For those of you in and around NYC, I recommend heading to the great Church of the Holy Innocents tonight for a talk and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with Fr. George Rutler. Info HERE
CAS Lenten evening of recollection: with silent Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and opportunity for confession. Father George Rutler, administrator of Holy Innocents and pastor of St. Michael’s, will offer a meditation on the spiritual life.
Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 West 37th Street (Between 7th Avenue and Broadway), 10018
From MSNBC via CMR comes another great example of MSM anti-Catholic bigotry.
The MSNBC-sanctioned bigot this time is the anchor Joy Reid, who commented on the Hobby Lobby religious freedom case before the Supreme Court.
Anchor Joy Reid says:
The Obama administration is arguing that corporations are, in fact, not people, and that they can’t shield themselves behind religious beliefs. The court that will decide includes six Catholic justices, some of whom have not been shy about asserting their religion. And all of this is taking place as the country becomes more secular. Even as the fervently religious fight even harder than ever to push creationism in taxpayer funded schools, and on science TV shows. And where the question of corporate personhood has gone from whether the railroad has to pay its taxes to whether corporations can be religious people. The question is do you trust this court to make those decisions?
Happily, more people read this blog, than watch Joy Reid.
Visit their ABOUT page HERE. They want married clergy and priestesses.
An excerpt:
Advancing Women in Church Leadership
We promoted women’s leadership by providing practical resources for women and men who wish to implement the far-reaching recommendations of the 1996 Benchmarks projects published by the Leadership Council of Women Religious [What a surprise.] this resource educates about the inclusive practice of Jesus and St. Paul and advocates for increased leadership roles for women in the Church right now..The project packet Contains articles written by experts about women in the Bible and lectionary and feminist theology, as well as organizing tips and prayer and faith sharing resources. Also includes expanded materials about lay ecclesial ministers (80% of whom are women), parish life coordinators, lay preaching and women officeholders in the early church. [A few weird examples do not an argument make.]
Scores of Women in Church Leadership “anchors” have organized dialogues in various parts of the country as a result of this project. They have continued to keep the conversation about the roles of women in the church on the front burner, even as talk about the ordination of women has been officially hushed by the Vatican. [Then by all means, have them on Vatican Radio.]
The role of women in the Church, including “leadership roles” is a matter for open discussion.
However, a group that pushes for the ordination of women is a dissident fringe group. Such a group ought to be excluded from dialogue until they give up their heretical position (cf Ordinatio sacerdotalis).
So… what’s up with Vatican Radio giving them airtime?
Can a Catholic who is divorced and remarried without an annulment receive a Catholic Christian burial?
Yes!
Can. 1184 lists – exhaustively – those Catholics who may be deprived of a Church funeral:
Can. 1184 §1. Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals:
1. notorious apostates, heretics, and schismatics;
2. those who chose the cremation of their bodies for reasons contrary to Christian faith;
3. other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.
§2. If any doubt occurs, the local ordinary is to be consulted, and his judgment must be followed.
Can. 1185 Any funeral Mass must also be denied a person who is excluded from ecclesiastical funerals.
While our deceased adulterer might possibly fall under the third category, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a letter of 29 May 29 1973 clarified the matter to say that if such people have preserved their attachment to the Church and there is no scandal, a funeral should be given.
The second section of can. 1184 says that if there is any doubt about whether or not to deny a funeral to a baptized Catholic, the local Ordinary is to be consulted “and his judgment must be followed.”
Denying a funeral is a serious issue, and should not be done lightly.
Scandal is more frequently caused in situations where an ecclesiastical funeral is denied than when it is permitted.
Pastoral care should be taken to commend the faithful to pray for the soul of the deceased, and not to glorify whatever objectively sinful state the deceased is in.
In the case of someone in an adulterous union, especially where both the legitimate wife and the current civil spouse are present at the funeral, the priest might have to walk a tightrope of fidelity and decorum to avoid slighting either woman or ignoring the reality.
The less said about the matter, the better it often is.
UPDATE:
I removed comments and will say only this.
Everyone: If you don’t like the content of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, then you have to take up the issue with John Paul II who promulgated the 1983 Code, Benedict, who made some modifications here and there, and Francis, who is now the Legislator. I report what the canons say. I didn’t write them. You can also take up the issue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Furthermore, I post these ASK FATHER questions for the sake of teaching, helping out, clarifying. I don’t have to do this at all. Sure, there are times when questions lead to more questions. I don’t always have the time to deal with them. So, I’ll ask you to do what I used to have posted on the combox form: THINK BEFORE POSTING. If you have question: THINK about it for a while. Moreover, my combox is not actually an entirely open, public forum. It is more like my living room. Those of you who think they can come into my living room and shoot the messenger are not welcome.
Finally, not everyone’s opinion is of equal weight.
His Eminence, Raymond Card. Burke, gave an interview to Polonia Christiana magazine. Lifesite rendered it into English HERE.
In one of his responses, the Cardinal said:
In the case of a politician or other public figure who acts against the moral law in a grave matter and yet presents himself to receive Holy Communion, the priest should admonish the person in question and then, if he or she persists in approaching to receive Holy Communion, the priest should refuse to give the Body of Christ to the person. The priest’s refusal to give Holy Communion is a prime act of pastoral charity, helping the person in question to avoid sacrilege and safeguarding the other faithful from scandal.
I would add, that we must prod the person to reflect more deeply about his actions. The same applies to censures such as excommunication: they are medicine.
Mercy, on this side of heaven, is always medicinal. It is never final and absolute.
Obviously a person who is absolved, is truly absolved. But the absolution is opened out to the rest of life and the life beyond. It is medicinal. The sacrament of penance isn’t the ultimate judgment.
All mercy, on this side of the grass, is medicinal.
When Our Lord showed the woman caught in adultery His mercy, He told her “Go and sin no more”. His mercy was medicinal. His Mercy was the drawing of the scalpel, the excision of the tumor, the debridement of the wound.
Augustine spoke and wrote of Christ as Medicus, the Physician. In terms understood well in the ancient world, by the state of medicine at the time, the doctor doesn’t stop cutting just because the patient is screaming for him to stop. For the mommy bloggers out there, it is the prick of the needle at the doctor’s office, even though little stupor mundi is writhing away from the white coat.
It is not charitable to lie to the sinner, or to ignore their sin.
I am a Chinese Catholic and many of our prayers are translations from some original Latin edition.
One of the most beautiful is the traditional Act of Contrition which is still commonly used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to track down the original. [In Chinese?] I wonder if you or anyone you know might be able to help me track down the original. (I have already done a fair amount of Googling but perhaps just have not hit on the right Latin phrase)
It is more scarily forceful than most modern Acts of Contritions I have seen. Bizarrely, it is this total reckless commitment which my three young sons (the oldest has just had his First Confession) find appealing.
Here is a loose translation from quite formal Chinese into English:
“My Lord Jesus the Christ, the God who made me, raised me and saved me, I am a grievous sinner who has offended God. Now out of my love for God over all of creation, out of a sincere and profound repentance, and detesting my sins, I resolve to amend my ways, so that even in the face of death I will not dare to violate my God’s commandments. I beseech my Lord, in remembrance of the merits of Your passion, have mercy and forgive my sins.”
Strong stuff!
It is a little unclear to me precisely what he wants. Maybe you can chime in and create clarity.
Also, keep in mind that you cannot cut/paste Chinese, or other special charaters of many languages, into my combox without losing the characters. They turn into ?????????. You have to convert the special characters to to HTML. I use this converter HERE.
In the meantime, here is the English of the Act of Contrition which I favor, I recommend, I propose, I endorse:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.
This is pretty much a rendering of the Latin:
Deus meus, ex toto corde paenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum, eaque detestor, quia peccando, non solum poenas a te iuste statutas promeritus sum, sed praesertim quia offendi te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris. Ideo firmiter propono, adiuvante gratia tua, de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum. Amen.
That said… everyone… examine your consciences and…
I have been harping on this for a while: the Left will turn on Francis one day.
From Rush Limbaugh’s stack of stuff. He was on the air yesterday. Here is the transcript. My legendary emphases and comments.
End of Left’s Honeymoon with Pope Francis?
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Well, folks, the left’s honeymoon with Pope Francis may be coming to an end. Remember the pope went out there and released an economic encyclical or document in which I analyzed it as being almost Marxist. And this caused just… There were eruptions in voluminous amounts. In fact, there were volcanic eruptions in the media. And all of a sudden the left, which hates the Catholic Church, fell in love with the pope!
Remember that? Oh, if I come out criticize him, the pope’s gotta be a good guy. So they fell in love with pope. “The pope is a great guy!” But now the Vatican’s chief justice feels that President Obama’s policies have been hostile toward Christians. “Vatican Chief Justice: Obama’s Policies ‘Have Become Progressively More Hostile Toward Christian Civilization’ — The Vatican’s chief justice feels that President Barack Obama’s policies have been hostile toward Christians.”
Now, this is the Vatican. This is an official. It doesn’t have to be coming from the pope in order for it to be official. [Wellllll…. Rush… you need some tutoring here….] “In an interview with Polonia Christiana magazine [HERE] — and transcribed by Life Site News — Cardinal Raymond Burke said that Obama ‘promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.'” So the Vatican is out defending Christianity, defending itself, and this is gonna cause a fissure between the media, which was falling in love with the pope. [Not to mention fissures in the catholic Left. Wait until the feminists start demanding that their tame males turn on Francis because Francis will never support the ordination of women.]
They weren’t falling in love with the Catholic Church, don’t misunderstand. They were falling in love with the pope. They thought, they really thought… Here, again, is another classic illustration of total ignorance. They really think that they can make the Catholic Church moderate its tone. They think they can bring the Catholic Church into what they call the Twenty-First Century. They think that this pope might actually legalize gay marriage, sanction it in the church.
They think this pope might actually allow women to be priests. They think this pope might actually lighten up on its pro-life position. They really believe that. They really think the Catholic Church is just another political organization. [Which is why the catholic Left talks about the Church’s “policies”.] If they exert enough pressure, and if they get the right pope in there, they can work on him to bring the church forward into the Twenty-First Century. And this from the Vatican chief justice is just a major, major slapdown.
I alert you all to something horrible which my friend Damian Thompson discovered.
Everyone should see this Facebook exchange, because it reveals the true attitude of the Left in the catholic Church. My observations follow, below.
Meanwhile, from Damian’s blog (I moved the image down a bit, but that’s all):
‘Do you think he’ll make it to the Rat’s funeral?’
This is a photograph of the newly elevated Cardinal Loris Francesco Capovilla, 98-year-old former secretary to Blessed Pope John XXIII, who received his red hat on March 1. What a lovely gesture by Pope Francis.
Rather less lovely is this Facebook message from one Robert Mickens, who shares a name with the Rome correspondent of the Tablet, who asks:
“Do you think he’ll make it to the Rat’s funeral?”
To which someone called Chris Grady replies that he hopes the aged cardinal will be well enough to celebrate Pope John’s canonisation – “plus one other”. The “one other” is Blessed Pope John Paul II. “The Rat’s funeral the next day would be a bonus,” he adds. [!]
I need hardly spell out to whom this refers. What a disgusting exchange between these two men.
If “Robert Mickens” is the Tablet’s Bobbie Mickens, perhaps those of us who love Benedict XVI might ask him to justify his comment.
Damian’s right. This is disgusting.
So is looking at road-kill when you are driving, but it is nearly unavoidable. It is unavoidable because this is how the catholic Left thinks and talks when their ties are loosened. We are constrained to see it when zooming along with social media.
I wonder when The Tablet (aka RU-486 aka The Pill) will distance itself from this exchange.
Liberals mean what they say when they are being mean.
When I, on the other hand, kid my friend the “blood crazed ferret” Damian Thompson, with the epithet he earned from liberals and in which he revels, you know that I am kidding because we have a sense of humor.
The Mickens/Grady exchange is more vicious because the catholic Left has no sense of humor. They pronounce things like this from a sense of moral superiority.
They mean what they say. Believe them.
They hate Benedict and want him to die.
May I suggest that you stop right now and say two prayers?
First, pray to the Guardian Angels of the two men in question, to help them allow God to soften their hearts in regard to one who has served the Lord in His Church for so long and with so many cares, Benedict XVI.
Second, say a prayer to St. Joseph to protect and strengthen Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, until the day when our Lord will call him to his reward with the words we all hope to hear, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
UPDATE 25 Mar 2213 GMT:
This was on Twitter.
I would far rather see Mickens become less like The Tablet, and would far rather see The Tablet become less like The Tablet, than to see him out of work.
On 25 March we celebrate that moment when our Lord elevated our humanity by taking our human nature into an indestructible bond with His Divinity.
In the Incarnation God opened for us the path to “divinization”, His sharing of something of His own divine glory with us in the eternal happiness of heaven.
In the sin of our First Parents, offending God and loosing so many of our gifts, the whole human race sinned. We are guilty of the sin as well, because the whole race is guilty. In justice a human being had to correct the offense, but such a correction was entirely impossible for a mere mortal human. Such a correction required the intervention of one who was both man and God.
Here are the Collects for this beautiful Feast of the Annunciation, Lady Day, from both the older, traditional, extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and the newer, post-Conciliar, ordinary form.
You might discuss their differences, their respective strengths.
COLLECT (1962MR):
Deus, qui de beatae Mariae Virginis utero Verbum tuum, Angelo nuntiante, carnem suscipere voluisti: praesta supplicibus tuis; ut, qui vere eam Genetricem Dei credimus, eius apud te intercessionibus adiuvemur.
LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who desired Your Word to take flesh from the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary the angel announcing it: grant to your supplicants; that we who believe truly in the Mother of God, may be helped in Your sight by her intercessions.
COLLECT (2002MR):
Deus, qui Verbum tuum in utero Virginis Mariae veritatem carnis humanae suscipere voluisti, concede, quaesumus, ut, qui Redemptorem nostrum Deum et hominem confitemur, ipsius etiam divinae naturae mereamur esse consortes.
LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who wanted Your Word to take up the truth of human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, grant, we beseech, that we, who confess our Redeemer to be God and man, may also merit to be the sharers of His divine nature.
This is of new composition, though there is a reference here to Letter 123 Ad Eudociam Augustam – “De monachis Palaestinis” of St. Pope Leo I, “the Great” (+461).
“Fides enim catholica sicut damnat Nestorum, qui in uno domino nostro Iesu Christo duas ausus est praedicare personas, ita damnat etiam Eutychen cum Dioscoro, qui ab unigenito Deo Verbo negant in utero Virginis matris veritatem carnis humanae susceptam.”
By His Incarnation, the Word made man, Jesus the Lord and Savior, not only began to save us from our sins in His earthly ministry, but began also the mysterious revelation of man more fully to himself (cf. GS 22).
Part of the Lord’s mission was also to teach man more fully who He is in the beauty of His own Person. However, He did not begin to do this only from the beginning of His public ministry. He began this from the very moment of the Incarnation.
Remember: From the instant of His conception, the Word made flesh begins to teach man more fully who man is.
Light from Light sheds light on the dignity of man, God’s image, from the instant of conception, from man’s humblest beginning.
A few years ago, the artist Daniel Mitsui made a beautiful Annunciation. Click it to visit his site. HERE and the image itself.
And for our edification, listen to the monks at Le Barroux singing at 1st Vespers of this wonderful feast!
His Mightiness, Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of the Diocese of Madison (aka “The Extraordinary Ordinary”), descended upon Nebraska recently to ordain men of the Fraternity of St. Peter to the holy diaconate.
Please remember me when shopping online. Your use of my Amazon affiliate link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Thanks in advance.
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
dPilk on YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS: “The complete prayer. I apologize it was missing a few lines. Thank you. PRAYER FOR HELP WITH PREGNANCY through the…”
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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.
From a reader…
Uncle Mike on “Sometimes the scalpel is the honey.” Wherein Fr. Z rants about “the parable of the wheat and tares”.: “Another thought: sometimes the only one who can successfully use the scalpel on us is ourself. Because ultimately, it is…”
