Roman images.
First, a priest sent a fine photo of a side altar, in use, of SS. Ternità del Pelegrini.
That’s how it’s done.
And then a couple photos from NLM posted by my friend Gregory DiPippo of the Basilica of S. Nicola in Carcere, in which I was ordained a deacon.
_______
You probably saw my post Sister explains the situation. Spittle-flecked nutty, bullying, intimidation ensue.
Sr. Jane Laurel, OP, gave a talk at a Catholic High School. Hell broke loose.
If you want to sample her talks, go HERE. Her talk at the High School was “Masculinity & Femininity: Difference & Gift”. Presentations with that title are on that website. Listen to a few. At the High School, Sister included comments about homosexuality, divorce and single parents. Some people lost their minds. Read more here.
I suspect that what happened, to build this up into such a thing, is that parents heard vague reports – I say vague because teens are such great sources of accuracy in reporting – about her remarks from their politically-correctly conditioned children and, stung in conscience, got out the pitchforks and torches.
The nutty built up into grand mal nutty in the form of the increasingly inevitable “town hall” meeting.
Am I entirely off base here? Did Sister actually say things that were so outrageous, so unacceptable, so lacking in truth and in charity, that the resulting furor was appropriate, proportionate and justified? Really? Go listen to some of her talks using that link, above. Does it seem likely?
Now I read that Sister is going to have a sabbatical. HERE
It looks as if Alinsky’s Rules were at work here. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. … Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Look. This is just the starting line for some observations.
It seems to me that this sad episode is one of many which reveal the building in our midst of a mob mentality akin to that which drove the Salem Witch Trials. If you speak in public now with any clarity about the Church’s teachings on sexuality, marriage, etc., or avert to conclusions which rational people reach about the same derived from the Natural Law, you will be met with fury. “I saw Lizzie Procter speaking with the devil!” Well… bad example, since most of the people who will join the snarling pack likely don’t believe in the devil.
There is a new and twisted “normal” coalescing. This new “normal”, violating the dictates of reason, will prompt the more aggressive and ideologically driven to impose iron norms, which, when violated, will spark vicious attacks from the now easily manipulated mob.
Watching episode in Charlotte build, I had the image of one of those mobs protests a G8 meeting. In these mobs there are professional instigators, anarchists and so forth, who are dedicated to getting the crowd of the curious, the young, the dumb, the enthusiastic, etc., whipped up into a frenzy. Then, as the frenzy rises, someone pitches a garbage can through a shop window and the havoc begins.
What is happening in our society that accepts so readily the hounding to ruin of the head of some business because he says that he supports true, natural marriage and does not endorse homosexual unions?
Surely there is something of a mob mentality building, and swiftly. The speed is driven by the new phenomenon of social media arriving in your hand 24/7. It is also driven by the erosion of the ability of many to reason (thanks to decades of poor education) and incessant mass media exaltation of self-satisfaction and base carnality, which also switches off higher functions.
But there is also something of the demonic in this present movement.
Some of you readers will remember back in the 50’s and 60’s the benign anti-littering campaigns. “Don’t be a litter bug!” It was really bad to be a “litter bug”. Remember the TV ads with the weeping Indian looking at garbage along the roadside? YOU made that Indian cry when you threw your bubblegum wrapper on the ground. It was even patriotic not to litter. “Keep America Beautiful!” It took a while for the campaign to get real traction, a couple decades, but, given the tools of communication at the time it was pretty successful. It was big in schools. I’m sure that kids turned their homes into re-education camps once teachers in schools were daily pounding on their empty-skulls heads about “pollution”. That campaign was probably also an outgrowth of the early ecology movement and neo-Malthusian efforts, but, hey, cleaner streets and roads were good.
Gramsci got it right: get control of the schools and, over time, you’ll control everything else. Have an agenda? Focus on school curricula and teachers. Extirpate anyone who doesn’t conform. Silence any discordant voice.
The campaign that we are seeing now, however, anything but benign. It is brush fire fast and there is in it something of the demonic.
Combox moderation is ON.
Was there a good point you heard in the sermon for your Sunday Mass of precept?
Let us know what it was.
Fr. Z's Pyx
From a reader…
I work at a religious supply store and yesterday a local religious sister came in and asked to be shown our selection of pyxes. I led her to the cabinet where they are kept and indicated that some of them are lined with plastic and therefore not actually appropriate for transportation of the Sacred Species. She responded that the metal pyxes are too expensive and expressed a desire to see if the pyxes fit the hosts her parish uses. [You can sense that disaster is about to strike… right?] She then removed a pyx from her pocket, and began placing hosts into one of the plastic-lined pyxes. I asked her if these were consecrated, she replied that they were. I knelt. I was confused, had no idea what to do. The first thing I said was that I didn’t think I could sell the pyx anymore since it had touched the Blessed Sacrament. [Good thinking. You’re mind is on the right track.] However, she said that she would have to just take it then. I went to the counter and waited for her to check out while she proceeded to have a leisurely conversation with a priest who was also in the store at the time. When she finished I sold her the pyx and a few other items with as little speech as possible in deference to the Holy Presence.
My question to you, Father, is what should I do now? Should this irreverence be reported to her pastor or the bishop?
Just when you think you’ve heard everything.
Definitely, the pastor and/or the bishop should be contacted.
This would not quite rise to the level of a violation of the Blessed Sacrament spoken of in can. 1367, but is absolutely inappropriate to do, especially for someone (a religious sister, no less) with any sort of official position within the Church.
There are going to be unavoidable occasions when someone carrying the Blessed Sacrament has to stop for some business other than taking the Eucharist directly to the communicant. Stopping because of an accident is about all that comes to mind. But “testing out” new pyxes?!? Chatting with another customers, priest or not?!?
If one is concerned about the size of a pyx, unconsecrated hosts work just as well, BETTER as a matter of fact, because with them you are not committing the sin of sacrilege and scandalizing people!
And DO IT ON YOUR OWN TIME!
Grrrrrrrrrrr.
I contacted a couple of trusted people about this to get their reactions… to double-check myself….
A priest wrote:
I would counsel the clerk to speak with the pastor of the parish to register his dismay. He should be ready to be told “Thanks” or “What’s your problem?” This highlights the absolute horror that the use of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion has brought upon the Church. The Holy Eucharist is treated as a commodity by ill-trained and ignorant people. This innovation has been found wanting, and needs to be abolished.
This reveals a serious deficit in training of many extraordinary ministers. And even if it is an isolated case, repetita iuvant. Repeated things help. The more something is important, the more something should should be stressed. The more sacred (or dangerous) the action, the greater the need for training. Handling that which is sacred is dangerous, tremendum.
From BBC:
Priests and nun kidnapped in Cameroon
Two Italian priests and a Canadian nun have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Cameroon, Italy’s foreign ministry and media reports say. [Lemme guess… could they be…. Mormon missionaries? Quakers?]
Gunmen ransacked the building in the north-west of the country before taking the hostages, Italy’s Ansa agency said.
The area is close to a stronghold of militant Nigerian group Boko Haram.
The attack comes three months after a French priest was released after being kidnapped by Boko Haram in the same region and held in Nigeria.
The latest attack took place in the district of Maroua in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The gunmen were reported to have arrived by car before entering the building where the priests and the nun were staying at around 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT).
The two priests were from the Vicenza region of Italy, the Italian foreign ministry reported.
It says it has set up a crisis unit to work for their release.
One of the priests had been in Cameroon for more than six years, while the other had arrived about a year ago, Italian media reported.
Last year, seven members of a French family called Moulin-Fournier – four of them children – were abducted by Boko Haram in northern Cameroon and held hostage for two months.
From ANSA: Non si esclude che i sequestratori siano terroristi islamici di Boko Haram, attivi nel nord della Nigeria, che hanno sconfinato in Camerun.
I’m guessing either Islamic terrorists or … well… maybe they refused to criticize Mozilla Firefox fast enough? Either way, I guessing terrorists.
Sts. Nunilo and Alodia pray for us.
From this Sunday, traditionally called 1st Sunday of the Passion, it is customary to veil images in churches.
What is going on where you are?
This is a fine old tradition. It has to do with deprivation of the senses and the liturgical dying of the Church in preparation for the Lord’s tomb and resurrection.
We are our rites.
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Father, I receive communion on the tongue while kneeling. Recently, a priest has begun to make an issue that while I am already in the position for communion with my mouth open and tongue out, he demands a verbal “amen.” He made a scene first when my son, 10, and then I, both went for communion. Is it a mortal sin not to say “amen”?
First, if the priest “made a scene”, he should not have “made a scene”. On the other hand, I am wondering if he did “make a scene”. This has the feeling of exaggeration brought on by frustration, embarrassment, conflict, take your pick.
That said, in the Extraordinary Form the priest says , “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.” The priest says “Amen”, not the communicant.
However, in the Ordinary Form of the the Roman Rite, the form of distribution of Communion is spoken by the minister says “Corpus Christi… The Body of Christ” and the communicant responds “Amen.”
The communicant responds, “Amen.”
Is it a mortal sin not to say “Amen”? Depending on the reason why you don’t (such as defiance), it could be.
So, if you are going to kneel and receive on the tongue, in the Ordinary Form, do your part and say, “Amen.”
It isn’t difficult and it is the right thing to do.
From a priest…
QUAERITUR:
I am a new priest. My pastor tells me that after the Good Friday
liturgy, he buries any leftover consecrated hosts, so that the
tabernacle is “fresh” for the “new beginning” of Easter. Is this a
legitimate practice? It seems suspicious.
This seems not just wrong, but very wrong, sacrilegiously wrong.
I consulted trusted canonists.
Were I in your position, I would contact your local bishop and ask him humbly if this practice constitutes a violation of:
Can. 1367 One who throws away the consecrated species or, for a sacrilegious purpose, takes them away or keeps them, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with some other penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.
Of course for any penalty to be incurred, the person committing the delict has to know that it is seriously wrong and then will to do it anyway.
The combox is closed. I will accept email from clerics on this matter.
Someone sent me this video and I just had to post it.
It must be an amazing moment for parents when babies say first clear words. I got a little shiver watching this, and thinking about how our minds work, reflections as they are of God. Our Lord, the Eternal Word, born into this world a speechless child had to learn His baby words.
In any event, apart from all the machinations within the Church and the conflicts and struggles and disappointments, this might provide a bright moment in the day. Mom’s reactions are as fun as the baby’s.
Do you know what your first words were?
Today is the feast of St. Isidore of Seville, Bishop and Doctor (+4 April 636). He is not to be confused with St. Isidore the Farmer. St. Isidore defended the faith against the Arian heresy, which was still around. It is amazing how tenacious heresy can be.
Some years ago there was much chat about having St. Isidore proposed as the patron saint of the internet. (NB: He is NOT, however, offically named such. Keep that in mind.) I was asked to write a prayer people could recite before using the internet. It seemed to me a good idea.
I wrote the prayer in Latin and submitted it, with a translation into English, to a bishop who gave it his approval.
This prayer is all over the same internet now (both with and without attribution!).
The experience of stumbling upon the prayer at various pages and sites, prompted me to revisit this “internet prayer”, to seek some additional language translations, and to post them all online in one place.
You will want to know why some people proposed St. Isidore for this role.
I think many proposed St. Isidore of Seville because his most notable work, the Etymologiae, a massive encyclopedic work of 448 chapters in 20 volumes indexing just about everything people thought it was important to know at the time, was rather like a primitive database. You can, of course, pray to any saint in this matter, and nothing official about any patron for the internet has been handed down from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (which is the competent dicastery of the Holy See in those matters). Bottom line: people wanted a prayer for St. Isidore, and I wrote one. You should feel free to change the name to whatever saint you prefer. Others have proposed St. Maximilian Kolbe (+1941), St. Bernadine of Siena (+1444), St. Rita of Cascia (+1457), and the Archangel Gabriel (still around).
I am happy for people to use this prayer. I ask that you give attribution.
Also, if you can offer a translation into a language missing from those below, please send it. To email me, click HERE.
I would also like a video of the prayer in ASL, American Sign Language.
To see all the versions of the prayer which are now available, go HERE
Meanwhile, here is the English and one other as a tease:
A prayer before logging onto the internet:
Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
KLINGON (aka Klingonese)
TlhobtaHghach qaSpa’ poSmoH’tah Internet’li
HoSghaj je reH joH’a, ‘lv chenmoHta’ ma’Daq lij voqtaHghach je maH ja’ta nej Hoch QaQ, teH, je ‘lH, Daq lij neH puqloD, ma’joH, J’H’esus K’risti, ms tlhob SoH, vegh le’ghot J’Isador’e, lalDan vumwI’neS je O’ghojmoH’neS, qaStaHvIS ma’ylt vegh Internet’li, ma’tI yotlh ma’ghopDu’ je minDu’ Daq vetlh nuq Chen Quch SoH je pop tlhej muSHa’ tlq SlQ Hoch chaH qa’neS ma’ghom. Sum K’risti ma’joH.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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