and parishioners, but after it not having any positive impact, the anger is now it is having a very negative impact on my soul, and am debating whether or not I should just leave and stop attending the TLM. I have raised my concerns with our pastor and I was dismissed as being too critical and that my time would be better spent in prayer.

[…]

I am not particularly sure of why TLM communities exist, but I am wondering if there is a place for non-Traditionalists such as myself within these communities, or if I am out of place for wanting to use the TLM in order to help me become a saint and not being sympathetic to Traditionalists and their issues?

I am not sure about “their issues”. Sure, there are some traditionalists who seem to be a bit like Catholic Amish, but they are few. But let that pass.

I assume that you are going to a church, chapel, parish which has exclusive use of the Extraordinary Form.

These communities exist to provide for people who have a desire to foster their spiritual through the older form of Holy Mass and the sacraments, and with preaching and catechesis that will be solid. They want the whole nine yards, rather than just Mass on Sunday.

Keep in mind that, if a lot of traditional lay people have – for decades – been beaten up even by their priests and bishops, treated like second class citizens, so have priests. Priests, I remind you, are human beings too. They also can become embittered or impatient and uncharitable. Is the bar higher for priests? Do we have greater expectations for them and the way they interact with people. Of course. Do they fail? Sure they do. This shouldn’t be a surprise.

I get your frustration, but keep in mind that you could be a great spiritual help to these guys. Pray for them. Fast for them. Offer them encouragement. It is okay to express your dismay when you hear them, for example, “openly bashing Diocesan priests and making assumptions about the internal state of their soul”… if that really is what they are doing. If they are really doing that, openly, they are doing themselves a grave disservice as well. They are hurting themselves and their mission because that sort of thing will get out and around among the priests and to the diocesan bishop where they are. I’d recommend that, if they can’t adjust their attitudes, they keep their mouths shut.

But for you… try to be an example of cheerful and patient charity there. Don’t participate in the talk you object to. Instead, try to change the subject. Or, you could add an anecdote about acts of kindness and good things you know that diocesan priests have performed.

And, to keep your eyes clear, examine your own conscience and go to confession regularly.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged traditionalists
18 Comments